The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Pierre McGuire Weighs in on the Olivier/Gilbert Fight

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

Pierre McGuire and Jeff Marek weigh in on the Olivier/Gilbert fights, William and Michael Nylander, Ovechkin's pursuit of Gretzky, and much moreShout 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.

I want to get Pierre Maguire on. Maybe we'll start as much as I want to start with a couple of different things. Let's just start with Ovachkin with Pierre. Here he is, long time NHL analyst, mainstay here on this program and other programs as well. You love him, I do too. He is a great Pierre Maguire and he joins me on the sheet. Hello Pierre. I see a lot of golf books behind you. Yeah, I'm at my brother-in-law's home in Southern Quebec, so I'm grateful that he's allowing me to use his office. That being said, I love what you're talking about with the records. I met my brother-in-law's home in Southern Quebec, so I'm grateful that he's allowing me to use his office. That being said, I love what you're talking about with the records. Yes. You know, you're talking about Duvon Ovechkin to beat Gretzky's record when you're talking

to Zach, and I think it's great to beat records. Yeah, I think there's one record that will never get broken. Glenn Hall. Yep. 502 straight starts. I'm telling you, I don't see that one ever. If anybody had a chance to do it, it was probably Marty Berder. And he was probably averaging between 65 and 70 starts a year.

So he wasn't just running it, you know, every year, start after start. And the other one is a team one. Go ahead. The team one is, and I was fortunate to be part of it, 11 straight wins to win the Stanley Cup. Yes. So that's a sweep in the final, a sweep in the conference final, and winning three straight in the second round

against an opponent. We did that in 1992. I would be shocked based on the cap, based on the parity, based on expansion and all the different teams. I'll be shocked if anybody breaks out anytime soon. You know, I always, I'm not sure if you caught the part where I was talking about Terry Satchuk, and I remember his shutter.

I thought like, I remember, well, I remember as a kid thinking like, no one is ever going to touch that. But that's part of like, you know, the beauty growing up. Like I remember, I remember watching the game, Darrell Sittler's 10 points. Like that is a memory burned into my mind for the rest of my life, watching the Gretzrell Sittler's 10 points. Like that is a memory burned into my mind for the rest of my life, watching the Gretzky chase

and all these things. And that's why I like seeing records broken. I know people want to freeze things in time and this was the best and it's just gonna stay there. But man, like I want everyone to have like the same kind of love that I had for hockey when they're kids. Like it was the biggest thing in my life. Like it still is, it's my job.

I get turned into a career. But like that same enthusiasm that I had for watching Gretzky and seeing Sittler put up a Dixie and all these types of things. I want every generation to have that. And that's why I want all these records to be broken, Pierre. One of the coolest things is, you talk about Darrell Sittler,

the man that he scored all those points against is a guy named Dave Rees. His nickname is Moon because you got the same haircut I have. Dave Moon Rees was a tremendous goalie at the University of Vermont. He didn't have the longest pro career, but he's an amazing educator. He's been an educator for the longest period of time. He's looked after so many young people, whether it was at the Berkshire School or as an advisor in different places. I have so much respect for Dave. When I was a college coach, I used to stop in his office all the time, have a cup of

coffee with him, and he would poke fun at himself saying, I'll always be remembered in Toronto as Boston as a guy that gave up all those points to Daryl Sittler. And you know what? It's true, but he never took it personal. And I learned so much from just hanging around with Dave and he's still living, he's still doing great. And when you say that, I think of the other side of this story too, Jeff.

