The Sheet with Jeff Marek - World Juniors Day 2 in Ottawa ft. Scott Wheeler & Craig Campbell

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Jeff Marek is LIVE from FanFest on Day 2 of the World Junior Championships in Ottawa, Ontario. Joined in person by Scott Wheeler and Craig Campbell to discuss Day 1, tee up Day 2, discuss the ongoing of the NHL, and Jeff geeks out on some NHL history...Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it.

Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at one you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. World Junior Hockey Championships, day two, live in Ottawa at the FanFest just outside of the TTE. Welcome to the Sheet once again for this Friday, December the 27th. Coming up on the program a little bit later on, Craig Campbell, who has, for me, one of the coolest jobs in the world. He's a manager at the Hockey Hall of Fame Resource Centre.

It's a nice Hockey Hall of Fame display here at FanFest. Essentially, it's his job to scan the globe and come back with hockey memorabilia and paraphernalia. And you will never believe the lengths he travels to get these pieces that you see at displays here in Ottawa and at Yonge and Front Street at the Hockey Hall of Fame. It is day two. Scott Wheeler is here from the Athletic. Thanks so much for stopping by today. I know this is like Christmas morning for you. Every five minutes, there's a new game starting. So I'm very thankful that you parked a little bit of time

here for me today. Before we get to what we saw on day one and what we're seeing on day two, are you much of a hockey memorabilia guy? Are you a collector no never really was honestly i got the kids i got a little one at home he's almost four now and he's okay getting into hockey cards and he's a big hockey nut already left hand shot or right hand shot right hand shot we're both righties at 10 to the contract i know i know i got a family of lefties so i'm already on an island that way. My old man's got some nice pieces, though, that I'm hoping he'll leave me in the will. The big one is he stumbled at an antique store across a photo album of McLean's magazine shots of the 1967-1968 Leafs at training camp in Peterborough.

McLean's was meant to do a big magazine feature sort of inside the locker room and it actually got chopped sort of on the cutting room floor, if you will. So he's got 100, 150 photos from in the locker room, guys in their jock straps, smoking cigarettes, sort of right after they've won their last Stanley Cup. I think he had it appraised at some point, it's worth some ungodly amount of money, but he sent me a couple of these. He took a couple out of this album that he's got. And it's sort of an antiques roadshow kind of thing. And I've got them framed in my office at home. That's really probably the only cherished memorabilia I have.

Sure. There's some pieces. I mean, we get media gifts and all that at these tournaments over the years. But never been a big collector. I was a fan in Nashville of the bottle of Jack Daniels that they gave us. Nice NHL draft logo on it. That was nice. Well, they could have used that because the Rangers selected in the first round,

won before Nashville. Nashville wanted Gabe Perreault. The Rangers took him. Listen, the consolation prize is Tanner Mullendyke, which is a really nice consolation prize. But that one was an interesting draft. But I'll tell you, I want you to meet Craig because it's stories like this where Craig's ears perk up

and he says, ooh, you have what? And then the conversations can begin because at events like this, people come up to Craig, for example, or anyone from the Hall of Fame and say, I've got this. How do I get it into the Hockey Hall of Fame? You'd be surprised, all of our listeners and viewers, how many pieces in the Hall of Fame just come from, as Brian Burke would say, regular civilians. Yeah, civilians. Just regular folks that just happen to have something in their basement. Of course. That piece of hockey history and the people who put it together,

the people who do that work at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Oh, it's awesome. It's a pretty special group. And Brian, I'm sure, considers himself one of those people in his own way. So as it relates to the World Junior, one last little memorabilia story. I think you'll like this. Has a Kitchener Rangers tie-in as well. Now there's a cup.

When you win the World Juniors, there is a cup. Before they used to award plates. I personally miss the day of plates. Very tennis. I don't know. It is very tennis. I don't know what it is about hockey specifically. It's very food-inspired.

It's very table-inspired. You're either getting a plate to eat on or a cup that you drink out of. These are the awards we hand out. Nonetheless, I digress. So 1994, Danny Flynn was one of the coaches of the World Juniors. This would have been Czech Republic then, I believe. That's when they did the round robin, and they didn't have a playoff format. If you were top three, that was your gold, silver, and bronze.

Canada wins gold. And they get the plate. For years and years, no one could find the plate. And it was either the Hockey Hall of Fame or Hockey Canada that put out the hunt. The Flynn family had it. Danny Flynn had it. But they couldn't find it anywhere in the house. They finally found it under their son's bed

he had been using the plate to eat his grilled cheese sandwiches disgracing an artifact danny flynn's son is brad flynn who's the assistant coach of the kitchen arrangers of the ohl and i hope i didn't get him in hot water by sharing that story about eating grilled cheese sandwiches off a 1994 World Junior Hockey Championship plate. Okay, on the plate yesterday, a couple of games. We focused so much on this show about Canada and the USA. Yeah. I don't know that we learned much about either team

or were challenged by anything about either team. Look, USA just blew out the Germans. There were some real command performances by a couple of really key players for Team Canada, but focusing on those two games specifically yesterday, what did you take away, if anything? Well, I think my takeaway from the USA game was frankly that they actually didn't look like the team I thought they were going to look like. I thought they really struggled, especially defensively. I thought Colin Ralph, Paul Fisher, Aaron Menedian, some of their depth defensemen, which was the question about this team, USA, very raw group. Colin Ralph's never played at this level, never really played in a major international event for USA hockey.

Aaron Menedian's a returnee, but never really got into action last year. Didn't play well at the summer showcase this summer. There were questions about, okay, after Zeev Boyum, who's playing? In crunch time against Team Canada on New Year's Eve or in a medal game, who's playing for that blue line? He'll play 45 minutes. Yeah, Zeev. Well, the fact that Zeev played 24 against the Germans in and of itself is a storyline, I think.

