The Athletic Hockey Show - John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers long season ahead, Spencer Knight signs extension with Florida Panthers & did the St. Louis Blues improve enough this off-season?

Episode Date: September 27, 2022

On the American's edition of The Athletic Hockey Show, Craig and Sean discuss Sean, Dom and Shayna's work on The Athletic's NHL previews, specifically with the St. Louis Blues upcoming season. Plus Craig and Sean provide analysis on the Florida Panthers extending goalie Spencer Knight for three seasons at an AAV of 4.5 million.Charlie O'Connor previews the season for the Philadelphia Flyers, how coach John Tortorella fits in, the injuries to Ryan Ellis and Sean Couturier and how long GM Chuck Fletcher's leash is.Plus the guys answer your questions and respond to your comments in the only segment of the show that really matters, love from the #Tuesdayboyzzz.And, right now, you can get a 6 month subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Tuesday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show. I am Great Custins, joined as always by Sean Gentile. Hello, hello, hello. I should have harmonized with you because we sing so well together as we know. You're just terrified to jump in. Oh my God, so once you started singing.

Coward. you have a good voice. Great show, as always, as you've come to expect on Tuesdays. Charlie O'Connor joins us today to talk Philadelphia Flyers and a bit of a mess in Philadelphia, I would say. Injuries, fans, fans don't seem too excited. Like all the optimism that's in basically every other NHL city right now, if you dare, go scroll through the comments of any Charlie O'Connor story. You get a pretty good sense of what the fans are at.

They were already in bad shave. They were already frothed up. And then Sean Coutureer at 29 years old is about to lose the least a chunk of another season to a back injury, which, you know, you know that contract, that big contract he signed hasn't even started yet. It's a disaster. Is there a way out? Ryan Ellis has a multi-layered core injury or whatever Fletcher called it that involves body parts that I did not know exist. Have you ever heard of a so-s-p-s-o-a-s?

Yes. Are you lying to me right now? So yes. So yes. Of course not. What about it, doctor? It's like I didn't even know how to pronounce it. really sounded like an idiot on the Friday show, which is far.

As opposed to. Far, far inferior to this one. It's, but the good news is they got Johnny Goodro signed in the offseason. So there's, you know, fans in Philadelphia. No, they didn't. Although, look, here's what I would, again, I don't want to make this flyers hour. But people mad about, like, why would, like, what are you going to do with Johnny could drove for the next few years anyways.

That seems, there's nowhere to go. Just lose with a guy you like from South Jersey. It's better than the alternative. Yeah. Yeah. At least there's like a jersey you can buy and somebody, you know, you want to go there. There's someone you can go see.

Like, God bless Cam Atkinson, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure what's in the coffers. Charlie had some, uh, like basically more bad. news at the end of at the end of the segment like kind of the worst news in terms of projection for this season that you could you can imagine so stick around for that whether you love whether

you love the flyers or hate them there's something for everybody uh we are so I'm gonna but we're gonna start here um Sean and Dom and Shana have been just churning out the best season previews I would say not just in hockey in any sport like I I read a lot of stuff on our site in other sites. And there's not a preview like these. They're so thorough, so well done. Like, I'm not just saying that Sean's right here. And I don't know how much Sean would be doing on these.

Like, are you doing that much, Sean? No, no, no, no, no. See, that's the, that's the trick, baby. Nobody does. They don't know what's me. They don't know what's not. I just said, we did the, we put out the Canucks, the Canucks preview on Monday.

and people were extremely pissed off about it, I think, in both directions. Canucks fans, you know, definitely known for their even keel kind of nature. Dranser really threw us under the bus. Did he? No, he didn't throw us on the bus, but he tweeted it out. And obviously, everybody on Earth who's a Canucks fans follow his Drans at this point. So we were, we heard it. I ended up going on the Sports Net affiliate there last night.

talk about it. And it's like I said there, like anything you agree with, all me in either direction. That's right. Anything you disagree with, you can either blame the computer or you can blame a DOM bunch of continents and, you know, take it from there. Well, someone's going to have to take, I also think Dom sometimes does it too. They're like, man, it's just my model. I'd love to, what are you going to do? This is what the model says.

I actually, I'm on your side, folks. There's simply nothing. There's simply nothing that can be done about this. So me and Shana, like I said, anything good, me and Shana, anything bad, the model slash Domless Tisham. Well, since you're representing the model, Dom and Shana on this particular podcast, I wanted to talk St. Louis Blues because they're coming off 809. and massive goal differential

blues seem to know what they're doing there in St. Louis. That's a team. Doug Armstrong is kind of sneakily like it's just re-uping young talent. You're like, oh yeah, they have another wave of pretty good players to build around. Lots of reasons to like the St. Louis Blues unless you wrote a preview about them

and you're using the model. Now we know, if you follow any of this in the past, the model doesn't love the blues. I think last year probably didn't, I don't believe Dom was projecting 109 points for the blues. But they come out. So, again, it was pretty good last year. And the conclusion was, get ready for a lot of regression, B minus.

Do you, when you look at that roster, do you feel, do you, here's your chance to say, this is what I, Sean Gentily believe about the blues. Aside from like larger kind of philosophical, well, we can, we can talk about this. actually. I don't, like, I'll write about, I'll write about this stuff and I'll interpret the results of, of Dom's, of Dom's work and sort of, you know, synthesize all this stuff. But individually, as a fan of the game, I could not care less whether what a team is doing is sustainable or not, or whether they're going to regress. Like, I don't care. I don't bet on hockey. I'm not interested in that I just want to see entertaining somewhat unexpected stuff.

So like on a person, on that level, on a personal level, I have no skin in the game. Like it doesn't matter to me that. No, we know you don't care or something. Like that's... That the blues. Well, no, I, I mean, I... Establish that. I mean, yeah, but I think there is some sort of people will assume that if you're writing

off as statistics, that you automatically, that that's sort of the lens that you want them to be right? Enjoy the game and care if they're right or not. And I don't. Like, it doesn't matter to me. I think what the Blues did last year was a blast. And I hope they do it again because I love watching Jordan Kairu. And Robert Thomas has gotten better every single year.

And, you know, I love watching teams do something that from a valid statistical standpoint is not likely, right? And that's what makes the Blues fun. And that's what I think people struggle. And it's understandable because. People have a lot invested in the success of these teams, whether you're from St. Louis or whatever, you're died in a little blues fan. Like, you don't like people saying that your team is in for it, right? Like, nobody wants to hear that. But part of the fun of last year was watching them manage to, like, do something that statistically was unlikely.