And I think there's always two sides to every story. There's the great part, and then there's the part that gets exposed. And I just think that's the fascinating part about hockey, I really do. You know, that's interesting because I've never met Dave Reese. To be honest with you, I've always wanted to meet Dave Reese and you know, doing radio in Toronto for so many years, you know, whenever the the the sitler anniversary would roll around, I'd always

want to get Dave Reese on. I was never able to book him. And one of the things you can tell me this is this is right or wrong. One of the things that, I think it was someone in the Leafs organization told me, was that, like Dave was a little bitter about it. That's what, again, that's what I was told. Jerry Cheevers had just come back from Cleveland in the WHA and he put a towel over his head at the end of the bench, like I'm not going in,

like he's eating up, he's eating, like Sittler's on fire, everything's going in, don't even think about putting me in. Towel over the head, one of those great moments. Like someone told me that he wouldn't even, that Reese wouldn't sign copies of that game sheet. That I don't know, but I can tell you every time I spent with the, whether it was in his office, watching him coach, talking to him. I never heard a negative thing. He'd always poke-fell on himself. Yeah, that's awesome. But here's what I'd like to do for you.

Okay. I'm going to try to get in touch with Dave right after I'm done with you on the show. I'm going to try to get it so that you can actually have Dave on the show. I'll try to get that set up. I would love it. I would love it. I would love it. This is like me being so completely selfish. This is one of those, oh, look, there's my Navels. I'm just booking the show for myself. Just to amuse myself.

Like this needs to be like an extra. I can't submit them. I would love, I would love to talk to Dave Reese. Just mentioning a few seconds ago, a couple of things that I wonder about here. When he does break the Gretzky record, what if he's looking at an empty net? Do you think Jake said? How about last night? What do you think? I know.

Point one. I think I want to give credo where credit's due and you'll appreciate this. I think we're seeing a lot of empty net Oveskin goals down the stretch. Yeah. And I think it's a combination of one, they got a lead in a lot of games, Washington. Yes. Two, Spencer Carberry understands his role as history right now. Yes. And three, so do the teammates. Because you just see, they're looking for him. So there's a lot of different things moving around here.

But a lot of it's because the Washington Capitals have played themselves, and Overskins is part of that, into this amazing situation where they're faced in teams that have to pull their goalies to get back in the game. And that's a strong thing. It's a real strong thing. And it's really, you know, in a lot of ways bringing that Washington capitalist team together. You know, one of the conversations we were just having before he came on is, you know, when you look at Alexander Ovetkin's career in the NHL, like he came in, he was rock and

roll man. Like Crosby was a very hardworking, yet conservative, traditional, straight line hockey player, putting up a hundred points, carrying the franchise on his back and all those things. And, you know, here comes Ovechkin and he's, he's, he's rock and roll, um, you know, to, to Crosby's smooth jazz, right? Two different players, two elite players to, you know, to Crosby's smooth jazz, right? Two different players, two elite players, to, you know, Mount Rushmore, all those types of things, Future Hall of Famers.

But Ovechkin kind of had this rock and roll vibe to him and somewhere along the way, I don't want to say he was despised, because he wasn't despised, but there became like a negative cloud over Ovechkin for a while. I don't know where it came from, I don't know why it happened.

As mentioned to Zach a couple of seconds ago, that hot stick celebration against Tampa, which by the way, do you know the backstory on that one? Have you ever heard? No. You'll love this one. So this goes back to Terry Ryan playing for the Tri-City Americans

of the Western Hockey League. And what Terry would do is when he was cocky and he's also tough as you know, seventh overall pick I think by the half, seventh. Oh, Joe. hockey league and what Terry would do is when he was cocky and he's also tough as you know, seventh overall pick I think by the Habs. I think it was before I get in line. So Terry, when he would score big goals playing in the Western hockey league, he would go to the opposition's bench and sometimes he would do that hot stick or sometimes he would get down and do push-ups in front of the, just the taunting was unbelievable from Terry Ryan. Jose Teodor played with Terry Ryan in Montreal. Jose Teodor, I think saw Terry Ryan do this maybe

an exhibition or a practice or something like that. And then when Teodor was on the Washington capitals, Alexander Ovechkin was there. He was the one that presented this idea. There were people in the cap that denied this to me for years. And then reluctantly said, yeah, that's where I came from. It was Josey Tador going back to Tri City. He was the one that presented it to Alex Ovechkin and Ovechkin tried it. And as you'll remember, all of his teammates said, this is a really bad idea. Like, okay, let's not do this.

