The Athletic Hockey Show - Tage Thompson's breakout season in Buffalo, Vegas Golden Knights team identity isn't what it once was and Dylan Larkin's season ending injury in Detroit isn't such a bad thing for the draft lottery chasing Red Wings.

Episode Date: April 19, 2022

Buffalo's Tage Thompson joins Craig and Sean in the midst of his breakout season for the Sabres as he attempts to reach the 40 goal mark, moving to center ice position, adjusting his play to match his 6 foot 7 frame and what Sabres fans can expect from their ever improving team next season.Craig and Sean discuss the Vegas Golden Knights inability to nail down a playoff spot with 5 games remaining. We take a look at some of the aggressive decisions management has made including the controversial coaching change, trading away young players and prospects for veterans with hefty price tags, and the decision to go with Robin Lehner over Marc-Andre Fleury which has changed the identity of the team.Custance and Gentille hit on Dylan Larkin missing the rest of the season for Detroit and how that might not be such a bad thing for the lottery chasing Red Wings, Team USA's coaching staff announcement for the 2022 World Hockey Championships in Finland, the NHL Players Associations investigative findings into the Kyle Beach situation, Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk leading the Calgary Flames and what Michigan State should be looking for in a coach to manage their program moving forward. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody, welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. I am Craig Custin's joined as always by Sean Gentilly, live from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Snowy Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hey, everybody. We are here. Get ready for 90 minutes of Michigan State University hockey coach vacancy talk. Sean, did you come prepared with your candidate?

list. This is, it is time to turn things around in East Lansing and we are going to start the, we actually have a great show. I had actually, I do have an opinion about the Michigan State hockey job and I will, I will share it later. No, my opinion on that is that the shadow puppet regime led by Craig Custin's finally, it's finally about this is, this is where I get to do some work behind the scenes. The invisible hand moves strongly. If you start seeing, I haven't tweeted anything about like hockey news or like I'm going to start hey this person's in the mix I'm going to just start getting the my candidates out there it's time time to make some change but first we have a great show we've we've got tage Thompson today um who is having an incredible season for

one of us one of us didn't know how many goals tage Thompson had I would have been off by it it wasn't I would have undershot it I would have undershot it um by I don't know I don't want to say for sure. He's sitting as we as we recorded right now, Tage is sitting at 36 goals for your Buffalo Sabres. Again, um, four games left. And he's still six seven by the way. Like this is, this is like, and they always say, you know, the big body forwards. It takes him a minute to get going. Um, well, he's, he's going and we're excited to talk to him. This, again, this is why we went to bat for Don Granato because we're like, this guy will develop the young talent. This guy will get the most out of his players, you're starting to see it come to fruition, and I'm excited

to talk to Tage about it. I think we, this is the blessing and the curse, I think, of the approach that we have to this show sometimes, is that we're idiots. We're idiots. Is that the blessing or the curse? No, we're generally not serious. So when I think sometimes when we are serious, the point can get obscured a bit. And I'm worried, and I was worried back then, and I have been worried this entire time that people thought that we were kind of doing a bit with Don Granato, that like,

oh, yeah, we just joke about it because he was, because he's great and was great on the show and all this stuff. Like, no, this is very sincere, and it has been since the start. He is the right guy for that team. He knows what he's doing. The results since he's taken,

have been basically undeniable with the most important players on that roster, right? Whether it's, whether it's Casey Meadowstat, whether it's Jeff Skinner now is back to being a 30-goal score. You can go down the list, and there's no better example of that than Tage Thompson. So, yeah, all credit to all credit to Meatballs, the patron saint coach of the Tuesday show. I'm just, I'm surprised people would think it was a bit since we were wearing Danny Meatball's T-shirts and bringing it up. that's what I like we took it you know what maybe it was kind of a bit but that's okay that's okay

that doesn't take away from the fact we like obviously we sincerely both of both of us I think sincerely believe that he was the right care for the job I mean you look at them at that team right now and granted you know there's four games left and you're grading on a curve just because of how bad stuff has gone there but they're 29 38 and 11 they're you know they're at true 500 over the us, 15 games. The vibes are good. This is realistically as good as things have gone in Buffalo.

I think they, you know, it's funny where you like look at the standings and you look at which teams, some teams just aren't capable or weren't capable of handling another true tank season. And I think they're, I think they're in that group. Like when you look at the

standings and you're like, Team X, all right, they should probably lose a few more games. you know, get some more ping pong balls in the hopper. Buffalo is not in that group. They needed something positive to happen down the stretch. And I think the development of guys like Tage and whoever else, that's a big, that's a big deal. But before, we have a couple topics we wanted to hit on before we get to Tage. One, Sean, his, I don't know why you seem to be enjoying Vegas's inability to lock down a playoff spot.

But look at it. You're smiling as I bring it up. You're like, oh, baby, let me talk about Vegas. It's funny. What is not, what is not, what am I missing here? Team completely sells out, goes all in. You know, everybody loves the scrappy golden nights. They milkshake duck themselves, basically, where it's like they turn the internet against them also with just the overall, the overall vibes emanating from there.

I love it. I think it's great. And now we're in a situation where, so we wake up and it's Tuesday morning and their playoff chances are down to depending on what model you look at like 17%, 21%. They're out on points percentage. They're out on total points. And they are behind, there are three points behind L.A., which is the easiest route that they have to making the playoffs.

And then they have Nashville and Dallas ahead of them in the wild card, in the wild cards. stuff, just lost in New Jersey, whatever. Right now, it's a win-win situation because they either miss, which is hilarious, or they make it and set up a first round matchup in all likelihood against the Edmonton, only later. Yeah. Edmonton Vegas, we're either going to get Edmonton Vegas in the first round or the Golden Knights are going to crash and burn in a pretty spectacular way here. I love it. So I've got a working theory on the Golden Knights because somewhere along the line, you know, as you mentioned, they went from the lovable Golden Knights, the underdogs, everybody cut us loose and we're going to form this great team. Incredible

story and they go on and run. And then they've constantly at every turn, and this is going to sound weird, but they've tried to upgrade like almost dramatically. It's like you're adding superstars and Petrolandre and Mark Stone and Jack Eichel and Robin Leonard, even when you, and, and, With each one of those moves, you're shipping out pieces that were part of that original team or you're changing, you know, you're changing the makeup of the dressing room. And now it's, you know, it feels like, it feels like to me like this all-star team that was put together, but doesn't have any of the soul. And this is all like gobbledy gook, terrible. Like there's no, you know, I can't, you can't quantify it or explain it. But they do seem like almost like that soul is gone.

Even the coaching. Like, I like Pete DeBore a lot. I think he's a great coach. But you had Gerard Gallant, who the players loved. We had, you know, we had who's killing it with the Rangers. And Jacob Truba comes in and says he's like Ted Lassow. Like, you fired Ted Lassow in the middle of all of this. Like, all of these moves, you keep doing it in the spirit of getting better.

And if you look at each move in a vacuum, you're like, hmm, they got Jack Eichael. Can't be mad about that. But, boy, Alex Tuck seemed like a great dude that you shipped out. in this. Like, I don't know what I'm even saying, but it just seems like each time you got better. Peyton Krebs, Peyton Krebs, cheap, young, productive. Nick Suzuki, you know, a player you probably want to have a run. Yeah, like, I don't know.

Each one, you're like, good for Vegas. Boy, they're pushing in. They're the aggressor. They got the superstar. And now you've got a bunch of superstars that you're paying a ton of money to. And you're this kind of all-star team that doesn't seem to be fitting together. Was there was there one move that? Was there like a tipping point for you?

