The Athletic Hockey Show - Is Trouba the NHL’s hit unicorn?

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

Sean, Frank and Sean look back on the NHL's one and only Frozen Frenzy of the season, with all 32 NHL teams in action on the same night, was it too early in the season? Could the matchups have been a bit better? Should they have these nights more than once a year? The guys discuss the force that is Jacob Trouba, and his latest clean massive hit, this time on Montreal's Justin Barron. Plus, they tease who the NHL’s Top 10 Front Offices are - As voted by 40 NHL executives.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frank CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet 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 Tintilly with Sean McIndoo, Frankie Carrado. Boys, are you still in a frenzy? Did you wake up in a frenzy? After the madness of Tuesday night, all 32 teams playing 16 games obviously staggered. I think it was 10 or 15 minutes start across the board.

That was the big story in the league last night. I got the frenzy hangover, man. It's rough. Are you even, like, I didn't even go to bed. I'm just keeping the frenzy going right into today. What time did that last game end, Eastern time? Like, it was close to 2 a.m. And I was, I was in Montreal.

I called the Habs Rangers game, which I'm sure we're going to get into the Truba head at some point here. But it was, it's a lot of hockey. Can't say that there was a lot of great hockey played last night, which is crazy because every team was playing and so you have 16 games but yeah i don't know like you go up against nba opening night you know i think that it's the right initiative to do something like this i just think it could have been executed better let's get into that like how how do they execute this better they being the n hl because you're right it was a bit of a dud as far as the quality of the games.

16 games, nine of them decided by three goals or more. Two games go into overtime, only one of them gets a result. The other one is a shootout. If you were going to sit a potential new hockey fan down in front, make them drink out of the fire hose, I don't

think you sold them last night. But that's not what, first of all, it's not the league's fault. And I don't think this is, that's what this is for. So what could the league do better? Because I'm, I'm feeling very mixed reviews out there for what happened last night. And for once in my life, I'm kind of on the more positive side. Wow. Look at you. Positive Wednesday. This is the sort of thing that we ask the league to do, right? Like, get out of your comfort zone. Do something a little bit fun. I think the, the two things for me that's stick out is, you know,

Gentilly, you're in the States. So you know how big NBA and NBA opening night is. Like, even though you have all 32 teams playing, it's like a lot of the eyeballs are going to LeBron and Brunny Jr. You know, like it's just, that's kind of the way it is. So maybe you want to avoid something like that. You also maybe want to do this later in the hockey season as we kind of get people a little more

captivated for the playoff runs and there's a little more skin in the game. So maybe when the NFL season is done, not that you're going, you're not going against the NFL last night, but you just kind of build it around everyone's gearing up for the playoffs and, you know, hopefully you have some good matchups, you know, some playoff, you know, skin in the game type games. I just think like that would be my two things, like avoid the NBA opening night and try and frame this around, you know, when you kind of own the schedule a little bit more, where I don't think they owned the night last night, even though it was a bigger deal because everyone's playing.

I think that's it. I think you've got to wait until, well, first off, I'm not going to complain that this happened. Like, it's not a bad thing. It's given us something to talk about. It's a solid enough way to watch hockey when your job. is to watch hockey professionally. I like having, you know, when I'm like, okay, I got to sit down and watch games tonight, even though I might not want to.

I like them being staggered in 15 minute, you know, in 15 minute spurts. That's cool. I would like it to be done more often, I think. In the execution last night was particularly annoying because like, because Frankie, like you said, it's going up against hoops, which is kind of aggravating. there was one game on Monday night which just felt I don't know I would have

but then you're like okay then it would be going out against Monday night football and people like me would be complaining about it about it you know anyways I think the problem was is that I don't think the matchups were very good and part of that's a function of the schedule it's a tough bunch of plates to keep spinning

when you have you know when you got to think about travel and schedule and all that stuff but those games on paper weren't great. Basically no rivalry games. Like, okay, Sabers,

preads, like, cool. That's a classic. You don't think the Red Wings in the Islanders is a classic rivalry?

Wild Panthers. I mean, it's not rivalry Wednesday. Leaves Blue Jackets. So you start out, you start out with dud games, and then they sucked on top of it. So I'm like,

10 years ago, Sharks, Ducks would have been a point of, been viewing though. Honestly, that's true. That, like, yeah, right. And 10 years from now, it probably will be. So, you know, just to wet the appetite a little bit. Wait a second.

