The Athletic Hockey Show - Hope for the 10 worst NHL teams, Board of Governors meeting recap, goalies primed for breakout seasons

Episode Date: October 5, 2023

More then ready for the regular season to begin, Ian Mendes and Sean McIndoe discuss Sean's piece on hope for the NHL's bottom feeder teams. Next, a recap of the annual Board of Governors meeting, including discussions about the rise of the salary cap, possible expansion, and international best on best competition. Then, Jesse Granger is back for "Granger Things", to discuss potential goalie breakout candidates to round out your fantasy hockey team. Also, a preview of the annual DGB season prediction contest before it drops on Friday. Then, to wrap it all up, listeners came through strong with realignment ideas and 200 hockey men commandments, and a look back with "This Week in Hockey History".Have a question for the show? Email [e-mail] or leave a VM [phone]!Follow the Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshow Right now, Nuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at Nuts.com/hockey23This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/NHLSHOW and get on your way to being your best self. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. We are back for a Thursday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, Ian Mendez, Sean McIndoo, with you for, we'll call it the next hour or so. As training camps are winding down were less than a week to go to the regular season. Sean, this is the dog days of training camp, though. Like, we're out of storylines, aren't we? I mean, that implies that we had. some to start with.

I, do you remember a time where training camp used to, like every team had like five jobs up for grabs and everything? Doesn't it feel like almost every team at the very beginning of camp is like we don't actually have, we've got like nine guys fighting for one job. And I get, it's the salary cap, right? You've already got a contract locked in or something like that. But it doesn't feel like there's those camp battles anymore.

There's a handful of guys around the league that will, earn jobs as surprises or whatever. But man, it just feels like everything's already locked in. Totally. Like, and I do think it's a function of the salary cap because you're right.

Like pre-salary cap, it felt like you'd come in and like, wow, there's third line centers up for grabs. And, you know, like all these jobs would be second pairing D and all this.

And backup goalie maybe. Like, is there any team right now, even just with goaltending where like there's like a real true battles, like who's the backup? Yeah, I mean, there's Like what's Martin Jones doing in Toronto?

Kind of got it a little bit. I mean, Tampa's kind of got it for the starter now maybe, but that's, again, that's only because of injury. It's not something planned. Yeah, it's tough. Especially backup goalies because we all know you can't have three goaltenders. I don't know if you know this. If you carry three goalies

on a roster, the NHL just folds your franchise, apparently. It's completely unalageable. Yeah, you're not allowed. Yeah. Granger's not here to explain to me why, like, having one goalie be off to the side for practice for a few minutes. No, it's too much. It's disruptive. You can't.

You can't expect these goal tenders to, uh, to, to, to handle something like as, as complicated as taking turns. So, uh, yeah, I, I don't know, man. I'm, I'm ready to go is I guess what we're trying to say. Like, I, I know we've still got the games this weekend. I don't care. Let's go. Let's get the season going. Let's make this count.

Yeah, I'm with you. And I like, look, your column on Thursday was something that you do every year. And I got to tell you is the guy that covers mostly, I mean, my job is I cover the Ottawa senators to see Ottawa not on this list of kind of the bottom 10 teams, kind of refreshing. Ottawa's not there. But, and Buffalo is not there. But Detroit is there. Arizona is there.

And the premise of your column is, look, I know. the Dom's models and some of the preseason projections have you in the bottom 10 of the league, but here's something to hang your hat on. Who is the hardest team for you to actually find like the real true positive spin on the season ahead? Like truly, like take us behind the scenes here. What was the toughest one? So, well, okay. So first of all, the behind the scenes here, and I, every year I think I make this clear.

I assume that, you know, people read the first few paragraphs before they scroll down and get back. And this is not my, I am taking from our season previews, I'm taking the bottom 10 teams from the season preview. In previous years, it was, it was Dom and it was based on his model this year. He's working with Shane and and Chon Gentilly, and they've massaged it a little bit. So it's not just based on what the numbers spit out. But I just took their list. So if you're mad that your team is on there or you're mad about where your team rank, go yell at them. Okay.

This is me starting from a, in theory, impartial place at least as far as, as far as I'm concerned. I'm taking someone else's rankings. Now, you would assume, given that, that the hardest team to make the case for would be the worst teams. And that's usually roughly how it turns out, but not always. I don't think, for example, that when you look at a team like the Blackhawks, bad team, we all assume. The projections, the preview has them at 71 points, gives them a 1% chance of making the playoffs. That's pretty bad. And yet, I think that if you're going to sit down and say, okay, what's the path to something better here?

It's not all that hard. You just kind of look at Connor Bedard and you say if Connor Bedard is as good as advertised, maybe even better in year one and just comes in and is a dominant star right out of the gate, well, that lifts the entire boat for the Chicago Blackhawks. And suddenly now you've got, you know, you've got reason to hope there versus a team like, you know, I'll just say the Montreal Canadians who have the same seven, point projection, I see that as a lot tougher because they don't have that player coming in with the big, big upside. They've got more talent in place, more pieces in place than the Hawks do.

But as far as like what's the upside that gets them not just into the playoffs, remember, I'm trying to figure out not just who could maybe fluke their way into the playoffs, but who could actually do something once they get there. And, you know, When you look at the Canadians, I think the ceiling is not as high. And that's what I'm aiming for in this piece is, is that ceiling. You know what team, after reading the kind of the write-up you did, that I'm starting to think, like, boy, and they had a great run. Don't get me wrong.

But boy, does Washington ever look stale. Like, and I like the way you played, you said, look, there's three ways you can go about this when you're in that spot. you can either kind of go swing for the fences like Pittsburgh did, say, let's go for the last dance. You can clear the deck and say, we got to burn this to the ground. Or you can kind of just stay the course and be in the middle. And that's kind of where Washington is, right? Like they're just kind of, they're just there. And the thing with the Capitals is, and this is something, I remember first hearing people say this, you know, a year and a bit ago.

And it seemed kind of like, you know, it was an interesting point then. and now it's become almost accepted wisdom is that the thing hanging over the capitals is Alexander Rovetchen and the Goals record, that you've got a guy with a chance to break quite possibly the most hallowed record in the entire history of this sport. And it's fantastic. It's a great story. It's going to be a great chase. It's going to be something that's going to dominate headlines for the next couple of

years in the NHL. But that that, because of that, if you're the capitals, you can't go into a rebuild. You can't say we're going to tear it down and we're going to start over and, you know, we're going to have, Ovechkin's still on the team, you know, we can't move him because we don't want to see him break the record for somebody else. So that's off the table. And if he's going to be on the team, we can't have him chasing a record with a bunch of nobody's trying to get him the puck while.

while we rebuild because we shipped everybody else out for picks. So we've got to keep a competitive team on the ice so that this guy can chase the record. But at the same time, what we've got is not enough to really contend for a cup anymore. And we don't have the assets to go out and add even more the way that, for example, the penguins did in the offseason. So we're just kind of stuck in the middle, not necessarily by choice, but because we've got this record hanging over us and we just,

everything's on hold until we get Alexanderovich in the record. And then he retires, he goes off in a blaze of glory. And then we do the rebuild then. So hard to argue with it. You know, we can sit there and go, oh, you guys should rebuild. You've got a chance to do something that you could argue is going to be even bigger and more special than winning a Stanley Cup. Somebody wins a Stanley Cup every year.

somebody doesn't, you know, breaking Wayne Gretzky's record, we thought was absolutely impossible. So I get it. I get where they're coming from. But it does kind of force them into this stuck in the middle mold. And I think you're seeing a lot of the previews and predictions reflect that. Board of governors met on Wednesday, Sean. And as always, wide-ranging topics are broached. Gary Bettman speaks.

