The Athletic Hockey Show - Why the Maple Leafs should sell on the season

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

With the Maple Leafs winless on their 5 game home-stand and 8 points out of a playoff spot, Sean, Frank and Sean ask if it is time for the Maple Leafs to sell, and if Brad Treliving should be overseeing the reboot? The guys praise the Buffalo Sabres, currently on a 19-3-1 heater, the Devils finally clearing cap space, sending Ondřej Palát to the Islanders and Isls GM Mathieu Darche, who continues to tweak his playoff bound team. Plus, they check in on Cole Caufield, Jason Robertson and Alex DeBrincat, three of the top five American born goal scoring leaders this season, who remain on the outside looking in, at an Olympic roster spot.Hosts: Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoeWith: Frankie CorradoExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Jeff DometTake our listener survey: http://theathletic.com/survey26Watch The Athletic Show every Saturday on Amazon Fire TV and every Sunday on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@athleticshowWatch full episodes of The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowJoin our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VTm9VjkFSubscribe to The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/hockeyshow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show. What up, what up? The Athletic Hockey Show for January 28th, 2026. We are recording this, boys, in the PM on January the 27th, 26. It's our first night record of the season. And it is taking place on a particularly fortuitous evening, is it not? We'll start. I almost said the local game.

It might as well be with you, you too. Buffalo 7, Toronto 4 closes out a 04-1 road trip, or homestand, rather, for the Leafs. We'll talk about the Sabres later, but as always, we need to ask the question. DGB, let's start with you. What does this mean for the Toronto Maple Leafs? Tonight's game doesn't mean anything, but the homestand means it's a home stand means it's a over. It's done. They, to their credit, had fought back into the playoff mix with a strong, you know, a strong month, I guess, since the Christmas break, maybe a little less than that.

But they had run off the sort of stretch they needed to get back into it. and then they blew all that in a five-game homestand in which they lost all five, four in regulation, really four blowouts almost, including the Friday night game, which was their biggest game of the regular season, just as far as the fan base goes with Mitch Martyr coming back, where they just didn't show up. I mean, just seemed confused that there was a game going on.

The sort of performance that you just, you see that and you go, oh, okay, they're done. And then Colorado, I mean, I don't know if anyone from the Colorado Avalanche even showered after that game, they probably didn't need to. That's how much effort it took to come into Toronto and beat the Leafs. And then tonight, I mean, this is two teams headed in complete opposite directions. and maybe the Sabres flash the high beams on the way by, but that was about it. This least team is done. 25-12 goal differential on the other than that I'm said, by the way.

Just want to say it. Oops. This feels very foreign for this team. We're approaching late January, and usually the talk is, who are they going to get to bolster this thing up? And who are they going to get in the first round? and are they going to get past that opponent?

And how is this year going to be different? We look for reasons why this is going to be the year that they do it. And now they have to face the fact that they're not a good team. If they were to even sneak into the playoffs, which I don't think is going to happen, they're not going anywhere. So they have to make a decision here to start to recuperate some stuff. All they've traded is prospects and picks. and now they're without Marner who's, you know, playing for Vegas and they're first place in the Pacific.

And it's not any better. It's actually way worse than it ever was. So if your mind wasn't made up prior to this homestand, this homestand should have been the deciding factor, that you lose five games in a moment where you had to win some because you're going on the road and you got to go out west. and you went 04 and 1, you have your answer. Like it's there for you and you don't have to search very far. And they're bad in some of the same ways that they were bad at the start of the season. I know Dom tweeted some stuff out statistically,

but they're sub 40x goal percentage over the last 10 games, which is abysmal. But they're pretty close early on too. Like this is the fulfillment of the team that they showed us to, and they showed themselves the B, I think. in October. And of course, you're not going to just pull the, you're not going to pull the shoot and sell on October 28th or whatever. I'm not suggesting that, you know, that, that was a viable move. But it's a pretty bad hockey team. And they've been a pretty bad hockey team. It varies, it various points throughout this. So yeah, now there are eight points behind everybody who matters.

That's, that's ugly. TSN broadcast was rightfully super harsh on them. I saw Jesse Blake from No way. Yeah. The TSN broadcast was harsh on the Leafs. I mean, wow, I don't know anything about that. Should, uh,

texture, texture boy. Oh, dog, tell him, tell him, tell him great job. Really tough,

tough, tough, unexpectedly tough stuff. I thought, you know what's funny? I thought, I really thought he would have like the effort that they put out there today.

