The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Eichel Extension, Roslovic to EDM, & Early Takeaways ft. Irfaan Gaffar & Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski are back on The Sheet breaking down the first few days of the NHL regular season — early surprises, standout performances, and which teams are already showing signs of greatness or trouble. Wysh debuts his brand-new NHL game show, putting the chat to the test in a hilarious new segment. Later, the guys are joined by NHL insider Irfaan Gaffar to dissect Jack Eichel’s monster extension with the Vegas Golden Knights, Jack Roslovic joining the Edmonton Oilers, and what to expect from the Vancouver Canucks’ season opener. Jeff and producer Zack wrap things up with the Stat of the Day and a full preview of tonight’s NHL betting slate#NHL #TheSheet #JeffMarek #GregWyshynski #JackEichel #VegasGoldenKnights #EdmontonOilers #VancouverCanucks #IrfaanGaffar #Hockey #FanDuel #NHLHighlights #SportsTalk #nhlnews Shout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Simply Spiked: https://www.simplyspiked.ca/en-CA👍🏼Shark Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-4-in-1-portable-glass-air-fryer-cooking-system/FN101CGY.html?utm_source=Better+Collective&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=H2+Air+Fryer&utm_content=EN👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/ca👍🏼Prime Video: https://www.primevideo.com/salp/nhl/ref=dvm_ass_acm_xx_mf_s_imp_9e9590d5Na2ce11f09d4bf71dc0ec8a1Reach 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.

Hey friends, it's Nikaela from the podcast Side Hustle Pro. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids entertained without screens. And the Yoto Mini has been a total lifesaver. My kids started using it right away and haven't stopped since. Hours of stories, music, podcasts, and more. And no screens or ads. Yoto is a screen-free audio player where kids just pop in a card and listen. With hundreds of options for ages 0 to 12, it's the perfect gift they'll go back to again

and again. Greg Wosinski, as we know, and welcome to the program, by the latest sheet for this Thursday, October the 9th, glad to have you aboard today. Greg Wyshinsky, as we know, is a Devils fan, is a Jets fan, it is a Mets fan. So is he now? Now, a Blue Jays fan. I, uh, the, Vladie Guerrero is saying,

the Yankees most is now my new ringtone. That was funny. I'm so proud of the Blue Jays. I, I tweeted a Canadian flag flapping in a right blue sky last night. The last time, that'll, you'll ever see me do that. You'll do that in 2026, Italy. Look, as, as all the Rangers fans know, I, you know, I grew up hating the Rangers.

and I'm very impartial now as a journalist, so I would never state any animosity towards any of the NHL teams in the league for they're all my children. But I hate the Yankees. My best friends are the Yankees fan. I've had to endure the shit for my entire life. Do you know, Merrick,

they threw out a stat last night in the game that I couldn't believe, but it's the truth. The Yankees have won. I think it's 22.5% of all of the World Series ever played. Like, that's how successful this team is. Yeah. And they did not always play in a league with just five other teams. Like, they played it.

So it's not the habs. So it's not the habs. Okay. What you're saying. For a very long time. So they're insanely successful. And I've always had to hear this nonsense about A, how good they are. And then B, their fans whine when they go into this drought, which for them is, I think it's like 15 years, which for them is, it might as well be a hundred years.

Yeah. And so it brings me so much. Do you understand how much joy I felt last night when I'm sucking down my Thai food after a long day of writing and whatever? And I'm watching this Blue Jays game and they're beating the Yankees and they're increasing the lead. And then eventually Fox, who's covering the game, just gives into showing me a super cut of miserable morons and their Yankee gear with their head in their hands and they're sad and they're crying and they're looking around and being like, When do I leave for the subway and give up on this notion that the team can come back? Oh, God, it was beautiful. It was so beautiful.

I couldn't be happier with the Jays. Go, Jays, go, I say. So you know what makes that delicious is there are so many people that hate the Yankees. That is a big part of being an MLB fan is you're a fan of the Cubs, the cards, Dodgers, socks, Mets, Jays. and everybody can unite in hating on the Yankees. I think you and I are on the same page about this. The NHL needs the Yankees. The NHL needs that team that has everything at their disposal

and a massive fan base, an international brand, and it's a team that everybody can all unite in hating. And the key to it all is they have to have a history of success. I was checking the boxes. I was checking the boxes along for our friends in Florida. And then you got to massive fan base and international brand. I'm like, that's what you need. But that's what you need, though.

It's like you can, you can, there's a lot of teams you can hate on. And your immediate rival is one of them. But like one that's like universally despised. Listen, I thought a lot about, and we're going to talk more about the Conne of McDavid contract today, whether you like it or not. I know it's been chewed up and spat out. just about everywhere on Hockey Talk Radio and podcasts, et cetera. But there's one element of the Connemad David contract that we haven't talked about yet.

And I do want to get there on the program today. Irfan is joining us towards the bottom of the hour. So here's what's coming up today, Greg Wyshinsky and gentle listeners slash viewers. The Blueprints is powered by Fanduel. Make every moment more with North America's number one sports book, Fanduel. And coming up on the program today, he's already here. He's here Tuesdays and Thursday. he is Greg Wyshki. Also coming up on the program today, Earf Fang Gaffar, from Daily Faceoff, DFO Rundown, Insiders Edition with Dave Pan Yoder from the fourth period. That made its debut yesterday. We'll talk to Earth about that show, some insider news and also the Vancouver Connect, since he's based there, after all. We'll talk plenty about the Eichl deal. Jack Roslovick signs a contract with the Edmonton Oilers as the Americanization of the Edmonton Oilers.

continues. We'll get into that. We'll talk about the 14 games around the go in the NHL this evening. And Greg Wischinski has promised a game show. I have one. You have one. I know. I'm, you know, I've come around on it. So I'm, I'm here for the game show. If we can, in some way, I would like to try to get the chat, everybody in the chat involved in it too. But nonetheless, we have a game show coming up later on today. You'll be part of the game show. I promise you. It's a pretty simple one. Get people in the chat involved. again, get us with that like as well if you're watching on YouTube. When's the last time we had a truly hated team that fits your criteria?

Was it the Penguins? No, like honestly, it was probably the Montreal Canadiens. But we're talking like we're going, but hang, I shouldn't say that. The Philadelphia Flyers. And a lot of that was stylistic in the 70s. They were hated. I don't think the Oilers were hated. They were hated.

I'm at the time of the 80s Oilers. They were hated by, you know, everybody in the Spite, Calgary. Like, Calgary and Vancouver and L.A., like, Winnipeg. Like, they're all hated by that division. But, like, like, real animosity, though, the Montreal Canadiens. Like, and they were the most successful organization. I always make the tongue-in-cheek joke that, you know, going back to 1917, A, there is no such thing as the original six.

there's an original one, and that's the Montreal Canadiens. Every other team is an expansion team. But it's true. That was probably the closest thing that we've seen to everybody hates the Yankees in the NHL. It was Montreal. I think we all retroactively hate Chicago now because of what happened. But at the time, I don't think that they were necessarily as hated as Montreal was or Philly was. No, here come the Hawks.

Remember 2010, here come the Hawks. And it was all about, oh, looking back at 1961 and everybody learned who Ed Litsenberger was. Oh, he was the captain. And then we didn't hate Boston because, I mean, Boston became an anti-hero. They became like Magneto when they played Vancouver. And we all loved them, the heel beating up the bigger heel. I don't know. I would make the argument.

And you could maybe say that international brand wise, the penguins don't necessarily have the same draws. Montreal and you'd be right they're not an original six team but I would make the argument that at the height of the Crosby backlash penguins that they might have been the closest thing we've had to fitting your criteria of a New York Yankees big bad for hockey because they weren't liked it changed a bit later when people recognized the greatness of Sid and yeah we can all stop worrying about the penguins and embrace the fact that this guy's a generational talent and and is what we should all inspire to be, but there was a time when people were like, the penguins?

I don't know. That'd be the only I can think of the last like 20 or 30 years. No, they're not like, well, they're not like the Yankees because part of the the Yankees-Montreal like comparison, I think, is also a Borg collective acquisition of talent.

