The Athletic Hockey Show - Rick Bowness with the best coach rant in 20 years

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

The Columbus Blue Jackets lost 6 straight home games to end their season and Rick Bowness unloaded on the character and commitment of the team in his season ending press conference. Sean and Sean react to that, they discuss the yet to be determined Western Conference playoff matchups, and former NHL'er Cameron Gaunce from TSN stops by to share a coaching rant story of his own, they discusses Julien BriseBois and the Lighting being at the top of the NHL agent poll, the dysfunction inside Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and Cam tells us what matchup he wants to see in the first round of the playoffs.Host: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Cameron GaunceExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometWatch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What up, what is the Athletic Hockey Show for April 15th, 2026. I am Sean Gentilly. I am joined by Sean McIndoo. McIndoo, we are frankless today. Repeat, we are frankless. Cameron Gondts is around to hang out in the second segment, our new buddy, so stay tuned for that.

TSN analyst, NHL defenseman. Got lots of stuff to pick his brain about, but what we're going to start on McEncad. do is yet again we need to do a playoff reset because there's two days left in the regular season and a disturbing amount of series are not yet decided. The East is locked in. That is official as of last night. We are getting Buffalo versus Boston and Tampa Bay versus Montreal in the Atlantic division and we are getting Carolina versus Ottawa and Pittsburgh versus Philly in the metro. That's fine. the Western Conference though Buddy this is

this is a mess we know Stars Wild is happening other than that everything is in the air it kind of feels like we we've got the main event locked in we're just scrambling on the

undercurrent at West I'm trying to sift through the potential matchups and figure out which one which ones I'd actually want to see and I it's I don't know if any of these are necessarily doing it for me The big move last night, the big news that come out of last night, I should say,

is that the Kings blew a game against the Vancouver Canucks. If they would have managed to get two points instead of one against them, they would have set the table for Kings Oilers Part 5. Oh my God. Have you seen anybody who wants to see Kings Oilers? No. I mean, I'm opening the field up to randos on Twitter. As, you see, like, you know, stray commenters, has anybody been like, you know, I wouldn't mind seeing, you know what?

Oilers Kings for the 14th consecutive year. I have not seen one single person. And you can't get hockey fans to agree on whether the puck is around. And it feels like we finally got unanimous. buy-in, which is, please hockey gods don't make us watch this again. I mean, I think the kings agree with you. Like, you go out and lose the Vancouver. Like, there's like, give us, give us the abs.

Change this up. We can't, we would rather play the Colorado Avalanche than the Edmonton Oilers for a 15th time. Yeah, we do need to seriously consider that there was some kind of nefarious stuff going on last night. So that's, that's lined up at the moment. Oilers, ducks.

Okay, why not? I think Oillers Ducks will call the Eric. It would be fun. We'll call it the Eric Stevens Bowl. That's what this is about. We're trying to figure out whether Eric's going to end up

on a series involving the Ducks or the Kings. So stay tuned on that. Vegas, Utah is currently lined up. Utah did clinch the first wild card last night. So they are locked into that position. but we don't know who's going to win the Pacific. If Vegas beats Seattle tonight,

obviously that gets it done, but there's still an outside chance that we end up with Edmonton, Utah. So that's up in the air as well. The only team that is locked in in the Pacific Division is the team that's not in the Pacific Division. Isn't that funny? And they may be the favorites,

and they could still finish with the best record in the Pacific Division, which they are not in. Do we want to talk about your little Utah Mammah staff that you keep bringing up in the newsletter? I mean... Do we want a jinx? Let's talk. No, I'm not...

You know, I'm... I wrote about it on Friday, so I can't undo the jinx. The mammoth are one game away from being the first team in history to go a full season without playing a shoe race. And if you're not rooting for them, I don't know what to tell. they're going about like there there is honor in that that's the way i is i feel like the way we've seen stuff going on with the kings in particular who are just who are just the the foremost

abusers of the one of the one point loss the king should just start every game and only time just go ahead they should show some integrity and just look man especially especially since king's Oilers is still in the cards of some degree. They should just show some integrity and bow out and let the Predators take stuff over. They're going to be so confused when they get to the playoffs. And they're like, what do you mean we didn't get a half a win

tonight by just strangling this game into LA Kings have got, and this we'll edit this afterwards if this turns out not in the case, but I believe they have four regulation wins on the season. Everything else has been overtime for that team.

