World Cup & Playoff Race ft. Jeff Marek & James van Riemsdyk

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That's Kobe Cohen. I'm Johnny Lazarus. We got Jeff Merrick joining here off the hop and then JVR James Van Riemzek get around

940ish. We'll talk world cup of hockey. We'll talk GM meetings with Jeff

Not sure if we want to start with anything Kobe specifically off the hopper if we just want to bring

Jeff right in

Anything you wanted to get off your chest before we do bring on Jeff

Spring him in all right. Let's bring Jeff right in let's get this show started Jeff

I have a huge gentleman about this world cup of hockey stuff

Why's that? Because I was talking to Vic before

You know, we got things started this morning first mistake. There's a problem. I shouldn't have opened up to him

But all right, it's fine

Is the best on best thing gonna become too much too often if we're doing every other year

Are we gonna get spoiled by it and then well that like diminish

How we feel toward the NHL. I feel like if we see

Continuous best on best

The NHL and our love for it might just like decrease a little bit if we get too spoiled and you know

I know everyone loves it not. I want to be a party pooper or a hater, but like

That kind of is a concern of mine with how everyone you know, I heard people saying oh my god the Olympics were amazing

How it's so hard to go back to watching NHL hockey and now if we're doing this every other year

You know like what what happens then

Well before I answer let me just have a sip of coffee in my

Look at that

Beautiful. Beautiful. Just getting the day started right now. Great branding show

Uh, I know right

It just tattooed on a baseball bat and just started slamming it into people

Um

Okay, so a few things one. I'm glad you I'm glad you brought this point up because one of the things that I don't think got enough

Concert was how kind of tough it was to go back to watching NHL hockey now a couple after the Olympics a couple of things

Players are still rusty too, and it's gonna be a couple of games

But there was like a noticeable difference in quality obviously coming back from the else

Um, I've thought about that one too Johnny like growing up

The big tournament was always the Canada Cup right 1976 Canada Cup was my first big one

I was too young for 1972 in the summit series and all that but that was my first sort of taste of

Of international uh international hockey and that would happen every four years

And then that turned into the World Cup like 87 was insane Canada Cup 96 was an incredible World Cup

Which Canadians would probably talk a lot more about as far as quality of hockey

But Canada didn't win that tournament the United States did so we kind of shelved that

But I'll put that quality of hockey up against 87

Any day of the week

I think it's a good problem to have

You know, we have internet international hockey at a level where you know

There's a number of competitive teams and and the stories are compelling

And we can see that hockey has another level

And I'm always interested in sort of like what the best

We can see is and I think we all are

I sort of share a concern with it's tough to go back to the NHL

But at the same time

Don't think that the schedule as laid out where essentially you're doing this every couple of years is too much like with winter classics

For example, I remember watching that first one

I mean there was the of course Edmonton Montreal one

But the one above flow the Stowe Globe game

I remember watching that and saying this is amazing

Let's only do it every four years to make it really really special

And then it turned into every year and then stadium series

And now it still exists mainly as a vehicle for the live event not so much a TV product

So that's kind of changed

And it's become a bucket list item for a lot of hockey players

I think if they did any more than every couple of years

We might have a legitimate concern

But I think as laid out now with every couple of years either in Olympics or a World Cup

I think it's good. I think it's fine. I think it sort of quenches that international hockey thirst

Here's a question I thought about yesterday

And this would change for every player based on their history

And based on what they've done or what they've grown up with

How many players on that US men's gold medal team

Would exchange their gold medal for a Stanley Cup rank?

Ooh, I think a lot of them said I think a lot of them said the gold medal means more

I don't know. I mean Jeff

I almost I almost feel like that's like asking a parent who their favorite. I know. It's so feast

You know so feast. I know I know what I mean

It's like we all have a favorite child, but we're also not really we say it kind of jokingly

You know what I mean? And maybe depending on the week

We're depending on

Maybe different for you your kids are older, but whoever was in the principal's office that week

Back talking or took a bad penalty or didn't back check or whatever the case may be so

I just think that that's a

That's like the the who's your favorite child question. It really will just depend on the week

Well, but the thing is like once upon a time

It was just like you know Stanley Cup. That's it. All I'm focused on my entire life

But night first of all

I think there are a lot of European players

Where they just sort of they've grown up in amongst you know international hockey and international hockey events and the world championship

Means a lot more there than it does here

So I think a lot of European players might be warmer to the idea of like y'all take a medal over a Stanley Cup

Any any day of any day of

Hasn't that already North America. It's different. It's always been that way. I feel it

Yeah, I was just gonna say like I feel like for a long time a lot of the Russian players would get a bad rep

And then people would say you don't want to have a Russian guy leading your team in the playoffs because

Their mind is focused on world championships because it's a bigger deal for them

I know that sparks a larger conversation right now especially with everything going on and yesterday

People were weighing in on whether they should be back whether they shouldn't be back

Here's the other thing I want to throw your way Jeff yeah and Johnny you know way in here too like

When it comes to the today's player

These guys are so much more connected like you're not going in meeting anybody for the first time anymore when you go to like a

Olympic orientation camp between social media

For here we have the US program. I know team Canada doesn't have a national development team

But they still have their UA team team. They still have their U20 team

They still get together for the spangler cup like there's still a hockey Canada presence at the senior level

And even at the at the youth level

So that's the other thing like I think I'll fire back though

I think Jarvis said last year. He didn't know anyone on team Canada when he went into the locker of Appornations

So so then okay, so that's a fair I believe so I believe so

My sentence here on that though Johnny wouldn't be like

Maybe that's an advantage that the Americans do have and for the people who are yelling and screaming to get rid of the ntdp

And and there's a case to be made for saying hey, you know what they should take all the money that goes to the ntdp

Put all that money into the ushl and take the ushl to another level because there's more funding

But then the count the fair counter argument would be look how many guys from that

Olympic team came through the national development team and look at how close they are these guys were already

Childhood brothers from being on that team. I mean you guys see it like reamer comes on this show

You know every other week and I guess maybe with him

It's a little different because we met at such a young age being from the same like geographical area the same district and everything like that

But you know that

Closeness that we all got in that program and sort of threw us a hockey like that does create

This stronger deeper bond that I feel like those guys have I'm not saying Canada didn't have that by the way

I think those guys would have killed for each other as well

I'm not you know in any way shape or form saying that they wouldn't have sold their souls for one another by the way

I'm just so so I'm not just but I'm just saying it's it's a really really

It's a really really fair and reasonable point to bring up

The thing that I do like though is that every country has a different way to do it

Right like and I and I don't like just that I think that there's not one specific way to win the Stanley Cup

It's always been sort of the bane of my existence like how

How teams just sort of chase or ape whatever is successful the year before

I like that United States has their own way to do it Canada has its own way to do it Sweden has its own way to do it

And what we're at as far as

The sort of global world of hockey right now is we're at a level now where a lot of ideas are getting shared

And everything that goes right down to the very beginnings like I'll tell you you know where there was a huge like a massive

Pushback and I can tell you specifically with authority because that's what I was going through it

When my kids were young in in minors last shoe with hockey and that was half ice

And you know what the pushback was that I kept hearing from people like this is from other parents

So this isn't from administrators administrators. We're all for this

This started in Sweden and then got exported to the United States and United from the United States

It led into uke and one of the big criticisms was and I'm like how stupid are we like stop with like this

You're just shutting yourself off

He didn't want to do it because we're not doing what Americans do

I heard that so many oh that's the way Americans do we're not gonna we're not gonna

There's still that sort of side of

We're still on top of the mountain and we can learn nothing from anybody else

Which is a recipe for failure, which is why I liked that everyone has a different way to do it

And that there's not just one very specific way

To develop champions or elite level teams and what it really does is it exposes though

Who are forward thinking and it really exposes those that just want to you know plug their plug their years and close their eyes and say

Our way is the best way and I'm not going to have any conversation to the to the contrary

And he's can I hate you both like we heard a lot a lot of it here in Canada when half ice started

Can I eat both with another idea and this doesn't really have to do with like the way a country develops its players

But this is something that Vic and I were talking about in in regards to the best on best and and whatnot

Yeah, well, no, no, this is uh

This is kind of hilarious

So like what we were saying before about our best on best might make it harder to watch the NHL

What if in the in the off years that we're not doing best on best

We did it worst on worst to make you appreciate the NHL a little bit more you have to have guys that are averaging

Guys that are averaging at a point point two zero or less points per game

And you put them on a team together and then you watch that for two weeks

Then you go back to the NHL. It's like holy shit these guys are unbelievable

Who picks who picks the team and who shows up

Where's the worst I'd be the GM for team USA

Who's showing up

Who's who's showing up?

