The Athletic Hockey Show - Justin Faulk's St. Louis Blues return to elite team status. Celebrating Hockey's Hall of Fame inductees and Ron Francis frustrated by Seattle Kraken's effort.

Episode Date: November 16, 2021

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Good afternoon. Congratulations, listeners. You have a Craig Custin's free week of the Tuesday show on the Athletic Hockey Show. I'm Sean Jatili. We have a major upgrade here. Craig's out doing, in all serious sense, he's doing things much more important than bullshitting with me about whatever it might be. Super Sub is on the case, though.

We got Jeremy Rutherford. He's our blues beat writer. He owns that. Wonderful dude. Nice enough to wake up at. at 852 central time to record this nonsense with me. JR, what's up, buddy? How you doing?

Hey, how you doing? Good to talk to you, Sean. And this is not a major upgrade whatsoever. In fact, if it wasn't for Craig, I wouldn't be here talking to you at the athletic. I remember reaching out to him and saying, hey, Craig, if the athletic comes to St. Louis, give me a buzz. Yeah, let me know. Phone rang about six hours later. Yeah, he, I think he was working the phones quite a bit back then.

He had a lot of phone calls. I'm like, no, man. He's the greatest. I bust his chops a lot, but whatever. We're here. We're here because of him, I guess. Thank you, Craig, et cetera, et cetera. Kind of a slow night last night, right?

I feel like there weren't a lot of games. It makes sense. They wanted the Hockey Hall of Fame ceremonies, all that to kind of unfold according to plan. Obviously, I'd Jerome again, and Marian Hosa and Kim St. Pierre and Doug Wilson and who else am I forgetting here? I know there's somebody. Ken Holland inducted inducted last night. We've talked about a lot of these people, I think, at length on the show or on the site in one way or another. A Ginla in particular, right?

We had a lot of really great stuff go up over the last couple days. Eric DeHachik had something really nice over the weekend and Haley Salvean just had a monster, monster, monster. Did you, did you say, like I was talking to her as she, as she was working on it, I had a feeling it was going to be good. It was just 20 kind of interesting bits, kind of untold stories about a Gimla from, you know, guys like, guys like Jason Strudwick and Craig Conroy and some of his friends, you know, from growing up. It was super, super, super, super, super, interesting, a lot of fun and could definitely, you know, capture that better than we can. She didn't ask me for my Gingler story, but I get it to- Oh my God. I was about to gloss over it too.

What is it? Let's go. No, it's just something. Just something I never mentioned. It's, you know, being the Blues Beat Rider, you're up in Calgary, you're at the Saddle Dome, which, by the way, it's one of my favorite arenas ever to cover a game. Look, I know it's run down, but it's just a great place to be. And so anyway, I'd be up in the cross spot.

So wait a second. You're a catwalk guy? You're in favor? I did do it one time. I did do it. And I actually did it on, it wasn't FaceTime, but it was something along those lines where you're doing a live recording. And I told blues fans, hey, follow this. I'm going to walk this catwalk. And they were freaking the whole time. That's like, I don't know why I always think of Las with that. Like, Mark Lazarus is the one who's like, I feel like every time he, every time he goes at Calgary, he ends up posting a photo or a video of him doing the catwalk walk. I don't know if he likes, I'm sure he likes the attention. He just likes, he likes making people think that he's in mortal danger when he's covering when he's covering when he's covering.

hockey game, right? But no, that's awesome. I didn't know you had a gameless story. Let's roll. Well, it's not really a story. It's just so much that something I'd never said, and I guess I have to admit this is, you know, when you're a beat writer for a team like I've been for the blues for years, you don't root for the team, but you understand that you cover a team for a fan base that is just bonkers for the team, right? And so anyway, I'd go up to the press box up there by that catwalk. And it was freezing. I was cold. And I'm not one to complain about the cold. Look, you're at a hockey rink. That's what you do. So that's what you do.

But anyway, for those who haven't been to the Saddle Dome, the flames have, believe it or not, a flame that goes off whenever the team scores. And so anyway, I'm like, I'm thinking to myself, Sean, man, it's cold and this coat's just not doing it. Hey, Gingla, you think you could pump one in? Because whenever they scored, that's when they let the flame on it. That's perfect. Anyway, I was thinking it'd get some heat. So I was always kind of pulling for a Ginnla to put one in and I'd kind of toast up, warm up a little bit. That's perfect.

He came through more often than not, I would imagine. Yeah, and I'm a blues fan. He was, God, he was one of those guys. You know, I was, I was born in 1986, you know, so him entering the league dovetailed directly with me turning into a big-time fan. He was always one of my favorite players. I remember watching him when I was nine or ten or whatever it was. And his career lasted long enough and played out in such a way where I was in Pittsburgh

working by the time, by the time the penguin. traded for him. And he was like other than Yager, um, I guess that was really about it. He was one of the few guys that I was around in a locker room and was just like, ah, holy shit. I'm standing, I'm standing next to Jerome McGahnline. He's just like, I mean, his niceness is legendary, right? That's what so many of these stories kind of boil down to is that he's just a super genuine, friendly, like, nice dude. But man, after they traded for him, yeah, I was, uh, I was, uh, I was was starstruck a couple times. It was like, you know, not he's, I mean, obviously wasn't a Flames fan. He's not like he's necessarily a childhood hero of mine. But it was just one of those

things where you're like, holy, holy cow. So to see him get inducted last night, along with Hosa, those were, those are two guys that I feel like I kind of, I kind of grew up watching. It was a wild, a wild experience because, like, again, we're all, we're all getting older. We're all reminded of it in one way or another every day. But last night, last night was a good one. And now, I know, gosh, dude, I know, I know you've got some, you watch, you watch Marion Hosa play a lot of hockey over the years in those Blues and Blackhawks matchup. I'm sure he got some, sure I got some stuff to spill about him, too. Yeah, Sean, just watching those Chicago teams, so good for so many years, the three cups. And with Hosa, you know, awesome to see him finally win a cup.

And, you know, in St. Louis, there was so much hatred for the Patrick Kane and the Jonathan Taves of the world that you didn't pay a ton of attention to Hosa. And like he wasn't a villain necessarily. But it was, I think as you watch those games, you're like, gosh, how can the team have so much talent? Like you get these core guys like Kane and Taves and obviously Keith and, you know, Crawford and Nett. And then Hosa, it's like, you know, now you're talking five, six stars deep. And so the big body, the skill to drive the net, just a phenomenal player. And I voted for him last year when we did that Hockey Hall of Fame vote for the Athletic, the mom. Hall if I am not the real one but well-deserved great class of Ginla Hosa and the rest.

