The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Robert Thomas Joins the Show ft. Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

Jeff Marek and Greg Wyshynski break down everything from a fascinating NHL Trade Deadline on today’s episode of The Sheet. With the dust now settled, the guys dive into the surprisingly quiet market, the lack of blockbuster moves, and how some of the biggest names that did move could fit with their new teams. Marek and Wyshynski also hand out their winners and losers of the deadline while examining what the league landscape now looks like heading into the stretch run. The conversation then shifts to some wild on-ice action, including the chaotic matchup between the Minnesota Wild, Buffalo Sabres, and Tampa Bay Lightning headlines around the league, an update on Sidney Crosby working toward a return for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and a reunion moment as Nazem Kadri assisted on a goal by Nathan MacKinnon in his first game back in Colorado as the Colorado Avalanche played a thriller against the Wild. Later in the show, Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues joins the program to discuss a chaotic week that saw his name swirling in trade conversations, the future of the Blues, battling through injury, and how he handled one of the wildest storylines of deadline week.#NHL #NHLTradeDeadline #RobertThomas #StLouisBlues #JeffMarek #GregWyshynski #TheSheet #SidneyCrosby #PittsburghPenguins #NathanMacKinnon #NazemKadri #ColoradoAvalanche #MinnesotaWild #BuffaloSabres #TampaBayLightning #HockeyTalk #NHLNews #HockeyPodcast #DailyFaceoff #HockeyLeave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, Greg. Hello. You watch any good hockey games over the weekend? Anything come to mind? Or was it just sort of an pedestrian, boring, just hockey? Here we go. Just another day. Just another thing.

There might have been one that had the velocity and explosiveness of a fan jumping through a flaming table last night. That was a ton of fun. So are the lightning now the major accelerant in the NHL? now that the Panthers have been neutered, like are the lightning now the major accelerate in the NHL so far as like the physicality leading to what we saw? I was trying to think of like the proper analogy for this, right?

Like are they now like the, has the Tampa Bay Lightning now become the gatekeeper team? Like if you want to get up into that upper level, first you have to go through the Tampa Bay Lightning. And you got to show that you can play like the Tampa Bay Lightning, which is essentially like a pack of wolves. Like, you know, I think a couple things Thinking with that game

And there's a lot we're going to get to on this game We'll try not to make it the whole show We do have Robert Thomas coming up But I ain't promising nothing Because there's a lot to pull out of that game Like how, like it was like five minutes ago Okay, that Stefan Nason Hit Tage Thompson

And everybody on the Buffalo Sabres roster On the Ice and on the bench Cut their laces Yeah And did nothing. Yeah. And did nothing. Compare that to this.

I was mentioning this to Gregor on Rundown. Anthony Stewart's dad has the great saying about hockey teams. He said, here's the thing. Here's the question you ask yourself. Are you a club or are you a team? There's a lot of clubs that think that they're teams. If memory serves, Pierre Dorian famously said we're a team. We're a team.

He cleared up that one. To Dave. Yeah, to Dave. Yeah. Well, we're a team. Are you a club or are you a team? I don't want to make some massive pronouncement about, like, you remember back in 2011 that Boston Bruins' Dallas Stars game

where there was three fights in four seconds. And five seconds later, there was another one. And like Bergeron and Luchich ran all over Andrew Raycroft. And Ray Sawada got caught by Danny Pai. And it was a suspension. They had a big Super Bowl party at Chara's house. And Andrew Farrant spoke out about Pai. And it was just like, but it was that game where,

the whole team pointed to and said that is the game that changed our season. They then went on to win the Stanley Cup against the Vancouver Canucks. I don't want to say that that game was that. This game was that. But man, did it ever feel like it for the Buffalo State? It was like if they do anything, we're going to point back at that game and say that was the game where they went from a club to a team. First of all, I think the lightning feel like the gatekeeper team just because of how many teams are trying to hop the gate in their division. You know, when you have Buffalo there and you have.

have Ottawa there and you have Montreal there. They're all trying to find a measuring stick to show that they have playoff worthiness and that they can be a contender, a test that the Sabres pass with flying colors. So it's funny, you bought up St. Louis. I saw more than a couple people on social medias last night after that Buffalo win. Make the comparison of the last time that we saw a team that locked in and finding their chemistry inside the season and maybe a high profile firing. leading to their winning streak.

You know, not a coach this time, but a, but a GM. I mean, is, I hesitate to put this on Buffalo. For God's sakes, they've got to make the playoffs first. But I mean, they're a wagon. They're not even a wagon train right now. They're a wagon train. Okay, let's set up the show here. Let's set up the show and then get back because we got a lot to pull out of this game

and other games around the NHR from the weekend. By the way, that was the best Sunday. Normally Sundays are kind of like, eh, the hockey's, that's, yesterday was fantastic. Oh my God, what a great Sunday. All right, the blueprint powered by Fanduel, download the app today and play your game on Fanduel. Greg Woshensky is already here from ESPN and ESPN.com. Look forward to catching up as well with Robert Thomas towards the bottom of the hour. With Greg, we'll talk about Tampa and Buffalo.

We're going to really try to get to the Khadj reunion and the nice standing ovation yesterday. Do have a question for Greg about Nathan McKinnon and the. shootout slash overtime. We'll recap what we saw on Friday and really last trade deadline week. And we'll talk to Robert Thomas about his week last week and what's next for him in St. Louis. And by the way, that passed yesterday to snugglerud by Thomas from the corner was a snip. They ran all over Anaheim and that top line all of a sudden.

And I try not to read anything into the end of the season for a team that's spelling off. But that top line looks really good for the St. Louis Blues. We'll get into that with Robert. Thomas, but pull some more things, pull a couple of more things out of this one. I don't know what it is about Rasmus Thalene. I mean, I do. He's nasty.

But that makes men go crazy. Something about Rasmus Dahlin makes men go crazy, whether it was Austin Matthews at the Outdoor Game in Hamilton, whether it was Brad Marchan earlier this season, taking his helmet to the penalty box and tearing the ear loops off of it and throwing it back on the ice, to Darren Radish and him throwing down, to Brandon Hagel popping him,

and then subsequently getting fined by the NHL Department of Player of Safety today, to say nothing of costing Yevgeny Malk in five games for attacking him with his stick. By the way, notice who one of the first getting into that scrum is, Ucapeka Lukanin. Yeah. The goalie goes, like, that is like, listen,

that is not a club. That is a team. We all know Tampa, right? You fight one, you fight all. That's never been the Buffalo Sabres. But this is the Buffalo Sabres now. This is like the team. Look, their captain is getting punched in the back of the head by Brandon Hagel.

And it's attack. Everybody, that is Tampa and that is Florida. That's how, like everybody right away, jump on. Here comes Samuelson, Josh Norris, all of them and the goaltender as well. Tell me that's a club. That ain't no club. That's a team. That is a team

that Buffalo Sabres last night. First of all, there is a grand tradition of Swedish players who have the ability to get under your skin. And maybe Dahlene is the next in that long line.

Maybe defense, but too. Usually, yeah, usually they're named Ulf. But, you know, first of all, you have to have a special talent to have,

you've gained you try to use your head as a pinata in the middle of a playoff race. But here's the thing. If you look at that, I thought about this, you look at that highlight between Hegel and Dahlene.

You'll notice something, which is that they're almost at the same height. And I wonder if, ultimately, part of the thing with Dahlene is he's not Hedman. And you feel as though this guy is taking liberties with you and I could take him. You know, it's so like it just becomes catnip for these guys to try to get their comeuppance on somebody

who's, you know, clearing the crease and using a stick and all the things that Dalian does so well because they both like, Brandon Hagel, listen, it's kind of a fearless player anyway. Like he's throwing, he's going to throw down with like Kachuk and all those other guys. But at the end of the day, I'm sure they,

these guys look at Raspus Dahlene and they're just like, I can, I can take that guy. I guess, but it's got to be more than that. Like he's a bit of NASA. Say, here's what started to kick everything off. Like guys going after Tage Thompson.

