The Sheet with Jeff Marek - No Goal! ft. Brian Burke

Episode Date: December 13, 2024

Jeff Marek and Brian Burke discuss everything happening in the NHL this week and tell some legendary stories. Adam Wilsby's no goal, Lian Bichsel's first NHL goal, the Michigan wearing Jeff out, neck guards, and much more...SHOW INDEX00:00 Intro03:12 Sergei Federov08:18 Michael McCarron11:26 Brian Burke47:15 NEED MORE BOOKS49:30 Anaheim Ducks Uniforms51:30 Answering the Chat52:30 Scott Laughton57:50 The Michigan1:00:46 Jusso Parssinen--------------------------------------------Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.comhttps://www.twitter.com/@DailyFaceoff https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffhttps://www.instagram.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff#Nashville #Predators #NewYork NewYorkRangers #dailyfaceoff #jeffmarek #buffalosabres #nhl #nhlnews #hockey #hockeytalk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Good afternoon, good evening, good morning, depending on whether you're watching or listening to this show. Welcome to She Once Again, Jeff Merrick along with you here Monday to Friday, 3 o'clock Eastern on our daily face-off YouTube channel. It is Friday, so Brian Br Burke is going to be aboard, and today I brought props. I brought props! I'm going to ask Berkey about these. Okay? I'm going to ask Berkey about these.

I may talk to Berkey about this. Dun-dun-dun-dun. You kind of see where I'm going here, right? And I'm going to play back a clip for Berkey of his son, Patrick Burke, of the NHL's Department of Player Safety, who also has worked with the NHL All-Star Skills, talking about answering Big Berkey's phone with Glenn Sather, a salty Glenn Sather, on the other side.

We'll play that video back for Big Berkey and get his side of the story or see what he remembers of it. Plus, plenty of things to get to today. We are going to talk about Michigan goals. You bored of these things yet? I think actually the fake Michigan is more exciting than the real Michigan.

We'll get into that. First video evidence, by the way, of a player picking the real Michigan. We'll get into that. First video evidence, by the way, of a player picking the puck up lacrosse style on the ice comes to us from, and I'm going to find this, I'm going to do this on the show because there is video of it. 1972 Summit Series. I believe it would have been in the skate at Maple Leaf Gardens. Alexander Maltsev of the Soviets during the skate, scooping it up as he was wont to do. That is the first evidence of that.

So this goes back, the origins of what we now know as the Michigan go back to 1972. So we're going to get into that because Matvey Mishkov tried it yesterday. We're going to talk about video review on offsides again, and you can't help but just feel just horrible yesterday.

For the second time this season, we've had two players who scored their first career NHL goals called back on offside review. Last night, Adam Wilsby of Nashville, Tyson Kozak of the Buffalo Sabres. It happened last week, and you feel awful about it. And so that debate, even though I think the toothpaste is out of the bottle or the genie is out of the bottle on this one and we're not going

back uh that debate rages on and on and it may be a conversation that really leads us nowhere it could be a conversation because it's already out there and as much as people piss and moan about it like i do and others do as well i don't know that it's really going to get us anywhere. But we're going to have the conversation again, damn it, on a Friday afternoon if you're watching us live here on our YouTube channel, the Daily Face-Off's YouTube site. Also, with Berkey coming aboard here in a couple of moments, want to get your thoughts on Berkey, get your questions for Berkey,

comments for Berkey. That's coming up in a couple of moments. In the meantime, something I wanted to get to as well because I kind of had the hook in my mouth a little bit this afternoon, because I didn't know they've done this before. The fact they've done it before makes it even worse, actually. Zach Phillips, our producer, joins me now. Zach, so I got taken in this afternoon, and a little bit excited too, because I saw the Detroit Red Wings social media wishing Sergei Fedorov a happy birthday. And so my first thought is,

okay, so wait a minute here. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see it. HBD Sergei, the Detroit Red Wings Twitter X feed. Alright, looks great. He's carrying the cup, number 91. Not just one of the best Red Wings of all time, one of the best hockey players of all time.

Could play defensive, could play offensive, could play the point, played every single position, one of the greatest to ever do it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He had fallen out of favor with the Detroit Red Wings a number of years ago when he signed with the Anaheim Ducks. Detroit was under the impression he was going to re-sign with Detroit, although I think the seeds of mistrust between the organization and Sergey Fedorov may have been planted with a famous offer sheet from the Carolina Hurricanes.

Carmanos versus Illich is a feud that happened not just in the NHL, but also happened in the OHL and also in youth, or as we call it here in Canada, minor hockey between CompuWare and Little Caesars. But I digress. hockey between CompuWare and Little Caesars, but I digress. So as it turns out, as I retweeted this and added the comment, could this be, Zach, the beginning of the thaw between Sergei Fedorov and the Detroit Red Wings, a few people said, hey, dum-dum, which is a good way to preface it for me. Hey, dummy, they've done this before.

So as I mentioned, Zach, that's the drama between the two teams, and it really is unfortunate, and here's why. Here's why I hate Zach like that's the drama between the two teams and it really is unfortunate and here's why here's why I hate stuff like this one I don't think you need to like someone to be able to do business with them it's no secret that the Illich family whether it's you know the late Mr. I or you know the current administration the Illich family have no love lost for Sergei Fedorov but what's the one thing the teams always do in order to curry favor with their fan base they talk about how it's your team your Detroit Red Wings but it's the Illich family grudge that's keeping 91 out of the rafters.

And the interesting thing about this too, I was going to park a little bit of time on another episode to get more in depth on this. This isn't the first time that we've seen the Illich family be petty with retired numbers. Okay. You're just just gonna make me sit on that one and wait

for another day to find out no do you know the story of Larry Ori no I do not so I want you to think about something here in all your time watching the Detroit

Red Wings how many times have you seen anyone wear the number six? Hang on. I'll give you the answer. It's exactly zero. Yes. So Larry Ori was before there was Gordie Howe in Detroit. There was Larry Ori.

His nickname was Little Dempsey because he looked like the boxer Jack Dempsey. And he was tough. He was one of as a matter of fact, he was one of Gordie Howe's favorite players. Okay? And the Detroit Red Wings, before Mike Illich bought the team in 1982, the number six was retired. It briefly came out of retirement because Larry allowed his cousin, Cummy Burton, to wear it.

But other than that, the number was retired. No one was to wear number six. When Mike Illich bought the team, I don't even know what the process of this would be. I've never gotten a straight answer for it either. The number was unretired. Years later, Jim DeVolano said, well, the Detroit Red Wings only retired numbers

for people in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Now, I know what you're thinking. What about Federoff? Okay, but bracket that for a second. But here's the interesting thing about it. Even though Mike Yelich and the Detroit Red Wings have unretired the number six, you know who's worn it? No.

Nobody. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody. Anyway, it's for getting into at a later show when we do something a little bit more historical. But again, I just want to point out, this isn't the first time that the Illich family has done something different slash petty slash ridiculous

with your Detroit Red Wings. Not the Illich family, but your. Remember, it's your team. We just keep all the money. And we just make all the decisions. But we remind you, it's your team. Let's get the show going here here we got a lot to get into today uh we're going to talk about maybe a sergey federoff because i mean berkey had no love lost

for sergey federoff either uh when he was with the anaheim ducks so we'll get into that uh we're going to get into a few more things we're going to get into goals getting called back we're going to get into this mike mccarran actually you know what it's like why don't we do this now i know why don't we talk about Michael McCarron? Thankfully, it looks like Michael McCarron's going to be okay. This was a scary incident last night. Nashville Predators, by the way, beat the Dallas Stars. Let me say that again so it sinks in.

