The Athletic Hockey Show - Marie-Philip Poulin, Canadian Athlete of the Year, joins the show, Sidney Crosby on pace to score 47 goals, Kris Letang returns to the ice

Episode Date: December 9, 2022

Hailey Salvian and Sean Gentille chat about Marie-Philip Poulin winning Canadian Athlete of the Year, insight into the process behind the voting, and Poulin being the first woman hockey player to win the award. Then, Poulin joins the show to discuss the award, reflect on her year of accomplishments, the continuous push to grow women's hockey, and much more. To wrap up, Sidney Crosby is showing no signs of slowing down, Kris Letang is back on the ice, and a dive into the comment section.Save on a subscription to The Athletic: theathletic.com/hockeyshowSubscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show's Youtube channel: youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is The Athletic Hockey Show. Welcome back, everybody. It's Friday. It's another edition of The Athletic Hockey Show. Haley Salvean here with you with Sean Gentilly, my co-host. We've got a good show today. We haven't recorded half of it. We recorded. But what we did do was pretty good. It would be impossible for us to screw this up all that badly because we've got 35. good minutes or so with

Marie-Fili-Poulin. Yeah. Drum roll. No big deal. Very chill. Yeah. Everyone was very calm. No, it was great, though, because this has been a huge year for Mary Filippe Poulin,

Olympic gold medal, another game-winning goal at the Olympics, another world championship Ship medal. And now she can add to her trophy case that she is the Canadian athlete of the year that was announced and voted on yesterday. Well, I guess Wednesday, we should say, because there is no yesterday when we're talking about a fake date. That is Friday. That's right. So big year for Mary Philippe Poulin, big week. That was a huge get for us. As I said, when I introduced her, we had to one up the John Hamm Tuesday show with the goat of women's hockey. I'm sorry. I know you're American, but if you slap up a Mount Rushmore of women's hockey in North America, women's hockey in general, and Mary Philippe Poulin is right up there

on Mount Rushmore. I don't think there's any debate. There's no question she's there. Yeah, who is it? You're more equipped to talk about this than anybody. Like, who is the... Who's the Mount Rushmore? Yeah. Because I mean, I'm just a biased, a biased In terms of country and recency, I know where my bias is lie. Right. So what is it? I think you want to strike a bit of a mix of past and present greatness. So I think you've got to have Poulin, Haley Wickenhizer.

You get Kame Grinado up there. Hillary Knight is up there. It's four. Just based on her longevity. and that's the tough part and I think that's the good issue that women's hockey has because that's not including Angela James

who was like the original superstar in the women's game think of the impact that Angela James would have had like we wouldn't have had to wait until 2018 for Sarah Nurse to be the first you know black woman to medal in women's hockey at the Olympics

I don't think we would have had to wait until 2018 if Angela James would have had her moment at the 98 Olympics in Nagano. Maybe we would have had to wait. Who knows? But that kind of representation. Yeah, I think that's a pretty fair. But it just been so important. And again, she was like the Wayne Gretzky.

That's what people called her. She's the Wayne Gretzky Women's Hockey. Just incredible, incredible goal score. Such a power forward way before her time. That doesn't include Natalie Darwitz, who was amazing for the U.S. team. She was kind of the young stud for the Americans. Had a great career. That doesn't include Jane Hufford, Carolyn Ulet,

who, in my opinion, was better than Haley Wickenhizer at a point in time when they were both on the Canadian Women's National Team. And that doesn't include, like, Brandon Decker and all these other players that are playing right now. So the Mount Rushmore is kind of a good conversation. And the point is that, like, regardless of where you stand, on whose fourth, I feel like, whoever's fourth, it's probably not

briefly pull in. Oh, no, she's like the middle head. She's the big head. Excuse me? Are they all the same size? Is one head a little bit bigger than the other? Yeah, people forget. Teddy Roosevelt much, much, much smaller than the other.

Whose head is bigger on Mount Rushmore? I don't, I think they're all basically the same size. I don't know. Have you ever seen it in person? No. Maybe one of them's a little bit bigger. It's not one of those They're different

Why are we talking about this? This has been American History Corner with Haley Salvean Do you want to hear me trying to name all of the states? No, I've had that pleasure already And I would rather not revisit it My mom and I did it. We only missed like two. Connecticut.

Always stripping people. It wasn't Connecticut. I forget what it was. Delaware. No, it was it Delaware? Yeah, Delaware. There's one state and mom and I were like, I don't know.

And then got home and dad was like, you guys are idiots. It's always Delaware. Okay. Anyways. Yeah. The reason. The reason we're having Marie-Filippe in on the show is because I don't know, I'm not even sure if you said this.

She won the Northern Starter trophy. She's the Canadian athlete of the year. Yeah. Well, right. Right. And it was mixed in with a bunch of other stuff. That is like, like, it's understandable. She's had a big, it's like kind of a year.

It's kind of 18 months. We got into that with her where it's sort of like it started with the worlds, with the worlds in 2021 and just kind of rolled on along here. It seems like a natural endpoint for it with her. And I think we got her at kind of this optimal time. You know, Wednesday was the day it's announced. She's doing a press conference. She's going on Sportsnet and TSN and she's doing like the immediate reactionary.

interviews and we get her a day later and you'll hear in the show. But I think we kind of got her after kind of the craziness and after a nice little period of reflection for her where she could actually take a seat and say, look at everything that just happened. And this is, I cannot stress enough, the fact that we got Mary Philippe Poulin to talk about herself and like say how significant this year has been to her as an individual. Of course, she thanks for family and her. teammates and she couldn't have done it with everyone else. But like she actually reflected as an individual hockey player. And that does not happen ever. I have had so, you don't understand how many awards and things this incredible athlete is done. And I've been in the press conference or the

Zoom or the Mix Zone and she's just like not having it. And she's not comfortable talking about herself ever. And her teammates know it. So I think we got her in this nice space and in this little period of reflection and this has been you know it capped off an incredible year for a very well-deserving athlete um obviously one of the finalists was kale macar i and i should say i was on the committee yeah i think we're i think we're bearing the lead here like you were in you were involved with with the process and yeah involved with the with the with the you know with you were on the call with a bunch of other media folks, all Canada-based,

all Canadian, obviously, who decide, who got this award. And I know you're not going to spill too much on the process overall because, A, it's not that interesting and B, you know,

whatever, it's probably not something she should get in the habit of doing. But she's the first woman to ever win this award. Yeah. Which is crazy. It's crazy. Haley Wickedizer was never.

