The Athletic Hockey Show - Jacques Martin to consult Senators coaching staff, Patrick Kane showtime debut for the Red Wings is set and Los Angeles are the Kings of the NHL on the road

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

Ian and Julian discuss Ottawa's decision to bring Senators legendary coach Jacques Martin back into the fold with the team to be a senior consultant to the Sens coaching staff, showtime in Detroit, with the Wings announcing Patrick Kane's motor city debut and we stick tap the Los Angeles Kings who have won 10 straight on the road to start the season, and the Hughes brothers who all put on a show in Vancouver on Tuesday night.Down Goes Brown pops in to talk about the six things he misses from the ancient days of the NHL and Shayna Goldman stops by to tell us what we learned from the NHL in November and possible landing spots for Sean Walker, before Ian and Julian wonder if shelling out just under 200 dollars for an exclusive with Youppi is just a little too much. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. It's the middle of the week. It is your Wednesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Ian Mendezson, Julian McKenzie with you for the next hour or so. And it's a, man, it's a blast from the past for me, Julian. Imagine waking up on Wednesday. Finding out that a guy who you used to cover, in fact, not only did I cover Jacques Martin.

as a member of the media. I was a media relations member of the senators where Jacques Martin, like I actually answered to Jacques Martin back in the day. Like he was kind of, I didn't directly report to Jacques, but he would ask me for stuff all the time. All the time.

Working in the PR side. Looking for stats, looking for news clippings, everything. And, you know, so this is a really weird moment for me, you know, 20 some odd years later. It's like, well,

we're back in the same room. with Jacques Marten. That's awesome. So basically the way that you're describing this is, if we start to hear more and more scoops coming out of the locker room, we know what the obvious link is, right? Yeah, yeah. All of a sudden, I got all these scoops and it's from Jacques.

Like, you know what's funny is I had this memory today. Yeah. So I started working, I worked for like a season and a half in the PR department before I joined SportsNet. and like so this is the early 2000 so think like 2000 2001 2002 and the center

great team Alfredson uh you know hosa fisher chara all these great team but jacques martin he he's a real details oriented guy

he demanded that out of everybody including his PR staff and in a good way but I remember like there would be times Julian he would phone me on my cell phone looking for, because this is early 2000. So like the internet didn't really have all the stuff. Like he actually physically needed the stats to be delivered to him, right?

He would phone me from his office at, you know, like 7.20, 7.30 in the morning. He's like, hey, uh, just wondering where the stats are. And I would like, he must have heard that I was in my car because I, and I'm like, oh yeah, jock, I'm, uh, just down the hallway. I'll be there in a minute. Imagine lying to Jacques Whitean on his cell phone, but that's what I did. But you know what? I learned so much from him in those couple of seasons.

Just an absolute, like capital P professional. He just taught me the importance of structure and being prepared and being professional. Just a really nice gentleman. And it is really interesting, though, to see him back because, you know, there have been so much talk about DJ Smith and the future DJ Smith. I didn't, I never foresaw a scenario where, oh yeah, by the way, DJ Smith is going to have Jacques Martin helping him out. So this is, yeah, I'm, I'm just curious about the arrangement here. Like, how does being a coaching advisor work?

Like, if you're, you have your assistant coaches in your room as a head coach and you lean on them for different, you know, stuff with regards to your game plan and talking to players and all that. if you're a coaching advisor like do you have a seat in that coaching room? Is it just a situation where they call you kind of like how they call you about getting stats? Like I wonder what

that relationship is like. God, I would love for DJ Smith to phone Jacques Martin to be like, Jacques, do you have the report? And Jacques is in his phone, in his car. And he's like, uh, yeah, just a second DJ. I'm just around the corner.

get it to you a second. So the way it's going to work, this is really interesting because this isn't like, this is atypical, right? It's fair to say this is an atypical arrangement. You don't often have an advisor to the coach, right? Like this is something different.

So he's not going to be on the bench. He's not going to be on the ice. He's basically going to be up in the press box, watching games, breaking down some video and then offering, I guess, feedback. and assessment as he sees fit

and then they'll go to him as they see fit and I guess yeah, we'll see how this, it's certainly interesting though, right? Like, to have a coaching consultant. And of all people to have as your coaching consultant, someone who was associated with like the,

like some of the good and bad of the 2000s, Ottawa senators. Like, yeah, and mostly good. You know, to be honest, mostly good.

A lot of playoffs runs and good players, right? Like, he saw guys like Daniel Alpherson, I believe he was the head coach for, for the Danley Heatley years. Jason Spatzily definitely had under his watch. He never had, he never had Danny Heatley.

Okay. So that was just, so that was just before. Right. Um, but still, like I, like just watching like the senators on like CBC on Ockinite in Canada growing up.

Like Jacques Martin, I think of him as like the figurehead of those senators teams. Don't forget he had that sit in Montreal too. Uh, he coached them in, uh, in 2010 when they went on that journeyman run. On the Yarrow-Halak run.

Yeah, I remember for a story I did with a previous website I used to work for. I got to talk to him for that. And he was really nice. He was really gracious with his time. And that's a lot. I had some pretty good memories from coaching the Canadians in 2010. I like when you're like for a previous website I worked for it. Like we can't,

you're not allowed to name that you. Well, I've worked for a few places. I don't know. It's all good. Phapsize on the prize was the name of the website. I worked for the time where I wrote that story. You're right.

I don't need to be that exclusive. You're right. Where I think Chuck Morton deserves a ton of credit is I think he laid the foundation for a number of Hall of Fame careers. I think obviously Alfredson, but think Mary and Hosa and Zedano Chara. Like Julian, those guys became complete hockey players in Ottawa in Chara and then they ended up plying their trade elsewhere. But if not for the structure and responsibility that Jacques, I think, injected into their games at a young age, I'm not sure that their game gets to the level at the point in their careers that it did. So he deserves a ton of credit.

And now can he do that what he did with Hosa and Alfredson and Chara? Can he do it with Tim Stutzler and Brady Kach and, you know, whoever else you want to put in that core that needs that sort of element to their game? So that's the big story that that is brewing out of Ottawa. The big story, Julian brewing out of Detroit, it's Patty Kane going to make his debut. Thursday against San Jose, I'll be honest. I think a lot of us were hoping,

just from a story standpoint, the debut would come against Buffalo, but that's Patrick Kane's hometown team. They didn't even need him on Tuesday. The Sabres continue to struggle. Detroit wins, but it's Detroit and San Jose, Patrick Kane. I mean, he played in,

in New York. So there was a little bit of a breakup. Is it going to be weird for you to see a red 88 cane in, like in a winged wheel? Just because he's a Chicago guy. And Chicago and Detroit historically have been kind of rival. It could be weird for you to see Kane. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I think the fact that we've seen him in a New York Rangers uniform, that was that kind of broke up some of the weirdness. Like, yeah. Think of guys. you've watched across sports who you know of in one jersey and you're trying to picture them in like another jersey like Dwayne Wade wearing like a Chicago Bulls jersey or or as someone

put on Twitter today Michael Jordan, we're going a Washington Wizards jersey. Wizard's jury might be the one. Yeah, that's like that's the weirdest one or Wayne Gretzky in a St. Louis Blues jersey. That was weird. You know what I was reminded of and I just completely forgot. Do you remember Marcus Nasland one year with the Rangers at the end of his career? Like, not really, right? I forgot about that.

