The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL players will not participate in 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, NHL will take Olympic break to makeup postponed games

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

Rob Pizzo from CBC Sports and Sara Civian, Jesse Granger and Julian McKenzie from the Athletic NHL discuss the NHL and Player Association's announcement that they have exercised the out clause for participating in the 2022 Winter Olympics. The roundtable tackles how the NHL will make up the postponed games, if we will see a World Cup in place of the Olympics, and what players we feel for, who may have lost their last chance to participate in an Olympic games. We also take a look at Paul Maurice's refreshing comments after he resigned as the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets.Plus, we ask how you really feel about the NHL pulling out of the Olympics in our twitter segment as we wrap the show for the Christmas break.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well, happy holidays, everybody. Welcome to the Athletic Hockey Show. The Wednesday Roundtable Edition. I am Rob Paisal from CBC Sports, joined, as always, in the Christmas spirit, Sarah Sivian and Jesse Granger. Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and are you guys done your Christmas shopping? No, actually. Come on. It's the 22nd.

I know I'm awful. I'm always horrible, but I just spent like eight days in New York and Boston away from Vegas. So I feel like that's not a very good excuse, but I'm going to use it as one anyways. That's the worst excuse. You could get so much stuff in New York. Go down Canal Street. I do not check a bag when I travel. I have a carry-on that it is not very big.

And there's no way I was fitting any presents in that thing getting back to Vegas. I have the most cliche thing in the world to do today. We bought my two-year-old daughter a big dollhouse because she's been asking for a dollhouse for like six months. And we got to put it together. And I could just, my wife's going to help me because she's, she's good at that kind of stuff, but I could just picture myself that, you know, the dad in every holiday movie just throwing things across the room because they can't get this thing together. But yeah, it's the December 22nd came really, really fast this year.

And I always joked that this week, you know, leading into Christmas, whatever Christmas is, is kind of that, that cruise week. I'm not saying that I shut down or turning off. I'm still working if anyone from CBC is still listening. but man this week just turned into an absolute crazy circus and we're going to talk about that on the show not only with us with Julian McKenzie associate editor of Hockey at the Athletic and the co-host of the Chris Jawsen show but guys are the two big things obviously COVID COVID COVID COVID that's all we've been talking about the NHL releasing a statement saying we're moving ahead but we're getting rid

across border games. Then they announce an early pause to the Christmas break. And everyone's going to come back on the 26 with a negative test before we get into that other big event that involves five rings. How do you think the NHL is attacking this and your thoughts on what they've done as far as the early Christmas break goes? Jesse, we'll start with you. I mean, I guess if you're trying to look at the ways to like disrupt things the least, I think this was probably the easiest way to do it. I didn't understand the cross-border games being, I mean, it's just, what's, what's really weird is, to me, the issue is there are some teams with a lot of games to make up, and then there are some teams with no games to make. Like the Vegas Golden Knights, who I cover, they have one game. Their game tomorrow

against the Kings is canceled, obviously, for this early Christmas break. But that's literally the only game they've missed all season. And then meanwhile, you have teams that have like tons of games to make up. So I guess that would be the only, to me, the only fault in finding what they're doing right now is making these games up is going to be kind of weird because of that. Sarah? Yeah. It's just so exhausting. And like last week, we just saw it happening and we saw it coming. And I know the NHL has to do its due diligence.

But when you start to see some of the games getting canceled and the rate at which how fast these guys were getting COVID, it's like you saw it screeching to a halt eventually. And now here we are. But I am interested to see. and the solutions they're going to come up with when it's returned to play. Like, what are the protocols going to be? Because this strand of COVID seems to be spreading really fast. So I feel like a lot of things are just going to happen again. And the good news is haven't seen many people getting really sick.

So that's a positive. Yeah, I think that's the key there because I saw some interesting comments throughout the week. I saw Steve Eisenman's press conference where he kind of alluded to, if these guys are not sick, should we be testing? Connor Hellebuck called the early break overkill, I believe is the exact word he used. And the NFL is kind of doing the, hey, if you're not sick, if you're not, if you're not showing symptoms, we're not going to test you. And I kind of started seeing the reaction to that.

And it's interesting, there's no middle ground. I find some people are either, absolutely, I'm with you. If I feel fine, I should be able to, I don't need to be tested. And then other people say, are you absolutely insane? You need to be tested. I'm not even saying you guys have to pick a side of the fence, but were you interested to see just the direct divide when it comes to this argument? Yeah, I mean, I posed that question last week kind of a little bit about not testing for asymptomatic players. And that was before the NFL did it and that kind of started things.

The players I've talked to, Riley Smith on the record last night after the game was asked, he said he agrees with Steve Eisenman's point. He would like to see similar things implemented in the NHL. off the record talking to a bunch of players, it seems like they all feel that way, Sarah? Yeah, it sucks that there's kind of such a divide, and it seems like that's how this whole pandemic has gone, so we can't have any rational, normal discussions about things. But eventually, this pandemic is going to turn to an endemic.

It's going to be here forever. So we have to figure out ways to live with it and keep kind of the world going. And I don't have the answers to that or I'd be paying way, wait on this podcast. But I actually had to check up yesterday, with my primary care practitioner. And she said she agrees with Yaiserman.

