The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Not So Killer B's ft. Brian Burke

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

Jeff Marek is joined by Brian Burke for Burkie Friday's... discussing the Bruins slump, Trevor Lewis reaching 1000 games and some interesting stuff about his draft year, as well as some questions from the Sheetheads!SHOW INDEX00:00 Intro07:43 FanDuel Daily Outline09:24 Boston Bruins - Pastrnak v Marchand?15:14 Brian Burke50:59 Closing Thoughts1:02:29 FanDuel Look AheadShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Okay, welcome to Friday. Welcome to the sheet once again, Merrick along with you. Zach Phillips playing the keyboards in the background. No, that's small town strip club. But you knew that already. Coming up on the show, it is Fridays. That means it's Fridays with Berkey. As we like to say, let's get ready to grumble. And today is, today's the birthday of Frank Mahavlach. So Frank Mahavlach today turns 87 years old. Why do I bring up this birthdate specifically today

when it's a date with Brian Burke? Here is why. If we go back to October 5th 1962, yes I know it's another history lesson from Merrick here, but if you go back to 1962, Frank Mahavlach was involved in one of the most famous trades that didn't happen. In the history of the NHL, it was a very boozy evening in 1962, October the 5th. Happy birthday, Frank Mahalvich, by the way. One of the best left-wingers ever. Was he better than Bobby Hall in his time? Discuss amongst yourselves. It was a very boozy evening at the Royal York Hotel, sorry, first day with the new tongue, when Jim Norris of the Chicago Blackhawks and Harold Ballard of the Toronto Maple Leafs were having more than a couple of drinks. And it got pretty deep

in the night and they got pretty deep into their jars too and it was decided and I've seen a copy of a copy as a scribbled copy of this contract or this agreement between the two sides at the hockey Hall of Fame Resource Center really is a piece of precious hockey history where Frank Mojave Lich was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for one million dollars. One million dollars in 1962, which today is probably like, I don't know, 90 million dollars or something. Imagine that for one second, a player traded for that much money. But nonetheless, that was the trade made by two boozy people in charge of running two

hockey teams, Jim Norris and Harold Ballard. You know, the sun came up the next day, everybody in each organization freaked out, the trade got annulled because it was consummated by two intoxicated people. And I know you've probably always wondered, and you look at the history of trades of your favorite hockey team and you have wondered,

were these two GMs drunk when they made this deal? How deep into the night did this trade actually happen? I'm sure you've wondered about it. Have there ever been drunk trades made in the NHL? That is the most famous drunk trade in the history of the league. Didn't happen, but nonetheless. And it does beg the question, and we'll ask Berkje this coming up here in a little while when he joins us, if he's been aware of any trades that were made

while either one or both Zach Phillips, people in charge were intoxicated or not. Have you heard that story before, the drunken trade in 1962? Mahavlac, from your Toronto Maple Leafs, your favourite team, traded the Chicago Blackhawks for one million bucks. It's, you know, they have the, they have the sheet of paper with the Royal York

hotel heading on it at the Hockey Hall of Fame resource centre, it's both guys just scribble this on a sheet of paper. I know the rumours always been done on a bar napkin, it was actually done on a a sheet of paper. I know the rumors have always been done on a bar napkin. It was actually done on a proper sheet of paper. Just the scribbles were from intoxicated hands and brains nonetheless. Anyhow, you wanna talk about drunk trades

with Berkey coming up later on today? You think I should bring that one up? I really, really do want to talk about drunk trades with Berkey. Okay, so we'll get on the drunk trades page with Brian Burke a little bit later on. One of the other things that I'm hoping to get to with Brian today is we talk a lot about Brian the manager. Sometimes we'll talk about Brian as a player and he did play professional hockey with the

Maine Mariners, the American Hockey League when I called her a cup with the Maine Mariners. But one of the things that we haven't really talked about with Brian and maybe you haven't heard, is he used to be an NHLPA agent. Like he represented players. His biggest client was, this was before he went into management, was Brett Holt. He also was an agent for a couple of goaltenders,

Pete Peters, who man, he went through some seasons where he looked like this guy was going to the a couple of goaltenders, Pete Peters, who, man, he went through some seasons where he looked like this guy was going to the hockey hall of fame. Pete Peters and another goaltender who played at, oh, I always get it confused whether it's BC or BU. I think it's BU, Kleon Daskalaskis. Colby's going to be so mad if you get this wrong. Oh, I know. Yeah. Cohen will lose it. That's not be she's be you play on Daskalos. And what those two guys used to always do apparently, well, last brick if this is true or not. The story that I heard was those two guys and maybe

when they were drunk, who knows, would call up the brick household and pretend to order pizzas, just to annoy the brick family. So it's gonna be like, last person I would want to prank called Jeff. I know, right? So we'll have a little bit of fun with Brian coming up today. We'll talk about drunk trades and Kleon Daskelaskus and Pete Peters and calling the Burke household

to order pizzas. In the meantime, can we park a little bit of time here to kick off the show today, just to celebrate Sam Carrick, who found himself on the ice yesterday in overtime, the New Jersey Devils and buries it. First of all I made a great defensive play earlier in the shift to lead to that two-on-one and his first ever overtime game winner well I guess all overtime goals are game winners his first ever overtime goal is a huge one

like I know it's just like I put put it out there yesterday on TwitterX, you know, it's big goal for the New York Rangers, it's a big game, it's their rivals, the New Jersey Devils had a tough time against the Devils, specifically this year, had a tough time against New Jersey Devils social media team, nevermind the hockey team. The New Jersey Devils social media team

has just been roasting the New York Rangers all season long Just put out there, you know Sam Carragher's first OT winner Huge and there's like the Devils fans like I don't know if you want to go read my mentions underneath that tweet It's like Devils fans like I might as well like I don't know I got treated like I was a war criminal or Or something like I'm just by New Jersey Devils fans. Like they took that one really personally. It's January 9th, yeah, huge game, Merrick. Am I mistaken here or was that not a big win

for the New York Rangers? Huge rival and they're struggling and it's not Sabanajad that scores, Panarin. By the way, Jacob Marks was robbing Sabanajad and Panarin in that overtime but like that's a huge goal for the Rangers a big win for the Rangers know. Yeah sometimes I think context of the win is way more important than anything else no matter even how you got there what you think okay over time you got barely got by you could

probably hear Devil's fans saying after it doesn't matter the like this is a Rangers team that's been dying for a win like that. And you get one against a rival who, as you mentioned there, has been dunking on you all season. Like, fan base in the room, it doesn't matter. It's a good feeling for everybody. It can set you back in the right direction. Okay, so let's have a look at what's coming up on the program today.

