The Athletic Hockey Show - John Klingberg frustrated with Dallas Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins not ready to rebuild just yet, Olympic memories from 2018 with Jim Slater

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

Craig and Sean discuss John Klingberg's frustration with the Dallas Stars, and the likelihood of him being on the move at trade deadline. The guys take a look at the Pittsburgh Penguins, the recent hot streak, the imminent return of Evgeni Malkin from injury and how Sidney Crosby and his mates play has delayed the Pens rebuild. Custance and Gentille also highlight the impactful 'Tape Out Hate' campaign that the Hockey Diversity Alliance put out this week in association with Budweiser.In segment two, Craig and Sean welcome former NHL'er Jim Slater who was a part of the 2018 Winter Olympic roster for Team USA. Slater, the former Atlanta Thrasher and Winnipeg Jets forward shares his experiences playing on a non NHL Olympic roster, the memories that he holds dear from the 2018 Olympic games, and how he would build Team USA's roster this year. Jim also discusses his job in player development with the Washington Capitals, and some of the youngsters that have been elevated this season to a very competitive Capitals roster, including, Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas and local kid Joe Snively.In segment three, the boys respond to your questions and comments on the Athletic app in what easily is the can't miss segment of the week on The Athletic Hockey Show.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody. Mostly hello to Georgia Bulldogs fans. This is college football hour at the hockey, the athletic hockey show. You're a Georgia Bulldogs fan. There's got to be some Georgia, some Georgia fans in your life, right? All those years in Atlanta? No. There's not.

No, like, but opposite, like people who actively hate Georgia. So that is Georgia adjacent? It's kind of the same. It's kind of the same thing. Kind of the same thing. We are, this is the Tuesday. Tuesday, All-American, the Americans, USA. All-American rejects.

American-R-Gye. Yes, edition of the Athletic Hockey Show where we actually talk about the teams in the U.S. Unlike the other days of the week at the Athletic Hockey Show. I am joined, as always, when we can do it occasionally, by co-host and best friend, of course. Sean Gentilly. I'm a top 10 friend for you.

I'm not delusional enough to think I'm your best friend. Top ten. But am I number six? I don't have many friends, Sean. That's a fact. It's got it's kind of your kids and your brother. Obviously Cassie's number one. Cassie, if we're counting that, I made like two, and this is a true story, I made like two friends in elementary school and like stuck with them.

The dog, barely. So I would say top ten. Great show. As always, we have. Jim Slater came on. He comes on in segment two. Jim Slater, former Thrasher, so we got the Thrasher reference in early Winnipeg Jet, works with the Washington Capitals and player development now.

But most importantly, we got him on to talk about his experiences of 2018, Olympian for Team USA because it's going to be a weird Olympics this year with the NHL players out. But he was great. He has some great stories about what it's like to represent your country. We do it when the NHL players aren't are doing it. We talk a little bit about young players versus veterans. You know, Bobby Ryan didn't make the team, sadly. Sean, a huge mistake already by the USA Brass.

What's back here? Do you know right for Bobby Ryan? Oh, my God. The other thing I forgot about 2018, by the way, was like how, I mean, and of course we, of course this was true because it was collectively bargained, but they knew it. They knew that there weren't going to be NHL players. Yes. in it and sort of prepared accordingly.

So a guy like Jim in the summer of 2017 or whatever it was, he could say like, all right, I'm going to plan for this. Like, I'm going to prefer this. I want to make an Olympic team. And it was something that was in the back of his mind for six months or however long it was. You look at that compared to what these guys have dealt with, the guys who are eventually going to be on this team with have dealt with over the last month or whatever. Right, right.

It is not the same. It's a bunch of dudes who, you know, six weeks ago just couldn't have, couldn't have guessed that something like that was going to happen. But yeah, it is, man. I saw that yesterday. I saw, so Mark Motha said that Bobby got the hook. Which Bobby confirmed, sadly. Yeah, on Twitter. You know, it's terrible.

Terrible. I just want interesting guys on that roster. That's mainly That's all. That's very selfishly what I want. Like I want compelling personalities and guys who have kind of heard from or guys who are going to be interesting to learn about over the course of this tournament. Like that's the point of this selfishly as a fan, as a media person.

So why on earth would I not want Bobby Ryan to make this team? I don't know. Jake Sanderson's on. And like so like you look at storylines. here's a guy who loses the opportunity to play in the world junior and now is replaced by making an Olympic team. And I think, I suspect this will be one of those kind of breakout performances. I mean, we already know he's good. That's no secret.

But like, you know, in terms of a star being born in this tournament, I think he rises to the top of the candidates for the U.S. roster. I think that's fun. I think those are the fun. Like having those young players get this kind of stage is what I'm looking forward to. Oh, God, absolutely. I mean, it does seem like, you know, we're going to get some of the high-end younger players there, right? Like, it seems like, it seems like Maddie Baneers is going to end up there. I saw Bordolo, speaking of great stories, Thomas Borello on a, I don't know if this is confirmed yet, or this is just something that, like our, the guys like Corey and Scott Wheeler were kind of kicking around. But it seems like Borello is going to make it, which is unbelievable.

He got completely screwed out of, out of, not. not one but two consecutive WJCs. Yes. So that's, that's cool. Like that's, that's the sort of stuff that's going to make this tournament worth watching

and selfishly, like worth tracking and worth covering, because these are guys who we know. These are guys who we've heard of. These are guys whose stories we're familiar with. And they're kind of amazing. Like if he, or at least just,

or at least compelling. Yeah. Anderson and Bordolo and guys like that. And that's what that's the bummer about, about Bobby. You know, he wanted, he wanted,

he wanted, he wanted to do it. but he and he would have been super duper interesting. So yeah, it's a, it's a bummer. But I don't know. We're going to, we're going to, I don't know if there's an end date on this or a roster announcement date, but we're going to keep seeing these names trickle out. So, gosh, Sean, there's, there's a sneaky a lot to talk about today on the U.S. side. So I'm going to get right to it. There's at least three topics I want to talk about.

the first is John Salty John Klingberg. Pissed. Pissed. Down in Dallas. People seem to get their contracts taken care of, except for John

Klingberg, who now is, you know, number one on whatever trade board we're putting together soon at the athletic, I presume. My goodness. And also, like, it doesn't seem like Jim Nills return in his calls all that much.

What's wrong with Klingber? Yeah. But Klingberg, when you talk to Saad, about, and Sad Yusuf wrote something a couple days ago about this. And it's still, it's timely and it's worth reading, right? He was like, yeah, he was like, I'm pissed because I haven't heard from these guys, basically. And it's getting quieter and quieter. And that was the driving force behind Klingberg being mad.