I never like, and that's the top of the list, I would, I would imagine for, you know, shocking omissions from, from this. What, is there anything that you do want to say about the process and about how this kind of unfolded yesterday? Yeah, sure. I think, you know, just for context in terms of how it goes, spark notes wise, I mean, it's, you know, 30, 40, I don't know exactly how many media people are. on there, but it's, you know, Canadian media members from different kind of sections. You know,

you've got some of the golf reporters and you've got hockey reporters. You get national media members, general reporters, et cetera. And everyone kind of gets on and you get your nominees list. And then you dwindle it down to the finalists. And then you, there's just a bunch of votes and a bunch of debating. And everyone kind of raises their hand and says their piece. And obviously for anyone who knows me, I cover women's hockey. Um, it. Um, it, wasn't like an advocacy. I think that's really important. I didn't go onto this call and think like I'm going to go and advocate for the women's game. I'm going to go and try to do my part because I cover this game and I've just got to do it. Like no, I truly, I went on this call

with it in my head like this is Mary Philippe Poulin's year to win this award. And I went into the call knowing that I was going to make my case. And I thought it was, I think it's important that she did win it. I think she is well deserving. Look at everything we talked about that she did this year, 27 points in 14 games at the world championships in the Olympics, including goals. Think of where she scores these goals. And think of how in both the world championships and the Olympics, we were talking about in the preliminary rounds, like, where's Mary Philippe Poulin? Is she okay? Why is she passing the puck so much? It doesn't matter. I do not give a damn what Mary Philippe Poulin does in the prelims because we see so often in

this, in women's hockey players like patting their stats. the prelims against lesser opponents and then they get to the knockout stages or they get to the Canada US game or the gold medal game and they kind of disappear. She's the opposite of that. Like this is a player who was always there in the big moment. She has four goals and she has goals in four straight gold medal games. She has three game winning goals for three gold medals at the Olympics. And this year, again, it's the athlete of the year, right? It's not a career achievement award. And this year was huge for Mary Philippe Poulin. And so I went into this and I made my case.

And I think one of the biggest pieces of it was, sure, Kail McCar, again, Kail McCar was one of the finalists. We talked about Connor McDavid on this call as well to NHL players who had excellent seasons, two of the best players in the NHL at their position or just in general in the world. But for me, you look at Poulin, and it's a winter Olympic year. And so you always kind of want to focus in on the athletes who maybe get their once every four-year shot at the pinnacle of their sport. So that's important. But you look at, as you mentioned, Sean, no woman's hockey players ever won this award. Like, at some point, the media just decided that they were okay with Haley Wickenheiser not being the Canadian athlete of the year, despite everything this woman has done. done.

There's a layer, there's a, there's a layer of, okay, so you hear that the no woman has ever won this award, or no female hockey players ever won this award. And you say like, okay, of course, like this is the way it goes. This award was given out since 1936 and the guy who was named after is problematic and they rightfully changed the name of it on and on. like you say of course like they don't give this award award to women

what makes it crazier that a female hockey players never won this is that they do that's what's shocked that's what's great that's what's crazy about it in the last few years penny Alexiak won it

Bianca Andreasku won it Kaylee Humphreys who's a bobsled athlete in 1994 Women's athletes win this award like women women win this award which makes it just doubly wild that we've never seen a hockey player.

And I think it all boils down to the Olympic thing, right? It's the perspective that people have on women's hockey at the Olympics, right? It's the same old bullshit that we hear every time can in the U.S. playing the gold medal game. It's just like, what are we even doing? It's a two horse race. Like, who cares? It's not looked at the same, whereas, you know, Penny Alexiak will go and have a great ear

at the Olympics and people look at that and say, well, swimming's better. and she's got to beat better athletes and blah, blah, so we're going to give Penny Alexiak her cookies, and rightfully so. You know, she's a historic athlete in this country. But I think you look at some of the people who've won in Olympic years. I mean, 98, it was Larry Walker, who won. 2002 was Katrina LeMay Done, so an Olympian speed skating.

2006, another speed skating, Cindy Klassen. what was the next one? 2010. They went on home soil and it's Joey Votto baseball. 2014. Joy Votto was very good that year. Yes, no, for sure.

That's what, like it's Joey Votto, whatever, that's fine. 2014, it's Kaylee Humphreys. 2018, it's Mikhail Kingsbury. So it's a lot of times it's going to winter Olympians, but it's going to like speed skating, bob, sled, skiing. And I think, again, part of that is you get a bunch of people on these calls, and you're debating the merits of what this person does. And I do think that women's hockey players are fighting against the perception that it's a two-horse race. And, well, yeah, they're the best at their sport.

But, like, how many people are they actually better then? And that is small-minded and it's BS. The only play two relevant games is here. Here's, like, kind of the strain of logic that I keep coming. back to with Poulin and move on after this, I think. If she did get it this year, A, when was she specifically going to get it? Yeah, and when would another woman? And when would another woman get it?

Women's hockey player, we should say, yeah. Woman, I'm mistakenly just keep, you know, keep saying that. I just said it. I was correcting myself. It's okay. Because she, I, you know, I know, I know that, I know that. I know that people don't want, you don't want to count the August worlds in the same calendar, right?

But like, yeah, two worlds in an Olympic tournament within 16 months of each other? August to August, August. It was a year. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. In a calendar year, it wasn't like 2022, but in a calendar year, Mary Philippe Poulin won three gold medals and had the game winning goals in two of those events.

Yeah. And she's got the hardware and she's got the individual profile. Just like, it's great. Sarah Nurse broke Haley Wickenheiser's Olympic record that she set in 2002 and she had 17 points when Canada, you know, won their first gold medal at the Olympics after losing to the U.S. in 98. Again, Wickenheiser set an Olympic record, 17 points and did not win the athlete of the year that year. I know women's hockey was fresh and new at the Olympics, but that was a longstanding record for two decades. Sarah Nurse beat it. Mary Philippe Poulin tied it.

So, like, what else you got to do? It's just indicative. It's indicative of the space, I think, that. Yeah. That female athletes and Olympic athletes have had with this award historically. You know? Yeah. It's that, and for whatever reason, hockey players kind of fell by the wayside,

because it was like Olympic years, that's for the Olympians. And when you're in a sport that generally only, you know, historically, and certainly in over the last few years, only. competes at the highest level, you know, at the Olympic level in the, in the public sphere that way, one out every four years, like, for better or worse, that's the way it's going to be. Like, for whatever reason, like, world championships don't count whenever we're doing this math. It's bizarre.

Yeah. It's a bizarre, it's a bizarre situation. But for sure. It's been fixed. And I think it's, I think it's cool to see that, that it's been fixed. I'm going to say it because you are not going to say this about yourself. You had a lot to do with it. So way to go.

Yeah, I mean, I was banging the table pretty hard, but I wasn't, obviously, there's way more that needs to happen for someone to win than just a women's hockey writer yelling at Cloud that she deserves to win. But yeah, I... That's the way this stuff works. I raised my hand many a time in the Zoom call, let's just say. I talked a lot for someone who's only been on this panel twice, yes. It's a bunch of jackasses on a Zoom.