And then again, like the whole team getting in. Like I'm firm. I firmly am convinced that because I don't think that Tampa does anything that's not planned. I think, and there's Darren Radish, you know, pulling Deline out of the pack and here comes the scraps. I'm firmly convinced that Tampa went in there to test Buffalo physically to see if we can run these. Because there's probably a feeling that, look, we probably are going to meet these guys in the playoffs in the second round. Let's see if we can run them out of their home barn. They're on the winning streak.

Everyone's talking about Buffalo, best team in the NHL going back to December, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, talking proud again. Everyone's in love with Buffalo. Let's see if we can run them out of their own building. Your theory is boosted by one salient fact about last night's extremely high scoring. What was it? The highest number of goals and a largest number of penalty minutes in a single game since 1994. God bless it. Who didn't play for Tampa?

Andre Vasselisky. And so you say to yourself, Oh, I see what you're saying. If you were ever going to go and try to make a statement and maybe take a mulligan on a win, it's probably going to have maybe the best goal in the league this season, do respect to Elias Sroken, between the pipes. So I wonder if there was a little bit of that in the planning as well. What other person I want to pull out of this?

And this is kudos to Kevin Adams on this one. Josh Stone. Are we, again, are we willing to say right now, because at the time we didn't, are we willing to say Kevin Adams won that trade? J.J. Peturka for Josh Donne and Michael Kesselring. Don't's got 20 goals, man.

And he was in the middle, and in the most emotionally high stakes game of the season for the Buffalo Sabres, he didn't shrink. As a matter of fact, he got better throughout the game, ended up with two goals, first start of the game.

I'm sorry, man. Buffalo wins that trade. That was the last gift. Trade to tie. Kevin, Kevin, that Kevin Adams gave to the Buffalo Sabres. You have to balance out Donne with Kesselring. And that's why I think the trade's a tie. How do you like Kesselring going Sernak yesterday after the Dominic James incident?

Like, because you can tell that Sernak's calling him on. And you know it's about the James incident, which I, which Kesselring didn't mean to essentially cripple the guy for the rest of the season. He fell on him as they were all tangled up. obviously Sernak wanted come up and forward or you got to answer for it. They tried to get it on at the end of the first period. Officials broke it up. But to start the second and Zach just threw this up now right away, boom. Kassarang's like, okay, good, we're doing this.

Now, Surnak heard his hand in the process, probably at the toss. He didn't come back for the remainder of the game. I haven't seen an update yet. I'm not sure if you have. But so there's your, there's your injury from that game. Yeah. But I'll tell you, like, as a bottom pairing D, and the other thing that wasn't lost on people, too, is, first of all, these two teams meet again on April 6th, I believe. There's a guy that plays with the Rochester Americans by the name of Mason Gertsen, who recently played the bongos on some players with Laval on the weekend.

I wouldn't be surprised if Mason Gertson gets called up for this one. But as many people point out as well, Logan Stanley will be back by then. The point is, hold on. The point is you live for stuff like this. You're from the Troy Crowder era so you can stop. This means, like this is not over. I have nothing but love for terms. Wanted posters and tail of the tapes and all the things we used to have.

Probert and Domney and Crowder. You loved it. But your Logan Stanley thing just reminded me of what a ultimately bummer of a trade deadline it was for the Buffalo Sabres. The law of diminishing returns. The guy we're talking to in 15 minutes down to. Colton Perrako is saying I'd rather eat ProVal pizza down to, you know, Stanley and Luke Shen. It was a lot of diminishing returns, I think, on that one for me. I actually, to be honest with you, I thought the Buffalo Sabres were going to add more American hockey league depth.

Because the one thing I think you look at with the Sabres is like they look really good, obviously. I just don't know that if they're going to have any kind of playoff run and they get more than one player injured, whether they have enough guys that they can call up from the American Hockey League that can step in. It's kind of crazy. It's kind of crazy when you think about how their prospect pipeline has been flowing, right, for the last couple of seasons when they've been wandering the wilderness as a non-playoff team. But that was one of the factors in the Rob Thomas trade was the idea that, like,

they would have gutted their entire system to try to make that trade happen if they weren't going to trade anybody off the roster. So, I mean, you're right. Surprisingly, quality, young depth might actually be a problem for the Sabres right now, which is kind of mind-blowing when you consider the pipeline that they've had. But we'll see what happens. So you have a – you're kind of dancing around what's happening here, which is that you're praising this game. It's old-time hockey.

They're a team not a club. Your Sabers boner right now is just like you can't hide it. Hang on. What are you talking about? That's exactly right. What's that? Exactly right. What you're saying?

Back of the back of the bus. I got that one of his He can't obscure what's happening right now with the sabers. I better be wearing dark pants right now. I got that one of seven years old at Maple Leaf Gardens. I got a bunch of this. One of my first, actually, you know what? Here, I just have them here.

Just keep them here for such an occasion. So these are, no, these are like, I don't collect much. This is just things that I, these are my, the first things that I, like, bought as a kid, going to hockey games. My dad would take me to have Maple Leaf games, Toros games, Marley's games at Maple Leaf Gardens. and for whatever reason, I just love, we all do, love like cool logos.

So I got your LA Kings. Oh, this beautiful. The old, gold and purple. Toronto Toros, there you go, raging,

W.H. A Toreau. Yeah. There you go. Bill Torrey, thinking of you, pal. A gorgeous New York Islanders logo.

Yeah. Les Abitant, the Montreal, love that one. Old school Vancouver. Oh, still my favorite Vancouver logo.

And the wings. And Buffalo's because I grew I grew up with the voice of Ted Darling. And still in my mind, as I'm watching this, I'm hearing the voice of Ted Darling calling all of it. See, this is important because I think that your love of the Sabres is a vital thing to remember because I, listen,

as the wagon train rolls on, there have been more than a few people trying to pile on to this thing, trying to show that they've always been in the Sabres corner. A few ex-player podcasts that all of a sudden are like waving the rally towels for the Buffalo Sabres in ways they were not in previous seasons. But they haven't been good. I don't mind that. I don't mind that.

Like, I've slammed them too. You know, last year they were Chicago fans. And then they were like, come on. So, like, I'm happy that you have the dedication of some level of fandom for the Buffalo Sabres. So at this moment in which they're turning the corner, they're America's sweethearts. There are the next St. Louis Blues that you have, you have a right to say, I was there. I was there. I was there when McGillney broke his leg.

I was there for a lot of things at the old, I was there. the old auditorium. Look, as far as like America's team, the reason I love the Sabres too is I grew up as we've talked about before. It's a blending of Canadian and American fans and you play the Canadian National Anthem at the odd as well, regardless of whether there's a Canadian team

they're playing or not. Like this is like the North American team in the NHL, blend of Canadian fans and American fans, but I digress. I have no idea where this goes. They're the one, what you're saying, this is amazing because I've often said when I watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure,

What we need is our own wild stallions. We need a band that brings the world together in song. And obviously, as we all remember from all of the international play between our two countries, the relations are a little frosty. We have a little problem. So is it the Buffalo Sabres? Is it the Buffalo Sabres that bring our two great nations together through their spirited play? Their pugilism.

Their will to win. Are they the one to finally mend defenses on the border to the United States and Canada? This is a rocky clothes. I'll take a long. There it is. Yeah, I don't know about that. I don't know about that one right now. All I know is when I go to Buffalo Sabres games.

