Jetting Out of the Starting Gates

Can we come back to this? I want to think about this Come back to it. Well, just talk about something else and then I won't pay attention while I'm thinking about it How's that different from any other time I speak on the show that this is true actually Welcome to 32 thoughts the podcast Tom Elliott and Kyle back with you again on this Thursday edition Elliott and then there were none no more undefeated teams Remain in the NHL just over a weekend Colorado loses Wednesday night the ducks lose Wednesday night. I'll get to that one in the oilers in a little bit But what a performance by Winnipeg and from Stuart Skinner a game where they lose Josh Morrissey after the first period They have been asked to defend against a high-octane Colorado off and Skinner puts on a performance for the age great and a last minute goal from Kyle Conner who has looked dynamite to start I think when you consider the expectations the narratives around Teams going into the year of the seven Canadian clubs Winnipeg start has been most impressive for me. What say you? I don't Disagree with you on that, but it's good to see that every team in the NHL is blemished in some way Kyle just like you and I Yes, we're dragging them all down Well, no club. I agree with you on Winnipeg I don't know if anybody would have expected after four games them at three oh and one would be number one in the central division eight seventy five points per cent each and just like you know the two Canadian teams in the West that won on Wednesday night the jets and the oilers Similar storyline will get to the oilers in a minute, but they were points in their games where they could have been blown out of the building and Their goal tenders who people were a little unsure of made the saves that save the night for them Skinner Very very good in that game and the jets You know if you look at it they lost more. See too. We came out for only what one shift in the second period and then they said pose game We'll see tomorrow as the injuries pile up at the at the start of the season So that's that's a big one for them. That's potentially significant, but the thing I like the most about the jets is You know, shifle didn't have a point Until this game. They still won two out of three and got a point and over time in the other one He had a great game in this one an incredible play with Kyle Conor to score the winner late in the third period Morris he gets hurt in this one and They still find a way to win. Obviously the hella buck thing Still over the entire franchise, but you can kind of punt it into the background now and you get off to this good start It's I don't know if there's a team. There's a lot of teams that needed to do well this year I don't know if there's a team that needed it more than the jets and so far they get it. They look like they've got Perseverance guts a will they have a will to them. They can hold the green lantern ring. They have willpower Don't you find I mean, that's a great it is a great indicator of what you've got in a dressing room or organizationally in terms of the Psychological makeup is when you're dealt a hand like maybe we'll win a pegs going through or if you're in a situation where you're Ravish with injuries or there's some sort of dark cloud hanging over you How do you handle it? I don't like you think back to the Bergeron char era of the Bruins when they would have multiple injuries pile up and they just kept winning like nothing bothered them They found a way to get results and a great sign for Winnipeg With what's been going on with them and to come out the way that they have you mentioned that the way Shifley and Conor connected on the winning goal you go back and watch so Sam Olinsky is the defenseman Checking or watching Conor off that rush and you look at his body language He's a guy that's going there is no way where Shifley has the puck over there That it is a threat to get to Conor over here and suddenly in the blink of an eye It's on an office stick through his legs and in the back of the net It was unbelievable even the guys in the ice are gone There's no way that pass can be made here and Shifley found a way to make it work with thread the needle. All we need was a cut to Jared Bednar to see the look on his face that said How did that pass Get from one end of the ice to the other That was impressive whether Bednar has short hair or long Scrackly gene principal hair He wasn't going to be happy that that pass got from one end of the ice to the other and and just like basically Conor in One motion like just a swoop shooting it everything about that play was such elite elite skill, you know, I look at the jets and it's You don't as a player See I think you have to find Any motivation to get you through a season it's 84 games I have to get used to saying that I was about to say it's 82 games It's 84 games. You're not going to be at your best all the time. It's not humanly possible But so I think you have moments where you need that little thing to get you to a higher level and the whole Hello-buck situation, you know, they don't have to dislike Hello-buck. They're probably frustrated by the whole situation They don't have to dislike Hello-buck, but you do have to use it as fuel say okay He's he wants to be somewhere else Eventually he's going to be somewhere else But we've got to prove he's basically saying that we can't win, right? That's what Hello-buck is saying So if you're a player on the jets a team that won the presence trophy a year ago and Hello-buck was obviously a big part of that You have to use that as fuel You know the Sanders lost the other night to an emotional game emotional game against Detroit But there's no question that they're using Kachak leaving as fuel right all those guys who are still there That's what the jets have to do they have to be able to say all right, so I was at I was at an event at a company called fourth lane and the other day and Jena Havard and Eric Lindross were talking and they were talking about how At the 2002 Olympics both both the men's and the women's Canadian team Who won gold medals that year used us against the world? You know the Canadian women's team had lost eight in a row against the U.S. going into that gold medal game Remember they had all those penalties called against them in a row by the one official and they said Us against the world us against the world they used that and Lindross was on that men's team that won the gold medal and their coach was Pat Quinn and he was the best I've ever seen at it He was the best at creating the us against the world mentality and if if if you're the jets right now was players That's what you have to be using us against the world us against the world You know people don't believe in us The cap's going up to 127 and a half or are we gonna be able to compete people don't believe in us You've got to use all of that as fuel and They're off to a great start I think the only other thing I'm watching for the jets is Nita writer. He has only played two games and his contract is up after this year And you know, they're winning so you're not gonna change a winning lineup around too much I just wonder if that's a situation where you ever get to a point where a player says You know what? I understand it's not gonna work for me here. I see how well you're doing But I want to get a contract after this year. I might have to go somewhere where I can play a bit more That's the other one I look at potentially around Winnipeg I love talking to Nita writer. He's got a great eye for the game He's a pretty funny guy and I was looking as as I was watching the game and I was like oh where is he and then I realized he's only played Two of their four games I was like if I could see that one being a bit of a challenge for them at some point Okay, it's one to watch for sure. Either way the upper body injury They called it for for Josh Marce as you say. We'll know a little bit more hopefully today on the extent of of his absence If there there is one for for him and the jets Hopefully there isn't there's a few injuries are waiting to find out a bit more about Celebrity Martian, which looked awful. Hopefully that's nowhere near as bad as it looked by the way Jennifer told another story that I really I'm gonna use this. Okay so She said that they had a phrase when the team was getting too hyper to calm them down It was emerald lake and I guess they'd gone on a retreat at some point as a team. Yes, and so It brought back good memories, Emerald Lake, so they killed off all those penalties in a row. And Jaina Hefford in the 2002 Olympic gold medal game scored with one second left in the second period to put Canada up three to one. And they were all hyper when they got into the room and someone just yelled out Emerald Lake. And they all calmed down and regained their focus. And of course they won the gold medal four to two. So Kyle, Mr. Seinfeld used to yell out serenity now. I am going to say Emerald Lake, when I think you are getting too riled up. Oh, that's good. Well, now now know what it means. Yes, that's right. I remember hearing that story. By the way, Cassie Campbell pass calls new book, dropped this week. So I have to tell you, so somebody called me up and they said, you know, Cassie, this is you in the book. And I was like, really? What did I do? And she said apparently she wrote that when they won gold, it must have been in '06 where I did the interview with her post game. I asked her if she was retiring and she said it was bad timing for the question and she was upset at it. So Cassie 20 years later, let me tell you, I'm sorry. It won't be the last time I annoy somebody with a question, but I'm sorry if I ruined your moment. Oh, gosh. Just a girl's the name of the book can't wait to read it. And in addition to Cassie's book, Jennifer Botterall's book is out. It's called Why Not You. Yep. And as far as I know, I don't have anything to apologize to Jennifer for. But if I do, I'm sure I will find it out quickly. Yeah. Good. All right. So the other Canadian team in action on Wednesday night, the Edmonton Oilers and you said it. It looked troubling for them early on. A couple of power play goals, courtesy of Beckett Seneca for the ducks. Devon Levi was asked to do a lot and then Edmonton got