The Athletic Hockey Show - Stanley Cup Playoffs: night one features overtime, upsets, and a controversial hit, and John Wroblewski celebrates Team USA's win at Women's Worlds

Episode Date: April 18, 2023

Craig and Sean look back on the first night of the Stanley Cup playoffs, with the shorthanded Boston Bruins beating Florida, Carolina outlasting the Islanders, the Wild beating the Stars in double overtime on the heels of a controversial hit by Matt Dumba on Joe Pavelski and the Kings coming back and upsetting the Oilers in game one in overtime.John Wroblewski, the head coach of Team USA, joins Craig and Sean after USA beat Canada in the gold medal game of the World Championships on Sunday night. Coach Wrobo praises the play of Captain Hilary Knight, Carolina Harvey and Abbey Murphy, his future in the women's program and he dishes on some of the many current young American stars he has coached, who are currently in the NHL.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/hockeyshowUpgrade your closet with Rhone and use code NHLSHOW to save 20% at https://www.rhone.com/nhlshowLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at http://linkedin.com/nhlshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Hey, everybody. It's Craig Custance, your host of the Tuesday Athletic, or co-host, I would say, I don't, part-time host of the Tuesday Athletic, the Athletic Hockey Show, Tuesday edition, the American edition, really the only one you need to listen to. It's true. It is true. Facts, those are facts.

I'm joined by Sean Gentilly today, who is, um, This is as crabby as I've seen, Sean. I don't know if it's a lack of sleep because the playoff went over time. Or there's a lot of arguing over hits already two seconds into the playoffs. I don't know. I'm not in that bad of a mood. You're just doing that. You're doing that to team me up.

A little bit. First, before we get to Sean and his craviness, John Roblesky joins us in the second segment. He, of course, won the gold medal. I mean, the women won the gold medal. John coached them to victory over the Canadians, as it should be in the world, in the world championships and the world. In the world. And the world. John joins us and is always as great.

An unbelievable show of force by the United States of America as it should be in hockey. Yeah. Global politics, really. That's right. That's right. So that's a great conversation. And it's fitting because when John joined us on Zoom, Sean was railing and dropping F bombs and just...

It's just one? And he walked, it was not, it was multiple. And that's how poor Robo got greeted. Because Sean's mad about the fact that we're the best time of the years here, Sean, if you want to sing it all, it's the most wonderful time of the year. And we've already got multiple columns on the site about the Joe Pavalsky hit. we're not talking about the fact that the oilers everybody's by the way I wasn't we'll get to that a second but the oilers blew a lead the kings like it's just great love it action and we're talking

about a hit we're I don't know Sean we won't talk about a hit too long because we're better than that we're going to talk about people talking about the hit that's always the work around if something happens that's in that annoyed if something happens in the response to it annoys you you can talk about the response. It's a nice little workaround. It is. The trick of the business. We made it two games.

We made it two games before a hit, the official, like the officiating response to the hit, in the discourse that surrounded the hit and the response to the hit completely took over. It was insane. And I know it was a consequential, absolutely. Yes. in that game and moving forward, it's Joe Pavelsky, right?

It's one of the, it's one of the, one of the, the very best lines in the league, a huge storyline for that. You know, Robertson and Hinson and Pavowski, one third of it is, you know, up in the air there, right?

Huge deal. I'm not, I don't have a problem with that. But my God, can we not have nice things? Like, can we not make it through one night of this without having the discourse completely revolve around around around like it's in

the answer is no like that's just the way it's the way it goes maybe this can be the space where we the answer is yes this first segment of our podcast maybe we talk about how fun it was to for us in this case and we were flipping channels last night like it just it was awesome like Florida's making a game of it early against Boston. Islanders Carolina, like, you know, two great defensive teams. You know everything's

going to be a one goal game. So that's like I love like it was just, it was awesome for me. And just sit and watch like, like I'm watching Brent Burns make plays and I'm like, this is great. Like Brent Burns. He's back at it. Drew Dowdy's back at it in the playoffs. In the year 2023. Yes. So yeah, the early games, and I made the mistake of saying this, I don't know if it was to you or maybe in Slack when we're talking about this. I said they were duds, and that's probably not fair. Yeah. Because what else do you want from the first window, from the first viewing window on the first night of the playoffs? We have a wild card making it at least quasi-interesting against the most successful regular season team in the history of the sport, which is great. You have Alex, Alex Lion out there

out there flopping around and doing his best Tim Thomas impression. And, you know, that game was, that game was as close as it could be. I don't know how, I don't know what happens from here on out in the series. It seems like, that kind of seemed like one of those. All right. We'll give you guys two periods to hang around. And now it's Panthers and five. Oh, wow.

Panthers in five. Bruins and now it's Bruins in five. Yeah, maybe four. and even like even Isles Hurricanes like was it boring for the first 56 minutes or whatever maybe a little bit a little but I don't know the fact that it was playoff hockey I was still in like 100% I just opened up the Christmas present I was like hey it doesn't matter you know totally like whatever whatever quality of the game is like I'll take it because it's because it's the first night but also it's just proof that a game

no matter how boring it is, a playoff game, no matter how boring you may find it. If it's a one goal game in the last six or seven minutes, all's forgiven, right? Who cares that the neutral zone was clogged for the 90% of the time for the first two and half periods? All that matters is that it's close. If the margin is close, the last eight minutes or however long of a playoff hockey game are going to be worth watching, no. matter who is playing in it and no matter what the game looked like before that. And I thought that

Carolina, New York was a nice reminder of that. Yeah. And then, and then of course, we got the late game with Oilers, you know, they go into that first intermission. I think they were up to nothing. It just, they looked, I'm like, the bandwagon's full. Everybody's like, this is Connor McDavid's moment. And, and then it just unravels. And it's like, okay. We're in this thing. Yeah. And I, and the bandwax, I mean, I'm on the bandwagon. I pick them to, I pick them to.

Are you on the, I haven't decided. I'm on the, I haven't decided. I don't wait. Yeah. Yeah. You can, I mean, you can wait. I've, I don't know. You can, yeah, you can be, you can be a coward.

