The Sheet with Jeff Marek - USA Women Dominate Canada and Men's Tournament Starts ft. Brian Burke & Tessa Bonhomme

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Today on The Sheet, Jeff Marek is joined by Brian Burke to break down a massive day at the 2026 Milan Winter Games as the men’s tournament officially gets underway. Burke shares his early impressions from opening day, which teams look poised to separate themselves, and which dark horses could make serious noise as the tournament unfolds. He highlights key players to watch, discusses the pressure facing hockey’s global powers, and gives his honest assessment of how the Canadian women were overwhelmed by the Americans in a statement performance that sent shockwaves through the tournament. Plus, the guys answer listener questions on roster construction, international ice, and what trends could define this Olympic cycle.Later, Tess Bonhomme joins for an in-depth look at the women’s side of the bracket, including a full breakdown of the United States’ dominant win, what it means for the balance of power, and how the Power Pool format is shaping the road to gold. Tess dives into tactical adjustments, standout performers, and the continued growth of the women’s game on the global stage — from development pipelines to increased parity across nations.All that and more on today’s episode of The Sheet.#TheSheet #MilanGames #Hockey #TeamCanada #TeamUSA #WomensHockey #MensHockey #OlympicHockey #BrianBurke #TessBonhommeReach 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.

Okay, so as we join you here today once again on the sheet, if you're watching us live on YouTube, thank you for doing so. We are standing by for the thrilling conclusion of Slovakia and Finland. It is actually thrilling because a little bit of an upset here in the making. Dahlabor Dvorsky made it 2 to 1 in the 3rd. Uri Slavkovsky has a pair. His 8th and 9th in the Olympics, the MVP in 2022. Right now, Slovakia leads by a score of 3 to 1. But the big story around these parts, as I just found out a couple of moments ago,

Zach, if you want to pop yourself hot here for a second here on the program, you want to tell us about you, your wallet, and your Ace Lafcofsky? Yeah, I don't want to do like a victory lap here too early. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, do it. No, no, no, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, do it. Especially for these international tournaments where, like, crazy things can happen and it's short. I like to look at lines and who could maybe pop off and have themselves a good tournament. I found Yoroslovsky to lead the tournament goals at 100 to 1.

So I placed a little wager on that one. Took a little flyer on it. Yeah. And then he opens up the scoring for the tournament. And I'm kind of like, oh, that's a nice little start. Pat myself on the back. Sitting here just five minutes before the show finalizing everything I look over. I hear scores.

I turn Slavkovsky. I'm like, oh, there we go. All right. Game one, and we're off to the races here, Jeff. So I feel good about that. It's awesome. It's Yerase Lovkovsky with a pair. Dahlabor Dvorsky scores to make it two to one for Slovakia.

And L.A. Tolvinen has scored for the Fin's Power Play Markers. So that's where we're at right now. Let me know when this game is over. One thing I do want to point out, too. I don't know if Samuel Halavai is any good. and he's like down the depth chart for the Minnesota. I don't know if he's actually any good. All I know he's fun, fun, fun, fun.

He's like almost seven feet tall. That's what he looks like in there anyhow. And he's all over the net. He's like Dominic Ashek, rolling, tumbling, sprawling out. Again, I don't know if he's good, but I know that he's a lot of fun to watch. Let's get to what's going on the program today because we do have a big one.

Day one of the men's tournament, and we're waiting for Slovakia and Finland to finish up the blueprint. Powered by Fandul, download the app today and play your game on Fandul as he does. Just about every Wednesday here, the occasional Friday here and there. But it's Wednesday, and Brian Burke returns his thoughts on the tournament, the men's side getting started today. Also some NHL issues around the hockey world will get you with Brian Burke. Tessa Bonam, who's one half of the power duo. along with Julia Torcherry of the Jocx and Jill's podcast. We'll talk about the USA just having their way with Canada yesterday.

Five Bagel was the final score, and that final score, folks, if you miss the game, was kind to Canada. As everybody in Canada should now know the name Abby Murphy. In the meantime, let's get right to Brian Burke. No stranger to this podcast, no stranger to hockey fans everywhere. He is Brian Burke, and he joins me on day one of the men's side of the Milan games hockey tournament. Joining us outside of the historic Royal York Hotel,

which I see over your right shoulder right now, Bricky. That was a legendary hotel, as you all know. That's where they used to do the Hockey Hall of Fame Inductions. And that's where a very boozy, Harold Ballard once sold Frank Mahavlich, the Chicago Blackhawks, for a million dollars, but then it was rescinded by the NHL

because the two parties had been overserved. and the trade never happened. So you've got hockey history over your right shoulder right now, Berkey. How are you today? I'm good, Jeff. How are you? I'm good. I'm excited. Like yesterday, I was really excited to watch on the women's side, USA and Canada. Abby Murphy was incredible in that game.

Five-nothing is the final score. I do want to get your thoughts on that. And I want to get your thoughts on what we expect on the men's side, specifically in the game that we're watching this morning slash this afternoon. Ureislavkovky with a pair of goals Dahlabor Dvorsohn, the St. Louis Blues. He's got a marker as well. As we speak right now, it is three to one.

Just a wide-brushed thought, just on Slovakia and, of course, Finland. This one would qualify as an upset here, Berkey. It would qualify as a huge upset, and I'm not surprised. The issue is how all the teams play, the European teams fight, when they get a lead.

So Slovakia goes up 1-0. away everything changes. They go into a five-man shell. They still chase bucks. But they defend their area from the red line end, not the blue line, and the red line end, they contest every puck. So it's very hard to get back in a game. 3-1, take a miracle.

Yeah, it's looking great. And I was just mentioning, too, like one of the things that I love about this tournament is, one, names from the past that you haven't thought about in years that all of a sudden appear on these teams, like Roman Shurvenka, I was pointing out yesterday, is the captain of Chequia. I remember that one glorious season he had with the Calgary Flames.

He's the all-time leading scorer for Chequia at the World Championships. And, you know, sort of everybody has their Christers Grudevskis that they remember from years and years ago who populate some of these teams. But it's a Montreal Canadian and a St. Louis Blue getting it done for Slovakia right now. I don't want to put too much on one game or even one player for that. matter. But is it possible that, or have you seen before, players riding a successful Olympic tournament back into the NHL and carrying on that success? I'm guessing Montreal

Canadians fans are crossing their fingers for Yeraislovkovsky here. Yeah, I'd have to think hard about who's done it, but I know it's happened a number of times, not once or twice, 10 or 12 times, where people who come out of the Olympics and really rode that wave. So I'm not I am expecting that to happen. Not surprised again with Slovakia. They're a real good story. Yeah, I was mentioning the goaltender as well. So Samuel Halavai, and I would be lying to you if I could tell you anything about him

other than he's a Minnesota Wild Prospect, played a couple of games in the ECHL, and has pretty much played the balance in the American League for Matt Hendricks' team in Iowa. I don't know if he's good, Berkey, but I see a big goalie like that. and the way that he's, like, we tend to see big goal tenders and they just want to get hit by the puck. And he's rolling and tumbling and jumping all over. Like, I'm just not used to seeing a big, put it this way. I'm not used to seeing empty-knit goals, so it's 4-1 Slovakia.

