The Athletic Hockey Show - Trevor Zegras skills it up and the Arizona Coyotes can’t handle it, Keith Yandle’s ironman streak ends with a healthy scratch, Brady Tkachuk plays street hockey, Multiple Choice Madness, and more

Episode Date: April 4, 2022

First, Ian and guest cohost Julian McKenzie talk about Ottawa Senators forward Brady Tkachuk joining a kids street hockey game on his way home from a matinee matchup against the Detroit Red Wings, Julian shares a number of run-ins he’s had with hockey players over the years, Ian shares listeners’ personal anecdotes from Twitter, and the guys discuss Keith Yandle being a healthy scratch for the Philadelphia Flyers over the weekend, ending his NHL-record ironman streak at 989 games.Then, The Athletic’s own Eric Stephens joins the show to discuss Arizona Coyotes forward Jay Beagle beating up Anaheim Ducks forward Troy Terry in retaliation for his teammate Trevor Zegras scoring another “Michigan” goal, Coyotes commentator Tyson Nash’s comments about young players “skilling it up” and deserving to get “punched in the face” for it, Pat Verbeek’s first trade deadline as Ducks GM, Ryan Getzlaf’s future in SoCal, and more.Plus, Ian and Julian try to think of the most memorable 50th goal of the season they can remember, and to close things out in Multiple Choice Madness, Ian poses the question: should the NHL try out experimental rules during meaningless games at the end of the regular season?And, right now, you can get a 6 month subscription to The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back, everybody, to kick off your week in the hockey world. It is your Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show, as always, it's Ian Mendez with you for the next hour or so. Our pal Haley Salvean, though, she's traveling, and we've got the pinch hitter extraordinaire, Julian McKenzie, with me for this podcast. We're really looking forward to this coming up. Eric Stevens, our Anaheim Ducks Beat Writer, is going to drop by for a conversation after that spicy incident involving Trevor Zegris, Troy Terry, J.B.

Eagle. It certainly spawned a great conversation in the hockey world. Eric Stevens will drop by. Talk about that. Maybe about Zegris' Calder chances, things of that nature. We're going to talk about what I think was an interesting situation on the weekend. The Flyers decide to scratch Keith Yandel, ending his Iron Man streak, right call, wrong call. We'll touch on that. 50 goals for Leon Drysidal, too. We got so much to get to. Like I said, I'm calling him the pinch hitter extraordinary. He's Julian McKenzie. And he's with us because Haley is in SoCal right now, Julian. She is traveling with the flames on road to Los Angeles.

Flames are down there. So thanks. Listen, man. Thanks for jumping in here. Hey, thanks for having me, man. I'm a bit envious. I would love to be. I mean, the weather's getting better in Montreal.

And I'm pretty sure in your neck of the woods as well. But I would love to be in L.A. right now. So I don't mind pitch again, but a little envious at Haley for getting some better weather conditions right now. Yeah, Haley's ahead of us in the power rankings right now. She's wisely in L.A. You're right. We're sitting in here, though, minding the store for the next hour. And like I said, look, we got a lot of fun things to get to.

I want to kick it off, though, with something that was really fun that happened on the weekend. And that is Ottawa Senators forward Brady Kachuk, Julian. And this story got shared widely on social media. And if you're a hockey fan, you didn't see it, I'll give you the quick rundown of what happened here. and then we're going to have some fun with interactions we've had with NHL players over the years away from the rink. But here's the story. Senator's forward Brady Kachuk, after his team beat Detroit on Sunday,

he drives back to his house in Ottawa and in his suit, still like in his suit jacket, or sorry, his dress shirt, dress pants, gets out of his car plays a little street hockey with the kids. And I mean, this is awesome. This is Brady Kachuk. This is what he does all the time. But it got me thinking, Julian, I love these stories when people are like, oh, my gosh, like, I ran into this hockey player on the street or at the grocery store. Like, I love random interactions with hockey fans.

We're going to read some of these great stories that people have told us about times they ran into hockey players away from the ring. But I think you got a pretty good story because you tweeted out a picture of you and Ken Hitchcock that requires some explanation. Yes. So for context, I tweet out a photo of. me with Ken Hitchcock and another one with Larry Robinson where you can see like a part of my face and it's like right on his shoulder. And in the photo with Ken Hitchcock, I look very worried. So that was in 2009, maybe about a day or two before the NHL draft in Montreal. I had been in Stratford-upon-Avon. Well, not sorry, I had been to England before, but I've been in

Traffin, Ontario with this Shakespeare theater group I was in high school with. And we had taken this trip for like a week. And we were on a train and we got back in on the train. And my dad was supposed to pick me up at the station. I was like eight or not, isn't the eighth or ninth grade at that time. My dad doesn't have a cell phone. So whenever I say like, okay, I'm getting in at a certain time, like my dad's going to find a way to get there at that time. So there's no way for me to like text him and be like, hey, these NHL players are like walking around. I'm going to go around the block and just like meet with them.

It just so happens. I'm getting out the train station and I see like Larry Robinson and like Ken Hitchcock like rolling around. I think like I saw one and then after a few minutes I saw the other. But like me as like a kid thinking like, I don't know, just worrying about like my dad for whatever reason, just like sitting and waiting and having no clue what I'm doing. I think that's why I look so worried in that Ken Hitchcock photo because I'm just like, oh my God, like, what if like my dad is like pissed because I'm like keeping him waiting?

But I'm like, I have to get these photos with Ken Hitchcock. Stanley Cup winning coach Ken Hitchcock. And I mean, Big Bird. I mean, come on. Like a Montreal game's legend in Larry Robinson. Like I'm not going to miss out on that. A bunch of my friends, like I remember from like high school, but I have a whole bunch of those same photos from like that same street corner because,

so many NHL people were just walking up because it's around the Bell Center. The train station I was at is like right under the like pretty much right next to the Bell Center. And you're seeing like photos with like John Tavares and other draft prospects at that weekend. So the reason why I look worried is because I was worried that I was keeping my dad waiting from picking me up after a school trip. And it just so happened that NHLers and former NHLs were walking around. And I had to grab a photo of them because celebrity. That's that. That, That's that particular photo, but I do have other NHL, NHLers, NHL coach run-ins if you care to hear those stories do. Okay, but here's what I find amazing to me, okay?

