The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Secured the Bag ft. Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

Greg Wyshynski joins Jeff Marek for another MvsW Tuesday! Discussing the NHL's new Canadian TV deal with Rogers, new NCAA signings preparing to make their NHL debuts, Kiefer Sherwood's NHL hit record, Ovechkin's chase of Gretzky's record, NHL Awards, and much more...Shout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So you want a little peek behind the curtain of how things go around these parts with Greg before the show on Tuesday. So yesterday at 4.15, Greg sends me a note. I think I want to talk about Sherwood setting the hits record. And then the new Canadian TV deal drops. So we're going to get into that with Greg who's going to stop by here in about five minutes time. And we'll get into Sherwood too.

We'll talk about hits. Maybe you've heard me beefing about hits now and how they're calculated and what I think of hit stats. And I am still curious. I'm curious about a couple of things and this this might be semantics, but I'm curious when we stopped calling Goaltenders goalers and started calling them goalies There's still a few old timers they still call them goalers Cliff Fletcher I'm looking your direction and when we stopped calling them body checks and started calling them hits and How the proper way?

I'm gonna get very specific here as we say in the Atlantic the proper way to calculate a hit or body check stats Is something along the lines of? physical contact with a puck carrier that forces a change of possession. Just think about how many games you've watched, and how many times you've seen someone throw a body check, or a hit, whatever you want to call it. The puck still squirts away, player still makes a pass, puck still advances, same team keeps possession, but the player that threw the body check gets a checked box for a hit.

Essentially what I'm saying is, I don't know man, I look at hit stats with a grain of salt and go, mmm, okay, how many of all of these hits that we're seeing now, whether it's Kiefer Sherwood, whether it's Jeremy Lozahn, in these the the big hitters around the NHL, how many of the hits, Zach you need to have this information handy, get on screen right now, I demand that you know this, how many of those hits, and right now we should point out the Kiefer Sherwood is at 424, okay? How many do you think force a change of possession? I have no idea. I don't think we have that number. I don't think we do either. I'm sure somebody does. I'm sure somebody from a team that's, you know, watching or listening right now is gonna spit that back

at me at some point. But like honestly, like how many of those hits do you think by the classic definition of what a hit is and that is physical contact that forces a change of possession, how many of them actually do you think change possession? Yeah, the one thing I think is funny too, like I talk about it a lot on the post game show that I do, people bring up, oh, you know, that guy's Mitch Marner, Mielander, so and so,

they're never gonna kill that guy, they're never gonna send the guy through the glass. Like the point of the body check hitting whatever you want to call it. Mm-hmm. Separate the man from the puck. That was what I always learned when I was growing up playing. I was also a smaller guy, smaller player. Separate the man from the puck. That's the goal. Mm-hmm. And somewhere along the way way hitting became a tactic Right and it stopped becoming a way to get the puck and it started to become something we keep hearing in the playoffs

Keep hitting them keep hitting them keep hitting them more of attrition what you do in the first will show up in the third somewhere along the way It all changed and hitting became a thing as changed and hitting became a thing as opposed to a body check they got. Like it's funny you know you go back and look at like look like old games and by old I mean like 70s or even into the 80s I suppose as well. Right now, oh sorry back then it was puck first man second. Now it's take the body and if you get the puck well that's great too. That's just a bonus if you get the puck. But anyway, we're going on a tangent here.

We're going to talk about the hitting thing. We're also going to talk about the new Canadian TV deal, the 12-year deal for $11 billion. I think this is most fascinating, and we'll get into this with Greg here in a couple of seconds. I think this is most fascinating, not necessarily for what's gonna happen to the Canadian television landscape here,

but I think it's a sort of fascinating peek into what's happening with the National Hockey League, and specifically the commissioner, Gary Bettman. Gonna get into that in a couple of seconds, but first. Also, Jeff, quickly, that was 7.7 billion U.S., right? And then 11 billion Canadian. Yeah, 11 billion Canadian was 7.7 billion US right and then 11 billion Canadian yeah 11 billion 11 billion Canadian 7.7 US yeah yeah yeah what did I did I get that one wrong no no you said it you said it I just want the Auditor General here on the on the program want to make sure the sheet

ombudsman Zach Phillips any comments comments, any queries, any questions, any issues, please make them out to one Zach Phillips Esquire. All right, here we got coming up on the program today. It's going to be a fun one. We got a lot to get into and a lot of it's going to revolve around media. Daily Outline presented and powered by FanDuel, our friends and presenters make every moment more with North America's number one sports book.

And coming up on the program today, we have no shortage of things to go over. There are a number of games tonight with some significant consequences, but the main topic we're gonna talk about today, the NHL television deal in Canada. If you thought the last one was a whopper, brace yourselves, this one is even bigger.

And perhaps more interesting as well. We'll talk about all this with Greg Waszynski, a good friend from ESPN. Because it's Tuesday, folks, and Greg's here every Tuesday. So Greg is standing by. We're going to get to Greg here in a couple of seconds. Also on the program today, what do we have aboard? NCAA debuts. How cool is that?

Watching Ovechkin drop in on the bar yesterday with Ryan Leonard? Ryan Leonard makes his NHL debut tonight. Jimmy Snuggerud makes his debut tonight for the St. Louis Blues. We'll talk about hit leaders and hit stats and maybe we'll squeeze in a hit story or two. Like, I can't resist telling the Dan McGillis story because it is just too juicy. And if we have time today, one of our favorite things to do around these parts Certainly when Greg is here on Tuesday is our NHL awards And that's what we have on the table for you today

And we'll kick it all off with our good friend Greg Wyshinski from ESPN wish How are you and what did you think when you saw the massive? Deal 12 year 12 years 11 billion dollars seven point seven 12 years, $11 billion, 7.7 US. How long did it take you before you, to pick your jaw up off the ground? None of this, by the way, is confirmed by either side. This is courtesy of our friends at Sportico. We should mention that.

And the Associated Press had the details too. I mean, obviously my first thought was, how does this affect Kiefer Sherwood's hits record? Hang on, pause one second, because your audio sounds a little tinny. Oh so we're gonna we're gonna hit you on pause for one sec Wish. We're gonna get the clear lush rich dulcet old CBS war correspondent voice here of Greg Wishansie. We have you back you doing any better yet? Is that better? Oh Greg a sweet spot of the bat. Oh that's just beauty. That's good. I

think the problem is that it goes through the air pod sometimes. My point is this. Yeah. I made a joke about something about the hits record. I won't make it again. When I first heard about it I was shocked because we have so many insiders and there was no indication that this was going to happen. And then I realized, well, that's because most of the insiders are also getting paid by major broadcasting corporations in Canada, and therefore they can't even talk about this stuff if they want to.