And the penguins were never like that. And maybe you can't be like that under the cap. I mean, that's the last thing we had that was like that was probably the Red Wings back in the early 2000s when all of a sudden like they had an all-star team in around like 2002. Because that's part of it too. It's like Montreal, when they were great, was also a team that was able to kind

of like attract all this talent, everything, all this talent. And they, they, they, after Jean Belavaux said no to them and he was going to stay playing with the Quebec aces,

the Montreal Canadians bought the league that Beliveau played in. So they could have Jean Beliveau on the team on the team. He was like, I'm good here playing with the aces. I'm making enough money. So they, bought the league. That's what you do when you're a heel team.

When you're a heel team, that's what you do. That's why I say the Montreal Canians. I wish the Panthers have more market penetration because like they're that team. They're the team that acquires other players and retains other players and has the tax benefits. They play like a bunch of little heels. Yeah. It's great.

It's literal rats on the ice. Like all of that is there for them to be the big dad of the NHL. But I think you're right that you can't reach Yankee status if you're, well, if you're a team. that is a scant 15 years away from handing out free tickets to anyone with a valid driver's license in the state. And a position on the power play if you want it. Here is some tickets. And do you want to play second unit PP?

I'm saying. I made a lot of strides down there. Jack Eichael. Yeah. And the eight year contract and the 13.5. I was on this morning with Colby Cohen and Carter Hutton on Morning Cup of hockey. And we're talking about Eichael. And it was something that you said.

Last week, I think it was last week you said that they're really stuck with me, Greg. And that was how much, and I don't think, you know, I don't think Kelly McCrimman went to Jack and said, how's your neck feeling, Jack? Let's talk contract. But I think when you do something like that for players or you do something significant four players families, like what's the one thing that we're hearing about, you know, Connor McDavid and the Edmonton others, how well Darrell Cates treats McDavid's family. Yeah. Like that's the one thing that we never would never concern ourselves with. When it comes to Jack Hekel, he can look at this deal and say, here's another guy coming in under market value,

even as we're looking at salaries now under the umbrella of a 104 to 107 million dollars salary cap. Like Jack Heichael is well underpaid. I really do wonder how much, one, he's happy there, two, they're winning. And three, when all he heard from the Buffalo Sabres was, no, we want to fuse your spine. Vegas said You're in charge of your body You have bodily autonomy You can choose to have the surgery that you want

So you can play with your kids And tie your shoes deep into your 80s We will allow you to have That goes places That's what we never talk about it What organizations do for the players off the eyes And I do think The more that I thought about what you say

Because I think I just shrugged it off right away As I normally do when you talk But that one stuck with me That one stuck with me which I think that there's something there. Like, there's a loyalty because of what they did for him, the person, not just him the player. I really believe that. I definitely think so.

And reading some of the comments from Pat Brassan as agent in the last 24 hours, it was referenced there too, the fact that Vegas allowed him to have the surgery. I definitely think that played into the loyalty that he has to the organization. But, you know, I've had a lot of conversations, Merrick, with people in the last few days, and especially like, after the McDavid contract about the state income tax thing and how, you know, does the McDavid contract, we contextualize that and all this other stuff. Then the Eichol thing happens and then it becomes a conversation again. And, you know, while that has, will always be a debate about the competitive advantages these teams have, I always come back to the fact that the other competitive advantage is there

are beaches in Florida and that you can have a lovely weather most of the year in Nevada, but also have a little chill in the air at times. But when it's not chilly, guess what? Your body feels great in the dry heat. It feels like you're in a dry sauna for most of the day. So like he definitely likes being there and living there and playing for that organization and the organization did a solid. So all of that leads up to the contract that he took.

But like you said off the top, man, think of the bag the Rangers would have thrown out that guy. I mean, think of the bag they would have thrown at that guy if he reached free agency next summer. he definitely left money on the table in order for them to be a successful team with him there. So when the, we've talked a lot about the lockout of 20405,

how can you not when the salary cap is going up and Connor McDavid takes a deep discount the likes of what we just saw? I can recall having conversations with people in small market teams saying with a salary cap where all the money is even and no one can spend past their upper limit.

And by the way, you mentioned the Red Wings earlier. Do you remember what their salary cap ceiling was? Do you remember how much they were paying when the lockout started in 2004? 92. It was like 92, right? I know. And they had to get it down to 39.

I think it was crazy, man. Okay, but, okay, so the point that I was trying to make to people then was if all the money is the same, then other things start to mean more, right? It's not a matter of like, we're going to go sign here. It's not perfect for us, but they're paying me $5 million more

than the other place. If you can't do that anymore. And all the money is essentially the same. And it's just a matter of like how we're going to divide it up. Other things start to mean a lot more. That's where the state tax issue happens. That's where the climate happens. That's where raising, starting families and raising kids and all these other things all of a sudden start to matter. And we're still seeing it play itself out. And we're seeing it play itself out with Jack Eichael. And at the end of the day, what matters most, and Vegas is kind of an anomaly here because they were an expansion team. that started with a collection of players.

They plucked from other places. And then gradually they, they, you know, attracted more and made some bold decisions and big trades and all that stuff. But like at the end of the day, you know, a lot of these guys are sticking around these teams because they're good.

Like, why wouldn't you want to play with the lightning if Kuthoroff and Hedman are there? Why wouldn't you want to play with Florida if, if their spine is, you know, Barkoff and Lundell and Eckblood? Why wouldn't you want to, you know,

Miko Ranton is not playing in Dallas if they're hot garbage. like these teams are good you're right and that's part of it too you're right and and they're not by the way the other part of the about the state tax issue is that they're not always going to be good head been's going to retire cook your off is going to get old

you know who knows what the panthers are you know in five or you know six years we're already seeing it with nashville Seattle's never been worth a damn than off state at state income tax like not all these teams are going to be good and then and then you know what are those conversations that we're having looked what do they look like in 10 years

when all of a sudden you know Chicago's trending up and and Detroit's back in the Zike guys because they have like all the Hughes brothers. I mean, it's just a very centralized discussion right now about a situation that we're currently living in. There's a sidebar to all of this that nobody is talking about that I'm happy that you and I can chat about here in one second. I want to take a quick little detour right now for two seconds and read something. I just got a text from a friend of ours. And I don't want to say who this is because I don't want to embarrass Shana Goldman. So I'm not going to say this is from.

The intro of your show was a personal attack from you, too. I'm mourning. I can't listen to this stuff, FFS. Sorry, Shana. No, I'm not. It's not, it's not Shane. I just don't want to embarrass Shane. Her name does rhyme with Shana Goldman, though.

I whoever you are I feel really bad about this but at the same time I don't I got a lot of Yankees fans in my life I've got you know relatives my best friend yeah so my best friends are Yankee fans my best friend my best friend texted me the other night and he said uh during uh game three and he said I have tickets for game four and I said to him at the time I hope you enjoy your refund and then like Aaron judge hit a home run I felt like schmuck after that so like I'm a Mets fan for God's thanks You think I don't take it on the chin Every single year of my life

And Jets too Let's not forget about that And New York Jets Like that about that the better Okay Here's one aspect of the McDavid situation And to some extent Maybe the Kyle Connor

And to some extent maybe the Jack Eichel And we'll see about the Adrian Kempay And the Martin Natchez And et cetera et cetera Etra The fact that Connor McDavid took, I don't know, 60% less than his true value is, considering his position in the game as the greatest player in the world.

We know what that means for Connor McDavid. We know what that means for his teammates. We know what it means for the organization. We know what it means for the fans. But what does this say about the CBA? Do you tell? The document that has been put to, by the NHL and the Players Association has got us to a spot where the best player in the world

feels the only way that he can will his team to win is to make a significant sacrifice, that there's nothing else that can happen under this CBA. Now, I understand that the motivations for teams and players are different. The motivation for players are the Stanley Cup. It's the Stanley Cup. We all know that. And teams will say it's a Stanley Cup as well, but the real motivation for NHL teams, like any other team, is the value of their franchise. What do you think this says about the CBA,

where the economic system that has been created between the NHL and the Players Association has led to Connor McDavid, not the team, Connor McDavid, the biggest star in the NHF, having to make this massive sacrifice if he's going to win the Stanley Cup. So what I find interesting is here's where I thought you were going with this, and maybe this is where you are going with it, which is that it would be advantageous to the NHLPA and its tippy top elite players,

and advantageous to the teams as well in order to retain these tippy top elite players to have some level of salary cap exemption for your superstars. Is that where you're going? Yes, whether it's luxury tax, superstar exemption, all these types of things, because the only thing that can be done here is by the player. What did we talk about earlier this week? We talked about it's not the player's job to manage the cap. But you know what the player is doing here?