Yeah. Right? So I loved, I loved watching them this year, and I hope they do it again. But all that being said, you know, and for the work. that and for the good work that Doug Armstrong did do getting Thomas and Cairo extended and, you know, whatever, it's the same team at its core. So of course the results are going to be the same, right? They're not, it doesn't like the fact that they score more goals than they should based on, based on numbers that are taken from from the league going back years and years and years,

the blues score more goals than they should. And that's like basically what, that's basically what it, what it comes down to fundamentally, and that's why we are where they are. The other big variable from last season that has changed, and this to me is the biggest reason to maybe fade them, if that's your thing, is that they're going to get a full year of Jordan Bittington. And Ville Hussaud last year was really good.

From January on, basically, he was a top five goaltender in the league. And Bennington hasn't been that. He wasn't it last year. He's talking, he had a great interview with Jeremy Rutherford. He talked about things that he's changed and, you know, reason to believe that maybe he can bounce back. But part of what made the blues shit work last year was that Vili Huso was back there as the eraser at times. And that ain't true anymore.

So I'm having fun. I'm going to have fun watching them and whatever else. But that's really what it comes down to. know is like they're not a great play driving team but they have talented enough forwards with good enough finishing ability to kind of outpace that that's what it seemed like last year and now the challenge for them is to see if they can do it again is that the longest i've talked on uninterrupted on the show great and that wraps up segment one full all right Thomas grace is now in uh as the safety net behind jordan bittington um a couple things that that bennington referenced in talking to jeremy

rothert kind of a new mental approach uh he feels really good good following knee rehab. So some positive, like those are the kind of the positive stories you're looking for in training. So, you know, Jordan Bittington, it's possible he can, you don't want to rely on Thomas Grace, really, like, at this point. So Charlie Lindgren is, Charlie Lindgren is a third goal. He's, you know, he's an HL guy.

Like there's no, there's. And who knows, you know, by that, all that's like for me, and after me sitting here and dumping on Jordan Bennington for 90 seconds or whatever that was, Billy Huso coming into the, coming into last season was a non-entity. Like people would not hit. People did not expect him to come out and,

and play the way, the way he did. You can look at Binnington and say, all right, he's gotten progressively worse really since he's entered the league and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But that's something that's like, the effect of goaltending on these teams

is just impossible to quantify. It really is. Like, if you have a guy who goes on a tear, and you're talking about a team whose top end is whatever, or 92 points versus 109 points versus whatever. That is a hot goalie run. Right?

And by the same token, like if someone goes in the tank for a little bit, or for a full season or whatever, you have the New Jersey Devils who, if they had gotten even remotely capable goaltending, like 902 goaltending last year, I ran these numbers when we did the Devils preview. The Devils, if they would have gotten 902 goal attending,

would have been at break even and gold differential, which is where the Islanders, 902. You're not asking for league average here. You're asking for sub mediocre, like, just remotely capable stuff. That's what would have put them in the discussion with the islanders for like above the islanders, maybe making a playoff run, right?

So that's the difference. And that's why, you know, we can sit here and dump on Bennington or any of these guys. Like, it doesn't matter. Like, we don't know what these guys are capable of, basically, unless you're,

unless you're talking about a really, really long, really long tail kind of sample. One other thing I wanted to highlight on the blues that I'm not sure I realize the impact or the potential impact is David Perron leaving. And I like, to me that was like, oh, kind of a fan favorite. And every once in a while I see like Jeremy Rutherford kind of fans of flames and he'll retweet the Detroit Red Wings account, you know, just a, you know, he's trolling and having a good time. And like, great dude, great player. But I'm like, well, you know, at this point, how big a little.

loss are we really talking about here and then there's a section in this preview again go read this if you're just a hockey bank go read this because it's so good about the loss of you know losing him and and specifically on the power play um and basically everything was run through him and every point was basically run through him and there was a number here i'm going to try to find it here that um his 7.64 points per 60 with the man advantage of over the last four seasons. So that's a pretty big sample size. We're not just cherry picking a slice of time.

Trails only Connor McDavid, Kuturov, and Leon Drys Idol. Yeah. Like that's superstar production on the Power Play that just walked out that door. And walked into Detroit for two years and four and a half million dollars, whatever it is, whatever sign, whatever deal that wasn't. Look, David Pront's 34. Who knows how long he can keep this up. at the point in his career now where guys dip off.

But like as, and that's another thing to remember, whenever, whenever you're talking, like, an elite power play, an elite power play component makes up for a whole lot of issues, right? And we saw that last year where, like, the blues feasted on that. And they, and they feasted on the play of Villihuso. Like, maybe that's stuff that's not, that's, it's, and it's volatile. It's tough to sustain year over year. you know, having a it, whereas, you know,

some, it's easier to, to predict five on five play. So that's so naturally, you know, short shrift in these things is given a goaltenders in power play points. But guess what?

That counts too. I always say this is Dom. Like, I'm like, like, not that he forgets it all that often, but it's like a hobby horse for me. I'm like,

power play points count. They count for the same amount. They count for the same as, how is he had, whatever, like, and that's, and that is part of why, the Rangers were so undervalued and so, you know, like by the statistical model, by like people

who pay more attention to that stuff. Is it their power play was fantastic last year? Did they rely on it too much? Absolutely. Is it easy for a power play to go dry in a playoff series? Yes. So like, you know, you can come out of with all those caveats, but that counts too. And goaltending, whether you can predict it or or you think that it's, that it's going to be sustainably great, or you think that Billy Huso is a legitimate starter in the NHL moving forward. That doesn't matter. He did what he did last year, and it was fun to watch. So, again, like, I don't want to make it sound like, and I'm not trying to invalidate all the work that we're doing on these previews,

because there's a ton of, there's a ton of value there, but there's also baked into all of it, and something that people who read them often just kind of bail on is like, there's a lot of variance. You never know. It's points can come and go in weird directions. and, you know, this is just the best guess. Well, what makes these so good to me is, like, this is the time of optimism, right? So if you're reading any preview that's predicated on, like, quotes from the team and kind of your generic, like, traditional newspaper preview or whatever, it's all going to be like,

hey, if this happens and, like, everything's great. And if you just read enough of those, you're like, boy, everybody's going to have 110 points a season. This is great. Like, 32 teams that are either real contenders or four. fighting for a playoffs. That's right, everybody. And it's like, hey, except for the flyers as we'll get to in segment two.

