The Athletic Hockey Show - Golden Knights will face Panthers in Stanley Cup Final, Spencer Carbery named head coach of Washington Capitals and are Ed Olczyk and Kyle Dubas destined to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins?

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

On this week's edition of The Athletic Hockey Show, Craig Custance and Sean Gentille preview the Stanley Cup final between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers with The Athletic's Shayna Goldman. They break down the playoffs to date for Vegas and Florida and the impact of Bruce Cassidy and Paul Maurice on their respective clubs. They discuss former Maple Leafs assistant coach Spencer Carbery being named the new head coach of the Washington Capitals and the they address the rumors involving Eddie Olczyk becoming the President of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Kyle Dubas joining the Pens to lead the hockey department.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Hey, everybody. How are you today? How are you, Sean? Oh, shitty. You seem like, you're all right? No, I'm not. I'm moving.

I have to, I'm dealing with a move right now. It's not fun. Well, the good news for the rest of us is the Stanley Cup final has been decided. You didn't even ask. Hold on a second. You just just skated right past. I had like a good. eight minute chunk on how much moving sucks and you don't even care that's okay Sean it's

not that I don't care you don't care about it later you definitely you care less you care less than random people out there maybe yeah there's a lot to talk about we have offseason stuff we have a Stanley Cup final we have this is the athletic hockey show in case you aren't looking at your phone or whatever and this just popped on in case someone's in case they're playing it's in a department store or yeah If you're listening to this at CVS, this is The Athletic Hockey Show. I'm Craig Custins. Joined, as always, every single week.

We never miss one. Sean Gentilly. Half true? The stars are out. Carolina's out. We've got the penguins doing some front office rebuilding. And we have a Florida Panthers versus vaguen, vaguen, the vegans of the Vegas Golden Knights. A lot of people don't realize that about them.

They don't eat meat. Not a single player. It's one of Bill Foley's real bugabooze. There will be no meat in this locker room. So we're going to bring in the only person you would bring in to break down a Stanica final and that's Shana. She really the true co-host of the show, as we've talked about. Other people have talked about it.

More and more people are saying. More and more people are saying she should be a host. But first, Sean, you're in Pittsburgh. It sounds like some news is going to come. come down today on the penguins in their front office, which went from Tire Fire as Rob and Josh wrote about so eloquently. A lot of normal stuff happening there with the last couple of years. A lot of normal stuff.

It's too bad. You know, a great franchise with great players. I mean, sincerely, you're laughing. Like, I don't like to see Sidney Crosby's Twilight years played out. It's the great sin of the Hextall Burke administration. was that they wasted two really good ears by him in particular. And a really good year by having any Malkin this past year. That's it.

They wasted it for whatever reason. And you don't get too many those to waste when you're 36 or 37. So we're recording this. It's, what, 942 Eastern on Tuesday morning. We anticipate that the news will come down probably the second of this drop. So we're going to talk about. My assumption here is that this is going to be out of date by the time we push, publish on it, honestly. Yeah. Okay. So if it's Eddie, let's say Eddie Oltruck gets the job as team president hypothetically, which is the speculation right now. How do you, let's start there. How do you feel about that and is him in that role? I'll get to that one second. What I do want to say before we do anything with Olchick or speculation there is that it seems like today is Dubus day. Like today is the day that they're going to find out in one way or another whether or not Kyle Dubus will accept the job that they have obviously.

offered him because it's all in front of him right now. This is about whether, and you and I talked about this last week or the week before. That's how it played out, right? This isn't Kyle Dubus interviewing for a job. This is FSG interviewing for the privilege of hiring Kyle Dubus. So the offers, the offers on the table, whether it's maybe accepts it, maybe not. But it seems like today, Tuesday, May 30th, We're at 9.43 a.m. on East College right now, it seems like there's going to be movement there one way or the other. And it certainly seems like if you had to be a betting man, you would say that he's going to take it. So, you know, that's the vibe here right now, just generally. How good.

Go ahead. Well, I would just, so let's do a little bit of like choose your own adventure path here because we have to cover it all. If Kyle says, you know what, I'm not ready. This isn't the job for me. You have the sense in Pittsburgh Where will that leave fans? It seems like the general consensus is bringing Kyle Dubus. I think so.

And that's his anecdotal, and it's based on Twitter, and it's based on me talking to my friends and, you know, my uncles at the Memorial Day, you know, party over the weekend. What does, what does Uncle Steve want? They want Dubis. They want Dubis, but I also think there's, this is one of those

this is one of those areas where our focus on the Toronto Maple Leafs and the NHL's focus on the Toronto Maple Leafs has gassed up anybody associated with the Toronto Maple Leafs like in our orbit to a little bit of an extra degree

so like if you explain like people like oh yeah the guy the guy from the Maple Leafs like great Dubus what's what's his deal and you explain and they're like oh wow sounds great or like what or didn't they or the other flipside coin is like didn't they don't they keep washing out in the playoffs

so there is like people don't have that kind of right it's not that constant kind of just constant awareness of Kyle Dubus and the goings on in Toronto that maybe we see when it's a little bit more closely affiliated with media people or Toronto people so it's not like it's probably less people foaming at the mouth

be like wow this guy I did X, Y, Z, and he's been a GM for five years, and he's only 37. I don't think that's the general vibe from the average, from the average person here. But at the same time, they're aware of who this guy is. They know his credentials. They know his CV. And I think we're at the point now where it's circulated long enough, where enough people have been talking about Kyle Dubus and the tau of Kyle Dubus that if it doesn't happen,

