The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Red Wings Lock Up DeBrincat, Bowness Calls Out CBJ, and More ft. Jason Gregor & Rachel Kryshak

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

Alex DeBrincat is getting PAID! On today's episode of The Sheet, Jeff Marek is joined by Jason Gregor and Rachel Kryshak in studio to break down the biggest stories from around the NHL following a chaotic Frozen Frenzy night. Leading the conversation is the Detroit Red Wings reportedly finalizing a massive seven-year, $91 million contract extension with Alex DeBrincat. What does locking up another key piece of Detroit's core mean for the franchise's future? How does the deal impact Dylan Larkin, Simon Edvinsson, and the Red Wings' long-term plans? And what does it signal about the direction of the organization? The crew also recaps an unforgettable NHL Frozen Frenzy, with all 32 teams hitting the ice across 16 games! Connor Bedard makes his highly anticipated return to the Chicago Blackhawks as they attempt to turn around a disappointing start to the season, while the Philadelphia Flyers remain winless through eight games (0-5-3) after another crushing shootout loss to the Seattle Kraken. Meanwhile, the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers continue to establish themselves as early-season contenders, with Connor McDavid and company looking dangerous out of the gate. Plus, the rivalry between the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars reaches another level as Nathan MacKinnon and Roope Hintz drop the gloves in a heated Central Division showdown. Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Rick Bowness delivers a scathing assessment of his team following an embarrassing loss to the Florida Panthers, the Ottawa Senators get blown out by the St. Louis Blues, and plenty more headlines emerge from one of the busiest nights of the NHL season. Jeff Marek, Jason Gregor, and Rachel Kryshak break down all the latest NHL news, major contract developments, early-season surprises, and biggest takeaways from Frozen Frenzy on The SheetSHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!! 👍🏼Coca Cola: https://www.coca-cola.com/ca/en/offerings/coca-cola/hockey 👍🏼Sports Interaction: https://www.sportsinteraction.com/thesheet 👍🏼Taco Time: https://tacotimecanada.com/ 👍🏼Movember: https://movember.com/ 👍🏼DoorDash: https://www.doordash.com/en-CA Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I can do about three. I'm going to tell you what that means here in a couple of moments. Coming to you from the Sports Interaction Studio and official sports betting partner of the NHL, I can do about three games at the same time. I appreciate the frozen frenzy. I appreciate anything that brings an entire hockey community together because there are so few events on the calendar that do that.

The draft used to be that. It is no longer. So I appreciate any effort that tries to bring everybody together doing something all the same time in this case watching hockey games. I just can't do more than three and really only two at the same time. Zach, I don't know if you're the same way. I don't know you had to do a lot of Leafs commitments last night for After Darks. You paid attention a lot to that Utah Toronto game.

But I don't know, maybe it's just like you get a little bit older. You need to focus more on one, maybe two games at the same time. I do appreciate the time stagger. Love that part of Frozen Frenzy as I always do. but I find I can do three. I know there are people that can do like, Shana can do like seven or eight at the same time. She's a freak.

I swear she has more than two eyeballs. But how many can you do at the same time? Yeah, it's because you're old. No, I can't do that many either. I can flip back and forth, but putting on multiple games and seeing everything at the same time is a hard ask for me. I'd rather, I can't come away from those games.

and really definitively tell you what I saw from each of them. I could consume a lot of it and say, hey, here's the generics of what happened, but I couldn't really break down what happened in them. I'm more of a watch one game, flip to another game, watch that game for a bit,

go back to the other one and then kind of get that. So I could do two to three. I'm with you on that. Anything beyond that, I'm just consuming for the sake of consuming. I like the idea of having a day where, you know, all teams are playing.

We've got 16 games. I get it. But starting it at six makes it tricky. Like if you could start at like 12 or start at 1 o'clock, so you could just watch game after game, just as like a one day event where you just iron the couch with your ass for the whole day and just sort of check out. And I got to work today, hon.

I got to watch hockey games. That's more up my alley. Then here we go, starting at 6. And then we're going to finish off with San Jose in Boston. Yeah, I need more time to you, to your point. so I can understand what I just saw. Now, the other thing, too, is balance that off with following social media where people are constantly directing you to other games and other key moments all at the same time.

All I'm saying is, I don't know that I have the skills to do it as good as other people do. And Shane is specifically, Shannon Goldman, who's like dear friend of the program, she's incredible because she'll watch like all of it and tennis at the same time and be tweeting all at the same time. I swear she's like an octopus and she also has like 12 eyes. She's incredible. She's like the most amazing hockey sports watcher I've ever met in my life. Hands down. That's how I consume football.

But that is because I just enjoy watching football and turning in, tuning into football and seeing it, knowing what happened and moving on with my day. But if I was to watch football for the sake of did this team play well, how were there, you know, snap counts on this receiver, I would have not a single clue. in the world if I'm watching seven, eight games at a time. Yeah. The other suggestion I saw online yesterday, which I think it's an interesting thing to explore. I don't know how

viable it is to play 16 games every single time, but somebody on Twitter I saw, I wish I had saved the tweet. I saw I'm passing, but they brought up the idea of doing this biweekly or once a month and owning Tuesday night. Like the NBA and the NFL, they don't really take Tuesdays. Football is Monday, Thursday, Sunday. So you can sneak in between there. The NBA

doesn't necessarily have a night like that. If you could grab Tuesday and that's your night where hockey is on the entire afternoon, let's say. I think that's a pretty good idea to be able to own a night, whether it's twice a month, because once a week is not feasible. Let's be realistic. But if it's twice a month, if it's once a month, Tuesday night, Tuesday is hockey day, I think people can get on board with that. The NHL is essentially, like everybody in sports, everybody stays away from Mondays. It's right after the weekend, forget about it, Monday night football, good luck. Like, everybody wants to stay away from that.

In hockey, everybody wants to stay away from Fridays. Essentially, it's a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday sport. And really Saturdays is a Canadian phenomenon. by the late great hockey night in Canada, which still lives on through the PWHL. We should mention at the same time too. But it's never been one that's really embraced a Friday. Stateside Saturdays are tricky as far as television goes,

whereas in Canada, that's the night where everybody stays in to watch. I know all my American friends are like, you stay in on Saturday night. That's the night you go out. No, like everybody watches like hockey on Saturday night. And then you throw in the, the issue of arena availability and schedule, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and things get really tricky. My only point, really, off the top was I can manage three games at the same thing.

I can glance at three and comfortably come away with it saying, I got a good sense of what I just saw. Here, let's really make the lives of the NHL schedule makers and arena managers difficult. Jeff, I think 15 minutes isn't enough. I think we need somewhere between 20 to 25. That's the sweet spot of game separation. So let's move everything around like 20 minutes apart

because then you can at least hit a break in between. The other thing too is I like watching intermissions too. So I always feel guilty because I'm bouncing around. I'm like, I have no idea what they're talking about in the intermissions as well because you're just jumping from game to game to game to game. Anyhow, apropos of nothing. Talk about first-world problems. There are too many hockey games to watch.

But that is the frozen frenzy. And there's always storylines coming out of it. and then plunk the Alex DeBrinkech it contract in the middle of all of that, as we all sort of scramble to figure out what that all means. De Brinket's signing a seven-year extension with the Detroit Red Wings, $91 million. $13 million is the AAV on this one. And we're going to get into this with Jason Greger and also Rachel Krechak from ESPN who stops by towards the bottom of the hour.