This is why it's on the down. Where, where were our American counterparts then? Where were you USA? Where was everybody on the USA side of things? Where were you, USA? Where was everybody on the USA side of things to break this story? Well, I guess it was four. We were not on the, on the when will the Canadian rights deal get done? But I should say though, we should be, we should be because it's a massive deal for hockey related revenue.

It's a canary in a coal mine for what the next U.S. rights deal could look like. And let's face it, the way that hockey is covered in Canada and who is paying to cover hockey in Canada greatly influences and shapes the perceptions of hockey in and out of Canada. So I mean, the fact that Roger's re-ups on this massive deal is interesting on several levels. None the least being that their brand of coverage will now be how hockey is presented the majority of the time in Canada. Although I think you and I will discuss very shortly how it will not just be Rogers covering the sport. I would again, I would suspect that part of this would be would be would be sold off whether it's to to TSN

Whether it's to Amazon like I don't think this is gonna be an exclusive You know, this is gonna be one company owning Owning all of it and presenting all of these games I don't know mean I when I first saw that when I first saw the number yesterday and some of the The aspects of the deal started to leak out, I'm not sure about your brain, but the first thing that I thought about is, okay, so what are some of the things that Rogers absolutely covets and like there's no way they're going to budge often? Like what are the main drivers for hockey in Canada. And the big one is Saturday nights. And the other one is playoffs.

And those are the two that I look at and I say, okay, those two for sure. And again, this is all, I should make this up front because I used to be my employer. I am just throwing darts here and guessing at a lot of this like a lot of us are. But I'm guessing like, okay, so what are the sacred cows here, Saturday nights and playoffs. And I would imagine some tent pole events as well. What did you think?

Well, I just appreciate you putting that out there so people don't think that your key card still gets you into the Rogers Cafe. My fob doesn't work anymore. You know, fob doesn't work anymore. You're not elbowing up next to the Rogers Exec. No. On the old media deal. Yeah, so I got the 411 on this one here. I'll slide it over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I should say that obviously I work for ESPN, which is Disney, which holds half of the U.S. media deal. I am not speaking from a position of any more knowledge than you are insofar as just, you know, what's been said, what's been reported, and our own insights.

So, okay, I'm wondering why none of the coverage of this deal specified that Rogers has the exclusive rights in Canada. Because none of them did. They all talked about the years, they all talked about the money. The assumption is that Rogers has it, and then we'll sell off part of their deal to say Amazon Canada.

But I didn't see anything written that said that Rogers has it on lock. And if that's not the case, if that's not the case, whoa, then we got an even bigger waffle. Yeah, we'll get to that in a second. If that's not the case, then obviously you're thinking that the NHL then cuts a separate

deal with Amazon Canada. Every single person I've talked to in the last year, ever since Amazon Canada started getting into it with the documentary stuff, and then obviously with game coverage and buying part of the Rogers package in the last couple years, and creating their own studio show and now creating their own personalities. Like, obviously, everyone believes that they're going to be part of hockey coverage in Canada going forward as far as presentation of live games. The assumption is when you look at the amount of money Rogers spent on this deal, that they will then be the one who then sells off chunks of it to Amazon Canada, maybe even to TSN. But the fact that it was not specified in any of the reporting that that would be the thing that happens,

knowing what the NHL has been kind of saying behind the scenes insofar as the size of their next rights deals, this doesn't quite clear the bar. And so the idea that there's another component to it wouldn't be too outlandish, you know what I mean? So I think that the logic is Rogers pays out the ass for this thing and then they sell off a chunk of it to Amazon and that's how they recoup the incredible outlay of money

that they just made for these rights. But I didn't see any reporting that would indicate that it is exclusive to Rogers quite yet. Nor did I. That is an assumption that I'm making and I think many of us are making here. We'll see what other shoes drop in this process. Let me take this down a different road. Because the one thing that I wondered about, like there's a few boxes here that I think NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman wants to check before he calls it a career, right? Like right now, it's like, okay, so now it's time to write the legacy. Could you pause on that for a second?

Sure. When you say calls it a career, what are we talking about? Are we talking about Gary going to the beach? Let me put this theory out there because I firmly believe this theory. I here's let me put this theory out there because I can't firmly believe this theory Okay, is that Bill Daley takes over and Gary Bettman moves up into some sort of Commissioner emeritus above him That's what I don't I think that retires I don't think he's gone gone. I think he hangs around Okay, sure, but I'm at least at least in the transition years. I can when he leaves he goes to the beach I can see I can see that okay that I understand and I so here's what I believe about this one. I Think that I should have phrased it the title of commissioner

Sure about that the title of before he relinquishes the title of commissioner There's a few things that he wants done and I don't think that you know considering how much of a whopper this was and how much this was done suddenly is a coincidence and I don't think that the fact that we're seeing the NHL talk talking openly about this being a peacetime CBA and this is gonna be one that's gonna be be that's going to happen quickly and easily and pain free unlike some of the other CBA negotiations that we've all been part of. Like I think there's a few boxes here that the commissioner wants to check before he relinquishes

the title to satisfy my friend Greg, relinquishes the title of commissioner of the NHL. There's a Canadian TV rights, there's a CBA, and there's the next wave of expansion. To me those are the three. And then at that point hands it off to Bill Daley, Deputy Commissioner, to be the peacetime commissioner. And Gary can go about his days helping the new commissioner. And I would imagine too, trying to, you know, maybe help Bill Daley get to the hockey hall of fame. I don't know. But I think that there would be things like that on the horizon for the commissioner.

And once he's checked all of these boxes ex-commissioner of the NHL and then his legacy is written. And I looked at yesterday and I said okay well there's one box checked. There's one of the three checked. It's only written if they do the thing that they should have done years ago which has changed the name of the award to the commissioner's trophy. They don't have presidents anymore. What are we doing? NHL-Pierre doesn't have a president anymore. We don't have presidents anymore. What are we doing? See me the committee. He's all pure doesn't have a president anymore That's right exactly we've got no presidents nobody's got president ever Linden Trevor Linden was the last president Trevor Linden was last president PA

when we talk about archaic names for things in the National Hockey League the president's trophy is 8 a number one top of the heap and by the way Maybe if you had name at the commissioners trophy we get rid of the heap. And by the way, maybe if you get a name at the commissioners trophy, we get rid of the curse. Maybe it won't be cursed anymore. Maybe it's just about presidents. That's why it's cursed. People can actually touch the thing. So you're saying to me that you think this is a peacetime negotiation.

What took you off when the NHL told players how much they'll make in three years? And maybe if you keep your trap shut, we'll all be fat and happy like we've been for the last few seasons. You think that was the first indication that maybe they don't think there's gonna be much pushback from the players on the CBA? Yeah, yeah. We're doing great. Everyone, just sit down, be quiet, don't say a thing, keep your head down.

