The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Canadiens Offseason & NHL Headlines ft. Shayna Goldman & Maxim Lapierre

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

On this episode of The Sheet with Jeff Marek on the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel, Jeff sits down with Shayna Goldman (The Athletic, Too Much Man Podcast) to cover the biggest stories around the NHL, including the ongoing Hughes brothers drama, the future of Connor McDavid’s contract with the Edmonton Oilers, and how these moves could reshape the league. Then, Jeff welcomes Maxim Lapierre—former Montreal Canadiens forward and cohost of La Poche Bleue Podcast—to break down the Habs’ offseason moves, from the addition of Noah Dobson on defense to the excitement of a full season of top prospect Ivan Demidov. They also dig into expectations for Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, and the Canadiens’ push to get back into playoff contention. If you’re a fan of the NHL, the Edmonton Oilers, the Montreal Canadiens, or just love sharp hockey analysis, this episode of The Sheet has you covered.#NHL #Hockey #JeffMarek #TheSheet #DailyFaceoff #ConnorMcDavid #HughesBrothers #EdmontonOilers #MontrealCanadiens #ShaynaGoldman #MaximLapierre #LaPocheBleue #TooMuchManPodcast #Habs #IvanDemidov #NickSuzuki #ColeCaufield #JurajSlafkovskyReach 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/@DFOFantasy____________________________________________________________________________________________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.

Okay, a little different location today. Glad to be aboard with you once again. Welcome to the sheet. We are at the Better Collective Headquarters, Canada. Did I see that, right, Zach? It's a Corolli set. Okay. We're going with Nick Carolli's description.

of where it's photo day today, which is why I've got a little bit, maybe too much Mac 30 on me right now. Clean it up a little bit here, folks, for you. For staff photo day. There's a couple of really nice father-sonshots of me and Zach, which I could tell you we're not a big fan of doing when I first approached you about doing them, but nonetheless.

I'm sorry, we'll see how it turns out. We'll see how it turns out. You'll look great, and I'll just look like an old man. Welcome to the program. I don't know if it's just me. I'll keep watching. Like, we're all the same way. We just all watch.

I'm about as excited, and it's always been the same, I'm about as excited at pre-season hockey as Nikita Zedoroff was about scoring the game-winning goal against the New York Rangers, which, by the way, I really wish would be, and it's not the first time we've seen that. Ryan Johansson used to do that if he would score a game winner in preseason, he would just skate right off. So it's nothing new, but it's always great when you see it.

Guy scores a game-winning goal, and instead of the celebration, just skates right off, Open the Zamboni doors. I'm out of here. I love that celebration. I really wish there was a team that would do that more. Like I've still maintained that the best celebration, you can find this on YouTube,

and one of the players is still in the NHL, one of the best celebrations I ever saw. No, sorry, the best goal celebration I ever saw was London Nights. And it used to be one of those Friday night hockey games that I would do with Todd Warner and Damien Cox. We were doing London Nights and Flint, Firebirds. And Cliff Poo scored a goal, Max Jones with the assist, and there was no celebration.

They both took out of their right glove off and shook each other's hand like a gentleman. Which to me, in the era of everybody goes crazy on goal celebrations, that to me was the greatest goal celebration. And it stands to this day, except for what? one there's one goal celebration that i've seen is better loves adoroff johansen awesome love cliff pooh and max jones and junior hockey with the london nights awesome but the best goal celebration i saw ever and she did not intend it for the way that it came out was from a nine-year-old girl at stowville arena pad b have i told you this one before zach no it was the best goal celebration i've

ever seen in my life. So it's like nine-year-old Timbitts, and she scores, and it's a really nice goal. And instead of doing the celebration, she skates down to the other end of the ice and looks up at the scoreboard and doesn't move until it rings one. And when one goes on the scoreboard, then she put her hands up and went back to her team. I'm like, that is the coolest celebration that is the best celebration i think i've ever seen in my life and i'm dying for someone else to do it please anybody if you're you're playing hockey if you're a pro if you're playing junior you're playing college you're playing amateur you're playing beer league whatever please let's make that the goal celebration you score you skate until you're underneath

the scoreboard and then when your goal goes up then you celebrate just skate to center ice and stand under the jumbotron. It's straight up. It would have changed. Bless that girl. She's like nine years old. It was fantastic. All right.

Listen, welcome the program. Glad to have you aboard today, as always, whether you're watching on YouTube, whether you're in the chat, listening live, watching live or listening on your favorite podcast platform. We appreciate your attention. And as always, we'd like to remind you at this point of the program. And before you bring on our first guest, Daily Outline is powered by Fandul. Make every moment more with North America's number.

number one sports book and standing by is a great Shana Goldman from the Too Many Men podcast and the Athletic. One of the things we're going to get into with Shana is things we dread that are coming up this season that we all know we're going to have to talk about. We'll get into that and season preview stuff, team preview stuff with Shana Goldman. Maxime Lapierre, I want to talk to Max about a couple of different things.

One, the Montreal Canadiens and he is of course, you know, a co-host of La Pache Bleu, a podcast that covers the Montreal Canadiens. I want to talk about the HABs and all the Hot Button, Demadoff, Suzuki, Hudson, all that fun stuff, Camp Fowler, or Jacob Fowler, sorry, it's preseason for all of us, Jacob Fowler. But also, I can recall when he played junior hockey for the Rocket, and whenever they played Ramoski, no joke, Max Lapier, would drive. Sidney Crosby crazy.

He, like, lived in Sydney Crosby's hip pocket. So for those of you who are junior hockey aficionados or just want to hear Max Lapeer tell stories about making Sydney Crosby's life as a teenager miserable, stay tuned because Max will be aboard just after the bottom of the hour. In the meantime, she's one of our favorites, the lovable weirdo, as I love the call her,

and she's smarter than everybody, so pay attention. She's Shana Goldman from the Too Many Men podcast and The Athletic, and she joins me now. Shana, how are you today? I'm great. What an intro. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go now. I'm like, I'm pumped.

You're pumped. You're ready? You want to be ready to bring the flavor, bring the dill, bring the weird? Always. All right. Well, here we go then. I want to start the conversation off. Do you have a pickle on your laptop?

Is that a sticker? That's a pickle. I'm glad you noticed that. I've got a few things. It's very interesting. I like that. All the stickers on the laptop, by the way, were put here by the night. my daughter. So I got like a blue donut. I've got actually two pickles and a salt

shaker. Beautiful. She just decides whatever's going to go on my laptop. So she's she's she's a she's she's she's in charge of creative control here, Shana. So everything you see on the laptop is all courtesy of Joe. Um, you brought up a great one. Um, uh, earlier today with our producer, Zach, things that you dread we're going to, I'm horribly phrasing this. Things that you know we're going to have to talk about at some point this season but you dread it for me oh god it's going to be so annoying olympic snubs is going to be my oh god do i have to talk about this i mean i kind of like the olympic discourse it's like the one thing i actually all-star teams like i don't give a shit i don't want to talk about it pre-season lineups or even like week two n-h-r lineups but olympic snubs like that

That has something to it. That's interesting, especially building off of four nations, but it's going to get, I think because we all have that long layoff of the Olympics, it's probably going to be like beating a dead horse. It completely will be. I just love the way that, like, it's always an issue when it's your bull that gets gourd. Like every home team's fan base is going to feign the biggest outrage because their guy's not there. That's probably what I'm looking at and saying,

this is really annoying. Like, this is really annoying. Like, I'll disagree with, like, line-up changes within the games. Like, go back to Four Nations. I know that so much of the popularity around Four Nations was really sort of galvanized by the Kachucks on that Saturday night in Montreal with the three fights in nine seconds

and both Brady and MacKichuk fought. But in a game against Canada where you need goals, and Kyle Conner's sitting there and Maca-Chuck is still injured and can't get off the bench. That to me is interesting, but I don't know that I can do the snub talk.

I really don't know. You can? Like, that's still interest you? Well, okay, I like it from a different context. I don't care if this second liner from the Detroit Red Wings didn't make it and everybody's overlooking. I don't get shit about that. But what I do care about is the players who get fueled by the snubs.

