The Athletic Hockey Show - Matt Duchene of the Nashville Predators, Josh Manson joins Colorado Avalanche and Craig Anderson wins his 300th career NHL game

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

This week, Craig Custance and Sean Gentille spend some time with Matt Duchene who is having a career season in music city. Duchene discusses his kids Beau and Jaymes and their passion for hockey, especially when daddy scores. Matt talks about the Preds and his bounce back season as the Preds make another drive to the playoffs.With the trade deadline less than a week away, Craig and Sean wonder if the Predators will be able to re-sign Filip Forsberg, or will he be put on the big board, plus we hit on the Josh Manson trade to Colorado, Joe Pavelski being extended by a year in Dallas, Jim Rutherford looking to bring a current Penguins defensemen or two to Vancouver, and the guys discuss possible landing spots for Claude Giroux, Mark Giordano, Tyler Bertuzzi and Brock Boeser. We also stick tap Craig Anderson who recorded his 300th career NHL win, and he won his third outdoor game this week too.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody. Welcome to your friendly Tuesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, The Americans Edition, the best episode of the week by, like, by a country mile, I would say, Sean Gentile. I hope you guys are ready. I'm just going to reheat everything I talked about on the Monday show. You're phrased it slightly differently, but you're getting the same content. I hope you like the Monday show because here it is again. Igor Shisternaker.

for MVP. What do you think? I thought you were on the Johnny Gujo trade or train. I am. I think Dom's piloting the Shistercunmobile. Whatever. We're not talking about this. I talked about it 24 hours ago. I didn't even mean. I didn't want to extend that. I already

regretted it the second I said it in extending this conversation further because we have a great guest today. Matt Duchyne of the National Predators, not only having an incredible year, Matthew Shane. Like, go look it up. You may not have noticed. I'm not saying I didn't notice.

I'm just saying you, the listener made out of noticed. I'm saying you did not notice. You're like, hey, did you know Matthew Shane was heavy? Did you know that Matt Duchesne? A career year, like a legit, he's going to break personal records for goals and. He had 29 goals when we taped it. And it was last week. We taped on Friday morning and they've lost sense or whatever.

But the night before he had two goals. And he was in a. wonderful mood. I think that's fair to say. Who wouldn't be? Scores two goals. They're like kind of getting their stuff back together after a little bit of a swoon in January and February. And his kids are freaking out on Instagram.

His daughter is a year old cheering for daddy's goals. He's going to score 40 goals this season, Matt Duchet. He's going to score 40 goals. Like, things are going well for Matt Duchesne. I'm happy for him. It was great to catch up with him. And it's, like, this was a good, you know it's a good interview when he's, he's answering. And I like was, and I'm sure, I think, Sean, you're doing the same thing.

Like, you're taking notes. Because he had three or four, like, talking points in each answer, each answer that I was dying to, like, follow up on. He thankfully, we didn't step on each other trying to, like, tackle each other to answer, ask the follow-up question. He nuked any pre-interview talking points we had because, like, you come into it with at least broad. I know I do. Like, just at least broad strokes. I clearly don't write my questions out in advance as anybody who's ever heard me ask anything can attest. But like, you know what you want to talk about. And he, there were so many,

and I'm saying this in a completely positive way. There were so many like, aside and, you know, discussion, like Lanes for discussion that he opened up in his answers where you're like, okay, this is not. I don't have to, I don't have to ask about UC Soros. Like, who really cares about that? Like, he said four different interesting things. He said super interesting things. And he would do it really casually. He'd be like something, you know, as we all know, the league goes in three to five years cycles. And anyways, as I was sitting there, you know, setting up a goal in last next year.

And I'm like, wait, three to five years. And like, we do these interviews over Zoom. So like Craig and I can make eye contact whenever, whenever stuff like that happens. And he said that. And it was just like laser lock. We both looked at each other like, oh, okay. We got to make a mental note of that. And that's exactly what he means about it.

And you ask the exact same questions. as I did, which is like, are you talking about the league? Are you talking about individual teams? Like, whatever. So it was, it was a different kind of interview, honestly. He was, and he was great. Super, super thoughtful, super thoughtful dude. And again, it's all, it's all gravy whenever you're scoring as much as he is.

And he just had a huge game like 12 hours before that or whatever. But maybe we'll take it. That is the athletic hockey show Tuesday Promise is if these players schedule themselves in an interview ahead of time. good things will happen. Yes. You hear that players? Unless they're...

You separate your shoulder right after doing the interview? And you hang up a zoom and immediately go and separate your shoulder. That's not on us, to be clear, as much as devil's fans want to blame us to that. The other thing that I thought was interesting and like, I'm not going to, I'm not going to go into his answer because I wouldn't if I could. Yeah, I can't. You sort of alluded to the Philip Forsberg trade rumors at the end there, right? where you're like, you've been on the block as much as anybody. You've had different, he's requested trades.

He's had different contractual situations over the years with a few different teams that have led to this being for one reason or another, a high anxiety time of year. And that's something he's dealing with on the other end of things in a way because the speculation, especially last week, was, all right, well, it's going to happen with Philip Forsberg. Are they going to, is there a deal? to be made pre-deadline with him since he's a UFA? Where are they as a team? What makes sense?

And that's something the Preds were and probably are still reckoning with because we're six days out now. So, Philip, so today Eric DeHatchik launched the trade board. What do we on 3.0? It's on 3.0. And to prepare, I was like, well, let me see where Philip Borsberg is on there, if at all. And he's not. He's not.

Eric mentions him in the intro just saying, look, there are contract talks to get a deal done. And so he doesn't, he doesn't, he didn't have him on there. Now, I'm asking you, Jeanette Dilley, if you don't have a deal done on Monday or whenever your deadline is, and you're the predators and you're surprisingly good. And you hear what Matthew Shane saying. Like, I was buying into the, hey, like this team, there's something about this team. Me too. Maybe people always say that when things are going well. But I like he was pretty convincing.

And it's a human impulse on our part to sort of get swung over to the other direction whenever we have a conversation like the one we just had. Like like like you're like, oh man, I'm in. It's like it's like listening to a TED talk or something. And you're like, this is this is going to change the way I do things. Right. Like this is this has changed my this has changed my perspective on life. And in this case, it was Matthew Shane kind of changing our perspective on the predators.

I still, oh man, they need to have an idea, a really good idea as to whether they, if they don't get this deal done, if they don't, if Forsberg isn't locked, meaning if they don't get the contract done, if Forsberg isn't locked up for five more years or seven more years, you know, by the time, by the time, you know, the clock strikes on Monday, after all that, after all the, after all the persuasion from, from Matt Dushain, I still think they need to trade Philip Forsberg. And if they trade Philip Forsberg, then what the hell happens to the rest of the roster? Because you're giving up your best offensive player. I almost disagree. I think I do disagree. Because Matt Duchain's having a career year. But Matthew Shane, God bless him, is 31, right?

Like how many more of these years are you going to get out of that contract, even though there's one and two, he's got four more years on it at 8-mill after this? you know, he's in his 30s. A lot of those, you know, complimentary players are in that same age range. Roman Yossi's 31. I call him 31. Yosey's playing, he's having a great year, by the way.

I don't know if he really needed to bounce back after last year necessarily, but he's been great. Yeah. Like, I don't know. I think, I think you'd let it ride. I guess here's the question. If you know, maybe not beyond it.

a shadow of a doubt, but I mean, David Poil has been doing this for 100 years. Like, he's going to know whether Duchin or Duchin, whether Foresberg is coming back or not. So if there, or, or at least his, or at least his odds, he's going to have a good, a good sense of that. If you're like, this probably isn't happening where he's probably going to hit the market, he probably wants to go elsewhere. The question with the Preds is if that team is good enough to justify rolling with what they have and just saying like, screw it, let's see what happens. And I'm on the fence with that because the West is a mess. You have...

