Marchenk-T.O.

Don, sour grapes, man. It's really unbecoming. Take your L like an adult. Okay? Don't be a sock. Yeah. You made up the rule of over under here with all this. And when I'm 1699, I didn't make anything up. I've watched the prices right for many, many years. Welcome to 32 thoughts. The podcast. Happy when? Huh? What day? Thursday. First day of the new schedule, Elliott Friedman, Dom Shrmani, just as a new NHL schedule has begun. We are two nights in to the NHL calendar, the 2026, 2027 season. We'll get into some of the games. We have seen so far. What? Elliott, we left things on Monday talking about some unfinished business that was still hovering over certain patches of North America, one of which, of course, was Carilmarchenko. That got settled on Monday. And it was kind of funny because the Maple Leafs, they practice at Scotia Bank Arena that day. And afterwards, John Chica met the media around one o'clock Eastern about. And he was being asked about knives. This was before the trade had come out. And it was all the noise about him. How do you think he dealt with it? And he made a comment to the effect of does the trade chatter ever truly go away? It was almost like a clue for us of just hang on. You haven't seen anything yet. And it wasn't even a few hours later that you would put out the initial report that things were trending towards Marchenko to Toronto. It happened. He's played two games for the blue and white, but how we got there on Monday. What can you fill us in on now? I think the permission from Columbus to talk to Marchenko came about 150 Eastern time that day too, Kyle. So right around, he might have even been still talking to you, answering one of your atrocious questions when he was told he was officially allowed to talk to the player. I mean, what a crazy couple of hours. You know, we talked about how that day there might have been a soft deadline to get Marchenko done by five Eastern when the league wide opening night cap compliant rosters need to be submitted. And there's no question in my mind that Toronto got the deal done for two major reasons. Number one, they had the best player available, Matthew Nies. And I think Columbus would admit that they knew that they could get Nies from Toronto potentially in this deal. And it was going to be impossible to get somebody else as young as cost control and as talented as he is. And the second reason was one of the things the Maple Leafs have been, I'm have been absolutely unafraid to do in the cap era is use their financial muscle flex it. Yes. You know, it's like that. It's like that social media posts they made were the Toronto Maple Leafs and you're not. We will put our money where our mouth is and they took the Miss Leakens deal and they took the Miles Wood deal. Now, I think they were trying to flip Miles Wood. Also that day, I think they were trying to work on trades to see if they could move him elsewhere. But obviously that didn't happen. And right now he's with the Marlies of the AHL. And we might see him during the season. You know, you never know in this league, you think something's not going to happen. But injuries and situations make it occur. But I think those were the reasons that the Maple Leafs got the deal done. Nies and the willingness to take those two contracts. Montreal, no question. They had been the most most serious pursuer all summer. From the moment that Marc Chanco was potentially available that he'd let the Blue Jackets know he would not sign an extension there. You know, they were the team that chased the hardest and word behind the scenes was he was more than happy to go there. I think that's one of the most interesting storylines about this whole thing, Kyle is that the word early in July was he was willing to go to Montreal. But he wasn't so crazy about Toronto somewhere over the summer that changed. The Maple Leafs got it done. They got him extended. The amazing thing was, you know, they got the extension verbally done on Monday, but it wasn't signed until Tuesday. They had the term agreed to six years. They had the AAV agreed to 12 and a half million a year. Jacob made an interesting comment, Kyle, in his press conference on Tuesday morning, the morning after they made the deal before they played their opener against the Canadians. He said, damn, Milstein, the agent knew exactly what he wanted. And from what I understand, the Leafs were told they had two choices, five times 12 or six times 12 and a half. And they chose the six times 12 and a half option. So they had to work on the structure and some of the language, which they did, but the extension was basically presented to them. And Kyle, the other thing that was crazy was, I think they had to redo the deal. Well, never mind, I think I know they had to redo the deal. You know, people have asked me to explain this tagging thing. The simplest way to do it is you can't have like $300 million in contracts next year. Right. Basically, what it does is it prevents you from saying, you know what, I've got my cap done for this year. I'll sign or trade for a bunch of guys who have $300 million in contract next year. And I'll deal with it then. You can't do that. You basically can't go over the cap in future years to make it simple. So I think initially I heard that Emil Andre was not in the trade. And he was put in it because he's owed $1.55 million next year. And that helped them get the deal done. So that's why all of that kind of played out that way. You know, I've tried to figure out what Montreal did at the end. I heard that Montreal was trying to be really creative. I think they were trying to involve other teams. You know, I'm not 100% sure if they were trying to get other teams to take one of these extra Columbus guys or were they trying to take a player from another team and put them in Columbus because I just always heard that Columbus wasn't crazy about what Montreal offered. There were some good players in there, but some futures Columbus didn't really want futures and they just never had anything close to eyes. And I think what they were trying, like I heard there was another player they were trying to get to Columbus from another team. And I thought I know who that guy was, but the other team has denied it. So I'm still working Kyle on who that guy was. So when it comes to my eyes were okay. So when it comes to math, you know, is then Elliot. I mean, we watched him. You think about the playoffs two years ago. How utterly dominant he was in that Ottawa series. And then against Florida, you know, if he not had gotten hurt because obviously by the end he was not far from 100%. You know, do they do they beat the Panthers in the end? Who knows? Like he was, he was such a critical piece of them two springs ago. And I guess maybe that's part of the equation. Had he not gotten hurt and we know injuries was part of his story last season as well. Was that one of the things that that maybe gave the Maple Leafs a bit of nerves with him going forward? Because otherwise you had a young player with what was a great number before this summer. A phenomenal number now with how everything has changed. Was that the one sticking point? I know, of course, it's a it's a new regime in charge as well. What ultimately were they thought, okay, we're willing to part with this guy. Of course, you got to give up quality to get a guy like Marchenko. I think that's the number one thing. Honestly, Kyle is that you have to give quality to get quality. I don't think that should be forgotten. It's it's a very big part of what happened here. But you know, a lot of people have asked that. Is there something wrong with him? Is he a bad guy? You know, the answer is no. He's not a bad guy. But I do think if you