The Athletic Hockey Show - Snoop Dogg gives insight into Ottawa Senators ownership bid, Draisaitl's 4-goal performance isn't enough to lift Oilers over Golden Knights

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Ian shares his experience in getting Snoop Dogg on the phone for a twenty minute interview, what he learned about the rapper's push for the Ottawa Senators ownership, and he and Sean discuss this fascinating time for the team. Also, with Game 2 of Maple Leafs- Panthers on deck for Thursday night, Sean's thoughts on outcome of Game 1, and attempts to get Ian to make another series prediction. Next, in "Granger Things", Jesse Granger discusses game 1 of Golden Knights- Oilers Wednesday night, and goaltending across the playoff teams. To wrap up, a listener email occupies Ian and Sean's minds through the end of the show, and in a Thursday Show first, a request for "This Week in Hockey History".Have a question for Ian and Sean? Email [e-mail] or leave a VM: [phone]!Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowRight now, Nuts.com is offering new customers a free gift with purchase and free shipping on orders of $29 or more at http://Nuts.com/hockey23Upgrade your closet with Rhone and use code NHLSHOW to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/nhlshowGo to http://dave.com/nhlshow to sign up for an ExtraCash account and get up to $500 instantly! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. All right, here we go. It's the Thursday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Ian Mett and Sean McIndoo with you for, I don't know, next hour, whatever it is. We talk Jesse Grinch is going to drop by. We'll chat about Oilers and Golden Knights, T-Up, obviously, the Leafs in a game two this evening. But I got to tell you, Sean, I'm shocked that as we get set to do this pod, that maybe the other Ontario-based team

might be getting a little bit of oxygen this week. A little bit. Let's not get crazy. Yeah. Let's not get crazy. But yes, because, boy, I, Mr. Celebrity correspondent over here. Oh, my gosh, you're sliding into Ryan Reynolds' DMs, and now you are getting exclusive interviews with Snoop Dogg.

Yeah. I want to talk about everything that he said and all the news that came out of that. But how do you even get Snoop Dog on the phone? What is that process like? Oh, exactly. I want to walk you and the listeners through this. It's fascinating, right? Because like, first of all, I've been chisling away at this for like four months, five months.

Like this group, which is headed by a guy out of L.A. Nico Sparks is his name. I wrote about them in January, but like everything, Sean was like shrouded in secrecy with these guys. Like they were like, oh, we have this A list celebrity. And, you know, when the time is right, we'll let everyone know. And I'm like, well, the time is now. I was like in January. I'm like, the time is now. And they're like, no, no.

Like, honestly, every week or two, I would send a note to people associated with their group. Like, anytime you guys want to do something, let me know. Can I guess? Can I? I couldn't get it. And then all of a sudden. last week, over the weekend, I was able to chisel out that at Snoop. And now I'm thinking, okay, now how do I shoot my shot to get the interview, right?

And so I basically put a request in with some people that know some people. But Snoop did some interviews with the athletic in 2020. Gentilly got them in 2021, but that was over email. Okay. And if you recall, go back and read. like when I think Gentile did a piece on when they went back to the gin and juice jerseys, the penguins went back to the retro. Right.

Okay. And Snoop did an email interview with him. And like Gentile left in all of the. And I guess that that is the stuff. Like if somebody emails you something, I guess you don't, you can't technically clean up the quotes, right? Like it's. I don't know. I'm not, I don't have a Pulitzer like Gentile.

So I don't know exactly what the rules are. So anyway, so he does that. So we do have some contact with the camp through the athletic. And so I put the requests and it came back to me, hey, he's going to do Stephen A. He's going to do first up on ESPN. And I thought, ah, damn. Like I missed.

I missed it. But I said, listen, if he's able to do something and then after he does the ESPN interview, I'm like, I don't think he really talked about Ottawa very much. I think a lot of people here would love to know. So I kept, was repeated. And then finally his. His manager got back to me and said, okay, we're going to do this in the next 24 hours. Keep your phone ready.

So can you imagine the- Yes. I love it. That is such an A-C-C-Move. You just have to be there at all times. Anx, like, I didn't want to go to the bathroom. And then in my mind, I'm thinking the phone, the call's going to come in. Is it going to be like S-Dog on the call display? Yeah.

Like, how does this work? Exactly, yeah. And, you know, then finally on Wednesday, I'll give his manager credit. He actually texted me and said, can you do this in 20 minutes? I say, yeah, like this is awesome, right? They give me a bit of a heads up. You got to tell me, did when the phone rings and you pick it up, is this like, is he on the other end? Or is this like one of those like, please hold for Mr. Snoop Dog things where like they don't even get him until they know they got you?

Yeah, go for Snoop. No, no, it was, uh, it was basically, his manager. you're phoning me and he said, all right, Ian, I got Snoop here. Wow. It's surreal, right? Like, it's, it's. And then how do you start that conversation? Is it just like, hey, Snoop?

What's up, Mr. Dog? Like, what's even the lead there? Yeah. Is it Mr. Do? I mean, first of all, I'm like, hey, listen, thank you so much for taking a few minutes to chat about, you know, your bid or whatever. And I got to tell you, I was blown away. I spent about 20, 22 minutes, whatever it was on the phone with him.

And he was great. Like, he gave thoughtful answers. It didn't feel like he was, like, unplugged from the internet. It wasn't like he was, you know, in my mind, I was like, is this guy going to be texting while he's talking to me? Like, he was all in. So let me, okay, actually, let me ask Danielle this guy. Danielle is our producer.

And I don't know what the deal is on, like, like, am I allowed to swear? I can swear in a podcast, right? Or is that, is that, I don't know. On this network, you can. Yeah, it's more of a Friday thing, but go ahead. Can I swear? And the only reason why is I feel like I want to take the listener and you write through the true kind of. I got to tell you, I'm excited right now because I've known you forever and you barely ever swear.

I don't swear. I'm not a swearing guy. And I grew up kind of, you know, I came through. I was a sports that guy, a TSN guy. So I kind of live in these tight parameters where I don't really swear. but I feel like to tell this story, I need to just give you the exact quote of what Snoop said. I'm so excited right now.

How I cleaned it up for the article. Let it fly. So he's talking to me about how much he loved hockey and that he didn't just start watching hockey with the gin and juice jersey or like or like even when Gretzky. He says to me and I quote, I was watching motherfucking Marcel Dion back in the day. This is what he says to me.

I was watching motherfucking Marcel Dion. And in my mind, and he's like, you know, the purple and gold jerseys, that's, he's like,

I am, that's, so I then cleaned up the quote. When I wrote it in the article, it's Snoop looks back with fondness. Watching Mars. But that's the quote. That's beautiful,

that's the quote. But, but, but he was exactly what you would have anticipated, which was super engaging. And, you know what I was I was blown away by his his real passion and knowledge like one of the things he's mentioning he's like come on he's like we got two teams in Canada left in the Stanley Cup he's like

we got to change that and if I take over you know I think we got a team that's on the vert like like he isn't a guy that is just unaware of hockey like he's he's very in tune with the game and where I really agreed with him is he was just he put the NHL on blast for two things. One was the lack of marketing of stars, which he was like, he was dumbfounded why McDavid, he's like, McDavid should be on every television screen in the United States. And he's like, he's not. And then the other thing where I, and I really do agree with him on this, is he wants diversity at the highest level of, of the league so that they can sort of have that filter down and that these, these sort of PR hot potatoes that the NHL has dealt with, I mean,

I don't know, Mitchell Miller, Pride Knight, whatever, all these things that seemingly, it feels like the league sometimes fumbles these things. His point is they would fumble them less or would be less likely to fumble them if there was better representation at the ownership level. And like, like when you hear this guy speak, Sean, he is so intelligent about sports. And he's just so passionate. And anyway, I don't know where this is all going to go. I don't know that he's going to be the victorious bidder.

