The Athletic Hockey Show - VGK raise their Stanley Cup banner: can they repeat?, DGB’s oddly specific NHL season predictions, Vezina Trophy favorites, This Week in Hockey History, and more

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

On today’s episode of The Athletic Hockey Show, Ian and Julian talk about the start of the regular season, Scott Laughton pushing back against the NHL’s Pride-themed stick tape ban, and are then joined by The Athletic’s own Sean McIndoe to discuss Connor Bedard’s first point in a Blackhawks comeback win, DGB’s oddly specific predictions for the NHL season, This Week in Hockey History, and more.Plus, the guys welcome Jesse Granger to the show to discuss the Vegas Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup rings and banner raising ceremony, expectations for this season in Vegas, and some Vezina Trophy predictions.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Here we go. It is a Wednesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. It's Ian Metis, Julian McKenzie with you. We can finally say it. The regular season is underway. Three games under our belt. Wee.

Thank God. Preseason, you know, nice to have had it when we had it. But it's time for real games. The flames begin tonight. the senators are also playing tonight. All the Canadian teams are getting in on the action today. Are the Habs and Leaves playing?

I don't know. I haven't seen anything. Yeah, I have no idea of the Habs and Leif for playing. Actually, now that I say that, I have not seen any hype about it. I don't know if any journalists are talking about it. Is it even a rivalry at this point? It's not. It's not. I got to ask you, what did you think of the Vegas Golden Knights

had their Stanley Cup banner unveiling ceremony, and they did it in the most Vegas way ever. a lot of pomp and circumstance, a lot of sizzle. What did you think of the way they pulled that off last night? So for people who didn't see, they had a makeshift slot machine, and they had a player, like, pull the lever down. And then you see, like, on the slots, it comes up with three Stanley Cups. And then the banner gets raised.

It was Stone, right? It was Mark Stone, who pulled the lever. I think it was Mark Stone, yeah. Like, that's one of the coolest things I've seen. You know, I am amazed at the end-game. presentation that Vegas has and I get it. Vegas is leading into the glitz and glamour that it has. But that is one thing that hockey misses so much in terms of just how they present the game

to fans. Like I love the, I love the idea that in any other sport, the in-game experience matters and fans go off in a certain way and have all these chance. And teams lean into this personality that is very much like their city. and for a team like Vegas to do that, I thought it was really cool and I think it should be celebrated. And I hope that, you know,

if the league decides to expand, which eventually it will, I hope that more teams take notice of this and just lean into being more of a one of one and not just being this totally traditionalist outfit. I love what Vegas did with the banner and I've loved what they've been able to do in terms of, you know,

just personalizing their in-game experience for fans. It's amazing. Okay, so tell me if you like this idea. Again, big reason why we have this podcast is just to spitball ideas and see if they'll actually work in the real world. And people take it. People take to it. We appreciate that too. San Jose has their home opener Friday night.

Sorry, yeah, I believe it's Friday night. They're actually playing Vegas. Now, maybe to indicate that they're like kind of, say, Setting the expectations for the season for San Jose. What if they come out with a slot machine and Logan Couture pulls it and it's like it's all lemons? So it's like, we're in for a rough ride this year. And it's like you set the expectations, right? I was thinking more like you pull out an actual shark tank and you have it in the middle of the ice.

But I mean, maybe a slot machine pulling out lemons is a lot safer and really tugging cheek a good shot at the other team too, but these teams have money. Owners can go bigger than that slot machine. It could be different. I still think a shark tank would be a great idea that would absolutely not result at any casualties or any controversies on the ice.

Absolutely not. S.J. Sharky is the mascot, right? Yeah, SJ Sharky. That's Chris Jontz's friend. Yeah. You ever see that photo? I'm only mentioning CJ because you know. But like CJ has that photo with Sharky. You ever see that photo? from a couple years ago.

I don't think so. So there's a hilarious, like, it was like a little bit of a meme in the hockey community a couple years ago where like CJ is like doing like a hit for, for, I think it was with sports at the time. And like SJ. Sharky is like kind of like hovering behind him. Just, you know, like how sharks can get and all that. And I believe they eventually met up and you see CJ like kind of like open his mouth.

Like, ah, like I'm having fun with Sharky. And Sharky like literally like opens his mouth. It looks like he's about to bite him. That's like a pure wholesome. wholesome thing for me. I, I, did you just say, like,

you know how sharks, how sharks can be? Like, you know that this is a mascot, right? Like, you know how, yeah.

I used to help a shark. Do you, do you feel safer around sharks? Do you, are you brave all of a sudden? I've never seen one, like an actual shark in real, me neither.

In real life. Outside of the, what's that overpriced aquarium? Yeah. Ripley's aquarium in Toronto. Yeah. Um, I used to have a,

great rivalry. When I did TV, and I used to be a rinkside reporter for sports to head. And every time I would go to Pittsburgh, I had a great fun. And I will emphasize obviously unspoken rivalry, because he couldn't speak with the Pittsburgh Penguins mascot, Iceberg.

Like this guy into my shot while I was on TV. He would kind of stare me down. But I felt like there was like a real professional understanding between us. We never spoke. But I felt like there was a mutual respect. there after like ottawa and pittsburgh used to play in the playoffs all the time but i had a great rivalry going with the guy or the girl whoever played iceberg under the costume we had some cool i love having a rapport with a mascot when i was in montreal and i would see uh upe walk along the press

box i would love to just kind of just give him give him some dab you know like get some props in try to get some kind of handshake going i i it's always cool even when i went back last year, you know, just a little homecoming game for me. I saw UPy. YouP showed me love, man. Like I love doing that. I haven't been able to really establish that rapport with Harvey the Hound because he doesn't hang around.

The infrastructure at the Scotia Bank Saddle Dome is very different compared to other arenas obviously, but Harvey the Hound doesn't make his way towards the reporters. I think I only saw him in person for the first time maybe like three, four weeks ago at the Flames Golf Tournament. And he was like hanging out outside

outside the course and like me and another reporter were just like just hang you know with Harvey man like it but you know I would like to befriend Harvey a little bit more you know I want more of a rapport with with different mascots I don't know if I want a rivalry like you but I think mascots are are nice people and they're worth getting to know if you let them have the chance okay I'm just going through a lot of mascot talk for this show I'm just going through the rundown of our show I'm just going to cross off personal connections to mascot thought now that we've gotten through that.

We've gone in deep. Hey, we talked about the NHL's decision to not allow players to wear a pride-themed tape on Tuesday's pod. And obviously, as the way that the news cycle goes, there's been some developments here. Let's start with this. And I think we talked about this yesterday, if I'm not mistaken, I feel like this was on the pod, but maybe it was just a conversation we're having. Now I can't even remember.