were to say and I've said this a couple times in the aftermath, Kyle, I really hate it when a player gets traded and all of a sudden there's, oh, this guy was a bad guy or this were these were the problems with him. Like you just sort of embarrass a guy when he's no longer there to face you day to day. So I'm really careful about that kind of thing. The only complaint I ever heard about knives. It's not even so much of a complaint. It's that I think there was worry that the injuries he'd suffered, especially the concussions that they might catch up with. That's it. Okay. Well I have to say, and even being at the ring fair on Monday, certainly in the dressing room, you didn't get a sense that anything was coming, and you know, we saw some of the interviews that Nies has done since being traded to Columbus. And understandably, it seems like though his name had been out there, I wonder if getting through training camp, getting through preseason, practiced on the number one line on Monday afternoon, the day before or the season open, I wonder if the mind started to go okay, maybe that's going to be put to the side for a little bit, and then suddenly a bit of a shock, an hour later or however long it was going, "Oh no, wait a sec, you're on the move here now, it's a brand new life for you in Columbus." But I think there's, for Columbus, a real opportunity to have this be a win for them also. Like it was a cloud hanging over them with Marchenko, I don't see how things go, whether he starts with, you know, when he starts with that in Ventelli, how that all goes, I just think there's a real chance for a guy that was showing the potential that was growing when healthy and Toronto to now have the opportunity to continue to do so with the Blue Jackets team that would love a player of that caliber. I think it has the chance to be a win both ways. To be honest, like I was thinking about this Kyle, first of all, I think it's a win for NICE because it's over, and you know, what happens in these situations is everybody parses everything really tight, like, you know, for example, that video that Columbus put out of the trade, people are like, "Oh, well, NICE doesn't really sound happy." You know what? I think it's such a whirlwind, and as you said, he goes from practicing on the number one line the day before the season to getting traded after months of rumors. And, you know, I was told after the trade that the Maple Ease were kind of preparing for, I don't know if ultimatum is the right word, Kyle, but I think they knew that NICE was going to demand or his representation was going to demand some clarity, like enough enough already, like our player needs to know he's in your plans or he's not. And also, don't forget, like this is a young guy, it's the first time he's ever been traded. I'd forgotten the video of him on social media when the Maple Ease won the lottery, and I guess he was at a basketball game or something. I think him and Nieland are at one of the Marley's playoffs games. Oh, it was the Marley's playoffs games. Okay, I couldn't remember what it was, and how excited they were that they wanted. Like, this was a guy who was invested. So, I think you just, like, you have to get through the emotional whirlwind when he puts the jersey on. He drops the puck and Columbus is opening on Thursday night against Buffalo. He's going to run over his first saver. Maybe he's going to churp Benson because of that hilarious mohawk he's got now. What a great video. The savers put up Benson in that mohawk on Wednesday. I loved him. And then we were asking, we were golfing with Kevin and Luke on on Wednesday. We were asking if either one of us had either gotten the mohawk before answers, no, in case any of you were, we're wondering what a hula. Once he just gets into it, he'll be fine. He'll be fine. And you know, the other thing I was thinking, Kyle, you look at all the trades that are being talked about now, you know, Halobock, Larkin, whichever deal you want. The thing that you should realize of your Columbus is, when this is all over, I'm curious to see how many teams making these trades, get a player as good as nice. I don't know how many players at his youth talent and contract and experience are going to be available. Are going to be available. You know, I'll see this to what's really interesting is that, you know, Chica was supposed to do a couple of radio interviews, the good telecom and the evil telecom. And he had to put them off. But I heard later, nice was scheduled to do a radio interview, I think, on Monday afternoon. And he got pulled. And it was kind of like, someone told me about this. And it was kind of like, that's one of the reasons, I think it kind of seeped out that something was going down, right, right, right. And the other thing too, so this all happens at a time when they're running through the rehearsals for all the pomp and circumstance for the home opener Tuesday night. They're doing that the day before. And then it was like, oh shoot. Now Matthew and I is gone. So take him out of all the hype videos out of all the promo stuff. Obviously, we're not introducing him Tuesday night. So it was, it was a last minute scramble for a bunch of people involved when that goes down some 24 hours before opening night. There's a lot of, a lot of layers to this. Yes, the, it's always people forget it's always those individuals in your promotions and your video and graphic department. They're the ones who have to do some of the most important editing and legwork on those days. You know, something else about Toronto, I want to say Kyle, I think there were a couple of things in the off season that they were considering that could potentially have Cowan involved. And I did hear this week that even before the puck dropped that Cowan's stock in the organization was way up and that it was the Toronto's desire to move Cowan has really decreased that they're like, oh, like this guy is a player. And then in the first two games of the season, the loss to Montreal and the victory over the hounders, he was one of their best players, I thought. So there, there definitely is a feeling that Cowan's stock is up even before the, the, he started playing or they started playing. And I think in the first two games, we all saw why. Yeah. And it's funny to say that because I was asking somebody before Tuesday night of how do you think he's looking at the whole dynamic where mechanic comes in as the number one pick. They got all these new bodies. And he would have been a guy that was talked about a lot this time. Last year's the rookie making the team at a camp. And suddenly, he was just another guy in the lineup for a little while with all these new faces in here. And the answer was, well, it's okay that now the attention is elsewhere, but you just don't want the attention to be elsewhere too much from a head coaching perspective, right? Like are you still getting put in decent situations to have success in terms of ice time and who your linemates are and all of that. And to your point, the first two games, he's been very noticeable and has moved up the lineup part way through each game. It's been a really good start for him. You're right. Yeah. So I mean, you know, like Marchenko looked good. He looks very good. Yeah. And I like him on the off-wing. I'm, you know, I'm curious to see like the one guy from Toronto, who I think gets most affected by this deal potentially is Roslovic. And, you know, it's a unique situation. First of all, you rarely see trades like this right at the beginning of the year. And night before the start of the regular season. And you know, the guy gets basically thrown on Jim Hiller's lap right as they're about to play two games back-to-back. So you