The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Dougie Hamilton Saga in NJD and Reimer Signs in Ottawa ft. Erin Ambrose & Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

On today’s edition of MvsW on The Sheet, Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski dive headfirst into one of the most layered and uncomfortable stories of the NHL season, breaking down what unfolded in Ottawa following the Senators’ public statement and the subsequent reporting by Ian Mendes, who named Wyshynski directly while outlining how the situation developed and why it escalated from his point of view. Marek and Wyshynski walk through the timeline, the reaction, and the broader implications of how media, teams, and messaging intersect in moments like this. From there, the conversation shifts to New Jersey, where the guys unpack the latest surrounding Dougie Hamilton and use it as a jumping-off point to explore no-move and no-trade clauses, how they can handcuff front offices, and why those protections increasingly shape roster construction across the league. The episode also tackles player safety, including the controversial hit by Carter Verhaeghe against the Ottawa Senators, sparking a wider discussion about consistency in supplemental discipline. Ottawa remains a focal point as the guys assess the Senators’ decision to sign James Reimer off his PTO and what it says about their crease moving forward. Throughout the show, Marek and Wyshynski weave in listener voicemails and emails, keeping the conversation interactive and grounded in fan perspective. Finally, they’re joined by Erin Ambrose, who reflects on being selected to the Canadian women’s Olympic hockey team for Milan, the challenges surrounding arena situations, her preparation for the Olympic stage, her current season in the PWHL, and what lies ahead as the countdown to the Games continues.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff#TheSheet #MvsW #NHL #Hockey #JeffMarek #GregWyshynski #OttawaSenators #DougieHamilton #NHLPlayerSafety #PWHL #TeamCanada #WomensHockey #MilanOlympics Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We'll begin the show, Greg, by something we used to do on the old MBSW occasionally. Oh. When I thought a show was going to be heated, I would always encourage you to take a deep breath. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Let the universe flow inside of you, inside, outside, and calm down. Before we proceed with the show. First of all, how are you? in Michigan on the weekend. I want to get into

that a little bit later. I went to Yost for the first time in my life and I met Red Barrensen and I met Red Barrenson and yes, your boy geeked out. It was embarrassed. It was in front of every, it was, no, it was embarrassing because it was in front of everybody. It's a great place to watch hockey. It's fantastic. A great place to watch hockey.

By the way, I'm not going to do the breathing exercise because people may or may not know that I do the show from a home office in my house that has no windows or ventilation. So to breathe in deeply would be to use. Probably about 25% of the available oxygen in the room. And so I won't be doing that.

No, there's a lot to get to today, man. There is. So, and I'll... Listen, there's... Like, honestly, if there ever was, like, a tailor-made show for Greg Wichinsky, this was it. Like, this is one where I'm just going to put my feet up on. I might just turn the microphone off.

And I'm just going to let you surf on this one. So let's get right into the program here. So the blueprint is powered by Fandle. Normally, we do a little preamble, and then we get into it. We're getting right to business today. The blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game. Joining us on the program today,

we have a couple of very special guests, one you've already heard of and you expect normally on Tuesdays, but today it's Monday for Greg Wyshinsky from ESPN and ESPN.com. Oh, interesting new font that Zach is using here for Blueprint today. It's a lowercase font. Very, very E. Cummings of you. Oh, wait a minute. Where did it all go?

Now, all of a sudden, the blueprint. Where to go? Where to go? A couple of seconds ago. No. That was like. I felt like we were going to talk about an indie. an indie comedy or something.

Yeah, no, I thought I was reading like an E. Cummings novel all of a sudden for your hipster reference there, number 3,462,000 from your boy, Jeffie. So Greg Wischinsky from ESPN and ESPN.com stopping by. We will talk about the Ottawa Senators. Yeah, it's going to come up. So Ian Mendez, Vice President of Communications for the Ottawa Senators, penned a blog, and we will, and called out Greg amongst other people, or mention Greg.

How about that? We'll give that a softer landing. mentioned Greg. And so we'll get a response from wish in a couple of moments. We'll talk about the Dougie Hamilton scratch against the Winnipeg jets and all the subsequent fallout, which as we understand it, goes all the way back into summer and a proposed Eote of San Jose Sharks, which was turned down by Dougie Hamilton. Aaron Ambrose named the team Canada.

No surprise. She will join us coming up towards the bottom of the hour. And we will talk about not just Olympics, but also PWHL and let's spend like on only two seconds talking about the rivalry series because they don't want to get into it. Because U.S.C. Trump's Canada. You had me until Team Canada.

That's true. I mean, it is a good time to talk about the rivalry series, right, with the way the U.S. has handled the business in the last, like, year or so. Just playing. Now, happy errands coming on. I got some questions. I got some questions for her about the Olympics, about her teammates, and about a great

many things. So I'm looking forward to that conversation. Okay. last week we talked about the Ottawa Senators and like they're in a horrible street they're a three six and one in their last hand like things have come off the wagon they can't get a save they just signed James Reimer

to a one year deal he played last night for Belleville against Rochester he was bluntly I mean listen he hasn't played since Spangler hasn't really played a lot at all and last night he to give it a software landing he was hard to hit he was he was hard to hit

so anyway But the bigger, hang on. Can I just be one of the first people or I don't know why this has been pointed out by more people. Like this is a team coming off a giant scandal of a salacious nature. And the goalie they decide to sign is the most like pious goalie in all of hockey. It's like James Reimer. He's all drafted off the Vatican team. Like this is the guy he signed when your team is admired in a salacious rumor.

I will. Well, I will point out that at various times, while it's not like he's going to run like 50 games here, or he would even have the ability to do so at this point in his career, there have been times where there is some James Reimer magic dust that can get spread around a team. We've seen this happen before from Reimer. So as far as like being a temporary band-aid, all I'm saying is we've seen it before out of Rimer. But the story of which we're referring to... Yeah, but he certainly entered the point.

in his career where if you're bringing James Reimer into your goalie mix, it's because you have to bring James Reimer into the goalie mix. I mean, that's the flashing red siren of you're in shit right now. We don't want to spend any assets, but we need to find a short-term fix here, who's available. And that's how they ended up. So last week, Peñaude and I talked about the Steve Steyos letter about all the, the scandalous rumors, which were sure.

shot down from all corners by the Ottawa Senators organization. One of the points that we made on Friday was there was a stric end effect to all of this. There were plenty of people that didn't know what the rumors were, and that note made it obvious to everybody. And if you didn't know, you see the letter, and your first thought is, what is he talking about? And that's what sort of everybody did, and everybody went to various corners and found out exactly what Steve Stales was talking about. So a few people knew and a few turned into many. And by the weekend, it was what everybody was talking about. So, and there's the letter.

And I thought, like, Shout out my trolls and sick people who scour the internet. I see you. Trolls and sick people who scoured the internet. Yeah, I don't know that that last sentence stood up over the weekend. The statement will put an end of the ridiculous speculation that has spread online. That's right. That didn't happen.