But what a turn of events in Ottawa to go from arguably the most despised owner in the sport to like the whiplash I have right now. Bell of the ball. Yes. The celebrity world. Now, help me and the rest of us through this because this is a different bid than Ryan Reynolds. Yeah. So we're now in a situation where we got to pick a celebrity.

Like do we have to pick sides here? by the way, good luck to everyone who doesn't have a celebrity that's bidding on this. Good luck to like the guy with a successful realtor business or, you know, whatever it is, it's thinking he's going to get some sub-oxygen on this. This is one or the other, right? Or is there possible that they could like Voltron this together and somehow create like the, you know, the A-plus Lister bid? Well, somebody was telling me that back of the day,

Suddenly reminded me that Snoop and Ryan Reynolds appeared. They probably, and I should have asked him this, but they both voiced characters in an animated movie back in the day. And now I'm blanking on the one. Okay, wow. All right. Now I got to hit up Snoop's IMDB page. Okay.

Just looking up, Snoop, Ryan Reynolds' voice. It was like the movie with like a snail is the fastest. What was that movie? I'm totally blanking now. That doesn't, that doesn't sound like a good movie right there. I don't know why I know this title, but it's called Turbo. Turbo. Turbo.

Okay. All right. They both. So, I don't know. It's a bit of a stretch to say that the two guys that voiced Turbo together. It was sitting in plain sight. Yeah. At all the whole time.

I don't like, here's what. You know, I'm looking at the page right now. I'm looking at some of the other people in this movie. Who else? Can we get Samuel L. Jackson in on this bid? Maya Rudolph, Bill Hader. I mean, Ken Jong? Oh my gosh.

This could be, we got to get the band back together and just go full on turbo. Oh, my God. If I get locked out of Maya Rudolph interview, that would, you know what? That would be a lead. Well, I mean, just, you already, like, I love with the snoop, you just, like, slipped in there. Like, oh, you know, I made some calls to people who know people. Like, you're already that plugged in. I feel like this is, you know, we could absolutely do this.

Yeah. This is, this was a movie, according to IMDB, it lost $50 million. So that's, you know, that, that seems on par. Yeah. It's like we're already locked into the, the Ottawa Senator's way of doing things. Oh, I knew it. Insert Senator's joke here. I knew it was coming.

Come on, man. Like, you have Snoop performing at intermission, Samuel L. Jackson does the, I want to hear Samuel L. Jackson do the gladiator introduction. Oh, get that guy back? Yeah. Yeah. Get that guy back. Or let it be Ryan Reynolds.

I don't know. Whoever, whoever we got to get. Paul Giamati was involved in this movie. Maybe he can be the gladiator. But just have Jackson do the voice. Can you imagine if you like, and like, like, I want to make this clear for the listeners and for everybody, too. Like, I personally don't have a horse in this race.

Like I have no vested interest. If it's, if it's Ryan Reynolds, fantastic. You're close friends with both of them. You don't want to pick. I get it. Exactly. whether it's Snoop, whatever. All I want to see in Ottawa is competent, stable, committed ownership.

That's it. Like that, honestly, that's all I want to see here. And for anybody, because I see, like, I see now people say like, oh, my God, Ian is so deep in, you know, the Snoop Camp's pocket where, hey, I'm not. Because you did one interview? No. And that's just my point is I think that there was a significant amount of intrigue around this bit and some questions that needed to be asked.

I asked them. It's not my intention. I don't intend to be, you know, a mouthpiece or whatever for any group. I don't think that's right. But in this particular case, I did think that there was enough information that needed to be kind of, you know, sussed out that I think an interview was important and relevant. But I don't believe in like here, here's my one piece of advice to who's ever going to take over the Ottawa senators. Do not have a singular relationship with one media. person. Don't do that. Don't just put all of your eggs in one basket. Have a relationship with

four or five outlets that cover this team. There's four or five outlets that cover this team. There's me with the athletic. There's post media. There's L'Dois, which is a French publication. There's Sportsnet. There's TSN. There's TSN radio. You need to have a relationship with everybody and you need to be accountable to everybody. And that's my only wish. That's my only wish for this franchise moving forward. Let me ask you this one, though, because this is the one thing that I think when you sort of broke the story earlier in the week that Snoop was involved and then got the interview, I mean, for a lot of us, we're just, you know, it's a fantastic story.

A lot of the punchlines write themselves. But when you actually get down to it, part of the appeal of the Ryan Reynolds involvement was that this guy was a local guy. He had connections to Ottawa, you know, had spent time here. This wasn't just some celebrity parachuting in because this happened to be the team that was up for sale. This was a guy who, you know, you really felt like if it wasn't the senators or, you know, maybe the Canucks would be the other team, but, you know, anyone else, he wasn't interested. Now you've got a different sort of celebrity presence coming in where there isn't that connection. where it's LA based. It's, you know, and I know, when he was talking to you, you know, Snoop was saying, oh, you know, I have an Eric Carlson jersey from when I play Blues Fest. And, yeah, okay, that's nice, but that's not, that's not the same connection. Is, what's the reaction there in Ottawa? Because I'm not there right now. Are people excited about this? Is there any sort of fear that wait a second? Are these now outsiders coming in to grab our team? Like, how should that be viewed?

Yeah, no, it's a great question. And it's a great point. And I think that there is that fear. And that's, this is, look, this is where I'm going to give the Ryan Reynolds Remington group a ton of credit. They ran this thing out in the PR race. They got such a huge lead. It's almost, from a public perception standpoint, doesn't it feel almost insurmountable? Like, like all of the things from- It did a week ago. Yeah. And so that's, that's the challenge for this group. Now, The problem for the Sparks group is this. And this goes for any other group. But in particular, the Sparks group, I think for months, they were kind of cloaked in anonymity. Nobody knew anything. And like I said, I tried for months to try to get information from these guys. They wouldn't tell me anything.

So people were saying, I don't really know much about them. So now I've been able to get a little bit of information. And now people are saying, I don't like the way that they're coming out and saying everything. It was almost going to be a no-win situation for them. Like, so that part is. difficult. I think that there's always going to be in Ottawa a fear of people not connected to the community that own the team because we just lived it. We just lived it. The guy who owned the team before unplugged the team's charity. Like, can we just take a moment to understand where

we're coming from? Like, and so you can forgive Ottawa fans for being suspicious of outside. I don't I don't blame, let me put it this way, let me phrase this way. I don't blame any Ottawa fan for being suspicious about outside ownership because we just watched it unfold. So, yeah, this group is- There's a guy down in Bermuda and even, you know, with Melnick, when there was a big story, he would go on the radio in Toronto. That was his main outlet. In a different city, put aside the rivalry with the Leafs, but he would go to a different city and do the media rounds there. So you can absolutely understand.

