The Athletic Hockey Show - Michael Russo talks Minnesota Wild, Anson Carter, and more, Tyler Toffoli dealt to the Calgary Flames, Canada-USA Women’s gold medal game set, Multiple Choice Madness, and more

Episode Date: February 14, 2022

First, Ian and guest cohost Julian McKenzie discuss what the NHL gets “right” other than the way the Stanley Cup gets presented, in light of the NFL handing the Vince Lombardi trophy to the owners before the players after the Super Bowl.Next, the guys look ahead to the Canada-USA Women’s gold medal game on Wednesday night and challenge TAHS Tuesday’s Craig Custance and Sean Gentille to an open-ended bet on the outcome, then they wish the one and only Jaromir Jagr a happy 50th birthday and ask the question: if you could live anybody’s life in hockey, whose would you choose?After that, The Athletic’s own Michael Russo joins the show to talk about how he handled being unwillingly thrust into the spotlight after Anson Carter’s comments on TNT last week, how Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin will approach the trade deadline with the goal of winning a Stanley Cup seemingly in reach, Kirill Kaprizov as a potential Hart trophy winner this season, and much more.Plus, the guys close things out with a little bit of Multiple Choice Madness and the breaking news that the Montreal Canadiens traded Tyler Toffoli to the Calgary Flames for a top-10 protected 1st round pick, a 5th rounder, Tyler Pitlick, and prospect Emil Heineman, as well as how the Habs fanbase is receiving Martin St. Louis behind the bench, so far.And, right now, you can sign up for an annual subscription to The Athletic for just $3.99 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back, everybody. It is your Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. See you in Mendez with you. Once again, our pal Haley Salvean is on Olympic duty. So guess what? We liked them so much last week. Julian McKenzie is back. As a pinch hitter this week,

looking forward to a jam-packed hour coming up. Our Minnesota Wilde beat writer extraordinaire, Mike Russo is going to drop by. Chat about his column that dropped in the Athletic today. All about what should Bill Garron do with the deadline? is the Wilder, certainly one of the most interesting teams to watch in the next few weeks. We'll talk about the in-season coaching changes we saw last week again at Edmonton and Montreal. And how many of these interim guys do we think are actually going to stick around,

whether it's Woodcroft in Edmonton, San Luis in Montreal, Dave Lowry in Winnipeg, Derek King, there's a whole bunch of them, we'll get to that. Happy birthday, Yarmir Yager? He's going to turn 50 this week. We'll talk a little bit about him. We'll touch on some Olympic hockey. multiple choice madness, all of that's going to be jam packed into the next hour or so. But like I said, Julian McKenzie is with us again.

He is, quite frankly, the king of podcasts, this guy. Like, okay, you've got to tell me, man, how many podcasts have you appeared on either as a guest or a host in the last 72 hours? Okay. So the Aywisports hockey podcast with Justin Cuthbert is won. About a couple hours before I started recording today. I did the Chris Johnston show with Chris Johnston. This show, of course, the athletic hockey show. I was on SportsNet Fan 590 on Saturday.

Did I do something earlier that Saturday, too, I want to say? I forget now. Busiest man in the broadcasting. It's got a lot going on. Every time I look at your feed, it's like, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. I don't know where you have the time. I don't know where you have the time. It's convenient that I'm able to do a lot of the stuff from the office that I'm sitting in right now in my house,

as opposed to like running from place to place to do it. That would be a much different story. Yeah. But hey, listen, we appreciate you. Like I said, you got a busy schedule and you've carved out an hour for us. We're looking forward to Mike Russo drop and buy a little bit later. But I want to ask you to kick this off. Look, it's the day after the Super Bowl.

and you know how it works with the Super Bowl. The Rams win the championship. And the first thing the commissioner does is handover the Vince Lombardi trophy to the ownership group with the L.A. Rams. And that's one of those things where I feel like, as a hockey fan, that's where hockey gets it right. Hockey doesn't get it right in a lot of things, right?

The NHL doesn't get it right. There's not many times where I think we look at the NHL, we're like, that's how the other league should do it, right? So here's my question. I opened this up on Twitter and I want to ask you, outside of the championship trophy presentation, what else does the NHL get right? What else do we look at the NHL and say, you know, other leagues can learn from the NHL. Is there anything else? Like, the only other thing I could really think of is the championship trophy itself. Like, not only in the Super Bowl or just in

football in general, do you play through a grueling season, contact on contact, head contact, After all that, you get this trophy you could just hold in one hand. In the Stanley Cup, you go through four rounds and you get to lift Lord Stanley's mug over your head and you get to skate that baby around the ice. Like, the championship trophy itself is perfect. Like, that is a trophy. It is arguably the greatest trophy in professional sports in terms of just its majesticness, physicality, and all that. We can debate about prestige in terms of other tournaments and other leagues, but in terms of the trophy itself, there's no other league that has a title that can compare than to the NHL zone. So I think that's the only other thing they really get right.

In terms of the trophy that you win at the end, you get a real trophy as opposed to, I don't know, like the Super. The Super Bowl, I think for all its pageantry, should have a much different trophy at the end of it to win. Yeah, it's just a football. Imagine the Stanley Cup was just a puck. you'd be like, oh yeah, it's a puck. But, you know, it's fun. Like, the other thing I like about the Stanley Cup, you tell me about this,

but the fact that every player gets their name etched in it, and I know that it, it revolve, like they have to change the rings out, so it's not there forever per se, but you get a good, whatever, 60-year run. Like, I know the funny thing is people, the countdown is on. The 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs,

so it was the last Toronto team to win the cup. They've got, I believe, till the year 2030, and then their name comes off of the cup. But you're still getting, you know, 60 plus years. I think that's one of the cool things in hockey. Let me throw a couple of other things. You tell me if you think these are things that, you know what, the NHL gets right and other sports can maybe learn from it.

The post-playoff series handshake line. Like, would you think that in the end, okay, so I don't know in the Super Bowl, Like you do see that brief moment where, you know, Matt Stafford will connect with Joe Burrow and it's very brief. And it, but there's a confetti coming down and like, you know, Michelle Tofoya is trying to grab you for an interview and everything. What do you think if in the NFL or Major League Baseball, the NBA, there was a post-series handshake? I think the NHL gets that right. I think there's a point to be made there. I do like see one of my favorite things about the handshake line.

is seeing like two guys who have gone at each other an entire series just like kind of come together whether you know lovingly just like respecting each other or there's like full of disdain like Milan Luchich and Dale Weiss and he had the head check a lot a couple years ago or like there's that other one like Claude Lemieux and like Dino Cicerelli a couple years ago and I think was it was it sister was it Cisreli or Lemieux who said like it pissed him right off to shake that other guy's hand it was it was Dino Cicerelli in the whole. hallway, he's like, I can't believe I had to shake that guy's hand. It pissed me right off. Yeah, like, like, I like stuff like that. So I'll give them that.

And I also think that it's kind of carried over into, I don't know if you like play like rec sports and stuff like in rec leagues or whatever. I find like whenever I'm playing like in a soccer league with friends, it doesn't matter. However the game goes at the end of it, we all kind of go in like the handshake line of ourselves. I understand like it's also just something that's been brought up from like youth soccer, but I always like to kind of, I always think of the Stanley Cup playoffs in my mind whenever that happened. So I will give them points for that. That is something they got right. Okay. One, another thing, kind of, you know, kind of unique to hockey. I don't know how you would do this in other sports. Where do you come down on the, the rookie lap? So when somebody's going to

play their first game in the NHL, it's become pretty much a standard practice. Every team does it. You send the guy out, he takes two or three, you know, twirls around. I don't think, imagine in baseball. You're like, all right, the right fielder is playing his first game. All right, the other eight guys are going to hang back and just the right fielder runs out. That wouldn't happen. But I do think that's a cool thing to kind of commemorate somebody's first game that I don't think you see in other sports, right, per se?