As you've clear, every week we talk about it, but it's the abs and then the flames. And then a group of teams below them. And then the stars in the Preds and those teams that are that are kind of on the bubble where if you squint, you can see them winning around or two or whatever. And I'm on the fence with that. The variable for now... And this is something that the stars can't say. And this is why I'm like a little bit more inclined to believe that the

Preds should hold, even though I'm not sure that's where I'm at completely, is that UC Saros is really good. And he's good enough where if you get to the playoffs, you can say like, and you're like, okay, well, whatever. We have Romaniosi. We have Mattichane. We have Phil Foresbury. Yeah.

Like we have some decent secondary pieces. And we have conservatively like a top seven goals. bull tender in the league in UC Saros. And you just say like, let's see what happens. What else do you want out of it? If you see the West is up for grabs, you just named like every core piece thing you need to make a ride. There's, it just still.

You want to break it up at the deadline? No, I don't. Like, I would love it if they, if honestly, I think it would be great if they had it. If they felt comfortable about a deal that they had in place with Philip Forzberg. And then we're just like, okay, this is fine. Like, this is it. this he's part of this core group for the next few years like we're still going in on it but if

Philip Forsberg walks next season or in the off season if he if he goes then again God bless Matt Dushain God bless Roman Yose that franchise is going to be entering a new phase in its lifespan if you lose your best off the best offensive player not just on that team at the moment, but in the history of the franchise, from a team that's already like on the bubble to begin with, is he the best forward in the history of the predators? Think of another one. Who else would it be? David Legwin. Yeah, your boy, David Legwin. Kelly Earncrock, whatever. I think if Philip Forsberg leaves that, that's, whenever that happens, if it's in the offseason, then the cell needs to be on because they're not going to be able to replace them for any

reasonable amount of money. And you're going to have like a few good players returning from a team that's like on the playoff bubble. I'm okay. I'm okay with them going in this year. Like I'm not like it in in a vacuum that's fine because we love when team we love it when teams try to win. That's like a guiding principle of this podcast.

Right. But yes. At some point, especially if Forsberg exits, they're going to need to make terms with what they are. And that is a bubble team that just lost, you know, a 40 goal score. Or you find another, like, I'm past a thing of like, you've got to get, you've got to, you've got to, you know, get something so they don't walk for nothing. Because also you have now six million in cap space in a, in a league where cap space is super tight. So it's not out of the realm of possibility that you, yeah, that's a good point.

That you swap in something. You let it right with Forrestberg on a team that could, we could. we could see make a run if we are to believe Matt Duchenne and it's a special group and they do seem to have the right ingredients in some, you know, they're not Colorado, but Colorado, let's say they get bounced by somebody or whatever.

Anything could happen. They haven't made it out of the second round. Like, I love the abs. I gas them up at every opportunity because I love watching them play. But we can be realistic about what they've done. I guess what I'm saying, I'm not, I'm not advocating just dumping Philip Forsberg.

I'm not saying trade them for 50 cents on the dollar. No, but it's a first and a B prospect. Like that's, so you're going to get, you know, a player who's going to be at number 27 overall in the first round of a draft that people aren't even trading. Like, people want picks in the next draft. And you're going to get, you know, a B-level prospect you may fill out, give you some depth. So much. I mean, but, okay, so think of it this way, though. Like, you can take cute.

from the market and you can see like what if what if jt what if they decide not to move jt miller like what if philforsberg is hands down yeah except and what if claude drew like doesn't want to get traded right like there's a scenario where phil foresberg is the lockdown 1a best forward on the market and if that happens then the offers could get silly i i think they should i mean whatever i'm i'm waffling here um but I think I've talked to you into the Predators, just let me ride. This is like part of, this is a philosophical thing. Like, I don't, I don't care if teams rebuild.

It doesn't matter to me. I'm not rooting for the Preds or the Stars on a personal level to tear stuff down. Like, I would rather just see them say, screw it. Let's see what happens because that's just, that's just my, my person. I'm not, I don't run these teams. I'm not in their front office. Like, is that the fun move as a consumer of the sport and as someone who covers the sport? It's endlessly more compelling if the Preds are in the discussion with those guys or the Dallas Stars are in the discussion.

Like, I like, keep them around. I don't care. But if I were in a front office, if I were in the Preds front office and I knew that we couldn't sign fellow Forsberg or had a 90, or we're like, this isn't care, or had a true gut feeling that we couldn't, I would move him. I don't care if they do or not. Fine. Roll into the roll into the, you don't have to explain to us. You're not in the front office of this team.

I think, I think there's a lot of, I'm, I think that's, that sort of mindset differs between media people too. Like, I don't know that everybody is just like, yeah, who gives a shit? Like, like, let the, let, let, let, let, let, let, let the, roll into the first round with whatever they have. I think there's a time to be decisive.

And I think there's a time to, to let it ride and based on where this team is and, you know, there is some experience under the belt. As Matt, like, we should get to, we'll get to the interview in a second because he was so good. But like, there was, you know, there is a history of success for some of these players. But then there was kind of like that, that cast a shadow over future teams. And now there's like, it's like, hey, anything can go at this point. And also, I would add if what he says is true, and again, not like, no reason they doubt him, But like John Heinz.

You know, if John Heinz has this heart to heart with the players and says, here's what I want from you. What do you want from me? You know, and both of everybody executes and it's working. And then you trade your best offensive player. Like, if you're the players, you're going, what are we doing here? Like, we bought in. We did everything you asked.

How much better did you want us to be like? What else do you want from us? And then you're going to just, you're going to just, you're going to trade. So, yeah. Let's go through. Let's go to the interview. We have to go. We've already, like, we've been dissecting it before anyone's heard it. Okay. So we're just going to leave to Hagic's trade board for later on. Let's do that in the third segment. Let's go through the rest of the trade board after our talk with Matt Dushain,

because I think there's a lot of interesting stuff in there. All right. We'll be right back. And then Matt Duchin. We are now thrilled to be joined by National Predator, Matt Duchin, who we, Sean and Matt were just talking about. Sean went to see how Matt did last night in the game pretty well, if you're curious, anyone who wants to look up the stats, so they could say that. But then got a lot of Instagram. Yeah, we'd like to welcome James Duchenne's dad to the show.

Yeah, yeah, pretty funny. So thanks for having me, guys. Yeah, man. Yeah, it's good to see you, man. You know, besides the kids. So I didn't see it. Can you guys give me a breakdown of what I missed on the incident? James knew that dad was having a big night.

She was tracking the fuck, man. She knew what was up. Yeah, I got a video after the game of just both kids going. They didn't go to the game last night. So just actually my son could last through the whole thing, but James would get tired. And she's only, she's a November baby. so she's just over a year old.

And so she can't last through the late games. So they stayed home last night, but we're watching the first period. And yeah, Phil gave me that great pass back door for an open net. And I guess she knew I scored and just went crazy. And then my son was excited too. And it was one of the best, probably one of the best videos I've ever received in my life, to be honest.

It's pretty special to be a dad and see stuff like that. See your little girl going absolutely bananas. It's pretty funny. I mean, it's happening. It's, I mean, your kids are almost that age, but like, it's happening a little early. James is, James is a year. She's like ahead of the learning curve, right? I can't, I can't get over how that reaction.