And I want to point out a couple things here. I'm going to read the quote. This is from Pierre LeBrunn's piece. Betman talking about expansion. And Betman says, quote, the best answer I can give you is that we have continuous expressions of interest from places like Houston, Atlanta, Quebec City, Salt Lake City. But expansion isn't on the agenda. I think it's interesting. Like, what do you take from him specifically naming four cities?

He says, we have continuous expressions of interest. And then he names them. It's not like he's like, you know, we have a myriad of city. He's like, no, it's Houston, Atlantic, Quebec City, Salt Lake City. First of all, doesn't that give off the same vibes as NHLGMs when they do there? We're not, you know, we're not selling, but we're listening. You know, we're not putting guys out on the trade blog. We're actively listening.

You know, the phone's ringing. And, you know, we are listening. and it's, you know, I think it's the same message, which is you're putting the message out to the people who are calling saying, hey, man, be ready to knock our socks off. And, uh, you know, our, we, we saw Vegas come in for, what was it, 500 million. Seattle came in, uh, 600 plus. I think maybe this is Gary Betman saying, no, you know, we're not, we're not looking to expand. We're not actively doing it. But, well, you know, if somebody came in with some gigantic number and threw it at us, hey, maybe we'd, we'd, we'd have to be interested and put the names of those places out there, um, partly I think to, to make it clear that a, this isn't one or two places calling.

This isn't, you know, if it was just Houston, much like an NHLGM looking to make a trade. If it's just one team calling about a guy, you don't have a bidding war then. And if it's just two in the NHL's case, you still don't have a bidding war because you're going to expand at least two

spots. You, you, you don't want the odd number of teams in the league. So now it's, you know, you just want to make sure that, hey, the phone's ringing and there's at least four markets out there. So, you know, if you're one of those markets, one of those groups involved, and we don't know who the groups are if there's maybe multiple groups, be ready because we have a lot of options. And, you know, I think it's, it's, look, expansion in the NHL this last round has been so successful. that of course they're going to do it again.

Sue. This is a league that never passes up a chance to pat the bottom line. And here you're talking about the single biggest thing they can do as far as putting new money into the system. Remember, it's money they don't share with the players, doesn't go into hockey related revenue. And if there really is a lineup out there of teams looking to get in, of course they're going to do it. And they're going to make a lot of money doing it. They're going to do it on a timeline that makes sense. You hope.

You hope this isn't going to be like the early 90s where suddenly it's coming out of nowhere. And I don't think it will. That's not Gary Betman's style. But that's what I took out of his statements is this guy is priming the market and making sure people know that this is going to cost a lot and be ready, be ready to step up. I think that the price is a billion dollars. I think that's the entry price. Because Ottawa just sold for $9.50, U.S.

I think if you're the 32 owners, you say, if one of the smallest markets with probably one of the lower ceilings in terms of how much they can expand and how much revenue it can generate, if they sold for $9.50, then Houston and, you know, again, put those out, Atlanta, Quebec City, Salt Lake City, put them all on the list and say, maybe Quebec City would be the one that's comparable to Ottawa, but really 950 feels like a fair starting point,

let's go with a billion. So that's my guess. I think it's a billion dollars to get in. Yeah, and it's, and that absolutely might be the starting point or the target or both. And I think the other part of this is, you got to remember there's, there's,

and this is unfortunately where I think, if you're a fan in Quebec City, maybe cover your ears for what I'm about, to say, which is, I think when the league expands, they will expand by two more teams, not necessarily in the same year, but it's similar to Seattle Vegas situation where the roadmap is to get back to the even number. By putting four markets out there that you're considering, you're also leaving the door open because you always have to have a couple of markets that are out there that everybody knows wants a team. So that when it's time to play ball on the

arena in one of your existing markets, you have that plausible exit. And, you know, whether it's Ottawa, whether it's any number of other places, you've got to be able to say, oh, God, you know, Quebec City does have that arena. Quebec City's got this and that. And it's a bluff. I'm not saying, you know, don't, senators, fans, don't yell at me saying, oh, he says the senators are going to move to Quebec City. No, they're not. But you got to be able to fake like they might in order to get whatever concessions it is you're looking for from whatever scenarios. So smart by Gary Betman. You know, if he names only two teams, those are probably your next to expansion teams. And then maybe all these markets are looking for arenas relax a little bit and say, well,

everyone's, you're not going to move that. You're not going to move our team because it's going to cost you a billion dollars in expansion. You wouldn't do that. I'm calling your bluff. Gary Betman's a little too smart for that. So he's making sure he's got, he's got enough cards to bluff with that he can't get called on it. Kansas City feels that way too. There's a few places that you're like, absolutely right. It feels like they,

sometimes they just exist for the sole purpose of being the bluff. And, but it's just it. He named four cities. Pierre LeBron says in his column, Pierre says he thinks he could see expansion of at least by, by two more teams within the next two or three years. And Pierre is about as plugged in as anybody you were going to get.

So when Pierre LeBrunn says that his radar tells him two teams within two to three years, that's probably a safe estimate. Can I just make one request if we're going to do it? And it's, I mean, again, it feels inevitable and I can, you know, part of me is as much a traditionalist as anyone else, but when there's potentially two billion dollars on the line to bring two new teams in, I'm not going to sit here and act like the NHL isn't going to chase that. here's my request.

If we're going to bring in two teams, bring them both in in the same year. Because how many times have you heard with Vegas and Seattle, right? We always heard about, oh, the expansion draft, the expansion draft. We haven't had an expansion draft. We didn't get one. The reason we didn't have an expansion draft is that one team is not a draft. One team is just putting in a list. Two teams is a draft.

And how much fun would that be? first of all, to have a real expansion draft. And also, geez, the amount of whining and complaining from NHL teams, each of the last two expansion, oh, I'm going to lose my ninth best forward. How could I possibly be expected to? This is ruining everything. All our plans are on hold because we might lose our fifth best defenseman to some expansion team. Hey, let's double it.

