The Athletic Hockey Show - Ovechkin on the edge of goal scoring history

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoe marvel at the season, and legendary career for Alexander Ovechkin, who is now 4 goals away from setting the all time goals scored record in the NHL. The guys take a look at the biggest game of the night in the NHL with the Leafs and Panthers battling for the Atlantic Crown, the 10 game heater for the St. Louis Blues and why it probably doesn't matter, and what the new 12 year, 11 billion dollar Canadian TV deal means for your team.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff Domet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. What up, what up? It's the athletic hockey show Wednesday edition. I am Sean Jensili. I am here with Sean McIndoo. There is no Frank Carrado this week, unfortunately. You folks are stuck with me again. DGB, what did I miss?

Not so much. I was gone for a few weeks. Yeah, not too much. No, it's pretty much the same. I don't know. The St. Louis Blues, one. last game. That's about it.

I'd heard some stuff about the maybe putting together some kind of streak. I'm sure we'll talk that a little bit down the line. I also have a new Canadian TV deal to discuss. That's important whether you think it is or not. But where we're going to start is where everything seems to start in the NHL these days, at least for me personally. I say from Raleigh, North Carolina, where I've picked up the Alexander Oveskin Chase.

our guy scored last night, four goals away from passing Wayne Gretzky, scored out a nice little tic-tac toe in front of the net against Boston. It was early too. I thought maybe we were going to get another one.

But Sean, what's the chase been like? And that's such a boring question, but I'm going to ask it anyways. What have you seen over the last couple weeks from your vantage point? Because that's almost literally

the only thing I paid attention to while I was out was Alex Ovesk. I got the cat. casual fan experience for a bit. Yeah, it's, I did find myself doing that thing last night where I flipped over to the, the Caps game when the goalie was out. Oh, yeah. You know, and, and was stunned that he did.

He got a shot. He got a long range shot off. He was out there. He was out there for two minutes, dude. Yeah. It was, it was, it was insane. By the end of it, by the end of it, I was like, he's got another, he's old. He's got other game to play today.

Like, how much, how much, how much long are you going to keep? him out there for. I, you know what, rest him in the first period so that he can play the full two minutes with the goalie out. I feel like the mat still works on on that being a plus play. Yeah, had the long distance shot last night, but he missed. You know why? Guy just doesn't have the touch. He's just not. Some guys just have it and some don't. And I've said that. I said that about him from the start. He just doesn't have the nose for it. He doesn't have that, that particular little extra bit that you see you from been saying it for 20 years and he's proven you

right finally yeah what's what's the buzz in Carolina like when you walk down the streets is it just everyone are people stopping you and oh buddy oldetchkin questions we should we should say for people who don't know you're doing every ovechkin game and the weird thing is it's it's not a work thing you're just voluntarily on your own you're just

in your jersey and just choosing to follow them around like a deadhead in the 1990s. I got to buy my tickets for tonight still. I don't know how that's going to work. Good seat. It's still available. No, man, the buzz is, the buzz is palpable here in North Carolina. Get the torches taco across the street from the very average courtyard that I'm staying in.

People were just losing their minds last night. I was like, put on ESPN Plus. And they're like, it's already on this idea. Let's go. Oh. No, I will see. I think it does seem like I will say, and I'm not just saying this because this is where I'm picking up the chase. It seems like four goals was the magic mark, right, for whatever reason. And it makes sense because. Well, four goals to tie. The odds he was going to score five goals to break it last night in Boston pretty slim. But now it's like Gretsky's showing up. And I think that's been showing up and the family's here. Like the circus has. fully has fully come to town. And he's four away from breaking the record.

Correct. Okay. Because a lot of times people say, oh, he's this far away from the record. That's to tie it. But nobody wants to tie. No. He better not tie. Is that the worst case scenario?

Is that even worse than him falling one short and then we go into next year? I think psychologically, this might just be for my own good. I've, like, where I've landed is he breaks it real soon or he just goes cold and doesn't break it at all. I think that's, I think that's, I think that's where my money's at because they've got Carolina tonight. By the way, he has smoked Kachatkov over the last few games he's played against him. So I think, I think, I think four goals and four goals in his last three games, you know, small sample size and all that stuff. You never want to say that someone's got someone else's number when it's based on that little time.

But if that's the kind of thing you pay attention to, that's a thing to pay attention to. tonight, right? Chicago is abysmal. They've allowed three goals or more, I think, in their last 13 games. And a lot of those are four goal, five goals, six goal, six goal games. They're as awful as we all thought they'd be. And then it's New York. And then it's Columbus. Like it feels like, I'm saying, I'm saying this selfishly too, because I have so many people in Pittsburgh who are like trying to get tickets for that, for the, for the season of Allie game and stuff. My vibe right now, man, honestly, is that he gets it done. It seems before that. It seems like they can taste it. It's four goals and eight games.

