The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Countdown to Chaos ft. Pete Blackburn & Steven Ellis

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Pete Blackburn and Steven Ellis join Jeff Marek on the Wednesday edition of The Sheet. Discussing the Jets, Golden Knights, and Capitals being on the brink of elimination, the Maple Leafs and Panthers pivotal Game 5 in Toronto, the World Championships, Rick Tocchet and Adam Foote news, and much more...Shout 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=en👍🏼RVezy: https://www.rvezy.com/owner?utm_source=cross-channel&utm_medium=multi-media&utm_campaign=canadian+hosts👍🏼Budweiser: https://www.budweiser.ca/ca_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.

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Well, it's not going to happen. But that's not the biggest story of the day. Adam Foote's the biggest story of the day. You know how you've heard me over a few years now probably, and this year as well here at the Nation Network, go on and on and on, droning, droning on. I think he even did it yesterday with Kuczynski. How about there's not enough defensive defensemen

in the hockey hall of fame, and if there was, Adam Foote would be in there. Adam Foote's the head coach in the NHL now. Congratulations to the Vancouver Canucks, congratulations to Adam Foote. He is now the newly minted bench boss of the Vancouver Canucks. I don't know how, just a quick thought here and we'll get into this a little bit more with Pete Blackburn from White Chaos and also Stephen Ellis who stops by. I was talking about a lot of things with Stephen.

World Championships, Finland hockey, Finlandian hockey, is that a word? Finlandian? Finnish, there we go, hockey players running rough shot all over the Winnipeg Jets. And we'll also talk about the upcoming NHL draft with Steven in the meantime. It doesn't sound like the Vancouver Canucks cast a huge net to try to get in as many candidates as possible.

And it seemed like quite quickly, like really, really quickly, they drilled down to a couple of internal candidates, Adam Foote, who obviously got the job today officially, and also Manny Malhotra of Abbotsford. So congratulations to Adam Foote and the Vancouver Canucks. Can now move on and do other business. And you know, it is interesting.

And Zach, I'm not sure if you have the clip ready. Johnny Lazarus tweeted this one out and it is, it's Quinn Hughes back in February on TNT, the Vancouver Canucks were playing, and he was interviewed about Adam Foote specifically and what he brings to the bench. Not that I'm saying that everything the Vancouver Canucks are doing is just all about keeping Quinn Hughes.

But how many times have we talked about operation, keep Quinn Hughes, and keep Quinn Hughes happy, and keep him in Vancouver? Zach, I don't know, do you have the clip? Can we play that? It's a really interesting couple of comments here from Quinn Hughes. Do we have it? I'm having a problem with the clip. You give me 30 seconds here and I'll get it for you. How about this? I'll give you 30 seconds. Let's do the Daily Outline and let people know what's coming up on the program today. Shall we? Well, we get this Quinn Hughes clip queued up here.

Daily Outline powered by FanDuel make every moment more. I got to stop calling audibles on Zach like this. He's busy enough. Daily Outline presented by FanDuel make every moment more. I gotta stop calling audibles on Zach like this. He's busy enough. Daily Outline presented by FanDuel make every moment more with North America's number one sports book, Our Friends, Our Presenters at FanDuel. And coming up on the program today, a couple of special guests, Pete Blackburn will stop by from the very excellent What Chaos podcast,

Steven Ellis from Daily Face Off. We're gonna play some Jim Rutherford clips. Now this just came out today This was an interview that Stephen Brunt did with the president of hockey operations for the Vancouver Canucks I believe last week. I listened to it this afternoon It's available wherever you get your podcast and is available on our daily face off YouTube channel as well. It's excellent We're gonna play a couple of the notable clips from this one. Some about Jim with the Vancouver Canucks

this year, Jim with the Pittsburgh Penguins and why he left, and then the last salivow of the interview is kind of interesting too. Jim is a very, let's just say Jim is a very self-aware person and you'll understand what I'm talking about when we get to the third clip. We'll play for you in a couple of moments. Dallas Stars taking commanding three to two lead. They cut ice to Winnipeg Jets in Manitoba and it's another fin this time. It's not Ratanin, it's Granland and one of the questions we wonder about is are the Dallas Stars just shooting short side high?

I got a note from someone today sort of indicating that I'm not sure if this is what they're doing but it's more than just a coincidence. 2 v 1 goal short side, third goal short side after Duchenne ripped one off the post, short side. Is that the Dallas book on Connor Hellebuck? Discuss amongst yourselves the coaching carousel will get into as well and tonight's games as well, which Listen have a lot to do with and have a lot to do with our country here in Canada the Toronto Maple Leafs

Facing off against the Florida Panthers and also the Edmonton Oilers taking on the Vegas Golden Knights tonight could say bye-bye To Vegas in the meantime. do we have that clip of Quinn Hughes talking about Adam Foote as tweeted earlier from Johnny Lazarus Sack? Yes, we do. Okay, that's fine. Here's Quinn Hughes from February talking about the guy who's now his coach. There's a lot of coaches out there that, you know, scream and yell and they want to, you know, bully their players, intimidate their players. And this is a guy that I would say coaches his defenseman,

coaches his players like he'd want his kids coached. And then on top of that, with all the experience he has. And Rick said it before, he doesn't think of himself as a coach. He thinks of himself as a teacher. And he's teaching us. And Foody and Rick's job is to win games games but also it's to make everyone a better player and you know you want to be a better player in March than you were September and then

hopefully a better team as well and I think it's not just process you know results based wins and losses it's trying to make you know people better people better players and you know over the course of my three years with these guys my games kind of taken off here and that's a big part of big part to them so yeah. Awesome. Well said. Okay so we know that Clint Hughes was a big fan of Rick Tauke and also a big fan of Adam Foote as well and he is now officially the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. Speaking of the Vancouver Canucks, Jim Rutherford, president of hockey operations for the Canucks in conversation last week with Steven Brunt.

This is part of the, the up close podcast, a video available at our daily face-off YouTube channel that is out now, all for the podcast of up close available on all platforms now, all for the podcast of Up Close, available on all platforms now, wherever you get your podcasts. Really encourage you to listen or watch this one. As we've talked about before, if you ask your brother for the question, he'll give you an answer. It's sometimes he's blunt, but he's always tried to be,

he always tries to be as honest as he can. And he's never met a microphone that he didn't like. He's a, he's kind of a throwback in that way, folks. Like I mentioned on the podcast last week, this is kind of like Jim Rutherford's kind of a throwback. People talk like this all the time in the 70s and 80s. And then media managers came along and said like, no, no, no, here are the things you can't say.

Anyway, Steven Brun sitting down with Jim Rutherford at the President's Club at Rogers Arena in Vancouver talking about his early years in hockey, transitioning from player to executive, working for three distinct owners, some of the challenges in Vancouver, and some of the challenges in managing superstars. We're going to play three clips here. This is really good stuff. Here's Jim Rutherford in conversation with Stephen Brunt on some of the challenges from this season early on in Vancouver from up close. Man we've had a lot of issues to deal with that hasn't it hasn't been fun at times but but I continue to hang in there and I'm disappointed.