But we were saying at some point, a player is going to push back. Someone's going to just wear the tape. And I think I said Scott Lotton would be my pick. I can't remember if I said it on the air or not. We did mention Scott Lodden a lot because of what he and James Van Riemstike had done meeting with members of the LGBTQ community, pretty much on the same night as the Ivan Proveroff thing came to light. Scott Lotton tells reporters in Philadelphia today, the Flyers play the jackets in their regular season opener tomorrow. Scott Lotton tells reporters, quote, you'll probably see me with the pride tape on

that night anyway, if they want to say something, they can. That night being the Flyers Pride night, which I believe is scheduled for the back half of the season. But there you go. We were wondering if and when an NHL player would say, yeah, I'm going to go ahead and do it. Scott Lotton says, yeah, I'm going to go ahead and do it. And it's kind of funny that yesterday we're slowly starting to see the reactions

and the more we see players react to this, the more direct it seems. there's another quote I'll read out. This actually came from John Merrill up in Minnesota. I'm just going to read this tweet off from our buddy Joe Smith. If anyone does it, what is the league going to do? Take me off the ice, give me a penalty. Then you look bad as a league.

I don't know. It's upsetting. Just disappointing. And it speaks to something that I know for sure I brought up yesterday. We thought it was really weird that players would try to step up and say, hey, we don't want to do this, I didn't think it was far-fetched that players would push back. And I know people have been wondering if the NHLPA co-signed on this with regards to the memos and changes, I'll tell you this, judging off some of the reactions from players, you can't tell me this was a fairly

unanimous choice to let this go. No, and I will, for transparency sake, say it's been about 24 hours since I've done. reached out to the NHLPA for an official comment on it. I will, I'll acknowledge that I've been in contact with them. We've traded notes, but nothing has been given to me in terms of, hey, here's a formal statement. Here's the answers to your questions. So at this time, I would say that they've been reluctant to weigh in.

They haven't weighed in. Is that a function of, you know, what's going on behind the scenes? Is that they just want to make sure they get this right? I don't know. I thought it was really interesting. I saw you put this out earlier today, Anthony Duclair, of now of the San Jose Sharks, saying, hey, don't forget, while this also impacts Pride Night,

let's skip ahead to February, let's talk about Black History Month. You know, last year, I can't remember it was last year, Julian or two years ago, and I have a lot of time for Anthony. I got to know him in Ottawa, one of the most genuine players I've gotten to know, very well-spoken, very passionate about social issues.

And I remember doing a story with him about he got to wear custom willy-o-ree skates. Bauer put them together, 2021, somewhere in that neighborhood. Well, I think it's fair to say, like, now you can't wear that, right? Like, the NHL has said anything on your equipment stick, skates, whatever, you can't have anything that would have a message to it. So you're also now saying you can't have willy-o-re skates. what are we doing here? It's stupid. Yeah, it's funny. I had thought about that before I came across the Anthony Duclair quote, which I'll give a shout out to Shang Peng of San Jose Hockey now. He wrote the story and I just quote tweeted the quote. And it's very much lost in all of this. Obviously with pride, with the tape, it's a very visible event that has marked, it's been marked on the end.

calendar for quite some time. But Black History Month is something that the NHL in the last four or five years, that's something they've very recently started to acknowledge and we see teams go out of their way to have their own specialty jerseys for that. And the skates thing, yeah, you're absolutely right. I remember writing about that for another outlet a couple of years ago. But the fact that that stuff like Black History Month is lost in the back of this, we should not forget about that. And it just goes to show that this change in in philosophy is, I don't agree with it. And there are players that don't agree with it.

And I really wonder if the NHO will change course on this. Because I think they're eventually going to have to realize that they're going to get more or more bad PR as a result of this. And if players push back, maybe they'll be forced to change. I don't know. I get that the culture of the sport or maybe some people look at the players and they think, oh, they're not strong enough to fight back. they just want to fall in line. And there's some guys who generally don't want to rock the boat.

But I really wonder, I'm inclined to be optimistic with Scott Lawton's comments and Anthony Duclair's comments as well. Now John Merrill adding to this, there have been other players who have spoken out as well and expressed disappointment. I want to say I'm optimistic that there will be more pushback and not just towards efforts to repress pride, but for other events as well. Yeah. No, it's going to be fascinating to watch how.

this plays itself out as John Merrill says, what are you going to do? Right? You're going to find me? What are you going to do? Seriously. It's a bad PR move if they find them. It's a terrible bad look. They do that. Right. Yeah. Sorry, not to catch you off. Yeah. No, no. The league that was so resistant to saying Black Lives Matter, the league that is so resistant to all of these things, this is really, you know, it doesn't come as a huge surprise, but, but we just wanted to tip our hat to Lottin in particular and just say that, you know, like I did the story. I just put the story up now and speaking to a couple of experts in the field about allyship, Julian, they said, look, now you're actually going to find out who the real

allies are because it's going to take work. It's going to take a lot of work. And it's not just about taping the top of your stick or using it on the blade of your stick. It's, I got to actively seek this out now. So it's going to be a fascinating season to watch that unfold. And I don't think that that story is going away anytime soon. Let us bring in our pal.

Better known as Down Goes Brown. Sean McIndoo is with us. And look at this. He's all excited to be in video form. Obviously, this is an audio podcast, but also we have a video version available here on YouTube. Yeah, I'm super excited. about that. Really enjoyed that while I was two minutes before I came on, I was sprinting upstairs

going, I got to run a brush through my hair or something. It's great. It's really good. Listen, it's great to have you here. And look, I loved your tweet from last night when you said this, and I'm going to paraphrat. I don't have the tweet in front of me, but your tweet was essentially after Chicago beat Pittsburgh, your tweet was, wow, that was the most painful loss for Pittsburgh against Chicago since the last one. Yeah. Maybe the people should just stop hosting the Blackhawks for games. Because the last time we saw these two teams was arguably, in hindsight, the most important game of the entire season.

Because that was the game that Pittsburgh went in. They held the hammer as far as making the playoffs. Win out and you're in and they're playing bad teams, including the Chicago Blackhawks, a team that was openly tanking for Connor Bedard. they go in, they blow that game. That ends up costing the Penguins a playoff spot. Florida gets in instead.