Pay for the mistakes of the matchers past. Yeah. The player is managing the cap for what Ken Holland did, what Pete Shirelli, like, the player is managing the cap here for the Edmonton Oilers. We know what it means is a reflection of the league, the player, the team, the fans, all that. How does this reflect on the CBA? I think poorly. I mean, if you're taking it from an NHLPA perspective and you're like trying to make life as easy as possible for the people, people in the union, then forcing them into situations like this where they feel obligated

to take less to support the rest of the roster. I mean, listen, the socialist. He's playing general manager. He's playing general manager. He's great. It's redistribution of wealth within the team. But, but, but for all, you don't, the Marxist sheet here. Yeah, exactly.

But mostly, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you don't want to put your, your, your, your, your, your superstars in that type of situation. And, you know, we've already seen a few guys do it with one glaring exception. And if I may, Minnesota. You want to take us there? Listen. I want to give a shout out to my friend Pierre LeBron, who have had many bottles of wine with, I think, during my time on the road in the last 15, 20 years, whatever it's been.

I'm very jealous of this angle that he had in the athletic today. I'm going to tell him that later on in a DM, but if he's out there in the world, let someone know that I'm very jealous of this. He spoke with Bill Guerin, the GM of the Minnesota Wilde for the athletic after the Eichael contract. So now we have seen Connor McDavid take a haircut for the benefit of his team being a contender. Kyle Connor take a haircut in theory in order to stay in Winnipeg and keep that team together. Jack Eichel take a haircut in order for the Vegas Golden Knights to continue to be a Stanley Cup contender during his time in Vegas.

And then before that, we saw Kril Kaprisov get offered the biggest contract in the history of the National Hockey League, reject that contract, and then get an even bigger contract after it. $17 million per season starting next year. And here is what Bill Guerin had to tell Pierre LeBron. look everyone's got a price to where they want to play in their market and krill is worth that to us he's that important to us did he at all uh regret this contract after seeing ikel sign we couldn't take the chance of letting him go that's great for those other teams but it's still

great for us that we have him for nine years and yeah jack is at 13 five and that's great But Krill is that important to us. If we let him go or even flirt with it, who knows? The worst case scenario is definitely that he leaves. It's worse than paying him $17 million. Now, where he's right is that it's not his money. It's Craig Leopold's money. If your owner decides he wants to sign the check,

then as a general manager, it's your duty to pass the check across the mahogany table to the player and his agent and say, here you are. Let's, we'll congrats on sticking together for nine years total. being said, come on, Billy, it's a little embarrassing, isn't it? He's not going to say it, though. There's no way. There's no way. But he has to be, right? He has to be embarrassed that they had to not compensate, but overcompensate his star player, who by the way, has won Jack and Squat in this league for his team. Kyle Connor, if memory serves, has gone on longer playoff runs than Crowe Caprisoff has, and certainly has. And certainly has,

hasn't, you know, been anywhere near the Stanley Cup final like Jack Eichael and Connor McDavid have. And yet he's paying him the largest sum of money, both in total contract worth and average annual value in the history of the National Hockey League, while other guys are taking less than market value to stay for just as long. That's got to suck for Gary. it's Nikaela from the podcast Side Hustle Pro. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids entertained without screens. And the Yoto Mini has been a total lifesaver.

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and use the code the sheet at checkout. It never goes well when the general manager embarrasses the owner, ever. Like there have been, I remember one situation where a general manager had a certain player in place, deal was done, it just needed owner, ownership approval, and instead of staying quiet about it, he said, I've done everything I can. It's up to the guy, big guy upstairs to land this plane or something like that.

Jesus? Trust me, owners don't like hearing that. But this situation is different. But this one's different because Craig Leopold said no one's going to offer him more than we are. Like everything lined up here for Carol Capriza off and Paul Theophanis, the agent, perfectly. You got the owner saying, we're giving. having him more than anybody else. Remember when was it,

was it Mario Lemieux that had the contract that would, if anyone got a contract bigger than his, automatically he got a raise. In his contract, he had to be the highest paid player in the league. So Mario would skate every day, hoping that someone got a bigger contract because then he got a raise.

It never works well when you embarrass your owner. I know what you mean. Bill has to say that. You have to say, again, like, ask, ask any general manager, would you lie to protect your team? If they say no, that's a lie. Let me, let me take Billy, let me take Wilde's advocate for a second here. Let me, in Billy's defense, like, all politics are local. And so when McDavid signs, he signs knowing how much Leon makes and how much Hyman makes and how much Bouchard makes.

and where his salary needs to fit within the context of what's already there and what else they need. In Eichol's case, it's the same sort of thing. They've got Marner on the books. They've got Hurtle on the books. They've got Theodore on the books. They've got all these guys on the books. And he knows what he needs to make because those guys make that money. And he knows how much he has to make to keep the team competitive.

In the Wild's defense, it is basically caprice off and then fill in the rest. Like, they don't know ultimately how much. they're going to have to pay Booiam or what Rossi will make on his next contract. They've got boldy for, I think, an extension, but eventually he'll need a new deal. It is now going to be easier for them to give Caprisoff this deal and color around him than it is for these other teams to give these guys large deals and then figure out how they're going to work the rest of the roster. So we're all to defend Billy on this notion that he shouldn't be completely pissed off

at Deen Phanos and Capris off for making the wild look like a bunch of dummies for giving him that money when everybody else has taken a discount that are better than Caprice's offices of cases, is that their salary structure and their cap situation is markedly different than that of Vegas or the Oilers. You know what's interesting right now? Right now with the big bumps coming up for the salary cap, and we're expecting 107 next year. Don't believe the 104 that you read.

I'm going to ask Erf about this when he joins us here in a couple of seconds. Right now, does it not seem to you that teams are. less interested in compensation and more interested in just gathering players and just making sure they well there's a couple of different things like when you're in a flat cap every nickel and dime means something right we can't how many times did you hear over the last five or six years money in money out money in money out cash has got to work all that right now with the cap going up 107 then 113 who knows how much more north it's going to be what's the number with with everybody flush with cap space

What's the one thing you worry about? Losing your players, losing your talent, losing your product. Right now it seems as if, and we'll see how this plays itself out with Martin Natchez and Adrian Kempay, et cetera, go all the way down the list, how much teams, quote, unquote, overpay. But when I say overpay, I always catch myself and say, hold on, it's not an overpay in the new system with the new salary cap ceiling. It's not at all. Teams right now very much feel like all they're interested in is making sure. they have their players

and then they're going to get around then they're going to get around like Vegas used to always do this like whatever you take your summer to solve your salary cap but during the year pick up players and we'll sort out the cap nonsense we'll clean it all up in the summer

and it seems like a lot of other teams this is the feeling I get early teams are interested right now in doing kind of what Vegas did we're picking up and cementing players right now we're going to worry about the cap stuff we have room we're going to worry about the cap stuff in the off-season.

We're just collecting players. This was well before the new CBA, but the name that keeps coming up in my conversations around when I was at, like, devil's camp last week, is To Foley. And that's a guy they didn't want to pay. Yep. And, you know, if you're talking about securing your high-end talent,

under this cap and using your theory, that's a guy they would pay. Because now they've been trying to figure out where they can get a Tafoli to play. with Jack Hughes since he left. De Danoff being the latest addition to the ever-changing wingerers for Jack Hughes. So that's a really good point. Like I think if they, if it was now and they knew where the cap was headed, it very much

would have been, let's just give this guy his money. He could score 30 goals next to Jack Hughes and we'll figure out what the five of six looks like. But at the time, they were like, we can't, God forbid, we commit the years and money to this man. And I think maybe that was a mistake. Picking up assets. Okay, before we get to Earth, the show is brought to you by

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drinking age. Please celebrate responsibly. With that, we turn the recreation over to the host of our newest property here at Daily Face Off. He is Irf Van Gaffar. No Stranger to this channel. Host of DFO Rundown Insider Edition with Dave Panyoda of the fourth period. Earf, how are you today, Paul? Great launch yesterday.

