The Athletic Hockey Show - NHL trade deadline winners, Evgenii Dadonov still in limbo, Darryl Sutter sends goalie coach to face media post game and Women's Hockey Associations set to meet with NHL

Episode Date: March 23, 2022

With Jesse Granger in the infirmary, Rob Pizzo and Sara Civian share their winners from the 2022 NHL trade deadline on an all new The Athletic Hockey Show roundtable. The rich get richer, as Colorado and Florida strengthen their already juggernaut rosters for the stretch drive, we discuss how Marc-Andre Fleury fits in with Minnesota, Max Domi with Carolina and the contract extensions for Jake Debrusk and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. We welcome Julian McKenzie, NHL editor at the Athletic and co-host of the Chris Johnston show podcast to discuss his winners from the deadline, the ongoing league investigation regarding the deadline day trade involving Evgenii Dadonov, the meeting scheduled today between the NHL and the professional women's hockey players association and the Premier hockey federation, the status of the NHL's Hockey is for everyone website, and the initiative as a whole and finally Darryl Sutter's decision to send Flames goalie coach Jason Labarbara to face the media post game after a poor performance from Jakob Markstrom in a loss to San Jose on Tuesday night. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's going on, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, the Wednesday roundtable edition. Now, usually it's myself, Jesse Granger, and Sarasivian, but Jesse couldn't be here. And it's a little confusing why he couldn't be here. He had submitted a list, a 10 podcast list that he was not to be traded to. We didn't have that list. We should have been given that list from our producer Jeff from last week's show. So that's been sent to, you know, the bigwigs at the athletic to figure out when he can come back to the show.

He's also sick. That's why he's not here. But I am joined, as always, by Sarah Sivian, who now has eight more years to figure out how to pronounce Kukkinemi. How are you, Sarah? Well, that was a killer, killer intro there. At least I'm not hungover today, you know, better than last week. So that's all I can ask for. How are you today?

I think we should have a pool as to what condition you're. going to show up every week. You're either angry, you're hung over, you're happy. It's a different one every week. Should mention later on the show, Julian McKenzie, our good buddy is going to be joining us to talk a little bit of everything. And of course, we are now a couple days, I guess, removed from trade deadline. And we'll talk winners. We'll talk losers. We'll talk, you know, last minute deals and all the fun stuff. But you heard me joke off the top there, Sarah. This you've getting an ad-ed-off thing. And in case people are living under a rock, let me see if I can sum this up. He was an Ottawa senator a couple years ago. He had a 10-team no-trade list.

But then he was dealt to Vegas. And Vegas tried dealing him at the deadline to Anaheim, but apparently a 10-team no-trade list included the Anaheim Ducks, but the Vegas Golden Knights didn't have said list. The NHL still rubber-stamped it, sent it out. Is this one of the weirdest, craziest, most comical trades you've ever seen in your career? Yeah. What do you, like, what does it mean that they didn't? How do they, how does one not have the list? Like, did they lose it?

Did it get lost in the fax machine? I don't, I don't understand that. But it's funny. Strange. And I, like, what are the updates recently? Like, what are they going to do? Well, right now they're investigating. I thought the same thing as you did.

Like, you know, I saw people saying, well, shouldn't Ottawa have sent them the 10 team list when he got traded to Vegas. Shouldn't Vegas have asked Ottawa for this 10 team list? I'm thinking, are we really, what year is this? Is this 1985 where there's actually like a filing cabinet and like each, you know, player has his own file with a little picture, you know, staple to it? No. I wasn't cap friendly.

Yeah, I was going to say. And he had a 10 team, you know, no trade list. This isn't news. So Datenoff was telling his Vegas team. teammates, according to reports. I'm not going anywhere. I had Anaheim on this list. I was listening to, you know, the Chris Johnson show the other day, and he said that there's a dispute as to whether or not that list transfers over to Vegas once he got traded from Ottawa to Vegas. But this is, this is comical. And this just looks horrible on everyone involved. Has this ever happened before?

Not to my knowledge. Yeah. I've heard of some crazy that you mentioned the fax machine. You know, you hear about fax machines breaking down everything else. But I think what makes it look worse is the NHL said, yep, okay, rubber stamp, go. And we all thought this deal was done. And then suddenly was, hold on a second. I don't think it's ever happened before. It's always bad when the insiders get a hold of the trade.

And the trade becomes a... And I know Pierre LeBron, I've talked to him about this process a few times before. And he said, I think when Eric Hala got traded to the Keynes and me and Jesse got the scoop, Pierre texted me and said, okay, hold up. It's not official yet. So, yeah, like report that it's happening. And I learned a lesson from him today or that day that you can't say a trade's official until the trade call has been made. And it's interesting that the insiders were reporting it as had been official.

So it was just kind of like, wow, this trade really looked like it happened until, wait, hold on. He can't get traded here. And a lot of that comes with the world we live in now. and I know you're not in Canada, but in Canada, the big thing is TSN versus SportsNet on trade deadline day. And there are articles in the paper the next day who broke to most trades, who had what first. It's a very, very competitive world. I think we're seeing a little bit of that changing. I mean, I really noticed it yesterday when TSN was up at 8 a.m. Eastern time and Sportsnet was up at 10 o'clock Eastern time.

And it used to be like, because Sarah, I mean, in the past, they never had these huge extravaganzas. It used to be like a three-hour show that started around noon, ended right around the deadline. And then each network started moving back and back and back and back. It was this big game of chicken. But now they're still, they're still very much competing as to who's going to break a trade first. But I don't think they did anything wrong. The NHL approved it. It was rubber stamped by the NHL.

That's the point. Yikes all around. As far as I know right now, he is a Vegas Golden Knight, whether that gets changed, who knows. But yeah, winners and losers. Let's start with it. Who really jumped out to you now as far as not even necessarily who's a Stanley Cup contender? But if you look and you say this GM once 3 o'clock hit was able to crack a drink and say, I did a good job today.

I mean, I think it's interesting that the contenders kind of did so much, right? that's interesting in itself. I think the avalanche stick out as like who made their team significantly better when they could have a shot at the cup. What do you think? The avalanche got better. That is the scariest sentence you could possibly like, my, I agree with you. And you look at some of their moves and they tinkered.

