The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Lane's Way ft. Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Jeff Marek is joined by Greg Wyshynski to do midseason NHL awards, discuss Lane Hutson taking over the NHL rookie scoring race, Trevor Lewis reaching 1000 games, 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.

So welcome once again to the program welcome to the sheet welcome our new partner Finn a couple of moments welcome Zach Phillips and welcome to MVSW Tuesday. Greg Wyshki will be aboard here in a couple of moments. Greg, of course, from ESPN. And I'll read this for Greg when he comes aboard. And by the way, I have a quiz prepared for Greg. I actually did prep today. Hey, Zach Phillips, I actually did show prep today. More than just like, you know,

surfing social media and making a couple of phone calls. I actually did show prep today. It's kinda, I'm not sure I liked it. Not sure I'm a big of phone calls. I actually did show prep today. It's kind of, I'm not sure I liked it. Not sure I'm a big fan of it. Kind of gets in the way of, you know, having a coffee, walking the dog, going for a workout. You know, just like having like a chill. I actually did show prep today. So a quiz coming up for Greg Wyshinski in a couple of moments. But, so I got a, I got a little text to Rue here from a manager in the NHL who said, Be sure to congratulate Wish on America winning two World Junior Championships in a row

34 years after Canada did so. So we'll get that to Greg coming up here in a couple of moments before we get rolling with that. That's so callous. couple of moments before we get before we get rolling with language change. So colorless. Just like, I just love the pettiness of like something you had no part in and like no hand in. I guess like people that take like all of a sudden think like they had some part in this American win, much like Canadians feel like they have some part in any Canadian win.

Like it's become this thing that identifies you and you judge yourself as a human being by it. But the sense 34 years previously. It's like what did wish do to deserve that? What did he do? I don't think he was trolling us. No, no, no, no, no, you know, the victory lapse just won't stop. Trust me, he's gonna he's gonna come on. He's gonna have like, okay, USA bandana or something. Trust me, he's gonna come on, he's gonna have like a USA bandana or something.

Trust me, there'll be some type of eagle something with Wyshinski here coming up in a couple of moments. And we have a lot to get to. With Wysh, we're gonna do sort of mid-season awards watch. He did a piece on this at espn.com and spot quiz for you which one, given what happened last night specifically, which one do you think is most contentious right now? Which one do you think has the most heat, the most steam attached to it, Zach Phillips? If that is indeed your real name. I'll give you an idea based on the fact that I posted a clip yesterday talking about Cole Iserman and an entire other fan base spent like the entire evening getting mad at me for posting a clip in which it had nothing to do with them. I'm sure we could infer based on that, Jeff. Well we shall see what goes on here. Okay, so let's get to what we're talking about today.

The Daily Outlines of the show presented by FanDuel, North America's number one sports book app provider. And the number one topic on the program today is our good buddy, Greg Wyshynski. Tuesdays are MVSW love, we love it here. Thanks so much for joining us as always. All you old MVSWers, MVSWers, and new people that are aboard for for MVSW and as we mentioned the midseason awards coming up. That's your

Heart Trophy, that's your Vezna Trophy, that's your Calder Trophy, that's your Norris Trophy, that's your Selkie, etc. And we will talk plenty about Lane Hudson. As every Montreal Canadiens fan will remind you, Lane Hudson, and what a week for the Hudson family, Lane Hudson now leads all rookies in scoring. Number one, sorry, Mitchkoff, sorry, Celebrini, Lane Hudson is numero uno. We should park some time and talk about great goaltenders and great goaltending performances

from last night specifically. How about Jacob Markstrom with three 10 bell saves in that New Jersey Seattle game? We'll get on that page and There's a name that I'm gonna throw up here with Greg with a couple of different awards and maybe even snuggle him into the heart trophy race. What? Really? Hear my logic though Mackenzie Blackwood of the Colorado Avalanche, and if we get time, we'll talk about empty net goals because there's one man in the NHL who cannot stop scoring empty net goals and that is Miko Rantinen who got his seventh empty net goal last night in his 41st game.

The record is Bure and Ovachkin with nine. Rantinen already has seven. The season's only halfway done. Can't stop scoring empty net goals. As someone pointed out on Twitter last night, Tyler Sagan I believe, or Brock Sagan sorry, pointed out on Twitter last night, that's like 22% of all of his goals. So that is what is on the board today courtesy of our friends at FanDuel and we'll do a little bit of a preview of some of the games around the NHL this evening.

There are 10 of them and some of them are super juicy, Junior, just real juicy. And with that, we'll bring aboard the one and only here for a victory lap, the one and only Greg Wyshinski from ESPN for MVSW Tuesday. I'm waiting to see something that betrays his American-ness and it's his apple pie smile. There's no reason to. There's no reason to start wearing red, white and blue, dressing myself up as an eagle or Uncle Sam,

rocking a real American bandana. The thing you have to remember about this now, Merrick, is that this has become an old hat for the Americans winning World Juniors. This is three out of five years. What I'm dressed like right now is the air of act like you've been there. It's no longer a surprise. It's no longer parades in the street for a tournament that most of us don't even know

happens. It's the moment in which you realize that American hockey dominance has become so commonplace on the global stage. Okay. And I just wear black and white and act like I've been there. Okay, well here's something that's, I'm not sure if you're listening off the top of the show today, I got from one manager here today, let me just find it once again, who said to me, be sure to congratulate Wyszynski on America winning two World Junior Championships in a row. Thank you.

34 years after Canada did. Okay, there it is. All right, fantastic. You know what? First of all, the level of pettiness around what happens at this tournament is stag. I mean, part of me really loves it. Like I love American showboating.

I love like all the countries showboating. I love the Czechia showboating and playing team Canada's goal song in the room after they won. Like, oh, just salt on an open wound for Canada, but good on Czechia for doing it. But you really do have to admire the, the pettiness around this entire tournament.

I do. I know my good friends, Bill Guerin and Bill Zito are off the hook for this salacious comment by some bitter Canadian manager in the National Hockey League, who no doubt will goose me in person when we see each other again about this very topic. To this person and to all of the Canadian hockey fans

watching the sheet right now, I say to you, if I leave here tomorrow, will you still remember me? You know, the, it's, first of all, that song has always been burned into my ears. I've always loved Freebird, always loved Lynyrd Skynyrd, and I really do admire the fact that these young kids who are nowhere even close to being born when that song came out, have all embraced the guitar solo from it for their celebration.

