The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Ken Dryden Tribute, Vegas Goaltending & Flyers Identity ft. Rick Tocchet & Jesse Granger

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

The Sheet with Jeff Marek delivers another can’t-miss NHL deep dive, packed with elite guests and headline storylines from around the league. Jeff opens with a powerful reflection on the Montreal Canadiens’ moving tribute to Ken Dryden at the Bell Centre — calling it one of the most perfect ceremonies in hockey history. Then, Jesse Granger of The Athletic joins the show to break down the Vegas Golden Knights’ strong start, Adin Hill’s injury, Akira Schmid’s rise in goal, and the growing buzz surrounding Carter Hart possibly signing with Vegas. They also react to Jack Eichel’s $13.5 million AAV extension, Bill Foley’s aggressive spending, and how Vegas continues to set the gold standard for NHL franchises. Later, Philadelphia Flyers Head Coach Rick Tocchet joins to discuss Sean Couturier’s resurgence, Trevor Zegras’ maturity, Matvei Michkov’s development, and how he’s rebuilding Flyers identity and culture from the ground up.Shout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Simply Spiked: https://www.simplyspiked.ca/en-CA👍🏼Shark Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-4-in-1-portable-glass-air-fryer-cooking-system/FN101CGY.html?utm_source=Better+Collective&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=H2+Air+Fryer&utm_content=EN👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/ca👍🏼Prime Video: https://primevideo-row.pxf.io/c/5560083/3303015/20020Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey friends, it's Nikaela from the podcast Side Hustle Pro. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids entertained without screens. And the Yoto Mini has been a total lifesaver. My kids are obsessed. Yoto is a screen-free audio player where kids just pop in a card and listen. Hours of stories, music, podcasts, and more. And no screens or ads. With hundreds of options for ages 0 to 12, it's the perfect gift they'll go back to again and again.

Check it out at yotoplay.com. P-O-P-L-A-Y.com. Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons.

I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family, whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty

when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host, bam. It's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca.com slash host.

You've probably heard me say this one before. And after last night, I'm going to say it again. There are only two places in the world where they do ceremonies properly. One is Buckingham Palace, and the other is the Bell Center. What we saw last night was absolutely gorgeous, fitting, perfect. Every single note was in its right place. We're going to get to that here coming up in a couple of seconds. In the meantime, welcome to the program for today.

This is the sheet for Wednesday, the October the 15th. Glad to have you aboard today. All is bright in Zachville as his Toronto Maple Leafs won a game against the Nashville Predators last night, and his captain scored two goals. So there's a jump in Zach's step, so much so that we have, A little bit of hockey royalty on the program here today. Rick Tockett, who's the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, will be aboard. Jesse Granger from the Athletic will be aboard as well.

We have plenty to get to, whether it's injuries, whether it's games, whether it's games coming up tonight. You know, tried not to put too much of an accent on what may happen between the Buffalo Sabres and the Ottawa Senators. But you can kind of see this one coming a long way, way, right, with Dylan Cousins. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. In the meantime, before we get to our guests, and before we get to some of the topics,

and there's a couple of things I want to point out about last night, specifically at the Bell Center. Let's get right to what's going on on the program. Today, this is the Blueprint, and it is powered by Fanduel. Make every moment more with North America's number one sports book, Fanduel. And the two big guests for the program today are on the program today, rather. Rick Tockett, the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers,

coming off a very impressive victory over the defending Stanley Cup champions. We'll talk to Rick Tocket. We'll also talk to Jesse Granger coming up here at a couple of moments. Jesse's an interesting guy. He's a double threat in that his beat job is to cover the Vegas goal of the Knights, but he also has a sharp focus on net minders around the NHL. So we'll get into both with Jesse coming up here in a couple of moments. We will talk about the Brady Kachuk injury. We find ourselves in an NHL where both Kachuk brothers are injured, feel free brothers to do that when the Olympics roll around. I say as a proud Canadian. We'll talk about

what happened at the Bell Center. We'll talk about the Rangers, and their inability to score at MSG, now setting a record there. And we'll talk about the Vegas Golden Knights with Jesse. No shortage of stories there, whether it's the outstanding play on the ice, or the increasing and increasing speculation, rumors, discussion about Carter Hart, perhaps signing there, perhaps as early as today. Maybe by the time this show goes off the air. He is now eligible to sign a contract in the NHL. In the meantime, really quickly, before I get to Jesse Granger, and it's appropriate

because we're going to be talking about a goaltender here. We've seen some wonderful tribute, some wonderful, well, listen, we saw a wonderful tribute to Bernie Perron a couple of nights ago in Philadelphia, and the player a game gets a Bernie Perron mask, which is absolutely gorgeous and really fitting and it was really touching, seeing

Sean Couturier present that to Dan Vlodar, perfect. A perfect moment for the Philadelphia Flyers as, you know, just quite bluntly, as we're talking about yesterday with Kevin Kurz, you know, Bernie Perrin, one of, if not perhaps, the most popular Philadelphia flyer of all time. Quibble about him or Bobby Clark all you want. Bernie Perrin was the reason that team won those two Stanley Cups in 74, 75. Last night in the home opener for the Montreal Canadiens, yet again, another beautiful

ceremony and fitting tribute to literally one of the giants of the game in, in, you know, Ken Dryden and everything about this was was perfect and I think that is going to be the image that we all take away from last night, you know, his former teammates on the bench with the applause. That was, that was gorgeous as well. I mean, they do so well. What Montreal does really well is that no one does understatement better than the Montreal Canadians and have a look at, you know, some of the legends, you know, and this is, you know, on one end, it's Yvon Cornwaye to the right at the other end. It's Serge Sivard and Dryden, other Dryden teammates mixed in there all along.

Beautiful, understated, yet powerful. I mean, that's what you get with the Montreal Canadiens. And, you know, my dear friend Nancy, who is a Montreal Canadiens fan. Actually, she's kind of a, Nancy's interested, he's kind of a displaced Quebec Nordiques fan because she grew up a big fan of the Nord's. And she now lives down south. and she's a huge Montreal Canadiens fan and she knows how often I've used the phrase

ghosts of the forum. You've probably used it to or at least heard it. I mean, the tribute was fantastic, beautiful for Habs fans. And she sent me this image of the Phantom of the Opera and she said, The Phantom who lives in the catacombs of the Paris Opera House Ken Dryden, the ghosts of the forum. Just look so beautiful, haunting.

poetic, gorgeous, together. The Phantom of the Opera and the Ghost of the Montreal Forum. A fitting tribute to the great Ken Dryden. Sticking with Netminders, we're going to talk about someone who, whenever you talk to him, you have to talk about net minders because that is one of the beats that he covers alongside covering the Vegas Golden Knights, who many heroes included have them going to the Stanley Cup final this year.

He is Jesse Granger from the Athletic, and he joins me now. First of all, I've said it for you. years, and I'll say it again, Buckingham Palace and the Bell Center, those are the two places in the world where they do ceremonies, right? And as a goalie enthusiast, I'm sure you saw what they did yesterday in Montreal for Ken Dryden. Do you have a couple of thoughts, Jesse? First of all, welcome to the program. Do you have a couple of thoughts on how Montreal saluted one of their own last night? Yeah, thanks for having me, Jeff. It was amazing. You put it perfectly. I don't think anyone does tributes better than them. Ken Dryden deserves it as much as anyone. I had the honor of writing

the story when he when he tragically passed away a little bit ago and just going back through his life it's what a character like what a goalie but but the the person is almost more interesting the story of like this guy was so good at the NHL that he almost got bored of it I mean I mean all the cups and all the Veznas that he won in such a short time and he was like this is too easy for me I'm going to go do something else maybe maybe the only person ever that a goaltending in the NHL was too easy for him you know what I'm going to go to law school That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to challenge myself.

