The Sheet with Jeff Marek - NHL Headlines, Oilers Concerns & Prospects Challenge ft. Brian Burke & Steven Ellis

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

Jeff Marek dives into another packed episode of The Sheet, breaking down the biggest NHL storylines with three heavyweight guests. Brian Burke joins for his weekly check-in to hit the latest league headlines, from team-level momentum swings to front-office pressure points across the NHL. Then Steven Ellis wraps things up with a full breakdown of the Prospects Challenge Game, rising young stars to watch, draft-eligible talent trending upward, and what scouts are buzzing about heading into the stretch run. If you're looking for NHL analysis, prospect insight, and expert takes across the league, this episode has it.SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Bauer: https://www.bauer.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/ca👍🏼Prime Video: https://primevideo-row.pxf.io/c/5560083/3303015/20020Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is one of those days where Zach's going to feel like it's cats and laser pointers. By the way, my throat and voice still sucks. Apologies if it sounds bad. But I kind of like when my voice goes away because it drops an octave and I actually, you know, like feel like a man. So welcome to the program. Zach's going to feel like he's hurting cats today because as I try to. try to plan a meetup at the World Juniors in Minnesota in our chat. We have to scramble and try to figure out how we're going to squeeze in all the stuff that we want to squeeze in today.

And probably the best way to do it is for me not to ramble off the top. Although if we do get a chance, Zach, I do want to make sure we bracket today or park some time a little bit later to talk about Wendell Clark at Del Manor with us yesterday. Got it, got it, good. Here we go. Let's get underway because we got a lot to get to today and do not want to waste your time on this. Wednesday, November the 26th for the sheet. The blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Man, my voice is bad.

The blueprint is powered by Fanduel. Download the app today and play your game. Coming up on the show today, it is as we like to call, and the guys and gals in the chat like to call it this as well. Civilian Wednesdays on the program, the one and only Brian Burke stops by to talk about all the issues that are going on right now in the league,

including hot button teams like, but not exclusive to the Oilers, Canucks and National Predators and maybe the Maple Leafs who are getting some key reinforcements back, most notably, Austin Matthews and Matthew Nights tonight before they play Columbus, the latest around the NHL. Jason Greger from the rundown will stop by,

Daily Face Off rundown, we'll stop by. He'll be here. We'll talk about the Oilers. We'll talk about the CHL Prospects Challenge. Game one yesterday, won by the United States Development Program. Game two, there we go, as we change it on the ply. The Prospects Challenge, game one. one yesterday by the United States Development Program.

That was in Calgary. Game two tonight is in Lethbridge. I think that's the quickest I've ever done the opening. All we need is a pack show and our first guest that we don't want to waste a moment getting to. There are very few people who you can say need no introduction in hockey, but Brian Burke is definitely one of them. He joins me now on the sheet.

What do you think of the new voice, Berkey? I wish you'd get sick more often. I don't think I'm sick though Like I don't feel sick I just like lose my voice every couple of years Much to everyone's delights You know here I am You know 30, 40 years into my broadcast career

And I still don't know How to escape from losing my voice Every few years Maybe it's keep your throat warm I don't know Maybe just switch brands of cigarettes Because these are making me cough I don't know Berkey

But here we are A couple of things I want to do jump in with you and I do want to play some video for you and get your thoughts on it. One of them is pretty funny involving Brady Kachuk and the Ottawa Senators. And another one involves barking at players on the ice. But first

I want to get your thoughts on what we saw last night in Edmonton. And the key word there is in. It's always tough when you get blown out at home, especially when you're losing. It makes things worse. The old feeling amongst managers exist to this day.

If you're going to stink, stink on the road. don't stink at home. What did you see last night in that oilers, then that horrible Oilers loss at the hands of the Dallas Stars? Well, it's easy to say they stunk because they did, but I think the biggest problem is the giveaways. The turnovers that led to goals were astonishing and really good players. Like Leon Drysett will make one of them.

So when you have your top players making turnovers at bad times, you can't recover from that. you know there's a lot of it this season seems to be about even though conne macdavid post game yesterday talked about how it's essentially everything like conna's a good captain he's not going to identify one area or one player or a couple of players and fire them under the bus but it seems a lot of it this year for the oilers revolves around two positions specifically the blue line and the crease and here we are on november 27th i'm not sure if you were were one of those managers, Berkey,

who subscribed to the U.S. Thanksgiving belief that that is the cutline day, you're in or you're out on U.S. Thanksgiving, specifically in the East, everyone's really packed together, so maybe we throw that out this season. But if you're Stan Bowman here, and you're looking at your back end,

and you're looking at your goaltending, are you thinking to do what Colorado did last season, swap out the pair, start again in the crease, make a move on the back end. How would you handle this? Well, swapping out two goaltenders. I've never heard of that being done before. I'm pretty sure it has not been done in the modern era.

But I think there's some luck involved in that. They got lucky. They made two good moves. Colorado got lucky. They made two big moves. No one else has done that. And it worked out well. So they're geniuses, right?

But that doesn't mean it's going to work again. Yeah. To me, to me, the mistakes are so bad. I don't, if you go back, I used to blame evaluating goaltors. I said, okay, what goals should he have stopped? What goals should Skinner have stopped last night? Answer, none. None.

The breakdowns are so widespread and so sequential. One turnover, one breakdown and a bad coverage, and it's in the net. I don't know how you fought the goal. You, Stuart Skinner, for that. Picker comes, and they hang him out to drive, too. So it starts with a patient commitment to defense that they don't have right now.

Is that a coaching thing? Is that just a player pride thing? A player performance thing? Like, I think we're all scrambling for answers. We're scrambling for answers in Edmonton as well. Like, where do you pin the tail here? Well, does

a coach wake up one morning and forget everything you learned? Did the Knoblock wake up today and say, I'm stupid today? No. The chief, those guys are good coaches. They don't become stupid overnight.

And the notion that somehow this is a coaching failure but just astounds me. It's not a coaching failure. It's a player execution failure. Does that count for the forwards too? Yes.

One of the knocks here and I know you talked about the turnover is one of the issues and I'll get into this a little bit more. We'll move off this in a second. one of the issues seems to be for Edmonton. One, they don't look as good clearly as they have the last couple of seasons,

the team that went to the final. But the depth scoring just isn't there for Connor McDavid's team right now. It's one of the hardest things to put together that bottom six. I know everything's carried by the top guys and they're the stars, but listen, you're Sammy Paulson line when you guys is Stanley Cup. What do you do with that bottom six, Berkey? You stop the bleeding. Stop giving up goals.

The fact is, if you can't score, the least you can do is not get scored upon. So tighten up your back check, get pucks deep, get pucks out, play conservatively, back check, come back deeper in your own zone, cover those loose pucks, make a commitment to defense for the bottom six. If you can't score, at least keep the puck out of the net. And start playing harder. They're getting out played. They're getting out work. It's not right.

I'm fair. I don't think that, I really, I've said this before, Jeff. I don't think the coach's job is to prepare a player to play. I agree. In terms of being emotionally prepared. I think the preparation job is what the power play looks like. Here's what our breakouts will be. Prepare for how the game is going to unfold. That's your job.