Daily Outlines presented by our friends at FanDuel, North America's number one sports book app provider. And the number one story continues to be, and tough loss last night, comma again, the Boston Bruins. And today Brad Marchand had to answer questions about an alleged rift between him and David Pasternak. We'll play that for you if you missed it.

So that's coming up a little bit later on here on the program. We'll probably mention that with our next topic here and that is our next guest and that is Brian Burke, former NHL general manager joins us every Friday here. So that's one of the things we'll talk to Burke about. That was a tough one again last night. You saw the frustration like Mark Castellac just,

you know, running at Lilleh at the end of the game. Lillebergh gets a stick up, they end up fighting, et cetera, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So your questions as well for Brian Burke, if you're in the chat right now on our YouTube channel, send them in there. Many people have already sent me by way of either DM or on Twitter X, whichever venue you choose,

send them in and we'll do our best to get your questions to Brian Burke. That's coming up in a little while here and there's a couple of things in the 2006 draft that one I want to go over because one of the things that we left on the table this week that we didn't get a chance to talk about that I really think is important is Trevor Lewis's 1000 game so we'll talk about that he was a big piece of that 2006 draft for a number of reasons, but there's a couple of other stories coming out of that draft. Like every draft has some doozies. 2006 has got a couple of whoppers. And so

we'll go over that coming up a little bit later on on the program. And that is the show today. So before we get to Berkian, let me know when he's aboard here, Zach. I do want to mention the Boston Bruins again. And you know, radio reports today talking in Boston, talking about an alleged rift between David Pasternak and does he have booboo face because of what the captain has said

about his game previously, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and how it's upsetting the team and the losing streak and it won't end. And this is at the root of all of this. The Vancouver Canucks snickering at Boston Sea, it's not just us over here. Do we have the clip of Brad Marshand essentially shooting this one down?

Okay, so Brad Marshand addressing the rumors from this radio report earlier on today after the Bruins practice. Here's the B's captain. Well, yeah, I have heard, you know, what what was said in in the media this morning. You know, it's unfortunate. I know reporters have a job to do and you know, that job is report on the team and and usually you try to be fact-based

but when there's just blatant lies told in the media, that's where there's a problem and The fact that this guy has a platform and he's just making stuff up is embarrassing and There's zero truth to anything that he said on the radio This is how you lose your job very the fact that he's gonna have a job after this is insane. Ooh, that's a pretty defiant defense there, Zach. Like this is the first that I've, like when this one popped up today, I kinda went, huh?

Like sometimes you'll hear of rifts between players on teams and you know you hear that okay yeah this one's going sideways it's because of this issue between these two players like the Elias Pettersson JT Miller thing was out you know well before it was circulating well before it became public and then confirmed by a number of people although both players denied it. But this one seemed to really come out of nowhere but I guess this is what happens when you lose or when you start losing I'm guessing that because I haven't heard I don't know if you have seen heard these whispers before about any type of rift between Brad Marchand and David Pasternak. But like times are tough for the Boston Bruins right now like if you have a

look at your NHL standings after Tampa's win last night against the Boston Bruins 4-1, all of a sudden Tampa is now in that third hole in the Atlantic and the Boston Bruins now holding on dearly to a wild card spot while, wait for it, the Columbus Blue Jackets with two games in hand are a scant one point back of the Boston Bruins for the first wild card spot. Like eventually this is gonna end for the Boston Bruins. Like they've had it too good for too long. The Stanley Cup 2011 and then a couple of Stanley Cup final appearances as well

against Chicago and St. Louis. Like no one's gonna cry for the Boston Bruins. They've had a lot of success for a long time. One of the most storied franchises in the history of the game. They've always been blessed with some of the best defensemen of all time, and that goes all the way back to Eddie Shore,

and right up through, you know, number four and Brad Park, and I still think, you know, if medicine and surgery were at then where it is now, we'd talk about Gordon Klusak the same way, and Ray Bork, and Sadein Oara and, and, and, and, and. Like they've always had great defenders. No one's gonna cry for the Boston Bruins. Just like, you know, when Chicago's run came to an end,

no one cried for the Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, et cetera, because they've had success for so long. But it is gonna end for Boston. Like you just don't stay good forever. And I think we're all feeling that maybe this is like legit, the beginning seriously of the end for the Boston Bruins here.

I'm gonna push back on you a little bit. I feel like- You're a Leafs fan, that's why. Yeah, cause you're a Leafs fan, cause you still have- I think they've got enough left in them. They're built well. I mean, there's mistakes that are being made. I, in no disrespect to Joe Sacco,

I don't know if he's the guy to get them over the hump. Like, they've had Bruce Cassidy and Jim Montgomery in there. I think both of those guys were incredible coaches, which maybe is me turning back on my statement here and actually leaning more towards what you just said, because neither of those guys could get them to win but I don't know like I think they still have really good team um really good team there uh the only thing that gives starting then but yeah the thing that gives that gives me pause for all of it like yeah they're in a playoff position right now

still like hey Marek calm down they're still in a wild card spot the thing that the thing that really still like, hey, Merrick, calm down. They're still in a wild card spot. The thing that, the thing that really, that I always look at is the goal differential, dash 27. Dash 27 for a team that's in a playoff spot, like. Oh, you know who did it? The Washington Capitals. Say, well, I always, I can't remember exactly what it was,

but that's last year. Listen, it does happen. Like sometimes there's like, when a Sometimes there's like when a team loses, when the team loses, they lose big. And when they win, it's like by one puck or two. It does happen. But again, you come back to the goal differential on a team and it doesn't look great for the Boston Bruins here.

Having said that- Jeff, as we've got Berkey on board here, I've got one thing I wanna point out. Okay. That was my favorite thing that Marshawn said and all of that. There was some really harsh comments, but I very much enjoyed and it's what I laughed at

when I was cutting this ahead of time. Marsha goes, you're reporting on the team, et cetera. And he goes, usually try to be fact-based. He just slips out in there. Like, a smart guy. He's a smart guy. I've got all day for bad martial arts. Let's bring on our Friday staple here. He is the one and only Brian Burke joining us each and every Friday here on the sheet today no different as we welcome aboard the great Brian Burke. Burke, how are you today pal? Good Jeff, how are you? I am very well. How much of this, I don't know how much you've followed it today, the radio report about alleged issues

between David Pasternak and Brad Marshand. Brad Marshand comes out right away after practice, shoots it all down, takes shots at the reporter in question, and wonders whether he should even have a job the next day for just, in his mind, reporting falsehoods. I'm not sure how much you've followed this sort of sidebar to the Boston Bruins season. If so, do you have a thought? And if not, do you just in general have a thought on what's happening with the Boston Bruins right now? Well, I think they're really scuffling and I think it's indicative of this type of dispute being public is very on Boston Bruin life. And I think it says the same thing about the Vancouver dispute, the notion that two players don't get along.

