Player Safety Under Fire ft. Aaron Portzline & Greg Wyshynski

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I think the player safety has done their best. It's not an easy thing to do.

With that being said, I think that there is reason to take a look at how the whole process works.

Every time there's a suspension, everybody complains about it.

Why don't we take a look at the process and figure out if there's a better way to make sure that both parties are happy?

Because it seems like there's a lot of frustration there.

As well, the owners, the GMs, they're in it too.

You can't suspend our player for too much.

I can't speak to that.

I'm not an owner. I'm not a GM. I'm a player.

I can say that from the player perspective, I think every time there's a suspension.

Most times there's a suspension, there's a lot of frustration from the player side.

Why don't we take a look at the process and figure out a way that works for everybody?

That was pulling the pin out of a grenade right there, and just rolling it into the NHL offices.

And more specifically, Greg Wichens, he's rolling it into George Perros' office and by extension, probably the NHLs, but also,

even though I'm sure he didn't intend to, the NHL players associations office.

We have a lot to get to on this one.

So let's do the blueprint.

Here's what's coming up on the program, because we're going to chomp into this one like a mulee chapel.

The blueprint is powered by Pac-Man in my background there.

No, that's Greg Wichensky.

The blueprint is powered by Fandool, download the app today and play your game on Fandool.

Coming up, we're going to talk a lot about the DOPS.

The Department of Player Safety with Greg Wichensky from ESPN and ESPN.com rolled the cup of hockey that announcement made today more on that.

Congratulations, Alberta.

Congratulations, Prague, Aaron Portsline, because today's not just about the DOPS.

It's also about the officials and power plays and Columbus versus the refs and the Columbus playoff push.

And if we get a chance, I would like to make a point or two about Jet Greaves and his glove.

He may have, I swear, we'll get to this with Portie coming up later on.

He may have the fastest glove in the NHL already.

More on that as the program glides through this Monday, March the 16th.

All right, where do you want to begin with the Economic David comments?

And mind you, these comments are made right before the general manager's meetings.

This is, of course, in response to the rag co-goot is five game suspension by the Department of Player Safety.

We should point out as well.

I mean, Judd Moldaver, Austin Matthews agent is also the agent for Economic David.

That is the same agency, formerly Wasserman, now the team.

And so that is probably part of this too. Moldaver may headlines late last week.

One, you know, with the offense and then with the suspension as well.

But anyhow, where do you want to begin on this?

And there's a number of different entry points here.

I mean, Connor also has some beef with Player Safety too, for the way that he was treated in the past,

according to how he saw things.

First of all, was that Conor McDavid or Leo DiCaprio in one battle after another?

He's a lot of revolution home, baby.

Finally.

That's got to be coming to Chris Chelios of his generation.

Well, he's not threatening the commissioner like Chelios famously did in 90s.

There's none of that.

But hang on a second.

That is a good point.

We never heard Gretzky talk like this.

You know, the biggest I can recall, this would have been the 94-95 lockout.

The most defiant we ever saw Gretzky won when he was owed money by the coyotes.

But two, during the lockout, he grew a goatee.

Was his protest.

He wasn't going to make himself marketable.

He was growing a goatee.

And him and Messi were going out of Barnes-Durming tour anyhow.

Yeah, McDavid.

Do you respect Conor for saying something?

At least he said something.

Let's not treat this like it was a treatise nailed to the front door of NHL headquarters or anything.

I mean, he basically said people get upset when there are suspensions.

So let's take a look at it.

Well, okay.

That's a start.

Which we'll get to in a second.

I wanted to start with the actual suspension.

Because we obviously haven't talked since the five games for Gretz for ending awesome Matthew season.

I think we all think it's low.

But I also think that we have to kind of look at what it was, which is that neying is tricky.

Neying is typically one of those things.

I think neying and sucker punching are two of the things the NHL is always low on.

And neying, in particular, they're low on because like you got to have a little bit of intent to injure

in order to get your six, seven, eight, nine, ten games, right?

And I think that with neying, even more so than boarding, there's a lot of nuance.

If you watch the play with Gretz, like there's a certain amount of defense he's trying to make there.

He's lunging with his knee.

It looks like he's genuophyting in church as he's skating on Matthews.

Like it's a reckless play.

But it's not like he went coast to coast and need the guy like on purpose, right?

He's trying to make a defensive play.

And that was his argument in the hearing.

Should it be more than five games?

Of course it should be.

But they don't go more than five games.

The NHL PA told the hockey news.

There's only been one then greater than five games for a neon knee hit in like the last 15 years.

And that was Matt Cook in the playoffs in 2014, which you'll remember.

They were just trying to suspend them for another round, which is why he ended up getting like seven games.

So it's a tougher call without intent to injure.

And that's why I think they end up there.

But the other part of this too that we got to talk about.

And I'm sure we're going to get into the nuance of this stuff is that this is another five game suspension.

Just like Malkins was a five game suspension.

Just like every other time there's a five game suspension.

Alarm bells go off and siren start blaring about how the NHL knows that if it's six plus.

Then it goes into a different arbitration process where you're not appealing to the commissioner.

You're appealing to the commissioner.

And then when he says no, then you can you appeal to a neutral arbitrator who undoubtedly is going to knock this thing down.

And so.

The NHL.

I truly do believe it.

Well, I truly believe that player safety isn't sitting in a room being like, I don't know guys.

If we go six, they'll go to the arbitrator.

But there's no question that they know how it works.

And that it has to certainly be a cap on things at some point, especially because they know the NHL PA.

Is going to appeal it because they've just appealed everything under parose since Marty was took over.

The point that I've always made about all of it.

First of all, the GMs can turn the heat up on this kind of stuff anytime.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

And this is going to be that this is a point of discussion of the GM's meetings right now in Florida.

I don't think anything.

Anything comes of it whatsoever.

Because at the end of it, we already went through massive suspensions.

We read that Shanahan through 25 at Rafi Tours.

I got negotiated down to 21.

Right?

And there were a number of suspensions like that.

And that was Shanahan trying to quote unquote, I suppose correct the system.

Get players to suspend them into obedience.

Was the idea?

The repeat offenders.

Yes.

And no, this wasn't like all of a sudden.

First offense, like you're getting 15 games.

I'm not, I don't want to misrepresent what Shanahan did.

But for repeat offenders, yeah, absolutely.

You were getting rung up.

And what did the managers do?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Now, it's usually when it's your bowl that gets scored.

I get that.

That's, that's tried true.

You know, it's the, you know, your problem is your problem.

But my problem is our problem.

Like, that's always been the philosophy of general managers in the end.

Your problem is your problem.

My problem is our problem.

So in any time, they can turn the heat up on this thing and say we want more, we want heavier suspensions.

But at the same time, the players association who've always been able to, to duck and cover on these things.

And it's a tricky spot because they're representing both, you know, the player getting suspended and the player that's been injured.

So right away, they're put in a conflict of interest situation.

Well, who are you defending here?

But they have to be a part of this as well.

Unless, and I can't see the NHL going for this.

Unless, I can't see the PI going for this.

They want to entertain the idea of a consistent, neutral third party.

Which I can never have.

Never going to happen.

No, that's what I'm saying.

But I'm just like, but hang on.

I'm trying to figure out like what, because I hate just like bitching at things that stare me in the face.

I always try to present a solution.

That could be one of them.

But I don't see any other way where the players association wiggles out of this one without a conflict.

I'll give you two solutions.

And then we can talk about what they actually should do.

The first one's fire peros.

No, that's like what everybody's writing.

It's stupid and lazy.

And it doesn't really fix anything.

But I do think he was a little low on this one.

Hang on.

Pause on that one.

I think he was low too.

But not by much.

I would look at like seven for this one.

Eight.

Okay.

So we're quibbling over one game here.

But that is low.

That is three games lower than where they did.

But that leads me to my first point, which is that these guys got to care more about optics.

And they got to care more about vibes.

And I know that they want to structure things and be by the book and try to make their precedent airtight.

But it's okay to occasionally be like, let's give this person an in person hearing.