Like, Brady Kachuk played street hockey with these kids. Okay? Yes. And I feel like I can't imagine what it would be like to be, you know, eight years old. And just like for you. And now you grew up in Montreal, right? Yes. So like when you were around that age,

like Saku-Kovu would have been the guy, right? Saku-Kov would have been the guy, but I was also, funny enough, at eight or nine, like, this is me being a dumb kid. I wasn't totally wrapped up in everything with regards to the Canadians and Leif's rivalry. So if I had seen Matt Sundin, I would have been like, oh, my God. I also watched the senators a lot too.

So St. Daniel Alfredson would have been like, oh, my God. So, yes, Saku-Ko-Kovu was the dude, but so were Matt's and Daniel. But you couldn't have imagined Saku Kovu just like playing street hockey with you, right? Like that's what I find like these kids, do they realize how lucky they are? Like so people were tweeting at me and saying all these people have stories, Julian, of NHL players just joining into their kids games on the street. Like we got somebody who said, who wrote to us from Winni saying, hey, Tamu Solani back in the day,

Tamus Solani used to always come and play ball hockey with the kids. It was like a common occurrence. Happened all the time. And I'm thinking, like, how lucky are these, this was, that was a tweet from Michael who said, Tameu Solano used to play street hockey back in the day with the kids in Winnipeg. He was and is the best, so generous with this time. And I remember the kids would actually go knock on his door to ask if he wanted to play,

and this was a regular occurrence. That is lucky. This is unbelievable. I remember a few years ago when P.K. Suban was still in Montreal, he like drove past like a neighborhood in Westmount, one of the more richer areas in Montreal, mind you, but still, and he did the same thing.

Like he posted up and he started playing with kids. That is just like a nice, wholesome thing to see NHL players do. Because look, we've all played road hockey. If you're fan of the, if you're fan of hockey, at some point you've played in the street. And to have,

that's a dream scenario where a player you admire or a player you like comes out and has his stick with him and starts playing. Like, that's, that's really cool. Like, if you're, I would love that scenario. Yeah. Like, I can't believe that that happens. Like, to me, it's amazing.

Jeff Merrick, who, of course, hosts the, you know, the Jeff Merrick. Well, what do they call that show now? The Jeff Merrick show now, right? It's like the Jeff Merrick show, and then he has a podcast with Elliot Freebin. They got 30 few thoughts. Something about proses, thoughts, concerns. I don't know what the podcast is called. There's a number.

Yeah. It's not the Chris Johnston show. I don't know. Yeah. Whatever. But Jeff Merrick wrote back on Twitter and said when he was a kid, he was at an outdoor rink and bore you assalming. And Jim McKenney, who both played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, just showed up and we're skating with him. Like, this stuff is so cool.

How do you have those guys show up? I don't know about McKinney, but obviously no point you saw me. Yeah, I love random interaction. So listen, for our listeners with this podcast, by all means, you know, hit us up either on Twitter or, you know, in the comment section of the podcast. Your favorite interaction, if you ever had one with an NHL player, just randomly. Because I think these are great. These are great stories. Like, I think people, like, okay, how about this one for a random interaction?

This is a guy in Ottawa who says, I used to work for a. company and we were doing some work, water main work, near Jason Spetsa's house. We had to shut the water out off at his place while we conducted our duties. Spetsa came out to ask me when his water would be back on. I replied to him, I don't ask you when you're going to score goals. Don't ask me about the water. What? There's no way this guy.

Okay. There's no way this guy actually said that to Jason. Spencer. Okay. Okay. If we're going to bring up that story, can we bring up the story from TSN Salim Volgi about what he did? Because Salim and I are friends. So like when I saw that in my mentions, I had to tweet, I had to go right back out of him and be like, there's no way you actually did this. For context, Salim Volgi is the Calgary correspondent for TSN. And he tweeted this. Don't know if this qualifies. When I was 14, the Oilers had an autograph session at West Edmonton Mall.

As he was signing my jersey, I told Eric Cole, I was going to be a sports writer when I grow up. So you better start kissing my ass right now. He laughed. Years later, I cringe. Why, what composes you to say that to a, to an age all player? What, like, what is that? I, I, see, again, I, did he actually,

but Salam is the type of guy that would have legitimately, like he's not he's not he's not he's not making stuff up like solemn would have done this solemn would have done this and like I would I would clown him I if I see him if he was still here because he used to be in Montreal well he was in Edmonton and then was in Paris and then he here and then moved to Calgary dude's like a globetrotter if he was here and next time I see him like next time I see him I'm gonna clown him for that because there's no way you should be able to get away with telling anyone

that be like yeah you better kiss my boots you know I'm saying kiss my ass or whatever to an angel player like well before you're going to be a reporter what are you doing my guy what are you doing i don't get it i but there's no way that that guy okay salam i have a feeling he did say that to eric cole there's no way that water main guy said that to jason spetson no way you would say hey right i don't know i i i think that's absolutely ridiculous if i was a water main guy Yes. And I went to Jason Spetz's house and shut off the water. And he came out and he asked me that question.

You know what I would say? I would say, hey, you know what? Jason, I was just looking at the score sheet. I think you know all about droughts. Or when things dry up. You know, take that. Ooh. Yeah.

Things have dried up for you on multiple fronts. A, Jason? Damn. You know, you know? That's what you got to be saying. Why do you have to hit that hard? Oh, damn. Yeah.

Yeah, that's wrong. I was just going to say, the closest I ever got to that experience of like an NHLer playing like road hockey with them, I got invited to play this like charity ball hockey tournament with a couple of people who work at TSN 690 in Montreal or for Bell locally in Montreal. And we had to basically assemble this like rag tag team of guys to just be able to play. But they had it at different levels. Like, we were at a level where it's like, okay, it's clearly just like casual, local celebrities, all that were on a team. And they had a higher level with, you know, more skilled guys playing. And I remember, like, walking around where we were supposed to be playing. It's like right near this, like, why, like, it's like a YMCA building in this one part of town.

And we've taken up this one part of the street to play. And I'm like walking around. and watching this game go on, and I'm looking into, and like, I'm seeing some of the guys, like one team has all these guys hanging around. I'm like, that's Anthony Duclair, when he was still like a Rangers prospect, just like hanging around on this like ball hockey team just playing with everybody. And like, it's my regret to this day to not like go up to him and be like, yo, what's up, man? Like, you're going to be in the NHL one day. So I could say I knew Anthony DeClair went, but I know I saw Anthony Duclair at that tournament. And you just chickened out?

Or what? I just, I chickened out. I just, for whatever reason, I didn't feel to do that. Okay. So again, to recap, no problem going up to then legendary head coach and Stanley Cup winner Ken Hitchcock and six-time Stanley Cup winner Larry Robinson. No problem. Hall of Famer. Anthony Duclair prospect with the Rangers, I'm too afraid.