That's not new. And that's not news. That's very it's as old as team sports. The teammates don't get along. So to me, it's as old as team sports the teammates don't get along So to me it's no big deal the fact that it's been reported and commented on makes it a big deal now It's a story. I don't get mad at the reporter I understand why Marsha would take a run at him But I don't blame a reporter for reporting stuff that he's heard. I have not heard that that would be news to me

Yeah That it's it's the first that I had heard of it and I think a lot of people as well. And that's why I sort of caught everybody by surprise today. Like all of a sudden, bam! As we're all trying to reach for answers on what's happened to the Boston Bruins here. Like this is... I said off the top, no one's gonna feel bad about the Boston Bruins. They've been a very successful team for a long time. Punctuated by their most recent Stanley Cup victory, I shouldn't say recent, it's 2011. But still, they've been to the Cup final a couple of times, once again St. Louis and once again Chicago,

and they're always competitive. And the building's full and players are going to the Hall of Fame, et cetera. Is this, like, when you look at a situation like this, because no one stays on top forever, do you look at this, Brian, and say, now, like, there's only so many years you can keep going on until eventually your team takes

a dip or you have a downturn. Is this like in your mind legit the beginning of a significant downturn for the Boston Bruins? Well, let me answer the question before I answer the question. The notion that every team has a shelf life, that's clearly true. Because if you have success as Boston has, as Tampa has, you get to a point where you don't have a high pick. Year after year after year you're picking 26, 24, 27. You do that year after year, you can't sign any college free agents of note because you're too good. They all go somewhere else. So it ends up costing you dearly over

time and that may be the end of the cycle for the Bruins right now. I'm not prepared to say this just because the core of the leadership group that they had still can carry them. I think they've got to clean up a lot of stuff that's happening in the games right now and they need better goal-setting. Let's park this for one second, this NHL conversation,

because I wanted to make sure that I got a couple of things in here with you. Brian, normally when you and I talk on air, when you and I, we used to do the old animated series, the Hey Berkey series, which I really loved and I think you like too, we talked a lot about Brian Burke, the manager, and things that happen to you and deals and different situations and teams and these things that a manager goes through. I'm curious about Brian Burke, the agent, and I want to focus on three clients. I want to get to Brett Hall in a second, but there's two clients that I want to focus on

and I want to know whether this is true or not. So Pete Peters and Kleon Daskalaskis, couple of goaltenders, true or false. They used to call the Burke household regularly and pretend to order pizzas. I guess that's true. Cleon Daskalakis used to do that all the time. What's the story? What's the deal? Well, Cleon's a real, he's a great kid. I haven't talked to him in a couple of years. I got to follow up on that and talk to him. He's a great kid.

He's an undersized goalie and he played in the Boston system. My favorite story about Cleon is they went to send him down. I went to the game that day and I brought my son Patrick. Patrick was like three. I brought him to the game. I used to bring Katie and Patrick to the game starting at a very young age., and the one of my kids had it especially. It's a pizza mat, we went live pepperoni and they're like Dad, look at that Scalakis. I love it. Did you, first of all, any Pete Peters stories? I remember like Peters,

because you know I was a kid then and I remember Pete Peters would have these seasons where I mean there was a one year where he won the Vezna trophy and then was a runner-up for the Hart Trophy like and he had a great season with the Flyers, great season with the Boston Bruins Any stories about Pete Peters who and he was there for that That that final overtime game against the Soviets in 84 in the Canada Cup People may just remember him best as a guy that gave up Mario Lemieux's first career NHL goal.

Where he danced everybody and scored against the Boston Bruins. Any good stories come to mind when you think of Pete Peters? Well, Pete Peters won a color cup with us. He was a great player. He was a great player at the American League level. Wanted him to have a pretty good NHL career, putting it to best, as you mentioned.

And Pete Peters was a great guy, great teammate. He and his wife Laurie. But Pete was a real slow talker. It would take you a while to go out for a beer with Pete. It might take you half an hour for him to say one sentence. And I called him, he called me from Edmonton one time and we were talking about the offseason, what was going on. to My moves just crashed through my fence. So Pete was a really good teammate, really popular teammate, really good goalie. One of the early big goalies too, he was a big man. Yeah, excellent goaltender. Okay, a couple of questions here come to us from social media. JStarC444 on Twitter.

So this is interesting. Berkey, living in the Metro Detroit area, I'm surrounded by tons of great hockey development programs and I'm wondering, how can I get a start in scouting? I've always had a lifelong passion for the game and with the new NCAA eligibility rules, I figure I have a shot. How do people, I mean, outside of playing and networking, I get this question a lot, I'm sure you do as well.

How do you get involved? How do you get in? Well, my first scouting job, people won't remember this, my first scouting job was as a volunteer for the Flyers. The Flyers asked me if I would scout for them, but they didn't have any budget for it, and they said you'd have to do it on your own time, but we'd be happy to provide you with a you know, a parking space and a ticket. That was about it. So I went to the Boston College

games and Boston University games with the late great Walter Tanis. Walter was a player that's a former player that scouted for the Flyers, taught me how to do it. So I remember one of the first games I went to, I went to see Boston College play and Kevin Stevens was in that game, Brian Leach, Doug Brown, all of the top guys. I filled out the form, Walter Tanslick, one took one look at it and ripped it in half twice, ripped it one way and the other way, said your ratings are too high at all eights and nines. And he said, you got to be sixes and sevens a really good skater would be a seven and eight would be Bobby or And I'm we've never had so I did it again. He ripped it up again. He said you're still too high So I was my inauguration in Scotland my first job my point is I didn't get paid for my first job

The next year the flyers wanted me to go back and do it But I got a job that paid $10 an hour doing legal work. $10 an hour is a lot of money to a kid in law school in 1978. So I took that and didn't scout again. But my first job was a volunteer job. There's no shame in that. There's nothing wrong with that. I would say to anyone trying to get in, trying to get on with the team and do some volunteer work, go and work for the scouts, go scout some games, file some reports, say what you think about players and prove to the person involved that you've got an eye for this, that he or she can trust you and turn it into a full-time job down the road. Maybe best to start at the junior level for that, like we're not talking about like knocking on the NHL door here.