Oh God, yeah. I forgot to even mention the mock hall exercise that we put up. That was a that was a Dehachic-led consortium of people who are voting. Who are our picks? We put in McGillney. I'm going off memory for this now. We put in McGillney, Bocet, Caroline Willett, Jennifer Botrell and Herb Carnegie. Was that, did you have anybody else on your ballots? Because I, for the men, I had those three guys and then, and then, and then Daniel Offerdson was my fourth. Did you have anybody else mixed in there? No, no. I just went with the three. I mean, there were so many other good players with Zetterberg. You could go Alfie, Alfredson. You know, you could go a number of different ways. You know what? I realize I might look a little bias here in St. Louis. And maybe he's a guy who's just on the outside looking in. But, you know, Keith Kichuk, I felt.

like, you know, 33 in the league in goals. I think he's 14th in power play goals all time. And so anyway, he was number one in goals by an American for a while until. Yeah, and just dominated the game at that position for a stretch. And so anyway, just my two cents on Keith Pichok. I didn't vote for him this year. But so I just went with the Siddins and McGilney. And so that'll be, you know, for this upcoming class, last night's class that we watched on TV.

that was the class that got postponed because of COVID. It's going to be interesting to see what they do with that four-person limit on these classes, right? Like that was my thought as I was going through the ballot was, you know, okay, you got the McGillneys, you got the Cedines, you know, guys who I would put in just because of the nature of the Hall of Fame, it seems like it's expanded over the last 10 or 15 years. Like, I think Alpherson should be there and that Sergey Gonchar should be in there. And I think that I think that Keith Kach should be in the discussion.

I mean, there's like eight or nine guys on this. list that you're like we could make a pretty a pretty credible case for right so yeah it was a it was an interesting exercise i do not envy the people who have to who have to uh who have to do that for real um but the other the other big takeaway last night from the from the hall ceremonies and this is the way the way it's going to work for the foreseeable future i think not not a surprise we had the we had the Betman quasi-miaculpa. He said all the right things about Kyle Beach and the Blackhawks probably a couple weeks late, right?

Like he's, you know, he, he showed a little bit more tact and a little bit more grace and a little bit more, a little bit more empathy last night than we did, we saw from him in that presser. So I know people are talking about that. And I don't know,

it was one of those things you sort of roll your eyes at because it's like the damage, the damage is done. I think he kind of showed us what, showed us where he's at on that overall. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know if you have any thoughts about those, about those comments or what we're supposed to do with this moving forward. I don't know if this is going to be like a discussion point for at league events for the next,

for the next however long, but I don't know how much more I need to hear from Gary Betman on it at this point. Yeah. Yeah, Sean, no, I watched the press for, you know, a couple weeks ago and I kind of thought the same thing. I mean, you wanted to believe that there was some empathy. there, but the words just weren't used, I don't believe, a couple weeks ago. And gosh, you'd think that with

all the damage control subjects that the league has had to go through over the years and especially during Gary's tenure, that that would be a situation, hey, this is something we have to say the right words a couple weeks ago. And they didn't come out. And so in reading what he said yesterday, you know, it sounds like the words were there probably just a couple weeks too late. Yep. We've talked about it at length. I've gotten mad about this. on the podcast already. I don't need to drag anybody through that again. But yeah, it's a little bit of too little, too late.

Like, it's better, it's better that it happened than it didn't. But, you know, the damage is done from a, from a PR standpoint, from a human standpoint, like, whatever. So you hear that last night. And if you're me, it's tough to do anything, but roll your eyes at it. Yeah, and just let's keep this in context for one second. I mean, let's be honest. Like, even if he would have said what he said last night, if he would have said that a couple weeks ago, I don't think that they would have, you know, lack of a better phrase, want anybody over or got more people believe in that they were heartily, you know, ready to accept things.

But, but, but I think that it would have helped. And so, yeah. Well, you can always, you can always read statements like that, right? It's easy. It's easy to do, you know, at a podium at the hockey Hall of Fame induction where you know you're not going to have to answer questions about it or expand on it or whatever. And it really wasn't that far off from what we saw from them. a few weeks ago. The words were maybe a little bit more, a little bit more wisely chosen and whatever else. But where the damage happened in the press conference last year, last, last month was when he started answering questions, right? And that was when he started talking more, that was kind of when he got in trouble. And that was when he said a lot of stuff that either pissed off a lot of people or heard a lot of people. So didn't have to worry about that last night. It's easy to say all the right things in that sort of context. But whatever, he didn't make it worse. and that's not, wasn't something you could have said after that presser.

So, uh, whatever, I guess. We can, we can, we can, we can, we can move on. Um, I want to talk about the Anaheim ducks. I feel like we've been kind of giving them short shrift. We had a, we had a bit about Troy Terry last week in the week before that, because we've been talking about his point streak as, as it's been, you know, Troy Terry's at eight games, Troy Terry is at 11 games, Troy Terry's at 14 games. Troy Terry is at 14 games.

Well, that's where he is now. They've now won seven straight. I haven't seen enough of them over the last week or two. JR, and I know you have. You saw them versus the ducks a couple days ago. You know, what are we got in this team? Are they good? I think so.

I think we got to let some time play out and see, you know, a month or two of the ducks before we make some sort of evaluation. of them. But I think out of the gate, really good. I mean, look at them. They're sitting there nine, four, and three, 16 points that's second in the Pacific. And, Sean, I got to tell you, I watched a lot of that West Division last year with the different alignment that was played

out in the West. And, I mean, when you went out to Anaheim, San Jose, L.A., that was just a couple three victories for you, put in the bag, and come home. And Anaheim, you know, I don't think, other than you look at Trevor Zegaris to get excited about that team, but

Troy Terry, who's been a good player, but this year just having a great season so far with that 14 game point streak you touched on. He scored a big goal. By the way, Ducks beat the Blues when the Blues went out there recently, four to one and just really handled them. And I think that they've always had the goal tending. And obviously had Getslaff. And for years, you had Perry there with that strong core. But, you know, I think they've made some changes and drafted right, obviously. And things are starting to come together for them. So, real good start, but I think we've seen teams, you know this, Sean, come out like this. Teams that haven't been permanently very good come out of the gate hot and kind of drift off.

But so far, so good. Yeah, and there's reasons to be skeptical about them, right? Some of their underlines aren't good. Their expected goals share is not great. But I don't know, man. I've said this before, but I'm just glad personally to have a team in that 10 o'clock start window that's worth. watching because they're typically aren't enough. And last year, that was certainly the case, right? The West was a disaster. Um, lots and lots and lots of bad teams. I need, I personally need one of the California teams to be good. Well, I don't care who can be the Kings. It can be the sharks. It can be the ducks. Like, whatever. Just give me something half decent to watch like as I'm falling asleep at 10 o'clock. And to see the ducks kind of phase into that over the last couple weeks has been really cool.

And I think a big part of it too, and this is one of my big takeaways for them is, you know, JR, you mentioned that they were garbage last year, right? It was you pencil in a win and, you know, move on with your life. And I think that's sort of the approach that I took on them heading into the season. I know that's the approach that me and Dom did. I mean, to throw it back to power rankings, right? where we're half jerkoffs in that every single week. We love making fun of teams and whatever else.

But the first few weeks, it was just like, ah, who gives a shit about the ducks? They're one of the three or four worst teams in the league. We kind of had that carryover from last season, right? But, you know, you look at guys like Terry stepping up. You look at John Gibson, who maybe they keep now. Everybody was treating as like a foregone conclusion that he was going to move on for some kind of package, some kind of future focus package.

they're worth watching. And the wild part of it, J.R. is that, you know, you were talking about this before the show, Trevor Zegaris, up until that last game against Vancouver, when he had two goals and an assist, it hasn't been there for him, which is wild. I mean, like, the process is there. He looks great.

