The Sheet with Jeff Marek - Suspensions, Point Leaders, and Pillow Fights ft. Colby Cohen

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

A wild weekend across the NHL sets the stage for today’s episode of The Sheet as Jeff Marek is joined by Colby Cohen to break it all down with the playoff race tightening by the day. They start with the fallout from AJ Greer’s hit on Connor Zary and the three game suspension that followed, then move into the New York Islanders picking up a massive win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, a game driven by an impressive performance from rookie defenceman Matthew Schaefer that could have real implications on the Eastern Conference picture. The conversation also turns to Nikita Kucherov continuing his incredible run to grab the NHL points lead and what is fueling that surge, before wrapping with Connor McDavid’s comments calling the Western Conference a “pillow fight” right now and what that says about the Pacific Division and the rest of the conference. Be sure to subscribe and drop your thoughts below as the race to the playoffs continues to take shape.#TheSheet #NHL #Hockey #JeffMarek #ColbyCohen #StanleyCupPlayoffs #NHLPlayoffRace #HockeyTalk #NikitaKucherov #ConnorMcDavid #Islanders #BlueJackets #AJGreer #ConnorZary #NHLSuspensionGO FUND ME: https://t.co/fi5feVsAwILeave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/caReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the program. Glad to have you along today. I want to start on a somber note and a note of tribute and a note of condolences to the family and the friends of Jesse Pierce, the great Jesse Pierce, who, you know, when you hear the phrase, friend to everyone, it really means something when you talk about someone like Jesse Pierce and Jesse specifically who passed away over the weekend, along with her three children, which horrifies all of us. I never met Jesse face to face. We were going to at the World of Juniors this year. As a matter of fact, I was going through some old texts after hearing the news yesterday. And just remembering how quickly, you know, once I texted her and said,

hey, finally we're going to get a chance to meet and I'm going to get a chance to see you and we can hang out. We're going to go to the World of Juniors. Right away, she just went into organization mode and host mode. You know, you were in her state. she was taking care of you.

And I know this is not exclusive to me because she treated everybody the exact same way. That's just who Jesse was. And you can see all the beautiful glowing tributes that are out there now and they all have one common thread. And that is an unconditional love and support that she had for everybody,

not just in the hockey industry, but everybody and anybody, even remotely close to Jesse's orbit. Just a couple of, things as Zach and I were trying to get to the world juniors in Minneapolis a couple of months ago. I'm just going through her text. Yikes, wondering if our weather would be a hold-up, but still way worse, huh? Sounds like a fun road trip.

Oof, when's the third flight attempted, expected to take off? Yish, dog sleds, get here faster. Oh, no, not another delay slash cancellation. That is pure insanity. Why does the weather hate Minnesota is the best question? There's some airlines that are going to be renamed America after all this, I'm sure. Lucky flight number four question mark. I guess it's not in the cards or air.

And she finally writes, It would have been spectacular. Next time, always lots of hockey and warm food. She was great. Read all the things that people are writing about her because they're all true. condolences to the family and the friends of the great Jesse Pierce. Let's get to what's on the show here today. The blueprint is powered by Fanduel.

Download the app today and play your game at Fanduel. Coming up here in a couple of moments, Colby Cohen is going to stop by from, as I pull out my favorite new coffee mug, Morning Cup of Hockey. We're going to talk a lot about the AJ Greer suspension off the top. I spent a good chunk of yesterday, not just doing the U.S. finals, both women's and men's, but also trying to figure out comparables. You know, we all look for consistency in the DOPS. So I pulled out a few that I think are sort of relevant to the conversation.

We'll get Colby's thoughts on that. We'll talk about Nikita Kuthorov. We will talk about pillow fights, not actual pillow fights, metaphorical pillow fights, as they relate to the Pacific Division. As pointed out by none other than Connor McDavid, we'll hopefully get to Cole Cofield, or as we like to call him, Gold Coffield, Mr. Saturday night because he saves up all the special goals for Saturday night and hockey night in Canada and some listener questions coming up here.

Later on in the hour. In the meantime, let's get right to one half of the impact players, the power duo that is morning cup of hockey. He is Colby Cohen and he joins me now. Colby, how are you? Are we going to get a cameo from the pooch, by the way? It's always one of my favorite parts of the morning show. I just had to shut the door to my office because there was a ruckus going on upstairs.

is everybody's home today. So I figured I'd shut the door because I thought we might get a human visitor. But so now, I love that too. He's got no access to the room today. I love all of it. Listen, there's a ton to get to here. And you guys had a good whack at a lot of different pinatas this morning on Morning Cup. And as always, I encourage people to go back and listen to it if you weren't part of it live.

But the A.J. Greer suspension, the three gamer, first of all, we all know that there's a target right now on the DOPS and things are really hot and this was going to be another measuring stick suspension, another sort of litmus test suspension. Fans are like, you know, peasants with pitchforks right now, torches at the castle gates, send out the monster. That's what everybody wants. What's the other metaphor? The volcano wants a virgin, you know, give us a sacrifice here. We don't like these suspensions. And we can get into the Y in a couple of seconds.

But I thought, because you do a really good job of this, trying to find some kind of logical consistency amongst things, not just in suspensions, but in hockey as well. And so I spent a good part of last night trying to find some comparables. And so I've put together a collage here, and I could only call me, come up with one that I can say is relevant for the AJ Greer three game suspension. Zach, do we have, we're going to roll these one after the other?

Do you want me to jump in in between? How do you want to handle these? So first of all, so this is from the playoffs, I think in 2021. This is Sam Bennett on Blake Coleman. That's a one-game suspension for boarding. Now, that's the playoffs. So you say, okay, a one-game suspension in the playoffs is a two-game suspension in the regular season. Coleman coming down the boards.

