The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Golden Knights Take Game 1 in Carolina ft. Brian Burke & Bill McCreary

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

The Sheet is live from Just Dishin Headquarters in Buffalo ahead of the NHL Draft Combine as Jeff Marek breaks down all the latest storylines from the Stanley Cup Final and around the NHL. Jeff is joined by Brian Burke to react to the Vegas Golden Knights taking a 1-0 series lead over the Carolina Hurricanes with a thrilling 4-3 win in Raleigh. The pair dive into what separated Vegas in Game 1, the goaltending battle between Adin Hill and Frederik Andersen, early Conn Smythe Trophy candidates, Carolina's struggling top line, key adjustments heading into Game 2, and what the Hurricanes need to do to even the series. Later, legendary NHL referee Bill McCreary joins the show to discuss his new book, share stories from his remarkable officiating career, explain the differences between calling games in the regular season versus the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and reflect on some of the biggest moments and personalities he encountered throughout his time in the NHL. From Stanley Cup Final analysis to behind-the-scenes hockey stories, it's another packed episode of The Sheet with Jeff Marek.#TheSheet #JeffMarek #NHL #StanleyCupFinal #VegasGoldenKnights #CarolinaHurricanes #BrianBurke #BillMcCreary #NHLPlayoffs #hockeylover SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Canadian Blood Services: https://www.blood.ca/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are live at Justition. Really cool place. As I mentioned, hockey lifestyle apparel, really good skate skins as well. We're going to talk to you a little bit about Justition and what they do here because it's really fantastic stuff. And thanks to Matt Derek and all the guys here for getting us set up here. We're going to be here live for the next three days. We are in Buffalo for the NHL Scouting Combine. So get used to us.

And this set. And we've got a great couple of guests here today. So let's get right to the program. The Blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game on Fanduel coming up on the show. We will be joined in moments by Brian Burke. He's our Wednesday staple. He's going to be aboard.

Bill McCreary is going to stop by, along with Rob Simpson, has written this really great book called Stories from Ice Level. And there are some fantastic stories in here. We'll talk to Bill coming up at the bottom of the hour. We'll talk about the Vegas Golden Knights. An absolute banger of a game last night. That was a lot of fun. It's 2-2.

Now it's 3-3. Now it's 4. Now it's 5-4 in the Vegas Golden Knights win at the game. the Lenovo Center yesterday, take a 1-0 series lead. We'll talk about jobs being filled around the NHL. We'll talk about, as we mentioned, this book, stories from Ice Level, and we'll talk about NHL officiating. Coming up with Bill McCurry, coming up at the bottom of the hour,

also would like to let you know that this segment is a presentation of Canadian blood services who invite you to experience what giving feels like. In a world that can feel isolating and divided, blood and plasma donation offers something rare and fulfilling, real connection, real connection, purpose, real impact. Every summer, people across Canada get swept up in the excitement of the season and donation routines can slip, but the need doesn't. This is a moment to rally together as a nation at a moment when many Canadians are looking for positive ways to show up for each other. Canadian Blood and Services is issuing an invitation to new donors, fill every donation chair

in the country this summer. I do this every three months, folks. Book at blood.ca through the Give Blood app or call 1,000H. to donate. That is 1-888, the number two, donate. And with that, we will bring him aboard. He is no stranger to this broadcast or other broadcasts. He joins us each and every Wednesday here on the sheet. He is Brian Burke, and he joins me now. Berkey, all right today, sir. Good, Jeff. Can I tell you story about donating blood? Sure, I love to hear it. So I grew up in Minnesota, as many of you know, my mom was a nurse. She's long gone now. she was a nurse and you were allowed to donate blood when you were 16

if your parents signed a consent. So we started donating blood when I was 16 years old, continued into my adult life. I can no longer donate blood because the medication I'm on, but I have been the gallons and gallons and gallons of blood donations. A very simple, easy way to save a life, pure disease. It's awesome. Yeah, I'm the same way.

I'm on the regular routine. Every three months I'm allowed to do it, So every three months I do, cookie in the process and some juice or a bag of chips. And there is delightful to deal with. I got my app that reminds me when it's time to book and I go every three months, Berkey. So good to see there were kindred spirits in giving blood. Hockey is, after all, a sport, that players inadvertently donate blood.

So only appropriate that it finds itself on a podcast like this. Brian, a couple of things. And I want to get into your thoughts on Bill McCreary, who's going to be dropping by towards the bottom of the hour. What did you make of last night? It's a big win by the Vegas Golden Knights. They draw first blood, pardon the pun, and at least get a split out of the Lenovo.

What did you think? I thought it was a very poor start. I thought, you know, being down 2-0, they cannot continue to do that and be allowed to win. So I think it was a poor start. I thought Torts did a real good job rallying the troops, and then the veteran group took over and won the game. I think Vegas is going to win the series.

I said that before I went on the air. I said before game one, I hope I'm wrong because I love Rod Rendemar. But I think that's just the most complete team in the playoffs. The one thing that I think really stood out is, and we talked about this before, if you're going to beat the Carolina Hurricanes, you've got to break down the man-on-man.