Like, she, both kids are kind of, they kind of, their milestones are all pretty, pretty far ahead. Like, Bo is, Bo is three and he's a size of like a five or six year old. So, yeah. And, uh, he's actually. hard to parent sometimes because emotionally still a three-year-old, but like he is like he picks stuff up. Like he'll memorize a song like three or four times after hearing it, which is crazy. I think I was like that as a kid too, but it's still nuts to see your son like that. So he's hard to parent sometimes because he's like stuff should make sense to him or you think

stuff should make sense to him. But then oh yeah, he's three. So and then my daughter James is just follows his every move and um she just like yeah she's she's ahead of she's ahead of where he was at uh at this age so pretty wild and she's starting to really talk a lot now and say a lot of different things and i'm pretty proud that uh golf is one of her uh vocabulary words so yeah we're rough to a good start so you got so you got bow wearing the i i saw you guys were kind of in in the outfits for the outdoor game. So you have him, you got the pump prime for him to be like a country, a country kid, like a country music kid. And James is playing golf. So you're like, you're hitting all the, you're hitting all the marks. Like, don't worry about hockey. You got a daughter who likes golf and a kid

who likes, you know, Hank Williams Jr. or whatever, like you're set. Yeah. No, he, uh, he loves music. He, he's, yeah, he's definitely, the apple didn't fall far from the tree on that one. I'll tell you that. So he loves everything, everything I love, which is great. And it's funny to see how much is genetic and how much is learned. You figure out pretty quickly, you get to know yourself better when you raise your kids because you get to see which traits you had no chance of not having and which ones were learned somewhere along the way. So my kids, yeah, my kids are both, you know, very happy go lucky, big personality, talkers. you know,

it was very much like their old man. So, love it. Yeah, pretty funny. I'm just trying to think of how, um, now I'm having like comparative anxiety and what my kids were doing at one

years old and they had, I don't think they were tracking the puck very well. But that's, because they're, because they'll turn out okay. They're also, they're also taken after their dad because their dad's bad at that too. Yeah.

I have no idea what's happening. I don't know if, I don't know if James is tracking the puck and it was me. I mean, Bow would, he sees me out there and you can pick me out. But I think she heard my name and has just gotten used to that. And then knew we scored. Like, I'll watch, I'll watch like, she'll climb off my lap and she'll go daddy, daddy, daddy

and point out my phone. She wants to watch like hockey clips or highlights. So I'll pull up some of my clips. And the puck goes in the net. She goes score. So she knows what she's watching, which is pretty cool. I like how you casually dropped in. She hears my name a lot on the.

broadcast this year. That was all pretty good. It's been a good year, man. She's heard it whatever. Like, she heard it 29 times. She heard daddy scored 29 seconds this year. I mean, that was maybe a, yeah, I don't know if I meant to drop that. No, I appreciate it.

We were just talking about the year you're having. And, um, I mean, it's been I for one saw coming, so I'm not surprised at all. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, so also with the team's success. But what are you seeing differently? Like, why is it seem to be all coming together for you right now?

Yeah, well, you know, I've, I've, I've, the last couple of years were just weird. I think, you know, coming into this team, I think there was a lot of, it's really funny, actually, both times I've been, you know, when I got traded from Colorado to Ottawa, I got there at kind of a time of turmoil and it hadn't quite. kind of bursted yet when I got there. But when I got there, I could just, you could see stuff was brewing. And then that kind of went that way.

And I struggled to start there. And then once stuff kind of became kind of more stable, that's when, you know, I took off and felt better and started producing and playing my game a bit better. And it was a very similar thing here. I think it came here. the team was very much and I think anybody in the organization would kind of admit it like the team was really

I remember my first year it was all about like everyone was hanging on that 2017 cup run and I think there's certain the league changes every like I could it's a conversation for another time and it's it would be a long one but the league turns over and changes every three to five years. The game changes, the style changes, systems changed, things change. And when I came in, it was kind of at the end cycle of kind of the team turnover in terms of like the team got to a certain point, playing a certain way, doing certain things. And then it was kind of at the end of running its course. So we were struggling. We're trying to figure it out. We had a great roster. I remember coming in that year, we were ranked like fourth in the league by all the, you know,

all the power rankings and everything. And there was a lot of pressure. I think, I think, I think, I think everyone felt the weight of the world on us. And that obviously, when you feel that pressure, you know, usually things don't go well. So that was, that was, you know, bizarre. And then obviously we had the coaching change. Obviously, a guy, Pierre Lavillette, who's an outstanding coach, was doing a great job, obviously.

And he was a big reason, actually, I wanted to come play here. And, you know, he ended up, you know, every coach has a shelf life. And, you know, his kind of came to an end, I guess, here. And, you know, John Heinz came in and that was a complete rerout. Then COVID hit. Then we go to the bubble. Then last year's a weird year. I get hurt for most of the year.

So it was just like, there was just all this stuff. And like my first 20-some games where I got hurt last year, I actually felt really good about my game. And I just wasn't producing. No one really was on our team. We just couldn't score. We were still trying to figure ourselves out and figure out, you know, know, what our identity as a team was. And then we found ways to win, but I don't think we were quite last year.

I don't think we were, we were winning, but we weren't, it was like stressful hockey. We were like playing very conservative. We weren't making many mistakes, but we weren't generating much either. And for me as an offensive player, that's a tough game for me to play in terms of, you know, I want to buckle down and be really solid defensively and do all those things. But, and be as good a 200 foot player as I can be for the team. the same time, like I felt, you know, a little bit handcuffed and didn't, I felt like I wasn't, you know, I, I, all I was saying about was getting pucks in, finishing checks, blocking shots and

being in the right position. And if I'm thinking that way, there's no way my best is going to come out. So, um, the playoffs was a turning point for me. I kind of just let it all go and said, you know, I'm just going to let it fly and just, you know, be myself. And, um, I think that was a turning point. And then I think a bunch of us had some great conversations with, uh, with Heinzzi this fall and over the summer and we really iron things out to kind of, okay, what do you need and what do we need? And we've got a great thing going right now. And I give him a lot of credit in terms of the changes he made.

And then I give, you know, my teammates and everyone a lot of credit and voicing their opinion and speaking up for what was best, what we felt would be best for us to help the team win. And, you know, I think we've really come together and made it, just a great partnership. And I think I just give the coaching staff, Heinz and everybody, such credit for really hearing us out. And we'll be willing to, you know, be flexible,

be willing to come into the season and say, okay, boys, here you go. Here's, here's, this is what you told us we need. You need. Here you go. And we took the ball and ran with it. And now there's that trust that's built up there between, I don't think there was a ton of trust before, whether it was from our side or for his side.

And it was never personal. It was just, you know, a business relationship that, that started in a very tumultuous situation where he comes in midseason, COVID hits bubble, COVID short and season the year after, all this stuff. So the long answer of it is, you know, this year is just it's autopilot for me and a lot of the guys. We know it's expected. We go out. We know how much we're going to play.

We know who we're playing with. We know what the power play is going to look like. We know all this stuff. So it's just about then your personal performance and getting it. done and feeling comfortable and feeling confident and feeling that belief from the organization has been the biggest difference I think this year for a lot of us and that's why so many of us are having great years. Man, you said a lot in there that I would like to dig into.

That was a long answer, but it was long, but like really insightful. And I know you said this is a longer discussion, but this is stuff I love talking about. You talked about the three to five year cycle. We can talk about that for the next half hour. I want to talk about that until the end of time. Because I don't know if I've heard it put in those terms. And I just want to make sure I'm understanding if you're talking about a team's three to five year cycle. Like, Sean and I were just saying, hey, are they just done?

Like, are we done with them for a while? Or is it the league itself where it's like, hey, this is a three to five year cycle. Where the league, the game looks completely different five years later. Well, I think it's a bit of both. Yeah. I think. So when I came into the league, And a lot of the time it goes by, you can really look at guys' production, point production,

and see where the league is at. Most of my career, guys weren't getting 90 points. So the game was, I remember, you know, so my first year in the league, Chicago wins the cup. That was kind of the last year. I think Henrikstein won the points that year with like 110. The next year, I can't remember who won that year the points, but the next year, Boston won. And they won with like a bigger, like, heavy team.

You know, guys like Luchich were like premier, he was a premier player at the time, Charra. Like all these guys like, they were a different team than L.A. wins. And L.A. was won every game two, one. And I remember going into play at Staple Center. And it's like you wouldn't even touch the puck. The routine, Minnesota Wild was like a stingy team.