It's like Jason Robertson had a very slow start to last season. He doesn't make Team USA and he goes on a tear. Like, yes, let that spite fuel you. Nothing gets you going like proving someone wrong or proving an entire entity wrong. That's what I look for. So for me, like the snub talk is only going to be interesting if we see what comes of it, right? Say Cole Caulfield doesn't make the team. I want to see him score 40 goals and the entire time just be like, point up to the American flag when you do it.

Or like, you know, make the little subtle jabs and whatever. But just crush it and just show. like, hey, you thought I wasn't good enough for this? Watch me cook. I can understand that. I looked at the Jason Robertson thing in a very specific way, which was he was bound to pop anyhow. He just had a really, really slow start for Dallas.

Don't take my fun out of it. Come on. No, to me, it's like we've constructed this story about like all of a sudden he was, he was galvanized and he shot out of a volcano after the USA snub. Like, Jason Roberts is going to get his goals. Jason Robertson is going to get his cookies. One of the best goals scores in the NHL full stop. Period.

So I don't know. That one just seemed a little, that kind of story seemed a little too convenient for me. Like, okay, Olympic snub, he goes on a heater. It must be the snub. I don't know. Boring, takes away the fun. Come on. I think everyone needs to do it.

Like, just, you know, you just get it, you get it back. You feel good for yourself. And it's just like a nice thing to do. And, hey, you're not going to make that mistake again. But that's fine. Okay. So you mentioned Jason Roberts. The big story of the day is, is Jamie Ben and the collapsed lung.

Even though his lung didn't collapse until technically after the playoffs, I still go back to Patrice Berseran in that playoff year where he played with broken ribs and a punctured lung. I believe this came after the Randy Jones hit. I'm just always sort of stunned at how much pain players tolerate. But nonetheless, no Jamie Ben for the next four weeks for the Dallas Stars. Where is Shannon Goldman on the team in Green? The Dallas Stars, who once again we look at and say,

couple of things. One, no one thinks that Jim Nill is done with this team because he's never done with this team. And two, once again, they're going to be like legit contenders for the Stanley Cup. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not like worried per se about them. And it's not like even a knock to Jamie Bennett. It's just that this is one of the deepest forward groups in the league. And this is going to give someone a chance to play more top nine minutes than maybe we would have expected in the first place. And now you can see what they can do and just, you know, learn your options. I think Sometimes we know combinations that work and that click and all of that's great and wonderful to know. But also, like, you need to know things back of plans.

You need to have different ideas. If this gets stale, what do you do? Right. I think you go back to the last postseason, Jamie Ben wasn't scoring a bunch of the stars were worse than his minutes. You needed to know a backup plan for who could have played up if you were to shift him down into a more fitting role for that moment. So maybe this is a chance for someone like Maverick Bork to get better top nine minutes, right, and better opportunity. And maybe you'll see him click with a player you wouldn't have seen before. So now you know that.

Now you know what Jamie Venn brings to the lineup. There's no question about it, right? Like every single person in Dallas should know what he can and can't do. So now once the rest of the lineup is taking shape, you can find the right place for him when he is ready for it. You know, I'm glad you mentioned Maverick Bork, and I do want to get your things that are about to annoy you segment in here because I kind of monopolize that with my discussion about the Olympics.

Maverick Bork is fascinating to me because I think here's a player that A knows how good he is. And, you know, last year was the real time. test for Maverick Bork and like the guy's legit. He has nothing left to prove at the American hockey league level, obviously. Whenever I see someone changing agents, I always say the same thing. This player wants something big to happen. And he's now with Olivier Forche of Wasserman. Wasserman is one of the heavyweights, as we all know, representing players like, oh, I don't know, Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews and Roman Yossi and go all the way down the list. So he's now

with Olivier Fortier. I get the feeling that Maverick Bork understands I'm going into a top six role. I'm probably going to play with Wyatt Johnson. I'm going to put up some huge numbers here and I'm going to get paid. I've got massive expectations for Maverick Bork. I know you might say, hold on. Pump the brakes. He's only been in the league for five minutes. But do you have a thought on Maverick Bork and what he can mean here? And because like his own expectation is he's going to have a big season. Yeah, I mean, listen, if someone like Logan Statenkoff didn't do as well as he did when he first came to the NHL, maybe Bork would have gotten that opportunity then.

It didn't happen. So this is his chance to shine. I definitely like him as like a player to watch on the rise. I don't know if I'm going to say breakout candidate yet. Maybe that's in a year. But I think we're going to get to know who he is and what he can do. And I also like that if I'm a more offensive coach coming into Dallas now in Gulletton, I think that's going to be a good thing for him too.

I think that DeBore did suppress the even strength. offense a bit last year so i think this can open things up and if he doesn't shake it say on that second line like there could be a very very good place for him on that third line where he's a very good contributor because this is a team that can roll three three very good lines and then you throw your fourth line out for a couple minutes a game and it's fine so the opportunity is there for him to show you know where he fits who he clicks with how he can rise to the occasion i think there's so many different chances to do it and we saw last year there were injuries you need to know that he'd be the guy now that you can tap on the shoulder and say you're going to play an extra

two minutes a game on average. Like get ready for a bigger role in opportunity. So I think this is huge for him. I think it's massive. And even if it's like third line responsibility, he just may find themselves like, oh yeah. How many players say, I'm on the third line, but I have the luxury of playing with Matt the Shane. Like that could be a reality for the Dallas stars. We're talking about how if you're going to win the Stanley Cup, a lot of times you're going to do it with your third line. Don't look now. But Dallas can ice a really, really good third line here, especially Jamie Ben gets healthy. Yeah, I feel like sometimes

it gets like taken as an insult. Like this play is a really good third liner. No, no, no, no. A third line is important these days. Like we've seen every Stanley trip. As Florida. As Florida. As Tampa Pay when they won two. We're still talking about that grind line, right? Like you need three deep lines. Vegas.

They had Riley Smith and Will Carlson as their third line. They were excellent together. So yes, it's very important especially when you look at the way this roster is constructed. That fourth line you don't want playing that much a game. Okay, so what's the, what's the thing that you know we're going to talk about this year that you dread that you just know like, oh, I'm going to get so annoyed talking about this. I'm already annoyed talking about it. It's the Hughes brothers in

I can't stop talking about it. What do you mean? Like, I can't stop talking about the Hughes's. Like every show has been about the Hughes's. The Quinn wants to go to New Jersey. First of all, we have an excellent free agent class in 2026. I want to talk more about Caprice up. I want talk more about McDavid. I want to talk about every single one of those guys until they don't have until they're signed, right? Then we can get another year. Like, everyone takes the quotes and runs with it. Oh, of course, Jack wants to play with Q's. Why the hell wouldn't he? Right? Like, who doesn't, I mean, I don't know who he doesn't want to play with their siblings. If I was a hockey player, I'd be like, absolutely fuck not. But like, in their situation, like, their three

elite players, they want to play together. There's nothing wrong with Jack saying it. And it doesn't I mean, Quinn's telling him at family dinner, I want to come to New Jersey bestie. Maybe he is. But, like, I feel like Quinn Hughes is getting all of these extra questions because of it. When he's saying the right thing, and that's not the quote that's going viral, it's everything else. And it being the Canucks and the chaos of the Canucks and everything else, it adds so much more to this. Can we talk about it in the year? Can we wait?

There's going to be so much time. Let's focus on Carls being Capricosel first. No, no, no, no. Listen, I was making a point yesterday with James Nichols that, you know, if I told you, Shana five years ago that we're going to be talking about all three Hughes brothers in the NHL

and the only player that is not of all three and the only player that's not surrounded by drama like top shelf drama is Jack you would have laughed at me you'd have been like no dude

that guy is the drama magnet that's all we're talking about but the two drama magnets are the two defenders not the center I think I find it fascinating that the one guy who's just skating here, drama-free, is Jack.