They are, hey man, I can't complain. It's extra L.A. King hockey. Who doesn't want that? Who doesn't want to see an extra Cody C.C. shift in that. Look, here's the thing out West that is. Here's the thing out West with those the three, well, the four Pacific division teams,

I'm counting L.A. here. being in total flux, the Oilers could absolutely still pass the Golden Knights. It would take an Oilers win and a Golden Knights regulation loss. Okay, fine. The less likely, but still very much in place scenario, is if Anaheim and L.A. both win, and if the Oilers lose in regulation, in their finale,

the Oilers drop down to the Wild Card. Oh, my God. Which would mean after an entire season of Colorado lapping the league and being the best team in the league, we all agree, they've been number one in all the rankings all year long, their reward would be, here you go, here's Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers in round one. And for once, it wouldn't be because the format is scurry, it wouldn't be like, it would be, just because the standings would be telling us that the Oilers. or the 16th best playoff team. But can you imagine that? Here you go. Here's your president's trophy,

and here's an angry Connor McDavid. Have fun. Yeah, it comes with a stuffed animal, too. We talked about the central being this ridiculous division. Never occurred to me that the fourth central playoff team could be the Edmonton Oilers, the two-time defending conference champions. I think after like a half hour of staring at the standings,

and trying to gamify all this stuff. Like, I don't think it occurred to me until you brought it up. If the Oilers end up dropping to the wildcard and they go over to the Central, just cancel the Pacific Division playoffs entirely. And we'll just, we'll let the, we'll let the Central go like best of 13 for all their series. What's the problem? Who complains? Who says no about that?

Probably at the Pacific teams, but you know what? Win some games in regulation, I say. Wins, yeah. The Ducks, they're two six and two in their last ten. This is happening because of Anaheim. The Anaheim Ducks. They're the team that's wearing the collar right now. Yeah, and, but you know what?

The Anaheim Ducks are going to be the only team in the Pacific Division that wins more games than they lose. True. Two, six and two down the stretch. I don't know. It's not the Golden Knights. It's not even going to be the Oilers. we hate the Pacific Division

that's what that's what this that's what the title of this episode is going to be and by the way if it does happen if the Oilers especially if the Oilers cross over don't I don't want to hear from Golden Knights fans after they win the conference final going like oh somebody wanted to cancel that

yeah if you beat L.A. and Anaheim or something in like that or you beat Utah and the L.A. Kings and then you get an exhausted Colorado Avalanche and you beat them in the conference final. Don't come back to me and like spike the football. This is not a real division. Especially when at least one person on this show

picked the Vegas Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup preseason. It was me. Absolute fool. Oh, and by the way, the other fun thing is that it is still possible that the winner

of the Pacific Division first place, whole mice, all those great things. job, guys. You took care of it. Hang a banner. Might finish the season with fewer points than the Detroit Red Wings. The disaster we're all making fun of. And also, they may be right there with the Columbus Blue Jack. How are the Blue Jackets? Oh, my God. They probably finished strong, right? That is the single biggest story to come out of last night because I'm Ovechkinned out. I can't talk about that guy anymore potentially playing this last game against

the Columbus Blue Jackets. Well, blah, blah. The bigger issue, coming out of it. Washington wins the game 2-1. That game was played at, I would say, 25% speed by both teams involved. It was absolutely awful. Rick Bonus took notice. Jeff, roll the audio, please.

Rick, you've been a part of a lot of games and a lot of seasons. Have you ever been part of something that's as frustrating as this has been down the stretch? No. And you know what? How you got to just look at the statute. Three hits, 23 giveaways.

I don't know if I'm back, but if I'm back, I'm changing this culture. These guys, they don't care. Losing is not important enough to them. It doesn't bother them. How can you go out and play like that? Should have done this about a month ago. But this is why we are where we are. This is why we're out of the playoffs.

That kind of effort. Losing, you have to hate losing. I don't care if it's a meaningless game. I don't care. Show up and compete. Three hits, 23 giveaways. What else you want to know? You reached them for so long after you got here.

How did it stop? Where did it stop? Because it got tough. Because it got hard. Like we talked about after the Olympic break, it's going to get harder. So everything is good as long as it's going their way. And now it gets tough, we don't want to battle back. And that's why, that's what's happened over the last.

last little week, a couple weeks. That's all that's happened. We're going to change that. If I'm back, I don't know if I'm back. We'll go. I and I will talk. We'll get to that. But man, oh man, some of those guys are so lucky the season is over and there's no practice tomorrow. It, anyways, there's no more games. What else you want to know? I think even in the long history of this franchise, I don't think they've ever lost six games in a row to end a season at home. No. Is that worse? It's terrible. And excusable. If they're not embarrassed by, not only tonight, by that they're on the wrong team they are they got to be embarrassed with that

anything else yeah like a guy that wants to be back do you want to be back did you scratch the itch where are we scratch the it's I'm gonna talk to Don as we said from there one right but I'm just and their players were told tonight if I'm back we're changing there's freaking culture that my friend was the voice of a man who coach a team that went 3-9-1s down the stretch. They were outscored 39-25 in that run.

A team that on March 25th, according to Dom's playoff probability calculator, they were at 92.3%. That is 20 days ago. No team was at a higher probability at any points during the season except the caps who were there back in November. So this is like a, this is a collapse

that I don't want to, whether we saw it coming or not, it took place and Rick Bonus seems to have noticed. Yeah, Rick, Rick Bonus seems to have noticed. Kudos to him, man. WrestleMania Week, I did not expect the best promo of the week to be cut by an exhausted Rick Bono. Exhausted Rick Bonus might be my new favorite Tim Robinson.