Was there like one signing or one trade where you were like, okay, I'm not sure what the mixer is going to be? I would say, I think it's the, it was the Fleury-Lenner stuff. Again, I'm not mad at it. Like, Robin Lennar, you look at his numbers and his production, you're like, Robin Lennar's a really good goalie. You can't be mad at them. But it's just, if we're talking about the soul of the team and popularity and mix and room

and fan base and all these immeasurables, like Mark Andre Fleury is like the epitome of all of that, right? Yeah, he also won a Vesnal. I mean, he's also good. Like, this isn't like Joe Scrappy, you know, that everyone loves, but he can't play a lick. I think that's a big, that's a big one. They went all in on Leonard and it just hasn't, it just hasn't worked out. It hasn't worked out the way that they planned.

And you go into a season with Lauren Breslaz is your backup. That's fine. But he's been hurt. Ironically, Logan Thompson probably should have started all things considered last night against New Jersey. I don't know if we like stressed that point enough. They lost to the devils who've been just, you know, a toilet down the stretch, right? Um, I just, I feel like it was the, I feel like it was the Patrangelo signing.

That was the one that did a few. That's when they. And that's not a knock on him either because especially at that point, he was coming off a really good season. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't think anybody realistically would have guessed that he seems, I'm not going to say that he seems done. that's not true, but he does not seem like an $8 million player. And he's 32 years old, and he's got however many years left on that.

But that was the one where you saw, because you looked at the cost of it, you looked at what that did to their cap moving forward. And you're just like, I don't really, and whatever, maybe that this is hindsight. And I may be incorrect. It is. I don't remember any would be that mad about the signing at the time. No, and it may even be incorrect hindsight, because having him around didn't stop then from going out and adding

Jack Eichol, but the irony of all this, I think, is because of the injuries, which I do not use an excuse, because every team goes through injuries at some point or another. Colorado Avalanche have lost huge players for huge amounts of time. All the teams in the east,

whether it's Washington, whether it's Pittsburgh, all those guys have lost, all the scenes have lost key players for some amount of time or another. Like, be better than the L.A. Kings. Sorry, Vegas. Like, be better. than the team that everyone thinks is is two years away did absolutely nothing at the trade deadline like their own GM was like you know we need a little we need a little bit more we need a little bit more time

in the oven on this yeah like maybe find a way to pull ahead of them and don't blame injuries for any of this can i add about injuries but what happened when you becomes reliant on expensive star players at and you start losing depth in the process and you start losing cheap young contributors in the process because those are often the assets you have to send the other way to acquire great players. Then when you become top heavy, you don't have the depth, you don't have the cheap replacements, injuries impact you more. Oh, I mean, absolutely. Look at some of the guys they have in the lineup right now.

Like the roster they have right now, their active roster, and this does not include, obviously, guys like Riley Smith, which also, by the, this is what. this is why I started to say. I forgot. Oh, sorry. I lost my train. No,

I lost my train. I thought you saved my ass, actually. Thanks. They still haven't addressed their long-term salary cap issues in any real way. Because of the way the injuries have fallen and the fact that Stone was, you know, on the shelf for as long as he was, and the fact that he came back again magically whenever Will Carrier and all those guys

went on LTIR, the reckoning is still coming for them. right? Like whether that's trading, whether it's trading Riley Smith, whether it's, whether it's whoever it is, whoever it is revisiting the Dadaanov catastrophe. Like they still have not addressed the cap thing in any real way. But you're right. Down the stretch, you know, their active roster is a bunch of guys making $5 million or more. And then Jake Leshijian and, you know, Michael Amadio and Kegan Colossar, guys who are like playing more than they should for, cheaper than they should down the stretch.

But again, I have no, I have no sympathy for any of it. Like, those are the breaks. This is what it means to be an NHL franchise, honestly. It's like there is that lifespan. And we've talked about this before where this is purely from a public standpoint. This is purely from like, from an entertainment, like whatever. This is not any sort of moral judgment on any of these teams. But you get to a point where people are, you know,

are going to be excited to watch you fail. And that's where Vegas is right now. Like that's where they are in their lifespan. That's because of the way they've conducted business. It's because the players they went out and got and because of the social presence and all that stuff. It's funny. It's funny to watch this happen.

I don't know. I get no enjoyment from it. See, that's a difference between you and me, baby. You're nice. Okay, a couple things more before we get to teach. I was just having a conversation on Sunday with my son because he's he's all in on tankathon. Like, you know, you hit the button and it's got to refresh. And he's like, hey, how are the Red Wings?

How are the Red Wings doing? And I'm like, they're actually having a better year than they should, you know, in terms of your tankathon odds. And so we went on there. But everyone is still pissed off and depressed and they're still also not that good. It's very weird. It's a weird. They're no weird.

Yeah. And so we, you know, we hammered the thing like 10 or 12 times. And couldn't get them out of the ninth spot. And I'm like, you know what? It's clearly time to shut down Dylan Larkin. And wouldn't you know it? Wouldn't you know it? This is Cal?

This is you and Cal doing this? Yeah, me and Cal are doing this. Two days later, Dylan Larkin's out for the rest of the season. I mean, he has been playing hurt. There's no doubt about it. But it is, they need to, it is time to shut down everybody. And I actually don't, for rebuilding teams, I love that approach. Like scrap and claw and try to be competitive all year long until you get, you know, until you get to a certain point.

And then just everybody's got to go. It's over. It's over. It's over. The core injury is the ideal situation for, we'll say a tanking team. Yeah. With a really productive, still young player coming off the best season of his career, right? Because a core injury, it's serious and it's painful and it requires surgery.

Check, check, check. All reasons to set them down. And there are also very rarely long-term ramifications for it. Right. Like this isn't, this isn't Dylan Larkin having a neck injury or a knee injury or he didn't blow out his Achilles or whatever. This isn't some long-term thing. This is something that is painful and an issue for a lot of players. And then they have surgery, and then they are fine.

So that is like, yeah. And they play with it and guys play with it for long periods of time often. And then whenever they end up having the operation is, it's during an off season or it's when there's six games left, maybe. And the team needs a couple. They need a couple more lottery balls. It just got to improve the odds a little bit. So when we hit that button, I actually, I think at one point, Vegas got a top three

pick during that, which would be something. The other thing, so kind of tangentially tied to the Red Wings, so Jeff Blaschell will be part of the Team USA, get ready for a lot of World Championship talk on the Tuesday show for Team USA. Not a bit. No, it's not a bit at all. Like nobody knew. Producer Jeff, I'm like, hey, did you see, David Quinn got the job and Blaschel's on the staff?

And producer Jeff with this Canadian bias was like, oh, I saw Canada put their staff together, but I'm not sure if the Americans have. Yes, they have. We're also putting together a roster in a coaching staff for the world championships down here. We play too. We played too. We played too. David Quinn, Ryan Martin, the former AGM in Detroit, now the AGM in New York, putting it together. So I actually like the world championship.

So I loosely monitor it. I go when I can. I won't be now since I've retired from writing. But the, do we have, is that, did that slot open up for us? You want to go to the World Championships? Yeah, send me over there and go for it. Where is it this year? That's a good question.

It's somewhere great. It always is. We'll have to get David Quinn back on because we wanted to have him wear his gold, Olympic gold on the show. It didn't happen. What does fifth place get? Finland! It's an, oh my gosh.