The Nashville Predators beat the Dallas Stars. Liam Bixle, or Liam Bichelle, depending on how you want to pronounce his name, scored his first career NHL goal. But scary moment. Have a look at this one. This is Michael McCarron of the Nashville Predators getting a high skate from Lian Bixell last night. Watch McCarron here. It looks like he takes a skate up high. And he's heading off the ice there.

Holding his hand so he's going to go off the ice. It looks like he obviously is cut there. DJ Amadio, you're going to keep an eye on that. Okay, so that's frightening if you're watching this live. If you're listening on the podcast version, we just aired the visuals of Michael McCarron skating off the ice, holding his neck as he's been cut, and we think about Clint Malarchuk,

and we think about Richard Zednick and we think of that horrible Adam Johnson incident, which cost the young man his life last year in England. And one of the things that, you know, this always fuels up when you see someone getting a neck cut is mandatory neck guards for everybody. We saw a lot of players putting on neck guards last year and then subsequently taking them off. This has been a long history in the NHL. We saw this with helmets. Like when Bill,

it's so much about history today. When Bill Masterton, okay? Okay, here comes Grandpa Jeffrey talking about old hockey stories, but I think you'll giggle at this one, Elisa. So when Bill Masterton unfortunately passed away after getting hit in a Minnesota-Los Angeles Kings game in the late 60s, a lot of players,

and it didn't happen right away, he passed away a couple days after in hospital, a lot of players started putting on helmets. Everyone was terrified of, oh, geez, you smack your head on the ice, you could die. So a lot of guys started putting on helmets, including the Boston Bruins. Now, the Boston Bruins had been a team

that had always prided themselves on, we don't wear helmets, we're rugged, we're tough, we're all of that. But a lot of guys started putting on helmets in practice specifically, including Bobby Orr. And the story that I'm told is Bobby wore it for, I want to say, one practice, but didn't even last the entire practice. By the the, by the halfway point of the practice, Bobby would have taken the helmet off. And then there was a reporter afterwards, I guess he was just waiting for this question, tried to be a smart Alec.

So there's a reporter who asked Bobby after he had, you know, put the helmet on and then took the helmet off, uh, said to Bobby after the practice, he said, uh, Mr. Or let me get this straight. Um, you'll wear this straight. Um, you'll wear a jock strap, but you won't wear a helmet to which Bobby turned around quickly. And you'll like this one, Zach and said,

oh yeah, that's true, but I can always get someone else to do my thinking for me. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations.

What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Well, fair enough. One of the great exchanges between a reporter and hockey person and someone else who's had a lot of great exchanges between himself and hockey reporters and hockey media is Brian Burke and he's joining the program now

Brian is of course a general manager he's worked with the PWHL worked in the NHL managed teams was a player himself with the Maine Mariners of the American Hockey League and Berkey it's nice to see you once again want to get your thoughts on we're just showing the Michael McCarron incident yesterday in the Dallas with the Maine Mariners of the American Hockey League. And Berkey, it's nice to see you once again.

Want to get your thoughts on, we're just showing the Michael McCarron incident yesterday in the Dallas game. I know players are sensitive about being told what they can wear and what they can't wear. Almost becomes a matter of just digging in your heels and saying, I'm not going to do something you want me to do. But when you see Michael McCarron get his neck cut, even just a little bit on the side,

does it not reignite the debate about, much like helmets and much like visors, mandatory neck guards? Well, I'm not sure I weigh in on that the same way. I think players should be, I think it should be mandatory in the American League level all the way up. But they can't, the experts tell me, again, I'm not an expert. The experts tell me even the net guards they're proposing to wear that are certified don't provide 100% protection,

additional protection. So I'd be in favor of that, I guess. You know, there was, I think about, you know, Richard Zednick, who was cut as well. And, you know, he put on a net about, you know, Richard Zednick, who was cut as well. And, you know, he put on a neck guard, but then took it off. And he was asked about it. And he said, well, what are the odds that it's going to happen twice? Like, I understand that that's part of the mentality.

We can all remember the Clint Malarchuk-Steve Tuttle incident in that St. Louis Buffalo game, which just looked horrible and frightening to everybody there. Quick aside, Berkey, you know, Clint Malarchuk, I don't know if you've ever had a relationship with Clint or spoken to Clint before. He's got an interesting sense of humor, almost a dark sense of humor. He told me the next time that Buffalo faced St. Louis, and don't forget, this is before cell phones and contact between players. They're in the pregame skate and they're skating around doing loops and Tuttle's

coming up to Clint and he's coming around and he's got this look on his face like, geez, like I haven't talked to you since the incident happened. And Clint Malarchuk went up to Steve Tuttle and said, geez, Tuttle, you're cutthroat.

And it just sort of ended any sort of issue with that sort of funny note there from Clint Malarchuk saying, Tuttle, you're cutthroat. But one of the reasons why I think this isn't, sort of issue with that sort of funny note there from Clint Malarchuk saying, Tuttle your cutthroat. But one of the reasons why I think this is an important debate is I understand the player's safety point of view, and I understand that, of course, it doesn't cover all of your neck. But having watched, and we've all watched the Clint Malarchuk incident,

what I think of is the mental trauma for everybody who's in the arena who has to watch that. And like, that is not something the NHL wants as part of their product. I understand the player's point of view, but is there a, a bigger question about those that are there watching the game, Berkey?

Well, certainly it's a horrifying thing to witness. I agree with that. I didn't like that when it happened. I did work with Clint Malarchuk. He worked for me in Calgary. What wonderful man what a great guy his wife's a doll too so it was a pleasure to work with clint but uh no that that's a horrifying thing to watch and skin cuts are a real problem we've we've got guys going with uh the patches on their pants we've got guys going with kevlar socks.

But they're not comfortable. They're quite warm and players don't like them. So we've got pretty good use of coverage, but certainly not 100%. And the net guard's not 100%. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do what we can. Right. Okay, I wanted to do this off the top of the show,

but I wanted to get in that the net guard conversation is coming off the Michael McCarron conversation. So earlier this week, well, Monday, I had your son Patrick on, who's part of the NHL's Department of Player Safety. And I asked him a question about getting confused for you because your voices are so similar. I'm not sure if you had a chance to watch this, but I'm going to play this clip for you, and maybe you could share your side of so similar. I'm not sure if you had a chance to watch this, but I'm going to play this clip for you and maybe you could share your side of this story.