It's telling of not just the way that they view Zeev, and obviously he plays for David Carl at Denver, but it's also telling of the way that they view that blue line. I would expect that Adam Kleber, who was a healthy scratch, the Sabres' second rounder, is going to get into action here tomorrow when USA plays Latvia in their second game, and it's still very much a work in progress, that blue line. The Germans actually pressed them at points in that game. They challenged them. it was a closer game through a period and a half than i think anybody expected it would be the top line we knew that gay pro and ryan leonard and james haggins were going to do damage my other question with team usa as we move through the tournament here is who's the second

line they have danny nelson trevor connelly and cole weisserman as air quotes the second line but you hear david carl talk about the way that Max Plante and Oliver Moore play, the engine that Oliver Moore plays with, the skating. I think in crunch time again, you'll see that third line quote-unquote with Brody Zemer, Max Plante, and Oliver Moore. Those guys are going to be relied on more than Cole Eisenman and Trevor Connolly. I think they view Eisenman and Connolly a lot like they viewed Trevor Zegers when he was the 13th forward at this tournament. Arthur Kaliev was the 13th forward at this tournament.

I think they view them as sheltered guys, power play types. So those were my takeaways from USA. And Trey Augustine, maybe for the first time in a long time that I've watched Trey Augustine, looked a little flustered, didn't look himself, wasn't at his best. So an early leg up certainly to Michael Harabel and Carter George in terms of the top goaltender in the tournament. Back to the U.S. blue line for a second. With Canada, the built-in excuse if Canada doesn't win gold is, well, they didn't bring Michael Misa. Do we say the same thing about EJ Emery with the U.S. defense?

If U.S. doesn't repeat, do we look at that blue line and say, they overthought this one? Especially if David Carl gets to a point in this tournament where he still feels like defensemen four through seven, he just can't trust them in the third period or in a tight game. I think absolutely. I spoke with a few people on press row, a few scouts at the rink yesterday about that yeah just in talking after the germany game about how they look sloppy in their own zone they gave up a lot against the rush against the germans yesterday it's not a strong german age

group this isn't tim stutzler and jj peterka and moritz seider right so um i do think that's that's that's a major talking point here cole hudson and ej emery also had built-in chemistry they played for two years together at the program ej emery and that sort of skank skating and length and his defensive play really does complement a cole hudson nicely i think ej could have played an important role on this team so absolutely i think that in and of itself will be a talking point. If USA comes up short, and this is their opportunity, first time ever to win back-to-back golds, if they fall a little bit short and it falls on that defense

and it looking a little porous, I think the absence of Emery will be a talking point. Thoughts on what we saw from Canada in Game 1 against Finland. It's a 4-0 shutout. If anybody didn't know who Matthew Schaefer was, you certainly know who Matthew Schaefer is by now. What did you take away from Team Canada over Finland

yesterday? I think with Canada, my concern coming into the tournament was, did they bring too many energy guys, too many go-getters, too many checkers? Did they try to build too much of that traditional bottom six that we've seen hockey canada build in the past i wondered whether they needed all of

luca pennelly tanner how who i know they love ethan gotier matthew catafor cobo dwayne players who really play the same role they play the same style uh and through pre-tournament i thought this team isn't really scoring when gavin mckenna and Berkeley Catton and that top line of Callum Ritchie and Easton Cowan aren't on the ice, they're not creating a ton. Yesterday, then I sat down and watched them and the way that they dictated not just the Swedes, but the Czechs, now the Finns through pre-tournament and into the tournament, the way that they've dictated them defensively, I think sort of started to have me wondering, at the very least,

is this team extremely well-built, kind of in the Sochi way that it was well-built for Mike Babcock at the Sochi Olympics, where are they just going to suffocate and be so good defensively that you maybe don't need to light this tournament up? You don't need that high-powered offense. It does look like a team that's very comfortable playing a 2-1 game. Yes. Or a 1-0 game.

That Sochi team was that. And I wonder, to your point about building a team from Mike Babcock, if Hockey Canada here has said, look, Dave Cameron is an old-school coach. Dave Cameron is an old-school dude. We're giving him an old-school team. There's a little bit of that. And then on the flip side, you've got Chris lazary sylvain favreau two of the brightest young coaches in the chl on his bench and they they're providing maybe a bit of a different voice so i think i

think that's actually been for this team as they constructed their group i think that's been a major major talking point they bring in al murray and all of the experience that al murray has with the tampa bay lightning and before that with the Los Angeles Kings. And they clearly wanted this team to play different than last year's team. In talking to Hockey Canada Brass in advance of this year's tournament, the one theme, and they didn't even hide it, was how disappointed they were in last year's group, in their competitiveness, in their ability to get to the inside. Alan Letang, the head coach of that team in Gothenhenburg came out every day with us in the media last year and said we need to get to the inside

more we need to get to second and third chances at the net more this team they they made that an emphasis in leaving a returnee like matthew wood off the team and leaving a beckett seneca off the team and not inviting michael misa to camp and Andrew Cristal wasn't on this team. I think they really prioritize guys who are going to get to the inside, who are going to scrap, who are going to finish checks. And that's the identity of Ethan Gauthier and Tanner Howe. That's who they are as players. So this team is built much differently than it was a year ago. And now we get to put to the test and the real test will be Boxing Day or New Year's Eve and USA, right? So I'm going to go deep with this one on your wheels.

I got here a couple hours ago just walking around looking at all the displays like I did yesterday, but there was a family of three, mother, father, and son, walking around. They all had Nikitin jerseys on. They're going to be joining us here in a couple of moments i'll tell you why in a second i assume this must be the family from kazakhstan yeah they're here to support their son uh vladimir nikita who's a net binder for kazakhstan the only ottawa senator's prospect in this tournament and the only drafted project prospect for the Kazakhs as well. Is that right? Yeah.

