The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Brian Burke Reacts to the Flyers and Flames Trade

Episode Date: February 1, 2025

Brian Burke stops by for his usual Friday appearance and has a lot to say about the current trade scenarios and tells some old talesWatch Down to Irf with Travis Green: https://youtu.be/QI1Jru-GGY8?feature=sharedShout 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.

With that we'll get to our Friday Standby. He is the one and only Brian Berkey. He joins us each and every Friday here on the program. Berkey, how and where are you today? I see you're in the home office. Home office. We're going to have to look at a painting of me. You know what's better?

There's only one thing better than one Berkey and that's two. The trademark tie around the neck too. My girlfriend arranged an upstairs office but I couldn't get it to work this morning. So I'm stuck here again. All right. I'll suck. No, no problem. They get to look at you as if they have blurred vision too, or double vision.

Um, Brian, before we get to, I want to ask you about the Philadelphia flyers and the Calgary flames and that trade. I want to ask you about what you were doing exactly 15 years ago today. More on that in a moment. I want to ask you about the Winnipeg Jets who just had a third period against the Boston Bruins last night and rolled, but I want to play something for you. I'm not sure if I ever played this for you when we worked together at the old shop. But after Marc-Andre Fleury last night in Montreal, you know, beautiful scene. He's got a shut together at the old shop. But after Marc-Andre Fleury last night in Montreal,

you know, beautiful scene, he's got a shutout for the Minnesota Wild, the Montreal Canadiens players are lining up to shake his hand, et cetera. It's a wonderful moment. I thought, you know what? This is a good place to show this video. So this goes back to 2017, Berkey,

when Jim Rutherford was trying to get Marc-Andre Fleury out of town. And one thing I would like to point out too, the two goalies who they tried to get to take his place are both not heard of right now and that is Shruth and Jari and Matt Murray. And Mark Andre Fleury is still playing. I would make the point he should still be a Pittsburgh Penguin, but I digress. So Colby Armstrong Berkey runs into Yvonne Barrett, who as you all know, played the character Danila Mew, the Netminder from Slapshot, and said,

look, can you send a video to Marc-Andre Fleury to cheer him up a little bit? You know, he's going through a bad situation with his general manager, Jim Rutherford, can you send him a video? Berkey, I wanna play this for you. I played it for the audience a second ago. I wanna get your reaction.

This is Yvonne Barrette with Colby Armstrong and a video from Marc-Andre Fleury back in 2017. Enjoy. Hey, Marc-Andre Fleury, drain me right fucking now. Take care. There he gets old. It's the best line that I don't know if I ever showed that to you when we work, used to work at the old shop, but it's one of those videos that whenever

I'm in a bad mood, I just kind of pull out and I play it because it's, it makes me laugh. I want to ask you about Slapshot in a second, but first I want to ask you about Marc-Andre Fleury. Beautiful night last night, last game in Montreal at the Bell center, etc. The crowd, classy as ever, the players, classy as ever, all of it. When I say the name Marc-Andre Fleury, what pops to your mind? You love it.

I think that's the only word he's, this is the guy I said this earlier today. It's amazing to me. Marc-Andre Fleury gets the reverence that typically attaches to a guy who's spent his whole career with one team. He played for four teams and yet he's revered in all four, which is very unusual. The guy who moves around usually sacrifices some of that loyalty, some of that reverence, some of that love, but it hasn't happened with Marc Andre. Everyone loves him. He's had a great career as a player, but more importantly, he's done an upbeat, contributing guy

and they're always played. And he's one of the most beloved players of this or any other generation. You know, I was making the point on yesterday's show. When I think of like beloved goaltenders, I always think of Johnny Bauer. Who doesn't matter if you're, you know, five or 95, you know, Johnny Bauer and you, and you love them. Um, but he is this sort of that this generation's Johnny Bauer. He's loved by young people, middle age, old. It doesn't matter.

Now off the Marc Andre Fleury page, one of my favorite stories from you is the seconds ticking down 2007 game five. Your Anaheim Ducks are about to defeat the Ottawa senators for the Stanley cup and was it your team services guy who pulled you aside? Who was it? Joe Trotta, our video guy. That's it. So what was the line?

