The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Première Étoile ft. Erin Ambrose & Stephen Brunt

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Jeff Marek is joined by Erin Ambrose and Stephen Brunt for a Wednesday double-header on The Sheet! Discussing Laine's three-goal night, the Sabres loss to Montreal, the Rangers falling to the Predators, the PWHL, and Stephen's new series 'Up Close'...SHOW INDEX(00:00) Intro(03:33) Patrik Laine(16:14) New York Rangers(17:09) Erin Ambrose(24:51) Montreal Victoire(26:28) PWHL Talk(35:51) Laine Mania in Montreal(44:52) Stephen Brunt(1:01:46) Muhammad Ali(1:12:22) Closing Thoughts____________________________________________________________________________________________Up Close with Stephen BruntApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/trailer/id1784718713?i=1000680017895Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qQNAp0eleA4H3vuuWOZWp?si=196f81830f374255Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/1285b1e8-82fd-4d00-ae34-f48d596dd1ce/up-close-with-stephen-brunt____________________________________________________________________________________________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.

okay so remember when i said i was going to stop talking about the buffalo sabers that was so five minutes ago so they lose again to the hands of the montreal canadians last night an exciting game for the habs their fans and specifically patrick linea we're going to get to patrick linea here coming up in a couple of seconds but uh just to show you how bad it's gotten and how cynical people are out there got a text from a buddy of mine late last night before I went to bed who said this, what do all these teams have in common? Like, okay, what? He says, Montreal, Toronto, Washington, Rangers, Detroit, Utah, Winnipeg, Colorado, the Islanders, Vancouver, and Minnesota.

I said, what do they have all in common? He said, those are the teams that Buffalo has lost to their 11 game losing streak here. And I said, okay. And he said, what do they all have in common? I said, I don't know. What do they have in common? He said, they all pay tax and none of the cities have palm trees. That's how bad it's gotten. To which I'll add, as a matter of fact, it's gotten so bad in Buffalo, they may just have to sacrifice a chicken. Wing. Come on, I'm in my dad joke years. Welcome to The Sheet. Wednesday, December 18th. Sacrifice of chicken, chicken wing, anchor bar, buffalo.

Although normally when I used to get a little looser before Buffalo Sabres games, I'd always go to Washington Square. Those who know, know Washington Square. Welcome to the program. Aaron Ambrose is coming up. Team Canada defender, Montreal Victoire defender. We're going to talk a lot about the PWHL. Stephen Brunt will be aboard. He has a new podcast, as we talked about over the last couple of days here on the show, and all around the nation network, for that matter, is called Up Close with Stephen Brunt.

His first guest is the president of MLSE, Keith Pelley. You can listen. The video isn't up yet on YouTube, but the podcasts are Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Stephen's going to be aboard in the second half of the show. Lots to get to with him because not just this podcast, this six-part podcast series, but also his career as well. Apologies, Zach, for the dad joke

off the top, but you have to understand, these are my dad joke. No? No? No, not, that one was tough. I was like, where is it going? And he dropped that. How's the chat on that one? My kids would love that. How's the chat doing?

How about this one then? A pirate walks into a bar and he's got a steering wheel around his belt buckle and the bartender says, hey pirate, you got a steering wheel around your belt buckle and he says bartender says, Hey, Pirate, you got a steering wheel around your belt buckle? And he says, Arr, and it's driving me nuts. No, that's not. Okay, so that's a good dad joke.

Okay. See, my kids are 14 and 12. They love that joke. Okay, so that one landed. That's good. Okay, so that one. That's good. Get those jokes out of the way early on the show here today.

You got to laugh. Like, we could just talk about the Sabres and the Rangers losing to Cobb to the Nashville Predators last night. Or you can just have a good laugh. Or, you know, we can do, Zach, we can talk about Patrick Laine. And I mentioned last night, you know, with every Laine goal, it just seems like pure joy, specifically in Montreal at the Bell Centre. The one thing about Montreal Canadiens fans, when they love you

and they've decided they love you and they've decided they love you they really really love you Brian Burke would always make the point that it's maybe one of the best and worst places to work and or play

and I remember when he said when he was the head of what we now call Department of Player Safety Burke he would say it's especially bad in Montreal where you're dumb in two languages. And he's right. And he really is. Those fans, where their emotion's on their sleeve,

they're the most passionate fans in the entire NHL. But they've embraced Lion-A in a way that we haven't seen, jeez, since Saku Koivu? I get another fin. But when's the last time that we saw montreal i mean so like they love pat they they they love you know carrie price and he gets the major ovations i can recall when pk suban came back as a member of the national predators uh how they treated pk suban but like there's a very specific kind of love that they have like they

like their players or emotion what their players but there's like kind of love that they have. They like their players, they're emotional about their players, but there's a genuine love that they have for Patrick Laine. And I got a quick note from Vashie Natamansky, who is a dear friend. Vashie Natamansky, he just sent me this right before the show, who is the son of the great Václav Natamansky, who is in the Hockey Hall of Fame where he rightfully belongs. Vashie is still in the process of doing a documentary on his father.

His father was one of the first players I identified with when as a kid going to Toronto Toros games. So Vashie, who's now a hotshot Hollywood guy and big producer, and he's wicked at what he does. So he sends me this text. He says, and this comes from NHL Edge, important nerd stat research. Okay. This is on Lion-A. Lion-A's first goal of the season, 77 miles per hour.

Tentative, tight. Lion-A's second goal of the season, 78 miles per hour. More comfy. Lion-A versus Buffalo. Hattie, second period shot shot 89.85 miles per hour hardest of the season to date aggressive bombs away welcome back that was the official you're back in the nhl shot by patrick line a what did you think like i just love it but i can't get past my i love patrick line a blinders that i have in front of my face what did you make of that, I just love it, but I can't get past my I love Patrick Laine blinders that I have in front of my face.

What did you make of that night? Not just Laine's performance. And by the way, he said he was kind of like pretty average and not a great game outside of the three goals. Yeah. But I mean, really, you just lit up the Buffalo Sabres. I don't care who you lit up. You got three goals. You had a good game.

But the fan reaction, like they're just in love with this guy. And it's a beautiful thing to watch every night. It's so cool um the response that he's getting in montreal right now like even when he signed there jeff before he even stepped on the ace before he put on a jersey the immediate response online with people putting out videos and stuff welcoming him to the city was cool to see how embracing they were of this guy it's not like he got like a cold embrace necessarily elsewhere but to see that for a guy who um i mean you could probably say better than i but i was gonna say you know like who for lack of better words would probably really didn't like hockey for a period of time didn't like going to the rink just he just seemed like this was not fun right and to see them welcome

him like that we taught we played the video him and thomas hickey talking about it when he got interviewed by him how excited he is that's the stuff that to me is the most important thing for him the rest will come and you're seeing it now i don't care that he says he didn't play well the rest of the game and you know what truthfully it's not like he did like five on five he's got work to do let's call it what it is but dude you put up three at the bell center the place is going nuts yeah and you're a hero like you are a hero in montreal right now it's so fun and kind of just like it's like a feel good like makes your heart warm kind of story even though like i hope the habs lose every game like hat tricks for line a

i'm good and the habs they can they can do whatever i know that's just the Habs lose every game. Hattrick's for line A, I'm good. And the Habs, they can do whatever else. I know. That's just a Leafs fan of me. You're a Toronto Leafs fan who hopes that Lionel scores a Hattrick, but they lose 4-3 at Scotiabank. I know, I get it. I've met your type before.

See, the thing about Lionel is, one of the things that he does is, one of the hardest things you can do is a goal scorer in the NHL, and that's score from distance. Matthews can do this. You've watched all Matthews games, so you know that.

