The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Back in the Dance ft. Michael Andlauer & Michael Russo

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Michael Andlauer, Owner of the Ottawa Senators, and Michael Russo join Jeff Marek on The Sheet. Discussing the Senators getting back into the playoffs for the first time since 2017, the success of this year, Gabriel Landeskog returns to the ice, Ray Shero's passing, and the Women's WorldsShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja Kitchen Canada: https://www.ninjakitchen.ca/products/ninja-crispi-4-in-1-portable-glass-air-fryer-cooking-system-zidFN101CGY?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=olv&utm_campaign=25Q2-Crispi&utm_content=enReach 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.

You know, I was always taught in this business when you have a guest as big as Michael Anlauer and what the aid is for him. The owner of the Ottawa Senators, you don't make him wait. Let's get right to our first guest here in the program today as we welcome you aboard to the Sheet. He is Michael Anlauer. He's guest here of the program today as we welcome you aboard to the Sheet. He is Michael Ann Lauer. He is the owner of the Ottawa Senators. The Ottawa Senators, who I should add, are on their way to the postseason.

Michael, I know you're on your way to Augusta. Poor fella. And now your Ottawa Senators are in the postseason. First off, congratulations. What did it feel like when your squad finally made it in? Do we have you Michael? Can you hear us? Having some audio issues getting Michael aboard. He's currently at the airport. Michael, can you hear us? Okay Zach, we'll try to get, we'll try to get,

we'll try to pod down here and get Michael aboard. We'll get the audio fixed. He had just changed locations at the airport right now. Do we have you yet, Michael? Okay, there we are. Oh, there we go. We got the audio hot. There we go.

First of all, congratulations. Wonderful time for the Ottawa Senators. Wonderful time, wonderful time for you. I'm going to a very special place, which we'll get to in a couple of seconds. But first of all, like just a blanket, the floor is yours. Congratulations. The Ottawa Senators make the postseason for the first time since 2017. What went through your head yesterday when it finally happened?

Well, you're always, you're always upset when you lose a game. Sorry. Well, you're always you're always upset when you lose a game. Sorry, but Knowing that the magic number was to and in Montreal doing business with Detroit and I think your business there finally clinching My first reaction was to call Stephen congratulate him and then as soon as I hung up the phone with him I immediately called Brady Kachuk and and and you know, basically, told him, you know, how, how, how proud I was of the team of him. And, and if anybody should be, you know, over 500 game, him and Thomas Shabbat, finally, finally well-deserved. And I was, I was probably happiest for those two than anybody else.

And, um, uh, I'm excited about that. So that was, that was my initial reaction last night. And then they got bombarded by texts and emails and, and, uh, but it was, uh, yeah, it's, it's great. It's a, it's a great feeling for this city who really have endured a lot over the last seven, eight years and eight of them without getting a playoffs, obviously. But just the road to get here, I've only been at it for a couple of years.

So I'm just so happy for our fans and particularly those two players. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like you's, you mentioned Thomas Shabbat because that was the first place that my mind went. And I'm going to go sort of going around about way here. Um, I remember exactly where I was when Chris Kunitz scored that goal against the Ottawa senators in 2017, I was with Todd Warner, I was with Colby Armstrong. I was with Rocky Dundas.

We were at a restaurant in Windsor for the Memorial Cup at a place called Vito, it was an Italian place and everyone's cheering on the Ottawa Senators, want the Canadian team to do well and Kunitz scores that goal and you could hear a pin drop. Now playing in that year's edition of the Memorial Cup with the St. John's Seedogs, featuring Thomas Chabot. And I remember saying to my sus, Craig,

you know, there's Thomas Chabot and he hasn't yet made the post season 400 or something games and Thomas Shabbat hasn't been the, that was, that was the first place that, that my mind went. And, um, like, would you have like a couple of words about, about Thomas Shabbat here who's been through, you know, ups and downs and now finally finds himself in the post season? Yeah, he's a first-class, uh, uh, individual. I such over over 500 games. here who's been through you know ups and downs and now finally finds himself in the postseason.

Yeah he's a first-class individual. It's actually over 500 games and they were at Thomas and we flew together to Quebec City and to announce a couple of exhibition games and since he's from that area so So I guess I'll spend a little bit of time. And he is just genuinely, he's a warrior, first of all. You have no idea how he can play through pain. His pain tolerance is over the top, but he's just a first class guy who truly appreciates it. His dad, we just had the father's trip about a

couple weeks ago and his dad is a card. He just, he's happy-go-lucky, just so happy for in general. So that exudes it and you know and that exudes in the dressing room as well. The fact that he's a warrior will play through anything, a low maintenance guy, but who's, who's been a great leader for us. And so I'm, I'm so happy for him and the rest of the guys for sure. No, I'm, I'm curious, you know, we, we went into this season and we said, okay, so which teams are going to emerge here?

You know, we've been following, you know, Ottawa and Detroit and Buffalo and whole look, here comes Montreal out of all of a sudden. Go back to the beginning of the season, the expectation to what happened yesterday. Yeah, so for me, you look at something, it's just, and I know you're a big junior hockey guy, and you have a Morrill Cup,

and the process I went through buying the Belleville Bowls, and it's a process. And you look at the team and you look at the management and you look at the landscape and you got to try to create the culture, create the environment. And the first year typically is you have to learn. you have to learn. You have two ears and one mouth

and you do twice as much listening and observing. And that's what we did last year. And found what was required. Steve was obviously instrumental. He was with me in Hamilton when we went through the process. And we did through the went through the exact same process. Looked at character, look at the culture, create a culture of and as it's as I, you know, the players know and people know who know me. It's my differentiator, my success has always been work harder than

your competition and care more and try to lead by example. And so with that mantra, you've seen the improvement year over year, you know, when they're starting last year to the start of this year, from a from a line head up standpoint, uh, we made changes in the arena with the, with the, with the fitness facility and the health and on the, the rehab area, uh, the gym, et cetera, we credit created an environment that was best in class for our players, uh, and, and hold them accountable, but not only our players, but our coaches and the legs. So created that, it's a process.

And we felt that going into this year, we had, we had better tools to be successful. And, but ultimately, you know, you can get all the tools, but people have to be held accountable and these players have been held accountable. And by the way, you know, one of the youngest teams in the NHL last year to still one of the younger teams this year. Um, so there's still a bit of, you know, that, that maturing process. Um, and, and, uh, you know, Steve sprinkled in some good veterans who had won. Uh, the Perons of the world, the Matios, uh, and their cousins. Um, uh, and, um, you know, some good character

people, you know, with, uh, you know, Linus Almark, uh, who was a type A very cerebral. Uh, so you mixed all that in and you got yourself, uh, you know, the makings of, uh, a team that can compete in, in an environment where it's very competitive. As you know, our young team had ebbs and flows. We had a lot of losing streaks, a lot of winning streaks, and that's part of the maturity process. But as the year goes along, we become steadier.