Let's make them lose two guys and really throw the whole thing into chaos. But could you not do an expansion draft where if there's 32 teams, you just lose one guy and then each of the new teams will have, would, I mean, theoretically have 16 players. And that's a pretty good start. No? You could. But I mean, then who's in your minor leagues? Who's in the, you know, how do you put the rest of it in there? You could.

Hey, flip side of that, I'm a new owner in Houston or wherever. I just cut you a check for a billion dollars. I want some good players here. I'm not taking 60. Vegas got 30. I'm not settling for 16. I just paid twice what they paid. I'm not getting half.

So again, this is... And I've said before, all of these teams that, you know, cry and complain that they're going to lose a guy in the expansion. Okay, you know what? Just return your check. Just send it back. Have, you know, return to sender on that...

50 million or third, whatever the number is, check to your owner. And you can go ahead and keep your 17 goal score that apparently is so integral to your team. No problem. But until you're willing to do that, shut up. How do you think Michael Antlower feels? He just paid $950 million for Ottawa,

and he still can't get Shane Pintoed in. Yeah, it's pretty rough. Although I'll tell you, I'd rather have Ottawa's roster right now than a typical expansion roster. And maybe I'm wrong to say that, given how successful both those expansion teams have been. But yeah, I don't think you're getting

Tim Stutzel or Brady Kachuk in the expansion draft. No. No, good point. One other thing, Sean, I want to hit on from the board of governors is Gary Bettman discussing

international best on best. And look, we're coming to the close of the Bettman tenure as commissioner. And I, look, are we brought in best on best, at the Olympics in 98. I do not think that he's going to want,

before he leaves, he's going to want to close the loop on this. Like, like, his plan, according to what he said, the board of governors meetings on Wednesday, is he wants to have a World Cup of hockey in some format in 2025 and then send the players to Italy

for the Olympics in 26. And I'm thinking, like, how can you go through the majority of Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews and you'll pick any of those guys around 15, 16, 17 that were drafted at the top and think that they've never had a meaningful best on best in the at the absolute peak of their career. It's wrong on so many levels. Yeah, it sure is. And wow, great idea by Gary Bettman to get these guys out there.

I'm so glad that he thought of it. Look, Gary Betman is, he's the reason that there is a loop to close. There are lots of things that Gary Betman wanted when he showed up that have been consistent throughout his entire tenure. This is one where, yeah, I mean, he's got to, you go back to where it started because you stopped it in the middle. And Gary Betman has been very clear, you know, going back almost a decade now, that his enthusiasm for these tournaments is not very high.

He's got issues with the Olympics, some justified, but he has his issues there, and he has his issues with the World Cup, which you would think would be much easier put together because that's something the league can control and benefit from in a way that they don't necessarily with the Olympics, but that hasn't happened either. And, you know, remember, this dates back to 2018. The 2022 situation with COVID, maybe you give a pass on that. Maybe you say, look, the league said they were going to go and then they, the circumstances changed and they couldn't and that's not his fault. I think they were, that whole scenario was set up in a situation where at the first sign of trouble, it was always going to get yanked.

But you know what, I'm not, I'm not necessarily going to blame him for that. But 2018, they could have gone. They chose not to. And I think the players have been absolutely crystal clear that they want this. The fans to me, I would say an overwhelming majority of fans certainly want to see this. It's kind of everyone other than Gary Bettman and the owners. And if they're getting back to this now and they're coming around saying, yeah, maybe we'll do it. Great.

I'm not going to give the guy any credit for it. And in fact, I'm going to say what I think most fans are probably saying, which is we will believe it when we see it. Because you can go back from 2018 on, and I'm sure find lots of quotes about Gary Betman about how, oh, yeah, we'll do it. And then it never happens. So when I hear Gary Betman kind of tell, until there's a concrete plan in place or an absolute commitment where Gary Betman says, mark my word, we're doing this. No maybes, no, you know, probablys. We're doing it. I kind of shrug because this, to me, it's such a no-brainer.

It's such a fastball over the middle of the plate that, you know, this guy refuses to take the bat off his shoulders until I actually see him take that swing. I'm not really interested in giving any credit for him. But I didn't like, like, I'm on the fence as to how we view that 2016 Royal Cup of hockey because of the kind of atypical. makeup of the teams, the young guns and the team Europe. I don't want to see that again. I don't. I want to see, because I always say the problem I have with that U23 team, as fun as they were, is if you had applied those rules back in the day, like Mario Lemieux doesn't play for Canada

at the Canada Cup in 87 because he's 21. You know, you, like, you can't have, like, put the best players in the world together. Like, it's not that hard. Like, why did you have to make it so gimmicky? And I hope that they don't make it gimmicky again. But think about this. Like, it would be not, like, if they do this in 2025, that's a nine-year gap between best-on-best tournaments.

And then arguably, if you really think about it, it's an 11-year gap because the last true best-on-best would have been so cheap in 2014. And look, like I, the 2016, the team North America, the Young Guns, as you say, were very entertaining. And I feel like I come down in the NHL so often for not having creativity that I don't want to rip them on one of the rare cases where they did something a little bit different that at least was fun and exciting. But I'm with you. I would prefer to see the traditional approach.

you know, the team Europe, I mean, Team Europe almost won that tournament. I mean, that's kind of, I mean, I get why you have that because you do have this, you know, we're no longer, we're no longer in the world where there's just six or seven countries, right? Yeah, they were the finalist in that game with Canada came right down to the wire. So, you know, it's, I get why they do it. But yeah, no, I think, give me eight teams. give me an actual tournament. How ridiculous is it that, you know, you talk about up here in Canada, we go, man,

Connor McDavid versus Austin Matthews. Wouldn't that be at the Olympics for a World Cup? The only time they played in the best on best, they were teammates. We're on a line together. Like, what are we doing here? Like, it's, I get, I'm not, I'm not going to rip on that as a one-time thing, but keep it a one-time thing. And yeah, look, when you do these best on best tournaments, purely from a marketing point of view, sometimes you get Canada versus USA in overtime.

And the best player in the world scores the winning goal. And you've got a moment that lives forever. And sometimes you get the Czechs versus the Russians. You know, one nothing game that nobody even remembers in North America, which is, you know, that's where the league is based. So that's where the priority is as far as marketing. But it just, to me, it's such a no-brainer, especially when you look around at other sports. Look at what the World Cup in baseball has become. You know, certainly we don't, you know, you point to soccer.

It's the international aspect there is fantastic. You see it in basketball as well. Like, let's, why are we one of the sports that is played internationally and is played at a high level in all of these different countries? Why is that the sport that isn't getting it done? And the answer is Gary Betman decided he got a bug up his behind and decided he didn't want this. And what Gary says goes and so we haven't had it. And if he's changed his mind or someone's convinced him or he's come back around to the point where it makes sense, great.

