The Hockey Show: Talk Dirty To Me About John Tavares

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Terms apply. Welcome apply welcome to the hockey show my name is roy dolly david dork is to my left he works for the hockey news ethan is in that chair over there in the shipping container joining us is john and zaslow as a guest go host uh espn radio and john and zaslow show 2.0 and also joining us and andk from Prime Monday Night Hockey.
He's going to join us here for the first segment. So, Adnan, where were you last week and where are you going this week? Roy, great to see you and friends.
Dave, Zas, Ethan, good to be back here. My monthly appearance here on the Hockey Show.
We're just back home in Toronto for the Leafs and the Flames. And I got to tell you guys, everyone's feeling a little tight up there in Toronto.
Everyone's getting a little nervous. Only one win the last six games.
Talking to Craig Berube at Morning Skate. You know, just got to get the puck in there, get going a little bit.
And they looked great. Austin Matthews, who has had a precipitous decline, as you guys know, from 69 goals a season, he got a 24 entry Monday's play.
I know he missed 15 games, but still hasn't been the same guy. If you look back at Bossy, Gretzky, Lemieux, Stamkos, anybody who scores 60-plus, they don't have that kind of a drop.
So it's been concerning. What happens? Matthew scores two.
Leafs score three in the power play. I love Ryan Huska, along with Paul Maurice, one of my favorite coaches to talk to.
But, God, the Flames don't have much offensive talent. Love Nas as well, as we continue right now on Ramadan, one of my few Muslim brothers in the league.
Nas, by the way, was great against the Rangers the next day. Goal and assist, a good win for the Flames.
But I just don't think the Flames have enough talent, honestly, offensively to compete. And Wolfe, who's been such a great story, guys, as you know, he's in the Calder mix, unfortunately got blitzed.
It wasn't really his fault, just the Leafs looked really good. What I want to throw to you guys, though, especially since you mentioned Dave's bona fides with the hockey news, I got to interview Lanny McDonald and Daryl Sittler at the intermission.
Now think about Sittler, 10-point game. And I said to him, you know, when you think back at that moment, that game, what do you think about it? He goes, honestly, I'm shocked no one's broken.
I said, what? You think someone's going to have a 10-point game? And he said, just at some point, Gretzky, Lemieux, Ovechkin, somebody would have done it. So I want to throw it to you guys first off.
Do you think anyone will ever break Sittler's 10-point record? Then I got a hockey news thing for Dave in a second. Sittler first.
What do you got? No. 10 points in a game? No.
I hope not. As a goalie, I sure hope not.
Good God. By the way, the closest to it, this is crazy.
Yager had a seven-point game. Sam Gagne had an eight-point game back in 2012.
Shout out to his father, Dave Gagne. Loved him on the North Stars.
Great Panthers like it. Dave Gagne has some good news for the Panthers.
There you go. Dave, on the topic of the hockey news, I'm talking to Lanny McDonald.
And of course, I'm just staring at the stash. And I said, Lanny, I got to tell you, I said, I read your book, by the way, back when I was like nine years old in 87.
I saw the cover of Lanny. And I said, that mustache, you got to tell me about the stash.
And you know, what was the first time that you grew it? And he goes, well, I don't know the first time, but I've had a lot of lucrative offers to shave it along the way. And I said, I remember, I said, I have a hockey news like from years ago.
It's literally just your face. And it's like, you know, I have an outline of somebody you could tell who it is.
It was just the mustache and like the bucket helmet. It's so amazing.
And he goes, it's my signature mark. I can never get rid of it.
It makes me think about guys, Barry Melrose for years at ESPN. I told him, why don't you ever cut the mullet? And he goes, I tried to, and they told me I couldn't.
I said, why? He goes, I was just going to go get a haircut. And I go, I'm tired.
It's been 20 years. Whatever.
They go, no, no, that's part of your look. That's your signature.
Give me a beggar signature than Lanny McDonald and that stache. Yeah.
I mean, I'm thinking like silhouettes, like Mark Messier comes to mind, like a recognizable. Jonathan Zaslow in the backwards cap.
Yeah. Well, I'm curious now, how much was he getting offered to shave that mustache? Because at what point do you really have to start considering these offers? Like five figures, six figures? What are we talking here? That's the follow-up question that I have for Lanny McDonald.
Yeah, we have to find out. Because Thomas Hickey, of course, is part of our Amazon Monday Night crew, grew up in Calgary.
He said, I still have vivid memories of listening to whatever Karkmer's was, GMC. And the way it would end would be, and tell them Lanny sent you.
And I said to Lanny, I go, like, what would happen if I did that? Like, I went to an auto dealership in that era and go, hey, Lanny sent me. Am I getting 10% off tires? Am I getting free of all changes or what? But he didn't give me an answer.
And then talking about Toronto, you know, Toronto and Florida are tied atop the Atlantic Division right now. And you mentioned the season that Austin Matthews is having, obviously not anywhere near the year that he had last year.
What's like the tenor in Toronto surrounding Austin Matthews? And of course, you know, you remember this past, you know, when we're in the Four Nations, you know, you can look at his performance there as well. Like, how are they feeling about him right now? It's a great question to ask.
He's one of those guys, he's kind of like the golden boy. He is above reproach.

Having been born in Toronto and growing up in Ontario,

a lot of those horrible 80s Leafs

teams, no matter what, they just adored Wendell Clark

because he was the one guy that was tough,

that would fight, could score, and he was hurt a lot of times.

Terrible back injury, but Wendell was that guy.