And that is below the pace that he scored goals at pretty significantly over the course this season. So money's on it happening. And my money's on it happening relatively soon. The other thing that comes into play when you look at the schedule, just as far as envisioning the moment, is the home and away split. As you said, eight games last. but only three at home. Not tonight, but then it's, he basically bounces back, road away over the next six games. And then the last two games of the season are on the road. So if we're going to get that moment in Washington, you know, I mean, it's going to get a big response wherever it is pretty clearly.

And I imagine there's going to be a decent contingent of Caps fans who find their way to these games and what have you. But as far as it really being that great moment, it's kind of got to be in Washington. I think we can, it's, you said it, it'll be okay regardless of where it is. Like if it happens in Columbus, you know, Columbus is a relatively short, it's a drive. It's a reasonable drive from D.C., right? You just jump on 70 and that's that. So there's going to be people there. God knows there'd be people in in Pittsburgh.

But yeah, I'm rooting hard for it to happen in D.C. Because that's where we're going to get the full pomp and circumstance and in pageantry of the whole thing. So let me ask this. Just let's imagine he gets one tonight. He gets one against Chicago. That puts him two away. Next game is Sunday at the New York Islanders. say he gets one in that game.

Now the goal that comes out, a couple of minutes. Do you throw him out there to do that two-minute shift so that he can get the record breaker on a Sunday afternoon in Long Island? Or do you maybe go, maybe sit them on the bench and let them play the next game at home and have it be the biggest regular season game in the history of the Washington Capitals, if not right up there with the biggest game ever? that it'd be Spencer Carver, you got you, you know, you have a nose for the moment.

Maybe I'll go out, maybe I'll ask him that at the, at the end of the day. Hey, hey, let's try, let's try to look, uh, five games down the road. Coaches love that. Just assume, like, we're going to assume you're winning. We're going to assume that everything's going well. A really detailed hypothetical.

Yeah. Ask about that. Something I have in several days from now. Um, I think that would almost be worst case scenario. I mean, I, I don't know. I shouldn't say that. But it's like if you could invent a way for him to break the record in a kind of an anti-climactic fashion,

I feel like road game against the Islanders on a Sunday afternoon on an empty net. I don't think you could do much better than that. That feels like the height of anticlimax. I mean, you'd have the TV audience. You know, if I'm a U.S. TV executive, I'm probably happy with that. But I don't think anyone else is. First weekend in April, you know, people are starting to clear out the backyard and all that stuff. And, oh, hockey history just happened.

Great. Is that game on national television? It has to be, doesn't it? It's got to be right. Why would it be at 1230 in the afternoon? It's a TNT game. Okay. It's not even an ABC game.

Yeah. Do they have him at all in the, uh, They did earlier. That's a great question. I'll look that up real fast. There's other hockey games going on now. Let's talk real quick about Panthers, about Panthers Leaves. Yeah.

Where does this rank for you in terms of, let's say, early April? I want to care about this because these are two good teams. I'm not sure how much I can dial it up for this. You as, you know, you being you, where are we at on this tonight? I mean, in theory, it's a big game. It checks the box as a big game because this is one of those situations that we get under the current playoff format where there are three legit cup contenders in the Atlantic, which means two of them are going to play each other in round one.

whoever finishes second and third, which means, in theory, finishing first in the division is important. And one of the knocks on the Maple Leafs over the entire Austin Matthews, Brandon Shanahan era has been as much as we constantly go on and on and on about, oh, how shocking that they never win in the first round, they're always the two or three seat. and a two or three seed losing in the first round isn't all that surprising.

Not to have it happen over and over again, obviously, is the issue. But they've never finished first in a division other than the one year with the Canadian division, the North Division, whatever it was, the Honda Master Card. That's one of those things. I've completely forgotten. You could hold a gun to my head and help me to. You could have done that while the season was happening. and nobody knew what the what the division names.

Honda Division. One of them was Honda. I remember that. I don't know. Discover maybe. Was there a Discover division? I don't know. I don't know.

But so all of that adds up to, especially as a leaf bad, this should be the show. Okay, finally, go out and prove it. Go out and show that you can win a big game against a good team that you're going to have to go through. Set yourself up for an easier playoff. What complicates it from that leaf fan perspective is whoever does finish first in that division is going to get the senators. And I think if you're the lightning, you're looking at the senators going, hey, we'd much rather play those. Good team, being good in the second half, not an easy matchup by any stretch, but we'd much rather play the senators than the Panthers of the Leaks.

I think if you're the Panthers, you're probably saying the same thing. it becomes a bit of a side show with the Kachuk brothers facing each other, and that adds a layer of unpredictability. But I think you'd certainly rather play them than go to battle against the lightning or the Leaves. But from a Leafs perspective, they have a lot of trouble with the Senate. And part of the reason they have so much trouble with the Senators is every time the Leafs play the Senators, it's the biggest game of the month for Ottawa. And the Leafs seem to approach it as just another game.