people will be upset. And I don't know if that would have been true necessarily like four days ago. So this actual runtime, I think, has led to people, you know, kind of setting their hearts on him a little bit more than they would have otherwise. Can we talk to the Uncle Steeves of the world who aren't in this orbit, who aren't logged on a Twitter, who aren't like reading the endless, hey, happy Kyle Dubus Day to those who celebrate tweets that I've been seeing on my timeline all morning long? They're the ones going, hey, this kid sounds great. I have six uncles, by the way. okay I want to talk to the one who's like

this guy hasn't won a thing he's won one playoff round why you know that's that gets you ejected from from Pittsburgh we're not trying to win one playoff round with Sidney Crosby and Malkin and the Tang what do we say

what's the explanation to them to that use all the obnoxious cliches that people have used to justify the main beliefs failure over the last few years in general where you talk about you know short series are weird and goal tendings and goal tendings unpredictable and you know that you know the the top the top end of the roster hasn't held up their end of the bargain i think

but i think the bit in the playoffs i think the biggest selling point if you're someone who's trying to convince uncle steve and uncle billy and uncle bobby and uncle jo about about um about Kyle Dub is you can look at the success on some level that he's had building that middle class of player in the on the Toronto roster, not necessarily the bottom, but but also whatever. You're saying the top players on this team are still capable of holding up their end of the bargain. This goes back to what we talked about at the start. Sydney Crosby is still capable of doing his job.

Gany Monk and Crystal Tang. Maybe even more so than the top players in Toronto. More so than the top players in Toronto. Yeah. That's just the way it is. Right? Like you, like,

I trust those guys more and I realize the incantifiable nature of that statement. Those guys have won and the Toronto guys haven't and they continue not to. So you say, right. The problem with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last couple years is a total lack of thoughtful construct, like lack of thoughtful construction to the middle of the roster and the in the bottom of the roster.

What does Kyle Dubis good at? He's good at making marginal additions. He's good at building things out. If he has his issue in Toronto was that he wasn't getting, for whatever reason, bad luck, but the performance from the top guys wasn't coming. And he paid them too much. Well, guess what? Top guys in Pittsburgh are locked in. You know what they're going to make.

There's no negotiations to lose. There's no feelings to hurt. there's no next contracts to worry about like there might have been for Nylander and Marner and Matthews and whatever. All that stuff's done. And those are areas that Kyle Dubus where I'm sure he wish

if he could have gone back and waved a magic wand and changed the way that stuff worked out a few years ago to Tavares, all that stuff he would. Doesn't have to worry about it now. He can build a competent hockey team around an aging core. And that is something that runs,

Haxtall and Brian Burke either had no interest in doing or weren't capable of. And we know that Kyle Dubus, based on the work he's done over the last few years, is going to find good players to flesh out the rest of that roster in a way that they wouldn't have gotten elsewhere. He's going to have to patch Marlow Granland. That little parting gift. It's one of those things, man, where you're like, of course, you know, no GM is going to sabotage his own roster.

it's what it would look like pardoning that what you're suggesting here no I'm saying it is indistinguishable from what it would look like if he did if you were to stab it if you were to I don't think that's what he did but but if you were to what would you do go out go out and get an ineffective

32 year old with two years and 10 million dollars left on his contract when you kind of know you're when you know you're probably gonna get fired in a in a you don't care about yours the two years after this. The great thing about if you get Kyle, you're getting Jason Spetson

too, it seems like. Certainly seems that way. Seems like the future, like a great future front office person. You know, the other thing, again, we're getting way ahead of it, but Kyle built a really like a deep, talented and smart front office in Toronto. And

that's another thing that Ron Hacks sold, you know, weren't a ton of people in the inner circle. They weren't a ton of people in the front office. right you're talking about Chris Pryor and yeah there there there were people there on the on the on the peripheral there but this is not a situation where you have Brandon Pridham and Daryl Metcalf and Jason Spetsa and Haley Wickenheiser and all all these all these people there that's not just this deep bench you like

Ron Haxall's talking to two dudes and they're the ones that are telling him to go get Michael Granland McIle Grantlin excuse me no you'll hear about that one So Eddie O, so if he's part of this, is this a bit of the Philly thing where it's like, hey, we have to do some, we have to do some damage repair here in the community. Kyle, the way he operated in Toronto, and I don't know if he'll import this to Pittsburgh, again, if it's him, but he kept a lid on things. He wasn't, he wasn't extremely accessible to the media for probably the right reasons. anything he says gets analyzed 10 ways or whatever. But so he'd like to kind of just dig in and do the work and keep things tight. If you do that in Pittsburgh, maybe you know, you do need somebody out front to.

I think so. I think so. It's certainly not on the level that Keith Jones has to work in Philly where there's just, it's a mix of anger and apathy and it reflected itself in in attendance. Like, like, there's, that, things have gone bad there in a way that they haven't here. Yeah.

