The Sheet with Jeff Marek - State of Emergency ft. Steven Ellis & Brian Burke

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

Jeff Marek is joined by Steven Ellis and Brian Burke to discuss a disappointing showing for Hockey Canada, Zach Benson's goalie interference, Jonathan Toews' return to the NHL, Zachary L'Heureux's slew foot, and much more...SHOW INDEX00:00 Intro06:05 Steven Ellis19:19 Brian Burke55:46 Closing ThoughtsReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Visit go.acast.com slash ads to get started today. Do you know who Simon Schemberg is? Simon is the former communications director for the International Ice Hockey Federation from 2001 to, I want to say, 2014. That's where I first got to know Simon a little bit. I really like Simon. Very outspoken, very intelligent, very historically briefed as well. He was, actually, as an aside, Simon was the gentleman who came up with the concept of the Triple Gold Club. And I believe there are 22, maybe 23 members of it.

The Triple Gold Club is players that have won the World Championship, players that have won Olympic gold, players that have won the Stanley Cup. Okay? That's your triple gold club. This was his idea to honor those players. Anyhow, after Canada's ousting last night at the hands of Czechia

at the 2025 World Junior Hockey Championships, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Simon today in a Twitter thread submits this. And I'm just going to read it to you because it's Simon. So he makes some really highly intelligent points here. So his first tweet, he quotes Tommy Bustet. Now, if you don't know Tommy, Tommy is now pro scout, pro European scout for the Detroit Red Wings. Pro scout?

Pro European scout for the Detroit Red Wings. So Tommy Busted, former Swedish chief of hockey development, said, quote, Canada has 10 times more players, 10 times more ranks, 10 times more coaches, and 10 times more money. Still, we can compete. End quote. All right. That's what Busted said. Simon picks up. The hockey world has the right to have high expectations on every team Canada, just like football expects premium quality from Brazil or basketball expects excellence from the United States. You can't blame on Bedard or Celebrini not being here. Canada should have the depth to

produce a high-skilled junior team every year, and this edition didn't have it, similar to last year's. I thought that Canada had learned the lesson that the role or energy players are not efficient in a short event with IIHF rules. Let me say that one again. Role or energy players are not efficient in a short event with IIHF rules. Let me say that one again. Role or energy players are not efficient in a short event with IIHF rules. It was appalling how little Canada created five-on-five in all games. The template for international success was established at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, where players like Joe Thornton, Rick Nash, Danny Heatley, and Jonathan Taves played, quote, bottom six. In a short tournament, here's a money line, in a short tournament, skill can grit, but grit can't skill. Especially in a World Junior Championships,

you don't even go with a top nine, bottom three. You go with a top 12, bottom zero. Again, you don't even go with a top nine, bottom three. You go with a top 12, bottom zero. In particular, if you have Canada's depth. Everything with this team, Canada, seemed outdated and a throwback to the 80s. Limited skill, poor discipline, and old-time coaching. Hands-in-your-pockets coaching did nothing to inspire.

Hey, did I tell you Simon was kind of a poet here? The team apparently did not practice even once between their loss to the USA on New Year's Eve and the quarterfinals versus the Czechs. Quote, players were exhausted. End quote. 18 and 19 year olds? Exhausted? Really? And final point from Simon.

You can't blame the players. When a fish rots, it rots from the head and down. So cheer up, Canada. The sun came up this morning. Welcome to Sheet, Friday, January 3rd. Let's get going. I don't know what the better lines were in that one. Skill can grit, but grit can't skill. That's good.

You don't go with a top nine, bottom three. You go with a top 12, bottom zero. I like that one too. I like Simon. Hello and welcome to The Sheet. Everybody listening, everybody watching, everybody involved in the chat. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the live eyeballs. Or maybe you're listening on Spotify.

Maybe you're listening on Apple Podcasts. We appreciate all of it as we get you ready for the weekend. A weekend that will not include Canada at the World Juniors. That'll be one of the focuses of today. Also, we're going to go back to some low-hanging fruit here. And I always maintain even low-hanging fruit is still nutritious. Still vitamin C in there. We'll talk a little bit more about the JT Miller, Elias Pedersen situation.

Big win by Vancouver yesterday. Although they tried to throw it away against the Seattle Kraken last night. We'll get Brian Burke's thoughts. Burke stops by every Friday. Let's get ready to grumble. Burke will be here. He's seen plenty of these types of situations,

and he knows the Vancouver market well, obviously. So we'll start there with Burke, and we'll see where we get but the big story that started last night and bled into today is the Czechia win over Canada eliminating them from the world junior championships for the second year in a row in the quarterfinals same team is the culprit Czechia with that we get to Ellis, who's still on site in Ottawa, where I suspected the sun came up for a lot of teams, but maybe not for Team Canada today. Stephen, nice to see you again.

I recognize what those hotel rooms look like. I'm sure you're missing your own bed by this point of the tournament, but nonetheless, welcome aboard. We'll start wide brush and then build down sort of reverse pyramid style. Opening question for you, Stephen Ellis. What happened?

Floor is yours. Well, first off, it was sunny for the first time today, I think, since the start of this tournament. So that was a change for Ottawa. Look, man, Canada, you look at and i and the skill that they had in theory and the ability to go out there and play all situations in theory and the the blue line that should have looked really good in theory and everything just seemed to collapse and you look at all this again to go back to the skill a guy like easton cowan should have had a significantly better tournament.

Gavin McKenna, all the hype surrounding him, that was unfortunately the weakest Team Canada tournament we've ever seen from him. Granted, the oldest competition he's ever had to play against. It looked like you had, at any given time, you had five players playing for themselves on the ice and not playing as a team. And with all that talent and you can't convert,

this will go down as one of the most disappointing team Canada losses, maybe the most because of just the raw talent and how many potential top six NHLers that this group's going to have. Like I know a lot of people look to this team and said week, week, week, but like Berkeley Caton's great. And, and Easton Cowan is having a great year in the OHL and Cal Richie is going to be a great two-way threat. So there's a lot of talent, just absolutely no execution.

You know, I'm not sure if you heard me off the top. I don't know if you know Simon Schemberg, former comms director of the IIHF. I'm sure you've acquainted with Simon over the years. And he brings up a couple of really interesting points, and one that really stuck with me when I first read it, and it winks at something that Hockey Canada used to excel at and has now in the last two years gotten away from. It's a great line.