He has a chance to be a hero, certainly here in Ottawa, and you guys talked about this on your podcast, where they'll probably be cheering for him here in Ottawa. Yep. Do you have a thought on this netminder? I mean, we're talking a lot about Trey Augustine, certainly Michael Rabel in Czechia, but do you have a thought on Nikitin here? Super busy in the net was kind of the the talking point of him in advance of his selection in the draft then he comes over to the bchl last year tries to sort of get acclimatized uh in north

america the numbers don't necessarily look like the numbers of a kid who gets an entry-level contract for example so he may be a player where this is the highest level he ever plays at in terms of his age group in terms of the stage in terms of playing in front of a sold out or close to sold out crowd at TD Place I've been really impressed with the crowds at TD Place here you expect the crowds for Hockey Canada to be big especially in their return to Ottawa but just seeing TD Place for for non-Canadian games, it's been really positive here. And a better turnout, frankly, than it was

in Buffalo and Toronto and Montreal and Vancouver and Edmonton. This has been the best start to a tournament for an NHL market that we've seen in a decade. And I hope they get behind him. I hope that he plays his heart out. Really active kid, as I said. Athlet hope he comes to story.

Athletic kid. He's a competitive kid. He's going to face 60, 50, 60 shots in multiple games in this tournament, I think. It's going to be a challenge for him. They played a CCHL team in pre-tournament because they weren't comfortable putting their kids right away in pre-tournament action against world junior opponents. So they've kind of tried to ease that group into this tournament the players on that Kazakhstan team that got them here that rose them from division 1a into this level and Stephen Ellis could tell you all about them those kids have all aged out so they had a much stronger 19 year old age group a year ago than they do now they're in tough I expect that he'll give up. Even if he plays great, he'll have some games where he gives up

seven, eight, nine, ten goals. But if he can keep some games close and have a nice world junior moment here, that would be awesome. It would be one of the stories of the tournament, especially after Yakumchuk didn't make Team Canada. This is huge disappointment. He's really the saving grace for Sens fans here. So that family, by the way, that's his billet family from the BCHL.

They billeted kids for like last 10 or 15 years. And they just love this guy. They're going to be on the show a little bit later on. That is Chris, Max, and Larissa Wiebe. So I'm bringing on billet families. One of the wonderful things

about, I was making this point with Stephen yesterday, one of the wonderful things about, I was making this point with Steven yesterday, one of the wonderful things about this tournament is, and I get that even at this level, like a lot of it can be, you know, political and business oriented, et cetera. But this is like that last sort of glint of like, almost like some type of hockey innocence, right?

There's still an idea that hockey is just like a fun sport played by kids. You know, I always say whenever I do like the speaker circuit or whenever I'm when I'm asked to speak, I always close with the story of the little boy that goes up to his mom and says, Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a hockey player. His mom looks down at her son and smiles and said, Son, that's great, but you can't do both. And it's a tournament like this that always sort of reminds you that you're always a kid when you play hockey. Do you think that's part of the charm of this or the attraction?

This is that last little before the innocence gets wiped away when a lot of these kids turn pro. Is that part of the draw? For sure. And even the ability of Alapia in Edmonton a couple of years ago to stun their way into the quarterfinal. We talk so much and we hear so much every year during the blowout games about shrinking this tournament in size and these narratives of without Russia, there are too many blowouts. I don't think we need that at all.

I think that if anything, I'd rather see this tournament expand. I think it's unbelievable for not just the Canadian kids to play on home soil in a tournament like this, or the Swedes last year to win a silver medal in Gothenburg, when the Scandinavian was just electric for them in that gold medal game against USA, and the scrappiness of that finish in that gold medal game against USA. You see kids take bad penalties in this tournament that you've never seen a Stanley Cup final yeah you see leads blown you see them shrink into the sort of shrink in the defensive zone even team Canada against teams like yeah even even the Americans yesterday against the Germans moments in the game where you could see them really collapsing in front of their net and

worried just things that you don't see at the NHL level so it's it's the best this is the highlight of of my year on the hockey calendar for me this is better than the nhl draft it's better than you 18 worlds i watched william dufour score four goals in saint john i've seen great moments elsewhere for kids this age but the world juniors is the pinnacle they've never those canadian kids have never played in front of the crowd that they played in front of last night and that was boxing day forget new year's eve or a gold what a gold medal game will look like out in canada right so it's it's special for them and even in interviews they're not jaded they haven't been through this they haven't cindy crosby's answered the the same the same 50 questions for 20 years here. These kids aren't there yet. For my purposes, it's a joy to tell

their stories because you get access to them here and through junior hockey, and you know this better than anyone, but through junior hockey to them and the people around them. And you're telling their story in many cases for the very first time instead of for the fifth or sixth time. So they're more eager to talk to you. Their families and billets are more excited about it. This is really their introduction to the masses in many ways. It's the best. so they're more eager to talk to you. Their families and billets are more excited about it. This is really their introduction to the masses in many ways. It's the best. So one other point that I do want to make here about this tournament and how sort of wide-eyed everybody is about it,

I remember talking to Dave Cameron, who's the head coach of Team Canada Ottawa 67. This is about Honesty Wheels probably 15 years ago. We were talking about junior hockey versus the NHL. He said he really liked

junior hockey. I'm like, yeah, it's always been one of my first loves. I remember going to Maple Leaf Gardens with my dad, to Marlborough's games. You bought a ticket to the Leafs, you got a free ticket to the marlboro's afternoons at maple leaf gardens at the marlboro's evenings watching maple leaf game was great and he said and i said something along the lines of i don't even know why i'm so attracted to junior hockey but i just am and he said i'll tell you why you like junior hockey it's 15 years ago dave cammon he said in the nhl you'll watch a game and there will be about five mistakes that lead to a big moment in junior hockey there's about 35 that's why you like junior

hockey it's high quality enough that it looks like a really well played game but these are still kids that are still going to make bonehead decisions, going to make awful, awful decisions, and it's going to lead to big, exciting, dumb hockey moments. And it's a saying that's always stuck with me, and I've always said it. What kind of hockey do I like? I like dumb hockey. I want mistakes.

