The Athletic Hockey Show - Pairing NHL teams with their NFL equivalents, famous player vs. media battles, and the 1996 Stanley Cup Final will tear the show apart

Episode Date: January 20, 2022

Now that we know the results of the 49ers-Cowboys playoff game, does Sean regret not nailing down a bet with Ian? Also, are the Cowboys the Maple Leafs of the NFL? Then, with the public clash between Leon Draisaitl and Jim Matheson that occurred this week, they compare it to some all-time battles, and also discuss Sean's piece on midseason goalie trades.Then, in "Granger Things", Jesse Granger joins the show to discuss some betting trends for the Avalanche and Pathers, and it is discovered Sean and Jesse have very different memories of the 1996 Stanley Cup Final.To wrap up, the guys answer your mailbag questions, and in "This Week in Hockey History", they discuss two weather-related game delays, one with an exclusive club that doesn't seem to have great benefits.Have a question for Ian and Sean? Email [e-mail], or leave a VM at [phone]! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back, everybody. It is your Thursday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Ian Mendez and Sean McAdoe with you as always for the next hour or so. It's a Thursday which means our pal Jesse Granger will drop by to talk Granger things. And we'll do a little trip down memory lane because he's going to be talking about the avalanche and the Panthers. And you know that Sean's got some feelings when it comes to the Avs and Panthers and their Stanley Cup meeting back in 1996. Speaking of having some feelings, there's some feelings going on. in Edmonton

right now. Leon Drysidal's infamous postgame or his press conference interaction with Jim Matheson. We'll talk a little bit about that. And where does this rank on the all-time list of battles

between media and players? Think Dan Boyle, Jake Vorchek, Andy Sutton. Where does Leon Drysidal fit in? And Sean had a really good piece too this week about goaltender trades. And, you know, we don't seem to see a lot of them,

but we'll talk a little bit about goalie deals in and around a trade deadline and an in-season trade. We'll also hit on some of your listener questions as well, talking about records for games played in the season. And this week in hockey history talks all about bad weather affecting NHL games. And that's why, hey, listen, you and I are affected by some bad weather. That is for sure.

And in the province of Ontario. But I got a dark cloud hanging over me from Sunday, Sean. And that is the Dallas. We talked about last week. Don't get pissy on me. Don't why you being so pissy? Yeah. I just need to know, do you regret?

Because you didn't, you were hedging and you should have locked it down. Are you regretting that we didn't do some sort of playoff bet? Because your San Francisco 49ers just did what I thought they would do, which just beat the Dallas Cowboys. No, I do. I remember that you and I agreed that there was going to be a neck tattoo of the winning team's logo. I think that was what we had said. I sent you an email and I think it was to the right address, but whoever it was, they agreed. So I'm looking forward to you debuting that.

And yeah, no, I, you know what, maybe I should have had more faith in my 49ers, a team that I am a passionate diehard fan of as long as they win. Yeah. Pretty fair weather if they don't. So, but yeah, good good job by them. And I got to say, and I can, as a Leafs fan, I feel like I can say this, the Cowboys are like the Leafs and maybe the Oilers and a few other teams in the sense that when it goes bad, it is so entertaining for the rest of the league. Look, we're all just watching Jerry Jones right now to see what crazy stuff he's going to do and who's getting fired, what wild changes are going to get made. there are some teams that when they lose you feel bad for them and then there's some teams where you just grab your popcorn

and this is the Cowboys are one of the NFL versions of that. All right. So yeah, listen, you're right in the sense that the Dallas Cowboys, they seem to be like kindred spirits with the Maple Leafs in the sense of they have such a large following that either you love them or you hate them. There's really not a lot of room to be in between on a team like the Dallas Cowboys, the Toronto Maple Leafs. I put the Montreal Canadiens probably in there.

Yep. You know, there are some teams in there. So here's my question, though. Could we potentially do some sort of buddy system where you partner up every NHL franchise with their equivalent or their kindred spirit in the NFL? Like, it feels like maybe the Cowboys and the Maple Leafs are a match, although some people would say the Cleveland Browns of the Toronto Maple Leafs might be a better match. Because the thing is, as much as.

As far as media footprint and fan base, the Cowboys and Leafs are pretty good. I mean, geez, we wish we only had to go back to the 90s for our last glory days. I think the Cowboys probably match better with the Montreal Canadians in the sense of, you know, you got to go back to the 90s and, you know, that sort of thing, still coasting on a bit of that. But, you know, have been up and down the last little while. Leafs are probably the Browns, a bit of a joke now, but with a history. You know, this is, you know, the Cleveland Browns.

If you ignore the few years where they didn't exist, you know, a proud history, but not a history that involves a lot of winning. And winning championships before there was a Super Bowl is kind of the equivalent of winning Stanley Cups in the original six. Pre-expansion, sure, yeah. I'd say that. Let me, I'm trying to.

trying to think, who would be... I got another one for you. Yeah. The Pittsburgh Penguins are the New England Patriots. Ooh, you know what? That's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one. I'd say maybe the... Are the Steelers, maybe the Red Wings?

Is that... Yeah. That, you know, a lot of championships. I'll give you one other one that jump to mind. The Arizona Cardinals are the Florida Panthers. Yes. A ton of offense. All sorts of fun to watch.

Nobody generally cares about. them don't really do well in the playoffs except for the one year they went to the final but nobody remembers it 100%. Oh, I was thinking, is there some, too bad it wasn't like, you know, Santoneo Holmes at the touchdown, it's Uveh Krupp. I was like, is there some sort of connection?

Imagine it was the same name. Could have been. Yeah, it could have been. Yeah, we'll get into that with Granger. Yeah. And then I don't know, I don't know who the jets are, in either case, I guess, I was thinking, I don't know who the New York jets are. And I'm trying to think, like, who are the Oilers? Who are the team? Who's the team that's got the superstar but are just

constantly getting clowned year after year. See, the Detroit Lions, I think of Barry Sanders in the Barry Sanders era. Yeah, you know what? The current Oilers, right? Like they were like, they're kind of always eight and eight, nine and seven and you're like, why can't they just build around Barry Sanders? Yep. You know what? That's a pretty good one. I don't know that there's a great one these days. Or is the Minnesota Vikings, you know, they had Randy Moss and they've had some, you know, they've had some, you know, they've had some elite players that are just kind of... Every year you think this might be it and then every, yeah, you know what?

This, there's, yeah, there's a few, uh, there's a few options there for sure. I'm smelling a future potential column for you there. Could be. It's already halfway done. I'm going to get the intern to do the rest of it. And, uh, we're going to be all set. Yeah, Jacksonville is Ottawa. What?

