The Athletic Hockey Show - Luke Hughes and Team USA refused to come home from Halifax empty handed

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

Luke Hughes, the captain of the 2023 US World Junior Hockey team joins Craig Custance and Sean Gentille to discuss Team USA's bronze medal showing at the tournament in Halifax, what he has learned from University of Michigan head coach Brandon Naurato, his favorite classes to take at U of M, taking advantage of N.I.L. deals for college athletes and how his big brothers Quinn and Jack have helped guide him, as he prepares to make the jump to the NHL with the New Jersey Devils. Plus, Craig and Sean take a look at some of the coaches who could be on the hot seat, and why we haven't seen any coaching changes in the NHL so far this season, as we enter the second week of January.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowPost your job for free at LinkedIn.com/NHLSHOWSign up today at StitchFix.com/HOCKEY to get $20 off your first purchase!Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code NHL23 at Manscaped.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Happy New Year. Oh, I came out hot. Happy New Year, Sean. Happy New Year listener. Happy January 10th on a Tuesday, which means you're getting Sean Gentilly and Craig Custin's on what we like to call. Still, the American Edition.

We don't actually like to call it. Sean, you don't like to call it that. You move done. I'm just really concerned about the direction of our country. And I have a lot of things to say about it. Welcome to politics. talk with the Tuesday boys. Sean, what would you rather us call?

We have to brand it something if it's not the American edition. How about the New York Times hockey show brought to you by the New York Times? The company that owns the athletic? And we're our parent company? Some say that we work for them. We don't. We have a great show. Luke Hughes, American hero.

Member of the, we can't call him the first family of, American hockey, which we know is the Kichucks. The Hughes Hockey Dynasty. The Hughes Hockey Dynasty. We should trademark that. Yeah, there should be, he was the final of the Hughes hockey playing brothers, the brothers Hughes. We've had Quinn on famously, of course, one of the, maybe the best interview.

This hockey podcast has ever done. Everybody loved it. Everybody was really impressed by your work during it in particular. You wore your full 60 hat on that one, brother. Let me tell you. it was it's probably the worst interview ever done like really if we were to and the fact that it was recorded and played for the world i'm embarrassed for it's i don't know that it's the worst interview that you've ever done but it's the worst interview i've ever heard you do

oh it seems like we're splitting hairs no there was i have a worse one when i i was interviewing a player who i thought was another player oh when was that it was now. The year was 2017. I mean, just more to, like my,

you would have, if you were watching it, you would have saw the color drop out of my, like, I just went from, like just white, from white to whiter. And that's definitely like,

if there was video of it, people would be like, is this guy gonna faint? Yeah, I was like unsteady because he knew and I knew and I'm like, how am I going to get out of this when he starts going, oh,

I'm not, it was the same last name situation. I don't, you know, I'm like, okay. Did you just like gradually start like stepping away from his locker and by the end of it, you're like, oh, okay, okay. But we have Luke Hughes, who was great.

Luke Hughes joined us. He joins us for the second segment today coming off a bronze medal. I mean, look, we have high standards here in the USA. We expect to win the world junior championships every year. It's a hard tournament to win, especially when Canada has a generational talent and also the referees on their side. as we know. I always like to say during the World Junior Championship

as a hardcore U.S. hockey fan, bring it home, you know, bring the title home. This is where it belongs. It's where hockey was born. Where hockey was invented, as we know. And where hockey lives. By Ebbner Doubleday.

It's okay. That doesn't mean by Evernor Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York, in 17, Diccany-4. after double day invented something else and I forget what it is. He for sure like, I believe there's a lot, there is certainly a lot of, like, I don't think it's historically accurate to say that Adder Doubleday invented baseball. No, that's, that's a fact. We know that's true that he did not invent baseball.

But like he invented like something, like the light bulb or something, like that he doesn't get credit for it. That is Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison also did not invite. Did he still? Did Thomas Edison steal shit from Abner Doubleday? Like, he stole stuff from Tesla or whatever? Thomas Edison had a thousand people working in his sweatshop and took credit for all of their inventions.

But I think in this case, it was a race. The light bulb, he stole from somebody else and then race to the patent office. I think he was a sheister. He, Abner Doubleday, obtained a patent on the cable car railway. The cable car? There we go. obtained a patent is that is weasily wording there and it makes it seem like maybe he who can say how he obtained it really it could have been that sounds like you got it in a poker

game or something not trying to get sued by the double-day estate here anyways what are we talking about lukews are they active uh lukews is great um we talk about the bronze medal we talk about university of michigan begrudgingly and as soon it was it was over i put into producer jeff request to get to counteracted a Michigan State representative on the athletic hockey show, as we should do. Completely true. Because we live in equal time. And, you know, that's what we should do.

Luke was great. He was awesome. Luke was really good. If I were to rank the Hughes is on this show only, the appearances based on. Ellen, might have been, oh, yeah, yeah, of course. Jim and Ellen were won. The dog. The family dog.

Have you ever, like, you? You covered a lot of world juniors or whatever. A lot of young players, maybe not World Juniors necessarily, but like the development team and stuff. Were there guys who you talked to when they were 17, 18, 19 years old, who you were like, all right, this dude is, I know there were. But like, who were the guys who you talk to when you were like, okay, this is a captain and be like a locker room go-to for media folks.

Because that was the vibe I got from Luke. Yeah. Yeah, you were, I'm trying, I'm really trying to think. So, to your first question, I think the only World Junior Championships I attended in person because when we were at ESPN, the Winter Classic weirdly was a big deal. That just became this automat. So, like, New Year's, I was always at the Winter Classic for like a decade. And which I like, it was like, it was like, it was fun.

There was always a big party on New Year's Eve. I think people just treated that as like a convention. almost, like a mid, like a mid-year hockey convention. Gary, Batman, was April. It was like a bunch of important people were there. As like something to cover and is something that used to get eyeballs and doesn't, that event's like lost its functionality. Like there's not, I, I,

apologies to everybody who continues to cover it. But like that just, it doesn't seem like there's any need to have the hockey world descend on the same place. Like, national voices. Yeah. Yeah, like, it was really funny what happened with that. Like, I would, I think honestly, like the first 10 of them, no, not the first, the second through 11th.

