0:00

Slow the game down to a crawl.

0:02

It's bad enough. The coaches have destroyed

0:04

overtime and we'll get there now.

0:06

They want more and more video

0:09

review and slow in the game

0:11

down. And after every whistle, everybody

0:13

gets the NHL. I'm

0:17

here. So you're going to be here too.

0:20

What a slogan. Welcome

0:24

once again to 32 thoughts. The

0:26

podcast presented by the GMC Sierra

0:28

elevation, Jeff Merrick, Elliott Friedman, Dom Sremati.

0:30

So Elliott, I want to launch the podcast today

0:32

by reading a tweet to you. It's going to

0:34

remind you of the old eye desk days. Let's

0:36

go down to American Morrison. Read some tweets guys.

0:39

Here we go. Okay. Let's go. Here's one that

0:42

I got on Thursday. Uh,

0:44

listen to the pod today. This is the

0:46

podcast on the radio show. Love the video

0:48

coach segment. This is the conversation Elliott that

0:50

you and I had about video coaching on

0:52

Thursday on the radio show. I love

0:54

the idea of them getting praise after

0:57

the game and the locker room and

0:59

stuff, just wait until towards healthy scratches

1:01

as video coach after a bad

1:03

review that comes from Jonathan Morris. I

1:05

think that's probably a good way to

1:08

set up today's 32 thoughts podcast. Uh,

1:10

we're going to get to John Torella. We

1:12

will get to video coaches. We will get

1:15

to Florida. We will get to the Islanders

1:17

and the red wings and a

1:19

lot of other things today. But do you want

1:21

to put a quick bow on the,

1:23

uh, on the Florida, uh, Florida GMs

1:25

meetings? I mean, this was about in

1:27

a lot of ways, GMs and GB

1:30

Gary Batman. Let's start with the managers

1:32

themselves. Anything spicy for you come out

1:34

of this? Well, I think

1:36

the only thing like I've written a lot

1:38

about it and we've talked a lot about

1:40

it. And one of the things that I

1:43

do think is, is going to be interesting

1:45

here is that there

1:47

was some talk going in. Would there

1:49

be a showdown between, uh,

1:52

George peros and

1:54

some of the managers over, uh, some

1:57

of the suspensions or the processes.

2:00

I understand there was one manager who

2:02

had some pointed questions. Now it's

2:05

all in the eye of the beholder,

2:07

right Jeff? You know, sometimes people think,

2:09

oh, this is a really intense argument

2:12

and other people are like, meh, it's

2:14

just two alphas going at it and

2:17

I think that that was one of the things that

2:20

kind of said to me like I did have

2:22

some people say to me, wow, like Peros really

2:24

got challenged but I got some other people who

2:27

said, really, you thought that was

2:29

a challenge? I didn't think that was

2:31

a big challenge. I just think it was two

2:33

people kind of giving it to each other a little

2:36

bit and it really wasn't that

2:38

bad. And also the commissioner

2:40

was around for a bit of

2:42

that so people are always a

2:44

little bit more careful whenever Betman

2:46

is in the room. So

2:49

whatever the case was and some

2:52

other people said to me, yeah, someone

2:54

challenged Peros a bit but he had

2:56

good answers and he was ready for

2:59

them. So whatever the case

3:01

is, I don't think it was too bad.

3:04

One of the things that came

3:07

out of it to me is

3:09

I didn't write it, someone called

3:11

me about it on Thursday and

3:13

so I had better picture was, you

3:16

know, for example, at this meeting they

3:18

were shown 14 examples of

3:20

plays at the blue line and they

3:23

wanted to know like, do you

3:25

think this is onside or do

3:27

you think this is offside? Like

3:29

Minnesota Wild fans would know there

3:31

was a play with Marcus Johansson where

3:34

he was ruled to be offside and

3:37

some of the managers looked at it and said, I

3:39

don't know, I think that should be a goal. So

3:42

that was one of the things they

3:44

do here and Colin Campbell is really

3:47

well known for this if

3:49

there's a goaltender interference play

3:51

or a somewhat controversial

3:53

play that they review, he will send

3:55

it to a group of managers and

3:57

doesn't always do the same ones. I

4:00

think there's some he's pretty consistent with but

4:02

I think there's others he tries to involve

4:04

and just say hey at different

4:07

times you know what do you think of this

4:09

play, how did you feel about this call, how

4:11

do you think this play should be ruled. And

4:14

I think one of the things that they talked

4:16

about with Perros is what

4:18

if you start doing the same

4:20

thing. You know what do

4:22

you want to send it out to a

4:25

group and say hey this is a play

4:27

that lets you use for example Tom Wilson.

4:30

Now you're not going to send it to

4:32

Brian McClellan and you're not going to send

4:34

it to Brad Trilivan because his team is

4:36

involved but maybe send it to a bunch

4:38

of other managers and say Steve Eismann

4:43

is probably a good guess. I'm betting

4:45

he sees a bunch of these. No

4:47

but do you send it to anyone

4:49

for thought, I mean if they're competing

4:51

for a playoffs I

4:54

was like do you think there should

4:56

be a penalty on Tom Wilson, Steve

4:58

Eismann, another Tret Redrigs, absolutely calling the

5:00

key game. You want to know

5:02

something about Eisermann I will tell you and

5:04

I've said this on this podcast before. I

5:07

think there's probably no manager who

5:09

thinks referees

5:13

should interfere less with games than Steve

5:15

Eisermann. He is a big let the

5:18

players decide the game guy. I

5:21

think I've told this story before but I heard

5:24

if you'll remember and I'm going off on a

5:26

tangent here, if you'll remember

5:28

when Nicholas Cromwell was the span for

5:30

game 7 of a Detroit Tampa series,

5:33

Eisermann was the manager of Tampa at the

5:35

time so it really benefited his team if

5:38

Cromwell couldn't play. I

5:41

said to someone at the league at the time I

5:43

said oh great stuff for Eisermann he must love this

5:45

and they said to me actually he is

5:48

the one guy who wouldn't do that. He

5:51

would just say whatever you guys

5:53

decide he's generally

5:55

let the players play kind of guy. the

5:59

best way to do it. who might not actually say 50 games

6:02

for Wilson while racing with the

6:04

playoffs, it's probably Iserman. Anyway,

6:07

maybe you said it to a bunch of Western

6:09

Conference guys so that nobody who's in the playoffs

6:12

in the East has a comment. But

6:14

I do think that that's one of the

6:16

things they talked about and I also think

6:18

that Parris was receptive to that. I think

6:21

he also kind of challenged the managers and

6:23

said, hey, you know what, you guys don't

6:25

really get involved with us, you know, instead

6:27

of maybe, and this is my words, not

6:30

from his, instead of complaining

6:32

about it, how about you guys get more

6:34

involved? So I think that's one of the

6:36

things that I haven't written yet and I

6:38

don't know that's been written or said yet

6:40

that I think is going to come out

6:42

of this meeting. I think that's going to

6:44

be a big part of the future and

6:47

I've got no problem with that. A

6:49

few other things and they were, you know, minor

6:52

tweaks that are suggested and have to go to

6:54

competition committee and then get

6:56

Royal Ascent after that, whether it's

6:58

high sticks or leg overboards or

7:00

puck over glass or more video

7:03

review or Goldies dislodging nets, anything

7:06

jump out there for

7:08

you or anything that you want to sort of sharpen a point on?

7:11

Something else I wanted to mention, you pointed out

7:13

a couple of minutes ago, you referred to the

7:15

conversation we had on your radio show about how

7:18

video coaches are about to become

7:20

even more important. Like

7:23

hugely important is I had

7:26

someone say to me, I wonder

7:29

if teams are

7:32

going to start hiring referees either

7:36

as consultants or to

7:39

work with their players or their coaching

7:41

staff about the rule book. Hang

7:43

on. Because you know who

7:45

did that in Winnipeg? Paul Maurice

7:47

did it. Yes. Paul Maurice

7:50

did that. And he brought NHL

7:52

officials into the, remember the Winnipeg,

7:54

they had like season after season

7:56

of undisciplined penalties and it just

7:58

killed them and he brought NHL

8:00

officials in to training camp to

8:03

work with the players which I thought was a brilliant

8:05

idea and good good on Paul Maurice for doing it.

8:08

I think I think the Jets have

8:10

used Von Rode in the past or

8:12

currently Faceoffs

8:14

I think is what he's he's doing

8:17

For the Manitoba move. So yes, there there

8:20

is an example from what I understand. You're

8:22

right. Paul. Maurice did it in the past

8:25

That's a very good call Jeff But

8:27

but this individual said to me

8:29

more teams should probably do it

8:31

or think about doing it, especially

8:33

as this becomes More

8:35

of a thing especially as video review expands

8:37

like I was talking to one coach today And

8:41

I said, what do you think about it? And he goes, oh,

8:43

I want more of it I

8:45

want more things to review any any

8:48

chance Like there are

8:50

some coaches and pass coaches who think this

8:52

shouldn't be up to the coaches to get

8:54

right There it should be

8:56

up to the league to say look we're

8:58

gonna get it, right? The the penalty shouldn't

9:00

be on the coaches He doesn't like that.

9:02

The risk is for the coaches, which is

9:04

fine. But this coach said to me I

9:06

want Give me

9:08

everything I can review give

9:11

me a smorgasbord of review And you

9:13

know, I said to him well, what

9:15

about how long games can get and

9:18

he said, yeah I know the league has

9:20

to worry about that. But you know what?