The Arizona Coyotes were like that. Like there were certain buildings you went into, you wouldn't even touch the puck. It didn't matter how good or bad you played. You just wouldn't, you would not touch it. It was nuts. Like, I remember playing in Arizona so many times and I saw them on the, I'd see them on the schedule. I just go, I'm not going to touch the puck tonight. And then, you know, there's, there's points of the, of, you know, where guys are getting like 80-something points and they're leading the league in points or whatever.

And the game just has, it's gone through so many different cycles. and it's such a fast, skilled offensive game now where it's like teams are like, you know, turning a puck over at the blue line, no matter who you were at the start of my career was a Cardinal Sin, you'd sit on the bench. Like I remember getting benched one time. I tried to chip it in and it was either like twice happened.

One time Lidstrom knocked it down. And like I tried to make the right decision, but didn't get it in. You're on the bench, you know? He was pretty good at that, by the way. Yeah, he was. Yeah. You're not alone on that one, I don't think.

He did it to many people. And yeah, if you're rope at that point, like maybe you weren't, if you're producing a lot at that point, yeah, maybe you had a little more rope. But now it's like if you don't, if you don't have the ability to make those plays now, you can't win because if you look at the top teams in the league, all the, all the way they're playing, you need to be able to make plays. Obviously, you're not toe dragging at the blue line or making, you're not turning pucks over consistently.

And I think our coach has a great balance of it. He's led this year, especially where he's letting us make plays and, and, and, and, and do what we need to do. But if it gets to the point where it's like, guys, we're turning it over. They're coming back several, several times. Like, we talk about puck decisions all the time. So there's that fine line and the game just changes all the time.

And you see different, I mean, look at the evolution of the power play. I mean, my start of my career was all overload. You had two D-Men. You had a guy in the half-all, a guy on the goal line and a guy in front of the net. That's the way it was. You could never run that now. You would never have any success. every team's in an umbrella.

Some teams even will rotate into the spread. You look at how aggressive penalty kills are. It's just, it's unbelievable how things change. And if you're not evolving with it, you're going to get left behind. So, I mean, you kind of saw it with a team like L.A. Not that they got left behind, but they went from a dominant, dominant team. They won two cups. And then the league changed.

And they had to kind of reroute. Now they've got some of those young, faster guys, and they're a playoff team again. So it's all about like adjusting to the different areas you're playing in. And I think that was one of the biggest things, you know, that that's changed for us here in Nashville was this team got by and was elite playing a certain way when the league was a certain way. And then as the league started to change, the organization, the team had to change. And I think, you know, everyone here has done a great job with that. And, you know, whether it's a coach changing some systems or whether. it's like a different approach from up top, whatever.

I think, I think it's really, you know, important to, to just because something worked yesterday doesn't mean it's going to work today. And that's really hard, like, especially if you're a passionate hockey person and somebody that believes in your, your systems and your message, it's, that's hard to, to kind of, you know, really take a look at and make that change. And, you know, I think the, but the best teams and the best organizations do it. And there's certain teams and organizations that have been great. for 10, 15 years, and they're probably the ones that have, that have adjusted,

they've, they've hit a roadblock, made adjustments, and kept going. Maybe like, you look at a team like Pittsburgh Penguins. I mean, they, Sid's messed the playoffs one year. I mean, yeah, that's the Crosby effect too. But at the same time, how many different coaches have they had, how many different people have they had come in and out and they just keep going forward. And you have Mario at the top, who obviously I think is probably the, uh, such a big part of that.

but you have all these, they just keep, they keep, you know, keep being current and they keep making the playoffs. So they're such a great example of that. And, you know, obviously I don't know the ends and outs of that and how and what's gone in because I don't obviously play for Pittsburgh. But I can imagine they've had several conversations as the league's changed and, you know, certain guys are coming in, certain guys are coming out, you know, how to keep moving forward. So it's really interesting to watch teams go through through the different, you know, roadblocks and then break through.

And it makes our game amazing because there's. So many smart people in our game and people are always, and so many great players, there's always something new coming in and the game's always changing. So it's tough to stay the same. I mean, that's one of the fascinating things about you guys over the last couple years, too, is you look at the, I mean, there are core elements on that team, on your team, whether it's Roman or whoever else who were holdovers, right, from that run that they had in 20, in 2016 and 2017. But to be able to sort of, you know, you guys are in a good spot. you're having you're you're having a strong year you're in that group and in the western conference

where you know whatever we don't don't have to write you in pen for the playoffs just yet but you're there and they you guys have managed to get there without bottoming out over the last couple years and i think that's right yeah i think i think i think i think that's a fascinating kind of thing like especially it to start last year like whatever you guys you guys started slow fair question was like is it time to blow stuff up should they should they start moving guys out And then the way you guys finished and kind of using the playoffs as an off ramp to what sounded like a pretty good off season for you guys. I mean, it's been really, it's been really fascinating to watch, honestly. Yeah, you know, it's funny is it felt the way people acted and treated us was like we were a bottom five team in the league, which was kind of funny.

And we probably used that a little bit as motivation. But at the same time, I said last year, I remember telling David Poyle and and Hines in our exit meeting that the fact that the fact that, that we made the playoffs last year is such a tribute to the character we have in the room, because we had like a 2% chance at one point to make it. And we figured it out. And yeah, none of us were, we were all stressed. None of us really necessarily were happy with our games, but we found ways to win. We parked everything at the door personally and said, you know what?

I don't care about any, I don't care that I'm, you know, not confident. I don't care that I'm not scoring. I don't care that I'm not producing at the rate I like to be. I will just do anything it takes to help this team get in the playoffs and win. We had a great series of Carolina, obviously, four overtime games, you know, really could have gone either way. And that's a premier team in the league right now. So I think, yeah, we use that as a springboard to, okay, we know we have the character.

We know the leadership. We know we have what ability we have to figure it out any way possible. Now, how can we make it better? How can we make it more fun? How can we do? And everyone was on board with that from coaches to GM to organization to players. I mean, everybody, we figured out a way to enjoy playing the game again and win at the same time. And it didn't have to be stressful.

It didn't have to be a grind every single day. And it's made our team better because when you're having fun, you're doing your hockey. Hockey's supposed to be fun. It doesn't matter what level you're playing at. And the more you win, the more fun it is, the harder you work, you know, the more you win. And it's just a vicious cycle. So we found a really great balance of that. And I think we have the group and the character to, I think, know how much fun we can have

without taking it for granted and just thinking, oh, we can just show up and put the gear on. We kind of went through a phase like that through February. We went through a really, we had a really good January, good December. I mean, we hadn't hit much adversity. And our schedule lightened up because of the change schedule of the Olympics. from the council of Olympics. And we kind of took our foot off the pedal a little bit. We weren't playing as much.

I think we kind of, I think it's human nature. I mean, mentally, maybe you have two or three days between games. You check out a little bit. Then you forget what your identity is. And we played a terrible game in Seattle. They played really well. They beat us. And, you know, Heinzzi gave us a kick in the ass in San Jose before that game.

And was like, we've gotten away from this, this and this. And he was hard on us. but it was also very fair. He didn't attack anybody personally. It was just very like, hey, we got to get our active gear again. And all of us left the meeting being like, yep, yeah, that's fair. That's fair. That's fair.

And then we go out and have a great game against San Jose. We've won three in a row now. So I give our team a lot of credit that we've just been able to stay like this. And it starts to coaches and then it goes down to the leaders and then it keeps trickling downhill the rest of the team. So it's been just an awesome vibe this year. It feels like we have something special here. Whether, you know, we win this year, we don't. I mean, only one team can win the Cup,

but I know I feel really good about the path we're headed on. And I think we were all questioning it the last couple of years where we were headed. It just felt like we were lost. And I think right now all of us feel like we have a just a very clear perception and vision of who we are in our identity. You said you guys got together with John Hines before this season. And there were certain things sounded like a. players that this is how we want to play or this is how we prefer things went. Is there some things you can share that just gives us an indication of his flexibility or what

what the compromise was or what that looked like? Yeah, I think there was, it came both ways. Like he needed, he needed certain things from us. And it wasn't with their individual meetings. So, but we all knew what was, we all felt, we all knew how we felt as a group. And we kind of, I think we all went in. pretty similar opinions. And he gave us the same message back and what he needed.