To motivate a player to play and be ready to play, that's his duty. I always found that hilarious. and we see coaches, you know, fall on the knife here or dive on the grenade and say, oh, I failed to get these guys up for a game. That always bugged me. Like, that's a player's job to get up for the game. Like, that's where you're like, you know,

after you have your nap, you're focused on the game, and that is all up to you. That's not up to the coach. That's not up the coach at all. I'm not saying that players don't get flat once in a while. Once in a while you're going to lay an egg. That happens. And like you said, Jeff, you pray that it happens on the road.

That does happen once in a while. It's happening way too often right now in Edmonton. Another hot button market right now, and this is where all the trade talk is swirling, is Vancouver. And it's essentially right now, in a lower key, all the players on expiring deals, in a major key, we're all wondering about Quinn Hughes. When you look at the Vancouver Canucks,

at the beginning of the season, I kind of looked at Vancouver and said, If Vancouver is going to make the playoffs, first of all, everybody's got to stay healthy again. And not everyone has to have career years, but everyone has to have a really good season. Like they had to have everything working in concert. They couldn't afford a couple of guys to have clunky seasons. That hasn't happened. Injuries are a factor.

Now we're talking about trades. Certainly all the UFAs. I think we wonder about Connor Garland, who's no trade doesn't kick in until his new deal starts on July 1st. and then the Whopper, Quinn Hughes. Where do you want to begin on Vancouver? Well, I think you start with a list of no trades. It's really hard to make deals. If you're Patrick Alvin, who's a good guy.

Jimmy Rethford, good guy, good hockey guys. They can't make deals because there are too many no trades, no ones. I don't know whose fault that is. I'm not sure if that Jimmy gave those or Patrick gave those or people before them gave those. But their hands are tied extensively. And so to me, start with them. the guys you can move, see what you can get done.

Jimmy's got a bad temper. He's got to keep his temper right now. He knows that. But they've got to see what they can do to make it better. In the meantime, same thing. Go back to the basics. Go back to basics. Start shutting people down. Start playing harder.

Like to me, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, they can solve all these problems internally. Right. We'll get to the Maple Leafs here in a couple of seconds. I do want to ask about Quinn Hughes, because this seems to be the topic de Jure. Now, his contract doesn't expire for, you know, until the end of next season.

The speculation continues to be the New Jersey Devils and playing with the brothers, et cetera. I don't think that the Vancouver Connects, your mother for Patrick Galvin, want to go the same route as San Jose, or the same route as Chicago or Montreal, all teams that have taken it right, they stripped it right down. I don't think they want to do that. But I do think they want to get younger. And so any trade will involve a combination of,

most notably, younger players and maybe picks slash prospects along the way. But it seems like they want younger players. So if you're looking at the New Jersey Devils, you look at Simon Nemich, for example, and maybe Dawson Mercer and these types of players. How, like, how do you even begin?

to structure a deal for Quinn Hughes, if indeed, that's the route you have to go down. Okay, the issue is once you talk about Quinn Hughes with one team, everyone's going to know about it, and that blows your cover. You can't make a good deal if everyone knows he's for sale. You can't be a good deal. You have to let it be known at some point. I have to shop the player at some point, but not now. If you even talk to one team in San Diego, okay, we're only talking you, what would you do for Quinn Hughes? That's going to get out right away. So that's number one.

You've got to maintain security right now. I don't think it's time to talk about Quinn Hughes anyway. I think you've got to wait a little longer and see what else you can do. But that to me is see what you can do. See if you can make it better. Draft picks. Someone else will be watching the draft picks play, folks. Yeah.

You know, that's it. Yeah, I want to talk you about that. That's a really interesting thought, too. The strategy behind making big trades. You know, I've heard before managers who will deliberately start with a smokescreen in order to get to the trade that they want to make just for what you're talking about. We don't want to talk about who we're really going to trade here. We're going to talk about someone else or a couple of other players,

knowing that eventually we're going to get to the player in the conversation that we're ultimately going to move here. Is that a strategy that you've used? is that a common practice? I mean, I've heard it before. You know, we're going to start by talking about this, but really we want to talk about that. We're just going to get there.

Does that ring true for you? I've seen people do that, yeah. I generally see through that pretty quickly in my mind. Glenn Sater used to do that. He was funny about that. He talked about everything but the guy, and he'd be like, okay, when are we going to get to my guy, Glenn? No, I think you see through that pretty quickly,

but at some point you have to get to the names it's not time to talk about Quinn Hughes in my view let's see what else you can do to fix this in the meantime get the players to start playing harder is that the same vibe around Nashville

right now talking about teams that are getting blown out I was hoping you wouldn't ask me about Nashville I don't know what's going on there I watched them I cannot figure it out they've got good pieces they've got a good coach you've got a good GM

they've had stability there forever since they came into the league and it's been lost right now and I watch them I cannot figure out what's going on there I see what's going on in Vancouver I see what's going on in Edmonton see what's going on in Toronto

I can't figure out in Nashville so at what point now the dynamic between manager and owner president etc is always a sensitive one you've talked about managing upwards numerous times here or elsewhere.

Again, I think we all looked at this going back to last two summers ago when Barry Trots made all those moves and we awarded the Nashville Predators to Stanley Cup and then they didn't even make the playoffs. Like, in a situation like this, how much do you think, and this is a new owner too, let's not forget, Bill Haslam's a new owner with Nashville, how much do you think the owner gets involved in what the decision Nashville makes here? I don't know the new owner at all. I knew the new owner, the old owner would be patient.

He would take his time and do the right thing and take his time. But I'm not sure about the new guy. My guess is, like most new owners, he's got a short learning curve, probably thinks he's a genius already. That's pretty standard for new owners in the NHL, Brian. Well, yeah, I had new owners that work for me that said, I don't know anything you're in charge, and then within six months they tell me who to apply.

yeah um okay a couple of i want to play before i get this up there to other topics there's a there's a couple of videos that i want to play for you and and the first one's gonna is a conversation i had with bruce budro and it involves barking at players on the ice like i was always of the of the belief that it was considered bad form for coaches to yell at players the idea being if you're not getting on the ice zip it and we're going back to last week on this one. I'm curious to your thoughts on, I'm going to play this point from, from Gabby, and I'm curious your thoughts on it. This is from hockey lifers the other day. This is coming off the Patrick Waugh-Miko-Rantan situation from last week. Hit this one, Zach.

Is that a rule that you subscribe to? Is that one of the unwritten rules or codes of the game that unless you're putting skates on and getting out here, you don't talk to the players on the ice? Absolutely. I mean, I used to take a front when other coaches would yell at players. I mean, because then what you have to do as a coach is you have to yell at the coach and just say, lighten up, you know, like you're not playing the game. You worry about your bench. I'll worry about my bench.

And there's a couple coaches that great coaches in the NHL that were really bad at it or bad for it. They're not coaching right now. but they will be again coaching very soon, I assume, but I'm not going to mention who they are. But it used to drive me nuts. When you're not playing the game, don't come over and start something. Because no matter how they started,

they could start it by Yap, and they would never be doing the fighting if it came to that. So, I mean, if you're not going to be involved in it, just shut up and worry about your team. Is that a rule that you subscribe to? Oh, does that resonate with you, Berkey? If you're not going to get on the ice, zip it. Yeah, I wish I'd said that.