Jack Hughes. No drama, nothing. Yeah, it's taking all the attention away from like anything with this shoulder. Oh, can he drive in this environment? It's not like we're not talking about it. If Quinn was playing anywhere, if Quinn's playing in San Jose, we're not talking about like this. Because it's Vancouver, it's going to light a match that literally is going.

It's this huge domino effect. And I get that, right? He's an elite player. Elite players don't often change teams. And when they do, it's a massive deal. Look at how much we talked about Ransson and last year. I totally understand. that but I just feel like let this man deal with the drama he has in Vancouver he doesn't need

to be the drama the drama is around him and I feel like he navigates it so well and now all of a sudden it's like falling on his shoulders he's like I didn't do anything it's not my fault my contract's coming up like let me be and in a year we'll talk I thought that you would have loved this I thought that you would be all over the Hughes drama here I liked it I liked it for a time I'm over I have other things I want to focus on in Vancouver. I don't want Quinn dragged into it. This is my issue now. I don't want Quinn dragged into the drama.

It exists around him. Like let that locker room be the issue and who knows what's going to come up this year and how management and ownership is totally going to screw it up and make it worse. Like leave him out of it until he has to be a part of it. Well, it kind of is the captain. The captain's kind of going to get a lot of microphones and camera time here. Like that's the other that's the other complicating factor here. It's like you have a captain in Vancouver and the big conversation is, is he going to peace out?

That's massive. Well, he should wait a year. He should, like, this is the thing, too. If I'm in his shoes and I'm looking at the Canucks situation and knowing your contract's up in two years, I want to see what happens this year before I say a damn word because it's like if this team can get back on track and you go, all right, one, two, three franchise cornerstones. We're ready to rip. The team is good around us. Like, it's tough for him because what's he going to say? Like, they completely mismanaged my team into the ground.

I'd love to hear him say it, but I think he needs to let this season play out first. So it's like, I feel like we have to give him the benefit for now. You get that, but the thing is, Shana, you get that when the player leaves. And they do like the first long-form sit-down. And then all of a sudden, like, I don't think it was missed on anybody that one of the first things out of Rick Tockett's mouth when he joined the Philadelphia Flyers was to complement the practice facility

and talk about how great the practice facility was in Philadelphia. and anybody who knows the situation in Vancouver is just like, oh, talk it, just, just turn the knife, just turn the knife and the Vancouver Canucks. That's what you get. Well, consider that to McDavid, though, right? Like, McDavid at the beginning of the summer, is like, I need to see where this team is going and what their direction is.

I would love to hear that from Quinn, but not this far out. Like, I feel like it's a little soon. Or maybe that's how he should field the questions. Maybe that is what he should be saying right now. I need to see where this team is going before I have any conversations about my contract. Let's focus on this season. I'd be like, yes, just plant the seed. Don't mention New Jersey.

Everyone stop asking about New Jersey. Just focus on, do you want to be in Vancouver? And that's the better question. Okay, I'm glad you got us to McDavid. So the thing that I'm working on in my own little P brain here lately is not so much that we think that when Connor says things like, you know, we want a team here that's going to be competitive. for a long time, we've made the knee-jerk assumption that what he's talking about is a goaltender, that what Connor McDavid is trying to tell us when we all put on

our Connor McDavid decoder rings, that what he's trying to say is, yeah, Stan, go get me a goaltender. I'm more come around to the idea that what Connor McDavid is actually saying here is get me a winger. Get me an elite player to play with. Now, I know that there's always going to be, you know,

it's going to be Leon and Connor and that song remains the same. Sometimes the coach will use it as a, in case of emergency, break glass moments. Other times it'll be regular. The guys like playing with each other. They're probably more effective separated. I think the team is. But I wonder just how much is Connor saying, go get me a winger.

You know, I was talking to wish about this the other day on the program and wondering if, you know, the one piece here, and we used it sort of under the umbrella of luxury, items the one luxury item you have as the edmonton oilers is you have a lot of centers and ryan nujan hopkins can get you a lot can ryan nujan hopkins be used to get connor mc david essentially his yari curry to wayne gratsky not after last year i think every general manager is going to want to see what the that middle ground is between two years ago and all of that power play scoring and last year's scoring rate going down and i know it was better in the playoffs but

I think you need to see it in the regular season. And I don't think, I don't think his results are going to be as drastically bad as they were last year. I don't think for Hyman either. I think it was a lot of bad luck. But if I'm McDavid, yeah. And you could even say maybe, maybe Nugent Hopkins should be on the third line. Maybe someone else there is expendable. And then you just get deeper that way, right?

And have your three centers, you know, one, two, three down the middle. That's pretty damn good. And roll with Zach Hyman and get someone else there. If I'm McDavid, though, and you're trying to, like, read between the lines, I would have my biggest question mark wouldn't even just be like the winger and the goaltender. It would be, is this general manager to do it? Because even if you take away

everything that happened off the ice in Chicago, right? Just strictly focused on the team building. He did a piss poor job of it. He was handed a very good team. And I think he made so many mistakes with the contract extensions he made. He got distracted by the fact of like, these are third liners that won with us now pay up

when you shouldn't have done that. You pay your core and you figure out the rest. And we see contenders having a better strategy for that now. I think the Panthers and Lightning are two of them, even Vegas to an extent in Colorado, you can interchange the rest of the pieces instead of just blocking yourself and just creating a cat mess. I don't think he's the most creative and innovative GM. So I would have my doubts if I McDavid seeing him take over and go, okay, where is this going to go from here? Can he be the guy to find these pieces? So now you're saying you want the winger. It's bigger than just can you find

a winger. Are you the right person to do it? I'm glad you mentioned Colorado a second ago. Let me Let me pivot there. I want to bounce around a couple of things in the few minutes I have left with you here. I remember when Colorado, I think we all did, but when Colorado won that Stanley Cup, I was one of the people that, and I'm curious if you were the same, that looked at this team and said, this is the first of many Stanley Cups that the Colorado Avalanche are going to win. The next season, they're out in the first rounds at the hands of the Seattle Cracken,

and they haven't been back since. Do you think there's enough there there? with the Colorado Avalanche to say this team can still win the Stanley Cup? Or is that ship sailed? No, I think when you have players like Nathan McKinn, Camacar, anything is possible, I think the return of Landis Codg

having him for a full season is huge. I think there was so much roster turnover last year that maybe, and I liked it in the moment, right? I was so impressed how they turned over their goal-tending situation for the better a month into the season. That's ridiculous. And you look at the work they did down the middle.

They addressed every area of weakness. Maybe it was too much in the end. Like maybe they didn't have rhythm and then you see the issues with the power play which were a year long thing and those never got remedied you saw whip at them so i think it's still possible but i'm going to be very curious to see how they navigate the situation because obviously in hindsight they look way worse with like the ranting and stuff of he didn't sign 14 15 million he only signed for 12 you should have been able to do that so what are you going to do to make this team back to their heights

because when they're going oh my god are they dangerous right and you they went to seven games last year They were the better team through a lot of that series. If they, you know, made it past Dallas, what would they have done? I'm very curious. Like, I would have said for sure they're going to go to the conference final, and then you see what happens versus Edmonton. So I still have a lot of faith in this group, maybe wrongly so. But I just think that there's too many high-end pieces there to say their windows done.

I've told you this before. Anyone who's ever listened to me while he's been playing in the NFL, Gabe Landiscag is my favorite player in the league. So I'm the wrong person to ask because I'm, like, too, fanboy, about Gabe Landisog. But, like, what's a good, what's that? Rightfully so. Oh, he's fantastic. What would be a good season for you for Gabriel Landiscaug?

Like, I don't know how to temper expectations for Landisog. Give me your thoughts on what a good season is for Landiscag. Play 70 games, look sharp in them and be fresh for the playoffs. I think it's huge right there. I think getting to that 60, 70 point mark would be pretty big. And I think it's going to be dependent on whether or not he plays PowerPlay 1. And, you know, when the playoffs started last year, he didn't. Rightfully so, right?

Like, he didn't have a whole year. You can serve him the right way. At the end of their first round, he was getting those reps. I think he belongs there. And I think if he's playing that role consistently, he's going to, you know, score a lot more. I wonder if the key to this is, like, keeping him separate from McKinnon. And then that's your in case of emergency. And that's going to weigh on his point totals too.