really don't have a lot of time to think you got to just go with it and just see how all this ends up. But what a way to start the year and absolute banger of a trade that gets us going. You know, I have to tell you, Dom, the only bad start to the year we had was at golf. Kyle and Luke wore the extra small pants on the course. And, you know, I have to tell you, Dom, it was the only thing about the golf day on Wednesday afternoon. I didn't enjoy. I lost $20 on the wagering because I had about four holes in the back nine where I went tilt as Kyle saw. But that was, that's what Kevin says. It was like a router they had to unplug me and plug me back in. But, Dom, I got to tell you, Kyle and Luke, they needed crowbars to get into the pants they wore on Wednesday. Let nothing to the imagination, hey? It was, it was not pretty. It was pretty. It was pretty. We wore a well. I'll do it again. I don't care. Scane jeans are back. Yeah. That's right. Oh, I could never wear jeans golf, like you imagine. Speaking of tight pants, well, do you remember one spot of time that that the jeans ad that Dylan Larkin did in Detroit. - Yes. - I'm Dylan Larkin and I have a hockey butt. - Yes. - That was great. But now we're all wondering what's going on still in Detroit, right? That on a Larkin front. Also you've got Simone Edvinson skating now back home in Sweden, as he still doesn't have a contract. And you know, we're still seeing, okay. Larkin's working his way back from injury. Is he gonna play when they open their season on Friday? And how much longer will he remain a red wing? What's the latest in hockey town? - So Dom just texted legendary Segway. And that was Kyle, you know, that was, that was McClain of his absolute best Segway there. That is worthy, that is the Segway worthy of the host chair on hockey night in Canada. Excellent job. You know, I mean with Larkin, I think in Larkin in particular, it's, you know, when's he gonna be healthy enough to play? You know, I remember there was one time I went on the air and I questioned the injury and Glenn Healy, like, just gave it to me. He said, if you're gonna question injury, you better know. And I do think, I know that Detroit, Detroit is a five alarm fire, fire right now. Just not, I'm not just talking about the organization. I'm talking about the whole relationship between the fans in the organization, but Larkin is legitimately hurt. And, you know, we'll see, we'll see what happens there and how that plays out. So that's number one. I don't know if there's anything on the front burner there. The Edvinson thing is a big deal, Kyle. You know, as I've reported, I believe organizationally they're, they want a bridge, they don't want term. Yeah, well, look, if it's changed, nobody has told me. But the one thing I heard from a couple of different places was now that Edvinson has gone back to Sweden escape. The ball is, I've been told in a couple of places, the ball is in the Red Wings court. Basically it's their decision. What happens here? So what that says to me is that Edvinson are his representatives and he's represented by JP Barry. They've got something on there, out there that they have offered. And it's up to the Red Wings to decide. Now, I mean, you know me, I always try to be careful. I don't like to pile on. I've been on the receiving end of those pile-ons before and I know what it's like. But I think it's an impossible story to ignore. And I thought about what was the right thing to say. And I think one of the challenges right now with the Red Wings is that, you know, every day there's something else. And some of it's true, a lot of it's true. But some of it, I don't know if it's true. Like the one thing I dispute is until someone proves to me otherwise is the Stephen Stamco thing. So that year I heard that Nashville blew everybody out of the water. That the reason he ended up with the predators is the predators decided they wanted the player and they made an offer that nobody else was even close to. Now, are there other choices or other things the Red Wings could have done that maybe didn't work out their way, 100%. But I remember at the time and I actually went back and checked my notes. I was told that Nashville just, nobody was close to them. And he ended up there. But the one thing I think is a fair criticism of Detroit right now is that they kind of have the change from Iserman. I think it was a defensible move. I think you could absolutely say that they had their reasons to make a GM change. But what happened in the aftermath? You can't have organizational inertia. You can't have an inability to do things because as a team, the clock is always ticking on important decisions. With this Larkin thing, I think there was a time where as Detroit went through their search, they weren't really prepared to make the deal. And okay, but with Edvinson, you knew that the season was going to be starting, you have to be prepared to get that done. Especially since you've already said, we're not, as Hortgov pointed out in his media conference, we're not rebuilding, we want to compete. Well, you need Edvinson to compete. And the other thing I think, I'm starting to look at the Brinkett because the Brinkett's a guy who wants to be a Red Wing. He was thrilled to go there. He talked about it with us at the NHL, NHLPA, Media Tour in Vegas, Kyle. But now you've already lost the ability to sign them for eight years. And the reason was they really weren't ready to talk to them. And that is the kind of thing I look at and say, you can't, you have to protect yourself against that. Even if you're in a state of change around your organization, a guy like to Brinkett, who is one of your best players and your best goal scorer, that is important long-term ramifications to the team. And if there was, if there was something I would say right now to Detroit, that is a constructive criticism. It's that you have to get yourself into position to make these decisions. Because I think that if I was a Red Wing fan, I wouldn't be worried about it just for the now. I'd be worried about what this meant for all of this meant for the future. Because these decisions aren't just October 2026 decisions. These decisions, Edvinson, Larkin, Debrinkett, they're going to affect your organization for potentially a decade to come. And I think that that's what they have to do. They have to get, they have to be in a place where they can make these choices. Now I've heard, and the Red Wings have said that they will continue to look for the right person as part of that. And in the shorter term, I think they've talked about the possibility of bringing in more senior people to help out Horkov. And I never have a problem with that. But I just think the Red Wings have to make it a priority to be in a position to start making some of these decisions faster. It's too important. - I mean, not unlike the hell of a situation in Winnipeg. However, that ends up, and the ripple effects, as you say, for the next decade, that could be a big one. And in Detroit, as you're saying, there's a bit of urgency with the few of these things. I've wondered, as time's gone on here, I mean, at the start of training camp, it was Dylan Larkin and Sean Horkov sitting next to each other up on the podium, taking questions. Is there any chance of anything you've heard that Horkov, or someone in there, is trying to mend the relationship to have Dylan Larkin reconsider his position? - I think they absolutely have talked about it. I've just heard it's really unlikely. - Okay. - But I don't think your hypothesis is wrong at all, Kyle. I don't think your hypothesis is wrong at all. - Okay, well, they opened their season on Friday. So pressure remains on there, because it's not just Larkin, they