That's true. I would like to see, like, I guess the idea is just to kind of make the rookie look like an idiot a bit. If I was a rookie, I would just like, if it was me and if I was like playing at home and like my family was like in attendance, I would like own it. Like I would do the lap and I would like try to like point in my family and be like, I made it. I'm here. And like try to get them going and like try to get fans going. And maybe that's exactly the opposite of what my team would want to do.

But like if you're going to make me look like an idiot, I'm going to get my kicks out of it too. That's what I wish would happen. But of course, like that's not going to happen with a rookie lap. So other than that, it doesn't really do much for me. but like I it's there for a reason I guess yeah you know what and I thought about this during when we were at the height of COVID and you saw a bunch of teams were decimated with injuries I thought what would happen if one team had like seven guys making their NHL debut at the same time would they all go out at the same time for a rookie lap I guess but we never saw I think two like I think two is the most that I've ever seen but I imagine there was like a you know here's because of COVID I've We had to call a bunch of guys up and they never, but imagine seven guys came out at the same time? Like one guy for like the ECHL is like,

he's never going to be here just to bug these six other dudes. And everyone was just like, yeah, all right. I feel like at that point there's no point. Like that's like a third of your team. Like, well, do I have that number? Like 18, move the seven. I should have done six out of 18 because they're 30.

Almost half. Almost half the team like skating on the ice. Like at that point, like come on. Like, you might as well just let everyone else. do it. I don't think it would get to that point where it's excessive. And the one other thing that people say that the NHL kind of gets right versus other sports, probably more so than the NFL would be the way that they do playoff overtime, right? Like, yeah, playoff overtime.

I think there's something to be set for there is nothing better than, especially if your team's not involved, if you're just sitting back and watching two other teams play a playoff overtime, it's the best thing, right? because there's no guilt, there's no stress, you're just entertained by it. Whereas the NFL, I think the overtime rules are a little bit clunky, they're a little bit awkward. I think nothing beats the NHL's playoff overtime format. So I think that's, again, the NHL doesn't get a lot of things right vis-a-vis their counterparts in the big four, but I do think they get the overtime thing right.

An underrated feeling is like watching a playoff game in the middle of the day on like a Saturday or something. and it's like Dallas versus St. Louis or something. And it's like about to go to overtime. And you're thinking, oh, shoot, okay, we're going to watch these two teams go at it. And all of a sudden you see this amazing goal score. And you're like, oh, I'm really glad I tuned in for this random quarterfinal series between Dallas and St. Louis playoff hockey in overtime. Like that's fun because you're seeing both teams go at end to end.

And it goes from, you know, the speed and skill to like basically a battle. of wills and attrition at a certain point, depending on how long it can get. Yeah, I'm not a fan of the playoff rules in the NFL, where you could be the offense who wins a coin toss, and then you score a touchdown, and then you win it. But in hockey, it's a lot different, obviously. And, yeah, the way they have overtime set up,

they have that right. I'm glad we're pulling together this list. It's not as if the NHL gets everything wrong. They get a lot of things wrong, but they do have things that are really good. Yeah, I think we sometimes forget, right? Right? Like sometimes it's so easy to dunk on the NHL. We forget that actually there's a handful of things that are good, you know, that they do right.

And so I think I think those are so. Hey, listen, we'd love to hear from our listeners too. Drop a comment into the old comment section there. Let us know what does the NHL get right that other leagues don't? And of course, there's going to be a bunch of cynical answers. And we're here for that too. We love the cynicism that comes with being a hockey fan. But I would love to hear from you on that.

Hey, speaking of kind of things that the NHL does right or hockey does right, I know there was a great debate last week that went around about women's hockey and its place in the Olympics, but I think they do it right. And I love seeing, I told you last week, Canada, U.S. women's hockey, one of the best rivalries of the 21st century in sports. We're going to see it again on Wednesday night, 11 o'clock Eastern time, 8 p.m. Pacific. And again, a reminder that living on the West Coast is the best. for watching sports.

And Wednesday's gold medal game is another great example, right? Like, we're going to have to be up until about 1.30, maybe 2 o'clock to watch this. Oh my God. I don't know what time you wake up in the morning. I know you got a family and obviously you're going to morning skates. My schedule for editing on the athletic desk begins at 7.30. At 7.30 in the morning. Yeah.

Like, I've tried to watch games that start. at 11 and I've literally like passed out in my bed like watching on my phone at like midnight and that's even late for me like in terms of trying to get like a full eight hours sleep like it's just it's not that I don't want to watch it's just the schedules are just weird like the only other like the only men's game I've seen to this point like a game that started at like 810 so I was like editing first thing in the morning and then I just had it on my phone there like is it just the it's nothing to do with the players or anything like that just the scheduling just for me is just really, really weird.

But yeah, I'm going to try to find a way to at least watch some of Canada, USA. We all know how great of a rivalry it is. I understand the debate that's there. I want to add this. The way that the debate was framed, unfortunately started by Rosie DeMano, and I understand this is something

she's just trumpeted for decades about how women's hockey does not belong at the Olympics. I think was framed very poorly. I think a better way of having a discussion about this is saying that other countries beyond Canada and the United States need to do everything they can to add more resources,

more money, more funding to their programs so they can eventually be a little bit more and more competitive. And we're already seeing strides. We're already, like, if you look through the Olympic hockey tiers for women's hockey, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert. But I think it was really cool to see the work being done

and noticing that there are all these spectacular players in countries like Finland and Switzerland who are making, a significant difference for their countries and when they're playing out in professional leagues, or just in the league that they play. And I'm like, okay, that's great. So there are good talented players beyond Canada and the United States. They just need more help. I think if the discussion had been framed that way, I think we would have had more lightning discussions about it. And we would have probably learned more about what those countries are doing to ensure that their programs

are ascending upward and can maybe one day compete with. the United States or Canada in a game. But instead, we chose to make it about how, you know, team about, hey, it's only team in the USA worth watching at the Olympics in women's hockey. So that's why we should only have just, those two just play a seven game series and just leave everyone out of it. Like, that's not, that's not progress. That's not a good way of framing that debate.

So I'm, I'm bummed that we didn't take the opportunity to make the discussion a lot more enlightening and we just chose to just kind of dunk on this broad stupid point. Not being said, like the content we have on the athletic about that is really good. Haley wrote a really great column on that. I'm not taking a shot at her at all. It's just I think that what we could have done in hockey Twitter spaces, the next step of that conversation is just saying, okay, well, what can be done with those other teams to ensure that they get better?

That's the conversation worth having and not the fact that women's hockey, whether it belongs or not in the Olympics. because we all know it does. Yeah. And I think like the United States beat Finland four to one in the semis on Monday. It wasn't like, I don't know Canada rolled through Switzerland 10 to 3, but it wasn't like the United States just throttled Finland. You know, 4-1 is a fairly, you know, competitive score.

It's not a, it's not that lopsided. And I think what's really important is you got to remember. So take the Finland team from this year, 2022. Now, if that finished team went back in time and played, against, say, a Canada-U.S. team from the O2 Olympics or the O'O6 Olympics, I bet you you'd see a much more competitive game, right? So those countries are coming along. It's just not quite, as you said, they're not closing the gap as fast as we would like so that there's a three, four, five horse race here. But the gap is being closed. And I think that the Finnish women's

team in 2022, if we time-warp them back, they're probably going to be very competitive against late 90s, early 2000s teams that Canada, the United States, Iced. And I'm excited for this on Wednesday. I think, and I've seen the, I don't know about you. Like, I have not watched very much of this year's Olympics. And I don't know if it's a time difference thing. I don't know if it's an NHLers aren't there. I don't know if I'm just sick of the Olympics as a institution.