But but line eight. I remember the first time it was during an international event watching line a shoot and the way that I've always tried to describe his shot like Matthew shot is like it's a it's wicked and it's accurate. But line a shot is different. The way I've always described the way line a shoots is violent. Like the shots are like violently hard. do you not get that i'm i'm big on the sort of subtleties between shots and how you describe them i look at line a shots as as violent shots does that ring yeah resonate with

you at all yeah that makes sense that's a good way to put it i would i never came across like that word when i was trying to like think about what it looks like. One of the first times that it ever caught my eye and jumped off the page, or him in particular, and that's actually a great word to use to describe this, but the World Juniors that year, I think it was him and Pooley Harvey, ahead of his draft year, playing for the Finns. I was watching, and there were highlights coming out of him shooting the puck. It's just like, holy shit.

Like kids don't shoot like that. Like, like that's a man shot. Do you remember who the third on that line was? Kapanen? I don't know. I'm just guessing. Sebastian Ajo.

What a line. Oh. Line A, Ajo and Pleyarvy. Like best I ever saw was Miguel Nifedera from Burry, but still, like, oof, that line was filthy. Can we play this Pierre Maguire clip from the Sick podcast with Max Lachier, Pierre Maguire, and Tony Maranero?

Can we show this one? This is an interesting point made here. I know this is turning into, like, the Patrick Laine appreciation hour, and it might as well be. I'm happy to do an hour on Patrick Lainey. But one more thing on Patrick Lainey. Indulge us here, folks. Indulge us.

You've been hearing, obviously, during your career, so many things about the Montreal market and the fans and the pressure in the media. Would you say Patrick Lainey is the opposite? The story this year, this guy feels welcome in a great hockey organization. And you can tell that when he saw the crowd the first time and felt that everyone was behind him you knew that when he was going to

come back after the injury he was going to score every game so this makes so this is so well said because you know what i think this does this opens up an avenue for free agents to come that wasn't there before and i love what mac said because that's 100% true. When he gave his statement after the first game, I've never experienced anything like that. This is a guy that won the Rocket Richard Trophy. He played in Winnipeg. And Max can tell you, Tony, I don't know if you've been in the building in Winnipeg, those people are on top of you.

It's not like it's a little soft place. They're on you hard. And for him to say this is the most amazing thing I've ever experienced, that says a lot. It says a lot about Montreal. It's a great point. And one of the things, we just mentioned this off the top of the show as well, when you're successful in Montreal, man, like the oxygen, it's just better. It's clear. The coffee is a little bit warmer. The beer is a little bit frothier. All of your food tastes better everything is just that little bit better everything gets sort of amplified a little bit and the shine is a little nicer when you're successful in Montreal we've seen the opposite

clearly as well and I like so here's what I like about you know line a embracing this is that there are some players that want to shy away from a crazy hockey stage. And there are a couple of markets, Toronto being one and Montreal being another, and New York is another one certainly as well, where the stage is huge. The lights are bright, but if it's bad times, it's awful. But I like the players that embrace the challenge and want the challenge of playing in big markets where you're

a player 24 hours a day every restaurant you go to every shop you go to every movie theater you go everywhere you go like you're recognized as this is a player from the Montreal Canadiens New York Rangers Toronto Maple Leafs insert cycle market x X here. I like those guys. And also it seems like Patrick Laine just loves it and has the right mentality for it. Anyway, end the discussion here about Patrick Laine. Big win by the Montreal Canadiens. Huge night for Patrick Laine. Once again, Montreal Canadiens fans demonstrate that they are some of the best fans in the NHL and when they love you, life is really, really good. They love Laine in Montreal. Right now,

they're loving Linus Ulmark in Ottawa. I wrote about him in the blog this week. Really happy for this guy. Has top 10 skill. Hasn't been able to win those big games yet. Hasn't been able to be in those high pressure situations where he's got to win one. We haven't seen that yet from Linus Allmark, but what we have seen

are a couple of shutouts and one last night. In his last eight games, he has a save percentage of 956. And a record of 7-0-1. And for our viewers slash listeners in Ontario, are we feeling a Battle of Ontario opening round matchup? And I don't think this one will feature Joe Neuendijk throwing knuckleballs

through the pads of Patrick Laleem. This one would have a different temper and different timber along with this one. through the pads of Patrick Laleem. This one would have a different temper and different timber along with this one. Leafs fan Zach Phillips. Gives me nightmares. How do you feel about Brady, Kachuk? And maybe, you know, maybe if they want to do some soft tampering

with, I don't know, Alexi Lafreniere, considering Ottawa has a better record than the New York Rangers do, the tampering should go the other way and they should be looking to pry younger players from the New York Rangers, not the other way. Hey, Michael Anlauer, if you're listening, start soft tampering with the New York Rangers, not the other way around. You've heard of soft tampering?

Well, we never heard of it. Now we've heard of soft tampering. You ever heard of reverse soft tampering? Yeah, this could be. We're just going to keep pounding this drum about Lafreniere to the Ottawa Senators as revenge for the soft tampering. Brady Kachuk. Okay, so coming up a little bit later, I'm going to talk to Stephen Brunt.

Stephen's a, like, I can hopefully have time to get into this with Stephen. Stephen was a very influential person in my sports life. One of the most eye-opening books I ever read was Mean Business. I would have been 16 years old, maybe 17 years old, and Brunt's book about Sean O'Sullivan, the Canadian boxer, opened my eyes to how that industry worked. I'd always been a boxing fan, but never really had an understanding of the dirty underworld of it

and all of the underpinnings and how matches got made and how fighters were treated and all of it. So that one really opened my eyes. Steven is now hosting a six-part podcast series, one-on-one interviews, called Up Close. The first one is with Keith Pelley. And full transparency, Keith was one of the people, along with Scott Morrow, hired me at Sportsnet back in 2011. So I was very much looking forward to listening to this this morning.

And I heard it while walking the dog. And it is an outstanding podcast. I think you're really going to enjoy it. Especially those of you that are interested in the media side of things, because Keith's been involved, whether it's at TSN, whether it's at Sportsnet, he's been involved. And he was involved in that mega deal, the 12-year deal that Rodgers struck with the NHL, the gatekeeper deal, as they like to say, which TSN wanted as well.

And Sportsnet ended up being victorious with, much to TSN's chagrin, as they were all at the Grey Cup. ended up being victorious with, much to TSN's chagrin as they were all at the Grey Cup. Very quietly, Moore and Nadir Mohamed and Keith Pelley put that deal together, and then everybody came scrambling back from Winnipeg to try to salvage something, I think. Or maybe there was like an all-staff meeting. Who knows what it was like at TSN at that point. It wasn't good times, but as this podcast shows, in Stephen's interview with Keith Pelley, it kind of saved

Roger's sports department, Sportsnet, in a lot of ways, because if it would have gone to TSN, that might have been the end of Sportsnet. And they get into that in this podcast. So Stephen's coming up here in a couple of moments. We are standing by for Erin Ambrose from the Montreal Victoire. Maybe she has a thought

on Line A Mania, which is running wild in Montreal right now. We know we love, and they all do love in Montreal, Marie-Philippe Poulin. I'm curious about Erin's thoughts on Patrick Laine as well. As the PWHL resumes after an international break, we'll get her thoughts on the league's second season. I don't know what more I can add on the Rangers pile on. And that was a really tough one yesterday, losing two nothing to the national predators. I don't know how much more I can add to the Buffalo Sabres pile on other than

offering up lame dad jokes as their losing streak is now at 11. It's a daily watch to see what happens. We'll pick up more NHL conversation here in a couple of moments. Our first guest of the day is Erin Ambrose. No stranger to any show that I've ever been on. Love talking to Erin. One of the most thoughtful and eloquent players in the entire PWHL. She is Erin Ambrose of the Montreal Victoire. She joins me now. Hello, Defending Def defender of the year hi that's a nice way to put it defending defender yeah defending defender well you've listen you've won defender of the year in a couple of different leagues as well you've also won gold medals in the olympics and the world championships and

you probably don't want to think about things like hall of fame but then when i start looking at the resume ambr like, you've kind of Walter Cup maybe on the horizon. You've kind of been successful everywhere. I'm just trying to make you blush to start this off by the way. Yeah, I don't like it. This is not a hot start for us. It's been a while since we've talked, and I don't know if I like

this starting point. Well, I'm just trying to butter you up. I'm going to hammer you with the tough questions coming up later on. First of all, great to see and hear from you again. Second of all, the Victoire and the second season of the PWHL in Montreal. I know that Line A mania is running wild right now in Montreal. But give us, I do want to ask you about Line A, but give us a sense of how the second season,

I know it's only been a few games, how the second season has been going for Montreal and the impact it's having in Quebec and the impact in Quebec too. Yeah, I think it's been off to a good start. You kind of touched on it a little bit earlier that we've had the last week off, week and a bit.