Now, in the piece that you wrote, Snoop's talking about how, like, look, I will be there. He's not going to pick up shop and move to Ottawa, but he's, he's, he's, Snoop is living in the Glebe? The Glebe. That's a neighborhood in Ottawa, by the way. Excuse me. Can you turn the music down? We're trying to, we're trying to run our garage sale.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, so, I don't know. It's going to be fascinating to see it turn out. And like I say, boy, if you're, if you're one of those other bids, better find a celebrity, man. You got to get on there. You got to, because, boy, what a letdown this would be.

At the end of all of it, it's just like, you know, some real estate mogul who just has like the better plan and the higher bid. And hey, we're excited, right, everyone? And it'll just be, oh, man. Yeah. Anyway, so this has been a fascinating week. And we'll see how this all plays out. It's a, it's a, for a change, it's a fun time, I think, to be an Ottawa fan. and be excited.

I want Ottawa fans to be excited about ownership. So we'll see where this all goes. But yeah, this is a crazy, crazy, crazy week. Okay, so let's talk about the other team in the province. Speaking of crazy. Speaking of crazy. Did the first round against Tampa kind of just inject you with a lot of chill for game? Like losing game one against the Panthers, are you kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah, been there?

I wouldn't say. lot of chill. I wouldn't say a lot of chill. I do, you know, it was interesting because as a fan, like having watched my team not make the second round in almost 20 years, I sort of had to, you know, I kind of had that feeling in game one against Panthers like, oh, right, I remember this now, the whiplash between like how a series just gets more and more intense and more, as the longer the series goes, just everything feels like it's, it's so crucial. And it builds and it builds and a and then you win the series and you start the next series and it's almost like a little bit of a reset. So, you know, I'm not panicking over losing game one by any stretch.

But no, I mean, all the thanks. I mean, I wrote this on Twitter or somewhere. Nobody enjoys the playoffs when your team is in them, right? Nobody has fun for 60 minutes. Like, oh, great, this is really good. I've really enjoyed that three hours that I just spent watching my team win in overtime. You enjoy watching your team win. You enjoy what comes after that and the memories and everything,

but you don't like the actual games. And so, you know, the thing with the Leafs is the worst case scenario is now off the table. As far as had they lost in the first round again, it was over. It was going to get blown up. Everybody was getting fired. You know, we all know that. Now, that doesn't mean that just making the second round is, you know, some monumental achievement.

In fact, you could absolutely make an argument that if they go ahead and lose to the Panthers, who were the eight seed in a series where they have home ice and, you know, all of this, that that will be, you know, a major disappointment. And that you'll look back and say, you know, that that season was not a success just because they won one round with an incredibly talented team. But it can't be the disaster that it would have been. So that lightens it a little bit. but that's kind of balanced out by the fact that, okay, you're now one step closer to the ultimate goal.

So failing now in some sense is even worse than failing early. So we'll see how it plays out, man. Panthers are a hell of a team. They are, I mean, I don't remember where they were at series-wise the last time we talked last Thursday, if it was 3-1 or if it had been 3-2 by that point. But, I mean, I'm sure if I went back and listened to that show, I bet we spent maximum three seconds talking about the Florida Panthers. in the future as anything other than a speed bump or the Boston Bruins. And we weren't the only ones.

And it's a full credit to them, man. They are something to watch. I spent all of last year pumping the tires of the Florida Panthers saying this is a fun team. You should need to be watching this team. This is your bandwagon team and all of this stuff. I renounce all of that now. I have nothing good to say about the team now now that they're playing my Leafs. But this is a hell of a team to watch.

And watching Matthew Kachuk kind of make that final evolutionary step to like full on, no qualifiers needed, top tier superstar in the league has really been something. So yeah, we'll see where it goes. Game two tonight. You know, goes without saying, real big one for the Leafs. I mean, you go down to Florida down to nothing. that's even in a postseason where home ice hasn't meant anything, that's not a situation you want to be in. You know, I, the reason why we only spent three seconds talking about the Panthers being

down three one last Thursday is because I was trying to calm you down and walk you through how the Leaf Series was going to go with them up three one. Did it not play out exactly? Almost. Oh, I only picked bunting to score the game six OT winner, but it played out exactly like I said it would. You said that they were going to lose game five. I think you said 4 to 1 and ended up being 4 to 2.

I know. And then you said, and then Game 6, Bunting, overtime winner, and they, and Michael Bunding comes back in the lineup for game 6, has a great game. He's flying everywhere. I mean, there was a moment, obviously, when they go into overtime again and they're one goal away again from winning a playoff series. I'm kind of in a different zone, but there was a moment where I thought, hey, if Michael Bunting gets this goal, this will be. be the greatest prediction, the greatest and most specific prediction ever made. And didn't

quite work out that way. But, I mean, you got, you got all the big picture stuff. You nailed it. So having said that, I don't have a vision for this series. I wish I could tell you that I could close my eyes and see this. I have no idea. And you know what I think the problem is with this series is the Bobrovsky Wild Card. I don't know. Like, I don't know what he is. And he's a two time Vezna trophy winning goalie, and I don't know what he is. Yep. And he's been bad for years. You know, the Paul Burris factor, we're suddenly, you know, a lot of us who spent all

year long going, man, that's got to be one of the worst coaching changes in the history of the league. And now he's looking like a genius. It's fascinating. And look, this is, you know, it is both the greatest selling point. and in some sense, almost the worst part of the NHL playoffs is just that that razor thin margin between the stories. Because let's remember, okay, Boston's up three to one on the Florida Panthers. They're going into game.

It's game five at home. Do you remember how regulation ended in that game before it goes to overtime? Brian Marchand, with a breakaway with seconds left. He's going to score a buzzer-beater. To win the series, I mean, you're watching, it was one of these long developing breakaways where you're just watching it going, this is it? This is right here, the end of the series, and he gets stopped. And, I mean, every one of us, right, you watch him get stopped and you go, oh, okay, well, I guess that prolongs it a little bit. But that ends up being the moment that allows the Panthers, they then come back, they win in overtime.

Obviously, they win game six and seven. If that, if Brad Marchand buries that, we are talking about the Brewing. as a juggernaut. We were talking about the Panthers as a failure. We're talking about Paul Maurice as a failure. You know, on down the list. But that one save, that one, you know, not, you know, maybe the fact that if he had a little bit more time,

would he have, you know, been able to deak, what he have, you know, who knows, that's the difference between, you know, Paul Maurice is now a genius. The Florida Panthers are a great story. The Boston Bruins are a team in shambles, like just an absolute, you know, absolutely lost franchise. And one breakaway changes all the narratives around it completely.

It's really wild. Yeah, it's crazy. And as we have this conversation, the teams that are leading the second round right now, it's Seattle and Vegas in the West, Carolina and Florida in the east. And I'm wondering, like, obviously you think of those four teams, you think, boy, those are like very, like historically speaking,

not huge markets, whatever. But is that the final four that, and I know you're a lease fan, but just suspend that notion for a second? Is that what we should be hoping for? Or do we have to pull for, we need McDavid Drysidal into the next round? We need a historic franchise

like the Maple Leafs into the next round. Like, if you can suspend that for a second. Everybody's got their own view on things. I really feel like, I think we do have to get out of this mindset that everything, as far as what's best for the league, revolves around the United States. You know, clearly there was a time, especially early on in the Gary Bedman reign, where the league really had to establish a footprint down there, really had to be taken seriously. I mean, they had been, you know, absolute resign to the back pages of the sports page, if they may, if they were there at all, and had to rebuild some credibility. and that's been done with some success.

