The Athletic Hockey Show - Phil Kessel poised to break Keith Yandle's Ironman record, resurgent Jordan Binnington leading the St. Louis Blues, Dominik Hasek calls for a ban of Russian players

Episode Date: October 25, 2022

Craig and Sean welcome NHL Ironman Keith Yandle on the day that Phil Kessel is set to break Yandle's consecutive games played record. Yandle, who retired from the league in the summer on the same day as Zdeno Chara and PK Subban, discusses his career, how his streak almost came to an end in Florida and his new job working as a studio analyst for Rogers Sportsnet Monday Night Hockey.Custance and Gentille check in on the St. Louis Blues with Jeremy Rutherford on the heels of the Blues first loss of the season in Winnipeg, the resurgence of Jordan Binnington and the impact of youngsters Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou and the boys continue to dissect the Athletic's top 100 players of the expansion era and Dominick Hasek's passionate opinions on how the NHL should ban Russian born players in support of the Ukraine.Get a 6 month subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowSubscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3BKz27u Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Hey, everybody. Welcome to this week's edition of the athlete. This week's, yeah, there's Holy Weta week. I don't know if you knew that. There's no other shows. No other shows. This is the only episode this week of the athletic hockey show featuring Sean Gentilly,

myself, Craig Custin's, and live from our studios in the Minneapolis airport. Jeremy Rutherford. We got a guest in the first segment. What's going on, Dare? Not too much, not too much. You guys are going to kick out of this. So I'm walking through the mini airport in my layover here. And I overheard some hockey fans say,

the season's still young. It's still early. It's still early. The wild fans are. I like the optimism in Minnesota. Yeah. I mean, it actually still is for young. Still, it's young for you.

Like the blues played two games in the first like 10 days of the season or whatever. What the hell? Yeah, I think it's still preseason. This is like the 11th exhibition game. That's great. Well, we have a great show. Spoiler. Jeremy Rutherford joins us.

It covers the blues for the athletic. Also, in segment two, we have Keith Yandel, great American who retired recently. And Iron Man streak. Keith, one of the great people of his generation, pumped to talk to him. And then just the usual shenanigans. against in Sigma three. But first, Jeremy, let's talk blues. Either because they're good or because

they haven't played any games. They were the last team finally to lose a game. What are the early storylines in St. Louis? Yeah, it's a great way to say it. I think it's a little bit of both. They're the last of the 32 teams. There's not 82 yet, right? They haven't done expansion. Soon, though. Just come time. Just 32. Last of the 32 to play. And so a small sample size. But they were good, really good in the first three, jumped out to that three and a start. And as you mentioned, the last team to lose, they'd take it on the chin last night, 4-0 to Winnipeg, counter Hellebuck steps in there. And so the Blues lose their first one. But a lot of good storylines, guys. Jordan Bennington playing really, really well. Vladimir Tarasenko, I thought

he'd be traded about two years ago and he's still on the roster and playing well. So a lot of good things going on with Doug Armstrong and the Blues. They didn't trail for a moment of their first three games. I'm saying that in something you just wrote. Yeah, they didn't trail. Yeah, it didn't trail till I think the, what was it, the second period last night, and then another wild stat, get this. So the first three games, they commit just four penalties, six and a half minutes of PK time and didn't allow a single shot. You know, that's the, that's the PK that Craig McTavish inherited. And so that, you know, got out to a good start. So what have you thought of the defensive group so far? That was a concern, I

think for a lot of people coming in. I know they've re-signed Letty, but it's a group that seemed like it was going to have to answer some tough questions, especially in the early going here. Yeah, Sean, that was a big thing. This offseason was David Brun, or the Blue's going to resign him. I thought that was a slam dunk. Look, he's only left, what, three times? And fans in St. Louis love him. Yeah, maybe that's what Doug Armstrong thought. If we let him go, come back anyway. So, you know, with David Prawn leaving, the Blues are able to use that money on Nick Letty, and you might say Nick Letty, you know, he came in a league when he's 18, so everybody thinks he's like 37 years old, but he's still only 31.

And, you know, a couple years in Detroit, the team's not good. He had bad numbers. But he comes to St. Louis, and he stepped in with Colton Perrako on that top pair and giving them some pretty good, you know, leadership there at that top group. And then you got Tori Kruggan and Justin Falk. So I like the top four. It's four headsy guys who can move the puck. And so I think Nick Letty's been good.

And now Doug Armstrong looks like a genius when he. kind of saw it before that they needed defensemen and they prioritized that signing over David Brown this offseason. It's worked out because the defense looks pretty good. I think that was like the single biggest justification for the Letty contract because it's long and it's a lot of money. And like you said, it's been tough sledding from the last couple years. But the flip side is like, where else were they going to go? And I think we've seen that with some other teams, seeing with Vancouver. We see it with other with other rosters that, you know, came into the offseason with the same question.

right? They've got to strengthen up the defensive group. They've got to find some way to do it. Well, there aren't that many options. So Nick Letty, whenever you're signing them for four years and $16 million, it might not seem great on day one. But when you look at the alternatives, like, I'm not sure what else they would have done. If you want a win now guy that can at least contribute to a team that has actual aspirations still. Yeah, for sure, for sure. And they had eight one-way contracts this summer on defense, but they lose Marco Scandella and Scott Brunovich to injury in offseason in the training camp.