The Vegas Golden Knights really did that. And when you break down the man on man, a lot of ice appears. And the Vegas Golden Knights were able to exploit that. And you're right. Like not a great idea to go down to nothing early. Nick Eilers was the story. But then the Vegas Golden Knights clawed back and clawed back. I don't think this is going to be a quick series.

This is still a really good Carolina Hurricanes team. I still think we're looking at a long series between these two teams. but from an individual player standpoint, Berkey, who jumped out at you last night? Was there anyone that, I mean, listen, Shea Theater had three points. Braden McNabb had the game of his life with three points, his three assists as well. But who jumped out for you last night? I'll tell you who did not, the Aho line.

If they don't get going, if they don't get going, it's going to be a short series, not a long series. Ahou and Svetichikov and... Seth Jarvis. Seth Jarvis. Seth Jarvis had a great scoring chance. but they're not doing anything. I love all three of those guys.

They're not doing a bloody thing. That's going to cost them dearly unless they get going. That has been a story all playoffs. Like the Carolina Hurricanes, 12 and 1 getting to the Stanley Cup final and doing it all without their top line, it's been the Stankhoven line. It's been the stall line. It's been the fourth line that's getting it done for the Carolina

Hurricanes. Yeah, but you know what? I saw him the first one on Ajo's line. It's not going, okay. I can live with that. That a bad series. Second series. Ah, those lines are not going.

Okay, I can live with that, maybe. Third series, they're still not going. Last night they did nothing. Come on. They're not going to win this series unless they start contributing. It's getting late in the day, boys. Yeah. Okay, so more on this series as the playoffs continues,

game two is tomorrow. So I'm in Buffalo for the Combine. And actually, one of my favorite moments during Combine interviews was with you when Andrei Svetnikov came into the room to talk to all of us at Sportsnet. And the question that you asked him was, where do you work out? And he talked about the gym across the, across from the rank in Barry. And the point that you made was Barry at that time was one of the only ranks in the CHL that didn't have a gym in the arena. you wanted to see what Svetnikov was going to answer.

When you interviewed kids at the Combine, first of all, what sort of trick questions did you have for them or what questions were designed to trip them up? And what did you glean from talking to kids at the Combine? I would usually ask someone something to throw them off the script. The problem is when you get to the Combine, the agents have told them, who's your hero? Oh, my dad.

who's your best friend? Oh, my right winger. They coach these guys so well. So I used to ask them something to throw them off the script. I'd say, what kind of watch is that? Not like kids, full scramble. He said, I can't say it's a Rolex. Mr. Berkel think I'm a rich kid.

He can't say it's a Timex. I think I'm cheap. So he's all flustered. I'll say, what kind of dog do you have? He said, I can't say a poodle because Brian Burke likes tough hockey. So it throws them off. I'd say, just relax, kid. I don't care about your dog.

I just try to get out the script. So I mean, you go, I'd throw them off guard a little bit. Or ask them what time they got up today. Something that's thrown off the script. You know, what did you have for breakfast? And the kid's like, oh, my God, I better say something healthy. Were there any experiences where a kid just nailed it in the interview? And you're like, there's the player and we get that.

But this is a kind of person we want in the organization. Does anyone jump out at you that way, Berkey? Oh, yeah, Brad May was one of the best interviews ever. Trevor Linnon was great. More recently, Gabriel Landisog, best interview I've seen in 10 years. So some of the kids come through sincere. Gabriel Landisog, I said to our people afterwards, why don't we let him conduct the rest of the interviews?

He should be the GM. He'll be the first Swedish GM while Patrick Alvin was. So Gabriel Alton Scholar, he would be a GM. before it's over. All right. Speaking of GMs, Chris McFarland leaves the Colorado Avalanche to join the Nashville Predators.

Not a lateral move. I mean, he's pretty much running the whole hockey operations department there with Nashville. How much of a stunner was this one for you, Berkey? There's a big stunner.

Let me back up one sec, Jeff. I'm sorry. I want to talk about Vanek. When Thomas Vanek, his job... Oh, okay. Sure. He came in for the interview.

His hair slicked back. sunglasses on the back of his head. He was clearly bored. He was projected to go like second or third, and we had like the 15th pick. He was like, why am I bothering with you? You're not going to pick me. And finally I said, listen, stop back like an asshole. You know anything about me?

You know, I moved up before in the draft. Take the guy I want. So start paying attention. He sat up straight, picked the sunglasses off. So sometimes you've got to get him going. But Chris McFarland. really sharp guy. I was stunned. I heard the rumors.

As soon as they got swept, I'd heard the rumors that there's going to be a chase there. I'd heard those rumors. So I wasn't completely surprised, but Nashville, who had been interviewing for about a month, interviewed lots of people, supposedly offered the job once before, but I wasn't surprised.

It was surprised at the speed had happened in Nashville. Chris McFarland's a really good guy. He is. And, you know, his journey to become a general manager is a fascinating one as well. And a lot of it has to do with Lou Lamarillo. But I think one of the interesting sidebars to all of this is that Joe Sackett goes back to take over the general manager's chair. Do you have a thought on that one?