planned and five unanswered goals later. They seem to be in great shape, a world away from where they were at the opening two games against Vancouver, still early days, but another important step and, you know, maybe almost most importantly, Devon Levi's best performance to date in the Euler crease. Well, that's the thing. It was, well, a two-nothing anaheim and it looked like they were going to run the Euler's out of the building, right? And Levi made a couple of great saves. And Mike Babcock had said before the road trip, basically the way it was going to work with Levi and Jari and Jari is going to get their next game. But that was a big one for Levi, really big and really big for the Euler's. So, you know, when we were trying to figure out Kyle, you know, what had happened last year, how a lot of us just missed what was bubbling under the surface and what was going on between the players and the coaching staff, you know, after the season was over, I tried to ask some players like, what did we miss? And one of the things a couple of them told me was, we didn't win three games in a row all year until January, end of January last year. And now they have three wins in a row. Now going back a week, the way Edmonton started the season, I didn't know that we thought we would see it this quick, but that was, that was a big W and, you know, I think two, they got embarrassed by Anaheim in the playoffs last year. Anaheim controlled that series, earned that series, won that series. And especially as that series got deeper, they really, really were heading shoulders above the Euler's. So, I'm sure there was a bit of a money on the board game for them. We owe these guys kind of thing and Levi gave them a chance to win. Now I'm watching Bouchard now. So the Euler's at five on five, we're outscoring teams 11 to one with Bouchard on the ice. And somebody texted me during the game tonight and they're like, okay, we're talking about Bouchard for the Norris trophy. And he goes, I have a new take and I go, oh, yeah, what's that? He goes, Bouchard for the Rocket Recharge trophy. I was just laughing. It was, you know, I thought it was, I thought it was pretty funny. You know, the thing about this as though is that, how's this guy not going to get 100 points this year? So I took a pretty darn good clip to begin. I mean, he had 95 last year, he wasn't that far off because we set the precedent as voters when Eric Carlson wanted a few years ago. And it wasn't until after he was awarded the Norris, I learned how controversial a vote that was among the players, but we set, we set the standard. You know, there were a lot of people who weren't sure, but when he got to 100, and I know I was one of them was like, it's 100 points. It's 100 points. BX and I got into like, he got into a big fight about it. I was like, Kevin, it's 100 points. And Bouchard's going, I had never seen that in my lifetime, 100 point defenseman. Right. It was, that was a year, 12 years old. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Sweet 60 and it's going to be awesome. I can't wait to start driving. It's been something you can't, what year were you born? 93. Oh my God, you're right. I had to check back what year leech did it, and it was 91, 92. Yeah. He was the one in my unbelievable, I am so old, I am such a geezer. You are. You are an old man, old and creaky as I like to see the person, old and creaky. But if like we set the precedent with Carlson three years ago, 100 points, you win it. Yeah. No, I think I would like to think there's a bit more nuance to it other than, I don't, I don't know, you know what, Kyle, I am not letting you do revisionist history, that's exactly what happened. 100 points. No, that's not, yeah, yeah, but I'm just saying, I think I would hope with a lot of the voting. I know I did this because I had Carlson won that year as well. Yeah. It wasn't simply all 100 points, he's at the top of my list. Like there was a little more digging below the surface. Like what? Just other aspects of his game and because of the big thing was while 100 points, but look at his plus minus how bad that was, well, okay, well, how much of it was the out on the ice trying to tie the game and it was last, so last part, we credited Alex Gilchrist for getting the heart trophy for Corey Perry, whatever year that was. The Sharg's PR staff, which was led by Scott Amert, who I think is still there, and I think Ben Guerrero was still there too, and he's moved on. They made sure they got that out there that about he was on the ice for more empty net goals against than anybody else, but I'm sorry, Kyle. You may claim it was more nuanced than that. It was 100 points. He won the Norse that year because he got 100 points. Sure. When you phrase it that way, yes, I see what you're getting at, victory, victory, sweet, victory. Okay. Now I'm still got it. And I will tell you that I did have a player who came to me that summer. I saw him at a golf tournament and he was like, there's a bunch of us who think that you guys should lose voting privileges over this. I said, really? And they go, oh, yeah, they were, they were upset. Well, whatever the case, like I said, we have set the precedent. And you know, Bouchard had one in this game where his coverage was a little strange and it led to one of the goals, but that's fine. It's going to happen. Everybody makes mistakes. I just think if this guy keeps going at this path, he's on. We're going to invoke the Carlson Presidents and he's going to get to 100 and win it. He could shoot past it at this point. I mean, still a long ways to go, but you know, but the NHL record for points by a D is 139, Bobby or now I, I don't know about that. I think that's a little, I think that's a little crazy. No, that there's four guys just over 100, the McKinness 103, leach 102. Carlson and Daniel Podvan 101 and then you got coffee, peak 138 and I think you did it five times and or I think was 639. I could see him having the third best points seasoned by defenseman NHL history easily the way this is going. They looked much better than they did a week ago. I also thought they eventually couldn't find an answer for Levi. But again, those young guys with anaheim that are asked to carry a lot of the workload, they still look dangerous. They still look dangerous. They are a fun group to watch. They're always going to look dangerous with those guys and they made a deal. Philip Halender, I had heard Pittsburgh was looking to move a forward. They had too many forwards. I was a little surprised. It was him, but they make the move and you know, Stasney was funny. He posted from Disneyland on his Instagram. I guess because he was no longer a member of the Euler. So he went to Disneyland. You know, we had Stasney on the podcast. I have a huge fan of his ever since that interview where he talked about some of his mental health challenges and getting back. I hope it works out great for him in Pittsburgh. He was just victim of a numbers game in Edmonton. We talked on the show last weekend on the pod on Monday about how the Others were looking to move a depth D for depth forward and there it was. I think they were definitely interested in Poitress from Boston, but I just don't know like one of the things I heard was the others if they were going to make a move, they were going to make the kind of move they did. I think Boston wanted more of like a pick potentially for Poitress and I'm not so certain Edmonton wanted to do that. So Kyle, speaking of this Others game, did you see Gene's intermission? I saw his opening. So they had a trivia game in the intermission. Okay. We love trivia. Yes. It's called it 50/50 face off. And the first one was dry cycle and I actually didn't see who he was playing against because I had to take a phone call, but Gene's the host and there's two people going head to head. So when I went out there for a media day, I taped one of these against Bob Stoffer. Well, if so as a trivia game, you went head to head. Yes. Was Stoffer. Oh, I can't wait to this airs. I can only imagine what that looked like. I'm not going to give anything away except that the questions were absolutely tailored to give Stoffer an advantage. Yeah, not surprised. Why can it on his turf? I know. I know. By the way, you determined, yeah, to beat this principais Stoffer cheating and a merge victorious. Did I tune in and find out? We also shot something with the social team in Vegas, yet to see surface anywhere. I don't know if they just went right into the trash. That was a disaster. We did two things. One of them was, I thought was was fun. I saw a couple of things they did there. Like, could you cut a banana directly in half? I saw that was on social. Yes. Yeah, we were not asked to do that. No. They probably did not trust us to hold knives at all. And they were right in thinking that. Okay, Alex Ovechkin, Elliot announced at the beginning of this week that this will be it. This is his last year in the NHL. He is number one in goals in the history of the game. As a Stanley Cup, back in 2018, he told the TNT panel before their game against Pittsburgh or home opener on Wednesday night that it was in the summer that he had kind of made it up in his mind that yeah, one more year and that would be it for him and his family. I want to ask, are we surprised that he had called it now that this was going to be his last year? What do you make of getting it out here early in the season? That this is going to be one final year for Ovechkin. I'm not surprised. The only thing that kind of surprised me a bit and I know when his TNT interview on Wednesday, he said he decided in the summer. Initially, the word was that Ovechkin was and the capitals were potentially talking about or a two year deal had come up. Whether they were seriously talking about it or had just been pitched by Ovechkin that a two year deal had come up. So when I heard he was coming back, even though we signed a one year contract, I kind of wondered if he thought he was going to play for two. And then, you know, when you kind of saw the way the capitals lined up this year and the way the season started, like obviously he told the players before the game this week. But look at the first three games, Kyle, 1246, 1334, 1405. Like that's really low for him. He didn't play a game. He had a