I was shocked to see. You know what's funny. Now, now that we're on this, I don't mean to cut you off, but teams like want the, the Leafs treatment sometimes from us. be careful what you wish for

because we rip the leaf sometimes and it's like we don't do it to a lot of we don't really do it to the smaller market teams but for some reason when the leaps open themselves up to it it's like it's a green light special like you can get it

it's just you know it's kind of the way the business works like the place is emptying out like the arena was emptier than usual with five and a half minutes left and the people who are there booing I know Jesse Blake from the Steve Dangle podcast tweeted, you know, a video showing that much.

I mean, this feels like, you know, Sean, I know I know you said the homestand overall was the signal. But tonight, not just because of the way that they played, but because of the team that did it to them and the stakes that had been set for this game specifically, whether or not we buy that it was as important as Craig Brubian company made it out to be. this game in particular, man, this feels we don't want to put nails and coffins in January, but like it feels it feels close enough. It's close enough. And look, there's a week before the Olympic trade deadline and then you got a couple of weeks.

So I don't know when the selling needs to begin. But it certainly should. But I mean, you talk about tonight. I honestly feel like it was good news for the, Maple Leafs that you didn't get any real big loud chance about firing anyone. You know, there wasn't the, maybe it's just because Baruba and True Living, those three syllable names are harder to chant than the one or twos. Maybe that's what's protecting them.

But remember, this was the last home game before the Olympics. Leaf fans are not going to see this team up close for another, almost a month. And they're going to figure out like real soon, the tree is one syllable and chief is one syllable. that works that works well paired with the word fire if it if you're trying to if you're trying to well doesn't it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't it make you think about last year and how all in they were like that's as all in as you can be you're doing one last dance with marner you're trading for carlo you're trading for lot and you got picks you got prospects going out the door fraser mintin see you later grabankin see a later and now like

this is always the the cautionary tale of quote unquote all in And what happens when you run into Florida and you lose in that situation? Now you're left picking up the pieces and we can diagnose it, right? Like everyone can diagnose it. But the solution, I mean, it's not exactly like outlined specifically, but you can figure it out. Like, Callie your own croak, if you could trade him, he's a UFA. Scott Lawton, you might have to trade Scott Lawton. Like you might have to trade Bobby McMahon.

Like you might have to see if there's a team that wants to have to trade. We have Elliot Freeman and Bob Stoffer both are already connecting Bobby McMahon with the Oilers specifically. Right. That's where we are in the season. The Bobby McMahon trade rumors are a twirling on Jan 27. And they're not wrong for thinking that and saying that. This is where Toronto's at. UFAs, you got to get something for them.

I'm sorry. And you have to start to, Toronto is the team that fits the definition of a retool for me. I don't think it's like, I don't think it's completely. broken. This is not something where you tear it down to the studs and you say we got to start all over again. There's a decent foundation there. Let's call a spade of spade. Matthews, Neelander, you know, Tavares will give you good minutes. Like there's some, this is not, you got to start from scratch again, but you have to do something. You know who they should take notes from? Kyle Dubus. There you go. No kidding. I would rather retool around Austin Matthews at 28 or whatever

than Sydney Crosby at 37. Like take, take some, take some, they, they did it. Why can't, why can't you? Okay. So are people paying attention to Gino Malkin and what he's doing this year? God. Because they should be. This guy's unbelievable this year.

They should. That team is, that team is good with him and bad without him. Like that's like, been the takeaway of the last like six weeks. Yeah. So I'm, I'm going to do the thing that I'd love to do most. I'm going to grab this, this thing and pull it back to the Maple Leafs. Kyle Dubas is not walking in that door to fix his name's Steve.

He walked out of it. Should Brad Trilliving be the guy who starts this process? No. Given that there is a multi-week break in the season coming up, is Brad Trilliving the guy that gets to start fixing the mess

that Brad Trilliving and others created? I'll answer this for you. if he accepts where the team is at. If he accepts where the team is at and says, I fully understand that this is something, there needs to be changes and we need to get some draft capital and maybe a prospect or two, and we need to change things.

