The Athletic Hockey Show - Our top NHL stories of 2021, Brad Marchand speaks out about NHL involvement in the Olympics

Episode Date: December 29, 2021

On the Wednesday roundtable, Rob Pizzo from CBC Sports along with Sara Civian and Jesse Granger from the Athletic NHL look back on the year that was in 2021, tackling topics including the Tampa Bay Lightning winning two Stanley Cups in less than a year, the Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault scandal and Kyle Beech's redemption and the ageless wonder Alex Ovechkin,Plus the crew dissects the year that was for the controversial Evander Kane, Carey Price and Jonathan Drouin speaking out on mental health issues, the NHL pulling out of the Winter Olympics and the many coaching and management changes in the first three months of the NHL season,.The roundtable also addresses Brad Marchand's comments on the NHL and the players association's decision to pull out of the Olympics, the need for a best on best tournament to happen in place of the Olympics and why it took so long for the NHL and the players association to rework the CBA to allow taxi squad's with teams being decimated by positive COVID-19 tests.Finally, to wrap our year, we ask you to tweet us your suggestions for NHL New Years resolutions on this edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's going on guys? Welcome to the athletic hockey show. I'm Rob Ezel from CBC Sports, alongside Sarah Sivian and Jesse Granger in that weird week, guys. Sarah, I read your piece you just posted on the athletic about, you have no idea what day it is. It's that nether week between Christmas and New Year's,

where some people are working, and even if you are working, you're only working a couple of days. It's just that weird week. But I don't want to say Merry Christmas. I don't want to say, Happy New Year. How about just happy holidays? How are you, guys? Yeah, that works. I saw a tweet that was like this week feels like you're taking a vacation. Like, you just have to lean in to kind of just doing nothing, I think, because then it ramps back up for January.

I don't know. How are you, Jesse? I'm good. I was, to be honest, I was like pumped to be back at the rink for practice the other day. And like, even though it was only like six days without hockey, it felt like forever. And I think the fear of it lasting longer was like part of why. I was like, man, is this pause going to actually just be this? And like when I was back at practice, it was almost to like a relief. Like, okay, this season is actually continuing now. So I was excited to get back to work a little.

It's interesting for people like yourselves who cover, you know, a team on a regular basis. It's got to be a bit tough too, especially around the holidays, just not knowing. You know, I was texting a buddy of mine who calls games sometimes for the senators. He's like, I don't know if I'm calling these games. I'm sitting in a hotel room just waiting to hear. if games are going to be postponed. I mean, you really have never had to deal with anything like that, right? For sure. Yeah. And a funny story here in Vegas. We see like the players jumping into action when guys are out with COVID and like Pete DeBore was out with COVID. So the assistant coaches are taken over. The Golden Knights radio play by play guy tested positive for COVID like 24 hours before the broadcast. So the so Brian McCormick who he does the AHL games. He'd never broadcast. podcasted an HL game in his entire life,

flies down to L.A. and jumps in and did a great job. It was pretty cool. I do love that people are getting these opportunities and stuff. And I was talking to Antirontza, and he said, the Finnish celebrate Christmas on the 24th. So it was really nice. He was like, it's not really nice that the games are canceled. The 23rd, the game on the 23rd was canceled so he could be there in the morning with his kids.

It's nice that that happened around Christmas, I guess. Yeah, it's just what we talk about now. and you can add yours truly to the COVID protocol. I got, you know, we, we have certain restrictions here in Ontario where I'm based, and we tried following those restrictions. We did everything we could. But I got a call a couple days after Christmas from a relative saying that a couple of members of his family tested positive.

And I have since been knocked on my ass for a couple days. But the best part is, guys, I don't have to leave my house to do this. So I'm still doing the podcast. But I will say this. I, when, when I got the call saying, you know, some people tested positive, all I thought about was you, Jesse, saying, you know, so many people I know were asymptomatic. And 10 days, they, they quarantined and, you know, they felt nothing. I kept thinking about all the Netflix shows I was going to watch and all the relaxing and playing with my daughter. And then I remember that some people

are very, very symptomatic. So yeah, if I just like walk away for a few minutes, that's probably me just coughing up a lung. But we're going to talk about a lot. on the show today. All the news coming from this week, there is plenty we want to get to. But we're also going to do what a lot of shows do at this time of year, a year in review. The top, I think we counted seven stories of 2021. And it's an interesting, that's really been an interesting couple of years. Let's face it, because we've had some weird stuff happen.

Obviously, weird seasons, everything going on. So we're going to count down our biggest stories and get our opinions on that, as well as your Twitter questions and I can't wait to read some of these guys. New Year's resolutions for the NHL. But let's start where we've started every show for the last, I don't know, six weeks with COVID. You mentioned that the NHL started their Christmas break a little bit early. They were supposed to come back on the 26th. All the games on the 27th, all 14 of them were postponed on the 28th. Yesterday, one game was postponed, but there was some action. Jesse, you were working. And now we find out nine additional games are going to be rescheduled.

And that's because of the Canadian restrictions in regards to capacity. And I read Sean Shapiro's tweet, which I thought was interesting. Those nine games would cost the league and the players $30 million in HRRR if they just did it without fans. So I know, like I said, we've talked about this topic a lot, but I'm going to ask you again. So, Jesse, first off, how did it feel to actually be back covering a hockey game? and two, can we expect more of this? I know the league's got so much more leeway now that they're not going to the Olympics, but I just feel like it's a day-by-day thing.

Yeah, it was good to be covering a hockey game. It was a crazy game. It seemed like every game last night. Defense and goaltending was optional. It was 1985 last night. Right, right? I know. I actually, somebody out here tweeted that 1980s night.

And it's like, were the goalies not allowed to butterfly last night or like, whatever, it was. No one could stop the puck. But in terms of the COVID, I feel like they're using, I feel like if they didn't have this February off where there are no games, I don't think, I feel like they wouldn't be canceling and postponing games as flippantly as they have. I feel like they see that break. They think, okay, if we can possibly push this back and maybe make a little more money because we can have more fans in the building, that's why they're doing this because of the Olympic break. I feel like if they didn't have that gap and that leeway, they wouldn't be postponing these games. It's just, they're in such a tough spot. I look at what the NFL does and what the

NBA does and it's, and you, you, you want like the NHL to just do that. But it's so different with seven teams in another country that has different laws. And like, you're just a sports league. Like, you have no control over that. They're in such a tough spot compared to the other major sports leagues in my opinion. Sarah, what do you think? Well, you know what would have made everything a whole lot easier if they made taxi squads available way earlier. That's what Rod Brindamore was saying. I asked him his thoughts just about them reinstating the taxi spot and what the hurricane strategy is going to be. He was like, yeah, first of all, we probably would have been able to play through all these games if we had a taxi spot at first.

But I don't know what took so long. And then he said that, no more $25,000 fines for him. He said that very respectfully. But the philosophy is still, you don't want to have all these guys where your top prospects just sitting around. So you might not see like a full taxi squad from some of these teams, but it's so much better to be able to have like Freddie Anderson's on protocol. So they called up their HL goalie. Like it's just so much easier. Well, clearly the NHL listens to the Wednesday roundtable edition of the athletic hockey show because they decided to alter the CBA, at least temporarily.