And so cuts them down to six. So without Letty, they'd be in a pack of trouble. You mentioned David Perron. Who's, I mean, the big thing when we talked about him leaving was the power play. I mean, what a strength that is to have him on your power play. Where have they made that up? Who's stepping up in that spot? Yeah, Craig, and that was the biggest thing.

You lose David Perron. You talk about losing a good locker room guy and some leadership and things like that. But the biggest on the ice was the power play. He led to team of power play goals and hardplay points last year. but the blues under Steve Ott with that unit. It's always funny to hear Steve Ott running the power play, right? But he has done a phenomenal job here in St. Louis with the power play. But they got two balanced units.

And Craig, to answer your question, that ice time is going to go to Jordan Cairo. You know, this summer, Blues made a big push sign of these young guys, the long-term contracts. They get Cairo and Robert Thomas done, both of them, eight years. They had a year left on their deal. So you're talking nine years in the fold. And if you're going to pay a guy, 8.125 AAV, you better find him some ice time. And the Blues is doing that, given Peron's power play ice time to Jordan Cairo.

Is there a reason that Cairo was the second of the two to sign? Like, is that, this is an offseason question in a lot of ways. But is there anything to read into that? Yeah, I think, I think that, you know, the way Doug Armstrong explained it, as he said, you want to bring the horses to the stable one at a time there. And I think Robert Thomas was the priority. I mean, he's the elite center. think this guy's going to be really good. I mean, his passing was just off the charts. And,

and so I think that's the guy that wanted to get done first. And Jordan Cairo, he's got all the tools, certainly offensively. He's one of the best skaters in the league, one of the fastest skater competition last year, 70 plus points last year, 20, you know, high 20 goals. But this is a guy who needs to figure it out defensively. And so, Sean, I think if you're going to prioritize those two guys, you get Thomas done first, and then you go Jordan Cairo. So Cairo, a lot of improvement to making his own zone, but I think they were banking on the future with what that offense brings. And then we get, you know, the caps headed up. It seems like generally I like doing that with the younger players and those kind of contracts. Sample size isn't huge there. What's your like meter

of like risk on these contracts? I'm sure it's different for each guy. Yeah, I think it is different because I would have been given Robert Thomas that contract in a heartbeat. I think he's going to be the real deal for years to come. I think it is a little risky with George. and Cairo. But I don't think he would have taken less. And here's a guy that you've been grooming to be that guy. Craig, we always talk about this. Like, he's in your system. You drafted them. You've seen what he can do. You like them. I mean, if you're not going to spend it on him, what are you going to do? Go, you know, spend it in free agency and roll the dice a little bit. So, you know, they like what Thomas and Cairo bring them. So I think that's the way Doug Armstrong

was looking at that. It all comes out in the wash, too. I mean, we saw that, we saw the Thomas deal first and it's like okay that's a that's a pretty big number what does it mean for kairu and then he turns around and signs an identical deal basically so it's like what's it's it matter it's six and one half dozen and the other by the time it's all it's all said and done um so okay so a big part of their deal last year was was the depth of scoring they had 820 goals scores or 9 20 goals scores or whatever what have you seen from what have you seen from that group is that seem like that's something that's repeatable is there any is there anyone from that from that eight or nine men group that you think is in danger falling off here?

Yeah, so they had 920 goals scores and that was, you know, the biggest part of their team last year. It was tremendous. You lose David Pryan, that was one of them. Another guy in that group, Ivan Barbachev, he had been a fourth-line guy on that Stanley Cup team, you know, not thought of really as a 25 goal score, but he did it last year. Shooting percentage was really high, but I think he could still be a 20 goal score. The big issue here early on, we stress early on, is that Pavel Bouchnevich, one of those guys, has missed a couple of games here with a lower body injury.

And then last night, Brandon Sade sat out with an upper body injury. So, you know, in terms of anybody fall off, I mean, I guess you could look at it, like, you know, Barbashach played a different type of game than he's accustomed to last year. So he could be a guy that might not get there. But I got to tell you guys, when we're talking about that, they've plugged a rookie and Jake Neighbors into this top nine. He's playing on the third line and looking pretty good so far. So he might not be that top six potential who's going to be a regular 25, 30 goal score.

international hockey league, but a good young player who I really like. I can hear them calling for a lifetime medallion already, JR. I'm starting to panic for the first class is starting to line up there. Before you get in line there, can I just ask you about Jordan Bittington? You mentioned him kind of off the hop as maybe the biggest story here. What do you think the difference is? I mean, I know it's so early, it's goalies, et cetera. Every caveat, we always throw around that.

But what are you seeing from him? Yeah, first of all, Craig, if they call first class, then I've got a while before I have to line up there. I know that's not true. They're setting them in with the pets, actually. That's for you. Yeah, I got on a plane in Winnipeg this morning, and Darren Pang was in the first class,

and I told them, I'm going back to the other first class. There's another one in the back. Yeah, it's totally nice. You don't even know about it. That's the really cool one. He's never heard of it. It's the height. There's a height requirement back there.

I can't do that. He'll give me like a weight requirement thing for the back. So I better not make any jokes about the thing. He's pretty witty. But yeah, Craig, Jordan Bennington, hey, listen, I got to tell you, we sat down with him in the preseason to do a story for the athletic. And let me just give you a little bit of background here. I told him I was coming out. He knew we were going to do the interview. He was super polite about it. He said, I just don't want to do it today. Can you come back? So I come back the next day. It's a Friday. This is day two.