Skill can grit, but grit can't skill. You know, the Hockey Canada philosophy coming off of 2006 in Italy was skill adapts. Let's just get the most highly skilled players and put them in all different positions. It doesn't matter if they're used to limited minutes, used to playing on the penalty kill, used to playing whatever. The most highly skilled players can adapt to any role. Canada got away from that completely.

Does that resonate with you? When you look at the roster, who was there? make no mistake about like you're right there is some elite level talent on this team there's also a lot of elite level talent this is part of the big story a lot of elite level talent that was left at home to watch this thing on tsn does the skill can grit but grit can't skill line resonate with you absolutely and you know as you know, as much as I love a guy like Cole Bodwin, obviously he got kicked out of that game, but that's a guy who could probably fight the Hulk

and come out on top. This guy is so strong and does so many great things away from the puck. But we saw him play on the top line when they needed to get a bit more scoring, and that did not work. We saw Gavin McKenna. We saw him playing as much as it was okay if Luca Pinelli

making the team. Clearly, that wasn't working there either. And McKenna was kind of wasted with players. Again, we know what Berkeley Cadden could do. He scored over 50 goals. But what we're seeing from him is he's a better playmaker. So we didn't have a pure goal scorer on that line. Why was Rakoff and Martone not playing together?

Again, it doesn't make a lot of sense. When I looked at how this roster was going to be built, the way they were taking things at selection camp, it looked like, okay, you're going to bring Gauthier. He looked really good. Tanner Howe looked really good. Does that make Cataford a bit of an odd man out? Maybe.

What about Pennelly at that point? I liked him, but there was just going to be a bit of an odd man out maybe. What about Pinelli at that point? I liked him, but there was just going to be a lot of guys out there that are not the most skilled players but do other things out there to be very effective. And all of a sudden, you've got a true bottom six, which that doesn't work. And if it works for some other teams in the tournament, it's because they don't have the pure skill and the pure talent to work with.

Like the United States won gold last year. They didn't run 13 scoring forwards. They had guys who are really good at those roles but they were really good at those roles better than anybody in canada in those similar roles whether it be checking whether it be defensive centers and that's why the united states won gold last year and look like they can do it again this year in canada you're trying to put players in situations they're not used to and you're trying to play a certain way. It didn't work. And the ability to make better changes on the fly, to me, just was astounding. Dave Cameron's not coaching Team Canada again.

I think that's pretty clear. Yeah. I think there's a few things there. I don't think Dave Cameron's coaching Team Canada again. I don't expect to see Mike Johnston on the bench again. I don't expect to see Peter Anhston on the bench again. I don't expect to see Peter Anhalt as the general manager of this team. You know,

Chris Lazare, I'm going to sound very ageist here, but here I go. As an older guy, I'm allowed to be ageist, Stephen. You know, you essentially had three of the key people here in Dave Cameron, Peter Anhalt, and Mike Johnston. These are all gentlemen in their late 60s. And if anything, and Mike Johnson. These are all gentlemen in their late 60s.

And if anything, and I think there probably is a recognition, just talking to some people this morning around Hockey Canada, I think there is a recognition that they need to, when it comes to their decision making, bring in more people under the tent who are younger, who have younger, fresher, newer ideas. Because clearly the old way either to construct or deploy a team at this level. Quick pause. The women's program is still number one. Para is still number one as well. This is the one pocket here where there is a significant issue for Hockey Canada.

It is in definite need of an injection of new ideas and one of the things i kept thinking about steven this entire term and watching team canada is what's going through chris lazaree's mind you know he's one of these 41 42 years old very progressive coach uh forward thinker won the memorial cup with saginaw last year like a really you like a really successful and smart on the younger side of things kind of coach. Does it not? Does this not sort of look to you like the end of that era? I don't want to say it's going to be completely the end of the old boys network, but the beginning

of the tearing down of that wall. We hope so. I've talked to guys who coach triple AAA level that could easily be OHL coaches that don't want to go up to the OHL because you can make a lot of cases, more money coaching AAA. So you're probably missing out on some pretty bright minds that know how to mold these young kids and know how to work on the development angle. And, you know,

it's you look at the hunters and everything they built in London. Like imagine if you'd try that again and you'd probably go out there and you could put a C-level team from canada but you'll be competitive because that's just what the hunters typically do i think the the style of hockey that you see work in the nhl like you look at a lot of teams add grit and you want that sandpaper for the playoffs the grind that is you know the two three months of playoff hockey but in a short tournament the radco gudises of the world are not going to be the one shining it's the guys who can go out there and be like the conor bedard or the trevor ziegritz and a lot of cases just pure skill is what wins

at a level like this and that's partly because we're moving to a game that has just built on skill like kids aren't kids are watching pavel barber videos and how to hockey and all these guys on tiktok and youtube to learn how to become more skilled players and the skill development paths that we're seeing at the lower levels is so much better than it's ever been so it's again it's not like a lack of talent is a problem for canada like they won the last two u17s they've won almost derby helenka ever in the history of the tournament. They just won the U-18s a few months ago. They had bronze the year before that. These guys have good...

I've shown just they are capable of winning games, but it felt like there was a lot of old school thinking in this team and the way that everything worked out. Again, you look at the results. It just did not work. Quickly from the chat, David Hartford says, for Stephen Ellis, you mentioned creating a mock

team for Canada 2026 juniors. Does this team have a star factor like Bedard a couple of years ago or does it involve more OHL synergies or both? From David Hartford. There's a mix of all of that. That's a great question. I think Gavin McKenna

obviously is the star power there, but you should see Michael Misa there. I think we'll see Porter Martone back. Matthew Schaefer will be eligible to play. I don't think we'll see him back, but then you're looking at a lot of guys who've been on winning teams at the U17 and U18 level, and specifically the U17s, that's a good sign that they've won the last two years

because they've had this tendency to separate and have two to three teams the last couple years they've only sent two teams and i think that's been able to just give them a better chance of winning so you've got these guys that have won these international tournaments against a lot of these players we're seeing at the world junior so i think you're gonna have really good goaltending probably some of the best goaltending depth canada has ever had where you're gonna the two guys from this year, Ivan Kovic and George, will be back. Evan Gardner, the Columbus Blue Jackets prospect, probably should have been there this year. And Joshua Ravensburg might be a first-round pick in the NHL this year.