You can wait. No, it's, I'm just torn because it's, you want the best, you, you, I don't need another first round where Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews and we can, we have this parade of, you know, Cid's already out. Like, we don't need one of those. tweets where it's like look who's still not who's not playing right now like I so I'm on the like let's let's let's let Connor make a run but man what's this is that fun it's just fun to see totally totally and part of the reason and that's what's so funny and so unpredictable about

this is like the entire narrative surrounding the oil the the oilers was like all right Connor McDavid career year absolutely this may be as good as he ever is better than Gretzky I think P. K. said on first take that's a take baby okay I'm putting words in PK's mouth it made it for a great exchange of Stephen A I don't know if you saw it it was today today he was yesterday

oh man I missed that you know as good as Gretzky or maybe it will be better than Gretzky as a player or something and like Stephen A was just did he jump on it well he's just like what I don't know I got to do some research he was really rattled about it but anyways but you know

the rest of the team that's surrounding him and driving him in dry side all and those guys at the top of the lineup it's legit now and it has been for the last 20 games you know like matthias eckland is you know whatever he's he's a difference maker and and really really really really really was from from the moment they acquired him yeah and it's a good fight's a pretty good five on five team now and it's not and it's not just because they're you know shooting some crazy high percentage or or filling it up like it's a well-rounded you know reliable maybe not defensive team, but just, you know, they, they do what they have to do in a way that they

haven't before. And you got, you got, you got, you got Stuart Skinner in there who's, you know, cleaning up the mess that Jack Campbell left for him, unfortunately. So there's lots of reasons to love the Oilers. And then, then they come out and just remind everybody that, you know, slow down the bandwagon, right? Like, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't skip steps here. I love the Kings, man. I love the Kings. I know. Which series, which game you're looking forward to more? Which series? Devils, Rangers, Leafs, Lightning.

Devils Rangers. Yeah, okay. Devils Rangers. I think the Devils are going to win, by the way. I picked them. Yeah, me too. Did you? Because I felt like that was the one where everyone was deciding that they're going to hop on the Rangers.

I think the devils win that series. Well, and it's also like, the devils are young. This is the first time they were there. You know, typically blah, blah, blah. And it's true. like there's a there's there's there's there's a reason that people are making that choice because we've seen it happen time and again whether it's anytime there's the next big team that you know hits that that uh that kind of

enters the picture they need it they need a year or two's worth of of uh of beginners classes right and playoff hockey right so it's true we've watched it over and over again but that being said i i went against my own advice. I think it's at some point on one of these, I was like, yeah, whatever. Let's go. Devils in six. Devil's in seven, maybe. Yeah. I can't remember exactly what I picked. But I'm way more excited. Who cares about the Leaps? Not me. I mean, I do, but I don't. I am, I love that. That's probably the series I'll watch the most of. If I'm being completely honest. Leaves Lightning. The stick aside. Yeah, I'll watch. I'll watch every minute of that series.

I think it's a nice second. It's just. It's a nice secondary series featuring some solid, solid B-list players, second, you know, B-list franchises. Okay. Okay. Do we want to talk about? Will I watch every second of Lee? That's a great question. I will.

I don't think it's going to be, I don't think it's going to be every second just because it's going to be going up against the other range. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, of course, like, that's going to be, that's going to be the primary watch a lot of the time. How can it, how can it not be? Do we want to talk about ESPNs? Sure. I'm only asking this because we were talking about it. So if it comes in a natural conversation before the pod,

it always, I'm like, maybe it's worth discussing. Like, the intermission, I know, I know we're not treading any ground here, but it just was, it's bad. Yeah. Mixes off. And we, I mean, here's what we said before the record, basically, is that, Messio messios. That's what those guys

That's what those guys Couple names is. They now become one. Cheleier, Messios. Those guys don't have much to say, clearly.

We've watched it week after week after week. Like they're not the most, you know, not the most verbal dudes, which is maybe not great for when you're a television personality. They bring in P.K.

Who sucks. the oxygen out of the room at times, right? Like that, there's no problem. That guy has no problems talking ever. He's got thoughts. And I like P.K. I think he's good. He's awesome.

He, and he clearly, you know, especially when you're, if you have a personality type like him and you, and you are good at TV and you realize like what maybe kind of inherently what works and what doesn't, he's got to be out there like, these guys aren't saying anything. Like, let's go. Right? Like, he's trying to, he's trying to be the stir that straw, the straw that stirs the drink there for them. And then it just feels like that pisses them off even further and they end up retreating even more. So it's like this, it's like this, it's like the cyclical thing where those guys don't talk.

So P.K. goes into overdrive. Those guys see it and get almost resentful. And then the vibe in the studio is just like, what, what is happening here? Can I be clear, Steve Levy is not the problem. I'm a big Steve Levy fan. I mean, you know what, if your job is to make good television and you go out there and you fail at it, like, that's the way it goes. It's the way it goes. Yeah, I don't know if he has the ingredients to make the cake. I'm not, and I am not, I'm not, I'm- With your railing on Levy. No, I'm not, I'm talking about the show in general. Yeah. Like, it's a tough watch, right? And their job is, their job is, is 180 degrees away from that. They're, they're trying to make compelling shit that people want to, to watch in between periods and they aren't doing it.

Yeah. And last night was how many hours of that, right? Like you're flipping back and forth. You know, thankfully, the start times were staggered. So, you know, it wasn't an old-fashioned two games go to intermission at the exact same point. So it was good. Scenario, right? Baby steps, I guess.

But like, come on. It's, it's it. They're a TV network. make good TV. And last night wasn't that. Supposed to pretend that it's good. I'm not saying it pretends good. Is not leaving you?

Sure? It's just not like it. I'm the one who brought it up. I just, I want it to be better. I just, you know, I feel invested. I want ESPN to have a really good product here. It's, and it's not there yet. Two guys that hate talking and one guy that talks too much is not, is not a good recipe for, for an intermission show.

All right. Let's get to John Robleski because it's such a good conversation. He's coming up next. We talk gold medal. We talk Hillary Knight right off the hop, the future of the women's program, his future a lot. So we'll do it. We're now thrilled to be joined by John Robleski, the gold medal winning coach of the team USA in the women's worlds. just an incredible performance by the team by John. Congratulations, John. First and foremost. Yeah, I really appreciate it, Craig.

It's great to be here. Gold medal back where it belongs. After a little bit longer than we would have liked in Canada, but, you know, we got it there. I think, you know, that's probably the best way to put it longer, longer than we'd like, but, you know, it's, uh, we're fortunate. It's great players and a lot of solid performances.

Can we start with Hillary Knight? Let's start there. It's funny. Let's not overthink this. I was reading up, and I think we can even get to your future because there was something. There was a story, an AP story about, you know, what you're going to do next, which I'll warn you ahead of time about that question coming. But there was a line where you said, I will follow Hillary anywhere. I'm going to start with this because you said initially when you got that job, it was kind of a blank slate, right?

You wanted to go in and I think that was one of the most valuable things you can provide is, you know, there's young players coming up. You have that old guard old. And yeah, and it's like blank slate. What did you learn about Hillary or, you know, throughout this process? What impresses you most? Most impressing with Hillary, it's difficult with where to go with that. Because I remember this when I was getting asked questions about, say it's like a kid like Jack Hughes or Zegris or some of those guys,

Brady Kachuk, like some of those young players, what are you impressed with? It's almost like the answer evolves. And I think that continues with Hillary. And the one thing that resonates with her is zero ego. which is kind of amazing that there's no entitlement or anything even close to an idea that she might be better than the other people around her. She's got so much respect for everyone. She's so diligent with her work ethic. And it's sort of like, you know, if things aren't going her way, she doesn't waver.