And that way people know we take it seriously.

And if we settle on five, it'll be five.

But they basically said we know what's going to be five.

And so let's not waste everybody's time.

You need a little dog and pony show.

That's why people are so pissed off.

Like at least at least go through the motions that you think this is as serious as we all think it is.

And the second thing is with the vibes argument, like there's no way to quantify what a star player or important player is in this league.

You can't put it in the CBA.

You can't take like three years worth of points per game average and say that this person should receive a different level of treatment than other players.

I completely understand that.

But this guy ended Austin Matthew season.

I understand.

But Austin Matthew is extremely important to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

And he's extremely important to the National Hockey League.

He's coming off a gold medal with the United States.

Maybe somebody would like to pay to watch one of those guys come to your town.

Like, there's no, there's no getting around the fact that this wasn't Max Domey.

Like it's Austin Matthews.

I get that.

Okay, so we got injured on this play.

And so who makes the list?

Okay.

So then I completely understand you can't quantify it.

Okay.

That's the thing.

Like, who's going to make that list?

Like, show me the list of players where you have to do.

Okay, we're considering.

Like some of it.

Some of it is self evident.

I get that.

Okay.

Obviously, Austin Matthews.

I can't make it.

I get all that.

But like, show me the list.

Show me the list.

Why do these list.

I have.

Like, I understand that's the counter argument.

Like, where do you stop?

Like, is it the 30th leading score or whatever?

Why?

Zach Orinsky.

Zach Orinsky.

Why could it just be borderline?

Art is, I know it when I see it.

Like, why can't we just be adults about this and be like, Austin Matthews is a much more

important player than 95% of the league?

I can't say that.

We know it too.

Yes.

I get that.

You can't suspend to that for that.

Of course you can.

What's it?

What's the thing?

The law.

No, no.

We're talking.

We're talking.

Yeah.

Because we're talking about taking money out of people's pockets here.

And if there isn't, and if you don't, if you cannot show that you have a logical consistency

where everybody is treated equally, you make yourself vulnerable.

You do.

It's, first of all, it's not the law.

It's fake, it's fake hockey law.

Like, we don't actually have laws in hockey.

It's not like you can go to go to the, the constable.

What are you, what are your Montreal fans trying to arrest?

No.

What is it?

Oh, yeah.

My point, but my point is this though.

I'm glad you got us there because if you really want the NHL PA to be part of this solution,

you have to drag them into the fight.

Yes.

The way you drag them into the fight.

Yes.

Used by handing out suspensions that are egregious and that are over the top and that are,

here's eight games for taking Austin Matthews out of our league for the rest of the season.

And then the PA has to come back and be like, well, we're going to appeal this.

And we're going to appeal that.

We're going to appeal that.

Give them something to actually appeal.

If you look what's happened under Marty Walsh, by the way, they've appealed five times in three years.

Only two of those appeals have been for suspensions of six games or greater.

The other ones are kind of like the T-Rex testing the electric fences on Jurassic Park to see how good they are when Marty Walsh took over the PA.

So if you want to drag the NHL PA into this fight, and I completely agree with you,

and I think Pierre LeBron had a piece this morning on the athletic that said the same thing,

you've got to start handing out the suspensions that are going to bring them to the table and change the public perception.

Because what is the public perception right now for five games or goodness?

It's that parrots should be fired and the NHL doesn't know what it's doing for player safety.

So if you want to change that narrative, start doing something for player safety and put the onus on the NHL PA to be the ones that are staying.

No actually this guy doesn't deserve this many games for taking out one of the top stars in the world from the rest of the season.

Okay, you've got us up another rung here. Okay, good. So now we're now we're growing this thing.

So now what should the follow up to Connor McDavid have been the obvious follow up question is,

have you talked to Marty Walsh about this?

Correct.

When does this mean Connor that you are going to call someone at the NHL Players Association to discuss this?

Like again, no one wants to do the boring stuff.

CBAs are boring. Negotiations are boring. I get it.

It's, but this is what it leads to.

Like you just went through a round of negotiations with the NHL.

You want to look at player safety? Go look at this NBA.

You just went, they just signed this.

My dude, I think they signed it early. I think a lot of us are on the same page.

Like, what's the hurry? You signed it.

But they just look at it.

Oh, who did? Connor, have you looked at the CBA?

Guys, have you looked at that?

All the cookies are in there.

Like, that's where it is.

Where are you part of it?

Did you want to be part of it?

Did you insert yourself into the process?

Or, uh-oh, awesome Matthews got hurt.

And Goot has only got a five game suspension.

Now I want to do something about it.

You had a chance to do something about it.

Yeah.

They're like 50, 50, escrow.

How are our hotel rooms and are we going to the Olympics in 2030?

Okay, good.

And one more.

One more.

These are two attacks.

No?

With dress code.

There you go.

That's right, just code and a contractor.

Now, here's an interesting, cause I think you're right.

And and if you go into the CBA and you look at what it says about players,

if you'll get a better idea of why as much as we can kill the NHL

for some of their decisions and again, they were light on.

There are things in there that handcuff them.

One of the things had to always handcuff them is fines.

The...

The CBA says that players can be fined up to one half of one day, up to $10,000 with

a hearing and $5,000 without a hearing.

A lot of people don't know this.

If you go above, take the CBA to the beach, $5,000 on a fine, you do a hearing, which is

why all the fines end up being $5,000 fines is that if you go above that, then it's going

to be treated like a suspension.

A player who makes $800K, let's say it makes $4,000 a day, that means the NHL can find

him a maximum of $2,000.

The math is screwed up to the CBA and the idea that you can appeal a fine, which is essentially

pocket change for these guys, is also nonsensical.

We've all, you and I are aligned on this, I think, for years, which is that if you increase

the ceiling for fines, then maybe, maybe hitting these guys in their wallet without

having to suspend them, again, would help the education process with some of these guys.

That means guys like Conor McDavid, gotta go do the boring jobs.

Sorry, like you're Conor McDavid, go do the boring job, be part of the CBA negotiations.

Go be part of it.

He swings a big hammer.

Look, Conor says one thing in the dressing room, and it's editorial after podcast, after

radio show, after TV intermission, like all of it.

Like McDavid has brought this up, so now the follow-up is, and what are you prepared to

do about it?

Again, I think that's, I always, whenever an agent will talk about the Department of

Career Safety and being more proactive about fines and suspensions and these types of

things, I was wondering, I don't disagree with them, but I always say, agents have skin

in the game too.

Like, would you drop a client who can cost another player?

No.

Okay?

You can plan about the video if you ask who would not.

No, of course not.

Of course not.

Of course it was.

Unless it was a repeat repeater that can only find work in the KHL.

Of course they wouldn't, but there's a lot of different layers where people have skin

in the game here, but I do think the big one is the Players Association in this.

I'm with you on that one.

The sidebar of agents dropping players that can cost other players are violent.

We know that's not going to happen, but the Players Association has to have some skin

here, and the players themselves do too.

If you want to go back, like Connor McGaver is talking about going through the process

or redoing the process, that's fine.

His next phone call is to Marty Walsh, Marty Walsh, to Gary Batman.

Some of our big players here have a problem with this process.

Okay?

Let's talk.

Here's what we have a problem with with the Players Association, and then it becomes a

negotiation.

And because you've already gone through this process of determining this is how we're going

to conduct ourselves in the Players Association, and the majority of players could not be bothered

to glance at it.

Well now there's an issue.

Here's, and now it's going to be a negotiation.

If you want to change it.

Here's the problem with that.

Sorry, here's the problem with that.

It shouldn't be a negotiation.

The Saint, the Saint Escro, the Saint, the Saint, you know, you know what it is.

But it shouldn't be though.

You know what it should be?

It should be the Shanahan Submit.

It should be the rules summit that we had during the Lockout No 5 that made the game

better.

It was two sides coming together, and we're like, you know what, let's just figure

out some solutions to all the problems.

The Players didn't have to give up the Olympics to get the trapezoid.

Like, you know, like, you know what I mean?

Like, like, why, why does it have to be a negotiation?