Don't look at the NBA and how much they're making. Keep your seatbelt on. Keep your seatbelt on. Don't worry. At the end of it, there's going to be a nice little present underneath your tree. Everyone's going to be fine. Don't pay attention to how the entire middle class of guys under the cap are being squeezed out because you've got rookies making peanuts and the top line players making double with the lid. Hang on. That's the nature of the salary cap though. Of the salary cap, exactly. This is the nature of this.

Why this guy should grow his spine and fight the cap. This salary cap, that deal, listen, I'm with you on that one, but that ship has sailed. Ship has sailed, it's gone, I know. That ship has sailed and ping-ponged off of icebergs like a pinball is how far that ship has gone now. Yeah, they, players as we've seen have no real appetite and didn't have any real appetite as we found out to really fight. They didn't. They did not at all. And then, making it worse, not to re-litigate 2005,

they caved at the worst possible time. July. No pressure point. Yeah. Fold. Wow. It's kind of amazing to think that we have so many fans that have come to this game. they caved at the worst possible time, July. No pressure point, fold. Wow. It's kind of amazing to think that we have so many fans that have come to this game. Many of them might be watching the show right now that don't know what 2004, 2005 was

and the fight that went on and that pivot point for where the league is now to be cutting these media deals and where the cap has gone and all, and again, having a cap to begin with. It's an interesting time to think back to a couple things about this media deal. I highly recommend people go to Awful Announcing after the show is done and read Andrew Buchholz's piece about this media deal. There hasn't been a lot of really good in-depth reporting and insight and analysis about this deal in print. And I thought that Andrew really hit on some very

interesting stuff because he's been on this media rights thing for over a decade. In fact, I've known him back in the Blogs with Balls conference days. There was a thing called Blogs with Balls. I remember that. Wow. I haven't heard that since the MVSW days.

Wow. I was a panelist on a couple of them. They would hold them at different places. Vegas, Toronto was one. My wife is from Toronto actually, at the Bugs and Balls. And I remember me and Andrew were at a bar after one of the conference days, and they had, there's a guy who portrays Captain Morgan,

the Spice Drum guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the foot up guy. Who goes to parties. And he came over with samples of Captain Morgan Morgan for us and he goes, move over. And so I kind of scoot my way over on the seat and it was just so he could put his leg up and do the Captain Morgan pose before he could give us the free booze. I can't. Anyways. Listen, as someone that's like gone to the gym his whole life, I can't look at that Captain Morgan pose and not think of that guy at the gym in the change room. The guy that does that.

It's just like the last turkey at the shop. Just like, but what do you do? Yeah, and it's just like a grandfather clock. It's just the pendulum is pulling it back and forth. But come on. So Buckholtz wrote that the 2013 deal between Rogers and the NHL, 5.2 billion Canadian over 12 years, right?

So if you take the exchange rate in December 2012, that was worth 4.9 billion US. And then if you take it to 2019 because of the exchange rate, it's 3.9 billion US. So the new agreement, according to Buckholtz, doubles the Canadian dollar value from the 2013 deal, but it's only 1.75 times as much in US dollars per year based on the current exchange rate. So obviously there's going to be some fluctuation there, but I've seen it cited kind of like as gospel that the NHL doubled their rights deal with Rogers

And if you if you parse out the numbers and go by the exchange rate as Andrew did maybe it's it's not as much as that It's like 1.57. The other thing that I found really interesting is reporting to So, you know how like players cap hits are different than their salaries Merrick Yeah, you know how like the cap it is one number and then you look through the years and you get to the final year of the contract. And oh, by the way, his salary in some cases is higher than the average annual value. Well, according to Awful Announcing, the Rogers deal with the NHL, you may or may not know this, it was backloaded. So while this might seem like a gigantic leap from the value that the overall 12-year deal had that they had signed with Rogers back in 2013, if you base it off of what the

final years of that deal was, it may not be the Herculean leap forward that it looks like. I think it was the last two years that that really ballooned. Yeah. From the, from, from the, from the original deal. Yeah. And that could not coincidentally also the time when they sold off their rights to Amazon. Let's be honest, right? Right.

Yeah. Well, we'll see. Listen, well, like, you know, one of the things I'm having an interesting conversation with someone this morning about this, um, about what this is going to mean for the marketplace. And the person I was talking to brought up an interesting point how, and listen, I recognize that I work for an independent here. Um, so maybe take that with a grain of salt, but, um, this person I was talking to said, this is great for independence. Like there is

always a sort of, you know, two sides of every coin. There will be like, whenever there's like a really strong mainstream presence, there is always, I mean, backlash is the wrong term for it, but there is the need for something that is opposite from that, that creates the sort of balance in the marketplace.

This person said to me like, you know, look at this as a, as actually a good deal for independence because there will be a need more so than ever for a stronger independent voice of hockey in Canada. That this isn't one of those like, Oh boy. Okay. So, you know, a major corporate entity owns all of this now and they're going to piece it off to all their buddies. This person said like, don't look at it that way.

This is an opportunity for independents here to present an alternative. And that's when as far as to say, the worst thing that you guys could do is try to be the light version of one of them. Don't do that. Do the exact opposite. That's the interesting part about it.

So like, when I was writing about this on social media last night, the prevailing reaction was not about the years and it wasn't about the money and it wasn't about wondering about you know the TSN part of it or the Amazon part of it. Yeah. And you don't have to respond to this because you know everybody there. It was palpable frustration and in some cases depression that Rodgers was going to have the rights for another dozen years. Like there are people that do not like the way they present the National Hockey League. And I think that was underscored by the juxtaposition with the way that Amazon covered the National Hockey League, with their whip around show, with the tone of the coverage, with the new faces that they had in some

some cases covering the game. You know, it did present that alternative, I think, to the way that the NHL was covered under Rogers, that people were searching out and the juxtaposition impacted it. Now I will say that, you know, here in the US, obviously it's us at ESPN and it's Turner with TNT. And I know, I feel the same juxtaposition. There are people that really like what we do and don't like them. There are people who really like what they do and don't like us by virtue of the existence of the other.

I've always kind of thought of it. I value the TNT part of it because I think that their approach to coverage is in many ways diametrically opposed to ours. Their studio show goes on for a very long time and the tone and tenor of it with Biz and you know, answering them is different than what we do. It's a hang, right. So like I enjoy the fact that you know, maybe our game presentation is different than theirs and maybe their studio show is different than ours. And I feel like, you know,

different strokes for different folks, but I love the idea of being covered in different ways. So as much as I respect the people in Canada that are really kind of pissed off that Rogers is doing this for another dozen years, I hope that, like you said, it does lead to Amazon, TSN, whomever presenting the game in a different way

because they don't wanna be Rodgers. Don't forget. So here's the thing. I would come up short of, and you're right, I know there are some very good people over there that I still very much miss working with. Any others? There's plenty of great people over there that I still very much miss working with. Any others? There's plenty of great people over there.

