The Athletic Hockey Show - The Winter Classic Jagr Salute with Mike Rupp. Should John Vanbiesbrouck be running team USA and Connor McDavid would have gone to Beijing, despite the risk

Episode Date: December 28, 2021

Craig and Sean welcome Stanley Cup Champion Mike Rupp, a studio analyst with NHL Network ahead of the Winter Classic between St. Louis and the Wild in Minnesota. Rupper does not disappoint, sharing some awesome stories about his experiences in the Winter Classic, including the notorious Jagr salute, his relationship with number 68, and what it's like to be a part of the exclusive game seven game winning goal club in the Stanley Cup Final.Plus, Sean and Craig discuss what the US roster might look like at the 2022 Winter Olympics, with the NHL not involved, the man in charge of running the US Olympic team, John Vanbiesbrouck and why USA Hockey should have gone in a different direction. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey everybody. Merry, Happy. What's the time between, is it Boxing Day, Sean? What are we in between? Boxing Day is the 26th. It's also. Oh, we already missed that. I don't know.

We don't really do. We don't have to recognize, hey, everybody. Welcome to the Athletic Hockey Show, the last episode, at least hours, of 2021, the greatest year of all time. Second, second only to 2020. we're working on a streak. Could it be any worse next year? Like what? Yeah.

Someone was like? Yeah. Oh, I can. Things can always get worse. Thanks. Somebody said, this is, I'm, did I say my name? I'm Craig Custin's. I'm joined by Sean Gentilly.

As always, on Tuesday, in the greatest episode of the week, as we all know, the American edition. We only talk about American hockey. We don't acknowledge Canadian hockey. but we are going to talk about Connor McDavid because he's the rare exception a little later

and there's a larger league impact we're also going to talk to Mike Rupp who's going to join the show in the second segment we're going to talk about the Winter Classic

an event Sean and I have attended many times I don't remember any of them I think you have the I think you hold the belt on that one for consecutive

winter classics or most winter classics I've been to a lot you got to be at 10 right it's probably double double digits. To the point where Dan Craig,

I actually can help if he needs help, like getting the ice. Yeah, you're one of the people that comes out with a little animal balloons that they use to fill up chunks in the crease. Mike Rupp has played in a couple of those. He's going to be doing some NHL network calls.

He's an all-round fun conversation. Like, I liked following our last episode, and we'll get to the comments in the third segment, but someone was like, hey, can we, these guests have been great. Can you stick to interesting, fun people to talk to it?

I'm like, that's a great idea. You know, you know, I never really thought of that. That's what they talked of good personalities. See, what we've been trying to do for the last six months is mix in good guests with boring ones, just like every now and then we have a dud just to keep people on their toes. People may believe that if they listen. Like Mark Lazarus. My name and names.

Mark Lazarus, for example. If everybody's a good guest, is anybody a good guest? man that's like a that's a philosophical i mean i i haven't really done any work in like four days so you're getting oh what i was uh you're getting too deep yeah everything good with you you have a great christmas and uh all that you don't you don't give a shit you don't care nope sure don't phony phonyest question you've ever asked right there my god i don't know i only ask because i didn't even occur to me until cassie mo's so i met recording in a my sister's place there's They have a cottage up in northern Michigan.

And so Cassie's here. It's wide open. So you hear kids and dogs barking. That's why. And she talked to Sean and did all the proper things about asking about holidays and much more polite. I think part of it is that like you and I are pretty much in constant conversation. So it's like no days are all that much different than the other ones. Do you know what I mean?

Like I don't know. Sometimes like with your close friends, sometimes you forget like, your close friends or your or your co-workers or you don't work are we or in some cases your bosses boss's boss but one more boss like we talk enough where it's sort of like I don't know we're like it's like if you're in a group text with your friends and sometimes you forget each other's birthdays like you're just like whatever we talk every day who gives a shit this is it this is this is this is just another one and I think that's kind of that's kind of what happened with Christmas you

did fire off a text. It seemed like you got together with some athletic editors, and I didn't respond to the text about the wine, but we do, you know, like Tyler much better than you. Yeah, that was, well, jokes on, jokes on Tyler, because he was in Louisiana for until the day after Christmas, and I drank that wine. So,

tough shit. Is that true? Wow. We needed, we needed, we needed, we needed, we needed, we needed, we needed, we needed, we needed, we needed, we needed, we needed, we needed, and I, and I, and I, and I checked just to make sure they were two $15 bottles of wine, like perfect, you know, the perfect, the perfect cost. Those weren't $15.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, they were. Here's what I want to say. Maybe to send through your fancy mailing, through your fancy mailing. You're paying a premium. Before we get to microp, I want to talk, you know, we recorded last, and we knew the Olympics, they were going to pull the shoot on the Olympics, but we couldn't, we basically talked like they were, since they did,

I mean, everything happened as, as we, figured. They're, you know, they're not going to the Olympics. John Van Biesbrook was named GM of the U.S. team. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool.

Cool. Cool. And, and now in, what's a Quinny? David Quinn's going to be the coach of the Americans. It's really hard for me to get excited about it now that the NHL players are out. What? You're not, you're already, I've had to play. Do we need to talk about Van Biesbrook?

like sure you're not excited it makes you harder to root for the Americans are you gonna are we watching like whatever version of this is like what's the Olympics? What is it gonna be like yeah like yeah I mean only if Bobby Ryan's on the team for me yeah and I'm I mean I'm psyched for

I'm psych for potentially seeing you know Patrick Bordolo might end up on the Olympic team after getting screwed out of world juniors twice because of yeah I mean, I'm psyched to see some of the college kids. I'm psyched to see what maybe HL or EuroLeague guys that we're familiar with that pop back up. Like, I am, that might be just bargaining kind of coming into place because I am legitimately bummed that we're not going to see in NHL players just like everybody else.

But I think this could be, it's still going to be worth watching, right? I'm not going to ignore it. I can't one due to my job, unfortunately. I'll be watching very closely to see you'll be watching how much I'm watching. Yeah. But the Van Biesbrook thing, you know, and he's, he called Trevor Daly the N-word when he was the GM and coach of his junior team in 2003.