That was just, that was fantastic. And I got to be, I'm curious how this is playing with Columbus fans, but my guess is, This stuff usually plays pretty well with the fan base. I know, you know, me and producer Jeff have been chatting about, geez, wouldn't it be nice if... I want a higher Rick bonus just on a three-day contract to come coach the Leafs, just to cut promos like this on the whole group and just bury them. That's all. He doesn't have to coach a game. He doesn't have to do anything.

Just a consultant. He can get some of that Keith Pelley money. And, you know, as long as you know how to use... Chat GPD and all of that stuff. Yeah, that is that is making a chat GPT prompt of like Exhausted Dad energy. Yeah.

That is, there's lots of different categories of of Coach Rants and Coach Meltdowns. I think Exhausted Dad is one of my favorites. And I think bonus, like, hit that one out of the park. This dude coached the expansion senators and this Blue Jackets team broke him. He showed up already just. like out of breath.

You know what I mean? Like he was so mad at the start of it that he, that he'd worked himself up to the point where he was, where he was panting. My favorite part of it, the very ominous, we scratch the edge at the end. Oh,

we scratch the edge. I've never heard anybody use that term threateningly before. Yes. How do you turn that into a, I give him credit. He did. He turned it into a threat. Terrified.

So, yeah. Where does that, where does that rank on the 10 points go for you? That was right up there. I mean, I'm trying to think of all-time great NHL coach. We don't typically get a lot. Like, NHL coaches usually, you talk about a meltdown,

it's behind the bench. It's behind the bench. You know, yelling and screaming and throwing water bottles and that sort of thing. Tortorella is obviously kind of the gold standard on a lot of this, but Tortorella, you know, he would go after the media, which is, I mean, talk about picking on the lowest. I mean, holy smokes. Challenge yourself at least a little bit.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, anybody. The answer is Michelle Tarian for me. I think this is the best one. This is the best one we've seen since Michelle Tarant took over the penguins a zillion years ago. And that is, they think they care. They don't, they don't care.

It went on for, you know, three minutes. I remember he said, he said, he said, Maxim Talbot. and like spit into the camera. Max Talbot was the only one. He said, nobody else, nobody care. Maybe Maxim Talbot. He five foot six or whatever. Talbot was the guy who was playing hard

and he was still catching strays. I think bonus, I think bonus is honestly the best that we've seen since then. He didn't have, he doesn't even have a Talbot to, I mean, that, the entertainment value is fantastic. on that. But that's some serious stuff to say about it too. And it does complicate the decision of bringing Rick Bonus back or not assuming that. Completely.

Because now if you, you know, if you bring him back, he's planted his flag. You can't bring him back and be like, we're going to tweet the roster over the summer. Like you've got to make major changes. But if you don't bring him back, now instead of saying, hey, we brought in a 70-something-year-old guy to coach and he gave us a spark down the stretch and now we're going to find her new luck. Now it looks like you're picking the players over the coach. It's a tough one for Don Waddell and, you know, he's an old school guy himself. So I kind of have a feeling how this might play out, but I don't know.

They're soft. I really think their goal is to be the worst defensive squad in the league. And they're doing such a great job. I did not know you had impressions in your bag of tricks. This is crazy. We lose Frank for one. Frankie would do aitarian impression. He's got one.

I've heard it. Everybody thought this was going to be a two-man opening, and it turned out we did have a secret third man. And it was a... We got a... By the way, is Frankie legitimately out of the lineup, or are we just tanking for a draft spot at this point? What's happening here? Cameron Gons is about to take his job, brother. Okay. Next man up.

Next man up. Gons for the second segment. Stick around. All right. We're back and we are joined by TSN analysts, former NHL defenseman, Cameron Gons. Cam, let's come out hot here, man. What was your personal Rick bonus moment? I'm sure you've had some. You've played hockey for a zillion years at this point.

If you ever watched me play hockey, it aggravated coaches as well. That's not true. The best, probably the best coach. flip out on me was when I was in junior hockey. Dave Cameron was my coach. And listen, Dave Cameron was one of the best coaches ever had. I probably wouldn't have played pro had it not been for him. But there was one time we were playing a game in Ottawa. And I was so bad after two periods that he came in. Usually coaches wait a couple minutes for coming and talk to the team. No, he might have beat us into the dressing room because once we got in there, he started.

