The Athletic Hockey Show - Michael Andlauer to take control of Ottawa Senators, Greg Cronin's summer road trip with the Anaheim Ducks, Vegas Golden Knights one win away from the Stanley Cup

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

Sean Gentille and guest co-host Max Bultman welcome new Anaheim Ducks head coach Greg Cronin to discuss his opportunity with the Ducks, his long journey to being an NHL head coach, the road trip he is taking this summer visiting each member of the Ducks roster and what he thinks the Ducks can do this upcoming season.Sean and Max discuss Toronto billionaire Michael Andlauer who reportedly haa won the bid to own the Ottawa Senators, the Calgary Flames hiring from within announcing Ryan Huska as their new bench boss, possible landing spots for Connor Hellebuyck who says he will not sign an extension with the Winnipeg Jets and the Stanley Cup Final with Vegas poised to capture their first trophy in only their 6th year of existence on Tuesday night vs the Florida Panthers.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowNuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at Nuts.com/hockey23.For 15% off MudWtr go to mudwtr.com/hockeyshow and use code HOCKEYSHOW to support the show and get a discount!Go to dave.com/nhlshow to sign up for an ExtraCash account and get up to $500 instantlyGo to grammarly.com/tone to download and learn more about Grammarly Premium’s advanced tone suggestions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Sean Jensili here with the Tuesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Folks will never believe this. No customs. Max Poltman is in his place. Maxie? Hey, buddy.

How you doing? Doing good. Your mic sounds better than it did for our interview with Greg Cronin. I got to tell you that one. I might have left the ceiling fan on for that. Classic. Our guest this week, aside from not being Craig Cousins, who is out for, again, whatever nebulous reasons, is new Ducks coach Greg Cronin. He was an, he was an H.L coach with Colorado for years.

NHL assistant for a long time in the 90s, 2000s, head coach in Northeastern. He's added a really interesting road to his current gig. Max, I'd never spoken to Greg Cronin before, but I was all in after talking to him for 20 minutes. That was a blast. I was very fascinated to hear the way he talked about his vision for Trevor Zegris. He is not going to lean all the way into the human highlight, really. he is going to push Trevor Zegris hard, it sounds like. That was one of my most fascinating takeaways from it.

He was a really good interview in general. He's one of those coveted kind of speakers in our profession, Sean, talks and anecdotes and memories. And it makes for a great listen. So I think people will enjoy that. I mean, the most important thing was that I got to completely steal your joke that you It's complete bullshit. Dane's or no, not Dained.

You chickened out of making to Marty Walsh. Yeah, yeah. There's a cowardly move. It's okay. That's fine. And so just getting to steal it right in front of you is a highlight of my week. Greg Cronin, one of the great Boston accents in the game is now in a position of prominence. That needs to be said.

But also, it's a good interview, not just for Ducks fans, not just for people who care about Trevor Zegaris or Troy Terry because those guys came up. I think Cronin spoke well. about a lot of different things, including the way coaches incorporate analytics into their job in 2023 versus like 2017, which I think is as an important distinction. And yeah, dude just came up, told some good stories. We had a nice time. That's, we'll say probably 15 minutes away. In the meantime, we do have some news.

We need to hit. The Ottawa Sends sales, sale odyssey, I think it's over. I think it's over as of Tuesday morning. Bruce Gariak from the Ottawa Sun was the first report that a group led by Toronto billionaire Michael Ann Lauer

has won the bidding war. That guy's going to be the new owner of the Sends. The bid, according to Gariok, is almost a billion, not quite a billion. Michael Lian Lauer, as he will be known for the foreseeable future to hockey fans out of Ottawa is not Ryan Reynolds and not Snoop Dogg and not the guy who is bidding a billion dollars for the team. So it is, but it seems like it's a welcome end of the process.

The Melnik, the Melnik sisters are going to retain 10% in that deal, according to, according to Gary X report. And I think the biggest takeaway is that it's over. I mean, we heard all sorts of stuff over the last couple weeks. Some of it reported, some of it not. Some of it, you know, said in the, oh, by the way's way that insiders sort of report things where they allude to stuff but don't actually say it about what a train record was. And I'm sure at some point soon, you know, we'll have the details on it.

But the point now is that it's over. And I think it needed to be over for sense fans because it was starting to get to that point where, you know, Max, where I don't know if people were starting to get nervous, but I can imagine it happening. Like not far down the line where it's like, okay, what is happening? Why is this taking so long? And what's the end result going to be? It was starting to come up in conversations around like Alex DeBrickett and what is he going to do in his future. I'm not sure that this necessarily, like maybe if you're the senators, you're certainly hoping that this is going to pave the way to solve that. I'm not sold that it totally does.

But when it's coming up in those contexts, you know it has to get done right now. It did. But your first point, Sean, I think, is going to be one of the big ones. It's not like this big, flashy name that's going to generate news cycles or whatever. And my question is, like, how much do we think that matters? because I'm sure the league would have loved the publicity that comes with Ryan Reynolds or Snoop Dog, and that's not just a one-week cycle thing. That's like a welcome to Rex and kind of deal.

But is there a value to just like a lower profile owner who's not going to be the most recognizable person in the arena on a given night? It's a safe bet. You know, that sounds like this is a well-structured bid that gets them that can get them close to the billion-dollar valuation, which is important. And I think that's something that the league values greatly, understandably, because you want to be able to say like, it doesn't sound like it's going to get it there just yet necessarily, but franchises are on the road to having a billion dollar valuation. That's important to the league. It's important to public perception. Now, the other question, this is something we talked to Marty Walsh about, is when you have, it's great to have valuation. that are, you know, hit the big number, right?

It's a positive thing. Everything took a jump up whenever Fenway Sports Group bought the Pittsburgh Penguins in late 2021. That was like the big kind of level up where you get out of that $550, $600 million range and really get, you know, start getting towards the two comma club to quote a very old Silicon Valley reference. but revenues aren't there. They're not climbing in accordance with franchise valuation,

and that is the problem to me. We can sit here and talk about how great it would be for the league to have the big number, to have a franchise that publicly confirmed was sold for a billion dollars or more. but if you know but if the flip side of the coin is like even with the escrow paying down debt elements of the of of everything you know the the revenues haven't followed haven't followed suit and that is the sort of thing that makes you look and say okay well is that that's the mindset that leads to taking the safe you know or preferring the safe nine or or conducting business in a way that leads to the Michael Ian Lauer $950 million, like solid, unspectacular bid,

versus making sure that, you know, the world's most famous Carnival Barker and Ryan Reynolds, you know, is part of it too. It's safety versus innovation. And it's, it's, uh, it's risk versus reward. And I think that's a sort of thing that maybe will help franchise evaluations tick up, but not positively move the needle on revenue stuff. And I think that's, I think we saw that play out in a very real way with this end sale. I just think about, you know, the way we found out about the Penn sale. And it felt like just you woke up one morning and Fenway was the new owners of the penguins. Yep. And this, like, like, it's almost funny to be, to have any kind of reaction about like who the new owner is when in almost any, if Ryan Reynolds was never involved,

if Snoop Dog was never involved. I mean, I guess the Melnick death is what sparks this, but we don't find out like, oh, the Andlauer bid one or the Kimmel bid one. We just found out, oh, the senator sold. This is the new guy you've never heard of him. Don't worry. Right.

