The Athletic Hockey Show - The Athletic trade board, Mikhail Sergachev's expanded role with Tampa Bay Lightning and tanking for Connor Bedard

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

On the first new roundtable of the year, Rob Pizzo, Jesse Granger and guest co-host Joe Smith welcome Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning who talks about his elevated role with the perennial favorites this season, and he shares funny stories on Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy.Plus, the roundtable looks at what the NHL can learn from the Damar Hamlin injury in the NFL, we hot stove the Athletic's trade board with Timo Meier and Jonathan Toews two of the more intriguing pieces available, we continue to marvel at Tage Thompson and Alex Ovechkin and we ask what year is it, as we stick tap a Czech league goal from 50 year old Jaromir Jagr which was assisted by 40 year old Tomas Plekanic.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowRight now, you can get a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for just $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowCancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way – by going to http://rocketmoney.com/HOCKEYSHOW Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What's going on, everybody? Happy New Year. Welcome to another fine edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, the Wednesday Roundtable Edition. I hope you are well. Hope the Advils have kicked in and your hangover's gone and you had a good new year. I am Rob Beasel from CBC Sports,

joined as always by Jesse Granger in Vegas. How are you, Jesse? I'm doing great. And it looks like Rousseau's hangover didn't actually go away because he's not here today, so filling in. We got Joe Spinn. How are you, Joe? Are you feeling all right?

Yeah, not as much eggnog as Russo, apparently, but we have a lot of snow outside, so I can imagine why I wanted a bag off there. I make all these comments, but as a father of two young children, I was asleep by 1202. Me and my wife watched the ball fall, and then we're like, we're good, right?

Yeah, all right, let's go to bed. So the hardcore party is far from our house. What about you guys? Do you have anything big planned on New Year's, Jesse? Yeah, I mean, nothing huge. We went out for dinner with some friends. We went to like a Brazilian steakhouse all you can eat. They bring the meats around your table.

Yeah, a new one too that I'd never been to. So that was fun. And then we all went back to my place and played like jackbox trivia games on the on the TV. It was hilarious. You like make up your own answers. And yeah, so we had a good time. We were up until like almost two, I think. So yeah, it was a good night.

Oh, Joe. Yeah, my wife and I went to University of Michigan Alumni Bar in Minneapolis to watch the Fiesta Bowl. I wanted to go to sleep after that and call it a night, but we ended up going to St. Paul visit some friends, little house party, their neighbors. So it was fun. But obviously that earlier in the day, Michigan Fiesta Bowl lost to have it hit on the early New Year celebration. Well, that's what the champagne is for to make all those losses feel better. It is officially 2023, as we said. So we got a lot of stuff on the show we want to talk about.

Should mention later on, Mikhail Surgachev, you two had a chance to chat with him. We're going to play that tape in the second segment of the show. We're going to talk about trade boards. We're going to talk about, you know, players still scoring. We're going to talk about winter classics. But, guys, it's a hockey show, but we have to bring up something that happened in Monday Night Football. DeMar Hamlin, obviously one of the scariest things I've ever seen in sports. collapsing after taking that hit to the chest,

suffered a cardiac arrest, had to be resuscitated on the field. Like I said, just one of those moments where sports seems completely irrelevant. He's still in critical condition. I'm sure I echo both of your sentiments when I say,

we hope he's okay and he will be okay. But since then, there's been a lot of talk about how the NFL has handled this and maybe how other leagues can kind of learn from it. You know, it took a while for them to say, okay, this game is done. They had to eventually say that they're not going to finish this game this week. And like I said, sports seem irrelevant, but a lot of people brought up the fact that this is a super, super important game regarding the playoffs standings and who's going to get in and who's going to get what seeds.

And, you know, as a hockey fan, I couldn't help but watch this. And names like Jay Bowmeister and Uri Fisher and Rich Poverley came to mind, even someone like Clint Milarchuk, where the sport kind of takes a backseat. But I don't know about you guys. I wanted to hear your opinions on just seeing. how the NFL handled this, is there something maybe the NHL can learn from taking a really negative, negative thing and maybe, you know, learning for it, learning from it for the future. Joe, we'll start with you. Yeah, I think it hit home with a lot of players in NHL. I was in, the wild dressing room yesterday, and Alex Gologoski was on the ice when Pepperely collapsed in

Dallas, and he said, the first thing you thought I was him in that moment and the panic and guys crying on the bench and then them saying, we have no way we can play any part of this game. And they cancel it, of course, which I think the NFL made the right decision eventually in canceling that game. But I do think the NHL has done, has learned a lot from all the instances. You mentioned, the Urey Fisher, even before that, Chris Pronger in 98, taking a shot to the chest head and cardiac arrest, you know, with Peverly and Boeaster and Craig Cunningham and the HL. So they've done a lot of things over the years to improve their protocols and from having two ammills on hand, having a defibrillator there, having guys, having trainers in them trained. an emergency and for these kind of trauma situations, being ready for intubation and stuff like that. And so there are a lot of things that have been added over the years and protocols at an HL level to make sure.

I mean, you never fully prepare for something like this to happen, but they have a lot of more things in place that they can be prepared in case like a removable bench. The benches are from removable now. So you need to get somebody out of there really quick. You can do that. So a lot of things they've done to try to, you know, prepare for, you know, the unfortunate thing. We hope he'll be okay and he'll pull through. Yeah, I think Joe covered a lot of the stuff you can do in terms of like the actual medical stuff. And I think the NHL and I think the NFL handled it well too as well as they could have. In terms of how they handled canceling the game, I don't cover the NFL. So I've just seen what I've seen on Twitter. But it seems like they didn't cancel it as fast as they probably should have. And it also, I've seen people saying that the NFL didn't even cancel the game. They told the players you're going to play. And then both teams were kind of like, no, we aren't. If that's the case, then that is a horrific way to handle it.