Because everybody gets paid, except the guy who signed an 11-year 40-year, 40-minute. million dollar deal a while back. I'd have been pissed about that deal too. He signed it early. He pulled the trigger early. And now it's now it's extension time. And he's like, oh, shit, I just spent the prime earning years of my career making four and a quarter million dollars as a right shot D and top power play quarterback. Like, I get why he's itchy to get something done. So they know him well. And they've clearly, not clearly, but it appears. they've made a choice here. I mean,

there's two, you know, Indel, Hayskinnan's got his deal done, which of course you do, that's an incredible player. that's got guys that are just some interesting RFA's that have to get done. if they're not talking to him. And so, I mean, they know him better than anything. So somewhere along the line, they're like, okay, this is our guy that's expendable. And maybe it's because they go, he's the guy that we can get, you know, a great return for.

You know, if we have to infuse the organization. I don't know. Part of this has to be that they don't know whether they're good or bad. They still don't. They don't know whether they're a buyer or a seller. Because their entire season has been a series of streaks of wins and losses. Yeah. It's like you look up and it's like, oh, they won six straight.

Oh, they lost seven of eight. Bonus is freaking out again. Everybody's mad. Tyler Sagan's getting yelled at and hasn't scored all season. And then it's like, oh, shit, they just rattled off five more wins. That has to be frustrating. That has to be frustrating for everybody involved. If you're the manager or the coach or whatever.

And certainly if you're a guy like John Klingberg, who clearly isn't going to, like, what are the odds of him coming back to Dallas next year. They're 95-5, right? So I'm sure part of him's like get me out of here. I want to start the next chapter of my life. I want to put myself in position to get paid somewhere else. I mean, that's the other thing. I think that's like the bright side for John Glingberg, right, is that he's going to get there's 31 other teams out there that would gladly

take that guy at four million. So if if they ever trade him, there's going to be a stampede for him because he's a legitimate top pair power play guy and he's a right-handed shot and he makes four and a quarter million dollars this season. So you can buy down with a little cap retention. Like there's some, that's a valuable asset. And that explains what aside from the weird streaks that the stars have been on, that probably

explains why they haven't done anything with it yet. And he's like he's not new to the trade rumor mill. So like this is nothing. So now we're just, now it's just in our face, right? Because we're, you know, we're nearing the trade deadline or at least we're getting into that territory. He's unsigned. Like he's, I don't know. He's going to be a valuable commodity.

And I think if you're the stars, I mean, the biggest mistake you could be would be just to lose him for nothing at this point because you're not a cup finalist or whatever. I don't believe. So he's, I mean, that's a huge. That's a class. Like, you know, that's a first round prospect. And I know the rental price has been a bit, I would say, dampened over the last couple of years. But yeah, that's like a classic high-end rental. I mean, seriously, listen, listen, look at the start of season.

Starting on October 25th. Loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, win, loss, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, loss loss loss loss loss loss loss loss win win win loss that is a can we just do the whole show of that uh win win win win loss loss loss loss loss loss loss loss it is weird huh no it's like there it's a it's a teeter totter ride and it it has to be making people insane it's making me crazy to watch it i'm like oh what's going on where are they going to be in the power rankings this week Like, did, did they jump up six spots or fall down six based on whatever streak they're on right now?

So he's, John Cleingberg becomes our play. Like, that's, that's fascinating. That's a good get for somebody. Teams are going to be if there aren't already lining up. And there's like interesting names. You know, Chikrin was thrown out last week. We're starting to fill that out. And I know, you know, our trade board's on the way to hatchick is deep in the weeds, making calls, forming it.

And it's like, it's a fun time of year. So there's some good, like, legit, fun names going to be in the mix. You can staple Klingberg to the top, right? Yeah, for sure, for sure. You mentioned the power ranking, Sean. I mean, we know you don't like the Carolina Hurricanes. Right. Okay.

Moving on. The penguins seem to be... The penguins are out of roll. Do you want to talk about Carolina Sean at all? Or do you want to talk about? Nope. Okay. The Ron Hextall talked to Pierre LeBron, and we've got a couple things in the mix here.

Brian Burke has come out recently saying, we can't keep trading prospects at the deadline. I know you've got a thought on that. Ron Hextall saying, as long as Sidney Crosby is driving this bus, we're going to be good and contend. And he's not going to let us be bad. And it's proving out again. And also, hey, maybe we're going to sign. some of these guys, these veterans, to contract extensions. Lots of them.

Like, what? We're just going to keep the window open forever in Pittsburgh? Is that perky? Is that perky? Lawyering up on that one? On the prospect thing? We're not going to trade. They don't have prospects to trade.

They haven't in 10 years. Who is the last actual prospect that they trade? The last prospect they traded was Casperi Caput, and then they went, then they went and traded for them back. The two prospects, they did. The two prospects, the last two true prospects, that Jim Rutherford traded, he reacquired. So when Brian Berg says, you don't have prospects. You know, we have to stop trading prospects.

It's not because they need to rebuild the system. It's because we don't have any. That's like me saying, I, you know what, I need to stop selling million dollar NFTs. Because I don't have any. We are selling million dollar NFTs. coming soon to the athletic hockey show. Their top prospects have been the same for three years. Everyone's like, boy, what if Sam Poulin and Nathan Ligare

end up being contributors to the top six? It's been the exact. Wheeler's putting out the prospect rankings right now. Yes, yes. He put out Seattle yesterday. Seattle was 32 by virtue of only having eight players in the system. Can I just pause? I was laughing about that.

Wouldn't it have been great if there was like four or five teams worse than Seattle, like one draft in? Like if you're sitting there going, hey, this team has only had one kick at the can and they already have a deeper pool. Like I don't, I assume that the penguins are going to be 30 first today. I don't even know if they ran or not.

If they're not 31st, they have to be close. Maybe that's why they're not trading any prospects. I, let me ask you this. Okay, Seattle's last, according to Wheeler, fair enough. But aren't you, if you're the penguins, training your entire prospect pool for the entirety of the Seattle prospect pool? Because you're getting Maddie Baneers. Oh my God, absolutely.

Immediately. So by that definition. I think I love, I love Wheeler. But he's got prospect brain on that. Mm-hmm. I mean, I get it. You want quantity at some point, right? you're like, okay, these are lottery tickets.

We want as many bites at the apple as possible. Of course we want however many guys on, you know, with with control on on entry level deals versus eight or whatever. But I think I'd rather have Maddie Baneers than a bunch of third and fourth round picks from, uh, from 2013 through 2020. For sure. Are you doing deals with like Latang and like I think I'm signing LaTang. Yeah. Okay. Rust is the one that I think is going to be tough because he potentially could make a lot of money.

And they don't want to, I don't think they're going to want to bring back everybody necessarily or have the bandwidth to bring back. But he's a he's a good winger. Yeah. Chris LaTang, even at 35 is not particularly replaceable. If you're going to sign Malkin, if you're going to sign Latang, you might, and you're going to keep Krasby around. And you're going to keep the aging 35, 36 year old guys on that team. Like, what's, just keep, keep the third. Yeah.

He's been fantastic, by the way. Rust? Or Latang. Yeah. He's been great. Are we being tricked again where it's going to be like Malkin's going to come back and they're not going to be good? Like, they did the old penguins survive without Sid or Gina? know and scrape their way to wins.

