The Sheet with Jeff Marek - 72 Million Dollar Man

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

On today's show the guys circle back on the Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen conversation from yesterday, discuss William Nylander reaching 40 goals yet again and the swing Brendan Shanahan took on him, John Tortorella's blunt postgame press conference, Craig Anderson being on Coming In Hot, the wave, and much moreShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So you know what today is here? Welcome to the Sheep once again, Wednesday, March 26th. Thanks for being aboard today. You know what today is? Today is a, I don't know if you measure your days like this, like I do. Today is a 23 tab day. I just counted before he went on air, Zach. I got 23 tabs open. I kind of keep like a whole bunch open, maybe the same way that I am. I always have like at least a dozen that I'm just like bouncing back and forth through you the same way.

23 tab day for me. What is it for you? Yeah. Uh, usually though, right before the show, I try to condense it down. So do I. back and forth through you the same way. 23 tab day for me, what is it for you? Yeah, usually though, right before the show, I try to condense it down so that if I need to, I can expand out as it goes. I don't want a chaos, but until like 10 minutes before, it's nuts.

I got total chaos today, because there's a lot of tiny little things that I want to make sure that we get onto today and that we go over and I don't want to forget it because normally I just start rambling and then I forget it. So I'm keeping these tabs open now deliberately and bouncing back and forth so between these open tabs and you reminding me and keeping the guardrails on I should be able to get to everything.

There's a lot of tiny little things. But one thing, before we get to the program, and Jacob Shickren's gonna stop by as well, the man who had the $100 bill on the back of his sweater at practice yesterday. Which is such a nice touch. Jacob Shickren of the Washington Capitol is gonna stop by here in about 20 minutes time. In the meantime, one thing I just wanted to,

how are we gonna say this, Zach, sharpen the pencil on a little bit here, maybe clarify what we were getting at on the program yesterday, not to turn this into, you know, Sabres Live, although sometimes the show does go a little bit deeper on the Buffalo Sabres and perhaps other teams, and yes, we're gonna get the John Torderell

and the Philadelphia Flyers stand by. When we were talking about Ukopeka Lukanen, the thing about being around the industry for a long time is you've seen things before and you see how things play out and you see when expectations aren't met and when an owner has certain expectations going into a season, what happens at the end of that season when it is, to be blunt, the failure that is this year's edition of the Buffalo Sabres, comma, again.

You've seen it before. And a lot of times, the end of season, when the owner is disappointed based on expectations that have been placed upon the team in question, it kind of looks like this scene from one of my favorite movies of all time, Quentin Tarantino's epic, Reservoir Dogs. This is one of the closing scenes of the movie where everybody's pointing guns at each other. I've seen this so many different times with hockey teams at the end of the season where everybody tries to blame everybody else for the failures. And there is a lack of addressing what the real problem is as

everybody just instead tries to save their jobs. I'm not saying that this is what is going to happen at the end of the Buffalo Saber season, but man does it ever feel this way. And when you look at, you know, who's gonna blame who and who's gonna be the fall guy for it and who's gonna you know Who's everyone gonna end up pointing at by the end of this? I've just seen this too many times There are players on every roster that are Vulnerable because they're not one of either the coaches guys or the managers guys This has happened plenty that times. You see this sometimes around pre-agency.

Like I remember talking to one player who ended up signing with one NHL team although he was talking with the Toronto Maple Leafs. And I asked him why he didn't end up signing with Toronto because he grew up a Maple Leafs fan. And he said, I don't know if John Ferguson's going to be the general manager for many years here. And if I signed in Toronto, and then there's a new general manager all of a sudden I'm vulnerable and I never forgot that and players don't forget that and players know that and that is why

We had the conversation with Greg yesterday about ukepeka Luka in you know he wasn't brought in by Kevin Adams So this wasn't a guy that Lindy Ruff. Look, James Reimer has the net right now for the Buffalo Sabres. Now, has Lukenon had the best of all possible seasons? No, but many of the players on the Buffalo Sabres roster haven't had the best of all possible seasons. The only point that I'm trying to make here is I just wonder and I just say if this is the decision that gets made and they just pin the whole thing on well we had bad goaltending and we had really good we had really good performances by these players and this would have worked if but

we got bad goaltending and you know, there's there's no overcoming bad goaltending in the NHL I think it's a mistake if they end up pinning the whole thing on the goaltending here and just say, you know what, Luke and Scott the season, we need to do something about this. But nonetheless, I've seen it happen too many times, not to say that there are some similarities. That's all. That's the point. And it's one of those situations where like, look, if you're, if you're a team out there that wants to steal a goaltender, like bluntly, like you don't, you've heard the old expression, you know rob the bank and didn't have to wear a mask. I wonder if

there's someone, if there's a team that's gonna be out there, if the Buffalo Sabres end up saying this is goaltending. You know that's that's all that this is, let's not make any rash decisions here, nobody has to lose their jobs here except maybe that goaltender. If they end up making that decision, all I'm saying is someone is going to get an excellent goaltender at a bargain basement price and that has nipped the Buffalo Sabres before. That was the only point that I was trying to get out about it yesterday.

People went nuts on it when we put that clip out, Zach, from the conversation yesterday. And that was the only point. Like look, we all know what's gonna happen at the end of the season People are gonna do what they always try to do and that is save their jobs. I can't blame them. I get it I understand you you have you know, you have your family's to take care of you have yourself to provide for you Have your career to worry about I get all that

I've just seen this too many times Not to say I can see the the same thing happening with the Buffalo Sabres at the end of the season. And maybe, just maybe, if they try to pin the whole thing on the goaltender, there's going to be a really smart organization out there that says, we will relieve you of the burden of having this goaltender who had a soft season and scotched your year. Yeah, we'll relieve you of the burden of Vuka Pakaluuken in here. We'll take him on our team and you know watch this guy go and shine because he's an outstanding goaltender that's just had

a very challenging year with a very challenging team. Nonetheless did you want to add anything on top of that? I kind of wandered there for a while. No I think you covered pretty much everything. I was gonna kind of just say the same things. It's like I think about the teams out there you know maybe Edmonton in the summer wants to call or Columbus is looking for a guy and it's like, oh, well, we'll throw a flyer at that guy. It's like, remember when Allmark, I don't want to do this just specifically on Buffalo again and be like, hey, remember that guy? But we're like, all my thought he was bossy. Forget Buffalo thought he was resigning. Right?

