The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Growth of the NHL, Sens Get Their Pick, and Habs ft. Maxim Lapierre & Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Jeff Marek hosts another packed episode of The Sheet with Greg Wyshynski and Maxim Lapierre joining the conversation as the trio break down some of the biggest stories around the hockey world. The show opens with a look at the Ottawa Senators getting their first round pick back and what the development could mean for the franchise moving forward, how the situation unfolded, and why the return of that asset could have significant implications for the organization’s long term outlook.From there, the conversation shifts to comments from Pat Maroon about the pressure surrounding media coverage in the NHL and the growing scrutiny players face in today’s hockey landscape. Jeff, Greg, and Max dig into the relationship between players and media, how narratives form during the season, and the balance between accountability, coverage, and the realities of playing in major hockey markets.The discussion also expands into the broader growth of the NHL and hockey’s place in the global sports landscape. The group looks at how the league continues to evolve, the importance of storytelling around the sport, and how media, personalities, and coverage help shape the way fans engage with the game.Later in the show, Jeff, Greg, and Max take a closer look at Boston College goaltender Jacob Fowler turning aside 32 shots in a strong performance against the Senators, what his development could mean for the future in net, and why he continues to generate buzz as one of the most intriguing young goalies in hockey. The conversation also touches on team building philosophies, roster construction, and the evolving landscape of the NHL as the playoff race intensifies across both conferences.From front office decisions and contract extensions to prospect development and the biggest storylines around the league, Jeff Marek, Greg Wyshynski, and Maxim Lapierre break it all down on another packed episode of The Sheet.Subscribe to the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel for more NHL analysis, insider discussion, and interviews from across the hockey world.#NHL #Hockey #DailyFaceoff #JeffMarek #GregWyshynski #MaximLapierre #OttawaSenators #UtahMammoth #NickSchmaltz #JacobFowlerLeave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-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.

Welcome to the program. Once again, here is The Sheet. And here is Greg Wyshinsky from ESPN and ESPN.com. Greg is always good to have you aboard today. We have a lot to present and a lot to dissect and also a very special guest coming up at the bottom of the hour. So before we get right to what's on the program today, I want to open up with, I'm going to open up with one line. And then we're going to do the intro. And then we're going to come back and talk about it.

Okay. Okay. You're so, I love when you get business like. It tells me that we have a guest of some import on this show today and we have to be very, you know, by the book. No, no dalliances into forging the forest for psychedelic drugs or who played on the 1967 Sarnia Sting. No, we are forging ahead on schedule. How about the 0.150 Sarnia Legionnaires? That was a story.

Okay. This comes from. I was going to do it. My good friend in the GEOJ, GEOJL, like over 50, it's really not good. This is from my good friend, Bob McAwitz, who I've known since we were 12 years old playing High Park Little League in the west end of Toronto. McAwitz's law, okay? He's one half of the Macalong Cause podcast.

If the best thing about your sports organization is the game, you're moving backwards, not forwards. Get into that in a couple of moments, along with a quote by Patrick Maroon from a couple of days ago, but Shane and I kicked around on Tuesday in your normal time slots. But let's get right to the program for today. Coming up on today's show, the blueprint is always presented by Fandul. Download the app today and play your game on Fanduel. From ESPN and ESPN.com, he is the one and only Greg Wischinski.

He is aboard today. We'll talk about Schmaltz extending. We'll talk about this. I think we're to spend a lot of time talking about the Ottawa Senator here today, folks. honest with you. Max LaPierre has got a new program post-game show for the Montreal Canadians games. We'll talk to Max, former NHLer from La Pash

Bleu. Yes, we will talk about Jacob Fowler and his incredible hips. 32 save win yesterday for the Montreal Canadians over the Ottawa Senators. The new program called hockey with an accent following your Montreal Canadiens games. In the meantime, let me follow this up.

Not that I'm like all furrow-brow and serious about this, but it is interesting. This is on the heels of Patrick Maroon on overdrive. We showed it the other day talking about how, you know, there are 25 guys in the dress, 25 media members in the dressing room and it's annoying in that one. Okay. So further, further to that. Okay. And further to the point about if you, if the best part about your sports organization is a game, you're moving backwards, not forwards. A good game is not enough. The NFL has a great schedule. Its business plan makes one day a week special, even though it's more than just one

day a week. Scarcity drives interest. NCAA football is an incredibly good development league. Kids come in already superstars and frankly it looks great on TV. Basketball has gone all in on socials, the clips but also the narrative. The NBA is one giant soap opera. I spent three times, the amount of time listening to pods about the NBA as I do watching the NBA. Baseball has lost its specialness, which used to be summer. It's the only thing going. Hockey has no special distinguishing strength other than the game itself. That used to be okay, but it's too hard to cut through now. I mean, it's growing, but not at the rate that his real competition is growing, digital platforms and all.

Hockey did have toughness. It was a sport that was outside the genteel decorum with the code. That's cowboy mythology. And it plays great in the heartland, but they've run away from it to embrace a TV package to make everyone rich, and they did. But those deals are only going to get smaller, not in five years, but in 20. It's an attention economy. Everything. Everything is about attention.

Look at how guys don't want to play for the Leafs. Too much attention. Well, good luck with that. I thought about this after your pod yesterday and the discussion of attention as a problem. Seriously, if that's the case, shutter your business. Generating attention is the only game in town.

The point that I was making on this one on the heels of the Patrick Maroon quote was, every team craves this. not the players, but the owners and certainly the league. They don't want 25 guys in the room. They want 50 in the room like the NFL has because it gets them. When you have 25 people in your room, it's because you have that many more people that are curious about that team and want to hear too much information about them. And that's only great for your bottom line. The attention economy in sports, Greg. You've given me a lot to deal with here because this was written to you after yesterday's show?

Tuesdays. I didn't do a show yesterday, sir. Tuesday's show. There's so much wrong with the premise of this entire thing before we even get to the attention to Connie. The ratings are up across the board for the NHL this year. The audiences are growing. Clearly there's something beyond the game that's attracting them.

It's getting there. I would say, I would argue that it's getting there. Hold on. I would proffer that one of the. the things that attracts people to the NHL now are the players. And, you know, say what you will about the attention economy and say what you will about the NHL's marketing, because I think it's been fairly ham-fisted for most of my life, you have to admit that they've done a better job, maybe, of focusing on the personalities

of the players and trying to draw them out. I mean, like, I'm not the biggest fan of the commercial with the consultant in front of the room and the guys seated in the audience and they're all mocking him for not knowing hockey terms. Right, but there's probably somebody out there that connected to that commercial more than I did. I think that social media

and fan culture has certainly helped increase attention on certain players. Like there's something happening and maybe it's heated rivalry, maybe it's the international hockey aspect of it. I can't put my finger on it. but there's something beyond the game itself that's clearly attracting new fans to the sport. So let's just put that out there.

The toughness part of it, I just don't buy that premise at all. Like I understand that for people like us, yeah, what are you going to say? Just pause for one second. You know where that conversation came from? If you go back and read the game, if you go back and read the game report at NHL.com about Sunday's Tampa Buffalo game. You know what's not talked about? But that's not real. That's state-run media.

That's the game. That's chairman. That's chairman. I understand. No, but no. No, but for our entire lives. I get that. But that was like, that would be like talking about four nations on the Saturday night in Montreal, Canada, USA and not mentioning the three fights.

Because that was the story on Sunday. But this is not anything. Listen, if your argument is that the NHL should embrace the physicality of the game and market it better. Yes. I completely agree. and this is a conversation that we've had for 15, 16 years, and it's a conversation I've had as a guy writing about hockey since the 90s. My big problem with Betman in the early years,

among a lot of other things, including trying to relocate my team during a cup run, was that he was putting out, he was signing off on marketing for this league that had players pirouetting through the offensive zone, like Peter Forsberg, at a time when, A, there was no offense because teams were playing the trap, and B, the two biggest booming sports were the National Football League and MMA. And those two things had something that hockey was running away from, which is physicality.