Sean, I'd be worried about you surviving. Bossman, I'm going to Finland. Gosh. Oh my gosh We have we have to have either Ryan Martin or David Quinn on And we're going to run it back We would also accept a world championship gold As a consolation

And then for him to come back on Zoom with that Metal, did they give out medals? I don't know So we'll be monitoring that I also wanted just to throw out To get before we get to break My pick for Michigan State Coach Because I know you are all

We're waiting to hear It should be Adam Nightingale Adam is he's working in the program right now in Plymouth. I got to know Adam a little bit in Sweden during a tournament. I was spending time with the U-18 team. I think he was a video coach of that team. He comes from a family. They're all like brilliant numbers,

like super progressive, modern, understand the game now, but also has paid his dues, spent time on the Red Wing staff. He's really smart. And I think he's just a logical, he's a Michigan State guy, logical, plug them in,

and then I can, you know, my, so this is my shadow regime, getting the right people in the right position. So you know what to do, Michigan State. I have,

I have the perfect idea, actually. Yeah. Totally rip off the Michigan Hoops model and have Nightingale as the head coach, right? Young guy. And then hire Jerry York. Just go,

who's going to be our old-timey, Who will be in the Phil Martelli role On the bench here I like that Let's do that And Michigan State needs To start getting some of those kids

From the program Adams You said this before too It is wild The stranglehold The University of Michigan It's not working Look

Look you They flooded the zone In Ann Arbor With a bunch of those stud kids It didn't work They didn't win Let's send them to East Lansing Also

or, you know what, made a pretty mediocre season for the, for the Maryland D1 club hockey team. So I don't know, maybe, maybe route some those guys over there. Do you have any other thoughts you have to get out before we get to Tage? A lot of stuff. The Donald Fear stuff, the NHLPA, what else can be said other than if that's not a systemic breakdown? I don't know what it is. It's always funny to see someone describe something.

Yeah. And then say this is actually not, this is actually not what it is. That's like, like, I, all right, here's what I have. I have, I have, I have, I have dough and it's stretched out and rolled and spread thin. And then, and then I put sauce and cheese and pepperoni on it and I bake it. This is not a pizza. Yeah. It's not a pizza.

I know I just described a pizza, but that's not actually, that's not actually what it is. Yeah, it's a weird form of, uh, gas. lighting, I would say, is the way that, is the way that announcement came out. Because you're like, you know, you can talk, all we can do is guess at the motivations from the people that are involved. Like, and there's no point in doing that. But the outcome of it was absolutely a systemic failure. Like, they described it. They're like, here's what happened. And it was really bad. Like, they're like, they warn USA hockey. Like, it was all lined up. And they, they, like, said as much. And we had, we had a system.

them in place and it failed, but it was not a systemic failure. Okay. That's, that's like paraphrased the stuff weird from them a couple days ago. So frustrating. Great, great, great sport, great sport. Anytime you're like dropping stuff at five o'clock on a Friday. What did you? Because the, what the air conditioner was broke or I don't remember what the reasoning was. It's a transparent. Let me see how to, what's the right way to say this. That's what? what a lie would look like. If you and I were just like, look, we got to, we have some really bad news. What do we do?

We got some bad news. We know that everybody is expecting it. We backed ourselves into a corner to drop this on a given day. Maybe there's a holiday. Can we do it? Could we find a holiday? Yeah. Oh, it's Friday.

It's Friday. How can we buy ourselves a few more hours to drop it by the time everybody is completely checked up? Power outage. Got it. Do better hockey. Come on. Nice end of the season for Johnny Goodro.

Oh, we did want to talk about Johnny Gujarro. Our cast, we are all over the place. This is like the darkboard first segment. This is the bullet list. The bullet list. Johnny Gujarro, we've made the heart case for him. His teammates have come on this podcast and made the heart case for him. He, but nobody's doing it better than Johnny Goodro.

Two more goals. What a year he's having. line is absurd. Yeah, so good. Elias Lindel is going to finish with 40 goals. Kachuk's going to finish with 40 goals. At least two of them are going to end up with 100 points. Yeah.

I mean, Lindem's going to fall short, but that's... And we've already said we can talk Flames Hockey on this podcast because they're honorary Americans because nobody in Canada seems to care about the Calgary Flames. So we'll loop them in. And they're led by Americans. That team can get secondary scoring. it could be a real problem. And that wasn't happening for a while.

The Mangiopani to Foley line was, you know, kind of funky. But Dylan Duvay's come around, that forward group, whatever, Blake Coleman, I believe he's had some playoff success. Yeah. If they can get, if they can get something, if they get something from those guys, they're going to be a problem. All right. Let's take a quick break.

And Tage Thompson, the Buffalo Sabers coming up next. We are now thrilled to be joined in the second. segment by Buffalo Savers forward, Tage Thompson, who is having, as I've noted many times, Sean, throughout this year, an incredible season. Tage, first of all, thanks for doing this. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having it. So, first of all, I want to start, besides the fact that, Sean just sent me, you've now

equaled Jack Eichel's career high. That's just not for nothing. I like that that's happened at 36 goals. I want to start with the broken stick goal against the Blackhawks, because what an incredible moment that was. I was reading quotes that you said after the game, like you're basically skiing back to the bench and everyone's going crazy.

What was it like in that moment for you? Yeah, that was wild. Obviously, it was a crazy goal. It was a crazy game in general, too. Obviously, we're down, I think 4-0 there in the second. So, clawed our way back and going out there in the last minute there and get a power. play and you know there's not much time on the clock left and you get a pretty good look there at a

one-timer and your stick breaks and I was I was fuming I was pretty mad that my stick snap I thought was a pretty good look at the net and as soon as it snapped I just sprinted back to net try to get a stick and get back in the play and halfway to the bench I heard everyone going nuts so I just turned around I thought one of our guys like poked in a rebound or something like maybe just got to the net it was laying there and then they're like yeah let's go and I was like But who scored? And they're like, you did. I was like, no, go can't.

And I watched it on the replay. I was like, that was insane. So, yeah, it was a funny one to talk about for a while after the game there. It was, I mean, if you watched the replay, listeners, if you didn't see it, go do it. Like, the stick breaks. It just kind of goes off the end boards. And then who knows? I don't even know.

It's just pinballs. It's way in. Yeah, it's crazy. I think he, I don't think he was expecting it to go off the end boards and come back out in front, I think it just timed it perfectly. Whereas as you were sliding across, it went off his foot and back in the mess. So pretty unfortunate bounce for them and obviously one that will take. Yeah.

Do you, are you a guy going into, I mean, the big headline with you is just an incredible breakout season, especially goal scoring. Do you go in with a number in your head, like, okay, this is my like satisfactory number? You know, if things go well, this is my number. And if so, what was that? Yeah, I think you always kind of set goals for yourself. And then once you hit them, you immediately just start setting new ones. And I think as you get closer and closer, your goal kind of keeps getting further and further away from you.

And that's kind of the bar I try to set is I want to set a bar that's achievable, but then that's always moving away from me. So, you know, I think coming into the season, it was like 20 and 20 would be nice if I could get that. And then once I get around 15, I'm like, all right, well, maybe I can get 25. And then you start getting closer to 25. And that bar just keeps getting further or further away and keeps you hungry. And I think that's a good way to look at it. Did you set the bar at 40 yet? Are you shooting for it?