So that's all to come here on the program. This fan moment is a presentation of Coca-Cola, Being a hockey fan is a commitment. We all know that. The superstitions, the chance, the pacing, the standing through overtime because sitting somehow feels wrong. Whether you're making the climb to the nosebleeds, rallying your section to start the wave, or keeping one eye on your game and another on the out-of-town scores, true fandom puts in the work. And every shift deserves an ice-cold Coca-Cola fan work is thirsty work.

Mentioning the Alex de Brinket contract. That's one of the things we're going to talk about plenty today. The other thing, which is interesting for a goaltender who's technically still a member of the Winnipeg Jets, although he's suspended for not reporting. And all indications are, I don't know that he's going to be reporting anytime soon, although one does wonder if it is inevitable. You know what tomorrow is? First payday.

Tomorrow is the first payday. So officially tomorrow is the first payday. So officially tomorrow is the first day that Connor Hallibuck misses out on a paycheck. And the sidebar to that is not only does the player miss the paycheck, but also the agent misses the pro-rated commission on the first pay period in the NHL. We should probably park some time today talking about Conor Hallibuck as that situation continues to get more and more. curious because on the one hand, we all know that I don't think he'd be exactly welcome back in Winnipeg. Look, they're chanting stew.

And Skinner's been a great story. Cole Perfetti continues to be a great story. Winnipeg won again last night. Perfetti looked fantastic. On the one hand, I don't know that he'd be necessarily welcome back, whether it's players, whether it's coaches, whether it's managers, whether it's owners of the Winnipeg Jets. but at the same time, if they're going to move Connor Hallibuck,

it seems as if teams are going to want to know that this guy is ready to play. And if he's not welcome back, how are you going to get him on the ice to play so you can move him? And the other thing, we were mentioning this on the program yesterday. Compare this with the Detroit Red Wings, where as much as the Red Wings would like to hit a home run with any Dylan Larkin trade, if they just hit a triple,

it's probably good enough. Right? Like they're not going to hit the tape measure home run where the outfielder doesn't even turn to look at the ball as it leaves, you know, not just over the fence, but out of the stadium. They're not going to hit that one. But a stand-up triple or even a sliding into third,

that's probably good enough. for the Dillanark and trade. But considering the sensitivity around Indy Connor Hellebuck deal and what you need to get back and how difficult it has been to get players to go to Winnipeg and to retain those players too,

I don't know that Kevin Shevoldeoff can afford just to hit a triple here. Like this needs to be a home run deal on a lot of levels and the level we talked about on the show yesterday was the cascade level that if this is in a home run, an absolute smash for the Winnipeg Jets, what does that mean for the other players on the team? So as much as, and we talked yesterday about the idea of suspending him further, if slash when he does go back to Winnipeg, who does that really help?

Right? You have to go on a conditioning stint, certainly. So it's some time in the American Hockey League. but then if you're going to suspend him further, and that I would imagine, considering the wording in it and the CBA is vague, that's going to have to be a discussion between the NHL and the Players Association.

And I don't think that they want to use up any negotiating capital over this. It probably won't be as significant as some people may want. And then you can make the argument, it shouldn't be. If the goal is to trade them, just get them in, get them to game shape, get them some starts, teams can see them, and then you move them.

But it's not an easy one because this one can't be a stand-up double or a triple. This one's got to be a home run deal for the Winnipeg Jets. That's how sensitive a situation this is for Winnipeg. A couple of other things I want to go over here, and we're trying to get in touch with Gregor. we'll try to get a moment. You want to bring Rachel in now? Because Rach is here in town, right? Why don't we just do this?

Why don't we just call the Audible as we get going here? Because we have a lot to get to, a lot from last night. We have the De Brinket situation. We'll talk about Rupa Hins and Nathan McKinnon, who, by the way, does he have the record right now for most broken noses in his career currently in the NHL? We'll get into that coming up in a couple of moments.

In the meantime, who's delivering? New one, welcome aboard DoorDash. It's a presentation of DoorDash. Hockey night. is one of those rituals that brings everyone together. DoorDash is an official partner of the NHL, making it easier to get your game night favorites delivered so you can stay focused on the action and not miss a moment.

Could he use this last night? Whether it's wings, pizza, burgers, or your own go-to order, DoorDash makes it easier for the whole game night experience together at home. Good food, good company, and good hockey. So Rachel Criachuk, who joins me live in studio, welcome to town, by the way. good to see you again. Who's delivering?

Like when you look around the NHL right now, who is putting the spice in your chili around the league? Let's get Rachel's mic on here, quick here. Okay, you got it? We got you. All right. There we go. Given the discourse around this particular player for it feels like two years,

maybe honestly, maybe even longer, Aalias Patterson is delivering and forward PD, not DPD, nine points in eight games. Yeah. One of like four or five Vancouver Canucks who's above the ledger on expected goals. I mean, he looks different.

You watch him and he's engaged. The game when they lost, they got smoked by Carolina. He was a plus player. I'm like, they gave up seven. How was he a plus player? Yeah. The thing about him right now is, and again, I mentioned this on Securason Price.

Actually, Blake Price this year right down the hall of you. I said, like, I want to see 20 games until I decide that Elias Pedersen is, is quote, unquote, back. And, man, did I hear from it? Did I hear it from Vancouver fans? Who just wanted to be back so bad? It's like, I've seen five games and he's back. He's back like a vertebrae.

This is the old Elias Pedersen. Do you have a number? I don't think he's, I would say he's back. Like, I think that's maybe a little overzealous. Yeah. But I think it's fair, like, I think 20 games, the problem is, is he's had two, I would say, two down seasons. I think Rick Tocott is probably part of that problem, quite frankly.

But when you look at Ali's, he's. There's a guy in New York that was a little bit of a problem too, that kind of... Yeah, he... Clipped his wings. The guy at the garden, not the guy on Long Island. I think when you look at Elias Pedersen, yeah, 25 games, if he's still a point-of-game player and he's above the ledger on a team that we know isn't... is trying to lose, right?

It's trying to have competitive losses. And if he's still a plus player for them bringing in positive... energy and positive outcome when he's on the ice, I think it's fair to say he's quote unquote back. He's delivering. He's delivering. He's delivering right now for the Vancouver Canucks. Okay, just really quickly, how many games can you watch at the same time?

I have four televisions. So four, I guess. Four and your laptop and social media or like four is your Macs. Because for me the max is three. Not to dwell on this. I'm just curious more than anything else. So if the Leafs and the Rangers play because of the dynamic of my marriage, they're on one or two TVs.

And then I like to have another game. And then if there's another sport that I really like. You can do it? I can do that. You can do another sport? But I will not have my laptop up. I have a rule. Like if I'm watching sports,

I'm locked in and I'll send the odd tweet. But I do that less now. Yeah. Because I just am trying to enjoy my life. So what then? And there's a few things to pull that. We had the Rick bonus tirade after Columbus dropped one to the Florida Panthers in less than spectacular fashion for them.

