The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Ranger Reunion ft. Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski recap a crazy weekend of trades around the NHL, react to the Stefan Noesen hit on Tage Thompson and Ryan Hartman's upcoming suspension hearing, as well as reactions to National Anthems across Canada...Shout out to our sponsors!👍🏼Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/SHOW INDEX00:00 Intro01:54 FanDuel Daily Outline03:26 National Anthems17:42 Trade Reactions26:57 Salary cap43:02 Noesen and Hartman49:35 Detroit Red Wings51:54 Visors and Puck Over Glass54:39 Utah Hockey Club1:02:22 Closing ThoughtsReach 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.

Music Trades, anthems, February 15th, you thought 14th was going to be spicy. All of a sudden the 15th has people wondering, uh, it's is gonna be a shit show. But seriously. Also, suspensions and non-suspensions alike. And Utah searches for a name. And Greg Wyshinski from ESPN, he'll drop by in a couple of seconds.

We have a lot to get to, and normally we have Greg on Tuesdays, but a little bit of a scheduling issue, and today just kinda made sense more to have Greg on, because there are a lot of Wyshinski issues. How about that? A lot of Wyshinski issues that we should get into. So, Zach, who's fresh off producer Vic's wedding on Saturday,

and am I allowed to say who I got a phone call from, a missed call from at 3.30 in the morning, on Sunday morning. Am I allowed to mention who it was? I think so. Am I allowed? I think I talked about it on the show this morning. Oh, did they? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. Thanks, Leif's morning take. Yeah, thanks, Nick. I wake up like six. I get up early, right? Like, missed call 3.30. Who's called? Oh, God. Yeah, okay. Were you with him when he was buzzing me at 3.30 in the morning? Like he's 11, 10 years old?

No, so we went together. We were supposed to leave together and I was there late and I said, I think it's time to go and he said, not for me. Okay, see you on the other side. All right, so he put on the lamp shade. That's good to know, that's good to know. Oh, to be single again, oh to be single again. All right. So he put on the lamp shade. That's good to know. That's good to know.

Oh, to be single again. Oh, to be single again. All right. So coming up on the program today, we got a lot to get to and wishes standing by. I'm going to get to Greg here in a second. Daily Outlies presented by FanDuel, North America's number one sportsbook app provider and on the show today, all of the news and another huge weekend. Greg Wyshinski from ESPN, normally again on Tuesdays, but we've had to get him a day early because of all the Wys another huge weekend. Greg Wyszynski from ESPN normally again on Tuesdays

but we've had to get him a day early because of all the Wyszynski news. Weekend trades, so Rangers and Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins, San Jose Sharks and the Dallas Stars and what is still to come with these and other teams around the NHL. There was the Hartman-Stutzla incident on Saturday. That hearing is later on tonight. So that is an in-person hearing, although I believe, like you can still have an in-person hearing on Zoom and it still counts as an in-person hearing.

And I think that's the way this one's getting done. Stefan Naesen and Tej Thompson, no suspension there. Much to the chagrin of Buffalo Sabres fans of the Buffalo Sabres organization, Te Paige Thompson, Lindy Ruff, and everybody else who did elevator practice after Thompson got hit by Nason. And yeah, we'll talk about anthems. Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver, and more to come. and more to come. Here we go again about anthems. And I wonder if it's time we just put a pause on it. Because trust me, nothing good is going to come out

of continuing to do anthems before hockey games. We saw this at Raptors as well, so NBA counts too here. Let's bring Greg Wyshynski aboard. Let me start with this one. Greg Wyshynski from ESPN joins me now. Greg, I believe, first of all, you know my take on anthems to begin with before sporting events. I'm fine with it for things like the Olympics,

and that's cool. For international sporting events, I understand it. Before every single hockey game, I really don't have much time for it, and now this is only going to one place, and that is a very bad, negative, angry, hostile, vitriolic, gross place. You know, I spoke to someone in comms

with one of the Canadian teams and said, have you even thought about just not, just like putting the US national anthem on pause just temporarily just don't do it like there was a time you know many Canadians opposed to the Vietnam War in the late 60s where there was a pause and the US anthem was not played in Toronto and Montreal okay like that that was very much a thing was not a big announcement just very quietly they just stopped doing it now there's no such thing as doing anything quietly, but I do wonder if it's valuable just right now because this is going nowhere good. Nerves are close to the skin. Everybody's angry.

This is an absolute powder keg and it's all being played out on social media. You can't even make a joke about the Stanley Cup being at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto without having your timeline go full-on MAGA. So is it time just to pause the US Anthem in Canada? Please. Agree, disagree. No, they've made their bed. If you pause the Anthem now, you're basically pouring an oil tanker's worth of crude

on top of the fire that's already raging. Like then the headline becomes, Canada Bans US Anthem. Right? I mean like, like that's just exacerbating the situation beyond where it already is. Where we go from freedom of expression to not writing that of the anthem. How about we, we give Jeffy his cookie and say no anthems at all. We get out there, we do our little warm-up and we drop the puck and we play hockey. How about giving me my little

pregame fantasy? No more ceremonies, no more anthems. We get out there and we have the nerve to play hockey. How about that? How about that for an idea? We always joked about the title of our old podcast, Merrick vs. Wachinskyinsky was sort of a hilarious thing because 90% of the time we agree. And you and I have talked about this a lot in the past. I am also a, the hubbub over the respect to anthems before sporting events is nonsensical to me.

I have been yelled at for trying to walk down a concourse during the anthem rather than standing in attention in the concourse. Yeah. When that happens, I always remind people, there are literally people taking a dump. I know. Right now during the anthem. Like zip up the anthem. The anthem is going on right now. They're dropping logs right now during the anthem.

And there's just not I mean like when the point of this is that when you play the anthem before a sporting event and by the way sporting event is just to define what we're talking about. It's an entertainment venue. Don't play the anthem before seeing a show on Broadway. You don't play the anthem before you a show on Broadway. You don't play the anthem before you see a movie in a movie theater. You're doing it here because you want it to be a way to fire up the crowd. I understand that. But when you do it, then you invite

disrespect. You invite it. You invite people screaming out things during the anthem. You invite people booing during the anthem. You invite all of these things. And so if you treat these things solemnly, it's like the old logo on the floor thing with you and me too. If you want to put, if you don't want people to disrespect the logo, stop putting it on the floor. If you don't want people to boo during the anthem, stop playing these anthems before games because inevitably there's going to be something that happens that's gonna end up pissing off a bunch of people because you're trying to do a thing that it should be treated with some level of solidness

before a sporting event where people have been tanking themselves in the parking lot for seven hours before getting to the arena just so they can blow the anthem. Yeah, listen, the one thing that I think, certainly I'm wondering about, you're probably the same way, is what's gonna happen on February 15th in Montreal? So February-

They're gonna boot the anthem anyway. February, February, yeah, but this is a whole new level. Like this is a whole different, this is a whole different level of animosity now. We thought February 14th was gonna be the game to watch because that's USA versus Sweden, or as we can now officially call it, JT Miller versus Elias Pedersen.

