The Athletic Hockey Show - Flyers GM Daniel Briere talks about his new role, GM meetings wrap-up

Episode Date: March 15, 2023

Rob Pizzo and Jesse Granger discuss proposed rule changes at the GM meetings, the Bruins reaching 50 wins at a record pace, and as Chuck Fletcher was relieved of GM duties in Philadelphia, who else could be on the hot seat?Then, checking in from Florida, Russo chats with Flyers interim GM Daniel Briere about his new role and his plans for the team going forward, and Russo and Gentille give their GM meetings wrap-up. To close out the show, another round of Rapid Fire.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowVisit http://betterhelp.com/NHLSHOW today to get 10% off your first monthGo to http://grammarly.com/tone to download and learn more about Grammarly Premium’s advanced tone suggestions Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to the Athletic Hockey Show, the Wednesday Roundtable Edition. I am Rob Paisal from CBC Sports, joined by Jesse Granger in Vegas. How are you, sir? I'm doing well. Just me and you today. Yeah.

Russo's just so lazy. Just, you know, taking days off covering GM meetings in Florida. He's the least lazy guy I know. Yeah, he is. covering those GM meetings, but it doesn't mean you're not going to hear from Mike Rousseau today. He's been running around with a tape recorder. He got an interview with the new interim GM of the Philadelphia Flyers, Danny Pereer. Also, we're going to hear from Sean Gentile as they kind of sat down to talk a lot about the

topics from the GM meetings, which always seemed to be the biggest quote unquote talkers, because everything that they discuss, I feel like if you grabbed 100 hockey fans, 50% will say one side, 50% will say the other side, which is great for people like me and you, Jesse, because that's what we do for a living. So we're going to talk about the GM meetings. We're going to talk to the Boston Bruins,

just continue being ridiculous, talk about the flyers making changes to their front office. And just because it's me and you, Jesse, we'll talk about goalies at some point as well, because I loved your piece about knocking nets off the moorings that you and Russo worked on. We'll get to that later because we have to start with the GM meetings. Day one saw the 32 GMs break into four groups.

First up, before we even get to the rules, how much would you love to be a fly on the wall in some of those groups with GMs, you know, hashing out possible rule changes? I would love making HBO 24-7 on the GM meetings. Yes, yeah. I've been watching the like, I love the Drive to Survive documentary, the Formula One on Netflix, and now they've got a golf one. let's get an NHL one, but just the GMs.

Just them, just, you know, you can tell they're probably pushing a little bit of their own agendas and everything else. Right, exactly, yeah. They're definitely, if a rule affects, could help their team in the next five years, yeah, that rule suits my style of team. We absolutely need this rule. I just, I like hearing about GMs who are kind of forward thinkers and not necessarily tink, guys who like to tinker with rules for the sake of tinkering.

But there are times where either a rule, change didn't necessarily go for what it was intended, let's say. I always bring up the offside, you know, review on an offside. I think that was put in there to try to get rid of the egregious offsides. And now it got to a point where we're going frame by frame to see if someone skate is, you know, on the blue line. I don't mind tinkering with rules if it's going, if it's done to better the game. What about you? Are you a traditionalist?

Are you like those baseball fans and say, oh, leave the game the way it is. It's been good for 100 years. or do you like these kind of rule changes? No, I like the rule changes. I think hockey has gotten a lot better lately because of them. Like you think back to like the biggest, at least in our lifetime, I think the biggest rule changes really came like out of that lockout when they got rid of the two line pass and they extended. They moved the blue lines in and to give them more space in the offensive zone.

And like you look at the numbers, there's no doubt now. I think it's partially just where the game is gone. The players are more skilled. but I think a big part of that is the rule changes allowed more offense. So, yeah, I'm for, I'm for rule changes in all sports. I think the sports that, like you look at the NFL here in America, by far the most popular sport, and they change their rules ever. They're just like, they change whatever rules we need to make sure the quarterbacks

aren't allowed to get touched and they score all the points. And it's great. I don't know if hockey should quite go that far, but I do, I do like rule changes to make the game more entertaining. We're all here to be entertained. That's the whole reason we watch this. So let's go through some of the things that we're discussed. It seems as though day one, a lot of time was dedicated to possible expansion of coaches challenge. I still know a lot of people who are just anti-challenge altogether. I'm not one of them. But the two areas that they were talking about, number one was on penalties, specifically high sticking penalties, where a player maybe gets

clipped in the face by his own teammate. We've seen it happen before where he throws his head back, you know, gets a stick in the face. And meanwhile, we watch the replay and it's, you know, someone on his team who actually did it. And meanwhile, they get themselves a power play. And the other one was perhaps putting it in there for a puck over the glass, which I've always hated that rule.

but to make sure that, hey, if it was tipped on its way out, there's not a penalty. Your thoughts on expanding coaches challenge to penalties now. I know we've had the, you know, reducing a major to a minor, but this is now saying, hey, Jesse Granger got high sticked, but who did the high stick? Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I'm kind of torn because part of me is very much the, like, let's get it right thing. If this guy got hit. And like a lot of time, it's not even his teammate stick.

It's his own stick. A lot of times a guy will get his own stick. lift it into his own face. Like it happens regularly. And part of me is saying, yeah, I mean, if that happens and it's obvious and the coach wants to use his challenge on it, then they should. But I also can kind of look into the future. I can see into the crystal ball and I see us all sitting around saying, holy crap, there's so many challenges. This is taking forever. So I don't know. I'm kind of torn. Like, what do you think? I'm not a fan of it either. But I will say this. The one thing that intrigues me is, you know, right now, let's say your teams get scored on and your coach

challenges it and he's wrong. Well, he gets a delay game penalty and it's a power play, which is already something that's, you know, that's quite the punishment. Imagine you challenge a penalty saying it shouldn't be a penalty. You're wrong. So you get the penalty and you get the delay game penalty. So you're suddenly in a five on three situation. For two minutes. I think that's work for two minutes. That's where, and that's just, you know, that's a death sentence. But that's where I think coaches are going to have to make some much tougher decisions as opposed to like, hey, even at times, I think they're, you see them look at the monitor on the bench.

And they're thinking, ah, this is, this could go either way, but it's worth it for us because this goal is putting us down three one late in the third. But if you're suddenly going to be on a two minute five on three disadvantage, you might not make that challenge. it's going to have to be obvious. And you know what? Now that you say that point, I'm kind of talking to myself into it because if... All right. To avoid the five on three, it's got to be obvious. Like, it's got to be, well, that clearly wasn't his stick. And to me, that says the replays probably aren't going to take that long, right? The review. They're going to go over. They're going to say, oh, that wasn't his stick. Okay, it takes 20 seconds. Let's go back, take the penalty off the board. So, like, my only hesitation on this is how long it all takes. As long as it's quick, I don't mind. Like, review everything. Have some Wizard of Oz guy by, a curtain in the back, reviewing everything and changing it just to get everything right, as long as we don't slow the games down. Because I think part of what makes hockey such good product on television is the lack of downtime. Like there's lots, it's not quite soccer where it's always going, but it's like to me, the closest big sport to that where like there's not a lot of downtime.

And I don't want to create more downtime, but you're, you're talking me into it with this. The fact that they're not going to challenge it unless it's blatantly obvious kind of takes away from the potential of slowing games down. The only thing that makes me hesitant is, is it a slippery slope of, well, then if you're going to challenge a high stick, are you going to challenge a trip? Oh, he just fell on his own.

