The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Pierre McGuire Recaps the WJC and Discusses Next Steps for Hockey Canada

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Pierre McGuire joins Jeff Marek to talk Hockey Canada, Auston Matthews, Cole Eiserman, and a whole lot more!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.

Alright, let's bring Pierre McGuire aboard. We have a lot of things to get to with the NHL. We'll talk about branded equipment. We'll talk about Alexander Ovechkin. We'll talk about the games. We'll talk about the World Junior Hockey Championships with our good friend Pierre McGuire. Hello, Pierre. How are you, bud?

I'm Jeff. I'm fantastic. That was so good. You and Zach were outstanding. So let me ask you, so your thoughts on this one. So it seems as if this Gretzky record is going to be broken with an unbranded stick. And I know that in the era we live in where everything is branded slash over branded,

here comes Alexander Ovechkin with, as I call it, his crowbar. And it's just all black, nasty looking stick. I was telling the story about Rich Winter and Grant Feuer back in 95 with the Pepsi can. You remember, Pia, like the deal that Rich Winter had cooked up for the Pepsi can pads for Grant Feuer, etc. I'm sure you've come across a million stories like this.

But although it may be a goofy topic, do you have a thought on the greatest goal scoring record, maybe the biggest individual record of all time is going to be broken with an unbranded hockey stick. That's a little different. That was a good pickup by Zach and you, by the way. But the one thing that's interesting when you score a goal, you have CCM gloves on. If you're Alexander or that's going to get TCM skates on, which you can see clearly in the picture. And I'm only asking the question because I don't know the answer, but I'm wondering if when you get within three to five, if all of a sudden, goals of Gretzky's record, if

all of a sudden the branding doesn't appear. So you think you might be holding out to the very end waiting for the best deal and then hey I'm a couple of goals away. Who's gonna be the first company to the trough on this one? Yeah, I'm just wondering. I don't know that, but I got to tell you a quick story about Brandon. Sure. So I'm doing a Minnesota Anaheim playoff game way back in the early 2000s. 203. And a player from Minnesota breaks his stick and I lose it. And I say these sticks stink.

And Niedermeyer goes in for Anaheim and scores a shorthand of goal So I don't think much of it. Then I realized that a good friend of mine from Montreal, Matto tool is The president of Reebok which owns the stick company. So I get a look at my back then It was a blackberry. I look at my blackberry. I'm like So I get a look at my back then it was a Blackberry. I look at my Blackberry and I'm like, uh-oh. So I, hi Matt, it's Jerry. Can we meet when you get back to Montreal? I'm like, yeah, we can. And yeah, no, I apologized and we moved forward,

but I can tell you like people do pay attention to the branding and they do pay attention to what you say about it. There's no question about it. See, one of the things that interests me is when Ovechkin breaks this record, like that stick's going into the Hockey Hall of Fame. 100%. And we're used to seeing, geez, like Northland sticks and Titan sticks and like all kinds of Easton with Kretzky. Like we're seeing all kinds of sticks and there's gonna be this crowbar that sits there

with the whole fetchkin. Whenever he does it, however he does it, that just, it's gonna be unique because it's gonna sit there as it is right now. Like, listen, I'm with you. Part of me is just like, okay, let's see what happens when he gets close if all of a sudden, whoop, there becomes a label that appears.

But as it stands right now, that thing's going in there without branding. Okay, that thing's going in there without branding. Okay, that's a sidebar. I wanna get your thoughts on a couple of things. Team USA, Team Canada, before we get to those teams, I wanna ask you about David Carle. So who's been wildly successful, listen, national championships,

gold medals. I understand that when you have a job like he has right now at the University of Denver, if you want it, it's a job for life. But, like how much longer, and maybe it already has happened where he's been close to making the jump to the NHL, how much longer is the NHL not going to have David Karl

in it? Do you think? Oh, I would imagine at the end of this year, there's going to be some significant soul searching done by him and his family. I thought he was probably going to look at two or three jobs last offseason. Jeff, to be fair, I've watched his team play at time. I probably watch all their games. I even watched their games this week when he wasn't there when they played against University of Maine this weekend in a two-game set. Both games ended two to one. One time was won by Denver, one time was won by Maine. But the truth is that he's NHL ready. I've watched him run his bench both at the college level and the world junior level. I've talked to players that have played for him, talked to coaches that have coached against him. I've watched them myself and he's ready to go coach in the NHL, there's no question in my mind.