But this is one where you walk away and you're like, oh, yeah, the blues, maybe they are going to overachieve. But like the conclusion that unless they're, you know, the shooting percentages again, way better than league average. And unless Jordan Bennington figures it out, and unless they find a replacement for a guy they didn't really replace, right? It's not like they brought somebody in to, on the power play. and you know maybe the young guys that they're building around possible they take a step back

I don't know it's not like their sample size is huge it could be rough in St. Louisville's like I'm actually like I walked away going oh I'm actually you're like are they going to be minus yeah are they going to get 27 goals from Ivan Barbashev again like probably not and that's and that sort of stuff was a big part of what helped them you know keep it going last It was this insane depth of point production that they got where they have 920 goal scores or whatever it is. Like that's not like that was great last year. It was fun to watch.

It's not likely to happen again. That's just that's just the way it is. There's a reason that people were so stunned by it because you don't see it that often. But as far as like the optimism stuff too, like just and it's good. This is the way it should be. Right. Like everybody should be. Of course.

That's right. Everybody should be psyched on some level about their team. That's the fun part of covering hockey is that like if you squirt. win, you can find reasons to think that most teams have something to be excited about, excited about. And that's what makes a difference than, say, baseball, right? Teams are actually trying to win. You can quibble with, like, the direction of it. You can argue whether teams are fighting for playoff spots when they should be tanking,

but for the most part, like, they're at least trying. And that's in that, and there's something to be said for that at this point of year. But there's also points where, like, fan bases get drunk off the emotion that they're, that they're fed, I think, by, you know, by player quotes or whatever. And it makes them forget what happened the season before and why it happened. And a great example of that was when I don't, when we ran the Islanders, I don't even, yeah, I can't remember Sunday maybe. Doesn't matter. Multiple people in the, in their replies to the, to the, um, whether they were in the comments, whether they were on Twitter or whatever.

People are like, how can you project that a team that has a vet, that has, that had a Vesna finalist last season is going to miss the playoffs, talking about Ilya Serocha-Okin with Islanders? They missed the playoffs with him last season. It already happened. How could you do this?

What reality are you living in? How could you possibly think that the Islanders with a Vesna-Calibre season from Ilya-Soroken are going to be on the outside look, in there. Like, what could lead you to draw that conclusion as if it didn't happen four months ago? It's insane. And it's funny. And like, I'm fine with it because this is the time of the year that that's supposed to happen. But people just lose their minds. And I'm ready for 16 more days of it. Or however, for 10 more days, I'm going to be writing these playoff previews until I die.

There's no end in sight. Well, the good news is as soon as you're done with these, Sean, we need you to get started on the playoff previews. Like, when we hang up, I'm going to write the Stars preview. You're ready for that? You know we love the Dallas Stars in this podcast. Gotta do a bunch of it too. It's a lot. You do?

Or? We split all this stuff up pretty evenly. And again, like, I'm not willing to, I'm not willing to disclose what sections I do or do not write. But a large chunk of the Stars preview is me, yes. A quick bit of news before we get to Charlie and talk flyers. Spencer Knight. American goalie, we're clear fans of. He's the future of U.S. goal pending in the Olympics, and otherwise, of course, as we all know.

What? Jake Audender. Oh, yeah. Future back to goalie in the Olympics. Cheating on them, brother. Let's go. And you just mentioned the stars, too, and you're going to be writing a lot about them. Signs a three-year contract extension worth 4.5 million AAB.

Bill Cito doing some work down in Florida. Any immediate thoughts? Anytime you can pay your goaltenders $15 million between it you jump on it. Time to figure out

what to do with Bob. And that is not Bill's, I mean, it's, it's, but that's not his, that wasn't his decision. In fact,

I think Bill was in the front office that did not sign. Not that he built, you know, would make it. No, he packed up, he packed up, he packed up.

They tried in Columbus. They were offering money. He wasn't saying. See you later. No, that's what Bill's job was. He was the, he's the AGM in Columbus. His job was to pack up Bobrovsky's shit and put it on the curve and be like, all right, joy Florida for a gazillion dollars over a million years. That may not be true.

It may not be true. All right. We will be right back. We didn't really analyze that. We just announced it. Here we are just announcing this is like your news break. Okay, how about this? Here's what I'll say about that.

Is that the Panthers all of a sudden have at least, they have their core players locked up. They don't have it really have anybody else to worry about. They don't have, you know, quibble with how they did it if you want, but they don't have the Uber Dough extension to worry about or the Uyghur extension to worry about. They have Kachuk sign long term. They have Barkoff sign long term.

There's no like sickle hanging over their heads in terms of their salary structure moving forward. So, you know, it makes sense to maybe get a couple players locked up, but they still, you know, they're locked. Good luck, good luck figuring out what to do with the other guy. Especially a young goalie, 21 years old, Spencer Knight is, like, he can just now play, right? Like, there's no got to earn the next deal. And I am, I do kind of subscribe a little bit to having a carrot in front of players except for goalies. Like, let them just kind of settle in. Yeah, you need to They're a volatile personality type

Already and you need to make sure that you know But and you know Maybe that's what he maybe that's what he needs Because having the carrot dangling in front of his face last year didn't work He wasn't any good So maybe that's Maybe that's what he needs to deliver on the potential we saw from him The past because he was pretty well up next year

Charlie O'Connor coming up next We're right back We are now thrilled to be joined by Sean's writing partner when he's writing about music. Charlie O'Connor, who covers the Philadelphia Flyers for the little publication

you know as the athletic. Charlie, how are you, my friend? Doing good, doing good. As me and Sean were discussing before the show, we're just basking in the glow of our successful emo punk.

Asking in the... How did we not... How did basking in the glow by also not end up on the... Are these songs you guys are referencing? It's Asking in the Glow as a song. Yeah, song and album. Song and album.

Dude, I think the seats for that were planted in Montreal. We'd never, at the draft, we'd never really hung out for any appreciable time. I think, I feel like we realized, I feel like we realized at the draft that we had some major, major overlap and taste there. So, shout out to Arthur for bringing it for bringing it along. That was fun. I can't believe that people liked it. Lots of people did.

I know. It was very much a. We're just doing this for ourselves kind of article. And then it turned out that other people are just as crazy as we are. I love the comments that were like, it seemed like this was created by AI, you know, confluence of everything I'm interested in just for me. That's when you know you guys have hit the mark. I was working on it on a flight to Vegas, actually, for the media event.