No, I don't think so. I don't think that'd be a mistake. Another one, oh, I like this one from Nick Davis, hashtag ask Berkey. Was there ever a GM, I know you like to talk about pirates. Was there ever a GM that ever made you sweat when you saw their name pop up on caller ID? Whose call did you

not want to answer? Lou Amarillo. I was terrified of Lou. My first deal I made with Lou. I picked up the phone to make the call to Lou, put the phone down, went a second time, went and walked around. I used to walk around the building to calm my nerves when I had a big decision to make. I'd walk around the concourse of the building, sometimes for hours, but I was trying to work on a trade. I walked and deal for us and for the New Jersey Devils was a Bobby O'League deal. That was the, uh, Lou made me nervous. Harry said it made me nervous and slots made me nervous. Why does slots make you nervous? I mean, I, I'm pretty sure I understand why, but just so our, our viewers and

listeners understand, like, why did these guys make you nervous? We were dealing with guys with track records that have proven they can win. And they're back then the mentality was their idea of a good trade was to get you fired. They thought that was funny. It was a, they were pirates or vicious. They're brilliant guys too. Like you're dealing with, let's say that's one of the smartest people I've met in my life. Same with Harry. They're brilliant people. They're really like great conversationalists. You can talk about anything with those guys because they're so well-rounded and so smart. So they made me very nervous when I was young. It took a lot of nerve to make my first deals with those guys. Okay so once, okay

let me follow up with this then. So this is no longer Brian Burke Hartford. This is Brian Burke Anaheim. This is Brian Burke Toronto. This is like established Brian Burke. When there's a rookie general manager, Fresh Meat, New Kid, were you one of the vultures that came in to see, okay, I'm gonna see if I can skin this guy? Well, I tried not to skin people because I was offended, but some of the offers I got when I was a rookie GM were just insulting. We call an agent back, he wouldn't even let him finish the smoke, I'd say, that's not

an offer, that's an insult. So I tried not to do that, but I did try to get in early. I figured we used to have a saying, first night in jail, someone's gonna get this guy. Might as well be us. But not to try and do a lopsided deal, but if this guy's gonna make a mistake, it might as well be with us. So it wasn't not a pirate offer as much as

mentality that, okay, this is a new guy, he's new with this, he might make a mistake, let's make sure we're in on it if he does. with this, you might make a mistake. Let's make sure we're on it if he does. Here's another interesting one. Ask Berkey from Peter Lupper. As fans, we tend to focus on trades and signings when it comes to GM's. What are some of the underrated and important aspects of the job that fans may not be aware of.

Good one. Well, it's a 12 month job. It's a three hundred sixty five day a year job. So one part of it that the team spent a lot of time on is budgeting. It's not sexy. It's not fun, but it's really important. So these teams spend a lot of time on budgeting every year in the spring and April or May spent a lot of time with your chief financial guys

going over the budget. And that's really important, especially in the salary cap world. You've got to know where the money goes. You can't just increase your spending on sticks for one year by 150%. Someone's gonna ask you, why are we increasing the spending on sticks?

Why has travel gone on so much? So there's a lot of budgeting work that goes on. And usually the subordinates do most of that, but you gotta spend some time on it too. I'd say that's an underrated area of importance. How much, and maybe this is for someone at a higher level than the manager's position, maybe it's not. Things like dealing on a, not day-to--day basis but semi-consistent basis with

season ticket holders. Maybe it's a season ticket holder that doesn't want to renew that's been with the team for 20 years or it's someone else who's then just not interested in renewing their package for whatever or dealing with a sponsor. How much of your day to day is something as simple as going to lunch with a sponsor or taking out a season ticket holder who's on the fence about renewing? Well, I get very strong team to team.

It's certainly in my, from my vantage point, that's a critical part of the job. One thing I always told our staff when we took over a team was there's no firewall on this team between the talent side and the business side. A lot of teams they don't want to do that work. They figure out someone else's job to sell tickets. I told our people like Mark Crawford, I'd say to Mark we've got a suite that's up for renewal. I need you to spend some time with this guy today. Mark Crawford was

didn't like it. He was really good at it. He'd have some kind after practice and spend a half hour with him or go for lunch. So we used to all, we called him the icons. We saw the high visibility people that we could. The captain was a, Dion Foniff was an icon. You know, Ron Wilson was an icon. I was an icon. Dave Nolans was an icon. And we'd say, you can use any one of those icons you need you to make a deal. So we would have a season ticket holder, it was a big enough sweet holder, wouldn't be a season ticket holder, but if a big enough sweet holder needed it would be Dion on lunch, and Dion could sell ice to an Eskimo. Dion was wonderful at that. And Phil Kessel would chip in if we asked him to, but the coach was required to do

that and I did a lot of it, a lot of it. I remember, on my first year, Lafarge Cement was up for a renewal suite, a center-right suite, our most expensive suite in the building. And for some reason when we opened the building, we didn't stagger our suite contracts. They all expired in year three or year five. We should have had them staggered like two, three, four or five. But they all expired in one year. Seven or eight of the eight of the 15 that were up for renewal all expired that same year.

And Lafarge was one of them. Remember, I went out and went for lunch with Lafarge, spent an hour and a half at lunch. They brought in lunch. I went through all my visions for rebuilding the team, turning it around, making coaching changes, whatever. And we got through the renewal. I remember thinking that was the best time spent we ever did.

So I think they're still a speed over too. That's excellent. You know, I opened the show with a happy birthday for Frank Mahavlich. So Frank Mahavlich today turns 87 years old. And you know, for the longest time in the 60s, who was the better left winger? Is it Frank Mahavlach or Bobby Hall? But nonetheless, and when I think of Frank Mahavlach,

and I've seen the sheet of paper at the Hockey Hall of Fame Resource Center, Royal York, Royal York Stationary, it's the one million dollar for Frank Mojavelec trade, Jim Norris, Harold Ballard. Both guys were buckled and the whole thing ended up getting scotched the next day nonetheless. But I did wonder because people have looked at trades

sometimes and said like, man, was my general manager hammered when he made this deal? Are you aware of or heard stories of managers making trades while buckled? And one of the things about managers, when the NHL first put in the trade call line, after the Eric Lindroth situation where no one could figure out, needed an arbitrator to figure out whether the Philadelphia Flyers were going to get them or the New York Rangers were going to get them, they put in, as you well know, the trade line.

So you would call up and announce your trade, the other team would announce the trade, and then the trade would be consummated. When they did that, what a lot of, bluntly, what a lot of your colleagues and future colleagues would do and past colleagues would do as managers is they would have a few drinks and get on the NHL call line

and do drunken impersonations of Ron Caron of st Louis and eventually the NHL had to say guys Knock it off. Stop doing this these late-night phone calls impersonating Ron Caron any recollections or you've heard about Managers making trades much like Jim Norris and Harold Ballard once upon a time making trades after a few drinks No, I first off I've heard those stories. I don't believe them. I was around when there was a lot of drinking involved in the NHL, a lot more than there is now.

But I would say I've heard those stories, but I don't believe any of them. And since the league put the trade call thing and requirement in any way, it's a pretty serious business, folks. You can have a few drinks and talk about something, but you're not going to make up your mind or agree or commit to anything without your full capacity. So no, I don't think any of that happened then. I

don't think it happened to now, but for sure it doesn't happen now. Uh, okay. From Lenny. This is kind of a long one, but it's a really good question. So we got this last week. I have a seven-year-old son named Lyndon, named after my favorite player growing up, Trevor Lyndon. He started playing Burnaby Minor Hockey this year, go Bulldogs. He's been listening to podcasts with me when we drive to practices, games, and tournaments.

