The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Family Affair ft. Ryan Barnes & Julia Tocheri

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

Ryan Barnes and Julia Tocheri join Jeff Marek on The Sheet. Discussing with Ryan the Hutson family's takeover of the NHL, Nikishin joining the Carolina Hurricanes, being a player agent, and more. Then joined by Julia Tocheri to break down the Women's World's, the PWHL season, and others!Shout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja Kitchen Canada: https://www.ninjakitchen.ca/products/ninja-crispi-4-in-1-portable-glass-air-fryer-cooking-system-zidFN101CGY?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=olv&utm_campaign=25Q2-Crispi&utm_content=en👍🏼 JP Wisers: http://www.jpwisers.comReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Stylish selections and design assistance to help you every step of the way. Transform your living space today with Cozy. Visit Cozy.ca, C-O-Z-E-Y.ca, the dog was barking. Like really the dog was barking? It's just like the dog ate my homework excuse. It's the joys of working from home, which I've kind of done ever since COVID really. Oh, welcome to the show.

But the shots ate one. No, I'm going to pick that one up, Zach, from last week. No, let's leave that one. Got 99 problems, but the shot's 8-1. It's gonna catch on eventually. I think we can leave that one in the past. Alright, I know you're not a fan. Part of people in the chat, in for a treat today, we're talking with Ryan Barnes.

Ryan is a former NHL player, a couple of games that have tried Red Wings, was really good junior player, was really good minor hockey player and he played with Danbury Trashers. So as we find out whenever we have a friend of the show Troy Smith on the program nobody who played on Danbury escapes without leaving behind a story. So we got to get at least one story, at least one story out of Ryan Barnes about playing with the Danbury Trashers, one of the most notorious teams of all time. Also Julia Toscheri joins us, one half of the the impact players as I call them, her and Tessa Bonham of the Jox and Jill's podcast. When I last left, and maybe you can do a quick check,

Canada was up two to one on Czechia at the Women's Worlds and it was a nasty game. This one was rough. So we'll talk about a few different things with her. We'll get the Women's Worlds, we'll talk about the PWHL and that end of the schedule once the Women's Worlds is all done is going to be a total scramble The other thing that I'm really curious about

You know how we always complain about Hockey parents on the boys side of things. Oh crazy hockey mums and dads specifically dads Like I got one kid that plays in the G and I got one kid that plays in the UMHA So I see a lot of it and a lot of different flavors. Um, I wonder if it's gotten that way. I would imagine it must on the girl's side as well. We all know the crazy hockey dad stories with the boys.

Same thing true on the girl's side. My sister's played, so I saw it there a little bit, but I don't think, yeah, I don't know if it was that bad at that time. From your family, was your dad a crazy hockey dad with the girls? Yeah? She gets a letter, she gets the 90 seconds on each power play. That happened, Zach.

No, maybe? Yeah, no? No, that did not happen. That did not happen. That did not happen What did happen is we said bye bye to a few teams over the weekend from the Stanley Cup playoffs and the postseason We're gonna get into that here coming up in a couple of moments But let's kick the program off here As we do every day and that is daily outlines presented and prayer and and shared with our friends at FanDuel Daily Outlines powered by FanDuel make every moment more With North America's number one sports book

We do have a new partner to announce a little bit later on on the program as well in the meantime Coming up on today's show very much looking forward to it Ryan Barnes stops by He's like starting to put together a pretty impressive roster as well if we get a chance I want to park some time and talk about Karel Vamelka of Utah, who's just had an outstanding season trying to push this team into the playoffs almost single-handedly. He's one of Barnes' guys too. Also represents, of course, the Hudson family, along with Sean Kofia-Cortex. Julia Toshary stops by from the Jocks and Jill's podcast and there's a few things to

get there with her on the women's side and also on the NHL side. If we get a chance, I do want to get her thoughts on what we saw from Gavin McKenna this weekend. Medicine had playing PA Prince Albert and Gavin McKenna with a move for the ages. We'll get to that coming up in a little bit. Also on the program today we'll talk plenty about the Hudson family and geez man what a story to make your debut. I mean you lose against Western Michigan in the final the Frozen Four. Tough one for BU, tough one for Quinn Hudson but he signs with the Edmonton Oilers on his way there. There's a fire on the plane which you never want to hear.

It goes back to Denver. He finally gets into Edmonton and it looks very much like, I don't know if it's been confirmed yet, that he's playing tonight for the Edmonton Oilers. So we'll get to that the last 48 slash 72 hours for Quinn Hudson and the Women's Worlds as well. And we'll get on that page. Montreal Canadiens clinching tonight. Are we all on the same page like they can't

let this one fritter away Montreal is gonna shut this one down clamp it down there's no way that they're gonna let the I mean listen gotta hand it to the Columbus Blue Jackets and specifically Jet Greaves who we've been talking about now for a couple years as yeah you know what that's the goal of the future for the Columbus Blue Jackets he's been outstanding player of the week in the NHL he's been outstanding for CBJ they really stuck it to Washington on Saturday tough game for Ryan Leonard for a couple of different reasons the fight and the hits from Adam Fantilli and then Fantilli goes down

in score but Montreal is gonna lock this down tonight right Dem? Demidav is making his debut. We're all getting called about the Hudson family here. It's gonna be over tonight, right? The Habs fans that I've spoken to about this, Jeff, are clenching cheeks. They can't! This is what happened. Hang on. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What happened to this is found money. What happened to, oh we're just, you know, what we're here, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What happened to this is found money. What happened to oh, we're just you know What we're here a year too early, whatever happens happened. It's amazing what happened Like the same thing happened at Philadelphia last year. Remember Flyers fans were all like it went from like all this is cool We were you know, the rebuilds already over and this is fantastic

We've turned it around so quickly and then like expectation started to grow for Philadelphia and as they fell out of the playoff picture, all of a sudden it was that, well it wasn't supposed to go this way, it's like you're in a rebuild. The Montreal Canadiens are still in a rebuild. Like isn't this kind of found money here? Isn't this? Okay, so I think there's two things,

there's two things to this. One would be that there was a lot of talk from Habs fans about how they were comfy and had a cushion and all the blue jackets can't catch them. Same as St. Louis. They talk about smack. There was a lot of smack being talked and then all of a sudden it's like, maybe it's not so comfortable.

And then the other one is now they're sitting there and they're playing the Blackhawks tonight. Jeff, you remember what happened last year at the end of the season? I think it was the second last game, if not the last game, with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh Chicago. Who they lost to. Pittsburgh Chicago, yeah. And I think Habs fans are well aware of that. So there's some, there's some but scared people over there. Everybody is looking forward to seeing Demidoff, right?

Like this is it. Now we're ready to show the horse. And I'll be really curious to see how many minutes Marten Sanlouis gives him in his debut, what he looks like. I think we're all curious about it. And I'll tell you, like, for whatever reason, even though this happened, was it last Thursday,

everything just sort of flared up again about Tony Maranero putting out that live stream of Demi-Dof at Pearson Airport and you know on the show here last week I've been consistent about this like I think that was awesome. I think that was fantastic. Habs fans wanted it like I was I was I was watching on my phone with a friend of mine who's a major Montreal Canadiens fan in Arizona. And she was like, I don't know how I feel about this

but I think this is really cool. And I kind of felt the same way about it. Like good on Tony for doing it. I don't blame fans for watching it. I get that Demidoff might've been like, oh wow, it's just like Beatles come to America 64. That's a dated reference, Merrick. But it might have been a little bit overwhelming, but welcome to it. You're going to play in Montreal. Get used to it. Like there's no like, there's no like I'm only a hockey player when I'm

at the rink when you're playing with Montreal. You're a hockey player 24 hours of the day. Some guys like that, some guys don't. That's true of every Canadian team. There's no like, oh, I remember some players would play in sunny locales and it'd be like, you know, it's great. I get to go to the rink in shorts or flops. I don't have to be a hockey player when I'm out at dinner. I'm just like some miscellaneous dude. But in Canada, you're a hockey player 24 7 everywhere you go people say Like that's just getting into I loved it and I was I was happy that Tony did it wasn't I don't laugh at any of The fans that showed up I said like man if I'll tell you what if you had as

passionate a fan base as Montreal has, as exemplified by what happened at the airport last week with the arrival of Demidov, if every fan base was like that and had that level of passion slash insanity, you know how hot this league would be? You know how hot the NHL would be if every fan base was that into it? Jeff, I stood on my balcony after following a flight tracker, checking to see if Shohei Otani was on his way to Toronto after like eight hours.