I'm not going to, you know, you don't get a cookie for, you know, finally remembering the, you know, the obvious answer to what shouldn't even be a problem. You know, I do want to point out that you should Gary Pepman's got a bug up is behind. I felt like I opened the door to just casual swearing on this podcast. And I'm closing it because I'm, and you've just closed the loop with Gary has a bug up is behind. Got a bug up is behind. You know what? And I apologize to the parents out there who are listening to this with very, very young children.

That was, you know, that was wrong. I got a little heated talking about, talking about Gary. and, you know, I apologize to everyone. I shouldn't have, I, I, I'm sorry that I had to work blue like that. It won't happen again. Yeah. My favorite apologies are the ones are, I'm sorry if you were offended. I'm sorry if you were offended.

No, no, I've got, hey man, I've got kids. I've seen enough YouTube and YouTube apologies. I know how this works. You know what? I just did that guys, that's not me. I've learned since then. I've got, you know, I've got my little ukulele here. I'm all ready to sing a song about how sorry I am.

It isn't going to happen again. I'm hanging around with Mendez. Some of the bad influences is rubbing off, but clearly I need to do better and I will do better. All right. It is time to bring in our friend Jesse Granger for Granger Things brought to you by BetMGM, the exclusive betting partner with the athletic. Jesse Granger. We're at that point in the year.

Maybe this weekend coming up, a lot of people might have their fantasy hockey drafts. They might be looking and goal-tending sometimes is the key to a good fantasy hockey team. And look, we all know about the Sorokans and the Shisterkins and the, you know, the guys that are probably going to get the 55 games and win 35 of them. It's about trying to find and draft some of those maybe hidden gems. And I know that you've written about this recently, a handful of goalies. Like, who should Sean and I be looking at? Who should listeners be looking at for a goal?

goalie that might kind of, you know, outperform the preseason expectations here. Yeah, for sure. And I'll just correct you real quick. Fantasy hockey, the key to fantasy hockey is always goaltending. Yeah, not sometimes. I, we just did the like athletic staff fantasy and I had to be the first guy to take a goalie. So I took Schisturkin way too high. I think it was like the seventh overall pick. But that's okay because I got my goalie. But yeah, no, these guys, it's that we, we see this every year where by the end of the season, there are a couple names that everyone knows that before the season, no one had any idea who they were. And I broke the breakout candidates kind of into tiers. And you've got one tier of goalies that we all know. Devin Levi is kind of leading the pack.

And obviously, he came in last year and had a really, really good finish to the season for the Sabres. And they come in with a lot of expectations. We thought maybe Buffalo would add a guy, maybe possibly a hell of buck, something like that. And they didn't. They seem to be pretty content with Devin Levi being the guy. And he's really young. He hasn't had much pro experience. So it's going to be interesting to see how he handles these expectations. But everything he's shown so far has been impressive. I mean, his skating's really good. He's constantly in the right positions. He makes things look easy. I feel like last year the couple games I got to see out of him, you leave the game thinking, well, he didn't make any great saves, but because he didn't have. He didn't have. He's not. He didn't

have to because he's in the right spot every single time. So I really like Devin Levi. And then another guy who's kind of in the same category, he had obviously more of a breakout last year because he got to play more. But Philip Gustafson for Minnesota is a goalie who I think can go from, he kind of had his breakout. Now, I think he can be one of the best goalies in hockey. His stats last year were phenomenal. He's going to get to be the guy. They did bring Mark Andre Fleury back, but on a limited on a smaller cap hit, I think they're really going to give the reins to Gustafson and Minnesota. And he's got a chance to go from being a surprise guy last year that people now know who he is to possibly as a candidate. He's going to be right up there in the top five or six

goalies, I think. It's so hard to predict. Like those goalies that have that good start, some of them just fade away and, and what's his name? Nadelcovich is a great example in Carolina. Broke out. Everyone thought he was going to be so good. Detroit gave him the contract and hasn't really followed it up. But I really think Gustafsson is going to follow that surprising season up with a really strong one. And then a couple guys that I think are super interesting. Dustin Wolf and Calgary, I don't know how much you guys know of him, but he's an undersized prospect. He's probably one of the best goalie prospects out there. But he's a couple of the best goalie prospects out there. but his skating is phenomenal.

He reminds me a lot of UC Soros, obviously the size, but just the way he moves around the crease, he's constantly up at the top of his blue paint. He obviously has to do certain things because he doesn't cover up a lot with a small frame, but Dustin Wolf is super impressive. For me, it's just, is he going to get the NHL chance? I feel like I've been waiting for a year and a half

for Dustin Wolf to get the chance, and they did bring back Vladar. Obviously, Markstrom's the guy there, But I think that once Wolf does get into NHL action, it's going to be really hard to take him out. So I think he's a guy for potential breakout. And then for fantasy, I was very upset that I didn't make this pick in our draft. Dom Lecision did, which not surprising that Dom's making the best picks in fantasy. But Akira Schmidt in New Jersey, just for fantasy specific, because in fantasy, you want wins, right?

You want your goalie to rack up wins. And a guy that I think Dom got him in like one of the last round. rounds of our draft. And he, Akira Schmidt could be the number one goalie on the New Jersey Devils, which we all think could win more games than any, like they're going to be right up there for President's trophy, uh, conversation we think. And if you can get a goalie that's going to be the number one goalie on a team that's going to win all those games that late in your draft, um, that's a, that's phenomenal value. I got to say, I, I give you full credit because a lot of times when you see these breakout candidate things and then you go in and it's like, oh yeah,

this Sorokin kid might be really good. You're going, yeah, I knew that already. You've got guys on this list that I have literally never heard of. So I will, I will applaud you there. That's the hope. I will, I am going to dock you one point though just as an old timer because you're talking about Dustin Wolf and this, you know, diminutive tiny little guy. And I just looked it up and he's listed at six feet. So as somebody who grew up in the era of Alan Bester and Pokedicic and Darren Pang like, oh, now the six-foot tall guy is like the little tiny guy. Man, can he even reach the crossbar? What a sick, yeah.

What a little guy. Nowadays, six foot is like he's like they, I'm surprised they even drafted him, that they even gave him a chance. It's crazy if you're under six four, you're, you're tiny for NHL colleagues. I got to say that you've got a couple of guys in here, as I say, that I was not especially familiar with. The one that jumps out to me a little bit is, Joel Hoffer, am I saying that even right?

In St. Louis, a situation where the starting job is certainly not up for grabs, even that got Jordan Binnington and what they're paying him, but I wouldn't say that Jordan Bennington has cemented himself as a consistent, reliable star in this league. So is there an opportunity there for a team that doesn't, quite seem to know if it's coming or going, which in this case might matter because you look at somebody like the last guy you let drew, Drew, Drew Comeso with the Blackhawks. Hey, the Blackhawks might say, you know what, this is another tank here. We're not, we're not going to, we got too lousy goalies.