10 years from now, we're so going to be like, uh, Mason McTavish, you think you think you can do it? Trevor Ziegertr's straight is happening any day now. It's imminent. I, uh, I, I do wonder, you're, you're 100% right on the NBA thing. Um, I do wonder if the league even would have known when the NBA was starting when you put something like this is this is something it's going to take some time to put together

you got to get all the buildings you got to get everything lined up properly so i wouldn't be surprised if they got deep into this and then it was like oh that's NBA opening night crap all right that's that's a bad break for us would you rather see them if they're going to do a night like this especially early in the season because as much as i would love to see a second one late in the season. I'll say a couple things. First of all, you start going late in the season. Some of the games aren't going to matter. Some of the games are just completely meaningless by that point because teams are checked out. Teams are out of the running. So doing it early. In theory, at least, you've got 16 games that feel like they matter. I can buy that. The other thing is, let's be

careful what we wish for, right? Because we saw outdoor games and we're like, this is cool. The league should do this a lot. And they were like, heard you. Let's do six a year. And then everybody was like, this stinks. We don't like this anymore. So a couple of, a couple of, a couple of times a year, I think, would be the magic number. Would you rather see them go big on the on the matchups, though? Like the rivalries. Yes. I would. Yeah. I would too. Give us Edmonton Calgary. Give us Toronto, Montreal or Montreal Boston, something like that. But here's, here is the problem with them. Stars sabers. You start doing that. You do pretty quickly, you know, you can do the first five or six matchups easily and you're loving it.

And then you start getting down there. And it reveals to everyone sort of the pecking order of the league. Right. Because then you end up and it's like, and also here's Columbus against Minnesota. Yeah. And every fan in those markets is like, come on, man. We know what's up. We know you you clearly left us until the end and then just gave us the scrap.

So it does get a little dicey. Every fan wants that right up until you're the team to get stuck with the senators. And then you're like, oh, that's a... The Utah Hockey Club got stuck with the senators last night and that didn't go well for them. That was 4-0 after the first period. And, you know, considering, you know, every Canadian team is in action last night, the senators, that's a neat and tidy, pretty clean win for them. And if Anton Forsberg can play like that when Linus Allmark is not in the net,

That is a different looking team than how they've been the last couple of years. And like, I don't know how much of Utah you guys have seen, but it's like, it's fun watching Utah. And it's probably not fun for their coaching staff because it's like offense, offense, offense. And then there's a lot of offense going back at their net too. Like it is, it is high event hockey in Utah. And usually the Sends were like known for, I guess, the higher event towards their own net. they're playing pretty good defensively. Winnipeg really good defensively.

Cannot say the same for Montreal, Toronto last night. And then Vancouver and Calgary also played, I guess. There's another one. Vancouver and Chicago 10 years ago, that's an unbelievable game. Just different times now. Are we sure that maybe they didn't make this schedule 10 years ago? Is that? I said it maybe it takes a while to put it together.

Yeah, they're like caps and flyers, man. this is a big route. Only versus Claudeauroo, man. Like, let's get it going. Scottie Hart and always always scoose. Wayne Simmons just throwing the body around out there. When would be the ideal time to do this, though? Like if you had to pick one point on the schedule to have like the all 32 teams in action,

I'm trying to think when it would be because you're, because think about the stuff we've said. We're like, you want to avoid football. You want to avoid any like major roadblocks with the NBA. You want it to be some kind of signal to maybe, you know, not casual fans, but just like a media kind of event where it's like, look at this. Here's here's the NHL doing a thing. This seems like a big ask from a scheduling standpoint, but would it be possible to do that as the first day of games after the All-Star break? because by that point you're pretty you're you're you're deep enough into the schedule you know flip balls flipball's less of an issue you have a clean slate on the day before um you know be because the all-star break i that's where i keep coming back on on the day on the day they'd have to change how they did the buy week approach but that that's ball i thought you were going to say opening night which would be another way to do it um although maybe from the league's perspective then you you you're combining

two big attention nights in theory into one. Yeah. And then they'd have to give up on the, on the European games that happened. Yeah, we wouldn't get our Thursday at 4.30 in the morning season opener. Yeah. You also,

like, I'm kind of thinking from the players point of view, um, if I, you know, was involved in the 6 p.m. Eastern start. How annoying is that?

And I'm like, well, why do we have to do that? Like, why don't we just get our normal 7 p.m. start where we can get our morning skate and have the adequate time during the day. And, you know, I think that would be, you would be annoyed. The answer is because as a player, you should want the league to try new things and get attention. And ultimately, that means more money, more revenue, which you get 50% of. Like, so start an hour early so that you can be part of something cool.

and we don't have like eight games all starting at seven. The counterpoint is like, the counterpoint is like that's screwing up my nap or whatever, right? Isn't that such a player's thing? Like you're screwing up my pregame nap. How dare you? Like I need a little more time to digest my Pennay Alfredo with ice cream afterwards. But you know what, like, DGB, that actually, it's a good point because every year when you play in the league, you get like the sit down with the PA and we kind of go through the financials of how things work

with HRR. And like, I remember every year hearing, you know, the gate revenue is so important, but we are at capacity in so many buildings around the league right now. Like it's, the gate revenue was always doing great. And they needed to find other ways to bring in more money. And so I credit the league in the sense that they are finding ways to get more eyeballs in front of the game, do, you know, innovative kind of things, I guess, on the TV. side of things because that's been the separator, you know, when it comes to basketball, let's say, and the NHL, it's like it's the TV deal that is getting everyone paid so much. The gate revenue, there's just only so much you can do there.

