The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Alex Tuch is Going to Get Paid... ft. Brian Burke

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Today on The Sheet, Jeff Marek is joined by Brian Burke for a wide-ranging discussion that starts in Buffalo, where Alex Tuch continues to light the league on fire and drive up his value ahead of the NHL trade deadline. The conversation naturally shifts to the big question facing the Buffalo Sabres: do they hold onto Tuch and push for the playoffs, or cash in while his price tag keeps rising? Marek and Burke then zoom out to survey the league, breaking down trade markets beginning to open, the Toronto Maple Leafs free fall, and how Brad Treliving’s work in Toronto is being evaluated amid the turbulence. The guys answer listener questions before Marek and Zack Phillips preview an upcoming interview with Chris Pronger, set to release February 9. The episode wraps with a Today in Hockey History segment and Zack’s parlay to close things out.Leave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach 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/@FNBarnBurner🚨 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-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!#TheSheet #JeffMarek #BrianBurke #AlexTuch #Sabres #NHLTradeDeadline #NHLTrades #MapleLeafs #BradTreliving #HockeyHistory #ChrisPronger #DailyFaceoff #NHL #Hockey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, Zach, I got a quick question for you here before we get to the rundown in Brian Burke. Who normally joins us on Wednesdays? We had some technical problems. We got Brian Burke here on Friday. So really quickly, Macklin-Colabrini, trying to wave off a high-sticking infraction against him yesterday. First of all, as a hockey fan, how did you like that? No, I hate it. You did, hey?

Yeah, I get okay, whatever. You want to be a good guy. I got no problem with that. But, like, you got to be a scumbet. sometimes, man. You got to just take those. Take the opportunities that you can get. It's the ref's fault, he called that. You were the one who pointed it out to me, and I never forget this. I had this conversation the other day with somebody. Early on in doing the show, I said I hate when the stick goes near a guy's face, and he does the head thing, and you were the one who pointed out.

That's natural. That's natural. Exactly. And I've always remembered that. So Celebrini, the stick comes up near him. His head goes back. The ref calls it is what it is. Penalty. Keep it moving. Wow. Okay. I want to pick up on that with you after I talk to Brian, who's standing by patiently. Here's what's coming up on the program today. Wow, that's interesting. The blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game on Fandul. We'll pick up that conversation about Macklin Celebrini coming up towards the bottom of the hour.

Brian Burke is standing by. We're going to get to Berkey in a couple of seconds. We'll talk about how much money Alex Tuck is poised to make as the Buffalo Sabres continue to soar, as does Alex Tuck with a hat trick last night. we'll talk about the Maple Leafs. We'll talk about, we've got some listener questions for Berkey as well. They're sort of holdovers from Wednesday that we're going to get to today. And we're going to play a couple of clips here from Chris Pronger.

I sat down with Chris two days ago to talk about mainly Olympics. And we're going to play a couple of things today. This is for a February 8, I believe, 9th drop. But anyway, we'll give you a little preview of that coming up a little bit later on here on the program. In the meantime, we'll get right to Brian Burkey. here. I always like to get Berkey on every week for his insights on everything going on around the NHL world. And we do have something. And first of all, Berkey, thanks for dropping by today. Technology, not our friend on Wednesday, but glad to have you aboard today. Before we get going,

can I play a clip for you? Yes. Okay. So, Berkey, I'm going to play this clip. So a couple days ago, I sat down with Chris Pronger, and at the end of it, I knew I was going to be talking to you this week here on the show. I asked him about you. This is Chris Pronger. talking about Brian Burke. Hit it, Zach. I look at Chris Pryor. Chris Ponger does a lot of things. What did Berkey say to you?

Like, okay, Chris, this is what you do. You know what? I just think he was very, very fair and very detailed in. If you got a problem with your ice time, don't come into my office. Randy's office is right over there. You got a problem with something else. I'm here for you.

My door is always open. You want to talk about life. You got a problem. You want to get traded. Just come into my office. office let me know and I'll find a home for you. You know, and as a player, as a player, you love that honesty and you love that straightforwardness about, you know, how he operates the team and how he operates the business.

And, you know, it's a breath of fresh air when you get to some places and everything is very secret and very under the table, under the radar. He's up front. He's very open and honest with you. Like whether you're, you know, if you're playing good, he's going to tell your plan. good and keep it up and if you're maybe not doing your job to the best of its ability or you're struggling a little he might check in on you and see if everything's okay is anything bothering you know is you know is it's something else and if it's not then it's

like hey you need to play better okay now that we got rid of all that time to pick it yeah now that we've played the table and there's nothing wrong with you why are you not playing better okay so that's chris pronger talking about you burkey do you ever thought on that from Chris? I hope I always talk to my players that way. I think I did. I never lied to him. I was honest with them to a fault

where sometimes you hurt their feelings. Like if someone said to me, how come I'm not playing more? I'd say, because you're playing poorly, that's why, because you're playing for shit. And that's why I're not playing more. And sometimes they don't like that. But I think I was always brutally honest with players. I think they appreciate it.

And if they didn't, I found them somewhere else to go. You know, the minute I mentioned your name, because that was the second part of a question about you, right away, pronger's face sort of lit up. Like, you guys have, first of all, one of the things that I recognize that he mentions in there is sometimes communication with a manager isn't as open as it is with you. And a lot of managers are expert in the art of bullshitting, just to be blunt. but that's never been your game. Like that idea of being direct and honest and all that really appreciated it by Pronger. What was Pronger like to you?

Was he the same way with you? Wide open, I'm going to tell you what's exactly on my mind. Yes, very opinionated. Very, very bright, first of all. Very smart family. The mom and dad, I drafted Sean Pronger as well. Yep. in Vancouver. The mom and dad

are really successful, bright people. Sean was very, Sean's a smart guy too. Chris is a bright, bright guy. So start with a very high intellect, high IQ, and had a high, great hockey sense to it. He was a joy to be

around as a player. Now, he's a crabby, grumpy guy. He didn't run the two grumpiest guys they ever had. Nothing's ever right with Chris. Cops beats cream or sugar. Something's all wrong.