I hope he's looking at me like I genuinely think this is a good idea

I think this is one of your your test cases Johnny or you just wanted to see how we'd react before you

Go mainstream with it on social media

Uh, everybody gets a trophy at the end of it right

Everybody gets some metal everybody gets to go home happy

Yeah, I guess we could do that

I will I will entertain at listen my the history of me is I will entertain every insane idea and find like a time

I know you will that's why I presented you that's that's in there

But I'm having a hard time finding that tiny little bit of something that's that's in the for the who would watch that

I would like the whole idea is that people are going to watch this

So when they come back to the NHL they're like wow look at the market difference. This is incredible

This is like, you know the lockout of 20405 and we all

Watch a ton of American Hockey League action and look how much better the NHL is wow now. We really appreciate it

A who's gonna pick the teams B who's gonna show up and see who's gonna watch it

But let me the worst you got let me go back and hockey

Yeah, let me go back and let me go

Out of this conversation because we're in the middle we're in the middle of this

This international hockey conversation and this morning

Yes, an article drops about Doug Armstrong stepping down as general manager of team Canada and

You know when I read that I thought to myself. Oh like I didn't realize that was his position

I sort of thought like here. We sort of go tournament by tournament and obviously Bill Garen won

So it's his seat to have and maybe that's been the reason that that

Armstrong has kept to see because they seemingly have always won

You know more than not up to this point

But I guess my curiosity would in lie where like a who's the front runner to take over that position

Vic thought Kyle Dubis maybe and B that's what I think um, that's right like

Why now like why are we why is he making that announcement right now like the timing seems early

I don't know. It just I was surprised to read that story this morning Jeff

And I feel like you could probably shed some light onto the whole thing you know the whole thing

I I

I'll agree with Vic on this one whether it's um working as an assistant general manager with the Olympic team

Whether it's his work with the world championships

Whether it's you know the work that he's doing with the Pittsburgh penguins right now. I think Kyle Dubis is

Would have to be considered a front runner and knowing what I know about hockey Canada

Under Catherine Henderson's leadership right now is they probably want to start skewing younger with younger newer fresher ideas

For this next generation of hockey like look the USA had the triple sweep

Right USA like Canada's biggest rival. It just had the triple sweep

So we can argue about you know gameplay and whether it's you know, I mean the the only one I mean the at them on the men's and women's side

Both games were close both games wanted to over time so you can really say like

You know what if he's if you if you squint hard enough you can say that you know

It could have gone either way coin flip over time one mistake all of that

But like just there's there's there's there's gonna be um

There's gonna be cascade that happens from that and I think that as Doug Armstrong steps down as general manager of the St. Louis blues

He steps down as general manager of team Canada and he goes into the summer, you know

Clean without anything on his on his on his business card

Whether that means complete retirement whether that means he'll entertain

An offer for another NHL team

Don't know

But I think as far as like the next person to step into that spot

Kyle dubious

Kyle dubious has always answered would hockey Canada called and that means a lot to them

That means a lot to them as far as like continuousness and seriousness of every program at every single tournament

They look at it as one

Like one big chain and if you say to if you say and again

We can argue about whether this is sane or not

But if you say no

Along that line

You can suffer consequences for it somewhere down the line

We've seen that most specifically at the junior hockey level and it's bit team Canada on the ass

But we have also seen it before at the at the at the senior men's level as well

So maybe not too surprised the timing might be interesting to

Why now is as opposed to later

I'm sure this is just hockey Canada wants to start to roll up their sleeves and start to look for another another general manager as soon as possible

But I I could see Kyle dubious leading the whole thing. Absolutely. I think I think I'll give Vic the win on this one

I think vix right about this one that that to me would be the frontrunner

I think you're beauty Kobe

Okay here

I guess I'll transition this but Jeff what would you make of

Edmonton Calgary and Prague being named the host cities

You know obviously Kobe and I have talked about how we think all these tournaments are most these tournaments should be played in Canada

There's nothing like international tournaments being played in Canada Prague is a cool one to throw on the mix though

Prague is awesome cobblestone streets, you know, beautiful historic hockey

Hockey nation and we're seeing the rise of Czech hockey again at a lot of different levels. I'm gonna be honest with you. I was

And we take off my Canada hat for a second. I was surprised and a little bit disappointed

You know my whole professional career

Okay, like start was when I started like 94. I have always maintained that

For the growth of hockey for the good of hockey

Um the place to grow it is still in the United States

That's still a place where where this thing needs to grow

You know Canada is Canada the growth area is on the women's side of the puck

That's the major growth area for hockey in Canada. It's on the women's side

And like like always said like you're not going to make one more hockey fan by putting another hockey team in Canada like you're not true

But there's still opportunity in the United States

And I would always say for the good of the game the United States needs to start winning these major tournaments

And needs to start winning Olympic medals like I'm very much of the belief that you know

We went through that era where NHL owners were saying no, no, no, we're not going to send the players to risky to risk

And I said to myself what if America was winning gold every time

Would they still say no, no, no, we're not going to send our players

Not a chance because it would have been such a great a good new story

For the country and for hockey in the United States

Of course they're going to send their players because they come back with gold medals and all of a sudden your star player has a gold medal around his neck

I thought that given the momentum after the United States won gold that the why thing would be to capture that momentum

And put this tournament in two American markets that are close to each other

USA hockey right now is so strong internationally after after the triple gold

Why not try to use that momentum and build a stronger

Base is it in the process that's why I thought that's why I thought it would be that I thought it would be in the US

Did they just already down the road Colby?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know behind the scenes. Is the way that it works

Is it like I know

The the NCAA

Right

So yeah, Calgary and Evan Tim just just everyone knows what that was a joint bid like they they bid together

That was a joint bid that wasn't like yeah, we're going to go to Canada and it's going to be these two markets

That wasn't joint bid those two together

So it's just money right money talks. I mean, I know like I was saying the NCAA tournament you you have to bid

And the best bids financially and the most money guaranteed gets picked. So yeah, I guess

Yeah, Sydney's just they just didn't bid enough. I mean can't really blame how many times

How many time well hang on though, but at the same time like how many times have we seen

What times have we seen the NHL just go for the quick buck and it's penny wise and pound foolish again

What do you what do you do with this momentum in the United States?

You know with all these athletes with gold medals now. What do you do with that like that's the challenge

Okay, you've been handed this gift

What are you going to do with who control the world a lot more than then then then go

This is this is an NHL event okay NHL NHL players association

So then so they have a lot more control over it from a TV's perspective

Um from an advertising perspective

So you're going to go playing Europe which throws a wrench into your times

I mean, I get it. It's only six hours right prog maybe prog is seven hours

Depending on the time of year. Um, I know at some time during the year the you you you have that what we do

Daylight savings and they don't so it changes from six to seven hours

Um, it it does strike me as a little bit of a miss here like why not say to Boston why not say to

An emerging market in New York even like you could I mean the world cup did great and Philly in 96

I went to some of those games. They were sold out. I mean the core state center

There was not an empty seat for Canada Sweden. I remember being there as like a great turn

I don't know seven or eight year old kid

Why not Florida

People would travel people would go

The frozen four goes to Tampa every a couple of years and people go

It is jam there's not an empty seat in the house everybody travels down in everybody's in a great mood

I that's not a bad call Johnny

You know here's here's the other thing

I wondered about this uh talking with Wushinsky about this on on the sheet yesterday

I wonder if this was because

Listen, this is you know replacing all star weekend. I wonder if is and I'm not trying to be insulting

This is just the reality of the situation. I wonder if this is a cookie for

uh

Edmonton and Calgary because they're not going to get things like the all-star game. Oh, oh because

I think they're going to say a cop play no no no no

That would be insulting. Here you go, Canada. You're not going to get a cop. Are you going to get the world cup? How about that? Yeah

No, I think it's because listen

Players don't want to go where it's cold

For all-star weekend, right? Yeah, I wonder how much part of this is like this is a cookie for those markets because

You know, Winnipeg's in the same boat like we're not players are going to chafe at the idea of going

That's that's why they're looking and they've entertained the idea of doing like a rotation of like you know

Vegas Dallas, Florida, Tampa for things like all-star weekend because it's sunny take the kids

It's a little bit more enticing to get players to go as opposed to put some more cold for all-star weekend

I wonder if if that's a part of this as well

Mm-hmm. It's a good point

Colby any other things on world cup of hockey international players should we move into can I make one point?