I don't think everyone was even sitting down yet. He already started. The gist of it was if you're an A player, you're playing like about a C plus lately. You call stepping up in the neutral zone what you've been doing you look like an orangutan you're not covering anything you got holes everywhere you got holes in your skates putting people people are putting it through there you're not taking the man you're not taking the body oh you think you're so good because you were drafted if they watched you play like this you wouldn't have been drafted in three drafts you have been pathetic and you want to talk about power play time oh oh oh oh and save to say to say by the time the intermission ended everyone was quiet i had a younger kid i was 19 at a

time, the kid was 16, maybe 17, came up for me. Hey, you okay, man? Like, that's true. Oh my emotional intelligence at the time. I'm still not exactly the most fluent in emotional intelligence, but he said he won't, of course my defenses went up. Yeah, I'm fine. You fine? What are you? I'm fine. Yeah, why wouldn't I be fine? Why wouldn't I be fine? That thing's cool. And then I proceeded to sit on the bench for the entire third period. And the whole bus ride home, I afterwards, I messaged my parents, kind of let them know what happened. My dad said it should have come about two weeks ago. So he was on the same boat as Dave Cameron.

So that was probably my best individual. I love it. I love the orangutan catching a stray there too. Do orangutans have bad gap? Like, come on. I don't know that they have those issues. Maybe he's wonderful. But orangutans, they like to get big, open up their legs wide, hands wide.

And that's essentially what I was doing. I was giving up tons of openings and then not taking anything away. Good God. We wanted to touch on the NHL agent poll. We haven't had a chance to do this yet. It's a Myrtle C.J. Russo joint that dropped a couple of days ago. No surprise at the top, they pulled 27 different agents. Real simple question, first off, was what's the best run franchise in the NHL?

The Lightning got 11 out of 27 votes. That's seven more than any other team. Julian Breeze was at the top of the food chain for them, Cam. And he's a guy you've certainly had some dealings with in the past, right? Oh, yeah. So even before I was with the Tampa Bay organization, I dealt with him with the HL CBA. I was a member of the executive for the PHPA for seven years. And when we negotiated the CBA, Breeze Ball was on the other side.

And it's safe to say after our first negotiation, we realized what we were in for when we all had the CBA in front of us, marked down which page to go to. He didn't have one in front of him. And we were talking about travel home, American League travel home, essentially stipends for players when they go home. he then quoted three different sentences and articles of that subsection without looking at it. Right away, we all kind of realized, okay, he came to play. And once I was in the organization, you can understand why they're so good. I can't agree more.

They're the best one organization I was ever a part of. And I was with some very good organization. The thing about playing in the American Hockey League and being an up and down guy is you see a lot of the assets and a lot of the parts of an organization. You see the scouting staff, you see the player development, you see the American League coaches, you see the NHL when you go up and you see how everything is kind of integrated. And I know it's corporate speak and I've been getting on Keith Pelle about corporate speak lately when I've been doing my TSN hits, but their vertical integration, their ability to have everyone on the same page communicating, understanding what the goal is, is unlike any other I've been a part of.

He is someone, Julian Breezebos, someone that treats everyone with respect. He makes sure that everyone is doing what's necessary. but he's also going to tell you exactly how it is. He's not going to sugarcoat things. And another part about Julian Breezebaugh, after I left the organization, I continued to keep in touch with him. And I was doing a university course. And one of the courses was essentially interview someone that's within a role you might

like to get to. He ended up writing me like two, three page email answering some of the questions I had. He didn't need to do that. This was in season. He didn't need to do that. But he went out of his way to help me and explain things. And in that, he had a lot of very good little nuggets about being a general manager that you see from him. One of them was a GM, their main goal is fixing future problems.

So anticipating problems that are going to come up and fixing them. Because if you're reactionary, that's when problems occur. And you see it more and more these days with teams that have a plan in place and then something goes askew. And now they're reacting to it instead of already having a plan for when that occurs. So I couldn't agree with this poll more. They definitely would have been at the top of my list. And we've seen it from the way he goes about his business in a zillion different ways with Tampa. But what you said makes me think of, you know, with the emphasis on planning and trying to avoid problems before they come up,

that makes me think of stuff like the Brandon Hagel trade and extension, right? Like he's plotting far enough down the line where, you know, you know that there is that kind of future focus that makes him so good at his job. couldn't agree more. And they've got the other thing that they do, and if you look at their roster right now, I think the four of their defensemen, essentially are guys that, three or four of their defense are guys like first year guys.

Like when you look, well, not quite first year, but still Doustoust. Lillberg, Carlisle, like all these guys are being implemented because even Darren, yes, he's not a first year, but he's someone who was brought in as a free agent.

When you're part of that organization, it doesn't matter if you're, when I was there at 20, 29-year-old journeyman essentially, or if you're a first-round pick. Everyone is being treated as an asset that can potentially help the team. So all members of the development staff are willing to help you. All members of the coaching staff are willing to help you. Because if you're signed by that organization, they see you as being able to help.

Because if they're paying you, you need to help them towards their goal. That's winning the Stanley Cup. So when I was there, I was getting, and I know this because Barb Underhill and, And Barton Hill works in Toronto. So I know how much she costs if you want to use her in the summers. So when she would come to Syracuse and offer, hey, we're going to work with these prospects, but everyone else is allowed to join. Not only did I see it as my career, obviously being able to help my career, but I also saw it as, okay, well, that's $400 in the summer. So I'm going to go save myself $400 and jump on the ice with her.