Right. But because of the way the saga played out, people might have a take on this. And that's what gives this whole thing, like the hint of kind of like a missed opportunity, right? is because we know what the other options were. And the other thing, too, is because it was such a public thing, and you go back to March or whatever at the GM's meetings when me and Russo and a bunch of other dorks stood in front of Gary

and asked, you know, okay, what's the update on the send sale? And he wasn't, he didn't say that it was happening, that it was going to get sewn up the next day or anything, but he was like looking good. good. There's a couple weeks. We're going to enter the next phase and whatever. So we had those kind of signposts that were put up by the league to say that this was going to be done before June 13th or whatever. So I think that's part of the reason this was covered the way that it was. The fact that it's a Canadian team is undeniable. You know, it's, it's, it's, you can't, you can't

separate that from the overall process because those things are just paid more attention to. And Canadian media centers. And there was, you know, basically a public bidding war for it. Whereas with the Penguins, it was, it was Lemieux and Ron Burkle moving in silence and finding a partner and keeping a quiet and also dealing with Fenway sports groups who knows what they're doing when it comes to that sort of stuff. This is not their first. This is not their first radio.

They didn't have to have the, you know, the brokerage process with the, with the Galliotis group and all that stuff like Ottawa did. So it has been funny to watch this situation play out. I'm glad it's over because it was starting to get obnoxious, honestly. And it was hampering business for the Ottawa centers, which is like sort of like you said, Maxie, like that's the tipping point, right? Where who knows if the damage isn't, isn't done with Alex to brinket, who. Or if it, or if that's even like the driving factor, but it's been brought up, right?

Like, it's a perception as reality thing at that point, you know? 100%. But like, is Pierre Dorian going to be the GM? What happens to the coach? what happens with an RFA like De Brinkett? What goes on with Connor Hellebuck, who is connected to the to the Sends, just like he's connected with any team that that needs a team like that, that needs a goaltender.

So we'll talk about that in a minute. Let's table that. We're going to talk about Debrinket. We're going to talk about Hella Buck. We're going to talk about the trade board. In the meantime, we want to get to the other bit of news that's happened in the last couple of days, which is that Ryan Hushka is the new coach of the Calgary Flames, places Daryl Sutter, who was fired after a disaster of a season in Calgary, and also hired

after a pretty lengthy process, it feels like, to replace him where you're interviewing in-house candidates. Mitch Love, the HL coach of the year, was certainly, was certainly one of those. And it comes in the wake of Craig Conroy taking over for Brad True. living, who stepped down as GM of the flames early in the off-season, obviously he's resurfaced in Toronto. So there's been a lot of, a lot of upheaval in Calgary. Sounds like their new brain trust moving forward is set with Conroy and Hushka, both of whom it should be noted, are in-house guys, our flames guys, our guys who've been in that organization for a long time. In Craig Conroy's case, a really, really long time. Haley and I interviewed

him on the Friday show feed a couple weeks ago. That interest you. but Max, I know you have some thoughts on Mitch Love. He's a guy who you've paid some attention to. He's a guy who we all know is the, again, two-time, two-time reigning H.L. coach the year has had a lot of success there. He's 38 years old, and he just lost out on the top job in the organization that, you know, that has been his home for a few years. And I think it all ties back to the, to the Craig Conroy hire, right? Because when you talk about hiring your longtime assistant GM for the big chair here, like,

The logically consistent thing for him to do then is something like this, right? You promote, whether it was Hushka or Mitch Love, I think one of those two guys, like your, your sales pitch is probably something to the effect of, I know this organization inside and out. I've been here, you know me, right? And then I think if you turn around and do an external hire when you have multiple good candidates inside, that would be kind of strange. So I think something like this was always the outcome. I was just very interested to see whether it would be Hush or Mitch Luff. I don't know that I have a real opinion on this because I don't know either of them like inside the room as coaches kind of thing. But when I saw that it wasn't Mitch Love, my thought was, well, it's going to be really hard to keep a guy.

And that's also a very interesting name to hit the coaching market, whether it's as an NHL assistance, whether he ends up, you know, involved with another HL team or if he returns to Calgary, which, you know, if I were him, I wouldn't. that would be a tough tough pill as well. I mean, you think of it from this standpoint, like, someone explained this to me once, like, okay, when you're like deciding to take a job or not, like, what is the, he's already hit, I mean, he could win a championship, but that's it. That's the only way he can improve on being a HL coach of the year in both of his HL seasons in that organization. So if he stays, how is he supposed to get like more helium there?

Unless, I mean, it's winning a championship, but you only have so much control over that in the HL. You only have the control is what, you know, the GM is going to put in front of you, what is not going to get called up to the NHL. Calgary is a team that could call up a lot of that talent in the coming years here. And also how does he, how does he push himself? Like if you're Ryan Hushka, you're saying like, how do I need to, how do I get better as a coach? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or Mitch Lov, excuse me.

Yeah. So, I don't know, that's a tough, it's a tough situation. I do know that Hushka was the original succession plan for Daryl Sutter. you know, which was in place a couple years ago, the thought was always that it would be Hushka or possibly Kirk Muller to take over for Daryl whenever his contract was up. Obviously didn't happen.

And it makes sense. Yeah, it does. Of course it does. And that speaks to, you know, that speaks to how highly the organization thought of Huska was that two years ago, you know, it was like, okay, this is probably the way it's going to go. And all those guys, all those, all those guys in the organization

who thought highly of them probably, probably still work there. And one of them certainly was Craig Conroy. So that's a tough hold of dig out of if you're Mitch Love, even, you know, even when you're winning, when in, when in Coach the Year Awards and stuff. It makes me respect Craig Conroy a lot because he sticks to a guy who, you know, he's seen develop and he knows is in line for something like this. And, you know, it's, if they do end up losing Mitch Love from the organization from this, like, that's going to be a hot button decision. decision and ultimately his first one.

