The Athletic Hockey Show - Team USA Head Coach David Quinn on shaping Olympic Roster, Claude Giroux & Marc-Andre Fleury on the trade block, Kent Hughes named GM of Montreal Canadiens

Episode Date: January 18, 2022

David Quinn, the head coach of Team USA at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing China joins Craig and Sean to discuss USA's roster, including Jake Sanderson Brendan Brisson, Matty Beniers and goalie Strauss Mann. Quinn talks about the style of play for the team, team bonding and the risk of playing overseas during the pandemic.Craig and Sean take a look at two very attractive trade chips in Marc-Andre Fleury and Claude Giroux, and what teams could use these players the most, and we talk about the pending cap crunch in Vegas with Jack Eichel's return on the horizon, and how the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise is everything that the Edmonton Oilers should be striving to be. They guys also discuss the hiring of Kent Hughes as the new General Manager in Montreal, and how the success of Bill Zito in Florida, a fellow former agent, may have led to Hughes' hiring with the Canadiens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody, welcome to the Tuesday, All-American edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. I'm Craig Custin's joined, as always, by my coworker, Sean Gentilly. It was downgraded to co-worker. Only one of the shows, or only one of the hosts on this show, is at risk for rabies exposure? Is that where we're at? We got a lot going out at the customer. It's household. You're falling apart.

You got your arm bandaged up. You got squirrels and bats and we've got, we have the, we have a wildlife expert currently in the attic. Yeah, it's Jack Hanna from the San Diego Zoo. Famed late night guests. Here to diagnose your problem. Oh, God.

He can't be around, right? I don't know. I have no idea. All right possible. Jack Hanna. Sorry, buddy. I've got the guy. I've got my, my daughter has a fractured ankle.

from a sledding. This is why we don't go outside in Michigan. I may or may not have a brook. I have an appointment after this to get an extra on my arm from a pond hockey accident over the weekend because I tried to skate and play hockey like a dumb kid. I like how it leaks

out a little bit more each week, how little on ice experience either of us have. I was actually making a hockey play. It wasn't like I was like skating and just bit it. Yeah. I'd like that. But the fact that I'd like to see the video on that one.

I mean, thankfully, there was no video of the incident in question. And I don't think it's broken. Like, that's why I didn't go to the emergency room right away or whatever you would go for a broken arm. But here's what I've learned. I guess I knew this. Ice is pretty unforgiving. It's rock solid. Oh, yeah.

It's slippery. Did you know that? Did you know that? It's, well, I knew the slippery part. So, yeah, we're dealing with some stuff here, the Custin's household. How are you, Sean? Good. Got snow a couple days ago.

Most snow, I mean, I don't think we'd actually had like real accumulation here until until a couple days ago. Then it came with a, came to the vengeance. So short of walking to get a booster shot a couple days ago, I have done nothing. Great. Thank you. So everybody needed to know that. It was important.

I couldn't wait for you to finish that. And then I found five times. And then I found five times. How are you, Sean? And that's what I get you. No, just say great. Let's move on to the conversation. And I found $5.

It was crazy. Tell me more about your... All right. So as everyone knows, hockey trade season is a holiday around here. We enjoy it. And it gets wider and wider. We start earlier.

And this year, it's later. When is the trade deadline? I'm going to pull that up. Well, do we know that? It's almost exactly eight weeks from now. Yeah. It's March 21st. So we're really...

But look, this is... It's fun. there's a lot of interesting names out there. We talked about Klingberg last week. John Klingberg, as Sean mentioned, it was like John Klingberg weekend on our site. We analyzed the options every which way. And we want to get out in front in a couple of things.

But before I get to the trade talk, Sean, you did want to talk about actual gate. Like that, you were entertained by Pittsburgh Vegas. And you're like truly convinced Pittsburgh's good. Yeah, before I do anything of that, by the way. This is like shoddy. hosting by you. Oh my gosh.

Oh, yeah. Introduce our guest. That's coming. David Quinn, Team USA head coach. The Olympic coach. The men's Olympic coach is going to join us in the second segment. I probably should mention that before I mentioned rabies. Rabies and pond hockey and some random midweek penguins golden nights game.

I mean, it's better. My God. I looked it up a couple minutes ago. David Quinn was named head coach on December 27th. Like, I know he was, he was in a. assistant, you know, set to be an assistant before that. But good God, what a hectic three weeks for him. What a hectic three weeks for that whole operation. I mean, we talked to some of the kids from Minnesota yesterday, you know, Ben, Ben Myers and Brock Faber and, you know. You're like

Brock Faber number one fan now. He's a kid's a, he's a, he's a gem. Get ready to be annoyed by people talking about how great Brock Faber is for the next like 15 years in, in LA. But it's been a, man, it's been a, it's Been a hectic, been a hectic three weeks for them. And we got the roster to talk about, I'm psyched. I'm psyched. David's here. He's a, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, uh, horrendous work by you.

Thank you. Uh, thank you. Well, uh, but I, if you're clicking on the podcast, it says in the title, David wouldn't join. Whatever. So, we. Anyways. Penguins.

I think they're, got the pom-poms. I think they're, I don't. I, and I take no, I, honestly, I take no. extra joy in saying that. Boy, come back from three goals down against Vegas, who's playing really, really well right now. You got Malkin back. You have Jason Zucker playing on a line with Malkin.

