The Athletic Hockey Show - The Top Ten Weirdest NHL Moments of 2021

Episode Date: December 23, 2021

The NHL's Lake Tahoe game vs. The Sun. Nikita Kucherov's heel turn in his post-Stanley Cup win press conference, the Jack Eichel saga, and much more. Ian Mendes and Sean McIndoe wrap up the year with a look back on 2021 in the NHL and break down the ten weirdest moments.Have a question for Ian and Sean? Email [e-mail] or leave a VM at [phone]!Save on a subscription to The Athletic: theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome everybody to our final Thursday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show here in the calendar year of 2021. It's Ian Mettis and Sean McIndoo with you as always. And since we're doing the last show of the year, we figured why don't we do a look back? Kind of a look back at maybe the 10 or, I don't know, maybe we'll try to make this maybe a top 10 list of fun, weird stories in the hockey world, controversial stories in the hockey world, things of that nature. We kind of want to make this a little bit of an evergreen show that can, you know, for the next week or so,

can last, you can look back and think about some of the stories that happened and we'll have some fun with it like we always try to do here on the Thursday episode of the pod. But man, like even just trying to compile this list here in the last couple of days when we had the idea, Sean, of let's do a look back year and review piece. even just coming up with 10 stories or I guess maybe pairing it down to 10 stories was a Yeah.

Yeah, that was that was well the challenge was twofold for me at least. Number one was narrowing it down because it's the NHL and they always give us weird stuff to chew on. And the other one for me at least was just figuring out what actually happened in 2021. Like there there were stories that I like because I threw it out to. some other people to send me some ideas. And they sent me stuff. And I was like, that was like three years ago. That wasn't this year. And then you look and you're like, oh my God, that was February. I don't know. What was February of 2021? So that was a little bit of a challenge. But we've, we verified the dates on all this. And believe it or not, this all did happen in the same calendar year.

Yeah. And one of the things, too, we want to kind of preface this show is, I think for the most part on the on this show, we try our best to be a little bit irreverent and have some fun and poke fun and hockey culture and some of the things that go on. But we also want to be mindful to Sean that this year was a difficult year in hockey for a number of reasons. And there was some very important reporting that was done by people like Rick Westhead in particular, Katie Strang, touching on some things that kind of poked into some of the uncomfortable areas in hockey.

And I think about obviously Rick's reporting on the Chicago Blackhawks. Like if we were doing this straight up and it wasn't like, hey, let's have some fun. If we were doing what were the 10 most significant stories in 2021, Sean, I'm not sure that there's anything beyond. Like the Kyle Beach story to me is number one. And, you know, it was really like this sort of seminal moment in hockey history. When Rick West had's interview with Kyle Beach landed there in October, it was really a trans. transformational moment, I thought, and maybe even in the history of hockey. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that, that's the story of the year in the NHL. And I'm not sure

that it's, it's all that close. Number two is probably the COVID crisis we're going through right now. And there have been other stories, certainly this year that have been difficult and important. But don't fit well, let's just say, into a show where we're, we're going to at least do our best to keep it a little bit light and send you into the new year on a on a good note. So we're not excluding those stories because we don't think they're important. We're, if anything, stories like that and, you know, some of the other stuff, Logomayu is some of the Evander Kane accusations, the Mattis Kivlennox tragedy.

You're not going to hear those on this list, but that's certainly not because we, we, we don't think that those were incredibly important stories. They just don't really fit with what we're trying to do here. Yeah. And let's be honest, I think, like you said, like I think because we're sort of plunged into this COVID crisis again here around the holidays and hockey has essentially been put on pause, I think a lot of hockey fans are just, hey, can you give me something fun? Can you remind me why this sport is fun and weird and wild and wacky and all that stuff.

So that's what we're going to do here for the next hour. And often dumb, but in an entertaining way. We're trying to focus on the entertaining incompetence in this league as opposed to the darker side of it. So when we were coming up with this list, the first thing you kind of floated out to me was, wow, we got to talk about the outdoor game in Lake Tahoe that was delayed by the sun. And my initial reaction was, yeah, no, Sean, you got that wrong. That was not from this year. That was two years ago, wasn't there?

How long ago does that feel? Like, that is just, and I mean, if you're a hockey fan, you probably remember, you were probably maybe sitting down to watch the game on TV or maybe you were online and checking updates. And they went out there and they played, was it a period? One period. Yeah. And then they realized that they couldn't keep playing because apparently it hadn't occurred to

anyone that it might be sunny during the daytime. And it got us, you know, certainly some bizarre sights, the game being delayed. We had the, so I believe it ends up becoming, in theory, at least the longest NHL game ever from start to finish. Because there's this nine hour gap as an intermission. We got the legendary Gary Betman quote that the sun, the sunshine has always been our enemy. always which is I mean if you're I'm not I don't want to pick on Gary Betman too much I think sometimes we go over the top portraying him as some sort of super villain but if you're going to be a super villain you need a catchphrase and the sunshine has always been our enemy is is an

all-timer there and there were other great moments here here's an underrated one that the people may may have forgotten but in the in the pre-game or the I guess it was a couple of days before when they were doing the media, the Avalanche had a press conference and it was Pierre Edward Belmar. Yes. Talking about how cool it was going to be to play on the lake. And Andre Borkowski, like, live at the press, had to break the news to him that we're not actually playing on the lake.

Like there was an actual rink that they built. And he was, he was so disappointed. It was such a tough, tough moment. So, yeah, the whole thing was a mess. To the league's credit, they got the game done. you know, it all is well, it ends well. But what a, and here's the sad thing. If you went back to January, 2021, and somebody said, you know, you watch that whole situation play out, you would be sitting there going, well, hey, we can close the book on the weirdest NHL story of the year because that's it right there.

Yeah. The sunshine is our enemy. That's your. And let's just say. No, not exactly. There was a lot of weird stuff to come. Yeah, I'm thinking that that sunshine is our enemy. Is that the ultimate, in his entire 30-year run as commissioner,

is that the greatest Gary Bettman kind of, like if you're making a Gary Batman T-shirt and you're trying to print out the one t-shirt which I'm not. Which I'm not. But I think the sunshine is our, has always been our enemy. Or is that just recency bias? Do we need to go back and like, oh, you're forgetting about what are you? said about, you know,

yeah. He's, I think, I think, yeah, you need like a, like the Mount Rushmore would be the sunshiners are enemy. You have to have his go to. I admire your passion that he breaks out every single time he gets booed. Yeah. And every single time people act like it's a real zinger.