I don't, I don't, I think it was one of those things where it's like, I looked at him and I'm like, I think that's him. but I don't want to go up to him and be like, is that you? And then he's like, nah, it's not me. I think it was because of that. I think it was because, like, okay, like I had like some seed of doubt crept up in my head. There's another story I just thought of too. I got asked by these friends of mine in Siegep, who I think now work for some, some like management company now.

I think they, like whatever, they asked me to host a spike ball tournament. Do you know what spike ball is? Yes, I do. They asked me to host a spike ball. ball tournament that had some NHELors involved and like Anthony Pavilion and Daniel Sprung were there we were just like on this front yard

at some school and they're just like playing all these guys are just playing spike ball I think Joe Villano was there too and I'm just like up on this like balcony just like all right these games are going on over here and this team was playing it was like it was like it was I got like

a New York Islanders hat out of it and like I saw them it was a weird I've had some really weird run-ins with NHL players, if you can't tell. Did Daniel Sprong just constantly get traded from one team to the next in that tournament? And he just has so much potential. He just has to find the right team. I think he stayed on the one team he was on there.

I have one last one. I promise I'll let you go. Yeah, yeah. I went to the Rogers Cup with my dad one year. This is the tennis, right? Tennis, tennis, tennis. And like, Serita and Venus were playing against each other in, like, some quarterfinal or semi-final game.

And we're, like, walking around to get into the stadium. And Michelle Tarian is, like, hanging around by himself. This was, like, well before I was doing any media or anything. And, like, I go to Michelle, like, hey, can I take a photo with you? And he's like, make it quick. Like, you just, that's, you just, this is sick, like, make it quick. And I take a photo with him. And as I'm walking away, like, other people start realizing it's Michelle Tarant.

and a whole crowd of people start, like, bunching up towards him. And I'm just, like, running off into the stadium. So I'm pretty sure Michelle Terrier probably didn't like the fact that his cover was blown. But, yeah, now you had me thinking about all these different run-ins with NHL people. I'm sorry. I had to. Yeah, make it quick. Yeah, that's what he told me.

He didn't say, like, oh, sure, it's like, make it quick. And he had these sunglasses on. You know what I would say? And he tried to look cool. Yeah. You know what I would say to Michelle Tarian? If he's, like, make it quick, I'd be like, yeah, like a first round date with the senators, right? Am I right?

Michelle? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, you know. Yeah, he was out in five. That time. So, okay, a couple of things have come to mind here. Now, we had a lot of fun. A lot of people wrote in and said,

I had this great interaction with players and, you know, these random stories of ball hockey games and this guy came to my school or I saw this guy at a restaurant. But you led me to something with Duclair, where you were like, there was like a little bit of you that wasn't sure if it was Anthony Duclair. Next time or down the road on the podcast, we need to do a mistaken identity story where people are like,

I could have sworn it was Mark Messier, but it wasn't. You know what I mean? Like turns out you made an ass of yourself and you got it wrong. Those are the stories I want to hear from people too. I think that's a good idea. And if anyone has a Mark Messier story. I would feel bad if I lived in Vancouver and I somehow looked like Mark

Messier. Oh my God. I would somehow be like the most hated man in that city. You got, yeah, that you have to start employing like face off technology there because you can't. You can't walk around like Mark. Now Mark Messier on Broadway in Midtown Manhattan? Sure.

You're living it up. Mark Messier on Robson Street, not so much. If you, if you're walking around with a bag of lays, you're dead. You're done. You're done, found. It's over. Forget it. Oh, yeah.

So we'll do some mistaken identities. I want to read one more, though. was really fun too. This guy tweeted at us and said my brother and I in the 90s, we got to hang around the Washington Capitals. We played mini sticks with Michael Nealander's two young boys. I don't know. I wonder whatever happened to those kids. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. But I love this aspect of the story. The guy says, Olaf Colzig, it was the Washington Capitol's goalie at the time. He was breaking in new pads. It was the start of the season. And so Olaf Colzick gave us a baseball bat and told us to go to town on his pads to soften them up while he was stretching for

practice and then he gave us an autograph stick for our efforts. Now how cool is that? Olaf Colze gives you a bat and says just beat my pads down. You could always go to your friends and be like, I'm the one who broke in those pads for Olaf Colzick. And then another guy says that he served Dominic Hachuk at a Burger King. Like in a dry food. Do you think you would know it was Dominic Hachik when he puts the order in? I mean, maybe when he pulls up to the window and he gets the food. No, but when he's putting the order in for the Wopper, I'm not even going to try my Hachik impression. But Dom has a real unique way of speaking, right?

I think maybe you know. You're like, damn, I know that, boys. That's Dominic Hachic. It's the Dominator. There's another one. Craig Anderson was, this is from Spenators. Craig Anderson was a frequent customer at the shoppers I worked at. I usually was too nervous to say anything, but one night he came in after a tough loss.

And I said to him, that must have been a tough one tonight. And his reply was, yeah, good thing I was on the bench. Shout out Craig Anderson. Nice guy. Yeah. No, Craig Anderson, there's always great stories about him from time in Ottawa or even in Buffalo. I know that people have really enjoyed Andy. So listen, we've had a lot of fun with these stories.

but by all means, fire them into us on Twitter or tag us on Twitter or drop them into the comment section. And like I said, I think at some point a mistaken identity episode is needed here. Absolutely, absolutely. Okay. To the issues at hand on the ice. And I want to talk about Kevin Hayes, his comments this weekend, Julian, in light of Keith Yandel's consecutive game streak coming to a halt. Yandel had played 989 consecutive games. the all-time Iron Man in that category until he was a healthy scratch.

And there's some people, like Kevin Hayes, Hayes is quoted as saying, look, decisions we need to be made every day. Us players don't make those decisions. I can't say I agree with it. A lot of people are saying, look, you just have a few weeks left in the season. Just let Yane will get to a thousand games and then cut ties with them. Where do you come down on this? Like, did the flyers do the right thing?

and if they did, should they have done this sooner? Because Yandel, by all accounts, hasn't been all that great and was likely only in the lineup because of the consecutive game streak, the Iron Man streak, breaking Doug Jarvis's record earlier this season. Like, where do you come down on this? If the Flyers were a team competing for a playoff spot and they needed to get their best lineup possible in so they could get into the postseason,

even if it would be a bit of a disappointment, I would understand. Because at the end of the day, as much as we love to see these milestones and these fun things happen with players, you know, winning at the end of the day, that's what has to happen for these teams. And a team like the Philadelphia Flyers, if they were in a position to make the playoffs, you kind of have to just understand it. The Philadelphia Flyers are garbage this year. They are trash. They are hot garbage. They, I can come up with a long list of adjectives to describe how they've been playing this year.