Quite the opposite happened. We'll get into it, but I mean, you know, you could make the argument that such a forcefully worded letter, the tone of this statement, probably reinforced this, this, this rumor and innuendo in the minds of the people that are, that, that want to believe it. Like, it's such a hard swing out of the corner. You're like a little, there's, there's a little bit of you, you doth protest too much to that statement. And, and that's not the desire to. effect you want if you're the senators people made the same point about brady kachuk and how he handled things on saturday morning at his at his at his press like he came out spit and fire he came out spit and fire at all of it to which i think some from some corner said if there's nothing to it why he's

so angry bro again and that's why you don't give it oxygen let me let me let me let me let me let me let me spit on this for a second first of all i like ian a lot ian mendes and i go back a long ways his internet colleagues i mean we've met each other many times on the road good dude no uh we've since he took this job with the senators, and he helped me out with a story about Brady-Cachuk as well. So, I mean, like, he's a solid dude. I got to clarify something for him, though, which is that I did not learn about these rumors from the statement.

I had heard about these rumors probably about a week at least before the statement came out. And that's one of the reasons I was shocked by it, is like, why would you give this oxygen? Like, I knew it existed. It was just lurking around on social media. I guess it came to a boil more in the local market. market than it did nationally. But when I saw the statement, I'm like, my God, like, you, it broke containment because of

the statement. And so let me tell you how the sausage is made a little bit when it comes to sports journalism. I know usually you go to guys like Pat McAvey to hear about the ins and outs sports journalism. But I'll tell you about, you're a failed political writer. That's why, according to Pat McAvigley, exactly. A political writer. If I went to the news desk with a, with a report, and I came to them and said, look, there's this rumor on the internet about an NHL player or an NHL team. And a lot of people are talking

about it. What should we do about it? They would say, we will do nothing about it for it is a rumor on the internet, but we will do something about it if the player or the team or the national hockey league addresses it. So I'm not allowed to write about this. And I'm sure it's the same for every other reputable outfit that covers the National Hockey League. We're not writing about this unless someone on the other side of the equation, a player, a team, the league addresses it. So by addressing it, the senators gave the green light for everybody to start talking about it.

And if you looked at like Google News after the senator's statement, Sportsnet, TSN, Daily Faceoff, all of these places that aren't even touching this rumor are now writing about it. And so it's not, and so the media is now bought in on it. And then they go and ask the players about it, which I can't imagine is the desired effect at all.

For God, six, Hockey Night in Canada did two segments on the senators in this rumor. Two segments this weekend. Now, granted, they were just kind of parroting what the senators told me. But they did two segments on it, nonetheless. And one of the segments obviously dealt with what Kachuk said regarding the rumor. And I understand we have that for you. We do have, yeah. Here's Brady Kachuk on Saturday morning.

It is at his avail. Yeah, not go, I. It's pretty fucking bullshit. I mean, I don't think anybody's pretty happy about a narrative being spread like that, that, you know, I think it's okay for people to critique our on-ice performance, but when it gets into family, it's pretty fucking bullshit. So it's embarrassing that it got to the point that it did. And, yeah, I could tell you for free.

I'm not happy about it one bit. I mean, he's right. It's complete bullshit. And I feel terrible for Linus Lomark in particular, who is a guy that's dealing with something. He's now a non-raster player in order for them to kind of manipulate the cap situation a little bit more. And that apparently sparked a lot of this stuff. And I feel terrible for him and terrible for the players that were mentioned in these rumors. It's not, I mean, again, like they're just sucked into a situation out of their making.

But Ian wrote in his blog, national reporters can mock us all they want. But our obligation is to protect our players and make. sure the truth is out there in our market. But that's completely true. That's exactly what you should be aiming for. And you can see the statement from Ian Mendez, those of you watching on YouTube right now. That's what you should be aiming for if your communications VP with the Ottawa senators. But I don't think that this statement protected the players, if I'm being honest with you.

They were asked about it. They would not have been asked about it. It felt like, because I do think that a lot of this was player driven, that this was players going to Steve Steyos are going to Brady Cutuck saying, like, we need to do something about this. It felt like this was a player saying, we want to punch back. Okay, cool. But, and I understand that. But by punching back, you've alerted everybody that there's a fight going on.

That's why it's the team's responsibility. That's why they have the communication staff. You know how many rumors are spread about actors and actresses around the world on the internet every single day where they're probably reading this shit and their family's reading this shit and being like going to their publicist and being like, we've got to punch back.

And the publicist who's paid handsomely by the celebrity then says, no, we don't. Because you're going to bring more attention to it and make it worse. So it's the team's responsive. If the scenario you're talking about

is how it played out, it's the team's responsibility and management's responsibility to go to the players and be like, I understand you're upset and we'll do whatever we can to help you out. But doing the thing that you want us to do

is only going to make this thing worse. And so now, infinitely more people know about it and you can argue the pushback only reinforce these rumors in the minds of a lot of people and and the media wrote about it it's all over the place now it's become the volcano exploded man and and it was it wasn't dormant but it was when the little steam comes out of the ground and maybe like a little speck of lava shoot now yeah it certainly didn't interrupt until the senators put out that statement and it's mind-blowing so the question that becomes And at that point, too, and you've already mentioned this, but just to reinforce it, at that point, then it's fair game to ask the players about it.

And I'm sure that none of them were thrilled to have microphones in front of their face, not talking about the big loss against Colorado, but rather this. Now, and it's not to say they wouldn't have been asked about it. Like, if you remember, if memory service, Bedard was asked about those rumors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was dealing with with a teammate without there being a statement from the team. So I'm not trying to be naive here and say that there is a... Hang, I didn't hang on. Kyle Davidson did mention it, though.

Like, there wasn't a release, but Kyle Davidson did mention, like, a ridiculous... Again, like, it wasn't a statement. It wasn't a big thing from the organization. It was like, in passing, Davidson was like, you know, essentially this is BS. There are ways... I think you might be right. But there are ways that you could ask players about this stuff without being direct about it. and oh, the pressures of the market,

oh, the things people say on social media. Like, there's a million ways you can approach it, right, if the local media wanted to. So the question that becomes like, what should they have done? And if you want to go with the senators thinking that, because again, part of that statement, Merrick, is that local media was starting to really bug them about getting a statement about this stuff,

whether it's Olmark situation or the rumor situation. It was local media asking, asking, and Ian wrote, We've received multiple requests from our beatwriters if we were going to provide a statement about what was happening online. So if you're getting pressure from local media to say something and you feel the need to say something, here's what I would do if I were the PR person for the senators. And by the way, I actually do have a background of PR. It's actually what I studied in journalism in school. Don't tell anybody.

The dark side. You started on the dark side. They told me I could make money out of college if I went to PR. I would have released a statement to local media. And then the Ottawa citizen can decide what to do with it. The local TSN station can decide what to do with it. I certainly probably would have worded the statement less antagonistically. I would have probably used a little bit of a different tone.