But he got away with that because he's such a great player. Players will put up with a grumpy guy. One last question about Prong of the moment. We'll move on. I do want to ask you about Alex talking the Buffalo Sabres. What did he mean to that 2017? We're going to hear from Prong at the bottom of the hour. What did

he mean to your Stanley Cup team? Well, he was a missing piece. We went to the conference final my first year and I had meeting with the whole staff. All the coaches, pro scouts are where I said, are we that close or do we just ride good bullseeing? It was brilliant for us.

We all, we just need one thing for us Brian, so we got him. And he was outstanding that blue line was incredible alongside Scott Nadermeier and Francois Bochaman, etc., etc. Even some of the accessory pieces your Joe DePentas and your Kent Huskins and your Jackmans and all these guys were so great for you. Okay, I want to ask you about

the Buffalo Sabres. I want to ask you about Patrick Kane. I also want to ask you about Alex Tuck. Hatrick last night is the Buffalo Sabres, like just bluntly, the Buffalo Sabres continue to roll here. Like this is now past the point where, oh, they've won 10 games. We've seen this before. This is like a legitimately good team. And Alex Tuck with the hat trick last night.

We've talked a lot about the decision that Yarmo has here, the decision that Tuck has here. You know, on the one hand, I say to myself, there's a number, there's a dollar figure that the Buffalo Sabres are comfortable with, and there's a dollar figure the Sabres aren't comfortable with. But when you look at this season, you know, this has been 14 years without playoffs, they're desperate to get in. Yarmu's got a tough decision here because he's got away what's right for the franchise now,

what's right for the franchise in the future. It's kind of like a really interesting needle that he's trying to thread here. if you're in Yarmo's shoes, how would you be handling this? Like, Tuck wants the Adrian Kempai contract, essentially. That's probably where he's at here. How would you handle this one? Well, first off, you got to average out what the guy's done.

Can't take one big year and say that's what he's worth. You've got to average it, what he's done. You've got to figure out a body at work, what's a fair rate. You can't overpay him just for one good year. I like Alex Tuck. I think he's been a good player since he's given a good player. the week. I wouldn't overpay him. I don't think they're going to. I don't think you're almost going to.

Do you think that there's a chance that they may just do the, he's our own rental? Or is the future of this organization too sensitive? And you can't let someone like Alex Tuck walk for nothing. I had this conversation with someone earlier today about rat. They think. Point has first big year, first really big year. first really big year once he worked.

He's 20, he's 30 goals. 30 goals score. He's average 2. And they're going to count to say he's a 2 goal score average. So there's a middle brown there. I think in Oaksuk would like to stay in Buffalo if he likes it there.

I think there's a number that will make sense for both. A quick thought on the Buffalo Sabres themselves here too. Like all of a sudden, you know, Buffalo and there's a couple of other ascendant teams in the Atlantic. but Buffalo is, you know, one of the great stories in the NHL this season. And, you know, you were always quick to point out the work that managers that came before you, specifically in 2007. And a lot of this is Kevin Adams, like the majority of this team.

This is Kevin Adams team here. Yarmokicahelan, you know, hasn't really been able to sink his teeth into this one yet. But how good are the Buffalo Sabres? well they're not they won 20 out of 22 games or something yeah 24 games they're not that good and they will come back down to the two earth but they are good Kevin Adams put a lot of good pieces in play they couldn't get it all to operate in sync but now they are and Lindy rough's doing a great job so they're uh they're hitting on all eight stones so how good are they're good enough to make the playoffs I don't think they're back to though I was

going to say after the game, and I believe it was Alex Tuck himself. Someone's going to correct me if I'm wrong here who said, you know, like we're at the point now where players on the Buffalo Sabres are saying, we're not here just to make the playoffs. We're here to win the Stanley Cup. That's an exaggeration. I don't think anyone's saying

that the Buffalo Sabres are a Stanley Cup team. But for a long time, we've wondered about this team and said, there's a lot of great pieces here. To your point, they haven't been able to pull it all together. But now that we see what it looks like when they can pull it all together, Berkey, it's really impressive.

It is. Again, goaltending, too. Yeah. I had trouble with the goaltending earlier in the year. Now the goaltening's been solid. Everything else is falling into place. It's fun to watch. It's good for the game.

It's good for the game. It's good for the game. It's better. Those are good stories. Yeah. Okay, so let's focus on a bad one then. The Toronto Maple Leafs losing record is now over to six. They lose the Seattle, tracking 5-2 yesterday.

And the other thing, and you pointed this out with Detroit and with the Buffalo Sabres, it's a tough night for the Maple Leafs because everybody around them is winning. Boston doubles up Philadelphia. We just mentioned the Buffalo Sabres and they beat the Kings 4-1. Montreal stomps Colorado in the Montreal-Covec game. Tampa 4-1 over Winnipeg. The Detroit Red Wings lose one in a shootout to the Washington Capitals, but they pick up a point in the process

and the Maple Leafs find themselves 10 points out of a wild card spot in the east. I wondered about the game against the Buffalo Sabres and whether that was going to be it. Like that was the nail in the coffin for the Maple Leafs. Ending the homestand, 04 and 1 was a really difficult one. Rasmus Dahlene with the hat trick. Is it over essentially for the Maple Leafs as far as playoffs go?

Because it's not just the points. It's the teams you jump. over two. Yeah, and I've been saying up until now, it's not time to panic, but it might be time to panic. What's kept this thing interesting is nobody's been pulling away, but they're starting to get some distances from daylight between them and the better teams. They're 10 points out now. I used to say, even a week ago, I said, well, if they went four in a row, they're back in the playout spot, well, they're not if they went four in a row. So it's time to start looking and saying, And, okay, start exploring.

I'm at fleeters here. I'm at a restaurant. Sorry, Jeff. That's okay. The best breakfast and lunch place in Wayne Fleet, Ontario. Give it a plug. Called fleeters. Fleeters.