Yeah. I mean, Sun Dean in Vancouver was a weird one too. But I remember there were, it was a big deal that he was going to play for a different team and there were like sweepstakes. Okay, who is he going to go play in this city? He's going to play in that city. But like Marcus Naslin is a ranger. I don't remember.

That just went in and out of. my mind. Yeah. Yeah. Our producer Jeff says, yeah, Marty Bruder in St. Louis. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's, that's just... How many games? He played fewer than... He didn't play that. You know, the all-time... Actually, I got the all-timer for you.

Yes. Brett Hull Coyotes. That could have been longer than a season. I think it was like fewer than 10 games. Seven games for Marty Breder as a St. Louis Blue, by the way. Okay, so who played more, who played more games? Brodura with the Blues or Brett Hall with the coyotes? Oh, God.

Brett Hall played. Oh, my God. No way. 7.6? Oh, 7.5. 7.5. Marty Brer played more games as a blue than Brett Hall did with the coyotes. Yeah.

Also, one other thing that I have to admit, I only realized when I moved to Calgary. Brett Hall began his career as a Calgary play. Do you have any memories of Brett? I did not know that. I do. I generally did not know that. I think I was like 10 years old, 11 years old. And when we bring Sean McAdoo in,

he'll remember too. Like, oh, yeah. It was a, it was like, at the time, like it was a huge, it was a big trade when Hall went to St. Louis, but he had one good season in Calgary.

Did he not? Like a decent season. 26 goals, 50 points in 52 games in 88. Yeah. So it was kind of like, okay, you could see the potential in the guy.

It wasn't like they were, you didn't know what the deal were, but he just exploded with the 70 goal season. I think he had in 90 and then the 86 and then it just sort of, you know. And then it culminated with the GT Snowracer commercial. You ever seen this thing? I've never seen it's Brett Hall. G.T. Snow, do yourself a favor when we're done. And go watch on YouTube, Brett Hall, just type in Brett Hall,

GT Snowracer, you will not regret it. You and the listeners. Did you see that? Did you see, there was a trailer for a movie called Minor League or a couple of days ago, and Brett Hall is in it with with Timu Salani. Have you seen that trailer? Like a new movie? Like a new movie.

Like it's something that's being big up for like next year. I have, no, never heard of it. Okay, we're just teaching each other stuff. But like, I've seen this. I will go. There's a movie called Minor Liger going around. and Brett Hall and Teeu Salane are in it. The quality looks kind of, it does not look like it's going to be a good movie.

But I don't know if people care. Back in the day, we would call this direct to DVD, but they don't have that anymore. Is that what this is giving the direct to streaming? I guess, oh, it's given, it's given direct to DVD. Like, you're going to find this in the bargain bin at the end of the year for like $5 when you walk into your neighborhood like Proxum or or Shopper's Drug Mart. I don't even know if Shoppers drug martes going to take that movie depending on how it is, but I swear

we could both do our Googles after this. I'll look up the GT Noma commercial, you look up the trailer for the movie Minor Leaguer with Brett Hall and Tebow Salon. Okay, real quick, let's hit on a couple of games from Tuesday night. Some wildly entertaining games, some big comebacks.

First of all, the LA Kings, I honestly thought they lost the game yesterday. So I'm at the Ottawa game against the Rangers. and I'm seeing, oh, I was like, wow, Columbus is up 3-0 on the Kings. And I thought, that's interesting because Otto was up on the Rangers and these are two games you didn't think they would go that way.

And then I'm in the scrum post game and somebody says to me, did you see that L.A. came back? I was shocked. But Julian, they were they 10 and 0 on the road? Yep. That's incredible. That's a team that I was nuts. That's nuts. I thought this team was going to take a step back.

and I was really concerned about the state of their goaltending. But it seems like it works with Kent Talbot and Phoenix Copley over there. Like, that's awesome for those guys. And yeah, I was watching a bit of that game too while waiting for Minnesota Calgary yesterday. And even Johnny Goodrow had scored for Columbus. So I was thinking, okay, I guess Columbus has this in the bag. And then you see, I think Drew Dowdy helped complete the comeback for the Los Angeles Kings. And then as the game I'm watching is going on, I see that it was 4-1 for the New York Islanders

over the San Jose Sharks. And then the San Jose Sharks came all the way back. Wow. Break up the sharks. That's awesome. Like, good on the Sharks. Honestly, we really thought that they were going to be the worst team imaginable. And I kind of thought, I kind of thought it was a little funny that GM Mike Greer

wanted to have this moment with the players and be like, hey, you know, like some of these 10-0 losses we're having. That's unacceptable, which I get it. You want your players to play better, but also, the roster wasn't supposed to be that good. It was supposed to be tanking for Celebrini or slacken for Macklin. I don't know. But now they've put together

a reasonable string of results. They still have more regulation wins than the Leafs. Like it's, this Shark's team. They're not, I don't expect them to make the playoffs, but at the very least, like they've built up a little bit more respectability in the way that they've played

these games and the way that they've gotten some wins over some teams that we all figured would be better than them. Yeah. No, I, I'm shot. I mean, they gave the Rangers the run for their money the other night, the 6-5 game. So the sharks have been playing. If you're going to be, if you're going to lose, at least be entertaining and lose,

and they've certainly been entertaining in those games in New York City. Speaking of entertaining, Vancouver staged to come. Yes, they were down by three. They roared back only to lose. What were they calling that? Hughes-a-Paloosa or whatever the heck that was with the Hughes brothers in there. Husea Paloosa. Who was calling Husea Poulosa? I just did. Jack and Luke, pick up the win.

I don't think it was me. Other people are calling it Husea Pallusa. I feel like they were. Anyway, I don't think, I don't think that's a bad name. I'm just curious about who was creative enough to come up with that. I feel like I saw that, either saw it or heard it. Okay. That's amazing.

They are, you get both goals from the Hughes brother or to the Hughes Brothers score for the Devils. Wondly entertaining game. but boy, Rick Tockeet was not happy. Who would you rather, and we've got to step out for Down Goes Brown, but who would you rather, like, listen to after their team

is involved in a sloppy game? Rick Tockeet or Lou Lamarillo? Like, who would you rather be? Oh, God. I feel like Talk, would at least, you know, come up with some woody one liners. I don't know if I want to be in the same room as Lou.