How did it feel to be on with our man, Dave? Thank you very much. It was great. Honestly, Dave and I have known each other for over a decade. Had a lot of fun. Covered a lot of events in and around the National Hockey League and us being able to do this once a week, you know, provide. insight information have some fun different guests on i think it'll be something that people do

like but let me say this before you two the absolute oh gs of the podcast world in hockey sports broadcasting so it is a pleasure to be with you too oh please uh this fine Thursday technically hang on i always point out technically not the first we're the second puck podcast was the first puck podcast i got to give it up they were the first i know gregg's rolling his eyes i know i know i know we They did daily for years and years and years. Someone probably made the first, you know, plane and then, you know, someone made a better plane. The pleasure is obviously all Merricks to be on with us. But I do appreciate you saying such wonderful things about my long-term podcasting husband and me.

It's very sweet. We already had Shannon Goldman. We already had Shannon Goldman give us our problem. Well, I actually had Shannon Goldman insult us earlier. I'm here to give you your flowers. She was, though, she was an OG podcast list or two.

So, and now she's a big superstar with the big brain smarter than all three of us. Where are you on the Jays right now? Are you on the bandwagon like me? Oh, no.

Not really. And I haven't been a, I haven't been a Jays guy forever. Look, I grew up in the Yankees were good. That was my team. Oh, damn. Oh.

And I'm not one of the people that live in Canada and are like, oh, yeah, you have to love to Canada because they're, you have to love to Jays because they're in Canada. I'm sorry.

Can't do it. You don't, you don't, you don't do it. I don't mind to the notion of Canada's team. We talked to, we talked to Sid about that. No, hang on, hang on. No, wait, wait, wait, the Jays are America's team now. They just beat the Yankees. That's how this works.

That's true. The Jays are America's team. We talked to Sid after the Penguins Rangers game the other night, and Johnny Lazarus actually asked him about his Jays fandom. And of course, like, Sid put over that they're Canada's team and you've got to root for Canada's team. But all I can think about is like, you know that kid at a Marquis Gris some poster in his room right like he's 100% doesn't give a shit about the jays his dad was

like poster of like andre dawson posters and gary carter like oh yeah it's a picture it's a picture of a young sidney crosby and andres galaraga somewhere right like there's got to be tell me about the time you brought tim rains over for drinks yeah no sit sit sit gave the answer that he had to give and now everyone's going to be like sid loves the jays our fates them you idiot well whatever it's fine uh hey listen we're um we're um we're trying to to figure, like, I was putting forward the idea earlier in the show, or I'm not sure if he caught it. That's, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've,

fall out from it and what it means for every party. Um, but to me, this is outside of all those conversations, which are all very much legitimate. To me, I, I wonder about what this says about the CBA, that here's this biggest superstar in the NHL and the only way he can find to help win a cup here with his team is to make a, monstrous sacrifice, whereas the team itself cannot do anything similar, if same. Do you have a thought on what this situation with Connor McDavid says about this economic system that is put together, and it's both sides, like it's the NHL and the Players Association

who have agreed to this economic model? I don't think it's a good look. I don't. Yeah, I don't think it's a good look either, but also Connor McDavid has to win. Like, and I think that when you're taking this contract, you know, Leon Drysidal can have the longest career that he has and everyone's going to know Leon Drysadle for being a hockey Hall of Famer future and excellent player. But if you talk about Leon Drysid and he doesn't win a Stanley Cup, that's okay. But if you're talking about Connor McDavid and he doesn't win a Stanley Cup, that's an entirely different conversation. He can't sit at the table with Sidney Crosby and Ethan McKinnon and Sam Reinhard at these big events.

He just can't. When there's a team Canada events at the Olympics, Connor McDavid is still a little bit on the outside. and he is an absolutely amazing hockey player, the best that this National Hockey League has probably ever seen for what he can do. And now he's taken to a point we're looking at it and said, I'm going to do things a little differently because I know I need to win

and I know what I need to do to help my team win. I don't think we are ever going to see a player of his caliber take as much of a discount as he did in order to facilitate trying to get his team not only to that next level, because they've already gotten there. It's actually finally reached them. mountain top. So he's done his part and saying, okay, I'm going to give you this $25 million

for the next couple of seasons after this year, but you got to help me out here. Like I have done my part. I have given you the ultimate sacrifice and what I'm trying to do here. And now this one's on you. The place that I'm going to turn this over to Greg at a second, just one point I was making this earlier. This is what happens. Like now we're seeing it right in front of us. Yeah. What we're seeing is an intersection. Okay. This is the intersection of what happens when a player whose goal is, Stanley Cup, meets a franchise or an economic system where the goal is franchise value. This is the exact moment where these two things have intersected because there's no outside

money that can be brought in here. There's nothing can be done within that document. This has been the document that's been put together. Everything the NHL does, everything the commissioner does is in service of franchise value. We just saw it with the sport of co-valuations and how much these teams are worth and how much expansion teams are going to go for it feels like this is this is like the real obvious moment where one side is interested in one thing and the other side is interested in another well 100 percent and look i think with what you just mentioned the edmonton oilers i looked

it up just before i join you guys they're up to 2.76 billion dollars in their evaluation like that is a lot of money for darrell kates and his hockey club and you know everything in and around you guys have obviously been to edmonton and then know what it's like in and around there it is a party it is a business and i think that that's the biggest thing once these teams start realizing they are businesses off the ice and what they can do i think that's what the edmonton oilers are doing that they're going to have to go but their biggest asset in connor mc david is now taking so much less money than he could possibly get yeah it's now up to it's now up to jeff jackson and stan boma to try and you know get over that hump and and i say this again

like how are you going to do that though what assets do you have in the pipeline that you can go and and get players who are you going to trade what do you need to do so they're going to have to get creative here in the next little while but macabre is the outlier i mean you guys i heard you guys talking about caprisov like that one is insanity it really is and i don't blame and i don't blame caprisov at all because if someone is willing to give me that much money i am going to take it every day of the week and the people are saying that you all you had to take less for a chance to went, no, no, you get your money. If you were really one of those guys that is going to get your money, you go and get it. And I know the Jack Eichael one that just came down the other day,

108 million, 13 and a half there was stock that it could have been 14 and around the bonus structure and that is nuts. He makes so much money in the first three, four years of his deal that really it's okay. And I think that that's what you're going to start seeing. So some more of these guys that are going to need contracts that are in that level, it's going to be interesting. But I guarantee you if the oilers don't win in the next couple of seasons next few years the next contract for connor macdavid will not be an edmonton discount 20% if you're connor just say it now my next deal is 20% thank you like what's what's quince deal going to look like it won't be an edmonton discount because he won't be in edmonton that's why exactly that's what i'll be in

the two things i'll say that like first of all you're soliloquy about him not winning reminded me that more than him beating Gretzky's record, I'm happy that Obechkin won a cup. Because even then if he beats Gretzky's record, the caveat is there, the criticism is there, he becomes Marcel Dion instead of becoming Wayne Gretzky as far as like the guy who did all this stuff but never won anything. The other thing I'll say is that to Merrick's point

about how the CBA's kind of screwed the players is like, if we're to take the framing of these team-friendly deals, at face value then you become either a greedy guy like caprice off or you become a guy who wants to win like ikel or mac david and that's a hell of a paradigm to have to put these guys into when in actuality you should just try to make as much money as you can as a professional and and you know like merrick said in many cases don't pay for the mistakes your team made in the past so it's it's even more of a burden on these guys and again like that we talked about the fallout with the macdavid contract we talked about how the general managers are going to point to him and say be like

connor well now it's be like connor be like the other connor be like jack ickel like there are more and more examples of this happening where it's going to be harder for a guy like kale mccar to be like pay me 17 million a season yeah and that that's another interesting one because kale mccar and quinn hughes are two guys that means so much to their teams kale might have to fall in that like one B category but Quinn like you mentioned with Connor McDavid um Jeff 20% like say it now like he he is the Vancouver Canucks at this point unless Elias Pedersen decides to come back and get his powers back then it's

Quinn Hughes is that guy so you know who isn't upset about feeling greedy though right now it's Kirill Caprizov and I think that that's one of the things that we're going to have to go and sit there and look at that different players different agents as well are going to have different ways that they're going to go and negotiate with teams. The starting point for Quinn is $15 million a season. I say that because Dougie Hamilton makes nine. Pallat

makes six. So that's $15 million the devils will have open by the time Quinn needs contracts. Well, and it's funny, I saw the graphic come up when Jack and Luke signed, I said Quinn is going to be both of those contracts

combined. It might get up to 16, 17 million. But the Vancouver Canucks. And, and, Earf, he's going to take his brother's power play time. Thanks, bro. It's going to happen if it does in fact happen. I'll tell you what, though. The Vancouver Canucks, from their point of view, are prepared to go to whatever that man wants.