Who the fuck am I to tell Habs fans that they can't go to the airport to find this guy? Like seriously I think most of Canada did that so what are we doing? What are we talking about here? Before we get to Ryan Barnes one thing I do want to mention as well are we about to see a player win the Art Ross trophy for a third time and not win the heart trophy yes I third if he's gonna three new problem Nikita Kutra off who wrapped it up yesterday yeah and I game against the Sabres three times Art Ross trophy not a heart trophy so what is the issue is though Jeff like if you're not

gonna give it to Connor this is my opinion obviously okay but if you're not gonna give it to Connor Hallibuch in this year in this season you just need to make it flat out like goalies do not and cannot win this award. I think this is the one year where for me, I've been so blown away by Connor Hellebuck and the candidacy that he's put together, the stats, how many games he plays, the wins that he's providing to that team. If you're going to look at the underlying numbers, goal saved above expected, all that kind of stuff where it's just like he's doing stuff you shouldn't do. That is where just look at it and I go, you show up

every single night, you're going to win the Vezna, you should win the Vezna, but you've also been the most important player to this team because the best ability is availability. And for a goaltender in today's age to play that many games, it's, it's, he deserves to be the heart. You're talking to the guy that has a goalie in that conversation every single season and the majority of times I am choosing a goalie. I just find it wild that here's a guy that's going to win the Art Ross three times and he's been on tons of ballads obviously but is's gonna walk away from this and say yeah, you know what? I was top scored in the NHL three times

zero heart trophies This year I think he kind of gets screwed a little bit because I think hellbuck was that good There's probably a little bit. He was great. I looked at and said Why didn't he win it that year? Why can that happen? I don't know. But this year it's just tough. Or is Dreistadel gonna win it? I mean, I get the case for him

and I'm not saying he doesn't deserve to be there. It's just, I felt so drawn into the Connor Hallebuck story this year of what he does for that team. Yeah. One thing that I threw out in the blog, which you can read at dailyfaceoff.com today, speaking of trophies and awards, you know what would be really awesome? If you know how the hockey writers publish their ballots, like after everything, they're like, okay, so here's who voted wide, here's the order and all that, like full transparency.

Don't get me started on the Hockey Hall of Fame. But for the general managers who vote for the Jim Gregory and the Vesna, see, that's intriguing. Like, I don't think people are interested, like, oh, wow, who did Merrick have for the Norris? I don't think people are that interested in that. But I think people will be interested in like, who did Jim Nill vote for the Vesna? Who did Kevin Chevaldea vote for the Jim Gregory? That would have something to it.

Yeah. Who cares? The other way, if you really want to amp things up, if you want to make the writers more important, you put them in a room voting together and just have cameras in the corners of the room and it's mic'd up and then they have to come out of that room with a conclusion of who to vote for. Because you know at the end when it comes to the public and they're like the writers who vote on the awards and then get them yelling at each other. We are not that interesting. I'm not saying the people themselves, I'm saying the arguments that could take place could be interesting just a live cam of them up on YouTube yelling at each other

about who they think should win still live cam at the at the local watering hole around the corner from the rank yeah wherever the wherever the ink stained wretches end up just put the live a Tony Tony in Montreal here's here's your next job live can cam following boozy writers around. Yeah, that's. Picket fights with hockey fans at saloons. Livestream that Tony, I'm with you on that. Like honestly, I want Tony to make this,

like to own this area of hockey media. The live streaming of the event. Come on. It would be a pretty funny section to own. Just people going nuts every time he's live streaming anything. Yeah. Here's Damidoff leaving the arena tonight. Do it. But that's it. But here's the thing about that is, and I've always believed this about your team specifically, Zach, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Is there too much information out there

about the Toronto Maple Leafs? Yes, there is. And that's exactly what Leafs fans want. They want too much information about this team. Nope. And you can probably make the argument Montreal as well. Anyhow, Montreal wins this thing tonight, right? That's over tonight.

I don't know. You know who I was thinking about? You know who I was thinking about? You know who I was thinking about last night as I was writing my blog? I was thinking about the Detroit Red Wings who have now nine years of playoff futility. I shouldn't even say futility because they haven't even qualified for the postseason.

And I'm thinking to myself, they have $22 million of cap space, which is just catnip to every agent out there that has someone testing the market. Considering it's nine seasons now and it looks like Marco Casper probably wrapping up that second line center spot, that market's gonna expect something big, no?

They're close, right? They have a lot of room to do things here. I wonder about the Detroit Red Wings in the offseason if there's something large up up to the visor means to sweep here. We'll see with that heads. We'll get to some of the other eliminated teams coming up here in a couple of moments in the meantime Speaking of the Detroit Red Wings our next guest played with the Detroit Red Wings. Thank you very much. He's now a very successful agent with Cortex He is Ryan Barnes and he joins me on the sheet. Ryan, how are you today? And most notably, how is your client Quinn Hudson? It's been quite the 72 hours for your client here. First of all, welcome to the program. Great to see you again. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Good afternoon, gentlemen. And yeah, with Quinn, uh, yeah, he's, uh, he's at Edmonton. Uh, I was listening to the

show. I was, I was waiting to come on and, uh, in fact, he will make his debut tonight for the Oilers. So, uh, very exciting, obviously. A vast degree of emotions playing in a national championship game, getting on a flight to discover that an engine caught fire in an emergency landing and he has some very, very touch and go moments there, I think, you know, as you can experience as a parent, as a player, when an engine is on fire looking out the window. So, emergency landing got turned around and got into Edmonton in the late hours. So, he's looking forward to making his debut tonight with the Oilers, though. You know, you and I have talked about the Hudson family before.

Like, they're poised to take over this league. That's pretty obvious. When something like this happens, like this is like, I don't want to just sort of shake this off. This is a serious event here for this young man who's, you know, life post Saturday in the disappointment of losing to Western Michigan has really been a whirlwind. And just when you think like, okay, you know, I'm going to sign and maybe I'm going to play against San Jose. And then all of a sudden, no, I'm not going to play against Los Angeles. And then there's this flight issue.

I'll be blunt, Ryan, like there's probably a lot of players that would have checked out and said, you know what? I can't do this. Tell us about Quinn. I can't do this. Tell us about Quinn. Why can Quinn do this? Yeah, Quinn is, he's one of his qualities. He's always had a strong belief in himself. And even sometimes when others have not,

he, you know, he wasn't drafted, spent time in the BCHL, spent time in the USHL, but he's got a strong belief in himself and what he can do as a player. the But as a player, as the oldest brother in the family, he's certainly a mentor to Lane Cole and Lars. So yeah, he's a special person and excited to see him in action tonight. Ryan, I'm assuming you spoke to Quinn today. How was he?

How'd that conversation go? Yeah, I thought he was messing around with me at first a little bit. And he kind of said, I thought he was messing around with me at first a little bit and he kind of said, I wish I was. Like, he's got a good sense of humor. What did he say? I'm like, are you messing with me right now? And he's like, I wish I was, but no, that actually happened.

So again, just relieved to be safe and relieved for everybody on that plane to be safe. And yeah, excited to get his career started tonight. Let me ask you about Cole, but first I wanna ask you about Lane. So Lane is three assists away from breaking Larry Murphy's rookie assist record. Three assists the next two games and it's his. That record has stood

since 1981. The thing that impresses me about Lane Hudson, like all of us, we all marvel at the skating and the creativity. You know, I look at him and I kind of say to myself, if this game is evolving towards positionless hockey, you put Lane Hudson right up around the top of the list as the poster child for positionless hockey. But one of the things that I'm so impressed by is just how grounded he seems. Like he can pull off like end to end, deep guys out, jockstraps, spin and all of that.

And to him it's just like, that's a day at the office. It's a day at the office. It's a day at the office. Like is that is that something that all the Hudson kids have? Because I'll tell you what man and maybe you're the same way if I had anywhere near close to the skill that Lane Hudson has as a player I don't know that I'd be that humble about it. Yeah he's what you see is what you get with Lane. He is very humble. He loves the game. You know, he loves to work at his craft.