I continue to hang in there and I'm disappointed. I take full responsibility for last year, the disappointment that everybody has. We were on the right track the season before last. And if we didn't have the major issue to deal with that really tore the dressing room apart the first half of the season, I think we would still be on the right track. But now we've had to go from a contender a year ago to a team in transition. I like where our goal-tending is at. I like where our defense is at. Now hopefully we have good fortune this summer and we fix our forwards and then we can get

back to where we'd like to be. Interesting that Rutherford himself sort of dives on the sword here, falls on the grenade however you want to put it for last season taking full responsibility for everything that happened which really I don't necessarily just think is about what happened this past season nothing exists in a vacuum either in hockey or in real life. Some of the seeds of what we saw this season were planted as far back as prioritizing the J.T. Miller contract over Bo Horvat and subsequently trading Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders. Interesting that Rutherford, and really no surprise, takes full responsibility for it. Also, that Rutherford, and really no surprise, takes full

responsibility for it. Also, of particular interest here, and there's a couple of things in this next clip. Now, the background on this clip is, you know, when Rutherford left Pittsburgh, it was sort of right after COVID. I'm not sure if we have it in the clip, but he does go into great lengths. I listened to the podcast this afternoon talking about how essentially he didn't leave his house for 11 months and how much that affected him and how much that affected not just, not just affected him physically. And there was a lot of fear about Jim's age, COVID, but also how it affected him mentally. But here is Jim Rutherford on how he left the Pittsburgh Penguins initially.

Here's Rutherford. You had great success there. You won again. You won twice. And then you left. Why was it time to go? I don't know if it was time to go, if there wasn't COVID, but I was at my age, I was very scared when COVID came.

Fortunately, we lived on a five acre lot and we had space at our house, but my son didn't go to school. He didn't play hockey. He homeschooled. We had everything delivered to our house. We never left our property for 11 months. And it really, really affected me mentally. And as we were getting closer to getting back playing,

there were conversations and there was a conversation that quite frankly I didn't handle very well, but it was because of my state of mind and I just said I can't do this anymore. And that was kind of it. You know, that's interesting. We've heard, and I don't know what the conversation was over, whether it was about a player or a situation or a chain of command. I've heard about the conversation that Rutherford is referring to but to me and

maybe someone can point where it's already been out there I don't think I've ever heard Rutherford say that it was that it was because of his mental state at that point that he had that type of conversation with whomever he had that conversation with. And the last clip will play for you here and we're going to give way to Pete Blackburn here in a couple of seconds from What Chaos. An interesting question from Steven Brunt and it's a simple one too. How do you know when the job is done in Vancouver?

Here's Rutherford. Sometimes it's for health reasons. Fortunately, I am very healthy. I believe I am. And I, you know, it may just get to the point where I realize that I don't have enough to offer to help a team win. You know, that may be a decision. It may get to the point that I just don't have the energy to do it anymore. And the owner has every right to come and tell me today that he doesn't want me and if he did that there'd be no hard feelings. The whole interviews like this first of all Jim's a great guest as we've talked about before incapable of giving anything other than an honest answer whether you like it or not whether you agree with it

or not and another masterful job as well by Steven Bruntz. Rutherford opens up about his career managing superstars and challenges in Vancouver. By the way, the stuff about managing superstars and a lot of it is around Sidney Crosby specifically is fascinating. You can watch this on our daily face-off YouTube channel out now or you can listen to it wherever you get

your podcasts. Up close with Stephen Brunt this week's guest Jim Rutherford, president of hockey operations for the Vancouver Canucks. And with that we'll bring aboard one of our star guests of the day, no stranger to this property, no stranger to hockey podcasting. No stranger to all fans of the excellent What Chaos podcast. He is Pete Blackburn and he joins me now. Hello Pete, and I know it's early and this thing has just come out,

but I really wanna encourage you to listen to it and watch if you can. The Jim Rutherford interview with Steven Brunt. And by the end, Jim's kind of like if they fire me they fire me. You know. Listen at this point at this point if you put a microphone in front of Jim Rutherford I am there regardless of the price of admission because every time he sits behind a microphone there's something that comes out of it and you're right like you can't keep him from the truth

and whether or not that hurts him or hurts the team or is just straight up honest, it's always entertaining. Now I've made this point before, like right, like actually in front of me, but behind this camera here in my basement, I've got boxes upon boxes of old hockey news magazines. And every couple of weeks, I'll just grab a couple and flip through and Pete, like I'm always stunned.

And we will just do this in like, you know, the summer in the dog days of the podcast. I'll just read old hockey news magazines to people and call it a show. But I'm always stunned at how people talked then and how open they were versus the very controlled corporate media speak that comes out of everybody right now, except for Jim

Rutherford who is a complete throwback to this era of 1960s 1970s hockey news magazines where you know guys will talk about like oh yeah this guy's a clubhouse lawyer yeah we couldn't wait to get this guy out of you know this guy may have a little bit of a drinking problem here like it's it's just spectacular how people used to talk about other people in hockey and it doesn't exist anymore outside of the office at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. Yeah. And I mean, as, as two guys who do a daily hockey show, boy, it's a beautiful thing. Oh, yeah.

And somebody just lets a rip. And as the kids say these days, uh, yapping, he's out there yapping and it's great for us. I understand why it would cause some headaches for, you know, maybe a Quinn Hughes or two here and there, but you know, like I'll take it every day of the week to get a guy like that. Who's just like, and we always ask for transparency, whether it's officiating or front offices, head coaches, just give us transparency. Let us not have to ask the questions that you're sort of dancing around.

You don't get any of that with Jim Rothenberg and I think it's great. Yep, absolutely. You mentioned Quinn Hughes a second ago and Johnny Lazarus tweeted out an interview that Quinn, and we just played it a couple of seconds before he came on, an interview that Quinn Hughes gave on TNT.

It's the bench interview, talking to the guys in studio and talking about Adam Foot and talking about Rick Hockett. Now Adam Foot today has the magic wand waved over his head. He's the new head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. Cynically you could look at it and say it's another chapter in Operation Keep Quinn Hughes Happy and keep Quinn Hughes here. It was pretty quickly that the Vancouver Canucks got to a very tight

pool of candidates, all internal, or should I say both internal, Malhotra and Foote. Not to say they didn't talk to other people but they did, but they got down to this this this pair of candidates really quickly. How did you look at the Adam Foote signing today? New head coach Vancouver Canucks. Someone who by the way I always maintain because I don't put defensive defensemen in the Hall of Fame, belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Anyhow, floor is yours, Pete. Yeah, I mean, my, honestly, my first takeaway,

and Zach, your producer, can attest to this because he was in our show chat. My first takeaway was like, this screams the Vancouver Canucks just saying, hey, it's okay, we got our new girlfriend first. As soon as the Rick Tocket rumors come out, the reports that he's signing in Philadelphia, Canucks just saying, hey, it's okay. We got our new girlfriend first. As soon as the Rick Tocket rumors come out, the reports that he's signing in Philadelphia,

they say, oh no, we got our head coach first. We're happy, don't worry. I'm glad you found somebody, but we also found somebody. We're moving on happy with our lives. So beyond that, I think- And she was here all along. And she was right there the whole time. Yeah.