Yet. Who knows what happens. I think that's part of what they're trying to guard against, honestly, a few years down the road. Where Eddie Olick helps, in addition to that, in addition to being like a personable,

well-like guy with a history in this city, because remember he played here for, played her for years, he was a TV guy here, he was the head coach to some pretty, pretty unproductive effects but you know what that's okay um he's got some he's got some cashier here and i think that helps in the other the other place that helps this is what we talked about with keith jones and what we've talked about with some of these in a more traditional

for these like more for the in the president job right the more traditional hires like the john davidson kind of hire yeah call it he can shake hands with sponsors, he can talk, he can deal with be the frontman for business opportunities, he can be the connective tissue between hockey ops and ownership, which is a very necessary thing because you don't have necessarily even the Comcast Spectacore presence in Philly. That's not the way it's been here with Fenway Sports. That's not the presence they've had. You know, there, it did it increase by the end of the last season? Absolutely. Do I think very they have interest in, um, do I think they have interest in, you know, continuing to

strengthen those kind of bonds for sure. But you also need someone to be a hockey guy who can be the conduit, you know, between that group and all these other various concerns with Fenway sports in business concerns with the hockey team and on and on. I think it helps to have someone in that role. I don't know what it would look like. I don't know how, what exactly what the titles would be. I think that's kind of an interesting question. Yeah. But bringing it Eddie Olick along with Kyle Dubus makes more sense, I think, than maybe folks would initially think. Because I'm going on my reaction. I'm judging on my own biased reaction.

I heard that and I was like, huh? Yeah, well, part of it is, I don't know. Like, do Kyle and Eddie know, like, I'm sure they casually know each other, but they don't. I can't imagine we'd be here. I'm trying to, like, connect any, any, like, tissue between the two of them. I can't imagine we'd be hearing all that much about this if Kyle Duvus was not into it. If they didn't have some sense. Who doesn't like Eddie-O?

Like, sit in a room with them for an hour and you're like, let's do this by the time you're done. You know this. Everyone, it's not, we're not like, this is just how it works in careers and in professions. If the money's right, it'll be fine. That's it. The money's right and the responsibility is right. It'll be fine. And they can figure out the title stuff, you know, whatever.

But if you get, if you get those boxes checked, if you're Kyle Dubus, don't you want someone to be the guy who's out in front, you know, dealing with key bank and, you know, talking about Josh Yoey. Yeah, Josh Yoey and Rob Rossi and doing and talking about, you know, new luxury suites that have been added to the ring. And all this stuff. Fuck. No way. No way.

He can just worry about building a good hockey team for a premium price. I'd take it. I'd be like, yeah, great. You can do all that bullshit. Okay. Yeah. And Kyle, like, you know, in reading a statement. You've spent a lot of time around Kyle, too, of us too.

Like, we're like kind of beating around the bush here. You know them as well as well as most do in the media. Yeah. So I can see him as. like completely content to let Eddieo handle all that. Like Kyle's also somebody who's trying to balance a young family and all these, like those are real things. Like this is not a guy that's like career at all costs.

It's full steam ahead and I'll pick up the damage later with the kids. Like this is somebody who's like, clearly. He's trying to figure a way to balance all of this. So if you can have somebody who does all of that side and you're just trying to figure out how to get better and make your team better, that would be really a feeling. Big thing too. like not that far from southern Ontario to the team's practice facility in cranberry PA.

Pretty easy drive. We already spent more on this than I was we had a lot of other other offseason talk and we can maybe get to it in a month and a half when I'm back for the next episode. What about, um, we can just jackhammer some of it into the third segment too. Yeah, we can. If you're Kyle, what's, what's the better job? The Ottawa senators for the next 10 years. Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh. wins. Pittsburgh. Ottawa Senators with new ownership and a loaded young team. It's a little bit more interesting. We need to figure out what's going on with the ownership. We got someone, someone dial up Mendez. I think he's on vacation or something right now.

I think it's Snoop Dogg, isn't it? Snoop Dog and Ryan Reynolds is back. It's Snoop and Ryan Reynolds is back. I wouldn't blame, I wouldn't blame Dubus for trying to tread water and see what happens there. see what happens there. I mean, I just think the roster set, like, you're, you're, you're, at least walking into. Even if it's a good, even if it's a solid group that doesn't, you know,

the money checks out, all this, all this stuff on the peripheral that we're talking about certain groups looking for additional investments on, like, whatever, forget that. Yeah. If it gets worked out and it's someone who should be, if, and if a group of people who should own an NHL team end up owning an NHL team. We have to assume that that'll be the case. Do you say, like, I still would want to, I still would want to, I don't know if I want to jump on in June. I'd like to see some proof of concept for, for the ownership group. I don't know, I don't know if I want to be higher one in the building for a group of people who've never own a professional sports team. I mean, I think the ownership situation is a huge plus if you're

Kyle. You have all these other franchises to learn. Like, this is a guy that's constantly doing in and trying to get better. You like scoffed me when I said that last week, by the way. I did not. I did not. I think it's a huge. I certainly did scoff. Did not. You know what? I think it's a big thing. Because you hate Liverpool. That's why. I just, I don't think that's Kyle's team. Is it? It's a good question. I'll text them. I also think that, um, An interesting side thread to all of this is we're rethinking front offices in a way. It seemed like we were going down this trend of the GM is now the president, right? The GM, then, so the president is going to make all the hockey ops decisions.

And then the GM of the team is going to basically be the AGM. And the AGM, the current AGM is now going to be like, whatever. But now it's like, hey, maybe the president isn't the one making all the decisions. it's the one that's handling all the front facing things, and then the GM makes the decisions. I mean, I guess there's multiple ways to do this, but it does seem like we're getting away from, you know, kind of the Jim Rutherford, Vancouver setup and more of a,

I mean, if this is what it plays out, like, because Jim Rutherford's not just, Jim Rutherford's out there making hockey decisions, I'm assuming. I think that's a fair assumption to make, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, logically, this makes sense. And I think every organization is different, and every person who would be in these positions is different, right?