What did he say to you right before the buzzer hit zero? I just hugged Henry Stanley earlier and Henry was yelling unintelligibly. Henry was really excited. He's like, yeah. And, uh, with clocks down to about three seconds, and it was really excited he's yeah and With clocks down to about three seconds It's ticking and Joe Trotty yells out and the ducks have won the championship of the Federal League Perfect Look at that what about the win the Stanley Cup and Joe Trotter through the slap shot

Yeah, how many times you how many times you figure you've seen that movie, Berkey? I'd be at it over 100. I remember I was playing, call it pro hockey when it came out. I just finished my Stubbing Games in Springfield and my roommate and I went to Arizona on our spring break. We drove from Providence to Arizona, not much fun. But we watched the movie in Arizona and I said to my roommate, who's a goalie at Providence,, So I felt like I had been a part of the movie for the whole movie. So I said to my roommate, Rick Ma, but I said, I just love this movie in Springfield.

You know, it's interesting too, because the apartment in the movie, which is Bruce Boudreau's apartment, but I believe he shared like that was in Johnstown. I believe he shared it with Paul Holmgren. Did you ever talk about that somewhere? Yeah. Yeah. Because I think it's obviously, you know, trying to squeeze the beaver on the nickel till it squeals and save as much money as you can. So guys are living together. So I think it was Gabby and like, just think about this for one second.

What would an apartment with Bruce Boudreaux and Paul Holmgren be like? I just know Paul Holmgren would be in charge of everything. I played with, I worked with Paul Holmgren. I fought him in charge of everything. I worked with Paul Holm when I fought him in the Summer League. Paul Holm was my roommate so we'd go out. No, it's from Slapshot Trivia. You mentioned Johnny from Slapshot. What's his name? Alan Nichols is the guy. He's from Montreal. I worked with the league. I skated with him. No way!

At the outdoor rink in Manhattan He's a great guy. He's not very good hockey player. That's okay. You know what? It's funny to get in And Tim Robbins skated with us too. And then when I worked at here with TSN James Duffy to the reconstruction of the whole I remember that's that the family for that. Hey, yeah Yeah, the opening that. Hey, yeah, yeah. The opening. And see, you come to the house by yourself. You feel same. Maybe you go free. You see Alan Nichols has always been one of those people that I've always wanted

to meet because to me he's like every single line he delivers in that movie. To me is perfect. Um, he's my, he's my favorite actor in the whole thing of all. And every people, every people ask me, you know, who do you want to interview? Who do you want to meet? Who do you want to meet? Who do you want to talk to? I always say Alan Nichols. That is like, that was by Albert McGuy.

We were playing with him. I, they've known us for skating too. We said, let's, we gotta get Johnny a goal. So we set him up for like four or five good chances in the roll point plank. He couldn't score, so I said, screw it. That's it. No more Johnny, you're on your own.

Well, that's why I was telling the story that his grandfather, Riley Hearn, who played for the Montreal Wanderers, was the first pro goalie to win the Stanley Cup. So there's a legitimate Stanley Cup, I guess what an NHA then, hockey association with Alan Nichols, so he kind of comes by it legitimately. He wasn't just. What a great guy. He's trading a little bit.

That's tremendous. They all were. Before we get to some questions, I want to ask you about the trade yesterday. So Morgan Frost and Joel Ferribee go from Philadelphia to Calgary. So a nice little bit of business there. They get a little bit younger in the middle. Andre Kuzmenko, Jacob Peltier, a second and a seventh go back to the Philadelphia Flyers. Can I ask you something really trivial here? but younger in the middle. Andre Kuzmenko, Jacob Peltier, a second and a seventh

go back to the Philadelphia fires. Can I ask you something really trivial here, Burke from a general manager's point of view? That seventh round pick in 2028. I always wonder about these. Where does that come from? Like I can't imagine, you know, Breyer and Conroy on the phone and Danny saying like,

ah, we're still not there yet Craig. I really need a seventh in 2028. Like, Bricky, where does that come from? Just wanted to add something to the legend, make it look more even. Our scouts used to fight over that last pick in the draft. I hated it. My Nola scouts every year, I'm trading our seventh round pick this year.