We're not bringing up some kid who's going to steal a bunch of games. St. Louis, you know what? Is that a situation where maybe this is somebody who by the end of the year is, if not starting, is, you know, kind of eating up more games than we expect? Yeah, I really like Hoffer this season in terms of being a guy, like you said, a lot of people probably don't know who he is. I think by the end of the season, people will for sure know he is. If you look at like the blues over the last few years with Bennington, their backups get a lot of action. And they've had backups by the end of the year.

People think maybe this guy is better than Bennington. And I think Hoffer, everything I hear about Hoffer is they love him in St. Louis. Like he's kind of an organizational guy. He's grown up in the system. He's paid his dues in the HL. He has waited for this chance. He finally gets the opportunity. It's pretty clear he's going to be Binnington's backup, the 1B, depending on how much they rotate him.

And like you said, Bennington is when he's hot, he's great. And when he's not on a hot streak, things can go really poorly for him. And I just think that, especially for a team, it seems like there's a lot of pressure around that team. You hear there the blues come up when it's when you, when you, You talk about hot seats and coaching jobs and stuff like that. I think there's a lot of pressure on that team to do well. And if Bittington doesn't play well, and the thing with Binnington is when he doesn't play well, I feel like it affects the rest of the team more than most goalies because of his temper and just

because of the way he is. And part of that is what makes him good when he's great. But you got to live with the bad when he's not doing so well. So I think Hoffer is a he's a calm goal. Like everything I've watched of him is very little movement. He's calm. He's the opposite of Jordan Binnigton in just about. every way. And I could see a path to him being the more used goalie in St. Louis. And I don't know what

St. Louis is going to be. I think they're probably going to contend for one of the last playoff spots. And a goalie that's getting the most starts on that team is a valuable asset if you're talking fantasy. And I think Hoffer could be a guy that if you're not a fantasy hockey player, that you'll know who he is by the end of the season. And I think the potential is to be a starter. Well, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, uh, that's very interesting to hear. But keep your head up for any water bottles flying in your direction now that you've said that they could get ugly. Yeah.

That's the Bittington special. You know, Jesse, you mentioned how in St. Louis there might be some people on the hot seat, right, as that franchise starts to turn. I think you and I should actually get on the hot seat here and maybe we'll take a little swing at

at Sean's pre-season prediction quiz. Contest. This is a legit contest. that I run every year and I've had a bunch of people ask me as it coming back. Friday. Friday at noon is your drop date for this one. And are Granger and I eligible to actually fill this out and win? That's one of my goals this year is I'm going to encourage the athletic writers to get in there.

Because the whole idea of this is, this is an idea I had a few years ago, was I'm going to, I ask you simple, simple questions. and you give me as many answers as you want, but the thing is that you get even one wrong answer, you take a zero for that question. So, for example, last year, one of the questions that we do every year, give me five teams that are definitely not making the playoffs. Well, you know, all sorts of people went,

wow, Chicago, Montreal, Arizona, but then a lot of people said Seattle. Seattle wasn't going to be a playoff team, second year expansion team. They make the playoffs, hey, guess what, you take a zero. And the reason I did this contest is because I just get so sick and you'll appreciate this, Jesse, being in Vegas. I get so sick of telling people I'm surprised by something that happened and then have people go,

no, now everybody, everybody knew Vegas was going to be good. Everybody knew the Islanders were going to be fine when Tavares left. Everybody knew that San Jose was going to just fall out of contention, you know. Everybody always knows as long as you don't write down what you know. So I'm forcing you to write down what you know. And I'm going to hit you guys with a few questions. And then you guys can give me answers. You guys can overlap here.

I don't want you to give me the same answers, but let's, and I'm just going to write them down, and if you guys are right, we'll never speak of this again, and if you're wrong, I'm going to make fun of you for the entire season. I like it. And we'll just do, I've got a lot of questions that have to do with individual players and who's going to be in the Calder race and the Vesina and all this stuff. We're just going to do the team ones here.

Okay. Guys, question number one, just give me five teams that are definitely, definitely making the playoffs this year. Up to five teams. Up to five. If you don't want to do five, you don't have to, but you get more points

the more teams you do. They're making the playoffs. That's it. They don't have to win a round. They don't have to win the cup. Just give me five teams that are absolute locks to make the playoffs.

Feels like Edmonton, right, Jesse? Right, yeah. Edmonton's for sure on my list. Yeah. Carolina would be on my list. Yep. So Edmonton, Carolina. I think Vegas

Vegas Colorado Yep Colorado You're going to You guys are both You guys are both going Vegas and Colorado

Okay And Edmonton and Carolina Yep Edmonton Carolina And I got to tell you I could flip a coin Between New Jersey and Toronto As my next

I feel Or even the Rangers That I like They're making the playoffs I'm confident in Toronto I'm less confident in New Jersey and New York. Even though I think they could be better than Toronto, I think their floor is lower. So I'll go Toronto, Carolina, Colorado, Vegas, Edmonton.

Yeah. Ian, you've got Emmington, Colorado, Carolina, Colorado, Vegas. Are you going the devil's end to the last spot? Yeah. Give me New Jersey. Dallas Stars fans, send your complaints to Ian and Jesse. All right. That's my cup pick for the record. Just so we know. No, I picked Dallas to win the cup, but I'm not confident they're going to make the playoffs. He's being smart. You've got to cover as many bases as you can in the preseason predictions. All right.

Same question. Other side. Give me five teams that are definitely not making the playoffs. Like, I feel like San Jose is like number one with a bullet on this one. The rest of the Pacific Division. No, um, yeah. Yeah, I like, I like Anaheim and I like San Jose. Yeah, Anaheim and San Jose.

I'm with you there. I think Philadelphia, is on that list for me. I think Montreal's on that list for me. Like, just given the depth of that division and what they're up against, that they are, I think Montreal is clearly the seventh best team in their division, and there's not even a debate to be had.

Eighth best, you mean? Sorry, eight, sorry, eighth best team in their division, and there's not a debate to be had. Like, to me. All right. So I've got San Jose, Anaheim, Philly, Montreal. You can cap it there if you want. Yeah, me personally, I would cap it there.

Because for me, I could see, like, I don't know, something stupid happens. And like, I don't think Arizona is that far off. Like, they got a great young collection. I could see everything going right for them. And all of a sudden they sneak in. Same with Vancouver. Same with St. Louis. Same with Calgary.

Same with, like, a bunch of those teams. Two teams that you haven't mentioned yet. Because I just, I don't, you know, I don't want you just forgetting about, Columbus and Chicago would be two teams that I think a lot of people would look at and say not this year. Yeah, I'm a, the Chicago, they added Taylor Hall and obviously Bidard. I feel like if they get off to a hot start, they could like add somebody. I'm, I would be concerned with Chicago if I, if, so I'm not picking them. I will take Arizona along with San Jose and Anaheim and I also like the Montreal pick.

