The Athletic Hockey Show - New York Rangers eliminated in 1st round after aggressive trade deadline, Matthew Tkachuk moves the needle more than Connor McDavid on U.S. TV and Colby Armstrong embracing opportunity with TNT

Episode Date: May 2, 2023

This week on The Athletic Hockey Show USA, Craig and Sean talk about the New York Rangers elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs, and how the blue shirts trade deadline acquisitions weren't a factor at all in the series with New Jersey. The guys discuss the second round and the fact that US TV probably isn't salivating over teams from Seattle, Florida, Carolina, New Jersey, Toronto and Edmonton in the final eight, and we ask, who moves the meedle more on US television, Connor McDavid or Matthew Tkachuk? Former NHL'er Colby Armstrong stops by to discuss his role with TNT, working in studio with Biz Nasty, Anson Carter, Liam McHugh and Henrik Lunqvist and teaching the game to new hockey fans south of the border. Plus Colby looks ahead to the Matthew Tkachuk factor vs Toronto and Arm Dog's opportunity to work between the benches in the Carolina/New Jersey series. Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowRight now, Nuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at http://Nuts.com/hockey23Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use code NHLSHOW to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/nhlshowGo to http://dave.com/nhlshow to sign up for an ExtraCash account and get up to $500 instantly! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is The Athletic Hockey Show. Hello American Hockey fans, and American Hockey Fans only. This is the Tuesday edition of The Athletic Hockey Show. I am Craig Custin's joined, as always, by Sean Gentilly, and boy, do we have a great show. This is awesome. Game 7s have wrapped. We're in the, what do we have, 15 minutes between rounds? Sean?

I'm on board with this. I was thinking about it a couple days ago. Yeah, I think we need every bit of momentum we can get here. Like, well, this is, let's, hmm. Also, I wanted to say hello to you. Hey, thank you. Psycho X Factor, Craig Custins. X Factor, Psycho, Craig Custins.

What did Colby call Matthew Kachuk? I already forgot it. Psycho X Factor. So, yes, that's the news of the day. Colby Armstrong joins us. Colby, one of the greats. And he's doing an amazing job on TNT, spitting chicklets. shocking that his media stock is is through the roof.

I'll tell you, nobody could have ever seen this coming. One of the all-time great quotes. I loved him when I was in Atlanta. He was there and he always treated us well. And it's just, it's cool to see him. And so he comes in and, yeah, he's calling everybody a psycho X factor in our set up. I think that stuck way better.

And so American, like American TV viewers are in for a treat when he's on the screen and listening. He gave us good stuff on how the sausage is made and also how the TNT, how the TNT deal is working out in general. Like it was, it was good shit from it. But it was behind the scene stuff. It was,

it was whatever, whatever you could want from a, from a studio analyst, man. If you listen to this show regularly, and a couple of you do, you know we love talking the TV. We love the ESPNT and T stuff.

We love like slagging. the old NBC stuff. It's just fun. We're just, we're media dorks. Sean, we lost in that round, we lost the Rangers.

We, we lost the Boston Bruins. We lost some massive markets. Yeah. Yeah. Are they just, should we just, at this point,

for the sake of like revenue route for a Toronto-Edmonton final so Canada can get some of its money back? Like Pittsburgh's not involved. Chicago's not. Philly, Detroit, Buffalo, all these, like, reliably really good. It's good, we've got New Jersey. Like, I know, I'm happy for those fans.

I love Florida. I love what they're doing. Carolina, awesome win. We didn't get, you know, we were all, I think there's a lot of people rooting for an Islanders Rangers. Like, none of them utilized. We are happy. We're happy for the fans.

These teams deserve it. The storylines are compelling series by series. And I can say this is someone who's had to churn out series preview content over the last 24 hours like I'm dialed into the matrix there. I'm into, I'm into all of these in some capacity. And ultimately on our end, do we care what the TV ratings are? Not necessarily. It's worth pointing out that from an American media standpoint, from an American television standpoint, this could be the apocalypse. Can you imagine, like based on these, based on these, on these viewership numbers that we've seen where it's like 400,000 people watched in the

United States watched Kings Oilers like on and on and on down the list. I think if you're the league or anybody who has any any stakeholder in this outside of maybe D&D and ESPN, you got it just rude for leaves oilers or whatever because because the American and things is kind of brutal. I hope it happens. I was having a conversation with, let's say, a high level exec with a team. And we were talking about Connor McDavid. And he was, I think, surprised at how fans didn't come to see the Oilers when they came through town. Like it's like, it's for whatever reason the NHL doesn't have that star power. Like, and so I think that reflects itself in the TV ratings. Like,

Connor McDavid should be an easy sell to the American market. Come see the one of the, this guy's going to be the best player of all time potentially. Really, like, I don't think that's hyperbole. And American viewers are like, no, no thank you. There are no out-of-market sales. That's the league's fundamental problem in a lot of ways,

is that the successful markets are the ones that have enormous local bases. Like, you're like, a lot of, lot of people care about the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is a top 20 TV market, maybe, like top 20, top 25. And they're a needle moving franchise for the league, which is a bad sign to begin with. And it's not just because of Sydney Crosby and whatever else. There's a decent, there's a decent base here. That's what the bones of the NHL's TV viewership in the United States is built on. It's built on local ratings still. And not all teams draw locally. And I keep going to.

going back to that King's number. That is, that is... That's L.A., that's Los Angeles. It's the second biggest TV market in the country. And so you eliminate Edmonton in Canada in general from the U.S. ratings. Obviously, they don't count. So you're saying that in the United States, 400,000 people wanted to watch a game involving the L.A. Kings, a team from the second biggest TV market in this country,

and Connor McDavid, the best player on earth. Terrifying shit. Terrifying shit. I kind of love it. It's horrible. It's horrible. I love it. Whatever.

Can we got our receipts from this TV deal. So if Connor McDavid is not the draw, here's the question I have for you, is there anybody who, is there anybody we can sell in these playoffs in the United States? and say, come watch this. You have to watch this guy tonight. Yeah. The original psycho X factor. It's Matthew Kachuk.

It's Matthew Kachuk. It's not Austin Matthews. I don't even think in the Leafs. I think they have potential to be kind of like a draw as a team and as, there's a compelling story. They're the cowboys or the Yankees. People want to either root for or against whatever's happening there. But as a player, I think your answer is correct.