It might be. Yeah, it could be. All right. So, listen, we, we, we, we, we, we're just. We were talking about, we mentioned the Oilers, and when things go bad, they go really bad. And they went bad this week. And it wasn't just the dry sidel press conference. It was McDavid on the podium Saturday.

It's dry sidel, you know, 48 hours later. Look, these are two of the best players in the game. And it feels like, and they should be these sort of bright, like, incandescent personalities. And it looks like they've had the fun and the joy sucked right out of them, which is, Kind of what happens to all of us in Canada in the middle of January, but in particular, maybe in Edmonton, we're all, why are you so pissy? It's January in Edmonton. How about that? Let's start there.

Yeah. And look, let's also be fair here. If Connor McDavid or Leon Dressidal got up there and seemed cheery, they'd get ripped to shreds for that, right? You know, what's Connor McDavid laughing about? What's he joking about? Hasn't he looked at the standings and this and that? I mean, you might like to see a little more fire from either one of those guys other than just kind of. of shrugging and whatever and one word answers.

But they should be pissy for lack of a better term. Look at how things are going in that team. I wouldn't expect it to be anything else. And so look, did you have a strong opinion in terms of the theater we saw between, I know that the Wednesday podcast talked about this, but we'll just give us an opportunity to hit on this real quick. the interaction between Jim Matheson and Leon Drysidal, do you feel like it's much ado about nothing?

Do you have strong feelings? You know, I think what happens sometimes is we're in a rush to take sides. We're in a rush for hot takery. And sometimes the answer is in the middle. Like I feel like both parties are probably to blame in terms of escalating the temperature a little bit. And I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

I don't think it's the worst thing I've ever seen. But when you watch that interaction, Did you come away with it saying, boy, that's a bad look for Leon, that's a bad look for Matheson, that's a bad look for everybody or not really? I didn't think it was a great look for either of them. And I'm, you know, this is kind of a thing for me. I know some people, they love it when, when this happens or when it's, you know, a lot of times it's a coach in the media. Oh, isn't this great? And I don't think it's great.

I don't like seeing people publicly be rude to each other when they don't need to be. It's, you know, maybe that's my polite Canadian stereotype shining through. But I think there's better ways to handle this. But at the same time, look, this was a minor skirmish. It was the kind of thing that probably in a different time would have happened in a smaller group or one-on-one and be dealt with. You're right. Everybody does run to judgment. And frankly, a lot of times that the judgment isn't really judgment.

It's just based on, you know, if you're in the media, then you defend the media guy. And if you're a fan of the team, obviously, you love Leone Dersightal, so you're going to defend him and you're going to go after the media guy. And it's, you know, I thought the initial question was fine. I thought that the initial answer from Leanderthal saying, like, you know, we're bad everywhere was fine. And it's okay to prod a little bit to see if someone can go deeper. But sometimes they don't want to and you just got to accept that that's the answer that you've got. And I would assume that there's probably some history there between those. to because it seemed to escalate pretty quick if there wasn't. But, you know, again, it's,

it's the kind of thing where if we weren't in the era of Zoom, probably, you know, Jim doesn't, doesn't say that publicly. He waits until he gets an opportunity one-on-one and then goes over to Leon and says, hey, what the hell was that? What did you have a problem? Or, you know, do we talk about something? And they deal with it then. That happens a lot. Can't happen now. So at the end of the day, it wasn't a great look for either of them, but I also don't think it was anything that rises to the level of a crisis either. No, and I think what happens is in the case of recency bias, we're like, that's the worst thing I've ever seen between a player and a reporter.

And so we want to play a couple audio clips for our listeners here, just to give you a sense of these are going to be three incidents over the last decade that I think the temperatures seem to get higher that it did between Matheson and Drysidal. And we're leaving, look, and I know people are going to say, well, what about Tortorella? Well, I think there's been a lot of interactions heated between coaches and media members. So I'm going to remove that.

Let's just focus on players and the media. And, Sean, the first one I want to play to you is one that is, I think this week is actually the one-year anniversary of it. And it is Philadelphia Flyer Star at the time, Flyer Star, Jacob Vorichek, in a press conference, and have a listen here as Vorichick was asked a question by reporter out of Philly, Mike Salski, I believe it was Mike Salski from the Inquirer. Have a listen to Vorichek's response, and you can, it's palpable.

You can sense the anger. Two games in, Jake, how different does the season feel, if at all, given the circumstances of the offseason and the condensed schedule and everything? Doesn't matter what I say, Mike. You're going to write fucking shit every time. I don't know. It doesn't matter what you say. Yeah, it feels different. I mean, we got four points after the first two games.

I wasn't even going to answer your question because you are such a weasel. It's not even funny. Next question. You know, Sean, the thing, and obviously we're an audio podcast here, I always remember Travis Kineckney, he's taking a sip of water while Voracek is dropping the F-pop. And you can say Kine do a double take. The thing that I, the reason why I think this one is more heated than dry sidel and math, is Vorichick's use of the word weasel. Your weasel. Like that's about as bad as it's going to get, right?

Yeah. Well, I mean, until pissy, I guess. That's, yeah. Yeah, that was what, I mean, I said with Drusitle of Matheson that there was probably some history there. Clearly there was history here. Clearly, this was one where this wasn't a question, answer exchange that went bad. This was kind of, this is somebody in hockey terms had taken a number previously and was looking for the first opportunity to go at somebody.

And he did. So that one, okay, so that one I think is pretty bad. The next one we're going to play for you is about six years old. And this is Dan Boyle who, okay, before we play this clip, did you not think of Dan Boy? And Dan's a guy that he grew up in our area here in Ottawa. I always thought of Dan as a super mild-mannered guy. Like, I never thought of Dan Boyle as this sort of hot-headed, right? Like, media kind of guy that was dropping quote bombs, right?

Like, he was a pretty polite guy for the most part, wasn't he? Yeah, sure, yeah. Not exactly somebody you think of as a hothead, but again, clearly someone who had taken a number here. Yeah, and so this is from a season-ending media availability. So it's the locker clean-out day, garbage bag day, whatever you want to call it. From April of 2016, have a listen as Dan Boyle blows up at a pair of reporters from the New York Post. Perfect. I want you out of here.

Nobody likes you. Nobody respects you. Just so you know. At least I'm leaving here with the respect to my teammates. Instead of somebody like you, I try to bury somebody. That's all you do. It's not a critique, but I'm just telling you, I don't want you here. I have no respect for you.

I want you to get... No. I don't kill. Well, I can tell you to get the fuck out if I want to. I want him out. You know, if you'd have to be

politely. Why would I be polite with you? Are you kidding me? Grow up. I just want you to leave. That's all. I'll walk over here. I just want you to leave.