And so I was like banging out, you know, my choices and my write-ups for it. and um you know everybody who's ever tried to work on a plane knows this half the time whenever you pull out a laptop whoever's next to you is like oh yeah you got got got to do some work huh and i'm sitting there like making a spot of my playlist and searching like like sifting through like which you know which uh which you know fugazi song applies applies to whoever i'm like uh yeah definitely doing work here. Don't actually look over my shoulder because I don't I don't I don't want to explain this at all. I would love for that person like what is it you said you did? I'm a hot. I'm a what? No, no, no, no, no. I'm a I'm a, I'm a journalist.

Not even for a New York Times company. That would have it. Oh, that was beautiful. It was who not we're supposed to talk about the Philadelphia Flyers as part of our season. Which we will. I promise. But whose idea was it again? Was it Arthur's idea? You think was art there? Yeah. Yep. Oh, it was beautiful. Right, here's a, here's a segue.

In the last, Charlie, in the last like week or so, you've had to do actual work. We've had some unexpected, unexpected, unexpected, maybe not wholly unexpected, but it was a busy, a busy couple days for you to start Flyers camp. Obviously, Sean Gutier, re-injured his back, and we finally got some kind of clarity on what's been on what's been the issue with Ryan Ellis, you know, going back almost a year now. So what have the last, uh, the last few days been like, I think now it's your, at least outside of the initial blast of, of the reality that they're going to be without, that this team's going to be without these guys for, again, for a, for a pretty significant amount of time. What's the vibe at the facility? I know that's where we're talking to you from, uh, right now. Yeah, I think, uh, I mean,

obviously the players and the people in the front office are, or bombed. I don't think the Ellis news was a surprise to anyone. It was pretty obvious when they traded assets for Tony DeAngelo this offseason that they weren't expecting Ryan Ellis to play at least for the start of the year. Now it looks like he's going to miss the entire year, if not he finished for his career. It seems like that's very much a possibility. But the Gatorrier news, I think, took everyone by surprise. There was an expectation that he was going to be fine. He actually had media availability the week before the start of Kim. And he was telling everyone how Brady felt that he seemed like he was, you know, ready to go and he was excited. And then, you know,

the end of last weekend early this week is when the pain ticked back up again in his back. And now they're trying to figure out if he's going to need surgery again. So I think that was the real, the one that hit hard because he's probably the team's best player. And now you're going to be out your one C, at least for some time, if not the whole season. Yeah, I think it's weird because you watch the moves they made and everyone's like, what direction are going in? And all of a sudden, all these high profile players are out. And so now it's pretty clear, okay, this is going to be a rough season.

And it's interesting because to me, you hire John Tortorella to get you over the top or to squeeze every last bit of talent out of a roster. And now I'm reading things like, you know, John's actually really good at developing young talent. Let me don't know that about John Tortoella, which may or may not be true. I mean, he actually, you know, I thought he did in Columbus. But what's kind of been the message from him? Like, is it, hey, you know, we're here to prove you all wrong that we're going to be

better than you think? Or is it, hey, we're in for the long haul here? I think it's kind of somewhere in the middle, which has been, honestly, my main, my main criticism of what the Flyers have done, particularly this offseason is that they kind of want it both ways. You know, they want to do this retool where they're, they're, they're, integrating these kids and they're figuring out what they have in these kids, but also they don't want to bottom out and be bad. So it's kind of like, all right, what are we actually doing here?

Because if you want to rebuild, it probably helps if you're bad. But then if you hire a John Tororella, he's most likely, because it's a good coach, he's probably going to make sure you're not one of the worst teams in hockey. I do think there is sincerity, though, to the belief that, at least on their end, they think that John Tororella can get the most out of the younger players in the roster. And that's not just the prospects. I think in a lot of ways, they're most interested in seeing what John Tourte-Relle can get out of guys that are kind of in their mid-20s. There are guys like Travis Keneckney, guys like Ivan Proveroff. He thinks that Chuck Fletcher thinks that Torderella, one way or the other is going to find out if these kind of players should be

part of the long-term plan or if they need to be moved out because they just don't fit. And I think that's part of the thought process behind hire and Tortorella is that, you know, we're going to weed out who should be here and who shouldn't be here. And guys that are kind of in their mid-20s where they're not quite young, but they're certain not past their prime yet, you know, this is going to kind of be a year where they get tested. And the flyers make final decisions on Travis Connecting, on Ivan Peruvrov, on Travis Anheim, whose contract inspires at the end of the year, they're going to see if these. guys fit with what they believe they're trying to build. And I think that's part of the thought process behind hiring John Tortorella to not necessarily coach a team that's ready to win right now. I think that's, I think that's, you sort of hinted at it there. I think that's something you've done a good job with over the course of the off season, is tapping into the

anger of the fan base and really, you know, outlining the issues with the plan, but also saying that kind of making it clear, look, a popular thing to say about the flyers right now for the last six months for maybe someone who's not as close to it as you are is to wonder like what's going on. What's the plan in the, and assume that basically that they don't have any, right? And I think, or any real discernible one. And I think what you've done a good job of getting across is like there is a plan. You can disagree with it if you want, but it's this and it's this and it's this. Um, in such a big part of that plan is you outlined it was getting was getting

Keturier back, right? Like we can, we, we can sit here and talk about like, of course, like, it'd be great if they figure out, they'll be better off as a franchise if they figure out exactly what they have and connecting in Proverroft and Sanheim and whoever else. But also a big part of the plan as you outlined it was, you know, playing relevant games and getting over the hump because of having the fact that they would have Sean Ketri for a full, for a full season. So from like a front office standpoint, from a management standpoint, that just got completely blown up.

So do you, is it too early to say or do you anticipate like some kind of swerve from Fletcher moving forward? Because, you know, his, you know, the idea, the, the, the, the, the, the blueprint that he had for this season has already been kind of nuked. Yeah, I totally agree. And I think you saw that to a degree in Fletcher's first media availability at the start of camp, where it was a very clear. pivot and I outlined this in my article where, you know, we're going to play the kids. That's actually what Johns Horell straight up said is that I'm going to play the kids. And I do think it was a rhetorical pivot, whereas if Sean Gatorre was healthy and if Sean Gatorre was here for the first day of camp and was on the ice, maybe they wouldn't have made that

hard of a rhetorical pivot because it would have been, well, we're getting Sean Gatorre back. Yeah, we're not, we don't have Ryan Ellis, but we believe that Tony DeAngelo is going to compliment Ivan Perrof. That'll solidify the first pair. and we have our 1C who just a couple years ago won the Selke, maybe we can surprise people. And don't get me wrong, there was still some talk. Fletcher basically said, we know that people don't believe in us.