The point production, you know, wasn't. So for them to do all this, and for them to heat up, you know, the way that they have without, you know, number one A, super prospect, Trevor Zegrois, the single biggest reason to be excited about them moving forward. For them to do all this without him, I think is, I think is, I think is really interesting. Yeah, ninth overall pick a couple years ago, 2019. He's got four goals and 14 games a season, but as you mentioned, went a little spell without, I think five games without a point.

And that's during this seven game street for the ducks. So getting it done without him. Kind of funny to think a 20-year-old going through a slump. Do you even call that a slump, Sean? Is that fair? Yeah. I'm 35. If I go through two weeks where I only write dog shit, I don't want it to be called a slump.

I'm like, I'm too young for that. It's not fair. Yeah, I don't know. Can 20 years, can 20 year old slump? I don't think so. I was wondering about that. Like when I write stories over the years about the blues games, you know, like maybe a star player, maybe it's a second tier guy.

But he'd go like, you know, four or five games without a goal. And we'd say, you know, scoreless and four. and it's like, you know, what sometimes? What am I doing, right? It's hard. It's hard to score. Like, you can, you can have a shooting percentage dip over, over six games where you're doing everything right.

It's like, even the best goal scores on earth, or it's 17 or 18 percent. Like, they're not, they're not all going to go in. And I think that's tough, that can be tough to understand, right? Like, you, it's completely normal to go through five or six games where, where the production isn't there, especially, especially when you're 20. But, dude, I watched a chunk. I was dumb luck. I watched live that bazooka he shot from the top of the circles against Vancouver.

I don't think I realized that he had that he had that club in his bag, right? Like, he's a, he's a, he's a lot of fun to watch. And so were they. Shout out to Ducks fans. I'm sorry for, I'm sorry for, sorry on Craig's behalf for kind of, for kind of ignoring you guys over the first month of the season. You're fun. Thank you. Give me something to watch.

Give me something to watch. You think L.A. fans want a shout-out too? Yeah, I know that. Yeah, baby. Let's do it. Having two and one in the last 10. So maybe two teams out there to watch. That was another one.

I kind of screwed up. I, uh, you know, everyone was focused on, you know, some of their younger players, whether is Quentin Byfield or whatever, guys, guys who haven't quite, you know, Bifield's hurt. There's a couple other higher profile guys haven't been there. But man, that team is so young. Guys like, you know, Calliyev and, God, I'm trying to, I'm trying to think. Gabe Valardi and, you know, players like that, they're so young, man.

Tobias Bjornfoot, he's like, he's like 15 years old. Like, the cavalry is there. And it seems like, and it seems like it's happening, even though they're completely crushed by injuries elsewhere. But yeah, man, they're they're fun to watch. Like I said, just give me, give me a couple good teams on the, on the West Coast to kill time on watch. And I'll be, I'll be a happy guy. I kill time, you mean bet? I don't know what you're talking about.

You know, I, so I honestly, I've been, I've been pretty good with that. I've been pretty good with that. I've, I've started betting on the Oilers to, to overcome third period deficits. That's like, that's like my, that's like my hack. And we don't, and of course, that's, that's, that's, that's like, that's like my hack. And of course, that team doesn't exist because they play in Edmonton. And who cares? The other thing that happened last night that I thought was interesting.

Ron Francis, he's pissed. He's saying that the Cracken have found a way to lose, felt that goaltending defense would give us a chance in each game. You know, they're 410 and 1. I think a lot of people are frustrated with them. And Francis had a little bit of a little bit of a game. event session, right? He goes, I think the expected goals against is the big discrepancy from where we thought it would be. And it seems to different things on different nights. You know, he's not subtly throwing the goaltenders under the bus. And I'm willing to

do that even farther. You know, you have Philip Gruber. He signs for, signs for six years, six million dollars, leaves, leaves the abs. He's like Seattle's, Seattle's big ticket item, right? He's the single biggest reason that people thought that they were going to be able to, you know, maybe not contend on a Vegas level, but sort of be the poor man's Mark Andre Flaherry. They weren't ever going to be a great offensive team. But the thought was, you know, they built a pretty good defensive core. They have, you know, a Vezna finalist, a Vesna finalist in net.

And he's been the worst goal in the league. He's got 880 through 12 games. Chris Rieger hasn't been much better. I don't know, man. There's a lot of people that are frustrated with Seattle already, including their GM. I thought it was kind of funny that that that bubbled over last night. Yeah, Sean, it feels like the early 2000s. When's the last time we saw an expansion team actually struggled?

Actually be bad? I don't know. That's a great. That's a great question. Who is the worst of those of that, of that round? I'm trying to think. The predators were horrific. I know they were awful.

Blue jackets. Blue jackets were bad. I mean, poor that, yeah, blue jackets's wild. Those teams were all, those teams are all trash. And the market suffered, right? That's why we've gone through what we've gone through with Vegas and Seattle. Like, the NHL's like, we're putting these teams in these cities.

Better try to make them good. I mean, the excitement level in Seattle at least is such where, you know, it's not going to matter this year. And also, in fairness, it could easily turn around, right? Philip Grubauer was good for a bunch of years. Golly play is wild. I think the odds of him finishing the season. in with an 880 save percentage are pretty low. No, he'll be better, and I think they could be a little bit better.

But, you know, let's honestly answer that question. Was that the right decision to go with Grubauer and that with that expansion team, bringing those guys together? You know, I think that Sackick has done a tremendous job in Colorado. Obviously, he had a big ticket guy in Landisg to sign. He was only going to go so high with Grubauer. And once that got a little bit out of control, he was willing to move on and now look at him. I know they've scuffled a little bit the first month of the season, but, you know, I'd take Kemper at four or five.

And granted, it's the last year of his contract. I'd take him at four or five over long-term Gruber any day. 100%. I don't want goalies signed a six-year contracts, right? Like, you need to be ultra-altra, ultra-elite, you know, Vasilevsky level or something similar to get that kind of commitment. That's just the way it is. And if you're Seattle, I think, JR, I think you make a good point. I think, you know, the discussion yesterday sort of centered on, okay, this team, by stat

projection, by a lot of stat models, was supposed to be better, better than what, overall better than what they are, but they're basically at the level in terms of offensive production and whatever else. They're where stats folks had them pegged at the start of the season. and they're getting sunk by goaltending, right? So that was sort of the lens that this discussion was happening in yesterday. And that's understandable to an extent. I think the bigger question, for me at least, is did they blow the expansion draft?

Like, yes, yes, they built a half-decent offensive team and found Philip Grubauer, you know, in free agency. But it's still in the moment it didn't feel like they were doing the right thing. and certainly the results, when you pin the hopes of your first season on your goalie being elite, I feel like there was always going to be the potential that something like this happened. Right. So to see them, you know, not use caps based the way that we thought it would and to see like how crazy the asking prices were in terms of trying to do, you know, Vegas pick acquisitions and whatever else. And to see the amount of money that they tied up in players who are in their late.