Here's your son from Monday. One, one very memorable one. I can't remember if big Berkey was at the league or with the team, but he was like, ran into Starbucks, left his phone and said, if it,

if it rings, just pick it up. So I'm like 12 or 13 and the phone rings. And I say, you know hello brian burke's phone burkey it's glenn sader you and he just starts lighting into me i don't know if i can swear and say all that even if you have a loose swearing policy i might not be able to say all the things that he's thinking you mfr you did this i don't know who you think

you are and how you're gonna get away with this type of crap anymore. And, and I'm going, Mr. Mr. Stay there, Mr. Mr. Say there. And finally, after, I don't know, like 90 seconds or two minutes of being berated, he finally stops. I go, uh, Mr. Say there it's Patrick. Hey, Patrick, how's it going, buddy? Oh, it's good. Oh, how's hockey playing this year? Yeah. And how's school? Oh, it's going good. Good. Hey, do you think you could tell your dad I called i'm like yeah i'm pretty sure he's gonna hear about this one slats like i don't think i'm gonna forget uh this particular call so yeah from a young age i've sounded a lot like him and uh it's gotten gotten into some funny stories because of it do you brian burke remember that moment? Patrick picking up the phone and getting lit up by Glenn Sather.

Yeah, he was in high school. And you know what's funny? I did watch the interview, Jeff. It's great to see you back on the air. Thanks, pal. I did watch that interview. You don't get to say how proud you are of your kids. I tell Patrick all the time.

I never get to say it publicly how proud I am of him. But just listening to him talk, and he's so smart and so focused and so polished. I'm so proud of him. But, yes, I remember that. I used to say to the kids all the time, don't make any bad trades. If I ran into the store or ran into Starbucks, I'd say, Katie, Katie, don't make any bad trades while I'm gone.

And Patrick would always say, Dad, you make enough bad ones on your own. You don't need our help. So do you remember, I mean, this is reaching back into history, but do you remember what Sather was lighting you up about, even thinking that Patrick was you? Yeah, I think I was still with the league. Patrick was that young. I was still with the league.

He was mad about something with the league. But Slots and I, we've been friends forever we've gone hunting and fishing probably five dozen times um that kind of talk is okay in our in our line of work you know it was interesting because uh i did ask patrick about like the the nature of conversations between managers i mean this is like we're sort of in an era now where it's very corporate and it's very polite. There are still the fumes of the past. And I love hearing conversations like that because they're so raw and honest. And, you know,

Patrick said one day his wife was overhearing one of his conversations and it sounded like really hostile. And his wife's like, wow, that was tough. And Patrick said, no, no, no, we're best of friends. Like this, that's just the, the just the way we communicate for listeners and viewers that may not get a sense of sort of what it has been like between managers having a conversation. It may sound like you're yelling at each other, but is there not an appreciation between manager to manager at the same time? Like it doesn't preclude you from doing business with someone just because you're verbally hostile to them. No, and it's a way of life. It's a way of speaking too. It reminds me very much of the time I spent with the military.

So I've been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with the Canadian forces, gone overseas a total of six times, three times to Afghanistan. The other three times we went over as far as the Middle East, but didn't make it to Afghanistan. One time was equipment, one time was weather, and the last time was they just said we were coming and they were going to get us. So they wouldn't let us leave the base and go to Afghanistan.

But the time you spend with the military, you appreciate that they don't think you're serious unless you swear. It's the same with, I can't say to my players, hey, fellows, we need to work harder this period. You got to yell at them, hey, no good son of a, and that's how it starts. So they don't think you're serious unless you're swearing at them. So my dad never swore. My dad never swore in his life.

He was in the Navy, never swore, was appalled at how I spoke. Absolutely appalled. He i spoke absolutely appalled he said that when you can use a lot of profanity and vulgarity it indicates a paucity of vocabulary in other words you don't have a good vocabulary so you're cursing and i said dad my players don't listen to us i swear but it mortified my dad right till he died really hey that's um it is interesting because it's it's kind of swung a little bit. The conversations now are a little more traditionally

polite. We've got a couple of questions coming in for you, Berkey. I want to get your thoughts on a couple of other things going on in the NHL right now. But, from William Caspers, Mr. Burke, please tell us your favorite story of Pat Quinn.

Brackets, there are too many. We talked about Pat last week a little bit with the ties, but when I say Pat Quinn to you, what jumps to mind? Well, Pat was a giant of a man. Physically, obviously, he was a great big son of a bitch, but he was a great man. He was a very intelligent, educated man. The thing that I think would – Pat was the best listener I ever met.

He had Trevor Linden come in and talk to him one time. Trevor was really scuffling. And I said to Pat, you've got to talk to this kid. He's really not doing much for us right now. Pat had him, and he talked for half an hour. I said to Trevor, you feel better? And he said, yeah. He said, it was great. He said, I don't think Pat said ten words

Trevor said. Because Pat smoked that cigar and listened. He's a great listener. And Pat was big on fairness. He was big. He said, you got to be fair to the players all the time. We owe them fairness. We don't owe them to be happy. We don't owe them to make them rich. We owe them to be fair to them.

My favorite story about Pat was he hated Don Koharski. He hated referees as a group. Despised the whole group. Like when Bill McCreary went into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Pat's comment to Billy McCreary, who's the best referee I ever saw, Pat's comment to Billy McCreary

was, well, if we have to vote one in, I guess you'll do. He hated referees. He hated Cole from an incident that happened in the American League when Pat was coaching in Maine. That's Don Koharski for our listeners and viewers. Cole Hoke, Don Koharski. Yeah, Don Koharski, sorry. Cole, great guy, great referee, too.

So he was, after a game at Pacific Coliseum, you used to have to walk down from the press box, walk right by the referee's room on your way out. And we're going by and Pat stopped. We walked all the way down. It was like 50 stairs you have to go down. You have to walk across by the press box, then down again, then down again. Finally, you're down on the arena floor right next to the official's room. So Pat stopped.

I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm going in there. I'm going to beat the snot out of coal oh i said no you're not i said we can't afford the fine and the suspension and pat start pat when pat got really mad he would start shaking and you knew you're in trouble right then he would start shaking and get so mad pat was shaking about it must have been about 30 seconds but it seemed like a year finally just turned just turned and F-you and stormed off and walked away. I said, Pat,

you can hit me if you want, but you're not going in there. You know, we can't afford the finer suspension. Pat thought about it and walked away finally. I thought he was going to hit me. I didn't think that would be much fun getting hit by Pat. I don't know. You know, like there's Mel Engelstad.

Remember Mel Engelstad? Tough kid. Played with Washington. I think he played with Dallas as well. Played a handful of games. So I talked to him at one of the hockey days in Canada. And one of his great memories was, because he was always a big fan of Bob Probert growing up. And it was a preseason game.

He said, Mr. Probert, will you do me the honors when trying to impress the coach? Blah, blah, blah. Bob was playing with Chicago at that time. And Bob gave everyone a shot at it. That's what I always liked about Bob. He always gave kids a crack at it. And in Mel Engelstad, his nickname was the Mangler, Engelstad.

He said to me, we dropped our gloves. Bob grabbed me and hit me with three in the face really fast. And all I could think about was, wow, this is so cool. Bob Probert, my hero, is punching me in the face. And I wonder, Berkey, if there's a part of you that would have been like, wow, Pat Quinn just punched me. That's pretty cool. I don't think so.

I don't think so. I think I would have been getting up off the floor. That was so tough. But it's interesting, the whole notion of fighting. You're right. Going back to your language point, Jeff, it is more civilized now than it used to be. It used to be at the meetings there was a lot of cursing,

and Gary Bettman has kind of taken that out of the meetings. There's a little bit now, but mostly throwback guys like me, maybe Lou once in a while. Lou? I think people would be surprised at that. They think like button down, right down the middle, Lou Lamarillo. Not in a meeting. In a meeting, he would be buttoned down.