Sam Bennett just isolates them, sees them, and then starts charging across the ice. This is sort of standard fare for the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers. Anyhow, that results in a one game suspension, hit from behind, into the glass, didn't cover the distance that we saw on the AJ Greer hit, but nonetheless. Here's Martin Pospicil on Vince Dunn as well. This one was a three-game suspension, right? It's a hit from behind, close to the glass. Dun goes in dangerously. That's a three-gamer.

Has the puck into the boards. That's the three-gamer. So you say to itself, it's still a. similar, but it's still kind of different. Here's Rempe on Heiskenen. This is, you know, this is charge. This is boarding. This is also elbowing. That one got an eight game suspension, but when you look at the history and the elbow and the charge and the boarding, it all adds up to eight.

So that's not even a direct comparable to what we saw with A.J. Greer. But this is. So this is Eric Johnson and Vlad Nemestikov. Okay. We got to go all the way back to 2017 for that one. one. That's the one. And again, if I'm missing any, anyone watching a list and they can find, that's a good whack too. And then there's the cross check into the boards. That's the only one that I can find, Colby, that is similar to what we saw. And that was a two game suspension. Yeah. I mean, these are, these are kind of brutal to watch. And I'll say this, like, the last one, you're right. It's the closest thing. But it's still. to me not the same and it's not as it's not as you know attempt to injure in my opinion and you know i usually err on the the other side where people want more and i usually think less or you know when

these hits are coming up in the middle of the ice and everybody's yelling head contact or late i'm always sort of the first to say guys we're watching it in slow motion these things are happening in less than one second. A lot of times there's so many circumstances around these plays that we are not taking into account like you're already committed to something or you might have been quickly shoulder checking right before finishing your hit left and the guy turns their back. Like there's just a lot of factors that come into play. And it's where a lot of the hits now, Jeff, are just an unfortunate part of how fast this game is and how strong the players are. The one with Eric Johnson, why I don't like that, because he clearly is angry in two hands

him first before then a very, very dangerous cross check to the back, very, very dangerous cross check to the back. And Eric Johnson is a very strong man. It's still, in my opinion, it's part of the play. Like the play is right there. And I know it's late. It's after he shoots it. Right. But you're kind of committed to the guy.

You're giving him a shot. The expectation for Eric Johnson there is not I'm ending this guy's career. Like that's just how I see that. When I watch the AJ Greer hit, that looks like a play that has nothing to do with the game of hockey. Like I could make an argument for Eric Johnson there. Maybe not a great argument. but I can make an argument as a defenseman who spent a lot of his time chasing guys because I was caught up yet, okay?

It's like, but Jeff, the rear hit is so far from a hockey play. It's an intent to injure play. And that's where this should have not have been less than five games. And what I've come to realize, and I'm not someone who yells and screams at George Paros from the mountaintops, I'm really not. Like this isn't a hockey play. This is, I want to hurt you. I want to injure you.

And he, I mean, that is so dangerous to me. That is not a split second decision. That is not after a shot. That is, I don't care where the puck is. I'm settling a score. And if you get paralyzed here, well, you know what? Not my problem. And that's how that play reads to me.

And every time I've thought, George Peros would put his source. into the ground and make an example out of a player in the last 24 months, he hasn't done that. And what I'm realizing is that he's not in the business of making an example. He's in the business of just making the decision him and his team feels is right. But I personally think they should have thrown the book at AJ Greer. That is not a hockey play. I'll argue for Eric Johnson, even though it's dirty, they're still hockey being played in that clip.

Further to your point, and I was talking to Zach about this earlier on before we started, and this is why I brought up the idea that I'm trying to find comparables for this. We don't see that. Like what AJ, and first of all, when do we see someone pushing someone

into the boards high? Normally it's low. It's around the hips. We see that. Normally it's low. When you're sending someone into the boards, this is one where he catches Connor Zerry high and he's pushing him high and pushing him down. But my point through all of it is we don't see that play the way that that AJ Greer went at Conor Zeri.

Like that is we never see anything like that in the game. Now, the thing that I always point to with George Perros, I don't think that it matters that it's George Peros. who's ahead of the Department of Player's Safety. You can take Ryan Getslough, you can take someone who's been there going back to the Colin Campbell days and Damien Etchevaryetta. You can take Patrick Burke. You can take whomever you want from the entire department.

Generally, they are making the same calls because that is the mandate. Like I'm trying to encourage people to take one more step in the argument, which is, okay, what's the reason that they're not giving up massive suspensions. And one of the reasons is Brendan Shanahan tried that.

And what happened? He got pushed back from, remember when Brendan Shannon was throwing double digits at everybody? We're correct. And a lot of it was repeat offenders. And so I get that. But you're right.

Everybody freaked out. Managers freaked out. Players freaked out. Money out of our pockets. Managers are thinking, okay, it sucks when it's our bull that gets scored. But what if it's our guy?

Like if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins and someone does something to Sidney Criesby and you scream bloody murder, what do you do when Malkin does? what he did to Rasam-Stalin. You're looking at a double. You want Malkin out of the lineup. I think in the back of managers' minds,

they're thinking, okay, I got to stomp my feet here and say this isn't right, but I live terrified if that's my guy, and our standard is 15 games. I think that's a, that's a very, like, level-headed way to look at it. And whenever, again,

I've actually gone on Morning Cup, but you've heard me. I've defended George Peros. Like, George Peros, he has been in every situation as a player. He's an extremely intelligent man. He went to Princeton. I mean, you don't go to Princeton even as an athlete without.

Accidentally. Yeah. Insanely high level academic abilities and scores. And like I've had a beer with the guy before. And I talked to him. And we may not agree, but I'm always able to understand his point of view on these things. things when he explains them. And he's great about talking, you know, off the record. He really is.