How did I not see this? How did I not see how in love I was with this person before two weeks ago? Yeah, but like other than that, the only other takeaway for me was, you know, Quinn Hughes must like this guy. And obviously three seconds later, we get the TNT clip coming out saying how much he loves him.

But like, and you say cynically, you know, this is a move to keep Quinn Hughes here. I say like, why not do the move that keeps Quinn Hughes there? Do everything you possibly can to keep Quinn Hughes in Vancouver, especially after what all has happened so far this off season, which seems to only be pushing him out the door. But the thing about it though is like, you know, you think of St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, like you're competing against family. Like you're competing against blood. You can bring in anybody you want. Like you can bring in Quinn Hughes's hockey idol growing up, you know, to take him out

on weekends to the Roxy, it doesn't, it doesn't really matter, doesn't it? Like, does it not feel like that situation is marching towards an inevitability that we all see coming? Listen, you might be right, but you gotta go down swinging. You gotta give yourselves the best chance that you possibly can. If it means just bringing in the guy that he likes, absolutely go for it. Even when Knoblock was hired in Edmonton, and I know Chris Knoblock, that's doing a disservice to Chris Knoblock and how ready he was to be an NHL head coach, but people are saying this is McDavid's guy, they're just bringing in McDavid's guy.

You know what? Hand the franchise to Conor McDavid for the Edmonton just bringing in McDavid's guy. You know what? Hand the franchise to Conor McDavid for the Edmonton Oilers. Who's criticizing you for that? He's one of the few guys that is absolutely worth doing that for and I think that Quinn Hughes is in the same boat. You know, as much as Knoblock 2 might be a McDavid guy, I remember when I was at the Saturday conversation with, I was standing with Colby Armstrong and we're talking to Jeff Jackson, who then was an agent and was Conor's agent. It was before he got the CEO job with the Oilers.

And the guy he kept coming back to was Knoblock. He's like, this guy's coaching in the NHL one day, this guy's coaching in the NHL one day. And as much as he is like, quote unquote, Conor's guy, Jeff Jackson has been a massive supporter of Noblock going back some ways. I want to get to Edmonton here in a couple of seconds, but coaching carousel is interesting right now. Boston's still open. Very much wondering about Marco Sturm, very wondering about Jay Woodcroft. Do you have a spidey sense on, how about this,

do you have a spidey sense on what Boston wants and did Boston want talk it I Think Boston wanted talk it just because he was the sexiest name out there you know, I Don't know if I was as sold on talk it being the guy but ultimately there's not a lot of like hunger for a specific person here. And I think it's largely because there's a ton of uncertainty about where the

Bruins even are and what their approach is going to be when it comes to reassembling the next era of this team. Like it's very difficult to project what their timeline is right now. And part of that is we don't know the coach. Part of it is we don't really know the roster. And so at some point the pieces are gonna have to fall into place, but if you're trying to project what kind of coach is right for the Bruins,

it's almost impossible to tell right now because you don't know what the team is. Although don't we get the feeling though that the whole thing is going to be still centered around Swamen McEvoy Posternak. Like we're not talking about, the one thing with the Vancouver Canucks over the past few years despite the success last year where they had everything work together, most namely health for the entire team the entire season, you know we'd look at the Vancouver Canucks and we'd say like okay so whose timeline is this on?

Right I think that's what you have. I think you're, I think you pointed out the right thing. They always have to ask yourself about teams, whose timeline are they doing this on? But with Boston, I kind of look at it and say, they're doing it on the same timeline they've had for the last little while. They're just hoping that it was, you know,

the contract situation that scuttled Swainman last year. It was health that scotched Charlie McAvoy and we get those two things right to kick off this season with David Pasternak. Those are the guys who are building this all around. I don't think anyone thinks that whoever Boston drafts at seven is going to walk into the NHL and help. I don't think anybody from this draft is walking into the NHL next season and that includes Matthew Schaefer, as great as he may be. I don't think anyone's walking into the NHL. I think it's a team that's looking trades and looking free agents and saying like, we're not that far from being right back in

this because we have key players at key positions here and they're not going anywhere. Yeah. And if that's the mentality, I think they have to lean somebody who prioritizes the backend and really leans into a defensive system because if you're trying to get back to being a playoff team as quick as possible, you have to play to your strengths right now. And the Bruins, their strengths clearly lie on the blue line with some of the pillars

that they have there with Charlie McEvoy, Hampus Lindholm, whether you wanna call Nikita Zdorov a pillar or not, some people would say a different word that begins with a P. But I think that, you know, especially if you're keeping Jeremy Swainman and you're locking him into your future, like you have to make sure you're defending well in front of him to maximize the dollar value

that you handed out to him. So I think that's probably their big priority if they want to be competitive as soon as possible. Which I want to transition to games here in a sec. Of all the teams that have candidacy openings here, Chicago, Seattle, just mentioned Boston a second ago, like who, like who intrigues you the most? Like, is there one that you're like, I just can't figure this one out. I can't get my head around what direction

they're gonna go here. Like to me the answer is Chicago. Because it seemed as if like the moment that David Carle said, I'm going back to Denver, it was like, okay, back to the drawing board here. But how about you? Right, yeah, no, I agree with you and like I'm not an insider by any means

you're more well connected than I am. But it did feel like everything that was coming out felt like the Blackhawks were putting all their eggs in the David Karl basket. And then David Karl said, ah, thanks, but no thanks. And you kind of go back to the drawing board. Like, am I wrong about that? No, I'll tell you what, going back to like the OHL Cup is an interesting tournament that runs here in Toronto, Scotia Bank Pond. It's all the best U16 teams from all over the province. And man, you would not believe the amount of college scouts and college personnel that was there for the, for the, there's always always some but it was just like college everywhere and so a lot of the conversation was around is Dave

Haxtal gonna go back to North Dakota the answer is we find out now is no and the other is is David Karl finally leaving Denver and how much is Chicago going to pay him I was almost like everyone that was talking was saying like oh yeah he's leaving Denver he's leaving Denver he's going to Chicago is. It was almost like everyone that was talking was saying like, oh yeah, he's leaving Denver, he's leaving Denver, he's going to Chicago. Is it gonna be four times four, four times five? What is it gonna be? We knew that David Carle wanted life changing money to leave.