And I think I saw a stat that the Chris Pronger incident that Joe brought up when he got hit in the chest with a puck. And it was a similar situation, probably not as scary, but similar. I think the NHL canceled the game in like 20 minutes. And the NFL took, I think, almost an hour. And that was, again, maybe they didn't even cancel it in an hour. The two teams just said, we're not playing. So it seems to me like the NHL doesn't have a lot to learn. from the NFL in this situation.

It seems like maybe the NFL should have looked at more how the NHL handled things prior. Because this is a situation where I don't, I wouldn't even want to watch football after that happened. I can't imagine the players going out there and hitting each other after watching that happen. I just don't see how it could possibly work. So I think it's a no-brainer to cancel it.

So why are we delaying it? I think you hit the nail right on the head there, Jesse. And I've said this on the show before. Sometimes we get so enamored with cap hits and stats and everything else that we sometimes forget. These are human beings. And yes, they've come a long way as far as the safety goes if something like this were to happen. But sometimes we forget. I had men's league hockey that day.

And right afterwards, we go up to the bar above the rink. And on one TV is the world juniors and the other TV's football. And everyone was watching the football. And all we could see were players cry. players, you know, hands in their heads in their hands, this is their friend who's unfortunately battling for his life. At what point did they think they could continue playing football? You know, that's the only thing I think they can learn is when it comes to, this isn't a broken

leg. This isn't, you know, something where you're like, this is an injury. It's unfortunate. It's, you know, perhaps gruesome. This was somebody who they didn't know if he was going to live through the night. football is so far down the list. And, you know, when I saw it was an hour that they still hadn't made that decision, I'm thinking, what in God's name are you waiting for?

To me, that's the one thing they can learn from is when somebody's fighting for their life, immediately, no one's going to play this football game. I don't care what it means for the standings. You're going to have to deal with that later on. You just can't continue. I think like Ryan Clark, the forward defensive back for the Steelers, put it perfectly at the next snap will be the scariest snap anybody ever takes in the NFL. just because of the whole just coming off of that, it's hard to get that out of your mind.

It's hard to not picture it as being yourself or your teammate. And listen, all these players know it's a risk involved in the game of being injured and things that are putting their bodies on the line. They all know that and they're paid very well to do that. But when you see something like this happen and put things in perspective, and I think I've been impressed by people who are pouring in their donations to his foundation and really go ahead and rallying around him to see in all sports, not just football and hockey and everything else to kind of see if they can make a positive out of this.

and then hopefully it's a positive outcome for him health-wise. Last I checked, the donations were over $5 million. So, and that's, you know, obviously sometimes a good coming out of a bad is always a good thing. As I said, we wish him the best. Hopefully he turns out to be okay and everything else. So kind of tough transition to get back into hockey, but I'm going to try to do it anyway, guys. As March slowly creeps towards us, we're going to hear the word trade a lot. The athletic trade board is up.

It went up on December 15th. There's been a few changes already. There's going to be more changes. The top five shakes out like this right now, Bohoravat number one, Jacob Chikrin number two, that followed by Patrick Kane, Timomeyer, and Jonathan Taves.

We've seen some changes in that Ryan O'Reilly with a busted foot, Vladimir Tarasenko with hand injury, both on LTIR. So their values significantly declined with that. But in my opinion, that kind of lets you know a little bit more about what St. Louis's plans will probably be. You guys, I know, are part of all this.

Some intriguing names for you on this trade list that you could see making a move or maybe traded long before March 3rd. Jesse, we'll start with you. To me, the name that stands out is Timo Meyer. And because I feel like that's a different type of trade than the other ones are. I feel like a lot of names on this board, Patrick Kane, for example, like you're getting a guy who's clearly at the end of his career and he's still got some left in the tank. He's been bad this year. But like his defensive goals above replacement is like minus seven. it's like the highest in the league. It's brutal. He's playing on a bad team. I think you put him on a team with some offensive talent and you're going to see the guy with the best hands in the

NHL. But I think that's like a rental, let's try to win right now. I think Tim O'Meyer, whatever team trades for him, if they even trade him, I feel like we've been talking about them trading Tim O'Meyer for three years now and they still haven't. If they end up trading Tim O'Meyer from San Jose, I think that's a guy who, I mean, he's 26 years old. His metrics are excellent despite playing on a team that's just as bad as Chicago is defensively. And he's, I mean, he's so good around the net. He scores the dirty goals. I, like, as a Golden Knights reporter, I see Tim O'Meyer all the time.

And he is just such a good player that adds so much to a team. He's 26 years old. He's an RFA at the end of this year. So you still have him under team control. To me, he's the one that stands out to me because it just feels different from the other trades. I feel like that's a long term. That doesn't even have to be a contender looking to push themselves over the top.

Although he could do that. I think any team that trades for him, your next four or five years are getting significantly better with Tim O'Meyer. I mean, I think you mentioned Patrick came off the top. I think he's one that everybody's interested in, right? And he got injured, I think, a couple nights ago. So we'll see how serious that is or not because he's one of the best players in the game, I think. And he could be really added to the contender. But I'm really looking forward to is the trade that's not that big name one is maybe who's this here is Brandon Hagle or Nick Paul that the lightning got that had team control that were obviously a talented player, but has, you know, tournament his contract that you're looking at Brandon Hagel now. He's the top line winger with Nita Kuthoroff and Braden Point on most nights. So those are the kind of deals that I'm always excited to look for at the deadline.