And I say, hey, you want to do it? He said, you know, what do you want to talk about? And I said, let's just, let's open for Winfrey's couch. Just sit down. Here's the couch. Let's talk. You know, we'll figure it out as we go along here. And he said, you know what? I just don't want to have this deep conversation today.

Why don't you come back Monday. So, guys, I came back day three to interview Jordan Bennington. And he sits down. And about the second question, he says, you know, it takes about 30 seconds for him to start answering the question. I'm thinking he might get up and I might be making a fourth trip after the practice facility, right? And I said, what's going on here?

And he said, I just, I'm trying to decide if I want to open up or not. And I said, as a reporter, we're like, yeah, yeah, we want you to. Yeah, please, please, please. And boy, did he. Guys, he said that he always played with an anger with a chip on his shoulder. He always played to win a Stanley Cup, be an All-Star, get a big contract. And once he did that, that chip was gone. And so last year, he lost his motivation.

Now, skeptics could say, yeah, you also lost your job. to Billy Huso, who became the starter and you became the backup. But, you know, moving this storyline forward, Jordan Bennington said he had to learn to play with a different type of motivation. And to quote him, he said, I needed to learn to play with love as opposed to a chip on my shoulder. Hey, listen, whatever he wants to call it, it's working 947% of cheer in the early goal. He's looking pretty good.

And it's his job now. Willie Huso, as Craig, you know, he's in Detroit. right and nobody really to look over his shoulder at Thomas Grice is the backout now. So Jordan Bennington, a lot of people weren't believers after he won the Stanley Cup and kind of took a dive after that, but off to a really good start here. Yeah, I read that. I read that story, obviously, I mean, I read everything you write, but I read it specifically when we're doing season preview stuff.

And that whole, as a piece of work, that was as good as anything. Honestly, I read ahead of all the preseason stuff. God knows, God knows it was a lot. I was eating a lot of tape when it came, when it came to that one. Hey, are you going to work on the behind the scene story for the car commercial with Bennington and Ryan O'Reilly? Do you have divs on that one, or can I take it? Yeah, yeah. No, go ahead.

Actually, I was talking to O'Reilly a couple days ago about that. They said, how long did it take it? He goes only about an hour. And then he looks at me and he said, that was Bennington's idea to throw the water bottle in the commercial. So for those who haven't seen it yet, Bennington does launch a water bottle, and that's reminiscent of the incident with Cadre in the playoffs last year. That's great. Well, J.R., thanks for doing this.

Thanks for squeezing us in on a layover, safe travels back home, and we'll catch up later. Thanks. No problem. They're calling them back in the plane. I've got to go. See you guys. All right. delivered as he always does, does great stuff out of him.

That was a, that was a fire drill across the board, man. We were, we were great. I was late, I was late coming in. I say, I open Zoom, J.R. is waiting for you. Standing at the gate. Like, good God. That was great. All right.

Let's take a quick break. We've got Keith Yandel when we come back and segment three, it's still a lot to talk about here on the Athletic Hockey Show, Americans Edition. We're right back. We are now thrilled to be joined by the, I guess, recently retired, we can still say. Back in Florida, Keith Yandel, who we've been wanting to talk to since the news came out of his retirement. Keith, first of all, thanks for doing this.

How are you? I'm good. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me. Glad we could get it done. Yeah, likewise. So you're traveling now back and forth doing TV. First of all, you doing TV.

It was like the least surprising development of. You know, it was just, it was seemed like a foregone conclusion. But let me, let's start there. Like, what, like, did you, was there any temptation to be like, let me take like a skip year or whatever they call like after you graduate high school and you take a year off? Or like, what was your thought and getting right back to work, you know, um, was retirement? Yeah, for me, it's just kind of, I just always want to be involved in the game somehow. Um, you know, I'm not really one that's really good with a lot of free time. So I think, uh, you know, for me, it's just kind of, getting involved with the game, staying, staying involved, you know, obviously it's,

you know, it's the last 16 years of playing has been a crazy ride, a world win. So, you know, I think now even too, it's just able to sit down and watch games and be able to just enjoy it and not have any skin in the game for anything has been, it's been a lot of fun. How long did the Sportsnet deal take to come together? Was it like you, you send your paperwork? and they're like, all right, let's get you, let's get you in the door. Yeah, I don't really have any paperwork. That's the thing. I got no.

Are they paying you? Oh, yeah. Wait a second, dude. Yeah, it was, they had called me. I don't know if like the show had been pitched or they had a new idea of doing a Monday night show. And, you know, my name had came up and, you know, I was lucky enough to, to, to, to get the to get the gig and obviously it's only been two weeks but i've had a lot of fun doing it yeah i saw the i saw the first show and for people people in the states it's it's it's keith and it's

and it's and it's david amber and cassie campbell pascal and anson carter doing doing the monday doing the monday show on sports net and i caught the first one last week and yeah i mean you guys you guys seem like you've been hanging out for a long time so it's so it's going well is there been is it hitting the marks for you? Like, is it been, is it been challenging or what you expected or like, how's it gone on your end for the last couple weeks? Yeah, it is. It's challenging.