So if you want to make the argument the NHL needs to embrace physicality and its marketing and not use its state-run media to ignore things that happen to the Buffalo Tampa game, completely agree. However, the premise that hockey isn't defined by toughness, I think is completely astinine. You mentioned four nations. Four nations was the biggest crossover moment for hockey maybe in the last 15, 20 years until the Olympics. And that was and that was defined by the fights that happened in the first USA Canada game. When you hear people outside of the hockey media,

talk about hockey players. The defining trait of hockey players is their toughness, to the point where when Steve Kerr, the coach of the Golden State Warriors, was talking about how the NBA should reduce the number of games they have in their season, the response from Stephen A. Smith on the very ESPN airwaves on which I very occasionally grace, was to point out that that's not something you hear from hockey players. He didn't point out that the hockey players will not be playing two additional games on their schedule beginning next season. But he pointed out the juxtaposition between the toughness of hockey players and what the NBA is going through.

And so I would argue the premise that hockey is no longer defined by its toughness to be completely out of step with how hockey is actually defined. To the point about the toughness and not reducing games, I find. that the biggest conversation around that in hockey, and it's never going to happen because they're adding two games and players aren't backing up because they got 50-50 revenue split, I think the game is doing itself a disservice by playing this many games. And you would actually have a better product. You would actually have better quality hockey and fresher players and healthier players

if you reduced the amount of games. To the point about them not leaning into the toughness or, not being defined by that. That comes just by watching the game. That's not anything that the NHL does. That is completely fan-driven and viewer-driven. That's not anything that the league itself is comfortable leaning into. The one thing that I did mention the day, too, is the fear of lawsuits for all of this.

Yes, CTE. I was just going to bring that up. I mean, that's obviously. And that's why when I read that piece on NHL.com after the Tampa Buffalo game, I go, I don't like it. It's not accurately calling balls and strikes here, but I get it. Because the NHL doesn't want to be looking at leaning into violence, which leads to players not being able to tie their own shoes when they're 45 years old.

If their commercials look like a Don Cherry Rockham-Sacham VHS like in 2026, that would be Exhibit A in any lawsuit that gets filed against the league for CTE. You're completely right. And I think that's part of it too. Yeah, I mean, listen, I How about the attention thing? How about I was going to get back to the attention thing.

But, okay, now I remember what I was going to say before we get back the attention thing, which is that I am also in favor of reducing the regular season and increasing the number of games we get in the post season. That's really what I want to see. Give me a five-game regular season. And then a 70. nine games. We got a pretty good.

We got a pretty accurate snapshot here of what this league is all about. Let's start the postseason. He works for a rights holder, folks. Now, listen. Listen, I agree on the attention economy, you know, in the sense that hockey has to work very hard in order to capture a chair of it. I think there are some things that are happening around the game that are helping hockey do things that are not the NHL's doing. Heated rivalry. the way the Olympics played out, the, you know, the Four Nations fights, like, you know, some of the personalities of the players.

I mean, like, we go back to the way the NHL was saved from itself after the 0506, or after the 05 lockout. It was saved from itself because they lucked into having Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, and the resurgence of some very important franchises at a time when they needed their asses saved. Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh. And some of that's happening now. Look, you know, the attention economy becomes a lot easier when you have teams that draw attention. And one of the greatest things that's happening right now is the fact that the Buffalo Sabres are relevant again.

And that's reflected in every single game they play on national television. And that'll only keep growing when people realize that this is a fun team in a crazy sports town. And it's going to be a party when you watch them. the environment of that Tampa game was as much of a character in it as anybody throwing a punch. So I was in Buffalo for two days this week. Oh, yeah, you're at the Celebrity game, right? I was at the Celebrity.

By the way, Celebrini and Will Smith are going to be a problem for a long, long time. That wasn't the best of all possible games, but, man, Celebrity looked good again. But as I was talking to someone about this morning, this person said to me, we're talking about the Buffalo experience. And this person said, this is someone from another team, said, it looks like New Orleans in February. And it's true like every, honestly, everybody in Buffalo, like my, my, my, my, my Uber to the rink and away from the rink, that was the conversation.

And the one, my, again, this is all purely anecdotal, but the whole city is just like saber, saber, saber, sabers, right now in Buffalo. Like, it's, it's fantastic. This is some, my, my Uber driver from the hotel to the rink getting there was about he hasn't been to a game and he's I want to say he was 70 years old and so he was back there for like when they got the franchise in 1970 etc and the the run to the Stanley Cup in 75 and everything since so it hasn't been to the game in like 15 years and his daughter had tickets for the game on Sunday and she ended up going out of town with her husband so left him the tickets

and him and his wife decided yeah we're bored we got nothing else to do and ever since then he was scrambling to get tickets to go watch the San Jose sharks but he couldn't be because they were sold out. There you go. Again in Buffalo. It is, like, honestly, I had forgotten how much of a cool vibe it is going to a Savers game where it's relevant and it's cool. And it's cool because those fans are insane. It was, it was fantastic.

So right, right off the hop. The last thing I'll say about the attention economy thing. Well, three things. Real quick, first of all, the media is a big part of this. And the fact of the matter is that when you look at what's, happening, for example, in Washington, D.C. with the Washington Post. Yeah. I mean, there's no getting around the fact that there's just less media. And so then it falls onto these teams to either generate their own media, in which case they need to be a little

bit bolder than, as we've talked about before, the state-run media that you typically see from teams in the league. And then the rise of alternative media sources. And, you know, it tends to be, in the past blogs, raises his hand, or probably now influencers. And the league trying to be a little bit more liberal with who they allow to come in and ask questions and press conferences that get sent around by crusty old media people and mocked. But I'll say this, though, like when you get past the mainstream and the NHL still fights for its slice of the pie on nightly newscasts and things of that nature. And definitely on sports talk radio where the gatekeepers refuse to even talk about hockey

because they think it's going to chase the audience away, which is a self-fulfilling prophecy because hockey fans don't go where they're not talking about hockey. but I digress. I do think that this is a statement that you've gotten. I think this is a statement that you've gotten. It's a little bit out of step with where we are right now because I do believe that we're at a moment where you've got a number of hockey players in the zeitgeist

that have popped the bubble. I mean, people talk about Matthew Kach's on Sean Hannity's podcast today, talking about, unfortunately, how he's hoping to have a son. Congratulations to Matthew and his wife, but not really identifying that if he doesn't, does have a daughter, she can also play hockey. You know, Jack Hughes, major celebrity because of the Olympics and also because he's

dating Tate McCray. Like, there are players that are now emerging into the pop culture lexicon and the, but you know what the, the ecosystem that we didn't even have five years ago? You know what's interesting about that, too, that I was thinking about the Tate McCray, Jack Hughes situation. When Wayne Gretke was dating Janet Jones, it wasn't this, like, it was like, talked about, but it wasn't like talked about in like a sort of tabloidy kind of fashion. It was just like blah, blah, blah, who happens to be dating Janet Jones.

It wasn't like this, right? I'm not saying like one's better than the other. As a matter of fact, for the popularity of hockey, this is a lot better the way that it gets covered. I think that I really do think that I was making this point with Shana the other day. once again, much like in 20405 when there was no NHL.

We always make the mistake of saying there was no hockey. There was no hockey. It just wasn't at the NHL level. You remember, like the sport was kept alive online. Like the sport was kept alive by the fans. Like the NHL is blessed by having fans that will keep this alive even if they go away for an entire season.

Right. Or for half seasons. And I still think that this in a lot of is still being kept alive by its fans. And so the key to the attention economy is having more of them. It's like the old knock on the devils. You know, the devils are the best fans. You just wish they were more of them.