I don't want to see you. I mean, the F-bombs, the peak of this one is nobody likes you. It's the classic, nobody likes you. And I believe, if I'm not mistaken,

they were both reporters in New York Post. One of them is Larry Brooks. I would assume. Yeah, of course. I mean, I believe so. Yeah. And we should also say that was not only locker cleanout day, but that was the end of Dan Boyle's career, not because of that incident. Right.

You know, he was on the way out of New York. So this was sort of, you know, burn the bridges. There was no reason to play nice. And he seemed to feel like he was maybe speaking on behalf of some teammates as well and taking the hit for them. But yeah, the whole, you know. You know, go away. I don't want to do this scrum if you're here. And you hear the report to say, I'll go stand over here.

And you got to ask me nicely and all of that stuff. It was, that was a mess. That one was, again, clearly some history there. I don't know what the history is. So I can't say whether Dan Boyle was right or wrong. But, yeah, he knew what he was looking for there, let's just say. Yeah. And again, I think that the temperature on that one was a little bit higher than what we saw with

Drysidal and Matheson. And by the way, also, you know, for people who say the Matheson thing would have never happened if we had scrums and we were in the dressing room, well, that was a scrum in the dressing room and it still happens. Exactly, which takes us to our last one. And this was one that I was actually there, Sean. I was standing here in this scrum. This is from April of 2010. Are you the reporter? And I'm not the report.

I got asked so many times back then. People are, who's that you? I'm like, no, it wasn't me. It's Andy Sutton of the Ottawa Senators speaking to reporters. speaking to reporters in Pittsburgh at the old Mellon Arena. Andy has just delivered a pretty, pretty vicious hit on Penguins' defenseman Jordan Leopold. It was, it was. I remember being in the arena.

I thought, that's one of those hits he never want to see. It was nasty. Poor Jordan Leopold was out. And after the game, to Andy Sutton's credit, he came out and spoke to us. And have a listen to his exchange as a reporter from Pittsburgh. This one isn't so much full of rage as it. It is just straight up awkward. I think it's, you know, the hit on Yarko behind the net was way worse.

I mean, I got suspended hitting Pascal DePuy really this year for the exact same hit. So, I mean, I don't know why mine's going to be highly contested. You didn't know your elbow came up and hit him in the head? Are you asking me or are you telling me? No, I'm asking you. You're an expert? No, it was on the replay. So you're an expert?

No, it was on the replay. So you saw it. You saw it. It's on, you're an expert? I'm saying, I saw it. I'm asking you, did you know you got your elbow up? You're telling me I got my elbow up? It was on the replay.

You're an expert. You know it was up. Okay, that's it, guys. Thank you. You know, Sean, the one thing I always say, like, we made a huge mistake in Ottawa. Like, how did we not pump out so you're an expert merch, you're an expert hat, t-shirts, all of it. It was an all-time slogan. What I, this was like one of those weird routines where like somebody just keeps asking you a question and you're like, are you asking me or telling me? You asking me? You're an extra. It was just honestly, I was like at one point I remember looking around like, am I, okay, I can't be the only one seeing this. This is bizarre to me. Like it was like stuck in a loop. Yeah, absolutely. Because it, you know, and it was, I mean, obviously, I think it was an elbow. Most people thought it was an elbow. The replays seemed.

to indicate that, although I suppose if you were a diehard Senator's fan, maybe you thought it was more of an arm or something coming up. And I guess from Andy Sutton's perspective, he can't come out and say, yeah, I elbowed the guy. And he also

doesn't want to say, no, I definitely didn't elbow him because he's seen the replay. He knows what the replay shows. So he kind of chooses this tack to try to get out of it, I guess. And it's, yeah, it reminded me of, you know, if you've, when you're a kid and you think you've got a clever comeback to the teacher or the parent,

like, this will shut it down. And it doesn't. And they just keep asking you the question. You're like, I don't have a plan B, man. I guess I'm just going back to this. And I'll just see how awkward it is while I blink in Morse code at the media guy to get me out of here, which I think is eventually what happened. My memory of that of the Eddie Sutton thing is that was like one of the first great, like,

hockey Twitter moments where it blew up and everybody was just. I mean, you couldn't, it was awful because for a month on Twitter, you couldn't ask or say anything without 10 people immediately asking if you were an expert. But it was, uh, that was one of the first things way back in the early days of Twitter before it was a total cesspool where everybody was kind of playing around and having fun with that. Yeah, that was a great six week window or whatever it was on Twitter. Maximum. Yeah, at the most. Hey, speaking of Twitter, I got to ask you about this.

the Carolina Hurricanes put down a 7-1 beat down on Boston the other night. And they tweet out about the 7-1 win. And the Hurricanes official team site tweets out on Tuesday night. So I'm getting my date, sorry. Tuesday night. They tweet out the final score is 7-1, and they're like, hey, L stands for Lamborghini. And they're like, they're having some fun, right? Because Brad Marchand, who had called himself a Lamborghini.

Exactly. And this is what I find interesting. So Marchand, you know, he's very active on social media. He decides to respond to the hurricane's tweets, saying L stands for Lamborghini, kind of taking a shot at the Bruins, the L, and Marchand. And he tweets back, you're still the reason we pay 20% in escrow. Now, this is an all-time response from an hour.

to a team, right? Yeah. And you know what? I got to say, man, I don't, the Carolina Hurricanes have a lot of fun. They've kind of got this, this, this, this personality to them, this attitude. Obviously, Habs fans know all about that from the offer sheet to back and forth. They do a lot of this type of stuff, a bunch of jerks, all of it. And it's fun, and a lot of people enjoy it.

But you're going to play that game. you got to keep your head up because somebody might come for you too and this is uh they got caught with their head down a little bit here and uh this was a this was a great comeback because it's it it was here's what i liked about it it was i mean first of all it was funny it's it's got a little bit of truth to it um and it also was it wasn't the sort of thing that was aimed at like at anyone specifically. This was a shot at the Hurricanes organization. This wasn't a, this wasn't something that was aimed to get like some social media manager in trouble or, you know, that sort of thing. It was, you know, it went a little more broadly in that. I got to tell you, of all of the various

storylines and subplots of the last decade, my very least favorite is Brad Marchand emerging as one of the most likable personalities. I hate it. I hate it. Because I was much happier when I couldn't stand this guy. And I could just, you know, cringe every time he was on TV. And the fact that he's emerged as an actual personality who's, at least generally speaking, seems like a lot of fun and has reined in some of the other stuff. Oh, and also gets 100 points every year.

Just awful. I put me down as a hard no one. on this whole thing. Yeah, you know, the two things I want to weigh in on the Marchand tweet, number one, I think him dunking on the Carolina Hurricanes, I think for a brief moment, even, like you said, even Montreal Canadiens fans are like, damn. That must have been mixed feelings, man.