So I thought with this Leafs team,

they kicked the crap out of Mitch Marner. They'll beat up

on him. They'll beat up on their goaltender, their defense,

whatever it is, but generally they're always favorable towards

Austin Matthews. So I haven't heard much criticism

at all. While I was there, their whole thought

Thank you. They kick the crap out of Mitch Marner.
They'll beat up on him. They'll beat up on their goaltender, their defense, whatever it is.
But generally, they're always favorable towards Austin Matthews. So I haven't heard much criticism at all while he was there.
Their whole thought is he's much more hurt than you think, like he's playing through an injury. So rather than why is this guy, relatively speaking, stinking up the joint, it's what a tough guy.
Clearly, he's not 100%. He's still playing.
By the way, they always beat up on Marner. He's on pace for 101 points, which would be a career high.
And we all know the rumors, the fact they apparently went to him, allegedly trying to trade him for Rantanen. Jason Demers, my podcast co-host on Angel Unscripted, said if he was Marner, he would not return to Toronto.
New England are still having another wonderful season, but no, specifically to Matthews, they love AM34. And then I want to ask you, right now, the Caps just became the first team to clinch a playoff spot last night.
They're on 100 points. The Jets are also on 100 points.
It's going to be an epic battle down the stretch to see who wins the president's trophy. But neither of these teams really did a whole lot at the deadline.
And I know sometimes we kind of get caught up in who made the splashy acquisitions at the deadline and whatnot. Do you think they did enough? Do you think too many teams around them got so much better that they might not be serious candidates to go deep in the playoffs anymore? So Ethan, I always worry about it.
I look at the Carolina Hurricanes specifically, and I say, you know, they're one of those teams that are always B plus, A minus, but come playoff time, they can't elevate. They can't get to the next level.
And that's why I did love the rants and move. I said, no, he's a superstar that can transcend.
Of course, they could have done their due diligence and made sure he actually wanted to sign a long-term deal, but regardless, you pivot, you do what you got to do. To your point, with Winnipeg, and by the way, I'm going to be making my fourth trip to Winnipeg coming up here.
Oh, no. I know, Roy.
Thankfully, home game this Monday, by the way. We got Canucks Devils.
We built it as the Hughes Bowl, and then Jack Hughes got hurt, but at least we get to see Quinn Hughes, so I'll just be driving to the Meadowlands here at 35 minutes in Newark. But the week after that, Denver, can't wait to see the Avalanche, McKinnon McCarum close and personal.
Then we've got Winnipeg, then Edmonton to close the Amazon schedule, Kings Oilers, as you got into the final game. But Ethan, to your point, Jets, I'm going to watch them again April 7th, and everything I keep saying about them is Halibook's about to win his third Vesna.
They've got three great lines, solid defense. I love Morris.
I think he's a top-ten defenseman. Shifley-Connor obviously lead the attack.
Power play's been a little quiet recently, and you wonder how important that is come playoff time because, you know, you have to score goals at 5-on-5. You can't just rely on penalties.
Less penalties are called in the playoffs, but I think it's a fair point. I was talking to Mark Parrish yesterday on the NHL Network.
I'm with Kevin Weeks today. Another former Panthers.
Both former Panthers. We love the Panthers.
Exactly. Good call, Dave.
If I said, you know, who's coming out of the Central? No one's saying the Jets. Like, me and Perry both said the Stars.
Demers and Weeks, he said the Avalanche. Like, no one's going, like, yeah, Winnipeg's a team to beat.
They're going to win the division. And everyone's going, eh, I want to see what Hal Buck does in the playoffs.
Like, he's yet to prove that to me. And made them a ticket.
Are they like the Toronto of the Western Conference? They can be as good as hell in the regular season, but nobody thinks they're going to do it in the playoffs? Are they actually the best team in the West? As far as points are concerned. As far as points are concerned, but look how good Colorado looks right now.
To me, they're terrifying. McKinnon, McCarr, the way Natchez has been playing since he's gone over there.
They've gotten better since they traded Rennon, which is an insane thing to say. And their lines after the trade deadline, look at them, and they're as deep as anybody in the league right now.
And the single best reason to watch the NHL playoffs is going to be that series. Dallas, Colorado.
It's maddening to me because either of those teams could be co-favorites to win the Stanley Cup, and one of those two teams is going to be out after the first round. Amazing.
All right, let's get to the video portion of this segment. We have a video of two fans at a Capitals game from 20 years ago and most recently.
So these fans were kids when they showed up to this Capitals game in 2005 with foam eights on their head. And 20 years later, as grown-ass men, they showed up to a Capitals game.
Now those foam eights have autographs on them, and they are celebrating Alexander Oveskin. Now, Alexander Oveskin scored last night.
He now has 888 goals in his career. That's seven away from breaking the record.
888 goals for the grade eight. Is he going to hit 1,000? No.
He can still play for a few more years if he wants to. Do we know yet when Gretzky is going to start following the Capitals? I think he started.
I think it was five goals to go. I think he started.
I guess as soon as you're in the realm of he could do it this game, which five goals in a game isn't that crazy for a guy like Ovechkin, so yeah, that would make sense. All right.
Hopefully he gets it done in a timely fashion. I don't know if Gretzky wants to be spending two, three weeks on the road with the Capitals.
Imagine if he drags it out. He's got his own private jet.
In Utah, apparently Mikhail Osirgachev has a chicken farm, and he's given eggs. He's a smart guy.
Yeah, he's given eggs to his teammates. In a tweet from Bill Frazier, who's in the locker room,

I just have a lot of eggs. Once we hit 24 or 30 eggs, I start giving

them away to my teammates. Obviously, I feed

them well. I take care of them.

Now, there's a shortage of

eggs, so guys, appreciate it more.

Now, eggs are expensive.

If there was anywhere this was going to happen, though,

Utah.

Communal, kind people, from what I've been told. I haven't been there, but it seems like a happy place, right? I don't know.
Correct me if I'm wrong, fellas, but it seems like this is like... Winnipeg, maybe? All of Canada.
Calgary, Edmonton? I don't know. I didn't want to know Canadian geography better than we would.
Well, I'll tell you this right now. Here in New Jersey, I can tell you we have an egg shortage.
This is unbelievable. I mean, we don't even get political on the whole terrace right now.
But, God, we can't even get enough eggs here in New Jersey. Forget about back home in Canada.
And I will tell you, speaking back home to Canadians, there's people, my best friends will not buy strawberries. What do you mean? He goes to my local grocery store.
It's only from America. I said, that's going too far.
A man needs his strawberries. There was another tweet from that presser.
Nick Buckstead apparently had a comment that Sogachev did not take him up. Another former panther.
Former panther? He's disrespected by chickens like that. Yeah, Buckstead said to him about Sogachev's chickens potentially having bird flu.
You should check that. And Sogachev said, it's insane.
He disrespected my chickens like that. I still gave him eggs because he said his wife went to the store and there were no eggs.
That is disrespectful to claim that his birds have bird flu. Right? Yeah.
That's bad. He's doing a service to everybody.
Yeah, that's a knock-on-wood joke. You don't do that right now.
Yeah, not right now. And I'm going to extend my Islanders shit-talk streak on this show,

even though it's been a bad week.