So in that sense, it's been a little bit of a lull just because I think we got off and running. Our home opener was phenomenal. Like our hockey ops team. I hate to admit it as a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, but like Montreal Canadiens game. Like I think a lot of people agree that things at the Bell Centre are done differently. And to be honest, I think that's the exact same case with us, with the Victoire.

Like our opening ceremonies for the season were incredible. They always do such a good job. And then to play in a sellout building in front of all the fans in Laval, like it was fantastic. Obviously, we didn't quite follow it up with a good showing against New York, but all in all, I think it's been pretty good. And then pretty cool to go back to the Canadian Tire Center where in 2007, I won an OHF championship with York Simcoe Express.

Speaking of York Simcoe Express, at this point, I want to bring on Zach Phillips, who has fond memories of an Aaron Ambrose. We were talking about this yesterday, and I'm like, oh, you've got to come on and tell Aaron about this. Zach, say hello to Aaron. You want to share your memories of Aaron Ambrose? Yeah.

I talked to Aaron earlier today, but I got to tell her, I was like, when I was growing up, I played for the Express. I lived in Aurora. I got to watch Aaron play for the Express. Who was on that team? She was the captain of the team and she was on that team of the team. Who was on that team? There was a Chris Tierney was on that team.

Sean Walker was on that team. Couple of NHL players. I think Connor crisp, I think is who was on that team as well. Kate Martini was on that team. So there was a plenty of people to watch every single time and go watch them. But yeah, I got to watch Aaron growing up. She's on the team. So there was a plenty of people to watch every single time and go watch them. But yeah, I got to watch Aaron growing up. She's on the team. I was playing minor hockey for a few years older. Okay. So a couple of things there really quickly.

One, who was the captain and two, Aaron, welcome to the, I watched you when I was growing up. Do you listen? I think he actually said it three or four times when he was talking about it. You know what? It's kind of like, no, it's like Peppermint Patty and the teacher for me when Zach starts talking. It's like, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. They have to excuse me. What are your memories of that era?

Because you were captaining that team, Eric Simcoe Express, AAA team, the OMHA, really successful team, always has been, still continues, great program. What do you remember from them? And a young Chris Cherney and a young Walker and a young Crisp, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Oh, I remember Connor Crisp. I think he would have been playing A with like the Alliston, I don't even, Cyclone,

something like that. Okay. And he came up. So he wasn't there right away when I started playing. but chris sean and i joined at the same time because we were with the jordan unit blaze before that and you can tell you shawny walker was not the sean walker that he is today he was probably under five feet until he was in grade nine maybe like the guy did not hit a growth spurt until i think he went to college at Bowling Green. But it was, he was always the most fierce.

Like he would, because we were allowed to hit back then too. And he was the most physical. I've always said I've never had chemistry on ice like I did with Chris Tierney. I mean, played together on every single team, whether it was summer hockey, regular season stuff, like until I went to girls hockey. So he was one of the smartest players I've ever, ever crossed paths with. Very similar to me in the sense like skating was never his strong suit, but he always found a way to be in the right place at the right time.

And then I'd have to say with York Simcoe, one of my biggest memories was our rivalry with marley's toronto marley's which was scott lawton matt finn connor brown i could go on liam o'brien matt pellet like i could go on and on on those players okay who out of them i'm guessing it was scott lawton who at the GTHL Prospects game at Herb Carnegie Arena got in a fight with Tom Wilson. And Lawton caught him too. And Wilson's always wanted the return match. And Lawton's like, no, I'm retiring 1-0 with you.

Was Lawton the best player on that team? He was really good. Who was it? Chris Marchese was really, really good um who was it chris marchese um was really really good and then something mark antony mark antony was unbelievable fast skilled i don't know i don't know what his first name was but but he was, and Matt Finn on the back end, like to see, yeah. Yep.

And I think if you kind of look at, uh, their careers to him and Matt Pellett, like Matt Pellett was always like he was around, but it was Matt Finn who was the offensive guy. Yeah. Um, they also had like,

I could honestly go down that list because they had a guy who went to Cornell, uh, and I would cross pass with him whenever he played ECACs. I'm trying to remember his, oh, it's going to slip my mind now. But like that Marley's team was stacked. And it's funny you talk about Tom Wilson, because I don't think I ever played against him in AAA. He would have been GRC then. He played GRC.

Yeah. And I don't know if we ever actually crossed pass with GRC, but I played against him in AAA. He would have been JRC then. He played JRC. Yeah. And I don't know if we ever actually crossed paths with JRC. Um, but I played against him in AA when he played North Toronto. Yeah. Oh, he was a legend at North Toronto was as, as we all know, was he as,

was he as, uh, aggressive then as he is now? I don't remember. I just am pretty darn sure that we got our asses kicked. And I just remember their uniforms like I can remember a lot of games and I remember it. We got crushed.

Those were great uniforms, green and red, green, red and white, green, beautiful. And then right across North Toronto is Burger Shack, which all the kids would go to for fries and the best onion rings in Toronto at Burger Shack. But I digress. The Victoire. How would you compare your team this year to last year? Oh, you're going back to last year. We don't talk about that.

All the way back. I know. Listen, whenever I talk to Sarah Nurse, it's the same thing. Oh, put it in the park, park it, park it, rear view mirror. Bigger and better. Oh, put it in the park, park it, park it, rear view mirror, bigger and better. First and foremost, like, I think it's obvious our depth has improved immensely. I think the thing that's been really exciting to me personally is I've been able to really build a friendship with Kayla Barnes.

Like, I have competed against Barnes forever um like I remember when she made the 2018 Olympic team I obviously didn't make Canada but um seeing her there at that age I was like damn this girl's got got a lot of something and when we picked her up in the draft I remember Corey kind of turned around and looked at me and i was beaming from year to year um so to have her around and to have her back healthy is great as well obviously a very concerning incident when we played in the rivalry series and she went down like that was something that now we're in the middle of a battle against us but you're sitting there being like our season's right around the corner so i'm glad she's back healthy and I think there's just a lot of things that we're working through some kinks the as much as this

has been a little bit of a lull not having games it's been really good to just honestly practice and and continue to get on the same page with each other and I'm excited for our game in Toronto on Saturday that's gonna be fun I don't I want to get to the to the benefit as well for our game in Toronto on Saturday. That's going to be fun. I want to get to the benefit as well for that game on Saturday, Coca-Cola Coliseum, in a couple of seconds. But in our chat right now, there's the beginning of a discussion about contact in the PWHL. I know that you like it slash love it. There are some games, and I think it was the opener,

where Marie-Philippe Poulin got a minor for contact, which I looked at, and I try not to slam referees too much, but like, I'm like, that's a clean, but rough, like really violent body check, but it's a, it's a, it's a clean hit. Do you, cause it's almost, it's almost like a, almost a European, like an international standard, the way that it's called will allow checking. But sometimes if the check is too hard, we're going to call the penalty on it. How do you feel about the way that body checking is called in the PWHL right now?