Yep. What are you doing, Joe? What are you thinking? like he finally got out of the hot seat handed over someone else and you're back in the hot seat I think Joe's really good at his job he's a really good guy

so I'm not totally surprised I was a little bit surprised I thought he was out of that out of that gig it's uh it's it does kind of make me wonder then like if he's sliding right back into the GM chair how much he was involved in the day-to-day operations

uh and in the general manager's position while Chris McFarland had that job. It only makes sense to, if you're McFarlane, to rely on or lean on Joe Sackick and that brain. But maybe Sackick was more involved than we thought this whole while. I haven't heard that. That's a possible scenario, but I have not heard that from anybody.

What do you think this says about the Nashville Predators here? I think their patience pays off. They waited. They offered the job at least to one. the person I was told that they've waited, they've done a very exhaustive set of interviews, they finally got the guy they wanted to move quickly on it. So I like it. It does very much, Berkey also sound like this was lengthy deliberately. It's a new owner, wants to get the lay of the land, meet as many people as possible. I've always figured that

searches for other coaches or managers should be lengthy and you should interview a lot of people, even for no other reason than just to gather information, right? There's never, you can never have too much information in your organization. So it seems as if this was partially find the guy to run hockey operations and they found it. And also to gather as much information as possible for the new ownership group. I think that's true. Also, what you find you learn a lot about people when you do interviews, and the lengthier ones and longer ones.

Some of these interviews are three, four hours. I've interviewed for the flyer's job. My first job interview ever, other than working for Pat, was I was asked to interview by Jay Snyder with the Flyers. The interview was eight hours long. I finally said to Jay, is this a date or are we interviewing? Eight hours? Eight hours. What did you do for eight hours?

We went through every grade of school. We said, go through grade one and where did you go to school? Tell me about school. I went to a Catholic school in Chicago at the time at grade one. So I went through all the way up to Harvard Law School and then my jobs. And it was exhausting. But Jay's a really good guy. I had fun and learned a lot.

But the other thing is, once you interviewed for a job, it changes your status within the group. Helps you become a finalist and a finalist. After I interviewed with the Flyers job, even though I can get it, I was mentioned for every job that opened up after that until I got the Hartford job. That is, how often do, I'm curious, how often do team, do that as a favor to people to help get their name out there? A fair amount,

because I've had guys say to me, that guy's not at the top of our list that we're interviewing since you asked us to. So that's a fair amount. It changes the candidate status, his or her status. Interesting. Hard turn here.

I know you want to talk about Harry, speaking of managers, Harry Sinden, and shots on goal. at Boston Garden. What's the story here, Berkey? Well, I had to tell the story. They were talking about shots on that

and how Montreal had only had four and so on. Yeah. I was at Boston Garden when I was still an agent. So this would be probably 84, 1984, maybe 85. And Nate Greenberg, who's a wonderful man. He was a PR guy for the Bruins. He was sitting in the press box.

I sat with him in the press box for a period. And Harry didn't let the agents sit in the press box, so I knew I had to get out of there in a hurry. But we're in the first period. The shots are 11 to 2 against Boston. Boston only has two shots on that. Phone rings, and they goes, okay, okay, okay, hangs up. I said, who was that?

He said it was Harry. He told me to put some shots up for Boston. Thanks to know the shots are even. You know, Doug McLean, when we work together, we're always talk about that, about, you know, you go through a period, you start a game off and your team doesn't have any shots on net for the first 10 minutes or so. And Doug would just be spitting, like, get a message down to the coach, get a message down to Dave King.

Just start throwing pucks on net. Just get that zero off the board. How much would you be looking at shots on goal to start a game, Berkey? I used to drive me nuts when you get any shots, but I never called anyone. I never called Mark Crawford or never called Randy Carl. I'll never call it Ron Wilson, but it did bother me. You'd be like, can't they just throw one up there and get that zero off the board? If you're going to go a whole first period of two shots on that,

you start the third, can you just throw one up to that and get it to three? It really does bother teams, obviously, here. I want to get you thoughts on a couple of things here that Gary Bettman talked, Gary Batman and Bill Daly talked about at the press conference yesterday. A succession plan for Gary who says, like, look, I'm 74 years old. I'm not going to be doing this forever, but I'm still here. All-Star Game 3 on 3, Canada, Finland, Sweden, USA, and World. World will include Russian hockey players.

An update on expansion. The playoff format remains the same. The new Rink in Calgary is on track for 27, 28. World Cup games will be played there in 28, and that seems to be the highlights from it. Did anything jump out at you from the annual State of the Union before a game one of the Stanley Cup final from Gary? No, not in particular, but one thing I want to mention

is we're doing Climate Week here in Toronto. I spoke to two panels the last two days. The New Rican Calgary is so much more energy-efficient and water-efficient, solar panels, Center plus solar panels, the technology and the starting to climate pludge arena, the notion of design and construction of buildings that are economically friendly. It's so cool now.