Of course, there's people who are qualified to do both. And there's organizations where it makes sense based on their own individual corporate structure. But the more you think about it, we're talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins, I think this makes sense. And I can see why they're doing it. Because, again, FSG needs someone in that building. that can do both passing,

like in a passing way. But that doesn't mean that you want Eddie Oldchick being in charge of your, of your hockey team. You don't want him, you know, going over, over,

you know, scouting sheets and doing, like, no. You want, or hiring staff. Like, he's just like a big,

like, you know, TV personality. He also knows a little bit of hockey. Like, of course he does. Of course he does. And he can,

he can incorporate all that into a job like this while also that guy is a Hall of Fame. B.S. or, and I say that in a positive way, like, he's, he's good at, he's good at that end of things. People like him. People like talking to him. That's a huge part of that, right?

He's American also. And he is a good, he's a good American boy from the, from the Chicago suburbs, I think. Whatever. All right. All right, let's get to Shana so we can actually talk about the hockey that's being played. the best maybe two cities for anybody left that's doing the Stanley Cup final circuit as a media member going back and forth between Vegas and South Florida pretty good a pretty good matchup to a lot of talk about there so we'll be right back welcome back we are thrilled maybe more than ever before in the second segment to be joined I don't like you're it's a little rude I don't know there we go I'm legitimately thrilled. Two against one.

Sorry, brother. I'm the least condescending person I know. That's what you know who says that. Condescending people. Sheena, you don't have to not. I'd never condescend you. Shana Goldman joins us. Hi.

How are you? I'm good. I feel like the funny thing is you probably are the least condescending of the three of us. But you know what? Like, let's answer it up today for you. I mean, look at the, look at the competition. it on that one. Oh, God.

Fish in a barrel. Shana, we have a Stanley Cup final. We have actual matchup set. It's Vegas versus Florida. Vegas, the lines, the betters are picking the Golden Knights as a favorite. Number one seat out west. What were your first, when you look at this matchup, what's your first blush and thoughts on it? I think that all the odds makers are actually super biased and they love Vegas.

and that's what's happening. It's just their model, Shana. It's just their model. It's not them. It's the model. It's not their model. It's the model.

Yeah, their model is to get as many people betting on this series as possible. Yeah. People like betting on the Golden Knights. Well, some of us have not been on the Golden Knights and have bet on the Panthers the entire way. So it's fine. Some of us don't bet on hockey at all. Can you imagine such a world? I mean, I can because I only started this year to try to learn how to do this.

And I was like, they asked if I could write about sports betting. And I'm like, I don't know how to do this. So I'm studying. How many units are you up right now on the hockey season? Let's talk betting. I think I won $50 on the Panthers so far because I do like baby bets. Like I bet like two or three dollars out of time. And yeah, just little little baby bets I do.

And I bet on the Panthers to win it all before round one. And I bet on them every step of the way. And then I parlayed them once with the Oilers and I won that. And I did it purely because my dog picked the Panthers twins. So I bet on, I picked one dog to bet on and it was Zootie. Wow. Did Josh Cooper lay down a serious wager on the Florida Panthers at the start of all this? I hope he did because he was the only person on staff who picked them, who picked them in the first round.

Yeah, I didn't. I think I wrote Boston for that, but then like secretly I'm like, go Panthers. What is it about the, what is it about the Panthers that has you? But should we have seen this coming a little bit maybe? I mean, do we forget that they were actually good last year and won the president's trophy? be like there is that factor too. They're not that different. They actually have like one of the best players in the league on their team now and they

got rid of someone who was not as good as Matthew Kachuk. So, you know, maybe we shouldn't count them out. I think the thing that's really important is we look at what made them successful last year. They were one of the best rush-based teams in the league. And now they have a very good forecheck. So they're a lot more well-rounded out. They're a lot tougher to play against.

They're better at extending zone time from those rush attempts. And you pair that with the fact that they have capable goals. attending this postseason, and that's pretty huge for them. Like, that is a massive difference breaker. Sergey Bobrovsky's putting up numbers we've, like, never seen in the playoffs, and he just keeps rolling. So it seems like they have the building blocks to make up for the fact that they have not the best defense, right?

Because you can usually win with two of the three key components, usually. Sometimes you need them all. Sometimes you need them. None. Who knows? Just vibes. We mentioned, we mentioned Paul Marines earlier, I think. And was this on, was it on this segment?

I don't know. It doesn't matter. He's favored by a lot. Favored. Look, he's favorite. Friend of the pod, Paul, Maurice. Great. Loved by hockey men of all generations,

Palmaries. What we've seen from him, maybe not necessarily in the playoffs, because I know so much this has to do with Bobrovsky, right? He's reasons one and two that this is happening. Are we witnessing the Palmaries glow up in the eyes of the computer boys? Like, how much of how much of what we've seen from him

represents an actual kind of paradigm shift on his part where it seems like he's doing stuff differently and he deserves I think he deserves as much credit for what's gone on here as the credit he received in the past for things that maybe he had less control over

does that make sense? It's a very convoluted way of getting at it but I think he's on a great job right? Yeah. I mean, I don't know what I'm doing here. It's fine. Is that a question? It's a statement.

There's a thought. A process of thought. I like that you worked in paradigm shift and they are very well done. Yeah, it was great. So I think the thing of Paul Maurice is, I did not like him when I got hired. I thought he was a bad coach.

