The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Parros Responds & Schaefer's Toronto Homecoming ft. Pierre McGuire & Stefen Rosner

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Jeff Marek is joined by Pierre McGuire for a loaded edition of The Sheet, diving into the fallout from Connor McDavid’s comments on NHL Player Safety and George Parros’ response, plus a deep look at the tightly packed Central Division and the ever-intensifying playoff race in the Eastern Conference. The guys break down key storylines shaping the postseason picture, what to watch for down the stretch, and how teams are separating themselves as the stakes continue to rise. Later, Stefen Rosner joins the show to discuss the New York Islanders’ approach at the trade deadline, where they sit in the Metropolitan Division, and what it all means for their playoff hopes. Plus, a closer look at top prospect Matthew Schaefer and his first game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto. Don’t forget to subscribe for more daily NHL analysis and insight from The Sheet.#NHL #TheSheet #JeffMarek #PierreMcGuire #ConnorMcDavid #GeorgeParros #NHLDOPS #StanleyCupPlayoffs #NHLPlayoffRace #CentralDivision #EasternConference #Islanders #NewYorkIslanders #StefenRosner #MapleLeafs #TorontoMapleLeafs #MatthewSchaefer #Hockey #HockeyTalk #NHLNewsLeave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach 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/@FNBarnBurner🚨 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-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to the program for this Tuesday, March the 17th. This is the sheet. Glad to have you aboard today. Let's all take a deep breath. Here we are in the middle of March. I know it's been a long hockey season. And I know the nerves are very close to the skin. You can feel it at the general manager's meeting.

You could feel it very much at the Colorado Pittsburgh Penguins game last night. And we are going to get into all of it. by the way, Matthew Schaefer faces off against Cetronomy beliefs as well, relative homecoming for Matthew Schaefer. That's all coming up here on the program today. So lots to get to, and a good friend of ours is stopping by once again. So let's get right to it here. Excuse me.

Fanduel. Play your game with Fandul. Coming up here, this is the blueprint for the program today. Excuse me, first day with the new throats. Coming up on the program, the great Pierre McGuire is stopping by. standing by. We'll talk about George Peros doing what he does, and that is defend. And in this case, he's defending his department. We'll talk about the Eastern Conference playoff race.

We'll talk with Steph Rosner from the El Monters about Matthew Schaefer and the New York Islanders. In the meantime, Pierre McGuire joins me now. Pierre, before we get into everything with George Peros, and I do want to ask you, Pierre, about Nathan McKinnon. You did the pregame last night for the Penguins and the Colorado Avalanche. Buts give us like a hot 60 on a player by the name of Molly Boyle. Give us a hot 60.

Why we should know the name Molly Boyle? Because she's just an outstanding defense person that plays at Yale University. Her coach's name is Mark Bolding, who's a person out of Red Deer, Alberta, a longtime NCAA women's coach, coached at Norwich University as well. Molly Boyle has brainpower. Molly Boyle is slick with the puck. Molly Boyle can change a game. Molly Boyle helped engineer a huge upset over Minnesota, Duluth the other night

scoring the only goal and a 1-0-0 win. Eventually they lost in the NCAA tournament, but nonetheless, Molly Boyle is a real deal. And for the next Olympic sequence and cycle, she will be a prominent name for USA Hogg. She's really good, really, really good. Molly, where is she from? Situent, Massachusetts. She went to Phillips Andover, and then she matriculated to the great Yale University. she just completed or she's about to complete her first year at Yale.

Excellent. All right, Molly Boyle, we will circle that one very much. Okay, the news of the day, and we'll get the court board up. This is George Perros, the head of the Department of Players' Safety, slings and arrows ever since the suspension for the knee on Austin Matthews of Radco Gudis. And today at the general manager's meeting, George Peros responded. Zach, if we can fire that one up and have a look at what George Perro has said. here, essentially defending his department, the DOPS, Zach if we, there we go, the DOPS responding,

quote, we sweat over these decisions and pour over these decisions every night all season long. We have a process in place that's consistent. And we have a team that works for me and together with me that evaluates all these plays, a very experienced team, a veteran team guys that have been there since the beginning of the department, not to mention all the former players that have a large set of experiences, playing NHL games and accolades. some of the best guys that have played the game, work for the department, helped to make decisions.

So our process, I feel very confident in. We've got great guys who make these decisions, and I think the players should be confident in this team to do so. Now, a lot of this is in response to, and I'll end it on this one and get your thoughts, Connor McDavid commenting on the process. Now, he did compliment the DOPS, they have a hard job, et cetera, but when everybody, I'm paraphrasing Connor here,

But when everybody is complaining about every, every suspension, maybe we should have a closer look at it. First place my brain went was, well, maybe you should call the executive director of the Players Association or they just went through a whole negotiating period with the NHL. And if you want to look at the DOPS, like it's all this stuff's in there of how these things are called. But nonetheless, I submit the floor to you. Where are we at right now in Pierre McGuire's head about the DOPS? I do think they do a lot of good work. I think it's a thankless job.

I think it's almost an impossible job, quite frankly. It's gotten better over time as well. I think George has worked diligently at it. I've had some discussions with him at different events over the course of time. I think he's really intelligent. He's very passionate about the game. He obviously played at a high level. He had a unique role as a player at a high level,

so he understands the trials and tribulations being a physical force in a game that wants to celebrate more skill than it does the physical force part of it. So he gets that mechanism of it. I know that he's trying to step up as a good teammate for the well-being of his group, which I respect a lot. I don't think the good of suspension is appropriate. I thought it should have been longer. And I was surprised by that.

And I think a lot of people in hockey were surprised by it. And that what leads to Connor McDavid saying what he said. There's a few things to that too. Anytime it's against a superstar and there's a significant injury, Austin Matthews season is done here. There's going to be more of a focus on the discipline. discipline. A couple of mitigating factors here to all of it. One, and they did mention this in the video, too, if the Department of Player Safety's job is to deter, you know, Radco Gudis essentially

went an entire career, seven years without a suspension. That to me is, it's like, it would be a little bit from a philosophical point of view, it would be philosophically inconsistent if for seven years Radco Gudis completely corrected his behavior, took no suspensions, and the minute he paints outside the lines, the Department of Player's Safety, throws 20 games at him. Because if that happens,

the message to all the other guys is, don't bother. Don't bother correcting behavior. There's like a lot of different layers with this one. And I wonder too, Pierre, if McDavid doesn't make comment, is this the big firestorm that it is, today? I think it is because there are a lot of, first of all, it happened in Toronto.