And then I'm going to get into politics. I'm going to be the MP of York Center in Toronto. And then I'm going to go work with president of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Fascinating. And, you know, it was, I mean, at his time, he was physically, like, literally a giant. I mean, John Davidson was a large goaltender too. But Ken was, I mean, he wasn't the first large goalie in the NHL. But, I mean, that really sort of defines him as much as the mask and the pose, right?

the pose as well and you know it's a great history made when Montreal faced off against Buffalo and it was brother versus brother Ken Dryden and Dave dried I mean everyone has their own memories you know there was one I should have thought about this and grabbed the clip

was a game against the Boston Bruins where after a flyby in the net like Ken's mask comes off and he still stands in there to stop shots the last time I saw that would have been Andre Pavlik in an Ottawa Atlanta game and Pavlick stood there and and took an Alex Kovaleb shot up high.

But Dryden, you know, bareface stood in front of Boston Bruins' shots once upon a time. But any of, we've had a week of goalie tributes. I'm sure you saw what happened with Bernie Perraunt as well with the Philadelphia Flyers. Rick Talk gets up at the bottom of the hour. I'm getting long-winded here. But it's my way of transitioning from Dryden to Perrant. And the first thought on, the play of the game now in Philadelphia gets Bernie's mask. One of the great masks of all time.

Jesse, your thoughts on that one. Yeah, pretty amazing. And you know what? Maybe it'll turn things around for the goaltending in Philadelphia because last year was obviously a disaster for them. And I think that just even just that being in the locker room. And I do like Samuel Harrison. I like the way this game's trending.

It's a great idea. It's a cool thing to have. And maybe a little bit of it will rub off and they'll get a few saves. More saves than last year just because of that's alone. It's been, I mean, listen, Ron Hextall was brilliant in 87, winning the cons, smith, and the losing cause. before that, Pelley Lindbergh was poised for greatness before his tragedy, but it's a long story with the Philadelphia Flyers and their netminding,

kind of like the story about how Flyers never draft and develop a defense being the only the only buyer trade for them. But I digress. Vegas Golden Knights, speaking of goaltenders, we will not be seeing Aiden Hill for a while. Akehrer Schmidt comes on last night and really nice performance. Initially, a couple of thoughts on what we expect here. with, well, I guess Vegas is without Aiden Hill in the Golden Knight's Net. Yeah, it's kind of ironic you brought up Ken Dryden, the mask coming off and him still trying

to make saves because the last time I saw it was last night. Aiden Hill, for those that weren't watching, he took a shot off the mask. What typically happens when it only takes a shot off the mask, the buckles come off the back, his mask falls off. It happened to bang, bang, so the officials weren't able to blow it dead. He actually made a save without the mask on. And that's kind of how he got hurt, it looks like. I don't have an update on how long he's going to be out, how serious it is.

The Golden Knights are going to be on the ice here in Vegas here in about an hour and a half. So I'll be over there to get an update then. We'll see what Bruce Cassidy says. But it appears that that's where the injury occurred. He obviously didn't leave the game until the first intermission, which was several minutes later. But on that play, he was kind of down in the butterfly, and then he jumped up. And it was a really awkward move. He was doing it because he wasn't wearing a mask.

so he wanted to get as high as possible to try to avoid get hit in the face. And when he did that, it's hard to tell if the injury was a result of the puck hitting him somewhere vulnerable, which, to be honest, if you're a Golden Knights fan, that's probably the preferred outcome, or if he tweaked something in his lower body, it was a lower body injury, or if he tweaked something in his leg making that awkward jump because then he did fall over and he was grimacing. So it didn't look good. He did play a few minutes of hockey afterwards.

So I guess that's a little encouraging. We'll see what Bruce Cassidy has to say today. But if they're without Aden Hill, it looks like Akira Schmidt's going to be the guy. He's played really well in the preseason. He's looked good in camp. He played well last night. He stopped every shot he faced after he came in. He's a calm goalie who reads to play well.

He's not the most athletic guy. But behind it, a solid defense, Akir Schmidt can get the job. You know, curious as well, just as a sort of philosophical note, although I can see teams, you know, using this tactically, if we ever went down this route. You know, there are some people that have heard talk about the idea. If a goalie takes a shot in the head, automatically they should go off and go into some type of, you know, concussion check.

I remember watching a game in Montreal. It was Montreal, Chicago. And I don't for the life of me understand how Corey Crawford stayed in the game. But Cory Crawford took, like, right between the lookers, one from Shea Weber. And maybe, you know, the shot that I'm thinking of. And he goes back and he does the nesty plunge. And I'm like, holy. smokes and he just does the old school sort of you know shake the cobwebs out and lines up for the

draw and i'm thinking of myself like who's taking a shay weber shot off the head and and staying in the game i don't know if you have a thought on i mean it has been brought up before it's obviously going nowhere you can see players you know if they want to get a goalie out of the game instead of running them just fire one at their head um the idea of if you take one off the mask you have to go off and get checked have a thought on that one yeah my first thought thought was what you just said was like will it be abused by teams just shooting for police heads if you're playing against yes yes yes yes it's it's yeah I mean because of that it would be tough to actually use the rule I will say that like these helmets are

incredible when it hits you in the mask that's when when you get hit in the mask that's when you really feel the ring the power of the shot when it hits above the mask they're they're so good at deflecting the energy like you don't really feel much I'm obviously not facing 100 mile an hour, Shea Weber's lap shots when I'm in dearly. But I've had a couple clappers to the face that I, so I do know a little bit what it feels like. And yeah, those, I mean, those masks are great. But like you said, when it hits you in the mat, in the cage, right between the eyes, you do feel kind of a whole blunt force of that shot. And it is dangerous. And the more we learn about head trauma, like obviously we need to be more concerned

with that. Like I said, I think the toughest thing is would teams be now trying to just get the goalie out of the game by shooting one in his face. That would never happen because these guys are all honest and they have honor amongst one another and they would never knock their grandmothers down an icy road for a nickel. They would never do that, Jesse Granger. They're all fine, upstanding athletes. What are the things that I've wondered about about Vegas? And this involves the Jack Eichael contracts.

So it comes in at 13 and a half on the heels of Conner's 12.5. One of the things that I've wondered about is the loyalty factor to Vegas. We know he loves it there. We know the team's a winning team and it's, you know, always in the hunt for the Stanley Cup. And that's, those are great considerations. One of the things that I've wondered about is how much Vegas went out of their way to get him and allow him to have the ADR surgery. Not that I think that Kelly McCrimmon sort of not gently reminded him about that during the negotiations. I think that would be pretty tacky. But in the back of Eichol's mind, Jesse, do you think that, you know what? When the Buffalo Sabres were saying no and wanted to fuse

you know, fuse my spine together and all my verte, a number of my vertebrae together. Vegas said you have bodily autonomy here and you can have the surgery that you want. I don't know if it was a prime factor, but do you think that maybe in the back of Eichol's mind, he's thinking, these guys really did me a solid here when all I heard from the Buffalo Sabres was no, you're not going to be able to, we're not going to allow you to do this. I think it'd be hard for it not to enter his mind. And when you just look at, I think it's a case of, he's only played for, two organizations in his life. And the thought of hitting the open market and going to another

organization where you don't know how you're going to be treated, how things are going to be handled. You don't know if it's going to be like it was in Buffalo or if it's going to be more like it is in Vegas. And so I do think that you go from that organization where they've struggled to get the culture right. They've struggled to put a winning team on the ice. And that's all you knew. Then you come to Vegas. You win a Stanley Cup. Like you said, they let you get your surgery. I think it does make it, it answers your mind and it makes it a little easier to say, you know what, let's just stay here where I know how things are run. I know how things work. Let's not take that chance that I end up in an organization that, like, they're going to put on their best

face when they're trying to attract me as a free agent, but we'll see what happens when I've been there for a couple years. Like, you're going to sign an eight year, seven year contract. I do think that knowing what you have in Vegas, know how this organization's run and knowing how they've treated you absolutely plays a factor. And I think that's most NHL players. I think that's Part of the reason everyone re-signs with their team is they just, they know what they have here. They don't want to risk the chance of it getting worse. So we're going to head into a summer where everybody's got cap space and there's no one to spend it on. Oh, lovely.