But I really feel like, you know, we got to remember, yeah, I know people are looking at this going, oh, ESPN doesn't want the Leafs, T&T doesn't want the Oilers, you know, all this stuff. And that's probably true. They want, I'm sure, U.S. markets, those deals are done. What's the next big TV deal for the NHL? It's the Canadian deal being up in a few years. And that's the one that's going to come in. potentially at a crazy high number.

So this idea that it's better for the league to have all these new, you know, new-ish markets having success, I don't know that that's necessarily the case. I mean, obviously, yeah, look, having Seattle get a taste of playoff action, playoff wins, all the, you know, the excitement of winning a game seven, that's going to be great for the long term of that. That's an investment there. But, you know, I don't know. I think there are different, different versions of this that could play.

out in different ways. The Leafs are a monster market. I know people are sick of hearing about it, but they are. The ratings will be through the roof. The revenue will be through the roof if they go on a deep run. There will be some appeal if it's for brand new markets like that too. Just, you know, different ways to go. And look, it'd be nice to see the Panthers do something because for 25 years,

any time anybody made any comment whatsoever about attendance or anything like that in Florida, We were always reprimanded. Now, you can't say that because they've had, they've never had a winner. And until a team has had a winner, you can't really judge. Okay, well, I mean, let's see then. Let's see what that winner looks like. And we'll see if it reflects and, you know, results in something. And, I mean, Vegas is always fun, but Connemadavitt is fun.

So I don't think there's a bad result at that series necessarily. We'll just see where it goes. It will be very funny, though, if we do get those 14. teams that are leading because I got I got news for my friends the Florida Panther fans you will have to take the torch as the grumpy old timers in that final four you'll have to be the traditionalist you'll have to be like hey look those of us from the original 24 know that back in those days we didn't do it this way you're just going on and on and looking down your nose at everybody that'll

that'll be your role and it's an important one so be ready roll in with your Roberts Phala jersey. Be like, I'm legit. Old time. You guys, you kids today. You don't know what it was like back then. Yeah. All right, Sean, time for us to bring in our pal,

Jesse Granger in a segment we like to call Granger Things. Brought to you by BetMGM, the exclusive betting partner with the athletic, and he is up bright and early. I don't know, not even 12 hours. Like, what, nine hours after you probably got home, ate out, whatever? About five. Five hours. Maybe six.

Six hours. Okay. So you're, you got the deep podcasting voice ready to go. Let me ask you guys this question. So we have back-to-back nights. Joe Pavelsky gets four, they lose. Leon Dreisle gets four, they lose. When you go into the law, Jesse, you would know this from being a goalie. I'm sure when you go into the locker room after you, maybe you've made 59 saves and your team loses one to nothing, the guys probably come up to you and be like, hey, sorry, man, we should have had you. Whatever, man. Is that happened with the guy that scores four goals? Does he go in the locker room to? Does the players be like, oh, man, sorry, we wasted your effort? Like, dry side Olymposky. I don't know. That's a good question. I will say that that's the worst when everyone comes up to you and it's like, but you were great. You're like pissed off because you lost and everyone said.

Yeah, yeah, but it wasn't your fault. Because it's like, in your mind, you're like, well, I should have scored that fifth goal or I should have made, I know I stopped 41 of them, but if I would have stopped 42, we win the game, like type of thing. That is the absolute worst. That's what the players always say, man. You always see them afterwards going like, you know, hey, man, you scored four goals. And it's like, yeah, you know, it doesn't matter.

Team didn't win. We didn't win. Doesn't matter. I would have, I would rather have been held off the score sheet. And as soon as those media's gone, there's got to be a little part of me. It's like, man, that was really cool, though. I got four goals tonight. That's good for me.

Like, come on. You're telling me you're not a little bit excited about that. Maybe. I don't know. It's, it's especially a game this big. Like, I think. I don't think Drysadle was very happy after that game.

I'll just say that. I wasn't in the Oilers room last night. I was in, but like Jay Woodcroft after the game, not a happy camper whatsoever. It was, he was very disappointed in his team's effort. Yeah,

it's tough not to get some, like, and I love watching Drysaddle and McDavid, it's tough not to get the Mike Trout Shohei Otani vibes where you're like, how can this team with these two greatest players

in the game in the sport not have success, but it's only one game. And so we should probably pump the brakes. But I love the angle here too that we're seeing McDavid and Eichel head to head. And there were the one and two pick overall. Actually, Sean, you might know this.

Like in history, is there like a memorable playoff matchup between a one and two? Like a guy taking first overall, second overall, same year. They meet in the playoffs later. It's like epic. It's like, I can't think of one.

There hasn't been. I mean, generally considered the greatest one to ever would be Lafleur and Marcel Dion. Marcel. Sorry. How do you refer to Marcel Dion on this podcast? That's right. Yeah, he's got his new nickname. He's not the Little Beaver anymore, man.

Sorry, Marcel. You're locked in. He's MFer, Marshall Dion. He never, they never faced each other in the playoffs, I don't believe. I mean, I'm a little bit disappointed that you're already moving past the John Tavares, Victor Headman, you know, the series and sequel that we just got. The big one, obviously, is Ovechkin and Malkin, right? The going one-two in 2004, Washington and Pittsburgh did have some legitimately, you know,

great rivalries and great head-to-heads. But that didn't feel this way because with Sidney Crosby there, right? Like, that was the Crosby versus Ovechkin series. is kind of how we viewed it. We all remember the dueling hat tricks and all of that. So I don't think there's ever been one that, where not only were these the two, the one and the two, but they were, I mean, I guess, you know, the two,

I don't know if I want to say face of the franchise or, you know, best players on the team. You could make that argument in Vegas. You could make the argument that Jack Eichael hasn't been that risen to that level quite yet, but maybe this is his opportunity to. I would argue that this is the Mark Stone versus Leon Drey. sidal series. Could be.

Could be. Yeah. But it is fun to see Eichel and McDavid out there. Daniel Newt-Bohman and I wrote a story way back in November saying now that they're in the same, like before they played in the regular season, we were like, all right, they're in the same division. Both these teams look very good. They both look, they both have their cores for a while.

This could be a legitimate rivalry. They'd have to play a few times in the playoffs. Obviously, we're only one game into that. but if they were to meet a couple times over the next few years, I could definitely see the, and like a lot of people like to push it aside and say, how can it be a rivalry? Connor McDavid scores twice as many points every season as Jack Eichael.

And that's very true. Like in terms of one versus one, they are not a rivalry. Jack Eichael is not on Connor McDavid's level. Nobody is. But at the same time, Connor McDavid would trade a lot of those points for a Stanley Cup. And if Jack Eichael gets a seven,

Stanley Cup before he does, he's not going to be very happy about it. So while individually, I think it is, I see why people say it's ridiculous to call it a rivalry. I do. That's a fair point. But I also think these two guys were both incredibly talented. They were both drafted to teams that hadn't, that haven't been able to put enough talent around them to win Stanley Cups. And the first one to win a Stanley Cup is that's, that means a lot. You said that this was a stone versus Drysidal series. Is Mark Stone's back going to hold up, Jesse, for this? Like, he took a beating yesterday.