So that's really good goalie depth. I think their defense is going to be hard to play against. We should see Landon DuPont on the team, the next kind of star, Kale McCarr level of hype. I shouldn't say hype because Kale McCarr level of hype, maybe. I shouldn't say hype because Kale McCarr wasn't super hyped at his draft year, but this is a special prospect in Landon DuPont, a 2009 born player. Oh, yeah.

And you're looking at a team that might have Liam Greentree, a guy who could get 60 goals this year, as your 13th best forward on the team. That's a team that probably would beat this year's group. And if they don't win gold, especially as we do expect teams like the United States and Sweden to fall down a little bit, that will be a big problem.

Um, really quick, uh, tomorrow, uh, there will be a, I'm guessing for lack of a better term, state of the union address,

uh, from hockey Canada, uh, just after noon Eastern at the Canadian Tire Center. Jonathan Goldblum will be there, chair of the Hockey Canada board, president and CEO of Hockey Canada. Catherine Henderson will be there.

Scott Salmon, senior VP of high performance and hockey operations. And Dean McIntosh will be there as well. There's no really way to predict how this thing is going to go. I think we have an expectation with the nature of the questions are going to be. But what do you expect tomorrow at this presser?

A lot of the questions I think that you've asked today, and like a lot of it is just kind of, you know, for me, I don't think this is something where you break the whole team down. You start from scratch. Cause again, you look at all these other levels,

the U 17, the U 18, they're winning those tournaments and they're showing that they still have the best talent. I think the key thing here is they just can't overthink this tournament anymore they've got to stop looking at this and saying oh this lineup might work in the nhl no this is you've got the most skill of any country you've got the biggest player pool there's no excuse to be leaving off guys that are 60 70 goal ohl players because you want to bring someone who can throw some hits because you're probably not going to play that guy a lot anyway so give yourself the

best opportunity to win don't overthink this just take the best 25 players possible and it'll be interesting if we do see kind of a full revamp of everyone who's running that team but i like people are thinking like hockey the canada hockey and the junior hockey is a big problem right now. I'm not convinced of that because they keep winning at all these other levels. Uh, really quick. Um,

the favorite now, clearly the United States or will the Swedes have something to say about that? It's not clearly the United States. Sweden's going to put up a fight, but I I'd be putting money on the Americans. There's a lot of returning players. Those returning players are looking good.

And if Trey Augustine's hot, again, that's a tough team to bet against. Looking like a repeat for USA. Okay, Steven, excellent work. What's next, by the way, at Daily Faceoff for you? What do you got cooking? Well, I'll be watching a little bit

of the U18 Women's Tournament, of course, seeing how that one goes out. But I'm going to be having my Canada 2026 roster breakdown comes out tomorrow. And on Monday, I'm going to have sc my Canada 2026 roster breakdown comes out tomorrow. And on Monday, I'm going to have scouting reports on every NHL prospect from the world juniors. Wow.

Get some sleep in there, son. We worry about you. Find a pillow. Find a pillow every now and then. Will you, Stephen Ellis? All right. There he is from Daily Faceoff. No one knows the prospects better than Stephen Ellis.

Thanks to Stephen, as always, for joining. And we did get a text from Decoy. Is that guy at an Ikea? No, I stayed in the same hotel last week as well. It's right downtown, but there were no dresser drawers anywhere to find. It was like exploding suitcase time. You walk in, you have nowhere to put your clothes. So it's like, okay, so the socks are going to go over here and the pants are going to go over here.

It's like little clothing landmines all over the hotel. But I, oh, and, and one fire alarm pulled and then another emergency a couple of days before that. So it was a, it was an interesting time in Ottawa. Fire alarm pulled for Hockey Canada. Every listener feels like their favorite podcast is speaking just to them. If you're a marketer, your brand's message can do the same. With podcasts ranking number one against all other media for good use of time, good for learning, and mentally engaging, podcast ads are proven to be one of the most effective marketing channels.

Have your brand heard everywhere with ACAST. Our podcasts are available on all apps, and the only way to reach their listeners is through ACAST. Visit go.acast.com slash ads to get started today. In the meantime, it is Fridays, and that means our time with Brian Burke is now here. Berkey, how are you today, my good friend? You are on the sheet with your favorite broadcaster, yours truly. How are you doing, bud? I'm doing well.

It is the story of the day. It's been the story of the week, and I want to get to some NHL issues, and I do want to talk about Vancouver with you, but your thoughts on on on Canada and another quarterfinal exit at the World Juniors um at the women's level Canada is still number one at the para level it is still number one as Stephen Ellis just mentioned you know it's you know U17 still successful uh Hlinka Gretzky is still very successful. It seems, though, there is this pocket here at the World Juniors, the U20s,

where Canada seems to be having a hard time. What did you make of Canada's performance? Well, I may be a little more optimistic than some of the people that watched that tournament, but they were three minutes away from winning that game last night, in my view. I thought they were outplaying the Czechs very badly in the third period. They looked like themselves. They looked like they were free of constraint and free to play,

and they looked happy and they looked intense. They looked good. Then they took a dumb penalty, and people are going to argue about whether that was a good penalty or not. In my view, based on the standard of officiating in this tournament, I don't think it should be a penalty, but it was. And that's what derailed this thing. Otherwise, you'd be talking about, in my view,

Canada beating the Czechs in overtime. You know, it is interesting. One of the people that I was talking to, and they were like, listen, there were a lot of moments where Canada stepped over the line. And you have to know, I mean, you know this, Berkey, like the standard for officiating in the IIHF is a lot different than it is in North America we all know that like that gets baked into the pie coaches will tell their teams

you know this is not like playing in the OHL this is not like playing division one this isn't like playing in in the Western League this is the the standard for penalties is a lot different internationally than it is in North America. But the one thing that Canada used to always have, and I've been using Steve Downey in 2006 as the example, when Brent Sutter puts Steve Downey on the team and was able to get to him and he still was aggressive in the tournament.

That's when the tournament was in Vancouver. Was still aggressive in the tournament, but never stepped over the line. It was whistle to whistle. I mean, you remember how the Americans went at Downey. It was a rabbit punch here, back of the head, cross check, trying to get Downey to do something dumb, and he never took the bait.

It seemed at this tournament, though, and we all saw Dave Cameron freaking out about penalties, it seems as if at every tournament though, and this like, we all saw Dave Cameron freaking out about penalties. It seems as if at every single turn, Canada led with their emotions in a negative way. Is that a fair criticism? Yes, but I think it's a problem for both North American teams. Canada and the US

are both guilty of that in almost every tournament they play. They're stupid penalties taken by both North American teams. It drove me nuts with Team USA. It still drives me nuts with both these teams. But the penalty standards, whatever they are, are not being met in North America in my view.