We'll all have the summer off. One of my favorite things, Jesse, one of my favorite things to ask owners is if there was no salary cap, how much would you spend on your players? And Elliot and I, when we had Bill Foley on a couple of years ago, I'm like, all right, this is my big chance. I know the NHL is going to hate the answer, but here we go. And I asked Bill Foley of that. I think he said something, $150 million. Which is like an outrageous number considering where the cap was at that point. But I think if you ask a lot of the larger market owners or teams that are wildly successful,

they'll probably say something similar. But Foley's been like that from day one. I'm spending on this team. How is Bill Foley thought of amongst players, amongst fans in Vegas? I mean, the reputation outside of Vegas is this guy is like singularly focused and will spend as much money as he needs to kind of like the late Ed Snyder with the Philadelphia Flyers.

It's like the new age version of Ed Snyder. He will do anything it takes to win the Stanley Cup and spend however much it costs to win the Stanley Cup. That's the reputation outside of Vegas. What's it in Vegas? Or is it the same? Yeah, the players love him. He does whatever he can to make their like, like you said,

He would spend more if the cap would let him. They've got a genius salary cap guy, Andrew Lugarner, who does the math. And I'm sure every NHL fan listening knows very well that the Golden Knights do whatever they can to spend as much as they possibly can. And then he also goes above that, like he makes sure the facility is exactly what they want. If the players, I'll never forget, it was the year one. And the players, like, it was the first week of training camp or something. And one of the players just mentioned to Bill like, oh, man, we don't have a ping pong table in here. At my old team, we had a ping pong table.

And then the next day they go in and it's like a brand new one. A nice and point it could possibly find it. That's obviously a pretty small thing for Bill Foley do. But like that's an example of what he does to try. That's part of the reason players like it here. So the players like him. The fans in Vegas love Bill Foley. And it's not really so much the fact that he's willing to spend.

It's that he brought pro sports to Vegas. And this is a city that has been starved for pro sports for basically its entire existence. and people in Vegas, natives that live here, wanted something to represent them that wasn't the strip. Because obviously it's one of the most famous cities in the world. Everybody knows Las Vegas. It's not like it's not represented. But there's nothing that represents the people who live in Vegas until the Vegas Golden Knights come here. And now we look at it now almost like it's just a normal thing that pro sports are in Vegas.

You've got the Raiders. You've got the Aces WNBA that have won three of the last four titles. You've got the A is coming here soon. It seems like it's kind of a normal thing. but before the Golden Knights came here, pro sports wanted nothing to do with this city. I remember covering fantasy football conventions in casinos before the Golden Knights were here, and the NFL wouldn't let them have the logos on the player's helmet. So there'd be a giant poster on the wall of Peyton Manning,

but his helmet would just be solid white because you couldn't show a Colts logo. That's how much the NFL did not want anything to do with Las Vegas and the gambling. Bill Foley was the first person who took a chance on this city and really convinced a league to to buy into this city. And now it's like one of the fastest growing sports markets in the country. So I think that people in Vegas love Bill Foley because they feel like he was the one who finally got them a team that represents them. And it's why the Golden Knights are the most popular team in town, even more popular

than the Raiders, as popular as the NFL is, there aren't as many diehards here for the Raiders as there are the Golden Knights. And I think it's because they were first. Yeah. And they're like, and they're not from somewhere else. Like they are a team that was. born in Vegas this isn't like this isn't an adoption like they this was these are these are the natural parents um last night uh the calgary flames go up to nothing and then Vegas gets rolling now I know

it's the calgary flames and then we know what the season's going to be like for the for the calgary flames is going to be tons of trade rumors but when Vegas gets rolling you know Kobe cole this morning was you know talking about uh the morning cup of hockey about this team like when when the wheels get going on this team like you can't stop them like they just come in waves and you saw that you saw the the Vegas golden nights building all throughout that game last night um how do you beat them when they're playing like that like the Vegas golden nights that we saw in the second and third period last night how do you beat that team I know it's early but man this team looks good yeah I think you beat them by pressuring them in their own zone the way Calgary did in the in the first period um this this team is probably has the deepest forward group they've had in eight years and they've had good forwards for most of those eight years but the forward group is just elite right now and like you said when when they come at you wave after wave and when you get hemmed in your end and then at the end of every shift you're just dumping it into their end so

they can come right back at you it's tough to defend they've got so much skill so much speed they have good four checkers there are very few holes in the forward group to me the weakness on this team is on defense Alex Petrangelo obviously left a huge hole. Noah Hannifin's out right now. The defense, as good as the forward group is, I think this might be the worst defensive group they've ever had. And they're not terrible. This isn't a bad blue line. They're just not as elite as they once were. And I think that the Golden Knights biggest struggle through four games has been breaking the puck out of their own zone. If you can make them play in their own end and force them to break out and put pressure on them, they will make mistakes. And that's how Calgary got out to that two nothing lead was by pressuring them. Now, that's easier said than done. Getting this. team playing on its heels with that forward group. It's not easy, but if you can do it and you can force them to break pucks out, like in that second half of the game, the Golden Knights never had to break any pucks out because it was just dump it and go get a line change. And by the time the flames have done their line change, you're already over the red line and you're attacking. So if you can flip that script and make them be the ones trying to break out of their zone,

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And the Yoto Mini has been a total lifesaver. My kids are obsessed. Yoto is a screen-free audio player where kids just pop in a card and listen. hours of stories, music, podcasts, and more, and no screens or ads. With hundreds of options for ages zero to 12, it's the perfect gift they'll go back to again and again. Check it out at yotoplay.com, y-o-t-o-p-l-a-y-com. Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada.

Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons.

I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent. And I feel like I'm always on the road. road with my family, whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking, my home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host,

Bam, it's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. Okay, I'm going to take advantage of your goalie knowledge here in the couple of minutes I have left with you. Who should one week into the season? for me, the answer may be Thatcher Demko coming off the injury, but which goaltenders should we be most impressed by from your desk? Thatcher Demko is a great answer.

If I'm trying to think of someone else, I love the way Jeremy Swayman has looked in Boston. Like, Igor Shisterkin's the easy answer. He's been, Igor Shosturkin is the best goal in the world, and I think the gap between him, and he is so good. And that New York team has not been good, and they're still winning games because you just can't score on him. But aside from him, to me, Jeremy Swamen,

after that down year, there was a lot of doubts after they gave him that contract. He loses that safety blanket in Linus Olmark. Swamen's game looks sensational right now. He's got such a good butterfly. He's so under control. He controls rebounds as well as any goal in the world. Like he just doesn't give himself extra work. He doesn't just make the save.

He controls the puck. He either absorbs it, kicks it to the corner, makes life easy on his defense. And when he's on, it just feels like there is no scrambles around the nubes. net. There's no chaos around him because he just controls that puck so well. He's like I said, great butterfly. He's always in position. He's a big guy. He's not the most athletic, but he reads the play incredibly well. So he's always in the right spots. He cuts off angles. I have been very, very impressed with Swamen. And based on the few games we've seen, it looks like he's like, I kind of expected a bounce back year, but the confidence level in that

bounce back year is much higher than it was a week ago after seeing him play these games. Okay. I'm going to ask a really deep, geeky question here. Like we're going to And deep with goalies here. Were you surprised that Colton Ellis got claimed on waivers and Michael DiPietro didn't? What's the bigger shock? Honestly, the guy I thought was going to get claimed more than anyone was Clay Stevenson in Washington. He is a stud down in the HL. All the goalie coaches I talked to rave about the guy.