I think I might like Brad Marchand a little more than Carolina Hurricanes right now. The guy, like your arch enemy, your old arch enemy comes over and sucker punches, your new arch enemy, and you're sitting there going, wait a second, whose side am I on here? I don't know. This is a tough one. Yeah. But the whole key to this.

his tweet, Sean, he used the proper, the proper usage of yore. If he had used the wrong yore that so many people do, it would undercut it. People would be like, oh, you're clown, you're brutal, but he used the proper yore and he's a guy after our hearts. Yeah, he's, he's clearly, uh, clearly this was not ghost written by his tattoo artist, because everything was, was spelled correctly. Yeah, it's right. No regrets. Actually, that's what I should have done for my Cowboys tattoo. I like that guy so much better when he was the No Regrets guy. Yeah.

Oh, man. Could please just lick another face shield or something for us, man. I could get, do something. No, that window is past the COVID. COVID is taking care of that. Hey, one more thing I want to get to before we will bring Jesse Granger on here in a second. Your column this week about NHL trades, kind of in-season trades for goalies. And I'll be honest with you, I always love, you know, your columns that you kind of count down 10 to 1.

Because, you know, I get to 3 or 4 in my mind. I'm like, oh, yeah, for sure I know this is going to be there. And I got to 1. And I was like, damn, Duane Rollisins is the number 1 in-season goalie trade. I'm not going to lie to you. That surprised me. Yeah. And but you know what?

I defend it because that, I mean, we're going all the way back to 2006. But that was an Oilers team that was a pretty good team. But they were getting crushed by goaltending. Now, stop me if you've heard this, but this Oilers team was on the verge of missing the playoffs. They had a guy named Chris Pronger. So they had one of the best players in the world. Again, this is, you know, I'm not drawn any comparisons or parallels. But they had one of the best players in the world in his prime in Chris Pronger, and a pretty good team around him.

But they were being let down by goaltending. They go out and they trade for Wayne Rollison, who I think was, what, 36 at the time. He's a pending UFA. It's a rental, and they gave up a first round pick. And a lot of us at the time were like, oh, my goodness, what an overreaction, what an overpayment, you know, you're going to give up your first round pick so you can, what, sneak into the playoffs and get crushed by the way. You've got to play the Red Wings.

They have 120 points. There's no chance. And Dwayne Rawlson comes over, stabilizes the position, gets them into the playoffs, and then they go on the all-time Cinderella run, get to the Stanley Cup final, knock off the one, two, three seeds, I think along the way, get to the final, and then he gets hurt in game one of a series that they lose in seven games. If he doesn't get hurt, I think you absolutely could say the Edmonton Oilers win the Stanley Cup. Now, we don't know that. We'll never know it, but I think you could say this should have been the trade that we look back on and said,

this was the difference between missing the playoffs and winning a Stanley Cup. You can't ask for anything more out of what seemed at the time to be a rental. It didn't end up being that. He signed on and played a few more years. but again, absolutely no comparisons being drawn to any situations that may be happening anywhere else. But I will just point out there was a time when the Oilers needed a goalie. And instead of sitting around talking about how hard it is to make trades, they just went out and got a goalie. And it almost turned into a championship. All right, Sean, as always, time for us to bring in our pal, Jesse Granger for a little Granger things on this Thursday episode of the pod.

Brought to you by our good friends and VETMGM, the exclusive betting partner with us at the athletic. Jesse Granger. Always good to have you on the Thursday show. We want to talk a little bit about some trends around the National Hockey League with a couple of Stanley Cup contenders. In fact, I'm sure Sean will be quick to point out some facts about the 1996 Stanley Cup final. Because we're going to be talking some abs and Panthers here, right? Oh, boy. Yeah, here's some facts. It was terrible,

and it ruined hockey for two decades. Wait a minute. Why is that? Because the, first of all, this is my theory, okay? And Ian knows he's getting me going on this. But everybody blame, you say dead puck Aaron, people blame who? The 95 Devils. Right. Here's my argument.

Yes, the Devils were, you know, a defensive-minded team. But they scored, the 94 Devils were like top five in the league and goals. This was not a defense-only team. The 96 Panthers were an expansion team that did clutch and grab and open field tackling to beat Merrill Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins. and deprive us of a Mario versus Joe Sackett, Stanley Cup final, which would have been amazing. Lemieux versus Patrick Waugh and all the other stuff.

And instead, we got the Panthers. It was a sweep. It ended on a 1-0 triple overtime game on a goal by a defensive defenseman. And somehow nobody in the NHL looked at that and went, you know what, maybe this isn't what our game should be. Maybe we should do something about this. They said, you know what, let's sit tight. We're going to wait for about 20 years or so

before we actually do anything. Let's just sit back and assess, so to speak. And, yeah, it was a, every owner in the league was like, why am I paying a bunch of guys to score goals when Scott Mellonby and a bunch of grinders can just tackle the other team constantly and get to the Stanley Cup final. That's amazing.

I told you. Panthers and the abs would set them off. But hey, all right. So we're out of time. Jesse, sorry. Thanks a lot. Then we'll talk to next week. Yeah, we're out of time.

We'll see you next week. But I think what's funny is that if the, the Panthers and Avs do meet in the cup final this year, it wouldn't be the boring old school. It would be some high octane uptempo hockey. And both these teams are kind of on your radar here when it comes to some betting lines. Let's start out west with the avalanche.

And I guess this shouldn't be too much as a surprise because I think when you think of the avalanche, you think of goals. And you're seeing a trend here when Colorado's on the docket, you've got to take the over here. Yeah, definitely. Florida and Colorado are the two highest scoring. teams in the league. And like the avalanche obviously are on a roll right now. They are just dusting teams. And you, you, as a better, you think, okay, like, let's jump on that. But the thing is, a cup contender

like the avalanche that has been expected to be a cup contender all season, you can't get any value on them. And when they get in a hot streak like streak like this, their side bets, you can't even, you can't bet the avalanche. You're not going to make any money. But there is a different way to make money on the avalanche, I think. And that's betting the totals. And right now they are on an insane stretch of hitting the over on these games. They have hit the over in 25 of their games. Seventy-eight percent of the Avalanche games have gone over the total this season. Of all the teams in the entire NHL, the next highest is Florida, and they're only at 61%. So that just shows you like, like the second highest team in the entire NHL, it's hard to get much into the 60s, 61%, let alone 78% of the time they're going over the

total. And in their last 11 games, the Aves have only gone under once in 11 games. And that game, they beat the Arizona Coyotes five to nothing. So even in the only game that went under in their last 11, they still scored five goals in that game. This team is scoring obviously at an incredible rate. They also aren't getting great goaltending from Darcy Kemper, which helps that that total get to the over on most nights. It's funny that Sean brought up the 1996 Pittsburgh Penguins because Don't pull me back in. You know, this Avalanche team is averaging 4.25 goals per game at about the halfway mark, and no team has averaged more than four goals per game since the 1996 Pittsburgh Penguins.