But no, because the 15th is gonna be the one in Montreal. Like honestly, Greg, it could get ugly. Like that's the thing that I, it's one thing, okay, boo, whatever, whatever. But like, I don't know. Okay, boo, whatever whatever but like I Don't know like you know what hockey fans are like anywhere Specifically in Canada how ridiculous it can get you know, I talked to someone today Who was you know, who's involved in this event who said like, you know, we're kind of concerned about this

Like we have no idea what's gonna what's gonna happen now that there's this issue Leading into this tournament which now takes on a whole like the Canada USA game takes on a whole new different level of Some would say stupidity some would say intensity Off the ice that he has the chance to be absolutely ridiculous with that with a lot of stupidity here. So unless we're going to have like a league-wide right now mandate to stop, not stop, pause the anthems until our two countries can learn how to get along again, until we can all start to be friends again, be neighbors again and do neighborly things together and

have neighborly understanding amongst each other. Maybe it's time to pause the anthems and does that extend to what the NHL is calling this international tournament? It can't. I mean, you said it yourself. Like I think you and I agree that the anthems shouldn't be played before national hockey league games. No, it's ridiculous. Silly. I mean and again to bring it back, the Star Spangled Banner was played in the United States

beginning around like 1918 at Major League Baseball games for special occasions. Like the World Series, holidays, Memorial Day weekend, that kind of thing. Cool. And then after World War II, the NFL, the National Football League, actually mandated that the Star Spangled Banner be played at every football game, okay? And then everybody else kind of followed suit after that. Where this all lost me was in 2015

when the Senate had a report that revealed that the Department of Defense had spent $6.8 million on what they called paid patriotism between 2012 and 2015. That's NFL, MLB, NBA, the list goes on. As far as the Department of Defense paying for teams to have organized displays of national pride, honoring military members, ceremonies, all of this stuff. So sports became basically a Trojan horse for the Department of Defense's propaganda. And so that's kind of where I've lost Vim and Vigor to watch patriotic displays at sporting events

when I know that sometimes we know why they're happening now. Or at least what they, how they were happening early, about a decade ago. So, but to go to your original point, like this is an international tournament and so they have to play the Anthems. That's, that's part and parcel of why we're having an international tournament, is it's the USA versus Canada. What I'm interested in though, as far as the fallout of this stuff, this tariff stuff, is how does it bleed over into Americans playing

for national hockey league teams based in Canada? When does Quinn Hughes get asked about booing the anthem? When does Austin Matthews get asked about booing the anthem? When does Austin Matthews get asked about booing the anthem? Absolutely, yeah. This is gonna become very uncomfortable. It's funny, it's funny. Can you pause for one second? Cause the person I was talking to today

brought up that very, very example who was wondering about what is our messaging going to be to the players about what happens when they get asked about this. And my message back was, they're gonna get asked about this now anyhow, but they're very much gonna get asked about this. And my message back was, they're gonna get asked about this now anyhow, but they're very much gonna get asked about this at that tournament.

That's why I wonder, like what is this going to turn into? When all these come, I'm glad you got to say it. What's gonna happen when these players start to get asked about it and someone goes off script and someone thinks it's gonna happen.

Because here's the thing, it's not just, hey, they're booing the national anthem of your country. It's, there is a trade war now happening that is meant to severely impact the economy of the nation you're playing hockey in. And by the way, and like, I know what you're gonna say probably,

and annex Canada to become part of the United States. So now it becomes unavoidable. Now it's not simply how do you feel about people booing your anthem? Because honestly, a lot of these guys have probably been in situations where the anthem has been booed growing up as an American player playing Canadian teams. It happens.

Now, but the real conversation now for Quinn Hughes, Austin Matthews, all these players that are American stars, they're playing up north, you know, how do you feel about your country trying to cripple our economy? Oh, and how do you also feel about your country's leader stating quite candidly and repeatedly that he wants to annex this country

to become the 51st state of the United States? You have to ask them that now, don't you? I would imagine they'll all get asked that, but that's why I think there's going to be very specific messaging that all of them has. And I think everybody in Popcorn Row is going to be gently reminded that, you know, these, we're, we're sticking to hockey questions. You know, you're going to get them. Well, yeah, we'd like you to ask hockey questions, but that's what's interesting. I think that, listen, I have many friends in the Canadian media and I know that there's

a certain friskiness for some of them to address these issues with the players. The whole thing reminds me of when Russia invaded Ukraine though and how initially there were questions asked of Russian players about the invasion of Ukraine and Russia being banned from international competition and any of that stuff. And then that went away pretty quickly.

It went away very quickly for Ovechkin. It went very, I remember being at a St. Louis Blues practice once, when Teres, I think Teresenko was still part of the team at that point, as was Bushnevich. And the idea once, you know, when Teres, I think Teresenko was still part of the team at that point, as was Busnevich. And the idea was, you know, you don't, you're not gonna ask them this question.

Like that was kind of said, like we're gonna stick to hockey. And so I think these PR, I mean, this is what PR staffs are paid to do. They're paid to try not to have their players have to answer sensitive questions about world politics, because a lot of them don't know a lot about it and honestly shouldn't be expected to know the ins and outs of it. But I do wonder, ultimately, will these guys get asked? Will people covering

the team be told maybe don't go there? And ultimately, like you said, what is the messaging that they've been given to try to like stick to hockey and not have to address something that is extremely pertinent to things? Okay, anything else on this one? This is not the last we're gonna jump in on this topic, but I do wanna get into the training weekend. I think it's, I do want to get into the trade on the weekend. I think it's, I mean, listen, I'll be honest with you. Like I have been as excited as I've been about anything in hockey about the upcoming USA Canada game. You know, it's a game that is

several years in the making. We've talked about it a lot up between you and I, the idea that finally this generation of American players is coming through. We can stand toe to toe with Canada from a skill perspective, like all of it. And so. Having this be the undercurrent right now, and it's unavoidable, it sucks like everybody who's followed me on Puck Daddy, ESPN, social media for years, those that I love to be the rock ribbed, flag waving, ball eagle American guy when it comes to this rivalry. We just did it for world juniors. Like it's great. It doesn't feel good to be that guy right now.

It doesn't feel like it's right to play the role right now of we are going to conquer you in hockey when in fact we may be trying to conquer you overall. It doesn't feel as good as it should feel to go into this tournament right now. So apparently Patrick Kane was asked about this last night. So it's right for you, Pat. There you go. Atlanta St. James. Perfect guy to ask. They're great.

Here's what he said. It's too bad. I guess you can maybe understand it from this side, but it seems like it's a thing that's going around the league right now Again, like I would expect that that's the type of answer you'll get from Everybody because nobody wants to give anything other than no one wants to serve up anything more than an empty calorie sandwich Right now completely different though. It. He has never played in Canada. He's never played for a Canadian team. Austin Matthews, Quinn Hughes, other American players that are playing in Canada right now

are playing for Canadian franchises in a country where their country is currently trying to severely impact the economy. I mean, it's a completely different conversation than do you think it's bad that these guys are booing the anthem. I mean, completely different. And that's why I'm fascinated to see what's asked, what's said, what comes of it,

and how they dutifully avoid having to say anything of importance about it. ["The Trap"] Okay, the trades over the weekend. So there were three of them. There was the Vancouver Canucks and the New York Rangers. There was the Vancouver Canucks and the Pittsburgh Penguins as they collect up all the Pettersons. I cannot wait for the first overtime when it's Petterson to Petterson, back to Petterson, Petterson misses the puck. They go back and Petterson regroups and feeds it over to Pederson back door to Pederson. And then there was of course the Dallas Stars and the San Jose Sharks, which I do believe

has a lot to do with last Thursday's Seattle game, where there are a lot of people in the organization, I believe that kind of went the way it was described to me, full on Herb Brooks after that game, after that loss against Seattle, there are a few people that went full on her Brooks, uh, about it. Um, we'll tackle the big one, the big, the one that we all saw coming. Look, Jim Rutherford with Gary Mason of the

Globe and Mail, uh, last week chum the waters and said, uh, prepare for a bad deal. And they got a bad deal. Like they, they essentially, R essentially rather footprint out there and said, get ready, it's coming. You know, we talked about this, like get set, this is coming. And then it came and that was the deal. And JT Miller personally had a very strong weekend for the New York Rangers, one win, one loss. And he got four points in the process. Miller, Branson, Dorrington, uh, Hedl, uh, Victor Mancini and a 2025 first round pick, which they then flipped to the Pittsburgh