I don't know if it was like that moment, but like, and he's back to being the lovable Ovechkin that everybody loves now, but it's been a weird, like Crosby's popularity has always been at that same sort of respectful level that everyone has for him. He's tremendous, but Ovechkin's kind of been a little bit peaks and valleys for his popularity. Yeah, I agree. And again, you go back to knowing somebody, I've known Alex probably since he'd been 14 or 15 years old. Sid probably around the same age. Different people, completely different. But the one thing I'd say, Jeff, is whereas Crosby is just this amazing creature of habit that has everything consistent. It's not that

Weston doesn't, but Alex kind of got involved in the political stuff, especially with, you know, Putin. And I think that played a role, especially with some of the people in different parts of the world that maybe don't appreciate what Putin's done. That's why whenever I talk to people, I say, I qualify everything. I am not a political analyst. I work in hockey. I know nothing about the situation. I respect people.

That's just how I'm going to deal with it. And I think that's something that might've got involved in that. But I think another thing was Washington for a long time was a lot like Detroit. They were always the team that was supposed to be the next big dog, the next one that were going to take over. And they never did. And it bothered a lot of people. It's kind of like when Scottie went to Detroit and took over and they lose the first year to San Jose on the Jamie Baker game seven overtime winner against Chris Osco. Scottie has to have this amazingly intense long conversation with Steve Aijerman at the end of the year. And there was all this rumor and innuendo that he was going to get traded to Ottawa.

And I can tell you, I was in Ottawa then. Oh yeah, that's true. We definitely had talked to them. I could tell you right now, that was true. And I think, so there was a long time where the guys in Detroit were kind of seen the same way. Well, they can never get out of their own way. And I think that happened to Alex too. I do. I think the two, you can correct me if I'm wrong here, the two Iserman deals that were on the table at various times,

one was Iserman for Lafontaine and the other was Iserman for Yashin. Iserman for Yashin was definitely on the table and I can tell you when it happened, we were driving from Belleville back to Ottawa after American hockey, actually it wasn't even American hockey league, it was an NHL exhibition game.

And Brad Marsh, myself, Randy Sex and Arrey Shiro were in the car. And Brad had a teammate of Steve Iserman's in Detroit. And we had talked about, you know, what Iserman would mean to the franchise in Ottawa. And that's how that whole thing started. And it was an amazing conversation. It really really was and Brad was really good with it I can tell you right now that conversation definitely happened

let's pick up with it with Detroit now. Winners of seven in a row, one of the hottest teams along with the Winnipeg Jets in the NHL. It'd be nice to see a playoff game in that new barn, which is not really a new barn anymore, but we'd like to see a playoff game in that one. A couple of things coming out of last night's game. One Patrick Kane with the shootout number now which is 53. He now holds the record for most shootout goals. Jonathan, he was tied with Jonathan

Taves at 52. So now he's pulled away. And I do want to ask another side story on Patrick Kane or a side thought. But the one player that I want to get to here is Moritz Sider plays in game number 300. The interesting thing about Moe Sider is since he started in the NHL with the Retread Red Wings, he's missed an exact number of, I have it written down here, zero games. He's never missed a game with the Detroit Redwings. And the interesting thing about this is when you look at the Detroit Redwings, like we poke a lot of holes and we make a, when you look at the Redwings and say, okay, one of their Achilles here is their back end. He gets, and he has since day one, the toughest assignments every single night.

And you can say like, listen, they're feeding him to the wolves too early. 82 games, 82 games, 82 games and top assignment every single night. It's made a better defenseman, but you can make the argument that based on his age and experience, he has the toughest matchups of any defender in the NHL period. And here he is every single night. We talked about consistency with Crosby and I'm not saying he's like the Sydney Crosby or the blue line, but like 80, like 300 games. Fourth season hasn't missed one Pierre and tough, tough assignments every night. On a non-playoff team where teams start pinning their ears back at the end of the year. Yes.