I'm not going to get into it. Here's the thing. I don't think we should make the assumption that with the new deal, the presentation is going to be exactly the same. You look what happened when Rogers got the deal got the National Rights deal The original 12-year package how they changed a lot of everything and it was almost more of like an Olympic style presentation and this is Scott Moore who did like a number of Olympics for example for CBC and he wanted that vibe New themes and big sets and big over like there was a lot of... and there were things that there were that was different and there were new faces and

there were new hosts. It might have been too much all at once instead of being graduated in but nonetheless they tried new things. I would hope that with... I would hope that with a deal like this, that they would look at it and say, okay, the tastes of hockey fans over the last 12 years has changed. We need to change along with it to reflect how these people want to consume their hockey. I would assume those conversations would be going on.

I don't think, for those that may not have been big fans of it, I would assume that with a deal like this, you would want to present something that's not just the same thing that you've presented for the last 12 years. I just think that's natural. You have a new car to drive here all of a sudden. It's always changing.

When the last rights deal was signed, Kevin Biaxa was still playing, wasn't he? Yeah. You never know who's coming down the pike and all of a sudden someone like him shows up and it shifts the paradigm of your car. Dude, it's gonna be Seth Jarvis's corner by the time this whole deal is done.

Yeah, just don't ask him if he wants to be a GM. Seth's corner. Nick Clifton's sweet. No, that's first, that's the first question. You wanna be GM yet? I love Jarvis. He's the best. I love that kid so much.

Yeah, Seth's corner. I remember talking to him before Four Nations and I'm just like, you know, if you make the team, like what do you hope your role is? He's like, I don't care if they want me to play F in defense, you know, I'll just, I'll do whatever. I'll be the water boy, who cares? I know, we're part of Team Canada. Last thing I want to ask you on this, because we do, we should probably, like, do something else on our Tuesday visit.

No, just gaze into our navels of hockey media here for an hour. Great show, eh? You guys just talked about your lives for an hour, like anyone's interested. The people I work with at ESPN on like a corporate level, like my friends at ESPN, they're like executives. I bugged the shit out of them about this. I'm just like, what do you think? Who are you? Like any media, not even like hockey, like any media gossip whatsoever. I'm just like such a nerd about it. So we could do like three hours on this, but can you, um, maybe you can answer this, maybe you can't. Okay. And it's whatever you're comfortable with.

Sure. Can you explain to me the TSN part of this? Because when you were talking about the alternate media, the TSN part of this, they are the alternate media. Like they have some rights of local teams, but they don't have the national deal. But yet they keep doing what they're doing and they beat the living shit out of them.

They have built such a strong hockey brand. Like, don't forget, like TSN was first to the dance with All Sports Network. I still remember when it launched. And you know, I used to work there on Michael Landsberg's show. I used to go on Landsberg's show. At the old Netstar building, right?

At Vic Park and Shepherd, right? Right up beside Johnny's Burgers. You know, the area knows exactly what I'm talking about. Right beside Johnny's Burgers. Yeah, at the old Netstar building. But they were, like they were, TSN were the first to do it and they sort of presented the model

for how you did 24-7 sports. That was the model. And then Roger Sports, that means it's much more complicated than I'm going to lay it out here. But TSN were essentially the first. And they presented the model for it, right? Now a lot of it was borrowed from ESPN stateside. And that's understandable because, you know, take a bow, Greg, for your company. ESPN or the leaders, um, in, in, in all of it, but the worldwide leader in sports.

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. But like, but the, the one thing where, where TSN always excelled, like their, their tent pole events were always first class and I'll go one more. Hey, here's an. Here's another one. I've never talked about this before. You know who the secret weapon for TSN has always been? The Bob McKenzie-

Can I make a guess? Sure. Okay, you said Bob McKenzie. I was gonna say James Duffy. Duffy is Cadillac. Cadillac of announcers, right? Bob McKenzie defined the insider role in hockey in Canada. Bob, you know who one of the great creative geniuses behind all of it was from a content

point of view? Who's that? Steve Dryden. Oh yeah. Yeah, I met Steve. Steve, Steve Dryden, one of the smartest people in the history of hockey, Steve Dryden, one of the most creative people you will ever meet in any of your dealings in hockey, in the history of the game, understood what people wanted and moreover understood what people

wanted even if they didn't know that that was it. You know, TSN always had this sort of formula of make people comfortable by giving them 70% of what they expect and then 30% of what they don't. And it was that like once once once your viewers are comfortable with you, whether it's the set or your host or your analyst or the presentation or the way the intermissions flow. Once you have them feeling comfortable, then that 30% really becomes special. If you flip that and it's 70% of just like chaos and oh, I don't know what's going on here. And then the 30% come, it's not going to work.

But Dryden and that entire crew then, there's a whole list of names that I could run down, understood about making people comfortable first and then telling them something they didn't know. And that's where Bob came in. Like that's where the insider role really began to shine. And then they brought Drager in from Sportsnet and sort of bumped that up and now there's Pierre and there's CJ like it's like a cabal of insiders because at the end of it, Wish, you know what, I mean, we're not trying to crack the ad, but put it, put anyone

on the moon here. The way to get people to keep coming back is simple. Tell them something they didn't know. It's simple, right? Make them feel comfortable and tell them something they didn't know. And Tia Sin right? Make them feel comfortable and tell them something they didn't know. And TSM did that great. And the game analysts were fantastic. The other part of it too is tell me something I don't know from somebody I want to listen to and I enjoy listening to and want to hang out and hear more from. And you know, not to slight

anybody at Sportsnet. We've talked about it before though, like there's long been a likeability gap between the two networks and you know there's a, I guess the word is warmth, for lack of a better term. But I was the one for that, that was me. But that was me. That's not you though, it's not you. I made it completely unlikable. We're not gonna like, we're not gonna do the autopsy. We're not doing the autopsy and you were the least of their problems, but yeah it was was always, it always felt even just, just sampling the two trade deadline shows every year, it

just always felt like, you know, I like, I like six of the seven tables at TSN. You know, you know what, you know, you know what though, you know what I, and this is like, this is like a totally different era of, of sports now. This is like all pre-writes. I don't even think that anybody who's there now was there then. But if you go back, like for the longest time, the trade deadline shows specifically were almost neck and neck.