He just, you know, he caught a rut in the ice. You know, is it really a hook or was the guy act? I mean, it's, there's a point. I've always been in favor of, is that a goal? Did the puck cross the line? If we have the technology to do it, let's do it. I just think it's a tough one. It's a tough one that GM said after, you know, day one,

they're going to wait to see if they can gather more information before making any changes to the rules. But it's a slippery. What's next? Next year, you and I do in the show talking about tripping and hooking and everything else. Yeah. Do we want that? The subjective ones are tough.

I don't think you can review subjective ones. Like high stick is black and white. Did that stick touch his face? Yeah. You can review it and say definitively, this happened or it didn't, whereas hooking is like, the stick touched the guy, clearly, but was it enough for hooking? I agree with you. I don't think we should go into the anything subjective where it happens throughout the game, but the ref has to decide if that was bad enough

to call it. I don't like those kind of penalties being reviewed. Something else was discussed at the GM meetings, which apparently GMs are really concerned about, which is fights that take place after a clean hit. I've always been very against it. I've always thought if a player hits another player cleanly, why should that player have to fight? However, I think this is another kind of slippery slope because one, you already have the instigator rule in there.

And two, it almost feels as if you're saying in a sport we're fighting technically shouldn't happen and has been reduced by, you know, leaps and bounds. Well, you can fight for this, but you can't fight for that. So if you hit someone from behind, then, oh, absolutely, kicked the shit out of them.

But if it's a clean hit, no, you can't. I just, I'm starting to think like, okay, either you're going to make the steps to ban fighting, like you and I talked about

last week with the QMGHL or you're not. Now we're kind of going back and forth on when it's okay to fight. Yeah, I think policing when it's okay to fight is going to be tough because it happens in the moment

and like it's emotional. I, but I do see why they're concerned. with it and like I see it all the time covering the Golden Knights. Braden McNab is one of the cleanest hitters in the NHL. He hip checks. Like he he's not going after guys heads. He's not hitting late. The guy, all his hits are hip checks. He, he corners guys off as they're trying to cross the blue line and he obliterates them into the boards. And he, he, they try to fight him after every one. Like Braden McNabb, because he's such a truck, like every hit he lands is just massive.

The entire boards are shaking all the way around to the benches. And then they try to fight him. And it's like every time I'm like, this poor guy has to get into a fight every time he does his job. He's playing his position correctly. He's doing everything he's supposed to do. He's hitting him low around the hips, shoulder area, nowhere near the head. And yet every time he does it, the other team says, well, he just obliterated my guy.

I've got to stand up for him. And he starts fighting him. And it's just, I, I totally see why the league sees plays like that. And it's like, well, that guy can't just be fighting every time that he lands a clean hit. So I understand why. Well, no one should be forced to fight if they don't want to. Right. Right.

Especially because sometimes it's just not a fair trade. As far as the guy who goes after the guy who committed the hit, yeah, we'll take that, that five minutes of you sitting in the box as opposed to being on the ice. No one should have to fight. Apparently, some of the GMs. home on like Rob Blake said they discussed making the instigator penalty even more severe. So if you're going after me, yeah, I may be in the box for five, but you're going to be in the box for a heck of a lot longer. Some stats that came out, a hundred of the 271 fights this season have been defending a

teammate after a hit, which is, that's, that's a lot, 100 of 271. Of those hundred fights, 89 came after a clean hit. Wow. And 21 instigator penalties were called. So again, and I, I kind of get it. I'm very much on the fence on this one because I find myself, Jesse, wrestling with a lot of old school thinking slash new school thinking. You know, I grew up in a time where if you hit my superstar, clean or not,

you're, you're going to pay. You've got it. You do that to give him room. Right. But pay by hitting them clean. Like that's the thing. Yeah. You should be, oh, you hit our guy.

Next time you get the puck, keep your head up. I'm like totally okay with that. Like, if we want to keep the. physical part of hockey, but not let's drop our gloves and fight each other with skates on. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. So apparently GMs are concerned. That's obviously something they're going to keep talking about and they're going to keep, you know,

analyzing a couple other things. They talked about making skate protective equipment on wrists and legs mandatory. Duh. Like, I mean, if we're going in that way, they've made visors mandatory. Is this not a no-brainer? I thought at least it was, but then I'm hearing that someone like Evander Kane is still not wearing the protective gear on his arms. I don't want to confirm that. I'd heard that from a couple people, but I don't get it.

Like, is it really that difficult to adjust to? I couldn't imagine not this not being just a no-brainer. I remember it was either the day after or a couple days after the Evander Kane incident happened. I was in the Golden Knights locker room just talking to guys about it. and they were basically saying, like, that's what all of them said was, well, yeah, I mean, I wear. And they were showing me. They're like, look, I wear this on my wrist. Like, it literally couldn't happen to me. Like, because I asked them, like, is that, are you afraid of that happening? And they're like, no, not really because look. And most of them that I was talking to, I mean, I was talking to like a group of four or five of the guys that were kind of all in their stalls next to each other. They all wore that stuff. So it's, I think more players lean toward your thinking that this is a no-brainer. Like, I was already doing that. Um, I was already doing that. Um, I was already doing that. Um, I was. Um, I don't think they're probably going to get much pushback from players. I mean, maybe there's some old school guys that are like, oh, it, it affects my wrist mobility. Like, my hands won't be the same.

I don't know. But, like, it seems like this would be, I can't believe there were guys already, like, not, not wearing this, even when it before it was mandatory. And you just, you just make it mandatory. The same way I always bring the same way there are laws for certain professions. If you're on a construction site, by law, you have to have, you know, a hard hat on. These are just things that, and there was a point in hockey where people didn't wear helmets. Well, then they started wearing helmets and then they started wearing visors. It's about player safety.

So we'll wait and see on that one. Obviously, all of these rules are, you know, the contingent of NHLPA getting on board as well. One more. This is something you and I and Rousseau have talked about a lot on the show, holding players out because of trade-related reasons. It's the first time we've really seen it. at least for a longer period of time. As I think I mentioned it like this last week, we used to see a player get held out of a game.

That meant get ready in the next couple hours. This player is going to be traded. Now we're seeing guys get held out for trade related reasons. They don't play for two weeks. We didn't like it. A lot of people have voiced her concerns, but Bill Daly said, quote, I'm not sure it was that material,

but certainly it raised some eyebrows. The manner in which we saw it, It wouldn't raise to a level of concern. But if it becomes a trend, obviously it would, end quote. And what kind of bothers me about that is I don't want the NHL to wait until it is a concern. I'd rather nip this in the butt. Absolutely. You cannot have Jacob Chikrin sitting out for two weeks.

It's not good for the fans. It's not good for the game. It's not good for Jacob Chikrin. It's not good for his team. It's not good for anyone. Yeah, I totally agree. And I do think, like, part of me says this is hard to police. and I look at the NBA,

and like the NBA, they've got the load management where they hold these guys out because we, no, for no other reason, then we just don't want you to play 82 games, so we're going to sit you out tonight. And that's become a problem,

and they've tried to police it, but the problem is they can just say, well, his ankle hurts. So he's not playing tonight. And then what can anyone say about that? The way this differs, though, is you can't, I don't think, say, like, if they were to say,

you can't hold him out for trade related reasons when you'd say, well, the GMs will just say, oh, he's got a lower body injury. But you can't say a guy's out with a lower body injury while trying to trade him, right? Because then you're going to have to tell the other GMs, like, he's not really out with a lower body injury. And therefore, you're telling everyone that you're lying about it. Like, so to me, maybe this is a little easier to police just because you can't use that excuse while trying to actively trade a guy. You can't lie and say he's hurt and not tell anyone. Like, you know what I mean? So, yeah, I think there's a way to police. release this. And I totally agree with you. It, they should, the change should happen this off season.