820s and kind of in the decline, that's the questionable stuff. I don't think that roster is terrible. It's just a matter. But in terms of asset management and in terms of starting with a blank slate and choosing to do that, I think it was questionable at the time. And it's certainly questionable now. Because like we said, the whole model hinged on Grubauer being really good, right? He's been about as far from as far from that as possible. Yeah. And we're, you know, a month and a half into their inaugural season. So, you know, did we expect them to be first in the, in the conference, no. You know, I think a couple things to give them a little bit of credit, and this isn't, you know, saying this because of what you were saying, but, you know, I think the bar was raised with Vegas. So now everybody thinks that you're going to be able to come out of the gate. And then secondly, I think that GMs wizened up, and that's been dissected to death, right? So their GMs weren't willing to do what the expansion team was going to ask. But I will say along the lines with what you were saying, Sean, is the asking, prices were just way too high.

And come down. You know, the market wasn't the same during the time that it was with Vegas coming into the league. And so I think it's, let's just use the housing market, you know, could you get, you know, $3.50 for your house at this point? Yeah, but a couple years later, do you have to take $3.10? You know, maybe. Like, I think that, I think that maybe some more productive things could have been done,

you know, had the price has been better. But, man, to go through that second expansion draft and just to, years time and watch that, you know, it just looked like Seattle wasn't able to accomplish as much as Vegas was, in part for the reasons I just mentioned. But, you know, I just don't know that it got him off on the same foot that. Definitely. Definitely. And look, I don't think either of us was expecting to see like the Dale Tallinn gift basket gets sent to Seattle, right? Where he just wraps up a first line and a bunch of, in a bunch of picks basically and says, like, here you go. for reasons that still seem baffling me.

That was never going to be on the table. Like, GMs are at least smart enough not to do that, certainly. I think where the fault lies in Francis is that he set his asking prices insanely high and did not come off them as whatever, maybe part of the old Brian Burke, like, you set your price and that's your price. And if you deviate from that price, like, people are going to sense weakness and that's going to be, you know, the book on you for however long. get that to an extent. But yeah, uh, demanding, you know, whatever, two first round picks for

Mark Giordano or whatever, whatever, whatever crazy stuff. We all, we all heard they were, that they were pulling. That's just cutting off your nose to spite your face. And they're paying for it now, right? Because there's not, they don't have that raft of assets. They don't have like a truly ready made contender roster in their big swing. Gruberauer is sort of, sort of, uh, come up short. So yeah, it's going to be interesting. I know we're 12 games in or whatever, but I think people see, you know, a save percentage starting an eight, right, for the face of the franchise so far. And you're just like, ooh, brother. Yeah, and not to pile on, Sean, but I mean, this isn't, as you mentioned, this isn't a three-year deal. This is a six-year deal? So, you know, is he going to

be the Seattle goaltender in six years? Who knows probably not? But nonetheless, you know, that's, that's the situation for the next six years on the books. Congrats to the Colorado Avalanche for for dodging that bullet, apparently, right? You mentioned, you mentioned Kemper earlier. He looks, he looks fine. I'll take a 915 Darcy Kemper signed for three years versus, versus, you know, overpaying for Philip Grubaugh and potentially losing Gabe Landisog and, and whatever else wasn't play there.

J.R., what's going on in St. Louis? Is there any, is there any interesting, interesting stuff happening around the blues before we wrap up this first segment here? Yeah, just a couple of things. They're getting a couple guys back from COVID pretty soon. I got to tell you about Tori Krug. Tori Krug came over from Boston as a free agent. Tough first year in St. Louis last year.

But he's been dynamite this year. He's been one of their better players. So he should be back from COVID. And the big news in the weekend, I'm sure we'll talk to Justin Falk about it, is that Scott Perinovich, the Hobie Baker winner from a couple years ago, he is going to, I think, make his debut. He's been called up. I think he's going to make his debut with the Blues tonight.

And for those who don't know much about Brenovic, a smaller guy, 5-10, maybe buck 80, but he gets it done. Love it. Could have made the team out of camp, Sean, but they send him the American Hockey League, and he goes down there and he puts up 20 quick points, most by a defenseman in the HL to start out the year. And so he'd get a look tonight. And by the way, I think he's staying with Justin Fawkes. I'll be living at the Falk household. Right.

I thought that was a really good answer from Justin, you know, where he talked about you talked about how you know that preinovich made it hard on hard on uh dug armstrong and been in bruby coming coming out of camp right he looked he looked good we're again a month into the season it didn't it didn't take long we got to see if we can get you to deluth we got we got to send you to to diluth to do like a future scouting some some scouting on future blues because this the the deluth the st louis pipeline apparently apparently is uh is is paying off here yeah after a long hiatus because I remember Brett Hall went there. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, so you got Holly and then and then now you got these guys. That's awesome. Well, we're going to, we're going to send it over

to our interview with Justin Falk. He was, he was really good on a lot of different stuff. I think the Blues are a pretty, are a pretty interesting team and he had some, he had some good stuff to say about, about everything going on in St. Louis with, uh, with my partner here, who's, is, is the best person to talk to you about that sort of stuff. So we got Justin Falk, and then we'll get back to you, finish up with some subscriber comments, everybody's favorite from the apps, from the podcast section of the app. So enjoy and we'll see you on the backside. All right, we're pleased to be joined by Justin Falk of the San Luis Blues.

Unfortunately, we don't have the video feed going so we can't see, Justin, we can't see the mustache. You have one of the best Movember looks that I've seen, man. it's it's uh it's serious we're being deprived of that oh yeah sorry about that uh i didn't originally know i guess that it was zoom calls that was really fun ahead for this so uh not not able to work out right now um yeah uh no we're letting it grow is that just is that just 15 days of growth like were you clean shaving on Halloween or or whatever like is is that uh is that what you're working with it's pretty impressive all right So you would have base to start with.

All right, I got you. Yeah, I needed it for Halloween. So it was already full go. And then I've done it before where I gave it fresh to start. It doesn't grow in that fast, to be honest with you. It takes a little bit of time to slow start. But yeah, I needed a little head start this year with Halloween. What was the Halloween costume?

I was Mr. Potato Head. Perfect. That's great. Rather than getting a fake mustache, I just figured out, use my own. You had the glasses and the nose and everything, Justin? Yeah, I tried doing it as best I could. Hey, another thing without having the video here, you guys can't see that I'm wearing a camouflage hat. and I'm kind of doing it for Justin.

You know, Sean, he's an outdoors guy. Sometimes he shows up at the press conferences, wearing a lot of camo. He's, you know, Minnesota guy. So, Justin, you're outdoors. I think if I had to pick a blues player to be in my Survivor winner, I think you might be it. Do you fit that description or?

It's all right. I mean, I don't like go on camping trips with like just an axe, you know, and trying to figure it up from them. there. But I think I'd do all right outdoors. I don't, like I said, I don't have too much experience in doing the kind of survival part of it. But I like to be outside. I enjoy it. Enjoy everything that comes along with it. You know, weather doesn't really bother me. But anything that I can do to kind of be outside is a lot of fun to me. You know, I wanted to talk to you about a couple things. First of all, the

the reception that you received in Carolina the other night, the video tribute, very well deserved. And look, we've seen a lot of those around the league, and they all look pretty touching. But I think everybody got the feels out of watching you. What was that experience like for you going back to Carolina? It was fun. You know, I was able to see a couple guys the night before. I know Carolina played.