They were telling me, like, all summer I was hearing like, man, he's finally not waiver exempt. He's either they're going to have to keep three goalies or they're going to risk losing him and they waived him. And I was stunned that he didn't get claimed. But DiPiatro's right there, another young goalie with a lot of talent. There are so many, like this is, again, I'm nerding out, but there are so many good young goalie. There are so many good young golies that haven't got the opportunity. There's just no, there are just so few spots in the NHL for these guys to get chances. Like at forward and defense, if you're good enough, you're going to get the chance quick.

At goalie, it's so easy to get. Well, Joel Hofer is a perfect example. Like, he is one of the best 30 goalies in the world right now. Like, he absolutely should be starting for a team, but he can't because Jordan Bennington's awesome. And if you're the blues, why would you trade him? So it's like, you're just kind of stuck as the backup. And like Jet Grieves was in that situation in Columbus behind Merzleikins and Teresov. And every time he'd get in the NHL for the last couple years, he'd look amazing.

They finally trade Teresov. He gets in, and he's the number one goalie in Columbus. The kid's awesome. Yeah, he is. And, you know, it's interesting, too, because. you know, there's, there's, like, I think of the Buffalo Sabres with Devin Levi sitting there in Rochester. And right now with the UPL injury, it's ride or die with Alex Lyon and Colton Ellis, you're Devin Levi, you're saying yourself, what's going on here? Yeah, we're talking about, we're saying like all these Buffalo Sabres.

Right. And there's all, rumors are, you know, Tage Thompson, you know, made ask out, we'll see what happens with Rasmus Dalline and Alex tuck and all that. And part of me is sitting here going like, I think you might have a big problem in Rochester too with this goal. He's not feeling so great about his career right now at the Sabres organization. Yeah. I mean, if you're Dev and Levi,

you've been waiting for an opportunity to, and like, UPL goes down. It's Georgiev and Lyon. Like, there's not a lot there. And the fact that you aren't getting the chance is telling. And like two third periods in the preseason. Yeah. It makes you wonder, is his development

path. Like, I don't talk to the goalie coaches in Buffalo a ton, but it's like, it makes you wonder if they aren't as convinced in his development path as maybe we are just from watching. Obviously, he was awesome in that little stint we saw in the NHL. But, yeah, it definitely makes you wonder where they, how they view his development at this point. All right, no more beating up the Buffalo Sabres. They've got a game tonight against the Ottawa senators that we can all see the storyline there. Anyhow, Jesse, very generous with your time. I know you have to get the practice. Oh, by the way, really quick, all kinds of rumors about Carter Hart and the Vegas Gold. the knights that's been sort of everywhere could happen as early as today. Are we looking at this as if it's inevitable, it's only a matter of when the trigger gets pulled on this one? I mean, that's certainly the way it feels from the outside. Yeah, it certainly does. And all the credit to Chris Johnson at the athletic, he's been the one that's on top of this the whole time.

He's basically figured it's going to be the golden knight to sign him. Everything I've heard basically goes along with that. I would expect them to sign him. And for now, he's a third goalie with some potential. that they're hoping maybe can live up to that potential. It's been a long time since we've seen him play hockey. So we'll see how it plays out. We'll stay tuned and see how the day plays out.

Jesse Full Value, as always. Thanks, pal. Much appreciated it. Thanks for having me. Jesse Granger from the athletic covering the biggest goal of the nights and also covering goaltending and goaltenders at large, not just in the NHL, but around the world as well. So we thank Jesse for stopping by the program.

We're standing by for the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, Tocket, who, I'm just warning you now, okay? Like, we're going to talk a lot about the Flyers and we're going to talk a lot about the big win against the Florida Panthers defending Stanley Cup champions. And we're going to talk about Mitch Koff and we'll talk about Kachariye. But there's one day in Rick Tockett's history that I'm going to talk to him about. And I'm really looking forward to it. And that day is April 16th.

1992 and it was the last game of the season should be a quote unquote meaningless game most of the best players were scratched it's the last game of the season meaningless but some wild things happened in that game and one that I'm still stunned by to this day and I can't stop watching the highlights of it and asking people about it. And Rick Tocket was part of that game. So at a certain point, I am going to go back to April 16, 1992, with Rick Tocket. This segment, by the way, a presentation or Prime Video and Monday Night Hockey.

Your exclusive home to the NHL streaming games nationally in Canada every Monday. Always look forward to Prime Video's face-off inside the NHL now in season two. Subscribe with a 30-day free trial to Prime Video to watch Monday Night Hocer. and the new season of face off, download the app, or go to primevideo.com. With that, we'll welcome aboard the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, former member of the Philadelphia Flyers, number 22 in Orange, folks. He is Rick Tocket and he joins me now on the sheet.

Rick, good to see you again. How you been? Thanks for doing this. I like it on the sheet. I like that. Yeah, you're right there with me. Well, listen, at a certain point, we're going to go back to one of my, a day that I still keep talking about,

and you did something, I'm going to just be honest, that I still can't believe in that game, April 16, 1992. But hang on, pause on that one. That one's coming. First of all, congratulations on the big win. And there's a lot out of that game that I want to get into. But before we get there,

what I really loved is there was a Bernie Perrant tribute that Philadelphia Flyers did in the preseason and the Flyers also did one on opening night. I thought that was perfect for one of the Giants of the game, one of the best goal tenders to even ever do it. the main reason why the Flyers won those two cups in 74, 75. Larger than life personality. Do you have a quick thought on Bernie and the mask, you know, the player of the game?

Like everything Rick came together so perfect and a big win for your team. Yeah, and when Coots brought them, I didn't know about this mask, the presentation after the game, the player of the game. We didn't know about it. And when he did it and I saw the Bernie mask, it got a, you know, you get a little emotional. And the reason why is Bernie was such a, obviously we all. loved them. But I don't impact for me as a young kid. You know, he was always guys come,

he'd come in and he would always smile. It didn't matter if you lost the game, if you're minus three, you played an awful game or you played a good game. He was the same guy. And, you know, he had to say, hey, guy, how you doing, guy? Hey, good game. And I'm like, Bernie, I was minus four. I don't care. You're still playing well. I mean, that's Bernie. And, you know, he's just a wonderful human being. And the fabric, one of the big fabrics of the flyers. number one behind the net's beautiful it's just such a gorgeous touch it's it's it's it's it's it's kind of perfect okay

yeah um to the to the game itself and you mentioned Sean Coturier um no one's ever going to confuse Sean Couturey for Pavel Bury but still man he's moving this year and that game four points you know a signature a signature game here for Sean Cotureier what does the coach see I know this is your your first time handling him but what is the coach

see in in Sean Coturier I see a I see a guy that's moving well. I see a guy that didn't like last year, and he did something about it this summer. He came in really good shape. You know, after games, he's doing his recoveries. Like, he's doing all the right things.

I'm not saying he didn't do that before. I don't know. All I know, he looks like a guy that's possessed. Obviously, even though the game's two games before, playing him 20 minutes, you know, the hard minutes, right? He's got to take face off, you know, penalty killing. He's getting power play at time. So I think he's tired of losing.

and I think he wants to be a solution on turning things around. So that's what I see so far. How much does a guy like Sean Guturier mean for Jetlachenko? Like, I don't know how long he's going to play this season. He has to look good. I like that line. You know, I had the mini audition last year.

I know Guel from the OHL is hoping you guys send them back, but who knows where it's going to go, but I can't help but thinking having Jet Lechenko in the same room as Sean Guturier is only going to benefit that young player. Yeah, Jeff, I'm really censored when it comes to the, young player and the veteran player, the relationship. And Coots has taken upon himself to really teach the young guys. I remember as a, I remember as my second or third year, I thought, I made it, had the

long hair in Philly, had a good year before. And I was lucky I had Brad McCrimand, Markow, and Dave Pool and Timmy Kerr. I mean, I go down the list of teaching me the proper ways to become a pro, how to handle yourself in games, off the ice. So I really believe that you've got to patch, pass the torch and help those guys. And I think I see that from Coots. And it really excites me when I see veteran players take care of young players because I know it helped my career. You know, I can't help with thinking, you know, even with the Pittsburgh Penguins and like how much the penguins want to get like a lot of those young kids in the room around Crosby.

