The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Brian Burke

Episode Date: December 14, 2024

Brian Burke joins Jeff Marek to discuss some of his thoughts on neck guards, the current state of physicality in the NHL, the Anaheim Ducks uniforms, and tell some all-time stories--------------------------------------------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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at one you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. 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 it. We were 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 neck 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 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 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 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 players point of view but is there 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 a wonderful man. What a great guy. His wife's a doll too. So it was a pleasure to work with Clint.

But, no, that's a horrifying thing to watch. And skin cuts are a real problem. We've got guys going with 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, you know, 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 this story. Here's your son from Monday. One, one very memorable one um i can't remember if big berkey was at the league or with the team but he like ran into starbucks left his phone and said 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 berkey 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 MF-er 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 well and I'm going Mr. Sather Mr. Sather and finally after I don't know like 90 seconds or two minutes of being berated he finally stops I go Mr. Sather. And finally, after, I don't know, like 90 seconds or two minutes of being berated, he finally stops. I go, Mr. Sather, 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 going to hear about this one, Slats. Like, I don't think i'm going to 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 it'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 um you don't get to say how proud you are of your kids geez i tell patrick all the time i never get to say it publicly how proud i am of him but just listen 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, 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 what do you remember? I mean, this is reaching back into history, but do you remember what say there was lighten you up about even thinking that, you know, I mean, this is reaching back into history, but do you remember what Sather was lighting you up about, even thinking that, you know, 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. That kind of talk is okay in our line of work. You know, it was interesting because I did ask Patrick about like 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 we're best of friends like this that's just the the the way we communicate for listeners and viewers it 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, 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.

Afghanistan. One time was equipment, one time was weather, and the last time was they just started 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 in this period. They 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 said that when you use a lot of profanity and vulgarity, it indicates a paucity of vocabulary. In other words, you don't have a good vocabulary to say it personally. And I said, Dad, my players don't listen to us, I swear. But it mortified my dad right until he died. Really, eh? It is interesting because it's kind of swung a little bit.

Like the conversations now are, I don't know, a little more traditionally polite. We've got a couple of questions coming in for you, Berkey, and I want to get your thoughts on a couple of other things going on in the NHL right now. But from William Kaspers, 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? 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, that 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, but I don't think Pat said 10 words, Trevor said.

Because Pat just smoked that cigar and listened. He's a great listener. And Pat was big on fairness. He was big. He said, you've 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.

So my favorite story about Pat was he hated Don Koharski. He hated referees as a group, despised the whole group. Like when Bill McCurry went into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Pat's comment to Billy McCurry, who 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 put one in, I guess you'll do. So 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 had to go down. You had to walk across by the press box, then down again, then down again, finally down on the arena floor, right next to the officials' 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 Cole. I said, no, you're not. I said, we can't afford the fine and the suspension. And Pat got really mad. He would start shaking. And you knew you were 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 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. And 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 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 party that would have been like wow pat quinn just punched me that's. 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. Pat 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. Not 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. You're right. I correct myself. But when Pat, when Lou got mad, yeah,

believe me, he knows how to curse. Okay. I want to ask you about some, I tease 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 wanted to read for a while it's called a slap shot in time the wild but true history of the minnesota fighting saints uh dan minnesota's written this one so i'm looking forward to reading this this weekend so i got minnesota on their brain like oh break he's coming on i gotta 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 was 13. And the first pair of pants I ever put on when they show me how to dress, I put the garter belt outside my pants, by the way, the first time I tried. I didn't know how that worked. Didn't work very well. by the way, the first time I tried.

Didn't know how that worked. Didn't work very well. But they called, 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 assumed that there was a now defunct company called Breezer that made hockey pants kind of like Cooper with Cooper alls I'll even though the NHL ones were pro packs like what could it have been something like that like a defunct

company called Breezer that made the pants and it just stock 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've 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 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. The state tournament was on. I didn't leave the TV. I sat and watched. They played four games each day.

Two in the afternoon, 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, but his name rhymes with Patrick Burke.

So here goes. Ask my dad about the time he stole a Christmas tree. What's that story? Patrick's being kind. I did it twice, actually. I stole a Christmas tree. I can't believe Patrick did this, but I told you the story. But it is Christmas time, and the Grinch should be present.

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 9 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, 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 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.

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 a, that's often, uh, that's often, uh, awesome. Um, Patrick, thanks so much for the, uh, for the, uh, for the text on that one. Uh, Tommy T submits this one for struggling teams. Uh, thanks so much for the for the for the text on that one. Tommy T submits this one for struggling teams. And, you know, what can you do? Like he says, 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 quit on the team we got blown out at home in vancouver uh we were playing calgary and the game got away from us we lost eight to

one it looked like we quit playing and i had a meeting i said 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 the 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, secondary pressure, and so on. I listed eight things, ten things, and said, this is what we did last year when we had a good start. We won face-offs. We 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 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 730 clip the rest of the year. Made the playoffs. I ended up with 100 points. 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.

What was it from a manager's point of view well i think you're you're blessed you certainly have certain players that you're blessed to have and 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 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 Tame Mussolini 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 upbeataim player and a great guy and always upbeat happy and always worried that his teammates were happy and really cared about the room but then i was i've been giving that answer for 20 years now and and odie my girlfriend said to me what about sid you just you just left sit out i'm like yeah i have to amend that so since the best 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, and he's buddies with Crosby, one day after practice, 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, like sit 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 across because everyone that's played with him always says the same thing he makes you embarrassed not to try, 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 forehand. You've seen this goal 100 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 100 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 gives you a look once in a while in practice like if 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 uh my producers um Zach just reminded me we're because we were talking about this before one of my favorite Berkey stories and 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, 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, great Bob McCammon, was my coach in Maine when I played in 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 morning off at 10.30 or 11.30, 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 11.30, 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 he 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 belong on the ice with Wayne Gretzky. My son might, but I don't. So I skated off immediately, like almost sprinted off and sat on the boards on the bench and watched my son skate with Wayne Gretzky. It was so cool. So hang on, hang on, hang on, Berkey. Pause for a second.

Just so like 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

once these things belong together it's like I couldn't go 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 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 the same with Sid. I never would have skated with Sid either.

Yeah. Let me ask you this one. So William Caspers 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 Swedish, you can tell he speaks the language. But otherwise, his English is 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

should 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 volandesco was a rookie with the kitchener rangers so 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 gave land to Skog. 17 years old? I think

Muzzin might have been 19. 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. 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 Landis Cog.

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'm like... I watched the film of that fight because 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, and he still did fine. It was... 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 like that's the best I've seen the Vancouver Canucks play this season Kevin Lankanen and Nat 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 Suse 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 I liked him. I thought he was good. What did you make of the Maple Leafs effort against, well, these are two of your old teams,

the Toronto Maple Leafs and 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 and 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 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 Valdez believe in orange counting a little too much orange for me but I'm not going to say anything the San Valdez 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 that are 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? People forget Greg Cronin worked for me in Toronto. He was an assistant coach 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 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 he's always like with the philly flu oh we got to go to the spectrum and all of a sudden 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 it's you have the good news is it's a copycat league. So 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. I'm just curious, 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 Settlemire, 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. By the time I got down there, the fight was over and I didn't get involved in a fight, 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 Slapshot?

Great stuff, pal. You be well. Enjoy your weekend. We'll catch up in seven days. Okay, thanks, Seth. I went to the doctor. He tried to give me a little medicine. I'm like, no, I'm in that spine. I'm not against those methods, but it's me, myself, and others. Don't be fixing my mind. I turned on the music. I turned on the music. I don't know.

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.