The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Hockey Tough ft. Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski discuss the McDavid and Myers suspensions, the Leafs vs Lightning game, the JT Miller situation, the Capitals Cup chances, and much more...Shout out to our sponsors!👍����Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I think we're forgetting one thing and welcome to the program today. Greg Wyshinski is on board already in the chat. We're going to get to him in a couple of moments. I think we're losing sight of one very important thing here, Zach Phillips, if that is indeed your real name He cross-checked someone in the face I've heard a lot of talk since the suspension came out For both McDavid and Myers sort of dancing around everything outside of the main issue

which is Connor McDavid cross checked someone in the face at the end of it. There's been a lot of whether it's ex players like Chris Pronger commenting on Attaboy. That's the way we used to do it back in my day back when I played for Hartford, St. Louis, Edmonton, Philadelphia, wherever else I played, Anaheim. To fans who are saying, well, it never would have happened, actually a former NHL is saying this as well, never would have happened if the officials were doing their job. Are we losing sight of the fact that Conor McDavid cross-checked Conor Garland in the face after, and we mentioned this on the program yesterday two referees two distinguished referees in the game

Chris Lee West McCauley missed a holding penalty Completely did now part of the oh by the way nice Dodgers hat. Are you like trolling Blue Jays fans? This is a complete troll job by you. Yeah. Okay, that's how I'm interpreting it. Although I am auditioning now for new teams.

I think I've had it with the Jays. My first job ever by the, my first job ever was selling hot dogs at For Versa Foods at Exhibition Stadium, but I think I'm done with the Jays now. We can get into that another time. Didn't know that. So part of the conversation that we heard last night

bleeding into today and we'll get Greg Wyshynski's thoughts on this in a couple of moments was the idea that the NHL needs to protect its stars. In what other game would this be allowed? Don't call penalties against people that attack Connor McDavid. Do we have the board handy? Do we have the family feud board handy here? The survey says board. Going back to when Connor McDavid started in the NHL, this is all public information. This isn't like some secret numbers that have been discovered by Zach Phillips here. This is all public information. Going back, going back to 2015 when Connor McDavid started in the NHL,

nobody has drawn more penalties than Connor McDavid. Now, he's in some interesting company. Connor McDavid, number one, 344 penalties drawn. Tom Wilson, number two. Brad Marshand, number three. Nazem Kadri, number four. Matthew Kachuk, number five. Interesting company.

And then Nathan McKinnon, David Pastran, Atgarn and Hathaway, Brady Kachuk, number five, interesting company. And then Nathan McKinnon, David Pastran, Atgard and Hathaway, Brady Kachuk, and Jeff Skinner. So, now, are those numbers down this year for Connor McDavid? Yes, but can we please pump the brakes a little bit on they're not taking care of Connor McDavid out there. Like this is in the 80s when Semenko and McSurly and Don Jackson and Kevin McClellan ran shotgun

and made sure that everything around Wayne Gretzky was nerfed or bubble wrapped. Those days are gone. We're gonna talk plenty about this. We're not gonna spend the whole show talking about it. Everything's been on fire ever since. Vancouver's playing tonight. We know all about the rematch that's on the horizon.

Myers won't be in there. McDavid won't be in there. I do wonder if that's one of those games where we see an unexpected out of nowhere line brawl at the opening faceoff just because of the animosity and heat between these two teams as you smile to yourself, Zach. Yeah. Anyhow, coming up on the show today, time for Daily Outlines presented by FanDuel,

North America's number one sportsbook app provider. Our good friends, here's what we have for you today, starting off with suspension fallout. So we've moved past the incident, we've moved past the suspension, now it's all about the hyperbole and the commentary. We're going to get into all of it with Wish here in a couple of seconds. After all, it's Tuesday, so we spend Tuesdays with a good friend, Greg Wyshinski, and we do MVSW, a podcast near and dear to my heart and Greg's heart, and we hope it's near and dear to your heart as well. Also, JT Miller. That saga continues. Vancouver is playing tonight and as of right now, 3.05 p.m. Eastern, JT Miller is still a member

of the Vancouver Canucks. We'll talk about him a little bit later on here on the broadcast. We'll talk about the Toronto May Police and the Tampa Bay Lightning last night. A morning cup of hockey, the guy today showed what's gonna be, what really is a tough power play to beat, highlighted by a great behind the back pass

by Nikita Kucherov and two one touches. It's just gonna be too tough to try to shut down. But I want to spend a little bit of time talking about not necessarily that game, but talking about Mitch Marner, who's trending towards, oh, you know, the best season of his career and doing it at a time where he's poised to become an unrestricted free agent

in July. Capitalist Cup tonight, so we'll talk about Washington, and we'll talk about the Ottawa Senators. They go head-to-head this evening, one of eight games on the go around the NHL. Also up for grabs. We're gonna have a lot of fun with Clayton Keller's face. You know, the worst one I think I ever saw was Ian LePeriere when he blocked a Paul Martin shot in the face

New Jersey Philadelphia and then Flyers fans made an incredible t-shirt about it that might have been my favorites that's up for grabs here thanks for joining us whether you're listening on the podcast whether you're watching live on YouTube whether you're in the chat or not we thank you for your participation and with that we bring in Greg Wyszynski from ESPN. Time for MVSW all over again. Wish, how are you? Are we losing sight of the fact that... Dramatic pause. Conor McDavid cross-checked Conor Garland in the face on Hockey Night in Canada.

On Hockey Day in Canada. That was a closing sequence of Hockey Night in Canada, on Hockey Day in Canada, that was a closing sequence of Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. Are we losing sight of the fact that, as we dance around everything around this incident, at the end of it, McDavid cross-checked the guy in the face. First off, I was pretty convinced there'd be another reason you were gonna give up your Jays fandom.

Rogers! Oh, sorry, must be a speck of dust in here somewhere. Listen, you have to think about this. It's called Skydom. It's called Skydom. It's called Skydom. I understand. I understand.

There's something you've missed in that stat you put up about McDavid before, and it is absolutely true that he has drawn more penalties than any other player since his rookie season. When you go inside the numbers, and Zach, if you wanted to put it back up again, it's up to you. If you go inside the numbers, McDavid's penalties drawn per 60 minutes is 1.38 during that span. That's 10th among players with at least 300 games

to their career, and that's averaging 15 per minutes per night. That's 10th. So it's a little bit of a deception on your part to say that he's number one. But if you go by the rates, he is 10th. I've always maintained, and this has been true of, and you remember the first time that I first talked to you about Conor McDavid so many years ago. Oh my God, you were first. Well, I don't like to brag, but you say it again.