She says she thinks that at a certain point and soon, everybody's getting this strand of COVID. But at the same time, it's being, it's way more mild and like she thinks this is the turning point. So that's good news. Yeah. It's like it's one of those things too. Like if are we getting to the point where COVID is the flu or something else?

I know we alluded to that last week. But yeah, I was surprised to see as Sarah, just put it, maybe not the most rational discussions going on, especially online, which, let's face it, it never is. But so that's what was going on in the NHL. And then in the least surprising news in the history of hockey, the NHL and the NHLPA exercised their out clause for the Olympics. They made it official this morning saying that just basically they've lost the luxury of being able to hit the pause button for three weeks and have their players go to the Olympics. 50 games now have been postponed. So let's talk a little bit about, because am I correct?

I assuming not a shocker. We've been talking about this since the first episode. So we'll skip past the shocking element of it and talk about the Olympic break, guys. I mean, in the press release, they said they're going to try their best to make up some of the games. But there are a lot of factors that come into play, mainly arena availability. And like you said, Jesse, not everybody's at the same point as far as number of games

goes that have been postponed. To me, yeah, I mean, it's, it's difficult because not everyone's at the same point. Also, like, they, they canceled the cross-border games for a reason. And I think, like, to go back to the testing discussion, the NFL, it's a lot easier for them to do that because the NFL doesn't have teams in two different countries. The NBA has one team in Canada. They don't have seven the way the NHL does. So there was clearly a reason that they decided to stop the cross-border games first because they think that could be an issue. So I'm wondering. if you're just like trying to cram all these games into these postponed games into this month with people still testing positive. I don't know if you're going to be able to even make those games

up, especially because the Canadian teams are the ones that have the most games to make up, it seems. Yeah. From what I've gathered, the hurricanes actually had a choice to play shorthanded when they were down to guys, like last week, I guess at this point. And Don Waddell wanted to keep playing and push through because it's going to be so hard to reschedule these games. I know there's a lot of events supposedly going on during this Olympic break at PNC Arena. So that's a huge challenge for them. And we're going to have to see how this unfold. I mean, God.

The Golden Knights were the exact same way. Like last night, they Patrangelo and Evgeny Dodonoff both tested positive. But they pushed through that one game, the only game left on the schedule. They wanted to play Tampa Bay because the lightning were already out here on their West Coast swing. And like you said, PNC, I mean, T-Mobile Arena out here in Vegas is one of the most busy venues. in the world. So that's part of the reason they wanted to squeeze that one in too.

I know Pierre LeBron was talking, but there's a flow to the season. And obviously during a pandemic, everybody's got to make sacrifices. But if you're the Vegas Golden Knights and suddenly you're not playing a lot over the next three weeks, whereas other teams are cramming a whole bunch of games in,

there's got to be a level of balance as far as just being fair to the schedule. And I would not want to be the schedule maker right now because you put concerts in there, you put the fact that you want to make it a fair schedule and I just don't know what happens. What do you think is more likely to happen, actually, now that I think about that,

do we see perhaps a situation where they can't get an 82 game schedule in and they say, let's get everybody to 70? Let's get everybody to, you know, 72. Or do we see the end date of the regular season moved later? Because to me, every time I hear Gary Bettman talk, I hear a man who is dead set on getting 82 games in. Sarah?

Yeah, it seems like that's, the true return to normalcy, I guess. But I was just thinking, who is the schedule maker? We always talk about this person, like, it's the Wizard of Oz. Somebody should do a story with them and be like, they've gone through hell the past these years. Jesse, what do you think about any two games? That poor person.

Yeah. I agree with you, Rob, that listening to Gary Bettman, it definitely sounds like they're not pushing this. If I had to guess, I would guess they play fewer than 82 games before they change the end date for the regular season. unless it's like a week. I mean, if they need an extra week to squeeze some games in at the end, I could see that. But I do not see them pushing the playoffs further back.

I think they have been, like you said, they've been kind of hell-bent on getting back to their schedule. And I think that that would probably take precedent and they'd cut it maybe 10 games short, assuming it's that bad. Like if the post moments are that bad and they can't get to 82, if it's going to take more than a week or so to finish the 82 game schedule. I think they probably cut it short. I love how we're two years into this thing and we're still trying to predict and figure things out. No, really. I just said

to you three weeks ago, hey, do you think we're going to have a short and season or like, you guys want to say, Rob, like, relax. You know what is it? This last week alone has gone ballistic. I mean, 10 teams have to shut down their facilities. 17% of the league is in COVID protocol. 50 NHL games postponed and a lot of that again was in the last week.

So things are moving fast. And here are the three of us, of course, still going, what do you think is going to happen come April, May, and June? I mean, it's, I don't know. We have no idea. We have no idea. And I get it. We're paid to maybe give our thoughts on it.

But I just love how we're, we as a society are still just trying to look into this very, very, very, very cloudy crystal ball. We were right about the Olympics. So everybody was right about the whole. Olympics, Sarah. I mean, I have a lot of people who are asking me about that friends, family, whatever. And none of them would say, do you think they're going to go? They would all say the same thing. I mean, they're not going, right? That's how they would say. They'd be insane for them to go. And along those lines, guys, seems as though this is the topic. A lot of people are

bringing up, at least for the first couple of days. Who do you feel the worst for? I know it's tough to feel bad for, you know, millionaires who live a pretty good life. But there's got to be some players out there who you kind of feel for. Jesse? Yeah, I mean, the first two that I think everyone thinks of Alex Ovechkin and Stephen Stamcoast, those are kind of the two veteran guys, the star players, the most high-profile guys who their careers have kind of fallen in this window perfectly to where, whether it was the NHL players not being allowed to play in the Olympics or in Stamco's case, some injuries, probably two of the most high-profile guys that haven't been able to play. and they're two really likable guys.