That's something that has rightfully followed him around for his career. Maybe not enough. Haven't really been many repercussions. He's still got a pretty plum job. all this was just a reminder of how insane it is that this happened that he got that job two years ago and that he continues to work his way up without it without any repercussions like I read I read the work and I was not working at the athletic at the time but I read the work that Scotty and Pierre and whoever else did whenever Van Biesbrook was hired back in 2018 and it was just I thought we

we handled it the right way I think was good. covered the right, I think it was covered the right way, but, man, just another reminder of how baffling his comments were, even back then and how off base he was and presumably continues to be, because I don't think he's really learned all that much from any of it, where he's putting the on, he put the on us on Trevor, on Trevor Daly back then to reach out and find him and all this like, it's just, I don't know why he has a job. and we keep and now he's the GM of the Olympic team

it's just wild and it's a bummer it's it's sad to see it's just it was an insane backwards decision that happened in 2018 and it we continue we're just reminded of it a new yeah I mean I agree and so like you know

when you talk to people USA hockey they're like well you know a long time ago and people can change I'm like look I'm not saying you're not allowed to like people aren't allowed to live their life they're just not allowed to represent the country at the highest level

when we're like that's that's right that's kind of where i land like you don't get to have that that's a premier job in everybody you know get like oh 2003 2003 was so so long ago and everybody it was before people realized that saying the N word was bad no that's not true 2003 yeah there was everyone figured out that it was bad in 2005 that's one that's when everyone learned their lesson everything before that you get you get immunity on yeah i don't know I hate it. And so it was a, it was a, it was a, it was a, it was a, it was a, it was a bad reminder of a really embarrassing decision by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by, by,

there's like, who, who, who could do a credible job on this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Other than, other than, other than John Van Biesbroke, like, it's bullshit. I wrote something that after the news came out and that was one of the quotes as someone I talked to, you know, high level executive was like, that cares about American hockey said, essentially, surely there was someone who, what was qualified for the job that didn't do

No, how good at his job? Does that person, yeah, like, is he that much better than the next candidate, which is, the answer is no. The answer is no. And now he's the GM in the Olympic team, so great. Also, not to, like, I mean, this, you know, if it came out now, he would be fired. Like, if nobody came out, like, if this story hadn't been public, wouldn't it had been public, right?

And Trevor Daly's like, and they announced, let's say they announced the Olympic GM deal. And Trevor Daly, it's like, hey, by the way, back in 2003, this happened. happened, he'd be removed. Like, so I'm not understood. So it's, it's a timing thing. If he benefits from the fact that it was public, I guess. I don't know. What, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's tiring, tiring, tiring, tiring stuff.

Because you're like, you know, what other, what other sport would, would even come close to make, to making a decision. There's none. There's none. This wouldn't, this would be a non-starter. Hiring, hiring for a position of prominence in 2018 and you're saying 15 years ago, you call, you call and not like not the context even matters but the context was made made it even worse a player a 19 year old kid who you were their coach and their GM in 2018 is in is when people when people find this out and he still got that job and just got a better job what what are we doing yeah

I and that's that's obviously it's a rhetorical question it's not we're not doing anything thing. This is USA hockey that keeps tripping over themselves with this shit. Constantly. Constantly. It's constant. No, I hope it's... This is not where I intended to go down, but man, my frustrations with that organization. I don't know. I really don't care. I hope it's worth it. I hope it's worth it for USA hockey to know that every black hockey player who's paying attention, every black teenage hockey player or black youth hockey player that's, that's, that's worth. watching this tournament sees John Van Biesbrook, like in the in the boss box and is reminded

of the fact that he caught a player at the network 15 years ago. Yeah. It's a joke. Yeah. Anyways. So you won't be watching or? I'm just hanging for the job. That's really it. I would. I think you do a good job of it. First, you know, you know who we're calling? Bobby Ryan. I would put Bobby Ryan. I would put Bobby Ryan. It, we would. We could have them pick the team and play on the team. That's fine. Coach. Multiple positions.

Bobby can just skate. You can be like a rover or something. Figure it out. I was like everything you said is dead on and I agree with it completely. I wish this was an organization that was more fun to root. It does. Like these big events are just a reminder that like, or even the World Junior and stuff. It's like you don't want to, it's fun for the kids and you want to get on board the Trevor Zegra train and stuff.

And then they cut to the, you know, the photo and the, you know, or the video of Van Beas. And then you're like, oh, yeah, this organization has real issues. Oh, yeah. Like, it makes it, as an American, I wish I could just openly, like, be excited about the governing body. And that's not, there's not, there's what it's like. Work to do there. That's what's like being a hockey fan in general or covering this game in general.

It's like, for every, every good thing that happens, there's something where you're just like, Jesus Christ. And it's not always as flagrant as hiring John Van Biesbrook, you know, to... In a serious developmental role when he had to step away as an O.HLGM for using racial slurs. It's not always that bad, but it's just like the constant stream of two steps forward, one steps back, where even when it's just like silly PR stuff and you're just like, oh, my God, this is more tiring, than it should be. And again, you and I have talked about a lot about doing the right thing and also doing

what's good for PR. Like, the league in, the best case you say hockey gets, like, there'd be a real easy thing that could get people, because at some point, the world's going to pay attention to the Olympics,

right? Like right now, it's like, okay, no one, you know, we're in this tiny, you know,

our hockey bubble. But at some point, it's going to be, you know, NBC in the world. And, like, are they going to,

is it going to be like a, is it going to be like a story? I don't know. Like, what's NBC? Like, then it's like, okay,

and on, onto the game and you're gonna be like, what do you, yeah, like how do you even, well, that's a great question. Like,

is that like an aside that someone says during a game broadcast? Do we get like the, do we get the soft focus, you know, Jim Nance, Dan Hicks profile thing where we hear how much John Ben Bsbroke has learned over the last 17 years.

Like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. you covered if you're NBC, which is, you know, an enormous stakeholder in this sort of stuff. And that changes the calculus too because they don't want to slag the product or the people who are the people who are the people who are involved with it. Yeah.

The only bright side for the NHL is that nobody's going to be watching this shit because no one's going to care. Well, thanks for listening, everybody. Yep. The good thing about what I remember about last time when the NHL players didn't go, like there are some like fun stories that do. you have players that never would have gotten that opportunity. And I live that a little bit through Jim Slater, who wrote for us at the Athletic at the time. Like we had him writing a first person.

I think this was in, what years is this? It would have been 18? 18. I've lost, yeah. And so I would call him up and, Jim Slater, you know. Frash. See, if anyone was wondering how I could work at.

Frash. I was going to just say Michigan State's, former Michigan State great, Jim Slater. So both your two favorite teams? I mean. So this by, de facto makes Jim Slater my favorite player. And he was, it was so, it was great to talk to him on site.