I did not go to the one in Buffalo. And thought, you know, when you're there, it feels like a huge major event. Like, when you're there every year and you go and it's part of the routine, then the second I stopped going, it was so easy to not pay attention to it. Oh, absolutely. That makes sense. Like, I was like, oh, this was a thing that I was rearranging family holidays for. this was the first penguins bruins was the first one that i had to cover like from the couch

yeah it was either in the past it's either been i'm either there or not like it's it was never like we ran the blog and stuff which is which was great but that was the first time i actually had to watch it on tv for work purposes for in forever um and i had that realization too i was like man i did not miss having to pay attention to this for the last over the last over the five years that came before it or whatever. And this is not like trashing the event because when you're there, it's a mean. So that's why, so I defended in that like if it's in your city, go, like go to all the events. Yeah. Do all the winners things and it's, it's a great, like my, I would bring my wife and she loved it and she would, you know, some of our, my best memories covering major

NHL events. We're at the winter classic. The year was here. Neither of us lived in Pittsburgh at that. I mean, I didn't live in Pittsburgh at that point. We had a great time together. I remember when it was in Ann Arbor, when it was at the big house, there was a snowstorm, and I thought I was going to die in my car in Ohio. We all sat in traffic and barely made the drop. The one in Pittsburgh, that's when I, my poor pregnant wife, we made her walk from smoking Joe's back to the Marriott through what university is it, Duquesne? Duquesne.

And up a giant stairway at some point. Up on the bluff, baby. We've told the story. She's a champ. And so she was like, you know what, that's fine that we had to, because it's her fault because she wouldn't get in a random car that pulled up and offered us, give us a right home, which I would have accepted. Cassie did not get in the Jitney cab.

That was, that was the only way to get around Pittsburgh pre-uber. Not my fault. There were no cabs you to get in like bootleg, you know, black market cabs. And we would have been home perfectly safe. And so we just bought a giant pint of ice cream. And I said, I'm sorry. And that was my repentance there. So I let

Ninchie left too. Yeah. And it was, yeah, that was it. The one I did cover, though, in person,

we dropped what we were doing was Connor McDavid's because it was like, here's the best talent to come along since Sid. It was, you know, he was an underage,

he was unbelievable. It was, so like I'm glad I did it. It was great. So that's, wow, I didn't even answer your question. Who is the best talker prospect

you've covered? That was my question. It's hard because there's not, They're not great. Like, these are kids that are, like, that's what makes Luke Hughes good. Like, the fact that he was just so comfortable. Like, these Hugheses are like oozing confidence. Oh, these, no, these huses.

So, like, he's, so, so that's, it's not surprising. But generally, when you're talking to a 17-year-old kid, the, or 18-year-old kid, they're not great. Yeah. And some of them, and some of them never get any better. Yeah. Conner said that. kind of like I think of when I think of like national team players or like Cole

Caulfield was always fun like you just were like oh this kid's got a bunch of like a great energy about them but the reality is you end up relying on the coaches and stuff because they're more comfortable and these these kids are like they don't want to say anything that's going to hurt their draft stock or do anything um that's why like if you remember when philip zadina was drafted i do like he stands out because he was just saying crazy so he's like i'm to fill the nets on Montreal. It was just fun because there was this kid just saying things like whatever was on his mind and I loved it.

It didn't work out. But it was fun. Because we're trying to get some level of self-reflection, I think, from players. Like when you ask these questions and that's tough for a normal person. Certainly tough for an athlete. And it's tough for teenagers or college kids, right? So you have like three huge strikes going against them if you're looking for some kind of thoughtful,

introspective answer because those are, because like I said, it's tough for normal people and demographically, they're from some, there are some of the least introspective people on earth, right?

Because you're an athlete, you're a college kid. I can't imagine how I would answer questions like that when I was 19 or 20. I don't think I, I don't think I was capable of any kind of inward, inward look. And that's what we're looking for sometimes.

Yeah. I mean, Austin Matthews, I remember being good. the kichucks have always been it's i mean that people that are kind of but even those like big names were so even at that age i remember like these kids are prepped and you'll even hear a little bit with luke when we start talking like when we get into a topic you know we ask them about hey you know we made the kl macar comparable and it's like you know jump right in after your college and play and it immediately becomes you know they know they know what they're doing on some they know

those questions that can get them in trouble, whatever. And that's, I mean, that's good. That means CAA or whoever's doing their job. But otherwise, Luke was great. Before we get to Luke, though, Sean, you wrote a piece today. Your favorite topic, as we know. Coaches hot seats. Now, there's the irony of this story is there probably isn't a single coach on a hot seat

as we stand on January 10th. Really? So this is a coach warm seat piece? I think it's like I tried to turn. So for the record, this is the first installation of something we're going to be doing every Tuesday on the site now. Like a list-based post, I'm not going to be involved with that many of the needs. There's going to be a whole bunch of people that pitch and write. The thought and the way it's going to work is that all these things are going to be well executed and reported.

But the first one, again, because of the point in the season we're at and because of the way things have gone was, you know, coaches hot C. Which is a horrible thing that it's a horrible thing to do. Like I, like, it's a necessary thing. There's value in it.

But on, at personally, I hate it. I hate it to. Speculating over guy, over people losing their jobs. Um, just generally. But let's talk about it.

I hate it. You hate it. But let's do this. Let's do a temperature check. It's part of the deal though. It's part of the deal. It's part of, it's part of their job and it's part of our job.

And it's just a weird. I try to wrap this up and sort of in the way I approached, you know, writing this without making it sound like I did something that wasn't, you know, a numbered, numbered list because that's what it turns into. Right. But the question really, I think, is why hasn't a coach been fired yet? Because that's a good question. Right?

Because, look, last year, seven coaches were fired midseason. Five were fired by this date. 2021, you know, weird because it was a 56 game schedule, but there were still three guys fired midseason. 1920, eight midseason six by today. 18, 19, seven midseason five by today. And then 2017, 18 was just a bizarre year where nobody lost their jobs, you know, midstream. So it doesn't happen.

But the question then turns into, or the way I tried to at least approach this with all these guys is, why hasn't anybody lost their jobs yet? And why haven't these specific 12 or 14 guys lost theirs? Because it is. We've been close. And we've kind of talked about it on the podcast. And there's stuff, you know, this stuff is very fluid. And there's stuff you can report and stuff you can't.

But there were guys, multiple guys that were close. Like when today or maybe they're gone. That's true. But it hasn't happened for one reason or another. and it's worth looking at that group of guys and saying like how how and why and is this going to hold up and I think that's sort of what the approach turned into. So the one thing you and I were talking about this yesterday, but you know, you had a category called Don't even bother bringing it up.