And that's you included, by the way, for the record. A bunch of jackasses on a Zoom call. A bunch of Canadian assholes yelling at each other about who's the best Canadian athlete. And this was a good year for it, honestly, because, like, I think, I thought for a point that it was going to be Cal McCar. Stanley Cup, Norris, Hart Trophy in a single season does something that, you know, a defender hasn't done in this league. He's getting the Bobby Orr comparisons. But again, for me, Cal McCarr is going to be in this conversation. conversation again. If we didn't give it to Poulin this year, when would we have? I think that

would have had to, we would have had to be okay. This was the point. This is the point I made in the Zoom call. It's my final point. I'm not going to, I don't want to keep doing this. I don't want to be that person. So the last point I make is this might be the last best time to award Mary Philippe Poulin Canadian athlete of the year. And if we don't do it now, we might not get another chance. And that would be a huge mistake. Just like it was the fact that Haley Wickenhizer, made it to the Hockey Hall of Fame and was never a Canadian athlete of the year. So anyways,

Mary Philippe Poulin's coming up next. She was awesome. Yeah, you got to account for that in one way or another, but I don't know. Based on our talk, you might be having the same conversation in 2026. I think it's possible. Yeah, like that's the one thing.

It's just like, I'm not saying that because Poulin's going to just retire and she's not going to be there. She might be the one, like typically when athletes get to 30 or women's hockey athletes, they get to 30. It's like, how many more do we have? I don't think anyone in Beijing was looking at Poulin being like, this might be the last time we watch her play at the Olympics.

This is a highly motivated, highly talented, obviously, athlete. And I think she's going to be around for the next Olympic cycle. That's my educated guess. We've got some NHL stuff. We'll talk about a bit. We'll do that in the third segment of the show. because we just talked about Poulin for 20 minutes, and you're going to hear from her for the next 30.

This was a treat. This really was a pleasure. Here's our chat with Mary Philippe Poulin, Captain Clutch, Captain Canada, and Canada's athlete of the year. All right, so this is very exciting for us. So Sean hosts the Tuesday show. They had John Hamm on their podcast, and so I thought, that's not fair.

I'm going to one-up your show, and we're going to bring in our guest for this. week on Thursday, it's Mary Philippe Poulin. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. This is definitely a one-up. I'm sorry, John Hamm. You were great in bridesmaids, but... I think John Hamm would agree. He knows what's up. He's a smart guy. He realizes he's in second place right now. Yeah. So this has been, I guess, another big week in a big year for you. Mary Philippe yesterday was announced that you won the Canadian Athlete of the Year Award. First off, congratulations.

Second, how did you find out? How did your day go yesterday? Did you know that the voting was happening? Did you know that this was a possibility that you could win this award this year? Kind of how did your day go yesterday? Well, I heard a little bit before my name was in the mix, but never thought that impossible. So yesterday after my, on the ice, I got off the ice, got a phone call from Dave and Cox

and just a virtual star star and just announced. that I was the winner and it was very special. Obviously, I didn't really expect that at all. It was along a list of pretty prestigious athlete and very honored to be along the side of them. But very honored. And obviously, by the way, I thought of my teammates, I would not be here without them 100%, so just a big thank you for sure. Did you know that you were the first female hockey player to ever win this award?

I did not until he told me. I was actually surprised that I didn't know that at all. So it's very, yeah, pretty awesome. It's kind of shocking. Like, obviously there's so many women who have accomplished so much in terms of hockey in this country. I mean, the fact that no WIC, no Jaina, no Caro, I was, I was surprised too. I was on the calls yesterday. It's like, you know, the big two-hour kind of voting process and debate.

And that was a big part of it. It was like, that was a big part for me being like, this is like more than overdue. She's more than deserving. Like, what else? else what else is a female hockey player have to do in this country? Just set more records, win more gold medals. We'll try. Yes, we'll try.

What do you think? It's a wild time for a woman to be winning this award for the first time now. And I think it, I don't mean to put words in your mouth, but I think it says a lot about kind of increased space that the women's game has kind of taken up over the last year, too. Is that the way you take it? Like, do you look at you winning this award and kind of, you? it is, you know, yes, it's about your individual accomplishments. We know that. But it, the fact that you're the first is, it also says something. And I think, I think that that means,

I would imagine that means a lot. Yes, 100%. I think it's way bigger than just individual award. I think yesterday was just how much more we talk about women's hockey, how much visibly we get. And only for myself, I think Sarah Nurse being the first woman on the NHL cover speaks a lot for itself. And I think we're all in this together. And every time one of us can be acknowledged and we can talk about women's hockey, I think we take a lot pride in.

And I think that's what makes it very special. When I get teammates getting a lot of texts and how happy they are, I think it does make you smile pretty big. We know it's only for myself, but for my teammates for the next generation, and the more we can see it, the more we can be it,

the more we can talk about it. I think it's great. And obviously, I've said that many times I feel women's hockey, it's always very popular every Olympic year, every four years. People are very excited about it. And I think that's something we have to change. It's an every year thing. People get attached to us, and we know we put a lot of working, which is exciting.

Do you guys ever play the EA sports game? Does the team or anyone take a spin on that? I think Aaron Ambrose is a pretty big gamer. Are you a big PlayStation Xbox person? I haven't tried it. I haven't tried it yet. But I know Aaron does. She is a very good NHL player for sure.

Yeah, I feel like I was looking at the scores before. And I think you're the highest one with a 94. I don't play. I don't know what that means, but it seems low. That's all. Like for you, a 94 is great. But I was like, what's this out of? I think it's out 100.

It's good. It's good, it's good, but low. Yeah, that's probably where we're at. It's pretty hard for me. I'm happy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I mean, we mentioned, like, off the top, this has been a pretty big year for the Canadian team for you as well. I mean, Olympic gold medal, another game winner from yourself.

You became the first man or woman to score in four straight gold medal games at the Olympics. Another world championship gold medal, if we zoom out a little bit, obviously that's back-to-back world championship titles for you and the national team. Have you allowed yourself to kind of reflect on this past year? I know it's just such a small piece of what's been a long career for you. But when you look at this 2022 year, have you kind of looked back and thought of everything that you've accomplished? Well, it's funny. I think yesterday a little bit, I took a little bit of time myself and realized that year was one for the book. That's for sure.

I think it was very special. Like you mentioned, the Olympic medal, the two world championship. And it's funny yesterday, I interviewed with Jennifer Bauderbill, And she was mentioning the flag bearer. And it's funny, it kind of pop in my head. I was like, oh, wow, yep, I was part of that too. And it's pretty surreal. If I would want to write the best year of my life, I think that would be one of them 100%.

And it's only because of the individual award. But I think doing this with such an amazing group makes it even more special. And obviously, if we look back to 2018, it was a tough moment for all of us well aware with the silver medal. I think that the work that we all put on an individual basis during COVID, find ways to work in the kitchen, in the basement, go in the eyes by yourself. And then when we regroup, I think it just said it all, how much work was put in from all of us. And when we came in, we're all ready to go.

So obviously it did pay off. But on individual basis, it is pretty amazing to see how this happened and being able to bring those three gold medals, that's for sure. I don't think people really understand how much the last 18 months have probably blended together for you guys, right? Because you had the run-up to world, and then you had world, and then you had the Olympic run-up, and then you had the Olympics, and now you're on the Gap Tour. And it's like there's been this endless, you know, this endless string of action for you all. Is there?

I'm not used to that much women's talking like in a calendar year. But is there an end in sight? Is there, are you going to be able to take a break soon? I guess it is my question. Like, is it the holiday? When are you going to be able to chill? Are you tired? Yeah.