I think it's tough because we're three games in. I think we've got a better understanding this year of where things are and what is and what isn't allowed. But there definitely are times where you see a little bit of inconsistency. And I think the biggest thing about that penalty, and I remember us talking about that, was like Ottawa is an extremely, extremely physical team. And they finish majority of their checks and

as they can as they should if that's what they want to do so like you said just I think like a bigger louder hit um that was kind of called but I think it's just a matter of can we find the consistency like I'm all for I hate it obviously as a defenseman when somebody's on the four check and I'm getting finished through the glass every time like that's the worst part about being a d but i also know that it's a part of our game now do you like it or do you love it i'll go with like it i don't think i love it i could beef up a little bit like make me a lot slower little bit, it would make me a lot slower, but I think that would make me like hockey, or the hitting a little bit more.

You know, I look at the league this year, and Ottawa is improved. New York is really improved. And again, it is still early, but Sarah Fillier has come in, and we've been talking about Sarah Philly for a long time. I remember, I remember once getting a phone call from you saying you have to get to the

hockey factory to see this, this kid, Sarah Philly. She's going to be a, she's going to be a star Philly, a carpenter and Eldridge the best line with all due respect the best line in the PWHL right now? Well, it's tough. I've only played two teams, so playing against them, I can say yes. One of which, the games against Ottawa,

they didn't have Brian Jenner, who's top 10 forward in the world. Like, yes, with all due respect I will say they're the top line that I've played against I'll put it that way okay okay and I think the best thing if I'm going to give them a compliment which yes I will is they have so much variations of strength that was not great English but i think it's just uh alex carpenter i think has been underappreciated uh and under recognized her entire career she's fast her shot is lethal her vision is incredible and i think she plays on both sides

of the puck really really well you look at Sarah Philly and obviously she's got a knack for scoring goals she's so skilled offensively um I think moving her to the wing I think she was great center but moving to their moving her to the wing allows her to just kind of play a little bit more free um and then to be honest I think and they kind of moved Eldridge off that line a little bit uh I think it was their last game but I think Eldridge is almost like their anchor because Jess sees the game so well um and she puts her line mates and her teammates in really good spots and I say that obviously from playing against her but also from playing with her um and I I think that the three of them together

is what makes them really dynamic. But obviously they've been keeping Carpenter and Fillier together no matter what. And I think that that's something that really does help the two of them. And then kind of their third, I think can be added. The strength of them can be increased even more

with how good Jesse is. Okay, so a couple of questions. Big Willie Style, what's the best away arena to play in? And James Webler, what about half shields in the PWHL? So I'll go with the first one. The best, I'm wondering what we're going to consider best, but I would say playing in Ottawa is pretty incredible. Their fans are loud.

The rink is not my favorite rink in the sense of actually playing on it. It's a very square ice surface. I don't know if you've ever been to a 67s game. But that group is, or that group, that fan fan base is so loud and the way their rink is with them being right on top of you like it's an amazing atmosphere it's difficult it's difficult as a um an opposition kind of going in there but um i would say that one's the best one to go to just because it's so incredible um and i i would say toronto but we only played in uh madame once last year.

And then we were at Scotiabank and we were in Pittsburgh. So we didn't really have a ton of home games in Toronto. You're looking forward to Saturday, though. You mentioned Coca-Cola Coliseum. Like that's going to be a special one and a special one for Erica Howe. Scepter's net minder in the summer was diagnosed with breast cancer. And this is Cancer Awareness Night for the Toronto Scepters. I know this is a big one for you. It is.

Been fortunate, honored, blessed to know Howie for a very long time. Played U18s with her in 2010. Kind of was around her throughout Hockey Canada and her career there. I played two years with her at Clarkson University. I think the best thing about Howie is the caring and loving and giving human that she is. She's in a hell of a fight right now. I think that it really hits home in the sense of the athlete, the person that she is, and to be diagnosed with breast cancer.

Like, I couldn't, I could barely accept it myself for her. So just really trying to make sure that, yeah, we bring awareness to not only her, but, and I know that she hates that kind of focal point on her. only her, but, and I know that she hates that kind of focal point on her, but trying to help out her and her wife and their family and the struggles that financially they're going to be put through right now. And obviously the support that they do need. But I know Howie really wants to make sure that we're raising a lot of money for breast cancer awareness in general, for everybody else that's also dealing with these things. Outstanding person and should come to no surprise that she is a firefighter, again, trying to help people as much as she can. Hard pivot back to chat questions. James Webler's question about half shields. Don't duck it. Half shields in the PWHL.

Don't duck it, Ambrose. No chance. This is where, sorry, James. Women are often seen as a little more smart than men. A little. A little bit, like often, most of the time. So let's just sit here and think about it for a second. You play a game that's a contact sport yeah um you have sticks in your hand there's a puck that moves let's say close to 100 kilometers an hour on the ice sometimes why would i want to ruin this space ask zach hyman

we're taking one of the jaw a couple of days ago. Like, no, thank you. I have a cage on. Like, everybody, I understand that people want to see our faces, but do you want to see my face once I leave the rink? If I've been hit in the face with a buck? Like, no. You can see my face when I'm on the rink. Let me follow up with this.

If there was the option, how many women do you think would go to the half shield? It's hard for me to really speak for everybody. I was going to say like, have you had, have you had conversations? Someone said like, Oh yeah,

I threw on the windshield tomorrow. No, like I would say three or four, maybe on a team. Maybe. Uh huh. Like, I don't even know if I would wear a visor at a charity game or anything just for fun where it's not super competitive.

This is a moneymaker. We've talked about the face for radio. I'm on a podcast right now. This is a moneymaker. I love it. Okay, let me ask you about Line face for radio. I'm on a podcast right now. This is Line A. I love it. Okay, let me ask you about Line A Mania. You're in Montreal. The ovation last year at the Bell Centre.

I can recall the loudest I've ever heard that rink. It wasn't for a hockey game. It was for UFC GSP versus Diaz. And the place went, it was the loudest I've ever heard the bell center and watching your game last year against Toronto when Marie-Philippe Poulin was introduced I said that's a GSP reaction that those fans had to that player give us a sense of where line a is in right now. Hattrick last night against the Buffalo Sabres. They're loving them like crazy. Is this like, cause you're there.

Is this like legit line a mania in Montreal right now? Well, I will say that seeing as this is my second media hit in two days, one of which was before the Habs game yesterday yeah and Patrick Wynne was brought up and I believe last week with that same media hit Patrick Wynne was brought up so yeah I'd say it's pretty evident um but it was crazy to me I don't know if you saw his uh post game quotes yes but he said if he didn't score three goals which were all power play goals he was below average average player out there yesterday and I think that to me shows that

he's getting it he I feel like he's always been known obviously for his goal scoring and he's got an ability like you were talking about a shot earlier yeah he's got this ability to change games with that scoring touch, but now you can see his maturation in, hey, it's not just about scoring goals. I need to make a difference out on the ice in general. I went to their game last week against Anaheim, and I can't speak for him, but I would think his statements were pretty similar

to what they were last night, and he didn't score three goals. He scored a goal, given that. But when he moves his feet, he makes things happen. When you kind of see him start to do his railway tracks, feet are there, and I'll give him credit. He's got a long reach, and he's got a big butt to kind of protect the puck. But at the same time,

I think a lot more opens up for him and for others when he does move his feet, because he can move for a big guy. Like he's got some, he's got some feet on him. And I think that that's something that he's got to use to his advantage. And I think that's going to make the impact for him away from the puck even more.

Let me close on this. This is from the chat as well. This is from Jrock. This is the most positive I have felt about women's hockey because it is a joy to watch and seems like it's building well on last year's success.

Does the forecast of the future look the same to you? That from Jrock. The momentum question from one... Because like last year, last year everything worked. Like for the PDA, like every,

every, all the questions that we had, okay, this is where it's going to go off the rails. This is where it could go in the ditch. Like it didn't like everything worked. Nothing's gonna be perfect, but by and large,

everything worked really well for the PWHL this year. And there's a real momentum coming into this season. The future of the PWHL, according to Aaron Ambrose, is what? One word or can I go more? Oh, no, no. Feel free. Feel free. Use as many words, future broadcaster, podcaster, as you choose.