The thing that is interesting to me is, Chicago's one of those teams that can offer life changing money. That's why I'm curious, like why didn't it work with David Carle in Chicago? We may never know the answer, but that one's the weird one for me, like, because everybody was like,

oh, this one's the layup, David Carle of Chicago. Done. Right, money, market. All of it. Great young players, enough of a runway where you can grow and learn and the pressure's not on you immediately. I thought he was for sure gonna end up in Chicago.

Obviously that doesn't happen. I still think Chicago is a destination for all of those reasons, especially like that team, the pressure is on that team to win sooner rather than later. And that means that they're gonna start putting together, you would hope a better roster in the years coming up ahead. Because you look at Connor Bedard and you want to maximize

what you got there and keep him in good spirits. So I think there is pressure on them. But like as a coach, you kind of want that. And so I still think that's a very, very intriguing spot. I also think that Boston is an intriguing spot. Maybe I'm a little biased, but like it is not an unattractive job Regardless of the circumstances that they're in right now. It's still a major market with good players Oh, this is not a scorched earth rebuilding and you're not gonna go through

Again agonizing time like ask ask Kyle Davidson what this is like, right? I mean I even ask,, Philadelphia, San Jose, like it's so painful. This isn't like other sports, we add a couple of pieces and boom, you're back in the playoffs. Man, the scorched earth rebuilds are hard for teams and they last a long, how many rebuilds have the Buffalo Sabres gone through?

How many rebuilds have the Buffalo Sabres gone through Pete Blackburn? If have the Buffalo Sabres gone through, Pete Blackburn? If you wanna talk about like how pain, ask Detroit how painful rebuilds are as well. Let me get to Dallas, Winnipeg last night. The Finns are riding high with the Dallas Stars, whether it's Miko Ranthana with the hat trick, and yesterday, Granlin with the hat trick,

and you know, someone sent me an interesting text today. Someone who pays close attention to this series for a very very specific reason. He said is it just me or is Dallas shooting? Shortside high every single time on Connor Hellebuck You know the Shane rip one off the pipe goes one and three three last night, or short side high on Conor Hellebuck. Like it seems like that's Dallas's book here. And the other thing that this person pointed out to me is he wonders if Pete DeBoer goes 11 and seven again, because he loves double shifting Ranton and it can confuse Scott or Neil for matchups and can also, it also makes sure that Miro Haskinen

doesn't have to jump right back in with 20 minutes plus. Your thoughts on all of that? Yeah, no, I think that that's, I mean, the short side high thing, sure. You know, at some point just shooting anywhere and Connor Hellebuck was working. I think that he is certainly kind of brought it back to earth a little bit in a positive way.

Like he has not been the reason why Winnipeg is losing this series. I think that he's one of the reasons, but he's not the reason and that is a step forward for Hellebuck. I also agree like 11 and 7 makes too much sense for Dallas at this point, especially with the Miro of it all. Like protect the asset as much as you can, especially if you've got an opportunity to get a win and then get some rest moving forward.

So yeah, I think that all makes sense in my book. Okay, so here's what I like about the Dallas Stars. I love teams that explode myths, right? So, you know, I'm a firm believe repeat and there's no one way to make a winner. You know, there are some teams that are built through free agency. There are some teams that are built

through first round draft picks and there's teams like, you know, Tampa Bay Lightning will rip off a couple of Stanley Cups. And you know, Stamkos was a first rounder and Hedman was a first rounder. And after that, there were none in the lineup at all. Like, I don't think there's one specific way. Some teams load up a deadline, some say, oh we're just going to tweak and add a tiny little piece here. I'm always a guy saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, there's not one way to do this. There's a lot of different ways to be

successful in hockey. A, you should probably have a hot goaltender come playoff time, that certainly helps. But again, look at 2010 with Antin Yemi and Michael Leighton. So there's not one way to do this. And as we keep saying, oh yeah, you know what, don't load up at Deadline, it affects the chemistry, you know, you don't wanna do this. Here's the Dallas stars saying, we're getting Mika Ratnan, and we're gonna get

Michael Grandland, and before that, we're gonna try to get Rasmus Anderson, and we're gonna try to get, you know, Rasmus Anderson, we're gonna try to get Nazem Kadri. That's why I love Dallas, because as everyone says, it should be tweak deadline, not trade deadline. They go out and land the whopper, and they landed a big one even before that in Grandland. Both have played, paid off in spades. What do you see with the Dallas Stars?

What I see in like my takeaway from Dallas is that I should just stop watching hockey in the final month of the regular season or at least have no, no, uh, like weight on what I see in the final weight of the regular season when it comes to projecting the playoffs because everybody, and I feel like I'm saying everybody was so low on Dallas and was basically writing their death certificate heading into that first round series against Colorado and sure like maybe one you can make the argument one player dragged them across the finish line which is Mika Rand and but even still like this is a team where you say if they manage to get out of the first round We've seen enough from them over the past couple of years

They're like they've they've got some juice and they're only gonna get stronger if they get Jason Robertson back if they get Mira Hayskyn in back like all of this makes sense now. It made no sense Three four weeks ago, and I feel like such an idiot for letting the final month of the season Okay, talk me out of the Dallas Stars. So then how do you feel about the Buffalo Sabres down the stretch where they look like the 1977 Montreal Canadiens that could not lose a game? Are you saying, because I'm with you, especially for teams that are just playing those empty calorie games at the end that are out of the playoffs by the time January rolls around, I put no stock in any of it.

But are you saying the same thing about the Buffalo Sabres? The reverse? But isn't that because that's like so perfectly Buffalo? They totally, 13 games in a row in December and their season's over. But then in the final month of the year, when everybody's taking games off, they will charge back and give you a glimmer of hope just to rip it away and rob themselves of lottery ball and things like that. Enough to talk you into the fact that there's a little bit of hope heading into next season. That's so perfectly Buffalo.

It really is. Okay, a couple of minutes left with you here. Listen, your co-host, DJ Bean, loves him some Edmonton Oilers. And we know that. And I love nothing more than watch his reaction to big moments, either positive or negative, for the Edmonton Oilers on your watch-alongs. It's fantastic. Where is Pete Blackburn at on the Edmonton Oilers? And I do want to ask

you about Corey Perry in a second here too, but just wide brush thoughts on the Oilers. Playing Vegas tonight. I mean, it's, it's just like a stunning mind. It's like a stunning social experiment this season for the Edmonton Oilers. I have no idea what they're going to be on any given night. None of this makes sense to me that like they are still they they're up and cruising in the second round and I still feel like we have not seen them play their best hockey maybe outside of game four where I felt like they pitched a perfect defensive game and

the perfect response game from a game three that had you feeling so low about them and their chances like horrific parade of breakdowns to lose themselves. What could have been a pivotal game three and they come out and they give you a perfect game four. Suddenly Stuart Skinner looks like a viable goalie. The roller coaster of that team is just absolutely nauseating because it's just so, it's so, so crazy the swings that you have from one day to the next with them.