That's what you look at the avalanche got better. The Panthers got better. You know, teams that are surefire. Stanley Cup contenders got much, much better. To me, though, any time you can go out on trade deadline day and do something no one's ever done before on trade deadline day and pick up the reigning Vezna trophy winner, you've got to pat Bill Guerin on the back. You've got to say, you know, not only do you have Mark Andre Fleury, who we always

argue about numbers, Sarah, you can look at his numbers and argue whether he's been having a good or bad year. We've seen flashes. He plays for a horrible team right now. So you put him on a team that gives him an opportunity to succeed and he can help give them also the opportunity to win more hockey games. And I think it's a win for that situation. And whoever was trying to get Mark Andre Fleury, be at Edmonton or Toronto,

they had to deal with his no trade list, right? So they had to convince him to come. Yeah. And we have to talk more about the true extent playing. playing in front of a bad team, like how that can affect you. I mean, Marazik went from Eastern Conference Finals too. I'm not saying the Leaves are a bad team, but he went to waivers now. So it's kind of like the impact a certain team has on you.

I think Mark Andreplery will have huge success on the wild. And it's kind of the vibes are good there right now. It's interesting. Yeah. It is. The vibes are good, but it's funny. I watched his interview like an hour after he got traded on TSN. And he's known as such a happy go lucky guy.

He loves life. You watch him at practice. He's having a blast. But we'd heard the reports he didn't want to leave Chicago. And I don't know if it was necessarily because, hey, I'm loving everything about Chicago. I think, and he alluded to this in the interview, sometimes we forget that these are human beings. And moving around and moving your family and constantly,

especially at this late stage of your career, I think he wanted to just set up some roots. I think he probably wanted that with Vegas. Set up roots and say, I'm going to finish my career. Vegas and it really just hasn't turned out that way. Yeah. Well, the Keynes were in on him at one point a few seasons ago and he had reached out to the Keynes and was asking about the school systems and things like that. So he's somebody that is a real big family man and really cares about things like that. So they are humans and especially someone like Mark Andre Cleary seems so great. You know,

I feel like he is a very humanized person. Like I said, first time in history that, that the reigning Vesna trophy winner was dealt on deadline day. Since 1980, only three goalies who have ever won the Vezna had been moved on deadline day, Tim Thomas, Olaf Kolzig, and Tom Barrasso. And then he got Cam Talbot goes out and gets a shutout with Mark Andre Fleury on the bench backing him up. So we talk about goaltending tandums. That one should be interesting. Florida Panthers.

I mean, I know a lot of this wasn't done on deadline day. Klojuru, which was the name that got thrown around. for the last couple of weeks. Ben Chirot paid a big price for Benchirot. That's, I've never seen a first round pick kind of been discussed and scrutinized as much as that one. But all I keep picturing is Drew on the line with Barkoff. And I'm just going, this team's going to be scary come playoff time.

Like that's what I'm saying. The contenders got so much better. I don't know if the canes got so much better. So when I'm looking at it in the context of the canes, I'm like, wow, all their competition took some steps forward. And it was kind of surprising. Like, we've been talking about for weeks how the salary cap is going to be an issue and we weren't going to see anything. And then the wild get Mark Andre Fleury, that was kind of the biggest surprise to me, I think.

But there's the next steps with every single contender. But you do wonder how much of an impact these moves actually have, right? Like I keep saying when I was covering the Bruins, they traded a first round pick for Rick Nash and then he did nothing. So you never really know how a player is going to fit with the team. And you never really know what that first round pick is going to be either. Yeah. I know they're pieces of gold. I get it because they could very well be your next, you know, franchise player.

But it could be a dud too. It happens. You mentioned your Keynes relatively, you know, not very busy throughout the deadline day until about, what, 259 when they decided they were going to go out for Max Domi. Yeah, your thoughts on that deal. and what ended up being, excuse me, you know, a three-team deal just to make everything work numbers-wise. Yeah, I've been pretty harsh on them because of what's been going on around them. But I do think the more I think about it, the more I like the deal, especially because

they're only paying, what, $1.35 million for it. And they got the Panthers to pay a little bit of it. And then they have 50% salary retained from Columbus. And they unloaded two prospects that weren't going to sign. So I feel like that was drawn out. in the wash, but I don't mind it. I've been talking to a lot. Does he fit?

I don't know. I've been talking to a bunch of Keynes players that have played. There's so many connections he's had with like Auntie Ranta, Tony DiAngelo, and a few others. And Coquemonee played with him in the playoffs with Montreal. And they were on, they played together a lot. So I think that definitely helps. And a lot of them are lobbying for him to the Keynes.

Like, oh, trade for him. Definitely. So I think that says a lot. And I think the Kane's biggest concern was having to give up an actual roster player because they love their team. So they didn't have to do that. And I think it's a net win either way because it's not like they look and then, you know, need a rider or somebody they would have traded is going off for a different team. It's like they can always bench one guy.

It gives them more options. I don't know how valuable that is when you got Jeru on one team, Mark Andre Fleury on the other team. the avalanche getting significantly better somehow, but I guess we'll see maybe not messing with the chemistry might be powerful. Yeah, and we saw some deal signed to, Kuck and Yemi, the eight-year deal I alluded to earlier. Would you think of that? I think the AIV is perfect. Like, when you think about the salary cap, it's only going to raise.

And then he, people lose their minds about how he's scoring goals or how he's not scoring goals. But he strikes me more of a Jordan stall. Like if he could be a second or third line center perennially, I think that's a good AAB. And I think Jordan Stahl is going to need to be replaced in the eight years in which Copenhame is contracted. So I think he's going to be more of that replacement than like a first line center. So I think people kind of need more context with that. And I do think, Auntie Ranta joked, he has a great shot. And if he'd only use it more, he'd score more goals.

And he has the most goals per minute on the canes. He plays in the fourth line, but he has 11 goals. So I think they're trying to be careful with his development in a way Montreal wasn't. What do you think? First off, I think that your pronunciation of Kukkiyami is getting much, much better. Scott tried in front of the mirror every day. In case people don't know, Sarah, every week, oh, I can't say Kukkiymi. Yeah, and you know what else I found interesting is, you know, trade deadline days all about the trades.

But we saw multiple extension signed on deadline day that we thought maybe would result in trades. The other one was Jake Debrusk. I mean, Debrusk was, he demanded a trade out of Boston. And since then, they kind of put him, slot him in on the first line. Things start going well. It's like, okay, I'll sign on the dotted line at least for now. I still didn't know whether or not they were just doing a sign and trade. I didn't think that was going to happen.

To me, that signing meant he's sticking around in Boston, and that's what ended up happening. Well, I love the balls Debrusk had and kind of asking for a trade because I think he's such a happy, go lucky type of guy. And I think Bruce Cassidy is kind of a hard-nosed coach where if you're in his doghouse, it's really, really hard to get out of it. And I think DeBresk had been slumping for a while. So Cassidy didn't give up on him, but he's had these amazing players his whole time he's been coaching the Bruins. So he's used to being able to kind of put somebody on the fourth line or whatever, but that's not really the case with the Bruins anymore, right? So you kind of have to work with what you got. And Cassidy's going to have to meet some guys in the middle. But

Debrusk stood his ground and was like, all right, well, if this isn't working, I'm to be not demanding a trade, but I want a trade. I think that was a smart move. And then he started playing really, really well. So I think it might have been kind of the pressure releasing and maybe he and Cassidy had a conversation. And I think that is so important. But we'll see how he plays for the rest of the year.

