What's new from Apple? There's the new iPhone 16 Pro, built for Apple Intelligence. And it comes with the all-new camera control, giving you an easier way to quickly access your camera tools. The new Apple Watch Series X has our biggest display and our thinnest design ever. And this? It's the sound of active noise cancellation, now available on one of two new AirPods 4 models. So quiet. Check out all of the new products and new features at Apple.com. You can even buy yourself something new. See Apple.com for product availability updates, Apple Intelligence coming this fall. Chris Johnston Show. Let's go! Your number one destination for a behind-the-scenes look at the game of hockey. Is this thing on? Here's NHL insider Chris Johnston and host Julian McKenzie. CJ, let's start out in New Jersey. Luke Hughes out for the next six to eight weeks with a shoulder injury. The devil say it won't require surgery, but obviously a big loss to a young talent in Luke Hughes who won't start the season with the team. What are your insights and thoughts on this? This stinks. There's my high-level takeaway. This couldn't be worse in terms of timing just because if you're in Luke Hughes' position, obviously, it's a big season, his second full NHL season on the cusp. He just spent the last four or five months training and ramping up obviously to this moment. And to suffer an injury just days before the start of training camp is certainly not ideal. No player would like being injured at any point. There can be sort of a mental side in addition to the physical setback of just not being part of the team, not being able to take part in all the activities that the team's going through in a training camp to get ready. And if it ends up being two months, if it's closer to the eight weeks timeline, he's going to miss more than a month of the regular season. So let's hope for his sake and the devil's sake. It ends up being a quicker recovery period, but it's hard to find a positive in this. And I guess once it settles in for Luke and the devil's training staff, they have to try to find ways for maybe him to do some extra work on conditioning, do what he can to be as ready as he can once he's healthy enough to play. But this is a big part of the team. And I think when you look at the devil's look at where their season might have been a little bit of a step back last year from where it was the year prior when they made the playoffs, got to the second round. They probably asked a little bit too much of guys like Luke Hughes, Simon Nemich, who didn't help the fact that Dougie Hamilton missed a huge chunk of the season last year with his own injury. Obviously, probably could have used a little better goal-tending along the way, and they hope they've addressed that with the moves they've made, Jake Allen and Jacob Markstrom, both now there. And a new head coach in Sheldon Keefe. I mean, it's tough for a young player to miss the training camp period, but injuries unfortunately are part of the sport. And as we do this show now, I was just thinking, what will cancel be going on? Injuries will start happening every day, unfortunately. I mean, it's just what happens. I think because as much as highly trained as the athletes are, they obviously just hit a new level when you start training camp and you often hear of sort of groin and other injuries that happen. And so that's going to be something all teams are contending with to some degree, you know, right from the start here. So if you're Tom Fitzgerald and you're New Jersey, you've already bolstered up your defense as best as you can with Brendan Dillon and Brett Pesci being added to the fold and getting a healthy Dougie Hamilton. With Luke Hughes out, do you see them possibly looking for a short-term fix? Is it a question of just having a young guy who probably would have started the year in the HL, taking that spot? How do you see this playing out? Well, that's a good point you raise. Like that's probably the positive here is you brought in some more experienced players for the blue line in free agency. And so, you know, when you couple that with the hope that Dougie Hamilton's healthy, I think that it's something that, you know, from a team perspective, you should be able to absorb the absence. You know, my mind always goes, it's going to the individual in this case just because it is a young guy and there's real value in the training camp. I mean, training camps are not easy. There's a lot placed on the players, but I think it does set, you know, players up to have a stronger season just because of the kind of ramp-up period that they have during that window. And so to miss that is tough. But yeah, I don't see this as being one where the devils have to go out and make a trade. I mean, certainly, as all teams, as you get towards the end of training camp, you know, we're going to see veterans on waivers. You know, there could be -- maybe there's something that