I was wondering if you were going to get to that.

Yeah, I got no choice.

I got to continue the streak, no matter what happened with the Panthers this week.

But here's a video, and there's sound on this, by the way.

Here's a video of an Islanders fan chirping at John Tavares,

who made his return on the island.

Hey, come on, you're a traitor, a liar, a sneak, a fake. You should have told us.
We would have got pics for you, you phony fake. You suck.
You suck. You always be a loser.
Always. I love you.
Always. And you know what I'm saying.
You should have told us. You speak phony fake.
You speak. I love you.
I used to love you. Oh, man.

I used to love... Loser mentality.

The lady in the background is the guys going off.

You can hear her.

She's like, I love you.

That was like...

I used to love you.

I think what she's saying.

No, no.

She was saying that to the guy who was screaming it.

Oh, my God.

She was saying it to the guy.

He's like ripping Tavares the new one. Thank you for speaking for us.
That guy is getting laid. Or he got laid that night for sure.
I love you. Loser.
Islanders. Talk dirty to me in bed about John Tavares.
Loser fan. Loser team.
Loser fan base. Islanders this season.
You gotta make some more acquisitions. Yeah.
As soon as that one acquisition I would... Well, as soon as that one release I should say happens, I will be on that ass.
I think I saw him. He got scratched recently or was held out of practice.
And he deserves it. He had two assists last game, by the way.
So, yeah, there's that, too. But I guess he's...
Does Tavares still scar you guys from 2016? No, I mean, Trocek was tripped. Everybody knows that.
Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that.
Everybody knows that, except for the referee. Everybody knows that.
It's okay now. Stay on the cup.
All right, wins of the week. David? My win of the week goes to a young man in the OHL by the name of Jake Carabella.
This young man had something happen to him the other night in a game against the Flint Firebirds. He lost his cup.
And there it is, if you're watching on YouTube. The cup's just kind of hanging out in the ice.
And the first guy they show is a guy named Wang, which is just hilarious. But anyway.
So the ref goes and grabs the cup, picks it up, takes it over to the bench, gives it to Carabella. And you know what he does? He says thank you, and he shoves it right back in his pants.
Is that one of the most hockey things I've seen all week? Yeah, he used a towel. He used a towel to give it back to him.
Well, yeah, he's clearly not wearing it properly, that it's falling out like that. Like, I used to do that when I was 10 years old, and we wanted to be super lazy in Little League, where you wouldn't wear the entire jock strap, and you just wear the cup.
You stick the cup in your underwear. It's very dangerous.
No, I was a catcher, so I had to make sure that was maintained properly. A little tin cup over here.
They'd be like, Roy, let me hear it. You start banging on your cup.

I always can't give you that mitt.

Yep.

Yeah, just like that.

My win of the week earlier this week, the Seattle Kraken held what they called an oops all goalies game.

And their goaltender, Joy Drakord, dropped the ceremonial first puck.

Now, it's really a real sight to behold to see dozens of fully padded goaltenders out there playing like their position players. It's a beauty, man.
If I got to do that, I would just hit guys. You want to check? Yeah.
What else am I going to do? I'm not going to try to score on like 25 other goalies. I just want to go out there and bang around.
It doesn't look terribly organized. Everyone loves a good goalie fight.
You've got to drop the gloves and just start fighting every goalie you could. That would be awesome.
I don't want to fight. I just want to be a troll.
I just want to go out there and hit people. That's hilarious.
Ethan. Adnan mentioned Connor Hellebuck earlier.
This guy's pretty amazing. Win of the week from the Jets-Canucks game.
Last week we went with a goalie. We're going back to the goalie well here again.
Watch this save that Connor Hellebuck makes. Comes out of his net, dives all the way back with his stick out.
This guy's unbelievable. Look at how close that puck is to going in right there.
Unbelievable. Adnan, could this guy legitimately win the Hart Trophy this year, not just the Vezina? You know, I looked at the odds, Ethan, yesterday, and Drysaddle's the favorite.
Hellebuck is second right now, which I was amazed because I actually thought McKinnon. If you just said to me off the top of your head, I'm like, God, McKinnon for the heart.
No, right now it's Dreisaitl, Hellebuck, then McKinnon. And Hellebuck, I think, is going to get nominated.
Could he win? Absolutely. I mean, if the Jets end up winning the president's trophy, and he's the biggest reason why, and he's going to win his third vest, and we've seen it before, Josiah Theodore, Carey Price, Hellebuck's been an incredible story.
He's a triple crown category. Wins, goals against, shutouts.
I mean, regardless of if the Jets win a President's Trophy, the way the Oilers played this season, I mean, they're pretty low in the standings right now. I mean, really, it should be Hellebuck's Trophy.
If any skater should win it, it should be McKinnon. He's going to lead the league in points again for the second straight year.
He's been the best player in the league this year. His team is going to be one of the main

contenders to win the Stanley Cup, way more than Edmonton

is this year. And we all know that

as great as Dreisaitl is, he's not the best player

on his team. So it's like, can you

be the MVP? He is this season.

The case for Dreisaitl is

49 goals, 11 more

than any other skater.

His goal scoring numbers this year are insane.

My fail of the week is us as a collective hockey community. What would I do? For our collective lack of an understanding of the man that is Matt Rempe.
No. What are we doing with this guy? Is he a lug on the ice that just runs into guys and gets called for penalties at this point? That's not interference.
He's got speed. He's got hands.
We just can never see them because he's out there like a freaking Frankenstein on the ice. He can't, like, look at this.
Look at how quickly he gets up the ice. There is skill with this guy and we can't really see it because he's been branded and partially rightly so, but I just feel like there's more to the man than what we see.
And now he's like, the referees, every time he sneezes or he looks at a guy he's getting called for a penalty. I don't know.
Yeah, he's getting penalties called on him that are not actually penalties because he is who he is. So I just think there's more to Matt Rempe that meets the eye, and I think maybe we're starting to really push him into a corner, and maybe unfairly so.
I don't know. My fail of the week comes from Avalanche Maple Leafs.
Referee Kelly Sutherland. Oh, no.
Wrong place, wrong time. He fell.
Fast. He fell forward, and the puck stopped.
He fell forward fast. And that's not the worst case because Stephen Lawrence came in and scored on Mackenzie Blackwood.
Guys, the athletes are fighting with the Stars for second place essentially. Imagine if they fall by two points, the Stars get home ice because of Kelly Sutherland's boo-boo.