And he would just, like he just said this, you know, being around the Olympic Village, all these things that he probably never dreamed, he'd get an opportunity to do at that point in his career was amazing. And in that moment in time, he's an Olympian and he still is now. He's a former Olympian. And it's like, that's, like, those stories and that opportunity for those players. And I was really hoping, like, he'd pop in a goal and like this great moment. and just have this, you know, either way, he's got that, these memories and, you know,

whoever it is, Bobby Ryan, or there's going to be some version of that. So, like, I love, you know, that, it's not the NHL players going, but it's, I'll watch for that reason to see who that, see who those players are going to be. Oh, absolutely. I mean, in the roster projection game is, is fun because you end up going down rabbit holes with, you know, I mean, not. Would it be better if we were watching NHL players? Like, yeah, sure.

But it's also fun to see people try their hands, whether it's like Chris Peters did a pretty complete one, right? Did he? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't know, man. Like, I love the idea of loading up on, of loading up on NHL kids. I know I said it already, but like, you know, I don't know.

Let's see Jake Sanderson, right? Let's see, you know. And then you have guys, and again, we're looking at Chris, Chris Peters, who covers American hockey better than anybody on earth. He wrote this for Daily Face Off. You know, it's funny. It's a mix of, it's a mix of guys who we're familiar with, you know, David Warsovsky and Kenny Agostino and guys like that who've kicked around in some capacity over the

years. And then, but then the idea of like, you know, could Owen Power? Could Owen Power make it? Brendan Brouson, Maddie Baneers, guys like that. I mean, it is fun. And yet in the draw of, you know, the rag tag group of kids and journeymen who kind of come together to play these games, it's fun. Owen Power is not American, is he? Or I don't know.

What how did I say, Owen Power? I don't know. We'll take them. We'll take them. We'll definitely take him. He makes a team if he wants to play. Because I scrolled past. Oh, he went to the Canon.

Because Chris did the Canada roster, too. And I scrolled, I scrolled pass and saw it. But like, you know, only. Power and Ken Johnson on an Olympic roster. Like, it could be, it could be fun. It's not, it's not going to be ideal. But, but there's something romantic about, you know, the kids in the, about the kids and the journeymen kind of getting together to, to make a run at this.

Yeah, I'll take it. It's better than nothing. All right. Well, we can wrap up the segment without even having to talk about Connor McDavid. And we can keep this American. He did, he just said, ultimately, he would have gone. And that's, you know, and Brad Marchand said, you know, it seemed like this was kind of a predetermined decision. Like the league was looking for any reason to pull the plug here.

Yeah, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he's not, he didn't, if they, if they, if they, if they weren't going to do that, then they wouldn't have put in the clause where it's like, and Bobby Ryan brought this up last week. And once the, once the center, once that center's game got, got postponed in November or, or whenever that was. Yeah. I can't even that's, I can't even remember when that happened was early, early, early in December. Once that happened. then the mechanism was in place for them to pull the plug if they wanted it to. Like it was like once a game got canceled, the right turned over to the league entirely. And the league could, in the league said like, no, we're, we'll back off.

Like we're going to work with the players on this. Like we are trying to involve them as much as we can. But ultimately, once that happened, once a lot of his game got, games got canceled. And if the league wanted to pull the plug at any, any time they could have. So yeah, of course, of course. They didn't. They, they never want to go to the Olympics. They don't want to go to the Olympics when they're not when they're not when they're normal, let alone whenever they're already terrified about, you know, about getting a full schedule and to begin with.

Yeah. Omicron, all this. Any, any, any, Beijing, add all these reasons to be concerned about it to the list. I mean, my God, they've, it's not a, it's not a stretch to say that they wanted no parts of this from, from the start. But, you know, they threw the players of bone. And then they took it away. Knowing full well the whole time it was going to be taken away. Oh, man. That's such like a great tactic.

We're like, yeah, no, you guys can do this. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. But yeah, you can probably do this. We'll see. You know, the tip of the, you know, it was clear it wasn't going to happen when they scheduled the All-Star game at the same time. Like, every Olympic year, there's no All-Star game. Guess what?

And they're like, we're, we're. We had one this year. I'm like, why would they have an all-star game if they're going to the Olympics? That seems weird. And that ain't getting canceled. Nope. Because that is on ESPN,

and it is a money-making, you know, a money-making opportunity for the NHL, baby. All right. Well, let's wrap us up. We got Mike Krupp joining us in segment two, and we will be right back. We are now thrilled to be joined by Stanley Cup champion,

NHL Network, studio analyst. who will be at the Winter Classic in Minnesota, Target Field, Saturday, January 1st, blues, wild. I think, I don't know, it could be any teams at this point. Mike Rupp, how are you? I'm good. Hey, the one thing I think we can guarantee at this point

is it's going to be free and cold. It's going to be really cold in Minnesota. We can nail down. That's what we know. That's one thing I'm very confident predicting it's going to be accurate. There might not be an actual hockey game taking place, but it will be cold.

Oh my gosh. That's it. That's it's it's it's it's nice though. I'm up in northern Michigan right now. We snuck away and it's it's like it's good to be around snow and I look it's I feel it definitely has got me into the winter classic mood to get out of like gray and dreary. So I feel good. I'm feeling festive right now. All right.

Yeah. We haven't seen. I haven't really seen snow yet man. I I'm a big fan of seeing snow. Especially around this time. So I'm all for it. I just don't want like the minus, you know, 20 or anything like that. Mike, are you in, you're in, you're in Western PA, right?

Aren't aren't you still hearing? Yeah. I'm in, I'm in Pittsburgh. I think you guys have been getting hit with the same shit as us. It's been just like monsoon season over the last, over the last few days. We've been getting rain. Yeah, it's been rain. It's been weird.

It's like, we have a couple snowfalls. Like, nothing significant at all for eerie. I mean, usually it's like Buffalo weather. Right. Like we hit by the feet. So we've been kind of avoiding that. but I'd rather have that than the rain and the wetness, you know. Yeah, it's nasty.

All right. Any you guys, anywhere, any more PA talk? Yeah. This has been the Western Pennsylvania weather report on the athletic coffee show. Oh, my gosh. So we were talking, like, I mean, obviously you have a lot of connections to the outdoor game, the winter classic and playing in a couple of them and like monumental ones. But we have to start with the auger salute.