I feel like all Lou has to do is just scowl at you. And then you're, you're, you're down back. I mean, I think they both pale in comparison to John Tortorella after a game like that. Torts is going to, torts will go off. He'll, he'll be snarky enough. But if I have to pick, I'd rather be in the room with Tom. Okay. Well, let's let our next guest, Down Goes Brown,

marinate on that question. We'll ask him, who would you rather be around after a cuff loss, Rick Pocket or Lou Lamariella? We're here from Sean McAdoo on the other side as we take a quick break. All right. As we say hello to our palmerla, down goes brown. Sean McIndoo, let's ask you the question.

Because Rick, Rick Tockett was super sour after Vancouver lost. I'm sure Lou Lamarrello was super sour after the Islanders squandered a big lead at home. Who would you rather just see like or actually maybe, okay, maybe this is a better way to phrase it. You're on the receiving end of a like a tongue lashing. Would you rather it come from Tocket or Lamarillo? That's the way I'll phrase it. Okay. So this was my question to you, was I, was I involved?

in the law. Yes. You are the coach. Then give me Lou Lambert. Because I will get screamed at by an 80-year-old. I won't like it. But at no point am I going to fear for my health. And Rick Tucket is one of those guys.

He's in that coaching group with like Brindamore and Craig Baroube, where he could put on skates right now and be like top ten toughest guys in the NHL. So I want no part of angry Rick Tockeet. being this close to me because if I say something wrong or I have the wrong facial expression and next thing I know I'm getting 1988 Patrick Division style justice meet it out. I'm not, no, not taking that risk. So you're a believer in old man strength?

Well, I mean, I'm a believer to some extent in old man strong. I mean, I didn't get mine yet, but it's... I mean, you're not old. He actually started his column today with the... exact phrase, I am old. Did you not? I did. Yeah, that was the whole point of today's calling was how old.

So, uh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Uh, I appreciate hearing from one of the youngans that, uh, you know, I'm maybe I'm, I'm not as old. So yeah, I'm, I believe in old man strength, but I feel like Lou Lamarillo, like I'd at least have a chance.

I feel like I could get away from Lou Lamarillo. I don't think, you know, I, I'm not going head to head with him, but I feel like if, if there's like, if I, if I can scurry away. like get to, you know, throw a couple of tables down. Maybe I can make an escape. I'm not getting away from Rick talking. I'm done. No.

You know what? Speaking of, again, you started your column with I am old and I loved it. And your column is, hey, here's a handful of things I miss about the NHL back in the day. Now, just for a little bit of context here, Sean, Julian McKenzie to open this podcast said that he didn't know. And I'm not, I'm not mocking you here, Julian. I'm just, this is more about an exercise. I don't think this is mocking at all.

I don't take this as you making fun at all. Yeah. So, Sean, he says to me at the start of the pod, he says, you know, until I moved to Calgary, I never knew Brad Hall played for the flames. I had no, I genuinely had no idea. No idea. Okay. I've seen him in a Dallas Stars uniform.

That's pretty young. But like Detroit, St. Louis, like even Phoenix. Like I have more members of him in a coyote's uniform that I have. did see him in a Calgary Flames uniform. Nobody saw him in a Flames uniform because he was no good when he was with the flames. But, but,

you still, just, okay, just please just tell me, Ian, at least tell me that he, he knows, like what straight to DVD is,

right? Like, you didn't have to teach him that at all. No, I think he did know, I know what straight to DVD is. Yes. Okay.

All right. I feel, yeah, I feel good. I don't even. Speak to Blu-ray, probably for him. Yeah.

I would, hey, look, HD, DVD, I was around when HD DVD versus Blu-ray was a thing. I know what that means.

Were you around when it made the switch from standard, like when typical TV sports went from standard to HD? To HD. Yeah, I remember we had this old like tube TV that was just like, the screen was just getting worse and worse in terms of the orientations that were getting shown to us. And my dad and I, around Christmas break one year, we went to this like electronic store and we bought this like,

70 inch TV. And there was a good like five minutes where we brought the box into our basement. And we were just looking at the TV. We were like, Dan, this is a big ass TV. Yeah. It was a whole thing.

Back then, how, how thick was it? It must have pushed out like three feet from your wall, right? God, man. It was insane. Yeah.

We were like looking at in the house and we had gotten someone to put it up on the wall. Like that was a big deal in our household. That was a, this was like, maybe like, what a decade ago? Maybe a little less. Like this was a big deal.

Yeah. I had one of those TVs and I couldn't, like, we wanted to replace it, but we're like, we can't get this thing out of the house. Like, how are we going to get this up the stairs? There's no, there's no way. I'll tell you this. This is my, it's, it's not a hockey story, but it's a sports story. When we got that TV, Ian, you were probably involved in this in a way because we were having

people over for the Super Bowl. My wife and I were like, we got to get a high-deaf TV. We got to get it in place and hook up before the Super Bowl. and I remember we got it and we hooked it up and we're looking at it going is this HD I don't know like the screen's so much bigger than we're used to so it's kind of hard like is this HD

is it not HD and I said I don't think it is and it was the pregame show it was Fox pregame show and I'm behind the TV I'm playing around with like the wires and plugging things into different places and my wife is sitting there going I think it's a little better I think it's a little worse and suddenly I switched something

and I heard her scream in horror and I jumped up and she was like yeah okay now it's definitely HD because it was a close-up of Terry Bradshaw and it had just clicked into high definition and that's what was freak in horror because the high definition for the first time and that was that's how we knew that yeah okay we've we've we've got every everything hooked up right oh my are you sure that wasn't Terry Bradshaw from the movie failure to launch that that because that made some people scream could have been

Could have been that too, but no, this was, this was pregame show, Terry Bradshaw. I tell you, man, is everybody loves HD until you have to be on TV. Yeah. And then you're like, you know what? Fuzzy standard definition was just fine. Yeah, exactly. Hey, we're talking about the old school stuff. And that's kind of the genesis of your column that ran on Wednesday about,

hey, here's a handful of things that I miss about the old NHL. We're talking rando face off locations, officials kind of jumping up on the glass. You know my favorite one that you put today is the cranky old goal judge? Give me that guy. Where's that guy? It was great. It was, this is, again, Julian, like, back in the day, there used to be in every arena, two, one at each end, cranky. They were all old.

They were all guys. They all looked cranky. And they sat right behind the net and they had a little button. and when they saw the puck go across it, they hit that button and that lights or, you know, some version of it in all the ranks now, but it's all automated and, you know, we have replay if there's an argument.