He just wanted an opportunity. Yeah, absolutely. And he got it. Like I said, when you start getting top line minutes, things are going to go well. And when things start going well, suddenly you're like, oh, shit. Should I have asked for that? JK. Yeah, exactly.

I was just playing. I was just playing. I know this deadline period, at least, seemed a lot to do with the blue liners. Defensemen were flying all over the place. But goal tending, we talked about Mark Andre Fleury, two teams that he was at least rumored to be possibly going to, if he was going to rubber stamp it, the Leafs and the Oilers. Two teams that I think they're fan bases, if you ask them right now,

what's your biggest concern going into the playoffs? I think they would cut you off by saying, goaltending. The Leafs look like they were doing something. I mean, they went out, they put Marazic on waivers strictly because they needed the cap room just in case they were going to be in the running for a goaltender.

And then they go out and sign Harry Satari, one of the best names I've ever heard, who just won a gold medal for Finland at the Olympics. And I remember thinking, okay, is that the answer to their issues? Absolutely not. But at least Kyle Dubus is addressing the issue. I don't think in a million years, he thought that Harry Soteri wouldn't clear waivers. And now they're stuck exactly where they were to start the trade deadline with an injured and struggling Jack Campbell.

You've got Peter Morazek and you've got Eric Chalgren, who's got about five minutes of NHL time. At least you could say he tried, right? Yeah, I think it's kind of funny that Marazic cleared waivers, too, because it's just like, all right, well, we're back exactly where we started. I do think Marazek can figure it out. He's a very, as I've said, he's a very fiery player and that looks really, really bad at the worst times. But this could be a wake-up. I know Dubas said this could be a wake-up call for him. And I think it really could.

I believe I've seen really great play from him before and it's not like he's a lost cause. He needs to get his mind right, though. He's somebody he's spoken to a sports. psychologist in Raleigh. And I think he's a very mental player, which can be really, really good when he's honing in on it, but he needs the right people around him. So hopefully he's getting that support and we'll see what happens. But as to your point about the oilers, I want us to stop trying to make the Oilers happen. Like, I just don't see it in them. Why do we try to force it? Yeah, exactly. That was my reference. We're doing mean girls and I'm being a mean girl about the

Edmondon Oilers. Well, it's hard not to try to make a team happen when you have arguably the two best boards in the game. It's too sad, though. It's too sad to watch every year. But maybe this is the year. I get it when you've got like a diamond in the rough type team and you're like, oh, they got a lot of prospects who should be coming into their own. You're just wasting another year of Connor McDavid and Leon Drysidal's time.

I love Ken Holland's quote when he said, quote, when both Mike Smith and Miko Koskin are healthy, I'm comfortable with the goaltending. For me, I'm comfortable that when we get the tandem together, they will give us good goal-tending. That's what everybody wants to hear that... I disagree. I'm comfortable. I love it.

No, I'm comfortable. It'll do. That's what that sounds like to me. I mean, if I had to pick which teams worse off goaltending-wise, I'm still going with Edmonton. Yeah. Because... And I know Jesse always loves to jump in here at this point and start defending

goaltenders, but he's sick. So we can say whatever he want. I hope Jesse's listening while he's sick. Jack Campbell has proven he can play well for a stretch of heart. We were talking about him winning the Vezna two months into the season. Of course. And yes, has he been bad? He's been very, very bad.

But if he can get himself healthy, and we've seen this before, Sarah, who wins the Stanley Cup every year, a team that has a really, really hot goaltender. If he can get himself back into that situation, it's going to be very interesting to see where the Leafs go. I mean, it's been 18 years since they've been out of the first round 18. Really? I've never heard of that. Yeah, and it's 1967 was a long time ago. After the break, our good buddy, Julian McKenzie is going to join us. We'll obviously talk about Montreal, seeing as he's based there. We'll talk pretty much everything, trade deadline day,

and also Daryl Sutter doing something I've never seen before in all my years covering this sport. We'll get Julian's opinion on that as well. Always fun to welcome our next guest, Julian McKenzie, NHL editor at the Athletic and co-host of the Chris Johnson show and someone who just celebrated his one year anniversary at the athletic. Congratulations, sir. Thank you very much, Rob, Sivie. Good to see you both. Good to see both your faces, at least as we're doing over the video.

If you're listening to this, obviously, you'll hear our voices. But just really happy to be on the show with you guys. Hope you guys are doing okay. All right. We're doing good. And now that we got all the happy go lucky stuff out, I got a bono pick with you. Oh, okay. I'm ready for it.

I was listening to Chris Johnson, the Chris Johnson show, though the other day. And I'm sure Sarah has seen this online too. It's been the stupidest debate in the history of the internet that everyone jumps into. Wheels or doors? Are there more wheels or doors on planet Earth? And you guys just half-hazily just said, I don't even have really an opinion on this. You said, wheels for sure.

And Chris said, you know, everybody, you know, most families have two cars. There's eight wheels right there. You only have two doors on your house. And it's the only time I've been listening. to a podcast where I audibly said, are you fucking kidding me? And the reason is, you guys just threw this comment

out there as if everyone's got a front door and a back door. If someone has a house where they have two cars, they probably have three bedrooms, probably four. Well, there's four doors right there. You've got three bathrooms probably. There's three more doors right there. You've got a basement.

There's another door right there. You guys, are you insane? And you You guys are making it sound like wheels is just a consensus pick. I'm not, I beg to differ. I'm not going to lie, man. Considering how wild that episode was going, I was not trying to challenge him on that. Dude was saying lit and ridic within the first 15 minutes. CJ gave no shits that entire episode and had went no filter.

So I knew if I started to be all like, oh, well, maybe there are more doors. God knows what that episode would have turned into. We might still be recording that now. So you even hear me at one point say too. Like, you know, like I was even trying to bring up devil's advocate with them. I was like, you know what, man, you got this one. And in, and funny enough, thinking about it after the fact, I'm like, you know what? There might be bored doors.

It's a very weird debate. Yeah, like I said, I don't have a pick. I just, but what I just love the way he kind of said, everyone's got two cars. That's eight wheels and you only have two doors in your house. Let's move on. I was like, what the hell is going on? Another reason, too, is because like I, like, if I was feeling different that day. I would be like, well, not everybody has that.