Like, that's just a great moment in time. And I actually have a great, a very specific question about it. But I, you know, I'm, I'm always curious when there's a moment like that, how premeditated it is. Was this something that if, if, and this was, what year was this? That would have been 2012. 2012. And you score a big goal. Place goes crazy.

And did the salute. It was awesome. Yeah. So I guess first and foremost, like, you know, I asked that all the time. Like, did you plan that? And anybody who's watched me in my career play, like I didn't score enough to be able to plan that. You know, like I could,

I would go 15 games without scoring a goal. So it's like I can't really say, oh, when I score. When I, I'm going to do that. You know what I mean? So the one thing I did my career, I really love this. And, you know,

and listen, I'm not trying to say this is I'm just trying to give you context here. I'm not trying to pull my own tires. But I didn't score that many goals in my career, but I had a few big ones in there. And I always felt like that. I always felt like that, I don't know, I felt like this in my, my blood as a kid was like, I was like a clutch.

You know, it was in my own head. You know, you have to have that kind of motivating factors in your head. And I thought that any, any given stage or situation that in my mind, I could come through in those situations. And the reason why I'm saying that is because, you know, I had those moments and, you know, it's something about being a hockey player, a professional athlete. you could bring everyone to their feet with one one thing. I didn't do that enough to get that feel all the time.

So I started being like, I also realized that I can piss off, you know, a lot of people and make them stand up and yell. So in my head, I was like, that was almost like for me at times because I wasn't scoring goals all the time. I felt like that was, it gave me that kind of like,

it almost feels like, it sounds stupid, but it almost feels like this power, right? I can make everybody in this place. And if you score a goal or a big goal or in that moment. You can make everybody in that place happy and love you. But at the same time, I can make everybody pissed off and hate me. And I was, and I liked that. It felt it was cool. So we were going into Philly and I always had a rivalry with Philly in my own mind too because I, you know, it came up in the devil's organization. We hated the Flyers. I played for the Penguins.

We hated the Flyers. I played for the Rangers. We hated the Flyers. That was the one common theme in my career was like we didn't, we didn't like the Flyers. Truth be told, I always wanted. wanted to be a flyer as a teenager. I had a poster over my bed of the Legion of Doom line. That was my guys. I wanted to be a flyer. I thought that was, you know, I was a big player. I thought that they would match good. It never happened.

I think in my head, I was like kind of ticked off by that too. Or just like not ticked off by that. It was just more like there was value of me as a big player going into Philly. So anyways, so going into that game, the Winter Classic, I was just like, you know what, I want to make something happen here today. I didn't know

was a goal or what it was, but I was going to do something to be noticed. And, you know, the other backstory to it kind of was, if you backed up about a year and a half prior, I was a, I was a free agent coming out of Pittsburgh. And that free agency period, you know, I wanted to resign in Pittsburgh. And what ended up holding it up is they offered me a two-year deal. I wanted, I needed a three. I knew I could get three on the open market. So leading up to July 1st, But the problem here, and I haven't really told this before, they kind of threw things in the, because, you know, that would have been, we talked about the weather in Western Pennsylvania. That would have been like playing a home again. I already played there for two years. If you remember, Yager was coming back over from the KHL, okay? And he had that period of time where he could speak to teams before July 1st. So we had this pecking order of UFA, pending UFAs in Pittsburgh. And it went in the order of Pascal Dupuy, Tyler Kennedy, and me as far as kind of order of importance. well then Yager came swooping it and he says if you remember that time I want to come back to Pittsburgh make things right come full circle remember that and wear championships so I I remember that

very much yeah so so he ends up he ends up coming in there and all of our contract talks are on hold now you know what I mean and I want to sign I know if it goes to July 1st I came up my two best seasons I was going to go somewhere else because someone was going to pay me more and I would I would take less to stay in Pittsburgh. But then when Yoder came into the mix, all of our, all of everything was put on hold. He said he wanted to, you know, win a cup play, you know, blah, blah, blah. So he ends up deciding to sign in Philly. And I was thinking to myself, Philly isn't going to win a cup.

So you, in my mind, he was just, he didn't really care about winning a cup. We all know that like, he wanted, he, he needed, he was a mercenary. He just wanted to go around and he got paid the most money. And that's fine. but like he held things up in Pittsburgh. So for me, I was like, that's why I'm not back in Pittsburgh because he came over

and used the penguins as a pawn to get more money. And I was pissed by that. You know what I mean? Because like, I wanted to be in Pittsburgh. So in the back of my mind, I'm like, I'm going to get him at some point.

Like I, you know, and my mind is probably just like, you know, I'm going to try to hit him hard or whatever. Right, right. So that was it. So to go into the game,

I don't know. I just felt like I wanted to make something happen. The goal happened. I don't know what I was thinking. I just did. I just did it. You know what I mean? And it was kind of like,

it was kind of like, what's that? So you blacked out. Yeah. So I kind of, it was more like, to be honest, what was going through my head in that moment was like, you could fill in the blanks with the real words,

but it was almost like, screw you to everybody. Yeah. You know what? Yeah. Especially Yager. I like it. I thought it was a salute to Yager.

Now I know you hated them. This is a much. better story. So I got the second end of the story, which makes it better. Listen, I'm not trying discredit Yarmory Yaga. I mean, you're talking to all-time great. I got nothing but respect for him as a player. I'm just saying it's in the personal and the business side of things that he doesn't even know that stuff happened. It annoyed me, whatever, right? I don't know the guy at all. He might be a great guy. So anyways, all-star game, L.A., I'm working on H.L.N.R. My daughter, I took her out for like a father-daughter trip.

So we had some time off in the afternoon. And I'm like, let's go to Disneyland. So I went to go rent a car. So I was coming back to the hotel after we were on set. And I was going up to my hotel room to change. And my daughter was waiting for me. We're going to go. And I'm getting in the elevator.