I don't know what it is. But I have really not paid attention, but I will pay attention Wednesday night at 11 p.m. And I suspect that that will end up. being maybe the highest rated, maybe the highest rated event of the Olympics, at least in Canada. If I'm going to guess, I'm going to guess that that's going to beat. Let's say the men play for gold. Do you think people are going to be rushing to tune in like they will for this? I don't know.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. But I think this will be the number one thing. I'll say this. Like, I don't know if the time helps the women's side. And that also compares to what the men might have to deal with. if they get there. But to your point,

like, this is a rare instance where there are more household names on the women's side than on the men's side. Like, team, like the men's side, they have Eric Stahl.

I mean, I know, we all know Owen Powers really good, but is he a household name yet? He hasn't played an H.O. game yet. Kent Johnson, who's, who's doing okay for Team K.

He's not a household name. Like, there are a lot of no names on this, on the men's side. On the women side, we know about an MPP. We know about Melody Tao. We know about the goaltending. We know about Sarafilié, who has announced herself to the hockey world through the Olympics.

I just wish that we didn't have to wait up until like 11 o'clock at night to watch this game. Or they move the game to like a Friday night. So if you are going to wait up until like 11 or midnight Eastern time to watch the game, you're not doing anything on the Saturday. So who cares. But so it goes. We're going to have to stay up at 11 p.m. Eastern time to do it.

And maybe there's a lot of boo-hoo. Who cares? You get to watch hockey and all that. Don't complain. But, like, I think that matters for people who, I don't know, work at 7.30 in the morning the next day. Like, I don't know. You know what I don't want to see now that you bring this up?

Yeah. I don't want to see one of those gen. You know, like, I don't want to see USA Hockey or Hockey Canada, put out a tweet on Wednesday night with one of those form letters that says, dear, blank. please excuse blank from missing work on Thursday morning. No, that's not. Those are lame, okay? Those are done with.

Like, I don't want to see excuse notes written for missing work signed by Hockey Canada and USA Hockey. Okay? I don't want to see it. But Ian, we, most of us work from a home. There's no way you could get out of that now with those letters. Like, you're kidding me? Oh, here's another thing I don't want to see. Here's another thing I don't want to see.

And this goes for the men and the women's side. for Team USA. I do not want to come across any more articles about how a win over Canada at the Olympics draws any comparison to the miracle on ice in 1980.

Did you see what CNN put out over the weekend? Are you kidding me? That, that I have like, I didn't even want to quote tweet that because I'm like, what was this? Like who wrote this?

All the Americans are like, what are you talking about? Like, I don't know. I quote tweeted that to Sean Gentile. He didn't respond. So maybe he, he low-key likes that. Maybe you could talk about it on the Tuesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show with Craig Custins.

But like, come on, bro. It's good, good on the United States. They look like a better team against Canada on the men's side. They have a very good chance at winning the gold medal and they could feel happy for themselves. Great for them. Great progress for them that they're able to get to a point where they can go to a medal game and not choke before. But like, to get to a point we're comparing it to the 1980.

Like, come on, bro. The 1980 Olympics? You know what, though? We got to do, we got to lay down, we're going to lay down the challenge right here. Okay. Yes. The Monday edition of the athletic hockey show would like to challenge the Tuesday edition of the athletic hockey show in a, we'll take Canada, you take the United States,

and we just need the listeners to come up with the bet. Yep, I'm down. We need the listeners to come up with the bet. And it could be, you know, Gentilly's going to come up with something fantastic. But we're willing, you and I, and we're just going to, to throw Haley into this too. We are willing, we are willing,

uh, for any bet. Lay it on us. You know, lay it on us and we feel that confident. By the way, uh, for people listening who think that,

uh, oh, it's not fair that Ian Haley and Julian are on one side versus Gentilly and Custin's. That's three versus two. Gentile's head is big enough for two people. So we could, that's even.

I love Gentile. that's not a real diss. I'm just, I'm just, no, chirping. Exactly. All right. So we'd love to hear from our listeners.

And I'm sure the Tuesday listeners will jump in on this too. And we'll message Custin's and Jen Tilly. But we've got to put something on the line. Canada, USA, women's gold medal game Wednesday night. Hit us up. Tell us what the bet should be. We'll take the best one and we'll run with it because that should be a lot of fun. Yarra-Yager's turning 50, Julian, this week.

What? In fact, Tuesday, he turns the big 5-0. Guy is still playing. over in the Czech Republic. Tomorrow, or Tuesday, he turns 50, the big 5-0. And I'm thinking, if you could live anybody's life in hockey and kind of experience what Dave done, are you picking Jeremy Yager just because the guy has just had an endless career?

Seems like he's had a ton of fun. He's won virtually everything that you'd want to win, right? Olympic gold medal, Stanley Cups, all this stuff, Art Ross, all that. You pick it, like, would you pick Yager and say, Like, you know what, if I could live someone's best life, I'd be, I'd be Yer Mierre-Yager. I don't know because the first thing I have to ask is, because here's my idea. If I'm going to be successful as a hockey player, I'm going to make all the millions of dollars I can make. So I can get to a point when I retire at the age 38 or 41 or whatever, like, I'm not trying to still play.

No respect to Yerba Yager. congratulations to him, you still able to play at 50. I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to just kick it with my family and be with them. And maybe getting the coaching, maybe getting working in front office, who knows. But I don't know if you are a Miriogos guy. Wayne Gretzky, though, that's a guy I very much consider playing. A guy who essentially became the NHL's biggest household name.

I mean, to this day, if you ask people who, you know, name the first name that comes to mind with the NHL. Like, I guess casual people who don't really know. Wayne Gretzky is the name that still comes up. You get a cushy job, cushy job at TNT right now. You have all the Stanley Cups. People think you're the best player to ever play the game. You play in Edmonton.

You play in Los Angeles. You play briefly in St. Louis. You play in New York with the Rangers. Like, I think that's a pretty good life. He would be near the top. I'd consider Alexander Oveskin, too. I don't know if I'm cut out for the life of Connor McDavid where you don't show that much personality

considering what my life is. Hang on though. Connor McDavid has a heated driveway that will melt the ice on his driveway. Does that tip the scales in your favor? I mean, that's a really good point. But also, like, if I'm a hockey player, I'm not shoveling my driveway anyway.

I have enough money to pay someone to do it regardless. Like how much does it really sway me to have a heated driver? Depending on who I am, I could be Carrick-Caprizov and make like, what, like 10 mil a year and get a heated driveway in Minnesota of all places. I could get a heated driveway. I don't have to be Connor McDavid to get a heated driveway. But that being said, I would strongly consider.

How much you think a heated drive? I don't even know what a heated driveway would cost. But, man, I was envy. When I heard McDavid of all the. features of his home, which kind of, it kind of looked like, you know, the, this was a couple months ago when that, that magazine article came out about his place. Like, it looked like the evil layer of like a villain. Like it was just, you know, it was, it, but it looked amazing.

And I'm like, oh my God, he's got a heated, the driveways heated in Edmonton, of all the things, that's unbelievable. Drake has a heated driveway. But you know what? I can think of one NHL player who absolutely was in charge of clearing the snow. and that was Joe Sackick. Do you remember this Joe Sackick? He put his hand in the snowblower

and he got hurt and he missed a bunch of time. So there are NHL players who clear their own snow. Joe Sackick did it in Denver. Oh my God. I didn't, you know what? I had heard a similar story, but I didn't realize it was him who did it.