And Kisperi Kappan. They looked really good last night. Jake Gensel, you know, he's, I think he's final, he's, you know, leveling up, it seems like, even over the last couple weeks. Trish and Jari, legitimate All-Star. I think

what we've seen from them over the last month is that the results have started to match the process. Like, they look, they look good. They were just, they just lacked finishing. And now you add Malcolm into the mix and you got Crosby clicking and you got Gensel back from, you know, breaking his hand or whatever happened to him.

They're, they're dangerous. I'm not sure I'd pick them. I wouldn't, I don't know that I'd pick them to win a cup right now, but, um, or anything like that. But I, they've been under the radar, I think, for a little bit, and that's probably about to change. It's amazing to say, like, oh, everyone's talking about Florida and I guess Carolina, but the penguins, long time darling of the spotlight are the undercover.

I mean, people are tired of talking about them. It's fine. It's fine. We've been doing it for 18 years, right? Like, we're in season 18 of Crosby. Like, it's understandable. I don't necessarily want to talk about the penguins anymore either. Like, but, but I think that, I think the pendulum this year has swung a little bit in the other direction, right?

Where it's like, it's a little bit of an overcorrection. They've, they've been, they've been really good. And if they're, they might not be Colorado level or Florida level, but if there's a second tier there, I think they're pretty square, they're pretty squarely. And last, last night, obviously I watched a ton of them, you know, I, I live where I live and I just, default to watching them if there's nothing else on. Last night was the best game they played all season, and it was against Vegas, and it, it was, it was impressive. What did you think of Vegas?

What to do with that? I think I've been picking them to win a Stanley Cup for like three years and it's like, probably going to change course. It's been a bizarre season for them because they're good and they've been, and they've been good, but it comes to this gigantic asterisk because of Ikel. And it's not a bad thing out of Jack Eichol, obviously, but this is not, whatever team we're watching here, good as they may be, it's going to be fundamentally different, like, soon.

And that's not just because they're adding Jack Eagel. It's because they're going to need to subtract, whether it's Riley Smith, whether it's Chandler Stevenson, it's going to, some element, some important element from that team over the last however many years is going to be gone. That's just, that's just the nature of it. They don't have the money to do it without sending, you know, somebody serious out. So short of a Nikita Kutrov situation or, you know, some important player going on LTIR, which would alter them even further.

I mean, they're going to be different in a month than they are right now, good as they've looked. I like Jack Eichol kind of saying the other day, I'm not saying I would have played in the Olympics, but I'm not saying I wasn't going to play in the Olympics if the NHL players. Like, he didn't rule it out. So that suggests to me, I mean, it would have been really easy for Jack to be like, there was no chance. I couldn't do it. I mean, so even, that's just an early February. You know, like, remember the early time frame on him whenever he had the, whenever he finally had the, had the disc surgery? Like, the low end of the, of the rehab

timeline was right there. Like, it was, it always was in play. It was just something we didn't get a chance to talk about because of, you know, what happened with the scheduling. So, I'm not surprised to hear that. It's just another reason to be kind of bummed about the way things worked out, but that's why we got David Quinn on the show, baby. Make us excited, coach. Come on. Make us, make us care because we don't. I do. I don't care. Not at all. Not one. No, I'm thinking. A bit of news that's breaking as we record. Kent Hughes, long-time agent, has been a Montreal Canadiens general manager. Now, of course, we don't talk about the Montreal Canadians on the American. Although Jeff Gordon

American running the show there. Here's a couple interesting things to to highlight here though. According to Pugpedia I mean I think we probably know this, Chris LaTang is one of his biggest clients can't use.

I think that's interesting because Chris LaTang, not that agents become GMs and they only go after their own players, but look, it's a relationship league, you can connect some dots. I don't know what Chris LaTang would do in Montreal, but make a lot of money.

Chris LaTang pending pending. I'm not sure. That's what they need. Pending, I don't know. Everybody needs money. Oh, I know what Chris LaTang does. So I think that's interesting. I also think it's interesting that, that an eight, like, I don't think Kent Hughes was

the front runner going into this. And clearly something happened. Didn't seem like it. I'm not saying it was our interview with Bill Zito that did it. But I will say. The success of somebody like Bill Zito who, you know, grew his own business from nothing into a high-powered profile agent business and then got experience as an AGM in Columbus and I was running a pretty good program there in Florida. Maybe that makes you more comfortable hiring an agent to be your GM. And he's not, you know, Bill's not the first agent to be GM.

There's a long list of them. Kyle Dubus has agent experience. Brian Burke was an agent, et cetera. But I don't know. Maybe you sit there and you go, hey, this is a sign you can run things and you have connections. And that's important. It's really funny timing to see the Florida Panthers go into full wagon mode since the All-Star break. They've outscore, or since the Christmas break, it's outscored opponents, 54 to 25 or whatever it is.

Yeah, they're just rolling. Right. And I mean, whatever. Correlation is not causation, but it's funny that the team with the agent GM has, looked like a machine over the last few weeks. And then all of a sudden they try to, they try to recreate it. I like it.