It's wild and I can only imagine what being goes through watching this team because outside of a stretch of three weeks in December, they really haven't been a great team. Like at all there, there was those three weeks for like, oh man, this is Edmonton. Man, he's got now, but you can look at it now and say outside of heck home. They're all healthy. Okay. So here's my theory on Corey Perry.

Agreeree disagree. Corey Perry will not stop playing hockey. One, he's not doing it for the money. That's clear. He can still play. He's real smart. He can play first line, he can play fourth line, never were in between. He's a flat-out good hockey player. I don't believe that Corey Perry is going to stop playing hockey until he wins the Stanley Cup again because it is the most Corey Perry thing ever for his last image for his haters to be him holding the Stanley Cup. And if Edmonton wins, Corey Perry retires. Ooh, that's an interesting theory. And I could see it and I would like it. I honestly, I don't know if he would hang him up even if he won the cup this year just

based off of how much he might have left in the tank and how much he likes going to the rink and how much he just lives and breathes it. He lives and breathes it so much that he's willing to fully adjust his game and fully adapt on the fly and become a fourth liner, become a fringe guy and slide up and down on every given night. Like that guy just lives and breathes puck. If he's got anything left in the tank, I see him running it dry.

So I have this like, this visual dream and I'm waiting for, and it's a total ripoff of freestyle wrestling and weightlifting. So what I love, when guys retire, they leave their boots and they walk away. I am waiting for someone when they retire, and this would be perfect Corey Perry.

Edmonton wins the Stanley Cup, Corey Perry gets a cup, does his lap, takes the skates off, leaves them at center ice and walks off. Come on, tell me you're not getting the tingles about something like that. I want a player to take off their skates, leave them at center ice and walk off the ice. Career done. You're a sucker for some theater, huh?

Yeah, yeah. You love the drama. I love it. Why don't you just fill his skates with worms and have him leave them at the center ice? That would be more fitting. That would be good too. Sure. Yeah.

That's my visual. So, the other thing with Corey Perry that I wonder about is whether or not he will hang them up at some point. Is there a season in which he plays on a bad team that like kind of really, really, the vibes are low, he's not enjoying going to the rink any given night, does he call it quits after that? Because he's been fortunate enough,

he's been fortunate enough, like he's lost a million Stanley Cups in a row, but he's been on teams that have made it to Stanley Cup finals, which means that he's having fun. I just think that it would be, cause I'm with you, like if he's going through like a miserable season where like they're out of the playoffs by Christmas, that's like, oh, all these empty calorie games and a man maybe can move me a deadline to someone please. I don't think that he wants to go through that.

I honestly, I really do think that it is, it would be the most Corey Perry, F you to all of his Corey Perry haters for him to exit with the Stanley Cup and go down as you know one of the unique players in the game to exit after winning a championship. I just think it would be the most Corey Perry thing ever. He can keep his skates on if he wants I guess. I'm just waiting for someone to do it. Pete tell me you're not a sucker for that kind of stuff if someone's not a lot of gates at center-ice Of course I love it of course I love it But like you're the kind of guy who loves it in that you'll be reading it about it in the hockey news in

15 years still reminiscing about it. I'll forget that that happened because I have the memory of a goldfish 15 years I'll be off to the crematorium. Who's kidding who? You're the best Pete continued success with chaos, it's awesome, it's the best. It's such a great show, thanks for helping out with me today, I really appreciate it pal. Yeah, I appreciate you, thanks for having me. There he is, the great Pete Blackburn. From the What Chaos podcast, which you can watch on their YouTube channel every day at

noon Eastern and then download the podcast afterwards. I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube

and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube and I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff on YouTube the skates? I don't know if I call it fantasy, but my leave the skates idea, leave the skates on the ice. Have I ever told you that about that one before? Uh, I don't know. I think you briefly brought something along the lines of that up with

Wish. I just think it would be the coolest visual. He's taking off his skates. And if it became a thing in the NHL, like guys that are about to retire, take your skates off and leave them on the ice? Like just all I can think about with that is Ned from Slap Shot. That's what goes through my head when you're like, yeah, it's basically like this guy's gearing down on the ice and like, okay, like I know what you're saying and it's very different, but that's the only thing that I can comprehend. Little bit, little bit, little bit different.

Just asking a guy to take his skates off. I don't like go for a streak at the War Memorial for crying out loud. That's not what we're trying to do here. Just trying to keep it classy a little bit here. I do like the worms in the skates though. That's a good idea. Nice touch. Yeah, yeah, good touch. I will see what happens tonight.

We'll see what happens. We have Stephen Alice standing by. See you around. Yes, we do. All right, let's do this. Your motor home or travel trailer isn't just for getaways. It's a moneymaker on wheels, folks. Most RVs, they sit parked in the driveway with RV easy.

You can rent out your motor home or travel trailer and earn over $20,000 this year. Founded, owned and operated by Canadians RVeasy takes care of everything. That includes full insurance coverage provided for every rental and best of all you choose when to rent and set your own pricing. List your RV for free today at RVZY.com. That's RVZY.com. RV easy. Rent your RV. Make money easy. With that we get to the real savant around the shop here. The one and only Steven Ellis from Daily Face Off who covers everything hockey all over the globe. And before we get to NHLL I know you love yourself some

world championship hockey. Now whenever I look at the world's there's one country that I always focus on because nobody celebrates like them. I still maintain that nobody loves hockey like Latvians do and I don't know that anyone enjoys hockey whether they win, whether they loot, don't care. I'm just here to watch hockey and celebrate and cheer my team on and cheer on my country. And if we win, that's awesome. And if we lose, well, I guess that's awesome too because we get to watch hockey.

What is so attractive about the World Championship for you? Because to me, World Championships always means I get to see Latvian hockey fans. Yes, so I've got both games on right now. Right now, Denmark's beating Kazakhstan to nothing and Sweden's beating Latvia to nothing. So sorry, Latvians, but they don't care. Who cares? They don't care. You mentioned them in particular. And I think what's interesting about them was it was the year that they got the bronze. I think it was two years ago and third place, first medal they ever had, they basically turned that the whole

week into a celebration. Like, I'm pretty sure everyone in the country the next day got a day off. And I remember talking to some Czech prospects of the draft combines like, Hey, did you watch the the team win the gold last year, the world championship? He's like, they're like, Oh, yeah, this was like the greatest party ever. Like we are partying for four or five days and I'm pretty sure still celebrating based off of all the videos we saw from that. But you hear that in Canada could win

gold and they've won gold, I believe more than pretty much any country outside of Russia and things like that. But it won't even be like mentioned in like the news, you turn on any news channel in Canada and it's like, ah, cool, they won. That's great. Or not at all. When a European team wins, it's a major deal. And for a lot of those teams, it's a it's their chance to show how far they've come. You mentioned Lafayette. I remember when I first watched international hockey, I think