We all know what they went and did in the playoffs. And then, oh, by the way, because of those two points, Chicago doesn't finish last, but they end up finishing in the right spot to win the lottery and get Connor Bedard. It was a big one. And I don't think last night's going to be remembered maybe quite as important in the grand scheme of things. But it'll be a memorable game too because it was,

it was very cool to see some new stars and some big stars in new places. Connor Bardard got his first NHO point off of that, right? Like literally Pittsburgh not getting the job done costs them in the future too. That assist he got like kickstarted a comeback for Chicago in that game. Yeah, exactly. And look, I mean, not exactly the highlight real Connor Bedard offense that we're going to, that we're looking forward to and that we're going to see a ton of times this year. but not bad, you know, not bad for a kid going into a tough building against a team that

would have been a heavy favor. Yeah, get the, get the offense going, get things moving and show that, hey, the Chicago Blackhawks, none of us think they're going to be very good this year. I don't think they think they're going to be very good this year, but you can be a bad team and still be a tough team to play against. And they sort of sent a message last day, look, there's no nights off against Chicago Blackhawks this year. And if you think it's going to be an easy one, even if we're down a couple of goals, you know, we're not going to back off.

And at the end of the year, if the record's no good and the draft pick is high, hey, Kyle Davidson will probably take that. But you just see it a little pushback from his team. He probably enjoyed that, I'm guessing. Let's get to your oddly specific prediction column, which is a lot of fun, where you go through every team in the NHL,

so all 32 teams get a hyper-specific prediction. Now, some of them... We can just say it's hyper-specific. It's too much. Too much. Okay. So now some of them are pretty cool. Like, some of them are of the point where you're like,

okay, I think Jack Hughes is going to win the heart trophy. So, you know, it's like big picture stuff that, that, and then you have some that are such, like, they're so specific on a date or what a guy's going to do or this. I think for Ottawa, you said Dominic Kubalik is going to score like October 21st. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't know that.

Sorry. Spoiler alert. Very specific prediction. Anybody can do. And I'm not knocking the people who do predictions. I love them. I sit here and devour every prediction column, every team that's doing their 10 bold predictions and that sort of thing.

I'm in. But it's one thing to predict, oh, this guy's going to hit this milestone. or, you know, this guy's going to get to the... That's great, but... Nice work on the Superbuzzle. That's a great addition. For those who are not watching on YouTube, thanks to our production team for adding a ticker

that the bottom says, Breaking Deuce. Dominic Kubolik will score October 21st. Can we add to the ticker as well? Jacob Markstrom will shut up the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 18th. Just go through the prediction list. credit I can do though. Okay, I don't want this to be one of these things where the aggregators get a hold of it. And suddenly all my scoops are.

Damn aggregators. They keep taking the content. Anybody can just say somebody's going to get to a milestone. Somebody's going to do this or that. It takes a special kind of idiot, let's just say, to get so specific that you pick the exact date that it's going to happen or the game that it's going to happen or the circumstances. And I'll be honest. people ask me every time this column goes out, they go, do you ever get any right?

Not many. I'll be real honest with you. I mean, this is, I'm drilling down really specific here. Yeah, most of them, at the end of the year, I'll do sort of a dive in and I'll say, look, man, here's the ones I was wrong. Here's the ones I was maybe a little close. Here's the ones I was really, really wrong.

But every now and then, I do get one right. And I got a streak of a couple years of getting, you know, real long shots. where I called not just something that was unlikely to happen, but got the exact day that it was going to happen. So I'm feeling a lot of pressure. Yeah, it was the shutout, right? Well, this all started, and this was even before I was doing this column,

was the Jacob Markstrom shutouts. I've been summoning those for years, including this was going back six years ago now. I wrote a piece, and I said, Jacob Markstrom is closing in on the record for the longest streak without a shutout in his career because he was like 120 games in and didn't have a shut out. He got a shut out that night. And that was where I sort of say, because I had ended to call him saying, hey, we all know what's going to happen tonight, right? He's getting the shutout. But no, I'll give you the two that I've had in the last couple of years, just give people a sense. Last year, I was looking at the stats. I love digging into the stats and finding weird stuff

to inspire this. And I found that the LA Kings, two seasons ago, were the only team that went the whole year without a misconduct. So I said, okay, this year, they're going to get one. They're going to get one misconduct penalty, which, you know, that'd be an okay prediction on its own. But no, no. And I said, they're going to do it on Dustin Brown number retirement night. Pittsburgh Penguins are in town. That's the night that the Kings are going to get their one misconduct penalty of the year. And people will remember that game because that was a game where Sidney Crosby got kicked

out of that game. And it was the first time in his entire career he had ever been ejected. But on the way out, he got a misconduct. And so did somebody on the LA Kings. So I nailed that one. That was pretty impressive, but I don't think anything will ever top two years ago where I looked at the numbers and I realized that a guy named Joel Hanley, he's a defensive defenseman, seventh defenseman on the Dallas Stars. And he was the leader. He was like 60, 70 games in his career, had never scored a goal.

And he was the current active leader among NHL players. Most games played without a goal. And I said, he's getting the goal this year. and he's going to get it in his 100th game. So I didn't call the date, but I said, whenever night he plays his 100th game, get ready because it's Joel Hanley goal night.

And sure enough, and I'll be honest, I forgot about it. And then just one night, my Twitter was blowing up with Dallas Stars fans. And I was going, what the heck is going? What if I done to get on the radar

of the Dallas Stars fan base? And they were going nuts because Joel Hanley had just, in his 100th game, had just scored the goal. which I think to this day is the only regular season goal he's ever scored in game number 100. Sean Stradamus should be your name. I mean, I'm telling you, throw some spoiler tags on these.

There's a good chance something in there is going to be right or not. So you got the script. Delete this footage and we'll never show it to anyone. So you got the script for the NHL season then, right? Like we're all into scripts now. Everything's rigged. I help write it. They've reached out to me and they're like, look, can you?

If you do, you know, he got any tips, you know, what should we do? I'm always going like, hey, can we maybe change the Maple Leafs ending this year? It feels a little predictable. And they're like, no, you know, we're going to stick with that one. But maybe some other things you want to hit us up. You know, I help out. I do what I can. You know, me and Gary, we're tight.

We're like that. Oh, man. I do love, I love the NFL. Yeah, it's fun, right? The ad campaign with the script stuff because it's, you know, it leans into the fact that people think the games are rigged. So it's a ton of fun. But I, you know, I think that you should do a, like, you should do a spoo.

Wait, you did, did you not do one of these? I feel like now I don't know, we should do a whole segment. Was it a real story or down goes brown story or just a fever dream? Or a dream. Or was it something I just pitched you over beers like one night. Or I was like, hey, I'm going to write something like a script of a season or. I never did a script of a sea. I used to have a running gag where I was.