Bonus going back to that well, we're going to get there. There's another injury because every night there are big injuries, and this one's Taylor Hall, and this one doesn't look good. According to Rod Vindamor, it's going to take a while, and Bradley Nador has been called up. But I want to ask you about Nathan McKinnon, just like fighting everybody last week,

Brant Clark and now Rupa Hens. And I don't know, right now currently in the N.Hs, the NHL, he has to be the player who's had either a broken or an injured nose more than anybody else in the NHL at this moment. Like there are other guys that have had, like Tim Hunter used to always have the flat nose, right? The line used to be ran the, ran the 100-yard dash in a 90-yard gym. That was what you always say about Tim Hunter. But right now, like every time this guy, he's getting pucks in the face, as we've seen,

tips in the face and punches in the face, like last night from Rupa Hansen was busted open, much the whole rest of the game. Yeah, I mean, enforcer Nathan McKinnon. The guy, Nathan McKinnon is so much fun to watch because when he gets going, when Colorado played the Leafs, I was Thanksgiving for my family. And we're watching Nathan McKinnon and he looks like a rhinoceros on skates. He does. And then he fights.

And when he was fighting Brant Clark, he looked like a rhinoceros that was fighting. Less so Rupa Hints, but I mean, oh my gosh. Hins? I got to give it to him because he stood there and opened up like he didn't come in to try to seatbelt or nothing he was like if we're going to do this we're going to fire punches from the cellar

and they both did nobody wanted to try to block a punch that was obvious but both of them just went for it and we've seen it from Nathan McKinn I was surprised at Rupert Haynes I was too because he's a pretty like I would say docile player in the sense he's there to be fast yeah he's fast he wins his puck battles

he's not a kachuk. He's not a bash brother where he's going to do that. Although I wouldn't even consider Matthew and Brady. I think both of them would probably be in pretty big trouble if they tried to fight Nathan McKinnon or Tom Wilson. Tom Wilson, yes. Nathan McKinn doesn't have like the technique down like Brady does. But he's so strong.

He is strong. But you know, the thing is like the master of this was George LaRoc who the first thing he always did. Like when LaRoc grabbed you, the first thing he did, it was the La Rock shake. He would have in a lot of fights because George would grab you. And the first thing he would do is he would shake you to get you off balance and he was so strong. And then he started throwing.

If McKinnon could do that. Oh, that'd be a problem. Get like the La Rock shakedown first, then there's problems. Because he's strong enough to do that. Strong enough to do. He's a thick. You have some hockey players. You look at Connor McDavid's build outside of equipment and then you look at Nathan McKinnon's build.

And they're two different builds. McKinnon starts doing the La Rock thing. First of all, ideally Nathan McKinnon's not fighting. I don't think you want a heart trophy. You've got two under your bell. Like that's good for the season. Yeah, if I'm Joe Sackick, I'm going down there going maybe dial it down a little bit. Dial down the anger.

Don't throw your helmet either. We don't want that. He didn't do that yesterday. I was disappointed. Didn't chuck a helmet. What the heck? But I feel like you want Nathan McKinnon on the ice. You want Nathan McKinnon playing with Marty Natchez, scoring goals.

You don't want him getting his nose. broken whilst punching Rupa hit. I did like that the rest of the game, like the cut just kept opening out. Like that's like the knuckle dragger in me still. Like that's that chrome magnon still have a lot of APNA. But that's like you talk about like fighting in hockey. That type of fighting in hockey I think is that's a legitimate emotional. They're angry.

They want to go. It's not dudes talking because they've fought eight times in their career kind of thing. This is like guys actually angry. You know, Dick Irvin, when I worked at a hockey night, when I ever get a chance to talk to Dick Irvin, you know, he always stressed this point. Once upon a time in the NHL, the best players were also the toughest. Rocket Richard, Gordy Howe, Ted Lindsay, like all these guys, like fought their own battles, right?

And the best fighters, now I would take exception. I still think that there's plenty of other guys that were better fighters. But still, like, the top guys were also tough guys. That's what kind of liked about this one. Like Rupa Hins and Nathan McKinning throwing down, like, that's old school. Yeah, that's fun stuff. I mean, even when Sydney Crosby fought, what was it, Nick Folino way back in the day, that led Sports Center for a long time.

It's been in every Sydney Crosby getting angry compilation. Right, whereas Connor McDavid, the fight everybody remembers is when he broke his hand in junior. Against the steelheads, I think it was. She and Frone. Brian Chianfroni. That's right in the corner, Erie versus Mississauga. Oh, wow, good for you. Great recall on you.

That's right. Bryce and Chi Afroni. Okay, the Brinket contract. Let's bounce around everywhere. I get a text from someone last night who cynically said, interesting time to do this, smokescreen for a bad Edvenson deal in 14. But nonetheless, we'll see what happens.

Sean Harcroft's saying their attention in Detroit is to still resign the defenseman, who's come back from Sweden, I believe to train with a skills coach. So if he's with Edvinson, right, you look at some of the contracts that got handed out, Tristan Leno, Zeev, Bulliam, like some of those guys, none of them have anywhere near the experience that Edvinson does. None of them have proven they're capable of playing on the top pair the way that Edvenson has. With cider, yes.

Or so, yeah, exactly. So you have the Debrinke contract. You're clearly willing to dole out money. You're clearly allowed to dole out money now. How is the contract not just sent to Sweden via hopefully something other than a fax machine and said, okay, you can have 12-5? Because I feel like for a top pair defenseman, 12-5 in three years is going to be peanuts. Yeah. I mean, unless the play, like, legitimately at this point just doesn't want to be there.

Maybe the offer that occurred when he went to training camp was so offensive that, like, that's it. It's just time to piece out. Like, we don't know what Dylan Larkin wants. Sorry, why Dylan Larkin wants to go. Although, you know what? As far as a strategy goes, that was really smart. As you look at everything that Conrad Hallibuck has gone through right now. Coming back to play?

Take your medicine, getting roundly booed at the home opener. I got to hand it to Larkin because he knew it was all coming and he hasn't seen. said why he wants to be traded, which I didn't like it first. And now I think I understand a lot better because only bad things can happen. I wonder if there's been a lot written, a lot of ink spilled and a lot of air time filled about Larkin, Eiserman, I think. And so I wonder if part of the reason he hasn't said anything is, is he potentially willing to change his mind? Because if he's willing to change his, yeah. I don't know about that. I don't know if he is or not. I don't I don't think he is.

I don't think so, no. But if he, even if there's a 5% chance, if you go out and you, you now fill that air with your reason, you can't have 5% anymore. Yeah. Right? So I don't know if it's even 5%. The only, the only thing, and I can see, I was talking about this on the show yesterday, the thing about the hellabuck situation is if he does end up going back and then we'll have the conversation about team suspensions and all types of things. Oh boy.

As far as saving face, the one thing he can do, and we've seen this before, it does throw the agent under the bus, but you can come back and say, look, I apologize, I took bad advice. I do not like that. I know. I know. So the way I see it with these no move, no trade clauses is if you're going to do this with your no move, no trade clause, you need to stand on two feet and be accountable for it. Hockey loves to wax poetic about accountability.

