The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Post-Postgame Show: The Hockey Show
Episode Date: January 26, 2024Roy and David go over why and how there were two fights to the start of the Coyotes-Panthers game. Plus, ESPN NHL reporter Emily Kaplan talks All Star Game, as well as this week's breaking NHL news. L...earn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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You're listening to giraffe Kings Network.
Hello, everybody.
This is the hockey show.
My name is Roy Bellamy over down the other side of the studio.
They were drugging the hockey news.
Now the Florida Panthers have won back to back games.
They are coming off of a win versus the Arizona coyotes on Wednesday. And Wednesday was pretty
interesting because on January 2nd, Jason Zucker had concussed Nick cousins on a boarding
penalty. So the Panthers kind of had this game so called in the calendar and
pregame skate. There was a bit of a discussion between Matthew Kachuk, Ryan, Lamberg, Jonah
Gajavitch, Jason Zucca, um, Liam McBain, no, Liam, Brian and Jack McBain. I'm sorry.
And, uh, they got into a discussion on how to settle matters and men has got settled
because off the opening face off, there was a fight.
Then everybody got in the penalty box and then off the second opening face off, off
the second face off, there was a fight as well.
Now we're talking about seven seconds of a lapsed game time that took about, I should
say about five, seven minutes at
least. And I think the subtle matters pretty, pretty quickly there. And then the Panthers
took over and won big time.
Six to two. Yeah. That was, that was the Panthers settling matters that that was cool to see
them kind of discussing it pregame with Lombard went over to Zucker. And that was like the
intent I believe was to get Zucker to kind of like, all right, you did intent, I believe, was to get Zucker to kind of like,
all right, you did this, now you're gonna stand up for it.
Just kind of like Nick Cousins did in the past
with the arctic brand, something,
and you know, guys stand up and they take their licks, right?
Well, I don't know why, but Jason Zucker
didn't have anything to do with those
fist to cuff festivities.
McBain and, who is it?
It was a Liam O'Brien.
O'Brien and McBain, which sounds like the two guys in the Seinfeld episode
were there in the back. Yeah.
It was a Murphy and O'Brien. But yeah, anyway,
it was really cool how the Panthers did that.
And what I liked the Paul Marie said after the game, he was like, yes,
I like that we handled our business in regard to the hit.
And then I like that we handled our business in regard to the game.
Like, yeah, they had all the fighting in the first seven seconds.
And then they were up three to nothing at the end of the first period.
There are 10 minutes in, they were up three to nothing.
They were playing scrum zone during that game.
I mean, it was very physical.
I mean, the Panthers really beat them up on the ice
and beat them up on the school board.
Yeah.
It was interesting how it kind of died out
as the game went on though,
as Florida was like up like four to nothing
or five to one or whatever it was.
And it was like, this game, it's not that tight.
We're beating you into the ice.
Let's just move on.
Because really in the third period,
there wasn't a whole lot.
I find it interesting, Roy.
And I don't know if you noticed this, but when
Eastern conference teams play Western conference teams, they see each other more animosity,
right? They see each other so rarely, but it's almost like they see each other every
other day because I feel like there's always more fighting and there's more scrums and
the teams that play each other less frequently. I just find that interesting.
I love the fact that during pre-game skate, they stood around, had a cultural conversation on how
to settle matters logically. And just a gentleman's discussion, a gentleman's agreement really
on how we're going to end up fighting here. Now, I mean the lineup's situation, I mean,
I don't, I don't know that that was definitely a Palmarisa call on that one. As far as matchups
are concerned, it's just funny that both teams decided to go and start off with the fourth lines
and, and Ryan Lomburg being the center, the actual legit center.
He doesn't take many face offs, but he took that one where he said,
if you see him line up for the face off odds are, you know why.
And yeah, the way that played out, we knew exactly why, but kudos to those guys.
The only thing that was missing from that pre game conversation was a couple
of glasses of bourbon.
He was very, very distinguished for a,
for a fight about fight or a talk about fighting.
Don't talk about alcohol.
I'm on dry January.
You're a week.
Dude, it's, you're literally a week away.
You're in a home stretch.
Slow drag for me.
I'm telling you right now, like I want to drink.
I want to drink.
Now before the show, we discussed how we're going to end up doing the show.