After the All Star break, as of right now, this won't be the case. But as Sarah said, now they have a taxi squad. They've got players that can follow them around so that if someone. something were to happen COVID-wise, those players can jump in. And they no longer have to play that ridiculous, short-handed game before having those emergency call-ups. And Sarah alluded to this, Jesse, what the hell took so long? The NHL was treating COVID like it was any other injury.

And unfortunately, you can't because of the fact that, you know, something we've talked about so many times in the show, some players are just asymptomatic and they're fine for 10 days. and you're forcing teams to play shorthand. I think part of the reason may have been just the money-wise. I mean, so you have to pay these taxi squad players. And from what I understand, and it's a bunch of legalese, but that's coming out of the players pot of money, not the owner's pot of money.

So these players already have all this escrow that they're going to have to pay back in the next however many years. And the league, I mean, they're postponing games so that they don't lose money on attendance. They're not raking in the money right now, exactly. Like the, like there are not dire financial times, but they're not in great shape. So I think maybe as crazy as it sounds, maybe the taxi squad that it took this long because they didn't want, and like, they only did it through the All Star break. Maybe that's just because they didn't, that's just, it's not a ton of money. These players aren't making in the millions, but it's like when you add it all

up, if it was all season long, that's a lot of money that's coming out of the players pot. interesting. Yeah, it just, it just seemed ridiculous. For me, it was that short-handed game where if you're short-handed, you got to play that game before the emergency call-ups made no sense to me. Like you said, Rod Brindamore really pushing on that. So they made those alterations to the CBA. And then one Brad Marchon jumped on Twitter to not only reference that, but he's kind of mixing all the things we've talked about over the last three weeks. We should have him on. Yeah. Let me just read his tweet. Yeah. Read the tweet.

Let me read the tweet that we can get into how much we love Brad and Marshot and everything he says in this. So, quote, the NHL and the NHLPA can change the rules of the CBA to add a taxi squad so they don't miss any games and don't lose any money, which has already been agreed upon that the players will pay back in escrow until the owners are made whole from what they lost during this pandemic, regardless of how many games are missed. Yet, they can't do a taxi squad during the Olympics so they can honor the agreement they made with the NHL players to go, please tell me that's not bullshit.

And for all of you who want to pipe back about forfeiting pay while being gone, yeah, no problem. Let the players make their choice. End quote. Let's dissect this piece by piece. First off, Brad Marchand, Sarah, you were about to say he's just, you know, as much as players say they hate playing against Brad Marchant, I read this. I'm like, oh, this is awesome.

Yeah. I'm not only because it's awesome because he's speaking in his mind, but he's giving us some great material during this holiday week to talk about on the show. And it's like the Robin Lunner situation where I'm sure he talked to his peers about this and came to this conclusion. And for me, oh my God, it was insufferable to the discourse on Twitter about this. First of all, we want people to speak their mind. And then it's like, oh, not that guy.

And like, people kept missing the point to me. I think it was a principal thing for me. Like they had agreed to something and that was breached. So they need proper reimbursement in a certain way. And I don't agree with them going to the Olympics necessarily, but I do, they did agree to this, right? Like, I don't know if that's the right choice to send these guys to the Olympics, but it's something they agreed upon.

And I feel like people were missing the point. Like, I was like, speak your mind, Brad. And people responded, like, they shouldn't go to the Olympics. I'm like, that's not what this is about to me. What do you think, Jesse? Yeah, I think it, you mentioned it, it kind of, this is a look into how a lot of players are feeling. And hockey players are notorious for not speak in their mind, not saying things against the grain. And not just that, but like Eiserman's comments

about the testing, Riley Smith here in Vegas came out and said, I agree with that. I don't think we should be testing asymptomatic players. I think players all over the league are frustrated, very frustrated. And I think it takes a lot of frustration for them to get to this point because we don't see hockey players talk like this very often, speak their mind, say that they don't think things are being done in the correct way. And we've seen a lot of that in the last couple of months. And I think it just speaks toward the overall feel of these players when they're all talking together amongst themselves is frustration with a lot of different things. It's just so ingrained in hockey culture. I mean, I even remember as, you know, a Canadian kid.

playing road hockey. We would pretend we were doing interviews on Hockey Night in Canada. And what would we all say? Oh, you know, we're going to give 110% get the fucks in deep, good bunch of guys in the room and good Lord willing, we're going to come out with the W. Like it's don't say anything that can rock the boat. And you're right, Sarah. If this wasn't Brad Marchand, if this was somebody else, I think it's taken completely different. But because people don't like Brad and Marchion, they want to attack it. Here's my question. So, He said that they didn't honor their agreement. And this is something I thought of the day, the day that the NHL announced that, yes,

we're going to go to Beijing. They said, but there is an out clause that we can pull out if the COVID situation gets worse. But they negotiated with the players in the CBA that they will, quote, try their best. Is that not the vaguest thing you've ever heard in your entire life? I'm not a lawyer, but I guarantee you in any law book. there is no section called try your best. To me, that is, as soon as I heard that, I thought, no chance they're going. It almost feels like when you asked your parents, hey, can we go to McDonald's tonight?

Oh, we'll try our best. We'll see if you, you just knew it wasn't going to happen. So my question is, Sarah, you brought a breach of contract. I'm wondering, did they or didn't they? Because the one thing I know about contracts, you read it, sometimes they're almost comically accurate with everything. there's no room for interpretation. Try your best.

To me, there's a ton of room for interpretation. My next question is, what's going on with the NHLPA? Like, okay, so they needed to negotiate this harder, clearly. Was it just no budging from the owners or in Gary or was it? And then now, like, did they not fight hard enough for this to like keep happening? Like, who is the leadership of the NHLPA? What are these discussions like? I want to know about that.

Yeah, 100%. I was joking with Rob about it off the air. but imagine if the players had written something into the CBA to the owners saying, we'll try our best to do whatever it is. The owners would have said, absolutely not. That's not happening. We're rewriting this. The NHLPA just kind of went along with it is what we're assuming.

Yeah, it's, and even if you want to argue, like, did they try their best? Well, they introduced a taxi squad, which is being paid for by the players, by the way, which Marchand references in that. And Marshan's 100% right. If you're, if you are trying your best to let us go to the Olympics, which is what you told us you were going to do, why not let taxi squad players fill our roles while we're going to the Olympics, considering we're paying for it anyway. Like, like it's coming out of our pot of money. Let me go do what I want to do in the Olympics. And you can fill my spot with the taxi squad player the same way you are for COVID.

You know, I've seen that argument a lot over the last couple of weeks, kind of comparing it to soccer. In soccer, they don't stop a damn thing. there's some sort of international game. When they have World Cup qualifying anything else, you know what? The leagues move on and those players are on loan. That situation was never even brought up or discussed, at least anybody I know, where you'd say, yeah, the best players in the world are going to head over to China. Hey, the NHL moves on.

You get your, you get to call up X amount of players to fill their spots. I wonder if that situation will ever come into play or is it NHL shuts down, go to the Olympics or bust. I mean, would you guys be in favor of that? Or do you think then that the fans kind of get robbed of, you know, their best players? I am totally in favor of that, but I don't think the NHL has enough money. Like, there's not enough popularity or money for that to happen. Like, even in the, in soccer, like their tier two players are still like worldwide celebrities.