And the NHL is so reliant on the gate revenue as it is. So I credit them for trying to do different things. And we can always kind of nitpick and say this could be done different. But at the end of the day, if they're trying things, they're on the right path. Was there one result last night that you guys looked at out of those 16 games and, you know, had your, had your eyes bug out a little bit? Like, was there, was there one, one result, one score where you're like, huh, okay. I mean, can we talk briefly, I hope, about the Leafs just laying an egg after their best game. I wasn't going to say it.

I wasn't going to say it. I was waiting for you to say it. I, this, so, you know, if people missed it, Monday night, they play Tampa, a real. kind of early season division test and they had they they look fantastic hold on hold on their best game of the year it was it was dubbed as like the best game we've seen this group play ever I was seeing

that's not that far of a stretch it was that it was a good game was that good in October on a Monday night yes but and and okay so everybody everybody everybody's clapping way to go Leafs you know, this is good for them. And any of us who've been watching this team for years, you know the script at this point.

And I tweeted it out last night after the game because this is the first time Craig Burubis has seen it up close. Every time, every time this team does anything well, they pat themselves on the back, they hang the mission accomplished banner, and they give themselves a few nights off. And sure enough, they come into this game against a Columbus team that they should be able to be.

even on, you know, back to back, even the 24-hour rest. And they play probably their worst game of the season. So now what? I want to see the reaction from Craig Barab. And I don't know what I want to see because, you know, it's, it can happen behind the scenes. And maybe we won't even know about it. But this is why you brought Craig Burubi in to not put up with this crap. And how is he going to get through to these guys that, you know, guys, you can't, you can't play.

You can't do one good, one bad. You can't be this quick to take it easy. Six games into the season because everyone's blown smoke up you're behind. How should he do it, Frank? In Toronto, should Craig Burbate, should he bagskate everyone today and have it be front page news? Is this something you handle privately? Can you even do it that way? It's not a bag skate.

I think it's more just a very stern kind of talking to or lecturing. around this group and just the awareness that this has been an issue for years here, where you guys lose to bad teams, you lose to bad teams on back to backs, and you know, you take the one step forward. Everyone thinks, okay, it's coming along. And then I'm not going to call it a step back because it was a complete no-show effort. And if they come out their next game, I believe that's Thursday. And they play well, you know, we'll kind of just talk about how it was a blip.

and Craig Baroubae handled it properly. But I just think it's more about the bigger picture and the mentality around the team. Basically, the leadership group before a game like that saying, hey, boys, we've done this before. We've seen this song and dance. Not again, not this year. Like, let's make sure we're on our toes. Let's make sure we're aware here. And let's dig in for a night.

And let's not let this kind of turn into what it's been before. I hope that's what's being said by the players in the room. And I think that's where the biggest growth stands to be, Sean, is if the players kind of do it. And it's not the coach having to, you know, give you the, you know, the warning shot or begs to get you. But that's why I think it's the difference is the players. How many different coaches are like me looking in my messy backyard and being like,

it'd be nice if my kids helped out. It'd be nice if my son learned how to use the law more. Like, yeah, at some point, it's not happening. But I will say this. You're right. They play next game is Thursday night. you know who they play that night? St. Louis Blues.

I think Craig Barrabe is going to want to see them up for that game. And then they got Boston after that. That's a team dinner on the board, by the way, for Barouba. That has to be team dinner. And that's probably 25 grand, I would say. So what's the prediction? They come out fly and win the St. Louis game for their coach. And then Saturday night lose 7-1 to the Bruns because they're...

I'm talking to Craig Baroube. I just don't think you can start bag skating them in the middle of the week. Bench somebody. Do you like back? Like you just, you just have to address it and say like, I don't know. Craig Baroube has the advantage right now of saying to these guys,

I don't know what happened here before. I don't know how you guys did things before, but this is not how we're going to operate here. And kind of play that card a little bit. And I think that's, that's kind of got to be his message and his go-to. And the players, it feels like the players have bought into everything he's been preaching. So I don't see why the players wouldn't buy into that as well. Well, you can give them one backslide, right?

You say like, okay, like, you, you, you, you get one of these, one of these, one of these, one of these, one of these, one of these, one of these, one of these, one step forward, two step back, you know, bits of, bits of BS that you've, that you've, that you've done. so many times before and that's it like that's that's not going to happen again speaking the blues i watch a decent amount of them last night i watch i watch i watch blues jets for a pretty for a pretty solid chunk um i don't know if i'm ready to go full green light on winnipeg just yet um because i've been burned by them before where everyone has everyone has been burned this looks like this looks like this looks like a different team so i'm not going to say that but colper fetti If he's taken a step as an offensive producer, as a playmaker, he had three more assists last night after blowing up over the weekend, too.