You're right. I correct myself. But when Lou got mad, believe me, he knows how to curse. Okay. I want to ask you about something. I teased this off the top of the show before you joined. Okay. Berkey, what are

these? Pants. Breezers. Ah, there we go. You're a Minnesota guy, so you call them breezers. Now, do we know the origin? Like, I'm getting all into Minnesota this weekend, so I got this cool book that I've wanted to read for a while. It's called

Slapshot in Time, The Wild but True History of the Minnesota Fighting Saints. Dan Winnesota's written this one, so I'm looking forward to reading this this weekend. So I got Minnesota on the brain. I'm like, oh, Bricky's coming on. I got to ask him about Breezers. Do we know where the name came from? No, I don't. But when I grew up in Minnesota, I moved there when I was 12. Started playing hockey when I don't. But when I grew up in Minnesota, I moved there when I was 12. Started playing hockey when I was 13. And the first pair of pants I ever put on when they showed me how to dress,

I put the garter belt outside my pants, by the way, the first time I tried. Didn't know how that worked. Didn't work very well. But they call it put on your breezers next. I'm like, breezers? What the hell are breezers? But that's what they call them to this day in Minnesota. They call them put on your breezers next. I'm like, breezers? What the hell are breezers? But that's what they call them to this day in Minnesota. They call them breezers.

So I was always of the, and again, I just don't know. Someone out there who's smarter than me or more well-researched can let me know. I just assume that there was a now defunct company called Breezer that made hockey pants. Kind of like Cooper with Cooperalls, even though the NHL ones were Pro Packs. Could it have been something like that? A defunct company called Breezer that made the pants? And it just stocked up? Well, it could have been.

You remember when I started playing hockey, we used to wear a girdle with our thigh pads on it. And the pants were just a plastic shell. My guess is they started calling those breezers because they were lightweight, light plastic, and really had no protective function at all. The girdle you wore inside had the thigh pads on it and the slash pads and stuff.

So my guess is that's why. When I say Minnesota hockey, what comes to your mind right away, and is it the high school tournament? Yes. That is one of my great misses so far. I'm dying to go. I love to go. I watch the videos all the time and just say to myself,

man, I got to get to this thing one day. Yeah, I've been a couple times. I've been several times. I never went as a player. I only played one year of high school hockey, and there were two schools from Edina, Edina West and Edina East. It was the first year we split.

Edina East beat us before we got to the state tournament. So I never played in the state tournament. I played in the North-South All-Star game that year, which was cool, but I never got to play in the tournament. But I've been a number of times. It is awesome. That's what got a number of times. It is awesome. That's what got me hooked on hockey. It is, right?

We moved to Minnesota. There was a blizzard, and the moving trucks got stuck in Pennsylvania. They were coming from Boston to Minnesota. And they were stuck for three days. We were stuck at a Holiday Inn for three days in Minnesota, and the state tournament was on. I didn't leave the TV. I sat and watched, and I played four games each day,

two in the afternoon and two in the evening. There were eight districts, and each one had a representative. It was so cool. I fell in love with the game right there. That's awesome. Hey, I just got a text from someone, and I don't want to say who it is. Um, but his name rhymes with Patrick Burke. So here, uh, here goes. Ask my dad about the time he stole a Christmas tree. What's that story? what's that story patrick's being kind i did it twice actually i stole a christmas tree i i was i can't believe patrick did this but i told this story but it is christmas time and it's

the grinch should be present um i i went and bought all christmas gifts for all the kids there were four kids at the time, obviously. Didn't have the two girls, just the four kids. And I bought them all Christmas gifts and wrapped everything up and finally went to bed. And I got to Christmas Eve and I'm like, picking up the kids tomorrow at nine o'clock. And I don't have a Christmas tree. So I go out and of course, everything's closed. It's Christmas Eve.

So there's a landscape company, an Italian guy, forget his name, but I jumped over the fence, threw a tree over the fence, climbed back over, I left a note, I left a note with my phone number and said, you know, call me, so he called me back on Christmas Day, he said, we had nine trees stolen last night, you're the only one who left a note,

so he said, Merry Christmas, you don't have to pay, but I had to do the same thing again a year later. So yeah, I had to steal a Christmas tree, but I did offer to pay for it both times. That's awesome. Patrick, thanks so much for the text on that one.

Tommy T. submits this one. For struggling teams and, you know, what can you do? Like, he, what, if anything, can a general manager do to change the mood in a room and a losing streak? So anything that you've done, you know, pick the team that you were with

where you're on a losing streak and you've got to do something to shake things up, change the mood, you know, dressing rooms can get sour. Anything a manager can do. Yeah, there is. I think you only go into the dressing room and speak to the team on rare occasions. I only did it a handful of times in all my years. I only did it maybe six times.

First year in Vancouver, we quit on the team. We got blown out at home in Vancouver. We were playing Calgary, and the game got away from us. We lost 8-1. It looked like we quit playing. And I had a meeting and I said to the guys, we're professionals, guys. We can't ever quit. We can get beat some nights, but we can never quit.

But the best talk I ever gave the team was, we had made the playoffs the year before. I think it was the Twins' first year. And we started off really poorly, like 3-8-1. And I had to call a team meeting and i said i wrote 10 things down on the left side of the board 10 on the right side of the board so losing face-offs winning face-offs losing individual battles winning battles uh secondary

pressure and so on i listed eight things 10 things and said this is what we did last year we had a good start we won face-offs we did this this is what we did last year when we had a good start. We won face-offs and did this. This is what we're doing now. So I said, everyone thinks I'm going to make a trade right now, but I said, I'm not going to. I believe in this group. So I'm not going to touch anyone in this room. I am not trading anyone. I'm not going to send anyone down.

I'm not going to touch anyone in this room, except we had two guys, Drake Barahowski was one. He had ice time issues, I said. I'm going to still try to move you and the other guy, whoever it was. I said, other than that, I'm not touching this team. You guys sort it out. I believe in this group. They played like a 7-30 clip the rest of the year.

Wow. Made the playoffs. I ended up with 100 points. So you can influence a team, but it only works rarely. I don't think I've ever asked you this one. Maybe I have. Who is the favorite player that you ever had? The one guy you were just like,

oh, I'm just like, this is my guy. Who was your guy? Sid. Yeah. So what was it from a manager's point of view? Well, I think you're blessed. You certainly have certain players that you're blessed to have. It's a combination of what they do as players and what they do in the room,

what they do in the community. I've been so fortunate. I had Mark Messier. He was wonderful. I know people in Vancouver don't like Mess. They don't like the chapter that was written when he was there, but he was good for us. He was a good guy, great guy, and a good player.

Marcus Naslin was wonderful. Trevor Linden was great. But the two best, I used to say Tay Musilani was my favorite player of all time because he was such a great player, all-of-the-game player, and a great guy and always upbeat and happy and always worried that his teammates were happy and really cared about the room. But then I was given that answer for 20 years now.