Joe Sackick was trying. So now we need to do a deep dive. How many NHL players get a snow clearing service? How many of them use a snowblower? None of them are sure. shoveling. I don't think. I don't think so. You got a bad back. Imagine that. Yeah. Could you imagine? Like, I mean,

that's a more likely story why Dustin Penner would have matched up his back as opposed to like sitting down and eating pancakes, I guess. Yeah. Dustin kind of like, yeah, like I would like if he had told everyone that he hurt his back shoveling, I, we'd all believe that more than, than that's, that's much more plausible and much more like, palatable than like pancakes. You heard your back eating pancakes? That's wild. Our producer extraordinaire, Chris Flannery,

has jumped into the chat to tell us that heated driveways cost anywhere between $4,000 and $15,000. Now, I'm thinking McDavid sprung for the $15,000 one. But I'm certain to think, so how much do people pay a year for snow clearing? I don't even, I don't do. I still shovel like an idiot.

I should probably But I'm thinking If it costs only $4,000 And you live in like Minnesota or Michigan Or Ontario Or someplace where it's worth it probably to $4,000 would get me to think A little bit

Because if I, you know, it's the price point Because if I'm paying to shovel Or have somebody clear my driveway Or you know, I'm buying a snowblower Whatever it is 4,000's right at the point where I'm like You're talking me I can have a heated driveway that and as Chris

Chris has told us it melts two inches of snow per hour so that's not like like if I am at a position in my life in like like middle or upper upper middle class I'm thinking about that for sure I know I got four grand laying around

I'm telling you that that's our new measure are you heated driveway rich that's that's our new thing how well are you doing let's do it that's what I'm going to ask rich that's what I'm going to ask rich people That's what I'm going to ask rich people from now on. Do you have enough money to keep your driveway?

But they got to live below like, where, like Ohio, Virginia. Like, you got to live north of that. You can't, we can't ask somebody, right, from Nevada, Arizona, right? It's like a Colorado fine, Montana fine, Alberta, yeah, yeah, we get it. But like certain place. Anyway, that's going to be our new metric. Yes, of course. I aspire now to be heated driveway rich.

Heated driveway rich. Okay, I got to ask you about some big changes. You keep quite a close eye on the Montreal Canadians. It's been what a season for them. They make the change to Marty St. Louis. He goes winless to start. But how's that being received in the marketplace right now? He's less than a week into the gig.

What's it, what's it been like in Montreal? And how are Habs fans feeling about Marty St. Louis behind the bench? The Canadians are losing with dignity. Through three games, we've seen, we've seen them fight. We've seen them get close against the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.

They actually battled back and made it 3-3 before Jeff Skinner ultimately demoralized them, basically on his own. Four-go-game. Four-go-game for Jeff Skinner. Patrick Liney scored a game-winning goal with seconds left on Saturday for the Columbus Blue Jackets. So at least the last two games, the Canadians have at least given themselves a fighting chance. But does seeing Colcafield be a little bit more engaged?

He got goals in the first two games under his new bench boss. Seeing other veteran players look a little bit more engaged too, like Brennan Gallagher looks a little bit healthy, more than what we've seen from earlier this year. That's also helped. I think young guys like Alexander Romanov as well. have also benefited from playing under Martin-Sain-Louis. He seems like a guy who kind of just wants his guys to be a little bit more free and not necessarily rely on being in a boxer system.

Yeah, I think the way it's looking now with Martin St. Louis, this team is going through, this team's not going to make the playoffs. They're going to go through some changes. Like literally, as we're speaking right now, it looks as if the Canadians are going to send Tyler to Foley to the Calgary Flames for a first round pick and like two other prospects. That's why I think Elliot Freeman or Elliot Freeman or someone else was tweeting.

It's looking like a done deal. But yeah, like, they're at a point right now where guys are going to be shipped out. The team's not going to make the playoffs. It's all about ensuring the guys who have left on the team are going to fight and that they're going to provide some fire. And Martin St. Louis, the guy who's going to be there to kind of light a fire under everyone's belly to kind of at least get them going.

I think for the sake of the players, like it would be good if they're able to get like a couple wins or two just to, you know, keep their spirits up. But I don't think they're going to go on some crazy run a la St. Louis Blues in 2019 that puts them in the playoffs. Like the Canadians are very much going to miss, but they can say they learned a lot from Martin, San Luis, in the 30 games, if it works out. But they got Andrew Hammond. The Hamburgler run.

The Hamburgler's in. I love the Hab Burglar joke that Steve Dangel made on the weekend. I thought that was great. So you're right. This is the beauty of doing the podcast quasi-live, so to speak. You're right, Elliot Friedman, among the first to report it. The Calgary Flames have acquired Tyler Tofoli from Montreal in exchange for a first round pick, a fifth round pick, and a couple of kind of prospects there.

The first round pick is top ten protected. So if Calgary somehow misses the playoffs and, you know, moves up in the lottery, and so it's protected. But it's interesting. A couple of thoughts here, Tofol. Raleigh reunited with Daryl Sutter. They obviously had a lot of success in Los Angeles. DeFoli is a guy that I'm intrigued by because, you know, wherever he's gone, he's fit in.

Even that little stint in Vancouver, he was good. He was good in Montreal. I think he'll be good in Calgary. And whereas the Habs, they made the change behind the bench. You knew that some other stuff was coming. Some of these other teams, like Edmonton, they've already made their big move, right? they got a Vanderd-Cain. I don't know what else they can do.

There's a lot of work to be done for the Montreal Canadians here. And Tyler Tofoli going to Calgary. I like Calgary doing this because you're getting out ahead of the trade deadline. You did give up a first round pick for him, but he's under some team control for a bit and he's a productive player. He absolutely is. One thing that's great about Tyler Toffoli when he was with the Montreal Cananians, like he was a guy who was able to contribute some scoring. He did a lot so last year.

I know he was kind of hurt a little bit this year, but since he came back from injury this year, I think he had looked like one of the teams better players. And I think there were some fans who were kind of hoping that he'd stick around through whatever transitions were going to come through for this team over the next few years, mostly because of the fact that he can score. This guy is on a contract worth 4.25 mil up until 2024. So the Calgary Flames have a guy who,

can contribute some secondary scoring because they have guys on the team who can score. Bradshaw living, funny enough, last week was talking to Pierre LeBron and was straight up said, like, hey, we're in the market for secondary scoring. That pretty much settles it right there. Well, at least that's a big piece that they could consider a secondary scoring for them right there. And he's on a pretty team-friendly contract. So, yeah, a guy like Tyler Tofoli, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if he fit in just fine with the Calgary Flames.

A team that more and more by the day looks more and more serious as a Stanley Cup contending team. They play the way that you're supposed to play in the playoffs if you want to go to the Stanley Cup final. They just have to ensure that they get enough goal scoring when they do. They just have to ensure Jacob Markstrom continues to hold up a net. And now they have another piece in Tyler To Foley who will be able to put the puck in the net. And that's on top of having guys like Andrew Mangiapane, who I know cooled off. but Manjiapani is a guy who can score goals, right? Like Michael Backland as well.

Like there are other pieces on this team who can really contribute. So Tyler just adds to that. All right, Julian, we tease this off the top. Pretty excited to have Mike Russo join us because Minnesota Wild are, you know, they're sneaky good. And I think the hockey world starting to realize that this is a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. I love the quote from Kevin Fiala on the weekend about, hey, if they're contenders, we're contenders,

much to get to. Let's bring them in. Mike Russo on the athletic hockey show on this Monday. How are we doing today, Mike? I'm doing great. How are you guys? Hey, fantastic. Fantastic. I love you. You got you. I'm just excited. I'm going to be coming to both your neck of the woods in the next week or so. So it's pretty fun. Yeah, welcome back to Canada. We're excited to excited to have you. And, you know, when the Wild come to Ottawa, we actually get some fans back in the building. So this is going to be, it's going to be pretty exciting. Yeah, no, I can't wait. You know, the wild go to Winnipeg on Wednesday, and it's going to be 100% capacity. And a little different than what they were playing in last week when they were there.