I used to tell my coaches, if you're not willing to fight the guy, not to start a bunch of crap. If you're not willing to fight that player, then don't yell at him. I never yelled at him. I never yelled at players when I played unless I was going to fight. I didn't fight that much, so I'm not making it sound like, well, I fought all the time. But when I did talk to a player, it was leading up to a fight.

He did something I didn't like and I said, we're going to go. And that was about the extent of it. I never talked to players because I didn't think, unless I was willing to fight them, I shouldn't be happening at them. Now, for coaches, it's even worse. Players that have never been on skates of their lives or never fought anyone, never scraped their blood off the ice after a fight, shut up. You know, it's, it isn't, I've always thought that as a coach, if you're upset about what a player did on the ice, you don't take it out on that player. you take it out on the other coach. You know, we've seen the history of this.

You know, Pat Burns and Barry Melrose. Like, we've seen, like, a lot of coaches go at one another. Her Brooks would go at guys. Jacques de Merr's would go at guys. Like, isn't that, I mean, you're a big code guy. Isn't that kind of the code? If you're pissed off about what someone did on the ice, you take it out on the other team's coach, not the player.

Yeah, but you never get to fight. So it's just kind of W.W.E. stuff to me. So Mark Roper would snap out of coach and Scotty Bowman, we come over there's always security guards there and a piece of glass about nine feet high. You're yelling, it's all a circus act. So to me, just shut up and play. I would say to players, if I were a coach that said to a player,

are we going to put up with this all night? That type of thing. That might be as far as we ever went. I want to play for you. This was made available by the Ottawa Senators. This is their video review room. And watch the cameo by Brady Kachuk at the end. This is over an offside challenge.

Have a peek at this one, Berkey. Curious your thoughts. Okay, Alfie, this play is going to be offside. If you look where it's frozen right now. I mean, it's tight, but he's over. Either way, under a minute, the league should look at it no matter what. You can just kind of initiate the fact that it would be offside. While the video rooms are so good at this, they usually are bang-up.

Oh, yeah. Every entry, right, is looked at by each team's video room. After review, the play was deemed to be a good goal. They don't, this is the same frame. That's definitely off. That's off-side. What a awful challenge. Terrible challenge.

Oh, for one. Okay, Alfie, this play is going to be. Brady Kachuk, awful challenge. O for one. Way to go, boys. What do you think of that one, Berkey? I love the Kachukes. I remember we were playing in Boston.

Brady Kutchev was playing in the bean pot. We were at Calgary. I was with Calgary. I called Matthew over. I said, Matthew, tell me about Brady. Is he going to be a good player? He said, oh, yeah, he's going to be a real good player. I said, tell me about me.

He's always bigger than I am. I'm. He skates better than I am. I said, so he's not going to be a better player than you? He said, no effing away. That's the good check. I think it's a great video. I can't understand some of the replays. Here's the part that drives me nuts. When you used to have one guy do replays, now we have two. I have two video guys. One guy just checks replays. They're almost always right, by the way. But we have put a full-time staff on. You get maybe 10 calls. for 20 calls a year, right. Put a full-time staff guy, and he travels with us. Probably costs us $200,000 a year to get maybe 10 calls right. But do you not think, see, here's my thought on it. I tend to think that video coaches are underpaid, given that if this is the way we're going to call the game, if this is the way we're going to call the game, and personally, with the offside challenge,

I've always considered offside, the rule for me is close enough is good enough. was the original spirit of the offside. Close enough, good enough, just to keep guys honest. That's all I need. I know I'm in the minority and the genie's out of the bottle and it's not going back. But if this is the way we're going to call it, if that's going to decide

whether you get an extra point or not, that could be the difference between millions of dollars making the playoffs or not. And these guys generally get paid about a buck and a quarter each. Burkey? We already need bigger planes now. There's three and,

There's three analytics guys on every flight, two video replay guys. I mean, it's crazy. You can't put the media on the flights anymore. You speak to the Lou Amarillo. Now it's because you don't have space. But to me, there should be a time limit on video replay, except in the finals or maybe in the playoffs, maybe the conference final. But to me, they get it right most of the time,

and replay's been a boon, been a great thing for us. a game. I'm going to call an audible here. Zach, I don't know if you have this or if any of our other shows today showed this. But Brett Hull, this is for the unveiling of the Dallas Stars, New Jersey. And it's a beautiful combination of the green and the black. And so Brett Hull, they use to pose to take the picture. And this is one for all the hockey geeks out there that love stuff like this, like me.

He's posing with his foot in the crease, Brian, as he's modeling the Dallas Stars jersey. Zach's going to try to find this thing. It is wonderful. Brett Hall posing with the new Dallas Stars jersey with his foot in the crease. By the way, what do you remember from that one back in 99? You have to look at the back of the sweater, too. He's got the year and the 3-0-T on it. He's got a monogram.

Yes, correct. Yes, that's right. Third overtime. I was watching that game in the airport in Calgary. I thought it was a good goal right away. The league had just circulated a message from Brian Lewis about a puck leaving the crease and coming back in, and that goal would stand.

So to me, I just read the, it had just been sent out like two days before that. I don't think some teams even saw it. But I had just read it. It should have been a goal. Good goal right away. I thought they had it right away. So I wasn't surprised. one of the things that I had wondered about

because the Buffalo Sabres were pretty quick to get off the ice if you were running the Buffalo Sabres would you have given that who knows how many people saw the memorandum from Brian Lewis if you were the Buffalo Sabres we told your team to stay on the ice? I'm not sure I probably would have been so sour

I'm not a good loser I'm not a good loser if I thought we'd lost I would have been first guy in the bench grabbing a beer Okay, the couple moments that I have left with you Talked about Craig Barubi earlier, talked about coaching Leaves in the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight

I've maintained that it's tough to evaluate a team Until you see them healthy for a stretch The Maple Leafs are getting healthier Austin Matthews returns Matthew Nye's returns Starting to get Healthy bodies back in the lineup But it doesn't mitigate the fact

That they're in last place in the Eastern Conference and I know everything is tight, but nonetheless. Where's Brian Burke at on the Maple Leafs right now? I don't think they've played hard enough, and I don't think they've been healthy. I think you usually need a plus one day when you come back from injury. I don't think Austin Matthews will be 100% right away. I don't think Matthew and I's will be 100% right away.

You need a day plus one. So let's wait and see. Columbus is a great story for our league this year. They're a very dramatically better team. No one talks a lot of. It's a big challenge. Listen, Fantilli keeps on getting better and better.

He's scratching the surface of superstar status. I know we talk a lot about Leo Carlson and Bedard and Celebrini, et cetera. Like, Adam Fantilli is just sort of right there about to be in that conversation as well. I couldn't agree with you more. About that team and that player. Final thought on the Maple Leafs. I mean, you've sat in that chair before. You know what the pressure was like from fans.

from media, from sponsors, from all corners. Give us a snapshot of what Brad Trilliving is going through right now. Well, if he's smart, he's not going through anything. He's ignoring it all. I told him he took the job. The number one rule when you run the Leafs is ignore the white noise. And the white noise is considerable. It's massive.

