The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Jonny Lazarus

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

Jonny Lazarus joins Jeff Marek to get some therapy thanks to the New York Rangers and discuss the team he's most intrigued by in the NHLReach 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.

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 whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. First of all, before we get into the Rangers, did you get a chance to see or hear Molly Walker's interview? There you are, beautiful. There he is, the one and only John Lab

look at that pretty smile oh look at that I told you I'd do my hair where I threw the hat on and changed my outfit I thought you were going to do the feathers nice and be all pretty that's okay we got the open door policy on ugly around here don't worry about it pal hey so here's what I want to ask you

did you get a chance I don't know maybe you're probably busy today but did you get a chance to watch Molly Walker's interview with Rangers play-by-play voice Sam Rosen et al? I haven't yet. It's excellent. I have the tab opened up right now on my computer to watch later. It's so good. It's really good.

We're going to play a clip a little bit later on. But as a dyed-in-the-wool Ranger guy, I don't want to spend too much time with the team, but we're going to get there. What are your thoughts on Sam Rosen? I don't know to spend too much time with the team, but we're going to get there. What are your thoughts on Sam Rosen? Like, I don't know that we spend enough time talking about like announcers, like we're like,

our voices and sounds are so related to our history. Like whenever I watch the Buffalo Sabres, I think of Ted Darling. Sam Rosen has been so much as so many people from so many different generations. It's kind of sad that he's got to call this team is his, his, his swan song in the NHL.

But when you hear the name Sam Rosen, what pops through your mind? I hear Sam Rosen's voice more than my own parents. I mean, he's the voice of my entire life. What else can you say about the guy? And honestly, for me, I think the biggest chill that I got when I first broke into the industry

and got a job and was able to sit in the press box, I'll never forget it. The Rangers were home against Toronto toward the end of the 2023 regular season, and I heard Sam Rosen say, it's a power play goal for the first time in my actual eardrum and not for the TV. And I was like, wow, this is so cool. That saying in itself is something that I honestly think even when sam does retire there

should be a sound of sam that plays in the garden when the rangers score the power play yeah that's an excellent idea that's a fan i think the sabers had done something with rick shenarette right didn't they do something they i know he passed but oh he's he's no longer with us but i'm not sure whether they maybe for the for the in-house yeah done something with rick someone listen someone in the chat's gonna know and is gonna let us know that you know that you know i it's it's interesting too because we all have those moments of like holy smokes i can't believe i'm in this privileged position i remember doing ringside for hockey night for a couple of years and then one time i was uh waiting to do a walk

off interview with Andre Markoff. And Mr. and Mrs. Beliveau would always sit behind the Montreal Canadiens bench. And I'm a huge, was before he passed, obviously, a huge fan of Jean Beliveau and his history and his place in the game. I don't think we talk enough about Beliveau.

But, so at the intermission, Mr. and Mrs. Beliveau would always, you know, leave and, you know, go get a refreshment before they came back. And so I'm standing there like dumb, goofy, youbc guy waiting for andre markoff to towel off and come off so we can do like a 30 second interview that we may or may not even take to air and i saw jean beliveau walking towards me and i'm like oh wow this is like the coolest thing in the world and he's got me close and i said uh hello mr, Mr. Beliveau. And he said, salut, Jeff. And I went, how does he know my name?

Jean Beliveau knows my name. This is the coolest day in the world. I don't care if it was Andre Markoff interview. I just want to quit the industry now because it's not going to get better than Jean Beliveau saying salut, Jeff, in that deep, basso, profundo voice of his. Anyhow, I think the question we're all wondering about with you is how are you doing i mean professionally you know i'll speak from the professional side and fan side yeah professionally i gotta say it's it's very entertaining because every channel every show every network i listen to everyone's talking new york rangers so that for me i find interesting professionally

as a fan beyond frustrating um and it's almost at the point where i'm not even like talking to friends or people who text me personally about the rangers because i'm just so sick and tired of it but from a professional angle there's no team i'd rather talk about than the team that i love and root for what's the i'm always curious about the city vibe. Like I just mentioned Montreal a couple of seconds ago. And one of the reasons why I always tell people you have to have the Montreal Saturday, not just Saturday night experience is you go to Montreal on a Saturday night game day and you go down the cobblestone streets of old Montreal, or you go to cafes or restaurants

or bars and the whole day, like everyone's just talking about the game like the whole thing builds up to you know 706 when the puck dropped the bell center um so it's not just about you know 701 the lights drop and cold play hits and ghosts of the forum and all that stuff um what is the city doing with this well this city is interesting because there's so many other teams too that can distract you right like mont, you just really have the Canadians. We got the Knicks. We got the Islanders. The Devils, I honestly consider here.

