The Athletic Hockey Show - Joel Quenneville joins the show, Tyler Bertuzzi forgoes COVID-19 vaccination, Ukranian league player Andri Denyskin’s horrendous on-ice actions, Multiple Choice Madness, and much more

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

First, Ian and Hailey talk about Dom Lusczyszyn’s preseason rankings and discuss where the Seattle Kraken could end up in the Pacific division, the disgusting incident involving Ukranian league player Andri Denyskin making a racial gesture towards Jalen Smereck, Tyler Bertuzzi’s interesting first press conference since deciding to forgo a COVID-19 vaccination, and more.Then, Florida Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville joins the show to talk about what a typical day at the rink looks like for him, Aaron Ekblad’s return to the lineup after his season abruptly ended due to injury last year, the similarities between Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Toews, realistic expectations for Spencer Knight in goal, what last season’s playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning meant for Florida hockey, and a potential rivalry between the two teams, and much more.Plus, to close things out, Ian and Hailey run through a series of Multiple Choice Madness questions, including which team’s fan base should be worried about a bottom-ten finish this season, whether there should be shootouts at the end of every preseason game or not, and if replica jerseys should include advertising patches.Join The Athletic Hockey Show’s official fantasy hockey pool on OfficePools.com: http://www.officepools.com/invite/classic/m/HAFE2H6QAnd, right now, you can save 50% on an annual subscription to The Athletic when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back, everybody. It's another edition of The Athletic Hockey Show to kick off your week. Ian Mendez-Haley Salvean with you. The next hour or so we'll chat with Florida head coach Joel Quenville about the Panthers training camp and the expectations on a team that appears to be on the upswing. We'll also tackle an ugly incident on the ice from the Ukrainian Hockey League that certainly dominated social media on the weekend. Plus Tyler Bertuzi and the Red Wings could be in for an awkward relationship to start. the season, multiple choice madness as well.

We'll wrap up the show with that tackle. The question of which fan base might be the most upset about being included at the bottom of Dom's preseason rankings. What do we think about the mandatory shootouts that we're seeing in the preseason? So we're all excited and set to kick off another week here, Haley. And let me ask you, so, you know, every day Dom puts out like it's two teams that he puts out their rankings. And he started at 32 with Buffalo and Arizona. Tell me, every day, do you go on to Twitter and see like, oh, man, are the flames coming up next? Like, where does Dom have the flames?

Because Ottawa was in the bottom four. I know there's a lot of Ottawa fans that were upset. How are you feeling about the fact that the flames haven't made it to Dom's list? And he's gone through his bottom 10 teams. Yeah, you know, I'm feeling okay about it because I know that the flames are going to benefit from being in the Pacific. So I mean the fact that Vancouver is already out, but we haven't seen, you know, all of the California teams yet. We've seen some. We haven't seen Seattle yet.

So I think I'm like ticking off all of the other teams that will be below them in the Pacific division. I assume they're going to be somewhere in the middle because that's where the flames always are. So it's not really like a fun game. It's just like, yeah, they're going to be in the mushy middle. because that's that's flames. Are you kind of surprised that Seattle hasn't made the list yet? And I think, and I'm only saying that because I think when they drafted their team back in July, we were like, wow, there's got to be something else that they're doing.

And then nothing really really happened. Like, I don't know. And maybe it speaks more to what you said that the Pacific Division is pretty weak. But he's listed his 10 teams that he projects to be at the bottom 10 of the standings and the Cracket aren't there. Yeah, well, I think it goes back to, like, I think Seattle might end up, you know, maybe they'll fare better than some of the California teams. So maybe that's one of the reasons why we haven't seen them. I also just think that, like, they're not going to, I'm not expecting a Vegas Golden Knights, like, debut for the Seattle Cracken. But I don't know if they're going to be terrible.

Oh, you know what? We see all the California teams. They're all there in the bottom. Right. That's what I mean. Like the California teams are already on the list. and Vancouver, right? Yeah, so we're just waiting on, you know, Seattle, Vegas, Edmonton, Calgary from the Pacific.

Yeah, I mean, I think that they have pretty good blue line. They have, they could have good goaltending. I know they probably will have good goaltending, excuse me. So, I mean, I don't think they're going to be bottom 10 in the league. You know, you look at who would you take out of that bottom 10 and put the crack in? I guess maybe Vancouver. That's the surprising one. Right, exactly. And they actually played each other first game. Like, it was pretty neat to see the Cracken play their first ever exhibition game on the weekend. They got the victory. I actually, you know what, Haley, I'm all in on those uniforms. Like, I love them.

really cool. That's my, that's my favorite color scheme, you know, the baby blues, everything like that's the best. Yeah, it was sharp. Like, I didn't know, like, when they first unveiled them in that, you know, expansion draft reveal, I was like, oh, those are, those are good, they look good. But now you see them on the ice and the highlights against Vancouver and it's really sharp. Like, that might be, I don't know, sometimes we get guilty of, like, just jumping in, like, the latest thing that we see. Like, that's the best jersey in the league. But I don't know. I'm kind of having a feeling like that might actually be the best jersey in the, uh, in the league right now.

I don't know if I'm willing to go that far yet, but I do like I love the baby blue, blue. That's my favorite color. So they look really sharp. You know, the flames had a preseason game yesterday. And some of us were kind of laughing in the press box. Because where was the game?

It was like in, where in Washington. Yeah, I think it was in Spokane, Washington. So it was just like, you know, the Seattle Crackin playing their first ever game in Spokane, Washington. Like, they're not going to have a game actually in their arena until October 23rd. They're going to be like a, you know, a week or so into the season before they can actually

have a Seattle Cracken game in Seattle. But, no, I like the jerseys a lot. I saw, like, bits and pieces of clips online from the game. And, you know, I think it'll be interesting. Like, you know, maybe the fact that they, it's the preseason, so we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves. but obviously they beat Vancouver and, you know, maybe there's something about the cracking that Dom's model just favors better

over the Vancouver Canucks. It's hard to know without actually seeing the Vancouver or the Seattle one, excuse me, but that is kind of surprising that we, uh, oh, and you know what? It was Drans and Harmon who did the Canucks preview. It wasn't Dom. You know what? You're right, because they pinch it, as they said in the top,

they're pinching. But because those two guys are so usually. to that model and they're so comfortable with it, they felt like they could go ahead and take one team off a Dom's plate. But essentially it's using the same model in the same system that they came up with. So look, and I think that's going to be a really fun rivalry. I think Seattle, Vancouver is going to be really fun because I think for a long time, Vancouver has kind of just been tucked away by themselves.