And then when they get everyone back, they always seem to like exhale and it doesn't go well for a minute. Doesn't that happen? Yeah. It does. I don't know. So that's where we are right now in that, that are? I, intellectually, I can't bring myself to that point to say that getting of Guinea

Malkin back for a hockey team is a bad thing. No, that's not what I'm suggesting. Oh, I know. No, I know that's, I know that's not what you're saying. That's a major, that's a major. Um, sort of logical, like, that's kind of a hobby, that's kind of a hobby horse for people here. Is that like, whether it's fans or fan boys, like, are they going to be worse when Malcolm comes back? What do they do? What do they, what do they do with Evan Rodriguez? Who's, like,

and it is. Like, it's a, it's a balancing act for sure. But I mean, he looks really good, too. I know it sounds like, I'm, I'm, I'm pumped, pump. I'm pumping up. The Penguins too much here because I'm like, Latang has been great and Malkin looks really good, but it's true. Who would you take in a seven-game series right now, Carolina or Pittsburgh? Pittsburgh. Okay. Before we get to Jim, Jimmy Slater,

I wanted to appear in LeBron. I had a great story about the HTA, the Hockey Diversity Alliance and their tapeout hate campaign, the commercial that they did. I just wanted to acknowledge, I'm glad they're doing it. I'm glad the HDA is, back in the spotlight.

Why is it Budweiser Canada? Why do we have to make the Budweiser Canada is pouring some funds into this. Good for Budweiser Canada. Hey, Budweiser America. We're also trying to tape out some hate. Is there even a Budweiser America? Is it? I'm assuming.

Budweiser's is it's just owned by some, it's owned by InBev, right? It's like a Danish beverage super giant. It doesn't really matter. You know, when smaller companies get bought by larger companies, you never know what happens. Mm-hmm. It can go, mm-hmm. All I'm saying is I need Budweiser everywhere. Let's get everyone involved in this and sync money into it Budweiser.

Let's not limit it to your outpost Budweiser. Yeah, right. Like, what is this? I would love to see the Budweiser Canada. headquarters. Like where are they? They're in the maritime somewhere probably, right? Is that an island or something?

Yeah, that's true. So I would say, Did they even have Budweiser in Canada? I thought they only had like four beers up there. Steam whistle. La Bat. The bat. Moosehead?

Is that a thing? I might be making out. Yeah, that's not real. If you want to support that initiative, and it's a great initiative, this is a free plug. Shop beergear.ca is where you can pick up that tape. If I had hockey stick to tape, we should like, I'm going to tape up my microphone. Yeah, that's a, that's a great idea. Yes.

Well, or we, I mean, the more we can all support that, the better, even though we're still waiting on Budweiser America to get involved. Definitely buy things from Budweiser to combat racism. Coming up next, Jim Slater. Great American, Olympian, thrash. Sadly, we didn't start talking about Bobby Holick until the microphone was off. Oh, what a bummer that was. I know. I know.

There is a, you know, all that, all that led me to realize was that we need to just have Bobby on the show at some point. Oh, my gosh. Again. I think those wheels are already in motion with producer Jeff. Like, you can not, whether it's next week, whether that's an off-season thing, I mean, that could be like an off-season show. It's just like 45 minutes with Bobby O'League. Yeah, that's great.

I think we should go to his ranch in Wyoming and do an on-location. One hour with Bobby O'Leak, a day with Bobby O'Leak. He's got us riding horses and shooting things. That'd be cool. That'd be cool. And we can visit Elon Musk. Is that? Who else lives in Wyoming?

This is Bobby Ryan? I don't know. See, he's kind of police. Somebody else. Kanye West. Everybody who doesn't live in Wyoming. It's fucking for. Yeah.

It's for rich. It's for rich lunatics who don't want to pay state income tax and don't want to live in Florida. And Bobby Hulik. I don't like that you're inferring that Bobby Hulik is a rich lunatic. Because he's a, he's a savvy businessman is what he is. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. Bobby Ryan lives in.

Not lived in Idaho. Oh, that's right. That's right. All right. We'll be right back. We are now joined by, I want to say friend of the podcast. You can be friend of the podcast without ever appearing on the podcast before, Jim. Is that fair to say?

For sure. I mean, I'm friendly to the podcast. Yeah, no, I've definitely listened to you guys quite a bit. You guys have some interesting topics and discussions. And, yeah, it's nice to be on with you guys. You guys are doing a great, great thing here. Well, so we were talking, you know, with the Olympic Games coming, and everything being, I'm sorry, it's Jim Slater.

I'm sure we'll introduce them properly. Jim Slater, thank you. Let me do my job properly here. Former thrasher, Jet, and for the topic of this conversation, really we want to get into the Olympic side. You represented Team USA at the last Olympics. And everything being thrown into the, you know, it's just, it's wild right now. And they're in the process of putting rosters together.

And, you know, what we said, like we were talking to some people last week, it's not how we imagine this might go, but it's also like the opportunity of a lifetime for people. And there's going to be great stories that come out of it. And you're, you know, you lived that. So, you know, with the hindsight of time now, what was that experience? Like, what was the thing that you enjoyed most about that experience? Yeah, I mean, I'll probably give you a long answer here because I enjoyed. Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, that's good. You know, I think it starts back. I mean, we had a, you and I did an interview before I went to the Olympics and that was through the athletic and all that. But, you know, for me, I was, I was looking to retire after my second year. I was over in Switzerland. I was playing in Geneva, Switzerland. And, you know, I was away from my family for eight months. And I still loved the game, you know, but for me, it was a family decision. And so I was actually thinking about kind of retiring. That was back in 2017, I want to say. and then, you know, obviously the news came that the NHL players weren't going to go.

And you kind of saw a flood of ex-guise kind of wanted to get back into playing hockey. And, you know, I was offered to play in Switzerland again. And, you know, I jumped at it. I went to a different team in Switzerland called Freiburg-Gatron. There was a North American coach there. His name was Mark French, who I absolutely think the world of. You know, so they gave me an opportunity to come back and play. And, you know, for me, you know, obviously I love the game still, but I left my family again for for eight months.

You know, I made a sacrifice. My wife made a sacrifice. My kids made a sacrifice, you know. So the whole goal is going there and making the U.S. team. And, you know, looking back, it was the right decision. You know, even if I wouldn't have made the team, it still would have been the right decision because I wasn't ready to retire then. But so I guess as Christmas is coming along, I'm home for Christmas break. I usually came home for about five days during Christmas.

I got a call from Jimmy Johansson, the late Jimmy Johansson. And it was actually a voicemail I woke up to, I believe on the morning of the 27th saying to give him a call. And I gave him a call right away. And, you know, he basically just said you're on the team. And, you know, Jimmy and I went back a long time. I played for many U.S. national teams and all that. And the one thing I still do remember, and I did tell them this was I played in an under 18 challenge back in Prague, Czech Republic when I was 18.