And it just, she just has this like Terminator type of attitude. out there where she continues to work hard, play her game, and she's so confident in it. And it's inspiring. It really is because, you know, you sort of expect this player that scored all these goals to be able to come in and float around and sort of wait for her time and then, you know, pop into goals as they come. But she just never takes a shift off and never takes a game off and never takes a practice off.

And then she's got this personality. just magnetic and she's so happy to be around the team and be around the organization and, you know, or she's just an unbelievable leader on top of it all. It's all genuine. So just a, just a tremendous individual. When you talk about her having that mentality, and I think one of the storylines that was consistent with this team for you, John was working in some of the younger players, giving them maybe more prominent roles. How much easier does it make it when Hillary is setting that example, right? Like it's, you don't have to tell them to work hard. at every shift, they just look at the best player on the ice.

Yeah, I mean, the adage is always that you're only in strong as your leaders and the work ethic and their appreciation to the systems and, you know, your team values. It's, that only goes so far. And, you know, I think that, you know, that's the other thing that you can just compile is just for her to see some of her teammates start to go away and, you know, start to replace with younger, younger players. and with that, you lose a little bit of a maturity factor as strong as those players are. You know, their computers aren't wired the same way that some of the established players

are. And they, you know, they take a little bit longer with system nuances, whether it's, you know, it's not like you're running a ton of set plays in the sport, but you do have certain things that you want predictability at. And the veteran players are pretty quick on the uptake with things like that. And some of the younger players, you know, they want to ad lib. And that's,

that's the beauty of being a younger player and having that high end talent. So how, how do you, as an older player, be like, you know, you sort of mitigate your expectation with, uh,

what we want for predictability. And yet, you know, you're, you somehow appreciate the younger player and what they can bring to the team. So, and she, she never,

um, you know, there was, uh, I'll give you one, one story. There's one blip on the radar, so I know you guys are like that. All right.

Good. Yeah. So there's one time where Hillary was wide open, you know, D to D pass in the neutral zone. And she was wide open for a stretch play. And she comes back to the bench and she looks at me. She goes, they got to move that up north. And I just said, listen, it was it was KK, it was Harvey. Okay. That's what I was going to ask about that.

I was like, give her, give her a break here for a second. You know, I'll go talk to her. But, you know, that's just what, that's the patience level that you've got to deal. with a young player such as a Harvey's. They're going to want the puck on their stick as much as you want the puck on the stick, which is great. So how do we all, how do we blend that together and not use it as a generational gap?

And, you know, just to, you know, to everyone to appreciate the learning process. And she, that was the only blip on the radar, but I had to share it just because it's, it's fun.

That's great. Yeah. I mean, the patients with, with Caroline Harvey certainly paid off, right? She was lights out, fantastic from really from beginning to end. Yeah.

in that tournament. She'll invigorate the game somewhere along the lines of Hillary for, you know, especially with the, with more of the women in the spotlight going forward. I would anticipate, you know, we've got some, we've got some big personalities coming up to, you know, the pro league that's going on and just the tremendous coverage that the sport is getting. But Harvey, Harvey's going to be something pretty special. I would, when Quinn was coming up in his, before his draft year, I was, I was adamant that he was going to revolutionize the position, re-revolutionize the position as to what young kids are going to want to play it like. And I see that as, you know, KK's calling card too.

There's going to be a slew of young, young American and I probably Canadian defensemen that are going to want to want to play just like, just like KK Harvey, because she's just, I mean, she's just an hour. back there. You can't predict what she's going to do. But the more we're around her, the, you know, the more it'll be sort of just a congruent flow of how we play. And, you know, she's just so explosive and good things happen when she's on the ice. What's an example of something she's able to do that nobody else can do? Ah, yes. So you're, I'll give you an example. It's when most of the time in the neutral zone, if you're trying to go cross ice, it's going to get picked up. off or something's going to go sideways. Yeah. Nine out of it. One out of ten, it's going to work out. It's going to be good.

Great. And she'll just flip puck's cross ice and normally you're going like, oh, God, this isn't going to work. It'll skip over the defenseman stick who's in perfect space. And it's like not nine out of ten, not one out of ten times. It's the other way around nine out of ten times it gets by. So you just, you just sort of let her, she'll reverse the flow on her. So it'll be a reverse puck.

And normally you want to go back up the, with the way that the puck, you know, against the flow because you've just brought their forecheck with you. So let's go back the other way. She'll just bring it right back into the forecheck and it'll work for her because it's just, I mean, she is, she's so gifted athletically, um, even at even at this level. You know, she can, she is just up to the road bread at 20 years old. Yeah. I wanted to, I mean, Haley talked, Haley talked, Haley, Salvin talked about, uh, KK's skating in that story. You know, that was sort of like the fulcrum of, of, of, of the, of the.

thing that Haley wrote, just, Harvey's mentioning Kale McCar and Quinn Hughes and all these like, which also like, we're talking about

feeling old earlier. Like couldn't have me feel older. We now have a whole generation of players that like looks up to Kail Makar and is like, and is doing,

doing huge things. Posters of Kail Makar and their child. Yeah, right. She was, she was growing up with, with posters of Kail McCall on her walls.

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm 500 years old. But the, the skating is the thing that pops with her for someone for someone who's not as maybe well versed

in in the game like you you see her and the edge work and the stuff she does with her with her with her pivots and stuff it's it's it's it's crazy and it is like you're you watch her and you're like oh this is this is this is this is this is kail mccar stuff and she's she's very open about it which is which is cool yeah no she can it's it's magical the way that she's in control those edges and she's got a long way to go athletically which is just all optimism you know so um Brock Bradley, who is the equipment manager with the NTP, he's been there for, gosh, two decades now, two and a half decades. You know, he used to, like when the players jerseys would flap in the wind, there's a special look that I don't know what mile per hour it happens at or what, you know, at what speed or acceleration rate it happens, but it does. And I started watching full part every night.

And she's got that jersey flap when she gets up and gets galloping. And it's cool to see. I mean, it's fun to watch. Like, you got it. You just, you know, she's got the puck and then she starts going and you're like, okay, what's going to happen? You know, like you're, you know that the majority of the time it's going to work out positively.

So it's, you're just, you're excited for what's going to happen next as opposed to worry, you know, that's what you got a goalie for. That's where you got Frankl back there, Hensley and, you know, in this case. And, you know, they got a job to do too. and, you know, KK provides so much offense that, you know, you're going to give up some, when you have to puck in your stick that much, you're going to make some mistakes, too, and we're comfortable with that. Did it take a while just in terms of earning that trust, Robo?

Like, you know, I think there's relying on young players, you know, especially somebody like that, it takes a minute of earning trust. Like, what was that process like for you and her? Well, I think it was pretty simple. you saw you have a player with that burns to win that burns to succeed so that's that's a parent in your first conversation with her and then you have a player that also just needs a little bit of reassurance that was that was the next thing that you met in the conversation she's very humble she wants she wants to do a good job she wants people to be proud of her and all i think all that she needed was just someone to say you know know, go and do this where your work ethic will define you. And your skill and your ability eventually will take over if you just have that confidence in yourself in it.