Secondly, it happened to the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Third, it happened to the captain of Team USA that just won a gold medal. There's a lot of mitigating circumstances. And I hear a lot of, and this doesn't mean people are wrong. This is just my own humble opinion. I mean that humble opinion. Everybody says, we got to protect the star players. I'm like, how about every player? How about protect every player, not just star players, protect every player, so that the rule are actually appropriate. You know, I know Brian Burke comes on your show. Brian hired me in Hartford. I'm a big fan. We get along real well. We're going to be at Mario Lemieux's fantasy camp next week together. Nice. And so my thing on that, Jeff, is Brian created this thing called the

Burke Bearhead Rule. He didn't want to name it that, but some of us named it that. I think just a simple thing like that would alleviate so much of the hard job that the Department of player safety has. If you just put the Burke Bear Hug rule in so you can take a guy in, ride him into the boards from behind, you get 1001, 1002, 1003, then you got to release them. If they did that, all this other stuff where people say, I drilled him from behind or he did this from behind, all that stuff would go away. And then we wouldn't have as much inflamed craziness. The argument against that, and I've brought this up with Brian too, is The argument against that is you go to the rulebook, that's holding.

It is. But I also know that there's things called hitting from behind that don't get caught either. That's in the rulebook. Yeah. So guys break the rules all the time. This is more for safety. You know, and they say if you can see the back of his sweater and you can read the numbers, you can read the name, don't hit them. Yeah.

Well, I don't know. Every game, there must be like 10 of those guys can't read. But that's become, okay, I'm glad you got us there. because that's become a tactic in the NHL. I remember asking someone, this is years ago, a player on the Columbus Blue Jackets, I said, like, why do you guys always turn your backs on the, at the boards?

Why? Like, it is so dangerous. You're putting yourself in such a vulnerable position. And this player said, well, it's simple. One, it's an easy way to protect the puck. And two, if I do get hit from behind, we go on the power play. I go to the bench and the coach gives me a cookie.

I've done my job either way. There's a couple other things that they forgot. Number one, we have all these skill development coaches, and what do they teach? Protect and shield the puck all the time. So players are doing what they're taught to do. What's the newest thing that's crept into all the discussion? Possession numbers.

And who wants to espouse that? Agents and analytic people. So players are going to be reticent to want to move the puck. So how do you maintain puck possession, look good analytically, and look good to the people that make these decisions? Guys, in turn, protect the puck. So yes, I agree with everything they're saying, except there are other things that come into play. And that's why the Burke Bearhug rule would probably be a good thing, not a bad thing. You come in, you wrap up, boom, you move on. You know, it's interesting. You mentioned Brian because he was, before there was a DOPS,

Brian was essentially the sheriff of the NHL. And he would always tell me it's the worst job in the league because every day you wake up, you wake up with the knowledge that everybody thinks you're an idiot because nobody agrees with anything that you do, any suspension. Like to the point that Connor McDavid made, one,

that should be a conversation with Marty Walsh. Two, they've just gone through a round of CBA negotiations. three, the general managers could turn the heat up, but this game is called the way the managers want it. And they don't want the 15 game suspensions. Thank you very much. And, you know, if you want to change it midstream, that's fine.

But understand that then it does turn into a negotiation. Because it goes, Connor McDavid to Marty Walsh, to Gary Betman, or Marty says, our guys have a problem with the way this game is discipline. We want to do something about it.

To which Gary, veteran negotiator, will say, yes, I hear you. We also have these issues that we'd like to address at the same time

and then it becomes a negotiation. And that's to my previous point. You just had this. You just had these negotiations. I know nobody likes to do the boring stuff. I know players don't want to to do the boring stuff.

But it's that boring work that leads to how the game is disciplined. Does that make sense to you? Yeah, that's really good. It's all fair. It's great. And I love what you say because it really makes a lot of sense. What was really the focal point of the last collective bargaining agreement that's created all this labor harmony?

And I would say the star players wanted to go to the Olympics. and they wanted that to be a big part of what they did. And the NHL was kind of like, I'm not so sure about the Olympics. Well, now I think they're pretty sure that the Olympic thing worked out right. But look what it brought us. It brought not just you and I, but everybody that's a fan and his passion about it.

It brought labor harmony. When's the last time you can honestly say everybody was kind of singing from the same songbook when it came to the PA and the direction of the league? It's been a long time. I it's uh well no we haven't seen it like just to be blunt pierre like we haven't seen it we have not seen labor harmony it's certainly not with you know with with gary betman as a commissioner there was the the the 94 95 lockout which which ended halfway through there was the full season scotch and ever

since then it's been sort of clawback and clawback um and and clawback as well um maybe maybe a A final note on this one with George Peros and the Department of Player's Safety. I'm of the mind that this is a story that comes and goes. I think that it doesn't matter whether it's George Peros or it's Ryan Getslaff or Damien Etcheverietta, who's the head of the Department of Player Safety based on the process that they go through and the historical precedent that this department has set. and George just doesn't wake up and decide. I think this feels like a five.

I think this feel like, and again, like, good as to me felt felt like a seven to me. Maybe if I squint, it's an eight. But like, I don't think it's way off. But again, that's just. No, no, I think you're right. That's where I thought it should have been, honestly. I kind of look at it and say it's not, it's not George Peros.

I know he's the figurehead of all of it and he has the final say. But they look at like, all the historical precedent from all other, from all other infractions. And the idea of, and this winks back at your point, not just protecting superstars, but protecting everybody. I always get really uncomfortable when I hear we got to protect the stars. Because that says to me, we need a separate category of how we're going to officiate and discipline around these players.

Hockey's a dangerous game. And I've always, and I've always, and this is maybe, you know, a follow-up question for Connor McDavid. Not that he said stars, but if anyone does say, we need to protect our stars. The follow-up question for anybody in media, listening or watching right now,

the follow-up question is, show me the list. Make me the list. Make me the list of star players. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. We all talk about the need to have character players to win in the playoffs.

Those star players know you need to have those guys. If those guys aren't getting protected, then the star players not getting protected either. It's in a vicious circle. It is an unbelievably vicious circle. But you're right. So I don't think Connor said anything bad, by the way. I think he handled that actually really well. I was kind of glad that he said what he said.

That being said, I also don't like people piling on and trying to rip George Peros apart. Knowing George a long time, respect him a lot. He's a highly cerebral person that really cares passionately about the sport and about the league. and he wants to do things right. He's been a paying member of the association. He understands what's going on. He cares. And the people around them are good hockey people.

I've known Damien, darn, since he was breaking down tape for Coley Camel and Roger Nielsen in New York, the New York Rangers. That's a long time ago. That's almost 35 years ago, 36 years ago. So they're all good hockey people. They care a lot. I don't think they're trying to subvert or sabotage the league, but I do think there's got to be some form of,

mechanism where a penalty to a player like Gouda should have been, I think, a little bit longer. And I like Radco a lot. I would have Radco on my team. I had players like Radco on my team. I had the late Brian Marchman. I had Olfie Samuelson. I had some guys that played like Radco. And I enjoyed those guys.