We just saw it for the first time ever on this scale. A lot. A lot though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like it, that's what I'm saying. It had never been on this scale before. Like maybe a couple days before, but this is the first time we've seen it. It should happen this off season. The change should happen this off season. Don't let this get out of hand before you start going out. I totally agree with you on that. Maybe something along the lines of if a player is sad for, say, three or four games. for trade related reasons, the team he gets traded to, can't use him for three or four games.

You know, I'm just thinking about one right now. You can't play him for the same amount of games he missed before you traded for him. Yeah, or I don't know, something. I just,

I didn't like it this year. I just thought, and I think a lot of teams maybe saw the Arizona's of the world doing it and went, oh, all right, I like this.

We're not going to, you know, only do it when we're seconds away from a trade. But that was one of the ones of the league has decided, to table. So yeah, GM meetings continue.

We're going to hear from Russo and Gentilly in the second half of the show. But a couple more things I want to get to Jesse before we actually go to break.

Breaking news, the Boston Bruins are just ridiculous. They're just, we thought this team would have trouble making a playoff spot. I'm not one of these guys

that likes to ignore my preseason predictions. I'll say it. I really didn't think this team would, well, I certainly didn't think they'd be doing what they're doing

now, but I thought they'd have a tough time getting themselves into the playoffs, and they go out and become the fastest team in NHL history to the 50 win mark. Didn't just 64 games. I know people are going to bring up the fact that,

hey, other teams that maybe they beat, they had to deal with ties, blah, blah, blah. That's the history of the game. We're always going to deal with that. The previous record was the 2018-19 lightning and the 95-96 Red Wings, who bolted in 66 games. What more can we say about this team?

They just, funny enough, coming off a loss of the Chicago Blackhawks last night, But they just continue to blow away everyone in this league. Yeah. I mean, it's like the reason we all expected them to kind of fall off a little bit is just the age, right? I mean, look at their top players, Patrice Berseran is 37, David Craty, 36, Brad Marchand, 34. And they're all spectacular. Like, they're all playing like they're 22 years old.

It's pretty impressive. And the fact that the goaltending, like, would nobody expected Linus Olmark to be a, runaway Vezna favorite. Like he has been awesome. The entire team has been great. There are no holes in this team. Like this isn't a offensive powerhouse that is going to try to outscore you, but can't play defense.

Like they are so strong at every level of the game. It's going to be really, really tough for someone to beat them in a seven game series. But I can't wait to see teams try. And I keep saying this. So whoever comes out of that east is going to be just weathered by the time they get to the Stanley Cup final. The West certainly is not that tough of a road compared to the East. Last week or the week before,

we talked about what GM deserved the most. Venom, I guess, spued their way in Pennsylvania. Was it Chuck Fletcher? Was it Ron Hextall? Well, one of them got themselves a pink slip this week. Chuck Fletcher out as Flyers GM. They elevate Danny Breyer on an interim basis as the general manager. And of course, Fletcher was also the president of hockey operation.

so two jobs there. Basically, the flyers, I guess, didn't do enough for the off season, didn't do anything at the trade deadline. JVR is still a flyer. I'm wondering about the timing, though, Jesse, because some would argue, why didn't they just wait until the end of the regular season? Why do it now? But when you're talking about a GM who's going to be planning for, say, the draft and

everything else in the future of this team, if there's a problem, fix the problem now, get people in who are, you know, not going to sewer this team for the next, say, three to five years. Your thoughts on the Flyers moves. Yeah, I think, like you mentioned, we all kind of saw it coming. It doesn't really come as a surprise. But I agree with you on the timing. I think not just the draft, but like free agency, like you, I think bringing someone in as soon as you can to let them evaluate this team. Look at the free, look at the pending free agents, see which guys you want to keep, see which guys you want nothing to do with.

start looking towards the market to see which kind of guys you can target. I don't think there's any harm in giving someone more time to prep for this offseason for what they're going to do because like you said, Fletcher, they felt like you didn't do enough last off season to kind of start this reboot. The Flyers are in such a weird spot because that bubble year, they go to what they went to the conference final, right? Like the year in the bubble and they were young.

Like we looked at this team and we're like, wow, this team is, they might be good for the next 10 years. years. Like they've got all these young players and they're so good and they've got Carter Hart who's like a kid in net. And then they just fell apart. So then it like became a like, okay, they need to rebuild. They need to sell some of these UFAs, these pieces. And they just refuse to do it. They just wouldn't do it. So I would assume the next GM is going to start that rebuild, retool, whatever you want to call it. And the more time he's got to work with the better. But yeah, it's like I just this team is in such a weird spot. I think most teams are in an obvious either you're in a win now, go for it mode, or you're in a rebuild mode. And the Flyers, because of that great year, it was such a weird year with the month layoff before the playoffs and all that. It just, that team was in a weird spot.

So I kind of feel like, like, not saying Fletcher did the best job, but I kind of feel for him, like he, I don't really think there was a clear path of which way to go with that team, but they clearly thought he went the wrong way. They were decimated by injuries last year, too. They had a lot of man games lost. but again, this is not a coach who can necessarily write the ship, like a GM, if you really believe the direction is going the wrong way, whether you agree or not. But if you do think that, then you just can't, a GM makes decisions that's going to affect a team for years to come. And if they're the wrong decisions, well, you can't have them making those decisions.

And speaking of that, I don't know if you read Pierre LeBrun's piece on the athletic kind of which GMs are on the hottest seat right now. he had guys like Kyle Dubus on there last year was contract lame duck GM anytime you got that one year remaining and you're in Toronto and you don't get out of the first round of the playoffs who knows what happens there Bradshaw living in Calgary Ron Hexball who's kind of twisting in the wind Pierre Dorian in his seventh season in Ottawa which GM do you think has the most to lose I was going to say in the playoffs but I mean Calgary could very well not make the playoffs

Yeah, I think, yeah, I think for sure in Calgary. That team was, I mean, they were the best team in the Pacific Division last year. When they made that trade, everyone said Calgary got better. Wow, what a steal. Florida got screwed in this trade. The Flames actually got better having to trade Kachuk. I can't believe it. And they did not.

They've been bad. And like, I've been watching quite a few Flames games lately just because they're kind of, that's like the best playoff chase in the league right now. I think the flames trying to catch those teams, and they cannot win. And they're not even playing good teams. Like, I think they lost to Arizona last night. They are horrible. That team has been so bad.

I cannot believe. You look at all the talent on that team. You know, I'm looking at Jacob Markstrom. I think he's one of the best goalies in the league. He has been abysmal this season. I don't know what happened. I do not know what happened to Jacob Markstrom. He sucks now.

I don't understand it. in my opinion going into the league going into this year I would have said he's top 10 goal in the league he hasn't I don't even know if he's been the best goalie on his own team I don't know what's going on with him the flames are strange the dubus thing is so frustrating to me because I feel bad for that guy he that team is so talented like the GM's job is to build a talented team and he I don't think anyone can argue that he hasn't like he's done that and for whatever reason they just can't get it done in the playoffs and a big reason is that they play the eventual Stanley Cup champion or one of the best teams in the league every single time in the first round. They're going to have to do it again this year with Tampa

Bay. And I can already see it happening. Like it's like you say who's on the hottest seat. I say Calgary, in my opinion, should be. But at the same time, Toronto, if they lose in the first round, we already know how this story ends. And it's probably not going to be Kyle Dubas's fault if they do, but we already know how this ends. Quickly back to Calgary. If I told you when that deal was made, let's call what it is, a blockbuster deal was made, that you and I would be hosting a show on March 15th,

and both of those teams would be out of a playoff spot. You said, I'm nuts. You said, I'm absolutely insane, crazy nuts. That Florida and Calgary, it's just, that's just crazy to me. It's all riding on this play.