You know what I mean? And it's kind of like, that's just not the case with the NHL yet. Could it get like that? Yeah, but I do think it's kind of on the owners and on the NHL, the market itself, better, like use its money better, you know? I don't know, Jesse, what do you think? Yeah, I agree. I think it's just like, like Rob said, it's not something we're used to in hockey, whereas in soccer, it's just kind of normal. It's just the thing. It's just the thing in soccer. Yeah. Like, nobody's upset when their best players missing because he's playing for his international

team because that's just how things work. Right. Like, I think it could become that way in hockey pretty quickly if that's what happened. I also think that COVID has, we're they're playing without star players every night. And like the games are still hockey games. Right. Like it's like the Golden Knights in Tampa Bay at one point in that game, the one right before the break, they were missing. The players missing from that game were a superstar squad. Like it was Alex Petrangelo, Kuturov, Mark Stone, Robin Lennar. Like it was, it was an all-star squad. But the game was still very entertaining. So I think maybe these last two years have taught us that like, yeah, missing your, your one or two star players on your team for a couple

weeks isn't the end of the world. Those games aren't ruined. Yeah. And actually, you look at last night's game with the habs and the lightning. I mean, the habs were a skeleton squad there too, but they put, it almost became like a Disney movie type sort of thing cheering for the underdog, right? It just kind of, just, it's interesting, but it's funny. This is the first time I ever heard that even brought up as something that I think makes people raise their eyebrows, but like I said, they do it in soccer. they do it in other sports. We'll have to wait and see on that one. But then Connor McDavid came out and called it disappointing

and called for the NHL to have some sort of best-on-best. And I know we kind of dissected this every which way last week. But is this where we're heading? Are we heading towards a World Cup? Are we heading towards some sort of tournament, probably in September because fans just want to see best-on-best international hockey? I would love this. And it's like back to my point that I think that it's not necessarily,

about this Olympics. It's about they need something after they agreed upon doing something like this, right? Yeah, I would love for a World Cup of Hockey to become like half as popular as the World Cup of Soccer, like for hockey fans. Like, it's not going to become as popular worldwide because the sport isn't. But I mean, I want the World Cup of Hockey to beat a hockey fans what the World Cup of Soccer is to soccer fans. And the only way to do that is for it to be consistent every four years, every two years, whatever you're going to do. It has to be that. It's not going to be that way, off the bat. Everyone wants it to be this illustrious, like, oh my God, you won the World Cup. Like, no, if it's the first one, it's not going to be that way. You have to do it consistently. And then 20

years from now, everyone will love the World Cup of hockey. It'll be this, like we mentioned, you can't add the Olympic gold medal to your, to your Hall of Fame career. Maybe winning the World Cup of hockey can be the equivalent of that, and they can do it out of season so they don't have to worry about loaning players or pausing the season. And we can get best on best. Like I said, it takes time. It can't just automatically be as amazing as the Olympics. But I do, I hope we get a World Cup of hockey that's consistent. I think it's a great point. I think it's going to take a lot of time.

I think a lot of people are short-sighted and they look at past World Cups and, you know, oh, well, we're doing it this year. Oh, it's going to be delayed. It's going to be this. There's got to be a level of consistency. There's got to be every four years we do this. And if that happens and there's situations where they don't send players to the Olympics, it doesn't sting as much.

Right. Right. It doesn't sting. You're like, okay, who cares? We've got the World Cup coming up. And that's the big thing, right? We got the World Juniors going on right now. COVID affecting that as well.

Team USA had to forfeit their game against Switzerland because of positive tests, which is, you know, it's in Edmonton and Red Deer in Alberta, but a lot of people thought given their situation with the bubble and handling the bubble that they were going to be able to keep it out. The first time I saw that news, I thought, this is not good when you've got to to start postponing games in a tournament. This isn't a, this isn't a league. This isn't a long 82 game season where you can say, let's stick it here, let's stick it there. This is going to be a mess, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, it's, they've created somewhat of a bubble up there, right? And it's like, you don't have a long time frame. Everything is kind of crammed in there. There isn't space to

reschedule games. I think that one was was convenient because it's early. It's not affecting like the standings yet. But if you're going to set that, precedent and then you get a game later in the round rob and suddenly this game will determine who's making X round or whatever and you're just going to forfeit it. Like I said, I think it was convenient to do it for this game, but I think you're setting a precedent that could like completely wreck the tournament. Yeah, it worries me. And my boy Chris Peters referred to that bubble as a quasi bubble and said they're still at a hotel with other people. There's fans and stuff. And it's just like, I don't know how much of a bubble. I feel like you either have.

a bubble or you don't, you know what I mean? It's like, I don't know if you can call something like a quasi bubble. But the Bobfather tweeted this morning that nobody tested positive that like there's no new positives there. So that's a good sign. It just does seem like it's a matter of time, but because we've seen how this thing is so contagious. But we live to see another day, I guess.

So how many things, how many times can we talk about how certain things are just an illusion? No. Right? Like, well, it's a bubble. Costing. Kind of. I mean, it's not a, I mean, not a real bubble.

It's a pretty weak bubble. Like, well, then it's not a bubble. You know what I mean? As much as like, look, when the Stanley Cup playoffs were in that bubble, everyone hated it. They absolutely hated it. So they're trying to make people happy and say, we're going to do a bubbleish sort of thing. It's just not going to happen. And it's going to get in.

If we've learned anything, the person you're listening to right now, if I could get it, anybody can get it when you're playing against people, when you're playing in front of fans and you're playing everything else. So one more thing before we go and want to get a little bit of your opinion on this, but this is more. If you want to hear a lot about this topic,

I really want you to listen to yesterday's edition of the Athletic Hockey Show with Craig Custin's and Sean Gentilly. John Van Biesbrook named the GM of Team USA for the Olympics. I read it. I said, what the hell is USA hockey thinking? This is a guy who has a history of blatant racism against one of his players.

That's just my opinion. I think it's nuts. I think USA hockey's been misstepping on this for a while now because he's been with them since 2018. Opinions on this one, guys, are you guys with me? Or is this one of those things where, you know, I have seen a lot of people online say he made a mistake. he's paid for his mistake. Let's move on. I'm not one of those people. Yeah, he did not make a mistake. And

there's no room for ambiguity here. He called his player the N-word. Like, it doesn't get more racially racist than that. Like, that is just unacceptable. And then they fired him because they knew it was wrong and now they have him back. So I guess they're saying, okay, it's actually fine because they're running out of people because the guy who covered up sexual assault and then the guy who covered up sexual assault before him, both had to go. Like, that's also, it's so, it's so much worse when you look at their history of hiring. It's like, it's just disheartening for anybody who is a hockey fan. What do you think?

Sarah nailed it in terms of if this was like a one-time thing, then it's a little bit of a different story, but this is clearly a pattern. And also, I think it's a case of, like, we've seen coaches this year fired for way less. and I think if that happened with him in this current environment, it wouldn't even be, it wouldn't even be a discussion. He'd never coach, he'd never be the GM ever again. So I think he is, this is a product of people forgetting that that happened and the team hoping people forgot that that happened.