I remember him in the locker room. And he was saying, you know, a lot of you guys are going to be playing a world junior teams, you know, world championship team, Olympic teams, you know, this and that. And I remember hearing that, be like, damn, like, I could, you know. Right, right. To get that call from him, whatever, 18 years later, you know, saying you're going to be an Olympian was pretty overwhelming. And obviously you get off the phone,

you tell your your wife, your, your kids. And I had my daughter call my parents and tell them for me. And it was just, it was just a great experience. So anyways, going back there, being part of that team, it was kind of different just because, you know, we're all just kind of thrown together. We didn't play many exhibition games. I don't think we played it.

Yeah, we didn't play any exhibition games. We had one tournament in November called the Deutsche Cup, which was in Germany. And that wasn't our team. They were kind of picking the team through them. And we didn't play any exhibition games. And we just kind of went in, you know, tough on coaches for sure, you know, trying to get the lines and power play.

And I'm sure they had, you know, ideas and thoughts and watch a lot of video. But, you know, I guess the whole experience leading up to the Olympics was memorable for me. When I was there, the most memorable thing for me was just. just seeing the best athletes in the world, you know, walk into the cafeteria. You know, you're sitting next to, you know, figure skaters, you know, short track speed skating is my new favorite sport. I'll be glued to the TV when that's on. Same. Yeah, yeah, you know, and just, you know, you're sitting in the, you're sitting in the cafeteria and you see a figure skater walking with a gold medal around their neck.

You know, they just won the gold medal. And you're like, man, that is like the best figure skaters. in the world, you know, like, you mean, and you're sitting right there, you know, having lunch with them. And it kind of takes me back to, like, I remember my freshman year of college where, you know, we'd sit in the cafeteria for three hours and, you know, we were hockey players. We had, you know, the volleyball players start rolling in, the football players, you know, we all had the same cafeteria. And it kind of reminded me of that just at a just a grander scale. So that was, that was probably my biggest memory from that is just sitting,

sitting and watching these other amazing athletes, just how they took care of themselves, how they presented themselves. And that was a big part of it. I remember you saying you got like you form relationships with the, you know, like you got to meet them, got to know them,

you know, who were some of the fun ones that you got to know in the process? Well, obviously the U.S. women's team. I mean, you know, quite a bit,

you know, we were pretty close with them. And then, you know, we were able to celebrate with them after they won the gold medal over Canada. So that was obviously a great experience. You know, in Olympic Village, it's really cool.

I mean, they have lounges kind of set up for you. And the U.S. does an unbelievable job of treating their athletes, you know. I mean, so we had lounges and you just kind of sit in these lounges and people just kind to roll in. Like I said, you just watched them on TV, you win a gold medal. And they're rolling in, you know, grabbing a pack of peanuts or, you know, a fruit roll up, you know, with a gold medal on their neck. You're like, where am I, you know?

But I'd say, you know, I actually just watched her win. the long track but Mia Mangonello, Kilberg. We had a good relationship there. We were talking. A lot of figure skaters were great to talk to the two figure skating dance teams, Madison Hubble and and Zach Donahue were great to hang out with.

Same with Madison Shock and Evan Bates. We hung out and, you know, I kind of go through. I got a picture book and I look back and, you know, I got a picture with Lindsey Vaughn. I got a picture with, who are the Canadian figures gave, Tessa, Tessa Virtue. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Moir, you know, I got all these cool pictures of these athletes, you know, just kind of

sitting in my book. And yeah, it was just, yeah, it's, I'd say those are probably the ones that we hang out with the most. That's pretty good. That's amazing. Yeah. So there's, you know, there's some debate on how to build a team like this, right? Like there's the, do you bring in the, the former NHL players?

Do you go young with the college players? And you had a, like, I mean, you got to look at Troy Terry was on that team. There was some, it was a mix. How would you build it if you were like, if you're GM in this thing? Well, I think John Van B is going to do a fantastic job. You know, obviously it's a, it's a different situation. You think that the NHL players are going to go and then, you know, last couple months, you know, they aren't. But I'm sure they did their research and had some.

guys in mind. You know, for me, it's just a total different game over there. And I don't think a lot of North American people understand that. It's a skating game, you know, it's bigger ice. It's different systems over there. So just to think that you played in the NHL, you should be on the team. It's tough because if you've never played over there, you don't understand how much different, you know, the hockey is. You know, a lot of these countries, they have national team breaks where they're playing together. They pretty much have their Olympic teams. They're playing, you know,

three, four, five tournaments before the Olympic start. You know, the U.S., you're just kind of, like I said, I don't say thrown together, but you're put together for a tournament, and then you're expected to go out and play and know the systems and, you know, kind of learn on the fly. But these other countries, they've been doing it

for months and months. So, you know, for me, I think you need to have a good mix. I think you need to have older leadership, which we did, you know, there. We had some ex-NHL guys that played a lot of games. We had some young talent that you obviously knew we're going to play in the NHL and have good, you know, solid careers. And we had some really good European players that, you know, tore it up, you know, over the however many years they were over there.

So, you know, whatever happens here with the team, I'm sure they'll have a good mix. You know, I think there's going to be more college players going over there this year. I just watched Minnesota play here against Michigan State. And there's been some names of some of those kids going and, you know, watching them for sure. I mean, they're some good hockey players, you know. And the college is just so many good hockey players in the college ranks right now. And you can see that they're going to have really good, solid careers in the NHL. But I still think you, you know, just because you think you play in the NHL for however many games, you know, it's a different game over there.

So you definitely need that influx of European players that have been over there for a while, you know, some older leadership and obviously some young players from over here, whether that's college or wherever they're playing. You mentioned you're working with the Capitals now in Player Development. Is there it's, I'm just curious how that's going. And also, like, the Capitals are a team, you know, this is a mature organization that's been trying to win a Stanley Cup for a football. a long time. So how is it like doing that in a team that's not like necessarily rebuilding or I would

say loaded with young talent? Yeah. So I'm working with Washington. I do player development. We have a great group there led by Steve Richmond who's been there, you know, 20 plus years. Yeah. And it kind of oversees everything. I mean, just a wonderful hockey mind, but a great, great person. Brooks Orpick, you know, obviously, you know, speaks for himself his career. Oli Colzig. And then Dr. Amy Kimball, we hired this this year, which I know you know. Oh, yeah. It's great to know her and then myself.

So we have a really good group. And it's just kind of started for Washington, to be honest with you. I mean, Steve Richmond has been ahead of it for a while. But, you know, Brooks myself just came in three years ago. Dr. Kimball came in this year. So we're just really starting to get this thing off the ground. And it's been good. It's been a lot of fun.

I love it. I love being on the ice for the players. You know, I love being able to share my experiences and knowledge with these guys. guys. With Washington, it is tough because you're trying to win a Stanley Cup every year. And you know, you could trade away your draftics, you know, you can trade away your prospects. But this year's been really fulfilling for, I think, myself and the whole development department, just because we've had so many guys get called up, play their first NHL games, score their first NHL goal. So that's really been great. But yeah, you're right.