I think that that work ethic and the humbleness is derived from his parents and again, special special person and just loves, loves being a hockey player. And you'll see on days off with the Canadians, he's out there working at, working at his craft every day. And, and, uh, yes, he is skilled, but he's, he's certainly, he's, he's worked at it every single day to, to earn those skills. So he's, uh, he's a special person to be around. And again, he's playing in the NHL and having a very successful rookie season in the NHL,

but he hasn't changed at all as a person, the way that he conducts himself. He's the same guy. When success comes fast for any athlete in any sport, it can kind of be overwhelming. And all of a sudden there's a lot of outside demands, there's a lot of outside noise as well. How active are you?

How active Sean Coffey, everybody at Quartex in sort of managing all of that? Because, you know, there's an old saying, you know, true talent is having the ability to manage your talent. How do you help Lane Hudson manage his talent? Yeah, he obviously does get a lot of requests and a lot of people that want to access him

with different marketing opportunities and just meet and greet opportunities and he takes on all commerce, like he really has. So Sean, myself, our team at Cortex have tried to filter that and he's really open and loves to connect with the fans and the people that believe in him and want to connect with him. So it's actually amazing to see how he's dealt and conquered and dealing with everyone that wants to say hello to him or anybody that wants to partner with him, he really has taken on all comrades. One of the things too, and we've seen

Quinn Hughes in Vancouver for example, opening doors for quote unquote smaller players, for players that have been told, oh you're too small, you can't play. Or especially, oh you're too small, you can't play D. Well no, you just can't play D the way that Lane Hudson plays defense. Does he acknowledge that, that he's part of this new sort of wave of defenders that you don't have to be six foot four", 240 pounds to be successful in the NHL.

I'm curious, does he have a sense of already where he fits in the grand scheme of things in the game? Yeah, I think he's very aware of maybe some naysayers that didn't think he could defend at the NHL level. And I think if you watch, yes, you get to see the highlights of the assists and the playmaking ability and the razzle dazzle, the head fakes and the excitement that the Bell Center when they rise to their feet when he's got the puck. But he also takes a lot of pride in his defending. And he uses his intelligence and a fierce stick to really take pride in being a 200-foot player. And I think if you look at some of the games

he's touched this year, he's been in the 29 minutes, 28 minutes some night. You're not playing those type of minutes in the National Hockey League if you can't defend. So I think he's answering any of those questions if you'd be able to defend at the National Hockey League level. You know, I threw in my blog this morning the idea of Lane and Cole playing Hold My Beer while they pull off highlight moves and highlight plays.

And I think we're all wondering okay so when are we gonna see that at the NHL level but for those curious about about Cole which way is he is he leaning here? Yeah I think with his season just wrapping up you know I think he's probably leaning at returning to to Boston University you know give him give him one more year but that's that's probably leaning at returning to Boston University, give him one more year, but that's probably the way it's leaning here. But yeah, so he'll head back with the Terriers

and I'm sure Cole's goal will be back in a national championship game to try to get on the other side of it next time around. Let me ask you a couple of other clients. Congratulations on finally getting Alexander Nikitian here in North America. Hurricanes fans have been wondering slash hoping he'd get here sooner than later. What was that process like? Because that's a name that we've all wondered about. You can only watch so many KHL highlights before saying like, okay, just get him over here.

I know it's not an easy process, but what was it like for you getting Nikitian over here? I mean really we were at the the mercy of his KHL club in the playoffs. So once their season came to an end, we were able to to enter serious negotiations with the Canes. It's still in process. He's still not in North America, so he's working on getting US visas, Canadian visa, so it's available for the Canes hopefully coming up. Next week, as Eric had mentioned on broadcast, I don't think it will be a month,

but I think we have to be prepared for anything through the immigration process. What are Kane's fans in for? For those that have just seen clips. He's six foot four, he can skate, he plays with bite, he's got a bomb of a shot, he's led I think his history versus he's the best defenseman to come out of the KHL in a long, long time. So the day he makes his debut in the National Hockey League, it's going to be, all eyes

are going to be on the Caroline Hurricanes. So very excited about that. A couple of more for you here, Ryan, and you're being generous with your time and I appreciate it. Caden McCoyne. So Adrian McCoyne's son drafted by Sarnia in the OHL draft this past weekend. We always focus on second generation players and made a lot about, um, Nikolai Quilliman's kid, Alex and Gary Roberts, kids, Sam, et cetera. Uh, what can you tell us about Adriana Coyne's kid? Yeah. Kayden is a six, three right-hand shot, defenseman, smooth skater, um, plays

with a, plays with a nasty edge. She's got a real good shot, can, good shot, can play, can defend, can create offense. And Sting GM Dylan Cica got a gem there at 26 overall and looking forward to getting him into the OHL this next coming season. And Dylan and his staff did a great job getting him where they did in the Ontario hockey draft this weekend. Is he like a 32-33 minute a night guy like the old man was? Hopefully when he's 18 or 19 years old in the OHL this thing can count up for that for sure. So first thing I always

think about Adrian O'Coyne describing the sheet after and being like holy smokes 34 minutes. Jeez, Adrian, let them come off for a breath. Let them have a squirt of water. Uh, okay. So there's one rule, one of the, one of the rules we have at this, at this show, Ryan is if you played for the Danbury Thrashers, there's no

way you can escape without at least leaving behind one story. So I'm going to throw out one name, not from Danbury, but from another team in the U-Haul, and that is Blue Benefield. Now, now, Troy Smith, who I believe might've been your roommate with Danbury, so Troy Smith, you know, told the story about how this guy, I don't know what he did,

but the Danbury Thrashers ended up signing Frankie Bialowis to deal with him. What do you remember from that night when Frankie the Animal Bialowis was hired for one game to deal with Blue Benefield? deal with blue Benefield. Yeah, it was a poor blue, poor blue. It was the entire, uh, we did have, but even back then we did have a Jumbotron at the one end of the rink and Jeff, I know as a WWE fan, you'll appreciate that. But Frankie had the long hair and actually sat beside him in the locker room for that game. And he had the long hair and he had some great NHL highlight fights. So they would flash from the Undertaker's hair to Frankie's hair,

type of taker theme, the entire warmup. And I think Frankie had a bonus inducement to, to fight Blue that night. And he was unsuccessful. And I think at one point halfway through the game, Frankie got out there against him maybe for the second or third, fourth time. And I think at one point halfway through the game, Frankie got out there against him maybe for the second or third, fourth time. And it's like, mom, I'll split it with you. Cause like, we got to go. We got to go. So it, yeah, that was, that was,

I actually tell that story a lot when people ask me what was the experience like playing in Danbury. So. What, like, what do you, what are you guys thinking? Like in, in warmup in the undertaker of videos playing in the music, like what's going through your mind at that point? Like this isn't, this isn't like, I'm not playing with the Sudbury wolves anymore here in the OHL.

Like, what is this? Yeah, it was, uh, yeah, I was just, I, to be honest, I was kind of laughing like, what is going on? the Had an American league experience and even some NHL experience and a lot of guys were like what's going on here? but the fans the fans there loved it and yeah, it was really enjoyed my my short time in Danbury, but We're treated Incredibly by the Galante family while we were there. Well while you were there, I'm always curious about this. Did the guys all know that like the room was wired up

by the FBI and they were listening to everything you guys were saying? No, I don't think there was, I think the guys might've known, because there was a few articles in the paper and things like that, but I don't think any of us had any inkling that our lockers were wired or anything like that. Wild times.

Checking guys for wires before they come in the room. Yeah, patting guys down when you walk in. There's AJ at the door patting it down. It's awesome. Listen, I'm really happy for Quinn making his NHL debut tonight for the oldest day face off against the Los Angeles Kings. Thanks for sharing some time today. I know it's a really busy time of the year for you. Much appreciated Ryan. Good luck the rest of

the way. We'll check back soon. Thanks very much. Yeah, thanks guys. There he is. Ryan Barnes from Cortex who represents among other clients the Hudson's. I didn't get a chance we kind of ran out of time to talk about Karel Vimalca. And one of the things about Vimalca too is, and it's not just about Vimalca because, you know, you have a look, you know, you have a look at some of the, some of the names that have gone through Arizona slash Utah, goaltenders that is, and whether it's Starcy Kemper or

whether it's Aiden Hill and now Karel Vamelka It's probably about time That we started to consider Corey Schwab one of the best Goaltending coaches In the nhl It's not a name and I remember Corey Schwab when he played in the nhl He's not a name that we name that we talk about a whole lot when we talk about goalie coaches.