Like, oh, look at him. Look at him playing into the crowd. What a great with his one joke that, that, that he's had. I think that would be up there. There, there have probably been, I'm sure there have been some regrettable quotes that he would that he would like to have back as well. But that's that's my starting point. Do you know that,

do you know how long the delay was between the first and second period in that outdoor game? I just, I thought it was like nine hours. Yeah, it was about about eight hours. Okay. It was about eight hours. Like that was. And, yeah, and, you know, I remember.

And, you know, it's, Vegas is out there. And the avalanche were wearing, uh, Nordiques, uniform. So I remember there was a screen grab where somebody had, and it was just the logo. It was Vegas and then a Nordiques logo. And then it said like delay between periods, nine hours. And I was like, imagine explaining this screen grab to somebody like even five years ago. Just being like, this is what 2021 is. This is what we got going on. It would have completely confused them on so many different levels. Do you remember even who won that game, by the way? No, no, I have no idea. The Avalanche did.

I didn't know. I just had to look it up to. I feel like I don't know who won any outdoor game except for the one where Crosby scored in Buffalo in the snow. I feel like that's the only game you could. I guess you would probably know Detroit and Toronto. Like you're asking me, I don't even know. I think Toronto won in overtime, didn't they?

But yeah, that's, most of them you don't remember. I've been to some and I don't even remember who won. Yeah. So, yeah. Which one? Did you go to the one in San Jose or in at Lee? Yeah, you know what? This is, I went to the one in San Jose and I went to the one at Dodgers Stadium. And they were both amazing, but those are the only two I've ever been to.

And I've said this before. I've got to be one of, if not the only people in Ontario or maybe Canada who has been to two outdoor NHL games and they were both in California. I didn't go to the one here in my backyard. I didn't go to the one, you know, that the Leafs were playing in. or anything like that, but I managed to get out to California twice. And the Dodger Stadium one especially was amazing. It was bad, like that was great. The San Jose was in the football stadium, which was cool.

But the ballparks are always a more interesting place to be. So as we move along again, we're kind of looking at the top 10 kind of controversies, weird stories of the calendar year 2021. The Rangers and their overreaction to Tom Wilson, I think, needs to be on the list here. Because remember, it was Tom Wilson who got into separate altercations. I mean, most notably with Artemi Panarin, where he kind of threw him down to the ice. But then it was Pavel Bucenevich as well where he kind of punched him. And the Rangers were incensed.

And I think what I always, as we talk about catchphrases and T-shirts, I remember the Rangers put out a statement that cited Wilson for what? A horrifying act of violence. A horrifying act of violence. Horrifying active violence. And what I always like, too, is that they just took a full out run at George Perros, who is the head of Department of Player of Safety. And they said it was a, quote, dereliction of duty. I always think, wouldn't that, if you wanted to go like super deep underground with like a garage band name for a hockey, dereliction of duty would be pretty good. That's, honestly, dereliction of duty is my band name and horrifying.

act of violence is the name of our first album. Yeah. This is when you and I finally get the garage band going, that's exactly what we're going with. It was so over the top. And at the time, a lot of us were like, wow, Jeff Gordon really going. And then we found out that apparently Jeff Gordon and John Davidson

either didn't know that this was coming or, you know, maybe saw it at the same time we did, certainly weren't involved in it. And we went, oh, that's weird that the GM. and the president weren't consulted. I wonder why that is. And a few days later, we found out it was, as they were both let go in a very strange shakeup. And I feel like we still don't fully know exactly what was going on behind the scenes there. But clearly, our old pal James Dolan, who for a very long time has been one of the

most newsworthy owners in the NBA and not in the NHL. In the NHL, he's been a good, he's kind of just quietly signed the checks and let the hockey team be run as it, as it needed to. And he decided he was going to, he was going to dolin it up. And yeah, he certainly had himself a week.

Well, you know what, now that I think about it, like James Dolan has his own band, right? Like, have you ever seen that where he's like the little singer? Yeah. Straight shot or something like that.

Yeah. James, JD, it's J.D. It's JD in the straight shots. That's right. That's what it is. It's JD. In their next album is, yeah, or derogs. That's why you have to get rid of John Davidson.

You can't have two JDs running around. Yeah. This is, yeah. The old cliche. Yeah. Yeah. Too many JD's spoiled a broth, I guess. Yeah.

And it felt like, look, like the Rangers and we felt like they overreacted. And then I think just to take this story kind of a little one step further. is we all circled that opening game. We're like, man, Rangers, Caps, settle in. This is going to be crazy. And then nothing happened. Nothing. Yeah, it was a complete dud.

The Caps won the game. You know, nothing happened with Tom Wilson. It was, it was. And then you go, okay, all right, let's wait for game number two. And then you look on the schedule and it's not until like February or March or something. They only play three times. So I've got my fingers crossed, maybe in the playoffs. Maybe we'll get them in the playoffs.

And then we can finally see some fireworks because haven't yet. Well, listen, speaking of the playoffs, I think as we look back to 2021, obviously I think one of the biggest stories was the way that the league was structured last year, where there was an All-Canadian North Division and then the other three divisions were kind of separated geographically. And when we got to playoff time, it was one of the weirdest things we've ever. experience. So the Vancouver Canucks, of course, were really ravaged by the COVID-19 virus late in the season, had a bunch of their games postponed. I still don't understand. Now, six months later, whatever it is, seven months. As I look back, I still don't see the rationale for this. But, Sean, the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks played a handful of meaningless regular season games while the NHL playoffs were going on.

and they wouldn't allow the North Division playoffs to start until those games were done. It made no sense. Made no sense at all. And that's, I mean, and that's the reason I think we would all agree that the North Division playoffs were fake. They don't count. Nothing that happened in those, I don't even, gosh, I don't even remember. But yeah, it was completely, like, just let everyone go home, man. Like, it's not, it's, and it's a 56 game season.