As an individual needle mover at this point, league-wide, it's Matthew Kachuk and then everybody else is playing for second place. And I think Colby did a good job of kind of dipping his toe into that. A lot of it, does some of it have to do with playing style? Sure. But he's not the most aesthetically pleasing dude. He's not out there doing McDavid stuff, obviously. He's not his skilled guy on that level. But there's something about that dude, the combination of his, of his,

skill of the shit disturb or stuff on the ice, of the way he markets himself, impactes himself that appeals to a larger audience. Like, there's something about that dude that pops in a way that, in a way that most hockey players don't. So is it good or bad that he's playing in South Florida? Like, I don't know. But from a national standpoint, you look at him and you're like, oh, this is, he's one of one in terms of in terms of personality and skill and and kind of prevalence in the game in the game

right like he's a guy who you feel like he he feels like a first take topic you know what I mean yes you could him yeah in and of itself in and of himself or a guest like duty is you can bring him on as a guest and he'll say something interesting you can go to a clip of him in the dressing room and he's saying something interesting to his teammates you can go to you know we talked about around the all-star break where he was like, hey, everybody, we're going to make the playoffs. Can we just relax? Like, he's, he's interesting. And he's, you have to, you lean in and you listen to him because he doesn't seem to give up,

he just doesn't care. Like, he will say whatever's on his mind and talk about how he's been wearing flip-flops for six months in a row and just like fun stuff. But also then he's just going to run your goalie and create just chaos. It's even borne out in numbers for us. Like we had this conversation without going too far, because nobody cares, but without going too far. numbers, everybody?

You know, without going too far into how the sausage gets made at a sports website, like we had this conversation on Friday night after their game six win, where like we're talking about stuff to write post game, like, whatever. There's, there are other things that happen in that game aside from Matthew Kachuk. And I said to somebody like, what are like basically like time out? Like, what are we doing here? Right. Like this is the guy.

the narrative arc for this series begins and ends with him like he was there at the start of it he's backing up with his play he's talking shit and causing trouble and one of the through lines through this has been him like we need to just lean into this

and not focus on you know where's Alexander like yeah the panders are winning but where's Alexander Barkov or hey Sergey Bobrovsky's back or are anything like that. Like, don't overthink it.

This dude has something. And I think the longer the Panthers hang around, the fact that they're playing the Leafs in this round. Now he's going into the magnified. This is it. This is it. By glass spotlight. Yep.

The Toronto center of the hockey universe, et cetera. And, you know, I'm guessing everyone's going to discover him for the first time in some cases. And this is, and he's going to do something outrageous. And he's going to, and I'm sure he's pretty tuned in. He realizes how many eyes are. on him now. Like, this is opportunity here. And it's an opportunity he couldn't quite cash in on last year, right? Because we had all that momentum for Calgary, Edmonton. It's the Battle of,

it's the Battle of Alberta. You know, the flames are coming out of a really entertaining series with Dallas last season. And it was a dud. They weren't good. He wasn't good. The series wasn't compelling. It didn't last as long as it should have. And now here we are. So he had, And then obviously all the stuff that happens at the offseason on a new team, whatever. He had his dry run last year. And now, you know, look out. Yeah. Honestly.

One other topic we talked a little bit about with Colby. I wanted to get your thoughts on before we get to the Goldie Armstrong interview, which is great. Is Patrick Kane. Since he's an American, the Rangers, I mean, Rangers fans are out of their minds. And rightfully so. Like they load up a lot of assets out the door. You know, all those deals we liked, they seem to fill every need. It goes back, I remember the conversation we had it from the trade deadline.

They were like, hey, they added potential Hall of Fame or is it going to make a difference? Nope. And now you're, and I, like somebody tweeted out a picture of Shaquille O'Neal wearing a Boston Celtics jersey. Like, this is what we're going to remember Patrick Kane as, you know, a Ranger. Like he's good, you know, it didn't go great. And for the Rangers. This is not that good of a five, they just weren't that good of a five on five team. And the players they added didn't really help that.

And you can look at it and say like there's skill and oh shit, look at that power play. Whatever. But when you have that look, the Kako Lafranier-Philippeal line didn't work. But Lafranier, particularly zero points in the series. Like, if those guys aren't clicking in some meaningful way. And if you have Mika Zabanajad who was. a combination of, uh, kind of snake bitten, but also, what's going on there throughout the course of this. You have Kane, whose feasts or famine. You have Artemi Panarin who looked lost at times.

This is worst case scenario for the Rangers in a lot of ways, but it also shouldn't be that much of a surprise because the mix was always off. It was off with them last year. It was last year, it was last year it was they beat up as good as they were in the playoffs they were also beating up on third string goal tenors and relying really heavily on egotish asirk and there were warts there and they didn't cover them up so and look we're talking in how everybody loved the rangers trade deadline stuff we're talking in hindsight here but sure they didn't improve where we thought they were going to improve yeah they gave them f minus just not a not a good enough five-on-five team. And you run against a team that plays together the way that New Jersey does,

a team that controls the run of play the way that New Jersey does. They swap out Manichick after the first two games. Akirishmead gave them exactly what they needed. He was spectacular. Like six goals saved above average in the first round and 950 save and all the stuff. He was better than they needed him to be. So once that variable changed and the devil cycled in a goaltender who knew what he was doing, the Rangers were in deep shit. And I think you could have sensed that by the way they were playing. Honestly, at times going down the stretch, that's not a cohesive team and they paid for it. It's interesting. We will have either a Carolina team where I'm still not sure how they're scoring in the Eastern Conference Final or a devil, this young and fun

devil's team that we should probably all be getting behind. I thought I'm running against Carolina. Aho, it's NACIS. It's, you know, the irony of it is that the guys, is that they are getting the bulk of their goals from a couple guys, which is like a weird monkey paw way to fulfill the wish that we all kind of had for them at the start of this, was that they needed some juice at the top of the lineup, and they're getting it. It's just not quite the way that, not quite the way that they wanted. I'm fascinated by that series. From a style play standpoint, almost couldn't be more different.

Carolina is one of the most still regular season. I mean, it's what they do. One of those dominant four checks we've seen in years. they have active strong defense that, you know, plays the rush really well. They totally control five-on-five play. And then you have the devils who, you know, unreal rush team, but also have a lot of substance behind it too. They get out on the, they get out on the four check a lot as well.

So I'm psyched for that series. This is what I was saying before. Like, look, man, it's Carolina, New Jersey. Nobody's TV executives aren't going to be foaming at the mouth to have wrong. to have Raleigh and Newark in the, you know, to battle it out in terms of, in terms of TV markets.

But I don't give a shit. No, for our purposes, I'm not, I'm not a TV executive. This is great. I am. No. I think you actually might be now.

I got a Slack message a couple days ago that may be wonder. Yeah. All right. Coming up next, we have Colby Armstrong. Greg got a promotion, everybody. Colby We'll be right back

He's the best What a great call to get him on by producer Jack A plus He should host the show Instead of us We're now thrilled to be joined By Colby Armstrong Who

I mean you're watching him right now During intermission By the way Colby not for nothing Last podcast we were talking about How good that intermission show was And we kind of ran down ESPNs Because we don't

It needs a little bit of work, I would say. Who cares? So I want to say that wasn't just in prep to get you on the show. But I just, and you know, you're doing stuff with spit and chicklets. It's been awesome to watch. I mean, we all knew this was going to happen. It's the easiest transition of all time, maybe.