Darnel nursed a couple of times with the two-handed of the lower back. We all saw the video of him leaving practice looking a little bit uncomfortable. Is this going to hold up? Yeah. So I always caution people because if I had a dollar for every time someone tweeted me, man, Mark Stone looks awkward there. Is he all right? Then I would just be able to retire from this job and just be rich.

which Mark Stone is an awkward looking person who moves in awkward ways and he has his whole life. He's just an awkward guy. Like he is a stiff. I mean, if you watch him skate, even when he's fully healthy, he is very lumbering and robotic looking. And like honestly, like you watched him up in Ottawa. That's probably the biggest reason he was a sixth round draft pick despite being brilliant. Because every scout watched that guy for five minutes and was like, yeah, he's great. He's killing it out here, but there's no way that that skating's going to work in the NHL.

But he's just so brilliant everywhere else. He's made it work. So I will, I agree he did look, that video didn't look great. But I will say, I see Mark Stone walking around the facility all the time, like after a practice. He kind of just walks that way. Yeah. So I don't know how injured he was. Obviously, it was bothering him a bit because he left practice early.

They were running power play drills. He usually doesn't leave until the power play drills are over. So it was bothering him. I'm always on the side of let's not read too much into Mark Stone's body language. Against Winnipeg, they did the exact same thing. They were cross-checking him in the back because that's what he does. He goes to the front of the net. And when a guy goes to the front of the net, that gives you basically free rein to cross-check him in the back as much as you want.

They're never going to call that. So if you know this is their best player, he's got a back that's had two surgeries in the last calendar year. And he's going to park himself in front of the net on every shift. We're going to cross-check him in the back. That's what Winnipeg did. It's what Edmonton did. If you watch Stone, he isn't shying away from those areas. I think if the back was bothering him, we might see him. We might see him and Bruce Cassidy say, look, let's put him somewhere else. Let's put him over on the left circle. Let's change something we're doing here so that he'll stop taking those cross-check. The fact that until the very end of that game, he would go straight to those areas and take him and not really retaliate when they cross-checked him in the back.

I think he's fine right now. Against Winnipeg, he literally said, if they're focused on my back, they're not focused on guarding us, so I welcome it. Bring it on. We'll see how he feels after maybe another series of that. But to be honest with you, as much confidence as I can have without knowing the details of Mark Stone's back, I'm pretty confident that he's going to be all right. I want to ask you a little bit about goaltending, not just in that series, but league-wide. Because I think one of the fun things here, Jesse, is of the eight teams that are left, you can make an argument. There's legit questions in Carolina, New Jersey, Florida. Edmonton, Seattle.

It almost feels like every team. Every team has a question mark in goal except for Dallas. I feel like Dallas, Ottinger, he's on a different level. The other seven teams, I feel like there's questions. Of those teams that have questions, which is the team that you think, yeah, actually, we should legitimately be questioning you the most about your, like, which of the eight remaining teams in your estimation has the shakiest goal pending? because I think there's an argument to be made for several teams.

Yeah, I mean, you're right that it's all over the place. The team that I'll start off by saying the team that was the shakiest, but now I feel great about all of a sudden is the Florida Panthers. I mean, Sergey Bobrovsky, it's been a long time since we've seen him on this level, but man, has he looked good. Sean had just dropped. It did. He did.

He looks phenomenal. I would, I mean, it's, let's see, I'll say this. Jeff Skinner, I mean, sorry, Stuart Skinner. I don't know why I want to call him Jeff Skinner. Stuart Skinner, the first 15 minutes of that game last night, I've never seen a goalie look more uncomfortable in a net than he didn't. Like, he gave up three in the first period to Vegas. I thought he could have given up six or seven. Like, he was very shaky in that. And I was looking around like, man, if he can't make a save, the Golden Knights is going to win this series. Like, that might be their only chance, like the way the Edmonton scores. But he settled in as

the game went on. So that definitely, like, he, he definitely looked better as the game went on. He got more comfortable. He made some big saves in the second period to keep them in it. I think the hurricanes might be the worst goaltending situation, but their defense is so good, it doesn't matter. Like that, they put, and like Vegas kind of in the same situation. Like, I don't think Laurent Reisois is a quote unquote, Stanley Cup winning level goalie. I think he's a very, very good backup goalie who who is proving that now that he's healthy, he can be a legitimate starter. But he's definitely not a goalie that you think that's the level of goalie we need to win a Stanley Cup. But when you have a great defense in front of him, the way Vegas has, and the way Carolina played yesterday, I didn't watch every second of it because I was getting to the arena.

But every minute that I watched, it was a defensive clinic. I mean, New Jersey is so dangerous. I expected them to run and gun with the hurricanes. And they just, that didn't happen at all. They couldn't find any space. So I would say probably Carolina's goalie situation, just in terms of the actual goalies themselves, concerns me the most. But it might not matter if they don't give up dangerous chances. Ranta and Anderson are plenty good enough to stop the easy ones.

And is there, do we have reason to be worried about the Akira Schmidt story at this point after that first game? Like, was there anything there that made you think, oh, Carolina saw something? Carolina's figured something out or is it just like, hey, I mean, it's goalies are going to goleys. Sometimes you're good. sometimes you're not. Right. I think it was bound to happen eventually. Just sometimes you have those games where the puck doesn't hit you. For me, that's most games. That's classic. Classic goalie right there. The puck just didn't hit me, you know. Yeah. Let me, I got one other question to that. I just got to ask you because you were talking about

Brovowski. There was very briefly Tuesday morning in Toronto a, you know, kind of a flutter of headlines or, you know, maybe not headlines, tweets, speculation, whatever, because Alex Lyon left the ice first. which would typically indicate that he was going to be the starter, and then it turned out he wasn't him. It would have been very strange because Barovsky is playing well. Barovsky ends up playing. What's the deal with this leaving first? Why does that tell us anything?

Who cares? What's, you know, all of this stuff we read into practice? What's the starters net? What's all this weird, these things that we have to like try to decipher because coaches won't just tell us who the goal he is? Right. So in terms of like starters net, Some teams have them.

Some teams don't. Vegas doesn't have a starter's net. They never have. Their goalies have their nets that they practice in. Like when it was Flurrie in Suban, Flurie and Lennar, Lenner, and they, once the goalie has his side of the rink that he practices on, that's his net and he practices there no matter what, regardless of who's starting. So I know some teams do have a starter's crease.

In terms of first goalie off, it's basically just like the logistics of it. Most teams skate their scratches longer. Like the guys that aren't going to play tonight will stay out longer and get extra shots in and just get extra skills work. And the goalie who's not playing will stay out with them because they could use some extra skills work. Maybe they get a couple extra drills in with the goalie coach. And they're not worried about burning their legs out ahead of a game tonight. Whereas the starter, you go out there and like you're basically told, get what you need. We don't like don't do any drill you don't think you need to prepare your body for tonight.

Go out there, get exactly what you need, and then get the hell off. because there's no reason to burn your legs out ahead of a game. What I think happened, and I was reading that it was just part of Bobrovsky's, his routine that he stayed out longer. I wonder if Bobrovsky was starting these playoffs as the backup, right? Like Lions was starting the games. And maybe Babrovsky in that, like, staying out a little bit longer, maybe he realized like, you know what, I feel better after facing a few more

shots. Then he comes in, is playing the best hockey he's played in a couple years, I would say. It's been a long time since we've seen this level of from Bobovsky. So maybe he said, you know what, even though I'm starting now, I'm going to keep that same routine that I was keeping that made me feel good. I'm going to stay out a little longer. Lions can take off, go to the locker room. I'll stay out with the guys and get some work. And that's what makes me feel the best going into tonight. And then it threw everyone off. Or maybe it was gamesmanship. Who knows. Maybe they were trying to throw the Leafs off and think they were changing goalies. Could be either one, but I would lean towards

Babarovsky is doing what he feels is best for his body. You coleys are so weird. Paul Maurice with gamesmanship, that doesn't seem plausible at all. All right. Hey, listen, Jesse, thanks for dropping by. No early wake-up call, short turnaround for you, all that stuff. Appreciate you dropping by, as always. And listen, enjoy the weekend.