And just it's not as recent and it's not top of mind. It's completely ridiculous that they hired him. Is there no better? Is there nobody better to look at? That was one of the things. I was about to say, like, really? Is this the bottom of the absolute barrel? Two, the thing that bothers me, I like giving people second chances when they've made mistakes. Again, this is not, like Sarah said, this is not just a one-time mistake. But I have to feel as if they show a little

contrition. And the quotes I see from John Van Biesbrook anger me in ways that I can't even completely put into words. I mean, he's never tried contacting any people. about this, he's and says, well, he can contact me. Uh, I, I know what? Yeah. Are you, are you kidding me with this? Um, if, if, if you do something wrong to someone, how is Trevor Daley now responsible for, for contacting you?

If somebody insults me, I'm not contact. Like, it just, um, and he, and he's constantly saying, I've paid the price. I've, anytime someone says that about themselves, they don't believe they're wrong. So, yeah, like I said, go once, of course, once you're done listening to us, go to yesterday's edition of the athletic hockey show. Listen to Sean and Craig talk about this because I thought it was a really great discussion. And obviously, a lot of people are in very much agreement of this. Coming up after the break, 2021 is almost done. God, I hope 2022 is better than 2020 and 2021.

But we're going to go through the top hockey stories of the year. We've got some good ones. We've got some bad ones and we'll break them all down right after the break. Okay. So I love this time of the year, this weird week that we talked about earlier because you just turn on the TV and you just see best of lists nonstop. Best bloopers of the year, best goals of the year, best everything at the year. And I love it.

Like it's just that's because a lot of times, especially in sports like hockey and basketball that kind of overlap the actual year, you forget. You're like, oh my God, that happened within this. year. And I think a couple of the stories that we're going to talk about in this segment kind of fall into that category. So guys, we've got seven of the top stories of the year. Let's go through them. These are in random order, too. We're not putting these as number one, number two. These are just seven stories that we kind of considered the biggest stories of the year. And we'll start with a good one, the Tampa Bay Lightning, winning back-to-back cups within one calendar year. Are we ever going to see that again?

I know it was a special circumstance. I know we're in a pandemic and that's why. But that's just pretty damn incredible. Yeah, it's going to take till the next pandemic, which at this point, I feel like it's just right around the corner. Whatever the next variant is, right? I'm glad this story made the list because I like talking about like positive hockey stories every once in a while. And this is awesome. Tampa Bay.

So we love hockey because of its variance and because crazy things can happen in an eight-season. Los Angeles Kings can go all the way and win the cup. And Montreal last year can go all the way to the cup final. Like that's part of why we love hockey so much. But also, it's nice when the best team just kicks everyone's ass every once in a while. Like it makes you feel like, like, I don't know, there's, for me, there's something that I like like, holy crap, this team is just better than everyone. And they just slaughter the league for, and like, and the thing is, like, they've been better

than everyone for like four or five years. And it was nice that they were finally, like, they deserve back to back cups. That team is so incredibly talented. I like all the players on that team. I like watching them play. I was like, I, I know it's weird to be, like, happy for a team going back to back, but I think it's good that Tampa Bay finally won after being so talented for as long as they were. Noted Tampa Bay Stan, Jesse Granger has spoken.

I love it. Nobody can stop. And then you got Vasilevsky who Rod Brindamore would rave over. And like you just can't, you have to be legitimately better. It's no luck involved. You have to be better than them to pass them. And nobody could do it for two years. But I do think it'll happen again.

I mean, we just saw it with the penguins relatively recently too. So we'll see who's next. I'm glad Jesse brought that up. I love dominance. I like what a good. team a good athlete. Like, I loved when Tiger was unbeatable. I loved when Roger Federer.

No one could touch him. I like dynasties. I want to see a team win four cups in a row. I'm not the guy who cheers for the underdog. I don't know. I just like seeing, like you said. And don't forget, this team could have won three cups in a row. I mean, they stomped all over the league three cups ago.

I don't, I feel weird saying years and seasons now because it's been so weird with the pandemic. But, yeah, they stomped all over the league three seasons ago, then got bumped in the playoffs pretty, pretty embarrassingly. I just like seeing it. I want to see a good dynasty. I want to see because then eventually when that dynasty falls, it is a big deal.

Right. You know, that's what I like. I liked when, you know, the penguins with Mario got eliminated by the islanders. I remember that like it was yesterday thinking, holy shit,

someone just beat Mario and the penguins or when the oilers finally started to go down. That to me is great. but I'm with you, Jesse. Like, I like seeing just an unstoppable force do what they're supposed to do. And for me, the second cup even had a little bit of that feel good in me because Stephen Stamco's had to feel like that first cup really wasn't his cup. Yep. He came back for that, what was it, seven minutes and change in that one game.

He scored. He scored. He scored. Great. But then that was it. And while he's on the team, the second one felt like, you know, you, we're a part of this cup winning team. So I kind of had, even for a team winning back to back and stomping on everybody,

I kind of had the feels on that one too. Also the fans. There were no fans. They're in the bubble. Like that cup was, it counts. And like they were the best team in the league. And in the record books,

it counts. But for the players, it's not the same experience as winning a Stanley Cup with fans in the stands and doing like all that that entails. Yeah. For sure. So, yeah,

unless we have another pandemic or this one, this variant just keeps, going around. I don't think we'll ever see two in the same calendar year. Just, just incredible. Story number two, unfortunately,

we got to take a hard turn on this one, the Chicago Blackhawk scandal. Of course, Kyle Beach coming forward with accusations of sexual abuse by their then-coach in 2010, Brad Aldrich. Third-party investigation comes in. A lot of heads rolled.

And Kyle Beach finally gets some I guess validation, some, you know, finally gets the backing he's been looking for for so long. And we talked a lot about this when it was going on, guys, but just maybe looking forward. I mean, what do you think the NHL and teams, or what do we hope the NHL? Let's put it that way, because I'm not sure it's necessarily always going to go that way. But what do we hope the NHL and teams have learned from this situation? Sarah, we'll start with you. Accountability and to nip things in the bud right when

happen like take everything seriously and that's why I kind of look at this not the story itself in more positive light but the fact that it came out because I remember at the time people were saying oh it's one thing after another in hockey like what's next but it's just kind of like no it's good that these people are telling their stories now and the stories are getting out now like it's tough to go through a reckoning but without it these people will never get justice it was nice to see Kyle Beach get a semblance of justice and support from the hockey community right jessey Yeah, for sure. And I think you hope that like the hope is that this story is when you look back on it 20 years from now is like that's when things shifted. It's tough to give a league that all this has happened in for so long the benefit of the doubt. But I mean, you look at the Bob Murray situation that happened kind of right after it and it was one like Sarah said, get it before this becomes something horrific, nip it in the bud. Get this. Don't just push these things under the rug and push it to the next person. So. So you hope that that's the start of the trend and you hope that we look back and see this as a reckoning and not just one of many things that continues to happen.