Wow. I'm just not used to seeing a big guy like that. Play like he's Dominic Hachachuk in 1998. You know what I mean? Well, it's unusual for an oversized goal he has a part-time job as a giraffe to be athletic. Most oversized goalies are shop blockers. They stand square.

They face the puck hits them. Blocking the net area. This guy looks like I just watched a couple minutes of it. He looks like a real athletic holy with good athletic ability, and he's willing to gamble. Pretty exciting to watch. It's, you know, every year there's one team in the tournament. And it's funny, too.

It's, of recent note, it's either been usually Germany or Latvia. that, you know, casual fans will fall in love with, with, like, you know, the underdog. You know, you're going to cheer for your country's team, and then after that, they become your second favorite team in the tournament. Again, not getting ahead of myself. Don't want to, but I wonder if Slovakia could be that team. Somewhere, Yaroslav Halak says,

I still got a couple of games in me if you want to give me a call. Yeah, no, I'm feeling the same way. You never know. There's always one hero team. always won't overachieving team. Maybe in Slovakia, way too soon to say. Yeah, way too soon. But empty-in-ne goal right now, it is 4-2-1 Slovakia,

so that is a lot of fun. I'm going to talk to Tessa Bonam a little bit later on in the program pretty thoroughly on the Canada-U.S. game from yesterday on the women's side. I don't know that I have ever seen Team Canada handled like that. Canada looked slow, they looked confused, at times they looked scared, Abby Murphy was an absolute force yesterday for the USA side. And Canada seemed, now again, Canada playing without Marie-Filippe Palin, but with all due respect to the greatest player ever,

I don't think that she would have helped either. This was total domination by the United States yesterday, Berkey. Yeah, I don't think she would have, well, she would have helped but I don't think she could have made a difference I agree with you I think Marie Philippe Poulin is the best player in her of her generation I don't think she would have helped one bit yesterday I thought they were outclass and out played and out work and out thought and out hit and everything and I thought they lost their composure which is unusual I will make a prediction very unusual for a veteran Canadian team lose their

composure won't happen again yeah um Abby Murphy drawing four panel in this one. I know Cassie Campbell, Pascal, accusing her of diving at certain points or embellishing, but she got three assists. She drew four penalties. Abby Murphy did her job for the United States yesterday. And, you know, you look at that game too. And one of the things that popped out for me, whenever I see a team go offside as much as candidated yesterday, my first thought, and I'm always thinking like, oh, Wayne Gretzky would always say, offside is the most selfish play in hockey. That is the most selfish play in hockey going offside. And when I saw Canada go upside as much as they did yesterday, I think to myself, that's a team that looks really, really uncomfortable. And it seemed like right away they're uncomfortable with the United States speed, and they just came at them with wake.

All of a sudden, everybody skates like Kendall O'Connorne Schofield. You thought it was just her that was fast. Everybody's fast on that team now. And it just looked like the pace of it led Canada into mistake after mistake and Berkey offside after offside. Yeah, but you've got to look at some of the, those offsides. One of them, Natalie Spooner, who I love.

Spoon made a move right at the blue line. Yes. Right where two-wingers committed to go in, she made move right at the blue line. They couldn't recover. No one could stop short like that. So I don't know. I blame at least one offside for that type thing.

Yeah, the rest of it is you're getting behind. You're like you're saying, I've got to go faster, got to make the play happen quicker. You force it. You're offside. Not selfish so much as maybe not the smartest. Yeah. Okay, so more on the women's side of things towards the bottom of the hour with Tessa Bonam, gold medalist from 2010.

Berkey on the men's side, back to it. Canada faces off against Chequia tomorrow morning. This program goes on the air immediately following that game, so not at the 1 o'clock start time, Eastern, but a little bit after. Your thoughts on what you expect from both sides. Like, for Canada, it's always gold or bust. Like, that's it. A quick thought on Canada. I know you have a couple,

and then I want to get to talk about Chequia a little bit here. But thoughts on Canada and expectations, McDavid, McKinnon, and Crosby all on separate lines. Okay, so first off, I'm going to predict that goaltending will not be an issue for either North American team. I'm concerned about the goaltenders

who's going to be the starting goal to for Canada and for the USA, but my prediction is they'll solve that quickly and neither team is going to suffer. from poor goaltending. That being said, it may not be the goaltenders you think are going to play. That's my first prediction.

Second is, watch out for Sweden. Everyone's focusing on two teams. It drives me nuts. Canada and U.S. What do you like, Canada, U.S.? There's a bunch of other teams. Sorry, guys. Sweden looks pretty good.

They got great goaltending, and they got great players. But Canada, I love Canada's makeup. I love their distribution of players. I love their injury. fillings, I think they're going to be the force in the tournament. You know, it's funny, too, I was making this point yesterday on DFO Live, that is, when you tell a, and you know, this you've gone through it for so long with so many different players, when you tell a NHL hockey player he can't do something, that's a protein shake for that player, right? You tell a player he's not good enough to do something, like, that's rocket fuel for a player.

and there's one player specifically on Team Canada that has been maligned, even going back last year to Four Nations, and right through this season. And I know he's had a really poor season. I get that. But the only headline around Jordan Bennington has been a negative one.

Yet he's won a Stanley Cup. He won Four Nations. Getting there, there were a couple of bad goals. I know that. But in that final game, he was outstanding. And all of it Jordan Bennington has heard is how if Canada loses, it's going to be because of the goaltending.

You've been around elite athletes your whole life. Is this fuel for someone like Jordan Bennington? Well, remember, Canada's never afraid to change goaltenders in the middle of the Olympics. They did it with us, 2010. They changed to put Louie in for Marty Burr, and they won a gold medal. It seemed to work pretty well.

So I'm not worried about the goaltelling. I'll repeat that. Here's my production on Jordan Bennington. I think Jordan Bennington is a winner. I don't care how he's playing right now. and the reason they won the Four Nations is because of Jordan Bennington. The two is the three stages he made right before McDavid won it for Canada. They should have won it twice before John McDavid ever got a chance to put the game away.

Conna McDavid is an interesting name here. And McDavid has references in that Players Tribune piece looking around the room and seeing all these players that have won goals and of one Stanley Cup. It seems as if, like, McDavid has a really hard time hiding. He has got a bad poker face, right? Like, you know what Connor McDavid is thinking. And you know what burns inside of him and you know how much it burns him that he doesn't have a Stanley Cup and here's his chance at winning gold medal.