Right. I'm not saying that I'm more so saying like, he was expiring and Buffalo protected him in the Seattle draft, okay? Yeah. And then he said, yeah, I don't know about that, yeah, P said I'm going to the Bruins. Yeah, but my point is more so like the side of the Bruins, I'm not talking about Buffalo here,

like remember the Bruins signed him and there was a lot of people that kinda like, okay, sure, like I could see it, but like, is that really like the signing that they needed to have here? Is that the one that puts them over the top and then that's in the caliber goal tender? They have the best goalie tan and that goes right. You know what I mean? It's like that's that team could be out there they go out and get that guy where people are like, ah, is that really the one? Oh

He's the one I'm saying if Luka is an excellent goal ten. Hope the whole thing doesn't get pinned down on him. We'll see what happens when the season is finally over. So stay tuned for that excitement. Let's get the show going here. Alright, coming up on today's program, time for daily outline. Outlines, rather, this is what's coming up on the program today. Presented as always, empowered as always, by FanDuel.

Make every sports moment more with North America's number one sports book. Those are our friends, those are our partners. That is FanDuel. And coming up on the program today, I mentioned Jacob Trickren of the Washington Capitals. Defend's been signing a lovely contract that we'll get into with Jacob Trickren. I can recall, I mentioned on the show yesterday,

I remember first watching him play junior Canadians in minor midget U16 before I went to Sarnia and he already looked like he was 25 or 26 years old. He's already looked and physically already always looked like he was already a man. Anyhow, Jacob Chickerson of the Washington Capitals will start, will come by in about 10 minutes time. We already mentioned Ukupatkalukkinen, so we just sort of advanced that off the top of the program so we can maybe scratch that unless anybody else wants a way in, either on

social media or on the chat here. Go for it. I got a couple of points to make about William Nylander and Zach you have an excellent line to share from William Nylander and we'll get to that coming up in a couple of moments here. Craig Anderson was on Coming In Hot. I always like Craig Anderson.

I have a soft spot in my heart for him, a soft spot in my heart for his family. I thought, and I just hope that history doesn't forget how good of a goaltender Craig Anderson was. And just want to share a couple of things and play a clip from Coming In Hot this morning with the guys' conversation with Craig Anderson. And we should talk about John Tortorella. Maybe we should start there before Jacob Chickerton joins

this year of the Washington Capitals. You want to just start with Torts? If you have anything else to get to, you want to just start with John Tortorella from last night. So now I'm good with that. Here's how, here's how I imagine, here's how I imagine John Tortorella feels right now. And sort of drag the Buffalo Sabres back into this, but here I go. Back when he was an assistant, I don't think I've told this story here before, back when he was an assistant with the Buffalo Sabres, it was a game in Philadelphia, the Spectrum, Buffalo Sabres facing off against the Philadelphia Flyers,

and there was a fan who was just beacon, beacon, beacon, right behind the Buffalo Sabres bench, and Torts put up with it until the period was over, and then turned around at the end of the period before he went off to the dressing room, turned around to say something, to bark back at the fan, okay? And in the process, his tie went over the glass. The fan grabbed the tie, put his feet up on the glass, and started pulling. And you can see it's getting tighter and tighter and tighter around John Tortorella's neck

and like all of the colour is extinguishing from his face. And it's like Tortorella's about to go out. So Jim Pizzitelli, the legend, asked any of the Buffalo Sabres from that era about Jim Pizzitelli and they will rave. Ask Matt Barnaby, ask Brad May who told me the story. Jim Pizzitelli, former, you know, was in Vietnam as a medic I believe, saved Clint Malarchuk's life in that St. Louis Blues incident. Jim Pizzitelli with a pair of scissors comes and cuts the tie off John Tortorella and he falls back into the

bench where I think Brad May and a couple of other guys ended up catching John Tortorella. Not to be too dramatic, but that's probably what he feels like right now. Coaching the Philadelphia Flyers. Like he's like slowly, slowly being choked here as this season goes on and on. Is that too dramatic? Is that, I mean, it turned out just to be end up like a funny story, but it's a little bit too dramatic comparing it. But like I understand, Kevin Kurz was on this morning on Morning Kappa Hockey, who's just outstanding and if you haven't read his piece on the Philadelphia Flyers, John Trodorella takes the blame as Flyers get embarrassed again. Kurz was on Morning Kappa,

you should always be watching and listening to that program. Today for Kurz, he was outstanding and he's talking about how this all falls on him. He wants to take responsibility. You know, Troedarella has talked about how he doesn't want to be the yeller and the screamer, wants to take on a different tone. There's a couple of things that may have been misinterpreted, and John generally doesn't get misinterpreted because in John Tartarella's world there are no metaphors. What he says is what he means. John Tartarella does not like grey area, but I think that there's one bit of grey area here that I think probably deserves a further explanation.