It's one thing to say that Keith Yandel has been among their worst players this year. year, but the whole team has been bad. So there was no harm in letting Keith Yandel play, more games, at least get to that 1,000 game mark. Hey, they might have improved their draft lottery odds if they kept them in the lineup. And I think the guy they ended up replacing him with was like a minus four against the Leafs. Like, it's not even as if the guy they replaced Keith Yandel with or whoever they were looking to put him in with was all that good of a replacement anyway. So it ended up just being like a, like it didn't, serve them anything. It doesn't serve them

anything to just take Keith Yandel out of the lineup. Like, let him get to 1,000, cut bait with him after that, and then go on with your day. Like, I don't understand why they had to impose themselves at, in, like, late March, early April, and

say, hey, man, this Iron Man streak, this one good thing that our franchise has going for us right now, now that we've shipped off our franchise captain to Florida so we can get a chip, you know, we really got put a stop to this now because we're an organization that, you know, we want to win games. Yeah.

Yeah. I just think it's weird behavior. And this was an opportunity for the Flyers to say, you know what? This year has gone badly. They've had a lot of weird times this year with the 10-game winless streaks and all that. And Colgeroo, the firing of Alain Vino, they've had a lot. Look, the signings from Chuck Fletcher, they've had a lot go on this year. Seeing Keith Yand will get to a thousand games.

would have been a positive for this team. And they, they stopped that. So it's real. Like, we can't have nice things when it comes to the Philadelphia Flyers, it seems. You know, for me, I think of like, look at the way that the Arizona Coyotes handled Phil Kessel with the streak earlier this season where he had to leave for the birth of a child, but they allowed him to play a shift. They're like, okay, you know what?

Like, player shift and get out of here, right? Like, it was handled very differently. And I can't help but think, like, here's the way. what I'm thinking, okay? I would never want, this is my takeaway from this is I would never want to trade for a player who has played in like six or seven hundred consecutive games. I don't want that guy on my team because at some point you're going to have an uncomfortable conversation and it's going to get weird and I don't want it.

That's what I, that's my takeaway. I don't think I want a guy who's played more than 600 games in a row. Okay, but like what if the player was in the lineup because, like what do you have had? Jay Bohnweister do this. We have to remember, fine, like for a guy like Keith Yandel in the last how many games he was playing, it didn't work out. But there's a reason why they were able to play all those games in a row. Right? Yeah, but like, you know what?

I just think that it gets to a point where it becomes sticky. You know? Like, even at the end with Cal Ripkin, I was like, I would be like, I don't want this guy. Like, that's fair. You know what I mean? That's fair. I, yeah, I just, I, and I feel bad because it was clearly a situation that has created some feelings in Philly. But now all I can think about is I think the door is open for Phil Ketzel to set the record next year, right?

That's exactly it. Like next season, it's his, it's his to do. But even then, like, is it going to be in Arizona? Is it going to be with another team? Like, I was having this conversation with my good buddy, Justin Cuthbert over the weekend on, his podcast. And like if you're a team that's looking to bring Phil Kessel onto your roster, like what's the conversation going to be like, you know, do you let him just play however many games he needs to play to get to the record and then you sit him and then you tell him like,

hey, we're going to play it in and out of the lineup all the time, especially if he's on the pace that he's at right now where he's a good, he's like a, like on a bad team, maybe a good bottom six player on a really good team, he probably doesn't crack the lineup at all or he's just an extra. So what do you do depending on where he ends up being signed? That's a whole other, to your point about, you know, hey, do you want a guy who's played that many games in a row? That's a conversation that's probably going to have to come up if it's,

if Phil Kessel finds himself not in Arizona next season. Yeah. No, and that's why I think it's interesting the way you handle that. As long, like to me, the player, though, has to be part of the, the conversation. But what player is going to say, what player is going to say, yeah, you know what, go ahead and take me out of the lineup? Like the weirdest one to me ever was, remember Andrew,

Caligliano got suspended by the league when he was at like whatever 750 games. I bet you the Anaheim ducks were like, thank God. Like now we can, you know what I mean? They're like, who now we don't have to have that conversation. But the door's been opened. Anyway, it's a really tricky one to me. Yeah, I can understand that. But all that to put a bow on that topic, like, I don't get the sense of benching

Keith Heandal, but I'm not in the Philly circle of things. So maybe there's more context there. But from an outsider's perspective, I didn't think it was the greatest move. All right, Julian, time for us to bring in, as I mentioned earlier, Eric Stevens. Does a great job covering the Anaheim Ducks for us at the Athletic. And we're here to talk about what was a really newsworthy weekend with the ducks and that incident with Trevor Zegris and Troy Terry J. Beagle. And we bring Eric onto the podcast on this Monday.

How is it going on this Monday, Eric Stevens? Oh, it's going great here. I mean, it's Southern California. So, I mean, you can't be. It's sun's out. I mean, it's a good place to be. But you're right. It's been an interesting weekend for sure.

And, you know, an incident that hasn't quite faded away just yet. So let's talk about it. Yeah. And Julian, that's two people now in SoCal that aren't us. Haley Salvean and Eric Steen. Stevens. Yeah, that's why I made, that's why I kind of did, like, I threw my hands up in the air right now, Eric, because just as we were starting off, we were talking about how we were a bit envious of the fact that Haley, who normally would do the Monday show was in SoCal. So the fact that she's doing that, and obviously SoCal is your home. I'm, I'm a bit envious of you. But yes, we have to, we, as you should be envious. I said, absolutely should. But yeah, we definitely have to get into the, the Trevor's eager thing. I just want to start off and just ask, like, when you saw, what had happened in the game, wherever you were watching the game.