But back then, no replay, nothing like that. What that guy said went and occasionally when you had a controversial goal over, like, did it cross the line or not, inevitably the camera would cut over to this just old guy hunched over button. He usually had glasses. Like the way I said in the column, You would not trust these guys to back your car out of the garage. Like you'd be like, no, no, I'll do it.

Don't worry. But they were in charge of seeing these like micro inch things. And what you got that was really fun sometimes is because they were right there. If they called a goal and the goaltender disagreed, you got some real incidents. I mean, you'd had guys go over and like smash their stick on the glass. There was a miko Norenin in the, in the HL, went over with a towel and wiped off the glass, you know, like sort of like, let me help you out. since you clearly can't see too good. It was fantastic.

And, you know, they would just sit there at their arms crossed, looking all mad. It was great. I miss that. And it's yet another reason why replay has destroyed the NHL is that we have lost these wonderful, crotchety, old squinty guys that would decide whether your team made the playoffs or not because some pocket come close to the line.

Considering where we are with the state of replay now, I was thinking the whole time you're explaining this, would the game be better or worse if we brought these people back? I mean, I'm just saying can we have just the face of can we have maybe they work in the war room in Toronto and like we get to cut to see them doing the like just something. I want to have a fake because if the call goes against my team, I need somebody to hate for the next 10 minutes. I need to see a face.

It can't be like some faceless like, oh, Toronto said that. No, no, I want to see a guy. And especially every now and then. And this is, this is, you had to be a real fan for this, but you'd see a guy, you'd recognize it. You'd be like, not this guy. This guy hates us. It was always, this guy hates us.

It was never like, this guy's good. But it was, it would just be, be mad at the, the old crusty guy sitting there. I mean, it's just like at each end of the ice. It was one of the two guys from the Muppets at each end of the ice, just sitting there. And those, they were in charge of deciding when the red light went got to go on. What about a celebrity goal judge now? Like, wouldn't that be like a cool way to market for the NHL? Like, you, you, you,

You mentioned the Muppets. Like, what if Miss Piggy and, like, Kermit were on opposite end. Oh, you're like, actually Muppets? I feel like we wouldn't, the NHL, I don't think to get Kermit or Miss Piggy. I feel like we could get, like, the guy with the dynamite, maybe. Scooter. Like, it's like that. Kermit's doing NFL.

There's no way we're getting Kermit for, for an NHL. But we could, we could maybe, like, you know, Rizzo the Rat could probably maybe, maybe do a Panthers game. There, there you go. Or a Bruins game for Marchand. That's one of the two. That's true. Wink for it.

Oh, man. They could probably afford the Muppet babies, I think. NHL can afford Muppet babies? There we go. Ian, Ian, can I bring up one of the six things that I have beef with with DGD over? The one that says, I kind of miss when there was no scorebug on broadcast.

How? I look back on old footage and I see these games and there's no score bug or it'll randomly just appear on the screen for a couple of seconds. And I wonder, like, how the heck did people watch sports? Like, what if you turn on the TV and a random hockey game is on? And this was like,

1986 or whatever, just any year before 93, 94, when I think this was a bugger together. I like how you can tell he's making up a year, like, making a, he's like, out, 1400s, whatever. I, I, I, what I was at Syracuse, what I was at Syracuse,

I took a class with this old professor. I don't want to start calling people old, you know, whatever. This guy named Dennis Deniger who worked on a, I think he worked on the 94 World Cup broadcasts where they brought out the scorebuck. So like he's part of like the people who were like first brought it to television. So like the idea that like a world where there is no way we could tell what the score is blows my mind.

And I like I love that technology. I love how it's remodeled. Like I'm one of those people who like will look at old footage. Like, oh, remember the old CBC score bugs from like 2002? Oh yeah. The little small blue ones in the corner and all that. So what the hell are you talking about? You miss the days when there wasn't what.

And I do say in the piece, I've got like, there's six things I list in the piece. Five of them, I'm like, I love these. I wish they came back. This one, I'm like, look, I acknowledge that the bug is an improvement. I'm just saying there was a time where when you turned on the TV and you didn't know. And you had to, you know, try to pick it up from context clues. You'd be like, how much of a buzz is there in the crowd? I don't, is it changed since the last time I saw?

And you'd just be, you know, you'd be going off like, oh, the coach looks a little mad. Oh, wait, it's Brophy. He's always mad. And then, you know, eventually they would usually say the score. They'd find a reason to show the scoreboard. But I don't know what to tell you, man. We felt alive when this. Yes.

Yeah, that moment of, like you were your Schradinger's hockey team. Like you didn't know. Like, are we winning? Are we losing? What's happening? You didn't know how much time was left. You didn't know if there was a power play. Like I say in the piece, it's like, am I, well, okay, is my team killing a five on three

or are they just the Maple Leafs? Because they're just like getting absolutely destroyed, hemmed into their own end. And you'd be like counting guys like, oh, no, we got five. Okay, I don't know what the problem is. It just added an air of mystery. And you know what? Like this generation, you guys don't know what it feels like to not know something. this was the feeling of not and you could just be mad

because like your dad had been finishing a movie and like hadn't flipped over in time and you'd be like now we're never, that's going to be like 20 minutes until Bob Cole gets around to telling us the score. It was just, it was a different type of vibe is all I can say. You know what it was?

It was a prankster's paradise because somebody would walk into the room and they're like, what's the score? He'd be like, five nothing devils. Yeah. And then like, then they would go to commercial

and it's, you know, one-one. Yeah. You know, whatever. It was a pranksters. Pranksters. Okay. Before we let you go, Sean, actually, I'm working on collabs with both of you this week. And you and I, Sean, you and I have one coming on Thursday, setting up Toronto.

You want to talk about standard death and CBC of the early 2000s. That's the theme of this collab, you and I got cooking for Thursday. That's right. Yeah. The top 20 battle of Ontario moments. from that from that five year window when it was a rivalry. And we rank them based on how crazy it would have been in the social media world when that happened, which is not necessarily the same as best to worst or most memorable.

But let's just like we, I was just writing about it just before I came on with you guys. Like we used to argue about this stuff. We'd yell at each other, you know, break up Fent. But we didn't argue on social media because it didn't exist back then. And there's just some of these moments where you look back and you go, oh, if Twitter had existed when this happened, or if we had gifts back then that we could have circulated around, that moment would have just would have been gift into oblivion. And yeah, it's, it's an interesting list. And it's, I think it's going to be fun for the old timers, but also any of you newbies out there who are like, Battle of Ontario, at least two teams are never good.

Like, yeah. Trust me, man. It wasn't a big window, but there was about a five-year window. I put it with Alberta, with, you know, anything else. Crazy, crazy stuff. And we're going to relive a bunch of it tomorrow. Yeah. So I have one guess what could number one could be, I guess.