But great, great stuff, man. Welcome and thanks for doing this. Yeah, Craig, Sean, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Like, I got to do some between the benches with TNT last year. And it was kind of funny because I'd never done between the benches before. And here they were, they were like, hey, how do you want to do this? I'm like, that'd be like a dream of mine.

I would really love to do that. I always wanted to do that. And then this year, obviously with Rick Talkett, getting a job in Vancouver, it opened up some areas for them to need some people in studio. So they called me, they're like, hey, can you do studio? I'm like, yeah, I've been doing that for a while up in Canada with Roger Sportsnet. Like, I can do this and I do it locally here for the penguins as well. And I've been doing it for several years.

So I was like fairly comfortable with that. And I worked with Anson and Liam Pryor and played with Biz and started doing some stuff with chicklets this year too. So I have like a good rapport with all of them. So it was like actually really easy and comfortable to be on set with those guys. And I mean, it's fun. They let it rip. Biz you never know what's going to happen. And they're pretty creative there also.

So yeah, it's been it's been an awesome experience playoff wise and and even get my feet wet doing some between the benches stuff, which led to me also being able to do some benches in between the benches with the penguins this year as well. So it's crazy. I don't know where I'm going next. I don't know what's happening. I'm kind of on call, which is kind of exciting, but it's been an interesting,

exciting kind of ride right now through the first round. All right, before we get too far into this, so if you're listening to this, I apologize in advance. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see, Colby has,

we have to talk about the best, this is the best backdrop I've ever seen. And I'll give it a quick description. We've got, looks like some bridges of some sort. I'm sure Sean can break down all the Pittsburgh bridges. That's the four. Okay.

Yeah. And then we got it. That's what I was going for. That's right. That's right. We've got some logos of the thrash, of course. That's where I got to know Kobe a little bit. And we've got, as one does, Colby riding an eagle.

As a good American born in Saskatchewan? You know, I don't know. I'm holding a Saskatchewan flag in a penguin's outdoor jersey from the outdoor game with a cowboy hat on, waving a Saskatchewan flag riding on the back of a, American bald eagle. I became a U. That's amazing. I was like, man, when you get to do something like this,

it's like everything happens, right? I'm like, let's make this awesome. So Cody Sable is the painter and artist that did this. He came over, took him one day to do all of this, which is pretty remarkable. And he was like fired up to do something crazy, like have me riding an eagle. So I thought it turned out really good.

And I became an American US citizen in October. Oh, congratulations. Just after that. Thank you. Yeah, just after that, I was like, you know, all proud to be American, and I got them to put me on an American Eagle. How American is that? But I'm waving a Saskatchewan flag, so it's, it's symbolic of my roots where I'm from.

That's part of the citizenship exam, actually. They say, do you have any plans to have yourself painted on the back of a bald eagle at any point soon? You're like, yeah, actually, I do. They're like, come on. You're welcome. That's an automatic path. You're your social security card. You're great.

Give a securig card. You're now official. Yeah. I would not pass, like, I would not even come close. I've seen that. And they're like, what's the third bar of the second line of the, you know, the anthem? And I'm like, what? Who knows these answers?

There's a hundred randomized questions that I kind of studied for, which is pretty much like eighth grade civics. I, I, I would assume. But I think a lot of people kind of, it just goes, you know, like we do at school, you know, you just forget about stuff. So it was actually really cool studying for that. I was super nervous going into it. And then they ask you 10 randomized questions of those possible 100. question. So, you know, it would like, who's the president during World War II, these dates of

this day. You have to know all the stuff. Yeah. And I got them all right. I just smoked it all. You have to get six right out of 10 after six other than they're like, you're good. I'm like, thank you. Oh, it was, it was stressful. The overrunner is eight for me. Yeah. You would do good. Is that 10, 10's not happening. There's no chance, John. You would be surprised how good you guys could do. I think it would like ring a bell. I could be on the tip of your tongue. A lot of them. They're not like crazy hard questions. You'd have to jog your memory for sure on some of the history stuff. Have you ever looked,

have you looked at like a written driver's license exam in the last like, in the last like 20 or 25 years? It's insane. It's the same thing. I'm like, I don't know. You just drive now. You don't know. You just assume you know the rules.

It's muscle memory. I don't know. I don't actually know what I'm doing. Oh, man. So, I mean, let's let's talk first about, you know, the intermission. Because it's become a topic as more and more people are tuning in. ratings have been really great. The hockey's been awesome.

But I do think, like, just getting chemistry to work in that. I mean, you mentioned biz. I think the whole bit about him being the least fan, he's checking his paws and all that. It's great. Like, I just love that element where it's like, we just have a dude on here who's just, like, pumped his team's doing well. I don't know. I think that's okay. And I feel like that's been shied away or whatever.

Like, why do you think it's working with your crew? Yeah, I don't know. I think where you're supposed to be, like, down the middle, you know. Yeah. Like, especially as a national broadcast. I think and, you know, you have the homers that do the regional games and like, I think fans like they're guys to be homers for sure. Um, but I think at that level, it's just, it's just like real. I think biz grew up in Ontario. I don't know, for whatever reason, he's like jumped on this

leaf bandwagon the last couple years. He has a lot of bandwagons. I think that's obvious. Right. But his leaf one has been, his has been crazy and like his overall reaction because when I got called in to do that, I looked at the schedule and I was like, oh, man, this is awesome. I'm going to get to do games five and game six with a psycho, Paul Bizanette, who's like, Leaf fandom is out of this world right now. He's not afraid to hide it on national TV on the air, which is like makes it even crazier. What are you going to get? I don't know. If they lose, how's he going to react? If they win, is he going to lose his mind. So it was, it was a lot. And I was like, this is going to be great. This is going to be great TV. And it got

me like fired up. His energy got me fired up. So, yeah, I think Paul's like totally unique, awesome personality. I think you never know what's going to happen. He stays like on the line and minimally crosses sometimes, I think, which is like kind of exciting and fun for a viewer. That's right. And then the team and production crew in there aren't, aren't afraid to like do some kind of creative stuff at times and make it fun with the gifts they pop in or the tweets or the fan interaction or, you know, whatever it is and have us authentically reacting to a lot of stuff. Like sitting up there, a lot of stuff in TV world is, as you guys probably know, is like fairly structured to get to certain breaks or get certain people involved.

And there I find it kind of loose and at first like a little bit scary because you're like, what's happening? Where are we going? How much time do we have? But they really let you talk. They really let you authentically react to it and have a real kind of hot stove chat, which I think is rare on TV. You get that a little more in this setting or on radio.