And I'm going some more. I'm going to go see the Sabres and the San Jose Sharks. Hell yeah. One, because I want to go see Sabres, but too, I want to also go see Maclin-Colabini and the San Jose Sharks. So I'm looking forward to getting there tomorrow at the Key Bank to see that one. Anything more on that game?

before I move on, because there's a couple more things we should probably deal with as well. I mean, there's a certain amount of, let's give some stick taps to the lightning and the way they rallied and made that a game. It was like 4-1, I think at one point, I'm just like, the sabres were a wagon. Then I'm looking, it's like, you know, the lightning of the lead. I'm sorry, I jinxed you. But there was, there was. Did you notice how quickly social media turned like, yeah, maybe still not ready yet. Oh, no, good try.

Good try, junior. go back to the kids table, the grownups are having dessert now. The one name that stood out for me was was, was, was, was, was, was, was, was, Coocheroff. Like, we have our new awards watch on ESPN.com today. It's the one where we poll the actual voters to see what they're thinking regarding their ballots. McKinnon still has the lead for MVP. There's a lot of, there's a lot of, speaking of Celebrity, there's a lot of Celebrity. Face sitting. Jesus.

No, you shower and I'll show her. If the sharks make it. I mean, listen, you got to get your votes any way you can. I hear it. If the sharks make it, he might win MVP. If they don't make it, he probably won't. And then there's Kuturoff. You know, Kuthorov and McDavid tied insofar as percentage of first place votes.

And I just watched Nikita in that game. I'm just like, God, man, what a player. He's just insanely good. So good. The great thing about him. And, you know, Mario was the best at this. he'll make everyone around him play to his tempo. Like whatever he's around,

whenever he has the puck, like you play at his temple. Like that's how much respect he has out there when he has the puck. Mario was the best at it. Like Mario in a lot of ways didn't need, and in that days, in those days,

like every team had like two or three enforcers. Mario never really had one. There were guys that did the job, but it wasn't like he never had his, like, his Dave Semenko or his Marty McSorre. No. He never had that. But what you found was watching Mario,

players were so scared, defensemen specifically, so scared to go near Mario because of how stupid he'd make them look, that it was like there was this ring of empty ice all around Mario as he skated down the ice because guys were just too scared to approach him. Like I've never, I've never seen a more skilled player. It's like McDavid. It's like, how do you stop McDavid? You put a body on him.

Okay, how? Like, where? Huh? You're going to try? He will put it through your legs. It's like, it's like, you know, they rhyme. Yeah. Where are you on MVP by the way right now?

I'm curious. You know, like I said, I'm still, I'm still Maclin Celebrini on this one. I think it's hard not to be. Yeah. Just considering, look at, you know, from two down, what he's done to this team. And the, and the other thing, too. This isn't really sort of quantifiable, although Matthew Schaefer, and you've talked about this at ESPN.com, he's brought Joy back to a hockey team. He's brought, like, listen, part of the draw tomorrow going to the Sabre Sharks game is I just want to go watch Macklin Celebrating.

And we've talked about how many players are there in the league at any given time that you would pay just to watch them, right? There was once upon a time. It was just Sid and Ovi. And that was it. Now there's many more now. But still, it's not as if, you know, every single team has like three or four guys. you're dying to go see. That'd be a good list to put together on the show on a rainy day.

By the way, yeah, it's a huge gap between Celebrini and Will Smith. There's other gaps. McKinnon's gap on his team is pretty significant, too, and the same thing with Futureoff. But I don't know, we'll see where goes. I will say that Matthew Schaefer did get his first heart vote, first place vote in this edition. He did, eh?

They got one for his place vote. Yeah. Wow. I don't know that I'm there. I'm not so sure that I'm that. He is impressive. I'm just not so sure that I'm there. Hey, you mentioned Connor a couple of seconds ago.

Watching that Oilers Vegas game, something became pretty apparent. And it's always into when you put them side by side. Now, first of all, when you have the strengths of skill that Connor McDavid has, you know, I remember who was it? It might have been Stan Bowman,

who said, like, if you have a 40 goal score, it's your job as a coach to turn them into a 50 goal score. So let's not turn someone into something that they're not. You know, let's not turn a 40 goal score into a 20 goal score who might win the Selke. But it's really obvious when the two teams meet each other, how Jack Eichol has completely changed his game since he started in the NHL, where Connor has said, I have this skill set that's better than everybody else and I can do it faster than anybody else. I'm just going to keep putting the pedal down and keep getting faster and keep getting more skilled where I'm,

Eichel went the other direction. There's that baseline of skill. And he's like he's gone about it and said, and I'm going to add this and I'm going to add that and I'm going to add this. And he's become a much different player than he was when he first started in the NHL, whereas Connor McDavid has said, I'm here as I start in the NHL as a game against St. Louis Blues, a Thursday night. And I'm just going to take what I have and make it the best that you've ever,

ever possibly seen. And it's just really, really obvious when Edmonton faces off against Vegas how the two players have gone in different direction. I guess we could extrapolate some things from that in the sense that one of them has a cup and one of them doesn't. Gold medal. I will say this.

Go ahead. Go ahead. Gold medal. I will say this though. Ikel got a first place vote for the Selke, but you know who got two first place votes? I was surprised by this. Two first place votes. Really? Yeah. And so if you look at his numbers, I went on natural

Static yesterday to double check this. Their goals against per 60 5 on 5 with McKinnon on the ice is insane. Like it's so good. Like Patrice Bergeron good. And so I was marveling at it because you know, with the trade of John Carlson,

I was thinking a lot about the Rock the Red Capitals and what they used to be and all that stuff. And there was definitely a time as a team and then also in particular as a player in Mike Green when no one bought the idea that the best defense is a great offense. No one bought it. They're like, this is bullshit. Like, this is just because you're trying, you're trying to, you know, massage the message

and get us not to be critical of the fire wagon hockey you guys play. But look no further than Nathan McKinner, who gets a gigantic, you know, percentage of shot attempts. He gets a gigantic percentage of goals for at five on five. Again, like, he might, he might, he's not, you know, Alexander Barkoff when it comes to the defensive play, but he doesn't need to be if the puck is never in the other zone. And so I found that to be kind of interesting that maybe maybe 16 or 17 years after the fact, Merrick, we're finally coming around to the idea that the great offensive player can also be a great defensive player by virtue of his offense. We had that conversation about Carlson as a defender, right?

Have we? I don't know. Maybe that might have been on your trade deadline show. No, that no, that no, I'm saying like once upon a time. Like there was that conversation about Eric Carlson and how much time is actually spent in the office? Oh, Eric Carlson. No, no. Eric, Eric Carlson, like how much time is spent in the offensive zone.

And the theory behind it being like the best way to defend is not to have the puck in your zone. Right. Right. The other thing about Eric Carlson that never got any credit was like when he would make a mistake and Lord knows he'd make a mistake, his McDavid except defensemanesque speed would allow him to make up for it frequently. And he never really got credit to deserve for that. How'd you like his pick yesterday on David Pasternak on the edge on the Tommy Novak goal? on the Novak call. I mean, listen, he's a crafty vet at this point, Mary. Well, okay, so Jay Woodcroft on the show last year, actually was my first guest on the show.

And one of the things that we talked about is what they used to run in Detroit all the time. They can see it here. Watch. Oh, I'm just trying to get out of his way. Referee. I'm just trying to get out of the way. I'm just trying to get out of David Pastor Nax way so we can interrupt this past to Novak. what Jay Woodcroft talked a lot about,

which they did in Detroit with Babcock, him and Todd McClellan, better than any other team. You see how upset, obviously. Obviously, the Boston Bruins are. But you know what Jay said in Detroit? You know what they referred to that as? They referred to that as a one-minute penalty.

Technically, it's interference. But it's not like so egregious that as an official, you'll be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's too. But if in the rulebook you could award a one minute penalty, that would be a one minute penalty. It's a tough one, though, because it's such a situational call. Like, I was mildly surprised that they didn't whistle that, considering the circumstances on that play. The stakes were so high, yeah.

Yeah, the steak were so high. That's usually when you see that kind of play whistled. But yeah, it was really fun. I was like, Carlson's just like, oh, wait, no, I was going to go this way straight through your chest. I'm sorry. I didn't realize that you were there. I'm new in this league. I don't know where to go.