it was the one world juniors in oh, eight or oh, nine, where they lost like 15 nothing to Canada. And I thought I kind of just wrote them off as a joke at the time. You look back now and every single tournament, it's gotten to the point where they're the favorites in more games than not, especially the World Championship. And that's pretty cool. And you see what they did at the World Juniors this year. And you see what they're doing at the men's tournament where every year, they've become harder and

harder to play against. It's a big deal. And the best way to describe the World Championship. It's it's a celebration of hockey. It's an opportunity for all the countries of the world 16 teams to come play together, together, spend two and a half weeks together, like you look at the crowds, and for the most part, they're almost sold out every single game. Everyone like this, there's massive crowds of people traveling for this tournament every single year, I would love to do it to a point. I do think it is too long of a tournament,

but you get the fun storylines today. USA was leading five, uh, five one early in the second period in Norway. It looked over Norway forces over time. Stian Solberg, one of my favorite prospects gets a hat trick. I could not have seen that happening a year ago. He did not shoot the puck at this tournament a year ago and he's really figured out how to do that here. So it's, it's just a celebration. Like I, I basically will chart people who hate this term and say, if you don't like it, it's cause you just don't like fun.

Enemy of laughter, enemy of, uh, enemy of a warm and fuzzies. Well, you, you know what I mean? Uh, you mentioned Solberg a second ago and he's the first round pick of the Anaheim Ducks. I remember when he was selected, it was like, this guy hits hard. This guy hits for keeps. What should we know about Solberg? Steen Solberg. So this is a guy that he's got size. He likes to play physical. He likes to be a good defensive player. But at some point in the season when he was playing in the SHL, the top Swedish league this year, he just started to shoot the puck more. Very basic idea.

But for a guy that that was never his game, he was never an offensive player. And I believe if I got this correct at the NHL draft combine, he said he switched to defense only a few years ago because he was at a tournament with his team and one of his players Urinated in the shower. Yes, correct and got suspended. It's a great story Yeah, that's the kind of other team and Solberg basically got moved to D to fill a spot and the rest is history But he was never an offensive guy even back then he told me he said he was more of a you know Still a defensive style forward now you look at this and he's shooting the puck a lot more. He's way like he's, he's doing that without affecting his

physical game. So all the stuff that made him a first round pick a year ago, still there, the size, the physicality, the defensive play. Now he's out there shooting and he's shooting in smart ways. He's waiting for traffic to form so he could try and find the small openings. He's, he's making these high end passes. He's got four goals in this tournament. He's 19 years old. He might be the best defenseman

right now. Zach Renske just joined USA. So that could change. But the way that we're watching him play right now, like he's out there beating top line NHL defenseman. And that's impressive. PSA for hockey players out there. don't squirt in the shower. First of all, not nice. Second of all, you might lose your spot. You might just lose your spot. I remember at the combine when he told us that story, everyone's trying really hard not to laugh until he started laughing and then everybody just sort of burst out.

One final on here on the World Championships, and I always encourage players when they're, when they're done their careers. Like one of the, there's a couple of old sayings that, that live around hockey. One, um, hockey will never love you back. You may love hockey all you want, but hockey will never love you back. And two, uh, is use hockey. Don't let hockey use you. And I always say to myself, like you have this wonderful skill that you can play hockey at this high end level level. Use that to go see different parts of the world and have experiences more than just what you

get in North America. If you get a chance to string it out in Europe wherever you know Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, wherever, do it. Use hockey to have experiences. And I've said that to so many different people. You know, if you get a chance, don't just hang them up. Go play hockey in Europe. Go meet new people. Go have different experiences. Go widen your horizons. Like Europe is beautiful. There's so many nice places to see. And one guy that really kind of took that to heart was Andreas Ambul. He's 41 years old. He is playing in his 20th world championship for Swig's one. Like this is a guy he's awesome. He's like a spank. He's a spanger cup legend. One of my other favorite events. I think he's played in that tournament 283 times. Word is he kind of like he created the tournament himself. But he he's in the 20s when it started.

kind of like he created the tournament himself. But he's in the 20s when it started. He started playing pro hockey in like 2001. He's 41 years old. He's still playing in this tournament. Now at this point, he's more of that 13 for and I think they're bringing him there more for the moral support than anything. He's doesn't move very well anymore for a guy that used to be the speedy skater. But that kind of shows you the dedication, especially in Europe that this tournament means so much that a guy wants to come back to this tournament 21 times.

That's unbelievable. We make a big deal about like Sidney Crosby come back for the first time in a decade. Well, that's awesome. It's like you look at Europe and part of what makes this tournament fun is the European teams mostly stay together for year after year at this tournament. You can look at the Swiss group and compare it to the 2018 roster, you're gonna find a lot of overlap. And they're a team that's always in the metal contention for a reason, it's because they band together and they play well.

And you might have a team of 25 NHLers, but you might lose to a team with zero because that team just knows how to play together. And that's what makes this tournament fun. I loved your mock draft at daily faceoff.com. Shocking, Matthew Schaefer first overall to the New York Islanders. You know I've maintained like the the draft starts at two. Maybe you can make the argument the draft starts at four but where do you... we always talk about tiers. Schaefer is in his

own tier and then there's another group. Who do you put in that secondary group when it comes to the draft? Yeah, like I've got for a while I looked at it. I wanted to keep it a top four of Schaefer, Misa, Marton and Haggins. Right now I'm looking at it being a Schaefer and Misa top tier. I'd say Marton, Haggins, Frondellell De Noyer is a second tier. I love Brady Martin. You love Brady Martin. I'd say he's kind of in that next tier with guys like Victor Eklund, Jake O'Brien, Jackson Smith.

I'm very high in Kashawn Hassen. So I'd say we're looking at in the top 11, three tiers. I'd say like so much of this draft has been made about not being a super deep draft. I think the high end is still pretty solid. After that, you know this better than anyone at this point that teams don't trade their picks in the top 10.

And I think there's going to be so much discussion about like, Oh, like our team could trade three spots down and get some more assets. Like that doesn't happen. Team. That's not alluring to teams, especially this year where it isn't gonna be a ton of high-end talent. Like if you want a lot of picks, you want them next year. When you've got Gavin McKenna and just all the pure talent

coming out of that group or the year after of Landa Dupont, you don't have that this year. And I don't see a lot of trading, but I'd still say, like if two teams there of the Islanders and San Jose Sharks, you guys are going to be getting impact players right from the get go. So I look at this draft. And the one thing I just mentioned this a second ago with Pete Blackburn, I don't know that a single player will, or even for that matter should play in the

NHL next season. agree disagree. 100% agree. Obviously there's gonna be a lot of discussions about what happens with some of the CHL-based players after the draft. Some of them decide to go play college, things like that. Could James Haggins with his hockey IQ play in the NHL next year?