Why can't these just like get, get Ron Hainesy and the, and the, and the Player Safety

People, and Conor McDavid, maybe an Agenda or two, and just stick them in a, in a hotel

conference room, and suss out what you guys want from both sides for Player Safety.

If it ends up being the system we have now, so be it.

But at least, again, it's all about making the effort.

You know, make the effort to give the suspension you want to give because you took out a

star player.

Make the effort to have a symposium of guys to see if you can come up with a new rule.

Do do something more than what you're doing, and, and we'll all feel maybe better about

all of this because we are constantly, as Conor noted, pissed off about all of this.

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The thing is about the NHL Players Association is going to fight tooth and nail to make

sure suspensions aren't high because it is their job as the Players Association to keep

as much money in the pockets of their players as possible.

That's just it.

Unless you unless you all of the guys that become victimized by those players to rally together

and be like, actually, maybe, maybe just once, maybe just once, you tell someone, no,

there's been 11 appeals in nine years under George Paros, okay?

Maybe just say something, you know what, Ryan Hartman, what you did on the face off was

pretty shitty.

So what Tom Wilson, after all this time, maybe don't do that and the PA could just say

that because they also represent the hit E and not just the hitter.

That's what I'm saying.

They are in complete conflict here.

Complete conflict.

There's an honestly, I cannot see a way unless they're going to go to independent third

party, which we're on the same page and anyone watching and listening to the same thing

like Fat Chance Merrick, no chance to have on Kulur, you dream in Technicolor Merrick,

no chance.

Well, outside of that, they won't do it because they already feel that the neutral arbitrator

that they that that in that process, the NHL does at least doesn't know anything about hockey,

doesn't know anything about players safety, doesn't know anything about pressing it.

Hey, how about this?

Anything about anything.

How about this one?

Here's one.

Okay, see, I love the idea.

I love, and this is why you've seen all my stuff about like pick your opponent in the playoffs

and all these types of, I love moments where you force decisions, okay?

Like this is, you know, this is the, I read a lot of like war books and stuff like that

because like that's like life at its extremist, right?

Where like life and death decisions, right?

So here's not that this is life and death decision, but forcing people into this, you know,

forcing people into decisions.

How about using a formula the way that baseball does arbitration?

How about each side comes in with a number?

The arbitrator decides which number is closer to what the actual number should be.

In style.

No, that's already been assigned.

That way no one comes in too low and no one comes in too high because if you come in

way too low, you ain't getting your number.

You're not getting no like arbitrage, look at that go get pants, no chance and no one's

going to come in too high.

It's like, no man, you're swinging for the fence, no way, no way, no way, no how.

And you pick the number that's closer.

So both sides have to have like a real good look at themselves.

What's the number I'm coming in with?

That's, it's a bet.

It might be a better system than what we have now than the question that becomes like, who's

the arbitrator?

Because it does come back to whether or not they actually know anything about hockey, which

is the NHL's contention about this process.

I'm torn on this whole thing, Merrick, because I, I generally think the player safety does

a good job and I, I generally am a fan of them being able to reach back into their history

and offer precedent as to why things are, are ruled a certain way.

And so I'm completely contradicting myself here by saying, yeah, it's awesome, Matthews.

You shouldn't be slavishly locked into only five games to record good is because that's

how much knee and gets.

And it brings us to an interesting thing that this is why, pause, pause on that, pause

on that.

That's why the managers in Florida right now need to be asked about this one because they're

the one that can, that can turn the heat up on the boiling frog.

They're the ones that can do that, okay, they, they, they, again, like, if you want to

like completely change the system, okay, then it's the NHL and the players association

get together doing what Connor's talking about the process, that's going to maybe feature

and probably would feature a reopening of the CBA.

And then all of us, which they can do, which they can do, absolutely they can do, they

can do it tomorrow.

They can do it.

But I wanted, I wanted to ask you about how they approach things because there is a

philosophical question about what the NHL, what the NHL does with player safety.

A lot of people saw Gudas as the deliverer of this hit and they said that this person

is a repeat defender and not NHL right, not by their definition, but also it's been

that 2019 was his last suspension.

If you're somebody who's like, we should get, we should harken back to the days of Brandon

Chanahan.

Well, the days of Brandon Chanahan were you punish a guy to change his behavior and, you

know, a seven year stretch of not being suspended is a pretty good stretch of time.

For somebody who had four suspensions.

So from that aspect, you got to say that player safety did something right.

That's a, that's a good point because if he's like, no suspensions for how long do you

say it was 2019?

Seven years.

Yeah.

So, so if he hasn't had a suspension for seven years and then you just turn around, you

know, he's cleaned up his behavior to try to like whack him for 20.

Like what's the message to everybody else in the NHL?

Don't bother.

It's, yeah, it's don't bother.

That's exactly right.

It's don't bother.

But the thing that the NHL does, and I wanted to get your take on this, Merrick.

The thing the NHL does is they do a thing that I colloquially call stacking.

Tom Wilson boards a guy.

He boards another guy.

He gets four for the first one, and then he gets eight for the second one.

If he boards somebody again, it's probably going to be 12 or more, whatever.

You know, that's the way they work it.

But if Tom Wilson boards a guy, boards another guy, and then hits a guy with a stick, well,

the previous two instances aren't going to necessarily factor into the third unless it's

a timing thing, you know, where it's like all these things happen in the same season or

some shit like that.

Like, because they see it as a different kind of infraction.

So in fact, this is the first neon, neon suspension for goodness.

How do you feel about that?

Do you think that a bad egg is a bad egg, that a bad actor is a bad actor, or do you like

the idea of them parsing out certain offenses and then building up the game's suspension

based on that offense versus saying overall bad behavior in a period of like five or six

years?

I'm just trying to see how I can make that sympathetic with how the game itself is called.

Like if you keep taking tripping penalties.

The most you're ever still going to get is two minutes, right?

It's not like, okay, we got this guy's a tripper, like, okay, like two minutes was yesterday's

price.

Like, okay, we're three.

We're going to be like that, that, that, that, that doesn't happen.

I don't know if that's like a faulty analogy, but that's a first way, okay, how do you

make it sympathetic?

Well, the rest of us, the league works here.

I think you're dealing with the person.

I think you're dealing with the individual.

Like there's a whole, there's a whole bunch of different things you can get suspended for,

and the common denominator is that person doing them.

I need here, cross check, high, there are rule 48 here.

It could still the same, the same person.

Right.

I look at the person and I post the infraction.

I'm torn on it because like, I, I, I've always, it's not easy, but I, if you're like,

okay, force go ahead, choose Merrick, the thing you love doing.

That's the way that I, that's the way that I would lie.

I've always appreciated the Shanahan ethos of we're trying to change behavior.

And that's great.

That's, that's how player safety should work.

And so I kind of veer towards the idea that I like that setup, but ultimately, if, if

people are like, why aren't the suspensions longer?

I think that's one of the reasons they're not longer is because they don't look at the

totality of the player's actions and many cases, they just look at, you know, this is

his first high stinking.

This is his first kneeing.

So that, if we're talking about salient changes that could be made to the way they do

player safety, that, that, that changing that philosophy would probably be one of them.

Hmm.

I wonder where this goes now, because we've seen this before, right?

Like we said, the, the most famous one right before a manager's meeting was me on

Luchich running Ryan Miller and then all of a sudden, everything was like clutching

our pearls about protecting gold tenders, a wonder out of their net and then give email

interviews afterwards.

I said that for you.

I know you love it.

And it'll make you giggle.

And it did.

Um, like, the thing is like, if Conor didn't say that, it still be an issue, but not as big

as it is.

Like, this is like the biggest player in the game, saying this.

So there's, there's going to be more weight behind it.

Ultimately, and maybe it's just like, I'm, I'm so cynical about all this stuff, just

because I've been through so much with this league and, and, and these issues.

I just don't think anything comes of it.

I don't, I think this one just sort of comes and goes like the breeze.

I do.