GMs are like not just thinking about right now, but the future with teams with guys that are maybe to have to replace in the offseason. But Patrick Kane, just for me, just watching him all the time. I'm just really curious, is there a contender that can, can ask him to, I mean, watching Chicago right now. I wouldn't want to, don't know why he wouldn't want to say the rest of the year, not see want it breaks every record in the book there. But other Rangers can be ready to take them on. It's funny, Jessie, do you remember before the year we were talking about this exact topic?

And we talked about Chicago and Kane and Taves. And I think we both were in agreement with, you know, Patrick Cain still is an elite player in this league. He still has the hands. He still could score. And we discounted Taves. I feel like they flip-flopped. I feel like Jonathan Taves is actually having himself a much better year than we expected. Whereas Kane, as you mentioned, the numbers say it all, but he is playing on a bad team. I could see a team looking for someone who not only can contribute offensively, but you talk about the guy in the room, the oldest cliche in hockey, the guy who can help out, the guy who can really take on a leadership role, is there anyone better on this list than

Jonathan Taves? Probably not. I mean, he's great. And I also think it depends on like what role you're looking to fill. Like those two fill very different roles. I think like a team like Colorado, for example, that's guys. LTIR, they've got a bunch of guys on LTR, they might have some cap space. You put a, like, that Colorado top six is stacked. The bottom six is not looking as good as it was last year.

They've had some guys that have taken some steps back. They lost a few guys. I think you put a Jonathan Taves on the bottom six in Colorado. Suddenly, they look like that machine that they did last season. I think Taves is a guy that you put him in your middle kind of six foot, second or third line. He can make a huge impact. How about Winnipeg for hometown going back there and playing? And then they're a playoff team too. They're not good Colorado.

But obviously that'll give them a big boost too. He'd help anything. I like that. Yeah. Anyways, between now and March Stewart, be sure to check out the athletics trade board because that thing is going to be bouncing around. A couple names that aren't going to be on this list. Tage Thompson and Alexander Ovechkin went head to head last night.

I don't know how many more good things we could say about both of these players. But Tage Thompson, three goals and assists, that third goal coming in over. time. He's now got 30 in just 36 games. Third fewest amount of games in Sabres history to hit 30 goals behind these guys. I don't know if you heard of him. Alexander O'EGelny and Pat LaFontaine. His season's just bananas. Ovechkin had a couple of goals too. I don't think these two are going to stop. I mean, very different ends of the spectrum of their careers and they're still both putting the puck in the net. Your thoughts on Tage Thompson, Joe, we haven't really talked to you about him. He's just something to watch right now.

a phenomenal, like, complete package with the size, the hand, some of the goals he scores in tight, I'm just, you know, can't believe it. And you look back at, I know that's why trades, I think, should be revisited more like five years afterwards versus a year and a half afterwards than the ones with the Ryan O'Reilly. And that's obviously, the Blues

will take that any day of the week twice on Sunday to win a Stanley Cup. But look at how a franchise caliber player like that. Finding him on the open market is going to cost you, you know, the state of Minnesota or whatever it is. You know, like, so I think you need to, you know, I just need to put a perspective of how a specialist kid is and how March he has to grow. And, you know, those names you have on that list there, McGill and the

and LaFontaine are some legends there. So he just, a complete package to me as far as the size. He can, he's not going to blow you away skating-wise, but he can do a lot of things in tight the lot of guys can do. Yeah, that game last night was so much fun. The Buffalo Sabres are basically must-watch TV at this point because they play so fast, they've got so much skill, and they do not play defense, like even remotely try. There's no attempt to back check. It's must watch TV. I mean, every game, it seems like there's nine goals. That's like minimum for that game last night. Not only the goals by Thompson, but the first goal of the game by Alex Tuck, the assist that Thompson had, where he, he's coming up. Spina rama? Yeah, yeah. He uses his body, which his body is too damn big for a guy that's that

skilled anyways. How are you supposed to defend this? And the Spinerama passed a tuck on the back door. as Joe mentioned, trades. Alex Tuck was stuck on the third line here in Vegas. He's a great player, great offensive player. He was never going to pass Mark Stone and Riley Smith on the depth chart here in Vegas just because he may be better than Riley Smith offensively, but defensively, he just isn't the same complete player. He was never going to get a top six role.

He goes to Buffalo. He's on that top line. Suddenly, Tage Thompson's one of the best players in the NHL. Those two are because Tuck isn't as good as Thompson, but they're similar. Giant guy who skates way better than he should for that size. Good hands. Those two are so much fun to watch.

And yeah, that passed by Thompson was ridiculous. The goal. Ovechkin's goals were both just, oh, that's the other thing. Thompson scored the Ovechkin goal, right? The power play one-timer from the top of the circle. Like that game was awesome. Just so much fun watching that game last night. Two things.

One, that Thompson spinner, I couldn't help but think when I saw that last night. How much ice he must cover with that puck on a spinnerama? The way. His wingspan's bananas, right? And so he goes all the way around. There's no way anybody, if he puts himself between you and the puck, that's it. You're not touching the puck. And number two, just a really nice touch.