And that's available to you when you're my age, whereas other organizations, it's not. I show up to the rink at, let's say, it's a 1030 practice. I show up at the rink at 839. I see young guys already going on the ice. And my thought is, well, can I jump on? Like, yes, I know I might need more help than them, but can I get in the way? But again, there's reasons why certain organizations, they allocate funds in different directions. Tampa, yes, they allocate funds to the younger players because they're the ones that typically

need the most development. But if you're under their roof, you're allowed to get that same tutelage in that same development and you see it in how they turn over players year out. after year. So, Cam, the lightning obviously are regarded as the gold standard in the league, and they've had a ton of success on the ice. My question to you is, what, which AI tool do they use to come up with trade offers? Is it free chat GPT, or are they like on one of the... It's the middle paid plan. They don't have like the full freight thing that costs like a hundred are they on the $8 a month plan. They'll pay a little bit extra for increased image generation.

That would be, I can only imagine. So like the idea of thinking about that organization, maybe they do. I haven't seen it. But like, for instance, when I was there, Pat Verbeek was still a professional scout. He's part of the like management crew. He'd be showing up in Syracuse on a practice day at like 7.30 in the morning at the rink. Because he was, he had his like little old, his old Punch Imlack type hat on and he's in the dressing room just watching guys kind of walk in. the idea of that guy who's got his notebook out like watching all this stuff grimace on his face at that early in the morning just mad at everything and that guy using AI for anything it's just hilarious for be the world's angriest man using using a

yelling by his boss to type stuff in it in a GPT maybe they do again I don't know I know they had a very I've used I've heard the term a lot lately robust data system or data group, but maybe they do, but I cannot imagine some of those people that are there. They use the information that's given to them, but the idea of using AI is hilarious to me. A team that is using AI. Good segue. Yeah. The Toronto Maple Leafs, there's a big story that dropped on the site today. It's Jonas, it's CJ, it's Myrtle.

The headline says it all. inside the stunning fall of the Maple Leafs chaos dysfunction in AI like that's one of the big takeaways is is that Keith Pelly as we were aware has some kind of weird preoccupation with plugging stuff into chat GPT as early as do as hockey team I'm sure there's there's no issues there um there but there were other points that were raised in this story fellas I it's just nickel and dime organization they scrapped the father's trip in in November we knew that but That seems like it's stuck in everybody's craw. The one that seems really crazy to me,

even more than asking Chad GPT if you should trade Matthew Nyes or whatever they were doing. Player discounts covering everything from team gear at real sports apparel to meals at Real Sports Bar and Grill were cut from 50% to 30%. That'll show them. Yeah, you have to... Fixed it.

You pay five more dollars for a plate of wings at the bar outside the arena. Which player are leases going to go to real sports? Yeah, I was going to pick up a jersey at the, you know. I've been, I want to have been real sports once after a game I was covering. And it was like, okay, I'm, I don't need to ever go back there again. This is, this, they fixed it, man. I mean, everyone on the Leafs makes 25% more than comparable players anywhere else in the league.

But we're getting it right back. We're getting it back. on the nachos. So. That thing trip is crazy to me because when I was with the Marleys, we had a mentor's trip. Like I was the Marley's and even then we had a mentors trip. And it was so well run.

Like it was so much fun to have my like, this is the first chance. My dad was able to come to one because I was actually not fun fact, but fact. I was sent down twice the week of the trip was supposed to happen. Oh my God. So once was with, once was actually with Tampa. and I grew up with Stephen Stamco's and my dad and his dad actually had a conversation with how we'll fly down together

like this will make things easier for my dad because he hadn't been through one of these whereas this was old hat for Mr. Stamco's and that week I got sent down so he had wasn't able to come and again how Julian got that across to me was really apologize I understand but this is like something we have to do

based upon where the cap sits and where you're at with your waiver dates. This just makes the most sense. We apologize to your dad. We'll cover. Make sure anything that he had to handle. I'll give him a call. My dad doesn't need a call. If anyone understands, it's him. He'd probably shake your hand for making the right decision. Yeah, right. As previously as we've established, yes. And then actually that same day when I got sent down, John Cooper came up to me. And he, I hadn't played. This was my first, first call up with them. I hadn't played. It had been six games because they won. That was when they went on that huge winning streak that one year, where

after every game Louis de Ming had something going on in the dressing room. But they'd won six straight when I was there. So Cooper came up to me, dat me up and just said, hey, couldn't get you in. Six game heater, you know? Like, I get it. Okay. Fine. I get it.

I mean, that's like, that's a, it's a brutal decision, right? Like, that sucks for you. It sucked for your dad. But when you have someone who lays it out like that and is like, okay, this isn't happening for reasons A, it's happening for reasons B. Here's what's going on. And the other thing that might not seem, he didn't say, but you're going to be up again next week. He didn't give me any of that bull crap.