Anyhow, Zach, let's play John Tartarella from last night after the loss to Zach's Toronto Maple Leafs. minutes to start here. Is this something that you and the coaching staff want to use as a learning experience? I'm not going to discuss that with you. Do you think this is a game, John, where the team just needs to maybe simplify things against a team like the Leafs, get pucks, then that buys them, then that's your game? It's my job to prepare this team in this type of situation. Haven't done a good enough job the past couple of games. These last two games, are you sensing frustration

setting in? Maybe it's a cumulative effect from last last week playing well not getting results. Well when you're in this type of situation and you're losing all the time and there's nothing at the end of the tunnel for you there's certainly going to be some frustration but this falls on me. I'm not really interested in learning how to coach this type this in this type of season where we're at right now. But I have to do a better job. So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play

the proper way. Okay, so that's John Trotterrell, the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. I am getting a little bit of an audio issue, so Zach's gonna try to do something on the fly here. Let me know. Are we good with audio? Can you talk for a sec, Zach,

before we get Jacob Pan on? Yeah, that a sec, Zach, before we get Chick-A-Pen on? Yeah. Yeah, that's really cloudy. I don't know if we need to reset or something, but you just let me know what we need to do before we get Chick on a board. One thing from those comments that I... like when you read something on social media it can sound really bad but then when you hear it and you see the person talking about it you say okay I get I get what he means and one of the first things that I saw after last night's Philadelphia Toronto game was John Totarella saying I'm not interested in

learning how to coach this type of season and your initial instinct at least mine and I would think the majority of people look at that and say Wow, John Totorella is throwing in the towel on the season here for the Philadelphia Flyers What's going on with just does not sound like John Totorella? But that's quite a bomb from from from torts and then you see that and you hear it And I think you can understand what John Tortorella is trying to say here, not that I'm playing attorney, well what my client is trying to say, your honor.

What I think John Tortorella is trying to say is like, we don't want to be in this position. I don't want to have to coach a team that's in this position. It's my job to make sure we're not in this position. And I think that's why John Tortorella is essentially diving on the grenade, falling on the knife here for the Philadelphia Flyers. He's taking all of it. Now there was the Cam York issue from last night and how he was benched

for the overwhelming lion's share of the night. That wasn't something that he was interested in getting involved in. And he was not, Cam York wasn't made available afterwards. But still, this is John Tortorella trying to take a different pitch with this team. I thought that the guys this morning brought up a really good point when they wondered about, you know, would John Tortorella be back next season to coach? He has another year

on his contract and I'm in agreement. I don't think that John Tortorella is going to be gone from this organization. They really like him there. I just don't know 100% if he's gonna continue, like I don't know if he's gonna coach next year. If push comes to shove and you say, Merrick make a decision right now, is he back or not? I'll say, yeah, I think John Tortorella is back. I'm just not 100% sure on that.

I have always wondered about John Tortorella in a management position. We all wondered about that with Barry Trotz for a long time and now he's the GM of Nashville. Here's another one. I wondered about that with Paul Maurice if he would ever have, just because he's such a smart hockey guy. I've always wondered whether Paul Maurice would ever entertain the idea of getting bumped up to management after he's done coaching and winning Stanley

Cups, etc. But I just thought that it was interesting in this really, really frustrating season for the Philadelphia Flyers, now here's John Tortorella with what I think is a pretty impactful quote which is, I'm not interested in learning how to coach in this type of season. The point that was made last year by some was John Tortorella is the wrong coach for a rebuild because he's gonna get too much out of the team and they're not gonna get a high draft pick. I couldn't disagree with that more. I think the last thing that you want to do as an organization,

and we've seen this played out time and time and time again is completely throwaway seasons. Right? When you throw away seasons it is so hard to rebuild and the players that are there that have to go through it are scarred for a long time and it takes them a while to come back and it takes a while for them to become a team because they just become accustomed to losing. And I think what was really important to Danny Breyer, to Keith Jones, Dan Hilferty, everybody in the Flyers brass was to make sure that nobody got comfortable losing. That was important for a rebuild.

It's not just going to be, well, we're going to be an easy two points, but we're going to get the first or second overall pick. That that's how the Philadelphia Flyers wanted to do this and I think that's a sane approach now there's still probably going to get a really high pick this year it's been a tough year for the Philadelphia Flyers and they're still probably at least one more year of development away until they really start to turn a corner but this has been the plan all along for the Philadelphia Flyers. Last year's race to the playoffs was the exception, not the rule. I don't think that was planned for. It was nice. It helped a lot of the

players. I think it kept players involved in a season longer than many might have suspected. But I think that's the type of rebuild that Philadelphia Flyers want to have. It'll probably be another year of pain next year. But I thought that was an interesting quote from John Tortorbella. Don't want to be interested in learning how to coach in this type of season. Again, you read it

and you feel one way but then you hear it and you watch John Tortorbella talk about it and you say, okay, I think I know what he's getting at here. Does that make sense Zach and how's my audio? I think we're okay. Should we be okay now? No, you're fuzzy. No, I can barely hear you. How do you want to do this? Okay well I'm trying to figure this out here as we go along. Trying to figure this out for you and the only thing I could think of is unplugging your phone and plugging it back in. But that is because I've changed some stuff in the back. Do what you need to do. Do it. Do whatever you need to do to keep

this one to keep this one rolling. All right. Les, you want to try that out on the fly here? You want to just try to unplug the headphone that you've got there? Yeah. Just plug it back in. I have a feeling it might just be turned or something or out a little bit. Yeah, we'll see if this works. Sorry everybody who's, yeah, I broke YouTube, Big Willy says. I hope not, I hope we can get this figured out

in real time. It looks like everything behind the scenes is good to go. But we'll see what Jeff comes back with here and if it does actually figure itself out in the meantime. Let's see what the chat's saying here while Jeff comes back. Tom Allen suggesting torts in the press box tomorrow. I don't think that that's going to be the case. I don't think he's going to bench himself after that one. And I was listening to Jeff while he was talking about it.

I think that... Audio is still bad. I can barely hear you. Still bad. Okay. I'm trying to figure this out. Let me see if I can get on the phone. If you got anything else to say in the meantime, I'll get a solution. Always, but I can barely hear anything. Okay, so a couple more things we want to go over here on the program and thanks for putting up with us. I'm just going to hop in the chat here as well. Open that up on my 23 tabs that I have going here. Ah there we go. All right.

