The Athletic Hockey Show - Keith Yandle's journey to NHL's Ironman title, NHL skills competition gets a makeover and Trevor Zegras owns the 'Michigan' move

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

Craig and Sean welcome NHL Ironman Keith Yandle. Yandle discusses his road to an NHL record for consecutive games played, the people that have supported him and guided him along the way, and how much he wants to help the Philadelphia Flyers become a better team.Custance and Gentille review the changes to the NHL skills competition at the NHL All-Star game in Las Vegas, and look at the power rankings in women's hockey at the Winter Olympics.Plus, the guys answer back to the trash talking that the Tuesday show took at the hands of Ian Mendes and Hailey Salvian, and they respond to your comments and questions in the best segment of the week, including thoughts on the Rangers, who Team USA"s MVP will be on the men and women's teams and more on the Athletic's updated player tiers piece. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody. This is Craig Custins. It's the friendly host of the Tuesday. I don't want to like, I don't want to single myself out in any way possible here. Friendly co-host of the Tuesday. I'm the star of the show, Craig Custins. Hey, everybody. Joined as always by my co-host, Sean Gentilly,

where we talk American hockey exclusively on the Tuesday episode because it does not get enough attention elsewhere. That's true. Because the Canadian, our. colleagues in Canada are provincial. Would that be the word we'd want to use here? That's right. Yeah, that's right. No respect for the hockey being played down here, down south. You see we caught some shrapnel on that Shane Don't interview that they did on the Monday show. Really? Like, no, I mean, because I don't listen to the Monday show. What?

I heard it through the grapevine. I didn't actually listen. It won't. well Shane Donne knows we can actually talk about Shane Donne because our guest today is Keith Yandel who no no surprise to me that an American would own the Iron Man record in the NHL for most consecutive games played absolutely just tough as nails it's America's sport you know we did invent it if I remember correctly I don't know the history exactly it was Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown New York invented the game of hockey And Keith, I mean, any excuse to have Keith on, he's funny, he's a great talker, he's, we're looking forward to that conversation. That's segment two. Segment one, though, the most important thing to happen in hockey in a long time actually just came out. We're recording on a Monday. You're listening on a Tuesday, I hope. The All-Star game, skills competition. I think the whole game will be played in the Blasio Fountains. I don't know if I read it exactly correct. That's true. That's true. It's a three-on-three.

tournament in the Bellagio fountain. What were your impression? I like, listen. And then there's going to be a foam party. Oh, a foam, yeah. It's going to be a full, Lasio. Full Vegas.

Yeah. I loved it, man. What's up? The best part of it is the shoot-em-down game with the, with the oversized cards. That's amazing. That's amazing. I've long been like, it's time to shake it up in the,

in the skills competition. We should, like, it's hockey. Anything you can to maybe crack a few minutes of Sports Center. And rolling out like the, you have to, you have to feather a pass over a thing on the ice through the cones and over into a tiny net. Like, that wasn't doing it for me. I don't care. Firing pucks at blackjack cards? I don't know.

Putting people on a boat and sending them out to the middle of the Belagio fountain. Hey, that's a great way to start things out. The disaster potential is present. I think, I think they nailed this because you, incorporate the strip. You have some special guests. And you got Trevor Zegris involved, which is good. We all we say, how many times do we say that? Like a couple of years ago. Find a way to get Trevor Zegris involved. Yeah. And they did. One of the top American talents, he's going to be the, you know, the face of the league potentially just because of his skill set and playing in, you know,

in California. Like just, and thankfully they found a way to get Trevor Zegers involved. they should have found other ways to incorporate more casino games not just blackjack there's still time have guys shoot pucks into like a roulette wheel or something how about like uh is there a craps version you like dice just fire dice and just that's because it's gonna be like actual craps where like by the time that's on tv i'll be like a little bit too drunk to know quite what's going on and say i'll learn it i'll learn it next time you haven't learned next year yet Sean it's i'll teach I've learned it and forgotten it a dozen different times. I know the basic stuff.

I know the pass bar and all that stuff. I once gathered like seven right of my buddies at a casino in Traverse City, Michigan, who wanted to learn crafts. We gathered around. It was, I think, Turtle Creek Casino. And I did a lesson. Like, we were like, we owned the table. It was all of us.

I'm like, here's how it works. And they all, they're like, okay, I think we got it. And just got our clocks cleaned within five minutes. And it was done. And they're like, that, you like that game? And I'm like, no, like that. Well, you should have probably learned before we came. Like, that's not the place to learn, like on the actual craps table.

Well, you want to have a... So we like the new, the updated skills competition. You know, they've got some women's hockey stars involved as well. Yeah. Like, all of it's good. Anything you can do to bring some attention to the game is good. And I also want to take a second to mention we talk about women's hockey. I just tweeted out.

but the power rankings done for the women's hockey, the Olympic tournament with, wow. It was just on our site by Haley. Way off. Big disrespect to the American women, I thought. And then just, then you're going to hide behind a model. I didn't, like, the rest of it was fine. What, there's eight, eight teams, ten teams.