makes sense there. I think that's more case-by-case basis versus, you know, just acting because of this injury, you know, that they might see a chance for improvement depending on what the waiver wire yields as we get into early October. But, you know, I think more than anything, they'll just be putting all the effort and helping Luke Hughes get back up to his, you know, level and get him hopefully playing on the sooner end of that timeline than later. I know it's really early and we'll probably do some kind of proper season preview at some point. But the New Jersey Devils, I expect them to get back to the playoffs or at least be a lot better than they were last year. And yeah, injuries played a role in it. But let's peg them as a team to watch in 2024. I kind of like weirdly invested in the Devils. And I just say weirdly because it's sort of random and they were -- they were in the abyss for a while, right? But I remember two years ago because I think I had picked them when we did the sort of season preview, a team that might surprise, I picked them and then they actually -- it's one of my picks ever that kind of lived up to its pick. Generally, I would advise you to -- whatever I pick to think the opposite's going to happen. I did get one right, the broken clock right twice a day kind of theory. And so I've been in on the Devils and last year was tough there for them. But I mean, I think that there's every reason to expect them to be back in the playoffs. I mean, obviously there's a number of teams looking at that spot. You've got the Penguins. The Flyers actually were more competitive last season than most people thought. And they'll be looking to be in the mix for that spot. But I do think I haven't gone through and done my season like -- my actual predictions. But I'll be -- I think without having done the full exercise, the Devils will be a team I pick to make the playoffs. Okay. We'll arrange some kind of season preview, confidential exercise. We've got time there. You can't rush -- we got plenty of time. Let's just let things breathe, my friend. Also, the idea that you're advising people that people should take the opposite of what you say, I don't want people doing that on a show where we're supposed to provide information. I think your weird percentage is a lot higher than you. Okay. There's differentiation because we do both, right? When I'm providing information, I would like you to believe what I'm saying because I'm not making it up. Yes, we'll be sure. But when we do predictions, which we always do, right? We do play-off series, predicting before the season, maybe awards predictions. I just -- I don't have a great -- I'll give you an example. I'm going to survive a football pool, or at least I was until I went out in week one. Oh, I know exactly what happened. You were just like me. Just like me. You picked the Bengals. Yeah, I picked the Bengals. But I'm just saying, that is a classic example. And my buddy was texting me from that pool. It's only been gone maybe four or five years, I'm guessing. And that's the second time already I've gone out in week one. I haven't even remotely -- I'm just donating money to the rest of the pool gores. I don't even threaten to win this thing, let alone -- I actually haven't even e-transfered than the money, not because I'm being cheap. But that's how quickly I'm out before it even started. That's just an example. Don't fade my pics rather than when I'm doing predictions. When I'm giving you information, I'd like to differentiate. I think you can trust that. Yeah, I'm glad we're in the same boat with that survivor pic. I'm in a survivor pool with my old colleagues at CTV Montreal, and I think like three quarters of the pool got wiped because of the Bengals. Now I'm sure like, I don't know, some random weather lady or some random reporter in our newsroom is going to win it. But who cares? It was picking based on the color of the uniforms or something. Which is, you know, that's totally fine. There's some good football people in that pool. Sorry. I don't use -- I don't use weather. But you know, it's like, oh, you know, like whatever. There are people who know there's stuff. But how many stories of winning a March Madness pool where it's just like you pick by team nicknames, you like better or whatever? Oh, yeah. I mean, that can happen. Anyway, I don't even do March Madness because I know that it would be a waste of time. March Madness is fun, though. It doesn't matter if you don't know every team. I don't know any team. It doesn't matter. Just pick whoever. I watched during March Madness and I sort of know the blue blood programs that are supposed to be good. But like, that's it. Right. It's okay. And you should still be in like next year. You need to be in our fantasy football pool. Sorry, we're going this off the rails a little bit here. You should be in our fantasy football pool. CJ. Do you know what? Unfortunately, I'm