And yeah, they've had some good rivalries with teams of Western Canada. But geographically speaking, they're kind of, they're by themselves. So now they got a team right down. the road. So that's, that's going to be a lot of fun. Now, something Haley, that was not fun on the weekend is something we got to get to. And if we are very aware that not all of our listeners are big on social media. So there's a chance that maybe you didn't see what happened in a Ukrainian hockey league game on the weekend. But, but I will essentially try and paint the picture of what occurred. And it's it's awful. It is. It's truly disgusting what happened. But basically, this is a Ukrainian hockey league game.

So imagine, if you haven't seen the footage, imagine that there's like a stoppage in play and the players are kind of in a little bit of a skirmish kind of near the net. And there's a couple of players involved and one of them is a player by the name of André Deniskin. Andre Deniskin. And he's in an argument with an opposing player

by the name of Jalen Smerick. And Jalen Smerick, we need to point out, is black. Okay, and that's at the root of this story. So these two guys are getting in an argument. Andre Dineskin, who is white, pretends to peel a banana and eat it right in front of Jalen Smerich. Again, Jalen Smerich is black, is black. And I think the thing that struck me, Haley, it's on two levels. Number one, the fact that this happened in 2021 is appalling.

but what I think really kind of hit home with me, it was the relative ease and comfort that André Deniskin had in pretending to peel a banana and eat it in front of a black hockey player. Like it was as if he had done it before. And that was really jarring. And it was really upsetting. And I made sure I didn't want to share that or amplify that on social media. I think enough people, if you want to see it, you can see it.

Disgusting is probably too light of a word to use. but I'll leave it there. That was on some level that I don't know that I've seen anything like that a long time in hockey. Yeah, and it's like you said. It's the comfort and the ease in which he did that. It's the fact that, you know, you can, it was whatever apology he tried to make, you know, about things happen, whatever crap. It's things happen quickly. No, no.

the fact that things happen quickly in hockey or whatever, that's what comes to your mind in the spur of the moment is to do something like that. Like, there's no excuse for that. Because why is that even in your mind to do that in that situation? It's, there's no, there's no, absolutely no way to justify that. There's no reason in my mind that this person should be playing hockey again, you know, why, why, there's plenty of talented hockey players who can play in any division, any tier, any league. Why would you allow somebody like this to continue playing? It's just disgusting the fact that a player was subjected to that, you know, we can talk about what, you know, this person did, but like, what about the impact on Samar

Eric. You know, how is he feeling? Seeing this blasted all over social media, seeing what that guy did to him, replaying that in your mind, seeing it on your timeline. Like, that's, that's going to have a real impact on a person. And I just, I don't see any, I, I, I can't wait to hear the punishment because it needs to be something really serious. And I really hope that the people in charge take, take this seriously and do something about this. Because, like, there's just, I don't know, I, I've seen the clip. I didn't share it either.

Like, I don't know what else to say. Like, it's just disgusting. There's no, there's no debate about it. It's terrible. Yeah. And I think, you know, the double IHF president, Luke Tardif, who, by the way, just got on to the job this week, right? Like, hey, welcome to the job.

He takes over for Renee Fasel. Luke Tardif takes over. And his first thing that is on his plate is this, you know, explosive and racist incident from Ukraine. We're going to learn a lot about the new president very quickly. Yeah. And I think earlier on Monday, the double IHF did in fact put out a statement in which they say double IHF president Luke Tardif.

The IHF condemns in the strongest possible terms the actions of André Dineskin. There is no place for such blatantly racist and unspriced. sportsman like a gesture in our sport and society. This is a direct assault on the ideals and values of our game. And we will ensure that all necessary ethics violation investigations occur to ensure that this behavior is sanctioned appropriately. So there's the question. Appropriate punishment, appropriate sanctioning.

What should that look like, Haley? What should a racist act like that? what should the punishment be? You mentioned that this guy should never play hockey again. Let's put it this way. If you give somebody a three or four or five year ban from playing hockey, in effect, that's a lifetime ban, right? Like you're not going to be able to sit out for multiple seasons and come back.

So is that what they do? Or is this one of those situations where maybe the double IHF gives them a six-month suspension or a 12-month suspension, but then kind of, organically, hockey teams say, we're not touching that guy. Yeah. We're not outside of that guy. Like, I don't know. What do you think is appropriate and what do you think, you know, could or should happen here?

Yeah, I mean, like, I don't know if you can just make like a blanket lifetime ban on a player. But I mean, I, I certainly think that a lot of people would agree that there's no place in hockey for that kind of behavior. So are we going to give him a place back, you know? These are the conversations that come up all the time. You know, X player did Y terrible thing, but X player just wants to play the game. And we all have the same discussion every single time that, like, this is a privilege to do. You know, you don't get, like, it's playing hockey for a living is a privilege. And doing something like that, subjecting a player to something so blatantly racist and awful.

Like, what are you doing to deserve that? I certainly don't think this is somebody who deserves to continue making money to play a game for the rest of their life when they're, you know, doing things like that. You know, it's a hard, it's a hard debate because I don't really know if there is one. Like, I don't know what else really there is to say, like, get it out of the game. Yeah. And I think, you know, and sorry, Ian, it's also just, you know, what about the kids who are watching that on TV? Yeah. You know, what, you know, young person of color or someone who is a minority in any way, who is going to see that and say, I'm going to continue watching hockey?

I'm going to play this sport. I love this game. Like, this is bigger than just this incident. You know, these are, and I saw Anthony Duclair made a tweet last night as well saying, like, am I surprised? no, that's a problem. Like, the fact that. That's happened to him. Stuff like that.

And that's disgusting. You talk to Wayne Simmons. You know, a player should not see that and say, yeah, that's happened to me. That's terrible. Why are we accepting this? We shouldn't. No, exactly. And I think so here's the issue that what will usually happen in these cases is you'll

see a guy like, you know, Andre, I apologize. now I'm blacking on, maybe you shouldn't even say this guy's name again. But Andre Denizkin is the guy involved here. Now you're going to see that he's going to go for sensitivity and diversity training. And you're going to see that standard thing. And this is why I've always been an advocate of preemptive training and using sports to do it. Like there's nothing wrong if you have a bunch of nine or 10 year old hockey players, sitting them around in a room and talking to them.

about valuing teammates who look different and sound different and act different and have different beliefs. Because then later on, you don't have to do this sort of corrective behavior. There's nothing wrong. And I always hear people saying, like, why are we jamming this down, you know, every kid's throat or why are we doing that? It's because of these incidents. I'm not saying that every kid who plays hockey is going to do this, but there's obviously

a handful. Like, let's target them. And let's teach them before something happens. Because after something happens, there's a trail of destruction and hurt feelings that sometimes you can't repair. So why not use sports as a way to do this and treat these young hockey players, you know, teach them how to deal with minorities or people of different backgrounds, teach them to deal with people who have different genders or identify in a different way. And I think it's really important. And this is just another example of why we need training at the grassroots level at 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 years old.

