The Athletic Hockey Show - NY Islanders begin negotiations with Bo Horvat, Gary Bettman celebrates 30 years and Florida Panthers host ALL-Star weekend

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

Rob, Jesse and Russo take a look at the NHL's first big trade of the season and the New York Islanders chances at extending newly acquired Bo Horvat. The guys discuss how the media covered the death of Bobby Hull, Gary Bettman celebrating 30 years as NHL commissioner and how social media handled the altercation between Troy Stetcher and Trevor Zegras.Former NHLer Jeff Chychrun, studio analyst for the Panthers on Bally Sports Florida, joins Rob and Mike from Miami to discuss how the Panthers are preparing for All-Star weekend, including the much anticipated alumni game that he is taking part in. Jeff updates us on the up and down season for the Panthers and he addresses how his son Jakob is dealing with being on the trade block by the Arizona Coyotes.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowGet 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code NHL23 at Manscaped.com and shoot your arrow with MANSCAPED™ this Valentine’s Day Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What is going on, everybody? Welcome to The Athletic Hockey Show, the Wednesday Roundtable Edition. I am Rob Pizel from CBC Sports, joined as always by two linemates who are always in much better weather than me. I am just outside of Toronto, and it is freaking freezing out there today. And I got to jump on this thing and see Russo in the Bahamas and Jesse in Vegas, sun shining through your windows. you two are bastards and I hate everything that you guys represent.

How are you? We're doing great and we're going to be in even better weather tomorrow when Jesse and I both arrive at the All-Star weekend to cover it with the Athletic with Mark Lazarus. So that'll be in Fort Lauderdale, Rob. So we'll have to send you some pictures. I repeat, bastards. Jesse's just laughing.

He's just like, this is the best. You know, I go from 100 degree weather to 101 degree weather. I mean, tough life you leave in, Jesse. I just got back from New York City. So I will say it was pretty cold. in New York City, although it was a good trip. I had a good time, spent like six days up there with the Golden Knights. So not always warm weather for us. And Mike does live in Minnesota. So I mean, we got to like, we got to let Mike enjoy his Bahamas when he's, Fort Lauderdale when he's

got the chance. He does live in Minnesota. And it's double digit subzero for like a week in Minnesota. So I've actually, I'm actually impressed with myself because Minnesota fans know that I have a tendency whenever it's super cold in Minnesota and I'm out in California, or Arizona or Florida to send them constant pictures on Twitter. And I haven't done one single one this week to let them be jealous about. Just come back with a wicked tan. Just be like, oh, me? Yeah, what's going on?

How's it going, guys? As always, guys, we recap the whole week. We got a lot to get through. I should mention Jeff Chikrit, Jacob's dad, is going to be joining us in the second after the show. He also does pre-imposed analysis for the Florida Panthers. We'll talk about his alumni game tonight. We'll talk about the all-star festivities. And of course, we ask him where the hell of sun's going to end up because he seems as though he's been on the trade block for a very, very long time. But we've got a bunch of other stuff we've got to get to before that. And I think

where you know where I'm going to start, guys. It finally happened. Bo Horvatt is no longer a Vancouver Kinnock. We knew what was going to happen. It was not a matter of if it was a matter of when. He has now a New York Islander coming the other way, Anthony Bovillier, Anthony Bovillier, there I got it right the second time. There's not two of them in there. Aturati and a protected first round pick in the 2023 draft, your first impressions. I was going to call it a blockbuster deal. I don't know if it's a blockbuster deal, but of the deal, Jesse.

Yeah, my initial impression was it was a good trade for the Islanders. I was honestly surprised. And I feel like looking at social media, I'm in the minority here. A lot of people were wondering why they would make this trade. I see an Islander's team that are they elite, no, but they're right on the playoff bubble. They're like one or two points out of the playoffs right now. They're losing games two to one every night. They have the best goalie in the league right now in Ilya Sorokin, who is, to me, stealing

games and then still not getting it because his team cannot score goals. They don't have the forward talent. You've got Matthew Barzell trying to do everything. He can't do it all by himself. to me, adding an very, very high-end center to this group who can help them score. He's having his best scoring year of his career. And they didn't give up that much for him. Yes, they paid a price for him.

But to me, it was a lower price than I expected to see. I think this is a good move for a team that is right there on the bubble. Now, does this make them Stanley Cup contenders? No. But I think it gets them to, if he can help this offense score, this is a playoff team. and we've all seen once you get in the playoffs, crazy things can happen, especially if you have a hot goalie,

which this team for sure has. So I liked the move. And I felt I was a little surprised that the reaction was as negative as it was on social media. What do you think, Michael? Yeah, I think, you know, first of all, I think that a lot of people just want to be,

you know, negative toward the Canucks these days. You know, and Beauvolier is a heck of a player. Rati, the jury's out and we'll see what they could do with the first round pick eventually when they got it. You know, I'm a little surprised that Lul Lameorello would give that much. up, not having any contract talks, but I think that he probably was given assurances that maybe, as Pierre LeBron has reported, that Horvatt would, you know, would have been on, that the Islanders

would be on Horvats' preferred list of teams potentially on the open market this offseason anyway. So, you know, I think he's taking a, you know, educated risk there, which he always does. I mean, look, you know, I mean, the one thing about Lou Lamarillo is that, you know, he does not, he's given up big prices before for this. type of situations, then crossed his fingers and hope they can get a contract done. And he's also gone to free agency before, you know, without signing guys and said, all right, if you're leaving, you're leaving and we'll react. And we saw that with Perisi once upon a time. He's done that a million times, actually. So that's just the way that Lou rolls the dice here and we'll see if it

works. You know, I guess the biggest thing is we will have to see if he resigns there. Right. Because, you know, I do look at this Islander team right now, even with Horvette as a team, in that division that's probably going nowhere. So if you just gave up these three significant assets right now for two and a half months of Bo Horvett, you know, obviously it's going to be a swing and a miss if he doesn't resign there. You know, I guess the one thing, the other thing with me is that, you know, from the package that they got, again, it's going to be the juries out on what they're getting with Rati and the first round pick. I'm a little surprised that the Canucks didn't wait and try to use that package that they were

potentially getting from the island. as leverage for other teams to try to up the price. But, you know, the other thing is, is that we're seeing around the league right now, a lot of pending free agents get hurt. You know, Gus Nyquist is out for the season that was just reported this morning. You know, Joel Edmondson just got hurt. It just seems to be, there's one other name that I just so recently. Peresanko and O'Reilly both got hurt in St. Louis.

Exactly. I mean, you know, so like, I think part of it too is that I think it's a reminder to these GMs that like, yeah, I have this great asset, but we. with one shot block, one hit, you know, to the head, one, one crunch into the corner, you could throw all that away. And I think that maybe the Canucks said, you know what, this is a heck of a package. Let's get it done now and continue with our plan to try to get baddard. Lou Lamarolo has been doing this since Czech's notes the day before forever. He's been,

I just refuse to believe he's making this deal without some sort of, not assurances. I don't want to say that, you know, Bo Horvett will be an islander. but he rarely really just rolls the dice. Yeah, he has a lot of knowledge. They're loaded dice, okay? And he is an utter expert, the goat of keeping things quiet. This is such a Lou La Verrolet trade. You know what I mean?

Like every Lula Rolo trade comes right out of the blue because he's, that's the way he operates. I think the venom that you were talking about, Jesse, just stems from the fact that ordinarily when you have a quote unquote rental player, and I'm not saying as a rental player yet, but a pending UFA who's dealt near the deadline, it's to a team that's either a contender or thoroughly in a playoffs. There's a legit chance they don't make the playoffs, and then you're losing a mid-first-round pick for nothing.