That's a very difficult thing. I mean, there's so much credit to her. The confidence has to be earned. You know, you can tell a player all you want, keep putting them back out there. But ultimately, they really do have to believe in themselves, believe in their path. And, you know, you can keep, you can keep rolling them over the boards. but if they don't believe in themselves or if they get down after mistake and then they don't try it again, the chances for development are they go out the door.

So, I mean, the credit goes to her, you know, in her family. She's got an unbelievable support system. And, you know, it's, it's all, it's all her. Like, seriously. It's, you know, she's, it didn't take a lot to see the potential. And, you know, you just tell her, it's, it's just a couple honest conversation. if you tell her how much you believe in her, how you believe in what she can do.

And hey, you're going to keep going out there. And, you know, you're going to figure it out one day. And, um, because she had some,

she had some dark moments early in the last year's tournament that it was like, oh, okay, let's just, let's have a, let's have a sit time on here. Like, you don't have to worry about your job.

You don't have to worry about not playing. Like, you're going to keep playing and you're going to figure it out or, or you're not. And we're going to go down with you. We're going to have a hard conversation. Yeah. But for now,

I'm not going to sit there and, you know, play your 10 minutes and hope that you figure it out that way. Now you're just going to play 20 and we're all going to live with what happens going forward. So, so, yeah. Is that, is that a common thing to have an elite player, an elite talent who's also a people pleaser? Because that's basically how you described her in the start of that answer, right? To have somebody who is, you know, who has that kind of, that kind of personality trait. Is that something you've come across before? and how's that how's that to how's that to deal with brady brady's that way yeah as far as the

human six side he's got i mean he's got so much earned confidence you know um now he's he's he's real confident his path deservedly so um deep down he's he's you know he's the guy that's gonna be you know and and so much credit to chantelle and uh and in in in walt that you know to to have him come up that way. But he's got so much appreciation for everything that people have done for him. And he wants to pay people back. Trevor's egress, as much as you look at him and, you know,

you see some of the, see some of the, let's just call him antics, you know, you know, he's an entertainer now. But he really does want to, he's a team first kid and he really does want to make people proud of,

proud of him. And he wants, he wants the reassurance. and absolutely, as you should, hey, is this, is this what the team wants? It's a huge credit to those individuals to be able to blend that just God-given talent that you can't, you can't duplicate with these, you know, intangibles of deep down having the characteristics of wanting to, wanting to do what's best for the team. Trevor was that same way.

I mean, I'll tell you, like, he was, you know, playing second fiddle to Jack the whole way through, shift him to wing when he's a natural center, you know, and he, you know, he just was always, what can I do better? What can I, what can I do? What, you know, all these things. And it wasn't about him. It was about him performing for the team. And he, you know, being a great, a great player around, around a bunch of other great players. And, you know, KK, it's, she reminds me a lot of the youth brothers, how she trains herself, too, just that it's like humble, but, you know, would confidence, you know, and it deservedly so.

I'm just curious if you did anything off the ice to kind of bridge the gap with the generations. Was there like a, you know, let's get Alex Carpenter and Amanda Kessel and everyone into, you know, into a bowling alley for three straight days. And I don't know, you know what I mean? Like, was there some like, you know,

team bonding? Ice break. Yeah, yeah. You know, that's right of it too. Like you want these, you want these players not to be threatened or, because you're talking about ice time changing and it just seemed like it worked really well. Yeah, I think the nature of those tournaments is it feels like there's a lot of time to get something like that done.

And the reality is there just isn't. And the players really value their freedom. When there's an opportunity to get away from the rank, it doesn't change just because it's a shortened event or a, you know, a tighter schedule and what's at the end of it. when the players see a day off, they're excited for their opportunity to get out and do, you know, whatever they're doing. And that's another amazing thing about the women's game. Like we had Gabby Hughes taking the Hockey Manitarian Award while she was up in Toronto, a player from Minnesota Duluth. And, you know, you should see, you guys should do a dive on what she does for her non-for-profit. It's just unbelievable. So it's a non-for-profit from mental health.

and it generates a ton of money and it goes back to just unbelievable causes. And this is a, you know, a fifth year player in university still who's able to do all this and being all-American. I think she took all-American status. If she didn't, she was right there in the mix. So, you know, there's so many things that these women do in addition to, you know, being an athlete, which is just, it's really cool and invigorating. I mean, we had, so I did the Friday, the Friday show with him.

Haley and we have a lot of a lot of, we've had a lot of national team players from, you know, both North American countries on there. And it's still, I mean, you know it intellectually because you see that, you see that they're whatever running, running clinics or doing like all, they're ambassadors for the game in a way that it, and they're forced to be. And that sucks. Like it would, I know a lot of them would much rather be able to just play hockey, you know, just play hockey. But that's also not, yeah, right. That's not, that's not, that's unfortunately, not the that's not the world we live in and that's not the expectations that are placed on them. Even Hillary. Like we had a really, really long talk with, with her where she just, she was like going,

she was doing part-time work for ESPN and going this and been bouncing around there. And every time I talk to these women, it's like, this is, this is bananas that they can't just, that they can't just hang out and work and get better where there needs to be some kind of like conditional that's attached to it. Yeah. I know, like, it's tough to speak for. for the players in that realm. They're definitely back in pioneer mode, though. The pandemic, you know, just from my view, it dissolved a bit of momentum that the sport had on the pro side.

So they kind of had to start anew. And, you know, Kendall Coyne is just, you know, she's a prime example of somebody that's just, you know, I go back to that Terminator type mentality or, you know, kind of just persona. And it's like Kendall's got, She's a captain of our team. She's almost heading up the PWHPA.

And also, you know, she's working for the Blackhawks as a player development. It's like, and now becoming a mom. And it's like, how are you doing all of these things? How many are you? Like, do we have some clones out there, Kendall, or what's going on? But that's so impressive, you know, and just to me, it's invigorating. It's, you know, it just wants, it may want to you to be. be a better version of yourself being around people that are that are as,

as, you know, courageous and committed to their, to what they're, to what they're doing. And there's, you know, you'd think that there'd be like a little bit of like, oh, I wish this wasn't this way or something like that from the players. And it's all of it is, is positive. And, you know, they're just, there's such, there's such unbelievable people to this. It's a great group to be around. I wanted to ask specifically about Abby Murphy because, you know, we saw her. Sean's favorite player. Oh, I mean, I was, well, I was.

was all in on her during the Olympics, but then when, then we saw she's left off the roster for Denmark, comes back, she was a force, I think, in the gold medal game. She scores the goal. She draws the penalty. It was like the full Abby Murphy experience. I feel like

down the stretch there, but how gratifying was that for you as a coach to watch someone who you had to make a tough decision with really last year, bounce back and contribute in such a huge way? Yeah, I think, you know, I watched the Olympics in detail as close as I could to get as much information on the players as possible.

