The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL pushing Players Association on mandatory neck guards, Anaheim Ducks overachieving early and it's sunny in Philadelphia with Keith Jones leading the way

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

On this Halloween edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, Ian and Julian breakdown the Ducks last second win over the Penguins, the first matchup between Logan Cooley and Connor Bedard, Blake Wheeler's triumphant return to Winnipeg, Charlie McAvoy's hearing with player safety and we stick tap the career of Jumbo Joe Thornton.Mike Russo joins to pay tribute to Adam Johnson and he discusses the NHL's hope to accelerate a mandatory neck guard into the league, plus Russo chats with Flyers president Keith Jones about brighter days ahead in Philadelphia.  Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowYou’ll be amazed at what you can do with Grammarly. Go to http://grammarly.com/podcast to download for FREE today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is the athletic hockey show. It is a Tuesday edition of the athletic hockey show. Dare we call it spooktacular? It's the Halloween version. Yeah. But you didn't come with something. You know what? I dropped the ball, by the way, on the costume thing.

For people watching this on YouTube. Julian's going full Dionne Sanders. I'm so disappointed you. player. I'm disappointed. We're supposed to be a unit together. You know, you can't have prime time doing this thing and then, you know, his teammates on the defense ain't showing up. What are you supposed to do? Come on. What is this? We can't go out here getting this money and you can't be, and you're not, and you're not doing your part. What is this? The scariest thing you can think of Dion Sanders. That's not prime time, baby. What is this? You could. Just like the offensive line at

the University of Colorado next year, you're going to be cut with you. That's what going to happen. Cut them all. That's what Dion Sanders does. This is what prime time does. Cut them all. Julian's leading into it. We're excited to be with you for the next hour on

Halloween. You know what? One question I regret not asking some guys yesterday. If you're an NHL player, two questions. One, do you allow, do you think trick or treaters come to your home and know that you're a trick-or-treater,

but more importantly, is there an expectation you're given out full-sized candy bars? If you're an NHL player, right? You don't want to be, like, rolling into an NHL player's house joined by Keith Jones, Mr. President. You know, here's some little, little bite-sized kit-cat.

You want the, I think there's an expectation that it's full-sized candy bars. I agree. I think if you're an, H.L player and you make a decent amount of money. So let's exclude the people who are on like minimum contracts and all that. Like you're making a couple mill. You live at a really nice community. Could you imagine being like, I don't know, say like you're Drew Dowdy or something and you make millions of dollars and you're giving kids like smarties. Like not like our,

not like in Canada what we call smarties like what we call rockets up here. What we would call rockets. because you imagine like Drew like I've just used a game as an example but like he would be he would be absolutely roasted in in that gated community I think there's like a social status thing that comes with it too that goes beyond what like we as journalists would even come to know it's everyone in that area that's just like you don't want to go over to that house like they have all this money but like they're they're cheap I don't think you ever want to do that I think I think that expectation is just naturally there because you're kind of keep not even just keep it up with the Jones is, there's just like this reputation to behold, you know? Like, I think it's like that. You got to give out full-side candy bars if you're an NHL player. I think that's, them's the rules. That's, uh, that's, that's the way it was. Um, I mean, in America, like, I don't think O'Henry is really like a big thing there.

No, I don't know if this three musketeers. Okay, I've never had three musketeers. Nestle Crunch. Yeah. These are the American candy bars, uh, you know, maybe Ruth. I don't think there's coffee crisp in the United States. No, they don't have that. Like, trick-or-treating experiences must be so, I mean, it's obviously way different in the states in terms of the candy you get.

But, like, I have no real sense of, like, what an average haul should look like for an American trick-or-treater in Canada. Like, you're getting the little bags of chips. I don't know. Yeah, the rockets will pop up to, the surprise will pop up to. You might get some M&Ms. The Reese's cups. You get a lot of those. You get a lot of those Reese's cups.

Yo Henry's. Do you get coffee crisp in there, too? Big time. Man, it's been at least a decade. I think it's been like, well, it's more than, way more than a decade. I was in like seventh grade last time I went trick or treating? That was like the last time I went. Yeah.

So, so yeah, 10 years ago. Yeah. Yeah, wait. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, my math is wrong. Absolutely. But yeah, it's been way too long. I don't know what's on these streets anymore.

No. Remember when we asked Mike Russo the last time he dressed up for Halloween? And he kind of gave us to, anyway, I'm excited. Rousseau's going to drop by here in a few minutes. We got the mic check with Keith Jones. You know, the Flyers are a great story. But you know who else is a great story? The Anaheim ducks.

Yeah. And Monday night, you know, we had Josh Yoey on. We're talking about the penguin struggles. Pittsburgh loses in regulation again. and this time the Anaheim, the manner in which they lost was remarkable as the penguins in the final minute of the game are on a five on three, just as the first penalty expires, Mason McTavish pops out of the box, is sprung on a breakaway and scores with about 12 seconds left. I submit this to you, Julian. Is there a better feeling as an NHL player than scoring a game-winning, short-handed

goal in the dying seconds of regulation? Like, that's better than an over-distance. time goal. Like, because the other team's got a point. This is like, you're not even thinking about, you're just like, hey, let's just get it to overtime.

Let's just get the point. And you come out of nowhere. Like, tell me, what would be a more satisfying goal than a game winner with 12 seconds left? That's a shorty. Nothing.

Penalty shot, maybe. What about, so either a penalty shot or we just came across the anniversary for this. What if you get a goal with like, 0.9 seconds left. You win the face off and all you have time for is a shot

and you get that shot and it goes through. I forget how many years ago it happened, but Tyler Tofoli did it for the LA Kings and overtime against the Boston Bruins. And literally the anniversary of that just came like this past weekend. But that was overtime, right? That was overtime, yes.

Yeah. So, I mean, both teams already had a point. I'm talking about end of regulation time. You're stealing points now from the other. The other teams get nothing. I guess that's fair, but like, that's all, that's a buzzer beater, right? Like, that's, I mean, even Mason McTamberts, still like a little bit of time on the clock. Okay.

Like, my counterpoint is that, like, my counterpoint is that, like, if it's not going to be like that, like, whether it's in a regulation or over time, like the fact that it's as close of a buzzer beaters you can get, that might be, that could hold a candle. Okay. So what would you rather do? Would you rather score a goal with, like, 0.5 seconds left to win it?

Or a shorty with 12 seconds left? Because I, I think I'm going to, Jordy because it just I'm going the less amount of time the better for me because you don't I don't want any opportunity for that other team to come back. I mean any opportunity to score a goal. I mean, I played a ball hockey league and I haven't

scored in any of the games I played any goal. I will take any goal. That will, that will satisfy me. Are you playing defense in this ball hockey league or what? No, they got me on the wing. I started as a defensive and then they put me on the wing because I'm not a really good puck carrier. But I like, I like my role.

I like my role. So this ball hockey league? Yes. Orange ball? Yes, orange ball. Plastic blades or regular blades to the sticks? Regular blades. Regular blades.