I told Trie, just ignore the white noise. I told him a couple weeks ago, ignore the white noise. They haven't had a run of three or four games in a row that they've won. They win four games in a row. They're back in a playoff spot. It's not like they're hopelessly out of this thing. It's time for everyone to be patient and step back and say, go back to the fundamentals, finish your checks, get back,

puck's in deep, pucks out. I mean, go back to fundamentals. Play harder and wait for good things to happen. A team's better than they play. They've got to get it going. All right. We'll see what happens starting tonight against the Columbus. Oh, there it is, by the way.

there's there's a picture of Brett Hall standing with his foot in the crease modeling the new Dallas and that's the position where he scored the goal to right right by that left post murky when I represented Brett Hall I called him the hulks the hulkster and Brett hall was a joy as a client what a great guy where a great kid he was you know he's a delightful guy to talk to and when you when you look at Hall of Fame speeches his is the one that I always keep coming back to was being like one of the best that I've ever heard. And he's talking about beer leaguers and other guys

and not just NHELers and all that, but like brought everybody in to the mix. Ah, it was, to me, that's one of the best Hall of Fame speeches I ever saw. Awesome. Yeah, it was. Awesome guy. Yep, and could score a goal, whether if it was in the crease or not, he still scored him by the midful.

Berkey, you have a great rest of your week. We'll talk in seven days. Thanks, chef. Feel better. Yeah, thanks. I don't know what it is. Like, I'm not sick. Trust me.

I'm not sick. I don't know what it is. I'm just losing my voice. And unfortunately, you have to go through it with me as it all sort of disintegrates. Okay, so a couple of things here. One, we're standing by for Jason Greger. We're going to get more into the Edmonton situation. Also, Stephen Ellis is going to stop by in a couple of moments as well after we're done talking to Jason.

And we'll talk about the Prospects Challenge. Last night in Calgary. the United States Development Program beating Team CHL, but some interesting performances along the way. In game two, by the way, is tonight in Lethbridge. So this one getting wrapped up pretty quickly. Last year it was London and Oshawa, this year, Calgary and Lethbridge. A few things jumping out.

Brady Nolan of the United States, Netminder, he was, he's a BU commit. Absolutely. Oh, no, he's not a BU commit. No, no, he's not a BU commit. was absolutely no he has a BU commit sorry absolutely stunning 42 save performance by that net minder and he was the difference maker in yesterday's game but also so was and I like doing this because I think part of us a enjoy hearing about former NHLers sons that are playing

but B makes us feel that much older and every year, like the other day here on the show, we talked about Caleb Malhotra, who's also in the game and played really good last night. Mani Malhotra's kid, he's going to be a high pick. He is going to be like a top 10, I'm more positive now than I was before, a top 10 pick in this year's NHL draft.

You heard Spencer Hyman talk about him on the program earlier this week. So that's not going to be any surprise to anybody, Caleb Malhotra. But in the development program side last night, Wyatt Cullen was fantastic with two goals for the development program. And yes, he is Matt Cullen's son. So if you've been with the game, like if you've been with the game long enough to remember, you know, all the different times that Jim Rutherford kept bringing Matt Cullen back to the Carolina hurricanes.

Or really, wherever Rutherford went, you would always try to get Matt Cullen. You know, managers would always, well, Berkey with Brad May. is another great example. Everywhere that Brian Burke went, he always tried to bring Brad May along with him, and everywhere that Jim Rutherford went, and sometimes more than once, he would always try to bring Matt Cullen along with him.

Anyhow, Wyatt Cullen is Matt Cullen's son, who's right now with the U.S. development program and a pair of goals yesterday for that squad as they win. I mentioned Caleb Malhotra. He was excellent last night. But the one player who really stood out for me and he's kind of got a wonderful story because he wasn't exactly playing elite level hockey at this time a couple of years ago is Chase Reed, who's a defenseman with the Sioux St. Marie Greyhound's got a goal.

I think got an assist as well. I think he got Caleb Malhotra's goal. He was spectacular last night. We'll see what happens tonight and who really pops. Mattis Preston, I think was good from Spokane last night as well. He had two points for team CHL. We'll talk to Stephen Ellis about all of it. And as you start to, you know, generally by the time the world junior starts to roll around,

you start to get more accustomed to a lot of the names that aren't just, you know, the first couple of picks. Like by now, everybody knows the name Gavin McKenna. And Gavin McKenna, although some may have bumped him down from the top spot because he isn't, you know, dominating college hockey the way that some people thought that he would, everybody knows the name, Gavin McKenna. And we'll see how he does for Team Canada at the World Juniors. Everybody knows the name. Some people are getting more familiar now with the name Keaton Verhoff,

who's a defenseman who played with the Victoria Royals in the CHL in the Western Hockey League, and now playing with North Dakota, most likely, going number two, maybe at worst three, maybe at worst four, but he's going to be one of the top picks. He was just on Leap's Morning Take a couple of days ago. So everyone's starting to get to know his name a little bit, but now I find that it's right around the World Junior's time, my amount of the time that December starts to roll around, that everybody starts to get to know the names,

that they're going to get called, they're going to hear called in June. Speaking of the World Juniors, I think I'm allowed to say this. I think so. Amble didn't tell me otherwise. The sheet is going on the road again. Last year at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Ottawa,

we were there this year. We will be there again in Minnesota. So looking forward to that. And I think we're having an extended stay as well. Still sort of ironing out the details. And one of the things, Just mentioning this in the chat before the show. One of the things we want to do this year, because last year was kind of a scramble.

I had just joined. We're just getting the program off the ground and getting it on the air. What we're going to try to do this time around is plan at least one meetup for people. So they can come and join us and hang out and have some dinner and have a sip and talk about hockey. All right. I think Willie's going to be there. our man, the general from the chat is going to be there. I've already DM back and forth with him.

So if you're going to be in Minnesota, let us know and we'll sort of plan accordingly and around some key games. So no one has to miss any of the big action. And we'll get some together for a meetup. Hey, Zach, we're standing by for Jason Greger from Daily Faceoff, the DFO rundown. Do you think maybe we have a time issue with Gregor?

I hope not. I think potentially, but I hope not. That's okay, no problem. Yeah. Sorry. Just trying to text and see if we can. Produce on the fly. Well, you know what?

Why don't you give Ellis a buzz and see if you can join us a little bit earlier? But actually, before we get there, so going back to the spring, we've been doing these events at a retirement community called Del Manor. and there's a number of them around the GTA. And last night we did one in Aurora, Ontario. What can you tell us, Zach, about Aurora, Ontario? And by the way, it was great. Robert Thomas's dad, Scott, was there. His grandfather, Bruce, was there as well.

That was fantastic to see, and good to catch up with them. But what can you tell us about Aurora, Ontario? Aurora is home to Stanley Cup champions and high-level athletes. And you And me I also came from there The factory of What do we call it?