Okay. Well, that was apparently, so apparently I talked to Team USA. I think that was Zeebouyum, who was the one who came up with the idea of making Freebird the theme. And my favorite thing about that becoming the goal song is then they had to go through all nine minutes of Freebird the theme. And my favorite thing about that becoming the goal song is then they had to go through all nine minutes of Freebird

to figure out exactly what segment would work best for a goal song. And of course it's the guitar solo. But in all honesty though, it's great, we've talked about World Juniors and the Americans for years. I think we probably go back to the John Carlson overtime goal in our relationship with World Juniors and talking to them.

That never happened. I know. I feel the same way about Stefan Mattoa in 1994. Therapy works, kids. And the thing about it is that it's exciting to see the tournament grow in stature in the States. And it's exciting to see USA hockey over the decades attract more and more players from outside of Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Michigan to be able to have this incredible pipeline

of players that now comes through the junior program every year. So you know, I joke about American hockey dominance, but we've talked about it in the past that if the elite athletes in the United States decided not to play football, not to play basketball, not to play baseball, and all decided to play hockey, it's game over. You've said that yourself, I think. That's a Jeff Merrick original. Yes, 100%. That if we were able to find a way to get our elite athletes to play hockey instead

of other sports, it would be game over. And I'm not saying we're there, but I am saying that because of non-traditional market expansion in the 1990s, because of the success of a number of those franchises, because of the NHL, NHLPA and other organizations making ice and hockey equipment more available in those locations over the last few decades, And because of, let's face it, the examples set by players like Patrick Kane, who I think is responsible for an entire generation of players, be it Jack Hughes or Matthew Kachuck

and the way they play, we're getting there. We're getting there. I think you're more than just getting there. But I think that about every sport for the United States. Like if you, when you look at the money, the population, the infrastructure, the resources, all of it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, the premium placed on elite level sports, whatever you choose, like take your pick, right? And there was one time, like it was like the elite athletes in the States pick, you know, the hierarchy was sort of, you know, football, baseball, track, basketball,

et cetera, all the way down. And hockey was, you know, somewhere, baseball, track, basketball, et cetera, all the way down. And hockey was, you know, somewhere in the back of the gymnasium with really bad seats watching all of this unfold. But now some of the elite level athletes are choosing hockey as we know. Okay, I wanna get to this quiz because we got a whole bunch of stuff we wanna get to.

And I'm really proud of myself for saying, okay, fine, I'll do a quiz for Greg Wyshinski. So- For doing show prep, exactly. I know, I'm patting myself on the back for something I really should have been doing. For doing your job. This is a real Chris Rock,

you're supposed to take care of your kids kind of moment here on MPSW. Who's to do show prep? Con people, like, I'm watching hockey games, I'm actually doing show prep, no, it's my job. Watching hockey games. Why are you staying up watching Seattle, New Jersey? Show prep. See Mark's gonna make that save. Okay, so Zach Phillips, I made 3 10 bells. Zach Phillips has a wonderful intro. If you're watching on YouTube, you're gonna get all of this.

If you're listening on podcast, go and watch the archive on YouTube because you're gonna watch this. You're gonna love this intro, I think, that Zach put together. Hit it, Zach! Norris and Rick Andrews. So the donuts and the hot dogs were a bit of overkill so I'm gonna assume the hot dogs was just to get America's greatest athlete Joey Chestnut in the video. Okay you'll have to ask Zach. Zach is the artist on this one. I'm just putting the frames around it. Zach is the artist you have to address. So here's the quiz. So I got five names for you. In celebration, and I say this respectfully,

because this is very impressive. In celebration and in tribute to the Americans capturing World Junior Gold. I don't know if you notice this, but this is back to back years. Back to back years for the Americans. I don't think that's ever been noted. That hasn't been noted in all this yet. I'm going to give you five names and you're going to tell me whether this person is American or not.

OK, these are all hockey names and you're're gonna tell me whether they are American or not. Okay? This is the real lo-fi version of the classic of the PSW games. Star Wars character or Finnish hockey player. Correct, correct. Are they American or not? Okay, in honor of Royal Junior Gold.

Okay, Zach, do we have a board prepared for this? And we have the first name ready. Here we go. Red Berenson, one of the first to go directly from US college to the NHL. Scored a double hat trick against the Philadelphia Flyers. And then I think he hit a crossbar as well. Could have had seven goals.

Turned down the Montreal Canadiens to go play at Michigan. Legendary head coach for the Michigan Wolverines forever and ever and ever And someone whom I believe should be in the hockey Hall of Fame. That's for another discussion on another show Red Berenson American or not Well the interest by the Montreal Canadians Would indicate that he is definitely not American. So I will say Canadian.

He is from Regina, Saskatchewan. Very good. You are one for one. We tried to trip you up early, but we were unsuccessful. All right. You're one for one so far, Greg. Well done. Red Berenson is Canadian. Thank you very much. OK. Number two, Zach, who do we have next in the Is He American? Oh, Tommy Williams. Now, Tommy Williams from the 1974-75 Washington Capitol season because they had no wins on the road going deep into the season when they finally beat the California Golden Seals at the Cow Palace. He

emptied a garbage can in the room. Everybody signed it and they paraded around the room like it was their very own Stanley Cup, scored the first goal in Hartford Whalers history as well, won Olympic gold as well, like is he Canadian or is he American? Tommy Williams. Well being summarily obsessed with hoisting the Stanley Cup would indicate to me that he is probably also a proud Canadian. Tommy Williams is American. Tommy Williams was one of the first full-time American born players in the NHL and retired. You'll love this one. He retired as a Washington capital after a game at 19, I want to say 75, a game that the Washington capitals lost to the Buffalo Sabres, their worst loss of all time, 14 to 2.

Called it a career, took his skates off and said, that's it, I'm out. Tommy Williams. So full disc, full disclosure, I, I did the thing that I always caution people about when we play game shows with the listeners, which is to not play the quiz master. After the first question, I very much assumed the next, you know, four or five answers were all going to be Canadian. As you rub my nose in how many proud Canadians had formed and formulated the basis of American hockey. So I played the Quizmaster and I lost. So now the game is afoot. Okay, so one for one.