Yep. Um, and explaining things. Like, he's very gracious about it. And again, I can't remember a time in the last two and a half years, Jeff, since we started doing our show where I talked to him and I went, this guy's insane. He does. He's lost. It's usually quite the opposite. He usually gives me things to think about that I wasn't otherwise thinking about. And then I can say, okay, maybe I don't agree, but I can find common ground. This might be the first time where I am looking at something and I am going, what the hell? Like, because again, you know, that is not part of hockey. Hockey is so fast. It's such small decisions. We like to watch things in slow motion, which doesn't represent real life. I think, I think Reamer said that on our show last week or, or one of the guys that we've

had on who's, who's still playing recently said that last week. It's not real life. And I, but, but I don't know, Jeff, your thoughts, like what I'm saying, does that look anything remotely like a hockey play? No. No. And that's why, and one of the things that I hate, there's two things that I really hate as far as infractions. One, slew-foot's. Like, that, that's my, that's my, like, oh, that, like, that's the one that I really, really hate. And a close second is using the boards as a weapon. The boards is so unique to our game, unlike, you know, other sports, and of course, it's by necessity.

But I just like the idea that we have a physical separation between real life and the sport, that there's something in between. And I hate the idea of using that thing as a weapon. Like I go back to, and I guess Montreal would have been the, the two in the, in the, in the, in the NHL were always Montreal and Quebec. they had the reputation of having the hardest boards. Like those boards did not move. And when you went to the forum and you went and played in the Collise,

it didn't show up in that game. But like two nights later when you're in St. Louis, you're like, oh, man, you know what it's like, I feel that hit, right, from a cup. And those were those boards. And I know it's different now, but I have a really, really bad tates of my mouth when I see the boards being used as a weapon,

as they were in this situation. My whole point through all of it is the ability is there to turn the heat up on all of these suspensions. But George Perils can't do that on an island. And they just went through a round of CBA negotiations where all of that was discussed.

I know that nobody in the PA, like I know the players don't want to do the boring work. Right? I get it. I know they don't want to do the boring meetings and have the boring discussions, but this just happened. And I believe Batman, this last week at his press conference,

they just went through a negotiation through all this. So the heat can be turned up, but it's got to be a combination of A, the managers and the national hockey league and also the Players Association here too. Because they're in a major conflict of interest situation representing both A.J. Greer and Connor Zerry. I don't know how you get around that.

Unless you want to introduce a third party, and as you well know, the PA, The NHL don't want a third party deciding who's going to be on the ice and who's not going to be on the ice. And that's why we're at the place we're at now. You're going to start having these long appeals. Oh, yeah. Comes an appeal.

You know, the process is going to go from, it will get uglier. I mean, you're just, you're never going to make anybody happy when you, when you're in these situations. and again, I can wrap my head around a lot of the ones that I don't agree with, but we just watched a bunch of those videos. And like even the REMPy one, you're right. The REMPy one felt like they were like, okay, we need to calm this guy down or he might hurt someone. But like at the end of the day, like, you know, the really smart players, Jeff,

they use the boards actually to protect themselves. You learn at a young age. Like I remember between Roger Nielsen's camps that I used to do every summer in Lindsay. And, you know, I had such a great close personal relationship with Roger and my dad and him were really, really close. And, you know, hopefully the two of those guys are hanging out now, you know, upstairs. But it's like you learn him. And then the other guy who taught me that was another Toronto guy, but he was a Russian guy, Dr. Shmushkin, if you've ever heard of him. Oh, is that a Chesswood?

Was that a Cheswood Arena? Yes, Wood Arena. Oh, no way. We'd work on checking techniques, and they show you at a young age that the boards can help you really absorb a lot of contact. That's why the really smart forwards turn their back, and there's that perfect distance that they get where you're not on the boards, but you're not off it either. It's this like hairline distance between you and the boards where you can sort of lean without exposing your face and exposing yourself, but then you. you can absorb contact from behind. And like, Nikita Kutrov is, in my opinion, the best guy at that.

And I remember John Leclair back in the old days, you know, watching him through the late 90s and the early OOs. He'd put his stick on the wall on the dasher. He'd put the puck in his feet. And he would tempt you to come and hit him. And he would like juggle the puck in his skates while using his stick as an anchor in the wall. So, you know, there are ways where you can use the boards, Jeff, just in, in, like, of while you were talking about the boards being a weapon, the really smart guys, they never

take those hits. How many times does Kuturoff get hit from behind? Never. Exactly. Never gets hit, never gets hit from behind. There's a game. And it all goes back to your original point here with this, this Greer play who none of these things apply to, which is why I would have, if you would have given Greer 10 games, I would not have batted an eyelash at 10 games for that play. You mentioned Kuthorov. I'll get off the A.J. Greer story here now and we'll transition to Kuthorov. I had an interesting conversation with someone over the weekend about the Hart Trophy in Kuturov. Now, he's on a role now, which is just insane.

What's the number? 99 points in 46 games. Like, good Lord, he's up to 118. He's just running away with this thing. And someone, I'm new to hockey. Is that good? I had an interesting conversation with someone this weekend and said, I won't vote for him for Hart.

And I said, why not? He said, here's the problem that I have with him. And it's not his fault, but it's just a reality. He had a two and a half week break. Well, everyone else was playing high level hockey and came back tired. He said he got a chance to refresh himself. Should that factor in judging by your facial expression? No, but dude got two and a half weeks off.

That's, I mean, listen, I've heard stuff about I won't vote for him because he's rushing. I mean, there's all. Not that. No, no, it's the rest. It's the rest. I've heard that too. I can tell you this. That is absurd and insane.

To say that you're not going to vote for him, even though he's tearing up the league because he had a rest, not because he turned down an all-star game or he turned down an Olympics. His country is not playing in the Olympics. That's what I'm saying. It's not his fault. It's nothing to do with him. That is, that might be an insane.

wild take in my opinion. That guy, I don't know how he won't win, to be honest. I guess the only argument to be made would be that if somehow Celebrini drags his team into the playoffs, that would be maybe the only argument, but it's not a strong enough argument to be Coutcheroff right now. Not looking like it. Okay. Let me do some quick hitters then here with you.