And I think the NHL isn't sometimes in the same boat. The NFL is the best fans. It just needs to be more of them. And what we've seen in the last year, undeniably, is that there's more of them. And hopefully they stick around. Hopefully they aren't chased away when they find out the politics. of many of the players. Hopefully they are chased away by people in the upper deck that mocked them

for not knowing how icing works. Like, it's a very exciting time for hockey in the sense that it's getting more attention than it's gotten in a very long time for all the reasons we stated before. But it's like, I'm watching season 50 of Survivor, Merrick. And there's that moment in the beginning of any Survivor season when they start making fire. And they rub those little flints together or they use several pairs of eyeglasses to focus the sun's beams on a little a little thing of straw in the hopes that they see smoke. We're at the part where we get the smoke at a couple flames and it's our job to keep it flaming those flames going.

It's our job to not allow them to peter out because then what? We don't get to eat. So let's keep the fire burning. So here's my other point. I'll stop on this one. The other point that I was trying to make about players that complain. about too much media, I don't want to hear any of those players talk again about growing the game.

Because that's what comes along with growing the game. Stop. Stop. Well, it's a border that we grow the game. So we're going to go do this exhibition game here. And we're going to do this because we're interested in growing the game. Part of what comes along with growing the game is 25 guys in your room. So if you're going to complain about that, don't tell me about growing the game.

Just stop. Just stop. Just be quiet. Stop. I think Pat's problem was that he hasn't played in Toronto. And unless you've played in Toronto or played in Vancouver, you can speak about those media landscapes with some authority. And I think that there are people that just dismissed what he said

because he's never had to play there. And sorry, but the media landscaping in St. Louis is a bit different than the media landscape in Toronto. But I also, not to belabor the point, Merrick, but I did find it to be kind of weird that some people were dismissing the idea that there isn't, like, additional pressure because of the media coverage in these Canadian cities. Like, are you dismissing that idea?

Of course there is. Okay. Just checking. But no, but to the point about like embracing attention economy, like there are, and again, I will kind of take a shot at my own country here. There's a lot more American players than embrace that than Canadians. For whatever reason, Canadians are really uncomfortable with the idea of the spotlight being on them for anything that they do outside of the game. Yeah.

Itself. We would need a five-hour podcast about breaking down the norms of hockey culture. You know, the logo on the front, not the name on the back, the cowardice with which they approach speaking out of turn. I mean, look no further than the situation in Calgary before the season, right? With who's the young defenseman, I'm spacing on his name? Is that as in correct? Same correct. Yeah, correct.

Yeah. You know, and that whole thing, we had to, like, apologize to his teammates for being, like, guys in the league don't talk enough. Oh, my God, what a sin. And so, like,

you know. Yeah, welcome, manager. We'd have to, we'd have to, we could go down this rabbit hole. Okay. For days on end about what has to change.

But, but you're right. There needs to be kind of like a partnership between the players and the entities that cover the players and also just being not afraid to put yourself out there. And the thing that gives me hope is once again. Jack Hughes and Tate McCray. No, not Jack. Jack's not the problem. Like, I wish Jack talked to us more in the media sometimes. But what he does, he's fantastic. No, what gives me hope is our boys Celebrini and Smith talking to that

wackadoo on the street in New York at the coffee shop. It's really good. And giving her the kind of material that the NHL and its, its partners try to generate from these guys, Every single year, never get it. And it took a lady on the street, giving me a twirl, Sonny. To feel like getting the thing that we wanted to see and the personality wanted to see. So I guess what I'm saying is like,

invite more people that aren't hockey media to cover hockey, make these guys uncomfortable and you might end up getting gold. Might end up get some good stuff. Okay. Maxlop here is coming up here in a couple of moments. But before we get there, Ottawa gets picked back.

Shades of, is this Kovalchuk part two? once can be an anomaly twice as a trend and I think the message being sent by the National Hockey League to anybody who gets a first round draft pick taken away for bad behavior is just weighted out baby because the devil has to happen first round pick

Yeah well something has to happen ownership change Colvleschuk went to Russia and in this case Ant Lauer took over the team and Dorian got fired within days of the of the pick being docked. Again, I agree. In both cases, there was a justifiable reason.

But, I mean, all they're saying is just, like, give us a reason. And we ain't going to make you give up a first round pick. Tell us St. Louis Blues that. Now, that's from a way different generation of offer sheets. Janet and Steve. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. But honestly, like, as much as I love to see. No, hang on a second.

No, hang on a second. Because you know who still did get dinged and had to forfeit their pick? coyotes. When they ran those kids through their own personal combine and then got ding, was it a first and a third, there was no look the other way and tisk, tisk, tisk and slap on the hand and now run along cute little Phoenix coyotes. There wasn't that. They did get those picks taken away. So it has happened.

Yeah. Because the NHL hates the coyotes. Hates the coyotes. They would, they bent over backwards and like, we're the custodians of the market to save the market. Yes. But ultimately they're like, this is. Do you want to.

Do we have to go back on the line to save your franchise and this is how you repay us? Do we need to go back to the days of Judge Redfield T. Bomb, sir. Do we need to go back to those days? In the senator's case, like, I, they clearly did everything they needed to do. And even Ann Lauer during that press conference when they, when they fired Dori and was just like, why is this my mess? Like, I had nothing to do with this shit, you know? And so I appreciate that they remedied it. I think it's fine the way they remedied it.

I do think it's going to be hilarious at the draft lottery when the senators win the first overall pick and then have to give it up. Oh, my God. Can you imagine? Cool stuff. That'll be part of Gavin McKenna Lour going forward. By the way, how do you like, I don't know if this was just a Bucci Gras thing or if this is now becoming canonical. But like Gavin McKenna as the new Nikita Kucheroff has become sort of like something that's crossed my timeline five or six times in the last week. Well, the way that he's played, I mean, I think that given the nature of who he is and how he plays, whoever drafts him first overall, we're assuming still that he's going to go first overall.

Like, that's what you're hoping for because he is that style of player that like pull up on. to the blue line scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, scan, and find the perfect play. Like, that is the style of player that Gavin McKenna is. Is he going to be Kutrov? Is he going to be Kaine? I don't think so. But that's the style of player that he very much looks like. Now, mind you, and I don't know how, I mean, it just might be maturation or they broke

him somehow. Penn State broke him to fix him. But he looks like so different now. because everybody talked to a lot of operators and college coaches at the beginning of the year I'm like, okay,

how long is this going to take? And the answer back was always about however long it takes to break them. Because what I know Maxis wasn't going to be able to be able to do in college. I know Maxis is waiting, but like real quick, but is that by virtue of the competition that he's playing?

I think that was his, no, then he needed to change the style of how he played. And also get used to the idea of, A, what worked in junior hockey isn't going to work here. And B, just because you're Gavin McKenna, like, you don't have a history here. And don't be surprised if you don't find yourself on PP1. Yeah.

That's just being fishing for more compliments about how the NCAA is really the place where all these Canadians should be playing. For some, definitely it is. Absolutely it is. Like I said when this whole thing first happened, like congratulations, college hockey, you won. Your top of the development pyramid. Like, that's not exactly a secret. Anyway, we'll pick up on that, to your point. Let's get to Max.

He is a co-host of La Pache Blu and a new program post-Montral Canadian's games and a lot to get into from yesterday. Max Laudeau here joins us here on the program. Max, first of all, congratulations on the new program. How are you? Because you need a more. I'm good yourself, guys.

Yeah, of course. I need to be busy. Well, listen, the one thing about, and we're talking about the Maple Leafs and the Vancouver Canucks a second ago and the sort of the economy of attention. In Montreal, as you well know, everything times two.

it's the attention en francais, and also in English as well. So the attention economy has always been strong in Montreal. What did you make up? Just sort of wide-brushed thoughts on yesterday. Jacob Fowler with just a stunning performance as well. What did you take away from yesterday's game?

To me, that was all about La Guardier de Beau. Yeah, guys, all calm is he in front of the net, for a young go-tender, just coming in at the end of this season like this. I feel like I play, like, with Carrie Price, obviously. I feel like it's kind of the same path a little bit. Like he played a little bit in the

minors, then he's winning some games, looks confident right now, and I feel like the team in front of him plays a different way. You know, like I feel like the teams know the guys, they know there's a superstar coming and he showed it last night with the saves at the end of the game. I feel like he was there

right there. The Sands could have tied up the game, but what a save at the end? And I feel like he was playing the puck a little more to as well. So for me, that's a sign that he's confident. And it's going to be a tough decision because Dobech has been playing well.