I feel like it was generally okay, but that's a glaring, glaring mistake at the top. Here's what I always say. If your model is that. I mean, you should recheck the model if that's what the data is spitting out. That's like Dom. Timo Meyer is the top player in the NHL, this league or whatever. Time to stop paying attention to Dom's model, I say. What's it good for, you know?

I don't know. If the mistake at the top is that glaring, figure it out. Yeah. Back in the lab, nerd. If you have Timo Meyer as the best NHL player and the Canadian team as the best in the women's tournament? What's your problem? I don't know. Um, one thing I want to add before we get to Keith Yandel, um, we mentioned Trevor's egress. I've become slightly annoyed that that's called the Michigan goal. Not because it's Michigan. I can't imagine why you know, like, I mean,

that's because an actual Michigan, like Mike Legg scored the goal. Like why, why did we just co-opted as Michigan, like we've, we've just given it, it's classic Michigan stuff. Did you steal this question from Mendez? Did you see him tweeting about this? No. I'm finally like, hey, there was actually a dude that did this. Here's why it's called the Michigan. Who gives a shit about Mike Legg?

Nobody knew who he was. Nobody knows who he was. It's called the Michigan because he's less famous than Peter Forsberg or whatever. That's what it's called. So you... You know what else it's not called? It's not called the Svetnikov either. I know there was a movement a couple years ago to...

To get it renamed as this special income. No. No. Yes. I don't think enough people are talking about the Carolina hurricane, so I will say that. I'm calling it the Mike Leg from, I'm going to call the leg goal. I guess it's pretty confusing. The Leg goal.

The leg goal. You really have to know the history. Like, it's, it's too late. That's what it's called now. I know. It's like, at a certain point, you can't, you can't rename things. That's like, it's seriously like if you go to, if you went to school with a, with a kid or whatever, who was Danny up until college and he tries to rebrand as Dan. You're like, sorry, man.

That's not, that's like no work. Can you mind calling me Dan, no? Uh, yeah, I do actually. Your name's Danny. Sorry. Sorry, my name is James now. No, it's not. The Mike Leg.

That's what I'm going to call it. It's the Michigan. I did read an interesting story because I was like, I was Googling when all this was going down. and I think it was a sports net story from a year ago. And it said, like, he got death threats and stuff. Like, people were really mad about it. And that, like, I found it really interesting. That was just from the opposing coaches.

Yeah, like, like, people thought it was terrible for the, you know, now Trevor Zegars can do whatever he wants and nobody criticizes it at all because the game has evolved completely. But I did. I mean, how far away are we from every team, not just having somebody who can do this, but having someone who's got the stones to try to pull it off? in game action where it's just like something we see all the time. I just wonder what like when, do you change how you defend Trevor Zegrois now? Like do you have to, like do you go with them behind the net when he's skating? You know what I mean? Like do you make it.

I think McIndoo said it. Like he watched the last one. He was like, this is like not to be hyperbolic, but this has blown up defensive systems as they've been taught for the last five decades or something. But only when Trevor Zegers is on the ice. Well, yeah, because it's, I mean, Or Svetch the cough. You know, it's sort of like you want, you want guys to try to score, but not try that hard.

Oh, okay. That's what you want. Yeah, that's what makes part of the criticism of it's so insane. It's like, yeah, well, the point is to score goals and to be creative and try as hard as you can. But not in that way, actually. Not like that. Not like that. Don't try that hard.

Do you think goalies get mad about it? Like, I haven't talked to a goalie about it. Do they think it's some sort of crosses some. some line or if it's just like I should just maybe just make that safe. Montemboat didn't. Yeah. To his credit. Like after the game, he was like, yeah, he got me.

Like that was, that's great. It's cool that, this is, I'm paraphrasing, but it, but that's basically what you said. Like, yeah. He said, yeah, that was a great goal. And I'm, quote, I love the athletic hockey show. Wow. Tuesday show rules. You just dropped that in there.

One of the hosts, very good looking. The other one. I felt bad that someone said, Alex Tuck looked like us or like somehow lumped us all together. Poor Alex Tuck probably. Yeah, just this is this is three pictures of the same person. Yeah, that was funny. All right.

That is not right. That is not right. Let's take a quick break and excited to be joined by Keith Yandel. Excited to catch up with him. We'll be right back. We are now thrilled to be joined by Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Keith Yandel. Now the owner of the NHL's Iron Man. We can talk about it.

Keith, were people, like, afraid to jinx you? Was there, like, a kind of a no-hitter thing going on in the days leading up to it? Or what was that like? A little bit. I mean, not too much. It's kind of really something. I didn't really talk about it too much anyway. So it was, yeah, I don't know if people didn't want to mention it or anything.

But, yeah, no, it was kind of one of those things. We would just not really talk too much about it and just go about my business, you know? Yeah. So with it done now, like in kind of getting into the middle of the spotlight and all the attention that went around it, what was this moment like for you? And like, who did you hear from? Like, what was the whole scene like for you? Yeah, that's, I mean, the worst part is all the, you know, you have the spotlight on you. And it's kind of one of those things where it's just, you know, you'd rather be talking about somebody else.