But I don't know if it were, what you guess? What's your guess? Spoiling it. Was it Steve Thomas that OT winner in, what was it? 2000. You know what? It's on the list. It's on the list.

Great goal. Great overtime. Dude, not even, not even close. to top of my goodness. Yeah. I don't think it's not 15. Yeah. It is, uh, it's, it's there, they probably packed a lot into five years.

Let's just say. Yeah. Okay. Amazing. Yeah. Oh, right. The, the, the, the producer Jeff mentioned a really obvious one. I don't know if you have time to bring that up.

But you know what? You mentioned a really obvious one that, duh, that's definitely good. That might be number one. That might be number one. It's up there. It's up there. It's, uh, it's, uh, we had a lot of fun putting this one together. So.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. look for it coming up. Good tease, gentlemen. Good tease. There it is. All right. Have a great week, Sean.

And we look forward to getting you again next Wednesday. Right on. Talk you later, guys. There goes our guy, Sean McIndoo. So yeah, we're looking forward to that. Toronto, Ottawa. Coming your way on Thursday. And I will tell you, Zadano Chara Brian McCain might be on the list too.

And if you know, you know. Let's bring in Shana Goldman, shall we? I think Shane is all set. ready to roll. Yep, there we go. Hi. Shea. What's going on?

How was Shana doing here on this Wednesday? I'm fine. How are you? Oh, I don't like I'm fine. Fine doesn't, it's not good. It's just fine. You know, no, it's fine. It literally is fine.

It's a Wednesday, you know? They get better as it goes on. Yeah. It's better than a Monday. You're doing better than some Danny, teams right now, I'm sure. Yeah. You know, we want to get you on because, you know, we're at that 20 game mark of the season

and you kind of have, you know, something this week that you were like, hey, here's what we learned about November and here's kind of where we're at with the, like, is there as we hit this 20 game mark in the season, there's something that surprised you? Because, you know, you're so good at at at least being able to look at the numbers, look at the analytics. And I would think that oftentimes things don't surprise you the way that they would, me or Julian, right? And so I feel like you're a little, a little bit more.

more in tune with that. Is something surprised you so far this season? The Panthers, the Florida Panthers definitely surprised me. Like, the first couple of games of the season, I remember I looked at Oliver Equin Larson's numbers, and I was like,

oh, that is, those are tough. And it felt like immediately he was thrown into a role that was kind of above his skill set at this point in his career. And they were asking him to do more than I think, well, I assumed his body could handle.

And, you know, you're factoring in that, plus, you know, bigger minutes for guys like Nico Mikola, who would be a depth defenseman anywhere else or, you know, Dmitri Kulikov because you have the Montur and the Eklad injuries. But they were really good defensively. Like, sorry, Mika has a lot of feelings about this.

Hi, Mika. It's a little demon. I'm sorry. But, no, like, they crushed it defensively. And especially on the penalty kill, like, they're the best team in the league and expectacles against well, short-handed. I never would have guessed that. I wish, you know what, because so into this.

My God, the only thing I wish is we're talking about the Panthers, I wish we were talking about Barkoff while your dog. Oh, see, that would have been cute. Yeah. But see, if we're talking about the penalty kill, we are talking about Barkoff because he's so impactful to it. I mean, like, he's already making a case for the Selke. Like, I'm never surprised to see him thrive.

And we know he can carry his own line. Like he doesn't need someone like Matthew Kachuk on his line. They keep him split up for a reason. He's so good defensively. And he's so good at turning defense into offense. And that's what makes him such a threat on the penalty kill too. You know, like he's been outstanding in his minutes. and you see that they're developing, you know, like a baby bark off in Lundell,

who hasn't popped off as much offensively, but is still making an impact defensively. That's exactly what Florida needs right now. That's what they needed to start the season. That's what we all had, like, our, you know, concernometer is like off the charts for it. Who thought they would have been good? Speaking of who we,

speaking of that last point that you made there, one of your thoughts on, on the state of goaltending in the NHL right now. We're looking at the stats right now. Aidan Hill is having himself a baller year, at least from a GAA standpoint at 187. And here are some of the other leaders on that statistical stat I just brought here. Camp Talbot has a 196 GAA.

Jeremy Swayman, who was the number two to Linus Allmarked last year, is at a 208. Then you have Connor Ingram. Those are some of the better goalies that we've seen this year. And we can get through safe percentage and shoutouts as well. Tristan Jerry has three shoutouts this year. Where have you made of goaltending this year in the NHL? We still know nothing about the position that we shouldn't be talking about it ever. We should leave it to the goalies. Like it is okay, I think that we're stretched to our

limits with what we have publicly available for pretty much everything. Like it would be so nice to have like the tracking data that's out is nice, but there's so much more to it that we could use and learn from. And it just feels like with skaters, we could talk about the complications, but then you touch on goaltenders and it's an entire mess. I mean, everything about goaltending. What we know, what we don't know. It is so challenging. And it's so hard to to understand a goaltender, how they're going to transfer teams, what's the impact of their goalie coaches, what's the impact of the team playing in front of them? What are they going to be like year to year? So you mentioned something like Cam Talbot, and we have such a hard time

projecting that because we don't know a ton about how goalies age. Like we have aging curves, but for goaltenders, that's the one we have the least information on publicly at least. And you think that when a goalie gets into their 30s, like oftentimes we see their games to climb pretty rapidly unless they're that elite tier, which he never was. And, you know, we look at the different teams he's played on in recent years. You look at the senators last year. They were a bad defensive team and he was just below average. And you're like, okay, maybe that's fine, right?

Like at this point his career, maybe he's not suited for that like he was when he was with the Rangers and with Edmonton in particular. But then you kind of go back to his last year in Minnesota and you go, well, he played behind that stout defensive team and he was still bad. So you look at that and think, well, how is he going to fit in L.A.? Is that the way to go? And he's been absolutely positively outstanding so far. I mean, like, you look at their penalty kill, it's been good.

It hasn't been like unreal. It's been good. But the difference is how they're playing in front of the net and what Cam Talbot's doing. Like he has been so lights out, which is why they've one of the best penalty kill percentages in the league. He has been so top notch. And yes, he has a ton of support, but he's responding well to that workload in a way I think none of us could have anticipated.

You know, I think as we get into this 20 game mark of the season, 25 game mark, we've seen Minnesota make a coaching change, Edmonton make a coaching change. you had to look around the league and say like here's where I think it's a super hot seat or the seat is getting warm. Where are you looking at right now? Ottawa and the Islanders. I think that there's two hurdles for each one to make a coaching change. Like, yes, each team's getting worse goaltending than they did last year. It's not by some huge degree, but it is a step down.