That's where I think the risk kind of comes into play. I will admit that I was kind of just assuming that Horvett's going to resign there. If he doesn't, like Michael brings up great points. Like if he doesn't resign, the trade's a complete disaster for the Islanders. I'm assuming he's going to hockey players this is not the NBA like I feel like he's going to sign this deal and as Rob said Lou knows right I mean you know Lou I love all the press are like oh we haven't talked to you yeah yeah yeah I know Lou I love Lou but he gets away with murder in this league and he has as Rob said forever I mean and so just because it's out there that they haven't had conversations doesn't mean that there's There's not some inside knowledge of what potentially could happen down the pike. You're right. It's a huge package to give up.

If you are only going to have it for two and a half months and Lou probably doesn't take that risk if he doesn't have a good, good sense. The contacts this man has, even for crying out loud, even just people who know Horvatt floating the word Islanders into his head to see. There's no way he hasn't done some sort of due diligence. That's what I'm trying to say. I just, I like teams going for it. And like the islanders have a goalie who's having an incredible season and they are wasting it. And it's like, go out. There's a number one center available who's scoring every night.

One goal a night. Suddenly the islanders are winning 75% of their games. Sorokin's three. You know, the other thing that, you know, that we haven't talked a lot about is Horvatt as a player here. Like, I don't know, there seems to be this perception out there that this is like some fluky season because he's having a career year. He's still young. he's a phenomenal player. Like a phenomenal player.

Like he's not some third line checker. This is a guy that plays incredibly in all areas of the game. He has for a long, long time. He can skate well. You know, this is not somebody that's just going to regress into oblivion. You know, I do. In terms of the actual trade and picking up the player, if he resigns there for seven, eight years, I mean, man, that's a good pickup.

And so, you know, I don't know what, it is lately that's just bothering you. I think a lot of it sometimes is the picking and prodding of today's day and age of every single player looking at analytics and things like that and just saying, all right, what kind of player this is? And I don't know why there just seems to be, maybe I'm just seeing the wrong types of tweets and the wrong type of analysis, but there's a lot of people out there that just are almost pretending that this is just some middle six guy. And I don't, every time I cover a game or watch a game with the Vancouver Canucks, Horvette sticks out to me as just a sensational hockey player.

I agree. It's the UFA factor. It's the UFA.S. Like, you know, it's always convenient when a guy has a career year when he's about to get me. Absolutely. You know what I mean. And it happens all the time. And that's what Jim Rutherford said, Jim Rutherford said it a couple weeks ago when he said,

we made him an offer based on his resume leading up to this year. Well, that resume has changed, guys. And you can't make that. He's earning his pay. And I'm sorry. And that's why people. I don't know a fluke, but I think they just look at it like, oh, when money's there, that's the resume up to this year was outstanding as well.

You know, I think they just don't want to give anybody a penny more than Miller, which is, hey, all those teams have that upper echelon. You know, New Jersey's not going to probably go over Hughes on certain. You know, every team has that ceiling that they say everybody else needs to come up to that ceiling or Adios, you know, in what Detroit, it used to be Lidstrom. You know, it happened in Minnesota. There's no way that anybody's ever getting over Caprice off. That's just the way that life works.

And I think that when they signed Miller to that deal, they just said, all right, Horvettes got to be under it. And Horvettes like, you know what? I'm going to go have a 50 goal season. Sorry. That's the way it works. Let's switch gears here a bit, guys. Very interesting week because Bobby Hall passed away.

Ordinarily, when someone with his resume in hockey passes away, it becomes pretty big swan song. You know, you've got a big farewell. You look back at his time on and off the ice, tributes, numbers are sewn onto jerseys, numbers are painted on the ice. It's a pretty simple formula that we see teams do. But this one's a little bit different. I'm really curious to get your opinions given what you both do and what we all do. Because it seems like two Bobby Halls passed away this week.

The first one, one of the all-time greatest players. You can't argue with his credentials. Hall of favor, two heart trophies, help revolutionize the game in more ways than one. And Bobby Hall number two, I'll just flat out say it, a pretty terrible human being. Domestic abuse allegations from not one but two ex-wives has been called a Nazi sympathizer, has been quoted as saying Hitler, quote, had some good ideas. Mark Lazarus wrote a great piece for The Athletic. If you haven't read it, go give this a read.

And one line that just jumped out to me is he said, a man died. a hero did not. So my question of both of you guys, how do people like us cover this? Because we are hockey reporters, but this man was more than just a hockey player. Russo, you've been doing this longer than both me and Jesse. What do you think? Well, I think that Mark Lazarus piece is just sensational. And, you know, I think he's one of the best, and I'm sure Jesse would agree with this. He's one of the best columnists we have, period, in any capacity. His ability to have a thought and, you know, blow it out in 2,000 words in a short period of time is like nobody else I think that we have on the hockey side. He is such a value to us. I watched it firsthand

during the, you know, open house meeting that he, that he got into it with Rocky Warts last year. And it was how quickly he put out that piece and everything was just unbelievable. and a great piece. And I just think that, you know, what he said in that column is true. Like, we don't, you know, like, the reality is, is that this, a proper obit for this man had to be done eventually. So to me, the biggest objection could be the timing. Do you let the fans and the family mourn for one day and then go and write who the real

Bobby Hull is? Or you just do it at the time. And I think the timing was appropriate. here. You know, as somebody I know that it respects really well is that the world doesn't need any more fairy tales, right? He was just a bad guy. Great hockey player, a bad guy. And this is not just a couple of little instances. This has been documented over and over and over again. And so I think that we did a really quality job with this. I think it is a tough, tough line to walk as a writer and a as a reporter and as a journalist. Unfortunately, Mark Lazarus has a lot of practice. And

in writing these stories because that organization has been so toxic in many different avenues here the last couple years with the beach and then the whole way that Rocky Words handled last year and everything. So it's a tough thing, but I don't think that we're doing our job if we don't tell the real human being and just do what everybody does when somebody dies. And that's just ignore the bad stuff and say all the great stuff and try to make them into a hero. And so I think this was the right thing to do. And I'm sure that the 750 comments were civil on Mark Lazarus' story. I'm sure it was just, you know, great, great stuff and really healthy debate inside that article. I read every one of them, right? Yeah, I totally agree with everything Michael just

said. The question you posed, Rob, how do we cover this exactly like Mark Lazarus just did? Yeah. I, when I saw his headline and I saw the tweet come out, I, as a, as a journalist, I would not want to be in the position that Mark was in. That is not an easy position to be in. That's a really tough. And like Michael said, he's been in a lot of tough positions and he handles it so well. I feel like after reading that story, I am better equipped to handle a, like if I were put in a similar situation, I'm better equipped to handle it than I was prior to reading

Lazarus's story. He told both sides of the story. And he kept going. And I loved how he kind of went back and forth, back and forth. this man was an amazing hockey player. Look at what he did. You can remember him for all these things, how he revolutionized the game,

how he, in a lot of ways, made it so that players could make the amounts of money they make now. But off the ice, he was a horrible person. And I agree with what he said that we don't expect, you don't expect the Chicago Blackhawks to, when they hold a moment of silence or whatever they do at the game. They don't need to announce over the loudspeakers that this man was a horrible person.