And they are not going to pay any, there's going to be no shortage of expense paid to try and, you know, figure out what they need to do to get Quinn Hughes re-sign. I mean, they look at, just look at what they did this summer. You get Brock. done you get demco done you get connor garland done and those guys are all very very close friends and there's obviously you hire his coach as the coach yeah yeah but you know what's and you know what's going to but you know what's going to be interesting to me i said this yesterday is the recruitment pitch at the olympics from players to their guys on teams Canada teams USA

team suede and teams finland all of these teams that have guys on expiring deals or maybe a team's in a really bad position come the olympics and you look at the trade down on and say, well, why not? This isn't tampering. We're just having a conversation in the room. Why don't you talk to your agent when you go back to Pittsburgh or why don't you talk to your agent

when you go back to your certain city? And there's going to be a lot of that coming up over the next little while. Are you talking about Tage Thompson? Just say the name. Just say the name. Oh, I was talking about Tage Thompson. I was talking about, I said Pittsburgh for a reason.

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With hundreds of options for ages 0 to 12, it's the perfect gift they'll go back to again and again. So I put out my standings projections this week on ESPN. Everybody can check them out. I have Vancouver in the wild card. Am I crazy? They can be a playoff team this year?

Nope. Nope. No, you're not. Nope. I think most you look at most sports books, they have them at 90 and a half points exactly where they were last season. I think that last season, everything went wrong, and they still were able to do that.

So as Jim Rutherford has said so eloquently, if everything can go right, we're a playoff team. And that is the everything, the big circle, an asterisk about that is Elias Pederset. That is their biggest acquisition that they need to make. Like, if he can come back and be the guy that he's a 102-point guy and take his team into the fight more nights than not, this team will go and be successful.

There's a surrounding cast sets there. And Van der Kaine, motivated guy, expect 20 out of him. Guy like Jake DeBraske, who could quietly put up 25, 30 goals. Brock Besser, yeah, I know he only got 20 last season, but he's going to be a guy that probably is going to be expected to go 30 minimum. What happened to, speaking to Rutherford quotes, what happened to we're going to overpay for a second line center because it would be more expensive not to?

Where is the overpayment on the Canucks asset list that, they can go and find what I'm saying like that like that was the quote from mother for like it would be even more expensive not to get now I think so the interesting thing about the Vancouver connects to me is everybody you wanted to look good in the preseason looked really good yeah like Braden Coutes looked good right Victor Mancini look good like go right to Jonathan Lechromackie like everybody you wanted to look good looked good now is it legit is it a mirage is that fool's gold we don't know we're going to find out

but there was a lot of talk about a second line center I know they're not the only team but usually when Jim Motherford starts throwing it around especially as definitive as that one was I was just kind of surprised where it's like you know what

I'm just going to make sure that Philippe he'll look good in the preseason and he'll look really good but there was a lot of talk about a second line center that's the biggest thing is if Heidel can remain healthy and I know that Jim Rutherford said that that they wanted to go and look for someone that they're still looking to improve.

And then you come out and see what Adam Foote said, where he said that the team's comfortable with Philopheedals, their second line center. And Braden Coot's obviously doing so well and earning his spot on this hockey team at 18 years old. Let's not diminish anything that he did in the preseason here because he deserves to be there. Teddy Blugers hurt.

He's going to be out for probably another week, got picked up a knee injury, I believe it was in the preseason. So there's another guy and you hope that you can get something out of Atu-Ratoo, but that center ice is thin, right? Especially if Elias Pedersen is not that guy. And for the Vancouver Canucks going and being comfortable in that spot, I can't imagine that they are.

I can't see a situation where Jim Rutherford said that I really like our center ice depth right now. And Patrick Alvinia is saying the same thing. And then Adam Foote saying the same thing. Now, if they get off to a good start, we have seen this management group, not afraid of making moves. You know, they went out and got Nikita Zedorov that year. They were really good. And then they went and got Elias Lindholm.

Like, they aren't afraid to pull the trigger on big moves if they can. That all depends on what this team's able to do. I think that there are some getable games early in the season. But right around American Thanksgiving is usually where I look at it and say, what type of team are you? If you're hovering right around that playoff bar, can you be a team that's good enough to get over the hump around Christmas or are you going to be another team that's just fighting for your playoff lives?

Or as Greg would call it, Thanksgiving. Right, Greg? Thanksgiving, indeed. We got this weekend. Wow. Time flies. The last one for me, how do you handicap the Western Conference?

Are there teams that you think have a higher ceiling than have been predicted early on? Are there teams that you think have been overhyped that won't meet the moment in the West? It's going to be interesting. Look, I always look back and look at the Edmonton Oilers. And, you know, with all the talk about Connor McDavid and that team

is two straight trips to the Stanley Cup finals is it too much for the Edmonton Oilers? What can you do to get there for that third year in a row?

And then eventually win it. And I think that you look at that team and say, are you built that way? Is your goalie going to hold up? Is your DECOR going to hold up? Is your forward group going to give McDavid and Drysidal more?

I know Hyman's out and he's going to be rehabbing for quite some time at least another month, not ready until November, obviously. So he gets another month of break. But I look at the Edmonton Oilers and say,

do they have enough juice in the tank to get there for that third year in a row? And I think that for the Western Conference, when you go and kind of handicap it that way, is are the Oilers the team? I love the Dallas Stars. I think I made a pick at Miko Randen, and I think that he can win the Art Ross trophy. I think that he's going to get so much power play time. That guy is going to play a lot of hockey for that team. Yeah, I do.

I really do. I like the way that team looks. And they're a team that's going to add. I think that, you know, they're a team that's looking to add. There are a couple guys that only have Dallas and Vegas on their no trade clauses that are up or going to be up and on our really bad teams right now that could potentially be on the move. So it's going to be interesting to watch the Dallas Stars this year. If the Vegas Golden Knights are going to be Vegas, we talked about them being competitive all season long and having to remain competitive. And the Mitch and Eichle won two, Batman and Robin Punch is going to be fun to watch.

Oh, and that line, I know they lost last night, but that's, That line's going to be problems, man. It's going to be awesome. Barbishev and, like, that's like a very specific statement you made about players who would either only go to Vegas and Dallas. He's talking about Rasmus Anderson. Is there any?

He's talking about Rasmus Anderson. That's true. He's talking about Rasmus Anderson. You're right. Well, there's another one, too. But, yeah, no, it's, I mean, it's one of those things. You look at some players that are willing to only go in certain places and teams that know that.

and they're current GMs that know that and it's going to be difficult to make moves but at some point your team's going to find itself out of the playoff picture and you're going to have to be left with making a move to try and savor some sort of asset for your team. Let me close on this one. What's that? Go wish.

I figure out who that player is in the east that he's talking about. I know. I'll text it. You're just like lobbed a Rubik's Cuban to our podcast here. This is his name rhyme with Fage Thompson. No. how long is he going to stay in Buffalo for like what's to talk about him

what do we think happens with the Buffalo Sabres with with Tage Thompson I that's the one guy that I was sort of circling if things go like the wheels fall off the wagon again with the Buffalo Sabers that's the one and I'm not saying that his mind has already made up and he's marched into Kevin Adams off

no nothing like that but that would be that would be Rasmus Delene is the captain I'm sure he's not exactly thrilled about it if it goes if it goes side sideways again. But if it does, I could see Alex Tuck punting and maybe ending up with the Edminton Oilers. And I could see Tage Thompson saying, maybe, maybe it's time here.