What was your initial reaction to seeing that brouhaha ensue with Jay Beagle on Troy Terry? All that essentially, look, I'm just going to be real here, over some hurt feelings off the fact that Trevor Zegras was able to get the goal he got. You know, it's interesting because I remember, you know, first looking at it and first looking at, you know, Troy being obviously in some distress. and then he's skating off, you know, holding a, you know, holding a ragged, you know, to his face whatsoever. You know, perhaps I should be blamed a little bit for not really, I guess, recognizing the full impact of that right away, you know, because you see scrums, you know, almost every night in the NHL. And, you know, and sometimes they, you know, move into the realm of actual fights, you know,

taking place, guys dropping their gloves. This is commonplace or whatsoever. So I guess, you know, if anything, I'm a little bit of fault for like, you know, and not really realizing all the particulars in it. Yes, I read no right away, Troy Terry being involved in a fight. He's never been known to, you know, do anything of the sort. I, you know, I don't think he, I would find it hard to believe. even if he was involved in a fight, you know, in midget or, you know, or any youth level or whatsoever.

He's just not wired that way. I mean, he's all about, you know, beating the opponent on the scoreboard as opposed to being being on the opponent with his fist. He was coming to the aid of a teammate. So I was surprised in the fact that, you know, he was involved involved in that, but he was taking up for a teammate who he felt, you know, was wrong. And then the fact that Jay Beagle is, you know, someone that he's obviously been around in, in the league for a good long time now. And someone that has got three inches and like 25 pounds on Troy Terry. And the fact that you could see once you, you know, once you saw it initially and then in reputed viewing, you could see that Troy really wasn't looking for a fight. I mean, he was looking, you know, to jump in there.

Yes, he sort of gave Beagle an initial swipe, but he never dropped the gloves. And then once he got to the ice, you know, you could see that he was in some clear distress. As we've come, you know, as some time has passed, as, you know, after reputed viewings and all that whatsoever. Yeah, there's a lot of different questions that go into it, you know, should Terry expect? something to possibly occur if you're going to engage like that, you know, should Beagle realize this is a, this is someone that does not want to fight,

should you be continuing to throw, you know, haymakers and throw right hands on someone that is in a defenseless position? There's obviously a lot of things that come out of it, but, you know, Julian, to your original point, you know, of being, I don't know, embarrassed or offended by Trevor Zegers' goal.

They scored earlier in the game. You know, I say, do a better job defending, period. That's what I say. Yeah. You know, as simple as that. Why be embarrassed? And there are a lot of people that aren't. You know, a lot of, I've talked to some people, you know,

what would you do with that, you know, were to happen to you? The response is the same. Be better at your job. defend that point. You know, I think the issue that a lot of people had was less, ironically, guys, was less with Jay Beagle and more with Tyson Nash on the Arizona broadcast

in which Tyson Nash says, that's the problem with these young players. You want to embarrass guys. You want to skill it up. You better be prepared to get punched in the mouth. That's the problem for me, you know? that's the problem for me is, A, that Beagle felt like this was something that he could do within the, you know, structure of the game, but B, that a broadcaster would applaud it and say,

that's what you get for scoring a brilliant goal. That, to me, is the bigger problem here. Yeah, it's interesting, too, because yesterday Tyson did a podcast. I'm sure you guys have probably heard with, you know, long-time, you know, long-time coyote beat reporter Craig Morgan. And it was, you know, he tried to sort of walk it back. But then he, in a sense, he sort of doubled down. Yes.

You know, on it as well. He didn't do, he didn't do a particularly good job walking that back. He said more than it wasn't necessarily the play, you know, the goal itself. his problem was that Zegreth was poking at the goaltender in a 5-0 game and that, you know, you just don't do that or whatsoever. But, you know, we've seen those instances. We've seen those interested in instances in one-sided games, you know, to where, you know, the team that's been on the losing end of it, they're upset, you know, their feeling maybe embarrassed

at their own play through the course of the game. And to something that I saw was, you know, I didn't see where Trevor was taking several wax at the goalie. I think that would have been different, you know, if the puck was, say, loose and he's just taking multiple wax at it or whatsoever, then, yes, you can expect a response. But I don't think anything should have gone to the level of what it got to, which was Jay Beagle, you know, pounding on, you know, a player that didn't even have his gloves off.

Yeah, like, you said it with the whole Tyson Nash thing. Like, listening to him on that podcast, not only just point out the fact that Trevor Zegris is like poking at the puck, but saying that guys on the ducks are smirking and, like, are calling attention to it. Like, I thought it, like, you know, you ever, it's happened before where you hear someone try to clarify something. and they make it worse for themselves. Unfortunately, Tyson Nash kind of did that for himself. Like, I, you know, I think he should have just stuck with the first thing that he said and just stuck with that at that point. We would have all disagreed with him, but he wouldn't be trying to lie to us because at the end of the day, we get it.

There's a subsection of people who see the skill that's being brought up in the NHL and they don't want to get embarrassed and they want some discipline being brought on to that. that. And I think that's what Jay Beagle tried to do. The thing that was even worse with that Tyson National Apology as well, not even apology, that clarification that he said is that he, he first off was saying to Craig Morgan like, hey, you know, I really applaud you for doing this because you actually tried to do your homework as if, you know, hey, what he actually meant to say, wasn't actually what he meant to say. We're not stupid. There are people who want, who don't like what Trevor Secreis is actually trying to do and would do anything to really. give them a piece of their mind. And that cannot be lost in all of this. And you can't tell me

for a second that Tyson Nash, even if he went on that podcast and said, yeah, you know, I actually like that stuff and it's great. If he's on the ice, Duda would try to give Trevor Zegro's a piece of his mind. You cannot tell me otherwise. That's more of a statement than a question, but I just had to say that. No, no, you're right. There is a subsection of fans who, I mean, they would like to see someone put Trevor Ziegers in the third row, you know, or I've seen comments. I mean, this is, you know, back to the goal that he scored in Montreal this year or even the play. And obviously, you know, with Sunny Milano and Buffalo, not only questioning whether it's actually a legal hockey move, which, you know, I think is actually ridiculous or whatsoever that is even being questioned.

But that I've seen comments where, you know, he is. If, you know, if Joe Fan was in that situation or whatsoever, he would have knocked Zegro's teeth out for even attempting, you know, such a move or whatsoever. That sort of just reflects, I guess, this old school way of thinking, you know, as to what is allowed, what should be allowed on the ice, what should not be allowed on the ice, what is right, what is quote unquote wrong, or whatsoever when it's those kind of plays that we actually should be celebrating.

And it's a legal play. It's plainly legal, which he and Tyson himself alluded to, acknowledged. So, you know, it's, yeah, I don't, I don't get it myself. I don't get, you know, why people are, get so offended by, you know, by, you know, by, you know, a player that can pull that off. Very few people can do that. And there's been times in this year where he has attempted it in other things.