And you had Mike Sullivan there. I was surprised Josh Yoey wrote a good column just saying, hey, Ron Hextall needs to make a trade. I think Josh has been, uh, was spoiled by Jim Rutherford. Jim Rutherford would have made seven trades by now. We all were spoiled by Jim Rutherford. Yes. I was, I was, I was writing for the Pittsburgh site exclusively back then. That's right. It was great. You knew that. He was either going to say something, either going to say something or do something once every couple weeks that you could just, you know, dine on for a, for a bit there. So Josh, right, say, do something. And then the.

comments is we're heavy like why do we protect Mike Sullivan basically like why who I think is a if he got fired would get hired tomorrow like I think is a maybe a top three coach in the league if Mike Sullivan got fired someone would hot as someone would fire their guy to fire him within yes within before the sunset yeah this would be a Bruce Bruegerer of that situation where he got fired by the capitals and you know whoever it was the ducks calling in the morning 7 a.m. So why do we think, is it just the fans that have had enough? Like, why is there this disconnect between our position where it's like,

Mike Sullivan isn't the problem? Or maybe you think he is and he just won't get fired because he's going to be checking contract. No, I hope that was clear. I don't, I don't. Maybe not in the tank for Sullivan, but I don't think, I don't think that's any kind of solution for this team right now. I think part of it is where we are in the calendar with Sullivan.

Part of it is how they looked for the last couple weeks. Yeah. And we're also coming off a particularly bad game against Vegas where they had a day off. They had a practice day in Las Vegas. And they came out and sucked in practice. Like, by all accounts, like dead on their feet. He yelled at them, you know. Vegas flew.

Who knows why. But they had a night off in Vegas. and then the day after at their skate, they look like shit. And he told them as much. And then the day after, against Vegas, first period, they came out and looked, it was one of the worst periods they played all season. Like, like, it was just, it was a bad night. So you have that.

Those kind of performances, I think, are fresh in people's minds. And the main reason I included Sullivan in this list is because of where I live, is because of the people I talk to, is because of people I am friends with, is because of people I am related to who are like they need to fire Sullivan and I'm like we need to we need to cut that we need to cut the shit here.

The Gentiles have had enough. I could I could I'll name my I'll call my uncles out right now for saying it for saying it uh at Christmas that the dude needed to go. And it's not going to happen for a bunch of reasons. But I but the impulses like I said it's based on on how bad they've been because they've been not good for really 10, 12, 14 days.

now. Yeah. And it's because of the fact that it is almost impossible to see how that team improves itself over the next couple months in terms of the player mix. They have no money. They have basically no tradable assets. Everybody on that team is either someone who you shouldn't move or cannot move, which is a bad place to be in if you're trying to get better, right? You're going to do trade Chris LaTang. You're going to trade of Gany Malkin or Jake Ansel or whatever? No. but at the same time, like, the bottom of the roster doesn't have much, doesn't have much in the way of value either.

So people are just like, what do we do? How does this team get better? In the logical kind of connection to draw there is like the coach. That's the, that's the button to push. And that's the button that, you know, people, maybe not understandably, but, you know, either way, they're calling for. And it's silly.

Because Sullivan's a great coach. They're not going to do any better midseason, that's for sure. And most of all, and this is true for a lot of coaches on this list, he makes a lot of money for a long time. You don't want to pay Mike Sullivan, great coach, top shelf coach, $5 million to stay away from your hockey team until 2027, which is what they'd have to do. Well, what they'd end up doing is helping some rival who would hire him tomorrow for a nickel or whatever the least amount you can pay him and have the penguins pick up the phrase. Yeah, how about this? Peter Lovillette's contract runs out in Washington, and then the caps hire Mike Sullivan in the offseason. Great. Way to go. How do you feel about that? Good job. So to cut to the chase, because I want to get to Luke here, I would say of everybody in your list, maybe Dallas Higgins would be the guy you're like, okay, like it's all the ingredients. The GM didn't hire them. The team isn't what we thought. they were going to be, like, we, we thought the ducks might be fun and good.

But if you're the ducks at this point, you're not, like, what's the end game? Yeah. Yeah. Why do you want to pay two coaches? Especially when you're halfway through the season. Like, I think the question that Rebeak is certainly asking and will continue to ask is if there's damage being done to the young players. And I think that's, you know.

Ah, right. To me, that's the question. That's the big variable there. if Pat Verbeek is watching Trevor Ziegress in Mason McTavish and Jamie Drysdale and Troy's Harry

and like these guys who they have at the top of their lineup who should be dudes for them moving forward right? Obviously. Yeah.

If you're looking at them and seeing regression or bad habits or bad body language or bad attitudes or whatever, any reason to think that like

the way this team is being run in the way it's being coached is starting to wear on them, I think that's when you're like okay, uh, thanks for four years here. We're going to go in another direction for the next few months because there's some level of damage being done.

I don't know that that's where they are, you know, but you look at the stats and they're horrific. They're at the bottom of everything. And it's in Zegers hasn't made the leap. Terry, good as he was last season, has regressed. Jamie Drysdale, you know, isn't having the season that some people predicted from him. And Mason McTavish is the one who it seems like maybe Aiken's has figured something out with him over the last couple weeks.

Eric Stevens wrote a really good piece on it. Yeah. If you want to see like the status of Mason McTavish, who seems like he's getting back into the Colorado race and whatever. So a little bit of a mixed bag in Anaheim, but I think that's something that, you know, the priority there is to develop those young guys. And if they get to a point where,

I feel like damage is being done, I can easily, easily see them making a change. Yeah. I think the other variable you always have to consider is who's out there, like we talked about. If Mike Sullivan's out there, all of a sudden you're making a change. Barry Trots obviously is the big, you know, this would be the person you call immediately if you're trying to win us down the cup. I think Barry has already said, you know, this year in various interviews, people have reached out. I probably don't want to coach this year. So if he was, I mean, like, so there's not, there's not the coach in waiting that sometimes

even turns up to eat even more, really, unless Barry is. And you don't think Barry Trots hasn't, doesn't have one or two or three teams at the very top of his list that he knows for certain are going to come in with an offer on, you know, April 29th or whatever. No. Like, if you're the ducks, you can't just, you can't just fire Dallas Aikins because you're like, oh, we're going to hire Barry Trots. It's like, bad news.

Bad news. going to Anaheim. Yeah. And Barry's even talked about, we should get him on because I'd be, but Barry, Barry's talked about maybe he wants to get into management. Like what, like, what if Nashville decides, hey, we want to do something just different and we love Barry, like, he loves it there. Like, it was always this great relationship.

Maybe they're like, you can have a say in personnel and you can do, I don't know, I think Barry's going to have his options. So I just think that's part of it too. Like, why haven't we seen a change? Well, maybe there's not the obvious pool of candidates that you're, hasn't and there hasn't been in there hasn't been the situation where it's like things have gotten bad enough across the board and all these different things you need to consider right where it's like how good is this what is this coach's level just generally how

good is this track record how good is the talent level on the team um what is this contract like whatever there's a million different variables that come in a play there um but one of them is in I don't think any of them have coalesced to the point where it's like, uh, we, anybody, whoever top assistant, AHL guy, we don't even like them like,

just like come on and, and coach for, like, we're not there yet with, with, with, with any of these teams. And that hasn't been the case before.