And you know what? I'll fully admit that I'm a little guilty in that as well. Like I remember this story has been around for a while. This was not a new story. And I remember it just kind of being on my radar with every other hockey story I was covering. And then when it kind of exploded when, you know, the Blackhawks had their press conference and, you know, Stan Bowman lost his job and everything. That's when everyone really started to pay attention.

And it may be kind of think, myself, even as somebody in this industry, you can't just put these stories in with everything else. You know, they're far too serious and far too important. And for me, one of the most emotional moments, I'll just say it, was that Kyle Beach interview with Rick West Head on TSN. I watched that thing and I was I was like distraught. I couldn't believe. I just couldn't imagine what this poor guy had to go through for so many years,

not only with what happened with Brad Aldrich, but nobody believing him, nobody backing him, nobody his career being derailed because I just, and I just, like I said, I think I said this on the show when we talked about the first time. I just wanted to give him a big hug and just say like, man,

I'm sorry. This just sucks for you. So I'm hoping things like that are what we remember. Like you said, Jesse, I hope years from now we're going, remember that interview. Remember what this guy had to go through. So the next time somebody comes with some sort of accusation, GMs and coaches aren't in a room going, but you know what? We got a big game tonight, guys, you know, because that's basically what the Blackhawks did. Yeah. And it took someone like Rick Westhead kind of refusing to. to let the story die. So it makes me take a look at the way I cover sports too and to make sure that if I ever hear any sort of rumor or something like that, you actually do the due diligence and look into it. Yeah. And that was one thing I wanted to wrap it up with people like Rick Westhead, people like

Katie Strang, you want to give a hat tip to somebody. I couldn't imagine covering a story like this for as long as they did and the depth that they did. I mean, that's just got to be. We had Katie on the show. And in case you missed it again, when you're done. this one, just go back and listen to it. She got emotional because this is, this has got to be a tough story to cover.

So I hope people, I hope this doesn't just become a 2021 story. I hope we talk about it for years to come and use it as a learning tool. So stuff like this never happens again. That was story number two. Story number three is kind of an ongoing story. It's been going on for about 17 years, actually. Alexander Ovechkin, just doing Alexander Ovechkin type things. I think a lot of people are now saying it's not if it's when he becomes the all-time leader in goals passing some guy who wore 99 on his back.

I've given up trying to explain what this guy's doing, guys. He's defying age. He's doing it consistently. Are you both in agreement? As long as he stays healthy, is this happening? for sure he's definitely I mean as long as he stays healthy like to me that's really the only

question is like as you get up there in age sometimes injuries start to pile up and suddenly you can have not you're not playing anywhere near enough games each season to get it to me that's the only way Ovecgen doesn't break it because he for one he's scoring at a ridiculous pace

and for two the rest of his game isn't falling apart the way we all kind of expected it would not I shouldn't say fall apart but like we all expected him to be out there just to score. And he's not going to be getting all the assists and be playing the defensive zone as well as he has. So, I mean, the fact that his overall game is, we talked to Tarik, is almost getting better. Tells me that, like, you're not going to need to take him off the ice at any point in the next few years because of the lack of everywhere else on the ice.

He's going to score a ton of goals. Yeah. His game is like he's like he wanted to prove everybody wrong and he's like yep I am going to get better at literally everything and I think it's so special to kind of have this year with ESPN and T&T with Gretzky kind of commenting on it I think that makes it even more fun and obviously Gretzky is so classy that like he's just covering it with grace too and I think Ovechkin just has so much fun and I think that has something to do with it right like he just enjoys hockey you can tell he just lives for it go getting on the ice every day like being in the silly commercials too and having a personality. Like you can tell he's like a kid out there.

And I do think that counts for kind of longevity. Well, I think longevity is it, Sarah. He's in his 17th season. And, you know, Jesse alluded to the fact that you're supposed to slow down when you get older. He just hasn't done that in the same rate in which the people he's chasing have done. I mean, he's in his 17th season. He's still battling for the league leading goals,

led the league he's led the league in goals like on double digit amount of years but you look at like when the last time Gretzky led the league in goals was in his eighth NHL season think about that Ovechkin's in his 17th

that's ridiculous that doesn't make sense as much as Gretzky had his huge peak early on in his career because let's face it he played in the highest scoring era in the history of hockey no one went from 600 to 700 goals faster than Alexander Ovecgen. No one went from 700 to 750, you know, faster than Alvin.

Like this is, he's doing things now faster than everybody else at the later point of his career. And that's what leads me to believe something that I thought, if you asked me, it was two, three years ago, it said, uh, 894 is a lot of goals. But it's just going to happen. Like, and that's the other thing, you mentioned about Sting. healthy. When is Alexander Ovechkin never hurt? Right. Because he's a tank because the guy is I mean, he's built like a semi-truck. He's never hurt. He's not slowing down. It's unless he decides to just say, oh, I'm done. I'm retiring or he gets hurt. He's going to do it. But he wants to do

doesn't he? I mean, I don't know Alexander Ovechkin, but every time he gets, it gets brought up, he's just, he wants to do it. He's fun. I love Sarah's. I love Sarah's point about how much, how much fun he has. And like, I feel like everyone in hockey is rooting for him to do it, like, which is rare. And I, and there's almost no, like, you almost never see negativity around the entire, like, and it's hard to find a topic on Twitter where you don't find negativity. But this one, I feel like everyone just kind of likes, I mean, I guess I'm not in Pittsburgh. Those fans probably aren't huge fans of Alex Ovechkin, but like the fact that he won the Stanley Cup, I think is huge. Because if he was doing this and hadn't won the cup, I think there would be a lot of, well, yeah,

but he never won anything. He can't beat the penguins type of. There would be that like sarcastic tone to all of this. The fact that he got the cup and the fact that he's doing all of this and he's having fun, like Sarah said, I think it's so easy to like Alex Ovechkin and Rue for him to do this. There was a long time, Jesse, where he was going to retire as the best player to never win Stanley Cup. Oh, God.

And then I kind of changed the narrative entirely, I think. I don't know if that's fair, but it did. I mean, I guess it's kind of fair. but there was always like Sydney Crosby was always going to be like worlds better than Ovechkin. And now the conversation, I still think Crosby's a better overall player, but I do think the conversation has shifted. For sure. And you're right, Sarah. I love that Gretzky's commentating on.

I remember on Gretzky's opening night as a broadcaster, they did the double ender with Ovechkin on the ice. And you heard Wayne Gretzky say, hey, Alex, it's Wayne Gretzky. And he had this almost like childlike look at it like, holy crap. Gretzky, the same way like anyone would say, look, if they suddenly someone said, hi, Wayne Gretzky, you know, and that's the funny thing. Like, I've had the, I've been pretty lucky I've had the opportunity to, to deal with, with Gretzky a few times professionally. And he says that.