It's an, it's an interesting move. I like, I mean, it's sort of what we're seeing with Jim Rutherford in Vancouver where, you know, he's got this poho job and they're looking, not outside the box,

but they're looking for a different kind of GM hire. Like, we know that, we know that Rutherford's looking for a first time guy too. And we've seen that with, with Montreal too. It's, it's interesting.

All right. We're coming up against, David Quinn's going to be here any second. I already see the gears in motion here. So we can hit some of the trade deadline in the third segment coming out of it. So we're going to tease. We're going to talk a little bit about Claudeau-Jureau and Mark Andre Fleury, who's on a role and at a perfect time for the Chicago Blackhawks.

But let's pause and join that conversation with David Quinn. I'm excited to talk to David. This is a fun time, a great opportunity. So we will be right back. with David Quinn. We are now joined by David Quinn, head coach of the men's U.S. Olympic hockey team. David, thanks for doing this. We were just laughing because I know, I know you've got nothing better to do but join this.

Like, what a ramp up? It's, like, what is it, just a hurricane right now trying to get this going and everything in lined? Yeah, I've gone from the breakdown lane to the high speed lane in the hurry. It's been fast and furious, but I wouldn't want it any other way. It's an incredible honor to coach the Olympic team. You know, obviously we're all a little bit disappointed when the NHL guys decided that they weren't going to go. But I thought USA hockey did a great job and kind of changing gears quickly.

Obviously, there was some anticipation that was going to be the decision by the NHL players. So we were able to kind of prepare for that. And we really loved the team we picked. There was a long, you know, in a short period of time, there was a lot of work done to it. It felt like a long process in a short period of time. But we really like the team that we picked. Yeah. How much did it say did you have in that?

A lot, actually. I mean, it was really a collaborative effort. I love the process. I thought John Van Biesburg and Mark Bacher did a heck of a job with getting the names together. And as we were going along, you know, there's just so much uncertainty to what players are going to be available. So you go through that process and you have a vision of what type of team you want to have.

But I think the player pool dictates what type of team you're going to have. I know you may have a vision of how you want to have a team. but you're really at the mercy of the players that are available to you. And we just loved the speed element to the players that were available to us. And it really, you know, the process, I mean, the roster changed as the process was going on based on the players that were available and the more clarity that we had. And it was really, the process, I really loved our process in choosing this team. Yeah.

I mean, you mentioned speed. You guys went young, which I think was the right call. I mean, I mean, it's always, it's more fun for us, right? All these college kids and prospects. And so we were, you know, we were excited. Like, I saw the average age is 25. My goodness. So what does that mean?

Like, how do you shape an identity with a bunch of kids coming from all over and get them formed together quickly here? Well, a couple of things. You know, one, I think a lot of these guys have played international hockey. So I think they have a feel of what it takes for a tournament like this where you get a bunch of players. together in a short period time and guys kind of have to understand their roles in a hurry. I think we've got a great blend of older players, maybe that can help us through that. And the other thing is, you know, from my end of it and from the other coaches, all of us have either played or coached an international competition.

So I think there's a lot of experience from that side of it where I think we'll have a clear, a good idea of what it's going to take in order for us to become a cohesive unit and a team in a hurry. Yeah. So I wanted to go over the roster a little bit. And I want to start in goal because it's interesting. You have a goalie in Strauss, man, who seems to be having a good year, left Michigan. What can you tell us about him and the expectations for him? I mean, all of a sudden there's going to be a giant spotlight on this kid out of nowhere, really.

Right, right. I obviously knew him a little bit before this process. And, you know, all the reports we've gotten from what I've seen, you're talking about a world-class competitor. I mean, this guy hasn't been handed anything. I think a lot of the players on our team, especially, the older guys haven't been handed anything. They've faced some adversity throughout their careers. They've always had to prove themselves.

He's no different. You know, he's been one of the best goalies over in Europe this year, and he's put himself in a great position, and, you know, we feel very confident in all three goalies. Yeah. How much you talk to Mike Sullivan or, you know, I know he was going to be, you know, obviously part of the process or even like some of the former Olympic coaches, Dan Bilesma or anything,

I don't even, Ronnie Wilson, whatever. Honestly, I haven't taught. Once this process got going, I haven't a lot of time to do that. So I actually talked to Lou Verro yesterday. So it's always fun to talk to Lou. Oh, man. Even if he wasn't the previous Olympic coach, I would have talked to Lou anyway. But Sonia and I were obviously talking quite a bit when the actual guys were going.

And once this happened, I've talked to them once or twice since. But I really haven't had a chance to do that. It's really been a pedal of the metal since this thing got, since we altered gears here, about three weeks ago. So I just haven't had a chance to do that. We talked to the Minnesota guys last night. They jumped on a Zoom with us, you know, Ben, Ben Myers and Brock Faber and Matthew Nyes.

You have a, I mean, you have, you have two-thirds potentially of a pretty good line there with Myers and Nyes. They're, they're killing it. Is that part of the process? And I know you're looking at, I mean, you got the Michigan guys and you got the Wisconsin guys and you got the Minnesota guys. Is that part of the process where you look at those guys where they've had success playing together before?

and you think maybe that can translate more quickly into a short tournament? Yeah, Sean, I think that you're leaning towards that when you're looking at your line combinations and things like that. I think you're probably going to start with some familiarity with players. So that's something that we certainly have talked about.