couple games last year in the 14s, relatively early, but he didn't play a game lower than 1405 last year until his 59th game of the season. And even then, he didn't have too many. And the third period of the game Wednesday night where they beat the penguins, he only had two shifts. So I would suspect that one of the things that Ovechkin kind of realized here was that it wasn't going to be the same for him. You know, the capitals looked like, look, he's done everything he's done. Eventually you're going to slow down. Father time is undefeated. We're seeing that here. I think the capitals felt that one of the reasons that, you know, he carried the mail for so many years for them offensively. One of the reasons the capitals felt that they had to change things was that last year they were slow and it was too hard to score. They couldn't do it the same way. They went out and they got stuck and they went out and they got Kairu. Kyle, you could see where this was going to go. That it's not like they were going to disrespect him, but his influence on the games was going to be diminished. He just wasn't going to be doing the same thing that he did before. So I would assume that when that became clear to him, I just didn't know if he was going to last more than a year. Yes, especially because, like you said, you look at their lineup. That is a deep forward group. They've added some burners and I think this is going to be a really fascinating year in terms of how Spencer Carberry handles things. He touched on his usage, only getting a couple of shifts in the third on Wednesday night because you know the organization is going to want him to celebrate him every possible way that they can all year long and if they get to the playoffs, however long that goes. But for Carberry, it's going to be about playing his best options. And as time goes on, it's just the way the cycle of the sporting life works and who they've got there now. And there's going to be more and more situations for the first time since he's been there in Washington where there's going to be other bodies that are going to be the preferred option over over Ovechkin himself, which is strange to say, strange to think about it. But we're already seeing signs of it. So managing all of that and keeping things on the rails, you know if there's one hallmark of him beyond the patented one-timer slap shot from the offwing flank, it's how positive and welcoming of a presence he is as a teammate within that dressing room, regardless of what's going on. It's just going to be an interesting one to watch because there's a couple of different factors at play here from the farewell to putting your best players on the ice in certain situations. They're going to make the playoffs too. To me, that's a no doubt. They're going to make the playoffs. For sure. It's a good look at team. And they look good in their in their home opener. Yeah, it's a good. group on Wednesday night and in defeating the, the penguins. And was your good game, son? Really good game. Did he go to that game? I don't know. I haven't heard from him yet. Okay. I hope it's not because they threw him into a trash compactor. Yes. Well, stay tuned for the thought line. I've got one that that was a good hockey game. You know, Pittsburgh plays, you know, Washington plays more interesting games this year. The early games they've seen. And Pittsburgh plays really exciting games. The early on, we're getting our, like, who's fun to watch list? Pittsburgh is fun to watch. Washington is fun to watch. Even the Rangers were not going to be on my fun to watch list, but they've been fun to watch. Youngest team in the NHL once Cole Bodewell was called up. Youngest team in the NHL. And I think half, almost half their roster, like nine players from after they sent the letter out last year. They, I think I don't know if there's a bigger surprise. Like we talked about when I pick off the top. Yeah. And, but I, I don't know, I don't even think there is, like, I wouldn't, I think they have good players in that. They really had the, even without hella buck, the shell of a really good team. I, I think the Rangers are the biggest surprise in the league early on. And they're, they're fun to watch right now. Yes. Sean Dersie is fit in there. Just like a glove. And what's impressive too, I mean, you know, Dorif, I have a still finding his footing there. You know, it's, they, they pay the big price, the big contract he gets with that deal at the draft. He still hasn't really made his mark yet. But everybody or a lot of them around him have certainly looked, look great. Look really good. And Chesterkin, of course, right near the top of that list. If the Rangers are on one end for being one of the pleasant surprises early on with Winnipeg, of course, we know the flames have been kind of the opposite of that out of the gates. And you know, it was, it was a bit of a story. Seeing Conor's area on waivers, I know played two of the first three games. And unfortunately for him, the two games he played in were six one defeats at the, at the hands of the Seattle crack and one at home, one on the road, he cleared waivers. He practiced with the Calgary Wranglers, their American League team on, on Wednesday, set all the right things in the media afterwards. This is a guy that has one year beyond this one remaining on his deal at 3.775 million. I imagine they're trying to find a trade here, a possible, but as you're trying to forecast all the potential end points of this one and where does your mind go? So the biggest challenge and the reason that Zari wasn't claimed on waivers is because of his cap hit. It's 3.775. And they couldn't, like, people just can't take that right now. I think one of the teams that is kind of dipped their toes on Zari a bit are the aforementioned rangers, even if they wanted to do that, I just don't think they can make it fit, right? It's too much. And one of the things that makes this even more of a challenge. So I heard last year, actually early in the season that the flames had given permission for Zari to talk to other teams. That was denied to me, but it was clear that something was going on. And, you know, I mean, you live in Calgary, right? Like, I guess it's an open secret there that Zari and Haska didn't see eye to eye, right? You said that to me. Yeah, reading the tea leaves. And I like, there's never a thing publicly where they've come out and said as much, but you can tell. I mean, he's probably not on waivers if that's not somewhere the case. Well, Akal, you are an elite tea leaves reader. I would say that to everybody listening. But they tried to deal them in the summer. You know, I've heard a couple differing opinions on what happened there. I think Calgary was looking for a pick. I think there was some interest. And I don't know if the issue was the pick just wasn't where Calgary wanted to be or the team that had said they might do it never formally did it. I've heard a couple of different versions of this, but whatever the case, it didn't happen. And I also heard that the day before Calgary put him on waivers, they put his name on the GM group chat. And it didn't go anywhere. So they put them on on waivers. And, you know, the challenge was the number. And the real problem for the flames is for those of you who aren't familiar, you get to withhold three salaries on your roster. So if you trade a player, you can keep on three, you can retain on three. There's a max. But the thing with it is, if a player has a long term deal, you can't just say we'll only do it for one or two years. No. If you retain, you retain the whole way. So Calgary has retained on Coleman, who's in Minnesota, he's done this year, but they've also retained on an Asim Calgary. And he's got two more years after this one, one plus two. So if they retain on Zari, who's got only one more season, they're going to be at two of the three retained for at least another year. And Calgary, and right now they'd be at three of three, they'd be locked in at three for this year. And Calgary is a team where they're going, they're going to want to be able to have veterans that they can retain salaries on. They're just not going to want to be full or close to it. So that's number one, they do not want to be locked in where they can't retain on anyone else. So maybe they'll have to take a contract back from somebody else. Maybe that might be what they do depending on what's out there. You know, I think the other thing here, so based on it, just on who he is, Conor Zari should be in the NHL somewhere else. It's the number that it's a problem. So Zari just turned 25, which means he's still eligible for a one-third buyout. Your buyout doesn't go to two-thirds until you turn 26. So what they could do, and you know, again, the problem is that he's not going to want to wait to the end of this year. But if they bought him out at the end of this season, his salary cap hit would be 600,000 next year and 600,000 the year after. It's one-third of your money over twice the term remaining. And ultimately, that would make him a UFA this summer, and he'd still have 1.2 million in cash coming to him. So that's another way out of this. But, you know, the other thing he could do, and I'm not sure he'd want to do it because he'd be walking away from three million this year is look at the other guys who've terminated the David Combs, the taxis. I guess that's another thing there, but it's a lot of money to walk away from this year, although other players, Philip Zadina, have done it. Like, this guy is good enough to get a shot somewhere else. It is purely the number, purely the number. I'll tell you two, like the other day on waivers with him was Paul and Robertson from the Rangers. And I think Paul and Robertson are guys who can play. It's just the numbers game is happening to some of these people early. By the way, so with the moves that Calgary made there, one of the players they called up was Jonathan Castagna, who they got in the Weeger deal from Utah last year. And I think he's going to make his NHL debut tonight against the Avalanche. Do you have any idea what his nickname is? I heard it's George, right? Yes, you heard. Okay, good. Yes, I think they should have gone with can't stand you. Why would they go with can't stand you? Because it's just