Because you know, some people just have their one apartment. Some people don't even have cars. What he starts thinking some families have two cars. I was like, damn, you around a lot of families nowadays. 15 years ago, that might have been the norm. I don't know about now. Anyways, got to get, had to get that off my chest. Let's talk some trade

deadline. And, you know, I always like to get your opinion on the HAB, seeing as you are based in Montreal, the first ever trade deadline for Kent Hughes. You want to give them a great. I thought he did really well. It's kind of tough to kind of, if I were to give him a letter grade, I give him, I guess, an A-minus. I, maybe it's high. Maybe it's not that high enough.

But he got value, got returns for guys like Tyler Toffoli, Ben Chirot, even a Brett Kulak. He was able to get a defenseman and a prospect for. And Justin Barron off of the Colorado Avalanche, a team that is stacked with defensemen. One thing that I can't get over with Kent Hughes as well, you know, it seemed as if with a lot of the asking prices out there for guys like Ben Chirot and even Arturi Lekanin, the term first round pick was thrown out a lot. And I think a lot of people might have just thought, okay, the Canadians probably want a lot of picks for this year's draft. So when it came time for Ben Chirot to get moved and he goes for a 2023 pick or Justin Barron again coming away in the Arturi Lekan pick, technically the Canadians got first round picks, whether as actual players or in a different draft, maybe just not necessarily what some people might have thought Kent Hughes meant.

And he still found a way to get what he wanted out of it. I have a hard time looking at that trade deadline and thinking that he did badly. I think some people are still kind of fussing over the Tyler to Foley trade and thinking, oh, well, this is a guy who probably could have said he wanted to stay here. He could have been part of the solution going forward with his goal scoring ability. and they probably didn't get sufficient enough value for him. But I mean, they got a first round pickback for him and a prospect in the Mill Heinenman

and a few other pieces as well. I think they did all right on that move. So I think there are other moves. I can't think of a move that Kent Hughes came away looking bad. The one move I thought was going to happen, and I was surprised it didn't happen. I thought the Shea Weber contract was going to move at the deadline. I think it might still move by the off season,

but when I saw that Brian Little was going, Well, his contract was going to Arizona. I was like, okay, something must have happened because we were all under the inclination that Kent Hughes had some ideas percolating to do things with that contract. And when nothing came of it after the Monday, that was my biggest surprise. But other than that, I think Kent Hughes did remarkably well as a GM for his first trade deadline, which I'm sure a lot of other GMs got a kick out of because he's normally the agent trying negotiate those contracts.

My colleague, Mark Antoine Godin, put out some tweet from the availability where I think Kent Hughes got a couple of times from GMs. He was like, oh, so now you care about the salary cap? Like, that's fun to see. So, yeah, I give them a pretty good grade. Who else to give a good grade, too? Winners and losers. What teams really jumped out to you?

Man, Bill Zito and the Florida Panthers, like, they have to get a high grade here. I think the way the Panthers look right now, I think already they were looked at as a good team. I think they might genuinely be the class of the Eastern Conference. I've been high on them from the beginning of this year. I understand they haven't won a. a playoff series since 1996. You know what they did in 1990s? It doesn't matter.

I mean, I think, I think, well, they went to the Stanley Cup final in 1996. And I'll say this about not winning a playoff series. It doesn't matter to certain markets. There's some in a market called Toronto that would love a playoff win. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, for a team like the Four of Panthers who already had the horses up front, I understand Aaron Eckblad with what's going on with him on defense, he'll at least, it looks as if he might still be back for the playoffs.

they look like they're going to be set there. I still think that Ben Chirot trade, I can understand why some people are a little bit hesitant at the fact that, like, man, they paid so much to get them. But teams like Florida need a guy like Ben Chirot to clear bodies out from in front of the net, be aggressive, kind of scare down guys in the corners. They have other skilled guys on the defense

who can account for some other offensive stuff. Not to mention Chirot can skate a bit too and provide some offense as well. And I know there was the debate with analytics and the eye test with that, but I think the Panthers did pretty well to get him. And of course, getting Clod Giroux to solidify their forward depth. And he seems to be all in with this group as well. So I think the Florida Panthers look like winners. And I'll say the Ottawa senators are losers because I still don't understand why they got Travis Hammondon. What, why? They're not in a position to be buyers. I mean, good on them. They got Matthew Joseph out of that Nick Paul trade. But why are you getting Travis Hammannick? I don't get it. And now I don't know, but trade I've seen.

in recent years that had so many people not necessarily slamming it, but just perplexed by it. Yeah. I was like, what? Pierre Doriana has to like tell people like, yo, give this man a chance for Travis Amonik. It's weird. I think you had such a good point though with like you can, two things can be true at the same time. You can pay a lot

for a player and the player can make your team better. And I think with the Ventura thing, I feel like that ultimately helps the Panthers and Yes, they overpaid a little bit, but I think it shows they're dedicated to winning the cup. And this is a Panthers team, though. I will say this. They better win between this year or next year.

They do not have a first round pick this year. And I believe they don't have their first two picks this year. They don't have a first round pick next year. They don't have a first round pick the year after that. So you could look at that and think, man, that's a three-year window. They've got to find a way to get it done. You could argue it's a two-year window because Hart Trophy candidate, depending on who you ask, Jonathan Huber knows contract I think expires at the end of next year.

year. So like for the Florida Panthers, I like I still like what they did. The urgency to win with the roster that they have right now, man, they have to do something, win some rounds, go to the final between this year or next. Like this is, this is pretty big for the Florida Panthers as far as I'm concerned. I don't know if I've looked forward to the Eastern Conference playoffs as much as I am this year. I mean, I, you know, a lot of times during the playoffs because you watch so many games back to back the way you do and it's playoff intensity. You'll watch an Eastern Conference game and then you'll watch a Western Conference game with like Colorado versus Vegas. I remember last year like it was just yeah and and you go oh this is different hockey

it's two different leagues. This year the Eastern Conference so many teams got better at the deadline. So many teams are considered elite Stanley Cup contending teams. I don't remember the last time I'm going I might like watch more Eastern Conference playoffs than if I have a have to make a choice between two games around the same time. I'm watching the East. I feel you. And what's funny is that a lot of attention has gone to the Atlantic Division and how Tampa got better.

That's another team that deserves some praise here because I thought they were going to stand Pat. They end up getting Nick Paul and Brandon Hagel from Chicago, even if it does cost them some first rounders. They never stand Pat. They always look for that little tinker, right? Like the top six are taken care of. They've done it all the time.