better worry about. All right, so we keep playing the hits here, but that's because they remain big topics, and as the league just gets started up again, Alietta, what about Alexander Nikeshens? Some new information may be trickling out there? - Well, I mean, there's been some noise about, could this be coming to an end? It's tough to tell. I really spent a lot of time looking into it, because, well, Emily Kaplan reported it the other day before one of her games. By the way, I wanted to tell you that, remind me to tell you a story about that game after we're done here. But, as far as I could tell, some of that noise was created, because the new agent, Paul Theophanis, was doing some work catching up on the file. So I think because he was poking around and asking around a lot, things had kicked up. So it's hard for me to tell if that means it's actually close or he's just catching himself. up. We'll see. But like there was definitely some noise that maybe something could happen. It was it was hard to tell. I got a little bit of pushback on that. We'll see. I mean, hopefully it does happen. So this is all over, but I did get a little bit of pushback on it. You know, one thing I wanted to mention, because it went viral after I talked on NHL network on Tuesday. I did mention that the hurricanes had offered the occasional long-term deal, and some people took that to mean it happened recently. It's not true. It wasn't recent. I think it was about a year ago, but it was in the same style that they've done Jackson Blake and Logan Stankovan eight years, long-term. It was around it was around five million a year, but there was some I think some people interpreted that as they did it recently. It wasn't recent. It was it was about a year ago, but they did do that and try to lock them in like they've done some other players and the key shouldn't wasn't willing to do that at this time. Okay. Also wanted to we just wish Brock favor all the best. Yes, man. What a brutal injury there. A brutal fractured skull with the pocket hookup to the head in the preseason. You're you're big on Minnesota this year and many people are and they're they're going to miss him. So okay, the game you wanted me to remind you to mention that Emily was work. Was that Boston, New York on Tuesday? No, well, no, it was it was actually the the Carolina game. So oh, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. So the Carolina game and and you know, by the way, I think the wild are being pretty careful about favors timeline. Like they they really don't want to put anything on it and just let it play out, which is probably the smart move here. I don't think anybody would argue that. So I was lobbying for Carolina, Florida as the opener, right? Because Carolina is obviously raising the banner and I thought Florida was the perfect opponent. I wrote in the notes this week about a meme that appeared this year about how there was a Photoshopped Hurricanes Stanley Cup banner. And it said Hurricanes avoided the Panthers in the playoffs 20 25 26. Now I had some people send me some DM saying it was a person on the internet who did that. And like I said, I don't know who did it. The point was that some Hurricanes people were sent that like specifically sent that. I don't know if it was to make them laugh or to poke fun at them, but it was specifically sent to the Hurricanes. So I was like, you have to have them play each other, right? You have to do it. Now initially, I think the Hurricanes were supposed to open against Pittsburgh, but the NHL did the right thing and they switched it. And they made Carolina Florida the game. Unfortunately, Kyle, the game was a bit of a dud. It didn't hit on all the notes who were hoping. Forging, of course, scored an overtime for Florida to win the game and the in-season cup, giving Luke the in-season cup. But it was a bit of a dud, a bit of a dud. Despite Nick DeLorean, Boko Imama's attempts to make it a little more exciting, both physically and verbally. It was a bit of a dud. And somebody looking at the shot totals, I'm like, I'm not reading this right, am I? It didn't seem real. Like this is the Hurricanes we're talking about here, right? Yes, especially at home where they lean on the shot counter. Like somebody never takes their finger off the shot counter. And so somebody who was watching the game, who had heard me beg for this matchup, sent me a note during it saying, you owe all of us an apology. So allow me to apologize for everybody to everybody for that. No, I mean, look, coming off the short pre-season, I think that was, that was evident not in every game, but certainly in a few early on here, these first couple of nights, Elliott, where just offensively those little moves in tight, the passes through sticks, between legs, stuff like that, that would be instinctive as players got more and more back into the rhythm of things, just aren't quite there yet. And so I think that's, that's why you saw that go one nothing and over time, why there was no scoring in Boston, New York until just a few minutes left in the third, why Toronto Montreal was relatively low scoring. And then there was, then there was Edmonton Vancouver, and then there was Colorado LA and my goodness, the Pittsburgh Panquence laying the boots to fill it up on Wednesday night. Seven to nothing. By the way, I saw the crossbees walking before the game, and there was nothing covering up the belt. So you can see it. It was visible. I met, we missed it because we were still on the golf course. You watched it later. Yeah. I went back and saw it. Big night, right? National audience. He wasn't hiding it. And the belt was big. Seven, nothing. A converted touchdown. Yes. Yeah. So that was, that gave the, I was a mat bar who kicked for Pittsburgh when I was a kid. The mat bar kicked the extra point for the Steelers over the Eagles. Yes. That's right. And became most regular season wins in history by one trio, Crosby, Malkin, Latane. That's her passing, Joe Thornton, Joe Pugalski, and Mark Edward, the classic. So unbelievable. Start by them. And then you've got Rick talk it on the flyer side, saying, I don't know if we want to battle it all tonight. And that was the worst D zone performance he had seen since he's been the coach in Philadelphia. It's like right away, the fires blaze in there with the flyers going. They've got their attention in a hurry. And remember last year was Detroit. Yes. I was, I was thinking that exact same thing. Yeah. exact same thing. You know, it's very similar. You can't, it's really tough to stink in your home openers. That's, that's, you know, I saw Kevin Kerr's who, it was covered the flyers for a long time before and then after he came back from San Jose. And, you know, he was basically saying the flyers should give everybody a ticket. So just say, Hey, everybody who is at our game, we're giving you a free ticket to another one. It's actually not a terrible idea. That was a nightmare of a performance. It's embarrassing. You know, we talked about how anaheim, even though they dress an H lineup against San Jose in the preseason, it's never acceptable to lose 10 nothing. No matter how inferior your lineup is, it's worse to lose your home opener seven to nothing against your most hated rival. Like that is the worst kind of butt kicking. And, you know, Pittsburgh look great. And, you know, Crosby will continue with the lucky belt because he got a couple of points. I'll say this and you know this. There's a lot of people in the Toronto area where we live who are rooting, well, you don't live here, but you're here a lot who are rooting for Nick Robertson. Like I don't know if there'll be a player in the league that the Toronto fans will be rooting for more than