We're excited to prove everybody wrong. There was a little bit, I think, on his part of, you know, a little bit of frustration that he feels like maybe people have been too negative on the outside about his plan, about what he's done in the offseason. And you could get a bit of that in his conversation. But then you had John Tororello, who basically straight-up. I've said, look, we made our bed. And he really didn't have to say that because he really did it.

He's new to this. It's not his fault. We in air quotes. Somebody made my bed. How sleeping, maybe? Exactly. But he was a lot more conciliatory. And basically it was like, look, it's on us to prove not just to the outside, but more

importantly to the fans that were a team that the fan base should be proud of. And he's kind of putting the onus on himself. and the players to play a style, even if it's not necessarily going to make them a playoff team or a contender, but at least not be embarrassing the way they have been for long stretches the last two seasons. Do you think the offseason looks different if they know Sean Kutriere isn't playing this? You know what I mean? Like, is DiAngelo on this team?

Is Braun's side? Like, do they do they do things differently? Because it just seemed like there was a pivot during Latcher's press conference that sounded much different than earlier. I just wonder if it's like, hey, this is just the necessary pivot we have to make now, and they're just adjusting to the news. It's an interesting question. I want to say yes. That said, they really didn't do that much in the off-season.

Like, the big move was DeAngel. And you could say that, well, that's, you know, if you're rebuilding, do you really give up assets for a guy like that? However, I do think there's something to be said, and Fletcher does want to figure this out. what do I have in Ivan Peruvra? And there's a belief, and I think this is a true belief, that the last couple years, Ivan Peroverov has been placed in pretty impossible situations ever since the retirement of Matt Niskenen. Whereas you had the first year after Niskenon retired, they tried to give Phil Myers a shot there and he just wasn't ready or wasn't capable of taking on a first pair of role. Then they go out to get Ryan Ellis, he plays four games.

So I do think part of the thought process behind DeAngelo is that we need to get somebody to give Ivan Perovrovrov off a fair shake in first pair minutes who can at least maybe compliment. So they might have done that anyway, even though giving away draft picks that wasn't a first round pick, but we're talking about seconds, thirds, you know, not assets that lack value. They might have done that anyway, even if they would have known Gatorre was out, just because they want to see what they have in Groveroff. That said, if they would have known that Gatorre was going to injure his back, maybe, re-injure his back, maybe they trade some more people. You know, maybe they move a couple more guys out to give even more positions to the kids.

Whereas what they really did was not that much. They traded for DeAngelo and then resigned them. They signed Nicholas DeLoree to a four-year contract. So they really didn't do all that much. Maybe they would have done a little bit more on the selling side if they would have had less confidence that Keturi was going to do back. You know, you said they sort of anticipated this happening with Ryan Ellis, but we also didn't see them. And we went through a whole offseason without them placing him on long-term. Remaided Reserve and potentially opening up the possibility for, you know, coming into the season

over the cap and having some more money to spend. So is there, I think those are two kind of counterintuitive things, right, where they're like that they had an idea that this would happen with Alice, but also still, you know, still we're hoping it, at least to the point where they didn't, you know, say, all right, this guy's done for the season. That means we can stash them and go out and get, and get Johnny Goodrow or whatever. So is that, and to me, that's from, from the outside, that's kind of the most confusing part of, or one of the more confusing parts of this offseason for Fletcher is that, you know, there were mechanisms in place to create, to create some extra cap space. And he kind of didn't, he didn't pull those levers, right? Yeah. And you mentioned

the big one in Johnny Udrow in that, you know, you've got a situation here where Goudreau wanted to come to Philadelphia. That was his thing. He wanted to come here. And if you would have known that Ryan Ellis was likely done for his career, which I don't think they knew at that point of the summer. Then it's much easier to justify fitting a Johnny Goodrow in there. And I think the Goodrow thing was what angered the fans more than anything else. Because you had back in January when Chuck Fletcher and Dave Scott, who's the essentially the owner, he's the CEO and chairman of Comcast Spectable, which I was the team, they basically acknowledged that this team needs more high-end talent.

And something I pushed them on in that press conference was, but if you don't think you're going to bottom out, how are you going to get the high end talent? Because generally speaking, you get high end talent by picking at the top of the draft. And they kind of pinned and hauled a little bit. But you have a clear high end talent who wants to come to your team. And you basically just said, now we're good. And I think that blew everyone away because, I mean, look, it's been an open secret in hockey circles probably for the last half decade. that Johnny Goudreau wanted to be a Philadelphia fly. That was well known.

That was not something that people didn't know. And I think there was a feeling, a justified feeling on the part of the fan base, that you could have planned years in advance for this. And instead, you just kind of threw up your hands and said, well, we couldn't trade James Van Rie's like to clear cast base. So sorry, Johnny, can't come to fill it. There was like a quote, too.

It was just like, yeah, it was the money. Whatever the quote was, it was like, you know, it was like by the person who created the issue. you. It was such a tough look. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody knows who to, we're trying to find the guy used to blame for this. That's right. That's right. It was a guy in the hot dog suit. Charlie, what is this? Okay, so what is the, what are the events of the last week or whatever? Losing Couturier unexpectedly, losing Ellis somewhat expectantly. What do those do for Fletcher's job security?

I know you had a piece run early early in the season saying like, basically that you can envision a scenario where he'd be in some trouble. Does this get him more rope or less? Yeah, that's a really good question because I do think part the reason why he is still the general manager of this team is because there's a feeling on the part of ownership that he's had extremely bad luck, that a lot of this has been out of his control, and this is just more bad luck. So yeah, it might give him a little bit more rope as possible.

That said, and this is something I mean I know just from covering the team a daily basis, I've never seen the Flyers fan base this angry. Like, they are absolutely livid. And the hard truth is that at some point, like ownership realized that the one thing they could probably do if the team is real bad again to at least engender some good role on the part of the fan base is fire the guy that the fans just literally want to string up. So, I mean, that is an option just because ownership, you know,

they kind of did it last year with Elaine Vino and not saying that that that relationship hadn't run its course because I think it did but that did seem to me to be something of a well things are real bad we need to throw someone to the woods and if that happens again then yeah I mean a fletcher has to know that that if the team's languishing in last place come December that they may need a sacrificial land just because everyone's so mad and the arena is so empty that something has to be done at least the ownership is going to feel like that just to pacify it. people. I'm just trying to think of a scenario where a GM had lost the fan base to this degree and rebounded. Do you know, like, I feel like once it turns like this, it's really hard to, and what's going to happen this year, they're going to be bad, right? So there's, so there's, there's not going to be a surprise success or something that people, that Chuck, unless he pulls a rabbit out of his hat at the trade deadline with a great trade for a young player or something, I just think it's going to be really hard to, in the short term, the fan base over and you're just going to have this cloud over the organization for a while.