And I think he is making us think about things differently. I'm the first one to say it. I was like, great, another recycled coach. But I think the thing with him in Winnipeg, and I spoke to someone very smart about this, Marat, who we all love and adore, because he does amazing work, what he thought about Maurice?

I'm like, am I wrong? Like, is he a good coach? And he was like, I think he had good ideas in Winnipeg. And I think he, the room and him no longer meshed and that can happen. Like that is one of the reasons the coach gets fired, right? Your voice gets stale. Your messaging gets stale. You don't know how to reach that same room.

And like the room in Winnipeg has some problems. So it makes sense that that would happen there of all places. But it seems like he has ideas and just didn't always know how to execute them. So I give him credit for bringing good ideas to Florida and understanding what this team needs and then how to execute it, how to motivate this group. and how to keep them loose, because if we look at the Panthers, and here I am a very stat-heavy person talking about vibes, but like it does seem like that's a factor here. It seems like he's keeping things loose and it's a quick memory.

Here you are, pressures up against you, and you know how to keep going. I give him credit for that. But even if you just look below the surface, the entire year of the Florida Panthers did the right thing without getting the results. And generally speaking, when that happens, when you're expected to score a bunch and you don't,

and you do have finishing talent, which they do, the results should come. As long as you don't panic and start drastically changing everything, because what you're doing below the surface at a certain point has to cash in. Which he also did not do. Like, like, there was no, there wasn't like a wild overreaction. I don't think necessarily from Paul Maurice in terms of the lineup construction or, part of that was honestly probably helped by the fact they were capped out and couldn't do anything.

Yeah, exactly. Particularly, you know, creative at the deadline. But they stayed the course with a team that, where the process was where it needed to be really from the start. Yeah, credit to him. The most drastic thing you really saw was at a certain point he stacked his lines up. Because originally it was let's put a park off and kachuk. And then they put them together in a third period of a game.

They thrive. They kept them together for a while because it got the team going and they knew that's what they needed to do. And then they separated them again to have a more balanced structure. And that's what they kept up the entire year. So I give him credit for that because at any time you could have panicked and decided, we're going to be a one-line team and let that roll. And he didn't.

Also was pushing the right buttons against Boston, right? where he knew he knew when to play could Chuck and Bennett with Carter Verhagi, which is something and then he kind of shuffled them around. I mean, this is good work from him for a guy who really was in a lot of spots, a punchline

coming into the season. He was a big reason to think that the, yeah, right, that the regression was going to come. It's been, the reverse has been true here. I'm starting to think there was something wrong with the Jets core in the middle of this thought. Yeah. Yeah.

That seems like the room least willing to listen. It just made them look way worse. and all of this. You're like, Walmart is actually knows what he's doing and he's a great leader and he has great ideas

and you're like, somebody wasn't listening in the previous stop. I think he ran out of ideas there though. A couple guesses. Yeah. I do think both they're true. It's time to stop, yeah.

And he took a breather. I give, I give up coaches a lot of credit. I think like John Tortorella taking year off was the best thing that ever happened to him. And I think the same was true for Mike Sullivan because they,

yeah, that's the story that was posted here by the, with the blue jackets, with Allison looking up years ago about them studying scoring chances and going we need to look differently at offense. They had a year off to do it.

That I think is important because if you get fired or leave a team for doing something and then get hired by a new team, why in the world would you change anything? You just got to hand their new job. Are we at the point where we're four wins away from the Sergey Bobrovsky contract being good for Florida? It was a good signing. You win a Stanley Cup? He goes, if he wins a consmise during a cup run, it's worth it, period.

That's priceless, is it not? Yes. Everyone's going to say yes, it was worth it. But I think everybody knows it was a bad decision then. It's a bad decision now. That contract is still going to tell you. Stick into it. Shana, what do you want on your goalie other than a consmite and a Stanley Cup?

To not kill the rest of my roster for the years to come because he makes way too much money and should have never been signed to that contract. They can trade them. Trade him now. Doesn't he have a no movement close the rest of the contract? That is true. I think he'd a full on Full on it.

He's got a no move of cause 10 million a year through the year 2025, 26. Which was signed a minute signed a minute after drafting Spencer Knight and Devon Levi.

Not a great decision but you know what? Four wins away. Count the rings, baby, flags fly forever. No for him. I love that he's literally telling all of us that we're idiots and he's like actually I'm good.

I'm good again. I'm going to be great. And I think it's fun to see, like, he's the one with the glow up because you see the postseason problems he's had in the past are gone. The high pressure situations, he's fine. And the rest versus rust conversation that normally be like, well, if he plays too much, we know he gets bad versus if he doesn't play, he's going to be rusty. And he's like, no, this is good for me. I'm fine. Maybe, I mean, maybe he'll implode in the Stanley Cup final who's to say goaltending is super volatile.

But it does feel like we've just been wrong about everything. But I do think it's really funny that the two years we see Bobrovsky have his best postseason, he's an underdog. Like the year Columbus upset Tampa Bay, who was in goal, it was Sergey Bobrovsky. So he just wants Everett to count him out, and then he's going to prove you wrong. Also had a nice little two-week break ahead of the playoffs when Alex Lin, briefly, briefly took his job. Okay. We need a golden knight's question here before. I've got one.