For sure. And I think it's like, it's sad that we have to have that kind of training that we can't just, I don't know, be freaking normal. It's, I don't know. In his statement, you know, these were negative emotions. In the negative emotions of hockey, I showed a gesture that someone might consider as an insult to racial affiliation. That's not somebody who understands what they did. He sure sounds real sorry. To be sincere. Yeah, you totally understand what you did. No, I'm sorry. I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry. That's terrible. I'm sorry for Smarik and anyone who had to see that and had a flashback to an incident that happened to them or someone who saw that and said, I don't see a place for myself in this game. Obviously, we love hockey. That's why we work in hockey and we want it to be better. And I'm just sorry for anyone who saw that.

and had potentially triggering thoughts because it's terrible. That's not, it's terrible. Yeah, it's, it is. And, you know, it's a, it is a problem. So this would have been about 10 years ago. And if it's not 10 years ago, I'll try and look it up here as we're kind of talking. But the Philadelphia Flyers played an exhibition game in London, Ontario.

Wayne Simmons was on the ice. Some ass clown threw a banana on the ice. at Wayne Simmons. And Wayne, if I'm not mistaken. In fact, I'm looking it up now. Yeah, 2012. 2012, the guy threw a banana at Wayne Simmons. Guess what his penalty was?

$200. $200 fine. It's disgusting. And you, yeah, it is. It's, you know, he got a, you know, it looks like an offense under the provincial trespass to property act. Was he banned from the arena for life? But think about, like, this is what really bothers me about that particular incident.

There's no bloody reason to bring a banana to a hockey game. Like, that is the most premeditated thing you can think of. Like, we talked about this guy in the Ukrainian hockey league kind of having this, you know, in his holster. It was he to the moment. But he had it in the holster. And it was ready to go. Yes. It takes some different kind of.

level of human being to go to a sporting event with a banana. Like you got intention there. Like that. So this is a problem. Uh, you see it. I know Haley, you're a really big soccer fan.

And so you know that that's a real problem in club soccer in Europe, right? Like it's, it's there. It's bubbling at the surface that a lot of black athletes face this. And it was really disappointing to see it again this weekend. Well, we saw everything that happened with, uh,

the World Cup with England, right? You just, and it was, yeah, and it's really sad. You knew right when you saw who missed the PKs. You knew it. Yeah. And that's messed up that we could have just said, oh, this is going to be a thing that these players are going to need to arm themselves against. And that's really, it's really sad.

It's terrible. It's like, I don't know. If I, it's, me, if we, like I said, there's no debate. There's no debate. don't try to justify this stuff. Don't. You can't. No, it's indefensible. Something else that kind of has come to the forefront on the weekend.

We'll play a little audio for our listeners here. In case you missed it when training camp opened last week, Tyler Bertuzia, the Detroit Red Wings, one of the handful of players in the National Hockey League, who is confirmed to be somebody who has not vaccinated against COVID-19. The NHL even kind of warned us. Remember Bill Daley says, about two weeks ago.

There's about eight to ten players that this stage of the game haven't been vaccinated. I would argue Tyler Bertuzi is probably the most prominent player on the list. A guy that certainly plays a pretty big role for the Red Wings when he's in the lineup. But have a listen to

the conversation that Tyler Bertuzi had with some members of the Red Wings media last week. What went into your decision not to get the COVID vaccine? Just personal choice, freedom of choice. and a life choice. And not being able to play it in Canada,

how much did that weigh on your decision? Yeah, a little bit, yeah. But at the end of the day, it was a life decision, personal choice, and I made it. When the science proves, has proven the safety of the vaccines, what goes into your reasoning? still not to get it. Personal.

Just one last thing on the vaccine, if I could. What was that conversation like, I guess, especially with Steve telling him? On what, sorry? With the vaccine, we're telling Steve that you weren't going to get it and just the impact they would have on your availability. It went fine, yeah. It was good to life choice, personal choice, and personal decision. Okay.

Thanks. And just last one. And the whole vaccine, is it a lot of thought on your part where you're going back and forth deciding what to do with it? No, it's pretty set in stone. Gotcha. Thanks, Tyler. No problem. With regard to the vaccination decision, did you talk to a lot of people or was this all yourself or did you investigate it or did, you know, like how did you reach that decision?

just with family and fiance's family. And again, it's just personal choice, personal. It's personal. All right. So Haley, like you and I listen to that little snippet of the press conference with Tyler Bertuzi and the members of the Detroit media. And the one thing that came away for us was like there was like an element of like combativeness and sort of like it wasn't an easy conversation.

And Tyler Bertuzi didn't come across as a guy that felt like he. needed to or wanted to explain his positioning here. Like I think if he had a little bit more of, maybe if he had a little bit more of a willingness to talk about his rationale, maybe there'd be some more people that would get on side. It didn't seem like he had any interest in talking about his thought process or what went into his decision to not be vaccinated, right? No, it was the buzzwords that we heard from him, personal choice,

freedom of choice. What was the third one? Family decision. Him and his fiance's family. And you know what? He had his personal reasons that he didn't want to get vaccinated. And yeah, sure.

You've got your freedom of choice, but you know, you get to now deal with the consequences of that, which is not playing games, which is losing money, which is, which is anything else that comes with deciding to not get vaccinated. And, you know, it seems like he is one of the few players who has done that and who has actually been identified and spoken about it. Because there is, you know, some, you know, either journalistic stylization, some teams,

some teams are choosing not to say this player did not get vaccinated. They're saying different things around that. and, you know, if that's the case, then we can't really say they're unvaccinated. Like, there's some, you know, style, et cetera things there. But like Tyler Butuzzi, like, clearly, you know, the organization, he said it, we know he is unvaccinated. That is his personal choice. And like I said, he has to now deal with those consequences.

And honestly, I don't even know, like, what explanation could he have given that would have, you know, appeased people's minds other than saying, like, I have a medical. condition that allows that says like I cannot get the COVID vaccine. Like what other explanation is there for him to say? Like I don't think it's kind of a lose lose situation for him. So I kind of get why he was just dismissive. Because like what's he going to say in that situation that's going to make it sound okay? Yeah.