I, I tend to agree with you for one specific reason, which is that if they do the thing

that I said, if they have a player safety summit between the NHL and the NHL PA and the

players and the agents, that would be the admission that something's wrong.

And one of the reasons why for the most part, Gary Bettman, rules in favor of player

safety on every appeal is because I don't think that he wants the impression that he

is a check and balance on something that's malfunctioning.

You know what I mean?

Like, like what they say goes, and if you have a, you know, big summit symposium, whatever

you want to call it, on player safety, that would be an, an indication that you believe

there's something wrong with it.

And I don't think the NHL would want to put that, put that, put that down.

That impression out there.

I do understand that, but also at the same time, I mean, all companies, all corporations,

you know, go through, you know, audits and we're going to have a look at, you know, you

can position, you know, even, again, if you want to give it cover, we're having a look

at all different departments here at the National Hockey League.

It's time, you know, it's a moment of change in the NHL and bubble, however you want to

frame it, right?

It's there's a way.

It's there's a way.

What did I do?

What did I do?

What did I do?

Tell me up.

You just work with me here, right?

Just bubble head this one.

Okay.

All right.

You can't, you can't do it that way.

If you're that concerned, but I don't think there's, I don't think there's ever, you know,

like, look in our industry, we used to get something called air checks, right?

They, though, they don't happen anymore because no one's got the time for it.

Everyone's way too busy to do it.

But in, in radio and television, we would always get air checks, like every, I used to get

air checked every week at the fan.

And then after about four or five years, it just sort of stopped and the whole industry

has stopped doing it because the idea of, you know, mentorship or helping people is

completely gone.

But this is nothing more than just an air check for your department, right?

Yeah.

How about you be good to see this?

I just want to finish.

By the way, what do you, what do you like about my idea of like, oh, too many tripping

penalties?

This is now a three minute penalty.

You tripped too much.

I mean, it's like diving, right?

It's like, you know, the escalation of fines and I just want to say, like, I, I know there's

probably a lot of people out there in the Ken Campbell mindset of like, we've got to

get the violent gentleman outside out of the, the chair on player safety.

And that's fine.

I mean, if you guys think Paros is the problem, then he's the problem.

I think there's, I think there's a, I do think I like Ken, but he's, I, I don't agree

with him.

I have a, I have a great Ken Campbell impression, but it involves the F word a lot.

So I'm not going to do it here.

But listen, I think that there's a streak of old school thinking in the NHL that sometimes

leads to some really specious decisions on player safety, not necessarily on length

suspension like this one, but in suspending at all, like, there's certainly been instances

in the last couple of years where I looked at the play and I'm like, lots of hearing and

then there ain't one.

And I think that has to do with some real old school thinking.

I don't think I need to spell out who I am talking about in some of these instances.

And I think that there is some, some, some self reflection that could happen inside

the National Hockey League with regard to should be more progressive and are thinking

in, in, in, in suspending players or at least having hearings for players.

But that being said, it does take a village.

And I think we spelled it out here pretty, pretty, you know, distinctly that the NHLPA

and the GMs and the players all have to be a part of this.

And if there is a problem with player safety, it's going to take more than just simply

changing the guy in charge to, to really fix the system.

Again, read the CBA.

They can, they can have a hearing for a fine over $5,000.

Get yourself some suntan lotion and take the CBA to the beach.

And enjoy your summer reading the collective bargaining agreement.

It's all in there and it's really, really boring.

But that's the key.

By the way, you know what I, I, I, and we're going to get the airports on here on this

final point.

The one thing that I still don't know why they don't suspend and we don't see it very

often when we do it's like, geez, cowbells.

I still don't know how cowbells don't get a suspension.

Well, I was just sort of laugh at it.

I was like, ah, cowbell, that's awful.

Yeah, I just, I, yeah, and I, and I would love to see that just to hear the video.

This is not just a cowbell.

Can you bring Brandon back for one more video just to do that one?

As the video shows, it's important to know that he got mostly thigh.

Glancing blow reduces it from five to two, but let this serve as a warning.

All right, let's get to the airports.

I'm speaking of justice, Columbus ain't getting none, uh, air imports line from the athletic

club.

So I hope, sorry, sorry, you had to put up with like that nonsense, uh, before like,

like, air imports line is like a serious, distinguished gossip.

He has a serious reward.

He's got to listen to us talking about cowbells and sticks on the sack and the thigh.

I'd rather enjoy it.

Okay.

Good.

Well, so we've, we've chummed the waters by talking about the D.O.P.S. and we'll, uh,

we'll localize it even more now and talk about the officials.

I had no idea, like we, we used to always sort of, you know, look back at, you know, the

Calgary Flames after the widening incident with, with Don Henderson and say, oh, they're

paying some, they're paying some, uh, some, uh, some, some, uh, some tax on this one,

right?

What would they use to get the widening tax is what they used to call it.

Like, oh, yeah, Calgary's paying widement tax here for a while.

I had no idea that the Columbus Blue Jackets felt this way until I read your piece this morning

40.

Oh, well, thank you.

Yeah.

And it's, it's been with us for a while, uh, bonus has figured it out.

I think the one thing that, that backdrops all of this is there.

If you've spent time here and I know you guys have, we have a bit of a, a, a feary already

complex.

No, no, no, no, yeah.

It's a great city of experiments.

It's what things get tested.

You get things early, everything, all products, reports unleashed on the market.

Columbus, the, the focus market, you get everything first, and there was a lot of Columbus

case setters, case makers, there was an unfortunate, huge glowing, it was kind of cool actually

because it was so classic wonder bread, which is like, that's not, that's not what you

want.

Wanda bread.

Yeah.

So this is a feary already complex, always.

John Tordella is wired that way anyways, but it goes back wave before him to Hitchcock

to Dave King.

The early days of the franchise.

That was more rooted in we're an expansion of franchise.

We're not getting anything.

more than it was, nobody respects the organization.

I've heard theories that it's still persists

because of how Doug McLean treated officials.

I find that.

He loved officials.

What are you talking about?

Wow.

He did.

Depending on the outfit.

He had officials.

Yeah, so and now Rick bonus is at it, right?

I've gone through, I wrote this a couple of years ago,

just kind of updated it now maybe two weeks ago.

And there's a lot that goes into this, of course,

but Columbus and in the last decade

has had 600 fewer power plays than the Colorado Avalanche.

600.

Now I am not naive to say the Colorado Avalanche

are really hard to defend.

They're going to draw more penalties.

But they haven't always been that in this last decade, right?

The Blue Jackets have not been, and this year a little bit

last year, they've not been a hard team to defend.

But they've not always been that.

They were pretty difficult to defend

during the penaren years of four years in a row.

They made the playoffs.

They are more than half of the teams in this league

have had 300 more power plays than the Blue Jackets have

over the last decade.

Like the numbers are great.

If you wanted to build a conspiracy theory, who?

What?

You could do it.

You could do it.

And Rick bonus doesn't know all of this backdrop,

unless he's been talking to Thorts or Hitch.

But he has now, this has become a thing with him

where he's offering it up even if he's not asked about it.

He went one step forward in Philadelphia

by saying there's a lack of respect for our team.

And we're going to get there.

We're going to earn it, but this is what it is right now.

And I spoke to Don Woodell yesterday, he's like,

we would like an answer as to why the team in the league

that has the least power plays.

Why is that?

But he also doesn't want it to turn into a circus

of players diving.

We've started to hear sort of Bronx cheers whenever

there's a penalty called, in nationwide,

fans have picked up all this.

Wow.

Yo, yeah, every time there's a penalty called anything

and there's sort of like, hey, great job.

I remember those things.

Right.

So it's very much a thing, something to watch.

My first theory is that the on ice officials

hate the cannon so much that they don't want

to give the Blue Jack.

It's the opportunity to score and then have to hear it.

That's my first thing.

So what, hang on.

So that with that, with that fall, that was it.

Mike Priest, who greenlighted that one?

Aaron, you would know way better.

You, well, you at Priest obviously had a role in it.

You could blame, I'm looking through my message

is not to be rude, but somebody pushed

that very theory earlier today, wish.

And I love it.