Can I make one point please do can I make one can I make one point about Prague?

I'm really glad they're doing this. I'm really glad that Prague is involved

And I know that it's going to make things a little bit awkward and it's going to make things tricky

But for the first time in a long time like I can recall getting

Proformas from 19 this would have been 1991 or 1992

I got a collection of performers that was was sent to me with the

Outlines of how the NHL this is pre-gary badminton's would have been John Zeagler

Investigating how to do a European NHL

And it was like a lot of markets that you would expect you know your stock homes in your house sinkies

But it was also like Milan and London and like the NHL has always tried to figure out a way

How do we get deeper into Europe considering so many players start their start their

You know their youth hockey there and then graduate into the NHL

How do we capitalize on that more and whether it is you know having a European side of the NHL players tour

Whether it is opening an office in Zurich whether it is enhancing the global series

And putting more of a premium on it as opposed to just doing a collection of you know one and done

Hey, we're going to China for you know, Boston Calgary

Hey, we're gonna drag the Los Angeles Kings to us and we're gonna play one game and then punt

Instead of the one and done there seems to now be

More of a a vision for a long-term understanding of how

Europe is going to factor in to what the NHL does

I've always maintained I think a lot of us have that there's still a gold mine there for the NHL

Don Ferries always talk about how international hockey was the way to bring in more money for the players etc

I'm just glad they're finally taking a long view and trying to make sure that Europe is involved in a lot of decisions that they

make

No, good point good point

Before we do wrap things up and bring on JVR Jeff. I did just want to bring up

Economy david's comments about the NHL Department of Player Safety and this morning George Pyros actually spoke

And I want to read this quote that friend of the show Eric angles put out there and ask your opinion on it

So George Pyros responded to economic david's comments by saying this

We sweat over these decisions and pour over these decisions every night all season long

We have a process in place that's consistent and we've a team that works for me and together with me

That evaluates all these plays a very

Experience team a veteran team guys that have been there since the beginning of the department not to mention all former players

That have a large set of experiences playing NHL games

Accolades some of the best guys that have played the game work for the department help make decisions

So our process I feel very confident in we've got great guys who make these decisions

And I think the players should be confident in this team to do so that's a whole lot of nothing to me

I don't know what you make of it, but I guess that's good to see George Pyros speaking today

Yeah, I think what Pyros is just saying like look our our process is consistent we could quit like I

Again like everybody's gonna have an opinion

I think the goodest suspension was a little bit light

But not like egregious. I would have thrown like seven

Adam, okay? Like seven games, but like so we're talking about the difference of a couple of games here

if you look through

The suspendable you know history of

The Department of Player Safety under George Pyros I think the main criticism is

It's it's it's the suspensions are are too light

But that doesn't come from George Pyros that comes from a couple of places one that comes from the managers

And if the managers wanted to turn up the heat they could they could turn up the heat tomorrow if they wanted

Remember in Brennan Shanahan was throwing double digits at everybody

Rafi Torres got was it got it got bargain down but it's 21 games for the hit on on Housa

Like and there was like oh there was a lot of member Brennan Smith in the in the in the

Reseason I think you got ten games for a hit too and the managers went whoa

You know, there's like there's an element of this porridge is too hot and this porridge is too cold

And what everyone's trying to do is find the sweet spot here, but the managers could turn up the heat

You know, then the other thing that I that I thought of too

And this is where I kind of thought and I'm I understand why he didn't

But and this is where I'll go to Conor McDavid's quote

The follow-up should have been have you talked to Marty Walsh about this

because

The NHL Players Association just signed a collective bargaining agreement with the NHL where these types of negotiations go on

Were you involved in those did you have a voice in them? What did you sit at the table?

Nobody wants to do the boring stuff Johnny

Nobody wants to do the boring stuff

But then they want to complain about something they don't like that they chose not to have a hand in

The window to do all this just closed

You go look at the CBA right? It's all in there about Walsh things happen

Now you can change you can change it all the managers would have to get together

The next phone call would have to be to Marty Walsh

Just say we're not happy with this and then Marty Walsh calls his counterpart at the NHL and Gary Betman

And says hey, we got some of our key guys that don't like the way the suspensions are being handled right now

And Betman would say okay

Happy to have that conversation

Here's one of the issues that we're having a hard time with and then it becomes a negotiation all over again

I'm to bring all the subclosed

When the players signed off on the latest CBA

The follow-up question to Connor McDavid in that room should have been have you called Marty Walsh about this?

I wonder Jeff to I mean

For me the first thing that came to mind was first we heard from an agent and then we heard from the agent's client

Who also well that's part of it

Yeah, just so you can't tell me

Judd Mordel or Moldaver however you pronounce us didn't say to Mordaver

You need to speak up you're you're the face of the national hockey league. I mean

That's how it smelled to me at least like the agent you're not going to tell the guy you have to do it

But like I I would think he would have egged him on a little bit for that

I think that there was a conversation now this is just so all of the of your viewers and listeners and like Judd Moldaver is

um is an agent for a group called the team formerly Wasserman

Um, and he represents among other players both Austin Matthews and Connor McDavid. So I'm sure

Well, certainly all the agents spoke after the goodest suspension, and I'm sure all the players

Would have had conversations to and I'm sure Moldaver would have had conversations with with Connor McDavid

Who had various times himself? Let's not forget too has felt that

Maybe the Department of Player Safety hasn't handled you know aggression against him in a notable way too

To say nothing of the bigger question. This was to a tricky area, which is

Protecting stars and how do you do it in a game that's as violent as

Hockey-ish

But I think that that is that is a um that is a point

Colby that I don't think should be lost on anybody these like Matthews and McDavid are still

Are still teammates by way of agency not by way of club team

Kind of a funny comment in our chat to other fan too says I pray McDavid doesn't have to deal with goodness in the first round playoff

Matchup goodness might attempt murder. Maybe that's McDavid just trying to oh my go a little hint out there

First of all first of all here's nothing to consider and they put this in the video too, which I thought was really smart

Radco-gudas hadn't had a suspension in seven years

If you believe that the Department of Player Safety is for correcting behavior

Radco-gudas essentially went through an entire player's career

Yeah without a suspension

Seven years without it. It isn't that what the Department of Player Safety is for because if you just come back and say

Yes, so if you come back and say hey man. It's been seven years. He hasn't done anything

But here we go. He did something. We're ringing them up for 20. What's the message?

Mm-hmm. What's the message in real? I think he was seven years without a suspension seven

That's been lost. I have not read that

Or seen that pointed out anywhere to be honest that it's been seven years

I don't see that behavior. I hated the play and I was I think I would have been totally fine if they did give him more games and all

But you know, I also talked about and they I know this doesn't really matter

But like I've said this before the guys the sweetheart on a teddy bear off the ice. I mean, I it's it's such a shame

Well good point from Sharma too, Kobe. Do you count the Olympics because he didn't hurt Crosby?

That wasn't a but that wasn't a dirty play

Even Crosby that you take out Matthews. Yeah

All right, Jeff real quick because there is a me. Yeah, I told reamer. We were bringing him on at nine thirty five

But he can wait like one extra minute here. Give us the quick

Dreamer story before he comes on so I love this one

So this this deal was was done at the draft and there were a lot of trying to make beliefs fans that made the trip

And Brian Bertig. I'm not telling tales at a school. He's mentioned this on my show before he's talked to me about this

He said

I was worried that if I if we announced the trade that day that we were going to get booed in the building and so I waited

Until I got in the car. I had left the ring then I completed the trade with Paul would have been Paul home

And I think with the with the Philadelphia Flyers, but he was concerned about getting booed

I remember asking burky

Because Luke Shen was obviously like a really super popular player with the Toronto Maple Leafs

I said what was it about van Riemstein that you're really liked like what

What did it for you?