I mean, when you're trying to win a Stanley Cup, you know, every year and you have a window to do it. Some of the prospects are stuck in the minors where they could be playing in the NHL for another team easily, you know, and you have to deal with that mindset with those guys, just kind of trying to keep them, you know, ready because they know they're ready. I mean, they've, they've got a mix. They see other players that they've played against or their buddies that are getting called up and playing and they're, you know, kind of stuck in the Myers. But with Washington, there's not a ton of room to make that jump. But this year, there has been. And you can see how good these players are and how they're developing.

So it's been, it's been a little bit of both. You know, it's been, like I said, fulfilling to see these guys play their NHL games, you know, score their first NHL goals. But it's also tough because you see them in the American League. You're like, you know, you know they should be in the NHL. Just it's tough to make it with such a great organization like Washington is. Yeah, I mean, there's been, I mean, do you guys have had the influx? Yeah, McMichael, who's made a lot of people excited and guys like Alexiev and whatever.

I mean, there's been, there's been a little bit more of a young kind of infusion on that roster than we've seen in the past, right? Like, there seems like there's some kind of, there's some kind of change over the tap. Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, we got a 20-year-old, Bella Russia and Alexei Protas, which I think the world of, he's been up there. You know, Axel Johnson, if you always played, Brett Leeson, Connor McMichael. You know, we've had a lot of guys, Garrett Pilon, Beck Malenstein, like, just a lot of these guys that are getting opportunities to, to show kind of what the Joe Snively. I mean, what a story that is, you know.

I grew up playing for the little caps. You know, went to Yale, had a great college career, you know, in his third year in the minors and gets his first national game, scores, you know, gets an assistant's first, you know, maybe second shift of his career. So it's just really cool. I mean, you know, Craig, you knew me when I was in Atlanta. Like, you know, I was a young kid.

You realize how one grew up in a young kid. Oh, my gosh. Just young and cheap. Yeah. Um, no, it's that, it's that Michigan state thing, man. They just breathe, they breed disrespectful young man. I know. When you sit next to Bobby Holick for two years, uh, you, you never respect real, real quick.

Um, it's actually kind of funny bringing up Bobby because, you know, Craig had a good relationship with them too. And I actually, you know, I still talked to them this day. I think the world of them. But I was mentioning it to one of our younger prospects, you know, like, who's the guy that kind of took me under their wing, you know? And, um, you know, I, I mentioned Bobby. he didn't know who he was and um yeah i know it was just like that's sad look at him like this guy was a

badass like go you know google him up and then the other guy for me Craig was brad larsen which oh yeah that's great who is now the head coach of columbus um you know so i had some really really good mentors um you know growing up uh you know trying to break into the league and that's another part of this whole development thing that we're getting back to is like you know Washington's got so many great veterans, you know, playing for their team that when these guys do get called up, not only are you learning stuff on the ice, you're learning stuff off the ice, how to be a pro. And, you know, for our development department, having Brooks and Ola and myself, you know, we got a lot of experience. And, you know, these kids are just, you know, I was afraid to go to the bathroom, you know, walking by you know, you know, I'm not going to ask these guys a question, you know, of, you know, maybe it's a bad question, maybe not. So these guys, you know, as I kind of tell everyone, it's kind of like a consulting job where if you have a question, you know,

ask me, I'll give you the answer, you know, whether you're not, but it'll be the answer, you know, or if I don't have it, I'll find it for you. So these kids have a little bit more of a sounding board to ask things. I'd be scared to ask Bobby Holick anything as a 20-something-year-old kid coming into the league. Oh, you know, he didn't care if you were 20 or if you were 40, right? If he didn't agree with you, he was going to tell you most of the time he didn't agree with you. But then you'd listen to his response and you're like, damn, like, that makes a ton of sense, you know. Yeah.

He's just, he's a, he's a fantastic person. How does he do it? So he needs to be on the show. I just imagine him running around like on his property. We're like in the wild somewhere. Yeah, no, he's in Wyoming. He's in Jackson Hole. And, you know, to be honestly, Craig, you know how he was back then.

He just drives everywhere. So he just, he. He has horses. He loads the horses up. He goes cross-country. I think they have a place in North Carolina now. But he's doing some things for sure. You know, nothing really with hockey.

Just kind of doing his own thing, which he's able to do. All these guys are in Wyoming now. What is happening? It's a place to be. I know. I love it. Yeah. It's the Kanye West effect, obviously.

Awesome. Well, I know, Jimmy, you got to travel. you've got real things to do besides talk to us. So we'll let you get back to your morning routine. But this was awesome. And it was great catching up for a sec. Yeah, no, for sure. Thanks for having me on, Craig.

And, you know, I expect a lot of good things from the U.S. program, you know, at the Olympics this year. I think there's a big pool to choose from. There's be great players on that team. Be a good mix. So it's going to be another, you know, different Olympics. You know, obviously, I'm one of the people that love seeing the best of the best. which, you know, the NHL guys are, but this is a great tournament. These guys are going to, you know, give their all no matter what for their country.

So it'll be a great tournament to watch. But I appreciate you guys having me on and talking about it and reliving some of the good memories from that time. So how can you not always just wearing your like Olympic gear and introducing yourself as Olympian? I was disoriented there too. Yeah. That's I would bring it up like every. Pyong Chang, Pyongchang, 2018.

Like, no, no big deal. I'll tell you what, that is another one of the perks that you get. so much clothes. Okay. Some of it's terrible. I feel never wear in your life. But it still says that right. The Olympic 2018 Olympic team on there.

But, you know, my stuff, you know, we have a small house. There's just no room for it, to be honest with you. And like, it's out in the garage and in a, in suitcases and stuff and plastic bins. But it, you know, every once in a while, we'll have a few drinks. And my buddies will want to pull it out and we'll pull it out. They'll put on the unies, you know, like, no. Oh, my gosh, I would totally do this. Yeah.

Just layer it up. It is honestly unbelievable to how much, how much clothes that you get. And it's, and it's all different. Nobody in the world has it. So it's, it's pretty cool to have that.

It's like the jerseys in the, in the garage. Your buddy is like, hey, could, could put out of the pads too, maybe in like a helmet and go for, go for a skate real quick.

Yeah, no, I mean, I've given some of it away, but for the most part, for me, it's just like holding on to it for the kids and stuff to kind of go back and look at it. I mean, you know how it is, do you guys? I mean, you're not wearing your Washington Capitals gear around the streets. You're not wearing your, you know, for me, Winnipeg Jets gear around them on the streets. Like, it's just something that hockey players don't do.

I mean, we're proud of what we have and what we've accomplished and stuff. But, you know, for us, we don't really wear it around. I mean, we have so much workout gear from our teams that we have. we played for but we don't work to the gym you know like a random gym here or anything like that so yeah basically you just kind of give it away to be to be honest to other people i never wear any of my athletic stuff ever at any time oh that is just besides everything i wear that's nice you may have to say i'd like this for a capital sweatshirt oh deal we can do like a hoodie swap It was hot in here and I took it off.

All there was set down. You guys got it going. Those aren't in the garage and bins. Those are right in your top door. No, no. This is, we like beg for more. And it's like it's a limited edition around the athletic offices.

