The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Making His Mark ft. Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski unite for another MvsW Tuesday on The Sheet. Discussing Mark Scheifele making history and the Winnipeg Jets winning streak, Matthew Tkachuk's Tonight Show appearance, and much more...Shout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Tim Hortons: https://www.timhortons.ca/rollupReach 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.

Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today,

starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. If you're like me, you live on your phone, right? Calls, texts, messages, podcasts, videos. So, how are you feeling about your mobile plan these days? Huh? Maybe you want more control? At Fizz, they do things differently, starting with coverage. Reliable cell coverage across Canada, thanks to their mobile network and that of their partners.

Fizz offers fully customizable plans to fit your needs. And if you have unused data at the end of the month, it rolls over. Use it next month. You paid for it, you keep it. No hidden fees, all transparent, 100% online. And if you don't like it, split whenever you want. It's all good.

Like it a lot? Well, that's good for you. The more you stay, the less you pay and more rewards you get. Use the promo code FizzC to subscribe and get 10 gigabytes and a credit of $25. Hey, share your promo code with friends as well. Learn more at Fizz.ca. Switch to Fizz. by the way. So as usual, we lay out this big ambitious list of things we're going to talk about yesterday. And it's not as if Zach and I didn't have the time to do it. We did.

But after we said goodbye to Shane Wright, who was very gracious with his time, as it turns out, he stayed on a lot longer than we thought he was going to, but good for Shane Wright. Thank you. Zach and I, along with the chat, just sort of BS BS for, what do you say Zach, like 45 minutes and didn't get to something that I mentioned off the top that's very specifically I wanted to do because listen, only a couple of games last night in the NHL, but we're back to like a big huge hockey fest tonight around the league and every time you're gonna see something like this, you're gonna be thinking the exact same thing I suspect because after Jake Allen told me this a couple of years ago, now I can't stop seeing it everywhere.

And I swear, Zach, we're going to get to it today. And it involves Patrick Kane. But now we're rewinding to Sunday because I am such a bad host. I am completely incapable of sticking to a script. And you know what? Like a real host who's been in the industry going back to 1995, I'm going to blame it on my producer. You're supposed to be my effing guardrail. You're supposed to be the one that says, gentle reminder, Jeff, you are going to talk about this. This can't be my fault, Zach Phillips. This is yours, Philly, not mine.

This one's on you. How about that? Am I getting my doona right? Do I sound like morning couple hockey when they're always blaming Vic? Anything happens? Is this Vic's problem? Is this Vic's fault? We'll be sick.

Vic's fault. Vic's fault. Yeah, Vic's fault. It's all Vic's fault. It's all Philly's fault. We are going to get to it today. All right. We're going to get to that today. It's also Greg Wyshinski Day. It's Tuesday Vic's fault. It's all Philly's fault. But we're gonna get to it today. All right, we're gonna get to that today.

It's also Greg Wyshinski Day, it's Tuesday. So we're back to our normal, and by the way, if you're watching on YouTube, man, I got this like violent cut on my lip. On the bottom lip, which is probably totally distracting to anybody who's watching, but like I just woke up on Saturday and like my lip was split. Like I had just gone to overtime with Team Canada a couple of nights before. Hold your USA jokes for when Greg Wyszynski stops by the broadcast here in a couple of minutes here. We got a lot we want to get to with Wyszynski and one of the things that I'd like to bring up with Greg, like put it this way, I know Greg, I think he put it up on his preview at his Twitter X feed, that he's gonna eat shit for USA losing to Canada. I'm not that guy. Like I can't do the Snoopy dance.

Like I could do it for a day. I can make my one little joke about, you know, they play the It's Our Time speech before the games for a reason and don't hold it for later. Like okay, I made my little joke. I can do it for you if you want. You want to do it? You want to do the Snoopy dance? I can do it. I can do it. All right. Yeah. I may just turn the recreation over to you. And I don't know, you're not able to do it. I can fire up some hate here. You know, we heard that

loudmouth Wyshinski come on here with his big stupid hat and all that stuff. And he's throwing shade at us up north of the border, talking about, it's our time, it's our game. Well, guess what, Wyshinski and you Americans, you blew your load early on Saturday night in the first nine seconds, and we took it back, and we called it our game, and you never had a shot because it was always Canada's game,

and it belongs above the border. The Four Nations trophy, Jeff, belongs above the border the four nations trophy Jeff belongs above the border and that's where it's gonna stay can I ask you a question about the four nations trophy can I ask you a question about the four nations trophy what's it what's the name let's see how serious they take this tournament what's the name of the trophy I don't care we want it. It's the Four Nations trophy. It's ours. I don't know the name because it doesn't have a name. You stumped me on that one like you should have just let me go off the heater. There's no name. There's no name. It's just here's a trophy.

You guys. You get older you just gotta laugh about things. Alright Daily Outlines presented by our friends and partners at FanDuel. North America's number one sportsbook app provider. And coming up on the program today, as mentioned, Greg Gushinski of ESPN.com. Now, you know, ESPN is right now in the process of untangling themselves with Major League Baseball. And I do wonder, as a hockey fan, maybe can hockey start to fill that programming vacuum, not so much this year, but next year, that baseball will have previously occupied Sundays. I'm looking your direction.

Showtime for the second day in a row. That is a headline here on our FanDuel Daily Outline. And we are going to get to this Pat Kane thing. Yeah, I know, maybe. I know. Thank you, producer. Thank you very much for doubting me right off the top. I guess you've known me long enough now. the scant few months we've done this program.

Mark Shifely as well. Mark Shifely is someone who, you know, there are some players that when their season is done, they put away their equipment and they turn off the television. They turn off their tablet and they just like, don't watch. Shifely is the opposite. Like Shifely is the guy who's a hockey player, who's also a major hockey fan. So naturally, personally, myself, and I suspect you as well, want a guy like Mark Shafely to be successful. And congratulations, Mark Shafely now holds a mark for most in the Winnipeg Jets version 2.0. Most goals scored. Um, 329 passes Ilya Kovalchuk,

who's another player that I really loved and on route. uh, the Winnipeg Jets just keep on rolling and rolling and rolling along. I always do sort of sideways snicker when I hear comments like, are they peeking too early? As if Scott Arniel is going to deliberately tell players or coach so that they stop winning. Like it's something you can somehow, I guess you can control winning, but as if like it's something that is just sort of you know faded towards you. Anyhow, we'll get into the Winnipeg Jets here coming up and a little bit later on with Greg Wyszynski and the Kachuck show, specifically the injured Matthew Kachuck and his appearance on the Tonight Show. This is something that we talked about yesterday on the program and the idea of the NHL capitalizing as much as they can on the success of the four nations,

which captured everybody's imagination, not just hockey fans, but other sports as well. And I mentioned on the program yesterday, listening to my favorite baseball podcast, Effectively Wild, and they were talking about it. That surreal moment where your first love, your your favorite sport all of a sudden bleeds into the podcast for another sport and Finally for hockey

It's positive With that we'll bring in Greg Wyshinski From ESPN calm we have a lot to get to with Greg Wyshinski, who the last time we spoke was wearing a lovely USA hat. It's right here. It came attached with a beard on it, which I didn't wear. Oh. But here's the hat. All right. Very good. And I will toss it towards the camera and throw it over there. And I will recover it back in 2026. I don't do Snoopy dances for sporting events. Yeah, I know.