But it does make me respect him as a leader. Like I think we all want to work for a boss who even when someone new comes in who was good who follows through on the plan and sticks with sticks with, you know, sticks with the people that he knows and sticks with the people that got him that got him there. Like he threw in with with with Ryan Hushka to some extent. No, no, here he is. Yeah, I'm not, we're not surprised to see. Craig Conroy do something like that.

He's got the rep is one of the nicest dudes in the league for a reason. And again, me and Haley talked to him a couple weeks ago. It was a great talk. Okay, we do want to talk about Connor Hullabuck, who in some regards, I guess, I was going to say he's this season's Matthew Kachuk, because he told his team that, yeah, I'm not going to sign it. I'm not going to sign an extension here.

You guys maybe figure something out. Pierre-Luc Dubois is this year's Matthew Kachuk. The problem for the Winnipeg Jets is both those guys play for their team, which is not great. But Hellebuck officially is on the market now. That's kind of a really, it's an interesting bit of business. It's something that, you know, I don't think necessarily surprise folks, but it is a good talking point for us. And it is all told it's better for the Jets because they were never going to do this themselves. It's time for them to.

someone else needs to tear the bandaid off for him. If that's Connor, if that's Connor Hallibuck and Pierre Luke Dubois, then great, but it needed to be somebody. So now it's time to talk about landing spots for Connor Hallibuck, which we have been for a while.

I know Sheena wrote something a week or two ago that outlined, you know, teams that would make sense for him. Maxi, you have a favorite in the clubhouse and you have a specific deal. And I'm a big fan of it.

I was floating this to everyone would listen at the combo. Where does Max Bolton, where does Max Bolton, agent for Connor Hallowbuck land his boy? I want him in Buffalo. Hell yes. Maybe it was just because I was physically in Buffalo as this came out. I think that probably had something to do with it.

Yeah. You know me, Sean. I'm like a dog. I can only see what's directly in front of me. Is that dog? What animal is that? You're sitting at mothers or one of those great late night restaurants in Buffalo and thinking, I'll be great of Connor Hallibuck in it up here.

What animal is it that they can only see for, cows, pigs? I think it's cows. Okay, yeah, I'm a cow. Horses? I don't know. I'm not a veterinarian max. Actually, we were at, so have you been to the southern tier in Buffalo? Yes.

Yeah, so it's like has that, those gigantic TVs, right? So we're sitting there watching the Cup final game and talking about it. And I was, I'm trying to sell people on that. And, uh, yeah. So I think. in addition to the obvious team fit, right? Buffalo now has this prime age, Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin is in his like, Ken Win a Norris era, Owen Power and Dylan Cousins within the next year or two, I think, are maybe not quite the level of either of those two guys, but not that far behind.

All of Winnipeg's young recent picks within the next couple years should be really good, including Yuri Kulich, who had an amazing year in the HL. They're just missing that goal. And it might be Devin Levi, but why not take a guy who has been a slam dunk top five goalie in the league, bring him into your organization. I get that whatever the contract and whether he will sign the extension is probably the deciding factor here. But because of how deep Buffalo is, they can afford to make an offer that I don't think many other teams can afford to make for Connor Hellbuck. And my suggestion would be they should trade Matt Savoy, who played his WHL hockey in Winnipeg and Ukapakalukinan, a goalie prospect to a guy. I think many teams would be not super eager to part with, but they can because they already

have Levi and are trading for Connor Hellebuck. Okay. So let me interrupt you there. Ucocococan, there's still some blue on the rose for him because I thought he was pretty rough at play at times last year. I know he's, I know he's, physically he's there. But is he still, like, from what you can tell is he's still well regarded to that point? I don't know, but I know he's 24 and it happened.

for goalies at different times. You know, like, I agree with you the numbers this year. We're not that great. But he's still young enough that I don't, you know, like, we saw it with like Vili Huso and Alex And Elkovich. Like, it just takes some of these guys till they're 25, 26. And maybe I didn't give the best sales pitch by throwing those as the two names. But I think you're talking about it as like the secondary piece.

It's like, and we'll give you a goalie to. You're talking about a top 10 pick in Savoy, right? Like, and you just don't have room for Lukinen if, if you're Buffalo and you're trading for someone like Hellbuck. So you give up a goalie that I think, you know, a goalie pick in the top two rounds is not supposed to be easy to get before he's, you know, free agency age. And the player is leverage here. You know, it's a, it's a nice, it's a nice thing to do to say like, hey, I'm not, I'm not going to come back next year. So work something out with the, with a year left rather than walking them up to the, up to midnight 20, 24 and pulling the trigger that way. The only problem is if you're Buffalo, you can't give up Savoy if you don't think you can sign him beyond the year.

So that's it, right? You know, that's the tough part. Here's the thing, though. They always know. They always know. And that's where. Somehow, some way. And that's where the extra year is going to be helpful is that, here's what I'll say.

Connor Hella Buck, because this almost never happens. We saw it last year with Kachuk play out this way. in the age of the sign and trade in the NHL, which it seems like that's what we're, at least for the time being, we saw it with, we saw with Damon Severson, you know,

where it did just happen last week. It happened with Kachuk. We're not going to see these guys give teams extra runway and give them the extra year and have a trade facilitated and have them end up somewhere where they don't sign for the, whether it's, eight, whatever, where the big extension doesn't come. I'd be stunned if that's, if that wasn't part of it. And I think in a way, that makes it tougher for the Buffalo Sabres because you have to

account for Devon Levi for, even though he's only 21 years old and, and all that stuff. If you sign Connor Hellebuck for seven years or eight years, are you willing to lock yourself? Does it turn into whatever Bobrovsky Part 2, right? I mean, I don't mean to, I don't mean to damn hellabuck with faint praise because I know that deal was bad the moment was signed but it did it'd be interesting if you lock yourself into hellabuck for that for that long when you have a guy who's that good coming down the pipeline Sean the bobrowski deal might be the best case scenario of an eight year he has them in the cup final I know three years left on I love it I love it I love we said that me and Craig said that to Shane last week last week because she was like

oh it's it's it would still be a bad right no it's good if they win a cup it's good it is good but I I don't even mean it like just like actually it's good i mean it as like it can be so much worse like oh a hundred like we're seeing the the good version of a play out and the good version is like you know i mean he's been amazing so i'm not even going to try to diminish that but he wasn't the starter for game one or early yeah but all those guys who yeah whatever we're way off track here but it's worth noting that all these guys who are supposed to take over for bobrowski for one reason or another it hasn't worked out. Chris Trigger is in Seattle where he was terrible and after that pretty seriously injured. He's got leg issues that, you know, cost them, cost them last season. Spencer Knight, you know,

still plenty of time for him for him to write the ship, but he's struggled, you know, across the board, you know, all the best to him with, with the time he spent in the, in the player assistance program last year. But like, it's a testament, you know, was it Alex Lyon? Was it Alex Lyon? Was it, Like all these guys who people were eager to turn the keys over to Bobrovsky for one reason or another kind of haven't kind of haven't worked out. Including Devin Levi.