He's been winning games. But if you look at the structure part of it, I feel like Fowler technically looks really, really solid. So we've been talking about who's in net between Montaubour and Dobesh. And now I think for playoffs, we're going to talk who's going to be between Fowler and Domesh again. Agreed. Greg,

first of all, congratulations on the podcast. Yet another ex-perfew. professional athletes stealing a job from an out of shape journalist, but I think it's going to be a good show. Thanks so much. I wanted to ask you about their trade deadline because it seemed like there were some people that were really, I don't want to say upset, but disappointed that Kent used it and do more. And then there were some people that said this was exactly what they should have done at the trade deadline. What were your thoughts about the Canadian's deadline?

I would have, it would have been nice to go get some toughness a little bit or some, some heavy players, whatever it's up front, right defensemen. But I think the main thing with Kent use is he's following the plan. And it's pretty clear that they don't want, not that they don't want to win this year, but this is not the year when they just go all out and they get anybody just to try to play an extra round. I feel like they love the core players. they have a good young group of players. They don't want to destroy that because it's tough right now, but at the end of the day, you want to win for 15 years. You don't want to win for one season and go back out of the playoff.

And I think when you look back and the emotion is out of it, it was the right decision. We're going to wait for this summer. We're going to have more time to build something solid. And I feel the chemistry within this group as well. Things are going well. Guys have fun together. You don't want to destroy that at the end of the season.

I feel like when the move happens in the summer, it's kind of everybody's ready for it. Everybody has time to think about it. If you're mad because somebody might take your spot in the lineup, you have time to digest. And when the training camp starts, everybody is happy. And everybody knows their role. And it's not like it's happening out of nowhere.

I feel like it might be the better time to move. Yeah. Let me pick on that for a couple of seconds here. because I thought that, like, my point about this year in the Eastern Conference is, the shark is out of the pool, you know, like Florida's not here. Like, this is, okay, everybody. Florida's coming back next year, right? So, like, okay, everybody, the shark's not in the pool.

Like, this is your chance to go all in. And it seemed like nobody in the Eastern Conference really wanted to embrace that at all. Like, is there not a sort of sense of, because I look at the Montreal Canadians, and I think back to the Winston Churchill quote about, this is the end of the beginning and that's where I look at with the Montreal Canaanans like the beginning part of like putting this all together

like that's done like that's done like Montreal Canaanans aren't going to draft like fifth overall anymore like those days are done like that beginning part is over now you're into the second phase I don't know like so the Panthers are out the beginning of this thing is done

maybe you overpay a little bit but you're investing in experience for all those other players that are going to be, to your point, are going to be here for the next 10 to 15 years. Yeah, you're right. And it's so important for a young player to play some playoffs game. I feel like you play one round,

and it feels like you played a full season. Like, this is where you grow as a player. This is where you learn about yourself as well. Like when the pressure is on and you're not allowed to make a mistake on the ice and there's no room and the game is frustrating, this is where you grow as a player. And the Caulfield and Suzuki went through it.

Their first year, they went to this. final. So these guys are okay for me. We know what they're made of. Now it's the other group. Safkowski, Demidov, Hudson. You know, last year they had a tough matchup in the first round. Probably the worst possible matchup for this group, the Washington Capitals, with Tom Wilson, Ovechkin, a heavy team, you know. This year might be the same guys. Like if they face Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay is a tough team. Buffalo is a tough team. Boston is a tough team. So it's going to be the same thing, which brings up the next subject that the toughness issue is going to need to be fixed at one point and I don't think

it's a matter of one player because you guys know you watch enough games like it's team toughness is not about bringing one big heavy guy and the other team is going to be scared or dressing jackay eight minutes a game and then he has no impact on the game you need to find toughness everywhere in your lineup and I that's the only part where I have a question mark

because I look down in the minors I look all the prospect we have obviously there's there's Florian Jack who plays a really tough game. But except for this guy, I don't know who's going to be on the top six or on the third line or a top four defenseman

that is going to be scary to play against every night. Well, since Merrick bought up the Panthers, I will ask you this question. Who do you believe was the more annoying team to play against? The Canucks team, where it was you, Kessler-Burros B.XA or this current Florida team with Marche, Ken, Cichuk, Bennett, and the rest.

I'll go with Florida because they won, right? That's the part where we fell. But this is hockey for me. It's all about passion. And I feel like you see what happens when you bring somebody in the leadership group that plays the right way all far it can go in an organization. I mean, they traded Uber though, who had 115 point that year. Yep.

people were like, what are they doing? Like they're trading a 150 point a season guy for Kachakak. And they give Uyghur as well as an extra to Calgary, right? So but then you change the culture. Everyone plays a different way. Like you look at a guy, for example, like Eggblad. He's a big, strong defenseman. But he was never playing that tough or dirty or crush checking people every single night.

Now he does it. And Bennett, you add Bennett. And Barkov is a heavy guy. So the team identity now is, it's easy to say, like, they're tough and they're dirty, but this is not what makes the Florida Panthers a good team. They're just a bunch of guys that plays the right way every single time, whatever, it's physically, defensively, under the skill part, when it's time to score a goal, the structure, they're well coach.

So sometimes a little less points or skills and a little more character is important as well. You know what you're seeing that right now? This is like an old Adams division conversation. You know, where you've seen that now is Buffalo Sabres. You know, Tage Thompson gets hit and here comes Zach Benson. Zach Benson. Yeah. Like here comes, like, here comes Lukinen.

Like, you know, Dalline's getting, you know, punched out by Brandon Hagle and Ukapakalukin is charging out of his net to go chase him down to the blue line. Like, I think that's what you're talking about. Max, your point, though, like that's been the secret sauce for the Panthers, right? Like the core of that team is the kind of player other teams have. to go find at the trade deadline. And I think the Bruins team that you guys lost you was the same way, where the core of that team is the same way.

And to your point about Montreal, that's the trick. Like if your core is not that, you have to either change your core or find ways to get maybe that B tier to be the tough tier because it's really hard to change a team's DNA otherwise. Or the other option is the team has to buy into, okay, we need to be more physical to play hockey. And you know like me, it's team toughness that is annoying to play against. Like, for example, when we were playing against Boston in the finals, you know that Chara and Luchick, they're going to destroy you every shift. They're going to hit you. You expect that.

But when the skill players, like Marchant, Bergeron, like whoever is playing and they're considered like a skill player, they start hitting you and crush checking you, this is where when it's annoying and it gets you out of your game. You're like every single shift, it doesn't matter where I'm at on the ice. There's somebody who will disturb my game or will be physical. And this is where they need to learn as a team. Calfield, maybe it won't hurt anyone if he hits.

But if he hits every single shift, this is annoying. Anderson, if he hits every single game, that's another thing. We have a guy that can't play this type of role. We have our own Tom Wilson in a way in Montreal. I'm not trying to compare the two players. But if Josh Anderson would decide to play this type of game every single night, it would change the picture a little bit. But this is not happening right now.

Let me ask about one player as well. And listen, we all know that they need to make room for Texier in the lineup. Like he looks so good. I agree. And you go up and down the lineup and you say, okay, so who comes out and the name we keep coming back to, Sprending Gallagher.

What do you, like, again, like I do not envy Marty St. Louis' decision here whatsoever, but knowing the taxi has to be in this lineup, is it Gallagher? I have no idea, guys. I've been thinking about it for a while now. Like, and every time Galli comes up with something new, he fought last game

against McCabe, a way bigger guy. He shows up, like, it's tough. Like this guy has been bleeding for this goal for many, many years. And there's, like, I watch pretty much every single game in the last 15 years and there's not one night.