Team USA, congratulations, gold medal. Full of value, they're the best team of the tournament, hands down. There were some great stories along the way. Latvia was an absolutely wonderful story. was an absolutely wonderful story. Very happy about Czechia as well. Disappointed again with Sweden and we'll park Canada here for a second. When you look at the United, when you look at Team USA, and this is back to back gold and wonderful,

that program is a number of players that are still gonna come back and make it a great event next year in Minnesota. How many players, because I think we all looked at Ryan Leatherd and said, how come you're not in Washington? When you look at players on that United States team right now, how many do you look at and say, this guy should either be playing in the NHL right now,

or is like right there and real close to playing in the National Hockey League? I bet you Peter Labialette would like to have, you know, a parole. Yeah, I think you'd like to have Gabe Perot right now. Zev Boyam is somebody that I've watched for a long time. I got to think the Minnesota Wild as soon as Denver's season is over and if Minnesota still playing, I got to think there's going to be a uniform for him in Minnesota. You know, I think Danny Nelson's a guy that's gonna get

a legitimate opportunity with the New York Islanders. That's just a couple off the top of my head. Fortescue's a guy that I think's probably got some development time still. Munition's still got a time, or Minnettian, depending on how you wanna pronounce it. He's probably got some developmental time at Boston College still, but he had a tremendous tournament.

Teddy Stig is a kid that I know very well. My son left Belmont Hill to go play in Penticton. Teddy Stig came in and took his position on that team. So that's another player that I know well. I gotta think he's got development time left at Boston College, he's a Nashville pick. So I'd say there's a good number of them that are gonna play in the pros.

I think that Leonard and Perot and Boyam are probably the three that have the best opportunity at the end of this year to go and play. I wanna ask you about Cole Iserman. So he goes 20th overall to the New York Islanders. I think we're looking at that right now and saying, well, the Islanders stole one at 20. You know, players at the draft are so fast.

Sometimes we can over scout them, pick apart little things. Like I know the boots aren't there for Cole Iserman, but then I look at this and I say, you know what the hardest thing to do in hockey is score goals and this guy does it like breaking sticks. Quick thought on his tournament and the future of Cole Iserman and did the Allenders rob the bank without wearing a mask?

I don't know if they robbed the bank because I think Montreal was in the discussion too. I think they thought long and hard because remember Cole Iseman was supposed to go to Boston University and to play with Macklin Celebrene. Macklin obviously turned Pearl in first overall and so the rest is history. But with Cole, you made a really good point. There's a Corey Perry element to his game in terms of how he shoots the puck how he establishes offensive zone presence He's not the fastest player in the world, but he finds a way to get open pretty quick

I respect players like that. So I think they did get a real good player. Obviously they put Oliver Wallstrom on waivers I don't know if that was maybe down the road open up an opportunity For him to come and play and talking about Iserman. But I still think there's development time left for him, but he was at 13th forward through most of the world junior. But here's what I'd say about it, Jeff. His ability to score in a power play, he's a left-hand shot, usually plays on the right side.