That team had Mario Lemieux 161 points, Yomir, Yager, 149 points, Ron Francis, 119 points, and Peter Nedved had 99 points. So almost four 100-point players on that team. and this avalanche team is the most effective offensive, the most high-octane offensive hockey team. We've seen since that team, which is pretty incredible. Pretty incredible. Where did it get them?

Nowhere. Because of who, the Florida Panthers? Yeah. Well, then who's going to be, Sean, who's going to be the team that Panthers the abs this year? Like, who's a Western team that's going to suck the soul out of Colorado, maybe in round two, maybe maybe they, Maybe it's the conference final, but they kind of clutching grab and drag their way to take out the abs.

I'll tell you. Everybody's thinking the same answer, which is the Minnesota wild, because that's just their reputation, right? They're the boring team. That's what they've always been. They're not actually particularly boring team this year. Not anymore. There's a lot of fun there. But reputations kind of do kind of make you wonder.

But I think probably the best candidate and anyway. would have to be on a crossover and they'd have to drop a little bit down the standings. But couldn't you just see Daryl Sutter just strangling the life out of those Colorado Avalanche? I mean, if anybody could just crush the fun out of a high-powered offensive team, that's got to be the guy, right? Yeah, I like it. For sure. I like it a lot.

And just the other thing we want to talk about, and speaking of the flames, they just had a date with the Florida Panthers, the other team that you want to talk about here. And the Panthers, this was a great example, right? Because the Panthers were rolling. We watched them, you know, run up the scoreboard last weekend. We're thinking, here we go. And guess what? They get out on the road and they continue to struggle.

And this is a trend that you're starting to really pick up on here as you look at the Florida Panthers. Yeah, definitely. Like you said, great example. They go to Calgary on Tuesday and they lose. And their next four games are on the road. So they've got quite the road trip here. But there is no team in hockey that has a bigger split in terms of, their stats and their results on the road compared to at home.

They are 20 and 3 at home, which is astounding. And on the road, they're 5, 5, and 5. But in terms of betting, overtime shootout losses count the same as a regular loss. So they are 5 and 10, if you were betting them straight up on the road. The only team that's even remotely close in terms of having a different split is the stars. But even the stars aren't as drastic as the Florida Panthers. They've won seven straight games at, is it FLA Live Arena? Is it Florida live?

How do you say? It's FLA, isn't it? Yeah. I think. FLA live arena. They've won seven straight games there. You mentioned they were rolling. They were outscoring their opponents like 24 to 15 in those games.

They have been crushing teams. When you look at their stats, to me, that's where it really, because I think, I mean, hockey, you can have a bounce here or a bounce there. Things go, maybe the results don't always tell you what's happening. But when you look at their stats, this team, I mentioned the Avalancheer are the first team since that Pittsburgh team. Florida's right behind them in scoring. they're averaging 4.75 goals per game at home, only 2.93 on the road, like basically half.

And then you look at their goals against, too. They're only given up 2.71 goals against at home. And on the road, that goes all the way up to 3.2, higher than the goals they're scoring. So, and their power play. On the road, 12% power play, one of the worst in the entire NHL. And then at home, it's up to 23% more than double the conversion rate at home. So it's kind of like part of the, I was kind of chuckling as I went over these stats because that team gets, and their fan base gets poked fun at and so often the Florida Panthers for not drawing crowds. So it's just funny that that team that everyone like kind of pokes fun at the arena, they're 20 and three in that arena and nobody wants to go into that arena and play the Panthers

this year. Yeah, that's it's clearly it's because there's just so much to do around that arena that the players get distracted. You can go to the one restaurant, you can wander into the swamp, that's it. By the way, guys, before we,

before we draw the, I want to revise my answer, okay, on which team is going to take down the, is going to panther, the Colorado Avalanche, because there's something that I missed. Do you know who was the leading score

for that 96 Panthers team in the playoffs? I'm going to say Dave Lowry. You got it. And what's Dave Lowry doing these days? Coaching the Winnipeg Jets who could potentially play the Colorado Avalanche in round one. There we go. There's your answer. It's the Dave Lowry back and ready to ruin everything all over again.

It's so funny because that Stanley Cup to me is a big moment for me. For me, that's the first hockey I really remember. I grew up in Colorado as an Aves fan. I was like five, I think, when that Stanley Cup happened. And that was like, we just got the team. It was brand new. And we were so excited and they won the Stanley Cup. Like, I vividly remember that cup.

And it was such a great memory for me and such a horrible one for you. Yep. An apology to all of our listeners in the province of Quebec for young Jesse Granger at the age of five being introduced to hockey. This is awesome. This is awesome. This is awesome. This is awesome. This is awesome.

This is awesome. This is awesome. This is awesome. sack it. What was he up to before? Yeah, I thought that's just how hockey worked. You just, your team wins the cup every year. Yeah, I can assure you that's incorrect. Says the guy who covers the Vegas Golden Knights. Right. Yeah. It just follows me, right? I've been very lucky. As soon as I moved from Colorado, that was when everyone retired from the Aves and they had their downfall. They're obviously back now. But yeah, it seems like it's following me a little. Okay. This was fun,

as always. We love the Thursday visits where we chat. what's kind of going on from a betting perspective and some lines and things like that. This was a ton of fun, included a little trip down memory lane too back to 1996. So listen, thanks for this. Have a great weekend. We'll hit you up next Thursday. Awesome. Thanks for having me, guys.

Thanks, Jesse. All right. Amazing how Jesse was like, what do you mean the 96 Stanley Cup was terrible for hockey? Like, isn't that funny? That's, I mean, it's rough that, you know, first of all, you suckered me into it. And then I find out that like five-year-old Jesse Granger's favorite team, I just dumped all over their big moment. So, yeah, I've crushed, retroactively crushed a young hockey fan spirit.

But that's all right. I'm a least fan. If it happens to me, everyone should be miserable too. So there you go. All right, we're going to take some or tackle some questions from our listeners. We want to remind you, you can always reach us at The Athletic Hockey Show at gmail.com. The athletic hockey show at gmail.com. That is the way to drop us an email.

You could also leave us a voicemail. We love to hear your voice. 845, 445-8459. Let's take this one here. We'll take a couple. This one's from Chris in Calgary. Or sorry, Mark, Mark in Calgary. And Mark says, hey, guys, what's the NHL record for most games played in a season by a player?