When you look at some of the guys that he's really helped along the way here, maybe we should. Zach, before we get to Julia, who's gonna be standing by here in about five minutes time, I wanna get to the Crispy inbox, because we got a really interesting question today. So time now for the crispy inbox presented

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and two storage lids. The Ninja Crispy is thermal shock resistant and can go from frozen to crispy in minutes with the Crispy PowerPod. You get the power of a full-sized air fryer in the palm of your hand folks. The four-quart container fits four pounds of chicken or veggies. Cook a personal sized meal in seven minutes in the six cup container. Max crisp, bake, air fry and re-crisp with the Ninja crispy. You can prep, cook and store anything from crispy favorites to one dish meals. What is in the inbox today, Zach Phillips? This one was inspired by Ovi bringing up the Rolls Royce

and it's a kind of CBA center question here. So it says Gretzky floated the Rolls Royce idea right in front of the commissioner and the cap's owner, but it was pretty obvious that it was a joke and it would never fly under salary cap rules. But it made me think, is there anything preventing an owner from waiting until the last game of the season and then Tallying up all the space under the salary cap in order to hastily Renegotiate everyone's contract with the only change being that they would get a portion of that space as a bonus

You take half of the space and hand it out as Christmas bonus in April for most goals, most points, most hits. The other half just divided by 26 or whatever it is, hand it out equally. Contracts would remain exactly the same word for word, except for one extra line indicating their share of the bonus. Thoughts, NoCo, hockey dad. You know what conversation has never been had? I can almost guarantee you there is one conversation that has never been had. And that is I don't think that there's ever been an owner's meeting where someone stood up and said, you know, we need to figure out a way to get more money in these players'

pockets. I'm pretty sure. We'm pretty sure the players here, pretty sure that conversation hasn't been had. First of all, under the CBA, no, you can't do that because the key word there from that email is renegotiate. And once a contract is done, you can't reopen a contract. Now there have been some things, again, we're heading into a, well, it's happening right now, a CBA negotiation between Marty Walsh, the executive director of the Players Association and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. I think

that the relationship in this new CBA, there'll be some things about the SPC, or the Standard Players contract, that is different. I don't know that the NHL is gonna want to allow teams and players to renegotiate deals until those deals are expired. There is one place though, where I've always felt that there's a place where you can I think logically bring in outside money. Money that isn't accounted for when you sign a deal. Because don't

forget, this is one of the things that owners don't want and we saw this during the lockout or the lockout, the the COVID pandemic. You know, there was the idea of amnesty buyouts for players. So buyouts that don't count against your salary cap and overwhelmingly the owner said, no, we don't want any outside money in the system. We've gone that route before, we don't want to do it again. But there's one place that I see this really working

and that is with no trade and no move clauses. When you ask a player to waive a no move clause, for example, essentially what you're saying to that player is, give me something in exchange for nothing. Because the team wants to move that player to get something else, use that player as a resource, the player gets compensated two-thirds of the square root of sweet fuck all. Language.

So, oh, I'm a ball of apologies. So, you don't get anything. Okay? You don't get anything for that. Where I can see an opening here is for in this new CBA, if you're going to ask a player to waive a no-move clause, there should be a financial price tag that comes along with it. I.e. you agree with the way you waive your no move clause, which we both negotiated in good faith, you get a million dollars. I'm throwing a dart. Half a

million dollars. Two million dollars. I don't know. Whatever the number is. That to me would make sense because that is a transaction. That is you get something, I get something, we're all good. As opposed to the way it is now, which is, give me something in exchange for nothing. Which doesn't work, obviously, for the players. That's a look. Now, the other thing that I can't understand, while we're getting on this tangent here, about with the Rolls-Royce and all that kind of stuff, you know what I still have, I still don't have a solid answer on?

How is it not cap circumvention? I'm gonna go all the way back here, okay? Like I'm going back to 2005 on this one. I'm sorry folks, but I've never really received what I feel is a decent answer for this one. How was it not cap circumvention for Sidney Crosby to be able to live in Mario Lemieux's mansion when he was a rookie? Oh come on. I'm serious. Was that something that was... But why? What's that? Was that afforded to every other player on the Pittsburgh Penguins at that time? You're living in the owner's mansion. Have you seen Mario Lemieux's house? Sidney Crosby lived there.

Oh, I guess because he was- Mario Lemieux had that ownership deal, right? Yes. But he was on the team. Yeah, okay. He owned the team. They gave him the team. Yeah, I know. They couldn't pay him, so they gave him the team. I know, I know.

Well, it bought the team like $30 million, but still. How was that not... No, you're grasping at straws here, Jeff. No, I'm not. This one's grasping. Yes. No. These guys like, Nye's lived with Taveras, Celebrese. That's a player. That's fine. That's Gonchar. And Gonchar lived with Malkin. And that's fine. That's player to player, not owner. The owner is making his mansion available as living quarters for Sidney Crosby. How is that not cap circumvention? Player to player? No problem. Young Malik and I are gonna live with Gonshar. Okay great, makes sense, no

problem, gotcha. Tavares and Nyes, yep that's good. Okay player to player, that's your deal, charge him rent for whatever you want, okay that's good. I'm talking about the owner and player. You know the can or MC just opened up here? In the chat they're asking for titles to be stripped. So Take the cut take the cups away right away take bring the banners down Yeah, way to go Jeff this is what you know problem No problem over to you Pittsburgh I don't know. I hope that answer the question. Essentially, the heart of it is you can't renegotiate a contract.

You can't renegotiate a contract. Long-winded way of saying can't renegotiate a contract. I get that. I'm OK with that. I love the idea, though, of players still being able to get bonuses past the salary cap. I love the idea though of players still being able to get bonuses past the salary cap and I think that that's just because I probably am a fan of a team who's capable of paying beyond that and there's other teams that would but Matthews you finished first in the league in goals here's quarter of a million dollars.

Nylander you broke career high here's your hundred thousand,000 bonus, etc. etc. etc. You can hand those cash out. I got no problem with that. Spencer Newton in the chat, yes Jeff you're correct and you've been correct for years. Frame that from the chat, Zach, will you? Jrock, can you see James Dolan? Yeah, sure, you can sleep in my basement. James Dolan saying to Brennan Hoffman, hey welcome to the team kid, you can crash in my basement. James Dolan saying to Brennan Othman, hey welcome to the team

kid you can crash in my basement. Let's get to our next guest. Do not let important people wait. Julia Tosheri is a very important person. One half of the impact players as we call them in Jock's and Jill's podcast. She joins me now. Julia thanks so much for stopping by. Now before I hopped on the air in a very particularly violent game between Canada and Czechia, it was two to one Canada, two goals by the goat. What did it end up? It wound up being seven, Jeff. Thank you for having me. Oh, seven? Oh, geez. Yeah, one of the things, seven won. It got really ugly. I think Canada got four goals in a matter of two minutes and 47 on seconds and the game was gone after that. But what crowd in Czechia we're seeing for this women's world championships. Like even when it was 7-1 at the very end of that game

we were seeing the fans in Czechia jumping up and down making that arena rattle. So they were in for it even before they ended up getting the win. Let me ask you about about about fans on the women's side, like on the on the men's side. I've always maintained that the Latvian fans are the best in the world. Latvian fans don't they don't care if they're winning or losing the there. They're having a great time. They're singing. They're they're chanting. They love everything about hockey. My favorite thing at World Junior's used to be sitting with the Latvian fans.