I think the future is endless. Like, I think about, you talked about last year and it did go off. Like it exceeded everybody's expectations without a doubt. And I think the most incredible thing is it exceeded our expectations with six months runway, seven months. Like if you actually think about it, it's insane what we were able to do last year. It's insane the amount of momentum we built, the product that we put out on the ice.

But I think that was the thing is that we never doubted the product that we had. Nobody's ever sat here that's a part of this league. We have like all the business operation side of things. That's one thing. But each and every athlete sat here and was like we know what is in this league skill wise we know what is in this league play wise and it was just a matter of us getting this product out to other people and people seeing it like i think the most insane thing to me right now is i see people with my jersey on walking around like what's that feel like

that's a new normalcy it's insane the only ones that usually wear my jerseys are me and they hang back here or my family because i'd buy them for one and they have to wear them like this is what we're becoming and this is what like, it's unbelievable. It's so cool. And I think that, I think there's a lot of things that kind of have to align in order for expansion to occur. But I think that the fact that you're talking about it, like it's so bright and beyond all else, the product on the ice has gotten better this year. And that is the best part because our play continues to elevate.

And it's like, yeah, maybe you're not in the market where a team is, or maybe you don't get to see us quite as often as people that live in these markets do, but you turn on TV, whatever channel we're on, if it's TSN prime CBC,

or you're in the States and you're on YouTube, like it's like you sit there and this game is phenomenal. Yep. It keeps getting better. And obviously I'm biased, but like, I'm also sitting there being like, I have to play my best hockey day in and day out,

or else I'm not going to add anything to my group. It's great. I, one of the things that I always talk to people about is, you know, now that there's almost like exponential growth in the women's game like you watch we and this is no offense to marie philippe poulin but there's going to be another marie philippe poulin and then there's gonna be another yes there is there is there just like there was another

gretzky and another lemieux and one day there'll be another conor mccabe another oh there had listen when you talk about no i'm talking about sitting on the shoulders of those and another Lemieux and one day there'll be another Connor McCabe. There wasn't another Gretzky or another Lemieux. Oh, there had, listen, when you talk about, no, I'm talking about sitting on the shoulders of those that came before Ambrose, sitting on the shoulders of those that came before is what I'm, is what I'm talking about. I get that point, but you're going to tell me that somebody else is going to come in and score a goal in every gold medal game that they play.

Okay. Well, well that's... The one area where Marlee Philippe has every player, male, female, animal, vegetable, it doesn't matter, where she has all of them licked is clutch. Clutch goals that win. That is the one place I can see. I don't know

that in the women's or men's side, if there's going to ever be anyone that does that. But I'm saying as far as skill set goes, because now it's just building blocks. Now it's just building blocks. Okay. Love your mug.

Love you. Thanks for stopping by as always. Good luck against the Scepters on Saturday. Thank you, sir. Hopefully be back on here again soon. You will be very soon. This year's Aaron Ambrose, a defender for the Montreal Victoire,

in action again Saturday at the Coca-Cola Coliseum against Toronto. Stephen Brunt's going to be joining us here in a couple of moments as we get him queued up. He's part of a, he's hosting a new series,

a six-part podcast series. And the thing about, like I've read Stephen Brunt and I've read Stephen Brunt in the Globe and Mail for like 20 years. I mentioned off the top of the show his book on Sean O'Sullivan, Mean Business, was one of the most important books for young sports fan Jeffy. I read that, but I couldn't put it down.

It was one of those books that opened you into a world that you thought you knew, but really it turns out you had zero understanding about. And it allowed you to appreciate and love something. And this is what great books do and great literature does and great sports writing does. And Stephen Brunt is one of the best sports writers this country's ever produced. It teaches you how to love something you've already loved in a way that you never thought possible. And that was mean business for me. Got to work with Stephen at Sportsnet.

I think I was on Primetime Sports with him maybe once or twice, the Bob McCowan program. But he's been someone that I've always admired. And I'll tell you what, I was only too glad to listen to the first of six podcasts that Stephen Brunton has put together here. The one with Keith Pelley this morning when I was walking the dog, as I mentioned. Listening to Keith, who always says that he wouldn't make a good broadcaster, but that I listen to that voice and I'm like, I would love to have as distinctive a voice as Keith Pelley for crying out loud. Zach, do we have Stephen queued up and ready to go?

Yeah, we do. Stephen's ready to go. Awesome. Here he is. Stephen Brunt, who is fronting a new podcast called Up Close. Here is Stephen Brunt on the sheet. Stephen, thanks so much for stopping by. It's full media tour for you. First of all, congratulations

on the new podcast. Really enjoyed the first part. Listened this morning with Keith Pelley. I mean, a lot of it is sort of immediate. And the part about if they didn't land the gatekeeper deal for Sportsnet, that might have been the end. And I thought to myself, I would have been out of a job even before I was out of a job. But nonetheless, all of us at the old shop, if we could just sort of focus on that one moment specifically, I want to detour to some other things that you've done and how influential you've been on me. But first, I can recall where I was specifically when we heard the news, that tweet from Bob McKenzie at TSN, which was essentially TSN publicly throwing in the towel,

saying that Rodgers got the entire deal. I was on the second floor doing a regional game, it was me and John Shannon, and both of our jaws hit the ground. It was one of those where were you, like when you're in our industry, it's one of those where were you when. Do you recall where you were when you first heard the news? Yeah, maybe I'm getting that. Maybe my time zones are wrong, Jeff, but I thought it was one of those ones where the clock radio went off you know the alarm went off and the radio came on and and and i heard it there and i went whoa yeah um so maybe maybe i'm off but that's where that's that's my memory and and i knew look we all knew the negotiations were going on and um they kept it

pretty close to the vest though right like no was none, like people were telling us what they were up to, but yeah, I remember. And again, I I'd come over to sports net just before that, uh, full-time from the globe. I was kind of at a foot in both camps for a while, but I'd come over just before that. And I knew, you know, Scott Moore, Keith Pelley, they had kind of grand plans for, for sports net at that point. But yeah, that was, that was, I'll tell you my biggest, my most vivid memory of that time though, was the night. I don't know if it was the night, exactly the night of the day when they got the deal done. It must've been, maybe it was the next

day, but a bunch of those guys. So Keith and Scott Moore and a bunch of other people who used to be our masters over at Sportsnet gathered at a bar over on church street, not far from where the Rogers campus were to us to celebrate yeah and um yeah it was a scene and i also look i've got really good friends at tsn uh you know i worked sure i did a lot of work for tsn and those guys i know friends of mine were out in uh the great cup was in i think in regina was it was regina i thought it might have been winnipeg i could be yeah and they had a dinner right so they always have a big dinner with all the TSN executives there at the Grey Cup.

And they were drinking really good wine. And their thing all blew up. Like their phones all blew up at the same time. And they found out about it over that dinner at the Grey Cup. So I heard the other side of it from the TSN guys. But yeah, it was like, holy smokes. And a little bit, it's like the dog that catches the car, right? Like, okay, what are you doing? What do you do now? You know, that was, I mean, such a revolutionary, I mean, we have no idea what the next deal is

going to look like. I think we're all throwing darts and I think Amazon's a wild card in all of it. But, you know, the gatekeeper idea was a pretty interesting one for Canada. And I don't know where this is going to head. But when you look at that format of a deal, I don't know that we're ever going to see that again. There are just too many people that want to be involved. I think the NHL looks at what they have stateside and perhaps looks at this and says it may make more sense to sort of piece things off differently than we did before like do you think that might have been like the the only deal of its uh of its kind in in in in in sports history in canada it's hard to imagine now like look at number one like the environment is really crazily different right now.