This guy didn't show up. It never happened once that you look at Brendan Gallagher and you're like, well, he's not working tonight. It doesn't happen. Like he's all out every single shift. So maybe that's the one guy for Texie because I think Texie is really skilled. And every single time he got the call,

he's performing again last night. big goal. But guys, what do you tell him? Let's say you're sitting down, you're Marty St. Louis, you sit down with Gallagher in the office, which there's many parts to this discussion. First of all, Marty was a heart and soul type of player.

Then you have a veteran sitting in front of you, and he's been through the old rebuild. He had some tough, tough season. He was there to support the young guys, and now that their product is not finished, but we're right there. You're going to tell him, hey, Brendan, you're not going to play in the play.

off. Oh, man, that's a hard. No idea. I have no idea. I don't want to be Marty right now. That's, what would you guys do? What would you guys do, honestly? I play your best lineup. You can't, you can't stand on sentiment, man. Like, that's why I liked what the capitals is it with John Carlson. Like, as much as you want to keep that guy around for the a Vetchkin farewell tour or whatever and have a certain amount of loyalty to a guy, if you have the chance to maximize the return for him at a hot deadline, you do it. And I love Galley. I got a curveball.

Okay. I got a curve ball for you. Okay. Like, I'm, 100% agree with you with Washington, but what happened in New York, right? I know it's a different situation where you get the Rangers. There's some veteran players that you might not be happy with, but when you took them out of the lineup, it destroyed the whole thing. like they never been the same team anymore

because let's not forget we were talking about a team that could win two years ago. I think, you know, I think that was more sort of how it was handled too, like the way that they ended up getting rid

of Barclay Goddrault and how they got rid of Jacob Truba. I think it was like, again, like this comes back to like just how delicate you have to handle this. Like I do understand, like to Greg's point, I understand that you got ice your best lineup. Like at the end of the day,

yeah. Hey man. you got to ice your best lineup to at the same time. Here's the other thing. When you're handling veterans, like other players are allowed to watch what you're doing. And other agents are allowed to watch what you're doing. And that sort of becomes your reputation.

And that's part of the issue with the New York Rangers and how they've handled their players. And I don't think that Marty St. Louis wants to fall into that trap, nor does Kent Hughes want to fall into that. And then with the taxier situation, obviously, we're going the best lineup. Let's say we take Gallagher out. I just don't feel like Texie belongs on the fourth line, though.

You know, like I feel like he can contribute offensively. Like he's strong on the puck. Like he plays well defensively as well. So what do you do now? Do you just switch the two players or you take Texie and put him on the fourth line? That's another tough decision for me. When, let me ask about, I always love doing this. one.

When you look at the NHL right now, okay, and you think about, okay, you know what, I played in my era, my era was my era. If you played in the NHL right now, Max, which team would you want to play on? Like, is there a team where you're like, maybe it is the Panthers like Greg just mentioned, like, oh, you know what, I'd fit right in there with the cats. Is there a team that you look at and you go like, and financially, too, put more money in your jeans, you know, this is a tax-free state. is there a team that you look at and you say,

oh, man, give me some of that. If I play in the NHL right now, give me some of that. It's a good question. Obviously, I always have Montreal in my heart, but let's just play the game a little bit. I feel like, well, on the coaching side, I would love to play for Bones again

because I had him in Vancouver, so Columbus would be fun. What a great coach, this guy was. He's having a hell of a time. You know what? I feel like in my prime, would be the player, Edmonton would need.

I feel like this is exactly what they need on the third, fourth line, bring some energy, physicality, like play well on the PK. I feel like that would be the spot, Enminton. I don't know, man. Hang on, I want to go back to Columbus. I want to see you playing alongside Matthew Olivier and just like destroying them.

Driving them crazy. And one of my good friend, the goalie, Elvis is one of my good friend. I played with him in Lugano when I was in Switzerland. at the end of my career. So great guy. He honestly, I know, listen, Mers Lickens is a fascinating guy

and a tremendous interview. What was he like as a teammate there? It was great. Like, I mean, when I arrived there, I feel like when the management, the coaches, the general manager, they met with me, I feel like that was my project.

You know, we got a good young goaltender and we need somebody that played in the NHL to try to guide him a little bit because he's so skilled. But you know what? what was unreal about him, guys, is he cared so much. He cared so much. Like every single detail, but so much intensity to a point that sometimes it was too much.

He wanted to win too much. And this is what we needed to work on because it was five hours before the game at the ring, training after nervous that he wasn't going to win. He was puking between periods. So it was all about winning for him. And you could see there was something special. But just he needed to learn how to translate. from Switzerland to the NHL, which is a different approach.

And I mean, I was there for four and a half years. And I feel like he grew a lot as a player and as a person. And let's not forget this background guys, right? Like tough life. His mom had to move so they get a better life and all this. So I feel like it's always important when you look at a teammate to understand who he is and where he's from because not everybody has got that lucky life where your both parents are driving you to hockey game

and you got brand new gear. and it's all fun, fun, and easy, you know. So, yeah, as when I, when I learned who he was in his story, it was important for me to work with him and help him in his career. You mentioned the Blue Jackets. I think the, I think the consensus right now is we've got Carolina, we've got Tampa, and now we probably have Buffalo as the three, the three most competitive teams in the East.

could be your fourth right now. I'm going to look at the standings right now. I know. It's not easy because you do have that jumble behind those top three teams. And I'm not sure myself who jumps out at me as the team I'd be most concerned about. There's a team that impressed me about two months ago

when they play here in Montreal. And now it's not the same. But if they could find their game back, I feel like Detroit, they were solid at one point. Structure, fast-paced, heavy, good goal-tending. But now I feel like they lost confident a little bit. But if they could find their game back,

I feel like they have a good team. Detroit is a good team. Just now it's a tough downfall. It's not easy right now. Four wins in the last game, so no, it's not easy. They're a Todd McClellan team. Their natural habitat is the playoff bubble. They just want to get back there.

They were too good. Clellons teams are always like, Right around 7th or 8th. They got to get back to where they're comfortable. Okay, let me close with this one. This one's going to have a sort of historical slant to it. So yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the final game at the Montreal Forum. And I can still remember the ovation that Maurice Richard got,

which is one of the longest ovations in the history of the National Hockey League. Just an absolutely, you know, beautiful moment for Habs fans everywhere. Growing up in Montreal, who was your guy, Max? Like, did you have, like, even if it was like, because I was always, I was always a thrill when I could work, you know, Montreal games for hockey night, and I would see Madame and Monsieur Belvoir. And I remember, I still remember the first time

where Jean Belvoir walked past me in the hallway beside the room. And he said, I remember he said, I said, hello, Mr. Belvoir, and he said, salue, Jeff. And I'm like, how does Jean Belvoir know my name? Like, it was the biggest thrill in the world. Gentlemen. Oh, it's just the best. Did you have a favorite growing up in Montreal?

I think my generation was Patrick Croix, obviously. We all wanted to be the goaltender outside playing hockey, ball hockey in the streets. And that was the superstar here. But for me, when I relate to the Canadians and when I think about the logo, I always think about Maurice Richard. And you can see in the back here, I bought this a few years ago. Original jersey signed by Maurice and other players here. I got a big picture of Maurice there on the other side.

I feel like it represents what it is to be a Montreal Canadiens. It's hard work, dedication, love for the fans, love for the logo, always ready to face adversity. So, yeah, I didn't have the chance to watch and play, obviously, but still remember, like, going every game in Montreal, I would look up at the picture. It was right over my stall, and I would just basically talk to Maurice in my head,

playing like I feel like it's a privilege to be here. Can you help me tonight? I need a big game, you know? That's got to be such a cool thing. I've always talked to me. The ghosts of the forum that still exist at the Bell Center. Like, I've always said to people like, when I was say, oh, I'm a new hockey fan, what are the experiences I should have?