They were really important to how well our team did or didn't do. And so I don't have a problem with that, but I thought the penalty should have been greater to Radco. I do. Okay. This one is not over. We'll probably still be talking about this by the time you come back here on the program to share the mic with me here. Let me ask about a couple of other things. That Colorado Pittsburgh game, first of all, statement win by the penguins, holy spokes.

But Nathan McKinnon, not exactly thrilled at his team, his performance, all of it, personnel, everything. I kind of look at this one. Pierre, I'm curious your thoughts. I look at this one and I say, this is life without Landisg, man. Like Landisg, as the captain in that room, everything just seems more settled. You know, I saw Stad online today,

something about how without Landisg this team trends to 88 points. Like without Landisgog, and with them, I think it trends like 120. Like the difference is stark with or without Gabriel Landisg and just from a like turn the temperature down in the room, it's March 17th.

Let's all check. out here. Landisog to me does it better than only a handful of other guys. Unless you're around their yeah, but you're right, Jeff, unless you're around their team all time, you don't appreciate that quality that Gabe has number one and number

two. The way that Nathan is as intense or more intense than any player in the league. And if you don't know that, trust me, I was there for a month and a half, actually two and a half months in Edmonton during in the pod when Colorado was there. And I would tell you that

you could hear everything that was going on in the podcast position. How loud was that bench? How loud was that bench, Peter? Extremely loud. And Nathan is an amazingly demonstrative leader, and he holds, he's equal opportunity. He holds himself just as accountable as he holds everybody else accountable, including his coach, by the way, Jared Bettner. So that's just how he runs. But you know what?

Every team's different. And you just nailed it. The Lannisog factor is huge there. They miss him a lot. And it's not just for what he does on the A. It's what he does on the bench and what he does behind the scenes. World Cup of Hockey was one of the things coming out of the general manager's meetings as well that I want to get to before we run out of time here.

They haven't named the eight. I think it's pretty safe to say that we're looking at Canada, U.S., Sweden, Finland, Czechia, Slovakia, Germany, and Switzerland. I think the NHL is probably waiting on the double IHF here to make a ruling on Russia. And I don't think, Pierre, correct me from it. I don't think the NHL wants to take a lead position. on that issue. I think they're waiting for the

AAHF to make their decision. I would say you're right. Here's my, here's my, again, like I'm going to just nitpick because of what I do. I have no issue with Calgary Edmonton winning this thing. Congratulations.

That's going to be fun. 2028, you know, February, between those two cities. It's going to be fantastic. I love that there's a European city involved. I think of the cobblestone streets of Prague as you do and think of this is wonderful. I like that for big events like this.

The NHL is paying more than just lip service to European countries too. Like this is, this is significant. But I think about, and maybe it's already too far down the road to change. But I just think of the momentum that the U.S. just won triple gold at the Olympics in hockey. And they can't carry that momentum into Boston, into a New York. into a Philadelphia, into a Chicago. About Vegas. Vegas is another one.

Like that's the one that I thought of too. Into Vegas. Like you always wonder, okay, so you have like the dream. Okay, USA is successful at the Olympics. The gold medals are coming back. What do we do with it as the NHL? I don't know that I would have said, let's put this thing in Canada.

I don't have a problem. So I would have done it in. three different place. I would have done one, Canada. So whether it's Edmonton or Calgary, you choose. And then you choose, is it New York City? Is it Los Angeles or is it Vegas? No disrespect to Boston that just had, you know, the four nations event. But no disrespect to Detroit, which I think would be an amazing host for any event like that. And you get a lot of cross-border population coming across from Canada. But there's something about marquee destinations. That's why the Super Bowl goes to all these amazing places. There's something to be

said for that and you just touched on it brilliantly the cobblestone streets of prague they're spectacular yeah i've been there so many different times whether it's been for scouting or broadcasting and progress just the spectacular world-class city and an amazing hockey city so i have no problem there i've no problem with the team with one of the cities in emminton but i really do think there should have been an american component to this uh i'm just glad that we're starting to really see a vibrant international schedule you know like i can i can i can recall years and and this this would have even been before Pierre, even before Betman, like this would have been in the late

Ziegler era. You know, someone from someone from the hockey news sent me all these like pro formas that they had from the NHL on like cities that they're investigating, creating an NHL Europe. And it's the obvious ones like Stockholm and Helsinki, etc.

But there's like Paris and London and Milan. And like this is something that really the Simon Schemberg is always maintained and I agree with them that the beginning of international hockey was 1972 because all of a sudden someone was at par with with can like that was a beginning and then Canada Cup 76 etc and we're off to the races like we've wondered about this for a long time and at various times the NHL has dipped its toe into this and then gotten back and got up the diving

board and went but walked back down the ladder etc but now it finally seems as if there is going to be a consistent and robust schedule of international hockey. There's going to be. I tied Bill Daly on my podcast called Inside the Game, and he talked about it really graphically. And one of the things is the league has opened up in office in Zurich, which I think is really important.

That's number one. Number two, they're going to play, obviously, Ottawa and Chicago are going to go over to Germany and play two games there next year. One of the things I admire about the National Hockey League, they understand how important the European component is to the player development part of this process. They don't want to alienate.

a lot of those national foundations for hockey. The Federation in Sweden, the Federation, obviously, in Finland, the Federation in Germany, the Federation in Czechia, Slovakia, they don't want to alienate those people in this process. So I think they've treaded a really difficult line and they've credited it really well. I have a lot of respect for the way the NHL is trying to do their business in Europe. I really do.

It's great to see. As a fan of international hockey, and I think we all are by now and see. It's not like, it's not like it, again, I'm going to sound like an old man shakes fist of clouds. It's not like it used to be, you know, where you didn't know the players. Like I can recall my dad telling me about, you know, all the players on Czechoslovakia in 76, and here's Young Stasny, and here's Vlad Zirilla, like, in Holacek.

And like, I can still remember it. And there was like a mystery about them. Like that's, that doesn't exist anymore. But here's the thing that I wondered about. I have wondered about since USA won gold. And I would ask the same thing if Canada won gold. How many players on USA

would trade their gold medal for a Stanley Cup ring? Probably a bunch of them. I couldn't give you the number, but I don't know the number either. But I would say a bunch. So over my left shoulder are two Stanley Cups

and the Patrick Division trophy. And those matter a lot. They matter a lot. All the individual accolades I have from broadcasting, they're over on my right. They'll never be behind me. I'll never show them because this was more about team than anything else. And I think that's the biggest thing.