Okay. Arizona, like, Ian is right that they're, they're, they're bad. than like I think San Jose and Anaheim, but that division, I just don't see a way that they're, they can climb into one of the top four spots in that division. Okay. All right. So you both got four teams.

Are we, are we leaving it there? I'm cap-in-mine four. I feel good with four, yeah. All right, played it safe. The last one I'm going to ask you guys, and this is a, the two questions I just asked you have been, um, been classics in this contest year after year. This next question, this is brand new.

It's a fresh one. This is like the test. This is debut. Yeah, if it doesn't work, I maybe have time to change it. I want you guys to give me five teams that are going to finish up to five teams that are going to finish in the middle 16 of the NHL. So anywhere from ninth to 23rd, don't care if they make the playoffs or not. These are just give me five teams that are not going to be really good or really bad. The mushy middle.

Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit. Mm-hmm. I feel like all three of them. are exactly Calgary, Winnipeg. That's it for me. Those are my five. Just right off top of my head, it's just gut, just got. With authority.

threw it out there. All right. The team I feel most confident for this is the Islanders. I feel like their goal tening and defense is going to be so good. They can't lose a bunch, but their offense is going to be so bad. They can't win a bunch. Yep. I like Buffalo and Ottawa.

I'm not, I'm Detroit. I'm a little more concerned. I think they could fall out into the bottom nine. So I'm going to go Buffalo, Ottawa, Islanders. Can I talk you into Calgary? Calgary, I think, like, I think they're more likely to break into the top nine than the bottom nine. But Calgary's a good pick. What about the Kings?

I like the Kings in this. People are some high-end talent there still. No? Yeah. I'm worried with the goalers. I'm worried with Cam Talbot is the number one goal. Yeah. Man, Nashville seems like a team that you do that.

I love that I threw a team out and you guys both rejected. it, but on the opposite ends. Like, Ian's like, oh, they're too good. And Jesse's like, I don't like the goaltending. I think I'm going to go. So what do I have so far? I've got Buffalo, Ottawa, and the Islanders. That's right.

And then I'll add, I'll add Nashville to that. Oh, Nashville is a good one. Nashville's a good one. The mushy middle. Yeah, this is a good. And then the last one, only because we can't talk about the mushy middle without, I mean, this is the team that almost owns it. Anyone want to throw the Minnesota Wild into the mix there?

Yeah, you know what, give me the Wild. There it is. That's like a must pick. Perfect. All right, I've got these locked in. As I say, you guys will never hear the end of it if you're wrong. And if you're right, this never happened. But when we actually fill out the Google form on Friday or on the weekend, we can do whatever we want.

We're not beholding this. You can change it up. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. And my picks will be in there. And like I say, I'm going to put, we had a few.

I know Scott Wheeler did it. I'm going to try to get more of the staff in there so you guys can all point and laugh at because here's the thing. The way the contest is set up, like I say, it's very, very easy. You get to pick, you know, you're telling me only the stuff you feel sure about. We have had in the history of the contest, this is now year four we're adding into. I think I can count on one hand the number of people who have scored better than 50% in terms of the number of points out there.

And the contest has been won by, I think there was a year somebody got 50% on the nose and that was good enough to win. And this is out of, I mean, last year we hit 2100 entries. So it's, it's always fun. And I check in a couple of times. And for me, it is, it is the, just to look through the answers. Is it like, who are people actually confident in?

Who do they not believe in? I'll leave you with the most fascinating thing last year. One of the questions is give me five guys. They're going to finish in the top 10 in Norris voting. Top 10, not win, top 10. How many people out of 2100 do you think had two-time at the time winner, Eric Carlson on their mind? Not many.

Not one. Zero out of 2100 thought that it. So when you say, wow, Eric, Eric Carlson won the Norris and somebody goes, everybody knew that Eric Carlson still had it. No, literally nobody did at a 2100. And that's what makes this stuff fun. Tomorrow at noon, be there. This exercise is a fantastic argument for hockey and like how great this sport is and how unpredictable.

Like if I was Gary Bettman, I would be my next press conference. I'd have Sean's story up on my laptop and I just show everyone. You want to talk about parity and unpredictability. Look at this. This right here, because I feel like. like if we did this with other sports, if we did this with basketball, it'd be a lot easier. Yes. Absolutely. There's so much variance here in hockey. All right, Jesse, awesome stuff. As always, look forward to your Vegas Golden Knights coverage as they kick off their season to try

and defend the Stanley Cup. So listen, thanks for dropping by and yeah, we'll chat with you again next week. Yep. Thanks for having me, guys. Thanks, man. Time for us to open a jam-pack mailbag. In fact, our email, it's overflowing with feedback, with messages from stuff we chatted about last week. And we talked about this, Sean, that Jeff in Seattle had sent us a huge kind of email with a note with the way that he would like to see the NHL realign its divisions. And Jeff in Seattle wrote to us and we said, you know what? It's such a great idea.

We're going to punt it to next week. Well, we're at next week. So Jeff says, a crack and fan. By the way, you can hit us up at the athletic hockey show at gmail. The Athletic Hockey Show at gbell.com. Guys, cracking fan here. You're hearing anything about realignment? Or do you think the league could go down to four team divisions in each conference?

Maybe Detroit back in the Western conference where they belong, Nashville into the east. And because I'm that guy, I've worked out some iterations for you guys. Thanks for the great show. Looking forward to another season, Jeff in Seattle. So let me start with just before we necessarily dive right in. And we also got another awesome email along the same lines from Chris and Vegas. Same thing. How do we feel about the idea of this would be adopting the NFL format?

So if you think of the NFL, you think of the NFC East and there's Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington, the Giants, or you think of the NFC North, right? And it's, you know, Minnesota, Detroit, Green Bay, Chicago. Like, it's eight divisions, four teams. What do you think? And it's, well, here's the thing. I hate it initially. And then I go, yeah, but it's the NFL.

And I love the NFL. Like I add, the NFL is my favorite league, not necessarily my favorite sport, but my favorite league to follow. And I'm normally on everything. I just, I look at the NHL and go, just do whatever the NFL is doing. They're absolutely taking your lunch money as far as popularity and success and all that. And yet, the thing, when I look at this, my first. thought is, all right, so what happens when my team has 20 more points than the division winner in the next division over, but I miss the playoffs and they make it in? What happens when,

you know, you've got 14, what happens when some team has 80 points and that's enough to make the playoffs? And meanwhile, some other team has got 100 points and is missing it. I think that's a huge issue for NHL fans and it would happen. And you'd see people be furious about it. I mean, look at now the amount of complaining we get with two divisions and with the way that the wild cards work and the way things can play out. People already are like, hey, these two teams are meeting in the second round. That's too soon. Imagine when it was in the first round or one of those teams didn't even make it. Now, the NFL has this problem.