I explained to him who Brian Burke was, and he likes hearing his stories on Fridays. He said he'd like to send in a question sometime. My son, Lyndon, is interested to know the story from Burke's perspective on how he traded to bring back Trevor Lyndon to the Vancouver Canucks in 2001. That from Lenny. Well, Trevor was playing for Washington at the time and I called George Luffy and said, I'd like to see if I get Trevor back in here. And he said, and George loved

Trevor where everyone did. Everyone does. Like Trevor Linden is one of the most popular man, who were Connach's ever for a reason. That's because he was a really good player and an even better person. He was a great, great player and a great, not a great player, that's not true. He was a really good player. He worked hard. He did everything right. If every player played with the same intensity that Trevor did, your teams would be undefeated. So it's really a testament to him that he's a better person off the ice than he is on the ice. And Trevor was great for us. So I called George McPhee and said,

I'd like to bring Trevor back. Because the thing, we had lost so much for our fan base. Three things stuck out in people's mind. People couldn't stand that Pac-Man got fired. People couldn't stand that Trevor Mudd got traded. People didn't like the Mike Keenan hire. And then when I'd get to people and try to renew their season tickets, they'd say, look, Brian, we're happy you're back. and win. That was the impact they had on his fan base. So when we brought Trevor back, it was a huge deal. We had to pay a first round pick, as I recall. I don't think there was anything else in that deal. You have to check, Jeff, but first round pick for a player was 30 something

at the time. It was well worth every bit of it. It wasn't for goodwill. We brought him in to make our team better, which he did, but it generated a lot of goodwill too. So the traded from Washington with a second to the Vancouver Canucks for a first round pick in the 2002 draft that turned into Boyd Gordon and a third round draft pick in 2003. So you're pretty much bang on the money with that one. I am curious, that does lead to another question here.

That does lead to another issue. I always wondered about this with Jerome McGinley and Calgary, for example. When you are deciding to make a trade, we all assume that this is strictly a hockey situation. This is strictly hockey ops. How much does fan reaction, how much does fan reaction, how much does sponsor reaction factor in to making a trade?

I'd like to say it doesn't factor at all. That would be untrue. The fact of the matter is to the back of your mind, your assistant Jim will bring it up if you overlook it like Dave, no one's Bob Murray. They're there. My assistant gems, Dave Poulin, Colby Zell, someone would say, Berkey, this is going to cost us at the gate. No fans like this player.

So someone bring it up, even if I overlooked it. We always come up in the conversation. So no, I think Bob Murray would say, you got to do this, but just remember one thing, it's going to cost us a few season ticket holders if we do this. But we got to do it anyway. So I think it's a factor. I think season takeovers if we do this. But we gotta do it anyway. So I think it's a factor. I think people are lying if they say they don't consider it,

but at the end of the day, even if it's an unpopular deal, you do that deal if you think it makes your team better. That's what you get paid for. Had Erin Ambrose on the program yesterday from the Montreal Victoire with the PWHL. She's awesome. Yeah, she's great, right? And I wanna ask you with the PWHL. She's great right? And you know I

want to ask you about the the Takeover Tour. Great PWHL poster behind you. Love it with the the red necktie around the neck. Your thoughts on this this Takeover Tour and there's another game Sunday at Ball Arena in Denver. Montreal facing off against defending champions Minnesota. You know, I look at the game in Vancouver and it's 19,000. Seattle's got over 12,000. I think it's gonna be similar in Denver as well. As you're watching all this and seeing these numbers in these other markets, like these aren't right now

PWHL markets, what goes through your mind when you're seeing all of this, Bricky? Well, I saw her in Vancouver I missed her in Seattle. She's my favorite player right now. At least she plays the game. She's She's so smart and she's so tough and she's so good She plays the game at a real high level as a defenseman and she runs a power play and she killed penalties She's awesome. I think the best defense in our league this year so far is Megan Keller. She's been awesome. She's been outstanding. She's the best player I've watched in a game this year. So the takeover tour fills me with a great deal of pride because

my tenure is coming to an end by the end of the year here, probably sooner. Because when I took this job, I told the women, I said, I will happily take this job. I was very proud when they offered me the job. I was touched by that and proud to be the first executive director of the PA. But I told them, I said, a woman has to do this job after two years. So they will be naming a replacement for me in the next little bit with my blessing. But to me, this takeover tour is an indication of how strong and how great this product is. These women are tremendous athletes and they're great people. They work hard.

They put on a great show. And this is a way to gauge interest in expansion markets for the league as it grows. So I think the takeover tour is a brilliant concept. I think it's going to sell a lot of tickets, tickets Which already has to make make some of the losses back, but also gauge expansion opportunities properly So I think it's been fantastic. I had someone I was in Seattle and in Vancouver. I couldn't believe how much fun it was You know, we we do wonder too. Like what are the what are the next markets going to be? It's hard to look at what you see in Vancouver and Seattle specifically and the proximity,

and maybe you'll need to bring in a travel partner if those are the two destinations, but it's, it's tough to look at Seattle and they've backed women's hockey before, ditto for Vancouver. It's tough to look at what we just saw last week and not say, why not these two for, for the next round of expansion? I know we're wondering about Detroit and Pittsburgh with Fenway Sports and perhaps Washington as well,

but is it not tough to see what you just saw last week and say, yeah, how can we not have teams in Seattle and Vancouver? Well, this is an ownership level question. The Welter family owns all six teams. And they're gonna own whatever, if they had two teams or three teams or four teams, they're gonna own those two teams as well. So that's a question for them, not for me. I have offered my two cents on it. I'm not consulted very

much on what the league does, but I've offered my two cents on it. I said, I think if you're gonna go with teams in the West, you have to add at least two. If you're going to go, there has to be two Western teams. It can't be one. It can't be Seattle by itself or Vancouver by itself. That'd be too much wear and tear on the players. Even with scheduling where you play two games at once, you'd stay over and play a team twice. People get tired of that. So we add two teams.

If you're going to expand at all, I'm not sure we should expand right now, maybe wait a year. We've still got a couple of venue issues. So we started with six teams, three of them had venue issues, plane facility issues. We solved the Toronto issue by moving to Coca-Cola Coliseum. It's been terrific. We hope we solve the New Jersey situation by moving from Brooklyn to New Jersey. We hope that that solved that problem. We don't know yet, but we hope. And Boston continues to be an issue, playing

a little. So I'm not sure until we solve those issues to get the venue situations sorted out that it doesn't make sense to wait. But if we're going to expand, I've pointed out to them that it makes sense to add either two teams close to our core, maintain our cheap flight schedules and bus availability, add say Pittsburgh and Buffalo, add say Detroit and Philly, add say Pittsburgh and Detroit, whatever the combination might be, but add two teams and keep our base close and then expand further west later on down the road. But if you're going to add a Western team. You should add to.