All the Buffalo players came into the arena with Love for Three shirts for Demar Hamlin. And then Buffalo's Twitter account, quote, Thompson scored three goals for his third hatrick of the season, his 30th goal of the season. And the winter came exactly three minutes into overtime. This one's for you, DeMar. I thought that was kind of an interesting, cool, cool little, I don't know if it's a stat or what, but good to see.

A couple more things before we go to break, guys. Jesse, I know you wrote about this with Gentile on the site. Seattle's going to be hosting the Winter Classic 29th team to appear in an outdoor game. It's going to take place at T-Mobile Park. And the one thing that jumped out when I was reading your piece, you said Ichero has to be involved. I could not agree more. I love just mixing the two sports the way we've seen them do it. Yeah, I think it's, we've gotten a lot of like Boston and New York and like the East Coast baseball, like legends.

And obviously there are plenty of them. But you think West Coast baseball, you think the Mariners each row is the guy, right? So he absolutely has to be there. Ken Griffey, too, maybe, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could be you. But I love the whole idea with Orr was that, you know, what flip in the puck or first pitch, you know, you could do. But did each row at the cannon of an arm.

I don't know what you can do with that, but, you know, he could probably be. over at Plydege Arena and throw the puck from there and get to T-Mobile the way he was. The one thing I- Go ahead. Real quick. Is the shine coming off for you on outdoor games at all? Not for me. I had that game on the Boston Pittsburgh game was phenomenal.

I thought the aesthetics of it are so good. It never gets old to me. I was blown away when they had the players lined up on the ice diamond and then they dropped the flag over the green, the green monster. It was, the aesthetics of the whole thing were incredible to me. I, I, I, they don't get old for me. I think attending one seems like it'd be rough. I mean, you're a million miles away from the rink. I don't, I don't know how good they are in person. They're clearly a made for TV. And the lower you are, it would be tough to see in my opinion, because the boards are there, right?

You'd need to be above the ice, but yeah, it's, it seems, it's definitely a made for TV event, but I mean, I'm all for it as many of them as they can get on TV. I think, especially the winter Classic. The one on or around New Year's is the one that I look forward to. Maybe I could do without like the other one, the stadium series or whatever, but for me, the Winter Classic doesn't get old. I covered the one in Nashville in Tampa this past year and it was incredible. You know, having the, the bands, every stoppage of play and like the crowd. I mean, fans traveled like thousands and thousands in droves for Tampa. Every question I kept asking, yes, every day was I'd bring an outdoor game to Tampa, an outdoor game to Tampa,

bring it to Ray J, J, do this thing. I think if you ask the players like Tampa, like Stephen in Stamco's who've been in a league for 15 years, never had a chance to play an outdoor game. They were just totally stoked to these. They've only seen them on TV a million times. So I think for each individual market, it's different. Like Carolina game will be huge for them.

But yeah, so I'm all for it. Just making sure it's on New Year's Day, make sure it's the only game in NHL. Just have one game and just do it. To me, to me, I like the outdoor game, but I like it more as an event, a New Year's event.

I like it like that. Like the stadium series, everything else. I find myself not watching them. That's just me. But, you know, that Boston Pittsburgh game, I sat on my couch and watched every second of it because it just felt like an event. But there's no way they're going to reduce them. They're too successful. And like you said, a lot of local, a lot of local, you know, areas want it.

They want to be able to play in it. A lot of the stars want to play in it. So that's going to, it's not going anywhere in case you're somebody who doesn't like outdoor games for some reason. Two more things, guys. Now that I said the calendar has gone to 20, 23 players who are on those one-year deals. can renegotiate contract extensions. We saw Joe Pavelsky, Inco one-year contract extension with the Dallasars, 3.5 million and then 2 million in bonuses.

Your thoughts on the signing. Russo. Russo is not here? You're not Russo. Yeah. I don't go by him yet. I don't enter his mail. I don't get him his coffee, so you have to get somebody else for that.

Joe, there we go. I love Joe Pavelsky as a player. He's not even slowing down. I think the lighting tried to get him three years ago. I remember that in the summertime. He's more of a really not just a great player, but he was great for the culture of that room. And I think he said what about that other day of how him buying into them as a franchise, again, helped them a lot.

And then him resigning and then being kind of playoff caliber team. So he's a guy that everybody loves in the room. He's a guy that work ethic is impeccable. I'm sure San Jose would love to have him still. But yeah, I think it's a great signing at a low cost for what the value he brings at that age. Yeah, the Dallas stars are incredibly lucky. to have Joe Pavelsky and the fact that he wants to stay there and we'll play for as little as he is. Because to me, even with the bonus, 5.5, that's far below what he should be getting paid.

Even at this age, I mean, he just had a career high in points, I think, last year or the year before. And this year he's on pace to do it again. He is such a good player, as Joe said, all the off the ice stuff. I think you look at San Jose and the way they just completely fell apart. I don't think it's all Joe Pavelski leaving. They had some older players that were getting hurt and Carlson wasn't healthy for a while. But I think it's the single biggest factor in the downfall of the sharks going from Eastern, I mean, sorry, Western Conference Final, the one year and a playoff perennial

playoff team every single year to the seller of the NHL. He, you read stories about how rookies are living with him and he's got the team together. And then he has a career year and says, it doesn't matter. taking a small deal, staying, keeping the team together. I want to leave money for the rest of the core guys to be around. Just Dallas is so lucky to have him. He's such a good player on and off the ice. You literally cannot ask for more out of a hockey player from a franchise than what Joe Pavelski gives you. From that crazy 2003 draft, too, with so many great players taken that year. Stick around after the break. We're going to hear from Miguel Cirgachev of the Tampa Bay Lightning. So don't go anywhere.