You're close. Yeah, that's the bar right now. And obviously, it'll be a tough one to get. But I think it's doable. We'll see what happens. We've got four games left here. And, yeah, it would be a nice number to hit for sure. You get, there's a, there's a, we have a bump for our guests.

do they tend to go score goals the next couple games so we think you'll get there that's that's honestly true it happened it happened to rosslovak last week he he came out and putted two right after so congratulations you're gonna be doing some work all right sounds good so you know in looking at your numbers have you ever had a see like i looked at yukon and you know you played on the of course in part of the reasons we have you on we love the development team and those you know especially the group you played on that 1415 team we just run we're just running down the roster. And like, has there ever been a season like this for you

where it's just all come together like this? Offensively. I mean, I feel like college was, was a pretty, two pretty good years for me there too. Or I felt like things were coming together. I was at Yukon there. So we were at Wino and hockey. So I knew it was going to get a lot of opportunity there,

playing all situations. That was part of the reason why I went there in the first place. at being my draft year, my freshman year. So I needed to go somewhere where I thought I was going to play a lot and get a lot of the opportunity. So I felt like those two years, you know, started my offense, started to click. And I feel like I've always had that growing up,

you know, youth hockey, whatever, that's, you know, kind of been my thing. And then obviously you go to a team where you got lots of guys who do the same thing, but maybe a little better than you. Just for example, going to the program there, you got guys like Matthews and Ross, that could shock guys like that. So maybe take a, you know, a little bit different role on teams like that.

And then, you know, I think this season in terms of pro, this is obviously the first season where it's kind of just come all together for me. So it's definitely been a rewarding feeling for sure. Just having put in all the work and now it's starting to get results. So it feels good. I mean, Don said that last week. He like went down the list of all the stuff you showed, especially that year when it was 14, 15. You know, he said you had the size and you had the skate.

and you had the mindset and the brain and all that. It was just a matter of getting experience and kind of putting it all together. But like, what does that look like as you add the experience? Like, what, if that's what you needed and if that's what helped it all come together, like how have things changed, like on that front from the experience level, like over the last couple years? Yeah, I think with experience, like you said there, like I had the tools. It's just, I think learning when to use them in certain. situations. I think that's where the experience part comes in. You know, like you're young,

you come out of college. You've been a goal score in college and a guy that can make plays. And then you come to a pro. And for me, I was trying to make plays happen every single shift and forced stuff. And obviously when you're playing, you know, fourth line minutes, you got to be responsible with the puck and in your own end. And that was something that I had to learn and get better at. I'm still working on just drowning out that part of my game. And I think it's just something you continue to grow at. And as you get more experience and you get more opportunity, you know, when coaches start to show you more trust that you're going

over the boards, you want to pay it back and make sure that you're doing the right things. So you can keep earning that respect and that trust from them. And I think that's just something I've been trying to do over the years. And I think when you do that, you just put your nose to the grindstone and do things that are going to help your team and, you know, do what's called upon you. then those opportunities will be given to you. And for me, it's just been kind of all about earning it. And I think once you get that rhythm going, that experience an opportunity,

then the confidence starts to come along with that. And that's what things start going your way. Can we talk about the move to center a little bit? What was that process like? Where was that idea generated? Can you walk us through that? Yeah, I've always played center growing up. That's been my natural position.

just growing up. And then I think when I went to the program, Donnie was moved me to wing. And that was like kind of my first time playing wing was when I went to the program, obviously were stacked in the middle. So there's no spot for me there. So learned to play wing at the program.

And then obviously, Yukon saw me on wing at the program when they recruited me. So I went in and played wing there as well. And then my second year at Yukon, I played center a little bit again, but I hadn't played in a while. And then I just got drafted as a winger. And I think that's kind of just what everyone saw me as.

And then Donnie called me last summer and was like, hey, what do you think about going back to the middle? And I was like, yeah, I would love that. So that's something we talked about in the summer and that would be a possibility coming into this season. And in training camp, I came here and he had my look down the line up sheet and I was down the middle. So I was like, all right, sweet, we're going to roll with it.

And obviously it worked out. I feel comfortable in the middle. Obviously, there's a little rust there. and in the faceoff dot and getting used to taking draws again, certain things that come with playing center. But yeah, I definitely feel more comfortable in the middle. I mean, it seemed like you kicked off the rust quickly. Like, I know taking face off is an adjustment.

And I know the defensive responsibilities are different. But, I mean, was there, was it like 10 games in, you felt comfortable? Was it five games? Was it 20? Like, when we were like, all right, like, this is, I'm back on, I'm back on the bike here. I think in terms of like just playing the game when you're, you know, obviously in between whistles and not in the face off top, but just when you're coming up the middle of the ice, I just, I like, I feel more comfortable coming up the middle. You know, you can see the whole ice coming up. And I feel like I'm someone who, when they get their speed going, that's like where I'm at my best. I can build up my speed rather than like stopping and starting on the wing in your D zone. I feel like as a center, you can come underneath and support and build speed. And that's something I like. And I think it just gets you more involved in the game too.

You're always getting puck touches. And for me, when I'm at my best is when I'm getting those puck touches, even the smallest puck touches give you a little bit of confidence for making that next play. And I think that helps me, you know, build my game. And, you know, game to game, just continue to grow and get more confidence with the puck. And, you know, when you're feeling it, that's when you're going well. So it's funny because there's all these generalizations people want to make about big hockey players, especially, right? And like, you know, you're six, seven. So people want to say, oh, this guy's

going to develop into a power fort. Like, I heard that about you draft year. And this is what, this is what, this is how it's going to go for Tage Thompson. But all, but with you, when you talk to people or you read things, it's like, it's vision. It's, it's, it's, it's intelligence. It's, you know, it's not the kind of prototypical six foot seven kind of descriptions. How much of that is, you know, you know, being a coach's son and being, you know what you mean? Like, I imagine that you have a bit of that coach's kid mentality to you yeah yeah i think majority of it is that and another piece of that is i wasn't always the biggest kid yeah i was a i was a late bloomer um like big time i was uh 6 1 160 at the program and i left the program oh really i didn't realize oh i didn't know that

and then i went in the next year at college at 6 4185 so i grew three inches over the summer and put on 25 pounds so and then i think i grew another inch the next season, like to 6-5, and then when I turn pro grew another two-edged. So you keep growing and you just, you feel like, okay, you start to get comfortable with your skating and then you grow a little bit and then you're like, oh, I feel weird and then you got to keep adjusting. And then I feel like I finally, you know, stopped growing, the weight starting to come out and feel comfortable in my body.

And obviously, like, when I've been younger, I've always been like the smaller skilled guy on the team. So I wasn't a guy that would just go run around and use his body. I was still to learn how to use. that part to my game and I'm still learning, you know, how to use my body in certain situations to benefit me. But, you know, when I was younger, it was, I relied on more of my hockey sense and my skill to create plays and get open. And I think, obviously, that's something that's just stuck with me. And now that I have the size, it's something that I have now plus the size.

And I think just learning how to combine those two will be nothing but a benefit for me. That's wild. That's something you hear about Hoopers, more than hockey players. That's something here from basketball guys who are like, yeah, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was six one when I was like, my dad's six three. So I mean, that's obviously pretty big. My mom's five, nine. So, um, I mean, those are, those are pretty good heights, but like six six six or whatever I'm like now. It's just I don't, it can't kind of came out of nowhere the last few years. And, um, I mean, my brother's like six, six one or six two right now. So, um, obviously I'm the anomaly in the family, but. Did any, that.

How much did that happen like during off seasons? Like was there was there a summer where it was like you did, you got two or three inches and you came back and you're like, you're like, you learn everything. Yeah. Like what, how do you, how do you adjust whenever you make those jumps?

The big one was, obviously the year from the program when I was six one. And then that was throughout the course of the season into the, the next season. So it was over the summer as well. So you're like three, three and a half inches or whatever. And then,

um, after my freshman year, that summer I grew another inch and a half or something like that. So I think the biggest focus was just making sure that I'm continually working on my skating, working on my, the mechanics of my stride, so I can always fall back on that. And obviously, I think the biggest thing with the skating is as you grow, the strength, it, like, you know, you got to continue to build leg strength as you get taller because your center of gravity is changing.