I don't even know if it's riding just on one playoff round for Toronto. It might very well be. If they get to the second round, is that like, okay you bought yourself a little bit time we'll sign you to another lame duck lame duck contract give you one more year to try to to fix his mess but man oh man you're right so talented i like the moves he made at the deadline yeah i don't know what else he could do uh before we go to break jesse golly talk make you happy big smile in your face you and russo

did that piece on why nchl nets are getting knocked off so often i love your writing because of stuff like this you know you make me notice things that And I know the Matt Murray situation where you knocked it off the mornings three times, got everybody talking. But I know you and Russo kind of discovered a few things. Maybe the nets aren't being put back properly when they get knocked off. You've got the new style of goal tending, the reverse vertical horizontal. I'm no goalie expert. I don't like goalies.

I've always been a forward. I like scoring goals. One thing I thought was hilarious in your piece was that all goalies are like prisoners at Shawshank Prison. I didn't do it. I'm innocent. I mean, absolutely not. I think personally to me, there's, it's somewhere in the middle. You've got new style of goal tending.

You've got maybe they're not being put back on after they get knocked off. But also there are times when goalies are like, I pushed off there. I was trying to make a save. And then that just happened to come off. How much fun did you have right in this piece? And what did you think of what you guys found out? Yeah, it was fun. So when I was down in Florida for the All-Star game,

I got to talk to all the goalies down there for a bunch of, for a bunch of stories that I've been working on. But this one, like, it was in, it was such a, like, hot news topic. Everyone's talking about Matt Murray knocking the goal, the net off the pegs. So I, it was fun just talking to those guys and like, they would kind of crack a smile as soon as I'd ask it, like, oh, here we go, like this. And, and they all, I thought they were all pretty insightful. I agree with you. And like, I think even Vas, I think it was Vasilevsky that said, like, I don't think there are anyone, anyone that's doing it on purpose, but I think there are some guys who don't mind if the net comes off.

Um, but yeah, I think, and like, Olmark to me gave the best explanation of why it's happening more. So the, the RVH, the reverse vertical horizontal that you mentioned, like we all see those go, like everyone watching may not know what the position's called, but everyone knows the goalie goes down on his knee and he hugs the post. And that's a new technique. Like 10 years ago, that technique didn't exist. Um, goalies were standing with their legs tightly squeezed together when the puck was on the side of the next. net. And it's not so much the actual technique. It's the fact that shooters started picking the top corner. Shooters realized, oh, wow, that position, you can't shoot anywhere but the top corner, but they are leaving that top corner open. So then shooters started sniping that top corner.

Well, now goalies are getting into that position and then they're pushing their shoulder up into that top corner to try to cover that hole. And if you think about it from a physics perspective, you're now getting inside the net, you're pushing your shoulder up onto the crossbar. What do you think is going to happen? It's going to lift the moorings off the net. So it's like, I don't know if goalies need to change their techniques because you can't have the net coming off all the time. And like if this continues to be a trend and like if it's just happening this much this year and it's going to be more and more and more as goalies start to do this, they're obviously going to have to change it. I don't think you can change the moorings to hold them in when you apply force up from below the crossbar.

So maybe goalies around the world have to find a different way to cover the side of the net rather than this pushing up on the crossbar so that you don't get sniped top shelf technique. But it's interesting. And then like you said, they all, all the goalies said, mentioned the fact that, yeah, a lot of times the net comes off. And then I see a bunch of snow in the hole and they don't take it out. They just, like if you ever watch the ice crew during intermission, like they run the Zamboony. and then the guys will bring a shop vac, like literally a vacuum, out there. And they'll vacuum all the snow and all the water out of those peg holes so that they can go all the way down. And when it happens in the middle of the game, they just kind of throw it back on.

And then to me, that was what explained why. Because, like, Olmark had the great quote. It didn't happen to me for five years. And it never happened to me. And then it happened three times in one game. We see it with Murray, three times in one game. And that's when really people start to get mad, right? It happens once.

Nobody really cares. it keeps happening. And it makes sense that when you don't install it right, it's more likely to happen again. So it makes sense that it happens in bunches. And now they've sent out a memo to all the referees to make sure they are putting the moorings back on correctly, another duty for the referees to handle. I love those too. It's like, wow, where's the neck and to go? All these situations seem to happen when they're under attack from the offensive players on the other team. Well, coincidence? How could you possibly knock the net off when you aren't under attack?

No, no, but I know. But what I'm saying is it's always when there's like a pretty sustained attack. It's not when there's just up like a basic kind of, you know, save. And I just, I think it's funny. I love, I love talking goalings with you because you're like, look, man, they're good people. They're not doing anything. I will defend them to the death. Go back to the old 70s days.

They drilled those posts basically to the center of the earth and they were not coming off. See what happens. But love the piece. Make sure to go read it on the athletic because it's Jesse being Jesse and I love it. After the break, we're going to hear from Russo in conversation with Flyers interim GM Danny Breyer. And Sean Juntili is going to stop by to talk GM meetings. So don't go anywhere. All right.

As we discussed earlier, Russo is not with us this week. He's at the GM meetings, but he did bring his tape recorder. and a big piece of news this week as we discussed, Chuck Fletcher out as Flyers GM. Danny Breyer is in on an interim basis, got the job just in time to jump on a plane and head to the GM meetings. And Russo had a chance to chat with him about the new gig and a whole bunch of other things in Philadelphia. But I do want to mention this before we get to the tape. After Russo spoke to Danny Breyer, a story and more particularly a video came to light pretty much late, Tuesday night that allegedly shows Breer's son, Carson, at a bar and throwing someone's

wheelchair down the stairs. This kind of obviously exploded on social media. And again, this came out after Russo had already spoken to him. He attends Mercyhurst University. And they released a statement saying, quote, Mercyhurst University became aware of a disturbing video in which one of our student athletes has seen pushing an unoccupied wheelchair down a flight stairs at a local establishment. Our office of student conduct and department of police and safety are investigating. That's where we stand right now, but we still wanted to play the tape for you because Pierre hits everything hockey-wise in Philadelphia.

If anything comes out after this, we'll be sure to let you know. But here is our own Michael Russo with the interim GM of the Philadelphia Flyers, Daniel Breyer. Well, my pleasure to be joined by Danny Breyer and man, unbelievable playoff career, unbelievable of regular season career. And here you are, your first GM's meetings. I've got to think that your head is absolutely spinning right now. Hey, it is. It is. I'm trying to figure a way to get my bearings back. Everything happened so quick the last few days. But it's, it's exciting. You know, I lost a good man in Chuck Fletcher.

so it's a little better sweet there. He was tremendous human being, one of the best in hockey. So that's always tough. But at the same time, you know, it's the business of hockey. And I'm really ecstatic and excited about the future and what we can do with the flyers. So we'll see where it takes us. It's been a long time since you were a rookie.

You know, and then you show up here, I mean, you were joking just during your press available. You didn't even know there was GM's meetings. Next to you know you're booking a flight down here. That's right. It came extremely quick. I thought, okay, I'll have plenty of times to do, you know, and reach out to people that were contacting me, congratulating me. You know, and all of a sudden, no, you got to go to Florida for the GM meeting. So it happened all quick, but I kind of like the timing of it because I have the chance to meet the other 31 GMs around the league and I don't have to make calls one by one. I get to see them face-to-face shake their hands and get to know them, start building relationships with these guys.

Julian Pryspa was saying that when he first became a GM, when he was named in Tampa, that it was unbelievable within 24 hours, how everybody reached out to him. And David Poil said in 1982, he goes to his first GM's meetings and nobody even said a word to him. You know, it was that type of thing. It's a little different now.