Should be a lot of fun covering that Vegas advocate. We'll do. If they're like that game one, I'll take you. seven. I can't wait, I guess. All right. Great stuff with Jesse. And by the way, too, I should add, when you're asking about the starters end with the goalie, I think this is interesting because for people who don't go to practices and aren't watching that type of thing unfold, when people say that, you know, Mark Andre Fleury's in the starter's end or, you know, whatever, pick your goal, Jeremy

Swamon's in the starter's end, it's because they go to the end of the ice. that they'll start the game that evening. So if you're at home, it's the home side on the road, the road side. It's the side of the ice that you'll play two periods in. Because that way you're going to play 40 of the 60 minutes in that end. And, you know, maybe just, especially on the road, you want to get used to, there's lighting issues. Things are a little bit different. You know, you've only been playing goalie 25 years of your life.

You know, you've only put in literally thousands of hours in the net. You know, you got to get that extra 15 minutes in that, that, that, that, that, that, at one side. So you can be like, oh, yeah, look, the puck comes from that end. Cool. Gole. No, but honestly, I think it's a lighting thing as much as anything. It's really like just, yeah, it's weird.

Like, okay. Goleys are, well, as you know, goleys are weird. They just like to visualize exactly where they're going to be. Anyway, that's why. I'm still telling you, man. This is, we need to do the thing where we need to do the thing where we give all the fans, shirts that are white on one side and black on the other, and you have them flip them around so that the other team's goalie is always

looking into the black shirts, won't be able to find the puck. I'm telling you, man, that's, that's, you want home ice advantage back in the NHL. That's what we need. This is your million dollars. You've had this idea for a long time. And yet nobody seemingly is, it's like when people go crazy, right, with the free throws, but I, I don't know.

I feel like the league would, would end this. pretty quickly. But it's a good idea. If I only had like a superstar celebrity that could help me get this out there, I'd be all good. Where's Maya Rudolph when we, all right. So here we go.

Let's open up the mailbag. A reminder you can get us at the athletic hockey show. At gmail.com, we also love to hear your voice. A voicemails at 845-4-45-845-85-85-8459. So, Jason has a question. Does Sean have a comment or a statement about those two fans that go to Toronto Maple Leafs games at home at the Scosh Bank Arena and wear the jerseys of

the other team and root for the opponent. Are they mortal enemies to you, Sean, or under these, even under these circumstances, you got to tip your cap to them. That comes in from Jason. Yeah, I mean, I'm somewhere in the middle. This is one of those things where it just, it feels like in hockey, something like this happens, we have to either think it's the greatest thing ever. Oh, it's so funny. Can you believe it? What a great job. Or you have to be mad about it. You got to be like, oh, you know, you can't do that. It's, it's, I think it's, hey, you pay your money, sit in the stands, you can, you can do it however you want.

It's, you know, there was kind of, we sort of got the heartwarming story a couple days ago about, you know, it's a father and daughter and they're bonding and all that. And then, you know, some other people dug up some stuff that, you know, maybe this isn't quite the feel good story that, uh, you might think. but at the end of the day, hey, you're good to, you're good to express yourself however you want, go to the games, whatever. It's kind of a neat, neat little story. It's fun that people picked up on it. The only thing I will say, though, is all you fans out there that every time I make a reference to like these anti-leaf fan, like weirdos who are just like, that's their whole personality

and people always tell me to, well, that doesn't really exist. You're making that up. just look at this. This is what I'm talking about. We're not making it up. These people are out there. And since they are, they can have fun with it, express it however they want. But they're there.

We're not making things up here. Okay. Dan writes in. Had to write into you guys after last week's episode of the pod. You discussed the idea, the hypothetical scenario. Would you rather have your favorite team be good for 30 years in a row but never win the Stanley Cup? or win the Stanley Cup once in 30 years but missed the playoffs 29 other times. For me, says Dan, my answer's changed as I've gotten older. When I was in my teens and 20s, I would have said, give me the championship.

That's all that matters. After all, what's the point of rooting for a team if you can't win a championship? But I'm 35 now. And I think my thinking around this topic has changed dramatically. At the end of the day, I'm watching a team. It's all about entertainment. And even in the last three years when my flyers have been clearly pathetic, if I was to go through a stretch year after year where my team has no hope or getting better, it's grueling, it's crushing. So I would much rather watch the puck drop on opening night believing that this could be our year.

You know, why would I want to watch a sport where 29 years out of 30 it brings me no joy by the middle of February? Give me the excitement, the hope of October, the thrill of the belief in April. yes, the devastation of the loss in the playoffs. I'll take that over apathy. No questions asked. Thank you. You guys are fantastic. That is from Dan the Flyers fan. I like it. It's, I mean, that's, that's a solid way to look at it. And I can't, I can't really argue that's, uh, you have to find, I've, I beat this drum so much lately, but you have to find the fun in this league beyond just, oh, we won the Stanley Cup. Because 97% of the fans out there, are not going to see a Stanley Cup every year.

And if that's the only time you're allowed to be happy, it's going to be a pretty miserable experience. Gabe writes to us and says, we were talking about last week, Peter Kleeam is scoring in triple overtime. He wants to point out, just want to let you know that the Boston Garden lost power again in that series, game one.

Just so you know, the power went out there again. And I guess he's even got, he sent us the link of the VHA. VHS copy of game one that he has uploaded it. There was a power outage in 1990 and 1988. I've, and I completely forgot all about that. And that's, and the reason I forgot about it is because unlike in 88, it didn't cause the game to be postponed.

We didn't get the, the very rare Stanley Cup final tie. But yeah, that did happen. And that was the, the Peter Clema game, which, you know, Peter Clema, we lost Peter Kalima just this morning. So kind of comes full circle to mention him again, that memorable goal laid into the night. And as, as is pointed out, even a little bit later than it probably should have been. Bruno writes in, here's a challenge for Sean, maybe an impossible one. Can you find the best player that played for the team that he had the same initials as the team, i.e., Montreal Canadians, Mike Camilleri, MC, Montreal Canadiens, Mike Kamilari, M.C., Montreal Canadiens, Mike

Camillard. Have you not done this? I feel like, have you done this story? I had the same reaction. I'm sitting there going, this feels familiar. This does feel like something, but I'm not completely sure. I feel like I did a variation of this where maybe I did a roster of all guys who had initials that matched with an NHL team, but not necessarily a team that they had played

on. So I don't know, man. That would be, that would be a tough one. I'm trying to think of any obvious ones that jump out. And then, of course, you get into the tricky stuff where you get, you know, what do you do with the Tampa Bay Lightning? What do you do with, you know, there's a lot of. Toronto Maple Leafs. There are three initial teams out there, the Maple Leafs being one.