9:22

I think I go why he goes I'm

9:24

gonna be there anyway, so it's not like

9:26

I'm going anywhere. So just give me more

9:28

things to review He said he wants to

9:30

review as many things as he can to

9:32

review. Oh Slow

9:35

the game down to a crawl. It's

9:37

bad enough. The coaches have destroyed overtime

9:39

and we'll get there now They

9:42

want more and more video review and

9:44

slow in the game down and after

9:46

every whistle everybody gets you the

9:49

NHL I'm

9:51

here. So you're gonna be here

9:53

too. What a slogan It's

9:59

a great one A whole new campaign

10:01

for next season. Okay, well done, Elliot. Our

10:03

work here is done. Lunch, gentlemen. Okay,

10:07

well done, Elliot. Let

10:09

me ask you about a drill down on

10:11

video coaches just to put a final bow

10:13

around this thing. Are

10:15

we on the precipice now of video coaches really

10:18

getting paid? And are we on the precipice now

10:20

of there being like a real competition

10:23

amongst teams to get the best

10:25

possible video coaches working

10:27

for them? Like I threw out that

10:30

tongue-in-cheek quote off the top about, you

10:32

know, John Torelli, I said

10:35

you're benching or scratching a video coach who

10:37

misses the play. But like

10:39

these people are gonna be more valuable than ever

10:41

before. You've pointed that out here and elsewhere. I

10:45

would have to imagine the compensation

10:47

would rise commensurate with

10:49

how important they're gonna be and I

10:51

can't help but thinking much like we

10:53

see in the battle for every team's

10:56

analytics department, the competition to put together

10:58

a great video staff

11:00

is gonna be huge, Elliot. Well, first of all, I

11:02

like to see people get paid, so I hope so.

11:05

But you said the word

11:07

their staff. You

11:10

know, for example, the Maple Leafs have

11:12

two video coaches who've made some huge

11:14

calls for them this year. In

11:17

addition to getting paid, again,

11:19

I'd like to see everybody get paid. I just wonder

11:21

more and more they're gonna be hired. You

11:24

know, for example, one of

11:26

the things that's gonna happen here is that the

11:29

more that is video reviewable, Jeff, the

11:32

more these coaches are gonna have to look at

11:34

at the same time. So as

11:36

good as some of these coaches are, one of

11:38

them can't do it all. Yep.

11:41

So you're probably gonna need two

11:43

or three people. And Jeff, we

11:45

talk about these franchise altering decisions,

11:47

big money decisions, under pressure, critical

11:50

moments for the video coaches. Look

11:52

at Vegas Seattle on Thursday night.

11:55

Vegas is up almost the entire game.

11:58

They're up one nothing with six and a half. minutes

12:00

to go, Jaden Schwartz ties it and

12:03

then Keegan Kolasar puts in what looks like

12:05

the winning goal with a minute 20 to

12:07

go and it's close. Like

12:09

offside challenge, that's a close,

12:12

close challenge. So what

12:14

do they do? They decide to challenge it and

12:16

I would have done it in the same situation.

12:19

It goes Vegas' way, the goal counts.

12:22

Now you're down 2-1 with a minute 20

12:24

to go and you're short-handed. Vegas

12:26

scores with the empty net.

12:28

That's how pressure cooked

12:31

these decisions are as

12:33

Seattle's trying to win

12:36

and Vegas is trying to hold on

12:38

to the playoffs with the Blues chasing

12:40

them. Like these jobs,

12:42

they are not, not for

12:44

the weak-hearted. This

12:46

is, I was making this point on

12:48

the radio on Thursday, if you're someone

12:50

who's aged out of actually playing hockey

12:53

or maybe injured yourself, or just your on-ice

12:55

career is over but you want to stay

12:58

in the game, there's a lot of different

13:00

avenues you can go down. There's broadcasting, there's

13:02

coaching. No, don't do that. We

13:05

have enough broadcasters. Don't do

13:07

that. Okay, scrub that one. But

13:10

also like- Stay out of my lane. Stay out

13:12

of my lane. Yeah,

13:15

just stay behind the scenes and

13:17

call offsides for teams here. But no, that's going to

13:19

be like a really big field

13:21

and if you're someone that's considering a position

13:23

in the game, like if you've played hockey

13:26

your whole life, like there's a lot of

13:28

knowledge of the game obviously, you understand it

13:30

and if you want to marry that with

13:32

a love of staying in

13:34

the game and working for a team

13:36

and having the winning losing juices pumping

13:39

through your veins, video coaching

13:41

could be it because- Yeah, why not?

13:43

Hey, listen, you made this point on

13:46

Thursday and I thought a lot about it

13:48

since you said it and it's true. As

13:50

much as coaches go

13:52

through the emotional roller coaster and

13:55

as much as coaches are the ones feeling a

13:57

ton of stress, how'd

13:59

you like to- to be the video coach that

14:01

makes a call on a Stanley Cup winning goal.

14:06

You want to talk about stress level? You

14:08

want to talk about pressure? You

14:10

want to talk about, you know, being

14:12

nervous and having to make

14:15

that call when what's

14:17

on the line here are millions

14:19

and millions of dollars and it's

14:21

up to you? It's

14:25

a—honestly, in hockey, this could be,

14:27

Elliot, a fascinating field to be

14:29

involved in. It really,

14:31

really could be. You know, some—you know, and

14:33

the other thing too is some

14:36

people, they're adrenaline junkies, right?

14:39

Like, some people are not cut out for that, you know,

14:42

and I understand it. Not

14:44

everybody is capable of that kind of

14:46

split second decision

14:48

with so much on the line.

14:51

You're not just—you know, it's not

14:53

only the money at stake, but

14:55

it's your team depending on you

14:57

to make that

14:59

call in the moment. And for—to be honest,

15:02

video coaches have been doing that for a

15:04

while now. And even the

15:06

video reviewers, I think you have to say, have been

15:08

doing it for a while now. But

15:11

if you want to be—if you're not

15:13

a pro athlete, but you want

15:15

to be in the thick of the moment and

15:18

making a decision that can be

15:20

the difference between the glory of

15:22

victory and the agony of defeat,

15:26

that position is only growing more in

15:28

importance. Real

15:30

quick, no changes to overtime.

15:33

This one, upon much further reflection,

15:35

doesn't surprise me at all. As

15:38

much as we grouse about neutral zone

15:40

regroups, I said my piece to you

15:42

on the radio, I see that as

15:44

a symptom of something else. Nothing

15:47

is going to be done about it. Your thoughts

15:49

on that one? Well, it just goes to, even

15:51

though this one coach is new slogan is, I'm

15:53

going to be there, so you're going to be

15:55

there with me too. I

15:58

think the NHL— looks at

16:00

it as we are not lengthening these

16:02

games any more than we have to.

16:05

We are not adding any more whistles than

16:07

we have to unless you give us a

16:09

good reason. And I think one of the

16:11

things here is that nobody

16:13

has shown them anything that would make

16:16

overtime better that wouldn't make it longer.

16:19

And you know the ECHL, they looked at

16:21

the seven minute ECHL overtime, that's a bargaining

16:23

issue. I don't know where that

16:25

would go but it's not just happening out

16:28

of nowhere. And I think there is

16:30

a feeling even though players are more careful

16:32

and they aren't shooting generally as randomly as

16:35

they used to, even with

16:37

the regroups, the

16:39

chances come back in most

16:41

cases. So I think

16:43

barring a better idea, the idea

16:46

of any of this change, changing

16:48

lost steam, I

16:52

really believe it did. So you know

16:54

it's funny Jeff, this is one of

16:56

the things I wanted to talk to you about. We

16:58

had I don't know, was it five to seven

17:02

rule recommendations that still have to go

17:04

to the competition committee and

17:06

the board of governors. And you

17:10

know these were the most since 0405

17:12

when they had the lockout year and

17:14

really Colin Campbell and Brendan Shanahan et

17:17

al kind of redid the game. And

17:20

there were some people who said to me after the

17:22

meetings were over that there are

17:25

those in the NHL that don't like

17:27

it when there are this many changes

17:29

because it creates the impression there's

17:32

something wrong with the game, right?

17:38

And in this case I don't

17:41

agree. I think if you were

17:43

making major changes, you would

17:45

look at it and say we've got a problem.

17:47

But to me these are a lot of minor

17:49

tweaks, not a big deal and

17:52

nothing that says the quality of the

17:54

game is poor. So

17:56

I was interested in that. Somebody mentioned that to me and

17:58

I was like really wow. I don't

18:00

see it that way at all, but

18:03

it just shows you like people are sensitive to

18:05

that kind of thinking and I don't

18:08

look at this as in any way,

18:10

shape or form saying that the quality

18:12

of the game is not good. I

18:14

think it's simply are there things we

18:16

can do that are not major but

18:18

can make the game even better. I

18:20

saw it that way. Two

18:23

things for me on that point. Number

18:25

one, let's

18:27

all say it together. Tradition

18:31

is peer pressure from dead people.

18:35

If you don't evolve and

18:37

continue to evolve, your game

18:40

will stagnate and die. I

18:42

know we all like to talk about all the tradition and

18:44

this is passed on in this version that's gone back a

18:46

hundred. Tradition

18:49

is peer pressure from dead people. I

18:51

think it's your responsibility as a sport

18:53

whether you're hockey, whether you're baseball, whether

18:55

you're football, basketball, whatever to

18:59

constantly review

19:01

your sport to make sure that

19:03

you are reflecting the modern tastes

19:05

of the modern sports fan. Sports

19:08

fans tastes are always changing

19:10

and I think it's the smart sports,

19:13

the wise sports that

19:15

reflect those tastes. Otherwise

19:17

they will vanish. I

19:20

don't mind this at all. To

19:23

be honest with you, I worry when there's

19:25

a period of five or six years when

19:28

nothing changes even if

19:31

it's a small thing. I'm with you on

19:33

that. You should always be

19:35

trying to do a little something. I

19:41

completely agree with that. I'm with you on

19:43

this one. Normally your ideas are

19:45

terrible. This one's good. You

19:48

just like tradition is peer pressure from dead people.

19:50

I know there's a party. That's a great line.

19:52

That's a really good line. I do like that.

19:56

From there, let's go to some of the games

19:58

that we saw on Thursday. Now, Elliot, earlier

20:00

on this week, there was sort

20:02

of an awkward moment between you and me. I

20:05

don't even know if you realized that it happened.

20:07

I can't remember. It's like a Tuesday or a

20:09

Wednesday on the radio show. And

20:12

I asked you something about the New York Islanders. And you

20:14

said, I don't

20:16

know what to say at this point. I can't give

20:18

you an answer. And I'm like,

20:20

you know what? He's right, man. We've been banging

20:22

this one for so long now, I shouldn't

20:25

have even brought it up. And it kind of made

20:27

for like, I don't know, six or

20:29

45 seconds of awkwardness on the

20:31

radio. But nonetheless, here

20:33

we are now. Is there

20:36

still nothing to say about

20:38

the Islanders after getting doubled

20:40

up by the Red Wings who

20:42

now have 78 points? And

20:45

welcome back, Dylan Larkin, with a pair of

20:47

goals and its six losses in a row

20:50

for the Islanders.