That's a lethal shot that he has. And I've seen him play so many times. I mean, it's already NHL level shooting. It's just now just refining his game and figuring out. So he's not completely haphazard defensively. Okay, let me get to Canada here with you. One of the conversations I was having over the weekend, and I read out a text,

Anton from the former agent with Cortex and M5 and I were having a text exchange Talking about you know development different programs and all that one of the things we're talking about is if you look at a lot Of the European players at this tournament, right? so they all come from pro leagues the lion's share of them come they play pro leagues and you look at the kids on The gold medalists for example, and they play against older stronger stronger, bigger competition as well. Battle tested every single game. And one of the points we sort of came to is, you know, at a certain point in the CHL for a lot of these kids, certainly the 19-year-olds, the development kind of gets linear. It's not always going up because sure you're playing against other 19-year-olds,

but you're also playing against sometimes 16, certainly 17, and most often 18-year-old players. And you wonder if that is doing those players a disservice. Now a lot of these players, you know, eventually, unless they have NHL contracts, will find their way into Division 1, and that may change some of these things. But as we look at, you know, two quarterfinal flameouts for Canada, and everybody is auditing what's next and what the development path is going to look at, do we look at the CHL here? I know we've talked a lot about Easton Cowan,

the point streak, et cetera, it's remarkable. You can look at it cynically and say, well, there's nothing left for him to do. Like, is he not developing any longer? Does he need higher competition to push him? Like we see with the American kids, like we see with the Europeans. You have a thought on the Canadian Hockey League

as a developmental model for 19 year olds specifically and has the rest of the world caught up because they're pushing their kids. Like you see these kids play pro in Sweden and they may not be putting up points and then they play in this tournament and they look like Peter Forsberg when he put up 31 points.

Like you know what I'm getting at, Peter? And it's a long winded question here, but like is there an issue with the development model now all of a sudden with Canada? Are kids being pushed enough? I'm gonna take you back from 1998 till 2003. Okay. Canada, no medals, no medals, no medals.

Then 02 silver, 03 silver, 04 silver. Bob Nicholson is in charge of Hockey Canada, Jeff. Bob, I was there. I was broadcasting the games for TSN with Glenn Miller. And I'll never forget after the loss in Helsinki, he was no more messing around from Bob. He was no more messing around. And he went straight, we're going outside of the family and we're going to bring in Brent Sutter and he's going to be able to pick his staff.

And I don't care where the guys come from. If Brett's comfortable with them, I'll be comfortable with them. And what happens is we have the nuclear winner in the NHL and all those kids from the 03 drafts, so whether it's Deion Faneuf, Shay Weber, it doesn't matter if Patrice Bergeron, it doesn't matter. You know who I'm talking about. All those kids, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Ryan Getslap, they all come to Team Canada and they're getting coached by a guy that is tough as nails. And so there's no more messing around. That's probably the best world junior team Canada ever sent and they

do really well. They win the gold. Then they bring Brent for another year in 06 with a team that had no expectation of winning at all, but it's led by a young guy by the name of Jonathan Taves, who chooses not to go into the Western Hockey League, but choose to go to University of North Dakota from Shattuck St. Mary's. It works out pretty well too. Brent puts it up. But Brent had an assistant named Craig Hartsburg.

And then Hartsburg goes and wins in the Cane or the Taves and Price World Junior in Lexan, Sweden in 2007. And Hartsburg goes back to part of Beats in the Czech Republic in 2008 and wins with that great team with Stephen Stamkos and Claude Giroud. The list goes on. I mean, it was crazy. Murderous row of players. Brad Marchand was on that team. I mean it was crazy murder or grow of players. Brad Marchand was on that team. I mean it just, you can go Drew Doughty was on that team. It was crazy. But Hartsburg was a coach again. And then they sit, Bob Nicholson says, you know what? I'm going to take it one step further for Ottawa. I'm not messing around. Brings in Pat Quinn. Pat Quinn coached the World Junior in old night. That's the last, they won the

goal. So my point on all this is they win five straight gold medals after not winning They had to quit and coach the World Junior and all night. That's the last, they won the gold. So my point on all this is they win five straight gold medals after not winning any gold medals from 98 to 2004. Zero gold medals. And it all came down to no more politics, no more playing around. We're going to get the best players. It doesn't matter where they're from. We're going to get the best coaches.