Because like how long can you just surrender year after year of your career? You know what I'm saying? And prime. And let's not forget, too, after Nason caught Thompson last year. And everybody did elevator practice on his team. And no one did anything. That still resonates with Tatea. He mentioned it on the Cam and Strickpot.

Like, he could tell he's still, he's still bitter about that. That didn't exactly leave him with the best of all possible feelings. Did you see the smile on Jeff Skinner's face when he finally got to play in a postseason game? Yeah. It's a good point too. Exactly. How long do you want to be outside of playoffs? Yeah.

Let me close with this one. I'm not sure if you watch both, but the two L.A. teams that I saw in the last couple of days look profoundly different. They could not, like, I swore like the puck had corners when it was on the LA Kings stick and that came against the Colorado Avalanche. And then

last night against the Vegas goal of the Knights, they look fantastic. Well, the first team was awful because of the helmets were terrible on those third jerseys. I'm sorry. I can't go with the... I know. You want Matt Black. Everybody wants Matt Black. So cool. I know. Yeah. Yeah.

When are we doing the L.A. King's old jersey with the Vancouver Canucks White, the Burr-A. jersey. Just do that and make me happy. But no, you mentioned the L.A. Kings. They were anemic in their opener. They really were. They can't generate on any offense. And I think that after that game, people looked at the L.A. Kings and said, oh, my goodness. And then you looked at the performances from guys like Cody C.

And then they could have had Gavrikov. Like, what was going on there? And then you watched a team yesterday. And you go, Frank Clark, Quinton Bifield? These guys are coming out and pulling. Oh, my God, he's so good last night. He does. Those hands in tight.

Oh, that was such a beautiful goal. Yep, really nice back hit. Okay, listen, we very much look forward to Wednesdays, 3 o'clock Eastern for a daily faceoff rundown, DFO Rundown, Insider Edition, you and Dave. Always a pleasure. Catch up soon. Yeah. And now let's come back and do it again. Gentlemen, people, keep all.

Appreciate it. Oh, there is. Thank you for the kind words, too. My God. He was so sweet. Putting us over as the OGs, Mary. of the podcasting. He's just saying that we're old, man.

I mean, that's old, old guard is what I assumed he meant by, oh, geez, not original. It's like, what do you think, what do you think, what do you think, Sid feels like when, like, a young kid, like, you know, Benjamin Kindle joins a team and he says, wow, I was a big fan of yours growing up. Oh. Oh. I know. I used to listen to you guys when I was a kid. I mean, I wonder what the age cutoff is right now in the league as far as, like, I know. like I was a big fan of yours growing up.

Like, what is it? Like, do you, does, are there like a, it's like a 29 year old? Probably, right? Because if you, if you're Matthew Schaefer, right? Yeah. A 29 year old means you were 12, right? When you became cocked and that's when you, 12 years old, I think it's 12 years old, will you form your brand attachments, right?

Like that's when you sort of attach to like the things I consume, the things that I watch, the products that I use. That's when brand attachment, I think, really happens. It's not, I mean, it's, and it's also what you remember. So it's not inconceivable that there's a 26-year-old getting that from a teammate. Your poster was on my wall when I was nine. Wow. Right?

Nah, but it wouldn't be your poster was on my wall. It's like, you're my screensaver. You're my screensaver. I know, I need to update the reference, right? Poster was on my wall. My wallpaper. My wall. Get your Farah Fawcett posters off your wall, which.

Poster on the wall. I used to have eight pictures of you of my digital frames that rotated in my bedroom. I don't think I ever had a poster of a of a starlet on my wall growing up. But I would tell you that if it was who. Wasn't it wasn't a who. It was a what. My parents went to the, in Toronto, went to the premiere of the movie Jaws. And everybody got a picture of a poster of a shark that was like about about the child.

It wasn't like the Jaws poster itself. It was like an actual picture poster of a show. shark about the chomp someone's beautiful big great picture and i thought it was so cool and i'm like oh could have that my bedroom and then my parents like okay yeah sure knock yourself out but that the light in the hallway would shine right on the poster as a kid and i would be terrified but i didn't want my parents to think that i was like scared or anything even though i had like slept with the covers over my head so it stayed on my wall for years and as i was really young would like terrify me going to bed because that hallway light would hit the shark and i would

getting scared. See, I thought you were going to tell me that you had a picture of a starlet on your wall before there were talkies. Someone who was back. Honestly, if I had the female lead from Battlestar Galactica, whoever that was. If I was going to have anything on my wallet, it would have been from probably the Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions. That was, that was the, that was the, the, uh, the zeitist for me. So like your Kathy Ireland's or you're Sydney Crawford. Great eyes. Oh, man. Oh, it was always, oh, the best eyes ever. myself who kept me out holy hold on it

wow I haven't heard that name in forever but I can think about those eyes those deep piercing green eyes okay anyhow with that we want to get to our game show here which you have curated for us but first are we going to do stat of the day

before we get to the game show we can do game show first you're conducting things you're playing the keyboards back there game show first before you go to our friends that reads the app that feeds my children So, Zach, a quizmaster, Greg, has a question for you, which is how are we facilitating this? Are you putting the question into the chat before Ask Merrick?

Or what is the deal? Yes. I'm going to let you introduce the game, the concept, and I'm going to put in one question, let the chat answer while you ask Merrick. And then by then we should have answers. We're really, really testing this thing out in real time. And this is on me if it fails. so I'll own that, but I think that that's the best way to do it. It should work.

Scouts honor in the chat, these are easily acquireable answers. So scouts honor in the chat. Merrick, as you know, the 2025-26 NHL season is the 20th anniversary of the shootout. All of the NHL 2.0 rules are experienced the 20th anniversary season. I know. I just thought about this last night because we had two of them last night. And the shootout has turned 20 years old. Happy birthday shootout. We can probably chew this up for a number of episodes later in the season.

Can I go? Can I go Grandpa, Jeffie, on this one? They used to have shootouts a million years ago in the NHL. And they used to have things which are called stationary penalty shots where you would stand and take a slap shot from somewhere, either on the blue line or in the slot. We will discuss this. Ad nauseum, as we talk about the anniversary of all those rules. But today I wanted to celebrate the shootout by playing a little game called shootout or crap out. I'm going to give you two players.

You tell me which player has more career shootout goals in the National Hockey League. UC Yokenin. UC Yokinen. My answer to all these is going to be UC Yokinen. Okay, there are eight questions or maybe more than that. I'm going to get a little crazy on this one. Here we go. Let's start off with the two goats.

Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin, who has more shootout goals in their career? Sydney Crosby. That is correct. Sidney Crosby, 46, Ovi, surprisingly 37, even though the knock on him is that he's not been a very good shootout performer. Yeah. As you watch. Well, do you think one of the big tells was with shootouts, you knew because of the blade that Ovechkin wasn't going to go backhand? Like, if you're a goal ten, and you look at a player that has like a.

a curve and the likes of which Ovechka did, you know he's not going to, you know, do the fake forehand and go backhand move. Whereas Crosby, you don't know because essentially you use the Dave Keon stick. That and also his goal scoring is more blunt force trauma than a nuanced.

I think it's probably the real reason. All right, so you're one for one. Woo! I can write that down, one for one. Okay. So number two, question number two. Question number two. Okay.

Who has more shootout goals in their career? Jonathan Taves or Joe Pavelski? Are we counting the world juniors in this one, or is it strictly NHL? Literally said NHL goals is the beginning of the quiz. Okay. Well, I'll start to pay attention now. My instinct is to say Jonathan Taves, but I'm going to go with Joe Pavlsky. You know what?

You got to trust your guts, man. Jonathan Taves, 52, Joe Pabelsky, 47. Jonathan Taves, second only to teammate Patrick Kane in the highest number of shootout goals in the last 20 years. Absolute money. We think about, I mean, I do anyhow at the World Junior's just like, maybe T.J. Oshie's name is going to come up here in a couple of seconds,

although you won't be able to count him at the Olympics. Who has more shootout goals in their career? Two guys that are considered to be amongst the best defensive centers of all time. Pavel Datsuk or Anjay Kopitar. Just going with my gut, Pavel Datsuk. The answer is Anjikopatar. I thought you might get this

one based on longevity. Longevity, yeah. But the amazing part is, is that Copatar has 43 career shootout goals playing for as long as he has. And that's like a 40. Yeah. That's like a 40 shootout goals.

