The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Ranger Rumblings ft. Rhett Warrener

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Jeff Marek is joined by Rhett Warrener of Flames Nation to react to Ovechkin's speedy return, Sarah Fillier lighting up the PWHL in her first two games, an interesting tweet from Joel Farabee, and news surrounding JT Miller and the New York RangersConnect with us on ⬇️Daily FaceoffX: https://x.com/DailyFaceoffInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailyfaceoff/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoff/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dailyfaceoff?lang=enWebsite: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/The SheetX: https://x.com/thesheethockeyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesheethockey/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thesheethockeyDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it.

Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. I don't know why I'm so fascinated with this, but here we go again. Happy anniversary, Teddy Bear Toss Games. John Keene is the play-by-play voice of the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League. He tweeted out this one yesterday.

The Teddy Bear Toss started in Kamloops 31 years ago today. And credit to Blazers marketing director, former marketing director, Don Larson, for the idea. So Earl Seitz at CFCJ Today tracked Larson down a few years ago, and here's what Larson had to say about how the idea came to him. Quote, I was sitting at home one day. I think a truck went by. It rattled the house and a little mini teddy bear fell off the mantle. For some stupid reason reason the idea popped into my head why not have a one shot deal so for you trivia collectors two-time stanley cup champion brad lukowicz scored the first teddy bear toss goal for other trivia collectors someone who collects trivia is called a spermologist. I am not making that up,

and I am trying really hard not to laugh because I'm 12. As I mentioned yesterday, Bear Toss is one of my favorite events on the entire hockey calendar. Started in junior hockey, as you just found out, but it spilled over into other leagues as well. The Hershey Bears, by the way, of the American Hockey League, they hold the record. Most bears, 74,599 last January. That's a lot of bears. As for Michael Misa getting suspended for shooting a bear back into the crowd, one game suspension, he actually got off light. And that is thanks to Philadelphia Flyer Owen Tippett. And that is thanks to Philadelphia flyer Owen Tippett. Huh? So the penalty for firing objects into the crowd in the OHL used to be five games. Apparently kids used to shoot pucks in the crowd with some frequency, but that's now been massaged. Here's a quick story.

When Owen Tippett played for the Mississauga Steelheads, he was playing a game in 2018 against the Oshawa Generals. When someone threw a foam puck onto the ice at the end of the second period, Tippett saw the puck, fired it back into the stands. That should have been an automatic five-game suspension. Riley Demiani, by the way, of the Kitchener Rangers, amongst others, had fired real pucks into the stands and got the five gamers. So that was appealed though, Tippock's five game suspension, and it was reduced to one. That's now the standard for shooting soft toys into the stands in junior hockey games in Ontario. Welcome to a slice of what I amuse myself

with these days. Also San Jose Sharks prospect, Quinton Musty also got a one gamer for shooting a foam puck into the stands as well. Now, maybe you've wondered about the National Hockey League doing this. You know me. I checked. Here's the answer. The delay would take too long. Maybe the league would like to do a teddy bear toss, but TV time is expensive. So, no-go. Again, as always, Blame TV. Ohio here welcome to the sheet for thursday december the 5th if you haven't been again again, do yourself a favor. Go to a teddy bear toss game, et cetera, et cetera.

Zach Phillips, our producer, I believe, has video of the Owen Tippett incident back in 2000. No, yeah, was it 2018? You have this one? Fire it up. Here we go. Owen Tippett, 74. Oh, the phone puck hits the ice. The camera goes out of the way, but watch the linesman who's watching Owen Tippett with oh the foam puck hits the ice the camera goes out of the way but watch the

linesman who's watching Owen Tippett with his arm extended pointing to him saying yeah that's five gamer buddy you can't fire pucks it's just a foam puck like geez lion like geez stripes leave me alone five gamer rescinded down to one that came to us by the way from Caitlin Berry

who used to cover the OHL in Kitchener I always loved her work when she covered the OHL. She now is back home in England. She is covering the EIHL. So she covers GB ice hockey. That's from deep, deep, deep in her Twitter feed. And I'll give full credit to our man, Zach Phillips, for pulling that one out.

Zach, how are you today? I am not bad, Jeff. How are you? I'm good. Did you see Sarah Filié treating the PWHL like a beer league last night? I did. The best part was watching it. It was like, okay, first goal and bang, second goal and the assist later on. I was sitting there going, oh my goodness, she's just doing whatever she wants. So a quick one on this one. So yesterday in New goodness, she's just doing whatever she wants. So a quick one on this one. So yesterday in New York, so

Filié plays on the New York Sirens. First overall draft pick. She's going to inherit the mantle of the best player in hockey from Marie-Philippe Poulin. I know she's grimacing when she hears things like that, but it's true, folks. She's just that good. Two assists in her first game and the last game against Montreal. Zach mentions two goals,

one assist. That's five points in two games. She is absolutely tearing up this league already. She had a really interesting contract situation in the summer. Not an easy deal. Philly A's camp at the PWHL draft told New York they were not going to sign a three-year deal. Only interested in a one or a two. With contracts coming off the books and potential expansion made zero sense for anyone in the recent draft class to lock in on a three game a three-year deal but that didn't stop new

york general manager pascal daou from trying but uh you have to be impressed with philly like she knows her worth she has bargaining power she's got a stiff spine dug in and she got what she wanted her agent is uh spencer gillis by the way spencer represents a number of the athletes in the pwhl he is uh if you recognize the last name the son of former vancouver canucks general manager mike gillis former agent as well and is and was as tough a negotiator as they come so philly had a good stance on this one she was taking a one or she was taking a two. There's no way she was taking a three. And she got what she wanted.

Anyway, congratulations to Sarah Filié. Welcome to PWHL. Five points in two games. All right, Zach, what else are we talking about today? We've got Rhett Warner coming up here in about 10 minutes. On sheet today there's a couple of things we should probably get into Alexander Ovechkin returns not in a track suit but Alexander Ovechkin on the ice albeit in non-contact gear but in gear 17 days ago the leg was broken and already Russian machine never breaks Alexander Ovechkin is back on the ice we'll talk about the four nations am I a bad person if I say I want to see a Sweden-Finland final? As we're all expecting

it to be Canada versus USA and these two teams are built to face off against each other. Am I bad if I say I just want to ruin the whole thing and see Sweden face off against Finland? Well, I'll ruin it for some. Like Sweden looks good. I don't love them down the middle, but Sweden looks good. Rhett Warner is him down the middle, but Sweden looks good. Rhett Warner is going to be stopping by in a couple of moments. We'll talk about a wonderful night two days ago in Calgary. The Flames beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0, but none of that mattered because it was Johnny Goudreau night. We'll get Rhett's thoughts on that.

And also, I want to get into the Florida Panthers with Rhett from then to, because he was there for that maiden voyage. He was there with Doug McClain. He was there to go to the Stanley Cup final with the Florida Panthers. Also, the the New York Rangers, Elliott Friedman yesterday on NHL Network, throw another log on the trade fire, ladies and gentlemen, as Elliott is prone to do. So we'll talk about the New York Rangers and what is happening there. And that's going to be the snappy program today. Glad you're aboard today. Glad everyone is in the chat as well.

All the sheet heads. It's growing on me, Zach. Sheet heads in the chat right now. The disservice you're doing with your mic. You're blocking that amazing jacket. Yes. There you go. I got this.