I don't know. It's such a tough spot. Because I also don't think the ownership's wrong to say he has been, you know, there's a lot of bad breaks along the way here. No, it's an extremely good point. And it's funny. I mean, one of the few things I can think of as a comparable is it's cross sport. But a lot of fans have really, really turned on Howie Roseman as the general manager of Philadelphia Eagles. and now the Eagles are, you know, looking great this year.

They're three and oh, suddenly it's, you know, oh, Howie's great, he's so smart. So it can happen even at a fan base that's as crazed as Philadelphia. But I do agree it's pretty good. Yeah. I don't know if Jalen Hertz is walking through that door. I was going to see. All they got to do is bring it Jailen Hertz.

Charlie, what do you think? All right. So when we're talking to you, again, doing the post-mortem in May or whatever, what do you think, what do you think happens? What's the most likely outcome for this team? Because there's just so many, so many variables here. And we can let you go after that. Yeah, sure.

If I had to guess, I mean, I think this team is, it's not a playoff team, unless John Torterell does, like, the coaching job of his life. I do think he's a good enough coach that he will make them not one of the worst teams in hockey, which, in truth, might be the worst thing for this team, because getting one of the top three players in the draft would definitely put them on some sort of path. So that's kind of where I'm envisioning this season going, where they're not as embarrassing as they were last year,

but they're not actually a contender in the Eastern Conference even for a wildcut spot. That's what I'm envisioning. You never know. I mean, with the kind of luck this team has, maybe they will be so bad that they'll be involved because everyone will get hurt again. But right now, I'm sort of envisioning this team to fall somewhere in like the, you know, six to ten spot in the lottery.

and then, hey, maybe they get lucky from there, who knows? I mean, best thing that could happen to this team is, like, they lose a bunch of one goal game. You know, they play hard. John Torterell puts in some culture that, you know, a work ethic in some of the young guys develop and they lose every game by one goal. Like, that's best case scenario here.

One season. Worse kind of bad team. Sweet. Yeah. Yeah. Charlie, thanks for doing this. We know you've got to run. You're actually doing your job there at the facility.

So thanks for hopping on and joining us. And that's a lot. Enjoy John Thorrell. I'm glad you're, I'm glad you're, you know, we didn't even talk about first impressions there. He's a fun coach to cover. So it should be, should be at least an interesting year for you. Yeah. No, I'm definitely looking forward to cover in a cover John Torrell. It will be fun. But thanks for having me, guys. Really appreciate it. That's Charlie O'Connor, about to embark in a year of misery. I don't know. Magic. Magic. Magic. Let's go out to, I don't know. It's, it's, it's, those teams are actually fun. cover sometimes. So, you know, it should be interesting for Charlie and the fires are always interesting. So, thanks for joining us, Charlie. Godspeed. Good luck out there. Coming up next, your favorite segment, segment three, where there may or may not be reader comments because neither of us probably open the app. Oh, they're back.

We're back. This is the only good segment on the show. It's back in a big way. So are you, the commenters, we have tasked with doing our job. I'm glad everyone found the... I mean, it was tough. You guys weren't in the comments.

You guys didn't have to find the comment section for however many... We had to give the listeners a little break. Like, we needed a little break. Just, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. They put into making the show what it is.

Yeah, but you got to go and find it on the app, which as we've established you, whatever, go three lights down, make a right at the old, make a right at the old Wendy's, take a bend around the lake. Lower, lower, lower,

that's now a room in the shop. It's not anymore. And then you, uh, lower yourself into the wishing well and enter the caverns where you will find the troll and you will have to answer his riddles three. And you will be clear to leave a comment. Hey,

can I, Can I file a complaint, though? Is this where I can complain? Yeah, sure. Congratulations on the Friday show with you and Haley. I like it. It's well done. Oh, yeah, you like it.

How about you tell us what we talked about last week, then, if you like it so much? Oh, sure. Trevor Zegris. Let's see. Jack Campbell, American-born Michigan, you could even say. Michigan native, Jack Campbell. Oh, contract talks to Trevor Zegris, America's greatest young talent. I should have.

A lot of flyers talk. Maybe that could have been a Tuesday episode. Maybe, maybe, maybe, I mean, look, I'm, I'm all for you and Haley having your own show, but can you make it like slightly like five degrees different than the Tuesday show? Jack Campbell. I mean, can you make that a replacement as you're wheeling me out the door? It's not your, it's not your replacement. I also have much less.

I don't have to carry that show. Haley, Haley can contribute to it. unlike unlike certain other people also Jack played for the Maple Leafs and he plays to the Oilers now he's dead to

he's dead to me I said that to him I said that tune with the interview I was like you're breaking my heart here you're sang with another Canadian team it is kind of it's bad that he did that but I mean he comes onto the scene

as Captain America like that's what he's will forever he can win a Stanley Cup with the Leafs which I'm sure he will this year and all will ever remember Jack Campbell for is the World Junior Championship. If he does nothing else with this career,

I'm glad to see everyone loves the new intro music. Oh, is that? Okay, I'm getting into the matter, too. So the other thing I want to tease to is, Sean, I just got an email and it has, I forgot about this. I feel like this is radio bit and it's hacky. Yeah, this is a bummer.

This is a bummer. It's a bummer, and you can pass on it, but again, I don't even want to give it attention. I never opened these PRs, but it was the league's most handsome coaches as determined by like some AI software. Yeah. Have you ever...

I never guess who's number two. Do you, um, I've started on Mondays. I just go through PR releases that I get in unsubscribing, unsubscribe from the list. Like, I can't, I can't handle it. Um,

this one's pretty bad. So I may have, I may have unsubscribe from, from whichever weirdos sent this to you. All right, so what are we doing here? We're doing. That's most handsome, most attractive. I want to give the readers their share time, their fair share here because they have earned it.