Well, the Lightning have won nine of their last 11 games. They're now sitting in third place in the Atlantic. And a big reason for that is defenseman Mikhail Surgachev. And Jesse and Joe had a chance to chat with him yesterday, not only about hockey, but sushi and cold tubs and rookie parties and a whole bunch of fun stuff. So let's give that interview a listen. All right. And we are pleased to be joined by the two-time Stanley Cup champion,

Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman, Mikhail Sergachev. How's it going, Mikhail? I'm going on red. How are you? We're doing well. Obviously, the lightning season has been going pretty well. You guys have won three in a row. Just what are the vibes in Tampa Bay right now? You know, good vibes after a good break for Christmas. Everybody came back, you know, energized and very positive. So it's been fun. Brackus has games. So we just got to keep it going. McKell, you've always been a guy since I've covered you that wanted more, more role, more responsible. And you certainly got that this year, a big extension in the summertime.

And you said back then it was a lot of trust from the coaching staff and the management and you wanted to earn it and step up. What's that transition been like for you? You know, we're placing some minutes that McDonough played. Obviously playing some, you know, first power play time too. What's that adjustment been like to take a little while for you to kind of find your footing there? I wouldn't say long. It would be like five, six games.

Didn't go well for me at the beginning. But then I'm going to figure out. how I should start the games and how I should prepare for the games. A little more focus, you know, because I have a lot more responsibility. And I kind of figured it out a little bit there. But, yeah, I mean, the transition was pretty easy. They gave me a first power play time. So it was nice to kind of feel that, you know, trust.

And, you know, I felt really confident at the time. You're obviously a skilled offensive guy, but you haven't just taken on more power play time. you're playing more penalty kill minutes than you ever have. Is that something that you have hoped to add into your game? And is it something you take pride in and being as good on that end to the ice as you are on offense? Yeah, yeah. I take pride of my defensive side of the game. But to me, it's just more minutes.

It doesn't matter where I'll play, BK, to be honest with you. So as long as I'm playing a lot of minutes, I'm happy. And I certainly was this here. so I'm going to try to keep playing most heavy minutes. But one thing is to play a lot of minutes, the other is to perform. So I have to stay a little more consistent in that. And not just play one good period, but full 60. And it takes time to kind of adjust to that to be consistent.

But I think I've been better. I think you were in Mexico, right, when you signed that contract. And was it true you went right to the gym after that? Or was that just kind of like you wanted to go to you? You're good for the... No, we kind of agreed to turns and everything while I was in Tampa. But the news broke in Mexico. But, yeah, I kind of didn't have a lot of time to just relax and chill to a couple days off

and just started working out. I mean, workouts are fine. You know, it's not like you go out there and skate. and, you know, after skates, I'm kind of hurting a little bit in the summer, but workouts are fine. It's just so my muscles and everything else don't forget how to, you know, don't lose the strength. So that's why I did it. And, yeah, obviously, when news broke, I felt really motivated again right away. So I just went and worked out. So when you and Vasilevsky and Kutrov go out to dinner, let's say, I think you're 8.5 now. I think they're 9.5. Who buys who does it tab or who does it kind of go back and forth every once in a while?

Yeah, it goes back and forth, you know, but I kind of paid for a couple of dinners and, you know, I'll keep paying obviously. It's good money and, you know, but it's just, it goes around. We're all, they're all generous guys. and, you know, they know how much it takes to get that kind of contract so everybody's paying. Do you have some more taste than food? Is it easy to kind of pick a restaurant when you guys are out on the road or even at home? Yeah, yeah, we're easy. We're always going to Japanese, Asian fusion sushi style guys. So sometimes we go to Italian restaurants or we try to avoid steakhouse. Steakhouses.

I don't know. I mean, we just like Japanese food. We'll get a lot of steakhouses. Tampa. So that's why when we go on the road, it's a nice Asian fusion restaurants. What city has the best ones other than Tampa? Chicago, New York, Toronto, Montreal. I mean, there's a lot of cities, L.A. obviously. So, yeah, those four homes. You were just in New York, too, for the holiday, right? Like, what do you enjoy about that city

year like you do a lot shopping do you a lot of just a lot of dinners like what do you and your your wife do and you go to new york so it's on our anniversary on 22nd of December then it's Christmas then it's New Year's Eve which is the biggest holiday for us in russia and then it's her birthday and January first so it's you know tough seven days for me for my pocket but yeah i mean we go to new york every year we try to at least uh we we didn't go because of COVID one year, but it's our little family tradition now. And we just go. We walk, I think we walk like 70,000 steps or whatever in three days.

Yeah, and we just go shop, eat, you know, and enjoy the city. We rarely take, like, taxis there. So we always walk everywhere. And it's nice. I mean, I love big cities. Like Moscow and New York kind of have similar vibes. So in Moscow is my favorite state. That's why I love to go into New York and either the really good restaurants.

And we obviously have two restaurants that we go to every year. But sometimes we switch out and, you know, and they have a good Russian restaurant in New York too. So it's nice. And we've gone to museums a couple times and we got, we did some other activities. But we go to Central Park a lot. I like to walk around there. And yeah, it's been great. You mentioned family.

Speaking of family, you guys are expecting a child, right, later this year? Congratulations. I know you have a lot of kids in that locker room, you know, with all the guys on the team. You know, Car stamp goes to on the Zamboni and all that. What are you most looking forward to, you know, about being a dad? After watching all your teammates kind of go through that experience. I mean, I like kids when they're like three years old and above, you know, when they start talking. and just running around and doing their kids stuff.