I had my spies would infiltrate things around the suspension hearings or meetings or that sort of thing. And they would report back on a transcript. Gary Batman holds a lot of parties. He did back in the day. I guess he does it anymore. I haven't that the spies have been, they've been on strike for a while now. But if I can get that settled, yeah. If I get any more inside scoops, I might go and do that.

So we got opening, we had opening night last night. And there was three games on the docket. Today's a lot busier with a handful of games. every Canadian team is in action. We joked about the fact that it hasn't been a lot of buzz around Toronto, Montreal, but there is. Zero. It's a good talking point of this one.

Who plays more games in goal for Toronto this season? Samsonov or Wall? Well, I mean, Samsonov is definitely the plan. And something will have gone wrong if it's Wall. I mean, he's a decent problem. prospect. And, you know, he's a good young kid and a cheap kid, which is important for that Leafs team, especially if you're talking a backup goal. You don't want to be spending a ton on that as, as they learned last year. So I think he's got a real shot to have an impact. And we, you know,

we saw in the playoffs last year when they needed them, they felt okay to turn to him. I think the plan has got to be, hey, Samsonov's got to be our guy. Maybe not that 60, 65 game mark, but he's got to be our 55 game guy. And we've got Barton Jones waiting in the wings if it doesn't work out. I will say, man, there's a lot of people look at the Maple Leafs. And when I see them projecting ahead, a lot of people just seem to skip over the goaltending. And look, Ilyos Simsonov was very good last year.

He was better than expected. He played quite well, played well enough in the playoffs. The numbers weren't great. But, hey, he out played Andre Vasselowski. and, you know, so he was a good story. He wasn't phenomenal. And it's, he wasn't so good that I feel like you just write off that, hey, the Maple Leafs are all set in goal. You look around the league, I mean, there's 20 teams that aren't set in goal.

So it's not the end of the world. But boy, you know, as soon as you ask that question, you start thinking, well, what would have to happen for not to be Samsonov? And then you go, well, I mean, all that would really have to happen is he'd have to play like you did with the capitals. And if that happens, what's, what does, how does that spiral down? in Toronto, a market that I'm sure you guys are aware is very chill right now and absolutely going to totally react fine if they go and lose to Montreal or lose a couple games early. Oh, yeah. Since we are on the subject of the Leafs, I want to ask you, I have two questions.

I'll go with this first one. How do you feel about the goal song? Where do you stand on the debate when it comes to hauling notes? Like I've seen people throughout this preseason seem to be wondering aloud. if there's going to be a change. I don't know if there was ever anyone who genuinely suggested there was going to be a change. I was in one of my group chats today, someone noticed an Instagram post from Justin Bieber with the Maple Leaf logo.

And he said he was looking forward to hearing some haul of notes. And some people are wondering if this is a very, very sly way of the Leafs announcing that they're actually going to switch it to a Justin Bieber song. Like, what are your thoughts on the goal song? What are your thoughts on the fact that it's such a big talking point around the NHO role? You're going to have to, excuse me, Jill, I'm a little confused. You're suggesting changing something in Toronto? Why mess with success, man?

It's working. I mean, you keep the core, you keep the coach, you keep all the strategies. You don't keep the GM. You keep the goal. Well, you want to keep the GM until the GM mumbles something about missing his family. And then, yeah, then he's gone. How dare you miss your family? You keep everything.

and so I guess you keep the goal. I mean, I think I'm like everyone when I first saw them doing that goal song years ago. I was like, oh, okay, that's cute. They're sort of doing it. But it's ironic and I get it. I could certainly see changing it up. I wouldn't mind that. Let's just say I feel like of all the things that you can change about a hockey team,

this has got to be pretty much the easiest. But they're sticking with it. And man, it's on brand, right? refusing to change when the entire fan base is like we are begging you to change something. That's very on brand for the Maple Leafs these days. Do you have a suggestion? You know what? You're asking me that.

I can see the terror on Ian's face because he knows my taste in music. No, I don't have any good suggestions. It would probably just be some other like 80s or 90s pop song. I know nothing about what is popular now. and as my kids would probably tell you. And all I know from my kids' music is all you got to do to make a hit song these days is take a song that already exists and I speed it up or slow it down. And that's considered a new song.

So how about this? Paul and Oates sped up. Is that, how does that work? New gold song, new year, new us. What do you think? Master remixed a little bit. Okay. I mean, yeah.

I'm not opposed to. I mean, I don't really care at the end of the day. but yeah. It's a big issue. My 16 year old went to a concert last night that I know Sean has never heard of this artist, but I feel like maybe Daniel Caesar. Daniel Caesar.

Yep. See, Sean's like me. I only know Daniel Caesar from my kids. And I'm like, Julian knows Daniel Caesar for sure. I have a friend of mine. If that, if it's related at all. But no, I don't. Daniel Tiger?

I've heard of Daniel Powder. but not Daniel Tiger. Remember Daniel Powder? Yeah. Yeah. I think we find we've, I think we just found like we just went two out of three on each of those references. Yeah. So yeah, that's. We found the, the middle of the Venn diagram. We're trying to find a unified theory of Daniel. We're trying to find one that all three of us will know, but we're not, we're not there yet. I'm open to suggestions. Oh, man. Hey, I do want to chat with you guys about some news out of New Jersey where Lindy Ruff has agreed to a multi-year extension. Sean, let's go back a year. It was October of 2022.

Fire, Lindy, right? That's all we heard. Fire, Lindy. And now they've, like, imagine going back to middle of October last year and saying, just so, you know, a year from now, the devils are going to be a Stanley Cup kind of dark horse contender. And Lindy Ruff is going to be getting a multi-year extension. So I ask you to look into the down goes brown crystal ball and look at it. and look at some situation now

and now think a year and a half be like, I can't believe this. And I know why you're bringing this up, okay? Like just to take it full circle and put a ball on that. In my oddly specific predictions last year, I predicted the exact game that Lindy Ruff would be the first coach fired in the NHO. And you remember Ian on the show,

you guys surfaced a clip of me. I guess I had in my predictions for the devils, I said, guys, we're sleeping on the devils. This could be a really good team. once Lindy Ruff has gone and Andrew Brunette's the coach, maybe they really respond well like the Panthers did. And so, yeah, it's, boy, what would be the one that you look at? Because I feel like, I mean, I feel like the number one coach on the hot seat right now is,

is DJ Smith. But that's also partly because of the ownership and the GM situation. Barubei? Craig Barrube. Although I, but again, like, I mean, the blues, I don't think they're going to be good this year, but if the blue surprised everyone. And Craig Barouba surprised everyone on a team that we thought was bad and turned them good. Hey, we've seen that one already.