And Yager made that All-Star game because he was, you know, he was playing for the Panthers. So me and Tony Luffman, who I work with NHL Network, who walked towards the elevator, and Yager turns a corner and he's walking with someone else and walks in the elevator and I just go to Tony I put my hand on my kid just let's wait a second I don't I don't feel like like I haven't talked to the Yog since the winter classic I know that a lot of people weren't happy about that so I just I just didn't really want to say anything it's just whatever just let

let it go and so we wait the next elevator comes I go up whatever get my daughter so I rent a car and I have to go like two miles outside of L.A. to rent this car I get in an Uber with her drive to this rental car place I walk into this rental car place and when I walk in there this is like an hour later from the incident in the lobby of the hotel. And I walk in this little mom and pop rental car place. There's two people in there. It's Yager and someone he's with. And I walk in the place and I just go, I just go, son of a bitch. My daughter goes, what dad? What's wrong? No, no, it's fine. It's fine. And I stood there and he turns around and I go, hey, Alex. And he goes, he goes, oh, hey, man, how are you? And like, in my mind, I don't even know if he knows who I am or whatever.

but um so he's like hey and i'm like so i'm standing there i'm like you know what dude it's like i just go hey man i walk up to him when the you know he's not busy talking to the lady at the counter i go hey yeah i don't know if this is you even thought twice about this but back in the winter classic like you know i did your i did the salute and you know it was not disrespect for you at all i that that's what i did as a player right like i needed to push the buttons of the opponent i wasn't i wasn't like you as a player and i could put points on the board every night i had to do something. He goes, no, man, don't even worry about it. It was no hard feelings at all. And he goes, he said something like, I was actually, uh, was honored to use my, my, my salute. I'm like, oh, that's

cool, man. And he goes, uh, so we're sitting there. And then he goes, hey, man, listen, Ruffer, you're great on TV. He's like, I love watching you on TV. I'm like, oh, man, thank you. I'm now I feel like bad, like that I ever did that. Right. And then I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm like, wow, man, you don't understand how much I appreciate that. And he goes, yeah, man. He goes, you are way better at that than you ever were a hockey player. And I'm like, hold on a second. I'm like, hold on a second. And then he starts laughing.

And I'm like, all right, dude, we're tied. It's one one. We're believing that right. Right. And it was really cool in that moment. Like I was like, all right, man, that's fine. That's amazing. Holy cow.

The rep, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, Rup Yager rivalry, we never know behind the scenes. Well, maybe it's one side of it. He's got bigger fish to fright of me. I thought you were. I thought you were going to say, yeah, you're actually a lot better at that than Colby Armstrong, too. You're better. You're better at TV than Colby. That's great.

I've got a lot of issues with that story, though. First of all, I think you should have been higher than Tyler Kennedy on the, and the, it would have been Ray Shero shopping list. I don't know who was GM at the time. Well, remember, that was the big shutdown line, though. That was the Stahl Kennedy Cook line was kind of a staple. God, I can't believe we got another wrinkle for the Yager watch story. Because, like, there was so much shit that happened surrounding that whole thing, right?

When he flew back from Russia and the plane was delayed. Everyone thought he was coming to Pittsburgh. Plan gets delayed on the runway at JFK because they had sea turtles that were crossing the runway. So everybody was like, everybody was like, a hundred percent, a hundred percent happened. It was like, it was like, oh, he's, he's flying in New York because he's going to go to Pittsburgh and sign the deal. And it was like, wait, the plane stuck on the runway because turtles are crossing the tarmac. or whatever. There's just like an endless, an endless stream in that stuff. So we got, we got another wrinkle from, another wrinkle from a. It's a trickle down effect with the big boy

yogs there. So there's a good oral history you'd be done about the Yager return from the KHA. Oh, yes there is my friend. I can't see it now. So the follow up I have to that question. So we, I went to watch the salute on YouTube and got sucked into the comments section on YouTube as one does when you, when you go to watch videos on YouTube. And And like the third comment down on the highlight of the salute was someone that says, oh, this guy, this guy's great. Mike Rupp. He said, I met him at a water park later that summer and I made him do the salute for my family.

And he did it. Is that a true story or not? I always want to fact check YouTube comments. You have any recollection of being at a water park and doing the salute? I don't have a complete recollection of that, but I have done it out in places to people. They've asked me to. So I would, I would probably say, yeah, that's, that's accurate. But it's, you know, I always, I don't, I always have done it like Ranger fans who asked me to do it.

And, you know, it kind of feels weird. But at the same time, you know, I don't know, I always thought that, you know, it's cool to, you know, you're flattered, the fans even care. You know what I mean? Like about a, you know, I'm just a role playing guy. So if they run into me a water park or something, then it brings back a good memory when they're rooting for the team. I'll give them the salute. You know what? The one thing I got, the one thing I got burned by that I'll never do again is I was, it was, it was what I was playing

the Penguins too. I was coming out of practice one day and this fan was there and he goes, Ruper, can you sign this picture? It's me fighting Aaron Ashen when Ashton was on the flyers. He was, can you sign this picture? I go, sure. He goes, can you just write on it? Flyers suck. And I go, no, I'm not going to do that. Like, I don't want to write that. That's not cool. You know, whatever. And he goes, I'm like, you can write whatever you want on it. But like, whatever came back to me. I didn't write that. You know, like, you could write whatever. I'll sign my name. And he goes, listen, no, no, it's for my buddy's base. man. He's got this sweet man, KV setting up. Oh, blah. And stupid me, he's like listening to him.

I'm like, this guy seems genuine. So I'm like, all right. So I write flyers suck. The next day, my buddy texts me and he goes, dude, what are these? He was looking at, he's found these. It came across his email or something. And on eBay, this dude started selling all these flyers suck pictures of me fighting Air Nash. So from then on, I'm like, dude, I'm not doing that anymore. So I'll give a salute. I'll give a salute, but nothing, uh, nothing necessarily like, you know, on camera or whatever. That's amazing. So yeah, you just can't write whatever people want on the photos. That's the, that's the lesson to that's amazing. Did you ever come close to signing with the flyers? Like was in the, in your free agent, you know, it does seem like a natural fit. Yeah, you know,

so yeah, no, I want it. I really did want to be a flyer. Um, I, I, I, free agent twice, they were, um, on the list. But most of the time, so. the way that a lot of people kind of don't realize maybe, I guess, the average fan, how some of the stuff works. And you can almost picture some of who those teams would be. Like, free agency starts. And, you know, that free agency, when I was coming out of Pittsburgh, like, it was kind of the perfect storm as far as what I was as a player.

There wasn't really many comparables. Like Chris Neal signed with, re-signed with Ottawa and some of the other comps that were kind of in my neighborhood as far as, you know, maybe 12 to 15 goals scores and 100-some penalty. and, you know, that fourth line type role. There wasn't many. So it was kind of the perfect storm. I got a bunch of teams calling on July 1st, but there's some teams that always,

and the flyers are one of them, the flyers were always out to get the big dogs, right, to make the big splash. That wasn't necessarily me. So they didn't really know what they'd always have available for me. So they would always say, hang tight. We've got to figure out a couple things here, and then we'll get back to you. But hold on, hang tight. I didn't feel like I was the type of player that can hang tight.