Because they say, we're going to bury these guys, not just beat them, we're going to bury them. So I agree with you, that's a tremendous accomplishment for him. I remember being over in Sweden, his draft year, and just how much people were talking about how great this player was and how he was going to be amazing long term. I heard a lot of the same things about Simon Edvinson, who's obviously part of that Detroit group as well. They do, everybody knows Hocken Anderson, Chris Draper, Sean Horkop, they do an amazing job in Detroit, finding young talent, especially in Sweden. Even though Sire is not a Swede, they do an amazing job. They really do. I love the fact that you brought him up though,

because I think long-term, he's gonna be such a beneficiary person when it comes to being receptive to coaching. I think the coaching staff that's in Detroit right now is letter perfect. That's not to take a run in anybody else that was there before, but Todd has got so much experience and he's surrounded by real good people and their power

play has been very good. Kane, obviously, when he's healthy, he's a big part of that power play. Dylan Larkin has gone to another level now. I'm really happy for him. He's one of the great citizens in the NHL, by the way, Dylan Larkin. He's an awesome guy. So I'm just happy for the people in Detroit. I wanna see a playoff game there. I wanna see it for Mrs. Illich in particular and her family. Yeah. And for Steve Eisenman, you know, it still pains me. All the slings and arrows people went, you know,

took at him when the thing wasn't going well at the beginning. I don't think people realize how hard it is to rebuild the team. It takes a while. It does. Can I, can I, let me, let me throw one thing on top of that. Let me throw a log on that one. I don't think Steve cares.

I don't think that Iserman cares what people say. Steve Iserman didn't care when he went up there at the Vancouver draft and took both cider and everyone went, what are you doing? He goes, yeah, this guy's not played 300 games and hasn't missed one I don't think Iserman cares about criticism like there are some you know there's some managers where the you know the nerves can be a little bit close to the skin on a few things I've been on the wrong end is some angry phone calls in my career as I'm sure you have as well but I don't think Iserman cares I really I really don't I don't get that said and I never

have to suck it. I think the one thing about the greatest hockey people that I know and have known in my career, and one of them told me this a long time ago, never take stuff personal. People are going to come after you, people are going to say stuff about you, people are going to make stuff up. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry. You know who you are, you know what you're loyal to.

Just live by your standards. Laws are the correct standards. And I think Steve does that. I really do. I think he really Steve does that. I really do. I think he really lives by that. I've never talked to him about it, but I can tell you one thing. He's a winner and his group, I think you're well on their way to be in a winning group

and they've got some tremendous stuff in Grand Rapids too. It's not like they're just a one and done. These guys are going to be good. And Grand Rapids in first place in their division in the American hockey league, they got a lot of good stuff going on in Detroit right now. I'm really excited for their fans. Really excited. Yep.

I share that enthusiasm. Patrick Kane. So I'm going to use this as a way to plug Morning Cup of Hockey tomorrow morning. Johnny Lazarus, Colby Cohen at 9 a.m. Eastern on our daily face-off YouTube channel. We'll talk to Mike Arugioni, the captain of the 1980 gold medal, miracle on ice, all of it. Fantastic.

And here's how I want to, here's how I want to, here's how I want to frame this conversation with Pat Kane. I think when all is said and done, and I've always maintained that the greatest American born player that I've ever seen is Chris Cellios. I might be biased. I just love Cellios and everything that he's been able to do.