Like there's been, we've seen stuff happen in the last few years where it's soured enough in, in the time has been right where it's like, you know what, we're going to bring in, it's like a guy who, you know, maybe keeps the job, maybe doesn't, but we just, we need to change.

And that's what's most important. Not necessarily even who we, who we replace them with. And we're not there. We're not there with any of these guys just yet. All right. Well, good piece. You can go to-

Is that enough? Have we talked about coaching hotseats enough? slash forward slash Sean Gentilly. That's right. Backslash. H-TTP. NPRC. Coming up next, we got at new york times.com.

It's a parent company. That's not how you work for, Sean. Luke Hughes joins us. Luke, kind enough to delay his sushi to talk. We expand a lot of things. Even history. We got into some history of sports and what he's studying at Michigan. College is such a fun time.

Does Luke? Does Luke? Does Luke like school? You wait and find out. If he tipped his hand about anything, that's where he tips his hand. Congratulations, New Jersey. Welcome back. We are thrilled to be joined by University of Michigan defensemen. New Jersey Devils draft pick, brother of a couple good players. Luke Hughes. Luke, coming off a busy time. Luke, how are you? Thanks for doing this. Thank you for having me. Oh, it's our pleasure. Where do we even start? Let's just get this out of the way because it's probably been bugging me a while. Can we define goalie interference? Do you know it any better than us, Luke? Can you talk about this? Is it too soon? Yeah, I mean, I don't really know.

I think, you know, I think the refs made the call, and, you know, it is what it is. I think personally, I thought the first one should have been a goal. And the second one probably, probably shouldn't have been. But it is what it is. And, you know, the refs made the call. It's a hard job. And, you know, it is what it is. Oh, man.

That's really, that's really diplomatic answer. Very diplomatic. That's not what I was saying from the couch whenever I watch it for the record. Did we all see Ryan Whitney's reaction? I thought. Yeah. That's what I was hoping to get out of you, Lou. He wasn't psyched.

Yeah, we're trying to get a, we're trying to get a wit answer out of it. It didn't happen. That's okay. Yeah. Sorry. So, coming off the Browns, there was a moment, apparently there was a hot mic in that Sweden game where you got picked up at one point saying, we're not going to lose this game. When you're in that moment in that zone and you kind of just know, it's just kind of

fiving. What does that feel like? What was that moment like for you if you saw it or remember it? Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, obviously we're really disappointed with not winning that game against Canada and, you know, not having a chance to win a gold medal. But, you know, once you lose that game, it's how am I going to medal for USA hockey and how am I going to medal for the guys that have spent, you know, a month, month and change away from our family. So, you know, I think going to the game, you know, it's obviously a really hard game to plan. but, you know, we had a tough job playing a pretty good Sweden team. So, you know, I think I think that was everyone's, everyone's mindset.

It was we're not going home empty-handed and we're winning this. When's that process start? Is it like in the, is it in the locker room after the loss where you're like, all right, on the next one? Did you give yourself a night to marinate on it and shower it off or what? I think we, I mean, we had a team meeting with, you know, our coaches and stuff after, in our meal room, you know, after we got back to the hotel. And, you know, I think that was the mindset right from that.

So, you know, obviously we were really disappointed, but, you know, you can't do anything about it after. So you just got to get back to it. I feel like, I mean, we've seen throughout the course of history with the Americans, we've seen the team USA not respond that way. And we've seen them respond that way. Like I was in Sweden, wherever the UA teams when Jack was playing, and they just, they just blew Canada out of the water. And like that to me, that shows me a lot about, do you get up to play that bronze medal game?

Do you do it for the people, like the work staff or your teammates? Like, I think that says so much. Yeah, yeah. I mean, of course, I think, you know, these, you know, our coaching staff or training staff, you know, everyone's, you know, spending time away from their family over the holidays. You know, it's a tough task. And, you know, they're doing that for the country and for USA. hockey, I think, you know, meddling is huge for USA hockey against meddling. It's huge. So, you know, obviously we wanted the gold, but it is with this. So let's talk a little bit about

University of Michigan. You're back there. First of all, I saw you, you said in an interview that you were taking a Greek sports history class and you kind of were digging that. Like, we're the biggest nerds around. So I wanted you to expand on that. What is it about that stuff that you found interesting. Were you just answering your question and you felt like you just wanted to give a good answer? No, I think, well, I liked our GSI in that class. He was a good guy and, I don't know.

I think, I mean, we're learning about like history and like, you know, Roman generals and, you know, Julius Caesar and stuff like that. So I think that was kind of cool. I'm a little if like, I don't, I mean, to be honest, I love school, but, you know, I think I do enjoy like the history. I didn't, I didn't either. It's okay. Yeah, I think, you know, I had a great time. I don't know. I like, enjoy, like, learning about history and stuff. Although that's one of the things, like, one of the, one of the subjects I do like. Yeah. Is that, like, the only, is that the only kind of, uh, niche history class you've been able to take? Because I know, like, as you get, like, a little bit further along, you can take those, like, yeah, I mean, kind of, uh, granular, you know, really, really specific things. Are there, there other history classes? Did you been able to bang out like that? Uh, yeah, I mean, I took history of college, I thought. I thought, my freshman year and loved it. It was awesome.

Just learning about, I mean, everything, like Title IX, Nile stuff. It was a cool class. So I enjoyed that one. It's also helpful. You learn about NIL stuff in class. Way to go. You're two birds once done.

Oh, yeah. Stuff will actually use life, you know? How much is it with the hockey space? Yeah. How much that have you used? Do you have, like, three side deals? with like Instagram accounts where you're getting paid in the AL deals? How much is that in the hockey space?

Because I deal with that a lot in college football space with some of that recording. I mean, I did the American Eagle one, which was great, you know, with Zia. Yeah. She was a track star. So, you know, that one was pretty cool. And then I got fanatics and power.

That's awesome. I mean, that makes a big difference, right? Like, I'm so happy that these college athletes, I mean, you deserve to be able to make a little money off of. your work, right? Well, I think, yeah, I mean, American Eagle was the big one, but yeah, I mean, it's good to just

have a little pocket change, go out to eat, you know, like, you know, the athletes can't, we can't afford, or like, we can't have jobs, you know, we're busy, right, right. And then with our sports, you know, from, from, in the afternoon. So I think, you know, to have a little change to go out to meals and stuff is great.

Does anybody in the team have, like, a local restaurant hookup, like, does someone have a deal where you guys, where you guys can go in, like, you know, slam food or anything? No, I don't think so. I'm trying to think. Someone's got to get on that. Because I'm in, I'm in Pittsburgh, and there are a couple pit football players that deals with, like, with, like, local restaurants, and they were just going and, like, shut down the place. Yeah. So, I don't know which time you guys have left, but make it happen. Yeah. Hunter Dickinson's got a, uh, a deal with, I think, the jagged forework. Yeah. And I go there for breakfast all the time. And they, I just walk in there and nobody knows who I am.