Remember when Bruce Cassidy leaving Boston and Jim Montgomery coming in was like the huge win for the Boston Bruins. And then we were like, boy, did they get that right? And then Bruce Cassidy is again back in the Stanley Cup final. Did you think Bruce Cassidy was going to be bad in Vegas, though? I don't know. I thought he was going to be good in Vegas. I think he just needed to leave Boston. He seemed like, see, he's the rare example of a recycle coach not being a bad thing

because it's like, okay, you know, you've been an NHH HUD coach twice at this point. You know, you're going to learn something. You were good in Boston, but there were flaws for you to work on. And I think he's someone that has a really good influence on two-way talent. Like I think that's the most underrated part of him that we don't talk about enough. And like, yes, he had Patrice Bergeron. So how could you be at coaching that? But it's everybody around

Bergeron. Be great at coaching him. I could do it, I think. I could just be like, hey, go. Not me. I'm going to let him be the coach. I'm just going to stand behind him and, like, chew gum and, like, tap him on the shoulder and let him coach everybody. So it'll be fine. You know, say about Bruce Cassie, I worked

two-thirds of a series with him on it, and I feel like I learned more from him in those days than I have in full seasons of covering other coaches. He's thoughtful with his answer. He's thoughtful. He is generous with his time. He explains things.

He wants to explain things. He is good at explaining things. Like, it was a treat. So you can see why, and you have guys give these answers and you can kind of port that over to the work that maybe he does in the video room or whatever. And you're like, this guy has the ability

to communicate things. From an ex-in-nose standpoint, just so, so effective. And he understands how to put a modern twist on traditional ideas, which I think is important to in this league. Like I remember when he was asked about the Norris Trophy, his answer was maybe the most thoughtful answer I've ever heard. And he was very well thought out. And it was a very good blend of what you need. And then what's the number to back that up, basically?

Like you need to be someone who's going to transition. Okay. So you need to see that they can exit the zone a lot with control. And it's like, wow. What an amazing concept to talk about things we've talked about forever. It can be that easy. It can be that easy. It doesn't have to be tough. Not to turn this into coach talk, but so, I mean, we talked about the recycled coaches,

and you've written about this, Shana, and I think there's an element of frustration when it happens. But if I was hiring, I want, I'm hiring somebody that at least has done it once. So I look at what Washington, you know, news is breaking that Spencer Carberry is going to be the coach of the Washington capitals. I think this is a guy that's been tabbed for a while now as up and coming, Hershey Bear's coach, for a few years. Toronto Maple Leaf's assistant, you know, smart on the rise. And maybe that'll be a good hire.

And, you know, they went the opposite previously with Peter LaViolette. But I don't know. I want at least one, I think getting somebody in their second or third job is a sweet spot, to be honest. I think that's fair because, like, if we look at one of the best head coaches in the league,

it's Mike Sullivan, who was a head coach when it was an assistant and associate. But Rod Brindamore and John Cooper, are here and they're like, hey, what's up? We're kind of amazing. But I mean, John Cooper was a head coach, is not at this level. And the same is true for Jared Bennett, right? He was a head coach at the HL level and he was amazing.

So I think you have to kind of like balance where they are a head coach. Not everybody needs to be Marty St. Louis who jumps in with zero experience and is like one of the best coaches in the league and one of the most fun coaches to like watch and learn from. But there's an element to having experience. But I also think the tricky thing is sometimes we see these new head coaches come in and the insistence of having an assistant coach who's been there before. So you think John Cooper with Rick Bonus,

you think David's going with Lindy Roth. You don't necessarily need that. Tampa Bay was better off when Rick Bonas left because I think he was too one-dimensional on his defensive strategy. When someone like Todd Richards took over, there was a little bit more of a two-way punch and the same with Jeff Halpert. I think we have to kind of like break that mold.

I understand not having a bench of people who have never been here before because you do need like a sense of calmness, I'm sure, right? you need someone who understands and has been around the block, but they don't have to be around the block 10 times. Also, like, coaching experience, you know, head coaching experience, head job experience can take some different forms, right? Like, I would, I'll take Spencer Carberry as, you know, a few years in Hershey, tons of success there.

You know, won the, whatever their version of the president's trophy is. Like, he's, I feel like that, to me, that's like my sweet spot, right? Like, okay, this is this, this is a guy. guy who's done it in some capacity. It's not, this isn't necessarily Marty San Luis coaching, you know, pee wee players. But, you know, there's, there's real, there's, there's real experience there. That's a, that's an interesting hire. It is. Oh, sorry. Well, I just wonder what he, like, it's a tough job for him. Like, this is his first crack at it.

He's been, he's been tapped on the shoulder for, you know, you're the next kind of star coach. And he's, like, he's basically on a sinking ship. I don't want to say a sinking ship, See, I don't think they are. I don't think the capitals are. I like how they, I think the capitals were one of the smartest teams at the deadline. Like, I gave them a ton of credit to go, hey, we're not good enough to do anything in the playoffs.

Even if, let's say, we can just squeak in. Like, we need to quickly, they are the definition of a ritual on the fly. I was going to say everybody loves talking about the retail on the fly, right? That's always, that's something that teams have tried and almost invariably failed at. Yeah. The caps have come as close as you can to doing it.

Like, we'll see how it plays out. But, man, the work they did at the deadline, yeah, they're a lot more interesting now than they would have been, you know, three months ago heading into the season. It's a smart front office. Like, there's no, there's, like, they, they kind of quietly really have it together in Washington and you don't hear a ton about it. All right. Shana, thanks for hopping on.