So it's so it's easy to feel bad for them, not being able to represent their country. I think everyone's kind of shut the door on Stephen Stamcoast. I think a 35-year-old Stephen Stamcoast can be the fourth-line player on Team Canada. If I'm the team Canada GM, I think I'm okay with that in four years. But yeah, those are the two that everyone thinks of. Sarah, who comes to mind for you? Yeah, no, those are mine too. And I think what I think about what Stamcoast is probably like the gold medal to do a Hall of Fame

career. You know what I mean? I feel like that really helps round out a career. You have anybody different, Rob? No, I mean, for me, Stammer, it's interesting when you look at his Olympic career, 2010, he got snubbed. And anytime somebody gets snubbed, they're like, well, don't worry, you still got yours. 2014, he breaks his leg and was making that miraculous comeback. Like, oh my goodness, is he going to be ready for the Olympics? Could not do it. 2018, there were no NHLers. And this year, he's playing good hockey. I mean, he's at a point where he's played himself onto a lot of people's teams. Obviously, it's not going to happen now.

But yeah, I feel for Stamco's, not as much for Ovechkin. And I don't mean to be cold-hearted, but he's had his chances. He's been there three times. He hasn't podiumed once. And I know Pierre LeBrun was writing about how Sidney Crosby, he's been one of the driving forces to try to get the NHELors to the Olympics. I have a hard time feeling bad. I was going to say, no offense, boo.

He's the golden goal. Go away. Two-time gold medalist and golden goal score. And he's won everything else with a team Canada jersey, too. World Juniors, World Cup. Stop it. Like I just, you know, I keep hearing that. And even yesterday hearing Cindy Crosby's reaction, I disappointed he was,

look, of course he wants to put. But it's like when somebody, even at the end of their career, wants one more Stanley Cup, like even I grew up the biggest Wayne Gretzky fan ever. When they were trying to get him one more cup in L.A. And then with the Rangers, I'm like, he's got four. guys. He hardly has a resume that is incomplete. Like that's where you look at the Ovechkins. Like really, that's the only thing missing from Ovechkin's trophy case. I mean, he's won everything else. I talked about this on the show a couple weeks ago. I know Doug Armstrong said to me that they were

building two team candidates, one of NHLers and one comprised of everybody else. How tough is this going to be now? Not only to pick, like it's obviously not just team Canada. You got a lot of countries, selling this, selling this to fans, selling this to, you know, people to say, oh, yeah, you won't be, you won't see Connor McDavid, but you'll see David Dayharnay. Yeah, I mean, I think it would be easier to sell if we didn't have all of this hype. Like, how many projected rosters has the athletic and TSN and all these plays? Like, how many have we seen every day for the last, for the last four years? it's been jammed down our throats.

Look at these players you're going to get to see. And then suddenly you're not. Like I feel like if the runup had been a little longer and you had some time to accept that you're not going to get the best on the best, I think it's easier to say, you know what, these amateurs, this is a cool moment for them. And it still is, but it's like, it's going to be hard for, especially for hockey fans. I think the average Olympic viewer that's not a diehard hockey fan, for them, it's like, whatever, it's hockey.

I'm going to watch it. But I think for the diehard hockey fans that have been looking forward to this for a while, it's going to be really hard to sell this tournament. I also think with kind of the situation politically, I don't really like, it's just a tough Olympics to sell in general, rightfully so. So you know what?

It's a shame. But it's shame for the players and the NHL and how much they built it up. But I guess they could rebrand as like miracle. Yeah. No, I mean, 2018, alluding to what you said,

Jesse, we knew a lot earlier that they were going. And I was in Korea for 2018. Look, of course you want to see best on best. Everybody like, you know, when people are trying to put together the lines, especially I had to do one every two weeks for CBC for Team Canada. And I'm, you know, Connor McDavid on the same line as Nathan McKinnon. Like that's just makes your mind kind of explode.

But I will say this. If fans do care to watch, I also like the feel good stories that come with non-NHLers. You're just not going to get the eyeball. that you would when there's a gold medal game, say Canada and the U.S., you know, when it's best. And I'll ask you guys, we'll get to best on best, actually. I want to talk to you guys about a possible World Cup and what we want to see in the future.

In the next segment, Julian McKenzie is going to come on, associate editor of hockey at the Athletic and Coast or the Chris Johnston show. I want to get his opinion because he's always very opinionated. We'll talk about, do you want to see best on best and does it have to be in the Olympics? We'll talk about that right after the break. Hey, look at that.

Santa got my letter. All I asked for was Julian McKenzie to come on the show one more time before Christmas. How are you, buddy? That is so touching Rob. That is such a touching thing to say. It's good to see your face, buddy, as well as yours, Jesse, and as well as your Sarah.

See? Wasn't going to leave you guys out. Always a pleasure. I think you know what we're going to ask you about. Your thoughts, NHL, you know, pulling the out clause, not going, NHL and NHLPA. little to no surprise, correct? Yeah, I thought you were going to ask you about the Bachelorette finale, so I'm a bit disappointed.