It's nothing. It's lose, lose and it's financially going to be a lose-lose situation. I think someone did it as like $400,000 or something. he will forfeit in the neighborhood of $400,000 because as an unvaccinated player, he will not be allowed to come and play Detroit's nine games north of the border. Remember, they play in the division with Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, and then they got a trip out to Western Canada. That's nine games, nine paychecks that will be affected or nine game checks that will be affected. What's interesting is on the weekend, we've seen this,

that the National Basketball Association, the NBA and Major League Baseball, they do have a special exemption in which unvaccinated athletes can come north of the border and play games. So, for example, if you're an unvaccinated NBA player and you've, and I'm not going to use anyone's name, but that's just a player X is unvaccinated and they play for an American-based NBA team, they will be allowed to come up to Canada and play because of a national interest exemption that the NBA has filed for with the Canadian government. So basically what that means to put it in the layperson's terms is essentially the NBA and Major League Baseball, as long as those players who aren't vaccinated, as long as they,

A, end up testing negative for COVID and B, only go to the game arena and the hotel. They can come up here. Now, Josh Clipperton, who does a terrific job covering the hockey for the Canadian press, reached out to Bill Daly today and said, ask the question, does this policy also affect the national hockey league? Daly got back to Clipperton at the Canadian press and said at this point in time, we have made a decision not to seek a national interest exemption

for the 2021, 2021, 2022 season. So Haley, that means Tyler Brutuzzi will not have the same luxury as his NBA counterparts to come north of the border and play. Yeah, and I think, you know, we didn't really know, we didn't hear, you know, exactly why the league didn't apply for that kind of exemption. I think they, you know, the league and the PA put together this, you know, big protocol, all the league protocols and everything for this season. And they're standing by it. You know, they're just saying, no, we said get vaccinated. We said that if you don't, you can't go into Canada, these are the rules. and we're not going to be applying for something that suggests otherwise.

I mean, you know, the fact that, like, I think Bill Daley said, like, 98% of the league got fully vaccinated. Yeah. Why are you applying for national interest exemption for the, you know, 10 or 15 players who refuse to do so? And we've already seen some of those players who refuse to do so get sent down to the American Hockey League. So you're already, you know, are you going to apply for this big exemption to allow a couple of guys who don't want to get the vaccine? to play in Canada. No, you made your choice, deal with the consequences. I guess, you know, good on the league for saying, like, nope, these are the rules.

You can follow them. Yeah. We're not giving you an out here. So I think it's going to be an interesting to watch that relationship between Tyler Bertuzzi and his teammates, Tyler Bertuzi in the front office, Tyler Bertuzi in the media. It is going to be a really interesting dynamic to watch. this unfold in the weeks and months ahead because he is the kind of the first prominent NHL player to be dealing with this. So we'll certainly keep our eye on that story as,

you know, as the weeks kind of unfold. Now, Haley, before we move on, I guess we've got another kind of, you know, a little bit of COVID news here to pass along that, that you've just seen come across social media on, in regards to the Pittsburgh Penguins, right? Yeah, you know, Josh Yohey, our colleague with the athletic in Pittsburgh has just reported that Zach Aston-Rice has tested positive for COVID. That's all we really know to be sure right now. There are some reports that he is vaccinated, that this is a breakthrough case. But again, we don't have a ton of details from the Penguins or from Josh.

So, you know, I don't want to speculate too much, but, you know, this is notable that, you know, we were just discussing that. 98% of the league's players are fully vaccinated and we do have a positive COVID-19 test here with the Penguins during training camp. Yeah. And so again, well, more stories to kind of monitor as the week goes on. Listen, we're about to bring Joel Quenville on. Head coach to the Florida Panthers. And you and I have been saying for a long time, the Panthers are our team.

That's the team that we're pulling for. We are driving the Panthers bandwagon. It's Ian and Haley. And we're going to Thelma and Louise this thing, like we did last year. right off a cliff when they got knocked out in the first round. Before we get to this interview with Joel Quenville, there is something of a little bit more of a serious nature that we do want to broach because I do think it behooves our listeners to get the full story and the transparency

that we strive for here with the athletic, whether we're writing or on this podcast platform. And that is obviously we are well aware of the story involving the Chicago Blackhawks and some of the allegations around that team. And Joel Quenval, we're certainly part of that. and, you know, and when you have a guy like Joel Quenville come on your show, it behooves you to either ask about the situation, get an update on the situation. So obviously, in advance of this interview, I have been in contact with Florida Panthers. And I've, I kind of, you know, asked about this particular topic.

And I don't think it's fair to come at Joel Quenville without him knowing that we're going to come at him. And I wanted to know if we brought it up, would he say something? would he be willing to speak on it? The Panthers have gotten back to me and they have basically, you know, given me a statement that they have, it's kind of a statement that they've given everybody any time that this particular topic comes up with Quenville,

the statement is simply this. The allegations in the lawsuit are clearly serious. I first learned of these allegations through the media earlier this summer. I have contacted the Blackhawks organization and let them know I will support and participate in the independent review. Out of respect for those involved, I won't comment further while this matter is before the courts. So that is, that's the statement from Joel Quinville.

So if you're wondering why in this next segment when we bring Joel on, how come Ian and Haley didn't ask about the Chicago situation? Why didn't they hammer him? I will tell you if it was fair game or if he was open to talking about it, we would have. And then we also did balance, you know, is it worth having them on? Is it not? And I think it is because this is a very interesting team in Florida. This is a fun team to watch.

There's a lot of hockey-related things. But we did want to be very transparent with you that we did go down this road. That's the response we got. And we do want to direct you, obviously, to the terrific reporting that's been done by our colleagues, Katie Strang, Mark Lazarus and Scott Powers, that whenever there is news to talk about with that story, those three have been all over it. And we do hope that if and when Joel Quenville is open to talking about it, that he would potentially, you know, seek us out or be willing to talk with us

or another platform with the athletic. But we did think Haley that in the interest of transparency before we got to this interview, because at the end of it, if you're saying, why didn't they ask about Chicago? We want to pull back the curtain and let you know that we did go down that road with the Panthers. And that is the response we got. All right, Haley, we're really pleased to have the head coach of the Florida Panthers, Joel Quenville, join us. Because you and I have been saying for about a year now, this is the fun team. This is the type of team that hockey fans could probably really get behind because they're a fun group of players.

And it seems like a really open-minded forward-thinking organization. We're really happy to have Joel Quenville join us here on the Athletic Hockey Show on this Monday. Joel, good afternoon. How are you? Great, great. Thanks to have me. Listen, thank you for taking the time with us. Hey, let me start with this because I saw that on the weekend. The Florida Panthers played a double header against the Nashville Predators. And when we think about doubleheaders, Joel, we always think about Major League Baseball.

We never think about hockey having doubleheaders. I want to know from a coaching perspective, should we be having more preseason double headers? Do coaches like that? I don't like complaining, but it's a busy day. It's a lot of action. You've got 40-something guys in camp and you got everybody basically playing that. day. So it was a, we actually went in the games. We're sitting there. If somebody gets hurt, we don't have enough guys to start to put a lineup in with injuries and things like that. So

it worked out perfectly. Everybody had two perfect linens with 40 skaters with goalies. So it's it's compacted. The game ended, went over time. And then you got the shootout. That's a practice shootout that we did as well. And then you got the following game. But it was almost like as players, I was really impressed with how competitive, Both teams were. Both games were played hard. But it's, you know, you're going in from one game into the meeting and the next game that almost don't have time to have. But it's a, hey, you get to see everybody.