Including Devin Levi. Very, very, very interesting. All right. And the other teams, I mean, the other, you know, teams who are in on Helibuck or you would think would be in on Helibuck, they're who you'd expect, right?

New Jersey needs a goalie. It's Pittsburgh who's old and needs a goalie. The senators who we mentioned. So it's going to be fun. I'm glad this is happening. I'm glad we're in the era of the NHL sign and trade because for a sport where so few players, so few premium players typically make it to UFA. It's an added wrinkle. It's an added thing to talk about. And it's an added variable to consider when we're watching the offseason. It makes a lot more fun. If this happens, a couple times moving forward, a couple times you're moving forward. Maybe not every single one will involve the Winnipeg Jets moving forward. But I'm excited about it. Max, we're going to move on. We're going to move on to an interview with Greg Cronin, who, as we said, was great,

new head coach of the Anaheim Ducks. We caught up with him when he's on the road. He's driving from Denver back to Boston, which is something he's done pretty regularly. But this time it's different because he's something. stop in and he's meeting Troy Terry and he's meeting Trevor Zegris eventually and he's meeting you know guys on his new team along the road so enjoy our talk with Greg I'm going to come back and finish up with the only good technology. All right we are thrilled to bring in new Anaheim ducks coach Greg Cronin who is joining us from a hotel room you've been on a you've been a little bit of an

odyssey since you got the job let's let's walk through that where are you right now So I'm in New York. I'm actually at a friend's house. I had, and it's crazy, I was in California, and I met Pat and the owners on like a Thursday, and I don't even know what the date was there. And then we had,

the announcement went on a Monday, and then I flew back Tuesday, and I packed all my stuff up Wednesday morning, and then started my drive east. I always do this. I always drive my car from Boston to Colorado and then back. I enjoy it, actually. a beautiful country.

There's different landscapes, good time to think and catch up on phone calls and stuff. So I just changed my schedule from, there's a little bit more leisurely then to trying to target the players that I wanted to meet going across. So I started with Troy Terry, then hit Fowler and Jones,

and then over to Ontario. I got actually, it was weird, it didn't even hit the news. There was a bomb threat at the Port Hope Saniya Bridge there. Oh my gosh. And literally 10 miles a car, like a parking lot. We were sitting there.

People were in lawn chairs. It happened at like 3 o'clock in the afternoon. So it was an hour and a half before there was even anything moving through the border there. Hell, man. It was bizarre. But anyways, I managed to get Brock Nelson before I stopped in Toronto to get the Toronto guys. And I'm going to hit Zegras and Frankie Bertrano over the next few days. what's the reception been like i mean what have those meetings been i assume you're kind of trying

to get to know each other build a little foundation for the relationship yeah you know like hockey's very clannish right so they know when they hear the news and then they call guys that might have played for me and knew me and i had stromey in new york like nine years ago he was a kid back then so he was kind of the he was kind of like the nerve center for the guys calling people like what's this guy all about and you know i sam carrick had played played in San Diego against my teams, and he knew players. And then we had Magna there that they took him off at waivers in December, and he was my captain for a couple of years.

So they did their information gathering. And, you know, and I did mine. So I tried to do a little homework on them so I can understand what their, what their core identity was. And then I just wanted to get them to talk, not about, you know, individually, like what happened. It's not a blame game at that point. It's trying to get there.

understanding of what what happened last year, which was a rough year for the organization, and what what they were going to do to provide and live in a solution over the next year. So what are some of the shared threads there? Like, do you, have you gotten a good sense of, you know, what those guys are looking for, the step they're kind of trying to make collectively? Because, you know, I'm sure you're trying to find common, you know, kind of commonalities there, but between the guys you're talking to. Yeah, so I kind of took attention away.

Like I've been in these, the dumpster fires, right? Like I had them in New York. My first year in the NHL was 98. I was like 34 years old. And that's the, some of the older, you guys probably remember, but there was Ziggy Palfi, Richie Pilon, Gina Ogic, Trevor Lend, an old group. And it wasn't working at the trade deadline. So Mike pitched them all out and we just got draft picks and young kids for them.

And everybody knows that's a tough. It's a tough. I mean, I don't want to get into the whole thing. Well, it's okay to play crappy because you've been depleted. I don't buy that. Like, that's just my DNA. And but I've been in those things. And as a coach, you're trying to keep the train on the tracks, but it's teetering.

And it's outweighing your ability psychologically and mentally and emotionally to keep it there. And it just, it just spins out of control. And then, you know, you're hoping to find some diamonds in the rough when that chaos hits. And I'm trying to find that diamond in the rough in these guys when they shared me what happened. And that's what I did. And the end of the day, make it real short. They all want to win like everybody does. And they all want to have a clear role definition and how they're going to be a solution to that.

When you were talking with Pat about the job, was that something in your background that you felt like, you know, you mesh with him on that kind of ability to. to take, you know, to take groups out of bad situations like that and kind of help them take the next step, you know, towards doing something a little bit more productive. Yeah, like not, like it's weird. Like my, you know, in doing this for 36 years, right? And every, you're never really completely prepared for what comes down the pike when you take a job. But my, my history has been kind of filled with some adversity. Like when I got my opportunity to be a head coach who was at the University of Maine, at the time, was humming along like we were ripping off 30 wins one of the dynasties in college hockey Sean Walsh got put in time out because of NCAA violations. So that was a real adverse situation that we were able to overcome, keep it on the rails. And then that team that I coached that had a bunch of walk-ons won a national championship three

years later. Then starting the U.S. national program in 96-97, that was not what it is today. That was a very radical approach to U.S. hockey. There was a lot of people throwing stones at us because they thought it was counterproductive. to how they were running USA hockey with it's a regionally based organization so it's a pyramid flipped upside down right so those base level people they want say so when we're pulling their players out of that base they were frustrated with it financially it was always wrestling to get budget enhancements to create the vision we wanted to create it so that was kind of trick and then

the islanders and then northeastern was a complete bankrupt program and i got there and i go on and on So I just been, it's been in my, my DNA as a coach. And I think Pat and I were real comfortable sharing those ideas. So just to double down on that program idea there, like, would you have ever guess that the program would have been? Did you see it becoming what it is today or what has it been like for you to follow the growth of that program? Well, none of us saw become what it was today when we designed it. Like even these kids that played in there's about six guys for the ducks that played at this. I don't know, there's got to be a couple hundred guys in the league that played it.