But if you're going to say that, no, we can do this. We're not giving up. We're going to throw more at this. Then no. Then he shouldn't. But I think if he looks at it the right way, which the way everyone would look at it and says, there's going to need to be some changes, then you can probably say so because I don't think

he's had that moment yet. He's been in try and salvage this thing mode from the moment he got there. And now you're not there anymore. And it's, this is, you know, Keith Pelly with the guy that none of us had heard of a year and a bit ago. But suddenly he became the big boogeyman of Toronto Sports. Very funny. This guy's going to be there. This guy is going to bloom over everything. And I think we've seen them maybe three times in public. A couple of which probably would have been, you know, with the Blue Jays when things were going good.

Time for Keith to make some calls. Time for him to take off the glasses, you know, give him a little fog and a little clean, put them back on, fresh set of eyes. And let's actually try something that has not been tried when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the last decade. Let's try to make some tough decisions. let's try not to take the path of least resistance again like always and let's let's go out there and actually make some tough calls. And, you know, the Olympic break is an interesting one because that there's no trades, of course, but you can talk, you can get things set up, you can put names out there, right? How often does it happen that every year there's a couple of guys whose names just seem to percolate in the media? Scott Lawton was one of them last year.

By the time the Leafs gave up a first round pick for him, you're going like, who is this guy? And I'll say, Scott Lawton's grown on me. I'm enjoying the season he's having. He's one of the few guys I like watching on this team. But let's get back to that. Let's get that name out there again and see. Maybe it's not a first round pick this year. Maybe it is.

Who knows? But let's see what you can get for some of these guys. I mean, we're always here about how this big media market in Toronto. and everybody always talks about the leaps and all this stuff. Okay, great. Use that to your advantage. Get some of these guys' names out there and let's see if you can start creating a market for them. Or you sit back and you go, oh, you know, we want to see what happens after the break.

And you do it the easy way, which is what they've done on every big pivotal decision they've had to make for the last decade. It's amazing that, like, this is the domino effect. Is it not the domino effect of one player? And I know people are sick of hearing about it, but okay, guys have gotten older, guys have aged. Every team has gotten older, really. Like, I don't know, maybe there's a few that have brought in some younger players, but generally players get older every year. And this is the fallout from Marner leaving.

It can't be. Like, it can't be this much for one player. But, man, it just feels like that decision has sent this team into a place that they can't recover from at this point. It's funny. Like, I just, I just called the game, Habs Vegas. Yeah. And Marner's out there. He's playing center. He's playing the point on the power play. He's, he's kind of doing everything. He's fine. Like, you know, it's fine, but it's, it's almost weird for him as well. And he was getting booed louder almost tonight in, in Montreal than he was in Toronto at times. It wasn't that bad on Friday. Really, really strange. The height, that was not a

rough ride for Mitch Barner at all. Tough night for the people who want to love to say, you know, how toxic leaf fans are and how they're so, they're so hard on the team. But, um, good night for the people who want to say the leaf fans are too quiet and all this other stuff. So I'm side. I'm siding with Leafs fans. I'm saying they're not that toxic and they do have, in fact, like a viable beef with the Department of Player Safety over the Kneelander sub. This is crazy. That's crazy.

We live in strange times. Yeah, no kidding. Welcome aboard, buddy. It's terrible. You're going to end. I mean, Toronto ultimately, like this goes back to what I said before. Like, they shouldn't surprise anybody. Like, last year, they were a team that were floated by three things primarily. Elite talent. You take Mitch Marner out of that equation. A bunch of career years, high shooting percentage. They're a PDO team. I know people hate people hate saying that. But like, you know, a bunch of guys on season long heaters to some extent. remove that from the equation. And you had Stolarz, who, when he was in the lineup last year, looked like a Vesna candidate. You know, he wallpapered over whatever mistakes that shooting percentage and elite

talent couldn't take care of. And what do we got now? Less talented players, less hot players, and a goaltender who, between him and between Stollars and Wall, obviously, who was in that tonight, guys who just aren't, who aren't good enough to bail, who haven't been good enough to bail them out on a consistent enough basis. I'm not surprised by this. I get like, I don't, it's, sounds lame, but it's true.