funny. Like it's funnier than George, because remember there's the, but there's that episode where the old gym teacher calls him can't stand you. Oh, now I know why. I thought you were just saying that can't stand you. Yeah, I was worried you were suggesting that about Castagna. No, it seems like a nice young man. It's, you think Sunia is going to play Thursday too. I saw it skated. Yeah, I think they're both in. I think there are two guys that we talked about, you know, short and preseason. Two guys I think they loved. They just go, we don't have room for you yet. Stay patient. They didn't have to wait very long. Yeah, so like, like the thing about Calgary and we talked about it, this, this is what you sign up for when you do this. This is what happens to you. That said, the Gord Stellic role, if you're going to stink, stink on the road, that home opener did not go over well. No, they've got an angry Colorado team coming to town that feel they got robbed of at least a point in Winnipeg on Wednesday nights. So and again, any easier. have a better result at home. How about the scene in Detroit the other night? Elliot Dillon Larkin comes back into the lineup. He's boot early on. He's booed. He's got the puck on his stick. None of that a real surprise, but scores as an assist sticks up for Debrank it when things got hairy with the sends there at the end of the second period. They win their first of the year. They were all going after Debrank it there. Do you think there's something left over from that too? Yeah, it's not the first time. He's been in the middle of something since he's gone to Detroit. Oh, that's right. I was living in Shabbat and Shabbat being the captain now and I wondered if like he was like, okay, that's another guy. That's not a guy who bailed on us. We're going after all the bailers. Yeah, it just and it was nobody's fault player wise at the time. It just it felt like a force while he was there and it didn't last long and anyway, that's now you get what you get on Tuesday night. But the Larkin scenario as he said, it just felt good to be a hockey player again. There's no one decision. The team or the player can make right now where everyone universally goes, that's awesome. That's awesome. There's going to be detractors, but I suppose if you're healthy, if you're able to play, this is the best thing you can do until it all gets sorted. 100%. What's the one thing you control? You control how you play and as we said, Larkin, if he's healthy enough to play, you can't really keep him out of the lineup if he wants to play and the only way you're going to turn those booze into cheers is by going out there and doing exactly what he did. You know what? It was Daniela Bruce who did the interview with him after the game. That was a great interview. Daniela did a great job. Larkin did a great job. You could see how relieved he was. That's all you can do is play well and other things will just have to take care of themselves. I'll say this too. If I was Larkin, I wouldn't talk about the trade request anymore. It's bad for me as a media member to say that. I understand it. I probably shouldn't say that, but I would say it on TV. I thought he did the right thing by showing up and taking the booze. I think he did the right thing by playing. I don't think it benefits him or them to keep him out of the lineup if he's healthy enough to play. Obviously, he played great and I think the right thing now is not to throw gasoline on the fire. It's simply to say, guys, like that stuff, I'm going to let the Red Wings and my agent handle it. I'm here to play and win games with my teammates and the fans. We need wins and that's what I'm here for. Don't feed the beast. We're the beast. Well, you're more of a beast than I am. We'll talk about it ourselves. We can discuss it ourselves. He can't pour some Bernays sauce on top of whatever it is he's eating. Bernays sauce. Good touch. You got anything new on Edmondson while we're here? Well, the one thing, by the way, Larkin, there's been lots of reporting that the people have tried to talk him into Montreal. He would be God there. That would be a perfect place for him. Suzuki and him is the one to punch. I think you look, you've got Hudson, Coffield, American guys, very happy and thriving their team on the way up so they can't beat Carolina right now. But team on the way up, I think that would set up so well for him. Totally. That's been thought of ever since this all kind of came out. We saw the run that the Montreal had. They're still looking for a 2C in a lot of ways. You could be that guy. I think it would be a perfect fit and I think those fans would love him. Edmondson, I'm hearing a couple different things. I think some teams have talked to Detroit about him. I maintain that, I think Detroit is telling the truth when they say their preference is to sign him. And there are some teams out there who think that they will wait. So Frank Saravelli actually uncovered that Nikkeeson doesn't have to sign by December 1st. Edmondson does. Nikkeeson's status is a little different. We'll get to him in a second. But I think Detroit is willing to wait this out a bit. See where it goes. But I do think like I've heard they've asked for some pretty big players in return. As they should like some top end guys. So if you're going to make them do this now, it's going to be have to be something that makes them think. And the other thing too with Nikkeeson that Saravelli put out there was with each passing day. It's not like in Edmondson's case or traditional RFA that the salary cap for this year gets adjusted for days missed. So it's actually a bigger number than what the actual annual average value is. So that works in their favor in terms of. I just thought that RFA's were RFA's. You know what's interesting about is I asked a bunch of cat people about this. And there it was really interesting like there's a lot of really smart cat people in this league. And they said that if you read the CBA you assume that that's the correct answer that the rules are different than Edmondson. But it's not 100%. It's one of those things that's open to interpretation. And one of the people said to me that I would read it as his rules are different. But I wouldn't say that without checking with central registry first. So I mean like the hurricanes are smart. They do their due diligence. But I wasn't aware that. I just thought RFA's were RFA's. But apparently the designation that he's under, which is 10 to C, it's different. I was today years old when I learned that when I read what Frank wrote. Yeah, you and me both. So in terms of occasion. Yeah, so I've got to be wondering here if he's, if there's any chance he's going to wave the white flag of surrender. And come crawling back to, I shouldn't say crawling, but resigning with Carolina. There's one of three things that's going to happen here, right? He's going to get traded. Or he's going to sign or he's going to sit out. What does sit out? It doesn't benefit him. So one of the things about him is he's two more summers away from UFA because he doesn't turn 27 until after the June 30th cutoff in 2028. So he doesn't become a UFA until the summer of 2029. If he doesn't play Kyle, he's in the same situation he's in now. If he plays this year, he starts to, like right now, he has zero leverage, okay? If he plays this year, he starts to gain some leverage towards being offered sheet eligible and arbitration eligible, right? He doesn't have that now. So there's no benefit to him. And, you know, the one thing I checked is, he's not going, like, you become an unresponsive free agent in this league, either in age 27 or accruing seven seasons. Because he started so late, he's not going to accrue seven seasons. For that, you need to play 40 games. That's immaterial with him. He only needs to play 10 games as a pro this year to accrue a season. So it makes no sense for him to sit out. And the whole thing is already annoyed Carolina once when the trade to the Rangers fell apart, right? So there's only, so what you've learned is if you really annoy them, they're not going to play ball with you. So at some point in time, if the key shouldn't work out a trade and as I could tell, I mean, one phone call could change everything. But Wednesday, there was nothing there. He, he's going to have to go back. Unless there's a trade coming here that I just don't see right now, and it could change. I've really admitted sooner or later, he is going to have to come back. One year deal likely just to kind of kick the can down the road in a sense and just allow the guy to get playing again. I would assume so. I would assume so. All right. Unless, unless Carolina just squeezes and says, we're not doing this unless you give us two years. Right, right, right. Because they're, they're the ones in this case that kind of has the benefit of time here. Because if, if they say give us two years, then they get two years, then he's a year away from unrestricted free agency. They might, you know, they might, I mean, you just never know, but they could do that. Okay. A couple of the things we wanted to touch on, Gavin McKenna, first overall pick. Got his first point Tuesday. Got his first goal Tuesday. As he said in the post game, a huge monkey off the back, his fourth game in the NHL. He gets his first two points and it's a monkey off his back. I suppose we all know what he was signing up for. Little different as a first overall pick going into a Toronto market that was trying to win again right away. I will just say, I think last week, as part of season opener in our first Saturday at a chance to speak for a little bit with his parents, Willie and Crystal. And the one thing they had said, this was before the first game against Montreal that they felt, they said Toronto's doing something right there internally with how they're handling him because they felt he seemed more comfortable, looked more comfortable just in their interactions with them and watching them on the ice there, beginning his career as a maple leaf than the early days with Penn State a year ago. And I'm sure just a lot more comfortable, even more so now, getting a little bit of production out of the way in a big win for Toronto Tuesday. Wait a sec. Wait a sec. I heard I heard that they weren't handling