And you brought up Panthers, goaltending tandems right now. It's a circuit, Nebraska
and Anthony Stollars. You believe that this might be the best goalie tandem this team
has had. Now this team has had John Van Biesbroek in Mark Fitzpatrick. So you, you actually,
you actually think this is the best one. Well, I mean, you're going into like the OG goalie tandem from, you know, they're literally
their original tandem and Mark Fitzpatrick back then was a very highly talented goal tender.
A lot of teams wanted to get their hands on him. So yeah, Florida had a very solid tandem back then,
but no, I'm just thinking in terms of recent history, like there've been some good goal
tenders and I mean, we've had some very solid backups to Bob, whether it was Chris Treager or Sam Monsonbo,
you can go back to like the Al Montoya
when he was standing with Roberto Luando,
who is Scott Clemencey back with Jose Theodore.
I mean, we can go back and back and further and further.
But I'm just looking at this year with Anthony Stolar
is playing very well as a backup.
Combine that with Sergei Barofsky,
kind of picking up where he left off last year
in the playoffs.
He's having a great year.
He's going to the All-Star game.
We'll see him in Toronto in a few days. But yeah,
I just think that this is one of, if not the best goalie tandem the Panthers have
had in a really long time. And that's again, no knock on any recent goal tenders.
I just think that Bob and Stolars have been really, really good for the Panthers.
Well, Alexander Barkov returned to the Panthers lineup on Wednesday versus the
coyotes. He was the third line center. Mackie Sam Scavige was his winger and they're trying to ease his way.
They're trying to ease his way back into the four right now, coming off of injury.
That's right.
I think the third line played on Wednesday.
Well, first I told you this already. I think if it's Barcob's line,
it's the top line, top line center, but now we're just talking semantics.
But I thought actually Mackie did really well based off,
because he played the first few games early in the season, the first three games of the
year that he went to Charlotte. He's been playing well for the Charlotte checkers down
in the HL. I wanted to see how they would first, how they'd use him when they called
him back up because you can't, I got like Mackie. He's at the high end prospect. He's
going to be a top six player. You don't plug him up to the NHL and pop him in the bottom
six and play him for 10 minutes and that's it.
So last night he only played 12 minutes
But that was because special teams kind of dominated the second half of the game and Mackie didn't play power player short-handed
The shifts he did have with Sasha Bartholth. I thought they looked great. I thought they were setting each other up
They were finding each other well in the offensive zone
I think that we've seen a lot of growth from Mackie in terms of the early season till now
And it's good that Paul Maury said he wants to see more of it and see how it develops
They're not gonna rush him
But put him in that spot,
put him, that's the one of the best players in the world and see if he can
flourish. And you know, last night, a little,
little sample size against Arizona, but I liked what I saw.
Do you think he's going to be taxi squad or black ace during the playoffs or
are they going to keep them down in Charlotte,
depending on how those seasons going?
I think there's a lot that could come into play with that.
I think that depends how the second half of his season goes
because if he continues to ascend,
then he might force himself into a lineup
in terms of depth with the Panthers.
But at the same time, we don't know what's going to happen
with the Panthers in terms of injuries or what have you,
with trade deadline.
So there could be a spot for him that's already getting carved out
and we don't know.
So there's a lot of unknown that's going to happen
between now and the playoffs.
You've done some research
and I'm really interesting in what you dug up.
Allegedly.
Allegedly.
I've been digging around as we get close
to the All-Star game and the trade deadlines
that'll be coming up a little bit after that
in the beginning of March.
The Panthers have some decisions to make
with their unrestricted free agents.
So I've just been digging around
to try to see what I can find out.
And it sounds like they're big unrestricted free agent
who's Sam Reinhart.
There's a lot of talk there.
It sounds like talks, here we are,
on January 25th, they're starting to pick back up again.
Yeah, a little bit more serious since the new year
happened with Sam Reinhart.
And it sounds like at this point,
I would not be surprised to see the two-sided
stumptoon agreement with a deal similar to the one
that Florida signed Matthew Kitchuck,
which was, I believe, eight years, nine and a half million.
Just because you know here in Florida, they got the no state income tax, so you can sign
a guy for a little cheaper and they still end up on the back end with that money. But
it's starting to sound like, and we've known for a while that Sam Reinhart and the Panthers
wanted to stay together. Things are starting to trend in that direction. And it sounds
like the money is not going to be as crazy as it would be if he hit the open market.