Tuesday night or whatever. which you wouldn't think would be an issue in the playoffs, but the hype level here is going to be off the charts. And the disaster potential for the Maple Leafs to, after all these years, renew the Battle of Ontario and lose to an Ottawa team that has been miles behind them for years and years and now catches up to them and passes them in one year would be pretty significant. So I don't know that there is an easy path.

for the Leafs out of that division. But I suppose it does get a bit easier if they can finish first and finish strong down the stretch and do the thing that we've all been waiting for them to do, even though they're going to end up doing it. I mean, whoever wins this division is going to end up with like 109 points. It's not exactly a president's trophy race, but it's enough. Get that, in theory, easy first round matchup and then see what the hockey gods have in store for. whoever it is. So on April 2nd, I'm saying to you, like, you got your pick. You can play any of the three teams in the division in round one.

Are you seriously telling me that you would take Florida or Tampa over Ottawa? Are we going based on likelihood of winning or misery of losing? Because it's a different answer. you're trying to get to the next round of the playoffs which team do you want to play then it's the senators as as much as i think that is a matchup that can be a problem for the leaves and as as much as i don't want to be on the receiving end of whatever pent up wrecking ball energy brady kachuk is going to bring to finally playing meaningful nchl hockey for the first time in his life um i yeah you'd rather play the senators. I don't think that's that's a knock on that team or anything like it.

But do you hear that? I mean, do you hear that hear that here that? You hear that Sean McAnews chomping at the bit for you guys. Bring it on, he says. I heard that he chanted, we want the senators throughout the entire podcast, just 45 straight minutes of it. Um, but as far as what the inevitable first round loss would sting the most, I feel like, I feel like, I feel like Florida and Ottawa both hurt. I feel like Tampa you can handle a bit better, if only because you did beat the months. But I don't know.

It's bad all the way across. And hey, let's not rule out the fact that our old pals of Montreal Canadians could still zip in and take that top wild card spot and run back the 2021. Are we, are we willing to, I'm not willing to write that out. that off yet. Not completely. Not five points is a lot this time of year, for sure. But like,

neither those teams are all that good. Like we, we just, we've seen it happen over and over and over again. The, the Canadians are back on a two-game winning streak. They've climbed out of the, climbed out of the toilet there,

which is where they were for a bit. I mean, I don't know. If they, if they get hot and the sends get cold, which they're, which both teams are capable, of both ends of the spectrum on that.

It's not impossible. I mean, the senators just lost to the Sabres for the second time. Brady Kachuk has banged up. Here's my question, though. And teams, coaches, players don't think this way. But if you're a Montreal fan,

do you want to pass Ottawa and potentially play Florida, Tampa, Toronto? Or are you happy sitting in number eight and play the Washington Capitals? We're going to finish 10 points, ahead of those teams, but still, nobody seems to really buy as a scary. They played, they had some trouble with Boston last night, I'll say, but they ended up getting the job done. Spencer Carberry's pretty openly was not psyched about the way that they

played the last few games. He mixed up his lines, right? That was, that was kind of the the story from the game before that. So I don't know, man. I think it might might sound heretic, like heretical at this point, but I don't know. I think I would rather, I'd think about it long and hard versus six weeks ago, where I'm like just, I want, I want no parts of Washington at any point, really. I got to tell you, it drives me crazy generally in sports. It's one of my sports pet peeves when a really good team that's in first place, tries to play that nobody believes in us card.

It's a joke. You get like the Kansas City Chiefs are like, nobody thought we'd be here and you're like, what are you talking about? Everybody thought that's like, that's like a, I swear to God, it's a more recent, that's a, not a recent development, but that is amped up over the last five years. 100%. The Washington Capitals might be the best team in recent sports history that can legitimately say nobody believes in us. Mm-hmm. Except for me.

Except for Sean. Cap, so. Cap super fan number one. Let's go. There's your takeaway. Sean loves Washington and, uh, Father Sean despises them. Thinks that the Leafs are going to sweep the senators in three games.

Glad we got that settled. Also, we do have a decent amount of cats. I know we brought this up a few minutes ago, but I have it in front of me now. We do get a decent amount of Alex Ovechkin on national television over the next little bit. It'll shock you. We get caps, blue jackets on Saturday. That's matinee. That's on ABC.

and if I that feels like that's when it's going to happen to me. I don't know. In Columbus. In Columbus, is it because my friend's getting married later that day, probably? That's my, that's my working theory. Hey, can I throw a scenario at you? Yeah, let's go. Are they going to shoot the damn cannon when he breaks the record?

