The Athletic Hockey Show - The human side of NHL trades, Seattle Kraken's Brandon Tanev bobblehead giveaway, Tony DeAngelo suspended two games for spearing Corey Perry

Episode Date: March 9, 2023

With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, Ian and Sean discuss the human side of trades and the toll it takes on players. Then, with the Kraken releasing a Brandon Tanev bobblehead for Thursday's game, they brainstorm some more potential NHL bobblehead ideas. Also, Tony DeAngelo gets a two-game suspension for spearing Corey Perry, and is it time to worry about the Winnipeg Jets?Next, in "Granger Things", Jesse Granger discusses Fred Braithwaite strapping the pads on for the Silver Knights as the EBUG at 50 years old, and early returns on Jonathan Quick in net for the Golden Knights. To wrap up, a dive into the mailbag and a look back with "This Week in Hockey History".Have a question for Ian and Sean? Email [e-mail] or leave a VM [phone]!Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/NHLSHOWGo to Indochino.com and use code AthleticNHL to get 10% off any purchase of $399 or more.Try Peloton risk-free with a 30-Day Home Trial, New Members only. Not available in remote locations. See additional terms at onepeloton.ca/home-trial Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. Welcome to you, Thursday edition. The Athletic Hockey Show. It's Ian Mettishaw and McIndoo with you on this episode of the pod. We're going to bounce around the NHL a little bit. Look at Tony DiAngelo and the spearing suspension. Time to worry about the Winnipeg Jets. Seattle Crack and Bobblehead giveaway.

We got a ton, and I mean a ton of emails. A couple of voicemail to get to. Jesse Granger for Granger Things. We're going to talk Jonathan quick with him. But I got to tell you, Sean, I need to know right off the end. Has Down Goes Brown gone soft on us here? Here we go. Boy, here we go.

So we got to get to the bottom of this because for weeks, if not months, if not years, down goes Brown. Sean McIndoo is the guy banging the drum. We need more trades, more trades, more trades, more trades. We got to be like the NBA, more trades, more trades. And then this week, he writes the column of, maybe we're not looking at the real toll and the price of trades on impact on friends and family and all this stuff. So I ask you, what happened here?

What happened? Maybe I have gone soft. I don't know. This is, you like the timing, right? I wait till after the deadline to throw cold water on the whole thing. after we've collectively done 4,000 trade posts in the last few weeks. Look, like I say in the piece, this is not me making an argument. This is not me saying, hey, I've got an answer for you and I'm going to talk you into it.

This is me asking a question, and it's me working through. This nagging doubt that I've had, like you say, for years, I've been banging the drum. As a fan, I love trade. You want to talk trades. I'll talk to you all day long. I'll talk to you about old trades. I'll talk to you about stuff that could happen next week. I'll talk your ear off.

I love it. I think it's a huge part of the entertainment package. And all the time I've got this kind of just nagginged out in the back of my head going, yeah, but, man, this has got to be rough on the players. Like, this has got to be real terrible. I mean, you and I are both, you know, we got families and, you know, imagine if you just got a phone call one day. going, hey man, you work in a different country now. That's it. There's a car on its way to your place.

You're getting on a plane tonight. You're expected to be a work at your new job tomorrow. Figure out if the wife and the kids are coming with you. Figure out if the spouse has got to leave their job. The kids have got to quit school. Say goodbye to all their friends. But you're gone. It would be an awful scenario at the best at times, let alone,

you know, who knows what else these guys are dealing. with, you know, this is where we've, we've been far more of the years. We've learned far more about mental health and, you know, we know some of the players are going through that stuff. You know, some could be going through, it could be tough marriages. Your kid could be having trouble in school. Maybe you got, you know, a parent who's going through something nearby. It just feels like as something to, you know, that we're all celebrating, you know, this is great and it's so much fun. And it doesn't feel very fun for the players necessarily. Obviously, in some cases, a trade works out great. Some players want to be traded,

seeing they want to go get a fresh start, new opportunity somewhere. But in a lot of cases, they don't. We've seen guys break down over getting the news that they've been traded. We've seen, you know, Jonathan Quick being an example of a guy who was very, you know, he was devastated by what happened last week. We saw Dylan Larkin talking about, you know, seeing his friends get traded and, you know, he's getting choked up. And there's just this part of me that's, you know, all along, whenever I write this stuff, has been kind of thinking, like, am I on the right side of this one? And the way I think about it is, 20 years from now, are we going to look back and say, man, I can't believe we treated the players

like that. Man, I can't believe we treat trades like this great fun thing. And as soon as I start having that thought, the comparison I make is to the era that you and I grew up in with the fighting and the big hits and the concussions and guys, you know, quote unquote getting their bell rung and then getting thrown right back out there. We all cheered and we all thought it was just great. Until years later, we found out the toll that it was taking. And there's that part of me that's like, you know, am I going down the same road again? Because I love the fights. I loved all that. I was Don Cherry, acolyte from day one. And it was, it was tough for me to come around and realize, like, wait a second, this was maybe no good. So I'm just kind of putting the question out there.

And I can already anticipate some of the answers. I said this in the piece. You know, there's probably people yelling at their device right now. You know, some of these responses to, here's why trading is fine, okay? It's been part of the game forever. These guys know what they signed up for. Yeah, it stinks, but it's part of the job. And it's a job these guys get paid millions of dollars for.

So, you know what? It doesn't have to be perfect. And if any of them really don't like it, nobody's stopping them. from going and getting a different job somewhere else. Don't have to be a pro hockey player. Don't have to be an NHO player. You can go get a different job if you really don't like it. But in the meantime, you want to make millions of dollars.

This is part of the job. And by the way, you make millions of dollars because it's an entertainment league. And this stuff is part of the entertainment package. And so everybody should be fine with it. I think those are all really good arguments. The problem is those are all exactly the same arguments we made 20 years ago in defense of fighting and concussions and headshots and injuries and all of that stuff. It's exactly the same conversation.

So I just sort of put it out to the readership saying like, you know, basically saying, convince me I'm wrong because I want to keep, I want to keep liking this stuff. I want to keep writing about. I want to, you know, all of that stuff. It's a huge part of my experience as a hockey fan. I want to do all that. So please give me a good argument. Talk me out of this kind of nagging doubt I have.

And it spawned a really good discussion. There's a ton of good stuff in the comments. You know, some people agreeing with me, some people pushing back. Some people calling me a snowflake, as you would expect. But it's an interesting discussion. I'm not sure anyone really has talked me out of it yet, though. I would love it if you could because this is, like I say, I don't know what side I should be on. I know what side I want to be on.

It's just getting tougher for me to stay there. Yeah. No, it was a great call. Look, it's something we don't talk about enough. Like, in the NHL, we sell, and maybe celebrate's not the right word, but we certainly have more attention and emphasis on the trade deadline than the other three sports, right?