Right. If he's with McKinnon, he could definitely score a point per game pace, I would assume. I think anyone that's average could score at town with McKinn. Now you have someone with his ability, skill set, drive, everything in between, right? Like, he's going to be able to do more. So it does depend where he slots. But, like, if he could be a true second-line caliber winger, and I think that's possible and play the majority of the season

and be ready for the postseason after that, that's a great year. Do you want to wade quickly into what happens with Martin Natchez? That's an interesting one because I would imagine he's in a very good point. position there versus the canes. But like, I think it goes both ways. If he needs to see more to see if that's where he would want to extend, I think the abs need to see more from him too. And it's, you know, what can you do across the full season? Because even with the Keynes last year, you look at, you know, him scoring a ton, but then the underlying numbers started to fade, which has been the trend throughout his career, right? Like the scoring all of a sudden it pops.

The underlying numbers are concerning. And then the scoring starts ticking down with it, which is generally what happens, right? The underlying numbers are saying there's substance behind this boring. So I'm curious what happens there. And like, can, he step up under pressure is going to be a big question his playoff pedigree isn't amazing and i don't fully buy into like oh he's just someone that's going to wilt every single year in the playoffs but like you might want to see how he looks in those big games in the regular season against alice against edmonton against those like big teams and try to take what you can from that so i'll wait into that with there but ready now i'm going to throw into you what is your

obscure fact of the day you have to just spit one out i told you i'm obscure fact of the day um Well, first of all, I'm going to miss Logan Couture in the NHL. And here's my obscure fact of the day. This has always been my go-to. You need to demonstrate how much of a hockey geek you are. When Logan Couture was born, I believe it was in Lucan, Ontario just outside of London, home of the Black Donnellys. The delivering nurse was Bernadette Dvorsky, the mother of the Dvorsky referee family. So he was delivered by a nurse whose kids worked.

the lines in the NHL, the great Bernadette Dvorzky. How about that? Do I get, do I get like my hockey geek cred for that one? Spitting out obscure hockey nonsense. Since I know this one from you already, I will give it to you because it's only preseason, but throughout the season, you got to be ready with different ones and there's no repeating. And if you can't come up with one quick enough, I fear you're going to have to do too straight.

Like, I think we're going to have to make this a challenge. So every time we're on together, I got to deliver like the. most obscure hockey fact, like the, how about this one? The United States has only won Olympic gold. Here's an Olympic year, one. The United States has only won gold in the Olympics twice. Once in 1980, the miracle on ice, as we all know. By the way, how come when your country wins a hockey game, they call it a miracle? Anyway, more on that later. And then 1960 as well, sorry, I couldn't resist. Who was the last? You're going to say specifically the men. Let's go clear that. That's a good point. That's a very, very, very.

That's a very, very good point. So the men have won Olympic gold twice, once in 60, once in 80. Who was the last cut on the 1960 team? My God, like I'm going to know that. It was the guy that coached the 1980 team, Herb Brooks. There you go. There's another obscure hockey fact, getting you all excited for the Olympics this year. Yeah, so ready.

So ready to watch USA wilt in the gold medal game again, not scoring up goals. but at least they have character in heart and they have important phone calls before the game. No distractions there. You don't think that's actually going to have. I honestly, because I think that it makes me a bad Canadian, but I think the U.S. is going to win gold in this thing. That's nice.

I really do. I really do. That's nice. I love that for you, but no. You're not feeling it, eh? Let me see the roster first. Let me see the roster first because I do think, like, they took a very big step with their last roster.

It's like, okay, here's all the skill and the goal scoring. and all of this versus like the tough guys like a lineup that's David Back is Callahan Perez and just a billion of those guys like big difference from the last time we saw the team USA. So credit where credit is due. Having said that still saying though. Okay hold on

a second here. One thing before I let you go here, Max Lappier is going to be joining me here from La Pash Blue, former NHLer. I got in about 90 minutes from now if you're watching or listening live. The interview that I did with Robert

Thomas as part of the On the Road series in Muscoquette up in Canadian cottage country. You and I have talked so much about Robert Thomas over the years, premier playmaker, all of that. I got a note from Johnny Lazarus when he saw the previous saying, great for nears. He does have some of the best teeth in the NHL, no doubt about it. He just puts all the rest of us to shame with those chicklets. Man, he looks good. How do you think St. Louis does this year?

I mean, last year was kind of a, wow, look at that. Look what St. Louis has done. And even though they, you know, ultimately flamed out after giving the Winnipeg Jets a good scare here, what was that? And was that fool's gold? And can the St. Louis Blues really make it to the playoffs again? And are they now, like when you look at how they've turned the roster over, a consistent playoff team for you?

I think that they're going to be in the wild card conversation again. So we just did their preview and the model has them outside of the playoffs. And you can blame Dom for that because the model hates the blues. We know that. But, you know, it takes the full season into account. And I think that where they actually belong is somewhere in between that, like, incredible win streak and where they started. I think that they're a good team.

But I think that you saw enough progress from, from guys like Holloway, who was fantastic for them. And Broberg, when they needed someone to step up when Perico is out, he was playing really tough minutes. And I thought he was excellent in him. And also, Pariko looked like a true top-paired defenseman again. So I think you saw enough turnarounds from those guys. plus you have Robert Thomas, who's just consistently excellent. I think people forget how good of an all-around threat he is now.

He's not just a playmaker. He's not just an offensive threat, but he is so good in every which way that it puts together a lot of, it's so much progress from last year. I'm much higher on them than I was a year ago, but I still would say wild card. But that's not a bad thing, right? Like this team, you want to see the long game from. And I think that's what they're building towards. So I'm very curious how it's going to go this year.

Let me throw another team at you. Wish and I were talking about this the other day, and I was kind of making the point that this to me looks like a team that was constructed with way too many chefs in the kitchen, and that's Seattle. Like if there's a team in the NHL that I look at and say, wow, there's way too many people making decisions because that's what the roster looks like.

Looks like a roster that's been composed of too many people making decisions. It's the Cracken. I don't know if the model is out or what you think of, Seattle this year. Yeah, they were a bottom five for us. They ran on the first day. I have issues with this roster, but I am, I'm very intrigued by Lane Lambert because to me, he has proven from his time in Nashville, from his time on Long Island.

And then again in Toronto, after he has that pretty shitty stint as a head coach, like, let's call it what it is. In between that, he was an elite assistant coach. Like, this guy knows how to build a penalty kill. Yeah. I think he knows how to work with a, a, forward group. He knows how to work with a defense group. Now, how are you as the voice? And I think with so many coaches, we see them fail in their first go. And then you see how much they learn in

between. And I think having a gap in between is a big part of it because you have to take a step back and get some perspective. And now you're doing it, you're going to be an assistant without Barry Trots to lead you. So I think that things went off the rails on Long Island. I think the roster was bad. But I also think he did a poor job trying to break away from the Trots era and lose what made them special and it just, it all was discombobulated. So how has he learned in his second go? You saw Scott Arneal do. We've seen Mike Sullivan do it. So is he the next guy that's going to take that step back and now know how to lead better. I'm very, very, very curious about that. Fascinating. Okay. Let's do this again soon. Do we, last, every time we talk, there always has

to be, you always want to throw obscure facts to me. Any pickle updates? Any pickle flavored foods you've enjoyed lately? Everything is a pumpkin spice now. Like we're in our fall era. So like, no, it can be good. It can be good. Okay. Like the Oreos now are like apple flavored.

That's good. You know, a lot of, the fall flavors are definitely a nice profile. I feel like Dill is more of a summer thing. So I'm excited for all of these weirdos behind all of these corporations to like get back to like the drawing room and figure out how they can like, you know, one up themselves from this past summer. Like, I have high hopes. Never mind, pineapple on pizza, dill pickles on pizza. You in?

Why not? I'm in. 100% and I'll add black olives on pizza. That's one that I feel like a lot of people are iffy on. That's where I draw the line. That's the only thing I cannot eat in this world. Olives, forget it. Black green doesn't matter.

