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Johnston Show. 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. Big Money Siege, let's start with Leafs Corner for today's edition of the CJ Show. Janie Hockenpaw off of L-T-I-R-E makes his Leafs debut Wednesday night for the Toronto Maple Leafs against Washington. Been a long time coming for Janie. I know I want to ask about what's next for the Defence Corps or anything else the Leafs could be up to, but it is still cool to see that he was able to make his debut on Wednesday after a long injury layoff. For sure. I mean, there were some people out there that wondered if you'd ever see them suit up for the Leafs, you know, when they announced on July 1st, you know, Brad's living mentioned verbally that they were going to sign them. Of course, that contract didn't come until September. Here we are in November. He's gone through a conditioning stint. You know, I think that there was some certainly some people in the hockey world that just thought that the nature of the knee injuries that he had in Dallas and then ended his season, you know, last season in March, you know, we're probably going to cost him his career. I think some doctors even had some concerns along those lines. And, you know, the Leafs travelled over to Finland three or four times in the summer to get comfortable with the idea of signing Hockenpaw to work with him and he insisted he could play. And, you know, who knows where it goes next because things like health are hard to predict, impossible to predict in the best of cases. And obviously, in this case, he has, you know, comes through a pretty serious injury recovery. But for the Leafs, you know, I do think it gives them some nice depth. You know, when you look at Hockenpaw, he's probably the sort of defenceman they'd be trading for at the trade deadline if they didn't go inside him last summer. You know, he's sort of of the model of, you know, Joel Edmondson, Ilya Labushka, and guys, we've seen them get at previous deadlines. But the hope is that they could integrate him. He can play this year. I mean, he's starting with Morgan Riley, which kind of gives him an interesting set of balance now. There's more options, I think, for the coaching staff than Sheldon Keefe had, you know, certainly last season with the Leafs group, just, you know, with adding a TANF and all the Wreckman Larson. Now you have Hockenpaw in the mix, Connor Timmons has emerged and, you know, played a pretty regular role for the Leafs this season. So, well, that's a long way of saying that if he's healthy, I think this will be a great signing. But this is only really, I mean, it's not step one, but it's step one in terms of seeing him in the NHL as a member of the Leafs. For sure. Earlier this week, the Leafs put Matt Benning on waivers, and obviously they're still up against it with the salary cap. What's next for the Leafs on that front in order for them to find a ways to alleviate it, or if they're still going to be the LTIR, what can you just, what can you say about their situation? Well, you know, with Benning, I think they'd still be open to moving him if something came along that made sense. You know, for the time being, though, there's no harm in having him play for the Marlies and have him as a depth member of the organization. You know, really, their issue is not cap related in this, in the moment, in the here and now, as much as it's roster size related, that, you know, they've been at the maximum 23 players, you know, that gets somewhat, you know, relieved here in recent times because Max Patcheredi went down with an injury, obviously Austin Matthews has been out here for some time. And so, you know, it's, they've got a lot of moving pieces. It's hard to say on any given day, how that's all going to go. I mean, part of it will be when those players are healthy. But, you know, I think that the Leafs at least turn a moment where they don't have to make a trade, you know, they did get Benning through waivers, got him down to playing the HL. And, you know, he's just another, another weapon in the arsenal, I guess, potentially for them, if they run into, you know, big injury situation later in the year, or, or as I mentioned, I do think they'd be open to moving him. If someone wanted to go trade for him, he's a veteran guy, he's a right shot, you know, coming off a significant injury himself, you know, had hip surgery and missed the back half of last season in San Jose and, you know, was a bit of a, a cap casualty himself in that deal for Lilligran that San Jose wanted his contract in that trade. So, you know, right now that the Leafs are okay, but at any given day with the injuries that the number of injuries, they're, they're kind of dealing with, you know, we'll have to see where things land. Absolutely. I'm sure we'll never talk about the Toronto Maple Leafs ever again. Well, we probably will. Austin Matthews has scated twice, but he probably will. Let's