Penguins for Marcus Patterson. Your thoughts before I get to the actual, what happened on the ice, uh, your thoughts on the trade when you first heard it and you've seen JT Miller in a Rangers uniform, not once, but twice. Yeah. My thoughts are that Kyle Dubas won the JT Miller trade. That's my thought. Getting that Rangers pick that is unprotected for 2026 is great for what he gave up to expiring contracts that weren't going to be back for the Penguins and then bringing down two players that I think have an extra year on their deals, but are both going to be functional players

for the Penguins. Not an embarrassing return by any means He did really well a guy that has been maligned. I think by a lot of people some cases rightfully so Tristan Jari I think did pretty well for himself in that trade. Um, mm-hmm You know, I don't like man. I don't like slander. I don't like the, I don't like people speaking at a turn about this JT Miller, Elias Pettersson feud. And I think that there's a lot of people doing it. I think there's a lot of people

that think they know the situation and they are immediately attacking Elias Pettersson as being like, you are the reason this happened and now you have to perform. And if you don't perform, then you are soft and all of this stuff coming at this kid. Like, the Vancouver Canucks clearly felt like

they had to make this move. Now maybe they felt it because they think Pedersen's better, maybe they think he's more important to the franchise, but they traded a guy who has full trade protection to suck the poison out of the locker room, I guess you could say, and that's the decision they made. By the way, the trade itself, man,

Philip Heidel over the last few seasons, the only guy that was better five on five from a point production standpoint for them was Panarin. Now, granted, it's a sample size issue because Heidel can't stay healthy, but I think he's a terrific player. And I also think that he's somebody that when we talked about, it is a big one. But like when we talked about recently the Washington Capitals, you know, bringing in

guys that they felt deserve a larger role and then seeing those players thrive in that role. I think Heedle is exactly the type of player that fits that mold. The health, I completely agree with you, is a huge concern, but when he plays, he's pretty damn good. And I think that they did pretty well for themselves to get a player like that in a situation where they had zero leverage because he had a full new move clause. JT Miller and the market after Carolina peaced out was probably one team. I'm with you on the, on the vitriol being hurled

Pettersons way right now, because this is a decision that Vancouver Canucks made deliberately. Now, by the way, I still do believe that Petterson is out there. And if they get what they want, that Petterson is gone. Like I'm of the mind that they're quite happy to move both. I'm serious, Craig.

I really believe- Oh, no, no, I don't doubt it. I don't doubt it, but I do think- There was a decision made that like, okay, you know what? Yeah, we're good. Okay, we'll get rid of Miller. And if we get what we want,

we're gonna get rid of Pederson too. Here's what I think. I think he's got the rest of the season as runway is what I think. Now that Miller's gone, I'm sure they're like, prove it. But here's the interesting thing about it. I was gonna get to the point eventually, but let's just jump in right now.

Here's the thing about it. We've heard Jim Mutherford, Patrick Alveen come out and talk about essentially, read it between the lines, how disappointed they've been in his season so far, and his performance since signing that contract. And all I can do to think about myself, you know, this idea that, you know, if he doesn't perform, he's going to be out of here. If he doesn't perform, who's going to take that in his $11 million contract?

Like at every, if you're, if you're really going to move this player. And I understand like you, you hear management talk about Elias Pedersen and there's that sort of this undercurrent of disdain they seem to have for him for whatever reason and for whatever happened between him and JT Miller. And all that I could think about to myself is if you wanted to move off of this player, wouldn't the smart thing be to flower them up as much as possible? To talk about how stats aren't the only thing. Like a full, like a full on charm offensive around Elias Petters.

We are so happy we have this guy. We are so lucky we have this guy. Points don't tell the first story. Development is not a straight line. It's a bunny hop. And we've seen the best of Elias Pettersson. We know we can get back to that place, but there's a lot of other things that Rick Tauke will tell you that he's doing.

None of that. It's all, he's got to live up to the contract. Or he's going to, there's going to be no room at the end here for him. So what does that tell you? So first of all, how are you going to move him? And if you are going to move him, how do you get any decent return? Well, hold on, but what does that tell you? Does that tell you that they don't have a market for him

and feel like they're stuck with him? Or does it tell you that they're committed to him, but they want him to be better? It's one of those two things if they're not, like you said, putting him over. Again, this is not based on anything just, again, this is just vibes, this is just feelings. They want him to be better so they can trade him

before his no trade kicks in. I don't disagree that he's still available. I tend to believe that they make the Miller trade in the hopes that he can stay and become himself again. And where I really disagree with you is the market for him. Like, look, man, there are a ton of players that get moved because they need to change the scenery, right? Every single season. And this guy's got a hundred point season on his resume.

He's the right age. He has a big, fat contract. That's kind of a problem. But you think about how many teams in this league would be in the Elias Pettersson business given what they have in the middle and given what they believe he could do if he's not in Vancouver anymore. And I think Vancouver is a low key pressure cooker where maybe someone could use a change of scenery and thrive elsewhere. I don't think it's a low key pressure cooker. I think it's hard to play in Vancouver. I really do. I don't think it's even low key. I mean, I was trying to be nice. It's hot. It's hot. But like, again, you think about Buffalo. Buffalo would make that three in a second,

don't you think? To get a player like that? If Vancouver got the right return, I think that would happen. Yes, I do believe that. Do you think Chicago would? Yes. I think Chicago would. Yes. Pederson and Bedard up the gut too. I mean, there's a ton of teams that are going to make it. Carolina was in there talking to Vancouver about Elias Pederson. Yeah. But ultimately they decided to take a guy that's not locked into that contract.

So I don't know. I think the contract's a problem. I don't think the player is a problem. I understand that his reputation is probably taking a hit because of the whole Miller thing. But I, listen, this league is, is founded on change of scenery for trades. And I think that, that there are going to be no shortage of teams that'll be looking to acquire him. Especially if the price is low. What about Detroit? Sure, why not? Proud history of Swedes in Detroit. No, again, a player of his accomplishment and his talent and his age does not come across your radar very often,

and so there's gonna be a ton of teams that'll not only look to acquire them, but clear some salary decks to acquire them if they even need to with the cap going to the frigging moon. Clear the decks. For the next three seasons. Sorry. Hell, you can pick them up and they get three, you get three other guys.

You want that extra million? Take the extra million. I'm not going to go in arbitration over it. Yeah, go ahead. Can I mention the cap for a second? So 113.5 is the projection three years from now and that could probably even be higher than that afterwards. And look, man, here's my reaction.

No, hang on, we'll see where the dollar's at. We'll see where the dollar's at and then we'll see what projections are all about. That's a whopper in the room here right now. And that leads me to my first reaction, which is that I have PTSD from 2005. I am scared to death of some of these owners looking at this cap, having their own internal cap,

claiming they can't compete because of how high player salaries are. Everything that has happened before will happen again. And if it comes down to another CBA negotiation, we are tapping as many revenue streams as we can at this point in the National Hockey League, okay? There's gonna be more on the horizon. New media rights deal in Canada, further expansion,

probably going international at some point too. There's still some flaws to be turned on, but at the end of the day, my concern is some of these owners that feel like they can't compete anymore because of the player salaries their reaction is going to be to claw into the player's share of revenues and that's what scares the living hell out of me about future cba negotiations under an increasingly high cap um that being said high cap. That being said, the best thing that can happen from an increased cap, Merrick, is a lack of parity. We need super teams in this league. We need big market teams that

spend doodles of dollars to keep their teams together or acquire the assets from other teams and be teams that you make time to watch. We have a mushy, we have an entertaining product, but a mushy league right now. And we need some titans. We need some must-see teams. We need Chicago dynasty. We need some stuff to get excited about. And the thing you get excited about is making time to watch the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Hockey League.