The Stanley Cup matters unbelievably. If you really have been around the National Hockey League forever and ever, they matter. It matter a lot. There are very few people that get to the top of the NHL mountain. And when you do get there, you know how hard it was to get there. For sure. The only thing that I wonder about it too is, once upon a time, that was a two-foot pot.

Oh, Stanley Cup ring all day. I'm saying like Olympic gold, like for a lot of, and we've always just, as always assume, that would only be the Europeans. But like gold medal means a ton to North Americans now. Oh, well, now it does, yeah, because the Olympics are massive. The Olympics is big business.

Now it is. It's the true best on best, except this year we didn't have the Russians, obviously. And that's a component that they're going to have to figure out internationally. I like the way you phrased that before with the double IHS. in the iosc they're going to have to figure that out yeah but the olympics are special you know i've had the honor of doing eight of them eight olympics and it never got old and it was great but i could tell you just from the broadcasting component the only one that felt that was as large as um a stanley cup

was a 2010 olympics in vancouver because it was canada u.s in an unbelievably tense environment with overtime and a Canadian country that was just dying to win. And it brought so much emotion and so much passion to the event, it felt as big or bigger than the Stanley Cup final. O2 wasn't like that in Salt Lake, 06, even though it was a walk. Like Canada ran away. Canada ran away with it. This was overtime.

And 06 was different. Finland and Sweden are playing there. Yeah, it mattered to those countries. But I think if you were to talk to the guys on Sweden who eventually won, what meant more of them? Probably short term, that event did. But long term, that Stanley Cup that they won in Detroit or the numerous cups they won in Detroit, those matter, those guys.

You know what I mean? The guys that had won. So I still think the Stanley Cup matters a lot. Okay, let me do a quick memory lane here before we split. Yeah. I had a lot of thoughts rush back into my head last night at the end of that King's Rangers game. watching Anjay Kopitar and Jonathan Quick,

embraced and then have a chat. And I think back to 2012, obviously, when Jonathan Quick was the best goaltender on the planet, bar none, just an incredible season, both regular season and playoffs for Jonathan Quick. And of course, we know about Kopitar, overtakes Marcel Dion as the all-time leading score for the Los Angeles Kings,

a record that, by the ways, we all know, stood for 45 years. Little Beaver had that one for, 45 years incredible. Do you have a thought on Copitzer beating Dion and I don't know if you saw the exchange between the two but like Quick stayed back to wait, you know, and then had that. It was just a beautiful hockey moment. Well, the 12th kings and the 14 kings were phenomenal. Darrell Sutter did such a good job with those guys and the players obviously responded.

People don't talk about Dustin Brown's leadership enough. Dustin was a phenomenal leader. They don't talk about Alec Martinez in the way he played. young Drew Dowdy phenomenal. We all know that. There were so many moving parts there. They were a tough team. They were a big team. They were a nasty team. Here's my Kopitar story for him. In 2005, when we had the nuclear winter, I was sitting in Innsbruck, Austria, watching the Slovenians practice. And there was only one other person in the rink with me besides the Slovenian entourage. And it was David Conti of the New Jersey Devils.

And so David was a legendary scout and still is. But at that time, he was Lulele Lamarillo's right-hand man. And we were talking and he said very politely, he says, you know, this Crosby guy is really good, Pierre, and he's going to go number one. Who do you think should go number two? We started throwing out all these different names. I never said Kopitar's name. And he's right in front of me. And I should have, but I didn't. And he goes, I'll tell you who the second best player in this draft is. It's not even close. It's Anse Copatar. And Conti's called that. He, David Conti, too, I will never forget that. It was at the rinkininsbrook in 2005 and he called it and you know what he was spot on he couldn't have been

more right you know there was and again not and injuries were a a main factor certainly but do you remember how good gilbert brule was do you remember like how flat out like yeah he was a great man of Vancouver I watched him with the giants he was great one of those conversations as part of that Dave Conti conversation of like who's the second best. I'm guessing Joe Berlis' name came up. It did. Brulay's name came up.

So did Mark Stahl. Remember Mark Stahl back in those days. He was an ultimate shutdown defenseman that everybody wanted to have. Kerry Price's name came up. Tri-City. Kerry Price was drafted by Montreal and right after Gilbert Brulet.

You go down the line. There were a lot of good players that went. You know, Jack Johnson's name was brought. There were a lot of guys who were brought up. There was. It's crossed me and Kopitar from that draft, and Kerry Price is probably three. You know, you speak of it, you got to go.

He's wanted one thing, 2012 draft. I went back to look at it again the other day. You could make the argument that the top two players should have both been goaltenders, Andrei Vaselowski and Connor Hallibuck. Now, Philoferzberg's in there. Hempus Lindberg's in there. Linholm's in there. Tom Wilson's in there.

Who else would have been in there? A couple of others that would be in there. But like you can make the argument. Like in 2012, the top two picks should have been goalies, which if you made it at the time, be considered insane. You'd be considered nuts. What are you doing?

I'll take you one more back, 1990 draft. The one Nolan goes first. Peter Nedved goes second. Keith Primo goes third. Mike Reachie goes fourth. Yarmour, Yager goes fifth. You can make the argument that Yager should have been one. And with the 20th pick overall,

Lewis J. Lamarillo from the New Jersey Devils. selects from St. Hayas in Quebec, Martin Broder. You could make the argument that those two guys should have gone one and two. Trevor Kid weren't at 11. Trevor Kidd went ahead of Marty Bourdure.

Vremont. Okay, I know you got a hustle. Thanks so much for stopping by, as always, and indulging me on the little goofy draft stories. You're the best, Pierre. Thank you, Monodymy. Take care. Bye-bye. Thank you, Jeff. Great Pierre Maguire, stopping by the program on a consistent basis here, and we always

thank him for his office. For his offerings on the show. Zach, anything from Pierre stand out for you before we hustle along to Steph Rosner? You're back in jail, by the way. Where's all your artists? We'll have something on the walls. Put something behind you.

You make it interesting. Good Lord, man. Oh, there we go. Okay. There you go. Incarcerated by people that it, when I don't go full screen, this board behind me looks like it says Scientology and not what it actually says of quintology. So that's, uh, that was an unfortunate reading of the comments.

yesterday. I'm like, yeah, what are people saying about the show? Like, oh, why is Zach sporting Scientology behind him? No, that's not what it says. Yeah. They have that big building on Youngstreet still? I don't know. I don't know.

I have not looked, actually. I don't know. I just thought it was interesting talking about, like, how the room runs in Colorado. And it's a good point you brought up. You guys discussed about Landisog not being there. I thought it was interesting. interesting. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like being between the benches hearing McKinnon in that arena with no other noise too, because that would have been during the bubble.

