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Here's NHL insider Chris Johnston and host Julian Mackenzie. Happy face-off inside the NHL Day to All Who Celebrate. The long-awaited series is finally out on Amazon Prime. I've watched all the episodes already. CJ, you've watched all the episodes already. If you somehow haven't watched the episodes already, spoiler alert. We'll just put that out here now because we are going to delve into some great material from that show. CJ, just to start, what did you think of this series? It was awesome. More than four hours of material there and over those six episodes. I'll do my best not to spoil too much because there's a lot of like... There's some big stuff that I think that there's obvious takeaways that a lot of people will be talking about. But if you're a hardcore hockey fan, there's a lot of little details sprinkled throughout, just lines or interactions, just things that happen that I think really do provide an interesting look into some of the players in the league, obviously the intensity of the playoffs because a lot of it's centered around the games played at the most important time of year. I won't spoil too much, but there's no way to get into some kind of conversation without us dripping a few details. If you haven't binged it yet, like you and I did this week, then you might want to skip ahead for the next 10 minutes or so. I was impressed by this series, CJ. I was impressed at how they weaved certain players' stories together and how they added context and it was really interesting to hear from people like P.K. Suban and Sarah Nurse, among others, talk about some of these players that have been focused on throughout this series, but what I really appreciated, and I don't mean to lump these two series together, but remember the All or Nothing series that focused on the Leafs from a few years ago, one of the biggest gripes I had with it was they kind of had this good start and then near the end when we all know how it ends, but I felt like we were let down in terms of feeling out the emotions from when you don't make it to the next round or when you don't win. This series very much does not do what all the All or Nothing series did. They find a way to show what players are feeling after they go through the emotional setback of not getting to where they want to, and I mean, we all know the Oilers are in this, and I think this series did a terrific job of showing that when it came to the Edmonton Oilers. I really enjoyed in particular how they focused on that team and not just Conor McDavid, but they focused on a few other key players in that locker room, and I also love what they did with the Florida Panthers as well, even if it really was just Mathika Chuck most of the time, but Mathika Chuck, I think him and his family, they're perfect for this type of series. I really enjoyed how they focused on those two teams near the end of the series, but there's a whole bunch of stuff we can get to even with episode one with David Pastranock and William Nylander and that friendship, and I'm going to end up rambling a lot, but I really enjoyed diving into this series. Yeah, I mean, I'm glad, I think that they set out to do what they achieved. They set out to give the best behind the scenes look that you've ever had in the NHL. I think they achieved that. I know HBO had some hits in the early days with the 24/7 that they did around the winter classic, but I think just the fact that they granted us this sort of access in the cup final. I mean, what timing for Amazon, for the NHL, for box-to-box, which produced it, that we get this epic final, we get this epic performance from probably an all-time grade. I think Conor McDavid is safe to say is going to go down as in the NHL, and here you have him at his absolute peak as a player, and I mean, to me, he's the star of the show. I mean, you just see everything that is tearing him up inside to try to win, and everything he's putting his body through emotionally, some of the stuff with his teammates. I mean, it's pretty gripping, and, you know, I know that we talked about this even maybe a month ago, someone had sort of got in my ear about some of the content, but I hadn't seen it at that point. I mean, I don't think that it's oversold that you would come away thinking differently about Conor McDavid or just seeing a different side of him, not saying that I didn't believe he cared or anything, but you see how much he cares in a way that just hit you over the head as you watched, especially those last two episodes. So I'm with you. I can't even imagine a complaint with it. Like it's not perfect. I think you have to understand they only started working on it essentially at last year's All-Star game. And so it was, you know, kind of a rush, obviously it was absolutely key to get a player like McDavid on board, but you know, and some of the other stars that Kachak, as you mentioned, is great. I mean, Jeremy Swamin, actually, it just given what's going on right now is quite timely, but you know, I thought that they gave pretty good access to him. I mean, he gives them an interview the afternoon of game seven in his hotel room before facing the Leafs. I mean, as we know from covering the league, Julian, you don't usually get to talk to the goalie the morning of that game in a typical media environment, let alone be in his hotel room hours before Puck drop, and he's talking about his contract. I mean, it's they did well and I do think that there's lots of there's room for them to get better. I think that there's lessons for them to learn in different ways to approach some things in the second go round. But you know, there'll only be a second go round if enough people feel like you and I do that this was worth watching and enough people start binging this on Amazon Prime. Can we talk about Jeremy Swamin before we get to anything else here? Because watching that episode, he's episode three with Matthew Kachak, it felt very there's a lot of foreshadowing with the way that he was speaking about his situation and wondering if this if if when he was playing in that second round series against Florida, he ended up playing his final game as a Bruin. I saw you and Flush and Zawa put out an article about that today. You could read that. You could read that on the athletic. Just watching that episode and focusing on Jeremy Swamin, knowing what's happened with him over the last few days, a bit eerie to say the least, like that was super wild to follow and in parallel to what's going on right now. Right. And for context for anyone who hasn't seen it, there's multiple interviews with Swamin, like you can tell because he's wearing, you know, they're in different locations wearing different clothing. So this is over and it's all shot presumably during the playoffs or maybe after the playoffs were over, maybe looking back a little bit. But it's all in the period where it's the most important time of year. And he just openly says like he had a moment when they were eliminated by the Florida Panthers in the second round where he was looking up at the crowd and thinking, this could be my last time we're in this Jersey, like, I don't know how things are going to go. As I mentioned, he does that interview before game seven against the leaf, he's like, let's not hide from it. I'm playing for a contract. He's talking about like that was fresh in his