Just to make sure you're getting enough rest and whatever else. I appreciate that a lot. It's been non-stop. You're actually right. It's funny because we do talk about that often. They're like, when should we take a break? here. Can we, because the next world is coming, or this next series is coming in where it's true, like we've had that conversation many times and it has been a very, very busy year for a lot of us.

And obviously, we love what we're doing and we're passionate about it. But at some point, it will be needed from a physical standpoint and mental standpoint. All of us, we're human. We all need that. And it's going to come. I think this year was special because of COVID. championship got canceled. We had to kind of take that back. But I think having that said, I think getting back to a world championship and hopefully a season, her normal season, would be pretty exciting. Well, it's kind of a unique challenge in women's hockey too, right, because it's not just, you know, the individual drive and desire to be successful and win, but there is that kind of added level of you're trying to sell and market and grow the game,

right? So you don't want to take your foot off the gas because there are other. there are people that you're thinking about in terms of young girls and women who you want to follow in your footsteps and have a better, you know, space in the future. Is that kind of like an added unique pressure that the women's game has? For sure. I think you said, well, I think every opportunity we get to play or we have, we, it's something that we don't take care of foot off the gas. And every opportunity, like, it's funny, like back the NHL All-Star, when the NHV invited us and we had the three-on-three. We had the three-on-three. And a lot of people were saying like, holy, like, why are they back checking?

Why are they playing that hard? But at that moment, it's true we were representing our group representing women's hockey. And we all know that if we did not play hard a little bit, we would have heard about it. We would have heard that it's not good hockey. And we all aware of that. And those are the things that maybe makes it women's hockey even better. Because every time we give it all and obviously we want to talk about hockey, we want to put the best product on that ice to make sure people know it.

I remember that. I think people were like, oh, my God, is that, are they four checking? Like, oh, my goodness, the four check and the puck retrievals of the All-Star game are incredible. I also remember Anne Renee Debian kind of stealing the show. I remember people texting me after that being like, oh, my God. Who does she play for? Yeah.

She does often. Yeah. She's on your team for the three-on-three this weekend, right? In Ottawa? And she's, is that who, like, we're going to pre-scout this a little. bit, I think, the skills competition. I feel like there's good goalies in this, but she's in the, the like, you know, save streak competition, I think. She's probably got that in the bag. No pressure, but. It should be a good competition. It should be fun for sure.

I think Haley kind of got at this. I was on the conference call yesterday when you accepted the award. And it's just, you know, you're, you obviously don't. You would have. rather not talk about yourself. You would rather redirect, you know, questions to your teammates and whatever. We've seen it for years. But there's also that balance between like your personality and the way you are as a person with, you also have a Gatorade campaign and you're also winning awards. And you're also, there also is that level of attention that comes with being as individually great at what you've chosen to do is you are. So, How do you, as like, maybe not an introverted person, but as someone who would rather

deflect credit and bring your teammates into it, how do you deal with that when it comes time to accept awards like this and being commercials and whatever? How is that something you balance? Because I would imagine it's challenging. Yeah, no, it's a great question. I think from, to be honest, such a young age, I think from where I grew up in my family, It was always never take anything for granted and put your head down and go to work. And that's something obviously I've been very fortunate in my career, how it went.

Like obviously being a part of a national team, winning gold medals, being at the right place, the right moment for some goals. I think for me it's just a taste. Obviously when I get those medals, it's like I want more. It's like it's like a joy. Yeah, I love what I'm doing. I love being surrounded with great people. we push each other. It's something that's very fun.

And I'm still trying to deal with these questions. Yeah, I get awkward and I don't know where to go. But I truly appreciate, like, it is very rewarding. Obviously, I love working hard. I love doing the work when no one is watching. Like, it's not something that I strive for when everybody's watching. But those little things I've done my entire life, that extra rep, that maybe one day is going to pay off. That's how I train.

That's my mentality. And obviously, when you train with the best, with your teammates is something that makes you want to be better every day for them and for yourself as well. What does a typical kind of week look like for you when you're in this season? I know the World Championships is still a ways away. I'm not even sure what month it's in yet. I don't know if anyone knows that yet. We'll just skirt over that. But, you know, when you're in season and you're kind of building up towards something,

obviously not a centralization year because that's completely different. But what does a week look like for you training-wise? It's funny. Those are a great question, guys, because we're still trying to figure out. It's funny. It's like, when should we train to peak? When is our big thing? It's all things that's been happening for the last two years.

And it's very hard because obviously right now we don't have a season. And we have our hubs in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, and in Boston, Minnesota. And we all train kind of on our own. And in the weekend, we come together, and we're on the same team. So obviously it is different. We're all aware of that. But typical week here in Montreal is for us. We could be on the ice five days a week.

We have ice every day. Obviously, we're about eight to 13 players here in Montreal. So it depends who works. Who can come? And we have three workouts, two to three workouts, depending if we play in the weekends. And then off we go. So let's say tomorrow we're off to Ottawa.

We've trained three or four times on the ice, two workouts. So it's all different, but I do miss that season part where you actually practice every day. You practice that park on the Wednesday, the PX on Thursday, and you're ready to go for the weekend. Those are things that I truly miss, and I went back to BU last weekend. It was fun to see that team mentality where you just literally hand your rank, you do your thing, go to school. It was one of the best worries of my life for those I hope we get to repeat that when that league is on. And congratulations again, obviously for people listening and you hear BU. I didn't say that to mention that.

I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. My goodness. Yeah, Mary Philippe Poulin just called us out because we didn't bring up that she got inducted into the BU Athletics Hall fame. We missed one. I have it. I have it on my list.

Yeah, it was just we bumped it down. We apologize. But like you talk about that season and the hope for that. How are things going? I know I've done a story on it. I know internally there's a lot of kind of excitement and optimism about what's building with the PWHPA. Like how would you kind of say how things are going this year and what you guys are looking forward to kind of creating in the, ideally in the year. I guess for next season, I should say.

We all know, like we have showcases. We get to travel a little bit in Canada and the U.S. We're about to showcase our product. and we're pretty happy. We're very excited with what's coming. And obviously we have the right people behind us that's been working tremendously for us and put a lot of hours in. And obviously not everything is out there in the media as much as we would want.

But there's a lot of things coming up. And it's exciting for wins hockey. And we know I think that next year will be something in place where we get to play when we get to have a season where we get to play for something like a championship, which is very exciting. And that's something that's valuable in the women's hockey. And when I keep, like you mentioned, every opportunity we get to play.

And obviously this weekend is going to be in Ottawa and we get to showcase what we have. I mean, you mentioned competing for championships and the games. I mean, I think, I don't think people understand or don't fully grasp, like, what you all have lost by not having a league over the last couple of years, right? And you mentioned practice. That's a huge thing. Like being able to go out there every day and, you know, even if it's just work on the power play, forget like best on best competition, right?

Like just in team set routine where you're like, all right, we're going to work and get better at this as a group. Are there other little things about being part of a league and part of a team and having that day-to-day routine that you miss? Like any specific stuff, like any stuff you're looking at where you're like, all right, I can see this down. like this is coming. It's going to be back at some point soon and this is going to be a part of my life again. Like what other stuff do you miss and what are you looking forward to?