Oh, my God. Didn't think of that, did you? I think I might need to look into this. I think I might need to make some calls. Ask Spencer Carberry about that one, too. Follow-up question. Call Waddell and ask if he's willing to allow the cannon to be shot. Oh, man.

So we got a U.S. national game on Saturday. We got Caps Islanders on ESPN the following Tuesday. And then Thursday, Caps, Penn, that's the finale, 7 o'clock on ESPN. So, you know, rolling out the carpet for this one. I've said it before, and we may even have discussed. it, but the one scenario that I love the most of everyone who keeps pitching these outrageous scenarios for what the record breaking goal is. Have it happen against Pittsburgh.

One minute left, empty net. Ovechkin puck on his stick. Sidney Crosby throws the stick, knocks the puck off, automatic goal is awarded, and we all get to say that it was actually Sidney Crosby who scored the record breaking goal. not Alexander Rovetchkin takes that moment right away from him. These are the moments that you were made for, my friend. I wish I'd come up with that.

That was somebody in the comments section somewhere, but it was, that's a beauty. It's a McIndo original now too. Ask Carberry about that one too. Yeah. I think you need to sit down. I think we need to get you some one-on-one time.

Look, bud, I have a yellow legal pad with increasingly, Baroque specific hypothetical scenarios that I've dreamt up for the next week and I'm going to make Spencer Carberry go over every single one of them one by one in a tunnel in Raleigh today at like 445 or whatever while he's furiously blinking SOSs at the PR guy time to get yelled at next segment we're going to keep talking about TV we do have it we do have a Canadian

in SportsNet deal to discuss. Got some other stuff too. Stick around. All right, we're back. One more bit of Capitals broadcast, ephemera passed to us from producer Jeff. This is good. I like that the Caps play-by-play team

is going to be around for most of Eichkin Chase. It seems like Joe Beninati and Craig Lachlan. We're going to call National Games where the Caps are featured from here on out during the goal chase. That's great. I have a soft spot for those guys in general, too, because they've been the local team in Washington. Washington forever, right? That's where I went to school. So anytime you hear those guys call games,

I'm like, yeah, I'm 20 again watching, watching Alexander Oveshkin, when he, when he was 20, it makes me happy. So I'm glad to hear them around. Yeah, and it's called to have the familiar voices, right? I mean, that that is the downside of getting the big national TV exposure is you build up to this moment for 880 goals and then it's some other voice who gets called a big moment. I'll do respect to Sean McDonough and those guys. But yeah, I'm in it to hear the local dudes. Also, shout out to Craig Lachlan, who's back in the booth. He had open heart surgery recently.

So he's back at it. Got to hear him call a game last night. It's a lot of fun. Okay. That's enough American TV. Sean, we need to discuss SportsNets New Deal to be the national partner for games in Canada. 12 year extension. They've obviously been the sole spot for the previous 12 years. An extra 12 years starting in 2026.

7.7 billion dollars U.S. Sportsnet is expected to sell some of the rights to Amazon. I guess TSN might be in the mix. But my takeaway here and I can't wait to hear yours is this is a whole lot of sports net. We've already gotten a whole lot of sports net. And as an American, you know, fly by night, you know, I watch, I watch whatever, whatever games are on when I can watch them. I'm not sure. I'm not sure how throat I am about that. I like, I like having the buffet to choose from. I would, I would rather there be some variety rather than just having, having Sportsnet at the home for every major Canadian broadcast.

It's, it's weird because typically you wouldn't expect the status quo. to feel like a shocking development. But this really was a shock, to me at least, to see this news dropper or to see it get broken earlier this week and then just even though everyone's been talking about it for 48 hours, we're only just this morning getting the confirmation from Sportsnet and the NHL. But it's shocking for two reasons. One is the timing.

I think a lot of us had had this on the radar as a big story for the league going forward that this TV deal was expiring at the end of next year. And what was that going to mean? And who was going to get in on in Canada? And would it be streaming? Would it be traditional? Would TSN get back in it? Would SportsNet even want to be back in it?

And the fact that they nipped that all in the bud by just signing the extension early was something that I didn't really have. on my bingo card as something that would potentially happen. Maybe I should have. Obviously, for the NHL, you're looking to lock in if you get the number you want. And that number is the other surprising part in that we have spent up here in Canada the last 10 years listening to and reading various stories about how significant that number has been for SportsNet and for Rogers over the years.

Lots of cuts, both on camera and behind the scenes. Lots of watching the bottom line. Lots of talk about, hey, how much money can we lose on this deal and still have it be worth it in the bigger picture as far as what it does for the SportsNet brand and Rogers and what have you. But we've been led to believe. that, boy, this, the number they paid on that last deal was pretty high. Too much. Too much. And now we're in a situation where it's, that number's going up

significantly. And I mean, look, if the number wasn't going up, that would be huge dues because we all know what happens in the TV sports space. I mean, this is still, the, the bubble has not burst. We, we are seeing big numbers from every, every sports league. So, I mean, you assumed it was going to go up, but this is a significant jump. You know, that that's seven point, whatever it is number that's being reported, that's US dollars. So you compare that to the five something that was Canadian dollars. It's it's a big, big jump. And I am the last person who would get down to the nitty gritty of how.