On air production meeting. Yeah you got that right General Sorness. So a couple of other things I wanted to go over with you today. While I have your attention for the second time in as many nights, or second time this week, we saw officials break up a fight perhaps prematurely. All of those of you who were very excited to see Tanner Janow face off against Matt Rempey, it started off like, okay here we go two of the stronger players in the NHL. Rempey, I don't know, slipped on a banana something, fell down in that one. I like

how Tanner Junot helped pick him up so he could continue the fight, but to everybody's chagrin. The officials said, no, no, that's not gonna happen. One thing I do want to mention, Josh Samansky might not be a name that a lot of you know or have heard about, and I haven't thought about the name. I haven't, I mean, I used to watch him play with Owen Sound in the OHL, but I haven't thought about that name for a number of years until it popped up today. And it does very much sound like,

and I'm still just waiting to get this confirmed officially here, that he is signing an entry level deal with the Edmonds and Oilers. There's a really interesting story there on how he got to Owen Sound in the first place. So Josh Samansky's, indulge me here for a second on this story, this is mainly for Oilers fans who may find this interesting. So Josh Samansky, his father John played with the Oshawa Legionnaires with Dale DeGray. Dale would have been playing up a season. He's one year younger than John. Dale went on to have a wonderful career in the minor leagues and in the NHL. And John went to bowling green and then ended up playing a number of years in Germany where he met his wife

and they had Josh. Now, Josh has dual citizenship. And when his name popped up, he was playing Junior B in Brantford, went through the OHL draft, and then went through the import draft. Dale DeGray and the Owen Sound attack kind of played dumb janitor on the whole thing and just kind of kept their heads down and were very quiet about it and then claimed

him. And there were many that said no you you can't do that he's he's European and we've already done the we've already done the import draft and Dale's like no he's not he's got dual citizenship and that is how he ended up getting to Owen Sound so quick junior hockey story for you there the other one there were a number of number of teams that that that have been that have been watching that have been watching this player for a while, Josh Samansky. Now he had just signed a deal with Berlin in the DEL. That team is owned by the Los Angeles Kings and I'll be honest with you, the word around was that if he's going anywhere in the NHL the Los Angeles Kings are going to sign him but has been told to me there were some like 200 scouts at various

times throughout the year some GM some assistant general managers that have been have been have it had their eye on him I just assumed that if was gonna be an NHL team was gonna be Los, but it does very much look like, does very much look like he is going to the Edmonton Oilers. I'm like 99.99% sure that this is a done deal, and he'll play in Bakersfield next season, not this year. That's what I got for you on Josh Samansky. Elsewhere around the NHL,

as we continue to filibuster here, the hottest team in the NHL you saw on display yesterday, dismantling one of the more fun teams to watch around the NHL these days, that is the Montreal Canadiens. St. Louis Blues have now won seven games in a row. All of a sudden the St. Louis Blues are staring down the Minnesota Wild for wild card one in the Western Conference. Robert Thomas who was on the program last week, friend of the show, former teammate, was Zach Phillips who's trying to be audio engineer extraordinaire right now with another big game, one goal and three points. Philip Broberg, one half of the offer sheet boys with four points as well, one goal and three assists. I

mentioned two points back in Minnesota. Wild do have a game in hand there, but I don't know that anyone's getting that 2019 soap and warm water feeling about St. Louis. This one's different. The team has a different personality. This team has different players. There is still a symmetry with the goaltender and Jordan Bennington's been excellent for this team, but it was almost like clinical yesterday watching the St. Louis Blues taking apart the Montreal Canadiens 6-1 is the final score in this one. Get on board because this could be... you always want upsets and I know I've made a lot, and I think rightfully so, about this opening round.

We're guaranteed to get one absolute banger in Colorado and Dallas. That one's going to be fantastic. Really curious to see who the St. Louis Blues end up playing here. First of all, top three teams in the Pacific are all playing well. Vegas, Edmondson, I know they have their woes and it's bad news on the horizon here with Dreisaitl who is said to be coming back earlier than And McDavid longer. That one is not good. So here's what we're going to do.

We're having these audio problems here. So what we're going to do is we're going to shut down the stream and we're going to try to come back here. We may have to rebook Jacob Trickren based on our audio issues today. So bear with us here. We're going to take a quick pause and get things going again here on the sheet. Back in a second. So I'll say it together,

technology makes our lives better. Technology makes everything easier. Hey Zach, you know what the problem was? Restart. Excited to restart? It's the equivalent of hit it, give it a kick. Anyway we're back on. Apologies, poor Jacob Trick when we were standing by just waiting for us to solve our problems. So out of respect for his time we said we'll call him back another time. We'll get the 72 million dollar man as you referred to on YouTube back here on the program and here we're gonna talk about all these great stories from the Coyotes, from his draft, from Sarnia, from JRC and being injured in the

OHL Cup and not having light bulbs in his house. All kinds of wonderful stuff with Jacob Chickren. Actually you know what I want to talk to Jacob Chickren about? Sleep. So I think the light bulb thing is related to sleep. One of the books by the way that really changed my life, maybe this will change yours if you ever get around to reading it. I'm talking to you Zach by the way. There's a book by a guy named Matthew Walker called Why We Sleep, which after I read it, I was terrified.