It used to be a ninth. I'll trade our ninth round pick this year. We'll leave early and next year we get two in that round. They're like, no, no, no. We have a guy we like, usually a tough guy or a goalie, or a hero that they don't think anyone's seen. So the Scouts would argue over the last pick in the draft for each team, seventh round pick. And I'd be like, if I trade the pick now, we can leave. Nope, nope, we gotta stay. So, and then the league told me, the league told me they'd be like, if I trade the pick now we can leave. Nope, nope, we gotta stay. So and then the league told me, the league told me they'd find me if I left early so we just stopped worrying about it. Is there, like when you would get to those other picks, here's what I'm curious about, there are some teams that allow their scouts to have, I guess for lack of a better

term, passion picks where the general manager will say, you know what? Western Scout, this one's all yours. What's your passion pick? Did you do that too? Like pick the spells and different? Especially if like our French guy getting screwed all night, he hadn't gotten, we hadn't got any French picks

and he had a guy really like, we'd say, you're up. We kind of put you by the side all day. Western guy had a guy you like. So we do a passion pick or a courtesy pick to a guy. But some of those picks, some of those guys play. And actually they identify one skill. I said, well, if this guy can't skate, he's got a tremendous shotter. It's really tough. We can work on the other parts of this game. So you take a flyer on the guy, but it's funny. The arguments you'll have about the last pick you have in the draft every year.

And it's unbelievable what passion these guys have for that. Oh, well, this is, that's, they're like, that's the last three years of their lives following that guy, right? Following, following all these players. Yeah, you're right. Um, what do you make, what do you make of the deal? Um, specifically, I mean, the one thing that I look at with Philadelphia is they've opened up a center position for some, maybe that's just holding for Jet Lachenko to step in next year, their first rounder from last draft.

How do you look at this deal? I like Craig Conrad's end of the deal. I think Phillips is being blasted. I said this earlier today, the tendency seems to be you want to declare a winner and a loser on every trade. Yeah. And a lot of times you've got to judge a trade and that Remember, when you hang up the phone after a trade, both GMs turn to the other, the rest of their staff and say, that's a good deal. So Calgary hands up the phone, Craig Conway turns to Brad Paschal and says, that's a good deal. Flyers do the same thing on their end.

So someone's going to be wrong over time. But initially, I see the merits of both. I'm not being a lawyer here saying, oh, they both won. I'm saying I like short term, I like Calgary's end of it. For the long term, it depends on what the Flyers do with that pick and what LaPierre turns into. You know, one of the things that's, and I always wonder about teams that make trades

based on where they're at that moment. Like the expectation for the Calgary Flames this year was, you know, they're gonna be in the conversation for first overall pick. Like they're gonna have a high pick. No one expected them to be this competitive this deep into the season, but they find themselves competitive.

Dustin Wolf has been exceptional, I know they're having a hard time scoring goals, but still, this is a Calgary Flames team that for a lot of people has exceeded expectations. So I look at this deal and I say, even if the Calgary Flames were quote unquote bottoming out, I could still see them making this deal because Morgan Frost is only 25 years old

and their centers are a 34 year old Nazem Kadri and a 35 year old Michael Backlund, they needed to get younger at that position. So I don't look at this as some would and say, this is the Calgary Flames thinking they have a shot here. I say to myself, this is the Calgary Flames saying, yeah, this is a trade for right now. We're getting a good player who can play,

but also we need to get younger down the middle. Yeah, I think you analyze the prop players down and listen early. And for once, I think you got it right. Sorry, Jeff, but that had to have been a great thing. But remember too, there's no very few trades will think you got it right. Sorry, Jeff, but it had to happen very soon. But remember, too, there's no very few trades will put you over the top. It's not like getting Chris Bronner in the summer of 06 and say, okay, now we're a legit contender. This doesn't put them over the top.

It makes them better. But it's a steady progression. They're already playing with house money. Like you said, they're already playing way above whatever level anyone thought they would. That's Ryan Huska. Everyone says it's Wolf, and that's the Wolfs having a marvelous year. But Ryan Huska is the head coach of that team. I work with them. He deserves a lot of the credit, and no one talks about him. He's been exceptional. Listen, he was exceptional in the Western Hockey League. He's been exceptional with the Calgary Flames as well. Let me ask you this one. This comes to us from, from Janet Crosscheck. Hey, Berkey, which player or players got away from you that you're

angling for and almost got? Who was the one that got away? Well, we got in real late and there's some dispute about this on Michael Connell's part, but we got in late on Joe Thornton and I think if we'd gotten in earlier we could have got him and these obviously go around had a great career. He's a great guy. We got in too late on him. I'll take the blame for that. According to Michael Connell, he'll dispute that version of things. He says we were never in it at all. But I spoke to him about making this trade with Bob Murray sitting beside me. So pretty comfortable in saying that would be one.