It's obviously, it brings in a whole different, you know, dynamic of what I'm used to for the last, you know, 20 years of playing. You know, you go back to high school and stuff like that. You still, you go into school and then you're focusing on hockey. So I think for me, it's just something difficult and challenging and, you know, always up for a challenge and to try something new and, you know, get out of your comfort zone and, you know, being uncomfortable situations where you're not used to something and challenging yourself. So I think for me, it's, you know, just about all that.

So concurrently, as all this is happening, you get Phil Kessel taking on the Iron Man streak. What are your emotions around that? And are you in communication with them at all? Are you trying to jinx them in any way? Or what's... No, not at all. I talked to him a little bit a couple weeks ago just because the hurricane down here was hit. He has a house down here in Florida and I was just checking in with them to see if everything at his house is okay.

And, you know, just kind of seeing if you needed anything. But yeah, the last couple days, no, I'm not texting him. Not jinxing him. I'm rooting for him tonight. Obviously, I was hoping he scored that goal last night. Yeah. I was disappointed when they called that back on him. But, you know, especially to me, I think it was watching.

it's 500th or would have been. Yeah. So yeah, no, definitely a guy, the Phil that I've always rooted for, a guy that I've known for a while. So I'll be watching tonight in chairing them on. And they did it dirty on the show last night. And so they tried to hand you a voodoo doll.

And you were like, ah, no, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not touching that. No way. I'm not. Don't, don't bring me into that. Leave me out of this, man. Yeah. Do you feel, do you feel any ownership of the, of the, of the, of the,

I know you haven't had it all that long, but it's still, it's still a hell of a thing to have your name attached to for a little bit. So what's it like, you know, you're potentially, and odds are going to, you're going to seed that in the next 24, 48 hours or whatever it is. Like, how do you, how do you feel about that? Because it's so that that's an experience you don't, you don't even see guys have that off and where it's like they hold something and then it, and then it kind of goes away in the span of a few months. Yeah. Yeah. I think for a, you know, it took, I think it was 30-something years to be broken and then, you know, a quick, a quick cup of coffee for me with it. I do. At least get a year out of it. It's obviously something I took pride in while I was playing. Now, looking back, obviously, it's still something I took a lot of pride in. And, you know, I'm sure filled the same way.

And, you know, I couldn't imagine someone, a better guy to take it over. and a guy that, you know, I've always enjoyed being around and playing against and, you know, always rooted for him. So it's, I think with Phil, it's, uh, it's in good hands. And I don't know if anyone's even close to him or what the next guy. I looked that up. I looked that up a couple days ago. There's, there's nobody. There's nobody in the shouting diss.

And it seemed like you might have it for a little bit. Yeah. So even like when I had it, it was kind of, you know, Andrew Cogliano. It should have been his. He got, he got, he got, uh, one. game suspension. So it was kind of one of those things where, and I knew Phil was always right behind me. And, uh, you know, I felt bad for Cogs when it happened. Obviously, I think he'd, uh, he'd trade that in for hosting the Stanley Cup like he did last year any day of the week.

So, um, happy for him for that too. But, uh, yeah, it was, it was definitely something I always took pride in while I was playing and, um, you know, it's something I'll be attached. to, I guess, for a little while and passing on to fill. Now, in a streak like that there's near miss is I would love if you could share the story of kind of being inspired by an Olympian to keep your street going.

You shared it a little bit yesterday, but for our audience, what was that moment and what was that inspiration? Yeah, so it was, um, we played in Boston and I got hit in the heel with a puck and did the x-rays and everything.

I had a little chip in the heel. it couldn't even walk. And we played the next night in Philly. And I was walking to the bus in Ali Raisman, who's from the Boston area, who's an Olympian. She's a legend in Boston, US. And I was walking out.

And she said she had two casts on her or the walking boots. She said she had two walking boots on like three months before the Olympics. And, you know, you see them like they're jumping around. and landing from doing triple back flips on their heels and on their ankles. So I, you know, saw that she was able to do it and kind of was like, all right, if she could do it and that in that factor, like where she's banging around. And, you know, I said to myself, I got to at least get my boot on and give it a try. It's like in Dodgeball, whenever he runs into Lance Armstrong and like the, like the airport bar

and gets a, get some motivational speech. Like, all right, all right, okay. Yeah. I'm always kind of fascinated

when guys make the quick transition from being a player to being a media guy. And it's something you're obviously facing right now. Have you found that? I know, look, I know you've only,

you've done two shows on sports net. So it's, it's, you know, we'll see how this works out over the course of the season. But is it, is it tough?

How do you strike the balance between, you know, criticizing dudes who you might know, or guys, or guys who you were just playing. playing with like six months ago. What's that, have you thought about that? Is that a balance that you've had to, you've had to strike yet? Uh, not too bad. Um, you know, I think for me, it's just kind of, you know, obviously when the time comes, I know it's going to happen. And, you know,

you don't want to be too harsh on guys because, yeah, I know I've been in the same situation a million times. And, um, but you also got to call it how it is. And I think guys understand that. And, you know, I think guys, especially guys that know me, if I was ever to say something about them, they would know it's not malicious. It's just kind of calling it how it is. And, you know, I think everyone kind of knows if you do have a turnover or miss a back check, whatever the case is, you know, deep down, especially right away when it happens or if not in video. So, you know, by the time the analysts are talking about it, you've already run it through your head a million times.