going the opposite way. So I'm in two fantasy football pools. And I'm actually thinking this might be my last year in both. Wow. I might just go pool free. What? Why? Just kind of like getting over like no hockey pools or nothing. I haven't been in a hockey pool in a long time. At least 10 or 15 years. It's too much like work. Wow. Okay. And I love my work, but I'm just saying like sometimes when you're not working, like when you get to the point of the day where you're not working, you know? No. Okay. I understand that. You know what? I sort of understand that. But don't hold me to it. We're only at week one. And maybe if one of these teams is a great year and like I get all excited about it again, you know, because the other thing is as a social thing with my buddies. Anyway, we are so far away from anything to do with what we're supposed to talk about. Who cares? I was going to, I was going to bring up Yani Hockenpah next. You got, you got, you got, you got time to fill on Yani Hockenpah. Oh, I can, how much time you got? Well, how much time are you willing to give me? Okay. Let me, let me actually do this, uh, this Yani Hockenpah segment properly. Because it is Leafs corner and I do know what our audience is, Toronto Maple Leafs, let's get to them. Yani Hockenpah finally signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs, a one year contract worth $1.47 million. CJ, why did this take so long that we know there was a bit of an injury concern perhaps? Can you go into detail about why this took so long and why the contract is what it is? Never before has like a sixth defenseman signing or whatever Yani Hockenpah ends up being for the Leafs carried so much intrigue because I really do not recall a situation parallel to this where a team talks, you know, openly about signing a player on July 1st and then doesn't sign him until whatever the date was, September 12th or 11th. And what happened in the middle of that is what general manager Brad should have been called a summer project. Yani Hockenpah was their summer project and what that project was is he didn't play after March for the Dallas Stars last year because of an knee injury and from the period where the Leafs wanted to sign them until when they ultimately signed them, they and he had to get comfortable that this was going to work and what that entailed was Toronto sending its sports science or performance staff over to Finland on multiple occasions. He came to Toronto, you know, obviously they're taking a look at his knee rehab, they're testing him, you know, trying to get as much information as they can to feel comfortable to sign them to a deal and he ultimately signed that deal. What's interesting is it's a little different than the deal that was initially sort of thought to be where it would land. It was originally talked about a two year contract with a $1.5 million AAV, you know, it gets more or less the same money at $1.47 million, we'll get into that in a minute and a one year deal and I think that what that is a reflection of is there's still some risk here. I mean, both sides are acknowledging, we don't know how much he's going to be able to play and what that's going to look like because I think the damage that his knee has suffered is significant enough. You can't say with any certainty, he certainly feels like he can play through it, that he's going to be able to perform, otherwise I don't think he would have went to all that trouble and even bothered getting to this stage. But you know, we're going to have to see what that looks like if he's ready to start the season. All those questions I think remain unanswered at this point in time, but they did at least get to a point where the least are comfortable with that risk because, look it, it's a mitigated risk, I would say at best. If he can't play, obviously he can be put on long-term injured reserve. If he's physically healthy enough to play, but his performance isn't up to what he or the least would want, I mean, he could be passed through waivers and sent to the minors. And if he did that, there would only be a $320,000 cap charge placed against Toronto's books, which every dollar is important for a team like the least because they operate so close to the ceiling every season. But I think that they can live with that. And then, of course, the happy part of this could be maybe he's a six-foot seven defenseman who can actually perform on that knee, it becomes a trusted penalty killer for them, probably a bottom pairing guy, but gives them some of the size that they've been craving, gives them just another big body on their blue line to contend with. And so, you know, I think that that's, if how I break down kind of the risk here or what happened, that's basically it. He had to go through a battery of tests with the Leafs doctors, and they finally got to a place, I think they were at least comfortable, given this a shot. And so, I mean, unfortunately, if