The Athletic Hockey Show - Is it too early for NHL wake-up calls?

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

Sean, Frank and Sean discuss a timely fight and a star benching that seemed to inspire the Oilers to their first win of the season, the overachieving Calgary Flames, Utah Hockey Club, Winnipeg Jets and Tampa Bay Lightning, they discuss the awkwardness of a fight in practice between teammates, stick tap goal scoring machine Filip Gustavsson and the heart wrenching tribute to Johnny Gaudreau between the Blue Jackets and Florida Panthers in Columbus on Tuesday.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What up, what up. This is the athletic hockey show. Wednesday edition, Sean Gentilly here with Sean McIndoo, a slightly sleepy Frankie Carado, who is up doing Sports Center until I think 4 in the morning last night? Is that what it was? Not quite 4 in the morning, but that's my last night shift of the month. So we're all good there.

How are you boys doing? We're good. Is Mackinoo recovered from Canadian Thanksgiving? which I think is a five-day event that takes place in early in early October. Still working through the leftovers, but otherwise all set. A little dry run, man. A little practice for we get all the actual Thanksgiving part of Thanksgiving out of the way early so that we can just focus on football and online shopping when you guys.

Yeah, you can focus on, you can focus on whichever. NFL team, you guys inexplicably take likings, like whether it's the dolphins or the Cowboys or whichever bandwagon, you guys, you guys are never understood this. I've never understood because I grew up in Toronto, like I still live here. I had no affiliation to any NFL team, but if you ask everyone around me, they're diehards of whatever team. Even this, like Steelers, dolphins, cowboys, bills. I like, I know people that are Ravens fans, Browns fans here. I don't understand why unless grandpa said like we grow up

as Browns fans in this house. I don't know. I don't know why. There are an amazing number of Canadian fans who just picked a team. They were 10 or 12 or whatever and they were just like, you know what? Cool uniforms, cool players.

That's it. I'm a Jaguars fan. Hopefully not that. I think Arpin cares more about the Miami Dolph-Arpin Pesu. I think he cares more about the Miami Dolphins than any NFL fan I know cares about any of their teams.

It's wild. The number of Cowboys fans in the hockey media is alarming. Yes. Oh, dude, we had a big, we had a company meeting like in, I'm saying this to McIndy, like he wasn't there in September. And like Pierre and CJ and these guys, they just, we, they took over a bar in Hell's Kitchen basically and turned it into like a Cowboys bar. Like it was, it took us out.

They took us out for like dinner and dinner. drinks after the day of meetings. And it was a Monday. And it was the first Monday of the football season. And the Jets were playing. We're in New York. And they couldn't get the game on the TV because of like some, there's some satellite issue.

And we ended up, it was, it was Shana, right? Like, it ended up like hooking her computer into the bar's EV infrastructure and managed to like get a pirated feed or something up. And I've never seen a bar go crazy like that. because it was probably the only time Jets fans were happy all. Yeah, that was it because it's only, it's only getting worse.

They were down 14 nothing, six minutes later, and it was, yeah, that was it. It got ugly. This is the football show now, actually. We're not, we're not. We are football experts. Mays is coming in here shortly. We're going to, we're going to dive deep on the Devante Adams trade. Man, Frankie, what game, what games were you,

were you tracking last night? I know that, I know that we want to talk about the, the Oilers who beat Philly 4-3 and then an O-T finally get off the Schneide there. Matt Faye Mishkov scores twice. Were you paying attention to that one? That was probably the one I paid the most attention to. I'll tell you what. Okay, first of all, Michikov, this kid is good. Like, he is really good. He is so different than a lot of the other talent that Philly has. Like, they've, they've got a really good player there. And everyone kind of knew, like everyone knew he was going to be a good player. That was never the hesitation with him. It was just when was he going to come overseas. But he was great last night. Here's my big takeaway. I was not a fighter. I didn't like fighting.

I just something about getting punched in the head. Just I didn't want to do it. But fighting still, it still serves a purpose. And I think last night, you got to see the organic, purpose of what a fight or, you know, spirited type hockey can do for your team because the, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this on the athletic, but I'm going to say it. The TSN turning point last night was Sean Couturee runs into Stuart Skinner behind the net and a smaller Troy Stetcher goes after him, fights him, doesn't take an instigator penalty. Then the very next shift right off the face off, Corey Perry goes at it with Joel Farabee. And then all of a sudden, it was like the big boys came to life.