Yeah, really, there you go.

I mean, two people make two people makes it a coincidence.

It's not a conspiracy, yes, there's a coincidence,

there's a conspiracy.

First of all, like, I read the piece on the,

go read the piece on the athletic that Aaron wrote.

Because again, it just underscores.

He's on the Mount Rushmore beat writers

for putting forth this information

that we would have otherwise never have known

about the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Do you think bones seems like a kind of guy

that likes to gin up a little us against the world

type mentality in his teens?

You think that's part of it?

Or do you think that it just literally, he's going through

the numbers and being like, what the shit?

Like, why don't we get more power, please?

Yeah, well, and his thing was, I wonder why it's,

it's three to one for the other guys in every game.

Yeah, and of course, if you go back, it really hasn't been,

they've had more power plays than the other team,

like four games before this.

But the game in Philadelphia, it was a massive game.

It was a massive game.

And the flyers had four power plays

before the Blue Jackets had won.

Now, I'm not one of those guys

that thinks the power plays should just automatically

be evened up every night.

I know there's, I've heard hockey fans like that,

they've had three, hey, we're do one.

And I'm like, well, no, not if you don't,

not if they don't commit a penalty,

you're not do one that's ridiculous.

I do think there were some moments in the game in Philadelphia

where you'd say, okay, that's a penalty.

That's a penalty.

But you know, they've also complained about,

Fantilly had a breakaway for Kachuk,

laid in the Florida game, and Fantilly dived.

He got to puck, but he also got some skate.

They complained about that when Fantilly accused Kachuk of diving.

He, I think he did sell it.

Kachuk, hang on, I remember that like Kachuk,

Fantilly did not come near his skates.

I'm like that, that was that, that should not,

that should not be a call.

If anything, I have a macro chuck and that one,

and I go like, I, Matthew Kachuk is not born yesterday.

Matthew Kachuk, exactly what he was doing.

And he's trying to crawl on, and that's, it's okay, but...

They're never gonna not call that call.

I mean, sweeping, you watch, you look at it again,

and from my real press box phase,

I was like, boom, power play, like it was clear.

It even watched a new view to me, I go,

is that why Kachuk went down?

No, are they ever gonna watch?

Watch his skate turn, watch his skate 20 turns.

I understand, are they ever gonna watch that

and not call that penalty?

I find that, it's in Florida, come on.

But this gets back to, because part of it is,

okay, the Panthers have won two straight cups.

That's Kachuk, and we're just the little old Blue Jackets

with this Fantilly kid who's, okay,

pretty big deal on his own, right?

But that, it backdrops all of this, for sure, it does.

If I can be a total click, or, yes, free, delightful,

but also within there, and I think I highlighted so much,

the actual breakdown of all of the disparity of the,

because that's not in this one,

so I didn't want to go back and go through all that.

If you tweet that out, we'll both retweet it.

So people can find it, yes, we're all about,

listen, you're never gonna get Rousseau money,

but we'll try to get you as much as you can

with something stuff with the Panthers.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, there's, I mean, Rousseau money is unfair,

that can't even imagine.

That's not long, that's not long, quiet, green,

that doesn't make, the money that Greg and I walk around

with in our jeans, like makes noise,

we'll walk down the street, but Rousseau, yeah, quiet,

quiet bills, quiet bills.

Yeah, I still do pennies.

I still do pennies.

That's me, that's me, and we're just rattling our pockets

as we, as we walk down the street.

So Aaron, Nick, are they gonna get this over the,

over the goal line, the Blue Jackets?

Like, the bubble race in the East is,

I mean, it's like, there's only them in Ottawa,

I guess, on the outside looking in right now,

basically, based on the, on the odd.

So they're gonna, are they gonna find a way

to sneak into the wall card?

I mean, I hate to give you that answer,

but we shall see, they've been on an absolute tear here.

It's always funny in these races

where a week and a half ago,

the Blue Jackets were obsessing over the Islanders,

and then it was the Bruins,

and now it's kind of the Red Wings, right?

Keeps changing.

Yeah, and they're playing really well.

They've got three lines that, really four lines

that are playing well, but three lines

that give you a little bit of scoring concern.

No, none of the lines really petrifies you,

maybe Marchenko, when he's going and he is right now.

Yeah.

So they're trying to sort of do this in a different way

than maybe some other teams.

But I feel like they're getting to the point now

where Rick Bonus has them committed to the playing style

that he wants them to commit to up and down the line up,

the defending, defending and defending.

He feels like he can play,

the way that these lines are constructed, he can play,

most of his lines against anybody,

the second line he's got to be a little bit careful with,

with the Wings, the Wings are late,

with Garland and Ken Johnson,

but he loves his third line and he loves his first line

and he'll play the fourth line against anybody as well.

And just to give you an idea of how things have progressed

here in the last couple of years, Boone Jenner

was their number one center arguably two years ago.

He's the captain, of course, he's now on the fourth line.

He's their fourth line center with Lindstrom

and some Knights Miles Wood, some Knights Dayton Heinen.

So that's what's changed here for them.

And forward is they have center depth that they've never had.

Here in Columbus and it does give them advantage

against a lot of teams.

Charlie Coil, as a third line center is a luxury,

they never thought they'd have here.

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It's interesting to you like the two expansion teams

that have just died for centers.

Columbus got there first with this group,

but the Minnesota wild.

Same thing, looking for centers for ever.

It's always been Columbus.

You can never get a center.

Minnesota can never get a center.

Really quick, you mentioned Carl Marchenko,

just one thing sort of frivolously.

What was with the Tim Horton's Cup on the helmet?

That's the skate today.

What was it?

Tim Horton's Cup.

What was that?

Yeah, he was skating around

and he had a Tim Horton's Cup on his helmet today.

I'm not sure if you saw that.

I mean,

it did not see that.

Is there something that I'm missing here?

That was today.

Yeah.

Okay.

So Jet Greaves and Jake Christensen showed up early

at a Tim Horton's on all the teams.

You river road and worked the drive-through window.

Okay.

I don't know if there's something there.

We...

Jet was going on about how much funny had

how intense it was back there.

Like, this people have a lot.

This is an NHL world of this.

This people have a lot going on

at these such an urge to allow a young man anyways.

Yeah, I'll have to ask him.

I didn't...

Okay.

Did an optional skate?

Maybe that was still going on

when we took off to go talk to guys.

Okay, so let me throw one more thing out at you

because you mentioned Jet Greaves

and the Philadelphia Flyers found this out

quick on the weekend.

He may have the fastest glove in the NHL.

That glove is insanely quick.

I know every goal tend to have one thing

that they do sort of better.

Post-play pads, whatever you read about.

His glove, man.

Like, I come from the era of the Windmill glove saves

and Paul Matier this and all that crazy stuff,

but that kind of glove hand is just flat out fast.

Like, don't shoot there, guys.

Like, you're not going to score.

Right.

No, you're not going to score.

You won't be surprised

no, you played a ton of baseball growing up.

Yes, right.

Like, the glove work was a year-round practice for him.

Even if it wasn't really a practice,

he was doing it just out of the sports he was playing.

Interesting with that quick pause.

A lot of guys will just sort of block with their glove now

because I remember Felix Potfant told me this.

When Gretzky always told me, never drop names.

Felix Potfant told me this.

He said, like, so many guys that you can tell

the goal tenders that played baseball

and the ones that didn't because the goal tenders

had actually played baseball like squeeze and grab.

Now, the guys are just like, use the glove

almost like another blocker.

And we see a lot of that

because he specialized so early.

And he's like, ah, no, it's a blocker anymore.

It's Elvis Merzlikens' weakness, I would think, the glove.

Sure.

And it's grieved.

And there are times where it's almost like he would love this.

But it's almost like Gter S.

where it's just so naturally, you don't need to tell us

how impressed he was.

We just sort of, now I'm impressed with it.

Greg, comment on that.

Yes.

I have a lot of great news stories, by the way.

I don't want to hear any of your Gter stories.

Yeah, I have one.

I have one.

Greg Ordone's stories.