Like, NFL, you'd be hard-pressed to even ask an NFL fan, hey, when's the trade deadline? You wouldn't know. You wouldn't know. It's only the last few years it's become anything in the NFL. But realistically, hockey's the one of the big four sports where we kind of, we almost want players to get traded. And it's different, right?

It's different than, the NBA does it a little bit to some extent. But certainly, I think we as fans seem to treat the players like commodities a little bit more in hockey. Like, I guess my point is, in other sports, do you see trade bait boards? Do you? I mean, I think you do to some extent. And I should make that point, that this is not. I'm not coming at this saying, here's a hockey problem. Right?

And that is, as I say in the column, that's maybe the key difference between the fighting. When it was the fighting stuff, hockey was on an island. We were the only sport that had this. You had the big hits in football, but we were the only sport that celebrated this aspect of our game in the same way. And whereas, you know, you do see it. And, you know, baseball trade deadlines, big deal. The NBA, you know, we saw some real big ones. But, you know, it's, you're right.

I mean, the way that we talk about the players sometimes. times is, you know, you'll see a trade and that three players and two draft picks and we'll say, well, they got five assets. Like, that's it. You're an asset now. You know, you're not a player or even a person. You're just an asset. And look, I get that there is an element of this where you're like, hey, these guys do get really well paid for this job. And they're playing a game. They're living out their childhood dream. It's a pretty good setup, even when you factor this stuff in. And look, I do know also there's jobs out there where people do get that phone call and they do get told, hey, pick up, you're moving.

You know, anyone who's, you know, been in or been around a military family knows what that's like. There's other jobs that are like that. You know, when I was a kid, you know, my dad had to move around. That was part of it. I'm not convinced, though, that saying, like, well, it's bad for some people so it can be bad for these other people is necessarily the answer. and I don't know what the answer is. The answer isn't we ban trades. Because like I said, a lot of times these trades work out great for players. A lot of times the players welcome them. We see players who have no trade clauses, wave them all the time

because they want to go somewhere else, either to chase a championship, get a better opportunity, you know, playing a different spot or for different coach. There's all sorts of reasons. I just can't get over that, you know, that situation where, you know, we're understanding now. just because you're a pro athlete, you're not Superman. You're not, you know, your life isn't perfect. And who knows what they're dealing with? And then suddenly you just look at your phone and it's the GM who's never called you before.

And, you know, in some cases it's, yeah, sorry, your entire life has been disrupted because we wanted a fifth round draft pick. That's it. That's the reason. I don't know, man. I don't know what the answer is. I just know that more and more as I've been writing about this, I just, it's this little doubt in the back of my head.

And that's what it is. It's a little doubt. It's not me saying, you know what, this is, this is awful. Because I wouldn't be writing about it if, if I thought it was awful. But I just, I can put myself back 20 years ago when people were starting to say like, hey, man, look at these players getting their concussions. And you just go, hey, part of the game. You don't want to get hit. Go play tennis. This is, this is part of what we do. And that hasn't aged well. It hasn't held up well. So I just, I wonder 20 years from now if, if there's some, you know, different rules in place. Are we going to look back at this era and go, man, what were we thinking? Did nobody think that maybe this wasn't a good thing for the players? And if so, why didn't we care? You know what? I think the bigger issue would be, like if we're strictly talking about player rights as, you know, employees and having a little bit more control, I think the bigger question is about the amateur draft.

Yep. And that's the bigger question. I think, look, I think the no trade clauses that are in, you know, what I think is interesting is no trade clauses, I think have evolved into now the player almost gets to handpick his destination. Like if things don't work out and he's got a no trade clause, he's like, okay, I'll wave it, but only to go to here or to there. Like, look at Patrick Kane. He kind of handcuffed Chicago. So it's a two-way street here, right? It's not just these players are, you know, poor players.

Like there's another side to it, which is a lot of times the no trade clause morphs into, I'm just going to handpick my next destination. And it, you know, there's an argument to be made. And that handcuffs a team. But yeah, how many of us could handpick our next job, right? I mean, you know, maybe you're not handpick it in the sense that you don't pick any job. But how many of us can say like, you know, hey, I'm based in Ottawa. There's some writing jobs in Toronto. Maybe I'd be better off going and getting one of those jobs.

but it's up to me. I get to choose that. I don't just get a phone call saying, yeah, that's where you go. Now, sorry, pull your kids out of school. You know, I'll tell them to say goodbye to their best friend. They don't live here anymore. It's, you know, it is tough. And you're right.

We saw it with Patrick Kane. It's kind of, you know, this is a guy who did have that control. You know, this is a guy who didn't have to worry about getting that call because he had all that control and he had it into his contract. I know some people are saying, hey, guys in the NHL, you can have a no trade clause. If you're really, if this is so awful, if, you know, if this big overly dramatic scene that Sean's painting here is really that big a problem, just negotiate a no trade clause. Give up some of your money, if that's what it takes to get it done. Not every player in the NHL is eligible for that, but the veterans are. Yeah, maybe that's the answer.

But, you know, Patrick Kane didn't have to worry about that. And yet, when push came to shove, he was willing to say, yeah, go ahead and trade me. I will uproot everything. I'll go to New York and, you know, I can't imagine anybody would say there should be no trades at all because a lot of times they work out great. It's just a question of the control and that scenario for that player and their family and the people around them who, you know, this isn't the dream they chose. This is something that they're in, whether they want to or not. But there's far more safeguards in place for players. If you go back even 1950s and 60s before there was a players association, right,

players really truly were assets and commodities that could be moved on the whim. Heck, in, you know, pre-1967, the Montreal Canadiens could essentially just pluck any good player from the province of Quebec and say, like, hey, by the way, you're playing for us. Like you really didn't have a choice. I think there's been enough, like, you know what? I think I come down on this where this stuff is collectively bargained. I believe that it's moved towards protecting the players a little bit more in that regard so that the elite players do have no trade protection.

And like I said, sometimes it morphs maybe too far in the other direction. I don't think 20 years from now we'll look back and have embarrassment and think like, I can't believe that we treated players like that. I don't think so. I think, if anything, I look back 30 years ago now and think players have it a lot better now. They have it a lot better now. Go back to the early 90s when you would wake up and all of a sudden, hey, Pierre Dershant got traded. Like the guy had no say in it, right?

Like, or, you know, I think we've moved far enough into the middle ground where I'm happy, vis-a-vis where we were 25 years ago, if that makes sense. I mean, that's fair. And, you know, certainly, you know, again, there is a part of me that says, yeah, in the 90s, we could look back at the Broad Street bullies in the 70s and go, well, it's not crazy like that anymore. Nobody's going into the stand. So, you know, so what if you guys want to pair off and have a fight? Yeah, but you're right. It has gotten better.