It was just, hey, listen, this is where we're at. We're going to see how things go. Continue to play the way you were playing before you got called up. And we'll see how things go. And then the one thing, the other thing that they talked about with me a number of times, which some organizations do. It's not just them. But he talked about how when you were up here, you didn't hurt us, which doesn't seem like much. but when you're the extra guy coming to the rink,

whether the team's winning, whether they're losing, you have to bring a positive mindset, and you have to be finding a way to help the team. So for me, it was, I was shooting on Vasilevsky almost every day. He probably didn't get any better doing me, but I was doing what they wanted from me.

And I was helping certain players. I was doing extra before and after practice. I was making sure I was working, all these things I was trying to do. It might not seem like a ton, but if you have an extra player who is nothing but, But just coming in and dragging his lip, got the bird shit lip, bird shit lip, as guys call it, just dragging it around.

Or if you're coming in, complaining, going through the motions when you're shooting on someone like Andre Vagelowski, they don't want you there. Like, you're not helping the team. So you need to figure out a way. So that was one thing they made sure to emphasize was, listen, you did a great job doing these things. No, you didn't factor in on the ice, but you helped some of the players. You might have helped the staff, all these other things. So that was one thing they really emphasized. And Pittsburgh actually did that before when I was with them.

So I need to give them a show. They did an excellent job of making sure even when I wasn't playing. I felt relevant. And that was one of the things I learned from them. And Tampa did the same thing. Are you bummed that your career is over at this point? And you couldn't just say like, you know, if you were up with Tampa, say last week, you couldn't just plug how to beat Andre Vasilevsky into chat, GBT and get a good answer for it.

Oh, my goodness. Well, I just miss playing in the same. So when you had that the first part of that question, I was ready to, you could probably hear my sound level jump up because I said, oh, because yes, I wish I was still playing. Like, we'll stop. Of course. Always because they're playing. But no, the idea of, can you imagine someone like a shooter going in for a shootout and just beforehand? Hey, give me the iPad. Can I have the, can I have the talent, please? Zalowski. What do I do? I am a, chat, GPT, I am about to take a shoot. I'm in the shootout against Andre Vasselowski. Please plot a course of action for me.

Chat GBT GBT telling you, look fastball. He's going to start you with a fastball and then go slider. That's a wrong sport. That's a great catch by you. That is a wrong sport. Shooting on Andre Vazolevsky. Chad GBT's answer, be someone else. Be someone better.

No, it says, better you than Frankie Carrado. Okay. Coach, tell the coach to choose someone else. Hey, come out. That's what we're getting from the leaves next year, guys. I'm excited for this. That's what they're going to be looking up on the bench. That's a big iPad on the bench.

That's how you're going to integrate big data from top to bottom in that organization. That's the point. Magadu, how do you feel about all this? Oh, great. You're being silent here. It's fantastic. I'm filled with confidence with how this organization is being run. I'm sure when they eventually get around to hiring a GM in August,

it's going to be a fantastic hire. And I can't wait. There we go. He said it. Kim, what's a series you want to see in the West? Let's finish up there. Not to do a break next switch there.

But we talked about it in segment one. There's still, we're still so much uncertainty in the Western Conference. What's the one series you want to see come out of this? Edmonton, LA. I haven't seen it enough. Oh, my God. There is.

We found the guy. Found the one guy. It's Cam Guns. He's the person who wants to see the shit again. For me, honestly, I would love to see. I don't know. Obviously, it's going to take some work. But I like the idea of the Vegas.

Vegas Edmonton again would still be fun for me. Vegas is playing away right now that they haven't most of the season. Whether it's just you hope it continues come playoff time with the kind of excitement, the offense that they've been playing with. I'd like to see that because they've been so good defensively all year that it's kind of taken away. And again, they've been using words like, we found our fun and all this type of whatever. Yes, that is part of it. I agree. But you don't have the same coach barking at you. That's all it is. Like, it's not, I found my fun. It's the boogeyman's gone for now. So I'd like to see

that because at the same time, Edmonton's been playing a bit better defensively. Like, their defensive numbers have been much better. They held Colorado to a goal and only another one in the shootout. So I'd like to see those because I want to see. what Connor McDavid can do against them. I want to see how if Marner continues to be, he's been a shutdown centerman since Tortoralla got there. So I'd love the idea of seeing Marner, who is not the most fleet of foot.

Very good player. I'm not, but he's not someone who's going to be picking up Connor McDavid, the call in basketballs, pick him up full court. He's not picking him up full court. He's going to be waiting for him. So he's not playing the way Team USA did in the Olympics

where they're essentially saying with McDavid on every swing in the neutral zone. So McDavid's not, I mean, Mariner's not going to be able to do that. So what is his, how are they going to try to play against McDavid? Like that, for something like that,

that excites me. And I like to see how Connor Ingram does because old teammate of mine, Syracuse, some great stories about him for another time. But he's been playing excellent lately, and that makes me very happy to see because though I am supposed to be an unbiased media member,

I still have relationships and seeing someone like him who has gone through what he's gone through, play as well as he has. I love to see that. So for me, Evanton Vegas, where were you guys?