Okay, one on one, here we go. Next, oh, Stan Gilbertson. So Stan Gilbertson is perhaps best known as the last player to score a goal in the NHL on Christmas Day. Stan Gilbertson who lost part of his leg in a car crash in 1977 had to call it a career. Stan Gilbertson. Is he American or is he Canadian? American or is he Canadian he he has he tell me where he's from okay he has the bear with I can't tell you where he's from they can tell oh yeah hang on I'll go get there right now for you Greg I think I think he's got a certain Nordic

Minnesotan look to him so So I'll say American Duluth, Minnesota Well done Stan Gilbertson. Ah It's I knew it you got it man playing a Viking horn Yeah, the last goal 1971 last goal scored on it was a an empty night goal against Joe Malosh I think maybe you've heard me mention once or once or twice Joe Milosz. I think maybe you've heard me mention once or twice. Once or twice. Okay so two more names here. What do we have up next? Greg is two yes and one no. George McPhee, Bowling Green, Hobie Baker, Played Rangers Devils, Caps General Manager, Vegas GM, Vegas President of Hockey Operations. Is he American? Greg Wyshinski, George McPhee.

I've spoken to this man. Um, he's got a real sort of detached Canadian comportment. I'm going to say he's American. He's from Guelph, Ontario, sir. I'm going to say he's American. He's from Guelph, Ontario, sir. God, he is Canadian. I knew he was Canadian. In my bones, I knew he was Canadian. But then I thought about what a kind man he's been to me over the years.

And I said, why would a Canadian be that nice to me? Ah, shoot. First of all, and maybe, as I always point out with George McPhee, maybe in the history of the game, pound for pound, the toughest player to ever play in the NHL. Seriously. Yeah. Honestly, it was unreal.

And he still carries that with him. Yeah. I know, I know. That intensity. Pound for pound. Well, shout out George McPhee. Yes, indeed. A really good player. Okay. All right, one more and then we're gonna get to the NHL topics that are flying around these days.

Okay, who's our last one here? Okay, Frank Zamboni. So the Zamboni family were originally in the block ice business, but then refrigerators put block ice out of business and they decided to open up a hockey rink with the chillers they had to make block ice, which they would then sell.

And then stumbled upon the ice resurfacer, otherwise known as the Zamboni. Frank Zamboni, is he American? And as referenced many times before on this show, an incredibly litigious family. Oh yes. Who get very angry when you write about, say a ice resurfacing machine bleeding its oil all over the ice to make it look like

someone had died underneath it. As I once did on Puck Daddy, and you get many nasty emails and letters saying, please do not call it a Zamboni, please refer to it as an ice resurfacing machine. I think I know this one. I may be out of my mind, but I remember a situation where I was researching it.

And Frank Zamboni is not in the hockey hall of fame, which is a travesty by the way. I agree. He should be, you talk about builders, that man built something extraordinarily important to the game of hockey. Like if there was a guy named Freddie Stick, who wasn't in the hockey hall of fame, I'd say that man should be in the hall of fame. Frank Zamboni, the hall of fame.

Steve, I think he's in the park. I think he's in. I think he's in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, but I don't think he's in the the Hockey Hall of Fame. So I'm going to say he's American unless I'm completely mistaken. From Utah, he is in the US hockey hall of fame. He is American. You just get in on the slimmest, slimmest of margin.

Three, two, barely an American yourself. Three, two. That's right. Frank Zamboni takes you over the top. I didn't realize the stakes on this game was that my citizenship would have been revoked had I not gotten that last one correct. It's a new administration coming, Greg. You never know.

You never know. Never know what's gonna happen here, Greg. Like I think that's gonna be a new proof of citizenship. I told Zach before the show that I wasn't gonna make this joke on the air air, but you bought it up. So I'll just make it back. Here we go. If the, if the incoming administration in the U S does an annex Canada, the 51st state, at least Austin Matthews and Quinn Hughes get to play in the U S at least the silver lining. Yes. And the bad things, you know, you know who else will to lane Hudson and let's use that as our transition here. And I want to get to awards.

And we're gonna talk about Celebrinia and Michalov. But I wanna park a little bit of time here talking about Lane Hudson. First of all, marvelous week for the Hudson family. Oh, absolutely. Of course, the gold medal with Cole Hudson. And for my money, I know Ryan Leonard had the MVP, but man, to me, he might've been the best player

in the tournament. Axel Sandin-Pelica was fantastic for MVP, but man, to me, he might've been the best player in the tournament. Axel Sandin-Pelica was fantastic for Sweden, but tough to beat what Cole Hudson did. And then last night, man, I don't know what more you can say with the Vancouver Canucks squander another multi-goal lead. And at the center of all of it, again, is Lane Hudson. Now, I mean, if you're gonna really try to nitpick this kid's game early,

you wanna see him shoot as hard as his brother does, but this guy does things on his skates that nobody else whose name isn't Quinn Hughes does around the NHL. Like, we're watching, you know, a burgeoning superstar here in Montreal. And as I threw in my blog yesterday, like like it's a family that's embraced Montreal. I put in some video of the Hudson kids outside of Cole who was with the USA Juniors, spending Christmas Eve with a bunch of kids and their families at Ronald McDonald House.

It sounds like the family wants to stay involved with Ronald McDonald House in Montreal as well. I don't know how much more gushing I can do about the Hudson family and Lane specifically specifically but he's one of those guys that whenever he's out there something happens and it's always in like you know a lot of teams now in the offensive zone say use high ice use high ice and you're like he's a rookie and he's using high ice and the danger you know you're walking that tightrope when you're using that kind of high ice in the offensive

zone but this guy is just so chill and cool and brilliant. And it was on full display again last night as the Habs beat the Vancouver Canucks. You have a thought on Lane Hudson? It's brilliant. Well, first, first off, shout out to the Washington Capitals and in particular Ross Mahoney, who's been their draft guy for forever there. Lane Hudson and Ryan Leonard in the pipeline for the Capitals who already have done a very admirable job

rebuilding on the fly around Ovechkin. Kind of scary. Kind of scary what good the caps are gonna be. Eric Smetako, don't lose sight on Eric Smetako as well, the Latvian that just got traded through a Muski. It's wild. It's wild. No, Lane's great.

And you mentioned the explosiveness. I saw a stat sent my way this morning, we'll get into it in a moment, that he has more points than any other rookie since December 1st, playing to a point per game pace. He's always been a guy that was going to hit the highlight reel a bunch of times this season. I think that I've been more impressed with how much he does when he's not on the highlight reel. He's been really impressive. He's slightly underwater relative to his teammates in goals against per 60 at five on five, but he's ahead of the pace in expected goals against per 60 at five on five. He's just been a really impressive player. And I think that, you know,

where the Habs have all of a sudden gone in the standings, you can give a lot of credit to the way that he's played when he's been on the ice. Now, again, like most young defensemen, Merrick, sheltered, I think over 61% of his starts have come into the offensive zone, but that's every young offensive defenseman. That's every young offensive.