And, you know, I didn't, I didn't see a team going to Denmark without Murph on it, just from electricity and things like that. And I think that, you know, Murph and I had just a little misunderstanding about her, about her, how committed she is to a team. And it was, that was my, my misread on her. you know, you just see some of the, some of her brash play, which is, it's right on the edge. It's not over the edge. It's right on the edge.

And I misinterpreted some of her intentions. That was, that was something that I would, that she and I've ironed out. And all I can say is that Abby Murphy is where you're so lucky to have her on your team. I mean, she is, she is so skilled. She's so fast. And she plays the game with so much heart. And, you know, like, she learned a little bit. And she, you know, she got, she got.

she got better because of it to her credit and I learned a lot about her too and I appreciate her even more. And that's a pretty like, I wasn't expecting that answer, Jeff, honest. Like for you to say you misinterpreted something is really interesting. Yeah. It was my, my misinterpretation of Abby. So. So this gold medal means you're the first person, correct me if I'm wrong here, but first coach to win gold with the men's,

There was the 2017 U-18s that you coached. Who was on that team just to remind some people? So it was 16-17s. That was our top line was Cichuk and Norris. Very good. Pretty good. And then Mike Posidov was the right wing. Oliver Wollstrom and Joel Farabey were underageers that came up for us on that team.

We had an unbelievable crew. Sean Dugie and Ryan Payle joined us who was playing at St. Cloud that year, so Pales came over. Those guys teamed up in overtime against Sweden to get us into the final game. They scored kind of a goal out of nowhere. Pales stripped the Swedish defensemen,

like he didn't see it, and then Dugie scored in overtime. Dylan St. Cyr, Manon's son, was our goaltender. You could play the puck better than most defensemen can. Smarter than most defensemen with the puck. and just had that it factor. Quinn Hughes was our best D,

but we had a really homogenous group after that. It was big, strong mobile kids, Tyler and Emoto, and Phil Kemp was just so good for us back there. We just had a bunch of D that really wanted to defend. So it was a, that was a fun, fun group to work with.

Joel Farabee scored twice in the gold medal game as an underage player in that one. So that was a really cool group. So you win gold there. And we've talked a lot through the years about, you know, what you want to do. And then you win gold with the women's here. So now, like, you've opened up any possible path theoretically. So I'm trying to figure out how to phrase this without your answer being you'll have to ask Pat Keller her.

Why is that what I was quote of the same? I think that's what you said when somebody else asked about you. I'm disappointed with that guy. I'll talk to John Waro and we'll talk to. We'll sort this one out. We can throw John under the bus. I'm happy to throw John under the bus. I'm sure John misquoted you.

I feel like I can give him a little pop. No, it was, we were in the scrum and it was, it was a, it was a joke completely. But where does it go? We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I mean, here's what I'll say is USA Hockey's been there for me since I was 16 years old. I was fortunate enough to make the NTDP the first two years.

They had it. I don't know how I made the team. It was sort of a, they didn't know what they were doing yet. So, you know, I worked hard. So I guess that was the era had a bigger frame. So they could, oh, yeah, the New Jersey Devils are playing the trap. We can, this guy's, this guy works hard. He seems like a good kid.

So he makes a team. And it's just opened up so many doors for me since then. And, you know, a year ago when, when things weren't, I didn't even know if I was going to be in hockey anymore, honestly, like, you know, where things dissolved with the, with L.A. and I just, it was, I didn't, I didn't know what I wanted out of my life. And, you know, all of a sudden, I get a text message from Beezer and say, can you give me a shout? Let's chat. I would love to.

What do you think about this opportunity? You could talk to some people and, you know, USA hockey's been there for me at a time where to give, to give me new life almost continuously. You know, I wouldn't, I skipped the middle ages where I was, you know, the NTP came back into my life to get me into coaching and then, you know, got the first. first job that would carry a significant amount of status with the NTP head coach. And so I really believe in the universe telling you signs and to be present where you're at. And this is, I feel, you know, I've used the word a couple times in this job, but invigorated. I think there's something more to this than just coaching hockey. There's a program to be built, which I really enjoy.

I feel like what we do with this program with these women will resonate to a lot, a lot of people, not just young girls, but a lot of people. And I really believe in that that it's not, hockey does not define you. And so this is an opportunity to really, really grow and be, you know, try to become as well-rounded of a human being as possible and be in tune with a lot of things that are really important, not just, not just ice and pucks and sticks. So I'm really, if this opportunity ever dissolved, I don't know where I would go from it.

But it might not be in the sport, honestly. I mean, I think you've earned another run at coaching the team if you want it. It's up to everybody else. I'm around. I'm around. I'm around. And I don't have any other commitments. I don't know.

In the meantime, if what you're doing is coaching this team, feeling like a more balanced, well-rounded human being, like, great. Like, holy cow. Like, that's what it's, that's what it's about without, without going,

getting too, too deep here. Oh, you get as deep as you want with me, man. I, I'm like, I couldn't agree more.

Like, if that's what, if that's what I wake up in 30 years and that's what I'm defined as a hockey coach, then I'm going to be pretty disappointed, I think. But I try not to live too far in the future. these days.

And, you know, it's great to be present and try to try to just, you know, gauge my worth on how that, how that day went. Did I help some people get better at what they want to do? And does that make me feel good? And if those answers are yes, then I try to try to gauge that as a pretty good day. And let's move on to the next one. I wanted to wrap with this. And I don't want to like, it's going to feel wedged in because we're going down,

I feel like a more important conversation. But I just want to ask you about, you watch the. Switch. I'm switching gears. I'm flipping the, yeah, flip in the script. I like,

I'll be in this door shirt for now, but I'll be in workout clothes in 20 minutes. Yeah. You know, like, whatever. Anyway, isn't it,

isn't it great to be, to be like a fully formed, complete person? Yeah. How about that? Okay, let's talk about hockey some more. Can we talk about Jack Hughes?

No, I mean, you know, we're all, we're all tired because we're up late watching playoff hockey. And I imagine for you, it's got to be fun.

You see, there's so many of your, guys that you help shape their careers really like kind of having their moments right now like how do you watch these playoffs and what are your expectations from these kids yeah i it is it's it's really fun watching people on their on their path and to know that maybe you know you help them get there i think that that's a that's a that's a great recipe for happiness in life is to you know to facilitate and try to be as positive and supportive of people that and help them find their way you know if that's what that's But your, you know, your skill set is, it is.

And, you know, you're comfortable with that, helping people get to the path that they want to get to, whether it's be a hockey player or something else. And, you know, yeah, it's really cool to see those guys because I know how bad they burn for it, you know. And, you know, a lot of their hard work and their family's hard work, it's all validated. And, you know, it's really cool to see. I don't put too much expectation on it. I think that, you know, those guys have accomplished so much in their young careers already. You know, and I think that, you know, getting good with yourself is the most important thing for those guys and, you know,

gauging their level of success and trying to is the most important thing and trying to block out noise from the external and, you know, being good with their path. And so many of them have found it and I'm really happy for them. Awesome. Well, John, good to see you. Thanks for doing this. Greg. Yeah, I'll be back. Michigan in a couple weeks with the goalie thing.