Fleeters. We're fleeters. So you'll see the staff walking around in here. It's my favorite place to eat. That's awesome. I couldn't get the Internet at the farm, so it came here. Anyway, it's starting to, they are opening up distance between themselves now

and the teams that are ahead of them. It's time to be concerned for me. So here becomes the, you can speak with this with a lot more authority than me, obviously. Philosophically, do you, like if you're Brad Trilliving, do you look at this team and say, we need to do something completely different, or do we need to do what we're doing

but better philosophically. Does this thing need to be like broken and fixed or just massaged? When you look at the Maple Leafs, what do you see right now

if you're brought to living? It's start with a star of the superstar player. That helps. But one of the things as you look at a team trying to put together a championship team

you have to serve to the star player usually are at the top of Tuesday. So you have to serve of the star player that helps. But I think you have to explore all opportunities right now and see what the price thing. What is the price tag to add up in there versus just a improvement? It's a dramatic improvement just add an upgrade.

What's the price tag difference? Because they can't keep trading away first round pace. You know, I wonder if this is going to be, because I think we wonder, you know, the Bobby McMan's of the world, expiring contracts, those are some of the easier ones to make decisions on. and to move them. But if, like, and this is what I think we wonder, if you believe that it's situation critical and that one of the key pieces needs to move as well here,

the team lost Mitch Barner, as we all noted, the Vegas Golden Knights last year in Free Agency, what do you do? Like, if you may come to the decision that, you know, we don't just put a Band-Aid on this, we need to get the hospital bracelet on and the patients in long-term. What do you do there? Well, the first two guys last night on SportsNexam,

said trade Bobby McMahon. I think that's crazy. I think he's been one of their better players. He's a great kid. He works hard. He's not a star, but he shouldn't be the first guy out of the door. There are guys producing

way lower levels than him. So that one troubles me right off the bat. But I think you have to listen to everything. I really believe that. All right. I want to play a couple of notes for you from from people that we've sort of canvassed

around our fan base and I want to get to a couple other notes from recent days here around the NHL, including the Islanders pair of trades. Let's get first a voicemail from

Jeff Merrin. Do we have this one queued up for Berkey Zach? Hi, Berkey. My name is Jeff Marone. I have a story that I heard about your time at Providence, and I was wondering how valid and true it was. I will not reveal the name of the player that told me this story, but I will give you a hint that it was a goaltender. According to him, players took great pleasure when you were at Providence to not leave the ice before you

because you like to be the first one on the ice and the last one off, and they took pleasure of getting you agitated and riled up because they simply wouldn't leave. Enjoy you on the show every week. Really appreciate what you do for the LGBT community. And thank you for taking my question. Great one. It's true on leaving the ice.

I didn't care about being first time. I was never first time. I was always a goalie. But I was always the last stop. And I did have almost came to blows a couple of times with players who didn't want me to be the last guy off. I almost got to fight with Jimmy Korn. Whoa.

That, Brian, I know you were, tough, but I don't know if I would be picking fights with Jim Corn. Well, I'm not saying I could have won that fight. I'd say we almost keep the blows. That's the duty of being a hockey player. It's not, you don't think you can win the fight. Sometimes you have to fight.

You just take it anyway. See, I'm kind of, to be honest with you, Brian, I'm kind of surprised that you weren't the first guy on the ice all the time. Because every time that we ever worked together doing television at Sportsnet, there was you were always the first one there. Like if we were doing an afternoon game, you were there in the morning. If we were doing an evening game, you'd be there around two or sometimes one o'clock in the afternoon. You've told the story before that when you're in Vancouver, for example, you'd be at the office, 5 o'clock in the morning, 6 o'clock in the morning before everybody else.

I'm kind of surprised it didn't extend to your playing career, that you weren't the first on the ice guy at practice. They always thought that Ronnie Wilson went out ahead of me anyway He was the star But a goalie out ahead of everyone So I didn't care about being the last guy on I was the first guy to work in the morning I prided myself on that But no I like being last guy off of

And I insisted on that All right Jeff you got something there with Berkey That is true speakpipe.com slash the sheet For the sheet line to get your voicemail in For Brian Burke Let's do one more here before I want to shift gears and get to the Islanders in Matthew Darsh's week. This comes to us from our good buddy, General Sornis, about officials.

Zach. Hey, Berkey, General Sornis here. Question for you. In your time in the NHL, did you ever feel like a referee had a personal vendetta out against one of your players, coaches, your team, or maybe even yourself? And if so, how did you go about that situation? Thanks, Berkey. In general, no.

The referees are very professional. I was their boss for five years. I worked for Gary Bedman. I was in charge of officials. Brian Lewis was the director of officiating, but I was his boss. So I spent a lot of time with the officials. I have great respect for them. They don't generally have carry judges.

I did have a problem in Calgary, where we had a concerted effort against our entire team. by all the referees, call them penalties. And I'm not going to name the player. Well, you can figure it out if one of our defensemen ran over our lines, the line, and they held it personally against him.

We became the least penalized team in the league of the most penalized team in about three weeks. So I asked for a meeting with this C.Walkham and Olin Campbell. We had a meeting. Ken King was there, the late Great King. I was there I think Tree was there and I said

I pointed out the stats I said this has to stop now because they felt the defenseman Dennis Wyden had run into the linesman intentionally which he hadn't

and they started pile of penalties on our team and it stopped right away to their head once we called it out to the league once I called to the league's attention, it stopped at once. It's imperfection there. I think it was around

215-216. For those that may not remember the incident, it was Dennis Wideman, defenseman for Berkey's Calgary Flames. The linesman in question was a guy the name of Don Henderson. And after that, like, honestly, Berkey, all of us,

like, everybody in hockey media were like, okay, like, are they paying Weidman tax? And that was the phrase that everybody used. like, oh, Calgary's run up eight penalties in this game. They're paying the Dennis Wydenman tax for Wydenman running into Henderson. Clearly, you felt that way. Clearly, you had some evidence to back it up. What was that conversation like, though, with Wacham and the officials?

Well, once we laid it out, Stevie Wacham's a really good guy. And the league pays attention. The league listens. People are saying stuff about it on the air. And that's finally when I said to Stevie, I said, Stevie, we have to sit down. people are openly questioning the national hockey name and their credibility on the air. I said, I got to say something at some point. I don't want to do that.