The NFL is, you know, you can win it. You can go seven and nine, I guess eight and nine these days with the extra game and win a division. and some other team is 12 and 5 and they're out. And people complain about it, but they also just kind of accept that, yeah, this is part of how this sport works. So I guess my answer is you would get used to it as a hockey fan, but initially when it came out, people would be furious about the playoff ramifications. And then the other thing, as I think both of these listeners who wrote in will find, is you start trying to put together four team divisions that make sense geographically.

far as rivalries and all of that, you get four or five in and you're like, this is easy. And then you get to those last couple and you're like, oh, wait, hold on. I got a three and a five. Okay, so I got to move this team over. And then next thing you know, you're looking at it and you're like, wait, I got the New York teams in different division. What am I doing here?

And it is a really challenging puzzle to get it into a spot where it's just right. And it feels like you've got everything just the way it should be. Okay. I'm going to read, and we have a bunch of, not only from Jeff in Seattle, but Chris in Vegas, and there's a lot of similarity on this. So I'm going to read one idea that was floated out. Here is what the divisions would look like. And I'm just going to call them division one, two, three, four, five.

And at the end, after I read all of these eight divisions out, you tell me, Sean, and this is from Chris, you tell me what's the one division, you're like, that'll never work. or that's the, I'm going to throw a challenge flag, okay? So Division 1, kind of like a Pacific division, would be Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, and the Vegas Golden Knights. Good start. Good start. Division 2 would be kind of a Northwest Division featuring the Calgary Flames, Edmonton, Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, Seattle Cracket. Okay, not bad.

I'm not happy with that if I'm a Winnipeg fan, but okay. Okay. Then there is a, we'll call it a, well, speaking of Winnipeg, Winnipeg in a division with Minnesota, Chicago, and Detroit. So kind of a Midwest, we'll call it division. Then there's a mid-American division would be Arizona, Colorado, Dallas, and St. Louis. Yeah, you can see the geography starting to strain there. A little bit, right? Like Arizona, in the same division as St. Louis? I don't know. But okay. Then we'll stay kind of in the south.

There's Carolina, Florida, Tampa, Nashville. That's a good one, yeah. That's pretty good. You know, Nashville's not that far away. A metropolitan division, which would feature Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Washington. You know, I think that works.

You keep the Pennsylvania teams together. Washington historically has had a great rivalry with the penguins. Columbus and Pittsburgh geographically aren't that far apart, right? So maybe you sound awfully skeptical. No, I like it so far. Okay.

Then you have a division where it's kind of the New York State-based teams or New Jersey would be part of it, but then also Buffalo, the Islanders and Rangers. So Sabres, Devils, Islanders, Rangers. And then the final division would be an original six trio with Ottawa shoehorned in there too.

So Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa. And that's the one where I think you want to know where the flag is getting thrown. It's getting thrown from Boston on that one. Great rivalries with certainly Montreal and Toronto and then Ottawa is not bad. But if I'm Boston, I'm going, wait a second. We're the oldest American team. You can't put us in an all-Canadian division. and we lose our rivalries with, you know, all of these other teams.

I don't know about that one. And I think probably the league's accounting office is right there with you going. We can't put one of our big marquee franchises and they're going to be playing against Canadian opponents. But you're putting them against two of the most iconic, well, not the two most iconic franchises in the Habs and Leaps. Like, it's not like you're putting them with Ottawa and Winnipe. Well, you're putting them with Ottawa.

Well, yeah, but that's watered down by... So you've got that. And you also, to some extent, have the same problem in the Northwest where you've got Seattle as the lone American team in that Northwest Division, which, you know, again, I think there could be some issues there. But I've got to say, this one, you know, this works pretty well for me. I think you've got really only that one Arizona-St. Louis division that feels like it's kind of the leftovers,

um, yeah, and mashed together. Um, but, uh, it's, it's, it's,

it's not bad. I will say this. It's not bad. But then again, you look at it and say, okay, how's, how's the playoffs going to work?

Um, it does do all the division winners get the first round, or, you know, first round locks for a home, home field, home ice. Um,

maybe, you know, there's, there's ways to do it. And, uh, I, I certainly appreciate the work that goes into it.

because I can tell you, it's easy for like 29 teams and then it's you're suddenly every team you put in somewhere doesn't really work somewhere else anyway we love those the emails there that that we got on the idea of realignment so jeff in seattle christen vegas anybody else hit us up the athletic hockey show gmail dot com if you have a more unique or out-of-the-box way to realign the divisions we are all ears. I would love to hear your ideas. Now, last week, we said,

I don't know how we got on the topic of the classic 200 hockey men, but we were like, you know, there must be like a list of commandments somewhere that the 200 hockey men, they all sit around a giant table and they decree the commandments. And sure enough,

our listeners have written in here, Sean, with a handful of commandments. Okay. Adam in New Jersey says, the first commandment is of the 200 hockey men, you never, ever, under any circumstances, sign an RFA to an offer sheet. Yep.

Yep. That's pretty much a definite one, sure. Yeah. Joe writes in on the 200 hockey men. First of all, I got a couple for you guys. First time, a long time. I'll hang up and listen. A playmaking offensive prospect has to prove

he can execute a grinding physical file of play in a fourth line role before he can play with more skilled line mates. Absolutely. And in fact, I'll even go one further because the other commandment that goes with this, you're right. The offensive prospect has to show that he can play a 200-foot game, has to show he can play in the defensive zone. It does not go the other way.

You have never seen a prospect come up who's known for his defensive game or his physical game or anything like that. you've never heard a coach say, yeah, but we've got to see it in the offensive zone. He's got to show us that he can contribute offensively if he's going to make this team. Nobody ever says that. If you're a defensive guy, you don't even need to know which way to hold your stick in the offensive zone. And it's fine. You can make that team.

But if you're an offensive player, you better be able to back check or else you're not making it in today's NH. Yeah. Connor's got a couple of 10 commandments as well. I like the, thou shall not bear witness against thy fellow hockey men. Oh, yeah, that one, that one certainly up there, yep. That might be rule number one. Don't, yeah, don't speak out. And thou shall not steal a game by using excessive skill or pizzazz.

That's right. And thou shall not smirk as well if you do accidentally use skill. Yeah. Okay. And then, and now am I getting the short straw here? I the guy reading this? Oh, it's 100% you. I'm not, yeah, I'm, I'm turning my mic off right now and I'm just going to sit back.