And Odie, my girlfriend, said to me, what about Sid? You just left Sid out. I'm like, yeah, I have to amend that. So Sid's the best that I ever had in terms of preparation and leadership and being a great player and being a great person, Sid. You know, I was always told that,

and this is why I've always considered Sidney Crosby to be someone who should be in the conversation for the Art Trophy, is that he sets a work rate and a tone for every team that he's on that if you don't try to at least approach it, you yourself feel like you're failing the team. Like when the best player on your team is the hardest worker on your team. You know, I'll tell you, Colby Armstrong told me this way when he first got called up from wilkes-barre he's buddies with crosby um one day after practice um he gets geared down and sid's working out and he's lifting big and he's lifting heavy he's pounding it colby says i go over to sid and i'm like sid is there

like another league that like higher than the nhl that you're like trying to get to or or something like what what am i missing here is like is there another league outside of the the so I've always looked at Kraz because everyone that's played with him always says the same thing he makes you embarrassed not to try hard and he does it each and every single day each and every single day the coaches have to yell at him to take a day off even if it's an optional and they really want him to take a day off they have to order him to even then he'll go out for a little bit he's out early he's out late he works on real specific things that are hockey specific shooting skills and ability like i saw him he missed a shot at the side of the net on his

forehead you've seen the school a hundred times where he corrals the puck with his feet and bangs it in and tries. If he can, he bangs it in. If not, he gets it with his feet and bangs it in. And he missed a goal like that my first year there. And he immediately, the next day, was out there early and stayed late, took a hundred shots that way. The very next game scored that goal so

he does his work isn't random either he's the first guy in the drills like he leads by example and he does he truly embarrasses you to work hard or Sid just give you a look once in a while in practice like his passes weren't crisp enough he'd just give a look at you. Like, you're like, okay, Sid just looked at me. I better get started. He didn't have to say anything. Yeah. You know, my producers, Zach just reminded me, because we were talking about this before,

one of my favorite Berkey stories, and it is, like I always say this whenever I tell this story, like this is so Brian Burke, because it's code, it's respect, it's family. Can you share the story of the time? And this would have been, I believe, Vancouver at the Old Pacific Coliseum, I think, when you were skating with Patrick,

who may or may not have already texted in, when you were skating with Patrick and Wayne Grisky came on the ice. Well, Bob McCammon, the late, bob mccammon was my coach in maine when i played the american league we hired him in vancouver and bob was one of the funniest guys you've ever met in your life he was a good guy too so we were playing edmonton and we didn't skate that day we played the night before so we had a morning off at 1030 or 1130, rather. Edmonton was skating, and Wayne was playing for the Oilers. And Bob McCammon said to me, he said,

if Patrick's skating tomorrow, I said, yeah, I'm going to take him out. He said, just be sure you're out there right at 1130, right when the ice gets done. So I go out there. They don't have the TV lights on. It's kind of dim. I'm skating around with Patrick, passing the puck, and all of a sudden I look up and Wayne Gretzky's on the ice.

He comes over and goes, hi, Mr. Burke. Wayne Gretzky still calls me Mr. Burke, which is, you know, I have to correct him every time. I think he finally called me Berkey last year. But came over, hi, Mr. Burke. Hey, Patrick, do you mind if I skate around? So I got off the ice right away. Like, I don't vlog on the ice with Wayne Gretzky.

My son might, but I don't. So I skated off immediately, almost sprinted off and sat on the boards, on the bench and watched my son skate with Wayne Gretzky. It was so cool. Hang on, Berkey. Pause for a second. Just so the gravity of this for our viewers and listeners can

sink in. You left the ice because in your mind, you don't belong on the same sheet as Wayne Gretzky. Yes. What did Wayne think about this? It's like Sesame Street. Which of these things belong together?

It's like I couldn't go to people at work and say I skated with Wayne Gretzky yesterday. I couldn't do that. It would have been too much of a stretch. So I got off the ice. I'm totally serious. I would do the same thing again tomorrow.

That's like one of the, that's like one of the most burkiest stories that you've ever told that you're just like, Nope, these skates don't belong on the same sheet as 99. Well, they don't, they never did.

Be like, same with Sid. I never would have skated with Sid either. Yeah. Let me ask. Let me ask you this one. So William Casper's in our chat submits this one. Berkey has said he could tell Gabriel Landeskog would be a general manager from his draft interview.

Can you tell the details? Landeskog's draft interview. You think he's going to be a gm one day yes as soon as he wants to be he's so intelligent so impressive personally first off his english is perfect yes there are a lot of swedish players who speak good english he speaks perfect english you can't even tell there's a swedish accent on maybe three or four words he says or if he uses a term that's sw Swedish, you can tell he speaks the language. But otherwise, his English was perfect.

He's so bright. He was responsive. We have very specific questions we ask, you know, like what's your favorite memory of hockey? Tell us something you do as a player that prepares you for games. Very specific. It requires a thoughtful and prompt answer. And some players have to hesitate and think real hard.

And Gabriel Lanscott just rattled off answer after answer. They were good. He was professional. He asked good questions. And I thought, actually, one of our guys said, this guy, we should just have him take off his gear, come and sit in the room with us right now. We should just have him take off his gear,

come and sit in the room with us right now. You know, I can recall, and I was completely wrong about it. This would have been when Landis Gog was a rookie with the Kitchener Rangers. Jake Muzzin, who was playing with Suse Marie, was running over everybody, one of the toughest guys in the league. And he ran over someone on Kitchener and Gabe Landiskog 17 years old I think Muzzin might have been 19 skates over to Muzzin to physically confront him and he's wiggling his mitts and I'm like oh this is not going to go well this is not going to go well

for Landiskog like I don't know that he knows who he's messing with. He's new to the OHL. Muzzin's a killer. He's tough. Not that he beat the brakes off of Muzzin, but he handed it to him. He won the fight, yeah. I couldn't believe my eyes. I watched the film of that fight, so I wanted to see it after I heard about it.

He didn't smack him, but he won the fight, clearly. If you were scoring that fight, Lannister won that fight. He took one early, too, as I recall. He didn't go in the right way because he kind of knew at it. I think Jake got him good early in the fight. He still did fine. Listen, he's one of my favorite players.

I just crossed my fingers and hope that he can come back to full health and hope the Colorado Avalanche can do something here. A couple things from around the league and then we're going to wrap. JT Miller returns for the Vancouver Canucks last night. I know the thumbs up. We're all

happy for JT Miller. I haven't watched every single Vancouver Canucks game this season. I was on with Sakaris and Price earlier making the point that that's the best I've seen the Vancouver Canucks play this season. Kevin Lankanen in net. Damko has already returned. They didn't have to play Quinn Hughes for 30 minutes. He played just over 22, a little shy of 23 minutes.

The fourth line was contributing. Carson Soucy had a really good game. The fourth line was contributing. Carson Soucy had a really good game. Starting off with JT Miller in the return, a quick snapshot of the Vancouver Canucks from you, Brian Burke. Well, I like JT Miller because he's a driver. He makes everyone work harder, play better.