The pluses and minuses line up business-wise. But just from the outside, if there was this much hair tearing out over the five number, when it's 10 or 11 or whatever it ends up being with the exchange rate, as far as billion Canadian dollars, how does that work? I'm really struggling to figure out how this all makes sense just as a business play for Rogers and Sportsnet. For the league, sure. Go ahead, get that. You know, this is what Gary Bedman does, right?

Squeeze every drop of money you can out of that stone. But I don't fully get this. Now, as a consumer, if this just ends up with our buddy Edward Rogers, having a smaller yacht, I don't care. But if it starts affecting the product, even more so than it maybe already has. That's the problem. Well, I think you kind of got to it there.

It's already affected the product. We've seen, man, the narrative around Rogers in Sportsnet for how long has been they're making cuts. They're laying people off. They're cutting corners and saving pennies wherever they can, which seems crazy to begin with when you spend that much money on a product, right? And then you're trying to save a little bit here and a little bit. it's the definition of being penny wise and pound foolish where it's like you guys you're you're in like just try to try to try to try to produce a solid product um i i know the dynamics of the canadian media landscape are certainly different than they are in in the united states but i i will say this and i'm not like i'm not like a free market guy i'm not trying to sit here and act like competition mixes because it's it's it's not true but what i've seen as an america sports fan, especially over the last few years, as we've seen TV packages get diversified. Like the NFL is a great example where you have, it's not just, it's not just, uh, CBS and Fox anymore.

You, you got Amazon involved and you have, like, you know, on and on. Same goes for the NBA. There's the, the new deal, the NBA sign, which is by the way, 77 billion over 11 years. it's going to be ABC and it's going to be ESPN and it's going to be NBC. There's going to be other elements there. I like that as a consumer. I like having a choice. I like knowing that I'm going to get different styles of broadcasts on different nights. I appreciate that the Amazon Thursday night NFL broadcast is not going to look or sound like the Fox Sunday broadcast.

I think that's kind of cool. And we've seen it to some extent for like in the NHL in America as well. because TNT broadcasts aren't like ESPN broadcast. I like it. I think that's a good thing. And I think that brand of competition makes for a better product for the sports fan. We've gotten 12 years of this in Canada, right, where everything kind of looks the same. And if you're not a fan of the way SportsNet does business, then you're up a creek when it comes to national NHL games for the Canadian.

fan. And it's got to be a bummer that this is just, this is just going to be more of the same. Like if, if the product on sports and was, you know, unimpeachable and solid and whatever over the last 12 years, it's fine. You say, you guys are great at it. Just keep doing what you're doing. That's not been the case. People have not been happy there. We've seen weird cuts. We've seen strange decisions. We've seen penny pinching in very obvious problematic ways, frankly. And it seems like that's just going to be going to be more the same. So everyone looks at the big number and it's great. $7 billion.

It's awesome. I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's enough money to justify this sort of decision. You would have liked to have seen some more creativity if only so people can have some other option when it comes to watching these games.

But ultimately, I mean, everything you just said is true, but. this is the NHL. Yeah. If Gary Betman sits down with the owners and says, look, I've got this number that's very high.

And I've got this other number that's even higher. But the first number is going to be better for our fans. It'll be better for the consumer. It'll be ultimately better for the product. And in the long range, blah, blah, blah. You know those 32 owners are going to say, we want the high number right now.

Mm-hmm. And that's what Gary Bettman does. and that's what he's done here. And you're right. There has been, I think it's fair to say that for years now there's been a level of dissatisfaction with the product on Sportsnet. That happens everyone. There is not that I'm aware of a single

sports broadcast, certainly in North America, that there's anything close to a consensus from fans that, hey, this is really good. We really like this. This is part of what we do is sports fans, right? you sit there and you complain. I mean, hey, if you're a sports fan and you sit down and invest three hours to watch a game, there's 50% chance your team loses and you're mad about it afterwards, in which case you're

going to go, ah, that broadcast stunk. I didn't enjoy it at all. And then you turn around and you blame the play by play guy for the fact that your team lost by, you know, lost by three goals. There has been that negativity around Sportsnet. I think a lot of it is justified. I'm a little bit caught off guard by how negative it feels like it's been this. week. It feels like this news has brought every complaint out. And I honestly think if you didn't