Like have that experience, have that rub off. Like this is the way to, you know, to your point about, you know, with Dave Pool and with Beast. how and all those guys like this is this is this is how we do it um one of the things that i was laughing about and i i i'm still like giggling to myself about the game so it's four to too late in the game the flood of the florida panthers have pulled the goaltender and there's christian devorak in front like he's like he's trying to scream barbrovsky brabosky's out stanheim shoots it and he tips it in the net like i'm sure you i'm sure you've never chiseled the goal from a teammate before rick but i'm i watch it i'm like what is devour

act is great i love it i can't stop laughing about it that he tipped in an empty net goal uh what did the coach think when he saw that because i have not stopped laughing about it it's great well you know i've been preaching net front presence and all that all camp i've been preaching last few the game right so i did a video i actually just did a team video a couple hours and we do we do a game review yeah my last clip i can't believe you put that in the last clip was hey boys we're really getting better at this net front presence here's one of the best net I've seen all year, and I showed it, the guy's laughed. Debo, Debo was laughing.

He got a little red face, but, yeah, I think he looked embarrassed after he did it, but I mean, he didn't know. I guess he didn't know. I don't know. It was awesome. Who shot it from the point? Sanheim. Sanheim shot it, yeah.

So if Sandy, if he's one career short of his all-time high goals, he's going to have to blame Devo. Back in the old, like, goal bonus days, like, you saw that all the time. Like, guys chiseling goals. I'm two goals away from $20,000 here. I need to get a goal wherever I can. I have a lot. Oh, you know what?

I remember an old, God, this is like from the late 70s, Rick. And it was, I think Lanny had a, Lanny McDonald had like a 10,000 bonus for 20 or 30 goals. It was a two on O. It might have even been an empty net. And Sittler's got the yawning cage, and instead of shooting it, he passes to Land. You could just see Harold freaking out about having to spend like an extra 20 grand. And he passed it to Lanny. I look up to the bunker with him.

and king like yeah yeah 20 grand let's go cha-cha you're right that that that did happen all that happened all the time rick like in in your era too like okay before i game and say okay who's who's close to this milestone who's close to that milestone yeah i've seen guys go other way try to get a guy bonus but also in the back then too ed schneider did it uh he'd have a brown envelope with money so if we say we were uh if we got six or seven points out of 10 you got more money right so it's a segment of five if your power play was over a surge percentage of your penalty kill and then you get these bonuses in every month if you got these goals you get a brown envelope of money cash and i remember back in the day we had you know we were you know we won the president we had a good team so we made

a lot of these bonuses so i mean we're grabbing you know back then like 1,100 bucks 500 cash from the owner he didn't have to do that so yeah that's the stuff they used to do back in the day it's it's uh it's remarkable that that must have been just so much so much fun as a player as well. Let me get to what I thought was, like, the Dvorak play was like, that's the one that I'm always going to look back on and just lap. But before that, like the 3-2 goal, the Kuturier goal, and the play by Zegrois behind the net.

So I'll be honest with you. I see Zegris behind the net with the puck. I'm thinking Michigan. And I think we're all thinking he's going to do something. And he takes a hit from like two beasts, like Aaron Neckblad and Sam Bennett and makes the play, gets it to Caturier, and he scores. I'm thinking of myself, like, the guy in Anaheim's going for a Michigan, or he's trying to flip it over the net, or something. This guy takes a hit from two guys with Stanley Cup rings and makes a play to Caturier at the home open. I'm like,

it seems like a different Trevor Zegris. I know he didn't have him before, but like, what are the conversations with this young athlete like now? You know, he's honestly, Jeff, a pleasure to coach. He's a really nice kid. He knows he wants to get his game back. He knows what he has to do. And there's going to be some bumps and bruise along the way. You know, there's some old habits that we're trying to get him away with. But to me, that's a great habit, right? If you look at Kuturi, he gets blown up by Bennett.

He gets up. Then all of a sudden, Zinuiz gets it. And he knows he's going to get crunched, and he just holds it for another second. If he doesn't, if he throws a puck early, it doesn't go through the Panthers defense. But because he waits, he knows he's going to get hit a little bit, and then he makes that play. So that's good stuff. I mean, that's willing to take a hit to make a play.

And it was obviously a high level, a big moment, right? It's a high level play with four minutes left against a Stanley Cup chip. It's huge. Listen, a couple of other players I want to get your thoughts on. Nikita Grobenkin may not be a headline maker right now. Yeah. But listen, from my perch in media, the guy's gold. Fantastic.

Always a great quote, great personality. What does the coach see in Grubankin? Yeah, I'll be honest. that's a struggle right now is, you know, we've had five penalties every game. So we've had 15 penalties. So if you do the math, I mean, that shortens the game up. I've got to get him out there. He's making things happen. Half wall, I mean, hash mark down, coming up with loose pucks, holding on to pucks, he's really good at. He's a good hockey player that we're going to I think there's another level for him. So right now, you know, he's buying time, but I got to get him

out there more because I agree what you're saying. He's a dynamic kit off the ice. He's a funny kit. The language vary a little bit. I think he's starting to learn English, but the old universal hockey language, he understands. How do you get to, I mean, that

that's one issue. And listen, Matveh Michkoff is like one of the elite skill players. Like, what are some of the issues, you know, getting through changing the game? I don't want to say change. Actually, I don't want to say changing the game. Because I don't think you want to profoundly change the player.

I think you want to sort of massage the player for like, this is the way we need to play to be successful here. Like this is all about growth and development here. Like as you look at handling this player, like what's going through your mind as like, okay, I got to encourage here and I've got to dissuade there. Like it's, it's, and he's such a skilled player and can be such a, like, how do you handle that, Rick? It's, it's got to be sensitive.

Yeah, it's sensitive. You know, first of all, we all have to understand it's a second year guy. he's there's a little bit of a language barrier he's coming over here trying to learn the culture and different things so right away he's got that um you know i'm a big crest guy uh you know we're a culture guy we're trying to turn things around here how do you win uh but also you got allow this guy to be able to be creative and do his thing you know he's he can make mistakes because the risk reward is there jeff like you know we got allow him to make some plays because he can make those zegra that zegras play or he can make a high level play with three minutes

But there has to be also the confines of the team. You know, he's got to make sure that, you know, when we don't have the puck, you know, you cannot always leave the zone, things like that, power play. You know, you got to be the guy back, you know, after face off loss, you can't dive in. These are the little things that we're just going to have to stay on top of. You know, listen, he got off behind the eight ball a little bit with the fitness. I guess he had a little bit of an ankle problem this summer. He didn't train like he was supposed to.

So, you know, he's in practices. We're getting him up to speed. Like today, I know it's a corny thing, but his last two practices, he looks faster. And there's certain things that we can help him on to play faster. But in a long story of this, he's a fabulous kid, and the kid wants to win, and he's creative. And we've got to allow that. I'm not stupid. I don't want him to dump the puck in.

But there's certain times when we tell him, when there's four guys around you and there's no play, that puck has to go deep. I don't care. Connor McDavid does that. I mean, you know, so I think there's things that we have to give and take with him. Like I said, he's bought in. I mean, he's in with the coaches every day watching video. When I look at skill players like Michikoff, I always think of in terms of percentages. And if he costs you three scoring chances, but he creates eight, I'm good with like, do you have a number like in mind?

Like, yeah, he's going to cost us a couple, but he's also created X amount. Like, is there a specific number or you just go based on on feel for that game? No, but there's something just what you just said. There's something to that. You know, there's still situational hockey. You know, there's three minutes left. You're up a goal. I'm not sure high-risk play is the right time.