Like athletes at a certain point in their career, McDavid is still at the height of his powers, but started thinking about legacy. What does this tournament mean for Connor McDavid? We've seen what the Stanley Cup means for Connor McDavid. But what does this tournament mean for him? I'm going to go back to something Harry Sinan and said to me years ago when Ray Bork went to Colorado. Harry Sennon said to me, is Ray Bork a Hall of Famer? This is 15 years ago.

Is Ray Bork a Hall of Famer? I said, well, of course. He said, of course. He said the reason Ray Bork doesn't have a ring is not Ray Bork's fault. It's my fault, Harry Sennon's fault. I haven't given them good enough players to win it. That's how I feel about this. Connor got them to the final slice.

My prediction is he will win Stanley Cup as a player. If he doesn't, it won't be his fault. This tournament is stacked on the Canadian side with gold medalists and Stanley Cup winners. On the American side, there are players,

you know, the Jack Eichols of the world who have won the Stanley Cup. But you look around the Canadian room and there's rings everywhere. You look around the U.S. side of things, not to focus it down just the two teams, to your point about Sweden, but they don't have the same amount of, quote-unquote,

rings in the room. In a tournament like this, is that a factor? It can be. It can be. Experience is a factor. The number of people with rings, that is critical. We won with just a couple guys. Scott Neimaneymeyer had three. We had very little else.

Everyone else was new, I think. Maybe one other. we won with very little experience. We played in the Stanley Cup our conference final the year before and we got some valuable experience. I think it helps, but it's not going to determine who wins.

No way. This tournament is, listen, we haven't seen Best on Best, NHLERS since Sochi. And even just, again, this is very unscientific. And I know the whole world doesn't live on social media. But even just watching the excitement

burkey for Slovakia, Finland this morning and watching on the women's side, Canada, US again, just watching how how the entire hockey world, casual, hardcore, everybody gets together

and gets excited about this thing. I understand the issues from before. I understand Beijing. I understand Pyongchang. I get it. But this is, like, I always wonder, like, why did it take so long and what was the hesitation for all of it all I see are positives for capital h hockey i know you can grumble a little bit about okay how much we were getting monetarily out

of this uh the you know the iOC is getting all the benefit we're not getting all the i only see benefit i mean outside of injuries it cost you stanley cup but um i only see benefit to taking your athletes and putting them on the biggest stage and having the whole world watch what they can do What do you think? Well, there'd better be a goddamn benefit. We've got a terrible schedule. We shut down for three weeks. We had more injuries than we should have.

It better it be a benefit. I would like to see this tournament move to the summer. I've said this before. It's not going to happen, but I'd like to see it happen. That's what I did with the dream team in basketball. It used to be a winter sport. It moved to summer. That's what I'd like to see.

The chance of that happening are slim and none, and slim just left town. I know, but let's entertain that thought because I brought it up to a couple of different times here and people look at me like I've got three heads and finally I've got someone who's on the sane side of things. We play hockey indoors in a controlled climate.

There is no reason this has to be in the winter. I know we are a salmon swimming upstream on this one, but it does make sense to me to play. And this is how it all started. We used to be a summer sport. Play the hockey indoors in the summer. satisfies everybody's issues with it. And bring a smaller field.

We don't need 16 or 24 teams. Need eight teams, maybe 10, the play in, something. But bring a smaller field, the costs go down, cost of housing. Remember, and this is a whole different rant, and I'll say it for another day, because we should be reveling in the Olympics right now, not attacking them. But the games are too big.

I watched the biathlon yesterday. A skier went off every 30 seconds. There were 60 of them. 60 or 70. Are you, are there 70 qualified by athletes? Are there 70? Are there 70 could possibly win? No.

Everyone in the world knows it. Bring 30. Bring 25. I don't know what the right number is. Bring a smaller number. Anyway, different rent. For hockey, we could play this tournament in August. We could play with eight teams, maybe 10 with a play in.

We don't have to have everyone in their dog there. Let's see. It's a slim. bring it down, but that being said, okay, we're playing now. We've designed a multi-year agreement. We're going to play in February for the next couple Olympics. Okay, am I excited about it? Absolutely. It's a great hockey, absolutely. Let's focus on the negatives later, a month from now, a week after it's over. Right now, I'm as excited as anyone. Let me throw in one more thing, too, that I think, you know, managers like yourself will think about one more point about the August.

the idea of playing hockey in August at the Olympics. Injuries are a reality in hockey. Sorry, folks, like that's just it. We don't cheer for them, but they're a reality and it happens. As a manager, would you rather your player got injured in August or your player got injured in February? Look, there's teams with as many as nine guys going to the Olympics. Every Olympics we've had so far,

we've had at least one major injury in the Olympics. And Torino and Sochi, we've had major injuries. John Tavares, got hurt, Matisseau, We got her on and on and on. Key players that miss the rest of the year. So it's going to happen. You can't play hockey without her. You can't play good hockey without it.

You can play flag football hockey without it. But if you play real hockey, people are going to get hurt. I'm willing to live with that as the GM. Because I think the excitement of this best-on-best is worth a lot of trouble for the league. Right now, the league is shutting down for three weeks to play this tournament. I support that. I think there's a better way to do it, but I still want these guys to go. Okay, Team USA.

I haven't asked you about them today yet. Very excited to see them. We're all curious about roster configuration and who's scratched and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Listen, this is a blue line that should frighten every single team in the tournament. Good goal tending, strong forward group. Where's the weakness for USA? Can you pinpoint one or are we really nitpicking to try to find one to begin with? There's not a weakness, but I think when you compare depth-wise,

then Canada's got the edge. I think we do have strong goaltending. The MVP of the goaltenders, but he hasn't had a great year. He didn't have a good playoffs last year. So we got to see how Bucking does first. So we see about Buck, you see about Otter if he steps in? That's number one question. Number two is I don't think it's not a case of the,

there's anything wrong with the U.S. roster as much as I look at the Canadian roster and say it's deep. for and better. Okay, one thing that I want to ask you about, so something popped up online yesterday was a note that Fred Schiro, former head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, wrote to all the wives.

And then he said that you wrote another note to all the players as well about family relationships and marriages and all these types of things. Anyhow. And it was sort of, I've always heard that one of the most important addresses that managers would make is, you know, to the families, especially when a team is either, you know, going to the playoffs,

what you need to expect, how, you know, advice for the family unit when all of a sudden hockey becomes everything. What advice, if any, would you give to players and their spouses, or what advice would you give to players that are on their way to the Olympics? managers talking to families, I'm curious about. I would talk to the players, not to their families. I would talk to the players about their families. Same as a pre-season speech for the playoffs.