Saturday night, 701, lights go down, spotlight, the tingles, cold play, all of it. Like, every fan's got to have it. It's another love. If I could go back in time, guys, and just live the five minute where I put the jersey on for the first time, there's nothing that compares to this. It's just unbelievable. The best. I love the Habs mindset, too.

He's still loved the Habs mindset, by the way, because earlier in the conversation, you said, you want to contend for 14 years, not one. I'm like, that's the most Montreal thing this guy has said. We're not trying to win a cup. We're trying to win cups. We're going to win 20. We're going to win 20 cups, not one. I know. Yeah, to the point where when they award you the Stanley Cup,

you don't touch it because you don't want to jinx next year. No, no, no, I'm not touching this cup. We're just going to keep rolling. Thanks, Gary, you can hang on to it. We're coming back again. Max, thanks so much for doing this. Congratulations on the new program. Everything you're touching these days turns a goal.

That's great to see. Thanks so much for this. Thanks so much. You guys are great. Thanks for having me and keep out the good work. Max Lapierre, former NHLer from La Pache Blu. and with a new program as well, post-Montreal Canadiens games,

hockey with an accent. So very much continuing to look forward to that program. I don't know if you saw like the first episode of Max's podcast, but it's kind of like, I'm just going to flex all over these other nincompoops doing podcasts where he had like PK, Rick Nash, Scott Gomez. It was like an, it was like an alarm.

alumni game on this podcast. I'm just like, leave a little bit for the rest of us, man. Jesus. Leave some morsels for the rest of us, us mortals. I'll tell you what, like, again, I know you had joke at me about, you know, junior hockey and stuff, but when he played in the queue, he lived to torture Sidney Crosby. And those games between Ramoski and the Rocket, like he lived in Sidney Crosby's back pocket for two years, driving him up.

Absolutely not. They then became teammates with the Pittsburgh Penguins later on, but I just remember him just driving him crazy. His answer about the Oilers. Oh, big time, right? If you get Max Lapeer on that team, like a prime Max LaPierre, and then there's like two more of them in their bottom six.

Like that's, there's a lot of things the Oilers are missing. Oh, yeah? That's one of them. Like, without question. Like having some of those grunt work SOBs down the lineup to really kind of like thrive in a playoff series would be, would make them, would have made them immeasurably better, especially in those matchups against the Panthers, right? Yeah, that was a great answer for him. He's a talented guy.

It was always a great interview as well. Just like, just awful. Again, like, I'm glad you brought up the Florida Panthers in the interview because I look at the Florida Panthers like we all do and just say like check how many boxes of miserable hockey players to play against or and they're all on this one team. All right. Go ahead. The 2010-2011 Vancouver Canucks had miserable.

Rafi Torres, Alex Burroughs, Kevin BXA Tanner Glass, who was an SOB, Kessler. Yeah. Okay. And then, and then, you know, eventually Lapeer joins them. Like, they were, that, again. And that collection of players was just like a special brand of rink rat. And you had who I consider two of the toughest players to ever play in the game. The Siddines.

Yeah. Yeah. Who got punched and kicked and slashed and cross-checked and kicked and never change the way they played. No, never changed the, you could do whatever you want to. I'm not changing. Just to fully reminisce, and I was thinking about this during some of the outpouring of affection for NBC's coverage of the Olympics, that was also their series against Boston

when Mike Milbury called them Thelma and Louise. Not a great moment. Not a great moment. It wasn't a great moment for two reasons. One, because he's trying to emasculate them by comparing to the women. and that's just a terrible thing to say. But the other thing is that he picked two of the toughest women in the history of cinema as a way to try to masculate the scene.

What? Comparing them to Ripley from aliens wasn't on the table, Mike? It was such an embarrassing moment. And the Hamilton from Terminator? No, you want to go there? Yeah, I know, right? Like a couple of Saracanas out there. Okay, Mike, we get it.

Anything before you punt on. on today's program. Anything you want to do with? Oh, yeah. I wanted to bring up to a couple of statistic things that I've noticed. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is good.

This may take some time. So, goals, we'll make it quick. Goals per game this season is up to 3.08, which is up from 3.01 last season. It's on par with two seasons ago. But the big change statistically is that this season is right now on track to be the lowest.

save percentage season since 1995-96. So a span of, what is this? That what, 30 years, Merrick, by my math. It's an 896 league-wide save percentage right now. There's a number of reasons why, including the, I think, the tabulation of the stat. But something Kevin Woodley said a few years ago really stuck with me, which is that the younger generations of players coming into this league have decreased the number of easy shots that goaltenders face.

You know, whether they be from the point or whatever, shot selection of younger players is a big reason why save percentage is where it is. Yeah. What are your thoughts on that? Elaine Vigno was right. Now, first of all, let me ask you a question. When's the last time you had a conversation about shrinking the goalie equipment? Remember how that dominated what we did.

Every single day we could do a show on shrinking goalie equipment. This was the scourge of the NHL. Changing the posts. Remember that? Oh, God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blend in. Or like parentheses.

Yes. So the pucks could sneak in. Sneak in. Yeah, we haven't had much of the discussion at all in this league. No. And there was one coach who nailed it. Like just nailed it. And that was Elaine Vino.

when he was asked about it, shrinking the goalie equipment, making the nets bigger, all that kind of stuff, he said, look, if you want more goals, the players have to go work on their shot. Goleys go work on their game,

guys go lift. Now it's advantage shooter because everybody, and a lot of it is like tracking pre-shot movement and all these types of things now. But, and first of all, we had to stop believing the old, God, and I believed it, and you probably believed it.

and majority people from our vintage believed it as well, the stupid notion that you can't teach touch. Yes, you can. Like, I grew up believing stupidly that you were born a goal score. Oh, Mike Bossy was born to score of goals. You know, Yari Curry was born to score a goals. Phil Esposito was born to never back check.

And score goals. Like, that's what we all believe, because that's what we're all told. Right? Like, oh, yeah, you're just born. He just has a great shot. I guess, like great goal. And then in this era, now that we know about when to shoot, how to shoot, where to shoot,

it's the pendulum is swung back and now it's advantage shooter. And we don't talk about shrinking the goal of equipment. The guys are just that much better. And that was Elaine Vino's point. Go work on your game. It's too hard to score. Go work on your game. And that's what happened.

The other thing I wanted to mention. You have another thing on games that go into. to overtime? I think you texted that one to me today. Okay, good. I want to pause on this one. Okay, go for it. Okay.

I got a good news, bad news thing for us right now when it comes to overtime. Okay. The good news is that 25.7% of all games are going to overtime. So over a quarter of the games are going to overtime. That is the most since the shootout. And I love me, some three on three hockey. I'm a three on three guy. I know a lot of the people that are in the chat

and listen to the show have differing opinions about three on three, but I love it. And I'm happy to see more of it. And I think the more games that go to overtime, the more maybe the people around the league will remember how important the previous 60 minutes of hockey are

and eventually reward the winner of a regulation game, three points. Would not be exciting. Now, saving that for the The bad news. You know it. Saving that for the new commission. You know it.

You know how that works. And I'll keep on emailing Bill Daly and be like when. Now, here's the bad news. Okay. According to the NHL stats, 65.1% of games are ending in overtime. That's a lot. But it is the lowest of the last four years

and the second lowest of the last 11 years. Which tells me, Merrick, that as much as I love three-on-three hockey, I may be seeing too much of it because I'm seeing the full three-on-three hockey and then getting to see the scourge of the National Hockey League, the shootout efforts. Far too often.

The fact that, so when you texted me that today, my first thought was, first of all, that's too many games going into overtime. No one. It is. It's too many games. right now as structured, and I know I am on a complete island on this one.

I understand this is that picture of, you know, the guy with the sword as a thousand people are charging at him. That's me. I get that. It's me that says, as structured right now, this game is a game of ties. Or it's a game where ties should actually be here.

Because as the game is played right now, If 25% of your game ends in a tie, it's a tie league. And right now, this is a tie league. If only three quarters of it of the game is getting solved in the 60-minute regulation. Right now, this is a game of ties. I think the issue is what happens in overtime. I think the issue is the five-on-five. What can you do to change that?