20:52

And Patrick Waugh pulled his goaltender

20:54

with 535 remaining in the third

20:56

period because he's Patrick Waugh. And

20:59

the song remained the same for the

21:02

Islanders. Bill Parcells,

21:04

who's a New York legend, you

21:06

are what your record says you are. And

21:09

to me, this is it's really

21:12

stunning. It's been stunning to watch.

21:15

They're officially now in the

21:17

math is not their friend

21:19

territory for a couple of

21:21

reasons. They're at 73 points. They're

21:25

five behind Detroit. There's six behind

21:28

Philadelphia. Yes, they have a

21:30

game in hand in both those teams. But

21:32

the other reason things are really bad for

21:35

them is they have the fewest regulation

21:37

wins of the which is the first

21:39

tiebreaker of any of these teams around

21:41

there and by a significant margin. They're

21:43

21 and you have talked

21:45

about their record. But

21:47

the thing that really stands out is

21:49

just the way they've gone down like,

21:52

you know, that Islander identity for a

21:54

long time was was

21:57

pure heart, right? grind

22:00

team of the NHL and they

22:02

were the team that grinded their

22:04

way to victory in a

22:06

lot of ways. Lou

22:09

Lamorello is one of the toughest people

22:11

in the league and Patrick Waugh is

22:13

one of the toughest players ever to

22:16

play and

22:18

stunningly at

22:20

the hardest part of the season the

22:22

team just has fallen apart.

22:27

I find it shocking. There

22:30

are some Islander fans online. I don't know

22:32

why but my timeline that 4U

22:35

Tab lately like Elon is clearly

22:37

listening to me because that 4U

22:40

Tab is full of Islander

22:42

fans saying I told you this

22:44

team was not very good and

22:47

sometimes that's just fatalism. The

22:50

fans are fans and there are

22:52

reasons we're all employed and I

22:55

appreciate them for that but fans

22:57

are generally a group of hey

22:59

we're allowed to say our team is crap but

23:01

if you say our team is crap we're gonna kill

23:03

you and you know that's

23:06

fans but you know they would

23:09

say that they saw this coming I

23:11

have to admit I did not look

23:15

I knew they could miss the playoffs I did not

23:17

see it ending like this. I

23:20

did not see anything like this and Patrick

23:22

Waugh you can see he's just

23:24

at a loss for words. We

23:27

talked about this on the last pod that one

23:29

thing that Patrick Waugh could not understand

23:31

is how in a big game you

23:34

couldn't be ready to be at your best and

23:37

you know one of the things my

23:39

favorite memories about Waugh was his last

23:41

Stanley Cup win was in 2001 that

23:44

was the Avalanche over the Devils in

23:48

seven games. Game four

23:50

Colorado was up in that series two games

23:52

to one and they were winning 2-1 at the

23:55

time and had a chance to go up three

23:57

games to one and in the

24:00

third period, he fumbled

24:02

the puck behind the net, he was trying

24:04

to puck handle it and it

24:06

led to a goal by Scott Gomez and

24:09

then Peter Socorra scored late in regulation

24:11

and it tied the series at two.

24:16

And you know people who knew Wah

24:18

and the Avalanche said because that

24:20

was the big storyline I

24:22

remember Wah fumbles game, Wah

24:24

fumbles game, Devils tie the

24:26

series. And I remember the people

24:29

who really knew Wah and the Avalanche were all

24:31

like big deal, you

24:33

know he's going to make up for

24:35

it. And actually the Devils won game

24:38

5 4-1 in Colorado

24:40

and had a chance to win the

24:42

series at home. Well

24:44

Wah shut them out in game

24:46

6 and Colorado

24:48

won game 7 3-1

24:51

and Wah was particularly brilliant

24:54

early in game 6. And

24:57

so you know one of the things they talked about

24:59

after that was first of all it was a big

25:01

game so you knew Wah was going to be great

25:04

and secondly because he'd made a

25:06

mistake you knew eventually he was

25:09

going to take over the series and the

25:11

Colorado players talked about that. And

25:13

so that's Wah

25:16

right? That's

25:18

one of the reasons we all loved him was so

25:22

I think he's got to be looking at

25:24

this and just completely at a loss. I'm

25:27

sure the Islanders organization is

25:29

completely at a loss and

25:32

you know if they don't

25:34

write themselves you know they've got a

25:36

lot of players signed there to big

25:38

contracts but they

25:41

do have

25:43

some that are coming towards the

25:45

end. You know people are

25:47

going to look at this and they're going to

25:49

say okay could this be a

25:52

bit of a changing of the guard in

25:55

New York? Will the Islanders look at this

25:57

hard and say we are going to have

25:59

a loss? to make changes because

26:02

you know someone like Lamourello and

26:04

you know someone like Patrick Wah

26:07

are gonna look at this and say we can't

26:09

come back with the same group the way

26:11

this year has ended because if there's one thing

26:14

and I would bet you even the players

26:16

there are the same you know

26:18

when you it's one thing to lose at the end

26:20

of the year it's one thing

26:22

to go through a stretch like this and

26:24

unless they really write themselves these

26:27

are the kinds of endings to the

26:29

season that bring change to your

26:31

organization. I had

26:33

Ken Daniels play by play voice of the Detroit

26:35

Red Wings on the radio show on Thursday and

26:37

he gave me a money quote before

26:40

this game. He's been on fire lately

26:42

Ken. Ken's been awesome he always is

26:44

but you're right he's really been on

26:46

fire lately. That call by the way

26:49

in that Columbus game with a Showtime

26:51

goal like with all due respect Pat

26:53

Foley called some great ones but man

26:55

Ken Daniels calling big moments by Patrick

26:57

Gain. Holy smoke sign me up. Okay

27:00

this is from Ken Daniels quote

27:02

this is about the Allenders game at

27:04

Little Caesars. This is

27:07

likely the biggest hockey game

27:09

with as much meaning ever

27:11

played outside of an opener

27:13

at Little Caesars Arena. Mm-hmm.

27:17

It had that feel like this

27:19

was must-win for the Detroit Red Wings.

27:21

They needed to create distance. Dylan

27:24

Larkin was coming back. They

27:27

could you know put a nail into the coffin

27:29

for the Allenders. A team

27:31

that's you know right there with a win they

27:33

would get a tight turtleneck around

27:35

the Detroit Red Wings throats. I

27:39

think Danny I think Kenny was right

27:41

outside of an opener that was the

27:43

biggest Detroit Red Wings game so far

27:46

at Little Caesars Arena when you factor in

27:48

everything that was on the line. Now if

27:50

the Detroit Red Wings make the playoffs all

27:52

of that gets eclipsed but leading into Thursday's

27:54

game this was the biggest

27:56

hockey game by the Detroit Red

27:58

Wings at that rink. since it's opened. You

28:01

know, there are going to be people who are going to

28:03

be very happy to see the Red

28:05

Wings in the playoffs should they make it,

28:08

and not just the Red Wings fans. So

28:11

our whole thing about expanding

28:14

the playoffs, and

28:16

we talked on Monday about how people said

28:18

to me, the way the East is going,

28:20

they should not expand the playoffs. There are

28:22

too many garbage teams. I

28:24

had somebody who said to me at

28:26

the GM meetings, do not give this

28:28

up, even though Betman hates it because

28:31

it's just bad that teams like Detroit

28:33

and Buffalo have not been in the

28:35

playoffs for so long. It's

28:38

bad for their markets, it's bad

28:40

for the league, and it really

28:43

damages their organizations in their city.

28:47

And the only thing too is Detroit, that

28:49

is a big revenue arena. It

28:51

does not hurt. If

28:54

that arena is collecting playoff

28:57

revenues. HRR,

28:59

ladies and gentlemen, if you're a

29:01

player who's not in the playoffs, you'd cheer for

29:03

the biggest market teams that can put the most

29:05

money into the coffee. And we

29:07

should mention Larkin coming back tonight, and

29:09

what a big factor

29:11

he was. You know what? Simon

29:14

Edvinson as well. You know, Steve Eiseman

29:16

talked about prices are too

29:18

expensive at deadline. And actually this is a clash

29:21

of two teams that were silent at deadline. The

29:23

Islanders and the Detroit Red Wings. Simon

29:26

Edvinson gets the call up and

29:28

he looked fantastic on Thursday

29:30

night. On that first

29:32

Larkin goal, he was tremendous. Great

29:35

wingspan, the size, keeping the puck hot.

29:38

He had a fantastic game on

29:40

Thursday. Okay, you mentioned two down. Friend of

29:42

the Pod, Ryan Hanna, feeling

29:44

vindicated for all of us,

29:46

Simon Edvinson-Love. Yeah,

29:49

he proved it man. He

29:52

looked great. Okay, you mentioned

29:54

2001 a couple of seconds ago. I

29:56

want to rewind to 2001. Uh,

30:00

on a, on a different note in

30:03

2001 in Tampa,

30:06

John Tortorella was the head coach. Vincent

30:09

Le Cavalier was our player

30:12

and Rick Dudley was the general manager.

30:14

Yeah. Things were not going, I'm going

30:16

to give us a soft landing swimmingly

30:19

between Vincent Le Cavalier and

30:22

John Tortorella to the point

30:24

where, um, the

30:26

Tampa Bay Lightning had a deal worked out

30:28

with the Toronto Maple Leafs to

30:31

trade Vincent Le Cavalier to Toronto.

30:34

Now my former partner on Leafs lunch,

30:36

uh, many years ago, Bill Waters, uh,

30:38

told me the specifics on that deal

30:40

because the Maple Leafs wanted to run

30:42

a one, two up the middle of

30:44

Matt Sundin and Vincent Le Cavalier. Um,

30:47

the specifics of the deal were

30:49

Vinnie Le Cavalier in exchange for

30:51

Nick Antropoff, Jonas

30:53

Houghland, Thomas

30:55

Caberly, and Tampa's choice,

30:58

either a first round pick or

31:00

Brad boys, their decision.