And there was one thing that just killed it is when they turned trade deadline, which is an information show that one year into a circus. And it was a celebration. We have a big trade to announce between the Oilers and the Allenders, but first this sideshow. And they went-

You're the llama. They were, but that worked though. But the thing is, that's the thing. That kind of stuff worked at TSN, right? But, and it was after that, that I, that, that, um, that there was, I remember talking to people who were there at that time, like, this is going to set us back. This, this, this one's going to set us back. But like, look, man, there's, there's, again, I'm going to big up my, my former colleagues,

like, there are so many really, really talented people that are there that I want all the best for in this new deal. And I hope that they, that they get what they, uh, they deserve because there's some excellent people there. There really are. And at the end, the thing, last thing I'll say too is like, I know that people kind of judge the coverage based on the front facing talent, which is a term that I hate, but I'm going to use it anyway. Um, but like there's so many, you don't realize until you start working for one of these places,

but like there's so many people in control rooms and trucks and cameras and all, like the amount of human tonnage that it takes to put on these broadcasts is staggering. And I think, you know, soup to nuts, all the people that have had the rights do a hell of a job putting on games. You might not love the people talking to you between periods or talking to you during the game, and that's fine.

Everybody can kind of approach the game in different ways. We all like different voices saying different things. But from like a, hey, let kids, let's put on a show standpoint i think rogers is a hell of a job you know i think they they they the product looks great you know and uh and so yeah i i hope you know congrats i mean bottom line this deal means people probably won't lose their jobs hooray let's go celebrate that i hope so behind the scenes yeah all the people behind the scenes you'd hope hope so. There's some great ones.

And again, I do think that this does spell well for independent hockey voices in Canada. I know I'm saying that is working again, working for an independent, but I do think that this is a good thing for the entire industry. All right, anything else you wanna do today? Or we'd run out of time.

Just talking about ourselves and our industry. So let's talk about the hits thing real quick, because I bugged you about it for a specific reason. Well, you did, and then the rights deal dropped, and all of a sudden, I didn't get any more texts about the hit parade. I hate Key for Sherwood, so... I want to shout out ESPN Stats and Info because they're the ones that led me down this path, okay? That's another group at ESPN that I'm constantly bugging with my flights of fancy. So I didn't realize that he had set the single season record for hits. He has 424 in 70 games.

It's more than any other player since they started tracking the stat in 2005, 2006. Tracking it incorrectly incorrectly by the way. His hits per game is tied basically virtually with Matt Martin from the 2012-2013 season. Okay, so that's like hits on average. But he has the raw number lead. And so the question that I had about this, Merrick, as two guys that have long admired the scoring being done at New York Islanders home games when it comes to players like Calc Futterbuck and Matt Martin. Oh no no no no no I don't know what you're

I don't know what you're talking about here Greg Wyshynski. The 5X multiplier that exists in the Islanders home games for every hit. I said to myself, what have we got here with Sherwood? Are we getting a little bit more creative accounting from our friends in Vancouver? I'll tell ya. I'll tell ya. I'll tell ya. Listen, I will tell ya, the Islanders are not first offender They are not first offender. You know who the first offender was to my knowledge and there probably was more before the Oilers and

The infamous and I love this story the damn McGillist Rae to the Philadelphia Flyers So the Flyers wanted to get tougher and they wanted more of a killer back there. And this was the era, don't forget, this was like 19, I wanna say this would have been like 97, maybe 1998. So no one's watching a million games every single night. You're reading stats and Glenn Sather in a stroke of genius

was gonna, knowing the Philadelphia Flyers wanted more of a bruising type back on the, on the blue line. All of a sudden started to, I know, started to, let's just say fluff up the numbers for Dan McGillis. It's like Dan McGillis was really good defense, pretty tough, but like eight, nine, ten hits a game all of a sudden. So the Flyers seem to getting a killer. This would have been the Yanni Ninema deal. There was more pieces involved, but essentially was Dan McGillis for Yanni Ninema. Who was involved in another interesting deal with Dallas? So the Flyers thought they were getting a killer because in the game sheet, Dan

McGillis, the scorers were encouraged to add hits for Dan McGillis. They thought they were getting a killer. Then go to Dan McGillis who's a very very nice defenseman but he's not someone who's laying the... He's not Darius Casperaitis. No, he's not Darius Casperaitis or Darian Hatcher or any of these guys. It's one of my... So don't... Let's not just be quick to jump on the Islanders because they have not been the only offender. Now my question, and I asked Zach this off the top, and he promised me an answer by the end of the show. How many of those hits are actual hits? And by that, I mean body

contact that forces the change of possession. See, that's the hit stat that I'm interested in. They're not. Okay. No, of course they're not. You just hit someone, the puck goes somewhere and you get credit for a hits. Like I want want to know the hit stat. Give me the hit stat where there was contact and you got the puck because of it. You've actually done something as opposed to just bang bodies. You would think with the advent of puck and player tracking and AI that we should be able to get that step pretty quickly at some point if they were so interested in establishing it. But here's what I want to establish. Here's what I want to establish.

Okay. I have, like any true scientist, I created a theory. A scientist, ooh. And then I've tested the theory. And my theory was that Sherwood's record is crap because somebody scoring games in Vancouver was getting him a 5x multiplier on hits. It's the new Cal Clutter Buck. How else could he achieve such a feat? And I've tested my theory from my friends at ESPN Stats

and Info and here are the numbers. Hang on, really? Yeah, at home. Okay. Sherwood averaged 22.7 hits per 60 minutes. Okay. That is the 16th highest average in a season since 2005, 2006. Mm-hmm. Yeah. On the road, Sherwood averaged 26.3 hits per 60 minutes. So he averaged almost three hits per 60 more on the road

than at home. This man has earned his record, Merrick. He is not the byproduct of some old funny dud instructed to go five X on the hits. He earned the record on the road with more hits than he had there than at home. Did anyone ever do any research like this on all of those Islanders players? How many hits they got on the road versus at home? We certainly could. The numbers are publicly available on nhl.com. We could dive into them.

If some enterprising person wanted to look at the Matt Martin numbers from when he had the record or the Cal Clutterbuck numbers from when he had the record, I'd be intrigued to see. I would really, unfortunately, put the damper on one of the, one of the, our favorite jokes, which is how the score is at NASDAQ Coliseum. Basically, we credit Cal Clutterbuck with a hit. If he looked at a guy, rather than even actually trying to hit him. Breathe on him, sneeze on him, wind up next to him at the draw, anything, yeah.

Yeah, if somebody wanted to be studious and look into those numbers, I will accept the results. But in this case, he earned the record. He earned the record with more hits on the road on average than he had at home. I like it. But then again, I like Kiefer Sherwood and I'm pretty much gonna guarantee you something.

Anaheim. Yes. Nashville. How quickly, I always wonder about, okay, the minute you let go of a player or a player leaves, how quickly you go back and try to replace that player? When you look at both those teams, how many of those teams have looked and said,

you know what, we could really use a Kiefer Sherwood type here. Kiefer Sherwood type. Yeah, exactly. Both of those teams have looked and said, you know what, we could really use a Kiefer Sherwood type here. Kiefer Sherwood type. Yeah, exactly. Both of those teams. Oh, I seem to remember we used to have, like that guy used to be around here. You know, the guy we didn't play very much? Yeah, now that guy, like honestly, Kiefer Sherwood is one of my favorite players in the NHL. And look, you know, not to tie a bow around it,

but I think two likeable people just gave you information you didn't have before. We are basically the TSN of podcasts. Clearly this is TSN. We've made you comfortable and we're delivering information. But here, you know the interesting story about Kiefer Sherwood?