So you're not going to pick up on the Coutheroff thing. So McDavid calling the Pacific. and I want to get into McDavid and the coach. McDavid calling the Pacific a pillow fight. Now, I might be, I might just be a simple country lawyer, Colby Cohen, but the way I look at this thing here is,

like I look at the Pacific Division, and I go, there's some excellent players here. Like, there are some elite, elite players on a lot of teams in the Pacific. But to McDavid's point, yeah, it is a pillow fight. It's awful. It's a terrible division. and I keep looking at the one common denominator.

They all have horrible goaltenders. Like are we trying to talk ourselves into something that's not more complicated than they have bad goalies? Anaheim's pair under 900. Aiden Hill, Akira Schmidt, under 900. Edmonton's story has been well talked about. Anton Forzberg's got the 902, but Darcy Kemper's rocking the 897.

You know, the team that can't score has got the 909 and the 901, and that's the Seattle Cracken. But do we look no further than this is a division that's goaltending themselves out of a decent conversation here or any kind of credibility. Because every single team has killers on the forward unit, on the blue line. This is a division that has excellent hockey players. And it's all getting killed by bad goaltending. Like this is like, you know all the cliches that you always hear about goaltending?

Colby, like, if you have a goaltender, it's 70% of your team. If you don't, it's 100. I always like the Harry Sinden line. Goaltending is like oxygen. I only think about it when I don't have it. Like these teams don't have. Is it just that simple that this team just has bad goaltending? And that's it.

And that's the reason why they're in a pillow fight. It is that simple. And I mean, you know, Anaheim's leading the division with a negative goal differential of minus seven, which you rarely, rarely see in the National Hockey League. Maybe one wild card team gets in every year, with a minus goal differential. Like you can dig as deep as you want on advanced analytics, but I'll tell you,

true as time is a green number in that column. Go ahead. Sorry. No, no, no, you're right. No, I'm listening. This is good. And, yeah, I mean, look, you're constantly playing from behind. And when you're playing from behind,

your risk factor has to go up. You take that extra chance. You try that extra play at the offensive blue line. There's all sorts of. psyche as a defenseman when you're down and you're thinking, all right, you know what? I'm going to try to cheat on this play and keep this puck alive because we still need two to get back into this game. And one out of every three or four times, the other team's got an odd man rush. And then the lead's not three to one anymore. Now you're at four to one.

And so goal tending is everything. None of those teams have had consistent goaltending. Vegas all year to me has just like this has been one of the weaker Vegas years that I can remember in forever. I normally have so much faith in a Bruce Cassidy coach team come playoff time, even if they're not playing well. But if you're not getting saves, you just, you have absolutely no chance. And that division, it's going to be interesting to see like what is going to change there this summer because, you know, the, the, the division above them in the central, like all three of those teams would be 10 points plus ahead in the Pacific division.

It's not even close. You know, I'm glad you brought up Vegas because I kind of look at, and he's not as good as Chris Pronger, but he's sort of this generation's version of him in some ways, not as nasty as Pronger was, but the effect of losing Alex Petrangelo, like you saw what happened to St. Louis and how quick they went into the dumper

when Petrangelo left to go to Vegas. and now you're seeing what life without Alex Petrangelo is for the Vegas Golden Knights. I know they lost Nick Hague as well. They brought in Raz Anderson. St. Louis sort of brought in a bunch of guys that all did a little tiny bit of what Petrangelo did, but there's no replacing that player. No, true number one. No.

True, true number one. You've got one A's in Theodore and in Rasmus Anderson, and St. Louis had some one A's, right? but there's nothing that replaces that true number one defenseman. And between that and the injury, specifically Mark Stone, like to me, that's Vegas along with a goaltending. Like that's, this is welcome to life without a, without a legit number one defenseman.

Yeah. Good luck doing anything in the playoffs here. You had an interesting conversation this morning about James Higgins. And I'm like you and I'm like, you know, I think I'm like Johnny too. Like, what's the hold up? you know, it didn't take Cole Hudson this quick to sign with the Washington Capitals. What's the hold up on James Hagan's here? And I thought you brought up an interesting point about, well, if I'm turning pro, what do I get?

What am I getting if I'm turning pro, right? Am I going to HL Providence? Am I playing with the big team? What's my position? Like, that's the conversation, right? Yeah. I mean, look, I said it this morning. And I'll say it again here.

You have so few times in your career that you have leverage as a player. And more and more we see young players who have not touched the league exercise their leverage. And it's worked out for a lot of them. I mean, Cutter Goce, he chose his ticket. And I mean, this is a guy who's probably going to be a 50 goal score in the NHL at some point, Cutter Goce. So, you know, for Higgins, if he's, going to leave early and all signs point to him wanting to leave early why would you settle for

anything less than right into the national hockey league like but when you look at don swiney's history and look at charlie mackavoy who went to providence first and then there was injuries and ends up in the n hl that year and the playoffs and then never looks back you know i i i just think don't Sweeney. And again, this is just, I'm just guessing here. I haven't spoken to Hay. I don't, I haven't spoken to Hagen's agent. I haven't spoken to anybody in Boston about this. But my spider senses would say there's a holdup in where this guy is going. And if I'm Hagan's agent, I am stubborn as all hell. I will not move an inch because this isn't money driven, Jeff. He's the seventh overall pick. What he makes, it's already predetermined. He's.

getting max contract for a rookie he's getting a and b bonuses yeah that is the easy part of this type of situation but my guess would be the bruin's probably want him to go play in the american league and he's probably sitting there going no i'm not going to the american league i'm coming right to boston and i want to play in boston and play you know five or ten games the rest of the year and you never know at that point, Jeff, you play five or ten games, you score four or five points, you look like you belong.