What a disaster.

This was a huge game for the Panthers.

This tied the division.

This tied the Atlantic Division because the Leafs won this game.

Well, I mean, the Panthers won after the Maple Leafs won.

So technically, semantics. But still, you'd like to be ahead by two.

Yes, absolutely.

But, of course, this road trip did not help the Panthers.

You got one more.

You got one more tomorrow. Yeah, I got one more tomorrow.
You feel good about the road trip, you win at Washington. You'll feel good about it.
Back-to-backs, too, away and home. That's ridiculous.
What are we doing? Well, they got, what, three back-to-backs in the next two weeks? Because I think they got a road trip coming up where it's a back-to-back, two days off, and then another back-to-back. It's very strange what the schedule makers have done to the Panthers.
It's just stupid. Ethan.
Guys, the Buffalo Sabres are really bad. And any time you lose to the Buffalo Sabres, it's really bad.
But this is one of the worst ways you can lose to the Buffalo Sabres here. Tomasz Hertel has a breakaway with an empty net.
Tries to dump it back to Jack Eichel for some reason. Not really sure why.
Puck goes the other way. Sabres score to tie the game with like less than a minute left.
We go to a shootout. No goals in overtime.
Here comes Alex Tuck, I think this is. Beats him for the winner.
Sabres win. They had an empty net goal to put it away.
My fellow week goes to the Vegas Golden Knights. And just to tell you how bad the Sabres season has been, there was an own goal on a delayed penalty when the Sabres played the Utah Hockey Club.
And it didn't even go to the goalie. Like, if you score on yourself, the other goalie should get credit.
No, it was a bad pass that went across the length of the ice. I think that's how the Utah Hockey Club scored their first ever goal in the preseason this year.
It was a goal that was a bad pass into an empty net on a delayed penalty in the preseason. That's very appropriate for the former Coyotes.
That's ridiculous. By the way, a good reminder for all the sports media out there, like Ethan pointed out, Bruce Cassie-Affords was asked by a reporter who simply said empty netter, a couple guys on the ice there, didn't score the goal, and Bruce paused and goes, is there a question in there? Always ask a question, especially to a pissed-off coach minutes after they should have buried an empty netter.
Not great. Not great at all.
Thank you for joining us. Prime Monday Night Hockey and Anverk.
Thank you so much fellas. Appreciate it.
I'll see you guys again soon. I can't wait for the playoffs.
Be well brother. Weather is starting to warm up.
Regular season starting to wind down. Games of consequence in sports starting to ramp up.
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responsibly miller brewing company milwaukee w 96 calories, 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. David Peñota joins us from the fourth period, and the GM meetings has wrapped up this week.
And they were talking about league business and whatnot, and maybe some road changes, maybe not. Who knows? But, yeah, the general managers gathered together in Florida to talk about what's going on in the league.
But there was a major issue that came from the Devils GM, Tom Fitzgerald. His son, Casey, was cut under the chin by a skate.
Another former dancer. Yeah, another former Tom Fitzgerald.
Huge goal, Game 7, 96. Gigantic goal.
But his son was slit by a skate in a freak accident. He luckily made it to a medical facility and got stitched up.
He is okay. Also, what happened with the Canadians and the Senators, Josh Anderson, was wearing cut-proof socks, and the back of his leg got slit luckily the sock saved him Shane Pinto as you can see in this video right there oh that could have been career ending that was right to happen a few years ago yeah yeah yeah yeah in a preseason game yeah that that was it that that could have been yeah cut his Achilles.
Ugh, God. So Tom Fitzgerald has made an impassioned plea to institute cut-resistant protective gear for the players, you know, kind of grandfathering them in, kind of like the visors and whatnot.
So what are we hearing from the GMs? Is there any traction on this happening, David? Seems like there is um you know they want to be uh obviously cognizant of how to protect these guys um on a regular basis and and you know athletes they're creatures of habit so any type of adjustment or change and they're gonna go whoa I don't like this hold on um sometimes you got to force the issue and you, even when you show them these types of videos and you show them what happened to other guys, some guys are stubborn. So from a GM's perspective, they want to make sure their guys are safe.
And some guys have been wearing neck protectors. And I want to say Kopitar in L.A.
has been a big proponent of that. He wants these.
He's been wearing it even in preseason games and wants that to be a regular thing for the rest of his guys. I think the more we see this, the more this is going to come into play, whether they make it mandatory or they grandfather it in, like you said, for the younger guys coming into the league.
Well, we'll obviously have to wait and see. But, yeah, Tommy made a nice plea, a good argument, an emotional argument, to have this instituted across the league.
We'll see exactly where that goes. Everything is optional right now, including the protective, Kevlar protective socks and things like that, which obviously helped Josh Anderson.
Even at the end of that video, he's kind of looking out just going, wow, I got lucky. And he did.
And it's again, just a reminder for him, his teammates, and even people, other people around the league, you got to protect yourselves because it's a fast, high impact sport and anything could happen. Let me ask you, as somebody who has never played hockey before, what's the issue here? Like, why do these, why are these guys so resistant? Is it a tough guy thing or is it a comfort thing? Like, what's the this seems so obvious to me to wear everything possible that would be cut resistant.