And you said, you know, some of this is collective bargaining. So it's up to the players. You know, it's not guys like me crying about it. If it's a issue for the players, go ahead and bargain something. give up something to get something if it's important to you or if it's not, then, you know, I guess we go with it. But, you know, you mentioned the draft and that's an interesting one because I know a lot of people have over the years, I'm hearing more and more, you hear people say like,

why do we have a draft? Why do we have a guy like, you know, Connor Bedard, who based on some ping pong balls, he might get to go play for his hometown team in Vancouver. He might get to go play in Montreal and be, you know, arguably the second or third biggest star. in the entire country, or he might go to Arizona, and he might play in front of a few thousand people in a college arena. This is something that's going to determine a huge chunk of his life, a huge chunk of his income, his opportunity, you know, everything he can do, and it's just going to come down

to ping pong balls and some people getting together in a room and saying, I want that guy. Obviously, as soon as you say that, fans of teams like Arizona say, well, what's the alternative? Where are we getting players, right? I mean, it can't be a free-for-all. Everybody would just sign with the Rangers. They sign with the Leafs. They'd go to Chicago, whatever it is. You know, what's the alternative?

And a lot of people have put a lot of thought in that and said, here are some of the ways we could do this rather than just purely having a draft. But you're right. I mean, right from the very beginning, you come in, you are drafted. That team's going to own your rights for seven or eight years, at least. If you sign a contract, if you get an extension, you're locked into the that contract, which is one thing where maybe it's been a step back from 20 or 30 years ago where players had more control. I could say, I don't, you know, I want my contract torn up.

I want something new. I want to force a move. You know, you can't really do that anymore. You're sort of locked in. Again, I get it. You know, if you're, if you're listening to this on your way to go work construction, you're, you're just saying, oh, it passed me to Kleenex. I'm just, I'm sobbing for these, you know, these players who are locked into their job where they make millions of dollars and they get the summers off and all of this stuff. I get it. You know, and I'm not saying there's not bigger issues out there. But I don't write about those bigger issues.

I write about hockey. So I'm trying to come at it from that angle. And I think two things can be true. I think players can be extremely well compensated, overly compensated for what they do. But that doesn't serve as a, you know, shield for human emotions. I know there's a lot of people like, oh, give me $3 million and you won't hear me complain. I bet you if you made $3 million, you'd still complain or there'd still be issues in your life. Like money, the point of this is money doesn't mean happiness, right? It doesn't. It really

doesn't provide a shield from regular human emotions. And I know a lot of people are like, oh, but it would be, it would be a lot of, sure, your life would be easier. But two things can be true. You could be very well compensated and you could still have issues. But anyway, it's a great point. We'd love to hear from, I mean, listen, you, the comment section was filled with, with feedback. And it was great, like you said. There was lots in there, but we'd love to hear from people as well. You can hit us up. And I'd love to hear people, you know, we joke on the show that the way to get your

email read is to start off by telling me I'm right, which usually is the case. But I got no problem with somebody who wants to tell me I'm wrong. Like make the argument. Lay it out for me why this is, why this is okay, why I don't have to worry. And I can go back to, you know, geez, two weeks ago I was inventing magic draft picks to get more trades. Yeah, where's that show? Where's that funny creative, Sean?

This is the somber. I don't necessarily, and this is maybe me really threading a needle to, you know, for my own benefit, I don't necessarily see as much confidence. Because, I mean, as you can imagine, as soon as I wrote this column, a lot of the people in the comments are like, hey, is this you? And it's, you know, some post from, you know, two weeks ago or two years ago. And it's like, you know, I do think you can hold two thoughts in your head at the same time. Yes. Maybe, you know, maybe this trading is no good. And we shouldn't have it the way that we have it.

But if we are going to have it the way we have it, here's what it could look like. And I will say, the last thing I'll say is the one argument that I do kind of reject out of hand that I've heard a few variations of is this idea that, well, maybe the thing is you guys in the media need to stop making such a big deal out of this. Stop doing the all day trade deadlines. Stop being, you know, asking the players about this all the time. Look, if it's part of the game, we got to cover it. You know, just like it was never the answer that, oh, you know, stop showing the highlights of the fights and the injuries.

And, you know, no, no, it's it's not about the media just ignoring something. And then, you know, because, you know, that doesn't help. I mean, the, I'm sure having a microphone stuck in your face doesn't make a situation any better. But, you know, if, if all it is is, hey, Sean, stop writing about this, stop talking about it on the podcast, stop doing the eight-hour trade deadline shows. I don't think that's where the answer is. But I'd love to hear what it is. And this is maybe the one time where if somebody wants to lead off the email with Sean, you're wrong, maybe you've got a chance of still making the cut.

The Athletic Hockey Show at gmail.com, if you do want to hit this up with an email. All right. On to a couple of, let's call them less consequential, more fun things. Seattle Cracken have a bobblehead giveaway Thursday night. They're taking on Ottawa. The bobblehead is of Christ Haniv with the blank stare. Everyone knows the Chris Tanna face that kind of looks like he just walked into a haunted house or whatever, like whatever it is. He's shocked. First of all, do you like this idea? I mean, I like it well enough. I've, I've never been a bobblehead guy or a collectible guy. But if you are, yeah, go ahead and have some fun with it. Man, we have melted this, this photograph in the hockey world for years.

Yeah, I'm wondering. Have it. God, God love us, man. We get, we are so desperate for personality. Oh, it's, I mean, we're so desperate for personality that it, the littlest thing happens. and we just, we fall all over ourselves. And, but hey, that's the, throw a starving man a crust of bread. He's going to, he's going to savor it. And this is, we don't, we don't get a lot of personality from these guys. So, yeah, go ahead, make the most of it, I guess, while, while you can. Yeah, the tan of Bobblehead Night goes tonight. I heard you just, you just said you're not a collectible guy.

I guarantee somewhere in your home or your parents' home, there's a box of 19, 90, 91 pro set cards that says otherwise. 100%. Oh, I had the upper deck, man. I was convinced it's, I've got like three of those Ken Griffey cards that I'm, uh, I was convinced that was my retirement fund.

University, your kids university is coming up. Oh man. I learned a tough lesson about supply and demand back then. I was like, no, dad, you don't get it. Mickey Mantle's worth $20,000. I don't know. This guy.

He's like, yeah. Every junior. Card number one. Yeah. This is it. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to get one because they made 40 million of the things. and wait a second, hold on. You get your right.

I was a card guy for a long time, and I got a few other things, but I don't know that I own a bobblehead, maybe a couple. You know what I'd love to know is like, do you remember Beckett magazine with the- Yes, absolutely. The prices would come up. You'd race to it, it'd be like the little arrow's going up. A little arrow. 10 cents. Five cents to seven cents.

All right. What do I do with this information? I have no idea. Absolutely no idea. Early day traders. But you'd go into that little card shop and just, you know, and you'd go look at all the cards they had on display. Like you were going to get a bargain from the guy who runs the card shop.