So I saw some older players or one of the older players, they used to be able to see. to play with and another guy that worked for the team. And then after the game, I was able to catch up with a couple more people for a second before we shut it down and went to bed. But just the experience of being able to go back, I enjoyed my time there. I like the city. You know, I don't have any complaints about living there and playing there and whatnot. So to get to go back and spend some time there was great.

Obviously, as a group, we would have preferred to win the game. and I definitely would have liked that. But that's the way it goes hockey. Just, you know, but like I said, my experience going back there was enjoyable. Yeah, it was a reminder of how long you were there, right? Like, God, you look at it, it's like seven, eight, nine years. I mean, that's a big chunk of your life. You went from a, you went from a college kid to a, to a full-blown adult while you're in Carolina.

I'm sure that's a, it's got to have some added kind of, added kind of meaning to go back to a place like that? Yeah, I had to find a way to grow up a bit. I started there at 19 years old and kind of had to figure some stuff out, right? Everyone's still pretty, pretty ripe and went behind the years at that age. So it was a good place for me to kind of grow up a bit and kind of find my path. You know, it's an easy place to live. It's not hard.

It's not taxing on the young guys or anything. It's easy to get around. There's nothing that's going to make your life more difficult by living there. And so, you know, as a young guy, that was probably good for me. And then, yeah, I mean, it's not that, you know, eight years, it's not, it's a pretty long time. It's not, you know, super, super long time in terms of playing summer hockey. You know, plenty of players have played some of a long time. I think with the teams we had, we had a lot of turnover.

So there was only a couple of us that actually had pretty long 10 years that I end up playing with. For a team that's only been in the league, what, 22 years now maybe, something like that, I don't even know, 23, 24, whatever it is. You know, they haven't had a ton of players spend a ton of time there. So it's maybe a little bit different in a sense that I spent maybe a bigger percentage of time. I'm there than with others. And then, Sean, I can kind of pick up the story from there being the blues beat writer. He gets traded to St. Louis. You know, tough first year. I can't imagine the adjustment. Justin, we've spoken about that, you know, Petrangelo leaves and you've got the long-term

contract. You and I spoke on the phone. We did a story. You were open and honest. You said, look, I didn't play well. I know I can play better. And ever since then, you've been, you know, an all-star. Now you're an Olympic candidate. Just if you could point to one thing, I know it's getting back to yourself and playing the way you're capable. But is there something that allowed you to kind of get back on track and be that top-notch player? Um, no. I mean, I just, I felt like that ever, like, lost, I lost that feeling or belief, I guess, in my own head. Um, I mean, I think players go through stretches sometimes where they're not feeling it or they're not comfortable in certain situations or whatever it might be and then you know you kind of get over that hump and

figure it out and sometimes it's just mental you know it's getting comfortable like I said in what you're doing or being asked to do and then also at the same time kind of just like and screw it like whatever you know just forgetting that you know like said you're going to have times where you don't play well and you need to be able to flush that um you know sometimes it wears on guys a little bit longer than than others or you know even yourself once in a while you can flush bad games quick or you know there's otherwise once in a while you're on a little stretch of rough hockey but um no i i don't think there's one thing of particular just kind of myself uh you know and i got to you know start enjoying this have fun uh it's just you know just hockey realistically it's

nothing that I haven't done before. And so I was able to kind of just focus in and enjoy it. Got to be excited to see Tori Krube back at practice, right? I mean, you guys had a good thing going there before he ended up on the shelf. I saw he worked out today. What was it? Because you guys, you watch you guys play, you look at the numbers. It seemed like that was, it seemed like that was clicking early.

So I don't know if, you know, is there something about playing with him that, you know, that just going to make stuff gel right for you? I think we both understand the game in kind of similar fashions. I think both are pretty comfortable with trying to make plays and plays with the puck. And honestly, probably for the most part, neither of us have really played with a partner that also likes to do that a ton in their career. You know, I think there's definitely times in my career where I've played quite a bit of a few years. years and quite a bit of time with guys that maybe sit back a little bit more and aren't looking to jump in the rush.

And I think the same was for Tori. So being able to play together, I think we both have been through that and see the other side of it and can kind of get that same feel enough of when to go, when the other guy might go. And I think, you know, we played quite a bit of time being last year. And as you do that, you develop that chemistry. and you're able to kind of evolve as a pair and get that sense and feel of what each other is going to do out there. Sean, the other big news besides Krug skating early in the week here for the Blues is that Scott Prinovich has been recalled.

You know, Justin, we've spoken to you about him. Good young prospect. What did you see from him in camp? And as he comes up, you know, we don't know if he's in the lineup yet. But what kind of advice would you have for a young guy coming in and showing what he's got? Yeah, I think he was very dynamic in training camp. I think he put a good foot forward. You know, he made probably, you know,

I'm not going to put words in Doug's mouth or anything as a coaching staff, but I would assume he made it a tough decision and made it hard to have to send him down. He came in, he played well. You know, and he showed up, he worked hard, and that's really all you can. asked for a young guy and, you know, he hadn't played in a while with COVID and that his injury last year. So I think going down and get some games and, you know, I haven't watched any games.

Anyone can Google and see how he's doing points wise or whatever. And we all know that he's doing very well with that. So I think he, you know, from the outside booking in it, it looks like he's kind of carried over that training camp into games down at Springfield. And then, you know, going on any advice. I mean, it's, I don't think anything you say to a guy when they're coming up for the first time, maybe playing the first, first game. I don't even know if they'll process what you're saying. There's probably nerves that are going to be involved, excitement, whatever it might be, you know, family reaching out, friends reaching out. It's kind of a whirlwind, I think, for guys. so I mean the best advice that I can give and try to give is just enjoy it

it's the only time it's really going to happen that way and you know do whatever you got to do to enjoy it if that's talked to everyone and that everyone's back or you know whatever say thanks to everyone sure if it's maybe ignore them for a day or two and let it calm down that's funny just do what you got to do enjoy the enjoy the fun of it it's exciting time And, yeah, hopefully he carries that success over. Justin, you're a teammate, so you don't have to know the stats, but we're sports writer. So I can tell you two goals, 18 assists, and he leads all AHL defensemen with 20 points. So he's doing pretty good.

That's a pretty good start, I look like. And Sean, Scott Perinovich lived with Justin Falk. At times, Justin, is he going to come stay with you now that he's coming up or are you kicking him into a hotel or something? it sounds like he's going to be making appearance at my house tonight so perfect I think for now I think he's going to stay with me again for a bit and we'll see what happens here you got the you got the Duluth to St. Louis pipeline in place that's that's how it's how it's supposed to work I'm going to take it take care of the younger dudes right yeah makes it a little easier for guys I think and you know one less thing on his plate to worry

about trying to figure out what subway you want to go to for lunch or dinner or something, sitting in the hotel. It's make it a little easier. Is that the boat you were in in Carolina? Did you have to fend for yourself or was there someone else you stayed with when you were down in Raleigh at the start? I was in the hotel for quite a while, probably about two months or so. I think roughly I was in a hotel.

just kind of chill and hanging out. But then one of the guys, Anthony Stewart, he lived like a couple blocks up the road from the hotel. So I ended up actually going over to his house quite a bit for dinner. He had me over more than enough times and took care of me pretty good. So you had all the Kerry North Carolina cookouts staked out and stuff, right? Like you knew what you knew what was what? you had the fast food map planned out?