Shattuck North Is that the word The way we used to describe it? Canada is Shattuck St. Mary's Yeah Yeah I don't know Aurora's nice little towns

Where my parents still reside I got my skate sharp in last night before the event Are you serious Anywhere other than my old spot Back in Aurora All right give it a plug Go for it

actually you know uh tom lawson uh the hockey club i know tom lost yeah yeah my kids are it's his shop oh no way it's his shop there yeah and i've been going there for a long time so anytime when i would come back from university i would get my skate sharpened at lawson's and then since then like i'm one of those people my barber's being away i we've talked about this like i can't get other people to like cut my hair or like i can't get like a different auto body shop to do my car Like I just like trust people and things So I just go back Same thing with my skates

So Lossons is the only plate That I'll do your skates Pretty much Yeah So you'll skate on on dull skates Until you can get to Tom Lossons Yeah but I use the tool Not the not the Y magic stick

I got one from the skaters performance back in the day I've had it in my hockey bag Since I was like nine And I use that basically Until I can get back to Lawson it's amazing that's amazing that is a cool I'm weird I'm weird I get it no I know I know we're all we're all freaks about our gear and all that I totally get that well boy while you're trying to get Gregor on I just mentioning with I don't even I've told you about this one yet so I'm trying to

plan a meet up with everybody that's that tunes in or plays in the chat or like listens to us on podcast or watches the YouTube while we're at the world of juniors I have no idea where we're going to go. I'm probably going to rely on like probably, probably Jesse from the bar down beauties, see what she thinks, or maybe Rousseau will have some good recommendations. And although I think he's in Florida, if Lou Nanny's around, I'm going to try to drag Lou out. But either way, we should try to drag Jesse out and we should try to drag Rousseau out too. And whoever else we can grab in Minnesota to come to a meetup. What do you think about that, Zach? I like that. We did like a mini impromptu one last year and

People came and appreciate them for doing so. But, yeah, that was kind of like, I think, Jeff, I think we plan that like five hours before we went. We did. It came together fast, but like, it was not the ideal setting for, like, people to be able to come find us. Hopefully this one we can just have in advance and get a bunch of people out. I think that would be a lot of fun to get to meet people from the chat. Like, I've got to meet some of the people who watched the show. actually last year when we went to Nashville for the nation vacation with the Leafs

We got to meet John in the chat And he came out and saw like Vic and I And we got to hang out with him for a bit during that weekend But getting to meet people from the chat is a lot of fun You know we met Tage van in the chat and he's in there every single day when we went to I met him Buffalo so yeah So pretty cool getting to meet people but yeah I mean I'm excited to go I've been to Minnesota one

It was for my sister's soccer tournament when I was like 12. So my experience in the city is limited and I will also throw out there. Like it's not like I'm, I'm in a glass house throwing stones here. Like we live in Canada, but I've never been to Minnesota in the winter. Like that was mid-July Minnesota. So I'm expecting a different experience here. Yeah, you're going to get the experience. That's going to be a lot of fun.

Okay, well, tell you what, let's as we wait for for Stephen, and we'll get Jason at a different time. That's totally cool. I think, you know, the morning cup of hockey guys and then DFO Live, you know, spent a lot of time talking about the Oilers. You want to do, let's do Uber Eats here real quick. Yeah.

And then we'll get to Stephen. Okay, here we go as we produce on the fly. And we didn't even say anything about Delamana, but I want to talk about one door clock at the end. So let's make sure we get to work. Yeah. Crave the stats, man, just not my bad host. What are you going to do? Crave the stats is a presentation of Uber Eats.

Uber Eats is enabling fans to maximize. their fandom all season long with exclusive game day deals on the app from game day eats to paper plates and napkins if you're hosting to all the ingredients you need to make your favorite game day dip before during and after the game uber eats is assisting every hockey fans experience all season long what do you have today zacharoo this one is um i think going to be hopefully one of the favorites that you've done like this one i especially was was like it's not really a stat or something anybody has done in particular but this is what is what is ones I was like we got to do this for Jeff this is November 26 1917 the birth of the national

hockey league yeah there's five of the six owners of the national hockey association the nHA met and formally organized the nch l charter members included montreal canadians one montreal wanders two Ottawa Senators, three, and the Quebec Bulldogs War. Okay. So you see that period after formally organized the NHL? Yes. There's a period there? Yes.

There's a gentleman by the name of Eddie Livingston, who used to own in the NHA, the National Hockey Association, the forerunner of the NHL, as your crave the stat rightfully points out. he used to own the Toronto team and he was notoriously difficult to work with like all the owners

of all the other teams the two Montreal teams Ottawa etc there's a big deal about Sydenny in Ottawa they bluntly hated him couldn't stand working with him entirely difficult to work with

so instead of continuing to work with him they created a new league and left him out. The NHL started, Zach. Like, this is why I always say, you know, there used to be that saying that the NHL was the only league where the owners went to prison more than the players.

And if you look at, like, the history of hockey, it's true. The league started on a double cross. The NHL that you watch every single night, if you go back to the very beginnings of it, it started with a double cross on Eddie Livingston. of Toronto, to the point where one of the books that I have behind me by Moray Holtzman and Joseph Neforth, I always recommend this one to everybody who's interested in hockey history

to go back to the beginning of the NHL and find out exactly how it began. And again, it began by everybody saying we're going to leave Eddie Livingston holding the bag and we're going to start our own league. It's called Deceptions and Doublecross how the NHL conquered hockey. I cannot recommend this book enough.

I've gone back to it numerous times. If you're interested in the history of the NHL and where it came from, the double cross of Eddie Livingston is all in that book. And all I can imagine. Yeah. All I can picture is him finding. This is what I have, this is where my, I'm like, this is what I envision for what happened for him. he's sitting there in his office

he's got a big table and he's sitting in his chair and he's got a little corn cob pipe going on and he's sitting with his feet up on the table and his assistant comes in and gives him the paper and he sits up and he says what do you mean there's a new league

National hockey league no it's a national hockey association this must be a misprint grace grace there must be a problem yeah that's how I envision that going down. Came by on the horse-drawn carriage. Yeah, very good.

Yeah, it was 1917 and the war effort was well on. Anyhow, that's how your favorite league started everybody. That's just how it began. Deceptions and double cross. I cannot recommend this book enough. Okay, so let's get to what we saw last night. preview what we'll see tonight in CHL and U.S. Development Program Action. It is the Prospects Challenge.