Now when you go to training camp next year, Marco Sturm and Don Sweeney view you as an NHLer. You go to Providence, you have an okay run in Providence, maybe you even score. You're still James Hagen's the seventh overall pick. You're not James Hagen, the Boston Bruin,

who just finished the season with the big team. So some people might say, well, Is there really a difference? Yes, there is a major difference in the way that you're viewed. So that is my guess. I'd call it an educated guess based on what I've seen in the game of hockey. Otherwise, why is this?

Like, he currently lives four miles from the TD Garden at Boston College. Like, what could be holding this up? The thing about, the thing about Hagen's, though, let me push back a little on this because let's say he does go to Providence. You know how the politics of a team works and how a player drafted seventh overall, even going into next season, if he doesn't play a game with the Bs this year, going into next season, he's still going to be that seventh overall pick that a lot of people stuck their neck out for and said,

this is our guy. So it's not as if he's going to have the same opportunity, or in this case, lack of opportunity that other AHAs might. Would it not be true that even if he does start up, we start at Providence and play the rest of the season at Providence next year because he is their number one guy. And you know how, you know, bubble wrap everything around the first round pick. And here's the on ramp to get onto the highway here.

Does he still not get preferential treatment? Whether he starts with the Bruins or not. Of course he gets preferential treatment. No, I'm not saying he wouldn't. But what I'm saying is, is you go to the NHL first, okay? it's a cleaner path to never playing a game in the minors, right? And, you know, the difference for these guys, right? Like, what happens if you go to the minors and you struggle?

If you go to the NHL and you struggle, you're supposed to. You go to the American League and you struggle. People start to worry. And I'm not saying either will happen. But I believe if you put five to 10 games on your resume in the NHL and you look like you belong, it's the first thing that they've seen you do in their colors and their jersey for real. And it just gives you a little bit of extra juice. It gives the coaches a little bit of extra comfort.

And maybe the plan is no matter what he goes to Providence next year for 30 games. Who knows? Don Sweeney is as patient as it gets with his prospects, maybe too patient people could probably criticize him for over the years. So I do believe, Jeff, while you make a good point, there is a difference in starting those first chunk in the National League versus the American League. Because you go and you score a couple goals, you have a couple points. You will maybe never see the light a day in the American League. Okay.

I want to show you something here as we wrap things up here in a couple of moments. I want to show today is an anniversary of one play specifically. Joe Pascucci put this up on TwitterX today. March 23rd, 1996. In the International Hockey League, Detroit Vipers, Bill Armstrong, from London, Ontario, scores with his signature high rap. The next day in the NCAA playoffs on ESPN, the Wolverines, Mike Legg, who had learned the move from Armstrong at hockey camp,

mimics his teacher, and the Michigan was born. Now, interesting note on this one. See the defenseman in front of Bill Armstrong, who's behind the net? that's the other Bill Armstrong, who's now the general manager of the Utah Mama. So it's Armstrong on Armstrong crime there. But here's my question for you. One, when did you learn?

Because every player's tried it. Every player learns it. Once you get it, you kind of got it of how to scoop it up and do the rap. Do you remember the time when you and all your buddies were obsessed with the lacrosse move, the high rap, the Michigan, all of that? So because there was really no, like we didn't have social media and highlights were when they ran across the, you know, ESPN Sports Center like for three minutes a day. So we didn't, we didn't have the same access probably to all the highlights that you guys did. And the guy who made me aware of this, I was on the ice when I was 15 years old.

I was in Syracuse, New York. and I was on the ice with Rob Shrimp because Rob Shrimp is like the godfather of Syracuse Stars hockey and was a trailblazer. You know, he was one of the OGs to actually try to do this. Like I'm seeing that clip you just showed me for the first time. That was way before him, obviously. At an OHL Prospects game, I saw Shrimp do the move at the blue line spin

and fire it on net. So Rob Shrip and my jaw was like, oh my God. Now I saw Down to do that. Traverse City Camp too, but nonetheless, that was impressive during a game. Shrimpie was the guy who opened my eyes to it at that age of 15 years old. Now, at that age, Jeff, I was playing with 110 flex Eastern Synergy, the yellow grip. Crowbar.

Crowbar stick. I mean, because the 100 flexes were breaking so frequently that my dad was like, I'm getting you 110 next time. you're going to 110 because these are just breaking so easy i mean and we're talking original synergy here the silver one was no grip and then the yellow and the gold one was was the grip version of the synergy so that was when i learned when i saw it i couldn't even come close to doing the michigan now i get on the ice now i've got a nice 85 flex stick that i coach with i can pick the puck up on my stick, but not even half as good as the players on my Titans team can or even kids at the

pee-wee tryouts can because I haven't done it. I don't have a million reps of practice with that. It wasn't part of how we didn't have skills coaches, you know, teaching us that. I used to work with Sean Skinner, who was a stick handling coach when I was a kid. He used to go all around the world, Sean Skinner. We never once worked on that. Never worked on that move. So I came up in a different time where Rob Shrimp was really the only guy doing it with any consistency.

And he did it. I used to love watching London Knights warmups just because he'd bust out like the craziest stuff like that. Like everybody, like if you're going to a London Knights, you got there early. You made sure you watch warmups. You could watch two players. Robbie Shramp and Corey Perry to watch those two guys

goof around with the puck and goof around with the puck together. Now, I might just be like like, ah, shakes his fist at clouds, old guy, but I find, and we just saw this again last week,

I find the fake Michigan more impressive than the real Michigan because that is using, that is a team, like that is a team goal as opposed to an individual goal. And it plays on the psychology of where a defenseman are going and which way the goalie is looking and a fake and all of it,

I find the fake Michigan to be way more impressive and harder to pull off than the real Michigan. Agree, disagree. Yeah, no, I, did you tweet one the other day? Was that your Twitter? Every time I see a fake Michigan, I'm throwing it. I just love it. It was like it was in the Minnesota State High School championship game or something, wasn't it? It was a big game, I think.