First period, you know, you got him against the fourth line. And, you know, he's got a chance to make a high-level play. It doesn't work out. Yeah, no problem. That's an okay mistake. I think there's got to be situational hockey involved in that risk reward. But, yeah, if he's creating eight chances four and three against, That's a good thing.

When you took over the flyers, what did you think they needed? Or, like, after being with them for a while, they sort of come to you. Like, what did this team need, as you've realized now? Well, I think at any time when, you know, they've had success over the years, right? And, you know, everybody knows it's a rebuild, right? We're trying to get, they're trying to get trap picks. And they're trying to keep players. They're also.

And they're trying to make the foresters and the Cates and the Yorks. And they're in that age, right? That 24. You know, how do you get them to lead and be the foundational piece? You know, to me, it's like I said, it's all about the culture and the crest. And how do we, you know, what does it become a flyer? When we come to the rink every day, you know, what do we do every day to become, you know, first of all, a good hockey player and a good team, but what do the flyers do?

You know, how do we handle stuff? How do we handle outside noise? I mean, you know, you know, if you read every day that, you know, flyers are going to be last place or they're not good and they lose every year. You read into that stuff, you know, you're dealing from a negative. My thing is I got some good young hockey players here that have a huge growth potential. We just got to put them in a good environment every day that we're doing the right things. Whether we win or lose, I don't know, but we have to go through it.

I know it's the, you know, most overused sports is process, but there has to be a process every day to get there for the results. And that's kind of my goal right now. You know, when you mention culture, I think of the Philadelphia Flyers, and we all have our stereotype of, and listen, you played and you're like, we all over our idea of like, well, the Philadelphia Flyer is and what a team is. I was a big fan of Fred Schiro. Like, I love what Fred Schiro. I don't know if you, have you ever heard the bacon and egg story from Fred Schiro?

You ever heard that one? Yeah, what was I? So the Flyers are the best team in the league in 75. They march into Pittsburgh who were a bad team and they get beaten. The guys are all dog, and I think they went out the night before. Anyhow. Sure. The next day of practice, not a single puck hits the ice.

Fred comes into the room. The guy's tongues are hanging out. And Fred comes in and goes, I heard all you guys last night. He coming off the ice, I made a contribution. I made a contribution. He goes to the chalkboard and he draws like three strips of bacon and two eggs. And he goes, this is what I had for breakfast. This tells me everything I expect out of you as a Philadelphia flyer.

And the guys are all looking at Fred like, what's he going on? I said, I had bacon and eggs this morning. I heard you guys last night, I made a contribution. I made a card. He goes, for breakfast, on my plate, the chicken made a contribution, but the pig made a commitment. And that's what I expect out of you as a Philadelphia. And all the guys eyes are like, oh, my God, I can't believe we just heard that one from Fred. So I think of, like, Fred and establishing what that clutch is.

And when I think of Philadelphia, it's just, and we just started the conversation by talking about Bernie. It's like, sacrifice. And this goes back to like Ed Snyder. You play like, you played for Ed. or you played for Ed Snyder. You know if you sacrifice and you lay out, this team and this town will reward you handsomely. It's one of the best places to play.

The rewards in this town, you go to an Eagle game, but you go to a Phillies game. I mean, going to a Phillies game is one of the most intimidating places to play in. You know, I know they had a tough, in the playoffs. They're still a great year for them and stuff like that.

We want, you know, like the other night, you know, I was talking to Dan, and Jones, they said the building was allowed as they've heard in a couple of years. You know, this is what we're trying to preach here is like when you come in here, it's like all teams. I'm not, you know, it's not preaching the choir here, but everybody wants to make it a comfortable place to play. That's what the flowers are known for.

When you come here, they didn't beat themselves. You had to earn it. And I think that's what we're trying to do here is create that identity. And the fans, if you work hard in this town, they'll like it. If you're a team that, I'm not saying dog it, but, you know, if you're on your game some nights or there's inconsistencies, they don't know what they get from you, you're going to have a tough time here. So I think that's the one thing with the fans. They drag you in the fight. You better be able to fight. That's what they're, they want you to be able to fight and

scratch and claw for every piece of, you know, ice that there is out there. Hey, friends, it's Nikala from the podcast Side Hustle Pro. I'm always looking for ways to keep my kids entertained without screens. And the Yoto Mini has been a total lifesaver. My kids are obsessed. Yoto is a screen-free audio player where kids just pop in a card and listen. Hours

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You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca, watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace, dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing. Canadian music icons. I will never forget that. And fast forward to today,

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much at Airbnb.ca slash host. Okay, with that, perfect segue, I'm going to take you back to 92. I'm going to close with this one. I'm curious your memories on this. April 16th, 1992. You're playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, your MSG, you're playing the Rangers. Speaking of fighting, you fought Chris King and you had a broken jaw. I don't know what you're thinking, Ray.

And then I think you went after Messia after that, too. Like, holy smokes, Rick, it's the last game of the season. So, but in that game, I am fascinated with it. So Scotty Bowman's your coach with the Penguins. and he saw and it probably would have been I think Toblake or Dick Irwin who did this with Charlie Hodge and Jacques Plont

he changed goalie's mid-play while the play was going on I'm really hoping you have a memory of this because Scotty Bowman it was Wendell Young and Ken Reggett and the third Scotty had kept changing the goaltenders all game long there were eight changes seven of them were after whistles

and during the play we got the video here puck is in your zone is going to squirt out to the neutral zone and we're going to see the goal you just miss it in the camera but I think it's Wendell Young skating off for Ken Reggett or the other way around the puck comes back up the ice and the goalies have changed

it's messy leading the rush and the goaltender is different do you remember that's Wendell Young and that do you remember that because I had heard that you guys you guys in the room before like guys you got to do it You got to do it on the fly.

It's a last game of the season. You guys got blown out. Seven won that game. It didn't matter. Guys, you got to do this. You got to change on the fly. Do you remember that moment watching goalie changing on the fly? Those guys were in cahoots.

This was on us. Scotty didn't want that to happen. They just did it. It was there were in cahoots on that. And let's face it, I mean, we were going to playoffs and it was a fun moment. And when they did it, we all kind of laughed about it later. But yeah, that was those guys doing it. I remember it.

It was hilarious. I could just imagine, like, the bench going crazy. Like, you know what it's like. It's like, last game of the season. Let's just get through it. But, like, the bench must have gone crazy. When do you see Cole, he's changing on the fly? Yeah, and Wendell was an unbelievable teammate.

Wendell Young, he was a guy that kept the room loose. And I think that was just his way of, you know, his way of having a little bit of hijinks. But it was kind of funny. And it was a nothing game. Okay, so let's fast forward then. let me just do this on the fly here. It's the last game of the season.

It's April. It's Tuesday, the 14th, you're playing the Montreal Canadiens. Let's say the Philadelphia Flyers have a playoff spot locked up, and Sammy Erson and Dan Vladar decide to change on the fly. What does Rick Tockett say? Do we lock up a playoff? You've locked, no, that's what I'm saying. Just like that situation, like with you in Pittsburgh, you've locked up a playoff spot.

This is here? No, I'm saying, like, it, like, it, Coming up this year, April 20, if it happens, you've locked up a playoff. Sammy Erson and Dan Vladare can do it. Have at it. We just locked up a playoff spot. We're trying to get the playoffs. You got me on that one. Yes, I'll allow that to happen.

I don't care what anybody says. I'll book it right now. All right. Free pass for the goaltenders, change on the fly. We haven't seen it since 1992. But we ended up a locked-up position, though. Of course, yeah, of course. Yeah, you locked it just like your penguins had it.

It was a blowout game, too. A quick thought. I'm like, why are you fighting Chris King with a broken jaw, Rick, back at 92? I know you're tough. You got nothing to prove, Rick. We always talk about the last game, like the teams that don't make the playoffs the team that, you know, the team that makes the playoffs, that last game, playing a non-playoff team,

is probably the worst game in hockey, right? Yeah. And I remember back in the day, I was playing for the Flyers. Craig Rue was on my team, Keith Jones, and we were playing the Rangers. The Rangers weren't going to make the playoffs that year. So they call up a guy, Dale Puritan. Remember him?