Jets, Giants. There's so many different teams in season right now, but all of them suck pretty much. So it's everyone that's suffering together, maybe outside of the Devils fans across the river. And the Knicks have actually been really good. So I will give credit to the Knicks. But to its core, New York City is a Knicks city.

And the New York Knicks dominate the city. So when the Rangers are bad and the Knicks are good, it's not as bad. You know, the years that the Rangers were good and the Knicks were bad, it made it feel a little bit better that the Knicks were bad. But, you know, I would never put New York and Montreal at the same level hockey-wise. That said, come springtime when the Rangers are in the playoffs, there are Ranger jerseys everywhere in New York City, and it is unbelievable. I'll never forget it. I went to game seven of the Penguin Series in 2022 as a fan because I wasn't working in the league yet. And it was a Sunday night. I stayed out at the bar across the street, Stout, till 3 a.m.

And I walked 30 blocks to my friend's apartment because my phone died and I couldn't get an Uber. And I high-fived this guy on East 8th and 1st Ave, wearing a Ranger jersey at 3 a.m. Let's go, like, 3 a.m. on a Sunday. Like, that's the kind of stuff. When the Rangers are are good it's it's it's magic but when they're bad it's just you know there's there's still other things to

do here that distract you from that okay i want to ask you let's get up if you have anything else to to share about the rangers i know that you know uh monday to thursday 9 to 10 is kind of therapy sometimes uh for you get a lot of is if there's anything else you want to add about the rangers jump now because i want to dovetail to minnesota and your chris kelleher interview okay well i actually really liked what you and shana were talking about stats wise and i wanted to throw something at you from a stat perspective with the rangers and honestly just in general in the nhl um and admittedly i did botch this on neson the other night on wednesday night um i was talking about coachville, who was the head coach at UMass, and how he came up with his own analytic,

what I was in college called a heavy shift. So every day after a game, we'd have a packet in the locker room. We'd go look at the packet. First page I would look at was my heavy shifts. Heavy shift for, heavy shift against. On the broadcast, I accidentally said heavy shit. So that was my own mistake. I might laugh about that forever.

Please tell me that's on youtube somewhere please last bu bu scored probably seven seconds after i said it so the clip is on bu hockey twitter um and i will send that to you later if you want but thank you i think if there was a stat in the nhl for heavy shifts and to me and to coach carbo a heavy shift is when you have 30 to 40 seconds of offensive zone pressure. You get two or three chances at the net. You get your retrievals. You get the puck from low to high. Similar just like offensive zone cycling

and constant pressure. And I think if you looked at that stat right now, and obviously it doesn't exist right now in the NHL, I think the Rangers would be dead last in heavy shifts against and dead last in heavy shifts for. So while they might look good at five on five with the chances that they generate,

expected goals and whatnot because they're good off the rush they're poor defending you know i think they're the worst team against the rush in the nhl and then once they do defend the rush they're stuck in their own end and they have a hard time getting out so to me that stat which i find super interesting because it's more telling of what's happening in the actual game and what lines are really creating pressure and then handling pressure i think that'd be interesting to see uh as far as the rangers go i would love that and i'm glad you mentioned expected goal like uh goals and expected saves i've there are there are some people and again like we're dealing with public models not private models like this is just the information we have

to go on there are so many people um in analytics departments around the nhl that i'll speak to who will always say the same thing be really careful with expected goals they talk about how how much further advanced like their own team private models are they're always like eh grain but i keep saying like anytime you want to make those public like i'm sure everybody in the analytics community would love it all we're trying to do is measure the games and try to figure out what's working and what isn't. And it's like, look, just they always keep saying, don't get too married to expected goals and expected saves. Like it is somewhat valuable, but we're past it now. What did you think, by the way, of the idea of hits? 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. And you should only count a hit if it forces a change of possession. Otherwise, it's just body contact. No, I agree. It's just a bunch of guys forces a change of possession. Otherwise, it's just body contact. No, I agree. It's just a bunch of guys running around with their heads cut off,