But for TV, I think it's, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it makes us. for really, really fun, I think, to hang around for intermissions, which, you know, I think a lot of people are doing on that broadcast now. It's been fun watching Liam get to flex a little bit more, too, because we saw him, we saw him on NBC Sports for so long, and they had a certain way doing things that probably, I would imagine, stamped out some of his, some of his sense of humor and some his creativity, but to, dude, but to, but to watch him actually play, play ringmaster with you guys, and, you know, he jumps in when he needs to, but he's also like a trap. traffic cop out there for you for you guys doing your thing. I feel like his,

you know, his, his, his leveling up here over the last couple years on that show has been, been really, really fun to watch. He's so good. I think he's,

he's, um, allowed him to show his quick wit and his, and is like how sharp he is really as a guy. He's awesome to work with. I can say that like super easy and fun and, and on top of it. Um, and I,

I think he, it's good for him too that like the atmosphere in there is like, one that you can make, fun of each other a little bit or poke fun at a mistake. Yeah. And he's really quick to jump on that. Like I was interviewing Nate McKinnon during the regular season right near the end of the year and I butchered like a question.

I screwed it totally completely up. I got the producer laughing in my ear. And like, oh my God, we got to show this. And like tweets are flying in. And they're putting up there. And then Anson did the same thing in the playoffs.

He like totally froze on a question. I forget who were you interviewing. Oh, it's Jake Ottinger. Yeah. And he had like a shot out, save performance. And Liam, as quick as he is, was like, oh, way to go, you know, Otter. You just, we're going to give you credit for one more save after the, after that answer.

It was just so, it was so quick. He's so good with that and kind of balancing, balancing, balancing everybody on there and topics and steering and guiding things because, you know, I think they want people to, I think they want the panel to be authentic reaction and not know what's coming up so that you can just kind to dig into it as you normally would, which makes for like super exciting and fun, like, kind of like what's going to happen feeling working, which is pretty freeing and cool. You guys are, you guys have been doing more more X's nose stuff too. I feel like over the last, over the last couple weeks, which is great to see because that's something that honestly,

I feel like American audiences were underserved with, particularly with NBC sports. Like you didn't have those guys up there doing like, even like basic like four check breakdowns. Honestly, like I saw a bit's a couple days ago. He's just like real quickly, just like recap it for people who don't know. Like here's what we mean by F1. Here's what we mean by F2. And that, just something like that. And I've seen you've done that stuff too. It's a welcome site, honestly, because I think people do want that and need that from a national broadcast in in the United States. Like that level of, of play breakdown. Yeah. I think that's, I think, you know, that's talked about in there too, about just like if we can do something that can showcase some of those, you know, simpler things,

possibly in the game, but that's not totally simple to the average viewer of hockey. I think they like kind of push into that with doing demos, stand up demos a little bit to, you know, I think talk, Rick Tocke used to get out the white board. Now Bizz is taking the white coach, coach Bizz, he calls him. Coach Bizz. Yeah. Can you imagine that? It's hilarious.

He's doing a great job and, you know, kind of shining a light on a few of the, you know, simpler things inside the game to understand why things happen inside the game after a clipper after a replay. So yeah, it's been, it's been fun to be able to kind of do all that, all that stuff. And, you know,

I guess in Pittsburgh here, Jay's Telestration, that's really, that's really what it is, but, uh, this is just doing it on the whiteboard. So update.

It's, that's exactly. It's the biz. It's the biz telestrator. Absolutely. And he's where the blue herring bone suit like, like, like,

like Jay to really, really take it all the way. No, that's the, uh, Toronto Yock Club jacket. you know, that's the Toronto Yacht. It looks great.

That's funny. He was trying to compete with Hank. Oh, yeah. He's wearing like a bespoke couture, like $8,000 suit or whatever. That's a tough. His hair is just amazing. Can you imagine how much pressure the hair and makeup people feel in there when he comes in? When I come in, they're like, what are we going to do with this guy?

That's the pressure. It's not makes Hank look good. It's like, it's a grind when I come up. it just panicked city. No one wants to touch me. Everyone's like, who's got him? I'm like, oh, I don't know. I can't.

I don't have a great sleep last night. I don't know if I should get to this guy. Yeah, this is a battle. So right before you came on, I saw someone tweeted out the collection of draft picks that were used to acquire a bunch of players knocked out in the first round. So, you know, you think of like the. There must have been how many characters for the Genoa? I mean, yeah, it was like, yeah, Genoa and, you know, Kay,

that was a thread. The Bruins, Yeah. It was like, the total thing was five firsts and seven seconds. And it was like, and all these guys, like this massive hall of picks gone and all these players are out in the first round.

And I'm, but then you sit there and you go, well, without Ryan O'Reilly, the leaves don't. And I'm always just like, gosh, what,

we talked about at the deadline. You're not really, you're giving up all these assets. You're probably not even helping your team. But so I'm just curious from your perspective. Would you do that at the deadline? You've been in, you've been in those deals.

You've been a part of that. you've seen how hard it is to kind of make an impact in a short period of time. Like Patrick Kane probably still feeling things out. You know what I mean? Well, yeah, well, the thing I like about the like the Leafs picks and what I think was really good finally is that they like identified guys that they need. Like they didn't go get Joe Thornton at the end of his career. They went out like Ryan O'Reilly, like an impact player that can play in key situations. It's like still like this, you know, influential leader on the ice.

And, you know, he's this amazing like guru off the ice and that people. are attracted to them that they want to be around him. He's just a good dude. Um, you know, so to get a guy that can impact it's different ways like that. And then the depth guys that they went and got too, right, like the Acharis and some of these other guys that like kind of, you know, fill holes for them. They've already got stars. Like you don't need to go get, you know, cane. You know, they identified certain guys. They needed it. Like Liam said it on the broadcast. They didn't need a centerman. They needed a winner. And they got Ryan O'Reilly. You know what I mean? That's such a good line.

So I think, you know, looking at it and being in Pittsburgh too, right? Like we've seen them go for it. You know, like the first pick is forever in play all the time. And until this.

We're fast draft, but it's a situation where, you know, I think like what your team looks like and what you have and then going and saying, do we have a run out of it here? And I think what we're seeing now too is like, you just got to get in the playoffs, man.

Yeah. Like, As good as you are, like maybe you can like sprinkle a guy in your lineup and it, it's a difference maker or it helps. But at the end of the day, you just got to get in the playoffs because like anything can happen and every team is closer than I think we realize through an 82 game regular season.

I mean, look at the goalies who've been eliminated already, right? Like just Turk and gone, Zerok and gone. Allmark, like elite dudes are hella buck. My God. All these guys gets kaput.

It's Akirishmi. and those guys, which is not to knock him because he's been unbelievable, but like these are not, these are not the guys. The idea that like if all things are equal, you just pick with the best goal he doesn't, doesn't really seem to apply anymore. Honestly, how do you, how do you deal with that?