Yes. Should he? No. I think he should still work on that and becoming a stronger stronger product, stronger physically. Like Matthew Schaeffer is probably going to go first overall off of a season where he played 120 games total. Like that's, that's the thing. Like you, you're going to look back and he's not going to go there and Misa, all the connections of what he's going to do next year. So no, I don't think so. If there was one player, I think could do it next year, and I might

be the only one who agrees, but his work ethic makes me think it could happen. It's Porter Marton. And I know you're probably think I was gonna say Brady Martin there, but I did think you're gonna say Brady Martin. I'm a big Porter Marton fan from being in Mississauga. I get to see him a lot with steelheads in Brampton. And the thing about him is I feel like he's really underrated and not to bring up the world championship again, but we saw him play in the pre-tournament and he was maybe the best player in the pre-tournament for team Canada. Better than Travis Connect, better than Macklin Celebrini. His connection with Celebrini was excellent. With Marton, I think the big thing, a lot of people are saying he's not a great skater.

Yeah, he's not as high end of a skater as some of the guys at top. But the way people describe it, you're making it seem like this guy has got like cement for feet. No, he's actually improved to skate in quite a lot the last couple years. Is it perfect? No, with NHL coaches, they're gonna figure it out. I'll tell you what I remember going to and it was the only time that I saw him play live that year. The Memorial Cup in Quebec City, it was the last hurrah for the Colisei.

Colona versus Oshawa, Anthony Cirelli scores the overtime goal, last goal ever at the Colisei. Leon Dreisaitl was the star for the Colona Rockets for that Memorial Cup. And we all said the same thing, wonderfully skilled, but I don't know if he's ever gonna play in the NHL because that guy can't flat out, can't skate. We've said this about so many different players

forgetting that everybody's got skating coaches and everyone's got development coaches. It is no longer the obstacle that it used to be like. It's no longer the shut door that it used to be like. There has to be like a baseline of skating that you have but like teams work on this all the time and Dreyse when is the last time Stephen you heard anyone say anything about Leon dry saddle skating crickets crickets. He was so bad. He was Jason. Robert Jason Robertson's another, I remember watching him in Kingston. Every time he got on the ice, every time he touched the pocket, the red light

would go off. Like he was scored a ton of goals. We'd all say, ah, but he won't skate in the NHL. Eh, a couple of 40 goal seasons. You know, like, it's, we totally, and that's the thing too, like, we totally discount the development piece in all of this. Like, who is this? I was on the morning brew the other day

with Billy Jaffe and Andrew Raycroft. And because we were talking about, you know, who would Boston look for? They're picking seventh. And so there's the obvious Brady Martin conversation. We'll see what happens with the Philadelphia Flyers and which way they decide to go. Maybe they go for De Noyé and Monkton, who knows? But the one thing that we're talking about is

drafting a player is only one part of it. How many times have you seen like, oh man, they got a great pick. Whatever happened to that guy? Yeah. The development piece wasn't there. It was a really, really good pick, but the development piece wasn't there at all. Like we tend to forget, like there is still another step after identifying and drafting here. Yeah. Like we talked about Solberg a few minutes ago.

That's a guy that has completely changed his game style in a few months. And so much can change depending on player opportunity. Like when you're a European player, you're obviously playing you're usually playing in European Pro League, and you're not getting a ton of ice time like Lucas Raymond was playing more time in the NHL than he will in his rookie season than he was playing in the Swedish league the year before that. So things change a lot and summers can be magical for these players. They're still so young.

They're still developing physically, mentally, all that stuff. And Sweden just scored Lucas Raymond. Good. I just wrote about it for tomorrow. So that's a good sign. Um, but, uh, sorry, sorry for the, uh, the side there. Um, but, uh, yeah, like you look at this and you look back at the draft success of teams specifically in the first round from last decade and scouting has gotten so much better, whether it be, you know, just better

tools, better statistics, better video scouting, that teams aren't missing on players as much as they used to. There are times it happens in a lot of the cases it's maybe they couldn't find a spot for that player or maybe injuries caught up and there's a situation there. So a lot of the times it isn't like they were betting high on a guy and he turned out to be a total dud that just doesn't happen as much as it used to. And when you look at what makes a player like when I'm looking for what, what's a translatable skill, the number

one to have is hockey sense, this guy's got to be smart, because they'll still find ways to be productive, even if they're not going to be a like if they were a junior goal scorer, but they don't have all those skills to be an NHL goal score, they might still find a role for themselves deeper in a lineup. And you guys were talking about Corey Perry, like this guy's once heck of a smart hockey player. He went from being an MVP in the NHL to like this grinder make everyone mad

perfect, perfect piece to have fall on goalies. Yeah. Goalie. He might be a goalie in like two or three years at this point, the way he keeps changing his playing and guys like that who are adjustable, but also smart, they're going to have long careers. And with me, I look at our tone and his skating, two years in his NHL career, no one's talking about that.

A hundred percent, but he's also an agitator. He's smart, he's skilled, and he can be a good playmaker. You put that all together. That's also an agitator. He's smart, he's skilled, and he can be a good playmaker. You put that all together, that's one heck of a prospect. Great family as well. Dad played, was a hockey player himself, so he comes from a great family and comes from a dad that played pro hockey too. Always wish all the best for Porter Martone and James Richmond's done a great job with him there. Certainly have to mention that. Real quick thought on what we see tonight. We haven't talked much about it.

Maple Leafs facing off against the Florida Panthers. It is now at best two out of three. You were there with us in sunrise based on what you saw there. Do you have any idea what happens tonight with these two teams? What are you looking for? I think Toronto's going to answer back in a big way.

Having those two extra days off, I think think really helped as opposed to just a night off and then having to get back into it. You look at that first period in game four and all the penalties they took and you can blame the refs all you want, but you took four penalties. They were deserved and that kind of killed their momentum. It felt like they had then had to chase the rest of the way. You avoid that in this game. It's a bit of a different story. Like now, okay, Joseph Vols coming off a good last game. I got to imagine his confidence is high again, after what happened in game three and then the struggles there to bounce back and be as good in game four has to be good. Austin Matthews obviously hasn't done a lot off the puck. He's been playing good

defensively, but you don't pay him a bazillion dollars to be this star defensive player. The reality is the puck is going in the net more when he's on the ice than the other way around. So there is that. But for Toronto, when you look at the last couple years, and I know the core four gets a lot of flack for maybe not performing in the high moments. For me, just as importantly is the fact that the depth had not performed well either they were not scoring. This me, just as importantly is the fact that the depth had not performed well either. They were not scoring this year. You're seeing, you know, Max Domi's had his moments

when he's not trying to put people through the boards. And you look at Max Petruredi has been really nice for this team. A good scoring piece. Morgan Raleigh's putting in pucks in the net. Actually both nets. He scored a few goals on the whole game. He had a hat trick the other night. Yeah. Friday night. Not ideal, but you know, so like the depth is showing up. So I think Toronto should answer back and it seems like home ice has really mattered

in the series. You got it. You're the best. Stephen, thanks as always for stopping by. I really appreciate it, pal. Enjoy the games tonight and the world championship and whatever else you have on that laptop and your obscure hockey

watching. Okay let me finish on this one. What is the most obscure hockey game you've watched this season? Lebanon versus Puerto Rico in person in Oshawa and I watched the first I watched the first 30 minutes in person and then I had to leave I was going to Montreal and it was zero, zero. I'm like, okay, whatever. When I get home, it's nine to seven. Whoa, they both pull the goalies? Great question.