If I got an offer that I wanted, I was going to take it. You know, and so that would end up happening. So it would have been cool, but they were always kind of in the hunt for the big dogs on the market. And, you know, that affects some of us guys that are kind of on the lower tiers. I'm always curious about the stories that never happened. Was there like a team you were really close to signing with and it fell apart? Or was this a pretty clear move? Yeah, I was really close to signing with.

So that free agency period narrowed it down the last two teams were it was actually funny because Alan Walsh was my agent and he calls me in things where we started narrowing it down it's still July 1st and

we narrowed it from like eight teams to like you know three teams and the final three teams at that time and this would have been the summer of the summer of 2012 I guess yeah summer 2012 I guess and so it was Colorado Chicago and the Rangers and so I kind of narrowed out I wanted to win and at that time I didn't know how Colorado was yeah so that's why I went I

I played against the Rangers and I knew the Rangers were not on coming team and I liked them and they were hard to play again so I'm like all right we got the Rangers here and then Chicago which it would have been nice to have a couple cups. That would have been a good time to step into that. Yeah, it would have been a nice time to step into that Chicago mix. But so maybe I don't want to say regret because I love playing for the Rangers. But that's always one. I'm like, man, but I could have been on those teams.

And what did they? You know, there's two more cups I could have got in right there with that team. But it was just crazy because when you're in that moment, everything is, you know, it seemed like it was going at a decent speed. And I remember being in my car and Alan goes, hey, we got a situation here. You got to make a decision right now. And I go, I pull a car over. He goes, I've got Stan Bowman on the line and I got Valencia.

They're on the line. They need an answer now where they got to move to their second option. I go, right now. Like, I can't talk to anybody. They're on the phone. What do you want me to ask them? They need an answer like right now. I have them on hold, whatever.

And I'm like, at that moment, I knew that, again, going back to Pittsburgh, that I can all. Pittsburgh offered me two years. These teams offered me three. And I go, call Ray back, call Ray back in Pittsburgh. So all of a sudden I hear Alan start yelling. I'm just picturing like this telethon of like tears of people on phones like answering. I don't know.

It's just my. And all of a sudden I hear Alan's like, get Schero online. Get a Scherow on the line. And so I'm like, what the hell's going on right now? So you get Ray Shiro online. I hear this conversation. He's talking to Ray. And he must be holding two phones up to his ear.

Yeah. Because I hear I'm talking to Ray. Ray's like, I'm sorry. I can't. I got two years. Michael back, well, he's not doing that. He's got, you know, whatever on the other line. And then it's like, it's just like in that moment, I had to make this decision for the next three years.

I'm like, holy crap. Can you imagine if it was like some of these guys that are making these decisions for eight years, seven years? Yeah. Like, it's crazy how it just all of a sudden just drops on you. And it's like, no, man, you decide now. You know, and the way that day went is like I had, I had 12 teams interested at the beginning. And I told at that point, 10 of them no. So they've all moved on the options.

Like, if I don't, you know what I mean? Like, I'm like, whoa, all of a sudden things can kind of fall apart here. So it's a little bit of a stressful situation. Oh my gosh. That's, yeah. And you're just imagining, you're imagining like the opening screen to the Brady bunch where all these like faces keep popping up where it's like, where it's like race hero, Stan Bowman, Alan Walsh. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm like, I'm like, guys, just get as, let's get as many jams on the line. Yeah. Just to say I could. Just to say I could. Can you call Paul Holmber? Where's Eiserman? Where's Eiserman? They can drop me in.

They can drop me in and I can do my best LeBron. I could be like, I'm taking my talents to NYC. And just all the GF just check out and they're just check out. And I'm like, Glenn Taylor's sitting there. That's what I should have done. I should have done that. That's great. That's awesome.

I did want to, so you mentioned the notion of being clutch, which I actually am fascinated by in the hockey sense because it's so chaotic. But I do believe, you know, you have the same. players seem to always step up in the playoffs and you also have like random players who seem to step up in the playoffs do you do you believe like in your heart of hearts regardless of how you feel about yourself but do you believe like clutchness exists in hockey is that's are there some players that do kind of raise to the level 100% yeah um i played with many guys i think a lot of guys would tell you there's there's guys who are who are great teammates they go through a wall for you

all the time but you know it's certain points of the season or playoffs or time of game. They don't really want the puck on their stick. You know what I mean? Like they, they want to, they want to be a part of the play, but they're almost nervous to be the play. You know what I mean? And, and it's, so there's, there's, there's two sides of that. So there's, there's that. And that's good. And there's a lot of guys who are very effective and, and, and, supporting. We know how you have to have those depth guys doing all those different things. But I, you know, I also felt like, and I find that that's a thing that, you know, I think it's really important for the mindset of a bottom six forward in the

NHL. You have to know where you are as far as the pecking order and you got to respect that and know that you provide something, you need to provide something different because if you're bottom six, you're not providing consistent goals scoring because you wouldn't be in a bottom six if you were. So you got to provide your baseline and then just know, though, that you can always do those other things. But when I would drive to games, again, all out of the stuff I told you even before, like

I wasn't a guy that was, you know, all caught. And my teammates would never call me cocky. They call me pretty, I guess, quiet in that regard. I just have fun and whatever. But in my mind, when I drive the games, like if I'm driving to Pittsburgh to play, I feel like going to the game, I can have just as much as an impact to Sidney Crosby in the game. Is that going to happen on most nights? No.

But that's how I would prepare myself to play. So these things would be played in my head. I wanted the puck on my stick. You know what I mean? I wanted to be in those situations. And I think that that's something that comes up from a child. And it's something that you just, and some guys have that. Again, the team and the fans might not want the buck on my stick.

I want the puck on my stick at those times. But you don't know what I think? I think you have to believe that. And you have to, like, I find that there's times, even if, you know, I know we've been talking to the pens a lot here, but this is like a situation I think is really important for a team like Pittsburgh, a team that has their top end guys. We know who those guys are is you can't, you have to in your mind and know that you have just as much equity in this team as a superstars.

If you don't feel that way, you're not going to. The team will hurt because of it. Like you have to feel like when you go to the game, it might not look the same. It's probably not going to look the same. I'm not going to influence the game like of Guany Malcolm or Sidney Crosby. It's just not going to happen. But I can influence the game and be as effective on the odd night now and again because of what I bring to the table.