Yes, they don't make the highlight real because he didn't score, but people did defend it. And they defended it legally. They didn't put him in the third row. They didn't put him in the glass or whatever. They defended the play. And play moves on. Listen, and I'm curious too because

I think Zegers has certainly been the most headline-grabbing rookie this. season with those aforementioned the Buffalo goal, the Montreal goal, this goal, all the stuff that goes around him. But it's not necessarily translating into him being the favorite for the Calder Trophy. And I just was curious to get your impression, final month of the season, what does Trevor Zegris have to do to maybe overtake, whether it's more its cider in Detroit or his teammate Lucas Raymond?

I know people are going to say Michael Bunting, there's a couple of other candidates. Like what do you think Ziegress needs to do in April to walk away with the Calder Trophy? You know, Ian, I think I think you're right. I think he is a little bit behind some of the others in that Calder race. You know, he's got to go on some type of scoring run and maybe win the rookie scoring race, you know, or in my mind to be sort of the Oz-on favorite or, you know, or the candidate that, you know, really should be voting. it on because you can't discount what some of those other players have had.

Like I said, you noted, you know, Bunning, obviously in Toronto, you know, I think what Merritt Sider has done in Detroit and being becoming their number one defenseman right away and putting up the points and doing the all around game that he's shown has been really impressive. You know, what Trevor has done, you know, has certainly been the most noteworth because they've grabbed all the highlights. You know, they've been been on ESPN. they've been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in social media whatsoever.

That certainly is going to give them attention. And it's not just that. I mean, he has backed it up in his play. Yeah, so there are still warts in his game. There are things that he still, you know, needs to learn how to do in order to become a superstar in this league. But, I mean, he's firmly in the race. I think that he just, he would have to really go on a scoring tear at the end. But unfortunately, I think that will be tough for him to do.

do just because of the state of Anaheim's lineup. I mean, a lot of it was cut out at the deadline, obviously with some veteran players being traded. You know, there's some journey, there's a few journeymen in the lineup. You know, he, and if Terry's going to be out for some time whatsoever, he's now playing on his right wing. I mean, if he's going to be out,

that's just going to make it that much more of a climb for him to make in terms of, you know, vaulting himself into the front of the, call the race. How would you rate Pat Verbeek, the GM of the unabducts, and what he did at the deadline? You did mention the fact that there are a notable amount of players gone from the lineup because of trades and all that. Remember, this is a team that early on this year, they kind of overachieve, but they still felt they had to do this part as a way for them to go about their rebuild over the next little while.

So how would you rate what Pat Verbeek has done with the roster to this point? You know what? I think that he did what he had to do ultimately. Maybe something that should have been done a couple of years ago, which was really a significant rebuild had to be made. Look, they weren't going to get any better with Hamphus Lenholm, Josh Manson, Ricard Raquel, you know, in the lineup. Those were core players that had been in place for years. but, you know, this team has been losing for the last three years. You know, frankly, that part of that core went as far as it could. And perhaps one or two or whatsoever, those players should have been moved again a couple of years ago.

So I think Pat did what he had to do. And I think he got good value in return. I mean, he's got a boatload of draft picks for the next two or three years or so. He's got loads of cap space to go into the summer. You know, if he wants to, and I believe that it is the case, you know, he can really have an aggressive summer, you know, on his hands in terms of upgrading this roster. And it's got to be upgraded. I mean, without question, we're seeing it on a, you know,

we're seeing it on a nightly basis. We saw it just last night with the way, you know, Edmonton pretty much dusted them off. You know, there is a clear talent imbalance. here, but there's also a clear plan going forward. And that's the build around Ziegress, that's the build around Troy Terry, Mason McTavish when he gets here. You know, Jamie Drysdale, you know, the others that they'll be adding to the mix over the next two or three years or so here.

So I think he did well. And it's serious short-term pain. Make no mistake. But like you alluded to it, Julian. You know, pardon the pun, but they really did punch above their weight, you know, in the first half of the year. And I think everyone knew that from the GM down to even the players within the ruin themselves. It's something that had been avoided, couldn't be avoided any longer. And those contracts, you know, those expiring contracts really lined up and made it easy for Pat to move on from these players,

especially, you know, Linholm when he tried to resign, but just wasn't going to give eight years soon. All right. Final question for you, Eric. And again, it's kind of a forward-looking question because it's rare to spend an entire segment on the Anaheim Ducks and you never hear the name Ryan Gets left. And I'm curious, look, though, the bottom has fallen out this season. It's 12 of 13 that Anaheim has lost.

It's clear that it's a full rebuild. Where's his headspace at? Does he come back next year? does he come back in Anaheim? And I know it's a sticky situation, right? Legacy players, you have to handle it correctly. You can't have a nasty divorce. It doesn't look good on the team.

The fans get upset. So final question. Where are we at with Ryan Getslaw? Yeah, you know what? It's a really good question. And I'm not sure where we're at. Organizationally, Pat has come out and said he's got, Ryan has the place on his team next year if he wants to come back.

So he has come out and said that. And I think that was a sort of a, you know, a preemptive move, you know, to make sure that there wouldn't be, you know, the possibility of, like you said, sort of a divorce or a parting of the ways or something that, you know, would be obviously uncomfortable. I mean, look, he's a legacy player for the franchise. I mean, his number is going to be in the Honda Center Rafters one day. You know, and perhaps you could say he may be someone that gets into the hospital.

Hockey Hall of Fame. He has significant pull with this franchise look over, but, you know, this is Pat's team, and he's put his own staff on it. So I think it really is up to Ryan. And I'll be curious to see how much the injuries that he's, you know, dealing with now as he ages, as, you know, those things that linger, is he going to really want to go through this? Is he really going to want to go through a rebuild that's going to take, you know, years now? I mean, you know, I think he thought that, okay, I could put up with, you know, a couple of years of losing whatsoever. And the early part of this year, you know, might have been the light at the end of the tunnel. Well, that's not, that's not the case now.

So he's got some questions that he knows he's going to be asking himself. And he has said that to me, you know, as well, that he knows it's something that he's going to have to wrestle with. And he's probably already wrestling with. But personally, I think, I think if he does. come back, it is to the ducks. I don't think he'll go elsewhere. But I'm also leaning toward the fact that he's probably strongly considering this being it for him. Oh, listen, Eric, this was fantastic. Lots of news swirling around the Anaheim Ducks. We appreciate you taking a few minutes out of your busy day to walk us and our listeners through all of those

storylines. Listen, thanks for this. And we'll get you again, I'm sure, at some point down the road. Okay, guys, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. All right, listen, that was a fun convo with Eric Stevens. I want to ask you something because Eric was at the game with Leon Drysidal getting his 50th goal of the season on the weekend. And if I ask you right now, Julie, without looking it up, without, like, top of your head, what's the most memorable 50th goal any player has ever scored? Like, for you, like, what's the one that comes to mind?