And I'm really proud of how these guys have really stuck it with it, particularly in late March and into April now. You know, I am curious, you mentioned Lina Solomarca a second ago and I always think back to, you know, what Elaine Vigneault would always talk about. He would say, hockey is simple. If your goalie is better than my goalie, you win. If my goalie is better than your goalie, I win. Is it too simple to say, you got the goalie?

I know there's other things, I get it, I understand all that it too simple to say, you got the goalie? I know there's other things, I get it, I understand all that, but do we look at a lot of this and say, listen, a big lift here is getting the goalie? Yeah, one of those guys, I mean, we've had, we have the goalies, you know, Anton Forsberg has, you know, I think we lead the league in shutouts. I think we have 10 shutouts this year. And Maryland came in when, when, when, uh, uh, when this was hurt and he, he, he showed his metal and he, you know, I think he's got three

shutouts, uh, Forsberg had, you know, we went, so I think there's no doubt it's, you know, maybe because I'm being biased and I'm a goalie and it starts at, it starts at the net and go outward. Yeah, there's no doubt you have to have that. It gives the, you know, it gives the defenseman the confidence to play within themselves and not try to do more than they should be. And, and, and it was right along, right? So I think having a number one goalie

was an important piece. And Leenis plays a very big piece to our success for sure. I'll tell you what, you know, there's something about Ottawa Senators fans in the playoffs. I think, and listen, we have to go back to 2017 so last time we saw this but like When the Ottawa Senators in the plastic that is a an intimidating building. We've seen players comment on this before it's loud

It's a tough building to play in I'm sure you've been there before during during postseason games Like it is not an easy building to play in when you think about your fans and you think about the building, I mean, I always talk about, you know, I want to play off that gives us, you know, the best, gives us the best action, but also gives us really dynamic crowds. And, you know, seeing your team make the playoffs, that's one of the things that I think I'm most excited about is seeing Ottawa Senators fans legit have something huge to cheer for here. Do you have a word or two about what you expect from the fans of the Canadian Tire Center?

I mean, when I'm about the team, one of the neat things that I know that I recognize is the grassroots in the Ottawa-Gatineau area, they love their hockey. The Sen Sportsplex centers are full in the summertime. There's a lot of grassroots. There's a love for the game. And it's real. It's authentic. So, you know, the Sense fans are authentic, our ticket prices is the lowest in the league. Um, they, it's affordable, uh, for the average fan. And interestingly enough, what, you know, when the Leafs come to town, it's, it's,

it's loud, the Leaf fans are loud because they're, they're probably the ones that, you know, that cannot afford the four or $500 tickets. Real fans. And they're, they're, they're real fans. So I guess that's, that's how I would So I guess that's how I would identify with Ottawa. They're real fans. So yeah, so that's I'm excited about it. They've been a little bit, you know, obviously eight years without making the playoffs.

You know, they're a little skeptical and I haven't endured that the way they have and so I feel for and I'm so excited for them you know for us but so I'm looking forward to to our first home game. Let me close on this you know there are I mean you've gone from running very successful and owning very successful junior organizations in the Ontario Hockey League to own to being a minority owner from running very successful and owning very successful junior organizations, uh, and the Ontario hockey league to own, to being a minority owner with the Montreal Canadians and of course majority owner with the Ottawa senators here.

I can't tell you how many people I talked to who say, yeah, this guy wants to buy a junior team and then do what Ann Lauer did and buy, buy an NHL team. Like that's, that's going to be the ladder. That's like you've sort of provided this model now for any junior owners out there, Michael, that have thoughts about buying an NHL team, what advice would you give them? I have deep pockets. Plain and simple. You know, it's not much different.

You know, it's not, but it's not much different than running a business too. It's not much different. But it's not much different than running a business too. A people business that is. And that's something, understand that the people are everything. Our fans are our lifeblood. And the people, the players, people call me know, I can, people call me a player's owner, but that's because that's, I'm about people. I'm all about people and, uh, and caring, caring more.

Uh, so, uh, there's not much, much different from junior hockey. It's just a, you need a lot deeper pockets. Just a deeper, it's a more expensive stick and skate budget. I would imagine than you, than you get into your hockey. But nonetheless, but nonetheless. Oh yeah. Yeah. I think it's all relative. I know you got a flight to catch here at the airport right now.

Thanks so much for taking time for me today. Much appreciated. Uh, congratulations to you and your organization. It looks great on you. Thanks so much for doing this. Uh, my pleasure, Jeff. Thank you so much for having me. There he is.

Mike Michael and Lauer, the owner. I get that one at the end. Uh, the owner of the Ottawa Senators, Michael Andlower. Zach, we haven't even officially kicked off the show yet and we've already had our marquee guest of the hour, we'll get to our daily outlines. Well I was always told, like you know, don't make your guest wait. Michael Ann Lauer's there and he's got a flight to catch. He's off to the Masters. He's off to Augusta.

No, that one makes sense and he's off to a pretty cool place. So I mean, don't want to hold him up. You know, I'll tell you, like, I think it was Marty Berdure who used to talk about how hard it was to play in Ottawa. Now this was when Ottawa was killers. This is like Alfredson, this is Spezza, and this is Phillips and Redden. That's when like, man, that team by the way, that addition, like there's a few teams. That addition of the Ottawa Senators that will be, at, there's that that edition of the Ottawa senators that will be

at least in my mind one of the best teams to never win the Stanley Cup. There's that late 60s early 70s New York Rangers team that also was one of the best teams to never win the Stanley Cup but that Ottawa building was crazy, was bonkers and not just for games against the Maple Leafs with the obvious battle of Ontario, and we may see that again, but like it was a really, really hard building to play in. Like not only was the team really good, but like the fans were nuts. It's crazy. When I was, I think eight and maybe nine, 10 years old, we played in the Bell Capital Cup

and the game we went out there for. So actually a little tidbit for you here as well. Cole Thiessen, one of my buddies who, I'm shouting him out, cause he did help facilitate getting Robert Thomas on the show as well. Him and Robert Thomas were sentence pants. We only have owners on the show now.