They get a lot more interesting. If he's a dude in that top six, I think that solves. It doesn't solve all their problems. It solves a big one because we know that a lot of growth, especially on the offensive end of things, is going to need to come from guys that are already in the mix, whether it's him, whether it's Eilers, whatever. they're going to need to get that from within.

And it seems like even though he's not getting a ton of minutes and whatever, there's some reasons to maybe question it around the margins, for Fetty over the last week or so, he looks like a dude. And I think that's something that needs to happen. Because again, he had three assists against the blues last night and really helped him. I think there's something that may need to happen for us is we may need to get your like dude ratings. Once a month, like, who's the top five dudes of the month?

And, you know, Perfetti is a good one because, and that second line specifically for Winnipeg is going to be very important to the success that they have this year. And they were, they were losing a lot of their matchups, but the team was still winning. And then the last couple games for them, like, it kind of turned around. Like, they had that, that road against the sharks and it was point night for everyone. And I think that kind of turned into a little bit of confidence for those guys.

And Nemesnikov is not a, you know, he's not a sexy name as far as like a second line center goes. He doesn't make a lot of money. But he's willing to do a lot of like greasy kind of grunt work for those two guys, Eilers and Perfetti. And I think they, they stand to gain a lot from from playing with him. So like that line's important. And I think the third line for Winnipeg, you always kind of know what you're going to get.

And with a goalie like that, you're in every game. You have a chance to win every game. The Jets look good. The caution with the Jets is what happens when the offense goes dry? Yep. And what happens when other teams really start to flex their muscle as far as how they can play the game? Like, how does the pushback look? And I'm not talking like physical pushback.

I'm talking like, you just can't. get in the game and it goes on for a little while game after game like, okay, where, you know, where's the pushback? Because we've seen that in the playoffs with them where it's like other team turns the tables. They can't turn it back. The Jets are kind of in that same category as the Leafs where it's like, show me once you get to the playoffs. We know you can do it in the regular season.

And the playoffs last year were a disaster for the Winnipeg Jets. But, man, if I'm a Jets fan, I'm looking at this team going, hold on a second, guys. this isn't like the flames being off to a hot start and you're going, well, okay, I need to see at least a few more weeks before I buy it. This isn't the wild. The Winnipeg Jets last year at 110 points. The Winnipeg Jets last year actually had the exact same record in the regular season as the Florida Panthers. This is a good team.

This is a team that has, you know, you look at and you say, I want to see it for longer. If I'm a Jets fan, I'm going, you saw it all last year, other than five games in the playoffs. And obviously, you know, that's big. No one's expecting these guys to go 82 and O. But are we maybe sleeping a little bit on a team that has already shown us that they're elite? I'm curious how you guys feel like when you look at teams year after year about continuity with the group, like teams that don't have a ton of turnover. Because Winnipeg is one of those teams, it's like Nate Schwarz.

is out. Brendan Dillon is out. So that means Samburg gets a bigger role. Logan Stanley gets a bigger role. Topholi and Monaghan were, you know, part-time additions there. So that means Perfetti gets elevated. But other than that, like, it's a lot of guys that were there and playing already. And so, you know, I think, like, from my experience, I loved, and this, you know, rarely happened to me in my career because I moved around a lot. But the, you know, the few times that it did where it was like, I knew we had a lot of guys coming back from the previous year, I thought everything just felt more smooth and comfortable.

And we could kind of just like pick up where we left off. And when you have a lot of turnover, I think there's a little bit of a transition period. Like another team that I see that doesn't have a lot of turnover is the New York Rangers. And all they do is score.

And they are willing to open the game right up for better or worse. But they like they don't have a ton a turnover and it feels like there's a lot of familiarity and a lot of comfort with everyone playing there. Let's hold that thought actually because I know you were on the call for, or you were, that was the game you were on last night was,

was, was Rangers Canadians. Let's do, let's do that after the, after the break. There's plenty to talk about from that game. We can go to the Rangers stuff. We can go into the Jacob Troobus stuff. Let's hit that in segment two. We'll take a break right now. And before we do that, we want to remind everybody listening, Hoops is back. NBA basketball's back. You can wake up with the athletic NBA daily every morning

for a fast, entertaining recap of the most important games and stories from the league. Dave Dufour, Zina Keda, and Esperi are in your feed. Monday through Friday mornings. We got regular appearances by the Athletics Award-winning NBA reporters. Also, Andrew Schleck and Alex Spears cap the week with the Saturday slam and gym. So, pick with that.