What? We tried to trade for Keith Kachuk too. We tried to trade for Keith Kachuk and we weren't able to get him. And I think even though he was on the back nine then, I want to really fix this. Was that the year that he ended up going to Atlanta? Do you recall? I don't recall. I think that's right right but I don't know

was the year before we won the cup was all six. Okay so one of the other thing I want to cram as much in as we can here with you oh and by the way Johnny Lazarus had a great time with you last week he was like I can't believe I get a chance to talk to Brian Burton this is so cool. He's a good guy and yeah he's a good guy and Jasper was beautiful that was my first time out there. I know you've been before. He met you with your family. Uh, it's an absolutely gorgeous part of our country. So do you Brian Burke know where you were 15 years ago today?

No. You're on stage announcing that the Toronto Maple Leafs had just acquired Dionne Frenouf, Keith Olley, and Freddie Shustrom. Or... Matt Stajan? Matt Stajan. Yeah, go for it. Ian White.

Yep. Simone Maris. Yep. One more. Maddie Hyman. You for it. Yep. Yep. One more. You got it. Nick Littagman. Nick Hagman. Yeah. It was a fun day.

We made that deal. Darrell Sutter and I shook on that deal on Friday. And we said, well, we can't have to meet with the ownership and explain it to us. We'll have to announce it Sunday. And all seven players played that night, but Darrell Sutter is such a good guy. He said, we'll go sight unseen. Whoever gets hurt is hurt. So if you get two guys hurt, we're making the same deal.

Yeah. We did it sight unseen. We shook hands on a deal over the phone. The Friday I made the deal on Sunday. How, how rare is that? Because like, even just looking at last night with the Calgary Flames and the Philadelphia Flyers, all of a sudden, Morgan Frost is playing in the first period. And then somewhere in the second, Morgan Frost vanishes from the bench as the deal is getting put together.

How rare is it though, for that, I can't even imagine it happening now, but how rare would it have been to do a deal on a Friday, all seven players skating on a Saturday, and then you announce the deal on a Sunday? I could do that. Are you not nervous? We were.

We watched the game, then Keith Olley was playing in the America League, so he played late. I had said some of that game, I had Mike Petty call me the second the game ended. the took the same risk, almost the same number of players involved. Now, some of the players involved, they wasn't worried about getting hurt. You know, someone played a way that they might have gotten through it. Okay. But Dion didn't, Keith Dali didn't and Jammer didn't. So I was nervous about those guys. Who was the hardest, who is the hardest player to give up in that deal for you?

Well, none of them were hard. When I got to Calgary, Matt Stajan came to see me. Matt Stajan's a great kid. Came to see me, he said, should I be nervous? He told me once. I said, man, I traded you to get Deon. I would have put four of you in there if I had you.

I liked you. It wasn't about you as well, getting Deon. So to me, Matt Stajan was hard to give up, but not that hard just because Deon was in the deal. But putting Matt Stajan on a plane, that wasn't fun. He's a great kid. Yeah. The one thing I always loved about Stajan, when the Maple Leafs are going through a dark period, he was always the guy at the end of the game who would always get out there, especially on the road, out in front of the media. He was always a guy. and there were a lot of veterans on that team too.

Who took his wife is lovely too. Just a great guy to have on a team. Uh, I always thought that, and maybe it's just my naivety, but you know, and watching him with the world junior, I always thought that Keith Olley was going to be a hell of a player. I really thought Keith Olley was going to be really good. That deal was held up for a whole day because Darryl wouldn't do it with Keith Olly in it. And so I'm not doing it without him. And so Darryl called me back on the Thursday, I guess it was the Friday.

It said, okay, we'll put him in. I forget what we tweaked to make that happen. But, but, uh, rancher was his nickname, Keith Olly. Great. Yep. His dad fell through the ice in a tractor and almost died He thought he'd doven and said save his dad dragged his dad out of the water and saved his dad's life So Keith Ollie was a he thought he had a good career

But I thought he'd be a much better player than he was he got bad enough a bit But um, he was a great kid too. That was fun trade nice having him around Always remember his fight with Mark Frazier because it was Frazier and Ali. Frazier and Ali, here we go. Frazier and Ali. Here is, here's an interesting one. In a year where we know the cap is going up

drastically next season, how much does it change the thought process of a GM looking to make moves at the deadline? Like look, Berkey, next year it's 95.5, then it jumps to 104, and then it goes to 113.5. I was reminding everybody, and you know this, going back to the 04-05 lockout, coming out of it, the new salary cap, the low end is 21, the high end is 39. Holy smokes, here we are at 95 and 70, and the year after it's 104 and 76.