I think as long as I had that foundation of my stride and continue to work on the mechanics, that was a big focus for me. And then obviously the weight lifting, too. but it just seemed like no matter what I did in the gym, the weight just wouldn't come on. And I feel like the past couple of years now it's starting to. So it's a good feeling now that it feels like. You're an inch, you're an inch taller on the program now than you were a couple, a couple years ago. And you're 15 pounds heavier.

So like your, your official numbers are up. How did you end up at in the way? Because I know, I know how, I've heard how hard it is for tall guys dad weight. that's not a that's not that's not a problem for me but was there was there was there was there was there were there buffet trips you're in a good you're in a good city to add weight I think I think I've I think I've I think I've gained 15 pounds in Buffalo as well yeah everywhere you look there's restaurants here and good food too so but um yeah in the summer just like eating becomes a job it's I feel like I was eating five six meals a day and um it gets pretty pretty annoying but obviously something I got to do and

I think a lot of it too is just just that's terrible my dad bummer yeah I mean, it sounds good in theory, but then, you know, by the end of summer, you're just, you're grinding to get food, your throat. So, but I think a lot of it's genetics too. My dad was always a late bloom or two. I think he didn't put on weight until he was like 23, 24, somewhere in there too. When he was playing pro, I think he was like 175 or 185 when he was drafted. And then he ended up playing at like 210, 205 somewhere in there. So same thing.

I kind of knew that was going to happen. And now I'm starting to, I feel like, come on and stay on a little bit better. There was John Vogel, our teammate here at The Athletic Road of Story recently. And the last quote came from you and it said, I like the spot I'm in now. And it was kind of in reference to the whole Ryan or Riley trade. And like you're all, there's always going to be that connection. And I think with that, some pressure and you're going to be asked about it in moments like this and for the rest of your life. How long did it take for you to get to that spot where you said, I'd like the spot on it now.

Like, yeah, I'm comfortable with that now. I mean, I've always been comfortable with that trade. Like, I knew it was going to come with all the outside noise and, you know, and then he goes on and, you know, wins the cup and Constantine or whatever it was. And, you know, in the back of your mind, you know, like, it's coming. Like, people are going to talk about that. But at the same time, like, I like that pressure. I feel like that I use that as fuel. I think that's a good motivator for me.

You know, obviously you can take it one or two ways. You can let it deter you and kind of beat you down or you can use that to, you know, drive you and get better. And I think I've taken that and tried to use that as to feel and prove that I can live up to that. And I think that's kind of been the driving force. And at the same time, you know, when you hear that, but you try to block it out at the same time, you know, like it's going to be there, that outside noise. But at the same time, like, it has no effect on you. like my job here is to help the team like no matter what happened with him when he was here what he's doing in St. Louis like my job here is to help the team win and and do what I can to

get better you know individually and as as a group here. So that's kind of my mindset with that stuff. It's been tough not to watch you guys over the last month or six weeks and not be, you know, I think we're rooting for Buffalo on some level just just because the way things have things have gone there over the last 10 years or 15 years. But how of, I mean, specifically the last month, like in the last six weeks, the vibe shift has been really, really positive. Like, it seems like, it seems like the fan base feels better. You got Josh, you got, you know, you got Josh Allen hanging out, hanging out yesterday, all that stuff. How have things change now even versus like the midpoint of the season? Because it's palpable.

Like, just watching it from the outside, it's like things seem like they're going better there. Yeah, I think, uh, I think a lot of there's just the guys we have here. I think everyone in the room just truly believes that we're going to turn the ship around and everyone's willing to put in the work to do it. And we just got a good group of guys. Honestly, I think it comes down to the character in the room. I think you look at a lot of games that we've played. You know, we've had leads going into the third where we blew them in the third period early in the year. And, you know, we collectively looked at ourselves as a group and said, hey, if we want to get better, like, this is something we need to learn how to fix.

And I think the last half of the year since February on, I think, has been pretty good. I mean, we've been down and come back in games. And I think it's just the character of guys willing to work for each other and, you know, do what they're called upon. And I think it's just, it just like builds excitement around the room and around the city. I think we're a blue-collar team. And I think the city and the fans respect that. And I think we just got to slowly keep working and we'll earn back their respect. So you have a hard trophy ballot, and I'm saying you have to pick between Austin Matthews and Johnny Goodrow.

We've been pumping the tires of the Americans pretty hard on this podcast. But we're pretty torn here. So we're going to give you the ballot for a second here. Who you select them? Put me on the spot. Obviously, both are having incredible seasons. What they're doing is ridiculous. But, I mean, I've played with Austin that year at the program.

I think I knew, like, I think everyone that that's watched him play from a young age or younger age knows he was capable of doing that and to see him do it now and just, you know, breaking that record there in Toronto's is pretty insane. And I think I got to give it to him, like, what he does, what do you have, like, 51 goals and 50 games? Yeah, I mean, that's ridiculous. I think the scary, yeah, like, the scary part is, like, I think he can do better than that. Like, I think there's still more, you know what I mean? So, I mean, you're the right guy to ask on this. Also, because, like, you do some great work in the slot and you can, you're, you're, you're a goal scorer now. And that's, that's, that's it.

But what is it about, what's it about Austin's game that's different? Like, like, how does he, how is he, what is it, is it, is it little stuff? Is it practice habits? Is it the spots that he finds in the ice? Like, when you watch him, he does something fundamentally different that allows him to score all these goals. like what is it in your in your eyes i think it's it's the hunger i think his hunger and his intensity i think he like even when i practice with him at the program like you watch this guy practice it's like a game seven for him in practice like he's going insanely hard like he wants

to beat the goalie every time he shoots the puck like he's not just coming down and like wrist him one hoping it goes in or you know like he's coming in like he's going to score every single time i think those little habits the way he practices how how hard he is on his And his one-on-one battles, even in practice, his stick bells, he never loses battles. If you be watching a game, he's so strong on the puck. And I mean, how many times you watch him come from behind strip a guy and turn the other way? Or a guy may think he has it leaving the zone. He's picking your pocket.

And I think those little things, get him extra shots in a game. And maybe he catches a goalie off guard there because his release is so quick, too. And I think his hockey sense, too. Yeah. People say the puck always finds him. but obviously he's in the spots where the puck is always at. And I think you notice out a lot where he's just kind of in a spot. And if you ISO camera a lot, you're kind of like, where is he going?

And the puck just finds him and it just lands right on a stick and it's in the net. So I love watching him. I think he's one of my favorite players to watch in the league. And I try to copy him a little bit and see where he's going on the ice and try to, you know, imitate him a little bit. All right. Last question for me. We've inadvertently started running off a string of,

of guests from that 1415 team. We had Matthew Cucuk and Jack last week, yourself. We have Troy Terry next week. So who, we're going to let you pick the next one in terms of the most entertaining player off that group that you think. And we were just saying, like, we got to get to the point where, like, it's somebody who hasn't been playing for you? Like, who is the most fun guy on that day?

Do you guys do Fisher yet? What's that? No. No. Do Christian Fisher. All right. All right. That's the character.

Book it, Jeff, book Christian Fisher. All right, producer Jeff is on assignment. Awesome. He's hilarious. That's great. Awesome. Well, Tage, thanks for doing this, man. Congratulations on an incredible season so far and a strong finish for you guys.

Buffalo. It's exciting what's happening there, and it's been fun to watch so far. So thanks a lot, man. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. This is the only good segment on the show. It is when we go into the comment section. On our episode page, last week, our guess, was Jack Roselvic, Craig, abandoned me.

How was it? How to go? He was great. Awesome. I'm, I always like, I like that they have a group of Ohio dudes on that team. I think that's very fun. They have, they have Sean Carly and a couple other guys, including Jack. Yeah, they've been good.