Say it again. Much like John Puchadras is the first guy to ever say that Ovechkin could break Gretzky's record, you canonically were the first person to ever mention Connor McDavid's name on a well-listened-to hockey podcast. So, and that's only because, you know, now the CEO of the Edmonton Oil is, when he was an agent, Jeff Jackson used to drag me out to games to watch Connor McDavid because he was trying to recruit him so that's how I got to know Connor McDavid but I've always maintained one of the reasons why it's tough to take penalties against Connor McDavid

you can't catch him like you look at all those all those other players that are on that list very catchable very very Very, very, very catchable players. If you want, if you want, if you want... Are you saying Tom Wilson doesn't have Connor McDavid's wheels? Actually, Tom Wilson's actually a really good skater. But I mean, if you want to, I don't know, if you want to, if you want to catch Matthew Kachuk, first of all, Matthew Kachuk's not too shy about being caught. Matthew Kachuk is happy to be engaged in whatever you want to engage in at any time in any of the three zones. But the only point that I was trying to make there

is like no one's like, I don't think officials are looking the other way on Conor McDavid and say like, you know, this is 1986 Stanley Cup finally. You fight through the neutral zone. You fight through that slash and that hook and that elbow and that butt end. That's the way we do it here. Oh yeah you got a you got a hook in your hip

you bend your knees son you don't go spawning all over the ice trying to get a minor penalty. That was my only point is like let's let's just park the conversation about how it's open season on Conor McDavid and if I can just throw a log on another log on the fire here and I know what I'm doing when I do this this is just like I just infuriate Oilers fans I guess I don't remember Oilers fans complaining about the officiating when they missed the elbow to the head of Marcus Johansson last week from Conor McDavid. So I know you want to tie a bow around the McDavid referees argument but let me take the ball off the gift for one second and say it is something's changed this

season. Okay. Okay. Connor McDavid and every season of his NHL career has averaged more than more than one penalty per 60 minutes drawn. Okay. This season he's at 0.89. That ranks him again amongst players that play at least 15 minutes a night. That ranks him outside of the top 50 as far as penalties drawn per 60 minutes. No, I don't know what that means. I don't know why it's happening. I don't know what that means either. He didn't accept the Kahn Smythe on the ice. I don't know. But there's something going on here where Connor's not getting the same kind of calls

he's gotten in the past. Averages will probably average out by the end of the season. But if you are someone who believes, as the Oilers clearly believe, as Connor's camp clearly believes, that he does not get the same benefit of the doubt that a player of his stature should something's happened this year for the numbers have dropped. You know what the interesting part about that is, is now that this is part of the conversation

and Bob Stauffer went banana sandwich last night. No, Bob had Bob had an epic one last night. No. Bob did? Bob had an epic one last night. Um, I, you can find it. You can search it out. It is, it is fantastic, right? It's sports, right? It's beautiful. Like I don't get this mad when I vote, damn it. Um, like that's, that's what it was.

And you know, listen, Bob's got the heft to do it and has the numbers behind him to do it as well. Um, but the interesting thing about what's happening now in some ways, and I sort of, I made this point with Patrick Leinie and the Columbus Blue Jackets that by blasting the Blue Jackets, that actually did the Blue Jackets a favor.

And you look at what's happened with the Columbus Blue Jackets since, like you give players something to rally around, they'll do it. I wonder now that this conversation is being had, it gets, it's past its initial news cycle and it's still going. And it's still gonna go until Connor McDavid comes back.

And you know when McDavid comes back, he's gonna go off for like three points a night. Like that's just Connor McDavid, that's what he does. And he's gonna help Canada win the Four Nations because of it. But I do, I know, I do do I do want to make my point I do wonder if this now draws attention to it and all of a sudden now you better not go near Connor Mcdavid and he's going to start getting the calls we all know. Let's hope because the numbers have fallen off this year the suspension

itself I I would have bet the house it was gonna be two games. Like clearly cross check to the face is gonna get you suspended. I agree with you on that. They're obviously not gonna let Myers or McDavid play in the rematch on Thursday. So that gets you to two for both of them.

And I thought that's where we would end up. I thought Myers might get three because he had more of a rap sheet than McDavid did. And frankly, his cross-check to the face of Bouchard, although I will agree with Myers, his argument in the hearing was that he tried to go for the chest and Bouchard's gloves kind of came up and that's why it went to the face.

It still was a cross-check delivered after the whistle, which I don't think is something the NHL, yeah, that's the thing for me, with Myers. Hang on, hang on, that's okay. I wanna go back to McDavid, but I think you nailed it on that one. I think two, like cross check to the face, that is two games. That was, it's been pretty much established with Matthews and Rasmus Stallien, right? Matthews with no history, that's two. Like that's like the first one, boom, cross check in the face. That's going to get you two games for Tyler Myers. I thought it was going to be more for Myers because of like we look at Ridley,

Greg and Morgan Riley, and that was five more. The big things was it happened after the whistle. I know a lot of Maple Leafs fans finally found something similar that would happen during the game. The Wayne Simmons incident was a big one, but the argument there was it happened during the course of play. Ridley Glegg takes a slap shot at an empty net and then gets chased down the ice to the boards by Morgan Riley well after the play is over and then it's the cross check to the head. That's going to be a beefy number because after

the whistle and distance traveled to go and there's a plenty of time for Morgan Riley to make a different decision. And he didn't. I thought the after the whistle was gonna really ring up Tyler Myers. Like I thought it was gonna be, I thought we were gonna see fours yesterday, to be honest with you.

And I know you may say- For both? Yeah, I did. I really did. And I thought that I know the Leddy incident, like that there is a significant amount of time between when he got Leddy with the headshot. Again, it wasn't a stick foul. And now and no, it wasn't. And now that you may look at it and say, okay, well, that's already washed out. The history doesn't wash out, but it doesn't act as an automatic significant multiplier as if two weeks ago, he had another stick to the head incident. Like that's just how the Department of Player Safety thinks.

I'm not saying that that's what I would have done, but that's how the Department of Player Safety thinks. And I gotta say, they've been consistent with that. They really have. That's not arbitrary. It's not, Greg, it's not. They've been consistent with that they really have this isn't that's not arbitrary it's not Greg it's not they've been consistent with that one show me where they haven't well well let's let's talk about consistency at a second but to your point I think people miss the fact that the Department of Player Safety when it comes to repeat offenders that's

that's merely within a certain time frame yes to deal with the punitive damages to deal with the punitive damages, to deal with the money that somebody might have to give up. That's when you see the repeat offender thing. But you're right, all that stuff stays on the ledger. Like all the Tyler Meyers stuff is taken under consideration in suspending him. Now, I will take issue with consistency here.