And, you know, but I got a ton of text, ton of calls. You know, obviously, you spoke to Doug Jarvis. which was awesome, you know, to hear from him and hear some stories, had a nice conversation with them. And, you know, a guy that hopefully one time be able to wrap dinner with him or something. And then, you know, a ton of guys that I played with, you know, guys that I've played against that I haven't even met, which I thought was the coolest thing was hearing from guys that, you know,

throughout the league that, you know, just acknowledging it. And, you know, for me, it was something I didn't know, you know, if anyone knew about it, whatever, it was kind of just one of those things where, you know, being on the road and getting a stand ovation from an opposing team was, you know, just proves once again why the NHL is the best league in the world. Yeah, it seemed like the response ended up being where it needed to be. I feel like it sort of snuck up on people where it was like,

this is, this is coming up, he's about to break it, and you're on the road. And obviously the team was where it was. but the response was, the response was cool. It was cool seeing that kind of, that kind of public outboarding. Who owed, who would you hear from? Did you actually hear from like random dudes across the league? They were just kind of jumping into your DMs or whatever.

Yeah, yeah, a bunch of text. You know, a bunch of calls heard from, you know, a lot of old teammates, even guys, too, that I haven't talked to in a while. You know, guys throughout the league. You know, Wayne Gretzky called me, which was unbelievable. Ray Bore, guys like that. You know, obviously, guys like Shane Dohn, guys that I started with in Arizona, Derek Morris, Ed Giovannowski, you know, former GMs, coaches, you know, just the,

it was actually, it was very humbling with, you know, the, with the support that I got. And it was, it was one of those things that I was, I was definitely taken back with how, how, how everyone responded to it. Was there, was there, like, a certain point where you realize that it was, you know, your sights? Like how far along into that streak did it take for you to realize like, all right, this is this is a real thing that I could hit, you know, pretty conceivably? Yeah, I think, I mean, obviously I got, I had gotten questions from the media for the years. And I'd say the last couple of years is where it's kind of one of those things where it's

creeping up on you and people would say how many games away you are and, you know, then you'd think about it. And then, you know, it was one of those things where I tried not to think about it, where it was a countdown of games or whatever. So I just tried to go out and focus one day at a time. But, yeah, definitely in the last year or two. And then obviously this year coming in, knowing that it could have happened this year was, was, you know, kind of one of those things that you had in your mind a little bit.

I like people are like, well, you got, you know, you got to get lucky. You got to get X, Y, and Z. And Keith Yandals managed to avoid all this. And it's like, no, actually, Keith Yando played through some stuff. Like, cracked foot, nine teeth losing, you know, a full cage. I remember at one point you had, like, what were, you know, what were some of the things you, like, actually had to deal with? Like, this wasn't just you avoiding injury.

Yeah. Yeah, there was a lot of, you know, a lot of close calls. I remember one time I got a real bad, real bad cut. I took someone's skate to my, like, right above my skate and it was deep. And it was actually one of those things where I couldn't really move my foot. too much because of the tendons. But once you kind of get it in the boot, it's okay. You know, that was one,

uh, had like a little bit of a torn bicep in New York that that went brutal. Is that the playoffs? No, that was my shoulder in playoffs. That was the worst one. That was, that happened game one,

two of the first series where, and then we went to game seven of, you know, the Eastern Conference final. So it was every game was just awful. It was just a little bit of a torn bicep though, just like a little bit of one. It was actually, I lucked out because it was my top, it was my right arm.

So it was my top hand. So I wasn't really, I think if it was my bottom hand where I had to like flex on the stick and stuff would have been a lot worse. But I lucked out with with that. Just some stuff with your hands, stuff like that really hurts. Yeah, but no, obviously been really lucky. So I tend to get really like nostalgic or whatever like around something like this. Did you, I loved reading up on stuff about, like, stories about your dad and kind of his work ethic and that kind of thing.

Did, like, and it sounded like your dad sounds like, you know, big personality and funny guy. Like, what, did you think about that stuff? And, like, what kind of impact when you think about your parents and what they did and, you know, working for FedEx and all that? Like, how much did that impact you and drive your work ethic? Yeah, it was, it was huge. And, you know, obviously my dad, you know, he truck driver, went to work every night. driving, you know, the double tandums to, he'd go from Boston and New York and every night. And then, you know, he'd work.

So he worked midnight till 9 a.m. And then had other jobs. And then he coached high school hockey. So, I mean, the guy, we used to joke around about he'd get like 10 hours of sleep a week. And I'm a guy, I need 10 hours a night. So he's got me beat there. But honestly, too, my mom is the same thing. She worked every morning.