And then, yeah, it still probably escapes containment, this rumor, but not to the level that we saw with the blasting of this statement across the globe. My thought, and again, tone is always. interesting and it's different for everybody. My first thought about when I first saw the Brady Kachuk scrum on Saturday morning when Brent Wallace put it out on Twitter, my first thought was you might want to be a little more, even though if you are pissed off, I get it and I understand that you want to come out and you want to fire bullets. I understand that. Yeah. But if it really is a nothing burger, treat it like a nothing burger. Just be like, guys, come on. Like this is a ridiculous rumor. No,

of course it's not true. Like seriously, I can't believe it's worth. into this level, but, you know, everybody had their whack at the pinata, but, guys, none of this is true. And just be more casual and just treat it like the joke as opposed to getting angry. Um, I, I, is that is that, is that the tone, is that the tone that you would have? If, if you were, yeah, if you were the VP of Communications for the senators, would that have been your tone in any, any release? You treat it, you treat it as if it's ridiculous. That being said, it is stuff about your family. And you're going to be upset about that when people bring your family into it,

whether it's a fan or a troll in the internet or wherever. And I get the pushback there. Like essentially, a lot of this comes down to don't talk about our families. Like Ian actually even ended his blog in kind of flippant way. Like, you can respond to anything here. Just don't bring my family into it. And I think that's where they felt the line was crossed.

And so that's where a lot of the pushback comes from. But again, the basis for that is a rumor on the internet. And that's why ultimately, like, the beat writer's aside asking for something, the ultimate way to handle this was to not handle it. Like, don't give it oxygen. Don't acknowledge it. I think what people miss about this story is that there is a tipping point when you get to these rumors. But it's called the tipping point because after that, it tips.

The internet, I've been writing on the internet and arguing on the internet for 30 years. Merrick the internet has its own velocity and because of that velocity these things reach a boiling point and then you turn off the stove and you drain the pasta and then you're done boiling and you move on to the next thing when's the last time you heard somebody talking about jack hughes and steak knives or the fact that the dude from barstool was at the devil's dinner when jack hugh's got hurt you're not hearing about that much anymore because we're talking about other stuff now like the internet has its own velocity rumors of their own velocity. It's not to say that this stuff isn't going to stick to Olmark until he comes out

with a statement of his own or that it's not going to swirl around the other senators that were mentioned. That's just the nature of the internet. But the idea that it's reached a point where you need to give it oxygen. It's reached a point where you need to acknowledge it and forcefully hit back on the part of your players. I just don't buy that. Here's what I wonder. We're talking about the Olympics. No, I get it. Here's what I. Here's the one thing that I do wonder about. I kind of look under the umbrella for like a couple of things. Anything that the NHL does, I look at and say, this is in service of one thing, franchise value.

And a lot of times when a team does something, it's in service of attracting players to their organization. And I think that in Ottawa's mind, one, the players are hot, they're pissed about this entire situation. They want something done. Get it. The other thing is, too, if you're Steve Staeos and owner Michael and Lauer, you're probably thinking, okay, you know who's watching this?

because everybody talks in the NHL. This is like, this is a rumor that we all heard about in like, what, like late December. So players are all talking about it too. I wonder if in their minds, they're saying,

all right, every other player in the NHL is watching this. And watching how we're going to handle this. And watching how we're going to defend our players. And this is maybe an interesting transition into the Douggy Hamilton conversation with the New Jersey Devils. Part of this I look at and I say,

this is the Ottawa senators showing, not just their players, but the entire marketplace of free agents and people that have no trade clauses, that this is what we will do to protect our players, even though to your point, it may have had the opposite effect, the fact that the Ottawa Senators went public to, and I'm just saying in their minds, that they went public with this is an indication of the marketplace that that management and ownership group will fight publicly for their players. I've heard this thought before. I actually heard it from your former podcasting partner, Elliot, who I think put this out on his podcast last week, this notion of, you know, it's a signal to potential free agents that Ottawa is a place that'll have your back. I think it, I think the

sentiment misses the original sin, which is that Ottawa is also a market where rumors will start about your fidelity and the status of your marriage to the point where you have to then get a statement from your team that indicates that they have your back. Like that, that's to me the biggest takeaway here. Like there's a you think about some of the markets that we have in the NHL right now. Like Vancouver to me is a place that seems like a place you might not want to play right now because of all the shit that went down with with Pedersen and with Miller and the constant scrutiny. The media is taking it on the chin there a few times like it's it's not a real good vibes place right now. And you know you could come out with as many forceful statements as you

can but it takes a while to change that. I mean I had a you know I had a player remind me of something over the weekend from a struggling team that winning cures cancer. I think it's a great line. I think it definitely applies to the NHL in a lot of different ways. Winning does cure cancer. And, you know, the fact that all this is happening in Ottawa

during a really bad stumble for them can't be ignored. But to me, it's like, if I'm a player looking at the situation, yeah, it's great that the senators will put out a strongly worded memo if someone says something is happening within my relationship. but it doesn't change the fact that that's a market where people are talking about my relationship.

And to me, that's the biggest red flag for me versus anything else. And again, I'm not saying that it's a senators fan that started this. But I am saying that this is a market where a rumor like that was given life. Anything more on this one? Because I want to get to Hamilton. Just, I don't know. It was always interesting to see how different people process this story and where they fall in it. but I'll say this.

I truly, truly don't buy the idea that this would have escaped containment the way that it did if it wasn't for the statement. I had people in Finland reaching out to me being like, I had no idea this existed until they put out the statement. And I just think it's PR basics that if you have a scandal,

the thing you want to do with a scandal is contain it. It's not to pour a bunch of gasoline on it. And I think that's what the senators ended up doing here. Okay. Speaking of, I don't know, this raises to the level of scandal, but speaking of controversy, or as they call it, cross upon, controversy. Dougie Hamilton scratched against the Winnipeg Jets. New Jersey Devils subsequently lose to the Winnipeg Jets. And as we find out, through Elliott on Hockey Night, this goes back some ways to last summer when a trade was next, as proposed to the San Jose Sharks by Dougie Hamilton's camp.

Now, through his representation at CAA and J.P. Barry, he believes that he is being maligned. used as a political pawn here, or perhaps, perhaps better put, they're trying, they're trying different ways to get him to waive his no trade, which, again, in the, we're auditioning for the rest of the NHL, to me, looks really bad. And again, like the New Jersey Devils will deny that this is what this is all about, but they're pressuring him to waive his no trade, which to the marketplace, every other other player will look at that and say, if they're doing it to him, why wouldn't they do it to me? The no trade, hang on, just as a quick aside, the no trade issue to me and the no move issue to me

has been so contentious that, and I've mentioned this before, but it sort of rises to a point every now and then where I say to myself, we have to do something about this because this is a horrible look on New Jersey. This is bad for Dougie Hamilton. this is bad for those players in the room as well. Again, it may need a re- well, it would need a reopening of the CBA. And I would advise to open it again before it expires. So situations like this don't happen again.

Create a mechanism where you can compensate players for waiving their no trades. Because right now the bargain you're proposing is, I want something and I'm prepared to give you two-thirds, of the square root of sweet fuck all for it. And that is not business. That is charity. Create a mechanism where if you get, because everything's negotiated in good faith, we assume.