And it was Dreysidal and McDavid and then Bouchard. I'm like, that is the most pop I've seen in those guys throughout the four games so far. And I think what that did was, you know, that injected some emotion and in a little bit of energy into those guys that hadn't been there yet to start the year. And it's like, is it not understandable? Right. Think about the, the, how draining emotionally it would have been for them last spring. and games one through four of the regular season, like it just doesn't have the same juice.

So you're almost like pacing yourself through it. And you start off 0 and 3. Now guys lower in the lineup kind of show you that they got the energy, they got the emotion. If you're one of the better players, you're like, well, if these guys are laying it down, I better start laying it down too. And then those guys took over the game and they won.

But I think it all has to do with those, like that sequence of events, adding that pop into the game for the top players for the Oilers, and that was the difference. And it was after they bumped the goalie, which is different than what we see these days where it's like, I know it's been beaten to death, but the whole thing where every, every clean hit,

and these days it's not even big hits. It's just, it feels like any kind of open-eyed contact. You get the awkward fight after, but it was always, that was an unwritten rule of hockey, man. I remember being in school, in high school. And I had a buddy who was new to the country.

And he wanted to get into hockey. And he was, you know, peppermouth questions. I remember that was one of the things I told him was like, if you can't touch the other teams goal, if you do, if you ever see a goal to get bumped, there's going to be a fight. Because that's just an unwritten rule. And it's, uh, uh, it still remains to this day. And it should. That speaks to, I, I know, look.

man, we're trying not to read too much into the way things are going on October 15th or October 16th, but we have seen this team start slowly. Last year, you know, they were, a lot of that was goal was tender base, but not all of it. That was, that was a pretty brutal showing for six weeks of the season by them. And I wonder how long they could have really stayed on the hook with that. Like, right? So we're seeing whether it's, whether it's, uh, some physicality like, like, like, like you guys talked about, whether it's Leon Drysidal getting benched for, for a couple shifts, which is, which is something we saw very, very interesting. Like it felt like last night that team understood to some extent the gravity of the situation because it's like at a certain point,

we might not be there yet, but at a certain point in the next couple weeks, slow starts are going to start turning into difficult questions. And I think, I think they avoided that in some respect, in some respect last night. You're, you're 100% right. Like, they did, they did avoid that. The dry sidal thing is interesting, right? Because after the game, yeah, Ryan Rashog asked him, you know, like, what would you make of that? Whatever is like, just ask the coach, talk to the coach. And then when he asked Knoblock, Knoblock didn't even answer the question. Like, you could have asked him, what's your cat's name? And he was not going to give you any kind of straight answer on that.

But essentially, it was two rotations through after a penalty and Dreisidel didn't play. And then he comes out, he plays much better. They win the game. It just felt like the Oilers, because they had seen it from start to finish, from the start of last year to basically one win away from winning. the cup, they kind of know what that roadmap looks like, and it felt like they were just going to pace themselves through it because, hey, we need this energy in April and we need it in May, and it's just, it's even if, even if you're that good, like, I just, I don't know if you can pace

yourself through the rigors of an NHL season. Like, you do have to have some kind of, um, emotional investment on, on a more consistent basis in order to win those types of games. and Stuart Skinner played really well last night. I think that was more of the Stuart Skinner that we saw in this, you know, last year when he played to his capability, when you're like, this is a goalie who's turning the corner. I guess the big thing about Edmonton, you know, last year, bad start.

This year, bad start, hopefully not to the same degree. But all the things that had kind of ailed that team, those should be ironed out by now. It's like you learned that you have to play away from the puck. You learn that, like, you know, you have to give a little more defensively at times. And so now you get your win. And now it's up to you to kind of continue with that, that emotional investment and not pace yourself through it because you've seen what happens, you know, throughout your first three games

when you try and do that, it's hard to win. Yeah, the lesson from last year can't be we can fart around until the end of November and get away with it, right? Like, is that good as they were and much as they did turn it around. And I know there's like extenuating circumstances on the slow start last year perhaps. Like that's not something you want to do every year. You can't continually dig yourself into the into these holes. And the other thing too is if you're Leon Drysidal or if you're Connor McDavid, you know, starting slow is one thing.

If you're Troy Stetcher or Corey Perry or these guys who are at the bottom of the lineup, like you don't have that cushion. You don't have that, like, I'm like, Corey Perry at age 39, like, you don't, you don't have that, that baked in bumper where you can, you know, go at half speed for like for a handful of games. Like, those do, to some extent, like, they have to be thinking about changes are coming. I want to keep my spot in the lineup. And this is the kind of shit that I'm going to have to do if, if I want to, if I want to make that a reality. Yeah, but we should point out, Frankie mentioned the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, hangover almost after you go to the final and lose. Florida Panthers last year started off 0 and 2.