Well, obviously we kind of like have this a little bit, but like every time you're part of a team and we all know like on the ice, like we love that. We remember that, but the moments off the ice, those are the moments you remember as a group and you travel together. you get to play at different cities altogether is something that is so fun it is and you can remember most of the people when I can remember a random game on the Saturday night this score but then you remember probably what happened in dressing room or if something funny happened or if the bus broke down on their trip to somewhere those are all little things that obviously it seems like nothing at the moment but when you're you're away from from it for a while it makes you miss it miss it that's

for sure. And obviously during the Olympic year, we kind of get that feeling a little bit when we work together for six months where we get to train together, we get to travel, we get to play for a pretty big championship. But that really that bond, that culture that we get to have when you build that team, it's always so fun. I think a couple of the things we wanted to ask you to in terms of your teammates and the Canadian women's national team, some of your teammates too with the PWHPA. I know, I believe you and Sarah Filier, room. together was that during her first world championship and now just kind of seeing like that world championship she kind of announced herself to maybe the people who weren't paying attention I think

anyone who watched her at Princeton or saw her on the come up knew what Sarah Filier was going to be but she comes into that world championships and everyone just like holy crap who is this and she talked about how you guys are roommates and she met you for the first time and for her her, she was like, oh my gosh, it's Mary Philippe Poulat. And like, so what is Sarah Filier like? What do people need to know if they haven't been paying attention about this, like, future young star? And is she a messy roommate?

Well, right now, I got to tell you that I'm like, oh, my God, this is Sarah Filier. And that's a pretty cool feeling to that when you have her on your team. But from that day on, I knew I heard great things about her. And she's a great hockey player. but when you get to know her off the ice, it's something that's even better. And that's what makes her the player that she is, the person that she is. And you can tell she's crushing it right now in Princeton. She's going to come back with us, and she's still going to be crushing it.

But RISC, there's a lot of pressure on her. And she really just took it and flew with it and really dominated. And that's something that's pretty amazing to see at such a young age. And to be honest, she's not that missy. She's pretty cool, to be honest. But it's pretty awesome to see. You'll see she's shy, but when she gets comfortable, she's a great person, great player and very happy to get to see her grow and see her mature and see really

her play improve every day. And when I was in Denmark for the world championships, I was in the mix zone. I wasn't actually interviewing her. I was kind of just like standing there awkwardly. I think I was waiting for something because that mix zone was weird. It was that like weird musty tent. It was like really hot and smelled funny. Anyways, it was great.

I had a great three weeks, Denmark. And she was standing there and I was wearing this like cardigan. I don't even know where I'm going with this. It's fine. And she's like, did you buy that at the H&M down the street? And I was like, no. However, I've been in that H&M every single day. And I feel like that was like the spot in herning.

Like everyone loved this H&M that was like near the team hotel. I feel like everyone's like fit of the day was from the H&M down the street from the hotel. Can we confirm that was the spot? That's funny. It was a spot. A lot of us spent a lot of time there. So yeah. It's amazing.

The only other one in terms of teammates and obviously there's so many that that we can talk about because it's such a talented team and there's just so many good stories and great players. but the one for me is, is Brea and Jenner. And she's been right there with you. I think you guys played at the U-18 level together. And she is someone who has always been there in the big moments. And I think finally got her kind of shine when she got the MVP. I think she got Olympic MVP. She gets the game winner at the last world championships.

Like she's been there and she's been doing it forever. but I think now we're finally starting to see people being like, yeah, look out for Brea and Jenner. Like this is a big player here for Canada. Oh, yeah, it's a lot of shen we have here. I can go on and on. As long as you want. You can talk for as long as you like, by the way. No, I can go on and on with Jenner.

She's been there. We've been along played together since, like you mentioned, we play against each other. She was with Team Ontario, Team Quebec, U-A team. We played against each other. we're on the UA team program together. And we've been playing for a long time. And to see her get what she deserve, like you mentioned, is something that makes me so happy.

And she's a newly mother and how she's been handling the training and the motherhood at the same time is something that is very remarkable. And I look up to her for that because she's such a great leader. And she knows when it's time to play hockey. be serious and she knows when it's time to work and like and have fun and I think that having that both side having that balance is something that's very amazing but she's a great leader great person obviously we all know she's an amazing player but again like it's funny because I see that a lot a lot of they're great players but man when you take that helmet off the people that they are is

something that's just amazing you can't have a conversation about anything with her and it's unbelievable and I'm so, so happy for what she's got. And it's funny because that that trophy from yesterday that I got, she's a big part of that. And all the people, I wish I had the time to take the phone and call them all to say thank you, but Jenny would be a big part of that. That's for sure. I feel like it was Carolyn Alet another big one for you. I feel like whenever I talk to people about their path or people who had an impact on them, Aaron Ambrose is one of them. like caro comes up a lot and I and I remember talking to her at the Olympics and this I guess is a two-parter in terms of her impact on you and your career but also do you remember being like

I think 15 or 16 and making like a steak dinner for Carolyn and Kim St. Pierre and I think it was Charlene LeBonte like your house mothers in your first centralization year Yep, I do remember. I wish I forgot about it, but yes, I do remember. Why? What happened? Did you like burn the steaks? Was it undercooked?

It was like, that was centralization. That was my first time getting centralized and they really helped me. They were a big sister to me and I was living with them. And every day they would cook for me and really just did it. I was like the sous chef. So that's how much I was not doing much in the kitchen. Right, right, right. Passes the salt and pepper.

Exactly. garlic yeah get the clean you know but like one day i got to the rink and i literally seen my stall you're cooking dinner tonight period see you later so i'm really like oh boy okay what does that mean i look around nobody was there and it was like literally they left the full afternoon they went to see a movie they didn't left me a car i had to walk to the grocery store oh my god back to get this stuff and I'm not the one that talks the most to my family but at that moment I called my mom about a hundred times that night just to make sure what I would need to do and make sure everything was okay and she was so stressed for me she's like make sure you call me

after her to know if it's good and to be honest I did not too bad they they were good I had sweat pits like yeah I was so nervous literally Lurber hiking. Right. Everything was good and it's funny because after the dinner, like, you, let's call your mom to tell her, like, let's play a joke on her that I burnt it all and we had to order pizza. So my mom is very gall.

My mom is very gullible. So we call and I was like, hi, dad. Like, I just need to go to the bathroom one second. So the girls come in, the picture. They go, say, hi, dad. Like, Maddie cooked dinner and who, she burnt it all. And my mom's face just dropped. She goes, really, I told her about everything to do.

How did she not make that happen? Oh, no. I'm kind of a little embarrassed. But it was a joke, but that dinner was quite funny. How did you settle on steak? Like, was that we just like, I'm just, I'll just make. Did you ask for one of like, what's an easy thing I could make? Like how was that to draw?

She gave me the steak, Finet Mignon with some asparagus and some rice, I think. That's it. steak and asparagus. That's like the easiest thing. You're like, all right, this is fine. Yeah. So. That's amazing.