So it's nothing new. for those I mean I think your reputation is pretty well known but people that have played with Keith Handel have said he's I've seen the quote the most outstanding teammate I've ever had

I think Shane Donne once said I love this young guys what do you say something like young guys want to be him old guys want to hang out with him like it's just like people loved playing with you Keith and I paid donor to say that

that was you had it was money it's money well spent Who was your favorite teammate? Who was the guy that you wanted to emulate or maybe early on in your career said, this kind of taught you how to be that kind of teammate? Well, early on for sure, it was donor. He was a guy that I just looked up to.

He treated me so well. You know, always looked out for me. We had the connection. You know, Keith Kachuk was a guy that my family knows his family. And, you know, Big Walt had called donor and said, look out for him. donor did from day one. I remember the first time I was ever at the practice rink for morning, or not morning skate, like captain skates, donor came up to me and, you know, introduced himself.

And I was like, oh, my God, how does this guy know who I am? But yeah, I think from from then on, he was just always a guy that, you know, took a liking to me. And, you know, we both from completely opposite backgrounds and, you know, how we grew up. And so it's pretty cool to see guys that, you know, come from such different upbringings and to become as good of friends as we are now. I love that Keith Kitschuk did that. Just kind of paving the way a little bit. That's a great. Yeah, I mean, that's how it is in the NHL.

You get, I mean, I couldn't tell you the amount of text I got from guys saying, hey, look out for him. He's a good kid. My brother went to school with him. I know him. So it's just, that's why the NHL is the best. Everyone looks out for each other. And it's just good people, helping good people.

Well, like you said, like you said, the difference between, you know, you're a, you're a Boston dude. Shane's a Canadian, a Canadian farm dude, right? Like, that's a, that's a difference in, that's a difference in perspective. But that's, yeah, it's the way stuff comes together, I guess. He wrote his, he wrote his horse to school and I took a public transit. Did you ever, I think we always, in the media, make these assumptions, you know, it happens all the time. Toronto especially. But like with you, I think there was always this assumption you'd end up in Boston at some point. Was there, what was the closest that ever came that you can now share? Closest was probably when I signed in Florida, it was pretty close then. And then, that's right. When I signed in Philly, it was close then as well. So yeah, there was two times where it was pretty close and, you know, looking back, I mean, I don't regret anything. You know,

I'm excited with everywhere that I played, obviously, you know, it just would have been a lot. I got a huge family, you know, all my wife's family is from there. So it would have been a headache for, it would have been play for free night pretty much every night. Yeah. You wanted tickets I would have had to get. So, yeah, I said, I saved a few bucks not playing in Boston. That's great. Right. Whenever guys, you know, you're a Boston guy or so, you're attached, that city, huge Bruins fan as a kid and all that stuff, I'm always fascinated by the idea that, you know, you're 17 years old, you're 18 years old, you're in college, you're a Bruins fan just like anybody else. Then all of a sudden you end up in the league and it's like, actually, you don't like the Bruins anymore.

Like, whatever. What's that dynamic? Was there a flip that ever switched for you? or like, how's that, how's that work when you're like, all right, I, I'm not a Bruins fan anymore because I work for the Arizona coyotes or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, there'd be a lot of time. The good thing, the first, I'd say my first five years in the league, we didn't play

the Bruins in Boston. And it was kind of, I think the one year, we played them over in check. So that counted as a game in Boston. So it was a long while before I had played in Boston. And, you know, guys had always harassed me, like, especially donor. like, hey, you can't ask Burjohn for an autograph. So you get the little bit of harassment from guys, but it's all in good fun. That's great.

Well, Keith, thanks for doing this. I know you're just getting home in the airport. You're running around. So I don't, we don't want to keep you here too long. But thanks for doing this. Congratulations on incredible career, incredible accomplishment, and everything I know you're going to accomplish in TV. Thanks for doing this now.

I appreciate you guys. Thanks for having it. This is the only good segment on the show. It's when you hop in a helicopter, fly over restricted airspace, a parachute down to the ground. There's a rock there too. I don't know what it is.

The entrances are always hidden under rocks, but drop down into the caves. Into the troll. Yeah, sure. Move the rock, press the button. And of course. And of course, answer the troll his riddles three. We go to the comments.

You guys do our job for us. A little bit of a weird deal this week because Craig hasn't worked in a while. He has no excuse. He has no excuse either. He called last week and said, I'm just not doing it. I've worked a ton, first of all. Just because I'm not on the podcast. Doesn't mean I'm not working.

So on A. B. B, I mean, I could have died. for all we know. Like, I was spiking fever, just a wreck. You know what's sneaky? COVID, I had no idea. I thought we were over it.

Like, I was still that was done. Code's over. I honestly. My gosh, that was brutal. I didn't actually say why you were out last week. I didn't. Oh, well, I mean, it's nobody's business but your own. People can guess.

I didn't I just think you're a deadbeat? Who knows? Just canceled the second. But oh, man, I'm still like, I'm like scarred. You know, you've had it four or five times, though. No. I never had it until. Is that true?

Yeah, that was it. That was my debut. And boy, it was a doozy. I thought we were all set. Coming in, going in high. I just, I just, I just signed up for the, for the double, for the double booster. I was trying to hold off to time it perfectly for the holidays and stuff. I'm getting in a couple of days.

Yeah. I mean, that's the plus. I'm all set. Like, hopefully I have a few months into the holidays. Yeah. I think that's not worry about it. The only way to,

the only way to not get it is to get it. I think we're, I think we're pretty clear on that. Great. Morgan D. Chris LaTang. I can't wait to see the entire 99 best players when healthy since 1967 list as it comes out.