Yeah, you tend to know where everything is and what the easiest options are. No kitchens in those hotels, so you're slim-picking. Brutal. Hey, give us a Craig Bruby story. I mean, he strikes me as he can go both ways in terms of a player's coach, but yet he doesn't put up with any BS. He's demanding. Just your thoughts on Craig Bruby and how he's able to.

keep tabs on this team. Any stories that stick out? I don't think there's any like significant stories that stand out. I mean, yeah, he's demanding. You know, he expects hard work. He expects you to compete. And that's kind of the bottom line. I think that that's what's demanded. And that's, you know, I think people sometimes think that that's,

tough and, you know, hard on guys, whatever that might be. But personally, I don't think that, like, that shouldn't even be a question. So, you know, if that's what your coach is asking of a guy or of teams and players and whatnot, I think I don't see how there's anything to kind of go against that. you know, it's what you want and you wouldn't want your coach to ask for anything else. And then, you know, the players coach saying, I think, you know, people don't see what goes on inside the room, right? But I think Greg does a great job of getting a feel for how guys are doing. You know, it's something simple, but, you know, just asking how you're doing, how your family's doing, what about.

You know, I think you can see that he cares about you as a person too. And it's not just show up, do your work, which is what, you know, we do. But, you know, there's another side to him that, you know, he knows that you have a life outside of hockey. And then it's important as well. And so that he, you know, he's always checking to see how guys are doing it and everything's good at home. So, you know, you can have the players coach side of it. And at the same time, you can have the demanding side of it. which, like I said, if it comes down to just working hard and competing and showing up and doing your job,

I don't see how that, you know, that's the base of everything you need to have. So it's great. You guys are still off to a pretty impressive start. I know you had that 8-1-1 run there and all that. Is there one particular reason behind that? Like, is that, is there one kind of lightning bolt, you know, factor that kind of led to that? because I know a lot of a lot of people outside of St. Louis seem

like they're a bit surprised from the, from the, from the, from the start you guys are off to. Well, I mean, I think you look at, you know, it's not taking anything away from our fourth line, but look at the, look at the top three lines. I don't see how there's like a ton of question. I mean, we have possibly like three deepest lines.

You know, I don't think, I think everyone will agree that we don't have an absolute bonafide superstar, which seems to be the flavor, you know, not flavor the day, but it seems to be that people think that you need to have a superstar to have success in this league or like whatever it might be. And I think if you, you know, we've had, so has everyone else. So this isn't taking anything away from anyone else or been sending us. But with injuries and COVID, we still haven't really had a full lineup throughout the year.

So I think you're kind of seeing that depth come through. It's been tested early already. And we've prevailed. So I don't, you know, like I said, we've stumbled a little bit in last couple games. But with that depth that we have in the D and the goalie, I don't think like to us it's no surprise. It's expected.

and it's, we know where we want to be and what we have to do to get there. But having that people of team, I don't, you know, like I said, if we don't have a superstar, that's why people are surprised. That's their own thoughts. But we can play three lines against anybody at any time, and that's pretty tough to play, I guess. Justin, you've played against star players your whole life, so nothing new, but just thinking back to Sunday nights game,

you know, Drive Sidal and McDavid had a couple, special moments, but for the most part, you guys did a pretty good job defensively against them. You know, the rest of us, we just get to watch them on TV or live in person. Just what's the difference between you watching those guys on the highlight reels and then being on the ice with them? Um, I mean, I don't know, like, a dry saddle, I think had one and two. Yeah, I'm sorry. If that's quiet nighty.

that's a quiet night. I was trying to give you. That is a quiet night. But the difference between them is, you know, obviously maybe McDavid's a little bit more, like, noticeable, I guess, in a sense of the highlight real goals and assists and whatnot of how he creates. And he's so fast and so dynamic that, you know, there's no one else. obviously no one else like in the league. But, and then Drysidl is kind of, I think, a little bit more deceptive and, like, need here, almost in a sense. Kind of different players, but the differences between them and like any other player in the league is that they can do a lot more with a lot less.

You know, you look at their passing and where they find holes and gaps on the ice is, they put themselves in good positions and it's they just read the game a little bit quicker than everyone make that play a little bit quicker. You know, you look at even some of the goals last night where they came from and how they did it. It's not that, you know,

they flew past anyone and, and just absolutely exposed someone. It's like little, little spots that just created those goals and little plays. And it's just, you know, on the D side of things, it's a, it's a little, can be like a millimeter, you know, whatever. It's just a small step, a stick length, whatever it might be, and that's all that they need.

So that's what makes it tough to play against those guys is that they can just find the smallest amount of openings and whatnot and expose it. Yeah, I mean, we saw that, we saw the McDavid goal last week, right? Where he blew past, you know, it felt like eight, eight dudes on the ice for the Rangers. is that how much highlight watching do you do, especially on him? Because he's in one of those stretches right now where it just feels like, you know, every other, every other night he's leading, he's leading sports center or, or whatever. Like, is that, is that a consideration?

Like, do you, are you going up against him? Like, okay, I don't, I don't want to get put on a poster here. I don't want to end up on a highlight, on a highlight reel. I mean, I've been on the bad side. So, you know, like, no, I don't think about. that really because, you know, whatever, I got the experience of it. I mean, I don't, me personally, I don't watch a ton of hockey. I don't, I don't see all the goals, you know, I don't turn on NHL network in the morning and check all the highlights the night before. Sometimes I see stuff.

I don't have social media, so I don't see a lot of it then. That's, that's good. Anymore. Way to go. And so, so I don't, you know, I mean, I watch hockey. We've watched the clips before, you know, the team shows video and stuff, whatnot. But, you know, I think if you sit there and watch highlights and you think, like, I can't let this happen to me, let this happen. You know, you still have to play the game. Like, it's a read and react game. There's a feel to it.

You know, so I don't, I don't necessarily, when I do see stuff, I'm not like, oh, my gosh, I can't, like, let that happen to me. Right. You know, every situation's a little bit different. You just kind of kind of kind of, I mean, yeah, once in a while, you're just hoping for the best and hoping it doesn't happen to you, but I don't necessarily take the highlights and the thoughts and how I play the game.

That's great, man. Yeah, you got a game coming up against Arizona. This is going to post on Tuesday. You'll be probably back with Tori Krue, like we said. So good luck out there tomorrow, man. I appreciate the time. And good luck with the rest of this season. Thanks again.

Thanks. Appreciate it. Thanks, have a good day, fellas. Hi, Jared, that was good stuff from Falk, right? You know better than anybody. The blues are coming into a pretty crucial stretch their schedule. They're starting to get healthy. They're inching back to it.