And we know that oftentimes a coach gets fired because of a streak of bad goaltending. But in in these two teams cases, it's not the goaltending. Like, Sorokin's been great. He hasn't been to the elite perfect levels of last year. which is a super high bar. And Corpusalo has been just below average. He's not the problem and they have a lot of injuries. But you just look at it and think for the Islanders,

something drastic needs to happen. And they had that bad streak and they didn't make a coaching change and then things turned around. You're welcome. It's because I wrote that story that everyone was so happy about Islander fans. I saved it for you guys. I'm here to help. But you look at that team and it's just that Lou Lamarillo doesn't like change, which is why Lane Lambert is still there.

I would say, and you look at the senators, and there's a reason that they don't have a new coach, I would say, and it's because maybe they want to install permanent management first, right? Being like, why would you now hamstring a GM to that coach, unless I don't know, you keep who the interim

GM is as the full-time GM. Like, we all expected to happen. I take no pleasure in asking you about this next question, Shana. For those who may remember earlier in the year, we went back and forth about to Kyle Connor and Carter Verhage's placements in the athletic player tears.

As it stands right now, Kyle Connor, 15 goals for a career season in goal scoring. What are your thoughts on Kyle Conner's 2020, 2023, 2024 campaign?

I think I'm a jinx this year. You look at the Islanders. You look at John Heinz in the wild. Like, I think teams and players need to start sending me checks saying right about me because then my luck will change. You know what the thing is?

I think Carter Hage is still having a very good season. You know, I think the stat, the random stat that he ranked so highly and kind of encapsulates what he means to the Panthers in its third period goals. He's among the best in the league. He's just clutch. He should be on Power Play 1 consistently. His numbers would be up there. But Kyle Connor is absolutely killing it. And it's interesting to compare it to last year, which was a step down for him.

And he's at a high bar for himself because we know he's such a talented goal score. And he can beat goalies in so many ways. And that's the big difference between this year and last year. and this is what's more characteristic from his other seasons, is that he has so many different weapons, and that's what makes him so special, that he can beat goalies with his backhand, he can tip into flex shots,

he can beat him with the wrist shot, and he has a slap shot, he can lean on too. Like, he can really, that variety, I think, is what makes him such a special player, and he's crushing it. He's,

he's an offensive force for the Jets this season. I think he's a big reason for their early season success, and I'm all about it. I think it's great and wonderful for him, and if he hits career year marks, I would like a nice little check, the mail from him. That's all. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You want to check in the mail. Wasn't there a whole thing we were trying to a whole bet between you and I? That's still true, but I feel like he owes me. Like,

I think I cursed him into this. No, no, no, no. What was the wage? I'm trying to remember what the wager was. I don't remember if we were able to come up with something for me. Did we nail something down? I feel like we did. I don't know if we did, but I think what you was it something to do is you were trying to play both sides of this. I'm not. I am not playing both sides here. I think it's wonderful that he's doing that. I just think that I have this gift this season that I never saw it coming. Like anybody else, you want me to write about the San Jose Sharks next? They're going on a five-game winning street.

Like, this is the test I think I need. No, actually, here's a good test. My next project is on Alex Ovechkin, who isn't scoring goals this year. So if I write from him and he starts scoring goals, we know the reason for it. Producer Jeff might cut you off this segment just for you mentioning that. He does, I know for sure he does not like the idea of anyone threatening Wayne Gretzky and the all-time goal scoring mark. So you might get a nasty email from Jeff Domey after this is over.

I love it. Hey, Shane, before we let you go on this Wednesday, yeah, I want to just take a real quick look at the trade market, especially with defensemen, because I know this is something you've written about. You know, obviously as, you know, Vancouver and Calgary have made a trade on the back end. You know, you got Sean Walker, Tyson Berry, Cannav available. Like, are you seeing any natural fits here for a team that might need a defenseman right now? Yeah, I feel like the Maple Leafs could use everyone.

They're so broken. They were flawed to start and broken. I like someone like Walker for them. Personally, I feel like he is the top four guy they're missing and the right-handedness would help them. But I also could see him being a really good fit for Dallas. I feel like Dallas is a tricky one because they do have Hock and paw on the second pair and that could be fine. So they could just go for the depth move for that third pair, you know, third pair guy. And that's where like a Tyson Barry could come in.

So that's kind of like my, you know, match right there. And I could see the devil's going hard. I have someone like Chris Tannav because it feels like they know what they need. And at the end of like, yes, there's the Hamilton injury. But with Brendan Smith, like he's killing penalty. He's playing games. He shouldn't be playing because he can kill penalties. They need that fourth penalty killing defensemen.

and I assume they think that Douggy Hamilton has a chance of returning in the regular season if he's not on LTIR yet and they don't want to spend that money. So maybe they don't need to chase that offensive defenseman. They just need to fix the problem that they had entering the year. So I feel like Tana for Jersey would make a lot of sense. Just to have that shot blocking defenseman who can contribute a little bit of everything you need defensively. Like he legitimately is one of the best shot down defensemen in the league. It's just the way you play that game might hurt you a little bit. Coming soon to the athletic.

Chris Tanev trade destinations. Is that the same? We did Linholm. We have happened. We did to fully before that happened. And we got Zadora. So it's only natural. You let me know we'll get on that.

Yeah, we'll get on that for sure. That's definitely going to happen. As soon as you start to put the draft together, though, he'll be traded because that's the way Shane has been. No, don't do that. No, no, we have gotten through. I think every single one we've gotten through, knock on wood, this year. And like last year we started, we're proactive.

Like, look how early we're starting. Oh, yeah. We were on Lynn Holm like a long time ahead of the game. Did we work on that during the draft? Yes, it was just before, it was like a little, couple weeks before the draft, I want to say. Like, we were on top of that. We had like a salary comparisons with like Bo Horvatt and all that. We're on top of that.

So, and if, and if, and if the. flames are going to continue to kind of wait on Chris Tanna. We've got a lot of time to make that work. I would be scared to wait on him personally. That's what, see, you know what? I'm very mixed about that because he's a very useful defense. And I think if you get him at the deadline, I can see teams trading like, you know, decent prices for him.

But every time he goes to the like every time he tries to block a shot with his face, I'm like, oh, goodness, there goes like a trade piece for the Calgary Flames. You are not alone in being like, I don't know if this. this team should wait. I would have waited on Zadouroff personally if I were them and been like, hey, we don't need to rush this because the return isn't as good as it should be for someone who like that who would drive up the market at the deadline,

but Tannav is the guy that you're like. I'm with you on that, but to a certain extent, I also get why they didn't wait. They created some salary cap space for themselves. They didn't have to retain salary. There are some benefits on the other side that work for the Calgary Flames. With that being said,

in the same boat as Chris Tanef, I definitely think if they wait, they get a much higher return. Absolutely. on that. Okay. Shana, we'll let you go

and we'll ask our listeners because apparently the three of us have some sort of memory lapse here. I feel like there was a bet. I think there was. And I feel like it had somebody to do with your, you know, obviously, Shannon, you have that amazing side hustle

where you do all sorts of things. Like was there a piece of clothing that you were going to do for Julian in exchange? Anyway, somebody will jog our memory. We'll tell us. Yes. Or they can make it up and we'll believe it.