They've been good down the stretch. I think they're another team. They just needed something. They need something positive. would happen there. So if you listened and you're wondering why A, I wasn't on and B, why we referenced kind of scrambling and then you listened what two days later when we had the kind of round table with Sean and me and Katie Strang and Dan Robson and Ian Mendez talking about the Eugene Melnick story. That is why we, that was supposed to be our second segment,

but we everything had to be buttoned up. Yeah. And Jack Roscoffick was a great And Jacks saved the day. Great contingency plan in case we could not roll with the Eugene Melnick story by those three on the day as intended. So we needed someone to sub in. I don't know how much more we can say about that. But yeah, we needed a couple extra days. We taped that segment on, we recorded that segment on Tuesday and it needed it needed to run on Thursday because that's when the story ran. So that's why it was, that's why you were, yeah, that's why you were, that's why you guys were deprived of Craig speaking to.

trying to find a way to tactfully act Jack Roselvic if it hurts his feelings that nobody wants to play in Columbus. So, yeah, I would say if you didn't listen to that roundtable with Sean, Sean and I really carried it, but the rest of the people were pros. And it got into, I mean, first of all, read the Eugene Melnick story if you haven't. And then it was just complete, full-on transparency about the process and how it went down, why it ran when it did. And it was just, I let, I think.

that's important for us to do as journalists. And I just, I'd like that we were able to do that. And it, um, you know, it was just good. Yeah. As a, as a reader as someone who, I mean, obviously I had known that I had known about the story and I had had discussions about the story while I was in the works, but I hadn't, you know, seen it in any final form. Um, and as a reader, I, you know, it was really helpful. And talking to them is always great. So that segment is on last Thursday's show with with Ian in Sean McIndoo. And then we end up parachuting in and honestly not talking that much. I thought we did a good job of shutting our mouths, which is, you know, typically we're so,

we're so great at. 36 comments on episode. And they're funny. I was just telling Sean during the break up. Like, these are really funny. Like, people are funny. Adam P. I would like to thank Adam P.

for giving me an idea for a post at some point. This might be, correct me from wrong, this might be an off-season post. This feels like it's, this feels like maybe an August thing. Okay. Who is the most indisputably average player in the league and why? Which is, oh, baby, that is like, that's wheelhouse stuff. Ted C has a great answer, and this has been my stock answer for a while is Calli Yarncrock. I don't the thing is I don't I think Cali Yarncrock is a step above average I think you win games with Cali Yarncrock

the funny thing about Calli Yarncrock is until this season I mean he is what he is right he's a he's a third he's a good third line center that scores 15 goals and has great defensive impacts he was that every he would that was the guy he was for eight straight seasons or whatever he had identically productive years for however long that was. And I don't think that necessarily makes him average. My answer, snap answer here is Colin White. Oh, that's a good one. Sunderers. But, but there's more, there's more comment. There's a lot. That's a story. And if McIndoo is listening to this and he's not, I'm sticking claim to this one. Well, Michael Kay actually says you better write it more Macon do does. And I would read a combo. Like, you guys should collaborate

on this. We need to do more of that. You should. You should. It's good reading. Like Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. That's right. Just like that.

Yeah. And look, there was a lot of, there was a lot of talk about that, which is great. They'll let you know it's a great idea and a great sort of debate is that, you know, multiple threads talking about using GSVA

to find the player with a median GSVA, which is true. That's one way to do it. But I think there's a couple different doors to go through. And you have, my word at some point in August, I will go through them. If you could get truth serum out of

NHL players, which you can't. Asking them, their answer would be even more fun. Like, here's what the numbers say. But, like, if you had some players, like, yeah, it's Colin White. That is something, too, where, like, you wouldn't need truth serum so much as you would,

like, you could give guys truth serum it's not like it's a negative. I would love to be an average. And get them the top. talk about stuff that they don't want to talk about, right? Like, I don't, I don't think that's quite what this is. I think this is a conversation that, like, they would, that if we were speaking to them, if we were their friends and we were speaking of them in some completely non-media capacity,

that is a conversation that dudes have on their own. Yeah, they would enjoy it if they didn't think it was going to end up in the athletic. It would be, it would be fun if they knew that there would be absolutely no repercussions and their words would not be, you know, communicated anonymously or not. Could you win? Hold on. Really quick. Could you win if you, like, by definition, if you're average, there's players worse than you,

if your whole forward group and defensive group, like, if it was just built all of the same average player, like, you would be better? Or would you just be like middle of the road just by, I don't know. It really depends on like what, it depends on. This is a rabbit hole. This is why it absolutely is. like do we just go by GSVA like do we just sort by one do we just sort by one point zero GSVA guys and Dom's thing do we do something a little bit different where like maybe we try

to find uh guys with you know um maybe 50% expected goals for rates maybe guys who were at complete zero like relative to that to that stat with their teammates um is there something a little bit more ineffable to it where like you're like you can eyeball a guy and you're like that's that's an average player right i don't know this is some this this is a discussion that we're going to have in some longer form and not just in three minutes on the back of a back end of a podcast but shout out to slurms mackenzie who said who asked if it's brayden mcnab might be true jason k who can i email to say the only reason i'm not canceling the athletic is because of the tuesdays yo's pro-cosco stance which very pro casco came out came out came out

swing in there, baby. Just kidding. If your Jack Hughes curse didn't get me to cancel, nothing will. Which, I don't know if that's a Jack Hughes curse necessarily. I will say most players go on to have

great performances after they appear on the show. You see what happened with Roscovic? Yeah, just went off. When we scheduled it, after we scheduled it, he had two goals and then he had, I believe, another three point night immediately afterwards. Yeah. A real question from Jason, if the Lightning win this year, are they an official dynasty or do the two COVID year Cups count against them?

Oh my gosh. No doubt dynasty. They might already be because don't forget, they went to the cup finals with a lot of the core and loss of the Blackhawks. Like this has been a long time run. This has been a long run for this group. They got to win another one. Penn one's got three. All right, fine.

But they're knocking on the door. And also, we are not counting the COVID years against them. I would say winning in the bubble was way harder than, not way harder, but was when you talk to players about how miserable the bubble was and you saw, they hated it. And when you saw like teams like the Bruins or whoever just like you could tell they didn't even want to be there, like just get bounce, like good teams just get bounced that were like, this year's not maybe not the year. We're going to, we're going to.

That last game that the Bruins played. Wow. Yeah. Like it was clear some people didn't want to be there. And the lightning meanwhile, like they showed up. I mean, that classic game against Columbus just gutted their way through it. It would have been easy to full up the tents and just say it's been a weird year and this is a terrible setup. They didn't.

The COVID year is not a negative. It is, if anything, it's a positive in my mind for the lightning. Yeah, I just can't. I can't go down that rabbit hole where you say that stuff counts and stuff doesn't count. much as I would much as I would like to. The question is like where, if they win the cup this year,

where are they in the best teams of the cup era or the cap era with the Blackhawks, kings and penguins? Like where do they slot? They're there. Well, I know they're there. They're there now, but where do they slot?

Well, they're probably... That's another good story, by the way. In terms of sustained success, yeah, that's a collab with me and someone also, I would say. I would put him at 2A. I would probably have them tied

with the Black Hawk. You're tying them with somebody? Fine. Put them out of the Blackhawks. Because Pittsburgh, you have Pittsburgh one? Yes. They went that whole long stretch without doing anything of note. It wasn't a whole long.

I mean, so is every. What have the, what have the Kings done for the last five years? What have the Blackhawks done for the last five or six years? If we're grading in the cap era, yeah, yeah. Both, they're the only team that hasn't rebuilt. They've made the playoffs six. 16 straight years in one more cups than any of it, than anybody else.