The hot stick. The hot stick. The Ovechkin hot stick, scoring 50. I know I have a goalie stick in my hand right now. I know for audio listeners, you're not seeing what I'm talking about, but I had to pull up the stick and I'm just trying to fan it because it's so hot. That is the most memorable 50 goal, that 50 goal, well, not performance, but that's the most memorable 50th goal I could think of just because of the celebration,

how it got certain people angry, whether it's just old fogies who don't know better, or we'll say name redacted. There are people who got mad at about this whole thing. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't get it. Like, Alexander Oveshkin, we know times right now with everything going on with Russia and Ukraine. We're looking at him in a very different light. But strictly on the ice, in terms of what he tried to bring with his performances and the exuberance he brought, like, he was good for the game.

So the hot stick is the most memorable one I can think of. Okay. But here's the thing. The hot stick you remember for the celebration, but like, can you close, can you remember the goal? Or just the celebration? He, like, I think he's coming in along. He came in like along the wing, maybe, and then fired like a, it wasn't like a, it wasn't like a, Noveskin spot shot.

I think he was like coming in, like, like, streaking towards the net and doing it. But that's me trying to remember it. But I know it wasn't a Novetschkin spot shot. So here's my, here's my theory. obviously people remember they saw a dry sidle on the weekend you saw austin matthews into the empty net here's my working theory nobody remembers people's 50th goals like it's weird like i can't remember stephen stampcose is 50th from a i don't remember um you do i don't remember like how would it look like yeah i don't know what he's got to 50 i don't remember his 50th um like

I'm suddenly having a hard time. The only two 50 goals that I remember, I don't even, this was kind of before my time, but I remember seeing them from highlights. And what is Wayne Gretzky, his 50th goal into an empty net, because it gave him 50 goals in 39 games. I remember that.

I don't remember watching it. I was too young, but I've seen the highlight. And the other is Mike Bossie, who also got 50 and 50. and and I like but I don't have any recollection of like I grew up in Vancouver like Pavel Burray had 50 goal years I can't picture the 50th goal what's wrong with me for whatever reason I keep thinking of Teeu Salani's celebration when he like threw the

yeah his glove in the air the and the the skeet shooting I guess but there's a part of me that doesn't remember if it was was it 50 or what he scored like 76 or it might have actually been 50 actually. No. You know, so that was when he broke Mike Bossy's rookie record.

So it would have been goal 54 maybe. I think Bossy had 53 for the record. And then he does that and he throws the glove up but that was, yeah,

goal 54. I couldn't tell you what Tameu Salani's 50th look like as a rookie. I don't know. What's that? Jerome Gindler scored 51 year, right,

for Calgary? I don't remember his 50th. Yeah, I never thought of it that way. I can't think. What's happened here? I covered Danny. Okay.

Danny D'Easy had back-to-back 50 goal years. I can't, in my mind's eye, picture the 50th goal. I put up the, I'm watching the video of Ovechkin score the 50, and he's, just as I remember, he's entering the zone. There's actually like two or three lightning players around him trying to stop him. And actually, funny enough, I say it wasn't from the Ovechkin spot. But when I say from the Ovechkin spot, I'm thinking of like a classic one-timer. Yeah.

from the, or he shoots it from the circle, which, if I recall correctly, I think that's how Drysidal scored the 50th. I think he did it from that spot, if I remember, but for Ovechkin in this context, he's skating up ice, and the shot is done from just before the hash marks, and it beats Mike McKenna from distance. Like, it's from like a bit of an off angle a little bit, like, from an angle, like, Mike McKenna probably should have saved it, but I'm also not going to tell Mike McKenna had a goal ten, because he's, he has been a goaltent, you had been a goaltender for a long time. We can tell him how to be a podcast or he's got his own podcast. Let me tell him how to do that.

Maybe, yeah, you know, I know a little thing or two. He's got the edge on us on goal tenting. Yes, I'll give him that. But yeah, like he did like a nice like snapshot like through McKenna. And then you see Ovechkin just doing the hot stick celebration. And like, again, I just think the fact that he was able to do that celebration. Like I, as someone who grew up liking Ovechkin full of scosure here, like I, like I, I loved it.

Do you think if you were a goalie that, like, secretly you would be okay with giving up a guy's 50th goal or his 500th goal or no. You would never, under any circumstances, want to be part of it. I don't know. I don't know. Because say you go into it being like, hey, man, like, I have no problem getting scored on. Then you have to go about the rest of your life. It's either two things. One, you go about the rest of your life as the goalie who got.

got scored on for a piece of history. And no one's really going to look at you and be like, man, you know, thanks for letting hit that goal. You played a huge role. It's like, man, you were the guy who got scored on, huh? Or no one remembers you. I'll tell you what. Before I looked at that video, I forgot Mike McKenna was the goaltender who allowed that goal.

So I don't know what benefit there is to being the guy that allows the goal. Like I think it for baseball. Yeah. I think for baseball too, like if you're a pitcher, there's no benefit to. being the guy who gives up like the all-time home run that brings the all-time home run record or or cycle or anything like that like. Like, nah,

if I was a goalie, I wouldn't necessarily want to be that guy. And if it happens, it happens. But like, I'm not going into it being like, yeah, man,

I'm sure I'm a part of history. Like, I'm on the wrong side of history. Yeah. Okay. Okay. We're going to wrap up this podcast and I got one multiple choice question for you. Okay.

Julian? Okay. But first I love multiple choice. I'm going to take you and our listeners on a trip back in time. This is an unexpected trip back in time 90 years ago, okay? 90 years ago. That's well before our time. We're going to go to the end of the 1932 regular season.

Okay. I'm going to take you to a game at the old Boston Garden between the Bruins and the New York Americans. Now, why on earth would I be bringing you guys and girls back? 90 years. Because, Julian, in March of 1932, for an end-of-season game between the New York Americans and the Boston Bruins,

with both teams assured of not making the playoffs, they had both been mathematically eliminated, the league decided to implement experimental rules for this game. They removed the blue lines and only used the center ice red line to determine offside.