If this is what you want and you want your trade request and you're willing to hold out and all of that, if you do come back because it didn't work out the way you wanted it to, you don't get to point fingers. You get to be accountable for your own actions. Otherwise, you don't get to wax poetic about being accountable. That's not how this works. I don't disagree. I find that with this situation, I think the one thing that's going to make it,

it harder for him is that press conference last year where he essentially said, Teams no good. Right. That's going to make it tougher. It's not great. Because listen, you saw Kyle Conner come out and say, like, look, if he's going to come back, he's got to prove it to all of us. But teams no good.

Part of the reason Winnipeg was no good last year is because he was terrible. Well, there is part of it. He was good for two weeks last year. And none of them were in a Winnipeg Jets uniform. Yeah. Like, he was good for two weeks. Like, you can't, if you're the goalie who just came off winning the Vesna and the heart, like you, you can't have a safe percentage under 900 and then turn around and say,

my team's not very good. Because you're not very good either. If he had a 940 and the Jets were a lottery team, I get it. If you had a 940, though, they wouldn't be a lottery team. They wouldn't be a lottery team. So part of it is, yeah, were they great defensively? No, they weren't. But you're rocking a sub-900 safe percentage.

So maybe look in the. the mirror. Big part of it. Okay. A couple of things here. Philadelphia Flyers. Still with a bagel beside their name in the standings. 05 and 3. Pick the point. Loser points suck. Get it. Listen, that's for a whole other conversation, but I'm with you 100%. But I'm the guy that still like ties. I'll take a tie. I'll take a tie. Some games I look at say this game should be tied. This game deserves to be a tie. Yeah. I think we've all looked at some games like that. this game doesn't deserve a winner, but here we are. Can this game end?

It's terrible. Eight straight losses picked up points in three. Last night there was a skirmish. There was a moment in the second where it's like signs of life from the Philadelphia Flyers, but then they're playing the team now that seems like they're skating with a chip on their shoulder because nobody wants to go there. The Seattle Cracken, you have a thought on the Flyers situation here. And I know there's the howls for the head coach, but do not lose sight of the fact

that he's in year two of a five-year deal. and making over $5 million a copy. Okay, so let me ask you this. Yes. You have an investment, right? You have an investment, let's say, that is three years at $5 million. Okay?

Now you have other investments, and those investments could be 10 years or 15 years, and they're probably going to cost you more money, but in the long run, they might make you $40 million or $50 million. I understand where you're going with this. Do you have a responsibility? to make sure that if you don't want a fire talk it,

which is fine, that's their prerogative. If you don't want to fire him, do you have a responsibility to sit him down and say, listen, you need to develop guys like Michkoff, like Martone. That has to be the focus here, because by the time the fires are good again,

Travis Keneckney is going to be a thousand. Sean Kutri is going to be retired. You can't be in a scenario where, like, this happened with Clayton Keller. This happened with... Okay, so here's... Here's the other question then for the Philadelphia Flyers. Again, in any situation like this, you ask yourself, is the issue coaching, is the issue

composition? Does this team have a number one center? Nope. Does this team have a number one defenseman? Yes. Travis Sandheim's a number one D? If he can play on the Olympic team ahead of Evan Bouchard and Matthew Schaefer, he can't be a number two.

Do they have a number one goalie? No. They don't have a number two. So is not a part of this composition then? Absolutely. I'm more worried about, so they have these draft picks. And the other thing is, is they've left a lot of value on the board, I would say, at the draft. They've not taken the best player available every time.

They did so with Martone and Michkoff. And I would say outside of that, they have not. So you have a responsibility with Martone and Michikov, who have the potential both of them to be point per game players in the National Hockey League. At least their draft predigree would say so. And their potential would say that as well. you have a responsibility to steward that development efficiently and properly. Porter Martone came out of Michigan State last year and being in their development and look incredible down the stretch for Philly.

He's now starting his first full season in Philadelphia and he doesn't look like the same Porter Martone that came out of Michigan State. And that's when my kind of spidey senses started tinkling and go, is this a Philadelphia Flyers organizational problem? Is it a development issue? Is it a coaching issue? Is it everything? yes, you need more composition players.

But the hope is some of the players that you draft are going to develop into those players. And if you believe that your development system or your head coach are handicapping that development, then you're in some trouble because then you don't give those players a chance to develop into the players that you're going to need. Let me finish up here. I want to get your thoughts on the Rick Bonas quote from last night. And is it too early to go to this? I love Rick Bonas though. He's...

We all love bones. Everybody in media loves bones. He's like one of the great guys of all time. You just do wonder, this is Rick Bonus last night after losing to the Florida Panthers with they did. You have to hope you got to believe that performance tonight will embarrass them enough to stop this, right? Because if they're not embarrassed by that, we don't want them on the team. It's as simple as that. This is the second time that Bonus has gone to this well.

for a bucket of water. And the second time, he's walked right up to the line. Although he even did this in training camp, where he talked about a couple of guys being out of shape. So maybe this is the third time. He's gone right up to the line and hasn't stepped over it by naming players. Having said that, is this too early to go back to this well? Is there an element of you can imagine the players saying,

oh, this again, we're not even 10 games into the season. And we're getting the, if you don't want to play here, leave. Well, okay, so he ended last season. Fire and Brimstone. With fire and brimstone, which is a directive to the players, like, go home and enjoy your summer, but you better come back ready to work and you better be in shape. I don't know how if you were a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets, you could have gone home at the end of last season seeing that because surely it was more colorful in the exit meetings and come into camp out of shape. I'm you're a professional athlete for a living I'm not sure how you could have done that but now we're here that ship sailed you have to move on and maybe part of it is because some of those guys came back and they were out of shape after his fire and brimstone and he's kind of like yeah get rid of them like I don't want these people we know that I mean for a guy who missed training camp and the numbers would say that guys who miss training camp historically struggle Anna fat tilly looks pretty good Ken Johnson looks like a completely different hockey player.

He looks better. Matthew Nyes has fit like a glove there. You can clearly tell he's not the problem. Nobody for a second thinks Werensky is a problem. So then who are you? Here's my question. Who's it at? What that quote does.

Like when a coach says like if you don't want to be here, like we don't want you here, what that does is that kicks it into Donwoodell's office. Right. That's like the general manager when he's negotiating a contract with a player says, I've gone as far as I can go here. it's up to ownership now. I can guarantee you.

Owners don't like that. Nope. And I'm pretty sure a general manager doesn't like it when the coach says, well, you know what? When we get you out of here, that's a GM's decision. It's Rick Bonas's job to coach this team

as opposed to, these guys better be embarrassed. If you're not embarrassed, we want to get rid of you. Can he sit them? I mean, we saw Mike Babcock sit Frank Carrado, Justin Hall. He sent Joffrey Lupel to the Sun basically.