Compared to the Saddle Dome, it's unreal the difference. Okay, Brian, one thing here quickly, before we let you go, I wanted to bring our next guest on early, because I wanted you to get a chance to have a chat with him. You spoke, about him last week. I know he's one of your favorites. He is Bill McCreary, along with Rob Simpson, the author of Stories from Ice Level.

Welcome Bill McCreary to the program. Brian Brooke, do you have anything to say to one of your favorite referees? Yeah, I've forgiven it, Billy. You should have fired your coach after that for playing those two defensemen too much, Brian. Anyways, Brian, it's always great. Brian, it's great to see you. and the job you did help getting the PWHL off the ground is enormous,

and I'm sure everyone there says thank you. Well, Billy, it's a pleasure to work with you. You're the best referee I ever saw, and it was a pleasure working with him, even though he wouldn't talk to the players like I beg you to. He used to say to Billy. He used to say to Billy, Billy, you can bring the temperature down. Go and talk to them.

In between being, we had a timeout coming up here, got a commercial timeout. Talk to both benches. warn him. He said, I'm not a school teacher, Berkey. I'm not talking to anyone outside of the side I want to. But my one beat for him. And we made Billy work. He flew all over the world at the end of the season. So the referees, their season was based on 80 or 82 games. And I get to March 1st and he did 80 games. I'd say, Billy, I got to put you the work. We had them in Denver one night, Boston the next night, all hot spots. We just flew them all

Lower Halks, he's such a good referee. Well, I think Jeff, I got lucky. Yeah, well, I think Jeff I got lucky. All the other guys went on holidays early, so Brian had no choice. Remember, too, Billy. We used to, you'll bring your skates on board, and after 9-11, they stopped that. Secular skates on board, and I stopped that after 9-11. All right.

Listen, Bricky, thanks as always for stopping by. Wanted to have a little bit of an overlap. You got a chance to talk to your favorite referee of all-time Bill McCurry. you. We'll talk to you next Wednesday, pal. You'd be good. Thanks, Jeff. Good luck with the book, Billy. Thank you, Brian. Hey, Bill, how are you? Thanks so much for stopping by today. This is a really great read.

I really, really enjoyed this. There's great stories, great insights. A lot of things that I wasn't aware of. I always encourage, you know, coaches, players, and in your case, officials to write books because I always, like, I sort of carry with me this idea of we hear so much about doing what's right for the game, what's right for the game. And I almost feel like it's maybe not an obligation, but I always appreciate it when people who had, you know, a major influence on the game and you had a legendary career, share their experiences.

It's just good to help fill in blanks. So there becomes my first question. Why did you want to write a book? Well, first of all, thank you for having me. You know, I think, I think, Jeff, after 29 years, almost three decades on the ice and 13. years in management supervising. I thought a lot about it. I met Rob Simpson many years ago, and he wrote Ray Scapanallo's book and did a great job. My daughter always encouraged me to tell my stories, and it really never resonated with me until Rob said one day we ran into each

other in the Vancouver Press Box, and he said, are you ready? And I said, if you are, let's give it a try. So he flew to where I lived, two hours north of Toronto. And, you know, we just sat around for two days, and he had his little recorder on, and we told hockey stories. And it's a lot of fun. It allows people to sort of come in the inside of the boards, if you will, or in the bows of the arena. And it's things that people would never know that took place. You know, one of my favorite officiating stories, and I want to get to some of the stories you have in the book here, one of my favorite, one of my favorite officiating stories is Mickey Ion.

So Mickey Ion, who would have been a contemporary of Bill Chadwick, the Big Whistle, would call officials to center ice before a game, would hold up a puck and say, gentlemen, the one thing we need to remember here is, the minute I drop this puck, we become the only sane people in this building. and all I need to do is drop this puck. Does that old saying from Mickey Ian resonate with you, Bill McCreary? Well, it makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? I mean, obviously I've read stories about him.

He's obviously in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Once you dropped the puck and back in the old system, you were in charge. So you were responsible for a lot. 40 professional hockey players. Back then, there was only a couple coaches on each bench, instead of four or five because they don't know who to put on anymore. And so you were in charge of a lot of things. And everything people forget that they see on television is in slow motion and replays.

The officials get one look at it in real time. So it's an art to be able to do that on a consistent regular basis. And he is 100% right. Once you drop the puck, it's game on. Tell us about your first game. 1984, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, what do you remember? Well, I just remember being very nervous, obviously.