That's not their position. That's not their place to do that. in that setting. But Mark Lazarus is the person that should be doing that. And he did. And I agree with Mike. The only the only possible hole you could poke in it is the timing is should we give people time to, to, to grieve before you do that. But I agree with everything Michael said. It's when are you going to do it? Does it really matter if you wait one day? And in this case, if you don't do it, you know, in that one day, you're going to be batting bash by the people that remember the fact that this guy was a, was a bad man. And that's the thing. And to me,

his column was so fair, because you know that the Blackhawks and the NHL were having the same conversations behind the scenes. How do we handle this? And he just pointed that out. And, you know, what I don't like, and we saw, you know, we had Charlie O'Connor on recently after the whole pro ruff situation. And look, you know, although we're in a day and age where everybody bashes the media, we are just doing our jobs. I mean, that is it. We're not, you know, the people that say, oh, we're just throwing politics out there and all that. This is the story. And I just don't understand. Like, I did glance at the at the comments. And it just is so fashionable to just bash on reporters. And I don't know how anybody, no matter what side of the fence you are on,

if you thought Bobby Hull was the greatest hockey player in history, how you could read his column and then, you know, annihilate the writer for that column. I mean, to me, it was a, it was a perfect a column to get you to start thinking as a fan on how do you how do you um you know uh you know really take these two things um on the bobby hold the hockey player and bobby hold the human being and and try to um you know justify whether or not he should be honored the way that that we all thought that he would have been it before we knew all this bad stuff about it funny thing is he weaved he weaved it perfectly exactly what jesse said with the back and forth right there's no way as a hockey reporter, you could ignore that we're talking about one of the greatest hockey players of all time,

but you can't ignore the other aspect, too. And you talked about the comments. So I try my best sometimes not to read comments on controversial stories because it just gets me angry. But there were people who were just writing the hockey angle and people were saying, how could you, how could you celebrate a man who's done, blah, blah, blah, bah, bah, ban. And then there were people who were just writing the off-ice angle and the commentators, or the commenters would, you know, How can you ignore the fact that this is one of the greatest of all time, whereas Lazarus intertwined both. Now, you did mention, you're sure the Blackhawks and the NHL were having that same meeting at the exact same time. That's my next question to you guys.

What do they do? It's All-Star Week is coming up, guys. I mean, it's that, if this was anyone with, that doesn't have a checkered off-ice reputation, and checkered is a horrible word. I shouldn't use that of terrible off-ice reputation, we see huge tributes. do they do anything? Do we see the Blackhawks really do anything other than a moment of silence? I mean, their first home game, I believe it's February 7th.

They've got time to think about it. But I don't know what you do in this situation. If it were me, if I was making the decision, I would say the Blackhawks just do a moment of silence. And I don't think it needs to even be brought up during this weekend. That's just me. I don't think there's no, to me the only, like, I think it'd be an easy afterthought to say that, you know, hey, they ignored it.

And if you mention it, you're only just bringing on the debate. Like, I don't see any need to take a celebration for hockey and even acknowledge it. I mean, that's just me. I don't, I'm sure there's a lot of people that disagree. But look, I guarantee you Bobby Hull is not going to be the only hockey player that's played in this game that's died this week. Right. I mean, like, that's just the way that the world works. There's, you know, gazillion players that ever played the sport.

I don't think that there's any, any need to even bring it up at the all. All-Star game. I totally agree that the All-Star game, there's no place for it just because of everything. And like you said, all it's going to do is bring up the debate. And to me, this weekend's a celebration of hockey. In terms of how the Blackhawks handle, I think it's a lot more difficult. I think that's, I'm glad I'm not one of the people that has to make that decision. And I think that they definitely have to handle it carefully. Like I said, part of the, what I thought was so great about Mark's piece is he didn't tell you how you should feel about this whole situation. Yeah.

Because it's complicated. He basically said, it's hard to figure out how we should feel about this. And it is. It's tough. Like, he was a great hockey player. And he also was a terrible human being off the ice and did a lot of horrible things. And to, to, in the grand scheme of things, one is more important than the other, right? Yes.

Being a terrible person off the ice is way more important than being a good hockey player. But this is a hockey show and he's a hockey writer. So the two kind of end up being 50-50. And we sit here debating like, well, half of it's good, half of it's bad. But like in the grand scheme of life, it's not 50-50. One thing is way more important than the other. And being a good human being. But that's what people are arguing.

We should not even be bringing up Bobby Hall because of those terrible things. Whereas, again, I'm not saying they're right, they're wrong, but you cannot have hockey reporters not mentioning Bobby Hull's death. And you're right. And this is to varying degrees. I mean, I grew up just loving a good example is the Cosby Show. I can quote every line from the Cosby Show there is. When I found out what kind of human being Bill Cosby was, I haven't watched it since. You know, you just, you try to make those sacrifices.

this one was a tough one. I think the Blackhawks are in the toughest spot. I really do. And I, if for me again, I would just acknowledge it, have a moment of silence and move on. Because if they do anything greater, you're going to just offend people. I mean, to me, you know, I just, you know, the Hitler stuff is the stuff that I needed to be reminded of today. Because we've all known about the, you know, the domestic abuse and things like that. he had some good ideas he just took it a little too far like i was just in the holocaust museum last week when we were in washington i mean let's be honest hitler didn't have any good ideas okay he was just just one of he was the worst human being that's ever walked this this planet

okay and anybody that has even to me a remote positive thing to say about that um should not be honored in any type of way. And so to me, I'm trying to say this eloquently. I say give him his 10 seconds and move on and enjoy the game. Well said, we're going to move on to one more story before we go to break, guys. I know this is a podcast, so I will explain to the people who are listening, but we're also on YouTube. So this here is an issue of the hockey news from back in 1992 with one Gary Bettman on the cover with an HL hat and NHL Jersey and I bring this up for a reason. Today is an anniversary, guys. February 1st, 1993,

Gary Bettman officially took office as the first ever commissioner in NHL history. I want to bring up two stats that really jumped out to me when I saw this this morning. He has presided over 55% of all games in league history, which is crazy to me. That is very crazy. And 74% of current NHL players were born after the commissioner's first day in office. When you think Gary Bettman and his tenure as commissioner of the NHL, what pops into your head, Jesse? I mean, for me, it's, I've never known an NHL that wasn't Gary Bettman. He is the NHL commissioner.

I don't, like, I honestly have a hard time with these, like, how good of a commissioner is Gary Batman, how bad of a commissioner? Because to me, there's only one NHL and it's the NHL underg, very betman. I have no idea. I have no comparison of what it was before. I think when you look at hockey, there's plenty of positives that like the game has taken a lot of big steps under Batman. But I also think sports in general have become a massive part. Like I feel like no matter who was commissioner, hockey was going to take a lot of those steps. And when you look at hockey compared to other sports in America, especially up in Canada, obviously it's the biggest. But down here,

it's way behind. So I think that it's also fair to wonder if someone else could have possibly done better during that time just because hockey is not, to me, as a fan of hockey, it's my favorite sport in the world. I wish it was more popular. So when I look at it, I think he's done some awesome things. I think hockey's come a long way under him, but I also wonder what it could have been if it were someone else. Yeah, you know, I mean, I've, I've been long consistent with that. I think that he gets a much worse wrap than anybody for two reasons. One is his his his personality. You know, he could be condescending. His demeanor. I mean, there's no doubt, right? I mean, when he when he sits there and tells everybody with a brain and some eyes that that nobody tanks, I mean, that's the type of stuff that just prickles you to not like him. And I am somebody that has gotten to spend time with him. I genuinely actually like. them. I certainly respect them. I covered this sport in the 90s when the product was not nearly as good, when there were teams having major, major crisis. And I have seen this team grow. To Jesse's

point, I agree with you. Just the evolution of the world probably would have made it grow as well. This team, this league has still a lot of ways to go. To Rob's point, his first question was, what do you think of when you think of Gary Batman? I mean, the first thing that's always going to come into your mind is going to be work stoppages. I mean, that's just, that is going to be part of the legacy. There were three of them. Yeah. I mean, and that is going to be part of the legacy as well. But I do think that this is, I think that the, that the sense, I think that we're all in a position in all of our lives that we just criticize and criticize everything. And I am somebody that looks at the bright side of this sport and, to your point, love this sport and think it's an

incredible product. And I look at the leader of the sport and I say, well, he's got to get a lot of credit for that. And so that's just the way that I have loan felt. I'm more shocked that Rapizo has a 1992 hockey news just sitting there. And it just makes me so long for the day of that hockey news. Like I used to love picking up that paper and flipping through the actual newspaper and not a magazine type thing. And it's just that that used to be the best. Sorry. We're just going to interrupt you there, so Jesse, see, these, this is how we got our hockey news back in 1992 for you young people that don't know exactly. I love the hockey news when it was the newspaper. This was it. I love the fact that you could see every player's stat, albeit probably a few days old.