And there was like nobody in the building. I think it was, I think they said it was 50%, but it didn't look that much. Yeah. Actually, I'm looking at the schedule now. Unless I have it wrong here, I might not be able to see you until the 19th in April. Really? Why? It doesn't have been Montreal.

Oh, right, right, right. Right. Yeah, that's true. And honestly, that might be a one-off game where I don't even go to. Oh, man, that sucks. Well, figure it out. Maybe I will go. I don't know.

There was, I have a conflict personally for that game, so I might have to cover it virtually, but we'll see. Also, common misconception to be thought of as a Toronto person. That has happened to me many a time. That's all of us. We all get the all figure we live in Toronto. But hey, Mike, before we talk about the wild and I, look, I really want to hit on your column that dropped on Monday because I think Minnesota and Bill Guerin have some really important

decisions to make in the next month. But listen, you unfortunately got into the news cycle last week. And it's not a thing that reporters necessarily crave. Like, you don't, you didn't want to be part. I know you didn't want to be part of it. You didn't want to have your name dropped on a national telecast. And all of a sudden, there was quite a frenzy around it. Can you, can you maybe just walk us through?

I know you addressed this on Twitter, but just maybe walk us through what, what last week was like for you? Yeah, it was, you know, as you mentioned, you know, it was, it was super uncomfortable. Still not exactly over it. You know, I mean, in a lot of ways, you know, I thought I was beyond it, but I'm definitely not. I, I had trouble sleeping here the last two or three nights, woke up a couple times almost like

anxiety attacks. I was able to get sleep last night, but honestly, like, dreamed about it all night and all that type of stuff. And so, yeah, luckily I didn't, and what you're referring to, obviously, is Anson Carter dropping my name. on national TV, basically, you know, a real, what I thought, minor difference of opinion on Twitter, where he called him to question the Wild's depth on a national telecast. And what happened is that Wild fans sort of lost, you know, disagreed, obviously, and started,

coincidentally, it was Game 41 that the Wild were on the Chicago, playing the Chicago Blackhawks on TNT. And I wrote a mid-season report that Jake Leonard, my editor, actually pretty much edited during the day. And in that, I had just one line that said, The Wild, comma, one of the deepest teams in the NHL. And he called into the question the Wild's depth and Wild fans screen captured that snippet of the column and kept on, you know, peppering him with the picture of the fact that one of the reporters happened to call him that that day. So he came out with a tweet where he basically, you know, brought up Minnesota Wilderness. Wild fans and reporters with a laughing emoji and brought up the Winter Classic where the Wild Rapsy rolled. And I just corrected him.

And I said, look, you know, I have a lot of respect for you. But the Wild are 9-0 and 1 since then, a lot of with a lot of the guys that you've pretty much mentioned. I mean, the Wild are 9, 3, and 1 in their last 12. And in that time, have missed Dumba two or three times, Spurgeon seven times, Brodine seven times. So I was just basically saying that, look, the one night that they were on your telecast, they were absolutely rocked. It was their first game in 12 days, but since then, they're 9-0-1, sometimes without 9 or 8 players in their lineup, that's the team that's deep.

And so what I did say was, you know, maybe you should listen to the fans and the reporters that watch them regularly rather than laugh at them. And he obviously was stewing over that. He replied to the tweet, I never mentioned it again. And then obviously, Anson went on the air and insinuated that it was a racial thing that I brought up, that, you know, I mean, he He said it sounds awfully white that I'm the authority and don't say this in this month, meaning Black History Month, and we know what is happening here and stay on code. And that is absolutely not me. It was a mortifying situation to be in.

It scares me if he had said that about another reporter that's not as well known as me, because luckily, I've covered this league for 27 years and I've earned reputation. And it's not often that you could be dubbed a racist on national TV and actually win the public support. And thankfully, people from the hockey world came to my defense. All wild fans came to my defense. And I got a lot of heartfelt apologies from everybody on that panel. And Anst and I did have a good talk. I still thought that he was going to publicly apologize.

That obviously never happened. I sent off an email to TNT asking where that apology was and why they never reached out to me. And the email I got back from them was absolutely shameful. I don't want to get into it, but I've lost a ton of receipts. respect for that network and the PR person that clearly copied and pasted a lawyerized letter to me. And that letter that I got two days ago, that email that I got from them two days ago, I'll absolutely never forget, you know, as long as I live, you know, just the lack of support that TNT showed here and in my eyes condoning what Anson said. So I do mean from

the bottom of my heart that, you know, in my eyes, Anson and I are fine. And I appreciate that he reached out to me and we had a good conversation. But, you know, I still feel like a lot of stuff publicly wasn't done from them. And just thankfully, this is, I think, behind me. Because, you know, you wake up that morning, Ian and Julian, and you know that we, you know, were just signed to the New York Times or bought by the New York Times. They have no idea who I am. And so it was a scary morning that day.

I have a lot of extra stuff that I do. And I just didn't know where this was going to go. You know, you're a national TV essentially called a racist. I didn't know if I was going to lose my job, if I was going to lose freelance stuff that I do, if I was not going to be on, you know, radio anymore, TV, podcast, whatever. I didn't know where it was going to go. And, you know, I'm just amazed that that stuff could be said publicly on national TV and nothing. There's no repercussions from it.

And, you know, that's a little frightening to me. Wow. I guess the only thing I can really say on this, and we really appreciate you speaking about it, And we will get to more important stuff with the Minnesota Wild. I'm just wondering if you maybe have thought about the one thing about your tweet that I think, I think stude with Anson the most, I guess is the fact that you might have insinuated that he doesn't watch games. And I think that's what's, I think that's what sat with him the most. Maybe, maybe in hindsight, do you regret at least saying that part in what you initially said?

Yeah, I mean, you know, I'll just say, I do. and I apologize to him profusely for that, a thousand times on that phone call. You know, to me, the context was, you know, your typical beat writer national broadcaster point where they just watch things from a surface point of view. And, you know, in my eyes, when you're doing a game on T&T, you're just paying attention to the game that night that is on your telecast. And so that was the context of what I said. I do regret saying that because I obviously don't think that Anson doesn't watch other hockey

games and, you know, it doesn't do his homework and talk to people. So that, that is absolutely what I said. But to me, what I put was completely benign. And I think what it did do is sort of create other, you know, fans replying to him and insinuating that he was lazier or unqualified and things like that. And that obviously is not something that I meant at all. You know, I've gotten a ton of, I don't want to start naming names, you know, but I've gotten a ton of support from, from players that I've covered and players throughout the league that, you know, that, you know, know me and know my heart and know my character, you know, it means everything in the world that guys, you know, one name I will mention because I'll never forget it as long as I live is Matt Dumbo. He pulled

me aside and a day after this happened when I probably really needed it from somebody like him. And he pulled me aside and really gave me an incredible pep talk. And I'll never forget that as as long as I live. And that was just one of, you know, 100 or 200 calls that I've gotten in text I've gotten in terms of support from not just colleagues of ours, Julian, and people, you know, at the athletic and sports writing and sports media, but, you know, people in the game and league headquarters and things like that. And that really, you know, in a lot of ways, warmed my heart. But you're no doubt, Julian, you know, I've learned a lesson here as well. you know and and i you know i have apologized to anson to that you know a gazillion times i'll just i just

want to add this if i can um well i think that you know what happened i think was really unfortunate for you and you shouldn't have to go through that if you're i i believe that you are well-intentioned and everything that happened i guess i don't want to put words in anson's mouth i i saw the way that he reacted and i wonder if it came from a place where maybe he's had those comments in the past suggesting that he's not good at what he's doing. And maybe it comes from people who will bring race into something like this and assume it's a lot darker than that. And unfortunately, you ended up being a target of it. And you should not go to that point if it's generally not the case. Because the other side I worry about is if Anson Carter ever does that again and calls on race,

then other people will look at him and be like, well, no, like, you shouldn't be doing this. Look at what happened what you did with Michael Russo and no one's going to believe you. as a black person watching that scenario, like I know you're my colleague and I'm like, yeah, I don't believe you to be a bad person, but I also looked at Anson and I was like, okay, like what? It was a very uncomfortable thing to kind of just kind of see from a distance, if that makes any sense.