He says, hi, Wayne Gretzky. And you feel like, no shit. I know you're Wayne Gretzky, but he's just that type of guy. Like, hey, Wayne Gretzky. I have a funny story about that, actually. I was interviewing Wayne Gretzky for a story I wrote a couple years ago on the first outdoor hockey game ever played. and it was in Vegas at Caesar's Palace and Gretzky played and it was a preseason game and the

Kings were in it. And he called me and he called me from a California number. And that week, I was getting like a ton of spam calls from California. So I'm like eating at a restaurant and I get a random California number and I don't answer it. And then I like in the restaurant, in the restaurant, I like pick up the phone and like the voicemail. And it's like, hey Jesse, it's Wayne. I'm like, wait, wait, it's what? I literally did. Didn't tell anyone. I'm sitting at a table with four people. I got up, didn't say anything to them. Got up and ran outside to my car where I had my laptop so I could record the interview. And I interviewed him from my car. And he was just brilliant. He was amazing talking about this game like 30 years ago or whatever. But yeah, it was that. That was my hey, it's Wayne moment. I got a great hey, it's Wayne moment too. Now that you said that, I got to tell this story. So I'm about two weeks into my CBC career. I'm hosting Hockey Night in Canada radio with myself. and Elliot Friedman. Jeff, who's our producer here,

was the producer of that show. And our next guest that we were supposed to have on, Bales on us, says, I can't do it. I'm sorry. So I do what any radio host does, says, hey, we're going to open up the phone lines.

Give us a call since our next guest can't make it anymore. We go to our commercial break. All of a sudden, Elliot's phone's buzzing. And he looks at it, and he kind of laughs, and he picks it up.

And it's Wayne Gretzky saying, hey, I was listening to you guys. If you got time, I'll come on. Oh my God. Amazing. Elliot looks and me and Jeff and says, Gretzky says he'll come on.

And we said, yeah, I think we got time for him. Now, you guys have to remember, I have a good Canadian kid who worshipped everything Wayne Gretzky did. And this was my, this was me popping my Gretzky cherry. And I remember we go to break

and then Jeff pops in my ear and says, okay, Gretzky's on hold. And Jeff, to his credit, as a good producer he was, He saw that I suddenly got super nervous. He looked at me and said, calm down. You're all good.

And I said, so I got to interview the guy I worship since I was a kid on about two minutes notice. And it was, it was great. And after we were done, it was one of those, what the hell did I just, what the hell just happened? We went from, hey, give us a phone, give us a call, one triple eight, blah, blah, blah, to now let's welcome the greatest player in the history of the game to the show. So yeah. Now, Sarah, you're turning to got a Grattsky story. No, but I had the opportunity to meet Bobby Orr once in Florida, very young in my career, and he's my favorite player of all time, and I ran away because I was so nervous. I wasn't ready. I was like, I can't do this.

I'm not. Sarah. I know. I'm not proud of it. I'm sure he'll run into him at some other time at the BV&T Center. Oh, wow. It's not like Bobby Orr's just kicking around all the time where you're like, oh, I'll see him tomorrow. You ran away.

Anyways, yeah, so we're going to wait to see if Ovechkin can pass that. And you know what, Wayne Gretzky has constantly said, if he does, he will be there to shake his hand. We're not going to go too much into number four because we've talked about it for weeks and weeks on end. But it is a big story of the year. NHL pulling out of the Winter Olympics, COVID just wreaking havoc on the schedule. And some of the players did say they feared going, not feared. They were, say, apprehensive about being stuck in China for fun. five weeks.

Anything else that we haven't said about this topic in four weeks, guys? Sarah's shaking her head. It's our favorite discussion of all time. I think we've said all we can say. Yes, it doesn't make sense for them to go, but it's sad they can't go, et cetera, et cetera, right, Jesse? 100%. You nailed it.

Number five, Penguin's sold Defendway Sports Group. John Henry, of course, the principal owner. They own the Red Sox, Liverpool, you know, NASCAR team. got a lot of money and they purchased the team and, you know, you look at the majority owners in Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, bought the team for $107 million and sold it for a lot more, upwards of $900 million. Mario himself, remember, they owed him a lot of money. They were on the verge of bankruptcy.

And he finally just said, okay, give me a piece of the team. And he turned that piece of the team, which was about $20 million into about $360 million. Not a bad little investment story. I know Mariel wasn't crying poor before this, but not a bad little investment story for number 66. Yeah, definitely. And I think it's good for the league. I think there are certain teams that when that market is healthy, it's better for the league overall. I talked about this back when this story was kind of happening.

I always look at these reports I get an email for about like TV ratings when the team involved isn't in the game. So just which cities are watching hockey, even when it's not their team. And Pittsburgh is almost, Pittsburgh and Buffalo are almost always wanted to. Pittsburgh and Buffalo. Yeah, I mean, Buffalo is never involved. So like if you're going to watch hockey, like in the playoffs. So, but, but to me that, to me, that's a sign of like a healthy hockey fan base that like, I think some, some markets can explode when their team is awesome.

And then they, they don't care when their team isn't good. I think Pittsburgh is a good hockey market. And the fact that that team was in such trouble shows you that it wasn't always that good. So, so I think more than anything, it's good for the league that that city is, is back in love with hockey. Yep. Good success story. Sydney Crosby didn't hurt. Flurry Malkin, yeah. The Pittsburgh model as, you know, Brian Burke didn't like to hear, but yeah, but you really, it's, the model is draft a superstar to save the team from bankruptcy. It happened with Mario and it happened with Sydney Crosby, right? But man, that team's worth a lot of

money now and Mario and Berkel and everybody involved certainly cashed in. Story number six, Evander Kane. It was not a good year to be Evander Kane in July. His estranged ex-wife Anna posts on Instagram saying her husband was betting on games on his own team and throwing games with bookies to win money. Of course, the NHL investigated that. She also accused him of sexual assault on multiple. instances of domestic battery.

Then in October suspended 21 games for submitting a fake vaccination card, was put on waivers. He cleared, reported to the barricuda of the HL. He has since switched agents. He's looking for a trade. I don't know what else to say about Evander Kane, but I asked you guys this when he got that 21 game suspension, if we would ever see him, at least in a shark's uniform again,

we all agree no. I'm just wondering, is any team going to want to take a shot with the baggage that comes with Evander Cain? It's just unbelievable. Like when you really think about everything he did and like at the timing of it too, it's like I think a team might if he has shown he has gone to therapy, anger management.

And like I'm just thinking I don't think they should, but I think they might if he's shown growth. But I just don't think he will after all these things he's done. What do you think, Jesse? Yeah, I agree with you. And that it's a trend that he just makes the wrong decision way, way, way too often. Not even included in those stories was like it was, I think it was more of a story here in Vegas. Like he owed all these casinos in Vegas like unpaid gambling tabs that he had unpaid to the point where when the sharks were playing the golden nights in the playoffs, they were wondering like, are the casinos going to go after him for this money when he comes to Vegas for.

two days to play this game. Like it's a, and then you hear all the stories about when he was in Buffalo and, and it just, and in Winnipeg. And it's just too much of a trend of making poor decisions in so many different aspects of life. Yeah, I'm going to have to wait and see. Like I said, I just can't see a team being desperate enough to say all of that baggage. Yeah, we can, we can take it on.

Like you said, it's just, it's not one mistake. It's not two. I said earlier, I'm a fan of giving people a second chance. I'm not a fan of giving someone like a. a 10th chance. Like he's right out of chances for me. Story number seven, Carrie Price and Jonathan Durenne being pretty damn brave,

at least in my opinion when it comes to mental health issues. And I, you know, coming forward and saying, I need help and getting the help they needed. And Jesse, I want to start with you because I can't help but wonder how much someone like Robin Lennar has paved the way for this.