They have to adjust. You don't say, okay, referees, you have to adjust your standard of efficiency to us, how we play. What you said is we have to adjust to them. It's like we tell our players all the time, we don't have to make you fit in here, you have to fit in here. So to me, the notion that somehow it should have been called, that last call was a penalty.

The way the referee is being applied, that's a penalty. And that one specific call was established in the first period. And if anything, I was kind of expecting them to throw a nickel at it and say, if anything, if anything, I was listening to the broadcast on TSM, Mike Johnson's analysis,

and he's Canadian, by the way. I know there are people rubbing their, rubbing their forehead saying, Oh, here goes Brian Burke again. But the fact of the matter is Mike Johnson said the second call, if anything, is closer to a nickel than the first call,

which was mistakenly assessed a nickel. I think that's the right standard. He got away. It should have been a two, and it wasn't. This should have been a five, and it wasn't. But it had to be a two. Had to be a two all day long. me you know now that we're on the on the topic of penalties one of the things that when we work television together that you wait we turn this into a feature

it was uh berkey's first call something like that one of the things that you've always gone out of your way to talk about and it's really changed the way that I've watched officiating, was how the first call of the game is the most important call of the game. Like I watch for this every day, whether I'm watching my kids, whether I'm watching the NHL, whether I'm watching the world juniors. For our listeners slash viewers, can you go into the idea of the first call being the most important call well it wasn't my view like I'd love to take credit for that concept but that concept started with Brian Lewis when I work for Gary Berman at the NHL from 93 to 98 I would go to training camp with the officials and Brian Lewis is the one

who taught them the first call is the most important call so did blow that call that calls gotta be the right call If you blow that call, that call's got to be the right call because if you blow that call, now you're swimming. If they score on that power play, you've unjustly enriched one team, now you've got to even the score somehow. No one tells the referees to do that. It's human nature. They figure they owe these guys a goal.

So the first call is critical. Where do you get into the soup? I used to tell you when we did these games together,ff look at that first call it's a bad first call and the new york rangers scored in the power play now we're going to be swimming all night yeah it's bad call after bad call trying to even it up so i tell two things i used to tell officials one is don't watch for penalties look Look for penalties. In other words, your job is to – don't – you got it backwards. Don't look for penalties. Watch for them.

Call what happens. Call what's organic in the game. Don't look for calls. Say, I got to find a penalty. Watch for penalties. That's number one. And number two is the first call has got to be right. Or else you start chasing it.

And we've seen that happen with officials before. You have a final thought on the remaining... You know, actually, one more thought about the World Juniors from you, Berkey. Team USA is looking to repeat. We know that in Canada, we make a lot about this tournament, rightly or wrongly.

We've seen some young men have their careers catapulted. We've also seen a lot of players that have been really damaged by poor performances. And I think of a player like Maxime Comtois or the netminder Marc Vizentin going back to 2010 when he fell apart against the Russians in Buffalo. From an American point of view, and actually this tournament goes to Minnesota,

how do the majority of Americans view this tournament? We tend to look at it and say, this is an audit of where hockey is in Canada, when really it's a developmental tournament for U20s. How do Americans generally, wide brush, how do Americans feel about this tournament? Well, American hockey fans feel the same way Canadians do.

They appreciate the importance of this tournament. They understand its relevance. They understand what a big stage it is. They understand what a huge step it is for these players. They get it. It's just the same. They don't have a national day of mourning

when they lose, but they get it. It's the same thing. They get it. So, to me, a hockey fan in the U.S. is just as sophisticated as a hockey fan in Canada. There just aren't as many of them, perhaps.

But the emphasis is still the same. Okay, on the NHL page, and we'll see what happens now. We're all, I think, expecting a USA Sweden final, and speaking of USA and Sweden, there's one American player on Vancouver and one Swedish player on Vancouver who can't seem to get along and it's gone from whispers behind

the scenes to coaches talking about it to former coaches talking about it to general managers giving interviews about it to former teammates commenting on it as well, despite denials from both the participants, JT Miller and Elias Patterson. Now, very specific to this is the Vancouver market, which you know, Berkey, very well. If you were running the Vancouver Canucks right now, and again, you know the city, you know the people, you know the organization, the meaning behind the logo and all of it. You know the city, you know the people, you know the organization, the meaning behind the logo and all of it. How would you handle this situation?

Let's begin there because I'm guessing you've had situations like this before on some of your teams. Yeah, I have. Everyone has. You can't play. I played for a championship team in Maine. We didn't all get along. Talk about playing PlayStation. We didn't even eat dinner together, some of us.

We didn't all get along. We won a Calvert Cup together. You don't have to get along. You talk about playing PlayStation, we need to eat dinner together some of us. We want to call our cup together. You don't have to get along. You just got to respect each other as players. So to me, the shocking part of this is not that there's discord or friction. The shocking part of this is that it's just public. This is wrong. This is not

something that's supposed to be heard publicly. This has gone too far. The people involved, you know, the coaches tried to calm this down. The GMs tried to calm this down. Jimmy Rutherford's tried to calm this down. It's still out there. It's gone too far. I blame the players involved for letting it get this far.

But this is not anything unusual. This is routine for hockey clubs. What is not routine is how the broadcasting of it has been. You know, one of the things that's been interesting, because, listen, I've heard these whispers, as I'm sure you have going back a couple of years, and, you know, I think, you know, and Bruce Boudreau weighed in on it not too long ago and said, you know, when he was there,

there was a belief that it had died down. But the one thing that I wonder about here is because Rick Talkett has talked about it recently. Patrick Alvin has talked about it recently. You know, there was the moment where Rick Talkett, you know, separated them and, you know, separated them on, on the power play, as if to prove the point that this looks ridiculous. Like, do you think that there's a part of all of this where management and the coach have gotten together

and said, like, look, this isn't getting any better. Maybe if we publicly shame them, because Rick Taka is saying, hey, why don't you get these guys out? Why don't you request the players and ask them about it? Don't ask me about it. Like, is there an element of the organization saying, this isn't getting any better?