I got this. I don't know. I can't remember sport the name of the sports shop but there's a famous one it's like eight stories tall at piccadilly square how many years ago 2011 2012 it's one of my favorites absolutely love it so uh thank you for noticing that one i'll try to get the mic out of the way here so we see only the only the one star but nonetheless hope reigns eternal no i'm wearing this for caitlin berry in honor of our our friend caitlin berry provided some lovely video of owen tippett uh earlier on today okay let's start with that with alexandro ovechkin what is the latest as you know here zach he's back on the ice. Yes. Ovi skating earlier today, courtesy of the Capitals on Twitter. As you see here. That's incredible.

Looks good. Take it easy. Nice strides. I was on with Rob Brender this morning doing about 20 minutes talking about the Washington Capitals. And one of the interesting things that he asked me was, and it really sort of gave me cause for pause. I didn't have a good answer. I seldom have good answers.

But for this question, I really didn't have a good answer. He said, what to you is more impressive about the Caps? What they did to start the season, and now they find themselves in first place in the Metropolitan Division, or what they've been able to do without Alexander Ovechkin in the lineup. They're 4-2-1 without Ovi. And I don't know what's more impressive.

I kind of said the start because nobody expected it, but we've seen teams survive without their star players before. So I sort of stammered out an answer about the start of the season for the Washington Capitals, as opposed to what they've done without their franchise player and the greatest goal scorer of all time, not in their lineup. I'll ask you the same question that Rob asked me. What's more impressive, what they did off the start or what they've done without Ovechkin?

I think for me at this point, what they've done without Ovechkin? I think for me at this point, what they've done without Ovechkin. Because we know who he is. We know his goal scoring ability. And one of the things that we kind of keep looking at with this team is performing above expectations. Well, when you have a guy who can score at that rate and can be as impactful. And the leadership that he brings. Not just in the room, whatever. But on the ice as well.

Okay, yeah. You can see them having a little bit of a chance of a fight and then you lose him and to be able to continue it without like i don't know jeff i like his play but i didn't expect dylan strome to be able to sustain what he had done at the beginning of the season i think it's been great unrealistic but yeah like he's been great and it's like okay yeah it yeah, it's going to drop off a bit, but it hasn't fallen off a cliff here. And he's kind of maintained some momentum. All you rushing gas people in the chat.

I see you. I see you. It's you know, there's a couple of things about the Capitals that I really enjoy specifically. I'm really happy at Jacob Chikrin and what's happened there. Connor McMichael to me, what he's been able to do when he was, let me just call up his stats here.

This makes for a bad show. Listen to me typing. So Connor McMichael was originally rushed into the NHL. I mean, I'm pretty sure he'll admit it now and the Washington Capitals probably will. In 21, 22, because of injuries and other issues, I mean, he was ushered into the NHL way too quick and had a miserable season, right? 68 games, 18 points. And this is a first round draft pick of the Washington Capitals.

We've seen this happen to players before where they get rushed in and then they get sent back down after a season or a couple of seasons and it almost wrecks their career. And I remember saying to myself, like, I really hope this doesn't happen to Connor McMichael because the Capitals have a great player there. And it didn't. Like, he didn't let that completely cave them in that. I don't say miserable, but that tough experience with the Capitals for almost an entire full season that didn't harm him at all. And now, you know, I was talking this morning, like would it be out of the realm of possibility for Connor McMichael to have

an 80 point season with the Washington Capitals? He's almost a point per game, 25 games, 24 points. I think at minimum, he's going to be a 65-point player, maybe at maximum an 85-point player. But would it surprise you if Conor McMichael landed on 80 for the season, Zach? No, it wouldn't. I think that his level of play, the way he started this season, how mature he's looked early on, and how quickly he adapted with that level of play, the way he started this season, how mature he's looked early on and how quickly he adapted with that level of

maturity is also something that kind of leads me to believe like, this is not just something he could do this season, but continue to build off in years in the future. As well would be a mistake if we didn't mention Laz pointing out Protas. Alexi Protas has been good. Alexi Protas has been really good. I know the coffee boys really like Trevor van Reemstuyck and he's been really good. I will throw Martin Fairberry in there.

Who's one of flat out the fastest skaters in the NHL. One of the things that I'd love to see on NHL edge is man, Elliot used to always blast me when I would talk about this on 32, mainly because he just didn't want to listen to me talk about it. I'm always curious, and I think the answer is Jonas Brodine. Who's the fastest backwards skater in the NHL? And could Favare be that guy? I think it's Brodine because, I mean, he can go like stride for stride backwards with like some of the fastest like your Connor McDavid's. I wonder if Martin Ferravari is in that conversation as well. Maybe Laz, maybe Colby has a thought on that one.

The morning guys are smarter than I am. Who's the fastest backwards skater in the NHL? Oh, by the way, Washington and Seattle, the only two teams that don't have anybody going to the four nations. I really thought Logan Thompson was going to be there. I thought Tom Wilson was going to be there. Troy Smith yesterday on this program was talking about Tom Wilson too. We'll see by way of injury whether Tom Wilson makes it there by the time the tournament rolls around in February. But still.

All right. What else we got on the list here, Zach, for today? for today uh next up i want to take a look at ryan mcdonough and the comments that were made about him by patrick maroon on morning cup of hockey you just came up i talked about the boys this morning but uh he went on there he was talking about some of the four nations stuff and he had something to say okay in regards to mcdonough let's do it ryan mcdonough was kind of a shock to me i think you put if you're going veteran way, it's a guy that's won before. He's a leader. He's been on every, you know, he's been on Olympics.

He's been on, you know, these teams that have been a part of so many, you know, accomplishments. That's kind of a shock to me. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations.

What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. find your power. Peloton visit Peloton at one Peloton.ca. I love it. Ryan McDonough is one of my favorite players. Again, I've pointed this out before.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Nashville went the way that they have and Tampa has gone the way that they have when Ryan McDonough got moved back to Tampa. I've said it before. When Ryan McDonough got moved back to Tampa, I've said it before. When you talk about quick defenseman, there's probably no one in the NHL. Someone brought this up to me, like a former defenseman.

I'm like, you know what? That makes a lot of sense. There's probably no one better in the NHL. As far as defensemen go at getting back to their position quicker than Ryan McDonough. He's just like always in the right spot. He's fearless.

I love that Maroon brought that up on Morning Cup of Hockey today. I was, you know, watching it this morning going like, yeah, you know what? Where is Ryan McDonough? And I was talking to someone with another team this morning as I was out shoveling snow. And I mentioned that name and said, I heard Pat Maroon this morning talk about Ryan McDonough. And he's like, listen, man, Canada's got like tons of offense, tons of offense. Like who's going to defend for the United States? Like who, who, who's there to mind their own knitting in their own zone? Like, I wonder if Ryan McDonough should have probably been given more attention back there

for years. Wonderful to have a bunch of guys that can gallop and that's awesome. That's fantastic. But you still need someone to defend back there against, and not just Canada. Like I mentioned off the top, like Sweden, I don't love them down. Again, I don't love them down the middle, but Sweden's a threat. Who's defending when Sweden's in the offensive zone? Pat Maroon, by the way, every week on Morning Cup of Hockey, which as you've heard me go on before, it's my favorite and I think the best sports morning show going.

Nonetheless, we soldier on. So good on Pat Maroon for mentioning Ryan McDonough. I also thought it was interesting. I'm going to ask Rhett Warner this. For NHL players, when these tournaments are on, are they watching or are they on the beach? And just like, yeah, maybe I'll just look at a couple of tweets and see what Finland's doing against Canada. You know what?