Every now and then we see somebody gets traded to a team who's maybe played fewer games and ends up with, let's say, 83 or 84 games. Now, with the COVID shutdowns, could we see? see somebody crack the 90 game mark for the first time ever. At the time of me writing you this note, Ottawa has played 31 games versus a team like Anaheim, who's played 10 more at 41. If Ottawa traded for somebody who's played all 41,

and that player ends up finishing the season with the senators, well, they could end up with 92 games played. That's from Mark in Calgary. Now, I know you probably know the answer to this, Sean. His question is, what's the record for the most number of games played? I do know what the old, old, old record is because when I was a kid, Sean, you and I have the same age, but when I was like seven years old, so like this is like early 80s, okay, I got a sports trivia book for my seventh, I think it was my seventh birthday, okay? Yeah. I still haven't.

And I used to pour over this thing. And there was a section of hockey trivia questions. And it was one of the questions was, who is the only player to ever play more than 80 games in a season? and the answer was this rando guy, I don't know anything about this guy, his name was Ross Lonsbury. Do you know, have you ever heard of this guy before? No, no. But the name sticks in my mind because he played 82 games for some team in the 70s

because he got traded and that team had played two fewer games. And it was like this novel thing like, wow, this guy played 82 games in the season. So that was the old record and that's planted in my brain from the 80s. I love that stuff that you find as a kid that just like sticks with you. And you still remember. You forget your wife's birthday, but you're like that is always in there. Well, I regret to inform you that that record does not stand any longer. Not surprisingly, because the season is.

Exactly. Is longer. The record is actually held by two guys. One one name you'll know because he was a fairly well-known player. And the other one you'll know because it involves. the senators. And both guys played 86 games in a season. And it's the same circumstances.

They were traded in the middle of the year and to a team that had played fewer games. And the guys are Jimmy Carson, not quite the most famous Jimmy Carson trade ever, but he was traded midway through the 92-93 season. And then the next year, Bob Kiddelski, Ottawa Senators, right. slash Florida Panthers legend Bob Kedelsky. And both guys ended up holding the record at 86 because if you remember, that was during that brief window where the NHL actually played 84 games in a season.

Yeah. And it was 80 for the longest time, bumped up briefly at 84 and then settled back down at 82. So that record I would have said before this year would be unlikely to be broken because you'd need to find four extra games just to tie it. But this is a good point. I got to be honest, I'm really into weird NHL records, but this scenario had not occurred to me. But you're right. We could see that record challenge this year if we get a trade.

Of course, the downside is it would have to be somebody who was playing all the games. And I don't know if we've even got anyone left in the league who's on track to play every game this year. But it could happen. And that was neat. I sort of, I appreciated that, that email because that's, I didn't, I had not thought of that. I got to be honest. Yeah, it's right up your alley like that kind of quirky, could a guy get to 90 games. And I would feel for the guy if you got traded to Ottawa just because it's not like you're getting traded to a contender, right?

Like all of a sudden, you know, so I guess, but there are some, the islanders, I guess, could maybe hang around the playoff race. Maybe they trade for somebody. Maybe. Maybe that could make sense. But yeah, I think absolutely there could be. ruins have got a ton of games still to make up, I think. Five or six in hand, I think, on a lot of teams. So you're right.

Yeah, that could work. We could make this happen. Matthew writes into the show, Matthew Bagnall, says, and again, this is via email to the athletic hockey show at gmail.com. If you guys had total control over hockey Hall of Fame membership, who would you add to the Hall of Fame that doesn't necessarily deserve to be there and why would you pick them. I'm essentially looking for somebody who lives rent-free in

your head and your heart. And hockey fans need to know about this person. So this guy could be a player. He could be a builder, an official, but he could be an NHL or international person, whatever. But it is somebody obscure, maybe, but

who is the guy that you just, you love so much that he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, or at least in your personal Hall of Fame? So, well, I've got I've got two names. And you know what one of them is going to be. Well, I'm assuming it's Wendell, right? Of course, yeah.

I mean, Wendell Clark is my all-time favorite player. I have never enjoyed watching a pro athlete as much as I love Wendell Clark in both phases of his first stint with the Leafs. You had the young Wendell Clark with the Mollet, who was just a wrecking ball, just hitting and fighting and scoring. But like just absolutely every game, just a total buzz saw. We will never see anything like it again because that NHL doesn't exist anymore. But for a Leafs team that had just been a punching bag for so long, suddenly you had this 18-year-old kid just running around, destroying everyone was fantastic. And then you fast forward to the Pat Burns era,

and you have the old grizzled Wendell Clark with the big bushy beard and the bald spot and the bad back, but he's getting off the trainer's table. And that was fantastic, too. And by the way, do you realize, you know, that, picture what picture that Wendell Clark, right? The Wendell Clark who fights Marty McSorley, you know, with the beard and the bald spot and everything, you know, do you realize Wendell Clark was 26 during that playoff run? He was like an old man. He was like, yeah, like you, don't you picture him as like a 35 row. He was 26.

He was six months older than William Neelander is now when he was old, grizzled Wendell Clark. And I don't, that just always cracks me up, you know. And then he had like his final, he had to come back with the Leafs and then the final comeback when he was just this broken down shell of himself and he was like 32. It was, Wendell Clark's aging pattern was was very strange. But yeah, he's clearly my heart Hall of Famer. My head Hall of Famer, and I made this, if anybody read the piece that we did collectively a few months ago on the Hall of Fame, you saw me push for this guy and I will continue to.

and it's somewhat timely this week, which is Herb Carnegie should be in as a builder. Herb Carnegie was the first black star in hockey, never made the NHL, was never given the opportunity, preceded Willie O'Reie and was a teammate in the Quebec Senior League, which at the time was, a league that was not far off the NHL as far as the skill level and played with Sean Belavow and some other guys. And in fact, Bellabo once said that he was one of the very best players he ever played with and wasn't given an opportunity in the NHL, was offered a few tryouts, but it was always under conditions that didn't make sense. There were accusations of racism and some things that you can Smyth Mir may not have said about him that helped keep him out of the

NHL. But a legit star and a guy that, you know, now that we're finally after all these decades, recognizing Willie O'Re, Herb Carnegie is another guy who should be in, and I would love to see him go in as a builder. Yeah, no, that is a great one. You're right. And you're starting to see a little bit of ground swell of support for him that wasn't there three years ago. His family's been pushing it for a few years.

And every now and then, you know, but it's not something, you know, it's, again, it's timely because Willie O'Ree, but this isn't something you don't need the narrative. You don't need it. Just look at his resume. And he, He belongs there. He was a legitimate star in his own right

and probably should have been the guy to break the color barrier for black athletes in the NHL and wasn't given that opportunity. You know, and just to wrap up your thought on Wendell Clark, you know, when you say he was 26 years old in that 93? Like, it's the same as that, you know, when people are like, you are now the same,

or this is how old Wilford Brimley was in Cuckoo? Yes, that's right. That's right. The Wendell line would be, yeah. Like, what is that? Somebody pointed out to me that the three women in the new Sex and the City reboot, you know, the three returning characters are the same age as the Golden Girls when that show debuted. And that and the Wilford Brimley thing. And now, yeah, the Wendell-Clark line.