I saw you tweeting about that. I was like, come on, man. There's so much to talk about. You're tweeting about the Bachelorette finale. Are you kidding me? It's a small little, like, distraction away from all of this COVID madness to focus on a show with an unrealistic premise. And to be honest with the way COVID was running rampant, the idea of play a play NHL players going to the Olympics was looking more and more unrealistic by the day. I'm not surprised.

In the middle of the summer, I thought, okay, there's a chance it could happen and I was pretty optimistic about it, but there was some doubts that crept up in my mind when they were discussing some of the conditions that some of the players might have to endure when it came to even just media availability while in Beijing. But with the rise of the Omnacron now, it made it made it pretty dire the chances of ageal players going to participate at the Olympic. So it's not a big surprise from me. We were debating

who we felt the most sorry for. And Stamco's got brought up by everybody. Ovattschkin got brought up as well. Anybody that you kind of think, oh man, that's got a sting for that guy. Stamco's definitely at top the list in the hopes of trying to be different.

Hmm. Like, McDavid and Crosby together. Like I mean, I know Crosby's up there in age, but like, do you see a situation in 2026 where team Canada doesn't bring him? Yes. I guess it's fair. That's fair. I mean, Crosby is like a generational, like, talent. Like, I mean, I guess I, okay, that's fair.

He might be up there anyway. He still might be really good. That's the thing. Like, you have to still think about that. But all that to say, like, this might have been our chance of seeing McDavid and Crosby together. and we might never see that. Like we might not ever get that. It's done.

But there's no way. I think if Crosby wants to play in four years, he's going to be there. That's what I think. That's what I think he too. Like Sydney Crosby is in the 21st century in terms of Canadian hockey players. I know Conna McDavid is right up there. And I think the world of Connor McDavid. I think Codney Crosby could eventually surpass him.

But like Sydney Crosby is that dude. Like in 2026, as far as I concerned, if he's still playing at a high level, I could totally see hockey candidate management be like, we're bringing him, like we're not leaving him at home. If he plays on a high enough level. And he doesn't have to do it.

Yeah, longevity's been better these days. I don't know if it's Tom Brady method and things of that nature. And you see guys like Justin Williams last in the league for a long time, why wouldn't Sidney Crosby do that? I'm sure he's really careful with his health. Oh, that's going to use. Yeah.

Russia's going to use him in four years if he's still healthy? Why is it out of the problem of possibility? I get it. I'm just saying when you've got powerhouse countries, there are a lot of people breathing down their necks. And I'm not even saying that he wouldn't necessarily get selected, but maybe they'll say, do you want to come in a fourth line capacity? And he says, no, I'm good.

I've got my two gold medals. I've got my golden goal. I don't know. I'm just saying that to me, this really does. Four years is a long time, guys. You're right. There are players who are doing a, amazing things with playing at a high level at a later age.

But four years is a lot can happen to someone who's had to deal with injuries like Sidney Crosby in four years. That's true. I think in four years, there may be four centers for Team Canada that are better than Sidney Crosby, but that doesn't mean that they're getting selected over Sydney Crosby. That doesn't mean that they're playing center either. Right. Yeah.

That's a fair point. Well, let's talk about that, though, guys, because, you know, Elia Freeman's reporting that players would like to see a World Cup, It's, let's face it, it's best on best, I think, is what fans want to see. So my question to you guys is, is it because of the Olympics? Is it the allure of the Olympics in a gold medal? Or is it just the best hockey players for each country playing against the best hockey players from each country? And I'm not talking about the gimmicky young guns, North America.

No, I'm talking about getting the eight to 12 best countries to play against each other. Do you think fans would be happy with that and say, to have? hell with the Olympics? I think the Olympics, as they are, the allure of them, the prestige, winning a gold medal. We've seen that as the pinnacle of international competition for so long, so much so that if we see like a tournament like the World Cup of hockey, we don't, we don't, it's not in the same realm as the Olympics. The world championships, if you talk to individual players about it, it means a lot to them. But I don't even think that compares to the Olympic. when you're talking to fans about it.

So, yeah, I think the idea of a best-on-best tournament, like, I think in this case now, if people really want it in the NHL put that together, that might work as like a placeholder. But it's not Olympic gold medal. Like winning a World Cup of hockey, that's a cool thing you can say that you have, but that's not an Olympic gold medal.

Like we think of Olympians throughout the test of time and the gold medals that they have in the prestige, we've put upon those medals. Like that's not the same. Even if you win a silver medal or bronze medal or just being at the Olympics, it doesn't compare to so many other tournaments. Like a World Cup of hockey, if they do it, I don't mind. But it's not going to compare at all to being at the Olympics.