essentially, right, if you're not really impacting the play. I mean, there's also times where a guy throws a hit unnecessarily and the puck goes the other way and it's in the back of your net. Like there's one play I can think of, you know, Artemi Panarin against the Winnipeg Jets this year, goes in, stick in the air, gets a piece of the body. I forgot who made the pass. Kyle Connors going the other way because Artemi's stick wasn't down. And it's two-, stick in the air, gets a piece of the body. I forgot who made the pass. Kyle Connors going the other way because Artemi's stick wasn't down.

And it's two-on-one into the back of the net. Like, why are you going to throw a hit there? It makes no sense. Yep. It's interesting. Okay, a couple of things I want to ask you just from a player's point of view. And, you know, the hits are one of them. The other one, and I don't know why I got that.

I just started writing this weekend. I got into this whole thing about bag skates. And how Matt Nichol is a good buddy of mine. I've known Matty forever. I met him at first. Matt was a leaps in strength and conditioning coach. And his whole thing was always like, you're killing your team by bag skating them. Specifically, if you bag skate before the practice, you're just teaching your team to practice slow.

And then they'll play slow but i was talking to another coach last week who said look like ice is really expensive i'm talking like like john like we're going to like youth hockey like minor hockey in canada you're talking the united states um i'm sure you were bag skated as a kid we had a poor effort okay down and back minnesota mile whatever it's going to be like you're doing it and this one coach i talked to said like, what, like hot ice is so expensive. Like hundreds and hundreds. Why would you have like an expensive bag skate? The stairs are right there.

Just have your team. I'm sure. I'm sure you have. I've done a bag skate into stairs after. Oh, well, that's vicious. What kind of game did you guys have? But do you see what I mean? Ice is so expensive.

I don't know that it should be used. That's like a $700 punishment for some teams. Yeah, but it's really the message that it sends, right? Stairs will send the same message. Yes and no. But it also depends. Listen, I talk about Coach Carville a lot, and I think one of the good things that he did in our practices

was he would make us go, I believe, the start of a Monday practice. He would read out who took a penalty over the weekend. And if you took the penalty, you'd be on the boards. So it's just boards to boards. So if you took a penalty, you'd go down and back, and then the whole team would go down and back as well. So you'd be on the board. So it's just boards to boards. So if you took a penalty, you'd go down and back, and then the whole team would go down and back as well. So you'd be doing it twice. So I remember there was one weekend I took three penalties

in the two games that we played. So I had to go down and back. Then me and the team would go down and back. Then I would go down and back. Then me and the team would go down and back. Then I would go down and back. Then me and the team. It just kind of makes it creep into your mind.

Like, hey, I'm going to be more careful next time I'm using my stick in the offensive zone. I am not going to hook a guy guy i'm not going to trip a guy because i do not want to get bag skated on monday and i do not want to put my team through that either did did coach carvel distinguish between bad penalties and good penalties no that was the one flaw i had in the system but you know it's his own messaging but it works like you know it was in the back of your mind of i don't want to punish the guys on Monday. Like don't be selfish and take a lazy penalty. Uh,

Chris Kelleher. I love this interview today. Um, uh, I know that, uh, you and him go back, uh,

not too long, but know each other. No, summer. Yeah. Just, just the summer. So,

I mean, I love the, what was it? One of the things that my main takeaway from it was the conversation that you and Colby had with them about the development of players. And I know I've talked a lot about the Buffalo Sabres and inexperience and rushing to the NHL. And you see the effects of it right now where it's a very measured approach by the Minnesota wild, which is interesting because they've had this $14 million cap hole. You would think if any team, they would be the ones like rushing guys at the nhl like we need decent players on the ice here we're skating with 14 million dollars tied behind our

backs um that was my main takeaway from it like i found the whole thing fascinating but if i pinpoint one thing that's what it was how they developed the marco rossi's jesper wall stats um david juracek is the next in that line. What did you take away from it? And I encourage people to check it out other on YouTube or Spotify, Apple pods, wherever you get your pods. Yeah. Well, I think with Minnesota and with that $14 million capital, like you mentioned, I think their biggest thing right now is staying competitive, right?