Some shape some knot. Shin pads? Yes. Shin pads, yes. What else? What else we got for equipment here? I use these because I don't like skate or anything like that. I bought these like lacrosse gloves, which could totally pass as regular hockey gloves.

just as a way to just to kind of get by. I went stick shopping with my good buddy up in Calgary, George Rasek, who hosts the morning show at Sports at 960. We got ourselves a pretty good sticks, and we were even testing them out off to the side in this one room, which is really funny, consider the fact, again, I do not score goals, but we did go score. We did go stick shopping.

No, it's pretty legit, though. We're on this team called the Royals. We won a league title over the summer, not with my help, obviously. But it was fun. During the playoff run? No, I was in Ottawa and Montreal during the playoff run. I was during like stampede and when everyone was like away.

So like all that went down and I missed the playoff run. I'm a total, total schmuck for missing that playoff run. Yeah. Okay. So you haven't you haven't scored a goal and your team won the championship without you. Yep. Oh yeah. I'm totally aware of the jokes that present.

set itself with that. I'm ready to get roasted for that. Low, low hanging fruit. Anyway, fun game last night, Pittsburgh, Anaheim. We thought was going to be a fun game. It was the Calder Trophy kind of showdown, Logan Cooley in Arizona, hosting Connor Bardard in Chicago. Bredd scores 30 seconds into the game. And you're like, here we go. Let's rub our hands together. It's going to be awesome. And then Arizona strikes back with eight unanswered goals. Michael Carsoni gets a hat trick. Boy, you know, Anaheim's a great story.

I love Arizona too, but that Calder showdown kind of fizzled. Bedard with one goal, Cooley with one assist, and a lopsided game, to say the least, 8 to 1. You know what's funny? My good buddy, Steve Dangle, has Clayton Keller in fantasy. and 8-1 result for Arizona. Would you like to guess the amount of points Clayton Keller had in that game? He didn't have any, right?

Correct. A-word game. I looked at the box score, and, you know, Carsoni had four. I think what, McBain had four. There's a couple guys at four. And then I looked at the big boys for Arizona. I was like, well, they kind of were shut out there.

McBain, and I don't know, I feel bad that I'm forgetting the other teammate. there were two guys on the Arizona Coyotes who had a Gordy Howe Hattrick. Oh, it was Liam O'Brien, I think. Yeah, Liam O'Brien and Jack McBain. I don't know if it's ever happened where two teammates have gotten a Gordy Howe Hattrick in the same game. Like, that's not something that comes up. You ever see the stat where Gordy Howe himself only had two Gordy Howe Hattricks or whatever it is?

Yeah, someone brought that up like a couple weeks ago. It's like, we've made it to the thing. and he's only done it, like, he had only done it, like, a small amount of times. But do you think that that's a function of, like, record keeping in the 1950s was, like, super shoddy? Like, they probably had some rando guy sitting in the penalty box with, like, a bottle of whiskey, and he's like, ah, how from Delvecchio? Let's give Lindsay an assist. I don't know.

Let's call it at 1228. Could you imagine traveling back in time? Could you imagine traveling back in time and seeing that guy and trying to explain to him what course he means? Yeah. Listen, there's going to be advanced. Sorry, are you aware of advanced stats? Are you aware of what an expected goal is? Yeah.

Expected by whom? Yeah. It's really too nothing, but really the rates for them should be like 3.6. Like, they've been hammering them all game. Yeah. Anyway, it was a busy night on Monday. So the Calder Trophy Showdown, Blake Wheeler had his return to Winnipeg as a member of the Rangers.

You know, his conversation with Christine Simpson was really enlightening where Wheeler basically says to Chris, I had a lot of growing up to do. And I'm paraphrasing here, even though I was 36 years old, I had a lot of growing up to do. And stripping the captaincy, maybe was the right thing. And getting bought out, it was all good. And he had a nice ovation from the crowd at MTS yesterday.

It wasn't like they came back and they gave him a frosty reception. A guy had a captaincy strip. But interesting. Like, I love it when athletes are willing to open up. And great job by Chris Simpson to get that. And it's interesting, right? Like Blink Wheeler's admitting, ah, that was probably the best thing for me to get the captaincy strip. Yeah, I remember doing a story on this last year.

and talking to Nate Schmidt about it. And he seemed to, I mean, back then was kind of saying what Blake was saying to Chris, just that he looked a little different just without the sea and just it kind of alleviated some pressure. That being said, the Winnipeg Jets were in a much better spot. I think it was around, not too far away from Christmas when I had that chat with Nate Schmidt about it. And then they kind of fell off in that second half of the year. They still made the playoffs, but they looked. like the best team in Canada for a good trick of the year.

And then something just kind of happened to them in that second half of the year. And, you know, we, we had that convo with Kevin Shevel Deoff earlier this year. How about how they now have a captain and how much they like to give it to Adam Lowry. And, you know, they're in the position that they're in right now. But I don't mind the fans reacting the way that they did to Blake Wheeler. He was a guy who was there for a really long time. They still saw some success with, with him as a leader. I'm sure there are people in that Winnipeg market who feel a little different.

about it. They might have mixed feelings, depending on how we may have classed with some teammates who have gone in and out of the organization. But it's still good that they were able to celebrate a guy who seemed to like being in Winnipeg. It seems like being that face of that team, or at least one of the major faces of that team for as long as he was. You know, and we were worried, remember I told you as like, uh-oh, what if we put the Kevin, uh, hex on Kevin Chubble Day off because he joined the podcast. And I think Winnipeg lost their next game. But they're, yeah, I'm just double-checking this.

Four, three and two. You know, so it depends on which prism you want to look through. You can say, ooh, the Jets have only won four of their first nine games. Or you can say they've got points in six of nine games and they're hanging into a wild card spot. But for a team that, like you said, kind of imploded in the back half of last year, this is probably as good of a start as you could have expected for them. Like, I never expected that they would be hanging with Vegas and Colorado. But I thought they would be able to kind of be where they are,

which is hanging around the fringes of, you know, kind of the third spot in the division or the wild card spot. So it's working out for them. So far. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they're only two. I mean, it's really early. You're still at that point where, I don't know,

it's kind of like a bicycle race where you'll, some guys are still in that Peloton. They're still trying to fight for position. I mean, there are only two points behind the Colorado Avalanche right now in that division. And the Minnesota Wild, that's a team I thought that they would be in that top three. They're only two points behind. There's like a logjam right behind the Winnipegats with the Preds, the coyotes, and the Wilde right now in terms of points. Like I think the Wilde that eventually could get out of it.

We'll see how it goes for them. But yeah, it makes sense that the Winnipeg Jets are there. I still expect them to kind of hang around. I still don't know if they're a playoff team in my eyes, but I still expected them to kind of hang around in that. spot. You know, it's interesting when you look at the West, too, that Vancouver is doing what they're doing. And they're having a lot of fun doing it. And the big boys are playing well. And Demko is playing well. And, you know, that's a team. I'm really curious to see how that plays out with Vancouver. But that might be the biggest surprise to me in the entire league.