What does Rick Bonas have at his disposal? Because he can't make those trains. It's not a John muckler, Brian Murray's situation. Control who's playing and how long they play. Control the ice time. Right. So I guess. My only question is, is it too soon in the season to go to the, you should be, all

these players should be embarrassed. And if you're going to play like that, we don't want you here. I would say it's too soon to make that statement about the team. But if you're talking about certain players and there are guys who did show up out of shape or there are guys who aren't playing to the standard even after you've had multiple meetings, you can send the press box for a game. or two. It's not like they have a shortage of young players that couldn't

play. And they are up against the cap, which I mean, great that their ownership is spending that way, but at the same time, you need to send the message that if you're going to be here, there are standards. Otherwise, you're not going to be competitive, and then you will lose a guy like Zach Worensky, and now you're starting all over

again. That's the big one. A lot of this is the audition for Wrenski to stay. Will you come back? Yeah, I'll come back. All right, awesome. Enjoy the rest of of your day. It's good to see you again. It's good to see you too. All right. You be well. Richard Kajach from ESPN, joining us here on the sheet, and she's going to try to delicately walk out of the studio. And I always tell people the same thing. We kind of keep things casual around here. It go for it. Like, you want to walk in front of the camera and go

for it, Rach. Like, ain't going to be a big sweat here. Let's get the Jason Gregor. Jason Greger from the Jason Greger show. Joining me here to talk about amongst other things, the Edmonton Oilers start. But before we get there, Greg, thanks so much for stopping by as always. I asked Rachel this before. My answer to this is three, but Frozen Frenzy yesterday, staggered by 15 minutes,

starting at 6 o'clock Eastern. How many games can you watch at the same time and walk away saying, I got a good handle on that game? Oh, God, yeah. Three at the most, especially because I'm on Airtel 6 for the first six of them.

So definitely that gets me down to 10. Yeah, there's, well, and the other thing is now, I have the NCHO package. But for the average fan of Canada, I could even watch three games yesterday unless you did your best. So, yeah, hang on.

We're having a problem with your mic. Hang on, we're going to try to fix that and get your mic a little bit warmer and bring you back aboard here. It's a couple of other things from last night too. And the hot buttons are certainly the Philadelphia Flyers

who continue to lose, the Winnipeg Jets, who continue to win. The Columbus Blue Jackets, who continue to win. continue to get blasted by their coach, the Alex De Brinket contract situation, and the Detroit Red Wings losing another game in what's becoming a fascinating season.

By the way, tonight again, from what I saw last night, from what I saw last night, the best game on the board consistently, all three periods. Like there are elements of all the games that are certainly interesting, but from what I saw, the best game last night

was Dallas, Colorado. Like, give me seven games of that every season. That was the absolute banger, punctuated by Rupa Hens and Nathan McKinnon, but the game itself was flat out fantastic. The day after the frenzy is always,

I don't want to say a letdown, but like, you're getting a couple of games. Montraught Canadians are facing off against the Washington Capitals. Caps dropped a tough one last night against a very good team, mind you. The Carolina Hurricanes, who lost Taylor Hall in the process, hit by Justin

Sordoff along the boards. But the stars in the Avs are back at it. So right away, we get Dallas and we get Colorado right back at it tonight. We've got Jason back again. Thanks for hanging in there, Jason. Really appreciate it. Let's just jump in with a couple of the games from last night. I do want to get to the Oilers as well.

And what you would point to to sort of, you know, figure out like, why is this working right now for Edmonton? But how much of Dallas did you watch last night, Dallas, Colorado, how much of that jump out at you? if you have a thought on Rupert Hins and Nathan McKinnon, love to hear it. But from all the games last night, that was the one that jumped off the page for me.

And they're going to see it. We're going to see it again tonight in different venue, obviously. Now, my apology, Jeff. I don't know if it's rookie 101. Can you hear me now? Gotcha great. Yeah. Sound great.

Okay, good. Hey, you know what? Just do a quick cap tip to the schedule maker because we have Dallas and Colorado going again tonight. Yeah. I had more of this, you know, back to back amongst teams. There's, you know, when you've got two of your best players going at it in a retit tilt, and I love, I was listening to you and Rachel.

I love Nathan McKinnon's response afterwards where he's like, hey, you know what? No one really likes it, but it seems to get the guys fired up, so maybe I'll do it more often. And you know what? Like, everybody freaks out when a superstar gets like a little cut on the bridge of his nose. I'm like, trust me. That's not hugging Nathan. But you know what? Like, I love that.

Those I think are the two best teams in the division. Right. I'm happening for a long time, like Minnesota and Utah or maybe, but I'm not sure. Minnesota until they get some other centers, I can't put them in the same category. So you know what? That's a hell of a game to watch. And I'm going to be more of those.

But right now, there's only tonight, Jeff. And I will be tuning in and start to finish on that one. We're having problems with audio again, but we're going to get you, we're going to get Zach here to try to try to massage that a little bit. I don't know if it's a connection issue or something, but we may have to put the brakes on our conversation with Jason. So a couple of other things from last night was really happy to hear and see in that Rangers game last night.

First of all, when you're talking about fights like Jeffrey Vial will fight anybody, and he went at Matt Rempey, and Rempey wins the fight, but it's like a Davey Goliath kind of situation. 4-1 over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the New York Rangers, as much as people thought it was going to be the sky is falling chicken little and that's going to be it for the New York Rangers without Igor Shishdurkin.

Dylan Garand, Dylan Garand, everybody, who everyone in the NHL could have had. He was on waivers after training camp finished up after the preseason, anybody could have had Dylan Garand. And we wonder, okay, is anybody put in a claim? Are the Winnipeg Jets going to put in a claim?

Are there any surprise teams are going to put in a claim? And he went right through. Much like Michael. Di Pietro the season previous Dylan Garand went right through they're chanting Dylan 25 save performance

last night they're chanting Dylan at the garden I could not be happier for this guy Igor Shisterkin is on LTIR not season ending LTIR yet so right now they can use 3.9

million of his cap hit which was the NHL average salary So that's why. But when they put them on season-ending LTIR, they can use the full almost 12 million of his salary. All right. Awesome.

We got Jason back. Greg's really quick. I want to get right to the Edmonton Oilers. Can you explain why this has been the best opening of the Oilers season going back, I believe, to 1983? Yeah, well, it's 84-85 the last time they didn't lose in their first six. Yeah, there is. Yeah, there's, and hopefully this audio is better, my point.

Way better. Way better. But there's a few things, Jeff. I wrote before the season that the orders were going to have a good start for three reasons. A, they're rested. B, they have a very favorable schedule. Lots of rest in between it. No back to backs, right?

They're playing all Pacific Division teams, which they kind of beat up for fun. And this team, when they get a new coach, they come out of the game. gate flying. When Woodcroft came in, they went 26, 9, and 5 down the stretch. When Noblock came in, they had in the NHL to the Stanley Cup final. And so I thought there was a combination. Now, I will give them credit. Hyman's out. New Jersey Hopkins is out, Savoy's out, Walman's out, Docs out. So they got a lot of injuries. And so their depth, I give Stan Bowman credit. They brought in some guys, you know, that Hallander trade, really good depth for it. I like him. And, you know, pod Colson's really stepped up.

So I think it's a combination of three things. You know, goaltending's been good. You know, the first two games were kind of pawned hockey crazy. But, you know, since then the team's bought in. But everybody's like, oh, my God, I've never seen the orders like this. And I'm like, everybody's memory is to last year. And like in life, you always think we remember things one way. And then you're like, well, let's look at the numbers.

And if you go back and look at Chris Knoblox first year when he came in, the orders were sex, four, and goals. against. They had the best record in the NHL. They were a dominant team all around the ice, right? And that's what I expect. They're going to have the attention of their coach. They went out publicly, their star players and said, hey, this is the guy we want.

So there's even more extra motivation for them to play. But just look at Connor McDavid. Guys arrested, Jeff, and he's a freak. Like, we always knew he was great, but McDavid's got 17 points in six games. He's like plus 8,000. I don't even know what it is right now.