Yeah. And I keep going back to the Hall of Fame cases. Like that's not going to be as strong as a gold medal in the Olympics for a case for your Hall of Fame. So I feel like that's kind of something the players are focusing on and why a lot of them are upset about not going. It's just a shame, but I agree. It's not the same allure. I'd still watch it and have a good time. What about you, Jesse? Yeah, I think from a fan's perspective, it's closer in terms of just how much we would enjoy it,

how much fun it would be to watch, maybe the TV ratings. I think it's closer. From the player's side of things, that's where it doesn't compare in terms of the prestige it is to win a gold medal, like Julian said. But also, like I was talking to Jonathan Marshall so the other day, and he's a guy who was not going to be on Team Canada in all likelihood. But he was just kind of mentioning things he was talking to other players about. And this Olympics, part of the reason I think it's easier for players to not go is because they know that this was not going to be the Olympic experience you dream of where he was mentioning you get to go watch other events. You're the hockey team. You get to play. And then you guys get to all get together and you get to go watch the skiing or the snowboarding. You're like, the curling, whatever it is, you get to go watch all these other athletes that are representing your country and kind of celebrate that with them. And that wasn't going to be happening with all the COVID protocols. You're going to be locked in a room when you weren't participating. So I think like the World Cup of Hockey has none of that, obviously. So I think from a fan perspective, watching on TV, it can kind of be similar. But for the players,

it's nothing even remotely close. Yeah, they talk about the Olympic experience and you hear that all the time. And I understand how the players want to go. I just kind of look at every four years when we deal with this situation, if the league starts saying this is not worth it. You know, this is not worth the constant negotiation, the constant headache. Let's face it, I guess the league didn't want from day one. The league did not want to go. I mean, Gary Bettman did everything short of saying to hell with China. He, well, we have to.

We negotiated that we'll try our best, but they didn't want to go. They didn't want to shut down. They don't want to send their inventory to the other side of the planet for what they call little to no return. And I get that. I think the problem with a lot of World Cup of hockey's and tournaments like that, a lot of times it's timing. I mean, you're getting players like in September when I don't know if players want to necessarily put themselves at risk for that sort of right before the season.

You can't do in the middle of the season. You can't do it. It's always just timing whereas the Olympics are just kind of forced upon. If you want to compete, guess what? February, you got to be there. I don't know the best way to do it, but I think fans, I think fans would just want to see the best on best. And this, that's why today is just such a letdown for so many of these fans. And I just, you know, I don't want to compare it to.

like the Canada Cup or the World Cup or anything else. But I think there might be a point where they start saying, is this even worth it? Also, Rob, I'll say this. For the fans that also want a World Cup, they're going to want that gimmicky team like a young gunned Steve North America. Why? Why?

Because they're cool. No, they're not. Yes, they are. That uniform from that 2016 tournament was one of the more dope things. Here's the thing. Canada won the World Cup. You know what the most memorable thing from that tournament was? Nathan McKinnon scoring that overtime winner.

and everyone's celebrating. I think they all thought that they made it to the next round. That was one of those disappointing things to see that that team was not able to make a run for it. A team that had Nathan McKinnon, Connor McDavid,

Austin Matthews, like, are you serious? You don't want to see that? What? Not in, hang on a second. I do want to see it, but not under the cloak of an international tournament.

Like how do you have players on the Young Guns team who are not allowed to represent? represent their countries. It doesn't make any sense to me. I get that logic. I understand that for sure.

And like I think it's ridiculous too that teams would not find a way to put a young, like imagine Carter Badaard is Olympic eligible. Like I'm just picturing hockey candidates to be like, no, man, he's too young. But if he's dope, like he should be playing him. But if they're not going to do it and they have the vehicle to put all these players on that team, why not take advantage of it? It's dope. Plut, not to mention, those three players I mentioned,

McDavid, Matthews, and, yeah, McDaniel, there's a lot of M's. You get what I'm trying to say here. You get the whole, like, Matthews is American. What are you if we're going to see an American and a Canadian play with each other on an international team? I think that's pretty cool. That's a, I thought it was a genius way to get around teams saying, you know what,

we're probably not going to bring these guys in. They're too young. They're like, you know what, no, let's put together the young best players we can. and see if they can dominate. Fine, it didn't work in that instance, but it was cool. I personally don't have a strong feeling one way or the other on this, but I will say one positive to that is it also gives an extra team that has a chance at winning this thing, right? Like, the international tournaments are pretty, like there's three teams.

It's Sweden, the U.S. and Canada. I mean, maybe Russia can kind of compete, but like I feel like throwing that extra team in there, as weird as it is. And I kind of agree with Rob some that it's like that team doesn't belong. But also, it at least gives you a fourth team that can. and compete with the big dogs. Jesse, Jesse, that World Cup of hockey, who did Canada beat in the final?

I don't even remember. Team Europe. They beat an extra team to get there. It can work, but it's not. Sarah, break the tie here, please. Just side with me otherwise. You can be in your tournaments. I don't care.

Okay, see, no, but that's one of the reasons I bring it up. Because, Julie, Sarah loves to say my Canadian is showing. You're up. Your Canadian is showing. Your Canadian is showing. we love our best on best international tournaments. I hated. We love winning best on best tournaments.

Let's be real here. We love winning best on best tournaments, but when a team like America finds a way to win, and I include the world juniors and all this, that's when people start getting all like, whatever. Oh, they wanted a shootout. This shouldn't be celebrated all that much.

As soon as the rules benefit other countries, that's when all of us in Canada are just kind of like, whatever. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, stop. I've seen it. I will see it, bro. I will tell you, I will tell you. I agree that we love winning tournaments.

And I'll tell you how, okay? 72 Summit series, I still hear about on a daily basis. O2, we hear about all the time. 2010, we hear about all the time. What happened in 98? What happened in 2006? Didn't exist. Just absolutely did not happen.