William Nealander is going to pass the Wendell-Clark line. It should be, I say we draw the line at the age, the exact age Wendell-Clark was when he fought Marty McSorley. because I feel like that's the ultimate kind of old Wendell moment and the fact that he was 26. I mean, it's pretty ridiculous. But yeah, he's, we got to make that a thing. Like Connor McDavid is closing him on that. He's probably within 18 months of that line. He's probably pretty close.

I'm, you know, I'm. Right? Yeah, absolutely. So he'll turn 26 next year. Leander Cytle is basically, you know, the, he's. just moments away from the from passing the Wendell line. So yeah.

Yeah. That's when you become grumpy and old. Hey, okay, so here's my answer to that question as well. Because you know, you know this. And just for the benefit of our listeners, I grew up a huge Montreal Canadiens fan. Like that was my favorite team as a kid. But now as a, you know, as a beat reporter, I don't really feel like I cheer like I like I kind of used to.

But I still have that kind of nostalgia for the Canadians. and the one guy that I would say, you know what, this was my guy as a kid, and he's the only guy, Sean, as I throw in a little trivia for you. Oh, boy. He's the only guy. So Gila Fleur, there's only two players in Montreal Canadiens history, two wingers to have 110 points or more in a season and win a Stanley Cup with the habs in the same year.

Gila Fleur is one. Do you know who the other is? No, I don't. Was it 86 or 93? It was 86. 86. And it's not Stefan Rischet. I was thinking Stefan Rishay, but I don't.

Yeah, I remember that 86 team wasn't a big scoring team. And I'm trying to think. Matt's Naslin. Matt's Naslin. Yes, of course. The Little Mats Naslin. We're all picturing Don Cherry holding his hand up. Little Matt's Nazland, he's only this high.

Yeah. That's a good pick, yeah. You know, and wouldn't it be fun to put like, have him in the Hall of Fame and just put that headline on, you know, the hockey news, M. Naslin inducted into Hall of Fame and let every Canucks fan get all excited. Yeah. What? M. Naslin is in, finally.

Well, I mean, we all know guys named Matt's get a free pass from the community. Oh, here we go. Here we go. But anyway, I thought it was funny too because, you know, Matt's Nazlin, nobody would, nobody would pick him. But he was the guy. Like, when I was a kid, I used to, I got my parents to give me the exact thing. He used this finished brand stick torso.

And I had my parents buy me the Torsbow stick. And, and, you know, he was, and I, as I look this up now, Matt Snaslin was 26 years old that year. There it is. There it is. Yeah. This is the age. Was he your guy that like when you were playing hockey out in the,

out with your friends in the street and you all had to call which player you were before the game? Yeah, you were Matt Snazlin. See, I was, I was Wendell-Clark, but the problem is there was like 20 of us. And that was, that was always bad news. It was like 20 Wendell Clark's. One Daniel Marois and probably like a... Yeah, maybe a Russ, maybe a Greg Terry and the Slow Kid.

Yeah, that was pretty much it. Yeah. All right. One more here from an email from Donald who said, hey guys, catching up on some of your older podcasts here. Listen to the one that you did a while back on. Going back in time and undoing trades. I enjoyed it, but I think you got a big one that you missed.

One of the all-time worst deals when Chicago traded Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Fred Stanfield, the Boston in exchange for Gil Marcotte, Pitt Martin, and Jack Norris. So, yeah, I guess. It's a good one, an all-time bad trade.

And the reason that it's especially notable is that it is one of the first and maybe most famous examples of a team failing in the playoffs and deciding that, you know what, we can't win with this mix.

Because Chicago had, remember, they had Bobby Hall and Stan McKita. And then they had Phil Esposito on the second line, sometimes playing with those guys. And the feeling was, well, we got too much offense. We got, we can't, you can't win with all this offense. This Esposito kid, he doesn't know his own end. We got to move him. And we'll get Pitt Martin, who was like the 1960s version of like Eric Good Branson or someone like that, where it's, you know, the hard-nosed defensive defenseman who could clear the net and do all the things.

things you need to win. And yeah, they let that, they had a very disappointing playoff run. And they, they let that sit in their heads a little bit too much and decided to make a move and, uh, traded away the young Phil Esposito and immediately came to regret it as he rewrote the record book over the next five years. Yeah. And, uh, ended up with a 76 goal season and, uh, with Boston. All right. Yeah. And then got traded in another terrible trade. Yeah. Phil Esposito's is, is just a lifetime of terrible trades. He was involved in two of the worst trades in NHL history and then became a GM. And it was almost like he was trying to push his two trades down. So he just made worse and worse and crazier and crazier trades. If you're ever looking for something fun to remind you of or to learn

about what this game used to be, look up Phil Esposito's trading record as a GM. He was a GM for like three years and you will just keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. It is absolutely insane, including trading for a coach. Yeah. Which wasn't even something anybody knew. Yeah, first round, yeah, fifth overall pick and trade it for a coach that he fired after like a year and a half. And did he not, now, correct me if I'm wrong here.

Did he not get the nickname Trader Phil? And it's like if he's, but he was only on the job for like 36 months. Yeah, no, he was an absolute madman in New York. And then he had a stint in Tampa too and wasn't, he wasn't all that less active. But yeah, go back his, I mean, it's like if you were playing a computer game and you just, you know, at some point, you know, you would just, even you would be like, this isn't realistic. I can't make three trades every week. But nobody told Phil that.

It was a lot of, I don't know if it was fun for Rangers fans, but it was fun for the rest of us. Okay. This week in hockey history is always fun for us. It's how we wrap up the show. And now, look, we're in the middle of January and you and I live. in the province, for our American audience, you and I live in the province of Ontario, which got absolutely hammered with a snowstorm this week.