So would it would have been the guys on the ace, the guys on the bench, pure between the benches and then the camera guys, wherever they would have been scattered around the arena. But you know what my favorite or one of my favorite sounds is? I've told you about this before, right? Like I love the crossbar, obviously. But one of my favorite sounds is overtime winners on the road. overtime winners on the road are great because the crowd is quiet and all you can hear are the players and like visually

like it's weird because your eyes are seeing one thing and your ears are perceiving something else your eyes are looking at it's a full house it's so quiet and your ears are just like all we hear is these guys on the ice it's always the coolest vibe

I just love it I just love it's one of my favorite hockey sounds I don't know if you ever think of like make a list of like your favorite hockey sounds that's one of mine overtime winners on the road place goes definitely quiet just hear the players it's a cool sound yeah that is a really cool sound i mean the other one for me is when you get on the ice and it's the guys at morning skate uh without fans or anything like that but the guys getting on and you just hear all the sticks like and everything just the initial sounds the ice getting

carved up everyone kind of walking around everyone seems to always do the thing where they take just to tap the stick on the ace of like looking checking out to stick you know what i mean that just those sounds of yeah starting before you actually even get into the drills when everyone's just warming up and messing around a bit that i love that sounds because it's just like the calm before the storm everybody getting worked into everything the other one is when you uh when you walk in for speaking like morning skates when you walk into the rink and it's quiet and you start walking towards the ice and you start to hear like puck's hitting glass and puck's hitting post yeah but when you're walk in it's quiet and then you know and then you just take a few steps and you start to get to the

ice and then you start to hear that that's a cool sound yeah i love that's cool sound joins us in vancouver and he does it from the press box and i do morning skate out there and you can just hear every now and then somebody go like ah and then you hear like off the glass because it's just got that distinct death. Like it hits and then it just rattles to the arena. Yeah.

It's a good sound. It's a good sound. I like it. We got Steph Rosner coming up here in a couple of moments. Let me know when, when Seth is stopping. Oh, is he ready?

Well, let's get to Steph Rosner then. You can read him in a number of places. I recommend subscribing to the Almoncers. You can also read them at NHL.com, covering the New York Islanders, always looking fresh-faced and dapper with a white-collared shirt.

Holy smokes. I should clean up the act here with this. A red deer, Rebels t-shirt from the Western Hockey League. Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, without a net, the great Steph roster. How are you doing today, Steph? How are you doing, pal? What's up, Jeff?

I'm doing great. Zach, I'll pay your bail. So whatever it is, just let me know what it is, all right? Doesn't not look like he's in prison? I know him and his girlfriend just moved, and so he's just got to decorate the place, but holy smokes, incarcerated Zach. Okay, so homecoming time. Always curious when a player comes back to his hometown.

In this case, Matthew Schaefer, who grew up a little bit west of the, city of Toronto. Back in Toronto, as the Islanders face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs. We always refer to it as playing for free, which means you've had to buy so many tickets

that you're not making a dollar that day. Do you have any idea how many tickets that Schaefer's had to cobble together here? So I asked Schaefer that question yesterday, and he said it's close to 1,000. Now, is it actually close to 1,000? That's a lot of people. I don't know 1,000 people.

I'm sure Schaefer has a ton of supporters there. But yeah, they have a box for a close family and friends, but then he said that there's a lot of people hitting up his dad that just buy tickets and get there. So maybe it's not a thousand, but it's going to be a lot of people at this place. And I mean, well deserved. Obviously, we've seen the

support from other teams around the league for Schaefer. We've seen Maple Leafs fans supporting him as well. So yes, I think Maple Leafs fans would love the Leafs to win, but I think a lot of them are rooting to see what Matthew Schaefer can do. I'm not so sure that a lot of Maple Leaf fans want to see the team win at this point. I'm not

sure if you're familiar with what's happened to this team this year stuff. It's, it's always... You're dropping the money on the tickets. At the end of the day, people can talk their talk, but like, if you're going, your leaf end, you're paying money. You want to see Shoeuvre pretty well,

but you also probably want to see the Leafs win. For sure. Well, we'll see. I mean, this one gets underway early. It's one of the seven o'clockers tonight, so we'll see what happens. Either way, we're going to get an indication early on this one.

Always curious when he hits the ice and what the reaction is. So how has he talked about this game? I mean, thankfully for him, it comes a little bit later on in the season towards the end. But how is, in your conversations with him, how is Matthew Schaefer, who's full stop, going to win the Calder Trophy this year? Like, how is, how is the conversation about this game been with Matthew Schaefer?

Yeah, he's always so even killed when he started his career. He played against Crosby, and then Ovechkin, then McDavid, and he said, just the game, it's just the game. This one's a little different. You could sense the excitement and the anticipation of what it means to him to be back home. We all know about what he went through. and the support he's had around the league and from coaches and family members, all that stuff.

So for him, you could tell this one, this one's different. This one's going to be extra special. And he just probably wants to make everybody proud. And that's where he's at always is making him, his family proud, his friends, proud, and everyone that helped him out proud. You know, it's very rare that one player, especially a young player like this,

although you can make the argument with Alexander Roevechkin and Sidney Crosby specifically, who can completely turn around the vibe. Like completely turn around the vibe. around the vibe of an NHL team. It's certainly hard to do. Macklin Celebrini with the San Jose Sharks. There's a new sort of enthusiasm with the San Jose Sharks now around

Macklin Celebrini. But, I mean, listen, you cover this team day in, day out, hour in, hour out. Are you surprised at how quickly he's helped? Because it's not just him, but man, it's a big part. How quickly he's been able to turn the vibe around about the Islanders. Like more people are watching the Islanders this year, and they're on ramp to the Islanders is this kid. Yeah, I'm not surprised.

Nothing fazed me in terms of what he's able to do. The fact that he's transcended this organization, but he talked about vibes, and that's been a huge thing for Patrick Waugh. He went home this summer after the Islanders missed the playoffs last year and said, you know, I want to figure out a different way to kind of go at this. And knowing that he had Schaefer coming in and knowing how important it was to keep things lively and fun and youthful. He came in preaching compassion, preaching fun, preaching swagger.

And that's all Schaefer is. He talked to a lot of players in that room, and Schaefer is a leader. Forget being 18, he's a leader, but also he keeps the room light. He comes in with the sense of everything is brand new to him. He's just playing hockey. And for a lot of these guys, these veterans where, you know, it's bitter grind. You talk to Barzal and he goes, you know, Schaefer smiling is never in a bad mood. Like, that's contagious.