Doesn't matter where they're from. They can pick their own staffs. It doesn't matter where they're from. We're going to get the best coaches. It doesn't matter where they're from. They can pick their own staffs. It doesn't matter where they're from, and we're going to go win. I think that's where hockey Canada has to go back to again. I saw something that Scott Salmon said, because I've been saying this. Canada used to put together these ghost rosters, and I know you know, Jeff. They put it, and Sutter's like, no chance. I'm not living with a ghost roster.

If a guy's a good player, I'm going to make him a checker. I'll never forget this, Jeff. In 2007 at the Summer Summit Series between Canada's best U-20 and Russia's best U-20, I was there calling the games. And one time we were at Soviet Wings Arena. And Sutter didn't like the practice. So he lines the guys up an arm's length away from the boards. And he picks Tavares to go first. And Tavares has to skate the gauntlet. Well, the Russian players and

their fans were horrified that we're watching this practice. They've never seen that before. And guess what happened in that eight game series? Canada lost zero games. Zero games. So this is my point. I think hockey can't get out of the political business and get into the hockey business You know, it's interesting to there's always been a sort of feeling and I can't prove any of this This is all just the the the feeling that's out there. Oh Misa didn't go to the Hylanka So Misa's not gonna go to the World Juniors Oh Suzuki didn't go to the World Championship So he's not gonna go to the four nations like this that type of political thinking like you're either part of the program or you're not gonna go to the Four Nations. Like this, that type of political thinking, like you're either part of the program or you're not as opposed to just,

regardless of what has happened previous, if you're one of the best players, coaches, et cetera right now, you're coming. It doesn't matter whether there's been this loyalty to the program, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. No, like I'm with you, like all of that needs to be gone. Oh, we can't bring in this coach. He hasn't been part of the Hockey Canada program.

You know what I think I'd make a hell of a coach here? Gardner McDougall. I could make a hell of a coach for Team Canada. Well, I'll just tell you this right now. Why wouldn't you look at, I said this to the Americans when John Tortorello was out of work, I said to the American USA hockey guys, I said, you guys are nuts.

One of the best coaches in the NHL is out of work. Bring in the coach of your world junior team. And they're like, well, he's not been part of USA hockey. I'm like, that's crazy. You know, it's interesting because you say that about players. I remember a player that wasn't invited to a Hockey Canada event, the tryouts for the 2002 games in Salt Lake City, and there happened to be an injury.

So Jerome McGinley got the call to drive down from Edmonton to Calgary to father David Bauer Arena. And it's a good thing he picked up his phone that day, because not only did he make the team, he was a star player in the team, when that was really his breakout into being a star player in the National Hockey League, but it was amazing because when you think,

he was not even invited to the camp. Yeah. I mean, it's gonna be intriguing to see what they do here. I mean, I don't think that as much of a focus on, like I think that age is a mindset and you don't, whether you're 24 or 34 or 54 or 64, it doesn't matter. As long as you haven't let the cement harden around your ideas and you're willing to understand

the player of today and how rosters are composed and what you need players to do and not overthink things, I really don't think that age should be an issue. But I will tell you, there were two days of press conferences last week. There was Friday where it seemed as if that was outside of Scott Salmon who did fall on the sword here and say, I hired the coach, I hired the scout, this one's on me. But there was a whole lot of Dave Cameron saying, oh, I wouldn't change anything. And there was a lot of defense of, you know,

how the rosters were constructed, almost as if, you know, trying to, trying to double down on the wrong decisions that were made. Saturday was a much different tone. And I was trying to explain off the top of the show just how important this tournament is for hockey Canada specifically.

Success at this tournament, as you all know, Pierre, you've been involved in it for a number of years, have been around it for a number of years. Success at this tournament financially floats a lot of the other programs that hockey Canada puts together, namely a lot of the women's programs. And that is the one major growth area in hockey period. Canada, United States, Europe, everywhere.