But I'm really relieved that like you, your intentions were great with, with Anson or at least they were no intention of being racist or anything like that. But I also wonder for Anson's case what he's gone through in the past with that. and if it's just that one particular comment just struck a nerve, essentially. Yeah. And I definitely want to be respectful of the privacy of our conversation because that was the one thing that Anson made very clear to me at the very beginning was that it was an off-to-record conversation. So I definitely don't want to say things that he said to me.

But I will say that the one thing that he 100% said, and what I've learned here is none of us know the shoes that other people have been through. And clearly, Anson throughout not just his hockey career as a player as a broadcaster, but his life has dealt with these connotations. And it definitely triggered him. And I think he sat on it for six days and it just kept on bothering him. You know, just like it's probably still, you know, what's happened in the aftermath has bothered me now for four or five days. So I can see where that happened. And that is, that's, you know, to me the unfortunate whole thing. As I've told Anson, next time I see him, I'd love to sit down and have a beer with him or coffee or whatever and have this out because I've long respected him.

You know, both as a broadcaster and his player, I was telling him on the phone that I remember I was trying to look for it. But Star Tribune, my previous employer, as an archive system that's very difficult to look stuff up. But the story of when I was essentially trying to campaign for Doug Reisbeau to acquire him. So I've long respected them. And so unfortunately, you know, where this probably went off the rails is after our little tweet exchange where I thought it was over and done with because I didn't even reply to a second tweet. I probably should have just called them up and, you know, had that conversation. So I totally respect what you're saying, Julian. Yeah.

And listen, Mike, we promised you we weren't going to focus on this. But I just think the way that you handled this with maturity, class. should be applauded. And, you know, I think the, you said it all when you said, you know, Anson and I are good. And I think that to me, that says everything. And that's all that matters. You and Anson are good.

I think that speaks following. I think all of us can take a lesson in a very divisive time in both of our countries. We could all take a little bit of a lesson of take a breath, have a meaningful conversation, accept some apologies and move on. And I think you've done a wonderful job of that. And we follow each other on Twitter now, which he might actually regret when he starts to see the unnecessary, like, play by play that I give during a wild game.

He may be like, I cannot believe that I followed this guy to find out that Erickson Eck hit the post. So, uh, so. Well, I'll tell you what. If, uh, if he was following you, he probably saw your, uh, your tweet today all about, uh, what do the Minnesota wild do at trade deadline time. And I know, we're still just a, we're a month and a week, I think, right? Five weeks away from, from today. five weeks from today. So I think the wild are such a curious team because they are legitimately,

they've got Stanley Cup aspirations and rightfully so. And I think the question becomes what should they do and what can they do? That was your column today. So why don't we do this in kind of a podcast form? Let's put ourselves into Bulgarian shoes. What do the wild do here in the next five weeks? It's a good question. I just saw the Tyler Tepoli price.

And now I'm wondering if they do anything. I mean, I didn't see what the prospect is, but according to Dregor, it was a first to fifth prospect from Tyler Pitlick. I'm sure Tyler put money going back. You know, but I actually like Tyler. That's a hefty price for Topholi. I know that, you know, that obviously Brad Tree Living was looking for secondary scoring and things like that. If you're looking into wild, a lot will depend on health and if they're still rolling in a month. Now, I have hard, I have it, you know, it would be hard for me to believe that.

if they're not still rolling in a month, if they're healthy, because they have so many home games in March, and they are so good at home. And, you know, they're a nine-game homestand, and I think they play 12 games the next month. So if they're healthy, I think they're going to be rolling.

But that actually might make him, you know, where a lot of wild fans would be like, well, now go make that center to put you, get you that center to put you over the top, go get a Giroux, a Pavolski or whatever. I'm almost wondering if that would not make, if that would,

and Pierre LeBrun, by the way, is going to have a Wednesday story this week, where he talks to Bill Garan. But I think that what Bill will probably convey in there is that they're rolling, he's not going to want to disrupt the chemistry of this team. For me, if I was Billy, I would at least look at trying to get a hurdle or a Pavellsky if they're attainable, just to at least see if they, that's somebody that you can put between Boldie and Fiala or, you know, maybe you put Hartman there and you move them between

the new center between, you know, obviously Capri Safford, Zuccarello. because if not now when, when do you make that splash? Because in the next three years, they have so much money tied up and dead money for Parisian Souter that they're going to have to put a lot of entry-level guys on the contract. You're not going to be able to make these type of splashes at the deadline. And this is a team that right now will, to Anson's point, have to play the St. Louis blues probably in the first round and St. Louis rolled them on the Winter Classic, and that wasn't an aberration.

St. St. Louis has had their number for the last two years. and then if you get by St. Louis, you're going to have to probably go through Colorado, you know, to get to where you want to go to the conference final. So, and we know that, you know, how deep they are up the middle between McKinnon and Cadre. And then you got Vegas as Jack Eichel. So this is a long, as good as the wild are, this is still quite a challenge to get to where they're going to want to go. And that's to win a Stanley Cup. So I just think it's something they should consider.

But when I talk to, when I talk to people inside the organization, I get the impression that he doesn't. want to give up his first round pick and he doesn't want to give up a top top prospect, even though, as Scott Wheeler wrote last week, the Wild's prospect pool is as good as it's ever been. So, you know, to me, if I was that, I would say, all right, well, now there, we have a couple guys that we could move, that we are expendable because we have this guy and this guy and this guy coming as well. But I'm not sure that Bill Guerin's going to look at that way. So we'll see, Dallas still thinks they can make the playoffs. So who knows if they're going to trade Pavelsky is sure feels like close jeru's going to wind up in Colorado.

and he hasn't played center anyway for the last couple of years. He takes draws, but he hasn't played a lot of center. And then Hurtle, it sure sounds like that they're at least talking to him about resigning there. So those are really the only three big names out there right now. They're not trading Malkin in Pittsburgh. So I don't, I don't, I know. I just don't see really any other big names. So I think those are the only three that even makes sense.

I'm curious. Well, I'll add this to the Tyler to Foley trade. I believe the prospect going the other way is a guy named. name Emil Heineman, who I don't necessarily think was highly touted as a prospect, but could still be a solid player coming up, a big energy guy going forward for them. And also that first round pick that the flames are going to give up on top of the fourth or fifth they're giving up in 2024. That first is top 10 protected. And we all know how good the flames are. It's probably going to be later in the first. I don't know if that does anything for Billy Garon. But I do want to

ask this one. And maybe that kind of gives a window into what they might do. I'm curious with the fact that the wild do have all those salaries to Parisian suitor that are going to build up in terms of what they're allotted for salary years in and years out for the years to come, what does that do for the expectations for this team? Like, yes, they kind of have to be in a situation where they have to win now or else they're not really going to have that much room in the coming years, right? Like, what does that do for the expectations for this team? Yeah, and that's another reason why I think this is sort of the year to, you know, try to win it all,

you know, to go there. But I will say because of the number of great prospects that this team has in the organization and the culture that they've built inside that locker. And especially with their leaders like Spurgeon and Dunba and Felino, you know, and some of the really quality up-and-coming players that they have. I mean, they just signed Jordan Greenway to a three-year deal at 24 years old. They have Felino that has added a ton to this organization. They have art men and a bargain deal. You know, if all of a sudden you start adding a lot of these entry-level guys from the minors, you know, Mark O'Ler. Rossi, Kailin Addison. I still think that this team over the next three years has built

the ability to still be really, really good. They just might not be able to go out and make that big splash and free agency and things like that. And that's the decision that Bill Guerin and his staff made it in the off season when they made the surprising move to not only, you know, I think we all expected that something was going to give with Zach Breezy, but none of us expected that he would pull the Band-Aid with both Brian Souter and Zach Breezy. So I think, you know, Bill Garan's expectations are gigantic, Julian. There was a really hilarious video that they showed of his first meeting inside that, their trier rank in the, in the lounge where he says to Jared Spurgeon, the captain, he goes, what are the expectations for this team? And Spurgeon

goes, to have fun and work hard or something. And Bill just goes, F that, it's to win. And that has always been his, you know, his expectation. And it still is expectation. Even if he doesn't go out and swing for the fences by going out and getting a Juru or Povulski or hurdle, I still he I still think the reason why he wouldn't go out and give those prices is he truly believes that this team has something special ruin right now and can actually, if they're healthy, go make some noise in the playoffs. So we'll see if it happens. But his goal is to create long-term success here.