All right. Well, Jimmy, thanks for doing this. Thanks, guys. I hope the fam's doing well and safe travel today. For sure. Appreciate you guys. You guys take care. Safe travels and good luck, man.

Thanks, Sean. All right. Here's what I always liked about Jim. later, Sean. So when we would go to Thrashers practices, the media parked in the player parking lot, which in Duluth, Georgia, which was very humbling for a young writer like myself driving a literal hand-me-down Chevy Malibu. Like that's for my mom. That turquoise. That's what I was driving. Just in it like old and gross. And your park, I would be parking next to like

Ilya Kovalchuk's baby blue Bentley. And it was like Slava Kozlovs, you know, one of those silver boxy Mercedes SUVs. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I'm like... Slava Kozlovs G wagon.

Yeah. And so I always would make Jim Slater, I think he kind of referenced being cheap or thrifty or something. Jim Slater was always like he always just drove like a regular like Chevy pickup, like whatever it was. Yeah, that's great. So I tried to find where Jim Slater parked in park next to him as my,

as my Chevy Malibu was overheating and smoke was coming out of the hood, which it tended to do. These are the interactions that we've missed in the pandemic world, is stuff like that. I just, I just sent, I just sent you and producer Jeff a very funny photo from my, from my Instagram page, which is like my version of that. This is it Steelers training camp in literature. Trobe, PA at St. Vincent College. And I parked next to Joe Hayden's... Oh my gosh.

It's Steelers' Trainers' Camp next to Joe Hayden's Rolls-Royce. And this thing is... I've... It was... It's three times... It might have a Subaru. I have a Subaru hatchback, obviously. It's a piece of shit.

But this thing is... This car was three times a size of it. That's amazing. That picture captures exactly what I'm saying. Yep. And the other thing, too, is I did not yeah okay so Jeff's give me shit here

because I did a bad parking job yeah why did you park so close to him you're like on top of a no reason that is that is the story I did not park next to Joe Hayden's miracle whip you know

like I parked there early I was that is in like a student parking lot or whatever like behind a dorm in training camp I got there early and like obviously pulled in with too much space on the right side. Joe Hayden parked next to me and backed into the space.

So it looks like like that car was not. I would never, never, never park next to a player like that in the first place just because I'm paranoid and then don't don't want to fuck anything. No one to screw anything up. So that's an amazing photo. That's what makes it. That's what makes even funnier is the idea of Joe Hayden who was like a, it was a super nice, gracious, like, charismatic dude.

He's also insanely charitable and whatever, but he's got some of the most expensive cars like you can possibly have on top of all that. And he rolls up to, he rolls up to this parking lot and backs in next to my shitty hatchback Subaru Impresza. Wild. We miss it. We miss it. That's why we need to start going back to these games because we have these bizarre

these bizarre interactions like that where you're next to Slava Kozlovs dewe. Oh my gosh. You still parked horribly, regardless of if that card was there. I don't have an excuse for that. I'm a bad, other than being a bad driver and parking in an empty lot and just like not even thinking about it. Coming up next, the best segment in all of sports.

Is that what called? Yep. The fastest 60 seconds in sports. Where we read your comments. And love every second of it. We got a lot this week, baby. Did we? I can do it looked.

All right. Let's do this. We'll be right back. This is the only good segment on the show. It's when we go into the app. Mm-hmm. Craig right this down, please. I just did it so I could, I know what to do.

I've got it down. I can get there now in under two and a half minutes. It's so easy. You get out your phone. You open up the athletic. You click, listen. Mm-hmm. You tap NHL.

You tap the athletic hockey show. You scroll down and you see whatever bullshit we talked about last week with... So you have to know the topic of the last episode. Is that right? And then you scroll it out. It's whatever one post on Tuesday. And then click, don't forget the details button. Last week, how about this?

Last week. The least work we've ever done on an episode? we just wound up we just wound up Bill Zito and Gigi Marvin and let him talk and we're like, all right, see you later! That was one of my favorite episodes. It was great. Also, I liked the discourse after

about the Bill Zito interview. Yeah. How did Bill, like the, he's trying to have like a legit, serious interview. Like Bill had things he wanted to say. Like, he's trying to help people out and give him some real insight into how to run a hockey. Like, like Bill was being so sincere.

God, we couldn't cut it out for, you and I couldn't for five minutes. What did he say? You guys are. I'm serious. You guys aren't taking this seriously. And you're like, no. I will say my tenor changed from that moment. I stopped.

I did try. I'm like, okay, this guy's like giving us, like, we need to have the due respect here and do this interview properly. I loved it. I know you loved it. Gigi was great too. And Gigi was amazing. Gigi was of the four people that spoke on that on that, on that, on that podcast, Gigi was the smartest and most charismatic by a factor of 10.

So actually saying useful, useful stuff. Well, Bill Zeno was trying to. We just. Oh, right. Well, you know what? Just didn't have the juice to get it out. We steamrolled old Billy. You got to be quick.

And you got to be tough. Oh, gosh. By the way, 19 comments. Now, let's look. Some of them are kind of duplicates and or making fun of other episodes of this podcast. So that's fine. Let's lean into that even more next week. Yeah, I could like 19.

I don't people like, I don't know if we appreciate that. Like Sean will write a power rankings and it'll get three or 400 comments. That's like, that's how it works out in the wild with our normal stories. for 19 people to crazy to go down this rabbit hole and comment everyone like I am just blown away by that why this is even a function by the way on the app I don't know oh I actually

talk to the appropriate person about a bug in the in the podcast this is a true story I think so few people comment on the podcast apps that there's been a long-term glitch in the commenting thing where it's a problem for iPhone, for iPhone, certain iPhones to leave a comment or like a comment because I was having problems. And then I heard from a

couple other people that they were having problems as well. So I, you know, alerted our, alerted our product team. They're like, oh, yeah, that's a good fix. And they fixed it. So now, so all this was happening when it was a pain in the ass for people to comment on on their, on their iPhones. Yeah, not only is it impossible to get to. You may not even be able to. Also, Like, I could not comment on, on the, on the episode pages. There's no chance for fixing that bug. Like, this is so far down the, like, there's, like, it's fixed. They fixed it?

I couldn't, I, yes. All right. One last thing before we get to him, and we can fly through these. Maybe not. Be honest, Sean. Are we weird? Like, you sent me, like, people like, oh, Sean and Craig are weird. We're weird, eh?

Yeah, I think, no, I think it's an. Okay. I think the vibes in interviews, I don't know that you hear all that off and fly from other places. I'll say that much. All right, Zachie. The American Hockey Show, all caps American, by the way, from Zach, not even name-dropping miracle in the best hockey movies of all time is shameful. Oh, okay.