They replace that third line. That third line ends up being so damn crucial in a Stanley Cup. It's perfect. It's for sure. But yeah, them, the Bruins, I mean, the Leafs, they tried to get better as well. And we already mentioned the Panthers. But I think a little bit of love needs to go to the Metropolitan as well. Because, I mean, the Cains, they were obviously able to get Max Domi.

The Rangers getting Andrew Kopp as well. The Pittsburgh Penguins getting Rick Rikar-Bichel, you know what's funny? Like last year on another podcast, I was like, man, you know what? The penguins are going to find a way to make it work. And if it wasn't for goaltending, they probably would have won some series this year. I might still be high on them this year. Like, we think of the last dance concept. This team might fully embody the last dance.

And if the Pittsburgh Penguins have everything rolling for them, I would not be surprised to see them within arm's length of a Stanley Cup final birth, if not closer. Just there are teams in that metropolitan division. I'll mention the Rangers again, too. That's going to be very interesting to look at with the way they've built themselves up, a team that's maybe overachieving and maybe you can give Igorst just, Sirk, the Vesna and the Hart Trophy for how he's playing.

But you can't sleep on those teams, man. Like, it's, don't sleep on the Metro this year. The Atlantic's going to be lit, but the Metro is going to have some good matchups as well. You mentioned the Metro. Sarah's perking up. Yes. Yes. Yes.

I think we've become, we as a society, I've become dissenticized to Sidney Crosby. He's still Sydney Crosby. And I think the last dance concept, like he has one more shot to kind of do something. and I would not count him out of that. And I'd also want to get, I want to pick your brand about Max Domi. Do you think he can return to kind of what he was in Montreal? That's a great question. I think it really depends on how Carolina deploys him.

I remember like in that one really good year that he had where he had like over like 20 something goals there. I mean, I think he was playing center a lot. He was shooting the puck a lot. Like he was just in, he was around skilled players a lot too. He needed to be in a forward core in a situation where he could. just play and just getting his shots up and just being around skilled players. Carolina has a bunch of skilled players, and that's why they're going to be looked at as a

team to be in that Eastern conference. And depending on where he's deployed, and I know Sivie, you'll probably know better than me, have a better idea about where he could be deployed, whether it's a second or a third liner, whether he plays on the wing or not, that's probably where he's going to end up being. But I think for a guy like Max, if he's just around other skilled players and he's just in the position where he could succeed, I think he could, he might not necessarily be the the guy he was with the Canadians in that one great year he had. But I don't think that he needs to be that guy for them.

Again, with the Canadians, with the way that team was built, like he kind of had to be more of a focal point. Max Domey doesn't have to be the guy on a team with Sebastian Aho and there's so many other players on that Great Canes team. So I could see him as a solid, you know, decent secondary contributor, just as long as you put them around like-minded players. Real quick, if I could escape backwards for a minute, You know, you guys were talking about Crosby and, you know, last dance aspects.

As you were doing that, I quickly went and looked it up because I feel like every day we're still seeing Crosby put up points. In his 17th season, he's now averaging 1.2, 3 points per game. So what I'm saying this is like his most like productive season and like how many years? It's, it's. He's back. Yeah. I mean, so can you count out a team with Sidney Crosby on it? Not necessarily.

Is this the situation where it's like, well, it's this year, next year, or that's. it? Yes. I fully think we're kind of, the book will be closed very, very soon. I'm going to shift gears a bit here, guys. Go over to the women's game because today could be kind of historic. We could look back at March 23rd,

2022 as an historic day as far as the women's game goes. The NHL asked for a meeting with the professional hockey's, professional women's hockey association and the Premier Hockey Federation. I'm going to start using acronyms after this because it's A huge mouthful.

And the attempt you have to assume is to bring them together. The NHLs may know qualms about it. They want to support the women's game. They don't want to support multiple leagues. And I don't know if Gary Bettman's going to be able to do it. I don't know if the league's going to be able to convince these two sides to say, let's get together because they each have reasons for not wanting to be, not necessarily not wanting one league, but not wanting to be with the other league.

Do you guys think this is any kind of light at the end of the tunnel? Julian, I'll start with you. I really hope it is, man, because I want this one league where we can have all of the best players in that league. Could you imagine the NHL and the WHA existing today and then we're trying to follow Sidney Crosby in one league in Connor McDavid and another? Maybe it was cute in a couple decades earlier. We're not doing that now. I want a league where I can watch Hillary Knight, Mary Philip, Poulin, and I understand they're in the same league in the CWHL, but I want all of the world's best players in an infrastructure that will pave them well, that will put them in decent situations where they could, you know, play their game and have a decent financial backing. I want them in something where not only just in the financial backing, but just in the way that we as media people and even players who play in the NHL and other people just support it.

Like, we're at this point now where the back and forth, and I'm not as well, I'm not as well vested in all the information as to why both sides are bickering. The fact that we're at this point now, like, as someone who just likes a game of hockey, like, I just want to see them come together. And I want to see a product that is marketable and fun and something that I know I can get into, go to games and enjoy it and just like hang out, man. Like, I know the Dream Gap tour is doing its thing and it's helping promote the women's game and seeing players out there. I'm going to try to go to some games in Montreal in early

April. But I want to see like a really good infrastructure. I'd like the mock draft that they had on TSN if they had themselves a league. Haley Salvean, shout out to her was part of that mock draft. The one gripe I have, though, not to make this all about that, Sarah Nurse should be picked in that first round. There's no damn reason why she shouldn't have been picked in that damn first round. How could she be leading the Olympics in points, breaking a record that Haley Wickenizer said, and she's not one of the first picks in a fictional first round, you have got to be kidding. But that is a whole of this thing. We're arguing over a fictional first round.

Well, what does I tell you? That's what we should be doing. Like, we should be having conversations about that. And this league coming together is a huge step in that. So I really hope that both sides are able to come together, find some common ground, and make this work. But also, again, I am coming from a position. where I do not know the intricacies of why the PHF and why the PWHPA may have their gripes with one another.

Yeah, I think we all agree that we want one league. We just have to make sure the specifics of the NHL's involvement will be sound. There will be enough support. There won't be too much tampering and things like that. I think I understand why people are hesitant to trust the NHL 100%, but I do. have hope for this meeting. I do think it will be productive and I do want there to be one league where we can watch the best players and they get paid adequately. I think it's going to take a boatload of money in this meeting. I think Gary Betman's got to flash a check and say,

I'll sign this if you guys can come to terms and do it quickly because I don't want to say that if this meeting's a failure, so is women's hockey. But I'm tired of it. I'm, I'll fully admit, I'm tired of it. I'm tired of, we all know that the only way for this to succeed is if it's one league. That's the only way. One league under the NHL, the same way the WNBA is run. That's the only way this is going to succeed. And I'm of the opinion now.