I remember Shane Gostes-Bear in Philadelphia, as do you. We all remember that and we all thought, like the way we're talking about Lane Hudson now isn't the same way we talked about Shane Gostes-Bear once upon a time with the Philadelphia Flyers, but I mean, clearly different players, but you're right. Like, of course sheltered because he should be sheltered. He's a rookie.

All, you know, throw them into the deep end. Okay. Um, ESPN.com, Greg Wyszynski, and you know how much I would love to talk about awards every single week. I think awards should be handed out every single week, maybe even every single day. Um, where do you want to start? Do you want to start? Why don't we just start with the hot one right now?

And that is the Calder. Because let's jump in because we're already talking about Lane're talking about Lane Hudson you and I a couple of weeks ago talked about Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bidart, Macklin Celebrini and I've maintained that he's the class of this year as far as rookies go and I expect that by the end it's gonna be Macklin Celebrini's award to lose, Cole Hudson will make some noise about that I know know Flaher's fans will tell you Matt Faye Michikoff and Calgary Flames fans are saying, don't forget about our young goalie.

From all the, and these were all professional hockey writers that you surveyed and balloted for this mid-season award. What was the nature of the discussion around these four candidates? Well, the nature of the discussion last month was it was only a matter of time until Celebrini took over as number one. You know, most of the voters that I reached out to kind of had the same vibe. If they weren't voting for Celebrini already, it was just, let's see him get to the proper

amount of workload. And then, you know, he's going to basically be the top rookie as long as he's healthy. I think that's how it bared out in this awards watch, in which 90% of the first place votes went to Macklin Sellevrini. And so he's the top rookie. Matt Bay Bitchkoff is number two on the list, and Lane Hudson, much to the chagrin of many, many, many Montreal fans who reached out to me after this story published, is number three currently. So one of the reasons, I think we talked about this last time, one of the reasons why I'm always including Hudson

in all of this conversation, I always try to include defensemen that do anything exceptional, which is why he could have made the point that Brock Faber could have won the Calder Trophy as well, well Is defense like is the blue line not a more difficult position to play albeit sheltered I get it But is that not a more difficult position to play then forward at these these tender ages? well It is but I but I also think that if you're looking at these three candidates

If you want to say defense is harder to play than forward, then center is harder to play than wing. Right? Yeah. And I know that I think Celebrini has been shifted over a couple times here and there, but overall, I mean, you can give him the credit for playing a tougher position than Mitchkoff. I don't know. So if it was my ballot, right, I would have Celebrini, then Hudson, and then I'd probably have Mitchkoff over Wolf, although it's very close. But I think Hudson and Celebrini are your top two right now, all due respect to Mitchkoff,

who's done a hell of a job. I think, again, I hate to be the person who demeans the ability to score on the power play because it is a skill and it's important. But I think that what Hudson and what Celebrini have done at five on five is to me a little more impressive. Okay, so Dan Hill in the chat, I'm guessing is a little bit slanted

towards Macklin Celebrini who submits this. Elite two-way center versus streaky scoring winger all scoring players are streaky by the way versus streaky scoring winger versus power play merchant defenseman. He's the I mean he's listen. No, I mean, I mean, Hudson's Hudson has has really fat. I mean, there's no doubt that the the the points that he's he's put up in the last month or so is also because he's risen up to PP1 for the Canadians. Like no doubt about that,

but I think he's a very good five on five player. I think it's those two. But I do think that Montreal fans, like getting all riled up about him not being the favorite for the Calder. I mean, do respect, but how many of these people have watched the Sharks this year but how many of these people have watched

the Sharks this year? How many of these people have logged a millisecond watching celebrating in the Sharks this year? He's been fantastic. You know what? Okay. I was mentioning this on the show the other day. I can't remember. And now you throw a scar off into the mix and he always does something. I can't remember and now you throw a scar off into the mix and he always does something. I can't remember The last time I was this excited night after night to watch a bad team Make no mistake about it. San Jose's bad. It's a really bad hockey team. They'd be bad for a while but Yeah, there's there's still pain ahead here. Like look up and down that line up. I think there's there's there's still pain like

Everything breaks right for them this year. They'll end up with Matthew Schaefer and that that lineup. There's still pain. Everything breaks right for them this year. They'll end up with Matthew Schaeffer and that'll help. But this is still a bad year. It's going to be this way for a while. But, Sellebrini always does something. The Lund line does something. Asgarov does something. In the game, this sort of gives you that peak of the future. Again, can you think of the last time you're this excited to watch a bad team? Like I love watching the San Jose Sharks. They're bad, but I love watching them. I can actually, I can think of a team like that. And it was the early Zegras Ducks

where they had a lot of, I mean, Terry was there. Like they were a really fun, we didn't give a damn about defense theme as well and at the time Zegras was worth the price of admission for what he was doing. That's no longer the case and I think that the Sharks are probably more entertaining than that team was but that would be the last time I would say they were, I was watching a fun bad team late at night on the East Coast. Uh, okay. The chat that Zach just put up here, how many San Jose sharks games have you watched? 30 plus 20 to 30, 10 to 20, zero to 10. I'm right. I mean, I would, I have watched at least 30. I'm 20 to 20 to 30. I love them. I love them. What are you, are you crushing tape?

Like there's no way you've watched 20 Sharks games this year. 100% I have. 100%, absolutely. Absolutely. Don't forget, like I do, like dude, these Louis Vuitton's under my eyes are earned. Oh, I got them too. I got them too, but I watched probably about a dozen at most Sharks games this year.

Really? That's it? Yeah. Well, that's it. I gotta watch to see. I'm watching Vancouver to see if Elias Pedersen and Jake Miller will actually come to blows during a game. I can't be watching the Sharks all the time. Do you want to? Okay, while we're there, while you've noted that, and interesting, Josh Yoey's piece of the athletic he throws in Zabana Jad for JT Miller was discussed earlier this year and Vancouver said no. Is this just gonna continue until the season exhausts

or until a trade deadline or like, where are you at on this saga right now? The thing I was talking about this on the morning, this morning on Vancouver radio, and I want to get your input on it. How, how much responsibility does Rick Tocket have to be the mediator between two warring teammates? Cause I don't, I honestly don't know what a coach's role is when you have two guys that simply can't get along

in your locker room. Like, is it like middle school where you have to go to his office and he sits you down and he's like, now you guys hash it out or we're not leaving this room. Like what is Tuckett's role in this? There's two people that I wonder about in this. Well, actually there's four, but there's two that I think about initially.