Like he's just going to slip some old card in there for two bucks. But oh, yeah. No, I was all over that stuff back in the day, but not anymore. Now I'm wondering, okay, so they're doing the TANV blank face bubble. night in Seattle on Thursday. Like, are there any other signature poses or looks or things in the NHL sphere that a team could do a bobblehead? Like, I was thinking of, remember McDavid in that picture of the two people at the airport

were, like, could they make a bobblehead out of that? That would be great. I would be good, right? I would get all three of those and just put them next to each other. Yeah, you could do that one for sure, the blank stare of Connor McDavid, stared off into the middle distance. The couple with them. You know, there's got to be some, I also thought about this.

Would there ever be value if the avalanche did a Patrick Wall, Bobblehead Night where he had like two Stanley Cup rings, kind of like he's putting his fingers, he's plugging him in his ears. Yeah, that would be a good one. Right. And you do that. I feel like there's some potential here. You could have done that.

How about we get the next time that Anaheim hosts Arizona, we get the Trevor Zegris with a smirk, the smirking it up, bobblehead and just see if that'll really drive the Arizona guys. The coyote cast team. I know it's normally a player thing, but there's got to be like, they must have already done like the Rod Brindamore, like super angry, intense bobblehead. Like I feel like, I feel like that's got to be there. That has to have been done already.

I know. This is going to sound crazy that I can't remember. And I think it was now, oh, man, who was the coach or? who threw the, was it Tortorella? Who threw the water bottle and got? There a bit a few, but Tortorella was one, yeah. Totorella, yeah. I'm wondering, like, is there anybody else who's,

Pierre Dorian threw the cup the one time that's turned into a major meme? Yeah. Like, you could get like an action shot of, you know, Pierre Dorian throwing the cup. And, you know, speaking to the senators, I feel like both, both them and Florida, you do, you get the bobble head, but you also got to, like, loosen the jaw, and you just get the Kuchuk brothers,

and you just give it one, and it's just the mouth flapping the entire time. The whole time. Have a little mouth guard hanging. hanging off the end and just, you know, like, oh yeah, I give it, it'd be just like the real Kachuk brothers. You give it one little shove and the mouth never stops for the next two hours. It's just, you know, just running constantly on you. I think that would, that could be a good one. Okay. The Kachuk brothers perpetual motion machine. Yeah, perpetual. You're sitting there going, why is it not stopped? It's been, it's been six months now. Shouldn't this thing have slowed down?

Nope. Yeah. Not at all. Okay. Tampa Bay Lightning. We were a little bit concerned about, boy, this team looks lost. They need something to galvanize them, Sean. Something to bring the lightning together. Yeah. Tony DiAngelo has entered the chat. DeAngelo Spears Corey Perry in the, you know where, gets a two-game suspension,

the lightning dog pile DeAngelo. Okay, question number one. Two-game suspension for doing what he did. Too light, just right, not enough. I think I'm okay because I think, sparing a guy right in the pills should be a three-game suspension and then you get a one-game discount if it's Cory Perry. I feel like that's that's okay. I'm good with that. The Corey yeah, like it is I mean Cory Perry is he's a good player but I guarantee he speared somebody

in that game at some point that we just didn't see. Maybe it wasn't on the ice. Maybe it was like one of the I don't know the Zamboni driver or something on the way. to the ice, but he got somebody. He did something. So, yeah, you know, I'll give a little bit of a discount on that one. Okay. And do you think that's something that'll, like Tampa was completely lost on the weekend, Tortorella, John Cooper benched, you know, his star players in the third period of that game against Buffalo. They turned around like a whack six-nothing by Carolina. We were like, oh my gosh, what's wrong with the lightning? That type of game, something that can maybe

snap them into focus here, kind of rally them together. I know they won the game anyway, But are you worried about the lightning? No, I was never worried about the lightning because, look, it's the lightning. And, you know, I'm not trying to be, you know, be a smart alec here. But this team has been to the conference final three years in a row. They know when to turn it on and when not to. And I know we all love the idea that these hockey players, these machines, just, you know, full effort, 82 nights a year. but that's not how it goes.

You're always going to have a few, you know, you're going to have some bad streaks no matter what, just, you know, the puck just doesn't bounce your way. You're going to have some times where things aren't hitting on all cylinders. And look, the lightning are locked in pretty much. We know who they're playing in the first round. We know they're making the playoffs. We don't know for sure that they're going to start on the road,

but, you know, that's getting close to being something we know. It's a situation where I'm, I'm not falling into this trap of thinking that they're in any trouble. If it went three, four weeks, maybe. But every team's going to go through some stretches. Even the Bruins lost four and five at one point this year. Now, could this be the thing that galvanizes and turns it around? I don't know that beating the Philadelphia Flyers should be the thing that turns your season around.

But you know what? This is one of those things. If you believe it, it can become true. If these players, if they go on a bit of a win streak and they look back and say that was the turning point, then that's the turning point. Whether it's true or not, it's not about what did or didn't happen. It's, it's kind of about what the players believe. And if they're on board with it, then who's to tell them they're wrong? That's the old George Costanza. It's not a lie if you really believe it. 100%. Yep. Okay. So you're not too worried about Tampa. Should we be collectively worried about Winnipeg? Sean, let's draw the line back to the third week of January.

So since the 23rd of January, Winnipeg has won five out of 17 games. The only team, they're 30th in the NHL and points basically over the last six weeks. The only team that has collected fewer points than Winnipeg are the St. Louis Blues. So they have completely fallen off a cliff. They lose again this week a couple of times. That lead is down to four points over Calgary should be. I feel like six weeks ago we were like, hey, Winnipeg's a legit Stanley Cup contender. Now we're wondering if they're even going to make the playoffs.

Yeah, at the very least, they, for a long time, looked like they were right there in the mix in the central, right there with Dallas, Minnesota, Colorado. And, you know, I mean, they're a point back of Colorado right now just in terms of pure points. So we don't want to make it sound like they're plummeting out of the race. But yeah, no, I would be worried because, you know, Everything I just said about Tampa, they've done it before. They've a long history of being an elite team. We don't see that with Winnipeg.

And Winnipeg was a very nice, you know, surprise at the first half of this year that they were doing well. I don't think it was shocking. We well know there's talent on this team. But it was a bit of a concern. And, yeah, I mean, the question becomes, you know, how secure is that playoff spot? And then also, you know, how do you feel about? going into the playoffs because look there's only two other teams in the running in the west this isn't like the east where there's five teams chasing that wild card and you lose two games in a row you've just

you look in your rearview mirror and and everybody's catching up to you um they've got calgary and Nashville chasing them calgary didn't do anything to get better at the deadline Nashville got worse uh or at least you know was was a seller so uh you know it's it's it's a better situation for winnipeg as far as still getting into the playoffs as a wild card. But up until a few weeks ago, that's not what we were talking about with this team. You're looking at going, these guys can win a round. These guys can maybe win a few rounds. And then, hey, once you've done that, who knows?