It's not like you're trying to get to 82 and, you know, it was, it was strange. But I always, I like to imagine some Canucks or Flames fan when the schedule first came out looking at that first week of the playoffs and saying, please, hockey gods, let my team still be playing. Yeah. When the playoffs start and just like the monkey paw curls somewhere and you should have been more specific. But it was, it was just very strange. I don't know anyone who watched those games. I don't remember anything that happened in those games. weren't they played at like 5 o'clock in the in the afternoon?

It was like just in between the ice capades and you know, whatever else had booked the arena. I don't think they were exactly big ratings grabbers, but if you're a completionist, that was that was it. Whoever, somebody in the NHL is one of those guys that when they play a video game, they have to get 100%. Like they have to collect all the bottle caps or whatever. And like, that was it. It was like, I got to get to 100% with my Vancouver Canucks, and they did it. You got it done. Got to protect the sanctity of the 56 game season.

Yes, that's right. We didn't want to look back on last year and think it was weird or anything. Yeah, why did Vancouver only play 53 games? That's, yeah. So the North Division playoffs, and you're going to appreciate the fact that we're just going to gloss over Toronto's collapse against Montreal. The Habs knocked out Toronto. They knocked out Winnipeg. Then they shocked everybody and knocked out Vegas.

So I think the Habs getting the Stanley Cup final was one of the great stories of the year. But then that became overshadowed by Nikita Kuchera, Sean, who all of a sudden became the NHL's number one villain for this little window of time. We're like, we're going to play the clip here in a second. But I want you to answer this question. Before this summer, before 2021, do you think you would even ever really heard Nikita Kutrov speak. Yeah.

You can remember. That you can recall. Yeah, I don't know. Now that you put it that way, no. I don't know that I did. It was, uh, it, it's, uh, yeah, it's, I mean, you, you are like me. I know that you're, you're a big time pro wrestling fan. And you got to appreciate a good heel turn.

Right. A good hit where somebody who was, they used to be the baby face, the good guy. And then suddenly they just come out and they just drops up on everyone and, and suddenly they're getting booed. And you can't just do that out of nowhere, right? You got to have, you got to subtly foreshadow it, which is what we did by having him sit out, you know, basically the entire season. Everybody's kind of going, is this salary cap shenan again? So you're already were a little bit unsure on this guy.

And then he just goes and does one of the great heel promos of all time. I mean, maybe not quite up there with Wayne Gretzky at the 2002 Olympics, but, you know, the same ballpark. and yeah, I think we've got the clip. He did a hell of a job here. Yeah, so, yeah, have a listen. This is Nikita Kutrov after they win the Stanley Cup. And I think it's our colleague, Joe Smith from Atlanta, who gets the opportunity to ask a question to Kutraff first.

And it's honestly, it's one of the most memorable sound bites that you're ever going to hear at an NHL podium. Do you. Let's hear it. How would you describe your? Congratulations. How would you describe your emotions? right now after doing what you guys did i don't know what to say uh back to back and no i i couldn't sleep for three nights you know and to be able to win this game is huge wisi was outstanding MVP i was telling him every day wisi you're MVP you you're the best

player and then they gave it to whatever the guy in vegas the vizina and then last year they gave wazina to somebody else number one bull-hs one bull. Why as he took both cups, he's the best. I didn't want to go back to Montreal, but they acted, the fans in Montreal, come on. They acted like they won the Stanley Cup last game. You kidding me? John Romano, Tampa Bay Times.

Their final was last, last series. Okay. Like, honestly, like, this to be was unbelievable because, like you said, like this kind of like Gretzky in O2 or it kind of comes out of nowhere, you don't expect. This would be like Sidney Crosby or McDavid all of a sudden getting to a podium and and kind of going off script. You're like, this isn't how it's supposed to go. But I loved it.

He takes a run at Montreal fans. He kind of just, and then later in the summer, right, he's wearing the 18 million. What's it the T-shirt, right? 18 million over? Oh, yeah, yeah. That's, well, yeah, I don't know. It was, he had his merch. Yeah.

Yeah, no, and it was great because this is, again, and, you know, I don't even know that, I know Habs fans weren't happy with it, but your team just lost in the Stanley Cup final. You're not happy anyway, so you might as well. You know, we always say, wouldn't it be great if we got some personality from these guys? And, you know, I get why some people would say, you know, that's not the kind of personality we're looking for. But it was fun for a few days. You know, it gave us something to talk about.

And it was, you know, and ultimately, I don't think he went too overboard. So it was, you know, it was a fun. story. I never understood. Like, he sold the t-shirts that said 18 million over the cap, right? Would it not have made more sense to make a hat? Like, it's a cap. And it just says eight, and it just says 18 million over. And you're like, what is that? You're like, oh, that's my 18 million over the cap. Exactly. Yeah. I never understood. Nikita, call Ian. He's, he's your merch guy, man. He's your idea, man. Yeah. But anyway, I love it because, like you said, it's, it, we don't get this type of personality in the NHL that often, right, where they kind of come out and

they show off their personality, they have some fun. And I think that's what we like. As you'll see in a couple of other stories this year, I think that's when some kind of personalities from teams kind of come out to the forefront. I think that's what we like. Now, as we get into the summer in the offseason of 2021, so Tampa has won a second consecutive Stanley Cup, the biggest story became the Seattle expansion draft. And then Frank Sarajevoly said, well, what if I ruin the expansion draft by telling you about all the picks in advance? Like, before we get to some of the other things, I mean, you want to talk about the sizzle and the drama and the intrigue being removed from an event.

Sarah Velley just destroyed, single-handedly destroyed the expansion draft. And I want to know now, in hindsight, how do we feel about that? You know what? That was 100% on the NHL, though, because the, and basically the same thing happened with the Vegas draft. I think there were a couple of names that are teams that we weren't sure on with Vegas, but most of that leaked out too, because the NHL made a decision that they wanted to have the expansion teams send in their list, and then they wanted to spend the day letting players know, letting agents know. They basically didn't want anyone tuning in to the broadcast that

night and finding out that they had been picked in the expansion draft. They wanted some advanced heads up, which is fine, and we can make the case that that's, that's, that's, the right thing to do, the right way to treat these guys. But when you do that, it's going to leak out. It's going to get out. If you want this to be a big secret and a big unveiling, then you've got to basically say, hey, you're going to hand in your list at 8 o'clock, and we're going to start the show at 805, and that's just how it'll be done.