How much is this change you're thinking if you're a manager right now? Well, I think one basic change took place in the NFL a couple years ago by percentage of cap. They started thinking in terms, forget what the amount is, percentage of cap, the 20% max when you can have in the NHL. And so agents started coming in and saying, we 20% of the cap or 18% of the cap, that

equates this amount of money. It changed conceptually. And I think the younger and now space guys in the NHL think that way now. So it does change your thinking. And these guys that signed eight-year deals, they almost all, they got stalled by the pandemic, but they're almost all gonna get left in the dust with these new deals. So I know there's a risk,

there's some security getting a seven year deal, but I remember Kirby Puckett, was the fastest player in Major League Baseball, I believe, check my math, or was that can. Great hitter. Best player in the history of Major League Baseball to get through a million dollars a year. He took one year deals every year, just bet on himself.

I really like, I mean, normally we see players, I mean, I think the term that you managers use for that is evergreen deals. Like, I'm just gonna go on a one year and a one year and a one year and a one year, but normally we see that with players at the end of their career. Oh, this guy's on evergreens.

Yeah, he's not going anywhere. He's just on evergreens But you don't you see that you don't see that when players first hit free agency So you left the guys who do five-year deals with the cap going up and I mind you Jeff All the lead is predicting is what that might look like They're not saying where it's gonna look like it might be less than 105 They're saying it's gonna go to whatever and then 105 that's speculative at this point But it's gonna go up clearly five million plus a year and Saying if we're gonna sign this guy and sign that guy it's got to be accidents to be x plus y X plus five percent x plus six percent So you're gonna see the ceilings move up the top guys will be left in the dust Our producers act says Puckett was the first to get three million dollars a year

Yeah, I thought of something like that. He was the guy who took he better himself every year I like great ball player former Minnesota Minnesota twin, am I mentioned? Growing up there. Yes, I know, one of your favorites. I get Rod Carew, one of your favorites too. He's one of my favorite Minnesota twins. He still home-based seven times one year. No one will ever do that again.

No, he was remarkable. I don't know, the shortstop in Cincinnati was pretty fast too. Let me, one of the things that I've always wondered about the salary cap, maybe you have an answer for this, but I haven't been able to get an answer for this one. And it's a very hypothetical question. And moreover, Berkey, it's unlikely.

But humor me for a second. Let's say that some player signs starting next year for 20% of the cap, the maximum allowed, okay? What happens if the cap goes down? Does the player then, does the player's compensation go down with it? Or is it locked in because they've already signed the deal and you're not allowed to change contracts?

Again, highly unlikely, completely hypothetical, but listen, who predicted the pandemic? If the salary cap goes down and you're locked into a player at 20%, what happens to that contract? Because technically he'd be making more than 20% of the cap. I don't know the answer to that,

but I would guess that the league has said, wherever you sign, you're stuck with that. If it goes down, becomes 23%, you're probably stuck with that. The league doesn't allow amendment of contracts to go up or down, which 23%, you're probably stuck with that. Lee doesn't allow them in the contracts, so up or down, which is a good thing. Otherwise they try and beat guys down all the time. For sure.

No, I don't think you could do anything about that. Don't forget, I wanna talk about that article, Ran. Don't worry, we're getting there. I know you're hot about it and I don't blame you. We're going there. But if you wanna ask you about the Winnipeg Jets, this team has been marvelous. Well coached, the netminder is all world,

best goal in the NHL right now, best goal ten in the world right now. And Connor Hallebach, Mark Shifely snaps into yesterday. I'm not sure if he caught any of the Winnipeg Boston game last night, but it just seemed, and I always admire this about teams. I admire this about the Edmonton Oilers in the eighties. When you scored against them, it almost seemed as if they got offended that you tried to score on them and then they would just start filling the net.

That's what happened with Winnipeg yesterday. They got a certain point in the game. They just said enough of this and dusted the Boston Bruins. Do you have a thought on this Winnipeg Jets team right now? Yeah, I did a lot of TV surfing last night between the Boston Bruins. Do you have a thought on this Winnipeg Jets team right now? Yeah, I did a lot of TV surfing last night between the Boston game, I watched the Ottawa's game, which was really exciting. I watched the women's game, which was great.