Okay, you mentioned, we have two incidents recently that both resulted in a two game suspension for for what was a cross-check to the head. We had Austin Matthews, we had Carson Sussie in the playoffs, who got one game, one postseason game, which if you know, player safety math basically means two regular season games. Correct. I don't understand the justification. I know that they're saying it's McDavid's previous suspension and he got a fine as well during the COVID season

for something on cocky mani, but like, I don't think there's a justification for three. I just don't. I think it's a two game suspension. I don't see too much of a difference in the heat of the momentness between what McDavid did and what Matthews did. I don't know how they get to three. I know that we got to three, and I know that he's not appealing

three because he knows essentially that the appeal is going to take three games. And it goes to Betman who's not going to overturn player safety. But I don't know what the justification is to give him three. That's it. What is essentially something that's gotten two for a ton of other guys. It's just the history. That's it. So suci right about the like i don't like it but and i and you know i'm gonna ask berkey about this on friday because i think this was this was berkey math going back to when when he ran what we now know is a department of player safety that that was that was berkey's idea and it's always happened that a two game suspension the regular season is a one game suspension in the playoffs to which I've always said well in overtime

then do we do one minute minors because there's only five minutes of overtime like by that logic are we gonna go with a whole lot of saying you can't sit them down for two because it's only five minutes we're not playing 20 minutes are we gonna have one minute minors now? Anyway. They'd call more penalties if that was the case. Philosophically, probably would. It's funny too because Jay Woodcroft used to always call that one minute minors. Like that when the Red Wings would do those pick plays

that kind of look like penalties, but they're not like, you can't justify a full two. So they would say like, go do a one minute minor. Go take a one minute minor, which means just pick someone. They're not gonna call it. So the only reason that McDavid got the three, I'm convinced, is the history. Like that's it.

There's the two, that was standard. Both are getting minimum two. Both have history. So to me, that went to three. And I really did wonder, considering it was heat of the moment, bad reaction to a missed minor penalty, I wondered if there was going to be another, but to be honest with you, I look at it. Three's fine. Three's fine for both. Here's... It's not fine. It shouldn't be three. It shouldn't be three. There's no justification for three. I just told you there is because of history. History doesn't come into it. You just said it. He hit a guy. His previous inf- His previous infraction wasn't a stick foul.

No, it wasn't a stick foul. I think it would have made it even worse. Just the fact- Of course it's a set-up for hidden behavior. He still has something on his rap that is not getting wiped out. That is not getting wiped out ever. That is always what- You don't have to like it.

You don't have to like it, but that's- You're talking about, you're talking about it. You don't have to like it, but that's- The letty thing is in 2015. Yes, Greg, I'm not saying that you have to like it. You don't have to like it, but that's... Yes, I, Greg, I'm not saying that you have to like it. I'm not saying you have to like it. I'm saying that is their rationale. That is how the Department of Player Safety works. You can, you can not like it and that's fine. There's some things about it that I don't like too. But all I'm trying to say is if you're looking for like what's the rationale for it, that's their rationale for it. You can disagree with it and say you don't like it. But if you're looking for like what's the rationale for it, that's their rationale for it. You can disagree with it and say you don't like it, but if we're looking for why this happens,

that's why it happens. Now, I understand why it happens. I disagree with it, but I think what we should say though, we should say though, is that if Conor McDavid had taken his stick and slashed the living hell out of Connor Garland's leg, it's not three. If you had punched him in the face, it's not three. Yep. Where I will go with player safety on this is that he did do the one thing that's gonna get you dinged pretty severely from the league,

which is use your stick as a weapon. And that's the only way I'm gonna justify three for them. But otherwise, I don't, it's two. It was two for Matthews, it was two for Salicy, it should be two for McDavid. So this argument is interesting. Let me get it off the McDavid page briefly for a second. And I wanna, Zach, do you have the incident

that we were talking about earlier on today? So let's go back, gentle Greg, and everyone in the chat, everyone watching, everyone listening. Let's go back to 1987. I remember this like it was yesterday. This is Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers. Okay. You've probably seen this one before. This is Dave Brown and Thomas Sandstrom Cracked to the head. Okay, like that is Sandstrom's not even looking Dave Brown comes in cross-check to the head. That's 1987 Yeah, that suspension was 15 games

Now here's the point that I've always tried to make to people the Department of Player Safety Works in conjunction with the general managers every year and essentially say, how do you want us, how do you want us to meet out justice? Do you want 15 game suspensions like we saw in 1987 for cross checks to the head? Because if that was the standard, Greg, because you always hear, oh, not protecting players, they need to, they need these suspensions, need to be more,

and you could say, okay, yeah, well that's fine. What happens, like what happens now if the opening call is 15 games on a cross-check to the head, knowing that Conor McDavid could do the same thing, or Sidney Crosby could do the same thing. All of a sudden, because every general manager is faced with this, it's only a problem when your bowl gets scored, but every manager knows, even my star players could do this. And that is why suspensions are so, quote unquote,

low. Because managers would complain what happened to them. managers would write and have theirs never fought for that either No, they haven't right don't like it don't yeah Because they know it could be them that gets rung up next time or no, maybe even more importantly Star player on their team could be that guy the next team you're completely right like it's it's kind of a It's kind of a standoff that'll never be resolved. And I think that you're completely right in the sense that fans are always asking for more justice and they have to understand why there isn't

longer suspensions and it's because everyone has kind of agreed that's what we want. Remember when Shanahan in that pre-season, when he first started, was throwing like nickels and dimes at everybody and then managers went like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop. But again, last thing I'll say about this,

because I know we have a lot more to get to, but like you bring up Shanahan. I think the department of player safety does an amazing job. I think more often than not, they get it right under the parameters we just spoke about. I think they take a lot of crap for the decisions that they make,

but I think overall they do a pretty good job and overall they're pretty consistent. I've covered this department since Shanahan started it, okay? And one of the things that we've always talked about with the Department of Player Safety is there is a subset of players in this league that need a good talking to. And there's a subset of players in this league that are the ones that constantly skirt the rules, play dangerously, play recklessly, and when it comes to the chance to throw the book at them, Matt Rempe, forously, play recklessly. And when it comes to the chance to throw the book at them,

Matt Renpe, for example, you do it. Connor McDavid really one of those guys? No, but you can't, there can't be a special carve out for Connor McDavid. It'd be carve out for guys that aren't that type of guy. Like this is, yeah, and that's where history comes into it. Absolutely.

And that's where like, if you have a rap sheet, that's longer and longer and longer, based on how long you've been in the league and how many things you've done, all of a sudden, if that's Matt Rimpie doing that to Connor Garland, I assure you, it's not a three game suspension. That is much more significant.

Not that this justifies any of it, but I will say this about the NHL, and you can say this is a good thing or a bad thing. This is right or wrong, protect stars, keep stars in the game. I understand the argument. Gil Stein wanted, remember suspended players only had the server suspension on off days

because they wanted to keep players in the lineup. That was a whopper of one. Anyhow, I mean, listen, the Rashard Riots were because Rocket Rashard got suspended for hitting a linesman mm-hmm like this goes back like this isn't this isn't new this isn't new at all and I'll also sympathize with the Department of Player Safety because they're essentially cleaning up the referees mess they're cleaning up Stephen Walcom's department's mess was not missed. Missed call Connor.