Yeah. I can't remember the specifics of it, but every time I see it, I always fire out the fake Michigan because I'm dying to see it in the NHM. Like we've seen the Michigan in the NHL. I want to see someone pull off to fake Michigan. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. No, I saw that when you tweeted that and I went, whoa, that was sick.

Like, I think I got more, I got more enjoyment out of that one than I think I do in the Michigan one just because you're right. It was different. So can I plug one thing before I go here, Jeff? 100%. Floor is yours. Johnny and I are going to do the morning cup of hockey NCAA bracket challenge again. Obviously, the NCAA tournament starts on Thursday of this week. I was awful at this last year.

I was terrible at this last year, Colby. I was awful. I'll do it again this year. Created a bracket. If you go to my Twitter, which is Colby Cohen 36, I just retweeted it. So it's right at the top. It should be the top tweet on my page. And we have like the link to sign up, the league name.

It's free. And if you win, you get $100. So you enter for free, winner gets $100. So far, we launched it this morning. We have 296 people from Morning Cup of Hockey and social media that have created brackets. So, Jeff, you did it last year. So there's probably an email in your inbox, like reminding you to get back to it. There is.

And I just retweeted it. So your 296 will be about $297 by the end. We'll get more than that. By the end of the day. Join us. Join us in our bracket challenge. It's something fun we'll talk about over the next couple of weeks, especially now with the Canadian fans that were our big CHL fans.

Some of their guys are going to be competing in this now between, you know, McKenna and Jackson Smith. I mean, there's Martone. There's a ton of them and some really impactful guys. I think, by the way, Martone, he's going to be the breakout superstar of the NCAA tournament this year. That would be my guess. is it's not going to be Gavin McKenna's tournament. It's going to be Martone's tournament.

That is my guess. How close is he to turning pro, by the way? Oh, I got to think the day his team loses. He's playing impactful minutes for the Philadelphia Flyers. The more I watch him, Tim, dim down the stretch. And as I prepared for the NCAA selection show last night, he got a lot better this year. And he was already really good.

Like, he is going to be a star. He is the guy the Flyers fan base has been clamoring for. He's going to make people like people are hot and bothered about everything Motveh Mitchkoff and Mitchcoff is obviously a talented player who's playing better right now. Wait till you see Martone in Flyers colors. It's even a level above what Mitchcoff is because his game is so suited for Broad Street. Like he is, he's got every old school trade a Flyers fan with love. with all of the new age abilities.

But here's the thing about, and they kicked it off with Porter Martone, but also you got to go to like Jack Nesbitt, who they also took in the first round of the Flyers did last. Like last year the Philadelphia Flyers mandate was kind of everything that Mitchcoff isn't. They just went side. I think like the smallest player they took was like six foot two.

This was like, this was like, you know, the old Bobby Clark Philadelphia Flyers where like the blue line is, he's either six five or six six six. Like that was the way the Flyers went into that draft last year. We are grabbing size. All right, great stuff.

As always, back to your family, back to your hockey, and back to Morning Cup of tomorrow. We'll talk soon. All right. Thanks, Jeff. There is the great Kobe Cohen stopping by the program. I retweeted his bracket challenge as well. So give that one an eyeball.

It's in the chat there too for everybody. in the chat? Great. Perfect. Yeah. Put it in the chat. Put it in the description for the show, whether you're on podcast or if you're on YouTube. And we retweeted it from the sheet, whatever it's called Twitter X. Whatever you prefer. It's on there for us as well. The name it was assigned at birth was Twitter. So that's what I understand you have to stick to whatever you're assigned at birth. So we're just going to keep calling it Twitter, right? That's the way society works. It's what you're assigned at birth. Right? You can change? That's the way it works?

Well, it's like, it's just ingrained in my head that that's what it is. Even in my head, it's tweets, not posts. So I, it's, yeah, yeah. I got something for you here. It happened while you guys were on air. There's no real significance. It's also still skydoll. Yeah.

You know, even sometimes I get caught up in that one and I was never really a part of like skydome. I don't know. But my parents refer to it as that. My grandparents refer to it as that. So then it just kind of naturally gets caught up in my vocab of skydome. I'm like, well, no, it's Roger's Center, but Jeff, while you guys were on there,

just monitoring this, Ryan Rishog tweeted, not good news for Oilers fans. McDavid left practice part way through and is in with trainers. Didn't look like he was injured, but we'll follow up with Nobla after the skate. So that was a tweet from Ryan Rishog.

No update since, but just letting you know. Just piling it on, Leon Dreisaitle. Let's see about Connor McDavid. I, um, what did you make of his comments? Kind of, well, not just praising, uh, the Tampa Bay Lightning, but in, in essence, talking about how the Tampa Bay Lightning, like I saw some, like, I really sent some real

envy in his comments, talking about all the things that Tampa are and by extension, all the things that the Oilers aren't. Like, I think it's easy to look at what he said and say, yeah, that's a frustrated hockey player, but the way that he said it and the fact that he brought it up in front of media, the way that he did, and even went out of his way to praise John Cooper too, I can't help but hear some envy in there as well. Well, you tell me if I'm off base on this, but my kind of baseline interpretation of what happened is or the frustrations that are, in part what's happening with their season,

and in part, you know, the two teams that I kind of put, they're different in many ways, but put on a similar level in terms of how they operate, in terms of their mentality on the ice, the Pac-M, all of that kind of stuff is Tampa and Florida. And he's now just had to run up against the Florida Panthers in back-to-back Stanley Cups in which they've been bullied and kind of disassembled.