It's more of a comfort thing, honestly. Like these guys, again, creatures of habit.
They've they've been doing this since they were, you know, four years old, five years old, and they haven't had to wear it. And they feel like it's going to be restrictive in some fashion, which when you're on the outside looking in, you're going, that doesn't make any sense, that's silly.
But when you're playing it, you don't have to put something else on that you're not accustomed to or used to. It's in the back of your mind.
Eventually, I think it will get pushed in fully across the board. But until then, you're going to see a little bit of resistance from the players and them wanting it to be their choice, which I get to a certain extent.
But I think eventually this is going to be a mainstream thing in the National Hockey League. Yeah, Ethan, just kind of thinking about like Martin Bro Martin Brodeur wore the same chest protector for like 30 years.
Like look at Matthew Kachuk. He wears the same ratty piece of whatever shirt.
Like these guys wear the same gear for 20, 30 years. So it doesn't surprise me that there'd be pushback and starting it from a lower level would make sense.
But Dave, I wanted to talk to you about something else that kind of came out of the GM meeting. Something that I've been clamoring about for a while and it sounds like it it's not going to happen, is an extension of the three-on-three overtime from five minutes to ten minutes, just because I think it would cut out like 95% of shootouts, which I think we'd all be in favor of.
So it doesn't sound like that's happening. It also doesn't sound like there's going to be any rule changes in the immediate future.
And it sounds like the playoff format is going to stay the same because Gary Bettman said he loves it the way it is. Why are they just adverse to change? Are they just really happy despite what like what the I guess what guys like us are saying? It seems like Gary's just very happy with the status quo.
Yeah, there haven't been any big need for like, you know, big rule changes. They they they reviewed goaltender interference.
They reviewed some of the other different plays offsides, just making sure that everything's kind of aligned there. With respect to the playoff format, they really, their argument, and it's worked, and I understand it.
I don't agree with it. I think it should change too, but I get why they're so strong on this one.
To have the rivalries kick in right out of the gate has meant a lot for the league in terms of its ratings and everything that's tied to that. So for the potential to see Colorado-Dallas in the first round, even though that's like a conference final, Stanley Cup final type of matchup in terms of the caliber of these two teams, it's going to draw a lot of attention right out of the gate when the playoffs begin and that just means more eyes that means more potential revenue etc etc etc so from a league perspective they feel that that argument is valid and that's why they don't want to change it and and again i get it but my preference would be i'd rather see that as a conference final for example um but But the potential to have Tampa, Florida in the first round, Toronto, Ottawa first round, Colorado, Dallas first round, Edmonton, L.A.
first round. There's so many different storylines tied to it.
It just boosts ratings significantly. And again, good for sponsorship.
And then you hope that the viewership continues round after round after round with all the hype that's built up in round one that's that's the league's argument where are we on the all-star format it's going to change um i don't know if we'll have an all-star game per se next season uh there will be an all-star weekend uh to what extent that's what they're trying to figure out over these next few weeks here um there's going to be, I think the skills competition is going to stay. They'll tweak a few things there.
But because everyone is going to be in New York and they're all going to fly to Milan for the Winter Olympics, I think there's going to be some type of international flair to it. Obviously, piggybacking off Four Nations, leading into Olympics.
It makes sense to do something in that type of format. To what extent, I don't know yet because they don't even know.
But there will be an All-Star weekend. I don't think the game itself will happen.
I think there will be other activities around it. A skills competition, maybe an expanded one.
I'm sure they're going to bring three-on-three in some capacity back as well in some type of competitive format. Frank Ceravelli has written an article on power plays being at his lowest level since the 1963-64 season.
Like penalties are just not being called. There have been 747 fewer power plays this year than last year.
That's a 12% drop. I shouldn't say penalties aren't being called.
It's probably more of the four-on-four type situations where they're matching penalties on scrums and stuff like that. And the GMs don't know why.
What are you hearing out of the GM meetings about the power plays being lowered? Yeah, there's a little bit of confusion with regard to that. And publicly, the league and its entities, including the GMs, they don't like to criticize the refs publicly.
So we'll see what they're saying behind the scenes. Eventually that will probably come out.
But there's some head scratchers and a lot of people, you know, they wonder why, you know, certain calls aren't being, aren't being called. Certain penalties aren't being called.
Why are they just letting everything go? In Toronto, I sit in the press box and Toronto's management staff is right above me. And you get to hear a few comments being made as to why that wasn't called, that wasn't called.
And how was that called, but the last four weren't. I mean, I've even sat there.
I'm sure you guys have too. You sit there and you start, well, that should have been one.
Well, that's a hooking call. That's interference.
That's this. That's that.
And they kind of let it go. If it's consistent across the board, then I don't think people have much of a problem with it overall.
But if it varies game by game,