Let's bring our guest on right now and we'll get back. We'll get to the Rangers in a couple of tweets and see what Finland's doing against Canada. You know what? Let's bring, let's bring our guests on right now and we'll get back. We'll get to the Rangers in a couple of seconds and what's happening there and Elliot's appearance on NHL network and all the speculation about Kreider, Shuba, et cetera, et cetera, and maybe more.

But former NHL defenseman from Barnburner, you know him, you love him. He's Rhett Warner. He joins me now. Rhett, how are you today, sir?

I'm great from Sask. I got my, Oh, I love it. Rhett, how are you today, sir? I'm great. From Sask. I got my. Oh, I love it. I love. Listen, I was. I got to be pretty close with that with Wade Belak, obviously, before he passed. And I know you guys played together on the Blades. He was one guy, Rhett, that always, like, always cracked me up.

I remember one time. I don't know if I mentioned this to you when I was on Burner with the guys. I remember he was playing with the Maple Leafs and we're talking after a game. And I said, what happens if you get hauled down on a breakaway? And the referee calls for a penalty shot. He said, you want to see someone with a groin injury really fast? That would be me if they pointed the face out. I would fake a back injury.

I would fake a groin. There's no way that Pat Quinn would let me go to the dot to grab that puck. Honestly, I miss him. I love him. What was he like as a teammate with the Blades? I think, was Simpson on that team too? His D partner, I believe. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Todd Simpson. We had a tough group. Lauren Mulliken was the coach oh boy it was the gm so it was the old school hockey beaks we played against each other even midget triple a so before that he was great once he stopped beating me up in training camp i really appreciated that after After that Scott.

Yeah, right. One of my favorite teammates. We had a really tight team in Saskatoon at that time. We were a decent team. We always lost to bloody Kamloops in the finals. But nonetheless, we had a good group of guys and Beaks was a focal point of that.

You can't say enough about him. Those guys had such a tough existence and he always kept a level head about it and always, always, always made you laugh. And the beauty about it was he'd laugh at himself. You know what I mean? Like he didn't take himself serious. He wasn't always, some of those guys, there was an intimidation level and they always thought they had to maintain it.

Not Beeks. Belak was always able to laugh at himself and make you enjoy time together. He was super tough, as we all know. Never turned anyone down that I ever saw. But there was one thing that he told me that always kind of stuck with me. Because he could play defense, he could play forward. I remember Quinn used him against Keith Primo in that series against the Philadelphia Flyers.

He was the only guy that could do anything against Primo. They could only use them at home because they could get the matchup. And so Belak just like hounded Primo at the, the Air Canada Center for an entire series. But I remember he told me once when he was playing at Hershey, the one thing that he really resented was at the beginning of the season, Bob Hartley called him into his office and put out the schedule and had it all laid out for him. On this day, you're going to fight that guy. On this day, you're going to

fight this guy and this guy. And on this day, and he's like, what is this, Bob? This is ridiculous. what what what is this bob like this is this is ridiculous like he had like his whole card lined up for the whole year like i'll be blunt right like that pissed him off he told me like i i hated walking out of that room like who what do you think i am here like some dancing bear for you yeah that's an ignorant thing to do to a guy that you probably don't need to tell either right like no we played for lauren mulligan i don't think lauren mulligan all right just for uh right right right or wrong so i never experienced that i was certainly wasn't a in that belac realm of fighting but i never had a coach that was ever we're gonna make a connection here with uh with red again just

having a little bit of an issue not unlike the coffee boys had this morning with patrick maroon but we'll get rep back on uh be like it was an absolute gem uh if you ever got to to watch him you ever got to meet him you ever saw his interviews afterwards like it's funny too because i think we all had a giggle at j Middleton the other day after that Minnesota-Vancouver game. But, like, Wade Belak had that same kind of vibe about him. Laid back. All the guys loved him. Those types of players are loved, as we all know, by their teammates.

But Rhett's right, man. Like he just had like a really cool ease of comfort about him, even though he had the hardest job. Like I never know how those guys, and there aren't too many left and we all know that, but I always wondered how those guys would sleep the night before they knew they had a big one, right? The night before they knew they had a, they were going to fight right? The night before they knew they were going to fight. How they slept. Because there's only a few people that I've ever known that loved everything about it. Like Tony Twist was that guy. Tony Twist loved everything about fighting, right? Nothing bothered him, would shrug it off, not a big deal. Whether he was in junior and him and Link Gates fought about a bajillion times. Then when he was on St. Louis, he fought everybody about a bajillion times.

None of it ever really faced him. He sort of liked all of it. When you talk to a lot of other guys, they'll tell you the stories about how the sleepless nights and the pain and everything that came along with that position. Twist loved all of it. There's only a couple of guys, I think, really in the history of the game that loved everything about it. Tony Twist was one of those guys. We'll try to get right on here in a couple of moments. One of the things, by the way, as much as,

and we're going to talk about the Four Nations coming up in a couple of seconds. I look at Canada-USA, the way that they're built. And it's hard not to think back to the last time we saw Canada and the USA with two teams that were built this way, like an NHL way with a side dish of toughness. And we'll see what happens with injuries. Like Tom Wilson may end up on this team by February folks, the side dish of toughness.

And we think about the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and that great three-game final. Canada wins in Philadelphia in game one. USA wins in games two and three. Canada was up two to one with like four minutes left or five minutes left in the third game, going to win the World Cup. And then four goals in three or four minutes

by the United States. And Dave Stubbs with the great headline, Whoa, Canada. He would have been the editor of the Gazette at that time. But in that one, like we saw in international hockey, two teams fighting. I know we've seen that at the World Juniors in a couple of times. We think about 1987 and Gunter Sobetsky and turning the lights off. But you had, you know, Bill Guerin going at it with, who did he fight? Keith Primo. You had Claude Lemieux fighting Keith Kachuk, like legit. And the one thing that I

wonder about here, because you know, the guys are going to really be into it. Much to the chagrin of some NHL general managers and NHL owners who don't want to see their players get hurt. But would it surprise you, even though they're on the same NHL team, to see Matthew Kachuk fight Sam Bennett? Don't forget, you're putting on your country sweater. Would it surprise you if you saw that off the, even off the opening draw, even though they're on the same team? I wouldn't put it past either of those two guys. I think the game between USA and Canada is going to be outstanding right from the beginning. I think it's going to be physical.

I think it's going to be tough. It'll probably be the best game of the round robin. And, you know, I was having a conversation with someone this morning and we were talking about how a lot of this tournament was sort of pushed forward by players like Sidney Crosby after they weren't allowed to go to the Olympics during the last cycle because of the pandemic, they were quite vocal. And Crosby's never really vocal about controversial things, but he was vocal about this one. Like I can still recall back in the 94, 95 lockout, the only controversial thing that Wayne Gretzky did is he grew a goatee. I was like, why he's got a goatee? Okay. Doesn't want to look marketable, I guess, at the time. But Crosby was vocal about this one.

Crosby was like, you know, we want to play international hockey. And one of the things, and this really struck me. I'm like, wow, that's so true. Okay. World Cup of Hockey. What was the one team? All the games were in Toronto. What was the one team?