But that first year, people don't remember this. My team was the 1980 birth dates, and we played in the OHL. And that was an experiment to get our guys a taste of the OHL without losing their eligibility, their amateur status. So the OHL caught on to that pretty quick and squashed it, right? But at the time, it was an incredibly challenging endeavor. And I thought it would be, I thought the credibility of it with the players going on to play college and then go into the NHL and continue to build and reinforce what that vision was 25 years ago. Today, what it does, I guess it does exceed what I thought it would be.

Because when you see the first rounders and you see like every year it's like six to ten guys coming from that program, it's pretty impressive. And the skill levels, I mean, obviously that's, you're going to find some of the most skilled players in the draft out of that team every year. One of those is now going to be on your roster. What excites you about coaching Trevor and what's kind of your vision for, what he can become. Well, he's an enormously talented kid. You know, and like I said a number of times, it was hard to see for me.

Like, if you're going to be talented, you've got to play three zones. Like, you've got to be responsible away from the puck. And his highlights are all offensive, the toe drag and the flip to the net, all that stuff is really attractive to watch. I know the media loves it. The fans love it.

And that's what you think about him when you hear his name. So I don't know him well enough. I'm going to meet him in the next couple of days. His teammates genuinely like him. He's a popular kid. I think our challenge is get him to play a three zone game and be responsible away from the puck. And ultimately, it's easy to coach guys to their strengths. The nitty work comes in when you've got to talk to the kid about where he's weak

and how much does he want to invest his time in that space of his game. And I'm really excited to talk to him about that. You already had your talk with Troy Terry. You said you hit him up on. on the tour already. What is it about his game that you're trying to coax more out of? Because I know he's, we've talked to him, everybody who talks to him, I feel like comes, comes away pretty impressed with the conversations that they have with,

with Troy. But, you know, what's the next step for him and, you know, you and him and your time together? So, Troy actually is best friends with a guy that I coached with the Eagles, Logan O'Connor. So again, we're both gathering information about one another. I always say, hey, you coach the person, not the player, right? So I want to know what this person is like. Like, how does it respond to coaching? Does he like tough coaching?

Is he more like he wants a little bit more of a measured coaching practice relationship? So I asked Logan about him and he said he's a great kid. He wants to be great, which is music to a coach's ear. He's very coachable. Again, that's more music to your coach's ears. And what I did, guys, is I watch. I watched four full games before I sat down with Pat the second interview because I watched the game the way I would watch my own team play because I have standards and systems and strategy and detail that I see real regularly in the way I coach. And it's obviously visible when you watch a game.

So I was trying to see if that would work with these guys. And fortunately for me, I spent 12 years across three decades coaching in the NHL. So I know the NHL league. I know the players. but when you actually talk to the individual about these things, there are certain triggers that you're going to come across when you talk about the game that are either going to force the guy to do a little self-reflection

or to continue to reinforce his confidence, right? So if you were to create a mapping strategy with Terry, he hit every marker when I asked him questions about what he wanted to be, how was he going to do it, how do he feel the team could help him get better, and what coaching he responded to. And I can only say, and I'm watching the tape, this kid's, I think he's going to be a great player.

I think he's going to, in the right environment, when he gets surrounded by the right people, his game is going to, I think, rise to a point in the NHL. I'm really excited to coach him. I really like him as a person. And I think he's going to take on more of a leadership role as well. You talked about kind of how many years of experience of the NHL you had. But I'm curious, you know, as the years,

went by. Was there any part of you that worried that the call wasn't going to come for the head job behind an NHL bench? Yeah, I mean, the biggest poison on the planet is comparison, right? When you start comparing, like, well, why is this guy getting a job and I'm not? No, did I fall into that? Yeah. Like, there's a great, there's a great expression I've heard that resentment is hoping somebody fails, right, and gets poison, but you're the one that's swallowing the poison, right? And I didn't want to fall into that trap. And I've always been kind of, you know, I'm human, right? So I bitch and I complain, why me?

And I always, I tell them to play, it's like I'm carrying the flag around, I'm getting screwed flag. And I might spend five or six seconds in that space and I'd zap it, right? Stay in your lane, do your job, and you'll get rewarded. And I think that I try to follow that route and stay in that route. And I think that's why I've been successful as a coach and I got rewarded. What do you think you gained out of, you know, all the time in the HL and we see teams hire out of very different, you know, places today? But what is the benefit do you think that you bring out after coming directly from the league that's so connected to the NHL?

Well, as interesting, it's a great question because I went from college, which is a totally different game in terms of being a head coach. You're more of a CEO. You actually spend less time dealing with the players in college than you're doing pro. It sounds kind of, you know, ironic, but it's true because you're dealing with stuff. study halls, you're dealing with academic supervision, you're dealing with scholarships, dealing with recruiting, NCAA databases. It's like you're sitting behind a desk the whole day, right? So that was a great experience in terms of time management.

But then going seven straight years in the NHL with the Maple Leafs and the Islanders got me kind of rebooted into the NHL world after being out of it for like six years, right? So the best thing I did, and I didn't want to do it, guys. Like the NHL is blessed, right? Chartered flight, shrimp cocktail, nice hotels. Like, it's a blessed life, right? Like, who wouldn't want to be a part of that life, right? And then you go to the H.L.

And it's like blue collar. Exactly. The buses, the airports, like DIA. I kissed that place goodbye. Denver International Airport is like the worst place to traveling, right? Christ, you've got to be in shape. It's like a mile. It's its own area code, I feel like, man. It is. It is. So like that, just now we have to fly everywhere, but, but when I, when Joe and CMAQ and Craig Billington presented me with the opportunity,

I had, I had gone through that humble exercise of calling people for jobs and not even getting calls back, right? I thought I was second best coach of the planet, right? After Scottie Bowman, and nobody's calling me back. I'm like, What's going on here? Like nobody would call me. So I figured, you know, with Joe and CMAQ and Craig off me the job, I do it. And it's the best thing I did. Why?

Because I got to learn how to coach a different generation of hockey. I don't know what these guys are called now. They, Gen X, Gen Z. The millennial guys are gone now, I think. So now we got these new guys coming in. And they do this all day, right? They got these things going all day. So I see the top of their heads.

So the first thing I said is get rid of those goddamn phones. We're going to go face to face here. So it was a really good opportunity for me just to coach guys at a different level that maybe I hadn't been doing a decade before. You mentioned Chris McFarlane. I want to ask about him specifically because you work with him so closely, you know, in your time with Yavs. He's in him a lot of fans here pretty often over the last couple years. What is it like working with him and what kind of stuff that's? he bring to the table as a boss, as a collaborator, like, what's, what's his, what's his superpower there?