I want to meet with you first. So to be fair to the officials, this was very real. It was unprofessional. It was wrong. But to their credit, it cleaned up right away immediately. We had that meeting. It stopped overnight. So that was the only time that you thought that any officials were consistently being unfair either to you?

your teams or to individual players? Yes. I do feel you get a break. When we played Detroit in the playoffs, I told our team, they're a league, we're not. We're going to have to kill one more penalty every day than they are.

There's that bias that gets built in for great teams. So we got the benefit of that bias when we became a better team. So I think a top team is going to draw more penalties to have the puck more. does it feel like? And I'll cite, you know, that that Islanders team that had the insane power play. Most recently, the Edmonton Oilers certainly have an insane power play.

There was that one year, was it 2019, the Columbus Blue Jackets, had an outrageously good power play with Sam Gagne in the bumper position. This is all anecdotal and not based on any evidence other than vibes. because I've always wondered about this. Did you ever feel that officials were just a little bit more hesitant to call penalties that would put teams with elite level power plays on the power play because it was almost akin to we're handing this team a goal? No.

I think the one thing, I think they should do this. And officials put the whistle away when they're killing a penalty. You can break a guy's arm. if you're killing a penalty and not get a second call. I think they put the whistle away at that point, but I don't think there's a bias that the team of a really good power play. They're not going to call penalties. Okay.

Back to hockey right now. The New York Islanders had an interesting week. A couple of trades, Matthew Darsh, making the move for Carson Sussi with the New York Rangers and then Andre Pallat with the New Jersey Devils. Now, New Jersey and the Islanders have made, I want to say, like, 24 or 20s. trades in their history. The Rangers and the Islanders, however, have made, I think now it's five.

And, you know, the Islanders came into the NHL in 1972. First of all, teams that just refused to trade with one another. That's one question slash comment. And the other is, what did you think of Matthew Darsha's moves this year? Picks up a winger, picks up a depth defenseman. Well, I didn't see. You probably can answer this question for me. How much money was retained on Paul at?

All of it. Like, no, sorry, they took all of it. They took the whole freight, and that's why they got draft picks. Yeah, so I like the deal. I was to say, if you managed to eat money on it, or get New Jersey to eat money on it, that was even better. But I like both deals. I like Susie.

I like the picks. I like the lot. Blat's falling out of favor, but he's a good player. I like the deal. I like Matthew Dars. He seems like a sharp guy. He really is. And, you know, he paid the third for Susie, and he got the third.

from the New Jersey Devils as well. And to your point, he had to retain the, take all the money in the Andre Palat deal. The nature of teams just refusing to trade with each other. Like one of the things that I always marvel at, like Quebec and Montreal never really made deals. Edmonton and Calgary very seldom. There have been a few.

But the one that I always go back to is the Buffalo Sabres and the Boston Bruins. Now, Buffalo came in in 1970, along with the Vancouver Canucks, and it wasn't until 2008, maybe 2009, and the Danny Pai deal. Like, that was the first trade between the Buffalo Sabres and the Boston Bruins. They were always rivals in the Adams Division. I know a lot of people see Peter McNabb and Andre Savard, but that was a free agent compensation.

That wasn't a trade. Just a thought on the nature of teams. refusing to trade with one another, Berkey. You've seen it before. Yeah, I think there are teams that I had trouble making deals with certain GMs. You figure out pretty quickly that they're speaking French. You're speaking in Italian. You can't make a move on and spend, don't make a lot of calls.

So it seems like Darcy Ruggara and I could never make a deal. We got a long great. He's a great guy, but we could never make a deal. Finally made one. I think Calgary, Edmonton, I think when I traded Stevie Steyas to Edmonton, I think, or to account from Vancouver to, or know, where did I trade it? Calgary to Edmonton, I think that was the first time those two teams that ever made a deal. So there are, you're not going to trade your division. You're never going to trade a goon or a goalie.

That was the old rule. No goons, no goalies. The same division. You don't want someone they just got acquired coming into your building and beating the snout. beating the snout of somebody. So, no, but it's, I'm not surprised certain teams don't make deals.

Yeah, it's, it is interesting. I think one of the things that fans have wondered about, too, is these things have always been rumored, but we don't know. Is it true that some managers won't acquire players because of the agent? That that factors in?

That's true for sure. Absolutely. but it's very few. Most of the reasons are good guys. Most of them are honest. I had very few problems with agents. It never once I say, I will not acquire a player

that's represented by that guy. But it does happen and has happened. Oh, yeah. I stayed away from, I didn't say it never would, but I stayed away from guys. Certain guys didn't like. I didn't think they were honest.

Okay, let's get another question here. This one in from Willie, I love this question, and I'm disappointed in myself. that in all the years that I've known you, Brian, I've never asked you this one. Is this a voicemail? Zach, no, this is an email.

This comes to us from Willie. Hello, civilians. He always refers to it as civilian talk when you come on, Berkey. That's going back to your days of commenting on people being civilians. I have a question for Berkey. What is the hardest trade you have ever made? Now, that might be because you didn't want to part with the guy. That might have been just,

Oh, it's like pulling teeth to try to make this deal. Take your pick. The hardest trade you ever made. The hardest trade ever made was a series of trades. It was hard for it was to get the Cedids. But there were multiple deals involved. And to trade Brian McCabe broke my heart. Brian McCabe was such an important player for us.

So we traded him to Chicago to get the third pick overall. or the fourth big star overall, and it had to do it. And I told Brian afterwards, I said, I can't believe I'm trading you. I love you. His wife is a great,

great stagreta. Roberta. Great lady, great teammate. Yep. So that was very difficult. But the difficulty of doing three or four trades to get that deal done,

I aged myself probably three years. Because I remember, we did the deal on the full, Jeff, you know the story. I went to the draft. I had made the deal, traded McCabe. Now we had three and four. I didn't know if I could make the deal with Rick Dudley and you get one.

And if I didn't do that deal, I was taking Pavel Brendel and threw it at four. And I was like, that's just, I didn't like them. I thought, I'm going to get fired over this. That was such a tightrope act. Like, we've seen managers on the tightrope before, and it just sort of falls apart. There must have been so many different times, we've talked so much about this,

during that deal where you thought, I'm sunk. I'm sunk. I can't nudge the ball downfield anymore here. I told my second wife at the time, I went to bed to go to sleep for a couple hours, like at one in the morning. She said, you have the deal?