And in a short amount of time, you can make some decisions as far as they get some guys going back to junior in time where they can get ready for their first game is in place. But it's a, you know, I haven't done much of it. I think a couple years ago might have been the first time to get exposed to it. You got two scrimmages in training camp a lot of days. I guess that might be the only name. close to it. I mean, you said it's a really long day. What time does Joel Quenville get to the rink? Like, are you the first one there turning on the coffee pot at five in the morning? Like,

I don't know why, but that's always something that that interests me with coaches. I know a. DJ Smith in Ottawa is there at like 5 a.m. turning on the coffee. Our group is a, you know, we get in there early. We're in there early. I don't drink coffee. So, you know, I think golfie might be the one that gets the, uh, the credit for being the early. bird in there and getting coffee on the treadmill early. But I think we, you know, we get in there, you know, around between six and seven and get ready for our day. And that's a game day.

We'd, you know, I have our morning skate. Then you go back for lunch and then you come back to the rink and have our, you have some meetings in the morning. And then at night would have our P.K meeting and our five-on-five meeting going in the games and went over our opponent and getting our team ready. But it's a, you know, back-to-back games is a interesting. But it was good. It was fun to watch.

Okay. So I need to know, look, Joel, I've only had one cup of coffee in my life. How many cups of coffee has Joel Quenville had in his life? Well, I don't know. It's been years ago, years ago, I think when I was just a kid when we would, I was working cutting grass and working with a lawn landscaping company, we'd go for coffee breaks and everybody had a coffee. I guess I did it there for a little bit, but probably didn't like it at that time.

But it was a, especially in our business, I think everybody has coffee. I'd have a hot chocolate now and again. But probably if I had coffee, I'd be right up. You know, I'd be crazy back there behind the bench. It's, you know, Ian, Ian Mendez is a hot chocolate guy too. So, you know, I'm sure Ian's going to brag about that once we get off air. You know, I guess just, you know, transitioning back back to the team. It seems like Ian and I always like to have this coffee debate.

So we'll, I'll be the one to get it back to the Florida Panthers. I mean, Aaron Eckblad is back. You know, we're just wondering, how does he look in your opinion? And what does a fully healthy Aaron Eckblad do for the Florida Panthers? Well, we saw the best version of Eck last year. I thought he was off to a tremendous year, dominated, controlling the defensive end and really had an impact in our team game, possessionally. And then we lost them.

So I think that, you know, him being off so long, he worked his tail off all summer. actually during the playoffs, hoping we had access to him in that run. And now he's ready to go. And I know that, you know, he's still got some work to do here. I know that played 20-something minutes yesterday. I think that's, you know, getting rid of some of the cobwebs and whether there's going to be some hesitations or limitations. He's going to be working his way through that.

We've got time in camp here to get him geared up to get off to a great start. He's doing everything he can to put. him in that position. But I thought in his career, I thought he took a big step forward last year and advancing to be a top D in the game. And now we're, you know, we want to get him back on that same type of a path where he exited that we want to get him up there as quickly as possible. What did you see from McKenzie Weeger after Eckblad got hurt last season? And what, what does that tell you about what you can expect from him this season, just the way that stepped up in Aaron's absence?

I don't know if I've seen a player improve as much as Weig has from year to year. As far as his positionally awareness, his excitement for the game, the way influences the game, handling the puck, involved in the play. They made a great pair. I know that we've even had more responsibility in his absence and went to another level as well at the end of the year. And he came into camp here, a better condition. with an appetite to go to them, keep getting better.

That's the competitor that you have in weeks. And he's a great teammate, and he wants to win. He wants influence the game as best as anybody you'd want to do that. But I just love the way he keeps progressing as a player. They're still upside with him because he's fun to watch. He's a little bit of a risk taker in a good way. But he's very good defensively and breaks up a lot of plays. then when we get the puck, he's pretty efficient as well.

You know, I think, Joel, McKenzie Uighur last year was like one of these great well-kept secrets. Like Haley said, he really elevated. He felt like, and as you said, you felt like he really elevated. But when we think about the best kept secrets with the Florida Panthers, everybody always talks about Sasha Barkov and that he is still the most underrated, like he's criminally underrated on a national stage. And I'm wondering because you had a chance to coach.

one of the best two-way centermen of this generation in Jonathan Taves. Is Sasha Barkov close to that level? Are there some similarities you see between him and a guy like Jonathan Taves on the ice? Well, both are driven to the next level. They're driven that they want to be the best they can be. Bark, he's much more quieter than Johnny. You know, I think as far as influencing the game, I think they go about it in different fashions.

but both have an impact on the game when it's all said and done. I think Barkey last year had an unbelievable season, and a lot of statistics will validate that, whether it was scoring chances against controlling the offensive zone or limited time in his own end, he did a lot of good things. And that line for us was a big factor. Right off the bat, Barkey led the charge for our team

and the consistency is something that we relied upon as well. You know, Johnny has a nickname of Captain Serious. And then Barky, maybe we could call him both Captain Serious. Because Barkey's kind of a serious guy, but he's so laid back in his way that there is some differences in that regard. But they're both, they do everything they can to enhance how they train, how they get themselves in a position to play a game. and they're dialed in.

And as a coach, you couldn't ask for a better representative to emulate how your team needs to compete. And they're great players on top of that. From what we always hear about, you know, Captain Sirius and Jonathan Taves, you know, saying that Barkov is quieter. I wasn't really sure that was possible from everything we hear about Captain Sirius. Well, hey, Barkie is quiet. I mean, there's different leaders that you come across, but he's definitely a top guy that the way he prepares

and the way he plays and approaches the game. Does a lot of the talking for him, and we don't want him to change who he is. And I want to be that guy and continue on to be the leader that you are by just being you. And Johnny has his moments where he's a little bit more vocal. And with Johnny's not afraid to speak his mind. And then I think that net, those challenges are healthy for everyone.

I mean, you know, just looking at last season to Joel, you know, you had several players joined the Panthers last season after maybe not quite succeeding on their former teams. I think, you know, Sam Bennett's an example, Carter Verhege is an example. And they, I think we can say they exceeded expectations once they arrived in Florida and joined your team. What was it that changed for these players? And I think, you know, we can say Anthony Duclair maybe to a lesser extent because he was very good in Ottawa. But there's a track record of players, you know, taking strides in their game once they arrive in Florida with you on the bench.