Again, the script writers need to stop recycling plot lines. That was the whole main story arc of a few years ago. So, boy, what's one that we look at? You know who I'm, I feel like he's getting some, hey, heat's not the right word, some criticism outside of their market these days is Steve Eiserman. I know Detroit fans still buy. Outside the market, yes. Detroit fans seem to love the guy.

They trust him. And I get it. I mean, this is, it's Steve Eisenman. This guy is, he is hockey to a generation of Red Wings fans. But outside of Detroit, there's a lot of people going, man, the wheels are just spinning. You're seeing all these predictions where Detroit's seventh place in the Atlantic in every prediction. Everyone's talking about, is it going to be Buffalo or Ottawa or is Pittsburgh going to jump in and take that playoff spot? I, you know, the two that I'll say it, I'll stay out east for both of them.

Detroit being the team that makes the big job. instead of Buffalo and Ottawa would be one that I feel like, like New Jersey, we'd look back and go, we didn't see it, but maybe we should have, because there were the pieces there. Maybe we should have seen it. And then the other one, and you want to talk about the hidden in plain sight, you want to throw everybody off?

How about this, that last spot in the east, you know who gets it? The team that already has it, the New York Islanders, the team that everybody can't wait, get out of here so that we can put some new teams in there, get some new blood into the playoff mix, and we get to the end of the season, and there's Lou Lamarillo, once again got a team into the playoffs,

once again, and then we're all sitting there going, oh, right, they were a playoff team last year, and Barzell was healthy, and they had Bo Horvath for the whole year. Of course they were going to be better, and we all looked dumb for counting them out.

Those are my two predictions that aren't actually predictions, but I still want credit for them if they happen. But the fun thing with the islanders, too, is that there might be people who don't want to see the islanders in the playoffs, but they also have a genuine candidate for the Vesina in I'm Yelio Sororiken. Like people are, people are pitting him and Igor Shisterkin against each other for the Vesna this year. You can't have both.

You can't say, you know, the Islanders are going to suck and then say if Sororcahn's not going to be good. And I'll tell you right now, I can't, even though I've just kind of made an optimist case for the Islanders, I can't see the Islanders being a great team. I can't see them, you know,

running for the top of the division. But they get into the playoffs. You want to play the New York Islanders? You want to face Ilyos Sorokan, in the playoffs. All he's got to do is get hot for four games. No way. I don't want any part of it.

We saw what a hot goal he could do last year in the playoffs of Sergey Bobrovsky, who by the way, isn't even all that good anymore. Imagine Ilya Syrokin just going on a two-month hot streak in the playoffs. It might be game over for everybody else. Could happen. Let me ask you guys this question. It's a Vezna Trophy prediction. I'm going to give you two choices.

You can pick that the Vezna Trophy winner is going to play for a New York team. with the initials, I.S. Or you can take the field. What do you take? So it's got to be in New York team, because, I mean, you know, I'm I'm, I'm, Smsonov, I think, is the guy. But you're telling me, I can't, I can't take him unless he gets trade. Maybe he gets traded to the devils.

I'm taking the field because I, my pick is Jake Ottinger. I'm taking Jay, I think Jake Ottinger. I'm, I'm not all in. I'm a lot in on the Dallas Stars this year. I'm taking IS that. I'm taking in YIS. I like, I like. my chances that either Sororkin or Sir Sirkin

doing well enough to win the Bezana. I expect both well definitely the Rangers. I think the Rangers are going to be a playoff team this year. I expect to Sturkin to kind of rebound after a so-so last year. And Sir Rican's still on top of his game. I like my chances. I think both of them will be nominees for the

Vesana and then you could throw in I mean, I want to give UC Saros love. I just don't know if the National Predators are a playoff team this year. So someone else is going to have to be that third guy. I'm just picturing. the i dot a is i s i and then another i s where you're just going out of that little tail on the first eye and there you go j s you're all you're in yeah it's right you're in and that'll

be great for uh anyone who votes on the awards because uh you know we we never get confused about who should who should go where who we should vote for so never having all those guys never happened you know i know our goalie guru jessie granger is on deck here in a couple of minutes. But before we get to him, Sean, we love doing this week in hockey history. Yeah. And I want to do a couple of this week in hockey history with you guys because it's always fun. So we're going to go back October the 11th, 1924. The Boston Bruins and the Montreal Maroons are granted NHL franchises.

Now, we know that Seattle paid a cool $650 million to get into the NHL, a couple of years ago, guys, how much did the Bruins and the Maroons pay to get in in 1920? This week in 1924. I'm going to say, I'm going to say a hundred bucks, a slightly used fedora, and promising that their arena wasn't actively on fire at that moment. I will, since he guessed $100, I don't think my $1 bid will work out here. So I'll say $100,000 and the right. and the future rights to a cartoon somewhere down the line. Itchy and scratchy cartoon. 15,000 is the number. 1515, 15,000 they paid to get in.

I went over. Boy, that's it. Price is right rules, man. I'm sorry. That's right. He did try to go $1. I thought about it, but just it wouldn't have been enough. Yeah.

This one is weird to me too. And maybe Sean knows a little bit of backstory. I don't know a ton of it. But on this date, 1987, the longest Ironman streak at the time, Doug Jarvis ended at 964 games. Now, he doesn't play for, he's playing for Hartford. It's October the 11th, 1887. Doug Jarvis has played 964 games in a row.

Wailers are like, hey, man, streaks over. You're not playing tonight. The next day, they send him to the miners and he never plays again. Wow. It seems like a harsh ending. You go 964 in a row and then you never like you never play again. They've washed a clean of it. I guess they, I mean, they kept it going as long as they could. Doesn't it feel a little bit like a Phil Kessel situation where yeah, you know, they. That's exactly what I was thinking of. You get to that point in the streak and you're like, I mean, the guy needs a rest and we're playing back to back games. I should sit them. But I can't. I can't just be the guy who ends the streak. So you keep it going and going and going and going. And then at some point you go, all right, man,

you don't have the streak here. You're out. You're done. Did he get, do you have it there? Was he hurt or was it just a performance? It said, yeah, I think it was a performance. I think he did not dress for Hartford's 5-2 loss, October 11th, 1987 against the Bruins at the Boston Garden.