So we end the regular season. I would call the players and say, all right, here's the deal. We're here to win a Stanley Cup. Number one, we're going to eliminate all the distractions. Any ticket requests, any hotel room request, you come to Gilly. Alex Gilchrist. He was our PR guy. You come to whoever's in charge of that.

I'm going to take that all off your plate because it's maddening. It's draining. Someone calls you at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on the day of a game. And I get a hotel room for my brother. It's aggravating. So, number one, strip away all the white noise, all the stuff you don't need to deal with. All the stuff will give it to somebody else. Someone will take care of it, but you don't worry about it today.

That's number one. Number two, your families will enjoy this if we win way more than if we lose. Let's figure out a way to win together. I never spoke to the wives. Real quick, when you look at this, we'll end on this one, Berkey. By the way, love the jacket. I've always loved that duck's jacket, by the way. It's black, it's felt.

I love this jacket, but it's going right in my hunting bag after this. Every little hair, every piece of lint, everything shows up. It's going right in the hunting bag after this. Okay, well, it looks like it's fresh off the runway. of California right now. So nonetheless, wear it with pride style. I am curious about when you look at, you know, where USA hockey is right now,

and Tessa is going to stop by any couple of seconds, we'll talk about the American side and that team right now and the future, which looks great, Leila Edwards and et cetera, et cetera. When you see USA hockey right now today, you know, take it back to like from 2010 to 2026, what do you see the development as? Well, the guy that deserves the most credit for is no longer with us, Jim Johansson.

Yeah. You should never talk about USA hockey without talking about JJ. He was the force between much of this expansion and creativity and the growth of the game, and he's missed sorely. But the strides that have been taken under Pat Kelleher have been unbelievable, unbelievable to watch. I look at the NCAA women's hockey, the players that are coming out. I think the whole league's going to turn over in the next two years, the entire league, except for a handful of star players. There's players playing now at Wisconsin and Ohio State and Providence that are going to bury these older players as they come along.

So USA hockey's done a marvelous job. There's a whole bunch of theories going back to the miracle and the Gretsky trade expansion. There's all these. Number one thing for me is Gary Batman. It's the number one reason. we've grown like we have. For the Southern Expansion vision? Oh, for everything.

And the growth in the game, international hockey, all these games we play overseas, the Olympics, that was Gary's brainchild to get the games in Nagano. It took a big fight to get it there, too. So I'd say lots of factors, lots of people deserve credit. The biggest one with boots on the ground is JJ and Pat Keller, but the guy that oversees the whole thing and deserves the most credit, Gary B. Bedman.

This is great. We'll let you and your soon to be hunting jackets. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon outside the Royal York. We'll check back soon, Brick. You'll be good, pal. Thanks, Jeff. There he is Brian Burke. I like that.

It's going in the hunting bag right after. I love that jacket. Okay. So I mentioned it off the top. Just like the complete domination yesterday by the United States over Team Canada 5. Bagel is the final score. And getting there, if you're a Canadian hockey fan, left you perplexed, disappointed, depressed, not just maybe for the game, but to get ahead of ourselves.

And I know there was no Marie-Filly plan on the game, but maybe like questioning the future of that program. And here to maybe perhaps comfort Canadians is someone that won a gold medal for Canada. She is at one half of the excellent Jax and Jill's podcast along with Julia Torcherry. She is Tessa Bonom and she joins me now. Tessa, first of all, how are you today? And I understand that while we were watching a hockey game yesterday, Canada elected a new prime minister. You got me there, huh? Yeah.

I'm doing good. How are you? Good to see you again. Yeah. Good to see you too. I haven't seen you since Ottawa last year. It's good to see you. I mean, you live in my ears every week.

You and Julia. So I appreciate that. And listening to you to break it down after the game yesterday, I was like, holy smokes. And I'm watching the game and like you. I'm waiting for something, some kind of pushback from Canada. No Marie-Philippe-Puland in the game. We all understand that. But with all due respect to the clutches player that ever clutched,

I'm not sure that she could have individually pushed back hard enough to make the score respectable. That was just a title way from the United States. Yeah. And that was the exact game that we expected from them, right? That's the game they've been showing us, I don't know, since the beginning of the rivalry series. I think what everybody needs to understand is we had Haley Skorupa on our podcast, and she mentioned, she was like, everybody's ripping on the Canadians who are being too old and too slow. And, you know, at the last World Championship, the final went into overtime.

And so maybe they're listening to that narrative a little bit too much. But in my opinion, something has changed, obviously, since that World Championship final. The Americans, yes, are they an amazingly good team? Correct. They are. Are player for player? Do I think they're better? Yeah, I do. Skill-wise, I do. But I do put a lot of stock in experience and veteran leadership. And I do think we have a lot of stud hockey talent on the Canadian side as well. You look at Darrow Watts. You look at Sarah Philly. These players should be popping off, quite frankly. My concern comes from the approach. And as a coach, if you're going into these games, right? And obviously the systems or whatever tactics you set up clearly aren't working. Or maybe your players can't deliver on them. Maybe it's a time for a little bit of a shakeup.

And I don't mean changing your lines because that doesn't change anything. It's the approach. And the way I was taught to play and the way I break down hockey and I like to see it played is if there's a very – and the way I like to play as well is if there's a very talented player out there who's a threat. So like, for instance, Connor McDavid, you never want that guy building up speed through the neutral zone, do you? Right?

You don't want to just let them enter your zone. That's a freaking nightmare for everybody. Stacks in the neutral zone now. Stack, stack, stack all through the neutral zone. Right? You don't want that happening. So you saw in the Canadian game, there's studs like,

there was a face off play on the first goal with Caroline Harvey where she walked right down Broadway. And like, yeah, sure. Oh, the players are in Shot Lane. Sure, they are. But have you ever watched Caroline Harvey play? They've played against her plenty in the rivalry series. She's never shooting in whatever shot lane

she has the puck. She constantly changed the angle. But why was she allowed to walk from, quite frankly, the hash marks, back up to the tops of the circles near the blue line and right back down the middle of the ice? In what level of play should this be allowed to happen from one of their star players? He's got a lethal shot. So my opinion was there was too much respect there. There was too much time and space for the great players.

You saw Leila Edwards walk in too on that fifth goal. It was like, what's happening here? And then there was the, you mentioned it, the Abby Murphy effect, where as a former player, you're screaming at the TV because it's like, ladies, forget her. Forget it. Like,

the hard part about her is, is she's in your ear, living rent free in your head. Yeah. And she can play. Like, my dad was like, who does she play like?

I'm like, Brad Marchand just more talented. Yes. And I was like, she almost put Brad Marchand to shame a little bit. Well, and that's a lot. Dude,

I'm telling you, that smile. Like, I'm watching this. And she's, she's, she's popping up. there's another Canadian player going to the box

and she's got that smile. I know. I'm glad you got me to Abby Murphy here because, I mean, listen, she came out just an absolute star in that game yesterday. Drew four penalties, three assists, all over the ice. What for, for, I want to get to Canadian corrections.