I remember Dale Puritan. Yeah, tough. Tough player. He was a very tough guy. And he was trying to make a day. He had 500 minutes of the penalty in the miners. And he's skating around the warmup. And he's, Keith Jones is stretching.

And Keith Jones calls him the purifier. Hey, purifier, why don't you try this guy? And he's put to Craig Barubi. And Chief's like going to Jonesy, I don't want to fight. I'm going to the playoffs. Like, I don't want to fight. So they're laughing. Well, so anyway, it was the first shift in the game.

Puritans run around. He's looking to fight something. He was trying to press the Rangers, right? So Craig Ruby jumps off the bench and he goes to the Ranger bench, a true story, and he goes to Brian Leach. Brian, you see that guy there. I will fight him, but I'm going to fight you first. That's the rule right now. And so Brian Leach goes, guy, get it.

He jumps off the bench and Leach he goes to Puritan and goes, cool it. So anyways, the game went on and nothing happened. But the last shift of the game, I think Puritan went after Primo. But it's just, I just want to segue in the last game of the year sucks. I think when you're a playoff team playing a non-playout team. It's like Marty McSorley told me, like, he went by the Leaf Spanch and said, like, Clare, Wendell's got to stop going at Wayne. And Wendell did, and he said, all right, it's out.

Yeah. And that was the elbow that started that fight with Wendell. Thanks for the insight, Rick, and thanks for the trip down memory lane back to 1922 and changing goalies on the fly. And Fladar and Erson, you guys got the green light from the coach. All you got to do is make the playoffs and have wrapped up by the time April rolls around. Thanks, Rick. Always appreciate it.

Thanks, pal. You'd be good. nice great talking of you jeff there he is uh rick tocket the head coach of the philadelphia flyers um that game still and that moment still fascinating to me and there we go zach all we need is the philadelphia flyers to have the playoffs wrapped up for that final game so we can see samerson and dan vladar change on the fly if that happens it's going to be the best ever i'm going to be if they lock up the playoff spot i will be watching every flyers game like a hawk for the rest of the season until that moment happens now we got to we

save save that clip of the coach giving them the green light and i will 100 because because that game like that was like the rangers blew out the pay it 7 to 1 was the final like they did that as a goof in a in a in a blowout game so even if montreal is just like scotching the philadelphia flyers yeah you got the green light from your coach man Yeah, you're good. Go ahead, guys. Doesn't matter. Have some fun.

Have some fun. I love that one. Thanks to Rick Tocket and thanks to the Philadelphia Flyers for making their head coach available. All right. Time now for our QOD and I put in an alternate QOD as well. I kind of snuck one in there, Zach. I'm not sure if you saw that. In the meantime, this is our Ninja Crispy QOD.

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I kind of stuck that one in under the wire. Not sure if you notice that one. Okay. I missed that one. I missed that one. So that's on me. I do have responses here, though, for people. What do we got? From the chat, question of the day, obviously, the most surprising things that we've seen so far through a week. Big Willie, happy birthday, by the way, Big Willie. Oh, nice. Respect to the chat.

Yeah, respect to the chat. Yes. He did comment, and it's kind of funny because he is right. One of the biggest conversations we've had through the first week has been contracts. Every day, somebody new signing, somebody news extending, which I don't know. No, like it kind of felt like these would get signed. Exactly. Maybe Carter Hart today.

I thought like these would get done during the year. Like I wouldn't have been surprised by that at all. But for them to all just like pile up at the beginning of the season, it's good point. I didn't really think that that would be the case. That was kind of surprising. It is. And again, like I come back to the, you know, players just want to get things done. And I don't think they want like when you consider like the like the massive stories.

Like how long have we been talking about? Oh, you can't wait for July. July 1st, 2026 is going to be insane. Did you see the free? So you just know and all the players know

that this is a story that's going to dog them all season long. I don't think Eichel wants this to follow. I don't think McDavid wanted this to follow it. I don't think they could pre-z-off. I don't think Indies guys wanted them to follow them

all season long. So there is an element of I don't want to have. Trust me, I think that was a big part of Lane Hudson getting hit. Because there was no pressure point.

There was no pressure point for Lane Hudson, no pressure point for Cortex. The pressure point was next September for them to get a deal. There was no pressure point. I just don't think that Lane Hudson wanted that conversation around him. I think he just wanted the conversation around him to be about his play and the Montreal Canadiens play. I don't think he wanted to make it about his contract at all.

Which is fair. And especially like you hear Colby talk about it on Morning Cup of Hockey. He was like, this is a guy who would play Friday. Saturday and be the only guy on the ice on Sunday morning. All he wants to do is play hockey. That's it. Play hockey. He doesn't want to talk about.

All summer long. Or anything like that. Yeah. Him and Demandoff, like, they didn't think their skates off. Like, I don't think their dry fits got dry all summer long. Like, they just stayed in wet clothes all summer because all they did was skate. They were just driving around from rink to rink, not taking their gear off. That's a lap year's all this, right?

He was like, yeah. We were just playing with me in a tournament. He's looking around going, what the hell are you doing here? Just hockey nomads, like, just wandering around. just like Kwai Chiang Kang and Kane and Kung Fu. Snatch the pebble grasshopper. Only then, may you leave the temple. Anyhow, yeah, that's good one, Willie.

Yeah, I'm going to fire some of these other ones here. Let's go. And you give your thoughts. Jeffrey Moron, the biggest prize is the Rangers can't score at home. Can't figure it out. Poor Johnny Lazarus. I mean, I feel for the Rangers. I feel for Vinny Trocheque on LTIR now.

Geez, man. And, you know, Lazarus is, poor Laz is, you know, pulling his hair out, trying to figure out, you know, what's, what's wrong with this team and who's going to, who's going to score a goal? Meanwhile, you see you popped in two power play goals last night for the quack? Yeah, crider. I know. I know. I know. Ooh.

Salt in the wounds. Yeah, so it's just a little bit there for the Rangers. With love, signed Chris. Anything else you got? Spencer Newton, 992. Biggest surprise, how Florida and Sergey Bobrovsky have been this good is definitely a surprise. Now, I don't know if you saw it, but Paul Maurice announced just before we went live, that Kulikov is going to miss about five months with an upper body injury.

So I can't, you know what, I, I kind of thought, and when Kulikov got injured, like right away, you saw who San Jose put on waivers? Lucas Carlson. I thought that Florida was going to bring Lucas Carlson back to the Panthers, knowing that the Kulikoff injury was going to be, you know, more severe than two to four weeks. But once again, I was wrong. It just seemed like too coincidental. Kulikov's injured.

San Jose waves Carlson. Oh, you don't say. Oh, really? Oh, okay. Very interesting. Yeah, I did see that. That's a tough one. Anything else?

I want to promote tomorrow's morning cup of hockey. It should be a good one. Yeah. Last one I'll give to you because I saw them last night. But Portuguese walriss, the biggest surprise, the Preds have a pulse. This one just an interesting one because they were watching last night. One of my roommates said to me is like, wow, the Preds have a lot of names. They do.

Yeah, they do. They have a lot of names. None of they really didn't piss the drop last year. I know, but there's a lot of recognizable names. On the Nashville Predators And should have You know what I was disappointed And I get it

I understand it And I understand And I understand Why Andrew Brunette did it Brady Martin scratched Last night Yeah Okay

I'll say this I think that that's one of those ones You just have to play the kid You play here once Right You're here once I know that you don't I'm air quotes from

I know I'm of a couple of minds one like yeah like he's a big piece of your future he's first round pick he's made the team like he's been great living with forceburg and forsberg's kid loves him he's charming and pred's fans are all excited but i i do share that i mean it's just a product of age i do share a sensitivity about too much too soon for a kid and always sort of just putting enough cheese in the trap and and like and by that by that i mean like like like reminding him that not everything's going to be given to you.