It wasn't that long ago. isn't even one of those in the old days. It wasn't that long ago when somebody saying, I need help because of mental issues, mental health issues, be it anxiety, anything else, was looked upon as a complete weakness, toughen up. You know, this is hockey. You're not helping your team, blah, blah, blah, whatever cliche you want to use. I can't help a wonder, you know Robin Leonard and you've covered him for a while,

how much he's paved the way for these guys. Yeah, and I'm kind of in the, like, this is top of mind for me because I've been talking about on the show for a few weeks. I'm writing a really, really big Robin Lennar piece on the impact he's made in the mental health community. And one of the one of his main messages that he's always kind of championed is that so there's a statistic out there that some mental health organizations use saying one in five people deal with mental health issues. And he and the organization he works with same here absolutely despise that because they think it kind of turns it into a, well, 20% of people have it. And then the other 80% don't and you don't have to

worry about it and you're not one of those people who has it. Whereas they like to, Robin likes to think of it in terms of the same as physical health. Like we're not, no one is perfect in physical health. Sometimes you're doing good. Sometimes you're doing bad. Sometimes you go through things and then you get better and then you're back to being normal. And that's how mental health should be viewed. And I think Robin Lentner's gone a long way to to making progress toward that in the fact that Kerry Price can say, I have to deal with this. Druin can say, I have to deal with this. And then you can go get the help and people are actually improving their lives, getting the help they need, becoming better, and then coming back and being the person that they always have been. Whereas before, when you think,

man, if I say something, it's, I'm going to get this label and now I am the mental health person that has issues. Whereas, like, that shouldn't be the case. It should be just like a physical injury. You broke your leg, get your leg fixed, you'll be back to normal. If everyone in society, and not just hockey players, if police officers were allowed to do that without being fired because they have mental health issues, if fire, like name a position. If society viewed mental health through that lens, I think we'd all be a lot better off. And I think Robin Lennar is doing his best to try to help that along. 100%.

Totally agree with that. And it's really disheartening sometimes to see the responses to Robin Lennar's tweets about this issue because sometimes you realize how many people just aren't there. But the only way we can get there is just keep talking about it. So I'm so glad like these guys that are tough guy mentality. positions and like apparently have it all are coming forward saying like you can have it all technically or whatever and still be it's like a brain function like you're if you broke your arm like you've got to check yourself and I do appreciate them so much for kind of bringing that

conversation to the forefront and being bright because it's not you have to be brave enough to kind to be the mental health guy you know what I mean and have people talking about you and judging you and that can hurt a lot in the public. But the only way we move forward to society is people doing this. It's not only talking, it's educating. And I'll fully admit that even as, you know, as early as a few years ago, I didn't really understand mental health issues the way I do now. I didn't. I understand that a lot of people looked at it as a weakness. And I've dealt with people who were dealing with mental illness years later. And I look back at the way I handled that. I hate myself for it.

And, you know, I'm not going to bring up specific names. I remember, no, honestly, okay, I remember, again, I'm not going to bring up a name. I used to host a show. And this person called me an hour before our show and said, I'm dealing with some stuff right now. I'm dealing with my anxiety. I can't. And all I remember thinking was, you're leaving me friggin hanging an hour before a three-hour show.

That's all I thought about. I was selfish because I didn't know. And this was a while back. This wasn't, you know, this was many. years ago, but I didn't know. I just looked at it like anxiety, toughen the hell up and get on the get to the studio. We need to keep not only talking but educating because I think I personally think a lot of people might be in the same boat that I am or we're in that same boat where they don't know that this is, you know, this is what's going on. And I've been lucky enough to get to know certain

people who have dealt with certain mental health issues. Kelly Rudy, I consider a good friend. and, you know, Corey Hirschoff talked to a lot about these sort of things. And when they talk to you, even off the record, you just, you feel awful about the way you, you viewed it. And so, you know, when Robin Lennar says, it's okay not to be okay, when arguably the best goalie in the world says, no, I'm not going to start the season. I'm going to go get help. It's a great step.

And we just need to keep us, Sarah said, talking about it, but not only talk about it, but but just educating people and letting them know that this is not what you think it is. This is not, I don't feel like working or I don't feel like going to practice or I don't feel like it's a serious, serious issue. And I think seeing with Carrie Price with Jonathan Dren and specifically what Robin Leonard is done. And I'm really looking forward to your piece, Jesse, because it's changed a lot over the last, even just the last few years.

Final story of 2021 is kind of got a bunch of different layers. coaching and management changes. If I told you that six teams either changed their coach or GM, you probably, and I said, what's the reason? Well, the team wasn't winning. That's the way it's always been. A team doesn't win. Somebody's head is going to roll.

But you look at all the teams that had to make coaching or management changes or made them, they were all for just so many different reasons. I mean, obviously Chicago is Stan Bowman. We talked about it, the Black Hawk scandal from 2010. Vancouver, their choice. changes with coaches in GM with Travis Green and Jim Benning, just enough was enough. Winnipeg, yet Paul Maurice stepping aside himself saying the team needed a new voice. Joel Quindville in Florida with the Black Hawk scandal, Alain vignon, the Flyers were just

underachieving badly. Bob Murray stepping down after accusations of misconduct to employees. To me, it's interesting that we've had six different teams make such huge changes and it wasn't just a blanket. well, yeah, their teams weren't winning. Something needed to be changed. Sarah, what do you think? I think not to get too deep, but I feel like that's just such a reflection of all the

changes everybody's going through in the past two years maybe. Like Maurice kind of wasn't pulling the passion anymore. Then there's like multiple different reckonings we're going through and then change for the sake of change. I feel like that pool of people that have changed is just so reflective of maybe what other people like in society are going through right now with like they're just changing careers and the time of change, I suppose, right, Jesse? I don't know. Did that make sense? Yeah, no, I completely agree that. And it almost feels like we're going through this list.

We just went through six things. And then you said, and look at all these different coaching changes. And it feels like you were almost kind of like recapping the list, right, Rob? Like, all these changes are a reflection of the crazy year that this has been. It's been crazy for hockey. It's been crazy for the world. It's been just a crazy year. And I think that, That's how you end up with six teams changing coaches and GMs for six wildly different reasons. Yeah. And, you know, hopefully we slowly get to a point where a lot of these things just kind of go back to, you weed out the bad just to get back to a point where, you know, good old fashioned,

your team is a win and the coach is fired because that's just the hockey we've covered for so long. So there you go. The eight stories that we thought were the big ones from 2021. If we missed any, be sure to let us know on Twitter. Speaking of Twitter after the break, your New Year's resolutions for the NHL. I think some of these answers are going to be pretty interesting, so don't go anywhere. That time of year, guys, New Year's resolutions. Do you have any New Year's resolutions?

Do you even do New Year's resolutions on a regular basis? Sarah? Yeah, I do dry January. I'm going to do that again. I've been drinking a lot lately. I just got to re-calibrate my body, you know, got to be. feeling better. What about you guys? So it's just to prove you, it's just to prove you can. Is that why? Just like just to make sure you can still go a month. Exactly.