you follow the Leafs closely, they're sort of parallels, not the same type of player, but last year, John Klingberg, it was kind of in this situation, they signed him as a free agent, unfortunately, you know, John's hip issues just got to a point he couldn't play after, you know, a pretty short amount of time he had to have, you know, significant surgery and was done for the season by January, or even sooner than that. So, you know, I'm not saying it will be the same outcome, but there is some kind of parallels to last summer where they kind of rolled the dice on a player, the dealing with the injury on a one-year deal, and it didn't work out, I guess they're hoping maybe the, maybe their number comes up this time, and it's a better outcome with Yani Akhenpa. Anything else you want to add, that was actually pretty good. You laid the gauntlet out that you can go in as long as you can on Yani Akhenpa, and you did very well. Well, the one thing I would point, you know, the listeners or viewers to is that very interesting contract, right, 1.47 million, you know, that's 30,000 less for us, we don't, we don't take that extra 30,000, but I'll just say there are not very many coincidences, you know, when it comes, that was not just both sides grinding over the last $30,000. I mean, that's a sign of the Leafs, you know, managing their cap situation to a point where they want to start the season basically as close to the max of what they're allowed because then they would presumably be placing some players, whether it's Hawkenpar or someone else into long-term injured reserve, they want to be very precise about how they manage their books right up to the start of the season. So I actually wish I could decipher it a little more clearly and tell you exactly what it means, but it is, I'll just say it's a hint of what's to come because obviously the Leafs have a lot of players now on one way contracts, NHL contracts, I guess, better way to say it for the average fan and they don't have enough spots or enough cap space to accommodate them all. And so some way, somehow it's looking, it's going to play out in a couple of ways, it's going to play out in training camp battles and everyone wants to know today who's making the team. It's like, well, okay, there's six preseason games the Leafs have to get through, they obviously have to look at like a young prospect like Easton Cowan coming off a great year in the OHL, but he's still only 19 years old, is he ready to join the team, where's Nick Robertson at, you know, he ended his long stalemate with a contract in the last week here and has come to Toronto, starts skating with his teammates. You know, Max Patch ready, as we mentioned on our show Wednesday in camp now on a PTO, likely to get a deal. I mean, there's a lot of moving pieces and at the bottom of the roster you have all kinds of players, whether it's Connor Doer, David Camp, Ryan Reeves, you know, on the defensive side of the puck, you've got Connor Timmons kind of at the seven to eight spot. There's just the fact of the matter is there won't be room unless there's a significant injury to a player that gives them all kinds of room and LTIR, which obviously they're not hoping for, but, you know, there's going to be a fair amount, again, presuming no big injuries in camp, significant injuries, there's probably going to be a fair amount of transactions, whether some of those players are put on waivers, or maybe there's a trade, you know, someone off the roster. There's still a lot of juggling to be done, but as I say, it's not a coincidence. He ended up at 1.47 million. It's just a little beyond my ability to figure out exactly what's going on other than I know they're trying to get right to the exact dollar as close as they can by the time opening night comes around. The NFL season is finally here, so make sure you're ready with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. It gives you the most live NFL games all in one place exactly what you need to make your Sundays more magical. Sign up today at youtube.com/SundayTicket. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket for Out-of-Market Games excludes digital only games. Okay. Well done with that. Let's go to Calgary really quickly. They announced, well, it's been announced by Elliot Freeman. He got to this first, I should say, restricted for Agent Jacob Peltier, signing a one-year deal two-way at 800k. I think that's interesting considering he hasn't played a boatload of NHL games yet, but he's battled injuries and trying to be in and out of the lineup. He had that AHL time. I think this is a bit of a prove it deal for him. Like I think with what the Flames are doing right now with some of the rebuilding they have going on, the prospects they're bringing in, there is a risk where he could get pushed out. This guy was the first round pick for the Flames in 2019, and to this point now he's shown that he can