Don't disagree. I'm very much looking forward to seeing Denver on on Sunday. Jay Rock submits this one for you. Ask Berkey. Do you ever think of your legacy? And if you do, what do you want it to be? It sounds like someone's planning a funeral Send flowers I

Think my legacy would be I hope it would be that I was a good dad That I that I worked hard and made the game better I played the play this style of play that sold tickets and made the game exciting I had success on and off the ice But I think my off ice stuff is going to be talked about as much in when that day comes as anything. I work in support of the LGBTQ plus community, I work in place of Canadian forces, I work with Special Olympics. Those are all important things. I've told my kids from a very young

age that that would make a difference wherever they live They have to make a difference. I used to say to them all the time who's gonna come to your funeral What are they gonna say? I stopped saying that when Brendan died. I started saying it again I told that story JJ Jim Johansson's, you know, the late great JJ. I said this, you know, who's gonna come to your funeral What are they gonna talk about? They're not gonna talk about how many cars you had or how big a boat you drove, how much money you had. They're going to talk about where your good dad, your good husband, good father, good uncle, good mentor.

And my relationship with my past players, I think, is really a testament to that I looked after my players. They still all call me. I still see them whenever I can. So I think it'd be a, I hope it'd be a good message where, or ask that question. Look, you know, so many people, uh, you're one of the most networked people in the entire industry. How much of your time do you spend even today on the phone? Way less than I used to on the phone. I tried to get in touch with every GM every five days.

That was my role, trying to touch base every five days. Then you realize early on it's not worth it for some of them. So I would go to more like every 30 days. But the core group of guys, 5, 10 days max. So that means 15 phone calls a day, probably to round up and get to five people. So a lot of time on that, a lot of time with the league, a lot of time with different coaches, a lot of time with the farm team.

So I'd spend a lot of time on the phone. Your right hand man is a huge part of that. Bob Murray was a huge help to me, Dave Nones, huge help to me on managing the phone load. So someone had to talk to an assistant coach that would be Bob Murray and then he could tell me what they said. Maybe I have to call him.

Maybe I don't. But having an assistant jam filter all that is really important. This is a question we got on Twitter X from Jay Fresh. Curious whether Mr. Burke could speak to the overall plan with the Penguins when he was president of Hockey Operations, including the reports that him and Hextall were ready to move on from 58 and 71. That was pretty close. That was pretty close for, especially Malkin.

I remember that was like right down to the wire of him re-signing with your Penguins. Well, we said people, they see record after record being broken and they're going to retire all these numbers and they're going to do this or do that. The whole point was to try and keep the band together, but only at a reduction. We had to save money. So those guys both took pay cuts. Now with Tanger's situation, Chris LaTang, he signed a six-year deal at serious money, but it was less than, we had two GMs tell us that he would have

been offered 9M a year for five years. So we signed him for less than that. And we signed him, it's going to be a painful contract to watch probably by the end, but he's still a really good player, a really important part of our team. So he was the number one priority. Then we turned to Gino Malkin and Gino was not number two priority. Well, he was, he was the number one priority. Then we turned to Geno Malkin and Geno was not number two priority. Well, he was. He was number two priority because the tenor was a more important leader and a defenseman and played a key role on our team. Had been through so much adversity, we needed him back.

Then we turned to Malkin. The reports said we didn't care if we signed Malkin again. Yeah, we did. We wanted to bring him back. We wanted to pull those guys back. So I think the record is clear why we did it and it makes sense. And they're on a pretty good run right now, by the way.

They really are. Do you have a thought, by the way, speaking of really good runs, all of a sudden now, I don't know if it's gonna last and if so, how long, but all of a sudden and listen everybody's cheering for this team because of the tragedy with the Goudreau family but don't look now the Columbus Blue Jackets are in a wild card spot Berkey and they're one point back of the Boston Bruins for the first wild card spot had

Don Waddell on the on the program a couple of days ago and talking about what's happening right now with with Columbus one do you have a thought on Columbus right now and Say a quick thought on Don Waddell as well as a general manager, whether it's with Carolina whether it's with Atlanta Well, Donnie Waddell is a really bright guy. He's probably the wealthiest guy in hockey on the GM base He owns a tough real estate. He's a wonderful human being to But it's, um, Donny Waddell started when he played at Northern Michigan, he started a business. I remember Bob Goodenow telling me his story. He started a porta potty business. Yes. And he would, he would, he would drive out, he got the contract for a stretch by 94,

one of the Detroit area interstates, he would drive out, unload the full, full, unload the, unloaded empty toilets, put the portapotties on and load up the other ones and take them to the dump and dump them out. And he started turning it into a really successful business, which he sold for a profit. And he started buying real estate everywhere. Everywhere he played, he bought real estate. He's a very wealthy guy, very smart guy, very low-key guy, very patient guy, not very flamboyant, doesn't lose his temper, doesn't swear a lot, just a calm guy, perfect fit for Columbus. He's a great guy.

I'm not surprised by their success. John Davidson's there. They've got great people and they're doing a great job right now. They're winning a lot of hockey games. You are, you were bang on about Don Waddell. So one game in the National Hockey League, January 28th, 1981, playing for the Los Angeles Kings against the New York Rangers. Waddell was a dash one, did not get on the score sheet,

and it was a six to two loss at the forum in Los Angeles. That is Donald. And I think it was, when he was in Atlanta, was it, cause he was like, you're right about, about real estate with, with Don Waddell. And he's a, he's very well off. Was it strip malls that he invested in? I believe like a number, a number of malls

that he invested in, they made a, made a killing. He's got $2 less than God. He's got, he's got, he's got strip malls, he did apartment complex, he did everything. He's a smart guy, a lot smarter than I am. You have a thought on what we're seeing from Columbus right now? Yeah, I'm really happy for them.

I think if there's a franchise that deserves a little sunshine right now, it's the Columbus Blue Jackets. Thank you, everyone, deep down, is cheering for them a little bit. Yeah. That's a good thing. Absolutely. Okay listen, on that we'll let you get to your weekend. Thanks as always, Burke, for stopping by, taking questions, answering questions, sharing stories about Cleon Daskalakis pretending to be the pizza man calling the Burke household. Thanks for that, pal. Thanks for that pal. Thanks Jeff.