Jarvis was then sent to the minors and never played another game of the NHL. Yep. So I'm assuming he was healthy. He had, I mean, he, it's a name that I knew for a long time because he had that streak and, you know, had both the streak and that fantastic photo of him with the knight. Have you seen that one where he's in the Hartford Whalers Gear? And he's next to an actual iron man, like a guy in a suit of armor and they're like giving

each other the point, the finger guns. It's a classic bit of 1980s NHL marketing. Where was the picture of Phil Kessel with iron with. Robert Downey Jr. Right. I mean, you would think pointing hot dogs at each other. Like, how is this not getting done? How do we view that streak knowing that Kessel was just not a factor for the Golden

Knights in the playoffs last year? Like, if he gets to continue that regular season streak, like, it obviously counts. But like, I don't know if him not playing much of the playoffs matters all that much. I think we all understand that he, you know, towards the end wasn't much of a player. of anything if you're going to question the castle streak remember the one game where he and this was i think before he broke the record uh and and he was having a they were having a baby that night and they they had him go out get dressed yeah take one shift and then get out of there he got out that was one where you could look at and go wait you know wait a second this this isn't

um you know this this is not cow ripkin playing every inning of every game here but you know what hey this is iron man streaks are kind of weird anyways so it's uh I still to this day, boy, you talk about, you know, if you could go back in time and tell people, imagine going back to, you know, when Phil Castle was with Boston or early days in Toronto, early Toronto. You know that pudgy malcontent, that guy over there who looks winded all the time? And remember, when he got traded to Toronto, he was hurt. He didn't play for the first month because his shoulder was all messed up. And when he makes that first appearance for the leaves, if you went, this is game one of a streak that is going to break. the all-time record.

This guy is going to be the Iron Man. He's going to, and oh, by the way, he's also going to be a guy who probably should win the consmite down the line, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Mr. Clutch performer, Mr. Iron Man, Mr. Always There, Phil Kessel, of all people. Man, no, that's, it's wild. And we'll see if he ends up anywhere this season. Sean, as always, thanks for dropping by the Wednesday edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. And what do you got?

Do you have any fun columns you want to tease for later this week or early next week? You know, I do have one more pieces coming. Last week, we talked about it on the show last week, I had my prediction contest. Yes. I think you guys both put everything. I couldn't get back into fix mine, by the way, but that's another story. There's no fixing. I mean, you just stand by what you wrote.

You think Connor Halbuck's getting triggered. Yeah, that's exactly what I had in there. And I couldn't go out. What I've done is I've taken that. We're not going to worry about the contest side of it. But the nice thing about that is I get the, I get 2,000 different people giving me their opinions of what's going to happen in the season. And there's some interesting stuff in there. What teams do people actually believe in when they've got some skin in the game and what teams do people not believe in?

And especially what team, and I'll let you guess, but I'm not going to tell you, which team did almost nobody pick for any of the categories? Not for the good, not for the bad, not for the middle. the team that people just have no idea what to do with this team and wanted nothing to do with having them on any of their balance. Florida. St. Louis. Interesting picks. I'll tell you,

both of those teams were high up on the list, but you're going to have to wait until Friday to find out. Okay. Awesome. All right. That is a good tease. There we go. Yeah, exactly.

That is a great thing. All right. There goes Sean McAdoo. Down goes Brown. And I don't know. I don't think I did very well, Julian, on that prediction column. I know I did.

I had a Hellobuck as the guy that's going to get traded. And then a couple of days from I'll get to it. I'll get to it. Then I got inundated with having to write some stuff in and around the Pride tape stop. And I just didn't have time to get back in. So whatever.

I wrote mine a couple nights ago. And I'm trying to think of some of the answers off the top of my head. I know I think for the bonus one, I think that's the one we're supposed to pick. Who's going to win a hard trophy? I put Jack Hughes there. I put in a couple teams.

I try not to, there are some that I maxed out and tried to put as many teams as I could for each category. But there are some teams, some categories I thought, you know what? I'll show some restraint and keep it to like two or three. Yeah. I don't want to get any of these wrong. But I know I'll probably get some of these wrong. There's no way.

There's no way I'll get all for it. We were talking earlier in this show about the pomp and circumstance in Vegas and about who might be the Vezna Trophy winning goalie this season. Boy, I wonder if there would be another person to bring into the athletic hockey show that could hit on those two things. If only there was,

if only we had someone who could do that. What's up, guys? Ranger. What's going on, buddy? Oh, not much. A lot going on here in Vegas. It's been a busy couple of days. It was fun last night.

A party fitting of the city last night. They've been partying all summer and they ended it with a big one and a big win. So it was a fun night. Yeah. See, I'm so envious. I'm so envious because Jesse lives in like the town that's just, it's known for fun.

And I live in the town known for government bureaucracy. So I can only imagine our party is going to be just a bunch of people wrapped up in red tape. I think that's what's going to happen when the senators went. But, but hey, did you ever, have you had a chance? Those Stanley Cup rings were really cool. Have you had a chance to actually hold one and look in like, peek inside and see the little, like, that's a really cool Stanley Cup ring, if you want to explain that a little bit to the listeners. Yes, I was lucky enough to hold one. They had, so Laurent Bersois

obviously gets a ring. He's now in Winnipeg. He signed with the Jets over the offseason. So they hadn't shipped his ring to him yet. So the day after, the morning after, all the players got there, because they had a huge team dinner and gave out all the team rings. And the morning after they They had the guy who designed the rings and the jeweler who made the rings and they let us check out Lorenzoz in person. And first of all, even you see the pictures online and it's like, wow, this thing is gaudy. It's massive. When you see it in person, it's even bigger than you expect.

And then the heaviness to this ring. I mean, they joke like it's impractical. You can never really wear it. You really can't. I mean, this thing, like, I think you said it almost weighs a third of a pound. Wow. It's pretty insane. We tried to ask him how much they cost.

The answer is always priceless, of course. But they are selling a replica ring, like a limited amount for the very fortunate season ticket holders that can afford it for a low price of $75,000. So if the replica is $75,000, I can't imagine what one of those actual ring costs. It's pretty impressive. Like you mentioned, they open. And they're not the first team to do that. I think the Buccaneers rings did that when they won the.

the Super Bowl. There have been a couple teams that the top of the ring actually twist it and it comes off and it's got the rink inside. And so I was talking to players in the locker room the day after. And one of the coolest little details, there's so many little details, right? And like these rings, every number of diamonds has a meaning to it. Like everything on this thing has a meaning. They designed it with so much thought. One of the coolest little details that the players really like is so when you open it, it's got the ring and it's actually got like the lines on the ice painted. and they have little stars, the little like alternate logo for the Golden Knights, they have a star where they actually plotted each of the nine goals they scored against Florida

in the final game, in the clinching game. And like, I was talking to Nicholas Haig, who scored one of those goals. And I was like, so were you guys like looking at it as close as you could trying to find, like, the spot that was the goal you scored and just really cool little details like that. The players were so pumped to get them and they were blown away. Yeah, they're pretty cool. That's so cool. What other part of the ring that I don't know if I've seen with any other ring, but that top part you mentioned, I believe you could also wear it as a pendant. Like, if you were lucky enough to have one of those rings, fine, it's one thing to wear it on your finger. Would you genuinely wear that top part as a pendant? Yeah, I don't think I would. I'm not really a jewelry person. I, like, I've never worn a watch. I've never worn necklaces. I got married this summer and I even have a hard time. Like, anytime I'm doing anything active, I always want to take my wedding ring.

off because I'm just not even used to wearing that yet. So I'm not a jewelry person, but yes, it is cool that like the top part pops off and then it has a little thing that folds out and that you can run a chain through it so that it's a necklace. I saw lots of photos and social media posts. The wives and girlfriends of the players love the ability to wear the top of the ring as a necklace, another cool little new, I guess, addition to it. Yeah.