Like, that's, that's it. All right. Am I a Homer? No, you're right. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. 16 straight playoffs, zero rebuilds. The Kings and Blackhawks have both gone in the tank to varying degrees.

They have less cups in the first place. The question is if the lightning win another one is if they're, is if they're right there with Pittsburgh. We'll see. I want to read this next one. Nicholas K. asked, I don't think I've ever wanted to curse on this app before, but whichever one of you was bouncing, this is, by the way, I read this with just horrified, was a gum, it was bouncing a cough drop around their teeth deserves an itch on the bottom of their foot every time they put their damn shoes on.

Yep. Sean Fest up, I mean, could you be less professional? Like, I don't do well with sounds. That, I would have shut it off immediately. felt terrible about it. I chew gum during the podcast pretty regularly because my throat gets dry. It's like what Dave Grohl does.

It's like Dave Grohl chewing gum when he sings. It's the exact same thing. Oh, yeah. And I changed my mic setup a couple weeks ago, and now I have it in front of me where I used to like kind of turn to the side and it wreaked havoc and I'm really sorry because that is disgusting.

I apologize to everyone for doing it. I could have blamed it on you, but I didn't. Yeah, I don't. Michael Kay, if he would have blamed me, I would have figured it out eventually. I am a little out of touch, but not that. I do read the comments. Did I have a cop drop? Yeah, like, I would have no.

I would never have done that. I'm pretty sure I didn't have a cough drop last week. Come on. Got my friends Alex and Wyatt into the show, Carolina says, can you call them pieces of shit for me? Yes. Yeah, sure. Alex and Wyatt, you pieces of shit.

Welcome, Alex and Wyatt. Wyatt just said Dallas is a lot of fun to watch and Alex is a flyers of hurricanes turncoat. Ooh. I don't know if Wyatt watched that Dallas game last night, but I agree with him. Alex, Alex Turner from Philly to Carolina is tough. Don't tell anybody in Philly. I feel like that would get you like, yeah. Jeez.

I hope you moved permanently. That's not, well, the thing about people from Philly is that they also hate Philly. So I don't know. It's tough. I like that players on the Philadelphia Phillies are just like, oh, this place. Oh, what's that dude? I hate this F in place, he says. Oh, my gosh.

One of the great apologies, and this is now the athletic baseball. Yeah, welcome to that. It's now an episode of the athletic baseball show. One of the great apologies of all time when he was like, yep, I said it. I was, I was pissed. I'm sorry. I feel bad about it. Shouldn't have done it, but I absolutely said it.

This is what Alex Baum? Is that who it was, if I remember correctly? Yeah. Because now, I bet you Philly fans will love this guy. Because, like, I think he got a standing O the next night or whatever. Like, people are going to embrace it. So just own up. If you screw up, own up.

I was mad. And people in Philly, like, if they probably love that. We've got a comment from our beloved Michael S here talking about the playing tournament. The upshot is that he signed it as not a member of Rousseau's Army, which, transparent lie. That's exactly what someone in Rousseau's army would say. Thou doth protest too much Michaeless

Slurms McKenzie We had our We talked about the metallic The metallic Vegas helmets The metallic King's helmets This is something that I didn't quite get across The right way last week And I would like to apologize for it

I was thinking about sending out a notes apology for it Geez what a rough episode it was for you This is your third apology about The gum? My God the I love non-traditional jerseys I love the Dallas neon jerseys I love when teams try to do different stuff right so I'm all for you know in this slurms and Dallas needs to go full Oregon and get some dig low lids for their third like yes fine do it that because that would work like neon green plastic would work with the shade of green that they found I I'm all for um like I said

especially non-traditional teams just like whatever do something different shake it up. It's purely an aesthetic thing between the helmets in the jersey thread. Also from Slams looks it up

and says that if you're an operator of a Touch Tunes jukebox which you've talked about before you can request for songs to be added

which seems like that might be how we get I know some I know some bar folks around here that might be how we get Kormick song on Touch tunes in the

in the Pittsburgh metro area Great I had to explain touch tunes to Cormick And I started by saying It's a jukebox And he's like Nope Dad, we can just stop talking now

Like I might as well said It's a telegraph Like What old-timey thing, dad are you? It's a streetcar You know those horses that you You know those horses that you tie your those posts that you tell your horses

to outside saloons I don't like that it's like Spotify attached to a big Yeah that's what I should That was the correct way to explain it to a Somebody born Yeah right But we're old and we're old and we still like touch to and see the

It's like a phonograph that turned into a jukebox That turned into it You know whatever you go down the malt shop And put a nickel in the Play the favorite new Bill Haley in the comic song Great idea from Adam M. It's a pie in the sky stuff, but whatever.

Have the bottom 16 teams play a short tournament for number one overall in the draft. That's something that's been kicked around. That's been proposed to the league. I know because I talked to the person that did, like it was at least suggested that was floated. And I'm like, this is, I think I wrote about it. If you Google. I have a guess as to who it is. They submitted it.

I wrote about it. And it was, and I think people got mad that I wrote it because it was like, No, just because somebody submits something, doesn't make it a story. But I love the idea. Did I cut you off before you even explain the idea? I might have, because I get excited about this. I mean, Adam does a good job of explaining it. It couldn't be straight up for the pick, but it could be an increase in percentage for getting the first overall.

Best odds would be to finish dead last in regular season and win the tournament. Like that's sort of, you know, the long and short of it. Do this. Everybody in all these cities in Montreal and Buffalo and Detroit or wherever, you would watch a tournament. where you get to put, like, it would be, you could sell it and sponsor it and bring in money and sells it. Like, just do that. Like, it's random anyways now. Might as well make money off of it. Do this. It's just wild to me that like, for as terrified as the league is, of tanking and of all the bizarre tweaks that they've made at the lottery formula, like every year, it's something,

it's something different. The fact that they haven't found a way to at least turn it into like a revenue slash attention generator is whatever. Classic unforgivable, stupid NHL shit. Okay.

What? No, I'm wrong? No, you're right. Just give us the keys to the league for one year. Yeah. Just do it. Or just let us pick like three or four things to do. we got this that's not that's another thing and that's a that's a that's a

that's a McIndoo thing commission for a day something is he's is it because yeah he could be in the in the group we would we would we would double revenues we would we would have a set the salary cap would be triple just be rich beyond your wildest dreams come to the the the two-headed commissioner of Custins and we'd be like the Savannah bananas have you seen that team that were like people come out of the stands and pitch Like, I would be like, I would just take whatever there are, I get there, like, whoever's coming up with those ideas, get them in a meeting and be like, hey, let's do all of this. You can pull some strings.

I feel like we can make it happen. Nicholas Fied, don't forget to mention next week that the U.S. now has two 50 goals scores while Canada has zero. Hmm. He made that comment on April 13, and guess what, buddy? It is still true. Awesome Matthews 58. Leon Dresed up from Germany, 54. Chris Kreider, who I feel like you were busting my ass for early on the season for being like,

I don't know, man. I love that he has 50 goals. That's amazing. He stayed healthy and he, and he, it was all stuff that he did before, like hanging out in the slot and, you know, feel like figuring that stuff out. Great player. I'm happy for him. for Alexander O'Vaskin 48

5 Kirill Caprisov, 43 Tied for fifth, Kyle Connor American, who doesn't get nearly enough attention, by the way? Like Kyle Conner's, I know he's like, he's got,

he's got, not a perfect player, but he's, Kyle Conner should get more love than he gets. He's, like, it's not easy to score goals in the NHL, folks. Place for Winnipeg. That seems just mid,

people just don't regard them in any real way. What's the most average NHL franchise? To win a pig. Great. They should be, but it's, that's a running joke that Dom and I have. Like the, anytime they're like good enough to be, anytime they're good enough to slide into, you know, 12th in the power rings or something,

we're like the humors of the universe are out of whack here because they are the, they're the 16th best team. Got to go all the way down to seven before you find Connor McDavid McDavid with 42 goals. and then Matthew Kachuk with 39 and Elias Lundle with 39. So of the top 10 scores in the NHL goal scores, one. One.