But first, a quick thought on what should everybody know about Abby Murphy? We've all seen the highlights. Everyone's seen the clips. But, But this is an elite level player that everyone's going to have to get to know really, really fast because she's going to be around a long time. Even if you don't want to get to know her, you're going to get to know her. That's Abby Murphy.

Sorry. She's a human highlight reel. She's bound to be one of the stars in the PWHL, if not the star, when she joins. And I think that there is one part of her game. And Cassie Campbell, Pascal, did call her out on it. and the players do as well, that she dives to take these calls. But when we were training for the Olympics and when we were training at a high level, it was always control what you can control.

The rest doesn't matter. So like if you're going to get a call on Abby Murphy, you know she's going to flop or whatever, then don't play her that way. Play her a different way. Or let her take the flop and kill the penalty, right? My thing is, is everybody keeps talking about the PWHL and the upcoming draft this June, And everyone's like, oh, there's so many players that could go first overall. In my head, I'm like, no, there's only one because I'm not knocking any other player.

But if you choose anybody except Abby Murphy, you're choosing to play against her. And if you talk to anyone who has played with or against her or both, they will tell you, you always want to be on Abby's Murphy's team, Abby Murphy's team, always. So she's bound to be the number one overall draft pick, in my opinion. and it's a no doubter in my brain because I do not ever want to play against that player for more reasons than just the way she can get in players' heads and how physical she is, but how incredibly talented of a hockey player she is. Like, it is gross.

I said it on our podcast. Like, is this even fair anymore? Well, here's the thing about it, too. Like, I looked at that, and I really try not to take female players and compare them to male players. and compare them to male players. I really don't like doing that. I want to make one quick exception. And just to prove a point.

So with Connor McDavid, so with Connor McDavid, he was the first group that grew up with the quote-unquote new rules, right? Coming out of the lockout of 0405, everybody had to relearn how to play the game, right? Everyone had to break old habits and relearn the game. McDavid's group just grew up with that rules package.

that was just hockey to them. So I watch Abby Murphy and I say a couple of things. One, this is because of the exponential growth in girls slash women's hockey. This is just what the new hot house of women's hockey is producing. And this is what that next wave of athlete does. Now, she's the best at it right now. But much like I always say, there's going to be another Connor McDavid. He was just the first of the bunch.

to break out. Right now we look at Abby Murphy and go, how can anyone be better? There will be. Like there will be more. And I'm sure Tessa, you've seen them. Like, oh, man, this one,

like, you're watching like 14, 15 years ago. Well, this one's going to be a star. This one's going to be. But like, this is that next wave of elite level player. True or false. The thing with her, true. The thing with her is she checks every box. That's it.

So she's not just this offensive threat. She plays great defense. She's a fantastic skater. She got a hell of a shot and she can make plays. Where on the ice is she not a threat? She's a threat on the bench because she's in your ear. Like Abby Murphy is never not a threat, ever. I can't think of somebody that is like that.

I can't think of somebody else that I, you know what? The Lamaroo twins back when I played were probably somebody like that, but they didn't talk a lot out there. They were just really, you know, tough, dirty players that played hard and were incredibly skilled. Abby Murphy is, has the mouth with it. You know what I mean? And she doesn't just talk to talk and skate away. Like, she walks the walk. Like, what is the comeback?

You don't have one, right? I don't know. She's going to be a joy to watch. I'm so pumped for her to enter the league. She's the type of player. And I'm Canadian. Listen, I asked her to sign a stick for me last year. I was just like, I know you're going to be a side to go and a stick for me.

I'm sorry. Get in now. Get in now. I know. I'm not handing in my Canadian passport, I promise. But she's a type of player that you love to hate. And you love to love because you. You cannot deny that type of talent.

You just can't. So I'm listening to your podcast this morning from the post game. And one of the things you brought up, I thought, was really interesting. You talked about correctable mistakes because I came away from that game going like, oh, man, this does not look good. And then I hear Tesla, but I'm saying, these things are correctable. Meanwhile, in my little brain, of course, I never played at the elite level that you did. And I have no gold medals.

I just say things on podcasts like that's offside and that's going to be icing and we'll be right back. But when Tessa Badam says these things are correctable, I say to myself, okay, one, how, and two, that gives me comfort as a Canadian hockey fan. Yeah. So what's correctable here? What's correctable is the effort, first of all, because I don't think we saw it from anybody, quite frankly. Laura Stacey had a spark at some point. Sarah Filia did for a minute. But the best thing that I think came out of that game, and if anything you're going to build off of for the Canadians, is the Americans.

is the Americans have yet to see your best game, even a good game that you've played this year. So they don't even know what you have on your bench. They don't even know what the best Canadian hockey game is. All they know is what they can put out there and how horribly you guys are capable of playing. That's it. And the correctable parts that we talked about was, you know, on that,

well, first the Harvey goal, okay, you let her walk right down Broadway. Don't do that. Stick on puck always. Pressure up by the blue line. You're constantly pressuring in the D zone is one thing that I would absolutely do is you're pressuring everywhere. Everyone's going. You want fun on offense. You got to work five times as hard on defense. And that's it. You take away the time and space and you play physical against all those tough players. They don't have as much time to, one, get a wicked shot off or two, make a play. The second goal with Murphy that did that amazing backhand feed from the corner over to Bilka,

which knocked me off my chair and was like, oh my gosh, what's happening? Watching that play, she shoulder checked twice. It was a mispass on her part. The puck went into the Canadian corner. And she looked over her shoulder twice. And there was two American players in front of the net that were driving. And two Canadian defenders, being very hyper-Murphy-focused, probably wanted to lay a hit on her, both followed her to the corner.

There was no communication from Debian. There was no communication on either D. And where were the back checkers? Everyone was just watching. So it's like, yeah, she made a fantastic play, but like the Canadians essentially were just like us. They were viewers. They were sitting there watching and joining the game.

Bought a ticket. Watching the highlight reel. I don't want to be on a highlight reel like that. No thanks. I quite frankly, I love watching great hockey plays, but against the Canadians, I would prefer not. On the, well, the third goal by Sims, to me that was goaltender interference.

I'm sorry, I obviously don't know what goaltender interference is, but to me that is, that's it. Can we pause on that for one second? Because the rule that I follow, and this is what official after official has told me. Okay. That you're allowed, first of all, you're allowed to chase a puck into the crease. Correct. But if you go into the crease, not chasing a puck, here's the simple single long rule that Jeffie has always followed.

If you're in the blue, that's on you. If you go into the blue and you're not chasing a puck and you just, you're, you're, Think of it in terms, as one manager told me, think about it in terms of liability. If you just go in there and nudge, wink at, brush up against a goaltender trying to make a save, your liability is sky high and that thing is coming back. Having said that, the puck was there. I thought that was, I still do think that that was going to come back. Did you push the puck in or did you push the pad in?

