Cassie Campbell-Pascall (FULL INTERVIEW)

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how you like. I am doing everything at this time of day except for my green beer. I haven't had

one of those yet, but... Well, I was going to say it's not like maybe it had a couple there

just before we got started. Yeah, you guys do. I know you guys have probably already started. I

can tell already. I know that Starbucks cup is not really started by this cup. Trojan horse,

some Irish hoisky in there. How is it? Our generation loves the green. The whole St. Patti's

thing isn't it the best? It's so much fun and I love the spirit of it. I should have worn my hat,

but I'm representing as you guys see, but we'll be dressed up and having a green beer later this

evening. So yeah, I'm good. How are you guys? Thanks for having me on you guys. I appreciate it.

No problem. Anytime. We'll roll it to red carpet. Are you still... Did you get over your jet lag and

all that from the big trip over to Italy? Yeah, you know, what a blast to be back with my old

group with CBC, the old stomping grounds back in the day when I covered Rhett when he was still playing.

It's been so long, hasn't it Rhett? I know. It's been a while for sure and for me too, but yeah,

you know, I got right back in and I'm working with the NHL NESPN as you guys know and

I was home for 48 hours and then I had a game in LA and then was home for four or five days and

then I was back in Seattle LA for a back-to-back and then I had a week off, which was nice, but

Milan was fun, you know, other than the outcome for us Canadians. I thought we deserved a better

fade at times, but it was really fun to be back and to work with one of my teammate Cheryl Pounder.

She's just a riot. So we were doing men's and women's hockey. It was a little bit of a grind,

but we managed to get out a couple of times and enjoy the Italian festivities, if you will,

but yeah, it was an amazing experience and to be back with the group that I kind of grew up with

on Hockey Night in Canada, all the production people and, you know, there's some of the best of

the best in the business, so that was exciting for me. I was thinking about you, Captain Canada,

sitting there watching over time or a tie game laid in the third with the women out there.

It's like she's were barely hanging on toothed up, but you got to be a pro. I was like,

well, it's a big win for the Americans here and over. I just wonder, I know how I am.

I'm just voicing different stuff. I'm just excruciating pain, sitting and watching. It's like,

well, Cassie played, Captain this team and now needs to be kind of impartial. How hard was that?

Yeah, I think the hardest thing for me with the women's side was that I was with the program

four years ago, leading up to the the last Olympics and it was the COVID time in

era, but you know, you're part of the team and then all of a sudden you're kind of not, but you

still are and you always will be, but trying to, I think for me, was trying to send a message to

them at times throughout my work there and things that I thought, and of course, I would text

them things and they would reach out and I spent, you know, the two nights after they lost,

I spent some time with all of them and, you know, you're always going to be connected,

you're always going to care, but you know, you have to be professional and say what needs to be said

and, you know, it was interesting. A lot of people in the women's team thought that they should have

gone younger and when I was with the program four years ago, we were dying for these young players

to step up. We're like, here's your opportunity. Step up, take over and it kind of wasn't happening

and I think, you know, we saw a little bit of growth at these Olympics with with players like

Sarah Filier and Darrow Watts and, you know, Chloe Primram was going to be there soon enough, but

I think it was right for them to take a veteran group and, and, you know, I know they lost and

I know people were sitting at home, but I thought Gina Kingsbury did an amazing job with this program

and, you know, they could have won. They were two minutes and what four seconds away from winning

and I think we needed a leadership group to take on the mighty Americans. It's the best American

team I think I've ever seen in women's hockey and I don't even think they played well in the

final. They were great in the round robin, but I thought they were just iffy in the final, but

still managed to pull it off. But, and then the men side, like you're just, you know, like before,

I was, I'm not gonna lie, I was texting Crosby and Poo and saying, good luck and you're a fan,

you want them to win and they should have won and it's unfortunate what happened with Crosby,

but hey, hella buck was great and we got to give them credit, right? Well, I heard a story,

I don't know if it's, I mean, you don't need to comment on it necessarily. I heard you wanted

to go into the room to talk to the team, old, battle games, but you were,

good old mighty cat and said you weren't allowed to go into what I, like, I, but I, you know,

I got to give it to you because he heard a story that he thinks was true and he said it, right?