Well, look, there have been reports that TSN and some of the Bell properties may be on the block right now, that Bell is going to divest itself of some of its media properties. So let's start with that. And again, I'm being told that's true from people who seem to know things. So that's a huge sea change. Obviously, they've given up their stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, so it kind of lines up with that. Who knows what the future of the CBC is going to be beyond the next federal election?

The election, yeah, that's the big one. And that was a huge piece of it is that Rodgers could do that deal with CBC. CBC needed the content to fill up the spring, all of those playoff games, because otherwise they would have had to produce other content to fill that space and did that kind of ad swapping deal where they, you know, they got no revenue, but they could promote their, uh, their, their, their shows. Yeah. Yeah.

That, I don't think that's going to exist. And, you know, and then you have the, the streamers who are all sticking their toes in right now on live events, um, or beyond that. Um, we've seen Amazon get into hockey and I, yeah, I, I don't, I don't know if anybody wants all the inventory at this stage. But I also don't know, Jeff, I don't know who the bidders are. Like I honestly, like at that point it was Bell V Rogers, sort of CBC, but they were really out of it.

And, you know, they were going to kind of carve the Canadian hockey market up between themselves. It's different now. And I, and I, different now. And I'm fascinated to see how it plays out. Let me ask you about Keith Pally. So the first podcast is with Keith. And I said, like, full of transparency, like he was, him and Scott were the two that brought me from CBC to SportsCenter. I was going back and forth with TSN. I remember getting the call from Maury just out off the plane in London.

He said, I understand the deal is not done. Call TSN back and tell them it's over right now and then call me back. And I'm like, well, there goes my leverage. He says, do you trust me? And I was like, he's the guy that brought me to CBC in the first place. And he lays the do you trust me line on me, Steve. I'm like, oh, okay, fine. So anyway, that's my background with Keith Pelley.

What makes Keith intriguing to you? Like I've always been fascinated with Keith because he dips his beak in a lot of different fountains and he always has been that guy. To me, that's fascinating. What is interesting about Keith Pelley to you? Well, first of all, look, we were lucky to get to work for those two guys.

Yeah, 100% true. Chris Scott Moore and Keith Pelley, like the two best bosses I'm ever going to have in my life. So I feel really blessed to work with both two guys yeah 100 true yes Scott Moore and Keith Pelley like that the two two best bosses I'm ever gonna have in my life so um I I feel really blessed to work with both those guys um and both were very you know as you say Scott brought you over and Scott hired you at CBC you know same thing with me like they were both guys who were very important in terms of my career and really supported me and you know I love them um I've known Keith forever uh like since he was a truck producer at Tsn back in the day

and uh seen him through his different you know and we ran like you know we ran the olympic torch relay together out of newfoundland like he's a you know his the pelis are from that's the newfoundland name he's from the west land where i live in the part of the year and you know we ran through the streets of cornerbrook and pasadena, Newfoundland with the torch in 2020, 10 coming or coming up to 2010. Um, you know what I, I, I love, I don't know what we call, like, I call, let's call it TV for the sake of argument. Cause I'm not sure, but people who make TV and then end up running, you know, networks running like, cause it's not, not everybody, like a lot of people who end up running television networks or again, whatever we want to call them now, content machines are, you know, accountants, right. Or, or lawyers, right.

They're not, they're not people who they're not creatives and you know, they're capable people that can do stuff I can't do. Sure. But, but Keith is a creative, right? Like he came out of it. He made TV. He, you know, he worked in the truck, he produced games, he produced games for TSN and then he produced NFL games for Fox and NFL Europe for Fox. Then he came back and ran TSN and then he ran the Olympic consortium, ran the Argonauts. But at the core of him was this kind of enthusiasm. I'd say the same thing about Scott, by the way, this kind of, this kind of joy and kind of let's, let's have fun. Let's put on a show.

Let's what, let's try it. Let's try this thing. Like that never, that never has left him. And it's, you know, it's great if you're the guy on the other end saying, Hey, I've got this idea, you know, what do you, what do you think? You know, that, that essay I did in 2010 at the end of the Olympics with Matt Dunn, the great producer, but, but that was one of those things, right. Where we kind of had this half formed idea and Ken Bolden, who's a TSN was involved in it and then took it to Keith.

Who's running this massive operation, you know, and all these things that have been planned for months. And, and he said, go for it, give it a, let's give it a shot. And then when he, we did it, he showcased it and, you know, put it in the most prominent place in the broadcast. It could have been changed my life, you know? So that's Keith, right. And he's still that guy. Like, you know, I was talking to him about running the European golf tour in the broadcast it could have been changed my life you know so that's keith right uh and he's still that guy like you know i'm talking to him about running the european golf tour in the middle of the live thing with the yes saudis and you know like he's you know it's tough and he always

lands the other thing is that jeff you may have noticed this he always lands on his feet he always lands on his feet oh no a hundred percent he's he's the roadrunner. He is the roadrunner. It doesn't matter what the coyote does. He is landing on his. That is 100% Keith Pelley. Totally Keith Pelley. I want to swing back to Pelley here in a couple of seconds.

But I mentioned something off the top of the show. This show's got my name on it. So I feel like I should give something of myself as often as I can. One of the most influential sports books i ever read i read when i was what i'm in 16 or 17 years old and that's mean business i had always loved boxing and i've always felt that great sports writing let me frame it like this great sports writing allows you to love something you already love but in a different way and makes you love it that much more. And Mean Business, the story of Sean O'Sullivan, a Canadian boxer, both made me love boxing and

made me hate boxing at the same time. And I've always maintained that one of the great things about sports is hating sports, that you're allowed to have your full kaleidoscope of emotions involved all at the same time. I know a lot of leagues don't like to want to pretend that, you know, hate watching isn't a thing or hating your sport isn't your thing. But I think it allows you to be a fan that much more longer because you're fully emotionally invested in it and all of your feelings are valuable. Reading that book changed the way I looked at all of sports and specifically boxing. And from there, I think I picked up A.J. Liebling and then read Joyce Carol Oates later on boxing, all of it, right? But at the beginning of all of that, like the first domino for me

was mean business. Was there a mean business for you? Was there one book or one documentary or something steven that you read or saw or a conversation you had where you just said i thought i knew this but i don't why that's a number one thanks for mentioning the book like that's the i love that book first book i ever wrote didn't know what i was doing and i'll just tell you i'll tell you a little story then well i'm gonna try and think about the other thing but um you know that book so i i'd literally i'd you know i'd never i'd never written a book and i was at the globe then i was uh the sports columnist at the globe and i love boxing although it's look if you're sentient you know you've got to be ambivalent about boxing you can't you know like it's there's terrible things it's economically

exploitive it's incredibly dangerous you know the tragedies and sean o'sullivan is one of those tragedies um you know they're they're there right that's not no one's making that stuff up so you you're always kind of straddling a line if you like the fights um because you you see the other side of it but you know he was on a roll he'd you know he went into the 84 olympics in la he's a gold medal favorite yeah he was kind of a golden boy people who hated you know who he was on a roll. He went into the 84 Olympics in LA. He was a gold medal favorite. He was kind of a golden boy. People who hated, you know, who wouldn't go watch boxing would go watch him because he was the clean-cut kid from Cabbage Town and all that stuff, or boxed out of Cabbage Town.

He's from Leaside. And, you know, and then they had a big showcase fight for him in Toronto against a guy named Simon Brown. He went on to win a world title. It was on NBC, and this was the big showcase for O'Sullivan. Like named Simon Brown. It was a, went on to win a world title. It was on NBC. And this was the big showcase for O'Sullivan. Like Simon Brown was an afterthought. And I've got this book, you know, and I've got an agent and they bring in, invite all

these publishing people and they buy them tickets to sit in like ringside. And as you know, people know, know the history, like Sean O'Sullivan got shelved, right? He was way over his head and took a beating. And that fight was stopped in the third round. I think. It wasn't close. And it was like, you know, you could see the, you know, things with dollar, you know, like dollar bills with wings on them flying away. Right?