I don't want to see everything perfect. Give me dumb hockey. I don't mean it see everything perfect. Give me dumb hockey. I don't mean it as a pejorative. I mean it as a compliment. I like big, dumb hockey. That's why I like junior hockey. And this isn't a world junior moment, but six months ago, I was sitting just outside of Helsinki in a rink for U18 Worlds,

watching Trevor Connolly deliver a check from behind when the game was over for the Americans in the gold medal game and then what happens the door is open you would would even a Brad Marchand or a Tom Wilson that the pests of the NHL would they deliver that hit at that moment in game seven of a Stanley Cup final absolutely not but Trevor Connolly was trying to make a play he was trying to finish his check hard he was trying to get noticed and then then suddenly the Canada has a five minute power play. Gavin McKenna says night night to the Americans. T. Jaginla chips in and those moments you cannot get elsewhere. And part of that is Trevor Connolly playing on that stage for the very first time and not being ready for it in the way that a seasoned NHL veteran is. You're a busy guy. I appreciate you parking some time. We'll see you at the entire center later on tonight from Canada, Latvia. Uh, thanks all the best, continued success at the athletic.

Thanks man. There he is. Uh, Scott Wheeler, uh, from the athletic, uh, make sure to check out, they do a number of different podcasts. So they're always rotating the, if you haven't listened to the athletic hockey Hockey podcast before, always rotating hosts and co-hosts. And the ones that Wheels does with Corey Pronman, which focuses on prospects and junior hockey is always outstanding. If you're a fan of it, I encourage you to check that out. Now, Craig Campbell is going to stop by here in a couple of moments. We'll just wrangle Craig and bring him aboard.

On the business card, it says, Manager, Resource Center, and Archives for the Hockey Hall of Fame. But really, Craig has, in a lot of ways, a dream job. It's his job to go and find hockey memorabilia from all over the world. Sticks here, pucks there, sweaters here, programs there, not just from North America, but all through Europe, all through Asia as well.

I know that Phil Pritchard, the keeper of the cup, has the sexiest position at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Gets to get out there with the Cup and the Stanley Cup Final, has the white gloves on, has the commercials. And that's a great gig. And think about how long we've seen Phil do that. A number of times we've seen Phil. We should probably get Craig on.

We've seen him do that. But for my money, Craig Campbell may have the coolest gig in the world. I haven't been to the Resource Center a number of years and I'm overdue. As much as I love the Hockey Hall of Fame, and it's great. If you haven't been, the next time you're in Toronto, do yourself the favor. Everyone's heard my Hockey Hall of Fame story when I used to be at the X and I used to essentially live there with my notepad. But walking through the resource center and seeing all the artifacts and the uncataloged videos and things that they have is awe-spiring. It's fantastic. Craig Campbell. Thanks so much for

stopping by. Much appreciated. First of all, just talking to Scott Wheeler about this, one of the things, and I didn't know how active the hall was on this, but actively, you're always in the process of talking to hockey fans, appealing to hockey fans for the one or two pieces or the one bit of memorabilia they may have stored in their basement or in their garage. If you could talk to that a little bit, and then are there any stories of big pieces of hockey memorabilia that you can recall of just hanging out in someone's pool cabana

that now has its rightful home in the Hockey Hall of Fame or at the Resource Center? And there's a lot. Just through circumstance, you know, yourself. You may connect me with somebody that... Scott Wheeler a second ago, yeah. But also you mentioned Bill Waters. Oh, Bill's got some great stuff.

Yeah, so I mean... Tomahawk jersey looks great from 76. And so it could be somebody that we know of. It could be... Let me get the mic a little closer for you. Oh, sorry. We were just visited by some people at the display here in the Aberdeen Pavilion. And the one guy, he was like a close buddy to Dennis Bob then. And so he just said,

yeah, I've got my ticket stubs from, you know, 67s. So, I mean, while not everybody's going to the Hall of Fame to see a ticket stub from the Ottawa 67s, we recognize, you know, every team is part of the fabric, the jigsaw puzzle of the game. And if he happens to have a ticket stub from game one, well, that's of interest. But he also may have a ticket stub of a milestone point of his buddy Dennis Popman. And so that's how these things come by. Or we might meet a relative of someone who played for the Ottawa Hockey Club, the Silver Sub that used to skate in here,

or perhaps the original Ottawa Senators, or I would love to meet someone who has a relative who played with the Ottawa Alerts, for example. And I did meet a gentleman who said his, his aunt played. He might have a couple of original photos, but that's how it happens. And one of the beauties of our outreach program, which Isaac Westgate, you know, does dealt with hockey Canada and the good people in hockey Canada that

brought us down here. If we get it into the community, we can meet these people. We're here for the fans. We're here for the fans. We're here for the people that enjoy it for what it is, but we will meet people. And, you know, the various places we've been all throughout North America or overseas, we'll meet those people that might have an item, an old program, a game-worn sweater, a milestone puck, who knows. What do people get for donating to the Hockey Hall of Fame?