But unfortunately, that wasn't the case and poor Kathy Henderson got the brunt of it and she's

amazing, you guys, honest to God, she's amazing and how she's taken over hockey, Canada and all the

stuff that she's had to deal with. So I got to give it to him, like, you can't, like former players,

we, we have to now be journalists to some degree, you got to get your, your facts straight, you know?

So yeah, that's what I focus on. He was like, he spoke not, but I'm sure he had a few green beers

that day as well. And so I got to give it to him, I love him to death, but I got to give it to him,

you can't throw people under the bus. Well, it was, it was on this podcast. I know. I know.

I know. Are we careful breaking watching now? Breaking news. Yeah. I'm going to go

fishing. We're going to look for some big scoops here for me. I got one more in the

syllabus before we move. Yeah. Doug Armstrong, it was announced today, he's going to resign as

the guy that sets the NHL roster. So hockey, Canada, he's also July 1, he passes over to Alex

Steen as the GM and St. Louis, just a thought on maybe any relationship or understanding of what

he's built and maybe who, who would you like to see take over the program? It might be the most

high profile job in hockey now that we have best on best every two years and it's hockey in this

country. Yeah. Well, you know, first of all, to Doug, who has been incredible to our family,

you know, when my husband first started on the NHL side, leaving hockey Canada, Doug brought

him into St. Louis and, you know, kind of showed him the ropes and I think he's been a mentor to a

lot of people in the league. And so a really great person and a great guy and I think it's time

he's earned this time to leave, you know, on his own terms. You know, my guess is Julian

Breesebawke, I'll do, but someone who's been part of this group and part of this process here

and had the experience of going through an Olympic Games before and what it takes and, you know,

that's kind of how hockey Canada does it. You know, you think Wayne Gretzky back in the day and then

Steve Eisen was part of that group and then Steve Eisenman takes over and Doug Armstrong was part

of that group and, you know, that's kind of how it goes and I think those are, it's important to

have that experience around. But a really great person and deserves to retire. I guess if that's

what he's doing on his own terms and go enjoy and play some golf and have some fun and be with

his family and I'm sure it's not an easy time. I think all of you know we're in this for life,

right? We're so fortunate to be part of hockey and we're in this for life. Our hearts are in it

for life. We care about it. So good luck to him and, you know, from our family just thanks for

being a mentor to my husband too and a guy that he could pick up the phone and call and text and

ask advice too and, you know, that's a sign of a great leader when you're giving back to other

people. So you could probably pen a letter of reference to Rhett potentially or not? Yeah, right.

Hey, Rhett, would you ever want to coach on the woman side, you know, okay?

Which would they listen to me? I don't have a lot of, is off the glass and out of a play that's

no, but I think you have great experience and, you know, you know, you never know, right? Like

it'd be a fun thing if we ever. As soon as I run my kids out of the house, I do want to coach.

I just got to get a couple of years and then shut the door on them. I know that's me too. You

know, it's funny. I coached my daughter's team assistant coach up until this year. This is

the first year and she got asked to try out for AAA U18 and then I was like, okay, I don't want to

be like, oh, she got it because her mom's there and that's it. So I step back this year and I miss

it. I miss it so much and I'm the same. I kind of want to coach when, you know, she's gone and

doing her thing. I want to get into coaching like I think it'd be a lot of fun. So we'll see.

We'll see. Yeah, be tricky for you. I'm not sure that, uh, it's, uh, it's tough. I'm trying

to find a job there behind a bench. You've got the hat on. Let's go there. Um, totally unrolling it.

Yeah, the PWHL takeover tour. Now I got to admit, I was not that familiar to 16 neutral cities,

neutral sites, cities, hosting games. Calgary gets to be one and I feel like

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There was 14,000 in Detroit 17 and a half in Edmonton over 10 and Halifax and a small

little pressure on Calgary to step up here and prove that they're a hockey town.