I'm kind of that guy that says, call me when it's done. You know what I mean? Because it's been bickered about and argued about and people stepping down and people, you know, disparaging words about each league. I'm done. call me when it's because that's the only way it's going to happen. It needs financial backing because some of the horror stories you hear about the women's leagues in the past. I mean, no skate sharpening machines.

I remember hearing that going, how can you have a professional league without a skate sharpening machine? That's obviously to the extreme. But get it done. Get if you want, this is not, you know, you brought up the NHL and the WHA. Men's hockey, we'll call it men's hockey because that's what it was. Had an established fan base at that point, Julian. So that was where it's like, you know, what people are going to watch hockey regardless.

It doesn't have, it has an established fan base of diehards, but if you want to grow that fan base to a point where we're regularly talking about it on the athletic hockey show, you've got to have the one league. And I'm just, you have to have the one league. And as soon as they find a way to make that league work, you get on the phone with sports that, you get on the phone with CBC, you get on the phone with TSN, you get on the phone with TNT, you get on the phone with ESPN, you call Fox Sports. and see if they're doing anything or

Bali Sports Network or whatever it's called, and you find a way to get those games on television for people to see. I understand we're at a point where we're in this awkward transition where people are cutting cable and going away from TV and trying to be on more digital platforms,

but TV is still a way for people to really watch these games. If that's something that they can put on TV a little bit more regularly, even if you just start with like a game of the week on a platform, that is going to be a huge way for visibility to be open.

None of this whole, you know, let's put this on some fifth or six alternate platform. Maybe if you have Twitch, you can watch a game. That's cool. I get the, I get the PHF. They tried that. It's a fun novelty thing that they were doing. But for something like this to work, you get the one league, you get the financial backing.

And the first thing you should do is call every different outlet you can to ensure that the visibility for this product is on 10. There's no reason why you can't have a league with, again, Hillary Knight, Mary Philip Palin, Sarah Nurse, Sarah Filier, if she doesn't go into college this year and decides, you know what, I'm going to play pro. Sorry to interrupt that, William, but I think you hit it right there. You need to make these people superstars. You need to make these women superstars. And we see it every year in the Olympics. You mentioned Sarah Nurse.

Sarah Nurse was a superstar. Yes. For two weeks. Okay? For two weeks. If there's the one league where all the best players in the world are playing in it and it's financially backed, Sarah Nurse will be a superstar between the Olympic game. between world championships.

That's what is needed. Anyways, I think we're sitting here arguing and yelling at each other for the exact same point. Yeah. No, I'll disagree. I hate women's sports. I hate women. So I'm the person you guys are yelling at. Somebody don't do it.

Someone's going to take you literally, Sidney. Don't do that. We just sniffed out that little sound bite. And we're going to post it on Twitter. Confirred women haters, Sarah Sivvian. Two more things before we go. I want to get to. And we can get Sarah all riled up on this one,

The online world has been up in arms over the NHL's Hockey is for everyone website that has been, let's call it Sarah, out of date. Maybe fill us in because I know you've been knee deep in this. Well, okay, I'll perface this with saying I am still in the midst of reporting about it. So there are certain things that I need to kind of uncover and certain things I need to clarify. But the gist of what's going on is I'm by. So sometimes I think about gay issues. And I was looking around the room a few days ago, maybe even yesterday, wondering, okay, Pride night's coming up. It used to be Trevor Van Riemsdike, who is the Hurricanes Pride Ambassador.

And he and James are very, very into gay rights. And I've always loved picking their brains about it. They're awesome people. But now I'm like, okay, who I'm looking around the room like, who's the ambassador now? Oh, I don't think they have one. So I confirmed they didn't have one. And then I tweeted, like, I'm disappointed that the Hurricanes don't have a Pride ambassador. Then the NHL reached out to me and said, actually, nobody does because we did away with that years ago.

And I was like, that's news to me. Like, okay, so we jumped on a phone call and they explained that apparently they did away with this because they're focusing on broader initiatives and they're focusing on expanding Black History Month stuff, which I guess to some extent some teams have, but it seemed team by team to me, not league-wide. And then they're like expanding with recycling or something like that. I don't know. But it was like the hockey for everyone is expanding into more months and year-long initiatives, I guess, instead of just one player. And they said that the players didn't want to have that one player be involved in it the way they were. But they had never, they still had the website.

They hadn't been updated since 2019. But then my friend who's a must follow on Twitter, hockey nuisance, tweeted about that it hadn't been updated and they deleted the website. So I guess they didn't remember it. It's like, do they care? It seems very reactive and not proactive. And it's just, I don't understand the vision. And I will be speaking to them and following up in a few weeks to know what the vision turned into.

But until then, I'm kind of just, I have more questions than I did. And they did, they profiled, speaking of Max Domi, they profiled him a few weeks ago as the hockey is for everyone ambassador in Columbus. So I'm just kind of confused about what the who found out like, does everybody know that these things aren't happening anymore? I don't think so. No. I think it's it's kind of considering the fact that it was a prominent initiative that people

knew about, I think the NHL should have updated people on on it. They should have let people know, okay, this was changing and they should have let people know what it was going to be changed into. If it wasn't going to be a situation where player representatives were going to be needed, at least let everyone know what initiatives you were going to do. And to another point I'm going to say, because I've thought about how the NHL has gone about Black History Month. And you're right. It's very much like a team by team case.

You'll see teams maybe be a little bit more proactive. You'll see teams like the Canadians and some other teams as well with the Black History Month, like practice jerseys. But like at the end of the day, like a damn jersey isn't going to, you know, solve everything. We'd like to see some of the more of these teams be a little bit more active in their perspective, black communities on that regard. And I'm imagining that we want to see more NHL teams be a little bit more active when it comes to matters pertaining to the LGBTQ community. Like it just makes sense. But so the fact that they've been kind of in the dark, leaving us all in the dark with regards to how they've handled this initiative.

Like I'm very surprised. Well, you know what? I'm not surprised because the NHL just finds a way. to drop the ball on so many of these things. And I don't like not being surprised that the NHO can't find a way to get its shit together on stuff like this. Like, why can't we expect better, especially in this day and age, we're more and more of us.

You can say we're woke or whatever. But yeah, we are up on these issues that plague, not, well, not plague, but that pertain to different communities. So why can't we expect better from the best hockey league in the world when it comes to showing that they are in support of these things? Yeah, and it's like, I know some people will be listening thinking, who cares, it's a sport, whatever, but the league is the one who started these initiatives and they said they wanted to be better. So when they say that and then something like this happens, you wonder if they meant it or they were just saying that to kind of look good or what is it? I don't know. I have a lot of questions.