We don't deal with the players. We've advanced past the players. We only have owners on the show now. We don't deal with the players. We've advanced past the players. We just have owners now. They were Sens fans when we were younger. Oh, no way. When we went out to Ottawa and played in that tournament, we went to a Sens game. It was the game that Ovi scored four goals. And now the game. Like he hasn't done that a few times. But I mean, that was a nuts atmosphere in that building. And I remember that at like nine, 10 years old. Like that was just, that stuck in my head forever. Being in that building, seeing it, leaving it,

the energy, the excitement in there, it was just a cool place to be. You wanna hear something bizarre? Yeah, you were there? That was the first game I ever worked for Hockey Dite in Canada. Really? It was Washington versus Ottawa. Bruce Boudreau was behind the bench. I'll tell you a funny story about Gabby in a couple of seconds here. But I still remember because at 630 there was the pregame show, and I remember the show opened up, one shot of Ron, and then it cuts to two boxes, and it's

Merrick in Ottawa and Elliott in Toronto, I think the Leafs were playing the Buffalo Sabres, and Ron's like, okay, the Maple Leafs have a big battle against Buffalo coming up, we're going to get there in a second, but welcome to Hot Can't in Canada from HNIC Radio, making his debut, Jeff Merrick in advance of Válecs Ovechkin, I was doing a ringside interview with him and I remember he does his Ron pause and then Jeff in the nation's capital and like what felt like an eternity in my head came flooding into my brain. Everything going back to like watching Hockey Night in Canada as a kid with my parents and growing up and playing

What am I doing here? Holy smokes. I've tapped the world on his shoulder. It finally turns around and I've forgotten what I'm gonna say Thanks Ron, Ovi. And it was my first interview on hockey. I think it was like it was like I want to say it was like December 29th 2007 I Want to say I think so something like that. I remember Bruce Boudreaux had just been hired recently and a great story. So he only had a couple of games. He was, he was, Washington brought him in after they fired Glenn Hanlon. And I remember being at the media meal and I was talking to Gabby or beside each other and Gabby's loading up a plate of food and I'm having like a coffee or something and he comes over to me he's like, uh, where do I go pay for this?

And I'm like, Gabby, you're in the NHL. You don't have to pay for this anymore, Gabby. You're not in the American league and you got to go pay your five bucks for your plate. He's like, oh, okay, great. Still thinks he's coaching with the Hershey Bears. That is the exact date, Jeff. Yeah. December 29th, 2007. Yeah, that was my first, that was my debut

on air hockey night in Canada. 6-31. That was his first four goal game. Yeah, that was the first game, and I did a bench side interview with him. I have video of it somewhere about how great I was, about how awesome I was in my first goal round as a rickside host, blurting out like three questions to Alex Ovechkin. I was phenomenal. I was great. I

totally belong there. It was a lot of fun. So who was at that game? Well that would be like I was there Robert Thomas, Colt Deason, Ryan DeSolva, Liam Ham would have been there as well. Liam Ham! Nice! That was all our team was all there. That was your crew. Yeah that was my first look. So you want to talk about Generation Gap, everybody watching and listening. Yeah that's me and Zach right there. That was like one of the biggest days in the history of my professional career. And then there's this goofball who's just there as a fan probably over serving himself in the parking lot. Oh, you were nine. Okay, so maybe you weren't over serving yourself at that point. Okay. Yeah, on soda and popcorn maybe.

Two bags of Skittles, let's go! Yeah, that was a big night for yours truly. That was a very nerve-racking one. Oh, yeah, I was awesome. I was so good. And it all led you to be sitting here next to me and I met my rightful destiny now Broadcasting out of my basement. I've graduated to my basement talking to you I've never left my room if that I'm good. I call my fucking agent after the show. I'll tell you that right now How the hell did I get here? Did you see that joke today? You see that idiot you put me beside?

I realize, Zach, that you know what the meaning of my life is? Meaning of my life is to serve as a warning to others. Don't be like this guy or serve as a warning to others. Don't be like this guy or else this will happen to you. Yeah, that was a huge day for me. Wow, you guys were all there, eh? That's a wild story. Yeah.

Okay, what are we going to do today? Oh yeah, let's get to Daily Outlines. Yeah. Just deepen the show. 22 minutes later, I want to remind you that our friends and partners at FanDuel are very important to this program. They would like to remind you that they are North America's number one sportsbook app provider, and you can make every moment more with North America's number one sportsbook, and that is FanDuel. I'm going to guess that on the lineup you've

already put Michael Andlour, who we've already spoken to. And I don't know if anything I'm going to say is going to be more interesting than what you just heard from Michael Andlour, who we've already spoken to. And I don't know if anything I'm gonna say is gonna be more interesting than what you just heard from Michael Andlour, so maybe we should just play that again. How about that? We'll just like, it's just like the guy at the party that just wants to play the same song over and over again. We'll just play the Andlour interview on a loop.

How about that? And we'll just call it a day. Send, send, send, make it in. Congratulations to the send, send, sends. Mike Russo from The Athletic, on a make it in. Congratulations to the sends, sends, sends. Mike Russo from The Athletic. On a very serious note, Ray Shirow passed away as the Minnesota Wild announced earlier this afternoon. Mike Russo, who covers the Minnesota Wild for The Athletic, will stop by to talk about Ray Shirow. Ray was working as a

senior consultant at the time of his passing. Gabriel Landisgog, like anyone who knows me, like knows how I love this guy and he's probably my favorite player in the NHL and has been for a number of years, so you can imagine the deep rich smile I had on my face today when we all found out that he is being loaned to the Eagles of the American Hockey League. And for those that wondered by the way, yes, you are allowed to do that. You are allowed to have LTIR,

essentially rehab assignments, to the American League. Anyway, more on that coming up in a couple of moments. Women's Worlds gets underway. US demolishes Finland. Canada plays Finland tomorrow. We'll get to that coming up in a couple of seconds. And I think that's our snappy program for the day. That is our snappy program for the day.