Like whatever you expect, don't expect anything and don't take anything for granted. It's a hard. He's going to get his game in Toronto eventually. Yeah. We all know, we all know, we all know what's going to happen. Um, and this saves him from playing free hockey on his entry level deal. That's true. Yeah.

Essentially like, you're buying a million tickets. I'm playing free hockey today. I'm not getting, not getting paid to spend my, I spent my days check on, on tickets for our game. I don't know. I don't, I'm not an NHL coach. I do understand the dynamics at play. Part of me would just say, play the kid, give him the cookie.

The other part of me would be, you know, I'm not just going to play a kid because he's at home because I have a responsibility, not just to Brady Martin, but I got a responsibility to this entire team. And I don't think the entire team in a year is as sensitive as it is for the national predators. I don't want them to think that I'm being frivolous when my decision is the kid shouldn't play this game.

and I'm not just going to do it just to do a solid for the kid who's been here for five minutes. I think that's fair. I don't have any hands on the wheel so I'm saying, play the kid, rock and roll, let's go. Yeah, exactly. This guy's jobs on the line.

Oh, come on. I'm being frivolous about Andrew Bernersker. Play him, you dope. Oh, what's Brunette doing? Said the guy in the back seat. Make him feel good. Give him a chance. Yeah.

I'm with you. Go for it. Really quickly, you mentioned morning cup of hockey. James Van Riems. is going to be on every two weeks. I think Friedman and Van Riemsdyke are swapping week to week. So JV.R of the Detroit Red Wings will be on Morning Cup of Hockey tomorrow. Look at that gorgeous promo.

Out of boy, Zach. JVR, every two weeks on Morning Cup of Hockey, 9 a.m. on our daily face-off YouTube channel where you are watching this show right now, if you are indeed watching. Lovely graphic. That's how you do a promo. Thank you. That's how you're professional.

You're professional. I try. That's how you do it. That's how you do it. Oh, you know what we got. We got a number of games today, and I want to remind everybody was coming up here in about one hour's time.

But first, the sheet is power by Fanduel. Our friends there, home of the same game parley, make every moment more on Fandual. Fanduel, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter. to them what you got look there's four games on the schedule tonight and i will take a peek at all of them but there is one i will not be able to take my eyes off of and i'm pretty sure it's the same situation are you going to do it sends minus 110 sabers minus one 10 we are

we are dead even in the odds for tonight's game ottawa on the road no brady kitchuck we know uh dylan cousins has already played his uh air quotes revenge game against the sabers last year he played in buffalo i believe it was yeah but this kind of feels like one of those ones it's inevitable like i do not get the warm and fuzzies for the sabers tonight jeff i don't i'm sorry buffalo but i don't it feels like one of those ones where the sends come in and they're like ah we don't have brady kachuk we got to step up for our guy and just wamp the savers. I don't know. I kind of get that vibe going in.

Dylan Cousin's going to get a hat trick tonight. What's Fandall doing with that? And then Sam Reinhardt again when they play the Panthers later on this week. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then the savers are 0 and 6 and then, oh, I know.

That's the one I'm keying in on tonight, though. I don't know, you look. Florida there, favorite against the Red Wings, Calgary, big underdogs against, Utah tonight and then the Blackhawks on the road at St. Louis. But it's all eyes on send sabers for me. Quick thought on Chicago because I got to get to your Amtrak's show in a couple of seconds. But I know they don't have the points to show for it.

And I know Colby Cohen the other day was talking about, you know, Pierrick victories and empty calorie games. And I understand that. This team is playing a lot harder this year. And all the games are competitive. And we didn't always say that about the Blackhawks last year. I know the results aren't there. Results oriented to the industry, Merrick.

Results oriented. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, park a tough guy. They've taken, they've taken, I know. They've taken a step. It's all I'm going to say. They're not going to make the playoffs. I get it, but Bard looks better.

Frank Nizarre looks fantastic. Sam Renzell looks really good. They've taken a step. They've taken a step. They've taken a step. They've taken a step. going to throw this out there you brought it up and at this point because i've seen it i can't not do it uh dylan cousins to score a hat trick i knew you would do this what does fanduel have

five dollars on this pays you one thousand one hundred and twenty five i don't look let me put a disclaimer i do not think that this happens the odds indicate it's unlikely but i will not pass up an opportunity to be done on this tonight and fandwell has has by far the best odds you could get. It's Dylan Cousin's Hattrick for me. I can't pass this up. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.

Okay, yeah. No problem. I'll be happy to get that text tonight. Whenever, if it does, happen at all. Hey, coming up in under an hour here, if you're watching and listening to us live, DFO Rundown, The Insider Edition with Dave Paniata and Erfang Gafar. That comes up at 3 o'clock Eastern, right here on our daily faceoff.

channel. So if you are so inclined, and I encourage you to do so, check out that show in week two. In the meantime, thanks to Jesse Granger from the Athletic for stopping by and talking about the Vegas goal, the nights and the goaltending issues around the NHL. And some nice thoughts about Ken Dryden and Bernie Perrant as well. Speaking of Bernie Perron and the Philadelphia Flyers, thanks to Flyers head coach Rick Talkett for stopping by and talk about this year's edition of the Flyers so far coming off that win against the Panthers. And going back in history and indulging me with, you know, stories about Fred Shiro from 75 and then the goalie change on the fly in 92 and him saying he would let Dan Fladar and Sam Herson do it.

So we're going to keep pumping that video out as the Philadelphia Flyers get closer. Now all of a sudden, I really want, now if you're just like, if you just cheer to see cool stuff happen in hockey, now you're invested in seeing the Philadelphia Flyers make the playoffs and have it wrapped up by game 81. because it's green light for a goalie change on the fly in game 82 against the Montreal Canadiens. That right from the Leaves fan first, Jeff, Flyers fan too. Your Flyers fan too, just so you can see that? All season, Flyers fan number two. Yeah, that's, I need to see it.

After that, after that promise from Rick Tocket, we are all Flyers fans just to see some more history made in the NHL. Don't forget morning cup of hockey tomorrow. James Van Riemzdyke, Daily Face Off coming up here, Insider Edition, Daily Face Off Rundown, that is, Insider Edition, Erfangipar, and, excuse me, and Dave Panyota from the fourth period. That coming up at 3 o'clock Eastern. Thanks for the buns on the use of the hall, they tell me, and tip your Zamboni driver on the way out. The sheet is off the air. We are back tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern.

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it's me and myself and how this is going to be fixed in my mind to want to break it I turned on the music I do want to bed I turn on the music Wasting up there, I don't get you sometimes losing I've been on the days that went wrong

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yotoplay.com. Y-O-T-O-P-L-A-Y dot com. Hey there, it's Jeff Merrick here. You know, my wife and I both have countless memories from spending time discovering Canada. Well, I always come back to the summer of 2005. We were staying at a cottage on Lake Joseph here in Muscoca watching the Live 8 music festival in Barry on television. My buddy Jeremy Taggart, former drummer from Our Lady Peace,

dropped by after his band's set and stayed the rest of the weekend at the cottage after the band's set and told some incredible backstage stories about some amazing Canadian music icons. I will never forget that. And fast forward to today, I'm a hockey parent, and I feel like I'm always on the road with my family. Whether that means traveling across southern Ontario hockey ranks

during the week or overnight at tournaments on select weekends. But what makes our hockey experience even more special is booking a place on Airbnb when we're on the road for overnight tournaments. All of this traveling got me to thinking. My home's just sitting empty when I could be hosting it on Airbnb instead. I'd simply put up my house on Airbnb, pre-select dates that I want to host. Bam, it's practical, easy to manage, and it enables people like me to make some money while they're not at home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca.com slash host.