If you're a Canadian, there were Olympics in 2006? Yes. There were Olympics. That's what bothers me is this erase from existence sort of thing. But when you're talking internet, yes, fans want to be able to cheer for their country. And when there are players who are from that country playing on another team, it rubs people the wrong way, unless you're Julie. See, I even had such a great intro for you and you come on the damn show and you disagree with me and you tell me I'm wrong. I got a lot of cool in my stocking.

I think very dearly, but we're allowed to disagree. Of course we are. Of course we are. I make jokes about Quebec all the time. That doesn't mean I don't think any less of her. I don't have any disagreements with Jesse. He's the homie. It's all like to disagree with people sometimes.

That's what hockey's all about. It's just to show love for one another. That's what it is. That's what hockey's all about, right? Just disagreeing and telling the other person's wrong and shutting their mics off. Please feel free to give me any bad takes about America because they're definitely true. Oh, that's a whole other podcast we can start about America, which I love. America is a great country.

Which I love a lot. America is a great place. I lived in America once. It was fun. Yeah, and you go to Syracuse? I lived in Syracuse for a whole year of doing a grad to grade in Syracuse University. That was the most fun year in terms of my academic experience I've ever experienced in my life. Let me tell you, if you think Syracuse is fun, America has some other cities that aren't bad.

Hey, Jesse, Jesse, your Merica is showing right now, all right? Jesse, you'll take your word for it. We talked about this in the first segment, but just what do you foresee happening with this schedule? I know they're going to try to cram a bunch of games into this Olympic break, but there's only so much you can do. Do you see a possibility where we have a shortened schedule? They get to a point where they're like, guys, we can only get 72 in? or do we see the end date of the regular season pushed so they can get all 82 in? I think if there's a way for them to do that latter option and get all 82 games in,

I can see the NHL exhausting every possibility to do that. And you can tell me if I'm off base with this thinking. But when I saw that the NBA said that they were going to continue playing and they were just going to have to live with the variant being around, that in a really weird way reassured me that the NHL wasn't going to do anything to prolong the break that they have going on right now and that they were probably going to be determined to find a way to fill out all 82 games. Because this is a league by comparison to all the other big four North American leagues that I think by comparison they rely on gate revenue the most. And they see the U.S. markets as they are, as open as they are, the states as open as they are, however. they're dealing with the pandemic, and fans are able to go in. And I don't think the NHL is in a

position where they want to turn that tap off in terms of all the money they'd be able to get in from that. So I think in terms of that Olympic break, if there are ways for them to take some of those dates, put some of those postponed games there, they'll use it as much as they can. And I think if they have to extend the season by, what, a few more days or a few more weeks, and it is actually possible for them to do, they're going to do it. I don't see them in the interest. of money. We all know how money kind of trumps all of this. I don't see them unless it has at a point where they cannot absolutely have it get to a certain point. I think they're going to do everything they can to, you know, have the season still play out in 82 games. I don't know if it'll

finish on time, so to speak. Yeah. Change the subject just before we go, because I do want to ask you guys all three of you about this because we've all covered a million press conferences in our lives. Usually when a coach gets fired, it's because the team or when a coach leaves a team, because the team is making him leave. Paul Maurice kind of shocked the hockey world this week and resigned. And I'm watching this press conference. And somewhere between five and ten times, he said, this team needs a new voice.

I've never heard a guy say that about himself. I've never heard a coach say they need somebody else. I'm a good coach, but they need somebody else. Usually it's a GM. Usually it's people like us in the media. Usually it's the fans. I was kind of taken aback. by that whole press conference in a positive way.

I thought, wow, this is a guy putting the team ahead of himself. I don't know how about you guys felt about this. Sarah, what did you think? Well, I'll point that out. And then I'll also point out the part in Murat's story. He wrote about it. He said that Maurice was kind of getting fatigue with going to the rink, and he wasn't enjoying it as much as he did before COVID.

And I feel like that's something a lot of people in sports don't talk about because we're grateful to be at our jobs, doing our things. And of course we have the coolest jobs you can imagine. But at the same time, the pandemic is still affecting people mentally. And I love that he had the guts to admit that he was struggling with kind of his joy and like his passion for the game. And I feel like, of course, he's been in the league for the longest time. And he's been coaching multiple teams and he's been around. So I think he had the privilege to be able to say, all right, I can walk away.

And when he comes back, it'll be on his own terms and someone. I think that's such a great way to go out because then you can come back in. You know, it leaves the door open. What do you think, Jesse? Yeah. I mean, his text to Pete DeBore, I won was hilarious because not many coaches get to make that decision for themselves, right? But I mean, Paul Maurice is such a smart guy. Like, I think back to, I remember the first season for the Golden Knights when they played the Jets in the Western Conference final, just being a part of those press conferences.

It blew me away how just how he vered. verbalizes the game. He's a really smart guy. And I think one of the hardest things in life to do is like have self-awareness like that. And you mention it, Rob, like someone saying this team needs a new voice. That's not easy to say, but I think it's also not easy to recognize. I think a lot of coaches, especially someone is good at this job as Paul Maurice, you look around and the team's not winning and you think of other, there's got to be another reason. It can't be me. Like there has to be other things. So just the self-awareness to realize like, hey, I think I'm really good at this, but it's just not working for these guys. Maybe someone else could do this job better for this specific team, I think is super impressive. My whole time, I'll say this. I have not had the experiences as other media members being in media availability with Paul Maurice. So maybe that plays into a reason why I felt the way I was going to feel, and I'll explain that at a moment. But seeing people tweet about the press conference and seeing people tweet about Paul Maurice for a moment, I thought, okay, well, this is wholesome.