Hmm. I'll take the, is that what it is. Yeah, that's what it is. I, I, I said it wrong.

several times over the course that episode too, I believe. It's the 99. It's not, first off, it's not 99. It's 100. It's 100. And it's totally intuitive and not confusing at all. And it's since, it's since 1967. Health has nothing to do with it.

Crystal Tang, just as it turns out, is the 99th best player period since 1967. I haven't read it yet, but the hostage story that posted today apparently is amazing. I think Tim Graham did it. And he's, it's, he is, uh, outspoken, let's say about the, you know, Haschik. Oh my God. I didn't realize that's when Hashik was posted. Oh, yeah.

I think it was today. I think it's live. I think it's today. Maybe it's like, he's like in the 80s. Is that right? Well, let's not get caught up in the numbering. Like it's a, it's, like he's, he gets into the whole like the. Yeah, that's great.

I mean, totally. I'm, I, I, I know, I know, I know, Hachick has a lot to. say about that. I really don't debate the list. I'm just like... Oh, maybe it's not posted yet. I might be speaking out of turn here because Kerry Price is today. Oh, my God. I completely, I just missed... Hey, folks. I just missed that he was that low. That is, that is shocking to me. That is insane. Dominic Haschak is in the 80s? Well, we could have built an entire segment around this one if I had just done my job and looked and looked at the schedule. I sincerely did not realize he was that. Oh, this might not even be the story. Don't get caught up in this. This might be

completely separate. I think, I think we were talking to him for the package. And then this story. Okay. I, I, let's don't like, let's not get worked up about where he is. Whatever. Because that may not, that story may not be written. Yep. I'm saying as part of this, Tim Graham reached out to him and then he went off. I mean, he grew up under communist rule, right? And so a lot of those guys. If you want to hear someone talk with a fire under their ass about that sort of thing, you talk to a hockey player who escaped, who defected or whatever, a Czech player who was around when the check, when Czechoslovakia dissolved, they're, it's wild to hear not just the

stuff they say, but the way they say it, it is, it is crazy. So I'm not surprised to hear that Hashek was, you know, all out on that. Spoiler alert, he is not in the 80s. He is way, way, way. I got, I got, I got. Okay. Yeah, he's, I'm going to give a couple of quotes here. We know if we don't stop the Russians in Ukraine, then we will be one of the next in line

and the tens of thousands of dead and mass graves will be on our territory. Russia must be defeated and forced back into its territory. There's no other way to peace. Believe that and goes from there. That's just his opening cell. I mean, he's tweeted some wild stuff about it already, so I'm not surprised to hear that he's, you know, going all in on it. Have you watched? Go ahead.

Lots of stuff about the board ads here. Have you watched? How much have you had, have you had any bad experiences with those yet? With the board ads? No, I haven't. I guess the ones in Detroit. Yeah, I'd hate them. I whined about them for a while with Joe.

Thanks for listening. You know. Do you want me to listen to you with Joe Smith? You don't care. I thought you want to listen to Joe. You like Joe. I do like Joe. Everybody likes Joe.

Yeah, everybody's pissed about those things. Can I read Zoe's? Zoe Ar. Yeah. Right. Honestly, it feels like the stars could make a serious push to win most marketable American player on an American team

way before the crack and do with Benares. If they go for a joint. Jake Ottinger, Jason Robertson bid. Yeah. So as you all know, we have our award show at the end of the year. Every single year we do this. Every single year. And one of the awards we've been giving out for years is, of course, the best American player

on an American team. Zoe put a twist on it, most marketable American player on an American team, which we can probably squeeze in this year, and says, yeah, the duo of Ottinger and Robertson, And it's kind of like, I don't know how I feel about duos winning this award, but that's pretty good. That's a pretty good duo right there. Ottinger's been so good. He's like as advertised, he's made the leap that everyone, everyone kind of expected from him. I know it's early and it's really tough to talk about, it's always tough to talk about goal at performance, right?

Because it's just so volatile. Yeah. And it's always tough to talk about it, you know, when it's this early. but Ottinger, man, he's up at, he's got six goals saved above expected. That's third in the league. He's behind Carter Hart and Oia Samsona, which is two other very, two other very funny goal is we could talk about if we wanted to. Yeah, yeah.

Well, we're going to be talking flyers. We've got John Tortorella at some point. We're just trying to pin down the scheduling there. But we'll get into Carter. I think is part of that conversation. I got another question. If I could get it rolling here. This was from Connor A,

who actually put in parentheses actual serious questions. So I like when you give a heads up when I know we're not joking wrong. Thanks, Connor. Going off your look at the top 99 players in the NHL history, it's actually the top 100. And it's not in the HR history. It's in the modern era. A lot of caveats in our list.

Why do we do that? Why do we make things so difficult? It's actually the 99 players that me and Matt can do like the, most. It's not necessarily the best. After 1990. That's what we should do, since we've all been covering.