Again, this was a meaningless game, end of the regular season. League officials are looking at each other and saying, you know what? Why don't we just, why do we try something here? New York and Bosser play doesn't mean anything. Let's try getting rid of the blue lines, only using the red line to determine offside. So my multiple choice question today is, would you like to see this in the NHL today, Julian? Meaningless games, Ottawa and Detroit just played a home and home. What if they played it without the trapezoid or they changed the offside rule?

Sorry, yes or no, would you like to? to see this implemented in the NHL, or do you think, yeah, you know, it's too gimmicky, it's weird, you'll mess with the stats, and don't do it. Where do you come down on this? So my initial thinking is yes, because it would actually give us reasons to watch some of those meaningless games. What if they take out an offside in a game? And it's something that they want to test for next season. All of a sudden, if this works, that's something that could affect players going into next year. And as fans and as media people, we kind of have to watch that game to kind of get a sense of how that would work. It would add more incentive for some of these games to be watched or for

people to care about a random Anaheim Arizona game, for example. The only other thing I could think of is if it affects statistics. And while there are teams who have nothing essentially to play for, like what if you put, what if you decide, I don't know, I'm trying to think of a particular award category where someone who happens to be on a non-playoff team has an outside chance. Okay, how about this? A Detroit Red Wings game, an Ottawa Detroit Red Wings game.

And, you know, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Sider are taking advantage of the non-offside rules to the point where they have elevated themselves like really like high up in the Calder Trophy conversation. I get they're already there. Let's say it's like those two guys, maybe you throw in Trevor Zegris,

maybe you put Michael Bunting in there, maybe Cole Cawfield has himself, some wild April and puts himself in that conversation. But because they play maybe one or two off, no offside games, maybe they have like six point nights or something because it's a wild analogy here. But if it affects the stats that way,

then I think you might have to have some questions about the fact that they were, it was able to work for them and not everyone was able to take advantage of those rules. That's the only hitch I could really think of. But in terms of me watching the product and seeing like, how's it going to work if they're going to not use a particular rule or make this particular adjustment, I'd be intrigued, I think, depending on the rule, depending on the teams. You know what I love about this too is that you use an example. You're like, you know, I'm just trying to find a way to make an Arizona Anaheim game. more exciting after we just talked about an explosive incident involving Arizona and Anaheim?

I love it. I love it. That's true. I think I tend to agree with you. I think my gut reaction is yes. Like why not? Right? Like why not?

And they did it. I love the fact that they actually did this. Like there's some precedent. They did it back in, you know, 90 years ago. It's weird to me to think, like was the league more open-minded back then? because they changed the rules, they tinker with the rules. They, you know,

they decided to change the offside rules and forward passing and all this stuff. Like, how can we don't tinker anymore? Why don't we put things in a little bit of a, you know, a beaker and mess around and see what we get, you know? I don't know. Maybe because of interests in the league

that, you know, people put money on and all that and think, oh, I don't want my money being played with something like that. I don't know. people don't necessarily want that messed with. I think of the 30s, I mean, the NHL was only a few decades old at that point. Not nowhere near as old as it is now. They probably had more room to adjust and find a way to make that work.

Yeah, like not even like 30 years old at that point. You can tell me the exact year if I'm wrong. Yeah, 1937 is when it started. So yeah, not even two decades old. Exactly. So they were still like relatively young. as a league. So like they would probably, it was a lot easier for them to be in that position to try it, to try some new rules, try some newfangled ideas as opposed to now we are well over

a centennial mark. Yeah, good luck trying to sell people. Hey, let's, I don't know, let's bring back the two-line pass rule. You know, remember that rule? Yeah. I know it seems weird, right? To think that you couldn't make a stretch pass because you would put the puck over two lines. It was novel. When they eliminated the red line, it was like, whoa, this is crazy. Now you don't even think about it, right?

You don't even think about it. But I think they got to get rid of the trapezoid. Me too. You know, I just, that would be, like, so I would love to see a game like, let's watch a game now. What would happen if the goalies had free reign to play the puck? Would we really truly see... You know, goalie's wandering and helping with the transition.

No, like, I don't know, but do it in an Ottawa, Detroit game. Do it Buffalo against New Jersey or, you know, whoever. I don't know if it matters, but like over the weekend, I was at a PWHPA showcase game, and they don't have the trapezoid in the women's game, or at least on the rink I was watching. They don't have it. And, like, no goalie, like, was taking advantage of it trying to, like, be in the corner, just, like, looking around and make, like, a pass or nothing.

They were just, I totally kept play moving. And, you know, you could say, you could point out the different intricacies in the men and the women's game. But, like, I think that's a pretty big difference. Or at least I didn't notice any trapezoid. There was no trapezoid from what I remember being used in that game. And, like, the goalies weren't, you know, I don't know that it went about normal. It wasn't something I thought about that much. Yeah.

Well, listen, for our listeners here as we wrap it up, you know, again, hit us up. Let us know. Would you like to see experimental rules used for random games? Julian and I are kind of on the same page. We're like, yeah, we, we think it's a pretty good idea. Obviously, there's some, some, you know, things to work out. But I think on the whole, we, we think it's great and make it, make it fun. So hit us up.

Drop a note in the comment section of the podcast. You know, we need to fill up that comments. Like that, the Tuesday crew just dominates it. And they're like, look at us. And no, go in there, hit us up and, uh, and drop some comments in there. Okay. That's what we're asking our listeners as we wrap it up. Hey, man, this was fun.

Like it's always great when you sit in. I hope, again, our listeners can get a sense of your, you know, your talents and your passion for hockey because it certainly comes through on my end. So listen, man, thanks for sitting in for this week. And I'm sure as Haley gets into the playoffs and the flames maybe go deep, we might be needing you to keep loose in the on-deck circle. Oh, yeah, for sure. My arm is constantly rotating. just waiting for that second opportunity or third or how many times I've done the Monday show with you

to get back in it, man. In all seriousness, man, just always happy to fill in whichever show, especially with you, you know, the consummate professional that you are. So yeah, man, say the word.

I'll be there. All right. By the way, I thought I was teeing you up as a pinch hitter and like on the on deck circle, but you started loosening up your arm like I was summoning you from the bullpen. So which is it?

Okay, I'm a deep. I mean, I could call me Shohei Otani. I could hit and pitch. There we go. I love it. I love it. All right. Hey, thanks, everybody.

Hope you had a lot of fun listening to this Monday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a rating and review. We certainly would appreciate that. Subscribe to the Athletic Audio Plus. Apple podcast, get all the bonus content from our entire network. You're going to start with a 30-day free trial. And then it's just 99 cents a month after that.

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