play in the NHL, but his ceiling is really a could be that of a bottom six forward and depending on what this team looks like in a couple years, maybe he doesn't get that spot. I'm not sure, but I'm very curious about how he ends up entering camp. Obviously, I got to see him with some of the NHL regulars yesterday as rookie camp was going on. I think he could still start the season on the NHL roster, probably playing with Michael Backland or Blake Coleman, but I'm very curious about how this year will shake out for him. I don't know if you have any other added thoughts with that contract. What's a little unusual might be over say, but that he takes it two-way, right? I mean, no player would want that. That means when he's sent to the AHL, he's taking a lesser salary, whereas as I was saying, the Leafs have all these one-way contracts. If one of those players I mentioned gets sent down, they at least get their full salary that they would have got in the NHL. So from a financial standpoint, he's a little less secure. And you're right. I think it's hard to view it as anything, but a prove it deal. I mean, the plus side for him is that he is only one-year contract. If he goes and he plays well and earns a spot, pretty safe to say he'll be making more on the next deal, and it'll be a one-way. You know, kind of highlights big picture too, like how quickly, how little time in a lot of ways, like we think of prospects, obviously most prospects in the NHL are in professional hockey, aren't ready to jump into the NHL straightaway. It's really only the cream of the crop that do that, but you only get a couple of years. And if you don't grab a spot, all of a sudden the teams move on to other things. And so, you know, I'm always kind of just, you know, you go back and look at that 2019 draft. You know, players, you know, as you get into the middle part of the first round or the later part of the first round, like they're still struggling or still fighting to like really establish themselves with their teams. A lot of them are in danger of maybe going on waivers if they have to get sent down the American Hockey League. You know, it's just you don't get that long to prove yourself. So anyway, that's just a high-level thought that this is a good example of someone, you know, I know that Flames fans have been excited about, and you know, naturally as a first-round pick, it's talked up a lot. Well, now he's at a stage where, you know, he's got to be able to do it or, you know, they're going to move along or, you know, basically other younger players in the organization are going to pass them by and become more of a priority for management. And it's not to say he's a bad player, I think, in particular, this last year, just running through some bad luck, just getting injured in preseason, then does all the rehab gets himself healthy, plays a decent amount of, plays decently in the small amount of games he got to play right after that first shoulder injury, and then re-endures it in New York after taking a big hit. Right. That's really unlucky for him. And then after that, just for whatever reason, the little bit of NHL games he got after that just wasn't himself. When he's himself, he's this really intriguing personality where he's the, clearly, this younger guy, but he is a little boisterous and finds a way to get some of the older veterans to kind of notice him despite being this younger guy. But just you could tell that at that second half of the year, he just wasn't himself and then he ends up in the American Hockey League to finish the year. So it's not as if this player just isn't trying and he isn't a good player, I particularly think in the last year, just injuries have played a role in why he's in this situation and why he's now, he has to prove that he can be an NHL regular this year. I think that those injuries play a huge role in that. And what an imperfect science is drafting, right? I mean, bless Scott Wheeler and Corey Promen, who are colleagues at The Athletic, who devote their entire lives year round to trying to tell us about the next wave of prospects and where they fall in line. But I mean, even Philip Zadina this summer, he went and signed in Switzerland, right? And he's not that far removed from being, was he the sixth overall pick if I'm not mistaken, but certainly a top 10 pick and he's already, before his 25th birthday, playing overseas in Europe. So, which is not the worst outcome. I mean, look at if someone was willing to pay me to play Pro Hockey and go live in Switzerland for a year, I would 100% be available, but unfortunately, I'd be dragging down your team if I did that. You still want to see my skating stride at this age, my friend. The young CJ who scored three goals in 21 seconds, you still don't have that in you, but you still don't have that? I would love to try to brag about, you know, when I was young, but I didn't even get close to at the level these