Yeah, I'll give the Vancouver conducts this, man, like just the way they've looked in offensively, production from Brock Besser. Quinn Hughes is an early Norris favorite right now, considering the work that he's been able to do in all situations for that team. Yeah, I did not think the Vancouver products would be this good to start the year. Again, it's really early. Some teams haven't reached the 10 game. I don't know if any team has really reached the 10 game mark as if,

yeah, a small handful of teams like Carolina have. But, like, I don't know. There's something about the way that Vancouver has been able to start out. Rick Tocke. He's doing a really good job coaching them. He just had needed that time from last year to kind of impose himself, get the systems in, and now it looks like the conducts are off to a good start. I'll give them props for that.

But again, it's really early in the season for that. Yeah, Vancouver and Nashville play each other tonight on Tuesday night. They're both sitting in a playoff spot head of the Minnesota Wild. And why don't we step out here for a second. When we come back, speaking of the Wild, Mike Russo is going to pop by for his weekly Tuesday visit. Let's bring in Mike Russo, shall we? Tuesday visit with our pal Mike Russo,

who just like me is not dawning the Halloween stuff. No, no. But I do know now why I never hear back from either of you. I should start texting rather than emailing. Exactly. Thousands of unread emails. Thousands of them for each of us. It was my mistake.

Yeah. Hey, listen, Mike, we're excited to have you on, as we always do on Tuesdays. Eager to hear your conversation with Keith Jones. but we do want to start on, unfortunately, this is a tough one. It was a tough one in the hockey world. I know especially in your area, in Minnesota,

this story really hit close to home with Adam Johnson dying after what we can only call a freak accident in a hockey game. And we want to give you a little bit of space to talk about some of the conversations you've had in the last couple of days and how you're trying to process what has been such an emotional story for a lot of people, but especially in Minnesota. Yeah, I mean, what I remember of Adam Johnson was his high school days, which was, you know, 2011, he was a sophomore in high school.

And Hibbing was down 4-1 in the state semifinals, right 12 minutes from where I am. And he scored a natural hat trick and almost got them, you know, single-handley erased the deficit and almost got them to state championship. And he really put himself on the radar here in Minnesota, then obviously went to Duluth and had a good career there until the Pittsburgh Penguins. sign them. And so, you know, I don't know Adam personally. I didn't know Adam personally, but I do know a lot of people that are really good friends with them because I know a ton of people from those Minnesota Duluth teams, the Neil Pionks and the Riley Tufties and the Carson Coolman.

So, you know, I just thought that I was the person to maybe tell the story and I talked to Scott Sanlon for it. And, you know, by all accounts, I mean, this was just one great kid from the Iron range here in Minnesota and everybody in the Iron Range. Whenever you mention the Iron Range, people smile because it's up there in northern Minnesota and it's small towns up there and very close-knit communities and hockey is absolutely king up there and this kid was just a dynamite super fast hockey player with a ton of skill that went on as I said and had a good career and and so you know it was a tough story to write and and talking to a lot of his friends of Riley tough he's even listening to Bill Guerrind talk and and hearing him cry on my shoulder and

his agent as well um you know it was just a tough story. story. And it's obviously just a tragic, sad situation. I texted last night with West Mishoud, whose plays on the Nottingham Panthers is from Cloquet, Minnesota, Jamie Langan, Brunner's country, and was right there not only on the bench, but went in the ambulance with the kid to the hospital. And, you know, it's just an awful, awful situation for everybody, not just, you know, the hockey world, but unimaginably his family. Is there a particular anecdote from those you've spoken to over the last few days that stands out the most when you were getting as much as you could about Adam? You know, mostly, you know, the one thing that really touched my heart is Carson Coleman had his wedding on July 28th.

And, you know, you know, the college teams here in Minnesota, every summer, all the former teammates of these teams are so close. They get together for golf tournaments, weddings and things like that. And, you know, this group of players, you know, they were at Neil Piont's wedding. They were obviously at Riley Tufti's wedding. and then Carson Coleman was July 28th, and it was the last time that really all these guys got to see each other. And Adam was the life of the party, everybody said. And the one anecdote that really touched my heart was I talked to Carson Coleman on Sunday,

and he told me that the second, he's playing for Bridgeport right now. Everybody, I think, remembers him with the Boston Bruins. He got back to Bridgeport after a weekend series in Charlotte. He went in and hugged his wife, Kenzie, and said that, you know, thank goodness for this party because it was the last time that we all saw, not only all saw Adam, but all saw him happy and those memories will be in his, in his mind forever. You know, I just, the other one that really touched my heart was talking to Scott Sandlin,

his college coach, and, you know, and again, I don't want to reveal a ton of stuff that wasn't in stories because a lot of stuff I didn't use for multiple reasons. The one thing he said is the Cornell game for him meant absolutely jack shit. And that really hit me. And then the other one was, you know, and again, I don't want to say too much. But, you know, Errant, you know, Neil Pionk's brother plays for Duluth. And Neil Pionk and Adam Johnson were incredibly close. I mean, you know, I not only played a college, but played it at Sioux City together.

And I know that Neil is having a really tough time with this. And I know when they told his brother after the game in Cornell the other night, he absolutely broke down. So this is, you know, it's just a reminder that these are real people, you know, for some of us, you know, we write about them and they're just a name, Adam Johnson. The people that, you know, throw around things on Twitter, you know, don't think of these as actual human beings. Like, you know, like I was looking at Weston's Twitter account yesterday, and Weston put a really nice thing about the person that did this to Adam and to, and to, you know, and to. to try to tone down the hate directed in him. And he had no reason to do it. This is one of his closest friends in the world,

and he did that. And then I'm looking at his Twitter account, and people that have no idea who Matt Pedgrave is, who there's no idea who Matt Adam Johnson is, who there's no idea who West Hamishad is, is just throwing the most disgusting nonsense that this is grieving his close friend. And, you know, I think that all of us sometimes need to take

step back and realize that a human being died here and another human being's life is going to be affected for the rest of his life and realize that this is just not, you know, a computer screen that we're throwing, you know, barbs at to actual robots. This is a real human that's having to read this when he wakes up in England today. And I just think it's really, really sad and continues to say a lot about our society. You know, Mike, what we hope is sometimes in the aftermath of a like this, there's an opportunity to reflect on how can we prevent something like this from happening again. And I know that you had a conversation very recently with NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly about this. And I'm wondering if you could share with our listeners the sort of the

tone of that conversation as it pertains to neck cards. Yeah. Now to be true, that was an email back and forth. He opens his emails unlike you too. So he replied right away. We got to get him on grammarly, I guess. Yeah. But he, you know, what he did say is that what I, what I wanted to talk to him about and open the conversation is, you know, have you discussed, started spitballing ideas with the 32 clubs here on neck protection? And what he said is that he, that the league has been vigilant in trying to get them, trying

to recommend this for years and that he's hoping that, you know, this horrible, horrible tragedy basically helps their causes. And, you know, Jeff Merrick reported today, or maybe Bill Dell, he was on NHL radio where he said that they've started talking to Marty Walsh about this. And, you know, Mark Lazarus did a great story in The Athletic yesterday that I contributed a little bit on. And he talked to T.J. O'Shi, and Oshy's quotes in that story are absolutely gripping where he just said the guilt that he would have if he took one into the neck and didn't return home that night to his children. And he has a company up here in Warwood, Minnesota, that makes all sorts of protective gear. and that, you know, he's going to start essentially trying out his neck protection that comes from the company world with some Capitals players this week. And, you know, this is a Monkey C, Monkey Do league.