So we got a big goalie jamboree in Plymouth. So I'll look you up before. Yeah. No, that's connect for sure. Awesome, buddy. All right, Robo. Thanks for doing this. Be good, gentlemen.

Take care, man. Thank you. Oh, pretty good run for John and the women's. It's, I like Taley's, you know, she basically teed up the Olympics and the next world. Like, it's, I mean, I feel like we always are saying this, but it's an exciting stretch, an exciting future. and that, you know, I hope he's a part of it.

Absolutely. I mean, that team was, you could tell the way he built it. There was a future focus there. I think that, you know, because this is the time when you're, if you're building for the next Olympics, you got to start figuring out, you know, especially when you have three straight international, four, whatever it is, three four in a row where it didn't work out. Right.

I try to do something different, incorporate some new people in. And then, oh, like, by the way, they went out and won the whole thing, which is just, you know, that outcome, seriously, when if you're building for the future, you know, which clearly, clearly a huge part of what the thought process was there and then to get a gold medal out of it,

not bad. All right, coming up next, we think we may have questions. We don't know. As always, we'll be answering your questions potentially. Thank you.

Thank you to the athletic app development team. Hey, they fixed it, right? They sure did. We'll be right back. This is the only good segment on the show. Craig, the comment section is fixed. Hey, shout out to our... How'd that happen?

Because I dropped the thing in the bugs channel. That's right. Came from you, baby. It happened real quick. Real quick. What are you suggesting, John? Because you've put... Haven't you complained about it every day for a year?

I'm just joking. No, I just complain about it on the podcast, but don't actually take any steps to remedy the problem. That's what I've done to last... Well, no, there's a problem, Sean, that can do something about it. Yeah, I think you got a little bit more juice than me, brother. Just saying, it's fixed. I'm not complaining about this.

I'm saying, I'm saying, this is, this is cool. This is cool that Craig, that Craig can put in a work request ticket. And it's, it was filled in, like, without exaggeration, almost immediately. They're like, let's, let's elevate this. Let's get this fixed. And this is all for you, our beloved, our beloved listeners. If you're new to the podcast, this is the segment where we go into the comments section of our last podcast. Nobody's new to the podcast.

Cut the shit. Nobody's listening to this segment for the first time. And we read your comments. But first, Sean, we got an email. A lot of people don't know. Many. Some of us on this call. We have an email address.

If you want to reach us via email, you can do that too, listener. more than one person on this call just found out about the athletic hockey show at gmail.com. So if you guys have, if you would rather not tap your phone 15 times to make it to the comment section on our particular episode of the athletic hockey show, you can just email us. Jeff dutifully checks that apparently and passes this stuff along. The athletic hockey show at gmail.com or if you want to hit up Sean on AOL,

it's Sean. We should start talking about our old AOL screen names. What was your screen name again? We already talked about this. And a few of them. A few of them to serve different purposes. It's from Brian Wagner. Say that he finished listening to our interview of Brian Boyle last week,

and Boyle was great as he tends to be. But Brian Wagner listened to Brian Boyle and got to thinking, you know, kind of wondering, is it keyed on something Boyle said about the percentage of, their pay that players actually take home when you consider you know normal tax rates and escrow and all that and all that sort of stuff escrow tax rates agent fees agent fees yeah we got to tip out the clubhouse guy yeah which typically costs no i don't know two 300 thousand dollars maybe right standard standard standard standard for the clubbies all of a sudden you're not left

with all that much. I mean, it is true. And people, and we're, and shout out to Brian Wagner, too, because he, you know, used the blues as a jumping off point just to sort of visualize or, or come up with a list of how much these guys are actually, and these aren't the blues, by the way, these are, these are the, these are the, these are the, these are the, these are the Canadians. I don't, I don't know why I, I thought, I thought it was, oh, he, I thought it was blues. It doesn't matter.

But if you take 30, if you take home 33%, you know, Nick Suzuki, you know, Nick Suzuki, And everyone freaks out because Nick Suzuki makes $10 million in total salary this year. But then all of a sudden he's taken home three and a third of it. And then you go on and on down the list. Yeah. So Brian, we can, Brian basically just broke down every player on the roster what their 33% salary is. So if you're assessing their game, if you're watching Chris Tierney and you know he's only bringing home 65K, like, you know, like a fifth grade teacher. Are you like, are you writing Christyering as much?

Maybe you aren't anyways. Does it change your opinion? I don't know, man. Like, I think it's, I think it's illuminating to know that, you know, Cole Coughfield, one of the, who's as electric, I mean, I know he's heard, but. Yeah. Electrifying player, really important player, still on his rookie deal and he's making 300 grand this year. That's less than Sean. it's true i make i'm i'm making i'm making that making that nix zizuki money baby

10 million dollar base contract can my contract negotiate and start moment here's my thing i don't know if i i still don't know if it matters i'll be curious yeah i think i think that's a do people actually care is this is this going to change the way a meaningful amount of people view you know NHL players i don't know but it's worth it's worth noting If you know that Mike Hoffman's only bringing home 1.3 million or whatever, like, does that change your opinion? Yeah, everyone decides we love Mike Hoffman now because he's only, he's only taken home a million and a half.

Because I think people are still like, that's a million and a half. Like, what's the cutoff point before you go, these aren't regular people, these are millionaires, which they are. That's fine. I have no issue that they should be. But I'm just curious. Brian, send us another email because I don't know if he drew a conclusion. He just said, I never really considered the reality of their take-home paycheck.

Still wealthy? Yeah, way more than your average person, definitely. Just a fun thought experience. I think overall, it's a good, this is like kind of a good, a good example of how so many, especially in the past when professional athletes made markedly less, even proportionally than they do now. of how they go broke so fast. Because it's like you're easy, you can,

the issue for a lot, for a lot of, for a lot of guys is, is that they feel richer than they actually are and spend, spend accordingly. And then their careers, their careers are short. So, you know, if, if you're a guy who's taken home a few million dollars in a year, by the time it's all said and done, like, cool. But by the time you're 33, it's, you got to,

you got to figure out how to A, make that money work for the rest of your life and also figure out where your new income is coming from. If you take Mike Hoffman's 1.5, spread it out until he's 55. Got to find something else to do, man. Yeah. I know, buy a bunch of rental properties. I'm not sure what you do.

That's a good idea. Fun fact, though, if you play for the Lightning, you get 100% of your salary. That's how they keep everybody down there. 100%. The escrow rate doesn't apply to Tampa Bay either. A lot of people don't know that. Jen F in the comment section says, you know, before this episode,

it had actually been a while since you guys talked about the stars. I keep track of these things. It says Jed. It was awesome that you mentioned Captain America, but Miro the hero, Tide Sergei Zuba for most points

by a defenseman in the season and may have pulled ahead by the time you read this. That is true. We caught some shit for that, including from Mylene. is one of our resident stars fans. I offhandily said like,

I always talk about the stars all the time, and I guess we don't. That was last year. Yeah. What's changed? Who can say, really? We're about to talk about them for, I mean,

I think we're going to have opportunities to talk about the Dallas stars for several more weeks here. Did you pick them to think of a hit? I didn't make picks. I had no. I'm just letting the playoffs happen. How about you pick now?