him well because he wasn't taking optional skates. Wasn't that the big hot takery in Toronto this week? I thought we were going to be able to get through this without having to even address that. I can't believe that. I can believe it, but it still is like, ah, come on. First of all, the kids, guys were hoodies and sweats to games now. I know. I'm really worried about optional skates and who's out there. See, I, I just think that if you look at Toronto, they are really like I, they are really being careful with him, really being careful with him. One of the reasons because he's about 115 pounds soaking wet, right? But they are, they are really being careful with him. It goes back to no, no rookie tournament, didn't put him with Matthews initially. Like I assume, and I do assume that this not skating because you know all these young guys who play hockey, right? Like McKenna, they're like, and I say this in a positive way. They're nerds. They, they want to go on the ice. Like this just reeks of Andy O'Brien who was running their human kinetic department saying, we think it's just better for you if you just get used to it this way. I say this with no basis. In fact, but when I see this, I assume that that's what this is, right? Anyway, I was laughing as this became a controversy. And I went to the morning skate on Tuesday against Nashville and the kids got a good sense of humor because they asked him about like, how did you know you were in Toronto when he said when I had to do it, when I had to come out and talk to you guys, because I never point in three games. Like it was such a funny line. Right. And I said, you know what, this kid's got a pretty good head on his shoulders. But you know, you mentioned he scores first to HL goal, but someone else made a really good point to me. And that was, it was after he got his first point. And how did this first point come? Stolars passes him the puck. He has it for a millisecond. He tips it to a streaking John Tavaris at his own face off circle. And Tavaris goes down the ice and scores. And you know, one of the executives in this league is a former player. He said that he was watching that and he said, that kid, that's the easiest assist that kid might get in his career, right? The least work of an assist you might do his entire career. But none of them will make him feel better. He said, it's not there is a direct correlation between him getting that point and him scoring that first goal because all of a sudden he just feels so much better about himself. There's there's no bagels next to his name anymore, right? So he's out there. And he's I mean, it was a great shot. It was funny. You know, the one of the chat groups I was on. I actually didn't watch the first half of that game. I took stuff out to dinner because God knows she deserves it for being married to me, but I took her out for a nice dinner and the and the group chat was like, I didn't even have to look at the score. They were like, this is a disaster. And it was it was all the usual suspects, Kyle. You know who they are. Yeah. This is a disaster. You know, they were joking guys were going to get fired already. And and then the and then by the time I actually picked up my phone, they were right back in the game. And I was like, wait a sec. The way you guys were talking, I thought the score of this game was 10 to nothing. But hockey is better when there's no defense. And there was not a lot of defense in that game. No, no, not at all. And for as is encouraging it was for Toronto to see McKenna find the back of the net and just be a little more involved that I would say as much or even more so was how Samantha Samantha's look to for by the way, you had somebody reach out to put our sports net stats crew to work. Yes. So it was I'm going to get his name because it was from it was an insta DM and is Andrew Dalglish. And he said, guarantee I'm not the first to ask today. And he was Andrew. Don't don't hold yourself back. Give yourself a credit. What is the most first overall picks on the ice at the time of first overall pick scores their first NHL goal? Because McKenna scored Stamco's and Matthew's were on the ice. And then he writes go stars Andrew from St John. So do we have an answer to this? Yes. And it was sports net stats and NHL stats put in their heads together for this one. That was tied for the most one other time. Have we seen something similar? What year? 1980. Boy, that was because 19 that was the big draft. I want to think about this. Come back to it. Well, just talk about something else. And then I won't pay attention while I'm thinking about it. How's that different from many other time I speak on the show? That this is true actually. I'm trying to think like, who is the number one pick that year? Was that the year that like Doug Wickenhizer was the number one pick? Yes, it was. Is he the goal score? He is the goal score. Okay. So I'm trying to do the other two. Well, would Gila Flore have been on the ice? Yes. All right. And the first one I just had I just had to remember who I knew 1998 draft was 79 was was the one where Ray Bork went like sixth overall. Rob Rammage was the number one pick of that draft. So Doug Wickenhizer from Gila Flore or Gila Flore was on the ice. And I'm trying to remember. Was it a Canadian or was it on the other team they were playing? It would have been a Canadian. Was Raja'ul on the ice? Well done. Elliott Friedman. Yes. And you want to talk about something else? I just needed a chance to focus. Remember who the 80 draft was. Yeah. So Rayjanoel first of all on 69 Gila for first of all in 71 of course. And they were on the ice for Doug Wickenhizer's first goal as a first. I don't remember who other Canadian first overall picks were. There was because they had some like earlier, but I don't think that any of them would have been no. Well, aren't good. I feel I feel good. Good. That's me patting myself on the back. Good enough to get to final five is right thing else you want to get out of the way first. Oh, you know, just a couple of things. So guys who now that bunting signed. Guys who aren't signed for it. Yeah. So Teresenko and I still think there's this thing with Florida, potentially, we'll see, um, line A, uh, David Perron, I also heard Brandon Saude wants to play. Hmm. I got to tell you, uh, I would be curious to see, we talked about this a bit on the radio. Calgary, I think has talked about line A, but they're nervous about taking one of their young kids off the power play. Okay. I just, and I get it. Like early on, you want to reward your kids. But if this continues, I wonder if Calgary signs one of these guys. That makes most sense. If this continues, if this continues, um, because they also, they sure do also, I did want to, oh, so I got to call. Remember on the last pod, we were talking about goalies using white laces. Yes. And how we would lock them out. If you were to buy out anyone. Yes. So I got to call from somebody who was a goalie dad. And he said, you know why they have white laces? And I said, why is that? And he said, because sometimes shooters only have a quick second or millisecond to shoot. And they'll think those white laces are the net when it's really the glove. Ah, he'll cam move. In the old camel move. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky. But he called me specifically to tell me that that's why a goalie would have white laces. And I said, you know what? That's a good one. I'm going to put it in. That's the goalie's response to using black tape for a shooter, trying to disguise the puck on the blade. Yes. But of course, as Kelly Rudy would always say, we do have depth perception, you know. No, I've seen Kelly drive. No, he doesn't. You're on your own. One that one. All right, let's get to the final flat. So Tuesday night, Vegas laid the boots to Seattle in Seattle. But one of the more entertaining moments of the evening was after Victor Olislin took a cross check. And Brandon Montour, as we learned in the post game, went after Mark Sohn, the captain of the Golden Knights, because he thought he wasn't doing his job as a captain in a teammate, sticking up for Olislin, Stone didn't particularly care to hear that. And they went at it. Brandon Montour is no stranger to mixing it up that way. He has a very busy vocabulary. We'll put it that way in all the best ways. Mark Stone has defended himself, and defended others when he's had to over his career, not something he does often. But the guy could still hold his own. That was that was entertaining. I mean, both guys were kind of laughing. The referees couldn't even separate him at the end. It was first of all, can I just say I liked everything about that from the two people involved. And I'll tell you why I really liked it from Montour's point of view, especially. Seattle, as a team, is really trying to create an identity in some personality. And he did that there. He did that. I think if it means that they have to play the heel a little bit more, why not? Why not? You've had some big nights this year, but in this one, you're having a really rough night. You're getting beaten up. You're getting embarrassed. Who says you should go down easy? Why not? You know, that's the thing. Like, Seattle had that one exhibition game with Calgary. We were all talking about it, about how they kind of stood up for each other. And they didn't like what they saw. And that was the moment of the so far of this very young season, where we probably talked about Seattle the most. Here's a situation where a guy shows it's not a good night for you. A guy shows some edge. He shows some snarl. He says, you know what? We're going down tonight, but we're not going down quietly. We're going to be a little bit sore loser-ish. I love that. I think Seattle needs more of that. I think they need more of that fight, that edge, personality, and montours going to do it. And you know, it's stone. As you said, he's done it before, but I have to say, because of some of the injuries he's had in the past Kyle, I'm not crazy about seeing him fighting, but you know what? When you're the sea, sometimes you're going to do it. And if a guy's going to challenge your team and it's a lopsided game, they don't really need you to score and win it. Why not? I loved everything about that, everything, but