One is Rick Tuckett, the other is Quinn Hughes. And I don't know if, and I don't want to sound patronizing here, but this looks like a situation where normally the captain deals with this. Okay? Right. Captains use a lot of things like, you know, go tell management that we're practicing too much or like whatever. But then there's like this issue between these two players. And it's not a reflection on Quinn Hughes.

It's just a reflection on Quinn Hughes' age. Is this something that Quinn Hughes, he wears the C, but is this not a position where you want someone, like you want a more veteran captain to step in here and say like, look, see, this is what happens. But hang on a second. But hang on a second. Yeah. But I think again, this is what I keep, what I keep coming back to lately on all of this is I don't know that I can judge what's happening between these two until we really know what this issue is. Like we've heard so much about they don't get along. What we haven't heard is what's the issue? Right?

Like how bad is this issue? Because I think frivolously, and I've been guilty of this too. I really gave this some serious thought. I've been guilty and a lot of us have, just saying you know what they just need to like lock them in a room and work it out and be done with it. Be like Jay Feaster saying to Tortorella, I'm not trading La Calvier and saying to La Calvier I'm not firing the coach. But we don't, until we know what the issue is, who knows? This might be, you know, we might be just saying like, you know, the lamb doesn't meet the lion halfway.

Like that's not the way things go. So until we know what the issue is, I don't really, and I'll fall on the, sorry for this one, because I've been guilty of it too. Until we know what the issue is, I don't know that I'm comfortable saying, I have a solution for it. Or anybody does.

Well, I mean, the does. The issue is winning. I mean, let's be honest. Like, like every, every sword gets put down when you're all rowing in the same direction towards a championship. And right now this is barely a wild card team. So everything gets exacerbated, right? Um, look, JT Miller has always been a locker room irritant. I mean, that's been his reputation.

That was his reputation. When he signed long-term in Vancouver, I had multiple people being like, you want that long-term? Like he's a fantastic player, but he's never exactly the sunniest guy. And so, you know, it could be simply a personality conflict. And if it was a personality conflict,

it's not something that's gonna get resolved. They are who they are. The Queenie Hughes thing you said is interesting though, because I do wonder from a perception standpoint, do we discount how effective a captain is just because they're not Marc Messier or Jonathan Tave's grabbing people by the scruff of their jerseys and trying to say snap out of it? He's going to be a leader in his own way.

I think he could probably be an effective mediator between them. I think he's a really smart kid. But ultimately, like you said, like, does it fall on the coach? Does it fall on the GM? Does it fall on the team to just try to resolve this situation so it can move forward? I don't know. I don't know where I lay blame until I know, and maybe we'll never know what the issue, what the actual issue is between them. It might just be frivolous personality clash. It might be something deeper than that.

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's going to go on until the Rangers, until the Rangers up their offer and get to 18 million. Let's be honest. Like, covet the guy. And either there's going to come a point in which they can, you know, when you think about them,

you know, you mentioned, I wrote about this recently, like, you know, the Rangers and what to do. Like when you think about the Rangers and the makeup of their team and what sort of personality and what sort of player they want on their squad, like it's JT Miller. So I mean, if they want them,

and this situation of Vancouver comes to a boiling point, like they'll get them. It's just a matter of are they gonna give up enough to make it worth Vancouver's wild trade? Okay, back to your trophies. Heart trophy. Let's go with the big one. The surprise.

The fact that everybody went Kaprizov or the lion's share went Kaprizov or the lion's share went Kaprizov? Yeah, the fact that Kaprizov had still had the lead in the heart race at this point. Cause I really thought that after player of the month in December popping off like he did, that McKinnon was gonna be in the driver's seat for this award.

But I think people, you know, I think there's a notion that McKinnon has helped. I mean, I know he, you I know he clearly was the MVP, it was undeniable last season, but Ranton and McCarr, you look at what surrounds Kaprizov in Minnesota, I don't think there's as much respect for the talent on that team.

And I think there's also a notion of like, the expectation is that Colorado will be good, the expectation was that Minnesota was not gonna be challenging for a division title. And so there's a bit of that too, and Kapri Presof still having the lead, but I really thought it'd be McKinnon. And if you look inside the numbers, and I know my friends at Edmonton have been screaming at this to me all day too, there's a really good case it should be Tricidal. Yeah. The other one that I wanted to throw out there, and this is long, first the like first of all my default for the heart trophy is always it's got to be a goalie mm-hmm like by

definition of most valuable to his team like that definition generally that's gonna that's gonna fall that's gonna fall to a goal header now or I don't know I don't know I don't know hang on I don't know that I've seen a Jekyll and Hyde team more so than the Vancouver Canucks with or without Quinn Hughes. So I think that Quinn Hughes is still in that conversation. Let me throw another one out at you here.

Even though he's only played nine games. We'll see how this progresses throughout the season. Mackenzie Blackwood is 7-1-1 with a 938 save percentage. The arrival of Mackenzie Blackwood and the rise of the Colorado Avalanche go hand to glove. He shows up, everything starts to settle, and everything's in place. Now, it's not just McKenzie Blackwood, but for a long time this year, we saw some really great work done by

the Colorado Avalanche that got undone by their goaltending. That's gone now. Yeah, because they nuked it and then they bought in Blackwood and they liked him so much after five games that they extended him. Like, the bar on competent goaltending is set so low in Colorado, they're like, you seem like you can stop a puck.

Here's all the money. Like it's crazy. But no, no, no, I don't think, here's the problem with your Blackwood candidacy. If it's going to a goaltender, it's going to Hello Puck. Like he is gonna get the lion's share of the credit for the Jets being as good as they are. His stats are incredible. He's gonna walk away with the Vezina this year. By the way the other three guys I

think since the Vezina became the Vezina that won multiples are Marty Bordor, Patrick Waugh, Dominik Hasek. So that's pretty good company to be in if you're Hello Buck. I think that's the problem is that there's another guy that's going to block the way if you think it should be a gold tinder. I think we lost Jeff's mic there. I think we did too. I can hear you though. What do you think?

What do you think Zach? Do you like Mackenzie Blackwood as a Heart nominee? Because I don't. I think it's a very very long shot. Yeah, I know. I'm trying to get Jeff off the screen for us here, sorry. All right, while I have you folks, let's talk about the odds that our friends at FanDuel

put up about the Heart Trophy. Connor McDavid plus 280. He's the leader right now. Nathan McKinnon plus 300. Krill Kaprizov plus 310. And Leon Dreisaitl plus 550. Now McDavid is an interesting one because, and I think his candidacy obviously impacts that of Dreisaitl.