Like, to this day, I'm terrified not to get minimum eight hours. Like, terrified not to have a sleep routine for my health. It's called Why We Sleep by Dr. Matthew Walker. There's a number of lectures of his available online, too. I'm guessing that either it's either like Huberman lab or Matthew Walker and that's one of the reasons why Jacob tricker and is as Specific as he is about nighttime rest and recovery and was looking forward to talking to him about that and other hockey issues I mean you can't talk about the caps without Ovi And other things and I'm delin strong an old teammate from the coyotes etc. But I was looking forward to that interview

We'll do it another time. Zach, where do we leave off? And thanks for hopping back, everyone that came back to play here on the program. Where do we leave off and what have we left off so far as we try to cobble together something that resembles a program today? Yeah, well, we left off, you were telling a story

which I was kind of in and out on because I was trying to get us get some audio there. Which one? But we had talked about torts. Oh yeah. And then yeah and then. Did you hear that Jim Pizzatelli story? Did I tell the, yeah I got the Pizzatelli story and about the choking and the scissors

and the scissors and the tie and all that I got the Samansky stuff in that's for our our Oilers friends he'll be in Bakersfield next year not this season there were a number of teams I was making the point that the team that just signed him to a four-year deal is owned by the Los Angeles Kings and that's Berlin I thought LA was gonna get him like I honestly thought that if anyone going to grab him and bring him over to North America it was going to be the Los Angeles Kings, but instead it is indeed the Edmonton Oilers.

Someone alert Tyler Yaremchuk immediately that it looks like the Oilers beat out a number of teams here. I would suspect LA would be one of them to get his services. Anyhow, what else we got for today? What else? Put a quarter in me and I'll start talking. William Nylander. Let's start there. That'll interest both of us, I think. I've always liked William Nylander. I always liked him because I really... like he was one of those players that I really wanted to work because I thought that every... the whole discussion

around him really didn't make a lot of sense. Young players tend to struggle, young players tend to, like look, when a guy is 18 he's not the same as he's going to be when he's 25 years old. I'm really glad that the whole you can't win with a guy like Nylander narrative is gone or Nylander is the weak link and Nylander has to go and if you're going to get rid of anybody it's got to be Nylander has to go and if you're gonna get rid of anybody it's got to be Nylander. Look before he signed that official that that that that Whopper deal coming out of his entry level I mean he was the discussion again I think I've mentioned this here the discussion was with the St. Louis Blues and the

deal was with Alex Patrangelo like that was that was going to happen Nylander wanted to stay and they were like seconds away from missing the deadline and the Nylander camp, Lewis Gross would be the agent there, Michael Nylander, his father would imagine would have had a lot of say on that contract too and then General Manager Kyle Doob was finally getting that together. But here's one of the things that I think Leafs fans should know about. Someone that I don't think they talk about very often but was kind of there at the the beginning of this rebuilding of your Toronto Maple Leafs Philly your Toronto Maple Leafs. So the Maple Leafs before the Philadelphia draft 2014 had drafted Frederick Goche in the... Freddie the Goat.

And like listen I remember watching him play in the... Freddy the Goat. Freddy the Goat. And like, listen, I remember watching him play in the queue and he was like a good player, like a safe pick. Like, let me give you a little peek into a scouts mind here for a second. Scouts take a lot of pride in their guys, their choices, the players they stump for, they encourage their managers to select getting into the NHL.

Okay, like there's a lot of, oh my guy made it to the NHL, oh I found this guy, he made it into the NHL, and there are a lot of like safe guys that you can encourage your team to select just knowing that they're just going to make it to the NHL. And that was the draft where, like the Philadelphia draft where the Maple Leafs took Took Nylander and there's a lot of talk about Nick Ehlers who was playing for Halifax at that time Lawson Krause, I believe as well was someone that a lot of people barked about that year for Toronto but Brendan Shanahan essentially before the draft told the Scouts like look the only way we're going to improve is not by going to the draft and making safe picks like oh my guy made it to the

NHL that's that's a check mark for me I get a cookie and I get a I get my contract extension so we're never gonna get better that way we're gonna get yet we're gonna be okay we're gonna be decent I'm sure you've seen plenty of teams around the NHL that just have really safe drafts and their guys make it into the NHL and the team ultimately goes nowhere. I remember that draft specifically Shanahan saying to the scouts, we need to swing for the fences. Like we need home runs. No more just like singles to get on base. Like we need home run picks. And that was the first one and that was the first one.

That was the first one they were gonna swing for the fences like as highly skilled as Nylander was there were still no guarantees that this you know high first round pick was going to hit the way that he has and now it's three 40 goal seasons in a row here for William Nylander. It's turned out to be an incredible draft pick. It didn't look good early, too soft, oh the puck goes in the corner, the season ticket holders have to jump over the glass to throw the puck out, Nylander's not going in, like all that stuff, right? Oh, you won't need the hot

towel after this game, oh, he doesn't know what a bruise is, like all the stuff you heard about Neelander, all totally wrong, all totally hogwash. And for the longest time as well, if you looked at, you know, sort of the the areas of the ice where he occupied, like he was one of the only Maple Leafs players who was going to the front of the net and absorbing punishment to try to make plays. Anyhow, just happy that, whenever I look at Nylander, one of the things I always think about was that Philadelphia draft when Shanahan said, no more safe picks. No more safe picks, we gotta swing for the fences yet. I can't just be guys that make it to the NHL, it's gotta be guys that have the potential to make a big impact, even if it's going to be a gamble for us. That's what I think about when I see

Nylander. You? Yeah, Nylander has changed. Like the narrative around him has drastically changed since he's been in Toronto. You talk about those early days. It's not just become, oh, Nylander does these things now, he gets involved in that. But, oh oh Nylander is the guy who does it and the other ones need to follow You know Nylander is the one who shows up in the playoffs or says the right things in the media or Takes the puck to the front of the net as simple as that may be why can't 34 16 yada yada Yada do that as well like he's the one leading the charge. It's kind of amazing to watch I also by the way, Jeff, just love how he conducts himself in the media here.