Like this is over. It's over. But one guy, one publisher who was there, who was running Penguin at that time, a guy named Morty Mint. Never forget it. who was running Penguin at that time, a guy named Morty Mint. Never forget it. You know, because I kind of thought, you know, geez, this story, like no one's going to want this book, but the story is completely different now.

And, you know, they built this guy up and then they got him beat. And, you know, with the Ray Leonard part of it, it was behind the scenes and a Mike Traynor and all these people. Like, well, there's something else here now, but I'm not sure anybody's going to want that book. And he was kind of, he said, yeah, let's do that book. So it turned into a completely different book. And I always, you know, going to want that book. And he was kind of, he said, yeah, let's do that book. So it turned into a completely different book. And I always, you know, I owe him a lot.

And again, there's parts of it, if I was writing it now, I'd probably do it a little bit differently. But it did take me down a completely different rabbit hole than I thought I was going down. I learned a ton. But, you know, in terms of books, you know, like sports books, and, you know, you you mentioned it's funny you mentioned liebling because um people probably there's very few people listening to this right now who probably know who aj aj liebling was um you know he did marvelous writer yeah great writer he wrote about

food and he wrote about paris and he wrote about boxing famously in the in the sweet science and some other essays for the New Yorker magazine. There's actually a book of his called The Telephone Booth Indian, which is a series of essays that are not about sports mostly. And, you know, that's one, I've probably read that book 20 times. Not, you know, not that I wanted to be or could be A.J. Liebling. And, you know, some of his stuff now is dated in a way. You read it and you say, boy, you know, that's not the language people would use in the 21st century. But as a reporter, you know, as an observer, as somebody who is willing to listen to people and kind of capture stuff. Yeah, he absolutely one of my writing heroes and reportorial heroes. heroes but you know like look my number one hero and it is a guy in the guy who i idolized in the

business and tried to model myself after not necessarily as a writer but in terms of how he comported himself was milton l who was the great columnist at the toronto star and i got to work with him at the end of his career you know he wrote way into his 80s and i was a kid and we would sit next to each other, but like at the fights, um, I remember we were at the Leonard Hagler fight, you know, and,

and I thought Leonard, I thought Leonard won. He thought Agler won. He may have been right, but I would sit with Milt, you know, and he had this incredible kind of, he like,

he, he was there for Bobby, the shot heard around the world, Bobby Thompson. Like he was at all these amazing events, you know? And I'd say something would happen. Like the nightyson fought sphinx and like all hell broke loose i remember i'd say to mil you ever see anything like this before and he's very quiet guy you know um they say well yes and then then he'd spin off something that happened like

50 years before but you know you know jeff he he always he worked on we were all deadline warriors in those days right you had the printing press dictated when you had to have your story in and you know he would be an 85 year old guy sitting next to me and you know climbing i remember the night after that like after that tyson spinks fight which was crazy and confusing and all kinds of stuff and him of this watching this old man um climb over a table to get to the press room to get to the phone so he could file the story on deadline man um like the the ultimate pro and his last column yeah guy written for 60 years and all you know and i'll tell you a lot of lesser people have written the my life in sports column at the end

and said you know me me me he wrote a column about larry walker who was kind of the story of the day that day filed it and said i'm done he's he's he's my hero you know i've all uh it's interesting that you talk about the relationship you know you can't be ambivalent about boxing and i'm of the same mind and maybe it's because we still have i don't know 98 percent chimp dna in us like i don't like there's a reason like i got a chimp like over my shoulder here like that's i'm still closer to that so than any fully evolved species um but i've always looked at boxing and it is confusing and mma is kind of the same way as well i think part of the attraction for me is it's a sport that exists without metaphor and i think that's what makes it so distinct everything that you say you want to do is exactly what you want to do there are no metaphor it's only because there's some of the most but some of the most beautiful writing in sports is around boxing but at its heart it is

an event that doesn't have metaphor and you've written um plenty about boxing facing Ali is one of my favorites I'm going to get back to your podcast here in a second, but I just want to bring up one thing. I love the chapter on Ernie Shavers, who to me, boxing is full of tragic heroes, and here's a guy that could punch harder than anybody.

Like Ernie landed one, you're counting the lights. You are counting the lights if Ernie catches you. And I read it again. I pulled it out. I'm like, okay, Stephen's coming on. I'm going to go back to my favorite chapter in Facing Ali.

Someone sent me a text today saying, ask Stephen about meeting Muhammad Ali. I got that text this morning. Do you have that story handy? Yeah, I do. I'm going to reference something you just said, though, which is you say about metaphor. Have you ever noticed how often other things are compared to boxing though? Like that? It's like, it's, it's the kind of the ermine, right. And people, you know, like if you're watching a football game and say, well, this is like two heavyweights slugging it out or, you know, feel or feeling they're feeling them out. Like the first round of a big fight, like it becomes the the the point of comparison for everything because of yeah you know i when i say it's pure people are going to take that the wrong way because lord

knows it ain't pure but there is there is kind of a purity and there is a you know direct connection to the lizard brain as you as you uh mentioned like that's 100 true but yeah all things are compared to boxing um and uh you know joyce carol that's i thought she got a little too far from that part of it to be honest but. But anyway, that's me. Ali. Yeah. There's, it's a, it's one of the, you know, I look again, one of the things Milt always taught me, I learned from Milt was that you don't write about yourself, right?

You never use the I word. And I, I, I wrote one personal story in the entire time I was at the Globe and Mail, which I was there for 27 years. And I wrote one story where I used the word I, and it was about, I took, I was going down to Chicago to a wedding, actually a wedding where a buddy of mine who was in the boxing business, Lennox Lewis was one of the groomsmen. And so was I, and, uh, we were heading back and I knew, I knew a guy named Davis Miller who wrote a book called the Tao of Muhammad Ali, which is a cool book. And he had kind of become, you know, he, he had close with Ali and his family and, you know, had been in Louisville

a lot and had a relationship. And he told me that, you know, Ali's got this, he lives in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which is, uh, you know, kind of, uh, just the, the kind of the, on the Michigan side of the border with Illinois coming back or Indiana. And, uh, it's got a big farm there. And he said, look, it's, he said, it's crazy. People show up from all over the world and they just, they, they, you know, they go to his gate and he lets them in and he sees them because he likes to see people. He likes being Ali, even though, and you know, and this is, you know, he wasn't in good shape, uh, even then, but he likes being Ali. He likes having people around him. And so we were driving back. My, my kids were my two sons. My daughter wasn't born yet. My kids were, my two sons, my daughter wasn't

born yet. My two sons were, you know, one was, my oldest son was probably five years old. My youngest kid was two, or second kid was two. And my wife and we were driving. And I said, I said, wait, you know, why don't we, let's, you know, we're driving home. I'm like, why don't we take a shot? So who knows, right? So we do, we pull off. So I saw the sign for Berrien Springs, Michigan, right? So we drive into Berrien Springs. We I saw the sign for Berrien Springs, Michigan, right? So we drive into Berrien Springs. We go to a gas station. I said, Hey, you don't know where Muhammad Ali lives, do you? He said, Oh yeah, right down there, you know, down the road.

So you'll see, he said, you can't miss it. It's a big gate. So we drive down the road and, um, and there's this big gate and it's locked and there's a little buzzer, like a, with a little, one of those kind of, you know, punched out name things. And it says m alley so so i pushed the buzzer and uh the a woman's voice answers on the other end and she said uh yeah who is it i said uh hi i'm uh i'm from canada and uh i'm a fan and you know i've been a fan all my life which is true and you know um i i just wanted to say hello and uh and the

gate swings open like the automatic gate swings open so we drive in and uh this big long kind of driveway and get up to the house and there's a bunch there's another car full of people leaving who are from germany uh which tells you kind of how things are and um i walked up so the the older my two kids came with me at first and and uh you know, it's still kind of a toddler-y kid, though. And Ali's wife, Lonnie, was there, and she was making lunch for him in the kitchen with her mother. And she said, oh, yeah, he's in the TV room. Go say hi. And Ali was sitting in a big kind of leather chair watching TV, and I sat down next to him.