Because I'm down for the bet. I just, we just never came up with an actual thing. Of course. you're down for the bet because you're way ahead in the race. But I'm in for it too. I'm going to keep my word. I'm going to from that ahead. I mean, like, six points up.

But like my boy's doing eye for himself. You know what I'm saying? Like, he's good. He good. I love it. All right. Have a good one. Thanks for having me.

Right, there goes, as always, terrific to have Shana Goldman joined the pot. We need to wrap up the Wednesday edition of this athletic hockey show. By talking about, the Montreal Canadian is getting a bit of criticism this week, and that is after they announced a package that you could purchase in addition to your ticket, when you go to the Bell Center,

you can purchase the UPI package, UPI being the big orange mascot who roams around the Bell Center. For $195, you could have, I'm just making sure this is called the, I love this, the Fur on Demand package. you can have a brief visit where UPy comes to your exact seat. He will take a photo with you.

He will come with confetti. There's UPi if you're watching our stream, the big orange guy. He will have confetti, a personalized sign, and a little bit of UPy sway. Two hundred dollars. Now,

the Canadians took a ton of heat for this as people are saying, like, why are you paying for a mascot to come by your seat? Apparently now the website says, that anybody who does purchase the fur on the bay end package, the profits or the proceeds will go to the Canadian Children's Foundation. Okay. So I don't know.

Here's a question I have. Here's a question I have. Because a mascot, whether it's UP, whether it's anybody, typically you're at the game as a fan. You might see them along the concourse. You might see them in your seats in the stands, wherever. So what if you're just walking around and you see UPy? and you're like, hey, man, I want to get a photo with you.

Does he, like, give you like a receipt? Like, he's say like, hey, he costs $200. Hey, does he pull out like a debit machine and you have to like pay for it? He's got four square or what's that stuff called? What is it four square? Or, no, just square, four square, something different. But like, is that how that's going to work? Because I don't think.

Sorry, four square is a game. What the hell's wrong with me? It's the, I don't think it's a game. It's like, I think so. Isn't it like it bounce the ball? Anyway, but. But here's, but here's, but here's, what I find fascinating. What is that? Anyway, go ahead. I want you and I very quickly. Yes.

Because they charge $195. That's not an arbitrary number, Julian. That would have had to have been discussed. I wish I could go into the marketing meeting. Maybe we should just play this out. Like, how did this happen? Like, did somebody suggest $300 and another person said $100? And then they settled on $195? because it's a very interesting price point. $195 suggests to me somebody went higher, somebody went lower, and they settled on $195.

Like $195 is like a cheap ticket at a cheaper on the cheaper end of tickets at the Bell Center to go to a Canadian's game. Wait, just the regular game is $195? There are other tickets where it's like a little bit more expensive.

You could find some cheaper stuff too. Can I find a $75? ticket to a game? I think I'm on ticket master right now and I think you could find like the lowest price. I just picked for a random game in December. For tomorrow's game against Los Angeles Kings, the cheapest tickets I'm finding,

which are under verified resale, they have that label on them. There's tickets to like $46, $50. $55. But like it's not, like going to a Canadian game is not like a cheap thing. Like that's not cheap. This is for two tickets or no,

this might be for one ticket each. I'll get to that later. But like it's going to like historically, at least as long as I've seen it, going to a Montraucan-Aid game is not this like super cheap thing to do. So if you got $195 to spend for UPy to come up to your seats, like that's, especially if you're bringing a family because nine times at 10, you're doing that for kids, right?

You might not be a grown man wanting a photo at UP. You might be or grown woman, who knows, or grown person, whatever. But like typically you're going to want it for the kids, right? So like that's that's a whole other expense to add on a very expensive family night at the bell center. And again, it's one thing if you pay for it, what if you run into the dude in the middle of the arena? Like are you not allowed to take a photo with him then? Like that's a big question that I have.

I don't know. That's kind of then again, then again, it is personalized, right? Hold on. Look at this message that we got just from a viewer here as we're live streaming this. and they say that S.J. Sharkey has done this for years. You get a scoreboard message, a bag of swag, and you'll hang out at your seat for quite a while. It's different than just randomly seeing them.

How much? How much? I would love to know from, forgive me for not able to save their username, Cathavis, I'll try to get that right if we could get it right. But how much for that? I assume that's going to be in USD, obviously. But like how much for that? A scoreboard message?

I don't think that's in the UPy package. I don't know. Like, I guess it, listen, if this is, I just didn't know that this was a thing. Also, is UP so down bad that he needs to be charging people $200 to hang out with him? You cannot be so down bad. We live in a world where people are going down the adult entertainment route and other alternative platforms to make their money. You mean to tell me UP can't do that? You mean to tell me UP has to resort to charging people $200 to pull up to the arena to hang out with him?

What is this? What is this really? Hold on. You're suggesting a UPI only fans is what you're suggesting. I didn't say that. You did. It sure seemed like it. Apparently, S.J. Sharkey is $150. So that's comparable. So that's where they got the 195 from.

They just did the exchange rate. They're like, Sharky's 150. That's about 195 Canadian. Boom. Man, I don't know if I need all of that. But you know what? I also speak from a point of privileges as someone who, whenever I've been in the press box at the bell center

and I see UPy coming around. You know, we, we chalk it, we chop it up. We give each other Dap. He's a, it's a good dude, whoever is inside that suit. So yeah, maybe that's why I come from a place of, of confusion with that story. Okay, we're going to wrap up.

Apparently, our terrific producer here, Jeff, I don't know if it was Jeff, Danielle, Chris, whoever it was, has found the Brett Hall, G.T. Snowracer commercial. So I think we're going to be able to play this here. And you're going to be able to experience this alongside the listeners and the viewers, if you're watching. This is, I think, what, circa 1990.

So Brett Hall scored 70 goals, I want to say, in 1990, 86 and 91. So this was at the peak of his powers. He had this, this snow, G.T. Snowracer commercial, this marketing deal. Have a listen. Brett Hull talks about winning. Winning doesn't happen by accident. You got to know what you're going for right from the start. You've got to think like a winner.