So the biggest thing that I will say to people is the biggest thing that you want to receive out of it is the satisfaction, knowledge, and special feeling that you've helped preserve a piece of hockey history, either from yourself, your family, your greater family. That's the biggest thing, because if that's what you want, then that's why the Hockey Hall of Fame or any sports museum or place of heritage would welcome that item or collection. If you're in Canada, you can receive a gift in kind tax receipt for an appraised value. So if somebody donates, as a photographer donates his photo collection or her photo collection or her game-w sweater or from a significant

championship or whatnot maybe they may wish a tax receipt for the appraised value and it kind of works like an RSP where I'll just use for an example if it's $1,000 you may get a you know the once you put it through this this Canadian Revenue it might come out to about a $300 benefit for you. And so that would satisfy our donors in Canada. But we do receive things from Hungary and Australia and obviously all throughout the United States. People randomly reach out to you? How do they get in touch with you to do this in the first place?

Mail. Remember mail? Vaguely. Vaguely here in Canada. Yeah, they got that going now. But, you know, we actually did a wonderful series with Canada Post. And it was a five-part thing that identified all the trophies leading up to the NHL's 100th anniversary, centennial. Yeah.

And one of the features in one of the books talked about some of the unique things that we've received. And, you know, Herb Gardner's Calgary Tigers ring came from Pennsylvania by U.S. post, by way of Canada post to us. Oh, wow. And we received, I mentioned to you earlier that we have Bill Hutton's, I didn't mention his name, but we have Philadelphia Quakers sweater. It came by Canada post to us. And that's probably 25, maybe even 30 years ago. So it can come to us by conventional method like that, or we'll get an email or a phone call.

And someone will reach out and say, hey, would you have any interest in item XYZ? And that's how it happens where we meet somebody at an event like this. Sure. I would imagine you might have some white whales, items that, oh, if only we could find this. And I shared this video with you. I know 93 was very important for you personally. Right.

The gloves, the white gloves, handing out the Stanley Cup. While being involved with the formal presentation correct yep um and my biggest if i was in your position my biggest white whale would be the puck from that final game in 1993 game five los angeles kings montreal canad. As the video shows, Daryl Sador grabs a puck from Kelly Rudy behind the Kings net. Clock is counting down and Daryl Sador fires the puck into the stands at the forum. The puck is lost forever. But that puck exists somewhere. And i don't even know if the person who has it even knows that that is that puck from 1993 the last time a canadian team won the stanley cup i wouldn't even know how to begin to try to hunt for it or look for it it does have the makings of what could be a wonderful documentary.

That would be my white whale. I remember I asked Daryl Sador about it once, and he said, I haven't thought about that moment going back to 1993. There was nothing deliberate about it. Like, oh, I'm throwing this puck away. No one's ever going to have this puck. He said, I was just frustrated that we weren't going to win the Stanley Cup. Do you have a white whale like that? I would love to know where that puck is that I was just frustrated that we weren't going to win the Stanley Cup. Do you have a white whale like that?

I would love to know where that puck is. Is there something in the back of your mind like, I wish we could find this? And certainly there would be. And what we're doing right now may be the catalyst to find that puck. Hope so. Right? Because this may get seen by somebody who's here. Or we, you know, contact Dave Stubbs, long-time Montreal media guy. And you know him.

Former WWF referee as well. Oh, I did not know that. Oh, ask Stubbsy about his time with the WWF in Montreal refereeing Hulk Hogan matches. Oh, yeah. He never mentioned that. Oh, yeah. That's good. That's good.

Stubbsy's good. Stubbsy's good. But, you know, he may know someone. or he may know a way to get that information. Like, we should. We should try to find that puck. Sure. Why wouldn't we? And, you know, the puck may not have a goal on it, right?

It may be another one that went into play. I don't know how long that puck lasted in the game, but we should have it. It's the 100th anniversary. And I don't recall why, you know, I said to you I was there. I don't recall trying to get the goal pucks that game. I was relatively new at the Hall. And

you know, there's, well, there's one, I'll say, a white whale. There's a bunch of them that we would have. Hang on. Can I guess? Hamilton Tiger sweater. So that would be a good one.

Yeah. Sure. No, we came close. We received a Hamilton Tiger senior amateur sweater from the 1930s. And it is spectacular. It's beautiful. You know, much like some of the sweaters here on display, the detail of the crest and the, you know, the art of the sewing

and the design and the color, the hue of the, you know, the fabric. It's beautiful. Yes, we would like an NHL one. We're missing other NHL sweaters as well. But we're also missing, well, the Ottawa Alerts. Show me Ottawa, Ottawa, Ottawa. There's those that we're missing. Teams that had either special players or had great success

and maybe we don't have anything and it could be from a team in canada it could be a team from the united states uh or it could be you know an early russian team sweater sure a club sweater um but but there's many things that we are missing. We only have one program from the first year of the NHL. And, you know, we use the NHL a lot as sort of the pinnacle, certainly for men's hockey. But we need more on the Preston Rivulets. We need more on, you know, the women's team that Edmonton, you know,

that Preston would go out and play for the national championship and drive out there on a bus. There's lots of amateur and professional leagues that we are missing, key items that people might assume we have or hope we have. You know, the original minute book of the International Ice Hockey Federation. We have the original for the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. We have the original for the

Beaches Hockey League, which has become now we now know as the Greater Toronto League. Arguably the biggest minor hockey association. The Montreal Triple A. It'd be nice if we had did someone keep a sweater from 1893 and however those things might might be in landfill and but

that's why places of heritage sure hockey hall of fame or other halls of fame for various sports or other um parts of walks of life. That's why we exist, so we can preserve what does exist. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations.

What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.

The displays here are really neat. I don't know why I'm so fascinated with Patrick Laine's skate mat for Team Finland, but I love that you have that out. Hendrik Sedin nameplate from the dressing room as well. The World Juniors, Casey Middlestad jersey the football-style jersey that USA wore that time. I'm a sucker. Anytime you put the Whitby Dunlop jersey out there and the Trail Smoke Eaters jersey out there, I love that orange. I'm a sucker for it every time, so I was happy to see that when I came yesterday.