Well, Connor Garland didn't get a holding penalty at the end of that game. He didn't get one. They were never going to call one. He's literally he's trying to win the Greco-Roman gold in the summer Olympics against Connor McDavid on a scoring play at the end of the game, and he didn't even get a holding penalty for it. I know. So I sympathize with player safety in this case, which is that what McDavid did is a result

of the referees not doing their job. And they're two separate departments and player safety had to clean up the referee's mess. That is, so, okay, I'm glad you got us there. Because I think there's been a lot of, although more with fans, because fans generally tend to go after officials And you know how much of how much slack I cut officials, but even I can't look at that Saturday and say well Greg what you're missing

It's Why I heard some of those it's because of you. This is what game management means because you can't call That was you earn that you are the first one to say game management don't make the penalties yada yada yada and you've heard the score the score to the fans for your protection of the head bros I had so deep was the interior I am that's very good I had I had someone on on Twitter X today say that this suspension was because of me supporting game management by by saying that you can't you can't police every single like look you can't make calls on everything if you just call the rule but give me 60 minutes of penalties and 60 minutes of power plays that's always that's always been my point okay I'm getting off track here. That'd be great for the Whalers by the way. Yeah for sure.

Yeah they'll take that one. I was saying this before he came on this doesn't have a sort of Tom Wilson or Tammy Panarin vibe about it but considering all the hatred not just between the teams but between the fan bases the cities the history most recent of course in the playoffs between Edmonton Vancouver now I'm not trying to start anything Greg Wyshinski but does this have opening face-off line brawl written on it it it it has the faint whiff of it if we're gonna have one but I think more than But does this have opening face-off line brawl written on it? It has the faint whiff of it if we're going to have one.

But I think more than anything, it has much much like your your Panarin Wilson example, because then the subsequent games between those teams became kind of I'm going to I'm going to pop in and see what's going on. It's good to have a rivalry. It's good to have animosity. It's good to have rivalry. It's good to have animosity. It's good to have controversy. We have a severe deficit of team rivalries you care about in this league right now.

And I think between the postseason and this incident and proximity and division, we got ourselves something cooking here with Vancouver and Edmonton and it feels great. Doesn't it? Doesn't it feel great? Doesn't it feel great to have something other than the Florida teams to care about in this league right now

insofar as team versus team rivalries? Okay, can I gross about the schedule then? Please. I hate when they heavy up what could be an obvious rivalry early in the season. Like, you know full well that something could happen between Edmonton and Vancouver or Calgary and Vancouver or Toronto and Montreal or even Toronto and Buffalo. You know these things could happen.

Tampa and Florida is the obvious one. Don't throw it away in November and December. I just cringe when I hear, you know, it's December 13th and we've just had a game that took three hours and these two teams hate each other. And the closing montage is, well, too bad we won't be seeing this unless these two teams face off in the playoffs. Like, let's try to get these types of games

where we think there could be some fireworks later on in the season. Right? I just love that, you know, Steve Hotchapetzos, the guy who does the schedules for the NHL is having to spin a billion plates. He's trying to figure out how to schedule a hockey game around three dates from a Korean boy band. It's so true.

And you're like, Steve, can we, why are you putting the Vancouver Edmonton game so early? What are you doing, Steve? And I know full well, like the heavy up Canadian games. I get it, I get it, I get it. I'm just trying to have like, the perfect hockey season.

I don't, you and I might've been doing a show together or not when this was going on, but like, did we ever talk about the COVID era, play two nights in the same city on the same weekend thing? I'm surprised. You loved it, right? Who didn't? Who didn't?

Listen, I'll tell you. The NHL apparently. Well, and I can't figure out why. Because it makes more sense. It helps build rivalries. That's where you can hear all rivalries fuel the sport. Well, why are we separating all these teams and why just play one and play two makes more sense economic? I guess everybody look economically you don't fly the planes. It helps the environment

You figure all these things to be in favor of this thing, but they didn't follow through on it I was really surprised. I thought it was gonna go more to a baseball style schedule You're coming in to play Dallas one now you're gonna play Dallas to like that's just sure the way it's it's going to be it just made too much sense I don't know why they did like who didn't look at and I don't know why there aren't more home and homes Like home and homes again. This is gonna sound like we're both like the old man like honestly, dude Like those home and home I grew up with the Norris division bud and those home and homes like take your pick Chicago st. Louis Minnesota Toronto Detroit any of them any of them home and home. Oh, yeah like take your pick, Chicago, St. Louis, Minnesota, Toronto, Detroit, any of them, any of them home and home,

oh yeah, take the phone off the hook before cell phones. The only argument that I heard, I remember at the time of them not wanting to do this anymore was the idea of you wanna spread the wealth a little bit. You wanna spread those games out. No, you wanna spread the hate. No, you wanna spread the wealth. There's a chance that a fan might buy tickets

to two of those games if they're not back to back, you know, like don't want to spread the wealth. There's a chance that a fan might buy tickets to two of those games if they're not back to back, you know, like it's a whole marketing thing. But as far as like the animosity goes and the other things we talked about, cost savings, all that other stuff, you know, the wear and tear on an athlete's body, stay in the same city for three days versus, you know, having to fly back later in the season,

all that played into the advantage of having those back to back weekend games or whatever. It would have been cool. So Jake Miller, he brings up a good one in the chat, would also be good for traveling fan bases. Two games definitely makes it worth your time and money for hotels. As opposed to- That's very true. It's a great point.

Yeah. And it is interesting to think about like what would benefit traveling fan bases versus the other thing that happens in the league, which is a bunch of owners restricting their ticket sales to zip codes of their liking and doing everything they can to keep out those fans. Yeah, that's a good point, too. Yes. It's so dumb. As a kid who grew up going to Devil Ranger games,

there is absolutely nothing better than invading fan bases. I know that our friends in Nashville always used to complain about all the Black Hawks fans and Red Wings fans that would get into those games and you'd feel real terrible about having to sit and see a red, you know, when you go see Nashville play. But to me, it's like that helped cut my teeth as a fan. Like the idea of your you know, defending your fortress against these and marauding hordes that come to your arena. That's like such a great environment.

And I don't know why teams were so adversarial to having the adversaries come to their buildings. Yeah, Lindy Ruff had the line of the year this year when he talked about a game at the Key Bank against the Toronto Maple Leafs. And he said, we've got to take the fans out of this one early. That is a great one.

This is awesome. Lindy's got to have a sense of humor about what's going on this season. Okay, so off of that, you have anything else to add before? I said we weren't going to talk about this all show and here we are 33 minutes in. Anything more on McDavid Myers that you want to get into or you just want to let those embers slowly.

I mean, I think we've said all we're going to say about it. All right. I know, I really thought it was going to be two. Three of these? That's all. Okay. Washington Capitals Stanley Cup chances. You've written recently at ESPN.com about the Washington Capitals, a team that continues to impress.