Man, I went to like every game. Those afternoon games were great. What's the one team that captured everybody's imagination? Team North America. I remember talking to John Cooper, who coached the team. And I asked him, like he said, Stanley Cup teams, Calder Cup teams, like all of it. John Cooper's done like everything. I said, what was your favorite team? And he said, Team North America. And I was talking to someone this morning who brought up the great point. He said like, these guys haven't played

outside of like the odd world championship. They haven't played best on best international hockey. And now they're all like 27, 28 years old. I'm like, holy shit. Like that's true. Like all those guys from team North America are closer to 30 than they are 20. We've got Rhett back. Rhett,

thanks for putting up with the technical issues. We're talking about Lorne Mullican and Wade Bielak and the Saskatoon. The one thing I've always loved about the Saskatoon Blades, much like the new Westminster Bruins before them, they always had a tough team. They always, always had a tough team. And if you fast forward now to the NHL and you look at tough teams, the one that jumps off the page are the driver to dump extra water on the ice and just turn it into a slushie and slow down. You're laughing because you know it's true. Things like that. It certainly didn't hurt you. Yeah, we played them in May, I think. That's in the semifinals, maybe early June.

I can't really remember. But in Florida, regardless of whether it was May or June, it was so bloody hot. Yeah. And the humidity that the ice was terrible. It was very helpful against skilled players. Put a little extra water in there. Put a little something extra in your envelope, Mr. and Mrs. Zamboni driver. We really appreciate that.

But what was that? Before we go to this edition of the Florida Panthers, what are your takeaways from that? First of all, 96 was an incredible run. You know, what's still in the brain cells for you from 96 oh just i mean anytime a team goes on a run you you always hear close team close team and we were one of those teams the basis of that team was a bunch of cast offs and they were kind of Roger Nielsen had been there and had a major imprint on how that team could play defensively. There wasn't even a, like, if you say you play the trap now, the guy's like, Oh man, that's terrible hockey. And it was like, we play the trap. I remember my first training camp, get on the ice and the puck dumps

into the the other team's end and scott melonby's like trap trap play the trap trap it up trap it i'm like what is this trap system then i realized i didn't have states and i absolutely fell in love with it so it was it was really good for me it was a real compliment but roger nielsen had implemented that defense first system. And then Beezer was on the top of his game. And Roger left. Doug McLean came in. Brian Murray came in.

And they knew that eventually there had to be some youth added to the roster. And lucky for me, Ed Jovanovsky was going to make the team as the first overall pick. And he needed a sidekick. So I kind of got nominated as that guy. And then Rob Niedermeyer was there. Braddock Dvorak made the team. So they were trying to implement a few young guys. People forget and maybe don't recognize it, and maybe it's because you couldn't even get the games.

Like my first game, my parents couldn't find it. So it's a different area. You can watch on your phone now but ed jovanovsky we went into philly in round two we we beat boston in round one in round two we were up against the legion of doom and they were they were intimidating but ed jovanovsky absolutely owned Lindros in that series. It was the first time that I'd seen, or I think maybe anyone had seen, Lindros get smacked around. And it was Jovo doing it on a regular basis.

And it pissed the Flyers off to no end. So Jovanovsky stepped up. We had a defensive system that was really good. Beezer was on his game and lights out. We played some tough teams. We had to beat Philly. One of my proudest things is playing the last game in the spectrum. Double overtime.

Mike Huff beats Ron Hextall to score or to win it. Then we had to go up against one of the most talented teams maybe ever in Pittsburgh with Lemieux, Jager, Francis, the whole thing. But that Colorado team we ran into at the end, oh boy, we were a little outmatched and a little outmanned and they were next level. We weren't going to beat them at all.

There was a, I want to ask you about Patrick Waugh because one of my favorite hockey pictures, I've got a lot of like favorite, like pictures that always be with me, like Borilko 51 taken by Nat Tarofsky. One of the great hockey photographer, the Tarofsky brothers were fantastic. Nat Tarofsky took that shot and Jerry McNeil's flying back and Rocket Richard has got his mouth open and Borrello coach diving through the air. Like it's a, it's a beautiful moment of time because the puck hasn't yet gone in and it's a perfect slice because the fans haven't jumped up yet. Is that, that I'm in love with like the moment before the moment,

like that split second right before the thing happens. So it's a perfect, to me, that is the perfect hockey photograph. But also up there is a picture of patrick waugh from that series with the avalanche and it's after your panthers scored a goal and you remember like rats are hitting the ice rats are hitting this and goalies would either go in the net to hide or just try to get out of the way of the rats and there's patrick waugh in his creeds and you know he uses it all for like fuel just standing there getting pelted by rats getting angrier and he's not hiding in the creek he's like he's i'm not hiding the net like f you not a chance and he's sitting there taking it what was it like going i mean there's a murderous sack what was it like playing i mean there's a murderous sack what was it like playing against

the abs in 96 well you can say intimidating but it's almost the wrong word like i said we went into pittsburgh and played a very very very very very talented team and and then we went and played colorado and it was just the next level. They were fast, they were gritty, and the goaltending was second to none, obviously, with Wah there. We didn't lose too bad in game one. We got absolutely snot-bubbled in game two, and it was a feeling that you're like, what do we got to do? I remember Scott Mellenby had a headache.

We got swept in that series. In game three, Mel had a wide open net and Wah came across and made one of those saves that only he can make. And you were like, it's kind of like that. Remember that show, the perfect storm where they think they're going to get out of that,

out of that storm. And then he was like, it's not going to let us go. That's how it felt. It was like, we're not getting out of this storm. And then he's like, it's not going to let us go. That's how it felt. It was like, we're not getting out of this one. These guys are just too dialed in and too good to beat. Hell of a run though, man. And if only, if only who's coaching in Montreal had pulled Dwa after five goals instead of leaving him in there.

Or maybe you had a chance. goals instead of leaving them in there for the ninth win. Or maybe you'd have had a chance. Or if they just would have done the original deal, which was Patrick Waugh for Ed Belfort, one for one, and sent him to Chicago, and then Belfort would have gone to Montreal. You would have kept Patrick Waugh away from Colorado.

It would have been Jocelyn Thiebaud in there. It wouldn't have been Patrick Waugh. And who knows who wins the Colorado-Detroit series, because that was pretty epic itself. Yep. Those were some good times. Right.

One. And now when you look at the Florida Panthers today, you know, like I've had so many, I'm sure you have as well. So many talks about like, how do you beat the Florida Panthers in the playoffs? It's almost like,

you know, they used to talk about the Philly flu where guys would get all suddenly get sick before playing Philadelphia. Oh, I can't play today. Coach. Ah, you know,

I pulled someone practice. i don't know the only team that really intimidates you that way where you still have the philly flu are the florida panthers like do we have like a florida flu now like they're just a nasty bit of business to play right like bannock and chuck or up and down the lineup it feels like that's what i was gonna say it doesn't feel like it's a it's a one person or one guy you know it it does feel like a team identity thing and i think that's what what makes them so good is the fact that they all buy into that when you get teams to buy into an identity then it becomes real and it really and it becomes something and it's something the other teams have to overcome and then the other side they're still talented enough you know we can we can we're gonna score and play what yeah offensive too like it's

not like we're only one dimensional we have to just beat you up we're gonna rub your face in it but we're gonna we'll make some real nice plays too and they have the finnish bergeron in in alexander barkoff like at the end like it's kind of like in that ways, it's kind of like Boston. Like there's like, there's like thugs on the ice. And then there's like one of the classiest guy, like Bergeron, they really stood out amongst these monsters on Boston. Cause he's like, you know, the classy two way, the gentleman player, the, the modern Jean Beliveau and Florida kind of has that as well. And Barkoff.