See, I picked a team other than the Leafs, so I wouldn't seem like I was just the complete, complete home. Vegas, Vegas Golden Knights. Are there, I don't know. Are there any of the jump out as being like, you know, very obvious like, oh, yeah, this is. Oh, this is the one that, uh, that would be the best. I don't know off the top of my head. I got one. Okay. I got one. Okay. I'm going to see if you can guess it. Okay. Ottawa senators. Ottawa senators. Is that, uh, Oleg freaking Suprikin? Is that the guy you're going with? Yes, exactly. Oleg subrequin. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, just the symbol of how many trade deadlines.

Yeah. Uh, yeah. That's, you know, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, I mean, there's some that, you know, if we could get, find a way to get like Brent Burns traded to the Bruins. That would be a good one. You need to, Connor Hallibuck could go to the hurricanes. That, well, that could actually happen this year. So, you know, we might be on one there. Boy, I'm just trying to think if there, you would think that there would be some out there that would just jump out at you. But I don't, I don't have any.

This one has to go out to, to the listeners, obviously, right? I mean, we, we got to, we got to hear from them. Because I'm sure there are some. I'm sure people are yelling at us right now that, uh, you know, we're yelling. Peter Popovich. Yeah, exactly. Popovich. There's, there's, yeah, I don't.

You morons, you great. Yeah. But yeah, other than that, I don't know. Sammy Bealus with the blues for a little while there. That's, uh, back and forth. You could, you could do that one. But, uh, as far as like legitimate star. I don't know, man.

I'm going to... You know what? You're going to hear the distraction in our voice for the rest of the show as we're just like secretly combing through trying to figure this one out. We're like, yeah. Oh my God. That's a great... Yeah.

Even just trying to find a Hall of Famer that has the same initials as a team is such a chat. Like, just think of the best players in the game. Wayne Gradsky. No. Mark Messier. No. Connor McAfid. No.

Sid Cross. Rosby? No. Eric Lindrosse, no. Like, yep. No, it's, it's, it's, it's a tough one. And then you look at like, you know, it doesn't matter. Like Ted Lindsay didn't play for the Toronto, I guess Toronto Leafs, Toronto Maple Leafs. You did, you never had, you know, a hovelick. It doesn't, doesn't work. It's a tough one. It's a tough one, but I guarantee they're out there. So somebody. Is Mike Camilleri, Montreal Canadiens? Maybe that is all of that. We're going to come back. all, yeah, then that could be the absolute best possible one. Well, that's, okay, you know what?

Thanks for this. I didn't want to get any work done this week anyway, so I guess I guess I'll just be doing this instead. Oh, man. Okay, one more email here from Richard who says, Cheryl Sador. Daryl Sador played for the star. Yeah, yes he did. There we go.

He's no Daryl Sittler, but we'll give him that. Oh, there you go. See? Okay. This one from Richard, an email. Sean, I got a question for you about the supposed lack of fandom that sports writers claim. As an unapologetic Leafs fan and a brilliant sports writer, I'd like your opinion on this. Do you actually buy this?

And if so, do you think it's serving a legitimate purpose? Frankly, I don't. I think you can read the frustration and heartache in so many writers when they cover a struggling team. Likewise, the joy and ecstasy bleeds when they write or speak about a team's success. They can sometimes be found using we and us when they discuss. discussing the teams they cover. I don't understand what pretending to be not emotionally invested in these teams serves.

What's the purpose? Your fandom enriches your writing immensely. Other writers' best work is usually their most passionate stuff where they veil their fandom, where their fandom is veiled thinly. I get it that no reporter or writer wants to be classified as bias Homer, but I think there's a huge difference between that and openly wanting the success of, you know, your team. Thanks, love the show. Go Wild. That comes in from Richard. It's an interesting question. I mean, I am very open about the fact that I am a fan. I remain a

fan. People know that when they come to my work and they can decide whether they think that's a positive influence or negative or whether I work around it or what. But at least my cards are on the table. So in that sense, I'm okay with it from that perspective. But I'm not a journalist. I'm not breaking stories. I'm not making judgment about what's news and what's not. What I'm going to dig into, what I'm going to

chase, what I'm not. None of those things are in play for the sort of writing that I do. So it is different for me than it would be for your typical beat writer or, you know, and anyone who's covering the league in a much more hands-on way than I am. I will say this. I think that I do think that having that fans' perspective does help in a lot of things. It probably gets in the way in others.

Unlike our listener here, I do believe when a beatwriter says, hey, I'm not a fan anymore. Like, I do believe that. And you got to remember, a lot of beat writers have moved to take jobs or to take opportunities. So even if they were fans growing up, it's not necessarily of the team that they cover. In fact, a lot of the writers we have here at the Athletic have talked about how they grew up as a fan of one team and then life takes you somewhere else and you end up covering that team, you being one of them. I'll say this. I do think that there are times where you do

see some of that, maybe some of that subjective. Maybe some of that subjective. bleed into some coverage out there. Not always, but, but you, you do see it sometimes. That's not necessarily fandom speaking. It's, in a lot of these cases, if you're beat writer, you're around this team a lot. You know these guys. You know the coach. You know the GM. You know, you, you are, you know, you may or may not personally like them. It's just human nature that you're going to want good things for them. And it's also human nature that you're going to want good things for your team, because I know some people say, oh, the media, you guys love negative stories. Everybody loves to cover a champion. That's the best run you can have. You're going to get more readers. You're

going to get more attention. You want your team to do well. So I think sometimes when you see, you know, as a controversial call happens or a controversial hit and the beat writers jump in and they always seem to be on the side of, you know, the team to cover. That might just be because, you know, they see the coach being mad and they know that coach and he's a reasonable guy and uh you know they just sort of lean lean that way maybe it's just human nature and also they also have a readership and while the readers might say we don't want homers is you yourself know well you say one little critical thing about the team and they jump all over you so yeah i don't think it's fandom i don't think it's a big problem i think it's just a little bit of human nature bleeds in and we can

just sort of allow for that uh because at the end of the day everybody's doing doing the best job they can. Everybody wants to do the job right. But we're human beings too. And we're not, we're not machines here. And so I think we can allow a little bit of that and just understand where it comes from. Yeah. You know what? That's a good way of putting it. And I am in that boat. Like you said, I am one of these writers and reporters that covers a team on a beat. And it's a tight rope. And here's where I come down on it. I think it's okay to be like I think here's the problem that a lot of reporters have is that they feel like in order to be objective, you have to suspend your passion. And I think that's the mistake, right? I think you can be

objective and passionate. And I know that it seems counterintuitive, but I think you can. I think, I think you can, and I think it's my job is to try and capture the spirit of this from an Ottawa fan's perspective, right? Like, that's really what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to explain things to you for you and I need to look at it through your lenses collectively as an Ottawa fan. And so I think you can do that. And I agree with you 100%. Like I want to see the team that I cover win the Stanley Cup because quite frankly, that's going to be great for me. Like selfishly, like, why wouldn't I want to be on a magic carpet ride that takes the city that I live in on this great trip to the Stanley Cup and they win it? And I get like, why, like, wouldn't that be what we all

want like and it's okay to want that and I think you're right like I think as long as you don't go there's a line that you cross that you don't want to be viewed as a ridiculous homer but there's the other side is you don't also want to just be super bland and robotic and right stuff that is just so objective that it sucks the fun out of everything right like there's there's a happy media but if you can exist in that place I think most fans will appreciate your coverage right you would hope so yeah you you would think you would hope so, but you never know. All right. Let's wrap it up a little this week in a hockey history. We actually, Sean, I think it's the first time ever. We got a request for this week in hockey

history. I like it. From Tom and Chicago. I think the first time we've ever had a this week in hockey history request, according to our producer Danielle, which I 100% believe that this is the case. Tom in Chicago says, I would love to get a little bit more in-depth history backstory on this week in 1994 when the San Jose Sharks did the unthinkable as the number eight seed knocked out the Detroit Red Wings. Amazing David versus Goliath story. One of my favorite hockey memories from high school. Thank you for your consideration. That's from Tom and Chicago.