Will players that take less to help the team's cap situation be looked at better with their legacy or will it become something that is forgotten? The first big stars from the cap era are starting to retire and wonder how their cap hit will factor into legacy. It's a really interesting question because I would say, maybe I would say indirectly this will factor because part of your legacy is winning. So if you took a team friendly deal, I mean, we could say maybe some of the penguins deals over time were fairly friendly. Let's say, let's use Cid or G-Nos. And you win multiple cups

because of that, then that helps your legacy. And I think it moves you up the rankings. Now, it also, I mean, Connor McDavid took what we think is a team-friendly deal and he may not get a Stanley Cup-out. Like, you're also dependent on teams actually using your general manager using that cap space in a way that helps you. So I don't think you can blindly say these players that like had team building as part of their equation in their head, it's going to help them. But I do think when it does work, it does help you. Is that a cop-out answer, sure? I don't think so. I think it's going to be indirect because it does taking less money.

I mean, fair, unfair leads to more cap space, which leads to adding better players, which leads to winning championships, right? That's the way it's going to be framed. I don't think outside of major outliers, like maybe Nathan McKinnon, guys like that who, you know, famously kind of ended up winning cups while they were making. very little money and also paving away for their team to sign, you know, the kale McCarters of the world, even though there's only one to bigger deals of their own. I think that might be part of it. When you're talking about rear-ending retrospectives, like, that's when it'll come up. But that's just

not the way we think about those things. It's just not part of the discussion with these guys. And I don't know that that's right or wrong. But I think part of it is, you know, the cap changes and these deals are so long term that when they're signed, the environment is so much different than, you know, five years in, right? So you're talking about, yes, Connor McDavid signed for X million, but it was X percent of the cap when he did it versus Krosby and all that stuff. It's a tough. You're not doing all the matrix math when you're thinking about.

It's a tough, it's a tough thing for people to parse. It's good when it comes to talking about contract evaluations or, or return on values or whatever, when that's like the focal point of the thing that you're discussing or the thing that you're writing. But whenever you're saying like, hey, let's look at Jonathan Taves's career in summary, I just, I don't think that's going to be a top line, a top line thing. It's going to be indirect because of the championships they won while these guys took,

you know, below market deals. And I don't even know how many of these guys in this era did that in the cap. Like how many got, not a ton. I didn't feel like Kane and Taves took that. Like, I remember when those deals got done and it was like, oh, they, maybe could have gotten a million more, but it wasn't like they were saying, you know, we're going to, we're going to. That's what I'm saying.

Like, the outliers, like McKinnon, that's a, he was underpaid enough, I think, to discuss it. Right. But like, I don't think he took it. He wasn't like, hey, let me take it. I think they just signed him young and they got. Yeah. Right.

It wasn't like he, it wasn't, it was a bad deal for him. Like, it wasn't turned out to him. It turned out to me. turned out to be. It wasn't him saying like, all right, you're going to pay me $6 million because I'm nice because I, because I went there to be spaced to go out and get better every office. And that's the way it turned out. But, yeah, I don't know. I think, I think the deals are generally where they should be, honestly. It's tough to, it's tough to pay hockey player, you know, 20% of the cap. It's just, this is not going to work. Um, dear Tuesday,

boys, thoughts on the ESPN Plus broadcast gimmick where they mute John Bucci Grouse's mic and turn up the ice level microphones for an extended period of play, which is a thing they do on the ESPN plus broadcast. This is from Michael D. He loves it, but wonders what the larger reception has been. I think all those alternate broadcasts, whether you're talking about football on ESPN Plus or whatever, I think they all fill a pretty specific niche or niche, however you wish to I prefer niche. That's it. I like niche because I'm a man of the people. Yeah.

Um, niche. Um, but I do, I like that they, it's one of those things I like, I like, I like theoretically that they exist. I'm glad that there's alternate feeds. I'm glad that, you know, there's different, but you're not watching any of them. That's my guess. Not really. I watch the Manicast sometimes. Manicast. I, I, I, I'm a sucker. I'm a total sucker for that. It's funny though, man, because everyone's trying to make lightning strike twice with that. Right. Everyone's trying to get their own version of the Manning Cass. I'm just not, I don't know.

I don't know if it's going to work. We can try. I'm glad to see the effort. But I think that's kind of a one-time thing. Is there any hockey scenario that would work? Yeah. Us? Yeah, me and you.

Tuesday, boys. You hear that ESPN? Here that ESPN. We can carve it out of our contracts. There's a hashtag. We already got the hashtag. We get three Zs. We get some good third guess.

in there. Come on. Jimmy Pitaro. Just think about it. Yeah, we can definitely stump for employment for another. I still have like an employee agent over there. Yeah. That's true.

I still have my ESPN tags. There's, you know what my contract looks like. There's some kind of carve out in there where I can go work for ESPN if I want to. I can carve out anything. I'm sure. I'm sure. That's normal.

Thanks, buddy. Let's see if it benefits me. This one, I forgot. we had talked about Russo's army protecting us. Yeah. We ever did a lie.

So there was a few Russo Army naturally because Russo Army loves to weigh in. Michael Kay said, I don't even know what this means, but I just thought it was funny. We love to see Russo's Army try to come to Warren, Michigan and to tipsy McStaggers and try to make it a Minnesota anything bar. Not going to happen. Michael Kay. Throwing down. Throwing on the Russo's Army?