And it's tough to really break down the specifics. I think it was just like, you know, knowing what to expect each day for me, like just knowing like, like, you know, to be an offensive player, you have to play a certain amount of minutes. You have to play in certain situations. And I said, if you want me to be this guy, I need this opportunity. And if you give me this opportunity and I, and I don't, I don't perform. That's on me.

I just want that opportunity to say, hey, if I fail, it's because of, of that. And he gave me that opportunity. And then he asked for certain specific things for me in terms of certain things I did on the ice. Just, you know, I think I got more of a clear vision of what he expected for me. I think I probably took everything to literally where I felt like I had to finish every check, block every shot. Obviously, you're going to try and do those things. but you can't, like, you can't, you know, be perfect. You're never going to be perfect.

I felt like last year I had to be perfect. And perfection is demoralizing. That's that old saying. And, you know, you strive for excellence. It builds you up. You strive for perfection. It brings you down. And I think once I realized, like, okay, I got a little bit of wiggle room here.

And as long as I'm working, doing my best, trying to try to do the things that, you know, that is expected of everybody, this other stuff will come. And that's, that's been that way for all of us. I know all of us were, like a lot of our key guys, if not all, we're feeling that way. And it was a stressful year last year. And I'm sure, you know, it was sometimes in this game, you lose perception of reality as players, as coaches, as organization, whatever. And you're trying to accomplish something so hard that, you know, you lose communication. And that was something that we've had much more of this year, too. And it's just been a great, it's just been a great bond as a coaching staff and as players this year.

And you're seeing the result of it on the ice. We just know exactly what's expected of us. When we don't do it, we know we have to fix it. And the coaches know what we need to be successful and what helps us. So it's just been really great. And I'm just very grateful for that open line of communication that we all have. And that's what it takes to win. And I think that would have come earlier had it not been for the wonky coaching change

midseason, 20 games later, COVID, then bubble, then it was just stop, start, stop, start, injury, this, that other thing. So it was, you know, finally got some kind of continuity and some regularity to the season. So it's been good. So were those conversations part of exit meetings or was that stuff you had after the offseason with him? Like where you guys really started to do the work and understand each other better? Some guys did it in exit meetings. Mine was at the start of the season.

That was after an offseason that you changed a lot of stuff. and, you know, after, it seems like, over the summer, right? Like, that was a, that was a tweak for you. You know what? I think, I think there just need to be some distance. And I think, I think we generally felt good about how the team performed down the stretch and our result in the playoffs, even though we lost. It was like, okay, we're heading the right direction.

But then there was just a bit still off. And we knew at that point it was, it was our next step. And I think everybody, like, I mean, I give Heinz, a ton of credit. The first thing he did when he saw me when I was back in town, it came up to me and said, hey, let's get together. And I knew we had to talk at some point and go through because other guys that already had those meetings or had in the spring or had them already. And we sat down. And ever since then, it's been like, okay, we're on the same page. And it's not that we were like, you know, it's so funny. Like, you hear this stuff like,

oh, the guys aren't on the same page, coach player on the same. It's not, it's not, it's not, doesn't go like that. We all want the same thing. And we're all trying to go for the same, same goal. We all want the best for each other. Heinz, he's an awesome guy. And he's, I thought that of him, even when I maybe was confused of what he wanted for me or was, you know, kind of like, geez, you know, what do I got to do here? Like, I've, I've always thought that he's an outstanding professional.

He's a great coach. His exes and O's and his clarity and his teaching are outstanding, his work ethic. I can't say enough good things to be honest about him. And I thought a lot of those things, even when we. We weren't maybe on the, quite on the same page. So I knew that there was, I knew we could figure it out. And I hope he felt the same with me. And we've had nothing but great conversations.

And he's taken so much great time with me. Even at the start of the year when things were going well, he sat me, he'd show me a video and be like, hey, this is this stuff right here is, is awesome. I just wanted to share this with you. And I'm a person who likes that type of feedback. And whether it's good or bad, I want to, I'm always looking to be better and find ways that can help my game. And so just to hear those words was meant a lot to me.

And it, it just, it helped my game keep going forward because I knew I was on the right track. And it was like, okay, these are the things that I'm doing well. And I got to keep doing these things along with the offense. So that open line of communication this year has just been amazing. And I think we've all really benefited from it. And top to bottom, doesn't matter who has been. And I know we're up against it here, but I did want to ask you, like we're getting into

that point of the season, trade deadline. And you more than anybody, maybe. maybe in a league can understand what somebody's going through. And maybe even a teammate right now, right? Like, there's still some uncertainty with this team. What is it like right now for a player kind of in the crosshairs where you're going into every town and that's all anyone wants to talk about? Your name is at the top of a trade board or whatever. Like, what is that like in reality?

It's only as stressful as you make it on yourself. I think if you make it simple, in terms of I got a game today. I'm going to play my best. I don't know what the future holds. I don't know where I'm going to be, but this is what I need to be. We need to do for my teammates for myself,

for the team I'm currently playing for. It doesn't matter what situation you're in. If you're like, I've been in the situation where I wanted a fresh start, but it didn't matter. I came to the rink every day and worked hard and tried to be the best player I could be. And I owed that to my teammates. I own that. I owed that to myself.

I've been a situation where, you know, I was not resigning. I was on my way somewhere else. I didn't know where, but it didn't matter. I was expected. I was on a young team. I was expected to be a leader. I was expected to show up every night. And that's the only way you can go about it because this is a business and it sucks sometimes.

how much of a kind of piece of meat asset you are. You know, you always hear that, but it's a reality of it. We're paid very well to do that. We get to live our dream of playing hockey for a living because of that. So the best thing to do, I think, is just keep it in perspective as best you can and just try and go and play the game you love and try and do it the best of your ability. It gets complicated and it gets tough when families come into it, lives, girlfriends, whatever. That's when it gets really tough.

But at the end of the day, the only way you can, can go about it is try and be the best for your teammates, for your current team, for yourself. And, you know, because you never know where you're going to end up. You might not get traded. You might get traded. You might resign. You might not resign. Who knows?

So, yeah, you got to keep it simple. You can't let all the, you can't read your own press. You can't be on Twitter. You can't be watching this side of the other thing. It's just a waste of time. It's a waste of energy. It's a waste of effort. You just got to worry about playing the game, just like you would at the start of a brand new

contract. even like even if you're ignoring everything i i find uncertainty really hard to operate under that's all you know what i mean even if you're not even if you throw your phone in the lake or whatever um not it's like it's a it's a daily thing too right like that's part of the struggle is like one one day you might be on board with it and you're and you're in the right headspace but you know you don't you don't you don't you don't stay there like keep me it would be hard I would be, yeah. For me, the hardest times are when I'm not playing hockey. So, right, the hardest times where, were the summer before, like, when I was getting drafted. I was just like, I remember being like, there was days I was so unmotivated in the gym because I was just like, I don't know what I'm working out for yet, you know? Like, I don't know who I'm working out for. I don't know. I remember saying to my trainer one day, I just want to know, you know. And obviously, at 18 years old, you're way more impatient than you are. when you're in your late 20s or whatever.

But even then, like I remember going to free agency. I remember getting home. We finished that year. We lost in the second round. When I was in Columbus, we lost to Boston. May 10th, we were done. And I had basically until July 1. So you have almost two full months.

And I remember, and nothing crosses your mind other than that every single day. Where am I going to be? Where am I going to be? What's going to happen? And that's when it gets hard. When you got a game to prepare for, it's easy because you just you just worry about playing the game you're in your normal schedule you get to do what you love so that certainly gets really hard when um that certainty gets really hard

when you're you're not able to control and do what you love doing i guess i guess is what i would say i was that nashville deal was done really early wasn't that the speculation on the at the time oh yeah it was but it wasn't uh it was uh it was it was uh there was some weird cap stuff that went on that year. Remember that? Yeah, it wasn't quite as bad as I felt very grateful that I was a free agent that year, not the following year when COVID had hit. Yeah.