I said, no, I'm getting fired. Unless Rick Dudley walks onto the draft foot, that next morning and tells me we're making the deal, I'm getting fired. I said I just traded Brian McCabe at first for Pavl Brandl. I'm getting fired. Thanks.

Rick Dudley, I was always the first guy at the draftish, you know. And Rick Dudley showed up and came over and said, all right, we'll do the deal. I was like, oh, thank God. I was thinking, Chrysler plant, here I come. Ah, there it is. There's the slap shot

reference on Chrysler plan. Here I come. Okay, a couple of things here, Berkey, before I let you go, I did want to ask your thoughts on the New York Rangers holding out Artemmy Panarin right now. We see this around trade deadline. I get it. Panarin wants an extension wherever he goes in exchange for a waving his no move clause. I get it. I get all of it. I just look at so much of this

from a fan's point of view. Ticket prices are expensive. Panarin's a player that, you know, if you're going to go to one game, I keep thinking about, you know, that kid that wants to see Panarin and doesn't get to go, not because he's injured or not because he's been traded, but because they're holding them out for trade-related reasons. Do you have a thought on all of this happening with the Rangers right now? In general, I hate that. You know what I'm going to say.

I made all my players play every night. I didn't believe in low management. Excuse me, just a blast of coal there came in here. So in general, I say no. They're all going to play, but you have so much at stake here. You look at the packets they're going to get for Quinn Hughes. The Baron commands that price. They can't risk it.

I want to close another slap shot reference. We talked to Chris Ponger earlier on. The Chiefs have won the championship of the Federal League. Who did you say that one, too, when your Anaheim Ducks won the same? Stanley Cup in 2007. Joel Trotton, our video guy. He used to guys say, and that chiefs have won the championship of the federal

league. That's so good. Listen, we'll let you get back to lunch at Fleeters. So if you're ever in Wayne Fleet, folks, make sure you have breakfasted Fleeters as endorsed by Brian Burke. Berkey, thanks for making time with us today. Sorry it didn't work out on Wednesday.

We fixed it. You went out of your way to get to Fleeters for this one. We really appreciate it. Thanks so much, and we'll talk next week. Thanks, Jeff. There is a great Brian Burke, who stops by every week here on the program. A lot to get to with Berkey. Anything stand out there for you, Zacharoo? I like the slap shot reference he threw on there.

Go back to the Chrysler Plan. Chrysler Plan here. You know who said that. It was Johnny. He would never try that on Johnny. He would never do that on Johnny. I got to watch that again. As soon as he said it, I started laughing.

I'm just sitting here behind the scenes laughing at Berkney saying that I knew what he was talking about. Yeah. Oh, man. No, I mean, I'm, first of all, appreciate Berkey going out of his way. You said it. Yeah. I appreciate him going out of his way to get that fleeters. Then I knew the chat was going to be riled up when the civilians started walking around in the back.

Oh, a couple of civilians just wandering freely at fleeters. We got to have a talk with the manager there at fleeters. I'm going to go all of Karen on him. Like, I want to talk to the manager of fleeters. This is Brian Burke here, folks. And you're letting the civilians wander back and forth. Some interesting stuff there. And good to hear him talking about Chris Pronger too.

Burkey is back next Wednesday. Speaking of Chris Pronger, I want to make sure that we get this in. So the full drop is going to be February. Is it the 9th? Producers, Zach? Yeah, February 9th. February 9th. So a couple of days ago sat down with Pronger.

Wednesday morning, as a matter of fact, spoke for, 30 minutes, 40 minutes. Olympic focused stuff. You're getting here a lot of people, a lot of ex-Olympians over the next little while, certainly during the Olympics. We're going to sort of drop these on our daily face-off YouTube channel. And this is one of

a number one, a number of interviews that we're going to do here on the sheet. So sat down with Chris Ponger talked about, you know, 98 and 2002 and 2006 in 2010. This is a little sort of carve out from that conversation. You'll hear the full one, see the full one,

on February the 9th. I'll hop into the chat with the rest of you, civilians. And in the meantime, enjoy Chris Pronger here on the sheet. I want to jump right in with Salt Lake City. We'll go back to 98 and we'll talk about the others as well. But I want to jump in. We're going to go way back to Salt Lake City. And a moment that for hockey fans, at least this one,

I remember exactly where I was and how I bruised my jaw because it hit the ground when you and Mario and Paul Korea made this play. Take us back to the Chris Pronger passed to was it to Korea? Was it to Mario Lemieux? What was Mike Richter biting on at that moment? Like honestly, Chris, it's one of the best plays in the history of the game. Take us back to that play. First of all, who are you passing it to? All right. Just between me and you, of course. No one's watching or listening. Don't worry. I think we all know who I was passing to. When 66 is out there, you give him the buck and let him do what he wants with it.

Yeah. And as you might imagine, he had eyes in the back of his head and knew Paul was there and let it slide right through his legs. And I think Richter bit on, you know, Mario being in the one-timer position. And then he kind of got stuck in the trolley tracks and Paul tapped at home. You know, that was, there was, it was an interesting, you know, looking back on it. Like, I've thought a lot about that play in my life when I think about 2002. and there's kind of like a weird little symmetry that goes back to 1987 with another defenseman by the name of Larry Murphy.

And so in that championship winning goal in 87, it's Gretzky to Lemieux and Larry Murphy skates to the far post. He's like the ultimate decoy. There's no way that Mario is passing it to Larry and he's wide open, but there's no way he's getting the puck for the tap in. But the goal he's got to respect it. And he freezes and Mario scores. And at that moment where you sailed the puck to Mario and he let it go through to Korea,

I think to myself now, I look back like, Mario presented himself as the ultimate decoy to Paul. What Larry did for Mario, Mario did for Paul. Does that resonate with you? Absolutely. You know, I've obviously seen that play quite a bit over the, you know, it seems like every Olympics now that one gets thrown out there. But, you know, just.

seeing, you know, Mike Richter's, you know, whether his expression is, his movements in the net, you can see he's totally stunned that Mario lets it goes through his feet and he's kind of caught committed on Mario and all of a sudden he's like diving over to try to make the save on Paul. And, you know, and I think of wherewithal of Paul to know that he's got caught too and he's got a one-time it and put it home, you know, I think is, you know, just that recognition as well. A lot of guys probably would have tried to dust it off. Three elite players making one of the greatest elite plays that we've ever seen, no surprise. That was sort of that redemption Olympics for the, for Team Canada's hockey squad coming off of 98 and

the Dominic Hachick show. I want to ask you about 98 in a second, but going into 2002, Pat Quinn's behind the bench, what was the vibe? Was there like, Burr under the saddle, we're pissed off about 98? what was the mood amongst the players going into that one? Because you're not 22 anymore. Like you're in your mid-20s. You're like you're a fully formed NHLer.