I particularly loved it from Montor because I think Seattle needs that maybe more than any other team. Like right now, Seattle, they're growing the identity. They need people to other teams to dislike them a little bit more. And that'll work. I bet you a few of those Vegas guys were like, sideying the crack and on the way out. That's never a bad thing. Yeah, I heard, I heard Lindgren got hurt that night too for Seattle, which is too bad. I really like Lindgren. And you know, like their game against Edmonton last Saturday, Bouchard was mad at Lindgren for the hit at the knocked him out of the world championships. And Lindgren, I guess, knew it was coming. And good on the others because apparently I heard that Bouchard wanted to do it. And some of those guys told him, you're not going to do it. We'll handle it. And I heard there was more than one guy willing, but Frederick was the guy who did it. And it was interesting hearing that both Kevin and Colby saying, because I think Ryan Lindgren's a pretty tough, hard, edgy guy. And they said he is, but not so much as a fighter. He's more of like, that's the way he plays. He said, Trent Frederick is probably out of his weight class a bit, but he wasn't running away from it. But just unfortunate. I heard he got hurt and he might miss some time. That's been a feisty start to the year. Started in preseason in a few instances and it's carried over a lot of places here. It's happened a lot. I know everyone's talking about it now. And it's true, but it's been that way the last couple of years. Fights have been up early. I don't think anything's going to change Kyle about the overall setup, but there are more people than I thought grumbling about the shorter training camp and the fewer exhibition games. I have to check, but it always seems like there's injuries early, although they do seem like they're a lot this year. Nobody's going to mourn for the exhibition games, because if you're going to pay, I was talking about it with my brother-in-law tonight. He was saying that if you're going to pay for two extra games, they might as well mean something as opposed to exhibition games, so no one's going to mourn for them. But you wonder if all this sloppiness and if people believe any of the injuries is because guys are playing fewer exhibition games and there was short training camp. Not that I think it's going to change. No, and we went through some of the injury stuff early in the show here earlier. We forgot to mention Sam Montenbo too. Left practice for Montreal. Jacob Fowler's called up, so there's another one to kind of as we see the news of the day fall out today and going forward. What Sam Montenbo's status is moving forward for Montreal as well. There's not going away any time soon. The injury storyline around the NHL the early days of the season. Okay, that's the final thought and why don't we take our first break, come back with another edition of the thought line. You are listening to 32 Thoughts the Podcast and it continues after this. Okay, revving it back up for another edition of the thought line presented by Bet MGM, Make It Legendary. Elliott, the floor is yours to kick things off. Oh yes, my show notes. I had a few of them I wanted to give. Thank you for reminding me, Kyle. Okay, so first of all, I went, as you I've mentioned before, I like to go to Yorkdale and have a coffee, Americano, and Eritrea while I walk around the mall. One of my favorite things to do. And I ran into a podcast fan named Pino and he was wearing one of the coolest sweatshirts I have ever seen, Kyle. It was a Cronk gym sweatshirt. Now you're probably too young to know, but Cronk gym was the gym and Detroit that trained a lot of famous boxers including one of my favorites Thomas Hitman Hearns so when I saw it on them I actually stopped him I said that's a great sweatshirt and then we started just talking about hockey in the pod for a bit but you know is it is a big fan I also wanted to show it out an Instagram DM follower Mitchell Joseph who sent a great video about Philly's fans that we sent to Dom and we were all having a good laugh about that one and Noah Sear my phone auto corrected it to Noah Kerr but it's Noah Sear sent an Insta DM question Hey Freed listen to the pod and notice there was no mention of Queens taking down your mustangs a little disappointed by this LOL appreciate what you guys do yes I looked it up Noah Queens didn't beat Western 41 30 last weekend but the key thing is in my universe that did not happen and then I'll tell you in the in the booth Saturday night in Toronto who's certainly mentioned did why who went there to Kuthbert go to Christmas yes yeah he did a yes and Chris Lund who's part of the Leafs PR department they were he went to Galavanting about yes Galavanting about the arena gleefully after that result so it existed in there it happened in their worlds oh okay well I mean like neither one of these those two is genius so that kind of explains things okay and then finally I just wanted to mention one of our great podcast listeners Lucas Hannah Shiro who often writes in and he writes in on an XDM hey Elliott hope you're doing great I am listening to today's edition of the podcast and got to the part where you talk about the broken sticks and non calls during the weekend I wonder if this penalty against Linus Carlson on opening night and any influence on the officials the Oilers scored and tied the game on the ensuing power play with less than a minute to go you know the penalty that I know Dom knows the penalty we're talking about because he works on the radio of that oiler Kanox game you know that one Dom right yes sir Kyle do you know which one that Lucas is talking about yes yes I am yes so I think Lucas could be on to something maybe maybe there was a little bit of after that call because it was unfortunately a bad call yes and it's interesting that he brings that up because we got another submission into the thought line about the broken stick slashing calls from Kenny who is a lifelong Hawks fan and he like you understands the whole idea of even though you don't love the penalty most of the time but if the stick breaks the penalty is called because now the player is without a stick putting him at a disadvantage he said what drives him nuts is if a guy slashes a stick out of a player's hands and that is automatically called he goes it drives him crazy because there's times where it's got to the onus has to be on the player to not have a better grip on your stick and I can understand that one now I know that the Vancouver won the stick broke but it was it wasn't much of a slash and the play was gone so that was a tough one all around but it might look because it's always great to hear from you about yeah it got some reaction yep like people are thinking the same thing I think generally people hate the automatic call and the only reason I think it happens that way is to take the judgment out of it right well let's let's see now like we've kind of got I don't want to say a precedent but we've we've seen some examples of it not being automatic here in the first week let's let's see where it takes us okay Brian so you remember the trivia question last plot about same last name same Jersey number same team but no relation yep Brian writes here's one that's even better Billy Harris and Billy Harris both played for the Leafs one year and the 60s and one in the 80s yes both wore 15 no way different people same number same team no way I remember that that Billy Harris the second one was the first overall pick in the NHL draft by the founders one year and later was traded to the leaves oh yes I believe that was I think he came from LA in the E in Turnbull deal I'm gonna look that up but I think that's that was the where he came from but what a pull Brian what the whole he said his dad has been using this trivia question for decades as he should be and and yeah I went double check the 63 examples it is it is the only one that involves the same first name and last name same Jersey number no relation same team wow well Brian your dad is a genius and I just looked it up I didn't realize this but Billy Harris was indeed taken first overall in 1972 that was the islanders first-ever draft pick oh yeah he was he was the first the islands came in for 72 73 so he was their first-ever draft pick and that was a great draft for them it got the more handing Bob Nistrum a Gary how it was a 10th round pick and King Richard Richard was taken in the 7th round and so broger played 400 games and the rest of them all played like Henning and Nistrum and how it all won Stanley Cups there but what I didn't realize I was right about the in Turnbull trade he came to draw for in trouble but I didn't realize that he went from the Islanders the Kings in the Butch Goring deal the deal which was sort of like the final corner stone of putting together that Islanders dynasty Goring came right before they won their first Stanley Cup but what a pull Brian yeah what a pull by the Brian's here senior and junior I don't even know if that's your dad's name but we're going with senior and junior yeah that's very good well we're keeping in line with the the two Billy Harris's yes we're assuming two Brian's that's great all right let's keep this thing going Rick from Washington DC hello 32 thoughts crew Elliott is so out of line I had to write in for the first time okay all right on the last pod he asked us capitals fans to take it easy on his law school penguins fan friend when he wears his crossby jersey to Caps games this year I will now personally go out of my way to give him the hardest time at every game I can find him at this season the hatred between the Capson Pans is still very much alive and he needs to feel that every time he chooses to wear that Jersey and our building love the pod keep up the great work and let's go caps I have to find out because of course obviously on Wednesday night was the first game this year capitals penguins in Washington I have to find out if you wore it there but I understand I get it I do I get yeah yeah I had to expect at least I had a feeling that was not going to go undiscussed put it that way yes well I at least appreciate that you tried to use your power for good and not for evil yes I do try Rob for Westchester PA to the doctor