mind. And he actually maybe the most revealing thing of all is, you know, back in July, 2023, he had a salary arbitration here with the Bruins. He elected for a player elected arbitration, by the way. So I mean, it was him that initiated that process. But you know, he's open about how hard it was that, you know, your arbitrator, the person speaking, your behalf gets up and says all these nice things about what you've accomplished. And then the person working for the team gets up and as he used his words, rips the player, and he said that he wrote down all of the things that they raised, all the points they raised against him. And at the top of the list, he felt that they were really harping on the fact he hadn't had playoff success. And he does this nice moment, he goes check, like it's, it's him saying like he's checking through that list and of all the things that they said he couldn't do that he's accomplishing. So I mean, it does set the stage pretty nicely. When you see all this, you see how much it was consuming him, even at the time of year where, you know, you're playing for the Stanley Cup, that it was in his mind that he didn't shy away from it, that he at that point, I mean, obviously, that point, Lena Solmarco is still his teammate. And so he understood, as we all did from the outside, that there was going to be one or the other, that if they chose to keep all marked, that maybe it was Swamin that could be getting moved on from. And you know, he didn't know what his future held. And here we are, days away from the start of the regular season, and, you know, I'm still fairly confident his future lies with the Bruins, but obviously it's been a rocky few months and especially last couple of weeks and trying to get, you know, Swamin signed and they haven't been able to do so. And I mean, what a window into what this player was dealing with in the lead up to where these negotiations have gotten to this point. If I'm a Bruins fan, I'm nervous. You know, as Corpus Salos, your guy, they just claimed your petera off waivers, what's going on? I mean, I don't think a lot is going on right now, honestly. I mean, there's still, there's still time. I have to emphasize that there's still six days from when we're recording right now until either side feels pain. And to be clear, the pain is this. For the player, he's literally missing. Once he's missing regular season days under the calendar, every day comes at a certain cost financially for what he ends up signing for. For the team, the way that the salary cap accounting works, Jeremy Swamin's cap hit this year will be more money than what they're actually paying him if they sign him in season. And so it's going to be a harder cap dance for the Bruins. The longer it goes on, it's not just about, you know, paying him the money he wants, then his actual cap number this season would be higher if he ends up signing on November 1st just to throw a date out there. So there's real world consequences. Like the consequences right now are obviously there's lots that we've been eating our popcorn watching these press conferences, giving us lots of material to chat about. But, you know, if Jeremy Swamin just signs on Tuesday, at the end of the day, he missed training cap and it was, you know, fairly compelling to view from afar, but nothing much was lost. That changes if it gets to Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, next week, but there's still there's still days to bridge that gap and, you know, I see people saying, like, is he going to be traded? I mean, it seems like an alternate universe only where that would happen just given what he wants to be paid. Right? That could afford him and would want to pay twice, in essence. You'd be paying him a fair, you know, chunk of money and you'd obviously have to pay the brew in something in a trade in order to acquire his rights. So when you say that, maybe producer Drew maybe needs to pump the breaks on some kind of Colorado trade. I mean, in the episode, in his episode, he's hanging out with family, friend with family of his who happened to live in Denver, so hard to miss that one. You know, you look at the, you look at the teams that were in on Yaroslav Asgrov when he was available the summer, right? Montreal, New Jersey, with the flyers in on him. I can't remember. Actually, I don't remember if the flyers were in on him, but Montreal and Jersey for sure were the two teams among the two teams. Right. And obviously, San Jose ended up making the deal to get him when Nashville traded up player, but I think those would be teams that would look at him. Colorado, again, would make sense. The family connection is probably a nice bonus. I wouldn't say that would be the main reason, but you know, I'm not saying that they have a weakness in that, but he'd probably be an upgrade for them. I don't know how they'd make it work. Capo is obviously they have a lot of unknowns a season with, you know, Gabriel Landeskog, who's actually featured in face off and you get into what he's been dealing with after having that cartilage transplant surgery and, you know, but the avalanche this year have some uncertainty because they've got Valerie Nechushkin, who's in stage three of the player assistance program, isn't eligible to play until November, but obviously they have to keep his cap devoted to him because, you know, I don't know if he'll be ready to play. It sounds like they have stinky will, but they need to have the money basically to accommodate him on the roster. And then Landeskog, who knows when he's going to play, but, you know, those are teams that would make some sense. Imagine Boston trading on the Montreal just feels like historically they couldn't do that. It'd be too risky. It's like, it's like going back and the Leafs trading Tuka Rass to the Bruins and then watching him, you know, be a great goalie for the Bruins for 10 or 15 years, you know, I just feel like you couldn't, you couldn't make that risk to a geographic, a historic and a division rival. Yeah, there's, there's no way, there's no way the Boston Bruins would ever consider that there's there's no way. These are not actual trade rumors. This is Jillian and I put piecing things together in this alternate universe. Uh, you know, I think as I, as I say, the most likely result here is still Jeremy Swamin signing a deal in the very near future with Boston. Okay. Back to the real world. Which of these episodes did you enjoy the most? Which one did you enjoy the most? Give me one. I know what my pick is. Well, for me, it's episode five and six, but that's kind of a cheat answer because I'm giving two. Those are the two episodes that span the Cup final series. I'll probably say episode five. All right. So we're the same boat because we both enjoyed episode five. Right. I mean, I loved episode six too, but episode five start, it starts with what Julian was talking about earlier. It's the Oilers walking off the ice after losing game seven. It's the opening scene of the episode. It's pretty damn powerful. Um, and, you know, I just think it sets the stage for, yeah, I mean, what, what a thing. I mean, just, you know, we don't want to get out too much, but it's, it's, it's, it's you're in the locker room after a team lost two to one in the game seven of the Cup final after coming back from three, nothing down after coming back from what they came back from in October, November, when