When, like him and Sam Gagne were the wizards of and then a little bit later on as I mentioned UC Okunen with the Peter Foresburg slash Kent Nielsen move but like Pavel Datsik wasn't just money in the bank but it was like money in the bank plus he was on every highlight clip for what he was able to do now you know I don't know so hang on so hang on

so my head has betrayed me and now my gut has betrayed me what am I going to use what am I going to use now the force you know it's not just forwards that do the shootout Merrick it's also defense men Adrian of coin Who has who has more shootout career goals

Is it Victor Headman or Romanoisi Victor Headman That's correct Victor Headman has 11 The Force Roman Yosi has seven The Force be in the game Not of the game be in the game Could you imagine being a goalie

And seeing that big tall giraffe coming at you Can you imagine being a goalie and seeing Zedano Chara come down and start scratching his back with his blade? No, thanks. He does a lacrosse goal and it hits the mezzanine. Okay. Here's a fun one. Who has more shootout goals, Eric? Brady Kachuk or Matthew Kach?

Stumper here. Based on time in the league, I'll say Matthew Kachuk. That's correct. He has nine on 26 shots. Brady Kachuk. Here's an interesting thing. He's only taken eight shootout attempts, and he's only scored once. I would think it would be much more than that.

There you go. Are you allowed to body check a goaltender and a shootout? I'll have count with both. One, two, three, four, five questions you've gotten three right. You're doing pretty well so far. Who? Who has more shootout goals, old guy edition? Claude Giroux or Corey Perry?

Corey Perry. That's correct. Corey Perry, 34 Drew right behind him with 31. Very good. Ever since I started using the force, this is great. This is awesome. Three for three. You know, it's not just the old guys that take the shootout, Merrick.

There's also young guys taking the shootout. Who has more shootout goals? Macklin Sellebrini or Adam Fantilli Oh wow Great one Oh man There would have been a lot of players ahead of Fantilli

But he has played longer I'll take I'll take Fantilli But I know you're going to surprise him to celebrate Oh it is Fancily Adam Fantili has two And Maclin Silagrini has one Well you've gotten five right which it guarantees you that you've won the quiz since there are nine questions

clearly for john oh clearly who has more shootout goals if getting malkin or stephen stamcoe two of the more accomplished goal scorers that we've had in this league malcolm the last two years malkin wow with with authority and that is correct sir malcon has 25 stammer has 23 and finally folks it's not just people who score goals that do the shootout sometimes terrible offensive of players do the shootout as well. Who had more career shootout? Merrick Malik. Merrick Malik.

Brooks Orpick or Adam Foote. Wow. Now, first of all, let's not bury the lead. Both of these guys took shootout attempts. How, like, when you're the coach and you're looking down the bench at the guys who haven't shot yet, and you see either Adam Foot or Brooks' Orpick? Do you ask the assistant coach if the mascot is allowed to shoot?

It's like Mike Sullivan's looking down the bench and all of a sudden he catches the psycho eyes of Brooks Orpick, looking longingly to try to get a shootout attempt. Yoohoo. Who had more street out goals? Brooks Orpick or Adam Foote? I want it to be Adam Foote because I love Adam Foot. Now that I don't love that Brooks Orpick, but I love Adam Foot. I wanted to be Adam Foote, so I'm going to try to will this to being Adam Foote. It is, of course, Brooks Orpick, who had one false Adam Foote had, by default, none.

Yeah, none. And that, folks, a shootout or crap out. Happy 20th anniversary to the most inadequate way to end a team sport game, the shootout. Remember Matthew Garron, Columbus Blue Jackets? Yes, you do. Golly. Was he the most accomplished? shootout goaltender of all time?

I feel like I need to do a second quiz. Well, on who the bet is. I'm just going to like, I have rattling him around my brain that Matthew Garan was the guy. Remember, we used always talk about having shootout specialists, and we would think, like, okay, you're going to have an extra shooter sitting on the bench just for the shootout? I always wondered about goalie shootout specialists, the goalie who is just good at breakaways. What I'm interested in is on a shoot in a shootout, is it better to have someone, who's all wibbly wobbly jibbly jabbly like a Jonathan quick or is it better to have

somebody who's more of a straight up and down structure guy like Marty Bredor I wonder in his shootout who fair is better the guy who can freelance a little bit or the guy who's going to have more structure I think the best skater and that's where the Russians have the Russian goaltenders have everybody lick don't you think first of all nobody does nobody does post play not that you need postplay in a shootout but like the way the Russians move their hips in the net is incredible and the place where they all have everybody elect as any goaltending instructor or observer or anyone that runs like, you know,

in goal magazine, for example, we'll tell you, like the skating that the Russian goalies have is, is their major advantage. That's what your Sturikens is. Fedotov, accepted. Well, yeah, maybe not every single Russian goaltender, Greg Wyshinsky.

There have to be, as we like to say, there have to be exceptions that prove the rule. All right, so how did I do on that? I got one, two, three, four, five, six. You got six. Six of nine. Nice, as they say. So, as they say, a mediocre man is always at his best.

And six out of nine, that's a good Jeffrey score right there. That's a good Jeffrey score. Now, listen, before we say goodbye. I got one more, a couple things to do. I got a couple of things to do. I got a couple things to do here. So stat of the day is a presentation of Uber Eats, the app that saved my parenting. 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 of 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 all season long all right by the way zach as we bring you aboard zach's mom found something of him in an arena I wish you will love this. Really quick. Before I get to the stat of the day, I just want to now that Zach's here. I want to have this fired up. So, Zach's mom found something of her son.

She wandered the halls of various arenas north of the city of Toronto. Perhaps Aurora. Perhaps as north is new markets. You have this, Zach? Yeah, one second. Here I call it. Wish?

You are going to love it. Everybody watching on YouTube right now, have a good look at Zach and see what he looks like. He's got the Seedog's hat. He's got the hipster beard. He's got the hockey feathers. It's looking good.

He looks like how old he is. Right? Now, look what Mum found on the wall as I totally filibuster here, waiting for Zach to pull this up. up the key when you're Look at this. Oh my God, look at it.

But give us the story, Zach. Look at that guy. Holy smokes. First of all, for those listening, we should hang on a young player on a hockey card, right? Look at those ears. Was your nickname the Grey Cup?

Look at those freaking ears. wow wow that's awesome oh look at them all full of hope oh full of optimism oh my what's the story Zach tell wish and our listeners slash viewers um when we were playing it like timit's hockey here uh everyone does a picture day yeah and then part of the promo for the picture day they used this picture of me around all of the halls and it was in these massive laminated posters in all

of Aurora to advertise to purchase your pictures and your hockey cards and everything now everywhere I don't know how recent it was it wasn't like this year but yeah it was my parents saw it we should say for the benefit of those listening

it's it it's a picture of Zach with 16 by 20 poster laminated will call us you're 40 bucks so it is an ad that he is appearing on and I think it's like a good old

all all Canadian kid now Zach as your as your attorney I'm going to have to ask if you saved if you signed any documents to allow your name image and likeness

to be used hmm is it time to bankrupt a company Zach is it time for for us to lawyer up here enterprises is going after them i don't know it's good for it's good for them though it'll be a little a little bit of a bender but he but pretty pretty good i think at that point right yeah you're still not you're still not well balanced i mean you're barely old enough to piss

straight what are you going to do you're just learning how to play puck like who cares you're doing great you're doing great young man and look at you that little kid actualized as a producer of this program congratulations yes congratulations and that young man turned into the person who's going to present the stat of the day. Courtesy for Friends of Dubry. Stats of the day. Yes, stat of the day came up because of last night. Austin Matthews joined a list of other players along with Alex Ovechkin,

who actually also reached this tier with Matthews this season. They are now two of three, two of, sorry, nine players who have 13 goals in their season opener. There are only two players. with more goals in the season opener in their careers. And those players, I don't know, do you guys want to guess before I revealed them to you? There's two players with 14 goals in their career in season openers.