But yeah, the cap, I think, was supposed to go up a few million more than it did. And it threw some wrenches into guys who, because there was a bunch of guys that signed before the cap went up and it set a certain market. And then the cap didn't go up. And the market changed. And it was, it was like for, you know, you had to kind of reevaluate. And, you know, our self, your self worth is a player so involved. and it doesn't matter how much money you're making.

You could be giving me, I always say if I earned, if you were paying me in like rocks, like how many rocks am I going to get? You know what I mean? And it's like, I think I'm worth this. That's just how you think. It doesn't,

it's not really the dollars and cents. And once you kind of get over that, you realize like, okay, you know, where do I want to be? You come, becomes, you get,

set your ego aside. You set your pride aside. That's a really hard thing to do sometimes, especially when, um, you work as hard as you do to earn something and whether it's money or something else you feel like you should be getting you know a certain amount of whatever for what you've done and and it can that's when it can get really complicated

and that's where you have to simplify it and say okay where do I want to be who do I want to play with what city do I want to live in or whatever as a free agent in that sense so obviously trade trade is different because you can't control it but um yeah it it could be very complicated and yeah mine was no different for sure there's you're definitely evaluating and every small detail, even when it, like, it was a simple decision for me to come in Nashville, but at the time it wasn't because I had to, I had to flip over every rock and look in every nook and cranny to make sure I was making the right decision. And I wasn't, I wasn't just clouded by something that I'd wanted for a long time. So, um, fortunately, it's been a great

decision. And my family and I have never been happier. And it's, it's even, you know, it's so great, how great hockey's gone this year. It's just been, uh, you know, the final piece of the puzzle that I've been missing. So, um, yeah, things are good. right now and we want to just keep going forward and hopefully have a long playoff run here. Let's keep it going. Let's get like a couple more Instagram videos of James. Let's hear so. Let's hear some of a few more goals.

That'd be great. Well, thanks for doing this. I know you've probably got kids heading down the stairs or whatever as we speak with nap time wrapping up. So we'll let you get out of it. But thanks for doing this, Matt. Good seeing. Awesome.

Yeah, I appreciate it, guys. Thanks. Well, that was one of the easier interviews we've ever done. Just let them go. How many times? How many times during that where we just look at each other? Like, okay, we're set. Thanks, Matt.

So good. You know what I was actually thinking? This is how stupid I'm like, because a lot of times you'll transcribe these and turn them into a Q&A and that's like we're double dipping and you get, you know, you get some extra work out of it and some, some page views. I'm like, oh, what is Sean going to do with this? Because you can't do a Q&A? Like, that's where my mind goes. I'm like, how do we convert this into some sort of digital text?

because it was so good and insightful, but I'm like, what is John going to do here? It's such a stupid reaction to have because like, it's not like, it's not like, because I felt the same thing. It's not like anxiety necessarily. But like my mind was there throughout at different points. And I'm like, I don't know what I'm going to do with this.

What are you going to do with this interview? Because it's great for audio. And it's Tuesday morning. And I haven't done anything in the way of a transcript yet. And spoiler, I'm probably not going to because it's like just something. You're just going to let this die in. the vine? I don't know. I mean, it's something, like, there's certain things that play better on audio, and I think that was, I think that was one of them. Like, I could have written an as told to

column by Matt Duchesne based on, based on stuff there. Yeah. But you can't do that after the fact. You can't be like, here's, exactly. Oh, yeah, by the way, like, buy Matt Duchyne for the athletic. He always said, he's going to buy a light in the athletic. He's like, what? I didn't say for that. Have you, okay, so I had never known Matthew Shane to be that, that good of a talker. And I, And I know you have a relationship with him, but like, that's based on scrums mainly. And he was fine. He was always fine. I was not anticipating nine minutes of uninterrupted, you know, thoughtful soapboxing from him.

That's not, that's, that's, that's not what I was ready for. Well, we're all the beneficiaries of it. I know. And. So you're saying, you're saying you weren't surprised. You knew that he was going to come in and do that. No, no, no. I knew Matt would be good.

I mean, like, who, knows. You never know if someone wakes up and they, I think it helped that he had two goals and an assist or whatever the night before. And, but, you know, Matt Duchin is a very thoughtful, um, here, not to extend our little outro here anymore, but like, let me give you an insight into Matt Duchin. So when he was on the Ottawa senators and he was in the trade spotlight for a long period of time. And as a player, that's a miserable place to be. Like, this goes back to Colorado. Like, he had been in the trade spot like then. And I remember him coming through town.

And everybody, like, it's all he's being asked. It's all anyone. And so we're just chatting before we pull out the, pull out the recorders and the cameras flip on. And he's, I think, I think he just had his baby, like talking about his family. And it was almost like apologetic. It was like, you know what, Matt? All right, you know where we got to go with this. He's like, hey, guys, you got to do your jobs.

Let's, hey, let's dive into this. Don't worry about it. Let's do this. And then we flip the cameras on. And you know what I mean? he went into like gave good answers. It was never like rolling of the eyes and here I go again. I just did this in Toronto.

Now I got to do that. Like it was like he was just like, hey, I want to like. It was just pro stuff. And and then we shut the cameras off and then whatever. And it was like, then you just chat again. Like I don't know. Like I got it was just good. Like he was like, you have a job to do.

I have a job. I'm, you know, the fans want to know this stuff. We're going to just do this and be pros about it. And I don't know. I always appreciate it. It's always good to get guys who get it. You know, we're taking a break from the only good segment on the show this week because are we really?

We're not even going to whatever. The comments weren't very good. Do you guys got to step up your game? I think, I think the fatigue of the process is starting to get to people. We all said, Nick D. Yeah. Talking about our Eric Tulski, our chat with him last week. Eric Tulski mentioned he stayed with his folks during the GM interview in Chicago.

Does this mean the Blackhawks literally interviewed a blogger? living in his parents' basement for GM. Oh my gosh. Kind of. You didn't want to save that for the last final segment? I got to talk about that for 20 minutes. Not true. I mean, we got to throw the break still here.

Do we have to throw a break? Oh, God, we do. I mean, this is the Matt Duchyne outro, Sean. Okay. Well, whatever. We'll be right back. We have a lane change. We are going to do the comment review.

This is the only good segment on the show. What happened during the break? You had a, you had a, It's almost like you got yelled at by me and said, how dare you, which never happened. A change of heart. Please get back in the comment section on the athletic audio section

and ask us questions and whatever. You guys let us down this week. My feelings are hurt. Yeah, what's wrong, everybody? Everything okay out there? You just not feeling it? Provide us content. Do our work for us.

Or else then we got to go on Twitter and say, hey, we're doing. We're taking questions. Like a bunch of losers. Imagine doing that. Asking for questions on Twitter. Embarrassing. Embarrassing.

Nick D. says Eric Tulski mentioned he stayed with his folks during the GM interview in Chicago. Does this mean the Blackhawks literally interviewed a blogger living in his parents' basement for GM? I think it was a reversion to, well, first off. Eric was never living in his parents' basement. He was a PhD who was working for a very serious

company. Yes. He wasn't. But he did blog, right? Like, he did, he had an analytics. Spiritually. He had, like, literally, literally he may not have been a blogger living in his parents' basement. But he was a blogger previously.

And in this moment in time was living in his parents, staying in his parents' basement. Staying in his parents. If you tie it all together. It may have been a guest room. We don't know that. Oh, yeah. We don't know if we're trying to be very literal. We don't know if it was his parents.

We'll let's do a follow up. Caleb at 1107 on his time stamps. To me, it looks like the three most top heavy in the league would be the stars, the Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs. What do you think? I agree with two of those. I think the stars are top heavy. We said Joe Pavalsky resigned with him, I think, since we last spoke.