I know, like I just don't. You leave it to your little boy producer there who had the gall to say those terrible things before I came on the air. And now where is he? Yeah, nope. Look, by the way, let me answer your question. Okay.

The Four Nations Face-Off Trophy is back in the lobby of a Marriott with fake flowers in it. Is there something in the NHL charter that says that we can't have a large trophy with a bowl at the end, that it can only be the Stanley Cup? Because when we have the World Cup of hockey, it's a giant paperweight. When we have the Four Nations Faceoff,

it's an urn with your uncle's ashes in it, that, you know, it looked like, did the players get larger or did the trophy get smaller at the end of that game, is what I was asking. Why can't we just have a large substantial cup at the end of one of these tournaments? I don't know the answer. We've had the cups versus plates discussion here, I believe. You and I, I'm very much in favor of plates and you're very much, you're a cup guy. Wimbledon only for the plates for me. I know you're a drinking guy, I'm an eating guy. So I like the plates and you like the cups. We've established that.

Like, look, as I was saying, I will do one little, why don't, sorry, I was gonna do a bonk joke there. Why don't, now that would be something if it's gonna be oh there it is my friend right oh it's a lot of sense doesn't it hold on to that one of these trophies hold the phone for a second is it have to be a cup why can't it be a bomb yeah the Joe Thor No, I'm just assuming. I mean, I think we all assume it goes along with the beard But you're right, what would it be like a giant we couldn't do silver you'd probably still have to do glass But now we're talking we may have some here. Okay, but the the one thing that I will I will do one tiny little Snoopy dance here. I mentioned this on the show on Friday. Greg, my dear friend, my

American friend, you know most of my family live in the United States, the majority in Livonia, Michigan. I grew up going back and forth between Toronto and Livonia, the middle ground, of course London, Ontario, where we'd have family picnics at Storybook Gardens. Canada and United States coming together, best of friends, family, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But there's a reason, Greg Wyshynski, that the United States plays the miracle Herb Brooks, Herb Brooks, this is our time video clip before the game and don't save it for later on. Yeah, we do a lot of things before the game. The president calls to congratulate us before the game. We play the Miracles feature before the game.

Yeah. I mean, you know, it's I mean, again, like it just to put into sharp relief the differences in best on best success successes between our countries You guys had former favorite son Wayne Gretzky come out still very accomplished hockey player I don't know if you've heard of him and we had Our our version of Paul Henderson come out because we haven't done anything. We haven't done anything although 1980 I

Absolutely. I absolutely love to see in Mike Ar Arucione in the Goudreau jersey. That was like freaking nailed it. So fantastic. Would I have preferred to see Ryan Miller in the Goudreau jersey? Would I prefer to have seen TJ Oshie in the Goudreau jersey? Would I prefer to see anybody that have won a gold medal in the Olympics since 1980

wearing that jersey? Yes, because it hasn't happened. And that is really the legacy of USA hockey at this moment. Look, I think the Canadians proved something important at Four Nations. I think they proved that if your arch rival is down to 10 forwards, if one of those forwards is literally the leader of the team

and if the best defenseman of the world is across the continent because his team won't let him fly to participate in the tournament despite the head coach saying he would be in the tournament, then I think you guys can definitely beat the Americans in overtime. I think you've proven it. Why is it that all these marquee games is always the same play? The pass from the corner and then beat the goaltender clean. Like it was again, Liddell Crosby and now it's Marner to McDavid. Like you'd think like you guys had a lot of time to think about this in between and go like okay play coming out of the corner here. We've kind of seen this movie before in international hockey between our two teams. Like let's maybe you know Brock Nelson get on that center guide 97 there

a little quicker. Sullivan likes to play the overload on the players, not man to man. So maybe let's heads up on that read there. You might've even said it. Like if this Rod Brindemore was somehow coaching Team USA, that play never happens. But yeah, 100% true.

I would say the advice given to the players before the next overtime between our countries would be, let's not leave the best player in the world open in the slot, you know, we keep doing it. And whoever the next best player in the world is, we'll probably do it again. But look, listen, listen, I come away from four nations very sad.

Once again, I don't know how you guys keep getting away with it. You keep getting away with it. And I, but I am encouraged about 2026 because one, we clearly can beat you guys. And two, totally. I want to believe that the Americans will learn some lessons from this tournament. I think a lot of the young guys that have never been in this position have gained valuable experience going forward to 2026. And now they can kind of tweak and reshape the roster a little bit. The defense is fine outside of maybe one guy who we'll talk about in

a second. But upfront, like there's a lot of guys knocking at the door that now we can maybe have a conversation about versus running it back with the bottom six that we ran it back with in four nations. I don't know. Goals defense fine forward group. Maybe a little discussion there And I'm more I'm actually more confident now that I was at the beginning of four nations that the Americans will walk away from Italy with Olympic gold for the first time since 1980. I've been saying it for years only a matter of time It's only a matter of time, but Here we are again. Now. Here's here's this, this is, I've, man, my DMs, my Twitter feed, all of it, oh, Merrick, you suck, you said this tournament was a joke,

oh, you're the worst, like, you shouldn't even be able to talk about, like, okay. So what I've said was, I don't like the tournament, I do like the games. All right? The tournament itself, it's round of three and then a final and then that's it. Now I went into this tournament with one hope and that was this, because honestly in the tournament this short, I know we built it up to be 72 or 1980, like all these things, but again, it's four games. It's four fricking games. All right? My best hope for this tournament actually came true. And that was that hockey benefited.

Like capital H hockey, like out of all of this, it captured imaginations. I didn't think it would. I know the political climate going in and all that and the expectation of Canada versus USA, but I didn't think about wildest dreams that it would take on this timber. Again, we talked about the Kachaks and NHL always a favor, that was a big thank you to the Kachaks etc etc etc. But all of this now has

turned into this beginning of what could be a real big wave for hockey and there's a couple of things I want to get into here. If I'm the NHL and they've already started to do this and listen, you got to like stick tap tip the cap all of it when they when the NHL does something right. And right now what they're doing is listen Matthew Kachak once upon a time injured players hide. They run away, they go away, you don't see them. Matthew Kachak on the Tonight Show being as charming. I want to punch you right in the face for calling him Matthew Canuck. I swear to God. Did I say Canuck?

If you ever do that again, Merrick, I'm reaching right through this camera and punching you in the face. I know it was a faux pas. Never call him Matthew Canuck again. He's a red-blooded rock-ribbed American who happens to have Canadian ancestry. Go ahead.