their coach got fired after coming back for in a couple series or at least the Vancouver series during the playoffs and Dallas actually they were down. So I mean, you just, you know, and it's was what? I think June 23rd or June 24th, like those guys have been fighting for nine months and you're in the room with them in that, in that moment and me pretty, pretty emotional, especially from Conor McDavid. All right. I appreciate that this series didn't make him out to look like a robot and I don't think I'm speaking out of turn when I mentioned this detail. I appreciate that Conor McDavid addresses the fact that people think that he's a robot, but also this year, you know, we look at athletes, high performing athletes who care so much about their sport and care so much about being great, like Conor McDavid is very much in that class and that tier of athlete who think that way. And I also think that for casual people, casual fans who look at hockey players as the super humble, super reserved people, I would like to think that when they look at Conor McDavid, maybe there's the reserve part that's still true that he introvertedness of him, but in terms of humility, while it's there, I hope they get the same sense that I do that this dude definitely knows he's the best player in the world. Like there are some guys who might be like, whatever, like I know I'm talented and all that, but like, even if he doesn't outright say it, Conor McDavid definitely knows he's the best player on earth, he's the most skilled player has ever touched ice in the history of this sport. He definitely knows it. And if he doesn't know it, Leon Dreyseidel knows it like, well, I mean, how wouldn't he know it? No one can say that, but I mean, I guess, but here's, but that's the stereotype with hockey players, right? And especially for people like, look, we're die hearts. We obviously know the difference. There are other people who would watch this for the first time. They wouldn't know. That's the point I'm trying to make. And you're right. And it's funny because I think with McDavid, like he talks about like the cup, like almost like his destiny, right? Like he's, he's talking about how he'd never, since he was a kid ever thought about doing anything else. And now, and it's just so damn hard to win. Like, if you're a manager or a coach of another team and you watch this and your team hasn't had much success, like I'd almost want my players to watch those last two episodes. Like I actually believe it. And obviously the players know it's hard. I think everyone, like it's, this isn't, this isn't a great headline. Like new, new Amazon series reveals that winning the Stanley Cup is hard. Like we, we know that intuitively, but like when you watch it. I just think it underlines how fricking hard it is. And, and you're there, you're seeing a lot of what the guys are, the sort of treatments are getting done on their bodies, including Conor McDavid, was, was nursing an injury during the playoffs. And you know, he has this playoffs where he wins the cons, my trophy, you know, losing teams, fashion, you know, breaking Wayne Gretzky records along the way for scoring and, and the like assist. I think it was. And, you know, it, like, it's just, you can see that tension there, right? Because Connor feels like it's his destiny. It is right there for him, but it's still so elusive. And obviously, you know, any game, any player on both sides or coach or GM or trainer, like you get down to game seven. Almost anything can happen. It's, it's a balance. It's a converted power player, what have you so anyway, what a, what a series. I think, I think we've, we've tipped our caps to it because deserve it. So that's fair. That's fair. I just, sorry. There's, there's a lot. Okay. Did you see this? You're prepared for this? Like, I mean, for those wondering, I'm not going to, I'm not going to spoil too much, but they do show the moment when the team gets off the ice and you see how Connor McDavid handles the whole playoff MVP thing. Let me not, let me, I was very surprised at how that scene looked. I was surprised at who was there. That's what I'll say about that scene. I was surprised at who was there when that was happening. That's all I'll say about that. That's good. Yeah. But honestly, I don't want to take anyone's joy away from watching the series. So, so if you don't want to spoil it, then you don't want to, are we allowed to talk about the little, the little cameo periods that happens in episode one then? Do you want to talk about that? It's very small. I mean, it's very small. It's very small. It's like four seconds of our show. I didn't even count it, but I, I, I, I think I, I talked maybe as long as you did. Oh, you did for sure. You set it up. Like what did you say exactly? Like where's, what's going on? Willy Neelander or like, like, why isn't he playing? Why, why isn't he out there? Something like that. And then you're like, it's being kept under lock and key and then click. Dude. Four hours and we got four seconds, brother. I mean, dude, we're in it. No, I know. It's cool. I mean, we got it made as far as I could search. I did love that first episode though. Um, I really, like we don't have to go in too much on it, but I did love that first episode in how, uh, the two players David Pasternak and William Neelander. It's one thing for them to play on opposite sides of the big rivalry, but like they have a history, uh, between those two players. And I'll be, I'll be honest, I didn't realize they, they had a history dating as far back as it, as it did. So I was really intro. Yeah. They played together in Sweden for sort of Thalia and they're, they're good buddies. Like it has been sort of part of their story. I remember way back when Neelander first entered the league and Mike Babcock used to say to the media after those games, he'd be like, I wish he played Pasternak every night. Like he felt like in those games, he was getting more out of Neelander, uh, because he was, I think he joked once that he wanted to put like a Pasternak jersey in his locker or something to like, cause he felt like seeing that like brought the best out of, uh, Willie, I remember he didn't have a hat trick at one point early in his career, it's Boston. So, I mean, the other interesting part to Pasternak said in that is that when he was a teenager is that Neelander was always, he felt much better than him. And like, he was like, we knew for sure this guy was going to the NHL. He didn't know about me. Because I think if you look at their careers, Pasternak's probably been a step ahead of Neelander throughout, certainly, you know, he's had some, some higher goal scoring and point seasons, you know, didn't hurt that he got to start on his entry level deal playing with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marshan, you know, nice way to get eased into the league where he's Neelander is kind of at times been even a third-liner in Toronto. But anyway, I mean, you're right, it's, it's a nice story. It includes the smallest, but it's, I'll tell you this. So I was, I was at the Amazon launch and they actually played that episode for everyone in attendance and Neelander was there. And when, when it was going through, especially the point about like, you know, they really play up this idea when he missed those first three games, the playoffs, like, where is he? What's going