Like even in a little bit of a swoon, there are things in a Washington Capitals game that you that continues to impress, like even in a little bit of a swoon, there are things in a Washington Capitals game that you look at and go, wow, Protus is playing great tonight. Or, you know, like, you know, Trevor Van Riemestein is really good. I never noticed Van Riemestein before. And if you notice how good a season

Jacob Chickren is having, man, he's gonna get 7 million bucks on the open market. What do you make of the Washington Capitals? Well, they're better year over year. I mean, I think they're like top three offense and defense right now in the league, which is a tribute partially to their goaltending, but with Logan Thompson, I wrote about the caps today and ESPN. I hope that people check it out. It's kind of a look inside of their retool at a time when the black Hawks are terrible and the penguins are delaying the inevitable. You know, one of the other titans of the last 15 years, the Washington Capitals have found

a way to retool around Ovechkin to the point where if you squint hard enough, you can kind of see what the post-Ovie era could look like. And there's three things I wanted to touch on real quick about that. The first is the Capitals GM, Chris Patrick, kind of said something that really struck me, which is that, look at their acquisitions. Dubois, Chickren, to a little lesser extent, Logan Thompson, but before that, Strom, Sandeen.

These are players 26 and under. And he said, there's a lot of people around the league that don't believe you can trade for those kinds of players or acquire those kinds of players and you just have to kind of jump on it when the opportunity arises and a lot of people thought they were insane for Dubois with that contract you know Chikran has never been necessarily the guy who actualized his full talent so maybe there's a little bit of buying low,

but you have to give the caps credit. Like the players that have been difference makers on this team are players that are all 27 and under and kind of come from other places. It's pretty impressive. The other thing too about the caps. Oh, go ahead, sorry. I was gonna say it's the power of the second chance.

Like Glenn Sayther was the master of this. And people would look at Glenn and go, oh, it's the arrogance of Glenn Sayther. Like Glenn Sather was the master of this. And people would look at Glenn and go, oh, it's the arrogance of Glenn Sather. Oh, just get this guy into my program and we could do this. Whether it's the Oilers or the Rangers, I mean, that was the arrogance of Slats. But it's no different than we're seeing here from Chris Patrick saying like, get him here.

Get this guy here. Now you're right, it helps when you have an all-world goaltender and all-world goaltending tandem. And it helps when you have Spencer Carberry, who knows half the team from when he coached them in Hershey, but look how many, like, look how many second slash third chance players you just mentioned. How many times we look at Dylan Stroma go, is it ever going to happen? Is it ever going to happen for Dylan Stroma third overall pack?

Is it ever going to work for him? Is he going to find a spot? You did. It's worked great. It has. The other thing is the identifying players who might benefit from a bigger spotlight. Van Reemsdijk is one of the guys that Patrick mentioned

of I never realized this guy could do this. And then lo and behold, he's doing it for the Capitals. And the third thing, you mentioned Carberry, you mentioned Hershey, what a pipeline. Like if you look at the prospect pipeline rankings, the Capitals are not necessarily like in the top 10. But then you think about Ryan Leonard on the way, you think about Cole Hudson on the way,

you think about the players that they have in Hershey right now. They have a geographic advantage of being able to get guys called up quickly. They have a geographic advantage of being able to manage that program and have executives go to Hershey, come back to DC. It's a great, you know, easy trip to make. And they've been patient. And the other thing about it too, Merrick, is like, when you think about the play to the Penguins and how bare that cupboard is for them over the years, the Washington Capitals have missed the playoffs twice since 2008, I think it

is. In that span, I think there's been three drafts where they didn't have a first round pick. It's pretty remarkable how they've been able to populate Hershey and be patient with those players and then gradually bring them up to the big team in a way that a team that has been that successful for 15 years should not be able to do. Ethan Frank. Yeah, Ethan Frank too.

Ethan Frank, the fastest player in hockey period. Two calling cards, incredible shot and incredible wheels. If, if, if, you know, people watching or listening don't know what we're talking about here, you got to see this kid recently called up from Hershey, um, played at Western Michigan, been banging it out in the minors. His, his, his family owned a roller rink. Um, and the kid grew up, I don't think he started skating until he was nine years old. He was just happy to live on inline skates.

And that's what he was going to do. And maybe that leads at that. Maybe that's why he has that wide stance when he skates. But like, here's all of a sudden, boom, here, did he spend too much time, too much time in the minors? Probably not when you consider he's under the tutelage of Todd Nelson, who should probably be an NHL coach. But, you know, I've always mentioned about him, the problem with Todd Nelson

is his teams go too far into the playoffs. They always, they always, always go too deep into the playoffs. So when all the coaching interviews are being done, Todd's still coaching. And then he wins the Calder Cup, but it's like, okay, any jobs out there for me? No, they're all filled. But I got this cup. But at the end of the day, like that's another thing the Capitals have talked about is like their young prospects play in big spots. They play important games, they go on long replay off runs and, and it informs their success at the higher level. I will be fascinated

when, when I think Leonard's going to probably leave after the season. I don't know that for sure, but I think we could probably agree that it's probably going to be the case. Greg. We're gonna keep us. Can you pause for one second? Can you pause for a second? Yes, sure. I was there in Ottawa to watch the World Juniors I'm not there to watch BC right like I rely on other people for a college hockey and being in the buildings and telling Me what they see That guy should be playing in the NHL today should be playing in the NHL today. Ryan Leonard should be an NHL or today, not next year, like today. I think he joins them. I think he's a late season post-free deadline edition. The quote,

what would be interesting though is you can count on one hand the number of players that have have skipped over the Hershey incubation period to join the capitals. Tom Wilson was one of them and Leonard's probably another one. I mean, he's got some NCAA seasoning, but that kid is good. He's a leader and he's gonna make this team even better than it is right now.

If he joins them at the end of the season. Yeah, phone guy. Well, I'll bite. Yeah. Well, he didn't really say he is. I think he might've said last year he wanted to spend one more year in college, but yeah, he's on the way and he's great.

So I wanted to make this point last week and I didn't have time, so I wanna make it with you and get your thoughts on it. Cause you mentioned, you know, jumping over Hershey just to go right to the NHL. And I've always maintained specific, more so with defensemen than forwards, everybody and goalies always do.

I mean, this is the story of Buffalo trying to rush Devon Levi and go around the American Hockey League. And it's like, show me the goalie, show me the goalie that's done that. Yeah. You need time in the American Hockey League. I always say that about every player

outside of the Crosby's and McDavid's and of Eskens. When you look at that draft class of 2003, and Eric Stahl just had the number retired by Carolina, if you look at all those players, like we look at them now and it's like, what a draft! That was incredible. Look at all these players.