They don't belong on the face of this earth. Goodbye to olives. Welcome aboard pickle. All right, you'd be good. Let's talk soon. Okay. Thanks for having me. great, Shana Goldman, joining us here from the Too Many Men podcast, and also an outstanding

writer at The Athletic. One of the topics we stayed away from with Shana, because our next guest is going to go deep, deep, deep, deep into the deep end of the pool. We're not swimming in the shallow end where Merrick does. We're going to go into the deep end of the pool about the Montreal Canadiens, one of the most interesting teams in the NHL, Max LaPierre. It's a former NHLer now with La Pash Bluil podcast, which is outstanding. He joins us now for a couple of things.

the thoughts on the Montreal Canadiens and then I want to ask him about his time as a player as well. Max, thanks so much for joining me here today on the sheet. How are you? I'm great yourself. Thanks for having me. The pleasure is all mine. So like I'm in. I bought the ticket. I'm on the train. I'm full in 100% on the Montreal Canadians. Love the ride last year. Demadoff, like he was looking fantastic. Jacob Fowler looks like he's already taken another step in his game, the Dobson edition. I mean, everything right now, Max,

is lining up, it seems, perfectly for the Montreal Canadiens to take the next step. How do you feel about them right now? You're a lot closer to them than I am. Yeah, well, it just feels great in town. I mean, we were expecting a long rebuild, but I think it went a little faster than expected.

And fans are, I feel like the fans are reconnecting with the team. Like, it's been a while. We didn't have those young group of players. that are so talented and spectacular, but also have a little bit of character and an attitude. If you look at the Jack Eye Brothers, if you look at Temidav, if you look at Hudson,

it's all different types of personality that are defining the new era of the Montreal Canadiens. And I just think that it's great. We have a good core. We have players that are hungry to win. And I think we also have some great leadership in Nick Suzuki, Colcoffield, Goulet, Mike Matheson, these guys are healthy.

The young guys taking the right steps in the right direction. I want to ask you about Nick Suzuki and his pursuit of learning how to speak French fluently. But you mentioned the Jack-Eye brothers a couple of seconds ago. What went through your mind when you saw Florian Jack-Eye throw down with Nick DeLoree? I got scared a little bit. A big challenge for him, but this is exactly what I mean, Jeff. Like, we've been missing that in Montreal. It's been a few years that teams were just showing up at the Bell Center

and it was an easy matchup. It was just, let's go pick up two points in Montreal and nobody's going to get hurt. We won't need ice after the game because we won't be bruised. But this is going to change. I feel like this is the next step. We have the skills now. We need a little bit more of toughness.

And we've seen it with Jack Eye, the brothers, we talk like we're trying to get these guys on the fourth line now because we against Washington in the playoffs as happy as we were last year we noticed that we're missing something right after five games we were getting out hit every game and basically destroyed physically so I think

the teams need that type of personality right now and Florian Jackai fighting Delorees for me as a kid sending a message that he wants to be part of the adventure, he wants to play with his brother and he knows that that role might help him getting a spot on the team Max, you had Josh Anderson fight Tom Wilson on the bench.

I can't remember the last time I saw two players fighting on the bench. Yeah, what a fight and what a moment. And it was just great because obviously people don't like Wilson too much here in Montreal. But you know what? I'm really impressed with Josh Anderson last year. It was kind of looking for his role within the team and finally found something with a great connection he has with Marty Saint-Louis. And I think that's the perfect role for him.

He's really good on the PK. He's really physical. He accepts his role of a leader on the team. And he's showing up all the time for his teammates. And I feel like he might feel like he's the big brother out there. And we've seen a few games ago. Demidov gets a hit, like a normal hit. And he just jumped the guy right away.

And I feel like during these games, exhibition games, they're just trying to show that nobody is going to touch our star players this year. And if you look at the division, if you look at Boston, if you look at the Panthers, like even Toronto, the teams are getting tougher. And you have no choice to have a little toughness to get out of that division. You know, I want to get your thoughts on Nick Suzuki

and a couple of things. One, the interview he did in French last week, and as a friend of mine mentioned, not saying NHL, but saying LNH means a lot of Quebecers, specifically. I have a lot of time for Nick Suzuki, great player, real, it comes to a highly intelligent family. He grew up a huge fan of Patrice Bergeron. I remember Max, it's a great story.

He used to play in junior hockey in the OHL, was someone by the name of Brady Lyle. And Brady played with the Bruins organization, was playing in Providence, and took the number 37. And, you know, Nick was like, called him up and said, like, nobody in the Bruins organization, certainly not the NHL, but not even in the American League. should be allowed to wear Patrice Bergeron's number. Like, he was, like, hot about it. So he has sort of an understanding of the way that things should be. First of all, what did you make of Nick Suzuki's first interview in French? Well, you know, I think it's great that guys are understanding the culture here.

I don't think you need to be fluent in French, but just sometimes, say, like, talk a little bit just to tell the fans that you're with them and you're part of the adventure. together because I feel like this is what was missing in the last few years is the fans and the team wasn't connecting and like I feel like we were going off-road a little bit on the history side because it's always been a story of

the great fans of Montreal and the great achievement that the team has done in the in the history of the Canadians and now it's just saying a few words you know you know like me it makes a lot of people happy I just feel like your captain is invested in the project and is just

he's not here temporarily he's here to win he's showing that he's here for a long time and he wants to bring everyone aboard like he wants he wants everyone to be part of the next era of the Montreal Canadian and for me

like you said it well Nick Suzuki if I don't want to compare him to Patrice Bergeron because Patrice is a good friend and I know how good he was of a player but I think he's taking the direction right now to be a great leader like Patrice was and it's just the way he be A's on the ice

in the gym, with the fans, with their organization, just what he's done last year, going to confuse and say, hey, keep the guys, we want to make the playoffs and make sure you don't trade everybody away. And that's big leadership for me, because you don't expect that from Nick Suzuki just because he's a little bit of a quiet guy.

You don't expect that fire out of him, but I think he's the perfect leader from Montreal. He's quiet, doesn't say much, but when he speaks, it's important. And you can see he's the right guy for the situation right now. because guys have a lot of respect for him and that's everywhere in the NHL.

Let me ask you about Zach Boldook because I thought this was you know sort of undercover one of the best moves that I saw in the offseason. Montraud gives up a big right-hand shot defenseman and Logan Mayhew and they bring in Zach Boldock 19 goals last season

and one person in St. Louis how about this? One person in St. Louis told me towards the end we started to see some David Perron in Zach and I really like, you know, the way David Perron plays. I'll even go one further. I even see some Max LaPierre in Zach Boldock as well. What do you see when you...

Well, listen, I wasn't going to say it, but now that you're brought... Listen, he's a really fine hockey player. But like, you were a nasty bit of business to play against. And that's where I can see Zach Boldock turning into. Like, he can be a combination of, like, certainly who he is and he's going to be a goal scorer as well. but there's like a nasty side, a nasty side to this player as well. What are your expectations for Bulldoch on the Montreal Canes?

And how about this one? What's it like being a Quebecer playing with the Montreal Canadiens? Well, first of all, with Bullduke, I think is exactly what we needed. Like a guy that can score goals but be physical at the same time and bring that edge during the playoffs. I think a lot of people are seeing him as a debt player here because we don't know him really much in the market so far, but I see him in the top six.

I think he's going to be in the top six. I think he deserves the picture. He's got a good shot. He needs a good center to feed him the puck if he plays on the wing. He's going to be a great part big guy, and he's going to bring that internal competition that you need in a winning team at one point because I feel like in the last few years, as great as it was for the young players coming in,

like Slavkov, Demidov and Hudson and all the guys. I feel like the guys were going to the rink and they feel safe about their place in the lineup. They feel safe. Like, let's say, Slavkowski feels that he's going to be on the first line for the rest of his life and nobody's going to challenge him about it. And Bullduke is the guy who's going to do it, I think. I think he can play on the first lines during the year. I think he's going to play on the second line.