watch any hockey and you were just kind of following this story, you'd be looking at the reaction going, wow, these Sports Night guys must stink at their jobs. This must be a terrible, bro. Like, are the cameras falling over in the middle of the, you know, the shows and that sort of stuff? I mean, they've been fine, but there is. There's a certain energy that just hasn't been there. And I think there's certain just magic to it that Sportsnet has not been able to find. I can tell you that the hockey night in Canada that I grew up with, the cultural touchstone, has not been that since Sportsnet took over. Now, is that a sports net problem or is that a welcome to modern world? And it wouldn't matter if it was TSN or CBC or whatever. Unless you can build a time machine and

back to the days where we all gathered around our rabbit ears TV together to watch hockey, that was inevitable. So, I mean, I think a lot of the criticism sportsnet gets is probably, probably starts from a justified place and then, and then maybe goes a little too far. And it's going too far now, I think, because people are just having it really, like, just having it sink in that, geez, we get another 12 years of this. I think that's it. I think that's it.

I think it's as people came to the finish line. And you're like, whatever, something's going to change. And then it turns out that not, it's the same. It's status quo from here on out. And you mentioned the hockey night broadcasts in, you know, the declining, you know, the shrinking space that they occupy maybe nationally for you guys. I think it's really similar to some of the discussion that we saw around Monday night football in the U.S. a few years ago because it was it was the same deal.

ESPN has it, which is. automatically drops it down a ring from when it was on, you know, channel four in Pittsburgh, right? Like in ABC, that fundamentally changes stuff. We live in a fractured media landscape,

monoculture's dead, all that stuff. Like that's all true. And that, that all plays a part. One of the problems, though, for years,

years when it came to the, whatever iterations of that broadcast team that, the ESPN came up with was that they made it worse. Yeah. They took a shrinking, you know, a shrinking space and failed to maximize it even further. When you're talking about the choices that they made in terms of personnel, when you're talking about the decisions that they made in terms of game production, you know, they took a problem and exacerbated it, right? Now, when you look at what ESPN's done, they recognize it. They realized that they had to spend money and do things differently and they went out and got Joe Buck and,

Troy Aikman, they paid them more money than God to step up and give Monday night football a Monday night football kind of feel. And you know what? Now nobody talks about it anymore. It's not an issue because they change the way that they do business. They change the way that they produce games. They cut some serious checks on talent and whoever else and change the vibe around it. So it's not impossible. I think, you know, the fact that it's 2025 and not not 1995 anymore is certainly a part of it. But, you know, there's also a lot more that broadcasters can do to fix it. We've seen it happen.

And that's step one. If your, if your sports net and your Rogers is step one, do no harm. Step one, do not, now that you've spent all this money, do not let some executive come in and go, okay, now we've got to cut corners on, you know, as a viewer, it's always the on-air talent that gets the but all the behind the scenes and you see this ESPN does this every couple years too

and it it boggles the mind because they spend billions of dollars on on rights and then they make cuts the talent that is a rounding error of that number. I mean it doesn't move the needle at all but it allows some executive somewhere to say see

look at us we're being you know we're being so focused on the bottom line and then they get a nice big bonus and a bunch of people have their have their lives torpedoed and the product gets worse. Step one is don't do that. Don't announce that like a week from now that, you know, here we go again with all of this. And then I guess the other part, you know, you talked about having different broadcasts to

look at that that's the still to be determined part. Because the interesting thing here was a lot of us assumed that the next step for the NHL, the next TV deal, which is going to be this Canadian deal, would be streaming heavy. That they were dipping their toe in it with Amazon. We've seen Netflix make its big push towards live streaming, especially around sports. You thought, okay, this is the next big ground. And then when you find out it's all SportsNet, you go, oh, gosh, that's not what I expected. Well, hold on, because SportsNet can now.

farm some of this out like they've done with Amazon, they can continue to do that. So it's, it's almost like the NHL has just got in the bag and says, all right, you guys figure the rest of it out. Figure it out. And there will be some of that. Like, they're definitely, you know, the Amazon experiment, I think has for the most part, people feel like it's working. Perfect. No, not, not by any stretch, but people seem, people who get the product seem happy with it. So I, I think we still need to wait and see. TSN could be involved in some way, certainly. TSN will continue to be involved on local deals.

That is, this is the national deal. We're talking about the local deals with certain Canadian teams will stay in place. So TSN isn't going away. But I don't know, man. Selfishly as a media guy, even though this doesn't touch URI in any way, it would be better for our business if it wasn't just one monopoly holding everything. But just as a consumer, I hope they get it right. I'm rooting for it. Put it that way. I don't want to, because I don't want to watch an

uninspired product for the next 12 plus years. And what it boils down to me, too, is that they're paying the NHL $640 million a year for the right to broadcast these games. That's incredible. spin some of that back into your talent, pay your people, make your broadcast look better because you're already in for so much money that this is relatively, it's, you know, 100,000 here, 500. Like, who cares? Make it, make it, make it better, right? Because that's, that extra high-deaf camera is not going to.