But again, I think that's the fun part of this. There's just so much unknown, right? You just don't know how guys are going to blend. Like I said, I think we'll start along those lines and maybe playing guys that are familiar with each other, but who knows what it's going to look like a week later, or three days later. You know, it's going to be a lot of,

a lot of, you know, adapting and adjusting and, you know, it's going to be a challenge, but it's going to be a lot of fun. I think one of the best stories that come out of this, too, Jake's, Jake Sanderson talked about it and Brock talked about it too, is,

is John Van Biesbrook coming up to those guys after everything went sideways at the WJC and was like, you know, be ready. You guys are, you guys are going to be, are probably going to be a big part of, of the,

Olympic experience. So yeah, I don't know. It's, it's, that the last three weeks fascinates me, honestly. It feels like it was, it feels like it was six months ago. They were talking about you taken over. But it was December 27. So I don't know, man. These last, these last three weeks, like what have you done? You've had a jump in the fast lane, like you said before we, like six months. I feel like I've been the Olympic coach for six months. But those guys, it's funny. I talked about that with those guys. You know, they went from, you know, the extreme load and an extreme high in a hurry. And I thought that

I kind of joked them. I said, I'm sure that flight was a lot more enjoyable after you talk to gone, uh, given, you know, giving you the heads up that, you know, you guys are going to be part of the Olympic experience after having the bad news, the devastating news, they weren't going to be able to defend your gold medal. Um, so, you know, but it has been a world one. It's been a world win, but, you know, it's been, like I said, a lot of hard work's going into it.

It's been a lot of fun, you know, working with people that, you know, I love to work with. I love our staff. Working with John and Mark Barks has been a lot of fun as well. So, hey, we'll coach on the Olympics. And if you can't enjoy this experience, you should go do something else. Yeah. So, like, we hear the stories kind of in U.S.

Coulor of, you know, I think of the world, the 96 World Cup where Lou Lamarillo had all summer to get the players golfing together. And, you know, they were, they bonded, right? Like, they went out drinking. Whatever they, whatever like, Chelyos and. that crew was out to. Every team goes out great.

Yeah. I know only the 96 team did that. That's not like special activities. You guys aren't going to believe this. Yeah, that's right. I'm not going to drink. So we'll never make it. Like they had the benefit of time, right?

They had they could bond and they could go to Providence or whatever they did. And there's different versions of that with, you know, after the fact you learn about what they did and getting together and or even the orientation camps in Chicago for some of the other teams. And you have zero. None of that. You're like, hey, guys, I'm assuming there's probably a group text going right now. But how do you replicate that? Like, that's important stuff to do. Yeah, it's important stuff. And, you know, I've talked with us, we've talked as a staff about that, you know, and sometimes I think the bonding, you know, I'm kind of a, I'm not, you know, I'm a big believer that the bonding can just happen. I think as you get to

together as a team. I think you've got to find ways for certain teams to bond, you know, just because one activity or one experience for one team works, doesn't mean it's going to work for yours. So, you know, I'm of the mindset that let's get together and read the situation, have a pulse of your team and then figure it out as we go along what's going to be the best approach to bond as a group. I think it's hard, you know, to pinpoint an exact bonding experience when you're not sure of the group, you know, as you alluded to, you know, Lou and USA hockey, they knew all those players in a lot of ways. You know, a lot of them had already played within the USA, you know, under the, you know,

in the USA jersey. So I think they had a lot of time to prepare and they understood the personalities and maybe understood some of the things they're going to do to push buttons of those certain players. We're not in that, we don't have that luxury. So I think we're going to have an opportunity once we get together to really be conscious of that to try to figure out what can we do on top of what we're doing on the ice, what can we do off the ice to bring this whole thing close. together. My big idea for the bonding experience, the flight over there. You guys are going to be on

planes going to Tokyo and wherever else for like 18 hours. Like what brings people together more, like more effectively than some insane travel experience? Well, it's funny. It's, you know, there's nothing, you know, a little adversity can bring people together, right? Yeah. So we've faced some adversity so far. And one of the things we've talked about with our group, you know, we had our first Zoom call the other day, you know, how, you know, how each team's going to handle the unexpected? I mean, things are going to happen in this tournament or even before the tournament that you're not planning for, you know, things are going to happen that's going to, someone's going to get COVID. It's just going to happen.

And the team that shrugs it off, the quickest and moves forward is going to be the team that gives themselves the best chance to win a gold medal. And, you know, so that's something we've talked about, you know, an 18-hour flight. You know, we may have to use it to start implementing some of our systems on the plane. We might be doing, you know, our forecheck in the aisleways or the flight just like guys know where is supposed to be in where they're going. So, you know, it's, you know, it is going to be, again, that is going to be a little bit of a bonding opportunity, 18 hours on a flight. 18 hours.

I can't even. That's a lot of movies. Don't bring it up. I mean, you mentioned systems. What should we look forward to in terms of style of play? I know you can't get too complicated throwing things in there, but like, I'm sure you have an identity you want this to look like. We're not curing COVID.