What's that change? It has nothing to do with me. I think it's got everything to do with the opportunity. And these guys, in Hags' case, you know, he didn't play much on an excellent team in Tampa Bay. and it was a fourth-line guy that had some skill, and all of a sudden he gets to come here and he gets a chance to play with Barkie, and he gets big minutes,

and all of a sudden these guys are feeding off one another, and all of a sudden they're the number one line as far as chances for and against. Give Barkey to credit, but Hags all of a sudden taking advantage of a tremendous opportunity. I look at Benny coming in here at a key time for our team and what a fit he was in a short amount of time. You know, he got a chance to play with top guys on a regular basis

and got more quality ice time, more responsibility. I like the way he gets through and travels up the middle of the ice. But playing with Ubi and Tippy, that was a big line for us. And just watching them now in camp, that line has chances to push the top line, you know, on a night-to-night basis, you know, who the other team really wants to worry about. So it's a good situation, you know, signing them up. You know, the summer was a good acquisition for the organization, longer term. But, you know, he's quite a player.

I didn't know he was that dangerous of a player when I say that with the puck and key spots around the ice. He's been very handy. But give some Duke some credit as well. We love his speed. And he was with Barky and Hags for a big chunk of that year last year. year and gave that line some speed on the attack. And he was a threat when he did have the puck.

And I think that I think he was very good for our team last year too. And I think the one thing that they all brought was a compete level two that was consistent in where we wanted to get to. Joel, what should the realistic expectations be around Spencer Knight this season? I mean, he got thrust into basically a winner go home situation against Tampa. So clearly you felt comfortable enough in him. and he was only 20 years old at the time. Realistically, what should we expect

out of Spencer night this season? Well, you know, we watched him play yesterday. And, you know, you just see composure. You just see confidence. You just see a goalie that really has, he's dialed in as far as how he anticipates, how he sees the game. He's technically very sound.

You know, tactically, he wants to handle the puck. He wants to make sure that he's moving, and taken away is, whether it's on top of the crease or challenging shooters when it's the right time. But it seems to be really natural at it. You know, there's certain guys that have the hit factor as far as what you're looking for in a goalie. There's covers the dimensions of all the errors

and you want them to be effective. But he's a really good, down-to-earth kid, smart beyond his years. I think that he's going to tell us how much he wants to play. But Bob's going to be the guy that we want to get him going. We want him to be the key guy here. And Knighter will push, I'm sure, to get more games out of us.

And the competition over time will play itself out based more on performance later on in the year. But, you know, Bob's had a good camp as well. But I think that him coming in the way he did last year was, you know, by the organization, and we were looking to be patient with him, but we couldn't stop him from doing what he did and getting exposure last year. It was a great beginning to his career. But goalies are, you know, they take time. He's trying to improve that belief wrong in his way, which we don't mind.

You mentioned Sam Bennett already, and we chatted about Sam Bennett already a bit. What does Sam Reinhart bring to the table this season for you? Well, he brings a nice package of, he's got great, great skill level, great play recognition. We have them now playing with Rehags and Barkie on that line, gives us some, you know, whether they're going to be dangerous off the rush in zone possession game. These guys are going to learn a little bit more, which other, you know, whether it's their creativity, where all of a sudden you go to this place, they're going to know where to find you.

And I think that's going to be improving at a rapid rate, I think, early around in the season here. I think he's getting an opportunity to play with a couple of top guys. You know, I think that, you know, you think he's one more guy that can really help, I think, our power play.

We've got a number of guys that deserve time on it, but certainly he's going to get a great chance to be a big part of it. And that line will see, you know, whether they're going to be all together on the power play will be seen. But right now is a line that's a lot of wild factors in these guys when they're playing on the ice. And he's one more guy between the Barkey and Hags that the attributes of what the puck is going to be fun to watch. You know, Joel, last year, I think a lot of people felt like your series against Tampa. Not only did you push Tampa more than maybe any other team did in their run to this town,

the Cup, but it might have been the most exciting, fun playoff series, and there was a 5-4 game, there was a 6-5 overtime game. From your vantage point behind the bench, can you appreciate the entertainment that it brought for us as media and fans, or are you just like going ballistic because this thing, it's a defensive train wreck at times and there's a bunch of goals and you're just in playoff mode? Or did you at the time realize, wow, this is good for hockey? Well, I think after the game, we talked about those kind of things or people talk about those kind of things during the game. I like the way we're playing.

I thought we played a great series. I thought we had, we did a lot of things we wanted to do. Got some lessons along the way. Learn some valuable things. But I thought the way we went into that series, we had a, you know, we had a home and home with them right at the end of the year. Or two in a row at home. I don't even remember. But we played them twice in a row.

And, you know, I think we were battling to see who we. was going to get home ice in our series. And then we ended up going in it on a pretty good note where we felt we're playing some really good hockey at the time. But I really thought we generated a ton. Obviously, there's some risks by generating offense against that team because they're great counterpunchers and they're looking to do that as well. Their power play was lethal.

And, you know, that might have been a tipping factor. and some of the key goals or key games. But at the end of the day, you know, five on five. And for the most part, you know, I think we went toe to total, you know, and whether we, you know, whether off of those levels they got better. But I thought they played their best game against us in game six. But the first five games, I mean, I thought we could have, you know, one of those outcomes might have changed the complexion.

I think we saw, you know, a lot of stuff on social media after those games, you know, that first game, which was really exciting to watch from a media and fan standpoint, there was a lot of people who, that was their first hockey game they'd ever seen. And that was the introduction to the sport that they got. And, you know, we saw a lot of people say like, oh, I've been missing out from hockey just by watching Tampa and Florida play against each other. So, you know, we certainly saw that it was, it was great for the game, which is always awesome to see. Well, I think in Florida here, I think that's the best thing here for Panthers hockey here in South Florida.

And I know that, you know, initially when they came in the league and building up a key rival with Tampa and to me, being the first time they go toe to toe, I think it's going to be healthy going forward that you really create, you know, rivalries by a playoff series. And that one was as good as it gets. You know, you see a lot of Tampa's. You get three exhibition games with them. And then you get the regular season games. And then you get a playoff series that was intense and emotional.

was that and fun to watch. I think it's great for hockey. I know Tampa's hockey market's gone, you know, to where you wanted to get to. And I know that here in Florida, I mean, our team's fun to watch and there's a lot of hockey fans down here as well. But a rivalry like that, it's only can't be, you know, couldn't have gotten any better from where we,

our standpoint, as far as how we played it out and going forward, obviously learning that lesson and trying to apply it this year and then a positive way to get to the next level. A couple more questions. here with you, Joel, just to wrap this up, we really appreciate your time. I've got to ask you about being on the verge of a thousand wins as a head coach. If everything goes the way, we anticipate it goes for the Panthers. You'll get to a thousand wins this season.

And then as I start to look up the leaderboard, 282 wins from Scotty Bowman at the top of the list. In fact, Scotty's the only other one with a thousand regular season wins. So what does getting to a thousand regular season wins mean for Joel Quendville? Well, my goal is to win one more championship and along the way. You got to win in the regular season to get the chance to win playoffs. And, you know, Scotty, I never thought it'd be even halfway close to that number. So it's so far away in my imagination to think that that's realistic. But, hey, it's one year at a time at this year of my career, at this stage of my career, I should say.