Cause they're not in this rebuild window of any sort. And they're also, I think in years past, maybe understood it about themselves that they might not be cup contenders, right? I think they've always wanted to be competitive and stay in that mix, knowing that this is something that was holding them back a little bit. And then once this is now out of their organization, you know, this little cap hole, as you call it, I think it's almost a bit of a fresh start and you can almost put yourself more in a contention window um and listen i'm not saying that the minnesota wilds aren't trying to win the stanley cup every year that's obviously the goal

of every team but i think when you are in management and you know what you have in your organization you have to be realistic and set realistic expectations as well um and i think minnesota because they have a guy like caprizov and because gustafson's playing so well and they have the younger guys like boldy and rossi and whatever you know i think giving those guys experience but not giving them too much experience maybe putting too much pressure on them is what's benefiting them way more than you know let's say Jeff I know you love talking about them a team like Buffalo who has put those young guys in the NHL and I've said hey we need to make the playoffs now you know it's a different type of pressure and it affects your mental psyche in different ways as well and I think giving a player that room to breathe and room to grow and knowing that we're

not counting on you right now for organizational accolades it almost just like lets them breathe and lets them play hockey and only worry about hockey okay let me uh let me finish with this one i asked shana this question i'm gonna ask you but uh she got to choose from 32 teams you get to choose from 31 okay i know the one i'm thinking of which is the most interesting team to you right now in the nhl you get to choose from 31 teams not the obvious new york rangers interesting team i mean it's just subjective like there's there's no right or wrong answer i like obviously i think the other option would be like Nashville, but I think that's too easy.

I want to say the Calgary flames, honestly, they're a team that I, yeah, I think they're a team that nobody expected anything good from this season. And they've been quite the pleasant surprise and they're competitive. And, you know, you would think with Craig Conroy there this year that they would most likely be selling right and trying to start that next chapter in their organization since everything has kind of been a little iffy since you know Matthew Kachuk and Johnny Gaudreau left and this team's winning hockey games so like what do you do right like can you start selling pieces away

or do you actually believe what you have and try to add pieces to the puzzle and maybe go for the playoffs in a city that, let's face it, I don't know why I'm saying let's face it, but let's realize they love hockey there. So I don't think any fan would want to go through a rebuild, but the Calgary Flames, I think everyone expected them to drop off, and while they haven't been as hot maybe lately as they were at the startgary Flames, you know, I think everyone expected them to drop off and they've still, you know,

while they haven't been as hot, maybe lately as they were at the start of the year, they're still right there in it, you know? And I think that's something that, uh, is, is not getting enough appreciation.

Like that Codry goal the other night. Oh my God. Like Kenny Wu and Ray ducks, right? Like it was the same, but because Calgary might not be such a sexy team right now right the love isn't really there interesting um try to go off the board you know no no no hey listen uh i'm anchored here in canada like you're never gonna go wrong picking canadian team he

could have said you know vancouver edmonton winnipeg ottawa montreal toronto and you know everyone around nation network would have said like yeah laz is bigging up the canadian team check him out yeah um all right excellent stuff bud uh look forward to morning cup of hockey nation network would have said like, yeah, Laz is bigging up the Canadian teams. Check them out. Yeah. Um, all right. Excellent stuff, but, uh, look forward to morning cup of hockey tomorrow,

nine o'clock Eastern on our daily face off YouTube channel. That's right here. Or, uh, if you're listening to the podcast, wherever you get your pods, folks, check out morning cup of hockey.

Thanks. Laz. Stay on the best. Stay off. Stay off bridges. Okay. We're concerned. Okay.

Staying off. All right. Thank you. Player turned a broadcaster going to be a star in this industry i can't get out my head. Lost all ambitions day to day. Guess you can call it a run. I went to the dark man. He tried to give me a little medicine.

I'm like, no, man, that's fine. I'm not against those methods, but I knew. It's me, myself, and others. It's going to be fixed in my mind. I turned on the record. I turned on the music. I do want to back it up. I turned on the music.

It's enough, enough, enough. It's just sometimes losing. I've been on the dissapearant road. In the dead dark night 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 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.