I wanna say a couple of things about, like this has been an awful week, whether it's Mark LaForest, and then we talked about Greg Millen yesterday, and now Ray Shirow, who's a Stanley Cup general manager who comes from a family of hockey royalty. Ray Shirow passed away at the age of 62, Stanley Cup general manager who comes from a family of hockey royalty. Ray Shiro passed away at the age of 62, was a senior consultant with the Minnesota

Wild. You probably remember him better obviously as you know one of the architects of the Stanley Cup for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He helped rejuvenate the New Jersey Devils as well as a general manager. He was an assistant general manager with the Ottawa Senators. He was an assistant general manager with the Nashville Predators. And I mentioned he was part of hockey royalty because his father Fred Shiro, who you've probably heard me talk about so many times, was so influential to me and you know so many conversations that I had with Ray whether we'd be talking about his pens or his devils for what I know why because I would always jam it in there I'd always talk to I'd always

talk to Ray about his dad and it's interesting so I when I when I found out today that that he had passed Mike was gonna be joining us here in a little while we'll talk to Mike about him in a couple of moments. I remembered the last conversation that I had with Ray Shirow. It would have been, I wanna say a year and a half ago. So it wasn't like five days or five weeks ago. It was a while ago,

but I remember the exact conversation that we had because I've had this conversation with you here on the program not that long ago. And that is the day that hockey first broke your heart. And for many of us, it's a trade or you lose in the Stanley Cup final, right? Like everybody has, like this sport has broken everybody's heart, Okay? There's an old saying in hockey as well, players should know this, uh hockey will never love you back. Hockey will

never love you back and hockey will always break your heart. Every now and then there'll be like minor eruptions of joy but basically it's a sport designed to break your heart and we're having this conversation and we had to talk around a goal in 1972. So this was his father's first year coaching the Philadelphia Flyers. And they were playing against the Buffalo Sabres. The score was tied at twos. And all the Flyers had to do was tie the game,

and they were tucked away. They were going into the playoffs. All they couldn't do was lose. And this is the era of the French connection. French connection wasn't on the ice at the end of the game. Everybody on the Philadelphia Flyers bench were counting down. Young Ray who would have been 10 years old in 1972 was watching on television with his mum and Jerry Meehan of the Buffalo Sabres takes a lazy shot at Doug Fevelle netminder for the Philadelphia Flyers and

scores and the Flyers season is over and there will be no playoffs and Ray told me about how much he sobbed, about how much he cried. That for him was the moment that hockey broke his heart. I don't know why I'm sharing this specific story with you other than this is the last time, that was the last conversation rather, that I had with Ray Shirow. He was a very kind person to a lot of people. It's really tough when you have a management position

anywhere really, but for the purposes of this show, in hockey, it's really tough to not, to not break some egg shells as you make the omelet along the way. But coming from that strong hockey background, Ray understood how to construct teams and how to talk to people, how to have relationships. And he comes at it like legitimately, if I mean he played himself from a place of knowledge. And the one thing that his father always had, which you could see in Ray as well, was he had a natural curiosity

about doing things differently. The one thing about his dad is unlike any other coach in his era, he was the first one really to study Soviet-style hockey. And you saw that with the Philadelphia Flyers. He was the one that would fly to Russia in the summers to train and learn under Anatoly Tarasov. And you saw that with Ray.

He always remained curious. He always remained interested in not where hockey was, but where hockey was going and what was going to work. And first of all, offering condolences to his family and close friends as well. He has two sons that work in the NHL. Chris is a scout with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Kyle is a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers. We offer them our condolences at this at this awful time. But Ray was always

someone that always enjoyed having a talk with because you can kind of go everywhere with Ray Shirow and just because the family history was so rich that he was someone that I always enjoyed talking to. Like there's gonna be obviously a large hole in that family now and a large hole in hockey too. There's a great story of speaking of holes. Like there's a story about his dad when he was with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Fred was big on props and there was one day There's a story about his dad when he was with the Philadelphia Flyers. Fred was big on props. And there was one day he brought a bucket of water into the Philadelphia Flyers dressing room to send a message to Rick McLeish, who was one of his best scorers, but maybe had a little bit of a lazy attitude sometimes, or maybe he wasn't stuck in a funk or something like that, who knows. But Fred wanted to send a message to Rick McCleish and he brought a bucket of water in and he said, Rick come on over here roll up your sleeves. And so McCleish like, okay and so Rick McCleish rolls up his sleeves. He said, now stick

your hand in the bucket. He sticks his hand in the bucket he says, now pull it out. And so Rick does that and was okay. Says, now do it again. He sticks his hand in the bucket. He says, now pull it out. And so Rick does that and goes, okay. Says, now do it again. He does it again. He says, now do it again. He does it like three or four times and he says, do you see the hole that your hand left in that water? And Rick's like, no it didn't leave a hole at all. He goes, that's right. That's how much we'll miss you when you're gone. That was Fred Scherow. As for Ray, we will miss Ray. You know, his name still gets brought up whenever there's a discussion around management positions. I always thought that we'd see the day where he got back in the big chair. As a general manager, he was

working as a senior consultant, as we mentioned, with the Minnesota Wilds. Unlike Rick McLeish and, you know, the lack of a hole in the bucket of water that his dad presented to the Philadelphia Flyer Star, there is a major hole in hockey now without Ray Shirow here. Condolences to the family and the friends of Ray Shirow, who passes away at the age of 62. Mike Russo is gonna stop by here in a couple of moments. Mike is, as you can imagine, very busy today. The Minnesota Wild are facing off against the San Jose Sharks tonight. Ray Shirow is the big story, but Karel Kaprizov comes back for the Minnesota Wild, Joel Ericksonek comes back for the Minnesota Wild. It's a team that's, you know, looking like it's in a real scrap here for a playoff spot. Mike's doing a lot of writing right now and probably being

hounded and bothered by a lot of people like me to try to get them on to talk about Ray Shirro. So when he comes on, I'll certainly appreciate his time, but understand if he's a little bit late. Also, should mention today, Gabriel Landisgog. So Landisgog, who has been skating and we've seen full contact and I got very excited when I saw that this week, because as you know, he's one of my favorite players. Don't cheer for teams, cheer for players.

But all of a sudden, it looks like all of a sudden here we go the Colorado Avalanche can add Gabriel Landisgog to the lineup for their Stanley Cup push here. I don't know how good he's going to be. I mean the last time we saw Gabriel Landisgog in an NHL game he was raising the Stanley Cup And then we found out the extent of the injury. And he hasn't played for three seasons. And here we are looking at Gabe Landisgog. And I do believe that Sean Monahan should win the Bill Masterton award. But I'll carve out a really special place here for Gabe Landisgog when he gets

back. Let's get to Mike Russo here from the Athletic on the day that the hockey world mourns again. Yesterday Mike we talked about Greg Millen and today we're talking about the passing of Ray Shirow. Just an awful day. I didn't, I mean I know he was away from the team for a while, but I had no idea that he was ill or if he was ill, like that he was this ill.