It's Canadian. How about it? They should have a summit. Need to get together, Canada. Figure it out. Yeah, fix the goal-tending situation. Also, no good goalies either. Gosh.

Mm-hmm. And no good left-handed defenseman. Is that true? Yeah, none, not one. Oh, Kendall. Kendall brings up the Tuesday show bumps. It is a Tuesday show bump. Rosswick has two goals tonight after the...

It's a bump. Jack Hughes was an anomaly, folks. And Jack is going to be just fine. It was a long-term bump for Jack Hughes. Coming on the show. We got a caught. We getting the hook from producer Jeff. He says, we should jet.

This topic's boring the hell out of me. It's because we were talking about. the utter failure of Canadian goal scores in the 2022 NHL season. Nate U, can we get a craggless segment every week? Bonus points for an extra Sean Phelan. Just kidding, of course, Love UCC. Where's that one?

I don't even see that. Was that just texted to you? Nate U, there's quotations, there's quotation marks around Nate U. Might be an alias. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, just go away.

Matt M says, I'm once again asking you to play Kormix Bob so you won't talk over it. whatever. No. I mean, we are allowed to talk on our own podcast, Matt. We shouldn't, but we're allowed. And that is it.

That's all. You didn't even do the Phil Kessel hot dog question? Because we talked about Costco hot dogs for... Oh my God. I completely missed that. We'll see. Speaking hot dogs, anybody checking on Phil Kessel lately? No. We're trying to get him on the show.

Phil do it. He doesn't want to. I mean, of course he doesn't want to. No. And I don't know. We're not always kind to the coyotes on the show. No, they suck. If anybody's wondering more about what Phil.

Great Phil story. I mean, this published last month. Josh Yoey wrote kind of a breakdown of his, of his, of the magical times that he spent at the Rivers Casino here in Pittsburgh. He talked to guys that Phil played poker with and just sort of the way he moved around there during his time with the penguins. And it is, it is delightful.

I think. Spoiler. spoiler, it involves Phil with a with a duffel bag full of cash. Of course it does. Listen, Phil, if you'll come on the show, we won't ask you any hockey questions. We will only ask you about poker. That is our guarantee to you. None.

Not a single question about Toronto or hot dogs or... How much time have we spent over the course of our lives trying to get Phil to talk about hockey shit? Like, there's not... There's no... We're done with that. Yeah, we're not... But... Do it, Phil.

Do it for the American people. Maybe do it in the off season when your time's your own. We don't have to ask anybody else on your behalf. That's a good call. I don't think somebody's blocking Phil from doing it. I think Phil's saying no. I don't want to do it. No.

I don't think Phil's going. I don't think Phil's like, hey, has anybody requested my time to do media and a podcast? Because I feel like I haven't been asked in a while. Phil says, boy, I'd love to talk about the athletic. But Katie Strang's reporting on this franchise is really, really. really affected my opinion to them. And I don't want to be part of it. That's what you think Phil is saying?

Yeah, every day. Like the big misconception, like, Phil can be really good. Mm-hmm. Really good with the media. Like, good talk. Like, when you say, like, all his teammates love him, like, I've seen shades of that. Like, his teammates love him. I've seen good Phil where he just sits and talks and chats if it's like a small group

and he's not feeling, like he's, whatever, he's just up for it. And, I mean, I've seen prickly terrible Phil more often. which is fine. I'm not mad at it, but like he can be great. A thing about Phil that I don't think I really understood until he got here was that you hear like, well,

his teammates love him, he's a great teammate and whatever. Not that I didn't believe that or anything, but you hear that enough and the way in his public facing or his media facing persona is just so like, like really? Like how much,

how much do his teammates actually love him? They do. Undoubtedly. Like I watch that in action here. Like that is not a joke. It's just one of those things you hear so often that you're like, is this just something, is that something, something, is that something people say because they've heard it before? Like, uh, no, that is how, that is how it works.

Right. Because we couldn't possibly fathom somebody being a likable that isn't nice to us. We're like, well, impossible because he doesn't hold court with the media. You know what? It's funny. I don't, I always, whatever, we're off on another tangent here, but like, I don't, I never, I never hold that against guys. I just, I just never have. I wouldn't want to talk to us either. As long as go into like outright hostility and weirdness like which occasionally it's not okay okay occasionally it does but no those guys they're different they're different with their friends and they're different with their families and they should they should be for the most part that's okay um Tim peel was on straight from the source for all you uh Russo maniacs out there not that we have to tell any of you

to listen to it because you've already downloaded it as if you've already listened to it twice But for those of you who aren't in the Russo army, Tim Peel, a great storyteller. I like the reinvention of Tim Peel. I don't know if it's a reinvention, but it's a good listen. He's the right guy to transition into this, you know, official emeritus guy who we just go to for takes and fun stories and all that. I think with the way stuff ended, it's probably. Yeah.

Probably made that a little easier. Ryan Clark joins the Roundtable with Pizzo, Civi, and Jesse Granger tomorrow. He's going to be discussing the Cracken, some new ownership, big news out of Seattle there. Going beast mode. I like it in Seattle. Beesmode, baby. Also, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave a rating and review.

I wish you could only do it for the Tuesday show, but you can't. You got to rate all of them. Just mention us by name in the review. My name. And again, I've said this before. If you're not giving us a 5.0 rating, don't only start time. Subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcasts to get all the bonus content from our entire network. This week, it's the Wednesday roundtable.

Tough act for them to follow after Sean and I just crushed it last week in the bonus episode. It's a Wednesday roundtable providing the bonus content. You start with a 30-day free trial and just 99 cents a month after that. And we already have our guests lined up because we are, we're eager on it. On it. Next week, Troy Terry joins us with the Anaheim Ducks. Yet another member of the 2014-15 new 18 team. I don't know if you guys have figured it out, but we have a checklist now on the ball.

We're just three. We're just going to run it down. Three in a row. This is without even going. Now we have a streak. I didn't even think of that. I was just trying to get the whole squad. This is aside from.

the guys that we've already talked to. It's going to be Roselvic, Tage Thompson, and Troy Terry in three consecutive weeks. Oh, we have to just keep it running. At some point, we're going to call some guy that's been out of hockey for like five years. And he's going to be like, yeah, I played like three games. They called me up. And yes, you're doing segment two, buddy. He's like, yeah, totally. I work for a marketing firm now. So I'm good. How much time do you guys need. And right now, lastly, to get an annual subscription to the Athletic, it's just a dollar a month for six months.

Is that true? Can they even do that? I don't know how we're keeping the lights on. That's theathletic.com slash hockey show. Get in for a dollar a month and you too can leave comments on the athletic app. Like all of our favorites, like we'll see in Jeremy H. And Michael's. Kendall H.

All of the Michaels. Yardena. Where were you this week? Yardena, come on. Step it up. Let's go. That's it for me, Sean, unless you've got anything else to add.

I think we're all saying. Let's come on. We just talk for an hour. About nothing. Way to go, buddy. I need a piece of gun to get my throat's a little dry. Or a Werther's original to rattle around in your teeth. Bye, everybody.