I mean, these are important decisions here. Obviously we know that he was going to get
paid more than Matt to good Chuck, but you got to look at your defensive core here. You
got to look at Brandon Montoya plays that you really need to lock up to really solidify
this team. And if they can get Sam Reinhardt at a discount discount, no, it'd discount. No, it'd be, it'd be nice. And
you can't compare one deal to the other. Cause remember they signed Matthew Kitchuck. Hey,
that was before he had his first big year with the Panthers. He had the heart trophy
consideration, all the playoff stuff. So everything changes in year to year. I think
two years after that, if you can lock in Sam Reinhardt anywhere under 10, I think he would
get well above that if he hit the open market. So I think the Panthers would be very astute
to do that sooner rather than later. All right. Let's go on to the other part of this
league. Let's go to Los Angeles. Let's talk about a post game presser where drew doubly.
Now you want to explain the context of this video.
Yeah. Well, the context is the Los Angeles Kings have been not been playing well of late.
They have, what are they? They've lost 12 of their last 14. They're two, seven and five.
And that was after an incredible start. There were 16, four and they? They've lost 12 of their last 14. They're two, seven, and five. And that was after an incredible start.
They were 16, four, and three.
They were right neck and neck with Vegas
at the start of the season.
They looked like really one of the big monsters
of the Western Conference.
It's been a big shift for the Kings since then.
Their goal-tending hasn't been that great.
And this is a team that is much like the Panthers
in that they pride themselves in their defensive hockey
and they kind of root it in that regard.
So to see them struggling the way they have has been kind of surprising. And it came to a head last night after they
blew a three to one lead and lost to the Buffalo Sabres.
All right. Drew Dottie has had some strong words about what's going on with the Los Angeles Kings.
Danny, roll it. What has to change here? I think we got guys in this room who are too
worried about themselves and worried about their points and worried about stuff like that.
We get a three-one lead tonight and you know guys start thinking it's a cookie night and we stop playing the way we know to play.
Have an awful second period and then aren't much better than the third. It's about the team. It's not about yourself and a lot of guys on the team will need to realize that.
This whole stretch of games, every game has been relatively close. Does this feel like maybe the bottom out for you guys with how the second and
third one? I mean honestly it's felt like the bottom out for a while now. It's
frustrating not getting these wins. We're trying to stay positive. We're trying to
you know get back to having fun out there and play our game but it's hard to
do that when you're on a streak like this and this is this has been a struggle
for us.
And the only way we're going to get out of it
is if we get everybody's 100% effort
and everyone planned for the team or each other.
Yeah. So those comments sound exactly like Nikita's
the door off in Calgary before you get treated to Vancouver.
It's not a good situation with the Kings.
I always go back to goal tending because that's me.
But when Phoenix copy went out for the year with the Torne ACL,
they were relying a lot on Cant Talbot and they brought in David
Riddich with solid backup gold tender. But, you know,
you think about where they've gone the last few years.
They had Jonas Corpusalo briefly. They let him go to Ottawa.
Jonathan quick is having this amazing year with the Rangers right now.
The Kings are just they have so much talent.
And when you've got guys, they brought,
they made the big deal for Pierre Luc de Blas.
He's under a lot of scrutiny in LA because he doesn't always look like, you know, his style of play, maybe he doesn't look like he's busting his ass as much as
maybe he is.
And it's not going to play well when you lose 12 or 14. But at the end of the day, I don't
think it falls so much on Todd McClendon, the head coach. I think it's much more in
the locker room than it is anything else.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have a special guest for the 10 minute, Miss Kanda
coming up next is Emily Kaplan from ESPN. She's the NHL reporter over there. We're going
to talk to her about the all-star game and there have been some big news that has happened
in the hockey world over the past week. We'll be back.
Don Lebatard. Were you guys building out the A-Rod bathroom of your imaginations? Is that
what I heard you discussing during the break? Towels with an A on them.
You know the thing you slide the toilet paper on?
That's a baseball bat.
Hey, I like that.
Stugatz.
You think he actually calls it the throne?
Probably does.
It's an actual throne.
An actual throne?
There's gotta be a full length mirror in there somewhere.
I imagine somewhere in his house
he has a replica of David, but with his head on it.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
This is the Don Lebatconduct and joining us in the
Pillowty Box is one of my favorite people in these, in this industry and basically the
world at this point right now is Emily Kaplan.
The NHL and ESPN, she is the reporter.
And we talked about this before we started this, this segment and my,
you got very excited. Vittorio, my complete hatred for the all-star game, Jersey's at that
release last week. Um, Emily asked me for my take, but before we do that,
what is your take on these horrid, no good, terrible lawyer,
law case, law case Jersey.