They paint him in a wonderful light.

He was the Columbus Clipper, you know.

Yeah, that's great.

Was he?

Yeah.

Yeah, of course he was.

He had to be in the minor leagues at some point.

Aaron, I got one more for you.

The injured is around.

Hang on.

Oh, there it is.

Okay.

Portie, have a look.

The hell.

He's got a cup on his head.

Clearly teaped his.

Yeah.

His helmet.

Helmet.

He's got a incredible balance.

I mean, so the question would have to be

to even know it's there.

That's what I'm wondering.

That's not honestly.

That is what I'm wondering about too through all this.

If this is like a gag,

like who's the prankster on the team?

Who's the Mark Andre Flurry on this team?

A few.

I'm Sean Monty, and jumps to mind.

Was that on their social?

Because I'll poke around and get back to you.

Uh, I don't think it was I don't think it was on the team.

Social.

No.

Wow.

Okay.

But there it is.

But there it is.

The Tim Horton.

It's it's a mystery.

Portie.

That's from, uh, uh, hang on.

Wait.

There's a.

Okay.

What's that?

Go ahead, Matt.

That's from Mark Sheed.

If I'm saying that correctly.

Okay.

SCIG.

SCIG.

Yeah, all right.

Yeah, so he took the picture from the stands.

He covers the team.

Uh, for the hockey writers.

Yeah, let me.

So there, you know, there's a Timmy's attached to the rink.

Right there.

Oh.

There you go.

So easy gag.

But yeah, let me poke around and see.

I'm going to guess Monohan.

Okay.

You know the team.

It's always the boring ones.

Well, you would know.

Yeah.

And Marceco's fun loving fun loving guy.

So all right.

Let me I'll text you guys.

Or I'll tweet you guys.

What's best?

What do we get the most out of?

I just imagine whatever you do.

Well, listen, it's it's it's it's a culture of attention.

Just tweet it out for everybody.

I wanted to ask you like go like the, uh,

the blue jacket's got a lot of attention for not

treating their UFA's at the deadline, which I think we all

said, well, okay.

Well, they're it's kind of like they're keeping them

that's a playoff race.

It makes total sense.

But do you think that they end up resigning all those guys?

All those guys, I would take the under on four.

Hmm.

I mean, I would I mean, I think they would they would like to.

So for me, the tricky thing with Jenner, with good Branson.

And less so, but also possibly with coil is the term.

Because I think they're willing to pay and they have the cap room.

But but when when guys start to get into their thirties, well under their thirties,

I think teams get really nervous.

And I mean, players really want term then.

And teams really don't want term then.

So I think that could be the the stumbling block.

In terms of priorities, I think the priority would be coil, clearly number one in that group.

Marchment probably to Jenner and then good Branson.

But I think they want to keep them all.

And I must say Jenner and good Branson, Jenner's the captain, obviously.

But good Branson is as guys are on the legal stage.

He is a hell of a dude in the dressing room.

And I think he's one of those guys that if you're lucky enough to get through some

playoff rounds, those are the type of defense when they get harder and harder to play against in a series.

Yep.

Because that dude is huge physical.

And there's not they don't really have that element in their back end under the name of the physicality.

Let me close on.

You need a long playoff run doing sure the refs start calling penalties, obviously.

Point of the realm.

Who is the rest?

Do you guys remember this years ago?

It was when Twitter first started becoming a thing.

God, I can't get an old, I can't remember the ref's name.

He called a penalty.

People nationwide were pissed off.

He skated away from the benches toward the crowd and started making like a crying face to the

audience.

Do you remember this?

And I'm up for the matter of this.

This is like, oh, the quarter of the ring goes, oh.

And respond.

And then as he's acting like he's crying and the fans are getting increasingly animated,

he comes up with the middle finger and fakes that he's wiping a tear away from his eye.

Wow.

Now, oh, wow, I don't know.

I don't think Tim would do that.

I got a first look, but here's the thing.

Like, I'd be really curious to see who that was.

It's not like I could expect that at the junior level,

you know, with like an official in their 20s.

But by the time you get to the NHL, first of all, you've heard everything.

You've had things thrown at you.

You've been threatened in parking lots like everything.

But your skin is thick as an official.

By the time you get to the NHL, that's why,

Porty, that one stuns me.

That at the NHL level.

Let me tell you.

I'm headed on it.

I think that official got a, I can't believe I'm freaking divorced.

Paul divorce.

Paul divorce.

It was Paul divorce.

That did, that did rep forever forever.

The legendary, the legendary divorcee family whose mother

was a delivering nurse for Logan Couture.

That's what I'm bringing to the show tonight.

From the divorcee family of London slash Luke and Ontario.

That's what I got.

That's what I got for you boys today.

Yeah.

But yeah, it was like this never happened.

But it didn't know.

And the fans were like, you're 71 pictures of it.

Boy, we used to have refs in this league, man.

Guys without helmets, guys that would make crying faces to fans.

We used to, we used to eat something.

Look, man, I, listen,

here's how, here's how I, I remember I'm talking to

Emil Francis about this once when he was coaching the Rangers.

He said, you know, one of the most disgusting things he'd ever seen

in the NHL was at the spectrum.

Now, mind you, the Rangers and the Flyers, we all know about that.

But anyhow, at the spectrum, what they would do is when they announced the officials,

whenever they announced an official by the name of Art Scove,

they would also give out the record for the Philadelphia Flyers when Art Scove

offici- and it was something like 33, 2, and 1s when they had ties.

And the referee got a standing ovation at the spectrum and Cat was like,

this is the most disgusting thing I've ever, I've ever seen in my life.

What are we watching here?

They're applauding this guy who's record when officiating Flyers games is like 33, 2, and 1.

Cat was just like, I can't believe this.

And call obviously quite a league about it and bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar.

Just to bring the conversation full circle, I was reading the story

about the Divorsky incident and it was because the-

Did you read about it too?

No, no, no, no, no, I was reading-

That's a total parked daddy thing.

The- I probably wrote about it and forgot about it.

The fans were on edge because the Minnesota Wild received seven power plays while the

Blue Jackets had none.

Ladies and gentlemen, the career is up.

What are the records you need?

It's official.

We got it all the way back to the beginning.

Aaron, you're the best.

It's always a delight, pal.

A great to see you.

A great to hear you.

Thanks as always for stopping by.

I really appreciate it.

We'll find out that Tim Hortons cop on Crullmart Shanko's helmet.

I'm sure you'll love it when you agree to come on some goofy podcast and they give you homework.

So I apologize.

And that's Paul Bozky, that's-

No kidding.

Everything, everything's the-

The son of the Delivering Nurse for Logan could share the San Jose Sharks.

All right, great stuff, pal.

You'd be good.

Yep, see you guys.

Thanks.

There is-

From the athletic, the great Aaron.

Porcelain who always delivers.

What?

Man, as a deliverer, see I got that joke there.

As a deliverer, you crushed my soul.

This man is one of the best beat writers in the entire industry.

Yeah.

And he comes on our show and you go,

Hey, here's a thing you missed.

I thought maybe he would-

If anyone's gonna know-

I know, I know, I know.

I thought I was like setting up a layup and like legitimately, I had no clue.

Like I thought I was like setting up like a two-foot pot.

I've been in that position before when I've gone on like radio shows and they'll ask me

something assuming that I know because I'm the guy that knows all the goofy shit around the

league that's happening and I just-

It won't be something I saw, you know?

And I'll feel terrible about not-

Not knowing what they're talking about.

You know what the trick is?

Here's the trick.

I can give you a shot and share it.

Here's the trick.

Here's what you do.

When someone asks you something that you don't know the answer to,

this comes from-

By the way, this comes from years of listening to Bob McAllen,

who was the master of this.

When someone asks you a question, you don't know the answer to.

Always present a bigger question.

Well, you know what?

That's an interesting question, but what it really winked at is something bigger

than you talk about what you really want to talk about.

And then the little question just sort of goes away.

An interesting question.

But there's a bigger one.

You said it winked at-

It's a bigger one.

Much, much bigger.