It's fun. Obviously, before that, it's a lot of work. I'm looking forward to that too. You have to get through that to get to the nice stuff when kids started talking. But, I mean, there was no advice from guys. They just, you know, they just said it's the most precious thing you're going to see and feel the love for the, for your child. So I'm really ready and I can't wait to meet them, obviously. Every year you guys seem to lose one or two important guys because of the salary cap.

And, you know, it's not always a seamless transition to replace a guy like McDonough, I'm sure, or Ruta and everything like that. What was that process like for you guys as a team this year? Do you have to kind of form a little bit of a new identity or kind of get used to like how this team is going to play versus the one that had like the Gord line in the past or you had McDone in the past or you have a lot of similar core members, but it seemed like you have to kind of adjust right as a group to see what works for you. Yeah, for sure, there is an adjustment period. And there definitely was this year.

I would say like 15, maybe more games. But I kind of, I feel like we figured out a little bit. And we're kind of, you know, coaches and GM, they set up the roles for everybody. And I think everybody accepted them. So, and it seems, seems kind of natural right now, you know, playing and everybody feels at their squad and everybody's happy with their minutes, I guess. So it's, it's been, it's been okay. But, yeah, obviously, first 15, 20 games were kind of, you know, shaky and switching lines

and all that stuff. But as well now, I think everybody fits in. One of the things I've been most impressed about you guys is how much hockey you've played and you guys still look fresh. Like I covered the Golden Knights here in Vegas, and a lot of them talked about last year about how all those deep runs kind of caught up to them. You guys, I can't remember the last time a team played in the Cup final three years in a row,

and you guys still look like an energized team out there. Is there something you guys are doing? No, no. I just feel like all of our guys are very professional. And like this year, everybody jumped on the cold top stuff. You know, everybody going to Coltab or sauna and taking care of their bodies more. And, you know, obviously, I've heard that the loss to Colorado, a lot of guys took time off, you know, and much needed. And everybody's professional.

They know how to do it, how long they should take off. And when they came back to camp, I feel like everybody was really energized and wanted to win again. So I feel like it's just on the guys, you know. And obviously we have an identity in our organization that, you know, everybody should come prepared for the season. And everybody wants to be successful. And it just starts with our owner and down to all the workers. So that's why it's easy to do that. You just have no choice.

You have to be prepared. And you have to love the game and be excited. You know what I's like to be a rookie defenseman in the league? Of course, you were a lot younger than Rick Perbix is now. as a rookie in NHL. He any favorite Nick Perrick's stories off the ice or what he's like as a personality or a character? I know Kube mentioned the sushi line

is always in the sushi line after games, but yeah, heats a lot. He's a lot before games and after. And it feels like, you know, when he played in the juniors or college, whatever, they didn't see him. So we're going to laugh about that.

But, yeah, he eats a lot. But, no, there's not a lot of fun stories because, you know, Nick is a very quiet guy. very matured guy, obviously, and a very smart guy. So we didn't have a rookie party yet. So after a rookie party, we can talk, and maybe I'll tell you a couple of funny ones. But as of now, no, he's just, he's been a steady,

smart, quiet kid. And it's been good. What do you remember about your first year when your lockers next to Victor Headman and you had strawam in there too? Like, you're still a teenager, right? You're still figuring things out. You're anything memorable moments or memorable times or advice that they gave you, like you're just trying to survive probably in the league

and they're these guys. You know, moments like that and years like that, when it's the first year, it's kind of a blackout. When you try to remember stuff, you just can't because you were so excited every day to come to the rank. And I don't know, it was actually a lot of stories, but I just, the one funny one, okay, I'll tell you, it was a rookie party. And at the time of a rookie party, I think I had more points than Victor Headland. Something like that.

Something crazy. And Stephen Stamco has made me say like a joke. You know, rookies have to tell a joke. So he made me say, hey, go tell Hedy in front of everybody that you have more points than him. So I did. And Victor, I think, won Norris trophy that year. Since that next game, he got two points. a game-winning goal.

I mean, he was already the best, and from that point, I think. So I kind of, so I helped him win the Norris, no. There is good. No, but I kind of remember that really clear that, you know, I was embarrassed, obviously saying that, but he just took off. Where was this, the rookie party at? Where was the city? Vegas.

Vegas? Okay. He's as a competitive of players as I ever seen, and he gets angry. Like, nobody's business, I think. Do you have a memory of Victor on the ice or in practice? You remember that like this guy's something different as far as like a little bit of a temper? No, he's, he reacts and kind of in a funny way sometimes to, you know, guys chirping him. He misses a pass and guys trip him.

He starts like yelling back at them. And it's kind of hilarious. Some guys use that too. Like they always, you know, whenever he misses the pass because he doesn't miss a lot of passes. And when he misses like they just give it to him. they just start yelling at each other. It's like it's a normal thing now. I kind of got used to that. But it's funny. It gets them going and practice. I should probably use that more too because the guys trip me a lot because I miss a lot of passes. So it's deserved then. You deserve. You earned it.

Yeah. You've mentioned a couple quiet guys. One of the guys I'd like to ask about is Andro Vasilevsky. We all see how brilliant he is on the ice. But he's very quiet, especially when talking with the media. What's he like behind the scenes with you guys? And just what's it been like watching a goalie as good as he has been these last few years do his thing back there? Yeah, he's obviously a special just athlete. And in all the ways, you know, you watch him prepare for games. You watch him play. He's always on it.