That is the major growth area. So for hockey Canada specifically, success at this tournament is paramount. U-17's great, U-18's awesome, Halinka Gretzky, all of that, that's all good. But for a lot of these other programs to go, Canada needs to be successful at this one. Do you have a thought on that? I totally agree. 100%. And it's not just what it does at the gate, it's what it does with

sponsorships. So there's some fencemen and it's going to have to go on with sponsors. I can't think the people at TSN were thrilled with their numbers at the end of the tournament. I haven't seen the numbers, but I can't imagine they were elite compared to what they were. I'll give you an example. In 2011, here's a pretty good one for you. I was looking at it the other day. 2011 is probably the greatest meltdown in Canadian international history. Canada had a 3-0 lead going into the third period against the Russians.

Dave Cameron happened to be the coach in 2011. They lose a game 5-3. Panarin, Tarasenko, and Kuznetsov play as a line, and they just run rough shot over Team Canada, and they end up winning the game 5-3. But what I remember from that, 6.88 million people in Canada watch that game on TSN. 6.88 million. Jeff, think about that for a second. It's massive. They would like to get that number for an NHL Stanley Cup final game seven in the United

States. If they got that number for a Stanley Cup final game, they'd be doing high fives all over the corporate offices at TNT or ESPN. I'm just telling you. That just shows you how, it's to your point, it shows you how important the world junior is. It's massive. It is massive. And once you get this situation the last few years, it's not good. Final thought on that. Do you have anything else to add from what we just saw over the past couple of weeks? And I don't want to move on to NHL here, but is there anything else that you think is particularly salient or that you think viewers slash listeners should should be aware of? We didn't respect the Finns

enough. I think Finland is a burgeoning hockey country and they will continue improving, get better and it's to your point again about younger players playing against older players. Yeah. And the Finns are one of the only countries in Europe that plays on the hybrid rink. So it's 200 by between 90 and 93 feet. So there's way more physicality. And you saw when Finland played anybody

over here on the smaller rink, they weren't intimidated by physicality. In fact, they initiated more physicality than what they took. And I think that's a lesson for a lot of the other European things, that the Finns are on the come and they're gonna be good for a long time. Okay, we'll see what happens in Minnesota.

It was great seeing Lou Nani, by the way, on the week. And I have a real soft spot on my heart for, the greatest president slash commissioner uh, on the week. And I have a real soft spot on my heart for the greatest president slash commissioner. The NHL never had Lou Nanny, great marketer, great thinker of the game. All of it. I has turned this show into a Lou Nanny fan club, but, um, I'm a big fan and Lou, no Lou used to come to my home in the summer here where I am right now in Northern Quebec. And yeah,

I used to spend time with he and his wife and, uh, I got to enjoy only a few Italian red wines that Luke likes to drink. Cigars too, he loves cigars too, Pierre. I went out to dinner with him a couple years ago at the Board of Governors. Mike Russo hooked us up and it was a thrill. I can't imagine it was great for Luke because I bugged him for like four hours with dumb Minnesota North Star's questions but it was it was a thrill. But he he liked the red grapes and he liked the cigars. He liked cigars.

Okay, NHL. If you're the Toronto Maple Leafs, is there any way that you let Austin Matthews go to this tournament? Is there any given what's what's happened here now? Is there any way Pierre? Only if the doctors sign off that anything he's got wrong with him will never get worse. If they can't sign off on that I'm not letting go. No chance. What do you make of this right now? You know there's all

sorts of speculation but you know what this is indicative of is you know he needs to have his games managed, he needs to have his workload managed, make sure he's ready for the playoffs. Look, you know how expensive hockey tickets are in Toronto. Fans, when they buy their tickets, they wanna go see Mitch Marner and William Neal. They wanna see Austin Matthews. And if all of a sudden,

the Toronto Maple Leafs are talking about taking games off the table for Austin Matthews, I don't know how season ticket holders will respond to that. Don't know how sponsors would respond to that as well. But I mean, this is more than just a hockey player issue right now for the Maple Leafs, isn't it? It is, and that's well framed by you. Jeff, you know, the biggest thing with me is

there's gotta be a level of trust in the hockey world from player to trainer, trainer to doctor, doctor to GM, GM to director or president of the organization. And if that trust or that level of trust gets broken down in any way, it's a problem for the organization, it's a problem for the player, and eventually it becomes a problem for the fans. All I can tell you is I don't have any reason to doubt there's not a really good level chain of command with Toronto Maple Leafs right now. The way Brad's running things, the way the Ruby coaches, he knows what it takes to win the Stanley Cup.