And then, you know, we're trying to win right now. I think we got the team where we wanted to go to. You know, to make the playoffs, you know, we think you got to get 95, 96 points. And, you know, if that turns out to be so many wins, great. You know, but that's the mindset here is we're playing to win a championship. And, you know, the other stuff goes along the way. But we are getting older now. Normally this is where I would make a joke about me being the young one on the podcast,

but I'm not going to do that out of respect today. All right, and I got to ask you this question to wrap it up. You know, I used to have Ray Ferraro on the radio all the time. And one time I brought Ray on and I played Brass Bonanza, which is the Hartford Whalers theme song. And Ray got mad at me. He's like, don't ever play that again. And he didn't like Brass Bonanza.

And I know old Whalers players are split on whether or not they like Brass Bonanza. So I got to ask you because you were a big part of that Whalers team in the 80s, Is Joel Quenville like Brass Bonanza? Do do, do, do, do, do. I don't mind it at all. I love it. We even get the Acapella version. Did we just get you to sing on the podcast?

Amazing. Amazing. You don't have that as your ringtone or anything, do you on your phone? No, I don't. Okay. See, that's the type of... You don't do that stuff. Yeah, that's the type of thing we would have loved to have uncovered.

But, Joel, we really do appreciate your time. Like Haley and I said, the Panthers are a really fun team to watch. We think that rivalry with Tampa Bay is, it's great for hockey. We appreciate you taking the time. We're looking forward to crossing paths maybe in person this season. Thanks so much for joining us on the athletic hockey show. My pleasure. Thanks having me. All right, Haley, hey, listen, that was a fun chat with Joel Quenville,

head coach of the Florida Panthers. And you and I are firmly on the Panthers bandwagon. but I also need to, you know, we just had a little ad there for our friends over at office pools. And guess what, Haley? We got ourselves an athletic hockey show, hockey pool, powered by office pools.com. And are you ready? Like, first of all, I need to know as we do this, are you and I teaming up and creating a Monday team or we go on solo on this, Haley? Can we kind of do both?

Like, can we have our own teams, but then, like, say, this is our mega team? Or should... No, we can't know. So we have to each... So we split it up and we each pick our own stuff and then we make one team. Well, is that what Gentile and Custin's are doing? Because if so, then we'll do it and we'll destroy them.

We're the Monday show. We can set the rules, Haley. We can tell them that they're a team. But my only issue is I also do a Thursday podcast with Sean. So, I mean, down goes brown. Do I pick you? Do I pick him? Me?

I don't know. He's just going to pick all the league. Yeah. And that'll go over a lot. Do you really want Austin Matthews in your hockey pool? I would take Austin Matthews in my hockey pool. Who wouldn't? But look, this is going to be a lot of fun.

In fact, and we're inviting our listeners to play along too. But actually, Haley, one of the rules is only one team per entry. So anybody who's got multiple teams, you're going to get disqualified. So we really, so you have to choose. You have to pick one.

I know. So, but we got some really fun prizes for our listeners. too. So we're going to encourage you over the next week or two to join the athletic hockey pool powered by office pools.com. And by joining our pool, we're going to have a fun little pool. You're going to, you know, our listeners against us. I think the producers are going to have a team too and we're going to, we're going to see who's the smartest. And there's a whole bunch of prizes here, including a PS5 or an Xbox. And then we got autographed jerseys as well for first, first, second and third place,

finishers, Sidney Crosby autographed jersey, Patrick Kane, John Tavares and stuff like that. And there's a whole bunch of things. And then we've got monthly winners. They're going to be autographed pucks you can choose from. So this is great.

So all you've got to do is, and then when we have the description of this episode up there, we'll have a link directly to our athletic hockey pool powered by office pools.com. And it's simple. You just have to pick one player per box. The goalie thing's a little bit different. Okay. So the goalie, you don't pick individual goalies. You're going to pick teams.

And you're basically, instead of picking a goalie, Haley, you're going to pick a team. So it doesn't matter who's playing a net. So I don't know if that alters your, you got to go with the Islanders, don't you? It's like Barry Trots. That would make sense. Yeah. One of my favorite boxes is the box of Gentilly. That's just, that's just penalty minutes. You're just picking a guy. who gets you bonus points for being in the box. Yeah, you get points for poundy minutes. And basically you get 16 forwards and five defensemen and three goalies.

So that's pretty good, right? 24 boxes you're going to pick and we're going to figure out. So are we, we need to make the decision now, Haley. Is it you and I as a team or you and I solo? I can't make this snap decision. I don't know. I think I need to talk to you about, like, let's just look at. Okay, no, we're going solo.

No, we're going solo. You're making an executive decision. I'm already annoyed by your inability to make decisions. I can't wait to get to Box 14 and pick a depth forward for you. If you can't even decide whether or not you want to be teammates, you're out. And I'm going to make a funny, punny team name. It's going to irritate you. It's going to be malkin cookies.

And you're going to be really angry. Which boxes of Genni Malkin in? You're going to take him when he's not even healthy, just so you can have a stupid name. There's other puns. Like you could do like something with Thomas Tatar. What am I going to do with Thomas Tatar? Like Tatar sauce? It's disgusting how quickly you can come up with this terrible stuff.

But there's, I'm just scrolling through all the boxes. There's a ton of, you know, if you're, like me and you're irritating as hell and you can't make decisions. This can be really hard. Like the monsters of Mendez, you've got Panarin, Matthews, Dreisidal, Kutrov, Marchand, and Patrick Kane all in the same box. You can only pick one. We've got Salvians Fire, Sidney Crosby, De Brinkett, J.T. Miller, Miko Ranton, Mark Stone, Andre Svetchnikov. Only pick one. Yeah, I'm going to be irritating. This is, this is going to take forever. Okay. So again, we want to remind our listeners, we're going to have some fun with this. We'd want to see who's got the best hockey pool at the end of the season. So we're going to remind you. Go to OfficePools.com, sign up and join the athletic hockey pool. Make your picks. And I outlined some of those great prizes, autographed puck, jerseys, gaming systems. It's going to be great. Officepools.com, fantasy sports, your way. All right, going to wrap up. The show, as always, Haley. And this is great that now that I'm, now that I'm,

know that you're indecisive. There's nothing better than somebody who's indecisive than to give them a whole bunch choices in a little segment we call multiple choice madness. So here we go. Haley, we talked about this a little bit off the top because our pal Dom has his preseason rankings. And I want to know which fan base should already be concerned that their team has appeared in Dom's preseason rankings, meaning he's already projecting them to finish

in the bottom 10 of the standings. is it A, the Ottawa senators, B, the San Jose Sharks, C, the Vancouver Canucks, or D, the Nashville Predators? Haley, who should be flipping out that they've already appeared in Dom's preseason rankings? I feel like it would be Vancouver, because that was one of the more active front offices this off season.