Like as if we had to debate, I don't know if we should take Tom and Chicago. We got so many other options, Tom. No. So, 94. Yeah. A great upset. And, you know, it's interesting in these days. now that we're talking about, we've just seen what the Panthers did, what the Cracken did,

and a lot of people are trying to put those upsets in historical context. And I've kind of made the case that we almost have to say pre-cap and post-cap when we're talking about upsets because in a 32-team league versus back in the days when it was 21 or 22 or whatever, it's almost a different scenario. But the context here is the Red Wings and the Sharks, the Red Wings were heavy, heavy favorites. And when you look at the records, there was a big gap, but it's not enormous, but you got to remember the context here. This is the third season, the sharks have been in the league. The first two seasons, they have been quite literally historically bad.

Two of the worst seasons that any team has ever had. Just an absolute nightmare mess of a team, embarrassingly bad. And that's embarrassing, even in the context of early 90s expansion teams, just an awful team. Then they get to year three and they make the progress. They don't finish 500, but you didn't need to back then to make the playoffs. And they get in, and if there was ever a just happy to be their team, that should have been it. I mean, it was a miracle that the San Jose Sharks had made the playoffs. And now they're going up against this Red Wings team that has for years been building up a Stanley Cup contender.

they lost the year before to the Maple Leafs in round one and that was, you know, that was an upset two, but everyone's going, okay, this is now, now it's lift off for the Red Wings and, and it doesn't happen. The sharks go out and they win game one. Okay, you know, we upsets happen. Wings come back at a shutout winning in game two. And then this was during that kind of weird time in history where when an Eastern team and a Western team met in the playoffs, instead of 2211, it was 232 to reduce the travel. So, they then go to San Jose for three games. They're tied 1-1.

So it's a dangerous situation for the wings because you can, in theory, you could be, you could have home ice in a series and you could lose in a series where the other team got more home games than you. Very strange for today's way of thinking. But that's how it was done back then. Detroit wins game one in San Jose and everybody goes, okay, there we go. Now, now we know what's, you know, Detroit's going to roll. It probably won't even have to come home.

But the Sharks win game, game four. sharks win game five and now it's panic time now the sharks are up three two in the series and they're heading back to detroit and everybody is looking at this going man are the are the red wings going to collapse again are they are they going to fall apart is this happening all over again and the red wings go out in game six and they just kick the doors off the san jose sharks they win that game seven to one and again everybody goes ah okay here we go we're we're we're were right back to it. But you got to remember that same thing

had pretty much happened the year before against the Leafs. The Red Wings have been down 3-2 and then they had won game six, you know, 7 to 2 or something like that. And then they come home and lost. Same thing plays out in that famous game where the sharks jump out to a 2-0 lead.

Detroit comes back, ties it pretty quickly, early in the second, and then the sharks are just hanging around and hanging around. until in the third period Chris Osgood makes the terrible giveaway, just shoots the puck up the

up the boards, gets picked off by Jamie Baker and he shoots it into the open net. A play that a lot of people, including me, remember as being like a last minute thing. There was lots of time left, right?

There was like 10 minutes left. And it's sort of like the Steve Smith goal is the other one that everyone remembers is like the final minute. But just a shocking moment. I remember watching that game and just being like, I can't believe what I'm

seeing here. And sure enough, that holds up. And, uh, and does the red wings get sent packing, an enormous upset. The sharks go on to play the Leafs in the next round and almost do it again. They, they, they came within a crossbar of winning that series, too. Garpenloff? Garpenloff. Garpenloff in overtime game six. So, uh, I mean, just a, a fantastic run and probably the one that hooked an awful lot of sharks fans on, on hockey. And yeah, the Archer's Erbe series. But one of those ones where it's, it's funny because it's 94, right? You look back, Archer's Irbe, stands on his head, steals a series.

Well, he had an 876 save percent. That would get you bench these days. Chris Osgood actually had the better save percentage, but Chris Osgood only started five of the games. Bob Essenza came in and started a couple. And the other thing that was interesting about this series, just as I'm looking back on it now, seven-game series, 1994. remember zero fights in the entire series.

And remember, this was the Red Wing, this was the Bob Probert Red Wings. So I almost wonder if that was part of it for the sharks to say like, hey, let's, let's not get trapped into that old Norris division style. Let's see what we can do skill-wise. And Igor Larry Onov was on that team. Sergei Makarov was on that team. And so, you know, some of that skill, we all remember Detroit as being the team that, you know, brought over the European players, but San Jose had a little bit of that. And that was really the series that created this reputation, that those 90s Red Wings,

it sounds crazy to say it now. That was a team in crisis. They couldn't win the big one. That was the team that was not built to win. And there were people, you can't win with Steve Eisenman. Yeah, he'll put up the big numbers in the season, but he doesn't get it done when it counts. They go to the final the following year, but they lose. they get swept by the devils.

And it takes a couple more years before they finally get over the hump. But yeah, this one, it felt like a monumental upset because we just could not believe that the San Jose Sharks, this punchline joke of a team, was going toe to toe with the Detroit Red Wings. Man, you know what's funny is that, so Jamie Baker, who scored that Game 7 late goal, a hero in San Jose. He lives in Ottawa now. Great guy. In fact, I was just, I was out with him last week with a bunch of people having a beer watching some, some playoff hot.

What a great guy. What a great storyteller. And he just has great stories. And I'm going to make you feel, everyone's going to feel really old. Oh, no. Because I was trying to tell Jamie, I'm like, look, I got to get you out. Jamie Baker is interested in playing pickleball. That's going to show you how old we all are.

Jamie Baker, I told him I'm going to play some pickleball with him. Okay. Well, hey, there you go. Don't get out of position, man, because that guy, he knows how to take advantage. Sneaky, yeah. Sneaky Jamie Baker. Yeah, but a great, great guy with, with, like, unbelievable ability to tell stories. So he, yeah, he'd be a fun guy to play some pickleball with.

All right. That does it for the Thursday. I got a Hall of Famer for you. Oh, wait. He played for the team. I knew you were distracted the whole time. He was drafted by the team, and he did play for the team. it's a little dicey Peter Forsberg, the Philadelphia Flyers.

Oh, yeah. All right, we can take that one. He played for them, but he wasn't Peter Forsberg when he played for the Flyers, but he did play for him. So I feel like we can access that one, right? That tops Mike Camilleri. He's a Hall of Famer. There it is.

So we got one. We got one for you. Oh, man. Okay. There's probably some better ones, though. So let's hit us up on the email. I don't think we're top of Peter Forzberg. Yeah, hit us up with the, uh,

The email. Thanks everybody for listening to the show. Yeah, that email is The Athletic Hockey Show. At gmail.com, you can also leave us a voicemail at 845-4-45-8449. And if you're not a subscriber with us, you get a one-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month for 12 months when you visit the athletic.com slash hockey show.