I was surprised, how surprised were you and how is your organization right now? Yeah, well, the organization is devastated and Ray definitely kept that he was ill away from a lot of people and really I think even the severity to Bill Guerin and so real recently, I mean, you know, I hadn't seen him in a long time. And I know that he was up there January amateur meetings. And but when I didn't see him at the Four Nations, even though he wasn't on the management team,

you know, right away, you're just like, that's a little weird because he's so entrenched in USA hockey. And when he didn't come to Vancouver for the trade deadline and he's always to the right of Bill Guerin, you just, you know, your sixth sense is you knew something was wrong. And a lot of us texted him and he, you know, came up with a different reason why he wasn't there that was health related, but nothing to what really was going on. And so, you know, it's just a sad, sad day. Like I've known him for a long, long time,

well before he was with the Minnesota Wild. I've always had a, you know, a great relationship with them. And that was always, you know, and he did this with everybody. And there's so many more people that were closer to him than I am and so many people that he influenced and helped launch careers around the National hockey league and, and friends. But the one thing about him, you know, as you know, Jeff, as a beat writer,

sometimes, you know, you have a tendency to tick people off and you're not exactly this. No. Yeah. When you show up and, and every time that he showed up around the Minnesota wild was a good day because he just treated you with such incredible respect and hilarity and words of wisdom. It's an awful day. I talked to Bill Guerin a couple hours ago and he was absolutely, he hadn't gotten emotional until that phone call and it was a very gut wrenching call.

I just talked to Mike Yeo on the phone, talked to Judd Brackett. I'm doing a big story. Just sort of, we're doing a bunch of stories, but I'm doing, just, you know, his relationship with these guys with the wild. And, you know, it's, it's obviously just a horrible day for hockey.

You know, I'm, I'm, I'm glad you mentioned about him. Like this sense that, this sense that, you know, when he was around, like everybody was smiling and everybody was happy. And I was just, before he came on, I was telling the story. Like I can remember my last conversation with Ray Shirow. It was about, you know, I'm always fascinated with like when's the first time that hockey broke your heart? And for him it was 72 and the Jeremeyan goal and the Flyers lose 3-2. So they're out of the playoffs and it's his dad's first year

and he said, you know, his mom spilled a cup of coffee when the Jeremiah score before seconds left and he started bawling uncontrollably. It's like that moment where hockey breaks your heart. He's laughing when he's telling me this story. You know, like that was, to me, as much as like, listen, you have to make really hard decisions when you're in the big chair.

You have to be like, you can't worry about feelings and things like that. Now it's not always a happy time, but I'll always look at Ray Shirow and say, like, that guy always made me smile, always made me laugh whenever I was around him. Yeah. Just to his ability to tell a story and, you know, real fast paced way. And yeah. Um, you know, I, I remember I did a podcast with him a couple of years ago at

Tom Reed's hockey city pub here right around the corner from where he was born. You know, he was born here in Minnesota and even though he moved out of here when he was four years old, he considered himself, at least when he was here, when it was convenient for him, he considered himself a Minot Sultan. But he was born here when Fred was coaching the St. Paul Saints. And for him to come back here, I think it was it was super exciting. I, you know, Bill, you know, he gave after after Ray left the New Jersey Devils, he was out of hockey for a year and Bill just felt he had to get him back one in the game. But to get the words of wisdom. And there's very few things that the wild did that Bill Guerin didn't at least lean on him for, including from hiring John Hines to trading for Mark Andre Fleury.

You know, Billy shared with me today that a huge reason why Marc Andre Flurry wound up in this organization for the last four years was was Ray Shirow and the influence that he had on on that decision. And, you know, he was gritty to though, Jeff. I mean, I remember when he was the devil's DM and there was a game on national television between the wild and the and the devils. And it was one of the worst hockey games I've ever seen in my life was on ABC and I tweeted out during the first period. I'm like this if the Wild and the Devils met in the Stanley Cup final national TV might pass and Ray Ray read that tweet and came down from the visiting GM's booth right to my thing and let me have

it and the last four years that he's been back in this organization we always joke about that and there was one game in particular that he was at this season earlier this season that it was a brutal game it might have been last season it was a brutal game and he came back from the home GM booth this time he came and tell me he goes remember that tweet you put for that one you could put it again for this one because it was that boring of a bossy. So he did he did forgive me eventually. Yeah, you know I had something similar with Brian Burke with a tweet about Phil Kessel and Tyler say again but the thing is like at least Ray talked to you.

Burke and I were frozen for about four or five years so at least you guys are still able to have some kind of relationship. Burke and I are not like best pals but like, it's amazing what it's about. Anybody here? Oh, it's crazy. I could stay, I could talk forever on a podcast radio, right? But if I tweet something, that's when I hear player management or whatever. You know why I figured out, because we shouldn't look at them as like posts or

social media posts or what tweets. Digital stone. That's what it is. That's how people think about it. All of a sudden something that should just be said has been placed in digital stone and lives there forever. It fans the flame to the fans, which is the other issue. Totally.

You got a lot of work to do. Let me finish on one thing as we, we'll have more conversations about Shiro, I'm sure, but this is also raw and fresh for everybody. And maybe it's too raw and fresh to even ask this question, but when you look back at the career, when you look back at the person, the conversations, all of it, for me, it's the stories and the laughter

and the history and the name and the dad and all of it and the legacy of his kids scouting with Columbus in Philadelphia right now, how will you remember Ray Shira? Well, just always being a friendly face to talk to and somebody to lean on for great. I mean, you know, I was reading some of these stories that I wrote when John Hines was hired here and some of the anecdotes that he told. You know, the way he will his lasting legacy in hockey is just over and over again, like just the

pipeline from Pittsburgh to Minnesota alone but you know as Bill Guerin reminded me today you know you take everybody from Yarmou Kekalyan into Jason Botterill to Tommy Fitzgerald Chuck Fletcher you know John Hines Mike Yo Billy Guerin Patrick Alveen I mean it all starts with just the support and the the influence that really you, Ray had on all these people and this is just the beginning. I mean, there's just an endless list and long pages of people that can tell you about their friendship and mentorship that they had with Ray. And so, you know, from a beat writer perspective, again, you know, I don't know him the way

that other people do, but I've spent a lot of time with him I've talked with him for a long time and just the always the respect that he showed you the laughs if you know again if I tweeted out anything I heard that you know I hear from him during a game and you know there would be there would be also times where he would call me in the middle of Newsing Street just be like what are you seeing because he hadn't been around the team for a while so you know even for him to do that and and show you that respect as a beat writer who's not on the same team as them, it just said everything. So, you know, he will be missed. You know, when I found out this morning, I just the first person

I thought of was Bill Guerin, because I just know how much Bill, you know, really felt that that Ray changed his life from acquiring him in Pittsburgh to giving him the start in management to the point that Billy wanted to bring him here. And so I just feel for so many people on hockey today that love this guy. And you think about the state of Pennsylvania, dad brought a couple of Stanley Cups

with the Philadelphia Flyers and Ray with the Pittsburgh Penguins. And a lot of Cups went to Pennsylvania because of one family, Father Fred and son Ray. Thanks so much as always, which was a better reason to have you on today, but it's always a delight. I know you're super busy. Enjoy the game tonight if you can and best of luck. Look forward to seeing what you guys all put together at the Athletic for Ray. Yeah, always a pleasure to talk to you, Joe. There he is. Mike Russo from the from the Athletic Covers of Minnesota Wild. I've

always said this about Mike Russo. Every single NHL market should have a Mike Russo. And if every NHL market did have a Mike Russo, what a delightful industry this would be to cover. And what an interesting industry this would be to cover. What an interesting league it would be. Everybody, every market deserves and should have someone like everybody, every market deserves and should have someone like Russo. He is the Cadillac. He really is. Zach Phillips, true or false? Mike Russo asked you if you're the old Minnesota Wild Zach Phillips. That's true.