Whoever's on the ice with him, he's like Sid that way. He forces you to follow the game plan, to be engaged, to care about the result. He forces you into that mindset. We're going to battle. I'm going into battle, so you better be ready. He's a driver. And I think that's a really rare quality among players. And if you can get a guy who can drive five guys that are on the ice all the

time and the guys who come in after him, get them all to play harder because of your example and your demands i think that's really effective i thought he was really good last night i thought he'd be rusty as hell i thought he looked good i didn't see much of the game i saw two periods i was at the leafs game but uh i liked him i thought he was good what did you make of the uh the the maple leafs effort against well these are two of your old teams we're trying to make beliefs in the anaheim Ducks. First of all, I'm on, I'm really,

this is frivolous, Berkey, but you know me. I'm on side for colored helmets with white jerseys. I love the look, but I don't know if I can do the pumpkin head orange buckets for the Anaheim Ducks. I don't know if you have a thought on that, but do you have a thought on that game last night? Well, when I got to Anaheim Ducks. I don't know if you have a thought on that, but do you have a thought on that game last night? Well, when I got to Anaheim, I told Henry and Susan Samuel I didn't like the uniforms or the logo. I thought the Mighty Ducks logo was bad. I thought the color scheme, the eggplant teal was bad. So we pushed Henry and Susan to put new uniforms together, and we did. Obviously,

we changed it. But what I had asked for was black and gold. I wanted a military theme. Southern California is surrounded by military bases, Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy. You go to San Diego. So it's a huge military presence in the state of California. So I pushed for black and gold, and that's in the color scheme to this day. But it's predominantly orange now because the San Jose's believe in orange counting. A little too much orange for me,

but I'm not going to say anything. The San Jose's are so nice. They've been so good to me. They can go back to the old uniforms as far as I'm concerned. What about the game itself last night? Unfortunately for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Anthony Stolarz leaves with a lower body injury.

Joseph Wallace had a really good season. That continues for them. But I think a lot of people were expecting the Maple Leafs to blow the barn doors off the Anaheim Ducks. They're coming off a spanking at the hands of the Ottawa Senators. What did you make of the game itself last night that you went to? Well, people forget Greg Cronin worked for me in Toronto. He was an assistant coach for me in Toronto before I got fired there.

And he does a good job. He's a very intense guy. And they played hard last night. I thought it was kind of a pillow fight. Wasn't much hitting in that game. I don't like games like that. So I got a little bored. But I thought they played well enough to win. I thought Anaheim had

or Toronto had more scoring chances. Should have won. I thought the result was right. I'm glad that the goalie's not hurt more seriously, but it was a little bit of a sleeper game for me. Let me finish up with this one, Berkey. Last one, I'll let you get on with your day. Of all the teams in the NHL right now, which one is your favorite to watch?

Do you have one team where, oh, I just flipped by it, it's a speed bump, I'm staying here for a while. Yeah, Edmonton right now is the best team in the league. I think Vegas is right behind them. But my favorite team to watch is Florida because they have a snarl

and they have an attitude that I think it's nice. It's coming back to the game. We see a little more fighting, a little more banging going on. Not last night, obviously, but in general. I think Florida's responsible for that. Bill Zito insists on that way of playing.

They've got guys that like to fight. They've got guys that hit. I like the look, and I like their finesse, too. They've got lots of skill. It's a Brian Burke team. I like that team. It really is. The way I describe it, it's new school skill with an old school mentality.

Like, you know, we always talk about the Philly flu. Oh, we got to go to the spectrum. And all of a sudden, man, my shoulder is not feeling great. Or I did something on my back at the morning skate. The closest team that we have for the Philly flu is the Florida flu now, Berkey. Yeah, I agree. And the good news is it's a copycat league.

When one team starts to play like that, others emulate that style. So Boston's gotten bigger. Toronto's gotten bigger. A lot of teams are trying to pick up and match what Florida's done. So the whole league gets bigger and tougher, which is positive for me. I love the new league. I love our new rules. I think the game's never been better, but it's not as tough as it needs to be for me. So I'm glad to see it changing even a little bit. Not a dinosaur. I don't want to go back to

three-hour games. I don't want to go back to Maine Mariners three-hour games. I don't want to go to bench-clearing brawls, but I'd like to see a little more fighting and more hitting. Like last night was a pillow fight. When you were playing in Maine, was Doc Emmerich calling the games then?

Yes. Did you have much of a relationship then with Doc when he was calling your games? He came to my first wedding. He was a wonderful man. I'll tell you a story. Doc Emmerich will tell you this story if you ever get him on the air.

Sure. He was doing the games in Springfield in the old building. I was in law school. I went to see the game. And our trainers turk evers and sudsy settelmeyer got in a fight a near fight by the dressing room door i jumped out of the press box over the front of the press box and left doc emmerich in the middle of the sentence

to go join in the fight now by the time i got down there the fight was over and i didn't get involved in a fight but but I tried to. And Doc Emmerich will tell you, first time anyone's ever left an interview to get in a fight. Start a fight. Where was that in Slapshot, Berkey? Where was that in Slapshots? Great stuff, pal.

You be well. Enjoy your weekend. We'll catch up in seven days. Okay. Thanks, Jeff. There he is, the great Brian Burke. And by the way, I should mention as well, the book days. Okay, thanks, Jeff. There is the great Brian Burke. And by the way, I should mention as well, the book shelf behind me, Burke's Law,

excellent offering. The one thing about, you know, Zach, one of the things that I've always gone on about, and maybe it's just selfish because I want to read all of them, but I really do think that people that are decision makers in hockey, in all sports really, but for the purposes of the show, people that are decision makers in hockey, in all sports really, but for the purposes of the show,

people that are decision makers in hockey owe it to the game. And how many times have you heard someone say, for the good of the game? I think the people that make the decisions should write books about their time in the league. And the decision, just like, just so we have it sort of all on the record

about, you know, trades that you didn't make or behind the scenes stories on why certain things happened just to sort of give, and you're never going to get like a 100% clear, accurate snapshot of an era or a team or a team's history or a player, but just to color it in a little bit more, like, I'm really glad that, that, that Brian did that book um you know there have been a couple but it's very rare to see man coaches do it players do it officials do it everybody writes books except for managers it's almost like you know they're they're going to the crematorium with all these secrets I'm not gonna let them all out for us to us to read right yeah no I liked I love it I love the behind the scenes stuff that was kind of like one of the things that made me want to get into the hockey media side if I wasn't going to be able to play, which we've come to conclude that I could not. So, but that was like, I want to know these behind the scenes thing. I want to know how, you know, how the cookie crumbles. How is it made? How does this stuff happen? What almost happened? What was close? What fell through. I think those things are kind of cool. Even just the conversation here that Burke led us into about Landis Gog,

just about the interview, the process, what went on. That's a small little thing that people may not have ever known that maybe changes your perception of Gabriel Landis Gog or makes you look at him in a different light. That stuff's so fun. He's got a great story about, this would have been the 1990 draft, about interviewing Jager. I'm not going

to spoil it. I'll let Berkey tell it, but write it down for next week. Already doing show prep for next week. Live on the air, by the way. That's how we do things. Do all of our show prep here. It's our pre-game meeting. Remind me to ask him about the Jager story at the 1990 draft. By the way, way Jrock in our chat

Jrock Jeff's bad take is not liking the orange buckets is that a bad take? terrible nope Jeff I texted you last night the take's okay? perfect spot on what did I say to you I said something like these helmets or uniforms are terrible

yeah you weren't a fan of those I didn't mind the uniform These helmets or uniforms are terrible. Yeah, you weren't a fan of those Unitex clothes. No, no. I didn't mind the uniform. It's just like, and I like a dark colored helmet on a white jersey with white socks. I like the color. I just kept looking like pumpkin head, like just like pumpkins on their head.