It's kind of nice, but. I like, yeah, would you trade it for free food? Probably. I go there a lot. You listen in Jagged Fork? Let's go. Yeah, but I don't know. It's good.

We go to the straight handle a lot and, you know, they treat us pretty well too. I want to talk about Brandon Erat a little bit and you're, you know, playing for him this year. I've gotten to know him through the year. and just how he loves kind of the minutia of skill, right? Yeah. And improving it. What have you learned from him this year because of that focus? Yeah, I think, you know, I've loved playing for NAR and, you know, all three of our coaches,

you know, I think they've been great. And, you know, I think we've grown as a team a lot. And, you know, playing for NAR has been great. I think it emphasizes using skill and, you know, using hard scale, not the fluffy stuff, but, you know, using hard scales and stuff you'll actually use in a game. developing that side. So I think, you know, he's great. He's got a, he's got a canon of a shot to himself.

But, you know, just learning, you know, little tips if he's got, like, you know, something with my shot or anything like that or stuff. But he's been great. And, you know, I've loved playing for him so far. Yeah. Is there other stuff you feel like you've added to your game, like added to the toolkit over the last year, like, as a sophomore, other than the skill stuff from, from Brandon? Like, how do you feel like you're a,

better player maybe come out of this year than last? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I think I've grown a lot, you know, as a person and as a player over the last two years at Michigan. You know, I think one area, I think, you know, I've grown a lot in it as my leading, my leadership. You know, I think I, you know, people saw that with, you know, me being the captain at world juniors, but, you know, I think I've grown as a leader and as a person. And I don't know, I try to try to work on every aspect of my game.

I don't think there's one crazy thing that I've gone better at. I think, you know, focus on my defensive game, closing out plays, you know, squeezing. And then obviously my offensive game, you know, try to, you know, do whatever I can to score goals, whatever. When that's your meal ticket, I mean, you're an offensive defenseman and Quinn's an offense. Like, that's your guys' DNA. How do you balance? I'm sure you hear people saying he's got to get better defensively or whatever that is, right? How do you balance that without losing what makes you a great player?

You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, I think first of all, I think this is something my dad always told us. It was your defenseman first. So you defend first. You know, I think that's, you know, your one job as a defenseman to defend. And, you know, then you can do whatever you want offensively and try new things. and throw whatever doesn't work out the door and keep what does work. So I think I've done pretty good at that over the last two, three years.

Yeah, I mean, I think I, like I said, I try to grow in every aspect of my game. Are there things that you took from Quinn's game specifically, like growing up? I know obviously your dad's, your dad's coaching you guys and coaching you up, but how important was it to have him as a role model or just or to someone who's, you know, going ahead of you in the process, you know, seeing with the maturation process and turning into, you know, a tier one player like that is. Yeah, I mean, it was huge.

I think, you know, Quinny and Jack are, you know, my biggest role models in life. And, you know, they brought me into the sport and, you know, taught me out to love it. And, you know, I owe everything to those guys. And, you know, watching Quinn grow up and watching Matt Michigan. And then now on the NHL, you know, it was huge for me as a player. You know, I think, I mean, I train with those guys in the summer.

And, you know, I mean, I've learned so much from from Quinny and Jack. So, you know, I think, I don't know. I mean, he's taught me so much, whether it's, you know, pinching on the blue line and walking the line and little stuff and stuff. Do you feel like it, do you feel like you get more from him as you get older? Like if you catch him on TV or whatever, like are you, how's your relationship to his game and watching him play a change now? versus when you were, you know, 10?

Yeah, I think now, or, yeah, I mean, it's different. I would say now than two years from now. You know, I would watch what he would do offensively a ton and, you know, try to mimic that to my game and, you know, how deceptive he is, how good he is offensively. And, you know, even in the neutral zone, how fast he moves the puck, how precise he is, an alert. And then I think now,

I mean, I always watch this, but now I think I've, you know, been studying him as a defender. I think, you know, he's a really, really good defender. He's solar in the D zone. And, you know, I just watched that facet, too. Like I talked to him over the summer just about, especially when I kind of realized that he was maybe playing, playing on his offhand a little bit more. And I just had to talk with him about, you know, what that means as a, you know, as a guy can, as a guy in his position and trying to make that adjustment, you know.

And it was a great talk just having him kind of explain that, you know, kind of in detail. So is that the sort of thing you're talking about? Like, because he's grown as a defensive, as a defenseman, like as a defensive presence over the last, over the last couple years, like, very, very clearly. And I feel like that's part of it. Yeah, I think, you know, I learned whatever I can, you know, obviously playing with him in the summer. You know, we, you know, my dad designs drills, you know, whether it's rims on the on the right side on the left side and picking up pocket. and walking the line, making your move, and hammering it. So I think, you know, learn that together and, you know, learn from him,

skate with him and Zach Bernski and a whole ton of forward crew, but, you know, it's kind of 3D out there. So, you know, it's great to learn from those two guys. And like I said earlier, like, yeah, I mean, he's a great defenseman. You see how he's a good he is with his stick in the D zone and, you know, how he defends the rush and, you know, he's a really good defender too. If you could take one skill or attribute from Jack and Quinn, what would they be? I mean, I think we all kind of have the similar traits.

I think, you know, the biggest thing is our drive, you know, how we want to win everything. And, you know, we don't really, we don't like losing. So we hate to lose. And, you know, I think with Jack, you know, driving every play and trying to score every shift. So, you know, he's got that mindset. And then with Quinn, like me and him are probably more sense. somewhere and that sense where we, you know, defend first and then, you know, try to be gamers.

Yeah. Well, I feel guilty like we're holding you up for sushi. Oh, you're good. No, no. So I appreciate you doing this, Luke. Yeah. And, you know, great performance in the world junior. And, you know, I don't know what plans go beyond this.

I know Devils fans are watching everything pretty closely. And there's been, there's a long history of people going from college and making an impact right away. I even think of it. I mean, look. something like Kail McCar's like a lot of that's like the high end but do you look at what guys have done and just say imagine yourself do you allow yourself to imagine that? I mean to a certain degree but at the same time you know I'm focused on Meshkin and I'm focused on winning as many games as possible and you know we got a great team here and you know I think you know we kind of have to go on around here so um you know I'm really focused on right now every day getting better every day and making my teammates better and then you know trying to win as many games as I can on the weekends. So I'm focused on that and the rest will come after the year or whatever.

Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks for doing this, Luke. No, last question before you go. What's the what's the what's the sushi roll of choice? Like, what do you get? Yeah. That's all I want to talk about.