They have. Richard S. What? Yeah. If all due respect, this is Richard S. This is the opening comment in our return is we're already complaining. I guess I opened with a complaint. With all due respect, which if you say with all of the respect, which if you say with all

respect as we know you can say whatever you like after that. Yes. The new intro blows. Our spangled banner sample is great, which it is. But everything else isn't. Why have you done this to me? It'll grow on everybody. That's the way it goes.

Website redesigns all that stuff like people always. Nobody likes change. But it's a better intro. Rquel H is back on board with like more positive stuff. We can count on her. She's been she's been in there before. She's reliable. Hell yeah, Tuesday boys are back.

Glad to hear you. She loved the inside baseball media stuff, which I'm glad. Makes one of us, I suppose. I am here. If you want me to contribute to the show, I ask a lot of inside baseball media questions. Go ahead. No, thank you. She liked my McKinnon impression.

Really? Did you go into McKinnell? I know you were quoting him a lot. It was like, kind of. It was, I was just kind of screaming into my microphone with like a, with like a light Canadian accent. Not as good as she asked about, but it gets. Yeah, it comes a little less naturally, imagine that. She asked if I practiced at home, I did not.

I was straight off the dome. And she did mention, you know, what we said about the McDavid interview where he just, whatever, dropped, drop the ball with the, with the hockey Canada assault investigation. answers and also we dropped the ball too and we talked about that and whatever that's that's part of it like when we screw up or when i specifically screw up i think it's it's fine to it's fine to say so even though that doesn't need to turn into on some level nobody gives a shit but that and it does need to be like a consistent a consistent thing because nobody wants to hear me to guys hoist themselves self-righteously on their own petards during podcast but i think the situation called for it last week

Also, I would like to apologize. If somebody's Slack was on, I wouldn't be able to listen to a podcast because I would be stressed the whole time. I wouldn't shut it off. That was the main reason I, well, whatever, one of three reasons I brought up Raquel's comment was, that was my bad.

I said I had set up a new work computer that morning or the day before or whatever it was. They sent us new machines here for work that were, I think, If we don't use them, I feel like so many comes to our house and, like, black bags us. So, whatever. I needed to get that going. And my Slack notifications were all screwed up because I set up a new computer, because I set up a new machine. And I was unaware that it was transferring over to the, to the record. That has since been fixed.

And I'm very sorry about that because it was making me stressed out as I, as I went back and listened. I hate even, like, commercials. It sucks. It sucks. It would like panic because my goodness, we're all trained to. It's like, like circus animals to respond to every notification we get. It's kind of like a cousin of when there are songs on the radio that have a police siren

in them. Did you ever run it? Have you ever run into that if there's like a weird siren sound like in the background? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you either think you're getting pulled over or pull over because you think it's an ambulance. It's kind of the same thing.

Like you have that like. your stomach drops a little bit when you hear it because everybody is, everybody works too much and is available to their employers 24 hours a day. And we thank you for that, John. Thank you. Yes. My checks in the mill. We got a question from Sam F.

This might be a good one for you, Craig. Sammy Luff. Okay, sure. We're approaching Gary's 30th anniversary as an HL commissioner. Sam wants to know if we're surprised that he's lasted this long. what the proper celebration of the milestone should be and barring, you know, anything unforeseen, what season will be Gary's first where he's not the commissioner?

How long you think, how long you think Gary's still on the job? Here's, here's Samuel, let me, let me start with a, how surprised are you? I am not surprised. Not. Yes. Zero. Because here's the thing.

I, like, I have literally have not written a hockey story over a year. I've covered the league for over a decade. And before that was writing hockey for a newspaper where we had access to Gary. I think we've been asking Gary about his next plans or retirement plans that entire time. Like I've literally asked Gary like, hey, anytime you do this retrospective or there's an anniversary or there's a big moment or it's an outdoor game. You know, one of the questions is Gary, actually, now that I think about it, it was probably pretty offensive when we started asking him in his late 40s. but when are you going to retire? And he's like, I will do this job.

Basically, I'm probably paraphrasing. I don't know if they ever say the impression I got as long as they will let me do it. He likes the job. He wants to keep doing it. He's given no one to, you know who I feel bad for is Bill Daley, who's been sitting there as his number two. Like, hey, Gary. Hey, you're good. What's, what are your plans here?

Yeah, and Bill, well, the other thing is like Bill, like Bill can just do the, do the, do the crummy parts of the job, like sit in front of us at the, the media events and do the, go, go through the car wash and talk about, talk about whatever, talk to me and Russo about uniform patches and stuff, stuff like that. Producer Jeff, producer Jeff just compared Bill Daly to Prince Charles. Which I think is I don't know Is that some sort of

I don't know who that is Yeah that means that someday Bill Daly will be on Canadian money I think that's all that possible So no I'm not surprised The proper celebration

Like Gary's Like he's the commissioner He's the owner's commissioner As fans I don't think there's any celebrating He's the people's princess You know Like

Gary's he's just there to serve the owners. That is his primary job. You know, and that's what he does. And so, you know, like, I've actually, my interactions with Gary's, I always enjoyed them. But then you're also reminded, you get this frustration level where he's just denied, like, doesn't acknowledge things that we're like, hey, this is so obvious. Look, you know, concussions.

And, you know, he just, he's a lawyer who serves the owners. So as fans, there's, like, what's a proper celebration for that? I don't know. some legal speak statement from us as you know what I mean like some they can they can make a cake for him in the office and we can just be we can just be and I say all that as someone who like again he's always been good to me or whatever like I've always enjoyed like he's he's a different person than the person you see at the podium like he's funny and all that but like you're always clear who he's serving and that is the NHL owners most of the time and most of the time that's

funny and then some of the times he gets up there and craps the bed like he did during the blackhawk stuff yes like like he's Like, it's going to be a complicated legacy. Happy, happy anniversary, Gary. I believe he signed a contract extension at the Board of Governors. When will be the first season, Gary is not the any in part three of this three-part question? I will say 20, 335. How old would that make him?

I don't know. He's not going to know. I don't know. We're not going to know until he's never. That's the thing. We're never. we are never going to be told like when that, when that happens.

Like, it's just, it's going to be upon us. We're not going to know that it's like, I'm done in five years. Like the runway we get on that. No, it'll be like, is going to be much. We'll get a Friday at 5.30 email that says, you know, congratulations, Gary Bedman on your retirement. And I can only imagine, like, it's not Bill daily. I feel terrible for Bill.

His last contract was for six years and it expires. hired this summer. So that's a nice ballpark, but yeah, I'm not going to hazard a guess there. Emily L. also likes Gentile does the name of the impression. How about this? I gotta go back and listen. I didn't think was that funny, but all right. I hope Woshensky's listening to this. I can let him know that my impressions are better than his.