To me, the sweet spot for overtime is 10%. 10% every game, 10%. 10%. Make it really, really special. But that means that there is something for the 60 minutes that preceded that. That it's not just we're going to play 50, 50, 50 puck and take our chances in overtime. Or maybe we're going to play 50, 50 puck and take our chances on the power play. Because right now, this game is a tie game.

If it's 25% of your games are going in overtime. That's too much. What's interesting is... The issue there to me is what happens five on five for the 60. That's my issue. 25% is not in line with what it was recently statistically. The last two seasons have both been just under 21%. So this is a significant jump.

But I'm with you, man. Listen, we all agree. I think there needs to be some incentive to win in regulation. But I also think that it is interesting, as Gary Bettman has noted, how many comebacks we have in this least. league now. And maybe the expenditure of energy is to get the tie. And now your your needle is wobbling on E. You've done the job to get the tie, but you don't have enough gas left to get the lead. And that could be it too, you know, as far as it being a tie league is that we do have a lot of

comebacks. We do have a lot of blown leads. We do have a lot of games where teams are earning points that maybe you didn't think they would because they were down multiple goals heading into the third period, but by expending all that energy to tie the game, they don't have the gas or the time left to take the lead. For me, there are just some games that belong tied that should be tied. Like, I'll look at them and go like, no one really deserve to win this thing. I'm good to die. Not that they both deserve to win it.

Oh, wait, wait, wait. You are being positive about it. Okay. Yeah, right. Nobody deserved to win here. No one deserve to win here. Like, how many, you've all watched games. when, who's nobody deserves to win this one.

Okay. So you are being negative. I am being negative. I watch games where I'm like, you know what? Both deserve to win. But you're watching games. You're just like these teams, they just. It happens, man. Like not like there are some games that are just dogs.

Okay. Like I'm sorry. Like you look at them. Like first of all, I'm not going to gross about the schedule and the amount of games that they play in this league every year. But like there are just some games we're just like, man, if this weren't my job, I don't know that I'd still be watching this thing right now,

this deep into the third period. Some games just belong tied, just deserve to be tied. Yeah. For me. Anyhow. But then you go. So scoring up.

Yeah. Say a percentage historically down. Yep. Overtime games, the largest percentage of overtime games in the shootout era, but 65% of them are ending in overtime and the rest are ending in the dreaded shootout. So too many.

shootout. So as always, as always, something cool, the three-on-three overtime, wrecked by coaches, which goes back to my original idea. You and I talked about this on the old program. When this thing started, the smartest thing they could have said was we're introducing three-on-three overtime and even before the puck drops, the entire coaching staff has to leave the bench. Has to leave, yeah. And wouldn't that be fun, the ceremonial- decide it. The ceremonial Exhibitor.

Coaches walk off the bed. Yes. Amazing. We have no. You can play baby elephant walk as they leave the bench. Do, do, do, do, do, do.

Oh, that'd be awesome. Come on, man. I'm not, I'm not a, play the ANW root beer theme. What's how does that go? Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Anything like, like, Susa adjacent should play as a

I'm not a three-on-three purist if such a thing could exist. I am in favor of trying to develop rules that encourage more game flow in the three-on-three and having teams not treat it like they're playing for the Red Army, including the goaltender and all that jive. I'm fine if you want to make sure they can't waste time on the three-on-three. But God-goddame. I love the three-on-three. I'm not going to hear anything to the contrary about how it's garbage or gotten super-bore.

One missed shot leads to 90 seconds of pure chaos that I want to inject into my veins. I like the three on three, but not too much of it. Yeah, it's like, you know what? It's like, remember Chipwich? Remember they introduced chocolate Chipwich? Pretty smug. Too chocolatey. Too much.

Just give me a little. I should mention that I am the biggest fan of the three on three because it's the reason why Jack Hughes was able to score. The gold battle winning goal. in line. I ain't going to tell you how to celebrate. Bring glory to my country of my hockey perspective where it was somewhat tarnished by the activities that followed their four afterwards.

I never mind. PWHL is killing it, man. Their attendance is up. They're selling out buildings. They're carrying that momentum. Can I mention something to you about that? I don't know if I mentioned this in the show. I wrote a story about how the PWHL sold out Madison Square Garden for their

game coming up. And one of the people involved with the sirens. told me that the Olympic wave was one of the reasons why. And the PWHL reached out to be like, well, actually, you know, we were near a sellout before the Olympics. I'm just like, why are we pushing back against the idea that the Olympics had an incredible positive effect on women's hockey? I found that to be like, give us our just desserts.

We're a real league. I'm like, of course you are. Of course you are. But here's women's hockey is right now. Again, but the challenge now for the people, PWHL is can they make a star? Because right now all the stars in that league were made by the Olympics. Yeah.

That's going to be the challenge for the PWHL. But I don't think that's bad. I don't think it's any different than... No, I don't think it's bad either. Soccer leagues whose biggest stars are made in the World Cup. That's fine. Or made in international play. Like, that's how it works for some of these things.

That's all fine. And that's all good. But let's not run away from the fact that there is a wind, you know, a wind beneath the wings of women's hockey right now, and a lot of it is fueled right now at this moment by A, the Olympics, how it was played, that final game, and how everybody on the women's side paid strict attention to what the most important thing was. And they didn't, and they didn't light something stupid on fire in the process. I think there's also a thing that's happening that's important. And maybe I just spend too time, too much time on threads.

versus like Twitter. But to bring it full circle to the beginning of the show and the attention economy, there are clearly some people that prefer to watch the PWHL than the NHL because they simply like the players better

in the PCHL for various reasons, but for obvious reasons. And I think that can't be ignored as far as the growth of that league and why it's so popular. And that's a beautiful thing. I mean, it's always going to come back to the players, folks.

It's always going to come back to, do you want to spend time with these people? And if you do spend time with these people, what will they do to entertain you? And I think both leagues are in a very good place. And I think in particular, the PWHL is in a good place for that very reason. All right. On that, we'll let you continue your victory lap here with your cat in the hat chappo. Man, Jackie. You sleep in that thing?

By the way, congratulations to, fanatics, they finally have Team USA jerseys re-stocked weeks after the Olympics so people can buy their Team USA stuff. I don't know how they don't have that stuff. You know what I was thinking about. I was thinking about

a while ago and then I rethought this almost immediately after Jack Hughes scored. I think before there was this sports memorabilia and sports clothing economy right now that exists.

Is the miracle on ice, like that one game, the biggest blown chance to move sports merch in the history of hockey? Yeah. Like if you had to monetize, like even 72 wouldn't have done it in Canada. But that moment, that game between the Soviet Union and the United States, if like,

because my kid went and played in the Lake Placentern a couple years ago and there's still like tons of tables of merch and all this. I remember thinking like, man, they really missed out in 1980. But there really wasn't that type of like sports economy at that point. But was that the most amount of money that hockey has left on the table? Easily. Because you're talking Jim Craig and Mike Ruzzioni jerseys. Yes.

You're talking like, you know, do you believe in miracles T-shirts? You're talking even like commemorative plates with the picture of the American celebrating the win. Remember how they used to have commemorative plates? Listen, I used to sell it on TV and like you call up a number and it's like, I like the world juniors better when they handed out a plate instead of a trophy. I love plates as like championships.