I think you sold me there, man. Like, I, it didn't occur. We were saying earlier, it didn't even occur to me that Edmonton Vegas was, was potentially on the books until this morning.

Like, we've been staring at the standings for 45 minutes a day, and it seems like that's a new one that popped up that I hadn't thought about all that much. How about this? Whenever the Oilers beat the Kings in five, in like, in a couple weeks,

you come back, you can tell us, you can tell us some Conner, Ingram stories because he'll be the toast of the town after shutting down that offensive juggernaut over the next over the next couple of weeks. I'd love to because again, he had, he is one of the funniest guy, just dry. Have you ever watched his YouTube stuff when he had between the posts? He's just, he's a totally likable, you know, recognizable guy.

Like you're like you can see the human being, you know, that's behind the player there. Very good. And we met my wife and I met his parents when they were here just a couple of, like when they're down in Syracuse. Just, like, salt to the earth, wonderful people. Extremely nice. Going out of their way to speak to people. So, again, someone like him, you cheer for.

Unbiased media member, though, especially when I'm probably going to be talking about them over the next couple days. You don't have to tell that lie. That's what me and Magidu have to pretend. When did this unbiased? We have to be unbiased? Well, isn't that, again, not to get too deep,

but isn't that point of media in the democracy is you pass along unbiased things to the media? The matter of masses. That's what I get paid to do. But we'll see. I should have probably read the job description before I signed on. I might have screwed up. I don't know where it says in my contract about making fun of Keith Pelly and AI for 15 minutes every week.

But here we are. Thanks, buddy. What is TSN have you doing the rest of the week? So this week I'm doing, I got night shift tonight, night shift tomorrow and day shift Friday. So tonight, I think Craig Button and I are both working. We'll be watching the games, doing a hit probably SportsCenter, maybe a Jay Onright for the next two nights. And then a day hit on Friday, so it'll be on the 6 p.m. Sports Center.

And then Monday, I'm not sure if that's the first day of playoffs I'm working is Monday. I'm not sure if I'll be doing a panel for that or if it'll be a sports center hit. But I'll be busy over the next little bit, and I can't wait to start talking about stuff other than the, are they going to make a run? Are they going to make a run? Why are they going to make a run? I can't wait. Love to hear it, man.

They're lucky to have you. Thank you. And so are we. We'll talk to you again real soon, dude. See you guys. Thank you very much. All right, we're back. Sean McIndoo.

I'd like to tell you what I've learned. What have we learned, Sean? I learned that wild goaltender, Yesper Walsett, actually cares how people spell his name and say his name. Is it, it, we're not sure what. what, like, Rousseau seems to think it might have been some kind of prank. It could have been a logistical issue.

In any case, his name was misspelled on his jersey last night. It was spelled W-A-L-L-S-T-E-A-D-D-D. Goes out there, in actuality, it is W-A-L-S-T-E-D-T because he's Swedish. Goes out there, misspelled name. It gets fixed eventually. and then after the game he obviously took in good humor but he was clearly annoyed

he said he wanted to throw the jersey away and all that stuff and I have learned through the way he received this is that yes per Walsstett is the ultra rare specimen in the NHL he is an NHL player who actually cares how his name is spelled because we've seen this

way too many times over the years, whether it's pronunciation or whatever. Nicholas Grossman being the most egregious, longtime defenseman gets traded from the Sabres to the Flyers mid-season. The Flyers looked at his passport and were like, hey, you have an extra N on your name? He was like, oh, yeah, I do. They just spelled it wrong when I came to the league and I never corrected them. That is one of the most incredible stories that I can remember,

but it's also of a type where we've seen over the years, you know, you find out 10 years into someone's career that you've been pronouncing their name wrong the entire time. I appreciate Wallstead, be like, no, it actually pisses me off when I see my name spelled incorrectly because it really is. It is like one of the most disrespectful things you can do. Is it just not care how to say or spell someone's name?

And the worst hockey fan you know is like, that's the difference in the NHL. They don't even care if you spell their name. name right it's not like those other sports where I as somebody who has never misspelled a name never once not one time yeah this is this is this is this is terrible work

by whoever that that was and I I love how Mark Andre Fleury somehow got pulled into this yes the guy is he's not with the organization he's not in the building he's not even anywhere in town and yet he is still apparently the prime suspect for this hilarious prank.

I don't know if you know this about Mark Andre Fleury, Sean. No, I don't, but. A bit of a prankster. Really? I love that Russo wouldn't even totally clear him like in this story. He says Flurry for the record wouldn't fess up to the misspelled name played of his wild backup era parent during a text exchange with the athletic. He was in Vegas for an alumni golf events.