on? It's all a big secret. I was like wondering if we would be in it. Like I was wondering if it would just be because I knew that they had permission to use clips from our show. It's like, is there something a word to saying something outrageous and it's going to be played on here and Neelander is going to be watching? But what, what we said was actually, it was true. It was being held very close to the vests. What was, what was wrong with them at that point in time? Yeah, for sure. Two more questions. I know you, I know we're trying not to spoil. Was there a player from this series who you came away minus Jeremy Swivin, if he's the answer, but like, is there a player from this series who you came away with a different perspective after watching? Hmm, I mean, honestly, probably all of them, I guess Matthew Kachuk is just Matthew Kachuk. Like, obviously, yeah, but like you, we kind of know he's a goofball and we know how tight his family is. I mean, I'm not, I'm not looking. I like the scenes. I'm not, but it's just maybe didn't necessarily learn anything as much from him. I'm trying to think, what was the second episode again? Second episode was Philip Forsberg and Jack Eichol. Eichol. Yeah. And the third one was Swamin and Kachuk a little bit. Kachuk. And the fourth one was the captains, Quinn Hughes, Landis Cog. Yeah. Trueba. Trueba. I'd say Quinn Hughes a little bit. I mean, just because he's a little bit of a quieter guy and, you know, I've been based in the East during his career in the Western conference. Like it's, he said he read, I think 20 or 25 books after he became captain on leadership. Like, I feel like just that detail, like, I hate to say this, but I kind of assume at this point, the younger generation doesn't read books anymore as much as maybe they once did just because there's a lot competing for attention. I don't, again, I'm not hating on 20 year olds. I'm just saying, like, I probably read a lot of books back what I did because the internet wasn't what it was. And there wasn't a computer in my pocket and other things to take me away from it. But I was like, wow, what a window into that guy. Like, how serious a that he took the job of P. Like, it's almost like, dude, you might be overprepared on leadership. Like 20 or 25 books is a lot of info to cram in there after getting named captain. Seriously. I wondered if they were going to show him playing NHL at any point in the series because it seems as if like, if he's not going to be reading, he's probably going to be just home in Michigan, just biting his time, just playing video games all day, which is not a bad thing. It's something he's literally done. The other thing it showed too is how much he watches games. Like, I know, I don't think there's, I don't think there's a one good answer to this. Like, I think some players who don't know what's going on in a league in a sense, like, I don't think that's a bad thing. Because I think it's, you know, it means when you get away, you get away. And when you're at work, you work. But, but obviously there's there's certain players that are known kind of for being just giant hockey nerds, you know, Mark Schifley's talked about a lot over the years and done interviews about how much he consumes the other games. I don't say he crawls me, watches a lot of hockey, obviously Quinn Hughes, I mean, probably a long list. I haven't asked every player what their hockey watching routine is, but there are definitely other guys that are great players that don't watch the games when they go home because they need to unplug, which I think, I think there's a case for both sides. All right, guys, how do we feel about survivor pools? Tingly. You like them? I do. They excite you. Now, what if you and your friends for like a buck 50 could join a survivor pool together? There are thousands of dollars of prizes. I don't think I can afford not to. You know what? That's a good way to put it, Steve. You should check out safety survivor, go to safetysurvivor.com 18 plus users with primary residences in Canada, United States, Belgium, England, Wales, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain. And that's it. Oh, Steve. That was really good. Because it's hockey. You know, the football ones, you're not very good at football and fantasy and all that, but this is hockey. This is used in hockey games every weekend to pick from to safety survived. That's right. I might even do that. Might even finish top half. That's a contest. You want to get in now registration for the hook closes October 9th, 2024, go to safetysurvivor.com. No purchase necessary. Please read official rules before participating for sure. Last one for you. Who would you like to see featured in this series if they do this again next year? Oh, I haven't thought about that. So I'll tell you one thing I know as I know that next year, this season, they will consider players that are on teams that aren't a lot to make the playoffs because every player that's featured in the series, their team was in the playoffs. They're going to look at other ways to tell stories like maybe through a coach or not have it just be strictly players, even players, partners, which I think opens up some interesting possibilities. Obviously, some players have partners that maybe are really successful in other walks of life. How do they look at it? I think that there could be some cool stuff with that. I sort of did that with Philip Forsberg in this episode. I think that they wanted to go even harder on that though, that they might make a whole episode about the partner, not about the player almost at all. You know what I mean? That'd be interesting. Which when you think about it, again, someone has to be comfortable opening their life up to that degree. But if you are, then it's less, it's actually less of a, I don't want to call it a bother, but it's less of a strain on the player, right? Because maybe it's how the partner is experiencing the whole playoff thing, but then the camera doesn't need to get to the player everywhere. So I think there's some possibilities there. Who do you have? Have you thought of someone? Because I want to give you an answer, but I don't want to just, I want to think for a second. One answer I thought about would be Jack Hughes. I think his personality could be good for that show. I get that a lot of the personality that has been showed for him is really just him pushing back on reporters' questions. But I got to talk to him and Quinn and Luke for the story I did a few months ago, and just talking to him and hearing that personality maybe think, "Hey, you know what? He would be pretty good for this series." I love what they did with Matthew and showing that family, and they kind of, to a lesser degree, do that with Quinn and his family. I wonder if it would be worth it for them to go that route with Jack Hughes. So he would be someone on my list for sure. I'm going to pivot in another direction, just given the big David experience. I want to see someone like Connor Biddard, because he's another player that I haven't been around. I've only been around him in very small doses, but it feels like it's maybe hard to crack the veneer there a little bit. He's also very young. It might just be that there's still not a lot there there because he's still growing as a person and obviously getting his feet under himself as an NHL star. Like, I could see, I