There he is, Brian Burke who joins us every Friday here on the Sheets. Some wonderful stories. And you know the great thing about Brian too, and there's still plenty, trust me, there's plenty more stories to get to with Brian. A lot of it always comes back to family. I'm glad we got that question about legacy because how important family is and how important it is to Brian to be looked at as a great father. And you talk to any of his kids and they'll tell you the same thing. The amount of sacrifices that Brian Burke made because it's a demanding career that Brian always had, either as an agent or working in the NHL, or as a general manager or president of hockey operations. And just think about where he's been,

like it's Vancouver, it's Anaheim, it's Toronto, it's Calgary, it's New York with the National Hockey League, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So he's really been all over and through all of it, he's always prided himself on being a good dad, as any of us with kids should. Okay Zach, anything stand out there for you from Berkey this week? I know you love hearing from Berkey. I like the honesty about the PWHL I think. We've talked and there's a lot of hype about how well received they were out West. And I think that that will come,

but I just like that Berkey was like, well, we got to figure out these issues first. Like we got to get to this, this and this. And that's kind of what we got to get. Yeah, the rinks. Like we got to get these venues. We got to sort this out here and then we'll move on. Yeah.

Okay, yeah. The one thing that I always get from people when we have Berkey on, and this is from when I was at the old shop or here, is always like, he's just blunt and direct. Like, it's really refreshing. Like, there's like, he has a way of speaking that's naturally funny too, you know?

Like, I really enjoy the way he speaks, the words he chooses, et cetera. Really smart guy, he's a lawyer. But just how blunt he is and how he lets you know where you stand with him at all times. Like one day on the show here, I swear I will, I'll tell the story about how and why Bricky and I didn't speak for five years.

Maybe even more. Like honestly dude, he hated me. And out here from people around like, yeah, just, just don't, yeah, America, like you should really stay away from Brian. He's here. You're not as, you're not as a guy right now. It's been hard for years. I'll, uh, I'll, I'll tell that story. Um, one day and then I'll, I'll never forget the time that we sort of mended the fence. It was really simple. We started together at Rogers and I got to Sportsnet one day working with him on a Wednesday night.

And he was in the green room and he stood up and he handed me a monogrammed little booklet that he made for me. And he handed it to me and he shook my hand and he looked at me in the eye and he said We're on the same team now. That was it And then like all the whole like five or six years that we didn't speak Was all gone and ever since then we've been buddies but that can change at any moment Merrick Okay, so buddies but that can change at any moment Merrick. Okay so still on the program before we get to the the games tonight anything that we've left on the table from today? Yeah anything happened by the way while I was talking to Brook

yeah I was wondering about that too like while I'm blathering on with Brian am I missing anything? No I usually try to check and make sure that we're not missing anything that's going on so no no, we're good news wise there. The only other things were first wanted to get the Evander Kane news. He undergoes surgery on his knee, which is different than his abdomen rehab, but I kind of wanted to point this out. The oilers obviously tweeted earlier today, successful knee surgery on Thursday in Edmonton expected to require four to eight weeks of recovery time. But Jeff, the key thing here was not this knee surgery, it was

not the four to eight weeks, it was the fact that he has to now stop rehab on the abdominal surgery that he had and this is a new four to eight weeks like if you're approaching the end of January if you're the Oilers you really just care about one thing healthy in the playoffs right just like if you're the Dallas Stars with Tyler Sagan healthy in the playoffs and I know there's gonna be the Kuturov Kane stone conversations about about both of them. But nonetheless, if you're both those teams, if you're Dallas with Sagan, if you're Edmondson with Kane,

just healthy for the playoffs. Just get to the playoffs. Just get me to the playoffs and get there healthy. Hope he recovers sooner, hope he recovers well, and hope you get him back in the NHL. I'll tell you what, they could have used him the other night against the Boston Bruins, not to help them win because yeah, marched into TD and took two points and stole some per diem and went home. But just again, like

watching everybody do elevator practice standing around Nikita Zadorov, who just went like the Kool-Aid man through a wall through Stewart Skinner and everyone just stood there looking at each other like are you gonna do something? I'm not gonna do something. Are you gonna do something? I don't know. Are you gonna do something? That's where you kind of wander Vanderkeen more than just a little bit for the Edmonton Oilers. Okay anything else? You want to you want to get into Trevor Lewis thousand games? I do want to get into Trevor Lewis, Thousand Games? I do want to get into Trevor Lewis, Thousand Games. I really like Trevor Lewis, I always have. And he's been part of a really famous 2006 NHL draft.

This one was in Vancouver. And I've told the story before of how, before the draft Ron Hextall went from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, he would have been all at all the draft meetings, et cetera, et etc. Bobby Clark really wanted to draft Trevor Lewis and the Philadelphia Flyers, let me grab it here, Philly was drafting 22nd overall Los Angeles is drafting 17th, Los Angeles takes Trevor Lewis, Bobby Clark is hot and adding a log on the fire is the Rangers who are picking

one before Philadelphia take Bobby Sanguinetti the defenseman out of Owen Sound who the Philadelphia Flyers wanted if they were gonna get Trevor Lewis and now they've lost Trevor Lewis and then one of their biggest rivals takes number two on their list and that's Bobby Sanguinetti they end up taking Claude Giroux and that's why Bobby Clark forgot his name because I believe he was so consumed with rage about the Los Angeles Kings. But also in that draft, so Eric Johnson goes first overall to the St. Louis Blues.

I think, first of all, I think that the Islanders may have offered St. Louis every single pick in that draft for that first overall pick. I believe it was that one. But in that draft okay this is kind of a junior hockey story a little bit. So Jonathan Taves goes third to Chicago and at that draft the Vancouver Canucks were the Vancouver Canucks were hosting and the Washington Capitals were picking fourth and they ended up taking Nicholas Backstrom but it was looking really

interesting along the way. Backstory, Olaf Kolzig who was there with the Washington Capitals, Ovechkin Zonstage, George McPhee and Olaf Kolzig starting netminder for the Washington Capitals, he was also one of the owners of the Tri-City Americans of the American Hockey League. And they had the first overall pick in the Western Hockey League draft. Now I'm sure you'll hear a different story from either side, but the belief very much was that the Tri-City Americans owner Olaf Kolzig believed, was led to believe, was told by the Taves camp that if they drafted him first overall he would go play in Tri-City. They drafted him first overall.