Talk about a leading question. Firstly, Roy, you are a legend. You guys are awesome. I
appreciate you having me. I did not know that this was held the penalty box segment. So
I feel a lot of shame right now.
Hey, every week is a lot of shame coming from this into very appropriate.
No, I appreciate it. It's always fun to be here. Um, they're okay. They're fine.
I like that they're going forward. They're different. You know, our big issue last year with the jerseys all look so similar.
So when like the different teams were coming on,
it was really hard to tell who was playing against two.
So four distinct colors. That's a step in the right direction.
We'll not have that problem this year.
They fixed it. They fixed everything like baseball fixed everything.
And they fixed it.
Exactly. The big picture though, and I'm not just saying this is an ESPN event, but I do
think they made a lot of good fixes for the all star game this year. I think skills is
going to be fire. There's actually competition stakes. I mean, winter takes all a million
dollars. Second place gets absolutely zero dollars. So I think the guys are going to
be choose and it'll be a fun time no matter what they're wearing.
It's kind of hard. There's nowhere to go from up after last year's skills competition
We have just felt like it took forever
Yeah, it was tough and I know like afterwards everyone was not happy with it
The league wasn't happy with that. I said he has pinned didn't really feel great about it
The players didn't feel great about it and you got to get credit to the players
Like we're always asking them to show agency and Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews
We're really active going to the league and saying,
if we're gonna keep coming to this event,
we need some change, we need some reform,
and this is what they cooked up,
and I think it'll be interesting.
So Emily, I did wanna ask you about some positive news
that's happening in the NHL right now.
Obviously a lot of people are happy north of the border
because the Edmonton Oilers are playing
like absolute gang busters right now,
and they just added a pretty crucial veteran piece
to their lineup that's only gonna help things. How have you been enjoying this amazing turnaround from the admin spoilers?
Yeah, you know, I feel for Jay Woodcroft because this is a team that before the year right should
have been playing like this. They are everybody's look, this is their time Stanley Cup contenders,
if not favorites for a lot of people. But two things are the biggest coach killer in sports.
Well, and Hockey wanted it's gold tending and save presented and they were getting absolute
garbage production from that category.
And two years start player, Conor McDavid was playing through an injury.
It was so clear he wasn't taking face offs for a couple games.
He just wasn't 100%.
So they fired Jay Woodcroft and then all of a sudden Conor McDavid gets healthy and then
the gold t technique shows up
And I give a lot of credit to Chris Knottblock because he's a common presence really good communicator
But it just feels like it was the kick that they all needed the compo in some events and all of a sudden
They're looking dynamite and a Conor McDavid and Leon dry side a lead team to go deep into the playoffs is exactly what the sleep needs
We don't need salty moody Conor and Leon anymore. We've had enough of that. It's a good storyline, but I'd like
to see those guys smiling and playing winning hockey.
Speaker 2 We're speaking of firings on the island. The New York Islanders fired their
head coastline, Lambert and then shocked everybody by hiring Patrick raw. Like what's going on
in New York right now?
Speaker 1 You know, this is Lou being Lou Lou Lou Lou's lame umbrella is the biggest OG in the game.
And I just love when he's like, I didn't consider any coach only Patrick Watt.
This is the only coach I would have replaced him with.
He's the only man I considered.
That's a man who knows what he wants.
Patrick Watt, as we know, is fiery.
He's intense.
His previous dent coaching in the NHL just didn't end well for him.
Like he resigned and he thought, okay, I'm going to get a chance after this.
And he waited for his phone to ring and he waited for his phone to ring.
And everyone thought that he was tarnished.
And I give him a ton of credit because the last intro since we've seen him
behind an NHL bench, he's been coaching the juniors.
He's been connecting with younger players.
He clearly has a passion for coaching. But now that he's back in the NHL, I don't think that his passion for the
game is temperate a bit. Maybe his approach has slightly, you know, I think that he doesn't
expect to have full personnel moves anymore. Of course, that's Lula Amarillo's lane. But
there's so much research and I know Lula Amarillo has done this research about coaches doing
so much better in their second opportunity behind the bench because they saw what went wrong
the first time.
Maybe their ego tempers a bit.
And I think that we want the Islanders to be interesting.
This guy behind the bench is going to make them interesting.
And how about this division, right?
Where you've got like some of those fireiest coaches in the game.
He's going up against Mike Sullivan.
We see him MFing all the time behind the bench.
He's a serious guy.
Love you.