I think if things are not working well on the first PP, he's going to be right up there. And he's actually, he was there for the first exhibition game. So he's going to be the guy to challenge for your place. And this is, you know, like me, Jeff, it's pretty good for the team because then guys have to raise their game a little bit. You know, it's to your point earlier, this is a team where there are so many distinct personalities and players that do a lot of different things.

Like I've always talked about how, you know, teams can be loaded with skill. But if every player does the same thing, it's going, the team's not going to achieve. much. I've maintained that one of the issues with Toronto, for example, while Marna was there, there were more players that were similar than they were different. And I look at the Montreal Canadians. I'm like, there's a lot of different players here. And one of the ones that we're all wondering about. And, you know, we're saying things like, okay, it's Demadoff versus the field

for the Calder Trophy, who you taken. What's your expectations of Demadoff here? We've already got a glimpse of what he can do. We all know the high level of skill, but we also know that the NHL is a really hard league. What do you expect from Demidoff this season? Man, I have no idea because he's so spectacular

and I've seen him all summer working on the ice. I don't even know if him and Hudson got off the ice once this summer. They just love the game. They just want to be the best. And I was on a show with Tony Marinaro this week, and I was talking about a comparison.

I'm making with Tom Brady's attitude they don't accept making mistake they don't accept just not improving every day and you've seen it all over the ice like all over Montreal they were on the ice they work in every tournament they could play I even play with them because they were in my tournament for a three on three

tournament and I'm like what did they do here they're just cheaper ice and keeps and all they so but Demidov is probably the most skills player I've seen many years in Montreal well, like since Kovalev, I would say. And I had the chance to speak with a bunch of NHL players this summer in a dinner. And they were saying that when they play against Damidov, even if he's pretty young and he's new in the league,

their approach is going to be to play against a guy like Kuturov, because they see the same set of skills. He sees the same strength in the legs. And this is going to be their approach as defensemen in the NHL. So for me, I was like, wow, that's pretty special to hear because the kid is fairly young. and I haven't shown much because he didn't play many games but if this is all they see it in the other teams

that means we got something special here in Montreal and to add to all this I think is the attitude first like the kid has been smiling all the time he's always happy to be here like we were talking about

Nick Suzuki wanting to be part of the culture same thing with Demidov he's just so happy to be here hmm you know I'm glad you mentioned Kovlev a second ago whenever I think about Kovalev like of course you think of

like the elite skill that he had. He was sneaky tough as well. Like, and at times could be a pretty dirty hockey player. But I'll always remember, like, I never saw anybody. You can tell me otherwise. I never saw anybody beat him at keepaway. To me, he was the best. Like, you know, in practice, you guys will play keepaway.

I never saw him beat ever. Like, was he the best keepaway player you ever saw? Or was there someone, Crosby is great. Datsook was great. But to me, Kov, was the best at keepaway. Yeah, because he was so strong and he was proud about his stick handling

and he used to to ask me and Guillain that Andres after practice all the time when we were young starting in the league and you want to play keep away and yeah, it was you get the puck away from him and then when I would do it I would lose the puck in five seconds.

So it wasn't up home for us but Colby was really strong and like you said, like you said he had under cover the toughness. Just think that play with Darcy Tucker, remember? Oh, the elbow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was what he would bring to the table.

Just this is a great teammate as well. So it's the first time since that I've seen a guy that you, every time she has the puck, you're getting up and you can't wait to see what he's going to do because I don't know if you watch the first game he's played this year. Oh, yeah. Little plays on the power play. the back-end saucers and the Reesie.

Like, we've been talking about the first power play a lot on our shows in Montreal, and I don't see all this kid is not going to be on the first Peepee. I think he's too skilled. And I know he's young and you need to prove that you belong there. I don't see how he's going to be on the second power play. And that's probably going to be one of the big challenges this year with him at Dobson because I don't think he signed a defenseman to be on the second Pee when he had 70 points two years ago.

And he's just going to say, perfect. I'll just wait and play 20 seconds of people. I don't think it makes sense and this is where the challenge is going to be huge for Marty St. Louie. Yeah, nice challenge to have. Let me close with this.

Max, I've always wanted to ask you this. Because I watched you play Junior with the Rocket, Montreal and PEI. And the two years that Sidney Crosby played in Bermuski in the QMJHL, every time you would play him, you drove him crazy. Like, Max, you drove Sidney Crosby nuts. He lived in his hip pocket. Everyone knew how great

Sid was then and what he was going to be and now he's a surefire, you know, Hall of Famer. Two things. What was it like playing in those games where you would drive Crosby crazy? And what was it like being in the same dressing room with him years later with the Penguins? It was great times. I mean, it's so much fun you bring that up. Obviously the first year in junior, Alain Vignol, my coach. So I had a great coach who helped me going through this. He was in the NHL right before coaching in juniors. And his vision was, this is the next superstar. And every time there's a superstar, this is the next villain. So I want you to be the next

villain. I didn't take it to the other level and be that villain in the NHL that had the greatest career ever, but I still happy what I've done. But it was special. I remember a night in Rimuski, we played against him. And we, we, It was a battle, and we were every shift on the ice. And I don't know if you remember they had Nilsson, the tough guy. Oh, yeah. And you remember ski, Elaine told me, you're going to follow Crosby, and you're basically going to drive him back to the bench and then change.

And then by the shift number five, I was following Crosby everywhere on the ice, and Nilsson was following me behind. So we had that little train going around the ice. It was pretty funny. And I might need security to get off the ice. So the fans were mad about it. And yeah, it was just weird. And then one day I get traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And I like, oh, and what I like, it's going to be weird because it's not just getting traded. And after the teammate you were weird with on the eyes, it's Nick Rosby, the face of the NHL. And obviously, you know, like me, what's coming is he's so classy. He's such a good leader. We just basically walk and saw each other for the first time. And he started laughing. and just, you just went, boy, I don't even think we talk about what happened in junior, just welcoming me on the team and being finally happy to have it on this side.

I find that amazing, like, I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised, like, that's, that's Crosby. But I also know at the same time just how much he hated playing against you in Ramoski. Oh my goodness. He said, man, when I arrive in Pittsburgh, he basically said, I don't care what you do. I don't want to see that guy. Great.

I remember, I don't know if we have time, but a funny story one time. Sure. When George arrived in Pittsburgh, during warm-ups, he went to see Francis Bouillon, who was his captain in juniors, and told Frankie,

he said, La Pierre, he's done tonight. Just tell him, like, I'm sorry, but Mike Therier was the coach. He said, I have to go with him. And just seeing Francis's face, like, across the ice, I was like, there's something wrong, and the guys were actually quiet in the room. They were like, uh-oh, like they're serious on the other side. Like, George wants to go with Max, and he's going to have to go.

And I always, like, talk about it with George. It's like, if ever I would have jumped you, what was your plan? I said, to be honest, George, I think I was going to back up and just sprint as fast as I could and jump in the air. I don't fall back because that was the only plan. Because, you know, all tough George is, it would have just to grab me and have a party. so yeah these are the best stories Max, you're fantastic

good luck once again this season with La Posh Bluh we'll check back regular you got a fun team to watch and cover we're looking forward to seeing what the HABs do this year thanks so much

Montcham much appreciated Max Lapierre oh man how good are those stories about George LaRouard Hey, Frankie, tell Max. Oh, geez, that's awesome, eh? My plan was to back up, skate at you,

jump on you and hope you fell. I got nothing else I can do right now. This is the best. Oh, man. And the thing about Max's is, too, like, and we talked a lot about, you know, this year's edition of the Habs and, you know, talk about his junior career where, like,

honestly, like, it was one of those things where you did not miss Rocket and Oceanic games just to see A, like you never wanted to miss a Romuski game because you wanted to see Cindy Crosby, but whenever Max LaPierre and Sidney Crosby were on the ice together, like, it just honestly, it's so rare to see someone

come as close as Max did just to skating in Sidney Crosby's pocket all night long. And I'll tell you what, I'll give you one more. I should have mentioned this to him. Like, that's a testament to Max LaPierre. To be able to, and he did like to keep up with Sidney Crosby where you're at the point where you can drive him

absolutely bonkers and I know that you know max downplays his skill et cetera et cetera but for what he did he was an incredibly skilled hockey player was he going to score 50 goals every year no but as far as like filling a valuable role for whichever team that he played on montreal Vancouver wherever he went that guy was awesome and that even goes back to junior when he played With the Rocket. Anyhow, great stories from Max Lapier. And it's a fun team to cover. Yeah, that was really good.