of hockey news Elliott and his two nurses Kyle and Dom that's a new one these guys aren't smart enough to be nurses nurses that's true that's true and I can't stomach blood so I have no hope really yeah I don't know are you I didn't know that well it's yeah needles really yeah I tried to go Dan and I years ago like she went to go give blood and I was like I'll hop on the the bandwagon here seems like a noble thing to do I couldn't even get through they do a questionnaire before I've like kind of basic health questions or have you traveled to certain countries within the last three months or whatever it is and all that time I'm thinking after I get through this questionnaire then I have to go to that room over there and then they're going to get the needle and I was like I had to sit down I didn't even get like wired up and I'm on the gurney with like an orange juice box it was pathetic best intentions but they were like yeah maybe don't come back I've never met anybody like this I've never I've heard of this phenomenon before it's never happened I'm glad I can be this one in your life then somehow I'm gonna have to fight away to get you to do a needle on air oh all right tattoo maybe I don't have any tattoos by the way just a little teaser then about getting somebody to do something I have today in my mind I decided what your punishment is going to be for losing in season cup last year that's all I'm gonna say for now I thought it was going to eat spicy Indian food well that's Randy that that's Randy it's so I gotta do both of them because Emily's out yes yes I don't know I think we need a ruling on this one I don't know who we're not giving it to Dom to rule on it who's really on it I don't know I have to think about this It's not even worth asking Dom because I just said he's not smart enough to be a nurse and We also know he's gonna rule against me. I need to find someone who might actually give me a fair trial. Oh That's not how this works you as the loser don't get to dictate The judge and jury that's you know what? I'm gonna try my best Okay, well, this is all right. Stay tuned on that front then Rob what are you waiting? I'll tell you later Well, no, it's this is like that old joke. How do you keep an idiot in suspense? I'll tell you later But if if if it's something I'm willing to do I might just concede the audience wants to know All right Here's my thing okay You and me Separate but together Separate tubs three minutes cold tub cold tub Three minutes in a cold tub at nine or ten degrees Celsius. Oh Remember a year ago I talked about doing this. I never really got around to it Okay, so what you're saying to me is Because my partner and defeat Bolted us for the WWE. I have to do hot ones Indian food style and The cold tub. I have to take both punishments. Yes. Yes, exactly. That's in the in-season cup charter of rights Okay, you know what I'll do them. Yeah, and I'm doing the cold tub with you I'm not gonna stand there and watch you suffer. I'm gonna do it right in lockstep We will get I know how much you want to stand there watch me suffer. Okay, you know what we got a deal love it three minutes That'll be that'll be a challenge for me, but I'll try song to get us through it Well, we'll make it happen a pick freeze frame Good great choice Okay, speaking of freeze Rob's been stuck in pause here waiting to get his question out. Oh Rob that's okay. He writes as a longtime flyers fan. I was wondering if you heard or know of any ill will Towards the flyers organization from other team owners and GMs for the dramatic impact the offer sheet had not only for present A NHL but for many years to come that offers seem to jump player salary by Six to eight million per year in some cases and now having salaries over the 20 million dollar mark per season Truly love to listen to the pod. Thanks for all the hard work you guys put in week to week I don't know if anybody's said anything to them directly like I just don't know but the people have made Comments to me But I don't know I but I don't know that anyone said anything to them like we just had a board of governors meeting in the flyers Had representatives there. I don't know if anyone said anything to them. I don't know if anyone said into them during the summer But you know there there have been snide comments here and there Whenever another big contract gets done now. I will say this I don't know if it would have gone to that number But I do think there were other teams that were looking at Doing an offer sheet that would have taken us into a new level 18. I don't know, but there were definitely some offer sheet threats this summer and If it wasn't Philly it would have been Someone else to sum them for sure And even if you know it also Philly it looks like is going to get the draft this year So if the league was really mad at them You know, you figure they wouldn't get something like that, right? Barring a major change this year Philly is supposed to get the draft I know there was supposed to be a site survey either last week or this week Excellent Up next Ross from Raleigh, North Carolina Kyle Dominelli had great to have you back for another season While looking at the Redwings roster I noticed they have four players that share the same birthday Victor Arvidsen, JT Comfort, Marco Casper and Keegan Colossar We're all born on April the 8th Out of a 23-man roster there is just a 0.2% chance of this happening And that shrinks to 0.001% when only looking at the 13 forwards Has there ever been a roster with more shared birthdays? Love the pod keep up the great work. Let's go blues Wow Wow Ross, I have to say this, I'm I'm believably impressed you found that I've learned over the years that fans' knowledge and interest in minutiae is incredible There will be people that will find out things like this Um, I don't know of anyone who or any team that's had anything like this Like I remember some athletes who share specific birthdays like when Gretzky and Vince Carter When Vince Carter broke through as half-man, half-amazing as Chuck Sworsky called him with the raptors Then It was a big fascination that he shared the same birthday as wing Gretzky Just two great players who were the same day, but Other than that Kyle, I don't know if you checked it, but I wouldn't know that off the top of my head Right, how could you know what I know Well some people would like that's the kind of thing that Ron would know That's true. I was just talking about you specifically in this case Not you as the general public There's only one one other instance of this not more than four, but the same amount When was the how long ago was this? So this was 1984 Philadelphia Flyers Had Daryl Stanley Paul Holmgren and Rich and Ron Sutter All born December the second all the sobo is almost like cheating. They should only count as one Well It's the closest to what we've got in Detroit this year. Have you ever looked up your Birthday to see what famous athletes or people share Your date Yeah, well, I remember we used to have a calendar one year that had All the current NHL players of that year like their birthday sprinkled throughout So I remember my brother and I go into our birthdays. I was jealous. Thank he shares a birthday with team Mussolani Oh, that's a good one. Yeah I think mine was yeah, Garth snow I had He's July 28th nice remember who else, but I've never looked at just other general athletes I just remember that one calendar I had as a kid So I'm September 27th and I remember my Schmidt Uh Steve Curves and former Toronto Argonaut receiving great Terry Greer and later in life when she started becoming the elite of the elite Olympians Clara Hughes Oh outstanding and meatloaf and little Wayne Oh my gosh You're just another do it in that mix. Yeah, I know seriously. I'm like the 10 millionth most important birthday On that date That's awesome. What about you Dom you got you know who's famous on your birthday. I have some elite ones Okay, what's your birthday? What's your birthday? September two September two okay, we missed it this year. Okay I have Selma Hayek and Canadian legend Kiana Reeves Wow wow for my hockey birthdays. I have barcoff Jason Blake Brian McGratton and nice legend Sammy Salo That's that's that's a good group. That is really good. You know, I could tell you one thing you and Selma Hayek You don't share the same parents. No, we do not Great observation for each. Thank you. Thank you very much Oh, God. All right, let's keep this going here a couple more. This was a voicemail courtesy of a Kenneth from Albuquerque Good morning gentlemen Kenneth Ferguson column from Albuquerque, New Mexico During the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Look it up. It's gorgeous Quick question As teens are getting assorted Early in the season and putting players on waivers. I was curious if in that 24 hour waiver period There was an NHL rule Saying that player couldn't be traded Until the waiver situation is sorted out Was curious about a situation maybe a teen sees a player that they're interested in Oh instead of waiting the day to see if they get the waiver claim Maybe they call it off for a late-round take in return for some salary retention Again, just kind of curious about that appreciate the pod you guys are the best Kenneth, once you're in on waivers, you're locked in for the 24-hour period now. One thing that can happen is I have seen situations where teams have waited to see if a player cleared waivers, so they know if they'd have the ability to send them down. Because if you claim a player, you have to keep them on your roster. You can't just send them down. If you take someone from someone else's roster, you have to keep them on yours. Like, there are situations where a team will wait to see, okay, the player clears waivers. Now, we know we can trade for them and send them down. Ottawa did this with Jonas Johansson, who they traded for with Tampa. They know that they can send them down for the waiver period because he had cleared. Most cases Kenneth, a player goes on waivers and other teams know he's been available. For example, one thing I found out after it happened was Connor Zari, when he went on waivers with the flames, they put him out on the GM group chat the day before. So teams knew that Zari. I mean, Calgary had tried to trade