I'll say this. I'll say this about, you know, the Leaps and I think the Rangers fall into this category as well. Just because you're original six and you play in a big market, you got really fancy arena and you're always known for kind of being a big spender and being in the mix, you're not entitled to like be in the mix. You actually have to put it together and be good. And the Rangers have recognized that. They put out the letter. They did letter 2.0. And the Leafs are basically going to have to recognize that with their actions here. Like I'm sorry. They're,

they're at that point. And so like, we'll see what they do about it. But this is where they're at. This is the cards they're dealt. And now they have to make the most of it. So, so let me, let me just ask you this. Do we need Brad for Living to write? a letter to kick off this sell seller's market or does he just go up to the press box and lean over and give the finger

to all the players on the ice to let them know because that's $5,000. I don't know how much it costs to get a good professionally scripted letter put together. It's probably pretty similar. If you write a letter, just make sure it's on Boston Pizza Letterhead. That's all I ask.

Yeah. Well, hey, if you're Toronto, don't you look at this, this Buffalo Sabres team and say, they didn't change that much from year to year. They traded Peturca. They brought in Donne and they got Kessel Ring and Kessel Ring's been injured most of the year. And you're like, same goalies pretty much, side for Colton Ellis, same D, same forwards, but they're dummying people. Dylan looks, there's shifts that he takes on a nightly basis where you're like this dude is.

This guy's a good. Gamer. That guy's a culture changer. kid, he's a culture changer. I've said this a couple of times in a couple of places. And TSN was talking about it tonight. So I'm upset because I thought I was going to get to this was going to be my thing. I'm planting the flag right now.

Kevin Adams is going to get GM of the year votes. You don't think it's going to happen. Kevin Adams is going to show up on at least one ballot. Who votes on, who votes on that? The GMs vote on it. The GMs vote. Really? There's going to be a GM.

There's going to be a GM out there. Remember, and there's precedence. Scott Housson got votes the year he got fired. Some GM out there is going to look at his fellow fallen colleague and say everybody blamed him. They stuck the knife in his back, but his team was secretly good, just like my team is secretly good if everybody could get off my back. Actually, nobody should ever get fired. That's the big takeaway here. Yeah, that's either the takeaway or the takeaway is you can fire your GM and change literally nothing else and completely transform your team.

Or just play like a team who gives a you know what. Like when Toronto went on that, they were, what, 0, 8, 0 and 2 run. And it's like, it's amazing how much you can make up for when you just like skate and work and compete. And you're like, urgent to win. And then 04 and 1 later. And you're like, what the hell was that? You wanted to do that every night? I mean, come on.

Listen, I wasn't an every night kind of guy. I was a press box. I was every night in the press box. I don't know what it's like to do that every night. Sabers. Sabers did it every night. Sabers, man, 193 and 1 in their last 23, 91 56 goal differential.

That's so good. I'm so happy for those fans and that fan base. And that building for that first playoff game, whoever it's against, you know, even if it's, even if they're playing Tampa and they're down the series 2-0 for game 3, like, who cares? That series will take place. That series will talk up there.

Get Montreal. As of today, as of today, it's Detroit. As of today, it's the two longest playoff droughts going head to head in the first round. Wouldn't that be something? Hockey Town in Buffalo. That would be really cool. That's the series that we need.

We're going to see the top three Norris trophy vote getters in that series. It's more excited. It's Rasmus Dahlene. And it is, of course. Matia Samuelson. Don't you mean And potentially The top three

GM of the year vote getters as well Menoris Norrisson Don't you mean Noritz cider As they refer to him I believe sometimes And I think that's

Daniela Bruce Came up with that On a Red Wings Trademarked Yeah That's enough That's enough about the leaves Boys

23 minutes Good God We have a trade to discuss We're going to do that After the breaks To ground All right We are back

Boys we have Another Metro Division Metro area Trade to discuss it is another one that involves the New York Islanders who traded for Carson Sussi from Seattle a couple days back. This one, I think, is a little more interesting.

It's a somewhat, somewhat unexpected because the devil's moved Andre Palat. It seemed like he had an unmovable contract. They found a way to shuffle that off to the Islanders. They get back Maxim Simplkov and a third round pick. Well, the Islanders, rather. got a third and in a six for taking on Pilots contract. Sean, let's start with you, I guess.