Um, I think we wanted to end on a couple light ones here because we've stolen you for a while, but this has been great and we appreciate it so much. Uh, okay, so we know that you have a dog. You guys got a dog in the pandemic. And are you like, like me, like a crazy dog mom? Well, what's a crazy dog? dog mom. I don't think it's crazy, but if people were to watch, they'd be like, oh my, she loves her. Like, that is my child. Like, this is my, you saw Bono. He was rolling around the

back. It's not crazy. I don't think it's crazy. Well, I got to tell you, I never grew up with a dog and I was like, why is everybody obsessed with their dog? Like, come on. Like, I was judging at the beginning. Like, I was like, yeah. Yeah, you would have thought it was crazy. Yes, probably. Then this little guy came in and never thought I would like be obsessed with our dog that much. And even my parents like never grew up in a dog and they're obsessed with them when we go for a travel. They're always the first one to ask if we need help. So it is pretty funny. But it does bring you a smile.

I'm trying to come back on the train or whatever. Just get back home and they're just so happy to see you. So it's fun. Yeah, it's my child. The other thing, I kind of asked about this earlier because I asked about free time, when are you going to be able to get out in the RV again? I saw you bought you guys. And also, not your first RV.

The 26 footer is like, that's like the upgraded one. You have, you have a history. You're right. You absolutely right. You know what? I was actually talking about yesterday because I have, we have two weddings this summers or we were debating if you were going to take yard. That's such a great excuse. Are they far?

Like good road trip RV? One is very Nova Scotia on Calgary, so we don't know yet. But we might do the ones in Nova Scotia until maybe. You know what? That'd be pretty. That'd be great. But I love it. I love nature.

I love outside. That's so cool. I wish we had more time, to be honest. But maybe we'll put a couple of kettle bells in there and do the Brett Burns thing where they just go and train them on the. Rome. Yeah. He was living in his RV in Carolina. We had Rod Brindonbor on the show a couple, like a month or so ago. And Brent Burns, he got to Carolina like before his house was ready. And he just like lived in his trailer. And was like, yeah, I'm just going to get ready for the NHL season in my, I mean, I'm sure it wasn't a little trailer, but he's just going to get ready in his RV and hop around. You should take it down to Ottawa. Just take the RV to the showcase this weekend. I should. I should. I should. Can the dog, does, like, does, like, our logo in?

Like, do you bring your dog when you go on trips? Yeah. The Calgary Drive? I did that with my dog in my Hyundai, Atlanta, which sucked. But an RV, it would probably be really nice. Yeah, I would be a little bit better. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think you guys could map out, like, probably four days and get it done.

I know it's third or whatever. It'd be fun. I hope it happens. I want to hear about like, I want to hear about, please, too. I want to hear about. Zoom us from the road. To go back to Calgary. That'd be fun.

Oh, I love that. Well, we will have to, like, stock your Instagram account for the RV trip. Photos of Arlo, photos of. Yeah, we're here for the dog and the scenery. I'm so sorry. They're just kidding. Yeah. You guys went to, this is my last one, I swear.

You guys were in Ireland after the World Championships. Is that right? I'm going to need some recommendations because I have friends getting married in Dublin this year. And it's the last week of the NHL season, but it's fine. I can book that off. So I've never been. So I'm going to need some recommendations. Yeah.

I will. It was beautiful. We rented a car. You know, if you're at the car, you drive on the opposite. So that was a little bit difficult. I've drawn. Did anybody, it sounded like somebody might have needed a reminder of that at some point? A couple arguments happened, but all went well.

Okay. I, the first time I drove in Calgary, I went the wrong way down a one-way street. So maybe I shouldn't get a car in Ireland. There's a lot of one-way street. in downtown Calgary though. I'm just going to say. Yeah. I did it right in front of a cop too.

I thought I was going to go to jail. Anyways, what a great way to end. Thank you so much for your time. Very feeling, Poulin, everybody. It's telling her about all my roadside problems. Thank you for the time. Thank you. Okay.

Highlights from the chat with Poulin. I should have asked the 15-year-old cooking dinner for Carolyn Ulet question sooner because that got her going. And that was one where we were prepping for this. I was like, I need to ask this question. I almost forgot about it. And I was asking about Ulet at first being like, how important was she? I was like, oh, wait, no, I forgot. I have this really good question that she told me about you terrified, like just completely

terrified making dinner for her and two other Canadian legends from the national team in her first. in her first ever centralization, again, as a teenager, before we get your highlight. I think having some of the scope of the fact that we're just talking about, like, you know, she was in the BU Hall of Fame. She won a gold medal and scored an Olympic game-winning goal before she stepped foot on a college campus. And just, again, I think this has been a good piece of reflection for me, too, just as a journalist charting her career.

I mean, Poulin was on the first ever U-18 women's world championships. She went to two of them and then immediately went from U-18s to that 2010 Olympic team and got the game-winning goal there. On the fourth line, so on the fourth line scored the game-winning goal. And then she goes to the Sochi Olympics. She's on the third line. Minimal minutes again, she's still pretty young. Game-winning goal scores twice in that gold medal game.

2018, they lose and then 2022 game-winning goal. to game winning goal. Canada wins a gold medal. I just think what makes her so impressive is the ways in which she has handled the changing pressure and expectation. And she always delivers, whether she's a teenager that people are like, she's in the fourth line, don't put too much pressure on her or whether she's the captain and trying to win a gold medal after she lost it in 2018. Like this player just delivers.

And she delivered in that interview. It was fun. I think you get used to Poulin sometimes. She doesn't really want to talk about herself. She's very serious, kind of Sydney Crosby-esque. And I think that was good. I really enjoyed that conversation with her. I'm happy.

Yeah. I hope everyone else enjoyed it too. You should be. I'm just riding shotgun on that one. It's good to, it's nice to talk to people who are that great what they do and try to keep it normal and connect with them on some, on some human being level. That's always, that's always fun.

Because, yeah, we haven't seen that. It is. There's a Crosby-esque quality, I think, to talking to her, where it's like, you know, she's, I don't want to say polite, but she's, you know, she's. She's nice. Engaged and nice and, you know, has time for you. But because of the level of, you know, A, because of the personality type,

just being kind of, you know, having that level of humility and whatever. And also just because of media training and just a total, you know, just doing this shit for years consistently. Like, you fall in a routine of stuff and you hear them talk for five minutes or seven minutes or 11 minutes and you appreciate the time, but you're not hearing anything all that new. And that's the challenge is to try to just get people, you know, get them a little close. closer to them on a personal level. So that's all.

Yeah, that's all I was trying to do. Does that take us right to Crosby talk? Are we talking about Crosby? I was going to say, this is the perfect little segue. And I know some people are like, you know, she's not the Sydney Crosby of Women's Hockey. She's Mary Filippe Poulin. We know that. This is just a nice little segue because we wanted to talk about Sidney Crosby.