So I was doing a lot of surfing last night, but yeah. The Boston game to me, Winnipeg, I mean Kyle O'Connor is the best player in the league that no one talks about. There are better players than Kyle O'Connor, but I'd like to know who they are. And he's an unassuming guy. and I like the way they jumped on Boston and restored the lead and went to, I think, from 2-2 to 4-2 in no time, like 16 seconds. They've got a really good team. They've got a really good coach, a new coach, but he's really good. They've got good personnel and everyone likes the Winnipeg Jets because of Mark Chetman. Everyone likes the Chevy. All their personnel, their owner and their GM, they're all good guys. They're all community minded.

Everyone likes those guys, so everyone's falling for them. You know what I wonder about the Winnipeg Jets mentioning Kevin Sheveldayoff? We've seen Sheveldayoff make some moves at Deadline, Neaterider, Tefoli, etc. We all know about the history of playoff utility with the Winnipeg Jets. If you're Kevin Cheveldeoff right now, again, I'm not a manager. I'm just talking shit from the backseat. If I'm Kevin Cheveldeoff, you know what I do at Deadline, Berkey?

Nothing. I don't change this thing a bit. It seems like they have everything. You pray for health. You try to bubble wrap players, whatever, rest them down the stretch. If I'm Kevin Sheveldayoff, I don't do anything. What if you're Kevin Sheveldayoff right now, Berkey? I think your players want you to see you do something,

even a tweak or a depth move added a little toughness or whatever. Add something so that your players look at each other and say, there's Chevy trying to give us the best chance that we can have. So I always try to do something even small. Even the early one the Cup added mayday late. So I think you got to try and add something just to tell the players you're not asleep at the switch. But I agree it's it especially with the goal-turning they're a tough team to be right now. They can score multiple lines, can score. They work real hard. You put a rookie in the game last night.

The kids from the Rhode Island area, Ford played at Providence. Parker Ford. Scores his first goal in his first game. How about that one? It's great. Cool. Yeah. It's a fantastic story.

Parker Ford is the kid's name. A couple of more here before we let you go and I'm gonna get you to talk about that. The issue from last week. This week in Ottawa was awkward for Michael Landlower. So there was the announcement, there's gonna be a couple of exhibition games in Quebec City at La Centre Vidyotron.

And he mused about, well, you know what? We play regular season games in Sweden. Why can't we play regular season games in Quebec City? And then the mascot showed up, Spartacat with a half Ottawa Senators, half Quebec Nordiques jersey, and Ottawa Senators fans did not see the fun or humor in any of it. And Lauer did the mea culpa,

like this was a misstep, he said by him and Cyril Lieder. And listen, you've managed teams, you've made decisions like this before. As you're watching this, Berkey, what's going through your mind as you're watching Ottawa have a tough time off the ice? Well, I love mascots, but I hate them too. And I think they can do a lot of damage unintentionally. That wasn't smart, I don't think. But I think the notion of playing

regular season games in Ottawa, especially when they're not selling out, they're trying to gauge the depth of that market. I could see that making some sense. I would have the league announced it though, not the teams. We'd have the NHL announced, we're going to play a couple of regular season games there. I think people in Ottawa could understand, okay, we're not selling out. It's a market we'd like to develop. Everyone would like to see more Canadian teams. They could probably live with that. But the way it went down, people had a sour taste in their mouth about it. I get that. I get that. You got passionate fans in Ottawa. They love their team. They don't want to hear about the team might move. I don't think that's what anyone intended. I don't think a team, another team in Quebec City makes sense anyway. But that's,

I thought it made some sense, but it was Daniel Corley. Real quick, before we get to the article, what did you make of Jim Rutherford this week, president of the Vancouver Canucks, essentially saying, we're not going to solve this problem here. We have to just try to win a trade knowing full well that we won't. I think, again, you look at this, they've tried everything else. They tried to deny it. They had the players in and had meetings. They've done everything. They took the players out for one. They've tried everything. So this to me is Jimmy Rutherford just saying enough, enough speculation. This is what's happened. We have a ref we're going to address it if we have to.

We'd like to not, but I thought just let's call everything out in the open and that this will draw up interest. If someone on the sidelines said, I don't know about the innuendo. Now they know Jimmy Rutherford's at the shop open for business. The one the one thing that I, that I did sort of wonder about Berkey is I, I wondered if this move, cause I always try to look for motivation, right? Like you've taught me this, the, the times we've talked about running, running teams, you know, who is being served here? What's the end goal? No one does this frivolously.