And when you get your first game, it's an absolute honor. I worked my way up through the Central American Hockey League. And when you were assigned that first game, I work with Gore Brasker and Ray Scampanello, and the late John Ashley was the supervisor, and another Hall of Famer. And it just, you dropped the puck as we just talked about,

and things just happened. And of course, for me, being a rookie, it was happening at extreme speed that I wasn't used to. So that's something I had to adjust to. But I think my success came because I learned to communicate with people. These are professional men making a living for their families, representing the crest on the front of their sweater, and it was learning to communicate with individuals

when they're in an emotional state. And I think that truly helped to my success in the industry. you know one of the one of the things that and actually Brian Burke was the first one to really draw this to my attention we actually used to do a segment on television about it during the games that we would we would cover together we used to call it Burkey's first call or get the call the get the first call right or something like that bricky would always say the most important call that an official will make is the first penalty because that's the penalty that tells both benches that's where the line is that is that is is it, that's the penalty, that's the standard. Did you always carry that with you? Like, putting the premium on what the first call is going to be for the game as an indication to both benches, this is how we're calling this thing. Well, that's absolutely very accurate. I mean, the first call is so important in any game. Playoffs, as you mentioned, it demonstrates when you cross the line what's going to happen. I think what's important about that is, and I didn't

graduate from Princeton. So my motto was keep the game fair and safe. And I worked very hard at trying to do that for all the professional athletes that I had a pleasure of being on the ice with. And when they learned game after game after game, you were going to work very, very hard to keep the game fair and safe for them. They were balls to the wall. And it creates excitement. It creates entertainment value. And that first call, if you allow someone to cross-check someone, If you allow someone to slash someone, if you allow the player to skate through the blue and up end the goaltender,

you have no control of the game. But if you react to those situations and those players see that, that sends a very strong message early in the game. And usually it sets a great standard. And probably if you follow up with it throughout, you're going to do your job very well. You know, what are the things that we've talked about here

around trophies, the Lady Bing Trophy, specifically. I'm of the belief that that should be voted on by the NHL officials. They know who the most gentlemanly players are and who the most gentlemanly players aren't. It's your job. How do you feel about officials voting on the Lady Bing? Have you ever thought about that? Well, you know what? I've really never thought about that, but now that you bring it up, that would be a wonderful panel to be on because I think there's another word that falls into place.

and that's honesty. There's a lot of players that sneak through doing things that aren't real honest to the game. Sometimes they cheat the game. But when you talk about Lady Bing players, you know, over the years of Matt Sundane's and the Igor Larianovs and the Joe Sackix and just I should have never started

because there are just so many great ones but honest ones that played the game. So, yeah, that would be an interesting concept and yeah, I would love to be part of something like that because I think I could give a lot of value to decision making. Who would know better? Who would know better than the officials is what I keep coming back to on this one? I want to pull out a couple of special games for you and the one that really stands out 1994, New Jersey, New York Rangers, game seven, one penalty called per team.

and it wasn't as if you were letting a whole bunch of stuff go. That was just a, is, there's the, there's the idea of letting the guys play, but also reminding them not to take advantage of the fact that you're letting them play. What do you remember from that, one of the greatest games that the NHL has ever seen? What do you, what do you remember from that one? It's a huge one for you. Well, there's a lot of memories, and you're absolutely right, Jeff,

the memories from that game and what it did for my career are incredible. And I'm glad you prefaced it by saying it's not like I went out there and said, I'm not calling anything and good luck. They earned one penalty each. And I think we go back to what I said when we started this interview. I communicated, that was probably one of my best games ever for communicating to players, skating up to them, reminding them not to use their stick, remind them not to hit from behind, stay away from the goalie,

just constant reminders throughout the game. And I will say, and I wish each and every player was listening to this because they deserve all the credit. They played like men within the boundaries that were set, and I responded and treated them like men. And you're right, it was probably one of the hardest entertaining hockey games played in the National Hockey League history. That was an intense game.

And that was one that anyone that watched it, is they're going to remember it forever, as well they remember. 2010, gold medal, Vancouver. What are your memories from that one? Stripes. Obviously, when you work a gold medal game, it's an honor. I'd worked two prior to that. And I'd worked them by myself. In this particular game was the two referee system by then in 2010. And Dan O'Helen and I worked a game who we'd worked a game.

who we'd worked many big games together. So what a lot of people forget about this game and it's never mentioned is that probably 45 to 50 seconds before the goal was scored, Joe Pavolski was all by himself on top of Roberto Longgo and Louis makes an unbelievable save. And nobody talks about that. If Joe scores, the U.S. wins the gold medal, right?

But the save is made. The puck goes down the other way. We changed lines. And as I alluded to when you had Brian on here at the beginning, Brian Rufelski and Ryan Suter had played so many minutes. It seemed to me they were on the ice as much as I was. And it was incredible. The amount of minutes those two players logged.

A credit to their professionalism. I mean, I had so much respect for both of them. But I think they were war out. And as Canada got into their end zone and Gindlerland and Crosby and I think was Niedomarf, I'm not mistaken, just kept sort of circling the puck, waiting to set up an opportunity. When the puck was rimmed around the boards, and I think it was Brian that shot the puck, or it might have been Ryan, I'm not sure. And it wasn't going out in the end zone. The puck was going

very slow by the time it got to where I was positioned. And it touched the toll of my skate. There was a race for it. Crosby won the race, shot it to the corner. corner to a ginnla and they communicated it was passed back out front again the two guys who had been on the ice like I said as much as I had were exhausted and Crosby as you know was all alone and shoveled the puck in the net it's not like he shot it in the top corner and it was a pretty goal or something like that it was probably one of the ugliest goals scored in Olympic history but um mr. Farber did a complete story on on the last 30 seconds and it is a great read All participants that were involved in that goal have something to say in the story.