I love it. Yes, he did. He said, I've been meaning to ask you, like I just see that little beginning part of the message I'm like, huh? By the way, you must get you must get that No, it's kind of niche. Honestly, I think like you would know people on our chat would know it's not what I when I like What I call when I first heard your name when I first heard you like that's the first place I went like Zach Phillips Second round pick. Yeah, third round pick in Minnesota? I remember Zach Phillips for sure.

Yeah, was he not a first round pick? I thought he was. I think he might have been. I had been following him since that point as well. He also wore number 7, but he played out there for the St. John's Seedogs. I had been following him just to see what happened. 28th overall, 2011, yeah. Playing with the dogs. You know who I think- He was the first one picked.

Yeah, Yurko's on that team, Huberto's on that team. That's a good team. Jar Glant would have been the coach. That squad, that's a good team. Yeah, but it's not that common that that happens actually. It's not really until now at this point in my life that it's come up more with people bringing that up or asking them.

It was funny though, I laughed. Because now you're dealing with older people in the industry now too. Because now you're not just dealing with your peer group. Because everyone from that generation after would have known Zach Phillips. Right, that's a 2011 draft, so they would have known that. Anyhow, there's a couple of things I want to get to here.

First of all, we did the congratulations for the Ottawa Senators, and that's awesome. They got the big favorite done by Michael Ann Lauer's old team, where he was a minority owner of the Montreal Canadiens. There is one thing that I'm really curious about here. I'm going to ask some people about it when we're off the air here. I'm gonna I'm gonna ask some people about it when we're off the air here. Can you cue up the Josh Anderson goal from last night with Albert Johansson? Yes. So this is last this is last night okay the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens right Johansson's helmet comes off so when

that happens you're supposed to pick up your helmet or skate to the bench. You can show it again, but in the rule book, you're allowed to finish your play without the helmet. So he bumps Anderson behind the net, goes to get his helmet because that's the rule, exposes Anderson with the tap. I think Dvorak made the pass. I don't know the answer to this. I'm asking the chat and I'm asking you. If he would have stayed with Anderson helmetless, would it have been a penalty or would that have been considered sticking with the play

or continuing with the play until it's over. Because that's the argument that I would make. Like that one specific play because that's his assignment. He shouldn't get a penalty if he stays on the ice, doesn't get his helmet and doesn't go off the ice because that play is continuing. Which you are allowed to do. You're allowed to finish the play. Like that might just be a young hockey player Who just thinks like oh crap my helmet comes off I have to get it I have to get my helmet or I'm gonna get a penalty here leaves his post Josh Anderson scores It was an interesting play last night. How did you see it? Is it just a mistake by a kid?

Yeah, maybe a mistake by the kid. But that being said, I don't think that that's like a young guy mistake. I think that that probably is one of those in the moment decisions where you're like, shit, what do I do? Because it's like, do I get my helmet here and make this play? Do I go to the bench here? In that case, no, it's not going to be going to the bench. Or do I take a penalty?

I think that that's like the other thought process on this is like I have to pick this up or I get a penalty. I don't personally think that that's staying in the play. I think that puck, the way that, no, I think that the, because the puck went back to the other side of the ice. It went into the other corner, up a little bit towards like not two in on the half hole, but towards the half hole. But Montreal has possession and his play.

It's on the other side. But his play is to stay with his man. I know, but it's on the other side. I don't think that that's staying with the play in that case. Ooh, tough ref. Yeah. Tough ref. I agree with you that that's his guy and he's got to be there with him, but I don't think

that that's staying with the play. Now, you want to throw in because people were all pissed off by the way yesterday about the whole byfield thing they're like that shouldn't have counted he was holding right stick. Okay you want to do that let me throw this one in there and let me be a grumpy pants about something. Okay that shouldn't have counted because Anderson should have got a penalty for elbowing him in the head and dislodging his helmet How does his helmet come off? I don't actually think that should have been a penalty Show me that again. I know everybody's up in arms a couple of days ago about Gudis and Perry

And I'm just like does every hit to the head have to be a suspension? Oh, he's got his head down No, no way. I don't know. No, I think that's a stretch. It's a battle. Anderson just happens to be bigger and knocks his helmet off. Oh, man, can you imagine what's going through Johansson's head at that point?

It's here, right here Jeff. This is what I'm looking at. That play right coming in behind the net. Ah, little kitten, oh the hell me fell off and you're down to ice. I don't actually think it's penalty by the way. It's not penalty. By the way, I've asked this before.

Have you ever seen an elbowing penalty that wasn't to the head? Yeah, I know. I just know one of these. Just like, is it possible to elbow someone in the chest and get an elbowing penalty? Technically, I guess so, but it's only called if it's to the head. Is it possible to elbow someone in the arm and get an elbowing penalty should It's elbowing Why does it always have to be yeah only a head where it gets called

I'm trying to think about these like Do you remember the shit? I think it was Shay Weber on Yannick Sidenberg that hit Do you remember he like basically clothesline him? It was in an international event, it was not NHL. So Canada, Germany, when was it? Was it the World Juniors? No, I don't think it was World Juniors, but he catches him. And it was against Dennis Seidenberg,

defenseman on defenseman? Yeah, I believe so let me see if I can find this J rock America's victim planning lol he had his head down well you have your head down like you're gonna get your heads gonna get hit like contrary to some belief like y'all next I work okay not every hit to the head is a penalty it's not so I don't think I can get it in here quick enough but as he's coming down the wall he does that to Sidenberg as he goes by and clotheslines him with one of the hardest hits I've ever seen and Sidenberg goes

horizontal and he's parallel to the ice and then when he hits the ice he slides like 20 feet into the zone. I think I do remember this. And then when he hits the ice, he slides like 20 feet into the zone. I think I do remember that. Yeah, it had like a comical twist to it. It's like, if you're making a cartoon, that would be the hit. Yes. I remember that one now. Okay.