Yeah. Yeah. There was a pretty good turnover of the roster as well. So a lot of the older veterans that were there in 98 weren't on the team in 2002. And so maybe we didn't quite have the same scar tissue as you might think. But it was also, you know, there was a lot of like, How are we going to play? Who's going to be, you know, I think we all knew who the alpha was.

But, you know, it was Mario's team and just what Steve Eizerman went through to be there, you know, you could see that sackic. You know, we had some line combinations that found some chemistry a little bit later on in the tournament. But early on, trying to find the right line combinations, everybody trying to figure out what their role was going to be, how we needed to play to be successful. Were guys going to buy into their role? you know, there's only so much ice time to go around, who gets what.

You know, and I think early on it was just a work in progress. And, you know, unfortunately, a lot of animosity between Kujo and Pat Quinn with him changing goaltending and all the rest of that. And then, you know, after losing to Sweden, you know, Wayne and Kevin kind of sit on the grenade and take up the media flack and fan scrutiny and allow us to try to figure it out and find ourselves and figure out how best we needed to play and how we needed to play to be successful

and try to win gold. And the two years that we were able to win gold, 02 and 10, both teams kind of slowly came together, found chemistry as we progressed through the tournament. And then we both teams culminated their best game being against the Team USA and the final game and winning gold. And you could kind of see.

us slowly kind of coming together, finding that chemistry, finding line combinations, guys buying into their roles and how they needed to play for us to be successful. And you could kind of feel that ground swell in the locker room as well. You know, I'll tell you, when I look at all the Olympic games that you were part of, there is, and periods specifically, there is one period of Team Canada hockey that I always go back to. I remember even, I remember Ilya Brazgalov referring it to like the Canadians came

Mattis like guerrillas out of a cage. That in 2010, that first period against Russia and you're just blitzing the balkoff. I mean, he ends up getting chased and Brzgalov comes in. But I don't know that in all the games that I saw you and Team Canada play, I saw a more aggressive bunch of players than that first period against Russia in 2010. Can you take us back? Yeah, we will, you know, we wanted to set the tone in that one quickly. We wanted to be aggressive, we wanted to be physical, and we wanted to get on the board first,

and then kind of put the gas pedal down and throw everything but the kitchen sink at them to, A, get the lead, but to kind of show them that we weren't going anywhere, and we were going to be the big dog in that game. And I think the final score was 7-4, is that accurate? 7-2? You know, we got a touchdown, which is nice. which is always nice in the Winter Olympics to get a touchdown. Yeah, that's good.

But knowing, like, early on, early on how we needed to come out, be aggressive, be physical. You know, I think we kind of imposed our will early on in that game and then kept our foot on the gas pedal and never looked back. And, you know, I think that, knowing the quarterfinals and in 06, they were the ones that put us out in the quarterfinals. So we gave them a little taste of their own medicine. Okay, so that's Chris Pronger, recorded a couple of days ago. You can see and hear the full interview on our daily face off YouTube channel.

On February the 9th, we'll probably put that out as part of one of our programs, too. I'm guessing. Yeah. Is that true? Yeah, I think that's the plan, yeah. Okay. You do all that work. I just, you know, I'm just like hair and teeth.

That's all I do. I just smile every now and then and make sure that I, you know, wash my hair before the show. So you tell us about what's happening with this property. on a consistent basis. I want to thank Chris for his time, as always. I'm really generous with it. And more of those interviews coming up. Tyler Yeramchuk has done some of them as well.

So more interviews with Olympians coming up as we get ready for... And I think Lazz is doing some with Americans. I think he's doing some with Americans. I don't want to say who because I think some stuff is up in the air right now. So, yeah, stay tuned to the channel. But I think there's also American content coming here as well. Excellent. Speaking about American content, we're going to get to their show.

here coming up in a couple of seconds. In the meantime, this is an interesting one. And I'm not going to bias it here. So Hungry for Hockey History is a presentation of Uber Eats. This is fascinating because he's one of my favorite topics to talk about. Uber Eats is enabling fans to maximize their fandom all season long with exclusive. Game Day deals on the app. From Game Day eats to paper plates and napkins, if you're hosting to all the ingredients,

you need to make your favorite game day dip before or during and after the game. Uber Eats is assisting every fan's hockey experience all season long. You got one of the more interesting and colorful players to talk about today, Zach. January 30th, 1969, Derek Sanderson Burry's 3. Derek Sanderson recorded his first career, NHL Hattrick and assisted another goal for a four-point night as the Boston Bruins went on to defeat the Los Angeles Kings 7 to 5. Derek Sanderson, Turk. Whenever you think about players that should have been superstars in the NHL,

like I'm not talking about just like a star in the NHL, but a superstar, go to the Hockey Hall of Fame, we talk about him forever type superstar. Think of Derek Sanderson. And unfortunately, Derek Sanderson's story was that he partied himself out of the NHL and partied himself out of all of his money and partied himself out of his home. You know, one of the turning points that Derek Sanderson always talks about in his life was, you know, being on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, on a, drinking with someone else. And Derek Sanderson essentially said to the guy, don't you know who I am?