He's not too far behind Leon as far as points. He's not very far off the lead. Obviously we know McDavid could pop off for a month and all of a sudden he's leading the league in points. So I understand where he is right now. Dry Cytl has the analytic argument. Him and Quinn Hughes both have the analytic argument. Actually, if you go to evolving hockey and you look at the expected goals over replacement for these guys, it's Dry Cytl first and I believe it's Quinn Hughes second. And to Merrick's point, like, I think Quinn Hughes should be the leader

for the Norris right now. We'll probably get to the Norris odds in a second. But the leader, according to the voters that we surveyed, remains Cale McCarr for the Norris. And I just don't see it, man. Like I think Cale McCarr right now is feasting off the play that he had in the first month and a half in the season where he's doing things

that only Bobby Orr had done. He's on a scoring pace that looked like it was gonna be with the best offensive season since the heyday of Bobby Orr. Like, you know, when he's doing those types of things, I think that reputation bleeds over to other months in the season. And right now, I think if you look at the totality of their play, and I do think that Quinn Hughes' injury and time away from the lineup has certainly impacted a little bit.

I think it's Quinn Hughes is the Norris winner, and I think Quinn Hughes has a good case for heart trophy as well. The other guy for the heart that's kind of interesting too is Jack Eichel. Now, to pull the curtain back a little bit, I think that the folks in Vegas are trying to bang the drums. I don't know if there's those cool drums that they play at the games or not,

but the guys with the fancy light up glasses, but drums nonetheless, are trying to bang the drums about Jack Eichel's season. In particular, his defensive season. I think they've been very proud of the way that Eichel has played defensively since they won the cup. They've kind of sold him as a great 200 foot player. And I think this season he's kind of lived up to that a little bit. He also has a gigantic gap in the scoring race on his own team, mainly because of injury,

but also because of just how damn good he's been. And so the Vegas people, I think, are trying to put the word out there to their friends in the media, I think, are trying to put the word out there to their friends in the media, myself included, to take a real good hard look at Jack Eichel's season and what that season means vis-a-vis his heart trophy bona fides. And look, you look at the standings in Vegas all of a sudden is at the top of them, points percentage wise, like he's got a case, he's got a very interesting case.

It's just a matter of breaking through a lot of the noise that exists in the Heart Trophy race. While we're waiting for Jeffy, I will also note that there are a couple of runaways with regard to the NHL Awards Watch. The voters, again, if you don't know the gimmick by now, we survey a few dozen NHL, PHWA voters, the actual people that vote on these awards

to kind of get the gist of it. These are two awards that the PHWA does not vote on that we're about to talk about. But I think if you ask them, they can kind of give you a sense of where the wind's blowing on them. The first is the Vesna and Hello Bucks got that thing on lock. I did get one writer who wanted to register their vote for Logan Thompson of the Washington

Capitals. Maybe a, hey, sorry, I missed that on team candidate in Four Nations vote, but a vote nonetheless. Hellebuyck's going to walk away with this thing. And if he plays well in Four Nations for the US, it's just going to underscore the season that he's had. Gets that in a second, by the way. The other is is Spencer Carberry, which is, again, like walking away with that award right now for Coach of the Year, the Jack Adams. It looked like it was going to be a bit of a competition last month based on who the other coaches in the conversation were. last month based on who the other coaches in the conversation were. But then Spencer Carberry basically has dunked on the field. There's some people that have said, you know, hey, maybe Dean Ebison with the blue jackets if they can sneak into the playoffs. And because a lot of people would also think John Hines with the

Minnesota Wild is a possibility. But Carberry was unanimous, unanimous amongst the voters that we surveyed for the NHL Awards Watch and rightfully so. The work he's done with the Capitals, the record that they had when Ovechkin was out of the lineup, we're talking about a guy that's you know scoring almost like at a goal for the game, clipped for them, he's done Yeoman's work and it looks like he's gonna waltz away with the Jack Adams if the broadcasters have the foresight that the writers do in this category. I think he's great. It's also

kind of funny how many teams passed over him and how the Capitals ended up with him. I wanted to mention the Four Nations thing too with regard to the awards. I wonder if we're gonna have a Four Nations effect. Please do recall back in 2010 the amount of intense interest and admiration for Ryan Miller that existed after Miller did what he did for the US in the Olympics in Vancouver. I wonder if there's going to be a Four Nations effect. It could be like if Jack Eichel pops off and leads the US to win the tournament and is their leading scorer, like does that affect

his heart, you know, aspirations? It could. Hellebuck, I don't think either could hurt or help himself depending on how he plays in the tournament. I think he's probably got the Vezna. One name that I found interesting is in the Selkie race. And again, it's Aleksandras Barkov's award to lose. I think we all know that.

He's the new Patrice Bergeron, you pencil his name at the beginning of the season. Unless somebody rises up to take it from him, he's probably gonna win the Selkie. However, somebody did vote for Anthony Cirelli for the Selkie, which I thought was kind of interesting. And I think he's gonna need some help, but if he, you know, he's on Team Canada,

if he goes out there and like shuts down Austin Matthews in two games. It could be a fun little, a little, little boost for his, his, his selkie case. And again, you're not supposed to- That was what I was going to ask you, Wish, is like, if the Four Nations boost does have an effect, if it is a real thing, who's the player that you could foresee benefiting the most, who might be on the outside or on the bubble of an award who's looking at it and could have a tournament, whether it's the line they'll play on, the team they'll play on, whatever it may be, who could be elevated in that award category.

There's two. There's Ikel. I mean, Ikel that I just mentioned, like I think that if he had a monster tournament, you know, again, he's in the heart trophy race, right? So if he ends up being the most valuable player on an American team that beats Canada and then wins the championship, that could certainly help his case. The other guy that I find really interesting, and it's the guy we didn't talk about in the Norris with McCarr leading and Hughes right behind him,

and that's Zach Warrensky. There have been, there are a couple of voters that we reached out to who are acolytes for Zach Warrensky this year winning the Norris, saying that this is a guy who greatly impacts play whenever he's on the ice. It's visible, it's noticeable. He's got the stats to prove it too. But him being on the American team, if he has a really strong tournament, now all of

a sudden maybe he gets more into the conversation with McCarr and with Quinn Hughes for the Norris Trophy as well. I was looking at the Norris Trophy there. If you look at the odds on FanDuel, which we pulled up there, sponsor of the show here now, Wish by the way, minus 430 for Kale McCarr. Is it actually that like in your mind, is it actually that far ahead? Is there anything anybody else here can do behind him? Is it something he's got to lose this award himself for everyone else to catch up? Like I'm looking at this award. I often look at the betting markets myself when I'm kind of trying to determine who's going to be winning these things, the voters, obviously, and articles like yourself put out have influence on these, but minus 430 and the next closest is Quinn

Hughes. That's a big jump right there. It's a big jump and it's trending away from him, to be honest with you. His vote share of first place votes decreased month over month from December to January in the Norris race. And again, I just think that Quinn is gonna get more love, more attention, he's gonna come back. I mean, you have to remember also that when you wanna try to talk about the effectiveness of these players, sometimes the easiest thing to do is look what happens when they're not there.