Hoops is back again. Athletic NBA Daily every morning. We'll be back with second. win two. All right, we're back. We're going to talk about an American team. Can you guys believe it? Isn't that crazy?

They have teams down there. For you guys. Supposedly. In some spots, in some of the cold weather states. Rangers' haves last night. New York wins 7-2. One, Frank Carrado is covering the habs and the things for TSN. Pretty eventful game.

We saw plenty. Yeah. Frankie, what are we? We have to start. We have to start with the trouba hit because that's because that's what people are going to talk about. Let's not bury the lead. I got,

I got, you know, two kind of anecdotes on the Rangers. The one, like first the Truba hit, you have to be aware when that guy is on the ice, just like you had to be aware when Scott Stevens was on the ice. And it may not be as common.

These types of punishing open ice hits, but they happen when he's on the ice. And I feel for Justin Barron because he's a young player who's, you know, looking like he was more comfortable this year. And he was playing on the top pair with Mike Matheson. And he just tries to lay a puck on his back end, lets his guard down. And Jacob Truba finishes right through him. And Truba gets him. Like he had a bloody mouth on the play.

So Truba does make contact with the head. But it's not like a chicken wing elbow sticking out. he doesn't jump through him. Barron's a little lower on the follow through. It's a hard punishing hit. And I hope Justin Barron is okay. And it's just like a little reminder for everyone. Like you have to be aware when Jacob Truba is on the ice because he will finish hits and they are hard thunderous hits.

But you just, you don't want to see a player go down the way he did. It's, it's such a weird time in the NHL. as far as open ice hits because that hit last night, that was a big hit. You know, obviously, you put me on the receiving end of a hit like that and you never hear for me again. So I'm not diminishing it in any way. But there was an era where you saw hits like that almost every game. There was an era where you saw hits that were a much bigger impact than that fairly frequently in the league. and that is, as you say, Frank,

it's fading from the game for various reasons and that's fine. Sports evolve, games evolve. But it's got to be tough to be a player in this era where those hits are still legal. Those are still clean hits. Those are still hits that some guys, Jacob Truba being one of them,

know how to throw and are willing to throw. And yet you also might go a month as a team without seeing a hit like that. So you're right. You got to keep your head up and all of this. But it does kind of almost come out of nowhere for you sometimes if you're not really aware of who you're on the ice with, as opposed to 30 or 40 years ago where you just expected to see something like that almost every game. Or yeah, or you were getting like a cross check in the head. And it was like, hey, don't come hit me because my stick is coming up right in your head, whether you like it or not.

Or, you know, the Mark Messier elbows, like whatever you want to say. But it's almost like there's there's a transition period where you're. you're kind of blending like two generations of players together, right? Like Jacob Trub, I believe is my age. So we're born in 93, we're 31. You know, when we would have been coming up, watching hockey, playing hockey, these things were more common. These types of hits, these, you know, bigger, nastier players were still around.

So you kind of grew up with the awareness. Now, a lot of the guys that have come up in the last, you know, five years or so, they didn't have that. They didn't grow up with that. Like, it's just, it's different. So now you get to the NHL and you still have some guys that think, you know, think in terms of I can blow this guy up because he's got his head down and that's what I do. And so, you know, it's like the awareness has to be heightened for some of these younger guys. And you would think by now with, you know, all the hits that Truba has made, that's one of those things that gets talked about in the room before the game, It's like, boys, just quick little reminder, you know, Truba's out there.

You got to watch out for him. You know, I think back when I was young, who's one of my first games against, and this is a lesser extent, it was my first games against Minnesota. And I was playing with Dan Ham Hughes that night. And he comes up to me before warm up and he's like, hey, just be aware, Miku Koiwu is so good with his stick. So you may not see him coming, but he's like a, it's like a snake. Like he's just going to snipe your stick and steal the puck off you.

You really have to be aware of it. And I'm like, okay, that's, that's a guy who's kind of just like, he's fallen victim to that or he's seen it. And it's just now I knew about it during the game. I think guys have to have that kind of dialogue in the dressing room where it's like, just put it in the back of your head. Like, Truba's on the ice. Just make sure you're aware. I don't like using the term be careful because it kind of incites fear. But just you have to be aware when he's on the ice.

do we have any interest in making a differentiation between clean and legal because I saw that I saw that being I saw that kind of floating around last night where it's like yeah it was a legal hit by true but it wasn't necessarily clean I don't know where I stand on that like because at first I looked at and I was like that's it that's like that's the way to that's the way to discuss all this uh and after thinking about it for 30 seconds I kind of I kind of went back and was like I'm not sure this is, I'm not sure this is the most useful way to frame it. I think you're on the right track there. Like, okay, by the letter of the law, it's not a penalty per se.