But yeah, this is one of those ones. Even I was, let's see, 13 when this happened, I knew, I knew enough to keep it. I knew enough this is one of those ones I got to put in a box and not throw away just for times like this. We're going to go to break in a second. Before we do, guys. I know you both probably want to throw a little something in here. On Tuesday for the athletic hockey show with Craig and Sean, they're going to be recapping the NHL's, excuse me, the athletics 99 project, counting down the 99 best players, because Wayne, we know is going to be number one. They're going to discuss some of the more controversial rankings because I don't care what the list is. People are going to disagree with it. That's what makes sport list so much fun.

So here's what you do. If you disagree with any of it, feel free to leave an email or a voicemail to express basically your opinions on the project. And they may get played on the show. So put NHL 99 in the subject heading. You could drop a voicemail at 845-4-4-5-4-9. That's 845-4-5-4-8-459. Or you can email at the athletic hockey show at gmail.com. Again, put NHL-99.

bitch and moan all you want. And the better the bitch, the better the moan, the better the chances of you getting on the show. You guys are both part of this. Quickly, your thoughts on the list. Jesse. Well, first of all, I, sorry, first of all, I think that we should give Jeff Domette's cell phone number away

to our illustrious producer and have people just leave him voice smells. Yes. Ringing it all times in the night. I think the list is awesome. I will say, like, at the end of this, it's going to be like a coffee table style book with all these stories, and I cannot wait to get my copy of it. It's going to be awesome.

These have been some awesome stories. In terms of the actual rankings, Rob already knows where I'm going with this. The goalies are not high enough. Come on. I, like, the story I wrote, well, I don't see. Jesse. But Martin Brodoer, Martin Brodoer is 21st on the list. He's first in every statistical category for a goalie. Now, I don't even think he's the number one goalie, But if there were a skater who were number one in every single possible stat, would he be 21st on the list? Not a chance. They need to have the goalies higher. That's my, that's my gripe with the list.

Do you agree that Haschik is one? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I would rank at Hashik Wabrodoer. I just think all three need to, need a bump up. Yeah, yeah. No, that was interesting. All right.

Now, this is extremely awkward. I'll probably get fired for saying it because I was part of the, I was. part of the, I was part of the rankings for it, but I didn't like how we did the rankings. I thought that I didn't like the whole process of it. I thought we, what I think that we should have done, I think we needed to open it up to more people with a pedigree of, of knowledge in hockey being part of the list, not just dinosaurs like me and Eric DeHatchik. And I think we should have had old timers that were not affiliated with the athletic, be part of the rankings as well. You know, call, the Scotty Bowman's, call the Lou Nannies, you know, call the Bobby Oars and people like that

be part of the process, not just, you know, seven or eight, a mix of young and older hockey writers at the athletic. So I just think that we could have had a better list that would have had more of, you know, I keep on losing my train of thought today because I'm looking at all these palm trees outside, Rob. But anyway, I hate your guts. I know, sorry. But, you know, I just think that we could have had a more of a base of of of of long time knowledge for the sport like even me who've covered I've covered this my 28th season covering the NHL I don't you know ranking that list it was at at points it just felt like a dart at the dartboard especially when you get below like 40 and 50 like like you know I did Mike madonos and I thought we had him completely

ranked poorly you know inaccurately I think Eisenman should have been higher you know even me personally like I would have probably, I probably had Bossy way higher than he ended up. You know, so I just, I just think it could have been a more accurate list. Russo, since you have problems, I have a suggestion for you. Pick up the phone call 845-4-4-5-8-459, bitch and moan, you'll get on the show. Coming up after the break, Jeff Chikrin, Jacob's dad, an analyst for the Panthers. We'll talk a little bit of everything, so don't go anywhere. Okay, so as we mentioned, just a couple of days away from.

the All-Star festivities beginning in Florida. So good time to chat with Jeff Chikrin, pre- and post-game analyst for the Florida Panthers. And of course, former NHLer. Jeff, how are you, sir? Very good. Very good. Thanks for having me, guys. I hope it's as warm where you guys are is where I am now.

It's not even close to as warm as you are. I know it's a podcast, but I just see the sun shining through your window. And it just angers me. It's so cold just outside of Toronto. But I guess I guess you get that benefit. fit, right? It's February. Yeah, it's supposed to be. We're going to talk a lot of stuff, Jeff. We're going to talk

Panthers. We'll talk our star. We'll talk everything else. But I got to start with this alumni game you're playing in tonight. Panthers alumni versus NHL alumni. And in our business, we're lucky enough to Russo to rub shoulders with a lot of former players who play in a lot of alumni games.

And former players have a lot of things in common. But the one thing I always find that's crazy, different for every player is how they handle these things. I've talked to players who said, I don't even know where my equipment is. I got to dig it up before I play. I've got other players who say, I still play, you know, in a men's league three times a week. Other players say, I got to get in shape. They try to, you know, they don't want to embarrass those. What kind of, what kind of alumni player are you,

Jeff? Have you been preparing for this or is this, do you know where your equipment is? I'm a tweeners. I'm a tweeners. I'm a tweeners. I know where my year is. I found it. I've used it a couple times lately. Haven't played a whole heck of a lot of hockey in the last year. But I know Danny Quinn, I saw it. He did a post. He hasn't touched his gear since COVID broke out. So there's probably a few guys. But I'm happy him and Ray Shepard are playing because I won't be the oldest guy.

I'm looking at this roster, Jeff. So we got, all right. On your side, you got Ryan Kloh, Trevor Daly, guys like Darius Casperitis. So you know, might get a little physicality and some diving on the same game. Marlowe fresh off the ice. Eric Nystrom, I covered here in Minnesota. Let's see. Tumorutu, pretty much fresh off the ice, and Pierre Turjan.

And then you guys got against David Booth, Brian Boyle, David Emma, Thomas Fleischman, Bill Lindsay, one of the great Florida Panthers of all time tag team with Tom Fitzgerald back in the day. Roberto Longo, Serge Pye, whose father was in the bathroom during his first NHL goal in Ottawa. Great Shepherd, Dennis Fittke, one of the great first round picks in Panthers history, Wrenner, Peter Worrell, Keith Yandel. Russo, hold on, hold on. Before you get to your question, should we not have a rule for how many years you need to retired before you're allowed to come out to an alumni game. I mean, Keith Yandel. Hey,

I'd be all for it. They call Merle just acted in. But I actually, I mean, I honestly, it's like I was telling me, Adelaon, the Florida Panthers PR person that I just wish I was, I came to minute, like, I'm coming to Florida for the All-Star weekend. I would give anything to be at this game to watch this because I just think it's going to be an absolute blast to see how you guys handle this, because there are, I mean, I think the competitive juices are going to come out in the game like this. I think it's going to be fun. It's going to be a lot of guys may have to defer to. I mean, I'm only about 26 years out of the game. So those guys that are fresh out of it,

I'm sure we'll find someone, some young legs that can chase them around. But it's going to be fun. I think they're having it at the ice den in the stadium. I guess maybe they could have had it at the Florida Live arena with the number of people. I've had a few calls lately people wanting to come in. So I think that's just a positive. And I'm looking forward to it. The ice stand is old Incredible Ice, right? That's what it used to be. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So you have been on this ice sheet for many, many, many years. You know, one of my favorite stories I've written at The Athletic is just the story that I wrote on your son, Jacob and Brandon Dooham, who plays for the Minnesota Wild. You know, you and Trevor Dooham, Brandon's dad used to coach these guys at Incredible Ice. We did. We did. I remember playing Men's League. Probably the couple years after I'd read.

tired and I saw this kind of young, a couple years younger than me for sure, right shot and he was speaking French. So I knew he was from close to home for me. He could really play that a white and yellow helmet on it. That guy's pretty good. Every time I poke the puck from him, I hear a little French curse word coming out of himself. Anyway, a couple years, well, not a couple We were probably a year later. We get, I get handed my assignment for, uh,

introductory house league team. And, uh, Trevor was my assistant coach with Brandon. So I was pretty excited. And we hit it off from day one. Uh, so we,

we able to, uh, the boys spent a lot of time of that rank, whether it was playing for us or doing academies or whatever was going on. But, uh, uh, just a great place to grow up.