Of course, I've got to make sure I have the right equipment. And I'm part of a great team, and that helps a lot. If you want to be a winner, you've got to think like a winner. The original Noma GT Snowracer and the whole winning team, each sold separately. Now with a Brett Hull action poster, think like a winner. You know what I love about that ad? He can't fit in that Noma. What is this?

You know what I think happened here? I think Brett Hall's marketing team, they're like, just shoot this generic commercial and then we'll find you a sponsor. Like honestly, listen to that commercial and tell me it has any of due with Snow Race.

It could have been for anything. Could have been for an insurance company. Could have been for a restaurant. Could have been anything. Think about it. That's a very good point. That literally, it's as generic as he could make it

so that way it could fit for anything. Tell me. Tell me that's actually really, that's a really good point. Yeah. Also, listeners to the Athletic Hockey Show, if you still have a Brett Hall action poster, please, please email us at the Afaicockeeshow atchemail.com. I would love to know if you still have somewhere in your basements or on your wall,

if you have a Brett Hall action poster that came with that snow racer. Oh, yeah. Hey, real quick, before we wrap up the Wednesday pod, we do have a couple of emails to get to, the athletic hockey show, like you mentioned. If you have an old school Brett Hull poster, we want the picture, the athletic hockey show at gmail.com,

or you can leave us a voicemail at 8454-4-5-8459. We played the Andre Vasilowski's scrum thing at the end of Tuesday's pod, where Vazelowski, the Tampa Goli, is in a scrum, and somebody lets one rip. I don't know, five feet away, 10 feet away, whatever. And we're talking about how awkward that was. This would have been even more awkward.

Eric in Minneapolis writes in, imagine someone letting one go when Leon Dreisdel or Connor McDavid are having one of their 10th sessions with the media post-game at Edmonton. Can you imagine in the middle of the Jim Matheson, Dreystile showdown, somebody's just, you know, they just pulled out of the. the Wendy's, they just had some chili or whatever. Can you imagine?

Who would do it at Edmond? Who do you think would be more likely to be the guy who dealt it if that, if ever came to that? I don't see D&B doing that. Who in the media in the media court Edmondson would do it? Like if Jim Matheson, I don't know about it. I'm not trying to. I'll say Gene Prince of pay.

Just because I'm trying to. Oh, not Jean. Gene would get roasted to, oh, you would get roasted. Oh, man, I would hate anybody but Jeed. Oh, man. Gene's the best. Anybody. Okay.

Yeah. We do have one other email to get to here, also from, oddly enough, also from Minnesota. Well, Eric is Minneapolis. Mike is in Minnesota. And Mike, by the way, Julian says, we do use ice scrapers, but we figured as much in Minnesota. And Mike says, with so many brothers playing in the league, not to mention that, what did I call it, Hughesapalooza,

I've been wondering, has there ever been a fight between two brothers and a hockey game? And the answer is yes. Yeah. The Primals got into it. And it was, boy, their parents were not happy. Wayne and Keith got into a fight back in the day. And it was not good. Yeah.

So one thing, like just in Mike's comment here, like one thing is Brady Kachuk's parents have told them. And the way that Matt and Brady play the game, they are more inclined to be physically engaged or whatever. Like more so than the Hughes brothers, like they're a little bit more skilled versus, you know, the Kachucks have a little bit of sandpaper to them. But the parents have told them explicitly like smart enough.

Don't ever get into a fight because that wouldn't be cool. And I really respect that. I do respect that. But the Primos absolutely got into a fight back in the day. And I feel like, Montreal and Quebec were in a huge rivalry in the 80s. And the Hunter brothers were on opposite ends. Dale was in Quebec.

Mark was in Montreal. They had a Good Friday brawl or whatever. I feel like they might have been. I don't know if they fought each other in that one, but they were on the ice at the same time in a in a bench clearing brawl. I know that. Oh, man. If it was during that,

that massive Montreal, Quebec brawl, that would be insane. I'm sure Knuckles Nile was in that somewhere. If there's a big brawl and it's in the 80s, there's a good chance. Chris Knuckles Nylent was involved in there. Yeah, Nylund would have been in that. Yeah, Knuckles definitely would have been there. That's crazy though.

Yeah. I don't look up that fight again. Yeah. By the way, one more time as we're leaving, can we just replay the Brad Hall commercial? But this time I want the listeners and everybody did not think of it as a GT snow racing commercial. Now think of it as any,

product. Any product do you want? It might be for a car. It might be for like a steakhouse. It's just, whatever. Tell me that there's never, this, this is the most generic ad that's ever been played again, Brett Hall early 90s. Brett Hall talks about winning. Winning doesn't happen by accident. You got to know what you're going for right from the start. You got to think like a winner. Of course, I've got to make sure I have the right equipment. And I'm part of a great. team and that helps a lot.

If you want to be a winner, you got to think like a winner. The original Noma GT Snow Racer and the whole winning team each sold separately. Now with a Brent Hall action poster. Think like a winner. Yeah, you literally could have replaced all of those shots of the kids on the snow racers with literally anything else.

That's amazing. Oh my God. I never thought of it until I just saw the album like, this could have been for anything. We need the, oral history on the Brett Hall GT Nomah Racer. Like how does that come to be? We need to know how that came to be.

Yeah. I think they just shot the commercial first and then they reverse engineered it. They're like, just shoot this commercial and we'll find you a sponsorship deal. Brett's just like, okay, so this could be for like a beer or something, right? Or like, yeah, this could be a really good endorsement, right? And it's a sneaky, low key part of that ad.

he's actually wearing his St. Louis Blues jersey. Now, if you think about it, when a lot of athletes, like think about when Shaq was playing and he did like those icy hot ads. And it's like a generic purple and yellow jersey. Like it's not a Lakers jersey. It's like that generic jersey like when you don't have the rights. Brent Hall was just like, ah, screw it. I'm going to wear the blues jersey.

What are you going to do? Crazy. Yeah, that's, I'm glad I've seen this commercial now. This is incredible. Well done. Well, that's a great place to leave it. We have a lot of fun this week with the three days in the pod.

We want to let you know that on Thursday. Haley Salvy and Max Boltman, Sean Gentilly, come your way with the Thursday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Friday as we get into the world junior season, Boltman sticks around with Corey Prom and Scott Wheeler. They've got Chris Peters, just one of the great voices and people

when it comes to junior hockey and prospects. Peters, Wheeler, Boltman, Prongman. You're not going to want to miss that one as they kind of break down the world junior roster. So that comes your way on Friday, Haley Max and Sean on Thursday. We want to thank you for listening to the Wednesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. We hope you had as much fun. Listening to this one is Julian and I had putting this one together. I want to let you know that you can get a one-year subscription to the Athletic for 1999,

for one-year, two-year subscription for 3999 when you visit athletic. slash hockey show. Have yourselves a great next few days. Julie and I will hit you up again on the month. Peace.