I don't know. Also, you know what? In theory, it's fine. I don't have a problem with it. When I saw the pictures of them and it was like the dark backgrounds when they're teeing up, these are the jerseys, the uniforms, the colors we're going to wear. I was like, okay, that's fine. I don't have a problem with it. When I saw the pictures of them and it was like the dark backgrounds when they're teeing up, these are the jerseys, the uniforms, the colors we're going to wear.

I was like, okay, that's fine. Seeing them in practice, like on the ice, not the same effect as these cool done up shots. It just seemed too much. I don't know. I didn't like it. I didn't like it. I don't like it. I'm not a fan.

It's not a bad take, Jeff. That's a good. Okay. Okay. Sorry, Jay Rock. Sorry,

Jay Rock. Not a bad take. Uh, who knows? Uh, it's everyone's personal preference. Okay. So Don Knotts.

Oh man. Did I love Don Knotts? Three's company best. Ralph Hurley. Don Knotts says you didn't ask about 91. He's right. I'm a bad broadcaster. You're going to hear me say that a lot.

I'm really bad at my job. But put that down on the list too. Ask about Federoff. Because Berkey wasn't a fan of either Sergei or specifically his brother as well who helped get Kevin BX a job when he knocked him out.

I think it was at Earl's in Winnipeg when he knocked him out. I think it was at an Earl's in Winnipeg when he knocked him out in the parking lot. You know that story, right? Do people know that story? The BX's story? Knocking out Federoff? Federoff in the parking lot that got him his job? And he went back into the bar and he was standing next to Dallas Aikens

and BX goes, I think I just got cut. And Dallas Aikens said, you have no idea who our general manager is. Actually, I do know that story so don nods i will get to that don't worry we're gonna uh we'll we'll throw that on there and also uh tyler mulek says i'm patiently waiting for bob stoffer's book when he's no longer with the oilers he teases it often when you look at people in media that have a book to be written, Bob Stauffer is the guy. That guy knows so much. He knows where all the skeletons are and he

can find them. That guy ever writes a book? Look out. Look out. Alden loves story time with Berkey. Happy he's on the pod regularly. Is that what we should turn Friday's into? When we have Berkey here, just sort of like story. I like getting his thoughts on the league right now too. But maybe because he's got so many stories.

Tons of stories. Tons of people. I mean, he mentioned Timo Solani. We didn't even get into that. But we did manage to ask him about Breezers. Maybe we should just do that. Just do some story time with Berkey. And if his son Patrick wants to text in every week with stories that embarrass him,

by all means, about I'm stealing Christmas trees. Go for it. Okay. A couple of things here. How long do we have on the show? Ooh, we got six minutes. We got to fly.

Um, Scott Lawton, four goals last night, Philadelphia flyers. Uh, okay. First of all, who did you think of right away when you saw four goals?

Jumbo Joe. Come on. I tried to find a clip there's nothing that's like good enough to put on that was the first it's not jumbo joe scored the four goals but i know that was but here's the thing you know who has to score four goals this year in a game just to get asked the question macklin celebrini, what would you do if you scored four goals? His tenant. Never mind if I got on the ice in the NHL. Never mind scoring four goals.

Okay, so let's show a couple of the, let's show Scott Lawton's breakaway slap shot. So for everybody listening to this podcast, as opposed to watching it on YouTube, Scott Lawton with the four goals. And man, the slap shot to me, chef's kiss. Boom. Just all business.

There's the elbow down the train. Edmondson turns his back to nobody. And that sends Lott in the other way. Talbot, who had been perfect on the night, not able to catch up to this heater. There's a couple that come to mind for me Brian Ralston that was always Brian Ralston's move get to the hash marks and just blast away Marion Hossa

was fond of that one, another one of my favorite players I always loved the way Hossa had his hands up high on the stick ugh, could never give him a bad pass either, take I remember watching guys throw garbage at Hossa he could take every pass one of the skills we never skills we never talk about um and also zidane ochara you see the highlights of zidane ochara doing the slap shot breakaway it's insane or is it penalty shot no but like can you imagine like with watching like shrek wind up at the

hash marks if you're a goaltender and just see and i love it can i tell you something one thing um uh that i love one it's like an underrated thing i don't think many people know about the videos maybe people especially our chat is very educated i'm sure you know about it um one of my favorite things is showing people matt hendrix the paralyzer on. Do you know what I'm talking about? No, but I was just texting with Matt Hendricks last night. He's going to come on the show. Are you like in my phone? I was just texting with him a lot.

Okay. That's bizarre. That's so weird. Okay, go. Maybe we'll see when he comes on. I don't have the video right now. It just came to my mind. I don't know why, but it came to my mind.

He has this move on a breakaway shootout, whatever. He walks in, and it's very far out. I'm talking top of the circles. Winds up. Pickling rafters winds up for a slashtrap. Oh, backscratch, backscratch. And goalies will, I kid you not, like fall over. There's a video of Tim Thomas losing his mind after Matt Hendricks does it to him. He falls back.

Hendricks goes basically just puts it into an empty net after he does this. And Tim Thomas, like Jeff, lost his mind on Matt Hendricks for the move. It's on YouTube. It's called Matt Hendricks, the paralyzer. I show it to people all the time. Like you have to watch this video. Yeah, it's on youtube it's called matt hendrix the paralyzer i show it to people all the time like you have to watch this this video yeah it's amazing maybe we can pull it up when he comes on if he does come on but we'll get mad on we'll we'll get mad on uh for sure i i love matt hendrix um that's so that's so bizarre okay um so we'll get that aboard when we get matt hendrix uh board

but one final thing that i that i want to get out here about Scott Lawton. So in the GTHL, Greater Toronto Hockey League, 2010, at the very first GTHL prospects game. So this would have been at Herb Carnegie Arena, formerly known as North York Centennial. You skated there, I'm sure. I skated there as a kid, too. That one was called North York Centennial. You know it better as Herb Carnegie Arena, formerly known as North York Centennial. You've skated there, I'm sure. I skated there as a kid, too. Back when it was called North York Centennial, you know it better as Herb Carnegie. So, the first ever

game, Tom Wilson would have been playing for junior Canadians, JRC, and Scott Lawton was a Marley. At that point, though, in the loop, the Nats were the team to beat. But nonetheless, JRC and Marley's have always had a feud. In the game, I'm dying to find the video of this.

Scott Lawton, these kids are both 15. Scott Lawton and Tom Wilson throw down. Who do you think wins the fight? I'm going to guess Scott Lawton. Scott Lawton wins the fight. He's a tough dude. Apparently.

Yeah, but like he's not. It's just one of those like they're 15 years old. Then they grew up and they both became the players that they were. And Tom Wilson's a killer now. Apparently what I'm told is Tom Wilson has asked Lawton numerous times if he could have it again. So he could get a win back. And Lawton still to this day.

No. You're not going to know. 1-0. I'm retiring undefeated. No. You're not going to know. 1-0. I'm retiring undefeated. Tom, you're not getting that fight. Tom, you're not getting that fight. That goes back. If it ever happens,

if it ever happens, Washington and Philadelphia, just know, like if it happens this year, whenever, just know that that goes back to the GTHL 2010. And that's Tom Wilson

wanting a rematch. Wanting a rematch. I want to ask you one thing before we go. Sure. If you got the time for it. You started, you teased it. And I need an explanation about this. You teased, like, the Michigan.