Last year was London and Oshawa this year, Calgary last night, and Lethbridge this evening. Joining us right now on the sheet is Stephen Ellis. How do we, how do we just, what's the best way to describe you? Stephen, our prospect experts, our draft experts, draft insider. How do you want to be faunted here? guy who watches too much The guy whose camera just froze You know

We got you now Your camera's just freezing there a second ago What was your job title for us The guy who watches too much hockey That you probably shouldn't bother watching In your free time Dude I thought I was a freak Until I met you

And then it's like We're uh Yeah let's try to get your connection back on But the one thing about Or back up because you're freezing with us there a little bit. Boy, it's been a second half of the show. The thing about Ellis is,

like I thought that I liked obscure stuff about hockey, but until I met Stephen Ellis, I was like, ooh, man, that guy goes like super, super deep. Not just in North America, but he'll watch hockey in the Middle East, hockey in Africa. You know, when you look at like, double IHF rankings,

and generally you only look at sort of like the top countries, and then you get into like, second tier, third tier, fourth tier, like Ellis is watching all those games. All of them on very legal streams, I would imagine as well, because Stephen Ellis is an upstanding citizen and would

only watch things on legal streams. But there are some things that you can only get on a couple of like maybe shady. Now, you watch all of your obscure hockey all on very legal streams, correct? Oh, obviously. Yeah, I always watch them on all their official networks. I fly to Norway when I

want to watch their games. You know, like, you speed in, I just, I just go find some, like, I go to IKEA. Yes, clearly, clearly. And I'm there. Yeah. We're having a hard time with technology today. We're having a hard time with Wi-Fi. We're having to talk about some junior players.

Just want to talk about Caleb Melhotra. And just want to talk about a read from last night as well. Preston. Technology's not our friend today. We'll give it one more shot. Are we going to give it one more shot? Are we going to be calling it a day already on Steven? No, I'm working on it.

I just wanted to let you know in real time to let you know I'm working on it. But, yeah, we're, uh, it's not our day. Is it's not our day? Is this like the power play and slap shot? Hey, Reg, you got to get the power play going. Yeah, we're working on. Yeah, we're working on. That's, that's pretty much what's happening.

I apologize, Jeff. apologize to us in the chat working on it are you uh something here hold on is he in calgary stephen are you in calgary or lethbridge right now uh in mississauga and apparently the internet what actually happened was my cat jumped on the router and it has not come back yet and so i'm using a hot spot now oh man bless you okay well we'll try to save you a couple of nickels and dimes here and sort of uh speed speed this up um standouts from last night read your piece a daily face off Can you expand a little bit more on what you saw, what impressed you last night? The one player specifically that jumped out to me was Chase Reed, whose story is fantastic.

I think if you saw him two years ago, you'd say there's no way we'd be talking about him playing in this game, let alone being one of the players that impresses us the most. But nonetheless, that's who stood out for me, Caleb Malhotra as well, but who did it for you last night? Yeah, like I thought, you know, the CHL, you look at the result, obviously not what they were looking for, but they outshot the Americans pretty much the whole night. And you were mentioning Brady Noling earlier. I got to give Ryan Kennedy from the hockey news a lot of credit. He was someone who was really high on Noling from a long time ago. He looked at the size, the athleticism, it's like you've got to be keeping an eye on him. And then you watch what he was able to do last night.

He took on that barrage of shots and it didn't seem to slow him down at all. So I think with him, that's really impressive in a year where there's no clear number one goalie prospect. I thought Wyatt Cullen, like you mentioned, was another guy who stood out. But when you look at also Carson Carrolls, I feel like just any time the puck came in his own, he shut things down. Because, yeah, the NTDP did win the game. But I thought the CHL did a better job of playing defensive hockey. And I know that guys like Brian Lynn and Xavier Villeneuve, probably not the best game of all time. But when it came to Carroll, the guy was not totally flashy.

he knows how to handle the defensive responsibilities really well. So I thought he was a guy that stood up on a big way. So game two tonight is in Lethbridge, and I love what they're doing with the rules for this game two. So if the CHL wins, either in regulation or in overtime or in shootout, right away they'll go to a three-on-three tiebreaker, which adds a whole new layer of excitement to this whole thing. First of all, what do you, like, this obviously replaced the top prospect games. What do you make of this? And now this is our second chance to have a look at this.

Last year was in the Ontario League. This year it's in the West. What do you think about this property in general? It's really interesting because like when we talked about this last year, I was saying like they should probably look at doing like more of a, like a team USA that isn't just the NTP. like guys like James Higgins and players like that show up, Logan Hensler. And this year, that would have been another good situation here. But I think with the NTP, this is an event they circle on their calendar.

It's been a very difficult year for them against college teams. I got to see them against Niagara University and they were never remotely close to in that game. And I think when you look at this, it's they want to go out there and be anything involving a Canadian hockey team. And there's so much talk about guys playing the CHL before going to the NCAA. AAA, especially when you look at J.P. Hobart, who could have been on that American team? Like, how do you think he feels seeing the team that he left, essentially going out there and winning?

So I think you look at everything going on, on the ice, off the ice. Obviously, when you have USA versus a team kind of Canadian, it's going to be exciting. And I think when the CHL, we saw how disjointed they looked last night. I don't expect them to be as bad tonight because they did play well in that second half. But, again, the NCDP, they've been playing together for two years. Like, they've got that chemistry. And when you've got chemistry going up against high-end skill,

it's actually much more competitive than I think people thought. Let me ask you about one plate on the CHL. Someone that I first saw, it would have been his U-16-year, who was drafted into the OHL, playing with Oakville. It's tough to miss him. He's always the biggest guy on every sheet, Ethan Belchitz of the Windsor Spit Fires. I thought he looked good last night.

Massive ceiling still. You never know how big guys are going to work out when they turn pro. But what did you think of him last night? And where's his ceiling? So I used to work for the Oakville Blades. And when we we would always get to see kind of the next coming of Oakville talent at a pretty early age, whether they were practicing before the blades or were playing in the rink next door. I remember seeing Ethan Belchitz.

I'm like, man, this kid's quite big for like 12 years old. And you see six to five, two hundred and thirty pounds. And actually, I just wrote about him today. And I talked about how he's just such an intimidating force out there. And you looked at a lot of the guys at the top of the draft. And McKenna's not overly big. Stenberg, I'd say, needs that a bit more muscle. Then you throw in a guy like Belchitz, teams like big forwards.

And there's been a trend in the last couple years of a lot more bigger forwards going in the top 10 that play with a lot of skill. And Belchitz does that. Like he's probably not going to be a high-end offensive threat, but he's going to make every single person really mad. And I love players like that. He's going to score probably 30 goals a year in the NHL. He's probably going to put up 75, 80 points, and he's just going to be a menace. And you put that together at this level, very few players can compete with them.

But at the next level, I think, like, I wouldn't be surprised if he's in the NHL next year. And he might not even be a top three pick in the draft, but he might be one of those guys that just go straight to the NHL because they've got the physical attributes to do it. Look, I'll tell you, it might be just obvious because of his, you know, running with Jack Nesbitt, or you look at how the Philadelphia Flyers last year, like, I think the, But everybody that they drafted was between like 6-2 and 6-6-6. It goes insane. Like all of a sudden Philadelphia is like, nope, we're going to get huge again here now.

I don't know the Philadelphia Flyers are going to be drafting high enough to get him. But man, does he look like a new look Philadelphia Flyer for what they're going for? No kidding, right? Like last year was every pick. It's like, all right, I think I know what they're going to do. They're going to pick someone who's huge who likes to hit. They got Martone. They got Neskid.