then that's where the concern really starts to factor in.

So even if they're calling less, if they're letting things go,

as long as it's the same in October as it is in June,

teams really don't have much of an argument

and they're comfortable with that at the end of the day.

They'll be heated in the moment, but at least they'll go,

well, at least they didn't call that crap in November and December, and all of a sudden they're calling it now or vice versa. The league just wants, the players just want consistency.
If the penalties are lower and they're letting guys get away with more stuff, so be it as long as it's the same from game one and as it is to the last game of the Cup final. Dave, it is March 21st.
We are less than a month away from the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning. And as I look at the standings this morning, I noticed something very interesting.
I noticed that all seven Canadian teams are either in a playoff spot or within two points of a playoff spot. So we've got a legitimate chance of having all seven Canadian teams in the playoffs, which would give your nation basically a 50% chance of winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in, I don't know, like 50 years?

How long has it been?

Since 1993.

32?

Been a while.

What's the excitement level up in your neck of the woods?

Are they like getting jacked up generally?

I know that it's very compartmentalized with who roots for who, but it seems like this

should be like the time for Canadian hockey fans.

Yeah, well, I'm in Toronto.

So it's a little, the vibe's a little different here.

It's a combination of, the hell with everyone else, we just want the Leafs to win.

And this team's not even good enough because they lost a couple nights ago and blow this team up,

even though they're tied with the Panthers in points. I think in the other markets, like Ottawa is hyped.
Montreal ridiculously hyped right now with what they could potentially do. There's a lot of pessimism in Toronto.
There's a lot of pessimism in Vancouver, too. They're very similar in that respect.
Edmonton's hoping that McDavid and Dreisaitl are healthy as they're getting looked at, I think, today as well. So they're hyped.
They want a chance at the Stanley Cup again, but they want to make sure their guys are good. And Winnipeg is just, I mean, they're rolling and they're waiting for game 83 because that's what, they're so focused on postseason play that they just want that to get going.
I think more Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal, those are the markets where everyone's really hyped up about the potential of making the playoffs. The Habs weren't expected to.
Calgary wasn't really expected to this season. And Ottawa was hopeful.
But there needed to be a lot of things to go right for the Sens, and they have this season with Travis Green behind the bench. So I think it's more of a selective market-wide type of excitement and exuberance for the potential of making the playoffs in those three markets versus pessimism in Vancouver and Toronto and expectations in Winnipeg and Edmonton at usually a pretty consistent high.
Which Canadian teams would the Toronto Maple Leaf fan root for to bring the cup back to Canada? Ooh. Ooh.
That's a great question. That's a really good one.
I would imagine definitely not Montreal. Right.
Probably not Ottawa. What was it like in the Stanley Cup final last year? I think they were kind of like, all right, cool.
We'll watch. And, you know, the Blue Jays suck, so they couldn't deal with that in the summer.
I think half of them were cheering for Edmonton, and the other half were like, whatever, we just like hockey, go Florida. How mad were people, though, when the Cup went in the Atlantic Ocean? Like, was Canada, was there a day of mourning in Canada when that happened? There was like a collective sigh, like a hand on the chest.
Matt, what are you doing? And then they're like, OK, it's safe. It's good.
We're OK. I think that was the cupkeeper's reactions too when that happened outside elbow room.

But it was like, there's a crazy,

obviously there's a crazy passion for the sport

and for everything tied to it,

but it's also like market driven.

In Toronto, I'm sure there were more fans

cheering for Edmonton than there weren't.

I would imagine Calgary would be the same.

Vancouver, I don't know if Toronto would be all on board with that. And definitely, Winnipeg, I don't think they would care.
But definitely, they don't want Montreal and definitely not Ottawa getting anywhere near a Stanley Cup. The cup run that the Habs were on in 2021 when they lost to Tampa and beat Toronto in the first round, that was all hands on deck.
Just anything against the haves works well for Toronto fans. All right.
A couple of questions before we get out of here. Did the league talk about Donald Trump's idea of having a NHL-KHL All-Star game? And where are we on the CBA? I mean, there's an influx of money coming in for the league.
So is there a league piece right now? The NHL-KHL stuff, that's never going to happen anytime soon. There you go.
Thank you. So that's really the end of that.
With respect to the CBA, I've never seen the NHL and NHlpa still harmonious before uh going back to like the 2003-4 lockout or 4-5 whatever it was um and the previous one and i've never seen it even in the last regime the tensions were always high like you could you'd have to walk on eggshells talking about it. I've talked to Gary Bettman and the Deputy Commissioner Bill Daley and the Executive Director of the NHLPA, Marty Walsh, and his number two and Ron Hainsey, former NHLer.
Everyone's reaction has been, we're good. We'll figure it out.
We're not too concerned about it. I've never seen that before.
And keep in mind, they had to agree on everything tied to Four Nations because it was a joint venture between the NHL and MHLPA. They had to agree on bringing the World Cup back because, again, joint venture.
And they did that relatively seamlessly. They had to agree on the cap numbers for the next three seasons and the projections that are moving forward, and they did with relative ease.
The negotiations, as Bettman said this week, are going to start in April, but they've had discussions across the board for the last little while, for the last several weeks. So I don't think they're at a point where these talks, these negotiations are going to have to fine-tune anything because there will be some sticking points i know the players are going to want to have a chat about expansion and where those revenues go because right now that is strictly shared by the owners and the team and the leagues excuse me the league and the teams argue that well we're giving you new jobs so that's where your your influx of revenue kicks in but that's going to be a talking point, along with a few other things.
But there's nothing pressing that is going to risk any pause in labor peace. The goal is to get something done this summer.
Maybe, I mean, the very aggressive goal is to get something done by the Stanley Cup final. Again, aggressive, we'll see, but I would be shocked, based on everything that's happening right now, I'd be shocked if by next season, at the latest, we don't hear that the league and the NHLPA have extended their CBA several years.
Well, sounds like good news coming out of Florida with the GM meeting. So, David Pignotta, thank you for joining us.
Thank you, David. Absolutely, boys.
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On Saturday, the Panthers played at Montreal, and that was terrible. Terrible, I tell you.
It was bad. They looked uninterested in this game.
But the Canadians, they really put their best efforts into that one. And the Panthers deserved this loss.
Probably not as much as the Canadians deserved that win, according to Paul Maurice, fellas. I mean, it was not a good game.
No, the Panthers did not look like their usual selves. They weren't physical.
They weren't really playing up on the balls of their feet. Montreal took it to them for a good two and a half periods.
And by the time Florida woke up, it was definitely too little too late. Yeah, it was a horrendous first period.
And maybe if after that first period after that first period they're only down 1-0, they're down 2-0. And, you know, you're in the game, but then you get to a place in that third period, you can't give up the next goal.
They do. They lose 3-1.
Yeah, it's one of those situations where you go down early, and you go down by two goals, and then you spend the rest of the game trying to catch up. And they did.
I mean, they put shots on net, and they put attempts, at least on – they tried, but nothing doing. Sam Montembeau did look good in goal for Montreal.
Another former Panther. Goodness gracious.
I mean, it was bad. So that was Montreal.
And on Sunday, again, the back-to-back. And this is a running theme for the Panthers for the rest of the season.
They played the Islanders. Now, this loss, they lost 4- lost 42 was probably the most angry i've been at

this team in a very long time and i'm talking about we went to edmonton twice and they lost we flew 10 i don't want to hear you complain i'm gonna complain about this god damn it 15 thousand miles, 10 cities to Edmonton and back. And they lost.
And I wasn't as angry as I was when they lost to the Islanders on Sunday. And come on, man.
They blew a two-goal lead just like they did in Boston. And, of course.
Third-period lead. Third-period lead.
Common theme here, defense. Well, no, I mean.
What's going on recently on defense? Kulikov got hurt. He left the game.
They were down. Well, obviously Kulikov, big loss.
But what's going on? I can't quite. Oh, that Ekblad guy.
Yes, he's very. He matters.
He matters. For all those people that like to on Ekblad a little bit, give him some flack for how he plays.
this guy is super important because i mean look at the