Yeah. Lost three of their first five. I can't remember how their season turned out, but I feel like it was pretty okay. It lasted a while. They played games pretty late. Dude, you know what? And it's interesting, though, because like as a fan,

we're always talking about, you know, we want these guys to give 100%, man. There's no nights off in this league. There's none of that. But, I mean, you look at the intensity. of that final last year. There's just no way you can do 82 games of that. No.

And have a team left by the end of the season. There's no doing two months of it. We, you know, we always love to say, oh, it's the hardest trophy to win because you've got to go full throttle for two months to win it. Well, then you get six months of the regular season. Yeah. What are we really expecting here? No, you can't, you can't play play playoff hockey all season long. You just can't, you can't sleepwalk your way through it.

You know, it's somewhere, it's somewhere in the middle. Like there's a reasonable ground there through the regular season. I find the dry sidal thing. I think that was executed perfectly by Knoblock. Like good players who want to win, they're okay with being coached. Like that's one thing that kind of stuck out to me throughout my career. Like the guys that are really good, they're okay with a coach kind of being on them in the right way. And I think Knoblock did it the right way.

Didn't embarrass a guy. he sat him for two rotations through basically and just you just got to reset and then you're going right back out there. And I think the way the player responded shows you that winning is more important than, hey, how dare you not play me two shifts in a row? Do you know who I am? Like, I'm too good for that. So I think that was handled.

I know J.D. doesn't like the answer that Drysidal gave talk to the coach. But I think on the ice and on the bench, I think that was. handled as perfectly as it could have been. That's an answer I've heard Mike Sullivan give a thousand times over the course of his career when he gets asked the Crosby question because it, because it happens periodically. Like what makes some variation on what makes Sydney Crosby so great. One of the lines that he always falls back on is like, God, he loves to be coached. He's coached. That is something that, you know, that you see from great players, right? And it's something that coaches, that coaches do. The coach,

the coaches do value. And I think it's like Drysidal answering that way, that's in step with the guy that he's shown himself to be too. Like it like he didn't seem Matt. He didn't seem necessarily. Was he a little pissy, Leon? A little pissy perhaps,

but not, but not like overly mad, not overly concerned. It's like yeah, like, like whatever. And that's, and that's,

I like, I like that element of dry, of Drysidal's game, at least as someone who has to, you know, watch hockey players talk for, for a living. in part, right? Again, it's fun to watch guys get a little, get a little snippy with it without

letting it turn into something something. It was, it was two shifts. Frankie, when you're on the bench and something like that happens, do you notice right away? Like, Leon's not out there. Leon got sat. It's, I wouldn't know. Or is it something that maybe you don't even until the intermission figure out what was going on? Dude, as a defenseman, I wouldn't know because I'm not living in that world down there, but the forwards would all see it and they would know because like, you know, the rotation comes around and like he was playing with, with McDavid and Hyman last night. And it's like, okay, the coach is going to call out McDavid's line with someone else.

And it's like everyone would look and say, what's going on? Does he have a broken lace on his skate? Like, you know, like, why is the guy missing a shift? So the forwards would notice right away. The defenseman wouldn't notice. Like, I don't think I would never notice two ships of a forward. But it is like, it is a good question. But I just, I think, like, that's a guy who wants to be coached and held accountable.

And if the team is serious about winning, which they are, that's the kind of stuff that needs to happen. And it's okay. And like, I don't, I don't know how much Calgary you guys have watched this year, but that is a team of guys that they look like they want, they're handling being coached well. Like, they look like, they look like a team where everyone's on the same page. and I think really what it comes down to is everyone there has something to prove for different reasons. If you're one of the top guys who got paid a lot of money, you want to prove that you're worth that money. If you are one of these young guys that they've brought in to try and take the next step, you want to prove that. You also want to prove that you're worth more money and get that

financial security. If you're the goaltenders, you now have a chance at the net, which wasn't there with Jacob Markstrom. So you want to prove that you can be, you know, a starting goalie there. Like there's just, there's a lot of guys individually that have a lot to prove. And as a team, when you constantly hear around you, because you do hear it regardless, like the Twitter algorithm, it shows you whatever it's going to show you. And if you like hockey, you're going to see some hockey stuff. If you just constantly hear, yeah, going to be a bad team, they're not going to be good this year. Like, wait a second, we actually will be okay. And I think the best way to describe what they're, what's happening on the ice right now for Calgary is,

and it's early, you always, like, they're supporting each other really well. Like, you never feel like you're fighting a battle alone. So they've, they've done a good job.