They chose not to do it that way, and you figured, the surprise for me is I thought we'd be getting it from all over the place, and instead it was just nonstop prank bombs all day long. He was he had a vendetta. But it gave us something to talk about that day because Lord knows the saddle cracking didn't really. And that was to me the two things I will remember about the expansion draft is just sitting around. You know me. I love trades.

I wish we had more trades. Just giddy thinking, oh, this is the week, right? We know what Vegas did. This is the week Ron Francis goes to work. And the crack and do, I was going to say, literally. literally nothing. I think they made one minor deal, but basically no, no side deals, no nothing, um, no, nothing announced before, nothing announced after. And the other thing was the, that we have to talk about is the whole Kerry Price situation that broke out a couple of

days before where it was like, you know what, the Canadians might not protect Kerry Price. And you're thinking, oh my goodness. And then they didn't. But then it was, yeah, but he might secretly be hurt. Uh, and we're just going to leak that out the day before. And, And there was a lot of intrigue. And it was weird because, I mean, this was back when Kerry Price was coming off that Stanley Cup run. He was he was absolutely at the top of everyone's list, best goalie in the league. Suddenly he's in the expansion draft.

And then suddenly he's not because Seattle doesn't take them. They don't trade them. They don't do anything. They just skip it over. And that's the end of the Kerry Price to Seattle story. But it's fun for a few days. It was wild. There was a great debate.

Should they take them? Should they not take them? And then it just, yeah, it was truly, I think, the most interesting of all the potential names that were on the list of players that they could have taken. Boy, Kerry Price was. There were some big names, man. There was like, I remember doing, you know, we were all doing our lists and who might be available. And there were some big names that we thought wouldn't get protected and then did. And there were some big names that got left on the board.

And you're thinking, is Seattle going to grab some of these guys? is Seattle going to maybe make a side deal, say, you know, we don't want Matthew Sheen, but if somebody else does, we'll pick them, we'll flip them over to you. And it, for the most part, didn't happen. And then the draft comes along. And there's guys being picked that you're just like, I do not know who that is. I've got no idea who you just drafted. I've never heard of that player.

This is my job to know this league. And I don't even know some of these guys. And you're kind of sitting there going, well, I guess Ron Francis knows what he's doing. and we're two months into the season and man, it's not going super great for Seattle. But it's a long-term thing. And then the other thing is, you know, if you're a Montreal fan,

you get past the Kerry Price expansion story and you go, well, boy, we dodged a bullet there. I guess we don't have to worry about any more off-season drama. Yeah, that's it. That's it for us. Boy, we've been busy with the Stanley Cup and the expansion draft. We could just sit back. Get a few months off now, yeah. Let's somebody.

else have the spotlight. What's this, I got an incoming phone call from a D. Waddell. What is this? Interesting. Mark Bergevin. And boy, you want to talk about, like, I think the Montreal Canadians might have had the most colorful year when you think about, you know, the ups and the The Montreal Canadians are the team of the year. If, if there was such a thing in the NHL. I don't think there's any doubt. I think so. I think so because they get to the stand. It's like they ran the full gamut of emotions where you reach the absolute pinnacle. or at least close to it by getting the Stanley Cup final,

but then you also have a house clearing and your goaltender, obviously, is dealing with a very significant situation. You have injury problems. Shea Weber looks like he's done. And then the story that finally happened, we've been saying it's the boogeyman for years, the offer sheet.

And yes, Peri cut Kiniemi. It happened. Sean, it finally happened. And not only did it happen, it happened with some sass. And I think that's what I liked about it, is that it actually made it fun. Now, I get the fact that some people think the hurricanes went overboard and it's not good for the game.

And I get that. But at least I would rather have that than the dullness of no offer sheets and people like us writing columns about, well, you know, I think they could put an offer sheet on this guy, but they'd have to think it doesn't happen. Well, it finally happened. And damn it it. It was fun. It was. Well, it was fun. I mean, offer sheets are great because it's a tool in a GM's toolbox.

It's a way to go out and target other teams' players. And it was cool to see one. It was cool to see one happen and then not get matched, which is as rare as the off-sheet is. The unmatched one is even rare. And we are still to this day debating. Was that the right call? Was it not? You know, Kotkenemi has been okay in Carolina.

He certainly hasn't been a $6 million player, but that wasn't really the idea. the idea was to overpay them to get them out of there and they did that. It's, you know, it was offer sheets are fun. I wish we had more of them. They stink if it's your team that's potentially losing a, you know, a really good young player. But the intrigue and everything around them are great. Now, all the side show stuff with Carolina kind of trolling Montreal and everything, people have their own view on that.

This is, this league is so devoid of personality and humor. and all of that stuff, that one thing that I find is when anybody steps out of that bubble even a little bit, we all sometimes overreact like it's the funniest thing that's ever happened. Like, oh, my good, Daniel Alpherson pretended to throw his stick. That's the greatest thing that's ever had. Well, no, it's not, but nobody else does anything like that. So we turn it into a big thing. And it was kind of the same, you know, they sent this tweet.

Oh, they put this in the press release. It's the greatest. And maybe it was, maybe it was. And some of it was pretty funny. But the big picture is we finally got an offer sheet. It didn't get matched. So it worked. And will this maybe open the door to more of them down the line?

Because now at the very least, if you're a GM, you can't sit there when somebody says, hey, if you consider an offer sheet and go, oh, nobody ever does that. It never works. Can't say that anymore. So maybe there's going to be some owners or whoever saying, how come we're not going after these good young players that in theory we could at least nab off of another team. Listen, there were social media wars between the two dueling press releases, all that stuff. The one thing I need your kind of vote on is in the offer sheet, the Carolina Hurricanes

offered Yesperi Kotkenemi a $20 signing bonus, $20 because that, of course, was the number, right, of Sebastian Ajo, and they wanted to make it clear that they didn't appreciate Montreal taking a run at Ajo a couple of years ago. So they threw a $20 signing bonus into Kotkinemi. I mean, I guess two questions for you. One, I mean, what do you feel about that? And two, if you're the Kotkinemi camp, should you have just gone to them and said, listen, I'll sign it, but maybe take the $20 offer sheet out because, man, that looks

real petty for everybody. It's petty. That's the word. It was an elite level of petty. And yeah, on the one hand, I'm a little surprised at, you know, you know, it's a petty. that Kotkinemi goes along with it. On the other hand, I'm just thinking personally, if you come up to me and you're like, Sean,

here's $6 million and $20. I'm probably not going to be like, I got an issue with 20. I probably focus more on the $6 million and be like, give me a pen. We're going to be, we're going to make this happen. But yeah,

it was up there. They had, didn't they put like in the press release, they had the same quote that Montreal had put with the, you know, that was it. There was the payback. And we should point out, like, the hurricanes did go to Montreal before all this happened and

try to work out of trade. Like, it wasn't a full-on blind side. And, you know, this was just a player they liked and there had been trade talks and they didn't go anywhere. But it was, it was an intriguing story. And it was an intriguing story at the time of year where there's nothing going on. Like August is the absolute dead zone of the NHL season. and to get some genuine intrigue and pettiness.