We don't have one of those right now. And with an increased cap, I think we get back there. You need a team that is hated around the league. Like really, really hated. I am with you on the super team, but it has to be the super hated team that travels around the NHL. The best example, New York Rangers.

The second best example, the Vegas Golden Knights, who will now have $113.5 million in cap space for Bill Foley to go hunting. Like I completely agree with you. Like this is what you need. You need teams that are spending to the cap, in some cases circumventing the cap, that are so loaded with talent, they have to be good. Again, the Rangers in the past have gone on on shopping sprees and we end up with a Bobby Holeek contract, like they suck. We need teams that spend to the cap, outspend everybody, poach players from other teams,

destroy the concept of parody, but they're also Stanley Cup contenders. Like LA was when they took Gretzky. destroy the concept of parody, but they're also Stanley Cup contenders. Like LA was when they took Gretzky. Now you're talking. But don't say it too loud because McDavid only has two more years on his contract. But Leon. But, but, but Leon.

But they're all strong. Do you think he's going to max McDavid, by the way? You think he'll take the max? When I saw the numbers, what's the first thing that I did and I'm pretty sure you did as well? What's 20%? What? What's 20%?

Yeah. And it's 20.81. Precisely. 20.8 times eight, that gets it done. You're pretty sure Daryl Cates looked at the same thing. I went, oh, geez, 20.8. I do, I do. The other thing I want to mention about this cap thing,

by the way, like one of the things I'm very curious about in the next CBA is contract term. You know, it was the famous hill to die on for Bill Daley. It did not get taken care of in the most recent CBA negotiation. There's an appetite, I think, to probably bring it down from eight years to say like five years. For who? For who? For which side?

Well, that's- For which side? Okay, I'm glad you asked that- I'm glad you asked that question. Because for those- those years at the end, those are like the, okay, let's use these years to get the AAV down. This is the- those are the team friendly years. Wanna knock it down to five? I think- here's the- here's the issue. I've talked to agents about it, and I've talked to down to five. I think here's the issue. I've talked to agents about it

and I've talked to teams about it, but I've not talked to any players about it quite yet. And so when you talk to agents, they're like, absolutely, five years and then we do it all over again. Awesome. And then they're diving into their Scrooge McDuck money bin. They love it. Yes, yes.

The teams, I think do, I think some of the GMs I've talked to like the idea of taking the contract term off the table because it prevents them from being locked into contracts that they eventually regret. But other GMs I've talked to like the idea of locking up their assets for a very long time at a certain rate, and being able to offer eight years to someone that would not be able to get it from anybody else, for example. So the teams, depending on your situation, I think there's a bit more nuance there.

The agents obviously would love the idea of there being shorter term contracts so they can go back to market in a more expedited manner. But I've not talked to, in all honesty, I've not talked to any players yet about their feelings on the term being limited if that comes to it in the next CBA. So this is interesting. So last week, we were talking about the salary cap here and someone who is a regular in the chat,

Jessica L. brought up an interesting idea. Now I've, for the last little while, I've been on this parade about, you know, take the training wheels off the salary cap. This goes back to 2005, we basically had the same thing, let's grow this thing up a little bit, introduce new ideas, now that everybody knows how this whole thing works, now we can, you know,

now the toddler can stand up and move around a little bit more. You know, the toddler can start playing Tim Betts hockey here. Okay, we can get the kid on the ice. So, to add new elements, and Jessica brought up an interesting point, and I want to get to it in a second, but Wayne Gretzky, when he played in the NHL, I think this was the LA King, no, this was,

I think this was the LA King's deal. So he had a provision, this is pre-salary cap obviously, he had a provision in his contract where, and you'll remember this Greg, he had to be the highest paid player in the NHL. So if Mario signed a contract that was more than Wayne, guess what? Wayne's deal got torn up and he got Mario's deal plus a dollar or something like that. Like it was guaranteed that no matter what happened,

he was going to be the highest paid player in the NHL. Now, I always wondered what would happen if Mario had the same clause and it was like, okay, then Mario's gets ripped up and his is another dollar. And they go, where does this thing end? But Wayne had- There's a certain amount of collusion there, I think would be the answer. But Wayne had that in his contract. Pretty creative, right? And Jessica in our chat brought up a great and interesting idea that instead of actually having

a salary and an AAV, could you have players sign for a percentage of the cap? Which by definition would change every year. It's still locked in, but it's a percentage of the cap. But I think what it winks at is the whole idea is like, okay, isn't it time for the cap to grow up now? Isn't it time for the salary cap to get some hair on its chest? I think... Wow. I think the... If the cap is male, I apologize. If the cap is male.

If it's a female cap, I don't know. Yes, you're gendering the cap, but also man- Haven't had a look under the hood. I don't know. I don't even know if that would be applicable. So here's the thing. Jessica's idea is interesting because, you know, one of the annual harangues from the NHL is how

do we get these guys to sell the game? How do we get these guys to promote the game? How do we get these guys to do whatever they can to increase revenues? If your salary is linked to how high the salary cap goes each season, you are then incentivized to try to create as many revenue streams and build as much money into the league as you can to keep the cap going up. So that's a very interesting concept. I think especially vis-a-vis these guys need to promote the game better. Yeah, it's an interesting one. Again, they get just winks at, you know, let's grow this thing up a little bit. And we're all familiar with it.

We don't know if there are any more loopholes to explore here. I guess deferred money is one of them. But it's time we introduced new concepts into the salary cap here to allow, but to allow for, you know, smarter teams to, you know, take advantage of a salary cap, or maybe to open the door more for super teams as well, which it looks like we're gonna get with an inflated salary cap here.

I mean, that's not even talking about things like the Larry Bird exemption of like, if your guy is grown, you can see him above and beyond the cap. There's a lot of ways that we can design it, but it all comes back to one thing. And I wanted to get your thought on this. How concerned are you that there'll be certain teams

in this league that in a few years are going to, again, throw up their hands and say, we can't compete. I don't know how these guys do it. We don't make any money. We have to change the CBA to make sure that all the teams can compete. So one of the, it's a good question. So I think one of the things that will happen here

with the increase in the salary cap and the new CBA on the horizon is, and this is where big market teams are gonna have to cover their ears, because they're not gonna like this, there's gonna have to be increased revenue sharing. And so a team like the Toronto Maple Leafs, who write like $35 million checks,

many of which go to teams that end up winning the Stanley Cup, like the Florida Panthers, congratulations Toronto, you just underwrote the Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup, how do you feel about that? I think we'll end up seeing more of that. Like at the end of the day, like the big market teams are gonna carry the weight here.

But I think it's gonna be maybe a different or enhanced revenue sharing model for this. But that's gonna have to be- And again, like the, again, Greg, I mean, I'm in the middle of it. So it's sort of front and center for me. The big one here is gonna be the Canadian dollar again. The big one is gonna be the Canadian dollar

and what that means to HRR through all of it. And how does the NHL navigate through a weak Canadian dollar? It's- And the worst part is that like, since when the Leafs give money to the Panthers, that's technically an export, that's another 25% on top of the money they give the Panthers going forward.

It just compounds itself. This is getting worse and worse and worse and worse. What a terrible timeline this is. Leading right in to the foreign nations. Like I know there's a wrestling side of you, Greg, that says this is just a work to drum up hype for the foreign nations. Like I know there's a wrestling side of you, Greg, that says this is just a work to drum up hype for the four nations. Your federal government is in on all of it.