Stars in seven. There we go. And that brings us to the rest of the segment, which is breaking down the hit on Joe Pavelsky. Bringing down the matth on the hit on Joe Pavelski. Taylor H writes, am I, the answer is yes,

Taylor. Am I justified in getting annoyed at all the 16-year playoff streak for the Penguins talk without mentioning their qualifying round loss the bubble year? Mm-hmm. or am I just being a hater? This has nothing to do with being a Caps fan. Sure, it does. A lot to do with being a Caps fan, Taylor.

Yeah, sure. There should be an asterisk next to that. Taylor, I don't disagree, but it's one of those things where we are reminded of this constantly. One of those like vagaries slash annoying elements of the NHL record book. And it's something that Pierre LeBrun reminds us of all the time when we're talking about winning streaks versus losing streaks and whatever. Like here's the keeper of minutia on that one. The NHL counts it.

So I'm not really sure what we're supposed to do about that. Right? Like, I'm loath to say that if it's good enough for the NHL, it's good enough for me because that's not true. But at some point, especially when it comes to record keeping, stats, streaks, things of that nature.

I think, I think to some degree you do have to defer to how the NHL notates it in the history books and they say it counts, so it counts. It is crazy.

It is crazy that they, that they, that, you know. I think it's crazy that all those games, all those games that Pierre has taken on as his personal cause.

I mean, you're, we get more slack updates on. You've seen it. I'm not like exaggerating there. Like, he like, he like sends reminders to us basically, like, just so you know, Team X isn't on an 11 game. Yeah, they're not on an 11 game winning streak.

They're on an 11 game unbeaten or whatever, unbeaten streak. Like, it's, it's, it's pedantry, but it's also league sanctioned pedantry, where it's like it is important to differentiate because, because these are the record books, right? Like, it's a goofy decision to make, but it's, but it's their decision. And all the same. I'm always assuming that Pierre is doing that because he's hearing from somebody to leave this. We tell your idiot co-workers. 100%.

And Pierre's like, fine, I'll remind him again and slap. 100%. Brian P. writes, I was looking at stats to get ready for my playoff pool. And people keep acting shocked that Braden points scored 50 goals. Yep. But did any of you realize that Brandon Frinkett Montour scored 73 points in Florida? 73, Sean. You knew that because you mentioned it last week, I think, didn't you?

Probably. I was aware of it because I do, because when we do our little NHL, all 32 things where we have, you know, a writer for each team who answers, you know, kind of a burning question. Yeah. Each week, it runs on the weekend. It's actually, I really love reading those because I always feel like I smarten up on stuff. Yeah, they're great. Shout out to Jake Leonard. Shout out to Jake Leonard for putting it together every single week and nagging.

me, uh, forced to force to rain me in every third week where it's like Friday morning. I didn't, didn't get, didn't get submission. If, if, if, if I could borrow some of your time to do the thing that I asked you to do. Chakes a seat. Two, two days ago, he's, he's, he's unbelievable. So I knew that Brandon Montser was, was at was at that number. Um, but I've, I'll forgive anybody for not realizing it. He was, you know. So my version of that last night, Sean, was watching Carolina Islanders game. And they're like casually dropping that Brady Jay scored 18 goals this year.

He was really hot. He was really hot down the stretch too, Brady's shot. I am not sure I realized that, to be completely honest. There were a lot of things that I learned when I was writing the previews a lot. where I was like, a lot of it, mostly had to do with point totals, where you were like, how the hell do this guy?

He had a great year. A lot of, and Brinamontor, a lot of his work was done on the power play, right? Because they, he, you know, they were running to,

they were running two, um, two defensemen, Paul Maris was for, for a decent chunk, including last night. So he's got 37 even strength points, which is,

you know, still really good. Maybe not, it's a little off pace for, for finishing with, uh, 73 or whatever it is. But even still, you know, Brandon Montser finished seventh in the league and even strength points among defensemen. He was one behind Adam Fox, right? Three behind Dougie

Hamilton. Like, he had a really, really productive year for sure. And there was a stretch, especially early on where he was like the only Panther who was playing better than he did last season. Like everybody else had had kind of flatlined and Brandon Montor had kind of leveled up. So, yeah, it's crazy. And this is the time to be reminded of those things. And you're like, oh, shit, Brady Shea at 18, whatever. Crazy. No, I was just like, wow, good for him.

Do you want to read the fanatics? I mean, since this is kind of your thing, this is your beat, as it were. As the resident fanatics expert. All that stuff we said was off mic, right? That was, that we already talked about? Our last conversation about phonetics. Yes, we have not talked on the recording about fanatics. My on and on Mike life have completely melded into one melded together.

You have the listener has not heard any updated thoughts from you on fanatics. That's where we stand as of right now. Yeah, they still suck ass, dude. That's, that's the, that's the official, that's the official stance of the athletic. No. New York Times Company? That's Sean Gentile's. It's mine.

Artis are not. endorsements. That was on your blog, right? That was on your blog spot blog. Legally. Yeah, they can't do anything. Chris Jay, of course, and thank you for reaching out because I do want to be the go-to guy for this. Chris Jay says, been wanting to share a fanatic story slash experience.

Co-worker tried to buy me a hoodie. Shout out to your coworker. That's a very nice thing to do. Sean's never bought me anything. Well, I guess in a way you bought me the hoodie I'm wearing right now. In some way. Work swag, sort of. Co-worker tried to buy Chris Jay a hoodie.

Supposed to be the Blue Jackets and Johnny Goodrow. Hoodie comes in. It's a blue jacket hoodie with Jack Hughes, number 86 on the back. That, my friends, is the fanatic experience. That sounds made up. That's a plant. Dude. Chris J doesn't exist.

How about you look at the internet from time to time? It happens a lot. There's a lot of misprints where, you know, players who aren't on particular teams are affiliated with them in that way. It's because Fanatics Quality Control is terrible and NHL fans deserve better. And they're not going to get it for at least 11 years now or whatever it is. Good luck. Good luck out there.

Thanks. Darrell W. says this was as the Panthers were fighting. We've been tracking closely the Aaron Ekblad Brooks Kepka rivalry. I'm glad we're able to get back at it for the third consecutive episode. I tweeted about it last night.