Maybe if we just air it all out, it'll shame them into fixing this issue. Yes. I think that's clearly, clearly you're talking about very impatient people. Jimmy Rutherford's an impatient guy. That's why he's successful. He would have called them in and said, you got to fix this. So he would have called both players in. I would have called the players in separately and say, I'm not trading anyone. you two sort this out i would have had them in separately and when i

brought them in together and say you want to grab a case of beer somewhere and go drink beer and solve it do it that way you want to fight you want to go out after practice and fight solve it that way but solve it fix it i'm sick of hearing about it and patrick albine would have done the same thing jimmy would have done the same thing. Jimmy would have done the same thing. It's not working. So now, the best thing is to let it shame themselves, shame them into making it work, and see if you can move on.

The good thing is teams have distractions too. A fight will happen where players rally around the team. Something will happen that will get the team to rally around them and forget about this. But right now, it's a major problem major problem you know one of the things that i find really interesting about this too is like i'm with you like not to sound like like i'm a some kind of you know shaved ape although i got a picture of a monkey behind me um but once upon a time just two guys would roll

up their sleeves and settle it and then it would be it would be done it would be over and it would be done with and everybody would would just move along but like there's a sort of generation gap in between these two as well very very different personalities like i can understand and i i actually like when veteran players get on younger players and push them to be better in things like in practice, in finishing checks, in all types of things that involve the game. But it seems in this case, you listen to Brad Richardson talking about, you know, JT running Elias Pettersson real hot

when Brad Richardson was on the Vancouver Canucks. It seems as if this was more than just expectations of the player on the ice, which leads me to believe if they can't get this thing settled, do they have to trade one or the other? Like, is it incumbent? That's a last resort. At some point, it will come to that. You're talking big contracts on guys who, because of the extension,

are underperforming. You're not going to get full value right now. Linus Pedersen is not going to fight JT Miller. No. Someone else will have to do it. Someone else will have to grab JT after practice and say, I'm sick of this garbage. Let's sort it out now.

You're too big for this guy. You're too good a fighter. But I'm not. I can take you out. Let's see what we can sort it out now you don't you're too big for this guy you're too good a fighter but i'm not i'm good and i can take you on let's see what we can sort it out that might be what it needs to be some trial by combat thing um that that sorts us out that might be what happens you're right when i play we would fight to solve this and it's not a good method of resolving disputes i know and i know a lot of people scratch their heads saying, did he just say they should fight? Yes. I fought Kevin Gaffney. I remember my first training camp in Providence. I fought a

guy who was a junior, much bigger than I was, tough as nails. Had a great fight. We're friends ever since. First time I met Paul Holmgren, I fought him. Been friends ever since. So sometimes it's exactly what you need to do. How does the Vancouver market, I'm going to get off this topic,

but I do want to ask you about Vancouver since you know it so well. How does the Vancouver market factor into this? I mean, in some ways it's not unlike any other Canadian market. Anything hockey plus conflict equals explosion. But is there something specific to Vancouver that just can't, like it seems like every day there's just log after log

getting thrown on this fire. Is there something there, Berkey? Yes, it's a unique market. It's a great market. I loved working there. I worked there twice. Both times our teams got better. Both times our crowds came back.

I loved working in Vancouver. I really missed when i left i loved it i loved every minute of it but we didn't have the social media then so much that's a new development certainly since i worked for pat quinn and certainly the second term was just coming on but social media has made this a market where they tear each other apart everything is second guessed everything is criticized it's wild to watch and it's unique they will tear you apart there no question about it but i think rick tockett has done a good job of saying the players ignore the white noise like the social media you don't learn anything there you're not going to learn anything about our team or what makes things better. Just a bunch of nuts.

So just put it to the side. You've done a good job doing that. Mainstream media in Vancouver, excellent. Excellent. You know, one of the interesting things here is this is in a lot of ways

a sidebar to the real issue in Vancouver with this team. Now, again, they almost squandered one last night and let Seattle beat them. We'll see what happens with the Thatcher Demko injury. But as everyone talks about Elias Patterson and JT Miller, it does seem to me that what's getting ignored here is the big problem with Vancouver right now, or the big issue with Vancouver is a better way to frame it and that's the injury to Quinn Hughes like they are night and day a different team with him in the lineup or out of the lineup and in some ways Burkett kind of reinforces

his heart trophy candidacy like you can see it like vancouver is a completely different team when quinn hughes is not in the lineup when he's in the lineup things are great it's awesome a lot of the mistakes get erased but when he's out you can really see it this team is profoundly different that is outside of the soap opera of jt and elias here that is the big story should be the big story in vancouver no well i agree and what's amazing is watch the impact his absence has, even when he doesn't have the puck. Like his impact as a player is profound. His impact when he's not on the ice seems to be equally profound.

The players seem to be looking for him for direction and guidance at all times, which is really unique for a defenseman. Very few defensemen have that impact. for direction and guidance at all times, which is really unique for a defenseman. Very few defensemen have that impact. So I think he's been, he's a wonderful player. He's a great kid. But yeah, that absence, Thatcher Demko getting hurt, Quinn Hughes getting hurt, and then this friction.

You're talking about a formula that could flush the season right down the sewer. But I don't think that will happen with Rick Tockett and Patrick Albbee in charge. You know, one of the things that's come out of this, interestingly enough, one of the things that's come out of this situation with JT Miller and Elias Pettersson is other players are starting to comment

about friction that they saw on their teams. Like I've talked plenty, Brian, you and I have talked about it on the old Hey Berkey series about, you know, Bob Ganey and Serge Savard and the animosity there. And that bled into when they were managers, et cetera. Again, no stranger to the hockey world. But I want to play a clip from you.

This is one of your former players. This is Jay Rosehill, who hosts a show with Nick Alburga here, Leafs Morning Take. And he was talking about a similar situation that he saw and had, not personally, but other players, with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Here's Jay Rosehill from a couple of days ago. It reminds me of Dion Phaneuf. When he got to Toronto, he'd be hard on guys, and he'd chirp, and he'd always talking,

and he'd get under guys' skin, and sometimes he'd pick a guy that didn't like that and would shy away from it. And he'd smell blood and he'd go after that guy all the time. And, you know, not to the point where guys are in tears, but like damn close. Like they, you know, you can, you can go too far. You can push too far. And, and instead of motivating and challenging, you get to be putting down. And I'm not saying Dion was doing that, but some guys just don't respond to that.

And more than ever nowadays, these younger players don't respond to it. I remember when I was leaving North American hockey going, these 20-year-olds, if you say one thing about them that might be like a little bit of a challenge or a little bit of a, do you agree with that? Does that motivate you? And they're just like, no one's ever said that to me. My mom's always said I'm incredible. My agent says I'm incredible.