What are the initial thoughts here? On a scale of one to ten, how surprised are you that we saw Andre Paul? Hey, 10 out of 10 for Tom Fitzgerald. He clears off a bad contract and now he's got room to go get Quinn Hughes. Go do it. Yeah, what's the date? What's the date on the calendar? This is December 11th, isn't it?

I'm being told that maybe it's a bit late on that. Look, I do like it for the Devils. You know, this is to get out from under $6 million next year at the cost of a third round pick, essentially, is a good bit of business. We have seen teams have to pay significantly more than that to get out of similar contracts. So in that sense, good job.

But if I'm a Devil's fan, I'm sitting there going, great. Where was this two or three months ago or in the off season where we could have maybe done something significant and not be doing this in the second half of what looks like

it's going to be a lost season? I wonder if this is the first time in NHL history that two trades were completed in a row where none of the players have to actually move. They think about that. They don't have have to move their homes.

Like they're just reporting to a different stadium. Susi, Sypilco. He got him the LIRR and just bopped over, man. It's he's, it's hilarious. It's kind of crazy, right? And you know the way these teams do road games. Essentially, it's like a black car picks you up in the morning. You go to the different rank and then you go take a nap at the hotel.

Then you go play the game. And then like a car carpools and brings you back to your place. It's pretty wild how it works in that area. So it is, you know, it's interesting. that it's these three teams doing trades, but we just went on and on, right? We just went on and on about the Leafs and how bad they're playing

and how it's time to sort of reshuffle things. New Jersey's got one less point, and New Jersey's got a minus 22 goal differential, and Toronto's got a minus nine goal differential. So, hey, good, clear some money off your books. That's great. You needed to, because clearly that got in the way of things the last time, and also some trade protection and things of that nature.

or what's the next move for Jersey? Is it throwing more at this group? Or are they going to sort of reevaluate where they're at? Because I remember us talking about New Jersey earlier this season thinking, well, it hasn't been their year in the past. It's not their year this year. How much do you keep throwing at it and saying like, well, we're right there? I don't know.

I don't know. But it doesn't feel like they're any closer or should be any closer. It's the weirdest part of this deal, I think, to some extent, is that, and I get it. Devils fans were happy to move on from Andre Palat. Like, he's, it felt like a bad contract when they signed him to it, frankly. And it has only been proven as such over the last couple to the point where now it's six hours ago. It seemed like it was unmovable. So, you know, golf clap for moving on from it.

if you're Tom Fitzgerald, but like the amount of flowers that I saw thrown at the devils for doing this is kind of bizarre because it, because Sean, you alluded to this, man, this is late. It's a day late in a dollar short.

And like, yes, it frees up money or a freeze up cap for the summer. And it, you know, potentially if they want to, if they want to dive back in and make, make some kind of short.

term wind now move like they have the flexibility for it now but like the damage is done man so i so i look at this and i and you know this isn't some fleece job by fit by fitzgerald like he had to send assets back you know to to the to the islanders too and then the the timing of it just makes it it feels like a wash it best i think in a lot of ways i like it more for the islanders i mean i know not to pull back the curtain too much but the three of us were talking before the show like i like i like I feel like, I feel like we're kind of on the same page with that. Like, I like this as much for the Islanders as I do for the Devils. Yeah, the Islanders feels like a case with, with this,

and especially with the Suzy deal, where it's like a new GM comes in and he's got a team that nobody thinks is going to be all that good yet. You know, you've just picked first overall. And you sort of look at it and you go, all right, well, let's see what the players do. and can they earn some support from me? Can they earn some reinforcements? And they have.

They've gone out. The Islander's been one of the best stories of the first half. And now you're sitting there going, okay, look, I'm not going to trade our best prospects away for help right now. I'm not going to be traded first round picks. But I'll bring in some help. Yeah. I'll go and get you guys some veterans to plug in and help you make that playoff push.

because you have earned that. And they have. And so without, yeah, I mean, really, you can look at this and say, traded away a third to get Susie, got a third back in the plot deal, added some veterans, took on some cap hit, but cap hit you could afford. Yeah, not that big would do, you know. It's not a bad bit of work. I don't mind it.