Best like I was I was telling the story last week. Like I'm the guy that always stays to the very end, and I'm glad that I did after Latvia beat Canada. I'm glad I stayed to watch, you know, all the Latvians tap the glass and go to the Latvian section and all that, but I was glad I stayed because there was a section of Canadians that stayed to give a standing ovation to the Latvian kids, Erics Matejkovic and all of them. I didn't want to just go into that. Yeah, so you were there. So you remember the Canadian section that stayed and stood and applauded the kids? I'm like this is

such a beautiful hockey moment. This is really wonderful. Okay, so on the women's side of things, outside of, because Canadian hockey fans are insane ditto for US hockey fans, but internationally on the women's side is there an equivalent equivalent of the Latvian hockey fan? Maybe? Yeah, I think it's Czechia for me. I haven't seen very much of Latvia in the top division on the women's side, but the Czech team, like I was there when they won their first medal at the women's worlds in Denmark a couple of years ago when they got their first bronze with Carla McLeod as the head coach and she's still obviously steering the ship there. It's amazing what the fans there think. And honestly, like

this tournament has already been the best attended women's world championship outside of North America and we haven't even reached the quarters yet. So it's really incredible what's happening for women's hockey in that country. We're seeing it with nine PWHL players already on that check team. So it's incredible to watch. And I like, I like how European hockey fans jump. I don't think we do enough jumping in North America. Right. They jump and makes the whole arena rattle. Find that lots of the barns in Europe have those 10 roofs still too, which we don't see as much buildings and Canada just makes everything louder. So I was very sad for Czechia. I was having a bit of an un-Canadian moment over here in my condo. Kind of true. You know, when you work in hockey for so long, like you're just hearing the storylines and I really liked that team. I really,

I really like what they're doing on home ice too. I was, I was honestly a little bit disappointed to see Canada stomp them in the end, but if you were paying attention to that game, did you see how mad Poulant was? Like she's just having one of those mad moments and she terrifies me when she's like that. I was having a moment of thank God I'm not doing the Between the Benches interviews right now because last year in Utica, I remember being like, oh, Poo's in a mood and Sam Cicero has asked me

to talk to Poo and now I have to do that, waddle over to her, you know the drill. Yeah, but I mean, like I kind of like her when, I mean, listen, I don't have to stick a microphone in her face after a period, but I kind of, I like her like that, but the whole game, like that first, I watched like the period and a half and I lost count of how many times there were hits

from behind and in the boards. What even were they calling? I have no idea what they were calling. Well, they weren't calling anything. And then that Sarah Nurse, did you see that Sarah Nurse call that they were doing? I have no idea. Well, they weren't calling anything and then that Sarah nurse Did you see that nurse Sarah nurse call that they saw the Sarah nurse penalty? Yeah Bizarre one to call when you've been calling nothing all game, but I don't know I'm not think I'm not the officiating I hate ripping on officiating because I know there's lots of people don't want to do it I know that minor hockey get ripped on I was a ref in minor hockey. I have worn those stripes.

I have fought those wars. It's not something I would recommend. So what was, I'm curious, let me, let me, let me, let me tickle that for a second here. What was that like for you and what was the worst? Cause we always focus on like the worst part of officiating. What was the worst for you? Oh, okay.

Well, I was not only a girl who played all boys hockey, for some reason when I decided to ref. My only jobs growing up were in hockey. Like, I either worked on a farm or I was a timekeeper or a referee or I like announced the goals of the arena. Like I only ever worked flame jobs in hockey. The worst one for me was refing a nine double A game at a tournament. And it was my dad's friend that was coaching. So I figured I'd be in the clear like my dad's childhood friend. And this guy ripped me and I tossed him. Bye.

Yeah. And I still chirp up about this to this day. My dad's friend, Adrian, if he's, if he ever hears this, Adrian, you're still a psycho. It was a penalty in a 9-AA game. Like, leave me alone. It's like, buddy, do you get this mad when you vote? Like, calm down. It's like a double-A game. It's like, it's a minor for a hook. Exactly. We have hockey parent talks, though. Hockey parents are just on another level. So, his kid was in the game. It didn't matter that his friend's kid was in the game.

She was the enemy. She was the enemy. Okay you know I mentioned this earlier before you came on, like one of the things I want to ask you about, I want to get to the World Championships, you know, I want to get to the PWHL and like there's a whole bunch of stuff I want to get to your thoughts on Gavin McKenna this weekend too. But let me, I'm really curious about one thing. I've got two boys that play, one plays in the G, one plays in the OMHA. I get the full cross-section of it.

I've got a million stories. You put one in the GTHL and one in the OMHA. Do you prefer one child? What happened? But I don't know which one is wiser. I don't know which one is smart. I don't know which one is healthier. I'm really intrigued by that. Although, you know what? I'll tell you what, I can't know which one is wiser. I don't know which one is smart. I don't know which one is healthier. I'm really intrigued by that.

Although, you know what? I'll tell you what, I can't tell you how many texts I got from people this weekend at the OHL draft who said, hmmm, no GTHL players in the top three. Hmm, isn't that interesting? I thought GTHL, is there going to be like an emergency development meeting on Monday at the Scotiabank? I love hockey referendums. I was thinking about hockey referendums watching that Canada check-in game, because I'm like, oh no, we're gonna have to have a national game referendum again. It's like at the world's biggest game.

100%. But so I've seen all the, you know, on the boy side, crazy parent, crazy dad, all of it. Is it the same on the girl side? It would be arrogant of me to assume that it's not or think that it's not. So I just ask you, like, is it same? Yeah, it's it's just as insane. And I think it's gotten even crazier now with the PWHL in the mix. And the fact that we'll listen like NCAA scholarships have always been a

huge prize when it comes to young parents and seeing their daughters eventually go on to Ivy League schools and have that opportunity through playing hockey. That was always a dream. And hockey Canada, USA hockey, obviously the national teams and the Olympics, always the dream as well. But now there's a real viable career path where women right now in 2025 are making real livable salaries and that's where the league is at right now. So you can only imagine as you like to play, say the parent of the 09 or 08 or 2010, whatever it is, is just licking their chops, seeing the dollars go into women's hockey, like not

just the salaries, but the sponsorships as well. I think honestly, he comes up on this show more than I do. Liam Hamm, my boyfriend, could speak to show more than I do Liam Ham my boyfriend Yes Because he works in hockey development And he's seen a huge influx of young girls coming in and he's kind of trying to build out a program for young girl hockey development young Young like there's a whole stream of players coming up It's gonna be really exciting to see that development changes. It's gonna be great, too

and I'll tell you like I can't help but look at this tournament and watch this season of the PWHL. And it's gonna be a real scramble here after the women's worlds to what this thing's gonna look like and who's gonna play off and who's not. But let me ask you this, does it feel to you that the game is at a place where we're going to see a changing of the guard probably after this Olympic cycle. Does it feel that way to you? Like we're looking at, you know, the last,

you know, some of the final games leading up to the Olympics next year of a lot of players that were really comfortable and used to watching on our televisions here. Are you talking with Team Canada specifically? Both, both Canada and the United States. Oh, interesting. So I'm thinking- But Canada for sure. Canada for sure. Canada for sure.

Yeah, I'm only thinking of this question a couple different ways, Jeff, because I was thinking you were talking like a changing of the guard in women's hockey in general and seeing countries like Czechia challenge for a medal and seeing Finland- No, I'm thinking of players. Yeah, but I was saying definitely a closing of the gap in women's hockey right now. But changing the guard.

Yeah. On the women's side, like Team Canada was like, are you guys ever gonna have a college player on this team other than Danielle Sir Daphne? Or is that just not something that we're ever going to do? And everybody likes the spot at Team Canada because of it. And then you take a step back and you're like, okay, armchair GM, who are we taking off this team right now? Like the thing is that's so impressive to me about Team Canada is that dressing room.

The culture in the dressing room is almost systemic. They know how to bring in a young player. They know how to bring that player in to be part of the culture and part of the team and part of the group experience. Like they really know how to bring that player in to be part of the culture and part of the team and part of the group experience Like they really know how to be a group And I think hockey Canada is very conscious of that and the harmony that exists in that locker room Like when when team Canada went to the 2022 Olympics did anyone think that they were gonna lose like did anyone think that there was even? A small USA could win. I know that's easy to say in hindsight

But it really didn't feel like the US had a shot in 2022 a little bit more interesting on the US side of things because they have this whole contingent of incredible college players. The whole hockey world got to see Kirsten Sims on full display in the NCAA championship when she got that penalty shot goal and then she got the overtime winner.

I don't know if we got to fully appreciate Caroline Harvey who was also excellent in the Frozen Four, Leila Edwards, like I'm naming all Wisconsin players right now. There's a lot of players on other teams. Think with Wisco here, hold on a second. Yeah, they're incredible. But the thing that's interesting, and I still kind of include Taylor Heisey and Grace Samwinkle in that young contingent

of USA players, even though they're in the PWHL and they're PWHL champions too. It's just an interesting mix they've gotten the USA right now with the veteran group of players like Kelly Panic, Kendall Coyne-Scofield, Hilary Knight, amazing for them, I think, to have Lee Stecklin back in the lineup. And she's been awesome so far this tournament.