And I don't think he wants to do that by trading his first round pick and a bunch of prospects right now to go out and get a guy that he has no ability to resign in the offseason. And you know what? I think a big reason why the Wild and Bill Guerin might be in a position, to be a buyer and to, you know, legitimate sounding cup contender is Carrillo. Just one of the most fun, electrifying, dynamic players in the game. Let's hear your case for Carill Caprizov heart trophy this season.

Well, I think one big case, and this would be my same reasoning that I think Dean Eveson should get, you know, big-time votes for the coach of the years. I don't think anybody thought that this team would have the ability to be one of the top teams in the Western Conference. And the standings look a little weird just because of the lack of games that a lot of teams have played compared to others. But the Wild have consistently been the second best team in the Western Conference pretty much from the mid-November Thanksgiving on. You know, they're tied for third with the best points percentage in the league since Thanksgiving.

They're the second best points percentage by a mile, you know, in the Western Conference, only because Colorado just keeps on winning and winning and winning. and I think that a lot of that is due to guys like Caprisoff. I mean, Caprizov has absolutely been a game changer in this organization. This team has been starved for a true superstar for as long as I've covered it. You know, Marion Gabbrick was the closest thing to it, but I still don't look at Marion Gavrick as a true star when he played for this organization. Carol Caprizzav absolutely is. He's also a very unique star.

He's the type of guy. He is as gritty as you can get. You know, last game, not only do you score just a job. gigantic goal in that game, but he's getting into goal mouth scrums. He's open high, you know, not open ice hits. It's coming up bloody in battles. He's getting in roughing penalties.

I mean, this guy, this guy takes care of himself. A couple weeks ago in Boston, he gets running the boards hit from behind by Frederick. It looks like he broke his collarbone or, you know, AC joint or something. We hear really bad reports coming back to Minnesota that this guy was going to be out,

you know, for several, for several games. And what happens, he misses one game in plays and he's been absolutely on fire ever since. He's got points in 14 of his last 15 games. He is, to me, you know, I always say I am one of those people that remind people the Hart Trophy definition is most valuable to his team. And I know you can make that, you can take different players on different teams and make that case, but there is no doubt that Kurokapri Sof is the most valuable player of this team. Without him, they would not be where they are. I want to follow up on that. I want to know what do you make of

the national conversation and attention around a player like Carrillo Caprisoff? Because in the limited time that we've seen from, of course, with the outsider perspectives that we have, we see him in highlight clips that like Dimitri Filipovich might tweet out. And the way he skates, he just looks so dope, man.

Like he genuinely looks like really cool. Like he's an awesome player to just watch. And I bet the fans in Minnesota love him. But you, of course, being around the team and you, of course, paying attention to national coverage. What you make of the people who talk about him and and rate him and all that like do you think he gets enough praise do you think he deserves more how do you feel about him i think he does i you know i think

that i'm starting to hear a national attention like when i see him in the power rankings and um you know and and as you mentioned julia i mean they are always talked about now the minnesota wild is being a fun team to watch when historically has that ever happened i mean i've covered this team for 17 yeah i mean i've covered this team for 17 years The team has been around for 21. And I would be the first to tell you that they're not a team that should be on national TV or just, you know, they weren't a marketable team. Now they are. And it's not just Caprice up.

I mean, you know, I just did this game story a couple games ago where I went down and talked to Nate Prosser who used to play for this team. He's a former defenseman. He's somebody that went to this game as a fan, to an NHL game as a fan for the first time since he was 14, 15 years old. and he was absolutely blown away by how everybody on the wild roster can skate. This team has always been sort of a this plotting team, but now, though it's the one thing that Bill Garan has done, he's made him younger and he's made him faster. And, you know, Kevin Fiala can fly.

Zuccarello is having just a tremendous year, one of the best years of his entire career. You know, they have a line in Greenway and Folino and Erickson Eck that is unlike most lines in the National Hockey League in terms of size and speed and great. And they, you know, they can muck it up with the best of them. They haven't been sported on and even strength this season, which is just crazy if you think about it. So that to me is what's pretty exciting about this team.

But there's no doubt, as you just allude to, Julian, that Reesoft stirs that drink. And he gives them this moxie that is palpable when you see it on the ice. They just follow him. They love him. He's this affable, you know, kid that just you can see the love that he has for playing the sport every time he's out there and he's just got this winning, winning demeanor. And it's pretty awesome to watch. He's as good a passer as he is a shooter. And his edge work, as you mentioned, Julian, when he gets those hips moving and he starts, you know, stick handling the puckets like very few guys

in this league. And so, you know, he doesn't have the straightaway speed as a McDavid or something like that. But his edge work is as good as most guys in the league. And, you know, we're probably right up there with, you know, from a forward standpoint like McCar. I mean, his edge work is just tremendous. is obviously a thoroughbred, but that's, you know, it's just, it's fun to watch. You know, I covered Pavel Bury in Florida, and Pavel every single night as a sports writer would take me out of my seat. I remember his first power play, his first breakaway goal that he ever had with the Florida Panthers.

We were on Long Island. I'd covered the team for years, and it was this mucking grind clutch and grab team. I don't even know in the first four or five years of covering the Florida Panthers. Have I ever even saw a player get a break. And Robert Svel Burray for a headman pass on a National Coliseum. And Burray skates in the back of his jersey, he's flop flying in the air. And he scores a breakaway goal. And honestly, I almost fell out of the press box in the national coliseum.

I just couldn't believe that I saw somebody in a Florida Panther uniform do that. And that's how I feel with Caprisoff as well. You just, you watch him every shift. And his work ethic, his speed, the scoring chances that he generates is as good as I've seen in this league, definitely in a Minnesota Wild uniform. And so it's pretty awesome. And then they have great, I mean, you know, that's, I feel bad for guys like Kevin Fiala because I'll tell you what, he's on fire right now, 10 goals in his last 14 games.

And it, it always feels, Julian, that he gets like the short shrift all the time because all we do is talk about Zuccarello and Capri Sov. Even these games where Fiala will score the most clutch goal, eventually Caprizo will do something to win them the game. And you just, like, wind up just writing about Caprisov. and you just feel like your desk not giving Fiala his just due. I'll tell you what, I grew up in Vancouver, and it was in high school when Pavel Burray broke in the league.

And I have never seen anything like that. Like, I remember watching Pavel Burray, and then people would, like, I grew up, people would tell me, like, oh, like, they watch Gila Fleur, and you never saw anybody like Gila Fleur. Pavel Burry was my Gila Flirt. Like, that's the guy I tell people about, like, I grew up, like, you have no idea. and I hope Caprizov is that guy

and maybe it'll be Trevor Zegris, but I think there's lots of guys that can kind of pull you out of your seat. Listen, we've kept you longer than we said we would. So let me wrap with this question because Friday night, we're getting a clash of the two teams that Michael Russo covered over the years.