guys are at. I mean, I was a decent enough player in a small town, but that was about it. When did you know in your youth hockey career that you weren't destined to play the big leagues? When did you know? I'm not kidding. I was a weird kid. Like, I'd say like five or six or seven, like, like, I never really, I love the NHL, obviously, and it's, it's really made the sport and that league specifically my life. But I was always, it might go hand in hand with wanting from a really young age to being in the media, to being a hockey writer was my original ambition was I just was like very realistic about my ability or lack thereof. Yeah, so I mean, that's fine though. I still loved like I played hockey right until I was 18 in an organized manner and it's some of my best memories and have a lot of great friendships and like, I don't think everything should be done to try to be the best at it necessarily. Like sometimes just just doing something is worthwhile on its own, but yeah, I never had any illusions. In fact, I was just more surprised that someone I played with went to NHL, which was Justin Williams. I'm sure I've talked about a lot over the years, but like, it not only did I not think I wasn't going to the NHL, it did even occur to me anyone I might be playing with in those years was could do it. Like it felt so far away from being so far away, but I have to underline. It was a different world. I mean, anyone my age and above will understand this, but like we're talking like pre internet era. So the world has gotten smaller as we're more digitally connected and everything and now you could be sitting in any small town theoretically and you can call up YouTube and you can actually get access to like first level or top level information on training or what. I think I'm not saying it's probably gotten harder to reach NHL and seriousness because of all those things because there's more kids in more places that have access to this sort of information and and dream making. So I'm not saying it's easier now, but like I think now at least a young kid be like, Hey, if I follow these steps, it's possible. I just never had that in my brain. All right. If you want more youth hockey stories from CJ, please leave us a comment wherever you're listening to this podcast. I've got a few. I'm sure. I don't have to be I don't have to be the hero of them all either. It's not like I wasn't winning a scoring championship in every year and my team was going undefeated so I can I can tell stories on both sides of the ledger. I would love to hear them. I know I would. Anyway, we didn't get to this from earlier this week, but the PWHL has unveiled names and logos for each of their team. Here's what we're going to do CJ. I would love for you to look at the six names and rank them. It might be a little easier for us to do names because for people listening on the audio side. Yes, they can't really maybe they could pull up the logos for themselves, but we'll make it easier on everyone and get names. For those who are not familiar with the names, Boston, fleet, Minnesota frost, Montreal, Victor, New York sirens, Ottawa charge, Toronto scepters. I think I like Montreal, Victor are the best, like if I agree in a power rankings. It's distinctive. I love obviously incorporating the French being called the victory in English like it's kind of cool. I can live with all these, but like the world will keep spinning no matter what I think of these six names, but I think Victor is my favorite. I like Minnesota frost. I've got I've got the frost in my my top. I'm confused by the Ottawa charge. First of all, they have a red flaming sea it looks like as their logo. If you look at it for the distance logo, it does. It looks like a combination of the Cleveland Cavaliers logo and the flames logo, but also if you look at it at a distance and you're not ficky about it too hard, it kind of looks like an O right, which is probably like what to do. And like I just don't understand charge because I clicked I clicked over their site here and it says charge speaks to an electrifying force that pulses through Ottawa's river and streets through the stands of the arena and on the ice driving us all in one direction forever forward. I love Ottawa. Great city. I've got family there and I would say let's be careful while we talk about auto. I just I will just say that there's I've never felt a charge pulsing through that city. Oh, no, come on, no, but I'm here's the thing. I'm actually saying this as a positive, like I think it is like a beautiful city, like probably one of the most livable places in Canada, this beautiful city, clean, nice, safe, more affordable than a lot of other cities. I'm sure like everything going on right now, it's probably going through the similar, you know, maybe maybe it's becoming a little less affordable, but like I love it. I think it was a great place to raise a family, but I don't think of like pulse