Yeah, I, I don't know what my, what my record is right now for picking in the playoffs. It's probably like everyone else's. I think I'm probably like, bad, like everybody's just horrible, but, I have to review it.

I have to review it. We have a show coming up right now where we kind of go over all that stuff right after I'm done with you guys. But it's like I think everybody's, uh, you know, what do you call it brackets are blown up lately. So it's been a, it's been crazy. It's been fun. It's been like not what you thought. And probably people lost money because like, you know, these teams just that you expected

to win just couldn't like figure it out. Yeah. Or get over the hump of a series inside. of a series. So it's, yeah, it's a wild and wacky playoffs right now. But I got to say it was like wildly entertaining first round. It was unbelievable. It really was. Yeah. We got some great hockey. We got some great stories. We got some great moments. We got, uh, you know, some teams and players that are wowing us already with like some, um, you know, kind of those playoff style stories. And, um, I don't know. Like going in the second round, I'm like, who do you pick? What's going on? Yeah. I don't know.

Like, let's just watch. It's just more coin tosses. Like that's like, I had, That's how one GM described. He's like, it's four coin tosses. If you went, if you hit fed heads four times, you win the Stanley Cup, like, that's just how it feels now. It's so even. And it's, you know, and if you get that bounce or whatever, you, you're going to advance. And Gerard Glant said last night in the post game, they asked him about, you know, adding all these guys in his team. And it was so cool his answer because he's pretty calm.

He was like, yeah, we lost like, you know, we got beat. But he's like, you know, skill. That's right. Someone asked him about skill. He kind of got, he kind of got like, you know, a little bit pissed off there. he's like skill who cares about skill like everyone's got skill like if your skill doesn't work hard what are you like you know yeah and i was kind of like i thought kind of like a shot at his guys and you know rightfully so like i was watching and i was like what the hell is this guy doing like

there's zero battle on things like i don't care how good you are if you're not going to dig in like you're you're you're just floating you know you're a passenger so they had some skilled passengers i would say the Rangers and Gerard took a shot at them. Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, which, uh, no, it's not going to say. I was just going to say, like, the flip side of that is someone like Matthew

Kachuck who it's so, like, we, I mean, we already love him. We, we know about them, but when you get on the stage and you see somebody kind of splash onto the scene like that, and he's just going to be like, it just elevates him. And it was like, he's the opposite of what you're saying. We have a star who is just engaged. Yeah, like I don't think, like he can do some cool stuff like the between the leg. which we're trying to reconcoyne as the Kachuk because like the Michigan has the Michigan. Yeah, yeah.

We're on board with that. Well, he's done it. He's done it consistently. He's done it. He's done a national game winner in OT where it was like a one timer between the legs, which has never been done. So it's it's the Kachuk. It's official right now. Yeah.

Um, but like his game isn't like super pretty. Like he doesn't look like and he's not like a fluid skater or anything, but like he gets to places. And he like, uh, his leadership also I think with with his play, it's just, he just does it. You know, he doesn't have to try to. do it. It's just who he is. He believes so much in his team and with his play that he he pulls people in. As everyone says, he kind of pulls everyone in the fight, right? But it's, it's just the way like it's in his chips. Like you got your stick handling. You got all these chips like you're at a poker table. And then he pulls out like the grand poohba chip,

which is like X factor psycho that can like change games with different things. And he can he can splash the pot with that anytime he wants. He can splash the pot with that anytime he wants. And it's, it's not a lot of guys have that right now in the NHL, obviously, right? Like that, that extra edge, you know, or spit in his game, whatever you want to call it that he has. That can, that can be a difference maker. When you're good already, you add that to it. It's like, how do you stop a guy that's will is so much bigger than yours? Yeah. I was going to call him a needle mover, but X factor cycle. It's a lot. That's a lot. That's why you're, that's why that's why. That's why you're a TV professional, baby.

Yeah. That's so good, isn't it? I mean, geez, how do you learn that? You can't even learn that. You can't teach that. Can't teach that? I do want to talk a little off-season stuff because the flames, you know, move on from Daryl Sutter. I was actually really surprised about, because it seemed like, you know, Brad's your living is gone.

And to me that was like, oh, Brad must have lost some sort of power struggle. You know, you're like, we always assume the owners there kind of have, you know, they don't know what they're doing or, you know, like, you don't want ever give Calgary. the benefit of the doubt, really. And then it's like, then that, you know, and so for me, it was interesting to see some of the player comments and, and, you know, you've played for some tough coaches. It's, how much of an impact do you think the players have in that situation? Really like, I'm not playing for this guy. You know what I mean? Like, you got that vibe about that. It went like, going into an exit meeting when you've had like a really bad experience, when the, when the, when the year went to shit in one way or another, like, how do you,

how do you approach that? Oh, I think, I think it's been asked probably or with. spurred in conversations on the side, like how's, you know, probably how's Daryl been? And, you know, depending on which player it is, if they have the confidence to say something, or depending on which player it is, if they're actually going to listen to you. Right. Right. That's right. It's one thing.

So I think there's a few things now, you know, they didn't make the playoffs after a massive, you know, shake up with personnel, losing guys, bringing guys in and it didn't quite work out. And, you know, the year fell flat from what they were expecting. And then inside of it, when it doesn't go like that, like you can imagine how a coach like Daryl Sutter would be for the season, right? And how difficult it would be, you know, through certain parts of the season.

So it may be just war on guys. Yeah, maybe a war on guys plus the no playoffs. And it was just a recipe to say, hey, let's start fresh with no GEM. We can get a new guy in. He can bring his own coach.

And we can just, you know, restart with this same group. So I think I think that's probably more of the thinking other rather than, you know, the players being unhappy because let's face it. Always let's face it. The players are always unhappy. That's true.

Always. It was that we sit on the back of the bus. We complain. We get off of practice. That was dumb. Right. We have a meeting. What a waste.

You know, it's like forever like that. You know, and and and I think, you know, yeah, Daryl can be demanding, right? There's no question about it. but I think, you know, for the most part, like guys are, guys are used to being pushed. And, you know, I think back to coaches that I had that were really tough. And I, I think it was like, it was great for me. Was it hard? Yeah, it was hard.

Could I deal with it? Yeah, I could deal with it. Could I respond? Yeah. You know, and did it make me at the end of the day better? I think I got more out of myself because of that than I otherwise would have had I not been like pushed into those areas of being, you know, a little bit uncomfortable to deal. deal with it. So I look back on it now like, yeah, I needed that. I needed that a little bit.

I needed that at times. And I think, I think players in general are, are the same way. I think they can handle it a little bit, but maybe it was just too much this year. Can maybe do Michelle Terry in story time. Yeah. I was going to say, who are we talking about here? Well, I had, I had Brent Sutter too. I had Brent Sutter too in junior. So I went from junior from Brent Sutter. He was demanding like Sutsi style, you know, like they're all the same. And then I went to, and then I went to the American. league. I had Glenn Patrick for one year and then the next three years, four or five, six years, I had Michelle Tarian. So it was, uh, it was like every day was like, you better be ready to rock.