And Jesse, don't worry about it. Most guys don't like wearing their wedding rings. in Vegas. So you're totally, oh, like a Julian. Not like that. No, he didn't. No, he didn't.

Hey, Vegas kicks off the defense of their Stanley Cup, though, with a win. And kind of like what, like, obviously when you win the Stanley Cup, and I think the Avalanche went through this last season, there's a little bit of a, you know, maybe you lose a little bit of your edge or like there's a little bit of, it's tough, right? It's tough to get fired up and get back the same level you're at in May and June. What's the feeling around that team? right now defending Stanley Cup champions? What are the expectations?

Well, I mean, the expectation is to win it again. You talk to these players and they all, it's, we're going to do this again. But at the same time, they are willing to admit that the feeling is different. Like, I remember talking to William Carrier on the ice after they won the Stanley Cup, like that night. And he goes, he looks at me and he's like, I feel like I beat the video game. And like, do you play the video game anymore after that? Like, what do you do? Like, I did it.

Like, you've done it. And he literally said, he's like, I know we have a whole off season. And by the time the season comes, I'll probably feel differently. But right now, I feel like, like, you did it. Like, there's nothing else to do. You party all summer. You get to take the cup around your hometown. And William Carlson put it best.

Last night, we asked him about, like, does this feel any different? And he says, yes, I think there's a little less pressure to win because you've won. So the pressure of doing it. kind of goes away. But it was so much fun. And like that's what like like that summer was so much fun and it was so worth the the effort we had to put in that grind to get through four rounds. Like everything you have done your whole life to win that, you do it and you realize it's worth it. Like it's better than I thought it was going to be. And that is what drives you to do it again. So it's interesting because like they're they're fully willing to admit that yes, you do some of

the pressures off. Jack Eichol said the same thing. There's less pressure to win once. you've won. When you've never won one, there's always that, what if I retire without getting one? Like, that's the worst possible outcome, right? Once you have one, the pressure, that monkey's off your back. You no longer have to worry about that for the rest of your hockey bike. I won a cup. But it's so much fun. You finally experience it. You always imagine what it's going to be like, but once you actually do it, you realize this is awesome. We want to do it again. So I see a motivated team. I see a team that thinks they can win the cup again and want to win the cup again, but just it's a little bit different feeling.

You tell me if I'm wrong, but I feel like a lot of people are sleeping on this team to repeat again. Like immediately after Vegas won the cup, like we're still celebrating them on the ice. We're seeing odds for next season's cup winners. And like Vegas is not the favor to win. Colorado had better odds at winning the Stanley Cup, depending on who you look at.

I've seen sites say Colorado. I've seen people say Toronto has the best odds at winning the Stanley Cup this year. But there hasn't been that much change with the, with the Vegas roster. It's more or less the same team. They have everything you need to win a Stanley Cup. They've done it already.

What's holding them back from winning this whole thing again? Yeah, I agree with you that they are kind of being slept on. And not just like Edmonton in their own division, I think is probably the team most people are picking to win it all. And like we did our staff predictions that the athletic. Not one person picked Vegas to win at all. And that's partially just you don't want to pick like, right? Everybody wants to like pick the new team.

You don't want to just pick a repeat that. So I think that plays into it. But I think a lot of things. I think one part of it, one big part of it is Aden Hill, right? Like he was spectacular in the playoffs and he's third in Kahn-Smith voting. He was a huge part of why they won that Stanley Cup. And I think most fans around the league look at that and say, well, that's not going to happen again. Like it was a good run, but he's not that good.

I think he is very good. I don't know if he's 932 in the playoffs every year good, but Aiden Hill is a very good goalie. and this system is going to make him look even better than he is. Bruce Cassidy's zone defense keeps pucks to the outside. It makes the goalie's life easy, to put it simple. And I think one of my bold predictions for the Golden Knights is I think Aden Hill leads the NHL and save percentage this year. And I don't think he's going to be in the Vesnik conversation because he's only going to play half the games. It's going to be a very even split between him and Larembreswa.

But I think Aiden Hill's a very good goalie, and I think his stats are going to be inflated by a very good defense in front of him. And then the other thing that I think maybe is a reason why fans aren't picking, odds aren't picking the Golden Knights to win is last year in the regular season, they weren't elite, right? Like nobody picked them to win going into the playoffs last year. And a big part of that is their underlying metrics were not elite. They didn't have a great power play. But I think, like, Mark Stone missed all that time.

And this team's not the same when Mark Stone's not on the ice. And I didn't pick the Golden Knights to win the Cup going to the playoffs. And then I saw, oh my God, Mark Stone's playing. game one and he looks like Mark Stone. I immediately said, well, I wish I could pick again because with Mark Stone, this is absolutely a Stanley Cup contender. And now they have Mark Stone. He's healthy. He's had both those back surgeries. He says it felt better than he has in years. And last night, he was really, really good. He was doing Mark Stone things. He's so clever. He tricks the team, the other team into thinking they can make complete a pass that they absolutely can. And once he steals it

from you. It's in the back of your net before you even realize the mistake you made. He is so good, not only defensively, but that transition from getting the takeaway to creating offense before the other team can even turn back around and skate back towards their own net. So I think people are underrating Vegas because that cup run, they say, well, that was just a really hot streak of games. That's not how good they are. And we saw that in the regular season. But when Mark Stone is on the ice, the Golden Knights are one of the best teams in the the NHL. So I think this team absolutely can repeat, assuming they have help. They had a lot of luck last year in the playoffs. They were never hurt. Like every other than Lembera Swah getting hurt in

that and Aden Hill coming in. Outside of that, every player on the team was healthy throughout the playoffs. You've got to have that. That's kind of, I mean, that's the recipe for every team, right? So with a little bit of fortune and luck and health, I think this team can absolutely repeat. And that's the goal. You mentioned you think Aiden Hill might be the top goaltender where it comes the save percentage, but you don't necessarily think he's going to be a Vesna guy. So let's talk a little bit here as we wrap up with you about the Vesna Trophy. And I just posed this question to Julian and to Sean a second ago. I'm going to give you two options here.