Let's just call it what it is. It was fun, unless you're a Montreal fan. Yeah. So now tell me, how would you feel if you're a Toronto fan? And I know that Matthews and Marner and those guys are out of entry level now, so they can't, they're not the target of an offer sheet. But if some team signed Mitch Marner to an offer sheet a couple years ago, and they gave him a $67 signing bonus to kind of stick it to the Leafs

because they haven't won a Stanley Cup since 1967. How would you feel as a Toronto fan if some team signed Mitch Marner and like, here's a $67 signing bonus and Marner signed it and the deal happened and it went through? Wouldn't you be pretty irate? I feel like you would be. Yeah, I would. I'm like already a little bit angry. And I just peek behind the curtain here, by the way,

for anybody. As we're recording this, we got our cameras on. Ian, do you want to tell people what hat you're wearing as you're giving me this? I just very randomly threw on anything because my hair is a mess today. Randomly. I threw on an Ottawa 67's hat. He's wearing a hat with the number 67 on it. I didn't even realize that.

As he tells me like, hey, would it bother you if somebody just threw a 67 in your face? You Maple Leafs fan loser. Yeah, all right, good one. Very subtle. I don't think we talk enough about the fact that there's a hockey team in Ottawa called the 67's. That's right. Yeah.

It's a, well, it's a thing. Maybe someday. I'm like, I'm like, I was about to say like, yeah, maybe if Martin scored a goal. Like, I'm mad at him for a fictional scenario you just gave me. Like, I'm already. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

So, listen, that was a, that was a really, I'll say it was a delicious storyline. Carolina and Montreal, because there was a little bit of fun to it, but it was certainly it had a soap opera kind of feel to it. But I don't know that it had anything on Jack Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres because that wasn't fun. That was a real life kind of dramatic situation that just by, and I didn't know where to drop this in because I was like, man, this kind of was a story that started in April and then May and then June, July,

August. Like it kept going on. But I think if we're looking back at the biggest storylines of 2021, Sean, and looking at the controversial, weird stories, Jack Eichols divorce with the Buffalo Sabres has got to be on this list. Yeah, and it was pretty much a season long thing. I guess it starts where he plays, I believe in the new year, and then he's hurt. And, okay, he's not going to play for a little bit.

And then you hear he shut down. And then you hear, oh, it might be, it might be serious. We later found out that he had not demanded a trade or even necessarily asked for him, but it had raised the possibility of a trade in the 2020 off season. So this reaches back to last year. But yeah, then you slowly but surely kind of see the relationship fall apart publicly. And it goes from, wow, they might, would they consider maybe trading this guy to? Oh, they might trade this guy to they have to.

And then we go through most of the off season. And it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen at the draft. And there's all sorts of stories floating out about which teams are in, who's out. what's the asking price. You've got Kevin Adams, a rookie GM, having to handle this situation. Not much of a support staff around him in Buffalo. And Jack Eichael making comments at the tear-down day that make it fairly clear that he wants out.

Meanwhile, you got Sam Reinhardt doing the same thing. It's just a mess in Buffalo. And, you know, we're all sitting around going down the list of teams that might trade for him and you're going well you know the kings have got all these these young guys maybe the ducks the rangers seem perfect you're you're just going down the list of all these teams and then you go to well we know Vegas can't do it because they have no cap space so you skip them and you go on and then Vegas does what Vegas does and and finds a way to work it where they can go out and get yet another big name um and uh you know i think certainly if at the beginning of the year if you

told sabres fans that jack ickel's going to be traded they would have been hoping for a bigger return than what they ultimately got. But the way it played out and the question marks around his medical situation and maybe Kevin Adams probably did the best that he could have realistically done. Yeah, I'm having a hard time thinking of. And we've seen some bitter divorces in hockey over the years with a team and a franchise. Lindross and Philly is always the one that comes to mind for me where it just got nasty. I feel like Eichel is going to end up on that top of that list of the most toxic and bitter divorces.

It just, it felt like this is a player who was like, you wouldn't let me get the surgery I wanted. And it just, it became very personal. Just like Lindross and Philly became personal. It felt like Eichel and Buffalo became personal. This was, it was similar, right? Because anytime you bring like a health situation into it, then which we hadn't with, with Lindrosse with the concussions, then it's more than hockey. Right. And in, you know, in Jack Eichols case, it was about, you know, he wanted to have a procedure done that he felt was better for him in the long term, like, post-playing career.

Like, he's sitting there going, I don't want to be 40 or 50 years old and needing to go back in for further surgeries to have this treated. So it was tough. I mean, there have been, like you said, some real ugly divorces. This used to happen all the time. Back in the era where contracts weren't necessarily locked down and guaranteed, it. It used to be a thing where every year there was some star somewhere walking out on a team. It was Pavel Burray or the other guys just saying like, I'm done. I'm going home.

You trade me or don't trade me, but I'm never playing for you anymore. And that really almost never happens anymore. And this was kind of the closest. And it was a bit of a throwback in that sense. Look, I mean, just a brutal situation if you're a Sabres fan and coming off a terrible year. and, you know, just being back to square one on a rebuild. And then the guy who six years ago was supposed to be the franchise, the guy that you tanked to get in the McDavid draft, and to know you have to start all over again, it was pretty awful.