They're all on the same page in Calgary. And that's, um, I think that's one of the, you know, you mentioned the Twitter algorithm. And it's not just that, it's not just that people are like,

yeah, the flames are going to be bad. It's that like, there's no point in them playing games. Because they're media. or they're not going to make the playoffs, but they're also not tanking. So it's like this is this is a collection of guys, you know, that I think a lot of the thinking went that has that team primed to be in the exact spot that you don't want to be in as an

is an NHL team, which is like in that mushy middle where they're not bad enough to get a high draft pick. They're not actually rebuilding, but they're not a real contender either. Like I wonder how much of that comes into play too, because it just seems like they were one of those teams like out of sight, out of mind. They're not getting a ton of pub for having a top prospect or being in the middle of a rebuild or whatever. But they're also, you know, people weren't taking them seriously as even is even a playoff hopeful coming into the season. Right.

So yeah, it's interesting to think that that's a kind of stuff that those guys could potentially see. Harmon and I had them in the bottom five. They're not good. If they finish high, we want credit because clearly we're up on the bulletin board in there. Well, okay, how bad can your team be if one of Rasmus Anderson and McKenzie Weger are on the ice for two-thirds of the game? That's totally true. Like, okay. I get it.

Talk to me about McKenzie Weger, because I feel like even last year in the year, in the year, it's last year in Florida, first year in his first couple years in Calgary, man. He still seems like he's, he's getting better almost. And he's at that point in his career where you're sort of surprised at. see it. He's a legit high-end top-air guy. Any one. And he's a righty who plays the left side with ease. Like, you don't, you just don't see that. Like, optically, it looks weird. I just think, like, he's, he's so good at kind of just pushing the puck up the ice a lot. So, like, it doesn't, it's not in his zone very long. He does a good job on the offensive blue line. He kind of, he reads the game, understands when to jump in. And he scores a lot. Like,

this guy who legit scores a lot of goals. What do you have 15 goals last year? maybe. He had 20 goals last year. Was one of only four defensemen in the NHL with 20 goals. I didn't know that. Unbelievable. Like, no, like this guy's legit. And I think like the Rasmus Anderson sweepstakes is going to be interesting this year. Because if you are the Edmonton Oilers and you look at that guy, like, I don't think Calgary would want to trade with Edmonton. But what a haul. Like, what a haul you're going to get for that guy if you want. He's got one year left after this at a very manageable like four and a half or something. I don't know. Like those two defensemen are really good.

And Anderson, because he's, his contracts up sooner, would be very highly coveted this year. And I'd be curious to see what the hall is there. I do have to answer if Frankie's question, how bad can you be if you've got Anderson and Weger? How bad can you be if you've got Anderson, Wigger, Chris Tanev, Nikita Zedorov, And Noah Hanofin all in the same team. How did this? Dick so bad last year. I know, hey?

This is, and you're right. I mean, it turns into, you know, maybe you make a run at the playoffs, but maybe you also are increasing the market value for some of these guys. Now, Wigger's got a ton of years left on his deal. Paddry's got a ton of years left. Huberto is untradable, you would think. But this is the one part that worries me a little bit. And I'm not trying to rain on any parades in, in,

Calgary. But I think at the beginning of the year, when you're in the flame situation, there's part of you that maybe says, hey, let's finish last get that top pick. And then maybe there's part of you that says, you know what, let's play well. Let's see guys doing the things that we need them to do so that it creates a market. And we're sellers in a position of power halfway through the season. But then you start off four and oh, and suddenly that plan starts to leave your mind and you start going, we can get there. Maybe are we buyer? Are we maybe trading some of these picks? It's dangerous. It's dangerous to be in that spot.

And like, talk about guys that have something to prove. Jonathan Huberto would fall into that category for sure. He's had a nice little start to the year. And basically, he had a nice little finish to last year, too. Like, he was a good, he was a good power play guy in like a half decent five on five guy, basically from like mid-January. God, he was productive at least. I know he went through, he went through December with having a one point out of every,

he had one point a month. That's a catastrophe. And their season was over by that point. But he showed signs of at least being some, some version of the guy we'd seen before, I think over the last few months, which is interesting. It's funny you mention power play in five on five because he's killing penalties now. And like Ryan Huska has basically said, like, I just don't want him sitting on the bench. I want him involved in the game.