And again, it was amazing to be on the ice. Again, people don't know, but back in Salt Lake City, Mr. Patrick was the general manager of the United States team, and two nights before they sit in a room and they call them directorates, Jeff. I think they're fishing supervisors at the National Hinkling level. However, the directorates, they go around and they submit names who they want to work, and Mr. Patrick kept submitting my name. And the double IHF said, no, you can't have him.

He's Canadian. And go around the table again, and he'd submit my name. And finally he said, no, that's what we want to referee. We trust him to referee. We need a referee our game. So that was the first time ever. I broke the code. I broke the rule of the WHF that a country official could officiate his own

country where he was born in a championship game. So it's worked out for a lot of referees in Europe. It's worked out for other officials in North America. And I was very proud to be able to do that. What's probably unbeknown to a lot of people following the game, which was incredibly intense, 13 of the American players unsolicited, skated across the ice and shook my hand and said, good job. I mean, that's something that will, I will never forget, it takes a big person, a very professional person after losing something that large, a chance of a gold medal, to do something like that. That's an incredible story, first of all. You've been part of some huge moments, and many of them documented in this book. There's two that I want to, that I want

to talk about here and get some further thoughts from you. Um, Eric Landross's, first game in Quebec at the Colise and then the game you officiated with Mario Lemieux when there were death threats made against him. Let's start with Landross. Going into that one, you knew it was going to be an emotionally laden game and you knew the crowd was going to be raucous.

What was your mentality going into that game, Bill? Well, first of the first, well again it's about safety right and it's about fairness but we we know in quebec the fans that support hockey it's like a religion and i respect that they're tremendous wonderful fans in this case here eric was painted out to be the villain obviously not by the officials not by any players by the fans and anything that was unbolted to the floor in that arena come on the ice during that game. And what I remember, the most that scared me was they were throwing batteries, like D size and C size batteries onto the ice. And it was very scary. We didn't have helmets on. I didn't

have a helmet on. If one of those things hit you in the head, you know, it's probably I'm not talking to you today the way I am. So that part of it was, you know, not right. It wasn't right for Eric. and it wasn't right for any of the players participating. I'm sure if you asked any of the Quebec players, they wouldn't like that either. I mean, it's just common sense. However, you know, we got through the game. I think it took well over three hours,

which was not normal, but it's something that happened. And unfortunately, for Eric's experience, it was probably a negative experience. But what a great player and what a great head. The mayoral Lemieux game. That was an interesting part of the book here. Can you share that one with us? Well, I don't know how accurate the threat was or how legit the threat was,

but obviously there was a threat against Mario. And we had a meeting with security before the game, and we talked about how we should handle things. And I said, well, I have to referee the game. I mean, I have to do my job. It was suggested to me that we don't talk. I don't talk to Mario. I don't talk to Maryo.

Mario doesn't talk to me. And I said, that's a good thing. That means you won't be near me. And the second part was to skate as close to the board as I could to be safe. So when you think about those two things and you're going out to referee professional hockey game, there's a lot to digest there. There's a lot to separate and still do your job properly. But once again, thank goodness, nothing happened. And I can't remember if Mario was successful in that game or not.

I mean, I did so many games where he had so many points. It wouldn't surprise me if he got a couple points in that game or more. Incredible athlete, great guy, always treated me as a professional. He was known to whine a lot. I never experienced that with him personally. I was just upfront and honest with him, and he was the same back to me. So, again, I think communication and transparency is a great thing for an official to be successful and we got through another game.

Let me close on a conversation I had with another Pittsburgh Penguins superstar of all time, and that's Sidney Crosby. I remember this a few years ago at the NHL Players Tour. I said, are there anything, is there something that you regret or what do you regret from the beginning of your career? Is there anything that you'd change if you could? You know, hindsight being 2020, obviously. And he said, I'll tell you, I've done a lot of apologizing over the years.

A lot of apologizing to officials for how I was when I first started in the NHL. Is that common? Is that common amongst players? I think it is. And I think it's more common amongst the superstars. Because they're not just representing themselves. They're representing their team, Jeff. So I remember it's funny you bring up city.

I remember we're in New Jersey in the old building, the metal lans and you know where that was. Oh, yeah. We were in the hallway stretching or whatever we were all doing. And I saw Sidney down the hallway and I walked down and I said, Sid, I always respected him because, again, he never dumped on me. But I said to him, you know, to get respect, Jeff, to give respect. If you don't and complain and you know the referee's name when you go up to him instead of saying,

hey, you'll get a lot of respect. And I never, I mean, was he emotional mad at me at times? Of course he was. That's just part of the game. I don't hold that against them. I mean, nobody thanks you for a penalty. And so, again, when they're the captain, they're supporting their team. They're supporting themselves.