But new start, really looking forward to seeing him in Vegas. We haven't seen it yet. But it's going to be interesting to see. And if you're the Sabres, sometimes you've got to move on. and ultimately that's that's what they did. And, you know, obviously Vegas was able to get Jack Eichol because they had to, they shed some salary. And one of the salaries they shed was Mark Andre Fleury.

And I think this is one of the most remarkable stories of 2021. Like, if you go back, like, think back to our childhood. And pick any goalie that won a Vezna trophy, Patrick Waugh or Ed Belfour or Marty Broder or whatever. Imagine waking up one day, you're like, hey, raining Vezna Trophy when it just got trained. ready, like, oh my God. Like what?

Yeah. What was the return? Like, like, Norris trophy winner. Like, what, tell me. Nothing. What do you mean? Pretty much nothing. Yeah, nothing.

Like, the reigning Vezna trophy winner in the National Hockey League got traded from Vegas to Chicago in return for nothing. Like, it, it defines logic, right? Yeah, we should probably, like, you know, be apologies to Mikal Hackeraynan, I believe, is, is how you because he is the, uh, the, the 23 year old prospect who they did get in return.

And by the way, underrated funny moment, uh, from the off season was like the Golden Knights putting out a tweet. Like, we have acquired McCall, Haka, Ryan in it.

It's like, no, you did. You traded away Mark, you can say that. You don't have to make it the headline that, that you got this, uh,

this guy. But yeah, just a bizarre situation. And, you know, especially because, you know, if you would describe that at the beginning of year,

you might have said, Oh, okay, well, did Flurry want out? Is that it? Did he say, like, guys, I'd like to be traded? And so they gave him his wish. But it wasn't that. He did not want to be traded. He had, in some versions of the story,

had been told by ownership that he would never be traded. And then they go and, they go and pull the trigger and move them. And we're left with, after that, several days worth of drama over, is he even going to go to Chicago? Is he going to report or is he going to retire? Is he going to walk away? Is he going to demand some other trade? Are they going to flip him to Pittsburgh?

Do the reunion there. And ultimately, he decides to play. And this is one of those stories where there's, you know, it feels like maybe this is Mark Andre Fleury trade drama part one and maybe part two is coming closer to the deadline this year. I guess we'll have to see. But very strange to see a guy coming off a career year, a Vezna winning year. he just gets flipped for pure salary relief.

That's the new NHL. We do need him to get flipped to Colorado, though, right? Like if we're talking about deadline destinations. I mean, Edmonton would be fun, but Colorado and then face Vegas in the conference final, how great would that be? Flurry versus the Golden Knights with a trip to the Stanley Cup. That's as good as it gets. And, you know, it would make a lot of sense for Colorado potentially the way their goaltending looks right now. Yeah, and I bet you Jack Eichel might be part of the equation for Vegas at that point.

Hey, look, that would be a lot of fun. I mean, heck, they met in the playoffs last year in round two. Didn't quite, I don't know, I was a little underwhelmed by that, maybe, a little bit. No, it was, I mean. Yeah, but, you know, second round matchup, this would, this would be the conference final. This would be the big one. And Eichel versus McKinnon and on down the line. that it would be great.

It would be great. And we know how, we know this is the NHL. We know how the hockey gods operate. So enjoy Minnesota versus Anaheim. Exactly. In the conference final. I think, did Minnesota and Anaheim once? Did they not play each other in 2003?

That was the 2003 where the Wilde, who were only a few years old. That was the Jacques Lamarer one nothing era. And they faced the surprising Anaheim ducks for the, for the rest. right to go on and play New Jersey in the Stanley Cup final. That's what the pre that's the pre-cap era there right for you. The Wild and the ducks clutching and grabbing and goal tending their way to a showdown with the New Jersey doubles. Well, I think that.

Which actually turned out to be a great series. It was. It went to seven games. And it's funny because right around that time, that's when ESPN and ABC were like, you know what, we're getting out. We're going to hit the eject button because this, this ain't a great product. Well, now they're back. And I think that this is one of the great, the big stories I think in 2021 is the NHL broadening their television deal in the United States, bringing T&T into the mix, which I think is great, bring an ESPN back into the fold, which is great.

And before we get to some of that, you know, some of the fun stuff that we've heard from John Totorella, because I do think that that falls into the category of kind of biggest controversies and stories of the year. I think it's a, the NHL, this is a good thing for them to be on TNT and back on ESPN. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's, it's, chasing TV contracts and dollars has been a ongoing theme in the NHL pretty much forever. And look, I know there's people out there who want to give Gary Bedman all sorts of credit. Look at how much more money they made on the TV deal.

Look at the landscape. Look at every other sports league and how much money everyone else is making. I'm not sure these were phenomenal deals for the NHL, but then again, under the circumstances, they certainly did well. And the key is with ESPN, let's be honest, if you're not an ESPN property, they don't talk about you very much. And, you know, Gary Benman had that funny line at the, you know, one of the media availability where he said, yeah, I'm looking forward to, you know, ESPN finally acknowledging

that we exist again. And that's been a big part of the NHL's struggles over the. the years is, you know, ESPN is sports in the United States. And when they're not talking about you, you're not going to be in great shape as far as building a fan base. So it was good that they did that. And then, yeah, you're

right. You're sitting down going, okay, we're ESPN. We've been away from the game for a long time. We sat out a lot of the clutch and grab and the terrible hockey. Now we finally got exciting young players like, I don't know, Connor McDavid, creative young guys like Trevor Zegra.

and boy, what can we do to really sell this? Who should we put on the air to talk up all the creativity and skill in the NHL? Hmm. Hey, how about John Tortorella? And they send him out there and he craps all over it, which is, if you didn't know what you were getting, now you know. Now you know. So I'll tell you what, why don't we play these clips back to back?

because they happen in a fairly short time frame a few weeks apart. The first that you're going to hear is John Totorella talking about Connor McDavid. And he basically tells McDavid to zip it, to shut up about not getting some of the calls. And then right after that is the comments he made when asked about Trevor Zegris and Sonny Milano teaming up for a goal. So we'll play these back to back because they're pretty much on, as you said, Sean, they're sort of on the same wavelength in terms of, you know, kind of just stifling out some of the fun and creativity in the national high. Yeah, and he complained about it a little bit. He wasn't getting the calls.