You did? I should follow you on Twitter. Are you good to follow? If the Panthers are in, an Ekblad isn't wearing a green jacket to every game. Missed opportunity. this is Darrell W. He should,

that, if they beat the Bruins, Eckblad should show up in a green jacket. Oh, God. Absolutely. He won't. He won't. Also,

but like the reason, of course, it's like the first thing I think of whenever I see Aaron Eckblatt now, unfortunately. Yeah, I mean, unfortunately. It's,

it's, for him, maybe. Unfortunately for Aaron Eckblad, not, Not for me. He got victimized by David Posternak on the first goal of that game. Eckblatt did. In my thought immediately was that like Brooks Kepka is, you know, somewhere in a mansion in South Florida, you know,

dropping F bombs at the TV. Hey, producer Jeff, if you're listening still, you have a knotted off. If we can get Brooks Kepka on the show, that would be fantastic. I just wanted to throw that out there. He'll jump, he'll jump right on that. He may want to talk about it. I don't know. He already did.

Like, it was in a scrum. He got ass about it. A hockey audience. True. This isn't no laying up or whatever the preeminent golf podcast is. Yeah, I'm still just blown away by Kepka being like, yeah, I'm a big Panthers fan, and I thought he sucked this year. So he was like, it's not, like, yeah, I,

I meant it. He stinks. It's crazy. I learned on Easter that you can buy your own green jackets. My brother-in-law, Jamie, was wearing a green jacket to watch the Masters. You got it at Coles. So you're looking for a green jacket Coles apparently has sport coats. Is there like a patch on it, too? No, no, no. This was a very generic green jacket. Look good. It would be funny. It would be funny. It would be funny if those goblins at Augusta National somehow tried to just corner the market on green market.

Yeah, right. Just copyrighted it. Do you copyright a color? Just be like, you get no green jackets. They are bad. Not copyrighting the color green, but copyrighting actual green sports coats.

This is great, because we're talking about something that happened two weeks ago. But boy, was it thrilling to see a tree fall down during that tournament. I loved it. glad nobody was hurt, but the idea of like of those of those freaks, uh, with a guts

national watching that happen and crapping their pants simultaneously. It's very, very gratifying for me. I'm glad you enjoyed that. Do you have any more? I want to think all the listeners who submitted questions this week. Um, also shout out to Brian W. I think we said his full name at one point. He signed at Brian W. So I'm going to go back to protecting his identity. for sending an email. Well thought out email. If you feel like you need to add charts like Brian did or go more expansive, send an email to what was it,

the athletic hockey show at gmail.com. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the athletic hockey show on YouTube. I would probably just YouTube, like, search for it and then hit subscribe. That's probably the easiest way. Also, I want to say outright, like, there was some sort of issue with iOS, users where the comment system was broken. And it has now been fixed just to be clear.

Like if you're out there were trying to leave comments the last couple weeks and couldn't, because, A, we couldn't read them. And B, it didn't seem like anybody could comment if you had an iPhone. It's been fixed. So come back. Got out to the product team. Yep. Also, hey, Ron Francis is on with Pizzo, Jesse, and Rousseau on the Wednesday roundtable

tomorrow. That's interesting. Is it? What? He's a GM. I don't know. Why'd you say that like that? Also,

I'd like to hear what Ron Francis has to say about the team he built making a, making the playoffs in the second season. I thought you said it like, oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Why is Ron Francis? Anything's going on over there. What's the deal? We already have next week's guest lined up. David Quinn is returning to the show.

Yeah. We're going to talk sharks, but we're going to talk the world. championships on the men's side. Equal time here on the Athletic Tuesday show. We haven't talked to him since he was the national team coach. And boy, he was, that was great. That was like top ten, top ten interview for us. It was really good.

He's great. I'm looking forward to that. So that's next week. I will be, in fact, co-hosting. Wow. What a treat from me. So congratulations. What an honor.

Thank you for bestowing it upon me. That's it. Again, I want to thank producer Jeff for all his hard work lining up guests. I want to thank John Robleski, who is coming to town. I'm excited to catch up with him. Great job, great interview. And that's it. Happy New Year, everybody.

Did you say anything there? I said goodbye. Your lips are moving, but. As an ASMR video. Goodbye. We should do a whole episode, isn't it? bump up on the mic. We finally can break through on YouTube.

That shit grosses me out. I don't like it. Cam has this one that she follows and she watches it. And it's oddly saddest. She'll be like, she cleaned out the drawer in her kitchen and she opens the drawer. And it's like, perfect. And it's like, here's just click and taps. Yeah, there's certain sounds like with the clicking and tapping that like I did, like,

almost, it makes me anxious. And it's apparently like, not a totally abnormal, like, response to have. But I'm like, people, people are calm, people are calmed by this. Cam, my daughter is, she likes, she'll just sit and watch. And it's just something about this person's spotless house. And, um, the sounds she makes as she's opening, you know, whipping open up package. Like, certain things like that I get. But, but then, but then there's other ones that I watch.

Like I, I, I have a TikTok account. And I somehow, I don't even know how this happened, but like... Are you a spy? No, I'm, yeah, I'm Chinese, spy for the Chinese government. Yeah, it's the Americans too. Sorry, go ahead. No, I just, I don't even know how this happened. I, I, they have like a huge audience, clearly, because that's how it ended up, like, in front of me in the first place.

But it's like a rug cleaning company. It's this company that cleans out, like, just, I don't even know how these rugs get so fucked up, but it's like, once from cabins and that have been like left outside and rolled up and whatever. It's like vacuum. They like refurbish it. Yeah. And there's like a, they like steam clean it and they like brush it and all this shit. And I've, for whatever reason, those videos make it make it on them onto my little scroll.

And I watch every single one like all the way through. I think it's like cilantro. Either you really like it or you think it tastes like cleaning supplies. There's some of the sounds though when like people are tapping on mics and doing that sort of stuff. I'm just like, ugh. No, that's, I think, are we recording it? I can't, I can't tell. Okay.

I think that stuff's weird. But like the, like, I'm going to rip open, you know, making cookies and we're going to pour the sugar in. Like, kind of the, like, that is calming. The, like, I'm going to do this stuff. The visual stuff is like, is more, like, I understand that. The audio stuff is just like, like, like, steam press videos. Have you ever watched those where it's like a huge hydraulic press?

and they just put random stuff below it and just kind of see what happens. No. Yeah. I tried to use a steamer. I was at a fancy hotel in New York and they didn't have an ironing board so it was too cool.

They had a steamer. Completely useless. If you shove dressed shirts into it. Oh, that must have been a shitty steamer. I don't even think I have an iron. I never use it. I steam everything. Really?

Yeah. So if I balled up a dress shirt. Yes. Hung it on a... Totally. Just get like, I bought, there's one. It must have been a bad steamer because this thing was not getting any.

Was it like one of the full, did it have like a wand on it and stuff? No, dude, I have one that I bought on Amazon for probably $11. It's great. It does like dress shirts. I don't know if it would like, I don't know if I would use it on like a fucked up, you know, creased up sports coat that was at the bottom of a, of a closet or anything. But like, like button downs and, in, t-shirts and shit.

Totally perfect. Way easier than ironing. Anyways, that's hashtag Tuesday bulletin.