I mean, you were welcomed right away by Coley Campbell and all that. Yeah, yeah, right away. I was really amazed by, how willing everybody is to help you out. The GM, the staff at the NHL level. And most of the comments I was hearing from those guys were, you know, we're all competitive. We all want to win as much as the next guy.

But other than that, we want to help each other out. There's only 32 of those jobs in the world. And it's a select club, and we want to help each other out. So if you have anything, any questions, don't be afraid to read. reach out. So that's kind of been the message from many, many GMs. So that was really cool to to see walking in. Is it cool when you walk in there too and you see a couple former teammates here? Yeah. You got jury running the Rangers. You got Mike Rearer's ending his first year in San Jose.

Yeah. I mean, that's, one, it shows you that it's not the same old, you know, GMs every single year in the National Occulay. But, but it's got to make, yeah. Yeah, a lot of guys that I played against, too. You know, the Rob Blake, the Kevin Adams, the Bill Guerr. And I, you I could keep going on. So it's really cool that way. The guys, you know, it's funny. I was a little nervous coming in, first meetings. I didn't know what the process was and how, you know, everything works.

But at the same time, you know, I was not intimidated. I knew a lot of those guys and they're all great guys. So it's mostly exciting and a little nervous when I walked in. What is it about you that even as a player, you never were intimidated? I mean, you were such an exciting player to. watch, but the second that switch turned to April 15th, I mean, you became just almost, as somebody said on Twitter, superhuman. I don't know. I don't really know exactly how to explain it. There's always the best time of the year. Even to this day, you know, April comes around and

it's my favorite time of the year. I love playoff hockey. I have, you know, different reasons here that I think why it happened that way. But I, I, I, I, If I knew exactly why, you know, I'd be jumping on that. I'm not too sure. But, you know, I've always loved the big moments. You know, and I'm not the only one. I know of a certain Chris Rory who's kind of that way, too. So I learned a lot from him as well with our playing days together in Buffalo.

It's amazing, actually, how many incredible hockey players are in that room. It's pretty cool to say. So you become the interim GM. I mean, what is the plan? now because like watching your press conference the other day and even just talking to you today, you don't come off as somebody that is the, what we would think is an interim. I mean, it's, it feels like the job is going to be yours and you're going in there with a plan to really, you know, turn the flyers around. Well, that's the plan. That's what I'm going with. You know, I have a feeling

that they trust me, you know, and I think the interim tag is the right thing to do at the moment. You know, go through the process and make sure they make it, make the right decision, gives them the chance to look around, you know, and evaluate everything in the organization. So I'm all for it. You know, I think it's the right thing to do. So I don't have a problem with it. But at the same time, I got to prepare. In the meantime, yeah, there's the word interim there, but there's also the word GM and I got to move forward and deal with my staff and, you know, make sure there's some guidance there and what needs to be done next. So when you're a very busy man, you have a wife, four kids, Like when you are at home and now you're putting together your to-do list, how do you even

prioritize what now is next? Yeah, it's funny. I was just texting my wife earlier today about, you know, I have to find a way to get better at time management. That's going to be probably the most important part moving forward. But I think it's a little crazy at the moment just because of it just happens so soon and, you know, everybody's reaching out. We talked about that earlier, how Gillian said that it was crazy.

I mean, I had some big moments as far as players winning some big playoff rounds, playing the Stanley Cup final, scoring some big goals. My retirement, some of the trades that I've been through, I never got as much attention from everybody around me, receiving notes and messages and, you know, of support. So it's been absolutely crazy the amount of response that I've received. So I'm trying to still try to catch up on that, you know, four days later. And, you know, usually I'm always someone that gets back to everybody.

It was so busy at one point, my phone crashed. You know, there's so many texts that I've lost some texts. So again, if someone hears that and I haven't reached out, it's not that I didn't want to. It's just, you know, I lost the text. So I apologize for that. But it's been overwhelming in a good way. to see the response from everyone. And yet you found time to play pickleball yesterday

with Julian Brisewa and Yormelkechelina and George Paris, your old Anaheim team. My Montreal Canadiens line mate. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it was pretty cool. It was awesome for these guys to invite me. I was just a rookie trying to keep up with them. They're impressive players.

But it was a great afternoon, and, you know, it's a way to start creating relationships with those guys. I don't know how I said Anaheim there. I was just having Anaheim on my mind after just talking to him. Yesterday at the press currents, or a couple days ago at the press conference, I mean, you made it, you know, I know everything's a semantics game, an aggressive retool, rebuild, stuff like that,

but you weren't shy on saying that this is not going to be a quick fix and that this is going to be a quasi-rebuild. One, do you think Flyers fans are going to be patient for that? But it really is there any choice right now with the way that the Flyers are currently orchestrated? I think the fans will understand. I think our fans are too smart. They've realized that, you know, for so many years, now we've been kind of stuck in the middle and middle of nowhere

as far as the standing, almost making the playoff, sometimes getting in, sometimes not. You know, my goal is to build a strong team that aspires to win the Stanley Cup, not just for a year or two here and there, but for many years to come. And that's my plan. I think the fans, I mean, obviously, I'll need a little bit of their patience.

you know, in the next couple years, it might be a tough going. But I also believe if they know the plan and we're honest with them, that, you know, they'll understand. We have some good young players, you know, and they'll probably be kind of the place we start focusing on, moving forward. And I think people will accept that. And it's not going to be easy, like I said, but I think they'll jump on board. And you made it very clear that this, you don't anticipate.

beta fire sale that you have a set maybe i don't know if you voiced who the core would be but that you have a core not yet i haven't used names um you know i i don't like using names singling out you know good or bad players uh that way um you know hockey's such a great team game uh try to keep it that that way as much as possible but um there are and yeah and i don't believe you know rebuilding doesn't mean fire sale i mean there's going to be some some movement uh most likely um but it's it's it's too early to tell to which degree. How, have you, I know that you've obviously been around and all that. Have you been meeting with John Truderella throughout the process?

And then since obviously became GM, you know, have you had that chance to sit down with him and talk about the team? I was part of the interview process last summer. John was my choice as well, my number one choice. So I was really excited about that, that he accepted the challenge. I have a great relationship with John. I had him as an assistant coach when I started in the league in field. in Phoenix. So it's pretty cool how things, you know, come back around 23, 24 years later.

So I have a great relationship with John. We've had the chance to sit down since I was nominated once for a lengthy discussion, and I plan to doing that more often with him, too. I think, you know, I know the players, I know the staff, but I want to sit down with him and get to know deeper what he thinks of our players, where he thinks we're headed with them. And, no, that's going to be kind of the focus in the last four or five weeks of the season. Your path to get here, it is fascinating. I mean, you started in the ECHO with the main Mariners. And you went there also run the business, too, right?

Correct. Yeah, so you've, I mean, was that a conscious decision to try to get to this point? My biggest thing, yeah, hockey was all, is my passion. So I knew I wanted to be in hockey. You know, I didn't know this door opened up. No, I was invited to kind of get involved on the business side. And then Comcasts, Back to Corbought this CCHL franchise from Alaska and moved them to Portland, Maine. They offered me the job as president.

Now, the scary part is it was mostly on the business side that I had to figure out things out to start, especially because it was completely new. We didn't have a name. We didn't have a logo. We didn't have colors. We didn't have fans. We didn't have players. So early on, the focus was on the business side to build the brand. You know, it was interesting.