She took a step away from the national team and it was a pretty significant thing. I think we're seeing how much her leadership mattered and how much the USA needed that little bit of leadership in the room. Canada might have just... Canada's all vets and the USA has a little bit of balance going. I think they need to find... I think the younger players on that team are still finding the perfect recipe for how to win at the senior level. So we saw them do it in Brampton in what was one of the wildest gold medal games I've ever seen, the Hillary Knight hat trick. That was a veteran on the team throwing the team in her back in a moment like that, the way we know

players like Hillary Knight and Hillary Knight specifically to do. So we are seeing a little bit of a changing at the guard. I think we see that with Canada's top D pairing too. Like it's not Jocelyn and Renata anymore. I think that was kind of like writing on the walls when Jocelyn LaRock was traded from Toronto to Ottawa. So much hockey can influence on Toronto. It's hard not to draw those conclusions. So yeah, it's definitely changing of the guard time.

And man, there's a lot of really good players coming up as you know. And a lot of them are on display. Now I do want to ask you about, and I was in your latest podcast, you guys spent a little bit of time parking on this one, which is a great conversation, you and Pounder and Kenzie talking about this one. Carolyn Harvey getting rocked by Abby Murphy. Now Abby Murphy crushes everybody.

Like Abby Murphy is just like wrecking ball. But in this Minnesota Wisco game, like the hit that she caught her with. First of all, it's late and I don't get the sense that Abby Murphy cared one bit. Here's the issue. The teammates now. Yeah. Dressing next to each other and team meals and everything. Like, have you heard anything?

I know. About this is I know all the U.S. college players went over earlier than the PWA next to each other and team meals and everything like I heard anything about this is I know all the US college players went over earlier than the PWHL players and they had a couple days in Chesky a Budavistke I've been having a lot of fun well done look at you rehearsing that nobody wanted to send me to the tournament and I figured out how to say it yeah that's a weird one okay some context missing from that though. Everybody saw Abby Murphy destroy KK. I don't know why her nickname is KK, side note.

Her name is Caroline, that starts with a C. Caroline Harvey absolutely crushed Abby Murphy from behind in the corner into the boards as well. So it went both ways. There was seat on either sides of this. You heard me on my podcast, Jocks and Jill, saying that I was doing some serious Instagram creeping to see, there was seed on either sides of this. Um, you heard me on my podcast, Jax and Jill saying that I was doing some serious Instagram creeping to see if there was any, no one following into that effect. I know we like to all see if there's like

a ceremonial unfollowing or anything like that. Nothing like that. I say we all like to see it cause I'm the one that looks for it. Um, well, I haven't heard a whole time. Nobody wants to say anything really. Um, I don't know. I haven't heard anything on this, but I haven't seen them together or anything like that. USA seems to be rolling right now. Like they were able to beat Canada yesterday. Um, but like I said, it was the vets that stepped up in that game with Keller and Stecklen scoring. So interesting to see what's going on with the rookies for the USA right now. Uh, game number 100 today, by the way, for Erin Ambrose. So a big one.

I love Erin Ambrose. Yeah, she's a big, she'll listen. We're big fans around these parts of Ambrose. I remember, I'll tell you. What's that? Our favorite YSC alum. Oh God, are we going to start about YSC? Here we go.

Chris Cherney, come on down. Sean Walker, here we go. Oh God, nonstop. Here we go. Nonstop. Zach Phillips, here we go. Oh God, nonstop. Here we go. Zach Phillips. Here we go. Robert Thomas. Of course. But so I remember during the pandemic, Elliot and I were trying to figure out, okay, how we can do this podcast. And so we like just like, okay, it's gonna be interview heavy, interview heavy, interview heavy.

So we don't have much hockey to talk about, obviously. And I remember I was talking to Cassie and I'm like, who should I talk to on this? And right away she's like, essentially what I was asked, who's got the biggest mouth? Who's the best talker? And she's like, Erin Ambrose. Like not even close, like Erin Ambrose.

And one day whenever she decides that her body can't take it anymore, because I think she's gonna have to drag her off the ice. I can see a career in broadcasting for Ambrose when she was done. But I'll never forget that conversation with Cassie. Oh yeah, Ambrose, yeah, she's the one. Who do you think the best talker is in the game right now?

Ooh, you know what, Renata Fast is really, really good. Like Renata Fast, and I know she does some TSN stuff, so maybe I have that in my head about her right now, but Renata Fast is so excellent. And Darryl Watts we had on our show recently, and maybe she's just so top of mind. And I think of her as a player that's so underappreciated on the ice. I think she's very underrated off the ice too. She's so thoughtful with every word that comes out of her mouth. And she's hilarious too. This like kind of dry, sneaky sense of humor that really gets me. Erin's always going to be number one for me too. I love, I love seeing Erin at the rink.

I love talking hockey with her. Um, honestly, yeah, she, she's one of the greatest. I was going to say, honestly, no one gets more excited to see Erin than Liam because I like the dynamic they had growing up. Liam used to watch Erin play for- Oh, no way. Was the captain. So, long-time fan of Aaron Ambrose. Here we go YSE again. Okay so we know Detour on Yorick Simcoe Express. How's this

all going to shake out in the PWHL? Oh god I don't know. I don't know Jeff and I'm stressed about it. I think part of the reason why Poulin looked so pissed off in that game versus Czechia today Obviously they had just dropped that game to the US. But if you've been watching Montreal Victoire games recently Marie Philippe Poulin looks mad and they've been on this like little mini slide, right? Like the Victoire and Tessa and I were at the last game Right before the break when Corey kind of went in at the media in Montreal. Did you see that? It's like a rite of passage, right? For Montreal

head coaches. I was lucky to be in the room for her having to give it to the media in Montreal. But I think that there was a lot going on there and it seemed like, I don't know, Poo is like so, she's so Pooh. You could know exactly how she's feeling by watching her on the ice. Like you can watch her shoulders, you can watch her head, you can watch her face, you can watch her eyes when she kind of looks out of her helmet and looks a little bit like demonic almost when she looks over her shin guards. So yeah, I don't think Montreal is falling out of first place. All this to say about how they're having a little bit of a slide right now. Toronto? So I don't think Montreal is falling out of first place. All this to say about how they're having

a little bit of a slide right now. Toronto, so I don't think- Could just park Montreal off one second. I just think that's a reflection of last season and how it ended for them. I think that she just hates to lose whenever. She's really bad at this. I believe that, I believe that, yeah.

Yeah, but you're right. There's gotta be some frustration left over from like all those million minutes of overtime and millions of shots that Aaron Frankel stopped. Like they couldn't get any faster. It was so frustrating. What's going to find a last year for Montreal? It must have just been so painful. Yeah, I don't know. New York Sirens still have a small chance and the New York Sirens just love to play for gold points. It's interesting though, because no one is eliminated yet. Because everybody still technically has a chance.

I bet on New York early. I thought, okay, there we go. Filet is in, all of a sudden it's like hotline. I bet hard. I bet hard. We all did. We all did. Like when we were planning our visits to all the PWHL markets

at the beginning of the season, we're like, oh, we won't even bother with New York. We'll go in the playoffs. Like that's how we plan. we're like, oh, we won't even bother with New York. We'll go in the playoffs. Like, that's how we plan. We're like, oh, we'll be there in the playoffs. So you weren't the only person that been on New York. I don't think it was a flash in the pan that we saw from New York.

I think New York is a real thing. New York has too many good pieces. Like, they have world-class defenders. They have two world-class goalies. They have some of the best forwards in the world. What we saw from New York was not a flash in the pan. What we saw from them was a historically bad losing streak, a nine game losing streak, the worst in PWHL history,

which is bad, spoiler alert, but it's even worse when you don't pick up any points. Like they weren't picking up any overtime points. They weren't picking up any points in that losing streak and it's just kind of made it impossible for them. I'm mostly interested in Ottawa. Like Ottawa is the most interesting team to me, just because I think there are the most implications

if Ottawa were to miss the postseason this year. And Ottawa like lost Darryl Wants, their leading scorer, they've been without Razzova for a lot of the year, who was kind of supposed to step into the place that Darryl Wants and be that superstar for them. I'm very interested to see what Ottawa does here because they've been really good since that takeover tour game where they decided they wanted to turn it on, but they're so unpredictable and they had like four chances last year to clinch the postseason and they just kept kicking it into the dirt. I'm interested to see what they do because I think it could have the most implications based on where they lined up.