And people forget when you drop that puck and I go back to what you said about Mickey, when you put your arm up to call your first penalty, you're 50% wrong by someone in the building. So people don't look at what we do to make a living and what you go through with the athletes each and every night and the coaches, and you have to work extremely hard to gain their respect. But once you do that and you have that respect, doesn't mean you can get away with things.

It means that they hold you to a higher standard than other people. And there's nothing wrong with that. but I never bothered players and I think in return they really never bothered me too much. I'm not going to say we never had differences. Of course we did. Again, that's the emotion

and I hope we never lose that in our great sport. Amen. This is a great read. Stories from Ice Level, Rob Simpson with our guest today, Bill McCurry. Bill, this has been a lot of fun. Thanks so much for stopping by. Best of luck with the book,

some tremendous stories in here. This is one that I highly recommend people to pick up. There's some great stuff in here. Really appreciate your time today. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate your preparation and your professionalism. Thank you, sir. The Great Bill McCrory, one of the greatest referees to ever do it.

A number of Olympics, big tournaments. We didn't even get into 1996 like that, World Cup of 96. I know in Canada we talk so much about 1987, and focus on the quality of that hockey. But 1996, that quality of that hockey, was just as good as it was in 1987. and was probably tougher than the 1987, and it was Bill McCurry that called the whole thing. Anything from the show so far, Zach, that you're looking to pull out of it?

Well, I think the thing about respect with the referees and the officials is the one thing that goes a long way, and I keep thinking about Mani Malhotra passing on the lessons to Caleb Malhotra and him telling us about that and asking right at the beginning in the season, and you just continue to bring up, like, that's not, necessarily something a first generation player does, but knowing that kind of stuff that early in your career avoids you of having those conversations like what Sid had to have later, where he goes back and apologizes.

Not to say Caleb at some point won't have a potential blow up and maybe give it to somebody a little bit. But having that groundwork laid, I think is interesting. And it's those little things that we've now kind of heard over the last two months just come up in every conversation we've had with people who are still in the game or have been being around the game previously, who all bring that up and that level of respect, it goes a long way. We thank Bill McCrary for stopping by the program today. And this segment we remind you is a presentation of the Ninja Crispy Pro Countertop Glass Air Friar.

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roast, re-chrisp, and dehydrate. For more information on the Ninja Krispy Pro, visit the link in our description, or go to shark ninja.ca. You know where I am, right? Yeah, Dishin Headquarters, correct? You're out there in Buffalo right now. Yeah, this is so cool.

He can see the, let me grab it here. Yeah. I grab a couple of them. This is, They do some great work. Recognize these guys? Yeah. We had Pete Blackburn on off the roster this morning.

Oh, did you have Pete on? The stuff looks so good, right? Looks fantastic. It looks fantastic. This is the group. The guys here are fantastic. You see the skate, they have this sweet blue and white.

I love the skate wall. The skate wall looks fantastic. There's a blue and white Air Jordan pair that I looked at when I first came in here this afternoon, which is just gorgeous, like shirts and hats and skate skins. I was on Sabers Live this afternoon, and Duffer and Marty were going on about how cool the shop is, and it's fantastic.

This place is great. The stuff that they do looks amazing. Great hospitality, great dudes. And I got to bring a shopping bag tomorrow, I think, Zacharoo. The episode of the, Yeah, this part, because there's some really cool. Put it this way. I'm not cool enough.

I feel like I'm faking. I don't know that I'm cool enough to wear all the great gear that the guys have here. This episode is sponsored by Dishin. You know how most hockey gear and apparel all kind of look the same? We sure do. Dishin decided to change that. They're the Buffalo-based brand creating some of the most creative, hockey-inspired apparel and projects out there,

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They've had Buffalo Sabres guys, by the way, Zach, float through here. Josh Dohn came through, Michael Kesselring came through, Tage Thompson. has come through as well. So great place, great gear, sweet hats, skate skins look sweet. You ever wear skate skins? No, I didn't. The skate skins weren't around when I was still playing. So like they came through just as I kind of exited my minor hockey career.

And I think that's when they started to become popular. But there were guys or there are guys that I play against now or you see at the rinks wearing the skate skins. I think they look awesome. but no, I never got the chance to wear them. Do your boys wear them? My one, it's funny, my oldest when he played at Ajax Pickering Raiders, they had skate skins. But that's the only team that he's ever played with it that have gone with the skate skins.

I thought maybe you would have. I thought maybe that would have gone the front back, but. Missed me. Makes you feel old. For the cool kids, Zach, welcome to working in media. You just keep getting old. older every single year and eventually you say to yourself, oh, skate skins. Yeah, that's for the kids. But it's not. I had the skate weights. You remember those? You put in your skates in between and they were

like latched out and you expanded things and then we had to stop wearing them because we kept having guys have pucks skip off them and knock them out and you'd have to stop drills and stuff in the middle of practice because so many guys skate weights were blown. out and all over the ice. So, yeah, that was what I had when I was playing. We had none of that when I was playing. It was very, very basic. No surprise there. All right. The sheet is powered by Fanduel. Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season. And Fanduel is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Batslip, we've got you covered all season with unique promos, live offerings and more features to let you play your game.