Brandon L. asked, it's been a week. Is Mack McKinnon overpaid yet? No, he will be. Nope, never will be. He's probably underpaid. Gen F takes exception to my comment that you close the book. new music at the age of 22. I'm 54 and discovered all rock about five, six years ago after decades

of prime. Oh yeah, I shouldn't project, Jen, you're right. Just because I closed the book. Here's something. I still think of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a new album. I'm like, oh, that new Wilco album. And they're doing like Rolling Stone

25 year retrospectives about that album. This is like we're on like reissued number 15 of that. The Super ultra mega Jeff Tweety Secret Vault release of that. Carlos asks, he also says the boys are back in town.

It's Tuesday, boys three zees. He asked by my thoughts on Julian McKenzie taking over his co-hosts the Monday show, especially in lights of his comments, read the size of my head, which came in the spring. I love Julian, man.

He's great. Whatever, he is, I love listening to his show and Ian's show because it's like more professional than us by a degree of 10,000. I like the people what our opinions on the reshuffling of the athletic hockey show schedule. We didn't. We're just making some moves, adding episodes. Congratulations to Haley and Sean on their show that's what I can tell looks like a repeat of this one.

Let's see. Chris Jay says, welcome back American boys with three Zs. I like the people edit the trademark I don't know how you do that probably won't see this till I file it's because I well it's because I filed for it

oh did you I'd like to hear Bill Zito perspective of dealing with John Tudorella on the management side yeah we're gonna Bill Zito's on our guest list although we have a special guest recording later today

for next episode that we are I'm not gonna spoil because it'll be fun Bill Zito adjacent kind of a little bit yeah there's some connective tissue So yeah, Bill's really good on Torrella. We'll ask him.

I think the Bill Zito interview we did last year was maybe our best. It was really funny. Because Bill just let us run out of gas. He was like, are you guys, you guys done yet? He would say things like, no, I know you guys think this is a joke. That's probably why they're running the delay. He's like, I'm being, I'm being, I'm being. There was definitely one point.

He was like, no, I'm serious. Like, okay. Micah says, yeah, one yacht rock song for every NHL team. There you go, Sean, the follow-up, yacht rock. I think we can do that. Then I can break out my Michael McDonald's impression. Can you do it, please? Come on a song, way back in the little play.

Run, run, run, a head, and a street. Come on, you should have been playing the, whatever, you leave me out to drive. this one. I will not be contributing. We've seen what happens. I think that was on my review was it. Look, Craig. I would love to know who

is doing your performance reviews and why is it Paul Krugman? That's just who I assume. It's a sullen burger or a sauceburger of some sort. Thank you for the comments, everybody. Unless you have one more you wanted to add, Sean.

But those are great. I just like to be the welcome back. It was fun to be back in the saddle. Great questions as always. Leave them again so we can have a segment. And I'm like panicking because I have a heart out in like four minutes here. But if you can name the top, I have the top three most handsome coaches. You get three guests to get any of them.

That's all I'm going to say. And I'm going to give credit because this is what they want. It's a gambling site. It's fine. I feel like I have to acknowledge it. No, no, no, no, no. You don't have to say who did it. Research by gambling.

Dark. They came up with it. They win. They want. They get tricked into this. They're sending this shit to you for free. You don't have to worry about that. All right.

They compiled this. With a score of 9.18, this is the only one to score in the nines. I don't know what the scoring system is. The next one's an 8.9 and then 8.68. Your top three most handsome coaches. Number one. Go ahead, Sean. I'll give you three guesses to get any one of these three.

And this is not me judging because I'm just saying it could be anybody. Luke Richardson. No. See, you're making me think that there's like that there's some reason to think that these are. David Quinn's back. He's handsome. No? Yeah, I agreed.

handsome fella. No. No? Quinn's 29. Oh my God. Lane Lambert. And 6.89. Lane Lambert.

Here's the thing. I'm going to give the reveal and we're going to like, I don't want to laugh. But it's just not who you, because it's Daryl Sutter was number two. And Daryl, that was the one I was surprised. That's so funny. This is based on what, an AI thing? Yeah, like proportion of, again, I don't want to give this any more attention than we are, but some sort of technology that uses beauty symmetry, an algorithm.

And your 64-year-old. Daryl Sutter is number two. Based on an algorithmic notion of beauty is the second round. ranked out of any group of people. That's wild. He wouldn't, he, I can get, oh, man, someone should. I mean, we all know John Cooper is the most handsome coach, in my opinion, number 27. Jay Woodcroft, friend of the show is number one at 9.18.

He has, you know, he may be the youngest coach in the league, so he has that advantage. He's got a leg up, leg up there. Yeah, so, and Derek Lalonde, newsy, if you will, amongst his friends, 49-year-old coach. So I think the two young ones, they came in. For Matt Larson. Sheldon Keith's for me too. You got suckered here, dude. That's a lie.

They're making shit up. You think they just need all those numbers up? Yeah, because what would make someone want to talk about? Yeah, so it was like Cooper, Sheldon Keith, whatever. You know what's shocking? Jay Woodcroft. Darrell Sutter at number two. I fell for it.

Listener, I'd like to apologize. I'm better than that. I think you're not. Rob Pizzo, Jesse Granger, and Mike Russo are the Wednesday. roundtable. Give it a listen, but really listen to Haley and Sean

on the Friday edition and just give me your honest feedback if you think they're stealing a little bit too. And now Craig has to go, so as leaving me

to do the ad reads, all by myself. Maybe I'll do them in McKinandinin' voice for the three people that enjoyed that. Follow us. I didn't even know you did.

Follow us on your favorite podcast platform. leave a rating. Yeah, leave a rating, please, folks. In reviews, subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus, I have a podcast, you get bonus content. I'm not sure if it says this week, but I don't think it is. It's not. Start with a 30-day free trial, then 99 cents a month after that.

And right now, you can subscribe to the Athletic with just $1 mark for six months, and you visit athletic.com slash hockey show, and you can leave comments in the app. It's good stuff. Also, if you're referencing us on social media, of course, it's hashtag Tuesday employees. Mm-hmm.

Threesie. Threesies. Thanks to Charlie O'Connor, again, for joining the podcast. Thanks to producer Jeff for, what did you say? What did you say last week? He has to cut our food up and make it to us. It's a cut up our food. It's a cut up our food.

And thank you for listening.