Evan Bouchard's got, you know, 14 points. Pot Colson's got seven goals. So dry sidels quietly only got 11 points in six games, right? And everyone's not even talking about it. And then Tristan Jarrett's last three starts, he's got like a 950 say percentage. And I know last night people will look at the shots on goal, Jeff. But I know you'll dig deeper. And if you look at the scoring chances last night, you know, Babcock even talked about it.

We gave up three inner slots shots. They gave up a lot of outside shots last night, but not a ton of high danger chances. Let me pick up on Evan Bouchard here. Listen, this is, you know, it's always interesting after the Olympics when a player gets, quote, unquote, snubbed, how he reacts. And Evan Bouchard has gone out and filled the net. To me, he's still the same defenseman. Like, he's not doing anything different. But now he finds himself because of Edmonton's offense here and how they're producing.

He finds himself on the top of the table when it comes to defensemen and production. this is not a new Evan Bouchard. This isn't like the coming out party for Evan Bouchard. This has been the way that Evan Bouchard has played the last few years. Just now that he's top of the table, everybody seems to notice. Agree, disagree. Yeah, like, I would agree mostly there's one small thing. So last year he started, he had no points in six games.

Yeah. He's got 14. He finished with 95 points in 76 games. If he does that this year, the guy's going to be over 100 points. And he could have the third best. offensive season in the NHL history because no D-Men

have ever had more than 103 points other than Bobby Orramp and Paul Coffaw-Coffy. So, but the one thing Bouchard, I think, if there's one area that we haven't seen

in six games at all, Jeff, is now everybody has turnovers. And sometimes when Evan Bouchard would have one, it would be a big one who would make all the highlight reels and people think it's the norm. It's not the norm,

but it would happen. So far, Jeff, I'm not sure Bouchard, like, he's maybe had one pass in six games or he'd be like, okay, I wouldn't like that one, which is who cares when you have the puck as much as he's going to make mistakes.

But I think he, I talked to Evan, the one where he's different, he's a little bit quicker. He worked on getting a little bit quicker in the offseason because it was really, Jeff, in five years, this was the longest offseason he's ever had because they mean the conference final once and the Stanley Cup final two other times. So he's never really had a long offseason of training and I think he looks a bit quicker in his first step, a few steps. I used to always make this point about Eric Carlson. Like whether they would highlight all the turnovers, the turnovers, or the blue line, here we go again. And I'll always say the same thing. Like if you have a player who creates 15 chances a game but costs you three or four

with percentages like that, you win the Stanley Cup, man. You know what I'm saying? Like you win the cup with percentages like that. Yeah. And Bouchard, if you look at Bouchard's playoff history, In the playoffs, he doesn't have those big gaffes. Like when the chips are down, he's been unreal, right? He's been more productive than Caleb Carr in the playoffs.

Kail McCar has 90 points and 90 games. Bouchard has 88 points and 81 games. So he's 1.09 points per game and McCar's 1.0.0. I know that when we look at Connor McDavid this season, we say to ourselves, like, this is Connor McDavid saying essentially, this is how we play hockey on my planet. because he just looks head and shoulders better than anybody else. But the one thing that we have to factor in with the Oilers this year is the Mike Babcock factor. And there are moments, Jason, where I really see him trying to do what Babcock wants.

There's that little play when he gets the zone entry underneath the blue line as opposed to just blazing by guys and circling and looking for lanes. And like the stuff that we're used to seeing out of, out of Connor McDavid. it again, it's early, but are there moments where you're seeing, okay, that's what Babcock wants as opposed to what McDavid normally wanted to do? The under the blue line play to me is the big one, but are there other moments where you're like, okay, this is Conne McDavid really trying to play the way Babcock wants? Oh, the biggest one for me is how often him and dry settle have chip and chase this year. Like they've dumped the puck in more in six games and I think they have all of last.

year. Like even at times they'll cross center and it's like a two on two or a one on two and McDavid used to attack. Now he'll chip it deep and and they don't just dump it in Jeff without a purpose. They chip it to a spot that they know is going to be hard for the defenseman usually on his backhand because you know even NHL players most of the defensemen aren't as good on their backhand and then Axton gets on the forecheck and pod Colson's one of the best four checkers in the game and so him and McDavid speed makes him one of the best four checkers. So I've seen that way more early on this year from that trio than we have all year long than probably ever is through a short spin.

I want to ask you thoughts here, a couple of minutes left with you. I want to ask your thoughts on Devin Levi. And look, Levi with the Buffalo Sabres coming out of college was a bluntly rushed to the NHL as that Buffalo Sabres management staff thought that they were smarter than the history of hockey and could take a goaltender from college and make him an NHL starter. Ken Dryden couldn't even do that. Okay, like he still had to spend some time in the Americanocular. It doesn't happen.

They thought they were smarter than everybody else. And it seemed as if at various times, certainly he was false started by the Buffalo Sabres. Other times he couldn't get out of his own way. In the scant couple of games that you've seen out of Devin Levi, what do you think so far? Well, I talked to Devin at the start of the year and he raved about he felt last year he really got to grow as a goalie beating the American League all year. He wasn't yo-yoed up and down. And he just said it's more about the mental side of the game and understanding it, which if you look at the history of the NHL, Jeff,

and I know you do better than most, most goalies 24, 25, 26, right? There's very few 18 to 23-year-old goalies in the NHL are ones who have success. So that's number one. The other thing is he's had to change his game a bit and be a little bit less aggressive. And he's talked about it. It's a challenge because he is very powerful. He can go side to side with the best of which you have to be as a smaller goalie. But sometimes that overaggressiveness, he would be sliding too far.

And you saw that in his first start in Vancouver. Twice, he pushed to the left and ended up, you know, a foot and a half outside the crease. Outside the post. And so we've seen him, I think, really dial it in. You know, he worked with the orders of goalie coach Peter all lots of times in this summer. And they keep working on things like that. And he's confident. he moves incredibly well side to side,

but he's being a little bit less aggressive, which seems odd at times because you want your forwards to attack attack, but goalies, it's a little bit more of a patient game. I think we've seen that for me. You just want to get to position quick, right? Like you can't do the outside of the post. Goalies all the time have to get calm down.

Headline of the day, we'll end on this one. You have a thought on the Alex Debrinket contract with the Detroit Red Wings? To me, this was, first of all, in all the sort of controversy about Dylan Larkin and Simon Edvinson and trade this and bad start and leaking goals and all of us like out of almost like nowhere. The whispers and it all started yesterday around 630 where the whispers started to come out about a de brinket deal and we all sort of get on our phones and try to figure this out and then bam this thing comes out. It's a really important deal I think for the Red Wings and to show some stability for other people in the room that regardless of what happens with Larkin, regardless of what happens with. Simon Edvenson, here's a guy who's going to stay and the whole thing was done really quietly between the team formerly Wasserman and Sean Horcoff. Seven year deal, $91 million. $13 million is the AAV front loaded.

Next year he walks home with trade protection and also $15 million in the first season. You have a thought on this one? Well, my main thought is how can this contract happen but not an Edmondson contract? Like, I like Debrinkeh, but he's a smaller win compared to, like, a guy who's going to be a top pair, if he's not already a top pair, six foot six, gigantic mobile defenseman. And he can't get a contract because you'd rather go seven years with the, like, what the hell are we doing? That's the part I don't understand here. The Evanston one, Jeff, out of all of this, has made no sense to me. So this is good, and it's great for Detroit.