31:03

That was the deal. Everybody

31:05

went to bed on it thinking it was

31:07

going to get done, but it

31:09

didn't get done the next morning. Um,

31:12

shortly after, I want to say like a

31:14

month or a month and a half, Rick

31:16

Dudley resigned as the general manager

31:18

and in came Jay Feaster. And

31:21

quite famously in Tampa, Jay Feaster

31:23

went to both John Tortorella and

31:25

Vincent Le Cavalier and said, Vinny,

31:29

I'm not firing John and John,

31:32

I'm not trading Vinny. You

31:35

two need to figure this thing

31:37

out right now because neither

31:39

of you are going anywhere. Now

31:42

that's an extreme example from John

31:44

Tortorella's past, but it is

31:46

part of it. How

31:49

do you see the situation with John

31:51

Tortorella and Sean Cotturier right now? First

31:54

of all, listening to that, you

31:56

also remember that Vincent Le Cavalier was

31:58

nearly traded from Tampa. of Montreal,

32:00

there is a great story to be done

32:03

one day on all of

32:05

the Vincent Lacavalier trades that

32:07

didn't happen that nearly happened but

32:10

your story is obviously right, you

32:12

had a great source on that

32:14

so your story is obviously correct.

32:19

This isn't exactly the same,

32:22

at the time Vincent Lacavalier was what two

32:24

years into his NHL career and there were

32:26

a lot of years to come, this

32:29

is later. I'm just trying to capture

32:31

the spirit of the thing. Yeah, I

32:33

understand. It's a week for that line.

32:37

And the one thing I do agree with is,

32:39

you know, Daniel Brier is going to have a

32:41

role, he's going to have to play here and

32:44

that is brokering, I don't

32:47

know, whatever it is, a piece, a detente,

32:49

whatever you want to call it,

32:51

between John Tortorella and his captain.

32:54

You know, I have to say,

32:56

Jeff, that this

32:59

happening a month after

33:01

Tortorella was named captain

33:04

has spawned a lot of conspiracy

33:06

theories about what everybody thought of

33:08

the captaincy being named in the

33:10

first place. You can only imagine

33:13

all of the conspiracy

33:15

theories being thrown around this one.

33:17

You know, there's a

33:19

lot here that's, you know, again, I've

33:22

said this on your show and I wrote it, nobody

33:26

can be surprised at this. This

33:28

is page one of the Tortorella

33:31

playbook. There are no sacred cows

33:34

and if you can't do what I need you

33:37

to do or I feel you're

33:39

not giving me the effort and

33:41

number one, there's no way that

33:43

he's got a problem of couture's effort as a, you know, I

33:45

do feel as I've said, this

33:47

is a pace issue. John,

33:52

but John Tortorella, if he's not happy with your play,

33:54

you can't give him what he wants. He's going to

33:57

take you out of the lineup. It's happened to kids.

34:00

to veterans, it's

34:02

happened to everybody. In

34:04

a year where John

34:06

Tortorella could be coach

34:08

of the year, nobody

34:11

thought Philly was gonna be here. Nobody.

34:15

And he's had a great year, he's pushed

34:17

almost all the right buttons. To me, this

34:20

shows couturier's popularity because

34:22

there are a lot of other players that this could

34:25

happen to and nobody

34:27

would say anything or nobody would

34:29

fight like this. But

34:31

it shows how popular a guy

34:33

a couturier is, how much

34:35

he's beloved, how much

34:37

that he is respected for

34:41

returning to play when it would have

34:43

been very easy for him to

34:45

retire and take the

34:48

money, right? There

34:50

are people looking at him and

34:52

I actually do think that that has been

34:54

one of the things that's been raised in

34:56

defense of couturier that you

35:00

can't do this to him because of

35:02

all of the effort

35:04

he put in to even play.

35:07

He didn't quit, he continued

35:09

to play and I wouldn't

35:11

be surprised if Tortorella's argued well I've

35:14

already given him benefit

35:16

and grace for that but it's time.

35:19

So you know,

35:23

I wondered if he might get back in on

35:25

Thursday. I was live into

35:28

your radio show on Thursday and we were

35:30

talking about it and someone texted

35:33

me who knows Tortorella and said you

35:35

know be careful until warm-up. You

35:37

never know if Tortorella is throwing the media

35:42

a fake. Like

35:44

he has couturier skating on the

35:46

fifth line and then he shows

35:48

up and he plays tonight but obviously that didn't

35:50

happen and that guy texted me and said wow

35:52

he actually went through with it. I didn't know

35:54

that he was gonna actually go

35:56

through with it and you know they lost

35:58

and they played hard and we'll

36:01

see what this is gonna mean for

36:03

Saturday night but you

36:05

know that there's two

36:07

things about it I think

36:09

are weird number one Jeff

36:12

I think it's weird that

36:14

Katori didn't seem to know why

36:17

he was getting benched because that's the

36:19

thing about Tordorella like you know BX

36:21

and everybody who played for him will

36:24

say we always know where we stand

36:26

we always know where we stand and

36:29

for someone to say I don't know

36:31

where I stand that's weird to hear

36:33

for me from him because that's usually

36:36

not the issue and the

36:38

final thing I would say is Tordorella not

36:40

showing up after the game on

36:42

Thursday to meet with the media and

36:45

Brad Shaw doing it now one

36:47

thing I do like is that the

36:49

Flyers give Brad Shaw and Rocky Thompson

36:52

visibility that's gonna help those guys careers

36:54

they periodically do it from time to

36:56

time and and those guys get FaceTime

36:59

but especially after a

37:02

loss these

37:04

are situations where Tordorella

37:06

knows he's the guy

37:08

everyone wants to hear from and

37:10

especially after a loss to

37:13

not hear from him I always give the

37:15

benefit of the doubt in the sense that

37:17

this should always be a qualifier in the

37:19

sense that maybe something has happened where he

37:22

can't talk because if that turns out to

37:24

be the case I'm gonna feel really stupid

37:27

but Jeff it's weird

37:30

that after that game Tordorella

37:32

is not talking and especially after

37:35

some people have been saying and I actually

37:37

thought about it on Tuesday morning I thought

37:40

I thought he should have been face front

37:42

after it was clear Kuchere wasn't playing you

37:46

know you just you look at and say this is

37:49

weird it's just

37:52

weird does

37:54

it not feel to you and again I'm basing

37:56

this on nothing other than like I think we're all

37:59

looking at this and wondering, you know,

38:02

the reason for this. And

38:04

I know Torelli keeps coming back to

38:06

either, I'm not going to talk about

38:08

Sean or I'm trying to

38:11

put together the best possible lineup for two

38:13

points. Yeah. You know what?

38:15

But even if you're saying that you have to

38:17

go out there and do that, if that's the

38:19

reason that's not a good enough reason to say

38:21

no. Let me, let me,

38:24

let me, let me, let me push this a little bit.

38:26

Here's what I wonder about. I

38:28

wonder if John Torelli

38:30

is trying really hard not to

38:32

tell us something. That

38:35

there's something that he might

38:38

want to say, or that

38:40

obviously there is some type of reason

38:42

here. There is some type

38:44

of issue here and

38:47

he knows he's going to continue to

38:49

get asked about it and maybe for

38:51

the benefit of the Philadelphia Flyers, he

38:53

realizes no good will come of

38:55

it if I explain

38:57

myself. Well, that that's what happened

38:59

on Tuesday, right? He said, I'm not talking

39:01

about Sean. I'm not talking about

39:03

it. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And,

39:06

and you're probably, you're probably a

39:08

hundred percent right. I, I would

39:10

concede this to you without even

39:12

arguing. Yes. That is his way

39:14

of saying, I'm not going where you want me to

39:16

go. Cause I don't think it would

39:18

be good. You're a Jeff. I think you're a

39:20

hundred percent right. Yes. I

39:23

think you're a hundred percent right on

39:25

that. Now, you know, I'll say

39:27

this, I'll say this too. There's

39:29

a couple other things here. Let's

39:31

go conspiracy wild here. Okay. Oh,

39:34

okay. So number one, like

39:37

in the aftermath of this, I have heard

39:39

a ton of conspiracy theories and I want

39:41

to say, I just, you know, I don't

39:43

know how many of them are right. You

39:46

know, this is a podcast. We throw stuff

39:48

out there like spaghetti against the wall and

39:50

see what sticks. Number

39:53

one, one of the things,

39:55

and I could see this potentially being

39:57

true is that. maybe

40:01

Tororella's unhappy that

40:03

Couturier's agent talks

40:08

and number one is a reporter I'm not

40:10

gonna complain about that because I'd be making

40:12

that call too and number

40:14

two it's Couturier's agent and that's his

40:16

job to protect his client but

40:19

you know I did have people suggest

40:21

to me that you know if

40:24

here's the thing like Couturier's the captain right

40:27

so it's always an even

40:29

higher level of craziness when

40:32

it involves the captain and

40:35

you know some

40:37

people will look at it and say well that

40:39

you even have to take more of kid gloves

40:41

well people will look at it the other way

40:43

and say it's the captain they

40:45

have to make sure they do

40:47

less to create controversy right and

40:49

I said everybody's entitled to one

40:52

day where they can be upset

40:54

and Couturier had it but I

40:56

did have people say to me

40:58

that Tororella might look at it

41:00

as you're the captain it's your

41:02

job not to create controversy and

41:05

your agent spoke now not everybody is

41:07

gonna see that the same way and

41:10

again if I'm a reporter actually

41:12

I kind of am I'm making

41:14

that call too but someone

41:17

said to me look at it from Tororella's point

41:19

of view and the other thing and I'll say

41:21

this there's the

41:24

other conspiracy theory out here is

41:27

how much longer is Tororella gonna

41:29

coach and could Bradshaw or

41:31

Rocky Thompson be the next coach of

41:33

the Philadelphia Flyers and his

41:35

Tororella is simply saying I'm

41:38

happy to give these guys more time hmm

41:41

I'm not sure that one will go we'll go

41:44

nowhere I'm not so sure about that yeah

41:47

anyway like I said it's weird like the

41:50

fact that you know Tororella

41:52

didn't didn't speak like

41:55

unless there's a good explanation it's certainly

41:57

after a loss like I'm surprised

42:00

I am surprised. You

42:02

know, as pissed off as I would be

42:04

at some things sometimes if I was coaching,

42:07

after a loss, hey, I'm the boss,

42:09

I'm the number one guy, I'm getting

42:11

paid the big bucks, I'm

42:13

going out there to answer for it. You

42:16

have to have a really good reason for me not

42:18

to, and maybe there is one, you'd have to have

42:20

a really good reason for me not to go out

42:22

there. Okay, a

42:24

couple more things here before we get to

42:26

the Montana's Thought Line. I want to mention

42:29

the National Predators and their 16-game point streak.