And he said

Retrievals on the power play

He said the one thing that I'll always think about with James Henry and Sykes

He is a dog on a bone on puck retrievals to extend zone time on the power plays

He goes he would extend our power play time like our puck in the zone by you know by minute after minute after minute

Because and that's what we needed we were our power play was like come in one shop and then and then we're done

He said we needed someone that could retrieve the puck and that was James van Riemstein

Loved the funny because you you think of you think of Riemer as this net front ex you know

Guy who has basically

took the

I don't know took the mantle from

You know the names you know whether it was Pavell ski whether I know him and Pavell ski were in the lead together for a while

But before that, I mean you remember Thomas Holmstrom and Johan fronzen was great around the net

Phil Esposito, Dino Cicarelli

And he kind of became that guy, but it's funny like I always say with him one of the most underrated parts of his game

And I've watched him closely for years is his passing like he's always been a guy who could score one year

I think he had 38 or 39 goals in Toronto

I mean that was a big year for him, but but he was he's always in my opinion been an underrated passer even when I played with him

There are times where you're like how the hell did he see me, but nobody ever talked about that

So I've never really focused on his pucked achievals on the power play

And I'm not doubting burky. I'm sure they did their homework when they fleece the Philadelphia flyers on that trade

Notice respect to Chen, but that was a fleecing

And so I

It's an interesting point because he's a great power play player

So let's he's he spent a good part of this year on the top power play in Detroit for for for reasons that guys aren't willing to do it

He does like he's willing can I request what most wall

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Howdy, howdy ho and welcome to fantasy fanfellas

I'm Hayden producer of the fantasy fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things sanderson and i'm steven your bookish internet

Goofball, but you can call me the smash daddy and we are currently deep diving Brandon sanderson's fantasy epic

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Can I request a question before he comes on yeah, you guys ask him

Can you ask him?

Where he wants point shots

Yeah, ask teams and means like one one question, then i'll punt

Always curious. I'm fascinating. I guess he's one of my favorite players. I just love him

We do four. I'm gonna rise in the NHL. We do four. I'm gonna guess his answer

I'm gonna guess his answer Jeff. I'm gonna say to his backhand side to his backhand side

Hang on hang on to his backhand side. We can knock it down on his backhand. I think that's why I think he's gonna say

Okay, hang on. Okay, Johnny do do the intro. So so

So I have a quick question and I'm gonna punt and I'm gonna I'm gonna surrender their show back to him here, Gene

So I'm always curious. What's that?

Good to see you. Oh, good to see you too. Good pleasure to be on with you. Hey listen real quick

For what you do like dining out in front of the net first of all one of the most dangerous positions to be in the NHL

Take your health and tear on hands

There's been a trend in the NHL now for a while where pucks from the point have always been along the ice

How many times have we all heard keep a low from the point?

Keep a low from and that's changed now

I remember when John Klingberg started with the Dallas stars all of a sudden

He's firing top shelf and the Tyler Seagan's like ducking like whoa whoa whoa put a put a leash on that puppy

And it seems now more

I remember I had this conversation actually shinedown about it and about where point where they want point shots now

And he said we want hip we want hip tip because if it's along the ice the pucks only gonna go one way

And it's gonna go up and the goalies can read that we want our point shots coming in at the hip

So it can either be tipped down or it can be tipped up and the goalies got a guess

I'll ask this question and then I'll punt where do you want shots from the point coming in on the ice or at the hip

Thank you

But speaking of the safety in front of the net it was never more unsafe than when beyond so enough was up there shooting

I will say that

A little bit of friendly fire there from him over the years

But I think that's definitely bang on

For me it's that that shot between kind of the hip and then the crossbar just because

um

The goalies obviously are so good at taking away the bottom half of the net now. So

um

Again, there's there's more kind of chaos and more unpredictability when it can be a little bit higher

And then for me, I like it when it's maybe a couple feet outside of my body just because again

Those are really hard for the goalies the track and the angle that you can change

Becomes a little bit more drastic. So um, yeah, just

That and I think combining that with shooting it across a guy's body

Another aspect of the goalie having to eventually look behind you and lose the puck for that split second makes it harder

So those are kind of the the things that when I'm working on

My tips in front and having having to be uh shoot some puck for me that's something I'm always mentioning is trying to shoot it across my body

When you get the chance and just sort of or basically shoot it to the other side that the goal is not looking

I mean it seems pretty basic, but um, yeah, those are the two things that I'm looking for

So that's a very key detail of that

Dreams did you hear great answer?

Did you hear him talking about

So jet Brian Burr comes on Jeff show regularly

Every week for the most part, right? That's a fair statement, right Jeff every week

We're talking about when burky made that trade for you

And brought you to Toronto and he told Jeff and he's talked about this

publicly one of the biggest

Areas of your game and one of the biggest reasons he wanted you was your puck retrievals on the power play

I've never thought about that or heard that

Obviously, I I was talking about how underrated of a passer

I mean we've been talking about that for years like you could have another 150 assists in your career

If if guys would have buried for you, especially in

Be like lots could have another 25 goals

Is that is that something that you realized was lose a

focal point that like managers and statistics lend their hand to and you extend your team's power plays

Yeah, I think that's part of the role of being around the net front for sure

I mean

Obviously, there's that fine line of one do you try to play for the rebound one do you try to make a pass or one do you just try to

Get your stick on a puck to keep

Keep the play alive. I think that is an underrated skill for a lot of players, especially younger players now

Just that just that little stab on the puck to just

Just to either collect it or get it to your teammate or maybe not a lot of the other team to to clear and I think if you

We scored actually our power play goal last night where there was three of us that probably the puck was maybe

We weren't able to fully get it under control

But we were able to touch it enough so they couldn't clear it and then we're able to get a power play goal out of it

So I think that's certainly an underrated

skill for a lot of guys to have is just if you can keep plays alive and

That that there's a lot of different kind of skills that maybe are going into that whether that's again

Reading with the puck's going to go and retrieving it or knowing the right play to make whether it's to shoot it or how how how hard

He release a puck to a guy do you try to go direct you try to rip it around to him in a good spot so he can get the puck with it with his eyes up and

I think

Yeah, that's that's a big part of it. I think again usually the the quickest

The fast as you can get it back to your kind of half wall quarterback

That sets you up to have a really good power play because those are the guy

You obviously want touch on the puck the most in the game and have them make in the decisions where when they have it

So I think that's a key part. I think of any good power play

Possession to over position. That was the saying right possession over position

The minute the puck's free on the power play. It's possession over position

Don't worry about where you're supposed to be just go get that thing. All right. Here come the good questions now

Colby Johnny

Thanks Jeff

Appreciate it. It's easy

Remar, I wanted to ask you about your current line mates. I know you know, the lineup looks a little different

You know, Larkin's obviously how cops out

And you're playing I think with Marco Casper right now and John Leonard a good friend of mine

But there's been a lot of conversation and I'm gonna make this like a general question instead of like about you

And the red wing is and it's not about the Rangers. I'm just using the Rangers as an example

um

It's it's it's because our time in air and you know he leaves and there's been a lot of talk about young guys

deferring to a guy like that and deferring to guys and how young guys

tend to defer to the veterans and you're playing now with two guys who aren't nearly as experienced in the NHL as you are

And I know you probably won't answer this you know

Without being very modest and humble, but I'm sure at times they would defer to you

But do you remember like being the young guy and just kind of having that like maybe

Inside voice putting pressure on you to defer to an older you know more established player

Is that something that is you know human nature in the NHL?