Yeah. Yes, I do. That one just speaks to me as that elbow conversation that we're talking about as you catch the guy going by. Do you want to have a really bad conversation? I don't want to do it too long because we've done it so many times already, but Buffalo is officially eliminated. Even though they've won 10 of their last 14, Tage Thompson is trying to win the rocket

rush hour, they're wrecking their draft position. They were officially eliminated last night, which makes it fourteen seasons in a row. That's why Terry Pagula bought the Buffalo Sabres fourteen years ago. Okay, okay, ready? Let's make this a positive. I can't, I can't, I can't keep doing it. I can't keep doing it. Okay, I'll spin it. Um, what do you got? nobody in the NHL is Better at winning games in the months leading up to the playoffs than the both of Buffalo Sabres

if nobody if only Maybe the problem is they need to start hockey in April. If they started... Don't worry, don't worry. If they started the season in April, Buffalo Sabres would be the best team in the NHL. The problem is they don't start the season in April But isn't the issue more that it's just like the empty calorie meaning let's go play loose hockey like Everybody else is making their way to the Stanley Cup although You see like I've always been warned by so many different people put nothing in what into what happens at the end of the season

Nothing zero. I don't care what like look Sabres look awesome. James Reimer looks incredible right now. Tage Thompson, what is he at, 44, 45 goals? Tage Thompson, in the middle of all of this. There's Tage Thompson, who gonna like tickle 50 goals this year But I've always been told like March April put like for teams that are out Nothing don't base any decision on this at all ever You'll only set yourself up for pain anyway, I don't know what they're gonna do here, I don't know whether they're gonna dust another coach or bring in another

manager or just hope that everybody gets better. I really don't know at this point. You know, the feeling around the team at the end of last season and beginning of this season when if there's no playoffs, There's gonna be severe consequences. I just wonder if in their minds, severe consequences now is the equivalent of, oh, we've just lost two games in a row. We're gonna show this team, we're gonna make a change on the fourth line.

Give this team a jolt. Gonna shuffle in and out a couple of fourth line players. I just wonder if it's like, oh yeah, we'll do something with the assistant coaches. They're the problem. My theory on Ukepakeloukinen still stands, by the way. I wonder if they try to pin this whole thing on him. Dun dun dun dun.

We'll see. But anyway, 14 seasons now for the team I grew up cheering for. Buffalo Sabres. A team that I say at the beginning of every year, I just want the Sabres to be good this year. Can I please have that once? Please. No Jeff. Can I have it? No, the answer is no. No, I can't have it. A couple of things. Women's Worlds, I mentioned a couple of seconds ago. That got underway today. USA over Finland, 7-1. Hilary Knight, Lee Stecklein, Kelly Panic with a pair,

Hailey Scamoura with a pair, Taylor Heisey finds the back of the net as well. Canada faces off against Finland tomorrow at 1 o'clock Eastern. I'm not gonna say it's gonna be the exact same result but I would say it's probably going to be a similar result as you know we're most likely once again headed for a Canada-US final through all of this. I want to mention a couple of things from the CHL as well as a couple of really interesting game sevens here in the CHL, in the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League. It is Halifax defeating Drummondville and goalie Jacob Steinman for Halifax just outstanding. It came over in a trade from

Moncton this year. It was fantastic. So Halifax advances major upset of Drummondville. Did De Silva play Drummondville too? He played Drummondville and Blaineville? Did De Silva play there too? Or am I wrong? That's a good question. Let's take a look. Also Prince Albert Raiders over the Edmonton Oil King so they advance. Five-nothing is the blank king. Lukas Stravacevic is the second round pick of the Seattle Kraken. 12 points in seven games. Oh, he's a defenseman, by the way.

Looks like a really good one there. Did you find it? Did it still play there? It's, it is loading. My... Will you dial up? We got a 14-4 or a 28-8? The Wheel of Death.

Modem? Are you getting the Wheel of Death? The exploding pizza. Also, we got... What else do we have here in the chat? Helsinki, Kelly Panic, Pride of Plymouth, that is true. Two, two, two, Buffalo should be an HL team. Well, that's not very good. Tej, future consideration.

Tej Thompson and David Pastran actually go for a beer after the season and reflect. Yeah. Poor guys. I mean, you know what? Actually, poor Tej Thompson, I'm not gonna give it to David Pasternak. You get to go to the playoffs every year, but this one, I'm not gonna give you the poor guy treatment. Sorry, Pasternak. You don't get that from me.

J-Rock, you mean annual conversation. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's true. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's true. Drummondville, Blainville, and Sherbrooke. That's right, had the three. Ryan DeSoto. Yeah. And University of Guelph, where he won the championship.

That is most important. Was Liam Ham on that team too? Yes. Was he on that Guelph team? Yes, he would have been. Yep. Yep. Cameron Searles. You know who went to Guelph? Cameron Searles. You know who went to Guelph then? Hmm. In the Carefree Halcyon days from around 89 to 94. She did. We overlapped at Griff's sports lounge. She was the waitress after my beer league games. So I got to meet Cassie. Got to know her.

Basket of wings, draft beer. There she is, Cassie Campbell. Should be in the Hall of Fame. And will be one day. Should be. It's true. All right, let's get to some of the games here tonight. We got a couple of things.

We wrap up the program here. We have five games on the go around the NHL this evening for this April the 9th. FanDuel, wanna remind you as always, our friends and partners here with the program are proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. The sheet is powered by FanDuel home

of the same game parlay. Make every moment more on FanDuel. You're working again tonight, hey? Oh yeah. Toronto and Tampa. Did the Leafs win or lose last night and by that you know what I mean. Did they really win or did they really lose last night by losing that game to the Florida Panthers? Yeah Vic called it the must lose so they won then technically. Yeah. I didn't like

how they played but they won. OT loss would have been I think the perfect way to do it. But I guess a loss anyways. It wasn't happening. Yeah. Toronto Amalie Arena tonight facing off against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Here at, listen, this is going to be the moment of the night. In a game that you can look at and say, this is essentially meaningless.

The Flyers and the Rangers at MSG and the reuniting of Sam Rosen and John Davidson. Now I love it when JD pops up on Columbus games to do color. I just love it. But anyone from certainly my vintage will remember the great booth that was Sam Rosen and John Davidson and we'll think about the Rangers in 94. God, they were so good together and this is this is one where like normally I'm sort of bouncing around and paying attention to a couple of games at the same time. I'm just locking it. Just give my give my ears something here,

just to hear Sam and JD one more time. I love that they're doing this. This is so cool, this is so awesome. Sam Rosen, John Davidson in the booth, Flyers facing off against the New York Rangers. The San Jose Sharks face off against Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. It will be a somber mood with the passing of Ray Shirow, certainly.