42:32

They beat the Florida Panthers by a final score of 3-0.

42:35

Jason Zucker and Nick Cousins,

42:37

by the way, had their

42:39

scrap, so Zucker got his

42:41

retribution on Nick Cousins, and

42:44

I will applaud Nick Cousins for obliging.

42:46

Like they lined up with the draw

42:48

and they both went and knuckled up

42:50

and that's great. Kevin Langton

42:52

is a really good player. Nick Cousins has really taken it this

42:54

year. Oh yeah. And

42:57

it's not, like the thing about this is

42:59

it's not media,

43:01

it's his peers. Yes.

43:04

That's different. Yeah, I

43:07

mean, you see players

43:09

from other teams laying

43:12

into them a little bit extra and

43:14

finishing and

43:16

making sure they finish checks on

43:19

Nick Cousins, even if it's like

43:21

a midweek game in a quote

43:23

unquote, you know, small market or something

43:25

like that, guys are gunning for him.

43:28

Yeah. Like there was a game

43:30

not too long ago, it was Edmonton in Florida. How

43:33

many times did Evander Kane go right at him? Hard.

43:36

Hard on Nick Cousins. Real

43:39

tough. And I think

43:41

that's part of like how a lot of his

43:43

peers feel in the NHL about how he's, you

43:46

know, what he's done with people who

43:48

they consider to be in vulnerable positions.

43:51

That is their way of policing the

43:53

game. Lincoln in with 33

43:55

saves, picks up the shutout. Philip

43:58

Forsberg, Mr. Consistency. two

44:00

goals, one assist. Good on the

44:02

Preds. I gotta say, like we

44:04

talk about teams grabbing a spot and

44:06

taking the two points and grabbing

44:09

their wild card spot and running away

44:11

and hiding. Nashville's doing it 16 game

44:14

point streak. So

44:16

you know what someone said to me on

44:18

Thursday? When are you

44:20

gonna start talking about the Roman Yossi

44:22

hard trophy? Yeah, I

44:25

know, I know, he's

44:27

been excellent. He

44:29

said, stop with the Norris, the Norris isn't

44:31

gonna be, isn't gonna

44:34

be good enough. Yossi had

44:36

another assist. He's

44:38

got 53 assists this year. You

44:42

know, he's got, he's

44:47

got 71 points. He's

44:50

a point per game guy. 71

44:52

points in 70 games and he started slow. Yep.

44:58

No, it's interesting. The guy said to me, the

45:00

Norris trophy is not good enough for

45:02

Roman Yossi. Well,

45:06

as the Pittsburgh Penguins fall out of this

45:08

thing and we wonder if Sidney Crosby goes

45:10

with him on the the hard trophy race,

45:12

maybe into Roman Yossi, into

45:14

that discussion. But it's true, like even if you don't

45:17

watch Nashville on a consistent basis, but maybe just

45:19

sort of, you know, read the game sheet every

45:22

morning, just to catch up on who's doing well.

45:24

Like you pick it up and like every game,

45:27

it's like Roman Yossi, one goal, three

45:29

assists. Roman Yossi, three assists. Roman Yossi,

45:31

like two goals and one assist. Like

45:33

it's just like, I mentioned Philip Forsberg's

45:36

Mr. Consistency, but so is Roman Yossi.

45:39

Every single, every game, Elliot. I'm

45:41

glad you mentioned him, because you're right, every

45:43

single game, he's right in there. Okay. It

45:46

was not his agent who called. I know people are gonna

45:48

ask that. You know what

45:50

I'm wondering about on Saturday night? You

45:53

wanna hear something that would be pretty crazy on

45:55

Saturday night? Okay. Zach

45:58

Hyman's at 48 goals. What

46:00

does Edmonton play on Saturday? The

46:03

People's Republic of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

46:06

You imagine a Zach Hyman hits 50 in

46:09

Toronto? No, I know. The place

46:11

will melt. Absolutely. But

46:14

I say, hang on, but okay, let me ask you

46:16

this. It's pretty crazy. I

46:19

think, hang on, I think Leafs fans would love it. I

46:23

don't know if they would love it. He would get

46:25

a great ovation there. I do

46:27

believe that, but I don't know of

46:29

love it would be the exact response.

46:32

Put it this way. He gets, so

46:34

the perfect thing for a Maple Leafs

46:36

fan on Saturday, hockey night in Canada,

46:38

Edmonton's in Toronto face-off against the Maple

46:41

Leafs. It's a 5-4 Maple

46:43

Leafs victory. Hyman

46:46

scores two for the Oilers to

46:48

give him 50 goals in a

46:51

losing cause. So Maple

46:53

Leafs fans can get their two points and also

46:55

see Zach Hyman get 50. Because

46:57

I think he still loved. I really do. I

47:00

do, like I said, I think he would get an

47:02

ovation. But the

47:06

electricity coming from that building of

47:08

Hyman scored his 50th on Saturday

47:10

night and the electricity going from

47:12

the social media

47:14

fiasco that would enrage, that would

47:17

enrage everyone online could power about

47:19

10,000 in their links.

47:21

I really believe. It

47:23

would be quite, I mean, it's incredible. Hyman

47:26

at 48 goals and, and McDavid is

47:28

closing in on 100 assists to become the

47:30

fourth guy ever to do it. But

47:33

Hyman 50 in, in

47:35

Toronto, I kind of want to see

47:38

it on Saturday night. I'd really love,

47:40

I'd really love to see it happen.

47:42

And you know, St. Louis, you

47:45

know, Vegas won two. They held on

47:47

against Seattle. I know what I'm doing

47:49

here. Vegas won two. They

47:52

held on against Seattle. But St.

47:54

Louis went into Ottawa and won. You

47:56

know, Vegas still has a game in

47:59

hand. But I'm

48:01

glad St. Louis is at least trying

48:03

to make this a race.

48:06

You know Nashville has put themselves

48:08

an excellent math spot. I

48:11

think we're all kind of surprised that

48:13

Vegas is right here and it looks

48:15

like hurdles getting close to skating here.

48:17

So we'll see what his timetable is.

48:20

But I want races and

48:23

the Blues at the very

48:25

least are making this

48:28

one a race. You know Minnesota had

48:31

an ugly game this

48:33

week. The 6-0 loss to LA. Brodeens

48:38

hurt. Eric Sinek is hurt. It's

48:41

not looking good for them. If

48:43

anyone's going to give us a race in the West, it

48:45

looks like it's the Blues and they did

48:48

their part on Thursday night. All you

48:50

can do is create pressure.

48:52

And you know what? I actually speaking

48:54

of LA, there was a

48:56

great tweet I saw I

48:59

wanted to recognize and it

49:01

was a tweet from Daddy

49:04

Copitar on X. And

49:07

you know he pointed out that Daddy Copitar.

49:09

Yes. Now I assume this is

49:11

a person because the name is Daddy Copitar.

49:13

So I'm going with I'm assuming this is

49:15

a key. Daddy Copitar

49:17

if that is indeed your real name.

49:21

So he tweets, Anza

49:23

Copitar is about to break into the top 50 all-time

49:26

points leaders never had a points per

49:28

game teammate in his career. Two

49:31

Stanley Cups, two Lady Bings,

49:33

two Selkie Trophies, MVP finalists.

49:36

This week he got the second game misconduct of

49:38

his career. And he goes

49:40

he's arguably the greatest two-way forward of all

49:42

time. That's

49:44

pretty impressive stuff. Really

49:47

impressive stuff. And

49:49

you know the Kings are a weird team. Like

49:51

there's games I watch and they're like oh these

49:53

guys are going to be a real tough handle

49:56

for someone. There's games I watch and I'm like

49:58

what am I watching here? These guys are forgotten

50:01

that'll play hockey. But

50:03

right now it looks like it's Kings

50:05

Oilers first round for the third year

50:07

in a row. And I

50:09

don't know what Kings team we're going to get here

50:11

yet, but boy, Kulpatar

50:13

just, consistency, consistency,

50:16

consistency for 20 years. Guy

50:19

deserves the recognition. Best

50:21

LA king of all time? I

50:24

think you'd have to say yes. I

50:27

really do. At a time where another

50:30

former king, Jonathan Quick, tied the record

50:32

for most wins by a US-born

50:35

goaltender by beating the Bruins.

50:38

I think you'd have to say yes. I don't know who

50:40

you would have put there before. Wayne Gretzky,

50:42

even though he wasn't there for a long

50:44

time, Marcel Dion, David Taylor, Rogge

50:48

Vachon, Rob Blake. I

50:52

think you have to say it's Kulpatar. And

50:56

you know what, if I was

50:58

Kulpatar, I would say my

51:01

statue needs to be at least

51:03

one inch bigger than Dustin Brown's

51:05

statue. I would do that. Just

51:09

to be that petty. Okay. Just to

51:11

be that petty. Let me circle back on one thing. You mentioned

51:13

the St. Louis Blues a couple of seconds ago. Congratulations

51:16

to Zach Dean who made his

51:18

NHL debut with the St. Louis Blues, a

51:20

former first-round draft pick of the Vegas Golden

51:22

Knights. Was the

51:25

piece that St. Louis got in the Ivan Barbershev

51:27

deal. Former gold medalist

51:29

for Team Canada World Juniors. Played his

51:31

minor hockey in Newfoundland. Born

51:33

in Alberta. Family moved to Newfoundland.

51:35

He played in Gatineau right across the

51:37

way from Ottawa. So

51:39

real special moment there in his first game I would

51:42

imagine. There would have been plenty of friends and family.

51:44

And as you like to say, Elliot, when there's that many

51:47

in the stands, you are playing for free. Free.