And I really think that if one or two players started to wear it, that all of a sudden it would catch on and people would realize that, hey, it's just not, it's worth having something in your most vulnerable spot on your body. We've started to see cut resistant socks, cut resistant. We see T.J.O. She wear the wristbands that his company makes on his wrists. But the neck is what could kill you in seconds, as we have seen. And there's been a ton of close calls in the national hockey league with Zednik, with Will Borgon when he was in high school here. And Clint Blarchuk, obviously, who I know extremely well. But this is an eye-opener that this could easily happen in this league. And, like, I don't know if it's 100% protective.

on something like this, this seemed to be an unbelievably, you know, rare, you know, essentially boot to the, to the neck at a horrible angle. And I don't know what could always just be 100% to stop that. But I do think that players sometimes, we know how finicky they are with their deer, sometimes stubborn. And if just one or two players would do it, I think we'll see more and more. We saw Thomas Blocanic wear it. So maybe that's, you know, contrary to what I'm saying. but I do think that if now after everybody has seen this tragic situation, and maybe this will be sort of the catalyst to bring it in. And like visors, like helmets, at a minimum,

maybe if you start using it at lower levels, the AHL and things like that, maybe we can start seeing at least a grandfathered in the league. But I think we're going to start to see more and more players wear it. You know, Riley Tufti told me the other day that he's having trouble getting this out of his head and that he's considering it right now. And this is somebody with a young family as well. And so I just think that, you know, it makes all the sense in the world to put as much protection on you as possible. Because as we all see, you know, one tragic situation could result in you not coming home to your children, your wife, everything.

Yeah, and life is everything. The English Ice Hockey Association yesterday announced that they were going to mandate it for their players. I think I said yesterday that I wasn't sure if that was the federation that was above what league that, to Adam Johnson was in. What league Adam Johnson was in, I think that's a step below from that league, but still the fact that they reacted as quickly as they did, that really stood up to me. What I remember seeing Richard Zednik, unfortunately, go through a similar situation. It was as scary as it was, but I don't remember, unless you guys can tell me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember any other federation or any other league stepping up immediately in that moment

and saying, we're going to mandate neck guards. I think the fact that this has ran, resonated with so many people the way that it has. And now that Bill Daly is acknowledging that this is something they have to get on the radar, it feels like it's only a matter of time before it gets to a point where, as you said, it is grandfathered in. And I'm thinking of the equipment companies. You mentioned War Road, working with T.J. O'Shee, how many of those other companies are starting to innovate their own technologies, right?

You hear so many people say that they get rid of those neck guards because it just doesn't feel comfortable, right? Even though there is that safety factor, there's a comfort level. And I get that people feel differently about comfort, about certain types of equipment. That's why we see the variety that we do on so many other pieces of equipment. But considering how this particular piece of equipment has come into the spotlight, I'm thinking of those other innovators and designers who can make a better product, ultimately.

So more and more people will be fine with wearing these neckdarks. Absolutely. And Bauer put out a press release yesterday indicating that they would like to do just that. And I will say, I mean, they've got to figure out a way to make this comfortable but protective. You know, I talked to Dean Hebison the other day. And he said that when he played in Europe, it was mandatory there to wear those,

that protective of gear. And he said that it was so restrictive that a lot of players actually took out the Kevlar and the stuff that was inside, which obviously defeats the purpose to just wear it cosmetically to, you know, I mean, so they've got to figure out a way. if that is going to be the problem that players are going to have, they've got to figure out a way to make it comfortable. You know, I obviously think it's foolish, but I don't play the sport. I don't wrap myself around, you know, all this protective gear.

And so they've got to just figure out a way to make it comfortable and protect these guys because, you know, this could easily happen in this league. And, you know, and I just really, really hope that none of us ever have to see that up close and personal like all like all those fans had to see um and the two teams had to see um you know i just like i accidentally saw the video i didn't want to see it and it is it is it's the scariest thing i've ever seen in my life and i've covered some scary instances in national hockey league you know guys like camp stewart getting knocked down and convulsing on the ice but you know scott melanchi crashing in the boards of montreal um curtis foster crashing the boards in san ozette tallyac

dude here in Minnesota, but I have, I have never seen something like this. And I, God forbid, hope that I'd never have to see it again. Yeah, I, you know, I was in Ottawa the night that Brian Barard had his eye damaged by Miriam Hosa's stick back in the day. And it's still jarring to me to think about the blood and, and the, anyway, it's, I have not seen that video. I intend to never see that video. And I hope anybody who's sharing that video really thinks long and hard about why on Earth, you would share that. And like you said, it's a, it's a really upsetting thing. Hey, Mike, before we get to your conversation with Keith Jones, as we switch gears here for a moment, the reason why you were in Philly to get Keith Jones is that's where the wild started a three-game

road trip, a road trip that ended with exactly zero wins. So they lose against Philly. They lose, I think in a shootout against Washington. Then they lose to New Jersey. I think I got that right in that order. It's going on in Minnesota. What's happening here? wild. They're not getting, first of all, I mean, it starts with Spursion and Boldie being out of lineup, but especially Spursion. It's really just created havoc with their blue line. You know, they're playing with obviously, we know a team that right now it came into the season with 15 million less than everybody else. But when you add all these other players, Boldie, Spurgeon, Gujarro and Golgoski, they're basically fielding roster, 30 million less than everybody else.

But that's the excuses. Now let's talk about what we're seeing on the ice. We're seeing poorest defense, abysmal special teams. Their special teams has absolutely picked up right where it left off in the playoffs, where the playoffs or power play and their penalty kill, especially where it's just that awful, has picked up there. They've given up nine goals and 28 chances. Their power play has had ample opportunities to win them games, and they have not. And the other thing is we are seeing a Kurokaprissoff that is essentially playing

nondescript games and non-factor. He knows it, but he's got to start playing the way a superstar plays. If he wants to be considered a top five winner in the league, he's got to be a lot more, a lot better than he is now. I know he's got nine points and nine games, but they has not been a threat in most of those games. Only has two goals in the season. And right now, they just need him to play better. And this is not anything to do with who the number one center is. There's a lot of wild fans like to say, to excuse Caprice up.

And speaking of which, that number one center was the number three star of the week last week. So this is on Kirill, and he's just got to be a lot, lot better. I wanted to know about an update regarding Eric Stall and Zach Parizzi, two free agents. Two guys you've seen play in Minnesota, but not with teams right now. What's the latest on those two guys? Yeah, I mean, we're hearing a lot of rumors with Zach. You know, one rumor is that he's done and is going to start coaching Adina High School, which, you know, maybe that would be a beautiful story.

I'd love to cover that, him start coaching the high school level or youth level. On the other is that he started skating again. And, you know, it would not shock me. You know, after a 21 goal season that he had last year, it almost surprised me that he didn't sign a contract with the Islanders. But I think he wanted to take some time off, spend some time with his family, go to Ireland and places like that. But now it sounds like he's skating again.