Listen, listen, the Canadians just made him play too hard and he hurt himself. It's like a lot of American players. We just made you play too hard, now you're all injured. But no, like the NHL's got Matthew Kachuck. Did I say that right? Has Matthew Kachuck on the Tonight Show. And like my thought on all of it was like basketball has kind of taken a knee here and is not in a great spot. Fill the void, fill the void. If I'm the NHL, I'm doing everything with my partners. I'm doing everything with my checkbook to try to make sure that my game is everywhere. All the highlights, everyone

to flood the internet, flood social media, flood highlight shows, you have to buy your way on, it doesn't matter. This is one of those moments where it's like, okay, we need to find budget for this right now because our game is so hot other sports have taken a knee the end like super bowl is done basketball is in the place that basketball is in and right now this is the time where the nhl should just be completely flooding everybody with all of their highlights and i don't think that anybody whether it was my old company or whether it's the the rights hold that you work for, can pump enough what we just saw. You cannot show those nine seconds more than you can't

show them too much. You cannot show in Canada the McDavid goal enough all of it like just make us like to the point of becoming sick about it. Just completely bathe everybody in hockey highlights right now because you're grabbing on, you're grabbing on to fans, like you're gobbling into fans like Pac-Man. Just like another fan, another fan, another fan, another fan, another fan, another fan, another fan. And I got to give the NHL credit. They're starting to do it and it begins with

Matthew Kichak on the Tonight Show. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at ZenSurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. I want to pause in the Kachucks for a second because you're making me play devil's advocate here. I don't mean that I'm a devil's fan, although everybody constantly reminds me of that.

James Casey looks good, by the way. He does look good. I mean, Simone Emish is gonna be really looking good in someone else's uniform soon. So, don't we do this every Olympics? Like, don't we do the thing you're doing every Olympics of the best on best and how great it is and the moments, and now everyone will talk about Ryan Miller and everyone will talk

about TJ Yoshi and everyone will talk now about Matt Kachuk. We do this every single time we're in the Olympics. Okay, no, no, pause. Pause for one second because you're missing something really big here. Which is? The NHL controls all of this. The NHL doesn't... But it doesn't change the fact that... No, but what I'm saying is everything, like you own all of this. The NHL doesn't change the fact that there's no, no, no. What I'm saying, what I'm saying is everything you own all of this. And this is why the world cup is so important to the NHL. Yes. All of it flood, flood, flood, flood, flood, burn it into people's memory.

Okay. And so when they tune into Ottawa and Columbus on Tuesday and it's not USA, Canada, then what happens? I, I, again, I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer here, wah, wah, I'm just trying to say that this is the same thing that happens every time we get a bump from Best on Best, is that people reintegrate and reengage with the regular season content and it looks nothing like the thing they saw.

Now, the playoffs kinda do if you squint hard enough, which is why I do think that your idea, if you did it maybe a month and a half from now, might have more merit. No, you know, you know, momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum.

Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum.

Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. Momentum. you know, Philly and it doesn't look anything like USA Canada. You do that and remind people and you bring them into the Stanley Cup playoffs with that very footage you're talking about. But the other thing you're forgetting is that they're going to get a huge bump from the Ovechkin thing. Like, people are going to pay attention to Ovechkin and the record chase for at least like the week

it's going to happen. And so they'll have that momentum at the end of the season right into using the USA Canada footage to go right into the games that actually do resemble the stuff that people liked. So, uh, that was a great weekend for the, we talked about this yesterday, a great weekend for the Washington Capitals who didn't have a single player in the Four Nations and they just came out and dummy, and dummy the NHL. They dummied Crosby's team. They dummied McDavid's team. It was almost as if the Washington Capitals were taking it out on Canada. They did it to Crosby. They did it to McDavid. Like this was the Washington Capitol saying, okay, not on my watch, hippie. The team from our nation's Capitol taking it out

on the Canadian team. Exactly. I want to get to the caps in a second, but I do want to, I want to pause on the Kachucks for a second because before I found out that Matthew Kachuck was going to be on The Tonight Show, my wife and I, Ruby, we're having a discussion about whether or not they've now become synonymous with USA hockey. Whether you could say the word Kachuck to a normie sports fan and they'll know what it means. And so she disagreed with me. She's like, I don't think it's quite gotten to that spot yet. I don't think this thing quite had the impact

that you think it did. I think it's more about Canada, USA than it is about the Kachuks. And I say this as a matter of putting it on the official record of the sheet and putting it out into the world. The rare Haley's Comet moment when I am right in a disagreement with my wife.

Uh. And you didn't have to cry. Didn't have to cry to get there either. I didn't have to cry to get there. She did make a culpa and say, okay, he's on the Tonight Show. Like, clearly there's something that's happened here with the Kachaks and I think that's the I think that's the case. Look like I mentioned this the other day as well like your company like

in the promo picture going into Canada USA you know there's on the Canadian side there's Crosby and there's McDavid okay there's obvious choices And you look at the players that ESPN decided to promote in their one main promo pick, it's Matthew and Brady. Austin Matthews is nowhere to be seen. But then I come back to this uncomfortable conversation for some people. What was it that took them from here and put them up here? What was it?

And this is something you and I have talked about going back to when we used to do the old pod. This is a rough, violent, dangerous, more than occasionally stupid sport. That while it doesn't allow fighting, it barely penalizes fighting. Yeah. It's a real wink wink nudge nudge. It was the fights. It was the fights. And that's why, you know, I mentioned on one of the first shows here that I did this year,

was, you know, we live right now in a culture that is more leaning into violent sports now. There's a number of reasons probably for that. But that's leaning into violent sports now more so than ever. Hockey's always had it. And over the last 10, 15 years, it's kind of shied away from it or pretended that it didn't exist

or the potential for it wasn't always there. But what just took hockey to another level? The game was great, but even going into that game, sure the political situation between the two countries was part of it, but the nine seconds of love on Saturday in Montreal is what did it. That's what everybody's talking about. You sound like me in the 90s.

My big problem with Betman in the 90s. My big problem with Betman in the 90s as far as marketing is that at a time when UFC started a boom and wrestling started a boom and football was king, the NHL was trying to market its product away from violence and was showing like Peter Forsberg pure wedding through the offensive zone. Oh by the way at a time when no one was scoring like like it was the Trappiers no one was scoring they were running away from violence. I thought it was one of the biggest mistakes Betman and his group made in his early commissionership was not leaning harder into what made hockey

unique at that time at a time when people were craving it. But here's the thing I don't disagree with you and I also think that the reason the fights resonated was like you mentioned, the atmosphere that was obviously born from the geopolitical thing, but also just the rivalry, but also because they were unexpected. Like no one expected three fights in nine seconds. Even if you expected one fight at the start of that game

as pressure release, you certainly didn't expect the other two. But I think the reason the Kachaks resonate is not just the fighting. They're good players. It's swagger. They're good. And plus they're good players. I think that's an important one here, too.

Yeah, we talked about this last week, like the idea that the secret sauce of this tournament was that when people gravitated towards what was happening in the rivalry and heard about the fights, they stayed to watch the best version of the sport. Like that's, that's what kind of made people come back in record numbers next Thursday. It was not only the fireworks, the rivalry, the passion, the championship on the line. It was also, I'm going to sit, I'm going to settle in for two and a half hours and I'm going to see something pretty damn good from an athletic entertainment perspective. But it's the swagger.

It's like, if Matthew Kachuck and Brady Kachuck don't sit there together after the game and be like, it's our time, to double down on what we had just seen previously. So it doesn't, I don't think resonate the same way. Like Matthew Kachuck's on the Tonight Show, not because he had a fight in the first two seconds, the first second of a hockey game in Montreal.

It's because he backs it up with his words, backs it up with his play, backs it up with his play. It has the, the swagger and the attitude that, you know, younger generations gravitate to in record numbers when it comes to athletes these days. But here's the thing. And I know the answer is the, the, the swagger, but it takes two people to fight. You know, why, why is, is Brandon Hagel and why are Brandon Hagel and Sam Bennett not lauded the same way as Brady Kachuk and Matthew Kachuk? They did the exact same thing. It's like, we're doing this.