On the ice, the news is the return of Karel Kaprizov and Joel Erickson at Minnesota. You have a big one coming up at the end of the week against the Calgary Flames. Calgary's facing off against Anaheim. Calgary really wants that came later to mean something against Minnesota. So that's a big one for the Calgary Flames. And a big one for the Minnesota Wild tonight. As they get key returns to a wing with a winger in the center. And they have eyes of holding that wild card position. Thank you very much. And the St. Louis Blues face off against the Edmondson. Boy, do they ever look awful against the Anaheim Ducks the other night.

Oilers, do you have anything to add from today's program, from the conversation with either Michael Andlour, owner of the Ottawa Senators, or Mike Russo, beat writer for the Athletic? Anything to add from today's program? No, the only thing I want to do is just shout out, like we have these new odd sports here from our friends at FanDuel and I'm excited that we actually have races at the end of the season. You know, talking about, and obviously the Leafs are in the middle of it, but it's not just them.

It's now, could Montreal catch Ottawa? Can Florida fall below the Sens? Like all this stuff that's going on, we're seeing these teams bounce around. It's fun. And I feel like we haven't had this in a long time, but Jeff I noticed this and I wanted to point this out so odd sports presented by our friends at FanDuel here To win the Atlantic Division the Florida Panthers right now on FanDuel plus 9,000 the Tampa Bay Lightning plus 165 and the Toronto Maple Leafs minus 110. I will tell you this I would not go near that minus 210 the Tampa Bay Lightning plus 165 and the Toronto Maple Leafs minus 110. I will tell you this,

I would not go near that minus 210 for the Toronto Maple Leafs with a 10-foot pull. I would not at all. What kind of faith do you have in that team? You mean you cover them, you document them, you watch, you eat, breathe, sleep, this team. Where are you at on Toronto right now? I've always maintained there are some teams that don't have a season. They have 82 one-game seasons and Toronto is one of those teams. 82 one-game seasons.

That's what they have. This is what I will say. I am in an abusive relationship with the Toronto Maple. You're not the only one I Get my heart broken and then they say no no come back come back and they say okay You know what you're you see I think you're different this time And then I buy in and then they say yes We got this massive six foot five general manager who wants big mean tree defensemen. They say, okay, I'm in. And then they kick me in the nuts and they go on a girls trip to Miami and I'm heartbroken.

And then they come back and they say, no, no, Zach, I'm different. We've got this angry coach who won a Stanley Cup before. And I say, come in. I love this. And then I go all season long and then I watch a game five games away from the playoffs and I say What the hell happened? Why are you going to the club? With celebrities, what are we doing here? And I get my heart broken again

But Jeff I wake up the next day and I put on my loose nation She's playoff t-shirts does not you can find at nationgear.ca. And then I just am ready to get my heart broken over and over and over. Tommy Gorman, Dick Irvin, Scottie Bowman. Those are the only three coaches to win Stanley cups with different teams in the history of the NHL, which stretches back to as you all know, Zach, 1917. When I was just a Cub reporter. No, 1917 when this league started. Only three coaches.

What are the fan dual odds of a coach repeating? What is that? Do our friends at FanDuel have that one? What are the odds? No. With a different, no it's got to be with a different, not just repeating, but with a different team. So you brought up Craig Barup and he's always like, oh he's won the Stanley Cup, he, how to do it. Don't work like that for folks. Oh, he's won the cup before. He's going to break. Doesn't work like that in the NHL. I'm sorry. Maybe one day it will. But Tommy Gorman, Dick Irvin and Scotty Bowman. That's it. Finished end of discussion three. Sleek started in 1917. Maybe one day there will be. All I'm saying is,

the odds aren't in your favor. All I'm saying is, you're saying there's a chance. They're saying there's a chance. Yeah, someone's due. Eventually, there's gotta be a fourth. Why not us? Why not us?

Why not us? All right. That's my motto, Jeff. No Jeff no I know it's the refrain of the Leafs fan you know st. Jude was you know st. Jude was young Zach no patron saint of lost causes you my friend st. Jude the patron saint of lost causes. Anyhow, cheer up on that lovely note. Thanks to Michael Andlour for stopping by. The owner of the Ottawa Senators and congratulations to that organization. For me, I was at Vitos last time that this team was in the postseason in Windsor.

We'd all gathered around this little TV. Me and Todd and Colby. You guys remember Rocky Dundas? Rock was with us. Rock made the reservations. Christina Rutherford, great writer. That was the last time his team was in the playoffs. So out back in 2017, congratulations to the Ottawa Senators for making it back in.

And thanks to Mike Russo on a very, very busy and emotional day, as you could probably hear. The people that he's talking to right now are very emotional. On the passing of Ray Shirow, and again, condolences to the family and the friends. Of the, you know, one of that, one of the great general managers of his era,

who was a Stanley Cup champion and helped to resurrect the New Jersey Devils with a couple of great drafts and some really fine trades as well. Condolences, I mean, the hockey community mourns. We think of Chris with Columbus, we think of Kyle with the Philadelphia Flyers. Condolences to the entire Shero family

and thanks to Mike Russo for stopping by. Thanks to everybody in the chat. Last couple of days have been really tough like on hockey. You know we didn't spend probably as much time as we probably should have talking about Mark LaForest who passed away. Trees was a wonderful guy, just a delight, a really happy guy to be around. We talked yesterday about Greg Millen, great NHL goaltender and TV commentator, and now today Ray Shirow. So I know the shows have kind of had a cloud over them. Condolences to all the families here.

Thanks so much for joining me today. Thanks to our guests. Thanks to everybody in the chat, everybody watching, everybody listening on your favorite podcast platform. The show returns tomorrow, enjoy the games tonight, five of them, some really interesting ones. I know it's going to be emotional in Minnesota tonight as it should be. I'm sure Minnesota will do something special to honor Ray Shiro as he deserves. Thanks for joining me.

We're back tomorrow on the sheet. Don't forget tomorrow morning Cup of Hockey, nine o'clock Eastern on our daily face-off YouTube channel that is right here. Daily face-off live at noon and then this program again at three Eastern. Thanks for joining me again. Yes, Mace, rest in peace Ray Shirow.

We'll see you tomorrow. Have a good rest of the week. Guess you can call it a ride 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 how this gonna be fixed in my mind I do wanna break it I turned on the music I do wanna break it I turned on the music

It's turned up, down, out, and gets you sometimes losing Helping on the days that went wrong