I find it interesting for the Islanders because, like, over the last couple years, didn't everything feel stale with the Islanders? Like, this is as good as they are, right? they're just kind of stuck here. And then, you know, they've changed some things around. Sorokin's been unbelievable. Horvat has had a monster year. Barzal's still doing his thing.

You go up and down that lineup and you're like, guys are playing better. It's predominantly like a lot of the same guys. You know, there's a few guys added here and there like Drew Ann or Anthony Duclair, but like those guys aren't massive needle movers. But everything seems to be working there. Then you're like, okay, Andre Palat, like was really good for Tampa on their runs when they won Stanley Cups. Ultimately, that's the reason why he gets a deal that pays him $6 million a year. You're like, everyone's finding it on the island. Can Andre Palat find it as

well? Like, is there just something going on there where guys are finding that renewed sense of purpose? So, like, to DGB's point, like, I could see that be in the case. And if you get into a playoff situation, maybe he has a little bit of that pixie dust level leftover from the Tampa days. Who knows? Like there's a reason why teams want to pay and acquire winners. You get labeled as a winner. There's a job for you. Someone wants to bring in the winning culture and see if that rubs off on their group. And he has that.

We should also say, so 20 goals one time for under a lot, 60 points one time. And both of those were over a decade ago. We're not talking about a guy who's a couple years removed. Sneaky old for sure. He's, I don't know if he's sneaky anymore. He's, whatever. He's creaky old is what he is. We're 13 months away from them sending Andre Palat to somebody for a third rounder when they retain 50%.

Like they'll turn that into something. I think I've talked my, I didn't do the trade grade on this. I think it was Myrtle and Harmon. But I think I think I've talked myself into it over the last couple minutes, right? I think I'm looking more for the Islanders. Very, very interesting. Frankie what was it

43 3 2 yeah habs Habs over Vegas that was in overtime that was the that was the game you watched was Jake Evans with the O'T with the O'T when he was it he scored again tonight Cole Coffield a small a small American

now 10 goals since January 2nd when USA named their Olympic roster because he's using up all his energy now because he knows he's got a rest coming up It's an unfair advantage of Montreal American players that they can just leave it all on the nice. I love the fact that the NHL gives us a very easily findable option to sort scorers by nationalities. So we'll just let's take a look at this.

United States, sort by goals. Jason Robertson, Jason Robertson, 30, tied at the top with Cole Cofield, who has 30. They're both on the team, right? Yeah, they're there too. One of the extra forwards in that group is Alex De Brinket. It's third in American. Oh, he's on the team too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, no, no. It happened. You just missed it. Tage, fourth, Matt Bull, what, he fifth? Okay, so three of the top five American-born goal scores are staying home. It looks crazy. Crazy. Yeah.

And Tage Thompson wasn't on the last. team. I mean, he had to set out one tournament to finally get his chance. Thompson went to the Worlds, did he not? That was his thing. He went to the Worlds and he was like, USA, USA,

I'm here and I'm pounding my chest and now he's on the team. I think if I would have showed up at Worlds over the summer, I probably would have made the team. That seems like that was it was that easy. Like, that's all these guys needed it. The question

is who in the next, you know, eight days or whatever, who is going to make this look even worse? My money is on Cutter Gautier, who's tied for 10th in goals by American-born players. It's him tied with Kyle O'Connor. Let's see him going on a little spell here, maybe finish with more than, you know, Matthews or Larkin or one of those guys. Sweet.

It's, you know what, good for Coffield, man. He's got an infectious, enthusiasm for the game. Like, not just scoring goals. He's very enthusiastic for scoring goals. It's very evident. It's clear. He's on a six-game goal streak.

He's got nine goals in that span. But he's a better overall player than I think people give him credit for. Like this perception that he's just a one-dimensional goal score is not true. He's a really good player. So good for him, man. Like, he's just, and he's class. Like, he's never going to say anything to, like, show up the situation. He's doing his thing.

Helping the team win, go USA. He's all class. He just remember that. Just remember Cole Cofield, 30 goals in, you know, 52 games or whatever it is. And he's a nice kid, too. Just remember that American hockey fans, whenever this team's losing games by one goal and making you very, very angry pre-in-post game in the process. It's going to be great.