And okay. And then you have Brady Kachuk saying like, Sammy, you and I go next. And Sammy's like, yeah, sure, fine. Yeah. Yeah, let's do it. Well, he said, I'm sure fine that he checked with Coop and Coop signed off on it. Like that's the other thing too. I mean, there's a certain showmanship involved with all of this as you mentioned. You have to have willing participants. I mean, God, how many enforcers have we heard in the last 15 years talk about the end of their profession because they don't have any dance partners. Hagel has to fight. Bennett has to fight. Pareko has to fight. They all agreed to do it and they all, it all led to that spectacle. You're completely right.

Anything more on Four Nations or shall we move on to the NHL? So any more you want to add? Yeah, there is one thing like I... Oh, I know what I want to ask you. Hang on. I know what I want to ask you. It might be a little bit... I know it's a sensitive issue and I know you work for ESPN and can't comment on the relationship between ESPN and baseball. So let's bracket that. But there's going to be some programming time

available here unless things change. And Sundays, I'm looking your direction. This could be a bonanza for hockey. This really could be a bonanza for hockey. I mean, anytime there's programming hours available, it's all you're preaching to the choir as far as you wanted to fill in hockey. The other interesting thing from a broadcasting perspective, and I wrote about this on Friday, was what now for international hockey? What now for best on best? We know we're getting the Olympics two years later, the World Cup, two years later, the

Olympics. We know we're getting an all-star game next year, but we don't know what we're getting after that insofar as the years that fill in between those international events. Now, we assume it'll be the all-star game unless they want to double up in some of these years and they're doing so next year. But in talking to sources on site in Boston, it's pretty clear they don't have a roadmap right now because all possibilities are on the table after Four Nations.

It's a good problem to have, right? It's a good problem to have to have something that is so scorching hot and so attractive to fans, advertisers, mass media, normie fans, people who never talk about hockey, that you can then trot that out in some way, shape, or form to reengage all those people. So like, do we see a USA Canada Summit series in the intervening

years between the World Cup and the Olympics? I don't know, potentially. I think you definitely could. You put some games in Canada, you put some games in the US, and you capitalize on what is clear. Again, we talked about this before the tournament when you were like poo-pooing the whole thing. I told you the easiest sell for a casual fan in the US is the USA Canada rivalry. And on top of that, the USA trying to be the best at something that somebody else is better than us at. And look no further than women's hockey. We have an entire women's pro league built on the USA Canada rivalry.

They barnstorm throughout the continent with the USA Canada rivalry, attracted fans, brought attention to the product, and now we have an entire women's pro league in its second year based on the success of those games and based on the skill of the players in those games. That's how important the rivalry is. They're going to find a way to capitalize on it. I do agree with Connor McDavid and Jack Hughes. Both said the same thing.

You don't want too much of a good thing, but I don't see how they don't like just smash the button on a USA Canada something in between the Olympics and the World Cup. Summit series, it's how long have we been saying? The future of international hockey is the same as the women. It's Canada versus the United States. Now, this is a quick aside with the other women's game

and the Canada versus US rivalry which plays itself out every year in the rivalry series and the Olympics and the World Championships. The challenge the PWL, PWHL and they're only like, this is only their second season as we know, the challenge they're going to have is can their leagues, can their league itself make stars? Because right now that league relies on international competition to make stars. Sarah Fillier becomes a star

and then gets selected first overall by New York, but she's a star going in. Like when will that league be strong enough that they can make their own stars regardless of international competition? And is there a way to capitalize on USA Canada within that league? I mean, obviously, Worlds, Olympics, I mean, everyone knows when those games are happening and when they matter.

Is there a way to kind of use that rivalry to fuel that league a little bit? So that's the interesting development for the NHL. Like I said, great problem to have when you have like nearly 10 million people watching your product. And I do wonder what it ultimately means for All-Star going forward and what they're gonna do in those intervening years between the World Cup and the Olympics. A couple of players who distinguished themselves.

Oh, oh, oh. Yes? Yeah, I wanted to mention that too. Players who distinguished themselves, players who took a step back. And let me start with this. Going into that last game, there was the Jake Gensel goal.

There was the Essel and Dell goal. There was the Adrian Kemp goal. There was always the one goal that Jordan Bennington allowed that you looked at and said, sing it baby, sing it baby. Yeah. But then there was that last game. There was.

It wasn't happening. And he wasn't going to allow that goal. I don't know that anyone, like listen, Thomas Harley was really good. Dylan Larkin went to another level. I thought Jake Sanderson. Harley and Sanderson, good on those guys. Talk about coming in at tough spots and performing. Those two guys were awesome. But man, did Jordan Bennington do himself a world of good.

Even though all goaltender observers will tell you, this guy's been a good goaltender for a long time, but never, with all due respect to the Stanley Cup in 2019, never at that level with that kind of pressure. Larkin, I'll pause on Larkin for a second, because that reminded me of seeing an actor or actress that you don't really get, and then you see them in the right role,

and you're like, oh, okay, now I understand. Larkin was so good, man. I've been seeing somebody mea culpus about Bennington and like, oh, I didn't realize he was that guy. I mean, to me, it's just exactly as you described. Like he's that guy. He's the guy that gives up goals during the course of a game where you say to yourself, how is this guy even buying a ticket to a best on best tournament? And then there's another guy named Jordan Bennington who makes the saves that he makes in overtime, and you're like, how does this guy ever lose the Vezna?

That's the Jordan Bennington experience. That's always been the Jordan Bennington experience. I mean, it's the reason why every time you bring up where he should be in the packing order of NHL goalies, there's this militia in St. Louis, probably literally and figuratively, who come out and and and defend him to the hilt because he passes the eye test. And and they say, you know, you can't throw analytics at me, I know what I see. And it's because when you watch the

guy, he'll give up a softy, he'll he'll misplay a puck, and then he'll be unstoppable during certain parts of the game or during certain weeks of the season. So I'm going to say, I'm not going to make a call for it. Like I think Jordan Bennington is exactly who I thought he was. And unfortunately for the Americans, part of what he does is be unstoppable at times and morph into Dominic Hosh. I can do what he did in overtime.

The two guys on the Americans I was a little disappointed by. Jack Hughes was playing out of position. He had 11 shots on goal. He's playing with Austin Matthews. Those are two guys that love to have the puck on their stick. He didn't really excel physically in that tournament as well as far as like getting bodied off the puck. I love Jack. There's no way he's not going to be on the 2026 team, but I don't know man, he was a little miscast in that role on Matthew's wing and he tried to do a little too much. He also I think knew that a mistake going the other way could probably mean a goal in an important game. It wasn't the best tournament for him. What did you think?

When I think of Jack Hughes in this tournament, you know what I think about? I think about that icing race that led to the faceoff in the offensive zone for Team Canada, which by the way is maybe more of a comment on one great play by Braden Point, who in a lot of ways, most forwards would look at Thomas Harley in that situation and say oh, that's his puck go But point just gets on his horse

But that was like you always look at those flashpoint Moments like the game within a game that was such a cool moment in that sport like to guy I know it's such a small tiny geeky thing like you really got a racing for that one But like that yeah all up for the puck geeky thing, like you really got to love the game for that one. But like that Gallup for the puck with two of the superstars in the game, like Braden freaking point, Jack Hughes racing with everything that is left in their legs to either keep the puck hot or send it back the other way. I don't know.