It's really not because the, you know, he just delivers a hard hockey check. He doesn't clip the head, although the head takes contact. So I think that's where the clean and legal, you know, minutia of the words kind of makes sense. And also like, it was late in the sense that, Aaron didn't have the puck anymore, but it wasn't interference late either. No, exactly. Which is something that people, I think, when you get into the game of watching hits slowdown or whatever, you, you, two-tenths of a second turns into nine-tenths of a second pretty quickly. It was also 10 minutes left in a 5-2 game. Rangers are dominating.

There's no real history there. There's no. And, I mean, you play through the whistle. you play through the final buzzer. But also, I think some people would look at that and go, that that's not a time that you need to smoke a kid. And we get into this distinction a little bit when we have this, this conversation that it feels like we've been having for years now about

fights after hits. And, you know, this fact that it feels like every time there's a big hit, somebody's got to come over and drop the gloves or do whatever. And I've made the distinction before that there are, and Frank, you can probably speak to this because you would know, there are times where you see a guy and there's a chance to hit a guy and it's like, all right, I can knock him down or I can knock him out. And how much mustard am I going to put on this one?

And when you see a guy make the choice to really send a guy, I don't have a problem with someone skating over going, hey, the referee might not have a problem with that hit, but I do. And I'm going to try to make sure that the next person who has that decision to make against our team doesn't make that decision to give it the full 10 out of 10 clean or not. I don't care. I'm not the rulebook. I'm a teammate sort of hit.

And, you know, this is one of those that maybe falls into that area. I like it by Matheson. I think that's in this situation, A, your player got hurt on the play and it's a young kid. So you go after him and you fight. Like I give Mike Matheson a lot of credit for, you know, Jacob Trub was a really strong, tough guy. Mike Matheson is a smooth skating puck moving defenseman and he held his own in that fight. So a lot of credit to Matheson in that situation for doing that. But yeah, like when it comes to the fight after a clean hit, you know, we see it happen where, okay, guy got hit. He got up. He finished

a shift. No worse for where. And it's like, oh, here we go. Everyone's chasing them around the ice, which, okay, I get you want to defend your teammate, but it's like, this is the one where it like makes sense. I don't have an issue with this one. Some of them are just ridiculous. Some of them, I mean, it's minor contact. Frank, did you ever have a chance to hit a guy and realize, like, in the moment, this guy's in a vulnerable position? I'm going to hit him because it's my job, but I'm going to maybe back off just a little bit because I don't want to put this guy in the hospital. You know what?

Never anything where I thought it would be that extreme. Like, I did try to make some hits as a player, and I think, you know, I look back and I'm like, okay, that was, a good hard hit and maybe he didn't have anywhere to go, but, um, you know, nothing that was, that was that extreme. But you know what, guys, I always found this guys that play that style, even though it's late in the game, even though, you know, it's, you know, an unsuspecting guy, it's just like, that's kind of what you do and you've done for a long time. And it's just, you're just wired that way. Like you just, you never think that you're going to let up unless it's like, you know, the blind side or a hit from behind, which you know you're not going to do

anyways. But that's like, it's kind of like a green light for for Truba, unfortunately. And I feel for, I feel for Barron. Just one thing on the Rangers deep, Lindgren came back last night. I thought this was interesting, Ryan Lindgren came back last night. And they didn't pair him with Adam Fox. They had him with Victor Mancini on the third pair. So they went Fox, Miller, Schneider, Truba, and then Lindgren, Mancini.

And maybe, like, you know, is this the Rangers way of kind of spreading out their, you know, their talent and their players throughout the six-man unit? Because usually it would be Fox and Lindgren and then Truba and Miller and then you'd have a third pair that maybe didn't play as much. I don't know. It's just they're maybe spreading things around a little bit after trying Miller and Fox together in Lindgren's absence. I think the Lindgren-Fox, too,

that was an issue last year is as well, right? Like, you got to figure out the, you got to figure out the mix there on D-F for those guys. I'm trying to look up in numbers for their D-Pairings last night, and I'm failing here. But yeah, that's something. They would be pretty good. They would be pretty good last night.

There wasn't. They were going to be pretty good across the board. There wasn't, there wasn't, there wasn't a ton of action on the Montreal all end of, end of stuff, uh, whatsoever. No.

Well, I, you know, I just, and to bring it back to the, the, the, the,

the, the triba thing and then we'll, and then we'll finish up. I just always wonder, like, you guys, you guys, both spoke to this,

but we're seeing it more in the NFL. Like, it seems like every week there's, and people, people, people, it'll show up on Twitter or whatever, where you see an offensive lineman,

who has a chance is blow someone up, like, off, like, off, line of scrimmage and chooses not to. Like they blocked, like, the obvious one, the big ones, Quentin Nelson who played for the Colts.