Any idea who they would be? I'm all triviaed out since I was so awesome at the shootout trivia. Yeah, you guys will retire. You go with a bang. I'm going to take Mario? That one? No. I'll give you one more guess, and then I'll just tell you.

Oh, Gretz, Gretzky then. No, Michelle Goulding and Dino Cicerelli. Dino Cicorelli? Wow. 14 season opening goals each. The list of players that are tied at 13 goals of Eam Neely, Alex McGilney. Okay. Yeah.

But here's the difference. If you take the total distance of all of the Dino Cicorelli goals, it would probably be, yeah, about that. but if you take the distance of all the Michel Goulet goals then you've really, really done something. Essentially, Dino dined out in front of that. He paid the price with his body, but he dined out in front of the net with like two footputs.

Which is great. They don't ask how. Dave Andrew Chuck, Tim Kerr, Holmstrom. Mike Knoebel. Mike Knoble, there's another great one. Yeah, good pull. That's a good one. I still remember who was.

It was a Brian Gianta, who, since the question is about Austin Matthews and season debut goals. Do you remember Brian Gianta's tweet on that Toronto Ottawa game where Matthews had four goals? Do you remember Gianta's tweet? Yeah, he was the one who put out the

Welcome to the Beer League. Welcome to our beer league. That's really funny, which was awesome. I miss Brian Gianta. He's really good. All right, great stuff. Zacharoo.

Did you have anything else for us, Craig Waczynski? You had one more thing before? I do. The boys know this. and I'll share it with you. I will not be around for the next couple of weeks

because Monday is when my wife, Ruby and I expect to have another child. Woo! And that child will be a male child, my first boy. And that is a...

Congratulations. That is a whole... Figured out how to raise daughters, got to now learn how to raise the son. But yeah, Monday's supposed to be the day. That's awesome. come earlier because I'll be a Comic-Con and I'll get a frantic call for my wife

and I'll have to get out of my Deadpool cosplay to rush to the hospital. Or maybe I won't. Who's to say? But yeah, boy, common Monday. We're very excited. I'll be hopping off for a little paternity leave right at the start of the season. Just make sure he's a right-hand shot.

Remember, if he starts to swing with the left, no, no, no, you want right-hand shots. We had 15% to the contract. And congratulations, as you're, As your family grows, this is, this is an exciting time. Now, you know what happens by a time like the third kid rolls around. They get all the benefits of like, my parents have been through this before. So they get, they get left alone a lot.

There's a whole lot of like, figure it out on your own. They do. And they also, I've come to learn because there is such a small age gap between Iris and her brother. he will be wearing a lot of hearts and shit like that. We're not going to go, we're not going to buy a bunch of dinosaur stuff for this kid to sleep in. He will be sleeping in frilly little heart shit and he'll, he'll like it. He's just going to be in our house.

We're not going to put him in a stroller with that stuff on. But to go to bed, congratulations. You got a unicorn on you, kid. Yep, that's right. Mommy and daddy need their vacations. So guess what you're wearing a bed. We're not going, we're not going clothes shop. Listen, congratulations on behalf of all of us here.

Thank you. That's Nation Network and Daily Faceoff. Congratulations, Greg Wischinski, for your ever-growing family. Thanks for the game show, too. A lot of fun. You'd be good. All right, take care. There is the one and only Greg Wischinsky from ESPN.com.

One more bit of business here. The sheet is powered by Fandul. Home of the same game parlay, make every moment more with Fanduel. Fanduel, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. Zach, we got four. We're back at it now. Now hockey's really back. You know, the first two days of the season, there's like, oh, there's three games.

That's cute. Oh, there's four games. 14. 14. Sit down, iron the couch with your ass, and watch hockey games tonight. 14. Well, I saw a guy Liam from Oilers Nation every day, tweet out, and I thought it was pretty funny. I was debatably going to use it as stat of the day.

I think there's 14 games today, zero games tomorrow. About, I think it was 13 or 14 games on Saturday, something like that. one on Sunday. I thought that would have been a funny stat. We've started the season, and then all of a sudden we hit the brakes hard on Friday. But, yeah, 14 games here today. The one that I'm looking at, one in particular,

is the Islander's Penguins game as the NHL had tweeted out, Matthew Schaefer, which is kind of, these are one of those ones where it's like, I always make fun of the baseball stats. Like, you know, this pitcher is 2 and O on days where it's 26 degrees and the roof's partly closed and starts at 107, like that kind of stuff. Matthew Schaefer will be the youngest number one overall defensemen to make their NHL debut.

It's not that niche, but it is a little bit, a couple of caveats in there at 18 years and 34 days. New York Islanders tonight against the penguins on the road are favored against the penguins. No surprise. The 1-0 Pittsburgh Penguins after Dan Mews had a very successful debut at MSG, sticking it to and shutting out the New York Rangers. Speaking of Matthew Schaefer So in the preseason The two big highlights

Coming out of Schaefer Are his two back checks The one against Matt Faye Michkoff of the Philadelphia Flyers The other against Matt Rempey The New York Rangers I had one coach This is how cynical coaches are

I had one coach Text me About those back checks And you know what he said He said the only reason You should be back checking like that Because all you guys go crazy for it you think it's so cool look at that look at that race he goes is because he's out

of position yeah I need us that's you're looking to like cynical coaches and this person knows exactly I'm talking about and he's watching all this thing right now that's just like cynical old coach like you should never have to you should like it's like saying a goalie should never have to make a spectacular save is spectacular save means you're out of position if you're back checking like that that means you're out of position but the thing is that's the exciting thing about Schaefer. I know that he didn't exactly hunt down two burners. Matt Pay Mitchcoff is on a burner either as Matt Rimpie.

But still, that's a defenseman's going to go deep as often as he can on every single rush. It's going to be fun to watch. It's going to be so much fun to watch. Have the confidence to make the play and know that you can make up for it more times than not. It's something you're going to be okay with the line. But yeah, that's pretty funny.

That's the one where the D coach, Schaefer comes off. He pats him on the back and says, great back check, great recovery kid, whispers in his ear. Now, how'd you get there? Yeah, you don't, you shouldn't, as a parent, you'll realize this one day, Zach. You don't get rewarded for cleaning up your own mess. Yeah. You made the mess.

Now go clean it up. You're expected. If you make that mess, you're expected to clean up that mess. Nonetheless, I can't wait to see Sheifer playing the NHL. I can't. I've loved watching this guy, you know, going back to his days in minor hockey. I'm so happy for him and his family. And we all know his story by now. I'm just so thrilled for this kid.

He's the guy that even if you're not an Islander's fan, like, good luck not cheering for him. You don't have a warm heart if he ain't cheering for Matthew Schaefer. On that note, Zach, enjoy the games tonight. Congratulations on the Toronto Maple Leafs. As is said, all around Leafland, as all around Leafland. way. You can't go 82 and O if you don't win the first one, and you won the first one. I stole that line last night.

Oh, did you? Yeah, you said it yesterday or two days ago, I think. Yeah, with the penguins. Yeah, that's stolen if they win. I'm taking that. Thank you. It's okay. Greatness, Boroz, Deals, enjoy.

Thanks, Greg Wischinsky, as always, thanks to Irfan Gafar for stopping by. I tip the Zamboni driver. Thanks for being in the chat. Thanks for the buns and the use of the hall. Don't forget Daily Faceoff Live tomorrow at noon Eastern, this show on at 1. Eastern, as always, and then Morning Cup of Hockey returns on Monday morning. 9 Eastern with the Impact players, Johnny Lazarus, and Colby Cohen. We're out.

We're back tomorrow. Enjoy 14 freaking games. Woo! Enjoy it tonight. Talk tomorrow. I said 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head. Lost all ambitious day.

day because you can call it all right I went to the dark man and tried to give me a little medicine I'm like now and that's fine I'm not against those methods but new it's me and myself and how this going to be fixed in my mind I turned on the backer I turned on the music Listen up there, I don't get you sometimes lose it. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids that went wrong. Hmm, in the dead dark night. Hey friends, it's Nikaela from the podcast Side Hustle Pro. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids entertained without screens.

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