You could argue whether or not the strategy was a good one. You can't argue with the laziness that comes with just not letting everybody know, taking it. The website, which has since been taken down since this whole thing began, you're right. It's just in a week where they approved a trade that maybe shouldn't have been up trade, it just seems like the NHL's got egg on their face this week. And it's, it just looks horrible. It just looks. Yeah, I was ready to call out the canes for it. And I did.

And then it turned out it wasn't the canes. It was actually a league-wide thing. And I'm like, I, if it had actually been the canes that didn't have the ambassador and everybody else did, they would have reached out to me after my tweet. And they would have been like, actually, the whole league doesn't. So I'm like, who has been involved? Like, that's my question that I'm going to ask the league the next time I talk to them. Like, how did you announce this to everybody that this has been dissolved? And what did you say in place of it is happening? Or did it just trickle out and you're letting it fade away? Also, hat tip to Sivvy for being on top of this.

Yeah. Well, it's funny. It only happened because I got it wrong because I was. I was like, wait, where's the ambassador? And now we find out all this. I could tell Sivie was fired up. We do this podcast over Zoom. And, you know, she clicked on and we kind of said, hey, Sarah. And she just kind of exhaled. Like, oh, I just got off the phone.

I'm like, oh, all right. Oh, we got some stuff. Yeah, we got some stuff. A lot of stuff. A lot of stuff, guys. All right, guys. Last topic before we go. And we got to talk about Daryl Sutter.

I don't know if you guys saw this. Oh, boy. So last night, the Calgary Flames, take it on the San Jose Sharks. They're cruising, up 3-1, end up allowing two goals in 24 seconds. They end up losing the game. And Jacob Marksroom was just not good. He's had himself, you know, at times this year, I've looked at him and thought, man, this guy's just incredible. And then other times, like last night, some of the goals were certainly soft. Part of a coach's job after the game is to speak to the media, as you both.

No, he decided not to speak to the media. He sent out goaltending coach Jason LaBarbara to address the media. This is, I mean, when Daryl Sutter does things, sometimes I find people kind of think, ah, that's Daryl Sutter. If John Tortorella did that or someone else who's known as a little more of a hard-nailed coach, Hard-as-Nails coach, we maybe say something else. Let me just quickly get your initial responses. When you hear that, and I want to start with.

Sarah, because you cover a team on a regular basis. If, you know, Frederick Anderson played terrible. And then Rod Brindamore sends out the goaltending coach. Is that not, at least to me, it sounded like, hey, well, you guys screwed this up. You're going to have to go deal with it. Yeah. I wonder if the media asked for the goalie coach or if he was just like, go. Because that is not, whenever Rod talks about any of the Kane's goalie coaches,

it's only to praise them. And he knows that as a head coach, it's kind of your responsibility to be the ambassador of the team. Even if you don't agree with some of the decisions, you have to look like a cohesive unit unless something really, really bad happened. But that's one game. It's not like, I think that's a little dramatic to send the guy out to the wall. Sivvy brings up a really interesting point here. Was La Barberra? Sorry, if I'm not getting the name right.

La Barbra. Yeah. La Barbra. Sorry. Was he asked for by the media? or was he just sent out by the team just because? I think that's a, and you can tell me if I'm wrong or you could add that context if you know it, but I think that's really important here because that's not something,

at least with what I'm used to being around the Montreal Canadiens, in that after a game, a position coach for a beyond the head coach is going up to speak about what's going on. Like if this happened in Montreal, we'd be like, well, why can't we talk to Martin-S-Louis about this? Why is he ducking? And a guy like him who's only a couple games into his head coach and, tenure, that would raise a lot of alarm bells about what's going on. Before a guy like Darryl Sutter, who's been in the league as long as he has, that still raises some alarm bells, but maybe people are thinking, oh, well, that's just

Darryl Sutter. But I have a lot of questions about why LaBarbra was used and if the media asked for him and what the media member is also thinking in Calgary, because I'm sure they would have, and you know, I'm going to even do that when I finish because I know a few people in Calgary. But, yeah, I think that's a bit weird that happened. As far as I know, as far as I know, Daryl Sutter sent him out to the walls. Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

And it's a lot of the time, like half or more than half of NHL teams don't allow the media to speak to their goalie coaches at all. So it's kind of like, oh God, like, I don't even know. It's so weird that this happened. Yeah. I'm not going to lie and say that I was up late waiting to see Daryl Sutter's press conference last night. I saw this story this morning. So immediately I said, well, I got to go watch this press conference. And I watched it and it's exactly what you think it is.

One, you want to talk about a cliche, deer in headlights, man, I fell for him. He kind of, even when he sits down at the podium there, he kind of was like, what the hell am I doing here? And he just resorted to what, you know, former, he is a former, you know, goaltender in the National Hockey League. He did what they all do. He threw out every cliche you could possibly throw out, you know, he's. he threw out the whole, like, you know, we got to look to tomorrow, you know, guys played well, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm just, you know, this is the first time for me.

I've always been a big Daryl Sutter fan as far as his press conferences go. I think they're must watch TV. I think they're hilarious. I didn't like it. If it ends up coming out that, you know, he did say no. And because I think it sends a bad message. And, Julie, I know you kind of agree with me here. I think it sets a bad precedent.

I mean, is this is this now every time something happens? If you've got an assistant coach who handles your defenseman and your defensemen don't have a good game, are you sending an assistant, the alternate coach out there because, well, you're in charge of them. Yeah, like that, that was my first thinking. That was another thing I thought of when, when this story was presented to me. I wonder how if other teams have thought about doing this in the past. And again, I think a coach like Darrow said, I think, I think his, his experience also matters

into this because I don't think a younger coach could get away with doing something like this compared to Darrell Sutter who has won on top of being in being in the National Hockey League as a head coach for a long time. But yeah, I wonder if like if there are different teams that are thinking, well, you know what, like that's just how we're going to go about doing things. But as Siffie brought up, like there are teams that won't even allow particular position coaches to be spoke to to, to take requests for interviews from media. So maybe not in the grand. In the grand. In the grand scheme of things, but at the same time, it was, it's something that I definitely thought about. And it was just, it's a weird one. I don't know if I'd necessarily like it either, unless it was

something that, like, a bunch of my media colleagues, like, specifically asked for. And even then, I don't know if I want that goalie coach there in place of the head coach after a game like that. Like, I still think, like, I would want to hear from the head coach after a game like that. And it's not, the weird thing about it, too, is, it's not even as if the Calgary full are in a situation where, man, that was a big loss. They might miss the playoffs. Like, there's just like some dumb blip for them. They're expected to still be a contending team.