So he has an allergy. Like he has a number of different, I think it's food allergies. So he has to be so specific about not just what he eats, but what he's around that it's actually, and this is why I love Sherwood. He's changed his entire life. I shouldn't say change. He's constructed his entire life around that.

So and coaches will always talk about how much they love this guy because he was so details oriented because he's been that way his entire life because of these allergies like you know I think that I think he still does I think he wears like you know surgical gloves underneath his hockey gloves like that's how that's how that's how deep this goes that this guy has been forced to be, very specific about what he puts in his body, what he's around. His days are very precise. He does like, you know, the same thing every day has his routines, the detail coaches absolutely adore this guy.

Like this, like this, this, this, this one's a home run for Vancouver. I love this guy and I love his story. He's one of his hands down. One of my favorite players, not as much as Gable Landiskoch maybe making a comeback here at Greg Wyshinski. How'd you feel about seeing Gabe Landiskoch taking some contact in Colorado practice, Greg Wyshinski? And by the way, when's the last time, when's the last time if ever, we went to the playoffs and said the two teams you don't want to face, one of them's in

third and the other is in the wild card spot don't want to face, one of them's in third and the other is in the wild card spot. Here we are in the West. Here we are in the West. Oh, I thought you were going to say Colorado and Dallas having to play in the first round. No, I love that. By the way, Dallas can win the division still. There is a road there.

There's a path there. A good one because Dallas' schedule is light. They have a head to head with Winnipeg. Winnipeg's schedule is tougher. Don't be surprised if at the end of this, because we all thought after that Vancouver win, okay, Winnipeg's tucked away now. They got the wins. They're good. Everything's fine. Dallas has a path to first. Like, wouldn't it be the most Winnipeg thing ever if at the end of all of this Winnipeg had to play Colorado? It could happen. It's kind of pick your poison, right? I mean, are we under the assumption the Blues are going to get the first wild card and end up playing

Vegas in the first round? Are they ever going to lose again? How's this team going to lose? It's incredible what they're doing right now. And they just added Jimmy Stuggeroo tonight. If there was a way for Dallas to get out of that first round matchup against Colorado then then then it's game on that then I'm feeling pretty good about life again because yeah You know that they probably have enough to get through a one versus final wild card series Waiting for a haste can in to get healthy Yeah, he comes back in like the second round and then and then and then you're and then Colorado's facing a fully armed and operational battle station instead of the diminished group that is Dallas.

And again, diminished group for a team that could win the division with a good run towards the end, but still you need him to beat Colorado. So that's probably the optimal thing is like get the easiest first round match if you can't avoid Colorado at all cost in the first round and then you might have a little something Dallas. first round match if you can't avoid Colorado, it all costs in the first round. And then you might have a little something else. All right. Um, only got a couple of minutes here left with you. Uh, Ryan Leonard, Alexander Ovechkin, meet in a bar, fill in the punchline.

Greg Wyshinski. Uh, I listen, uh, the, the'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm is essentially called up like the whole AHL team. He gets it this week, right? And they have the Allenders at the end of all of it. He gets it this week, right? This happens. This happens. The carrot is square in front of him right now. I think he probably gets it this week.

I do want to pause on Leonard though. We've always heard stories about players, young players in particular coming into locker rooms and meeting Sidney Crosby or meeting the you know, the big star, meeting the captain and what that's like and adjusting what life is like once you meet that person, you know, the person that maybe you had a poster of them on your wall. I got to imagine Ovechkin is probably like one of the most approachable of those types. I mean, you are meeting someone who eats a bag of Cheetos

on the way to the plane. You're eating someone who drinks soda on the bench. You're eating someone who is by all accounts a dude and now you're having a beer with them. You know what I mean? Like I feel like there's obviously an aura with OV but I think it's a different kind of aura, a different kind of star power

and maybe a different kind of respect than you would normally have when you do end up meeting one of these legendary players as we see Ovechkin in the bar. So good. That's to me, Ryan Leonard probably had an easier time adjusting to being Ovechkin's teammate than he would one of the pillars of the game. Certainly than he would being Nathan McKinnon's teammate where he's staring at you until you put down the beer

and have a power rave instead. But here's the thing though, like I look at this, I'm glad you got it to this point, I was hoping to make it today. Like you look at what Jimmy Snuggeroo is walking into, who's not happy in St. Louis right now? You look at what Ryan Leonard is walking into, who's not happy in Washington?

Like Jimmy Snuggeroo and Ryan Leonard are walking into. Who's not happy in Washington? Like Jimmy Snuggerwood and Ryan Leonard are walking into two of the happiest dressing rooms in the entire NHL to play tonight. Like this really is fantastic, I think, for both of them to the point about meeting stars. My favorite story is still, Mel Engelstad told me this at hockey day in Canada, back when we were in Winkler, because his favorite growing

up was Bob Probert and he got Probert to fight him. He was essentially begged him and it was a preseason game and Bob was always a comment, okay kid I'll do it for you. And he told me, he said, Probert hit me in the face three times really fast and all I could think about was this is the coolest thing in the world. Bob Probert is punching me in the face. Well, always when we're talking about the NCAA players, like one of my earliest, not earliest, but like one of my more prominent memories, I was covering that Colorado series

where Kyle McCarr, you know, dive bombed into the series. Oh, so good. And was a fully formed freak during the entire, entire of those playoffs. I still can't believe how good that kid was. I mean, I can, I mean, he's probably going to be a Hall ofer, but like, to go into that situation the way he did was still phenomenal. I noticed you left Gabe Perot out of that, out of that, happy to join the locker room. Gabe, Gabe Perot gets to go to New York. Hey, JT, I'm Gabe. So?

Hey JT, I'm Gabe. So? But here, okay, so here's the thing. So, but you know the, okay, so you know the team that wanted him in the draft is the team that was drafting one after New York with their, would have been, was it second in first round pick? Might have been their only.

Nashville Predators. That was a guy that they wanted more than anybody else at that spot. Was Gabe Perot. And the Rangers took him one before. So if you're talking about going into like a tough room right now, if you're Gabe Perot, choosing between Nashville and New York right now. I think Laviolet's going to give this kid a chance to shine. I think I'm excited to see what he does there. I think he's a great player. I'm like exponentially excited to see what Leonard does with the caps. First of all, I think he's, I think the world of him as a player, I think he's got a hell of a motor. He kind of plays a capital style anyway and you know when a team doesn't

make a big move at the deadline specifically because they know that this kid's on the way and it won't outweigh. No pressure. Yeah, no pressure. But you know, you and I both know that was the case. No pressure, but man, what an endorsement though. Like what an endorsement.