My dad says I'm incredible. My coach says I'm incredible. Like, what do you mean? And you just shut down, flabbergasted, just very mentally weak. And I'm not saying that's with Elias Pettersson necessarily, but there's definitely an element to an old school guy like Miller and maybe a new school kid like Pettersson necessarily, but there's definitely an element to an old school guy like Miller and maybe a new school kid like Pettersson and is not jiving well,

which is obviously unfortunate for the connect. You made Dion front of captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I know you love them as a player. I love them as a person as well. Not the first player to challenge younger players, but do you have a thought or is anything resonate there from Jay Rosell's comments? Well,

I had Rosie too. He played for me. I love Rosie. I Jay Rosell's comments? Well, I had Rosie, too. He played for me. I love Rosie. I go on his show all the time. But I think the criticism of Dion is going too far. I'm not going to let that take place while I'm watching this show. He was tough on players, but we were very good. And we needed that guy to make us better.

And he did make us better. I love Dion. He's a great guy and he's a he was a great leader on our team i think rose he's taking a little too far but his point's the right one there's dion challenge players he said we're not good enough i'm going to challenge everyone to play better challenge himself to play better and that gets on people's nerves sometimes i welcomed it that's why i brought him in there we had a loud voice we like him to have a loud voice i can find people who are meek i can find people who don't say anything you find people who are followers i wanted leaders in that room and that's what dion was but

rosie he was a good guy on our team too i don't want to start that fight um what do people because i one of the things that i always respected about Dion Phaneuf is, and you would always make this point about it, Jeffy, you'd be surprised how many Canadian players have all Canadian markets on their no trade.

One of the things that always impressed me about Dion Phaneuf is not everybody wants the stage in Canada. It takes a certain type of person to embrace what comes along

with being on a stage in the Canadian market. And here's Dion Phaneuf who embraced it in Calgary, who embraced it in Toronto, who embraced it in Ottawa as well. Like what is everybody, what did, what did everybody miss about Dion Phaneuf in Canada? Well, the, the, the average Canadian player is worried about his tax bill. So he's taking home $5 million instead of $5.5 million. He's worried about his tax bill, not how he's treated. I used to tell our player, I told Matt Stagen this once in Calgary,

I said, you guys will look back on your careers when you retire, and the best times you'll remember are when you were in Canada. You will remember you were loved, you were respected, you were revered. You won't feel that anywhere you play, anywhere else. So that's just to tell the players. Dion loved that. He loved being in Canada. I'll tell you a story about Dion. Sure.

We went to New York after a game. I had these two people that bought lunch or dinner with me for Special Olympics. I brought them in a dressing room tour after the game. So after the game, Dion's doing his weights. He comes out. There's two complete strangers there in suits. They're walking by. And I said, Dion, I give you Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith's from Special.

Hey, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. He turns to me and barks, we need to get bigger, goddammit, right in front of these two guys. So these two guys said to me, your GM to me and barks, we need to get bigger, goddammit. Right in front of these two guys. So these two guys said to me, your GM talks to you like that? And I said, yeah, Dion does. Well, that's Dion.

That's Dion. He's got no filter, but all big heart, all the right reasons for everything. Every listener feels like their favorite podcast is speaking just to them. If you're a marketer, your brand's message can do the same. With podcasts ranking number one against all other media for good use of time, good for learning, and mentally engaging, podcast ads are proven to be one of the most effective marketing channels. Have your brand heard everywhere with Acast. Our podcasts are available on all apps,

and the only way to reach their listeners is through Acast. Visit go.acast.com slash ads to get started today. and he fought someone. I was always under the belief that that was the moment that, in your mind, he was going to be the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Do you remember if that was accurate? And if not, was there a game or a moment where you said, we've got to put the C on that guy? Well, Ronnie Wilson, I talked about, has simply made the trade. And that was an obvious candidate for us. We both felt that.

But, yeah, there was. I forget who it was he fought, but he fought someone tough and beat him. Had a goal, had about six big hits. And so, yeah, it was someone at my door, sorry. That was the turning point. But yeah, that's a true story. Okay.

MeechVB in our chat is asking for Phil Kessel stories. Everybody loves Phil Kessel stories. I still maintain that everybody loves Phil Kessel, one of the most lovable players in maybe the history of the NHL. Do you have a favorite Phil Kessel story, Berkey? Well, I remember one time he was getting hammered in the media, just getting fired. Phil's a very polarizing guy because Phil doesn't care what you think. He doesn't care what the media think. He doesn't care what I think. He only cares what his teammates think. That maddens people. It's aggravating to people in the media who's right. When I hammer Phil Kessel, he should be apologetic. He should care. And Phil's like, I don't care. So one time he was getting a beating in the media and I called him in. I went and sat down on the stall in the dressing room. I said,

Phil, you're getting a beating here. You want me to brush the flies off and bark at him for a couple days? He said, Berkey, look around this room. The only people in this room are the people I care about. I don't care about anyone else. So that's what drove people nuts. They thought should care he should care more that i don't like him as a player it should bother him and it didn't bother and that drove the media even more nuts so

i loved having him as a player i'd have him back again tomorrow you know one of the things that uh you know i always maintain that when you're a team that has to grind for every single goal, games are tough. And the luxury about it, I always looked at Phil as like this incredible luxury item that he could come down the wing, snap in two goals. And you know what it's like when you have someone that can score easy goals. Pressure's gone. Like, we don't have to grind to get back in this game. We don't have to grind to get back in this game. We don't have to grind to get this goal.

Like, do you have a thought, Berkey, on Phil Kessel and his ability to just get a team back in the game easy because he always had that shot that could bring a team right back into the game? Like, what a luxury for any team to have. Well, people forget that Phil is one of the strongest guys on the team. So when you lift weights with a team, I started this training camp with the New Orleans Saints.

And so you go in the offensive line and have one set of weights set up. And they do all the heavy lifting. The offensive linemen lift together. Then the linebackers lift together at the next set of weights. So they don't have to change the weights all the time. Only two guys are going to lift the heaviest set of weights for us with the Leafs, Dion Vanhoef and Phil Kessel. People are shocked at that.