Real quick before you wrap, I do want to get your thoughts because you're a big junior hockey fan as well and you watch a lot of it. And I don't know if there's a question attached to this one, there probably isn't. I'm just going to say what we all saw and get your thoughts. Gavin McKenna versus Prince Albert. I know. And Gavin McKenna, so I got to cover Gavin McKenna this past summer in Edmonton at the Hulingkigretzky Cup. And his entire family was there. He's such a nice kid. The thing I want to say about Gavin McKenna,

that's the most amazing to me, is I've had the opportunity to cover the hockey robots of our generation. Connor McDavid, hockey robot number one, and his little friend, Connor Bedard, hockey robot number one, and his little friend, Connor Bidard, hockey robot number two. I put those two kind of in their own category because like when I talk to them, it's hard to, it's not hard to talk to them about anything other than hockey.

It's like, but when I speak to Connor Bidard, I'm like, he's not even speaking to me. He's thinking about a power play in the back of his head. And it's the same thing. You know, hockey robots, Gavin McKenna is a really incredible hockey player and maybe a generational talent. I think Craig Button has said generational talent and I usually default to Greg when I decide who's a generational talent. But he is a generational talent. He was

like a great dude, like a great dude from way up north with an amazing family. Like his mom is one of the, what is his mom's name? Crystal. It's escaping me right now. But one of the sweetest women I've ever had the opportunity to talk to covering hockey. She has her lovely beaded team candidate earrings. Like I'm such a big fan of hers.

I also have a Nick Alberg story I want to tell on this podcast. Whoa, I ain't going to stop you. I'm going to back up off the microphone. This is all you. You got an Alberg story. Let's go. Okay. So last, I know I was supposed to come on last week and you guys had J. Rose Hall on and he

like just chirped Nick as he was leaving the show. And it made me think of this Nick Albregge story that I had that I wanted to leave you with. Because Nick Albregge doesn't know this Nick Albregge story and it is a freaking good one. I went to the Kuchak Bowl in Florida. Oh, yeah. A couple months ago, February, we've been and we had some great seats. My former TSN colleague Dave Pullen set us up. So we're in we're sitting cozy. And in Florida and Tessa set that up for us. So we were set up really nice in Florida. And you know, we're enjoying a hockey game in Florida. It was actually my first time going to a hockey game in Florida. I'm enjoying the scenery. I'm enjoying the sights.

I see a really tall dude in a tight t-shirt. Take a selfie. Have a girl line up in the aisle and take the selfie for him. And I make some jokes with him. And I'm like, hey, we're in Florida. You don't see that in Toronto. And Liam looks at me and he goes, I'm pretty sure hey, we're in Florida, you don't see that in Toronto. And Liam looks at me and he goes, I'm pretty sure you know that guy.

It was very much Nick Albarga having his selfie taken in Florida. And it was just such a comment that I made in passing. And then I couldn't even say hi to him because I was laughing too hard. But Nick, Nick is such a great guy and I'm kind of piling on him with that story, but yeah, I had to share you know we say about Nick Elberg around here Is it a swear he's a nice he's a nice bunch of guys he's a nice bunch of guys that's what Love them love you, too. Thank you for stopping by let's make this more regular. Okay, please please please please continued success with the pod Jackson Jill's gotta listen

The the last one is the preview of the other women's world the next one is gonna be the rap or are you doing one in? between We got one coming Wednesday. We're gonna tee up the quarterfinals. Nice. Awesome. Looking forward to that one. You be good. Take care. Yeah, thank you. I'm Julia Toscheri from the Jock's and Jill's podcast along with Tessa Bunham and to keep Zach Phillips happy.

A little bit of YSC talk in there sprinkled. Just a little sprinkled. little sprinkle. I like how people in the chat are saying about Nick Albrega, two people. Yeah, I knew where that, I had a feeling where that one was going. Two people? I've seen that, I've seen that picture that she was talking about, so I know exactly what picture. I think it was his profile picture on Twitter for a while. Did he post it? Yeah, yeah.

Oh, okay. That's, yeah. Hey buddy, don't see that in Toronto. I think that's the thing called Berga. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think that guy's from Toronto. Yeah. What do we still have to get to today?

We have anything else we gotta get to today? Oh, I know we have to get to today. We have a brand new partner here on the program throughout the end of this regular season and the postseason and that is our friends at JP Weiser's. This segment is a presentation of JP Weiser's. When the Stanley Cup playoffs begin, Canada comes alive with passion just like JP Weiser's. The spirit of Canada bringing fans together for every moment. Canada is eyeing its strongest NHL postseason presence in decades with five Canadian teams currently in a

playoff position. Come on Calgary make that six. The last time that happened was 1993 which is also the last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup, 1993. Welcome aboard, JP Weiser is glad to have you as part of the property here. Now then, Montreal closes out tonight, right? I'm not sure if I mentioned that here on the program so far, but I think Montreal really does close this one out tonight.

All right, fine, be that guy. Speaking of games, here are the games on the board later on this evening. And really there's a couple that are really noteworthy. The Sheet is Powered by FanDuel, as we always like to remind you. Home of the same game Parlay. Make every moment more on FanDuel. FanDuel, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. Now technically, Zach, there's six games on the board tonight. There's two with major implications, as we all know. Chicago Blackhawks, Montreal Canadiens, Bell Center. There is not a place in my hockey universe that I want to be at more than the Bell Center tonight I usually always say that I want to be at the Bell Center because the atmosphere is fantastic for hockey

But on a clinch night against the Blackhawks If they beat the Blackhawks in any fashion a single point one two it folks They're in. That's it. The only thing that sucks about that is it's at the expense of the Columbus Blue Jackets. That's the part where I'm like, ugh, I really, like all of us, wanted Columbus in. The fact that they've taken it this far and had that game Saturday against the Washington Capitals I think is awesome. Also the debut tonight Divyman Debedev of the Montreal Canadiens we shall see. Also I mentioned this with Brian Barnes earlier in the program if

Lane Hudson gets three assists in his final two games he sets a new single season record for assists by a rookie defenseman with 61. Larry Murphy one of the most underrated. Zach, even though your fans booed him out of Toronto, only to see him go to Detroit and win Stanley Cups. You see how that works. Larry Murphy, 60 in the 1980-81 season with the Los Angeles Kings.

That is the record. As much as it is the debut of Ivan Demidoff with the Montreal Canadiens, it's also the debut of Ryan Green with the Hawks. I don't think anyone showed up at the airport. I don't think anyone livestreamed it. I'm pretty sure. There wasn't a live stream for that one following him and probably probably texted his family and his friends and that was about it. No escort, no crowd, no signs, no live stream. But nonetheless, Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers. We mentioned the debut of Quinn Hudson. We thought it would be Wednesday against San Jose. Not so fast.

It is tonight against the Los Angeles Kings. If the Kings win in any fashion, they get home ice against the Oilers. And here's why that is significant. The Kings are 31-5-4 at Crypto.com Arena. 31-5-4. and four at crypto.com arena 31 5 & 4 when they get the matchups they want it's really tough to beat the Los Angeles Kings other thing that's noteworthy here Conor McDavid needs one point to become the fourth player in NHL history with eight 100 point seasons Gretzky did it 15 times, Mario did it 10 times, and

then the man they called Little Beaver, Marcel Dion with eight. I did not know that was his nickname. Yeah, Little Beaver. Oh yeah. He was one of the only, he was by the way, he was one of the only guys and I never feel this way because I was like, oh they're just hockey players, who cares? He was one of the only guys that I got when I was doing the old Leafs lunch show. When he, when he wrote his book and he came in live in studio and it was the first time that I'd ever met him, I was like nervous to do the interview. I remember that because I, it goes back to my dad telling me like, you know, you never see this guy, but I'm telling you, because he went from Detroit to Los Angeles and he's the best player in the NHL

and no one ever gets a chance to see him. My dad would go on and on and on about Marcel Dion. And I finally got to meet him, I'm like, oh my God, this is like the coolest thing. Like my dad used to always tell me nonstop about Marcel Dion, and here I am meeting Marcel Dion. Yeah, Little Beaver is the nickname. Great name. Great name.