But I think that at the end of his career, he'll go down as the most influential American-born hockey player ever. Like 1980 popped an entire generation of American hockey players, whether it's your Medanos and your Ronics, et cetera, go all the way through. But you talk to kids all the time for the draft and whenever it comes to who's your favorite player, and it's not just the American kids, but overwhelmingly

it's the American kids, Patty Kane, Patty Kane, Patty Kane, Patty Kane. When all is said and done, will he be singularly the most influential US born player ever? Oh, he'll be right up the most influential US-born player ever? He'll be right up there. I think Cellius is a good one. I think Madonna was the right one. You said, I think Jeremy. I was running hockey schools and just starting out my coaching career six years after the 1980 Olympics. And you'd be shocked whether it was Keith Kachuk, Jeremy Ronick, Tony Amati, Billy Garron, Scotty Lachance. I can go on out with Sean McCann. There's so many. I had them all. I had them all at this camp called the Europa Cup. And those kids, they talked about 1980 all the time. You always heard that. And just

to backtrack on what you were saying about Michael LaRouz, you know what I mean? I just had him on our podcast, Jimmy Murphy and I, our podcast the other day, just the day of the Bean Pod at a real cool place in Boston called West End Johnny's. Michael was amazing. The stories we got out of them, Jeff, were unbelievable. And a lot of them are old stories with new twists. And he really is so passionate about it. The bus ride after they lost to the Russians at Madison Square Garden before they went to Lake Placid and what was discussed on the bus was really a cool story. What was said in the first game, people forget this,

if they lose the first game to the Swedes, they're done basically in the tournament. And Billy Baker scores from the blue line with time running out on the clock. And all of a sudden the whole tournament takes on a life of its own. He talked about being down to the Germans two-nothing and how they had to come back and what Herb was saying in the dressing room. And then the best one was, he says, yeah, we beat the Russians and everybody's like going cuckoo crazy. If we don't beat the

Finns, we still don't win. Yeah, I know. So that whole 1980 team created that template of great American players that you just alluded to and it really, I think it's just grown from there. I really do. It really has. Okay, so a couple of more things that I want to get to with you. I started the show today talking about, and the more that I thought about it, the more I think I understand what's going on here. So Dennis Gilbert fights Matthew Olivier

to start the Columbus Buffalo game yesterday. And my first thought when I saw, and I think it's the same as everyone, like, what are you doing? Like, Nason's the guy you want in New Jersey. What are you just, this is just like proven that you're tough. And then I thought to myself, hold on a second here. Dean Evison fills out the card first.

And he knows the Buffalo Sabres have just been questioned physically the last couple of days. So this is Dean Evison, old, pardon me, really, really loves this. Dean Evison says, all right, Olivier's starting. Buffalo, you've just heard it for two days about being soft.

I'm putting Olivier out there. Lindy, what are you going to do? Like you could talk about this, Pierre. You're uniquely qualified to talk about this. Like the, the, the head games from coach to coach. Was that Evison saying, Hey Lindy, what are you going to do about this? To start the game last night? What are you going to do about this to start the game last night? 100% is basically how can I help influence the outcome of the game for my team?

I'm challenging you as a coach. I can't skate anymore. I don't get the play. If I had it in Buffalo, I would have said, do I get a chance to sign Rob Ray for an eight hour contract paper from between the fact she just put them in all over for 30? Yeah, I'm out there. Here's your old tax raiser. Here's your old tax. Get up. You're good to go now. You know, it's funny because this is a Matthew Olivier tie-in. And I think you and I talked about this. Everybody in Toronto was all geared up when

Olivier and Brian Reeves fought Reeves' only fight of the year. And people were saying, well, how'd that happen? I'll tell you how it happened. Dean Evison put Olivier on the ice for a defensive zone faceoff. Craig Barube, the old warrior that he is, says, really? I'm not letting you run the game in my building. Reevo, you get out there. We get the last change. And so it's called setting the table. Coaches understand, and some coaches value toughness, Jeff, as you know, and other coaches don't. I think in the case of Dean Ebison, he values toughness a lot.