Speaking of Mary Philly Poulin, let's talk about Cudy. Hold on a second. Like, I'm like, I'm an idiot. like I've covered the NHL in Pittsburgh sports for my entire career that's my frame of reference

for better or worse I'm sorry I'm just joking I'm sorry I know I know I know I've got I'm saying like yeah she reminded to Sydney Criesby

I'm not the first person to say it I'm not the last and I think that's like we're going to be having a similar conversation in four years about Marie Flynn assuming she doesn't throw it all away to live in an RV or whatever,

which seems like that might be her ultimate destiny. But four years from now, she's odds are she's going to be 35 and putting up numbers. Just like Sidney Crosby is. That's right. Right now. Great side of my shot. That was perfect.

So a lot. Yeah. So Sidney Crosby, this is what we wanted to talk about a little bit. He's on pace for 47 goals. and he's 35. I don't think we take him for granted, you know? Certainly not in Pittsburgh. I don't either.

No. And that's like one of those weird conversations, and I think we've had this before where people are like, let's not do the is Sidney Crosby underrated thing because you would have to be like painfully oblivious to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Sidney Crosby to think that he's underrated. But like, are we surprised?

maybe this is like a better frame of reference. Are we surprised at the fact that he is still playing at this level this far into his career within the context of some of the other players who've been playing as long as him. Alex Ovechkin is not a complete player. He's kind of, you know, his game has changed of Genie Malkin. Injury was part of it, but his game has changed. Sidney Crosby still dominant in all situations. all three zones.

Again, on pace for 47 goals as a 35-year-old. Are we surprised at all? No, because he's better than all those guys. And he was always better than all those guys. And he hasn't been hurt. The concussion stuff, that sits off, that sits off in a box to the side, and we don't discuss it.

Right? We lost basically almost three calendar years of, I get very upset when we talk about this. of his prime of that. But like also, currently, you know, and not to make light of what this could mean down the line for him. And, you know, he's certainly more apt to, you know, thank God he has. We haven't seen him concussed in any meaningful way, like over the last 10 years. It's great.

It's easy to forget about that stuff because there aren't like lingering. This isn't, he didn't have a catastrophic knee injury. And he didn't, he didn't, you know, doesn't have hip problems or. shoulder problems. These aren't like lingering physical after effects that we've seen with a lot with a lot of guys, right? Like he's generally been healthy until last season when he had the, when he had the wrist issue.

And last season when he came back from the wrist issue, and he also had COVID mixed in there. He was lighted out. From, it was like from November, from like a point November on. This is where he was. Like he was top, top 10 in points. And he looked and he looked the part. And he was producing offensively at a level that, you know, we probably hadn't seen for a few years. That might have surprised me.

Like last year, last season, I might, I don't know if I was expecting him to, you know, the fact that he was at a 100 point pace over an 82 game season. Like, I don't know if I was ready for that. Sure. But based on that, for me personally, as someone who's watched Sidney Karasi play a lot of hockey over the years, that kind of reprimed the pump for me being like, all right, this dude is still, it's not going to last forever, you know, who knows, things and things change quickly.

Players get old real quick. We've seen it happen over and over and over again. But that dude has at least an elite offensive season or two left in the tank. And then we can talk about him transitioning into like old Sid, right, where he's the old man, where he's the old man playing hoops. Offensive zone starts. Tons of power play time.

No more D-Zone face-offs. Or, yeah, or he goes in the other direction. It's just like, yeah, I'm a second-line center now or whatever. Who knows what ends up happening. Don't talk like that. That's the most, I've said this for years. I am so fascinated to see what that dude looks like for the last few years of his career. Does he allow himself to be old man said or does he just retire?

when he can't be. I think, okay, so I asked Nate McKinn about that in Vegas, because we've always sort of, people have gone back and forth, I think with the prevailing wisdom as to how long Crosby was going to keep at it. And I think that people underestimate the possibility, for a little bit at least, that he is just not a guy that could handle being anything less than one of the five

best players on the planet. Gretzky was still a point-picking player. I mean, it was a different time, but he wasn't exactly a bum when he retired, but it wasn't the same, right? So, yeah. It's obviously different, completely different eras. But what McKinnon said is he basically said that things have, he basically said that things have changed in the last couple years.

And he's seen some, maybe not a rededication, but a little bit of a different approach. And he gets the vibe now that, that Crosby is, you know, the end of his current contract is in sight. You know, I think there was an open question as to how much longer he was going to last after that. And I think now it seems a little bit more likely that he's going to really play out the string in a way that we, in a way that maybe, I wouldn't have guessed a couple years ago.

I saw this TikTok. Wow, really? Yes, I love TikTok. everybody knows this. I send the funniest TikToks. My for you page is hilarious. I have a great sense of humor. That's something that the people with great sense of humor.

No, no, no, no. That's something that true. Oh, let me get, let me get this in. That's something that people with great sense of humor just famously say all the time. They say, yeah, I think so because we know we're funny. Yeah, yeah, we know that we're funny. You've never said it because you're not funny. We, we, the funny community.

Yes. The comedic community says these things like me. So on this TikTok, it was like looking at, I can't believe this kind of era of hockey is almost beyond us. And it was like, you know, picture of Sidney Crosby and Gennie Malkin and Alex Ovechkin, Stephen Stamcoast. Like think of all these players that are just,

it was like set to this really sad music too. Yeah. As if we're not still watching like Nate McKinnon, Kale McCarr, Trevor Zagr, Jack Hughes, like, these are the players I grew up watching. That's me saying I'm youthful. But like Sydney Crosby was my favorite player when I was in high school when I was a teenager. I watched these people in junior hockey and stuff when I was younger with my dad when I was still in grade school going to OHL games and stuff watching like John Tavares and Drew Doughty.

but it was like this really like emotional emotional music TikTok just like Sidney Crosby getting older this person would be like I'm getting emotional I'm like oh my god he's not honey he's still leading the league he is leading the league in five-on-five scoring why are you crying it's fine yeah don't let's not age age in before it before his time I love that people people like you're going to send him like a montage sending him off on ice flow like out of the and now everyone's slowly weeping because he's, you know, 35, which means, what a gift. What's that one tweet?

It's like, oh, what an inspiration. Here comes the 36-year-old man. He's the second-oldest player in the league. What a miracle. It's like, I'm 36. I have my entire life ahead of me. Yeah. No, that's like all that is that TikTok was made by a 26-year-old who is facing down for the

first time that they're not as young as they used to be. That's it. That's who that's for. I came into terms, because I came into terms of that a lot of a long time ago. So as of Thursday night before the seven o'clock game start, Sidney Crosby is second in five-on-five scoring in the league with 12 goals at five-on-five behind Jason Robertson. And he is tied for first with fellow old man Eric Carlson, 23, 5-on-5 points.

So it's a great year for Sydney Crosby. Nobody's surprised. One last note on the Penguins before we read a couple comments and get out of the show. because our lovely producer, Danielle, has to go on vacation. Must be nice. It is. You were just on vacation. It is nice.