I know there is pressure. We have about 13,000 tickets sold already. It's amazing. Toronto and

Ottawa are going to play and you know part of our takeover tours have been about growing the game.

Part of them about seeing who's interested in being an expansion franchise. We are going to expand

probably two to four teams again this year. So you know Calgary has a chance and you know a big

thing would be to sell out the building to sell out the dome and we've done obviously a lot of

promotion but we're starting to do a little bit more here as it's getting closer. So April first

it's going to be Toronto, Ottawa. You'll see a few of the Olympians in the house run out of fast,

Blair Turnbull, Brandon Jenner the list goes on and on and also we've got some local

Jess Condis who actually trains helps train my daughter in the summer working at bold and

and Sarah Wasniewicz. She's an Alberta girl so you know we've got some Albertans in the mix

and so it's April first and tickets are still available and we're hoping to sell it out like

what a statement it would be for Calgary potentially to get a PWHL game especially with the new

building coming which is the ideal place for us to play and it's going to be great and Toronto

and Ottawa right now are sort of in that group that mix of you know just outside the playoff

picture and with our system we you know you win in regulation you get three points so our

standings are changing on a daily basis and this is going to be a really huge game for both teams as

they they fight to get that you know third or fourth playup position potentially and it's been

great hockey you guys like I pinch myself I always believe that this lead could strive and survive

and we'd have professional women's hockey but what we've been able to do in in just three years

this is just season three it's blown me away and and so proud of everyone that's worked behind the

scenes and we have over 200 staff lead wide which is something we never had before and it just

continues to grow and get better and better so anyway buy your tickets if you're close in Alberta

you're close to Calgary there's still tickets available and just go to the pwhl.com and you'll find

the link and let's sell the dome out it'll be fun and I wish you guys to be there and if you need

tickets get off your wallets first and foremost okay yeah if your wallets and your visas are maxed out

I can probably help you out but I spent so much on our say patties gear yeah exactly you've maxed

out your visas with all the dollar store say patties stuff you have on yeah no I'd love if

you guys came out let me know and we can get your families and in kids and teams and we'll figure it

all out so it would be great to have you guys there there's a few rules the leagues put in that I

absolutely love I want you to sort of walk through the nuances of them you mentioned the point

system like I don't understand why in a playoff race you could have four teams playing all in the

same hot oh this game gave away three points this gave way to you like what how's this one game

more valuable than the others so I like the point system tell us walk us through the shorthanded

jailbreak and then also I think for who picks first in a draft it's it's a unique what is it called

the golden rule or something like that yeah the gold plan yeah thank you well we'll start with that

so Adam golden I think this is something the NHL should adopt because we've seen the tanking in

the past and so basically we try to eliminate tanking so once you're mathematically out of the playoffs

you then become part of the gold plan which is a point system where if you win in the more points

you get you have access to you know potentially drafting higher so you know for the the four teams

that aren't going to make the playoffs you're still fighting for something you're still have

something to prove you can't just you know tank the season and hope that you get the first pick

which I I think has been genius and he's been unbelievable you should have him on the show he's

one of the smartest guys I've ever met and he's helped us with some of the rule innovations and some

other things as well and you know we're we're have a luxury where we're newly we can kind of think

outside the box and our ownership group has allowed us to do that so we have the jailbreak rule

which if it's a two-minute penalty so if it's a major penalty there's no jailbreak rule I mean if

you get a major penalty you should be sitting there for the the whole duration but if it's a two-minute

penalty and your team who's shorthanded scores on that two-minute penalty it's a jailbreak so you're

the person who got the penalty is able to come out and you know year one I think it was Emma