It's Bergeron and Fleury and Stahl and go down to Weber. Go right down the list. Getzlaff, Perry, Richards and Carter. Parizek. Go right down the list. You know what helped them? The lockout in 2004. You know why? They were forced. they were forced to either go back to junior or play in the American League. There was no option for them right to go in the NHL, right into the fire. And look how well that entire draft class did. We look back on it and just say, well, those players were just great, I guess. And forget that all those guys were forced to spend one more year of development, either

in the CHL for a lot of them or college hockey or in the American hockey league. That's what they all have in common. And we look at that draft class and go, it's one of the best ever. And they all have in common. They spend time in the American league. They all do. I'm going to clip this conversation and send it to Simone Nemesh. I think you could probably use it to sing your soliloquy.

No, but hang on. I feel for Simone Nemech. First of all, I mean, listen, Jonathan Kovacevich, like that should be Nemech's spot, but K like, what an off season for Tom Fitzgerald and Seigenthaler Nemesh together. I mean Anderson and Gravrokov in Los Angeles. To me it's like they're fighting for like, who are the best shutdown pairs in the NHL? It's between those two like tremendous. But I get, I understand them because don't forget, I mean you know this like, it was like five minutes ago he was playing a 60 game season with the New Jersey Devils. And now he's looking like, okay, I'm blocked by this guy, I'm blocked by this guy, maybe even I'm blocked by Sheamus Casey at this point. He probably feels bad too, because like,

you could make the argument he was better than Luke Hughes last year. Like you can make that up. Now, I think Luke's been incredible this year. He's played better defense than I thought he was capable of at this age this year. But I mean, if you're Nemesh and you're just like toiling in the AHL watching a guy that you've probably outplayed last year get your shot,

you're probably a little bit salty. I don't know. Let me talk about the devs real quick. So they are struggling. They are not getting anything out of their bottom six scoring right now. But they're doing the same damn thing they've done. They need a third line center.

They need a third line center. They need a third line center. They need a third line center. They need a third line center. Multi-season problem for this team, giving up the first goal. They've done it in 27 of 49 games this year. Now they're 12, 12 and three when it happens. So like they do recover.

They've got the offensive horses to do that. But at some point, like constantly playing from behind and constantly playing from a deficit, it catches up with you. And this is like, I don't know what the malfunction is with this team. Cause it's happened under multiple coaches now in multiple seasons where they simply can't seem

to get on the board first, establish their game, and then skate teams into oblivion like they probably should. I don't know what it is about this team. 27 out of 49 games they've given up for this goal. They're sick, everyone's sick. They all had the flu. Tommy T pointed out in the chat.

You're not a comment. I'm kidding. What are we doing here? I'm kidding. Do you know how many podcasts I did with the flu? Probably not a lot. I probably backed out. Do you remember that one pod that I was doing that I was barfing while I was on the pod,

right before we went to Ottawa for the All-Star game and I was like wrapped up and was barfing all over the place? Well, I think it was because I suggested doing a game show and your body rejected it so much. Probably. And you started spewing. Yeah, but I've turned around on game shows now.

You've been all over the equipment. I've turned around, I've turned around on game shows now. You've been spewing all over the equipment. You know a lot of, I've turned around. I've turned around on game shows. I know, the fact that you've done one since we started doing this again yourself is- Yes, I'll do another one one day. You've changed your opinion on it. I'll do another one one day, damn it.

A quick thought, listen, I don't know where JT Miller ends up. It sounds still like Rangers very much in the mix. We should not be surprised at the Carolina Hurricanes because whenever there's a big name available, the Carolina Hurricanes are around it, as are, by the way, it would not surprise me at all if we found out at some point

that the Colorado Avalanche expressed interest because there's two teams that I'm always told that whenever there are big names out there, I'm on Vegas too, but two teams specific whenever there are big names out there are always around it. One is Carolina and the other is Colorado. That one would not surprise me but it does sound like he wants to head east. But nonetheless. He fits snugly, snugly into that Colorado lineup, doesn't he? Yes, yes. In our chat, Rick says, hang on a second here,

in our chat, you will like this one. Rick says, Greg would have cross-checked the flu in the face. All right, that is the- I would have if it had a hold on me and the flu refs were like, play on, I would have taken my stick and I would have hit and flew

right in the face the hey hey whoa whoa what one quick question i want to get this one out there i think the answer is you could still play jessica l what if a player is suspended right before the four nations cup with the nhl let them play it is an nh an NHL tournament. So this is a great question. And I'm happy that you've asked that because I just investigate some other things about this too. I don't know about suspensions. I don't know about, I mean, there's not a trade moratorium, which in theory means that any of the players

in this tournament can be traded, which is the same to me. Like, why would you possibly want people focused and tuned into an exhibition tournament if you're these players, if like JT Miller could all of a sudden become a hurricane in the middle of the tournament? Like I feel like there should be like protected status for the players in the four nations.

I don't know if you could do that necessarily under the CBA. But it feels right. I'm just sending a note. Doesn't it? It feels right. I'm just sending a note to find out if, we'll see if this comes back here. Jessica, that's a great question.

But the other thing too is, and this is the one I was most curious about, Merrick, are they enforcing the All-Star rule? You can play! You can play. Four Nations is isolated. If you're suspended, you can still play Four Nations. If you skip Four Nations,

do you have to do the All-Star rule in the SEDEVA game? Or more to the point, If you skip Four Nations, do you have to do the all-star rule? Or more to the point, if you skip Four Nations, do you then have to sit out the next three games? Because that's how many games in Four Nations are missed. As an American, how happy were you to hear all the talk about Conor McDavid should sit out the Four Nations in protest? all the talk about Conor McDavid should sit out the Four Nations in protest. Conversation last night. I think it's time for Conor to take a stand. He should turn his back on the Four Nations tournament. I think he should encourage other Canadian players to do the same as a

McKennie, McCarr, a show of solidarity with, with brother Conor to, to not play the four nations tournament. I completely agree. It's time to take a stand. No, that's interesting. Yeah, I there's a lot of that four nations stuff that I'm glad we cleared up the the one the one the one caveat this person mentions is that, you know, if someone did something incredibly egregious outside of just Conor McDavid, you know, ho-hum, Saturday night cross-check in the face, yawn,

something even more egregious than that. Yeah, something more than I hit a guy in the face with my stick who I was wearing. Yeah, something more than that. All right, before we wrap here, I'm glad we got Jessica, great question, and glad we got the answer there for you. Okay, so that is settled. Is Betman in the chat? How did you get that answer so quickly? My God. Gary Betman is actually Big Willie Styles. Big Willie Styles in the chat is actually Gary Betman. Sorry Commissioner, the mask comes off. Big Willie Styles in the chat. He's also on the morning cup of hockey. It's actually the Commissioner. I'm sorry. I know it'sman. Sorry, sorry commissioner. The mask comes off, Big Willy Styles in the chat. He's also on the morning cup of hockey. It's actually the commissioner.