I'm kind of lost. What do we do? geez. We saw a couple of interesting plays. There was Barcel on Celebrini as well in that Islander's San Jose game that had that And we also saw

We also saw Bo Horvatt and What was it, William Meckland on the bench? Did you see what that was? The interesting thing about that, I think it was To Foley that like reached out with his stick to poke Horvatt in the back from the bench. Now I understand that there's, it's not as if he pierced his skin as if

it was a captain Quig Harpoon. But it was a little poke from the bench, which I know the NHL kind of frowns at. So I was interested to see. I don't think anything came down the pike on to follow. Now, no, I don't think for Toffoli and Horvatt with the fine on that one. Now, video came out today. Steph Rosson

retweeted it. There is video of what happened before, which is it was a scrum in front of the San Jose bench and William Eklund grabbed Bo Horvatt stick and pulled it onto the bench and threw it down the hallway. And so the response, I

like, honestly, I put the tweet out and I'm like, When I grow up, I want to be a hockey player. Sorry, you can't do both. So this is like completely juvenile behavior by two alleged adults, one grabbing a hockey stick and throwing it down the hallway. I love it, but I love dumb hockey. So are the sharks a club or a team right now? I'll tell you what. I think there's still a club.

There's still a club. But one of the things that really impresses me is Ryan Worsowski and how structurally sound this team already is. Yep. Right? Like, I was talking to someone about this this morning. The Anaheim ducks are getting all the flowers right now, although, you know, St. Louis just had their way with them last night. We'll get to Robert Thomas here in a second.

I don't know that their structure is as good as San Jose's, but San Jose just doesn't, outside of, you know, Celebrating at Times, but they don't really have the talent there yet. But what we're soft, what we're soft is building there, I think it's going to be really, really good for a long time. I agree. And Mike Rear as well. And my career, 100%.

100%. Okay, let's get to our feature guest. He's a member of the St. Louis Blues, who yesterday made a very, very sweet pass in front to Snuggierood for a goal as they had their way with the Anaheim Ducks. He's Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues. And he joins us now.

First of all, A, glad you're healthy. B, great pass last night. C, you and Holloway look really, really good together. But what was up with last week? Was that like the craziest week? Was that like the craziest week of your career? Yeah, it was definitely up there for sure. It was tough on the family.

And yeah, I mean, we all kind of knew a little bit of what was going to happen in a couple weeks leading up to the deadline. And yeah, I think it got a lot crazier than I thought it would. Yeah, it was just like this ball that kept on, you know, rolling and gathering more and more and more steam. First of all, did you anticipate that this might have, like these conversations would even happen around trade deadline? Because I'll be honest, a lot of us were stunned. Like,

we're all stunned, most of us, yeah. Yeah, no, you know, Doug gave us a pretty good heads up. There was a group of us and that stuff in conversations like that were going

to happen. And, you know, he wasn't sure where it was going to lead. But I think just giving us the heads up was kind of prepared us a little bit and, you know, obviously you didn't have to do it, so it was really nice of them. It must be tough when it becomes apparent that your current team may not have you in their plans anymore.

That being said, what an ego stroke to have fans from another NHL city chanting your name in the hopes that a trade could happen. Ravi, the Buffalo fans were chanting your name on the rumor that you might be traded there. How did that feel? Yeah, that was pretty interesting. You know, I had heard about it. I didn't think it was true. And then, you know, one of my close buddies here, his brother was at the game and said it happened.

So, yeah, that's, I mean, it's pretty cool, obviously. You know, that team and organization has really flourished this year and the city's alive. And I remember just after the Anaheim game, we took a peek at the Buffalo Tampa game. And it just looked like probably the craziest game of the year. So, yeah, it's pretty cool. I was going to accent. I know you were playing Anaheim last night. You had your way with the ducks.

It was a really nice performance by your squad. But I was going to ask, like, as a team, like, would you guys go and look at what was happening between the Sabres and the Tampa Bay Lightning? Like, that game, like, it was 8-7, and it was ripped out of the pages of 1987 with the fights. And the only thing missing from that game was a save. But that's fine.

We don't need saves every night. Like, you guys have a look at that. And if so, like, what goes through your mind? Yeah, I mean, after every game, you always check around the league, you see what, you know, other teams are doing, check on your buddies and different things like that. So, yeah, I think, you know, just seeing 8, 7 kind of caught your eye, and then you look through and saw how many fighting majors and all that stuff,

and then you end up watching the replays. And yeah, we were watching it on the bus after and we're like, holy crap, that's a wild game. And I'm sure it would have been fun to watch as a fan. I had two questions about the Buffalo thing. And I ain't going to, you know, just. drill down too deep on this and we want to move on to talk about other stuff but um i know colton perico got so far down the line that he that he talked to yarmo did you did your situation get that far where

you're talking to kekakalinen no no i was i was never asked um you know anything from the blues it was you know everything you know that i heard was coming from you know the insiders and different things online and um yeah you know i just want to be clear i was never asked and uh nor did I ever asked for a trade. I want to ask about Colton, though, because he was asked, famously. As a player, not necessarily as a teammate, do you take some pride in the way that Colton handled this no trade situation? Like, we've seen plenty of guys where the news gets out, and all of a sudden, all the

insiders are talking about a trade. If he waves, it'll happen kind of thing. And then they wave, either maybe because they wanted to or because there's public pressure. But Colton didn't wave. He kind of flexed his contractual right to reject a trade. What were your thoughts on that, maybe not only you, but also the boys, in seeing a player use that right the way that Colton did in such a public way? Yeah. You know, obviously a really tough situation for him to be put in.

You know, with it going public. I know, a lot of people felt bad for him, you know, including, you know, people in our organization. So it was a really tough spot for him. You know, he's a guy that he's been here ever since I've been here. and he just loves the city of St. Louis. You know, he spends his off-season here. There's no one more blue than him. So it was a really hard spot for him.

And, you know, I think he did, you know, went through a process and really weighed a lot of pros and cons and ultimately, you know, came to the decision. He wasn't ready to move on. And just as teammates, you love to see it. You know, you hate to see guys go, especially guys that you've won with. You know, it's really hard to see those guys

go like Schenner and so we're so stoked that he stuck around. Let me ask you about no trades. Like I go into every contract that I watch in NHL player sign. I assume that both sides are going at it in good faith. Okay, like the team is approaching in good faith and the players approaching good faith. And no trades are usually asked for and given in exchange for maybe less money, whatever. players earn them and they get them as a way to entice that player to go to that team. When a player gets asked to waive a no trade, essentially, to me, it's a team saying to a player,

give me something in exchange for nothing. I want you somewhere else and it's just going to be an inconvenience for you, period. And I know I'm asking a player this and saying bringing up an idea that's ultimately going to put more money in your jeans. So maybe I'm asking the wrong person, but I've lobbied for the idea that the players associations should push for, if you're going to ask a player to waive a no trade, there should be a mechanism where that player can get compensated, right? Because asking a player to waive and then trading them gives the team something and the player nothing. Would you be in favor of, and I think

I know the answer is, a situation whereby if you agree to waive, there's a monetary figure that comes back your way. You know, Robert Thomas, Colton Pereko, Braden Chen, whatever, agree to waive their no trade. And in exchange for doing that, they get a an extra 750,000 or a million dollars, however you want to work it out. A, have you ever heard that one before? Has that ever been talked about amongst you guys? Like, you know, we're getting asked to wave and we're not getting anything out of it. Yeah, I mean, everyone loves money, so I don't see why not.

No, I've never heard of that one before. Yeah, it's an interesting idea. I don't know how it would really work, but, um, Yeah, I'm sure the players would be on board for that. Merrick, Merrick loves this idea so much. And every time he brings it up, I'm like, okay, so how does it count against the cap?