And the Cucks can't score without Quinn Hughes on the ice. They have like seven goals in the games he's missed, I think or at least he did they did until last night's game. So you know I I think that that Quinn's gonna have a really solid case. I do think that the one thing that is you know not in his favor obviously is the Norris is very fickle. The Norris is usually an award where you can see a lot of the same names in the mix for the award, but it's usually different guys that win it every year. And so the fact that Quinn was coronated last season probably does not play in his favor to win the award again. And McCarr has been in the mix, but he hasn't won in a couple.

So I think that that's probably one of the reasons why I see McCarr heavily favored. I wish Dan Henney here in the chat says, Merrick with a very Canadian World Juniors performance. I just love the fact, for the long time at VSW listeners, it was always my ass that would have the technical difficulties. He'd go on this long slilliquy about some hockey nonsense and then he'd say, and what do you say Wish? And then I would be not there because my internet failed or my microphone crapped out or whatever.

So this is a really nice, it would usually be me on the phone with our producer looking at the magic box that I may have stole from a previous employer that allowed me to do the podcast. And I would tell him, the numbers all say zero. Is that good? And he would say, no, that's not what you want at all. And then go from there. But no, it's fine. It happens. It's the miracle of technology that allows us to do the show. And then the death of technology that allows us to not do the show when this sort of thing happens. What's your, what's your, what's your,

what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your,

what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your,

what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, what's your, Take though on on so we were talking about Montreal we didn't really talk about the wild card too much Montreal's in a wild card spot Right now it's kind of crazy. The east is a little bit baddy I think the top three teams in the metro probably remain the top three teams in the metro

by the way a very important win for My beloved New Jersey Devils last night who could have gone over road trip if they didn't hold on to win that game against the crack And and they probably wouldn't if it wasn't for Markstrom But you know Washington Devils Canes 3 in the Metro, Leafs Panthers, they've got the Top 2 in the Atlantic on lock. The Lightning have a bunch of games in hand on Boston right now. So you could maybe say that they're the third choice in the Atlantic with Boston dropping to the wild card. But that other wild card spot, and I'm not saying the Bruins are anywhere safe in this, but that other wild card spot is wide open.

And Montreal currently inhabits it based on points. You have a ton of teams right behind them, including the left for dead New York Rangers, who I think are only like four points out of a playoff spot. How do you handicap the final spot in the East right now? This is weird because I was looking at the standings the other day and I was breaking down the Atlantic Metro and then kind of looking into the wild cards and it's like, okay,

Toronto, Florida, Boston, I don't see any of those three coming out, right? Like that's kind of the way you foresee this going the remainder of the year, Metro, Washington, New Jersey, Carolina again, and then even in the wild card. And I know that you're saying like even as you get closer, but like right now I don't see Tampa being a team that comes out of this either. So it's down to the one. I wonder how interested Montreal is in holding on to that spot.

It's the, see, I wish teams were that smart in the sense of like, it is in your best interest not to be good quite yet. But it's there so smart. Well because like, what happens if they just hold onto this and then all of a sudden they have a bad stretch in the last week of the season, they missed the playoffs by one or two spots. Now you're in like no man's land drafting this year. You've missed the playoffs.

It's great to have the young kids get the experience of going out there and competing and pushing and meaningful hockey at the end of the season. But like, yeah, is it best for the organization at that point? And you're gonna have by the way, the New York Rangers who are calling on JT Miller who are still going to try to make the playoffs here, the Red Wings are going to try to turn this around and get into the playoffs. Like, I don't know, I wonder how much they want to get there. So that's kind of what I'm factoring into the handicap of like, do they try to stay there?

I do like the one thing you said though, which is that when you have a collection of young players, sometimes it behooves you to get them into meaningful games. I don't know if that necessarily means a playoff spot, but it would be nice to play, to be relevant late in the season if you're Montreal. I think it helps Hudson. I think it helps Doc. I think it helps all of them to play some like meaningful hockey games. That's the opposite of what I said about Calgary

before the season, which is they should be like absolute crap and they refused to be because they got good goaltending, which I didn't really see coming, but they did. The team you mentioned there that I find really interesting, there was Detroit. Like if there is one thing that Todd McClellan is very good at, it is just shutting it down and grinding it out and getting teams into the playoffs.

You know what I mean? And so I wouldn't discount the Rangers. They're too talented and they have, you know, one of the best goalies in the world. And I wouldn't even discount the Penguins with the sniff of a playoff spot in the air. Do they just waft over to it like a cartoon wolf to a tie on a window sill back in the 1960s? But the Red Wings to me are a talented team and they have now a coach who again, he just has an innate ability of getting teams in. Now they usually get absolutely whacked in the playoffs

as the Kings have been by the Edmunds and Oilers numerous times. But that move by Iserman, I don't think Jeffy and I talked about it, but like that move by Iserman to me was indicative of, my only goal here is not greatness. My only goal here is get in and not be a non-playoff team for once.

And I think Todd McClellan is the kind of coach that accomplishes that. Okay, Wish, I think people are, those watching and or those joining later, sitting here wondering what the hell happened to Jeff Merrick and who is this guy with the Wolverine beard sitting in the host chair right now. So with that, I'll get us to move on our way

to the closing segment and I'm gonna keep you here for it to get us out of this one. But as mentioned off the top, we do have a new sponsor here on the show. FanDuel is North America's number one sportsbook app provider and proud to connect fans to the major moments in sports that matter to them. We have a pretty decent size schedule here tonight in the NHL. Are there any games that are sticking out to you that you're looking at, uh, of whether it's because of importance or actually just saying like, you know what, that's a game I want on my TV tonight. Well, I know Dallas is in town here in, in, in New York to play the Rangers, which is

kind of an interesting game. I wish I could, uh, I'm, I'm, I'm not attending the game tonight, but I've been looking forward to seeing Dallas in person. You know, listen, we just talked about them. We've got two basically playoff, big playoff matches on the docket tonight. We've got the Penguins and Blue Jackets and the Red Wings and the Senators. And both of those games could be very informative