They do. And again, I still don't think even after winning and going to the finals two years in a row, I still don't think that people understand how impactful he is. And it'll come. But for me, yeah, you're going to build your team around a guy like that. The other thing as an alumni, I'm just glad that the team is relevant again. There was a long, long era of, of irrelevance and disdain for that franchise. I'm just glad that it's gotten back to a place where they're competitive. People enjoy it. I mean, there's no better place to play. You go down to Florida, you've got the great taxes, the sun. It's just a wonderful spot.

The fact that they're back and relevant as an alumnus is a great thing for us. You've got Sawgrass Mall across the street. You've got a P.F. Chang's and hang out with some chow. Why not? Let me ask you about a special night in Calgary. Trying to get Joe Knight. The score doesn't matter. 3-0 Calgary. That's great. That wasn't even secondary or tertiary. That was so far low down that it didn't really matter. Everybody has different grief process for tragedy in their lives, whether it's an individual, whether in this case it's a team, whether in this case it's a fan base, whether in this case it's a city. It was one of the most perfect nights of hockey love that I think we've ever seen. Columbus did a great job at nationwide too. But like, that was as far as putting together a perfect night where you hit all the right notes, not just on the ice, but you know,

Guy Goudreau in the dressing room after and the first star and bless you, Pat Steinberg for doing that. And Ryan Leslie, who was friends with Johnny Goudreau himself, holding it together to do beautiful interviews with the mayor of the show on the tattoo. Such a beautiful thing as well. What were some of your takeaways from Johnny Goudreau night at the Saddle Dome? Well, it's kind of like you said, the game was irrelevant. You could have sat and listened to...

In a way, I wish they'd just give each team a point and said we're going to sit here and listen to stories about johnny yeah he was so well beloved you have to say it it's beloved not well liked he was beloved in this town and and a lot of it came from his well his personality his on ice stuff was special right you see him scooting around and he's that little guy and it's like how is he doing this in the best league in the world shouldn't be able to he's never been in a gym and he's out there dominating hockey games making plays that nobody else can but for me it was his personality and his personality and the fact that he just liked being at the rink he liked being at the rink he liked having fun he liked goofing around i went coached the the what do they call it the the the skills competition the one day

down at the rink and i hadn't really been around him before he was pretty young new to the team i don't know if it was first year or second year but you could tell already that he wasn't taking it too serious not that he wasn't invested or that it didn't matter to him then in this instance it was it was just a skills competition but you could tell he was the guy that made the guys realize let's enjoy what we're doing we get to go to the rink we get to have fun we get to get paid to play this game we might as well enjoy it all we can you got guys and it's not a slight that take it real serious and you almost lose sight of the fact that this is a game and the more you enjoy being at the rink the the better you're going to be at it i

think that's what johnny brought to that team and to this city you didn't see him moping around or pissed off about everything. He loved playing hockey and it was infectious. It was infectious for his teammates, his coaches, the management and the city. And that's part of the reason he was so, again, beloved in this place. Still maintain. I'm curious your thoughts on this one one i still maintain he was one of the toughest players in the game there's two types of toughness there's imposing your toughness on someone else and then there's enduring punishment and i mean right you were right there how many times that guy get chopped in the hands how many times again that guy get chopped on the wrists right and still like skated through it you know know, there's a, there's the old hockey cliche. A small player has to prove that he can play in a big player has to prove

that he can't Johnny Goudreau went out there every single game and got chopped and whacked and slashed and punched and prove that he can play the game. Like I thought to me, that type of toughness in a lot of ways is more impressive than just punching someone in the mush. And I think he did it because he loved playing. Yeah. You know what I mean? I think that he sucked all that up.

I don't know that he loved getting slashed on the knuckle with those warrior gloves. No, he didn't want that part of it, but he loved being at the rink. He loved being part of the game. Because that didn't just start in the NHL. Oh, yeah. Right? He's been dealing with that, playing that type of toughness that you're talking about his whole life,

his whole career. Cause he's been the same size. He's been the small guy. He's had to overcome the, the cheap little shots that those guys have to play with and play through. And he did it cause he loved playing and he enjoyed it. And if you didn't you'd have quit when you were younger ah we're freezing on red again oh oh i'm gone again we got we got your

we got your audio okay you got audio we got audio keep rolling man we still got your audio your voice yeah there we go there we go he just He would have given up if he didn't love playing. And that just talks about his enjoyment of the game and his toughness. And you're speaking of toughness, I think it's a combination of things where those two things go hand in hand. It was a beautiful night. Let me leave you on this question. So the Coffee Boys this morning had Pat Maroon on. Pat's on every week, and he's always awesome.

One of the questions they asked was, you know, you're not going to be playing in the Four Nations. Will you be watching it? I am curious from a player's point of view. I guess there are some guys that will watch everything. We know like players like Mark Shifley, end of the season, doesn't matter. He's glued to every single game. He's a 24-7 dyed-in-the-wool hockey guy. Some players need some detachment.

Some players need some separation. There's no right way to do this as a hockey player. But what do you think players who aren't playing are doing? Are they watching? Do they have their sandals on? I think that's the key right there is what you just said. Where do they go for vacation? Because if you've gone a fair distance and the time change is off, you're probably not going to check it out.

And the other thing, do you have teammates on it? If you've got personal friends and teammates that are playing on those teams, yeah, you're going to pay more attention. I don't know what team doesn't have anyone that's playing in this. Seattle and Washington. Seattle and Washington are the only two teams. Yeah, so they're going to have less vested interest in paying attention to this competition.

So if you've got teammates on, you're probably going to pay attention. Max Afinaganov won a bronze medal in, it must have been Salt Lake City city in Utah, those Olympics. You paid attention for that, right? Like I paid attention. I also paid attention because Joe Banosky was on team Canada, but if you have a personal connection, you'll pay more attention. But I'll tell you this, if you've got 10 guys and families or couples that have gone on a vacation,

you've got something planned. You can watch it on rewind, right? Like you can, you video on demand. Maybe we won't just sit down and make some popcorn. We will watch it at our convenience. Okay. So I lied.

So I do have one more question then for you, because you talked about teammates and watching teammates. How about when teammates play against each other in this thing? And there's two that I'm thinking of specifically, and I vividly remember how great 96 was at the World Cup and watching Kachuk and Lemieux and Primo and Guerin, and it was awesome. Let's just say Matthew Kachuk and Sam Bennett saddle up next to each other.

Could you see them going for it? Teammates in the NHL, Sam Bennett, Matthew Kachuk. You know them both. I think you could see them going for it. But part of the reason they could go for it is because they have the right personality. They're okay with going on the ice and leaving it all out there and not going to kick your ass. And then afterwards goofing and laughing about it. So I think you got to have

the guys with the right personalities if they're going to go at it on the same team, but it certainly happens. You there's, there's guys that have done it before that were best of friends and still had to have a go on the ice. But I could see those two guys, especially if, if you get into the heat of the battle you don't want to i don't care i'm gonna win i don't care you know what i almost think that it might happen like opening face off before the game like this is like just established territory like this is how we're gonna do this this is like you know uh you know getzlaff and joe thornton you know back and then something like that you know what i mean My concern with some of it, and I don't know what to think of the tournament.

I'll watch it and be excited. But yeah, you reference the 96. I watched that. I was enthralled with it. The kids and the players cross paths so much more nowadays. It feels like that there's more friendships, you know, you're talking about Bennett and Kachuk. There's probably other guys that are closer friends or just as good of friends on Finland and Sweden or whatever it might be. Right. Just through,

through, through coming through the game, we, you know, we're, we're bringing up Bennett and Kachuk cause they play on the same team and that would be pretty unique, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's guys out there that are going to battle each other hard, and they're best of friends off the ice. Like, they cross paths so much that there is a lot of friendships that are built. Or maybe sometimes in tournaments like this, you find out who really doesn't like one another, and maybe USA Sweden might have a little bit of spice to it because of that.