And then all of a sudden one party says, oh, you know what, I want that clause back. Whoa, whoa, whoa, we negotiated. That's when he signed off on it. Yeah, but it's not working for us now. That is give me something for nothing. And that's not business. You've mentioned this before,

and I actually think it's an absolutely brilliant idea on your part. I love the idea of their way. Can you say that maybe tweeting too? It's a brilliant idea on your part. I love there being a way where we don't have to get to this point with a player. And you'd figure both sides would be pretty okay with it in the idea that the team kind of, don't you think so? Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Pause one second. There's one caveat. We saw this play out through COVID when owners said no amnesty buyouts. Forget it. owners do not want any money outside the system, but managers in a situation like this would not want that money to count against their cap. That becomes, if you're going to go that way,

what happens with the money? There's a capture. There has to be some cap regulation. So it is captured inside the system, then not outside of it. Yeah, but it would be a percentage of it. It would be like a buyout. Like it'd be some sort of percentage of the contract

that counts against it to make it fair because, again, you don't want there to be a situation where the rich teams in this league could just make their problems go away with doling out NTC bonuses to players. But that being said, I mean,

I think for the league, for the PA, for the teams, that would be a preferable path versus what we're seeing in New Jersey now. Now, what we're seeing in New Jersey, hey,

congratulations to the Devils. You are now the 19, you're now the 2024, 2025 New York Rangers. What a feat to accomplish that. Where the Rangers were the ones. were the ones last year pressuring Barthley-Ga-Drew and pressuring

Jacob Trouba to accept trades to places that are no longer in New York. And now the devils are in the same situation. What I'll say about this, first of all, with Dougie, I don't think Dougie's been very good in his own zone, but I think overall he's been okay this season. I think if you look at his analytics

and in particular, the devil's expected goals with him on the ice, it's pretty good. It's not bad. Like, he's not been a disaster compared to some other players on the roster this season. So I've seen people say like what value could this person have to another team. I'm like he's got a lot of value to another team. He's like Hamilton. Like you put him with a good defensive D man. He could be a very serviceable player on a good team. I will note that the other

player in a pickle right now for the Devils, Andre Palat, who reportedly has not been asked to waive as no trade clause at all, played less than seven minutes in their loss to win a fight yesterday. So that's an interesting one for me. I'll get back to Dougie in a second, but that's an interesting one for me because I kind of believe that Sheldon Keith making that call. Because the thing about Andre Pallat that separates him from Dougie, Dougie was ownership's call.

Dougie was available as a free agent. Ownership is like he is the bell of the ball when it comes to the defenseman. We need to improve our blue line. By the time we get good, Dougie will be here and it'll be solid. So that's why the devil's pursued him and had an open, a blank check to do so. Hang on.

Just pause. Pause one second. I would imagine that Matt Kane and Tyler Delo when he was with the Devils probably would have had a lot to say about that one. That probably would have been on the positive side. On the positive side. Yes. I would agree.

I've looked at a lot of devil. I think we've all looked at a lot of devil's moves right now and said, I'm not sure that Matt Kane would have signed off on this one. Well, that's funny. You should bring that up because Andre. The thing that separates Andre Palat is a Tom Fitzgerald signing. There are people within the organization that didn't want to sign him. There are people within the organization that were like, if you do want to sign him,

don't sign him to this contract. And he was signed and he was signed to that contract. And so I do wonder ultimately if there hasn't been the same level of pressure on Palat to waive as there's been Dougie Hamilton because ultimately if Tom Fitzgerald decides to jett Andre Palat, it's a tacit acknowledgement that it was a bad signing by the guy that signed him. I mean, that's not necessarily, I'm not saying that's

gospel, but I'm saying that's one possibility. The the bottom line for me on all this, Merrick, is like, this is like sounding the collision alarm on the Titanic once it's resting at the bottom of the ocean. Like, shouldn't all of this shit been handled well

before this season? Knowing that, well, hang on, it's things could come to a boil with the Hugh's situation of Vancouver, which it did. The Devils needed to open up cap space, which they ultimately needed to. Now you're in a situation where the guy you were pursuing is in Minnesota and may stay there. And you're trying to open up cap space in order to help other facets of the team. Everyone knows it.

And now you're looking like a bunch of assholes because you're pressuring one of your most popular players to waive something that you gave him contractually as part of the fairly negotiated contract that he signed as a free agent. It does sound like they tried to do something like. They tried to head this off earlier, right, with Dougie Hamilton to San Jose in the off season. So I don't know that it's like Tom Fitzgerald woke up in November and said, oh, we got a crisis here. It sounds like they've been sort of planning this for a while. I tried to head it off by trading into a team that he could say no to. No, but I'm saying like limited to a drink plus.

Like you've got an entire, you've got like over 20 teams you could possibly trade him to. I don't know. Like you're trying to do this at a time in which the team is absolutely. in the toilet and the value of these guys is not where it should be and and you know and the vibes are already bad and they're getting worse by trying to strong arm a player

and by the way, kudos Pierre LeBron for getting not only the statement from JP Barry about Agent and the GM yeah yeah informed that situation but also getting the first statement from Tom Fitzgerald probably since October or November I will note that he gave it to national media and not the local media that has asked for his availability every day for two months and not gotten any of it.

So Pierre did a really good job putting both pieces of that equation together and making this a story. Do the Devils play tonight? No, I played yesterday. There are next home games coming up. Do they play tonight? They played the Quinn Hughes game is tonight, right? Played Minnesota. That's right.

Yeah, that's great. I knew that game was coming up. I forgot what tonight. Yeah, the Hughes Bowl is tonight. And that won't be pretty. And then, and I think after that, they come home for their first game since Luke Hughes heard the boo birds. And probably potentially coming off a horror show of a road trip. So we'll see no, no major changes were probably going to happen while they were on the road, right?

So we'll see what happens between Quinn Hughes Bowl tonight and their next home game. By the way, I fully expect them to win tonight. This is exactly. It's the hot. It's no, this is this would be the most hockey thing ever for like New Jersey. you just to go in there at Grand Casino and just like blow the barn doors off. Yeah. Jack is a goal and two helpers and like they win like five two.

Yeah. That's exactly how it's going to play out. All right. She's been standing by patiently and probably bored by this conversation. She's the great Aaron Ambrose, member of Team Canada's Olympic efforts once again, and she joins us once again on the sheet. Hello, Aaron. Sorry to bore you while you waited for us.

You got to get all of our devils out. You love this stuff as much as a rumors and innuendoes. track squabbles. It's why we cover hockey, isn't it? I was sitting here being like, well, we don't have no trade clauses yet. We don't have this drama yet. I haven't had a good word. I think we're in a pretty good spot.

No GM has had to write explanatory the notes about internet rumors about any of the players on the victoire. Like, it's just we're just going out there and we're playing hockey and we're making people and rainbows over here. Yes.