I think, I know he, he didn't have like the best of all possible tournaments, but that race at the end with Braden point, like when you say say like, oh, Jack Hughes, four nations face off, it's the race with Braden point for me. That's, that's what I'll do. And I guess we should also note at this point that the inability of Mike Sullivan to call a timeout in that situation was because of an NHL rule change that I'm sure was enacted by a Canadian at some point for that very moment, you know, over time of the four nations tournament to make sure that he couldn't call a timeout and give us guys a blow. Um, the other guy's Adam Fox.

Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. I want to try to lead the witness here. Uh, should that have been the too many men on the ice call in Canada? Absolutely. Okay. Oh, you mean should the Americans have gotten a power play at some point in that game? Yeah, sure, probably. At some point. Maybe one. Maybe one. Okay, I just wanted to give you some, I just wanted to hand you a little protein shake there halfway through the show. It's like, all right, Greg needs a little pickin' me up.

Let's just get some protein in a blender here and hand it to our boy Wish. Adam Fox wasn't good. Oh boy, he's not good. A lot of people are saying he hasn't been good since his injury and you know, there's something probably to be said about that. I know it was mentioned earlier on this very network, the idea that they need to get him with a better, more stout defensive, defensive partner with the Rangers

so he can not have to do everything himself. And I think there's probably some merit to that as well. But like he had absolutely no offensive impact on this series despite running the power play. Which is weird. Very weird, very weird. And on that, listen, I know that everyone has spent a lot of energy dunking on Austin Matthews for what happened on the McDavid goal in overtime.

That's not his. That's not his. Watch the play, man. That's not his. Adam Fox abandons his post. He's over by Hanifin on the other side of the crease. A hundred percent. And Marner's open and Matthews is like, ah, holy crap.

And then he skates over to Marner and thenarner and then now McDavid's open to the slot. I mean, that was. I, again, I, I, I'd heard kind of anecdotally that Fox was getting the preponderance of the blame around Team USA for that play. And it's probably true because I, he's the one who kind of blew coverage on that. That's Sullivan.

Sullivan wants the overload on the player in the corner. Right? Like the read according to how Sullivan wants it played is Matthews looks at that and says like, okay, I gotta, I gotta go in for the overload. player in the corner, right? Like the read, according to how Sullivan wants it played, is Matthews looks at that and says like, okay, I gotta go in for the overload. We got a winger coming down. We're gonna funnel the puck back up to the point and everything's gonna be fine. Brock Nelson was way over at the board scene then. It didn't have time to get to Connor McDavid, as Austin Matthews has to watch Mitch Marner sail one right under his nose.

And then Cox has to get back to the other sidearner sail one right under his nose. And then Cox has to get back to the other side of the crease where he currently is. See here's, here's, here's the- I have a conversation with Noah Hanifin at the most inopportune time, I don't know. Here's the fear. Here's the fear again for, for Adam Fox. You don't want a tournament like this to totally destroy somebody. Like you remember, um, was it Canada Cup 81? That last game where Mike Lee...

No, I don't remember Canada Cup 81. Was it 81 or was it 84? Hang on. I don't remember that one either. Okay. So I just assume that everyone's seen everything. I'm stupid. Like, dude, trust me. Welcome to my stupid life. Anyway, there was that game against... I think I just saw the pacifier at that point. There was a game, there was the final game with the Soviets beat Canada and it was a pomp and it was like eight to one final or nine to one final.

And it honestly, it ruined, ruined one of the great goalies of that era, Mike Lute. Again there's another St. Louis Blues, St. Louis Blues goaltender. And I remember interviewing him a few years ago and he's like, I still, like I still, like, I think that it's, it's just such a low feeling that you can't, even though it's like, it's a Canada Cup, it's a tournament, et cetera, it shouldn't bleed into the NHL, but it matters. who we should talk about in a lot more favorable way because Mike Lute was an incredible goaltender. Yeah, he was. But that game, that game like dented him deep. And my fear for Adam Fox is, and listen, we got a hell of a game tonight between the Rangers and the Allenders.

Two teams vying for a, and it's the two Russian goaltenders going head to head, and all right, this is gonna be cool. But you wonder about Adam Fox here, like what is the cascade here coming off of this tournament? If any, like the last thing you want, this is going to sound harsh, but here I go. Like the last thing you want as a defenseman is to be considered like the, the, the,

the worst Norris trophy winning defenseman since Randy Carlisle. Oh, I don't think he's, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,le. Oh, I don't know. Randy Carlisle won. I what I'm saying is really good. What's that? Adam Fox is awesome. He's really good. Yeah, so do I. But at this tournament, tough one. And the last thing you want to see is a tournament like that for someone like

Adam, Adam Fox cascade into the rest of the regular season form. My concern for him is the numbers game. Like if you look at, I mean, you could make the argument that the regular season form. My concern for him is the numbers game. Like if you look at, you could make the argument that the US could run back the entire crew that they had on the blue line in Four Nations, right? No one's gonna age out of it. You add Quinn Hughes, you add Jake Sanderson, you got Luke Hughes waiting in the wings.

I don't know, it could end up being a numbers game. I would be shocked if he doesn't go. But I do think that this, if we're talking about players... Expanded roster, he's going. Expanded roster, he's going. If you're talking about... Yeah, I mean, he's not, I mean, he's better than like Lane Hudson, right? So like, not to besmirch the good name of Lane Hudson now, I don't want Montreal all the man. Lane Hudson's good, man. But like, again, like if you're talking about the player who had the thing happen that we thought could happen, which is that his reputation took a dip because of what happened at this exhibition tournament, like it's probably out of box, to be honest. Yeah. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit?

No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at ZenSurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Anything more on this one? I do want to do... No, I've said all I need to say. Okay, hang on. One thing that we got here in the chat from Jessica L.

Okay, real talk. Do younger Canadians go back and watch that we got here in the chat from Jessica L. Um, okay. Real talk to younger Canadians go back and watch these Canada cup games from the eighties. Do they? I mean, I do, but I like, I like watching old games in the off season. I think I, well, here's the thing. I don't know if people hang on. Let me ask Zach. Hang on. Why don't we ask like a younger person, Greg?

Instead of us two... Instead of Stadler and Waldorf barking on about answering Jessica's question about younger kids at hockey. Why don't we ask one? Hey Zach, do you ever go back and watch like Canada Cup games from the 80s? No, I do not.

I've never done that. That's not something that's ever crossed my mind. I can tell you though, Jeff, and something you would know, you remember, and Greg wouldn't know this, but Leafs TV. Yeah, of course. They run all the old Leafs games. Yes. I watched those, but that's.

Yeah, loved those. Do you remember that Greg? Like, cause Leafs TV would run this every Sunday. They would run a vintage game and Joe Bohn would host it. They'd bring in one of the old timers from that game and they do like, they'd pause at where there's like TV timeouts and they'd talk about the game and blah, blah, blah, blah. It was a cool idea. So many ideas, by the way, John's John Shannon's by the way, who ran Leafs TV. I have to give it up to John

Shannon. John was a, and still is a brilliant programmer. And he was, he was the idea behind, behind a lot of this stuff, the brains behind it. I know Leafs TV as the reason I can't get my recorder close to any Leafs player when I'm in Toronto because I'm being blocked by all the cameras and microphones. But they would do the same thing on an NHL network, especially during the summer.