Can you walk us through a couple of the items people can see here? And so you touched on some some nice ones so Isaac Westgate pulled I mean you know at the archives so the beauty of the museum is we have a wonderful museum today the archives is rich like any archive or art gallery or whatnot where you have other items that will rotate on and off display. But one of the benefits of our outreach program is we can come to Ottawa and pull wonderful items from the archives. And so Isaac was pulling those prior to coming here,

and he came down and set it up with colleagues, Spencer Oaks, and they'll be here at the back end to be here and tear it down. and they'll be here at the back end to be here and tear it down. And so, you know, we have a display on each of the countries represented here at the tournament. And so those items have either come from the federation or player or perhaps a fan. But most of these that are contemporary have likely come through the support of the IHF and the member federations that they represent. And we have great support from a variety of people for decades. And we also have something on women's hockey, on indigenous hockey here. And then, you know, just reflections back on we have Dennis Popman's alternate

solid oh yeah you got the a there for the alternate captain from red sweater from the Canada Cup we have bossy 70 76 yeah and then we have Bobby or he said he was the best defenseman not Bobby controversy Dennis controversy but a local guy and so Bobby or sweater 72, which unfortunately he couldn't wear in game action. But, you know, he was there. He was part of the team. Helmet from Conor Bedard from a recent World Junior. You know, we have some wonderful items.

And we have some items here from players. Bran Jenner, who plays with the Ottawa Charge, and Brady Kachuk, for example, plays with the Senators. So we brought some items, and this is how we can cater it. We're coming to Ottawa. What do we want to bring? What does Hockey Canada want us to bring? Obviously, we know what we're doing for the IHF,

and so Isaac and, you know, we'll put that together and pull the artifacts, and thankfully put that together and all the artifacts and thankfully we have such a strong collection again we can make this wonderful and there's about 20 showcases and yet we have a beautiful exhibit at the museum that also covers the world junior championship and women's hockey and whatnot so there is I'm glad you mentioned that Bobby or Jersey from 72 yeah so one of the great you probably know this for our listeners and viewers So there is, I'm glad you mentioned that Bobby Orr jersey from 72. Yeah. So one of the great, you probably know this,

but for our listeners and viewers, one of the great stories around Bobby Orr not playing in 72, after the game in Montreal, the game that shocked everybody, with the Soviets winning, Canada goes up 2-0, they're all laughing on the bench, Filespacito's leading the laughter. that shocked everybody. With the Soviets winning, Canada goes up 2-0, they're all laughing on the bench, Filespacito's leading the laughter. Next thing you know,

it's taking a drink out of a fire hose as Soviets are pounding Canada, and end up winning that game. And Team Canada freaks out. Bobby, Bobby, we need you. Is there any way you can play? Game two is at Maple Leaf Gardens Gardens Bobby says he'll try it out and try out his try that the knee out in practice and see if he can go and the goaltender they brought in to take shots on Bobby or was a third string goaltender from the Toronto Marlboros junior team. That goalie, his name is Greg Keeler,

who music fans in Canada will know as one of the singer-songwriters, guitarists from the band Blue Rodeo. I'm sure you know that story, but it's one that is just sort of legendary. Whenever I think of Bobby Orton in 72, I think of Blue Rodeo and Greg Keeler and that story of blue rodeo and greg keeler and that story of what could have been for a greg keeler and what were that event for the canadian music scene um do you ever get i'm sure you must weird things weird hockey artifacts you know i i put a sort of question out to to the to the twitter x sphere like you know what's what sort of memorabilia would you be interested in?

And doing a quick Google search as well, people say, well, what about Bobby Clark's teeth? Would you ever get something like that submitted to the Hall of Fame? So we have a knee brace, Bobby Orr, Crutch's Bobby Orr. Bobby Orr. Crutch is Bobby Orr. I recall some dentures from a player, but I don't know if we got them. But I think it had something to do with Dave Keon. But I'm not sure whether we have them or someone mentioned it.

And so forgive me for not. But you mentioned Bobby Clark, and I'll just we'll jump back a bit okay his mom sent us a little letter on I'm letterhead would you be interested in Bobby's we have scrapbooks on Bobby Clark we have his flin flan the bombers letters yeah both home and away his Blazers with the flim flam logo his juvenile jacket his rink rat jacket and it came to us in little letters so we kept those letters yeah and we subsequently have the 22 scrapbooks or so and the full uniform. And we've, you know, showcased and displayed Bobby Clark's flim-flon story through those artifacts.

And that's the beauty. When we have an item that people can see, a tangible item, it kind of gives life to that part of the player's career or a team. But unfortunately, there are some players or teams we just unfortunately don't have anything for, including some of our other members. And we may never receive anything because it's long gone. But, you know, we hope that maybe someone will come out and go, geez, we have something from Dan Bain or Mike Grant or or Eva Ault of the Ottawa Alerts. Let me close on this one. It's a great story that Ray Scampanello told me. Legendary NHL linesman, one of the finest to ever do it. The Scampanello family is from Guelph, Ontario.

And what Scampi would do is he would collect players' sticks. He would have, like, autographed Gretzky and Marcel Dion, like, all the era, obviously, that he worked. Phyllis Bezito, Ken Dryden, Mario Lemieux, like, all, like, superstar players. At the end of every season, he would take them to his parents' house in Guelph, Ontario, and leave him in the garage. The end of his career, he goes back to his parents' house, and he asks his mom,

like, Mom, where are all the sticks? And his mom says, oh, they're in the back. He goes back to the garage. He goes, no, they're not here. They're not here. And she's like, sure they are. They're over there in the garden. Mom had cut thousands of dollars worth of probably

hall of fame destined sticks in half for the tomatoes that may be the most expensive tomatoes ever grown in ontario how many times you hear stories like that maybe not exactly like that but oh i had this autographed hockey stick of way Gretzky, but mom cut it for the garden. Very practical use. Yes. But, yes, I've contacted some older photographers or made touch with them, and the family has thrown out the negatives or the slides. That has happened before.