And, you know, and it was, you know, like, again, he wasn't, and I met him, I ran into him a couple of times after that. And, you know, look, he wasn't overly verbal. He was not the Ali that we remember. Sure. But he did say to me, he said, how do you, you know, why, you know, how do you know about me or where do you know about me from? And I started talking about Toronto and Shavalo and, you know, watching him fight Henry Cooper on Wide World of Sports and, you know, all this stuff. Right. And, and, and meanwhile, my kid's playing with his remote control,

like I'm screwing up his TV, um, which was, which was great as well. So, uh, and then we, um, you know, I didn't want to stay too long. Like it kind of felt like, geez, I'm in somebody's TV room and it's Muhammad Ali and holy smokes. So I said, look, I'm going to go. Thanks so much. And we walked out and he came out with us and, look, I'm going to go. Thanks so much. And we walked out and he came out with us and, uh, out to the drive when he was, you know, moving very, you know, deliberately because of the Parkinson's, uh, symptoms that he had. And, uh, my wife was there with our, our, uh, our younger, the younger kid in, you know, babe in arms basically. And, and,

uh, Lonnie came out and they just adopted a kid, uh, their son Assad, who, you know, would be the same age as my middle kid now, like in, you know, they're in his mid thirties. And so they had this little same age kid and, you know, Lonnie handed him to Ali and Ali kind of held him, but then he kind of, you know, it was, it was tough. And then he handed him back over, but the, the, the, the moment. So my son, my, my oldest son then was in kind of a knights in armor phase so if you've had kids you know it's one of the phases kids go through right yes it is he had plastic swords and all this stuff so he had this plastic sword and he brought it out and he wanted to show it to ali and he was doing and ali took the sword from him and you know kind of did a weird little sword fight thing and then he said to him he said he said i'm gonna i'm gonna show

you something you know i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna do a trick for you and he said step back so we all step back a little bit and he did this trick which you know i only had a bunch of kind of weird party tricks he could do kind of cricket noises and he could throw his voice but he did this it's a levitation trick you know and it's a weird kind of trompe l'oeil thing, right? Like, uh, it, it, where he raises off one foot and then the other foot. And, and by, if you stand in a certain place, it looks like he's lifted off the ground. You know, it looks like he's three feet off the ground and he did it and it was fantastic. And my, and my son, you know, and I remember my kids saying, you know, that man, he could fly that, that man could, you know, could, you know that man he could fly that that man could you know could you know

how did he fly and and i i just said well you know it's magic as it was right they're about this weird beam of light coming down right now i know that feels kind of ethereal let me hang on no this is no this is good we're talking about you know uh one of if not the greatest boxer of uh of uh of all time is as steven does a little bit housework, does some chores around the house here. Well, I'm trying to, I'm kind of improvising. I just stuck my socks in the hall up there. It's perfect.

But yeah, so that was it. And it was amazing, you know? And then I saw him, he came to Toronto. Remember Garth Rabinsky had him in during that weird Argo phase? And brought him, they did this all the time.

Every Argo game, there was a different circus. It didn't work that well, but I interviewed him for TSN actually. I interviewed him for TSN, actually. I interviewed Ali for TSN. But to be honest, he couldn't really do an interview. I ran into the Super Bowl one year that he came in and sat with a bunch of us watching.

I forget what the fight was, but there were a bunch of guys covering the Super Bowl. And I was with Hugh McElvaney, the great British boxing writer. And there were 12 of us sat with ali and watched uh watched a fight on tv that's awesome yeah it's my heart beating so many great alice i still think of uh george plimpton in um when we were kings the story at harvard uh uh champ give us a give us a poem me we the world's shortest poem ever uh we're gonna play the trailer and on that we're gonna we're gonna bid you good day on that we're gonna we're

gonna bid you good day i know you're busy uh promoting this outstanding series um listen if the rest of them are as good as a keith pelly interview this one's a home run thanks so much for parking some time with me today uh continued success and i look forward and i'm not jealous at all of who is the subject of podcast number two from North Carolina. You got a tip. I was wondering if you would. Reveal that at a later. No, don't worry. The secret stays with me, but not jealous at all.

Not jealous at all. That was a real, that was a kick that one. Yeah. People are going to enjoy that. But Hey, look, congratulations to you, by the way, in your new home. And I think we're, we're both with some really good people here. We are. You talk about, you know, Pelley and Moore and people you want to work for

and people whose default setting is yes, and then they try to figure out how to get it done. That's these people here. Glad to call you a colleague, my friend. You be well. Continued success. Thanks, Jeff. The great Stephen Brunt.

And you want to play the trailer for his new podcast series. We played it the other day. For those who weren't with us, want to play it again here. This is the podcast trailer for Up Close with Stephen Bruntton. You know, then we did that little NHL deal. Yes. That I guess is coming up for renewal in a couple of years. You know, we knew TSN wanted the gatekeeper model as well, which is all of the rights, all platforms. Who started that? We did. I think we asked the question in one of the meetings. It turned out to be really a great move for Sportsnet. If you looked at all the properties

that TSN had, if they had taken the NHL as well, then Sportsnet would have been in real trouble. So, you know, when we sat down with Nadir, we sat down with Edward, we sat down with Tony and Scott, and we looked at it, and we looked at the viability of Sportsnet, if TSN had taken all of the hockey, then it was kind of like Sportsnet would likely have been out of business. And so it was that critical to be in a competitive environment based on the long-term deals in all other sports that TSN had. So that was the motivation behind it. And it's proved to be very successful for sports net in a in a in a changing time yeah yeah so but it was an existential moment

for sports net potentially right oh it it yeah it was it was that is keith pelly the uh president of mlsc in conversation with stephen brunt as part of his six part podcast series up close with Stephen Brunt. That's available right now, by the way, on Apple podcasts on Spotify. Not sure when the video is coming out on YouTube, but you're going to want to consume both, both the podcast and the,

the video as well. I know. Zach, what's up next week, next week. I've got a tip videos coming out next week. Oh, is it coming out next week? Okay. So that entire video on YouTube will up? Next week. Next week. I've got a tip. The video is coming out next week. Oh, is it coming out next week? Okay, so that entire video on YouTube will be out next week.

Yes. With the podcast. It's a wonderful interview. Keith has done a ton, including, and you'll like this one, Zach. Once upon a time when a young Keith Pellew thought he was going to be a broadcaster in the industry and not an executive who's you know touched both of the two major sports broadcasters to say nothing of football and now hockey and then there was that whole european golf thing too um wanted to be a broadcaster and used to host a show about the mthl

now known as the gthl that is minor slash youth hockey um in, which Zach, you know all too well. He used to host, I guess, a weekly show on CFMT. Him and Stephen talk about that as part of the podcast as well. So a lot of reasons to check this one out. It's called Up Close with Stephen Brunt. Keith Pelley is guest number one. Guest number two, I'm still a little burned about because I really, when Amal told me what they were

doing I'm like oh that is so awesome and I'm not jealous at all that Stephen's doing this one you'll see what I mean when it comes out so when episode two drops in the meantime enjoy episode one with Keith Pelley I want to thank Stephen for making time today I want to thank Erin Ambrose from the

Montreal Victoire for stopping by from the PWHL. She will be in action Saturday. Her Victoire facing off against the Toronto Scepters on behalf of Zach. And thanks to everybody in the chat. And if you can, leave a like, a thumbs up. Much appreciated. I'm told that's good

for us if you do that. So please do so. Enjoy the game tonight. The Sheep returns tomorrow, 3 o'clock Eastern, noon Pacific. Thanks for joining me today. Talk to you in 23-ish hours. I'll be right back. Out my head, lost all ambitions day to day Cause you can call it a run 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 how this gonna be fixed in my mind I threw on a bracket I turned on the music Outro Music