51:50

Free. Congratulations on your first

51:52

NHL game. You're playing for free. Congratulations

51:54

Zach Dean there. Quick

51:57

thought on Tom Wilson in person hearing me. Oh

51:59

yes. Noah Greger have a thought

52:01

on this one. It was a bizarre

52:03

scene because it even seemed

52:05

to surprise Tom Wilson that he did

52:08

that. Like the minute it happened,

52:11

Wilson grabs Noah Greger as if to

52:13

say, I didn't

52:15

really know what happened. It

52:18

looked like he was trying, again this is going

52:20

to sound weird, he was trying to swing his stick at

52:22

him but didn't think he was going to catch him

52:24

in the face. You know what I mean? I think it

52:26

even surprised Tom Wilson. Yeah but still,

52:28

to me what it

52:30

says is that this is a really

52:33

tough one for Washington. You

52:37

cannot afford to lose him but

52:39

you know you're going to, right?

52:43

But they're simply going to say, he's

52:46

got a history and he has to control

52:48

his stick better than this. He

52:51

just has to do a better

52:54

job. And now we have

52:56

seen, this year we've seen

52:58

big suspensions to players who weren't injured.

53:00

Perron, six games, Riley, five games, like

53:02

it used to be to get this

53:05

kind of suspension, injuries

53:07

had to be involved. Now we're

53:09

not there anymore. Perron and Riley

53:11

had no history, right?

53:13

Wilson obviously does. When

53:16

I saw he got offered an in-person hearing, I

53:18

said to someone, are we talking like 15, 20

53:21

games here? And I don't think we are.

53:23

I think we're looking, my

53:25

guess based on, and I

53:28

don't want anyone reporting saying he's

53:30

getting this, but my guess based

53:32

on everything I heard today is

53:34

that we're probably looking at six to ten games.

53:36

Like I don't think we're looking at 15 to

53:39

20. But

53:41

it's amazing how in a short

53:43

time things have really

53:45

changed in the sense that we've

53:47

gone from no history means you

53:50

get something lighter to that doesn't

53:52

matter and no injury meaning

53:54

maybe you get something lighter to that

53:56

doesn't matter because thankfully Gregor is

53:59

okay here. This is a player

54:01

with a history and you know,

54:03

I think he's getting something I would guess

54:05

between 6 to 10 But

54:08

that's a massive loss for

54:10

Washington considering You

54:13

know there in the race. They've only

54:15

got 14

54:17

games left and now you're you're

54:19

you're worried about losing and you've got two

54:21

games in hand on Detroit You've

54:24

got two games in hand on Philadelphia you're

54:26

already a team that has to Fight

54:29

and scratch and claw for everything you

54:31

get and one of those players who's

54:33

so critical to your team You

54:35

might lose them for half those games You're

54:38

right about all of it and one other thing that all

54:40

throw one other log I'll throw on the fire here When

54:44

you look at the Washington Capitals and the

54:46

strength of schedule the teams they are playing

54:48

again. Yeah It's

54:50

one of the worst Possible schedules to

54:53

have like it last like I think

54:55

it was like the fourth worst Schedule

54:57

for any team to have like everyone

54:59

around them like everyone around them

55:01

on this final stretch these 14 games Are

55:05

winning teams pretty much. This is a tough

55:07

one This is a real tough one for

55:09

the Capitals and they're gonna have to do

55:11

without Tom Wilson as you point out for

55:13

a sizable amount of time Now

55:15

before we wrap up Jeff actually somebody

55:17

so someone sent me a note tonight

55:20

while we were recording the pod About

55:22

something that we had discussed in

55:24

a previous podcast And

55:27

that is that during the

55:29

Seattle? Vegas game Jared

55:34

McCann Tries

55:37

to score off of

55:39

Logan Thompson's me and

55:43

they said this is something that you

55:45

have talked about and I

55:49

said to them and and this is an

55:51

executive in the league who would have some

55:53

juice He sent

55:55

us the note. My first response

55:57

was why are you listening to anything? I say

56:00

my second response was you know

56:03

and so I thanked them for sending me the

56:06

note and you know

56:08

I did ask a couple of managers about this

56:10

and just said you know what do you guys

56:12

think and you know what

56:15

the response to me was

56:18

I said this one's gonna be on the

56:20

goalies and

56:22

I said why do you think that and he

56:24

said because if a

56:26

player is shooting where he can

56:28

score like if the goalie was

56:30

standing with his head over

56:33

the net and players were shooting at

56:35

their mask then you'd go to the

56:37

players and you'd say hey you can't

56:40

do that we're gonna stop that

56:43

but if the goalie's mask

56:46

is in a place where the player

56:48

can score you can't tell

56:50

the players not to shoot there. Yep I

56:53

agree completely. 100% that's

56:57

why like I know there is a

56:59

sensitivity obviously around directing you

57:01

know fists or sticks or in this

57:03

case pox at someone's head but if

57:06

the goaltender is going to choose to seal up a

57:08

corner with his head and only

57:11

leave a little bit of space players

57:13

now have the skill to bank it off their heads.

57:16

I'm the same way like if it's above the

57:18

crossbar or if it's like like

57:20

we all remember the Wendell Clark Curtis Joseph you

57:22

know it's a blowout game and he comes down

57:24

blasts one off Curtis Joseph face it's like oh

57:26

okay like I always look back at

57:28

that one Elliot it's funny too I look back at that

57:30

one and think wow if Twitter was around then how

57:33

much would hockey Twitter have melted during

57:36

that scene with all the takes but

57:38

as long as net minders and so far

57:40

like the other thing that I'll say is

57:42

so far we haven't heard the goalies complain

57:45

about it. We haven't

57:47

had either an injury nor have we

57:49

had a goalie complain about it yet.

57:51

Do things change if there is an

57:53

injury or if a goalie complains about

57:55

it maybe probably at

57:58

least there's a conversation. At

58:00

least maybe it becomes an

58:02

agenda item at the general managers meetings.

58:05

I'm not sure. But as

58:07

of right now, the only people

58:09

that seem to be talking about it

58:11

are podcasts or radio shows or intermissions

58:13

on various games. But

58:15

I do wonder if there's going to be a goalie somewhere

58:17

down the road that says, hold on a second here. What

58:21

about my head? Why don't you

58:23

protect mine here? And I think the right point is, well,

58:25

don't stick it in places where players are trying

58:27

to shoot. Right? I

58:30

100% agree. Okay.

58:33

Uh, on that, we will

58:35

pause. When we return,

58:37

we try the ribs. Montana's Thought Line in

58:39

moments. Listen

58:44

to the 32 Thoughts podcast ad-free

58:46

on Amazon Music, included with

58:48

Prime. Okay,

58:56

Elliot, time now once again for the Montana's

58:59

Thought Line. From Montana's

59:01

Barbecue and Bar, Canada's Home for Barbecue,

59:03

Elliot. That's

59:15

fantastic. And if somebody goes to that

59:17

much of an effort to do this,

59:20

we're using it. That is the new

59:23

try the ribs for the next little while. Until!

59:27

Yes. Until your material mind

59:29

decides something else. So again, that is

59:31

Rick Turner from last week with his

59:34

hit new single, Try the Ribs. He

59:37

sent something along to the Thought Line, by

59:39

the way, at 32thoughts.sportsnet.ca. Hey

59:42

guys, heard the jingle on the pod. Thanks for

59:44

the kind words. Wanted to follow up and say

59:46

I'm from Perth, Ontario. A buddy

59:48

from Brockville, Ontario. Leo

59:50

Dezenthuber, help with the music

59:53

production. So Leo, thank you.

59:56

Rick, thank you as always for the Try

59:58

the Ribs jingle. 32 Thoughts. at

1:00:00

sportsnet.ca 1-833-311-3232. With

1:00:05

that, let's jump right in. And

1:00:08

let's go to Scott. Hold on, before

1:00:10

we do that. Okay, oh wait a

1:00:12

minute, yes, you have some updates. Four

1:00:14

updates, four. Okay, oh geez,

1:00:17

okay, four updates. Okay, so you

1:00:20

know what? Can you tell Elliot had

1:00:22

some time at the airport this week? Well,

1:00:24

you know, I gotta give credit to people, some

1:00:26

of them who work in the NHL, some of

1:00:28

them regular fans and listeners,

1:00:30

who hear things and they say, well,

1:00:32

what about this, or no

1:00:35

this. So, first of all,

1:00:37

one is Ken Daniels, who you had

1:00:39

on your radio show. He was

1:00:41

great. On Thursday,

1:00:43

and he's talked about

1:00:46

Stephen Halko, players who had no

1:00:48

goals and a ton of shots.

1:00:51

And he pointed out that in

1:00:53

the last game at Joe Lewis

1:00:55

Arena for the Red Wings, Riley

1:00:58

Shehan came into that game with no

1:01:00

goals on 106 shots that season, and

1:01:05

scored twice, including the

1:01:07

final goal ever scored at

1:01:10

that arena. By

1:01:13

the way, another broadcaster pointed out that

1:01:15

Halko's defense partner that year was one

1:01:17

of the greatest defensemen in NHL history.

1:01:20

Paul Coffey. Paul Coffey, so it's all

1:01:22

Coffey's fault. Okay, second,

1:01:25

an unnamed NHL executive

1:01:28

hearing the conversation about

1:01:30

longest name on

1:01:32

the back of a jersey mentioned

1:01:35

Jacob Forsbaka Carlson. And

1:01:39

he said, Jeff, that does

1:01:41

not qualify under your hyphenated

1:01:43

names, because Forsbaka

1:01:46

Carlson did not

1:01:48

hyphenate those two names. Yes,

1:01:50

that's true, and one of the

1:01:52

reasons why I loved Jacob Forsbaka

1:01:54

Carlson playing with the Boston Bruins,

1:01:57

specifically Elliott, do you know why?

1:02:00

No, why? Initials JFK. Come on,

1:02:02

man. Like, that's an obvious one, isn't it?

1:02:04

Come on, it's kind of perfect. You know

1:02:06

what, Jeff? I didn't even think of that.

1:02:08

That's pretty good. Yeah. Okay, third

1:02:11

one from a tweeter by the name

1:02:13

of Tommy Garner. We

1:02:15

talked about a player with four teams

1:02:17

in a single contract, Jamie Devanborough, Mark

1:02:19

Archibello. Here's another one. David

1:02:22

Perron signed a four-year deal

1:02:24

with St. Louis in 2012, traded to Edmonton, to

1:02:29

Pittsburgh, then Anaheim,

1:02:32

before signing back with St. Louis.