almost want a case for who's someone that's like really, really good that we don't feel we know that much about because they've shown they can do it with McDavid. Now, you know, the fact that he has one answer to that question and it's never going to happen. Crosby? Crosby. I've said this before. If someone said, "All right, we're doing an entire series on Sydney Crosby, it would be the most watched thing in Canada." We don't know anything about this guy. We don't know anything. We don't know that much. Excuse me. Not anything. We know a lot that has been presented throughout him coming up and entering the league, but in terms of his personal life on a day to day and a lot more about how his brain works beyond what he tells us in the media and what he does on the ice, what do you really know about Sydney Crosby? I mean, not a ton. I think that's by design. No. Right? I mean, he grew up in the fishbowl and, you know, he's been forced to protect that privacy. He's done a really good job at it when you think about it. I mean, 20 years in the league now. And you're still saying that. And 20 years, a lot of those years as the best player in the league, a lot of those years as, you know, someone trotted out at every event and, yeah, I cross you, it would be great. I just don't, there's not a lot of upside for him at this point, right? I mean, maybe if it's like an end of career legacy thing, like, I could see that happening for sure. Right. I remember people were surprised when they won the cup in 2016, people were surprised, even that his girlfriend was on the ice at the time, just because, hey, I think a lot of people around the team knew he had a partner or whatever, but you know, he'd always sort of kept that in his personal life, which, of course, any players is apt to do. But then all of a sudden, when your partner is on the ice posing for photos with the cup, I mean, people can start to figure out who that person is and all that. And so I remember people were even surprised that he would open himself up like that and it's like, wait, well, this is one of the best moments of his life. Of course he wants someone who's that close to him to be part of it. But yeah, I would be all in to see, he's a very curious guy like that. The one thing I've always said about my time with Sid is I've come away from it, always thinking like, wow, like in addition to being this like incredible hockey player and such a disciplined person, obviously to stay at the highest level for so long, the key, his brain is operating in a way that like most people's don't like I'm telling you more than almost any player I've ever dealt with. He ends up asking if you get in, obviously when he's in a massive scrum, it doesn't work like this, but the times either when I've talked to him one on one or just maybe a couple of us in a more slightly informal setting, he ends up asking you as many questions as you ask him like and he's very curious about like, I just think it's an interesting window into how his mind works like he's he's telling you there's something like clearly physically he's got gifts. But I think there's something his brain is operating on a level like I'm he's playing 40 chess man and I'm over here with the checkers board going like, oh, what's the next move? So when you when you get that one on one with or just get to talk to him and four believe with Sid, like, do you ever like look over your shoulder and wonder like, wait a minute, the only one doing this consider how popular he is. Consider how likely it is for him to be in a scrum. The idea of him being in any type of one on one situation must be so rare considering his popularity. Yeah. Although I'll say this like there was a couple years there when the penguins had their long playoff runs, I was I was around them like every day for two months in consecutive years. And I do think when you have a player like that in your own market, like I think the Pittsburgh writers and broadcasters obviously go to him when they really need him big game, big goal, whatever. But I think sometimes when it's a random Tuesday and there's no pressing need, like they know that he's so good to them that they'll they'll try to leave him be every once in a while. And it's sometimes wasn't like, I'm just thinking off top of my head. I remember once chatting with him in the dressing room in Ottawa during a senators penguin series and it was it was like, I wasn't interviewing him. We were just like BSing and talking about whatever, but like that was where I remember he's like, do you speak French? I was like, you know, only a little bit like I took it in school, whatever. And then he was explaining to me at that time, it was a former junior teammate of his. He had seen the night before, I think for dinner, whatever. And he's like, he's a French teacher now and, you know, and he told me a little bit about his own experience because Sid does speak French, but he didn't interview once and people mocked him. I think I don't know if he misused words or maybe his accent or something. And then I just decided he's not going to do interviews in French anymore because he's, you know, which I understand. I mean, you make fun of someone's, you know, anyway, I won't go into all that, but I'm just saying I remember having that interaction. So off the top of my head, it's the times it's happened. There's been a few times where I literally had was like granted a true one on one interview with them and there was specific reasons. I actually, this is, this is going way back. This is a clap back, but I went to in 2010 in the lead up to the Olympics, he got named at the end of 2009 as CP's male athlete of the year and what this one is working at the Canadian press and newswire service and in con in conjunction with that and the fact the Olympics were going to be in Canada and two months time. I actually had nothing to do with the interview. Like it was, at that point was above my head, but the my bosses somehow arranged this interview with Sid and they brought a camera crew in with me to basically record it because obviously they were using the clips to do with stuff with the Olympics and you know, I was writing the story and doing the story on him being an athlete of the year. And like that was one of the first times I ever did an interview with a camera crew and like I remember how nervous that even made me like it just changed a dynamic, right? I mean now I've done a bunch of that over the years, I spend time in front of the camera, but I remember how like nervous I was like I interviewed him early in the morning, it was like right before Christmas. I think I was there like December 23rd or something and you know, all those like little things anyway, I'm not trying to make this about me, but now you're you've like opened my brain. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, that's what I'm. And that's going way, way back obviously, but there have been those times where I've had one-on-one formal interviews with them and then you know, again, when you round them every day during a playoff run that goes on for two months, there's just opportunity where you're in the morning there in the morning skate or whatever, you know, you exchange a few words and you know, he's honestly, he's as gracious of any player that I've covered in my career with the media. I mean, if anything, I think the Penguins PR at times has had to like step in on his behalf because if it was, if they didn't do that, he would just sit there and talk for an hour and obviously he's got other more important things and just speaking to the media to handle on his plate too. To your point, like the flames hosted the Penguins last season and to your point about how Pittsburgh media date, whenever they would need him, they'll get to talk to him. I just sort of assume that, you know, with Crosby being in Calgary, obviously the Pittsburgh media would want him, but also Flames media would want him and I remember him just sitting in the locker room on his own and I remember just looking at PR and I was like, can I go talk to him? And I just, I was just alone with him for like a good like five, seven minutes and I just couldn't, I couldn't believe it. Like it was, it was really cool to be in that space. I didn't get asked questions, but all the questions I had to ask Sid, like he was just sharp. He just remembered everything. Like he was, I needed him for something I was working on. It was just like this really cool moment and every so often I would look back and be like, no one else needs this guy right now, him, like just, I'm so used to being in other markets where you could be talking to a guy one on one and then bit by bit, someone else shows up and someone else shows up and someone else pops in and all of a sudden you have 20 people with mics in front of a guy's face. Like the idea of getting a superstar of his caliber one on one for anything, like that doesn't happen often and you don't take it for granted in our business. Yeah, I would argue he's a special guy as much as he's a special player. And so to put a bow on where we started this, if we could ever capture that in ways, because I mean, I don't even know all the things, of course, I don't pretend that you only deal with any of these athletes kind of in specific circumstances. There's so much of their existence in their life we don't know about. If he ever let the cameras in, I mean, you're right, he would be there, he would be their white whale, right? He would be there like if that's the biggest fish of them all, probably for them, but I'm not that I just don't, I don't see him doing it. No. Just one more name before we move off this topic, Nathan McKinnon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jack Hughes and Nathan McKinnon are my two picks if they do this again, I heard anecdotally that McKinnon wasn't that interested like that I think they tried to get him last time, but you know, look, now that he's seen it, you know, people didn't know what it was going to be necessarily. Maybe, maybe he would have a different view if they tried again. Very fair. Yeah. He seems like there's a lot going on there. Imagine if McKinnon and Crosby episode, like that would be the natural, right? Because, you know, there's such good buddies and they spend so much time together and they, I think, I think a big part of like, I bet if you asked Nathan McKinnon, because remember he had a couple of years in the league that didn't go as well as he wanted, maybe, or like it took him a while to become the superstar he is. Like I bet his relationship with Crosby, he would tell you as part of the reason. Like I think Sid helped him understand what it took. And so, I think anything with those two would be, and not just, not just on Zamboni's and a Tim Horton's drive-through. I'm talking like the real stuff, them on the golf course, them doing all those things, like that, that would be pretty cool. That would be pretty dope. Amazon, feel free to hire us as consultants for next season. I think we get you some pretty good, we've got tons of ideas between both of us. Don't worry. Look for my number. I got lots of ideas. I can give you some good tips. Absolutely. Hopefully, if you're still with us, we haven't dissuaded you from watching that series. It absolutely is worth your time. Let's have a brief chat about what's been going on in pre-season. I know we kind of touched on it on the last episode with some of the injuries, and we actually had an interesting conversation about Arbor Jacki, and how he handled the song. I was wrong about that one. Yeah. But I don't put that on you. In context, Arbor Jacki, going after Cedric Bahre of the Maple Leafs after Bahre was involved in a neon knee with Patrick Lionet, it looks like he's only going to be out for two to three months for the Munchrock Canadians, by the way. We discussed that hit, and we discussed what Jacki did after the fact, and CJ I think was still right in making this point, that because he was only fine, he would still be seen as a repeat offender. And then you fast forward a couple of days later, where the Canadians and the Senators play against each other, and then there's a big hit involving Jacki and Tim Stutzla. We're likely going to get into that debate, and no discipline to come for Arbor Jacki after that hit on Tim Stutzla. Here's the thing, I think you were right to think the way that you thought, because in a rational world, yeah, he should be seen as someone with a history. That being said, we're dealing with the Department of Player Safety here, which I'm sorry to tell everybody, not consistent as we would like to be. That being said, well, they split hairs, I think, right? They split hairs on this, yeah. Like, it's pretty clear that Jacki was trying to lay a devastating hit there on Stutzla. He was. He absolutely was. He misses in a sense, like if he's one inch in another direction, it is directly to the head. In this case, he hits whatever Stutzla's gloves and stick, and that's what gets up and gets him. Yeah, the stick comes up. I think that can't be denied and all that. I don't know if the head was the primary point of contact, but it's a big hit. There's definitely, I think he tried to really pump him. Right. But I mean, the player of safety would say, look, that's a normal occurring hockey play. In that instance, it would be up to him to be going to basically address that player, stop him at the line, I believe it was a power play entry, and he didn't actually hit his head. Like, as much as we could sit here and say, it looked like he was trying to murder a man on the ice, they're going to say, but he didn't. And that's the beginning and the end of it. I don't know the way around this. Honestly, I hate having the suspension discussions because I always send a back at the same place. I definitely don't know that I could do it better. I think that the game, there's a lot of crap that goes on out there. I think ultimately, I'll say the quiet part out loud. I don't think they're looking to suspend players. I think often they're looking not to, in a sense, like they're looking, you know, let's face it, owners, GMs, people that run the league don't want their best players sidelined. So it's not good for the sport if, you know, and I'm not saying Arbor Jack is one of the Kane's best players, but in just in theory, you're not looking for reasons to have guys not playing games, but at the same time, you're trying to keep things somewhere in the bounds of what's allowed. Anyway, I'm, I'm already, like, there's been a lot of it this preseason, like it makes you wonder, like, obviously a lot of the players that have been involved in this stuff or AHL players that won't be there when the season starts, but you have that heated game last Saturday between