This guy was a physical specimen. Now, his conditioning wasn't great all year. It would slip a little bit as the year went on. But he would start the season in great VO2 max, throw the weights around like a madman. People realized the preparation that he did to get ready for the season. And everyone says, Oh,

Phil Kessley is lazy. He wasn't lazy at all. I would have him back in a heartbeat. Part of three cups, two that really counted. Really good player. Really good guy. Really good leaf.

Really popularly. Mm-hmm. Okay. A couple more things I want to ask you about here. I don't want to get on the Ovechkin page in a couple of seconds because you've seen his entire career. Zach LaRue of the Nashville Predators

just got suspended for three games for a slew foot on Jared Spurgeon of the Minnesota Wild. When I think about all the penalties in the NHL, or all the things you could get suspended for, for me, slew footing is right up around the top.

Like that is the one that I look at and I say, I have nothing but contempt for players that slew foot other players. Like zero, I have zero understanding. I will not even have the conversation about well he didn't mean it like to me slew footing is the ultimate dirty vicious play in the nhl i know some will say oh cross check to the face and all this to me slew footing is just ugly no one's expecting to get their feet taken out from under them we all all know how fast the guys can skate. We all know how the boards don't move. And this was all in concert.

Spurgeon's going in to chase a puck that's deep in his zone. I hate slew footing. I'm disgusted by it. Do you have a thought on that particular infraction? Yeah, believe it or not, I'm with you. I don't believe, I don't agree with you all the time, Jeff. But on that one, I think it's the most dangerous, one of the most dangerous ones. When you cross check a guy in the face,

at least he's got some chance to see it coming and deflect it. A slew foot, player's unprepared, he's battling for the puck, he's off balance, he's not ready for the hit, and he gets thrown backwards. I agree with you. I think the league made the right call. I love the North Star, the Wilds' response. I love Jakob Trennan's response.

He jumped in there immediately. And that's what I love about our game, that there is still self-policing and self-help. So that to me was, yeah, he deserved the suspension. I don't like slow footing. I don't see any – for one thing, there's no positive purpose to it. Most fouls, you take a roughing foul, you're trying to body check somebody. You might cross the line,

but you're trying to do something useful. Slough foot's just a dirty play. You know, that leads me to wonder about another thing with you, Berkey. At the beginning of the season, would you ever talk to your team about things like slew footing or here's the other hot button one diving would you ever talk to your team or coaching staff about these infractions yes what would you say i would say i don't encourage either one of them i don't like either one of tell our players we don't dive we don't respect diving we don't want to see it and if a player did dive i would call him and even if he could find for it and say we don't do that here we don't do that here in toronto we don't do that here in vancouver we don't slew foot people we don't spear people

we want to play the right way we want to play hard we want to play the right way um when you were the uh sheriff's badge in the NHL and you had the role we now know as the head of the Department of Player Safety, what was the easiest suspension for you? What was the one that you looked at and you're like, okay, this one's simple. This is open and shut.

Well, there were a few of them that were open and shut, but there was the one, I'm trying to think, St. Louisis we cross-checked uh gone blank on his name one of them one of them was um the um the pebble bury one i let go that was when shane charlotte shane charlotte yeah get away with that one and that was one that people talked to most about, about the one that blew the worst.

But I'd say Shane Churla, he called me about, Chris Chellos called me about a suspension that had occurred in a game with no one sent in. And Chris Chellos said to me, I just got five games for the same thing Shane Chelo just did in that game. So I watched it and it was right. I gave the same suspension. That one was easy to me.

It happened about two weeks before. It wasn't that well known. But it got widely publicized after I suspended him. I took one look at it and I said, Chris Chelo, you're right. What Shane Chelo just did is an exact mirror image of what happened to you. He got four games for it. That's what he's going to get, too. Let me, we've got a couple of minutes left here.

I want to ask you about Alexander Ovechkin. Chasing the record, obviously, for the Wayne Gretzky goals record. He's 23 away after scoring last night against the Minnesota Wild. You know, telling Marc-Andre Fleury he needs another one and Fleury says no you already got one nice little moment between two guys that went up against each other in those Washington uh Pittsburgh Penguins games um but you were there from day one 2005 his first season he scored 52 goals and it's not as if he has a murderer's row around him it's Dinah Zubrisris and it's Chris Clark and Brooks Lyke and Jeff Halpern and these types of names around the Washington Capitals.

When you go back and look at Ovechkin in his first season, take us back to 2005, I think we're all blown away by the power, the shots, his physicality, the way that he didn't give up on pucks going to the net. We all remember that Coyote's goal. When you look back now, what did you think of Ovechkin at the time? And was there any thought that he was going to be, because no one thought he was going to catch Gretzky,

like get that out of the way. But was there any thought that we're watching someone who's going to be the best goal scorer of this generation? Is that fair? No, I thought he was a bull of a player. I liked him right away. I liked his physicality. What I like about Alex Ovechkin is he celebrates goals by his teammates

as much as his own. He gets as excited when a teammate, when Tom Wilson scores, he gets as excited as when he does. I love that. I love that enthusiasm for his teammates. But I love the fact that he's played hard. I never thought he'd break Gretzky's record. Anyone who tells you they did is lying.

He's 40. He's going to be 40 this year. He'll be 40 years old. He's still chasing the record. And he's having a great year again. So, no, I think he's been great for our game. I think he's knocked down one barrier. A lot of people didn't like Russian players.

Now they like him. I think he popularized the Russian players after they won the cup with all of his antics in the pool. He's just a great guy. It's always interesting the way that, oh, you'll never win with this guy until you do. And, you know, I've always maintained about Ovechkin, Brick, I don't think I've ever talked to you about this one,

that what he was able to do for that Washington Capitals organization, you know, not just the team and the wins and losses, but how that building, it was sellout after sellout after sellout after sellout. You know, we talk about the salary cap and the max you can get is 20%. When you look at what Ovechkin did to that team, what Ovechkin did, you know, by way

of selling tickets and jerseys and invigorating the Washington Capitals brand to say nothing of what he's done for the National Hockey League and this Wayne Gretzky chase. If you could ever make a case for someone who should be exempt from the salary cap and just pay him whatever he wants. I'll also put Crosby in that conversation too. Ovechkin would be one of those players. Where are you at on the effect that Ovechkin had in Washington and around the NHL? I think there's, you're talking about players that are generational players,

which I hate that term's overused, but even more than generational players, not just the best players of their generation, but revolutionized the sport and saved a franchise. And that would be Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin. Those are players that went in and single-handedly rescued a franchise. And that would be Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin. Those are players that went in and single-handedly rescued a franchise. So look at what Alex Ovechkin has done. I've told this story before. I didn't see Alex at the Olympics in 2010 after my son had passed away.