My only protocol on this would be if the doctors can't tell you 100% that whatever's ailing him will not get worse at the four nations, there's no way I would let him go. It's too important. I watched him play Saturday like you did, and I watched him play Sunday like you did. I thought he played fantastically well. I didn't see any issues with him. I mean, he had three assists on Saturday, he had two assists on Sunday, and he had a game-winning assist on Sunday. You know, the great play over to Morgan Reilly. So I don't know why that would be an issue right now based on the way he's playing.

One quick follow up on the Maple Leafs and then we'll shift gears. You ever thought on Matthew Nyes' weekend? I know they're singing songs from on, they're singing songs from up on high that Matthew Nyes has returned and they're, you know, the villagers are bringing, you know, water back from the creek for Matthew Nyes.

You have a thought on his weekend? Yeah, pulling a china shop. That's always got to play. And Ruby's got to keep pounding that into him. It can't be slick, stove drag and stuff. Get to the front of the neck, create havoc. The thing about the Leafs and people aren't talking about this enough. Nyes, Patcheretti, McMahon and Lorenz.

You got four guys that are massive. You got four guys that can skate and you got four guys that can initiate physical contact. You do not want to, if you play in a playoff series against Toronto, your right defense is going to be pulverized by probably game two or three. And that's how they're going to win. They're going to create cycle in the left corner for them, the right corner for the opposition. They're going to cycle the opponent's net. Their left wingers are going to dominate and Nice is going to be one of those guys continue to build up the bull in the China shot mentality from Matthew Nice. He is a perfect comic for Mitchell Marner and Austin Matthews. A couple of interesting games on the board later on this evening. Vancouver, Quinn Hughes is a game time decision there. We'll get

on that page in a couple of seconds. But, I wonder if this is a possible Stanley Cup preview of the Florida Panthers facing off against the Colorado Avalanche. I think we can all look at Florida and say, you know, some teams, like all the answers are in the postseason. Every now and then the Florida Panthers will put together a string of games that remind you just how good they are. But like, let's be honest, this is a team that's pacing itself through the regular season.

They know what they have to do, they've done it all before. You've seen teams like this, you've been part of them as well. So we can see the Florida Panthers getting there. Can you look at the Colorado Avalanche now? We're making a lot about Mackenzie Blackwood and we should.

Can you see the Avalanche as constructed right now and say, this could be a Stanley Cup preview tonight? Where are you at on Colorado? It's Gabe Landiscock part of the equation. Boy I hope so when he's in he's my favorite player in the NHL hands down full stop. So we're so we don't rehearse this I'm shaking your hand right now virtually but yeah no we agree if he's part of it then I think they're well constructed we got a legitimate chance to go the player and we'll see him in the nations, and I know you're a fan of his, Devon Taves, that'll get nearly enough credit in the National Hockey League, no chance. He's such a good

player and he and McCarr are a tremendous tandem. I think if they had to do any tweaking at all, maybe add some depth on their defense, but the way their team is constructed right now, I don't see why there would be any problems for them. The one caveat to everything I just said, Vegas, LA, and Edmonton, those two teams in the Pacific are jumping through the gym right now. You look at their records and you look what they're doing in the Pacific,

they're just pulling away from everybody. And so I think that's a bit of an issue, but outside of that, I don't see how there's much of an issue for Colorado. I'm glad you mentioned Vegas. I want to get on that page with you here. To me, this is remarkable. Year in and year out, it seems as if the only way that they're felled is by injuries. Do you have a thought on what we're seeing with the Vegas Golden Knights right now? To me, Jack Eichel is in heart you know, heart trophy territory.