way we don't know what he took we uh you know right that's the other thing it's like we don't

really know how much of an impact this actually had on his play this year he's been a great player

for them for a long time absolutely clearly he's really important because not only do they miss him

but we saw what seth jones was as a number one defenseman in chicago right that was the whole

thing when he came here was we thought him moving down the lineup in Florida would make him a more effective player and he's been awesome since coming over don't get me wrong but now he's had to shoulder that load as the number one defenseman and you got a two goal lead blown in uh in Boston a lackadaisical effort in Montreal and then another two goal lead blown in the third period against the lowly Islanders who... I hate it so much, man.
They're hot right now. I hate it so much.
But, I mean, it was ugly. And you see some of the things, you know, even in that Toronto game, which was a great win for them, you saw, you know, a pass go through a wide-open lane that you don't usually see where, you know, the defense is usually a lot sharper than that.
So I think they really miss Aaron Eckblad. And hopefully he comes back right ready to play because he's going to be coming back for game three, the first round of the playoffs.
If they're if they're in a one one series or even God forbid, they're down to nothing to Tampa, Toronto, Ottawa. Like that's a big hole to dig out of.
And they're going to need him to come back firing right away. I think it's going to be a blessing, actually, him missing all this time.
I mean, yeah, he's going to come back a month off. And we know what he's looked like, especially after they lost in the Stanley Cup Finals.
He was super banged up, and now you're talking about another run into mid-June, and then you want Ekblad to play again the entire season. I mean, if this could happen to one guy who needs a little bit of rest here, I think it's going to wind up being a blessing in disguise to this team.
And the other guy who's out too, Chucky. I think Chucky is another guy who, with the physical way that he plays in the playoffs, obviously he's coming off an injury, so it's different.
But getting him some time off to kind of get right, get back to 100% is going to be huge for him in the playoffs. And I think he's going to have no problem coming back firing on all cylinders right out of the game.
As far as Kulikov is concerned, Paul Murray says that he expects Kulikov to return before the end of the regular season, which is, I hate that statement. I hate that statement because there's a month left in the regular season.
Well, and they don't have to be forthcoming in that league. No, absolutely.
It's a lower body injury. It's an upper body injury, actually.
Yeah, it's more in the arm. Well, that's the weird thing, right? Is an arm upper, because it's dangling.
My arms are dangling to my lower body. It connects to your shoulder, the arm.
It starts at the upper body. But man, they don't have to say anything.
Yeah. We think he'll be back before the end of the year.
If this was the NFL and Paul Maurice did that, he would get fined. There's different rules.
There's different rules. They're operating within the rules that are made.
It's like with Matthew Kachuk and LTIR. They're not making the rules.
Don't hate the player. Hate the game.
It's just the fact that I don't know he's going to return, and I hate that because now we've got to rely on whoever the Panthers are going to send up from Charlotte. Who could that be? Tobias Bjornfot, Bigfoot, I think is the nickname I've heard once or twice, which is a pretty cool nickname.
He was fine last night. No, they like him.
They're going to shelter him. They're going to shelter him real good.
He needs a little more seasoning, but good that he's getting... He's a former first-round pick.
I'm just saying. Yeah, you're just saying.
Last night in Columbus, that one... I don't want to say by the skin of the teeth.
I mean, it was a goaltender's duel, but... That was as exciting a 0-0 game you're going to get.
Yeah. That was a great game.
How long has it been since the Panthers have gone to overtime without It was at Columbus six years. Five or six years.
Also at Columbus. Five years ago.
See, I think Goldie said it was the same goalies, too. The same goalies.
It would have been Bob for the Panthers five years ago. Elvis has been in Columbus for a while.
Yeah, maybe. Maybe.
Yeah, that was a great game. You know, sometimes 0-0 games, like, eh, this is a kind of shitty game.
There were a ton of chances, a ton of posts, especially Columbus. The goaltending for Columbus was fantastic.
I mean, Bobrovsky had to make some saves too, but he had a goal disallowed, easy call. The puck was clearly kicked in.
You're a little bit nervous, though, because you get the goal during the third period. It's like, wow, this is where we're going to lose it.

But Barkov in overtime, which felt like really his only good chance of the game.

He had two shots on goal.

Is Barkov getting a little bit more aggressive lately, does it feel like?

Shoot the puck!

Well, it feels like he's shooting a little bit more over the last week or so.

Like, even that overtime shot.

There was that Tampa game a few weeks ago.

This was a sick shot.

And I'm screaming out here as he's loading up here.

Jones back to him.

I'm going to go to the next one. the last week or so like i don't like even that overtime shot there was that tampa game a few weeks ago this was a sick shot and i'm screaming out here as he's loading up here jones back to him i'm screaming shoot shoot shoot and he shoots it ping right in man is uh in the shooting lane as well yeah and four on three in overtime yeah you got it's too easy yeah it's too easy but he had that game a couple weeks ago against tampa where he scored twice two snipes right past vasileski and it felt like since then he's been a little more aggressive he had a game a couple weeks ago against Tampa where he scored twice, two snipes right past Vasilevsky.
And it felt like since then he's been a little more aggressive. He had a game earlier this year, I think it was back in like December against the Blues, where he kind of decided in overtime it was the same thing.
I don't think it was a power play, but he made that sick play. He did, he drew a penalty, and then it was a four on three, and he made that sick play to draw the penalty.
And then he just decided this game's over and fired it right past the keeper. Same thing here.
I love when he shoots the puck, guys. I love when the captain just decides this game is over and we're going to shoot the puck and it's going to go in and we're going to win this game.
And the Panthers looked desperate at times last night. There was some desperate.
That penalty kill at the end of the game was desperate penalty killing. But Columbus is desperate as well.
They've scored one goal in their last four games. They're kind of fading from the playoff race a little bit.
Montreal is hot. All of a sudden, the Islanders are hot.
The Rangers are hanging around. Those were two teams that really needed a win last night, especially Tampa won.
Toronto won as well. So the Panthers had to keep pace with these teams.
That was a massive win for the Panthers last night. Alexander Barkov is who he is because he's a playmaker.
He's great defensively. He's bound to get another silky trophy and has an excellent shot, which he does not use often enough, especially his backhand.
And it's very, very good to see him get pucks on net. Tomorrow's huge because you win tomorrow, you're talking, and not only is it a win against the Capitals, but it's back-to-back wins.
You come home, and the schedule softens up significantly at the end of this month. You're talking at home against Pittsburgh, Utah, Montreal.
You could hit a little run here if you win tomorrow. Well, the good news is that Alexander Ovechkin will not break the all-time goals.
Probably not.