And it seems like he's a pretty crucial part. Yeah, Sean, I didn't want to relive it too much with him. But that first year in St. Louis was tough. And, you know, the fans were down on him. But one story that I'll never forget, I talked to him. And he said, look, I follow sports. I'm a sports fan. I'm a Vikings fan.

When the Vikings sign a guy and he doesn't pan out, I'm frustrated too. He said, so I know how the blues fans feel. And so that second season in St. Louis, you know, was just so much different for him. And he stepped up and he played well. And like I said, like he's not far off on a chance to be on that Team USA Olympic team. I think he's in that conversation. So it's good for him. He's a quiet guy, like he said.

He's not a social media guy. He's kind of a private guy. But he's stuck to his business. And you're always going to miss an Alex Petrangelo, I think, on your team. but for what kind of player Justin Falk is, and I think he plays bigger than his size. I think he can play both ends. He can do a lot of different things.

Justin Falk has become a real key contributor for this Blues team. And I've never seen anything like it in 15 years how the fans just completely did a 180. And now they're wild, right? Yeah, I think there's a group of fans. I don't think they're in St. Louis, but they're called the Fawkes-A-Hawks-Ears. I don't know if those are carry-over. That's like carryover from Raleigh or whatever, but I saw those. I saw those guys during the Jersey retirement stuff.

That's pretty great stuff. I'm glad you mentioned that forward depth too, right? Because that's something that, you know, even historically, the blues aren't particularly known for, but you see those, you see those top three lines and you're like, all right, this has, this has a chance to work. This is a good, this is a good group of guys. So, yeah, I was trying to get him to bring that up specifically, and he didn't, he didn't disappoint.

He'd know he goes against him in practice every day, right? Yeah, yeah. And he's right there. And I know the blues have kind of had to change things up a little bit because of the COVID cases and also because of an injury or two. But you look at that third line. And for a lot of the season, it's been Ivan Barbachev, who I think is one of the more underrated players in the league. Then you got Robert Thomas. He's up to, you know, 12, 13 assists now. And then Vladimir Teresenko, who all he's doing is scoring game tying goals in the third period these days. So

it's real good depth like you touched on. Vladimir Tarasenko, I think I've, I think I've heard of him. The name rings a bell. All right. Again, I don't know. I know. Oh, boy. We got Vladimir Teresenko beatwriter Jeremy, Jeremy Rutherford here. All right. Thanks again to Justin. We'll be back in a minute to close it up with some of your reader comments from the athletic app. It's always the best part of every week.

So stick around and we'll talk to you in a minute. Well, JR, something Craig and I like to do because we're sadists, I guess, sadists. We try to get listeners to comment on the app on our individual episode page on the app, which again, if you open the athletic app and go to listen and then find, listen and then NHL and then the athletic hockey show and then our individual episode page,

you can leave comments and ask questions and whatever. I think we... There's a comment section? Did you know that? I know. I'm a critic. I'm going to Greg pointed it out to me a month ago

and I was shocked. I think I only learned how to find it now because I knew he was out this week so I knew someone was going to have to and I wasn't going to put you through that. But no, people are having fun. We got some good ones this week. I'm not going to run through all of them

because a lot of it's just, you know, BS for me and Craig. But Eileen was the first and she says as of 1109, granted this is a week ago, Rick Bonas is still the coach of the Dallas Stars. How? They're the only team left without a win in regulation and what more needs to happen for him to get fired.

And we're a week out from that. They've won a game. Right? I don't know. They're four, four, and two in their last 10. We saw, God, we saw them sacrifice Blake Como to the waiver gods last week. I don't know, man. I think they're still white knuckling it there and hanging on for dear life.

The hope there is always going to be that they recapture. whatever they found two years ago. So we'll see what happens with that. I think you've got to just cross your fingers and hope Rupert Hints, you know, shoots better than three percent or whatever. Have some of those, some of those goals start going in for those guys. I think stuff will get, stuff will get better quickly. But yeah, it was bad a week ago.

It still seems like it's pretty bad. J.R. I don't know if you've seen them at all this year. Have you seen any Dallas? Have the Blues played Dallas yet? Yeah, a little bit. And they're going to play them a couple times coming up. Look, Rick Bonus, obviously, a guy who's revered and well-respected. you know, and so to take nothing away from, look, they made that run in part because he was able to pull them together.

And, you know, it's been a team. I've watched them for years of, you know, inconsistent producers, right? And so to be able to put that run together, I think, was terrific. But I think it does beg or ask the question, Sean, doesn't it? I mean, it just seems like sometimes you get an interim guy and they have that success and you feel like you have to reward him. And, you know, obviously he was deserving of it. And Jim Nell, to me, he's one of the best. I really respect him.

And so they get that deal done. And now he's in the seat and now they're struggling. But, you know, I'm not close enough to the situation to know. Not me neither. Obviously. Blame. Yeah. But obviously, tough to watch what they're going through.

I'll say this from 10,000 feet. I thought he was going to be out last week. Right. You see that there's a player's only meeting and he can't, he was clearly pissed that that was going on and didn't want to talk about it all that much. The results are just disastrous. and whatever else. So the fact that we're a week out from Eileen asking this question, and he still hasn't, you know,

and there still hasn't been a move there. I think that's kind of interesting. I was totally ready for it to, I assumed that it was going to happen last week. Yeah, here I have a compliment for Craig's book. We don't need to go. No, read that, do we? No.

Thanks for recommending your book in this episode in a couple weeks ago, thoroughly interviewed it. Blah, blah, blah. You know what I got to say, Sean, I had to text Craig. It was probably a year or two ago. So I go up to the local pure hockey store to get my son some equipment. And they've got this little shelf area with a bunch of hockey books.

And, you know, I had written a blues book. And I'm like, oh, see if they got the book on the shelf here. And I go over and there's no blues book, but there's behind the bench with Craig Custin's, you know, Lewis, Missouri sitting on the shelf. You should have turned it cover down. So I had to talk with the manager. and they're longer ordering that one. Long story short.

I had a quick conversation. And yes, you're no longer welcome in greater St. Louis area, pure hockey. Yes. The other fun question that, Jerry, I don't know if you have an opinion on this. This came up last week. We had a fan in the UK who was trying to figure out

which team they should root for. Someone who was like new to hockey was just like, I'm trying to pick I'm trying to pick the right team. And we, I don't know. We kicked that around for a while, right? It feels like going with the abs would be boring. You know, and then like, what else?