I love plates. I'll take plates. First of all, commemorative plates were a thing you call up on, you call a number on the television. There's a limited number of them. So you mean to get a plate. But to your point, what I'm, I kind of, listen, I like to. things in the sports. I like

trophies you can drink from, which is very important in what separates the Stanley Cup from other trophies. But I also love a giant plate that you can eat off. And no better example of that is Wimbledon. Like holding up the giant Bumbledin plate. Yes. It's amazing. And now we eat. Because not only do you

win this amazing award from this historic venue, but then I think about Serena Williams at a dinner party, you know, she's got a roast turkey on this thing. And I'm like, what a flex. By the way, this roast turkey, it's resting on my championship from Wimbledon. So good. You're all applauding Serena. You were amazing at hosting dinner parties. Do they do the fast? Because I don't know, this is probably a question for Shana because she's hardcore tennis fan. Do they have the same type of fascination with what you eat off the Wimbledon plate as we do with what do you drink out of the

Stanley Cup? I tend to believe that the example I've just given was plucked from my own mind and that these people do not serve food. But you would? I would. I would. Are we just swabs? I might be wrong, but I don't think there's a tradition of them like running outside and putting the chocolate covered strawberries on the plate. I think the plate is pristine.

I think they treat it like a giant gold medal. Oh. I think. Yeah, I don't like that. I have your wrong. If the NFL swap there at the cup for a plate right now, dudes who are. be eaten off it and doing other stuff off it. So you could...

All the official... All the official photography is then eating like spaghetti off the plate. And then as soon as the photographer leaves... They sign that thing up and now... Now we're partying in Miami again, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah. Anywho, you have a good continued celebration that Captain America.

We'll talk next week. Bye. All right. Greg Gershanski. ESPN, ESPN.com. There we go. Hello, Zach. By the way,

Zach is in prison. By the way, Zach has been lying to us this whole time. He's really in jail right now. If you're listening right now on your favorite podcast platform, we encourage you to watch

the YouTube version of this program just to see Zach in prison. What'd you do? Free food. What are you in for? They let me watch hockey, so that's good enough for me. That's all I need. That's all I need to.

So Nick Carolli set this up at a prison. Are you like in Toronto? Are you in like Kingston, Saskatoon, somewhere in Manitoba, like any other famous criminals nearby? Yeah, exactly. No, but during the course of the show, I did find out. Like I'm learning all these new things about this place and what to plug in and where not to plug in and stuff. So apparently one of the outlets may not work because the one light that I had something plugged into, it has turned off. So that outlet may not work.

I'll have to figure that out. And then I've learned that if the sun hits the building beside me at a very specific angle, it reflects directly through my window and I will disappear into the wall behind me. So that could happen at any moment. Those things will need to be stored over the next couple of days. because there is a spot that this sun hits that I have now learned, and it hits and comes directly through my window onto the side of my face. And I was sitting here, and I just looked like I was the Phantom of the Opera.

You could see the white on the left side and the rest of my face on the other. Just then use us and say like, Christine, Christian. No, can you give us like a good bellowy Christine? No, no. No, no. Maybe I'll hit you with one of those at some point. I just bring it out of nowhere. Man, I love the film.

My parents made me watch that when I was younger. It's great. There were times with the only thing I could remember because I think it's like, the phantom of the opera is in Sartrema. That line. Dan, da, da, da, da. Yes.

Yeah, exactly. Well, on that lovely note, the sheet is powered by Fanduel. Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season and Fandul is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Best Slip, 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 there with the live game parlay.

You can build your bets up until the final buzzer. Download Fanduals Sportsbook 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. The Phantom of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the one of the only, Zach Phillips. Well, I did move in here yesterday.

It was a long day. Had to pick the U-Haul up near my parents' house, loaded up there. Did you have to wear the cuffs on the way into the, like, perp walk you in? How did that work orange jumpsuit? How they do things in Ontario here? back and yeah exactly screw got everything down here

loaded up into the apartment and then once you're done that you have to drop off the U-Haul and you're still not done because at that point now you've got to put everything together it was a long day didn't go to bed until 1.32 o'clock and you know my girlfriend she just said once the bed was done she said that's it

you know I'm going to bed and you know Jeff at some point all I wanted to hear was Zach the way you made this bed is perfect because I spent all day putting it together Jeff Zaka Bedard Perfetti Zach Bedard Perfetti

Zach Bed Bedperfect Paveauzeze This one was a stretch This one was bad This one was bad This one was a real stretch You personalized it

Give us a little peek in the behind the curtain About what's happening with your life And your girlfriend as well So Pavel Zaka Connor Pard and Cole Perfetti. All I want to hear is Zach, the way you made this bed is per. It was supposed to be like a sigh of relief.

Like, ah, like, but yeah, I failed on that. Zach. Yeah. $5. I was in there swearing at the bed last night, trying to piece it together and then finally did. Were you Captain Allen Key last night? Is that where you were?

Yeah, there's going to be some more of that coming up in the next couple of hours, because not everything was finished. So there's like a dining table and the TV stands and all those kinds of things that got to be put together. But yeah, the Allen Key taking apart the bed, the truck, the Allen Key putting together the bed. Yeah, those were all exercised yesterday.

I don't want to ever see an Allen Key after this weekend. One day, both of you will look back on the years where you struggled and those will be your greatest memories. They don't feel like it at the time, but the struggles are the memories. $158 and $73 cool cents. Zach, before we end the program here today, anything from today's episode, maybe something from Max as well,

who was fantastic. Anything jump out of you from today? Yeah, Max was fantastic. I appreciated that. I am jumping on here with us and obviously the hockey with an accent show. I called a little bit of it last night while I was just listening to

to my headphones trying to get everything completed. The guest list, by the way, just shout out to them for what they do. did. They had P.K. Subin and Scott Gomez on together. They had B.X.A. And they had BX. N.J. Shiguerre on together. And then after that, they rolled out Rick Nash and Matthew Darsh. That's how they opened the postgame show. And I'm sitting there like, I do a post game show where it's me yelling and screaming. And smelling salts. And then the those you pops on every now and then. And smelling salts. Yeah. And then the Haps post game show is

rolling out that guest list. Yeah. And then he's going to have the ghosts of Rocket Richard and Jacques Plont. Exactly. And I'm going to have the next door inmate come on later. Let me know his thoughts. I'm going to talk about Alan McCauley from the glory years for him. Should have won.

Should have won that year. All right. Just quickly, though, one thing he said, I just want to point out, I thought it was interesting how he talked about. staying to the plan, sticking to the plan for Kent Hughes and the mojo of the team because I think there's a lot

to speak to when you talk about the chemistry and the bonds in the room. You guys brought up the fact that Texier is sitting there. You're already probably going to have to make a tough decision as you guys kind of outlined. Oh man, Gallagher. You're going to make more. You're going to take more people out.

Not to say these guys aren't pros. That's okay. But you're early on. You're young. Like experience this. like let's try this thing together and then see where it's at in the summer. This is what you want, right?

You want your coach to be forced into like really, really hard decisions like sitting down to veteran like Brendan Gallagher and saying, I don't know that you're going to play for the next little while. That can only mean that things are going well for the Montreal Canadians. And you know me, like I could talk about like Habs lore forever,

forever, especially with people that played there. Like the one thing that I'm going to take out of that interview that's going to be with me forever is when he talked about sitting in the HAB's dressing room and looking at and talking to Rocket Richard. I'm a sucker for that shit. Pretty cool. Sorry, man. I'm a sucker for that stuff.

I can, oh, man, it's so good. So good. Okay, thanks to Max for stopping by the program today. Zach, excellent job, both moving and navigating through a build of your studio and getting the show on the air. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And I hope you enjoyed the joke that I told you yesterday afternoon to help break the mood as I'm going to your gift to you on moving day. Thanks to you for watching. Thanks to you for listening.

Thanks to you for chatting. If you've subscribed to our daily face off YouTube channel, thank you. If you haven't, please consider doing so. We are back tomorrow. Is Dave on with us tomorrow? Or are we waiting on our other guests? Is Dave on? We're waiting on the other two, but I've told them there's some stuff in the air here.

Stuff in the air. We got some stuff in the air. We're going to see how it goes here. So we'll put it this way. Either way, you're going to like tomorrow's program. Trust me. So tune in tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern for the sheet here with yours truly. And I can't see the cast of thousands that Max is producing on, you know, with an accent.

But still, you know, we do our best around here. We've got a limited budget. But we do our best. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening back tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern. I appreciate. That's not every day this week, every day this month. Nom and