1:02:35

So it wasn't one season like

1:02:37

Archibello, but it was a four-year deal

1:02:39

where he ended up playing for

1:02:41

four teams. Okay. Let

1:02:44

me, can I add on to that one

1:02:46

because I had one executive text me two

1:02:48

names for that one. It's

1:02:50

kind of fertile ground that we found here. I love

1:02:53

this cleanup aspect here, the Montana Thought Line, about

1:02:55

players playing for multiple teams on

1:02:58

the same contract. One

1:03:00

executive sent me two examples. One,

1:03:02

Eric Goodbranson, who played for five

1:03:04

teams on a three-year contract. And

1:03:07

the other, and I had forgotten about

1:03:10

this, this is spectacular, UC

1:03:12

Yochenin, four teams

1:03:14

on one contract. Here they are.

1:03:17

This is 2017-18. The

1:03:20

Edmonton Oilers, the Los Angeles

1:03:22

Kings, the Columbus Blue Jackets,

1:03:24

and the Vancouver Canucks. Are

1:03:29

you willing to crown him as our winner,

1:03:31

four teams, one-year contract?

1:03:34

Jeff, what it comes down to, I think,

1:03:36

to answer your question, is

1:03:38

it more impressive to play on

1:03:40

four teams in the same one-year

1:03:42

deal, or four teams over

1:03:44

a four-year contract, which you think would

1:03:47

buy you security? Hmm,

1:03:51

I think it's the four teams on

1:03:53

a one-year deal. Yeah, that's because you

1:03:55

presented it. I'm the gardener. On Twitter,

1:03:57

I'm with you. The

1:04:00

last one, the last one is,

1:04:03

see Jeff's all for himself, I

1:04:06

am all for the listeners. I'm team meet. Oh

1:04:08

look, there's my navel. Hey, look, another mirror. Let

1:04:10

me just hop in front. So

1:04:13

I was, when I was flying home from Fort

1:04:15

Lauderdale on Wednesday, I ran into a

1:04:17

couple of

1:04:19

listeners. Their names were Brad and

1:04:21

Jeff. They were from Montreal. And

1:04:24

they told me that they

1:04:26

went to a hockey camp where

1:04:29

a friend of theirs who played

1:04:31

goal had his hand broken

1:04:34

by Gaston Jhingra. There's

1:04:37

another one? Another one. So

1:04:40

it's not just Cassidy Sovet who's

1:04:42

now playing a Finland? It's not

1:04:44

just Cassidy Sovet but there was

1:04:46

another goalie who, and it was

1:04:48

a shot from center ice, they said.

1:04:50

They said they were listening to the

1:04:52

podcast when you were talking about Cassidy

1:04:54

Sovet and they were laughing and

1:04:57

when we ran into each other on Thursday

1:04:59

or on Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, they

1:05:01

said we were hoping someday we would get a

1:05:03

chance to tell you this story. But

1:05:06

their friend had his hand broken

1:05:08

on a Gaston Jhingra slap shot

1:05:10

from center ice. And they also

1:05:12

said that when Jhingra would

1:05:14

get upset at the players because they weren't

1:05:16

paying attention, he would turn

1:05:18

and he would shoot, he

1:05:20

would make sure nobody was there first, but

1:05:23

he would shoot the puck over the glass

1:05:26

at the wall of the arena

1:05:28

to get everyone's attention and that

1:05:30

worked. Here's

1:05:33

my question as we

1:05:35

go down these roads of hockey geekdom.

1:05:39

I wonder how many hands Gaston Jhingra's

1:05:41

broken? How many goalie

1:05:43

hands has Gaston Jhingra broken? Well we

1:05:45

know two. We know

1:05:47

that there are two. I suspect that there might be

1:05:49

more. If you are

1:05:52

someone who listens to this podcast, obviously,

1:05:54

and knows of any more victims of

1:05:56

the Gaston Jhingra slap shot, Please

1:05:59

inform us. Immediately in the

1:06:01

way to get in touch is

1:06:03

the Montana's thought line which is

1:06:05

now turn into like a Detective

1:06:07

Service year fighters are already had

1:06:09

scavenging Grise brogan. Thirty two thoughts

1:06:11

it's worth.see A or Lee was

1:06:13

a voicemail. Maybe you've had your

1:06:15

hand broken by? guess launching grass

1:06:17

One eight three three three one

1:06:19

one Thirty two Thirty two Spot

1:06:21

cast taken a weird turn into

1:06:23

our cleanups l you know those

1:06:25

four or eight those are good.

1:06:27

Ah, I'm not gonna Nile in

1:06:29

Scotland. Hey guys, big fan of

1:06:31

the Pod from Scotland! Thanks for all

1:06:34

you do to me! You guys are

1:06:36

like the news and Chiklis are like

1:06:38

the entertainment that's meant as a compliment

1:06:41

to both. Anyhow, the recent shot around

1:06:43

the Minnesota overtime goalie poll got me

1:06:45

thinking for every action, there is an

1:06:47

equal and opposite reaction. So.

1:06:51

See, we have a game late in

1:06:53

the season between to bottom feeders, hawks

1:06:55

and ducks for example. although their last

1:06:58

game against each other as this week

1:07:00

what would happen if we got he

1:07:02

was Thursday night as a matter fact

1:07:04

what would happen if we get to

1:07:06

overtime between them and both of them

1:07:08

think well wait a minute while we

1:07:11

don't want one point live alone to

1:07:13

and both pull their goaltenders hoping to

1:07:15

go home with zero points and increase

1:07:17

their lottery odds. Would this be allowed?

1:07:19

Would the teams be penalized for lack

1:07:21

of a sporting integrity keen to hear

1:07:23

your thoughts? Cheers and Go! Flames are

1:07:26

friends. Call and Nile is a Calgary

1:07:28

Flames fan. Elliott since two teams that

1:07:30

the into the gameplay I going to

1:07:32

enter lame should bring him to Calgary

1:07:34

to go see a game in person.

1:07:36

Don't your we're absolutely get off your

1:07:38

wallet. Bring our Francis Collins is Kosher

1:07:41

Banks audible. A

1:07:43

com lack of sportsmanship. We're not

1:07:45

here for the points first. I

1:07:47

don't see any way how they

1:07:49

could stop. Them from doing it if two

1:07:51

two's really wanted to do it. Maybe.

1:07:54

they hear this podcast that's my question

1:07:56

prematurely step out and say we're not

1:07:58

allowing this to occur But as

1:08:00

far as I know, there's nothing that could

1:08:03

prevent them from doing that. There's nothing other

1:08:05

than you just get the wrath and the

1:08:07

scorn from the industry. And here's the thing,

1:08:09

too. We've talked about this before. As

1:08:12

much as managers and perhaps owners as

1:08:14

well may want, you know, the

1:08:16

team to fold to get yourself the better

1:08:18

lottery odds, get a better draft pick, etc.

1:08:22

Players don't think that way. Like,

1:08:24

I've always thought about this. If

1:08:26

you had a scenario, the likes of which

1:08:28

that Niles submits here, what

1:08:31

would a player do if their coach

1:08:33

told them, go score on your own net? We

1:08:37

need to lose this game. What

1:08:39

would that player do? Because my

1:08:42

guess is the player would

1:08:44

tell the coach to go kick rocks.

1:08:47

I'm not going out there and doing that to myself.

1:08:50

I have wondered about this scenario when

1:08:52

a team wants a tank, whether it

1:08:55

was the previous, you know, Mariol and

1:08:57

Muse sweepstakes that we all recall that

1:08:59

battle between Pittsburgh and New Jersey. But

1:09:02

I've always wondered, what

1:09:05

would a player do if the coach on

1:09:07

instructions from the manager said, we

1:09:11

can't win this game. We need the better lottery

1:09:13

odds. Go score on your own net.

1:09:16

I'm guessing the majority, if not

1:09:18

all players on that

1:09:20

team would say not a chance. There's no

1:09:22

way I'll do that. First

1:09:26

of all, I would say before I do that, do

1:09:29

I have an eight year, $64 million pension? Yeah.

1:09:33

On the table. Good point.

1:09:36

Yeah, that would be my first thing. You

1:09:38

know what? That would be the kind

1:09:41

of thing where I could see the

1:09:43

commissioner who does have some

1:09:45

power over this kind of thing. He

1:09:48

would probably he

1:09:51

would hammer a team with a huge fine. That's

1:09:54

one of those things that is detrimental

1:09:57

to the game. And. you,

1:10:00

if you can prove it, which

1:10:03

you probably would be able to prove just

1:10:05

by the video itself, you find

1:10:07

a team half a million dollars, something like

1:10:09

that, and you suspend the coach. And

1:10:12

I don't think anybody would protest

1:10:14

that. Yeah, especially not,

1:10:16

you know, considering how, um, how

1:10:20

sports wagering is such a huge thing, not

1:10:22

just in hockey, but in all of sports

1:10:24

as well, that the, uh,

1:10:27

and this, this wouldn't be subtle, the obviousness

1:10:29

of, um, poor behavior

1:10:32

or as our, uh, emailer

1:10:34

submits here, uh, Nile, um,

1:10:37

lack of sporting integrity. I

1:10:39

couldn't see it happening, but I always have

1:10:42

wondered, what would a player say? What

1:10:44

would a player do? Okay,

1:10:46

let's get to Ricky in Richmond, British

1:10:48

Columbia. Hey, Elliot and Jeff, I read

1:10:50

that Wayne Simmons signed a one day

1:10:52

contract to retire as a flyer. I

1:10:55

understand it is just a gesture to

1:10:57

retire in a certain franchise, but as

1:10:59

any player ever suited up and play

1:11:01

the game on a one day contract,

1:11:04

oh yes there has. Thanks

1:11:06

for your time. Love the pod. Try the

1:11:08

ribs. Change your oil.

1:11:10

Hey, Elliot, how about that? He slides out.

1:11:13

It's catching on. Nice. There

1:11:15

was one that I can think of. Who's

1:11:17

that? Courtney, how? Hmm. 1999,

1:11:22

you'll remember this, Elliot, he signed with the Detroit

1:11:24

Vipers. Oh, yeah. For one game.

1:11:27

For one game. Uh,

1:11:30

so he could say that he played

1:11:32

in six different decades, the

1:11:34

Gordie Howe one day

1:11:36

contract. That's the only one that I

1:11:38

could think of off the top of my head. Maybe

1:11:41

further research and examination may come up

1:11:43

with some other examples, but that's the

1:11:45

one that popped to me right away.