And it was, it was in a week two game against the, against the Packers. He did his job and he blocked the dude, but he could have put him in the hospital and, like very conscientiously kind of chose not to. The NFL has tried to eliminate that. Yeah, there, you know, it wasn't that long ago where, especially if it was a pick six or something,

it was open season, go find the quarterback. and quote unquote block him right uh onto the i are and they they have stepped in and said they don't want that and the n hl really hasn't partly because i mean you what do you do i mean you do anything about this sort of hit you might as well take open ice hitting out of the game at this point yeah yeah completely completely like because the the concern there if you're the colts offensive lineman that that i just mentioned it you're not doing that out of the goodness of your heart you're doing that to avoid an unnecessary roughness penalty right like that's because that's it that's how they're calling stuff now because you're you're going to get fined and you're going to get

flag and people look at that and they say like okay this is some new mindset that's creeping into foot or you know that's made its way into football where guys are being smarter and more conscientious and more respectable more respectful of of opponents who are in who are in maybe a precarious position I don't think that's what it is. I think those guys are scared to not to, you know, they're, and they're trying to avoid, they're trying to avoid getting punished. So as long as this stuff is legal and it's,

and let's get, let's get real, it's, it's probably always going to be. There's, there's going to be, there's going to be troba hits where, where they're, you know, they're, you, you might not love them and they might look dirty from, from certain angles, but they're not. And, and you know what, and that's just part of it. The other thing that probably needs to be said,

for a guy that, you know, I don't know how much he looks for these hits, but, you know, at times they do present themselves. With the quantity of hits that he's going to throw in that fashion, there's going to be one or two along the way that get away from him and become illegal. And, you know, it's just that comes with the territory. But for the most part, like, it's hard, it's punishing, but they're legal hits. and the younger players, as long as Jacob Truba is in the league, they will have to be aware if they're not already when he's on the ice.

And before we let Frankie go, you should say, Ryan Lindgren, Victor Mancini on ice together, 18, 16, and shot attempts, six to five and in shots four. They were fine. They played well. It only took me five minutes to find.

Where are you at the rest of the week, but you doing any more games? No, I got some Jets intermissions coming up, and then back on the road next week for some Habs versus the Crack-in, and then Habs versus Washington. Love it. Yeah. See you then.

All right, boys. Have a good one. We'll back. Me and Sean Lowe to finish up. All right, we're back. Frankie's gone, his doorbell rang. It was elite timing by me. I think that's just more proof that I'm not.

really growing into my hosting job here, Sean. And I can, I can just send stuff like that. It's the instinct thing, right? It's, that's what you do when you're, when you're an audio professional for as long as I had, as long as I've been.

You know, I have decades of radio experience. Like my, my, my, my cat is afraid of anyone who's not an immediate member of the family. And he knows 30 seconds before anyone shows up.

I don't know how he realizes that somebody's coming up the, the driveway or, you know, driving up the street. And I always thought that was a cat instinct thing, but maybe you got it too. Like you just felt the delivery guy approaching Frankie's residence and you're like, I got to get out of here. Strong cat energy for me, I think, in general.

What do we learn this week, bud? What have we learned, Sean? I'm currently in the process of learning which front offices are respected around the league, and which are not. because we got this great piece that just went up this morning where 40 executives around the league were asked to pass their ballots on which front offices they think they have confidence in, and which they do not.

That's a lot of ballots, man. Boy, is it ever some interesting stuff. Yeah, they were asked to list five teams. So 200 votes altogether available And we've broken it down into a little point system here Where are the surprises for you? We'll sort of just skim it now Because I think you guys are going to get into more detail on it

Yeah, Haley and I are going to go deep on this tomorrow This is also, and like you said, this is on the site It's Arthur Staples, Chris Johnson, Mike Russo and Scott Powers A bunch of other people worked on it as well Haley and I are going to, you know, navigate the whole, the whole thing tomorrow. But it's, it's an interesting piece of work. And it's worth bringing up here. Maybe give me a surprise at the top in the top 10 and a surprise at the bottom.

I'm surprised that I think I'm surprised at the Dallas stars are number one. I know that I would have expected. them to be top three. Jim Nill is highly respected, well liked, great at his job. I love the way the stars are built today. I like the way they're built moving forward. They might have been, they certainly would have been top two on my ballot, but I thought that when you're, if you're talking about NHL executives, I didn't think they would pick a team that hasn't won a cup. There's no cups in the Jim Nill era. I think, I, I think, I, thought that kind of, I don't want to say that, that NHL front offices are results,

are results oriented because I think that's increasingly, increasingly less true. But I, I'm shocked that enough people didn't vote for the Panthers, not just because they won last year, but because of, just because of the work that Bill Zito's done in general. So I was, well, I mean, half these executives have lost trades to Bill Zito and built that team for So maybe there's some lingering bitterness there. You think that's it? You think someone talked to, you know, whatever. Brad for Living had to vote and drop and drop the Panthers down to 20 second on his ballot.