Uh, recently had dinner with my son and Shane Gospa here in, in, uh, Phoenix. Those two didn't know each other because Shane's a 93. So it was a few years old than Jake and Dewey. But to listen to them talk, Michael, you'd appreciate this from George Nuccio to all the guys that ran incredible ice and Jeff Kampel.

And it was the same kid growing up, the memories they remembered from the pro shop to the academies to the wings of the bar up top. I mean, they were the same kid. It really made my heart feel good. And just even saying that I have all these memories of those. kids growing up. And that's the one thing that I think people don't realize that kind of, you know, they sometimes roll their eyes at South Florida. I think it's just going to continue to grow when you have all these retired players around, you know, the Oliokin just left. But I mean, you got Thomas Volcano and Radick DeVorek. And, you know, now all of a sudden we're seeing the Patrick

Marlow. We have tons and tons of Russian players that are moving down there and living there full time. I just think that hockey in Florida is just going to continue to grow the way it was when you were first starting there with a lot of these young kids that are now in the league. Yeah, without a doubt, and especially with the success, the clubs had the past few years, that just compounds it. I know the kids that, you know, my son's generation, they all saw that 97 team or whatever year it was. They went to the finals. They were all sort of their parents were bringing them to the ranks. They were, you know, a few years old and that just compounded the growth of the game for sure.

Along those lines, how's the all-star atmosphere right now? I'm sure. I know that, you know, we're at a point now in the NHL where even with the, the skills competition, everything else. Every city's kind of put their own, trying to put their own flare on it. And I know Florida's going to do a lot of that too. Without a doubt,

they had a big beach cleanup the other day. You're headed by Randy Moller and a lot of the staff. So that was quite interesting. They've got all kinds of events. I know outside the ice den today, there's going to be a lot of events. But they try to take a lot of things down to downtown Fort Lauderdale. And I should be a little more up on all of the events that are going on.

But it's been all over the news on the billboards. And everybody's pretty. excited. It's nice that the Barcov and Kachukuk are both playing in the event this year. I think that's really good for the growth here and well deserved too, quite frankly, I think. But it's going to be a great event for the league and the local hockey team. And the lightning, they benefit from all this as well. Jeff, you know, we talked about your day job as, or night job, I should say, doing pre-imposed for Ballet Sports, Florida. And obviously, it's been an interesting year for the Panthers.

You know, a lot of expectations, high expectations coming in after the President's trophy last year and, you know, winning a round in the playoffs, which they hadn't done since 96 and things like that. And it looked like they were starting to play better hockey. And then they go into the break, you know, dropping three of the last four. Where do you see, you know, but they beat the Bruins, right? Who's in a bit of a funk right now. So, like, where do you see this going now and the expectations as they come out of the break?

Well, I think there's a real trend to the positive of that hockey club right now. I mean, Paul Maurice has really stressed a lot of work from day one of training camp, like three feet from the boards, grinding things out and being on the right side of the puck, having that awareness. As far as the teams, they're a different club than they were. I was talking to the assistant coaches recently. And, you know, if you look at the third line, for instance, they lose Mason Marchment.

They don't have Landell play on that third line. It's completely different from what they were able to marches. out there a year ago. Matthew Kachuk has had a huge impact on the club, but it's just different. And the back end, I actually think they're more solid than they were a year ago. Brandon Montour took in that next step.

But from, gosh, it was actually, it was January 3rd as the coyote game here, where I thought the coyotes were really kind of pushing them in the second period. They ended up winning that game. And then they went on about a seven or eight game, I wouldn't call it a terror, but where their play was,

they really struggled to play 60 minutes, I found. And it just looked like they were really starting to make strides. They had that a little bit of a tough trip, as you're referring to the past four games where they lost in New York. They lost almost double digits in Pittsburgh. But I think the trend is really starting to step up. If you look at Barcoves play, I think he was injured at the start of year. Eckblad was injured to the start of year. Those two guys look a lot more comfortable. And you just see them, you just see where a guy like Barcov is able to have two or three guys hanging off them, you know, sort of playing those heavy minutes, really dominant in the faceoff circle.

And that's just sort of working its way down the roster. Kachuk, you got Verhege. And now you're missing players like Hornquist. You've got Anthony Duclair coming back soon. These will be like making trades for free guys coming back to solidify the lineup. I think things are going to really trend in the right direction the next two and a half months. I really do. I fight it with the fan base all the time because they see.

seem really negative right now. But I'm telling you, it wasn't very pretty when Quenville first got here, either that first year. And then year two, and it was much improved. So I really think that things are looking in the right direction. I think they're learning, I think case and point, that close game against Boston the other night, they weren't winning that game earlier in the year. Last year, they won four, three in overtime.

Last year, maybe they would have won that game, you know, eight, five instead of four, three, because they just outscore all their problems. They're learning to play those close games, in my opinion. I think that's been the real stress. And Moe's been trying not to slow down the pace that they play with. They really attack well through that neutral zone. So it's going to be interesting. They've got their work cut out for them, no doubt.

But I think it's going to make the next two and a half months a lot of fun. Jeff, you said the word comfortable. How comfortable is Matthew Cichuk looked in that Bantthers jersey? Wow. I mean, we can't speak enough about them, quite frankly. whether it's going to the dirty areas, whether it's, you know, he's not the fastest guy, but he looks like he's coming with some pace of the neutral zone. Maurice talks about him all the time, how he didn't actually fully appreciate.

And he coached against him a lot when he was in Winnipeg and Calgary, the actual skill level that he brings, the passing. The ability to create outnumbered situations that he does so often, whether it's just sort of taking a checker with him, even from the front of the net and creating something with a nifty pass through his legs or to someone open or obviously taking the goalies ice away. He's just done, he's affected the game in so many ways. I really struggle to see him to remember a player that's gone to a new club and had that much of an impact on him on a nightly basis,

extremely consistently. And so he's been a lot of fun to watch. watch. And I think the fan base really appreciate it. You know, team success, I think they're building on it. I really do. And, and it's going to get there. Jeff, I'm sure that you, on an everyday basis, go to all these trade boards around the NHL. Everybody has one now. Somebody might have moved up a spot the other day when Bo Horvett was traded. And I think his name is Jacob Chikrin. You know, I know that obviously we don't want to put you in any awkward positions. But, I mean, the one thing is Jacob's healthy now.

I think he's 11th in the league now in amongst in points per game for defensemen. I watched him play a couple games there in December against Montreal and Buffalo. I thought he was by far Arizona's best player. Where do you see this heading? And what is it, you know, how is he been handling, you know, all of the public speculation that it just comes with his situation? Yeah, it really does. Part of it, it's gone on for so long. We're almost immune to it at this point.