And I don't know. Like I've never seen an athlete like that. It's just it's crazy. To me, he's like, you know, obviously Connor McDavid is doing unreal things, but Vassi is doing those things in the net. And he's always like, I don't know, I've never seen a game off from him, to be honest with you. Yeah, he can let like one goal, but, you know, just always on it. But after the, yeah, he's probably top three funniest guys I've ever played with.

He's a very dry sense of humor, very salty, you know, when. something happens like on the eyes on the team and like nobody wants to joke about it he's going to be the first one to joke about stuff that uh you know if there isn't like an elephant in the room and you know something is awkward he's going to make it more awkward by saying a joke about it so he's like he uh he's he's hilarious is there a time you remember him making it more awkward when it was already awkward i can't really tell you okay he always makes it awkward in restaurants and you know, it's just, it's just the way his brain works. He wants to make an awkward situation for everybody.

And he laughs at that. And I kind of, I know it now. So I laugh at that too. But it's constant. It's just every day. Like talking to media, he makes it awkward. Talking to, you know, waitresses at the restaurant awkward. Or on the plane, it's, it's constant.

And so you've got to just got to be prepared for that. It's, it's funny. or whenever, like, there's no, you know, sandwich, sandwiches left on the plane, and he, like, gives it to the guys, the people that serve us or to whoever took it. So it's, it's, he makes it awkward. I don't know.

I don't know how to explain that. I think you explained it pretty well. Okay, thank you. I had to, I asked people what to ask you, and Warren Reichel mentioned a story. You drafted in junior there, and you came over to this house, like they had a backyard barbecue with some of them

Yeah. Do you remember that? You were a swimmer growing up, right? So I don't know if you do that now or if you're in Florida. I wasn't a swimmer. I think there was a language barrier. Obviously, I didn't speak English. And when I came there, we started swimming. And I just told my friend, he was Russian. He spoke English. So I told him, like, tell him everybody, let's race.

And I'm going to beat everybody because I swam when I was in the first grade or second grade in school. So I was like, I'm going to beat everybody. And obviously, I did. and it was kind of hilarious. So, that was, have you guys seen the male Yakopov and Drew Yu? When they beat Canada, the one that he couldn't speak English. And he was like, we beat Canada. We scored more goals than Canada.

And it was really long, really awkward, funny. So I was kind of trying to speak like that. I was like, I beat everybody. I swim better than everybody. So, and Warren was probably a little juiced. So he was, there is. But it was really great. He took everybody to his house and he had a huge house on the water.

I don't think I've seen anything like that before, like before I came to Canada. Because I think Russia is a little more poor, I mean, where I'm from. So I never seen houses like that. So I just used it to my advantage. I was like, I'm swimming all day here. It was a great time. Yeah. Well, thanks so much for doing this.

McKill, unless you have another question, Jesse. I'm sure you want to get out. You guys have like 15 minutes, like, a thing. They told you guys that you only have 15 minutes for you? Oh, no. They asked how much, how much time we needed to do at us. I didn't know how long you could talk. So I said, oh, 15 minutes.

I don't know how long you were available for us. I can talk. Okay. I have nothing else to do, to be honest with you. Yeah. I'd rather talk to you, but. Well, I think we're good, but we really appreciate the time, Mikhail. It's been a fun chat.

I appreciate you letting us behind the scenes of the Tampa Bay Lightning a little bit here. Yeah. No problem, guys. No problem. Thanks. We'll see you a couple days here. Thanks so much. Thanks, Michael.

Stay warm. Yeah, see you guys. Guys, I love how he talks about Andre Vasilowski making things awkward in public places. I love it. We all have that buddy, right? That does things. you're like, oh, God. And even when you say, give me an example, he's like, I can't.

It's just, it's, it's, it's every day. You have to be there. Every single day, he says something. So, man, I wish we could have, be a fly on the wall in that dressing room sometimes just to see some of those awkward moments. He can pull it off. He's the big cat. He's the big guy.

He can do whatever he wants. So it all looks out. Yeah. Man, I wish we could be a fly in the wall in that dressing room sometimes just to see some those awkward moments. Now going to be awkward after the break because it's my favorite time of the show in you or it's a rapid fire. Don't go anywhere.

All right, boys, let's wrap this up. World Junior Hockey Championship, both semifinals going today. And there's the big one, Canada versus U.S. I want to ask you about Boudard because he's putting up video game-like numbers. Even for video games, it's ridiculous. And Pierre LeBron wrote a piece on The Athletic talking about how teams may start tanking a little bit earlier than usual. Is he tank-worthy? Jesse, we'll start with you.

Yeah, definitely tank-worthy. I was joking with a friend the other day. He scores that ridiculous overtime goal where he deaked every player on the ice and then decided to let the goalie try a poke check. He's like, I've got all the other five. I need to get him to poke check, deak around him, put it in the net.

I was joking with my friend. The flyers and ducks were about to drop the puck just like maybe 30 minutes after that. I'm sure their GMs written down to the locker rooms and showed that goal in the locker room as a hype video to try to get... Look, guys, this is what we're losing for. Let's go out there and get us an L.

Absolutely, yes. He's takeworthy. And reading LeBron's column and then executive saying he's the best prospects of Crosby, invest in St. David. I mean, those are not just hyperbolic. I mean, those are hard to live up to. But it speaks to kind of the, you know, not everybody's generational talent.