Brad is only involvement in this survey pretty much. I'm surprised. I'm mildly surprised with Bruins being as high as they are. I think that first team that I hit where I would say in that market, that fan base, there's maybe some raised eyebrows as far as Don Sweeney being under the gun, Cam Neely even from time to time. They got these votes during the Swamen stuff too. So these votes were cast before they finish the deal with them.

Yeah. So I mean, maybe that's the one that surprises me. And then, you know, if you go for if you do it in the top 10, definitely surprised to see. Maybe I shouldn't say surprised. but very interested to see Steve Eiserman still ranking in the top 10. That was that meat on the bone for you guys tomorrow. But that one I found interesting, let's just say. Yeah, I'm not going to say anything now because I only want to get yelled at by Red Wings fans for the content of one podcast.

I've got to tell you, man. I feel like it's starting to turn on that. Like maybe maybe this is, you know, I'm not. I'm not the Red Wings fan base nowhere, but I get yelled at a lot less these days, let's just say, when I question St. Stevie. That's because we're just grading on a, that's because we're just grading on a curve. It's less, but it's still, it's still a comically high amount for me.

There's a whole, there's a whole bunch of teams that didn't, that didn't receive votes. That, that's very embarrassing. I get 200 ballots here and you didn't get a single mention. Well, first of all, what's worse? Getting no mentions or getting exactly one fifth place mentioned the way the Maple Leafs did? I think that's more embarrassing. It might be, right? No votes, no ballot appearances for Lou Limerillo.

I thought someone would have just given them one out of respect for their resume because that's how that's how that's how execs tend to operate and we didn't see it happen. And, I mean, really, it was only four years ago. He won back-to-back GM of the year awards, which remember is voted on by the GMs around the league. It's crazy. Not purely as Lifetime Achievement Awards, because that was when the Islanders were surprising us and going deep into the playoffs. But this guy is, I don't even know if I'd say a beloved figure in front offices because he certainly, not everyone loves dealing with him, but he is a revered figure. and for him to not show up at all. Let's say that ballots are going out.

It's late in the preseason, like, whenever this was going on, sometime in late September, early October. Ballots are going out. Someone's ready to put Lou at number four or whatever, just out of respect. And then the execs get the waiver wire orders from the day before and see that Pierre Fung get sent down the HL. They're like, ah, no, never mind.

Never mind. Can't do it. That might have been it. The one I was a little bit surprised, no votes at all, was Chicago just because I've said a million times over the years that when you're doing the rebuild, the tear down is the easy part. But the tear down was done in Chicago, pretty much textbook. And, you know, maybe, again, this is maybe sort of the reverse loop, right? This is the young guy who hasn't proven himself to the group yet. but, you know, he's he's probably still one of those 20 GMs who's not allowed to talk at the GM meetings.

He hasn't earned his ability to say anything. Kyle Davidson's getting points deducted for not being, you know, 57 years old. That's what. Or maybe they just didn't recognize him, right? That could be there just like this guy in his ball cap, Kyle from Chicago. Kyle from Chicago. What are you working on this week, man? Anything fun?

I just had a post go up this morning where I took every team and I said, what was the worst start to a season that your team ever had that ended up not mattering because they were totally fine. They won. They made the play out. They did this or that. Because there's so much negativity around these days. And you know me, right?

What's my reputation? Beacon of positivity, spreading optimism, spreading hope. Exactly. At any and all opportunities. I'm just, you know, I'm a hugger is what I am. And I'm here to, I'm here to bring smile. to people's faces. So if you're a fan of a team,

especially that is off to a bad start, and you're thinking, man, are we already screwed? Because we're, I mean, we're a week away, right,

from, we're going to start here in November 1st. You're not in the playoffs. They're U.S. Thanksgiving. You're not in the playoffs. You're done. And I was amazed how,

frankly, easy it was for most of these teams to find a season where they were, in some cases, 0 and 4, 0, and 5, or in other cases,

you know, still under 500 into December, and it was fine. It all worked out. I need to read that. I haven't read that post yet. We need to put a smile on your face. That's on the site. We got a cool story on the future of PowerPlays from Flood Ocean Zawa.

Got a Shane of Post about Lavechkin being old. Spoiler alert. Some good LeBron news. It's a good afternoon on the site. Most of them are. I think it'll do it for us. I'll be back tomorrow with Haley. Again, we're doing a deep dive on the GM stuff.

There are the front office rankings, rather. There's tons and tons of good stuff there. We're going to crack into that with one or two of the people who are involved with getting those rankings together. Again, this is 40 ballots from 40 separate executives. A lot of work, a lot to dig into. Haley and I'll be back to do that tomorrow. Hope you listen.

And thanks for listening. Thank you.