Oh, yeah. But on your note of a tomato steak, one of the more famous tomato steaks that probably doesn't exist anymore. I'm sure the word's long gone. But a good friend of mine now, Rory Montgomery, worked for the NHL Players Association. In the late 90s, he was working on a project. And he would constantly come into the Hall of Fame and access our fabulous resource of her photo archive for the project he was working on and so I said you know you gotta ask Steve Larmer where his stick is he scored the game-winner in the 91 Canada Cup and so I never actually met Steve Larmer but Rory asked him when he was back at the PA office

and was told that that's cut it up and it's a tomato steak in the backyard. And so that's the last Canada Cup goal. And so, you know, as much as we try to educate people, let's preserve history. And lots of people understand that. And so through various teams and leagues and whether people move on to a different league or whatnot, we get that support. And we've had wonderful support through a variety of donors over the years, decades. Because everything's donated to the Hall of Fame. We're a charity.

We're not funded by government. We're not funded directly by any league or government. So we rely on the – it's the generosity of people that have allowed us to have the wonderful collection that we have here in Ottawa or back home in Toronto at the Hockey Hall of Fame. They want to be pieces of the puzzle. They want to be pieces of the puzzle. Correct. How can people get in touch with you if they have something knocking around the basement or in the garage they think may have be of interest for the Hockey Hall

of Fame how do they reach out? So thank you so they we have acquisitions at hhof.com that's our generic one but otherwise otherwise, I'm Campbell C, C-A-M-P-B-E-L-L-C at HHOF.com. And, you know, number 416-933-8224 is the office number. Awesome. And literally, that's how people get in touch with us, myself or colleagues, Philip Richard or Isaac or Mira or whomever. And it's wonderful that people do and continue to do so and likely will continue to do so here in Ottawa.

I love it. You're a wonderful person and important to hockey history. Jeff, thank you so kindly for having me on. I've got to see you at the Resource Center. I'm overdue. Okay. I'm overdue for another tour. Thanks, Craig.

Yes. Much appreciated. Thank you. Craig Campbell, the business card reads like this, Manager, Resource Center, and archives. But really, he's the guy that has one of the coolest hockey jobs in the world. Hands down. I love that Ray Scampanello story, by the way. Having all those thousands of dollars of hockey sticks and autographs.

Growing tomatoes. I love it. I love it. But I want to bring aboard the family that I talked about at the outset of today's program. These are the Weaves. Chris, Larissa, and son Max. They are

in the proud tradition of Canadian hockey billet families. The former billet family for Vladimir Nikitin, netminder for Kazakhstan. First of all, thanks so much. Who's going to be doing the talking here?

I've been elected. Okay, Larissa, you've been elected to talk? All right. So when Vlad, I first saw you, because everyone here has Nikitin jerseys. You have the BCHL and the Kazakhstan. That is such a gorgeous jersey. Those legit puck marks. Oh, yes.

Game horn, legit puck marks on them. Game horn, this is on them? Game horn. This is the jersey he was wearing when he scored his goalie goal. Oh that's right! This is it. Oh wow. Was that a gift or was that a loan? No, it was a gift of sorts.

I actually bought the jerseys and then I said, I had both of them, and I said, which one do you want to take home to your dad? And so he chose that we got this one. Okay. And he took the dark one home for his dad. Starting net minder for Kazakhstan, Ottawa Senators draft pick, no pressure, right? Tell us about Vladimir as when he billeted with you. You know, he's a very hardworking, respectful, appreciative young man.

Let's bring the mic a little closer. Yeah, he's very hardworking and appreciative. And he fit in our family beautifully. He came in with a little bit of English, but a lot more than we had of Russian. And he's very hardworking. So he definitely did a great job of improving his English and just throwing himself into Canadian family life. Do you always billet goaltenders? No. Or was he your first goalie? He was our first. We've actually done this for 11 seasons. We've had probably an even split of defensemen and forwards and he was our first goalie. What is he

like? I mean he's gonna face like 70 shots a night at this at this tournament. Yeah. What's he like? How is he going's going to face like 70 shots a night at this tournament. Yeah. What's he like? How is he going to handle this? You know, he's very focused. He tries to just keep centered on the job at hand. He works quite well under pressure, but then he will definitely replay it all. He will be thinking through it all afterwards.

Yeah, absolutely. He takes it very seriously. He understands what's at stake here and it's a big deal. Walk us through what it was like to billet him. What would a normal day be or are there no normal days? There's no normal days. When he first arrived, we spent a lot of time using Google Translate and just figuring out what his preferences were were what a day looked like and just kind of figuring things out together they're very close in age our son and Vladimir are just months apart so they actually developed a great friendship and that was good for

downtime away from the rink they had a lot of you know they watch movies and play basketball and the occasional video game so sure that was nice downtime as well away from hockey max want to grab the mic for a second okay so that's mom's point of view yeah hey mom close your ears now all right what's he like as a dude he's a really good person he's always caring yeah yeah what is he like to do? What would you guys do together? I mentioned you guys are similar in age. Yeah, we watch a lot of movies.

Yeah. Played a lot of NHL video games. Oh, yeah? A little bit of FIFA. We went axe throwing one time. Went to an arcade. Nice. Played a lot of basketball as well.

How is he at axe throwing? Pretty good, actually. He's not bad. Yeah? Get that from the old country? Possibly. Possibly. All right, pass it over to Dad for a second.