They would play a lot of classic games. I would wager 95% of the Americans on the Four Nations team have not actually watched the Miracle on Ice, but I would also wager that 95% of the players, I would say 100% of the players on the Four Nations team have watched the movie Miracle. It is incredible how that has,

I mean, it's a new slap shot, basically. It's a new slap shot. Like, you put a miracle on the box. I watched it last night. You watched Miracle? I mean it's a new slap shot basically. It's a new slap shot like like you put a miracle on the box. I watched it last night. You watched Miracle last night. You know what I'm talking about right? Yeah. So I told my girlfriend that we have to watch it and then why I swear I don't think she understood because it's the best movie of all time but I don't think she understood like the magnitude of the Saturday night game and just out of nowhere she was like after they lost on Saturday She brought it up and was like can we watch it and I was like no

We're not allowed and then on Thursday when they won she asked me right after her Can we watch watching on I said let's watch it as many times as you want So yeah, that's Greg Greg. Greg. This is can eat. This is Canadian foreplay This is what you're just seeing right now. This is this is romantic. What you're seeing right now, this is Romantic Canada right here. So you can both watch the game. Exactly. So the Stanley Cup final from 89, Calgary, ho look at Lanny, ho look at Lanny. Is that Jim Poplinski?

Oh Pepper! Oh Pepper! You and I are like, don't these youngins know Paul Newman? And then the youngins are like, Eddie Cahill is the best actor I've ever seen in a miracle world. By the way, today is the 48th anniversary of the release of Slapshot. Emil Delich sent me that right before the show. Just throw that in there as a counter to your miracle.

By the way, a chat question, Lucas, hey Marerick. Do you force your kids to rewatch those games? Yes I know I probably sound like I do right sit down children. Now. We're gonna watch 1976 Canada Cup watch this line watch Bobby Clark watch Darrell Sittler here I do I do think there is room in the world to get like three of the more engaging players like Seth Jarvis Let's say in two others and just have the mystery science theater 3000 an old hockey game. I just filmed the whole thing. Yeah.

Like I would watch the shit out of that. I watched that all the time. But here's, but here's the thing. I would, I would watch the shit out of it too, but only if they like had a few drinks and were completely honest about how bad the hockey was. Yeah. Like kids today, like younger players now going back and watching games I thought were amazing

in like 1980, look back on it now, and go like, anyone get a back check here? Like what the hell? We can find a game. That went in? That shot went in from there? What's this goalie doing? How far is he coming out?

No wonder Gretzky potted that many, right? No kidding, yeah. The guy doesn't even go in the butterfly. Go get him, Obie. What's Goalie doing? How far is he coming out? No wonder Gretzky potted that many, right? No kidding, yeah. The guy doesn't even go into the butterfly. Go get him, Obie. Yeah, if we could find a game where like their coach or GM is in the game too, that'd be pretty amazing. That'd be fantastic. That's a great idea. That's a fantastic idea.

Thank you. I'll put that out in the world. If someone steals it, just keep in mind that I've already written it down and I've nailed it to myself, which is how you copyright ideas in the United States. Just say, after you give out the idea, just say trademark. Trademark, Gregor Shansky. Although I can't, it doesn't matter because I'm talking to the greatness borrows genius steals guy. Yeah, that's true. So you know, that's on the stone tablets you bought down from whatever mountains in Canada as part of your commandments

That's right. Greatness borrows, genius steals. Yeah, go for it. Everyone take everything. It's not stealing, it's sampling Do we have time to pivot to the NHL at all? We got like five minutes left here And I thought we were gonna do like a cozy 15 minutes. I wanna talk about the Hartman thing real quick Yeah, so Gary Bettman comes in and says George Calm down. We're knocking the suspension down a couple of games. Your thoughts on this one? I have a lot of questions about this. So, Betman dropped it from 10 games to eight games. So, and the NHLPA went in asking for eight games, right? And so the question I have is, if Betman's argument is that 10 is egregious

and eight is okay because going from a three-game suspension to a 10-game suspension is too large of a gap, does the Department of Player Safety then have to just escalate every suspension for a repeat offender and not judge everything on its own merits? Because that's kind of the argument that Betman's making here. Maybe unintentionally, maybe intentionally, I don't know

because like, you know, the PA throughout Kadri and Wilson and all these guys that are repeat offenders. And Ryan Hartman is a guy who in the NHL Department of Player Safety's own video, they said get suspended every 60 games. Like that's the case. Hang on, by the way.

They went, by the way. They, like honestly, that was like, I know they say, you know, this culture has no poets, but when I saw that little BA dude, that little love letter in there, it's like every 60 games, we're doing something with this guy. Yeah.

I thought to myself, okay, someone is sending a message here because when have you heard anything remotely like that? Right. We've heard he's a repeat offender, previs blah, blah, blah. But like to make it that specific, that to me is when it bled into poetry. But it didn't resonate. Like Betman decided to still decrease the suspension

to eight games despite this guy being a repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat offender. And so the question then becomes, does player safety now have to ignore things existing on their own merits and just escalate for every repeat offender to make sure that they can get to 10 to send the message and not have there be some jump from, you know, we gave them six and now it's three and now it's 10, but we can't go from three to 10 according to the commissioner. Like I just think this sends a really weird precedent and I don't know why it's that vital to defend the virtue of a guy who

gets disciplined every 60 games in this league. But here's the thing too, precedent can always get reset for the following season. This is the conversation we're having here on the show yesterday, Wish, when we were talking about Trevor Ziegres. I thought it was was gonna be two, I thought this one looked like a Cogliano-Kempe to me, three, okay, I'm not gonna quibble about one game, that's fine, but the conversation we were having was, the Department of Player Safety calls things based on how they are instructed to enforce the game

as set forth by the general managers. This is how we want the game enforced. Like they, they can do that, but this is like, like the, the marching orders for the department of player safety are set by the managers of the 32 teams. You remember what happened when Brendan Shanahan had the badge and he was throwing dixies at everybody you get 10 games and you get 10 games. In the preseason, yeah. Remember it was Brendan Smith, right,

who got the first dicksie and everyone went like, whoa, dude, what are you doing? I think Bollary's might have been in the preseason too, if memory serves to that Giants. And then everyone said like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like we want to put a leash on these puppies here, but let's let the puppies run a little bit here still. And it got sort of calmed down, but like you go and look at suspensions from the eighties, like Brown and Sandstrom was 15 games.

Now we're talking about like three. So like it can all get reset. That to me, as much as that Wink set the dynamic between the commissioner and the head of the departmental pair of safety. Like that's a Gary Bettman, George Perros issue. To me, it's also an issue between NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman and the 32 general managers who obviously have a different idea of how they want the game called.

Unless by the way, the main caveat is unless it's their bowl that gets gored, then everything is off. And everything's on the table. Then it's like, that's gotta be 15 games. Devin made the argument at the end of his ruling that eight sends a message that will resonate with Hartman. I think 10 sends a louder message.

I think having the league decrease the penalty sends a slightly less emphatic message. It's like what Woody Allen. But to go back to your point about- It's like Woody Allen saying, yeah, an op-ed piece in the New York Times. Yeah, like that's fine and dandy, but nothing sends a message like a baseball bat.