So I got to try and nail this because this was done with, yeah, there's some slam poetry. This is like an unbelievably creative email we got from Ozzy. And I don't know if I'm going to be able to just lyrically get this

correct because there's a little bit of yeah, it's a rhyming. It's like it's a slam poetry. But Ozzie is written in and there's like, dude, you hang out with snooped up. We all believe. Yeah, that's, that's right. Here we go. Ozzy says, and again, this is in regards to the 200 hockey men. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening men of Thursday. I come bearing word of commandments of here and then. Listen closely as many are unwritten and unspoken, but all of them come

from the 200 hockey men. First and foremost, combat will never cease. Give just cause against it with due reason. Fighting is the only way to prevent further violence. That's why they'll say, even though there are two fights a season. Second, and just as important to the good of the game, you never outscore your opponent by more than four. If you do, remember not to celebrate,

for the last thing we want is to hear the fans roar. Third verse, and this sounds perverse, as a player you play for the crest on the front, not what is on the reverse. Fourth verse, same as the third, you rescind from emotion both good and bad. So what if the ratings are bombing year after year, personally, is not something the NHL reveres? Fifth, and this will be my last for now, zebras are running free on the ice, managing the

game with trick dice. We ignore this to present day and it's dire. Pretty soon we'll have hockey umpires. for the Thursday show, fellas, it's always a pleasure. Whether I'm at work, in commute, or just leisure. Some may argue which of the athletic show is the Crem de la Crem, but I think I speak for everyone when I say it's the one with Eminem. Wow, I'm furiously, what do you do with poetry? Do you snap your fingers? Is that the... I don't know. Holy cow, that was, uh, we're recording this. I could have, I could have messed

it up and we could have just re-recorded it as if Raphael de la Mendes. That was fantastic. There we go. I'm begging. Ozzy, I hope I captured the spirit of the thing. I'm begging somebody out there to take that layer of beat behind it and send it. You don't even have to send it to me personally. I'm going to have that on my phone as my new ringtone.

Yeah, there you go. Anyway, that was unbelievable. Unbelievable from Ozzy. Let's wrap this up here. Jason wants to know two things. Number one, is there anything to be gained by actually watching preseason hockey? My Devil's offense has looked otherworldly so far. Should this affect my optimism anyway going into the season?

No, it doesn't matter. I don't think so. Not at all. But Jason also wants a follow-up question. Are we doing another bet? This Sunday night, it's Dallas, it's San Francisco, it's Sunday night football. Here we go. What are we doing?

We've got to do something. What did we do in the past? Did we have... Well, I had to change my avatar to a Niners one for a week after the preseason, or the postseason long. The preseason, you wish. You're right. That was, okay.

Well, do we want to do another... Yeah. Another avatar on the dying platform of... Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's, man, this guy changed his blue sky... Changes blue sky profile.

I don't think they have that feature yet over there. By the way, I've had people ask, like, are you going to try some of these other platforms? And I've just dipped my toe in, and I think it was blue sky. Literally, the very first thing I ever posted, the first comment I got was from somebody I don't know who was mad at me about something I had nothing to do with at the athletic.

So I was just like, I feel right at home with that we've got the whole, the whole Twitter vibe has come over, just some random stranger yelling at me about something I had. have nothing to do with. Yeah, it was, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, okay, real quick, let's, do I get to pick your 49ers logo? Can I, uh, is that, are we doing that? Are we doing that again? The same thing, logo. It's the logo. It's the logo. And when I win, I want, I want Terrell standing on the star as your, uh, avatar for the next week.

That hurts. It's the one I want. You know, okay. So, just to be clear, yeah, you want, you want, you want Terrell Owen standing on the star. With, I want him standing on the star. Not getting hit by, uh, who was it that the came flying? George Teague, I think came in. Rich Teague. Nice. Okay. Damn it. Because I, okay. Okay.

Standing. I will, I will change my, uh, Danielle's listening. These are the rules of the engagement. Terrell Owen standing on the star. I did, I was absolutely going to do the one where George Teague is hitting him. I was like, well, you said. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, before we wrap this up, this week in hockey history, tell me this, and we're recording this on October the 5th, October the 5th, 1965, maybe people don't realize this, both Patrick Waugh and Mario Lemieux are born on the same day. Is this definitively, Sean, the greatest single birthday in NHL history? I guess the team is notwithstanding. I think it is, but luckily, and this will probably not shock. anyone. I've done the research on this. Yes. I have I have written a piece years ago where I went through all the birthdays. And the great thing about October 5th, Mary Loule, and Patrick, well, first of all, born on the same, not just the same birthday, the same day, same year, within something like 100 miles of each other. Yeah, same province. But there really

isn't anyone else in October 5th. So let me throw a couple of other dates that you as I just kind of scroll by, like January 18th gets you, Mark Messex. C.A. Sillaps and Alex Petrangelo. Not bad. Not a bad start. January 21st gets you Danny Heatley, Doug Wade, Ryan Suter, and Jonathan Quick. Not bad. That's right in the Gretzky window, right? Gretzky's like end of January. Gretzky's the January 26th and he doesn't really have any. He's got Frank Niebuhr, the old-timey senators guy and that's about it. Yeah. February 7th, Stamcoast, Ryan O'Reilly, Peter Bondra, and Aaron Rackblad are all there. Um, that one's not too bad at all.

Stamp goes on the same day is pretty good. Yep, that's a good one. If you're looking for a two-player combo, how about this? March 31st, Gordy Howe and Pavel Burry. And Tom Barrasso in goal. That's, that one's not bad at all. And as I scroll through just a few more here, see if there's anything that would really stand out.

July 1st, Jerome McGinla and Steve Schutt, not bad. How about this for July 20th, Peter Forrestberg? and Pavel Datsuk, Jimmy Carson rounding out that line is a real good one. Bobby Clark, Johnny Gras, Philippe Forsberg, all born on August 13th.

And then there is the other one that I wasn't able to make a full team out of it, but if we're talking two players, this is one people are probably thinking of right now. September 17th, Alexander Ovechkin and Austin Matthews, both born on the same day.

Not too bad. Not too shabby at all. Oh, wow. That might be the one that ends up. There's not enough around it, but if anything is going to challenge. Yeah, Howe and Burray and Lemieux and Waugh, I think, are pretty clearly the two as far as a big two. But that's the one that could potentially get you there. Maybe there's something about if you're born on March 31st, you have to throw a vicious elbow.

That's it. Yeah. That was, Pavil was just, you just give us. a little shout out to his Shane giving out to his birthday buddy. Yeah, man. Yeah, there you go.

So October 5th, Patrick Gaw and Mario Lemieux. And, like is it, yeah, you ran it through. All right. So that does it for the Thursday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. As always, hit us up in the email

the athletic hockey show at gmail.com. We would love to hear from you. Next time, though, Sean, we'll read the slam poetry. Okay. I guarantee. No promises.

Yeah, no promises. Or you can always leave us a voicemail too. Actually, why don't you, the listener, leave us a voicemail with your version of slam poetry. That would be the way to go. There you. And you can do that. It's 845-445-8459.