And if those reports are true and, you know, CJ is the one that's reported that, that means that he's at least considering re-sign with the Islanders. I would think that that would be the only team that he'd re-sign with. Erisol is another story. You know, the longer he goes, I think the longer, the less, you know, the more doubtful I am that he's going to continue to play. You know, I thought he looked really good last year for Florida, playing in a fourth-line role.

Obviously, he went to the Stanley Cup final year before, you know, he went to Montreal. The two years before that as well went to the Stanley Cup final. So he could play in a fourth-line role, but I think people just worry about. about at his age, especially with his time off, if he's going to be able to, you know, really get up and down the ice as well as he used to, again, at his age. So it wouldn't shock me if we see Zach come back. Plus, he's tied with Bill Guerin and goals. And wouldn't shock me if he wants to at least get one more than the guy that bought him out here

in Minnesota. So, yeah, I love it. All right. Before we let you go, why don't you set up this conversation that we're going to, to listen into a chat with Flyers president, Keith Jones. Yeah, I mean, I think all of us here, especially in the States that get to watch, used to get to watch him all the time nationally. We're just bummed when he took this job as president of the flyers because he's so good on TV.

But Brian Boucher has taken over both in Philly on the local broadcaster and also on TNT, and he's doing a tremendous job. But, you know, Keith brought us through on this conversation, the interview process of taking the job, how he kept it a secret from everybody. I mean, nobody knew, all even his closest confidants. his plans for helping Daniel Breyer build that franchise, and we're seeing a very competitive team here in the early going, but this is just the beginning of the rebuild.

And then, again, how much he misses TV. And it's a different role now. You know, now when they lose in the last second to Shea, Theodore, in Vegas, he's not diagramming the play in between the benches. He's feeling the sting of that. And so it's a totally different role. And I think the Keith, you know, the other thing about him is he's such a well-spoken spokesman. that he wants to bring transparency to this job and really communicate well to what the plans are to the Flyers faithful there,

who have been up through a lot the last several years. So I think we're going to see a very transparent management group there, both from Daniel Breyer and also Keith Jones. All right. Well, listen, we're looking forward to the conversation. Thanks, as always, for dropping by the Tuesday pod. Yep, see you guys. All right, there goes Mike Russo. And, yeah, Julian, why don't we listen in?

A conversation, a flyer's off to a, hey, by their story. standards, nine points and nine games? Pretty good start. Let's listen in. It's Mike Russo in conversation with Flyers president, Keith Jones. It really did just on me. Last time you and I tatted on a podcast, it was you and Darren Paying before the winter classic, a little warmer right now. Yeah, it's a beautiful day here in Philadelphia, which is great. It's always sunny here, isn't that? It's not the name of a show. But yeah, it's great to see you, Mike. Thanks for being willing to catch up with you. Yeah. Yeah, no, thanks for doing How has life changed? You have to be more professional now? People refer to you as Mr. President?

No one does that. I'm still Jonesy, thankfully, but it's a little bit different, for sure. You know, you have a lot in your mind. I went from losing, you know, watching a game and win or lose, moving on to the next one. And now wins and losses matter again, which is refreshing for someone that lived it as a player to get back in there and have things that seem to really. matter. Yeah. So that's, that's took some getting used to or has taken some time to get used to, but at the same time, it's really invigorating. Yeah, I look at your team and it is a hardworking team, obviously banged up on the back end right now, but Carter Hart's playing outstanding up front. You're very, very talented. Where are you in this, in this rebuild where last time you

and I talked after you took the job, it was, you were telling Flyers fans, they were going to have to be Yeah, I think part of any, you know, rebuild, it's building the locker room first and foremost. The personalities within that locker room, the amount of care that they have for one another. I'm really impressed with all of those things so far this year. I think our team, I think our players love each other. I think that's a great thing. And that's where it starts. Now, do we have an eye in the future?

Yes. Are we ever going to not want our team to give everything they have to win the hockey game that's in front of them? We're always going to ask for that. So that's that's kind of the way we look at it. But we are impressed with the players that we have right now. And our number one priority, though, is being a good hockey team for a long time. And that's kind of the balancing act that we're going through. But we've, we've been. want to draft well and we want to add free agents at the appropriate time and it's not that time just yet. And the draft your first as president of hockey ops with Daniel Breyer, how do you feel like you hit right there? I was really impressed by, you know, the way things fell into place. There's no question. We had some good karma. Getting Meechkoff at number seven was the perfect place to be. Right. And it kind of obviously benefited us. So in our situation, gives a timeline. It kind of shows our fans where we expect to be and where we're headed with a talented young man that's just extremely exciting to think about, but also affords us

time to be patient and continue to add pieces around him and for him. And when he arrives, we expect to be a team that's getting ready to take the next step. And Brent Flair, obviously, The top of your draft table hit a home run with Caprisoff in the fifth round. So he's had this history before with Russian players. Yeah, he has. And, you know, it was interesting in the weeks leading up to the draft. It was a quick turnaround for me because I had just finished doing the final for TNT with Vegas, ultimately winning the cup.

And bang, we were obviously right in the thick of it. And those guys had done an extremely large amount of work during the season to be prepared because we did have two first round picks. And what impressed me the most was we went into the draft wanting to get two players in the area that we knew we were drafting in. And we got both players. Those were the two guys that we had kind of mapped out that were going to be there. And so much of that had to do with, you know, Brent Flair and his group of amateur scouts,

slotting people in the right places, recognizing where teams were, you know, looking to draft certain players and, you know, kind of making sure that we were ready for whatever was in front of us. But at the same time, we had an expectation that we were going to get both Meachkoff and Bonk and round number one. And we ended up doing that, which I thought was really impressive. Yeah. Amazing. Last time, it's funny, I was just rereading the story that I wrote on you and sort of documenting on how, and we'll talk about that in a second, how you kept it a secret for weeks upon weeks that you were interviewing for this job. But the one of the one of the one One thing that you did say in that story is that, look, Daniel Breyer is going to be the final

decision maker and I'm going to be more of a sounding board. Is that how it's laying out right now? Absolutely. You know, I'm there for him. And my job is to make sure that I give Danny all the resources that he can get in order to, you know, make trades, sign players, go about his day-to-day business and take away some of the extra things that can come for a guy that's trying to do it by himself. We have a great relationship.

We had it before. It's even better now and really enjoy his company. It can be a pretty lonely job on either side of this. Right. You know, if you're a president by yourself and general manager who's just traveling by himself, I don't think it's great. I think we've got a situation where we both go together. And at this point where our team is at, we're making sure that we're watching everything very closely

and analyzing our own club as well as keeping an eye. you know, around the league and really around hockey everywhere in the world. Having two people do it is, I think, the right way to do it. And I think more teams should do it that way. Right. And by the way, if you're listening to this podcast, go back in the Orchise, the Athletic Hockey Show back in March right after Daniel was named interim GM, I sat down with them in Florida for a podcast. And it was a great chat as well. Last time I talked to you, too, you were, you had just moved to Florida, basically a year and a half ago to, you know,

to Ocala and then all of a sudden now you had to up uproot your life again. So you are full time back here? We are. My wife is still going back and forth to Florida. This was, you know, this is a big ask for me to ask her to come and, you know, be a part of this. And she's really embraced it. I'm really happy that she's getting involved with all the things with, you know, the Flyers Wives, Fight for lives and all the charity initiatives that the Flyers have. She is back involved and enjoying it. and we want to make sure all our players, wives, girlfriends, et cetera, friends are in a situation where they're enjoying it as well. That's one thing that we want to ensure that we do everything we can to make sure this is a destination for players to go. And word of mouth is, you know, the key to that.