He went to North Dakota. Yeah. Instead. And left the Tri-City Americans a little bit high and dry here. And so Eric Johnson goes first overall overall, like many of us expected, as St. Louis. And then number two, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and many thought that the Penguins may end up taking Jonathan Taves, they take Jordan Stahl second overall. And there was a belief that Chicago was going to draft either Phil, I think it was Phil Kessel who they were looking at drafting at number three, which would have bumped Jonathan Taves to the four-spot. And we were all wondering, because Kolzig I believe would have been on stage with the Capitals and Alexander Ovechkin, if Jonathan Taves would have

made that walk, walked up the stairs, and then Kohlzig would have been there to shake the hand of the guy that just screwed his junior team out of a first overall pick. Now the Chicago Blackhawks ended up taking Jonathan Taves and so we never got to see that awkward moment between Olaf Kohlzig and Jonathan Taves but there is a bit of video here that you can see on YouTube and I know that I'll be blunt. I Don't think you want to play this sack No, because of what it what it meant if it did indeed happen. Let's just get to this quick This is on the draft floor. This is Vancouver 2006

This is assistant general manager of the Boston Bruins who are poised to pick fifth in This is assistant general manager of the Boston Bruins who are poised to pick fifth in conversation with the general manager The Washington Capitals who are picking fourth George McPhee. Here's Jeff Gordon and George McPhee on the draft floor 37 You got the 37? I have 37. I'll give you 37. Okay, so one... Who do you want? The Swede. Let me run by this guy. They want the Swede. They want the Swede. They want the Swede. So what do you want to do? Huh?

I know, I'm just trying to make it look like we're doing something here. Yeah. Make it real official. Yeah. I just want to make it look like we're doing something here. You look marvelous, by the way. But, so that was the Boston Bruins essentially offering to flip picks four and five and sweetened it with their second rounder which is 37th overall. Never would have happened but when they said the Swede that is Boston was trying to get

Nicholas Backstrom. That's why they wanted to flip picks. Boston ended up with Phil Kessel. Washington ended up with Nick Backstrom but if that trade goes through, Zach in your mind does that mean that Tyler Sagan and Dougie Hamilton are Toronto Maple Leafs? In your world, if that happens. If this, then that. It's closer, but I think there's enough separation here, Jeff. I'm going to choose in my mind to believe that things in the NHL played out so differently, we would have never got to that point.

Right. Okay, in the meantime, let's close off and have a look at some of the games around the go. In the NHL this evening, there are five of them brought to you by FanDuel. Proud to connect the fans to major sports moments that matter to them. Our friends at FanDuel, we got five games on the go around the NHL this evening. The Detroit Redmings continue their other push to the wild card as they face off against the Chicago Blackhawks. Charlie Lindgren starts tonight as the Washington Capitals face off against Montreal. Montreal making their push. Are they actually good? Are we ready to say that Montreal has taken a step? I mean they're kind of having a moment. Are they taking a step? Discuss amongst yourselves. The Vancouver Canucks with all of their issues facing off against the the Carolina Hurricanes. The

Kings facing off against the Winnipeg Jetsets San Jose and Utah. Karel Vimalka starts in this one. Dylan Gunther lower body injury. He's out. Josh Doane called up. He'll play with Barrett Hayton on that line. Georgiev starts for San Jose. Askarov tomorrow against Minnesota. Fabian Zetterlund with the lower body injury. He'll play tonight as will Cody Cece. Which one of these or maybe a couple of these as we wrap up here today Really put the spice in your chili for tonight's entertainment Zach Canucks hurricanes is the one hurricanes coming off the back-to-back here and Vancouver looking for

Something yeah anything no lead is safe tonight. No lead is safe doesn't tonight. No lead is safe, doesn't matter. Vancouver's up three goals, hanging into the third. Don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere. That one is intriguing, and then the other one would be Montreal, Washington. I think that what you said of taking a step and are they good, they can be two different things.

They don't have to be one and the same. I think they've taken a step, yes. Do I think that they're actually good in the context of like playoffs competing in that way? No I don't think so I think they're a fun team that you've seen some of these young guys gelling together and heading in the right direction. The reason that's so much more intriguing though to me is because Washington has slowed down a little bit like there's been slow down, like a little bit of a decrease here in the way that they're playing. And against a Montreal team that's heading upwards.

And you're- I don't know, you said that big comebacks against the Vancouver Canucks a second ago. You're talking about Washington slowing down. I'm talking about a little bit more of a body of work over like the last 10 here with them. And I just want to know, like, I want to watch the response

because they seem like a team Jeff that has a response You know we've played poorly here. This is not who we are. This is not what we're gonna let become Who we are for a long period of time, and I think they could snap it I Am wondering if Montreal maybe is on the wrong side of things here tonight against the caps all right So we shall see there. All right, we're gonna wrap things up here for the program. Any final notes before we get into the weekend here? By the way, Vancouver's heading to Toronto.

That's a fun matchup for you, Nozak. Yeah, that's a fun one. It'll be fun tomorrow night on the post-game show on the After Dark, so we'll be... Give that one a plug. We never, I was saying this the other day, like I never like plug what you're doing, I just bark off about what I'm doing.

Give your property a plug here, Zach. Do it properly as we head into the weekend. Well, over on the Leafs Nation YouTube channel, you can catch Rosie and Alberga every Monday through Friday, but you don't wanna watch that. You wanna watch me on the post game show at every Leafs game, regular season, and and into the playoffs go live right after the show I read after the game for the show having those guys on having different people on to break down what happened in that game

If you and by the way, big Willie styles great show loves civilian Friday. I'll never change Willie. Oh, that's awesome civilian Friday We should start going at that So if the Maple Leaf lose against the Vancouver Canucks, who are you going to claim is having a rift in the room? Who hates each other? Who's going to be? Nobody. Nobody, nobody. But there's going to be so much, so much about, is Morgan Riley throwing this one for the Canucks? You know, does he want to go back to Vancouver? That's not me in the chat. Oh jeez. You've been hanging out with Elbergh too much. You've been hanging out with Nick

Elbergh too much. That's your deal. Okay.. You've been hanging out with Nicole Berger too much. That's your deal. Okay, and that will wrap up. A couple of things. Thanks to everybody in the chat again. The chat's always so much fun. Please don't forget to like the program here on YouTube and subscribe to our daily face-off YouTube channel. Listen, it's been a nice little sort of accelerated bump that a lot of the properties have had during the last little while, including this one. Glad to bring on new people. Great to see people that are in the chat from Morning Cup of Hockey to Daily Face Off Live

into this property as well. I've mentioned this so many different times. You have a look at every single hockey media property that exists right now. I will put this line up against any single one of them and nobody delivers as consistently, concisely, and I would argue more entertainingly than we do here. I know I'm patting ourselves on the back but here I go. Than everybody here at Daily Face Off. So thanks for joining us this week whether you're watching live on the YouTube channel, whether you're watching in the archive, whether you are listening on one of the various

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I went to the dark man He tried to give me a little medicine I'm like, nah man, that's fine I'm not against those methods, but I knew It's me, myself and how this gonna be fixing my mind I do wanna break it I turned on the music I do wanna break it

I turned on the music But you turn up that battle that you sometimes lose, yeah Helping on the days that went wrong You