I got Connor Hallibook, one of the best goalies in the league. You know, this could be the year for these guys. And now it suddenly starts feeling like getting in as a wild card and being a big underdog in the first round feels like the ceiling. And there's time to turn it around. But I'm certainly much more worried about Winnipeg than I would have been. about Tampa. And Winnipeg's next four games, Florida, Tampa, Carolina, Boston. So we might know a lot about the Winnipeg Jets. Somebody, somebody got out there and gets speared in the pills. That's, you know the assignment. Time for a little segment. We like to call Granger things with Jesse Granger

brought to you by BetMGM, the exclusive betting partner with the athletic. And Jesse, I want to talk to you a little bit about the Golden Knights goal-tending situation off of last week's conversation with Jonathan Quick. But before we get to Jonathan Quick, how about Freddie Brathwaite? 50 years old, 50-year-old Fred Brathwaite dresses for the Knights' AHL affiliate on Thursday night, right? Or sorry, Wednesday night to be the emergency kind of he's ready to go. What a remarkable story. It's pretty crazy. I've talked to Fred a couple times since he came over to help coach the Silver Nights,

and he is such a nice guy. Always at a good mood. 50 years old and 5'7, and he is strapping the pads on. I remember talking to him at the beginning of the season. I think it was Vaughn. One of the pad companies had sent him a brand new set with all the Silver Nights color so he could wear it in practice. And I remember talking to him about it.

And he's like, yeah, I hope that I don't need him. He did need him. last night, it just shows you how wild this Goldenites goalie injury situation is. We'll get to quick later, but it looks like he's the number one guy now because the Golden Knights are now down to their fifth goalie, fifth goalie. And that basically, what it looks like is it forced them to call up Yuri Patera, who is their sixth goalie from the AHL last night. And that was kind of a last minute thing because the team's in the goal.

Goldenites are in Florida. Aden Hill suffered a lower body injury against Tampa Bay the other night. And they, or sorry, against Florida the other night. And now they play Tampa Bay today. And it looks like Jonathan Quick is getting elevated to the starters role. And they needed someone to back him up. So they had to fly Yuri Patera out at the very last minute. And that left, obviously, the HL team, they're not going to fly, emergency fly in an

ECHL goalie to fill Patera spot. So Fred Brathwaite just happened to be on the trip and got the call. Luckily, I guess luckily he didn't have to play last night, but he was ready if they needed him. Yeah, I want to this luckily, put me in the mindset of a goaltender because I, you know, Ian and I, we have normal functioning brains. We don't have the goaltender brain. But in the emergency backup world, are you sitting on the bench going, let me in, give me a shot, get me in there somehow, or are you just praying? praying to the hockey gods, like, please don't put me in there. I know you're never going for an injury, but are you sitting there going like, get me, get me onto that ice so I can

show my stuff, or are you just sitting there going, please, please, please, don't put me out there. I think for most emergency goalies, like, which is somebody who hasn't played in the NHL, you're 100% you want to play. Like you said, you're not rooting for an injury, but it would be the coolest thing of your entire life if you were to get to play in this game. Whereas Fred, I mean, he played in the NHL. Like he played for the flames. He played for the blue jackets. He played for the thrashers.

He's 50 years old. I think he's experienced it. I think he was probably hoping that he didn't have to go in. It would have been a fun story if he had gone in. But yeah, I think for him it's a little different situation than most emergency goalies who haven't experienced that. And like for them, that's the coolest thing they'll ever do. So last week we had the conversation of Jonathan Quick.

Could he end up with the Vegas Golden Knights? Sure enough, what, two hours after we had the conversation, he ends up in Vegas. I mean, early returns here on Jonathan Quick. I know he's only played the one game, right? But yeah, is there a feeling like there's a little bit of stability now with him there? Or how are people feeling in Vegas around 37-year-old Jonathan Quick joining the Frey? Yeah, I mean, it means Fred Braithwaite ain't starting tonight. So there's that.

That's basically all it does. I mean, so the Golden Knights, basically the position they were in was, like, obviously Robin Lennar misses the whole season with hip surgery. So now you're on to your second goalie. Larenne Versawe also has offseason hip surgery. So you move to Logan Thompson. He played really well. Obviously went to the All-Star game. He won a ton of games for this team. He goes down. They were at a spot where they were down to Aiden Hill and Michael Hutchinson. And Aiden Hill hasn't been able to stay healthy for most. of his career. If you look at last year in San Jose, he was hurt constantly. The year before that, in Arizona, he was, he rarely played more than, I think, 10 games. And he was, and he was just coming off of an injury himself. So you're the team and you're looking at the schedule and they've got a really brutal schedule in March where they basically play every other night. They don't have two days off the entire month. So they're saying, okay, are we really going to play Aiden Hill, who has had injury problems and is coming off an injury every other night for the entire month?

we'd rather not do that. Let's go get somebody who we can bring in, and I think it was Bruce Cassidy, who said, we can bring in and bring in quickly and just throw them in. We're not worried this isn't some H.L guy. Jonathan Quick is that. He's a guy who's got more experienced than pretty much any active goalie in the league.

You can throw him in and know that you've got an NHL quality goalie. Having said that, Jonathan Quick's one of the worst goalies in the NHL for the last five years. He's one of the worst goalies statistically in the NHL this year. They've got a motivated guy. I mean, talking to him, he's very motivated. They play the Kings on April 6th. I'm sure he's going to be motivated in that game. Having said that, I don't know what they can expect out of him. I think now that Aiden Hill went down, we don't know how serious that is, hopefully for the Golden Knights. And for Aiden, it's only a minor injury. And he can kind of get back out there pretty quickly. But if not, it looks like Jonathan Quick might be their starter for Intel Aiden Hill's back because I don't, I think Logan Thompson is still a couple of weeks. weeks, maybe a few weeks away from coming back and Larenda Swah, kind of the same thing. So they may end up, I don't think the plan was to play Jonathan Quick very much. It was more of just a backup. Like, let's just get him in here just in case of emergency, but it looks like they may be having that

emergency. So we may see more of Jonathan Quick than they initially thought. Initial returns, we saw him play the one game. Honestly, he looked like he always has. He's, he's a wild man. He's super low in his stance. He's crouched. He's diving all over the place. He gets himself out of position, and that's why he was so great when he was when he was at his peak and why he was stealing games, and those playoff runs were just the most fun goaltending you ever see because he gets himself out of position, and then he makes spectacular saves. And now, as he's gotten older, it's harder to make those saves. And we saw that just in his first game in Vegas. He made a couple really nice saves, but he also, he's very active.