It's amazing. Yeah. Or whatever, bring it someone in the bank. Yeah. Bringing someone in because over contract, like losing out on someone you want over, over drops in the bucket when it comes to contract negotiations is crazy. And that's, that's a single biggest thing that I hope changes. All right. That's enough media enable gazing.

We're going to be back in segment three. A couple things we learned. All right, we're back. Sean, what have you learned in the last week? What have we learned, Sean? I learned that the Philadelphia Flyers hated John Torterella and he was the problem. Three straight wins Ever since the coaching change

That was a very fun story last week People who listened to this show A week ago, her chain and I talking about like Oh, that was really weird that John Tartorella said he wasn't interested in learning how to coach this sort of team. Do you think that means anything? Well, we found out. It did. And Bradshaw, Jack Adams, frontrunner at this point.

Three straight wins by the flyers. They have beaten the Canadians, the sabres, and the Predators. So a murderer's row of opponents that they've had to face and they've been lighting it up. Matt by Mitchcov is living up to all the hype and beyond. Yeah, Torts was the problem. And they've fixed it.

Congratulations, Danny Breyer. You're done. Let's see. They're tied for the 7th best lottery odds right now. Yep. I think they were fourth a few days ago. Whoops. Whoopsy doozle.

Oopsy. Oh, well. Did you guys, what was the timing on the app with you with you and with you and Shana? Did you guys like hang up the phone? No, it was the next day. It was the next day. We were the Wednesday like he had made the weird comments the night before.

We hadn't known about the Cam York incident. We knew that. had been benched the night before, but we hadn't heard anything more than that. And it was just sort of that weird quote of, I'm not interested and, you know, where we are and all of that stuff. And we were trying to figure out if that maybe meant something or if it was just torts being torts and distracting attention. And it was the next morning, the Thursday morning that Danny Breyer made the announcement. And it's been, it's been nothing but bangers ever since for the Philadelphia Flyers. who now have, by the way, like five days off.

That's nice in the schedule. I'll throw you that with seven games left. Definitely. Can you imagine what that would have been like if they were, if they were still completely in the tank? You have to go and that's enough time to turn your brain and your body off. Then you got to come back. Like, oh, never mind.

Time to finish stuff. At least they can feel good about themselves now, you know? Everything's fine. Bradshaw kicked the door down. He said, look, guys, here. We're going to try a few new things. shoot about 18% and hey,

goalies. You're good you're good now actually. Why don't you stop the puck every now and then? See how that goes for you. See if like let it hit you. See what happens. And they're like,

all right, that sounds crazy, coach, but we'll give it a try. And they're a powerhouse. You're a wagon now. Speaking of wagons, brother. Yeah. Missed most of this.

St. Louis Blues. Ten game win streak. is alive. They beat Detroit last night. In that streak, they've scored 41 goals. Their opponents have scored 14. I think that's pretty good.

Yeah, we'll run it by Dom, but I feel like that's pretty winnable formula. Yeah, I'm going to go drop that into Google, into his little Google sheets thing of the jig and see what it pops out, just a big green check mark.

Like, yeah, way to go. I'm trying to be excited about this for Blues fans. I am. And I think they're at the point, like, they've been good enough for a sustained enough amount of time where there should be real legitimate enthusiasm, I think, heading into the playoffs on some level. Because they're, look, man, they're going to, seems like they're going to pass a Minnesota. We're past the point where, where they're just a playoff lock. They have passed Minnesota in terms of points, but not point percentage.

Not points of that game in hand. So good for them. but I look at the timing of this and I look at the stuff that Doug Armstrong said to Pierre LeBron a couple days ago and I'm just, I'm worried this is Fool's Gold and I'm worried this is that this is

predicating, you know, a five game loss in the first round, but also there's enough good things to draw on for next year and these big steps and da-da-da-da-da. And that this is just a precursor for the blues. stuck in the mushy middle for another. And that's,

that's bummer stuff from me. I get it. And if you're a blues fan, you know, whatever at me and tell me why I'm wrong on this and tell me how excited you are. I'm serious. I'd like to hear it. But man,

the pessimist side of me is just looking at this and saying, this isn't actually going to lead to anything good because it seemed like they were, they had accepted, you know, what seemed like it was the reality leading up to the trade deadline. and then they did enough to change the plans. And then here we are. It's wild that like at the trade deadline or let's say a week before the trade deadline,

we were talking Braden's chant, maybe even Jordan Bennington, who were they going to move? These were big names that were available. And obviously didn't happen. Obviously seems to have been the right call, at least for the short term. But yeah, you're right. We had a great question on the Puck Soup mailbag a week ago. somebody wrote in and said, which bubble team making the playoffs would lead to the worst decisions by that team as far as overrating where they were at and trying to push forward in the short term. And I think my answer at the time was the Islanders who have taken care of that concern by essentially dropping out of the race.