We got about in the neighborhood of 18 to 20 inches of snow, 50 centimeters, whatever it was earlier this week. And so I got two this week in hockey histories that kind of involve weather-related, you know, postponements a game. So we're kind of in that middle of January is when weird things. happen and games get postponed. So we're going to go through two of them. I'll start you with this one and it was January 18th, 1945. Okay, January 18th, 1945. A crowd of just under 8,000 people waited at Olympia Stadium in Detroit for more than three hours to see a regular season

game between the Red Wings and the Rangers. The game was delayed by bad weather. The game did not start until 11.15 p.m. It ended at about 1 a.m. And it got me thinking, okay, you're sitting, in the Olympia, it's 1945, I'm thinking that the arena's probably full of smoke, there's not a lot of ventilation. Like, even if you were doing it now, I feel like three hours waiting around with nothing to do

is a bit much for me for regular season. What's your cut off, Sean? Yeah, no, it's, I don't know what my cutoff is, but it's not three hours. Yeah, I don't think so. I don't know how much I've paid for those tickets. I'm guessing back then probably wasn't a very fan-friendly refund policy,

maybe why people were sticking around. But I'm also guessing there wasn't exactly a ton of in arena entertainment. It was maybe a guy on the organ. And that was pretty much it. And the other thing is that's the World War II era. The Rangers were one of the worst teams in the history of hockey. So it's not like you're sticking around to see, you know, the Montreal Canadiens dynasty or, you know, we're going to see Rock and Richard or something. It was a real bad team.

I'm guessing that like I say, if there was probably, hey, no refunds, the game's going to be played. And so I guess everyone's sitting around. And the other thing is every photo you've ever seen from that era, what's everyone in the stands wearing? They're all dressed. Yeah. Like they're dressed up nicer than like what I wear to go to wedding. So, you know, like there's no way. That could not have been comfortable.

You're sitting there with your hat on. And yeah, probably like you said, just chug it away on your cigar. And that probably would have been a pretty. pretty miserable night. Oh yeah. Heavy like a wool suit and a top hat and a pipe or whatever cigar. Yeah. I'm not waiting three hours for regular season. I guess the only counter argument would be like what else are you going to do in 1945, right? It's not like you're going to go home and you know, turn on Netflix. It was it's probably like, all right, this is this is it. It's either this or I go home and deal with my family. So I'm in. What else are you going to do? It's 1945. We

say in January 22 as we're locked down. Yeah, exactly. What else are you going to do? The exciting, fascinating lives that we live now. Yeah. Okay. So we got one other one. This one's a little bit more recent.

This one comes from January of 1987, January 22nd, 1987, to be precise. When the New Jersey Devils took on the Calgary Flames at the old Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. And it was later to the Continental Airlines Arena. And so at this rink, the devils who were expecting about 11,000 people to show up to the game also had a major winter storm that ended up dropping about a foot and a half of snow.

And so as a result, I mean, the Calgary Flames couldn't get to the arena. It took, the game was delayed by two hours. There was a total, they counted the people that came into the arena that night. And it was 334. 334 people brave the weather. made it to the arena and watched the New Jersey Devils pick up a victory 7-5 over the Calgary Flames. The Devils would then later honor these diehard fans, Sean, who braved the weather, by forming

the 334 Club, which was to honor the 334 people who showed up to the game. So do you know any, like, what were some of the benefits of being in the 334 club? You know what? That I don't know. You've pretty much summarized the story about as much as I know it, but it's one of my favorite stories. And I do, again, this is something you'd never see again because these days, when big storms like that hit, games are postponed, games are shifted around. But back then, it's just, yeah, we're going to play the game. And it's, yeah, they actually recognize it.

And you got to remember, this is the 87 Devils. This is still in the Mickey Mouse era, when the Devils are the worst franchise in the NHL, the laughing stock. They have in a year later, they would have the big playoff run and have another donut and all of that stuff. But they haven't done that yet. They've never even made the playoffs. So yeah, have some, you know, recognize the fans that are actually loyal enough or crazy enough or live next door to the arena, I guess. But they actually get out there.

And at least it sounds like they saw a fun game, you know, 7 to 5. That's a good low-scoring 80s battle, a goaltending duel. But, you know, and a pretty good flames team. unlike those poor Red Wings fans from back in the day. I'm thinking the 334 club in New Jersey, like if you're thinking about potential benefits or whatever, like what do you get from it? Like should you not have gotten a ticket,

you know, like should you not have gotten a ticket to a game every year for the next X amount of years? Because here, okay. Back then. could have, they had the room. I mean, they would have, I mean, you said, they sold 11,000 tickets. So it's not like they were, yeah, it's not like that people were exactly lined up around the blocks to get to a devil's game. Yeah, I would, yeah, give them season's tickets, give them something. Yeah, okay, so I looked up on the devil's official website. They actually

posted something, but the problem is, I can't tell if this is from last year, five years ago, but there's a, there's a link to the 334 club. And it's like, it's got the backstory. But then there's this form at the bottom, Sean, where it says, were you there on January 22nd, 1987? We want to hear your story if you're part of the 334 club or if you even tried to just get to that game. And then there's like a form where you fill out with your name and your address, your phone number.

Like here's my, I guess my point or my question, if you've created and established the 334 club, wouldn't you know the names? Like, how would it be? Apparently it's not much of a club. Yeah, I do know. Okay, so here's from a New Jersey Devils fan site, and I do not know if this is accurate, but I have no reason necessarily to doubt it. It says the New Jersey Devils took down the names of every fan in attendance who received a letter, indoctrinating them into the infamous 334 club along with, you ready, a t-shirt and official badge.

That's it. That seems to be the end of the list. So you got a T-shirt, and I don't even know what an official, I guessing there are, maybe there are unofficial 334. club badges out there. But yeah, you have you have a badge and a t-shirt and a letter and that sounds like that's about it. So yeah, it doesn't, it feels like like a lot of things with the mid-80s devils. Maybe there wasn't quite as much effort put into this as there should have been. Yeah, a little underwhelming to say the least. Not even like a, not even a free ticket. I would have thought there would be gathering set up every year and, you know.

This is pretty bad. There should be. There's got to be something else. I would like if it's a long shot, it's a huge long shot. But if anyone listening to this is or knows a member of the 334 club, I want to hear from you. And I want to find out they must have done something else since. Are we going to put out a form at the end of our podcast on the site that people can, if you were part of the 334 club. Yeah.

Yeah. I just pictured the devil's like, wow, It's crazy. We got a lot more than 334 responses to our unverified Internet form. How weird. Yeah. All right. Hey, listen, we'll leave it there.

This was a lot of fun, as always, Sean. So, listen, have a great week digging out of the snow. And we'll do this again next week. Sounds good. All right. Thanks, everybody, for listening to this latest edition of The Athletic Hockey Show. Like I said, we'll get you again next week. You always drop us an email.

If you got a question for us, a query, something you want us to tackle. The email is The Athletic Hockey Show. at gmail.com, or you can leave us a voicemail at 845-4-459. If you're not a subscriber with us, you can join us at theathletic.com slash hockey show. Get an annual subscription for $3.99 a month. You can also subscribe to the Athletic Audio. Plus, on Apple Podcast, get all of our bonus content from our entire network. They'll start with a 30-day free trial, and then it's just 99 cents a month after that.