Well, then, okay, well, listen, thanks for joining us. This has been a delightful conversation. Best of them, Loisland. First of all, congratulations. Once again, no surprise to anyone, 23 rides for Team Canada once again. And confirm or deny all through the rivalry series, Canada was just playing possum. Wow. Are you supposed to be my friend? I am. And I'm trying to give Canada like a nice little sort of like, this was the agenda the whole time. he's he's pretending that you've lulled the Americans into a false sense of security yes

you guys are just saying right like hockey that's what happens when somebody's supposed to win the hockey gods come out and yes the new jersey new jersey devil's a win in minnesota tonight so if that's what you want to believe then that's what we'll vote i now listen yeah go go go go okay so here's here's where's what i want to where's the animosity level where's the animosity level right now between Canada and the US on a scale of one to ten? I think it's a weird spot because of the PWHL. Like before the PWHL existed, when we had the CWHL, like there was that hatred, but now with the PW, like we're friends with a lot of them.

And I have a lot of respect for them. But as soon as we get into our national team stuff and we are, when we're wearing Canadian and American jerseys, I'd say it's probably a good solid 10 out of 10. It's, I always tell this story, and she has, to Cassie's benefit, and much to my chagrin, she's never told me who this player was. But I remember asking her about, we talk about Salt Lake and the double gold by Canada. I remember Salt Lake and the double gold by Canada. And we're talking about motivation and the rivalry between the two. And she said the one thing that in one of the handshake lines, after one of the.

world championships after the United States won the world championship, one of the players said to her, bitches never win. And she wrote that down and she put it in her stall. And every game she played, she had that. And that was like the motivation or one of the motivations for Cassie, all throughout hockey leading right into Salt Lake. Is there still, to put another accent on Grace's question, is there still, is there still like that level of animosity between the two teams.

Because back then, I mean, those games, man, like that Salt Lake Final was like one of the best games ever played. You know, male, female, animal vegetable, but one of the best games ever played. And I just think like those teams hated each other. Hated. I think there's just more of a human aspect to it now. And this is me personally talking. I think, Jeff, from what you know of me, I'm not exactly one that has a lot of hate in my body.

So getting to know the Americans as people, not just as the Americans anymore, you just see more and more of them as human beings. And it does, I think, take away that side of it, that the 98, the 0206, I would say probably 2010 is when it started, not shift, but changed a little bit. bit. But there's definitely some players on the Americans that I hate without any hesitation thinking about it. It's just something that I hate all of them once we get the jerseys on, but there's definitely. I'm trying to laugh over that clip because it's such a great clip, too. It's like that's like the perfect. But that's part of the thing that attracts people, people to this matchup, right? And I know like a lot of the rest of the world is catching up.

And I've gone out the door to talk about Finland, for example, and where they're at in other countries too. But this is still one of those. Like it's rare that something that people expect to happen can still deliver the way a Canada U.S. final can. Like we expect this all the time and it's always good. And to Greg's point earlier about like, oh, the hockey of it all, That doesn't happen in hockey.

Normally we expect something big. It's always like, eh, it was just okay. But this one always delivers. Always. Yeah. Like, I think about world championships,

Olympics, like in 22, like all of them, like are games that you're just like, how the heck did that happen? Like, you look at our world championship loss last year in Czechia, and it was like an overtime thriller again.

You look at the Utica game. I think the Utica gold medal game was one of the craziest best hockey games I've ever been a part of. 6-5, I think it wasn't overtime. Like, just it was an onslaught of offense, which isn't something that we usually see between us two when we go off against each other. And I think that, like, it was a back-and-forth game

that I think every fan sat there at the end of it and was like, wow, that was a hell of a hockey game. 6-5, by the way, is the Canadian score, 1972, 1987. Just want to throw that in for a little bit of spice. Go ahead, Greg. We deal with anything. To your point, Aaron, it's really funny to think back to Four Nations last year and, like, people pretending that they discovered gold with the USA Canada rivalry.

Like, where do you guys mean? Like, the women launched the rivalry series with it. They launched a league basically based on the USA Canada rivalry. Like, it's incredible to me that all of a sudden we're like, oh, this is the easiest sell in all of sports. I'm like, yeah, no shit. The women have been selling it for at least 15 years. Yeah. You know, I wanted actually bring it back to the PWHL for a.

second because I found your comment interesting. When you talk about the camaraderie, kind of maybe sanding the edges off the rivalry a little bit, is that a function of now being teammates on professional teams with the Americans? Or is it more about like all of you are now in service of something greater than yourselves and so far as building this league and trying to establish it? Or is it a mix of both? I would say a mix of both. And I would say that it kind of started with the PWHPA because you look at there was nothing but respect for especially us and the Americans sitting there and being like, hey, we're not doing anything until we get a league that we truly deserve.

To see obviously Mary Truly planned Hillary Knight, Kendall Coyne's Goldfield, like those three are three of the best female hockey players to ever, ever play this game. And they sat out years of their prime of their career. And those three have brought our sport to a whole new level that. I don't think can ever be thanked enough to all three of them for putting aside their own personal interests in the here and now because it has paid off so well with the PWHL. And like I played on Team Sonnet with Hillary Knight, Abby Rock, Nicole Hensley. I was with Jenner and Claire Thompson, Mike Azneux Hart as well.

But it was like that was the first time I really got to see a lot of those Americans. And then now with the PWHL, like me being teammates with. Kayla Barnes last year. She is a wonderful human being, and I never knew Kayla before. Like, I knew of her, but only of playing against her the whole time throughout my entire career. So to get to play with her last year, like her and I would drive together and drop our dogs off at our dog sitter, and she was one of my closest friends in the team.

And now it's like, okay, when we see each other, yeah, we say hi, but at the same time, there's a switch that has to be flipped, and it's hatred when we're on the ice, but at the same time a lot of respect and love for somebody solely as a human being. Okay, let's stick with that for one second and take it to the PWHL. So I think a lot of people were surprised, and I'm curious, like, as a teammate watching this, how you felt about it then, how you feel about it now. There are a lot of people surprised to see Abby Rock in Montreal, knowing how the intense and man, maybe the best head I've ever seen

thrown in the PWHL is Marie Philippe Palant on Abbey Rock watching people like a lot of people running how is this going to work? Now I say that She did she like to her full credit she got up I'm like man you just got dropped and she's just up like

oh this is awesome and I say that naively because this has been happening on the men's side forever so maybe I'm just being naive and you can tell me that but I think just considering how that rivalry was. Like it seemed like, man, these two really hate each other.

And now they're going to share the same room and the same ice, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. When you first heard about it, what did you think? And did you think there was ever going to be any sort of like, okay, let's see how these two mixed moments? First off, you are naive, Jeff. Tell them that every day. But it's exactly not. It happens all the time in the NHL, and I just think that we're not used to it on the

women's game. Like, I think everybody sits there and goes, oh, women are so catty. They hold grudges, blah, blah, blah, but at the end of the day, we're competitors. And I think if you look at it, like, we all understand and know how to compete against one another on the ice. And for the most part, there's obviously outliers, which same as in the NHL, there's outliers that don't know how to separate things and keep it kind of coming or don't let it stay on the ice. And it carries on with them after that. And between Abby and Pooh, no, there was no. There was no. There was no. It's no hesitation whatsoever. There was no concern whatsoever. You look at Poo and the leader that she is. And again, I got to play with Abby with teams on it. And it was like, Abby is the first person

to literally galvanize an entire group and be like, we're going here. Let's go as a group. And it's been pretty seamless to be able to do that with Poo. So not a lot of people are able to kind of galvanize and get Poo and Stace and all the older girls to go out for drinks and stuff like that. But Abby has that ability. What are your thoughts on the barn? Our friends in Italy are currently raising for the Olympics. I'm sure you might have caught some of our friend Chris Johnston's tweets from Milan over the weekend. You're not following that, that are you?