All right. In our defense. I've got some thoughts, by the way, on this. In our defense. We were talking about the second best hockey movie of all time, not like, it wasn't it wasn't a complete list and we forgot because we weren't equipped to have a long-term discussion on that so we just ended up talking about the mighty ducks or whatever I will also say I think as a country we we've like we talk about the miracle on ice so

much and like give it like I want to move on we need to do something else as a men's it definitely suffers Olympic you know what I mean like it's like hey let's trot out these people. Like, I'm just like, let's do, let's, like, I don't, I mean, it's an incredible accomplishment. And maybe because I was four or whatever, I wasn't, like, it didn't have the same impact. I know it impacted a whole generation of great American hockey players in the Garen, Kachuk, Medano, Chelyos, all that doesn't exist. But, like, I don't need to, like, have it on this pedestal and constantly be saying how great.

I completely, I completely agree with that. I will say in 2004 or whenever that movie came out. Oh my God. The movie came out 18 years ago, by the way. That movie is old enough to vote. Miracle. Wow. I think I was a little bit less tired of it.

Like back then it was a lot more, it was a lot more fun. Now I don't. I mean, I think I've heard, I think I've had my fill of all that, yeah. One last thought on that. this if you want to feel old Sean the kid remember the kid that

did the speech the her books yeah like he memorized the whole thing he's older than Wilford Brimley he passed the Brimley line it's a great great Twitter account Michael S not only did I aboard a plane to

Azerbaijan is that you say that to get here nope how do you say that I'm not very geographically Azerbaijan that's close but because the iPhone version of this app doesn't support comments. They disappear upon submittal. I blame Haley. We've apparently fixed that or we haven't. There's no way. No, we definitely

haven't. I found an old Android activated it. This is, this can't be true. Activated it, signed into the Play Store, downloaded this app, got on a plane to Azerbaijan or whatever. And here I am. Michael S. MVP.

Monday had the goal to do a power ranking of the athletic hockey show days and it was so biased my power ranking. I didn't hear that, by the way, because of course I listened to the Monday show. I mean, we're a savage. I don't listen to any parts of any of the other shows.

So whatever. Here's Michael's power rankings. One, The Tuesday show. Two, The Tuesday show, but with Haley replacing Craig, you two have amazing chemistry.

I don't know how I feel about that. Is that true? Yes. You guys should, you don't, like, look, if you want to rotate that in, I'm completely content. Three, the Monday show.

They're still good. Four, the Thursday show. five, 32 thoughts. Oh, I thought when this is, these are only within the athletic, nope, fine. Six, uh,

back episodes of car talk on NPR. Seven, six evolving hockey, seven tight Wednesday and Friday. That's great. Michael Kay. Does Sean know any other way of talking than out of his ass? Which is something I said in the last,

in the last, in the last segment there. Please let me know. Yes, my comments about U of M was before getting killed by Georgia, but still here. You know, whatever. Michael Kay, you're in good company now.

Georgia just, I mean, they just beat Bama. So. Yeah. I guess that means Michigan's good. Nope. That's right. I think they heard that Gigi was awesome. Michael also did his rankings.

He thinks Tuesday with me and Max is the best. He thinks that second is that me with anyone but you is the best. What? He thinks number five. is Tuesday when you show up. So I'm weighing you down, according to Michael K? Oh, look. It's the Michigan thing.

I hope you enjoyed the Jim Slater interview. Michael K, former Spartan, great Jim Slater. Go blue. He also says he thinks that me and McIndoo can do a show because it'll be awesome. That's obviously not true. We are in the Sean at the Athletic Cold War. Never spoken.

Not once. Where does Shapiro fall into that? He's the kid who's caught in the middle. And Fitzgerald just floats above the freight because he's better than all of us. Oh, Fitsy. I love this from Tony S. If you're actually in the comments,

click this link because it's really funny. Hello, long time, first time, et cetera. I don't have anything interesting to say, but shows a lot of fun. Here's fan out of frogs and hockey jerseys that I saw on Twitter. And Tony, I did enjoy it. I will be, can I, can we turn them into NFTs?

We got to figure out our next million. We need some NFTs. Jeremy S. Just commenting to prove to myself, I could find this comment section. Thanks for the journey, guys. Love the pod. You did it, Jeremy. You did it.

You're here. We're all here. Chris Jay, shitting on Mondays again. Saying that it's better, blah, blah. He's also mad about miracle. he thinks that it's number two? I'm being defensive. How about this?

Do you think the miracle isn't... I don't think you think that miracle is a number two Occamovial time. No, I don't know. I'm fine with that. I don't know. You know what?

Why do you hate Kurt Russell so much? You always talk about this. I hate Kurt Russell. I hate Kurt Russell. Big trouble and little China sucks. Kurt Russell was great and overboard. Overborder. You know it was great?

The Overboard remake. I loved it. That's the number two hockey movie. Ana Ferris? Was it really good without a Ferris? I like Anna Ferris. She's never made a... She's very funny and very talented and somehow never...

And somehow never made a good movie. She's like not to go Bill Simmons on this, but like I would have bought stock in her and lost money. Like early on. Like, hey, I think she's hilarious and funny and want to watch movies that she's in. This is, you're like, oh, here's another... Here's another bad one. I watched, I watch, no joke, I watched like 15 minutes of the overboard remake on a plane and was like, okay, it's never mind. I watched, I started watching risky business on my last flight and then there was like a shower scene and I panicked and I couldn't have started smashing buttons on the scene in front of me fast enough.

I don't remember. Risky business on a play. Like, what? Was it the, I'd never seen it? I'm like, hey, this is a whole. So I'm like, oh, this is a bit of a hole in my movie watching. I'm going to, I'm going to watch. I don't, I don't, I've never seen.

risky business. You were like 10 when that movie or whatever. You were like in middle school when that movie came out. Don't they edit the airplane movies so all that stuff's out? I think I think it kind, I think it kind of depends. They didn't edit risky business. And so the like the lady next to me is like, hey, sicko. The subway scene? The subway sex scene? No, there's a shot like it opens with a shower scene. Oh, that's right. There's a serious sex scene. Okay, well, I didn't get that far because I was panicking and like producer Jeff is said in quotes from from rescue

business here wow you're like I'm going to sit next to you on a plane watching filth you'll freak Delta Jonathan B writes thanks for encouraging

Gigi to show the best of herself in the game I've enjoyed watching her grow into her role at Bally P.S the Monday show isn't even worth mentioning JK he says because he just mentioned him Yeah, Gigi's great.

The fun thing about the, so, you know, we had the twins on. We've had a few people, like Megan Duggan, we've had some people from that era. And it's fun because now they all can do whatever they want. They're all like, they can go into graphic design. Like they all had to do everything. Like we talked about with Gigi. They're super talented. They can do TV.

They can start businesses. It's a fun, like, what's next? I got, someday someone's going to write a great book about the fight with USA Hockey. I mean, the twins did. It was a great, from their perspective, it was a great insight. I just like a full-rounded, like, that'd be a great, I would read that. Brad G. Oh, yeah.

The pro-American propaganda is tolerable, but slandering Muppets, Christmas Carol, how dear you? Michael Cain was Oscar-worthy. Brad, listen, I, listen, the movie wasn't. Wild, wild take by you. The movie wasn't great. I fell asleep. It wasn't great. It's amazing.