It was a great experience. I learned a lot. I learned a lot about the business side. As a player, those things you don't really think about when your player just show up to the rank and you think that everything's in place and they put a couple ushers there. They open to sell food and, you know, you're at the show. But getting on the other side, I realize there's so many moving pieces and so, so many people needed. So it was an eye-opener for me. So I learned a lot there, but then I also

got to be involved on the hockey team and building a hockey team and finding some good hockey people to help me. And then graduating to, you know, player development and getting more involved in the flyers and slowly making my way, one of the things that was important for me was, you know, I had heard so many executive say, you know, ex-hockey players, most of them are not willing to put in the work to get to, you know, where they want to get. And I wanted to show everybody that I wasn't afraid. I was willing to work. I love hockey, and, you know, I was willing to put in the work.

I didn't know where it was going to take me. It's not like I had a goal in mind that I was going to be a GM one day. It was more about, look, I love hockey. I'm going to get involved. I want to put the time in. And I loved it. I loved what I was doing. So it wasn't a chore.

It wasn't a job. I was just having fun the last few years. and kind of took me to this spot today. That's amazing. And you have a lot of respect for the ECHL. I remember, I mean, obviously you were an international star, but AHL star. You're old enough you played one game in the IHL. That's right.

But what was that ECHL like? I mean, when I was first offered the job, I was a little worried. I remember the ECHL from the late 90s. I had heard horror stories, and it scared me a little bit at first. But then, you know, I started getting involved, and I realized how well, run it was now. So many people put on a lot of work. They're in really good hands now

with Ryan Creelan as the commissioner. So it was fun. It was a blast. I learned a lot. And I know people rolled their eyes saying, what's Danny Breyer doing? Going back to the ECHL.

But it was great for me personally. And I'm very, very thankful of all the teams, executives and people at the league offices kind of training me early on because I didn't know what I was doing. And every new GM that I ever talked to, they're always amazed at, you know, when you become a GM, you think, all right, I'm going to trade players, I'm going to scout, I'm going to put the team together. You don't realize how many business calls you have in a day. I mean, Bill Garan,

half his day is just being on meetings, you know, in Minnesota. That's what I'm realizing right now, like just the last few days, how many phone calls and meetings are in place, you know, time management. and people management is, you know, I think something that I believe I can do really well, and I'm going to try to use that to be successful. When you look at the fliers right now with player development, is that something that you feel like is at a perfect spot, or is that something that does need to improve right now in Philly?

Well, it's going to be a key. That's something we'll need to evaluate. It's going to be key for us moving forward, because when you're rebuilding, obviously, the young guys are the priority. So it's definitely going to be a crucial part of what we do the next few years. Analytics is a question that Jason want to know. Just your vision with analytics, how into it are you? Is that something that right now that you feel like is the strength in the flower organization?

I do believe. I do believe that it's extremely important. But also be honest that I'm not an expert. We have the right people, some good people in place that are going to help me. You know, I had the chance to dive into it this year. We did a project with Travis Kineckney that's out there a little bit, you know, not exactly what we did. But people are aware that we did. But I worked with the analytics group on our team.

And it was amazing. I basically, you know, I said, I see some things with my eyes. Can the numbers back it up? And it was eye-opening, again, for me to work with these people and to see what the numbers can tell you. So I plan on using them a lot and including them in the future of the Flyers. I got a couple funny questions from Flyers fans saying, are you sure you can handle a second stint with them with the Flyers fans? You know, now you dealt with it as a player and obviously, you know,

it's a tough market. You know what? As a player, what I had to go through was awesome. The best response I can give them is that, You know, I loved playing in front of fans that cared about what I did. They would let you know, and they would push you to get better and push the limit every single night, and that's what I really appreciated from them. So I expect the same thing, you know, in the new role that I am.

They're going to let me know if it's not good enough. You know, but they're passionate. They're knowledgeable. They know what they're talking about. So I don't have a problem. Again, I'm excited that they care about. what I'm doing. So to me, you know, I'd rather have it that way than, you know, doing a job for, you know, people that didn't even care or didn't matter what I did. So that's,

that's my approach to it. I love that they're passionate about their team just as much as I am. I've bled orange for a long time. And, you know, I'm really proud of that, that team, that logo and the city. That's awesome. And just lastly, what is next, Danny? Like, how do you, like you, you were talking about it was just, you know, yesterday you were saying, I'm just trying to get my bearings. How do you, like, what is the next step in evaluating this team and maybe supplementing your staff? You know, it's going to be a while before you can make a trade. Yeah, so I can't, you know, I can't make very many changes as far as the product on the ice from here till probably near the draft. So that on that front, it's probably going to be quiet a little bit.

Now it's more getting to know a little better, our staff, spending time with them. kind of put some parameters in place of the new guidance and the structure that we're going to have. That's probably, I would say, what's going to be the focus moving forward in the next couple months. Yeah. By the way, somebody asked, what's your favorite cheese steak place in FLAD? Do you want to throw that out? You want to be diplomatic? You know, I live around the corner from gyms, so I probably have to go with that.

Well, hey, you know, congratulations, Daniel. I mean, it really is just awesome. You're such an incredible player for all of us to watch and to cover. So I think we're all really excited to see how this goes in Philly, and it's just got to be, I mean, I got to think that you're trying to get your head wrapped around everything right now, but it's got to be exciting as well. It's got to be honored, one of 32 GMs in that room. Exactly.

It's a great honor, and it's exciting. I can't wait, really, to get back to Philly and get going. Okay, that is Danny Barrier, and back to you, Rob. Thank you very much, Mike, and we're going to stick with Mike. because he had a chance to chat with Gentile a little bit about the topics discussed at the GM meetings that Jesse and I kind of hit in segment number one. So here is Mike Russo with Sean Gentilly. All right. Thanks, Rob. This is Michael Russo down in South Florida with Sean Gentile. And we just wrapped up three days of GM's meetings in this beautiful neck of the woods. Gary Bettman just

addressed the media to discuss and break down everything that happened this week at the GM's meetings. And the biggest topic today was RSNs. straight diamond sports. Finally, after really several weeks of reports that this was heading this direction, filed for Chapter 11 protection. And as you mentioned, also to get Gary March 31st is a deadline at AT&T. Essentially, Sean, is supposed to stop with Av's games and Penguins games as well. So we got an update, and this is something that clearly Gary Bettman has basically said

that they fully expect that they are going to be on these regional networks until at the minimum end of the season. Were you surprised by that? I feel like we got them nailed down to a plan, which I really wasn't expecting. It seems like stuff is crystallized over the last couple of days with this, right? Whether we're talking about NBA teams or whatever, we do know now, and I don't think we knew this before, that Aves games and Penguins games, at least through the end of the regular season, are going to be on AT&T sports, which didn't seem like a given. So, yes, there's a huge, obviously, it's a gigantic league-wide problem because of Ballet Sports more than anything.