And I feel like giving him that. responsibility allows him to stay more engaged in the game and gives him more at five on five if he's killing penalties. So Hubertos out there killing penalties and maybe that like I can buy into that because I've been that guy that is not on the special teams and you're just on five on five. It's hard. Like it's hard to be productive. You can be out there and just be out there. But it's hard to be productive. And I think that maybe keeping him in in more of a flow and a rhythm of the game is helping him in other aspects. I'm looking at the league-wide standings now.

Obviously, the flames are 4-0, 8 points. They're an easy pick as an early season surprise. But is there anybody else that you guys are buying in particular, like from what we've seen over the first few games? Do we like Utah? Where are we at on these teams that have out kicked their coverage a little bit in the first handful of games here? I'll let DGB go first on this one.

I got a name for the Utah team, but we'll, I'll throw it out there after DGP. I hope this is Frankie Reports. This is Frankie Reports trademark. This is a new segment on the on the show, the Carado Report. I will be honest, I have told myself I'm not buying into anybody over the first few weeks. I need to get to November. Now, that haven't been said. I got to tip my cap a little bit.

we're talking Calgary. We'll stay in Canada. The Winnipeg Jets. I feel like we all kind of looked at the Central. Last year, it was Dallas, Colorado, Winnipeg, three-way race right up till the very end for those three, who was going to finish where in those three spots.

And then it felt like coming into this year, we all looked at the Central and went, yeah, Colorado again, Dallas again. Mm-hmm. Dot, dot, dot. And then the Jets are sitting there with largely the same team, going, what about us? And we're all kind of going, yeah, you know, you guys are fine.

You got the great goalie, all of that. But to start at least, they look like the same team as last year. And that shouldn't be a surprise. But it does kind of feel like one. There's a really good, really good profile by Maratatash, by Connor Hellibuck. They ran on the site a couple days ago. So if people are looking for Jet's content or whatever, that's a, that's a do not miss. He did a really nice job on that.

Sorry. Hellebuck. like Hellebuck, if he's playing the way he is, which would be basically the third year in a row now that this guy is playing all world. Like he was at 9-82 going into last game against Minnesota. The playoffs are not even in question when your goaltender is playing that good.

There's still a good defensive team. And if Perfetti pops and Eilers maybe pops for more this year, penalty kills a little bit better, power plays a little bit better. there's like they're kind of one of those teams like get to the playoffs and prove it then because they've kind of shown in the regular season that they are a good team the one that and I don't know if this is like people are sleeping on them or just have kind of like passed them by I watched Tampa versus Vancouver last night and I was very impressed with Tampa Bay

I think that the Moser acquisition along with McDonough is sneaky sneaky good that's a those are two significant upgrades on the blue line. And they're still big. I talked to a coach ahead of the season who was gasing up Moser in a big way. He's a good player. Yeah. Yeah. He's a good player and he can handle those minutes and especially in the top four.

And like Vasilevsky looks good again. First line looks good with Jake Gensel. Like there's a lot to like about Tampa. Like I don't I don't see Tampa being one of those teams that kind of just sneaks in, you know, and loses in the first round. I could be wrong. It's early. But I think.

they're like the Tampa Bay Lightning might be for real again. My thing on Utah, because they're young. They're high flying. They're exciting. What are the kids call young people? They're the Utah youths. That's what the kids are saying, man. Is that what the kids are saying?

I'm going to check with my kids. I'm going to, I'll report back on whether the kids are saying that. This is just, check with Gen Z for me, please. I'm not, I'm not going to ask them. I'm just going to, I'm going to drop it into conversation and see what They do. I mean, my cousin Vinny is huge with the TikTok generation. We know this.

We know this. Marissa Tome is a mood. She's the vibe. Dude, if we're still saying stay classy, I feel like we can bring back Utes. Let's make it happen. Hey,

so I guess congratulations. The Tampa Bay Lightning are going to beat the Calgary Flames in the Stanley Cup final after a, after a Winnipeg, Calgary Western Conference final. I'm glad we settled that back after the break. All right, we're back during the break. Mac and do laid me out and then plunge me in the face a bunch of times whenever I got up.

We had a we had a teammate fight. You had it coming. You had it coming. I don't know exactly what I did. It's all good. I'm sure I deserved it. Coach Jeff says. Teammate fights, baby.

They're all their age. We saw in a Buffalo. We saw in a Buffalo, Rasmus Stalline laid out bank crafts and then and then drop the gloves. immediately. He looked, that looked like there was some background to it in one way another, Frankie. And I know, man, you played, you played for a long time. This is the sort of thing that you've seen before, right?