It's a remake of Christmas curl. Do you have a problem with Charles Dickens? My boy. I would take Scrooge over it if I'm doing like Bill Murray. It was Michael, but I gave Michael Kane every ounce of credit. Like that's what I said. He was like the whole like never breaking character and the guy taking it seriously.

That was amazing. He was amazing, Brad. That was great. I just didn't think the movie as a whole. It was more like, oh, you're like the rest of the movie was bad. And then Rizzo was annoying the. out like the rat. I'm like,

Rizzo was annoying. Get the hell out of here. Andy B. Purchased by NYT. Just wait until someone from that age our department listens in this show. I know. Wait till they find out about this.

Do you think is it too late to back out? Yeah. Yeah, that was my decision to begin with. So I'll just. I worry about that. They're going to be like, what is this? Like,

wait a second. Wait till they see the numbers, though. They're going to be like, yes. These guys. Why is the Tuesday number spike compared to the rest of the week? These guys, these guys are stars. They're stars. This is our break, Sean.

Brian P. Oh, thank you. Good. This is great when I read it right before I read it and I get excited. I have waited years for someone to validate my views on Muppet Christmas Carol. As a Muppet show, it's fine, middle of the pack. But Michael Cain is unreal. Last time I saw it, his performance brought tears to my eyes.

Anyways, I enjoyed you guys talking over Bill Zito while he tried to be serious and compliment hockey writers. That's the other thing. He was giving us credit as a industry. He was trying to say like what we. You guys aren't taking this seriously, Bill Zito. He's right. He's right. What we do is hard.

He's right. Bill, I'll validate it. Yeah, or like coal miners or king crab fishermen, just in danger every day. Craig, you read this one actually. Why? Is it bad? I'll read it. Okay, few. I made it to the Twitter. From Twitter to the comments, I'm a little discouraged to see how much funnier the previous comments are in comparison to what I was planning on to say, whatever.

Oh, and I see that way you want me to read it. I'll cut to the chase. Say it. Sean, you're hot. Hell yeah. Emily P. Hell yeah. Emily P.

Hey, Emily, that is actually funnier than the previous comments. So you did it. Emily P, the check is in the mail. If anybody wants to say that, actually, I would send you $5. That Sean, you're hot? In the comments. You say, Sean, you're hot. You will literally send people $5 if they say, Sean, you're hot.

Be careful. I'll send people. Yeah, you know what, $5. All right. Do I have to read it every week? Yes. Another one, this one's from Michael S. Sean, you're hot.

This one's from Craig C. Craig. Oh, by the way, there's a Craig C. We're extending this unnecessarily. Like, this podcast should be done. But there is a Craig C. who comments in a lot of hockey articles. And I'm always worried people are going to think it's me.

But it's Craig Conroy. It's Craig Conroy. When will American hero Joe Pavell see you be on the show? Asked Sirely enough. Never know. Producer Jeff works in mysterious ways. Put him on the list. We've mentioned Joe Pavell.

He is on the list. Hey, Tom Holy, if you're listening to this, Tom, hey, listen up. Oh, buddy. Let's get Joe Pavalski and Ryan Suter. I want both. He and Jason Robertson. And we want, oh, we definitely want Jason Robertson. And Rupa Hens. He should change.

Just get that whole out of here. He should change citizenship. Donnie, you won't believe me, but this is my favorite hockey podcast right now. You should know how strong I feel about it by the journey it took for me to get to the comment section. Thanks, Donnie, Donny H. Donny Hockey. Donny Hockey. You're the man. How dare Sean slander Canadian Valentine's Day, which, as we know, happened. Unboxing day?

Six days ago. John can see. Ifa. She's back. I don't know if we can, can we say this? I'm going to say no. Only because we're highbrow now. Yeah, we use courtesy titles and put periods after after initials. We just start calling each other Mr. Gentile and Mr. Customs.

You should anyways, in my opinion. Sir. But can you curse on the podcast? I think Sean has broken that. Definitely. Remember the one time you, I think you swore and Jeff didn't put an explicit label on it and somebody was mad about it in the comments section? Is that true?

Are you serious? Is that true? Yeah, they were saying, how about a heads up? You said like, oh, no, no, no, it wasn't you. I think it was, I think Katie Strang swore, shockingly. Wow, you know, I don't know her. I don't know her to swear. My goodness.

Yeah, and I think it was somebody was really upset about that. Yeah, that's right. So, hey, folks, people, I don't swear because. Katie swore, she said, she said shit. but Sean does and sometimes the guess Craig really you don't really do you have a I have a I have a potty mouth Craig is Craig has restraint I think all those years

I having kids probably yeah I know and my kids listen they like to show I know I know but like you've had you got you've had to watch what you say more than me for a while Oh right right right I don't that's more that's more what I mean Yeah also I like this is true Me not being in locker rooms and on the road with hockey people is that's probably true it's 100% true

they drop F bomb hockey people just use the F word as just like a you know it's a space filler it's a space filler and so you it's easy to pick up and I remember and then you don't think it's a big deal

and it's whatever I don't who cares I remember being in an elevator talking to like a coach and somebody else and we were all talking like that there must have been 90 F bombs dropped in like a 30 second window in the late like the one lady stranger was so

I could just tell. She was just like, what is wrong with you? What is wrong with you guys? And it was just a nice normal like, hey, what are you doing for dinner? And it was like, you would have thought it was. So I do think being stuck at home has cleaned up my act in some ways, in a lot of ways, probably. And not in others. This podcast brought to you by the Athletic Greens.

Chris Johnson joins the Leaf Report with Jonas Siegel and James Myrtle this week. We go. Long time friend, CJ. Pizzo, Sivian, Granger, have Julian McKenzie on the Wednesday roundtable. Julian's the guys on the roundtable this week? Yeah. My big question for him, is he going to talk about the Carolina hurricane? When is somebody talk about the Carolina hurricanes?

Julian, Julian, you have this platform. Use it to talk about the most disrespected team in the NHO, please. You had your chance, Sean. Thanks for listening to the Athletic Hockey Show. Oh, hey, give us reviews and ratings wherever you listen to this. It would be great. Only good ones. Only good ones, though.

Don't give us those one-star reviews that say we sound like drunks at a bar talking over a guest, which we would never do. We would never talk over a guest. You know that. It doesn't matter if it's true. No. Reviews, we know reviews aren't true. Do you actually think we're a five-star podcast? Doesn't matter.

Just give us that five-star rating. please. Subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content from our entire network. You start with a 30-day free trial and just 99 cents a month after that. And you can get an annual subscription to the athletic if you would like to comment on the app for just $3.99 a month. Only if you're an Android user.

You can comment. I don't know if that's true. I have an iPhone user and I comment, but I have an old iPhone. Does that matter? We don't need to crack into this. I'm sure there's some extremely granular. boring explanation for it. Go to theathletic.com slash hockey show and get in at $3.99 a month.

Thanks everybody for making it this far and listening to the best episode. Sean, you have a great week. We're like already halfway through it, man. How good, how good could it be? Everybody dies, Craig. It's Tuesday. All right, P-Pop Sag it. Boomer lives.

Boomer lives. Thank you.