Yep. We like that deal, right? I love it. Yeah, why not? I like, we love it for everybody. It's better for the stars than I thought I was going to be. Shorter and cheaper. Go for it, Dallas.

The Rangers, I said this yesterday, but the Hart Trophy should be split evenly between Igor Sturkin and the Rangers power play. That is not a good five-on-five team. In the Toronto Maple Leafs, that is the question to me.

On a good day, the Maple Leafs are not remotely top-heavy, but I think a problem that we've seen from them, and we're not going to talk about this all that much because they play in Canada. The issue with them, aside from atrocious goaltending, which we can just leave, you know, leave in another bucket. it.

What makes me nervous about them is since January 1st, Matthews and Marner have been in God mode. And a huge percentage of their offensive output has come from that line with Matthews and, with Matthews in Marner and in Bunting. So they should be nervous. But that being said, I think on a good day, that's, they're playing top heavy hockey right now. I don't think it's a top heavy. I don't think it's a top heavy team. Okay. Nicholas Kay says

he'd just like to take a moment to welcome you back and offer you a new regional media award for East Lansing. Oh, okay. What's it? Based on Big Ten football, he's going to be the only sparty to see Indianapolis for a long time. Hell of an accomplishment.

And Adam W. Adam W. Yeah, I just saw this one. Can we dissect this? Yeah, sure. Adam W., not going to lie. Kind of a disappointing episode. Interviewing was great.

the comment section including the tweet March Madness went a little long which is reasonable well I hope you're ready for this I'm taking this we're going to extend this one to 45 minutes Adam W let's Adam we're going to talk about let's go back to tweet March Madness no maybe that was a little bit self-indulgent was it self-indulgent to talk about your tweet in in your place you know I really try not to do that I think I think it's one of those things we're immediately people care about Twitter 100 times more than the average person does. And I think it affects the discussions. And I think it's a net negative on the earth.

Maybe I thought that whole situation was a little bit more funny than it actually was. I don't know. We could, you have to go back and listen. I enjoyed talking about it. So do I. If you want to hear us allude to, if you want to, hear us allude to, hear us to hear us allude to terrible tweets from Damien Cox and whoever else was in that, was in that, was in that, was in that discussion. If you don't want to, sorry.

Yeah. The best part which you all didn't get to experience was Sean then explaining the tweets to me after the fact and like company slacks and saying, hey, this is this is what I was referencing. By the way. This is. Oh. Thank you that I didn't have to discuss any of this publicly. So that was way more fun. You know what?

So Adam W. You know, we'll be better. We'll be better. But you guys got to be better too. I will say this, Adam. I will take constructive criticism. and I like to learn from that, and I will in this case. But you also didn't ask a question as a commenter.

The big time variable, baby. So if you, like, I will take the, I hear that constructive criticism, but I also would like to offer my own. If you're going to do that, please ask us a question. Yeah. So then we can get better. We'll gladly answer it. Interact.

Gladly. Let's go through the, let's go through the trade board real quick, right? All right. Do we want to get to the trade board? Do you want to do that? Okay. So we have briefly, I'm like, I'm self-conscious at our third segment. It goes too long.

This is what people want to hear. They don't want to hear us talk about. This is fair. They don't want to hear us talk about tweets. Like, it's trade deadline time. We can, we can spin through this. All right, all right. Mark G. Ordeno is at the top of this now.

Mm-hmm. That situation fascinates me, and it has always fascinated me, because Ron Francis wanted a first and a third to not take him from the, from the Calgary Flames. Obviously didn't get that. We saw Colorado trade for Josh Manson. yesterday and they and they gave up. Trade, you loved.

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, for since, uh, since, since, uh, since, uh, since Anheim retained half, for what that team needs right now, given that, you know, bone, Byram and Sam Gerard are both, are both out. Like, like, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll take it. I, I liked it more than I thought, but because of the salary retention, that is also a decent price to pay for Josh who's, who's, who's UFA after this season. They gave up Drew Hellison, who's a good prospect. Pranman had him as a, as, you know, whatever, kind of a borderline second, third pair guy moving forward.

He was on the Olympic team. He's a really good college player. And they got a second round pick in addition to that. So at this point in their careers, and I know Josh Manson is a different player, and I know he's a right shot. If Josh Manson costs two assets like that, don't you just, you, I would rather, I would rather have Mark G. Jordano for a second round pick in a prospect, right? Giordano's still good. What if it ends up being Giordano for a first and a third? It would be fun.

Can you imagine that? The Ronnie, the Ronnie franchise revenge tour. He was like, guess what? Dumbies for making fun of me for not, for not taking $2 on the dollar for Mark Giordano at the start of, at the start of the season. Jokes on you. Claude Giroux still Number two

Colorado right It's got to be Colorado Let's just do this I was talking to Peter Baugh We just were chatting And we were just talking about What the lines would be And maybe even put Claude Jure

On like your third line And your top power play unit And how awesome with that And he gives like They go into the playoffs And now they got a little edge to them And everyone's like rooting for Claude Jureu I love that

Like I know it's what everyone's saying But sometimes it makes sense When did you talk to Peter about that? When did I talk to Peter? I would say, oh, I feel like I'm 24 hours. Yeah, it was yesterday. We just were catching up. Was it post-Manson?

Oh, it was pre-Manson. I think what it remains to be seen, what kind of effect that has on it? Because they're capped out. And even with 50% retained, Drew is still going to be over four. So maybe they have to get another team to take on the additional 25% of it to facilitate, make them fix, fit, and then the asset cost goes, I want it to happen. I want Claudeau to be on the abs. I think that would be great.

But as of yesterday, it's a little bit tougher for me to see. What about this? Didn't Gabe Landisgog have elective surgery that's going to put them out a reasonable amount of time? Oh, about six weeks, six weeks or something? recovery goes, it's not going as well as they want to stop. And I don't know. It's going to stretch into the playoffs.

I want to see, but he should be ready for game one. I want to see every team pull the LTIR BS. Like, at this point, why not? Like, see how far you can go with it. I wonder how many teams are in on Calli Yarncrock. He seems like a player that like every single half decent team is like, wow, yeah, he can play center, he can play wing,

scores 15 goals a season. He's cheap. he's going to end up, he's going to end up going to be surprised by how much, by how much they end up getting for him. I think he's, I think he's a hot commodity, partially because of that price tag. Um, a name that's not on here, and this is something Elliot Friedman brought up a couple days ago, John Marino in conjunction with a Vancouver Canucks. Uh, I think something is going on between the Canucks and the Penguins. Like, there's been, there's been too much, too much discussion.

The relationship between Rutherford and that organization is still too strong. That roster is a bunch of players who he loves and signed to a long-term deal, whether you're talking about, whether you're talking about John Marino or Marcus Patterson. Pedersen, by the way, randomly scratched a couple days ago for the first time in his, a healthy scratch for the first time in his career. That was bizarre to see. Rutherford loves Marino. He loves Patterson.

that team has nine defensemen of, you know, something. And one of them is someone you want around for the long term, let's say. I, that just feel, that feels like a, that feels like a fit. If Pittsburgh wants to get crazy and if Ron Hacksaw wants to get crazy, and there's no reason to think that he does because he never has in his life. No, but he's been criticized for that. Maybe he's like, this is a different situation here. I've got a generational player.

I said it. I said it on Monday. Like, I hope. everybody should hope, everybody with any kind of skin in the game should hope that he gets it on that level and that that's sort of the mindset that he has because they are not going to get too many more chances at this with Crosby and Malkin and Crystal Tang. So if you can move one of those guys out and they make like $4 million. What's coming the other way, Johnny?

I don't, I mean, Brock Besser would be interesting. It would be a major commitment. Qualifying offer is going to be big, but it gets a lot easier if, you move out a $4 million $4 million defenseman from a group, by the way, that's like a little bit deeper than people realize Mark Friedman seems like he's something.