She'd leave the house at 4 in the morning, you know, come back at 4 in the afternoon. And she had, she has rheumatoid arthritis. So she was always in pain, but never once, never heard her complain about it. Just got up, did her, did her work. And, you know, and I think for me, my brother and my sister, we saw that. And that's where we, you know, you get your work from your parents for sure. we're um we're big college hockey guys sean and i were we're unabashed college hockey supporters and i i i heard you can tell me if this is a true quote or not from your dad said when you get

like calls from harvard or whatever he'd say yeah if my son could spell your school we'd send them there but yeah yeah yeah have you heard the brown story uh no i'd like to hear it though let's go uh yeah it's it's i mean i'll make it pg but he uh you actually you actually don't have to by the way yeah it was uh It's one of those things, obviously, the house phone line would call. And I remember my mom answering, she's like, hey, buddy, it's so-and-so from Brown University. My dad picks up the phone. They want to talk to you about Keith.

My dad literally picks up the phone and goes, the only brown that kid will be seeing is in his underwear. And then hung up. Oh, my gosh. I was sitting at the kitchen table, like, what is going on here? And I mean, obviously he knew he knew that I wouldn't be able to get into Brown, but it would have been nice to maybe take a visitor's home. Yeah, that's right. You like pick up the phone in Star 69.

You're like, I'm going to get a free trip. I'm going to get a free trip to his school. Jesus. Yeah, no, but I think he knew my limitations in school. So he didn't want to, he didn't want to get my hopes up or maybe even their hopes up. That's amazing. You mentioned somewhere along the way just the impact Shane Don't had on your career early on too. And we all know Shane and the kind of guy he is.

But like as a young player breaking into the league, what do you credit him teaching you? Like what stands out the most? I think for me, he was one of those guys where so my family is friends with the Kachuk family. And obviously Shane played with Keith and Winnipeg and in Phoenix. and Keith Kachakia obviously told donor I was coming out there for training camp and to keep an eye out for me. What I just, you know, what guys do? And Shane took that and, you know, obviously he was close with Big Walt.

So he took care of me and anything I needed when I was young, whether it was a ride to the rink or, you know, a talk. But I'd honestly say the biggest things I took from him was just, I would just watch them before practices, before games, the way he got ready. You know, he was a captain at a young age there. The way that he treated everybody, whether it was, you know, the guy who parked the cars or, you know, the owner of the team, he treated everyone the same.

And, you know, just the guy that honestly, besides my parents and brother, he's probably my biggest mentor and what he's meant to me in my career. And I owe him a lot. Yeah. Like the kind of the weird thing that through all this this year, Keith has been, you know, Philly was going through some struggles right in the middle of all that. Have you thought much about your approach the rest of the year? I mean, I know, you know, in terms of where you'd want to end up or how you want this to play out, has that crossed your mind yet? Honestly, no. It's one of those things in the last couple weeks just trying to get the team back on track. And obviously, uh, I've never seen a team hit with the injury bug like we've had this year. And, you know, just not just little injuries. And, you know, we're missing, you know, Coots, hazy, Ryan Ellis,

brass, Nate Thompson. Like, when you're missing guys like that, it's obviously a little bit tougher to, you know, find ways to get wins. But, you know, this is a group of guys. It's been, it's been so much fun here this year. Everyone's welcome in. And, you know, it's been fun. Obviously, there's been some trying times.

But, you know, hopefully, we can just turn it around here and get things blown. We did want to ask if you heard from Phil Kessel, who is chasing you on this list. I haven't, no. Phil's a great guy and wish him nothing but the best. I've said it before. I think Phil's could play another five, ten years. Like, just the way that, you know, he's so smooth out there.

He's, you know, a guy he's going to produce every year. And, you know, definitely wish him nothing but the best. Awesome. Yeah, I looked up their stats last week. I mean, he's right there. he's like up at 30 points again, you know? Like I've heard you say that about him too in the past. He could play five more years, 10 more years.

Yeah, he brings it every year. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Keith, congratulations again. I mean, it's incredible accomplishment. Just incredible career and still going. And we appreciate you taking a few minutes. Yeah, no, thanks for having me, guys.

I appreciate it. Stay warm. Yeah, we're trying. See you guys. Is Keith Yandle the consensus best team in the league? I feel like that's what everybody always says about him. Yes. I think so. I think, and I think, I think, I think some of that came through. He's just a genuine, a genuine, good dude with a lot of connections to a lot of people across the league,

right? So, that was, I was good to talk to him. It's, it's such a weird time for this to happen for him, too. You know, I mean, we tried that, we tried to edge around it. Like, like, like, what are you, but what are you going to do? Like, he has this unbelievable, historic achievement and it happens as stuff is just completely cratering in Philly. Yeah. Like that happens and then Dave Scott comes out and has to talk and you got Chuck Fletcher. So, I mean, that did feel like it might have put a little bit of a damper, but I mean, I'm glad he seems like he's enjoying it. He's hearing from people.

Well, he's like the last guy that's going to be like, look at me anyways. Like if everything's going perfectly perfect. and then you don't get to be the league's best teammate by making it about yourself. Yeah, I'm not even, I'm not even... The team's horrible. Like, so what a weird... I'm not even saying that it's like, oh, like, the pregame ceremony is going to be muted. I don't even mean it like that.