Well, you think about it. So you got to, you know, like I tell players all the time and managers, right? Your history gets you to a certain point, the intersections between getting a job or not getting a job, right? So he took a unique route to get here. And you don't just sever that when you arrive, right? Like, I can't take away what I did 36 years ago and arrive in Anaheim with a clean slate, right? So CMAQ took a different route. He went through the league first, went through Columbus, really got married to the analytics, which became more and more popular as we moved to the modern era sports, right? So I think that was his identity was he was an analyzer, right?

And then he was real thorough scouting. So he became really reliable in a scouting position. So Joe Sackick sees his value and brings him on. Joe is more of a organic, intuitive guy that's played a ton of hard. he's been around of his whole life. He says a little, but it means a lot.

Joe's that type of guy. And CMAQ actually has a good balance between what he shares for information and how he's going to react to him. There are guys that are super quiet and then they're just decisive. I think CMAC is very balanced guy. The route he took here to be a GM,

I think has benefited him from an analytical perspective and an evaluation perspective. he's a real calm guy when he's evaluating. He's like a raccoon in a garbage can in the press box. He gets really into the game because that, and that's for me, he's a reflection of his passion. Like he wants to win, he's a competitive guy.

And I know he's got some challenges managing the cap and, and, you know, landy's injury is going to, you know, it's going to be an interesting one to manage, but I have a lot of faith that he'll come through. did you take anything away from the analytics portion of that? Like anything that you as you go forward here like, okay, that is a piece that I'd like to maintain. Obviously, you're not going to find many guys as savvy with it as Chris going forward.

No, you know what? Help me because he's got his group with him like Eric is a great. Eric Panros is an awesome system. What we do is, so here's where I think it's awesome. Okay. So when the island is, we had it back in 2014. Frank Goddner was kind of the godfather of a band. And he was working with these Russian guys who were engineering how it was going to work and how it was going to populate into a meaningful database, right?

So I would say like technology, right, what they were doing analytically 12 years ago was prehistoric now, right? So now the modern models, which to me I find very useful. So, hey, how do I want to play? I want to attack. It's in my DNA. It's fearlessness. It's attacking. It's puck pursuit.

It's puck possession. It's killing cycles. So you're spending less time. the zone, right? So how can I evaluate analytics in a way that's going to reinforce that behavior? So it's evolved now really well. So like I can call Eric and say, I want the analytics from the last 10 games because if there's trends that are slipping, like our four check recoveries, right, are starting to slip, then I've got to visit why that's happening, what's happening in the neutral zone that's stalling that. Why is our offensive zone starting to slip? I want

to look at that. So it gives me an opportunity to identify where there's potential cracks in the system and I can and I can actually look into that specific event. And we're always watching it anyways as coaches, but it just allows me to share that with the players because there's an expression I use. It's fairly logical what gets emphasized gets done. So there's so many things going on in a hockey game, right? It's not football. So what gets emphasized gets done? And then I dial into that with the team when I get the information back. I think a lot of people don't realize like how much, you know, you mentioned like like puck pursuit and stuff like that that's that's stuff that can be quantified now that maybe 10 12 years ago that's it was it was a little bit tougher and i i think i think people

struggle to struggle to understand that this isn't just like counting shot at times anymore like there's there's a there's a there's a whole lot of stuff that guys like eric you know track and and and disseminate down to you guys right that next level of stuff versus what we saw you know 10 years ago. Yeah, I think the biggest change in analytics is like, and it's just they would know way more how this is calculated, but back 10, 12 years ago, there was a kind of satellite, it was like a drone was kind of watching the game, and it was just seeing where shots were coming from. The root of the analytics comes from shots, right?

So now it's evolved into quality of shots, and then the lateral movement before the shot. So when you really fine-tune up like that, you know it's pretty accurate because the players, they sometimes will poo-poo it. So it's a computer-based thing. But when you explain it to them, and it's not punishment, it's empowerment, right? They will actually be more tolerant of it.

Absolutely. And it sounds less like computer shit now pretty much, right? Where you can explain it. It's easier to explain it to them in a more, in a more X's and O's kind of fashion, even though the info kind of comes from a similar place. Yeah. Greg, I want to ask you,

when you get hired at this time of the, year and everyone started to focus on on the draft. I know you've got, you know, enough context, certainly at the college level and all that that I'm sure you could form pretty quick opinions on guys. But do you, is that something you're looking to do? Do you just trying to stay out of it and maybe sit in on the meetings? Do you want to weigh in on the, you know, the high pick you guys have? No, Mike Milbury told me something 25 years ago.

Coach is coach and manages manage. Mind your own business. Okay. Unless Pat asked me something and I'm, I'm. I'm like intimately familiar with it. I don't get my nose in there. Those guys work their rear ends off, scouting games, researching players like that. The draft for them is a Super Bowl.

I mean, the thing about, we talked about DIA, think about those guys, all the inputs they go through, all the sacrifices they make to watch players. And it's not a perfect science. So I give them a huge credit. And Pat puts his team together and he feels real confident they're going to come up with a player that's going to mesh with how he wants to rebuild the organization. So it's all up to them. That's great. Greg, thanks for taking some time out. I know the, another world tour continues. You're heading over to Boston and talked to some of those guys

next, right? That's where that's where you're headed after all this? Yeah. Yeah. You're not from Boston, are you? I'm a native. No, never. I had a good guess. I had a good guess. Never would have a guess. Something about the parking lot line. That might have been a little bit of a So I love it. Greg, thanks again, man. I appreciate you the time. Best of luck next season and we'll catch up down the road.

Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks, guys. Max, you said it in the first segment, but I'm glad to have Greg Cronin around in the NHL head coach fraternity. Because he's going to be a good one. He seems like he's going to be a reliable quilt on a lot of different things. And he's connected to a lot of different players. So we can dial him off or.

hit one of his press conferences if we need if we need to talk about guys on the abs or whatever he's he's he's got a wealth of experience and i think he's uh happy to share which is always great to see yeah that is always one of the big decisions when you're leaving a morning skate is like do i stay for the other other coach presser grid colonel grid cron's going to be an instant yes on that for me love it going to move on only good segment on the show we're going to talk about do a little do a little cup final talk to. Why not? There's a hockey game in the night, supposedly. We'll do that when we come back. This is the only good segment on the show. It's when we go into the comment section and use you folks, you find folks for free labor. We appreciate it.

Oh, your tastes are better than Craigs. I'll tell you that much. I can say that without fear of reprisal since he's not around. Do the key lessons? Very small. man, no. He doesn't listen? No. Well, I take that back, honestly. He says that he doesn't, but never really know. He never really know. I feel like he would maybe keep tabs on us, honestly. He wanted to talk to Greg Grown. So he missed out on that. Again, for anybody doesn't know, athletic app, tap on listen, screw around until you find it. 19 comments today. That's good. on our interview with Marty Walsh, which again was one of the more serious ones I feel like

that we've ever, that we've ever done. That goes for Craig, too. He goofs it up as well. It's not just, it's not just me. I think people, I think people have a little, there's a little bit too much of a perception that I'm like, the silly one and he's not. Yeah. It's not necessarily true.