The only reason why, if you're allowed to battle, you're allowed to battle. 100%. The only reason why I was like, oh, that's maybe why they let it in was because she did hit the puck first. It did hit Debian's pad. And then she shoved the pad in where the puck had momentum. So I was like, I don't know. Are you allowed to move a goalie's pad, shove it into the net? I don't know. I clearly don't know goal tenter interference. Regardless, three nothing goal. You lost a battle in front. What was the other goal? Lila Edwards, I said, walked right down Broadway. Oh, and then the second. And then the other Bilka goal. of Bilka. It was a three on two. No, it was Murphy's goal. Three on two here, or maybe Murphy fed Bilka. I can't remember, regardless. This goal, it was a three on two. They were entering the zone on the Canadian defense. And there were two Canadian players back checking, both stopped skating at the blue line and just looked. And it was like, this is still a three on two guys. And like, I said it on my podcast. My dad taught me this is you don't hold someone's hand. And to me, that was hand holding. And I've never held a.

an American's hand on the ice like that where it's like you don't just stand next to them nicely and say hello like you lay wood on them now it's graphite or whatever the heck the sticks are made of but you lay wood on them you let them know you're there and you take their space and there was none of that it was just the lack of effort the heart was missing so to me all of these things are fixable it's just a matter of like hey ladies how bad do you actually want this like are you just happy to be here if so then you know what let's get pump five nothing we might not even make the finals you got to tough game against Finland on Thursday.

You play a sour hockey game like that against Finland. Watch out. Look what happened in 2019. Poo was injured then too. We ended up walking home with a bronze medal. I don't want that. Not at an Olympic Games. No way.

The other and before he came on, Brian Burke and I were talking about this a little bit. He cited one by Natalie Spooner, but the amount of off sides. And when I always go back to Wayne Gretzky would always say Offside is the most selfish play in hockey. That is the most selfish play of the offside. And it was, I know Laura Stacey gets like ribbed a lot about offsides and all that. But like there were a lot of off sides in that game. So offside.

And like, yeah, there's two people that are responsible for off sides. Yeah. Shoot. So the puck carrier. My thing is like, don't dick around at the blue line. Get it in. Like what's the difference. A foot and a half.

Just get it over the line and cut across. if you want, but at least you're in. Your players can come with speed, right? You know they're all going. So get it over the line so they can go, right? Sometimes you can't, obviously, because it's stepping up on you. But then in that case, chip it into space. Let the ladies fly.

Yeah. It was tough, too, to walk. I felt like the Canadians, when they had the puck, they were scared. I don't know if you got that at all. Well, but the thing is, I thought that that sort of bled into the off sides. Like, there was, like, you saw this test. Like the United States grabbed Canada by the ankle and dragged them into deep water and said, we're going to swim here.

Yeah. How long can you swim here with us? And I look at like speed like that. And then I say to myself like all the off sides, Canada's playing at a pace that they're not comfortable playing at. No. So how do you defend it? How do you counter? It's okay to not be able to play your style of game or change your style of game.

So you do play it to shut them down. You look at Switzerland. you look at Finland, you look at Chequia. They play Canada and USA way different than they play each other. Yep. Why? Because the level of play is elevated. It is hard for them to compete at that level in the game that they want to produce. They're not there yet.

And that is okay because this is a one game tournament, really, for the Canadians. They're taking it down to one game, let's say, if they even get there. Okay. So for Chequia, Finland, Switzerland, they're clog in the middle, right? when you're coming through. They keep things tight. Your shots, it's incredibly hard to get things through.

They play a certain way. And then when they face another team, they have a different game plan. Why can't that be the same for Canada? And I'm not saying this team isn't good. This is a very talented Canadian hockey team. I love all of these players that are on the team.

I just think that, okay, we can't play the way we think we should play against this team. Unfortunately, they're just a little bit too good. And that's just respect. That's not handing them, old metal. That's just understanding the game. All right. So how are we countering this? How do you counter this? And then play tight D. Play the way I say in the D zone and wait for your breaks and you

have to capitalize because quite frankly, once you get past all of this, you got Aaron Frankel to deal with in that. Which is just like not fun. Right? Here you go. It's like you get to the big boss. Right. You get to the big boss. Oh, geez. Now this. Now I got a deal with Frankl. Oh, that's wonderful. Well, here's what I wonder about now. in this game against Finland. So if I'm reading you correctly here, that essentially what Canada needs to do is ugly up this game and try to make this like a two to one game,

boring hockey, we're not just exchanging chances. So here becomes a question. Do you play that way against Finland? No. My main concern against Finland right now is where's the spark? If you want to play in any of the elimination games moving forward, show me. You can play wide open hockey right now, but at practices and everything they're doing leading.

up to the US, you're focusing on that, that new system that you're going to introduce or the new way you want to play. Because unfortunately, I don't think Finland's going to be able to play the open door run and gun hockey that the US plays at that pace. So that's, that's not their style. So I think ladies, a new, new, another life, if you will, get out there. Show me who's got the spark in heart, because I, unfortunately, I didn't see it in that last game at all. one of the things that we've read over the last 24 hours a lot of young legs on that US side and we saw it and we've talked about Abby Murphy plenty

and I think a lot of people know about Chloe Primarano right and under the but would I'm curious about the composition of this team are there the equivalent players for Canada that aren't on this team that make up that next wave, much like we're seeing, look, Layla Edwards is just a force out there.

Yeah, we don't have a Lila Edwards. We do have a Chloe Primerano for sure. Layla's a unicorn. She's exceptional. It's really cool to see. And it's cool to listen to her teammates talk about her, the older ones and the younger ones. My issue with not seeing as many younger,

let's say NCAA or U-Sport players on the team, is that experience? because sure this is a veteran team. How many are sticking around another four years for another Olympics? I don't know. How many are going to be good enough? I can't say. But it's the Olympic experience that matters.

You've got a 23-player roster. Not everybody has to suit up. Not everybody has to play 10-plus minutes a game. So just being in that Olympic atmosphere, experiencing, you know, an opening ceremonies, experiencing what it is to play in front of all of these fans with the Olympic rings around, something you've dreamed them your whole life.

Yeah. And I'm not saying you get numb to it by any means, but the first is a lot. And I think that experience, you know, depositing into that experience bank, what I call it, where you can take withdrawals whenever you want, I think offering them or gifting them that experience. Because I don't think Chloe would have hurt this roster very much at all, if anything. Do you know what I mean? Like she would not have – I don't think she would have been a liability. I think this would have been a great growth moment for a couple of young players,

just looking ahead based on, you know, You're looking south of the border saying, okay, they're set for at least the next two Olympics. Where are we? I don't know where we are. I don't know our depth. I mean, I can watch the under 18s. You know, we lost a tight one to the U.S. there, but coached by two Olympic legends and Vicki Sonahar on the Canadian side and Courtney Kennedy on the American side.