1:11:47

Gordie Howe 1999, Detroit Vipers, who by

1:11:49

the way, had one of the coolest looking

1:11:52

logos the game has ever

1:11:54

seen. I love the old Vipers one. Yes, that

1:11:56

was a great one. Oh, beautiful. I'm

1:11:58

trying to think of this as NHL player

1:12:01

who's played for assigned

1:12:03

a one-game contract. I mean there's plenty of

1:12:06

guys who've played one game. Yes.

1:12:08

Ken Reed wrote a great book about it.

1:12:10

I'm trying to think about one-game

1:12:12

contracts. I can't even think

1:12:15

of anything like that. Nope.

1:12:19

I mean in some way the e-bugs

1:12:22

can be one-game contracts but

1:12:25

those are unique. Yeah.

1:12:28

That doesn't, I don't think that

1:12:31

fits what what Ricky and

1:12:33

Richmond BC is shooting for here. I

1:12:35

wonder if Gordy's it? I really do but

1:12:38

we shall see. Let's finish up

1:12:41

with this one. This

1:12:44

is John from State College PA

1:12:46

by way of Kingston, Ontario. Good

1:12:49

afternoon. As the Buffalo Sabres are

1:12:51

in the hunt for a playoff

1:12:53

spot I can't help but think

1:12:55

about Jeff Skinner. Many

1:12:57

people like to discuss great NHL players

1:13:00

who have never won the Stanley Cup

1:13:02

but I've never heard a discussion surrounding

1:13:04

great NHL players to never

1:13:06

make a playoff appearance. Jeff

1:13:08

Skinner is in his 14th NHL season none

1:13:11

of which have resulted in his Hurricanes or

1:13:13

Sabres qualifying for the playoffs. The

1:13:15

fact we had an expanded playoff in 2020

1:13:17

and his team didn't qualify makes this even

1:13:19

crazier. This guy has played almost

1:13:22

a thousand career games with over 350 goals and nearly

1:13:24

700 points but we've never seen him

1:13:26

play what it matters the most and just

1:13:29

to make things worse Carolina made the

1:13:31

conference finals this season after Skinner left

1:13:33

rough. This fact blows my

1:13:35

mind every single year so I'm wondering who

1:13:37

comes to mind when you

1:13:39

think of other longtime NHL players

1:13:42

who never play on

1:13:44

a playoff team. Take care and

1:13:46

go Ducks! John

1:13:49

is an Anaheim Ducks fan. There's

1:13:51

a couple that come to mind for me. All right why don't you

1:13:53

go first? Lada Flav Schmid is

1:13:56

one speaking of Ducks. Lada Schmid

1:13:58

would be one of those. I'm

1:14:00

currently in the Nhl and not just

1:14:03

Jeff Skinner and he is the one

1:14:05

that you know much legs ah jobs

1:14:07

they college mentions I think about often

1:14:09

to a I think a lot about

1:14:12

Jeff Skinner and he look at the

1:14:14

hockey d be in it's bagels are

1:14:16

for playoff appearances are rasmus crystalline and.

1:14:19

As someone who's never play our guy

1:14:21

who for last year was Sam Reinhart.

1:14:23

Yes Sam Reinhart was that guy and

1:14:26

then obviously he got trip to Florida

1:14:28

and they went to the Stanley Cup

1:14:30

final. Yeah. I'm

1:14:32

there's two more the came to mind

1:14:34

for me. one d Sarong, who I

1:14:36

think comes to mind for a lot

1:14:38

of other people as well. that's the

1:14:40

one I always remember from when I

1:14:43

was a kid same and then the

1:14:45

netminder Mike Dunn. I'm ah never played

1:14:47

playoff game you there is a few

1:14:49

that were close but my god I'm

1:14:51

was on playoff teams right? So. Dunham

1:14:54

would have backed up Marty Bird Door

1:14:56

but never gotten any playoff game, so

1:14:58

maybe that's a technicality. Elliott the other

1:15:00

two that I think of who just

1:15:02

have only a couple of games a

1:15:04

couple of playoff games, but they've played

1:15:07

over a thousand Nhl games. One of

1:15:09

them is one of our favorites in

1:15:11

that same gone yea, who at the

1:15:13

time of this recording is played one

1:15:15

thousand, forty two games and the regular

1:15:17

season and eleven. In. The post

1:15:19

season and all the open and. Who

1:15:22

play right off hundred twelve Hundred and

1:15:25

thirty one regular season games. And.

1:15:27

Six. In. The post

1:15:29

season. I remember

1:15:31

that it took the Oakland a long

1:15:34

time but de ser I was always

1:15:36

the one I remembered. Ah

1:15:38

as a kid cause he had the

1:15:40

longest one. For. A while so

1:15:42

that kind of the one that. Sticks.

1:15:45

With me because.

1:15:48

I. Just remember growing up. Front

1:15:51

Easy was almost that guy. Writes.

1:15:55

He was run to the mods or you'll be happy here.

1:15:57

You bring that up. while he be a mean streak

1:16:00

was broken by winning the Stanley Cup. Like, come on,

1:16:02

you go from not playing in the playoffs. Like, how

1:16:04

many players? That's right. If you would say to any

1:16:06

player, okay, here's a question for you. Outhouse to the

1:16:08

penthouse. You go to any player and

1:16:11

you say, okay, here's the deal. You're

1:16:13

gonna have a 15-year NHL career. You're

1:16:17

never gonna make the playoffs until the one year

1:16:19

that you finally do and you win the Stanley

1:16:22

Cup. Are you cool with

1:16:24

that? And they'll all say 100% I am. Yeah,

1:16:27

if I knew I was guaranteed a cup

1:16:30

win, it would be a

1:16:32

hard one for me to live for

1:16:34

that long. But if I knew

1:16:36

there was gold at the end of the rainbow,

1:16:38

I would probably do it. If

1:16:40

you're a Hanes, you're like, I'm

1:16:43

slugging it out here with the

1:16:45

blue jackets and thrashers and, you

1:16:47

know, welcome back to Manitoba Jets

1:16:49

and Carolina. And then bam, Pittsburgh

1:16:52

Penguins. And I'm holding the Stanley Cup after all

1:16:54

those years of frustration.

1:16:57

If I'm Ron Hainsey, oh, yeah. Oh,

1:16:59

yeah, I'm taking that. That's

1:17:02

a game worth the candle right there. So

1:17:04

there we go. Great question. Hope the answers were

1:17:06

okay. And I do think about, I think you

1:17:09

do probably as well, just get

1:17:11

Jeff Skinner into the playoffs, please.

1:17:14

Thanks to everybody who

1:17:16

either emailed in or called in as well. We'll

1:17:18

get to some voicemails coming up on the next

1:17:21

edition of 32 Thoughts. This was the

1:17:23

Montana's Thought Line. Montana's Barbecue and Bar. Talk

1:17:27

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1:17:29

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1:18:34

I love it. You're fo walked

1:18:36

into the hat shop one hat,

1:18:38

but damn it, you fit and I

1:18:40

love you for it faces

1:18:43

off against Toronto off

1:18:45

against New Jersey. L Canucks

1:18:48

host the Caligari up,

1:18:51

Elliott. This was a t um,

1:18:54

the sport losing two Colts

1:18:59

off and also chris talked

1:19:03

to Michael Grabavski with

1:19:06

colts off this week know,

1:19:08

grabo talked a lot roommates,

1:19:10

they were tea Um,

1:19:14

I think, you know, Gr his,

1:19:16

you know, former te just

1:19:19

devastated by the lo

1:19:23

Todd Warner specifically of

1:19:26

Chris Simon and you kn that

1:19:29

I've heard other peo with

1:19:31

Chris Simon echo. An first

1:19:35

went into the dress on

1:19:38

your team. On the one because

1:19:42

he's such a larg man

1:19:45

and you know, was a s

1:19:49

when he played like nobod Um,

1:19:54

but then right away h teammate

1:20:00

anyone anyone could

1:20:02

ever have you know Warner

1:20:04

told me all kinds of stories

1:20:06

about you know this different side

1:20:09

of Chris Simon that nobody got

1:20:11

to see unless you were a

1:20:13

teammate and he would have and

1:20:15

they were there with each other

1:20:17

with the with the Quebec Nordiques

1:20:19

have players Elliott just howling in like

1:20:22

in like you know your belly

1:20:24

hurts laughter just a larger than

1:20:26

life personality loved by his teammates

1:20:29

certainly loved by fans and missed by

1:20:32

everybody Elliott first of all those are

1:20:34

great words Jeff I didn't

1:20:36

know colts love at all but Colby Armstrong

1:20:38

did so you know reading

1:20:40

and hearing Colby about him

1:20:44

it's really tough the Chris Simon news

1:20:48

is really tough I've dealt with

1:20:50

suicide in my life I don't

1:20:53

like it and I don't like talking about it I

1:20:57

would just say that in both Canada and the

1:20:59

US there is 988 to call

1:21:02

and text as they

1:21:04

say help is available someone

1:21:06

is always willing

1:21:09

to listen you know

1:21:14

it and I have a lot

1:21:16

of deep feelings about this that I'm not gonna get

1:21:18

into on this pod it's very

1:21:21

personal but I think

1:21:23

it's it's very sad

1:21:26

and you know one of the people I really

1:21:28

think about here and I haven't spoken to him

1:21:30

yet is is Glenn Healy and Glenn

1:21:33

runs the NHL Alumni Association

1:21:35

and he takes incredible pride

1:21:38

in being able to help as many

1:21:40

people as he can and I know

1:21:42

that this would be as hard a week for

1:21:44

him as it would be for anyone

1:21:47

outside of the families and the

1:21:49

closest friends of colt's

1:21:51

often Simon and yeah I

1:21:54

mean it's it's it's really

1:21:56

hard I it brings back a

1:21:58

lot of memories that

1:22:00

I don't like thinking about and

1:22:03

I feel terrible for

1:22:05

the for the friends and

1:22:08

the family and the the one thing

1:22:10

I would say is

1:22:12

that there's always someone willing

1:22:14

to listen always and

1:22:17

I hope people who are going through

1:22:19

a very bad place find

1:22:21

that person. Condolences to the

1:22:24

family and the friends of Konstantin

1:22:26

Koltsov and Chris Simon.