Yeah, you know, that's definitely an interesting part of it

I think for me when I came up my first linemate was uh

Clujeru and obviously we're the same age

So that's a little bit different than playing with a guy who's maybe a little bit more of an established

Superstar right away. I mean, I was playing a couple shifts there too a couple

Games with like Jeff Carter and Mike Richards. So yeah, there is that aspect for sure

I mean that at that time I think cards had scored like 40 goals a few years that are also

You wanted to it

I knew at that point he was obviously going to be the guy

That things were going to run through in a way, but at the same time you need to do what you do and

Create some space for him. So it's that that fine line of getting getting guys the puck that are

uh

Again at that level I guess and then

But again at the same time you want to play your game and

Be able to play off each other too. So there is that a little bit, but I think usually

Especially now there's so much communication with guys and that's a that's a key thing to do

It's just talk through different plays and situations and have that be kind of a two-way street

So so that you have that chemistry and you're able to go out there and execute at a high level

I saw guys when I was between the benches especially in um Chicago guys really always deferred to Kane

Um, I mean that that's it's hard not to when you have one of the the goats and one of the greatest

And and just watching the game last night

Like I still get the chills when Kane scores because he loves scoring to the point where it looks like it's the first goal

He's ever scored in his career

And I'm curious from the benches standpoint like I know for him. He's had some injuries this year

There's been a little bit of up and down. There was talk doesn't make the Olympic team just based on his reputation

Like he's just you know, there's been a lot of conversations about him this year when you start to see him

Producing at this point of the year when you guys are fighting to maintain your playoff spot

There's obviously been some injuries to some key players

The deadline you went out and got a great defenseman

So Stevie Y did bring some some ammunition and some help in for you

But when he goes off and gets to

Does that give the bench like extra life when you guys are you guys looking at each other on the bench like here goes show time like

You know, he's about to go off. I mean, I'm curious what that does more than just adds to the scoreboard

Yeah, you know, I think you said it just like the passion the juicy has to play the game and I mean he's in year 19 now and the score over 500 goals

But yeah, he's still fired up still wants to win still I sit next to him on the plane and we play cards

But when we get on the plane he's right there watching his shifts after every game. So it's hard not to like

That's infectious for how much he loves the game and how well he wants to do

Um, and I think that's that's so great for not only younger players

But everyone to be around to see that I mean he's accomplished so much in his career and that experience

He has his invaluable especially to our team right now with kind of the stretch run that we're on and how close everything is so

Yeah, I think he's definitely a guy in that way that kind of brings a lot of life to our team and

It contributes not only what is kind of on ice stuff, but just kind of the what he brings to the table

otherwise

What is the

mood of the locker room right now like obviously larkens out, you know, it's a big loss for you guys

And and things haven't necessarily clicked as well as you wanted to post break as it was leading into break

I remember like you guys were on fire kind of going into the break and we maybe said it could have been a bad time

Um, and the comfort you had in the playoff races now

You know, you're only like three points ahead of like Columbus like it's getting tighter and tighter

But does that make it more fun now or is it more nerve wracking like you know

You're a guy who's been competing in the playoffs for north of a decade like where are you with with this playoff race right now

Yeah, you know, I think for us like

For the most part we've been relatively healthy all year so definitely

Feels like a little bit of bad luck. We get a few key guys all heard at the same time

Again, that's one of those things that the every team deals with and the and the good teams are able to just find a way

Find a way to win so

Like you said, these are the most fun games to play in. I mean, this is why you play right now right?

It's every every game means so much the the margins are so close. We have teams

chasing us down for

For the playoffs and with the spot that we're in right now

And we're going to be playing all those teams that we're kind of jockeying with in the next couple weeks here

So

Yeah, this is why you play this is this is the most fun time of the year and the the building gets a little bit of extra

kind of electricity in it and the games get a little bit more

Kind of highly contested and all the little details become that much more important so

So yeah, this is this is the most fun time of the year and this is one you got to really

Enjoy the process and enjoy these moments because

These are the games that when you kind of look back on your career

These are the games that you you really miss playing and and how do you guys balance the

scoreboard watching standings watch versus hey we are currently in a spot

So we need to basically control our own destination, you know our own destiny

Not everybody gets to control their own destiny this time of year you do if you guys continue to win

But look I know how that goes you start looking to see what the other teams did

Did Columbus win tonight?

You know check check in the box scores pretty quickly right after a game or on an off night like what's the balance that you strike

With that especially with these younger guys that Johnny has alluded to like you you're you're an elder statesman and and no larkin

That means even more leadership

You know, this is why they brought you here not just to produce but to be a leader

I mean you've been that way in every locker room for god knows how long right so

You know, what is that balance with with this team?

Yeah, I mean, obviously there's the the human element of it of

Seeing where everyone else is around you, but but like you said like we're in a great spot where we control our own destiny

And and like I just mentioned we play a lot of the teams that we're kind of jockeying

for position with so

that just makes those games even

That much bigger for us and

Yeah, it's it's nice to be a position where again, you know, you gotta just go handle your business and

You don't have to necessarily rely on other teams to to slip or help from different teams down the stretch and

We're in a good spot that way where again, we're playing all the teams we're competing with and we're in a spot right now

Where we hold the play out position. So now it's up to us to just go execute and go go finish things out and do what we need to do

Remar, I want to ask you about two different teams if I can and I don't know if it's like

Tough to answer this one because you played Colorado in a home and home before the break

And then you played Dallas, you know a couple games you'll hear after the break

But these are two teams and we were talking about Dallas a little bit yesterday at how good they've been

You know, especially like in between that pre-Rake pros break, you know

They won like 10 games in a row 11 games in a row. I know they lost last night

But when you play against Dallas and Colorado

Do you feel like they are closer together than they are far up like I feel like Dallas isn't getting enough credit as

Colorado is like I think most people including us have already considered Colorado to be the Stanley Cup favorite because of what they are on paper

but

Dallas is

Like they've been so fucking good all your long and not getting nearly the love the Colorado has

So I'm curious just for you who's played against both of them recently

If you see a drastic difference between the two teams at all

Yeah, you know, that's a that's a good question

You know, we obviously just played the stars too. They were missing missing a few guys, but

Yeah, you could just tell like their veteran team was had success and had some good runs the last few years with the with the way they play and

There seems to be no sort of panic in their game and just they take care of the little details on the ice and

Make it tough on you. So yeah, they're they're

Play that way and then obviously a team like Colorado to where

Again, similarly where they have a lot of firepower to add in a bunch of different pieces at the deadline

now, so a little bit different mix that they have, but

Yeah, I think two teams

They've been kind of right at that class of the league for the last two years played each other in the playoffs and

And they're it seems like again like

Those are two teams where they're

again

That rivalry that they kind of have and how tight that division is especially at the top is uh makes it fun fun for hockey and kind of fun fun to watch and just

I remember watching some of those playoff

Both of their different sort of series the last couple years and just again, just the level up there at is pretty impressive

So

Reims, I want to kind of jump around with you a little bit about some of the things going on around the league

I mean we were talking about the hit on Austin Matthews, you know both those guys were your teammates

Um, I was talking about I was talking about how

Unfortunate it is with a guy like Radco who has this reputation that you know, he he's deservedly so on the ice

You know, they call him the butcher and but I was also first one to call out that he's just this

You know, this sweet sweet guy off the ice who's who's who's a who's a great parent and and you know

I we were neighbors in waterfront square

So I spent so much time with him over the years and and it's awful to see the outcome of a play like that um

All or uh

Connormick david speaks out and says the process for player safety needs to be looked at obviously Connormick david also represented by the same agent

That uh Austin Matthews is represented by and you may be represented by now that I'm saying it out loud

I think when you made your switch that's where you went

So you can see some of the connection points there

What are your thoughts on mcdavids comments like is that is that something you'd like to see looked at and talked about a little bit

Because right now we've kind of just had this one process

It's been the process forever. I personally don't think there's a good way to do this

I just think no matter what everybody's always going to be angry at this

But do you think this is a process that needs to just be revisited and talked about and maybe there needs to be more transparency

Behind these decisions and whatnot or do you feel like this is just a lose-lose situation no matter who's in charge

Yeah, you know what it is a tough thing because the best case scenario no matter what happens

You're probably gonna have 50% of people that

Hate your decision no matter what so that's kind of already going to be a low

A low success rate as far as uh that goes so

I don't know. I feel like

for the way the the process is now and

It's tough. It's it's a tough job. It's a thankless job for sure

I don't know there's always things I feel like that maybe can be revisited to see

um

Just if there's ways to do things

better and maybe more transparent and um

Well, you know, I like like like we just said before it is one of those things that it is is tough because

Usually when these plays happen you have people on the one side of the other and

At that that best case scenario you're gonna have half of them

Maybe you're gonna have both people upset

You know, it's very rare that everyone's kind of happy

going into these scenarios and uh and situations and

Things happen fast and and quick out there too and that's obviously sometimes tough to know the intent of what's what's happening

um, but yeah, I mean

Ultimately, I think

The more the more the more transparent this part of the process can be and the more understanding there is all around

I think it just will at least you at least people can understand what's going into the decisions and

Maybe that's I don't know if that's more about the process or if there can be maybe more education

About it so people understand what's going into the the decisions, but um

Again, a lot of these plays are happening where it's like it's a very emotional thing too like guys are

There's injuries and and things like that. So uh, it's there's lots of uh things that feel like aspects that go into it

That make it a very hard process

To man, so I don't know if I really have a good answer for how to make everyone happy but

Usually around these plays

It's like I mentioned before best case scenario is you're gonna have half the people think you're an idiot no matter what

So it's a hard thing

Do you guys remember was was were people this angry when Brendan shanick like I've always said this so I I

Had an opportunity to get to know George parles over the years and

This isn't gonna be a popular comment, but I find the guy to be really smart. I mean I every conversation. I've ever had with him

Even when it comes to these suspensions and things

He always gives me a very reasonable well thought out here's why we did what we did now

I don't always walk away agreeing with him

But I always walk away respecting the thoroughness and all the different thought points that they go through with this

But I can't remember

How people felt about Brendan shanahan when he was in charge of this like was it the same outrage?