The whole room feels it. So, yeah, I think the vibe mentality is so, yeah, the swagger. Schaefer just nothing fazes him. He's enjoying life every minute of every second. He's in that rink and all of his teammates feel and all the fans do as well. The Islanders won't expect to do anything this year. lot of fans thought, okay, if Schaefer's fun to watch and he develops, like, they miss the playoffs and miss the playoffs as long as you get to see Schaefer. But now it's like, this team can make

the playoff. Schaefer is going to win rookie a year. He might get some hard votes. I mean, Serocon's been good, but the vibes have been completely changed. It helps going from Lou and how quiet he was and a secretive he was. And now Darch comes in and opens it up to fans. But the opening up to fans and then the fans get to see Schaefer first hand and watch him grow. That's been amazing. So the vibes are as high as possible. Every practice is, and jokes. And yeah, they take it seriously

when they have to put in the work. But, yeah, you can't go one day without Schaefer cracking a joke in the room or chirping one of his teammates while waiting to talk with him. One more Schaefer question. They don't want to talk more

about the Islanders here, but like any sort of sense of, and I'm asking for a specific number or decimal point here, how much he's meant to the bottom line for the New York Islanders this year, whether it's ticket sales, Jersey sales, I mean,

listen, the brand value, all of that. That all goes in because I'll frame it this one very specific way. I think that Alexander Roveschkin and Sidney Crosby. These are the two.

I'll use it as examples. Are the two most underpaid players in the history of the game? When you look at, first of all, there's this CBA triple salary cap. Given that there's only a max, you can pay them. When you look at the tickets and the jerseys and the brand value and all of it, that I don't know in the history of hockey that there are more players, and again, this is a CBA, so there's only so much you can do, who left more money on the table, who had to leave more money on the table.

I don't know any two players who did that more so than Ovechkin and Crosby. How much does this guy leave it on the table? Because this guy means a lot to the bottom line of the Islanders already. Yeah, so we talked with Team President Kelly Cheesman who came over from the L.A. area. And he said that they had to search so far to find more 48s to put on jersey. They mean, they're selling at these jerseys left and right. The Islanders have sold out their last 13 home games. They're going to sell out the rest of their home.

games, and it's the Schaefer effect. Yeah, so yeah, and there's money on the table frame for sure. I mean, he's spending all of his money to have all this family and friends in the entire city coming to this game tonight. But, but yeah, no, he spent everything from business standpoint, which, you know, is important. You do need someone to draw fans, especially younger fans in, especially after a year when you missed the playoffs. So, yeah, they've run out of number 48s.

They've had to get more. His jersey is the number one product, and people are coming just to see him play. Okay, so here's the question. What is the second best story with the Islanders? Second best story I would have to say would be, I think, Seroquin coming off last year, what he went through. He wasn't great last year. And then the defense as a whole, we could talk about Schaefer for heart. But Sorokin's been that guy.

He's that Vesna caliber guy. Will he win it? I know there's a debate between him and Vasselapsky, but when you pay a goalie as much as you pay him, I know 8.25 doesn't seem like a lot for goalies anymore. But when they paid him that, it's a high price. you expect him to be that guy every night bailing you out. And I know maybe that's unfair, especially when you're behind this Islander's defense at times, but he's lived up to what you're paying him for.

And he's been great, obviously without Barlamov. It's been his show, Riddick's been in and out as well. But like, this is the only Strogens team. If he's going well, the team has a chance to win every single night. The other story, too, is Tony DiAngelo has been a fantastic story. This is a guy that comes over from the KHL after, you know, who's in the prorated deal, gets an extension. And, you know, he's got some.

flaws in his game to foot alongside Adam Tewellic. Adam Tehlk, it's like the shutdown guy that he used to be up along the Jacob Slavins of the world. Like, he's been so dynamic. And a large part of it has been Tony DeAngel by his side. So, you know, Schaefer's been a great story. Sorogh's been a great story. But you got to give credit to Tony DeAngel because he's been fantastic for this team. The Braden Shend trade. I want to ask you about that. But do you think that there were other deals that were close to the finish line, but they just couldn't get them there? I'm curious. Like from from your experience around deadline with the Islanders.

Were there some other things that Darsh was trying to do that just couldn't make happen? Yeah, I'm comfortable saying 100%. I think Darch was, when you have the two first round picks that you had before the deal, the prospect pool that you do have and the cap space, you in theory, couldn't be involved with everybody. And Darch made it clear to us that, you know,

there were a lot of things that didn't get done. And I think that was fair to say for a lot of teams around the NHL. So I think, yeah, you know, was it Garland, where they're for sure were talks about Garland, was there talks maybe about Tippet on Philly or other teams. I think I think Darts was involved. We know St. Louis, but I think Darts was involved in a ton of commerce season.

I think the goal was to get that top six score. They ultimately don't get that. You know, that was a seller's market. Getting that guy was going to be really, really tough. But, yeah, I think the Islanders were involved in a lot of deals that didn't come to fruition like other teams. But I think Darch was comfortable at least getting a guy like Shen and, you know, the return, whatever the package they had to send back.

but he wants to make the playoffs and he wants to give the islanders the best chance when he do make the playoffs and go on and run you look at Pallai, you look at Sussi, stabilizers, Shen, a veteran leader who's won a cup. Like that's where Darch valued is, hey, how can he help relieve some pressure off of Calam Ritchie, be that center guy and go forward and make the playoffs and go on a run?

So the one thing that I was told around deadline with Darsh was there were a lot of teams, to your point, engaged in talking to the Islanders, but a big no-fly zone was Kashan Acheson. Defenseman with the Barry Colts. And I think we're all, anyone that knows Kishan Acheson looking at this player and saying, oh man, you have a chance at having Schaefer and Acheson,

who hits like a freight train. They are going to love him. Islanders fans are going to adore Kashan Acheson. That is probably that, as I mentioned, no-fly zone for Matthew Darsh. Is that accurate? 100%. And Victor Eklund was another guy that was a no touch that they picked before HSN.

I don't know about Colizmann exactly how untouchable he is. But Darts didn't really want to move anybody that could potentially turn pro next year. He values those guys if you can go make the team better using the first round picks. Some other prospects like attaching Gidloff, their goaltending, their second best goaltane prospect to Gams and he's been unreal in the KHL. Like that was his plan. Now, again, if Robert Thomas was truly available or something, someone, you know, Chuck, for example, throwing names all like that.

Are one of those guys, Ecklin or Atchson potentially move? Sure, but not for the guys I think that Darch was thought were possible reality options at this deadline. But yeah, for sure, I know that teams wanted Acheson. The same Blue's, the same Blue's, love Acheson's game. They love Danny Nelson's game as well. We'll see if he turns pro over the next week or so. But, yeah, there was no touchy for Eklund and Acheson. That was what I'm glad you mentioned Danny Nelson.

That was one of the names that's like, okay, if this is going to happen, blah, blah, blah, blah. And Danny Nelson. It was almost like Danny Nelson needed to change his first name to and. Because of how many times I heard and Danny Nelson. Did you hear same? Yeah, yeah, Danny Nelson. I know the blues for sure were someone that were really high in them. And Danny Nelson, listen, is he going to be a top six center?