I mean, I can't think of a goalie that moves around more than, more than he does. I don't know how effective that can be in the long term for a 37-year-old guy, but we'll see. It would be really cool if he does make a run. And, I mean, the Golden Knights and Kings look like they're heading for each other in the playoffs. So if Quick was in the net, that would be a must-watch TV. Man, that could be so fun. And it's interesting to hear you talk a little bit about the thought process behind it, because I'll be honest, we've heard Jonathan Quick, name in trade rumors for years now, where it was clear that the Kings were, you know,

maybe looking to upgrade and usually goalie coming in means a goalie going out. And I always thought, man, some team is going to talk themselves into this guy. 870 save percentage be damned. They're going to look at him and go, he's got two cup rings. He did it a decade ago. He's a winner. He's going to come in and he's going to just magically be the old Jonathan Quick. And, you know, even though all the numbers tell us he's nowhere near that.

it doesn't sound like the Golden Knights really fell in love with that. It sounds more like we just need a guy. And Michael Hutchinson, nice veteran guy, but he's played a couple of games total the last few years. We just need a guy who can come in. Certainly didn't cost him anything. So it's a little bit less of the whole magical 200 hockey men thinking of, you know, that he's going to, this guy's going to do the thing he did 10 years ago because he's, He's just got that mindset.

That's 100% what it was. The feeling I got, like, just talking to Bruce Cassidy was basically, they felt like they upgraded over Michael Hutchinson for their fourth goalie. And he said, look, he's going to get, we, like I asked Bruce what the conversations were with Jonathan Quick when they first traded for him. And he basically said, I told him, you're guaranteed to get an opportunity while these guys are hurt. And you're going to get a chance to show your stuff.

And after that, when they come back, nothing's guaranteed. And it sounds like he thinks the top two goalies on this team are Aiden Hill and Logan Thompson. Maybe Loren Bresois, he was playing really well before his injury. It's going to depend on what that injury was. But there's an outside chance Jonathan Quitt can play his way into the top two. But that's not the expectation for the Golden Knights. This was purely an insurance policy. We don't want to get stuck with Michael Hutchinson as our starting goalie for a month,

which Aidenhill going down a couple days ago, that's exactly what would have happened if they hadn't made this trade. So I think it's worth a fifth round pick. Can I just ask you one more goalie question? Because as you're listing all those guys, I'm thinking, well, yeah, what happens when they come back? And then you've still got Jonathan Quick around. We always hear, like, you can't have three goleys. You can't have three goleys on the roster because practice gets a – what's the issue? Why can we have extra forwards and defensemen, but like a goalie has to sit off to the side?

and it's some sort of crisis? Well, it's doable. It's like, I don't think it's a crisis. And I agree with you, sometimes it is like they make it a bigger deal than it is. I mean, the difference is with a forward or a defenseman, you're running drills. An extra guy just means there's one more person at the end of that line that's running the drill. Whereas the goalies, they can only, there are only two nets on the rink. You can't have a third net.

It just, it does mess up practice and it makes one of the goalies have to sit on the side and do nothing. And actually Hutchinson was doing that for a little while. Like the Golden Knights had called him up and they still had two healthy goalies. And he was just kind of hanging out in the, by the, like where the referees circle is over by the penalty boxes. Just kind of hanging out, doing some skating drills. You're not facing pucks. And then eventually one of the goalies will like, I'm tired for five minutes. Let me go get a drink.

And you'll like run over to the net. And yes, I get five shots. And then you're back over in the corner. So it's not impossible. But I mean, you see it in training camp all the time. in training camps, teams have five goalies out there and they find a way to rotate them in and out. But you usually have two goalies that you, to put it bluntly, that you care about, that you want to get work. And then there's usually a third guy who, well, you'll get shots if you find a way to sneak in there.

So I don't know what they're going to do if they end up with all these goalies healthy at the same time. Because the trade deadline is passed, they don't have the 23-man roster limit anymore. So that's not an issue. As long as you can fit them under the cap, you can keep as many as you. you want up in the NHL. I am honestly am not sure. I mean, that's a bridge they'll cross when they get there. Who knows when these guys are going to all be healthy? But

I'm curious to see what they do when that happens. Well, I'll tell you, Ottawa would be pining for one of them because Cam Talbot is out now for three weeks. Anton Forsberg is out for the season and they're hanging their very slim playoff hopes on a couple of kids and Mad Sogarde and Kevin

Mandalayi. So, yeah. That's never worked for Ottawa before. Crazy goalie run with inexperienced goalie. can't see it. Hey, speaking of Ottawa, let's wrap this up, Jesse, with Thursday night, we've got the Islanders, we've got the penguins going head to head. They're both holding down the last two wild card spots in the Eastern Conference. The teams below them are praying, for the love of God, not a three-point game. Please, not a three-point game. I got bad news for you guys. And the Islanders, yeah, it's going to be a three-point game. Yeah, all we do in this segment is we

will things into existence like Jonathan, quick to Vegas and now a three-point game. are those teams behind them? You've got Florida. You've got Buffalo. You've got Ottawa. Hey, Washington's still kind of hanging around. Detroit, a little less so, but they're in the mix. Boy, do any of them really have a shot to catch those two teams, Jesse?

Yeah. So I think Florida, if I were to, if I'm betting, if I'm betting, man, I'm probably taking Florida. I mean, they've won a couple in a row. I watched them just the other night against the Golden Knights. They looked pretty good. They seem to be finding it a little bit. They're not the elite team that we all expected them to be, but they seem to be finding it a little bit.

But for the sake of fun, please let Ottawa or Buffalo get into this. We were talking about it a little bit yesterday on Wednesday's show. Do we, like, okay, the East is so stacked at the top. Carolina, New Jersey, Boston, Toronto, Tampa. None of these teams we're talking about here at the bottom are going to beat any of those teams. Like, it's not going to happen. So let's just have some fun, right?

Like, do we really need Boston to beat up on Pittsburgh or the Islanders. We already, like, we've seen that story a million times. Let one of these fun teams, Ottawa or Buffalo, into the playoff. I am rooting for it so hard. Like, there's nothing in the NHL I have a stronger rooting interest for than getting one of these new teams into the east. Just for the fun of it, let's see Tage Thompson on the playoff stage. Like, we know they're not going to beat the Sabres or Carolina or whoever they end up playing, but it would just be so much more, like, it's a Wednesday. The playoffs are on, which game am I turning on? I'd rather watch the Buffalo Sabres than the New York Islanders, as much as I like

Ilya Sorokin. Who do you guys think has the best chance and who do you want to sneak in there? I'm with you, man. I mean, I was banging the Sabres bandwagon drum a while ago. In fact, their fans have asked me to stop because typically as soon as I do that, everything goes bad for a team. But yeah, either one of those teams. And look, I mean, you can sit there and say, we know they're not going to beat anyone. Every Bruins fan knows there would be no more NHL ending to this season, then the Bruins finished with 125 points, going to the playoffs and like get shut out by Craig Anderson in game one. And then everyone goes, oh, here we go. You know, some, some goalie. The Bruins getting goalie. And I'm not talking by like Sorokin or

someone. Some guy you've never heard of just standing on his head is absolutely in play. But yeah, no, I'm, I'm all for it. And I know it's almost become a cliche, these, these fan bases is probably sick of hearing about, but let's at least get the Senators and Sabres playing games that matter down the stretch. Let me see some April hockey with these teams. Even if it doesn't end in a, in a playoff spot, let's have some of that playoff atmosphere. We kind of got it a little bit in Ottawa with the two Detroit games, but we could certainly go further with it.