I feel like it's kind of always been a similar sort of thing like I'm okay

These are it's emotional things like you're gonna have either a guy getting hurt or and the team's gonna be missing

A player for that reason and clearly on the other end of it like if you get a guy suspended like in a team is missing that player too

Like there's it's it's an emotional thing and especially again as you get

Later in the year when there's more the playoff implications start to happen and things like that

So I it's it's a hard thing for sure

So I don't pretend to have any solutions for it

But I don't know again, it's one of those things when

Usually when there's higher profile things that happen it

It may be I don't know it's never a bad thing. I feel like to

Maybe just revisit the process and see if there's things to clean up in it and make it make the process a little bit better

But again at the end of the day like it like we just said it's like

You

The best case scenario you're gonna have maybe half the people happy with you have to have that base happy one

So it's it's a tough thing for sure

Feel free to tell me to fuck off. I probably should have looked this up while you were talking reaver

But have you ever been suspended or fine? Like did you ever get a hearing or anything? I feel like you're too nice

I actually I know you know what I have

One fine in my career. Um, okay. What'd you do actually?

It was I was a play and when I was in Philly

We're going in for a puck in the corner

It was me and Alec Martinez and he kind of bumped me off balance

So I was like falling down and my stick swung around and I caught him like pretty much right in the jaw

So I think I don't know if I if I lie I

We and we we had the same agent forever so no I had to do it before I had so I felt

Pretty bad. I can't remember if you ended up losing any teeth

But I definitely uh that was unfortunate accident right after or what um, yeah

Oh, yeah, I'm like jeez like I

Hopefully that wasn't too bad, but I can't remember if you say you lost any teeth or anything

But it was one of those things where I kind of lost my balance and was falling down and my stick like helicopter and

caught him so

So I got a little

$5,000 fine. I think it was

You're expecting it throw that one on the board. Go away

Were you expecting the fine

Uh, not necessarily just because again, it was one of those plays where I know it was definitely a dangerous play

But I was walking around again. I thought I was falling down and

um

Yeah, I actually haven't seen I haven't seen the clip in a few years

And also maybe you guys can do the judge for next time we uh we chat if you can I'm sure Vick's looking somewhere

I want to

But yeah, that's what I felt bad about it

I want to ask our chat because again

We're all sitting here and we're all very critical and that's fine and fair listen

You want you want to be in the spotlight you want a big job like you want to be in pro sports

You're going to get criticized

Who would you all put in charge of play?

Hopefully I think fix got it

Okay, that's fine. He can run it

But I'm asking the chat a question. Who would you put in player safety?

Who do you want to be in charge?

Because I do agree with reamer. You're starting at 50%

You're you don't even get to start at 100%

And then the other pushback that I want to give the chat on this is that

It's like you guys are saying the only person that thinks perils is doing a good job is Gary Bettman

If the owners and the GMs were completely against the work that George perils was doing

He wouldn't still have that job

So yes, I get it the like Twitter's angry an agent right now is angry a fan base is angry

But like you got to come up with a solution you can't just yell and say we hate it. We hate it

Who do you put in that role? Okay, some of the names chris pronger is a great name

Why would chris pronger take that job and like why I mean like there's there's I would bet

There's no chance he would say yes that didn't you play with pronger and philly reamer?

I wasn't I think he was in that department for a little bit too

When he was just just retiring so I think he was doing some stuff within that so

Yeah, he's been in the mix there

in the past I don't I don't think he was

Like the the final head decision maker, but I think he was on the back

They're kind of growing in a street back because obviously he had some tricks of the trade from when he was playing

So he knew he knew exactly what guy tricks of the trade is a real nice way to put it

I might put some more work on Vicks play, but like while we're talking about it

There was a really controversial hit with Trevor in the playoffs to yours. You know with Matt Rempi

If you remember that hit we're Trevor

I think even I think he even said like after the fact though

I know Cap's fans wanted Rempi suspended for the rest of the series

But I think you're ever said something about terrible hit

No, but Trevor said something about like doing a shoulder check or something

I don't know if he did a shoulder check like what do you remember what he said after that? I remember

Yeah, it's well that's first of all like that's a guy you just kind of know when he's on the ice

And I know my brother say that too. So that's that's again

The math of when you're playing here is a little different one

That's so dirty. I have a

That is a disgustingly dirty hit Johnny like he should have been out of playoff. That was you know

It's definitely I love it in the moment probably a little bit late. It's uh

Yeah, a little bit late on that one, but line side. Yeah, I know Trevor was saying too like yeah

Well again, it's yeah, I know Trevor was a kid knowing who's on the ice is a big big sort of thing. So

Yeah, and I know that's uh, but no, that's that's definitely probably a touch

jet touchy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's actually definitely looks worse now than I did to you

Doesn't look good or slow motion either. I could say that. No, they never do. I always say

Nothing looks good in slow motion. I mean you could take a pretty harmless look and hit and make it look like

Murderers row and slow motion

Reims I know we kept you for a while today. We appreciate it. It's been a minute since we were able to catch up with you

I know you guys have a pretty important stretch here over the next couple of games. So we'll be

Keeping an eye on on the wing wheel here to see if you guys can can continue to push forward and wait for a little bit of reinforcements

We will definitely try to get you on at least one or two more times before playoffs

Obviously once that starts it gets a little more difficult, but um as always we appreciate your time

I know we went in some different directions say I actually really thought that was a great question by Jeff

I wanted to give your answer on that. I mean, I uh, I wanted to know what you were gonna say when when he asked you that question

So I thought that was a really interesting question and sparks really good debate. I actually didn't know that story either

That I know he said burky was talking about that um, yeah, I didn't know that that's he'd ever I'm still

So keep in touch with burpees great and

Obviously forever be grateful for um for for uh for give me that opportunity. He didn't Toronto and oh

That kind of really springboarded my uh career

But no, he had never mentioned that was like a key of why he or one of the things. I guess he was

Thinking of when when they brought me to Toronto. So yeah, Colby. Why don't you make the drive down April 4th?

Rangers 30 30 in the afternoon

Tuddy T says I booed you and Philly sorry pal. It's just a business

He said he says he says that Tuddy T is an angry flyers fan. He's here every day. So we love him

And then we've got we've got willy styles in our in our chat

Dreamer who's been asking me to ask you for an autograph

Um, so we just got to send it send it to the red what are they people do they send it to the red wings front office

And they just put your name on it right? Isn't that kind of what I believe so yeah

That's usually how it goes. Yeah, so they'll they'll take care of it if it gets

Willie Willie send it

Send it to the red wings front office

It'll get to reamer put something about morning cup of hockey on the envelope

That way he knows he absolutely has to sign it for you. He will do it for you. He will personalize it

He'll probably throw a hundred dollar bill and he's such a good guy

Just send it send it to the to the new Joe Lewis arena there. I know that's not what it's called

But uh just send it his way and he'll take care of it for you. Don't worry little willy. He'll get he'll

Little willies him in a soda guy. He says he grew up in the same neighborhood as as your wife

Yeah, he's he's a big he's a big JVR guy

All right. Love it

So thanks right now. Appreciate it. See you soon. See you in two weeks. Yeah

All righty. Where to now or should we just wrap up the show anything else you want to talk about this morning

I mean the penarence of yesterday. I don't know if you caught it. It was great like