him in the summer. It hadn't worked out, but they reminded everybody he was available the day before they did it. So that's kind of where it is. And once you're in the waiver circuit, you can't be dealt. I'm just, I'm, I've done a headfirst dive into the balloon fiesta that he referenced. This is, have you ever heard of this? No, what is it? It's a nine-day event with over 500 hot air balloons that are launched up into the sky over this big park. Really? Anyway, apparently it's quite the spectacle. Where is it? In Abercookie. Wow. Have you ever seen, I would see that. Have you ever been in a hot air balloon? I don't believe so. I would do it. I know some people are like, no, I don't remember ever being in a hot air balloon. You're right. I probably would know it. Dom, have you been in a hot air balloon? No, but I feel like the event would be full of hot air. Well, it's, it's perfect for us. Okay. Go back to sleep. That's just so bad. Have you ever seen the movie, the red balloon? No. 1956. La Balal Rouge. It's a French movie. It's like half an hour long. I saw it when I was in elementary school. I think it's on YouTube. That left an impression on me. Would recommend is what you're saying? Yes. Okay. All right. But I would also go to this Albuquerque balloon festival. Okay, one final one here. I guarantee you we are going to get tweets and thought line from people who've seen the red balloon. Yeah. If there's one thing we have learned here, it will find any place, this bloody program. Infiltrate anywhere from grand junction airports to balloon fiestas. It's fantastic. One final one here for each. Chris from Edmonton. Hi, gang. Nathan's question on Monday's pod led to a discussion around Yuri Houdina's 250 games played and three cups. That question had me thinking who has the best games played to cups one ratio in NHL history. For example, I know one of you isn't a athlete. 100 games played and two cups one would be a 50 games played to cup ratio. If there are multiple people with one game played to one cup, extending the question to multiple cups would be fun. Conversely, who has the worst games played to cup ratio? Ray Bore comes to mind immediately, though, I could be wrong. No, there's players who played a ton of games and didn't win. I mean, because there's guys who played a ton of games and would be zero, right? So for the sake of this argument, there's at least one cup win. Oh, okay. But the earlier question about the best ratio from games played and again, for this conversation, it's regular season games played. Yes. Stanley cups one. In 2006, Anton Babchuk won a Stanley Cup with the flames. So with the hurricanes, excuse me, and he was traded there during the season and he played like 40 games in the NHL at the time. And I think I remember some of the Carolina players, like joking with him. I'm trying to remember it was him. Like in the celebration, they're like, you've played 40 games and you've got a Stanley Cup. Like that's a joke. I think it was him. But I'm looking them up now. He was there there, but he ended up playing 289 games. So I don't know that that would qualify. Like there's gotta be some guys who played. And then again, I wonder if a guy played for two or three years on a really good team. And that's the answer. But Babchuk was the first guy who jumped into my head because I think he played 40 games when he first won. So it's a great memory that you have. You want the answer? Okay, give me like give me an idea. I want to see if I can we're going back and figure this we're going back away. Yes. When the world was much different. So I so it's got to be like somebody who was on the Canadians when they were really good and didn't play a lot, not the Canadians. But it was a dynasty, right? Like a good team. Yeah. What year? 1950. So it was a red wing. Yes. I've never heard of this player. I would be very impressed if you had unless I was familiar with the story. No, if there's a story like when I think back of red wings around that time who may not have been the biggest names. I think of Leswick. I think of Pristai. But those are the names that jump into my head. If it's someone less than that, I probably don't know it. Okay, you ready? Yes. So it's a guy by the name of Doug McCay. Okay. So Doug McCay that season was playing in the American league for their then farm team, the Indianapolis capitals. Okay. He wins a Calder Cup with Indianapolis. And a short while thereafter, the red wings are playing in the Cup final. They call him up for I think game three of the final. He plays the one game. That is it. He never plays a regular season game in the NHL. He never plays another playoff game in the NHL. Oh, wow. I'm looking at him now. What a pickup. He has one NHL game to his name. It was in the Stanley Cup final for the wings. They won the cup. Now the story I read and also won the one that championship the next year, two in the U.S. HL for the Omaha Knights. Yeah. So he won. I'm looking at his hockey DB. He won three in a row. Well, three championships in two years. And I, the story I read. So it was a different. The rules were different back then. Now that that player, that person, if that's what you did, the only thing you did in your NHL career was play one game in the Stanley Cup final and that team won that year. You would get your name on the cup, but it was more so the team decided who was on back then. So I don't think his name was on it. The cup officially, but I know it's been recognized in other circles. Anyways, that's he takes the cake. Never played a regular season game in the NHL and and has a Stanley Cup win next to his name. Doug McKay. I never was getting that. What a pull. Was that sports and stats? Or did you figure that out? No, I was not figuring that out. No, that was that was Richard Choi and the gang at SN stats. He dug that out. Great job, Richard. Doug McKay. Wow. Yeah. I'm a Mr. Patrick. Yes. So he too, like, remember, he played as he was the coach. Yeah, he came off. But he had to let the matches go. Yes. And they won the cup that year, but he also did like spot duty as defenseman for one game the year prior. So he has technically one regular season game and one Stanley Cup as a player to his name. But anyway, Doug McKay is at the top. As for the flip side of that. By the way, I had to look this up because Doug McKay wanted Stanley Cup around 1950. And he was from Hamilton. And there was a Dave McKay, of course, a former Major League Baseball player who was an original Blue Jay and a long time coach. But he's from Vancouver, but he was born in 1950. So I wanted to see if there was any chance, from maybe father and son, but I'm not seeing anything here. Uh, all right. Now do you have a crack at the player who would have played the most games in history, but only had one Stanley Cup to their name? Uh, I assume it's not Bork. He's third on the list. It's a good guess from Chris. That was a really good guess. Um, is it Chara? Yes, it is. Wow. 1680 games played. Wow. And uh, Andrew Chuck at two. Oh, Andrew Chuck is second. Okay. That's a fun one to finish. You know, uh, you know what? Oh, Vetskin. No, he can't catch him. He's four. Yeah, but he's at 1570, something in counting. Yeah, and Chara's 1680. So he could finish this year, second overall, but he can't get the first. Right, right, right. Unless they go win the cup on his way. Oh, I need up to. That's right. Chris, thank you for that. That's great. Love the follow up trivia questions building off the previous episode. All right. That was a long one, but a good one. If you want to send in your own submission, please feel free to do so at 32 thoughts at sportsnet.ca or you can drop us a voice mail at 1 a 3 3 3 1 1 32 32. We'll take one final break, say our goodbyes and another Canadian track to play us out to 32 thoughts, the podcast. It returns after this. All right, that's going to do it for this edition of 32. Thank you so much for listening. Another busy night of action, the NHL tonight, 10 games in total. We should flag a couple of them for you. Calgary and Colorado for viewers in the flames region. Can see that at seven mountain time on sportsnet West. And those out in the Pacific region can watch the Vancouver Canucks begin their six game road trip tonight in Carolina at four Pacific time on sportsnet Pacific. I'm sure Maddie, of course, and the radio crew will have the call as well at 104.9 kiss F M if you're unable to see it on your television set. Take it us out today, a track from Kiwi, Jr. who are four die hard Montreal, Canadians fans marooned in the city of Toronto. They've released four critically acclaimed albums and worked with well-known record labels, Subpop, Mint and K records. Their most recent album blowing up was released in August this year. And was called one of the best albums of the summer by bandcamp.com. They play Toronto this Friday at Longboat Hall, tickets and more information available at Kiwi, Jr.com. And thank you to Kiwi, Jr. for your loyal listenership to the pod. Hope your Canadians have a great season ahead of them yet. Here they are Kiwi, Jr. and blowing up on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. With 70s bros, drinking the flood dry, I'm working at West, and you better believe it's blowing up. blowing up, the size shaping mechanics, everything in its place, cast and plaster of Paris. There's the look on your face when you first heard my blowing up, could you believe it? blowing up, blowing up, we never say good-morning, we always say good-night, it's good to see you again. Our tiny little satellite, when detectives get here on Monday morning, we're going to have run out of warnings. And it's our fingerprints at the scene. We're missing an expectation of the way to the Moonlight layer. One time it's looking in just right, all signs point to it, they're pretty silly, baby, we're about to blow up. blowing up, blowing up, all down, down, down, down, down. all crows are missing here, we're wet, we're out in the desert, it's simple math, we're the crows down at night, so I hope you brought a sweatshirt. When the boss is back on Monday morning, satellite boys, party's over, just hit the lights when you leave. [Music] blowing up, blowing up, we never say good-morning, we always say good-night, it's good to see you again. [BLANK_AUDIO]