I'm a big seafood guy, so I got a lobster roll waiting and me. Nice. Yeah. Nice. Love it. Go get that NAL deal done too while you're there. I know. All right, guys.

Thank you. A good one. All right, man. Thank you. Well, Sean, that does it. The final member of the Hughes family. I don't think that's true. On this podcast.

There's got to be uncles and grandparents. I mean, we'll, I think it's time to branch out the family tree. Luke was great. Luke's going to be a good one. I'm excited. It's, it's, it's, I'm happy that he will be in the league by. I'm just surprised you didn't get him to declare that he's leaving the University of Michigan at the conclusion of the season to join the devils.

No. I was, we weren't going to try to trap him into an answer, especially, you know, I know that's something that's what you're trying to do. No, that was him. I knew he was, he knows what to say in that situation. Of course he does. We're not going to get Luke. We're not going to corner Luke into making some declaration.

He'll be in New Jersey, though. He's too good. We saw the quote. We saw the quote from Brandon. What did he say? I think Brandon Nerato's quote, I think it was NJ.com. I want to give a credit. don't remember exactly was I would bet the mortgage that he'll be playing in New Jersey

the season. We're not out of pocket here. This is the kid's current coach. Like, come on. Brandon, we'll put him on the list too. But then we've got to get another Michigan state person. All right. There are other states, you know.

I don't know if you're aware of this. Not on my podcast. What do I? Welcome. Welcome to the Michigan to Michigan. There's plenty of days. A little week, we can do other... Look, I gotta be interested in the topic.

That's the rule. Yeah, and sometimes you're not. And it shows apparently, I can't believe low energy. I'm still, like, hurt over the low energy comments. It's because of the poker tournament, dude. We know. It was the poker tournament, not a lack of interest. This is the only good segment on the show.

No, it's not the only good segment. We have to go to break first, Sean. We got to get out? Yeah, we got to get out. Coming up next, the only good segment. It's going to be a great one because Sean and I are, we're feeling that today. We'll be right back.

All right, now you can bring it back, Sean. This is the only good segment on the show. That's when we go into the comments section. You guys are back with a vengeance this week after, I think it's fair to say, pre-holiday, low energy from everybody, but most of all, low-energy cousins over there. That's what I call them. Do you?

Low energy, Craig Custin's, sad. People are saying it, and they're saying it very strongly, the energy level at the Cussons household is low and falling. Well, I just try to be consistent. And if you're high energy, it's hard to be consistent. You got to save something. I have like 10 more Zooms today. Like I said, the important thing is just be emotionally volatile.

So you talk to, never know what version they're getting. In my opinion, I think that's, I think that's the way to go. Just keep people on their toes. Keep them honest, that's what I say. Gen F starting out. Craig, you mentioned Goodreads. I made funny for it last week because you said, you said you're putting something on your Goodreads page.

I don't remember. I don't even see this comment. Where are you in the, you're starting at the bottom? No, it's the top. DeMarne Hamlin injury and the impact on the... Okay. Learned to read.

Mine's sorted differently. But go ahead. Idiot. Oh, it's the newest. That, you know, mine is sorted by newest. Wow. Fancy. I'll flip it back. Yeah. I'm really good at computers. I don't know if you know that.

Craig mentioned goodreads, Jen says. I was just on there a few days ago updating my challenge when I saw that Craig posted that he's finished the Great Alone. Craig, will you friend me back? Friend back, Jen F. Okay. I will say Jen F. I did even without seeing this comment. So you are now one of my 11 friends in good reads, Jen F. That's six more friends than you have in real life. Here's what, here's what I'm going to make this. declaration. Oh, Sean, I'm going to ignore that like childish. Wow. No soul. That's really funny, dude. Would you say six more? That is true, by the way. I have three friends. I can count them on three fingers. How many friends I have. And I met him in elementary school. It's if we're not counting immediate family members. It's two people I met in elementary school and then one other dude. And now Jen F. Here's what I will say. If you want to, I am actively trying to challenge myself this

year. I said I'm reading 75 books on the Goodreads app where you declare, on January, you declare I'm reading 75 books this year. That's an ambitious goal. Gen F, you're in charge of keeping me accountable. If you're a doric like me and you like to read and share book recommendations, let's be friends on Goodreads. This is, this episode is brought to you. Welcome to Goodreads Corner with Craig and Jen F. And that book, although which I was made fun of, because apparently, I was at my sister's in-law's place and it was on the shelf and she said read it. It was amazing. What do we call it The Great Alone?

Really good book. Okay. I'm not going to read that. I gave it five stars. I'm an easy mark though because I'm not driving down anybody's. That's pure constance, man. He's just like, well, someone put a lot of time into this book. I didn't really like it enough for me.

I'm going to trash it on good reads. Not me, not this guy. if I give somebody, here's, here's my good reads tip, folks, if I give them three stars, that meant it was not a good read. I'm not going to letterboxed, the movie review site. It's really tough for me to give something less than three stars out of five. Like, that means that means I really didn't like it. I'm glad people enjoyed what we said about DeMar Hamlin.

I think we opened up, we open up the show with a discussion of, you know, this was the morning after Tamar Hamlin's injury. in Cincinnati, I'm sure everybody knows this, but he's doing much, much better. He's back in Buffalo. He's, you know, made a pretty remarkable recovery in eight days and counting here. But no, that was a scary, it was a scary and a sad morning. So I appreciate that everybody seemed to appreciate what we had to say because God knows we we didn't want to come in there and talk about.

It was the winter class, like we were like, we were going to supposed to talk trade board and winter classic. And that was all that was on our minds. And I appreciate, Adam P. called said, you know, he wasn't expecting that on a hockey podcast and thanked us for, it was. And you know what ended up? Like, a lot of people listened to it. It might have been.

And I think a lot of people were feeling the way it doesn't, you don't have to be an NFL fan to, like, care about people. That's what I always say. No, not at all. And it does. And then the story, it's one of those things. It happens more often with the NFL because of just the amount of cultural purchase that, that league has. but that became that wasn't a football story that wasn't a sports story that wasn't a news story even that was just something that hit in every quadrant in every possible way right it was that really

did feel for a day or two and i'm glad that the outcome was positive because it just felt like one of those things that everybody was talking about culturally yeah like across the country for a couple days there. So, yeah, it would have been myopic and very weird. If we would have gone on there and been like, hey, where's Ryan O'Reilly going to end up? Alves are looking for another center still. So thanks for appreciating it.

Thanks for the support because I can imagine it going the other way. And then we would have been pissed. We just wouldn't have read it. Michael S. says, please give Shana a podcast. She should do a podcast. on another network on another network. Michael has.

Yeah. If you like her so much. Shana, this is a good time to plug too many men. She does a great job with Allison and Sivy. But she's as good a guest. She's so great because you can just throw anything at her and she's got thoughts. She's so informed and smart.