It's really not, I mean, it's out there every day. And, my opinion, as the father, I'd really love to see him have the opportunity to finally play on a playoff contender. I look at a lot of the guys I consider his peers on the blue line around the same age that have had, you know, I've had multiple runs in the playoffs and have had really great support. And, you know, he's really blessed to play in Arizona. it would be really nice for him to play on a club with an opportunity to sort of showcase what he can do at prime time. But, but, you know, it's, I think he's handled things really well. Last year was difficult with the new staff coming in.

But this year, his relationship with the coaching staff of Bill Armstrong, I mean, it's really good. And I think that in that regard, and to everybody's credit, everybody's, everybody's worked on things. And, you know, they all understand what's going on. And really, they just ask them go out and perform. I think he's done a great job doing that. I think it really speaks to my son's professionalism. His preparation, in my opinion, is as good as it gets out there. It spends an awful lot of time and resources on his, on his maintenance.

And he comes ready to play. And I think he's really, he's really. you know, when you go public like that, you really have to back it up. And I think he's done that and then some. And so as a dad, I'm really proud of him. I mean, because it's not a comfortable situation, but I think everybody's handled it extremely well from the coyote's perspective as well. So I'm, we're really fortunate in that.

Yeah, Jeff, can I ask one thing, Rob, I don't want to interrupt you, but, you know, like when he had that press conference during training camp, you know, is that something that you guys talk about right before that as a father, give him advice, because that was as forthcoming as I've ever seen a professional athlete. And I really set, I think it set the stage where almost he was now in control of, of at least getting his message out and not letting media run wild with speculation and why this and making up stuff and all that type of stuff. I mean, is that something that he discussed with you? Yeah, absolutely. And his agent and the organization, quite frankly ahead of time.

So I think it didn't catch anybody by surprise. And it just sort of the truth sets you free. And I think that was just that situation. And I, well, and, you know, maybe that's had something to do with, with, it's no longer a distraction, in my opinion. I don't think it's a distraction in the room. I think everybody knows that there's a trade probably looming. But his relationship with the core, with the players in that room, I think is excellent.

I still believe he either is the leader or one of the leaders in that room. And I think I think is a play show. But I think the truth sort of just let a lot of the air off his conscience. It's so difficult to go through, you know, a season and denying things when the rumors are out there. And it just, I think it was a really good thing to do. No matter how this plays out, I think the truth is out there. And I think the truth allows people to recover. And if you're constantly denying something or it's always going to be there.

But the truth kind of puts a nail in that coffin and just stops a bleeding. And okay, here we are. You know, let's go play. And I think it would be really good move. That being said, I like Rousseau and yourself, I go on all those rumor websites every single day and you see all the teams that are rumor. I try not to go on them. Oh, okay, maybe not. You know, you see the Edmontons, the Ottawa, the Buffaloes.

But the one thing that makes me laugh is Florida keeps getting brought up as well. I'm not trying to get you to speculate if he becomes a Panther, but how fun would your job be if he became a Panther? I would be, I think I'd truly become a professional broadcaster instead of a guy that play the game. I mean, listen, for him to play here, for Brandon Duhame or Andrew Peek or Chase Prisky, any one of those guys, Shane Gostis, where to come here and play, it's like a kid growing up in Toronto playing for the leaves, right? I mean, that's the team you grew up watching. And,

you know, I look back at Jacob and, you know, watch, you know, I used to tell all the boys, watch Jay Bowminster when he skates, you know, he's the best skater in the game, his head's always up. And you watch Dewey and you watch Jacob play. That's how they play. Their heads like this constantly. And they can both skate. I mean, you know, Oliocan, and was always here. They had a lot of time with Old Yolkin. And Corey Stillman was here for a while. And, you know, Corey's not with the coyotes right now,

but one of the coaches there. So it had a real impact. But for me, it would be unbelievable, really. He may ask me to retire actually. So much. But they're an exciting club. They got great ownership here. The fan base is, Michael knows.

It gets a bad reputation, but it's a really good fan base. And like most places, they appreciate it. you're winning. So yeah. Well, Jeff, as you know, I mean, look, when I covered that team, when they first moved into that new arena, I was in there in a hard hat. I remember when they was constructing it. And they acquire Pavel Burray. They're selling that place out. He's scoring 58 and 59 goals for the Panthers. You know, when you have years and years and years of losing,

any fan base, I don't care if you're in Toronto or Calgary or Montreal, you're going to just lose that. You know, there's going to be cynicism in the marketplace. And, and I think that's, the one thing that I think that fans that love to rip on the Panthers and their fans don't realize is that if they have a consistent success the way they do on the other side of the state, you're going to get the same type of rabid fan base in that arena. Without a doubt. Michael, I've been a season ticket holder since day one. I was still playing my wife's family. So we've kept them up. We have them to this day. So I saw those. Once Mr. Hising has sold the club, there was several ownership groups. None of them had, none of them could probably afford the hockey club. There were a lot of bad. and a lot of bad coaching decisions, in my opinion, some people that, you know, they heard one guy twice. And I just think some of those things, like you said, it becomes a trend and reputation goes a long way. And I just, they never, they were never able to gain traction. Pavel came in, had a, had a couple of good seasons and then the injury bug sort of bit him.

And it just never, never took hold. Now they're so blessed, I got Vinny Viola in there. He's got, it's a stable franchise. you invests a lot in the club and the people that work at it. And it's a really exciting place to be. And, you know, there's a lot of investment in the future of this hockey club. So, yeah, I think it's a complete different direction than it was. I mean, we had a lot of quiet nights as a season ticket holder.

You kind of walk in the building. It's like you almost knew they didn't have a chance on a lot of nights. So it's completely different, different model right now. And Jeff, you know, I wouldn't be doing my job as a wildbeat, writer to not ask you, we've mentioned Brandon Duhame several times on this podcast. You got to coach him. I'm sure there's just a pride to see him where he's gotten right now with the Minnesota Wild. What is your best Brandon Dooham story as a kid? Because you got to see him when he was just growing up into this very intense, very physical hockey player. Yeah. There's so many with Brandon. I mean, he was that

young kid that he always seemed to have street smarts to him. You know, from the time he was six years old, And, you know, he would, you know, he was always, he always had skill. He always knew how to sort of maybe, you know, skirt, skirt the law a little bit during practice, maybe. But he always, he could always really skate. He could always really shoot. And, you know, his dad was a bit of a skill guy. But with, but Treve like to drop the gloves as well, too. But maybe my favorite story was sort of at the end of our, end of our, our coaching.

Brandon, we were playing for the Florida Everblades. And as mom had told me, Brandon was going to go to British Columbia, I think his pursuit of excellence, one of those academies out the next year. So we were playing a tournament in Boston. I probably told you this one, Michael. And my dad came down from Otto. He's helping Trev and I on the bench. And Bart Wilson, so Rick Wilson's son,

Rick was my assistant coach with the Kings. He's running the Dallas start. team. And we do these showcases where we go into a city. We play a lot of games, six games on a weekend and like long periods, like 18 minute periods. And we obviously like cheap hotels and that type of thing. But we really wanted to maximize on the travel and the hockey experience. So my Florida Everblades teams, we were short bodies and we had a couple of inches. We were probably down to 12, 13 kids. Dallas was down a couple too. I think Seth, Caleb Jones was on that team.

So Bart and I were having this discussion. What are we going to do? Let's shorten the period. Let's go 14 minute periods. Okay, 14. We'll do 14 minute periods. Well, I bring this. Brandon's 13 at this time.

I go back walking into the room. Nice. Hey, guys, great, great idea. We're going to shorten the periods here. They're tired. We're tired. We're going to shorten the periods. We're going to go out of 14 minute periods for this game.