You don't take out of the Russo's Army. Come on. throwing down the gantlet throwing down the gantlet as I was told is the term by by our our wonderful copy chief Monica a couple days ago did you see that? Yes

Gauntlet? No, a gauntlet is a glove. A gantlet is something that you run through. So I guess maybe Michael was throwing down the gauntlet. I don't know. Do you think Monica, so for the because we have to have inside copy

copy rules. Here we go. Here we go. Buckle up. Listen to this, folks. This is our copy rules. She needs to weigh in on this. We have Monica Thomas, who is once a week throws out copy like tips to remind us, you know,

writers and editors that we, you know, consistently make the same mistakes over and over again. And we tend to do. There's often things that we think are right, like throwing down the gauntlet. And she's here. So she's got little weekly tips. And I'm starting to suspect she's sneaking in one a week. that's not real. It's fake?

I would think there's no way. It would be amazing. There's no way that's right. That was, she's just like, I'm going to see if anybody puts throwing down the gantlet and copy this week. That would be so great. So shout out the Ardena,

who again is the official copy editor of the, of the comments here on the Tuesday Boys show. There's also lots of lots of Russo's army stuff. Joe was on last week and he sub for, old deadbeat customs over there. By the way, so we make a strategic move to go all in on the wild because it's a massive audience and they're not good. Come on, Minnesota.

We did our end of the bargain. Get it together. I don't know. There's going to be interest in that team, whether they're good or not. I think that's pretty cool. But we had Joe on and it was, you know, he's he moved up there. And I mean, the. big upshot to take away is that he's fearful of the Russo army.

They are to be loved, but also to be feared. And I think Joe's, because of how horrible that team was at the start of the season, he's getting blamed for a job. Yeah, he's going to get blamed. And then he's going to get run out of the industry. You know why? You know what?

Because maybe it is his fault. Just saying, what has changed? By the way, he owes us, or me specific. I was looking at Michael Kaye had something about the Michigan, Michigan State game. which is Saturday. I'm hosting a party if anybody wants to come on over.

And Joe Smith, we made a bet last year, and I never collected. Like, it was just like, well, think of making you do something embarrassing. I don't think we ever made them do anything embarrassing. You're supposed to sing. You're supposed to sing something, wasn't it? Maybe have fights. Then I think we banned singing after our Canadian anthem. So Michael Kay is wondering, Michigan versus little brother.

Come on, Michael Kay. I'm just going to enjoy the game. I don't need any stakes on the game. Michigan's due. Yeah, it's one of those. You can just feel it's time. It's time for them to be chasing. I'm glad it didn't happen last week against Penn State.

You know what? That's enough college football talk. Me and Joe did it last week. Go Maryland. Terps, six and two. Bowl eligible. Sean, will you explain the context of this question from Don H? Because I don't know it.

Has the hockey news sued the athletic? athletic for stealing their introduction. I don't know. Do we have a son is our sake as theirs? Probably not. Is there a Tuesday Boys edition of the, the hockey news podcast? Unless the hockey news is playing the American anthem before the start of that, before they started there of their stuff with their guys.

I think we're safe. All right. Good up. Good up. Anything you want to plug, Sean, before we wrap up here. No. I don't have, I don't have anything. Like three more podcasts to do this week. Friday show, me and Haley Salvean, which we're, well, we're calling it the

Friday show because we recorded on Thursday night. Comes off Friday morning. Yeah. It's a lot. How's that thing going for you? It's a lot more fun than this bullshit. I'll tell you that much. That's fair.

That's fair. I'm just pulling up, I'm just stalling as I pull up the list of other plugs. have to do. Wednesday roundtable. Thank you. You can take it. Pizzo, Rousseau, Granger. There's someone else on this week.

I don't have the plugs in front of you, man. Eric Stahl of the Florida Panthers. Whoa. Pretty good get for the Wednesday show. It's not Jeremy Rutherford though. Also, hey, he's ours. Hey, don't forget to subscribe to the athletic hockey show on YouTube, folks. You might want to forget that, actually.

Yeah, I would appreciate it. Someone said it looks like I have a room with like one light, bulb that barely works. Your background is nice. It's tasteful. It's minimalist. You got the Michigan plate and. Yeah.

It's not the background. I think it's the lighting. Who is that? Who is that bubblehead? Is it a blues bubblehead? That's Ray Ferraro. We've talked about this. Oh, yeah.

I forgot that was. Look at guys. Ray, Ray. Crash bubblehead. He watches over us. Keeps us on us. We should get Ray on. He's an honorary American.

Yeah. He's all ESPN. Cammy Granato. You are American. He's abandoned TSN, ESPN only. I like that. What's more American than that? Nothing.

So make sure you subscribe to us if you'd like on YouTube, if that's your preferred mode of consuming content. Also, subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content from our entire network. Really, you should go back and listen to the last one, Sean and I did, from weeks ago, really good stuff. could you tell me right now what we talked about if I asked it was early season predictions I think I may have said that Thatcher

Demko is going to win the Vezna good it's possible yeah they're great everything's going well for them start with a 30 day free trial than just 99 cents a month after that and this offer still stands annual subscription to the athletic for just one dollar a month when you visit the athletic.com slash hockey show and if you're going to use a hashtag Make sure it's Tuesday boys with three Zs. We don't ask much of you folks, other than to leave comments and do one third of this,

of this show for us. Can we get the people to do the first segment in some way? In the second segment. Send in recordings of you talking. Don't say that. People might do it. Send us voice memos, people. And we're going to work them into segment one.

And that way we don't have to do anything. I don't know if there's any way to post that. We should try to come with a 1-800 number, though. All right. We'll work on that this week. Thanks, everyone.