clearly joke. I was, yeah, I just said, you know, Austin Matthews has scated twice in the last 10 days, or so that we're, that we're aware of anyways. So I think that that, you know, that's probably the, we might have buried the lead on, on, you know, what's going on with the Leafs. And, you know, some of that is ease. They won the first three games without Matthews in the lineup. And so, you know, it cooled the situation a little bit before losing that game to Ottawa on Tuesday. But, you know, obviously, if it ends up, I mean, I've had no one say it's going to be long term, so I don't want to raise any alarm bells, but, you know, until the longer it goes where he's not, you know, progressing, getting back towards the lineup. I mean, this is, that's the kind of hole for a team you just, you can't replace. It's the sort of thing, you know, a few teams out there, you're having to play without some top players. But, you know, the Leafs are having trouble scoring at 5 on 5 without him in the lineup. And, you know, right now it's still a TBD on when he's going to play next. Okay. Obviously, we'll be on top of that as it happens. I want to get to Pittsburgh. Earlier this week, a report from DK Pittsburgh Sports seemed to suggest that a fire sale could be upon the Penguins. Everything except Crosby must go. And then during insider trading this week on TSN, Darren Drager seemed to put some cold water on that. Where are we at with this particular situation with the Pittsburgh Penguins siege? Well, I'd say the Penguins are looking at their situation with clear eyes. You know, I think that that Kyle Dubas isn't kidding himself here about, you know, where his team sits, you know, as we enter play on Wednesday night, the Penguins are tied for last in the league with a minus 21 goal differential. I mean, they, they have been getting their butts kicked and, you know, they've, they've won some games here, of course, but, you know, it's, it's been a tough sled. And, you know, I'll point you to what we saw last year from this team. When they were 10 points or so out of the playoffs with a couple weeks ago before the deadline, they went and they traded Jake Enzel because they recognize that he was a valuable piece that they could move before the trade deadline. I think if they're in a similar spot, you know, as this season progresses, if this doesn't get turned around, you know, I certainly think we're going to see them trade more players. And, and, you know, they've already moved Lars Ehler here this week, trading him back to Washington and getting a third and a fifth round draft pick. So, you know, I think we're somewhere between the two polls, maybe that, you know, I didn't see the first report. So I don't want to look as though I'm coming right at that. But what I know is they're open to, they're open for business, they're open to our ideas. Certainly, I think they're going to be willing to discuss their players. And I think we're going to see more players traded out of Pittsburgh if this doesn't turn around. But that being said, I also don't think they're going to start in the next week, just trading anything that that isn't nailed to the ground. So, you know, the truth is it's somewhere in the middle that the Penguins have five players with well-known movement clauses, you know, Crosby, Latang, Carlson, Malcolm, and Brian Rust. So, you know, the main names that are probably going to get people all whipped up, you know, I don't think are in play during the season. Maybe in the off season, you're starting to look at some of those things. But in the here and now, the Penguins do have a number of sort of depth pieces that are on expiring deals. You know, someone like Marcus Patterson on their blue line will be pretty highly featured. I can tell you, on the trade boards, it comes out, especially if they don't come around here soon, because, you know, they're going to keep, you know, Khal Dubas, since he got hired by the Penguins, has been trying to do two things at once. He's trying to maximize what they can out of this window while they have these generational greats. But he's also been pretty open. If you go back to break, even his first press conference, two years ago there about, you know, realizing that they also need to retool and be a team that that finds that next wave. And so I think the way you do that is if it's not going to be a playoff team, you're going to have to trade away some current value NHL players for futures. And I think that's where they're at. They just don't have to make that call today. Maybe they win five in a row from here and everything gets changed. But clearly, the other move tells us it's not as though they're not open to doing business. And, you know, I think they're one of the teams that have been, you know, pretty active just in terms of listening to what might be out there and what might make sense for them. I get it. You're right that the Penguins could win five in a row and then we change our tune with this team. But there's nothing on this team right now beyond their players at the top that tells me that they could do that. If it happens, I will gladly eat crow on the show. But there's nothing on this team that tells me that they have any type of run like that in them. This just looks like a bad situation. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm not I'm not predicting that. I'm not saying you are just just like the fact that like, that's just my opinion. I just don't think there's anything in them to do it. Right. Except that the guys at the top of the lineup can probably win some games on their own, you know, Tristan Jari went through his own conditioning stint in Wilkes-Perry Scranton and he went five and one down there and had nine 30 or so it's a percentage. I mean, so they could get it some hot cold tending. They could get a great burst out of Malcolm said, a really good productive start to the year actually given where he's at. It will cross me. So I guess I can at least dream of circumstances. Like, I don't think those guys are going to give up on the season, no matter what we think, right? And, you know, I don't think any of them, nothing's changed since the summer in terms of none of them are in anxious to get out of Pittsburgh themselves. Like, I think they want to be part of a solution. They want to be part of a winning situation. So, you know, I think if you're in management, you got to do, you know, do some hard decisions probably ahead. And, you know, ultimately, it probably means trading away some good players, decent players, anyway, ahead of this trade deadline, which isn't going to make the guys that were, you know, at the top of the roster feel great. You know, I don't think City Crosby loved losing Jake Genssel, you know, just because they had such a great duo for so long. And it's not a good sign about the direction things are going big picture. So there could be more of that this year. You know, they're probably one of the more interesting teams in the league just because I feel like we just keep staring at this thing. And we're like, the meteor is getting closer to Earth. The meteor is getting closer to Earth. Like, when's it going to crash? And, you know, through, you know, almost 20 games this season now, like, it looks like it's going to crash. It looks like this could be a third straight year out of the playoffs, which I think is going to have some pretty big questions being asked of that franchise. If that's where it ends up, you know, come next summer. For sure. We're going to obviously talk more about the penguins this year. It's just, I don't know, man, if they find a way to prove me wrong and turn themselves into a better team than what they've shown right now, that'll be the day for me. I just do not have faith in this team. I don't have faith that they're going to be able to turn around. And I know people in Pittsburgh feel the same way too. I'm just wondering what's what's next. I mean, Mike Sullivan, we've talked like he doesn't look like he's going anywhere. The cornerstone pieces at front, they're not going anywhere. So you're, I would be so frustrated if I was a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. This, this situation just is not ideal. Yeah. I mean, there, there were Chicago fans have been, LA fans have been, you know, when you got those banners up there that are at least in recent memory, there's usually a price to be paid for the teams that won the championships is, you know, either you make some bad decisions with contracts or that the players that would deliver those championships, they just get to an age where they can't make the same impact. Or just the price of trading with all the draft picks at the all in trade deadlines. I mean, all that stacks up against you, right? And, you know, I guess the one piece of warning I'll just say, and it's funny, I didn't expect it. I'd be like the one sitting out here like a Penguins, like, Hey, wait a minute, but like the East to me, like after the top teams is, is a little mediocre. And, you know, last year, I didn't think Washington was going to be a playoff team. And yet they sort of scrapped along, and it was kind of a weird, you know, chase for that last playoff spot. And they found their way in. And so I'm just saying, I'm not willing to rule them out yet, but, but I mean, you also can't ignore the results. I mean, the fact that as I said, if you have the worst gold differential in a league after a month of play, I mean, that's not, that's not screaming good things about where you're headed. But, you know, there's, there's a, we live in a three point league, they do have some, they do have some players have done some special things. You know, maybe they catch some fire here and at least, at least hold that fire sale off that everyone's trying to bring to the front door for them. We'll see. The, the, the much rocket aliens entering Wednesday nights games have the exact same gold