Dewe goes, coach. We can play 20 minutes. periods, those guys are going to be tired. Like, we couldn't possibly be tired. So I like, yeah, I'm like, yeah, by the third period. But that was him. He was a bit of a locker room attorney. And, yeah, just, just a great kid and so, so much fun to watch. And, you know, he brought it every night. Like, you guys are, I'm, I had no doubt on my mind, he could play further up that lineup in Minnesota. Yeah, I think he might, I think they're just going to probably be a trade in the offing here that's going to actually elevate them in the lineup soon.

So we'll see. Great. Yeah. Jeff, we're going to let you go in a second, but we started this conversation talking about the alumni game. So I think it's only fair that we finish talking about your career. I'm a hockey nerd. Anytime we have a former NHLR on, I love doing deep dives. I get into one of those webs on hockey reference where our sun leads two hours later. And I was diving into your career.

And the one thing I thought was just awesome. 262 games played 22 career assists okay but the biggest one had to be it's almost the we just passed the anniversary January 12th 1992 you look at the score sheet it says yari curry from wayne gretsky and jeff chikrin uh you are one of your 22 assists came as part of one of the greatest one two punches in history do you remember that uh i probably don't but i do remember uh leaving philadelphia and Dave Poulin telling me, hey, check, if you're ever in doubt, just give it to 99. So I probably came around the wall, threw it off the glass. Gratz picked it up in the neutral zone and feathered one to Yari and he went roof with

it. There's probably how that happened. But I can probably paint that a hundred different ways with those two. I was going to say, it's years later. You went end to end, gave it to Wayne, who just tipped it over to Yari. You'd take all the credit. The score sheet doesn't say how. Yeah, those two are nothing about the support group, right?

Exactly. And you were Carrie and Wain and Yari. Jeff, thanks so much for doing this. Enjoy the game tonight. Enjoy the festivities. We'll talk to you soon. Guys, thanks very much for having me. You have a blast tonight, Jeff.

Thanks, Michael. Thank you. Big thanks to Jeff Chikrin for coming on and telling stories the way only he could tell them. After the break, rapid fire. So don't go anywhere. All right, boys, are your favorite time of the show in mine, rapid fire.

Number one, we had an e-bug this week, guys. Matt Berlin got to go into the game with three minutes left. Edmonton, you know, had a big lead and they got him in there. Steve Wino, this is like great stuff for him. Remember, he wrote the book on the e-bug, which I guess they've changed the rule because in the past, they weren't allowed to do that. He talked about it in the book. anyone who doesn't like this is is like a grinch of some sort because I saw the

smile on this guy's face afterwards and it was like what what a moment for this guy and since Jesse only wants to ever talk about goalies we'll start with you yeah it's yeah it's great I don't think we can call it e bug it's just the bug right yeah it wasn't an emergent there was no emergency no that's right that's well 4 o'clock in the afternoon I think is an emergency for a 7 o'clock game isn't it yeah yeah yeah it was it was cool it was It was a great moment. It was good for him. I'm glad he got to make an easy little blocker save into the corner so that he can end his career with a thousand percent save percentage. Pretty great. Cool moment. I loved the old Canadian University pad set up that he had. It was really cool.

Like you said, I didn't think, I honestly, when they put him in, I was like, I thought that was against the rules. I thought you were only allowed to put them in if it was an emergency. so cool that they have changed the rule so they can let that guy get his 15 minutes of fame well i think what happened with that one is that they signed him technically to an ato before the game because stewart skinner was sick so he was uh he was the backup um all game um so that was the only difference there he wasn't like a technical ebug situation where he was upstairs um as long as i read that right because i was not watching but i saw all the online and i just think it was you know the one thing i do i do deep down wonder what the chicago black hawks

thought of it. I mean, it was a little bit of embarrassing thing. I would like to see Jesse Granger as an eBug. Don't you think he could be half sports writer? But then all of a sudden, if there's a pinch in a Vegas Golden Knights game for them of the opponent, Jesse runs down, suits up, and we just deal with not having a story the next day, or you can just write about yourself. Yeah, hell of a story. Our whole pod would be on that. I don't, I don't care if, if Wayne Gretzky is coming back to the NHL, we would only talk about Jesse being an ebuck. I think the biggest thing was what would be the reaction of the Vegas Golden Knights if either one, he was in their uniform or two, even more exciting in the other team's uniform and they got to shoot on Jesse.

Kelly McCriman might actually suit up for that game. I think they might all score their career high in goals, even if I'm only in there for like six minutes, not just because I'm not very good, but also the motivation. Yeah, it would be huge. The post game piece would be great. I spoke to Jesse after the game and he had this to say. said Granger. Oh, man, Disney like, I love it.

Rapid Fire topic number two. Ordinarily, guys, when we talk about Daryl Sutter in his postgame press conferences and quotes and stuff like that, we love it. I mean, I know I do. I think it's hilarious. This is the first time that we're really seeing a little bit of negativity towards something he said.

Jacob Peltier was called up and made his NHL debut. The one thing about Sutter that we do kind of know he's got a reputation for not necessarily. loving rookies very much. He was asked about him after the game, and he really played it up. He said, well, what number was he? And he's looking on the stat sheet.

He reads the stat sheet. It really felt like he was trying to keep someone down a peg on what should be the greatest night of your life to up until that point. I remember reading about it and I hadn't seen it. I went back and watched it, and I went, why are you trying to shit on this kid's first first game i i didn't get it would you think brisd yeah um you just because i like darrell sutter i actually found it kind of comical but then when you just think about the context and everything you just said it just it was needless um you know i don't i'm sure

after the fact you know like sometimes i just feel like he tries to do intentionally a deadpan comedy routine and just figured everybody would find it funny um and i bet you after the fact he probably realized that maybe he shouldn't have done it that's just my gut on it. Maybe, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he actually couldn't care less that that he offended some people. Some people thought it was just in bad taste. Um, I could see that point of view, 100% for me, because I wasn't in that room and didn't have to write a big feature on Peltier, because that's the other thing too. Sometimes, you know, Pete DeBore is great at this, right? Um, yes. You know, like sometimes you realize the writer needs to write that story and I'm just

going to give him what, give him or her what he wants. Or she wants a yes or no question. Even if it's a yes or no, you know what I'm looking for, right? Look, I mean, somebody, you know, let's be honest, especially in Calgary, you got multiple writers at games, some's doing the gamer, some's writing a column, some's doing a sidebar. There are people there that need to write a Peltier feature off his first NHL game. And you got to just, you know, just play ball, right? And so in that one, I just think that Daryl probably, you know, realizes, I would assume that he probably should have just played ball a little more. It wouldn't shock me at Brad Tree Living or somebody said to him after, hey, look, in the

future. Just come on. Just answer the question. Right. Yeah. Pete, Pete was so great at. Like, he, he understands what we're doing really well. And he would, like, give anecdotes or he'd tell a story, even if it's like something that he doesn't even care of. Like, you could tell he was doing it for the writer, so they could write that story. In terms of this,

the first thing I thought is, like, why? Why are we doing this? Like, he knows who this player is. Like, acting like he doesn't know who the player is. Oh, first of all, if he doesn't know who the player, is, he should be fired today. That's a problem. That's a problem. Right. Major, major problem. I remember Gerard Gallant when the Golden Knights first started their first training camp ever. And like, it was a brand new team with 30 new guys. We were asking him about players. And he's like, you guys, I don't even know their names yet. And this reminded me of that except for this is one player.

And he's making his NHL debut. You clearly know who he is. I'm just wondering, like, why? Why is, why are you doing this? Like, is it to shit on this player who just, like you said, had the greatest moment of his life. Like, if that's, I just don't get it. I don't understand why he did it. It makes no sense. If I'm the player, I'm like, what the hell, coach? Just makes no sense to me.