This is just a work. This is a work. The person perpetrating all of this has a bit of a history of professional wrestling. Exactly. I believe he is a WWE Hall of Famer if memory serves. Yes, absolutely. Okay, so what did you what did you

make of the San Jose Dallas situation, the Dallas deal now I've in my blog today sort of equated this to what Elliot was talking about on Saturday, which is Craig Conroy. I think you and I have talked about this on the show before. Like, he's taking names off the board. You're not trading for Nazem Kadri. You're not trading for Rasmus Anderson. Like these guys are off the board. We are not moving them because look,

the Vancouver Canucks are in kind of a little bit of a situation here. We may end up getting a wild card spot out of all of this. Discuss amongst yourselves whether that's good for this franchise right now or not. But nonetheless, it's not as if he's sacrificing assets because these players still have term. So I looked at the Calgary situation and said, okay, one of the teams that that really shuts out are the Dallas stars. Right? I would imagine that Jim Nill would have looked at

Nazem Kadri and said that fits. And Rasmus Anderson said that's fit, that fits too. Perfect. We can go back to our old friends, the Calgary flames and this year's TANF will be Rasmus Anderson and we'll also pick up a Nazem Kadri in the process. And then when that was off the board he turned to San Jose and said all right yeah are you ready to do this? Like I watched the Seattle game too Mike are

you ready to do this deal? You got the T-MU version of Nazem Kadri. It's like when when when Doug McClain was watching the Pittsburgh is a late home of the story when Doug McClain was watching the Pittsburgh, he told me this story, when Doug McClain was watching, it was a Saturday afternoon game watching the Boston Bruins play the Pittsburgh Penguins and watching Hal

Gill manhandle Mario Lemieux and called Craig Patrick and said, he's trying to get rid of Christophe Olliwold, said I can't believe what the Bruins are doing to your Hall of Famer and Craig is like oh it's every game I I got no, nothing. You want Christoph Olliwold? Next thing you know, we got a second round pick

for Christoph. Boy, from watching that one game. By the way, the code is in effect now. I mean, the lack of response for the Stefan Naisman hit on T.H. Thompson was- I wanna get there. Don't worry, it's on the list. Okay, so the Grandland trade was to me like,

like you said, part and parcel of the market. It's not just Calgary that all of a sudden, you know, might be closing up the garage sale. The Islanders have won seven in a row that might change now that Parzell's here, but they won seven in a row. Like they're right back in it though. They're very much in a playoff race again.

So now all of a sudden you're looking at Brock Nelson, you're looking at Pajil, you're like, ah. And, and, and. Lou is someone who loves his guys. What does Lou hate to do? Throw in the towel. There's no way that Lou's like. Throw in the towel and also.

No, we're in this thing. Ignore the contracts, we're in this thing. Yeah, he hates throwing in the towel and he hates breaking up a roster that's been together now for like six years that hasn't really won anything. So the, the other, so I think they probably looked at the marketplace, looked at the landscape. They looked at over at Colorado and knows they're going to make a move for a center at some point, right? And said, let's get ahead of the queue. We'll give these guys some runway to get used to the team. Is Cody Cece the Kristanov-esque? No, no.

I don't believe that. Yeah, he's not, right? He's not. He's a bottom-pairing D. Like this is not a top 4D situation for Ferdow. I don't believe anyway. Right, so they get Grandlin in to address the center spot, which they have to do.

And then you assume, maybe as we get closer to the deadline, I mean, again, this, this, the trade market is, has got one giant bounty and it's defensive defensemen. And so you assume that they're going to probably go shopping again to address the blue line before the trade deadline. It's fine. I mean, it's fine. That trade's fine for what they need and for what everybody else is gonna be hunting for and what's available. The thing about it is they didn't move Bork, Stan Kopen, who I'm told is as close to untouchable as possible in that organization for a number of reasons. He stays and Lee and Bichal goes nowhere.

And I think Lee and Bichal here is kind of giving Jim Nill a lot of space. When there's no, there's no desperation because of how good Bichelle has been. It's phenomenal. First of all, he's huge. Second of all, he's been fantastic for them. And all of a sudden, like, wait a minute, we don't have to give up any assets. We just like, we have Lee and Bichelle up from the American hockey league and he can play top four. He's been fantastic.

They have done a great job of kind of finding solutions from within the organization the last couple seasons. Yeah. And so you got to give them credit for that too. Drafting, developing, it makes life a lot easier. A lot of that is Rich Peverly, player development, one of your favorites from years gone back. Rich Peverly of Wolf Ontario. Okay. No supplemental discipline for Stefan Nason of the New Jersey Devils. The way I understand it, and talking to some people today, is that they didn't really come down

on either side of contact with the head. When I first saw the head, I thought there was more shoulder than head, but I think there's other views, it feels like more head than shoulder. Where I found it interesting that they didn't take Nason to a hearing, was the idea, it became more of an argument about intent,

where they kind of felt like there was nothing predatory about this hit. Not that it was accidental, but that Nason at the time is not going to try to deliver an injurious hit. And if you want to think about like why we have the Department of Player Safety, it's to try to punish people that try to make a predatory hit in that situation, in theory. So can we, Zach, can you roll back the hit for a second? I want you to look where Nason, what Nason does before he hits Thompson. He is playing, Hank, can you get it back to before the hit, like when Nason's

approaching the blue line, he makes a play on the puck. He's not going after Thompson. He plays the puck and sees Thompson reaching and he puts his shoulder down and braces for contact. But I think this is what saves Nason here is his first play is on the puck and then he braces for Thompson who like there's an old there's an old saying in hockey if you're reaching I'm teaching like Thompson reaches and Nason teaches in this one but his initial play is the puck puck first body second Generally, you're gonna be okay. What Nathan does is how did you feel elbow in? How did you feel about the criticism of Buffalo and the way they responded to that hit?

Yeah, I thought it was legitimate as much as Lindy Ruff wants to say like oh, yeah Don't worry about it. Like there's guys with A's on their sweaters that are out there and you just saw a Tate Thompson's helmet go spinning and you know the criticism of you rightly or wrongly. And I know Stefan Nason is tough. I get it. Yeah. But everyone, everyone stood there and did like a combination of,

oh, he's doing statue practice. Oh yeah, but I'm doing elevator practice. It's totally different. No one did anything. They stood there and looked around like, are you going to do something? Because I don't want to do something. Like you compare that.

Like, you know, the ultimate team for this is, and it's not like, like, and they're not a tough team, but they have a pack mentality and that's the Tampa Bay Lightning. We take a run at one of their guys, everybody, no questions asked. Tampa, bam. Yeah. Right. It doesn't matter who it is. Yeah it doesn't matter who's on the ice. But who's on the ice, that's what we do in Tampa.

Compare that, now, I'm comparing Buffalo to Tampa Bay Lightning, but like, look at Tampa. Like, it's no secret why it's the fool that bets against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They're always in it, they're always in it because they have that mentality. That happens at cage time. And it's not. And cage time, is like now almost 30 goals this year.

Like one of the bright spots for the Buffalo Sabres this year. And you're worried about the two points? Well, we got them on the scoreboard. It's a, yeah, we got them on the scoreboard. And they certainly did. I mean, the Devils whof last month. But like-

But didn't Devil score a shorty on that panel they killed to? Yeah, Jack used it as shorty. The, the, the, for me, it's like you said, it's less about no one does this to our guys than it is showing me that there is a, like you said, for lack of a better term, a pack mentality, a cohesiveness, a band of brothersness to this team. Panthers are like that too.

Right away, bam. Yeah. And, and, and you, and again, these are teams we're talking about, they're in the playoffs and We look at the Buffalo Sabres and where they aren't the Hartman thing. Oh my god Like you said zoo zoom interview in person you know, whenever they say like he's gonna do it over zoom my first thought is just like Ryan Hartman take yourself off mute. You're on mute. Ryan Hartman. We can't we can't hear you. Ryan Hartman You're on mute, Ryan Hartman. We can't hear you, Ryan Hartman.