as to what this wild card picture will end up looking like. You know, again, the Blue Jackets are a team that now I find very easy to root for. I mean, the idea that they are flirting with relevance in a season in which they had unspeakable tragedy before training camps began with the death of Johnny Goudreau and how they've processed that and how they've handled that and Dean Ebison coming in and trying to coach the team

through that and to have them now be in a place where they're at the precipice of playoff contention is really one of the season's best stories so far. So I find them pretty easy to root for, especially also a team that you'd like to not just be utter crap when they have an outdoor game looming in a few weeks. By the way, how crazy would that be if the Blue Jackets and Red Wings were both two points out of the wild card when the Stadium Series hits? I don't think I had that on my bingo

card. The great thing about what's happening right now with Merrick, by the way, is that I know that he is a really calm and reasonable person when technical difficulties befall him. So, I really hope that he's... go grab some of Grandpa's Magic Eye medicine, Merrick, and chill out for a little bit. Hey! Look who's here! Oh, God. What a nightmare this has been trying to get back. I got like two minutes left with you. By the way, La Premiere 12, the first star.

I can't decide who's a hard trophy candidate for this show. You for filibustering, Mr. Smith goes to Washington, or Zach for jumping into the big chair, killing it for a little while there. I am so impressed. I really assume that if you could make this work, that the entire backdrop would be destroyed as you just crushed it. your hands. We all get chiller in our old age. You know what? I did have to laugh because in the chat, someone brought up that it wouldn't be

MVSW without a tie line malfunction. It's the truth. With all the tie lines, screw ups. Yeah, I mean, I made reference to it. I'll just tell everybody now, because I know nobody else is listening from the outside, outside of us and the family. Stole mine from the score. I had a radio show with a score with Rob Pizzo back in the day.

He kept the tie line and never asked for it back. I think technology has now moved ahead to the point where you don't need a magic digital box that connects to 16 different devices in order to do a podcast. I think we could just do it on an app now, but, but shout out to the score, the light grade score. You, you worked there and I worked there. Elliot worked there. I never worked at the score. I thought you did work at the score. No, I never worked at the score. You were just wrestling adjacent. I just, at that, at that point when all you

guys were at the score doing stuff, how's it CBC? Oh, that's right. You were just wrestling adjacent? At that point when all you guys were at the score doing stuff, I was at CBC. Oh, that's right. You were an upstanding citizen in the world. Sucking off the public teat, right? Yeah. You know, I can't tell you how many people, by the way, when I used to work at CBC, I can't even tell you how many people would either like tweet or like say on the air like, I pay your salary. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Because it's the public project. You should say what I want on the air because I pay your salary. I always enjoyed doing stuff with the score because it was always like TSN, you know,

and then you had Sportsnet and Sportsnet hated TSN. And then the score was down here, like just smoking weed in the basement. You're just like, we're just keeping on, keeping on, babe. We were talking about wrestling. The score was scrappy, man. The score was scrappy. It was scra scrappy and like, it was awesome. It was scrappy and it had to be innovative and it had the, and it had a, it had like a vibe of, I don't know if it's going to work,

let's just try it. And they did. And they wouldn't try it a bunch of stuff and a lot of it worked and some of it didn't, but so what? Like that's going to be baked in the pie when you're trying things instead of like, I'm not sure. You know, we focused tested this idea and it didn't test well. So maybe let's not do it. And it will just put on a highlight show. Yeah. I wouldn't know anything about that. Working for my career. Okay. Keep all of ourselves out of trouble. No, no, no. The score, the score was fun. Like I think that's what attracted me to it was the sort of, Hey kids, let's put on a show aspect of the score. So, shout out to where a lot of us,

Balmonte Jones included, came from the score in Canada. Absolutely. Okay. On that, we'll wrap things up. We have some issues to settle here and try to figure out what's happened to the audio. But A, thanks to you Wish, B, thanks to Zach for stepping in. And thanks to everyone who hung in on the chat as well. I just kind of went and hung out in the chat for a while. I'm like, yeah, I can't really do anything else. Just going to hang out with the crew of the chat. So thanks for all of that.

Thanks for our new partner, FanDuel. Thanks so much for being aboard. We'll get this audio issue settled. And, but again- Yeah, shout out to FanDuel. It's not always like this. Trust us. Well, it's not always like this. Trust us. Well, it's only when it's only when Greg and I get together that it's like this,

that stuff gets broken or I don't know. Like it's plugged in. Like I tried doing this. Like for those of the podcast, Merrick is showing me how he is plugging and unplugging an aux cable. Oh boy. The IFB is fine. I cleaned it the other day, so that can't be the problem.

I don't know. You know how long it took me to realize you had to clean your IFB. Here I was standing like there was a mute switch on it. I can't find that. It took me so long to realize you actually had to clean your IFB. I used to complain to producers when I would do TV on ESPN.

Can you turn the volume up? I think something's wrong on your board. Then finally someone like, hey dummy, there's a thing called earwax. You build it up, it gets in your device. How about cleaning that thing, you gross bastard? Wash that thing, Wish. Wash that thing. All right. We'll wrap up from there. Enjoy the rest of your day. Enjoy the games tonight. Tell them, tell them underway and you know, which you guys talk about some of the games tonight are going on around the NHL. Yeah, okay. Playoff.

I really want Columbus and Pittsburgh to be like a real thing one day. I can think of we look at like rivalries you want to have happen. Columbus Pittsburgh is sort of right up there for me and every time they get together, I say the same thing one day, one day, one day. I said it before. Okay, on behalf of the whole crew here. Columbus is the NHL city that's ready to pop off. I hope, I've been saying that for so long though. I just want it to be true eventually. Thanks everyone for hanging in. Whether you're listening on the podcast, watching us live on our daily face-off YouTube, listening in the archive, watching in the archive. Thank you,

thank you, thank you. We are back tomorrow with the sheet. Three o'clock Eastern noon Pacific. When we get all the bugs out. This is the, the, the, uh, the extent of my technical knowledge. Yes, it keeps unplugging. Oh, it didn't work. Jiggle the handle. Jiggle the handle.

It didn't work. Blow in the car. Try the IFP. Is that? Nope. Still no. Ear wax. See you tomorrow!

Take care. Cause you can call it a rut I went to the dark man He tried to give me a little medicine I'm like nah man that's fine I'm not against those methods but I knew It's me, myself and Alice gonna be fixing my mind I do want a record I turn down the music I do want a record I turned on the music I turned on the music I turned on the music I turned on the music I turned on the music

It's enough, they're better than you sometimes lose it Help in all the days that we're wrong