And funny, too, talking about going to the three-on-three. And they're there with them. What are the hell of us doing? What are you doing here, children? So you're bedtime. It is funny, though. You see how much those guys are on the ice. And it gets to a point where people make jokes about it, where, you know,

it's constantly videos and highlights of them coming out in the summer. But then you realize, like, Like, do you know how much they were on the ice for that content to be coming out in like mass like it was? But I get that sense and we're getting that sense about Demadoff, but and anyone that I've ever spoken to either, you know, at his agency, you know, he's represented by Cortex or anybody that knows him or the Hudson family. Like that's, that's the kids. Yeah. Like they'll live on the ice. Yeah.

Non-stop. I got three. What do we call them? things we dread from Shana. If you want to hear them, we can wrap it. They're three very different ones. Did she send some other ones over to? No, she told me to prepare them just in case.

So I do have some, and I want to know your thoughts. Okay. So the one is, and this is, yes, I'm somebody who makes jokes about the least, yada, yada, yada, but I do cover them for the post game. Yeah. So the one I'm dreading is when I have to inevitably have the conversation about the Marner Hattrick? mess up not having Mitch Marner because they're going to have four games, five games,

where they're going to get one or two goals, and then we're going to have to have that conversation about the point production. Okay. So will you promise right here, right now, Thursday, September 25th, that when the Maple Leafs go on a five game losing streak and only score six goals in the five games or four goals in the five games, you will not bring up Mitch Marner? Will you promise us this right now? Or are you very much of the low-hanging food is still nutritious variety?

From somebody very smart. Just take it? Yeah, just take it. You got to talk better. All right. Yep. Is this going to be like when in doubt? I remember when I first started, so I first started in media 1994 at a radio station in Toronto called The Fan.

It was owned by telemedia then. and the station essentially revolved around two questions. Like, honestly, it was a two-question station for that sports format. One, is Wendell Clark a bum? And two, is Cedogast and a bum? Like, that was it. Like, that was 24-7 programming for the fan. Then it was, I think it was 1430, then it changed to 590, or it might have been already 590.

But there was two questions. It's Wendell Clark a bum, is Cedogast and a bum. Okay, so that was it. In the chat. Yeah? I'm off the top of the show. show someone came in and said uh sorry whoever was it forgot they said um who's a bigger choke artist the maple leaves of the blue jays so it's still going on dude i started as my first time like on

the air media anywhere 1994 uh good lord and the same conversation well i mean jays were having like an epic 1987 choke job here oh i lived through it the first time and remember i that's when i was a massive jays fan and just lived through it and died every single game I'm watching it all again. Yeah. But that was the fan in 94. And then was the rise of Norm Ruhmaq with the I wouldn't trade Wendell Clark

for Sergei Fedorov and everyone go crazy on the phones. And it was such, honestly, the fan was a real dynamic station. It was really cool. It was a really cool place to be. But yeah, two questions. Take the low hanging fruit. Yeah.

Talk about Martin when they go on a six-game losing streak. You can't find the back of the net and you swear to the puck has corners. It will happen. And I will have to talk about it and I know that the conversation's coming so it's good um the other one is not leaps uh this one is one that we're going to have to have the conversation and I just hate that it's a thing in general okay and it's going to be load management and it's going to come up a lot this season

because condens schedule 100% and you're it's a great one compounded with more games next year next year yeah next year 84 84 next year we're going to have to do it and I hate the idea of it I hate the conversation about it. I was in the camp that they should have shortened the season, if anything, and they added games. Okay, I've said this one a million times, and I'll say it again right now. The moment the NHL players signed off on salary linkage, the idea of ever shrinking the schedule vanished.

Yeah. Because, A, the owners just want more games, more revenue. And the players are like, my paycheck is tied to game revenue. This is still a butts in the seats league. There's no NFL-style contract. The minute they signed off on salary linkage, the idea of what we're talking about here, like going down to a number that's probably in the 70s,

that went out the window. I'm with you, but I've always said the same thing, get your game out of June. If I could change one thing in the NHL, get the game out of June, and then do all your administrative stuff, your drafts and free agency,

do it properly and prepare awards. But no, it's never going to, But we'll have the conversation, but it's never going to happen. Yeah. It's never going to happen. I just hate the idea of load management. I get it. Guys get banged up, get injured.

You want them 100% for playoffs. But like missing regular season games, knowing fans are paying good money too on top of that. Just the whole thing. Listen, man, a lot of it's going to revolve around the guy that plays on your favorite team. And that's Austin Matthews. Oh, I know. And if you're the Toronto Maple Leafs, how do you not look at like strategically resting him? For sure.

And like we're not 100% on, you know, which body part from year to year. supposed to be focusing on, we just know that, like, there is, and it's probably just got to be something that he manages his entire career. And I think, I don't think, like, I wonder if he's going to be, maybe not to the extent of Kauai Leonard, but he's going to be for the NHL, the poster child for load management, game management, however you want to call it. It sucks for fans and buy tickets. Yeah. I get it. All right. Ready. Last one. This is a very different vibe. Okay. This one is not one. I'm dry. Okay.

This is one... I'm dreading? I don't know if you're dreading it. All right. A lot of people will be dreading the conversation that will come from it. Connor McDavid, not signing a contract through the season. I'm not dreading it because I'm going to love talking about it every single time I go on a microphone for a post game or a pregame or whatever it is. Yeah.

I'm going to love talking about it. I don't know if you... I don't know if Toronto is even a name, a city he's thought about coming. I'll tell you what. I'll tell you something. You know who's going to love every second of it? Nick Alberga Esquire. But I'm going to love the conversation.

I love the fact that there's a star player who, like take Toronto out of this. I love that there's a fact that there's a star player, like never mind Carol Caprizov who's also going to be in a similar situation. They could move. It's so good for the NHL and talking about these things and some drama of, that like you don't want to go full NBA never go full MBA that's the one I will hang on forever

I like why not oh no no no I'm waiting for I'm waiting for guys to go as pairs like we're talking about the Hughes brothers uniting here which is a total NBA thing that has total NBA undertones to it we saw Korea and Salani do it a million years ago with the avalanche but like we don't really see pairs going I'm waiting for that

I'm all in on that conversation like this year the conversation the conversation going into the summer, what were we talking about? Like, where is Nikolai Eelers going to go? Yep. And who's, who's going to give him that extra year?

Right. That he wants. And like outside of hockey fans, respectfully, who the fuck cares? Connor McDavid? Conner David is bigger, just a little bit than Nikolai Eilers.

Like, there's going to be, that's a... Well, you know what it does. Outside of hockey reasons. But you know, but you know what's going to happen? Like, we're all going to look at the New York Rangers and go, okay, so they still haven't re-signed our Temi-Panarin. Where do they keep in their cap space, that cap space for?

Oh, no, they couldn't possibly be looking at another Russian. Another Russian winger? What? Wait, who said that. What? What? What? Soft.

T-word. That is one of the great of all, that is one of the great terms of all time. Yeah. Soft tampering. Some light trees. Some soft tampering, some soft, soft hampering. Those are good. Those are good.

Those are some good ones. I like it. Thanks to Sheena for stopping by to provide some of those. Let's wrap up the program here. From the Better Collective Headquarters in Canada. There's people dreading you. He's saying that. That's what I was told to say by Nick Carolli.

Like, where are we? We're at the office. What office? Better Collective headquarters, Canada. We're going to get off. Coroll he's going to be in the other room on the phone between his legs. Shit, I shouldn't have said that those two donkeys.