in the streets. I think of like this, the doorsteps are rolled up at 902 PM and wow, but again, I'm saying this as a positive. I don't I'm not like, look at man, you know, I'm not going out after 902 PM much myself these days. So I'm just saying like I don't that one is a little weird Toronto sectors. I don't get either. Um, I didn't read why they pick sectors. Let me let me at least give it a logo is cool. Okay. Across cultures and continents, the scepter is long symbolized, strength and empowerment. Okay. Today will be wielded on the ice by Toronto's hockey royalty inspired by Queen Street, a vibrant crossroads where global cultures converge. The scepter's embraced the diversity, energy and spirit of the city, raining with elegance and strength on and off the ice. We were born to forge our own legs. Okay. Okay. Their logo is cool though. Their logo is cool. And it's got the Taylor Swift vibes from the Shake It Off video, which more than one person is, I don't know if you saw that. Yeah. It looks a little bit like the logo Taylor had on and that I can, I just didn't understand that one the best, but I can get my head around it. Anyway, this is all the meme, but I have never seen the, wait, that's from the Shake It Off video. Yes. Oh, okay. I don't really remember the, I'm not really music video guy anymore. Anyway. Right. Well, that's a whole other thing in itself. So the Boston fleet, yeah, it's rested at sea. I get it also like it used to be called the arena. There was called the fleet center once upon a time or fleet. Yes. You're right. If you flip, if you flip the Boston fleet, the logo, like, how can I put this? Like if you flip it, I see that. What is that downward? It could, it could be like the Hartford weight, like a, like a, like a minimal Hartford Wailers logo, if you spin it at an angle, it's not really totally flipped, but if you just keep spinning it, it can look like the Hartford Wailers logo, but turn it into a B. Yes. I kind of like that though. That's pretty cool. That is cool. Do you know what? So the truth is yes. I think they did a pretty good job with these, like it's really easy to pick out one thing you hate and be like, wow, what is this? But like you had to, you didn't come up with six team names, identities. I think, I think they did a good job. But Twar is my favorite, I think it's my favorite combination of logo and name. We agree. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm confused by the charge. I'm not confused by the New York sirens. We were in New York earlier this week and that's, that speaks for itself too, there's a lot of sirens there. And I don't mind the name. Honestly, I actually don't mind that name, it's the one we didn't talk about, but I think they did a good job. It's okay. It's, it's okay. Like, like, I think the Victoria is really good. The Scepter's logo is good, the name is just not great for me. Yeah. The fleet's pretty, I like fleet and frost. Sirens are okay. They're okay. Yeah. Like, it's a good, I'm just most confused by Ottawa. The combination of a Cavaliers flames logo and charge. Like, every time I look at this logo now, the Ottawa logo, it looks like, it feels like I'm looking at something different. Like, it looks like some weird pockets being, I don't know, like, it's anyway, just, I'm turning them all around, like, like, it's like, did you, like, did you crack the code here with that whalers thing? Did you, did there some other hidden message we need to look at with some of these logos and names? Um, yeah. It's most important. I did enjoy, I don't know, I talked about on the show last season, but I went to a few PWHL games and, you know, I'm, I thought they did a great job for their first year. And there's a big step now too, right? Like, you're creating an identity and, you know, they'll be chance. Like, you know, like, a lot will come out of this now and hopefully lots of Jersey sales and like, too, for the, for the league to keep being viable. I agree. I hope to one day be in a market that has, uh, PWHL games because, uh, over here on the West, I don't get to walk, that being said, I get to go to bars and they sometimes play games, but it'd be nice to be in a market where I could actually watch a PWHL game live. Yeah. I would love that. Awesome. I'm sorry. We lost the whole audience on that. No, no, we did not know now on the PWHL. You kidding me? Maybe on fantasy stuff. But like not PWHL. Well, I've just some, like I've tried to spin the Ottawa thing because I really do mean it as a positive, but I know I've offended someone in Ottawa. I used to someone. My sister lives there. And I used to see. The Elton Street Diders offended. Yeah. I used to say to my sister, it's the city that fun forgot. Which is a little harsh. I would just do that to like wind up. Damn, but damn, the city that fun forgot. You know what? I've had some fun nights in Ottawa. I've had fun nights. Do you know what's funny? Here's