I mean, we're going to get on top of people. We're going to play at a pace. I mean, to me, there's going to be some structure, but there's going to be freedom within the structure. And, you know, it's, we've got to play to our strength. And, you know, it's played on a North American rank. It's 200 by 85. So we're going to have to beat people off the walls. We're going to have to stay on top of people.

And that's going to be our approach. And, you know, it's going to be no secret. You know, this is, we've got to play to our strengths. And I think that's our strength. Yeah. I thought it was a huge, huge air, not bringing Bobby Ryan, our good personal, friend, one of the greatest guy. We were like, we love Bobby.

So we were like, I talked to Bobby. I love Bobby. I talked to Bobby, you know, during, before the, you know, once this thing happened. And believe me, we talked an awful lot about him and a few other guys in this situation. And, you know, there was a decision made as a group, you know, as the team was getting closer and closer to being picked. Again, he was a guy we talked an awful lot about. and, you know, not playing this hard.

I mean, I know he's got a lot of experience and he's a great player, but, you know, this is the Olympics. And we just, with the team we were putting together, we just thought at the end of the day, it was going to be hard for guys that haven't played, even if they're skating, to be put in this situation. That was our decision, whether it's right or wrong, who knows, but that was kind of what the group felt like.

And, you know, it wasn't an easy call, believe me. How much experience do you have with some of the older guys in their roster? Like, did you kicked around and, like, to, I mean, coach against guys like Andy Mealy and, and, you know, Kenny Agostino, how much of that play a part in the minute up here? Yeah, I had a familiarity with those guys, but, you know, obviously I coached David Wozowski at BU,

coached camp for a little bit with the Rangers, and coached against all those other guys. So, you know, Shore and Agostino and Miele and O'Neill. So, you know, there's a familiarity for me. Cooper, I don't know as well, but watching what I've watched, I loved, obviously. You know, so for me, I was fortunate. if they had some familiarity with these older players.

And obviously, I've watched them from afar. And they've had, you know, they're not on the team because I knew about it. And they're on the team because of what they're doing right now. You know, so, you know, like I said, we feel very, very good in the older group that we have. And we feel great about the team we've put together. Awesome. Well, well, good luck. I know you've got a million things to do.

So we appreciate you squeezing this in, David. And we're looking forward to, like, it's, it's, you know, there's going to be someone who emerges that we're not even talking about. I mean, you know, we didn't mention. Renemberson or Maddie Baneers and some of these high-end talent guys, it's like that's a fun thing is we, it could be anything. Like, we can't wait to see it. Everyone asked me about the competition. I don't know.

I don't know. You know, this is so much unknown in this tournament. I think that's what's going to make it exciting and fun. No, we need a, we need a detailed breakdown of Finland's roster here. Like, let's go. It's not going to the wrong guy right now. I'm trying to get our roster under reps. Oh, man. Well, thanks for doing this.

And safe travels. Enjoy the flight. We'll catch up later. Thanks, Quinny. All right. Thank you. Bye, bye, bye. That was good stuff from David Quinn. He's good, man. I'm gassed up. I'm ready. I'm ready for it now. It's easy to see why he's a good motivator, right? Like, I'm like, you literally said right before he joined, you're uninterested.

You're like, get me excited, David Quinn. How are you feeling now? 180, rolling out the whiteboard on the 18-hour flight to Tokyo. and then whatever else they have to do after that. Let's go, baby. Let's watch Miracle. The fourth best hockey movie. The fourth best hockey movie all the time.

You heard it here first. This is my prediction. The Americans are winning gold. Wow, you're really going out on a limb there. I was not expecting to hear that from you. Like, this is their year. No one's talking about them. I just want some good games.

I want some good games in the, at least in the, in the group round, um, they finish up group play against Germany and that seems like it could be important. Because if you think that Germany and the U.S. both beat China and lose to Canada, you know, that last game could determine who ends up,

who ends up making it to the quarterfinals. But I'm, I'm psyched. I'm psyched for it, man. I know I was, I was honestly joking earlier about about not caring. Where are you, Sean? I've,

I've, I've, I've tricked myself into carrying over the course of the last, of the last two weeks. I don't need, I don't need any help from David Quinn. All right. Great as he may be.

Wow. You really, you really got him with the Bobby Ryan question. You think so? Yeah, gotcha, Bobby. Gotcha, David Quinn. Because I wanted to know,

A, like, how close it was, and like, was it even a thing? And clearly it was, and he said he talked a lot with Bobby Ryan. And,

and, but, you know, this is a team built on youth and speed, which, you know, Bobby Ryan's a lot of things. And I don't know if that would have fit. I get it. I just, we're, this is the podcast of Bobby Ryan.

So you got to ask. It would have been incomplete. I mean, they only had three weeks to do it. Whatever. Get him some slack. It was the holidays. What do you expect? Coming up next, the best segment in sports.

We take your questions in the readers. It's just the best segment on the show. It's not the best segment in sports. It's the best segment in media. Coming up next. Craig called this the best segment in sports media. It is certainly the best segment on the show. The only good segment on the show.

It's when we go into the comments on the athletic app. And here's what you do, guys. You open the app. The athletic app. You open up the athletic. No, you open up, you open up. You open up, you open up. You search the athletic.