And I think you did, like, that. It's just, okay. Yeah, it's boring. I don't know. I'm bored of it. It's because I did it last night or tried it. Tried it. I don't know.

It's boring to me now. I don't want to get, like, too hipster. Like, oh, I'm so past that. It's so five minutes ago. Oh, the Michigan. Was it. I don't know. It's boring to me now. I don't want to get like two hips to like, Oh, I'm so past that. It's so five minutes ago. Oh, the Michigan. Was it that you don't like it or you're just bored of it?

Cause I can understand if you're bored of it. If dislike it, I think it was, it was cool when, when Bill Armstrong used to do it in the American hockey league was really cool. And you saw Mike leg do it. And it's sort of when Crosby did it with Rimouski and then Don Cherry

blasted him on hockey night in Canada. I can imagine what Sid must have felt like getting ripped apart. He's playing junior. You're just doing a Michigan. I'm just doing like, it's a high wrap around grapes. It's all it is. It's a high wrap. But now like the gauge to me is like, can all the kids do it?

And if all the kids can do it, is it really a thing anymore? My kids can do it. 14 and 12. I'm sure you could do it when you played yse with ryan de silva there's one for you rds um i'm sure you could have done it when you played um when you played minor hockey if all these kids can do it is it really special anymore like i mentioned like the earliest visuals for it um this was part of the part of the viz that CBC found when they did the said the 72 documentary is Alexander Maltsev

doing doing skate around scooping it up. And it's like that's 72. That's 19. That's not the 90s when when Bill did it. You know, we used to train Mike Legge in London like that's like 1972.

That's the origins of seeing that. But now it's just like I see it and I'm kind of annoyed by it. But if you've ever seen people do the fake Michigan, that one gets me. If you've seen that, it's a college move where you fake doing the Michigan, everybody bites,

and a player comes the other way to pick the puck and tucks it in. Yeah. Yeah. That's – oh. I'm going to do that tonight in men's league, Jeff. You're doing that in beer league? You're going to bust that out?

Yeah, the game is going to take about four hours while they pick up gloves and sticks and teeth. You'll be yelling at each other from bench to bench. You try the Michigan in men's league with zero accountability. What's the official going to do when you get pounded by some farm animal who's playing defense? You're just Michigan Don. You going to do that in men's league tonight, Zach?

All right, I can't wait to see you Monday morning. You report back. I might not be here. You report back. Get one of your buddies up in the stands to record it. I want to see it. We'll air it. Put it that way.

Get somebody to record it. We'll air it on the show. Here's Zach trying the Michigan in Beer League and here's a farm animal pounding him afterwards in the corner. That's why he's not here today. Filling in for Zach today on the sheet.

Did we leave anything out today? We covered off everything that we wanted to do. I think that was pretty much it um the only other thing that i was going to ask you about was uh elliot putting out an article and there was something i thought was interesting we talked about nashville yesterday this is kind of why it popped up uh there was other things in there about like the same stuff we so just but the one that was sticking out to me, he brought up Nashville.

I'll put it up on the screen for people to see. I grabbed a little snippet of that article. Who's this guy again? Who wrote this? This would be Elliot Friedman in his most recent article. It came out today. Unfamiliar, unfamiliar. Okay.

He said, he brought up that they moved on from Fabro and Tomasino. He said, looks like we're headed to that point with Yuso Parsonet. Yeah. I just kind of want to get your thoughts on them moving on from a 23-year-old here and who do you who's already in need of a second chance. So I think Kyle Dubas with the Pittsburgh Penguins right away. They're trying to sort of do the rebuild on the fly here. This is actually the rebuild for Pittsburgh and they're trying to fill it with players that have a couple of years under their belt already and need a change of scenery.

You know, it's interesting because it wasn't that long ago that there were, and again, we'll see what happens with Parsonant, but there were high hopes for Parsonant with the National Predators to the point where when Elliot and I were in, was it Sweden? I think it was Sweden for the European Players Tour. That was the player they made available.

That was the player they sent,. That was the player they sent. Was Jusso Parsonen. Yeah, I remember talking to someone in Nashville, like, who are you guys sending for the Euro Tour, for the Euro Players event? He's like, Jusso Parsonen. I'm like, you think like that? And he's like, yeah, we think this guy is going to be.

And I think Jusso Parsonen is going to be really good. When you look at the size and look at the scale, to me, it's like, eventually, it should happen for Jusuf Parson. That one, if that comes to fruition, that one surprised me because it wasn't too long ago that they had extremely high hopes for Yusuf Parson. To the point where it's like, that's going to be our guy we're sending. That's why when I read that this morning when Elliot published, I was like, hmm, Parson and A, like okay, but it was like five minutes ago, you thought this guy was

going to be a big deal for the Nashville Predators. So we'll see. And again, if I'm going to throw a dart, I mean, look at how Kyle Dubas is doing the rebuild with the Pittsburgh Penguins. That would sort of fit the MO of what Dubas is doing there. But, you know, Elliot's right, like Dante Favreau in Columbus looks really good, right?

Phil Tomasino in Pittsburgh looked good. Like, I don't know. That one wouldn't surprise me. You put it in my head. Ever since, I think it was like last week, you said Dubas on these, like, I don't want to call them reclamation projects, but like-

Second chance. Second chance, yeah. And then every time I see one of these young guys that it's like, oh, like maybe not working out. I'm like, hmm. Cody Glass. Pittsburgh. Cody Glass to Pittsburgh'm like, hmm, Pittsburgh. Okay, so 40 glass to Pittsburgh, Tomasino to Pittsburgh.

Now I'm like, penguin, penguin. Yeah, isn't that like 22 to 25? Maybe a change of scenery. Okay, on that we'll wrap. Listen, have a wonderful weekend. Thanks so much for joining me today and for joining me all this week on The Sheet. Zach, you're outstanding. Good luck in beer league tonight. Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks so much for joining me today and for joining me all this week on the sheet. Zach, you're outstanding.

Good luck in beer league tonight. Trying the Michigan fools, fools Aaron. That is, but again, like if you're going to do it, bring, drag one of your buddies out and, and record it.

Cause I just want to see what happens. I just want to see the size of the guy that pounds you afterwards from Michigan beer league. I don't know. Maybe you're sneaky tough and I don't know Zach, right? Maybe you're one of these guys. It's just like super sneaky,

tough, like George McPhee, uh, who was one of the sneakiest, tough guys of all time. He looked at him like, Oh, he's not that big.

And then you start fighting him. You're like, I don't want to fight anymore. Gary, how it's another guy like that. Um, so good luck with that one. Um,

but thanks for another great week, Zach, much appreciated. Thanks to everybody in the chat we'll recommend to everyone again check out Morning Cup of Hockey my favorite hockey program Monday at 9 o'clock Eastern

have a great weekend I will talk to you Monday and on behalf of Zach and everybody here at the Sheet we thank you for your contributions and your attention as well either live on YouTube or downloaded on podcast. Thank you. Talk to you Monday. Have a great weekend.

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