He was awesome and what what do you smile at? I

I'm laughing it

I think was a David Pignoda who posted something on social

Oh, yeah, that's so good. Like me and penaren wondering what the hell this idiot's talking about or something when you

Yeah, when you um when you posted the question or whatever is did that was dp right

Yeah, he said like uh me and our tiny penaren wondering what the fuck Johnny was talking about

And there's just like them with a blank stare, but it was it was good stuff

But I just thought it was really cool that our tiny penaren like spoke on camera yesterday

I know I got a lot of questions from rangers fans and I answered one of them on twitter

Because penaren didn't really do anything on camera in his seven years here

Just because you know the english language and some guys aren't comfortable doing it when the pressure's on so

You know, he told the reporters yesterday, you know, we're obviously pretty like I'm not gonna say close

Like we're not all friends, but like you know, we have a good working relationship with him and over the last three years

I've gotten to know penaren decently well just from the locker of interactions and

He said he wanted to be on camera for the new york media and for rangers fans because you know

He was very emotional yesterday and it was uh really cool to see him go out on the ice after the fact after the game and take pictures with a group of ranger fans

but it was

It was interesting just to hear his perspective on the whole thing and the trade and um talked to him

You know firsthand after everything went down, but it was a great night at msg last night

And you know the kings right now are are right in it. They're tied with Seattle

They're on the outside. They're under the line

But they're in the playoff race even though they look like shit coming out of the break so

There it seemed to watch out for here. Colby as we head down to the end of the season

If uh if you had to make a bet before we do get into bet

365 would you bet that

The red wings are a playoff team this year like do you have the red wings? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah

You have men I know that's not but I'm just saying in general like just to finish the the conversation about readings like do you have them in

Yeah, I do I don't think Ottawa or Philly gets in um no Philly's not going to get in unfortunately

They're going to come I would actually I

Think Montreal would drop over Detroit. I could see Montreal dropping

Just because goal technique. That would not just because we I don't know though

Like you never know though between Dolvish and Fowler like I feel like you have strong enough a strong enough duo that you can work your way in

I mean, I loved I look I know they lost the other day

She's choking good. Well the choice the choice got Montreal on Thursday the Canadians who do they play tonight?

I think they play tonight as well

Montreal plays against Boston tonight. That's a huge game

So we do have a great slate tonight

In the NHL there's nine games

Yeah, we got Carolina and Columbus as well. That's another good game Minnesota. Well, Minnesota Chicago's not a great game

But when a peg Nashville also a big game for playoff and vacation San Jose and Edmonton tonight's a really really good slate

Of hockey

Even the Kraken lightning game is pretty big too because the lightning and Buffalo are battling for that first spot in the Atlantic

Before we do out west or excuse me before we do bet three six five

Though Colby, I do want to give a quick shout to our sponsor out west spring is finally here

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Which game are you going to be glued in on tonight out of the slate if you want to make sure you hit the like

Make sure you hit the like button our likes are low our views were pretty high today

But our likes are low so make sure we hit that like button if you are still here and you're still with us

I was commenting on that game last night between the devils and

And

I thought that was a great overtime it ends with six seconds left

It was it was jack use

He stayed on the ice for half of overtime and then mason lore. I had like an incredible three-minute shift in overtime

He he made like three good defensive plays two blocks. I was actually really impressed with

With mason lore and overtime last night, but then you know the devils just made a play at the end and and took advantage of a

But but I'll tell you like, you know, I mean look Charlie McAvoy is is can do no wrong. I love I love Charlie McAvoy

But he had a he had a tough game couple of tough plays that that ended up with pucks in the back of the net for his team

So I'm sure he'll want to rebound for that game tonight

You know they play back to back, but you asked me which game will I have my eyes glued to tonight?

Yeah, I didn't say Buffalo or Vegas too. That's a great game also

I mean look anytime Boston and Montreal play like I have this sort of

pull um

I

I wonder if Sasha blavare is gonna play for the black oxenate. I don't think he can know maybe because of visa issues

I don't think he can play. I'm really interested to see what he looks like in an NHL like uniform

Is it gonna be a continuation of of what he did this year or is he just flipping a switch like I have no idea

Um, I think shark. What do you not have a visa though? What do you not have a visa if you different type of VL?

It's a it's a different it goes from a student visa to a to a like a

Green you know, whatever the working visa would be. I don't know what the um what the actual like names of it is

So he probably can't play

I probably won't see any of those 10 p.m. Puck drops all those sabers golden nights would be a good one

But I will definitely I I'll want to see celebrity trying to go head-to-head against McDaniel

Yeah, I mean that and not to mention with the you know with Connor angrium being named starter now that to me that whole situation gets a little bit more interesting

Because like what happens now if he plays a couple of if he games in a row. What do you do?

You know?

You know, I think the islanders they need to take care of business against the Maple Leafs like these are the types of games you have to win

The Maple Leafs are basically now just playing with house money. They know everybody's probably going

They're without their captain guys are gonna get more opportunities than they normally do

You know the Blue Jackets

They'll want to continue to get back on the right track. I think they dropped one either last night of the night before

After

Pretty a pretty impressive streak without many losses

So

Yeah, I don't know. I'll probably start with Bruins Bruins Canadians though for at least I'd say the first half of that game

You know me. I don't I'm not as big of a bouncer when it comes to a big game night as you are

I like to kind of lock in on one game. So probably where probably where I'll I'll spend a majority of the early

Part of the night until Sharks Oilers. What about you?

Um, I'll probably focus it on Sharks Oilers. I'm actually hopping on the ice early tonight

I'm getting into a new like one of my friend Sam Sternshine who played at Penn State and Boston college a little bit of pro two

I remember

He's doing this like on ice training company. So he needs some help. So every Tuesday night

I'll be on the ice helping out kids training kids, you know like pretty elite kids to like triple A players

You know, he skates some of the pro guys in the summer. So I'm trying to get back on the ice a little bit more and start and start coaching a little bit

Colby. I'm following in your footsteps again. Everything you do. I'm excited

Wait, can we talk about that whole Wittenbach thing yesterday that Ethan Wittenbach tweet. Yeah, I'm like

Like and that got dumber and dumber as that guy then said

Quinnipiac has been known for stashing guys in the bchl and not having them play in the best league in the ushl

Because they were worried that their players were going to get poached like

wake up the

Quinnipiac has become

A national powerhouse of a team. They have an i l

They have unbelievable facilities. They have top 10 every one of

The best head coaches assisting coaches and strength coaches in all of college hockey

There's a reason pectoral does done world juniors their strength coaches

Unbelievable right

Patel is his last name. The guy is a brain scientist. Okay, they've been

Turning out NHL players year after year like every year for the last five or six years

I'm watching Clifton play last night laughing as he's dropping

Zach Metsa graph graphs. I mean the reason a lot of these Quinnipiac kids

Don't play in the ushl

Is because

Ran pectoral has been known to go out and find good players

And I'll give Joe Dume a lot of credit here too and turn them into great players

Okay, like take good college players and help them become NHLers rather than going and getting the slam dunk

Right and and you know the top top talent they build a culture

I will say and they don't want the one and done

They don't want the one and done. I get defensive when I see slander against the Quinnipiac bobcat program

I mean they've won an national championship in the last

Five years. Okay, BUNVC have not okay. Let's just let I'm they're in the tournament every year every single year

If you look over the last 10 or 15 years, I guarantee you wins. I bet you there on the top

Three to four in wins in the NCAA tournament

Um in the sorry overall wins in the NCAA in the last 15 seasons. Okay, I agree

They have a thriving NIL program. They just don't talk about it. They don't they don't throw seven or eight hundred thousand at

Anyone, right? But so seeing that tweet made me think like this guy is an idiot and just looking for for

um

Attention he got his attention

But everybody thinks that that guy is a total clown now for tweeting that about Wittenbach and

My response to that was when does a star player leave Quinnipiac? When is that ever happened? It doesn't happen

They lose high-end young players to the portal. They're not one of those programs. So

I

I was like what am I reading when I saw that whole thing that was dumb

By that western hockey league scout or whatever that guy's

Twitter handle was that so

Everyone's a scout, you know, like give me a fucking break. So I just uh, yeah, it's a clarify everything too

Like I tweeted it to to debunk it right away. I think everyone knows it's pretty well documented now that I'm very tight with Wittenbach and his agents and whatnot