And then he just clams up for a while. No, it's fine. That's all part of CBA negotiation, baby. Come on. I'm just trying to put money in players' jeans here. These guys just got back to the Olympics, Merrick. You don't want them taking that off the table, do you? You mentioned Shannon a couple of seconds ago,

and listen, you're going to play against the New York Islanders. I know this is a reality that all players face. Is that one going to be different? Like, is that one going to be different? for the St. Louis Blues facing off against Raiden Chen against the L, playing against the Islanders later on this week? Yeah, it's going to be a tough night. Obviously, someone that was just so loved in St. Louis,

you know, a huge part of winning the first cup ever in St. Louis and, you know, great leader, great captain. And, yeah, it's going to be, I know, you know, St. Louis is going to, they loved him and they're going to show up and really celebrate them and show their appreciation for how much you did for the city and the team. And yeah, it's going to be definitely an emotional night. So you signed your contract, I think July 2022 if memory serves. And obviously the St. Louis Blues are in a different place now than you probably imagine they'd be in 2026.

First of all, where's your head right now as far as your long-term future with the blues? And secondly, is that hard to process when you've committed long-term to an organization? and you just see it kind of take a turn a little bit? Or is it something that when you sign, you're like, this could happen. I got to take the risk. Yeah, no, obviously we're not in a spot that we thought we would be in. You know, that part's frustrating. You know, we've been playing a lot better after the break

and I feel like we really, really caught on to something. But, yeah, no, my commitment to the blues has never changed, you know, behind the scenes in conversations. You know, I'd always wanted to win here as a big part. and as a leader. And, you know, that's something that I made clear. And, yeah, that part of my mind hasn't changed yet. You know, obviously there's been a lot of conversations about what it looks like going

forward. But, you know, that's what my stance has been. And it hasn't changed yet. And, you know, I love being in St. Louis. You know, one of the positives that we have seen, too, on the ice, you have like this, special connection with Dylan Holloway. Like you and Dylan Holloway together and that passed yesterday just snug root

and the Anaheim game was sweet and the release was great. The whole sequence was exceptional. What is it about you and Holloway though? I was having a conversation with someone about this this morning. Like everybody's sleeping on this. It's one of the best pairs going right now, Robert Thomas and Dylan Holloway.

What's with that? Yeah, I think just, you know, his vision is awesome. Like, obviously everyone knows he's got a great shot. He can skate well, but, you know, he makes a lot of plays. He comes up with a lot of pucks in the corner, and he's looking for the slot right away. And same with Snuggie, too. Like, he's his shot, I think everyone knows. But, you know, he's developed, like, a patience with the puck.

You know, he's using his body a lot more and taking that extra second. And, you know, he made a pass to me the game before in San Jose, where, you know, I didn't even think he was going to get it off. He didn't even look, and he just. fired it right on my tape. So those two guys are playing really well. And I think the biggest thing with Holly is, you know, righty lefty, having that where you guys can work in opposite corners and the other guy being the slot and it be a one-timer. You know, that's something that's, you know, really underrated. Let me ask you about the cup team. Because I said to somebody last

week, though, I don't think I've talked about the blues this much since Brett Hall was on stage for your cup celebration. But I wanted to, but I wanted to, but I wanted to ask. ask you like you know every time a team catches fire and i think buffalo is kind of that team right now there's always comparisons to the way that your team your blues team kind of found themselves inside the season and then got rolling and then obviously carried that over to the postseason do you remember anything in particular that was sort of a harbinger or kind of told you that that that was happening in the moment um when you look back on it um it's it's hard to pick one thing i think you know confidence is such a huge thing.

Like there's being confident and then there's just like a mindset where you feel like you're unstoppable. And, you know, our team felt like we were unstoppable that year. It didn't matter if we were down two goals in the third period. You know, we just found a way to come back, get it to overtime and maybe win. And that's just the way it felt. It kind of felt like that last year after the break as well when we went on that big run. So, you know, there's just.

ways that teams be confident and I feel like that was a huge part of it. What was, because there were a couple of moments in that season. And I remember talking to Pat Maroon about this. He was, they were going to send him down to the American Hockey League. And I've talked to him about, you know, there's no guarantees that Pat Maroon comes back up. And now he finished his career, his career was Stanley Cup rings. Jay Beaumester was going to get scratched. Like there was like, it was like every couple of days.

the coaching change. Like there was something like, it was just like you guys were getting hammered on every few days. Like was there one moment you looked at and you said like, well, it can't get any worse than this. You know, like you got veteran players like Joe

like Joe Boe Meade. Like Jay Bowme's, I don't know that I don't know, maybe you clearly you shared a dressing room with him so you'll be able to tell us more than that I will. But like, he's always just like chilled out Jay Beaummeister. And he was like mad. There was that game in Toronto. He was like livid. And I was like,

this is serious because this isn't the Jay Bowmeister that we know. Like was there a moment in the season where you're like, man, this is, this is awful. Like, how do we get out of this? Yeah. Honestly, for me, like, it was my first year. I was just so happy to be there. You know, it was a pretty. Every two weeks, this is the best.

Yeah, you get past your 10 games and you just look at the next mile zone. So, yeah, no, it was, you know, obviously. a lot of turmoil and uncertainty. And, you know, for me, it presented an opportunity to really jump up, you know, the lineup, jump into a role that I felt like, you know, I could really contribute to the team. And so, so for me, there wasn't really as much hardship as, you know, now I'm going through it on the other side of it. And we got a lot of young guys who are kind of jumping in the lineup.

So now I understand it a lot more. But for me, it was just every day. It was just so awesome to be there. and so I didn't really have a moment like that. Last one for me, you know, it's hard to gauge what the blues are this season because they have the misfortune of being in maybe the best division I've ever seen under the current playoff format. Like Colorado, Minnesota, Dallas, all top five.

Utah's good. You know, here come the Jets, five points out of the wild card right now. You know, Nashville's hanging around. What was it like on a night-to-night basis just trying to gain any traction whatsoever against that division? Yeah, you know, just the first half that, you know, Colorado just seemed to never lose. You know, then Minnie makes the big Quinn Hughes trade and they don't lose for a long time. And, you know, Dallas has always been really good. So, yeah, it was definitely tough.

You know, we just couldn't find our footing. We seem to be, you know, for the majority of the season of 500 team and just couldn't string together a couple win streaks. and which is what you need to do. And, you know, then we found ourselves in this situation. But, yeah, it's a tough division to look at, you know, so many good teams and teams that are definitely Stanley Cup contenders. So it makes for an interesting night every night. And we feel like we're gaining momentum here and, you know, you never know. Let me ask you mentioned some of the younger players.

and there's one that sort of stands out to me. And he played in the O.H.L. as an import. And that's Dallabor Dvorsky, who really seems to have taken a step this year. You guys, you know, better than Greg and I do, obviously. What should we know about Dallabor Dvorsky? Because he looks like he's, like so much of St. Louis's decisions now may just hinge on how quickly this guy can be a two-see. Yeah, I mean, he's grown a lot. You know, it's tough being a young center in the league.

You know, a lot of us like me start on the wing and kind of get a couple years on the wing before they move you to center. And he's a guy that, I mean, I think everyone saw it at the Olympics. He's got the capability to be a really good player in this league. And, yeah, he's a young centerman, so it's going to take time. But just his progress throughout the year, like even last game he was taking empty net face-offs like there there's a lot of trust they're

gaining in him and um you know his his hockey IQ is what what makes it for him you know he can skate he's not you know the best skater in the world neither are a lot of us but um you know really smart player he's got he's competitive he wins a lot of those those battles down low in the d zone and then you know offensively you know especially on the power play of the half all he's got a great one-timer and he sees the ice really well. So he's a huge part of the future here. A quick follow up to that. What is the hardest thing about being a young center in the NHL?