else. But we do know that, you know, through the end of the regular season, fans of those teams can at least relax for as long as that lasts. Yeah, and, you know, basically, I know that the majority of teams have gotten their rights fees and things like that. I did fully anticipate that Ballets was going to add a minimum basically have these games on their air until the end of the season. The question is what's going to happen moving forward? Obviously, the playoffs first round are also on some regional network side-by-side with national. But clearly, there is some sort of plan on what happens in the future. We've seen MLB and NBA start to talk about their

plans. And I think the NHL is trying to figure out too, what could they do to distribute these games in the future if essentially Ballets disappears or a diamond disappears. Do they take over the production? How do they distribute it? It is going to be clearly a very expensive process because of the number of facets that go into putting a game over the air. Absolutely. It's an expensive process. And also it's a complicated process now because you have different methods of getting these games in front of people, right? You have, yes, you have RSNs like over the air, not over the air, but cable, cable broadcast. You have the streaming element. You have a lot of different, a lot of different things at play. And it'll be interesting

to see how that works, not just March 31st, not just in the playoffs, but moving forward, absolutely. Because, because, and also for the record, I didn't want to say this, because we didn't, we didn't quite clarify it when we, you know, spoke with Gary. But that March 31st date is the date that the AT&T network's rights revert to the franchises. So starting on March 31st or April 1st, I suppose, the penguins and the avalanche are going to own the rights to their own local broadcast. So that does make sense that the stopgap lifeboat measure for, you know, the last couple weeks of the regular season is going to be continuing to broadcast. And, and, you know, if you actually think about it, there's only, what, four or five games pretty much. Yeah, it's not,

a little more. You know what, seriously, my only question was if is if those teams would be just so frustrated honestly with the, with the overall situation and would say, you know, okay, screw it, we're going to take our games and we're

going to put them on the local you know, CW affiliate or whatever because that's that seriously would have been an option. Those teams can do as they please with their broadcast starting on March 31st. That means they were to throw them on, yeah, on the Penguins website or, you know, Fox 53 in Pittsburgh, like, that's, that's theoretically what they could

have done. But we do know that they're staying put for the time being. And as you alluded, I mean, Gary did basically say that things are evolving in broadcast medium and they clearly have a short-term plan, but they're going to have to come up with a long-term plan and streaming is going to have to be a part of that. Let's move on to some of the other topics that we got. This was an interesting GM's meetings because it's, there wasn't a lot that they really, there were no, you know, rule changes that they're bringing in the competition meeting. As they reminded us many times. The game's great.

Everything is fine. There are no problems here. And everything is cyclical, but the biggest thing that is clearly headed, that is going to come out of this, it's not official yet. They're going to continue to talk about it, but it's going to eventually, I think, go to the competition committee in June to maybe get approval. But they want to expand coaches' challenges to friendly fire high sticks and pucks over the glass. And the issue with obviously coaches challenges is that if you're wrong, it's going to be a power play. And if you're doing it on a high stick and you're already on a PK, it's going to be a five on three. But as Brad Tree Living, the Cowdery Flames GM, you know, really pointed out is that just like off-sides challenges where the majority of the times that you're going to actually call for an off-sides challenge, you pretty much know that the player was off-side.

He thinks that it'll be in the same thing here, that you're just kind of helping out the officials say, hello, that puck actually hit the glass there. I was surprised at the uniformity to the response. And look, these guys are pros. They get on the same page, unified public front, all that stuff. But I was surprised at the uniformity from GMs and saying that the route here in the way to do this is through a coach's challenge, not necessarily an automatic booth challenge. Everybody said it. I think Kent Hughes was maybe the first. I heard of say it, Canadian's general manager, Kent Hughes said, you know, yep, this is the way it needs to be because there are too many high stick calls and there are too many puck over glass.

calls over the course of a game to rely, you know, too heavily on the booth to do it. So, yeah, everybody is down with the onus being placed on the coaches and the video staffs to make decisions as they see fit. It seems like everybody's on the same page with that one. Right now, it looks like the cap is going to continue to only go up $1 million. Gary Bettman said that they're basically closer to $100 million of the owners being paid back. And while they can have a conversation, a Marty Walsh, the new NHLPA, exactly.

executive director actually starts today. While they can have a conversation and a discussion with the NHLPA on this subject, what he quickly reminded is that if the escrow is not paid off and they prematurely say, hey, you know what, the cap can go up, three or four million dollars or whatever it is, that right now the escrow rate would have to go up because it's locked in at 6%. So it really does seem like the GM's left here today. Obviously, after the season, HR will have to be audited and they'll figure out exactly where they're at with that, but they're leaving today still with the anticipation that they are not

going to have a $4.5 million increase this summer. It's going to be $1 million. I was maybe not surprised because we've heard about the million dollar increase pretty steadily for the last couple months, but it does seem like that's the number they're working under, right? And with the assumption, I think that Gary clearly is comfortable making, that odds are good, that's not this, not this coming season, but the one after that will be the one when we see the four or four and a half million dollar jump. And trade related reasons was another topic today. Obviously, this was a, you know, guys have been pulled out of lineups for, for, you know, asset protection for a long, long time. And Bill Guerin back in 2009 was actually pulled out a lineup with the Islanders lineup. So this is not something new. What was different this year is weeks upon weeks of it, right? start with Chikrin, then went to Gravikov.

Chikrin seemed to be fine with it. Gravokov, clearly, by reports, was not. Was not thrilled. But the GM has made it very clear. This is not a topic right now. Now, they're hoping this is a one-off. We all know it's not going to be. You know what's funny, honestly,

it was hearing, again, unified front from the 32-jans. They're saying, like, nope, this is fine. It's not a problem at all. Things happen. Like, we're okay with it. We're not worried about trade-related reasons. you know, nothing to see here. And then the caveat after that was like,

but if it happens again, like we might have to have a discussion. So, you know, nope, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. But if we get year or two of this where the next version of Vladislav Gavakov sits for, you know, three weeks against his will, then we might have a problem.

Send sale update. What do you got first, Sean? Oh, we did not. When is Ryan Reynolds going to do? That's exactly. I was going to say somehow, and credit to Gary on this, he gave an update without specifically referencing Ryan Reynolds, which is shocking. I feel like it's by law, Pierre Dorian has to get at least one or two, one or two Ryan Reynolds questions when this comes up. They're moving on to phase two

of the process, which is basically when you take the initial set of bids and kind of winnow it down to a more manageable number. We've seen reports specifically from Sportico that there were nine viable bids for the Sends. I think Gary took made a point to throw some water on that on that one today or at least you know, say, give the classic Batman, you know, don't

necessarily believe what you read on the number of bids there. So whether it's nine, whether it's more, whether it's less, the plan now is for over the next couple weeks, it sounds like, to get that to a more manageable number. And then from, you know, whenever this is all said and done and someone

buys the Idaho senators, the arena answer, the arena question will be left up to them, whether they want to try to forge ahead in LeBretton Flats or whatever. This isn't tied to an arena deal. That was another specific kind of answer that Gary gave. Yeah, classic Gary answer on the Ottawa sale. While you're reducing the number of parties, you're hoping increasing the magnitude of their interest for those that are

remaining. I think I laughed out loud when he said that one. I want to talk to you about Atlanta in a second, but Arizona, let's just discuss there. He did another little campaign to get May 16th referendum approved. May 16th, remember, is the date that Tempe is voting to see if this $1 billion or more than that arena district can be approved. I was just in Arizona. Lots of videos of Gary Bettman and Chained Owen and Bill Armstrong on local TV saying how great this will be for the community. LTI, I thought, was an interesting thing.

Gary basically said that this is not an issue. No big deal. Yep, he said trades involve players, trades involved draft picks, and they involve cap room. Cap room is a very valuable asset under a cap system, and at a particular point in time, you can maximize the other assets that you can achieve. I think in our power ranking of Gary answers today, I think that's towards the top. Trades involve players, and they involve cap space, and they involve whatever else. That's a classic one.

Playoff format, he still says that if you actually look at the standings, the one versus, is one verse eight, two, verse seven, all that versus the current system that they are actually very little things. And he basically said that some people might have a preference for doing things differently, but this is working out. Oh, well, this is it. It means this is his preference. Yeah, totally.

And let's talk about Atlanta. Because that was a fun conversation to bring up with him today. You and I have gotten some opinions of people like Don Waddell and Kevin Shelladale and David Poil, people that have worked in Atlanta before. You know, Gary gave the answer that he always gives when talking about different markets and expansion and relocation is that they get interest from all sorts of, you know, interested parties and bringing teams to their city owners, things like that. He brought up Atlanta, Houston, Quebec City, but he just said that we are not in expansion mode right now and that there's nothing on

the front burner for that. But it was still a fun conversation to see if Atlanta, if third time, you know, three times a charm. It's also a nice little reminder to maybe the Ottawa's or Arizona's of the world who have to have that arena the outstanding arena question in both those spots. We're not, we're not an expansion mode, but there's a, you never know when we enter into a different, you know, perhaps relocation mode. That's always, that's always at least a theoretical possibility. What was your favorite part of the weekend?