John Tortorella there. Love you. Let so it's always interesting in hockey. I think hockey's
a better place with Patrick Watt behind the bench.
That's a first off perfect statement to end your right there on. That's great. I love it.
I am a big Patrick Watt fan as well. So I'm happy to see him back. And you kind of led me into my
next question, which was about another fiery coach inaching that division John Tortorella. So the fliers were expected to be you
know a rebuilding team maybe a lottery team and look at them third in the
division in the metropolitan with like a five point lead over the devils as we
record on a Thursday. Why has Tort's been such a perfect fit for the fliers aside
from the fact that he kicks everybody's ass and it's Philadelphia?
There's just so many misconceptions about Tort's because you just see him as a
hard-, right?
The clips, the viral clips of him yelling at reporters, yelling at his team, Benching
Guys, and they're like, oh, God, this is scary.
But the sturdy little secret in the NHL is that he's one of the biggest softies and he
really cares about players on a human level.
And this is a team that wanted to rebuild the right way and didn't
expect to win this year.
In fact, I think it would have
been really happy tanking, getting
some more top draft picks, but
Torz is clearly connected with
some of these younger players
motivating them in ways that is
seeing them excel in the ice.
Sometimes it's tough love, but
you always know where you stand
towards. There's never any
pretenses. It's very blunt.
And the city just needs it. I think the hockey is better when Philadelphia is a relevant hockey market.
They're playing a hard style, you know, exactly how they're going to show up every night. And if they're a little head of schedule, they'll take it if they're putting fans in the seats. And again, they're energizing this fan base, which has plenty of other
distractions, right? The Sixers are awesome. The Eagles are always a soap opera. It's good that the Flyers are
able to be relevant in this market. And I give a lot of credit to Torz, a lot of credit
to their management too. Like they made a lot of the right moves to get the right guys
who can play under Torz as well.
Well, speaking of the Flyers, Carter Hart took a personal leave. And we noticed that
several other players in the league has taken personal time off.
And then this bombshell report by Rick Resthead was released with five members of the 2018
Canadian World Junior team, they were being told to surrender up in Canada off sexual
assault charges. Like, what do you know about this story?
Yeah, this is a really troubling one. It's sad.
It's a bad indictment for everything we say.
It's bad about hockey culture.
But basically this 2018 World Junior's team in Canada
has been under fire for a while
because there was an incident that a woman reported to police
that she was sexually assaulted
by multiple players on that team at a team event.
It was alcohol fueled.
And it felt at first
like Hockey Canada though was sweeping it under the rug.
She filed a civil suit, they settled the NHL
then investigated and after a fire story
on the London Police Department reopened an investigation.
Now that was over two years ago.
We've kind of been waiting for the other two to drop.
There has been different reasons
why this has slowed along the way,
but we knew that there's always a possibility that if this woman were to cooperate, that
potentially there could be charges down the line. It does appear that the London Police
Department is ready to place charges on five of these players. You can draw a link between
the players who have taken leave of absence and potential legal action. We don't quite know how
involved each of these players are, what the charges will be. They're going to hold a press
conference I believe February 5th, but we'll know more information. And until then, every single person
in the NHL, all of the teams, all the agents for these players have been quiet, just waiting for the
legal process to play out. But it's certainly troubling, you know, the details of the support.
Rick West, Ted and Tia San have done incredible reporting on it. Katie certainly troubling, you know, the details of the support Rick West,
Ted and Tia Sand have done incredible reporting on it. Katie Strang, as usual, the athletic,
it's really heartbreaking to read of how many players were potentially involved,
how many players might have known and looked the other way, how many adults in the room
might have enabled this. And again, we talk about ad hoc culture. This hits on so many of those
really sensitive touch points
and we'll see what happens from it.
But from right now, all we can say is it's pretty troubling.
At this point, we've had, you know,
what happened with Chicago with Chris Beach.
And it just feels like our,
I'm trying to phrase the question,
but I guess it's just,
are we in the midst of culture changing around hockey?
Is this all part of a movement towards something better
as we bring to light these horrible, horrible things
that have happened?
Like that's where I hope this is going.
And obviously we're going to see results
that play out from this in the months to come.
And we don't know because this is uncharted territory
really what we're entering with the NHL.
But I just have to hope Emily
that this is going to lead somewhere better.
Yeah, I want to say that too.
And like you mentioned, it's been a troubling trend
because this isn't the first of these incidents
that we've seen with nefarious behavior by young men
who are then enabled by those above him and said,
it's fine, if you can play on the ice,
just go play and we'll figure it out later.