Maltese who got the first jailbreak goal and the crowd loved it and she skated right to the

family box and she was like open in the door like come on you're out you know and it was just

it's been so much fun and and we also have the no escape rules so if you take a penalty the four

players who are on the ice have to stay on the ice you cannot change and trust me we've had teams

that try to change so we we monitor it very closely and so you may have two defenseman two

forts or you may have three fours and one defenseman depending on who takes the penalty and you

know that's actually increased our powerplay percentages across the league and you know that's

something that we've really focused on is creating more offense in the league and finding a way to

increase the offense and that's been one way it's increased our powerplay from I think it was

almost 5% from year one to year two which is a significant percentage and you know last year we

didn't really make too many changes a few two weeks here and there and you know we obviously want

to keep the tradition of hockey that's important to us but it's great that myself and Megan Dutton we're

part of our rules and competition committee and we have representatives representatives from

all eight teams we have a coach representative we have a GM representative and you know we have

meetings about four or five times a year just on let's think outside the box let's try to make the

game better and make it more fun for fans and you know the impact that that group has had has been

tremendous and it's just fun you know you know we we still want to keep the tradition side of it

and you know we're constantly assessing our body checking rule we have hybrid body checking so we

allow more physical game than women's hockey is allowed in the past but we don't allow full body

contact so opposite directional hits we're trying to steer away from it's a new body contact

for women's hockey but it's something the players wanted they wanted it to be more physical and

and I think the fans appreciate it as well but they're still trying to learn they didn't grow up

you know taking hits like you know ret you did you know playing mind or hockey you grew up learning

how to take hits so we're still in that transition mode where our players are learning about that

and but you know we're allowed to think outside the box it's been fun you guys it's been you know

when I left SportsNet to join the PWHL people were like what you're leaving hockey night like are

you crazy and I was like this has been the best decision I've ever made it's the passion I have

my weekends off now to watch my daughter play and and to support my husband with the planes a little

bit more so yeah it's it's been fun and everything I do is behind the scenes I don't have to be

to face anymore I don't have to be out there doing all the interviews we have with so many great

players who've become amazing faces of the game and ambassadors and I'm enjoying just working with

our hockey ops group who are tremendous you started with six teams and a lot of them are sort of

in a similar court or travel is easy you've gone out to Vancouver and Seattle what can you tell us

about those markets and should that lead us to believe that you're absolutely keen on lots of teams

in the west down the road yeah you know I think it was important to our ownership group to have

teams in the west you know I think there was not a fear but a sense that maybe another entity could

come in and start a western side of professional women's hockey so I think it was really important

for our ownership group to establish a western content if you will and you know it was interesting

the way the expansion draft went and we did we sat for seven months and analyzed how our expansion

draft should go we met with you know the Vegas Golden Knights we met with the Seattle Kraken we got

so much feedback from so many different people and originally everyone was saying you know Seattle

Vancouver had an advantage with all the players that they were able to draft in the expansion draft

and then the free agents that they signed and you know unfortunately for them it hasn't really

worked out that way as both of them sit at the bottom of the standings but we really wanted parity

you know we didn't want you know you go back to the Anheim Ducks when they expanded and Ottawa

Senators when they expanded San Jose Sharks when they expanded it didn't go so well to start and

we didn't want that we wanted our teams to be competitive and you know unfortunately for a variety

of reasons those teams are at the bottom of the standings but they've been competitive the markets

have been amazing Seattle has the the largest USA crowd for a woman's hockey game ever Vancouver is

our first franchise where we're the number one tenant in the building so they have their dress

you're impermanently all the you know signs around the arena are for the Vancouver Golden Knights so

there's a real positive there and you know they sell out every time so it's really worked you know

not so much as the standings are are to you know as they sit but it's been you know really successful

we could just continue to grow and get better and in our takeover tours I think

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page for details you mentioned 16 and you know I think there's 30 different areas that want

an expansion team and that's a huge list for us and and we're just going through the the final

assessments the people above me the business office people above me are going to make those

decisions but you know we have some really good candidates for potential expansion here.