And again, it all tracks back to look at the Capitals and what they did to surround Ovechkin with this team at a time when other teams, Kauf Pittsburgh, are flailing and flopping and sliding deeper into the abyss. There's a bigger conversation there. We don't have time for it, but I do want to have the Pittsburgh conversation with you because I think the most important thing that everybody needs to realize about the Pittsburgh Penguins is the number five. And we're not, that's just going to be like a little tease, but why don't we do that conversation next week and why the number five is so

important for understanding the Pittsburgh Penguins. So bracket that for seven days. I'm going to come back and to say, what was your buddy Jeffy, what was your buddy Jeffy saying? What did he mean when he said the most important number to reattach the Pittsburgh Penguins is the number five? You remember number five, I'll remember number four, and briefly because I know we gotta go, you wanted to talk about the heart. We barely have time but go for it. Yeah, go for it. The last one, the last awards watch before the voting, which I believe begins on April 11th, will be next week on ESPN.com.

I imagine that dry-cidal will have the lead by then amongst the actual voters. I think the goal total is incredibly impressive. I think the analytics case is there in a way that it is not there for McKinnon. I will not, I can't say here is where my vote goes because the people get upset, but I would be leaning towards Connor Hellebuck myself. I think the ballot to arrive. That's where mine would go.

Everything that they do, and even if they don't win the division or win the division, everything they do tracks back to him. He gave them the foundation for everything they've done this season. The percentage of their wins that he has is phenomenal. He's got the statistic case.

He's got everything going for him. He's the best goalie in the world. I think he's meant more to his team than anybody else. I think I would lean Hellebuck But I don't think that I have a problem with anybody leaning dry silo right now. I Go Hellebuck. I've been pretty much on the Hellebuck train all season long But then don't forget like I'm the guy that had shishturken for the heart Like I think most seasons you can nominate a goaltender and most seasons

Goal tender should probably win. You see, this is kind of the most important position of the, oh, you're the living embodiment of the problem people have with us giving the heart to a goalie, which is that they could win it every year. You're literally trying to give it to a goalie every year. Goalies should win, goalies should win the Norris. You know, that goalies win the Norris while you're out of Selkie too. Sure, goalies should win all the awards. That's right, that's all.

Many people are saying Dustin Wilford Jack Adams. Many people are saying. How do you know he's not whispering in Huskers here? How do you know that, Greg? You don't know that. You don't know, we're not pretty. All right, thanks for the navel gazing chat about hockey media and the brands making new NHL Rogers deal

and everything else that followed afterwards. You have a good seven days and don't forget, chat about hockey media and the brands making new NHL Rogers deal and everything else that followed afterwards. You have a good seven days and don't forget next week we're talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins and the number? Five. How many Jacksons on the victory tour? Five. How many fruits and five alive? Five? How many Olympic rings? Keep going. How many fingers on this hand? All right Greg, we'll talk to you in seven days about the number five. Bye bud. There is Greg Gershinsky from ESPN. Anything you want to add by the way, Zach, to the Rogers NHL deal conversation? I kind of... No. I mean you're part of hockey media bud, you're part of it now. This affects you. It's gonna change your life forever.

The first thing that I thought when it happened was that there's gonna be selling off of pieces here and games. I think that was... We're assuming. Yeah, we're assuming obviously. The initial report that came out when I saw it, I'm not kidding you, this is going to sound really dumb. It was an Alan Walsh tweet that made me see it, and I went, I got got. Like, this is early April Fools, and I had to check his account, I had to check everything to make sure it was a real report. But that's good that you do that, that's good that you, especially on April Fools. We just didn't hear anything about it, right? Like like we didn't hear anything about it leading into it this was not a talk something talked about i think a lot of people

here in canada specifically expected that there was going to be like a big negotiation that we would hear a lot about or that rogers would wait or whatever and it just never happened it all was like boom and deal was announced it made me think that there's something else coming. Yeah. Just pieces being moved off but I don't know. It's good for Gary. And good for the players and good for hockey related revenue. All of a sudden like if you're an agent out there maybe all of a sudden if you're Cortex and you have someone on your team, Zach, and maybe someone on the Florida Panthers. Why do you have to do this?

Oh, sorry. Oh, look at the time. We got to go. Sorry. I just lived the torture. That's all. You know this, Zach. That's so rude.

You love me. Zach loves me. He loves me, loves me, loves me. All right. Let's get to our games tonight. I want to remind you. FanDuel, proud to connect All right, let's get to our game tonight. Wanna remind you, FanDuel, proud to connect fans to the major sports moments that matter to them.

The sheet is powered by FanDuel, home of the same game, Parlay. Make every moment more on FanDuel. Did I mention that Zach loves me? Yes, he really does. All right, so we got 10 games on the board tonight on this April 1st. When's the last time you played

an April Fool's joke on anybody? I Don't do the April Fool's joke. I don't I can't think of any my girlfriend was doing them to me all day today It wasn't you bite on it. I come into my Yeah, I almost lost my mind on one of them She put tape over the sensor on my mouse and my mouse is pretty critical to the work that I do But she can lunch I come back in here and I'm like, oh what's wrong? You can loosen my mind

You can do that on any day right like shaving cream. Yeah towels. I go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, you can do that on any day. My favorite university was always I get in buckle with my friends and then going in in our in our dorm and unscrewing the shower nozzles and putting tea bags inside and then put the nozzles back on. It's good. It's a little peppermint shower in the morning. Anyhow, Washington Capitol from the Boston Bruins tonight is one of the marquee matchups of this evening. Charlie Lindgren starts, Jeremy Swainman starts.

Ovi is five goals away from the Gretzky record. Don't think he gets them all tonight. But like, this guy scores every game, man. And oh yeah, that Ryan Leonard guy makes his debut for the for the Washington Capitals. I really want to watch this Florida-Montreal game at the Bell Centre. The game on Sunday was an absolute thriller. That was fantastic. Nick Suzuki, great as usual. Vitek Vanecek gets the start for the Florida Panthers. Sam Montenbeau responds for the Montreal Canadiens. Buffalo and Ottawa Canadian Tiger Center James Reimer facing off against Linus Ulmark. No Brady Kachuck. You go back to that Ryan Graves collision in the game against

Pittsburgh Penguins. Upper body injury. He is not available to play tonight for the Ottawa Senators. Nashville Columbus Columbus, it'll be Sorokin versus Vasilevsky speaking of games from the weekend. What do you think Kucherov does if he's staring at an empty net tonight? Against the New York Islanders. Yeah, I think he's going to shoot that one. I don't. I honestly, I really hope that he doesn't. It would not be Kucherov if he didn't try to do it again. I really want him not to shoot at it now. I really don't.