No, but he's one of those third line, fourth line centers that you 100% need to win a cup. However, with Danny Nelson playing at Notre Dame, his older brother is there right now and his younger brother committed. So I think that's the issue right now with the out of the out of his love to sign him. but does he want to go play with his two brothers? You know, that's hard to say no to, right, if you're Danny Nelson. But yeah, he was a player that a lot of teams definitely wanted for sure. Okay, one last question for you.

It's a busy day for you. Why Braden Shen? Why Braden Shen? Yeah. So we know for a fact that they want to go, I know as much as the islanders have center-wise, center depth, dark's made it clear that I think he wanted to take the pressure off of Calimbrich. Now, Calim Ridge, he's in his rookie year.

He's making his home and home debut tonight. as well. He's from Oakville. But he was struggling playing as the number two center. I think the Islanders knew that Matthew Barzal fits best with Bo Horvette. And they don't want to put him back at center. And Rixie was struggling with the defensive responsibility

as being a number two C. So I think Darts' goal here, and this is what he said, was he wanted to alleviate some pressure off of Ritchie, get a guy in here who's really good in the face off dot, who's won a cup, has that veteran leadership and mentality. So that's why I think the islanders ultimately settled with, I've settled as a

maybe a harshword, but they weren't and got Braden Chen because given the assets that it would take to get him, and also, too, you have to remember the Islanders did get to move Jonathan Drew in the deal. So I'm sure that help, but the Blues are willing to take down, obviously, picks who are involved. But I think, Darch, look at the Palat deal, same thing. Proven winner, someone performs in the playoffs and someone who brings that veteran leadership. Yes, the Islanders have a ton of that.

But I think it was for, you know, the Blues and the Islanders, obviously were talking about a lot of things. Shen wins his face off. Shen takes the pressure off Richie, and the Islanders thought, but we get another center to take that pressure off. We have a better chance of making the playoffs, and then in the playoffs, having guys that have been there and done that, obviously gives them a much better chance.

Okay, last one, I promise. How has Patrick Waugh been, both for players and for media? Fantastic. He's very honest, which we appreciate. Oh, yeah. He breaks things down. And, you know, he's firing. I think he was firing be his first year with the Islanders,

and then he kind of cooled down. He's kind of changing his mojo completely. But he's relishing. the opportunity to coach this team he loves this group he loves matthew shaffer he loves you know him and dark i think i've worked really well together which plays a part and i'm sure him not lashing out in the media and things like that but no i think patrick bro really went home this summer and matured as a coach you know he wanted to be that fiery guy but i think you looked at a lot of areas and said i got a lot of young guys coming in here i got a group that wants to

feel rejuvenated we got to have fun again it's so cliche but the owners you seem the way they play it's fun hockey it's no longer the boring one-nothing two-one-two-thin-thing wins like it's ironic but patrick Hua as a Hall of Angoli wants to win the 5-4-4-4-3 games. Lou wanted to win two-one-one-nothing games. But yeah, I think Waugh really understood, hey, this is how we have to play to win. We have the talent to play that fast style of hockey and break out with these and have the goaltending. Let's have fun with it because we want to put the show on for the crowd and they've done that.

You know, it's going to be an exciting night tonight as Matthew Schaefer plays in front of his hometown crowd. And I think one of the reasons why people just love the story is it's kind of like if you believe in hockey karma. Like the Islanders got good luck because they didn't throw the season and they still got the first overall pick. Like does that resonate with Islanders fans? Oh, they all, I mean, everything Islander fans say is if the Rangers had just

let the Islanders win once last year, then Schaefer is a Ranger. So they're blaming the Rangers for why they got Schaefer. So no one's complaining too much. But the math works out that it would have been the Rangers with the first pick if the Rangers had lost just once to them last year. Sliding door moment, was it Rangers? you know what it was. It was that Columbus game.

That was the one. That's the sliding door moment for the Islanders. That's the one. That was a tough one. But Schaefer, I mean, again, too, just going back to Schaefer,

to close us out here. He talks so well about the organization the way they've freed him from day one. His dad talks about how he wanted to make sure he would be safe and be happy and Matt Martin's family and Matt Martin took him in. He joined a perfect situation

where there was an opening on the defense. He's moved up the depth charts, but it could have been a more perfect situation for Schaefer and the Islanders. Who knew? A great news story for a young kid in the NHL. It's been fantastic. Looking forward to tonight. Steph continued success. We'll check back regularly. Thanks so much. Have a good one.

There is, Steph Rosner from the L Monsters, and you can read them at NHL.com as well, covering the Islanders who face off against Zach's Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. Can you bring yourself to cheering for even not the team, at least cheering for Matthew Schaefer tonight? Are you kidding me? This is the best possible situation. scenario. We got this young superstar coming into town. We get some hats uniforms. And I get to enjoy this one for everything it has to offer without giving one ounce of care about this team winning this game. Like, I don't care about the Islanders coming in here and winning 15 nothing if they've got to. Perfect. Even better. We just keep it moving. We get closer to a top five pick. Okay. So here's what I'm going to leave you with. Maybe you can mention.

this on your post game show tonight with Mike Gejello. Okay. Okay. Hamilton Tigers. Okay. We're a team in the NHL for a few years. And that team was the first team to go on strike for higher pay. And instead of negotiating it, they just folded the team.

Okay. And then the team essentially moved to New York. I'm giving this a very thumbnail sketch. But the Hamilton Tigers jersey. has always been a white whale. It's believed that there is at least one, but no one can find one. The Hall of Fame doesn't have one.

You know what else? The Hockey Hall of Fame doesn't have? And I don't know if there are believed to be any jerseys like this. Yeah, I'm going to burst your bubble because I think you've told me this, and I had it prepared for last week, so I have them prepared for today, too. The same Pats jerseys.

Same Pats. Yes. Don't exist anywhere. They're all knockoffs. They're all replicas. Look at how good that looks. The green and the brown together. Oh, gorgeous.

Beautiful look. That's fantastic. You will not find an original St. Pat's jersey anywhere. The Hockey Hall of Fame. Now, those would be still looking. Sweeters. Yes, sorry, I apologize. Sweeters.

Look at those sweaters. not going to find him anywhere. Phil Pritchard's still looking for it. The closest they came was to replicating them was these ones by Sundeen for people viewing on YouTube, not on podcast.

Look at that. They matched that. These are way better than the ones that they do now, which I like the ones they do now. Don't get me wrong, but this version that the Sundeen era Maple Leafs wore,

those were a million times better. Yeah, 100%. The brown gloves, the brown pants and the brown helmet. Look, Finn. And I think, you know, accentuate and it's all about, you know, accessories. The yellow TPS XN10.