We shall see. Rhett, you're a beauty. Always a pleasure being on with you. Continued success with Barn Burner. Got us a great property we have here at The Nation Network. Thanks as always for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your day. And we had a couple of people in the chat, Singzy specifically commenting, saying great fridge, Rhett.

It's the Christmas season. we're ready to go we have a christmas show that kind of gets out of hand sometimes so feel free to check that out appreciate you having me on joe all right thank you the great rat warner uh check him out on barn burner uh just like that is one of like the most love shows uh that we offer here at the Nation Network. Thanks to Rhett Warner for stopping by. Every Thursday here, by the way, on The Sheet. And Sheetheads, I see you. I want that Merrick from Brian D.

Oh, take that up with Rhett. Take that one up with Rhett. Every week we're going to have someone from the Nation Network and Daily Faceoff, please do yourself a favor and check out a lot of the different offerings that we have. We have personalized shows for individual teams. We have general interest hockey shows as well, whether it's daily face off live whether it's morning cup of hockey which i always go on and on and on about but that's my daily stop that's my jam um please check out a lot of the things that we have going on here at the nation network all right zach uh before we had that delightful conversation with rhett warner where did we leave off as far as

topics go for the day i actually am gonna interject and interject and I'm going to give you a new one. We have some new news here from at Batch Hockey on ex-Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Canucks on Sportsnet 650. He tweeted two minutes ago, Thatcher Demko said, I'm at a point now where I could potentially have a discussion with Hawk and be able to back up

or what have you between now and the next three games said it before like when you have a healthy thatcher demko you have one of the best goaltenders in the league period and one of the great things about the vancouver canucks is they don't have to chase the big position you know if you're at Rutherford, Patrick Galvin, as long as Demko is healthy, you have the big positions covered and then you color in and you fill in all around that. You've got one of the best goaltenders in the NHL. At times, he is the best goaltender in the NHL and Thatcher Demko. you have Quinn Hughes, who still continues to get better and better and better. And one of the things that I absolutely love about Quinn Hughes, and we see a lot of players do this,

Crosby did this with face-offs in his career, quickly identify what you're bad at or sort of quickly identify what's not at your elite standard of your game and work to get better at it. And now all of a sudden, because what was the one knock on Quinn Hughes? Ah, fires muffins, not a shooting threat. What did he spend the whole summer doing? All of a sudden now, outside of like wheeling and edge work and finding seams and being a great distributor on the power play, all of a sudden Quinn Hughes is also now a shooting threat. And then you have Elias Pettersson, whose game is starting to come around. And you also have, when he's healthy, and we hope to see him back in the lineup sooner than later, JT Miller.

And you have a high-end coach in Rick Tockett as well. Like, you've got the power positions covered. And then if you're Rutherford Alveen, it's your job just to color around that as best you can good news for Thatcher Demko let's go kind of on the topic of the Canucks here I do also want to bring up some of the JT Miller discourse we talked about it you brought up the Rangers with the other day and what they could potentially be doing. And now it seems like it blew up, whether it's just fans or media, whatever, pushing stuff and wanting to have conversations. But JT Miller seemed like a guy that was suddenly just automatically returning to New York, but

that doesn't really seem to be the case anymore, does it? I don't think so. Like, listen, at times, like you can recall a few years ago, like his name was out there and they were talking. What was the Penguins discussion? Penguins discussion was two of the primaries would have been Marcus Pedersen and Kasperi Kapanen going back, but they were talking about it. But the thing is, I never believe that when a GM says, no, we're not going to trade this guy, I think what the manager is really saying is there's no one right now that's available that we trade him for. You know, like if, I don't know, I'm just going to pull a couple in. If the Islanders turned around and said, hey, we'll give you Matthew Barzal and Ilya Sor ilia sorokin for jt miller does that turn your head does that capture your attention like again the old cliche

is you know gretzky got traded so anybody can get traded i don't think they want to trade jt miller i think he's one of the most unique players in the game i think if you have someone like that you hold on to them as sacred but i don't believe for a second that no one is 100% completely outside of the elites of the elite, elite, elite, your Crosby's, McDavid's, McKinnon's, et cetera, completely untouchable. All depends on what the, on what the offer is, but it doesn't, Brotherford was pretty, you know, emphatic. We're not doing anything with JT Miller right now. We want him back on this team uh i also wanted to ask you about the rangers and obviously that ties in there but i'm gonna let the chat spice this up for fun oh geez rangers obviously gonna be working around uh we heard okay you know what they're gonna be active elliot was on the nhl network talking

about that himself earlier today jd in the chat. Jeff, are you ready for this one? Okay. I'm going to spice it up a bit. Oh, geez. Brady Kuck bought a beachfront lot in New Jersey and his home is 75% complete. His in-laws live in the town just south of it in Minnesotan. Could Brady be headed to the New York Rangers?

I love the chat. I love the chat. Listen, fantasy trades like listen man this is this is this is rocket fuel for sports talk radio um i get it i understand it um if i'm the ottawa senators just the same thing i said about jt miller like you have such a unique hockey player skill toughness i know brady can get a little snappy sometimes. I get it. And I know sometimes fans kind of win-saddle a little bit,

like, okay, here we go again. But, you know, as Peter DeBoer once told me when he coached the Kitchener Rangers and they traded for Steve Downey, and I said, what the hell are you doing bringing in Steve Downey? He's wild, he's crazy. It's penalty suspensions.

He said, listen, I'm a head coach. Like, I'd rather have to tame a tiger than paint stripes on a kitty cat um you have someone like brady kachuk it takes it would take a humongous trade to get the ottawa senators even to listen to that one i don't know i have a bias towards the kachuks i I love them both. Two of the best players and hardest competitors in the NHL. I don't let either of those two guys go. I know that Matthew Kachuk did a really good job positioning himself to, to leaving and go where he wanted. But if I'm the Ottawa Senator, it's not, not a chance. I know we can always play that. Where do they,

where do they have real estate? You know, where, where are they spending their off seasons um listen a lot of guys spend the off season in florida or in arizona um but yeah i wouldn't read too much into that necessarily now watch you know the show goes off the air in 405 there's rangers and dueling press releases from the senators and the new york rangers but uh man there's no way if I'm Ottawa, I'm, I'm building around Brady Kachuk. I'm not moving. I'm not a chance. Yeah, no, I love the Kachuks as well. I do love the fantasy trade stuff and you know,

I'm one who can get locked up easily in that stuff. You know what? No, listen, he's got the house there. Like, there you go. It's, it's, it's fun. Like, honestly, it's part of sports conversation. I know that players get sensitive about it and you can, managers will say this and coaches will say, oh, my players don't want to read this. But here's the other thing about it. All these NHL players are also fans of other sports and they talk about players in those other sports the same way that fans talk about them in hockey.

So like, let's, let's, let's not pretend like it's, it's a reality of, of sports. other sports the same way that fans talk about them in hockey. So like, let's not pretend. Like it's a reality of sports. I mean, complicating all of it are the no trade clauses. And if you look up and down the Rangers lineup, it's hot and cold running no trades or limited no trades. You know what? Brian Burke's going to be on the show tomorrow.