The Florida game was brutal. Like that was, of those two games, if I'm Edmonton, like, I am so pissed about that Florida game. Right. So now you've just had the Florida and the Tampa situations where those comments come out after. And it's like I've now dealt with this that has kept me back from my goal. I can't get over that hump. We just got bullied by the Panthers again. Again. And now we're watching like Tampa. Matthew could Chuck running down their players at the Olympics. It doesn't stop. Calling them out, making fun of them. They're superstar players. Yeah. And I think it was Gregor who said, you know, at some point you kind of got to do something here.

You know, you're getting just embarrassed by Matthew Kachukuk at every turn, whether it's on the ice or off. You're kind of just sitting around sitting on your hands. I kind of feel like there's probably in a level of frustration from McDavid where he's looking across being like, why can't we be like that? Right. Where we're just getting held back. I don't know if that's too surface level or too basic of. my approach of it, but I felt like that was part of the frustration of like, why can't we be that way? Yeah.

That's the thing that's stopping me. I want to be like that. I think there was some envy there. And listen, I don't think it was lost on anybody when he talked about the goal tending. Well, yeah. I mean, there ain't no way around it. Yeah. Look, I still, listen, I still maintain that if Connor McDavid's goal,

because look around the NHL of teams that can absorb McDavid and that contract. And I know that teams would move heaven on earth to get someone like Conn McDavid. But like of all the teams that could take them right now, how many are good? Like his best chance to win the cup is still with the Edmonton Oilers. I know it's easy to say, oh, he's going to punt. Like forget I can't win this. because his Leon Dreissel is there.

Evan Bouchard is there. Like there's still, you know, work to be done on this team, obviously. But show me the team. Show me the team that can take McDavid,

take that contract, and is better than the opportunity he has right now. I'll hang up and listen. Yeah, it's a very good point. Like, where is he going to go, like,

where? Make the jump with the L.A. Kings. Okay. That's not to, That's no disrespect to LA. That's just, you know. Okay, so hang on. I'm just looking at the goal hitting, the defense.

What's the lesson of Wayne Gretzky? What's the lesson of Wayne Gretzky? When he left. He got close once. He got close once. 1993. They lost the Montreal Canadians. He left.

They still can't find the puck. Oh, yeah. Darryl Sador fires it up in the forum. But like, he got close once. Yeah. All I'm saying is like, this oilers team still has the foundation of being really, really good. And if I'm,

if I'm, if I'm, and I'm looking around like, okay, so where can I go that is either good or close to being really good that can take me right now and won't completely devalue their franchise if they do trade for me? You're like,

oh, he's going to go to the Rangers. I'll go to the Rangers. Yeah. Oh, he's going to go to, L.A. How good is L.A.? His best shot at winning the Stanley Cup is still Edmonton. It's still Edmonton. I get the frustration.

I think he's fair. Where else are you going to go? Who's taking him? I guess at this point is he just sitting there. The thing is, again, like if you do make the trade for him, you're going to have to give up a ton, a ton to get him in the first place. So you're taking steps back to bring him in. You're already there.

I know it hasn't been a great year. I get it. I know the goalie's been hard to hit, all of them. But his best chance to win the cup is still there, no? Am I missing something? Well, it's pointed out in the chat here. He could go full heel and go to one of the teams that they just ran into Florida and Tampa. It seems to be pretty common being thrown out there in the chat right now.

His next contract, $8 million. dollars. I just started reading that. Yeah, you thought you thought this was a discount. I'll show you discount. No. Yeah. In all seriousness, yeah, it's a very good point. I don't know.

I guess the grass isn't always greener is probably a pretty applicable saying. The lesson of Wayne Gretzky. The lesson of Wayne Gretzky. He got close once. We all thought, oh, wow, all these cups for the kings. Look at him again. Once he got there. But he's smart enough.

My counterpoint to it would be he's smart enough to recognize the position that the team is in and know that there is a step backwards that has taken place. And I just wonder if frustration is setting in of wondering how they're going to take steps to catch or be on par with the likes of Dallas, Colorado, Minnesota, who are upgrading certain areas of their team that the Edmonton Oilers, just haven't been able to do. There's work to be done, absolutely. A really simple answer is,

more smart people with laptops. I'm serious. More smart people with laptops. I know. Look at all the successful teams. What do they all have in common? Elite analytics departments. Elite, Tampa, Florida, Carolina.

Go right to. down the list. What do they all have in common here? No more doing it on a feel. Eyeballs. All have. Yeah, but you need people, though, who can intelligently combine the two. And I think that's what those teams have checked boxes on very well. Yeah. Okay. Let me give, let me give it. Let me give it. Let me give it. Florida, Tampa. Florida Panthers are the most recent one. And that's why I think like Sunny Men is going to be a general manager someday and probably should in the, in the tradition of Eric Tulski. You know, they want to be tough, sure, but you also need guys to play. You know, so you say to your group, okay, we need to get tougher, but we can't be stupid. And I know I'm saying this as AJ Greer just got taken for three games, but like, all of a sudden, but all of a sudden, what do you come up with? Joni Gajavich. Yeah.

You've been sitting there for everybody? Yeah. No, but that's what I'm saying. I agree with you. I just think that both of those teams have elite people who can identify both, but also have the feel or identify the analytics and the underlying analytics that are going to make a player and therefore their team successful. But there are also people who, this is from at least my interpretation of it. And I think based on what the product is that we see on the ace,

They're also people who are smart enough to recognize what it takes beyond just numbers on paper to make a hockey team win. Because I don't think you can just win with sitting in your room and putting together a hockey team via your spreadsheet. And I say that. No, but do it this. No, again. But you need to people who can bring other areas to the game and they recognize that. How many times have you heard Brian Burke say this? The way that Burke he always says that he does it is I identify with my eyeballs and then I check with the analytics,

apartment in case my eyes are lying to me. Yep. That's fair. He said, and then I think his follow-up was it. And then I talked to the family. And this is mainly like talking, but by extension, talk to people around him. Because I think that's more of like talking about prospects and kids. But like it's simple and sane.