Zoom nightmares. That guy's got a rap sheet now. What if Hartman showed up, hang on, what if Hartman showed up for this as a cat? Just like, look, I know I'm getting rung up here. It's only seven games then. That was just so nasty. But again, like again, again, it's another face off play.

Like Cole Profetti, this dick in the face off play. This one, like, you know, Carter Hutton brought up a great point on Morning Cup of Hockey this morning where he said, you know, we've seen plenty of times where off the draw in a situation like this, the center will just smother the other guy and pretend that he can't get up like, oh my goodness, oh I don't know, oh I'm trying, I'm trying, really, I mean you're trying to neutralize a guy. This is slamming a guy, this is giving a DDT to a guy.

Just like slamming a guy's head into the ice. Like I'm sorry man. He ties him up and then places his forearm on the back of his neck to drive him into the ice. Like it's terrible. The profetti thing, he only got fined, right? So he has a suspension on that one, even though it comes out later that it was something he intended to do

as an act of revenge for Kril Kaprizov getting injured. And then he has the dangerous tripped on his ledger. He's gonna get rung up and it's probably, I mean, what would you guess? I'm gonna guess probably eight, but I wouldn't be surprised if they went higher with what he, I mean, there was, I get, I mean, like, still, they finished the game, so it's about like,

it's an injury. Would you be surprised if they threw a Dixie at him? 10 games. No, I wouldn't be surprised, to be honest with you, because this is, A, it's a lot of stuff, and B, I think it was Kevin Biaxa that pointed this out on Saturday night in trying to make an argument that Travis Hamonek should have fought him to save Stuttsalala from a pain later, which is a nonsensical hockey code bunch of crap. But it was clear Hartman was trying to

affect something in that game, you know, going after the the audible players on a few occasions. So this is calculated and and it was it was impactful and it cut them and I mean eight games is probably my minimum on this, but I could see it going higher than that. So that one is tonight. We'll see where that one goes. Is there anything that you wanted to get to today? I'm just going through my, oh, you know what? Do you wanna mention? Do you wanna mention, hey, really quick.

It's a couple of quick words too, because we've got a lot of Red Wings fans that watch slash, slash listen. Oh, Jay Rock, I'm Hartman, I'm not a cat. I love this chat. I love this chat. I love this chat. It's so good. Thanks, Jayrock, you just made my day.

The Treadroudings have won six in a row. It's been way too long since the Treadroudings have been in the playoffs. Larkin's been great. Albert Johansson has been a revelation for this team. Lion and Talbot have been phenomenal. I don't know that there's, I don't really have any comment other than it's just fun to see the Detroit Red Wings back in a playoff race. And don't look now, but Ottawa Detroit Columbus and we'll get to, Don't look now, but Ottawa, Detroit, Columbus, and we'll get the, oh, who just got nailed in the face? Marchenko, we'll get that Marchenko in a couple of seconds.

I think he broke his jaw. He broke his jaw, yeah. Ottawa, Detroit, Columbus in the playoffs right now. Boston, Tampa. First of all, I mean, for those who claim conspiracy theories, Detroit and Columbus both being wild card teams those who claim conspiracy theories, Detroit and Columbus both being wild card teams ahead of the stadium series, ladies and gentlemen. Okay, officials, who's it going to be?

But you just said, I mean, I got to go in the numbers and really see what impact it's had. But you mentioned Lyon and Talbot both playing well. I mean, that's why you bring in Todd McClellan. Todd McClellan's system is something that supports goaltenders. Todd McClellan's system has produced some good goaltending numbers through the years for his netminers and that's to me like the tip of the iceberg of the effect that bringing him in has. It's exciting. It's exciting

when big market teams like this become relevant again. We all hoped it would happen for the Red Wings under the Eiser Plan. It appears to be finally happening now, it is a giant beautiful muddled mess in the East with the Rangers now, we mentioned Miller before, I mean, like, obviously his impact on the on the roster is immediate and that's a team that was already kind of trending up the standings when he arrived, it's gonna be a fun finish in the East. And I'm super happy to see the Red Wings being relevant. Okay, so something that you and I, I think you and I talked about this on the last show.

Did I ever mention what I thought would happen with the automatic two for puck over glass? No. Oh, okay, maybe we haven't. Here was, and I was wrong, thankfully. Although man, if I were a coach, I'd be telling my team to do this every single game. It's a bad a person I am.

I'm a bad person, Greg Wyshynski. Don't be fooled. I mean, generally. A bad, bad person. So I thought when they introduced the mandatory two minutes for puck over glass, delay game, I thought that we'd see a lot of players in trouble in their own zone, instead of flipping the puck out, just firing pucks at the bench. Specifically in the second period.

Right. Just, you know what? Under pressure, can't do it, don't want to take the chance of taking a minor penalty. I'm just going to fire it in the bench. Fire it at the bench. Yeah. I thought we could, I'm like, this, it just does not sound like you're encouraging players to whip pucks at the bench. Yeah. I thought we could I'm like this it just does not sound like you're encouraging players to whip Hucks into the bench now. Thankfully that hasn't happened

but here's Karel Marchenko with a With a broken jaw as you mentioned the Columbus Blue Jackets. He's been incredible. What a season for the Columbus Blue Jackets This is a season where we're all cheering for the Columbus blue jackets and the Calgary flames, both to make the playoffs for the obvious Johnny Goodrell reasons. Um, but I kind of look at this one and I can't, like, I can't, I can't say like, oh man, that's really awful when it's something

that you have to expect is going to happen that Oh man, that's really awful when it's something that you have to expect is going to happen. That until you put cages on players or goldfish bowls on players, this is going to happen. I saw, John Buchigras brought up an interesting point on online today where he said, if you're designing benches now, you might want to have some like glass in front

of the bench or you might want to have like a door in the middle of the bench for another way to get out. But one of the unique things about hockey that I don't think we should ever take for granted is, unlike other sports, basketball, baseball, football, you can change on the fly, change while the play is going on. This doesn't happen in other sports. But instead of doing glass, which would preclude you

from changing on the fly in any sort of coordinated and efficient manner, you could just ask the guys to wear cages. Or you could, I'm sorry, you can't ask. You could try to mandate. You could ask. You could try to mandate the guys to wear cages. I think Le Affaire des Neckgaard will tell you

that you can ask. You can ask. And they might put it off for a couple of weeks and then they're gonna wear it. Yeah, exactly. Real quick, because I know we're running out of time, I wanna get into this Utah story. Oh, yes, I have an idea there.

Okay, so Utah, we're down to the Mammoth, we're down to Outlaws, and we're down to outlaws and we're down to Utah hockey club. If you haven't seen it, the Utah hockey reddit posted a picture of the logos from the survey that's happening inside the Delta Center for the next couple of games. Now, pour one out for Utah Wasatch. This is one of the great, this is going to go down in the annals of history, along with like the guardians project when they tried to make- Oh my God.

I can't believe you mentioned that. Right. Like it's like was such as is it is absolutely Larry was such as was for those who don't know was one of the original three names that they were voting on in this next round of voting after Yeti's got trademark bonked by the U S patent and trademark office. The was such is the name of a mountain range in Utah, but the team basically acknowledged that they were going with Utah Wasatch as a way to use all of the iconography they created

for Utah Yeti. Yeah. And the name Wasatch would allow them to use, quote, a mythical snow-hill creature in the form of a Yeti as its mascot, according to one of the members of the Smith Entertainment Group. Now, the thing that I love about this so much, and what's going to put it in the annals of great NHL disasters, is they had one night of voting, and this name got so few votes that they literally said, we're going to toss it out and replace it with outlaws and redo the vote. None of the votes from night one even counted

because of how few people supported this name. It's incredible. Yeah. By the way, a lot of comments in the chat about the Guardians Project. Oh, I wrote extensively about the Guardians Project. Ben Crawl, RIP Guardians Projects, so wish I could find a copy. Adam Am the Guardians Project. Ben Crawl, RIP Guardians Projects, I wish I could find a copy.