They just on and on and on. I love what they've been able to do with that pipeline. A pipeline that I've actually felt probably a little higher than a lot of people in the last couple years. And you know, you look at the topic of size. And I feel like when you look at what has made the floor at Panthers so successful, I think people are looking at and say,

oh, look, they're just running guys over and that's why they're winning. That's not really the case, because it turns out when you look at the team last in the playoffs, something like 12 guys had double digit points. So they've got a lot in depth. But with Philly, you got big guys who know how play. It's not, you know, the Matt Rempe's of the world. It's the guys who are actually out there

and will contribute in other facets of the game. So I really like what the flyers have done there. It feels like Belchutz would be a perfect fix, but do they want to pick them at the top five of the draft this year? And, you know, they still have some pieces to sell off. No kidding. Okay, a couple seconds here left with you. I want to ask, I had Spencer Hyman on the program this week. This is after the Jetlucenko deal. Like that team was just an absolute wagon. He didn't want to hear any part of me talk about traveling all-star team, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I know downplay it, downplay it. But that's a team that's number one in the country.

That's a team that you look at and you say, yeah, they're going to have a tough go over the holidays because everybody's playing in the world juniors. But that's a team that you look at and say that team can win the Memorial Cup. Listen, Belchitz's Windsor Spitfires could as well. But you've written a lot and talked a lot about, and we did hear too, about Caleb Malhotra. What does it for you for Malhotra? Well, I'm excited because I get to see them this team play for the first time of the season on Friday in Brampton. So that's going to be a lot of fun.

But watching Mahaltra, it's just what a playmaker. Like, what a hockey brain. And you always want to bet high guys of hockey bloodlines, right? Like at one point, you look at that and say, oh, like, he's only getting attention because of who his father is. But it's like, but the work ethic and the hockey sense, that gets passed down. And when you look at Mahaltra, he's had all this experience of being around NHL players, whether he is dad or training of players. off the ice or are watching his dad's teammates and i feel like that has really allowed him to become one of the smartest passers like you watch him in that game last night he was one of the best

players that's a showcase of where you know it's a small sample size but a player that might not get as much national attention is going to start getting that after event like this like you and i talked a lot about last year a lot of people didn't have matthie shaper as number one before that two game showcase and then all of a sudden yeah he's going to the olympics so when And I think when you're looking at here, Mahaltra, like you mentioned him as a potential top-top pick. Like, I could see it. And I got him in my top 20 right now.

I feel like just that hockey sense, the passing, how hard he works, that two-way game. Like, he's got everything coaches want out of a two-way center. And he might not put up a ton of points in the NHL, but man, he's going to be so, so good. You know what's really going to help him too? Like, one, he's an excellent player. But you know what is going to blow teams away?

And I know you don't want to put too much stock into it. but when you're making a selection in the first round and you're investing as much into that player as you're going to for a first round pick, you know what teams are going to fall in love with? His interview. Like when they sit down and talk to Caleb Malhotra, it's going to be like, wow.

That's like, because listen, Matthew Schaefer is the same way. Like his talent took him to number one, but then, you know, the island is sit down and talk to Matthew Schaefer, and it's like you just erase all doubt. And I feel the same way about Caleb Malhotra. No matter where do you want to place him, however high you want to place him, he's going to cement that with his interview.

And you see just how mature this kid is, regardless of how well he plays on the ice. Real quick, what do you expect tonight in Lefbridge? I expect the CHL to bounce back. It'll be interesting to see how Jovanowski plays in Nets. But I think it's going to be a very close game. I expect this one to go to overtime. We'll see what happens.

But, you know, USA, they're a strong team. Yeah. At this level, of course, the CHL, they're going to be hungry. I think it's going to be a closer game. Does it go to the second overtime then? So I'm saying, does Canada win, and it goes to a second overtime, which would be great for this tournament? See, my wife would be mad because then I couldn't pick her up from the train.

But, yeah, I think it'd be awesome. That's what you need. They need to ask my opinion on it. I think it's going to go to a second overtime. It's going to be a big game. No, the traffic's real bad, hon. I'm getting there as quick as I can. I don't know, all this rain and snow.

I'll be there soon. You'll be well. Thanks, as always, for stopping by. Thanks so much. There is Stephen Ellis, who covers off the draft for us and a lot of the prospecting work. And you can read it right now covering the Prospects Challenge tonight in Lethbridge yesterday in Calgary at our website, daily faceoff.com. The sheet is powered by Fandul.

You already know that. Play your game with Fandul. You know that as well. It's the NHL season, and Fandul is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Betslip, we've got you covered all season with unique promos, live offerings, and more features to let you play your game. Missed puck drop, no sweat. With a live same game parlay, you can build up your bets until the final buzzer.

Download fan dual sports book today and play your game. Please play responsibly, 19 plus, and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling with the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. You have 15 games. choose from tonight zach you got a whole lot of ways to make your evening spicy how are you doing it tonight i i've been really really really bad at this and you thankfully words of encouragement said no get back on it given another shot keep doing it back on the horse young man you got

we're going to try now let's preface this with in the last couple parlays i've done i've been like let's look into some stuff let's see what the good numbers are let's see how people have been playing going into these things okay uh it's not worked i have pretty much cursed everybody that's gone into the parley so tonight i'm going off of vibes who do i think could potentially score so we're calling this one throw and darts parlay um adam fan tilly anytime goal he's playing the maple leaves i was going to say it's just low who's columbus playing uh tonight low hanging fruit um evan rogages plus three 90.

This one, I just, honestly, there's not really much reasoning behind it. And the Mikey Asimon, I just was feeling like, I've been picking top six guys, guys that I'm like skill players, lower plus numbers here on these. I'm like, why not pick a guy who's just going to go out there and grit grind his way to the front of the net and get a puck off his ass in? Because that's what I need right now. I need to see one go through. I don't care how it happens.

I don't care what time of the game it is, what situation it is. It needs to go off the ass and in. And maybe Mikey S. Mark is the guy to do that for me. Five bucks. Look at that. He's 534. Yeah.

All right. The other one that I'm going, and I believe he's playing, he should be playing tonight. If you really want a long shot, if he doesn't play, it's fine. It's void. You get the money back, but you want a really long shot. You're going to have to correct me on the name. I tried to find it here. Elias

Solaminson Yeah Solimson Salamanson Yeah Plus 2,700 on Fandul Duel This one is genuinely

Just like Really really really good On Fanduel I apologize to our friends On Fanduel For finding this one Really good It's way lower

That's why you go to Fandwell In the first place But really good on Fandual I like it And like We're looking to get a little bit Lucky here Let's just call it what it is.

I've sucked. Like, a hand up, I've sucked. So let's change things up here, Jeff. Let's get a little lucky. Let's throw some darts. Maybe we get one through as people head into American Thanksgiving. You get a big one here, a big win before the weekend. Okay, I love it.

And you'll be on with Leaps after Dark after the game tonight. Crying or smiling? Yes. Richer or poor? Yeah. Win or lose. We're on the show breaking things down. taking callers.

At eight callers, it did a three-hour show on Saturday after the loss to Montreal. Yes. But Matthews is back. Matthew Nyes is back. The Arizona boys are back in the house here. Yeah.

For your Maple Leafs. It just makes tonight's loss that much worse. It just teased up on that. Earlier, I mentioned the events we've been doing at Del Manor, which is a lovely retirement community in the GTA, a number of different locations.