I, you know, quite honestly, and I hope I say it, just shut up. Don't talk about it. I do think he has to change his game a bit, not turn into a check out, obviously. Right. He's talked about culture. He's talked about standard. He's talked about winning. You're not going to outscore.

You're not just going to fill the net during playoffs and outscore teams. You have to play on the other side of the puck. You have to have that. that business type attitude of nothing's going to bother me. No matter how you're going to check me, don't talk about it, just play hard, play through it. But the other side of the puck is that important to come playoff time.

It's tremendously skilled. For Sonny Milano, even to yell Michigan in the middle of a play in a game is skill. That's a skilled play. My position, though, is is it good for the game? Like I hear Ray saying all the kids are doing it now, okay, in practice and stuff like that.

I'm not so sure. And again, I don't, I'm not trying to be a fool here, but I'm just not so sure it's great for the game. If you did that back in the 2000, late 90s, 2000, you get your head taken off. It's cool. You know, it's cool to watch and all that,

but I'm not so sure it's good for the game. And I stand by that. All right. So let me ask you, when you hear those clips back to back, and you hear John Totorella telling Carter McDavid to shut up, and then you hear him saying that, I don't know that the Zegrees thing is good for the game,

and I'd probably have a talk with him if I was coaching him. Which one of those did you have a bigger problem with? Torts on McDavid or Torts on Zegris and Milano? Yeah, it's a tough call because, I mean, McDavid, here he is going after the biggest star in the game and the most entertaining player in the game. But, I mean, I think the Zegro Singh was the worst of them because he's sitting there saying it's cool. It's fun to watch.

But I didn't like it. And it's like, dude, you are on the broadcast partner that just paid hundreds of millions of dollars to show this product. And you're going to say that something that's cool and fun to watch is not good for the game. It's just such old school thinking. And it was just disappointing to see for me from ESPN because, look, we're up here in Canada. We've seen it for decades. This is what Canadian hockey broadcasts have been. Cranky old man talking about how everything used to be better in the old days.

Don Cherry was the king of that, but we've had Brian Burke. We've had, you know, go on down the list. Mike Milbury in the States, the same stick. And then here comes ESPN. It's got at least a little bit of a reputation for being, you know, a little bit cool. They know how to market. They know how to sell. And they just go right back to that well and put the same old, cranky old guy on there.

And, you know, I would have had no problem. with John Tortorella, if he said, you know what, with the Zegra saying as a coach, here's why I don't like it. Because it worked this time, but here's why I don't think, you know, that, that play, if it doesn't work, the puck goes up the other way. I think it's a low percentage play. If he was coming at it from a coach's perspective, that's what he's there for. He's the coach. Let him, you know, that would have been an interesting perspective. But if he's just going to sit there and, you know, scowl at somebody doing something creative, I would have expected that on old school hockey night in Canada, maybe, but not on

ESPN's supposed to be like fresh and fun. It just wasn't the voice that I wanted to hear on a play that had everybody talking and everybody was, you know, and everybody wanting to try it the next day and next time they got out on the ice. Yeah. Hey, listen, before we get to,

I can't believe we'll actually run through nine stories. We've got a 10th story. Before we get to that one, is there anything that we kind of left on the cutting room floor that you're like, you know, I think that this could have been, this could have been a story or this could have been. Let me run through.

We'll sort of do the rapid fire around. Yeah. Because there are a few that I wanted to at least mention. I think as far as strange stories, the Minnesota Wild buyouts and Parisé and Ryan Suter and the way that went down with the phone calls to where apparently Bill Guerr and calls Ryan Suter, doesn't get him, calls Zach Porese, tells him he's being bought out. Perise calls Souter and says, I've just been bought out.

And Ryan Suter says, oh my gosh, that's crazy. And it's so weird because I just missed a call from Bill Garon, doesn't put two and two together. And then gets the call from Bill Gareth saying, yeah, you're gone too. That whole thing was a very weird one. At least Bill Garon told them what was happening, unlike Lou Lamarillo. I got to give him a nod for the bizarre offseason long practice of the Islanders not telling anybody what they were doing. constantly signing guys or you know and but just not announcing it where you're sitting there going like didn't didn't they sign this guy like three months ago and he's not there is it's none of the

contracts are filed um i want to uh i want to highlight the uh new jersey devils uh putting out a jersey that just had the word jersey on the front uh and then you know leading to the having some fun with that putting out like the hats that said hat and and stuff like that was a fun day on Twitter. The Washington Capitals, the Alex Ovechkin, Nick Baxter, Nick Baxter commercial. One of the few really good NHL commercials that we've seen where they, you know, why is he always, with the wife going, why is he always here?

And that was really well done. This one's a bit of an obscure one. But the Winnipeg Jets back when in the Canadian bubble, when there were, of course, no fans in the stands for most of that time. Do you remember when they had the like seltzer can guy? Oh, in the stands. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Like one guy, the only thing weirder than no fans in the stands is one fan dressed up as a can of seltzer just like sitting there wandering around. Like it was, it was just a super strange. Good old, good old Seltie. And then the last one I'm going to throw out there. and this one was maybe only funny for me. But do you remember shortly before he took his job, his new job at T&T,

Wayne Gretzky, very dramatically, I thought, announced his resignation from the Edmonton Oilers. Right, yeah. Which led everybody to go, wait, Wayne Gretzky was working for the Edmonton Oilers? Like, none of us knew that. Yeah. What did he do?

What was his job? Even Oilers fans were like, Wayne Gretzky works for us, but he gave us the big, dramatic, you know, I must go on and pursue other guys. You're just sitting there going, what were you doing? Nobody knew. It's like when Kramer got fired from the job, he wasn't even working there.

Yeah. And that's what makes this so hard. He's like, I don't even work here. Like, it's like 100%. I have no idea. He was like a consultant, but certainly I'm with it. I don't think the Oilers knew. I feel like they were kind of caught off guard by that too.

It was like check payroll. Are we? The guy down in the boiler room. Oh, yeah, that was Gretzky. All right, cool. What's the cutoff there with those oilers? Like, because Kevin Lowe's been around. Gratsky's been around.