Miss Puck drop, no sweat with the live same game parley. Can build your bets up until the final buzzer. Download fan dual sports book today and play your game. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. I don't know that we're going to get more games like we saw last night. That was fun. But what is serving up today?

Yeah, last night would have been the night for me to just throw in like four or five guys and hope that they all hit because there was enough goals going back and forth. But what I'm going to try to do here through the playoffs as we go game, no game, game, no game is we'll do the parlay on the day of the game and then go back to some serious stuff in between. So just taking a look at how things have shifted here over on Fendwell, Jeff, since last night's. Okay. Vegas win in game one. The Golden Knights are now favored in this.

series here over the Carolina Hurricanes. You can see that over on Fandual plus 125 for the Hurricanes, minus 150 to Vegas. For the context for everybody going into this game, the Carolina Hurricanes were the team that was favored. Vegas was the underdog. It was still close in that regard, but Jeff, I don't know. I mean, I see right now under six and a half total games is heavily favored here, minus 230.

I think this one goes six or seven. I don't know. I don't think that that one wraps up after a couple of games. I hope it's six or seven, but I really do think it at six or seven too. Look, that game last night really didn't, I don't think, tell us much about really who's favorite in this series because every time one team started to pull away

or he sort of looked like they were going to pull away, it got evened up. Like it was great. 2-2-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3. 4-4 is what we got yesterday. That's an awesome game. That was a flat-out, fantastic game. I will say there's one thing that will happen,

or if one thing doesn't happen, I should say, this thing won't be going to six or seven games. And that is, as Berkey pointed out earlier, the Aho line, not waking up. If they don't come to life here in this, it is over. I know. Because they got to at least throw some punches, Jeff. Last night there was nothing.

I know. Last night I kept watching it, I felt like they were uncomfortable. Like it looked like they were playing in someone else's gear. You know, when you're out there and you're kind of just not fully used to at all. I forgot my gloves today. I got to wear somebody else. I forgot my pants and you're like a little bit tight, a little bit tense. Yeah.

That's kind of what it felt like. The amount of one and done shifts that they had in the offensive zone, one shot, back out, and that was it. It's got to be way better from them. Otherwise, their goose might be cooked. We'll see. I don't think a Rod Brindamore team is going to go gentle. into that good night.

Not going to happen. So we shall see it all gets underway again tomorrow. Anything else? Anything we left on the table here today? We mentioned the Batman Daily Presser from yesterday. Nothing massive. Really coming out of that one. But a couple of interesting notes.

But anything jump out of you. Oh, I got one thing for you. I want to know your thoughts on this. They announced the new All-Star weekend format and the tournament and how they're going to do three-on-three. And then I'm not in love with the, country idea here and I'll just be clear I don't want to like poo poo the whole thing and it might be wrong but I don't want to get international fatigue we had so long where we had nothing and then we

went to four nations is so amazing because we're getting this tournament and then they said hey we're going to do every two years with Olympics world cup Olympics world cup to throw in in the year that you don't have anything another let me put it loosely because I get it's three on three I get it's at the All-Star weekend, but international tournament, it's like, I want it. I want to want it. Yeah. So I get it. I understand.

But at the same time, if you're the NHL, I don't think. Because first of all, finally, you've got a robust international schedule that's been put together. We've been waiting for this going back to 2005. Like, that's like coming out of the locket, I was going to be like, okay, like, and the new money is all going to be international. and there's going to be a robust schedule that includes World Cups and Olympics and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And every now and then we would get a tournament and we'd get some player participation at the Olympics, but then it would go away. Now we have it.

And I think from the NHL's point of view, they're taking every opportunity to remind people that international hockey is a big thing. That international hockey is a big thing for the NHL. I'm with you too. Like there is such a thing as international hockey fatigue. Trust me. I know that.

But I think that's the NHL, just recognizing that they've struck, they've struck a gold with the four nations. That was a massive success. And also now, the United States is winning gold medals. Right?

Like I would always ask myself, I wonder, like all those years that NHL players didn't go to the Olympics, would it have been different if the United States were winning gold medals in hockey? Would the thinking have been different if it was the USA winning gold medals and not other countries?

I'm going to guess probably yes. That things would have been different there. Anyhow. All right. That's it for us here. At Dission today, we're back tomorrow here at Justition, surrounded by cool stuff,

including the skates behind me and the hats and the lifestyle brand stuff that they do here at Dish. So thanks to the guys here for making this space available for the next couple of days here for us in Buffalo at the NHL Scouting Combine. A big thank you to Bill McCreary for stopping by. Man, this book is good, like flat out, a really, really good read.

Stories from Ice Level. Rob Simpson with Bill McCreary, an excellent read. And thanks to Brian Burke, as always, for stopping by and sharing a fun story about Harry Sindon and Shots at the Boston Garden. Thanks to you for watching. Thanks to you for listening and subscribing as well. Thanks to everybody in the chat and everyone around the program,

whether you consume it with your ears or your eyeballs or both. We appreciate it. We're back tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern for the sheet. Thanks for joining me today.