You can't say that every year. But this guy is special. And I think a lot of teams, you know, you wonder if St. Louis losing a couple more top guys now might, you know, be in a little more of a seller mode. because they maybe have a chance to. But yeah, I think every team that's close to that. No player wants to take and no coach wants to tank.

That's just part of their DNA. But he's one of those guys that if it just happens, you happen to be that team against them, you're going to be a franchise changer. Controversial take. I miss the days where the last overall team gets number one overall pick. And the tanking becomes an art form at that point. Because really, even if you're tanking now,

you know you only have a shot at the number one overall pick. Jacob Verona guys, waived by Detroit. They needed to make some room because Robbie Fabry's coming back from injury. But he just completed the NHL, NHL-NhL-Pa player assistance program. Is it me or is this not a great look to wave someone as soon as they come back from this? Joe? Yeah, it's tough without knowing all the information and behind the scenes. Like, you know, I've covered Eisenman for a number of years in Tampa's a GM and he's very meticulous.

And it's not just the obvious thing. That's why maybe a guy might be let go. there could have been some things that sort of lingered over time, whether it was a decision not to have surgery a year or so ago or this or what. So I know it may not look optic-wise the best, and I don't think he really cares optic-wise what it looks like. I just think that, you know, I see hopefully everything's going okay with him off the ice and he can, I'm sure there'll be a team that'll take a chance on him

and give him another shot. But I think the way he's the way he operates, he usually has something in mind with these kind of decisions that's not the obvious one. Yeah, that was exactly what I thought immediately, partially because it's Iserman and also it's just like, this is very weird, a guy that has, like, he's produced at the end. I think we need to see how this ends. Like, we need to see what happens. Is he going to stay down in the HL? Like, or, I mean, we have to first see if he clears waivers.

But I'd like to see how this all plays out before I, like, jump on the red wings for waving a guy just because I agree with you. The optics, the initial thought is like, oh, wow, that's a little. weird. I want to see how it how it plays out. And maybe like Joe said, I think there's probably something else going on here with, with Eisenman behind the scenes. There were guys that were eligible on that team too. They could just send down. So that's why it could look the way it did. Rapid Fire number three, Austin Matthews became the fastest leaf ever to hit 500 points. And he's also the fifth quickest active player to hit 500 behind just Crosby, McDavid, Ovechkin, and Malkin. well on his way to being the greatest leaf of all time.

My vote is yes. What about you guys? Jesse? Yeah, I mean, the way he gets the shots off from crazy angles, like the goal he scored last night, the puck is within three inches of his skate, and he somehow twists his body to get up. I was talking with Jack Eichol about goal scoring.

And like, I think as a lot of times we focus on the velocity of the shot, the placement of the shot, like the goals, the best goal scores in the league, that's what impresses them, is the ability to get the shot off from different angles. And he's as good as anybody in the world at it. Yeah, I remember asking Steven Samcoe's back about when the next guy could get 60 goals. He's been a long time since somebody had scored 60, right?

And then he said, Austin Matthews, just his shot, where he can get the shot off, the release, everything about him, just a natural goal score. And so I'll pray him to get 60. I mean, he's swollen his way to 1,000 points, of course. It would be there next Tuesday the way he's scoring. So it's definitely a fun player to watch. in a market like that for him to be able to kind of next step for him is obviously

a playoff success of course but a big microscope item every day. Last one before we go guys. I don't say this very often as a host of a hockey show. Let's head over to the top men's league in Czechia and talk cladno hockey. As Yarmir Yager scored a goal the other day, remember he's 50 years old on a pass from Thomas Polkhanitz who's 40 year old, 40 years old. A 90 year old goal. That's got to be something.

we're never going to see again, right? Can you guys believe Yager is still trucking along and scoring? It's amazing. Like, I mean, I remember telling Mark St. Louis the other day that he looks like he could still play. Maybe on the power play I can, but, you know, he's as fit as anybody they come to see Yager, the love of the game. I just love the game for him. Like, he could easily have cashed in and been on the beach somewhere or whatever like that.

But if him just still want to play, you can tell why he's there because he loves the game and just a treat for fans all in the world to kind of see him do it. So I'm only 32, but sometimes I get called in as a goalie to, like, fill in on the 35 plus games, the 40 plus games. And there'll be a 50-year-old guy out there, and they'll all be, like, sending him to the front of the net so that he can, like, so they can feed him a tip in pass. And that's the exact goal that Yager score. I think Yager's a little better than these 50-year-olds. But when you said 50-year-old scored a goal, I looked up the replay, and he scores, and I'm like, yeah, that's exactly what I feel. figured a 50-year-old guy scoring a goal would look like.

But he's obviously doing at a professional level. He is absolutely insane and just such a great character. Love him, love him. We'd love to see him somehow involved with the NHO when he finally decides to hang up the skates. Guys, thanks for another great show. Joe, thanks for filling in. No matter what I called you throughout the show, thanks for coming in.

And we'll talk to you soon. I want to let everybody else know, reminder. I tell you every week, it's because we want you to do it. Get an annual subscription to the athletic for just $2 a month for a year when you visit the athletic.com slash hockey show. You can subscribe to the athletics, NHL YouTube channel as well at YouTube.com slash the athletic hockey show. The athletic hockey show returns Thursday with Ian Mendez. Down Goes Brown. Russo, Jesse, and I are going to welcome Anthony and Chris Stewart to the roundtable next week.

So be sure to tune into that for Jesse. For Joe. I'm Rob. We'll see you in seven days.