Yeah. You know, meeting. Let's have a meeting. I'm like, oh, God, another one. Okay, here we go. Army, thanks for doing this. I look back on it now, though. I love it. I loved it, though. I look back on it. I look back on it fondly, just seeing how much I got out of myself. Sorry to interrupt your. No, I'm trying to let you get out of here. No, keep telling. Thanks, brother. I'm, no, I'm scared producer Jeff's going to be like tapping his watch. So, so, I mean, thanks. It's so great to see you. It's awesome to see everything coming in the picture for you.

Great work. We love watching you. And yeah, awesome seeing it. Thanks for doing this. Yeah. Thanks. When are you, when do you get me on TV next? I think I'm going on Friday to Raleigh to do between the benches, believe or not that's throwing me down in there. So. Love it. I'm just, I just got a text today. I'm kind of like just flying like by the suit of my pants. Like I said with this stuff and they're just like, hey,

can you do this? I'm like, yeah, I'd love to. So I'd drop everything and I'm just like trying to make everything work to, so that I'm having a good time though. It's awesome to be in like such impactful games and do them. So yeah,

I think on Friday. I think that's my next. Maybe it was Friday. But it's been fun to watch. Thank you. Thanks, Sean. Thanks, Craig.

Producer, Jeff. Thank you. Appreciate it, guys. All right. Have fun. Take care. safe travels. Thank you. Great stuff, as you'd expect from Colby. He's going to, he's heading, looks like he's heading on that devil's hurricane series. And like, I got the vibe. It's like an open

tryout for him for next year. Like there's, there was a bit of that. Like, hey, if this goes well, so who knows where this is going to end up. And, you know, if you're him, all of a sudden, you're, you know, you become this free agent or whatever. I mean, I don't know what his situation is, but he's a rising star in this world. And, and I'm happy for him. He's great. Yeah. I mean, he said it, he said himself, there's an open seat because Tuckett, you know, was a full-time, huge part of that broadcast. He's obviously got the job with the Canucks.

Colby's doing shit all over the place. I would certainly expect him to be in the mix for whenever the penguins come out of their, um, yeah, they're caught up in some regional sports network drama, just like a lot, just like a lot of other teams. There's some decisions to be made there. Um, yeah, Colby's,

Colby's working a lot for a reason. And I, and I think that's going to continue. All right. We will be right back and we're coming back with my favorite segment. Also, my wife, she said she just goes and listens to the end. She likes to hear Sean and I laughing. She loved the question last week about somebody hiring me to go to their wedding.

She's like, I hear you laughing in the other room, the cackle. Well, these people have the seed planted by an ad that runs six times every, every show about. That's still running. I don't go to new weddings. Okay. See, he's been planning. We'll be right back. That's me.

That's you. This is the only good segment on the show. Welcome to the comments section. We had like multiple people this week. Thank me for the directions I gave them to the comment section on the athletic app where you give a little tap. A little tap, tap-a-roo, listen, things of that nature. Those are your instructions? Are you being faked for this?

Tapperoo and things of that nature. Crab raggoon or whatever the tweet is. Crab raggoon, things of that nature. I could have, could they be being facetious? I don't know. That's not for me to say. I like to think that I'm actually helping people, but who knows? Ariel R.

Someone asked this on another show's mailbag, and I had to ask it here. If you could have access to stats about your personal life, what stats would you want? One of the guys said he'd want to know how many. times he had narrowly escaped death. I imagine he was a reckless teenager. Ariel, I think that guy still my answer. That's a great one. Ariel, can I just say I think about this a lot? I actually have an answer. I think, I thought about this a lot. Like, as a kid, I used to have this discussion with like my best friend. We'd be like, you know, when you're dead and you can get some questions answered, which I'm assuming how it's like, you're going to get some printout of stats, I'm assuming,

right? In analytics? Yeah. From God? From God. Who's an old man with a very long beard. Also, really, the numbers, like a big data guy. Yeah, it's dumb, actually. God says, God says according to the model. And you're like, God, is this, wait, do you mean according to you?

And God says, no, it's not me. It's just a model. It's not me. It's the model. I can't control it. Our existence is a model, Sean. Okay, okay, God. godless chishin

It's actually godless My answer used to be As a kid My first thing I'd want to know This is so stupid But it's like 10 year old me I wanted to know what song I listen to the most in my life

And I think the Spotify Thanks The Spotify bit where they do the They send out That's erase that I guess that's scratch that age Because now I'm like I think I kind of know

At this point I think I have a big enough sample size Guess what? It's not that interesting And it wasn't even that interesting. Also. Wow, listen to Wilco a lot, huh? Imagine that.

A lot of Wilco. Shocker. So I got to come up with a new one. I think escaping death is the right answer. Because I've, you know, like how many times like a car didn't pull out or you just miss, like, I'm sure it's terrifying. I was also a bigger idiot as a kid is a kid than you were really until fairly, fairly recently, I would say. That I was. You don't know anything about me.

I think, I think it's, I think it's safe to. say. Also, wait, for the record, I was also, this is this, this is going to, this is going to juke my stats, I think, a little bit here. I was prime jackass age. I was like 14 years old whenever jackass, 13 or 14, whenever, whenever jackass premiered, and that led to some, that led to some undue risk taking. The other thing, this is, I could give a dozen answers to this question. I love this, Ariel. Thank you so much. Something literally brought up yesterday. It's fresh on my mind. I'd like to know how many chicken McNuggets I've eaten in my life down to down to down to down to the specific number because I said last night because A it's a lot

B my chicken nugget sauce of choice is barbecue to the point where I I've only tried McDonald's sweet and sour one time just out of um just out of curiosity pretty recently So A, I want to be able to buy McDonald's barbecue sauce in stores. B, someone get me that total number on the on the number of McNuggets I've eaten in my life because I bet it's well, well, probably five digits. I think there's a decent chance that I've eaten more than 10,000 chicken McNuggets in my life. There's also the flip side to this question, which is what is the number you don't want to know? And I also have that answer because I thought about that a lot.

What don't, like as you get the print out from Dom, what is the number and mine is again I'm better now but total amount spent on bank fees like overdrafts and like it it's in like ATM it's probably thousands and thousands of dollars I've said that and like alcoholic if I just didn't enjoy having a there's a good like there's some what's the tally on like liquor and beer like that I've spent in my lifetime it's probably, and I'm not saying it, maybe I have a problem from thinking these terms, but I like, you know, I know that number. So those are the two numbers I don't want. What is the highest blood alcohol content you've driven with?

What's terrible? Who the fuck wants to know that? Nobody. A person who, a person who is, well, I shouldn't say that. Not nobody. More responsible person than I. He's trapped an F bomb. I never do that in here.