Adam Am the Guardians Project, Stan Lee's greatest legacy. We'll do a full episode one day. Guardians Project, all-star game, you can go find it online when they introduce the Guardians Project for those who don't know about it. So. Go to YouTube, all-star game, Guardians Project. And the other thing too, I'll never forget the fact that Stan Lee basically just took a bunch of existing Marvel characters

and just graphed NHL crap on top of them. It's insane. By the way, real quick, the Utah Hockey Club logo, which is the Yeti logo. I mean, again, you want to put up those logos again, Zach. You could tell which one they've been working on for several months because there's one that's really great and there are two that looks like we did not get the rights to the NHL for our video games so we're using these logos. The Yenis logo is awesome.

It's Winnipeg Ice and you brought up an interesting point too. Winnipeg Ice with me. So I never saw that originally but now that you mention it I do. But here's my idea. What's your grand idea? Here's the thought. And again, I'm not a trademark lawyer. I just play one on television.

I'm not an actuary, but I play one during lockouts on television. All right. I'll tell you everything you need to know, sophisticated things about pensions. I am an actuary. Today I'm gonna be, okay. So now I'm a trademark lawyer.

What if you called, because it's very much understood that Yeti was the preferred name, and it is for me, I love it. Be fantastic. And me as well. Okay, so you're on that team too. What if you called it Utah Yeti HC?

Utah Yeti HC. As a way to get around the trademark issue? Correct. Again, I'm not a trademark lawyer. I read the ruling from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and basically like you can't use Yeti or Yetis. I understand. What if it's Yeti HC?

Yeti Hockey Club. I understand. And the other, the important thing. The hockey club. Here's the important thing that I was gonna tell you. As a trademark lawyer, myself. Not really, but whatever. They made a point in saying in the ruling that using the word Utah before Yeti is not a way to differentiate it from Yeti, the beverage and cooler maker.

So I don't think attaching hockey club to Yeti would have any impact much in the same way that attaching Utah to Yeti didn't have any impact. You still can't put it on a cup, you still can't put it on a shirt. The beverage company has the trademark there. I know, I'm just a simple country lawyer, Greg Wyshanski. I don't know all the useful things

you can have from angled ideas. Smith don't know all the useful and you have mangled ideas. Smith Entertainment Group went to the Yeti people that make the coolers in the beverage cups. And they said, is there a way we can work this out? So everybody was making money and they're like, absolutely not. So that's really the issue right now is that they don't wanna play ball.

No Utah Yeti HC, no Utah Yeti hockey club. That's satisfied to, no? Some people like hockey club. If you want that logo, you've got to vote for Utah Hockey Club and that's how you get that logo. See, I like the idea of Yeti, but I like the idea of Yeti as like

the team that just shows up randomly. Like we don't have a schedule, we'll show up in the middle of other games, kick the flyers off the bench, we're playing now. Liam O'Brien is the logo, right? Liam O'Brien is your logo. This guy gets a contract for life because he becomes the Yeti logo.

We don't have a schedule. We're just a traveling band of Yeti. We're just gonna show up at rinks. We're gonna show up at NHL rinks. Minnesota Wild, you're out. LA Kings, you're gone. We're playing this game. The only way you get around, I mean,

we already know the only way you get around this trademark issue is do what the Golden Knights did make them the silver Yeti like who cares you put a color in front of it then your goal I mean your eye Vegas showed that you got me off their back you know how hard that is the blue Yeti now you're talking the silver Yeti although I think that's also a podcasting mic, now that I think about it. Oh, is it? I don't know, we'll figure it out.

There's some color that'll work. All right, we'll see where this one heads. But I do like the idea of just Liam O'Brien's face. It's Liam O'Brien's face. You know what? That's why I played a pond hockey in Jasper last week with the guys here from the shop. And Ryan Pinder had the best jersey.

He had a logo of his own face on the jersey. Best thing I saw. We're like, me and Laz were like, is that your face? And he's a good player too. Legend, Ryan Pinder. Okay, great stuff. You got a punt. I know we're keeping you too long. Um, peace out, great stuff today, and, uh,

go Canada US, being pals and friends and... I'll, I'll let you know, the reason we had, I'll be honest with the listeners, the reason we had to do this on Monday is because I have, no joke, a colonoscopy tomorrow. Good for you. And so this is two days in a row having to deal with a pain in my ass. But for you, I felt it important to make sure that we did a little- I like how you took the low hanging fruit on that one, Greg.

I like how you took the low hanging fruit joke. That's good. A little MVSW in your lives. No, you shower and I'll shower. Okay, yeah. Take the obvious punch line. Okay, very good. That's what I gotta do tomorrow.

It's exciting. Also tomorrow, by the way, in better news, the next NHL Awards watch on ESPN.com. So for those wondering about Morensky and Dreisaitl and Hellebuck and Quinn Hughes, tomorrow will be your day to figure out what the voters were actually saying. Okay.

Okay, excellent. We look forward to that. You be well and we will talk in, no, eight days. He'll be back next Tuesday, I believe. An early MVSW this week here on the program. And really lively chat, really good stuff. A couple of things I want to get to here before we wrap things up here on Monday, February the third, just after four o'clock Eastern. And those things are the games of the night, actually the game of the night. There is only one. FanDuel, proud to connect fans

to the major sports moments that matter to them. Roster updates as always from daily face-off fantasy, the Twitter slash ex-feed. The Ottawa Senators, Zach, on a four game winning streak here and they find themselves in a playoff position and they are the lone game on the board this evening. Anton Forsberg starts, Linus Almark activated off LTIR Sunday, expected to back up Josh Norris not. On the road trip here we have the Ottawa

Senators facing off against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. Have a thought on this one, on your provincial nemesis, the Ottawa Senators. Yeah, it's an interesting one. It's like Sens four in a row. I think Nashville's lost four in a row going into this one. I don't know.

There's a lot of times where it's like, you look at a game and think, here's the spot where both teams flip the switch, you know, like sends all of a sudden they drop one they shouldn't have. I don't think that's the case tonight. I just feel like Ottawa is rolling. They're feeling good about themselves. You know, vengeance for Timmy Stu. I don't know if tonight's gonna be a pretty one for the Preds. What, not that I normally care about playing the numbers game, but this one's an interesting one. So I wouldn't be surprised if it's double digits. And then I wouldn't be surprised if it gets appealed. Greg is saying eight games. Do you have a thought on the Ryan Hartman play and what he's gonna get for driving Stutzla's head into the ice? Yeah, I agree with you guys. I think 8+, I think that where he's at with the the history that you guys have brought up there really doesn't help. Like I was watching the morning show this morning, I was laughing because

Laz was kinda giving him, you know, like the... not like pardoning it, but Laz was kinda like oh, like, you know, he plays on the line, like all this stuff, and Hutz kind of like stopped him and was like, hold on, you're like saying this, like this is like, oh, he's a great guy, like you didn't mean to, and he's like, this is one of those plays that's in slow motion, and I agree, I played the clip for you guys, you saw it on the screen if you watch on YouTube.

It's the arm on the back of the head, he goes down, he's right to the ice. He's got the history. This has gotta be a big one for Hartman here. And I think it's a mistake if it's not. I mean, you're looking at a guy with a history. I can't, I don't know. I don't wanna like throw it at him

and accuse him of like, he's trying to injure the guy. But I think he knew what he was doing. You know what I'm getting at? Like he knew he was driving his head into the ice. He knew he was doing that. It was not an accident. No, don't disagree. We'll see what happens. The hearing is later on tonight. Okay. One thing I do want to mention before we wrap up as well, the Willie O'Rea award, I think is a really significant one. Nominations are open until February the 9th. Let me get all the details here.