You pick a team, pick a team on the downslope. I'm not, I'm not really sure what the, what the ideal NHL team to pick here is. But we have someone, we have someone, EFA's commenting here. Her recommendation is to pick a team that has the afternoon weekend games. You can actually watch them in a reasonable hour. So you got to. one of all the East Coast biased team. Oh, did I say bias? Oh, Midwest bias, baby. Let's start talking about that. But the other thing in here, Jerry, is we screwed up Taryn Kachar's last

name. We were talking about the brothers and how we knew that, and how we knew that the sister, that the youngest was an athlete too. And we whiffed on her name. Jeff, thank God, built us out. And so shout out of the Taryn Kachuk. But I screwed it up and said she played lacrosse when in fact she plays field hockey. Yeah, field hockey. I know, God, I know, I know you've had a lot of conversations with Walt and a lot of conversations with a family. Do we have a scouting report on Terran Kachuk field hockey player? What's her deal? Listen, Sean, she's the best athlete in the family. That's what I heard. She is. She is. And so anyway, I've spent a couple days over there just doing interviews. And actually, I did one story on Terran. They won the state

championship, but her senior high school. Actually, I think they won it a couple times. But yeah, now she's in college playing field hockey. And it's funny. I got to tell you a quick one. So I'm over there doing interviews. I'm doing interviews with the whole family and the whole story is going to be about Taryn. And then as I'm leaving, Chantelle, their mom, she knows that I got a little eight-year-old

that plays hockey. So she says, hey, Matthew Brady, we got some 8 by 10s. Can you guys sign them for Jeremy's son on his way out the door? And I said, hey, that's nice. I really appreciate that. He'll love that. So Keith Kachuk, he's at the refrigerator. he's pulling out dinner and he looks and he says, hey, Taryn, can you believe that?

He disguised this trip over here like he's doing an interview for a story about you and all he came over to do is get the autographs of Matthew and Brady. You're like, you're like, you're like, Taryn, please, please sign this too. You can, you can sign over Matthew and Brady's. Yeah. Let's get you, let's get you involved with. Yeah, it's a guy. We always love, we always love tracking the whereabouts and goings on with the Chuck's family.

I thought Matthew had a really good line, really good line when he played in. put in Ottawa a couple days ago where he was joking about Brady, Brady getting the sea first, but Brady knows who the captain is during the summer, you know, implying that it was himself. And then he had, he had the pause and was like, actually, it's probably, that's probably, it's probably my mom. He knows what, he knows, he knows, he, he knows that Chantelle run, run stuff around there, right?

She's the, she, she, she's the boss. She's the captain for sure. And I got to tell you, I'm going to tell you about Taryn, she's a chirper too. Like, you sit there front of her, you know, you think, Matthew is a past no. That's great. Barans got the lineers too. Love it, man.

And we just have a quick functional question from Matt M about ESPN and TNT broadcast. He said we got them the first few weeks this season, seem to have disappeared lately in favor of ESPN Plus only. Will they be back for later in the season? Yes and no, I think is probably the best answer there. The ESPN broadcasts are going to slide over. There's going to be a lot of Thursday nights moving forward. I know the October games were all on Tuesdays. When it comes back in January on ESPN, it's going to be a lot of Thursday stuff with some Tuesdays mixed in.

So condition yourself for that. Also asks about Saturday or Sunday games of the week once football and NFL seasons are over, if that's going to be on ESPN or TNT. It's actually going to be on ABC. There's a chunk of ABC games that are going to be on Saturdays and Sundays after football. season after football season ends. But it's a good point by Matt too. He says it seems like the new TV deals were on the right track at first to get more eyes on the sport, but it seems like they're missing opportunities to grow interest in the game. And I think these deals are, it's a much,

much, much more good than bad for the NHL. Like you're, you're getting eyeballs on ESPN and TNT and whatever else. But yeah, I'm with you. I think part of, you know, part of what you'd love to see moving forward is just some more games for fans to stumble on, right? Like you just want to see more tonnage of games on Tuesdays and Thursday. So whenever random folks are flipping around, it's like, ah, there's a random game on ESPN on a Wednesday nights. That's a whole moving forward for sure. Yeah, I'm always at the rink.

So I only catch some of that stuff. But to me, there's been a lot more good than bad. I think the coverage, the blanket coverage, the games, the visibility, everything's been great. The commentators, the studio. Everybody's been good, man. And I love ESPN Plus. I know you're at the rank a lot more than I do than I am.

But it's a good product. It's everything's available in one way or another. Yes, you'd like to see maybe a few more games on, you know, standard TV. But whatever. We'll take what we can get. It's certainly a better situation than it was a couple years ago for us and for the league. So that's it. That's it for the comments.

J.R. You got anything else you want to throw in there before? we get out of here. No, thanks for having me. Thanks, Craig, for being gone for the week so I could jump in through with Sean. It's been a blast. You know, sometimes you get too fixated on your own team that you cover on a daily basis, wake up, go to the same practice every day. So to be able to do some homework and see how guys are doing around the league and watch some of the speeches last night from the Hall of Fame. Thanks for having me. Kind of... You kidding me? Was a chance for me to step back and talk about the league for a little bit.

I'm just glad to have someone who knows a lot about one specific team on this podcast rather than two guys who just bullshit their way through knowing two bits about, about 32 teams and that's it. We got like actual valuable information for once. It's crazy. I'm not, I'm not used to it. That's way exaggerated.

Hey, and if you could, you probably talk to Dom more than I do, but tell them, I'm saying with us blues fans. I'm like, so I'm gradually sliding into like, my goal over the course of the next month is to just be the good guy for blues fans, right?

Like, I want them to, I'm pitting myself against Dom so I can get some of that positive energy because they hate them and rightfully so. He leans into it. You can't control the kid. I'll say that. I'll say something to him, but he's, he's going to do what he's going to do. No, for sure, for sure. But they hate when they see on Twitter that he loses a bet with the blues because they know

a bad article's coming out. Absolutely. That's part of that's part of the fun. I just, I, is my, my only goal for the blues is that they keep losing it money because that's, that's all, that's all I'm looking for. To me, that is a successful season for St. Louis is that, is that they cost Dom a little bit of dough. That's really all I'm looking for. All right, you are. This was, this was awesome. Thanks for, thanks for, thanks for being here. I'm sure we'll have you back soon. Uh, this is, this is, is this the best podcast the week? I think so. I think we still hold the belt, even though Brandon Du Hame was on with Michael Michael Rousseau on this week's episode

is straight from the source. That's, it's always great stuff with Rousseau. Always worth listening to. Is that the Minnesota guy? Every while. Supposedly. I'm being,

I had all, that last blurb, actually I had it piped into my ear. I was, if I wouldn't have said that, I would have gotten electrocuted by the powers that be here at the athletic. We got to, we got to kiss the ring on Rousseau,

always. And we got the Wednesday show. listen to that. They're doing a great job. It's Rob Piso from CBC Sports. Jesse Granger, who covers Vegas and of course Saracivian covers the Hurricanes. They're on week five or six of the Wednesday show doing a great job. Always, always, always tons of fun. And thanks for listening to us. I know we know you love the Tuesday show most of all. You don't have to say it. But if you have a free second, follow us on your favorite platform, leave a five-star rating. We don't one four-star ratings. Craig and I have gone over this. If you're not going to rate us five stars,

just take it, take it elsewhere. And of course, you can subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus contents from our entire network. You can start with a 30-day free trial. Then it's 99 cents a month after that. And also, right now, specifically, you can get annual subscriptions to the Athletic for just $3.99 a month when you visit theathletic.com hockey show. It's theathletic.com hockey show. If you don't subscribe, please subscribe off of that. be the best deal you got going. Also, next week, we got Sean Thornton. Shout out to producer Jeff. Thornton wrote a book. He's got a bunch of different stuff going on. It's going to be a blast to talk to him. Will Craig be back for that? I hope so. Probably not, but oh, yeah, I'm in, I'm in good shape.

That means I get another week off. Hell yeah, baby.