It's the mascots in then. Yeah, it was, no words for what I missed there, but in that same game, I saw, same day I saw Greece versus Jamaica and, and Giovanni Smith was playing for Greece. And oh, no way. You're a Jamaican. Sorry, Jamaica.

Yeah. And then Greece had, um, there was a Dallas stars prospect. Uh, I'm, I'm drawing a blank. It was a defenseman in college and it was actually really good quality hockey, but there was like a hundred something penalty minutes. Oh boy. One guy got kicked out for making fun of the referee's mustache. And another player got kicked out,

took his jersey off and put a new jersey on, tried to go on the ice. And I just see the ref laughing. Bobby Valentine, Bobby Valentine style. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and the ref's just looking like, what did you just do? But it was a great hockey game.

Like it was awesome. Like they were trying to kill each other. It was a three hour hockey game. It was great. It was an endurance game. But those are the ones I'd say. I love that. That's the highlight of our talk. I love it. You are the best pal. Keep watching. Keep loving it. We'll catch up soon. Yeah. Thanks so much. There is the great Stephen Ellis from Daily Face Off, covering the prospects, covering the Toronto Maple Leaf, Florida Panthers series, covering the World Championships,

and Puerto Rico, and Lebanon, and Greece, and Jamaica, and whatever comes across his laptop. All right, a couple of games to mention here, but as we wrap up the program today, the sheet is powered, as you well know, by FanDuel. That is the home of the seven-game parlay, make every moment more on FanDuel. FanDuel proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. And a pair of games tonight as you well know starting at 7 o'clock Eastern in Toronto

It is the Florida Panthers facing off against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Craig Borubey, Toronto head coach saying there will be some game time decisions but not injury related. This will be Joseph Wallen, Sergei Bobrovsky, Evan Rodriguez out by the way, Jesper Boekvist is in for the Florida Panthers there and then can they do it? Can they do it and be tucked away? Stuart Skinner facing off against Aidan Hill, it is the Edmonton Oilers facing off against the Vegas Goldenites. That one goes at 9.30 Eastern.

So all things being equal here, we could have like the perfect time stagger, Zach. And I want to turn the recreation over to you to conclude today. What are you, are you a Greta tonight? Is it a Greta night for you? Yup. Greta night, pregame at 6pm. Pregame at Greta Bar YYZ 590 King Street West downtown Toronto. It starts at 6 p.m. until about 6 45 6 50 and then watch along with us there and

then live after dark in person and J Rose Hill announced on Leafs morning take and I have found out because I was watching live that he will also be on after dark tonight so there you go.. Nice to know what's happening on your show and find out on another show what's going on on your show. I was watching and I was like, oh, okay, cool. I got it. I got no issue with that, but nice. Whatever, play my show.

Makes my life easier. Yeah. That's okay. Well, I don't know, listen, I don't know what to say to you, but like momentum, although I don't believe in it from game to game, uh, whatsoever, but like what we saw in Florida between these two teams, uh, is enough to fill, you know, any Leafs fan with doubt, but we shall see. Maybe this is just a Homer series and if it is, that bodes well for your team.

Um, but as, listen, as I was saying to you before the show, the one thing we can be sure of is no matter what happens tonight, there will be an overreaction either positive or negative. No one will see this game as it actually is. Like no one will see the outcome as it actually is. it will be to the extreme either way it's like they used to say about here comes pretentious comment 2 million for me it's like they used to how they used to describe Winston Churchill he's like everybody else only more so the Toronto Maple Leafs are like every other hockey team, only more so. I hope it's okay for you tonight, Zach. I hope it's okay. Your

mother and I worry about you, Zach. Your mother and I worry about you greatly. So quickly on it, I don't want to spend forever on it. But I think if if the games were flipped in Florida, Leafs fans would feel much better about themselves going into this game tonight. First of all, just because of the way they happened. Second, just because I'm gonna put this out there so that people can't say like, oh look at this guy going back. I'm gonna say this, if they win tonight, they have a good chance of winning. They still may lose, but they have a good chance of

winning. If they lose tonight, it's over. I don't know if they will lose in six. I don't know if they lose in seven, but if they lose tonight, it's over. That's my thought on this. That's it. That's the pessimist as well. Finish this sentence for me. Here's how we're going to end the show. Finish this sentence for me. Spoken like a true... Leafs fan. Leafs fan. Yes. Thanks, Zach. Good luck tonight.

Have fun, pal. Have fun at Greta. Great spot. Go check Zach. Who's it? Who's it? Who's it? Who's it? Who's gonna be there? Who's gonna be there? By the way, who's gonna be there with you tonight? Albregha and Vic. Yeah. Albregha and Vic. Okay, awesome. Say hi to the boys for me. Okay, you be good. And thanks to Pete Blackburn from What Chaos for stopping by. Check that podcast out live every day.

Monday to Friday on YouTube. The What Chaos YouTube page. Also wherever you get your podcasts. Also, I want to remind you to check out up close with Steven Brutten, that conversation with Jim Rutherford. As Pete said, like anytime Jim Rutherford is near a microphone, it is always full value.

Some really interesting things in this one about why he left Pittsburgh. Some conversations about handling superstars, and it's one of those I wish I had my Jim Rutherford decoder ring on, but I think a lot of it you can read in between the lines on what he's talking about when dealing with players like Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh,

and also Jim Rutherford on what happened this season with the Vancouver Canucks, and so much more. And there's like old stories about, you know, when he played in Hamilton, you know, even before he started his pro career. And there's stories about him, you know, joining the Montreal Junior Canadians for the Memorial Cup run, things like that.

Like just some really great old stories from Jim Rutherford. it's a great podcast. And thanks to the great Stephen Ellis for stopping by as well to talk about the World Championships and the draft as well. And thanks to you for watching, for listening, for being in the chat, we all appreciate it here. We're back tomorrow on the program here,

three o'clock Eastern for the Sheet once again. In the meantime, enjoy the games tonight, see what happens, should be interesting. Talk about itclock Eastern for the Sheet once again. In the meantime, enjoy the games tonight. See what happens, should be interesting. Talk about it all tomorrow on the Sheet. Have a great day. Out my head, lost all ambitions day to day 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 you It's me, myself and how this gon' be fixing my mind As you walk away I turned on the music Do you wanna break it? I turned on the music It's turned up, down, out, and back Sometimes you get

Helping on the days that went wrong