Identify with your eyeballs and then check with your analytics department because your eyes lie to you. To everybody. And if they tell you you're wrong, you tell them they're idiots. it's you go back to, go back to the German court. Go back to your computer point, Dexter. Push your glasses up, point Dexter. Oh, let's get in a quick email here

before we get to your shine spot. The sheet at the nation network.com is a way to get in. The sheet line is speakpipe.com slash the sheet. What do we have here today? I think we have one about escrow, which is interesting. Yes, we do. So this one comes in from Chuck. Hi, Jeff.

I was wondering if you could provide me some clarification on how the salary cap works when teams don't spend to the cap with the rising hockey related revenue and the concern that some teams may not spend to the cap. Won't the additional funds be distributed back to the players as an additional payment? The reverse of the escrow they have experienced in the past. I really appreciate your love and coverage of all levels of hockey from Chuck Allison. Okay, so interesting. What happens is it just goes away. Like you don't spend to the, you don't get that back. You can't accumulate it and put it on your cap next year.

Like, oh, we spent $5 million shy of the salary cap this year, so we get to go $5 million over next year. We all know that's not the way that it works. A lot of it has to do now with, of course, 50% linkage that players have, which is the reason why we'll never get a shorter season. Because as long as salary is linked to HRR, there's no way that the players are going to green light removing shrinking games or removing games. So that just goes away.

And it's actually beneficial for, in a lot of ways, the players that at the end of the season, when the 50-50 split is accumulated, it becomes more advantage player. Because we've seen situations before. Flat salary cap acts as a magnet. all of a sudden the 50% is not 50% it's over in favor of the players and that's where escrow comes in and they have to pay back what i've always wondered about and i've always had this shot down this is going going back to like 0405 when the salary cap was first introduced if you have you know your which at the Detroit redwings and you have 10 million dollars sitting on your cap

at trade deadline could you treat that essentially as cap cash and trade it. It's all captured in the system. And it's all related. You can't go over the 50-50. Players have escort and make sure they give back. So if you're a team that has $10 million sitting there, if the whole thing is still just captured anyhow, financially,

all the money is still staying in the system. Keep in mind. We're not talking about outside money here. This is all money in the system should you be able to use it as cap cash. I'll give you $10 million of cap space for a second round pick. Always been shot down. I like this a lot. I like this a lot.

Like that one? Oh my God. You know how we talked about last, the week before the trade deadline when the Eurocheck situation was kind of unfolding there in Minnesota where they picked up somebody else in the HL and you said to me and then you said on the show, you know, like, ah, it sets up something else. Imagine like two nights before the deadline, the Colorado Avalanche, they acquired. $7 million in cap space from the San Jose sharks.

And all of a sudden we're all looking there going, oh shit, what is coming? Now you're working through it. You don't have to worry about the constraints of the salary cap the same way. You have to find the teams to do it. But you know, you pick up a million off that team. You pick up a million off that team. Pick up two million over there.

Now all of a sudden you got a $4 million dollar pool. I like this. All the money stays. this a lot. I'm in, all the money stays in the system. It's all accounted for at the end of the day. Now,

it does mean that all the caps, potential cap space in the NHL does get spent, or most of it does get spent, but again, the system accounts for all of it. Yeah. I like this. I also think that it promotes activity at the trade deadline because you might just be,

you might be more inclined to go out and pick up said depth guy whose contract expires at the end of the year, who's $3 million, $4 million, and he's probably, potentially, let's say, overpaid. You just say, we'll deal with the extra $1,000 and a half overage because we'll just go out and pick it up somewhere else. I don't got to worry about fitting this in. I like this.

I don't know. I've always had pushback. from the NHL on that one. Like, yo, not going to happen, never going to happen. We're not going to do it. And I've always said, like, it's still in the system. No one's going outside the system for this one at all. Anyhow, I love that out at you for a something to discuss here on a Monday in advance of all the games we can watch tonight around the NHL.

All right, let's get to you, Zach. Oh, hang on a second here. We are going now to the shine spot for our man, Zach Phillips. The sheet is powered by Fanduel. Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season, and Fandul is your home for all the action on the ice. From Blue Line to Betslip, we've got you covered all season with unique promos, live offerings, and more features to let you play your game.

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No, this one's... Today actually is a little bit quicker, Jeff. Oh. You told me this joke, so I want to relay it to people. Oh, geez. Because I thought it was a really good one. What's a kind of cool vegetable? Radish.

I told that to my cousins. They loved that one. It's a, what's a vegetable? It's cool, but like really not too cool. Radish. I had to come up with something, man. I had one game on the board. It's kind of coolly vegetable radish.

My cousins love that one. Well, coolly, Taylor Radish, Dylan Cousins. $5 wins you a cool. $546.79. That's cool, but, you know, not too cool. It's radish. Yeah, it's radish. You got to hang on.

That one worked out pretty well. At the end, that really. Puts that one over. Okay, well, well done. Take the rest of the week off for that one. Bravo, Zach, bravo. A couple of congratulations as well. U.S. Sports Champions as crowned yesterday on the

men's side, congratulations, UQTR, beating St. Mary's, and congratulations to Montreal who defeated the favored concordia stingers. Montreal on the women's side, an eighth seed,

and he beat the first seed, second seed, and fourth seed in the process, but anyway to watch Montreal play in those that they really didn't feel or play. Like an eighth seed, so congratulations. It is a sweep. Canadian New Sports. Congratulations to the province. of Quebec. Well done. Thanks to Kobe Cohen for stopping by the program today. We are back on the air tomorrow, 1 o'clock Eastern, where Greg Wyshinsky returns from ESPN and ESPN.com. Once again, our thoughts and condolences are with the Pierce family. The passing of Jesse and her three children. The GoFundMe is up. I believe we have that one pinned as well for her husband. If you can contribute in any way, shape, or form.

Please do so. Jesse, you are the best. We're all thinking of you and your family. Talk to you now.