So this just comes across as unnecessary. And it just comes across as, as, I don't want to get too dramatic about it, but not something you do to a teammate. You know what I mean? And like, and if it was a matter of like, I'm, I'm always in favor of more people being made available to the media. So if Daryl Sutter came out and said, you know, and keeps getting asked about Jacob Markstrom and said, you know what? I'm not, I leave that to Jason and Barbara.

And here, we're going to bring him out as well or we'll send him out afterwards. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. But to not speak to the media at all makes no sense to me. I wonder if the league's going to get involved because is this no different than just duck. But if Daryl Sutter just said I'm not speaking to the media today, does the league not getting involved? Does there not consequences for certain people not speaking to the media? Of course there is.

So I just don't see this as a good thing for the Calgary Flames. It's not great. And it's kind of like an over, it's like a hissy fit kind of over one loss. Like just relax, bro. Yeah. And again, we've had coaches who haven't been able to speak to the media for whatever reasons, but then they send out an alternate coach or whatever. but it's Darrell Sutter

and you just really can't try to predict what's going on in that guy's head. Julian, it's always fun. Thanks for doing this, buddy. Hey man, thanks so much for having me and let's do this again sometime. You have an assignment, go count all the doors and all the wheels on planet Earth

and come back to us with an answer. Maybe Dom has an analytic for it or something. Five. I got like five off at a early count. Yeah, we'll get to your Twitter questions after Julian's done counting. Seven. All right, we do it every week. We throw a question out there for you to answer. And I know we always talk about winners and losers of the trade deadline day, but we wanted to focus on

the winners this week. And so Sarah threw it out there. We wanted to know who was your trade deadline winner and why. What do we got, Sarah? I'm not going to this. We'll start with this serious one. I don't know if you just laughed out loud before you even reading it, but go ahead. Yeah. T underscore man, 30. I like he said, buyers and sellers, we like somebody that gives a full effort, Tanner.

Sellers standpoint, Montreal for all the picks they got. I'd agree with that. Buyer's standpoint, I'd go with Florida. They may have mortgage their future, but this is the season to do it before next season's cap straps them. Drew takes the cake here. I agree with you. I agree with you what that you said earlier. Yes. Was it a big price to pay for Ben Chirot? Of course. But if you need a certain piece, sometimes you're going to have to pay for it. They didn't, sometimes the price can be too big if you're really mortgaging your future and are you really going to screw yourself over in years to come. And some would argue a first round pick will do that. But they needed Ben Chirot. They needed that piece. I'm okay with the price. It's high. I'm not trying to say it's a good price or fair price or a market price. But. If you want to win this year, if you're all in, that's what you got to do.

Yeah, not everything has to be a steel. Oh, what a steal. Like, okay? Okay, anyway, moving on. Matthew Soma said, any answer that's not Kevin Weeks is wrong. I did love Kevin Weeks reporting live from wherever. At one point he had recycling been over his head announcing things. I thought that was, we need more personality in the NHL.

And we needed a little bit of like comic relief there. Especially on a day that has become, as we've talked about over the last couple of weeks, it's not as exciting. And believe it or not, there were a record amount of trades on this trade deadline day. But all the big blockbusters, if we want to call them that, happened leading up. Mark Andre Flore was really the only big move. So for us to sit here and pretend that players being moved for future considerations are big deals, deals that we wouldn't even blink at if it was any other day of the year,

is disingenuous. I like when people have fun on trade deadline day. It's supposed to be a fun day, and it's just mock it. Mock it for what it is. Yeah, exactly. All right, category five pod said, embracing the bias and choosing the canes.

We found a creative way to add an impactful player given tiny cap room and not giving up anyone. Jomi brings a perfect physical edge that bodes well for playoff hockey with historically backed offensive upside. Historically back, he had like a few good seasons for his kids. court a lot of calls, like maybe.

But it's a little dramatic. He has been a playmaker, though. It's a pretty good get, but that's what we talk about when we talk about what's this, like not everything has to be a steel. That was a steal, but it's not really, it could be fulfilling a need, but we'll see. Yeah, and just to give people a quick peek behind the curtain, Sarah's been doing air quotes every time she says, Steve. I didn't even realize that.

That's my Italian showing up. Yeah. Thanks to everybody for the tweets. We love hearing from you guys. If you have a question you want us to address in the future, send it to either myself or Sarah or Jesse and we'll see if we can work it into one of the shows. What do you got working on this week, Sarah? Besides the, besides hockey is for everyone that's got you all riled up.

Yeah. Well, I'm back on the road and obviously we'll be evaluating how Domi's fit in usage with this team is a lot of Keynes analysis after it's been all trade deadline, trade deadline. trade deadline. So looking forward to getting back at the game. By the way, I loved in your piece when you said he is son of Maple Leaf's legend, Ty Domi. Only in a place like Toronto can an enforcer be a legend as much as Ty Dome. Are you kidding? I grew up in Boston. Yeah, that's true. But I mean, still, even the the tough guys had, you know, the ability to do something with, like, and I'm not trying to slam Ty Domi in any way, shape, or form. I'm just saying like, Ty Domi was so legendary here for a guy who, you know,

was a lunch bucket type of guy. So it was good to see. Sarah, see you next week. I'm actually going to be off next week. Oh, my God. I'm dropping like flies over here. I know.

Well, you know, Jesse's sick, but my wife is going to give birth any second with our second child. So I don't think, I don't think you want to hear screaming in the background. So I'm going to take. Well, you got to pull a Phil Castle. You can.

take one shift of the podcast and then you have to go to the hospital. Maybe I'll record a little message for you guys that Jeff can play, especially if I'm in the hospital because if she doesn't give birth by Tuesday, the doctors want to induce her. So I may be literally in a delivery room while you guys are doing the show. And if so, I still got to get myself in there. So thanks so much,

Sarah. I'll see you in a couple of weeks. But before we go, I want to let people know some of the other great content we got going on at the athletic hockey show. Pierre LeBron joins Craig Custin's and Sean Gentilly. for a full recap of the NHL trade deadline on the Athletic Show USA. So be sure to check into that.

And remember, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. And don't forget to leave a rating and a review. And remember, subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content from our entire network. We provide the bonus content this week. And you heard a little bit of it earlier on in the show, Darryl Sutter and everything he did. We're going to start you 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 a dollar a month for six months when you visit Theathletic.com slash hockey show. The Athletic Hockey Show returns Thursday with Ian Mendez and down goes brown for Sarah, for Julian, for a sick Jesse Granger, who hopefully will be back next week. I am Rob Piso. See you soon.