Especially, like, in that wheelhouse. That's, that's old SG wheelhouse talking about, you know, major labor issues. I think that's... 100%. Like, I'm... I had to like, I was in four out of ten. Like, talking about that stuff with Marty too. We could have really gone into...

We could have gone into some theory, let's say. And I don't think anybody would have been well served by that necessarily. Listening to it, it's like, Sean has played out, what am I going to ask the director of the head of this NHLA union in his head before? He's maybe had a Nathan Fielder style rehearsal of this. It's possible. You never know. All right. Before we get in the questions, we need to at least give some lip service of the fact that there is, that the cup is in the building in Vegas tonight.

I just briefly forgot where this game was being played. Max, does Vegas get this done tonight? Is tonight? Is tonight the night? I think so, especially, you know, obviously, you know, obviously you always like to see it. team win at home. But I also think they have enough guys who have, you know, for as much as like, okay, yeah, the Jack Eichols, they haven't had this moment yet. Alex Petrangelo has. And I think Mark Stone's been, you know, through the battles enough that he's not going to be phased.

Marches-O-Carsson, they saw this go the other way before. But they, they know what this is like. They're going to be okay. I mean, for whatever it's worth, Kachuk is a game time decision still as of Tuesday morning. Like, how seriously do we have to take that? I don't know, but, you know, does he have some Willis Reed moment and add that to the stack of wild shit we've seen from him in his postseason? Maybe, maybe not. But it does feel like it's over. If it does end tonight, if it's an unremarkable, say, 4-2 Vegas win where nothing, you know, materially changes. Do you have a cons my pick? Who is your guy this far?

I think it's between Eichel and March or so. I'm inclined to go with dissent. Marcha So's had the goals. Ikel's had the assists. I feel the pull towards Marcha Sele and I feel like that's just me being, you know, a prisoner, a prisoner of the big goals because we know how good Jack has been. We know how good he's, how, especially early on. I think that's a big part of it. I think, you know, there's recency bias when it comes to the con, you know, where we forget maybe how good Ikel was at times against Edmonton in, in Winnipeg. The best story is Eichel gets the. Khan Smyth, March or so gets the cup second. That splits the difference, right?

I think so. I think so. And I think Marcheil gets cup second regardless of whether he wins the cup or not. Because that dude is, I feel like he's emerged. You know, I think people have kind of, this is what happens when teams go on long playoff runs is storylines, you know, coagulate and consensus is built, I think, on reputation. and public perceptions. And I think what we've seen with Jonathan Marcheseau over the last, you know,

few weeks is he's like Mr. Golden Knight. Like he's the guy. He's the fake. Like Eichol checks so many boxes and he's compelling for so many reasons. But in terms of what in terms of what players, individual players have met, have meant to that franchise over the last five years,

it's, it's, it's Marcheau. He's the dude. Okay. on to the comments. William S. Please tell me why I'm wrong. I don't give a shit if the cap goes up.

Aside from deals with term that were signed based on expectation over achievement, those will look great if they continue being like Tage and Caulfield. Those guys look great if they continue being 35, 45, 45 goal guys. And if the cap goes up, sure. But for most contracts, they're signing based on what they've done, not what they will do for the length of term. So why do I give a shit if player X makes $12 million, a year or 318 million a year if it's effectively just Y percent of Z of Z dollar salary cap.

I mean, we can't make you care about that stuff, right? If it doesn't, if it doesn't, if the, if revenue, if revenue shares don't, don't, don't mean that much to you, then that's fine. It's your prerogative. But I think a healthy game where players are, paid, uh, commensurate with their worth and,

and, and, and, and, is, is good, is good for everybody. Just like,

just like high, just like high, high, franchise valuations are, are good, are good for everybody. It's just something, it's just something to talk about,

too. Like, roster building and, in, and, and, that's why we, if you don't care about how, like,

who makes what and what players end up where, then, you know, that's fine, but that's also a big part of the sport. And that's a big part of the discussion of the sport. So I don't know if I have a great answer for that.

Well, from a grow-the-game standpoint, do you want your generational player making the same as an NBA sixth man or less? You know, like from a, I'm not saying that hockey parents decide to enroll their kid in hockey, specifically because they think it's going to get them rich or that, you know, parents who are just truly open-minded are like, oh, which sport can my kid make the most money in or whatever? But I do think when a kid is deciding to specialize at various points in his life, if he has some kind of advisor, like, I don't know, you'd probably advise your kid to play baseball over hockey if he's equally good at the two, right? I mean, I don't know. Totally.

And then the other thing, too, is like, this further is kind of what I said before. Say next year, we have a cap. We have a cap spike. And they do it all at once, and there's no smoothing, both sides agree to next off season to, jump the cap by $9 million or whatever. That makes for crazy player movement. It changes the calculus across the board. We saw it happen in the NBA whenever they signed a new broadcast deal about 10 years ago.

And the end result of that was Timofa Moskavs, signing a max deal with a Lakers. All sorts of goofy shit happened. And it was fun. It was fun. It was fun and compelling. And it was it was impactful and relevant and wreaked havoc. those that stuff is important and also in terms of if you're talking about you know the cap going up that affects how it just affects planning right like teams teams need to be able to plan for

you know be able to reliably plan for here's where we think the cap's going to be in five years so this is how much money we get player x i i don't know i if if you don't care we can't make it but it's also a real just it's a huge it's a huge deal so sorry William S if that's not if that's not the answer you're looking for Corey E hi Craig and Sean Corey didn't realize that Craig again forcing Max into duty on a Tuesday morning Pop culture question yeah yeah I don't think I don't think anybody wants that Pop culture question did you watch I think you should leave and do you have a top five

skid opinion I know you are you are a big Tim Robinson guy you are a big I think you can leave guy. Yeah, let's let's limit it to this season because I think we actually maybe someone else asked this again as well. Let's let's go season three, which came out last week or two weeks ago actually. Oh, I mean, the drive-thru one is very good. Um, I did like the pseudo-batchelor zip line. That's, that's my pick. I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to cut you off there because I whatever. That's an episode one sketch. I watch it and was laughing a lot, a lot. The first time I saw it. My girlfriend was in the other room. So I told her and she was like basically pissed me because I'd started because I started watching that when she was over like cooking dinner

or something. So I was like, all right, I'll restart it. And whenever she came over and I restarted it, what killed me and what took the zipline sketch number one, you know, with a bullet for me on the season is in the credit sequence for the fake bachelor show where it's like, who gets the rose and whatever, he's in the background of all those shots riding the zip line, where you see him off in the distance, you know, doing spins and stuff on the zip line. And I saw that, and I saw that 30 seconds after I watched it the first time and lost it. Like, I was like, okay, this is like the second sketch of the season or whatever. It's a tough one to beat. That is a quintessential, like, watch the skits two or three times show because they are so

intricate and part of the whole brand of comedies you're going to spend at least a minute and minute a half of every sketch which are not super long sketches figuring out like so what is the deal with this one yeah what's the what's the hook here but once you know right like like one of my favorite tim robinson sketches of all time is the one from the uh the characters the Sammy paradise uh lady luck sketch i mean you go every time you go back and watch that like you you don't understand what's happening the first time you see it because you're figuring it out but The little lines, he says to all the people in the casino are just tens, like all around. He's amazing.