So it's like you have to have the same. And that's kind of how it was in my mind. And I guess to go back to the beginning of that, Like there's some players who in those moments don't really want the puck. You know what I mean? Or they want to just kind of get through it, you know? And I think that there's an opportunity to like not just get through it. It's to do something that, you know, you're not expected to do.

And that's a lot easier too. That's one big thing. And when the playoffs, when we see these players that come through that are, you know, these underlying players, it's much easier to make a difference when no one thinks you can make a difference. Yeah. It's hard for the, I mean, it's so hard for those guys every night the superstars to be relied upon. So it almost sets the table for guys like me. I mean, I mean, Sydney Crosby has never scored a cup clinching goal to say.

We'll just come right out and say it. The dude does not have that on his resume. So when I was in, when I was in Pittsburgh, we had the last three game seven, I guess, heroes or cup clinchers on the team. So we had me from 03, Ruslan Fetitango from 2004 and Max Talbot from 2009. And so right before the playoffs started, the first year, we're out at dinner on the road. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, Sid stands up in front of everybody and he, you know, gets everyone's attention. And he has this presentation. Well, you know, we found out we got something very unique now.

We've got all three at game seven kind of, you know, game winners or heroes from those. games. So we got them all on one team. So we're expecting these guys to lead the way here. He's kind of like joking around with us. And he pulls out these, these Navy blue sport jackets that all have inside, you open up inside and has your name. And it says like mine says like, you know, Mike grew up 2003 DWG Game 7.

And then Max has it all all embroidered on the inside. So it's almost like we're just like the masters. Yeah. It's amazing. We all had a jacket. So I remember I said to Talbot later on, I go, I go, because we've thought that, you know, obviously Sid's unbelievably, still unbelievable. Now I'm like, there's going to be someday, like Talbo, just be on our toes.

Sid's going to get a game seven, and we're going to get him a good jacket. He's got to be like the alpha of our club. So, uh, still waiting for that. But man, what a career this guy's had. You guys got to keep that going, whether he scores one or not. Yeah, whoever it is. That's right. You got to have like whenever, like, you mean for a, you mean always.

Yes. In June, in June, someone's going to score one of those goals. And you guys, you guys got it. You guys got to go to dinner or something and get a new and get a new jacket. It's the master's. That's what it is. Yeah, I like that. We should do that for sure. I don't know. I was going to say, it reminds me the Saturday Night Live. Like, you know, if you've hosted like Tom Hanks is in the back room with like the red robe on and Steve Martin comes in, it's like, ah, it's your 50th or 15th, whatever they had to cut off. It's like, you all have your, your same. jackets on your cigars out and reminiscing. We can make this real good. We can have all, then we get all the boys together, the game seven guys, and we sit around in the playoffs. We have our own show. We can have some bourbon and some cigars and watch the game in our jackets. Oh, my God.

That's good. It's too easy. It's too easy. You're welcome. Oh, my gosh. Well, Mike, thanks for doing this. And safe travels to the game, winter class. It's going to be, you know, it's such a fun event because there's going to be some memory made, you know, that I'm sure we're going to be talking about 10 years later and we just don't know what it is.

So it's fun to be a part of it. It's fun to attend. Have fun and it's great. And thanks for doing this. Awesome, guys. Thank you. Enjoy. And we'll talk to you guys soon.

You can watch NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp live from Minnesota's target field on NHL tonight before and after the NHL Winter Classic this Saturday, January 1st. I will be watching, Sean, as I know you will. I will now. I think I'm more excited about that game by a good bit than I was an hour ago. Roper doing his job, getting a psyched off. He's doing his job. I love when someone goes, hey, I've never told this story before. That's like the alarm bells go off.

Fantastic. I love it. We're back. Thanks again to Mike Rupp and welcome back to the only good segment of the week. Dreamer. trademark trademark emoji it is when we

dive into the comments section in the athletic app and again we go over this every single week because just because it's such an easy process but we still like to remind people of it

anybody can just ask for Twitter comments anybody can just anybody can throw say hey if you want to be on the podcast here's Twitter that's too easy we want you to earn it

we like forcing you guys to go over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house in the in the episode page comments. Click on listen. Click on NHL. Click on the athletic hockey show. I should say tap because you have to do this on the app. You can't do this on on the actual internet.

Scroll down to the episode page. Tap the details button or whatever it is. It's in red. And then you tap on the comment. We have nine this week. And again, the fact that you guys leave these is. amazing. As someone said last week, you can always tell which episodes are ours because they're the only ones with comments because you guys are the only, you guys are the only freaks that listen to what

we say and going to do this. So, I love. So you nine people are my favorite nine people of the week. Let's start with Alex R. Mm-hmm. Who says, I envy Sean for never having seen Elf. I've watched it many times and never by choice. Sounds like Alex has been forced to watching Elf by girlfriends and or children. There's nothing wrong with Elf, Alex and Sean. This is, Sean casually mentioned last episode. He's never seen it. There may not be. I'll never. I'll never know. You'll, you will, because someday you'll have children that won't want to watch it. They won't. No, they won't, they won't, uh, they won't know that movie exists. It'll be like Papa Troll. I just, I just, I just, I just won't, I just won't tell them. Okay. You guys are both wrong. Michael Kay writes,

JP is awesome. Uh, John Morosi. I'm, yeah, this we had Morosi and Bobby Ryan on the last episode. Good listen. You can go back and listen to the, to the, at least the interviews. Don't listen to Sean and I talk. And just for Craig, hail to the victors. I did, there was a lot of Michigan references, which is. By the way, I forgot to say, Pitt versus Michigan State in the Peach Bowl. Do we need to bed on that? Are you a pit guy or you just? Come on. I grew up on campus, basically. I root, I root for him. But you went to Maryland? Yeah. Yeah. You like Pitt so much that you didn't, you traveled like across the country to not go there?