It looks like you're so past that. It does look like there's ice, which is good. It has a couple holes, whatever. That makes it more fun. It doesn't look like it has locker rooms, which is a tough look. It's like playing timbids again. Just get dressed at the car. Get dressed at home.

Do you put his kids on at the rink? It is because of you two people that this has become such a big thing. Because every two years, not even every four years, every two years, every two years, there are an Olympic Games. Some sort of issue arises. Something has not done at time. Something has done at the very last minute, no matter what. No matter where the games are, what country, what state, the country is in, anything.

But because the NHL players are, now going back to the Olympics for the first time in 14 years is it i don't actually know um uh sochi was last on those 2014 so that's 12 then um now um so because the first time the nchl players are going back there's so much more media that's around this to pick this up and to give it traction and we know what happens when media gets a hold of things traction starts to get going and we'll start to spin. Like, is the rink going to be done? Yes. Is the ice already done? Yes. Was there a hole in the ice? Yes. But if you saw a little bit more about it, it was actually just like matter of the game and there was a hole. And then somebody kind of blew that out of proportion

that there was a huge great, like crate in the middle of the ice. And that's what the hole was. I'm going to Olympics. I could not care less if I have to get dressed on a school bus. I am going to be playing in the Olympic Games and there's no bigger honor than that. um and i have no concern that things won't get done in time in fairness and i've covered four olympics winter and summer usually it's like we had to build a velodrome for the bike races and that's not done this is it's a hockey arena this is an ice arena this is like the main thing that you need for the winter olympics outside of mountains with snow that's why i think it's getting a little bit more attention to anything else i agree with you i think the nch l's

involved but like if this was a bunch of college kids going over to play over there i doubt they send chris johnston to look at the holes in the ice or if it was right on that or if it was just correct um yeah but that being said i mean i i am i as someone who agrees with you i do think that people forget like you know they didn't have the the the color of the water right in brazil until like the last minute you know there's like a ton of things that happened every olympics this one's a little bit weird for me because one you know they don't have the facilities done yet but Two, it's more important for me, though, Erin, is like they've not had the ample time to test this thing like they do in previous Olympics. And that's the issue for me.

But I completely agree that it's getting more scrutiny because of who's involved. Yes. And I think like the other thing that I also talk about is like, or I haven't talked about it because this is the first time I've actually been asked about it. But shockingly, is everybody like, oh, the men's games start on, I think it's February 9th. We have games there before that. Like, it's not February 9th is a deadline. We have a hockey tournament before the men's tournament starts. Like, there are two tournaments simultaneously happening, and we're actually ahead of it.

So it's like, yeah, February 9th is the day that they start, but we have games there starting, I think, on the 4th of 5th. Okay, let me pick up on something with that. So, like, I'm not saying, like, okay, it's a surface with, like, cones on the ice where you're not allowed to skate because it's too dangerous. but like what's the worst rink that you've played in where you look to yourself and go like this would never happen on the men's side this would never happen on the men's side is there a one i know you're thinking like oh i don't want to bury them but go for it bury them what's the what's the rank that comes to mind you're like oh i can't believe we played on that i wouldn't say bury them like um i would just say different like not cones on the ice not ice quality like i've had some awful ice quality and it's not even it it wasn't even a piece WHL's venue or anything like that. It was like a men's team, pro team's venue,

and the ice was one of the most atrocious things I've ever skated on. That's another story. But I would say the most difficult or, I guess, different ice surface I've competed on was our world championships in Herning, Denmark. And I think that there's a pro team. The Herning team plays out of there. Actually, a former Clarkson Golden Knight plays there, Kevin Tansy, shout out Tans.

but they talked about the neutral zone in Italy being smaller, like from what the photos and everything are looking like. Herning, I kid you not, the center circle, like, touched the blue lines. What? Yes, there was no neutral zone. It was a crazy thing. Like, if I got the puck, like, I always stand, like, on the blue line at a neutral zone face off. Like, I was still on the circle.

So, you know what? It was no shorter. It was just ozone were that much bigger. They just took away the neutral. So listen, part of me, this is like,

you know, from God's lips to my ears. Like, I'm thinking like, I watch the NHL now and every team stacks the neutral zone with 1-1-3.

And I'm just like, oh my God, oh my God, oh, my God, do we have to keep watching this? And I'm thinking, like, whatever we can do

to make the neutral zone inconsequential or smaller, let's do that. And I know that I'm saying that to a defender. So I, I understand the sensitivity around what might come out of your mouth next. But what do you think of that idea?

I'm fine with shrinking that neutral zone. I am. It just is like I'm fine if it happens in more than one rank. I think the hardest thing is when you go there, like at least we played a whole tournament there because you're sitting there as a D and you're like, I can't even gap up to the blue line because they're already coming back down my throats. Like it's just a weird thing to get adjusted to and I think it'll be the same thing in the lawn.

Like that neutral zone does look a little bit smaller. I don't think it's like substantially different. You can see a little bit of a little bit of shrunkness to it. And I think that that's something that's going to change games and just change the way that you're kind of able to hold lines and make difficult reads and be more aggressive. I don't know. I kind of like the Denmark set up where a face, the face off comes out of the zone and everybody just takes two strides through left. It was crazy though, because you're in the ozone and you're like, at the blue line you're like wow i got so much time in space and then you look and you're like

where is the net like i can't see the net from all the way oh it's so funny that's funny uh last one for me erin um this is on my mind because i was watching the golden globes last night and the boys were on it has uh heated rivalry permeated into the pwha hl locker rooms uh being the sensation that is north america absolutely i think like uh we were like episode by episode talking about it and then we'd have to throw out spoilers um we were actually able to have uh the artist the author of the books come in and rena or lineup when we're in halifax which was so incredible like i oh yeah yeah and i just like i don't read books and i think it was on our road trip when we went halifax so it was would have been after our halifax game that went vancouver seattle i read both heated

robbery like heated robbery and then uh the long game um in less than probably 72 hours and i don't read wow wow ambrose what what's been your reaction to the what's been your your reaction to the reaction not only the media surrounding the show but also kind of like the implications for hockey culture aspect that people are talking about i actually sent a text to dan powers empty netters guys um and i said to dan i said this doesn't this shouldn't need to be said but I said thank you, Dan, for giving this a platform, for giving my community a platform that in quote-unquote his world, the hockey world, we don't often get that platform.

And it was kind of an emotional text, but at the same time he just responded, and he was like, well, why wouldn't I love you? I love who you are. And not to mention this is just a phenomenal show. It doesn't matter. Like Jeff always says best game man, woman, animal food. It's the same thing with this.

Oh, sorry, vegetable. Sorry. Get it. Get my cliches right, Ambrose. I'm sorry. But I just, I think it's so important that the conversation still like continues to happen and wish like for you to be talking about it. Like I appreciate that.