I think that this one has struck a nerve amongst many
around the hockey community because these players again
They kind of skate it free for so many years since this incident and now it seems like they're facing real consequences
Unfortunately, real consequences might be the only thing that gets people to wake up to change their behaviors
So I'd like to think that this can lead to positive reform
But we start to have better conversations starting at the youth level, better training, sensitivity training, understanding how to report things. But
we'll just have to wait and see because we've been saying this now for years after each of
these incidents. We're saying this will get people to change. This will be it. And we just keep
getting more incidents that are really troubling. I want to go back to the all-star game. And the
last time we saw you personally, obviously there was during the Panthers cup run, but before that was the all-star game down here in sunrise.
Now there's going to be a completely different climate structure between sunrise and Toronto
this year. We're going to, what is the difference of maybe 45 degrees?
I was probably more by 50 or 60. God damn it. Oh, man, we are preparing for the cold up here.
Like, how are you going to deal with this?
It's too damn cold.
I feel like I'm put in a tough position here,
talking to a bunch of guys from South Florida.
It's going to be fine.
I live in Chicago.
It's going to be fine.
You get a good jacket.
You get some gloves.
You get some boots.
And then you warm up inside with a nice cold mulsins.
And it just warms
your heart, but it'll be fun because it's true celebration of hockey tradition, right?
This is the epicenter of the hockey universe.
It's going to be cold outside, but lots of fun festivities.
I'll show you guys the way.
Well, the all-star captain's, let's talk about this.
We got Justin Bieber.
We got Will on net.
We got a Michael Buble.
Michael Buble.
Okay. Michael Buble. I should be saying off. Oh, shit for Justin Bieber. We got Will on that. We got a Michael Buble. Michael Buble. Okay.
Michael Buble. I should be saying off. Oh, shit for Justin Bieber. But yeah, Michael Buble and
Tate McCrae. Tate McCrae who I went down the Tate McCrae rabbit hole this morning. I didn't really
know who she was admittedly and she's a very talented dancer and singer with a very cool
music video that takes place inside a hockey rink. So that. That's my tape McCray in a nutshell for you. Well Emily last year
Down here in sunrise was an all-star coach for an alumni game. That's right. She was an all-star coach
You could have been an all-star captain Emily. Why couldn't it get you over?
Bieber he's already done enough damage with the jerseys
Yeah, I think I'm deeper has a little bit more
cloudy. You know, I give the NHL a lot of credit because we always talk about them being
a little slow behind the pimes and, you know, beaver's beaver. He's his own global brand.
Michael Hubey has showed that he's a massive hockey fan. He's really connected to the Vancouver
market. We'll learn that maybe he can get some personality. Connor McTayden, but Tate
McRae, like I give her a lot of credit to be there over me because a lot of the guys are asking who is Tate McCrae. I think we're
all kind of asking who is Tate McCrae. Would you do who Tate McCrae is? The youths know
exactly who Tate McCrae is and she's very relevant right now. She's an emerging star
and so good on the NHL for getting on someone on the ground up and embracing her. She's
Canadian. She posed for her album cover
with a bunch of hockey pads on, not much else clothing wise, but hockey pads. So she's a hockey
girl. All right. So before we let you go, I got one final question. It's just my, I'm curious to
what you have to think about it. It's something that surprises me in the Western conference.
What surprises you more the season that the Vancouver Canuts are having or the season
that the Winnipeg Jets are having? Ooh, that's a great question.
I think you have to go Jets just because they were
at like full arm again in last year.
We thought about all of their star players,
Connor Hellabook, sweet American friends.
We want him back down here in the States.
Why are you staying there?
Why are you signing extension?
Mike Stroud, I was convinced that he was gonna go too.
So the fact that Kevin Chevrolet, I'll fold it off to get all these guys to stay. And then all of a sudden
bring back a better product than they had last year and a team that's legitimately competing.
That's a big surprise to me. Emily, I just want to say that you are also killing it on around
the horn. You are doing an excellent job on that show. You are kicking ass, especially is your Gutierrez is ass ass. I really appreciate
that. Emily Kaplan, the NHL and ESPN. Thank you for joining us.
Oh, that's my pleasure fellas. And I'll see you in Toronto. We'll have maybe warm drinks
for you. The cold most incident sound like it was selling it for you.
No, maybe some hot cocoa because we'll mill it like the sponsored. So yeah. Thank you, Emily.
Thanks, Emily.