I can say it all I want. But if we're not doing that and executing for our players and their families, the word of mouth is not going to travel the right way. We're trying to do things properly in that regard. And especially with your passionate fan base as well. I mean, that's the really cool part about you being here is that you could also sort of be that person that articulates the plan and is transparent with a fan base where, you know, Daniel can almost be behind the scenes and execute the plan. Yeah. And the good part about Danny Breyer is he's a great speaker. And he's got a really strong voice and opinion that he stands by.

And I really appreciate that part of that. You know, that's kind of an added bonus as well. Being in the media here in this city, knowing this city helps. There's no question that there's a formula and it's about honesty. It's about making sure you're doing everything you can to make your fan base feel like they're important and like they're a part of it. And I think our fans are, you know, starting to feel that. We have a lot of work to do. We've got a lot more seats to sell.

And we have a lot of competition in this city as far as athletic. athletics goal with some teams and other sports doing a great job. We want to get back on the map in that regard. And I think we'll get there. Yeah, the proud sports town and obviously the Eagles and Phillies prove that almost annually. Torts, last question on the Flyers, what's it like working with him? You know, it's funny the way that it is as an out-of-town beat writer. Like, I always love dealing with him.

I've never had to the fortune of covering him personally, probably good for me. But I will say, like, you know, that game against the Vegas goal nights the other day, It's a, you know, a tough loss at the end, a puck that if it goes a millimeter left or right, it's not getting through. There's no way Carter Hart sees it. But then as a Addattown ready, you're like, I got to see how Torts handles this after the game. And he handled it seemingly well. Yeah. I think we all felt the way after that way after that game.

That was a really good team we were playing. We just played Dallas prior to that and picked up a point in that game and beat Edmonton here at home. So three of the, you know, really top teams, or at least going to, into the season and our guys really held up. First two periods, you guys were great. Yeah, it was really good. And then in Vegas is a championship team. They know how to win. They know how to surge. They know how to take advantage of the littlest mistake. And, you know, we didn't get the puck out around 48 seconds left in the period and the third. And eventually it was in the back of the net. And as you mentioned, had to go through a lot of bodies to get there.

But at the same time, we're in a position where we're trying to build off of the good things. that we're doing and learned from the negative. And there was a lot to take from that game. Most importantly, our guys stayed together, performed well. We were in Vegas for three days prior. So I was really impressed how long, how well they hung in there. It would have been great to steal a point. But Torts handled it extremely well, and it's been great to work with them.

Somebody told me that he had a 50-minute morning skate that morning. So maybe that was why a few days in Vegas. Let me ask you, there's a great example, though, like difference between, your job now and your job four months ago. You know, that goal happens four months ago and you were between the benches diagraming every single thing and now you're in the press box with the anguish of defeat. How, how difficult is that? Is it, I mean, it hurts. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It hurts, but it's a good hurt. Yeah. You know, it's good to be back in the fight again. It's good to have so much on the line on every shift, but there is some getting used to that.

You know, you go from analyzing both teams to really analyzing your own. Every shift for every player is an evaluation. So it's a different concentration. And it's also one that comes with highs and lows. And there's a balancing act there. I was able to manage it as a player. I think I'll be able to manage it in this position, but it is different. Right.

What do you miss most about T&T? because you know the fans miss you obviously. That's nice. I mean, you know, you were, it's funny because with TV people, I don't know what it is. He either love them or you hate them. It doesn't matter who it is, right? I mean, you could have the best. I've been like that myself, you know, and it's interesting.

You know, you want to understand that your job is to make it seamless, to make the fans have an enjoyable experience where you're not the show, but you're part of it. You're enhancing it, but you're not ruining it. And sometimes, you know, if egos are there, it can make for a difficult broadcast. I think the best part about T&T was it was a team. Yeah. Everyone was in it together. And we all got along really well at great relationships with Eddie and Kenny and really

enjoyed working with those guys. So I do miss it. Life was a little bit less complicated in doing that. So that was a lot of fun. And I enjoy like doing this. Yeah. still getting out there and talking. And now I have, you know, a team to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to put us

back in a position where people are talking about us. Yeah. And that wasn't happening here in Philly for a while. Well, Kenny Albert, especially, I know him really well. I don't know if that guy has an ego. I mean, it's unbelievable. He doesn't. Yeah.

No, and Edzo was great at sharing the mic too because it's not an easy thing. Yeah. Three people, you know, talking about one game that's moving extremely fast and trying to do it in a way that fans at home enjoy it. Yep. So a little bit of personality mixed in with some quality analysis makes for a good broadcast. And obviously, we all know that Ben Bowma runs that collaboration. He does.

I saw you. A note today is 500th NFL game behind the scenes. Way to go, Ben. I was going to ask you, I'm like, what do you miss most about T&T and why is it Ben Boma? That's actually. That's what he would tell you. That's exactly. But you were, they always said, you know, you were his eight-year-old son.

You'd go on these, like, crazy long walks of them on a daily basis. Yeah. As everybody knows, has been essentially Kenny Albert's right-hand man forever. 30 years on NFL and TNT or sorry, Fox on NFL on Fox. There you go. And then, but he's been a chief researcher in T&T and Fox and everything forever. As well with Doc Emrick as well. He's just done an outstanding job.

Yeah. But what he is is he's seamless. Like there's no drama. He's just there. And he doesn't get in the way. he knows how to do that, but he also is around. Yeah, does a great job. So that's why it's worked for him.

It's a good lesson for young people trying to get in that business. My favorite line in the article that I wrote on you back in the spring when you took this job was Kenny Albert said, I know where I'm going if I need to keep a secret. And I'm still amazed that nobody knew other than really your wife. I mean, Rick Tocke didn't know, Ruby didn't know your closest friends. You're walking every day with Ben Bowma. He doesn't know. You're traveling around with Kenny Alper.

Robert Hughes and O'Noll, how do you, how do you not let this out? Because I think I would have a gut, like a just, you know, diarrhea of the mouth. It was really hard, especially getting ready and prepared for interviews. Because I had a lot of friends that were obviously in the business and in the situation that were the type of job that I was, you know, attempting to get. Joe Sackett comes to mind as, you know, President Chris Drury, Tom Fitzgerald, Rob Blake, who was the GM and L.A. guys that I played with and know personally as friends, Luke Robitai. John Davidson. There's a long list, but I couldn't call anybody. Right to ask like two. I just, yeah, I just, uh, so I just winged it. And I went in and just, um,

gave my feelings on what needed to happen and how I was going to do that and, you know, convinced them that I was the right person to do it. But it was a hard thing. I honestly thought I was getting an ulcer by the end of it because I was balancing doing the games and, you know, when you're there, that's your job and you,

you have to do it to the best of your ability. and there's no distractions. So it was definitely some juggling going on there. But at the same time, the most important job I had was the one that I was working. And the other stuff was kind of on the side. And probably helped me in the end when I look back at it because I had the, you know, the cushion of knowing that I had a job. And I wasn't in a position.