How far out are we from announcements on that cast? Yeah you know again I think that's above me so

I'm not I'm privy to some information but I'm not so I you know definitely we want it sooner rather

than later we want our you know to hire new GMs new coaches new staffs we want them to be as

prepared as possible leaning in it was a little late last time and we thank our GMs for being flexible

of the other teams they didn't know how many players they were going to be able to protect

and you know they've been really flexible and and they understand their role in the game and

helping it grow and they know that your three problems are going to be necessarily there in year 10

and they're sticking with us and they've done a really great job so hopefully sooner rather than

later and I will say I think we have one really strong candidate at this point and I won't divulge

you that is but we're just kind of working on on the other candidates and in who it's going to be

see that's smart because there's a term we use here Cassie she didn't want to get Commodore'd

right and say too much on the on the show did he did he get any abuse for that or what happened

he turned up his phone and went golfing I think he's overly upset he's going to get over

he's he bounces back he's very resilient though he walked his dog and went golfing didn't you

you got in one right isn't that what he's right it's in one and it's like forgotten right yeah well

it's always good to talk to Cassie I'm not sure because the trade deadline is done you said you're

supporting Brad he's probably just hanging around the house like bad girl hot tub or something there's

got one last night like two three in the morning from Detroit he was on the trip this time so

and then the Wrangler's play tonight you know it never ends at our house but we're lucky to be in

this position to be in hockey and it's a lot of fun so and red I just want to thank you

personally for asking so many great questions today I thought you just I've only been working

on my interviewing skills a lot of homework it's paying off it's the hardest part as a former player

to do interviews I swear to God I found that to be my hardest part of the job so it is you that's

you feel I don't you do almost feel awkward at times ask it's like you know the answer you kind

of know the answer if you're sitting around having a having a Guinness or a green beer okay yeah

that's that's easy let's have a chitchat but when you think you're putting someone on the spot

you're like I don't know if I'm comfortable asking yeah yeah yeah you know we had not a fun over

the years back in the day you know the 2004 years and I know you have a great story with my friend

Trina Rathgabre eating wasabi and you had to pay her money she ate all of that she's

revived and we still talk about that story for the day and the story of the sounds great

it was more you know you have to run cows because it's not I don't know if you have taught you know

yes I need to hear this so a bunch of my teammates who I played at the Calgary Olympic oval they

were out with Rhett and the boys one night and there was you know sushi evolved I guess and there

was a ball wasabi and he met her Trina Rathgabre that if five hundred dollars which was huge for

us as that in the day he said I'll give you five hundred dollars if you eat that entire wall of

wasabi yeah and you guys know you know it's it's like this right and shirt off she just did it

it was not like that it was like this it was massive because I think originally it started I think

she thought it was guacamole no dear that doesn't matter but yes and you know I think it was our

buddy Steve Montador that started all those troubles yeah he was definitely that I love hearing

that name Steve Munner what an amazing person as you know and so she ate it and I will tell you this

she woke up the next day and she thought there was like a giant hole in her stomach and of course

we had to practice or something and she had to push through it it's one of the legendary stories

of you know Trina Sam Holmes Kelly Bashard myself like we we still talk about that story and it's

like so funny and and you you paid up you gave her the five hundred bucks yeah and it's it's

fitting with sobby's green we're telling the story I'm saying it's very possible it was same

who knows yeah it might have been it might have been stupid might of the sum and then food for a

week for others say yeah I have to do this what do you mean can I yeah and that's the thing we're

all so competitive just like the guys are so she's like hell yeah hell yeah I'm gonna eat this

and sobby to get five hundred dollars but yeah it it was a whole inner stomach for a couple weeks I think

and they signed up a true gentleman stepping you don't need to eat that

yes let's go halfway those were the days when like

calis the rooftop that's where we're I think like that was the best bar of all time back in the day

don't you think it's a rooftop patio and I missed sort of that atmosphere they need to bring it back

somehow um but yeah those were today much younger no better day than to say patty's day it's

what already plus plus 14 out I mean it's good to be pretty good yeah but listen hey guys thanks

Rob me on in buy tickets the pwhtl.com April 1st it's no joke uh it's going to be traumas

hafters and the Ottawa charge is going to be a great game it's a huge game for both those teams

and we're gonna have clinics and all kinds of grassroots programs around it and let's sell this

thing out you know sell the dome out I think it'll be a good a good presentation of Calgary and

what our new building could potentially have as women's hockey and falls so we'll see we'll see

what happens give Bradley our best take care of yourself always great catching up Cass okay you love

you all take care you bet there you go Cassie Campbell Pascal

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