This happens often, man. Like, it really does. And especially with how hard coaches want guys practicing now, like, coaches put a lot of stock into practice. I just heard Craig Barubei the other day say that Timothy Lilligran has been practicing really well, so we want to get them back in the lineup. Like, they put a lot of stock into this. But in anyways, that situation, like, I guess Dalene got high stick by Krebs.

He didn't like it. The crazy thing watching the hit, like when Dalene hits Krebs, it's like a token drill where you're probably never being expected to hit in that, get hit in that situation. And he lays him out with a Mark Mathot hip check of all things. Like, just completely egregious. They both go at it and they played it off perfectly afterwards, just kind of saying they were best friends and all that kind of stuff, which is great.

But like this, like I remember my first year pro. I was playing in Utica and there was, and I was probably, you know, dumb rookie talks too much, whatever. I talk for a living now.

So you can figure out how much I, I probably talked back then. One of the veteran guys wanted to put me in my place a little bit. So we're doing this drill, five on five in zone. Puck comes D to D to me. I take a shot and he runs at me late and high. And I'm like, oh, that's interesting.

Like, whatever, just didn't even think twice about it. Next rotation through, we're doing the same drill. Puck comes again, D to D. I take the shot. I'm like, I see him running at me. And again, I'm like, is he going to come hit me again? And he did. And I was like, that's really, really strange.

And then we get into like this other drill, make a pass. And I see him coming at me. same guy because it's kind of like you go against the same lines a lot in practice, just the way things kind of shake out. Takes his third run at me. I get my stick right up into his chops. And I'm like, okay, like if you're running at me in practice, you're getting your stick and my stick in your face.

And then he drops his gloves. I drop my gloves. We kind of just wrestle. Everyone breaks it up. And then Polly Gerard was the assistant coach. Rest in peace, Polly. I love you, buddy. He comes over to me and he goes, that a boy, don't take no shit.

because so like all these coaches like they secretly love like they love this kind of stuff it stirs up the group it brings conversation it brings energy um the st louis blues remember like there was that big practice fight like i think it was with sanford and um who was it maroon no portuzzo and then like they went on and had that great run like it's it's weird when it happens but then you kind of put it to bed, I think it's, it's like a, I don't know, it's a, it's a funny footnote in, you know, in a long season. And it's something that sticks for, it's a good, it's a good discussion point because like, you know, your media, you're, you're, you're a fan, like, you don't, we don't see this stuff that often. So whenever you see like bits and pieces of it, like,

ifgeny Munkin versus Craig Adams in 2015, that's the one, that's the one I remember, I remember very well. Craig started something and Malkin finished it. It seemed like. But that's one of those things. Like you like they stick. People remember this stuff. It's it's fun to watch it happen. And it's great for camaraderie because now anytime those guys are in the room or like the

meal room or the gym, someone's going to have a joke like, oh, watch out. Someone get in between these two. We don't want them going at it. Like it's just there's a lot of good fodder that comes from it. The one I'll always remember is Kevin McGuire going after Wendell-Clare. at a Leafs practice and Wendell tuned him up so bad he turned him into a referee. So that's the downside.

But here's my question on that. I've been talking about, time you used that line before. What? That's the first time. This topic doesn't come up a whole lot that I get to reference late 80s and HVL. He's the best. He's the best folks.

Here's my question. And this this may be, this may be factors in a little bit to the Malcolm one that you talked about too. Like the etiquette here, because look, if you're playing hockey typically, you know when somebody's taken a run at you. And you know kind of instinctively when it's time to go, when it's time to stand out for yourself. And look, if you're out there in a game situation, somebody on the other team takes a run, you don't really care who it is. You may have to do what you're going to do. But if it's practice, it's Rasmus Dahlia.

You're Peyton. He's the captain. he's probably the best player on the team. If up Payton Krebs, like, I'm not going to back down, but if I pop this guy and I put him out for a month. No, don't take no shit, man. Like, Pauli Gerard and said, you don't take, you don't take shit. It doesn't matter if the guy's the captain.

If he wants to lay you out with a hip check, how much you take it out is the question. Yeah. I think if like, if the captain is like a, veteran legendary guy like if andjay copatar like if that happens with him you're like probably not gonna you know you know hey copi you did what you did back and forth but that's try not to try not to break your knuckles on my on my helmet yeah whatever yeah yeah what else can you do that's we we need frankie's ranking oh man

which captains you just kind of let them let them have a free pass next week next week We can say like this is great for a team. This is fantastic. This turns things around. But if we're sitting there and all of a sudden across the ticker, it comes, you know, Connor McDavid will miss six weeks with a broken jaw thanks to Corey Perry. I don't think anyone's like talking about, hey, that's way to go, Corey. Good job.