And the guy said, yeah, you're a nobody like me. And Derek Sanderson growing up, like when he was a kid, was an incredibly elite, elite. beats hockey player. His skill was matched only by his toughness and his fearlessness and his willingness to do anything to win a hockey game. I still maintain the most violent thing I have ever seen as far as sucker punches go. We've all seen wild stick swinging incidents. Stafford and Parra Joigin may have been the worst that I ever saw in that realm. but as far as sucker punches go,

there are none. Worse than. This was the Memorial Cup, 1965, between Edmondson and the St. Catherine's Saints, or Flyers, St. Catherine's Flyers,

Niagara. Derek Sanderson on Bob Falkenberg. They're just standing next to each other with the blue line. I have the video. I'll grab it for you. We can air it here on the show, maybe next week,

depending on if I can find this out, find where to have the video on the weekend. Um, Sanderson punches Falkenberg out of nowhere. Falkenberg is unconscious immediately, he falls on the ice. He's still holding his stick. Sanderson gets on top of him and keeps pounding. And a major brawl ensues, major brawl. Cops hit the ice.

Okay. They're playing God save the queen in the background, which I think we've told the story before here in Canada. When you heard that, you had to stop whatever you were doing and stay at attention. It was a law. And the kids didn't listen. The kids are skating around. The cops are trying to get him.

Anyway, they finally get Derek Sanderson off the ice. He's just assaulted Bob Falkenberg. This is game three in Edmonton, the old Edmonton Gardens. I remember showing Bob McGill this video and he said, my dad was at the game. He would always tell me about it and I never believed him because it sounded too wild. So Sanderson gets let off the ice And there were members of the Edmonton Oil King's alumni Who were there

They grabbed Sanderson and pull him into a room Someone hits him over the head with a goalie stick And then beats him unconscious And throws him back into the hallway Glenn Sather Ex-NHLer XNHL coach XNHL manager

here's where the story gets even weirder. Both of them end up property of the Boston Bruins. And they're playing in the minors together. And they end up staying in the same rooming house. They end up on the same team, of course. As I've been told, and I've never asked Sather or Sanderson about it. They never spoke of it. and there was one time because I know you're probably wondering,

did Derek Sanderson and Bob Falkenberg ever play against each other again? And the answer is yes. Once. Falkenberg went on to become property of the Detroit Red Wings. Derek Sanderson, of course, with the Boston Bruins. They did play against each other. Bob Falkenberg never talks about the incident. Nothing happened in the game.

But it's part of Bob Falkleberg story. It's a big part of Derek Sanderson story. that incident from the Memorial Cup and the most violent incidents of all time and Derek Sanderson has written, I think he's written three different books about his story

and I think I've read two, maybe I've read all, because I read the most recent one. I can't remember if I read the other two that he wrote. And every time the story's kind of a little bit different. There have been all kinds of stories about him with the Boston Bruins and not getting along with players to the point where there was the one story

that I've always tried to verify and have never been able to. Some historian can let me know whether I'm on base or off base on this one at training camp. Terry O'Reilly, the Boston Bruins, beat him up in the dressing room so badly. The Boston Bruins send them to Hawaii

to go recuperate before coming back to the Boston Bruins for certain transgressions against the team. He is one of the more interesting characters. I'm just going to throw something in the chat for those that are hanging around here. This is a, we were just talking, it's funny on the chat when Pronga was on it went in the chat. We ended up talking about sports movies and I mentioned, you know, most of my favorite sports movies are actually documentaries. And if you want to get a sense

of who Derek Sanderson was, I'm going to throw this link in the chat right now. This is something that you should really check out. Hang on. Let me just grab this here. Get that off the screen. Okay. I just, I just threw it in there. This is a documentary called Center of Attention,

the Unreal Life of Derek Sanderson. So if you're not in the chat right now, I'll send it in. I just put it in. I just put it in the chat. I think your, uh, I think your links get blocked.

So I think that's my links get blocked. It's a function of YouTube. Are you serious? Yes. Why is that? Yes. Why is that? Why do my links get blocked?

Explain this to the old guy, Zach. Anyway, the document... You two blocks that. Yeah. There you go. It's in there. Center of Attention, The Unreal Life of Derek Sanderson

is an incredible documentary of one of the most interesting players to ever suit up in hockey at arguably the most interesting time in the history of the game, the 70s. Anyhow, that's my little thing on Derek Sanderson,

who is still with us, whose life as an athlete has sort of become a cautionary tale. But very, very emblematic of his era at the same time, too. Partied himself out of hockey. Parted himself out of sports. Partyed himself out of all of his dough. And if you go back and you know any of his story as well, even before he made it to the NHL and you get a sense of what his childhood was like,

you probably understand why he went that direction. Nonetheless. Derek Sanderson on today's edition of Hungary for hockey history. All right. We'll dovetail that lovely story. The cautionary tale of Turk, Derek Sanderson. God, I'm telling you, like, honestly, an incredibly, an incredible hockey player. Just an incredible hockey player. The sheet is powered by Fanduel.

Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season, and Fanduel is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Bet Slip, we've got you covered all season with unique, promos, live offerings, and more features to let you play your game. Missed puck drop, no sweat with a live same game parlay. You can build up your bets until the final buzzer. Download FanDual Sportsbook today and play your game. Please play responsibly, 19 plus, and physically located in Ontario.

If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario, 1-866531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Zach, make us laugh. Well, I mean, yesterday I think it was. I talked about how I was looking in my gourd to connect the dots on a part of a day. And then I wake up this morning and I look at the schedule. It was a long night for me. And I'm realizing, okay, we're in some trouble here, Jeff, because there's only two games.

So the options that I have. One game, one game, one game. Okay, I thought there was just a one. The options that I have. Yeah. It's thin. It's tough picking. here like how am i going to piece together something here for tonight's game we have faith because i the

name options are limited um and then i started to think more and more and i realized i would have been worried but i discovered that in tonight's game we have a march of so i stole one from tomorrow's game as well but because i need to complete this but miles wood mason marchman korel martenko and then Matt Van Gogh. Fendl started posting stuff. And I was able to grab that one for tomorrow because I needed something with Fav. I was going to go with Ferankov.

But it became so insane to throw him into this. Oh, yeah. Let's look somewhere else. Yeah. That's your line. That was the point. That's your line. No, no, no.