I think there were things that they did that people maybe thought would help this team this season. yet they're still in the bottom 10. I think Nashville is a team that, you know, they showed good things in the playoffs, but that's a team who hasn't been very consistently good in the regular season. They have their issues with the players up the middle. I mean, UC Saros is great.

Like I think Nashville is a team who could maybe be surprising. However, you know, who could exceed expectations the season, but it's not all that shocking. They're in the bottom 10. I think Sends fans were probably surprised and angry that they were still down in the basement. Even Detroit fans were really mad at Dom. I read some of the comments. They were feisty.

But I think it's going to be Vancouver. I thought they maybe would have been a little bit higher. I don't think they're a, you know, a Stanley Cup contender. But I didn't, I guess on paper I didn't really think that they'd be bottom 10. Okay. I'm going to say Ottawa. And it's not because it's the team I cover on a regular basis. but remember, Pierre Dorianne has said multiple times, the rebuild is over.

In fact, he even said last week, Haley, the rebuild is over. I never want to hear that word again. Well, guess what? Dom's got some info for you that suggests that it ain't over. And the way that Dom is projecting this, Ottawa is finishing 29th in the standings, according to Dom's projection. So I think that that should be some concern to Ottawa. I think the fans, there's fans are really intelligent.

this goes for most markets. Fans are for the most part really intelligent. And they know when they have a legit playoff team or not. I don't think Ottawa fans think they're a legit playoff team. But I think they thought that they were out of that bottom five with those Arizona's in the Buffalo. So to me, that would be the fan base I would go with. Okay. Question number two, Haley, we've seen this now in preseason this year.

Regardless of the score of the game, teams have the option of doing a shootout against each other at the end of every preseason game. And I want to know, are you in favor of this? Yes or no? No. I don't, no, I don't care. Teams can practice that in practice if they want. That's it?

Yeah. I thought you were going to have some hot takery here. You know what? I actually don't mind it. I think this is the time. I think you should do it, but I think you should do it in reverse order. And go with like, start with your most defensive defenseman

and the guys who would never would get a chance in the regular season, that's what I want to see. I want to see the people who we won't see in the regular season because you never know. Someone's going to go full Merrick Malik here, and you're not going to know that they have some crazy shootout move in their back pocket. So I like it, but only if you don't go with the traditional stars of the game.

You're going to sit there at the Canadian Tire Center and watch every player have a shootout goal and meaningless preseason game? No, not every player, but do it like, it's a shootout. So you each get three shooters and then go from there. And if it's settled, it's settled. If it's not, it's not. But don't go to your star players. Go to the defensive defenseman. Just do a little shootout game at practice if you want to practice the shootout, you know, do the like finish the finish practice with everyone. You go until, you know, there's one man standing. That's fun to watch. I mean, I know fans don't really get to watch it,

but you want to practice your shootouts. Just do that. Okay. Last question about, wow, I'm really cranky today. Yeah, you are. Yeah. No, what a stupid idea, Ian. That's why we put you on the Monday show. We thought this is actually... It really makes a ton of sense.

Yeah. Yeah, it does. Okay. Last question. On the weekend we saw, I think actually it was Friday. Washington Capitals became the first team to unveil what their jersey advertising is going to look like with a little patch for next season with a sports book. I want to know if you're buying a replica jersey of your favorite NHL team, Haley,

Would you get the matching advertising patch on it? Your options are A, yes, it is the most authentic look or B, nope, I do not want to have an advertising patch on my personal jersey. Which way are you going? I'm going no. I think, you know, I'm, you know, as cranky as I just was about shootouts in preseason. I think the ads on, the one ad on a jersey, I don't think it's like a, I don't hate it as much as a lot of people do.

I think it's, you know, whatever, it's a small patch. The teams, the leagues, et cetera. They're going to make money, get things, you know, attemptedly back on track financially. That's fine for league and team business, but I don't want that. If I'm a fan and I'm buying, you know, a jersey of my favorite player, I don't need, like, Freedom 55 financial. That's the first thing that came up.

I don't know why. Freedom 55. What an odd. What an odd selection. C-I-B-C. I don't need that. Like, no, I'm fine. Just give me the normal jersey without anything on it except for like the logo and the name plate, the C if they're the captain. Yeah. I think I agree with you. I tend to agree with you. I think I wouldn't want it on. I can understand some people would want it if they want like the most authentic look. But I'm with you. I wouldn't want the advertising. patch on my personal jersey, especially if they, like, imagine they signed like a three-year deal or a five-year deal, whatever. And say you keep your jersey for seven or eight years, they change sponsors. It's not the sponsor anymore. Yeah. They move from Freedom 55 to another financial institution. Now you just look stupid. So we don't want that. Freedom 55 to discover. Yeah. You fool.

Discover. I feel like Discover is like sponsoring everything involved with the NHL. Like the outdoor game now. Discover. I was going to do a. fancy tagline, but I couldn't think of anything. Yeah. I don't even know what the Discoverer. Looks like their marketing is working so well that we don't even know what their tagline is. All right. Hey, listen, we better leave it there.

55. I don't even know where that came up. I don't know. Yeah. That's a weird one. All right. Listen, we're going to have to leave it there because we've gone probably a little bit longer than we usually do.

But that's because we had a lot of fun. And this was a real fun episode of the podcast. Listen, make sure you spend the week. you're going to go to office pools.com, you're going to figure out your team. You're going to draft your team. Then we're going to talk about it next week. And you're going to come up with a punny name.

Okay, that's your home. I don't like giving out homework for the athletic hockey show, but both for the listeners and for us, fill out your hockey pool, come back next week, and we're going to have some fun with that, all right? Yeah, it's back to school time. A lot of kids are back at school, so we're giving everybody homework.

I think it'll be interesting. You know, not only will all of us, you know, the hosts be kind of competing, but like you guys can even compete with us. You can, if you have a better team than me, you can tell me that on social media. You can embarrass me with your awesome hockey pool. It's probably not going to happen because I'm notably very good at fantasy sports. Terrible at them. But not here, not with this hockey pool.

So it'll be fun. I think we can have a lot of fun with it, Ian. You know, I think we'll beat the Americans. Even though we're going solo, I still think that we will have the two-based. better teams than our American colleagues because we're just superior in every way. And I think it'll be fun to see if anyone else can beat us too. Yeah, this is going to be a lot of fun. So listen, again, fill out that athletic hockey pool form with office pools.

We'd love to have you involved with this. That does it for this episode of The Athletic Hockey Show. Please follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a rating and a review. We appreciate that. Right now, annual subscription to The Athletic. They're 50% off when you visit Theathletic. slash hockey show.