Brian's going to be with us every week here on the show. So Brian has always made the point that you would be surprised how many Canadian players have all Canadian teams listed on their no trade that they don't want to play in Canada. A couple of things. One, it's crazy. And it takes a really special kind of player, right? It takes a real special player to like embrace playing in Canada

where it's like 24-7 hockey. Some guys just don't want that, okay? I get it. It's fine. The other thing is, I mean, we talked about with Rhett, we just talked about the taxation in Florida. Always consider this. As a player, you have a finite amount of time

to make the most money you're ever going to make and set up your entire family. Your family, your family's family, your family's family, all of it. Set them up for life. You have, like, if you're lucky, 10 years to do it. You want to put yourself in a situation where you're putting as much money in your jeans as possible. in your genes as possible. So I don't necessarily a lot of times think that it's a slight against their hometown, home province, home country,

as much as it is just the reality of like, look at the end of the day, I'm taking care of my family. Like, so I'm gonna position myself to make my millions of dollars in a no tax state, thank you very much and stick it in my genes. I get it. Is this a recent phenomenon? Is this still something going on my millions of dollars in a no tax state. Thank you very much. And stick it in my jeans. I get it. Is this a recent phenomenon? Is this still something going on or is this something that's being phased out though? Is the only thing I would push back on there, the Canadian players with no,

like Canadian teams on their no trade list. Is that, and obviously maybe we look at it right now and that's still the case, but is this something that's happening less? And the reason I ask is because ability for endorsement deals. Players further down the lineup become more important, more popular, et cetera, than maybe you would in other markets in the States and get other opportunities that you wouldn't there. Excellent question. The one market that stands out where your sponsorship opportunities and things you can do outside the game are at its highest is Toronto.

Like everyone's talked about, if you're successful in Toronto, if you can help this hockey team ever win a Stanley Cup, statues. And, you know, the conversation revolves around like, you know, is this bridge high enough for the floats to fit under? Like, that's the nature of the conversation if you're successful in Toronto, right? And then all of a sudden, like, I'll tell you, man, here's another thing too. For players that are interested in legacy, and I believe that Austin Matthews, good to see him back in a nice game against the Blackhawks yesterday. I believe that Austin Matthews is interested in legacy. I don't know that he finishes his career in Toronto. Still in the back of my mind, I still think that he finishes it at some point with Los Angeles. But I think here's a guy that understands legacy and his position in the game. And you look at what happens when you're successful in Toronto, what happens to you at that building at Yonge and Front Street, which we refer to as the Hockey Hall of Fame. Like, go look at, I always encourage people to do this, if you want to get a sense of just how larger than life you become if you're successful in Toronto,

go look at the 1967 team. Okay? Go look at the 1967 Leafs, the last Maple Leafs team to win the Stanley Cup, and look how many guys are in the hall. to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. There's a ton that are in the H hall of fame do they all belong there discuss amongst yourselves if you're successful like and you're concerned about legacy and i really do believe that

matthews is big place to do it new york 100 montreal absolutely toronto yeah um matthew 100% Montreal, absolutely. Toronto. Yeah. Matthew Capfer in the chat there says, no, look at St. Louis. Robert Thomas is making a killing on his auto loan pro commercials. That's probably fair. Hey man, St. Louis is good now. I can concede to that.

What are they like? Were they 3-0-1-1 with Montgomery? Kairou's firing, Neighbors is firing, Dylan Holloway's firing. Like they look is firing. Dylan Holloway's firing. Like, they look good. St. Louis Blues look good. They look fun. They look like a fun team right now.

Montgomery is a very good coach that didn't take long for him to get snapped up there in St. Louis. No surprise at all there. What else we got today? I have one more thing for you on Four Nations. I think that this was a fun little interaction that actually ended up being handled the right way this involves jewel farabee uh yesterday the announcements come out right that the uh the rosters get released

yeah and naturally with every team there's going to immediately be some questioning. Why is this guy? Why is this guy not? Et cetera, et cetera. Well, one of the guys was Travis Sandheim, who was under scrutiny from JFresh on Twitter, who tweeted, the one pick for Canada that does actually kind of confuse me is Sandheim. He's a good player.

He's having a good year, playing a lot of minutes, but I wouldn't consider him an amazing defender. He's not that physical, et cetera. What am I missing? Joel Farabee, currently on the Flyers, quote tweets it and just says, watch a game. I would love this.

I saw it right away. I liked it. I'm like, this is awesome, man. Like you get involved. Can I tell you, like I thought wrongly, most of my thoughts are wrong. I thought wrongly that by now we would see more of this athlete fan interaction. I know teams kind of get like about it.

Like that's our fan base. Like that's a ticket buyer. I know, you know, teams can act right. Like you have to keep everybody happy about your team. Don't pick fights with the fans, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I thought by now we'd see more of this. Like I remember when, who would it have been? Probably Don Maloney in Arizona freaked out when Paul Bissonette discovered Twitter.

Remember like the original days of Biz Nasty? Yes. And how Arizona like- Biz Nasty 2.0. Right? Like they lie. But I said to myself, okay, this is the beginning of something because you're never going to get it. You're not going to get the toothpaste back.

This is going to be it. And you're going to see like all of a sudden there's going to be that breakdown where players say, you know what? I don't need to talk to media. I'll just talk to my fans here. I'll just use Twitter. I'll just talk to my fans. All my messages will go out and media by its definition is, you know, the, the, the, the, the middle ground between, for the is, you know, the, the, the, the, the middle ground between for the purposes of this conversation, the, the, the players and the fans or the

team and the fans and what Twitter does or any social media is breaks down those walls. I'm kind of surprised that we haven't seen more of it by now, to be honest with you with players, just like going at fans or like i i do you never think like i always imagine like what would i be like if i played in the nhl not like on the ice because i know i'd be awful like okay knock need skater get off the ice overhandle a puck around your net but i always wonder like what would i be like in interviews because i want to say that i just like have fun and goof around like hey nice tie guy or like uh someone asks you a question say i don't know what do you think and spin it right back to the reporter but i don't know but i i do know that on social media

i'd probably be a problem if i was an athlete i'd be so tempted like how could you not yeah right like there's a there's a there's a lot Right? Like, there's a lot of players that have burner accounts. And I've got a lot of white whales. Like, people that I want to find, things that I want to find. Apparently, Crosby's got one. And I know someone from, they used to play with him who knows what it is, but he won't tell me. But Crosby does have a burner, is what I'm told. And a lot of guys do.

Let me ask you this then. You think he's liking and retweeting, or is he strictly there to just monitor? I think he's probably there to monitor. Yeah. Because here's the thing. Remember Kevin Durant? Yeah, oh yeah.

He was involved. That was a different kind of burner situation. But the thing is, I thought that by now we see more players doing this. And whether it's like taking a poke or enlightening or explaining or having a joke, like Biz did back in the early days when he was playing, I thought we'd have more of it by now. But I think, I think to, to cross to the point about Crosby, because the thing about Crosby is like, he, he wants to know everything that's going on. Like his brain is programmed just to receive

info, info, info, info about all of it. And that includes the stories around him, the stories around the penguin, like all of that. that i really want to i will ask you this that's your job by the way by the end of the week have something on my desk at 9 a.m zach yeah i'll give you the weekend but i'll give you okay yeah okay thanks before we get off this topic i will ask you uh on the spot if there was one player let's keep it nhl if there's one player that you could pick that you would have you wish you could have seen what they would have been like on social media if they could have just had free reign when they were playing or while they were playing currently who's that player i'm glad you asked this this is unrehearsed by the way yeah this guy i hope gump worsley gump worsley was the original

biz nasty and this is one of my favorite i'm going to do a lot of stuff on books here on the program gump worsley was the og paul bissonette to the point where as he when he when he wrote this book this is i always encourage people to try to find this one i know some it's out of print for a long time sometimes it's really expensive i found it like a used bookstore for like two bucks i've seen it as much as like four or five hundred because it's been out of print for so long but the way that's uh like in in the book he has like he um he uh he, oh, here's one. Here's what he does in the book.