You know, there used to be that great thing on Saturday Night Live, deep thoughts with Jack Handy. And one of my favorite ones was always, if you're a clown, and you have a dog in your act and you dress your dog up as a clown, people will say, now that's too much. So you're saying, Varankov is essentially you're dressing the dog up like a clown as well.

If you're a clown, the dog can be part of the act, but you can't dress the dog up like a clown because that's a line. So to you, our fan dual segment, that would be the. equivalent of the clown dressing the dog up like a clown the hat on a hat if you will so it was more of the fact that i had the same game parlay four players from the same team to score and the odds got so ridiculous when i threw broncovin that i was like okay this is just like i'm just putting them together for the sake of right now was it five bucks wins fifteen hundred twenty two dollars sixty six cents yeah it's still pretty hefty so you need three from the blue jackets tonight

three from these specific players and then one tomorrow at noon. It's a good way if you get the three tonight, you get to sweat this out. You've got to have Rick Tocke, eye to eye with Mitch Cough, and give him a lot of power plate time. Yeah. Give him a lot of ice time. That'll work. Also here, I've got one that came in from the chat. This one came in from Jeffrey Moran.

I wanted to make sure we got this one in today. I did already make up my own before he sent this, but he says, where in it's night? We go to bed. Zach Werensky scored. Spencer Knight. Wow, good one. Over 25 and a half saves.

Hang on, who threw that one in? Jeffrey, we're on. Jeffrey. First of all, great question for Berkey. And second of all, I apologize for mispronouncing your last name. And third of all, this one's great. We are on it's night. We go to bed.

Werenski, Knight, Bedar. Yeah. Bedar. So it's better than mine, I think. Both are good. They compliment one another. Your chocolates and my peanut butter. They're great together.

That's really good. Well done. Well done, Zach. Well done, Jeffrey. Always love contributions from the chat on these. By the way, so if they're blocking my links, so I sent in the Fleeters Cafe link as well, only available on Facebook.

So Fleeters looks good where Berkey joined us today on Highway 3 across Gulf Course Road, Wayne Fleet, Ontario, which is where Berkey now calls home. Oh, man. They got some good looking pancakes. Why are you laughing? You're just scrolling the menu. Dying to tell the pancakes joke, too.

I'm not going to. All right. I think that's a wrap for the week. It's a fun week. Had some good times. Told some jokes. You got anything to add it. You must be exhausted.

By the way, I don't know, like, how you're, you're going to be, like, crashing hard. Don't expect any clips from. today's show out any time soon from Zach. He's going to be eating a pillow here. There's clips. There's clips. We got a job to do. I got to do my job. I know that.

What is it? You want to go out with the boys at night? You got to wake up with the men in the morning. That's what we got to do here, Jeff. You get up at it and you keep going. It doesn't matter. Unlike some teams, players, people, you know, maybe you just call it quits sometimes. Not me. I keep trucking on.

Every day we show up and do our best. Is that a shot at Vic? I'm taking a shot of vacation here. That was a shot at the Maple Leafs. Oh, oh, those guys. Oh, those old dogs. Can I play one thing to wrap this? Just a lifeless dog that Billy has enough energy

to lift up its hind leg and piss in the audience's face. I had to. I had to throw a shot in there. I've seen a lot. I got to play one thing tonight. You sent this over to me and I got to do this. I got to play this before we wrap because it's relevant right now. We put it as the part of the title in the description.

You sent this and this was tweeted by Dwayne yesterday after the night. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is so good. This is so fantastic. We talked about this a while ago. This is Miroslav Chetan with the Kent Nilsen move that everyone wrongly calls the Forsberg. With the phone. Yeah, the phone.

phone fingers. Yeah, sorry, Eddie Bellford. Great call there, by the way. Rick Jenneret in the background. That is for Alex Tuck to Yarmelan. Yes. I just wanted to play that before we left for the weekend. Oh, that's...

Alex Tuck, three piece. Thank you on the phone. It would have just... It wouldn't have been great if you buried that empty netter and just like did the phone and sort of looked up... Looked up. Yermo. What's the worst beer league celebration?

Show me the money. Because it is kind of a beer league. Honestly, I've done it before. I've done the, like, you score a big goal and you skate by the bench. And I'm so embarrassed. I used to do the. Call me. In Beer League?

I can't celebrate in Beer League. The worst celebration is any. Sean, every push-ups beside the net. You've never did that in Bullet Beer League. You never did that. No, no. You never did push-ups. No.

No. I know. I did not do that. That didn't even come close to crossing my mind. I will tell you one thing I did. I was being a dickhead, but it was, we were up like six one on this team. This was recent. We were up like six one on this team. And I never say anything in beer league. I just let's go. Let's play hockey. I want to play hockey. I'm just here to have fun with my friends and that's it. And at the end of the game, this team was getting like real chippy and like start slashing and stuff. And I get the puck in the neutral zone with like 30 seconds left.

The defense and steps up and hits me. I look at him like, I said, what the fuck are you doing? And he's like, the game's still on. And I was like, okay, of course, sure, like the game's still on. So I get a little annoyed. The guy on my team comes through the neutral after I got hit and picks it up in the offensive zone, passes it to me. And I end up walking the guy.

and score and their bench starts screaming at me oh look at you being a hero being a hero the game's almost over whatever and i just turned around and said i didn't hear a fucking buzzer and i just skated by and went to the game's still on that's what you told me this is not that great but it's just like it's the only time i open my mouth like Still good. Still good. Still good. All right.

While you were telling me that, I just saw the news. Catherine O'Hara passed away. One of the all-time great comedic actresses that this country has ever produced. One of the funniest people I've ever seen. Her world. I mean, brilliant in everything that she was in. But her in Best and Show is still amongst the lead. That's her two.

her in Best in Show and her in waiting for Guffman. Some of the best performances I've ever seen on screen. You've heard me say this before. It's always harder to make someone laugh than make someone cry and nobody, few, I should say, few made me laugh more than Catherine O'Hara. Oh my God, Catherine O'Hara passed away. Just one of the greats. Anyhow, on that sherry note, enjoy your weekend.

Thanks to Brian Burke for stopping by from Wayne Fleet Cafe, which is a really nice touch too. Catherine here. Have a great weekend. I'll talk to you again.