Remember those XN10s when everyone was grabbing them? And there was like on Toronto because everybody grabbed the XN tens. And Matt was like the only guy that could use it. Everybody else like passes are getting fired off the toe and off the heel. Like just go back to wood. Just go back to just go back to wood. Like Matt's can use those sticks. I had somebody.

I had somebody D.M. Brad Jansen was their stick rep. Brad Jansen was their stick rep. Okay. I had somebody DM me the other day asking me about sticks and feel, and they were asking you, they said that, you know, it might be beyond your time, but it actually wasn't. It fit.

I was of the era when I was playing when I was probably 8 through 11, 12, where we used two-piece sticks because the theory was that you had a better feel of the puck if you used the wooden blade attached to the composite sticks. I was using a two-piece, like intentionally. Yeah. I'll tell you, you know, there was one, whenever, when I used to work at CBC and we'd do Hockey Day in Canada, the day before the, no, it would be the Thursday before the broadcast.

It would always do a big pick-up hockey game. And wherever we were, and I think it used to be Ron, who used to go out, like, out of his own pocket. We're going by, like, two dozen wood sticks at the local hockey shop. And I remember, like, oh, man, like, I can't remember the last time I played with a wood stick. Not that I'm some superstar player. Trust me, I'm not. but I remember Cassie fired me like a hard pass

and taking a hard pass on a wooden stick feels so good. It was like a lacrosse ball, just like cradle. I'm like, oh wow, I totally forgot how this felt. Like if it's been a long time watching a listing right now, if it's been a long time since you've used a wooden stick, just go and try it once and see what it's like. Yeah, that's not going to be as good. Like Popeye.

Forearms are huge four-hour, big piece of life. lumber, but taking passes was so good. Oh, my God, so good. I can imagine. I can't remember, like, really what it was like, or vaguely remember what it was like using that two-piece stick with the wooden blade. It's, it's, the sticks now are so different. I think we've talked about, like, I have a buddy who still plays and he brings me back sticks at the end of the season.

Sometimes I'll just be like, I can't, I'm not going to use these next year. We get new ones, so it'll dish them off to me. His name rhymes with Jonathan Ang. His name rhymes with Jonathan Ang. Yeah, exactly. And the ones that he just brought me last time, they're the Bauer Flylights. That's what they use in the Swedish League.

It feels like you're not even carrying anything. Like, I picked it up for the first time, and it feels like it's a, it might as well be the Bauer mini sticks that they use. My 2010 uses those. I know. They're nuts. And his shot is next level. It's just like, yeah.

I remember the first time I picked that. It was funny, Brad, I mentioned Brad Jansen, the circuit. who later were not in the true hockey. He gave me one of those. I remember playing men's league for the first time, and he called me. He's like, so what do you think?

I'm like, I am such a fraud. That is not really my shot. Yeah. I cannot, I cannot shoot that hard, but man, I was whistling the puck at Beer League last night.

I'm like, I am so phony. That is not really my shot. That's what I told my dad. He was looking at it because I came home and I had all the sticks and he's picked it up. And he's, holy, like, I haven't seen a stick like this.

And like, dude, you don't understand. I just flick my wrists basically in the puck. It's like, ding, wherever you want it to go. It just rips all the stairs. I don't know, but wherever you want it to go for me. It was just like, it was hard.

I never said it was accurate. I never said it was like season ticket holders are ducking, folks. Like, you know, wind up with one of those. First they're using up. No idea where it's going. If you're in the front row, you're part of the game. Be prepared. Exactly.

Heads up, put a helmet on. Okay, to prison we go. The sheet is powered by Fanduel. Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season, and Fanduel is your home for all the action on the From Blue Line to Bet Slip, we've got you covered all season long with live offerings, unique promos, and more features to let you play your game. Miss Buckdrop, no sweat. With the live same game parlay, you can build your bets up until the final buzzer.

Download Fan Dual Sportsbook today and play your game. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact. Connects Ontario at 1-8665-3-1-2-600 to speak to an advisor. free of charge. Zach. All right. So I don't know if we've talked about this on here.

I know everyone knows I play men's league hockey, Jeff. Oh, you do? I also play some intramural or rec league volleyball. It was started playing in the summer. They've got the beaches out here downtown Toronto. And it's been something my friends and I have picked up and really enjoyed doing. But we've been playing indoor lately. And when you dive on.

on the indoor court, it's a little different than when you dive in the sand, but things have been getting really competitive as we get into our playoff series here. So diving has just become part of the game. You know, when you're an idiot at 27 years old thinking that this is the be all end all, that's some point you end up laying out. Well, Jeff, last night I laid out and hit the ground hard chess first. And we only have six people on our team. Keep that in mind.

You have six people on the court at a time. So I hit the ground and I'm laying there and I was coughing and coughing. But they asked me if I wanted to leave and we want to play shorthanded. I couldn't do that to my team. I decided I was going to battle through because I got Hartman. Oh, geez, it took a while to get there. We were going out the door and around the block with that one. I was coughing.

Look at the Cole Cofield, Uri Slavkovsky and Ryan Hartman, $5, brings back $95.73. Want to go over that one one more time? I was coughing. Yeah. Well, I was going to throw, I was going to throw like a little coughing on there, but I thought that was too far.

Right. Yes. But I stayed in the game. That was too much. Yes. And I battled through because I got heart, man. Yeah, you know, there was once upon a time years and years ago before your time on. On Saturday Night Live, they ran a segment called Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy.

And my favorite one was always, if you're a clown and you have a dog in your act and you dress the dog up like a clown, people will say, that's too much. That's too much. It's where we're out with this one. This is, it's a parlay. It's a parlay. We've done. It's a parlay. Of all the parlayes we've done,

this is one of them. Cole Cofield, Joris Lafkofsky, and Ryan Hartman, courtesy of the poet laureate here of the sheet. By the way, did you know that Ireland's capital is growing at an exponential rate? Did you know that?

No. It's Dublin. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody. That's what I leave you with you. You can use that on your postgame show tonight, Zach, as well. Thanks to Pierre McGuire for stopping by. Stublin. Thanks to Steph Rosner for my dad joke phase.

Thanks to Steph Rosner for stopping by as well. Thanks to you for watching. Thanks to you for listening, chatting, all of it. If you have subscribed to our daily face off YouTube channel, thank you. If you haven't, please consider doing so. Not just for this program, but all or other offerings. Got it? We are not on tomorrow.

We are back on Thursday and Friday for this week. and then we're back to a regular schedule the week after. Thanks so much. Enjoy St. Patrick's Day. Zach would like you to remember to please drink responsibly on this St. Patrick's Day. But if you don't, call his show after the Maple Leafs Allender's game tonight. Leifes after dark. It's Dublin.

Talk to him Thursday.