It's the Panthers in the wild. I need to know how special that would be. If that's the Stanley Cup final, what does that mean to you? It would be absolutely awesome. And, you know, for multiple reasons because, you know, I just Brunette, Andrew Burnett is his class of act as I've ever covered. In fact, I'm doing, I'm sitting down with him at his hotel on Thursday and doing a podcast with him for the athletic. So wild fans can look forward to that this upcoming Thursday, or might come out Friday, we'll see.

But it would be a blast. I mean, just to go back to my home to cover something like that, to get to finally, I've covered this leave for 27 years. And, you know, all I want to do is cover a Stanley Cup run, right? No hockey writer wants to pretty much go on vacation every year after the first round. And that's been my entire career, it feels like. And so that would be the blast. But you're right. I mean, you know, some fans have dubbed it the Russo Cup.

That sounds a little pompous to say. I don't know about that. But it is pretty cool if that would happen. I think it would be great for wild fans. You know, from a wild fan standpoint, guys, I mean, this fan base deserves it. They are such a passionate fan base that every single year they've got to watch other markets gets a root on their teams in a cup run. And this market just would give anything for that.

I can only, like, I have never heard Excel Energy Center. This is perennially been a very quiet sold out crowd. And I think a lot of why, I think it's like that in Toronto, Calgary, like places that, like are super educated with sport. A lot of times they really just watch it. They watch it almost like a play, right? Talk about it. Like, they don't like go there like Montreal, Julian, and where they just, you know, it's just fun, right? At XL Energy Center this year, it is a fun place to be in a lot of ways because of guys like Fion and Caprisoff.

And I just think I can only imagine this building and the electricity that would be created if this market got to cover, got to watch a Stanley Cup run. So if it was Florida, it would be absolutely awesome. It would be just a real fun, fun time. And definitely, you know, I'd be like Andrew Whitworth. I might have to retire after it, right? Oh, man. It would get any better. Yeah.

I love how it's the, not the brunette cup, it's the Russo Cup. I love it. Exactly. It's always about me. I always say that. Anybody, listen, give me wild fans that listen to that last line and just like, just like chuckle because that's sort of my M.R. Yeah. Oh, man.

Hey, listen, we, we appreciate the time because it's been a hectic stretch for you. But, and we're looking, I'm looking forward to seeing you in person in a couple of weeks here here in Ottawa. So safe travels up north of the border. Keep up the great work. We all love following along all your. your Minnesota wild coverage. Thanks for this. And have a great week.

Yep. Thanks, Ian. Thanks, Julian. All right, Julian. As always, going to wrap up the Monday edition of the podcast with a little multiple choice badness here. And let's start with this. I want you to look ahead to this week.

And there's a couple of really interesting games on the NHL docket this week. Here's what I'm asking you. Julian, what's going to be the game of the week in the NHL? Is it, A, Pittsburgh at home to Philly on Tuesday, you potentially see Sidney Crosby score goal number 500 on home ice against our arch rivals. Is it B Colorado at Vegas on Wednesday, a clash of the Titans in the West,

and looks like that might be the return date for Jack Eichl, or is it C? Just had Mike Russo on talking about Minnesota Wild. Panthers, Wild on Friday, possible Stanley Cup preview. What's going to be the game of the week, Julian? I want to watch Colorado Vegas. I think the Colorado Avalancher, and to go far in the playoffs.

We all know how interesting last year's series between the Golden Knights and the Avalanche was. Plus, we may get to see Jack Eichael make his debut for the Golden Knights that night. I want to see both those two teams go at it. And I think that matchup is a bit more intriguing than Panthers Wild and seeing Sidney Crosby make a reach a milestone. I think we could be in for a really fun matchup between those two teams, Colorado and Vegas. Yeah, you know what? And the thing about, like, I want to see Crosby get 500, but that feels like a moment rather than the whole game, right?

Like I, you know, I don't know that I want to tune in for 60 minutes of the Philadelphia Flyers right now. So, but you know what? I'm really intrigued by Florida, Minnesota. And I think I want to see the wild again up against these elite teams from the east. I'm just, I love the fact, like I feel like I've seen a lot of Colorado. And I'm with you. I'm curious about the Jack Eichael thing, but I don't know.

Like, I think it would be great for the sport if Florida and Minnesota did meet in the Stanley Cup. And even though they have these reputations of being boring or whatever, like they're not boring. Anyway, I think I might try and catch that game, Florida mini. Okay, one other question for you. I'm going to, we're going to put ourselves in Pat Verbeek's shoes. He's the new general manager in Anaheim.

Julian, the ducks are right on the playoff bubble. Like they're based on win percentage. they would be just out of the wild card spot, but they're literally right there. What do you do if you're Pat Verbeek at the trade deadline? I'm going to give you a couple options here. Are you, A, are you a seller? You got Ricard Raquel and Hampus Lindholm and maybe even Ryan Gatslath.

And you say, you know what, we're going to ship them out because that's the big picture plan. Or is it B? You know what? We're going to be a buyer. Let's make what we're right in the mix. We got Ryan Gatslap. We got arguably a goalie that can steal games and maybe a serious. and John Gibson. Let's go all in or see. Do you just do nothing? You're like, you know what?

Let's just see what happens and we'll go from there, but we're not going to give away guys and we're not going to trade for guys. What do you do if you're Pat Verbeek? It's like a weird mix of B and C. I think the Anaheim Ducks, if I'm Pat Verbeak and my team has a finding chance at making the playoffs, considering the fact they've already overachieve. This was a team that at the beginning of the year, I don't think many people were giving much to and they were probably expecting them to be near the bottom of the standings, but they've since overachieved. And if they're going to put themselves in that position, I think it's fair to reward the players by adding another piece of reinforcements to help their cause to make the Stanley Cup playoffs. I don't think it hurts with the

collection of young players that you already have to go for it this year if the players are already ahead of schedule. So I would either do that or just kind of see what would happen. I don't know if I'm into doing A and just selling and getting more draft picks so that way, I mean, getting more draft picks obviously helps, but I don't know how that helps. When you have John Gibson and Net, who's still playing at a very high level and the team is doing this, I think you have to at least give yourself, give your team a shot. Like, I don't think you should waste any more prime years from John Gibson. Give your team a chance. See what can be done. You don't have to give up the farm to make it work and be competitive, but I think you should at least owe your team the idea

to at least do something. Oh, man, I'm really torn. I think it with you, though, like somehow the, the mix of B and C seems appealing where you don't really do much, but maybe you buy the odd piece. The only thing is, what do you do? Like, if you make the playoffs and you get knocked right out by Colorado or Vegas or somebody in the first round, you get swept out, then you didn't trade Raquel and you didn't trade Linholm and they walk out the door, like, that's the only thing.

you're really building for Trevor Zegroeson company now, right? And, and Jamie Driesdale. Oh, man, I'm torn. I'm really torn on this one. But yeah, maybe we'll get the answer in a couple of weeks. Hey, listen, Julian, we'll leave it there. This was fantastic. I love you pinchitting here.

I love Haley, but when Haley can't make it, I'm going to go ahead and call you Option A, man. This was fantastic. Option A. Option A. I like that. I like that. I'm good with that. I'm okay with that.

And for our American friends, option A is spelled EH. Option A? Take down. I don't say A that much. Yeah, Jintili, you're going down. That's right. All right. And hey, we'd love to hear for your ideas for what the bet should be

between our Monday and Tuesday show with the Olympic gold medal game on Wednesday. Hit us up either on Twitter or on the comment section. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening to this Monday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show. follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a rating, leave us a review. You know we would appreciate that. You can also subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts.

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