And also that story kind of was breaking out in the middle of all these other COVID stories. So I think a lot of people took refuge in how wholesome the story was in light of everything that was going on last week. But there was a part of me and maybe just because of the nature of the reporting business that were in that just wondered, okay, but is this like genuine? Is it a genuine reason why he's leaving on his own terms? Is the team saying, you know what? we don't actually want you here, but you've been here so long enough and you're so respected, we're going to find a way to make it, you know, seem as if you're leaving on your own terms. Like, it's been done before in so many other organizations.

And not to put it there, but is there something worse that happened? And they're trying to clean that up. Like, I don't know. Like, I don't think that's the case. And I had the episode we had with Chris Johnston. And he straight up said, like, no, this was something that was on his terms. And I felt relieved hearing that, right? considering what we've been going through the last year, even beyond COVID, the Cal Beach stuff.

Like, it's natural, I think, now to just think whenever any of these stories pop up wondering, okay, is there anything going on behind the scenes? And I think that's something that's just going to be in my head going forward anytime I see anything like that now, having learned from that. But I feel relieved off of what I've heard so far from whether it's CJ or whether it's from any of us reporting on this, that it seems as if this was just something that Paul Marisse really wanted. And you're right, he deserves a ton of credit for identifying the fact that he wasn't the voice this team needed right now.

That being said, I mean, I think he'll probably just take his break. He'll take his time off. And it would not surprise me in the slightest if some team hit him up to coach again. Still relatively young. Still has a lot of success. He's been in the postseason before. This dude was in the Stanley Cup final when I was like eight years old. Like he's been around for a long time, but is somehow still like relatively.

relatively young when you compare him to most of the coaches holding down an NHL job. So I could totally see a situation where some NHL team, whether it's next year or whenever Paul Maurice is good and ready, just saying, you know what, man, like, we want you coaching our team. I don't think he's out of the coaching game forever. He just needs a break. I don't think we'll see him soon, but I 100% believe we're going to see Paul Maurice behind an NHL bench. And going back to what Jesse said about the recognition of the voice, it's interesting because, you know, it just proves how important managing people is to coach it. You could be the best X's and O's guy in the world, but after a while, you, it's all, when you really boil it down, it's dealing with people.

And coaches do have a shelf life. Why do you think coaches don't last? Like, he, I think he was the second longest tenured coach behind Cooper. And I think he alluded to it in his friends conference. He said, you know, only John Cooper's coach has been around longer than me, but he's just one. the last two Stanley Cup. So guess what? He's, he can, he can stick around. The voice gets lost after a while. And I just, I'm with you, Jesse. I just can't believe he recognized it. And not only recognized it, but said, I'm going to jump on this grenade. And Julian, I'm with you. As soon as I saw the

reports coming out, it's unfortunate that we do this, but my brain went to so many terrible places. It went to, oh, no, what's, what's going on here? And it, I watched that press conference and I saw a man completely at peace with his decision. And like I said, I've been doing this a long time and I've been to a million and watched a million press. Never seen anything like that. Never seen anything like that. So good luck to Paul Maurice in the future because I thought that was great. Good luck to you too, Julian.

You've done your Christmas shopping? Because Jesse was in like the shopping capital of the world and didn't get done his Christmas shopping. What? I'm like three quarters of the way done. I still have to get like a few smaller things. but for the most part, I'm pretty much done. I'm at this point, I'm going to have to deliver some gifts to like my cousins and stuff who I don't even know if I'm going to be able to see during the holiday time.

And I mean, I was supposed to be in a secret Santa over the weekend, but that got postponed. So I got my gift delivered and now I have to deliver my secret Santa their gift. So it's a lot of moving around. But for the most part, I'd say at this point right now as we're recording, I'm like 75% done my shopping. Well, Merry Christmas to you and yours. Thanks for coming on making my Santa list come true. See you next year. I love for you guys.

Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. See you all and hear you all in 2020. See you, buddy. Oh my God, your hat. It says hat, by the way,

in case. Yeah, is that from the Devils? No, it's from the SDPN, the Steve Dangal Podcast Network. Oh, okay, nice. Hit up the store for that and check out the Christmas.

Check out the Christmas. Check out the Chris Johnston show while you're there as well. Wow. Stick around. After the break, we are going to go through your Twitter questions. You keep writing them. We will keep reading them. All right.

So usually we just jump on Twitter and Sarah with her gabillion followers. We'll just say, what should we talk about? Today, we changed it up just a little bit. What are your reactions to the NHL pulling out of the Olympics? We'll read some of these on the podcast, is what she said. So we got a lot of responses. So I'm just going to kind of burn through some of these guys. if you've got comments on them,

please feel free to jump in. Beer League Chump says, I hate that the Olympics interrupt the season. They also suck for the host community, but like them or not, this is the right choice. We need a legitimate World Cup every year. No dumb gimmicks.

I love that. He said the no dumb... Calling the Olympics a dumb gimmick is like to say. No, he's saying in a World Cup with no dumb gimmicks, no young guns team, no anything like that. What do you guys think of the interruption of the season?