Is it just like having strengthened face-offs? Like what is it down low support and a defensive zone? Like what's the hardest thing as a young center? You went through it. Yeah. I mean, you know, face-offs, let's get into the linesmen. You don't get to cheat when you're young. So you got to play it by the book and you get screwed sometimes.

But, yeah, especially in the D zone. You know, we run a man on man. So you got to, as a centerman, you're usually picking up, you know, one of the top forwards out there. And, you know, it's tough. There's a lot of skilled players. You know, sometimes you get stuck out, especially in our division against, you know, McKinnon and Caprizov, a lot of those things. And, you know, he's done a good job of getting used to it. You know, it's funny.

It's funny. Matthew Shane told me that once where, like, if you make a mistake in junior, it might end up you in the back of your night, you make a mistake in the NHL. One of the best players in the world is grabbing up. They're going the other way. He's coming right after you, yeah. You know, it's funny you mention face-offs and getting to know linesmen. I was just in Brantford last week and talking to Caleb Malhotra.

He's going to be like a top five pick in the NHL this year. He's a center. He's man. He's kid. And Jay McKee, who's the coach of the Bulldogs, your former team, said that Malhotra came up to the beginning of the year and said, can you make me a list of the first names of all the linesmen in the OHL so I can have that kind of relationship for him?

Nudge, nudge, drop the puck closer to me on face-offs. But I just thought that that was like such a, obviously having your dad go through the NHL kind of helps. But I just thought to myself, I'm hearing you talk about that getting to the linesmen. Oh, yeah, that's the benefit of being a second generation player. Yeah, no, 100%. That was something, you know, Big Walt taught me pretty early on is you got to be really nice to those guys.

They'll drop the puck closer. They'll drop the puck closer. But thanks so much for doing this. Robert, you're the best stand-up guy. And thanks so much for stopping by today. Continued success with this hotline, man. It looks really good. Keep it rolling.

Yeah, I appreciate it, guys. Good chat. There he is. Robert Thomas from the St. Louis Blues. It's funny, Peggy Chapman who works with the, you can see it on Peggy's Twitter, she put up pictures of the,

I've talked to him professionally, so many different times, even going back to Junior. And Peggy put these pictures that Peggy Chapman still works with the Bulldogs of the first time, interviewing Robert Thomas,

which would have been at the Memorial Cup when he was playing with the Bulldogs, and he's still got the tooth out, and I look younger. He looks like 11 teen, and now here he is, like star in the star.

started in the NHL with the best teeth in the league by the way we should it's got good teeth let's let's talk let's talk about what he said though sure said he's not had a reason to wave or consider leaving the blues yet yet what is yet where where do we get when do we get to yet do you think don't know don't know like don't forget too like he's got a young family as well like that that that is I don't it's a complication because having a family is never it is not a no but i i always hate calling it a complication because that's freaking life oh i don't i don't want to consider like life a complication like you don't want to talk about it transactional yeah i get yeah you know it's like

so he's he's got a young young family so that is that is one thing to to consider as well um that's the part by the way it's part of it's a part of the trade deadline i think that fans are becoming more cognizant of and i think the media is one of the reasons why like for example, all those questions that Vincent Trotrack answered with the Rangers last week and leading up to the trade deadline. Now we know how his son feels about the trade line. And when Chris Drury doesn't pull the trick around a trade, our first thought is, man, that guy had to go to his family and be like, Daddy might have to leave and then he's not leaving.

Like what an emotional journey for those kids to have that happen. But that happens to a lot of guys. I was telling the story of deadline. Speaking of the St. Louis Blues, like there was, you know, years ago, I can still recall talking to St. Louis had a road trip over trade deadline and Patrick Bergland as one person from St. Louis mentioned to me has packed more bags for this road trip thinking he wasn't going back than he's ever seen a player take on a road trip like four like oversized stuff back because he's thinking like I'm getting dealt them. I'm never coming back. I'm packing everything.

But as far as like the conversations go, players have a have a heads up. Players have an idea that okay, I might be going. And so they're probably always having the conversations with their families and and having the conversations if you have a no trade where you'd be willing to go and we'll think about clod jeru once upon a time right when he went from um when when when drew went from philadelphia to florida that was the only place he was going to go Colorado had a really competitive offer for clod jeru but the conversation with with him and his wife was just florida that's it that's the only place we'll waive it's a major it's a major factor Let me say one more thing about the Pareco situation.

So, okay, we heard from Doug Armstrong, who is going a full-on mole hunt inside the St. Louis Blues organization trying to find who leaked this information. We're checking the phones or checking the emails. We're checking the texts. Who did this? Who did this? Merrick, what do you make of the fact that this is not the first time this has happened in St. Louis with a defenseman with a full no-trade clause as it happened? to Torrey Krug. You're talking about Tori Krug?

Yeah. Three or four years ago. Or to Philadelphia. Yeah, yeah, I know. Because I got to, I don't, I don't know this for sure. And we'll probably never find out because none of Doug's sources in the media are going to really, like, drill down too much and, you know, disparage the guy, especially since he's probably going to take over the leaves next year. Oh, you don't want to do that. You don't want to free yourself out of that.

But like, is it this a little bit Matt David in the departed for you? Is this a little bit like, I'm going to find the guy who's flipped, and it's certainly not me because I'm in charge of the hunt. I'm just saying, like, when you see the same team do the same damn thing twice, I'm surprised there wasn't more scrutiny of that, but that's just me. I think a lot of us had the same thought, but again, like, I don't want to throw darts at it because I don't know, but there was sort of an element of the closing scenes of usual suspects, who is Kaiser-Sosier.

There was a sort of element like that. Okay. Yeah, you look over. There's a mug with Tori Krug's name on it. You're like piecing it together. Wait a second. Wait a second. You look at the Braden Shenzhen trade.

You're like, wait, that got out too before he talked to Patrick Waugh. And then you're looking at the Robert Thomas situation. Like, wait, that got out too. They were chanting his name in Buffalo. How does this keep happening to the same team? Well, it must be the agent. Wait, they all have different agents? Well, that's incredible.

Wonder if there's a common denominator in all these. trades being leaked before a guy waves. I don't know. It's tough to say, Merrick. It's tough to say. Hard to say. I, again, I don't know. I think we've all had the same thought. But again, I don't know. We don't know. I have to go. We have to go on the results of the investigation. And apparently like I think everyone's clean as far as we know. And the, you know, the wiretapping investigation, people being called into dark rooms. Where were you on the night of the trade deadline? You know, it's, it's tough too. Because for that, for that staff. You know, if that's what the St. Louis Blues did for that staff, that's got to be unsettling for all of them.

And also has to be unsettling for the player to have his name out there publicly, where everyone thinks like, okay, this is going to be a layup that he waves because he's been asked to wave and that's the way things happen. And he'll be, you know, Muscofived, like what happened in Toronto with Matt Santina, the crew for not waving. I don't remember if you and I talked about this last week or not, but like the number of trades, that were leaked and announced and circulated on social media. It's wild. It's insane. And how many guys hadn't even agreed to them yet? It feels different.

I'll be interested to see what happens in the next trade deadline because of it. But you don't think they'll go after trade protection. Do you, the NHL? No. What's a cookie that would go back is ultimately my big question? Like, I do understand. But listen, if the NHL was so concerned, No, you know, I'm not going to draw it into the double retention thing.

No, I don't think they'd go after trade protection. I don't even though, because I don't necessarily know that the NHL looks at trades as being a major driver of interest, even though it is. Trades are a massive driver of interest to the point where I would wonder about, and again, like I've spent like a total of maybe 15 minutes of my own brain sussing this out. I have wondered if it would be wise to just create like three trade zones throughout the season. Oh. You have like you have one week early to make trades. You have one week late to make trades. And then you have one week in the summer to make trades.

Other than that, you can't make trades. You rely on your farm team. Do you get an injury exception? Like if Fiala breaks his leg and you need to get another winger. Haven't gone that far. haven't got to the point of like, okay, so what's the law of unintended consequences here? Haven't got that. I've just wondered like, would that drive more excitement?