A baseball bat really sends a message. Like an op-ed piece in the Times doesn't really send a message like a baseball bat. But anyhow, go ahead. But to your point about Shanahan, like I've written extensively about the Department of Player Safety, because I was there when it was founded.

Shanahan and I had a lot of conversations about player safety when he first started. And the basis of starting that department was we have to send messages to the people that repeat and repeat and repeat. Most of that is hits to the head, rule 48. That's really where it kind of started is we got to get these hits to the head out of the game and I think the Department of Player Safety doesn't get nearly enough credit for having done so. But that being said, it was also about repeat offenders. And so when you look at Ryan Hartman, again, disciplined every 60 games again, drove a guy's head into the ice and was lucky it was it was the only result the only result was five stitches. I just I don't get the idea that this is someone we got a we got a knock it down eight games for man This is the guy who the Department of Player Safety was built to give ten games I know and and I don't I didn't understand and it's not as if it's like a completely foreign play to Hartman as well

see perfetti comma Cole foreign play to Hartman as well. C Perfetti, comma, Cole. The Winnipeg Jets. Like another one off the draw. Yeah. All right. We got to punt right at time with you. I thought we were gonna do more NHL. I thought we were gonna spend like a cozy

15 minutes talking about Four Nations, but then. Chucks, Four Nations. What else did I say we were gonna talk about? Trade deadline. I'm excited about Seth Jones saying I gotta go and the Blackhawks being like, well wait, we've just been hearing from Connor Bedard for the last year about how we don't have enough talent

and your talent. So I don't know, man. Maybe we gotta keep you around to keep Connor happy who says we gotta trade ya. You do, not us. By the way, last thing, last thing. I know this will be like something built that freezing cold takes will play on X at some point for me notice Twitter I'd be shocked if Carolina traded Rantan and

wouldn't you like wouldn't you be shocked if that happened no because I don't put anything past Eric Tulski I take all convention and throw it out if it was a other another general manager, I might be, but I don't put anything past Tulski here. I don't, he doesn't think like everybody else. I don't put, I completely agree that he doesn't think like anyone else, but his main thought in acquiring Ratnan was to try to win a Stanley Cup in 2025. And there's nothing that, there's nothing that will come to them. Elias Pettersson or anything that could come to them in a Rantinen trade or Rantinen retrade that will make them a better team than they are right now with Nico Rantinen.

And so like the idea that we all celebrated this guy being an accomplished playoff performer that can score that goal that Carolina can't seem to score to get them to a Stanley Cup final and then we're like, but he won't sign there. So they'll trade him for, you know, two guys that are like, like 50% of a Rantan. I just, my brain cannot process it. I am not as smart as Eric Tulski. I agree with you as an unconventional thinker. It means you can't take it off the table. But, but logically, you know, having him be their own like free agent acquisition as, as the parlance, you know, in the parlance, makes much more sense than trading him

because you can't sign him. I just don't buy it. You bought him in to try to win a cup. I don't know why you'd punt on it. We gotta punt. Good points by you, as always. All right, Greg Wyshynski, ESPN. What's your latest up there right now?

NHL bubble watch, the potential playoff matchups, projected points, percentage chances of making the playoffs. Thursday will be the next trade deadline tiers, we'll get into some of the Serantin and stuff, the Seth Jones stuff and other stuff too. And again, I want to just remind the listeners of the sheet, the MVSW fans out there, that when Matthew Kachuck said, it's our time, he did not say the parenthetical, which is in 2026. That's what he meant. In 2026. Everyone assumed he meant Four Nations, but he made, he's like, I feel like my groin

is spaghetti right now Paranthetical it's our time. Yes in 2026. Sorry for making the Americans play too hard Well go easy sorry for letting them 2040. Sorry for making them put Kyle Connor in the press box. You've probably Trust trust me. I I know it's like it's funny cuz Josh Morrissey yesterday after the game was talking about like, oh you know, I really wanted to play in that game, but I knew I'd be hurting the team if I played, and I wasn't 100% and I'm just like, is this like a shot at Matthew Kachuk? Like, they won a gold medal and now part of me is like, oh that's a shot at Matthew Kachuk. Did you see the Morrissey thing?

No, I did not see that Morrissey thing. I couldn't let my country down like that. Like, oh, geez, man. Yeah, I hate it. Josh Morrissey, baby. All right, where's, where's Winnipeg? Thanks, everybody. All right, see you, there he is.

Greg Wyshinski from ESPN joins us every Tuesday here on the Sheet, and today we get a vibrant schedule, by the way, around the NHL, only a pair of games yesterday. How about that Quinton Byfield pass yesterday? FanDuel, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them. Roster updates from Daily Face Off, their fantasy Twitter ex-feed. And a couple of intriguing ones around the NHL tonight. At TD Garden, Toronto faces off against Boston.

What else do we have that's particularly interesting? Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Calgary, Calgary facing off against the Washington Capitals. Washington has just been flat out wrecking teams. Like they come back from the break and as I mentioned to Wish, like they wreck Crosby's team, they wreck McDavid's team. We'll see what they can do against Dan Vlidar,

who gets to start tonight for the Calgary Flames. Jake Gautinger starts, Logan Stankhoven returns after being healthy scratched, Lien Bichelle for Dallas. As the stars face off against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena, he is in concussion protocol, this after the Casey Sazekis hit on the weekend. Elvis Merzickens starts

for CBJ at Nationwide Arena. Edmonton facing off against Tampa. I know that Stuart Skinner has really heard it lately and understandably so. The thing Zach let me get your thoughts on this one. The thing about the Edmonton Oilers to me is this is the way this time of year always goes. Beginning of the year, they were the worst team in the world and then for a few months they were the best team in the world and now they're back to being the worst team in the world and the Goldies hard to hit, etc., etc., etc. I get it, but part of me just wants to say we've seen this movie, like we watch this movie every

single year from the Edmonton Oilers, don't we? Yes, but my question back to you would be that do you not, especially if you're an Oilers fan, do you not have some type of like panic in the back of your head that maybe that run by Stuart Skinner was done. I know. That's the thing. I know. I get it. I get it. I'm with you 100%. But then things course corrects. Klingberg, by the way, scratched tonight Fred Minson. Yeah. I was just going to say it's like the conversation we had yesterday. And I kind of thought about it more after the show was like, yeah, you have guys that you know, we're playoff players. Maybe they don't get the points in the regular season. You is like, yeah, you have guys that you know, we're playoff players, maybe they don't get the points in the regular season. You're like, ah, like you brought up Clotham

you, you know, whatever, playoffs, you got them then. Okay, those guys have like built up a body of work that you can rely upon when you look back. But when it's your goalie, it's your goalie, it's a whole different feeling. And the thing is to right now You know, you can look at different teams like Boston when they went in with Swain and an Allmark Okay, you know you can balance it out one can go to the next