Nick Robertson. It didn't work out for him here, but everybody recognizes the talent. He never caused a problem. He's a real easy going guy. And I was happy to see that he got two goals including a shorthanded one because I think a lot of people want to see Robertson do well. Great, great start for him, great start for the penguins and Kyle. What else do we learn on Wednesday night that every six years Nathan McKinnon throws a helmet. That's right. This time it was just at the boards, not at another player. So Connor Garland 2020, his own helmet, 2026 in 2032 bucket. Nathan McKinnon is throwing a helmet. Brand Clark, that guy can get under people's skin. They were mad at him for stuff last year. They were mad at him for running McCarr. Then they were mad. I guess McKinnon said he said something to him he didn't like. That Brand Clark somebody told me like a funny story about him once that he couldn't find his shoes once when he was living in a billet house and he just put the dad shoes on and wore them to school. He's just like okay. He's good guy to talk to like he's funny. I love talking. talking to him, but he definitely has that edge to him and boy, he, he, he seriously pissed off McKinney and you're right, those, the, the, we, at least we got a couple of wild ones in the West that King's Avalanche one and that Conox Oilers one, which one do you want to do first, King's Avalanche or Conox Oilers? Well, I just want to say, so the other news on Wednesday was Jared Bednar getting the four year extension to remain head coach of the Avalanche. And I loved on the graphic that the social team put out when their announcement, they included an image of Bednar with the long hair and with the short hair. I thought that was a nice touch. Yeah. What if they did that on purpose? I want to believe that they did. You want to believe that they did? Yes. Yeah. The absent men was on the ball and they made sure both choices were included. Who has the best long hair/short hair combination? Is it Jared Bednar or Jean Prince of pay and has anyone seen the two of them in the same room together? Yeah, that's because it kind of grows out similarly, eh? You got the, like, the lovely salt and pepper, distinguished look and it gets a little, you think it's a curly, nice, natural wave to it. I don't know. And both of them could rock either, wonderfully, but I can't go against her teammates. That's fair. I think that's the right answer. I can't remember if it was Colby or it was Kevin, but we threw it to a hit on Tuesday night. I think it was in the second intermission of Toronto Montreal. We threw it to a hit with Jean, previewing the others, the connox. And one of them said, you've got to be kidding. That hair, when they looked at Jean, and I said, it's beautiful, he's got, he's rocking the floor. I'm glad you brought up Bednar. I'll say this when they lost and we knew he was going into the last year of his contract. I asked somebody in Colorado, like, are we on a Bednar watch? And sometimes you send out a question and it takes a long time for an answer to come back. This one came back fast, no chance, no chance. And obviously the announcement he was coming back and now they have extended them. The challenge I think, and this is what happened on Mike Sullivan and Pittsburgh, is that there's no question that you're a good coach and you have one of the best coaches in the league, but it gets stale. Anybody who's ever been in a long-term relationship with anyone, marriage, your partner, whoever it is, there's moments where it gets stale and the challenge is, how do you get past that? And I think the penguins felt and Sullivan felt eventually that one got stale. But you look at Cooper in Tampa and you look at Bednar in Colorado and the organization and obviously the coaches feel it's not stale. It can still work. I think you'd look at a guy like John Cooper, you'd look at a guy like Mike Sullivan, you'd look at a guy like Jared Bednar and you'd say, we have one of the best coaches in the league and we can't. And if we get rid of them or we lose them, it's going to be impossible to get the same kind of person, but you have to make sure the relationship is still moving forward. Because that staleness can even end the tenure of an excellent coach. Right. And Bednar would be the second longest tenure in terms of active ones behind only John Cooper at this point, right? It was 10 years ago. There were boats. He took the gig in Colorado, one Stanley Cup and still very much chasing another one. You know, it was weird last year seeing as dynamite of a season that the Avalanche had. The power play was not the threat that it should be given the personnel involved there. Well, game, game one on Wednesday night. They score four on the man advantage, but also give up two shorties. So it was a great night, but not a perfect night. It was just a wild game. There's no entertainment for sure. The worse the defense is, the better the games are, right? Like that was the case in LA in Colorado and that was the case in Edmonton, Vancouver. The coaches hated it, but the fans love it. Buffalo talked a big game about how they did like a real analytic breakdown into their power play. Bednar's a thinker, right? Like he's got a lot of that to him. I got to think Colorado did something to it. It's funny. You score four times on the power play and you're only a plus two. You're probably walking back to your coach's room after going what on earth are we dealing with here? Well, that was a really, really entertaining hockey game. Edmonton, Vancouver, so you and Craig Simpson were watching that with a post-game stake? Was that what was going on? Yes. Yeah. I mean, usually it's on Saturdays getting together after a game and watching the late game. As we've seen in the past number of years, game number one for Edmonton hasn't always gone great and we couldn't help but make the comment watch and go and feel like we've seen this movie before when it became five to Vancouver in the third period before they storm back and at least force over time, but it's like right away, there's some great video of the here and now for Mike Babcock and his staff to go, all right, if this is how we want to play, it's not going to be great for us, but it didn't take long for that feeling to hit Edmonton and the new head coach as much as things have changed in terms of who's in charge. There was a lot of familiarity in how they started their season. Sloppy, enough to get a point, but plenty of work still to do for the oil. Poppy got sloppy. Yes. Chris Knoblock was probably sitting there saying, hey, I'm not so dumb now, am I? It's not that easy, is it? You know, both Babcock's line, that was ridiculous. Yes. You know what the thing I really liked in that game was, first of all, I give a lot of credit to Vincuver, like it's pretty obvious that Malhotra challenged them right. When I was on Hockey Central on Wednesday with Marquesian Fuda, I remember a game a few years ago when Vincuver wasn't expected to be great. Travis Green was coaching them, and it was also early in the year. It might have been the first Saturday at home against Edmonton, and Green challenged Derek Dorset and said, you're getting Nick David tonight. And Dorset was one of the best games he played, like in his career, and he loved the challenge. To me, it reminded me of that, it was Vincuver, it was Malhotra challenging them. And remember the way the game started, Kyle, we thought it was going to be eight-nothing for Edmonton. Like they got off to a great start, and those connox really battled, you know, caughter and sassan and the D, especially. And it was five to two, and Edmonton got the point, and I love the fact that Babcock left Gerry and he didn't