And they've got some games against each other down the stretch too. I'm with you, man. Let's have some fun. Yeah. Who doesn't want to see Buffalo? I mean, the longest drought going in the league right now, haven't made the playoff since 2011. You'd have to be heartless to not want to see Buffalo have some success there.

So I'm with you. But realistically speaking, though, Jesse, do the Sabres have a chance? So I think they do. I think those teams below, I think the fact that the Islanders have played three more games than, like, everyone makes it seem like it's further out of reach than it really is. Like if you, if Buffalo were to win two of those three games, they're two points out. They're doing all three.

They're tied with them. So I think you look at the standings and it's like, oh, there are 68 points. Okay, the cutoffs at 73, 74. That's quite a bit. I mean, the way, with the loser point in hockey, it keeps all these teams relevant for longer. And that's what they want. They want the fan.

It's like an optical illusion that these teams are actually in it. But what it also does is it makes it impossible to make, make points up. Yep. I remember, like covering the golden nights last year, they were in a position

where they were chasing points trying to come back to get into the playoffs. And it felt like they could win five in a row and they'd gain one point in the standings because teams are just, teams are picking up loser points all season long. It makes it so much more difficult to climb the standing. So when you see,

okay, Islanders are 74, 68, that's six points. That's a lot to make up in a month, month and a half. But the fact that they've played those three extra games, I think the standings are closer than they look when you just look at the points. So, yes, I do think that I think Buffalo has a chance. I think Florida, like I said, I actually think Florida should be the favorite to get that final wildcard spot over the Islanders right now.

Yeah, you could definitely make that case. And, you know, I'm looking at Dom's projections. And he's got Pittsburgh still relatively comfortable, 80%. And then he's got the, yeah, the Islander's 59. The Panthers, 49. That doesn't add up to 100, obviously, because there's, uh, the chance that the penguins don't make it. And there's two spots.

And then he's not, you know, we've got Washington, Ottawa, Buffalo all down in single digits. And even Detroit, you know, Detroit's just barely hanging on, although, you know, that win last night did keep him alive. But it's some of the other, you know, you look at money puck. They've got the senators a bit higher. So, but you're absolutely right. The thing that's interesting about the East is it's so many teams going for one or two spots. As compared to the West where it's, you know, whether you count Nashville or not, it's either two or three teams, one spot.

Hey, you've got two paths to the playoffs. If you're the Calgary Flames, you can say, okay, either we go on a real run. We just rack up wins or maybe one of the teams we're chasing plummets. You know, like the Winnipeg Jets we talked about earlier and we catch up to them that way. In the east, that second door is not open to you. You can't back your way in in the east. You can't play 600 hockey and make it in in the east. you've got to be the team that hits the gas this last few weeks.

And you're right. I mean, you have a two-game losing streak in regulation, and suddenly everyone else has gained three points on you because of these stupid loser points that doesn't actually make the playoff race any closer. In fact, in a lot of cases, does the opposite. But like you said, it does give you the illusion of progress as long as you don't look at what all those other teams are doing. All right.

Hey, Jesse, we'll leave it there. A lot of fun talking about the Eastern race, the Golden Knights goalie situation. Thanks for this, my friend, and we'll get you again next Thursday. Awesome. Thanks for having me, guys. All right, always great to connect with Jesse Granger for little Granger things. All right. And let's get to the voicemails and e-mails.

You can reach us again if you want to weigh in on anything we've talked about, the athletic hockey show at gmail.com. Love getting your emails. We also love your voicemails and hearing from your voice at 845-4-45-845-845-49. Let's hear from Tim in Pittsburgh, who's got a question about roster compositions. I really love your show and thought you guys might know the answer to this question. I've noticed that the Rangers only have four Canadian players on their roster right now, and I'm wondering what the fewest number of Canadians on an NHL roster is in history.

I'm guessing this is the fewest the Rangers have ever had, and it might be the fewest anyone has ever had. Thanks, guys. All right. So, Sean, do we have an answer for Tim and Pittsburgh? What team has had the fewest number of Canadian players, or Canadian-born players, I guess, on its roster ever? Do we know? No, I don't have a firm answer on this. And there's sort of two questions, right?

There's how many did you have on the roster and how many did you have in the lineup on a given night? I can't imagine that the Rangers are setting the record because it's not that rare lately for teams to get certainly down to single digits and even around into this range. and then even if you got five or six guys, you know, somebody misses a game with injury, that sort of thing. I don't think it would be that unusual. But the one thing I did find, as I was kind of digging around and just looking into some of the list for this year, what's interesting is the Rangers certainly are way down there now.

One other team that's way down on the list of Canadian players, and this is one I wouldn't have thought of, but the Boston Bruins do not have a lot of Canadian players. And that's surprising because when you think of the Brewers, You think of Bergeron, you think of Marsha. Two of their best players, you know, Team Canada regulars. But they don't really have very many other players. There's only a couple more.

And what was interesting to me about that when I heard this voicemail come in, the Bruins and the Rangers played each other just a few nights ago. And I'm really wondering. Yeah, I'm really wondering. I looked at it. I think the Rangers had. three Canadians in the lineup that night, and I think the Bruins had maybe five. I wonder if that would set a record for the fewest Canadians in an HL game.

And I don't know off the top of my head how to find that exact information. But I really wonder about that because, you know, for 40 guys, right, we're counting the goalies even here, 40 guys to be to be dressed in a given night and only, you know, eight or whatever it is to be Canadian, And if that's not the lowest, it's got to be pretty close. Jason and Winnipeg writes in via email. The Boston Bruins just won their 10th game in a row feels like nobody's talking about it. 10 game win streaks feel pretty rare to me. As a Winnipeg Jets fan, I know the Jets 2.0 version have never won 10 in a row.

My question is, how many teams and franchises have never had a 10 game winning streak in their existence? I don't know if there's a way to look this up, but I do know if there's a way down goes Brown will find it. that comes in from Jason in Winnipeg. And it wasn't me who found it because... Yes, I took great offense to that from Jason Winnipeg. I can look this up. So now let's have a little game here. Okay?

There are seven teams in NHL history, seven, like current teams, that have never had a 10-game winning streak. Okay? A couple of them you could probably... Well, Winnipeg is one, Jason mentioned. there's a couple of others that might be, you know, we won't drag this out too long,

but look, Seattle, they did have an eight-game winning streak. I'll give them credit for that. Eight-game winning streak this season, so they came awfully close. One of the first teams that I was about to say Columbus, but didn't they have some wild, like, 16-game streak at some point? They've had two in their franchise history. Okay.