He wouldn't fess up. Yeah, come clean. That's when. So, yeah, when somebody's like, no, it wasn't me. Okay. I'm in, I'm in Las Vegas. It was physically impossible for me to do this. Also, it seems like a pretty standard mistake.

And also, not funny at all. Just kind of something, just kind of something boring that happened. Is that really a great prank? I feel like there's, you could have more fun. If you had access to manipulate people's jerseys and equipment. I hope they threw that name plate away. I have no idea where it went. I told Cliffy that I don't want to see that name again.

That's Wallace said. Yeah, man. Be pissed. It's your name. People should spell us correctly. Dallas fans. Dallas fans, you now know what to do. You know what those signs have to say that you're going to be waving around.

Oh, my God. Yes. Yeah, and they'll have time to make them since we've known that that series has been taking place for the last six months. Yeah, since October. I learned something that also had to do with. jerseys and the back of jerseys. We need Frankie back for the segues, man. God almighty.

I think I was, I'm okay with it. It's five out of ten. Morgan Geeky made some history last night. That is important to me and possibly nobody else but me. But Morgan Geeky got his 39th goal of the season last night. And then failed to get to the 40 goal. plateau, which you think would be important. You know, players like those nice round numbers.

You think he'd want to join the 40 goal club. Does he have a bonus written into his contract? It could be actual, right? I don't know, yeah, it should matter. Let's hope not. But he didn't. Had a breakaway with five minutes left in the game, did not score, finished with 39 goals, which matters because Morgan Geeky wears the number 39,

which means he has now established a new record for the most goals ever scored in the season by a player whose goal total matches their jersey number. Oh, my God. And if people are familiar with my work, they will know that this seemingly innocuous question became the subject of an infamous post of mine where I tried to answer it.

Five years ago now? Six years ago. during the pandemic. And at the time, that's why I don't remember this. I was pretty phased out at that point. It ended up being a much tougher question to answer than you would think. Because in hockey, superstar forwards tend to wear either high numbers or low numbers.

There's not a lot of guys in the 30s and 40s and 50s. So it ended up being very tough. It turned out to be at the time, Austin Matt, had scored 34 goals in a season. His record has now been broken by Morgan Geeky is the new record holder at 39. So rest easy, Austin Matthews, and Morgan Geeky is the new record holder. How did you even, how do you even look that up? Like, how's that something you research?

One player at a time. You're, oh my God, I feel like every week. I did not have a lot going on back then. Once a month, once a month I'm like, man, he's even sick. If I'm like this now, if I'm like this now, imagine what April 2020, Sean was like. Okay, I had some time on my hands. You're whysalling your groceries and trying to figure out whether Patrice Bershara never scored 37 goals in the season or whatever. I honestly would encourage people if you haven't read the article to read it.

It is, it has become my answer when someone. Somebody asked me my all-time favorite thing I've ever written because it does become a descent into madness. And I don't know if it makes a better-re record has now been broken. You don't read it in myself. Yes, I do. I'm going to act like you. It's okay. Buddy, I was on the blog.

I bought your first book. I don't know if I ever even told you that. Wow. All right. We didn't even know each other. Were you in the comments? Were you like, was there Sean G. G.

None of your business. Trashing me. Making Kyle Wellwood jokes. just dump it on everything. All right. I'm going to go back and check that. But yeah, congratulations, Morgan Geeky, the new record holder. And thank you for missing on that breakaway.

Guy understood. He had that sense of history. We appreciate that. Morgan Geeky in the Down Goes Brown comments in 2010 or whatever. I mean, honestly, given how many hours I spent researching that stupid question, The fact that the record was broken by a guy named Kiki, pretty fitting. A little,

a little on the nose. A little on the nose by the hockey gods, but still not bad. Did you have a post cup today? The playoff contest has gone up today. This is the one line, one question. That's it.

I give you one question, you give me one line answer, and we see if you can correctly predict the NHO playoffs. It's nice and simple. Go check it out. All you have to do to answer. is drop a line in the comments. We love it.

And you'll be wrong and I will make fun of you. Probably on this show. Quite possible. I will also be back for it. I will also be wrong, but that's neither here nor there. I'm going to get Chat GPT to let us know what it thinks. And then I will take, it could be accepting my MLSC job offer. Did chat GPT suggest those blue glasses maybe?

Maybe you did. Never know. Thank you, buddy. Thank you, Frankie Kratto, wherever you are. And thank you most of all to Cameron Gantz. He's great. Can't wait to talk to him more. Six games tonight, they're all pretty whack.

The only one that matters is Vegas versus Seattle. That's a late night one. We could actually see some clarity to the Western Conference playoff picture come out of that. So stay tuned. Give that a look if you want. We're back with playoff previews stuff over the next couple days. We're doing live shows at noon.

It'll be a lot of fun. Join us, even though we don't know who's playing who yet. It'll get solved at some point, I promise. Have a good week. Talk to you with Haley tomorrow.