Yeah, he's, I mean, you remember how he played. Like he didn't give, he did not give up. He's a size guy. I know. He wasn't as all He wasn't at all. Okay, I wanna ask you about a game tonight. So Boston Bruins are facing off against the New York Rangers. These are two teams that have scuffled

throughout the season. We all know about the Rangers and the JT Miller deal. Make sure you don't leave your, don't make plans. Don't make dinner plans on Fridays anymore because that's when the big trades go down. But here's the way that I wanna frame this. I look at the Rangers and the Bruins

in one very specific way, and it's historical. This is one of the great lost rivalries in the NHL. Much like Detroit-Montreal through the 50s and into the early 60s was the great, I mean, the Bechard Riots. I mean, that was a Detroit Montreal game, 1955. But I look at the Rangers and the Boston Bruins, and this is the late 60s, early 70s.

This is a rivalry that has kind of been lost to time now. And that New York Ranger team specifically, I'm curious your thoughts on this one. That Ranger team specifically, how many, that Ranger team specifically? I'm curious your thoughts on this one. That ranger team specifically, how many? That ranger team specifically was the best team that never won the Stanley Cup. You know I had the privilege of working for the late and male Francis in Hartford. Brian Burke was a general manager but Emil was our president and I had so many awesome visits over the course of my career with Emil. My first head coaching win was in Florida and I'll never forget Mr.

Francis running downstairs in the old Miami arena and running into our dressing room and jumping into me like he was throwing a full on body check. Um, it was really, it was awesome. He's just such a gentleman. I had so many awesome visits with him and he, we talked about that. We talk about that team a lot, you know, the gag line, uh, people, you know, don't really talk about them much, but that gag line was amazing with Gilbert and Rattell and Hadfield. And, you know, you had so Brad Park was in his prime and Eddie Jockerman.

There was just so much stuff going on in New York back in those days. And I think that whole thing took on another life of its own when they made the big deal those days. And I think that whole thing took on another life of its own when they made the big deal with Phil Esposito, you know, and Brad Park. And just it changed a lot for both those teams. And there was always that nastiness. But you're right, those ranger teams in the early seventies, I was kind of 11, 12 years old. I remember those, those were probably the most disappointing ranger teams. And I'll never forget, Jeff, I mean, you remember this clear as day when the Rangers won the cup in 1994, I'll never forget the sign, uh, behind the Ranger goal for the first and the third period after, you know, they, the McTavis

wins the draw and the Rangers win the cup. The sign is held up. Now I can die and pass. I'll never forget. It just showed you how much passion and pain had been part of being a ranger fan since 1940. It really was amazing. That's, that's one of the great signs of all time. I will counter that with one of the great signs from the early

seventies era in Boston at the old garden. It's one of my favorites. It's just of my favorites. It's just very simple. Lady Bing died at the garden. It's one of the great signs of all time. Here, you know, as you're talking about cat a couple of seconds ago, I just pulled off my shelf here.

One of my favorite hockey books of all time on the back, if you can see this, look at that, look at that picture of of Kat. Like, like on whenever I, and I used to, before he passed away, I would talk to him regularly and listen, I mentioned Terry Satchuk earlier, he was the last man to see Terry Satchuk before he passed away and I love talking to Kat about that era, but the book that I just pulled off is one that I, whenever people ask me, what's some of your favorite hockey books,

this is one of mine. It's called The Rangers, The Bruins, and The End of an Era, a tribute to a great rivalry by Jay Moran. Like this is one of my favorite hockey books of all time. It's a great stories. I mean, William Jennings, who has a trophy named after him as the president of the New York Rangers,

putting a bounty on Ted Green of the Boston Bra- like, what are we doing here? But like, that was the era! Like, that was- great stories. Eklberg went up in the stands with the shoes. Yes! Yes! Am I right? New York Boston in its prime, in its heyday, no, 100% no, it was crazy stuff. I mean, you know, I remember coaching playoff games in old Madison, well, Madison Square Garden,

not old Madison Square Garden, Madison Square Garden. I remember coaching playoff games in old Boston Garden. And I remember coaching regular season games in old Boston Garden. You'll like this story. So I'm coaching in a game, I'm coaching in Hartford, and we had a lot of success against the Brooms back in those days.