I'm sorry. I know it's not. Sorry I had to find out like this. I know it's not that because Big Willy Styles said he'd liked that I was here. So I know that's definitely. So a really quick thought before I wrap up here. Like you got like 60 hot seconds on Mitch Marner.

There's Mitch Marner. There's no question attached to this one other than, you know, it's another big night for Mitch Marner. There's Mitch Marner. There's no question attached to this one, other than it's another big night for Mitch Marner. Last night the Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. I know the power play is impressive and we'll see more of that tonight. But give us just a general thought as from a, because I'm right in the market, as an outsider,

like someone that's just watching Mitch Marner. Adam Oates always makes the point. Why is it always Mitch has to help people? Why isn't it the Maple Leafs go out and get someone to help Mitch Marner? Why is it always Mitch is helping Willie which is helping Austin which is helping John Tavares? Why is it not the other way around just have a thought on Mitch Marner the season that he's having he's gonna put like 115 points on the board If the fact that Adam Oates said that is so funny. It's so Adam Oates.

Because Adam Oates is, Adam Oates is, if you look up complementary star in the dictionary, it is a giant picture of Adam Oates. Adam Oates. And if you look up complement, dude, Oates and Hull, Oates and whoever, Oates has always been a player who made other players better, but was not necessarily the guy on the front of the arena on the banner. Wouldn't you agree? Uh, that, that is true, but he, you know, when he was one of those guys where all the, all the players that played all talked about how brilliant this guy was and like, oh man,

I completely agree. That's why I think it's kind of funny. The idea that Adam Oates, who was the ultimate, we're going to put our guy with Adam Oates to make him better. It's like, they should put people around Marner. Maybe he's just very similar in the sense that they're never going to be the guy. Maybe he was just frustrated. The guy behind the guy. Frustrated in his career that it was never like, let's get someone to help out. Let's just get like, you know what? Yeah, that's what I mean.

Brett Hall is going to go hide, hide on, hide somewhere in the ice half the game. And when he when he springs free in a scoring position, Adam, make sure he gets the puck. Make sure he gets the puck. So my take on Marner is this. First of all, I've always felt that Marner is the type of player that if the Leafs ever let him walk or trade at him, he is the type of player that you will be constantly searching for over the next seven years or eight years. Yes. Yes. And again, like that is without question. Yes. The other thing too about this is that normally when we see a season like this

and as you identified at the top of the show, a contract year for Marner, it's usually to maximize your earning potential overall. I'm showing the entire league what I'm made of. I got a price tag, someone will meet up, look at the season I'm having. But in Martyr's case, don't you think it's more about like, I am playing this well, not to justify my price tag, but to justify my place with this franchise, in case they have any second thoughts about continuing their relationship with me contractually. Don't you

think that's the case? I don't know if they're having second thoughts about that. I really don't. Honestly, I think they had coffee at the beginning of the season, like publicly. They wanted everyone to know that they were having. It's like that scene in Heat. I had coffee with Mitch Marner half an hour ago. Okay, we got to hustle, but maybe we'll pick up

a Marner conversation next week or another time because there's probably a lot more deeper things we can talk about with Mitch Marner and the Toronto Maple Leafs and other teams around the NHL. Okay, listen, you have a great rest of your day, rest of your week, and we will talk in seven days, my good man. Your latest piece on the Washington Capitals

is available at espn.com. Thanks buddy. Thanks everybody. You be good. Take care. All right, there he is, Greg Waszynski from ESPN, MVSW Tuesdays here every week on the show. And Jessica, great, great question. I hadn't considered that, Zach, for one second.

If you're suspended before the Four Nations does that carry over because it's an NHL tournament? The answer is no, unless it is particularly egregious. I wonder if a cross check in the face would be considered particularly egregious. Like, player safety? I'm guessing no. Like, do you have to take a skate off and chase someone down the ice? Like, what's particularly egregious? What do you have to do? Yeah.

How bad does it have to be? I don't know. Yeah, well, to Wish's point, if it's Connor McDavid, then we can put him aside because he's a different player and he's a different guy and we can put that in a separate bucket, right? Right. Also, a quick thing here, quick.

I think Wish said Hall and Oates when he was saying Hall and Oates. I think he said Hall and Oates. Very, very different partnerships he said Hall and Oates very very different Partnerships there between those On a scale of one to ten how much did you hate the Leafs old Hall and Oates goal song I Didn't hate it like that much. Are you serious? It was time for awful. It was terrible Yeah, it wasn't good, but it was like I wasn't scratching my like that much. It was time for a new one. Are you serious? It was awful. It was terrible. Yeah, it wasn't good, but I wasn't scratching my ears off

every time I played. I didn't really care anymore. It was just like, whatever, we need a new one, but I wasn't in hatred of it. Yeah, I didn't like it one bit. All right, let's get to some of the games tonight because there's one thing that I want to propose to you here that I think you're gonna like

and I think fans might find a little bit interesting and there's some logic behind it as well. So eight games on the go around the NHL this evening. Let's recommend you have a peek at a lot of these things and remind you FanDuel proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. Whether it's games and we'll see Tampa, Montreal and Ottawa and New York that's an interesting game. Elmer's Soderblom makes his season debut for the Detroit Red Wings tonight, San Jose, New Jersey, Carolina, Dallas, Washington, Edmonton, the Conorless, the McDavidless Edmonton Oilers, Florida, Anaheim, and also Buffalo and Vancouver. And here's why I want to mention Buffalo and Vancouver.

So before we went to air today, I sent you a text and said, can you board this up? And for those not in the industry, that means can you make a board? Can you make a graphic where you put these words on them? And these words in question were a proposed three-way trade, okay, between the New Jersey Devils, the Vancouver Canucks, and the Buffalo Sabres. Now the reason that I bring this up, I don't want to say who the person is that told me this or shared this idea with me, other than I've long believed that this person should be a general manager in the NHL. This is not, with all due respect to everyone

who does like call-in radio shows. I can remember Morgan Frost's dad, Andy Frost, who I used to work with at Chorus. He used to do a show called Leaf Talk after every Toronto Maple Leaf game. And when they started letting people on that made trade proposals, it was a whole lot of Alexey Ponikarovsky in a second in exchange for Yevgeny Malikin.