That's a time capsule answer right there, dude. But don't, but let's not forget the situation in St. Louis, the very rare. scenario of a general manager knowing he's going into his last year. They've got the handoff happening next summer to Alex Dean. So if you're Doug Armstrong, you got one year left to make this thing work. And I mean, then you move up the organization. You're still there. But you got one chance to have your fingerprints all over it.

Who knows? Is it all offer sheets all the time? is that the lesson that we learned from St. Louis Blues? Dylan Hollowen, hard trophy candidate. You got to ask the question. I mean, like,

like, look, listen to what, this is what Doug Armstrong said to appear a few days ago. We beat L.A. on the Wednesday before the trade deadline. We'd flip to the only trade we would make was a hockey trade, not a futures trade.

Had we lost, had we lost the three games prior to the deadline, then yeah, everything could be different. So this is like, literally, talking one, two or three results, changing their approach. Because then what are you're talking about?

I don't know, Jordan Kairn maybe. Like I like you're, you're moving out some of these like air quote foundational pieces. And it didn't happen. And it hasn't happened. And now it seems like it won't happen for another, for another year or two. I think that's,

that's my big takeaway here is that like whatever, they better hope this works out. Because it seems like it pushed the reckoning a little bit further into the, into the distance if if and when that happens so whatever i'm not trying to be a i'm not trying to be a bummer but i i i feel like i feel like this is a pure victory let me let me throw the same question at you that we did with the with the senators and the haps because in addition to all but locking down that last spot st louis has put minnesota in play as far as passing them do you want Vegas or do you want winnipeg in the first round

if you're either of those teams. I think I won't Vegas. I mean, I think I won't Winnipeg. Again, no respect to the two president's trophy candidates. I don't know, guys.

But I hear you. Yeah. We watched that series last year. We've seen it happen. I'm just not, I'm not sold. And these are all teams. Like,

I try not to just, I try not to just pick at the same teams like week after week. And I know I had a little bit of a break. So, like, I haven't had the opportunity to subtly shade the Winnipeg Jets, but. Yeah. I don't know. I hope just as a fan, Minnesota Winnipeg to me is fun. And in St. Louis Vegas, you obviously get the Alex Petrangelo series and among other things.

So I feel like that's more fun as a combo. But we'll see. You got to beat four good teams to win the cup. So ultimately, it doesn't really matter who you get the first round. that much. You sure? I'm told. What about the Idaho Senators? I'm told you got to beat four teams to it. I mean, we're worried. We're on pace to accomplish that in about 28 years. So I'll, I'll check back with you.

What are you working on this week, man? I saw we had a, I saw we had a goalie piece drop this morning. Didn't read it yet. I did. I had, it's, it's sort of goaltending week. I have a piece today where it's just me talking about how my single favorite NHL award, which is the second team all-star goal-tending honors, which has a long history of just being very weird. Just random dudes showing up,

having one good season, getting the second team honors, and then disappearing off the map. Happens over and over again. May or may not be good news for Logan Thompson, who's probably getting it this year, but we'll figure that out.

And then, speaking of goalies, you know, when there's like, you're watching a game and there's bad blood, and you can just tell, and it's just it's simmering and simmering and then finally it's like you know what

let's just go out to center ice drop the gloves and settle this I am well known for not liking goaltenders I think they ruin an otherwise cool sport I think they're a bunch of huge weirdos Jesse Granger

I was waiting I was waiting for you to bring them up because I did be a little more partial towards the goalies Jesse and I are just going to hash it out on probably Friday. We may end up kicking this the next week. We'll see.

We're just going to, we came up with five topics. We're just going to talk about, is the equipment too big? How does interference work? Are these guys fun to watch? We're just going to do a bunch of mini debates on goal tending. Jesse's going to take the pro goalie side,

and I'm going to take the correct side. And we're going to battle it out. We're just going to see what people think. So that is coming soon, maybe as early as the end of this week. It's been a while since we've had like a 9,000 word post on the site, so I'm looking forward to it. That just shows me you haven't been reading my stuff over the last few weeks

because that's a throat clear for me, man. I thought you were comfortably in the six or seven thousand word pocket. They've asked me to cut it down, so I'm trying. We're not going to name any names here, but you know who you are. Yeah. Like I said before, I am on Oveskin watch from here until he breaks it. And I hope it happens at some point in the next few weeks. Sooner would be better.

We shall see it. That starts tonight in Raleigh, North Carolina. If he doesn't break it, do you got to go back to Russia with him and just follow him around all summer? I think, yeah, what could go wrong with that, you know? Yeah. No problems there. All right, folks, thanks for listening. The two of us will be back.

back next week. Will Frankie be back? Probably. You never know. Haley and Max have you tomorrow. I might drop in, but it's looking like it's going to be them. So talk to you soon. We appreciate you. Have a good week.