You click takeout. Yeah, I don't know The athletic app Listen Hockey show Scroll down to Tuesday Last week was John Klingberg We got 17 comments

That's a lot 17 You guys are You guys are sick little freaks To find this on the app It's amazing Like I literally was like Just holding my breath

I haven't looked since last week I'm like there's a chance of zero Because you got to cross 15 or I monitor these a little bit more than you at this point. I'm not. I was also going to suggest.

I'm going to say this again. I cannot comment on the other comments. There's some kind of glitch. I don't really know what it is. They're working on that. Yeah, sure. Priority number one. Yeah.

Yeah. We got it working in shifts. Coach, to quote the Big Lebowski. Um, I would also add, if you have, have a hard time getting questions in possibly let's say you don't have the latest version of

whatever you need we will also accept questions as that are written into any five-star review on apple podcast yes and i say that only because john will send me screen grabs of reviews and i am highly entertained by them so that is also acceptable i'm going to add that wrinkle in if you and if also if you have a terrible review if you really don't like us and you still give us five stars. You can make fun of us in the, in the review. We will accept that as well. So, yeah, questions can come that way. All right. So we do, we tease trade talk a little bit. So we're going to lightning around that because I think there's two interesting names. I'm going to start with Claude Jureau. Do you think he gets traded?

I think he should. The flyers stink. They're awful. They're what they're on some horrible skid here. His contract is up. They need to do something differently. and he's still pretty good. Yeah. I know he's played a lot of wing over the last couple years, but he's certainly still center capable, you would think, or at least people will convince themselves that he is. I think they could get something solid for him,

and they need to do something different in Philly because this is not working. I don't know. I heard someone bring up, I heard someone bring up Giroud to the wild. Oh. I don't know if that's the easiest. I don't know that.

I don't know that that's the best fit, but is really, really interesting. Drew, of course, has no move. So he will have a say in this. So it's not like he's going to go to, you know, Edmonton or something. The other thing, like seriously, who on Earth would ever want to go to Ed? Like, imagine, imagine me in a player in signing for like 10, 12 years to play with Edmonton. What kind of sucker would do that? And taking less money than you really had to.

Does such a player even exist? So you said he should be traded, will he be traded? You scared of the question. I don't know. This is the worst lightning round. You don't know. Okay. Second one, Mark Andre Fleury, best fit.

Oh, well, speaking of, I think we might have just talked about him. Yeah. I mean, that's the obvious one that everyone's trying to land Flurry on Edmonton, right? But they just like Mike Smith so much that I don't know if they're going to go out and get another goaltender. It could be the thing that saves them, you know? like they're not they're not getting saved i know ken holland has said no i basically didn't he say essentially we're not doing the rentals if we're if we're moving young pieces it's it's for how much longer can you let this go on how much longer will connor let it go on right like you run the risk of losing

connor macdavit i know everyone talks about that it never happens and connor's a pro it's it but i mean you saw his conference that was his comments the other night like he just seems to be getting that was a that was a hostage video yeah like progressively like it's a stuff doesn't, it's not getting better. And at some point, he's going to say, uncle. So, might as well. And we're going to keep pretending that he has no say and anything that goes on there and doesn't have any influence to exert.

Stupid. All right. The best place, well, best, best fit. The best fit for Mark Andre Fleury is the Washington Capitals. Oh. That cold tending situation is a mess. I think that's, I think that's, that's fair to say. they have two guys who are mediocre to varying degrees.

It's a win now team. If ever there was one, when you have Alex Ovechkin at 36 and Nicholas Baxter and all these, dial it up. I love that. I love that. I'm sure the people at Pittsburgh would handle that just fine, seeing Mark Andre Fleury,

raising a cup with Alex Ovechkin and hugging him and celebrating and drinking in fountains through their shirts, beer. I think the fact that Tris and Jari's been fine might head off some of that at the past. Like, if Jari were struggling, like some alternate universe where Tris and Jari was at 904 this season and was really looking like the guy that almost single-handedly lost a playoff series to the New York Islanders, if that's the guy that got this season and then say it's March 2nd and Mark Andre Flery gets traded to the Washington Capitals, there would be, I think riots in the streets here. But the fact that the fact that Jari's been okay might keep me safe.

All right. To the comments, mad ass writes, Pittsburgh traded Kailen Addison. Two seasons ago to go to the wild, gentlemen. Hey, Matt, we told you, we don't know what we're doing here. Don't care. That was after 90 seconds, me being like, I don't have any prospects of trade. It's only been picks.

And they're like, actually, Kaylin Addison. Yeah, that was in the Jason Zucker trade. that seemed like a potential backfire situation as soon as it happened. And he's been, yeah, he's been, he's been fine. That's bad ass, by the way. That's part of Rousseau's army, I'm sure, who jumps down our throats. If we ever have an opportunity to mention the wild and don't. Oh, my gosh.

You got your own podcast. Yeah, man. All right, Will A. For all the MSU talk, I think Craig is actually incredibly professional about it. That is. That is inaccurate. You should hear the horrendous things he says before we actually start, start recording here. How much did you want to drop a case hall reference to Jim Slater?

Greg? I would have done a best cafeteria food segment. Here's the thing. Maybe this is every college, but at Michigan State, if you happen to be in a dorm where the athletes are, you eat like a king. Oh, yeah. But if you're slumming over there in acres with all the rest of the fresh. you're getting the slop, like the rest of us. They had.