pull him. You know, it's game one of 84. You've got to show you can battle. You know, I was thinking about this. So when I screwed up the swim race with Felsen Lockty, I actually quit that night. Like I told our guys, I'm done, I'm going home, I can't work anymore. And Trevor Pilling, who was the executive producer, refused to accept it. He said, you're going back on the air tomorrow. And I have never been less confident as a broadcaster. I mean, Kyle, you know me pretty well, pretty confident guy. Sometimes too confident for how untalented I am. But that day, that whatever day that was, I was scared to press the microphone. Like I was scared to go on the air. But Trevor said, I don't care, you're going out there and you're doing it. And if you remember at that time, anybody was watching, I really struggled the next day. Like I was not very good. And you know, even people like, I remember in that moment when that happened with Felsen Lockty, like the vast majority on social media were very supportive. But the next day when I was struggling to get through the races, like there were people who were like, you should go home. And they weren't wrong. Like that was criticism I had to take. Like I was not very good the next day. But gradually starting with the day after, I started to get going again. We had the last couple days of swimming. I did the diving. I called another medal for Canada and I just, I felt better. It was, it was the right thing. I had to, I had to pull myself back together. And like watching Jerry in the third period, he battled and he made a couple of saves. And I thought that was a great coaching move. Nope. You're staying out there and you're going to battle and you're, and what's most important is that Jerry had to show his teammates that he would battle, that he, you know, it got at the 5-2. Like I said, you made a couple saves that at least got them a point. I don't know if that was important now, you know, in the pod before the season Kyle, I said that my breakthrough guy this year is going to be Devin Levi. And I assume he starts Thursday and Vancouver will figure it out. And I, and if I was coaching, I'd say, okay, Devin, here's your shot. You, you, you have to go like this is, this is your time to show that you're our number one guy or you can be our number one guy, but I really thought it was important on that night that Babcock kept Jari in and said, you have to battle. You have to show these guys that you can battle. And I always look for the bright side. I always try to say in game one of 84, it's okay to say that was ridiculous. And it can't happen, but you always have to find building blocks. And even when it doesn't make any sense, I always believe you have to find building blocks. And the building block for me was that Jari didn't quit that he fought to get that point. Yes. And I love the acknowledged the effort of Vancouver in this one. Like that was, that was cool that they were like, we can win a game. We can win the hockey game. I just, I enjoyed Paul Cotter's interview with, with Jean Afer. That gives a good player, man, really good. I've always liked him. And for a guy that he's always liked him, new to the Kanox, right? It's not like he's been through all of this the last three, four years. But the, just, just listen to his perspective and the line about, you know, how the rest of the world sees us in our chances this year versus how we view things are completely different. It's just just a great reminder that when you got a group of competitors that can manage to come together and decide, that's how they're going to handle things, like an opening night on the road in Edmonton, where everyone's expecting to get blown out of the water. It's, it's pretty cool. Yeah, and, you know, I'll say the other thing that really intrigued me from this game is that, you know, I thought headers and, and I'm talking about the forward had a pretty quiet night. And then he got that beautiful goal on the power play. And he made a couple of really nice plays to set up and then the goal. And it made me think like, first of all, there's no better way to get a skill player. They're cookies than on the power play. And it probably made no doubt it makes them feel really good about himself. But I just want to like, what if he becomes at the very least? And he's, he's more than this at his best. What if he becomes a power play specialist? Like, what, what if he can do that on the power play enough this year? And again, God knows he's telling enough to do it. That somebody looks at him and says, or he begins to feel about himself better about himself as a person and a player that he drives up that value. Because all of a sudden, like, before the summer, we're all talking about 11, 6, 11, 6 ain't so bad anymore. And I'm looking at that and I'm saying, if he can do that on a power play and consistently do that in a power play, how much more valuable a player does he become? Right. I mean, it's, he's got, he's always got those touches for a long time in Vancouver, be in, be in a power of play guy, just hasn't always worked. Success hasn't always been there. I think that the big thing for him is that you score night one, right? It's the crakesets of line. Like, just get that zero off your stat sheet ASAP for someone, especially, you know, like Patterson, that gets feeling good about himself a little bit right away. And now there's a little something to, to build on. I mean, if, if there's one area you want to hone in on to say, okay, how can I be valuable? Power play is not a bad, bad place to look at. Excellent, excellent. All right. So that'll take us to the final thought. And I believe if I tallied it up right, Elliott, there are eight new captains across the NHL over the course of the summer to now the new season getting underway. The most recent appointment coming in the nation's capital, Thomas Shabbat. Now, Donning the C for the senators, a first round pickback in 2015. He is the longest tenured active member of the organization, a very popular person in that dressing room. I wasn't surprised when I saw this, Elliott, I covered on the bulk of his career. He's a very likable guy. He's a very personable person. He has never had an issue with doing interviews, with taking questions from the media, with all the obligations that comes with being an NHL player to being part of the leadership group. I think by and large, he would be one of the go to guys as a social organizer for the players. I think there's just a lot to like there as a person that perfectly fits the criteria of what you want a captain to be. And something you've said on the show for many, many, many years, that is always stuck with me, especially in a Canadian market, to be a captain. You've either got to have a little bit of that bleep you in you or just the ability that it's like water off a duck's back. When the criticism comes, it doesn't bother you. And I've always felt that Shabbat has been that guy because he's been a lightning rod at times and part of it, it's not even in a situation where it's remotely his fault because he's playing through some kind of injury that we don't know the extent of. And is just trying to do all he can to stay in the lineup. He battles through a lot. He's spent his entire career there in Ottawa. And you know, the fact that, of course, he is a francophone player, just as a bonus because growing that side of the fan base, you know, matters to the ownership too. I don't think that was the driving force. I wouldn't imagine that's the driving force there. I think that was just a nice compliment. I think he's the perfect fit for what they're looking for in this role. Were you surprised at all that he was the guy? No, I wasn't. It's