Unless, like Mike said, he's just trying to be funny and failed at it. Mike, my guy says that's funny. Yeah, unless he actually just didn't think he played a good game and wanted to be an ass. But that would be my guess is that he was trying to do a typical Daryl Sutter, you know, comedy routine. It'd probably fail. I think he was taking a shit.

Yeah, yeah. You know what great? What Jesse just said that reminded me is years ago, one of the writers in Minnesota asked Boudreau about a defenseman that he thought had a chance to make the team at a camp and was going to do a big profile on him because he was local, you know, from Minnesota and Boudre just goes who. And we were like a week and a half into camp. Bucro's like, who? What number? And I remember being done with that interview and I said to the writer, I'm like, you might want to pass on writing that story now. He's going to be a contender to make the team where a week and a half in the camp and Boudre doesn't even know freaking who you're talking about.

name or number. Camp is one thing calling a guy up like, come on. And again, I just look at it as there are certain moments in a player's career where, look, if this is a veteran and he plays like shit, rip him. Right. Give the guy's day. Yeah. But years from now, you know, that player is now going to have a story about his first NHL game

and how much he impressed the coach, that's for sure. Final rapid fire topic, guys. this one was an interesting incident that happened on the ice and spilled over into social media, which I know is Rousseau's favorite topic to discuss. During a scrum, Trevor Zegris said something to thoroughly piss off Troy Stetcher. What he said, we don't know, but of course, in the age of social media, everyone started dissecting every little frame to see what he said. There was speculation online that he had said something about Stetcher's father who passed

away a couple of years ago. It's since come out or at least that didn't happen. We still don't know. But it's amazing how something like this can just explode. All we do know is inappropriate comments were made. He got a 10-minute misconduct as well. Your thoughts on this whole thing because I found it, found it interesting.

Let's just stay at that. Russo. Yeah, I mean, he said something obviously that set Troy Stetcher, who I don't know, but everybody says he's mild-mannered into a rage. what is scary about it. And I do think that Zegris realized that he said something that put him into a rage that was inappropriate because even when in the box they paned to Zegris and you can almost see on his face that he probably realized that he went over the line. Oh, yeah.

And what it's scary to me, though, is, and look, again, what Rob just said is that both sides have come out and made it just very clear. They haven't said what he said. They've made it clear from Phoenix's standpoint that something inappropriate was. said, but Stetcher's not saying what it was, but they are saying that it had nothing to do with his father passing away. So that's good. But what is scary that I think all players need to realize now is that it is no longer what's set on the ice stays on the ice world that we live in. There are cameras everywhere. There's social media people that are trying to dissect every little thing. I don't like lip reading. I was part of a story years ago with Chris Grattan

that a Florida writer, beatwriter, tried to lip read something that he was said and it turned into a huge story and I still don't think it was accurate. It was a really defaming thing that was essentially written and reported about Chris Grattan. Luckily in an age of social media, so it was kind of buried. And the flyers completely denied it at the time. And I just think that now we are in this age where players need to realize that there are, one, microphones everywhere, but two cameras everywhere and that this is the world that we're going to live in. And so, you know, I think that this needs to be a, you know, a cautionary tale for not only Trevor Zegrois, but all NHL players that you should probably be very, very, very careful what is said

in the heat of battle now. And the other thing that I would say from our standpoint, media and fans alike, is to always remember that this is the heat of battle. And obviously Zegroes said something here that turned up into a racial moment that was probably inappropriate. but I think that we all always need to realize that, you know, if we had microphones that heard every single word on the ice, we would probably all be disgusted on an every night basis. And so I'm sort of all over the place on this, but I think that it just, we all need to

realize that this is the world that we live in now, and players better be careful. Yeah, I mean, you're all over the place, but you covered like every topic and you covered it great. I have nothing else to add to it. No, no, seriously, though. Like, the fact, like, these games have been televised forever, but not like they are now. Not with 1080P, high definition, 4K, ultra slow motion. We can slow your lips down. And so then you add all that onto, and now there are 7 billion people on Twitter watching this video to try to see what you said.

Like, I totally agree with your point that the players should take this as a lesson. Like, whatever he said, it was clearly inappropriate. it. And just the other, if you say something, if you say something that crosses the line and that, and that you wouldn't want everyone in the world to know you said, don't say it because you're, it's probably going to happen. You're probably, they're probably going to find out that you said. And just remember, like, you know, it's just like, you know, like, you know, we've seen always the YouTube videos of, you know, whether it's Chris Berman or O'Reilly, you know, that lose their mind, but it didn't know it was being taped at the time. Everything is open. Like, there are open,

there are mics everywhere. There's players that are now. miced up, you know, there's there's somebody in that truck that has the raw audio of what was said. And this stuff can get out eventually. Like, you know, I was just in the situation room and I don't think what even broadcasters realize is that they have, when they are not on the air during pregame show, and they're getting ready and they're doing all the weird stuff with their ties and joking around and all that stuff to the producer, every single thing that is said is in that situation room. So that stuff is being taped somewhere. And like, this is just the world that we live in now, even on Zoom sometimes, you know, we'll get off, we'll end this podcast and start shooting the

breeze. Well, until Jeff Domet hits recording stop, this stuff is being recorded. And so like, you know, we just, I think all need to realize, and especially in this day of age of cancel culture, you always one bad thing to say, one bad tweet to put out of your like career end. And I just think that this really needs to be a cautionary tale for all NHL players that you better freaking zip it. Well said. And since we have completely ignored the word rapid in rapid fire, when you added you to this show, I should have told you that there's no such thing as rapid fire with Russo.

Are you kidding me? 30 seconds or less. What do you working on this week? Jesse. All-star stuff. I'm excited. Going to Florida, going to talk to some non-Goldenites players as the Golden Knights.

players as the Golden Ice Rider. I pretty much talk to these guys every day. I'm excited to talk to some other hockey players. Yeah, same thing. We all, so Jesse Granger and Mark Lazarus and myself for covering this for the athletic. We have all a bunch of projects working on that you're going to see not just this week, but in the future. We'll be doing sights and sounds stories from the Allster game. We got an NHL player poll that we're conceptualizing right now that we're hoping to do at NHL Media Day. NHMedia Day is a bit hectic, so we hope that that works out. And then I'm working on a big feature on the Wilds assistant GM, Chris O'Hern. He is your prototypical get your foot in the door and then take it from their person.

This guy started as a stick boy for the Winnipeg Jets and the Phoenix Coyotes. Now he's assistant GM of the Minnesota Wilde working on a feature on him. And then we're all working on this project called Behind the Trade at the Athletic. And I just, I think my story is kicking off the series that will be starting here in February. I did it on the Jason Zucker trade to the Pittsburgh Penguins and all the behind the scenes. stuff that happened when he was almost traded to the National Predators, when he was almost traded to the Calgary Flames, and when he was almost traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins for the first time, and Phil Kessel wouldn't waive as no trade, that will lead off our blitz here.

And there's so much inside stuff into that story. I've already written in. It's already in and being edited. So I'm excited for that to kick off the series. A minute 12. You were a minute 12. But we love you, Rousseau. All right, guys.

We'll see you next week. I want to remind everybody out there of a couple things. If you want to get that annual subscription to the athletic, it's just two bucks a month for a year when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. And you can subscribe to the athletics YouTube page right now, YouTube.com slash the athletic hockey show. And we're going to be back tomorrow with Ian Mendez and down goes Brown. And remember, listen to Tuesday's show, write in, call in, bitch and moan about the NHL 99, what you liked or didn't like about the rankings. I think Broder should have been maybe 75, 76. I just wanted to piss Jesse off.

Big thanks to Jeff Chikrin for coming on. Russo, Jesse, and I will be back next week. Mike Rupp from the NHL Network will join us. So we'll see you in seven days.