Like he's either staying at Quinnipiac or signing like that's it

He's not okay to transfer portal

Uh

Just like uh, is it the puck agency? I think that's what they're called like John Aussie 2 2. You know him got it

Yeah, he seems to be getting a lot of good kids from that area. Heygins is

Um, yeah, he seemed to be you see I played against him when we were kids

He was on the Long Island Royals. I mean how could you can't forget the last name Aussie 2 2 like and he was a good player

To to to to be I mean when we were like young hockey players

He was a very very good player him and he had a he had a running made on those long island royal teams that

His name was the last name was stone. They were really really good youth hockey players. So

Yeah, that whole thing I personally don't think Wittenbach should sign. I think the playoffs against Clarkson

It shows like hey like the next level of big heavy heavy hockey like Clarkson plays is probably

um

Is probably a reason for him to spend one more year

Sam lived in in my opinion left a little premature. He did two years. I believe not one

Um, and then he signed but I I think eat again not my career whatever

Yeah, I'd love to see him come back for his sophomore year and and tear it up again

Just continue to develop his game away from the puck almost like Colin grafted like and then go and make sure

You go right to the NHL and you don't end up playing for the Wranglers and no disrespect to the HL my whole career was in that league

Yeah, well plus that new arena too like what's the rush right?

Skip skip the American League if you can spend that extra year in in in college getting better

um and then

Go to the national hockey league after that, you know, so um and I also listen

I want to see Wittenbach make noise in the NCAA tournament. I really do. I mean we you know

We see these guys that have big regular seasons and I'm not just talking about him like you don't you

You don't want to see those guys get silenced. I want to see

Higgins get to the tournament this year like I want to see Higgins if he's truly ready to go play for

um

If he's truly ready to go help the Bruins and maybe he is like maybe he is

I want to see you come into the the hockey East tournament and be the best damn player and drag Boston college

And Dean latino as well

Those two players need to drag their team into the NCAA tournament right now

And that's what I want to see and if Higgins does that and he can go on a nice run and and have a couple of wins

You know what you're ready go do it same for latino

But I do want to see you do that in the biggest time of the year in the NCAA tournament before I'm like okay

Yeah, you should go

100% that'll be an interesting situation

But I'm glad you you've sort of put like I didn't even have to know anybody to know yeah

Wittenback is not transferring

He's one of those little kids there is no he's neither going to be a bobcat or he's going to be a flame

He ain't transferring to go anywhere. I hope he's a bobcat. I hope he's a bobcat. So yeah

Colonel Ludlow. I will say to Augustine stay one more year go ahead Johnny finish your thoughts. No, no

We'll hit the Augustine comment. I was just gonna say I'll be at the frozen for also

I know we kind of I think we talked about it on the show yesterday like you and I will both be the frozen for

So if anyone's in Vegas, we always love to meet the people that listen to our show

We're gonna try to work on maybe talking to some guests there

Maybe doing a live show there

So that's something to keep an eye on in the next like two three weeks

Always fun when I see you in person and

We have to shoot the shit together and whatnot. Yeah, are you gonna are you gonna fly in?

Do you have to figure that out? I'd figure that out

Wednesday and Thursday

We'll be in the same city. So maybe I mean listen, it's gonna be 6 a.m. Vegas time

But but to be honest you know those are busy days. So it's not like we can do the show much later

I'm wondering if we try to do a show just do it in the same room

We will we'll have to get one of those Mike thingies those like Mike splitters. So we can have two mics running off a one computer

but we might have to

We might we might have to work that out so we could actually just do our show

Yeah, same room. Yeah, I mean

Jeremiah, we're not like doing like a live show. We meant like just us two in the same room. Not like yeah

Not like a perfection Ryan Ryan lot in our chat is asking our thoughts on the ACHA tournament if we have any I didn't see it

Yeah, I didn't see it look. I would love it if the ACHA tournament was on CBS sports

I would turn it on like I would have no issues with that

It's just hard when a lot of those events are are internet only and I know streaming and internet has become the way

But you know, I'm like sitting in the playroom with my kids right now getting slashed in the fingers by my son who thinks a hockey stick is a weapon

Um, and he's just a wild man with it

But so if I can have the game on the TV in the background that's great, but hard to go search it out. So

um, I didn't see the ACHA tournament

I do think highly of of you know, UNLV. We've seen what they can do

Um, we know the top leagues in the ACHA are good hockey teams good hockey programs. They have a lot of fun

Uh, they get a lot of fans. So we learned that lesson the hard way after we said club hockey is not college hockey last year

Yeah, well, I mean, I said I said it is college hockey. I'm not changing my tune that club hockey is not even close to division one hockey

I'm not changing my tune on that

But club hockey is fucking awesome too. Yeah, the top programs are good

Can be can be can be true. Um, they can be true. So yeah, and as Tutti T says there's only so much we can cover

I mean like we uh, we do try to keep our eyes on a lot of hockey. I mean, Johnny

I know you you know, you're a college hockey analyst. So you should know every player in college hockey

Across the channels here, buddy. I mean come on man. I don't even watch I don't even watch some of the top teams in college hockey

I don't have time like I like someone asked me about Brodie Lam and I was like

I don't think I watched a single Minnesota game all year this year

I didn't see them like I don't have time

Well, I watch the teams that I cover and the leagues that I cover like that I'm paid to do and

uh, you know what though? Like Bootsie will be on the call for the frozen for the championship game for the women's right and if Caroline Harvey and Leila

Edwards are planning it you can bet your ass. I'll be watching especially Caroline Harvey. I fucking love

Yeah, we're we're doing the men's NCA selection show on Sunday at three o'clock

And that will lead into the women's national championship game

Um, that will that will lead into that which will be at four p.m

I think a lot of people expect to see Wisconsin women against Ohio State for the third

Year in a row and I know there's been some I don't want to say controversy

But noise around that that Leila Edwards girl because she's gonna play

forward

Instead of defense and she played defense the last couple of games played defense

At the Olympics um, but look the Olympics

Opened our eyes to a lot of these players. I mean me like I know a lot of the retired female players like you know

Megan Duggan and Brianna Decker and you know to see Carpenter and Hillary still out there

um, you know the elder statesman of the team. I mean those are the girls that know and the young new young ones like we're learning all about those girls now

There's obviously some talented ones. So uh, I'm actually covering that

The New York sirens game at msg on April 4th. I mean I haven't gotten official confirmation

But I believe I will be covering it um sold out game and i'm sg for the pwhl on April 4th be really cool at night

Saturday night

All right

Remember did we do bet and do bet no way did not we did not do it uh also have like a uh another

I do have an announcement

Which is something I want to promote for a little bit later, but before we do that

We will get into our bet of the night presented by bet 365 so hockey fans there are a few things more stressful

Then a close hockey game one late backcheck could make all the difference between a chance at playoff glory

Or an early spring t-time. That's why bet 365 an official partner of the nhl is offering

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With that our bet of the night

We're going to go to San Jose sharks on the money line in Edmonton

Take it on the oilers the sharks are plus money sharks are fighting for that playoff spot Edmonton trying to hang on to theirs

But at plus 145

Hard to not take San Jose with how they've been playing they're coming off a bad loss to Ottawa

So it's a good opportunity for them to get a bounce back when uh in Edmonton

So that's our bet of the night one other thing I just wanted to say

Later on tri-state on the tri-state hockey podcast if you are a new york rangers fan

We'll be interviewing Peter lobbyilette

That will be taking place at 230 so the episode should be up hopefully by like

430 or 5 depending on how quick vick edits it so

If you have any questions that you want me to ask Peter lobbyilette feel free to do them to me

I'll try to get them off

But that's all I got coby so I'll kick it over to you to wrap up today's show long show

Yeah, long show all right make sure you hit the like button make sure you hit the subscribe button

Make sure you go to apple podcast and Spotify put your auto downloads on leave us reviews across the audio platforms

Leave us your comments on the stream on the youtube. I know youtube was in an out today

But when the show ends you can leave comments that we will see

Other than that. I think today. Yep. Today's Tuesday. We got two more shows this week

As we start to move into a real busy time honestly for the next couple of weeks with the NHL and the NCAA

So uh, we hope everybody has an enjoyable Tuesday and we will see you all tomorrow morning 9 a.m

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