Like, you just, you know, it's something to enjoy. Like, even if he does it, you know, individually or quietly or just like behind the scenes, and that's got to be tough when your team sucks as bad as they have for the last little bit. How much do you love when someone goes, oh, do you guys know that Brownstone? Like that point you're just like dial it up baby let's go That means it's famous somewhere which means that it's good Oh my gosh All right well thanks again to Keith for joining us

And for Zach for setting it up and producer Jeff And with that we'll be right back with the best segment in sports history This is the only good segment on the show Craig screwed up the name again. But before we get into that, which is when we go into the comments that you leave on the athletic app, we wish upon a star, tap your phones eight times and find our episode page and leave comments and questions and whatever else. We love it.

We love seeing it. Before we get into that, we have a piece of audio for you. And it's something I kind of alluded to in the first segment, but I hadn't actually heard it. Producer Jeff is going to drop this in now. It's upsetting. Obsetting audio from people that I thought were, I thought were colleagues and I don't know, whatever.

Let it rip. Well, well said. And listen, because Haley and I are from Canada, we can say, best of luck to you at the Olympic Games. We want you to bring home the gold. That's why I wouldn't do those guys as podcasts. I'd only do your guys as podcast. There we go.

Take that Tuesday show. Thank you. Interesting. Shane Done. we don't want you around anyways, buddy. Stick the Mondays. Here's, first of all, how unprofessional to like just come out and say, like, go Canada. Like, we're journalists.

I would never do that. This is not. Have some integrity, I guess, is probably one way to put it. And second of all, Shane Don's the nicest guy ever. If he would, he's, I think he's just being nice. If we called him right now and we're like, hey, Shane, do you mind doing the Tuesday American edition? And also, do you mind being the GM of the American Olympic hockey team?

He would probably do it. Spent more than enough time in Arizona. He's an honorary American. But that's clear. I think it's clear. I know, whatever. I spoke in anger there for a second. It's clear that Shane was railroaded into knocking us by those two so-and-so's on the Monday show.

Are we that much in their head that they would bring it up to guess? Like, I would never, until next week, bring up the Monday show. Haley, Ian. We're living rent free in your head. God, I eat that freeze. It's one of those phrases that you hear someone say, and you just know immediately that I'm not going to like this person. Yeah.

This is not. Whoever saying this is not, whoever saying this is not for me. But, yes. But we. Haley and Ian, we are living red free. Yes, I mean, that's accurate. To the comment section, which if you want to, I did leave instructions on Twitter. I got it into a tweet on how to do it.

Did you put it in the notes app? What's not? Somewhere I was replying to somebody that was like, hey, can I just ask a question on Twitter? And I said, no, you have to, here are in 12 easy steps, how to leave a comment. So to the 20 of you who found your way to the comment section, again, amazing. We're now, some of them are doubles. I've seen them.

Some of them are doubles, but still, there's some good stuff in there. Braden S writes, not true. You can make a comment on Android, Sean. No,

I said you can't, I said you can't make, well, I just generically said, you can't do it on, some people can't do it on their phones, which is, you know,

I'm self-centered and I have an iPhone, so I assume that that means nobody can. Okay, well, Braden can. Android, Android are good to go. Okay. So congratulations.

You have one reason to own an Android phone, though. Greg J. writes, love them out Rushmore. As much as we don't love them out Rushmore, people love them

out Rushmore. There's a reason it works. It works. Have we done one for U.S. born players? We've not, but you know what that sounds like? August content, baby.

Yeah. We will do it, Greg, Jay. I don't think now is the time. Oh, God. Do we have like a down and dirty like top four right now? Well, I mean, we can work it through,

but what does that leave us for August, Sean? I mean, we can, this can be, you know, American Rushmore 4.0 or 2.0. I mean, obviously, Shane Dome. That hell is wrong with me. Shane Dome. He just made a big, Keith Yandel, Keith Yandel,

Yardierm or Yager. I'll tell you he's definitely on it. Camer Granato. Oh, look at, yes. 100%. She might be in the Washington spot at this point. I love that. That's right.

Spoiler, like the spoiler alert for American Hockey Rushmore coming to the athletic hockey show. And, you know, on August 5th, 2020, or whenever we do this, Cammy Granado is going to be on that. She will be on there. We'll get graphics done. We'll have each of the guests on. We're actually trying to get Cammy on. She wrote a children's book. And I like, I love that stuff.

She is the coolest. She is the coolest. Michael Kay writes Sparty. I haven't read these yet, so I get nervous when it starts with Sparty. Since I found this message thread, you don't ever have to worry about no comments. I'll be here for you. Oh, no matter what you say back about my comments, you'll just have to deal with my go-blue love. Michael Kay, I can deal with it if you find the comments section.

If you leave us one or two good ones every week that will help us run out the clock on this show, you'll put up with it. Sorry about Jim Harbaugh going to the Vikings, whenever that happens. Did that happen? No, I just, I think, no, no. I'm just predicting the future. I hope it does. I hope it does.

You know what, though? I hope it doesn't because when we beat Michigan, I don't like to hear, oh, wow, it's the new coach, et cetera, like, during, like, the rich rod era and all that. Like, I want Tucker to beat Harbaugh every year. Brady Hoke. Brady Hoke. No, thank you. My friend does a really good Brady Hoke impersonation. I might have them come on.