I hope that he doesn't as well, but I feel like how close this is, he will shoot it this time. If it were a week away or something, I think he doesn't. I want Kuturov to be Kuturov. Yawning Cage, try to force a pass. Try to force something that's not there. You're shaking your head. Alright, I know John Cooper won't like it either. The Triton St. Louis at the Enterprise Center, Jordan Bennington that's not there. Are you shaking your head? All right, I know John Cooper won't like it either. The Triton St. Louis at the Enterprise Center,

Jordan Binnington gets a start there. Jimmy Snuggerwood we mentioned debuts for the St. Louis Blues. This evening Calgary facing off against Utah. I mentioned in my notes, was that the quietest 30 goal season that we've seen from someone this year? Nazem Kadri with 30 goals so far on the campaign. Yeah, I also, I wish that I was more,

I just thought about it like after the fact it was the guys on barn burner which people should check out they actually were on the Amazon Prime broadcast once today's Tuesday so last night leading into the Flames game but they were talking about the Kaudri 30 goal campaign and how many of those goals have come in the third period that's time goals yeah that's him Think about his time in Colorado, man. Think about his time in Colorado. Third period goals, man.

I'm a big fan. Edmonton faces off against Vink Vegas tonight at T-Mobile Arena. San Jose Anaheim and the Winnipeg just faced off against the Los Angeles Kings. That should be a good one. Anything else from you? Anything from the chat we should go over and pause on? Anything entertain you there? I kept looking down there was a couple of good ones, especially when we talked about the new NHL deal. Anything pause worthy there? Good to see Singzy in the chat as always. Singzy was active. Chat was very active today. Appreciate that. Make sure everyone hits that like button.

Subscribe here to the Daily Faceoff channel. But I wanted to at least throw out to people as well while you're watching this show after you finished watching this show watching Johnny Lazarus Colby and Pat Maroon debate whether or not they would like Alex Ovechkin scoring the goal against them was one of the funniest parts of my morning this morning because Colby and Pat basically just started absolutely ripping Laz and it was one of the funnier things I've seen because Laz just kept trying to defend it and normally I get where he's coming from on things and can at least kind of agree with them. There's no shot on this one today.

He's saying he would like to be the guy who gets scored against. I'm like, come on, dude. No, no shot. The goalie that goes in there wants to be scored against by Ovi. Do you know, like, there's only... Okay, I think we talked about this on the show a while ago. There's only one goalie who I can see wanting to surrender this goal.

Yeah, an e-bug. An e-bug. That's it. Because, look, this picture's going in the Hall of Fame. I'm in the Hall of Fame. Look, I'm attached to hockey history. That's it. No, nobody else. Every other goal-ten in the NHL is saying like, yeah, dude, just do it on an empty net. We like the whole goalie fraternity. Don't want to be part of it. Do it on an empty net. That's why I don't

want to do it on an empty net. I want a goalie who's going to be the guy who's going to be the one that surrenders it. Come on. You don't want the ideal goalie. Like let's get a little bit fantasy land here because we can look at the games lined up. Let's just take games lined up aside. It takes all of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If there's a goalie he could score against to do it, who is it that you'd like to see him score against? It just goes back to Pittsburgh, Washington, it's Flurry. That's what I was thinking too.

That's the one that I most closely associate Ovechkin with. Mm-hmm. I think it would be him as well. One of the Russian goalies would be one of my other answers Just because I think it would be kind of funny Just because they're gonna have to like like if it's vasilevsky if it's just Sturken on the new wave Shostar can could be funny because he could turn around and while everybody's pouring off the bench. They're on the ice You might have coming out. He's chasing him down

They're on the ice, confetti's coming out. He's chasing them down, smacking his stick off the post. Like he could just blow a gasket. That'd be Kachetkov. I could see Kachetkov doing that. I could see Kachetkov doing that. Bennington, J Rock says as well, could snap, challenges him to a fight after. Those would be funny ones. But yeah, I agree with you. It's Flurry. Flurry's the answer. Flurry's the right one. Okay, I'm glad we got that sorted and do we get anywhere on the hits or is that just my yeah chatter between me and wish okay so I searched

up on chat GPT to try to help me here I'm gonna read it to you because they thought this is kind of funny how many of Kiefer Sherwood's hits this season have forced a change of possession while precise statistics on the number of hits by Kiefer Sherwood that have directly resulted in change of possession are not publicly available, it's evident his physical play significantly contributes to the Vancouver Canucks' performance. His aggressive forechecking and strategic physicality often lead to turnovers disrupting opponents' plays and creating opportunities for his team. Head Coach Rick Taukett has noted that opposing defensemen are particularly wary when retrieving

the puck with Sherwood on the ice. I thought that was a good little closing line. Potato chip answer from chat GPT. Yeah, I've got nothing but here's some nothing. I don't have an answer to you but here's a word salad to make it sound like I'm really giving this some consideration. I've done some research into this one. I thought it was good.

Yeah, basically got nowhere with that. I found the same answer doing that that I did when I searched up the thing in the first place when it was like, Rick Talkett says he causes in the first place. When it was like, Rick Taukett says he causes pressure on the forecheck and it was like, okay, I knew that. But yeah, there are ways that we can quantify this. Okay, so how many hits have led to turnovers? Yeah. Chad GPT actually, by the way, recommended I go to game logs

and determine how many forced turnovers Sherwood had in each game and try to match it with hits. It was like, no, this is for you to do, not me. This is your job. This is why we made you. We made you to do things like this. Not to direct us to other resources. We made you to do this. Yeah. Resistance is futile. We'll all be slaves of these things one day anyhow. So on that cheery note, cheer up everybody. Enjoy the rest of your day. Enjoy the games tonight.

This program returns tomorrow, 3 o'clock Eastern. And don't forget, yeah, as Zach mentioned, go back and watch the debate or the pile on, the pile on Laz with Colby and Pat just hammering, just peppering with rights and lefts. Our man Johnny Lazarus this morning, a morning cup of hockey, that show returns tomorrow at 9 o'clock Eastern, Dilly Face Off live at noon and then our little act here of three. Got it? Got it. Talk tomorrow. Do it all again. Have a good one. I slept 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this month I can't get out my head, lost all ambitions day to day, cause you can call it a rut I went to the dark man, he tried to give me a little medicine, I'm like nah man that's fine

I'm not against those methods but it's me, myself and how this gonna be fixing my mind. I do wanna beg, I turn down the music. I do wanna beg, I turn down the music. It's turned up, up, down, and sometimes losing. Can we unlock the power of nature to tackle microplastics? At the University of British Columbia, we believe we can. Dr. Orlando Rojasin team at the Bioproducts Institute are finding cleaner ways to clean microplastics from our drinking water, using filters made of natural, renewable materials. At UBC, our researchers are answering today's most pressing questions. To learn how we're moving the world forward, visit ubc.ca slash forward happens here.