I think he's on the first bus out of town or maybe under. He's taking a Greyhound bus out of town. Yeah, it's a Greyhound bus out of Edmonton, Jesus Christ, the 19 hour drive that took to Calgary somehow. You can connect from there. Yeah. We also saw something, it's really two things that everyone loves to see.

Practice fight and then goalie goal in short order. We saw Philip Gustafson score last night. This is a tailor-made, this is a tailor-made topic for DGV. My man loves goalie-gulls more than he loves anything else. I do. They're fantastic. You guys are maybe too young. Frankie, I think, almost definitely.

Do you have any memory of Ron Hexel's first goal? So I'm the old guy here, and I can tell you, the first time Ron Hextel scored a legit goalie goal. Because Billy Smith had had credit for one where it was like he was the last guy to touch it. But Ron Hexel was the first guy in the NHL to shoot the puck and score. And at the time, like, to tell somebody a goalie is going to shoot and score would be the equivalent of telling a football fan now, like, Picker's going to have an 80-yard touchdown run. Like, you understand all the words in the sentence. They all make sense.

But you just can't envision that scenario. And the fact that when he pulled it off the first time and then did it again in the playoffs, we all thought this was the coolest thing we had ever seen. I definitely don't. I was way to. And I remember at the time. I had to check on this. I was way too young.

I'd have been, I'd have been, yeah, I'd have been a baby. So I don't, I don't remember it. It's, yeah,

I mean, it was, it was, the sort of thing, at the time I remember people saying, now that one guy's done it, you're going to see it happen again and again. And maybe at some point, it's going to lose its luster.

And I can tell you, we're, you know, decades later now, it is not lost its luster for me. I get so excited. I get so excited when you just see a guy try. And I don't even need the shot. I'm just, you know, sometimes you see the goal, he'll catch it and he puts it down and just for a fraction of a second,

you're like, oh, he's thinking about it. And then, you know, he doesn't do it. Or maybe, maybe they try and they miss or anything. But I love it. And last night, Philip Gustafsson, he nailed it. That was a no doubter. There was, that was, uh, we are, we are one of the better ones. One very important element to this goalie goal.

That may have been one of the worst dump in attempts ever with your goaltender pulled. It would buy Bouchnavich. I believe it was Bucconavich, where he takes, it's a clean face off win, and he puts it right into Gustafson's glove and all he has to do is put it down and send it down the ice. Like that is if there was one place, you cannot put that dump in. That's where he put it. And it's wild that like during the during the time out, Gus and Flurry, I can call him Gus because I played with him. No big deal.

No big deal. Anyways. Yeah, in the minors. They were they were together by the bench and he goes, yeah, you got to go for it. And sure enough, he gets it. But that dump-in just like give an assist to Buccanevich on that. Mark Andre Fleury is in his 35th season or whatever it is. He has waited his entire career for a dump-in that bad to set him.

That guy by the time it's all said and done, the only regret he's going to have about his career is that he didn't score. Like he, that dude wanted it and wants it so, so badly. It was a running joke whenever whenever the penguins are playing a team that that pulled their goalie. You knew that that

dude was going to take a crack at it, like for better or worse because he wanted it that badly. No way. I don't think he slept a wink. He's going to get it. And Igor's just Durkin too. It's got to drive him crazy. Remember when he like hit the post a couple years ago? That was a ruffle. But yeah, it was

the perfect scenario, right? Two goals up. That's what you always want to see. Because if the worst comes and you screw it up somehow and give up a goal, you haven't given away the whole game. But I got to ask, Frankie, how frustrating is it that you just got passed on the career power by rules list? Yeah, I'm not shocked. I will say I still have more shot attempts per 60.

So I will hold on to that. And everyone knows shot attempts per 60 is way more important than actual goals. All that matters. So we can have the rate we can have the rate stats discussion at some point down the line we'll correct yeah we're gonna have Don run the numbers here and Frankie what's it

And how great was that line by the way Where he said after the game that he wants to be in the power play meeting so good It just it hits on every level Russo of course wrote at length about it last night Lots of lots of stuff from flurry Of course he led with flurry I should have checked I should have checked before we started talking about it right

like there's a 3,000 word Russo story about about the goal on the site already. It's got a bunch of got a bunch of good bits. Frankie, what's the rest of your week look like, man? What's the, what's the schedule? This is how we need to finish every second segment here. It's like, where's Waldo? Go through your schedule. I love it.