Great nickname. Mike Bossy was seven as well. That's where Connor McDavid is. So those are the two biggies. Those are the two biggies tonight. There are four other games on the board around the National Hockey League this evening. You're free to enjoy them,

but the ones of significance are that. Do you have a thought on either of those two games? I kind of pounded on the on the on the Montreal Game because of the clinching scenario and the debut of Ivan demedoff, but anything on either one I mean Oilers are walking wounded the at home injury is just a crusher For them cheese man, like if there's if there's one player I know you never want to lose like a McDavid or a Dreissel that's obvious but man that is really significant losing someone like Matthias Ekholm no one else like no one else on that blue line does

what Matthias Ekholm does nobody nobody does so I saw a list come out I think it was from Rashad about all the players out. That was the one thing that stood out to me ahead of tonight. The other one would be watching how aggressively McDavid pursues the 100 points and then has, like tries to get it out of the way, I guess is what I'm saying here. Cause I feel like there could be some quick load management coming.

I feel like he cares about that I know he obviously puts the team first. That's very obvious in every single thing he does and Winning and trying to win the Stanley Cup those things matter the most it matters You know like I think any of these guys who are some of the best of the best It fuels them to be in the conversations of the best players in the world. Even though they give you the hockey answer, oh no I don't care about that, blah blah blah. Like you and I joked about the OV if he scored and then they went out in the post game after they lost and he's like, oh I don't care we lost the game, blah blah blah.

They care about getting these records and being amongst those conversations. But if he can get it out of the way at some point the next little while, like the first period or something, gives Chris Noblaw the opportunity to be like, okay, Connor, well, why don't you shut it down? I'll play you for like three minutes the rest of the game. But I feel like it's just gonna be fun to watch how quickly tries to go after that. How they handle these injuries and stuff because the other thing is rest versus rust. I think that that's a very interesting conversation.

It's not always the same teams who handle it one way. It's like players within the team might handle it differently. Some guy can't go out for an extended period of time and come back in. Connor McDavid might be able to miss a lot of time and come back and look really, really good. It's very different for everybody.

They got a lot of guys sitting out right now. Well, one thing I want to mention here is we go off the air and maybe we'll pick up on it tomorrow with Wish. In the blog, I just threw out a couple of notes on some of the teams that have exited the playoff picture. And New York Rangers. So I was talking with someone, texting with someone last week who brought this up and this person said like,

it's not allowed to happen because you're not allowed to do this under the CBA. Although it has happened before in a famous one between Quebec and the New York Rangers facilitated by Phil Esposito and that is trading coaches. And for the New York Rangers, how do you feel about this trade? The New York Rangers trade Alexi Lafreniere

to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for head coach Mike Sullivan, which technically you're not allowed to do, and a first round pick. This is one of those things that gives both teams what they want slash need. Gives the Rangers a coach that's good with working with veteran players and also gives them some cap flexibility by moving out Alexi Lafreniere and his deal. It's been a challenging time for Lafreniere

with the New York Rangers and the first round pick makes it more palatable. And for the Pittsburgh Penguins, you're getting, again, how many times have we talked about these are the the age group that Kyle Dubas is going after here. He doesn't just want to stockpile a bunch of picks but player and this is a player that's underperformed based on his compensation but could do well with the change of scenery and let's face it he wouldn't be the first French-Canadian hockey player to excel in Pittsburgh which has always had a healthy stable of French-Canadian hockey players. How do you feel about that?

Now again you can't do it because you're not allowed to trade coaches. Yeah. Right? Michel Bergeron was traded from Quebec to the New York Rangers with two first round picks went the other way. I think they fired Bergeron pretty quickly too. Phyllis said just threw away two first round picks. You can't trade coaches.

But if you could, would that be one that would make both sides happy? And give them a piggy? My mind just starts digging into some of this stuff, thinking about the young kids that have left New York and being like, we need to get out of here, we've struggled, we've had a tough time, et cetera. And then they go on and have success elsewhere. And I feel like Lafrenier is just another guy who would fall into that category. And Laz's Road to 100 would be correct.

It would just be a year early and in the wrong city. And that would probably absolutely kill him. But yeah, I mean, being able to trade coaches would be pretty exciting. I looked into it, Jeff. I'm pretty sure you can trade coaches in the NFL. I think that you're a lot. Oh, is that right? Yeah, so there was a trade

Proposal that I come up and it was like allowed to happen a couple of years ago that involved the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers Actually Mike Tomlin and it never went anywhere. Nothing ever happened with it But it was yeah, I'm pretty sure it was allowed like you you could have done it could do it all through Yeah, yeah last thing I want to ask you quickly. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was allowed. Like you could have done it. You could have followed through. Yeah, yeah. Last thing I wanna ask you quickly, because I did remind myself of it as I brought up his name. Morning Cup of Hockey Boys,

the show that goes off prior to this one in the morning at 9 a.m. before the Sheedy Cup of Hockey. I think that was what you called it, Jeff? Afternoon Cup of Hockey. Oh, okay. They wanted to know if you go to a hearing. Yes. This is coming off some of the incidents

that happened this weekend. If you go to a hearing, is it 100% you get suspended? You have to get suspended if you go to a hearing. No. No. That is 100% not true. There was Bufflin on Gallagher. There was Lindgren on Donskoi. There was Pouliot on Yandel.

So it has, it doesn't, obviously it doesn't happen very frequently. If you're getting a hearing, generally it's not looking good for you, but it's not an automatic. It has happened, it has happened more than a couple of times where a player's had a hearing, and at the end of it, it's like nope, okay, no suspension. So it isn't an automatic that you're gonna be suspended. Good question though. Good question, but the answer, Laz and Colby, no. One thing I wanted to mention,

as we bid everybody a good day. One is something that I missed and that was the passing of Alex Faulkner. That name is important because Alex Faulkner was the first player from Newfoundland to play in the NHL. He played with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings. Very, very proud Newfoundlander and they're very proud to call him one of theirs. He passed away on the 7th, I believe. So condolences to the legendary Faulkner family in Newfoundland. And the other one, this one is a little bit, a little bit more closer to home. Man, last week was just awful too with all the passings, but Jerry McNamara passed away. Jerry was at the age of 90.

Jerry McNamara was a general manager. Jerry McNamara was a scout. Jerry McNamara was a goaltender. Jerry McNamara was a manager for the Trinomy Police at a very tumultuous time, under owner Harold Ballard. And the one thing that we will always remember Jerry McNamara for, outside of being an outstanding storyteller,

and I interviewed him a couple of different times on the old Leafs Lunch Show with Bill Waters, great storyteller and real dynamic personality. He was the man that, and I can safely say this because there weren't any other scouts there who single-handedly was responsible for bringing Boria Salming to the NHL. Now he was scouting, he had gone to Sweden to look at a goaltender, a guy with the name of Kurt Larsson. Kurt Larsson had one of the coolest looking masks playing for Team Sweden. You can do a Google image search on Kurt Larsson. You can see what I'm talking about. But he went there to look at this goaltender and was told to go see Boria Salming and Inge Hammerström and came back with both. At the same time also found

Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson. But he was like whenever you think you know the legend of Boria Solming and we just lost him not too recently as well, think of Jerry McNamara. Because it wasn't for Jerry McNamara there wouldn't be a Boria Salming in the NHL and we wouldn't have seen the beginning of the influx of Swedish hockey players in both the NHL and the WHA that we did through the the 70s and into the 80s as well. Jerry passed away at the age of 90. I cherished all the conversations that I had with him and you know I'm really upset for the family and you know JD McNamara is someone that works with us here at Better Collective and we offer

all of our condolences to him and his family and I know that Jerry hadn't been well the last little while but had an uptick and and things were starting to look good and JD and I kept going back and forth because I was looking forward to going out to lunch again with Jerry and boring him with all of my ridiculous hockey questions and him being the gentleman that he always was and entertaining and humoring me and coming back with stories that I would remember for the remainder of my life. He was a wonderful man, he was a wonderful scout, he's a wonderful player, he was a wonderful manager, he was a wonderful raconteur and the hockey world has lost a lot with the passing of Jerry

McNamara. Again, condolences to his friends and certainly his family. She returns tomorrow, 3 o'clock Eastern. Thanks for joining me. I can't get out my head, lost all ambitions day to day Guess I'm caught up, right I went to the dark man, he tried to give me a little medicine I'm like, nah man, that's fine I'm not against those methods, but I knew It's me, myself and Alice gonna be fixing my mind I still wanna break it I turned on the music

I still wanna break it I turned on the music It's turned up, up, out of control Sometimes losing Helping on the days that went wrong