You know what? That's really, that's really specific, but I still, I still would like to hear it. It's, I will get them on. Maybe that could be a guest. A good Brady, a good Brady-ho compression. Like, I'm like, that's, that's such a narrow. He's the commissioner of our Big Ten Mac fantasy football league. And so he would do like a video introducing us like, we're back for another year. It's really raspy. There's like, it's like, it's like, that appeals of people in Muncie, Indiana or wherever Ball State it is in Arbor. and then like parts of southern California. You can read some of these anytime too, Sean.

I don't feel like I. Do you have my phone up, bro? Whatever. This is on you. Oh, because it's an Android. Michael K writes, USA will medal with a gold, of course. Canada going to walk away with nothing.

I hope Canada. I think that's possible. Yeah, I think that's probably true. Because I do like Shane Donne, I would like to be a bronze. They most likely won't get anything. They got call it and coaching that team right now. How good?

They'd be. Jesus. Wow. Whatever, man. It's the Olympics. Michael K. Right. Again, I'm assuming this is my

arch rival in Ann Arbor. Can we get all three Hughes brothers on the podcast? Now, that would be a blast. Maybe two of them. Definitely two of them. Caleb, yeah, okay. I got mine.

Oh, you're on? You're going to participate in this? I'll let you read some Caleb B comments. We love Caleb B. That's fine. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Caleb B. Caleb B.

My 13-year-old son is a Knights fan. He wore a VGK, Ferry Jersey, Tilly Out Groot. I've watched tons of Vegas hockey over the years. And Alex Tuck, who was, I think this is the first time I'm mentioning this. He was our guest last week. He was unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Alex Tuck has made numerous appearances on my fancy hockey rocksters. What a cool dude. Enjoyed it. That's true. I think Tuck seems like one of those guys that people would just like and people just gravitate towards, right? We've seen that. I saw that from people who were commenting.

on the episode on Twitter and whatever from Vegas. People are just sad to see him go. Yeah. People in Buffalo who are psyched he's there. He's got that kind of personality, I think. Who's your guy? Keith Yandel's been on a few of my fantasy teams, just not for nothing. Oh, man.

Who is our, we, uh, we, I feel like we always had one or two guys that were, would have been our, our version of Alex Tuck to Caleb. I mean, we, we, uh, Jeff Carter was, was our guy on our fantasy team for a couple years? We were always like, you win championships. That would still hold true. by the way. Like, Jeff Carter's a guy

that nobody ever wanted going into the draft. You weren't excited about it. It was true. Or the auction, but you get them for like six bucks. It was true. It was true three years ago.

Yeah. Caleb, okay, so Caleb's, you know, talking about the Rangers. We rag on them a little bit, a little bit last week.

Squad's showing promise. Fox, Crider, Mika, blah, blah. I don't know. I think they're, I think they're cruising

for, for an early exit. You're just not a believer on the Rangers. Not really. I think they just rely way too much in the power play. They're relying on Chris Kreider, by the way, who I love, and I feel like I end up talking about him

in some capacity every week. You mentioned Chris Kreider, I would say, 80% more than the usual. I love watching him play hockey. He scores goals. He skates, he skates hard as hell. He's an American. What's not to like? Chris Criter's got 30 goals.

already. Like, way to go. Great season. They're relying way too much on the power play in Chisdurkin for me to buy into that. Doesn't mean it's not going to hole, but I just think, I just think money is on them on them going in the tank at some point. So, sorry, Caleb. Riley C. writes, who do you guys think will be the MVP of Team USA? Also, who will score the game winner over Russia in the gold medal game? Ah, those are two good questions. Um, our, Team USA MVP. Hmm.

I mean, is it lazy to go with one of the goalies? Like, is it lazy to say that, you know, Drew Commesso is going to have some kind of crate of some wild, you know, Jim Craig kind of run? I feel like if they're, if they do anything in this, honestly, it's going to be because they get sick. Yeah, that's probably the right call. Like, it's going to have to be like Ryan Miller-esque.

It's a cowards. That's a coward's, but it's. I know, but it's like a, it's also I said, I said, I don't know why it's said, I meant, I meant, I meant, I meant, I meant, I meant, I meant, I meant, I meant, I meant, I mean, he's obviously, he's obviously going to be, he's obviously going to be. Like, you see his stats in Sweden when he's playing against some, some pretty good players. I don't know, man. I feel like, I feel like if by the end, if in a few weeks we're talking about, you know, silver medalist United States, it's going to be because Straussman was unconscious for, for, for some portion of it. on the women's side i'm going to go brianne decker that's a great call that's a great call for when the men and women both win gold those games start very soon by the way i'm not sure if i'm i'm not sure if people are aware how close we are to to the start you know to the first few games of the women's of the women's tournament as as we're like i'm legit i can't wait i'm psyched i'm so much more excited about the one

talking about here or i'm like pumped for both of them at this point we know like the stars are the women's team. Yeah. Oh yeah. Like that's... We have so much more of a relationship, so much more of a connection with those players that have developed over the last four years, eight years, 12 years. Like, they're the marquee attraction.