Went to the World Championships that year, even though they were eliminated, and played in the Olympics. It was the Olympic year. He year he still went and played for russia in the world in cologne and i went to i walked by the dressing room and alex was in there and i said hey alex i walked by you know birdie birdie i went and sat down next to him he put his arm around me and said i didn't see you in vancouver i'm so sorry son. Now, this is not a guy that I knew. This is not a guy that played for me somewhere. A guy I just met that I respected. We've been friends ever since. So this guy's been great for our game.

I love the fact that he's going to break this record. I hope it's this year. I'm not convinced it's going to be, though. I think teams are on a great roll now in Washington, and teams are waking up to that now. You know, if it's not this year, then they'll have an entire summer to plan for it and really get the celebrations started

if they can have an entire summer's worth of marketing heading into next season. We'll see where that one heads. Listen, Brian, thanks as always. Have a wonderful weekend. Let me ask you one sec. Timo Solanino would remind me very much of their same careers. 13 or 15 years, some great individual success,

no team success, then finally won their cup. And I feel those two players are very much alike in terms of the impact they had and finally got rewarded at the end. Love to hear it. You're great, Brian. As always, thanks so much for stopping by Fridays here on The Sheet.

Really appreciate it. Best of the new year to you and your family. Health and happiness to the Burks. And we'll catch up with you in seven days, my friend. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks. There he is, Brian Burke, who joins The Sheet every Friday, whether it's current events or whether it's questions from the chat.

Speaking of the chat, Colby Cohen accusing us of... No, he is soft tampering with the sheet chat, trying to get people over that. No, the way it works is I try to steal everybody from the morning cup of hockey chat and migrate them over

to this little property here, Zach. It's not supposed to be the other way around. And he took exception to me saying, you know, oh, nobody's like Chris Clark, his old teammate. Didn't have a problem with me roasting Matt Pettinger, though. Never problem with me roasting Matt Pettinger, though.

Didn't have a problem with me roasting Dana Zubris, though. Well, Colby said nice things about me, so I'm all on Colby's side today. Anything Colby says, he's got to pass. The thinnest veil in hockey media is worn by you. If you think that you can bribe your way into something with Zach Phillips, you're 100 right yeah yes correct um all right uh i gotta hustle because i actually have a meeting here coming up in a couple of moments you have a final thought on either the show or the week berkey was

great hey some more great stories yeah he's always great yes berkey is always great um glad to have steven on to kind of recap the week that was with hockey canada that is gonna be i can't i can't i can't wait for that presser tomorrow my kids on the ice i'm gonna be watching it on my phone i cannot wait for that press conference tomorrow the state of the union address from hockey canada uh i think i'll ask you this, Jeff. On it, they're going to do the State of the Union, and I know you've got to get out of here quick, so that's fine. But are they going to say anything useful? Seriously. What are they going to say that's not going to get nitpicked

and torn apart by media and fans? It's a great question, and you know what? I hate saying this as a member of the media, but right now they shouldn't really say anything. I think they should express disappointment. I think they should say, you know, at a member of the media, but right now they shouldn't really say anything. I think they should express disappointment. I think they should say, you know, at the end of this tournament, we're going to roll up our sleeves and have a good hard look at what happened here. We want to thank everybody for their hard work leading into this tournament.

This wasn't the results we wanted. This wasn't the result that we expected. But we are determined to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and all the things that you would that you would expect um i don't think it'll end there i think that they'll continue to be grilled about it um as the as the press conference goes on but if i was like to me you play in a situation like that you can play two things you can play sword or you can play shield and i think in the situation tomorrow at this press conference i think hockey canada is going to play shield more than anything else i think

the last thing they should do is play sword they should play shield sword will come later but i think tomorrow is going to be all about playing shield that's my take on it um mike in the chat by the way jeff do you have a top five hockey books uh yeah you know what i'd love to do a segment on it as well um zach write that down let's do like a top five hockey but i mean i got books behind me might as well talk about them um on one of the sort of quieter days we'll do more more book talk because uh listen people do love uh reading hockey books and i do love talking about them and my favorite is they call me gump still which i still maintain they call me gump is how do i describe this they call me gump is like twitter before twitter and gump worsley in some

ways was paul bissonette before there was Paul Bissonette, as far as being outspoken about everything. Let me frame it that way. Let me give you that sort of as a, as a little bit of a tease. Anyhow, to everybody in the chat. Thank you.

As always make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel here on daily face off. Make sure to like, make sure to rate and review. Am I doing this right, Zach Phillips? Yes, correct. I was going to do it for you so you didn't have to, but.

Oh, okay, very good. I, you know, an old dog, you can teach him some new tricks and different lines to say. Listen, thanks to everybody here. Thanks to you for watching. Thanks to you for listening. Thanks to you for being in the chat.

It's really appreciated. 2025 is going to be a great one here for the sheet. Zach and I have a number of things that are cooked up for you and can't wait to get into. Now that we've flipped the calendar and we're getting comfortable around this place, it's probably time to start, if not breaking, at least denting some of the stuff around here. And we hope you can be with us as we do it. Have a wonderful weekend.

We wish for you and your family health and happiness, as I just said to Brian and his family, health and happiness to you and yours. For those of you that have lost loved ones, I know what that feels like. I think we all do. Heading into 2025 in a different scenario can be daunting. I hope that this program can at least bring an hour's worth of lighthearted hockey conversation and sunshine and smiles to your life as you've given me plenty of that in my life. Thank you so much for joining me here on The Sheet. We are back Monday, 3 o'clock Eastern, noon Pacific.

We'll talk to you then. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the juniors. Canadian hockey fans, it's okay. The sun keeps coming up. We're going to be all right. Talk to you on Monday. Don't forget, Morning Cup of Hockey. There's one for you, Colby. The sun keeps coming up. We're going to be all right. Talk to you on Monday. Don't forget Morning Cup of Hockey.

There's one for you, Colby. Morning Cup of Hockey. Kicks off our broadcast day, 9 o'clock Eastern, on our daily Faceoff YouTube channel. That's right here. 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. Guess you can call it a run. 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 I knew. It's me, myself, and how this gonna be fixed in my mind. I don't think you're sometimes losing Helping on the days that went wrong

In the dead dark night