All right, welcoming a goaltender into the family as a billet dad, what was it like? Well, I thought it was going to be strange because, you know, goalies can be flaky, but he's not a flake. I'll never forget what he said. It's a hockey easy game. You shoot, you score, you win. know goalies or it can be flaky but he's not a flake i'll never forget what he said it's hockey easy game you shoot you score you win so very down to earth very um appreciative of what we had to offer him yeah and just a great kid yeah you know it's been so much fun to keep in contact with all

our billets but yeah laddie is uh he's special he's a very special kid still very much keep in touch with oh yes yes as much as we possibly can, yeah. Right. With all our abilities, to be honest. We try to keep in contact. But especially Vlad, he's a top kid in our hearts. I really hope this turns into, because there's always the underdog story at every World Junior, and everyone gravitates towards one player who just becomes a star seemingly out of nowhere.

This is going to be a tough tournament for Kazakhstan. But I really do get the feeling, since he's the only Ottawa senator's prospect in this tournament, that every time Kazakhstan plays, the home crowd here, Ottawa hockey fans, are going to be behind him. Agree or disagree? I agree. I think, you know, based on character alone, if the team is built like Vladdy, you're getting a winner.

Like he is such a good kid in the room, a good kid with his teammates, and just deeply cares about people, you know, besides the game. But, yeah, you cannot not cheer for him yeah great kid who's his favorite goaltender do it no does he have a favorite goalie max who's his favorite goalie Oh Rossky sure gave a lot like to the man on Florida yeah he's pretty good yeah it's not too bad listen I know you have a busy day of worrying about a goaltender ahead of you. Who's going to be more nervous, him or you guys?

Mom. Me. Yeah, mom. Okay. We'll let you get back to your hand. Thank you. Thanks so much for stopping by. Max, a pleasure.

Chris, best of luck. Enjoy this tournament. Best of laddie. Thank you. All right. Billet families, making the hockey world go round. Thank you very much. That is Chris, Max, and Larissa Wiebe.

to go around. Thank you very much. That is Chris, Max, and Larissa Wiebe. Billet family for Vladimir Nikitin when he played in the BCHL. I love it. I'm just a sucker for this. I love today's show. Thanks to everyone who participated

in the chat as well. A couple of things still to get to before I wrap it up here from FanFest. The NHL is back tonight. The PWHL is back as well. Toronto faces off against Boston at Coca-Cola Coliseum. The NHL is back, making headlines today around the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche. Reese are signing Mackenzie Blackwood to a five-year contract extension.

5.3 is the AAV there. And I've always said this about teams, and this is not a slight of McKenzie Blackwood, but they don't need Sergey Bobrovsky to win the Stanley Cup. Some teams do. I always consider that elite level net mining to be a luxury item. Teams like the Rangers have it. Teams like Florida have it.

Teams like Tampa Bay have it. But Colorado has demonstrated that they don't need that elite-level guy. They just need someone to make basic saves, and they have that with Mackenzie Blackwood. So eight games on the go around the NHL. By the way, speaking of netminding, tonight Boston and Columbus are Corpus Allo against Bruce Lickins, a former tandem in Columbus themselves. Markstrom versus Kachetkov from the Carolina-New Jersey game.

Todd McClellan makes his debut behind the bench for the Detroit Red Wings tonight. It'll be Joseph Wall versus Cam Talbot in net. Edvinson and Sherratt are expected to play for the Detroit Red Wings. New coach, they have a heavy lift here if they're going to pull themselves out of Buffalo Sabres' land. Speaking of the Sabres and their one-game win streak, thank you very much in action against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Uka Pekalukunen facing off against Peter Morazic. It'll be Nashville, who really didn't want this break at all. They're playing some good hockey. They'll face off against the St. Louis Blues. Minnesota and Dallas, no capris off. He didn't make the flight to Dallas. Lower body injury there. Two teams we expect to be making moves come trade deadline time.

And it is the return of Tomas Hurdle as the Vegas Golden Knights were in San Jose for the first time since the Hurdle trade going back last spring. So the NHL is back. The PWHL is back. And tonight at the World Juniors, what do we have here? Tonight we have Sweden facing off against Kazakhstan. Go Vladimir Nikitin, Ottawa Senator's draft pick. Latvia faces off against Canada.

Jack Ivankovic will get the start for Canada. That is Stephen Ellis' favorite goaltender here at the tournaments. So he will be insufferable tonight in popcorn row. I assure you. Thanks for joining me today. That's a wrap from fan fest here. I want to thank all of our guests, Craig Campbell from the hockey hall of fame,

Scott Wheeler from the athletic and just calling the audible on the weeb family. Just chatted with them a couple of minutes and said, why don't you come on and talk about Vladimir? Thanks to them for stopping by. Zach, we fooled them again. We did it. We fooled them again for an hour.

Thanks to everybody in the chat. Thanks to everyone who helped put this show together. Everybody back home and everyone here on site in Ottawa, thank you. Thank you. We are back on Monday, 3 o'clock Eastern, with another edition of The Sheets. We're here Monday and Tuesday and then back January 1st for regular shows in the, the broadcast empire. That is my basement.

Thanks for joining me today. Wrapping up the sheet for another week. We're back on Monday. Enjoy your weekend. Enjoy your hockey, NHL, PWHL juniors, or otherwise,

maybe it's your kids playing tournament It's tournament season, folks. Enjoy it. We'll talk to you again. I said 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head, lost all ambitions day to day.

Guess I can call it a run. I went to the doc man he tried to give me a little medicine I'm like nah man that's fine I'm not against those methods but I knew it's me myself and how that's gonna be fixed in my mind

I do wanna record I turned on the music I do want to break it. I turned on the music. I do want to break it. I turned on the music. It's enough. I don't get you sometimes losing. Have been on the days that went wrong.

In the dead dark night. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power.

Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.