And Courtney Kennedy even said, like, that Canadian team, I just didn't want to give them a chance. I didn't want to give them space. I didn't want to let them breathe out there. And I'm like, that's how you're supposed to play a good team. like that, right? You can respect their talent, but don't, don't let them do whatever they want out there. Make them earn it. Let me, uh, let me close with you on a, I just want to get a thought or two on, on Marie

Philippe Palin. It's tough watching her in the stands. Like, I just, it sucks. Like, she's my favorite player. She's everyone's favorite player, right? Like, yeah. I've always said, like, male female, animal vegetable, doesn't matter. The clutchiest player in all of hockey, period.

Doesn't matter. I like, there's one story that I always like telling about. her and it involves Vincent La Cavalier. So at Team Canada orientation camp, 2009. Yes. Tessa Bonum. I'm standing there watching the women practice. I'm watching you guys.

And the men's team is filing in. They're skating after you. And it's me and Craig Button and Steve Culeas. And we're standing by the glass. And I don't think that Poulin was wearing 29 at that point. I think she was wearing something else. But anyway, so Vincent

La Calvier. comes over and says who's that number whatever number Poulin had on she was like 19 years old at that point and so I go through the rap sheet of like this is who she is and who she's going to be and blah blah blah special play all these different types of things and he stands there quietly

like Visi L Gavillet stands there quietly watching pause that's an FN player and turns around and walked out I'm just like game knows game and like right away like you could like you knew right Tesla like when you first saw Poulant on the ice. She's like 11 years old.

You're like, yeah, this one's going to the Hall of Fame. Undeniable. When she was like young, you talked to, you know, any of the, we called them the French connection on our team, like Carolyn Willett, Kim St. Pierre, Shalini Labonte, Sarah Vioncore, all of them, Gina Kingsbury. And they had an eye on poo when she was like 11 coming through. And they were like, it's only a matter of time. Like, it's not if. It's just like when. And in 2009, it was blatantly obvious.

I don't even know if she knew or understood. I think there was still a lot of bright lights and big name players that, I don't want to say we're intimidating, but like when you grew up idolizing them or looking up to them when you're skating alongside them, I think you kind of lower your own worth, if you will, for whatever reason. And I don't think she truly understood

what amazing gifts she had. we all knew. And it was like, you know, you talk her up and she was like, no, no. But one thing you need to learn about poo and we're all like, yes, yes, is that she is a very emotional person. And that was probably the hardest thing that she had to do was sit in that stance. If I was the coaching staff, what I would have done was I would have handed her a clipboard and a pen. And I would have said, clip any and everything you see, write down the time of the game, write down what you want to talk about your running video session in the morning.

because coaches can ram that stuff down your throat as much as you want. It becomes numb after a while. But if poo walks in with that clicker running video, I think everyone's taken a step and being quiet. I love that part of your podcast. You mentioned that too. I'm like, ooh,

that's a really, really good. You know, it's funny too because when that conversation came up on the pod, my first thought was, I remember talking to Sidney Crosby about what was it like? Because when is Crosby never been scratched? You know,

and he's playing and it was his first injury. And it's his first time he watched from above. And what he realized is he has more time than he thinks he does. That's like that's what he said to me. He's like, I have more time than it feels like because I'm forest for the trees. You're right there. Everything feels so sudden. It wasn't until my first injury where I couldn't play.

And I watched the game that I learned how to be a better player. Yeah. Does that resonate? Huge. And that's where all of us armchair GMs are like, why aren't they doing that? You know, like, I'm saying what I'm saying from at the comfort of my couch with a cold one in my hand. You know what I mean? And they're out there living it.

So it felt different for those ladies. We only say these things because we expect better and we know they can deliver better. Okay. I want to put that out there. I'm not ripping on them, telling them like they're brutal and their garbage. That is not the case at all. I think this team has something. They just need to believe it.

Kind of like a young 18-year-old Poulang who was trying out for the last. Olympics. But the view from above shows you so much. And I love that Crosby said that. And I love that Poulin had that opportunity. I don't love that she's injured by any means. I do expect her to come back when I'm not sure that I was obviously up to their medical staff and whatnot, but, and her. But I like that she has that perspective. And I love that it probably ate her up inside, that there was nothing she could do in that game, except after. the game, right? Now what are you doing about it, Poo? Yeah. I do love, I do love how you phrase general manager from the sofa. I've always,

I've always, Tessa, I've always wanted to live life. We all want to be confident in our lives. And I want to live the confident life of, you know that guy on the fifth deck at the baseball stadium who's calling balls and strikes? Yeah. I want to live life that confident. Yeah. You know, like 50% right, 50% wrong, but 100% certain 100% certain Tessa Bonham All right listen great stuff

thanks so much for stopping by continued success in Jax and Jolls it's such a great listen you and Julia do such a tremendous job continued success and we'll check back soon appreciate that Jeff

have a good bud thanks for having me there she is the great Tesla but I'm dropping by the program today to talk about Zach oh geez first of all from the American point of view

an awesome game and for casual hockey fans now everybody knows the name Abby Murphy and knows how great and annoying she is and how she's going to be this way for the next 15 years. If you're a Canadian hockey fan, get used to the name Abby Murphy. You're going to hear it a ton. But if you're a Canadian hockey fan, that was tough to watch, man. That was hard.

Yeah. That's a tough one. Yeah, they just looked slow and behind the play. And it didn't really feel like one of those ones or it was like, ah, they got the better of us tonight. We'll get them in the next one. I know, right? This is being the better part of a year here now where the Americans have taken it. to Canada and yesterday on that stage, it was like, that's just a better hockey team.

Like, they're, you remember the Swiss coach? The Swiss coach of the world juniors. They're bigger than us. They're better than us. They're faster than us. What am I going to tell them? That's what I was thinking. I'm like, yeah, they're bigger, they're better than faster.

It's my favorite. What do you mean? What am I going to do? Look at these guys. The entire team's drafted in the first round, except for one. He's drafted in the fourth. He has the most games. In the NHL of all of them?

The greatest interview of all time. But in seriousness, I was watching it. I'm like, we are just, we, like I was out there. Canada, I'm a Canadian fan, let's make that clear. It was just outclassed in that game. It was a much better team with the Americans. I thought the one thing, too, though, is shocking. It's kind of been touched on here,

and it goes into the speed and the skill of it, too. The stat that was tweeted out, there were eight players. on the American team that were born 2002 or later? How do you say that? Later, more recently, like younger than 2002, earlier than 2002, zero on Canada. It's an older team. It's quite the contrast.