a story. I don't know because now we're just whatever. I wish I could remember what the event was, but Pierre Le Brun and I were once in Ottawa together covering something hockey related and I think we had to work like quite late and we went to, it was something, it might have been the Elton Street Diner. We went to like a diner kind of late night to basically have a late dinner. And Pierre was the last person on Earth who owned a blackberry and we were at this diner and he put the blackberry beside him on this ledge beside us and somebody stole it. Which obviously sucks. You get your phone stolen. But the next day he goes to whatever get it replaced and they're like, oh yeah, that person definitely just threw it away. They didn't try to use it. They saw it was a blackberry and they're like, oh, I can't do anything with this. Oh my God. So I always think of that in Ottawa. Thankfully I can report Pierre no longer uses a blackberry. Not that, not that there's anything wrong with that, but he was, he was like holding on to it years after everyone. We were on like iPhone like 10 and Pierre's like, I still got this blackberry. So he was using, what was the name of the messaging service with BBM? Yes, BBM. To be fair, I'll say because that was early in my career when blackberry first came around, like it actually was a game changer like getting your email and everything all in one place and those encrypted messages and BBM was a thing. Like it was, it did, it just, you know, it got passed by by a screen you could touch. Exactly. All right. We've done enough damage. Do you have a stick tap for this week? Oh man. You go first, please. I will give it to Denver Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton during his game on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. He actually came to the game wearing a Johnny Goodrow jersey. For those who don't know, Alex Singleton, once upon a time, was a member of the Calgary Stampeders. I spoke a couple seasons with the franchise and then, yeah, this weekend he pulled up to the game where Johnny Goodrow jersey and on one of the first plays of the game ends up with an interception. Pretty good start for Canadian, Alex Singleton. So I will give him a stick tap. I'm just going to borrow that. I'm just like full of like cringe, like how many bad things did I say about those logos and jerseys and no, you didn't actually say anything bad. I think it was more. I think you're bored. Just worried that like, Ottawa senators fans are going to rise up and be mad at you. The funny part is, is I love Ottawa. That's is, but like we have to be realistic. Elgar Street Diner is great. It's really great. I've enjoyed my time at that diner. It's great. I'm trying to think, it's been a long time since I've been, I went last year to see my sister. I went to P.W.H.L. game, but I haven't. There's a dinosaur museum in Ottawa too. Oh, yeah. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a war museum. My nephew always wants to go do you as well. Rideau Canals. Great. If you want to hang around Parliament. This is great. There's, it's Ottawa's a great city. It's just, I objectively enjoy Ottawa. It's a nice city. I don't feel a charge there. I feel like very like calm, which I think is positive. Did you see what Conor McDavid said about Edmonton the other day? No. What did you say? He was talking about how like, what he appreciates about it is that I think in his words, it's like, it's easy living. He's like, you don't have to take an hour to drive anywhere, you know, because traffic's better. And let's face it, in the off season, Conor McDavid lives in the Toronto area. And if I don't even get in my car in Toronto, honestly, like, I get in my car when I'm going out of Toronto, but the rest I'm walking or taking the TTC or an Uber, because the traffic stinks. So my point is, is this Toronto has more of a charge, because there's definitely more energy and things going on downtown, but there's like all kinds of reasons that I could see why people wouldn't like living here, especially if you have a family. It's impractical to get around and all that stuff. So what I'm saying about Ottawa is it's awesome because those things aren't present, much like Edmonton as Conor McDavid highlighted this week. Anyway, there's pros and cons to every city is all I'm saying. We'll be back next week with brand new episodes of our great show. We don't hate your city. We promise. Subscribe to the podcast and we'll talk to you guys next week. Go Cowboys. Okay, we don't need to end the podcast on that. That's the way to end this with end to with Cowboys propaganda. What is this? What was that for? What do you need to bring the Dallas Cowboys up for? I'm just excited for Sunday. Alright, whatever. Wrap this up. Let's get at it. Chris Johnston Show. Follow Chris on Twitter at reporter Chris and follow Julian at J.K.A. Mackenzie. The Chris Justin Show. (upbeat music)