Like I think early on it was like, oh, this guy doesn't care. And now it's like, this guy is the best. He's great. I'll tell you what, you can do that when you're like snapping in 40, you can have that. But the thing is he's always he's always like I'm not telling tales out of school here like him and Sheldon Keefe didn't

always mix well either with the Marlies or with the Maple Leafs. That was a challenging relationship I think for both of them. You can behave like that like You'll be accepted a lot more quicker by a lot of people when you're scoring 40 goals and rocking 85 points every year. It's tougher when you first start, as we've seen before. But honestly, the thing about Nylander that I've always liked is I don't think he cares about any of it.

Like he doesn't care what people say. He's heard like think about it. Just put yourself in his because they've got a lot of NHLers that have been like this. I'm always impressed with it and Nylander is a touch point for a lot of this conversation. Think about all the things that he's heard about himself. Think about that for a second. Like you think that everything that we say in the media or everything that's online, social media, websites, all that, you think that he doesn't read that or isn't aware of it. He just doesn't care.

Like it's hard not to admire someone who is surrounded by that always. It just doesn't care. And it doesn't affect them. So he's so perfect for the market. He is perfect for the market. You're right. You know what's funny? Toronto has always been a great market for Swedes.

Swedes have really thick skin when it comes to that kind of stuff. They really do. I know this is like, this is a stereotype, but is it okay if it's a positive stereotype? Because Swedes have really, really thick skin and they don't mind hearing criticism. Like I know there have been a couple of examples to the opposite, but by and large Swedish hockey players,

you know Swedish people in general are so great for this sport because they just show up, they put their skates on and they do their job. What's the Nylander quote from today that you were telling me from before about scoring 40 goals. What do you say? Yeah, I can play it if you want. Yeah, let's watch it. I've got it loaded up here. Yeah, what do you got? 40 goals is hard to do. In second to season, 40 goals is hard to do. What do you think about that? Yeah, I mean just trying to do what I'm paid to do. That's it.

Harps off interview first of all. Chains out. Hats backwards. Whatever. It's what I'm paid to do. Score goals, man. Just what I do. Everything he does is like that too, right? I mean, remember they went on the three game losing streak and he's like that's three games who cares? Then they went on a three game winning streak immediately after who do you think the first guy they asked about it was? Melander and he goes that's just three games who cares? It's like three games.

Yeah I love them. I love them. I love them. Okay anything else here before we get to the games of the of the of the night? Young Zachary?, I want to talk about Craig Anderson, and then I have a picture to show you as well after, but you had some thoughts on Craig Anderson. I was watching, coming in the house this morning with him. Here's what I love. How the family battled through his wife's cancer, and how brave everybody was,

and I met her a couple of different times, Nicole, and just a wonderful person Really strong great family all of it One of the things that I this is like the tiniest thing one of the things that I always admired about Craig Anderson and maybe this is just like maybe you'll hear this acting you go like dad Stop being the dad, but as a dad, you know, I like He has his design the colors on his pads dad you know I like he has his design the colors on his pads you know that kids decided not know that it's awesome I love so I don't know I'm a man just

getting old soft sappy I just love that kids design his pads but he was on coming in hot and what did he say this morning Zachary he's talking about retirement and I want to play this clip for you because I think it's pretty funny. He's talking about the moment he knew It's the moment he knew that it was time to end it So this is him on coming in hot the boys this morning Okay, when did you make the decision that it was your final season and you knew this game was coming? When Brady asked if I was gonna play another season and I was cramping up in the net. Fair enough.

So that was like icing on the cake. I'm like, yeah, no, I'm good. I think that was in the second period. So good. No, I'm good. No, I'm good. You know, Kelly Rudy makes a great point. So... In the second period. So good. No, I'm good. No, I'm good. You know, Kelly Rudy makes a great point about retirement.

And you know, this is, we just saw Pat Maroon on Morning Cup of Hockey, and I thought about this when I was watching Laz and Colby interview him. Kelly Rudy brought up a great point with me once, and it's always stuck with me. He said, the moment you think about retirement, you're retired. Like the minute that it enters your head, a part of you retires. A part of you checks out. Right? Like when you're young and you're in the NHL, like, you don't even, like, the word, like,

you don't even, it doesn't, it's not part of your vocabulary. You're not even thinking about it. And you get to a point where all of a sudden you start thinking about it. And Kelly's point is an interesting one. When you do, part of you retires. At that single moment. Just because now all of a sudden the R word is in your head. When you're like 21, 22, or William Nylander, snapping in 40 goals, tarps off. Well, he's not thinking about retirement. Like you're like 21, 22, William Nylander snapping in 40 goals, tarps off, he's not thinking about retirement.

Like, you're not. But the minute that you think it and you say it, part of you retires. I've always remembered that. It's such a good point by Kelly. The R word. I always liked Craig Anderson too and I hope that we remember just how great a goaltender he was. Like when Craig Anderson was on his game,

I remember Kevin Woodley from In Goal magazine telling me all the time about Craig Anderson is that there was, for a time there, there was no one better in the NHL at anticipating where shots were going. He just had this uncanny ability better than Craig Anderson. There was just, it was like the goalie skill, right? Like the one that the goalies look at and go like, oh, like casual fans may miss it or dopes like me would just go like, okay, so he made a save, big

deal. It's like, no, look at the lean, look where he's going, look how he knew the stick and all that. He was like Craig Anderson was the finest at it. That guy was an awesome goaltender. I loved, loved, loved, loved watching Craig Anderson. That was from this morning's edition of the Coming In Hot podcast. I mentioned St. Louis, by the way, and Rob Thomas continues, Rob Thomas continues to soar, to which my question is, where do we send the invoice?

Yeah, I could use some of them like teeth like that. I wouldn't, I don't think that would be bad on camera Yeah, the only thing would be lights lights on it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, maybe not so much, but you know what I mean Yeah, the sheet bump sheet bump. That's it. Well, it's in the there's there's an old saying It's an old saying in our industry Zach. You got to remember this one. Okay. I want you to put this in your hip pocket In hockey, there's no I in team But there's two I in team, but there's two I's in invoice. I always remember that.