Yeah, do you feel that comfortable if you've got to move off of Stuart Skinner? I don't I don't think they should Do you want me to do like a I don't think they should. Do you want me to do like a producing job here as well? Cause we're about to wrap up on time. Yeah, I know, I know we're going to get the show time. I just want to make one more point. Detroit is playing tonight. I'm going to get there in a second here. Chicago and Utah, just one question that I want to sort of

raise at this point here. And Greg kind of winked at this a second ago, talking to the Chicago Blackhawks and Seth Jones and keeping Connor Bedard happy and how everything you know hasn't gone according to plan and things you know have kind of fallen off the wagon it's gonna be a lot of repick etc that at what point do we start wondering about Kyle Davidson in Chicago yeah right like we've wondered about Kevin Adams in Buffalo. Right? The idea that if there's no playoffs in Buffalo that there's gonna

be a lot of pink paper in the fax machines. There's a very dated reference by me by the way. What's a fax machine old man? If they don't, if they don't make at least know what it is. If they don't make the, if they don't make the playoffs, Elon's gonna ask all employees to cite five things that they did. How about that? But I wonder at which point you start to wonder about Kyle Davidson shepherding this rebuild and not someone who's more veteran because it has not worked. And now you have like Seth Jones talking openly about like oh I loved it in Columbus oh yeah I'd love to

go back to like all I'm saying is I wonder if if that's gonna be part of the conversation here shortly if it isn't already around Chicago Joel Erickson act injured a practice Mike Russo at the Bad News today on IR. And it looks like it's going to be a long time for one of the best two way centers in the NHL. It is Minnesota, Detroit, the XL Energy Center. Andrew Copp with the torn pack muscle four to six months. Anytime I hear torn pack, all I can think of is pain.

I can think of like torn quad torn torn pecs gotta be like so painful Zach On the scene the videos of guys. Yeah, I've seen quads I went when they couldn't that when the muscle curls it freaks me out man. I just like oh Let's make me cringe. Oh, I've seen the pack videos. You seem like it haven't seen pack videos doing something the pack goes and it's like I haven't seen Peck videos....the guys doing something, the Peck goes and it's like... Mmm! Ugh! I just can't do that one.

You just see it go and it's like Kevin Durant in Toronto with the Raptors when he's a kill it zone. Oh no, no, no. Bad, bad, bad. And speaking of Detroit, because Zach Phillips is such a great producer. He's doing my job. He's kept me in bounds. He dragged us skate and he's kept us onside. So here we go. So this is the only point and I don't know if I've mentioned this one. So a couple of years ago in a conversation with Jake Allen, we were talking about five hole goals. And he said, you know, a lot of people confuse five hole goals for what's actually going on when a puck goes in and it looks like it's a five hole goal. And we just saw this with Patrick Kane and ever since Alan pointed this out to me I can't stop

seeing it everywhere to the point where I'm actively like on the on the drive to a game with my kids I'm like if that triangle is open like you hit it you see that like you hit that because kids always want to go bar down this is Patrick Kane on Sunday So he's tucks it in and looks like he goes. Oh he goes five hole would be the common Refrain for this one, but what Pat Kane actually does so if you pause it there a second ago So when they click at the goaltender there, okay, so that's Lucas Dostal So there is a triangle Jake Allen has pointed out to me, and now I see it everywhere.

There is a triangle between the stick and the right skate. Okay, and where people look at it and say he's shooting five hole, he's not. What shooters are shooting at now, and you see a lot of this with like, with right hand shots more so than left in some cases, although it's wide open for left hand shot what guys will do is they'll train themselves now to shoot for the right skate because with a left catch goaltender that paddle when it's down forms a triangle between the heel of the stick the blocker and the right skate and if you the blocker, and the right skate. And if you can fire it and hit the right skate,

the puck is going in. And that's where guys are at now. So when you say, oh, he's shooting five hole, he's not technically shooting five hole, he's shooting at the right skate. Now that I've told you this, watch, he's shooting at the right skate. There's so many examples of this,

and you'll probably see a bunch of them tonight We got a ton of games on the on the board this year one two three four five six seven eight Nine ten eleven with twelve games tonight. You're gonna see someone shoot for the right skate And just remember it was your good buddies Jeff and Zack here on the sheet that said watch for the triangle good buddies Jeff and Zach here on the sheet that said watch for the triangle watch players shooting triangle watch guys shoot for the right skate and Zach I know you don't have beer league tonight because you're gonna be doing the the pre and the post for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Boston Bruins but the next time you're a beer league where are you shooting? Thursday. Thursday where are you

shooting? For the triangle. You're a frickin liar because you're a beer league loser So you're going bar down like everybody else in beer league With the big no big swoop Sally too, but no try shooting trying. I'm shooting Shane Wright stuff like under the gloves What he's 14 years old 13 years old playing Dom Mills everyone else is going bar down Now he's going like under the blocker. Okay 15 years old. Playing Don Mills, everyone else is going bar down. Nah, he's going under the blocker. Okay. Uh.

Can we do something quickly here before we go? Remind people to send us an email. Send us an email if you got questions. And you know what, we had one. Sheet at the nation network dot com. Yes, and we had one queued up for today. We're gonna, why don't we lead with that tomorrow? It's a really, you know, I'll tell you what,

it's a really good question. Because like you, I'm sure that you like the sort of off-the-wall, less obvious questions. So I got one from a gentleman with the name of Dean Coleman about white jerseys and stains. I'm gonna answer that tomorrow. So the first question is gonna be about a stain because I actually talked to an equipment manager from an NHL team today about it. And it's pretty good answer to a really, really good question. We'll get that on the show for you tomorrow.

Also on the show tomorrow. I should have mentioned this when Greg was on, damn it. Bat see bad host producers. Got to remind me when in doubt blame producer Vic when in doubt blame producers act Anthony's usually you're blaming that because he's not here but I like that too I like sniping of people that aren't around to defend themselves that's a real mark of a pro and a good human being to just sniping at people that aren't around to defend themselves Anthony's surreality the tabby be

lightning and your gold medal. Team Canada at the Four Nations. Anthony Cirelli will be, oh boy, do you like that one? Everyone found a home with you, huh? A tickly end to the chin a little bit, you like that one? Okay, all right, that's good. All right, we'll move along then, Zach, and we'll remind everybody the Morning Cup of Hockey

tomorrow at 9 a.m. Eastern, Daily Face Off Live at noon, and then our Little Monkey Act at three o'clock Eastern. Thanks to Greg Wyshinski from ESPN for stopping by. And again, Anthony Cerelli from the Tampa Bay Lightning and Team Canada. Did you know they won the gold at that little tournament where you had to play four games? Yeah, they won gold there.

So Anthony Cerelli on the program tomorrow. Have a great day, enjoy the game tonight. We're back on the sheet tomorrow, pre-Easter, Have a great day. 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 how this gon' be fixing my mind I threw on the record I turned on the music

I threw on the record I turned on the music I threw on the record I turned on the music It's enough help out of it Sometimes losing Helping on the days that went wrong Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches,

and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at ZenSurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. The Daily Face Off Trade Deadline Special is coming your way once again on March 7th from 11am to 4pm Eastern. We're going to be live and breaking down every single move as it happens in real time. I'll be joined by the Daily Face Off crew bringing you instant reaction, expert analysis and all the behind the scenes drama for the biggest news and trades from around the league. And here's the best part, we've got special guests lined up throughout the show to give you exclusive insights from some of the biggest names in the game. From the blockbuster deals to the surprise moves, we'll be covering it all. So what are you waiting for? Subscribe to the Daily

Faceoff YouTube, follow us on socials and on March 7. Join us as we break down the biggest Deadline Day in hockey. You won't want to miss it.