Great question. Yeah, this is great. Top that. It's wrap up to show. Ted C. Shout out to GenF who asked a question about Andrew. Well, we should bring this up.

Jenner F said, did the league issue a moratorium on discussing the hit on Andrew Cogliano? Andrew Cogliano broke a neck courtesy of Jordan Eberley. No, they didn't, but... I can't talk about it. Yeah. Going to get electrocuted here. I don't really know why that happened to tell you the truth.

I sort of had that thought. I missed the end of that game because I was writing about Matthew Kachuk. So I didn't see it happen. And I didn't realize that it happened at all until it was like, Andrew Coghwin, he broke his neck. So I think that's kind of the issue is that it happened late. And it's a shitty answer because it feeds into the,

to the perception of a West Coast bias, which is true. People just can't stay up to watch 1030 games and often don't. So it was like out of sight out of mind. I think that's the main issue. And I'm guilty of it because like I said, I didn't even know that it happened until, you know, Pete or whoever said, Peter Boss said that like Andrew Cogman, it was out.

I think if it was, if that happened, again, this is, these are just tropes wherever. If that happened in the Leafs game or something, it would have been. Apocalypse. Right. Ted C. I've recently discovered the joy of audiobooks and this week I decided it was time to check out behind the bench by Craig Costans.

Thanks, Ted C. The book itself, like Craig rated it on Goodreads, is a five-star selection. Thank you. Hey, that was an honest assessment. If it was a three-star book, I would have given it three stars. It's not. It's five. Three and a half.

Tessie Dussie, I was a little disappointed that it was narrated by Barry Abrams, not by Velvet Pipes, Craig Custins. Was that option on the table, Craig? Did you turn down the shot to narrate your own? Thank you for this question, Tessie. Everybody pull up a chair. I've got a lot of thoughts on this. So my first, this is my first experience in the book publishing world,

so I didn't know how any of it worked. I was just happy to have a book published and have it end up in Barnes & Noble or wherever regular people could just go buy a book. That to me was an accomplishment. And so they came and said, we're doing an audiobook, we're hiring, I don't even know, I've never listened to it.

I've never, I'm sure whoever read it did a great job. Definitely not true. But I definitely have not listened to it. It wasn't even an option. They weren't like, would you like to do it? Because had they said it, I would have been like, of course, It's a very personal book.

It's like, hey, I'm sitting down with X, Y, Z, and I'm driving here and driving there. It would have made perfect sense for me to read it. I feel like I have some experience talking into a microphone. And it never, it wasn't. They're just like, this is the person we're doing it. And I'm like, oh, that must be how audiobooks work. If I were to do a second book. Ted said, well, Ted said specifically pointed out here that TGB, Sean McAdunernered, his book,

added as at Honorine Singh, who, who wrote. a memoir as well. Is it just a Canadian thing? Is this an anti-American bias from hockey book publishers? I think it may be. Yeah. If I will be,

if I were to do a second book, which I will, and there's an audio version, I will be pushing much harder to read it. Now maybe they say it's not good and this other person's better, then that's fine, but to not even discuss it.

Ted, you might have opened a nerve. Yeah. Can I do voices? Yeah. And the narration? Like, can I pretend to be, I don't know

like do a Julian Breezeboy impression or something Oh in the next one? Yeah Only if it's really over time Everyone will Everyone will appreciate that Duh Richard L Y'all

Y'all been known to give my stars formerly the Ramble Boys of Chaos Love from time to time So I wanted to ask here what Rupa Hens has to do To get some national pub Good question. Thank you for this. Love all the other guys getting attention but Rupa is the actual engine that pushes the line and most of the team, it's true.

We're seeing that, we're seeing that in, while we've seen that so far, we saw that in the Wild series, Joe Pavelski's out. First line doesn't miss much of a beat even though Jason Robertson wasn't producing all that much. They plugged Tyler Sagan in there. Yeah.

You know, still getting solid production from, from that line overall. Rupa Hintz has 12 points, I think, through the first series. I mean, he's been, he's been unbelievable. The guy's great. And I think the longer the stars play on, you know, especially as, you know, some of the higher profile teams kind of exit, I think people are naturally going to gravitate towards that team and towards the top end talent there because that's the way it works. People don't have the Boston Bruins to talk about anymore, right?

You don't have the New York Rangers to talk about anymore. So what's left from a casual standpoint? It's guys like Rupa Hints and whatever. So I would be stunned by the time this is all said and done that Rupa Hintz's profile hasn't jumped in a very meaningful way because he's awesome. He's great. He's been great for years and he deserves it. How can we don't write about him then, Sean?

It's a good question. Sod writes about him all the goddamn time. Too much you could say. I don't know. I think so right too appropriate about it. No, no, you can't. Again, we said it before. We talked about it.

with Kachuk, you cannot write about these guys too much. When you have players that are that talented, like you can't over cover it. And yeah, like, of course, like, we've, like, there's been a lot of stuff on the site about Rupa Hince and Jason Robertson and Joe Pavalski, but guess what? They deserve it. They're great.

So we need more stuff. Everyone needs more stuff. But I think it's, I think it's common for, for the stars specifically. We should invite one of them on the show sometime. Yeah. If only, if only we thought of that before. Richard L also agrees with us that TNT is boat racing ESPN's coverage. I'm glad you caught that because I was going to forget boat racing ESPN.

I don't love running down my former employer like this because I still feel very loyal to ESPN. Shouldn't. Great opportunity. And I like the people there a lot. But it's been a no contest. It's true. Everyone knows it. Sorry to Tyler M who left a comment saying Tuesday Boys hashtag Tuesday Boys Tuesdaysies.

I'm bothered you didn't read my comment from last week, especially since it fell on Canadian Flag Day. And I'm not sure what Tyler M said, but that's a very funny joke. We love Canadian Flag Day. Alex C is thanking us for, thanking, oh, not us, me for the info on how to find the comments.

Craig's been here for a few in a row now, he says. Do you think the cane should resign Max Patch, Pat, you're ready for this upcoming season? Yes. Yeah, why not? See what happens. They're going to get him, if he's physically okay to,

Achilles injuries in a row is brutal, but you get him at a pretty low rate. I'd like to, I'd like to, that's a, that's a Keynes. He's still a Keynes player because that's a value proposition, right? You're saying we'll take a flyer on him if he's, if he's great, great. And if not, you know, low risk. Without talking to anybody, you know, you get the sense. So they're kind of, let's look for market inefficiency, kind of franchise, right? And that may come in the form of an older player like Brent Burns or maybe an injured player.

but and you can say boy that seems to work really well for them they have made some really smart shrewd moves but they're also really banged up like i think you look at them right now and it's you're you're saying yeah that there's a reason this player was available for free or whatever and maybe that's fair or not fair but it's just an interesting thing like you're you're trying to find these these edges to you're a team like the hurricanes and also sometimes it doesn't work out but here they are I would sign him. Connor P. I want to answer this question, and I'm not going to read the whole thing, but the gist of it is, I'll read the start.