Like, if, I mean, Charlie Huddy's been around. Like, but, like, I'm trying to think of who would be the cutoff guy that would try to get into the front office with a ring or two? Like, Mark Lamb? Yeah. He's not getting in. Like, is Dr. Randy Gregg? Like, is he the official medical consultant or something? I figure he's on there.

the greatest upset in the NHL in the last quarter century is that the Oilers have not hired Mark Messier for anything. Like that is absolutely stunning to me that he hasn't had at least a couple of stints as GM. But yeah, I don't know how far down you have to go on the Oilers death chart. Mark Lamb might be it, actually. He might be the guy. He might be the guy. Okay. So the last story we're going to hit on is something that happened in the month of December here.

And it's one of those evergreen stories. It's one of those death taxes and fill in the blame. Yeah. Right? It's death taxes. And we talked about this, Arizona Coyotes, not paying the bills. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. I still think this is worth mentioning again.

Because I think the Arizona Coyotes, it feels like they just kind of paid their bills to keep their heads above water for now. And they don't have an arena deal in place for next season. It feels like they're hanging on by their fingernails in Arizona. Gary Batman at the most recent Board of Governors meetings did what Gary Batman always does, which is like, hey, there's nothing to see here. And acting annoyed that people are even asking him a question. Like, why, what?

Why are you guys picking on the coyotes? It's very normal for an HL, for a pro sports team to be threatened with eviction midway through a season. Why is this even a story, guys? Yeah. So I don't know where this ranks, but it certainly needs to land because I think it kind of is one of those stories that you can kind of push forward to 2022 and ask yourself, like, what does your gut tell you about where the Arizona Coyotes are playing? As we close out

2021, I know that there's a, there's a good fan base there. And I think sometimes we tend to punch down on some fan bases that, look, there's thousands of hockey fans there in the desert. They love the team. The fan base isn't big enough. Yeah. But the people who are fans are, yeah, I mean, they're passionate and they're loyal, geez, because it's not like the team's giving them a lot to, uh, to hold on to. So yeah, no, it's, it's great. But it is. It's such, I feel like in a way we're, we're not, you know, thinking enough about the fact that there is an NHL team that we don't know where they're going to play next year. And, you know, yeah, they want a new arena.

You're not going to build a new arena in six months. So they're, they won't have a new arena for a few years. I know there are people who still think that they're going to work it out with Glendale. This is all a bluff. It's all, you know, bargaining position. But the relationship certainly seems very broken there. And if it's not Glendale, where do they go? The NHL keeps saying they're not moving anywhere.

It's going to be in Arizona. Okay, where? Like, what rinks do you have? And I've seen, you know, Lizzie, Craig Morgan did a good piece where he was saying, like, here's where they could wind up. None of those options look all that great, you know, could they go to. to the baseball park. Could they go to, you know, some of these smaller arenas? Could they be playing in a 5,000 seat arena for a few years?

Apparently, that's an option on the table. But it's just very strange. We've seen franchises in flux a little bit when it comes to arenas. But I can't remember the last time that we're sitting there going, we don't know where this team is going to be on opening night. We just have no idea. Yeah. No, it's going to be to me, as you, again, we wrap up this show and you kind of look forward.

I think the coyotes and their future is one of the biggest stories to look forward to next year. You know, if I had to pick the one story right now and if I had to fill in the blank of the biggest story of 2022, like to me, if the Tampa Bay Lightning, Sean can win a third consecutive Stanley Cup, I'm going to go ahead and say, it deserves mentioning as the greatest dynasty in the history of the NHL, given the circumstances, given the cap, given the COVID backdrop, give it all the things that they've dealt with. I think winning three, and I'd love to get your take on this,

if they win a third consecutive Stanley Cup in the salary cap era, would that not be the equivalent of four or five consecutive Stanley Cups in either an original six or a non-cap era? Yeah, yeah. It's, I mean, you kind of have to adjust for era, I guess. And I think it would be in the parody era. It would be impressive. Now, there's sort of two angles on this, right?

The one is that it should be much, much harder to win a Stanley Cup in a 32 team league in the parody era. And to do it three times in a row versus, you know, a team like the Islanders in the early 80s, winning four in a row in a 21 team league where half of those teams were just flat out terrible. You know, what the lightning have done would feel more impressive. Now, the flip side of that, we'd say it is the parody era. which means, you know, position for position, the lightning, are they as great as that Islanders team, or is they as great as some of those Habs dynasties? Probably not, right? You go down the list and you say, well, the Habs team had 10 or 11 Hall of Famers. The Lightning aren't going to be in the same position.

So it's not, maybe not when you say great teams of all time, maybe you don't put them in there, but you have to focus on what the year is and the circumstances around it. To do it in a cap, to do it when it feels like the difference between the best of the worst teams is smaller than it's ever been, it would be really impressive. Even to do two in a row was really something else. And if they can get to three, they'd be the first team to do it since those islanders. Even the Gretzky Oilers never won three Stanley Cups in a row. Marios Penguins got the two, didn't win three. Red Wings never did it.

It would certainly be impressive, but a long way to go for them to get there. Yeah. And again, like that, like I said, there was you'd be a ton of fun story. storylines to follow along in 2020. And we hope the listeners appreciated this kind of walk down memory lane in 2021. Because, man, it was an eventful year. Even though there was multiple kind of pauses in the season and a shortening of games due to COVID, certainly wasn't a shortage of storyline.

So listen, this was a ton of fun. I hope you have a great holiday with the family. Hope you get to spend some time. I know under the circumstances here with COVID and everybody's kind of altering their plans. Everything's a little bit different. But I'm, you know, hopeful and optimistic that, you know, Everybody can have a good holiday here and hopefully, fingers crossed. I'm hoping we get the world juniors here to kind of pay attention to, right?

That'd be nice. It'd be nice to have some sort of hockey. But yeah, you're right. Everybody, happy holidays to everyone. Thank you for listening and just stay safe and look out for each other. Yeah, that's well said. And thank you for not only listening to this episode of the podcast, the season kind of year and review, but also all year long as we've kind of completed one year of doing the athletic hockey show.

We have had a ton of fun. doing that. Like I said, this is our last show for 2021. We'll get you on the other side there in January. And if you've got any feedback on this show, as always, you can drop us an email, The Athletic Hockey Show at gmail.com, the athletic hockey show, gmail.com. And if you are not a subscriber, you can join us at theathletic.com slash hockey show to get a discount on an annual subscription.