But like De Brincat's a good piece to get, but he's not like a driver. He's not a difference maker for your team. He's a smaller winger. And yeah, you can have Debrincat at $13 million. Great. But what's going to happen like Dylan Larkin, I assume hasn't changed his mind. He wants to get traded. So who's going to be the center?

And then what happens like if Edmondson at this goes sideways, how long before Mo Sider says, I want to get the hell out of here? Like there's, to me, this is great you got Debrinkat. but I agree with you. I think this is just like, we got to get a win here. Let's get a positive. So we'll give this guy 13.

And no one's even bad at 13 mil. Like, good for DeBrenka, but he's not, he's not a difference maker for me. The, the interesting thing about it too is, I think, I think bluntly,

the Edvinson thing might just be much like Dylan Larkin. He just doesn't want to be there now. Okay. Given, given what happened in training camp and what the offer was. I mean, just even, even just to,

to have the conversation with Edmondson, doesn't it have to start with the Boyham contract? Like, isn't that like the very least you can offer them is what Vancouver gave Zeev Boyum? Like, that to me, and I understand like the first offer was lower than that. How do you not at least like open up with the Boym deal?

That makes no sense to me. I wholeheartedly agree with you. Like the landscape has changed her really quickly. All right? We all know that. So you've got to adapt. You know, if you don't change,

you get left behind in any walk of life, Jeff. And right now, like Detroit, to give a guy 13 mil as a winger who's older, but you're not going to give $10 million for Edmondson on a seven, eight year deal. That doesn't make sense to me. I'm with you. Okay, excellent. Listen, thanks for persevering.

Thanks so much for hopping on. And we will do it again real soon, my friend. Anytime, buddy. Sorry for the title. That's okay. I don't know what the hell went wrong there. Technology makes our lives easier, Jason. Thanks, pal.

Good. Jason Greger on the Jason Greger show joining me here on the sheet. Yeah, the, again, the conspiracy theories out there, you know, is the timing of the De Branket deal, you know, cover for an Edvenson trade. Who knows? Who knows? But Detroit still remains one of the teams that is most interesting folks in the NHL to follow. Thanks to Greger for hanging on with us there and getting all the audio sorted out. In the meantime, one of encourage you as well. We're going to be recording Dave and I, Pan Yoda, in about half an hour's time. Another edition of DFO Insiders. So more on the situation with the Detroit Red Wings and the contract with Alex DeBrinckonson and Simon Edvinson now back in North America. Dave's got some stuff on Will Smith and the San Jose Sharks. We'll talk about the Montreal Canadiens. More on Connor Hullabuck as well and some other assorted news and notes from around the NHL. In the meantime, Zach, how late were you up last night with After Dark? I think that the show concluded around 2 a.m.

It wasn't the latest one, but 2 a.m. was when things wrapped up. And then you're on Leif's Morning Take today as well with Nick Albregah, a special guest, Paul Bissanette. What did Biz, what did Bizz say, leave some breadcrumbs here? Well, there was a lot of questioning about if his fandom is returning. And although he says, no, he seemed to know every social clip. the team has posted dating back to July. So I am not so certain that he's not getting back on the bandwagon.

All right. So we'll see what happens there. So direct for that full interview, check out Leif's Morning Take from this morning, Nick Alberga and in co-hosting today, our very own sack, Phillips. What's going on, Rosie? Cats and trees and stuff.

Just so you know, Jay Rose Hill is a full-time fireman as well. And so I always make the joke, okay, Mrs. Johnson's cat is stuck in the tree again so he can't do least morning take. He's going to get the cat out of the tree. This segment in the meantime brought to you by Sports Interaction, Sportsbook and Casino. Every game is your game when you bet with sports interaction. Bet the action on every period, every shift, every shot with Canada's homegrown sports book, sports interaction. Ontario or Alberta only must be 19 plus in Ontario, 18 plus in Alberta. please play responsibly.

Yesterday was kind of a tap-in. You had a lot to choose from. How'd you do, by the way? We did not win the parlay that we had. The Montreal Canadiens and the Maple Leafs were the two teams that sued us there. Ah, the classic rivals. I had the HABs minus one and a half.

They won an overtime or shootout in that one. Thank you. Rachel, the live fact check beside you. Thanks, Rach. Can you come in every day, Rachel, by the way? he can get his stories and facts straight. That'd be great. I need her to sit here every show.

And then obviously the Leafs lost in reg, so that was not even close on that one. But as far as it went for the games across the board and the 16 that we bet on, I believe the final was nine for 16. So I'll take it. Okay. Just over 50%. That's all right.

That's all right. We were firing some darts across the board. What are you looking at tonight, Mr. All right. So I've got three bets for you. for tonight. Okay. One of these came from a special advisor, and then the other one.

A special advisor? Some influence here from said advisor. What's her name? But, uh, our cry chock. But, uh, the last two are for vibes. And you'll, you'll see where I'm going with this one. All right. So, uh, first one that we've got on the board here today.

We're going to go with a Nathan McKinnon anytime goal. Anytime fight? Oh, okay. No, okay. So, yeah, we're not going to go with a time fight. All right. That is, I need sports interaction to put up total penalty minutes. I believe they used to have it and they don't anymore, but you could bet on penalty minutes in a game.

There were some that were just the biggest layups of all time. Tonight might be one. How about Matthew Olivier last night, Columbus with the cowbell? Holy geez. How about the video of him on the bench where he's like, the camera cuts to him after the penalty? And he's arguing it. He's arguing it. They put the video on the board and he just goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What? You always see it, right, going to the penalty box? For what? For like, buddy, you cowbell them. Like, we all saw it. Like, come on. They caught me. Here's the highlight.

Okay. So we got Nathan McKinnon. Anytime fight, no, anytime goal. Any time. Plus 110. And then the other one, the Hudson brothers facing off meets each other. Yes. Lane and Cole Hudson each to record a point.

Lane Hudson minus 175. Cole Hudson plus 129. But throw those ones in together on a same game parlay. and root for Hudson madness tonight between the capitals and the Canadians. The pass that Cole Hudson in the game Sunday against Seattle on Jordan Kairu's first as a Washington capital, where he has the patience of Job coming down the right side and waits and waits and waits and waits and frees Joey to court and then feathers the perfect pass to Jordan Kairu who's got the open. That's been, for my money, the best pass I've seen all year.

And just as a rookie to have that kind of patience, Like these kids are special, man. We all know about Lane, but I think people are going to get to know Cole Hudson here. Real fat pass of the year so far. Well, I would put the Celebrini pass of Stenberg. That was a really nice pass. And that was just yesterday's game.

No doubt. That was a pretty nice. We say on a platter a lot. Well, at least I do. Oh, it was on a platter. You know, he put that one right there for the guy. Stenberg didn't even have to move. He put a stick when

Like that is the classic Go to the net And put your stick on the ice Yeah Maclin Celebrini Passed it so accurately And so hard It bounced off of Stenberg's stick

Directly into the net All he had to do is just Have the correct angle Which he did And strength I guess but At least to say it Playing with Mario

At me Whether you're like Rob Brown Bob Erie Take your pick Just go over to the net John Collin Just go to the net And get to the net

Yeah Mario will find you Yeah It was beautiful And actually Stenberg's Passed Celebrini that Celebrini capitalized on was pretty nice as well. Are you having second thoughts about the first overall pick?