What are you seeing? I mean, Mark Stone still goes to the net as hard as ever. Again, Mark Stone is gonna go into that batch of players that's, you know, one of the greatest to never win the Selkie. Miko Khoivu's in that group. Marianne Hose is in that group. Where are you at on the Vegas Golden Knights right now, Pierre?

They're so well coached. Cassie's a really good coach. Bruce doesn't get enough credit. I know he's won the Stanley Cup, but he didn't get enough credit. He's really orchestrated. He holds his guys accountable. Michael's a perfect example.

What I think the best is their roster construction. They take players at a lot of organizations. Well, I'll use Victor Olson. He couldn't play in Buffalo, but he's playing Vegas on the PowerPoint. OK, I get it. So they do a really good job finding players that other teams don't want.

And then they take them and make them into players. And I think part of that is with the salary cap the way it is, if you can't have internal development and your pro-couts can't identify players that are cap friendly friendly that can get better, you're going to have a tough time being consistent in this league. But the biggest thing to me is their defense. They got those big green trees back there, Jeff, and they're hard to get to the net. And so, regardless as to whomever's their goalie on any given night, it really doesn't

matter because they're not a lot of second chance opportunities when you play Vegas. And I think that's one of the things that makes it the most difficult to play against and just their size on the back end is just soaked up play. Okay. Let's finish on this point. I'm glad you talked about the blue line for the Vegas Golden Knights and you mentioned Devontaeus previously.

When it all comes down to it, teams that win the Stanley Cup, nine times out of ten, the common denominator that I see with all of them is they can defend. If you can defend, I know we talk about like what Kale McCarr can do and Quinn Hughes and that's awesome and that's great and that's spectacular to join the rush, you know, a three on two is a four on two, like I get it and that's fun. But at the end of it, true or false, the teams that win the cups are the ones that can defend. If you don't have seven guys that can defend, you're gonna have a hard time winning. You

know, I ran a defense that won two Stanley cups and we had guys that, you know, we took off from different teams. Larry Murphy didn't start in 1991 with our team. Peter Tagli and Eddie didn't start with our team. Ophie Samuelson didn't start with our team. You look at all the different guys that we had in 92, Shel Samuelson didn't start on our team. We brought in all these different guys from different places. The reason why Craig Patrick was so smart that he understood we weren't deep enough on defense. We weren't good enough on defense. We didn't defend well enough. So I know it's 35 years ago. It doesn't matter. It's still, it's still relevant today. You don't defend. You can't win. Go back and look at the Stanley

Cubs from the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970s. The big three on defense, they were insulated by. I mean, you can't win without good. You can score your way out of trouble in the regular season. It's hard to score your way out of trouble in the playoffs. It truly is. A smile on my face hearing you say Peter Taglianetti, always one of the more underrated tough players in the NHL. Troy Loney was another one on those old Penguins team. Taglianetti was tough.

Troy was a left fielder. Oh, Peter was tough. And I'll tell you one thing, he's one of Lou Lamorello's favorites. He went to Lou Yu at Providence College. He's one of his favorites. Real tough. Listen, I know Lou Yu at Providence College. He's one of Lou's favorites. Real tough. Listen, I know you're super busy. Thanks for parking a lot of time for us today.

Really appreciate it, Pierre. You be well. Are you kidding me? I love doing this with you. You are the voice of reason. Oh geez, don't say that. I don't have you that fool. You're smarter than that, Pierre.

Come on. I don't have you. I don't have you fooled. Thanks, bud. Have a great rest of your day, pal. We'll talk soon. Talk to you later, Jeff. There he is, the great rest of your day pal, we'll talk soon. There he is, the great PR. Why are joining us here?

Are joining us regularly on another show. ["I Said 16 Hours Last Night"] Can't get out my head, lost all ambitions day to day Guess I can call it a rut 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 you It's me, myself and how this gon' be fixing my mind