I just don't know when the best time would be for a best on best tournament, be at the Olympics or anything else. I think that's always been the hardest part, at least for me. Jesse? Yeah, I agree. But I do agree with Beer League chump. We need a legitimate World Cup every year. I will say that we view the World Cup of hockey as because it's not consistent, right? Like if it was like the soccer World Cup where it's been going on forever and it's every four years, I think we would see it on the same level as the Olympics.

So I think consistency with it would go a long way towards. it's that tournament meaning something. All right. Next one's from Eric K8. I think it's what we all saw coming. It sucks for the guys that wanted to represent their countries, but I don't see the logic in traveling to a country with the harshest lockdown measures considering how COVID still spread in the NHL.

It's illogical to think that it would not affect the players in the Olympics. I'm glad to see what most players in quarantine have shown little to no symptoms, but it would still be stuck for five weeks in China, which is not a fun position. And guys, like, from day one, we've been saying, NHLers want to go. The players want to go. But then over this last month, we've heard Connor McDavid, John Tavares, you know, Alex Petrangelo, all go five possible weeks in China.

How much of this decision do you think was the scheduling and how much of it was the players going, yeah, maybe not. Maybe we'll skip this one. Yeah, it's a great idea. And at first, like, things moved so fast that you had to actually genuinely, think about being stuck there for five weeks. And that changes your whole NHL season, which is probably more important right now in the scheme of things to your career. You know what I mean? So if I'm putting myself in a player's shoes, I can't afford to be stuck there for five weeks, right,

Jesse? Yeah, definitely. And I think the amount, like for a while there, no one was really testing positive all that much, right? When they first got the vaccines and like before this new variant, I think a lot of guys thought, well, I'm not going to get stuck there. And now everyone you see is testing positive. Suddenly, like, that threat of getting stuck over there is like a lot more real. SJ says understandable, but extremely unfortunate, which is kind of the ongoing theme as I'm going through all these tweets. Like a lot of people say, it sucks. I wanted to watch it, but makes sense. It goes on to say maybe most extreme examples, Stephen Stamco's, who was a tad too young for 2010, injured in 2014, no-goes in 18 and 22. In a slightly different universe, he would be looking at four

Olympic golds or medals at least. Yeah. And that goes to Sarah's point about when you're breaking down who's a Hall of Fame or you're breaking down somebody's resume. Not that Sidney Crosby is ever going to have a questionable Hall of Fame resume, but you're always going to mention two gold medals. And when you just haven't really had the chance to do it, it just kind of sucks for him. So big thanks to everybody who wrote in.

Just keep writing in. And we'll, like I said, you keep writing them. We'll keep reading them. I know it's Christmas week, guys, but anything on the go? You want to, does I want to plug? Jesse? No. I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. I have some good stuff that I'm working on. I mentioned the Robin Leonard piece a couple weeks ago. It's been taking a little longer than I wanted to because I've been reaching out to a lot of people that he's helped. And it's not, obviously, it's not the same as interviewing these players where they're kind of scheduled availableities. I'm trying to get all the real people out there that have been impacted by Robin Lennar, and I've heard some really, really cool stories. So I'm looking forward to putting this story out soon. That's awesome. Like the real stories with real people in the real world are always the best.

So I'm looking forward to that. I don't have much. I'm like running silly things right now. Like I did a wish list where I kind of roasted some of the players. I was going back and forth with Jordan Martinuk on Twitter about Nickelback. So check that out on Twitter. Speaking of Canadian showing, come on. Yeah, exactly. But I will put my own tweet into the Olympic discussion. I will say, let's make a huge deal about the women's hockey Olympics this year. That's always the most entertaining, if I do say so myself.

And I feel like we shouldn't ignore that. Let's just lean into walking. I agree. I will say one thing about that tournament that will always be the one thing that I think stops it from being as big as it should be. two countries are really, really good. Yeah. That's, that's, and that, even with the men, it takes more countries to, to really make you say, okay, well, it's not just a march to the finals.

And I'm not saying that, you know, the Canadians and the Americans don't have some sort of obstacles on the way there. But if I had to tell you to wager your everything you own on who's going to be in the gold medal game, I think we all know the two countries. That's what's stopping it. And I'd like to see other countries really, uh, get better. as we go because I think that'll really help the women's game. Guys, Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas, you filthy animal. Merry Christmas, Rob. I love the Home Alone reference thrown in there. That was my Christmas present right there. In case you want to listen to some good hockey talk throughout the holidays, in case your family is over and really loud and annoying, we got plenty of it. Bobby Ryan and John Morosi,

who covers the World Junior Hockey Championships for the NHL Network, is going to be joining Craig Kodagh. Custance and Sean Jintilly on Friday. You got Max Boltman and Corey Pranman, who are going to preview the world junior rosters on the prospect series on the athletic show. Steve Mayer, the NFL's EVP and Chief Content Officer is Michael Russo's guest this week on Straight from the Source ahead of the 2022 Winter Classic in Minnesota. So plenty to listen to over the holidays.

Remember, give us a follow on your favorite podcast platform. And don't forget, leave us a rating, leave us a review. It helps us a lot. and subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content for the entire network. You start with a 30-day free trial, then it's just 99 cents a month after that. And right now, you get an annual subscription to the Athletic

for just $3.99 a month when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. The Athletic Hockey Show continues Thursday with Ian Mendez, and down goes brown with the top 10 weirdest NHL moments from 2021. Happy holidays, everyone. We'll see you next week.