I'm not worried about the guy who has five points in seven games here. Leading rookie scores, I know, I understand. Let's all take a breather here. I know you get seduced when you watch the San Jose sharks these days and you think, they're fun, but I'm liking the guy that they've got in Toronto. I'm enjoying what I'm seeing at a 9-2. Still no answer about what that celebration is, by the way. What is that?

What is that? when they go like, not a clue what that is, but come on Toronto media. Come on Toronto media. These are the important questions we've got to be asking. We need to find out the celebration. That's what we need to know. There was, we all have white whales for certain things from the past.

Like when the Anaheim ducks lost, sorry, Brian Burke, the lottery to the Pittsburgh Penguins and Sidney Crosby ended up going to the Pittsburgh penguins instead of the Anaheim ducks. They ended up taking Bobby Ryan. Bill Wirtz, the late owner of the Chicago Blackhawks, as that was announced, because they were all there. Bill Wirtz started screaming,

justice, justice, justice. And he died with that secret in his pocket about what he meant by justice. No, but now the cynical joke was what he was doing was ordering another scotch and the waiter said, how would you like it? And instead of saying, just ice, he said justice. But that's, no, is that, no?

It's the best I can come up with. notice. Just ice, just ice, just ice. Why is Bill Ward's chanting justice? But then the Pittsburgh Penguins, remember one of their Stanley Cup runs? Yeah, I'll have those T-shirts out for justice? Am I dating myself here? I probably am. On one of the runs, and even Rach is bobbled heading this one. They all had identical out-for-justice t-shirts.

Yeah, I can't say I remember that. Sorry. Children. Children. Sorry. Every game is... We started and ended this show with you. saying how old you are.

Can't watch more than one game. Talking about... Out for Justice T-shirts. I have no clue what you're talking about. Bill Worth's stories and I am. Old owners getting hammered on Scotch. All right. Every game is your game when you bet with sports interaction.

From puck drop to overtime, bet with live odds on every play with easy deposits and payouts. Go to sports interaction.com slash the sheet. It's open an account. Again, Ontario or Alberta only must be 19 plus in Ontario. 18 plus in Alberta, please play responsibly. And before we let you go, a couple of notes from our friends at Airbnb. Jeff and Zach here from the sheet again.

We had an interesting summer to say the least. There was so much going on in hockey. We kept the feed hot all through July and August leading up to the start of the new season. But we were both able to get away at least a little bit in between all the news and rumors and signings and drama that was the hockey season of 2026. Zach, I know you traveled. What did you get up to? Yeah, I feel like I spent my entire summer on the road bouncing from wedding to wedding.

But staying in homes on Airbnb made the trips a whole lot easier. There's just something about staying somewhere that feels like your home rather than you're living out of a hotel room for a weekend. It makes the trip a whole lot more comfortable. No, actually, a particularly fond memory for me this summer was pretty recent. It was a wedding in Prince Edward County where we got to stay. stay at a home on Airbnb. We were right near the main street, near the water, walking distance to breweries

and everything that the county has to offer like Slake Brewing. For me, it was down south again with the family. And once again, since I'm an awful golfer, I drove a cart for the boys. Pretty much every single day we were away. But still, sun, ocean, good food, cool nights, made it all worthwhile. Back, recharged. As for more trips this season, it looks like I'll be gone a bunch, mainly to junior hockey cities across the country. And it's trips like these why I love booking homes on Airbnb.

You actually feel like you're part of a place, not just passing through it. And it's always a reminder that when we're gone, our house just sits there. Choosing to list our home on Airbnb could be a great way to make use of that space on our schedule and maybe have a little extra money coming. in at the same time. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.ca slash host. All right. Thank you to our friends as always from Airbnb. And as we wrap up here, Zach, any final thoughts on what we saw last night, 16 games, 32 teams in action. Today we got two games, but they could both be good, especially that Dallas, Colorado game. You know what's weird though? When you look at like, I'm a big boxing fan.

And when you look at boxing trilogies, usually the second fight is kind of the dud. The first and the third are always good, but the second one is kind of like, I don't know that we want to go back to hell again. But we'll see tonight. If the avalanche and the Dallas Stars feel like going back to hell again, because that was last night for sure.

Proximity of the scheduling, I think, makes it a little easier for the tensions to carry over. Because I would agree with you if we had to wait a week or two weeks, it might fizzle out and then like, okay, whatever, we've played a couple other games forget about it a little bit. And the intensity is not the same. I think if you go back at it right the next night,

you know, the thing the guy said to you in the third period as you skated off the ice, it still lingers a little bit. And you're thinking, you know, I want to go out there and kill that guy. So maybe it hangs on

and they bring that intensity tonight. Does Nathan McKinnon's nose bust open again tonight for the avalanche? Again, like of active players right now, he's probably had the most damage done, to his nose consistently in his entire career more than anybody else in the NHL. That guy's nose has taken a beating all career long.

It's mangled. He's getting, he's going towards the Fizz nose. You know how guys at the end of their careers always get their teeth done? Except for Robert Thomas, who got his done like way early and boy, do they ever look good.

But guys will always get their teeth done when the career is over. It's like, why are you going to get your teeth done while you're playing? He's going to get them all messed up. I'm betting McKinning, gets his nose done before he gets his teeth done. Yeah, that might be, you guys are saying like a mandate.

I know you and Rachel talking about a mandate between Sackick coming and Bednar coming down and saying, Nate, like, don't do it again. It might be the team doctors who are like, Nate, we're going to need more than a no strip to fix what you've got going on. So let's cool it for a couple of weeks here before you take another punch to the face, please and thank you. I know people don't like it. I know the NHL doesn't like it.

They make the players change their jerseys that they get some blood off. on it. I like watching players skate with blood on their face. It is. It's so cool. Nails. Yeah. Let's call it what it is. How many iconic photos have we seen where guys,

Jack Hughes, Olympics. I hate it as a Canadian, but the image of him missing teeth, like his mouth is all messed up. Yeah. I know his jersey is not soaked in blood necessarily the way that, you know, some of those iconic images are remembered.

but that's a sick photo. It makes for good TV. That's the reality. We got a lot of chimp DNA left in us here, folks. It's essentially what Zach is trying to say here. And even though we can't explain it with our head, our hearts certainly understand. Thanks to Rachel Critchack for stopping by the program today.

Thanks to Jason Greger for hopping on as well and making it work, like literally, going like out the door and around the block to make this one work. So thanks, Jason. I really appreciate that. Tomorrow, Greg Wischinski will be a boy. and Mike Giselo is in town. Mike in Buffalo, so he's going to pop by the studio as well. So putting the studio

to good use here early at the Nation Network. Thanks so much for watching. Everybody listening at your favorite podcast platform, we thank you. Everybody in the chat, thank you indeed. And we're back tomorrow for more of the sheet. Greg Woshensky from ESPN.com and the aforementioned Mike Jello. Look forward to seeing you and hearing you tomorrow

right here on the show. Get out my head because I can call her.