Well, first of all, I agree with you on the trades front because there's the idea that the NHL has allowed all the salary information to exist in other places and not on their own site for the last 20 years is just mind blowing to me. That's an easy way to make your site very viable for people, especially this time of year. The second thing is like Maybe I could see something along the lines of A cap on the number of years You could have trade protection

They'll never get rid of it It's a valuable negotiating tool Like it can sometimes be the difference between A player choosing one team with palm trees And a player choosing another team that doesn't have Okay, okay Then So again like I'll always ask

If the NHL is going to go after that what's a cookie that the players association gets in return? And is it your boy Jeffrey's idea of compensating players to waive no trades? Or is it 51.49? Oh, geez. Yeah. I mean, that'd be a big ask of the players. Like, that'd be a big ask of the players.

And I don't think the NHL has asked the players for anything that's significant in recent memory entering these CBA negotiations. So I wonder what ultimately would be. I do want to mention one more thing about Gary Betben. And I was listening to John Oran's Puck newsletter podcast with Gary Bettman today. It's a really good chat. I highly recommend people listen to it for the state of NHL television. The ratings are really good.

What he thinks about the Olympics going forward. But the one thing he said, this is amazing to be Merrick. The topic of heated rivalry came up. And the topic of Gary Betman binging heated rivalry. And I give credit to John Oran because he asked the question that I was curious about with Bettman was, did he fast forward? did he fast forward? Did he put it at 2X during some of the scenes and heated rivalry that maybe aren't necessarily palatable for the man, a man of his experience? And Gary Betman to his credit said, I did not fast forward at all when I watched it.

So there you go. Great question. How we know. First of all, great question. Great question by John. And listen, that has been one of the most important things for hockey this year hands. easily down not and and and not even close as far as god how many times do we have the conversation about growing the game growing the game growing the game growing the game that has gone well i say

hopefully that has gone a long way to make people feel comfortable he uh he also met with jacob tyranny the the the producer of the the showrunner for hated rivalry he said and uh i don't know if I mentioned it here or not, but like, I've been told from people that Gary Batman is cognizant that the commissioner of the, uh, MLH in Heated Rivalry is the villain of the next book. And so I wonder if he had a conversation with Jacob Tierney. Like, could you, could you something? Maybe just, you know, but yeah, so that's an interesting little thing to wait for when we get season two Heated Robbery on Crave and HBO Max. I'm going to have to listen to that, uh, to that podcast.

hear that interview. Anything else before we wrap here? I can't believe a goalie didn't get moved. That was one of my losers for the trade deadline. Like I know why a goalie doesn't get moved because it's very hard to integrate a goalie into a system and, you know, the price of this guy's going to be really high. Yeah. And Ryan Miller scared everybody and Ryan Miller scared everybody and how GMs don't make moves

to deadline with the goalies because of Ryan Miller. There's just so many teams that could have used one. I'm a little surprised that not one went. And then the other thing I want to say is, What is Rod Bindamore thinking? Like, what is Rod Bindamor thinking? Like, you're GM. I'll tell you what he's thinking.

Go ahead. Please. Rodbrenn Mour is thinking he didn't like getting beaten up and pushed around and sang kicked in their players' faces against Florida. That's why they made the move for Nick Deloree. Yeah. Right? No, no, no, no. You know what?

You know what got Deloree traded to Carolina? A.J. Greer. A.J. Greer last year. And the way that he behaved. and just ran show on Carolina and kept going, like up and down the bench and all the players saying, you're not going to do anything about this. What are you going to do about? You're not doing anything about this.

And they didn't. For a guy like Rod Vindamor? Listen, I'm not talking about the Deloree thing. I'm talking about the fact that if I'm, and correct me if I'm wrong, but like, didn't Brindamor lament the fact that they didn't make a big blockbuster trade at the deadline and said that the players were kind of down about it? my friend Jason Jason Gregory was talking about that on run down too Eric Tolstkey gave Jake Gensel

he made a run at at Rantin and it didn't work out he flipped Rantin to get you some good players like all right so he didn't he didn't swing with the fences this time but man Jesus like two out of three years you've gotten the bell of the ball I'll tell you what like I get that yeah he's been handed a Ferrari a couple of years in a row in his driveway I get it um but the thing that I keep coming back to

in the Eastern Conference specifically everybody, the Florida Panthers are not going to be in the playoffs. This is the year you go for it. Pittsburgh, Boston, Carolina, all the – this is the year you go. Because we think Florida's coming back next year. I don't think anyone has the impression. They're not just going to be like, oh, well, we had our nice little run, and now we're going to coast on the fumes.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Panthers are going to be back next year. And we can see them zipping back to the Stanley Cup final. But they're on the sidelines. This is a year to go for it. Like you got a major hurdle. Out of the way. No one pushed in that entire conference.

It's kind of great. Detroit added a second pairing defenseman. But he's good. And David Perron. And David Peron. And David Peron, right. And then Buffalo made their law of diminishing returns trades. But I mean, like, you're right.

No one took a huge swing in a year when you figure with Florida on the sidelines you'd want to take it. But again, the other thing about me and Carolina is that like the entire year, they've been talking about how they don't need that guy. Because now they have more scoring up and down. lineup than they've ever had. So I don't know. It was a neat thing for him to say about his GM because I think this GM did right by Brindam Moore at least two of the last three years. Here's the thing about toughness.

Here's the thing about toughness. And I'll equate this to what Harry Sindh did used to say about goaltending. Okay. Harry said you say goaltending is like oxygen. I don't think about it until I don't have it. Okay. And I'll say the same thing about toughness. Right?

Toughness is the same way. And ask everyone who has it, just like, yeah, we got this luxury at it. It was cool. We don't tend to think a lot about it because, you know, you're Washington. You've had Tom Wilson forever. But you're the Carolina hurricanes. You think about it because you don't have it. How many times have you seen a team get run over?

And then there's a reactionary moved by the general manager. It's like, we will not let that happen again to us. You knew the potential was there the whole time. You knew Tampa was going into the Key Bank Sunday afternoon and saying, We're going to see if we can run these guys. I mentioned earlier, we're going to see if we can run these guys out of their own barn physically and good on the Buffalo Sabres for pushing back significantly

and turning that whole thing into the game of the year. But again, it's like oxygen. I don't think about it until I don't have it. That's what toughness is and it's what gold-ending is. Indeed. Yeah. All right. Awards.

ESPN.com right now. Give us a quick preview. McKinnon leads for the heart but if the sharks get in I think Celebrini wins it. Dead heat for the Norris between Werensky and McCar. Real tight race between Vasilezky and Sorokin for the Vesna

but that's not one that the writers vote on. And then Demidoff beating Schaefer for the Calder. I thought that was a pretty interesting. Kidding. What? Oh, by the way. By the way. Schaefer is unanimous

for the second street month. Okay. Not that necessarily people obsess about the Lady Bing, but the Lady Bing trophy, to me, was won last week. By whom? Braden Point. In his fight with Noah Osland, he won the Lady Bing trophy. Because he hit him once, and then Osloon went down but not down,

and was fully exposed, and Pointe had his hand back, and was going to hit him with another one, defenseless Noah Osland, and he didn't. That should get all the rules. That should get all of them. Here many of us for years, Merrick, have thought, perhaps the Lady Bing is for the players that don't fight, but I like where you've taken those.

If you follow Queensberry rules, then you do win the Lady Bing. Yes, correct. Yeah, but listen, points always been a candidate for it too. He just happened. And even within the context of him having a fight. Still a gentleman, thank you. Still a gentleman.

Gentleman fighter, the gentleman fighter. Okay. You have a good couple of days, and we'll rejoin you on, when are we back? Thursday. We'll see you again on Thursday. Yep, Thursday. As per usual. Take care, everybody.