And unfortunately, some people are where they're, you know, need that job to get back on track. That wasn't the case for me. I think it kind of helped in that regard. When did you get the official call that you were taking on? What was your reaction? Part of it's probably bittersweet that you're like, I cannot believe I got to leave this job that I absolutely love. Well, when I first got the call that I had, you know,

passed the test and was going to be the guy, the season obviously wasn't over. The playoffs were still on. And I wondered when I got the phone call is this hit? Like, did I just work my last game on television? I figured I did. And then I was told by, you know, TNT, the Flyers and the league that they were okay if I finished up and continued to do the work on TNT that I had committed to. I was really happy about that.

Yeah. You know, so that gave me a chance to kind of say goodbye to everybody, but also finish the job. And I'm really appreciative that I was able to do that. Yeah. But at the same time, I was, you know, getting focused. we were doing deals at the time, Danny and I. And it was some complicated days, but here we are. Yeah, there were definitely a couple.

I remember. And a couple more for you, but your last game there in Vegas when they're about to award the cup and the game's out of hand. So, you know, part of you is probably sent there like, let's not make this about me. Yeah. For sure. And the other part is the game's out of hand.

So you got like, hey, by the way, this is, this is it for you. What was that whole game like? Was it? Because I saw you right after. And I was actually surprised that you seemed completely content and not emotional and not disappointed and all that. No, I felt good about the whole thing. It was, you know, I looked over at Bruce Cassidy.

I saw the look in his eyes and kind of said to myself one day, you know, one day. And then I did not watch the ceremony. I walked out and let them do their thing. That was for them. They earned it. But I did, you know, observe the head coach. and George McPhee, Kelly McCriman, when they walked down, and just the pure joy that they had in accomplishing all of their goals that night,

it left me feeling like it'd be pretty cool to do. And I'm really driven to try to, you know, bring that here to Philadelphia. Yeah. Last question for you. You know, Brian Boucher talk about following your footsteps. I mean, he is not only now replaced you on TNT and getting out of his deal on ESPN to go to, a place that I know that he really valued to work, but he's come here to Philly to

take your job here as well. And you know how big of a fan I am of Bush. I think he does a magnificent job on TV. I mean, really, if there had to be somebody to replace you, he's actually a great, I mean, the perfect guy. Yeah, I really pushed Ryan Hart to do what he did.

We needed him here. He's been a flyer. He is one of the elite broadcasters in the National Hockey League. A good experience. guy, but knows how to tell a story and knows how to have fun. That's what this organization needed and the city, I think, has accepted him, which is great. For T&T, it's a seamless fit. He'd worked with Kenny and Eddie before.

They treat you so well there. The travel is incredible. The commodity is incredible. It's just a really great place to be. So I'm really happy for Bush and I'm really happy for us that he's here. and he has a little more flexibility by being with TNT to do more flyer games for us as well. And that's a real benefit for us. Yep, that's great.

Well, hey, again, congratulations. I know you're several months now into the job, but it still feels new. And we do miss you on TNT, though, Keith. But as always, I really appreciate you joining. And again, lots of luck to you. And the Flyers can't wait to see what you guys achieve here. I appreciate it, Mike. Always good to catch up.

But thanks for the kind words. Yep, that is Keith Jones. Back to you, Julian and Ian. Where we go. What an absolute pro. What a pro. Mike Russo always tosses it back to us to great conversation. You know, my takeaway from that, like I love the story of him being on the ice.

Vegas wins the cup. Already he knows he's going to be the Flyers president, but he soaks in for a moment and then walks out. But I'm left thinking, boy, I really miss Keith Jones on TV after listening to that interview because he's just great, just so insightful. I agree. Yeah. I always appreciated his insights. I know obviously primarily in the States you'd see him there, but those opportunities where you see those simulcasts up to us in Canada,

seeing Keith Jones on TV just exploiting the game, providing his own insights. I always appreciate when he was on. I thought he had spent some time with TSN as well very briefly. I don't remember when, but I feel like that did happen at some point two. I feel like you're right on that. Like on trade deadline day and something would bring him in. Exactly, right?

So it's not, so even if you're in Canada, Keith Jones is definitely a familiar face. for TV and yeah, it sucks that he's not back on our airwaves, but at least to start off in Philadelphia, he seems to be doing well over it. Let's wrap up the Tuesday pod with a couple

of news and notes items here, Julian. We'll start with this. Tuesday morning, the National Hockey League announcing Department of Player of Safety will have a phone call with Bruins' defenseman Charlie McAvoy for his, I don't know how to describe this other than a very intentional, but

certainly, direct hit to the head of Oliver Ekman-Larson of the Florida Panthers. Like this is, boy, this is egregious. And I say phone call and that's interesting because that means he will get five games or fewer. But, I mean, you want to talk about a direct hit to the head and maybe like an in-person hearing, I wouldn't have been shocked. It was, it was pretty direct. Was it not from McAvoy on OEL?

It looked pretty predatory to me. And I can't help but think of how the Department of Players safety handled the Rasmus Anderson hit a couple weeks ago on Patrick Linae and how it seemed like they got that right. That also came after a phone hearing, which would have capped the suspension at five games. And those are the types of hits where for those who don't remember it, but like Rasmus Anderson leaves his feet and elbows Patrick Line in the head, which leads to an injury. In this case, with Charlie McAvoy, he pretty much skates right into OEL's head and and knocks him down, which is, again, like I mentioned before, predatory.

Like, it's the type of hit we don't need to see in our game. And while there is no leaving of the feet, it's still dangerous enough to be, for me to think that three to four games should still be what's expected from this, right? Like, I think I wouldn't have been upset if it did lead to an in-person hearing. But I think the ultimate point for me here is the standard seems to have been set from earlier this year. it's on player safety to uphold that standard. And I feel like if we get anything less than three or four,

we're going to ask a lot of questions about how they go about things. Yeah. And the other story I want to hit on too because we didn't have time. Remember yesterday the Monday pot, I was like, okay, Julian, I got to run. I got to go do a feature. I can now tell you, tell the listeners, I was able to run and go spend some time with Brady Kachuk and his wife

down at the Boys and Girls Club in Ottawa. Oh, that's cool. They try and do this pretty quietly, but they go down there. They spend some time. And I said, look, Brady, I just want to do something with you away from the rink. He says, come on down. So I had a great time with it. But that's why I had to cut the pod a little bit short Monday because I wanted to go hang

with Brady and his wife. And it was a, I'm looking forward to putting that piece together. But the thing we didn't get to was Joe Thornton's retirement announcement on the weekend. Now, I'm going to put my cards in the table here. Okay. I thought Joe Thornton was already retired. I, like, am I the only one? Am I the only one who thought Joe?