Toronto Montreal. Now it's Montreal and Ottawa having it, like, is the Atlantic going to be, is it going to be a bit of a brawler division? I mean, and we don't have that in today's game, it's the same degree, and I know the Metro has a lot of tough players too, but is the Atlantic going to be the, an animosity field division this year? I mean, the way, think of the way the Panthers play, I mean, it could, it's going to be, it's going to be interesting, my friend. Save that for when we do a season preview ahead of the NHL season, which starts Friday with games abroad, but I think we're going to, like, we've decided to table it for next week. Yeah, we made it, man. We're back to regular season games. Can you believe it? Whoa. Excited. I like the off season, but I mean, you get talked over, you're ready to, I've had enough of the preseason games have been on record about that, but, you know, I'm ready, I'm ready to see it. The real thing that going here, I just don't want to see any more players get injured in games that don't matter. Like the sends in that game we were talking about had a handful of players out with it with injury and, and, and just the other night, Macklin celebrating the number one overall pick in the summer's draft for San Jose, gets himself hurt in a game and leaves with a lower body injury. Like, I don't want to see any more guy. Look, I get it. It's hockey. It's a contact sport. People can get injured in a regular season game anyway, but in the preseason, like, come on, like, I'd rather not see that. Yeah. And I don't know what you do, honestly, because like, even the solution, and I, I mentioned this on the last episode that I, I was betting that, that we're going to see preseason in the near future reduced, but if you're reducing the preseason adding more regular season games I mean, you're basically adding more games that have higher stakes. I mean, I, I can't sit here and argue that that's going to lead to less players getting injured. Um, you know, celebrating there. I think there's some concern about whether he'll play on the, in the first game because the injury he's dealing with has been kind of aware and tear thing that he's been managing and obviously got to a point where he left the game last week and, you know, what a shame that would be if, you know, you're the, the, the sharks are obviously trying to, wasn't their hashtag that I see it, is it like the future is teal or something? I think that's their hashtag this year, which, whatever, we don't have to go off on that. But the point is like, they're selling the future right now. Right. And, and what's a bigger selling point than your number run overall pick and let's hope that Macklin's able to, to play the first regular season game in the shark tank there. Cause that, you know, that is a fan that's been through it and that fan base has been through it. Um, you know, you're pretty excited to see your guys actually in the league and doing things that can hopefully get your franchise turned around. Wise man once told me if you're not selling winning, you're selling hope. They're selling hope in San Jose this year. They're still not going to be as many wins, uh, but I, but you know, there's reason to go to the rink. I think if you're a fan, if you want to watch Will Smith, if you want to see some of the other young players, I mean, they could still finish 30th or 31st or 32nd. Like I don't know how it's going to go. I would certainly put them in the very bottom tier of teams, but it's going to be more interesting watching them do that. Absolutely. Uh, as we round off preseason talk, obviously there's guys on, on PTOs around the league. Uh, who do you see getting some contracts, uh, before the season starts? A couple of, this is, this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but a couple that have caught my eye is Tyler Johnson is having a big camp for the Bruins and, and it seems like things are on track, uh, for him to end up with a contract. They know he scored some goals and, and given them some depth. So, you know, former, uh, could be a former lightning player back potentially in the Atlantic division, uh, for wearing enemy colors, um, Keller Yamamoto is actually having a nice camp in Utah, you know, seen some reps in their preseason games on the number one line. So wouldn't, uh, wouldn't be surprised if he gets a contract and then obviously Max Patrick ready, we talked about previous, but you know, it sounds like, uh, everything's on track for him. Do you have anyone else that that you've kind of come across? You think is, is likely to get a job here or? I think, I think Tyson Barry makes sense to me. I know there's been a lot of smoke around that. Uh, I just think with the way the, the flames are set up, uh, they don't really have, I mean, I get Mackenzie Wieger's there and Rass was Anderson can do it too, but they need as much offense as they can from the back end and Tyson Barry obviously has that experience. It seems like he's destined, he's on that track to, to getting a contract out there and Calgary. Uh, they've, they've been linked for those two sides, the flames and Barry for, for quite some time. I saw that it was, he was sounding at PTLs like, well, finally, like they're, that's coming to fruition in some way. So I would be very surprised if he doesn't emerge, uh, from camp with a contract. I think even if it's as an extra defense, but on that team, I, I could see him sticking around with that, with the big club. Right. And unfortunately, Nick like coolman didn't get his contract in Ottawa. The dream ended for his unlikely bid, but, uh, I heard he was at the rink watching his kid in Toronto. It's, it's 15 year old son Alex playing recently. So I mean, there's, there's a good end to this for, for coolman is, is more family time and getting the support of sons, uh, you know, burgeoning hockey career. If, if, uh, no one else comes calling. All right. I think we're at stick taps now, Seach. Uh, do you have a stick tap for this week? I came unprepared as usual. Okay. Well, I guess now we can, well, we'll give a cross check. I will give a cross check to the Blue Jays. Yes. Yes. I had this in my notes, just peeling, just peeling the curtain here. Um, we were going over show notes yesterday and we were trying to figure out what to talk about. And literally all I have for this part is let me absolutely roast the effing J's. That's what's there. CJ, please go ahead with your cross check. Where do I even take this? Oh, um, I'll say this. I received two unprompted emails in three days from a member of the Blue Jays ticketing staff, trying to see if I would buy tickets for next season. It took everything my power not to respond to the first one that I was not as strong the second time around because the second one arrived literally the morning they were having that press conference on Wednesday where they're, you know, Ross Atkins is back and Mark Shapiro's back and John Schneider's back and the same guys who should have been fired last season day, then oversaw this debacle of a season last place in the AL East in a year where the division was right there for the taking for any team that was even semi competent. And now they get to run next season, I'm out, man. I'm out. And that's what I responded. I was polite. Obviously the person selling tickets is just doing, you know, his job, but I was, I wrote him back and I