So essentially what it is is me having conversations with NHL alumni. But not just NHL alumni. We had Gort Salick out once too. But last night we had Wendell Clark at the Aurora location. Great time, great stories. By the way, I remembered what that trade was that got next

by Red Fisher of the Montreal Gazette. It was Wendell Clark and Gary Lehman to Montreal. Going back the other way was Shane Corson and Claude Lemieux. That was going to be the deal. And apparently Red called the Montreal Jam. I think it would have been Sir Gavard and said, if you make this deal, I will run you out of town. And Red was so powerful, so powerful that the trade got next.

There's stories about like Red shutting down trades because he didn't like them. And he was so powerful, the ability to get people fired. So the stories about him like shutting down trades for the haves are sort of become legendary and folklore as well. But Wendell was great. And you were mentioning off air just a couple of seconds ago about Gary Roberts and how Wendell went from being a defenseman to a forward. and took established forward's places on the World Junior Team in 1985, including Gary Roberts. What did you think of last night?

That was fun. Well, I was having a good laugh when he was bringing up, you know, the fact that they brought him as an extra. He was a defenseman. They were like, well, if you need to play forward, we'll have this guy. And he told the story for the first time in front of Gary Roberts. Gary was like, I got cut so that they could bring a defenseman to play forward. To play forward.

Joe, Noah, Dike. Joe Nguendike as well. I laugh at that. I couldn't even imagine. Because back then, there was obviously media coverage of these things, but not in the same way. Like, could you imagine if before this world juniors, we found out that they cut not just a forward, but a forward who's going to go on to be a very, very good NHLer so that they could bring an extra defenseman to play as an extra forward. I'm like thinking about what you and I would be saying on this show

and we aren't even like criticizing things that much it's it's so true I'd say I used to um like TSN has always done a remarkable job with this tournament and they've blown it up to be something like essentially what the U20s is the world junior champions it's a development tournament it's like it's for scouts it's for like okay so where are these kids against their peers from other countries just a way to sort of get a development snapshot.

But TSN has taken the tournament and made it an annual event that Canadians, and now Americans really are starting to get on board too, as being this annual junior hockey event, this U-20 event that everybody gets really excited about, and rightfully so, because the hockey is excellent. But I go back to watching this tournament where it was broadcast by CBC, and I think Don Whitman would have done the play-by-play. for it and sherry bass and sherwood love him uh if he wasn't involved with the team would be there as a color commentator sometimes in studio as well and the intermission analysts for it on cbc were

brian williams and don cherry i remember i still remember like nineteen eighty seven the punch up in pish dany where the gunter sabatsky was ahead of the double i h aft like turn the lights out during the fight, which was just like they'd try. They couldn't get the kids to stop fighting, so Sabatsky's big idea was to turn the lights off. I remember watching this on CBC and it became a huge national issue.

I still maintain that it was the punch-up in Pia Stani that got everybody's attention that kind of in a weird way put the World Junior Hockey Championships on the map for a lot of people. Both teams got kicked out. The team Canada comes back,

lands in Toronto, Harold Ballard, the Toronto Maple Leaf's owner has gold medals made for the kids. He's so proud of them with the big brawl and everything. And there was the controversy about Pierre Terjean staying on the bench. Not going on the ice to fight. When your coaches are Bert Templeton and Pat Burns, that is a very strong decision. But nonetheless, I still love that tournament to this day.

And look forward to going to Minutes. Minnesota, and that's why I wanted to bring it up with you in that story with the 1985 World Junior Hockey Championships. And I remember Sherwood Bassin, we talked to this with Wendell about this yesterday, said to Wendell, well, you can make it on the team if you'll do two things. Play forward and cut your hair. Do you remember the sweet mullet that Wendell used to have in junior? Seen pictures, yeah. Oh, man. They used to refer to those as the Czechoslovakian crowns of glory.

and he had a great one but like prairie style it was pretty sweet that's what i'm debating the longer my hair gets right now do it if when it comes time if i just go like full yes do it disgusted yager yeah yager yeah my girlfriend that might be the that might be the breaking point no that's the breaking point wrong that is your test of how much she loves you yeah fair not don't don't you don't find out who she loves you you with the easy stuff oh his hair looks great look at that no no handicap yourself right yeah yeah so like okay hon let's just see how much you love me just come home randomly when your barber's in town your favorite barber the only person that can touch your head um go for the uh go for the yager

look circa 93 93 94 look and see which and see what she says all right yeah so give that a shot i'll give that a shot. It's easy to love me when I'm pretty, hon. How about this? Oh, also, I have another thing I thought about. We don't have to spend time on it, but it just bothered me yesterday after we heard this. What's up? When Wendow, we were talking about trades and these big trades that used to happen.

Jeff, I'm sick of it. We need to make trades easier to happen. I don't know what we have to do, how we go about this, what the first step is, but I'm tired of it. I don't want to hear it's mid-season. It's hard to make trades. Abolish it. We need a fix. because I'm hearing these stories about this guy went here, this guy went there,

there was a package of 35 players involved, make it easier to make trades. I want trades back in the NHL. Here's an idea. I needed to say that today. Okay, here's an idea that someone mentioned to me not too long ago. Do two different trade periods in the NHL. You have two weeks during the year, which are the only weeks where you can make trades. So you have something to look forward to.

and everybody knows these are where you have to make your trades or else you don't get to make trades how about that as an idea are you cool with that? Okay Maybe three I don't know

maybe one in the summer too but do trade zones throughout the season why don't you noodle on that one and report back your thoughts and findings on that as I'm sure you can obsess about it as you watch the Columbus Blue Jackets play the Toronto Maple Leafs

at nationwideer weeks that too night. Yeah. It should be fun. It should be fun. Fun. That word is doing a lot of work in that sentence, Sack? Yeah, it is.

It really is. That word is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. All right. I got a hustle. Thanks so much for joining us here today on the sheets. We will endeavor to get Jason Greger on at a different time. Apologies for not being able to get Jason on board. But thanks to Stephen Ellis for stopping by.

Thanks, as always to Brian Burke, Civilian Wednesdays, Willie. Wednesdays right here every week here on the sheet. Thanks to everybody in the chat. Again, we'll be planning some kind of meetup in Minnesota at the World Juniors, so stay tuned to the socials and this show for further details. And thanks for watching.

Thanks for listening. If you haven't already, please subscribe to a daily face-off YouTube channel. Hit all the likes, hit all the ratings, hit all the reviews, all those things that are so important for what we do here so we can bring this all to you. Don't forget morning cup of hockey at 9 a.m. Monday to Thursday, DFO Live, noon Eastern,

right here on a daily face off YouTube channel, Tyler, Rumchuk, and Carter Hutton on the program there. Thanks for joining us. We're back tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern for The Sheet. I can't believe my voice held out. But here we are. Talk to tomorrow. I've lost all ambitions day to day Because you can call it all right

I went to the dark man He tried to give me a little medicine I'm like now I'm in that's fine I'm not against those methods But I knew It's me and myself And now this is going to be fixing my mind I didn't want a bag of it

I turned on the edge I didn't want to bed I do want to back I don't know the day of the day In the dead dark night In the dead dark night