It wasn't across the country. I lived too close. I got like I grew up in the neighborhood next door to Pitt's neighborhood. All right. It would have been like going to, it would have been like going to college down the street from your parents' house. I just, I couldn't, I couldn't bring myself to do it. Well, first of all, we still have to get Joe Smith on here to read whatever I want him to because Michigan, Michigan State beat, Michigan. I haven't even collected on it. And Joe, to his credit, was like, in Slack was like, hey, whenever you want me to, I'm here. I'm like, I'm just waiting. Hey, Joe, got some news. That bill's going to come due at some point, baby. It's coming to. Just when you're least expect it. All right. I'll make a wager. What do you got? I'll figure it out. All right. We need Bobby Ryan with Sean and Dom on Saturdays. So yeah, we're trying to get Bobby Ryan to

host the show. Just talking about rankings and nonsense. Come on, Craig, make it happen. I don't have... Who's this? Michael Kay, I don't have any kind of... Whatever power you think I have? I don't.

You actually have more. It's going to just be Bobby Ryan with Sean. If I have to do a... If I have to do a podcast on Saturday, Dom's not involved with it whatsoever. I get enough of him. Dom, yeah. You guys should just record the power rankings conversation.

Oh, it's all on Slack, isn't it? You guys don't actually talk like humans. Uh, it's mainly, it's mainly text at this point, but I think, I think we could pivot. We have phone calls about it sometimes. We could, we could pivot pretty easily to, um, also we need a Morocia. I don't know how good it would be, honestly. It would be terrible. We need Morosia more with Craig just to make Craig struggle and cringe on all of the U of M love,

which was awesome. Oh, and Craig go blue. Michael Kay. Thanks, buddy. Mm-hmm. I hate, I hate Michigan, too, though. I hope Michigan loses to Georgia. I wish I could take more joy in you getting hammered with with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, I can't, I can't stand them.

Michael Kay, you'll be pleased to hear my daughter raised it this week said, would it be a trader if I went to Michigan? Because she actually smart enough to get into Michigan, unlike me, who would have to stay. Who tried and failed. Carlos, Carlos, hey, Carlos, welcome to the. comment section. Oh, Carlos writes, I come for the podcast, I stay for the comments. That's right, baby. I even gave that one a thumbs up. I'm going to give it a thumbs up right now. Thumbs up. I can't do thumbs up online. Oh, my gosh. I'm not kidding. The app. Tyn and E writes, can we keep, oh, this is the one we referenced earlier.

Can we keep getting the best personalities for guests? Between Zegras and Bobby Ryan, we are getting spoiled here. I would say Mike Rupp definitely falls into that category. Rupper was great. All credit goes to producer. Jeff on that one, right? He's like, you guys are getting Trevor Zegers this week. You guys are getting Bobby Ryan next week. You guys are getting John Palmerosi. You're getting Mike Rup. Like, we do literally nothing with that. He just, he just, he books these guys and tells us, and tells us when we're rolling. And, uh, and we benefit from it. And so do you guys. So yeah, stay. I will say this. Jeff. Stay at it. Keep, keep it, keep your notes that grindstone.

People are paying attention. You set the bar very high for yourself. I can't wait to see who he lines of neck. Just a stinker of it. Like, most boring. Who would be the worst possible guest? I'm trying to think of. Dom.

It would have to be a modern, it would have to be like a player in today's game who just wants to say nothing interesting. Domless Tish. There's a lot. Don. Trent L. writes,

I've been a listener to virtually every episode since you guys started out and finally felt enough pressure to come find this comment section. Thank you, Trent. Good work. So I've finally done it. and I set out on the journey and came all this way past the... Packed to lunch. Across the bridge.

Answered the trolls, riddles three. Well, Trent continues. Well, since I arrived, I got a positive test and I'm stuck down here for the holidays. I'm able to travel home from the comments. He's in... Thanks. He's in QT in the comments. Sorry, buddy.

Yeah. Good news. There's only five days now. So, Trent, you can go home. Also, good podcast. I think Strent. Colin B. writes, I'm about Sean's age, which, how old are you, Sean? I'm 35. I'm old, dude.

Oh, God. I'm about Sean's age, and I've never seen Elf until my wife forced me to watch it a couple. I've, I've withstood that push. I don't have a wife, but I've withstood that push from various, from various people over the last, over the last 12 years. So, I mean, nice try, nice try, Colin. You stayed strong for as long as you could. Not everybody has a fat. If Michigan State beats Pitt,

have to watch off. Oh, man. Okay. Is there a line on that game? It's a good question. Whatever the bed MGM partner of the athletic, go to bedmgm.com. 30% off.

Well, we'll think of the other part of that bet. I think that's good. And then we can, I don't know, I don't want, you seem proud of not having watched off. I don't want to ruin it. Yeah, we'll figure something else out. Will C says Craig and Sean may not take themselves seriously, but I can't be the only one that thinks this is the best all-around hockey

podcast available. Will, you might be the only one that thinks that, buddy. But that's okay. We appreciate you saying this. Happy holidays, everybody. Stay safe and be kind

to one another, except that shady Cory Bronman character, the very, very mysterious Corey Bronman. Trademarked. trademarked that as well. And to wrap it up, Greg T. writes,

Happy American Christmas, to all who celebrates. Wonder what the Canadians are up to today. I don't know. You wrote that on December 25th, Greg. Happy American Christmas. And has the American New Year to everyone listening. As we all know, Canadian Christmas takes place in September.

When's their new year? It's Valentine's Day for some reason. Very, very strange place. All right. To wrap up. So go leave some comments. You guys can actually ask questions. Here's what's clear.

The commenters would rather make jokes, which I appreciate. That's way better than ask our people. opinion about anything like they're like we don't care what Craig and Sean like the last no questions for that so we do want to make jokes the last hockey related the last like hockey related question we got was about was about Troy Terry in like November we're like yeah it's pretty good I guess I don't know and there people were like no we're done with those one thing we have we we ask we don't ask this often but if you can go to wherever you're listening to this and leave a review in a rating that would be

helpful. Also, subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus on Apple Podcast to get all the bonus content from our entire network. You start with a 30-day free trial, and it's just 99 cents a month after that. And right now, you can get an annual subscription to The Athletic for just $24 a year when you visit Theathletic.com slash hockey show. It's the only way to leave comments in the app. It's the main reason people subscribe to the Athletic. The main reason we're over one point, whatever million subscribers is because people are like, you know what, I too want to leave a comment on the app's podcast. I wish I had a dollar every time, for every time I heard that.

Just getting bombarded with people on the street. Mm-hmm. They're like, what's the special right now? I'm like, $24 if you go to the athletic.com slash, it's $2 a month. Pretty good. Pretty good. Sean, happy New Year, my friend. Happy New Year, buddy.

And Jeff, happy Canadian New Year in six weeks. You're way early on that one, Sean. We all know. It's not until April. Bye, everybody.