And I'm standing back by the glass and my arms are folding in front of me. And all of a sudden I feel like a bee has stung me behind my neck. So I go down the bench and I say to our trainer, Bud Gavay, in Hartford, I say, is there like a bee sting or something back there? He goes, no, it looks like you got burnt. What? After the period's over, I go in the dressing room and I take my shirt off and out from behind my shirt comes out this coin. Somebody had heated a coin in the second deck and dropped it down on the turpentine and

it got stuck between my collar and my neck. Oh, jeez. Wait, I was just like. Yeah. Those buildings, when this, those buildings, those buildings were amazing. The intensity in that old Boston Garden or Chicago Stadium. So Jeff, coaching the 92 final with Scottie Bowman in the 92, in Chicago Stadium, games 3 and 4, when you sit on the bench for the National Anthem, the floor shook. I'm not kidding yet. Like you felt the floor shaken from the fans.

It was unbelievable. You know it is, and I always say that, the floor shook. I'm not kidding you. Like you felt the floor shaken from the fans. It was unbelievable. You know, it is. And I always hate to be that guy. I was like, Oh, things were better years ago. Like I don't want to, I don't want to be that guy, but like new, they're not just rinks, like new facilities now, like they're built not just for hockey. It's, you know, basketball concerts, et cetera. Understandable. But there is something

that's been lost like old hockey buildings where the seats weren't as laid-back but they went straight and the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and maybe the best example like the the seats that went almost straight up right and so you were looking down and it was like so intimate. And like, Pierre, you were part of this. Did it feel like the fans were on top of you? Now they're not. Now everything is laid back, right? Gotta make this accessible for concerts,

gotta move this. But back then, like, fans were right on top of you, man. Oh, the forum in Montreal and the garden in Toronto, people forget that there was no glass behind the visitors bench. The fans could touch the players. I remember that walk in by. It was really scary.

It was amazing. The Toronto Maple Leaf's team doctor sat right next to the bench. It was amazing. How did it take you? Dr. Douglas. I think his name was Dr. Douglas if I remember correctly. I remember Dr. Kinnear in Montreal, legendary Doug Kinnear. He would be right there and they used to say,

they wouldn't call it the training room, they call it the clinic in Montreal. He went to the clinic and Dr. Kinnear would stitch him right up. Oh, it was just, it was a totally different time, but those buildings were amazing. They really were amazing. All right, back to hockey today. we got a couple of minutes here left with you

and listen, as always, thank you for your time. Um, last night in the Calgary Toronto game, it's not rare to see players bark at each other. Listen, we just had one player traded because him and another player, um, couldn't get along in Vancouver, but you know, uh, Rasmus Anderson and Nazem Kadri going at it last night. I say, I've always looked at these things and said, that's really healthy. I would rather see two players bark at each other and get it out.

Then ball it up like ketchup and let it sit in their craw and build up and not say anything. I would rather have that spontaneous bark than just quiet fuming on the bench because that's where you get in trouble. You've been part of situations like this. You've seen it from a lot of number of different levels. When you see Khajri and Anderson going at each other like they did last night, what does Pierre Maguire think? Two guys who really care. It's an organization that's created standards and they're holding each other to standards.

You want the players' police in the room. You want the players' police on the bench. It makes it a much better workplace environment. Listen, we had Gordy Roberts and he was a tough guy. We had Rick Tocque and he was a tough guy. We had a lot of guys. Mario would challenge guys. Kevin's, look, we called them the stampeding elephants.

When we had John Cullen, Mark Reckie, and Kevin Stevens, they were all playing out their option that year. And I'll tell you right now, there was a lot discussed. There was a lot discussed. And it was all healthy. They were, after the game was over, they were best friends again. It was all good. Guys challenged one another.