There's two I's in invoice. Next time we're talking to Robert Thomas. He's snapping in like four points, a goal and three assists or whatever it was last night for him. Yeah, one plus three. Him and one half of the offer sheet boys, Philip Roburg with four points last night as well, I just remember like, like yeah you got the bump here. You got the bump here first. Remember where you came from Rob. Remember where you came from. YSC I know there's no shortage of YSC talks on the program.

Okay let's get to the games of the night. Last night was a busy one around the NHL. Hope you really enjoyed it. Tonight we've got four games and a couple of things I want to remind you of. The sheet is powered by FanDuel. That is home of the same game Parlay. Make every moment more on FanDuel. FanDuel, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. And how many games we have tonight, Zack? We have four. And the first one should be a banger. It's Vancouver and the New York Islanders Islanders one point out of wild card Which means one point away from Johnny Lazarus Finally getting ink on that virgin skin of his

Finally he's gonna feel the seer He's gonna feel the burn. It's been a few years for me now. I'm trying to get the itch again. I want to get the burn but Johnny Lazarus may be first if the Islanders make the playoffs. So one point out of wild card two connects five points out. Ilya Sorokin starts here. This one is going to have a playoff intensity. Vancouver cannot squander anything right now. It's the way St. Louis is playing. There is no way they can take a step back and the Islanders are right there and they're still steamed even though I still think it's the right call. They're

still steamed about the goalie interference call the other night. But nonetheless. I mean I didn't really weigh in on it but I don't. What'd you think? You wouldn't have called it? I was more on Laz's side. I just think that there's also like, it was Merzlikan's I think, right? He steps right out onto the very top of that crease. And it's just, I get what you were saying. And you know, you're in the blue.

That's on you. I understand all that. But like, his ass is in the blue, that's on you. I understand all that, but like, his ass is in the blue. His feet are outside. It doesn't matter. There's gotta be a just a. Let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question.

That's gotta be amended. Okay, let me ask you a question. Yeah. Even though you're a Leafs fan, did you like Carey Price? As a goaltender, did you like Carey Price? Unbelievable, goaltender did you like Carey Price? Unbelievable. Like the best of his generation, right? Yeah. There was nobody in net better at initiating contact and making it look like goalie interference than Carey Price. He was the

king. He was a great goalie. He had, he like, there was no one in his era, in his generation, God it was like five minutes ago too, there was no one in his era that moved to position quicker and more efficiently than Carey Price. He made what would be really difficult saves for most goaltenders look easy because he was that strong and could get to position and set up and just like well he the puck hit him in the chest the puck went off his pants like yeah because he gets her he was an incredible goaltender but to me like one of the skills that separates him from all the other goaltenders was there was no one better at drawing goalie interference calls than than him

Terry Price was the guy. Again, I think that's a skill. I think drawing penalties is a skill. And there was no one better than Kerry Price. So to your point about Merzlikens, if I squint, I can see your point. I still think that was goalie interference. Based on how they've called it.

My frustration, I guess, is more that he engaged. I personally feel like Merzlikens engaged the contact, not Palmieri. And if Palmieri was six inches lower down, then I would have said, yep, 100%. Like if he was six inches closer to the goal line, and I continue to say 100%, and I've got no problem with that,

I think he's going out at the top of the crease. Obviously he knows what he's doing in terms of just getting in front of Merzlikens, but Merzlikens is the one that comes out. And in my opinion, that should just at least be grounds for like, this was mutual engagement. Paul Mary came out to the top of the crease. Mersleekins engaged with him there when he did so. It

like the onus is it's like Jeff when we talk about these hits where the player turns his back to the last second. Yes, you can't hit the guy, but there is an onus of responsibility on you to protect yourself there. Like it's like there's an onus responsibility on the coltender to not come out and engage with the guy. But you're saying these are two, but that example is two players. This is a player and a coltender. The coltender's responsibility is to stop the puck. Like where this isn't apples and oranges, it's chalk and cheese. Like that's how different these two things are. Listen, and we made the point yesterday on the program about

if you have more old goalies in the situation room, you're going to get a lot more goals because old goalies will say, that's soft, that's a goal. Here's another thing. Old goalies hate goalies. Everyone that came after them. It's so good. Every time we talk to someone who played in the NHL, oh I hate this guy, I hate that guy, I hate this guy. It's hilarious. I love it. How did we get on this topic?

Oh yeah, Islander is facing off against Vancouver Connects, the UBS Arena. It is the New Jersey Devils taking on the Chicago Blackhawks. You want to talk about a game that you cannot lose if you're the New Jersey Devils? Like you're playing Chicago. You're still like right in there for the play. You cannot lose this game. Jacob Markstrom gets the start. Lazar Bastion and Nemec are in. You cannot lose this game, right? Zach Phillips, if you're Sheldon Keefe from the New Jersey Devils, you cannot lose this game. Not at this point of the season

and where you are in the standings, right? Correct, 100%. You know what I just thought about, by the way, do you remember, the way you said that about Chicago, do you remember it was Bruce Cassidy in the playoffs with Vegas and they lost to somebody and he came out after and he said, you're not gonna beat Arizona in January playing that way.

No disrespect. No, dude, you meant disrespect. You were saying they're a bad team. So much for like all those years in the American Hockey League humbling you and like, oh, yeah, Cassidy's never gonna come up and coach in the NHL again. And then boom, he's one of the best and big contracts. No disrespect to Arizona. But like, come on, he's two of the best and big contract no disrespect to Arizona but like come on he's two foot so lay up here is two foot putt. Yeah it just reminded me of that when you said that the way you said it's going to Chicago

no disrespect to Arizona. You can't. Okay Dallas takes on Edmonton that one could be a banger you saw the news earlier about Leon Dreisle is going to be like another week and Conor Mcgavrey is going to be longer. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.