Do you genuinely, do you feel better after the month? Oh my God. So much better. Then I'm like, why do I put poison in myself all the time? I don't know. So maybe it'll be. And then one day into February, you're like, oh, yeah. Yeah. This is fun. I really don't do New Year's resolutions. Like I feel like I will do a resolution. Like I'll come up with something like I need to do this more or I I need to like lately I've been running a bunch. But it's never like I never time it with January because I feel like why wait like I'll start my resolution in December or whatever. So I do like try to try to like make a mental note of doing something more often or better. But I don't really do it in the for the new year. What about you, Rob? Not really. I try every now and again. There's

one that I've I've done multiple times that I need to really just focus on. I'm terrible at getting back to people via email, sometimes even text. Like someone asked me a question. I'm like, I'm busy right now. I'll respond later. And then like three days later, though, right? Like, Rob, can you respond to that? So I've always said to myself, like, I want to be better at just responding to people.

One year, I remember what I did was I said, I made a, it was more of a promise. This isn't really a resolution. And you guys don't deal with this as much because you're both American. In Canada, we have a lot more coins. Like, we have a $2 coin and a loony. And I said, at the end of the day, regardless of how many coins are in my pocket, I put it in a big jar and I don't touch it until next January 1st. And I had like $1,000 by the next year because you break a 20.

Usually they'll give it to you all in tunis and loonies or whatever. So that was a good way to like try to save money and I was annoyed because you'd look at that jar. I'd be like, I need money, but then you'd end up going. Some people argued that I was spending more money anyway because I kept going to the bank machine. So we asked you called tunis and loonies and loonies. Yeah, a looney is a single coin, and then we came out with the $2 coin, so they call them a tuni. Oh, stop in looking us. And we asked, so we have monopoly money, too, by the way.

I tweeted out once. People that's so mad. Yeah. My problem with Canadian money, and I don't use it often, but when I'm there is like, do you fold it? Because it doesn't fit in my pocket. But our money, we can just fold, and it folds very easily. But in Canada, it's like, I almost feel bad for folding it. Like, is the next person that gets this going to be like, who the hell folded this money?

Yeah, that's relatively new. too, like this new plastic-y type money that we got, it's, I fold it. I don't give it the next person. Is it still legal money? Yes, I'm folding that damn stuff. So as an American, I feel like I'm like, this damn American is coming up here and folding our money. Yeah, but then when I go to the States, I'm always worried about accidentally giving

someone like a 10, what I'm supposed to give them a one. It all looks the same to me. It does. So we asked about NHL New Year's resolutions. Jonathan Conrad said, move the coyotes to Houston to complete the 2021, 22 season as the Houston arrows, man, going back there, the Houston arrows. But interesting, that was one story. Maybe we didn't put in our 2021 recap, but the coyotes in their mess, which is going to continue.

That's one of those things that it's, I'm curious to see where the heck are they going to play next year and can they pay their rent and taxes? Yeah. So to me, like, and I'm in relocation is kind of like, it's been a top. here in Vegas because the Raiders moved from Oakland and I saw what it does to a city when they lose a team that they love a lot. So like I'm always anti-relocation, even though Houston does sound fun and it's a huge market and like there are tons of reasons to move out of Arizona and they're having a bunch of issues. But at the same time, I'm always anti because there may not be a

ton of coyotes fans, but the ones that are there love that team and it would be horrible for them to lose their team. Yeah. I'll go ahead. I was just going to say it's sad. nothing Ryan Dutasik says NHLPA grows some balls and allow players to go to the Olympics

if most of the NFL players just got COVID or currently on COVID protocol they should just have the antibodies to not contract the virus in China. The NHL needs to

showcase their talent on a world stage. Well, we've talked at nauseam about that one. Dennis Beecher says end the offsides review. Are you guys a fan

of the offsides? review, Jesse, or looks like you're shaking your head? I'm at odds with this one. I honestly don't have a strong opinion because I see both sides. Like I, when they first introduced it, I'm always a let's get it right. If it's right, it's right. That's how it was. If he's off by an inch, too bit, like too bad. He should have been offside. After watching it happen and goals getting taken off the board for things that happened like, like when it's right on the rush, I totally get it. But like when it's the entry and then they score five minutes later because they've had the puck in the zone for that long. It's brutal.

So I don't know, man. I don't know if I wanted or not. Sarah? I was always back in the day, like, passionately against this. But now there's just so much going on in the world that, like, I don't really have the time to care about this. Like, I don't care. Keep it or don't. Like, that'll lead some of my problems.

Wow. That's a way around the question. I do. Yeah. I think it should, they should. eliminate it, yes, but I'm not going to make a sign in lobby outside of town hall about it. What do you want, Rob? Do you want outside or no?

I want Sarah to give you an answer. Eliminate it. Eliminate. No, look, I'm with you, Jesse. I'm very much. Like, I like reviews. I know some people don't like reviews. I think we could do reviews better.

I hate when a review is happening and we already know the answer. Like Rob's sitting on his couch. Yeah. knows the answer yet it takes forever for it to happen like have somebody as a video review coach who immediately will just radio down to the referee it's a goal it's offs we know sometimes five to 10 minutes before an actual um you know call is made but yeah it hurts sometimes when we are literally talking about you know inches offside and let's face it the rule was made because of some just super egregious off sides that were missed.

Yeah. And it's turned into like fraction of an inch being offside. That's not what the spirit of offside is. So yeah. But I'm with you, Jesse. I'm on the fence. You can't get rid of it and then bitch and moan. Right.

If there's a missed offside. A missed offside. That's three feet offside, you know. So anyways, that's some of the New Year's resolutions. Someone else was asking about getting, you know, the two different political responses on COVID on the same page with USA and Canada. I don't think we have the answer to that one. So we will just move on.

Guys, last show of 2021. Now, Jesse, we know you're working on the Robin Lennar piece, which we're all looking forward to. Sarah, you got anything on 22's docket we should be looking forward to? I'm finally going back to Raleigh tomorrow. I'll probably get some content when Kopennymi scores a hat trick tomorrow against Montreal. And then I just did a mailbag. There's 10 hurricane prospects in the WJC right now. So I'll probably talk to somebody about that.

We'll see. Guys, happy new year. Happy new year. Happy new year. We'll see you in 2020. And we'll get into all of the stuff we've been talking about because I guarantee most of these topics ain't going away. Want to let you guys know about some of the other great hockey coverage we got on the

athletic hockey show on Friday. Max Baltman and Corey Pranman update the time. 22 World Junior Hockey Championships from Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta on the prospect series of the athletic hockey show. So plenty of good hockey coverage there. Thanks again for listening to The Athletic Hockey Show. And you know, I say this each and every week. And I see it because we meet it. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a rating and a review. And you can subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcast to get all of your bonus content from our entire network. You start with a 30-day free trial. Then it's just

99 cents a month after that. Right now, you get an annual subscription to the Athletic for just $24 a year when you visit theathletic.com slash hockey show. The Athletic Hockey Show continues Thursday with Ian Mendez and down goes brown. For me, Sarah and Jesse, have a very happy new year.