So I know that trade talk can be catnip for a lot of people, especially when you start throwing names out, but this one made a lot of sense. Now, the Vancouver Canucks are trying to move a player, but trying to move a player generally to a team that's also a playoff team. Those deals are really hard to make, but what makes them easier, because both teams have their eyes on the playoffs, whether it's the Rangers or in this case the New Jersey Devils, what you need is a third team that has their eyes on not this season but 2026. Let me know in the chat, let me know if you're listening to the podcast,

let me know if you're watching on YouTube either live or in the archive. What do you think of this trade? As I have a little chin scratch about this one, Zach. Three-way deal. Vancouver, Buffalo, and the New Jersey Devils. Vancouver gets Bo Byrum, Ryan McLeod, James Reimer. The Buffalo Sabres get, from New Jersey, Simon Nemech, they'll be losing Bo Byram, Dawson Mercer, Tomas Tatar, and the Devil's Acquire from the Vancouver Canucks, JT Miller, with money retained

through the Buffalo Sabres. Again, you're gonna need a third team here to help facilitate this thing and hold some money with money retained by the Buffalo Sabres, no lack of cap space there, and also Sam Lafferty to make the deal work. I like it, it makes a lot of sense philosophically. It gives teams what, it gives all these teams what they are looking for. Now, the wild card is of course JT Miller needs to waive his no move clause to go to New Jersey.

Not sure where that would be at, but he's already indicated he would most likely wave it for the New York Rangers. We are speculating on that. But what do you make of that one? Three teams getting what they want and the most important thing is like it's tough when you see two teams that are both playoff bound make a trade because they both are obviously they're on their way to the playoffs, so you can't do trades for green bananas and prospects and picks and these types of things. You know, one team is gonna weaken themselves in the short term for the long term benefit,

and that's where, if you're moving someone like JT Miller to a playoff contender, you might just need a third team. Does that one make sense to you Zach Phillips? Yeah, it does when you sent this one over and I was putting together the board this one was a close one that I was Like Hannah was like, yeah, we you got something here last points out in the chat Thanks to him for joining us here and Dawson Mercer would be the biggest loss I think that's one of those things where kind of wish said, you know, and I've had conversations before you take a big piece out those things where you kind of wish said you know and I've had conversations before you take a big piece out and start player out of a team it's rare that you get better in or among that in that trait with players you get back this is

the biggest best way for each of these teams to help themselves without completely dismantling and depleting their current rosters I think I mean like thinking about where you're at with the devil's there, okay, you take Dawson Mercer out. Yeah, that hurts you right now, but Tatar, you could upgrade on and probably looking to upgrade on anyways, small Nemech is not playing right now. Dawson Mercer is that piece. Then for the Canucks, I mean, you rid yourself of JT Miller

and you get back some guys who can help you today and next year and going forward if you can send them to extensions. Like it just seems to kind of make sense. And for the Sabres, you know, Jeff, the conversation that we've had continuously has been, are you panicked to me or not panicked? Are you worried about making a trade because you're going to lose the trade? I don't think you worry about that here.

Like you're moving on from Byron, McLeod, Reimer. I don't think losing any of those pieces makes you go, oh my god how did we lose that guy. Yeah because you're gonna have to re-sign Byrom at a big ticket or he's gonna kill you in arbitration. One way or the other you're gonna pay for a bull Byrom. Anyway we throw that out there on a Tuesday afternoon as a way just to sort of wrap your head around. It's going to be tough for the Vancouver Canucks to trade JT Miller to a team that wants to contend because it's got to be quality for quality. That's sometimes where a third party can come in. So that one makes a lot of sense, I think

anyway. And again, that comes from someone comes from someone, again, who I believe should be an NHL general manager. Anyhow, thanks to Greg Wyshynski for stopping by. Zach, there are a few things we didn't get to. Welcome to the program. We'll try to clean those up, including, don't let me forget about Elmer Soderblom. So we're going to see the Detroit Red Wings tonight. I want to make a stupid point because you know me. Wanna make a stupid point about him tomorrow. He's huge folks, you can't miss him. He's a six foot eight left winger.

They don't make a whole lot of those. You can see him tonight for the Detroit Red Wings making his season debut. On behalf of, yes, yes. As we wrap up here and I know we gotta go, we put a poll in the chat, thoughts on the McDavid suspension. Oh yeah.

You and Greg argued about two versus three. Well, chat 40% at three is the right number, 41% at should have been one to two, 5% said should have been zero, and 14% should have been four plus games. So between the two and the three, we were like button heads there. All right.

I also wanna throw something quick out. People look at these stars in other leagues. This is one thing I'm seeing. Oh, the NFL protects their stars. The NBA protects their stars. They call fouls and throw flags. NFL, NBA, it's common. Be careful what you wish for.

Watch those products. Hear what former players say, current players, analysts, et cetera. Even fans, people don't like fans. People don't like it. People do not like it. It's a slippery slope. Once you start doing that, and every time LeBron's elbow gets tickled,

there's going to the free throw line. People lose their minds. It makes the product less enjoyable. And also remember here, ladies and gentlemen, it's hockey. This is part of the game. It happens. Yes, I understand protecting your stars, but let's not get ridiculous here

and start looking at those examples in which people in those leagues already do not like the way that that stuff is officiated and think it's overdone. Like all I want to say here at the end, just be careful, because it can get messy quickly. That's really good.

Like I'm a hockey fan. Like that's, if it wasn't for hockey, like I wouldn't like, I'd probably be a pretty big baseball fan, but like my knowledge of like football and basketball, like honestly, when I hear you start talking about, you know, football, for example, like I was saying last week, it's, it's, I like what I like to refer to as Portuguese. I understand like the words kind of sound right and all that, but it's a completely different language to me. I don't know like oh you put those words in that order and who's that person and I'm like I think I can understand this conversation. Yeah I'm not like a huge, not a huge football fan, not a huge basketball fan.

I like watching them. I'll go live. That'll be cool. Not a fan of golf You know told you before Zach the best two balls I hit is when I step on a rake You know that not a fan of playing it like that one not a fan of watching it I just like the greens though. They're nice and relaxing on the eyes anyhow on behalf of Zach Merrick signing off with the chip behind me and in great chat as well. Love it, thanks everyone for joining us today. We're back tomorrow. We're gonna talk to Andrew Brewer. Andrew Brewer is a video coach. Andrew Brewer is responsible

for the first coaches challenge in the NHL. And we're gonna talk to him about the life, a day in the life of a video coach. Piper Shaw's got a great piece, Seattle Kraken Anels, Piper Shaw did a great piece, you can find the Seattle Kraken have it linked on a sort of night in the life of video coaches and use the National Predators game from not too long ago as a touch point for this. It's a great piece, I retweeted it today, have a look, Piper's awesome. She does tremendous work. I really encourage you to look at that.

And so I watched it this morning over a cup of coffee when I got up and said, you know what, I gotta get Brewer on to talk more about this, like what it is actually like. And we'll go through the genesis of the first coaches challenge. The canettes on Bearnier 2015h 2015 Toronto Montreal and and plenty more tomorrow. Thanks so much for joining me today we're back tomorrow 3 o'clock

Eastern Noon Pacific. More of the sheet tomorrow. Every day this week, every day this month I can't get out my head Lost all ambitions day to day Guess I can call it a ride I went to the dark man He tried to give me a little medicine I'm like, nah man, that's fine I'm not against those methods, but I knew It's me, myself and others gonna be fixing my mind

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