Thanks for talking Stanley Cup final and coaches. It's a good conversation. I mean, you know. And we're both with coaching stuff. I know. I love this stuff. So let's have you back on to when kind of the coaching carousel settles. And we can debate when Mike Babcock gets the Columbus job or whatever.

Yeah, I can't wait. He's had time to rethink. He's looking at scoring chances and stuff or whatever. So yeah. He needs to learn how to be a human being first, okay? Forget the numbers. I agree. Forget the numbers.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah, she says it. Numbers. Don't tell Dom. We're not, I'm not writing the preview today. We got her, boys. All right. Let's have that conversation.

conversation when the dust settles. Shana, thanks for doing this. Thanks for having me. Always awesome to have you on here. And hopefully that sounded sincere for once. It was, this was a great conversation. King's and you're a great thing. Wow, that was condescending at the end. Go!

That's the worst. Set it. We'll be right back. This is the only good second on the show. You get into the app. You tap on listen. You go down to the, Hit details.

Don't forget to hit details. Folks, don't forget to hit those details. The last episode we were on, Craig, was me and you last Monday on King Charles' Prince's birthday, I believe. Prince Charles. Who can say, really? 11 comments. Now, are we, is that the right amount?

It's because we were on a Monday. We were on a Monday. it was a holiday for because I think there's a lot of Canadians who hate listen to us so I think that probably hurt listenership it's definitely true like they had a fake I mean they had a it was an off day right like can you imagine this is purely commute content like can you imagine being off at like or going to like a barbecue or whatever whatever they do on the on the queen's birthday. And like listening to our bullshit on the way to that.

No, this is something you listen to. This is something you listen to while you're on the train or the or the elliptical. And also at CVS, as we know. At all participating CVS. We'd like to thank CVS for their support. And I think it's good yard work. This episode of the Athletic Coggi show is brought to you by CVS. We should go a revenue share partnership.

I'm more of a right aid guy. What's your, what's your, like, drugstore choice? Heavy CVS. Really? Only because it's the close one. Huh. Like, so, I go there every day. Every day.

I'm not just saying this because we have a partnership. You're buying, and you're buying suit, you're buying suit of fed and making them unlock, a lot of allergy. Well, we're in the allergy portion of the Michigan seasons. Craig's, Craig's running a, Craig's running a meth lab. Hmm. I'm a right aid guy because that is the one that's closest to my house. Well, that's how this works. You like the one that's close to you?

Aesthetically, aesthetically, I like it more, though. I probably go, I'd probably go Rite Aid, Walgreen, CVS. Give your, uh, give your drugstore rankings in the comments here. Let's settle this once and for all. They're all the same. What's the one that closed? Eckers or something like that. Wasn't there another one that used to be around?

I think Eckerds got folded into Riteite, I believe. There was like some, this is great. We can talk about a corporate, corporate pharmacy mergers of the late 90s. That's what this podcast is about now. We're literally squeeze for time and we're like, hey, let's spend the first 20 minutes talking about the history of Walgreens. Jen F is here to apologize.

I don't want, it's not something I'm looking for. Jen F, when I had a little tantrum on the Friday show about people calling me out for not enunciating why Johnston's name adequately. Are you still talking about that? I did not, Jen, I did not know that was you. You were a valued commenter and a valued, a valued ally of the Monday show. But Jen is apologizing. I want to apologize if you're calling out last week on the pronunciation.

It really wasn't cool, but the broadcasters don't seem to even try, and I took out my frustrations on you. I love Tuesday episodes the most. Keep up the good work. I totally agree. I agree with that. I think there's, I think there is, and you know who they are, there are certain announcers that just don't even bother.

Don Jerry, remember him. Pierre McGuire. What's Don't Chirry doing, though? I have a guess. Don't worry, don't worry. Don't worry about it, Jen. I'm sorry for not hammering the TN. Wyatt Johnson's name. Did you at least pronounce Craig Conroy's name right when he came on?

Yeah, Kirk and Haley. Kirk Connery. Lucas C writes, great episode. Is this the year you guys give us your Memorial Cup Fix? Wait, hold that. Before we, don't look at anything right now. Do you know who's in it or when it's played, Sean? No. I know it's around this time, isn't it?

Lucas is giving us a hint. I would imagine you'd like to see Seattle bring the Mem Cup across the border. Hell yes. Lucas, Lucas, with the all-time bailout there, my friend. Thank you, buddy. We are all in on Seattle winning the Memorial Cup. Memorial Cup 2023. Let's see the dates.

Four team round round ice hockey tournament. It's being held right now. It started on May 26th. Concludes on June 4. So go Seattle. Assuming they're playing here. Seattle. Relying completely on Lucas is Seattle, Camloops, Peterborough

in Quebec. No cam loops. It's Myrtle Country. No, thanks. Peterborough. Peterborough and Quebec are the other ones. We're going. We're all in on Seattle, baby. They're playing tomorrow.

This might be the year that we care about the Memorial Cup. I'm coming back with the Seattle's gear, everything for the next episode, all in. It's the cracking, right? They're this. Tyler M. says who had a Puck Soup reference on their Tuesday boys bingo card. So go ahead and go. That's the middle box, I think.

Yeah, that's the free square, baby. Ben W. This is a quote from Dallas Aikins. Who was great, by the way. We heard from a lot. I heard from more people than normal, actually, that they liked that interview, that they liked her interview, which is always great. It's always kind of like, you know, damning with faint praise because it's like you guys, you guys usually do a shitty job, but maybe not this time. This week's interview was actually good.