You can take, to win the Vesna Trophy, you can take a goalie based in New York with the initials IS or you can take the field. Who you take? Give me the New York goalies. I like the two Russians in New York. They are studs. I will say Jake Ottinger is just like he's right up there with them. I think those three are the clear-cut favorites to win.

If one of those three doesn't win, I'd be surprised. I think that they are the three probably the most talented goalies in the league and they're in good situations. And to me, when you look at the two Russians in New York, I think it's very interesting because their situations are very different in terms of the tandem. them they're playing in. And I, to be honest with you, I'm not sure which one is a better situation in terms of trying to win the Bessna. I think, so you look at I'm Ilya Serochaun in Long Island, and he's got Semyon Verlamov, who to me is the best backup goalie in the NHL. He's, he's a great goalie, first of all. He's perfectly fine in the role he's in, right? Like, sometimes you don't want too good of a backup goalie because, okay, we're going to put

pressure on our starter that we don't need. Like, we don't need him looking over his shoulder. whereas with Berlamov, because he's so close with Sorokin, because he is where he is in his career, the tail end, he is perfectly content being Ilya Seroquen's backup and being awesome at it. And you can play him as much as you want and he can play as well as he wants with no threat to the starter, which to me is like there isn't a more perfect goalie situation in the league than what the islanders have. Because of how good they are, the dynamic between the two, it's perfect. but does that hurt Seroquin in the Bezinnik conversation because he's not going to get as many starts because they have the luxury of playing Verlamov whenever they want.

And then you have Shasturkin for the Rangers where Jonathan Quick, look, the guy's had a phenomenal career. He's a Hall of Famer. At his best, he was spectacular. He isn't anymore. Statistically, he's been one of the worst goalies in the entire NHL for quite a while now. It's been a few years that he hasn't been very good. And my concern with Shisterkin is that if Quick doesn't play well, are they going to lean too heavily on him and play him 65 games? And that could be good for the Vesner, right? If he plays 65 games, he's so good. He's going to put up good numbers. That's probably a Vesna right there. It might hurt you when you get to the playoffs and you're worn down. But so yeah. So like to me, the Vezna conversation between those two is so fascinating because it's so they're in such different circumstances. I think Shisterkin's got a lot more on his shoulders to carry that.

team than Seroquin does. But that could help him in the Ves in a conversation. Yeah. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's one of, to me, it's one of the great debates to have is if you have one game to win, who do you take? And by the way,

Andre Vazolevsky is on his back saying, don't forget about me somewhere there too. So it's a great debate, a great topic. And hey, listen, we're looking forward to having you on a regular basis in the season ahead. Thanks for for dropping by the Wednesday pot. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys.

Looking forward to it. There he goes. Jesse Granger, covering the team that just basically always makes the playoffs, and they missed it one year, and they followed it up with the Stanley Cup. Meanwhile, the rest of the fan bases are like, we just want one trip to the finals,

and this guy, it's like, he's had one bad year. Yeah, I wonder, I think about that, where, you know, how much do fan bases look at, Vegas with envy because from day one their MO has seemingly been to win the Stanley Cup at all cost. We've seen the video of Bill Foley saying it was like a seven year plan or however long to get them to a position where they can win the cup and pretty much since day one it's all about winning the Stanley Cup and they succeeded. They've been to two Stanley Cup finals. There are teams who have not touched the playoffs in about like a decade or less time or teams.

or teams that have not been remotely as competitive. And remember when the social media feed was as snarky as it was, I think it's changed a little bit now, and we were talking about the slot machine. Vegas has a different way of doing things. And I wonder how much if fans are still a bit envious of that organization for the success and the way they've gone about. Well, listen, I'm going to have to stop it there,

only because as we were with Jesse Granger there, Remember I told you earlier in the show, I was trying to get a hold of the NHLPA. And then they were, they were phoning me back. And I was like, I can't leave the middle of the podcast. Can I? I could, could I? Should I have left the podcast? If a source calls in the middle of a pod, what's the, what's the protocol?

This is a live show now. I can't just just say, hey, guys. Well, thank God. Thank God we have two hosts for this. So if it comes to a point where, you know, I have to hold down the fort while you take the phone call, I could do it. You know, I'll talk to DGP, I'll talk to Brach. Yeah. We'll be right back after these important messages.

Oh, man. Anyway, so yeah, I have to try and get a hold of them and see, maybe there's something there. Maybe I'm going to have another story to write. Yeah, I got to say, man, you've done a great job covering the story between your pieces today and yesterday. So just want that said before we wrap up today. Great job on your coverage when it comes to Pride Night and Hockey team.

Yeah, listen. I appreciate that. And we're going to have, it's Sean Gentilly, Haley, Halvian. Hey, in these seats tomorrow.

Friday, is that, are they still a Friday show? And, and Boltman, too. Max Bolman's part of it. Max.

Yeah. Yeah. Gentilly Salvian Boltman. Three-headed monster. That's a pretty good, it's a Thursday show with, it's a Thursday show with Friday vibes. Yeah.

I get that fine. I like that. We're telling them that's your tagline. It's a good, like, first line. Like, if any, any team had a first line of Gentilly, Salvia, and Boltman, like, that's, you could build a contender off that. I feel like Gentilly might be the softest of the three, though. Oof, you said that.

You said that, not me. You agree. You said that, not me. Don't put that on me. Do not put that on me with Sean Gentile. They'll be back. And then you and I, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays, and again,

down goes Brown, Jesse Granger, Mike Russo, they'll all be dropping in, Laz as he did yesterday. So we're going to just have a jam-pack schedule coming up. So it's you and me again on Monday. I'm looking forward to it, man. Let's do it on Monday. And again, like I said,

Gentilly, Boltman, Salvia. Coming your way. Thursday, I want to remind you that you can follow us on YouTube at YouTube. dot com slash at the athletic hockey show. A lot of content going up there. This, including this, live. This is why you can't run away and take a phone call from the NHLPA

because this is like really live for real. So that's what. But you can also follow us on the old school podcast. And when you do that, leave us a rating and review. We would appreciate that. Again, Thursday show coming up tomorrow. Julie and I are back on Monday.