Yeah. It's an older team. And I think that, you know, Tesla pointed one thing out, too, like we don't know how many are coming back. We don't know. And it's going to be, and it's not just going to be, it's sent team because the PWHL is looking to expand. Again, like they want to get the 12.

I think the long-term plan is get the 12 teams, get the national TV contract if you can get it, and then start to sell the individual franchises. But I wonder what kind of effect that's going to have. And it's on the American side too. Like there are going to be some athletes that are like, I'm not going to go through another Olympic cycle, and I might just be done.

So I don't think that it's just Canada. Or if I'm not done, I'm going to take a break. Right? Play it like Nat Spooner, take it. took a break, starting a family. How many more make that decision? And it's obviously different on the women's side than it is on the guys. And it's just a reality that you deal with.

But that's going to be the curious one for me, how many this is the last Olympic cycle for. And I do wonder about the big one. And that's Marie-Filiq Poulin. Anyhow, we'll not play against Finland. But as we understand it, it may not be done for it. the tournament. Injury not as bad as suspected. That coming from the head coach, we cross our fingers as Canadian hockey fans.

But not even just Canadian hockey fans. If you're a U.S. fan, you want to play against Marie-Philippe-Plan. Like if you want to win this thing, you want to play against the best. You don't want the, well, they didn't have Poulin for the last game. If you're a hockey fan, I think you also just want to see great hockey. And Marie-Fle-Pul-Anne is a great hockey player. So, yep, I did want to just mention here. Tessa brought it up, you brought it up.

I did, you could tell the player in Cassie was coming out talking about Abby. Oh, man, right away. That guy, brunt skunk. Like, I was like, Cass, I love, man. It's funny. You can't take the, you cannot take the competitiveness out of a lot of athletes. I remember Bobby Holick, I remember asked Bobby once in my, hey, do you still get out there after he retired? You still get out there and play, you know, every now and then go play, you know, pick up with the boys.

He goes, no. I only know how to play one way and I can't play that way in Beer League. I'm just still too wired to play hockey one way so it won't be good for anybody if I go and play. But I could just

I'm watching the at Sydney here listening getting more fired up as she talked about it and as the clips rolled on Cassie was so good. Comes back. She's like, Cassie's just, this is embarrassing. Can't do this.

I'm like, you are not wrong, Cassie. That's it. Yeah, just spit and fire. All right. So, it's been intriguing a couple of days here at the Milan Games. The sheet is powered by Fanduel. Play your game with Fanduel. It's the NHL season.

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. You do in Sweden, Italy? Yeah. I'm going to try to keep them to every single day. Look, I'm just going to be honest. Today's is not as creative. I had a harder time with it.

Uh, I just have a theme for today. Okay. Today is, oh, how sweet it is. Okay. Is Raymond. Adrian Kempi. Joel Erickson, to put up two or more points and Sweden to win by two or more goals. I told him today's is not as great.

Okay. All right. Yeah, really bold of me. Going out on a limb on this one. I would listen. it would not surprise me. It would just be such a Milan Games thing if at the end of all of it, it was Sweden

that won the whole thing at the Milan Games. I could see it. I could very well see it. It's the team that scares me the most outside of the obvious in the U.S. It's Sweden. And I saw a question in the chat saying, is William Elander going to play today?

I'm going to assume he's going to play. I think he's going to play. I think so. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know for sure. Sounds like it. But I think he's going to play.

We'll see. We'll see. We'll watch Sweden and Italy a little bit later on at the Milan games. Okay. The other thing, oh no, that's it. I think we're good. We're good for the day? We're done?

Yeah, we're good for the day. Yeah, I want to show you one thing here before we close out. We just watched the Slovakia game. Yeah. I saw this tweet, as did you, during the game. Slovakia opens the scoring and Travis Yost. Slovakia bringing Yarra Halak and shut this game down. Well, listen, when you talk about like shutting a team down,

when I hear the name Yarra Halak, Yarslav Halak, I always think about 2010. Montreal, Canadians, Washington Capitals. President's trophy winners, Washington Capitol, as everyone was saying, they're going to win the Stanley Cup. I remember being on the Hockey Night in Canada playoff preview show

where PJ Stock called Washington and 3, which was an interesting prediction from Pige, which is always great. And just watching Yaroslav Halak. And listen, Carrie Price had to take a back seat because Halak was so great. It was Kirk Muller

drawn up the plays as assistant coach. It was Mike Kamaleri, snapping in goals. It was a very young P.K. Suban, who in the next round will go head to head with Chris Pronger, which was interesting, too. But Yarslav Halak, just slamming the door. And again, not a big goalie, unlike Samuel Halavai, who I don't know much about. He's like, way, way down on the list of goaltenders for the Minnesota Wild. It's an American hockey league guy. played a couple of games in the ECHL,

the opposite of Yarslav Halak, who was like 510, 511? Was he even 6 feet tall? Was Yarslav Halak even 6? But he was incredible against a dynamic Washington Capitals team. Don't remind Gabby about that one. Because holy smokes,

that was just an incredible performance. Incredible performance. Listen at 511. on the NHL official website, which means... 5-8. Yeah, 5-8. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Yaroslav Halak, one of the great Slovak netminders of all time.

That's a great one. Great pull. Travis, you're just a great poll. Okay, thanks to the great testimony for stopping by the program today. I really do encourage you if you haven't already to listen to the Jaxon-Jill's podcast, along with Julia Tosheri. That program is consistently, A, entertaining, and be informative, and they're two great people as well.

And it's important to support great people in life, folks. And speaking of which, thanks to the great Brian Burke for stopping by the program, as he does each and every Wednesday, and getting on board with the idea which will go nowhere of making hockey a sport for the summer games. To satisfy everybody. Summer hockey's fun. It is, and especially tournaments. Think about some of the great ones.

When do they take place? Not during the season. Anyhow, that's conversation's going nowhere. Thanks to you for watching. Thanks to you for listening. If you have already subscribed to our daily face off YouTube channel, we thank you. If you haven't, please consider doing so.

Yes, Zach, you've returned. Sorry, just a reminder for people. Tomorrow we're not on at one. Oh, yeah. Slightly after one. And I don't want to give you an exact time right now, but I would say between 115 to 1.30, because we're going to follow the Canada game

and that fallout. So I just wanted to jump in there before you wrap things up. What my Eastern Time Zone biased co-host is trying to say is one E.T. Sorry, yes. Correct. You have to understand something about Zach. If he goes west of Jane Street, he gets a rash. If he goes east of what, Jarvis, you get a rash.

And if he goes north of Egglington, he gets a rash. And if he goes south of where he lives, his hat float. Yeah, exactly All right, anyways That's the programming for tomorrow Face out, tomorrow we're on after the Canada check you came That was fun Okay, talk to you tomorrow

Peace out from the sheet