He has a list of the biggest cheaters in the game. The biggest clubhouse lawyers. Okay. Leo Reese was one of the biggest lawyers I ever saw operate. And he never went to law school either. I was with the Rangers when they got him from Detroit in the fifties. He was a big gruff defenseman who immediately insisted on running everything. He was the oldest player, but usually would wait a bit after joining a new club before you start,

start throwing your weight around and then goes on to just run the guy down and just like insult him. And then, and then here's the best part. He lists all the places and all the Canadian, all the NHL markets where he goes drinking. Los Angeles, the Ramada Inn, Oakland, Sam's Hoff Brow, Vancouver, Devonshire Seafood House, El Vagabondo in New York, Danny's Haven in Long Island, Sinatra's in Buffalo. These are all the places I go and get buckled when I'm on the road. This book, Zach, I'm so glad you got it.

This book is a delight. This book is a treasure. And I've always maintained this book is hockey Twitter before there was hockey Twitter. Lorne Gump Worsley, all day long. Find this book, folks. Put it on your shelf. It is one of my favorites. I cherish it. I hold it sacred like a newborn, Zach. That's how much I think of that one. How about you? Do you have someone that you wish were on Twitter back in the day? I mean, back in the day.

Back in the day for you is like Alexander McGilney. Yeah, seriously. I don't know. I'm reading some of the ones from the chat, and I think that these are pretty good. I would have a hard time saying no to these. I think you would agree with them. Patrick Waugh, Ty Domi Hunter says,

there was a few different format Barnaby. There is. Oh, since he's been to Danny's Haven one things, he says been to Danny's Haven. So you drank where, where a Gump Worsley drank. Sing Z. Good job,

bud. There you go. Bruce or Vicks giving me crap. Cause my generational gap is showing. He says, Ed Belfour. Oh yeah. Eddie was great his son i watched his son play i watched his when i was in winkler at hockey day in canada i watched his son dane play his son was a pretty good goalie too dane dane belfor sean avery's another one in the chat there i will follow you says

yeah those are all good like my immediate one was ronick that was the first time i thought about but yeah but then like twitter's existed for jeremy ronick though like you need the guys that like that that died off before twitter was in existence it's fair have you ever known hang on you want to really do hey vic watch this you want to really do a generation gap between between us two do you know a world without twitter uh yes actually but that's so early on that it was like i think i was in grade nine when i got twitter i remember asking my mom do you think it's okay if i make an account on this app she's like i don't even know what that is go for it like sure but yeah i think it's grade nine yeah claude lemieux on the chat big willie style danny heatley he is by the way like that guy's like so legit funny danny heatley

so oh yeah there's another like white whale to get on the uh to get on the program you ever get danny heatley on the program zach take the rest of the week off. I'd love to get that. I will do what I can. I've asked so many times. So many different shows. Nah. Nah. Oh, Patrick. You know what?

Pat M. Dave Semenko. Dave Semenko, one of the wittiest of all time. So one of my favorite stories to tell is one that Marty McSorley told me. So Marty goes to Edmonton from Pittsburgh. Young kid, gunslinger, want to fight all the time. I think I told this story on Ice Guardians. And Semenko's in the room too with the Edmonton Oilers.

And Marty's like, yeah, we're going to do it. We're going to fight every day. We're going to fight every day. We're going to fight every day. And Dave's like, nope, we're not doing it today. Nope, we're not going to do it today. Nope, we're not going to fight every day. We're going to fight every day. We're going to fight every day. And Dave's like, nope, we're not doing it today. Nope, we're not going to do it today. Nope, we're not going to. And Dave had this like really big, deep voice.

And this happens like five or six games in a row and like nothing. So Marty's getting like, come on, come on, come on, come on. And one day he said, he comes into the room and Dave's taping up his wrists. the room and Dave's taping up his wrists. And he says this, Marty, every now and then we must remind them. And tonight we're going to remind them. That was Dave Semenko. None of it was like, yeah, man, we're going to go beat the crap out of these. I had nothing like that. Like he liked, Dave always called this witty goon talk. Okay. Like, let me, let me, let me, let me leave on this one. Oh, Dave, Dave killer Carlson. That's a good one too. Reggie Dunlop. So Dave,

Dave's witty goon talk. He would, when he wanted to fight someone, he'd saddle up next to them on the wing. And normally we've seen this before. Like we're going to go at the drop of the puck, barking at each other, slash the shin pads, all that stuff. What Dave would do is he would get in the guy's ear. And like Zach, like Dave was like tough, like king of the jungle for a lot of years. He'd get in their ear and he'd say,

why don't you and i go for a little canoe ride and then dead it was like oh my god like it's like a horror movie the call is coming from inside the house why don't you and i go on a little canoe ride? As a matter of fact, here's something for you. So before I did, like I was doing MVSW with Wyshynski. And then that pod stopped because he went to ESPN and I was working Rogers and that wasn't going to happen. And then, but before we, before Elliot and I started doing the pod, I was down the road a little bit with a pod we were putting together. It was going to be me and Tyler Delo, who then was writing MC79 Hockey, who's now the assistant GM of the Carolina Hurricanes. So it was me and Delo and Chris Johnston was going to be the podcast that we did.

And Delo's idea, and it was a great one we got to call a canoe ride we got to call a canoe ride in honor of dave semenko of the edmonton oilers and now everybody's got now dello's like a big shot with the hurricanes and blah blah i know they've lost like three games whatever a big shot with carolina now uh all right the group of cheat heads and we've compiled i'm loving the chat today man this is fantastic they're awesome like yeah digging it man i think the the morning uh the coffee boys have an awesome chat and it's good to see some of the some of the people from that chat populating this uh chat the uh the sheet heads and that is growing on me and thank you to all the sheet heads

uh in the chat today uh thanks to zach as always for doing a bang up job and everybody here at the nation network um we're doing like a launch party tonight so off to that tonight that'll be a lot of In the chat today, thanks to Zach, as always, for doing a bang-up job, and everybody here at the Nation Network. We're doing a launch party tonight, so off to that tonight. That'll be a lot of fun. And then back here on the program, I do believe, Zach, that Berkey is aboard tomorrow. So get ready to get grumpy, everybody, because Brian Burke is aboard tomorrow. So grumpy stories. So look forward to that, finishing up each and every week here on the program. On behalf

of the entire crew. Oh, by the way, I do want to remind you before we sign off here. Bad host. Like, awful host. Bad, bad, bad. Oilers Nation Every Day, Jason Demers tomorrow. On Barn Burner, Darren Drager. On Leafs Morning, take Dylan Strom. Nice one.

Of the Washington Capitals. Is he coming in live? And then on to Karrison Price, Jeff Patterson, and some loser named Merrick. Looking forward to that and everything else we have on the network tomorrow. Thanks for joining me today on The Sheet. Back tomorrow, 3 o'clock Eastern at noon Pacific. We'll talk to you in 23-ish hours. Adjourned. Dark man, you try 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 that's gonna be fixed in my mind. I do want a record. I turned on the music. I do want a record. I turned on the music It's enough, enough I don't think you're sometimes losing Have been on the days that went wrong

If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it.

Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.