So I'm more excited about them. And I don't think I don't think I'm alone. Because I know, because I know those people. Right. Beyond, you know, the top prospects and, uh, you know, whatever. The Andy Miele is of the, uh, of the world. Right.

I don't, I don't have, I just don't have that kind of background with the, with the men's team. I mean, so that's what bothers me about the power rankings, uh, that would,

that would put out. I mean, it's the same, it's the U.S. superstars. It's, it's Hillary Knight and Decker and Amanda Kessel and Howitz Carpenter and Kendall Coins show,

like this is a, this is the group. Megan Keller. Like, this is it. This is the core. That's won everything. I don't remember what happened for it.

Whatever happened for years ago. And that gold medal game, does anybody have a recollection of that? Will C-Rights. Such a great interview with Tuck. It was good. It was really good. It was really good.

He made it so easy, dude. Buffalo has such great fans, and I really hope that he gets to be part of the turnaround there. Agreed. We love the Buffalo fans. Loved Sean's player tier's piece with Dom, and really any of the analytics first pieces by the Athletic, like those player cards that came out a while back,

those are really good. Those are fun and a lot of work. My question is, was there a player that surprised you to the most during that piece? I'm assuming he means your tears, Sean. For example, yeah, were there any players you assumed were doing well,

maybe based on reputation, but the stats told a different story. Or maybe you found the opposite, a few sleepers, not getting enough attention. I'll leave that to you because you really immersed yourself in that project. The tears refresh, honestly,

there weren't a ton of surprises. There were some tough decisions, especially with, I mean, we have, there's a really good group of forwards that, that were kind of, you know, the guys like the Drake Bathersons of, of, of, of the world who we were, who we were kind of borderline on before and, you know, more than, more than made their case, more than made their case over the first chunk of these. I'm, I'm actually, I'm trying to, trying to pull us up right now because I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to forget anybody. But there's a really good group of forward. who kind of made their case. You know, guys like Matt Duchesne, he's been great, and Anthony Duclair has been great. But there's a whole chunk of young guys that sort of surprised us.

But where the actual surprise is where we're, honestly, back in September when we did that for the first time. You know, guys like Tim O. Meyer, even at that point, I was like, I knew he was a good player, but there's something to be said about, you know, kicking ass in those stats the way the way that he has i'm trying to i'm trying to think of people who who sort of surprised me to see in in the first in the first little chunk there i mean we knew that like mackenzie weger is is a is a stat superstar right like that's just that's just

the way it is like there's no there's no surprise there but you know it's cool to see guys like joel erics and getting some love and whatever else those those projects are those projects suck as you do them but because they're just a lot of work but at the end of it you know because of a how much you learn and be how much people seem to enjoy it now is kind of that was kind of turn out to be worth it honestly yeah Greg i writes now that i finally found my way here nice job craig navigating your way uh what american would you guys have like to see get the big homecoming like Alex tuck this is good this is like an on a good theme question while unlikely trocheck in pittsburg would be great.

Ryan Miller to Detroit. I don't know if that one's going to happen. Michael K. jumped in with a couple other Detroit ideas, and I like all of them. Zach Werenzki, Kyle Connor,

Jacob Truba to Detroit. I have a good one. Do you have a good one? Austin Matthews, Arizona. Oh, I mean... That's it, baby. Wouldn't that be something?

I mean, Trocheck to Pittsburgh is the one that obviously lands directly with me. Give any back here. Keith Yandel to Boston. It's amazing that he hasn't played there yet. I just assume it's going to happen at some point, right?

I mean, it has to happen. I can't believe he never, like, every time he's a free agent or he's on the trade market, everyone in Boston's like, ah, time to bring Keith Yandel home and he fits in need. And it never happens. Maybe that's happening now. They're about to, they should sell, they should sell off anything that's not nailed down over the next month or six weeks. Remember, you probably, like, I lived the Jacob. The Troobus coming to the Detroit for about two straight years before he got trailed.

That had to be tough. That had to be tough. That's such like a, I mean, we hear about in Pittsburgh all the time too. Brayn and Saad, every, I feel like, I feel like, I feel like Saad, starting with his draft year, by the way. That, that's when it started with him. For a guy that's been traded a few times in his career and signed a couple contracts, like, it always, oh my God. It was, people were just starting the clock. for whenever he would come back.

Gibsonia, PA. And then sometimes you don't, like, you never hear, like, Connor Hellebuck back to Michigan. Or, you know, like, there's some guy, maybe because they're not available. But, like, there's some guys, there's always this connection made to their hometown. And another guy's, it's like,

do we know for sure we're kind of out? That's why the Yandel thing is funny, because there's so many Boston guys in the league where you could just do that with any number of dudes, right? Like, there's so many guys, like, with Massachusetts ties or whatever. And it doesn't always, you know, yes, we heard it with Eichol,

a couple years ago or whatever last year. Yes, I mean, there's always going to be connections there, but there's something about, it's funny to see, like, how you, how you pick and choose. Nobody really ever talks about J.T. Miller coming and playing for the penguins, even though he's from here. But sod and trocheque are the ones where it's always like. Yeah, they always get connected.