Mine was, I was like this weekend to watch Gary in this laid back atmosphere. You know, I'll tell you he's doing it in a little sweater and a, you know, jeans. Casual, yeah, you know, it's casual, casual, that. And what's your favorite part of doing this type of stuff? Oh, I think it was when the commissioner rolled up in the Porsche. Almost ran us over. He almost ran you over, man. He almost had an emergency room trip for your foot getting clipped by Gary's Porsche.

That was the highlight. Also the sheer amount of fish tacos that I've managed to eat in 72 hours. Very impressive. Yeah, and obviously, I mean, the best part of this weekend more is just to chat with the GMs. I mean, this is where you get them on an informal basis and things like that. Sean, it was a blast covering this weekend with you at this incredible hotel as well. Thanks also our buddy Craig Custin's down here a little while. Actually, my favorite part of the weekend, I went to dinner with Lunani and Elliot Friedman the other night,

and those are always like Lunani. Yeah, that's great. Are just pretty ridiculous. You got to you with Lunani and Elliot. You know who I got stuck with? Customs. Back to you guys. Thanks as always, boys.

Rapid Fire coming up. Back to the break. All right, my favorite time of the show and yours, Jesse. Rapid fire, and we're going to start with some injury talk. Bad news for the Hurricanes. Andre Svetnikoff, out for the season with a torn ACL. He's got to have surgery. That's going to take place tomorrow in rally.

55 points in 64 games this year. This is a team that certainly is in contention to win the Stanley Cup, and this is a huge blow for Carolina. Absolutely brutal. I will say this, Hurricanes were my preseason pick to win the Stanley Cup. And at the athletic, like every month, they've been having us redo our picks. I think we're on like prediction 6.0. I have picked the hurricanes six times.

That is my pick to win the Stanley Cup. And suddenly I am not so sure because he is so good. He's such an integral part of what they do. I think this team is still really good. I think their biggest strength is the fact that they get scoring from everywhere. Like this, there are other teams that if their star player went out, they'd be in more trouble. I think the hurricanes are built to withstand this. but the East is so tough

and you've got all these teams getting better and stacking up and suddenly the hurricanes are without one of their best players, arguably their best offensive player. That is an absolutely brutal blow for a team that, like I said, I thought was heading for a Stanley Cup final. You mentioned teams that if a star player goes out, they're in trouble.

How about the Minnesota Wild? Krell Caprisoff, gone a month with an injury. And this is just a team. team that can't spare the scoring. I mean, they're 26th in the league with a 2.75 goals per game average. 31st in five-on-five goals. This is a huge blow. Like, apparently they're hoping he's good for the playoffs and has a little bit of time to kind of get himself back into game shape, into the group before the postseason. But this is for a team that can't score, taking one of the best scores, not only on your team, but in the league out of your lineup for a month hurts too.

Yeah. And this team finally, kind of got on a run. I think they've only lost three games in their last 12 or or 15 or so. For a while there, it looked like they may not even be a playoff team. We were wondering, is this team going to make it? They've gone on this run. They've looked really good. They haven't scored any goals, but they've got

great goaltending from Gustafson and Flurry back there. And they've been winning a lot of close games. And I think they're all the, yeah, second place in the central. I don't think they're going to have a hard time holding on to the playoffs. Like Calgary and Nashville are those two chasing teams and they both can't win a game. So I think Minnesota is safely in the playoffs, but like you said, even if you get Caprisov back right before the playoffs, like, is he going to be 100%? We've seen a million times guys come back.

It's hard to jump back into action, especially when it's a playoff hockey, that intensity level. Another brutal blow. And like you said, they are not as equipped as the Hurricanes to deal with losing a star score. This team can't score. Like outside of Capri So they don't do much in terms of putting the puck in the net. So a really tough blow for a team that I don't think Minnesota, I don't think of them as a contender, but the West is so wide open. Like, I'm personally of the opinion that Colorado is going to turn it on and kill everyone. But if they don't, someone's got to win the West, right?

One of these teams has to come out. And if you're Minnesota, you feel like you've got as good a chance as anyone, but not if Capri Sov's not at 100%. And finally, speaking of the West, Winnipeg. You know, we're in an age now where goaltenders sometimes can be, has pampered the right word? I don't know. No playing on back to backs, always worrying about their games played.

But desperate times call for desperate measures. Connor Hallibuck's been playing a whole lot of hockey right now. They're clinging to that second wild card in the West. Is this going to catch up to him is what I'm wondering? Or is this desperate times called for desperate measures? We need to get ourselves in a playoff spot. You put the best goalie in. every single game.

I think I agree with desperate times. We have to do this. It's the right thing to do, but I also do think it is going to catch up with them. I was a big proponent. So all those years where Kerry Price would get to the playoffs and not play well, Sergei Babrovsky was another one that he'd get to the playoffs

and not play well. And everyone was like, oh, they're chokers. They don't play. To me, it's, well, he looks tired. He's played 70 games. That's what you get. And I agree with that. And I think Hellebuck is probably going to be worn out.

and I don't see him putting together a consmythe type of performance in the playoffs if he's got to play 19 of the last 20 games of the season to get you there. But at the same time, you're not going to be in the playoffs if you don't play them. Early in the year, Winnipeg was a mirage. When they were in like atop the Western Conference, you look at all their underlying metrics, the shot share, the scoring chance share. They were not the best team in the Western Conference. they were not an elite team in the NHL.

They were just getting elite goaltending from Connor Hellebuck. He was covering up all the flaws on that team with his play. And lately, he hasn't been able to. I don't think his play has dropped off dramatically, but it hasn't been at the level it was early in the season when he was covering up all their mistakes. And suddenly, the Jets' overall record and their wins and losses are starting to look more like what the actual play has been in front of Hellebuck.

and the result of that is a team that is borderline playoffs. Are they a playoff team? Are they not? I think if you don't play Hella Buck all these games down the stretch, you're going to have a hard time getting across that finish line. So it's a tough spot. I think they should play them a bunch, but I also think it's probably going to end up in a worn-out goalie.

They can't carry you through the playoffs once you do. Only time we'll tell. What are you working on this week, Jesse? Well, more goalie stuff, as you would guess. Still, like I said, I got to talk to all those goalies down in Florida for a handful of stories. So still working on those. And Golden Knights are back home. They were on a five-game road trip.

Really successful road trip. They lost the first one, and they won four straight. And that was a tough one. So come home four-in-one. They're at top of the Pacific Division. So Jonathan Quick, four-and-o as a Golden Knight. Got a shutout in Carolina, 33-safe shutout. So I'm going to talk to him now that they're back home.

and write some stories as they head to the playoffs for the fifth time in six years. It should be fun. Former Columbus Blue Jacket, Jonathan Quick, is for, oh, man. I still can't get over that tweet by the Blue Jackets. I love good social media teams. Anyways, thanks for another good show, buddy. I want to let everyone know if you want to watch us while we're doing this. Hey, subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash the athletic hockey show.

and I want to remind you, we do return on Thursday with Ian Mendez and down goes brown. I want to say thanks to Danny Breyer for joining Russo. I want to thanks Sean Gentile for joining Russo as well and Russo for actually not being here and still putting in work. For Jesse, I'm Rob. We'll talk to you next week.