Shana should be a regular this podcast on our day of the week. She's got the invitation. The ball, the ball is in her record. She's got better. You think she doesn't have better shit to do than sit here and talk to us about God knows what. She works as hard as anybody, certainly harder than me. I'm not even going to say anything.

See, I don't take the cheap shots like you do about friends. Do we want to talk about Federoff? You have made a point to say that we're not friends as a joke in the past. And it hurts me. So you and I are friends. I'm one of your five friends. We're not friends. We're not friends with colleagues.

We got some, we have some rangers questions. could be to talk about Lafranier. That situation doesn't seem like it's resolved itself. But Scott W. says, you know, with regards to Lafranier, why can't Criter or Panarin, you know, move to the right and let Lafranier play more on the left wing? It's because it's Criter and Panarin. That's just the way it works sometimes. Yeah.

You're not going to overturn the Apple cart for guys like that when they've been a successful as they have been. But that's it. I mean, it came up. I know we're going back to the coaching thing. Like, Gallant was an interesting case a couple months ago and then stuff started working and just Thurkin kind of looks more like himself. And now all of a sudden they're, you know, back in playoff position, even though the Lafranier thing is still far from resolved. I don't know what the answer is there, honestly. I don't know if there is one. Like the mix there just doesn't seem like it's right. And he is a player who, especially last year,

just really felt like he'd have benefited from time in the HL, right? And even as a rookie. And that is a hot topic now because of Shane Wright, who is, shout out to Scott Wheeler, by the way, for breaking yesterday before anybody else that he'd been traded from, from the, he got traded,

Kingston to Windsor, I think, is where he ended up. That's a topic of conversation. These are Canadian cities of some important. It doesn't matter. It sounds like a cigarette. It is. Kingston. Windsor sounds like a...

When you tie a tie. Kingston recommended by the cigarette recommended by eight out of ten dentists. Sorry, go ahead. Are you still talking to Rangers talk? The point is, is the whole developmental question over guys who are high picks and what happens in 18, 19, 20. That's still a discussion,

and because it's Shane, right, it's still in the news. And Haley Salivian has a piece that's going to drop this. By the time this gets published, it's going to be up, kind of looking at Shane Wright, and she talked to people about what's the best place for him,

like how would he fare in the, in the HAL, how is it going to work in the OHL? And what's next for this situation where you do have players who are tweeners like him you know who maybe would benefit from playing in the HL they get screwed over by the transfer agreement. So it's like a look at that situation overall

and a look at how it applies to Shane Wright specifically. It's been a problem for, I mean... 100%. It's a small kind of group of people, but an important group of people that it impacts, right? Like these are the people that you're drafting really high. And it's an issue. And Haley talked to Bill Daley about it.

And she talked to some scouts and she talked to some folks just to get like a barometer on whether it's Shane Wright or the next version of Shane Wright, like what happens, you know, because there should be some kind of exemption where you can drop those guys down one player per team or one first round pick per team or something where you don't have to send them between, you know,

the NHL and juniors. But it's a mess and it's an interesting topic and it's not going away anytime soon. And again, there's going to be a pretty detailed lookup about it on the site here by the time you listen this. Kevin T. writes,

what percentage of your listeners knew that Shana was being sarcastic when she said she only watches the graphs and not the games? I'm going to, I think our listeners are smart. Our listeners for sure. Our listeners got it. You get Shana. Shana was,

I think. You know who wouldn't get that? If she made that joke and if she made that joke in a post. On Twitter or something? Where? In a post. Oh. Commenters would not.

There'd be a lot of. commenters who wouldn't get it. It would fly right. Yeah. But I would say our listeners, we self-select our listeners. 100%. We're all very smart. Because we make it super hard.

Smart. Very good. And attractive. 100%. J.C. Shout out to J.C. Because I, you know, whatever. I appreciate him.

We were talking about the Federov thing. Oh, yeah. Sean, I went back and reread the Fedorov article, which was our NHL 99 post on Federov, where I wrote about the cultural impact that he had in the mid-Dept. 90s vis-a-vis the white Nike skates. Jay says I went back. Yeah. Thank you. Jay says he went back and reread it after hearing the rationale and it didn't get better. I appreciate the attempt, but it seems like it should be more like an aside or evidence of his cloud. It shouldn't have been the media of the article. Jay, I appreciate your opinion and I disagree. Like that's the way it

goes on all these. I obviously think it should have been the meat of the article because it was the me to the article. It's a choice I made. And I do it again. I do it again. Go read it everybody if you haven't. First of all, it did, it performed. It sure did. People. Hey. I said that. I said that in a comment. I said that in a comment in the comments too and got like kind of accused of being an outrage merchant, which is what wasn't true. That's not what I was trying to do. Can I just pause for a second? That's, that's, that's the thing about all of this is Sean was so blindsided. Like, since like if anyone who's accusing him of doing it

because it would make people upset are wrong. Like Sean was like, we, I remember talking about you're like, oh, this is a cool angle. It's fun. I'm like, oh, those skates are great. I love it. And then he writes it and I'm like, oh, great job. And then it was like, everyone's mad. It hurt. The response to it hurt my feelings in a way that I did not think they could be hurt after, after years in this business. I was like, man, these people are crushing me for it. I was not ready for it. I, okay, so it's January 10th, that thing came out, you know, two weeks ago. I've been like two weeks, 12 days.

Five or six times I've called you at night crying and unable to sleep. Yeah. Ruin my life. By the way, can you stop doing that? I mean, that's not my job. We'll see. Do a better job of making me feel better. It's on you.

Dallas Stars can't get any love on the pod, says Ardell. Could bring Saad Yusuf on for a sod cast segment. Yeah, I like that idea, actually. We had, we're gonna, whether it's me and you or me and Haley, we're definitely gonna have Saad on soon. And all I will say is this about the Dallas Stars, because I had people, all, I had multiple people just being like,

you should get someone from the team on. We are trying. We love, we love the Stars. Did we do something like to offend the Stars or Joe Pavelsky? I don't know how far in. Did you want to actually? Do you want to actually say this? We were supposed to have Pavelsky on last week.

And they said, and they said, no. No, did we actually? I think in the closing of like last week's episodes, like coming up next week, Joe Pavalski. We both, the three of us, me, Craig, producer Jeff, the three of us were ready for it to happen and it didn't. So we are not. Just tell us if we said something or I don't know. I think Joe just might personally dislike you. We spent a lot of time with him over the years.

That's, I mean, that's entirely possible. Joe can be salty. I always thought we got along great, but I will take the bullet here. Maybe he doesn't. Maybe he's like, we're going to have more stars content in one way or another, even if it's just sod, because sod came on. I had never. Well, sod come on.