This is awarded annually to an individual who through the game of hockey has positively impacted his or her community, culture, or society. Willie's the NHL's diversity ambassador for the last two decades. He travels across North America to schools, ranks hockey programs as well to share his story

and experiences also promote the message of inclusion, dedication, and confidence. Last year's winners because there's one United States winner, one Canadian winner. Last year's US winner Estella Rivas Bryant, the founder of Empowerment of Facts. It's a nonprofit for young girls in Los Angeles focused on hockey mentorship and provides kids with free equipment, coaching and ice time. And the Canadian winner, Mark DeMontes, who's a tremendous guy, a wonderful, wonderful person. He's the founder of the Canadian Blind Hockey and is a member of the Canadian Blind Hockey team.

Mark went blind in his last year of high school from a genetic disorder that he didn't even know that he had while he was playing in the GTHL for the Nats. In order to raise awareness for a Canadian blind hockey then called Courage Canada, he rollerbladed across the country. You can nominate people at nhl.com slash Oree Award. Nominate at the NHL site. I've got a link to the page that Zach just put up here on my Twitter page. So again, nominations are still open until February the 9th, the annual Willie Oree Award for an individual who through the game of hockey has positively impacted his or her community, culture, or society. Encourage you to participate there.

Every time I looked at the chat, I laughed today and it wasn't one of those days where I could have jumped in. Did anything jump out at you from the chat? Cause there were like some really good punch lines. It was, it was a combination of like great punch lines and some, some thoughtful comments as well. good punch lines. It was a combination of like great punch lines and some thoughtful comments as well.

Yeah, I mean, people suggesting different ways to get around the Yeti name while you were kind of debating that one. The trademark was pretty funny there. James did not like your suggestion, by the way. James Maloney, Utah Yeti HC, hard pass, he said. What? Hard pass. Not interested in that one. Go piss up a poll, James. Also, I wanti HC, hard pass he said. Hard pass. Not interested in that one.

Also I want to throw something out to you. And I feel like the chat might get this. I don't know how much you see, I imagine your boys probably are playing NHL video game and stuff like that. Am I correct on that? Okay. When you go upstairs today after the show,

ask them to fire it up. Okay. And show the EA sports. Yeah. Like the EASHL it's called or like create a team and tell me that these logos don't look like what you see in EA. So so fun right before I was having a conversation with a scout actually right before I came on the show and they're like, this looks like the created the create a logo from years ago. I'm like, I think I've made teams with these logos

and this color scheme. It's hard. I saw it. But logos are hard, man. But logos are tough. That's one of the hardest things to create. Absolutely. It's one of the hardest things to create.

Kraken did a real good job, I think, with theirs. Well, I mean, like, look who owns the team. Like, were you surprised? I'm surprised that, and you know, Vegas Golden Knights as well. But when it came to Seattle, like you look look who owns the team. Like, were you surprised? I'm surprised that, and you know, Vegas Golden Knights as well, but when it came to Seattle, like you look at who owns the team, like that was gonna be done first class,

and there was gonna be a lot of money behind the imaging around the Seattle Kraken. They did a bang up job. They really did, so no surprise there. Only, hang on, Mr. Public Paint, HC is soccer, yuck, footy. What else do we have in here? Only, hang on, Mr. Public Paint, HC is soccer, yuck footy. What else do we have in here? There is a lot of that.

Like, I always have to catch myself, because I keep saying like, ugh, HC, it is too like, soccer-y. But then there's a lot of things about soccer that I really love. But then I think to myself, it's more just about sort of European sports culture than anything else, like the singing and the chanting and all of that You know like there's some like Vancouver used to have like the Euro soccer section at their games

Which were like so cool. I just wish we would have that sort of spirit of sports Yeah in and in the NHL because it does exist here like all the NBA players they talk about like the hostile environment of playing in playoffs and they're like They're like all the NBA players. They talk about like the hostile environment of playing in playoffs and they're like, you know, I played in like Serbia and like you go to like, like these like crazy places over there and they're like, you see the videos of them playing playoff, not even playoff, like regular season basketball. There's like fireworks being lit off during the game, red smokes flowing over the courts.

Yeah. These guys come here and they're getting yelled at by some guys like shoot the ball you idiot and he's like yeah okay whatever yeah good times good times okay um thanks for joining me today thanks for joining me and zach today uh is that good to see that you survived vick's wedding um yes and their honeymoon is in full effect now because vick needs more vacations. When's Vic back by the way? Yes. Who's Vic with her?

The 14th. The 14th. He is back. Two weeks? Imagine that, eh? You just come back from like a two week vacation? Yeah, like not too long ago. He's got the best agent going.

I gotta get a new agent, man. Who's Vic with? Mighty Alberg, who knows. 330 Nick? 330 Nick? Yeah 330. What's up 330? That's what I started calling him from now on. Dude I'm married. He called me 330 in the morning. What are you doing? Yeah he's like FaceTime Rosie too. Was he Yeah, FaceTime Rosie when we were at the table. Give us one good story from the wedding. Give us one good story from someone from Daily Face Off that everybody will recognize who just did like something like full on stupid.

Maybe it was you. Were you well behaved? Did you make good decisions? I think we were all pretty well behaved, honestly. But the only thing I could say is that as the night went on, Mr. Alberga progressively lost more buttons on his shirt yeah well the picture that you sent me of you two donkeys like you're like on John

Travolta and Saturday night Saturday night fever circus 77 kind of like look at you to Lance romance over here don Juan too many alberg I like what are you doing, but leave me alone Fun congrats to producer Victor it was it was a lot of fun. It was a great wedding. It was a great wedding and Oh, actually here. I'll throw this out there as well. This is not anybody's Specific but during the wedding there was this thing on the table where you could scan a QR code, it was really cool, and they had projectors up on the walls, right? And you could upload pictures that you were taking in videos of the wedding in real time.

Well, the Leafs-Oilers game starts. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, fun game. And the Leafs go up three nothing. Yeah, yeah, we were, I mean, Nick and I were checking it out during the game there, but it starts. And all of a sudden you look up on the screen and there are screenshots of the score of the Leafs-Oyler's game that are going up on the projector and then Vicks Brothers started a Go Leafs Go chant. No one's surprised. No one's surprised. What did you make of that offside review? Great, great, great challenge.

All of a sudden now you're a big fan of the offside review. Love it. All of a sudden now you love the offside review. Why would we ever get rid of it? Right, we've got it now. It's baked into the pie. All these games. Let's go.

Okay, great stuff. Thanks to Ray Gwishinsky for stopping by. Thanks to you for either watching, listening, or participating in our chat on YouTube. Like and subscribe if you can, that does us a world of good here at Daily Face Off. Rate and review if you're listening on podcasts, whether it's your Apple pause, whether it's your Spotify. Interact as often and as freely as you can.

Enjoy the game tonight, Ottawa and Nashville. We're back tomorrow, full slate of topics and fun right here on the sheet. Three o'clock Eastern, noon Pacific, and don't forget tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday morning rather. The programming day begins with Morning Cup of Hockey, daily face-off live at noon, and then the sheet here at three Eastern.

We'll talk to you later. ["I'm Still Here"] I was lost in my thoughts, lost in my thoughts I was lost in my thoughts, lost in my thoughts I was lost in my thoughts, lost in my thoughts I was lost in my thoughts, lost in my thoughts I was lost in my thoughts, lost in my thoughts I'm not against those methods but it's me myself and how this gonna be fixing my mind I do want to break it I turned on the music I do want to break it I turned on the music

It's turned up, down, out and back sometimes losing Thanks for watching!