I'm sorry, I don't know.

My sunglasses.

I can't do a perfect McCown.

But-

Yes.

It's a good enough.

I know we're short on time.

Should we talk about the disrespect

in not giving the United States of America a World Cup game?

Psh, you already got the equal medals.

Screw you.

We'll take those.

Calgary Edmonton and Frog.

They lost all the way to Frog and they couldn't give Boston a game.

Calgary Edmonton went in as a joint bid.

I know.

I was good-

I was good from before because this is-

This is- this is too straight.

World Cups of Hockey.

We're not-

Not a single tournament game will be played-

Theory?

In the United States.

Theory?

Theory?

Theory?

This is because Alberta markets just be blunt.

I mean, because it's not exclusive to Alberta.

I think it's also Manitoba.

Won't get off star games.

Because players.

Nice, Siri.

What do you want?

Oh?

Um, Siri thinks I'm talking to Siri.

Because-

You're not necessarily wrong.

That's- when I first saw that, that was my first thought.

This is, okay, you're not going to get an ulcer game.

Because players will grump and complain if it's not somewhere warm

in February.

So, you're getting World Cup.

I- I think it's- I mean, I think more than anything.

It's just geographic.

Like, it's, you know, they're doing this in the middle of the season.

It's the same thing like Montreal and Boston as the stones

throw away from each other.

That's why they did four nations and the way they did it.

And so then they could just, you know,

shuttle people back and forth between Edmonton and Calgary.

It makes total sense.

I'm just growling.

It should be.

And it's two World Cups of hockey in North America.

And Naria gave- with a good people of St. Paul,

one-third filled that arena for World Juniors there.

And I believe that you get another shot to watch World Cup game.

But listen, for how long?

Like, going back to when we first started doing goofy podcasts together.

For how long have I been saying like,

USA needs to win some gold medals here and carry that momentum.

Grow the sport, different markets,

kids picking up hockey sticks, all of it.

And so it finally happens.

They don't care what the fuck up.

What are we doing here?

Like, as a Canadian, like, oh yeah, it's great.

It's Alberta's got them too.

That's awesome.

Great for great for-

What are we doing?

I-

This should be-

Like, this should be-

Like, there should be U.S. cities here.

Take that momentum-

No, you just need to be pretty good.

Take that momentum.

We have the momentum.

We've won every gold medal available to us,

whether it's-

True.

Whether it's the Olympics or the Paralympics.

Sweep three.

Right on.

It's what-

What happens is that the-

The Canadians that run the National Hockey League

and the NHLPA and organized the roll cup are like,

we gotta do something about this American juggernaut.

Let's have them play all road games.

Here, that's what we'll do.

Nick, not us.

Dingle!

Home ice advantage in the World Cup of Hockey

for the reigning gold medalists.

You gotta go play all your games in Alberta.

I-

To be honest with you, I was-

I was wondering if it would be like-

The whole thing was gonna take place in the States.

I really did.

I really thought that.

Yeah, I mean-

Again, the show-

No, you have the momentum.

No, you-

U.S.

It makes all the momentum right.

You wait-

All the momentum-

If you're gonna do it in the middle of the season.

Um.

But hey, listen.

We got this part out of the way.

Now we just have to figure out what to do with Russia.

That's the easy part, Merrick.

We'll just figure out what to do with Russia.

Sure, that's a simple-

That's a cozy coffee conversation.

Oh, okay, yeah, let's-

Hey, see, settle that right away.

You know you guys are steamed and-

Frankly, we didn't give you a game either.

But let's say you about Russia coming back to the roll cup.

I-

Listen, I want to be in the room.

You know, Brian Burke would always say, uh,

I want to be in the room.

If the NHL ever puts another team-

Another-

A second team in Toronto.

Because I want to be in the room to see Larry Tannenbaum's face

when after writing revenue sharing check every single year.

The biggest in the NHL is that I want to be in the room

when they tell him there's another team going to Toronto.

I want to be in the room when you have that conversation about-

About Russia with Sweden and-

They-

They have to have-

I want to be in the room.

That the double IHF is going to let Russia back in as a fold-

That's-

They have to have some assurance.

Yeah.

Because if they-

That's the-

That's-

That's the plausible that I-

You know, if Batman can point you that and say,

Hey, listen man, what do you want me to do?

They-

They reinstated.

How about-

Diabol IHF?

Like, give him the green light.

That's it.

I'm falling.

That's the-

Like, because if they don't-

And then the NHL has to be like,

Well-

Here's our solution.

You know, you're going to get, you know,

a Jamaican entry into the World Cup

because there's going to be so many teams that are going to duck out

in the flesh as part of the-

The double IHF doesn't solve-

Doesn't-

Doesn't solve this for the-

No, no, then they'll just do what everybody wants

and just make it-

USA and Canada.

I mean, right.

That's just-

Cut to the chase.

Make it a Ryder Cup.

I want-

Listen, I love the World-

I-

I love the World Hockey-

Like, Hockey and Content.

Like, the idea of doing our own thing every two years outside-

Yeah, great.

It's really cool.

Really cool.

Love it.

It's going to make it work logistically and-

And-

And by that, I mean, figure out a way to get, you know,

some of your top players into the tournament

while their country is at war.

Now, granted, that's also my country.

But that's another conversation for the other day.

Yes, okay.

On that, we'll, we'll take-

But look, like, you don't need to take this out to dinner

and buy it a drink afterwards.

Like, just-

Canada, USA.

They're both good to go.

They're both good to go.

You don't need to take them out to dinner.

They're-

They're ready to go.

Okay, you have a good few days and we'll-

Check back on Thursday.

Bye.

That was fun.

Uh, that was fun with Greg Woshinsky.

It always is from ESPN and ESPN.com.

Thanks to Greg for stopping by the program today.

Zach!

Philips, did I call you Matt?

What's that gonna go?

Yes.

But-

I got a text from so-

Why are you calling him Matt?

I got it.

Did I call you Matt?

It's all good.

You know?

I think so.

But we powered through.

Yeah.

Man.

I didn't get-

No, it's-

Get an old Steve.

I'm dope.

Ed's okay.

It's all coming to an end for your buddy, Jeffy.

It's all coming to an end.

Pretty soon, my-

It's all right.

We're gonna have to take you for a walk behind the barn, Dad.

All right.

Son, just-

Ed, don't get me comfortable.

Don't let me know when it's time, son.

Let me know when it's time.

That up?

Uh-huh.

Anything you want to add to your other, um,

Columbus Conspiracy theories about penalties

or Conor McDavid and the Players Association and the NHL

and the D.O.P.S.

and George Perros

and pretending that anything is going to come out of

the discussion that we're going to have now for the next couple of weeks.

The one thing that I did agree with

wish the most on in the conversation about the

Department of Player Safety and the handling of

the Radco-Gutus and-

Now, um, the phone hearing versus in-person hearing versus being

and all that kind of stuff was

I do think that there is an element of optics to this

even if at the end of the day they were just going to hand out a five-game suspension.

I think it eases things a little bit if they offer it

and people at least have that little bit of catnip before the suspension comes down

that they thought about it.

You know, there was something more they could have cooked up

and then they decided with the five because it might not appease everybody

but I think it does dampen it a little bit and just just reading the room

a little bit before handing out the decision

because I get why they came to the conclusion that they did.

I agree with you guys. I think it could have been more.

I'm not going to- I think it should have raged

that it didn't get more or- but not- not not ragedously bigger number

but like seven.

Which one's eight? Okay, fine. I agree.

Yeah, I agree 100%.

But, you know, I talked about it in the little video that I put out

for the Leafs channel that we do here at the Leafs Nation 401

and I just said the frustration for me came in that there was no

ability for it to go higher because I did think it should go higher.

I'm not going to go up in arms and storm outside of

the deops office with a pitch fork and flames and that kind of stuff for five

but the ability for it to have gone more than five I think should have been

exercised and it wasn't and I think that's where a lot of people start to lose

their minds and say how the hell do you watch this and watch

Austin Matthews?