Yeah. In Maryland, they had, I mean, the athletes lived basically on the other side of campus from all the other freshmen. So, yeah, they separated them from the pleads, absolutely. I think Jim Slater was getting a much different meal than I was getting over at Shaw Hall. Michael Kay, happy that Jim Slater. And again, our guest last week was Jim Slater, who was on the 2018. Oh, listen, it was great.

Yeah, he was on the 2018 team. That's about as close to an animal. analog as you're going to get for what guys are dealing with in Beijing now because it was a group of vets and some younger guys and, you know, there were no NHL players over there. So Jim was, Jim was really, Jim was really interesting and a lot of fun. Michael said he's happy that Jim finally got that Olympic experience, even if it was later on. The story's being Olympic Village were nice, too bad with her. That's all true. I feel, I feel bad for, I do feel bad for some of these, like, oh, do I feel, that's actually a good question. Do I feel bad for these guys?

Ben Myers and Brock Faber and and all like again That's going to the Olympics? Do you feel bad? No, I don't. I don't. Because they don't. They don't feel like you should, you should have seen how excited these dudes were yesterday.

All right? They did it. Of course they were shot going to the Olympics. Maybe I should send in my tape from the pond that I've got some, some clips for David Quinn if they need one more. Bottom six capable. 54 years old or however old you are now. Oh my.

Jeez. you're 76 right 75 you sound like my kids they make age jokes all like I'm like guys age jokes don't even funny you have no I've I've my life is is age jokes at this point I get I get murdered on a on a daily basis just keep that we don't need to go into the tail there uh Michael says we should show off more of the athletic hockey writers on the show like slowly rotate in for quick interviews I mean they don't like us I think that's I think that's why it doesn't have You should hear the things Peter Boss says about you when you're not paying attention. I believe that.

I'm on, yeah, I like, we can, especially as we get, you know, we did that playoff preview last year. We had like 7,000 writers in and Jeff DeMette was landing planes, our producer Jeff. Like, I'm in on that. Like, the more the merrier, the less we have to do. I'll read the next one. Michael Kay writes, and since you offered Sean, Sean, you're hot. Sean, you're hot.

He says that multiple times because Sean offers. offered $5 for anybody that would leave a comment. And I think Michael Kay tried to find a loophole that says Sean's hot. That's $50, please, Mr. Gentile. Drop the Venmo in the comments there, Michael Kay. I'm not seeking you out here. I hope he does. We'll see what happens.

Also, we got a Sean your hot from NHL letter Alex Inneges. So in the comments. So I can pay him $5. Alex has figured out how to comment on the podcast. It's because he's got an Android. He's got an Android. We don't need to go into that. Alex B,

a long time first time, finally made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which is the, of course, the athletic hockey show comment section to say, Sean, you're hot. Only fans win. My only fans page will go live on February 1st.

Go blue. Is that tied to the Olympics in some way? Your only fans? It could be. You could shoot some. shoot some special content for for for my paid subscribers. Chris Jay with the NHL not going to the Olympics who goes on the podium who has the best shot. Side note.

The movie Miracle was definitely more about the journey to the Olympics. Yeah. Thanks for thanks for explaining the point of a miracle to us. Come on. Curious. Curious what do you guys think of the hockey movie? Mystery Alaska with Russell Crow. Oh, I love mystery Alaska.

It's very funny. I've never seen it. It's good. You should, you should, you should, you should, make a point to knock that one out. It's underrated. As good as Muppet's Christmas Carol? I mean, nothing's as good as Muppet's Christmas Carol.

Is it better than the Great Muppet Caper? Perhaps. Mr. Craig and Mr. Sean, you're both way hotter than the other day's episode cruise, says Nicholas K. Thank you. Is it a coincidence? There's a lot of Mr. references.

No. In our, okay. Alana O says, Sean, you're hot. Do I leave my Venmo handle or? Yes, you do. Go back in. Drop the Venmo, Alana.

this is all a bit much. I think it's fine. Bruno L. Okay, like this gets back into something we said earlier in the show. Never bet against Pittsburgh. This team has been able to remain competitive year after year

by adding key depth pieces, even when their cap is maxed out. You mentioned guys like, you know, Evan Rodriguez and, you know, Mark Donk and Buzz Flibits, guys like that who,

you know, come in and turn into legitimate depth players. And he also says Edmonton should be taking notes And that is correct. How does Edmonton still have no bottom six pieces? How is that possible? I don't know. It's the most obnoxious part of that team's construction

is that they can't find two or three or five, you know, just half-capable guys to flesh things out. That is the failing. And also hitching their wagon to Mike Smith for another year for whatever reason. Do you why, like not to. to actually analyze and talk hockey here, but why do you think, I mean, Edmonton, Edmonton has tried to bring in complimentary players. Yeah.

Like, these aren't, you know, dummies running the show. Why do you think Pittsburgh constantly is able to do it? Or, you know, find people to compliment it or whatever. Like, is it a coaching thing? Is it a culture thing? I think part of it's a coaching thing. I think a lot of that has to do with Mike Sullivan. And I think a lot of it has to do with you.