I wasn't. When was my, I was in Copenhagen for the world championships, and I had five days off after that. And then I had an eight-hour flight home next to a crying baby and a very large man. Hey, come on, TikTok, Costa Rica's calling. Yeah. Whatever. I'm trying to make my point. Chris LaTang was skating with the penguins, what, 10 days, 11 days after suffering the second stroke that we know of, obviously, of his career. And he's listed now officially as day to day. I hate the warrior thing. I hate talking. And I think it's weird to call a guy a warrior after he had a stroke and he's back on the ice. It's kind of cringy. But it really is just remarkable that Chris Lattang is back.

on the ice and all the, I think Josh Yoey had a pretty good tweet about it being like, we are not doctors. Let's not tell Chris LaTang what to do with his body and his life on Twitter. I'm sure if he is on the ice, he was probably cleared to playing by a doctor who's way smarter than all of us. So let's not do the like, oh my God, he shouldn't be on the ice. He just has a stroke thing. I think he's got doctors and I think Chris LaTang can make his own decisions. Yeah, and they've handled this before. they know what his, what his condition is.

Penguins doctor noted that, you know, the stroke, it was a smaller or less serious stroke. Yes. Systems resolved quicker. He had a, it was manifest itself as migraines.

And here we are 10 days later. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not going to sit here and worry about, about Chris LaTang. You know, like, it's tough to imagine him doing anything that,

you know, he doesn't want to do. Yeah, that he doesn't want to do or they would endanger him all that much. Like, I'm comfortable giving him that level. of autonomy over

his body in his career and his in his life. I will say it just the the difference in the way this one was treated versus the first one is just wild. Because that's in, look, we didn't know back then that Chris Latang had a congenital issue with his heart.

It was the first time. It's shocking, right? When it comes through and it's just like Chris LaTang in a stroke, he's not with the team. No, I was, I was asleep. I was in, I was in, in bed like I slept in and we got it I got a PR email from the penguins being like Chris Letang you know is at a stroke it was it was shocking shocking shit right and it went it in the

recovery time was a lot longer and he was much sicker at that point than he was this time and that seems like it was a long time ago and now it's like the the second one it is wild just to see the change in the way it's been handled the way it's been covered the way Chris has is spoken about it because he talked after practice earlier. It's crazy. And I'm, and, you know,

I'm just relieved and happy for, for his sake and the sake of his family. It seems like he's fine and, you know, can kind of keep trucking because that was less, at least publicly, because everybody was guessing and being irresponsible after the first one. It was much less of a,

it was much less of a given, you know, five, five, six, seven years ago, whenever that was. Yeah, absolutely. Let's go to the comment section. Click your heels, answer the trolls riddles, blah, blah, blah. That's right. It's really not that hard to find. And if you do listen to the show and you comment, we appreciate you. Thank you. We'll read a couple here before we get out. Okay, so this is from Jacqueline W. To be fair, the rationale for not

making the crackin, the mascot, was that nobody's supposed to know what a crackin looks like, and that makes it scary and cool. But I'll be completely honest, I would have to prefer to vague shadow or an octopus covered in Vantablack rather than have to see Bowie's toes. Put those dogs away. Agreed. We don't need troll feet in the NHL. Booie's in the NHL mascot chat showing feet. My God.

No free feet picks Bowie. It's the only reason I haven't posted about my mop socks is because you have to do a barefoot. Otherwise, your real socks get wet. No, you would end up in a database real, real fast. Yeah. I'm not giving that out for free and I'm not desperate enough to sell that either.

Yet. Yet, until I get fired for the show being terrible. Michael Kay says it's just Thanksgiving. That's not true. I live in Canada. I respect Michael Kay. Michael Kay, long time Tuesday boys listener. Yeah, whatever.

I'm not down with you. You just say Thanksgiving, whatever country you're in. Just leave it to everybody else to guess. I'm not doing the American Thanksgiving thing either. Okay. So one of the other big parts of the show last week, and it's another one of those stupid things

that I thought was funny, and weirdly people engage with it. So thank you for sticking with me. Bob M said, Dom sure does add a lot of Zip to the show. The voting results? Zip? One, unanimously.

Zip. Just kidding. Umf one, which is disgusting. Oof sucks. Pep and step. Put it in powerings. last week. I did the strike through. Also, I kind of blamed Danielle because she didn't provide any context at all. She said important Friday poll, mf, zip, or pep in step. Well, that's if you

listen to the episode. If you listen to the episode, you know what the vote is about. We needed a little sentence, you know? What if someone just stumbled upon that? And they're like, ooh, uh, oomph sounds cool. No, it needs to be in a sentence. I think that's the way it goes. I think you just get, bring people in blind. Like, don't give them, don't saddle them with the baggage. Like my thread, I started out of context, athletic hockey show,

and it's typically just me eating. Mm-hmm. The one picture of me with the giant salad bowl. It was great. Anyways, umf got 51% of the vote. Pep and Step got 32% of the vote, and Zip got 17%.

Damn. A harsh world that we live in. Okay. Mack, Z. says R-A-P-P-P-P rest in peace

rest in power Pete the penguin Pete the penguin I thought she said R-I-P-P-P-P-P-P R-I-P-P I didn't know what the P-P-P-P-P R-P-P-P

What's going on here? Mack, what happened? Are you okay? No, it was Pittsburgh Penguins, man. Yeah, One of the great stains in franchise history, they killed a penguin out of neglect. That's, it's horrifying, really. Very upsetting.

All penguins are the same. Like, that's what it boils down to. Like, yeah, it's a penguin. Yeah, it'll be fine, just smiling and waving at our hockey rink and then going back to captivity every once in a while. It was like a little, like, the thing was like the size of a chicken. It was very small. Oh. Was he a baked?

Maybe. He was a small penguin. Just Google my name and penguin's mascot if you want to read more about it. I told you. I've done more. It's very sad. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the listeners.

Okay. Well, they don't want to do that either because it's sad. We got some more booey comments. Shana, Shana, Shana, M thinks he's really cute. I disagree. I'm sorry. Yeah. But yes, there was also a note in here, and we got one on Twitter.

And I thought I talked about this, but I think it was off the show because there is a troll, like, statue landmark in Seattle. So that's probably the hook is Bowie is the bridge troll landmark thing. Booey's fine. This is too much booey slander in the last couple weeks from you. I know. I'm sorry, booey. William T. says I'm going to start calling long sleeve shirts and sweaters arm pants. Oh, my God.

I forgot about arm pants. That was in the conversation about the dog sleeves. No, it was pants. Dog sleeves. Right? Why did I say arm pants? I have a guess. Because I'm stupid.

That's right. That's right. All right. Well, the show was great when Mary Philippe Poulin was on it. Well, isn't it? Bring her back. Bring her back for the send-off. She can read the plugs.

Yeah. You read the plug, Sean. Thank you, Haley. Thank you, Marie-Philippe. Listeners, don't forget to subscribe to the athletic hockey show on YouTube. I said this so many times it never gets less weird. YouTube.com.

Then an at sign. Not the word at. At sign. The athletic hockey show. You can also follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave a rating and review. unless it's bad, in which case cute yourself. And the offer is back.

Haley, I can't believe it. J.R. was shocked by this too. Annual subscriptions to The Athletic are just $2 a month for a year when you visit Theathletic.com slash hockey show. Can you believe it? Thank you. Everybody, enjoy your Fridays. Bye.

Thanks everyone for listening.