Look, he didn't play last year, right? He didn't play last year. So I guess I just naively assumed he was done. And then I see this, oh, my, Joe Thornton's retiring. I thought, am I the only one? So tell me, did you know that he was still technically active until the weekend? So here's something else that's really hilarious, too. Thomas Placanich also retired this past weekend.

I also thought he had retired like long before. What do you mean? When's the last time that guy played in the NHL, 2020? Right. I'm just like, what do you mean? He retired. Are you serious? I'm dead serious.

I'm dead serious. I saw like posts announcing this and I'm like, Thomas Pachanich retired. Like he hasn't played legitimately. I'm pulling this up now. He has not played an NHL game since 2019. and he, well, I mean, he did spend the last few years in, in the Czech League playing Claudina at the very least. So I'll give him that.

But, like, I was stunned to find out that that Thomas Mechanics was still playing and had retired. So that's how I felt when I, when I hear you talk about Joe Thornton. But I was at a similar boat, too, right? This guy hasn't played in a minute. He was skating last week had checked at one, maybe at least a year ago with the sharks. But this guy wasn't really going to play again. That being said, Hall of Fame career for Jumbo Joe. obviously put up all the points,

the individual accolades, the international accolades as well. Some people will remember a particular rooster comments that I don't feel like I should be repeating on this show. It's a podcast. You can, Hey, Joe, what will you do if you get four goals in a game? Yeah.

You could just add all the bleeps here now, producers. No, I think it's a really cool. It's kind of funny that he retired, considering he had been so many years away from the game. But yeah, Hall of Fame career for Jumbo Joe, and I will give a shout out to Thomas Mechanics as well. Senator, I've watched for a long time with the Montreal Canadians. The turtleneck, the standard turtleneck,

just a total part of his style, a pleky riding off into the sunset after an illustrious career, mostly spent with the Mochrock Canadians, and like a handful of them as a Toronto Maple Leaf. I don't know if you remember him with the Toronto Maple Leaf. Yeah, yeah, a brief cat. Camille. Yeah.

Brief cameo there, right? All the Spanatics, man. Okay. Before we go, say goodbye here on the Tuesday pot, you said Joe Thornton, Hall of Fame career. I couldn't agree more. Slam dunk, first ballot. And by the way, because he's already missed the season,

it's only this season and the next season, then he's going to be eligible for the hall. So it'll come closer than you think. A little fun trivia question to end the pod. Okay, Julian? Okay, all right, all right. Here we go. there are only six players in the history of the NHL

who racked out more assists in their career than Joe Thornton. Can you and the listeners name them? Six players with more assist than Joe Thornton. Why don't we play three strikes in your route? Okay. So if you get three strikes, game ends. Let's go. But I don't want to see you, look, I know you're,

I want to see your, I put your hands where I can see them. So I know that you're not on Google. And my laptop was to my side. closed it. Excuse me. So Wayne Gretzky is definitely one of them. Wayne Gretzky is one for one, folks. Okay.

Sorry, my voice is cracking there. I don't want to get this wrong. Oh, God. Sorry, it's three strikes. You can take a couple of hefty swings here. Yeah, I don't know, man. God. Try to think of centers who would have put up a ton of different points.

God, is Mario on that list? Mario Lemieux unfortunately is not. I think he's 12th all the time. Lemieux, the biggest issue for Mario, as course, his career was really cut short by injuries, right? If you look at it from a per game perspective, he's right there. But just didn't play the games.

So strike one for Julian. Shoot, okay. Maybe the listeners, you play along. I'm terrible at this stuff because I don't want to get this wrong. But I also put you on the spot here. You also put you on the spot here. But it's pretty obvious that Gretz is there. Yager should be there.

Yarmir Yager. Speaking of cladnome. There you go. You got two right. So Yager and Gretzky. Okay. Yager. Gretzky's there.

Is Mark Messier there? Mark Messier is there. Okay. So he's coming in, folks. He's got one strike, three correct answers. Okay. Three to go. Messier.

Yachter is Nick Littstrom there? He might not be left. Littstrom is not there. It's a strike two, folks. Nick Littstrom is top 25 all time and it's this, so that's not a bad guess

at all. Oh my God. But Litchard is not. I get on all of this. I hate this. I'm going to give you a huge hint. You and the list are a huge hint. There are two defensemen on the list

and one forward. The forward, I will tell you, is an active general manager in the national hockey league. We need some jeopardy music in the background. Oh, my God. No, the active general manager, the active forward is a general manager currently in the national hockey league. Oh, my God. Oh, man.

Is it Joe Sackettick? Joe Sackick. By the way, is Sackick even the GM? Oh, crap. He's not a GM? He's not Jim anymore. He's not Jim anymore. No.

He's out. He got promoted. I totally forgot about that. Oh, my. And then we need the, you know, the prices right. Wamp, want, want, type of thing. Oh, no. Second all time and it says, Julian.

Seattle Cracken, general manager, Ron Francis. Ron Francis. Crap. He was really good. The two defensemen, Raymond Bork. Raymond Bork was the guy of crap. I was trying to think of. him.

I don't know why I've liked. And Paul Coffey was in my head. I was just like he was this great offensive defensive. I don't know if he was there. I should have guessed him. I hate these things. I hate the anxiety. It breaks up in me.

Damn it. Hey, Joe Sackick is 13th all time and assist. So all of your guesses were in the top 25. It's not like you, you know, had a guess that was so far off, right? Oh, I should have guessed pork and coffee. Damn it. So there you're going to knock me all day.

Six players that have more assists than Joe Thornton, Wayne Gretzky, Ron Francis, Mark Messier, Raymond Bork, Yager, and Paul Coffey. All Hall of Famers. All Hall of Famers, all first ballot slam dunk. Jumbo Joe is going to be in there as well. Okay, well, that does it for the Tuesday pot. I think you did very well on that.

I don't know. I think you're being too hard on yourself. You did well. It's just like, I don't know. I want to make sure I get these as right as I can. I got three. I got three out of the six. I guess it's not that bad.

It's just, they're all before your time, right? They're all before your era. It's not, I mean, Thornton's the only guy really, truly from your era. So, yeah. Bork right at the tail end. Bork a little bit. Coffee maybe a little bit, messy a little bit, but.

Yeah, no, not really. But it's okay, though. Now I know for tomorrow or some other day, I have to come up with some form of hockey tribute for you. Yeah, I'm in. Count me in. All right. I'll figure something else.

The King of Hockey Trivia is going to join us tomorrow, Wednesday. Down Goes Braun, Sean McAdoo. As always, going to pop by the podcast on a Wednesday. We invite all the feedback. Love to hear from our listeners. The Athletic Hockey Show at gmail.com. Leave us a voicemail at 845-4-45-845-49. Thanks for listening to the Tuesday pod.

Follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us that rating and review. We appreciate it. We're on YouTube now at YouTube.com slash at the athletic hockey show. Julian and I are back Wednesday, who down goes brown. Have a safe and happy Halloween, everybody. We'll get you again on Wednesday.

Peace.