And the Boston Bruins facing off against the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center. Anaheim is fun to watch. Like I'll just admit it. They don't, they're playing better. I still maintain. Like it's, I liked them at the beginning of the year. I like them now. I liked them last year.

There's always like glimpses of like, okay these guys are gonna be really good once they all really get on the same page here. I still like watching Anaheim. Sorry, call me a loser, I still like watching Anaheim. Sorry, I say I had the most boring life in the world, fine, I don't care. I watch a lot of hockey games, I still like watching Anaheim. And I still think Mason McTavish is gonna be a star. I think Anaheim's kind of exciting right now. Good. I like, this is good stuff to watch. I looked at Fandwell, they're favored against the Bruins tonight.

Isn't that wild? Yeah. I mean, Anaheim's at home and Boston is completely... If you told me in January, January, yeah, probably January, that they would have been favored against the Bruins here in this game tonight, Jeff, I would have told you you're eating space cakes. All right, I guess space cake. All right, time to wrap it up then. So those are your games tonight. Vancouver and the Islanders, New Jersey and Chicago, Dallas face-off against Edmonton, Boston takes on the Ducks of Anaheim.

Listen, like I don't know what it is. It was mice, it was other rodents, it was gremlins, it was I don't know like what else can we pin this on for our audio issues today. Apologies from this end. Technology man, these things happen and apologies to the Washington Capitals and Jacob Trickman. We'll have to rebook In the meantime, Zach any closing words before we... by the way, nice win for your boys last night John Tavares, holy smokes. Remember when we were all saying like the last few years this contract are gonna be ugly? Nope. I remember like when he signed, I remember like here's a great line I remember when Mark Stone signed his deal with Vegas,

Doug McClain, I was on the set with him, it was a trade deadline, and he said, that is both the best and worst contract in the NHL. It's great right now, and by the end it's gonna be ugly, and we said the same thing about the John Tavara's deal. It's great right now, this is awesome for the Maple Leafs, by the end this one's gonna be ugly, guess what? I was wrong, surprise, surprise.

He looks great. Yeah, surprise. He looks so great. Yeah, I had the same thought as well, but like we went into this season too. Is this year JT's legs fall off? Is he gonna be a winger? Is he a third line center man? I know. Hey, you know what?

Here's one for you. I don't want you to sleep tonight. I want you to have this nightmare. Okay, here's what I want. You know what I was thinking about watching that game last night? I had a few games of watch. want. You know what I was thinking about watching that game last night? A few games of what? What?

You know what I was thinking about, if he doesn't resign with the Toronto Maple Leafs, you know where he'd look really good? I don't want, I don't want to know where this is. Montreal. Montreal. Montreal, no. Yeah.

No, no, no, no. Suzuki and Tavaro's up again. No, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he'd look really good, no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you look really good Young players here's no bad Mmm can see San Luis just loving them No, mmm No, no, no, no, no just just wait to have nightmares tonight Zach just want you to have night Jeff

I think your audios not working. Yeah, exactly. Your aud is not working. No, that's usually just by the time. Hey, by the way, quickly. Yeah. We saw it last night. I have a take on this, so just leave this for people to think about and chew on for tomorrow. The wave, it's not that bad. I think the wave got the same rap that Nickelback gets, where people liked Nickelback and they're good and it's exciting and then somebody decided one day you know what Nickelback stinks and then everyone was like it's the cool thing to think Nickelback stinks I'm not like in love with the wave but I don't think it's that bad this is like three games in a row now here at home for the Leafs. They've got the wave going. Give me the wave.

Get people in Scotiabank on their feet, Jeff. I need the energy. I need the excitement. Give me the wave. I don't think it's that bad. My issue is not Nickelback because I think the songs are good, but you know what I hate? And I can't get past this I can't get past this for everything from Pearl Jam to Barbra

Streisand I can't stand bottom lip singers I can't do like any any bottom lip sing I can't do it all my buddies are huge Progen fans I can't I can't do it. All my buddies are huge Progen fans. I can't. I can't do it. I can't do bottom lip singers. Bottom lip singers drive me crazy. It doesn't matter like what style of music. You're a bottom lip singer. Sorry I'm checked out. I can't do it. That's why I can't do it for Nickelback. Wave, eh. You know I'm always, I'm at the age now where it's like, do the kids like it? Then it's good. That's all. If the kids like it, fine. You know, you don't need me to be grumpy about the way.

Yeah. You like it, go for it. That's fine. But I am so pissed off about bottom lip singers. And if you're like a singing instructor and that's how you teach people, like shame on you, go to Box, feel ashamed. Two minutes you're free.

Bottom lip singers, not for me, not for me. Yeah. I just say it's like, I don't think it's that bad. I don't think we need to hate on it. We don't need to get this bad rap for having the wave. You know, get people on their feet. I love you spreading the love. Spreading the love, he's the always optimistic, never cynical. He's a Lee fan. Never cynical about anything.

Never bitter. The one and only Zach Phillips here on the sheet. Thanks for joining us. We're back tomorrow at three o'clock Eastern. Don't forget, no, actually, no, there's no morning cup of hockey tomorrow. Boys are off for a couple of days. So join us tomorrow, three o'clock Eastern here.

We'll try to put together an entire show all at the same time. The bar is so long on this show. The bar is so long. We'll be back tomorrow. The bar is so long on this show. The bar is so long. We back to it. I went to the dark man, he tried to give me a little medicine I'm like, nah man, that's fine I'm not against those methods but I knew It's me, myself and Alex gonna be fixing my mind I feel on the record

I turned on the music I feel on the record I turned on the music I do want to break it I turned on the music Wasting up their battle That you sometimes lose it Helping on the days that went wrong