was like, look, I've lost faith in the team. The direction of the front office, you would have to pay me to go to games next season. I am not dropping one dollar on that team next year and I'm not putting one minute of my time into them until they change things up with the front office. So like, no one needs to listen to me rant and rave for five minutes about this, but I am, I am just done. Like I said to the guy until Shapiro and Atkins are out, I'm out on the team. And I don't think I'm alone. Like I don't know that it's going to be like mass exodus. But even the fact that they're sending two emails in three days, like trying to get me to buy tickets for next year already tells me that they're worried about selling tickets next year. And they should be like, I can't believe we're in a position where the guy who has run the organization for nine years, the farm system is as worse as it's ever been. Like their processes do not stand any test of time. I mean, somehow they pulled Jose burrios from that game to playoffs and like no one ever explained it, like they dodged it. It's just, I just don't have any faith and then running the team. And man, it took every like, I almost wanted to tweet about this, Julian, like I, I never do this. But yesterday I was so close. I was like, I was going to like, I was just going to tweet like my response to the ticket person and like obviously blur out his name and not, you know, but like I wanted to make a point because I really, I do think unless ownership feels some pressure, like clearly they're not going to make a change. But I didn't, I didn't end up going public, but I guess this is as close to public. You know, it's, it's a podcast. It's an hour and 50 minutes in. So if you're, you're only only the diehards are here in this clip anyway, but I just, the blue chase frustrate the hell out of me. I cannot believe like seriously this year was already too much and they're giving them next year. Yeah. You're right. What a disgrace. It's a joke and like obviously this is all coming from a position. I just love the team. I've loved them for more than 30 years. I've literally, I think I've seen them play in 10 or 15 road ballparks. Like I've, I usually in a typical summer, I go down to the dome seven, eight, 10 times. I actually had tickets to the last homestand a game against the Marlins and I just didn't go. I just, I didn't sell them. I didn't go. I just ate the cost. Cause I'm just like, I'm done with the product there and just, it's, it's brutal. And I don't care that they made the stadium look prettier. Do you know what's pretty? Imagine they're playing right now, I'd be pretty damn excited if I was going to a playoff game today. I tell you that. Yeah. I know you would. I absolutely know you would. That's it. Rant over. But I cross check to the blue jays cross check to Edward Rogers or whoever makes that call. But seriously, they're going to face a minimum of mini fan revolt and it might be a little bit more than that next season. Mark my words and I'm first guy on the list and I'll be back. But only when I have a team and a front office, I can believe it. Producer Nick, when you cut this clip up, please add ether by Nas underneath because CJ was spitting hot fire that entire time. Wait a minute. I got in trouble the one time I played music. I don't think we can do that on this show. Whoa. I didn't say you play music. Okay. I didn't say you play music, brother. Okay. I don't know the difference. I just know I got a little scolding in the group chat there the last time I did that. So. Legit. Listen, learn. That was like my walk up song. Okay. We got our silly out of this episode, man. We were. Do you even have a spic tap or are we just going to end with me written against the blue James? No, no, no. Let's end with like a little bit of love after all that. Oh, I have a lot of love. I have a lot of love to give. Um, man, we didn't even talk about your move to Ottawa. No. That's what I was going to do. I was just going to say thank you to everyone who sent me text messages, someone reached out over the phone yesterday, DMS, all the love for yesterday. Yes, I am moving to Ottawa to cover the Ottawa senators for the athletic. It was my decision, I wanted to take advantage of a unique opportunity that was presented to me and obviously being closer to home as a bonus, being in between Montreal and Toronto is a bonus. So I know there have been people who have been asking if this means more in person episodes. I'll tell you this, the time in between where I'm going to be living and where Toronto is allows for more of those. So we'll coordinate our schedules on that. But, um, yeah, I, I, I'm really excited about covering the senators. I'm really excited about this opportunity. I'm really excited about it. I get it. I'm not Ian Mendez and he's an institution. I know he works for the team now, but I hope to for Ottawa senators fans that you'll give me a chance on the way that I cover the team and the way I write stories, the way I cover news. Um, I, I think I'm good at what I do and I hope that you guys are able to, uh, consume my content for the athletic and, uh, the CJ show's not going anywhere. Uh, so I'll still be around being able to do that too. And also. Same time zone, baby. Same time zone. Same province. We're all going to be in the same province. The Battle of Alberta happens on this show or sorry, the Battle of Ontario. The Freudian slip. To your point though, um, thank you to all of the flames fans who have sent me nice things these last few days. I really enjoyed Calgary. I really love the city. Uh, and I will be back. Um, I really enjoyed all the friends I made there, whether through media or otherwise, uh, reconnecting with family over there. I have, uh, some cousins and an aunt who live out there and I'm going to miss being around them too. It's a really great city. It's a really great organization. Uh, the, the flames in terms of just dealing with them with media on a day to day. Uh, I'm not saying, you know, we agree on everything, but that's fine. That's part of the business. That's okay. Um, but I really, uh, I'm going to miss everyone in that market. I'm going to miss everyone, uh, covering the team and, uh, I'll miss engaging with the fans. So just wanted to say thank you so much for following me these last two years and, uh, onto the next one for me. So those are, uh, sick taps for, for, for many people, uh, on, uh, for me anyway, on the CJ show. Good palate cleanser after my J's rant. Thanks, buddy. I tried not to be bringing the negativity, but it, it was hard. Yesterday. No, I, I, I think I think you were in the right to do that, man. I think you were in the right to do that, brother. Like, what are we doing? Jay's. What are we doing? What are we doing? They should be the playoffs right now. See in 2026. I mean, just, just waste another year. Great. Vladimir Guerrero's part of that team after, you know, don't, don't, don't, he's a great offensive talent. CJ. He's a great offensive talent. He's not generation. Nope. CJ. Get them in right now. If they happen to be in the Blue Jays variety, maybe he'll tackle them. We'll get to as many as we can on our CJ, uh, subscribe to the podcast and we'll talk to you all next week. The Chris Johnston Show. Follow Chris on Twitter at reporter Chris and follow Julian at J.K.A. Mackenzie. The Chris Justin Show. (upbeat music)