Like it's not like you're somebody that is extremely engaged and involved in the LGBT plus community all the time. but for somebody with a platform within the NHL space to be talking about heat of rivalry, it's super important. So thank you. I appreciate that. And I think part of the fun for me in watching the show, not only like you said is a fantastic show, but it's also fun to kind of see the hockey media aspects of it. Like a big discussion for myself and a lot of my colleagues is like how would we have handled

the Scott Hunter moment after they win the cup, right? Like, you know, joking ground about like Pierre LeBron asking 28 general managers, their thoughts on the kiss. You know, it's just like, how would the media have handled that moment? And it's my job was on the floor. Right. Yeah, yeah. Like part of my, part of the fun for me is also kind of like putting myself in these

situations and wondering what it would be, what would be the real world implications of some of the things that are happening in this show. But I appreciate that. I, uh, I love it. And I'm so happy that it's, it's become the breakout hit that it's become. It's pretty cool. I will say, uh, there have been some comments by us in the dressing room when like, Shane does his look back at

Elia when they're playing against each other and he like connects eyes and we're like, really? Like that does not. You can't be doing that. Focus. Enemy's on my eyes hollander. Focus. Right.

Right. Exactly. Let me close on this. I got a, I got a DM about this from someone saying, can you ask Aaron Ambrose about the Washington game on Sunday? So P. W.HL. Takeover tour continues.

It is New York facing off against the Montreal, Victoria, your squad. A thought on. going to what like listen I think we're all doing the stick the thermometer in the different markets and and see where this league is going next. You and I have talked plenty about this on the air about some of the markets you've got like last year with Seattle and Vancouver and those were those were layups. Denver, Edmonton, Washington this weekend, Halifax, Quebec City popped a big number. All the number has been big. What do you expect in Washington on Sunday?

Well, first of all, we're going to have to get me back on with the two of you to be able to talk more about this stuff and might have to send some texts and make sure you guys are keeping an eye on what could be happening with expansion moving forward. But I'm super excited for Washington. I've got my cousins, my aunts, uncles are coming. They've got 18 tickets. So I know that myself, my teammate scams are going to have a lot of people there. and I've never actually played a hockey game in Washington. Really? Yeah, we've had the PWHPA, but I wasn't there for that one.

But even for the PWHPA, it was a great turnout. And I know that the Caps organization did a great job of hosting us then. So I'm beyond excited. We fly out on Friday, so we get there early. We've got an open practice on Saturday. I love to takeover to our games. It's a lot of fun to be able to play in and something that I'm just really looking forward to

in Washington and kind of getting to see their organization and how they do some things. So you mentioned scams. So that's Haley Skamura who Greg, you'll like this one, whose father played parts of three seasons with the Washington Capitals and I believe

was the first player ever drafted from Buffalo or maybe the first player from Buffalo to play in the N8. Oh yeah no, she comes by this like historically scams does. And you say this on a day where there announcing the draft for Buffalo. It's a full

circle moment. I know a full circle moment. Look at us. I'm such a professional. Well, on that we'll let you go and continue with your day. You have another one, Greg? I was going to say something. I was just going to say the same thing I said to Pete DeBore last week when we had him on. I wish you all the luck in the world in Milan. Just not all of it when you play the U.S.

You know, that's all I'm going to say. All I want is to see that matchup again. I'll be a happy boy. Hopefully it turns out a right for the U.S. But I've come, I've come to understand in the Olympics that, uh, look, I, we mentioned Poo Lam before, man, she kills me. She just murders me. She's so damn good.

As a New York Jets, it's, I have, I have a relationship with Poo like I had watching Tom Brady as a New York Jets fan. Just like, just let just take your foot off our neck. Will you please? Like, you can just too good. Not any time soon, please. All right. All the best to you.

All the best to Henry. Where is Henry, by the way? So for example, we've done an interview and he hasn't barked. Henry over there? Yeah, he's tired. He played in the snow today. Oh, okay.

We'll let Henry sleep. All right, you'd be good. Aaron, congratulations again. And looking forward to takeover tour Sunday in Washington as you face off against New York. You'll be good. We'll talk soon. Thank you, guys.

Here she is the great Aaron Ambrose number 23. Right, shot the fence spin. There you go. Greg Wachenski. blocking shots. That one does. She does. Yeah, it's, it's great. I mean, like, we didn't even get into the whole USA, Canada and world aspect of the

Olympics and the idea that the rest of the world is progressively gotten a little bit better over the years. I remember, you know, I do remember, like, covering the Vancouver games and some of the stuff after that and just the idea of, like, the only way it's going to even be a respectable first period against some of these teams

around the world is if their goalie is lights out. But, um, Kim Martin. Yeah, Kim Martin did that. Kim Martin. Yep. Level of competition's gotten better and that's good. It's good a good tournament.

But I appreciate her putting it out in the world and hopefully some of the listeners take this and carry it with them. The women's tournament does start before the men's tournament, this idea that we've got to get it all right by a certain date. Well, you know what? That date is much earlier than people think it is. Bill the locker rooms, Pisano's. Make that happen. Okay. I think you're going to like this one here today.

All right, hungry for hockey history is a presentation of Uber Eats. Uber Eats is enabling fans to maximize their fandom all season long with exclusive game day deals on the app from game day eats to paper plates and napkins if you're hosting. To all the ingredients you need to make your favorite game day dip. Before, during, and after the game, Uber Eats is assisting every fan's hockey experience. Greg, all season long. What do you have today? And good afternoon, Zach. Yeah, today we've got January 12th, 1980.

and I know which has got to go here. So I'll get this one quick for him. Joe Phantom Malone scored five goals for the Montreal Canadiens in a 9-4 win over the Ottawa Senators. It was the second of two five-goal games Malone recorded that year a season in which he led the league with 44 goals in 20 games. Can you show the picture? I omitted from this.

Yeah, here you go. I took out the part where it said he's the first NHL 20 goal score. I was like, well, yeah. No shit. Obviously, who's the first season and became the first 20th. Now, first of all. Oh, my God. Look at that jersey.

Okay, I'm glad you mentioned that. That is the ultimate white whale jersey. There are none. And so that Hamilton team actually was the first strike ever. So that Hamilton team had, for my money, the coolest logo ever, maybe the best. I love turtleneck jerseys. Turnin-Like jerseys are just so emblematic of that air and there's so many of them

and Hamilton's just looked fantastic. So look at that jersey. It is gorgeous. There are none that are known to exist. There have been documentaries made about trying to find a Hamilton Tigers jersey. It is the ultimate white whale. And that was a team that went on strike

because the NHL. Stop me if you've heard stories like this from the old NHL before Greg Wyshinsky, but in the late 20s, the NHL changed the games per season from 24 to 31. And the Hamilton players said, well, if you're adding games, we deserve to get more pay to which the NHL said,

no, you're paid the same. Your contracts start in, was it, October and go to April. And that's what you're paid for. It doesn't matter the amount of games. And so the players went on strike. And so the team went to New York and became the Americans. There you go.