It'll be fine because you've got. the veteran leadership of the apparently 57-year-old Jackson-Lacombe. Leave Jackson-Lacombe out of this. We didn't want to take a second photo there, guys? Like maybe just one more? Jackson, you want to look like you're not having the worst day of your life right now? Brock Nelson looks 100. Like, whatever.

They're doing these guys dirty with these photos. I got to tell you, I got a real issue with Brock Nelson, because he needs to stop scoring because he's going to make me up. update my material about, you know, wow, yeah, you're going to have all these guys and Brock Nelson's there. And, you know, meanwhile, he's on his way to 45 goals this year. Brock Nelson. Right.

He's making us realize that it was actually fair and smart from the write his name and pen for this roster like over the summer. That was clearly it. Yeah. Oh, brother. Frankie, what's up with you the next for the rest of the week? Do you have? Are you working more? Can you go home?

You know what? We got a really cool night in Montreal on Thursday. it's HABS, Avalanche, and the Aves are wearing Nordiques jerseys here in Montreal. Now, I haven't been able to confirm if they're going to wear the blue ones, but I think it would be really cool if the habs are wearing their reds and the abs are wearing the blue Nordiques, I think that's must-see stuff. So we'll see how that kind of unfolds. That's interesting.

That could be a fun one. Be careful on those pre-post-intermission skates. before the period, the warm-ups. They get a little ugly between those two teams. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure there's going to be some nostalgia in the air. So, yeah, that's what I got going on. I got to give a little shout out if you guys don't mind. Sorry, goodbye, goodbye.

I had a great time with Kenny Daniels doing the Red Wings broadcast, filling in for Mickey. It was so much fun. Those guys are like, you can totally understand. understand why they're ranked the top show in the NHL every single year. So that was that was really cool. But as you know, it was Snowmageddon in Toronto on that Sunday. Every flight was canceled. Like it was a disaster getting out of there. And my flights were going to be like jammed up until Tuesday. And obviously I had work. I had a Habs game to do like, you know, stuff going on. So that they like the

Red Wings were kind enough to fly me back to Detroit on the plane. And then I rented a car and drove back to Toronto through the snowstorm. So just like really classic. You know what? I was just happy to get home. Like this first class by them. It was really nice. So big thank you.

I'm going to gas you. I'm going to gas you up here too, man. Like I had multiple people on Twitter and wherever else. You know, I had one person in particular on blue sky was like, tell Frankie we loved them. We did a, did a great job. So whatever. Well, that's good.

It's a, it's a unbelievable, like. team effort there doing that show. They're awesome. Kenny Daniels. Fun time. Legend. Legend. Take it easy, but we'll talk you next week. See ya, fellas. All right, there goes Frankie. Me and McIndee are going to tell you what we learned in a minute.

But before that, you folks listen to us, and now we want to hear from you. We're asking you to fill out a quick survey about you and your podcast habits by going to theathletic.com slash survey 26. That's S-U-R-V-E-Y-2-6. Three lucky entries will win a $100 Amazon gift card, which is great. And whether you're a long-term listener or a new one, we want your feedback. So again, that is theathletic.com slash survey 26.

S-U-R-V-E-Y-26. The link is also in our episode description. Do that and we'll be your best friends forever. All right. Sean, I'm going to start. Here's what I learned. What have we learned, Sean? We touched on this with Frankie.

It was a very upsetting time release realization, I think. I had this afternoon around the time we found out, or the last couple of days, when we found out that William Nealander had been fined 5Gs for shooting the bird to a cameraman from the press box. I thought that was ridiculous enough as is And then we saw Mikhail Sargachev

Was it the same day? It was the day after? Do something Let's say 24 hours Yeah, within, yeah, 24 hours later, let's say Do the same thing To a cameraman coming off Going off the ice.

I don't know if I needed the surrogative of it all For it to really land. I have made fun of you. you on mic and off for years, years over the... Many people have. It was fair and warranted, I thought, at the time. Yeah. About Department of Player Safety's having an anti-leafs bias, but I think I'm starting to come

around because that is 100%. Welcome. Peros or whoever, somebody in Port was watching that broadcast and was like, yeah. George Perrows put out like a, like the Department of Player's Safety put out a statement. I should say, I've got no problem with finding guys for flipping the bird at a camera. I think that's, that's, it's a dumb thing to do. I'm pretty sure Willie Nealander didn't endanger any players by doing that. I mean, I think, I know he's got the, I think Chris Tanev might have sprained his neck when he whirled it around to yell at him.