Mike Sullivan's pretty good. Yeah. So I've heard. And I think a lot of it has to do with targeting high quality NTA free agents. Like that's, I'm not even being, I'm not even being a smart ass there.

Like that's, that is, has been partially out of necessity because they've traded so many draft picks. That means they have to go out and get guys like Zach Aston Reese and Drew O'Connor and players like that who come in and, you know, they're not,

they're not all-star caliber, but they're also smart guys who know their role and have some level of, of production in their past. and those are the guys who can plug and play on a third line and do some good stuff. So yeah, I think Edmonton should do that. It's pretty simple. Just do that. Just do that, Edmonton.

Hire Mike Sullivan. I'm surprised they haven't done that. They should just bring him Mike Sullivan. That would entail firing the current coach. And we know that that's just apparently not going to happen. Well, how about you bring in David Quinn after he wins a gold medal? Oh, baby. Let's do it.

All right. I'm going to pull up the show wrap up if you want to wrap up the comments. Yeah, Joe T. This is going. IMO, in my opinion, Jotee says, this is not my opinion. It's Joe's. Craig is a handsome dude with that beard. I bet he puts his clothes away.

I do. It's a knock on. I do. Like, I fold them and put him in a dresser drawer like a, like an adult would. As I look over my shoulder. Then I close the drawer. Make your bed. As one does.

Jotie also bets that you use a nice bird of pitcher. He says that I'm the kind of unprofessional guy who would pee while on a podcast, which is a reference to the Puck Soup live. Colin show last week when I was walking around on, you know, wireless headphones on my phone, speaking live on a podcast and I poured a glass of water and it sounded like I was taking a leak and people lost their minds. They think I'm a nasty little pig. That sounds like revisionist history. I've said this. I said this at the time. I'll say it again. If I pee on a podcast, you guys are going to know. I'm not I'm not going to run from that. That's true. I'll be

Yeah, I'll be honest about, like, look, half this show is about me embarrassing myself. So I don't, I welcome it with open arms. I'll say this, I have noticed about us. We're not afraid to like do, like, we, we have guests on and we're both drinking coffee. And we have like the coffee mug halfway into our mouth as we're asking. Like, we can't even, I would, I noticed it with the G.G Marvin. Like, we're holding it up. And we're like, we're like, and the ellipse.

We can't even wait a second to get it out. We're sipping as we're. As she's like, we're slurping. It's just disgusting. Yeah. We're nasty little pigs. Stupid, stupid, stupid men. Carlos L.

Keeps it simple. He says, you and Craig are the stars of the hockey show. All the others are just the extras. Hell yes. So we are like, we're like the Michael Kane and Kermit the frog of the hockey show. All the others are secondary Muppets. Like maybe Mendez is Sweetums. that's what we need somebody

somebody attach a Muppet to every hockey will someone do that in the comments for us next week just to entertain it like attach a Muppet to every Boltman is Rizzo the rat the hated Max Bolton Thanks for leaving comments everybody Make sure you're listening listen Sean and I after we're done with this are about to record a bonus

A bonus episode for all the Apple podcast Athletic Audio Plus subscribers That's going to be way better than this episode You guys wouldn't even believe how much cool stuff we have planned for this. It's going to be so good. I spent the weekend prepping for it. And that is, if you want that bonus content on Apple Podcasts, and you get our whole network, you get everybody at the athletic there, you can start a 30-day free trial. And then it's just 99 cents a month.

Go on the Apple Podcasts. I don't know how you would do it from there. But I'm sure you're all super smart. We'll figure that out. Yeah. Also, if you want to subscribe to. of the athletic and leave comments on the app, which is the best reason to subscribe to the athletic. You can go to the athletic.com slash hockey show and get in for $3.99 a month.

That gives you exclusive access to the hottest place on the internet. It's the comments page for our episodes. I will say, we don't need like, it doesn't have to be about Sean and I. Every comment doesn't have to be about Sean's looks or anything. Like, we can answer. Yeah, okay. I mean, like, we did it. We did a bit last week.

We can ditch this now. Like, you guys. Venmo the money, Sean. I mean, I'm slowly uncomfortable by all of this. Yeah, I think I'm going to be breaking some kind of law here. No, ask us actual questions. We'll answer them. I can't guarantee that we'll think about them all that month before we answer them.

But we'll talk. Wednesday's athletic hockey show has Rob Pizzo, Sarah Sivian, Jesse Granger, and their guest, Peter Baugh, who we've established. Doesn't like us? Doesn't like you. Okay, okay. Talks a lot of shit. Pete Baugh does. Let me tell you.

now we've got to mark this explicit. Because of the outro. My goodness. Because of the plugs at the end. Now we've got to mark this whole episode explicit. Carson like Katie Strang over here, baby. A young Katie Strang. My goodness.

Thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks to David Quinn for joining the podcast. Good luck. Winning that gold medal. We're going to have him back on with a gold medal around his neck. In the Zoom call, it's going to be a great moment. It's going to be a great Twitter video to drop, baby. Quinney holding up the, holding up the metal.

Let's go. I hope this happens. He's committed to it. He said he would do it. Win the goal, that is. I'm not showing the podcast. It's actually good. Yeah, buff.

Thanks.