Maybe he won't. Maybe he'll be like, you want me to get on the bad side of Joe Pavel? It's coming from the top where I'm not supposed to. I'm going to hear. hurt my relationship to be on your dumb little Tuesday show? I love Sod. He's a great, he's a great dude. He's a great hang. I had not talked. He had not been on a podcast with me until I think was me and Haley a month or two ago. And he's unbelievable. Saad does radio like every day in Dallas. Oh yeah, he's a pro. He's like every, the stuff that makes Sod great to talk to comes through on

podcast like 100%. He's like, he's just a great conversationalist and whatever. So, yeah, whether it's Joe or someone else, even if it's just sod, there will be more star stuff coming. Sorry. Madass writes, Betman tried a Jedi mind trick the entire

NHL fan base into thinking they love the ads. This is Gary. So good. It's what he does. I, as we know, I switch sides on this one. I'm on Gary's side on this one. this is like after he said the right thing in that how long has it been 15 years how long have you been doing this me 18 18 years finally worked gosh 15 years how long you've been covering hockey

I started covering the thrashers in 2007 or 2008 roughly that that okay 15 years that's how long it took gary betman to bro into your brain and bring you over to his side all I'm saying Sean is he said, I'm not saying he's right that these ads are a great thing for viewers or fans. They might be though. I'm keeping an open mind here. Maybe I do love them. Maybe I do. All I'm saying is he said the right thing if you're the commissioner of the NHL and you're trying to sell these sponsorships to Enterprise. I guess.

I mean, that's it. Michael Kaye, who doesn't like that I'm a Spartan and that I bring it up and wants Max and Shana to do the show and said, I mean, it's fine, Michael K. I hope you enjoyed the Luke Hughes interview. That's all. Yeah, that was, that was all for Michael K. That was for you. That was for you. We'll close with this from William S. I think this is, this is just funny. Unrelated to anything discussed, but we're all interns in the comments section. Hashtack 3Zs. Comments. Bad take and coming. He says, am I the only person that doesn't give you shit about records from the 80s and earlier? I could not care less that Mickey Flittle Bob's had a hundred seven

assists in 1927 or that Tommy Timmer sent a franchise set the franchise power play goal mark for an original 16 and 58 hockey is old we get it I'm there I don't care about that stuff I agree with this take I William S I agree 100 percent you know why those are great names Tommy Timers very good I saw him play we got a we got to back check that those might be those might be actual players Tommy Timers William S I'm going to go on a limb and say that will MS is American. Yeah, because it was... I don't care.

There was three teams until like the... Until like 88. It was all the... It was all Canadian. It wasn't... Now it's an international league with a bunch of teams. It's now these are real records.

William was rolling on this, man. This is him. This is like better than something that I would write. Why do we compare modern, modern players and stats to an era where guys smoke six between period or supremely xenophobic and 89% of goal is where anthropomorphic. And 89% of goal is where anthropomorph colander's that's really good that is a that is a phrase turn right there that is

making me jealous William S when we see that colanders when we see that exact sentence in the Sean Gentilly story within months I'm stealing that one there's gonna be I gotta wait like probably a couple months for people to maybe forget that that that's that that's been seen elsewhere but as soon as that as soon as that as soon as that day comes buddy that one's mine thank you William those are you're talking about SAT words those are some SAT words right there out of William S those are GRE words brother grad school level listen listen commenters William S is now our top intern so it's unpaid you send us the forms we'll give you three credit hours at the

university of your choice and you do get invited to our in-person what's our tips you make staggers. Our in-person recording. So we will definitely, we hand out awards every year. You get a free plate. One plate. Not two. In sushi at whatever place Luke Hughes ends up getting a, I hope we got him a deal. What if it's like, what if the weekend rolls around? And it's like, Luke Hughes has been ruled out of Michigan's weekend games. He's had food poisoning. He ate warm sushi because he had sit in his car and talk to two assholes on a podcast while the stuff went bad. Big gets a deal. And the American Eagle deal, that sounds like a good one.

American Eagle headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. I'm getting the bottom of this one, baby. Let's go. I already asked Matt, Matt Williams, his agent. I wanted to know the deal. What did he get from American Eagle? I can't share it, folks. You can tell me whenever we hang up. No, Matt wouldn't dish. A couple promos here is Rob Pizzo, Mike Russo, and Jesse Granger. Welcome to Stewart Boys. and Chris ahead of their Kingston, Kingston, Jersey honoring. There's that city again. A lot going on in Kingston. A lot. Never heard of it.

Do you know where it is? Kingston, could you give you a... Kingston, it's in Ontario. I know that. Okay. I haven't... I don't know exactly. No, I don't know where it is.

It's probably a north of Toronto, I would imagine. Up that, whatever that highway is. up yonder. Jeff, producer Jeff is dying to jump in. Don't do it, Jeff. You can't, you're not allowed to say anything about. Oh, yeah, it's way, it's way, way, way, okay, it's like in between Toronto and Ottawa. Okay, I was right.

Also, don't forget to subscribe to the athletic hockey show on YouTube. As you know, it's YouTube.com forward slash at sign the athletic hockey show. And folks, folks, get in while you can because everyone loves it. They love looking at us. I've requested from our audio team better lighting so my videos are higher quality That is hands down by the way You did this yesterday

That is the most I was kind of shocked at the At the vanity of that request I didn't like how I looked I didn't like how I looked in the dark light Recording the look I had weird shadows That were from whatever over and people Who cares?

People like what kind of like 10 cent light bulb Is Craig using to go on these video You don't care about like I care about how things look that I produce for work. You care about how you look on Zoom calls with the bigwigs. As well, that is as well. That is just a bonus.

No, that's it. That's a bonus when I look good. All the head honcho is at the New York Times? The company that we work for. The company, that's our parent company. Also, annual subscriptions to the Athletic are just $2 a month when you visit www. www.theathletic.com slash hockey show. and

producer jeff has now made it scheduled to have after the after the joe pevalsky debacle debacle Joe Joe listen just tell me it's something

patch this up the Tuesday boys 3 z returned next week scheduled to have Arizona coyotes Christian Christian Fisher as we work our way what year of the national development team program

2014 15 he is the guy who every single of the 10 guys that we've interviewed on this podcast for off that team, he's the guy that everyone's like, you got to have Christian Fisher. You got to talk to Christian Fisher. So here we are. I'm looking forward to that. Also, hey, everybody, happy New Year. I think we, I think we have a new bit here. Happy New Year to you and yours. And thanks to Pritcher Jeff for getting Luke Hughes. Thank to Luke and the Hughes family and to Matt Williams for your assistance. Anything else, Sean?

Enjoy your movie today, buddy. Yeah, if we can get out of here in a little bit, hang up the phone. Bye! Bye! Bye!