He could step in and maybe play on the right side if you maybe move out John Marino. And then I don't know, Casperi Kappanin for a pick. Then all of a sudden, you got like $7 million in caps Piz. It's a lot easier to fit Brock Pessor if you make those two moves in concert.

And this is, this is, this is, full-on speculation by me. I'm just saying... Makes a lot of sense. It makes sense. If they want to do something that's big, if they want to go get the winger for Malkin that they've lacked,

that Capitan is not, that Jason Zooker, nice of a player as he is, you know, just probably you'd rather have someone else there. Besser makes a ton of sense for a ton of reasons. Or you just bring back J.T. Miller. Pittsburgh boy. make Rutherford the crazy godfather offer and go get Miller, who they should not trade by the way.

Who is not trade? You mind? Yeah. I thought, so we don't have to go through the whole list. I thought it was interesting. Tyler Bertuzi is still on this list as we still have the vaccination rules, right? Like, he's, you know, nothing is, are we, I guess you have to project forward. I mean, we're talking about it in baseball right now.

Aaron Boone. And Yankees manager a couple days ago was like, well, playing Toronto is going to be tough because we have a bunch of guys in the roster that aren't vaccinated yet. So, I mean, whatever. If you're a team that plays in Canada out entirely, and if you're a team that potentially is playing a lot of games in Canada, like, how, if you're a team that wants to trade for Tyler Bertuzi and you're just like looking at the probability boards on who you face, on who you face in the playoffs, I mean, like, what?

What if, it's crazy. If you're, if you're a team, if you're a team that's likely to face the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first two or three rounds of the playoffs, right? Thank, I mean, thankfully for for everybody, there's not a lot, there's not a lot of good. I mean, other than the Leafs and the Flames, like, who's really, who's really a consideration there. But like, what do you, what do you do? Can you, can you trade for them? No. No.

I wonder if Steve Eisenman, who, you know, we all know. though it's very secretive, isn't going to give you anything. Do you think he's annoyed that Pertuzzi? Do you think he's annoyed? Yeah. Like, how angry is Steve? I'm not the fact that Pertuzi is doing. I don't know if it's the right word.

Like, on a scale of 1 to 10, how pissed off is Steve Eiserman over this? Is it the better question. And does he say, does that impact how he evaluates? Like, is he's like, no, this isn't a guy. I want to be done that term. That's a big one because, because I can't, I, the full. left side, I can imagine I isn't really caring and just being like, this guy's value is what it is. Next year, this isn't going to be an issue.

Like, we can't let this, we can't let this affect the decisions we make, you know, in March based on something that's not going to be a consideration in October. Here's the thing. When I did, so when I was doing the trade board last year, I remember calling people about Manta and Bertuzi around the league. This is pre-Manta trade. So we know Steve has this in them, right? going like not afraid to trade a young piece.

That nobody was expecting, by the way. Like, um, that nobody, because if you'd say, hey, this is the time to do it. You want to offer like, they got a great return for Anthony Manta. Um, but when I would talk to other teams, like executives and other teams that put in the playoff hunt, they all almost to a person liked Bertuzi better than Manta. They were like in a playoff series, I'd rather have, then I'd rather have Tyler Burtuzi. I mean, I know Manta, I know Manta's been hurt, but that's been born out this season, right? where like that that line, the line with Larkin and Larkin and Raymond's been been really good and blah, blah, blah.

I'll take, I'll take Tyler Bertuzi over. Yeah. Over Anthony Manta, but. Like, the only thing was durability. People were like, wow, is he going to be hurt? And it's like, if he's healthy, and this is obviously before a vaccine, whatever. But, you know, like, people love him. People are like, that's the guy you win in the playoffs with.

Like, that's a guy you plug in. Unless he's, unless he is legally, unless he's legally barred from playing in four out of the seven games in a series. So that's that he's the which is a factor It's a problem The potential return It is a problem It's a fight

I feel like I feel like this is the week where or today Today and yesterday have been the days where I'm like all right It's it's deadline time I've convinced myself that you know

this is going to be the year where there's actual stuff that happens after kind of nothing over the last over the last couple I'm excited about it It would be fun of stuff something will happen And everyone's like, oh, it's going to be a dud or whatever.

I feel like there will be something interesting that happens. You know, there's always the trade that comes out of the left field or whatever. You just need the markets to get set. And I think that's, I think that is kind of what we saw yesterday with the Colorado trade. Like we kind of know. I like that you just in your in your write up, you're like, we're going to ignore the Toffoli deal and act like that. It's because it's, it was, that's a million years ago at this point. That happened during the Olympics.

Like that, that might as well, that might as well happen. so much has changed at that point, by that point, since that point. All right. Do you have any other thoughts in the... I got one last thing I want to do before we wrap up,

but I will do... Any other, like, standouts in the trade board? Because this will be the last time we can talk about it before the deadline. Not really. I'm just continually fascinated by what happened with Pinketsu Bain, honestly. $9 million. He's obviously going to be if he moves.

this is going to be because Jersey picks up half it. You know, there was talk about whatever, buying him out there. I don't, he might be past it. I don't even care. But part of me wants to see what like a rejuvenated P.K. Subband does on an actually, on an actually good team. Maybe it's nothing, right? Like, maybe this is just, this is just who he is.

But I'd love to see him try to try to ratchet it up a little bit. And he's a 32 on the big board, directly ahead of Tyler Boutis. Did you cover that Boston, Montreal series? were like, was it, Marshawn sprayed him with water? Like, every... I remember that very well. It was so much fun going into the room because P.K. It was, the entertainment value was just off the charts.

He was great and engaging and fun. And it was like, this, it was like peak, PK. It was so much fun to have him in the middle of it. I'm on board with him going somewhere. I want to find out if he's capable of some higher level of engagement and some higher level of performance than we've seen from him over the last couple years. And he might not have it, but I want to be able to figure. it's a fun one.

So we do want to highlight American Craig Anderson. Hell yes. And just stick tap there because career win number 300 for a guy that really had to earn every single one of those wins. Like just always, I felt like always was like fighting for a starting job and there was always a replacement on the way. You know what I mean? Like Craig Anderson, those 300 wins did not come easily. and on some really bad teams. One of the great outdoor game

performers of our time, too. You remember the game that he played in with the centers when it was like minus 50 or whatever it was? I know, I don't. Like, I see that he's got three outdoor wins and I don't remember any of them. The Ottawa one was memorable. The one in Ottawa was memorable

because like I said, it was like playing on the North Pole. Yeah, that dude's the greatest. Like, whatever. So I just, I'd love to see. Like, that's just perseverance. That's awesome. Congratulations to Craig. Do you want to point out, we mentioned Bruce Boudreau.

Oh, no, we didn't. We don't think we did it in the air. We were talking Bruce Boudreau off the air in conspiracy theories. He joins Drancer on the Vancast. Always a good listen when Bruce is talking. Always. About anything. About anything, really.

We also, big news, Sean and I are doing the Apple podcast, athletic audio plus bonus episode this week. And wait till you guys see what we have planned for you. It's big. It's going to be a good one. You can start a 30-day free trial to listen and just 99 cents after that to listen to all the bonus episodes across our network

only available however they're available. And special deal right now for a subscription to the athletic. It's a really good deal right now. A dollar for six months. Like, this is, this is the good one. Go to theathletic.com slash hockey show. And you too can leave comments on our app if you subscribe.

Go do that. Ask better questions than the people did this week. Bring, bring some positivity to go with your negativity. Some positivity. Yeah, like if you're going to be criticized us, which is fair. Come on a sandwich. Haven't you guys ever learned anything with that stuff? Let's go.

and we already have next week's show lined up it's going to be the day after the deadline good friend Pierre LeBron joins we're going to break down all of the movies that's a big get I didn't even know Pierre yeah surprised he carved out some time for us a lot of people say we sound exactly the same a lot of people saying that just one

have a great week everybody thanks for listening see you Sean bye