Now they won't quit pushing that damn button. The Better Collective Headquarters, Canada. The sheet, folks, is powered by Fanduel. Home on the same game parlay. Make every moment more on Fandual. Fan Duel, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. young Zach.

Are they your first photo shoot today? Yeah, I mean, other than minor hockey and school, yep. Okay, I want to know, a really embarrassing photo shoot from minor hockey? Yeah. I would have been playing for the York Toros then. And so all the players, they do like, you know, skate to the photographer stops. You get the spray and the, like, that's like the shot. And what they wanted, I was a goaltender.

What they wanted for us is they wanted it for us is they were. wanted to make like an action place, he'd be in your crease, and someone beside the photographer would just sort of lob a puck to our glove, and they'd get that picture, I missed the puck. And they kept that one. It's just going over my glove. It's awesome. That's good. It's a great picture.

Love it. Like, they had a bunch of others. They could have used. And my goalie coach, Eric, was like, no, we're going with that one. Yeah. We're going to the one you missed. But it's better because that's a story. Like, I don't remember any of the pictures I have.

Yeah. But there's this one. Donkey Merrick can't catch a lob. Way to go. Actually, you know, I do have one picture that everybody in my family has and it's everywhere and it's way too big than it should be. What is it? They did, I don't know what it's called Timbitts.

Like now, it was called OptiHockey back then. Yeah. They used my picture as the, like, promo picture. Oh, really? A? That they plastered across arenas across Aurora. And so I have all the laminated pictures and stuff. stuff. My grandparents have them.

How do I not know this? Yeah. Do you have like a screen cap of that? Do you have like a picture of it? I could try to find that. Yeah, my parents for sure have it. Let's do it tomorrow. Let's do it on the show tomorrow with Wish.

Okay, okay. So you are on the boards? No, like just in the arenas and stuff like everywhere when for the whole season, I guess they had them because after you get your pictures taken, you can buy them. Yeah. So you go to the website or call. Yeah. And that's where my picture is with the company's name and number.

And like a couple other kids are on their. but mine's the big picture of it. And unfortunately for me, given where my career turned out covering the Leafs, the team that we played on, they were all named after NHL teams. Do you know what team I was on that first year? No. Oh, Habs. Yeah, the Canadians.

You are Habs, eh? Yeah. But, okay, so this is like a generation gap question I'm going to ask you. I want to get to Fandle here a second. Apologies Fandul. We're going to get there. We're going to get there. We're going to get there.

We have to talk about minor hockey photos first. Okay, everyone's riveted on the YouTube feed right now. The question is, if you're an older Leafs fan, you believe the main rival is Montreal. Like, that's what I grew up with. I grew up with, like, Leaves and Habs would always stomp the Maple Leafs. But if you're a younger Maple Leafs fan, is your number one rival still Montreal, or is it Ottawa-slash-Boston? Boston. It is, eh?

That's what I thought. That's what I thought. And it's like, it's hard for me to say rival, though. They own us. Like, I'm pretty openly admitted that. Like, the Bruins own us. It's not like a back and forth. But Toronto's the same way with Ottawa.

Yeah, true. Ottawa would win, like, President's trophy every year. And like, yeah, out and four straight against Toronto. Yeah. And here's Newndike lobbying knuckleballs through Patrick Lille. Yeah. Anyhow. Okay.

What do we got for a fan duel? Now we're going down different. Oh, there's the Corolli, by the way. He's looking at his watch and he's shaking the finger out. Sorry, boss. Sorry, boss. Yeah, just quickly. I just wanted to highlight what Fanduels got up.

It's a new tab up here today. Oh, yeah. What do you got? So the one that I pulled for just on the show out of simplicity is contract year for Connor McDavid over or under 116 and a half points. The over 116 and a half is favored at minus 142. Yeah, I'll take that. Jeff, the other ones that they've got up here, it's really cool.

So you can dig into how many goals he'll have this year. Then you can go on to some different areas like Onzei Kopitar, last year what are the odds for him to win the selki you can get into some specific on zay copatara hang on pause on that that's really good of fan duel that's because that one is going to be like all eyes are going to be on copatars the farewell tour yeah regardless of what you know barkoff or heeshire um or sirelli like other candidates for like everyone's going to have their eyes on on jopoitar not and not that it should matter but there's going to be that sort of emotional tug

like send him out with his that would be third Selky trophy he's gonna have a good year he's on Jake Kopitar that's a really smart one yeah that's a really good one if he doesn't win the Selkew what else would he puttie Bing

which is also under his tab Demidov rookie season it's points leaders for the rookies off this one is kind of funny because it's just listed as Caprizov will he stay or will he go but the bets underneath Jeff Yeah.

It's just players to record 100 plus points. He's one of the favorites. So there's just other players listed. But will he stay or will he go? And then will he get 100 points? What are you implying? Yeah. What do you think of Caprizz off, by the way?

Just as an aside. Well, I mean, I know you kind of just threw out there the whole Rangers Panarin contract thing. I think that's real. No one's going to not think about it. Yeah. And as as Panarin continues to play under what could be his last contract with the New York Rangers and the obvious replacement sitting there in Minnesota saying no to the most lucrative contract ever offered a player in the history of the NHL, I don't know. Look, just speaking out of my ass here, I don't think there's a reason. I don't think he's turning down that contract in Minnesota.

because he just wants more money from them, and he's playing hardball. I don't know. I'd be curious to see if they offered it. Because don't forget, Craig Leopold, the owner, just a couple of years ago when asked about it, I said no one other than us can offer him the max money, max term. Yeah. So the way you can tell is if you offer 20%.

Okay, I guess. And if he says no to 20%, well, guess what? Yes, then we're having a different conversation. Guess what? That's pretty much. I'm out of here. That's fair. Yeah.

I just, I, when I saw the report, whether true or to what degree, like this was, what I'm trying to say is what the response was from him. Do they flat out say, nah, not happening. They say, we'll talk about it kind of thing. But when I saw that, I was like, oh, like, if you're a Minnesota fan, you've got to be thinking he's, because you're not hearing out of Edmonton that McDavid is turning down such and such number. No, because, you know, but here's the difference.

As Jeff Jackson told us in Muscoca, that's not the oilers going to Connor and saying, this is our offer. Right. This is Connor going to them and saying, this is what I need or this is what I want. It's fair. So the dynamic, the dynamic is different. That is fair, yeah. There's less than negotiation. There's no negotiation.

Do you like to be in that spot in your life? Oh, what do you want? Done, yours. Yeah. Oh, okay, yeah, sure. Here's the pen, here's the paper. You put the number. We're just going to slide this.

Here's a piece of paper and a pen. We're just going to put this over here for you, Con. Just, you know what? Just save us some dignity. And put a number down there. And we'll go walk it down the hall. Yeah. Must be nice.

Must be nice. All right, we have to leave Better Collective HQ Canada. Hands off for you. All right. Listen, thanks so much for joining us today, whether you're watching live on YouTube. You're part of the chat. You're listening on your favorite podcast platform.

We appreciate it. Leave us the likes. Please subscribe. It does us a lot of good. Both of the podcast, the YouTube channel as well. In about 45 minutes, if you're watching live, the Robert Thomas interview goes hot, right? The one that we recorded in Muscoca.

Yep. This is a good. This is really interesting. It might be the most newsy one, maybe that we did, although Jackson was pretty newsy as a related to Connor McDavid, but this one's pretty newsy as well. So enjoy the Robert Thomas interview as part of the On the Road series, available at our daily face-off YouTube channel in about 45 minutes

if you're watching slash listening to us live. Thanks for joining us. We're back tomorrow with MBSW and Greg Wysinski, Tip your Zam, Mbony Driver, et cetera, et cetera. We're back tomorrow. One o'clock Eastern. I fled 16 hours last night every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head, lost all ambitions day-to-day, because you can call it all right.

I went to the dark man and tried to give me a little medicine. I'm like, no, and that's fine. I'm not against those methods, but new. It's me and myself. It's going to be fixing my mind I do want to back it I turned on the music I do want to back

I turn on the music fixing up I don't get you sometimes losing I have been on the days that we're wrong In the dead dark night