Ben, though, put out a quote from Dallas that I also found to be very interesting. That high pick was necessary. It was so necessary for the Ducks. That organization needed a top three pick here. I know the record looked bad, but it was basically mission accomplished. Thank you. Is that what he said? Oh, yeah.

Is that a direct quote? Yeah. Thank you to Ben for the transcript there. If that is the most blatant mission of tanking, we've heard from a coach, says Ben W. I'm not sure what it is. Nobody tanks Gary Bettman's NHL, though. Mission accomplished. I mean, he doesn't work there anymore.

And we're trying to be good. Look what they did. Look at the roster at the start of the year. Right? Like, whatever. I mean, look, I just... Just to flat out say it and say the quiet part out loud. Yeah, to say mission accomplished, I didn't realize.

Got a banner flying behind Dallas Aiken's. Oh, just to put a pin in the last thing, Seattle, the Seattle thing, when they win the MEMC cup, as I like to call it. It's what we call it in the industry, yeah. Yeah. We should definitely get somebody on the show. If there's totally I have no idea

who's involved with that but won't be somebody Ted C are the Tuesday boys with three Zs the Tuesday boys with five Zeds when covering for

the Canadian holidays due to the exchange rate three Zs become five Zeds also Ted's Gassonoff the Aiken's interview as well Dallas Aikins is exactly

where the boys are at the top of the power ranks for podcast from the athletic hell yes thank you once again for those quality Santa ad reads

for ball shaving and the best guests we love you, Ted. Oh, ho. Oh, ho! Is that one still running somewhere? I hope not. No.

Michael Kay likes to Jack Eichol talk. This is like a little timestamp because Jack hasn't scored in a while yet, but I think the overall point stands, right, that this is a pretty big positive step forward for him. Dude's playing in a cuff final. Guess who hasn't played in a cup final yet? Connor McDavid.

I don't know. That 20, that 2015 redraft. Did I complain about the lack of side sound effects? Slurms? I don't remember that. I'm reading Slurms' comment as again. Yeah, when we added, I asked to add a reggae horn, a reggaeton horn in the end. And which producer Jeff, dutiful pro that he is.

He doesn't miss it. Of course he came through. Slurms wants Kormix. Yeah. Combs outro. Jesse W. all I could think of during push-up talk with Dallas Aiken's was when Craig had a segment on the full 60 the chronicled his preparation for an Iron Man thing.

One of the many reasons the full 60 was the best hockey podcast. How'd that go? The Iron Man? Hmm. Let me tell you. Thanks for bringing that up, Jesse. So that podcast was good. So basically, there was a stretch.

Is missing a little something. I don't know. I can't really say what. It was, it was really good. So there was a point where I was like, okay, I'm really fat. I'm like, had put on some additional weight. And I would, the only way for me to exercise is to have like a very public, like, I'm going to lose whatever.

So I was using the podcast and our poor listeners. I said, I'm going to do a Spartan race. And like at the end of every podcast, we're calling Frank Provenzano. Oh, Frank. And he's going to ask me what I did to prepare. So it was, so if I did nothing that week, I had to go and Frank and just get like berated by Frank. Frank, you know, last like 10 15 minutes. guy to install in that role.

Let me tell you. He wanted me not. So naturally, I didn't miss a workout and went down to Austin, Texas, did the race with Frank. And we record. I brought a digital recorder. Well, as a, I'm surprised you. I know you were an avid listener to the full 60s. I listened to, I listened to some.

That's fine. It was like kind of like a Marion situation where he just kind of skipped the first 15 minutes and just get to the business. I do that too. and we were recorded like the it was like you we brought people live into the race it was a lot of awesome and I and I haven't done a thing since it was 2019 Spartan race those things are like I've turned I've turned down plenty of those tough mutters Spartan races Spartan races are the one where I was like I'm just not that's where you get like electric you got to do burpees you guys electrocuted and shit too no that's the other one that's the other one Spartan races are better

but they have a just to make sure you can do it they have a wall you climb at the start just so like, okay, before we start, you got to hop over this wall and then you go to the starting line. And now I would not be able to scale that wall. Like, it's kind of just, I'm assuming it just eliminates people. It's just like, okay, if you, if you, if you can't do this, then go home. Like, this is, you're wasting everybody's time. But it was good. Look, I want to thank Shana, as always, for joining the podcast. She is, I mean, when is she just going to take over from me officially? Can we make that happen, Sean? Do you have a I don't.

You should, yeah, let me ask my boss's boss's boss. We'll see if I can pull some strings for you on that one. I mean, she's good. Also, we've got Marty Walsh of the NHLPA. He's taking over as the executive director. That's next week. I believe I'm part of that episode. It's news to me.

Wow, that sounds great. Sounds like a great episode, and I believe I'm doing that one. Paul Maurice is joining Oh, and Devin Dubnick. Great episode with Mike Russo, Jesse Granger, and Rob Pizzo. Russo recorded that with Maurice, like last week. It sounds like it's going to be good.

It sounds like it's going to be good. I don't think I'm speaking out of time. Well, I mean, Paul Maurice is an all-timer. So listen to that episode. That's how you coach 2,000 games in the NFL or whatever it is. I know. Don't do it by being an asshole. Again, thank you to Shana for joining the show, and thank you for listening and have a great rest of the summer.

Hit him with it. Hit him with a catchphrase. Happy New Year. There you go.