Detroit legend, by the way. So I was setting enough to talk about that, dude. I know we were kind of both trying to talk to him during, whenever we had nothing to write about from 2020 to 2020. I think both of us were Anglin to find a way to get Tim Robinson on the athletic in one capacity. It didn't happen. Get his takes on Detroit sports, but that's all right. It's a great show.

It's fine. We've been talking about pharmacies on the show. I heard that. Yeah. I didn't heard of any of those, by the way, that you mentioned. So there's a pretty robust discussion about pharmacies in the comments. Gen F. basically schooled Craig and was like, because Craig's like, all pharmacies are the same.

Like, who cares? And Jen's like, well, one went out of network and I had to pay a shitload of money on co-pay. So it's not all the same. We've also been talking about gas stations, of course. So, Max, to you, to you I say, via Jeff S, rank these gas stations. Sheets, Wawa, or Buckees? Don't know Buckees. Buckees are unbelievable.

They're like, I think they're based in Florida. They're in the south. It's almost too big. It's like someone to fix like a really nice, like a nice Walmart to a set of gas pumps. It's the publics of the pubs of gas stations. It's like there's a truck stop element. It's, it's, frankly, it's excessive, honestly. Like, it's, it's too, it's too much, too big, um, nice as it might be.

Um, I'm team Pittsburgh though in the, the battle of Pennsylvania. So I'm taking sheets over Wawa. Wow. Guess what? Turncoat shit here from me, baby. Wawa over sheets. The hoagies are better. I don't need the goofy carnival food from Sheets.

also that is an Altoona-based, an Altoona PA-based company. Stolen Valor from Western Pennsylvania. There was a Wawa in College Park, Maryland that was probably my favorite restaurant from the years 2004 to 2008. Which one would be by State College? Sheets. Okay, well, I do have some dock sheets. I had, after a Michigan Penn State night game that I covered there like six years ago, I had a bounty of sheets driving like an hour and a half to the nearest hotel to State College, Pennsylvania.

And it didn't agree with me. That sounds about right. You probably ate something with, you know, fried macaroni and cheese or something, something on it. Probably cross-contaminated nature or whatever. It was bad news. Yeah, State College is like the dividing line between Wawa and sheets. I think, you know, we can go further into this if we want, but we can do that off mic. Wawa

Pretty good hoagies Pretty good pretzels Their sandwiches are just generally better And like I said, I don't need You know Burgers with mozzarella sticks on them I'm the shit that sheets I'm not down with that.

There's no way I've been to either more than twice I'm really just planning the flag for Pittsburgh here I love it. Thank you brother. Get go over over sheets as well. That's that that's the true of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh City Limit move. My deep dark secret is I just really love Speedway, to be honest.

It's... I've liked for a lot of slushies, Sean. To all my Pittsburgh area listeners, there's a very busy, very large speedway on Brownsville Road, Brownsville Road going down to the waterfront that I've been to many times. Okay. Michael Kay has a bunch of award suggestions. We'll probably save some of these, Michael. for our season ending spectacular whenever Craig,

whenever Craig comes back. Max will be a part of this, Shane will be a part of this. We have big plans. I also, I wanted to finish up with this one because it's, I feel to plan for this. Max Z. Okay, I got to ask, what does turning into a pumpkin mean and where does it come from?

I've heard it about a zillion times on the athletic this spring. Eddie F gave a good answer here. It's a reference to Cinderella's magic carriage, which was originally a pumpkin. When the clock gets midnight in the story, it reverts back into a pumpkin. So the phrase is being used to reference something returning to its original slash expected state. Eddie F, that's said better than I could have. We need to stop saying this. And these would go on the list of overdone cliches.

You guys used to have a banned list on this, on this day. 100%. We need to go back and figure out. what's on that list. Folks, if you're listening to this, maybe we repopulate this again and we bring it in fresh coming in the next season or something.

I don't know, but turn into a pumpkin music and on it, galaxy brains on there. Like, just stuff like that that, you know, our particular cohort of sports writers have turned into, you know,

new, cliches pretty much. And I think, I think turned to do a pumpkin design list. So. It is a funny one because it's like, it's, it's this like reference.

but it's like a children's movie. It's as old as, you're not impressing anybody with it. No, and it's as old as could be like, like the Cinderella movie came out eight years ago or whatever. It's not like not new or edgy or anything. It's just a weird bit of shorthand that,

you know, everybody, everybody has adopted. I know me and Dom are particularly guilty of it. So I'm going to try to eliminate that because we're here to be better people. I got an alternative. Mm-hmm. How about instead of like, you know, yeah, they had a chance, but, you know,

Bobrovsky turned back into a pumpkin. We go, they had a chance, but, you know, Bobrovsky spent the whole week ziplining. Bobrovsky hit the, he was there for the zip line. He was there for the zip line. He wasn't there for the hockey. We're going to leave on that note. That's a great spot to leave it.

Max, thanks, buddy. Always. On Wednesday, Rob Pizzo, Jesse Granger, Michael Russo have the roundtable where they might be talking about the Stealing Cup champion Vegas, Golden Knights, they might not be. Rousseau and Granger are both still in the series. Obviously, Jesse went back home to Vegas.

Rousseau followed him. I wonder if those guys want to make the return to Florida. I'm going to go out and live and say that they would rather not. Don't forget to subscribe to the athletic hockey show on YouTube. YouTube.com slash at sign the athletic hockey show. We thank Greg Cronin. we thank Max Pultman, and we prepare next week for Patrick O'Sullivan, long-time NHL player who has a remarkable story across the board. I'm going to talk to Patrick about a lot of different things

next week, Craig and I. So join us then. And of course, as always, happy new year. This has been the Tuesday Boys. Asex Tuesday Boys, Tuesday, Boys, Thusies.