Minnesota Wild fan here, and I have some questions about us as a team and a fan base. Are we a small market team? Where do we rate as a fan base? I feel like we don't get the attention we deserve. And I'll stop there. Not from us. Yeah. So within the athletic ecosystem, we treat Minnesota like a large market.

As tier as important as it gets market for us. And I can't speak for like TNT or ESPN. But I mean, part of it is Mike Russo, but it's not, it's John Cuis. It's, we have, we cover the other teams really well. You know, we loaded up. Joe Smith now is doing National Plus Minnesota Wild. We treat them like the New York Yankees, the Minnesota Wilde and the Minnesota market because the fans turn out.

And our numbers are off the charts. So I can only, maybe we like, You and I don't talk about them. Part of it is I'm like, oh, Rousseau's got it covered. I don't feel like, what are we going to add to the wild conversation? You know what? People have, I think a couple weeks ago, people kind of alluded to me. I didn't, I wasn't even making a joke, but I said something along the lines of like, well, you know, we talk about the wild all the time.

Like, we don't need to do that here. And people are like, well, you don't, you actually don't. That's because, and that's probably true. That's true. We don't talk about the Minnesota Wild consistently on this podcast because they're so well covered outside of this podcast because you have Russo. on the round table. And Joe, Joe is in the mix. And you know, those guys are writing so much after every game.

And it surfaces every time, it seems like. So we, it's been a point of, it's the word, a point of emphasis, I think, for the athletic to treat Minnesota, especially as a hockey market with the respect it deserves. And I think in the greater NHL ecosystem, they're right there too. Because you look at, we just spent a while talking about it about all. all the emphasis that's put on local ratings, how important they are. And that's led to decades at this point of the NHL, uh,

elevating Pittsburgh and elevating Buffalo and like, taking these like maybe smaller, smaller TV markets or smaller cities and giving them a ton of run because they know that the local market is going to show out in Minnesota is like, to me, unquestionably in that, in that group with them. They're,

they're a top. tier American franchise, I think. And I would imagine from a revenue standpoint that goes across the board. Any metric you're looking at, you know, to grade success or viability or market size in the NHL ecosystem, they're great out at the top. Eric A asks, can we get, this is a great idea. Can we get a segment this summer about American draft eligible players, a breakdown on their games, and where they might go, good fit for them team wise. You should call the segment Rising Eagles, not because it's a good name, but because I'll laugh at you two saying that name every time.

And I deserve a good weekly laugh. Yes, you do. Eric. Okay. Kind of like the eagle on Colby Armstrong's finger-painted wall. I know we need to, I'm sure Jeff got a great, a great shot of Colby's wall. So yes, that might be a good one for when Max's, because Max is really tuned into that in a way, like maybe when Max is subbing. Bring in the prawn dog.

Good stuff. What? We have a rivalry With the prospect guys Oh, Will Smith is coming on next week That's great. That's news to me. All right. Hope he doesn't slap me.

Oh, gosh. I was going to make a joke And I decided that silly. I took the high road on that one. That's not that poor guy. How often is he good that's real. I'm gonna, I will, I'm, I can guarantee you that I will.

That's terrible. Also, Jesse W. Yeah, he's here. This is important. we were like Jesse W. said he checked in last week he said that the last four minutes were the best and I was like I don't know

we both of us were like duh what happened in the last four minutes last week because we didn't know it was on there that's the answer by the way two spent four minutes debating steam ironing versus traditional and you could tell Sean thought you were not recording because the number of curse words went up which is true

yeah I didn't know lots of self-censorship that was one of those that was just like fill her mouth I still didn't know that was recorded I'm going to have to go back and listen to make sure I didn't anything stupid. But the Robert S is...

The D.I.R. did not work in a way that Sean suggests it should have. So anyways. No, maybe... Yeah. I mean, go back and listen to that. Maybe your clothes are just... We're creased up than mine are.

Robert S. thanks me for directing him to the comments. Two of those. Of course. Everybody here is on our side regarding the ESPN broadcast. You know, just, just, it's... There's work to be done there. And I think beating that,

beating that, uh, drama pretty hard here. The one specifically that I wanted to say here because it was one of those things, it happened as soon as I said it, and I didn't want to go, and I was just one of those, I'm an idiot because I think that

however many thousand people listen to this podcast, they're like, maybe nobody will notice this. Adam P. I was talking about the devil's goaltenders from last season. Sean, did you just call Nico Daz, Nigel Daws?

Yeah, I did. Because Nigel Daz somehow, only just retired officially, like last week. And he was fresh on my brain. So I ported him over whatever. The PA sent out a release on that one? I think that honestly was probably it. I might have seen a release about Nigel Daz.

And then I ported him over and played him, added him to the mix of the devil's seven starting goaltenders last season. 100% happened. And I was just kind of hoping to slip it past. No, no one of no notices. Adam P. Not happening. Adam P.

hold me accountable. I appreciate it, brother. That's a seismic mistake in my opinion. You mean seismic? What are you talking about? I know that word. I think we're done here. We're done. We're done. Thanks to everybody who left comments. Again, we literally are surprised every time we log in. I don't know what we would do.

My mood has been tremendously elevated by rating these. I feel great. Yeah, I feel great. They were really pumping us up too. Two separate zooms with you in the last couple hours. Hard times. It puts me in a bad mood. But the commenters always provide. Jesse Granger,

Rob Pizzo, and Mike Russo, who covers a while so we don't have to, as you all know. Murat is joining him. And a lot to talk about about the Winnipeg Jets. A lot to talk about. That doesn't seem like. it's over that situation. No, no. Rick, Bones versus the roster. If you're Rick Bones, if you're not fairly

confident you're winning that battle, I'm not sure you pick them. I don't think, I don't think you pick the fight. Oh, and I guess Jeff is telling me Max Baltman's filling in for me the next couple of shows. That is true. Great. So that's when you get Will Smith and whatever great guess will not people, people like to talk to Max. There's always great guests with Max. He's got that, uh, that judge. I don't actually extra a little bit. People like talking to him.

I hope he makes it this weekend. We're in the flag football playoffs. I need a assistant coach. So Max, if you're listening, I need you on Saturday. Or else you're fired. You actually might not be able to do that anymore.

Ask him to fire people for, for specious reasons. Oh. Yeah. Also, I would like to thank one last time Colby Armstrong for joining. He's got to combat. That was a good one.

I don't know why we took so long between Kobe Armstrong appearances. That's it. Thanks to everybody for listening. Happy New Year, everybody. What a show. What a week with hockey. I'm really looking forward to keeping it going.

Going to Vegas. Five weeks when I come back. Whatever.