Which again, I know you can't quantify star player not star player

and do you really want to go down that?

Who makes the list?

Who makes the list?

Well, who make who?

That's the other thing is like anytime I hear that.

Anytime I hear that.

He get need for the Red Wings and then it's like oh no, that one

he's done for the season but that one's only four games.

If it was Larkin.

If it was Larkin.

Yeah.

No, I know.

But that's the thing now like where do you go?

I like my first thing would be like put a put a note pad and say okay

okay, that's cool, Clara.

Keep me the names.

Let's make the list.

Let's make the list.

Give me the names.

But I disagree optically.

You could have handed out five.

Okay, give them the in person hearing.

Make people think that you've gone above and beyond here.

Give them that little bit of reassurance.

Hey, we really looked into this thing.

About five games done.

Hey, we looked.

We talked to him.

We had the hearing.

I get that it's just like a mark.

Yeah, we had a minute.

We've worked this level thing.

But we brought him in for the face to face.

But he said he was really sorry.

It's always just going to be five.

Look, I'm not trying to say that whatever he's going to say you're doing

there is going to change things.

That's not my point.

But seriously, I just really saw it.

Rage that ensured that it turns down.

No, no, he was on his hands and knees.

You should have seen him.

I didn't mean it.

It was an accident.

I didn't even know that I had knees.

I don't know what happened.

I didn't realize it was awesome, Matthews.

I thought it was Max Somie.

Brother.

All right, let's get to the shine spot.

By the way, congratulations on getting out of prison.

What is that behind you?

What is that?

So, I don't know if you're familiar with the Leafs.

Oh, I remember this.

I remember this.

So I'm trying to make sure people can see all these pictures here while I kind of lean.

So what happened was just brief backstory on this.

I'm getting pictures reframed to go up here in the office and around the apartment.

Because I've got a bunch of those.

My grandparents gave them to me as a gift.

But it's awesome.

It's a great sense of what my grandfather does is none of the frames were the same sizes.

Oh, and some of them were actually different, Jeff.

So, is that where you got the Alan Stanley Jersey, by the way?

Was the Alan Stanley Jersey a present from a grandparents?

My dad and my grandpa went to the same event and got it there together.

Yeah.

Very.

And the Rick V I for that matter.

Yes.

Oh, you know, I thought of you.

So I was cleaning up my space here because it's a disaster.

So I was cleaning up and I found something and I thought of you because I got this

from it's one of the great moments in your team's history.

It's I'm going to get the glare off.

This is Rick V.

Scoring the first 50th goal on my commute.

You'll notice who flipped the path over builder Lego ability.

Look at that.

Yeah.

That's beautiful from Ricky.

I love that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

Good shot it.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's

Anyway, I thought I put it I put it aside.

Like, oh, I got to show Zach.

I got to show Zach.

He'll love that.

He'll love that.

Hope he's wearing dark pants.

Seems that right by the goal of the first 50.

Barely enough skin to blink.

That's right.

Call me when the swelling goes now.

But I got them reframed and so they're in there right now.

Get putting the proper sizes on everything.

And when the lady undid the current frames and pulled them out,

this was in the back of one of the pictures.

So she's like, I think you should keep this.

That's awesome.

Until I get something behind me,

so that I don't look fully like I'm in prison,

I'll put this up and it kind of fills some space.

That's awesome.

It looks great.

It looks good.

All right, here we go.

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The poet laureate of the sheet.

The Attila, the pun around these parts,

is the one and only Zach Phillips, over to you, Zach Rout.

A lot's been made of the Radco-Guda situation,

and specifically, I think the response shown Toronto.

At least that's what I've been talking about is the response,

even more so than the suspension and everything, Jeff,

and, you know, there was the lack of responses.

Did you see what the boss of Blue did against a Victoria yesterday?

That was the response.

That was the response.

Yes, correct.

At least a lot of response.

I watched that, and then I saw all these interviews

of the players on Toronto, and they just kept talking about this.

This is before the incident, mind you.

They kept talking about this tight-knit group,

and everybody loves everybody in the room,

and they all enjoyed playing together, and stuff like that.

And I kept thinking after the incident happened,

back to those comments, and Jeff, you know what?

At the end of the day, I don't care if you guys

in that room have guys who are finny, or share laughs.

In order to win, you need grits.

Suck.

Emmett Finney.

Arseny Gritsak.

And Alex, I think, is it laughing you

to the first star of the week?

That line.

Him, Zabana Jad, and Gabe Perot have been insane.

All of a sudden, like, the Rangers have stumbled into a beauty line here,

and I don't know if it was Johnny Lazarus

being more of the authority than me,

but this looks like the best we've ever seen.

Alex, you laugh for a year.

Just like such a TZ.

You can do this for the end of the season.

Emmett Finney, Alex, you laugh for a year,

and Arseny Gritsak, $5 wins $294.71.

I don't care if you have guys who are finny,

or share laughs to win, you need grits.

You know what they say about the good guy in the room?

Zack, you know what they say about the good guy in the room?

They don't flood the room.

They don't flood the room.

They don't, they don't flood the room.

I've never seen a Zamboni in the room.

They don't flood the room.

Oh, he's great in the room.

They don't flood the room.

Give me players.

You know, by the way, just quickly before I get out of here,

I realized I'd been stealing a lot of phrases from you,

subconsciously, and people-

Was it getting out there?

And winning them out.

Oh, yeah.

Which one specifically, and it was, we see in the Atlantic,

because there's one too.

Well, the one that was called to my attention last night was,

I don't want to lead the witness.

You used that one a lot when you're phrasing the question,

and I just said it, and somebody came on later in the show,

like a next caller, like two or three later,

and he said, oh, I love how you said,

I don't want to lead the witness.

And I went, oh, my.

I did do that.

That's not my line.

Like, that's-

I know, but it's because you say it.

I hear it from you, I tell you.

I also say, thank you kindly, sir,

she smiled, but the money on the table, that's for the beer.

Like, this is an old saying.

Get off the table and be able to find boxes for the beer.

Like, that's just an old saying.

And then the other one was,

the other one is, they don't flood the room.

I've said that a bunch of times.

They don't flood the room.

Great guy, they don't flood the room.

They don't flood the room, yeah.

That's always-

That's always a-

She's showing some of us.

Stop it right there.

Well, you know what they say?

Greatness borrows, but genius steals.

So, as you were-

What else did they say?

What else did they say?

Joker man is always at his best.

That's-

I like that one too.

Yeah, rising to new depths and sinking to new heights.

It is the sheet here on the nation network.

Just bad, crazy-

Straight promo for the show.

Thanks, man.

I worked on that one.

I workshoped that one all week along,

while I wasn't staring at the,

the Rick V. 50th call against the St. Louis Blues.

Nice back, yeah, beautiful picture.

It is a beautiful picture too.

All right, that's it.

Zach Gray job again.

Continued success in decorating your new space.

Thanks to Greg Wiesinski for stopping by as he does each

in a couple of times a week.

He's back on Thursday.

And also the great Aaron Portesline,

read his latest on how the Columbus Blue Jackets

are getting jobbed on power plays.

And also some great notes about checkeries,

who has the fastest glove in the game.

I think I'm already comfortable saying that.

Thanks to you for watching.

Thanks to you for listening.

Thanks to you for chatting.

If you've already subscribed to our YouTube channel.

Thank you.

If you hadn't, if you haven't,

please consider doing so.

You'll thank me later as they say.

You'll thank me later.

Meantime, enjoy the schedule.

This evening we'll talk again tomorrow,

one o'clock Eastern for the shoot as you will.

This week, every day, this month.

I can't get out of my head,

and I'm still ambitious day to day.

Cause you can call it all right.

I wave to the dark man.

He's talking a little medicine.

I'm like, no, I'm in that spine.

I'm not against those methods, but you.

Kiss me myself and I'll just go be fixing my mind.

To all the breakers.

I turned out to be a dead man.

I feel like a dead man.

I turned out to be a dead man.

They sing out there.

I don't think she sings out there.

I feel like a dead man.

I've been on this the way around.

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