There he is. Greg Wischinsky from ESPN at ESPN.com. All right, Zacharoo, we got to fly here. I thought Robert Thomas was excellent comma again. Like, yep, all of this. First of all, thanks to Robert Thomas for doing it. Thanks to St. Louis for making them available. at a very, very tricky time in his career.

Anything stand out for you from your old YSE, buddy? Yeah, I mean, the conversation about Piraiko and what it meant to the guys in the room and the team for him to say, I'm sticking around. Obviously, what I had a great opportunity, and we saw what the Sabres did yesterday against the lightning, where they sit now in the Atlantic Division, and that was Pryko saying,

the city, the team, my family, it all means too much to me. I'm not going to wave. I don't think it should be taken as a shot at Buffalo by anybody. I think it's very clearly an attachment to the city of St. Louis. And I think that just his comments about what it meant, him and his teammates being so stoked about Pryko saying, no, I'm not going anywhere.

I'm staying, I'm being a part of this. I thought that was pretty interesting. I always found it weird in the, in the, in the, in the Alex Petrangelo conversations and negotiations with the St. Louis Blues and how the sticking point became the no trade clause. And I always found it weird that here's a player who's saying, I want to be loyal to this organization. I don't want to go anywhere else. And that's where I want to meet you. I want to meet you, general manager, at that place where we're both saying, we're making a commitment to each other and this city. And ultimately,

And that's what cost the St. Louis Blues, Alexander Petrangelo. And he just sort of shuffled off to Vegas, another Stanley Cup. But I always found that odd, that here's a player saying, I want to make a commitment here. And then I don't think, to the point made earlier on the program, I don't think that that should be looked at in any negative light. A player is saying, no, I'm not going to wave. No. It's within their right. But he will.

He will. He's going to get booed every time he goes to Buffalo. He just, he just will. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that,

but that's kind of fun. I'll be honest. Like when Danny Healy asked, like when Danny Healy asked to get out of Ottawa, they worked out of trade with the Edmintonillers and he said, nah. I was like, oh, wow.

I want to leave so badly. Oh, yeah, but I don't like that. No, no, somewhere else yeah yeah i'll just say it's kind of different in my opinion if he gets booed by people in buffalo i think that's fun and grain of soul it's like it's it's good on buffalo people to do that like that's

fun your team is awesome you're in first place your barn is full like the chance are awesome boo the guy he chose not to come there boom sure it's uncomfortable when it goes the other way and it's list isn't going to be the scenario, but you know, a team has a chance to trade a player and the fan base wants the player trade it and he says no. And then every time he's playing at home,

then he's booed at home. Or five of them, or five of them, Zach, from memory of your team? I was maybe alluding to something there when I was talking about that one. Maybe something is in the back of my mind. That's uncomfortable.

But I think it was Jeff Carter and two first Rounders from Philadelphia. I think it was Barney, away from San Jose. Okay. It was Grabowski and a first from Montreal. Oh, right. Okay.

Sorry. Anywho. Hey, the sheet is powered by Fanduel. This is Zach's shine spot. Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season and Fandul is your home for all the action on the ice from Blue Line to Bedslip. We've got you covered all season with unique promos, live offerings, and more features to let

you play your game. Miss Puck drop, no sweat with a live same game parlay. build up your bets until the final buzzer. Download fan dual sports book today and play your game. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario, 18665331-2,600, to speak to an advisor free of charge. Zach.

Yeah, so as everybody knows, I've been at home with my parents for the last week. He'll be moving out on Wednesday, so that's exciting. but I thought it would be a nice thing to do if I made, probably, yes. I thought it would be a nice thing to do if I made everybody dinner, Jeff. So my dad has this wood-burning pizza oven and I thought, you know what, there's different uses for this. One of the things that we can fire up in there is a rotisserie, but I got distracted by the hockey games that were on yesterday by booking guests for today

in this week. And I ended up leaving it in there for too long. So you know what? Ended up happening, Jeff. What's that? The chicken didn't pan out. It ended up being laughable. The chikrin didn't pan out?

Jacob Chikran. You're kind of so creative with this. Our Tammy Panarin and Alexei Lafranier. Very good. $5 wins you $191. $0.56. The chick on. Oh, God.

Didn't pan out. It was laughing. a bowl. Marks for creativity, son. My favorite is the chick one. Which one is your favorite? Thank you. Which one is your favorite?

Yeah, I like that one. I like the Chickren one for this tonight. Also, Chickren has just been disgusting since the trade deadline. You see the clip of him scoring the other day.

Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Can I show you something? One thing I saved this for today. I thought it would just be something that you would enjoy before we left. One thing I remember people in the chat, by the way,

not loving that one. Perusufic just said, Zach. Come on. But anyways, one thing I know, Jeff, that you love,

especially about old time hockey and old time hockey photos. Shadows. I saw this photo, and I thought that you would love this. I don't know if you've seen this one. Oh, look at the shadow.

The Bears lightning game. And I thought this will be something Jeff will enjoy. That is, you know what? Like, I think I've mentioned it before. Like the Carrick family live right behind me, Jane and John. Two of the nicest people you'll ever meet in the world. I hope they have that picture. I hope that next time I go to visit,

Jane has a great donkey called Newman, who's like the coolest donkey in the world. Next time I go to visit Newman, the donkey who lives right over there. I'm going to hope that I see this picture of Carrick and Sabrin because that is gorgeous. Like that's the loss. Like that used to be every photograph in the NHL. Someone did tweet that picture to me. I'm glad you put it up and made it, made it bigger. But because that is just gorgeous.

You know, it's funny. I was having a conversation actually with Gregor yesterday about Sam Carrick. Like, first of all, that guy will do anything to be in the NHL and play hockey. When he played junior hockey, like he was a scorer, man. Sam Carrick is super talented and skilled player. And ever since then, and he scored yesterday, got in the fight with Sabrin,

scored as well, real nice goal, Farside, wrist shot. That guy consistently fights out of his weight class and still does well. That guy is such a freaking gamer. I just love him and thank you

for any time you see like a great photograph with shadows. But like honestly, you pop it up again. Honestly, Zach, how great does that look? Don't look at the two. Just look at the shadows. That is gorgeous.

That is a gorgeous picture. Yes, it's beautiful. Oh, yeah, that's awesome. Okay, well, that made my day. Okay, that's awesome. That looks fantastic. All right. That was the point.

I'm glad. Well, you did your job, son. Take the rest of the day off. No, I'll get the clips out. Let's go. Come on. Okay, so a couple of things. So I'm going to be out of town for a couple of days.

I am going to the Buffalo San Jose game tomorrow night. And then I'll be back for the show here on Thursday. Greg Returns, trying to figure something out to do for the show over the next couple of days. So stay tuned to the socials for that one. And we're also working on a very special guest coming up on Friday as well. Fingers crossed that that one does go through. Thank you a couple of people today, most notably Robert Thomas of the St. Louis Blues and the St. Louis Blues themselves for making Robert Thomas available today.

Congratulations on the win last night against Hianaheim Ducks. And as always, thanks to Greg Wyshinsky for stopping by the program from ESPN and ESPN.com. Thanks to everyone who is listening on your favorite podcast platform, watching on YouTube, participating in the chat, and have already subscribed. And if you haven't already subscribed, we please encourage you to please do so. Hope you enjoyed what we offered up on Friday on trade deadline. That was a lot of fun. And it was a real scene getting it all together. but our crew here led by Nick Carole and Amel Delich.

I thought did an exceptional job doing so. It is, as I've always maintained, a pleasure to be here with thorough professionals and people you actually enjoy working with. It's a great setup we have here. Thanks to everybody involved on today's program, most notably Zach Phillips. Look forward to you getting out of your parents' house,

but not as much as they do, as you mentioned, as well. We're back. That's true. Yeah. Thursday, maybe even. earlier this week. Enjoy the rest of your day. May all of your games

be Buffalo, Tampa, because that was just so much.