Well, you're like, you're up in, you're up in Canada right now. Like, are you not? So you just, you got to be consuming all kinds of TSN content. So I'll be doing that talky tomorrow with our good buddy, Gino. and then Sunday doing the Winnipeg Jets intermissions, which I believe, is that not against the penguins? Let me just double check. Yeah, Jets versus Penns on Sunday.

They're heading out there for sure. Yeah, we'll be doing pre-games and intermissions for that. So it's a good week. It's a good week, boys. Nice to chat. Absolutely, man. Get some sleep. Like I said, I know you were on sports center when I was long, long gone last night.

We'll catch up next week, brother. All right, we're back. The biggest thing to happen last night, the most memorable thing to happen last night, was the Columbus Blue Jackets pregame ceremony for Johnny Goodrow, who as we know, he's brother, Matthew, tragically killed over the summer. And this was the Blue Jackets home opener. I think it was kind of an open question as to what they would do, like what the extent of their tribute to Johnny and his brother were going to be heading into last night.

and they basically did all of it and they did it all right. They seemed like they're right. They retired his jersey, which I think was kind of a no-kind-of-a-no-brainer. And then had Sean Monaghan, who's one of his very, very closest friends for years and years and years, take the opening face off and shuffle it over to the left wing where nobody was standing, right? Because that's Godreau's spot on the ice. And it was a, it was a, I mean, hard. heartbreaking reminder, but also an example of a pregame tribute done right.

A pregame tribute and an in-game tribute in a way because, and I've never seen that before in the NHL. The closest that I would come is, we've seen it a few times in the NFL where players passed away and a team will start with, One fewer guy on the field. I remember Sean Taylor was one. I feel like there have been others, but I'd never seen it in hockey before. And, you know, kudos to the blue jackets, obviously, for handling it well. And also to the Florida Panthers. That's something that only happens with the other team's cooperation.

And clearly, you know, there was some history there with Matthew Kuchuk who wasn't there, but Sam Bennett as well. Bennett. Yeah. And, you know, clearly at some point, somebody from the two teams sat down and said, this is, this is what we're going to do.

We're going to let 13 seconds take off the clock. I thought it was a real touching tribute. And, you know, then Sean Monaghan goes out and scores a goal, which is just, couldn't write it up. A little extra, uh,

emotion for the situation. So, uh, you know, an impossible situation, not everything. Yeah. You know, it's, it wasn't a positive, it wasn't a good night, but it was, it was handled as well as it possibly could have been.

And, you know, one more step towards a little bit of healing for, for that team and that community. Yeah, and for the people that were closest to Johnny and Matthew Goddrow, right? Like, you see, it was heartbreaking to see Sean Monaghan and Meredith Goodrell out there beforehand, but also just knowing that, you know, they got. got to experience that. They had to have, you know, the people, you know, 20,000 people basically wrap their arms around them. They're ahead of the game. I mean, it counts for something because those are still like, like, we're however, however far out, six weeks, eight weeks out of this.

You know, those are still, I just, I think about, I think about his family and friends just constantly, you know, the people, the people who are closest to him and to him and his brother and having to deal with having to deal with this, not just for the last eight weeks, but for, for, for, for, the rest of their lives. And I think I think last night was yeah, it was done. It was done about as well as you about as well as you could expect. And hopefully we never have to watch another one of those though. Yeah. And, you know, I guess the the next thing, a few weeks away, but there's later in the season, the blue jackets play the flames twice in a week. It's not a back-to-back, but it's twice in a week, once in each rank.

And I would imagine there'll be a lot of emotion for that as well. I don't know if they'll, you know, if they'll, if they'll treat it quite the same way or, or how they'll recognize it if they will. But it's, it'll be, you know, that emotion will be there again. And it's going to stay there. I mean, this isn't something that you just, you close the book on. No, this is this, whatever, week long, month long, season long, decade long like this is this is going to be a process for every for everybody who was involved and I think

you know again to take it back to last night I think it's just good you know they nailed it not not that that's a surprise or anything but it's it's good to see how well it was handled and you know and you just got the vibe watching that that the organization is in the right spot uh to handle this about is about as well as about as anybody could expect right yep yep and uh you know just a thank you to everyone involved in that on both sides both teams that they put that together came up with the idea however it was handled they did it right yep and i think that's the best possible note then the show on thank you folks for listening as always uh and we're going to remind you again if you're a spotify listener you can leave comments on our episodes now that's new haley and i are back with the thursday show on thursday which is tomorrow hope to talk to you then and have a good week