Listen, let me give you the teams that haven't, and I'm going to save the last two that I'm shocked by. Okay. Okay. So Arizona, they've never had a 10-game winning streak, and that includes the original Jets, but maybe, okay, not that huge a video,

but they did get to a nine-game winning streak at one point. As I mentioned, Seattle, Winnipeg. Dallas, interestingly, has never had a 10-game win streak, and their longest is only seven games, which is pretty interesting. And does that go back to the North Stars days? Yeah, even with the North Star, they've never had one, eight games in a row. Los Angeles only got to nine, okay?

That's surprising. the really weird two, okay? One is Edmonton, which you would have figured in the 80s, wouldn't those guys... I'm absolutely shocked by Edmonton. Yeah, that's... Wow.

Multiple nine game winning streak. I mean, I guess the thing we should point out is, you know, when Edmonton was really dominant, there were ties. So, you know, you didn't have that shootout to tip you over, but still, that is, that is pretty shocking to me. Okay.

And the other one, now, Now, for a little bit of context, the Bruins have the record. They've had, I believe this was their ninth 10-game winning streak in franchise history. Okay. So nine different times they've won 10 games in a row. How about this one? Detroit has never won 10 games in a row. Wow.

Wow. So an original 16. Detroit Red Wings. Yes. That was very, very good for a lot of years, including in the shootout era. In the 50s, in the 90s, in the 2000s, they've won nine games in a row, seven different times, couldn't get it to 10. Wow. That's really something.

Yep. I would, there's no way I would have gone with that. That's really remarkable. I was thinking, I mean, as soon as you said this, I was thinking the Leafs, but I do remember the Leafs had, the Leafs started a season. They opened a season, yep. And is that the only one for them? You may not have that. That's the only one in their franchise history.

Yeah, that is less surprising to me than Detroit never having one. That's really something else. Yeah, that's what I thought too. I was really shocked. Okay. Stephen Michigan says a friend and I were talking recently, came up with a question for you guys. Has a goalie ever had a gorty how hat trick? And my follow up would be if you had to pick a current goalie who might get a goryhow

a hattie, who would it be? I would go with Jordan Bennington. That comes in from Stephen Michigan. That's probably a pretty good pick. He needs someone's a little ill. Bennington would have to actually fight and not just look like he wanted to fight. But yeah, you know, I know I'm sure that no goalie has ever done it.

In fact, it would be extraordinarily difficult for a goalie to have Gorday Hal Hatrick because these days, virtually all cases, if you fight as a goalie, you get tossed out of the game. Because you've left your crease, you've been an additional. altercation and off of the original, and they tend to kick you out. Not all the time, Patrick Waugh famously got stitched up after the Verna fight and got to stay in, but according to the strict letter of the rules, you're supposed to make sure that that goalie gets kicked out. So it would almost have to be like get the assist at some point, get the goal late in the game, which is, you know, you don't usually see a goalie shoot and score unless it's late like we, like we saw

last week and then get a fight after it. Boy, that would be tough. Jordan Biddington wouldn't be a bad pick. I think maybe the ship sailed on this one. We lost Mike Smith because he would have been the guy. He was the most accurate, accurate shooter I've ever seen as a goal. Great puck handler and ill-tempered. And ill-tempered, a bit of a, you know, we saw him have the fight in the battle of Alberta. Hextel never did it. Obviously, Hextel would have been the prototype for this sort of thing. Who else would... The other guy who jumps to mind right now is...

Well, I'll give you two guys. Two guys from the same team, actually. He's not active this year, but Robin Lennar has always been, you know, a bit of a hot head and, you know, the guy who occasionally will throw the puck around. And Jonathan Quick, always been a good puck handler. And, you know, never had that, never got the goal. But, yeah, he's... through it right now. You could see him. Maybe it may be against the Kings.

Sting it down. For sure. Yeah. For sure. Get down there. Go see what this Corpus Alow kid that you got traded for. I don't know. There's, there maybe could be something there. But boy, yeah, I don't, I think it's, it's an extreme long shot. Let's just say, if Ron Hextel and Billy Smith never pulled it off, I don't know what hope the modern era has. Okay. So let me, again, I've done a little bit more research on this one. The only goalie to ever be credited with a goal and even get a penalty in the same game, modern day goalie, Chris Osgood. Chris Osgood scored a goal and got a two-minute minor for slashing in the same game.

So that's the only time that you've even seen a penalty. And no modern-day goalie has ever recorded an assist in the same game in which he scored to goal. Selfish. Typical. Always. Do you know who holds the record? I think you know this.

Most assists ever in a game by a goalie? Of course, yes. Jeff Reese, three against the sharks, right? That was that crazy 13 to 1 or something like that? Sharks game. Yep. Yep. Three assists in a single game. That's a record that will stand for a long, long time, I think. Yeah. Okay, let's wrap it up like we always do with a little this week in hockey history.

We're going to take you back to, you know, and I don't think enough hockey fans, like younger hockey fans or just newer hockey fans know this story, and it's really, really remarkable to me. We're going to take our listeners back to March 8th of 1937, where Howie Marens, who really, Sean, really, the best way to kind of describe this was like Howie Marens was like the Babe Ruth of hockey, right? Like the first megastar, big star. March 8th, 1937, Howie Marens, superstar player of the Montreal Canadiens dies from complications from an injury he sustained on the ice. He actually broke his leg in a game against Chicago at the end of January. He was hospitalized.

They're like, hey, you're probably never going to play again. Well, not only did he never play again, six weeks later, he died because there was basically an infection, blood clot that materialized. He dies. And he was such a big star. They held his funeral basically at Center Rights of the Foreman. And I think they said they estimated almost 200,000 people, a quarter of a million people, line the streets of Montreal

to kind of watch the funeral procession. One of the most unbelievable stories. Like I think some people might know, like you hear the Bill Masterton trophy awarded to, you know, for that. I don't think enough people know Howie Morens. And a lot of fans are under the impression that Masterton's the, in fact, you'll even see it sometimes

at Masterton's the only player to die. Yeah. And, you know, sometimes I'll say directly as a result because in Morin's case, it was, it was something after the fact. but it was caused by that original injury. Boy, you talk about the difference in, you know, medical treatments and how players are treated. I mean, imagine a broken leg being fatal is, you know, for a guy who was a legit superstar is stunning.

But it was a very different time back then. All right. We'll leave it there. And I want to remind anybody if you've got thoughts, comments on anything we touched on today, the trade stuff, whether or not we've gone too far as hockey. fans in media, Jonathan Quick and bobblehead ideas, all the fun stuff we hit on as well. Hit us up. The email address, it's the athletic hockey show at gmail.com or the voicemail.

It's 845-4-45-845-845-59. Right now, you get a one-year subscription to the athletic for just $2 a month when you visit athletic.com slash hockey show.