Yeah. That Chris Tanna's lower body injury from kicking Neelander under the table going, Stop smiling. You're going to get us all. We're going to get fine. So, yeah, well, welcome to the resistance, man. It's where the bandwagon is filling up slowly, slowly. Slowly.

But good seats are still available. Does it bother? Like the other questions, though, does it bother me that the Department of Player's safety? Yes, for the Toronto May of beliefs. And that is a whole other debate. So we'll save that for another time. Yeah, you're just, you're, you're, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you're, you, you're, you, you're, you're, you're, not sure. Not sure. Not sure if I think it's a bad thing or not.

Sure or no. I, I, uh, I learned, I learned, I learned that my house is super dark, uh, at night, uh, as we record this. And I'm, I'm, I'm sitting here with, like, eight spotlights on me and I feel great. Like I'm sitting in a closet somewhere. I also learned that, well, I mean, the Canucks are in full tank mode. Not surprisingly.

They moved on from Sherwood. Thatcher Demko shut down for the season, which, you know, obviously he is hurt, but that is a, you can play it cautiously when the towel is being thrown in. And we got one of my favorite things in sports, which is Evander Kane being told, go of my find your own trade

your agent can start calling other I mean this happens in hockey a lot and it happens in other sports it's not a hockey thing but I just love the idea of a GM being like dude do you think I'm not trying to trade this guy nobody wants him but you know what go ahead here's 31 phone numbers you call around

you see if anybody wants this guy and let me know if they do and I man as somebody who often when I'm looking at my own to-do list and I'm like, man, I wish I had somebody I could just offload some of this too. Good job.

Also, for anybody who pays attention to the NBA, it comes on the heels of an all-time great quote from Mike Dunleavy, who's an exec with the Golden State Warriors, not quite a similar situation, but, you know, there's an unhappy player, Jonathan Cominga, who wants to be traded. Dunleavy said, and again,

an all-timer. He said, well, you know, when there's a trade demand, there has to be demand from other teams to acquire the player. They're like, we're trying. I don't know. Like, we're doing our best here. Like, work with us. Like, give us, give us something, something to work with here.

Like, you would assume that they would give the, they would tell the agent, like, here's like a minimum cutoff of what we're looking for. Right. But even then, I mean, so the agent just. comes back and he's like, yeah, Columbus said they would do a fifth round pick. Okay. Thanks. See you later.

Get on that. We don't want, we don't want to, we don't want to deal with this anymore. We have a, we have a goalie who he signed for a half a billion dollars in 25 years that, you know, has bad hips and knees and grinds and whatever else. You have a bigger, bigger, bigger fish to fry here in Vancouver. A lot bigger. Sean, what post is going to be live on the website by the time people listen to this? I don't know that there will be one actually. This week is weird because.

Lazy, lazy. Because A, I'm lazy. Although you're welcome, if you want to write a post for me, you can go ahead and do that. See? No. I did the thing. I'm also doing double newsletter duty this week. So that is...

Talk about someone who is lazy. The lazy James Myrtle has refused to do the newsletter. And, I mean, we're in disarray. we thought we were going to have to scrap the whole thing, but I, I bravely stood up and I said, I will do it. And so, yeah, that's, if you're, if you're somebody who, and a lot of people have said this, you love the newsletter, but you feel like the Tuesday editions are a bit better than the Friday. This coming Friday is going to be, it's going to be one of the good ones.

See if you can spot the differences. I can sub for the Tuesday edition. I can't, I can't do Friday. I'm busy. Sorry. Sean Gentile is doing next Tuesday. and every following Tuesday the remainder of the season.

I've done it a couple times. It's fun, right? It's fun enough. It's fun, right? All right. Good luck with that. Good luck to Frankie, wherever he is. He gets to fly back to Toronto and shovel his driveway, probably.

Thanks to him. And thanks to you fine folks for listening to The Athletic Hockey Show. We're back next Wednesday, probably not recorded on Tuesday night, but you never know. And Haley and I have the next show, which will record as anticipated and as typically scheduled on Thursday. So we'll see you then.