It's funny. Dylan C. Dylan C., Dylan Cousins, I'm assuming. Mm-hmm. That is. That's him. He told me. Insert some praise about how great the Tuesday show is here. Okay, we'll do that. Always have to do that. So you'll read the ever important question. When are y'all going to host the Wings for Breakfast reunion show?

And the Tuesday show is actually great. Just waiting for the invitation. Oh, I mean, never. Never. You know why? Don't like Max. Don't like Max Bolvin. Wow.

For Santh, I like it. But not Max? Not a bit. Prashanth, great. Max. Don't like them. Have never. ever liked him.

I've known him since he was 20 years old or whatever. Bad guy. Bad guy, yes. We love Vax. Like, he's probably, it's, one of us is due to take a week off and get, and get subbed out for Maxie, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

He was on a good stretch. Max is, Max is the go-to, the go-to replacement because he's smarter and more thoughtful than both of us combined. He is. He is. He works hard and he's an expert on that team. So I hadn't talked to Max in a while, so I'm like, I'm going to reach out, you know, grab a coffee or something just to just to connect with Max because it's good for the soul. So on Friday, I said I'm a slack and I'm like, hey, you know, I, you know, we can, I've got time at like four or five o'clock today. We can do it, maybe grab a beer somewhere. And he's, so we were trying to find a spot that's halfway between our two houses. And the name of the place when you Google map our two places. Nearest midpoint. And I'm going to read both of your addresses here right now.

You can, you can, you can, you know, the midpoint place was a bar called tipsy McStaggers in Warren, Michigan. Oh, no. And so we met up at tipsy McStaggers. That's a, that's a Taffer Bar. Like, that's like, that's a Bar Rescue Bar. Taffer holds up, how do you have a day? How do you call a bar tipsy McStaggers? Or changing this name.

I'll tell you that much. Wow. It's my taffre impression. Thank you. So it was good. So did you get drunk and drive home or what happened? We got like, we split some tater tots.

We're so like earnest and odd. Like we would never even, like we went there and it was good. And I felt like just the name of it though. I felt like I was hammered saying it out loud. You felt like you're like there's going to be a sting operation set up outside that place. Honestly. No, I didn't feel like if you're,

cop, you're just sitting at 12 mile there's going, just pull in and like, and like there's got to be cops just right up. Yeah, anybody leaving tipsy McStaggers literally at like six on Friday like I did. Just set up the checkpoint. But yeah, Max got a DUI. Yeah, that's the table ending to the story.

James S from the Athletic Show podcast. So it's make a team, including a coach and who would be, who would be bench, who would be scratched? Switch in, that is also August content. We are not going to do that right now. No.

We're going to do that when there's no, when there's, when there's nothing going on. But we, we appreciate the contribution. Yeah, we will do all of that. That goes, that goes, that goes in the, in the lazy off season content pile. Not the, thank you for it. We're working super hard during the regular season pile. Oh, you guys, I know, I know, I just want, as listeners, I want you to know how hard I've been working these last couple weeks.

It's been really, it's been really tough for me. Olympic prep All-Star game Prep Where are you going to the All-Star game? You should go. Is it too late?

We had this conversation already. I know. I mean like what? I was going to book the Las Vegas trip a month ago, whatever the world was melting yet again.

No thanks. I don't want to take a work trip to Las Vegas during OMACron season. Oh, right. there's a global pandemic. But you get to see the, you can see the fountains

and the hockey game being played. Any, anything that there is to say about the card shooting challenge or the boat ride to the middle of Bellagio fountain I can do from home. And I will. I want to thank Keith Yandel for joining the show this week,

for Sean Gentile for also joining the show. Producer Jeff for setting up the interview to Sack Hill, the Flyers for. Craig. Craig. Yes. Thanks for having me. You're welcome.

Thanks for joining my show, Sean. As a guest on your show. If you want to help us out in a small, easy way, go leave a review wherever it is you listen to podcasts. Also, you can subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content from our entire network like Sean and I doing Mount Rushmore's. It's going to be what we do for every single bonus. For sure.

We'll do the U.S. Mount Rushmore's the next bonus one. Yeah, just do a different Mountain Rushmore's. Go back and listen to it. It was, it was, like, you'll be surprised at who Sean wanted to put on there. The Maryland Basketball Mount Rushmore. Why are we doing that on the athletic hockey show? Oh, read Brendan Quinn's story on Maryland basketball if you have it to your listener. I was unfortunately aware of most of it, but it's a good, it's a good summary of what has gone wrong. Yeah. If you want to join the Athletics, the masses who are subscribing to our wonderful app,

you can go to theathletic.com slash hockey show and get in at a discount. $3.99 a month. I believe that could be outdated. It could be anything, but it's cheaper to go that way. Go to theathletic.com slash hockey show. Take take advantage of the special. And that's that. That's that. Thanks, Sean. Have a great week. Good buddy. Goodbye forever. Hope you don't die now. Oh my God. Yeah. Whatever. Knock on wood. I'm safe. There we go.