The whole thing dissolved. And the players scattered. A century later, we're talking about buying out no trade clauses. That Hamilton jersey looked like it should be from Quidditch in the Harry Potter world. That's a scary hockey. Look at that, though. And I'm not a big huge guy. I'm going to wear a hockey jersey.

I would wear that. I would wear that. I know you got a point. You good? Anything more you want to say about either Hamilton, New Jersey. Mendez, Ottawa, blogs. Love all the listeners and love all the watchers. And we'll chat soon, my friends.

Thanks for hanging with us today. It's going to be a different week here around the sheet. So I don't think Greg's going to be back until next Tuesday. More details coming up in a few moments here on the program. In the meantime, the sheet is powered by Fanduel. Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season. And Fandul is your home for all the action on the ice.

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please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge Zach. Okay, you have a choice. I have two. We could do both maybe. Do both. Do you want the one that would have pissed off wish first, or do you want the one that is R-rated? Pissed off wish first.

Bill to the R-rated. Okay. Pissed off wish first. R-rated? What are you doing with this feature? Just wait. Let the bad times roll. So we're going to go with Jesper Wollstad,

under 25 and a half, That's not because he gets lit up, Jeff. That's because the devils don't muster together enough shots for him to get that. Quinn Hughes, anytime goal in the Minnesota Wild to win by two or more minus one and a half of the Pus. Cores against the New Jersey Devils tonight. Just watch the presidential center back home melt. Yes. Because you brought up the hockey things that make sense where it's like this would not make sense where the

devils would win, which would actually make sense. The other option in this, because there's no funny middle ground, the other option is that the devils get womped, and the people of New Jersey are outside of Fitzgerald's office with pitchforks and all that stuff. That's the only other natural option that could be in this. And that is the scenario I'm betting on tonight. $5 wins you $72.1.14.

That is the first one. You want the second one now? I went back and forth and was like, I don't know, maybe not. Maybe I should come up with another one. Oh, geez. All right. So cover your eyes if you have sensitive eyes or sensitive ears.

Please, you will not be offended if you stop the stream now. You can haggle over bread, but you can't haggle over a hoe. Brennan Hagel, two plus goals. He was brought up twice. Artemey Panarin, the breadman, Sebastian Aho. To score tonight. $5 wins you, $675. Brandon Hagel, two plus goals,

Panarin goal, a-ho-gole. You can haggle over bread, but you can't haggle over a hoe. As my high school French teacher, the late Robert Bernier would always say to me, when I would say something stupid, which was often.

Jeff, tu rev en color, you dream in technicolor. You dream in technicolor. Tu rev en color. Ture en cul-lure. To rev en cul-cour. That's interesting. No, I don't like that.

I don't know. It's okay. I thought it was going to be even saltier, to be honest with you. I was like, oh, geez, he's really revving up for something here. By the way, how'd you have to enjoy yourself in Michigan on the weekend? I can't wait to see the stuff that you did. So I shot a bunch of interviews. I'm going to get to that in a second.

But you did like the walk through the arena. Mascots, fan section, ban. I walked into Yost and you got like a big plate of fries and, Oh, yeah, Poutin, I think. And like, it was like a loaded barbecue nacho thing. Oh, is that what it was? It was like a nacho, it was like a Poutine Nacho thing, though. So yeah, you're on something.

Okay. So when, I'm dying to see that one. When is that one dropping? When is that feature dropping? Working out the scheduling over the course of this week, first thing to get out would be the interview that's coming tomorrow. I'll let you do that. But that's coming out tomorrow.

And then after that, we've got four more. interviews left that video will come out at some point so we're working on scheduling now getting stuff finished is priority number one for me at this moment in time but okay uh yeah we've got some cool things that are coming up over the next like week or two i think it is yeah it's uh it's gonna be cool and what what zach is um it is mentioning is uh so tomorrow there's a different kind of show so we put together uh a number of interviews so sunday morning we sat down with brand Brandon Nerato, head coach of Michigan, top team in the country. Although, man, that Jack ofankovic injury, that doesn't look good.

But we shall see. So talk to Brandon Nerato, head coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines, top team in the country. Also sat down, who do we sit with? T.J. Hughes, when you talk about unrestricted college free agents, he's going to be top of a lot of teams list. I think there's only already like 10 to 12 teams that are looking to sign him. Also, Malcolm Spence, who is one of, as you sort of phrased it, one of the OGs or the early adopters, one of the first players to go from the CHL to go and play college hockey, played with the Irioters, and he talked about playing with Matthew Schaefer as part of the interview.

Will Horkoff, we talked to as well about being drafted in the first round by the Pittsburgh Penguins, also about everything that went on with the Team USA at the World Junior Hockey Championships. and, you know, this is, like, University of Michigan is an historic program. Seven national championships, I think Michigan has won. And one of the interviews that we were really looking forward to doing, we'll air tomorrow, and there's a number of these that are going to drop over the next little while, is with Michael Hage. So Michael Hage, as we all know, is the first round draft pick of the Montreal Canadian.

Michael Hage really had in some ways a coming out party for everyone who's just a casual hockey fan. And there's nothing wrong with being that. But for casual hockey fans that watch the World Junior Hockey Championships in Minnesota, now know exactly who Michael Hage is and how good he is. So sat down with Hage for about 20 minutes in the Michigan room yesterday. And that's going to be tomorrow's show. So I'm out of town tomorrow. I'm back for the Wednesday show.

just that quick trip for me. But tomorrow we'll play this interview with Michael Hage, really thoughtful guy, incredible hockey player. I know they're just like drooling at the thought of, you know, maybe at the end of this season even, when his college season is over, maybe showing up in Montreal to turn pro. He's like right there.

So we look forward to that tomorrow. That's going to be the balance. Oh, and the other thing, the other thing, in the other thing, in the interview is he talks about all of HAB's Twitter and HAB's social media and how aware is he of the entire conversation around him on HAB's social media and who tracks it for him. It's a pretty interesting answer. I think you'll like it. Anyway, Michael Hage, that's our show tomorrow and then the regular program comes back on

Wednesday with Brian Burke. He'll return. He's here each and every Wednesday on the program. Thanks to Aaron Ambrose for stopping by. Don't forget, takeover to our continues Sunday, the 18th in D.C. Sirens facing off against the victoire. Looking forward to that. Thank you, Aaron, for stopping by. Thanks, as always, to Greg Wischinsky, who stops by twice a week.

Normally Tuesdays and Thursdays, but schedules, including mine tomorrow. I'm not around. And thanks to you for watching. Thanks to you for listening. Thanks to you for interacting in the chat as well. thanks to Zach Phillips. Look for his feature on the game day experience at Yost Arena, where your boy got like one of his biggest thrills,

getting a chance to sit down and geek out for an entire intermission, talking to Red Barents. And yes, I was as much of a hockey geek at that moment. I was like 12 years old again. I'm talking to Red Bairns. It's so cool as you always suspected I am. Thanks so much for joining me. The show returns tomorrow with the interview with Michael Hage

of the University of Michigan Wolverines and perhaps soon to be Montreal. Canadian. Enjoy the rest of your day. Enjoy the devils in the wild. Can't they give any storylines there? We'll talk to you soon.