And it's usually done in concert with the owner. And the one thing that I wonder about too, do you think this is a way perhaps to get JT Miller, because like they're shaming the players publicly here. Do you think this is a way to maybe get JT Miller to add more teams that he allow himself to be traded to? Yes. I think that's one of the motivations is okay, first up right now, nothing's working, the team's working right now. They've won four in a row. I believe that's one of the motivations is okay first up right now. Nothing's working the team's working right now

They've won four in a row I believe that three don't fit for them and it's nice for their lead They're in a plaspa brawl is turmoil. They're in a plaspa So I think what they're saying is nothing's working Let's be honest about the opinion and two things might happen The players involved might say we'd be more open to moving Jimmy Ruffford just laid it all out for us. And the other teams that are thinking on the sidelines, especially now, remember, when the ice comes out in the lake, one piece moves first, then they all start moving. So that's

first big deal that Colorado made with Carolina. That started in motion, the next deal, the next deal, the next deal. It's going to be busy now for a little bit, I think. So I think it's also shaking loose the teams. They've been on the sidelines. Now, Jim Rutherford said, we are open for business. These players are both available, one or both. And so I think it's a smart thing that generates some interest. The worst it can do is they're confirming what the world already knew.

All right, as we wrap up, last week on the show, it was me and Johnny Lazarus in Jasper. And there was either a question or I asked, no, it was a question about Morgan Riley. And you told me this before too, how that 2012 draft, you guys had Morgan Riley first overall.

Like if you guys were selecting first, you guys were taking Morgan Rielly. It wasn't that you look back now and say, Morgan Rielly was the best player in that draft, but at that time, you look at the rankings that Toronto Maple Leaf's Morgan Rielly is number one. I will open the floor to you. What happened afterwards?

Well, to me, first off, I don't usually rant about stuff that's in the media, because I don't generally care, except I thought this was a real perversion of the truth. We were talking about that draft. There was a question about that draft. Right after the draft, I said, we took Morgan Riley at five or whatever it was, and I said to the media, we had him rated number one of that group. And that's all I said. And people said, you didn't have number one. I said, yeah, why would I announce we'd take him number one or had him ranked number one in that group of five players? Turns out he was the best player in

that group of five. That's all it was, was a discussion about that group of players in that context. So some clown writes back and says, Brian Burke said, and I quote, and I'm not saying the quote is inaccurate, but we're talking in context. He said the best player in that draft was Morgan Riley. Now we're talking about that draft. Now the hockey is rather a substance miracle, got it exactly right and said, that's what they're tired of. This clown says, Brian Burke said he's the best player in the draft.

What about Vasilevsky? Well, I didn't say Vasilevsky wasn't as good as Morgan Reilly. I love Morgan Reilly, but so I don't take the media to task very often, but I thought this guy can't be that stupid. So he's got to be that vicious instead. There's someone who can't be as stupid enough to say that what he said, what I said is what he thought I said. It's more let's go throw Brian Burke under the bus if we can. That's all it my nerve about it but I can care less otherwise. One of my favorite stories and the player will remain unnamed but there was one player in the

NHL whose nickname was Two People because as the person who gave him the nickname said I'm calling him Two People because one person can't be that stupid. So his nickname became two people and that stuck with him for his time in the NHL. Um, Berkey what's your weekend look like pal? Life's a mocky going to the women's game tomorrow. The women are playing tomorrow too. Yep. Can't wait to get there. Uh, should be fun. Um, yeah you mentioned the game last night, the Toronto-Montreal game, Marie-Philippe Hollande with the shootout heroics.

And front and center was your favorite player, Erin Ambrose. I love her. She's awesome. And Laura Stacey came back from injury. She had a big night, three points. What a great player she is. They always river about going offside. That's like the big

thing with Laura Stacey is just, can you stay onside? Can you stay onside? Yup, yup. Thanks, Berky, you're the best. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, pal. Okay, thank you. I'm weak every day this month I can't get out my head Lost all ambitions day to day Guess I can call it a ride

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 no It's me, myself and how this gonna be fixing my mind I do want to break it I turned on the music I do want to break it I turned on the music I turned up, up, out

Sometimes losing Helping on the things that went wrong I don't think you're sometimes losing Helping on the days that went wrong