Unless, of course, he scores seven, which I doubt.

Because if he does break that record tomorrow, what would that be, Zaz?

How many goals in the game?

I was trying to set you up for a bad news for the Panthers.

That would be bad news for the Panthers.

I mean, you have to score seven goals.

I imagine it would be bad news for the Panthers.

Cats are your boys, Zaz? Cats are your boys? The Caps or the Cats? The Cats. The Cats are obviously my boys.
I mean, come on now. I want to ask you guys about— Well, hold on.
Let's dive further into this matchup between the Capitals because, I mean, you look at that team. Tom Wilson is having a career year.
30 goals? 30 goals. I mean, it's a career high.
He is one away from a career high in assists, and he has a career high in 57 points this season. And, of course, the Capitals are tied for the President's Trophy right now with 100 points.
They got a game in hand, so they're at the top of the table. And they have one more regulation win, so they got the tiebreaker there.
This is a good team. And as much as it's been a surprise for the Capitals this season, they are a really good team, especially Golden.
Fun, exciting. Yeah, I mean, Logan Thompson has been amazing.
You remember when he got traded during the draft, and people were like, what's going on with Washington? But, yeah, he's been spectacular. Jacob Chikrin, another amazing addition

for them in the offseason. He's been great.

Just a fun team to watch. I wonder, guys,

how good are they going to be when the playoffs get here?

Because I remember a Panthers team a few years ago.

Really fun, really exciting. A lot of

end-to-end, a lot of high-scoring games.

They didn't really fare that well once playoff hockey.

We did not play well that series against Washington.

They won that series and then they got

swept by Tampa. I'm wondering, is this Capitals team a playoff for real team,

or are they a regular season for real team?

David, I've got to take.

Oh, no, it's a sports whisperer.

I've got to take.

I don't think they're making it past the second round.

What?

Really?

Jägermeister, Jägerbaum?

Okay, well, okay.

It's an Ethanbaum.

I'll tell you why.

I just think the teams around them got better, and they kind of held steady. And I understand not wanting to mess up the chemistry that you have on the team right now because things are rolling.
I mean, they made Pierre-Luc Dubois into a good player, and he's been rejected everywhere he's gone. And all of a sudden, he's been awesome for them this year.
I just think the teams around them got a little better. They're probably going to get a pretty favorable matchup in the first round.
Montreal in the first round, Carolina in the second round maybe. Yeah.
If they get Carolina, I mean, I'm not a big believer in Carolina at all. But in New Jersey, they're not going to have Jack Hughes.
So, I mean, they've got the favorable side of the bracket, but I just think this is one of those typical President's Trophy seasons where a team has an amazing regular season. They ride the coattails of this awesome chase that they've been on with Ovechkin, and then they just kind of fizzle out a little bit.
Again, I think the teams around them just got better, and they just kind of held steady. They didn't really make any improvements at the deadline.
I'll tell you what's a weird thing to me, where, let's say Ovechkin comes one or two goals short at the end of the season of Gretzky's record. And then we're watching the Capitals in the first round.
And he scores a goal. I'm supposed to pretend that he doesn't have more goals now than Gretzky? It's weird.
You could add all of his previous playoff goals, and he's blown past Gretzky already. I mean, obviously you could say the same thing.
Oh, well, Gretzky's playoff goals too.

But still, if we're doing this whole chase for Gretzky and he's one short and then I

watch him score two more goals, that didn't happen?

I'm pretending that he doesn't have more goals now?

The division of regular season stats and playoffs.

It's weird.

For what it's worth.

Brain severance, regular season and playoffs, right?

A quick Google will tell you Gretzky has 66 more total goals than Ovechkin. He's got 1695 and Ovechkin has 1629.
So he would have to score 66 goals this both season. Edmonton went on a lot of deep playoff runs.
Yeah, I was going to say they won four cups, five cups, whatever. It's weird though.
In the National Football League, they count Belichick's career playoff wins to catch Shula. Why don't we do that with this? Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.
Back-to-back, by the way, between Saturday at Washington and Sunday at home when they finally return against the Pittsburgh Penguins, I have nothing to say about them. We'll be scowling from the press box, yes? Yes, yes we will.
A guy they've got to get going is the guy I always love to talk about is Reinhardt. He's been really quiet since the Four Nations and even a little bit before that.
I think the absence of Kachuk is a big reason why he's had to be more of a distributor, especially on the power play. But they really need to get him going down the stretch here.
And this is going to be tight. It's going to be tight down the stretch.
John and Zaslow, thank you. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys.
I like being able to talk some hockey, you know, rather than just by myself. I got other guys to talk about it with.
Yeah, that's great. And Ann Burke and David Pignano was on the show.
You can watch that on YouTube for those who are watching on DKN. Okay, goodbye.
Weather is starting to warm up. Regular season starting to wind down.
Games of consequence in sports starting to ramp up. I know what you're going to need by your side.
It's by my side already. Miller Lite.
Yeah, that's right. I'm making my springtime a Miller time.
I'm making my sports time Miller time. Going to a car race? Miller time.
Going to see some tennis? Miller time. Going to chill in the backyard with some friends and make some memories? Miller time.
I love Miller Lite because it's got taste that I know I can depend on. No games.
No gimmicks. It's that simple, folks.
It's just a great beer for people who like beer. Miller Lite is brewed for taste.
It hits different than the other Lite beers. It's got simple ingredients.
And at just 96 calories, 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces,

Miller Time is always a good time. The original light beer since 1975 and still the very best one.

Miller Light. Great taste.
96 calories. Go to MillerLight.com slash Dan to find delivery options

near you or you can pick up some Miller Light pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Tastes like

Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly.
Miller Brewing much anywhere they sell beer. Tastes like Miller time.

Celebrate responsibly.

Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

96 calories, 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.