I, I, I had no problem with that. I get times are different. Yeah. I think that's still part of that sacred area where you can challenge guys and it's not a problem. If guys start, it's like I said to you before, Jeff, if guys take that personal, their product can be around the league very long. Truth.

Okay. Let me close on this one then too. Also in that game, William Nylander with, uh, with the hat on, uh, eight years from the, the last time he scored a three goals in a game. And we talked about the narrative about Ovetchikin and how it swung and how it changed and how it's back in it and in a really good, healthy, happy place.

Um, you know, Nylander never got the benefit of the doubt from Maple Leaf's fans, followers, observers from day one. He, you know, was quickly the poster child of everything that was wrong with the Maple Leafs. Now he's somehow become the anchor that drags everybody along with him. He's become the playoff guy,

the consistent regular season guy. All those criticisms that used to exist of William Nylander are gone now. It wasn't that long ago that it was know, it was, it was pretty close that he was going to St. Louis and Alex Patrangelo was going the other way to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Um, when did this change? Like, was it anything that Nylander did?

Cause I still, I mean, I just saw, I just see a guy that got better throughout his career and got physically stronger, but he still seems to be the same player to me. What do your eyes see with William Nylander from when he was drafted in the Echblad draft in Philadelphia to right now? I think a bunch of things. One, the addition of John Tavares to the organization,

I think has helped a lot. The addition of Austin Tavares to the organization, I think, has helped a lot. The addition of Austin Matthews to the organization has really helped, and the maturation of Austin Matthews, the addition of Mitchell Marner to the organization, and the maturation of Mitchell. So if you look at it, let's just say that he's playing, and I hate to number the lines, but he's playing on the second line as a right winger,

and John Tavares is the center, and let's just say for the sake of argument, based on how they finished the game last night. McMahon is playing you know as on the left side. That's one of the better second events in the National Hockey League. Yeah it's really tricky. And so when you're hanging around professional guys like I just mentioned it kind of rolls on you and I think that's one of the things that really helped him. The other part is he always had amazing talent. You know, I had the privilege

of coaching his father. His father, Michael, was amazingly talented. He's not, I can tell you one thing, Michael was a good offensive player, but nowhere near as good as really, not even close. So he's obviously got a good gene pool that he comes from too. I think the addition of some mature guys around that team, and I love what the new coaching staff is doing in Toronto. I think he's just loving it. I think he's enjoying his time playing there and he's playing for the team rather than for himself.

And you can see he's having a ton of fun doing that. Quick thought on Michael, 30 seconds if you have it. Remember the Rangers went through that revolving door of trying to find centers for Jagger and the only guy that he clicked with was Michael Nylander. He was the only, whatever, there's so many centers they went through. Nylander was the only guy. What was it about Michael Nylander? He was amazing protecting the puck. He could gain the offensive blue line, spin out like Greps used to do and find guys late or fine guys early. His pop possession skills are amazing and his peripheral vision was off the charts and

I can tell you this with clear confidence and Michael probably remembers it in the old Boston Garden one night I got really mad at him and I said fight me. I told you five times don't make blind back passes in the neutral zone here. It's just too small and they're gonna quick counter and a lot of times you're gonna be on against Oates and Nealy and it's going to be a problem. And he does it once and they don't score. He does it a second time and they do score and I start screaming out, Mick, Mick, Mick, what did I tell you? And he looks at me, calm, cool and collected like his son probably would do and he says, but coach, I'm the Swedish Wayne Gretzky. And you know what?

I got a song. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I can't go crazy. I'm like, I'm a dang Nick. And he wasn't being neat at all. I wonder if Mariusz Czerkowski ever used that with an Islanders coach. But coach, I'm the Polish Kretzky.

What are you talking about? Do whatever you want. Always full value, great stories, great information, great insight. Thanks as always for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your day, my friend. We'll chat soon. Thanks, pal. I was teeing out last night, every day this week, every day this month I can't get out my head, lost all ambitions day to day Cause I'm caught up right

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