interesting, though, because I thought they had three good candidates. And you got to know your personality as well. And, you know, I figured Stutzlou would love to be the captain. I figured Sanderson would love to be the captain. I wondered about the symbolism of giving Sanderson the sea after Kachak left. First of all, I'm not knocking the Shabbat choice. I think it's a great choice for all the reasons you said. And I defer to you here, especially because you live there and covered them. I thought all three of them would have been great choices. I mean, you're lucky. You have three guys who legitimately say could be the captain. I think the thing that most interests me and I'll probably ask around a bit on Kyle is that. How did they end up on Shabbat? Not because he's a bad choice. He's a great choice, but because I think you had three excellent choices. And I think it's, but I think it's, I think it's a really good call. Like I think the thing about Shabbat, just from watching him. From afar, and you hit it is that he's kind of, he's not a roller coaster guy. He's really calm. And I think when you're in the battle, you don't mind if your leader publicly projects calm. What he is behind the scenes, sometimes it's a little different, but publicly, he's calm. I like that. I really like that. Hi, he's the perfect guy for if they're going through a rough patch. No problem going out and fighting off the pitch forks. And when things are going great, I'm in the back. Somebody else can go talk about how good of a team we are. Perfect guy for that. Nice. I like it. Congrats to him. Okay, that was the final thought. And with that, we will take our first break here on 32 thoughts, the podcast. When we return, you know what's next, a brand new edition of the thought line after the break. Okay, welcome back time. Once again, for another edition of the thought line presented by bet MGM, make it legendary. Elliot and Dom, do you remember the trivia that we left with at the end of last pod with our actual opening night? I don't. What was it? So Cody from Winnipeg rode in asking about the percentage of players on opening night rosters that were older than me. Oh, right. You had to put in about this. Yes. And Dom said 17% and I took the under. You took 1699. So who won the showcase showdown? You did the reverse. You did the reverse showcase showdown. So I went and tallied it up. And again, it was just the 20 players dressed from each team on opening night, the five games on Tuesday night. The percentage came in 15. Yes, 15. I was so close. But you are a loser. I give Ali had no credit. He was just going to $1.00 me anything. He, he know what? Tom, Tom, sour graves, man. It's, it's really unbecoming. Okay. Don't be a sock. Yeah. You made up the rule of over under here with all this when I'm 1699. I didn't make anything up. It is a skill and a strategy. Yes, it is. And it should be treated as such. Yeah, 15%. It's a little jarring to see. But I guess that's the, that's reality. Now, I remember. Yes, I do. I remember when I started out as a wee young lad like you, covering sports and someone said to me, you will really be awakened when you realize you're older than everyone you cover. You've gone from the youngest person in the clubhouse or the dressing room to the oldest. Congratulations. I am there. And soon you will be too. Okay. So, yeah, Kyle, a couple of shout outs. First of all, on the range today is we were hitting and getting ready. We met Caden LeClair, who is a young golfer. So we played the TPC, the Osprey Valley. And Kyle, thank you for arranging that for us. It was an incredible course. It was a lot of fun. And they have an academy there. And Caden LeClair, who's 16 years old, was one of the players who goes to that academy. And he's a, he's a plus one handicap, which none of us are. Although I should say, Biaxid did shoot 77. He played quite 77. Yeah. You know what? He just didn't get into trouble. I think he, I really only saw him hit like flood one shot all day. But he shot 77. So he did great. But Caden's a plus one at 16. Real nice kid. Just wanted to show them out. There were a couple other ones. So when I was walking to the opening day game in Toronto, Rodgers had a promotion first tickets. And there was a long lineup of people who wanted to get in. Like those are our hardcore fans. Like without fans like those who were lining up to do that. Like none of us have jobs in the business. And this was Tuesday morning, Kyle. I was walking towards the morning skate in the shake of press conference. And one of them saw me walking by and he yells out stink. And I turned because I answered to this now. And he says to me, you took too long on the march and go, it took too long. And I'm like, Hey man, I don't control this stuff. I report it. If it takes five hours to happen, it takes five hours to happen. But anyway, it was a funny exchange. You know, we did the we did the previews for the predictions for sports net, the bane of my existence, and a Twitter follower named Brandon D put my art Ross trophy prediction there. And I predicted Connor Bedard and he wrote not judging, but more confirming you meant to pick Bedard for the art Ross, even though he's missing some time at the start. And I responded, I did. I just wanted to do something different and see if people were paying attention. But, you know, Brandon was I do I actually did forget that bedard was hurt at the beginning of the year. I just wanted to do something not the same. Like I I can't do the same thing. And so I kind of throw a couple of goofy ones in there. And I also wanted to shout out Paulo, who stopped me on the street on Tuesday to say, you tell Craig button that it's disgusting that he picked the leaves not to make the playoffs. And this was a moment where there really was no point in saying that Craig and I do not work on the same network. So I just told Paulo, I got the message and I'm just letting Craig know that Paulo from Toronto, a big hockey fan is mad that you did not pick the leaves to make the playoffs. Good. Glad you could pass that on for him. No problem. I mean, I'm just a messenger. Yeah. Yes. Well, when it comes to shout outs and shout outs from your past, we got this in the inbox Peter from the Yorkdale Indigo. Oh, really, he wrote in. Good God, Mr. Friedman. Yeah. Just wanted to thank you for the shout out on Monday's episode of the pod. It really made my day. I have an idea for something you might explore on your show. Perhaps you all could share your favorite hockey books with the listeners. I have just started reading a new release called Scotty Davidson, the extraordinary life and mysterious death of Canada's forgotten hockey hero. And so far, it is fascinating. His story might be good for a mention around remembrance day. Best wishes to you and all the 32 crew. Thank you for that recommendation. Peter, do you have favorite hockey books that you have read over your life, Elliot? I have so many. I'm looking at my bookshelf, you know, right here. Do you have one that you really like? You know, I mean, as a kid, of course, the hockey sweater. Oh, yeah. I have that here somewhere. Yeah. And still even reading it as an adult, it's it's so good. I mean, the game by Ken Dryden have to say, though, like as an adult now, I tend to lean more towards like we're doing hockey all the time now. When I read, it's usually I really love when Ken Reed wrote that one night only book. That's a good book. Yeah. Players only got one game in the NHL and their stories unique to that one night. Really great. And I of course, there's others too, but they say like I normally now it's I'm reading other genres because the other time in my day, I'm I'm living hockey as is. So what do you got on on your bookshelf? Well, I should say this. I've read it before, but I'm reading it again just because of the position he's in now. I'm rereading Matt Sundin's book. And it's it's a good book. It's it's a really, really good book. I've always had a lot of time for Matt's and the way he carries himself. So I would say Sundin's book is out there. You know, I'll I'll say this to there's there's a book that didn't get a lot of attention when it was written, but it's a really well done book. And I want to shut out the author. It's Tal Pinchewski. And he wrote a book called Breakaway. And it's basically about players who left the Iron Curtain to play in North America, back when that was a much much harder thing to do. That's a that's a great book. I'm actually but I'm like, you call I read a lot of non hockey. And I read a lot of world history and world politics. And I'm reading a book right now on the history of Jerusalem. And you know, Jerusalem is one of the most powerful cities to all different religions. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and I've been reading it. And it's a it's an incredible read. So that's what I'm reading right now. Very cool. Okay. Paul from Suffolk, England. Hello, 32 thoughts team. Your discussions last week regarding the NHL firming up safety equipment made me wonder if mouthguards are considered safety equipment. If so, why does the NHL ignore the many players who chew their mouth guard for the entirety of every shift? This includes many star players. Surely this is more of a safety issue than an untuck Jersey. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on why this is always completely ignored. Chewing your mouth guard seems dangerous to me. It would be better not to have one at all. Surely keep up the great work. Love the pod and look forward to it dropping each and every time. Go habs go. It is considered safety equipment is just not mandatory. That's right. And that's the issue. And you know, I have to say Justin, there were a number of people who, sorry, close enough, close enough. Well, first of all, Paul, your name should be Justin. I think that's what I'm trying to say now. Yeah, sorry, Paul. For some reason, I thought it was Justin. There were a number of of people who wrote in just like you, you were definitely not the only one. - You're right, Mothgard is not in the rule book, it's not required, and that's why it's not part of this. That's the reason. - All right, Ellie, we will end with this one. Charles from Carp Ontario, surely fresh off, great time at another installment of the Carp Fair. - I like how you used fresh carp, very carp and fresh in the same sense. - Yeah, that was good. - All of Alice's Cafe. Have you ever been to the Carp Fair? - No, I've never, I've been to the Carp, but I've never been to the Carp Fair. - Oh, whale of a time. Dear team 32, saw a tweet today saying that over his career, Justin Verlander had faced batters born in 1958 and in 2006 for a 48 year spread. So that got me thinking, which NHL goalie has allowed goals to the widest year of birth spread? My first instinct, slash wild guesses, Martin Broder, I was hoping to hear free just answer as well as the correct answer. - Broder is a great call. He would have been, he probably would have been, I mean, like the right answers appear to be guys like who played goal until like their 40s? Broder, Ed Belfort was another one that jumped to my Curtis Joseph and then if you go back into the olden days, Johnny Bauer, even though nobody knew really how old he was for real. But like Johnny Bauer, there would have to be a bunch of those like Tony Espazito played for an awful long time. There's a lot of good choices there. Since you picked Broder, I'm gonna go with Curtis Joseph. - Neither are correct. - What era? - 2000s onward? - Oh, okay, so it's like it's a recent guy. Is it Belfort? - Nope. - Is it Luongo? - Nope. - Who is it? - Mark Andre Flurry. - Oh, it's, you know what I mean, it makes sense. It makes sense. - So the oldest player to score on him was Mark Messier. The youngest player to score on him. Macklin Celebrini. So Messier born in 1961, Celebrini born in 2006 for a 45 year gap. - Wow. - That is a great, great, great, great question. - Yes. I love that he took a baseball stat and spun it into goal tending and SN stats delivered again. Coming up with that answer. Good stuff, Charles. I like that one a lot. - That's a good one. - Great way to leave it. If you would like to send in your own trivia question or any kind of question, please do so. Write us an email [email protected] or leave us a voice mail at 1-833-311-3232. We'll take one final break and some music to play us out. You're listening to 32 Thoughts the Podcast. (upbeat music) - Okay, so that'll about do it for the Thursday edition of the pod as we adjust to our new schedule moving forward. Later tonight, eight games on tap across the National Hockey League, all of which can be streamed on SportsNet Plus and wanted to highlight one of the games, the return of fair after Vancouver went into Edmonton and won on Tuesday, the connox. Have their home opener at 10 Eastern, eight mountain, seven Pacific. They host the Oilers at Roger Zareena. That can be seen nationally on SportsNet One. Also, you can listen to it on 104.9 KSFM. And maybe you'll even stick around to hear Dom Sharmati, our own producer, host the intermissions as well. Best of luck, Dom and your crew on another season of connox hockey. Busy night on Thursday across the league should be a lot of fun. Okay, taking us out today, yes, the music is back. The get-alongs are Toronto rockers who pull the finest ingredients from 60s garage, 70s power pop and 90s psychedelia to concoct their own unmistakable sound. Second to none, their sophomore LP and first studio recorded effort, finds the band confidently honing their craft, nestling sticky hooks in guitar driven arrangements that alternate between bone shaking and trance inducing, expertly riding the line between jangling melodicism and pure, unadulterated rocking. Wanted to give a shout out and thank Alexander Remington and Carson L.A.G., Alexander in particular, doing all the legwork last season and again this season along for us. And first off, finding these songs for us and getting the necessary clearance so we can play them. So thank you very much, Alexandra, we do appreciate it. Here are the get-alongs and come on on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. ♪ Now I need you ♪ ♪ Not to misunderstand ♪ ♪ If you tell me it's true ♪ ♪ It's a slide of heaven ♪ ♪ Now I really don't wanna let you know ♪ ♪ Where it's gonna take you ♪ ♪ Chased to the end of the ready and bow ♪ ♪ And I'm not sure I'm gonna be so ♪ ♪ But really, I'm saying ♪ ♪ Yeah, I'm not sure I'm gonna be so ♪ ♪ You just try to let it feel it ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Got your hair in the clouds ♪ ♪ Picking some down the earth ♪ ♪ By springing you down ♪ ♪ Not what it's worth ♪ ♪ Where there's me, by springtime ♪ ♪ Everyone's doing it wrong ♪ ♪ Maybe I'm a whisper ♪ ♪ Maybe I'm gonna get out ♪ ♪ And I'm not sure I'm gonna be so ♪ ♪ But really, I'm saying ♪ ♪ And I'm not sure I'm gonna be ♪ ♪ It's just try to let it feel it ♪ ♪ Wait you, give it like a situation ♪ ♪ Yeah, you, let me hear it without hesitation ♪ ♪ Wait you, let me hear it with you ♪ ♪ Let me trust you, give me high ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, let's get across ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Let's get across ♪ ♪ Let's get across ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪ ♪ Come on, let's get across ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, let's get across ♪ ♪ Come on, come on, let's get across ♪