differential up minus 21. And the Penguins have two more points than them. And I mean, I get there in two different places, but I kind of have them in the same world right now. They're both trash. Anyway, the Pittsburgh Penguins negative Julian fight like the Canadians, the Canadians are worse than they thought they'd be. Yeah, that's true. The Canadians didn't, they didn't necessarily think internally, this was going to be a playoff year, but I don't think they thought the first stretches this season would be to be where they're at. And, and, you know, maybe in hindsight, obviously they lost some players like Patrick line eight to injury. Might have been counting a little bit too much on someone like Kirby doc coming off of this very significant injury missed, you know, all the last season with, you know, some having so many young players in the blue line. I think there's a debate in Montreal internally. You know, they probably need another veteran defense man to help stabilize things. But if they go and trade for that player, does that block the path or the development of one of the young guys that's supposed to be part of the future? I mean, bunch reels in a, in a weird spot too. Um, it's tough league though, man. It's, uh, some teams make it look easy and they're in the playoffs every year, you know, the tapas and the Boston's and lately the Florida's. But, um, the truth is, is if we look at the other side, I mean, there's lots of, there's lots of tales of concern. And those would be the things I'd be concerned about as a penguins fan, right? Or do we go through a Buffalo like arrow? Obviously, that's, that's at the far end, but Detroit, you know, a team that hasn't been in the playoffs forever, Montreal. I mean, these rebuilds don't always go smoothly. I mean, Edmonton got to a great place game seven of the cup final last year, but man, they had to make what for number one overall picks before, you know, they went through this run that they've had the last, you know, number of seasons where they've clearly been a top team in a league. I mean, it can be a long road from, from the rebuild to the rejoicing in the streets. One Montreal question before I get to Edmonton, you mentioned, you know, maybe they're thinking of getting a veteran defenseman. Have you, have you kept track of all these reports of whatever meeting might have taken place between Martin Saint-Louis and, and, and Kent Hughes over the weekend and rumors of them adding a coach, it may have been Gerard Galant. Did you catch wind of, of some of that kind of blowing up Habs Twitter the last few days? Yeah, but I don't get it because it's total nonsense. Like it's just not, it's like it's not true. So, you know, I like, I don't even know where the discussion is because this, this meeting that was reported on didn't happen. Gerard Galant is not coming to coach Montreal Canadians. I don't think that there's a coaching change at all in the offing there in the, in the near term. I mean, it's, it's one of these like ones that it took on a life of its own. The way stories you don't often do in hockey markets, but yes, I saw it, but, but I do know that it's just not, it's not a reflection of reality. No, I, I, I, I, but now I'm wondering, even if that was kind of, we, we know that's not true. I mean, I wonder if the Canadians at any point did consider the possibility of adding someone to, to Martin St. Louis coaching staff, if there is, if it is worth them having some kind of veteran presence around Martin St. Louis, I don't, we, we've discussed them before on the show, but I am also curious if it was something they've even thought about period before that all blew up over the last few days. If they have, I'm not aware of it. And, you know, the report was pretty specific. Like it said that they met in, in Toronto during the Hall of Fame weekend. So, you know, it was the implication was that something was happening imminently. And, and it, it didn't. I mean, it puts a team in a weird spot because if you get in the business of refuting reports publicly, you know, you might get trapped down the road when, when something's kind of true and you don't really want to address it. But that was just so preposterous and just frankly wrong and, you know, that they, they came out and squashed it. But no, I don't, I haven't heard of anything like that. You know, look, we're at this, we're at the point where there's a difficult part of the rebuild, right? And expectations are clearly gone up in the market anyway, in the media, I think as well, or that covers the team on a daily basis. And so some of this stuff now takes on more urgency. My sense of the Canadians is they're actually much more patient at the management level, what sort of what they see as the process of what they're going through. You know, I'm, as I mentioned earlier, I mean, I don't think they're happy about it. I think they were hoping and expecting they'd be a little better this season than they have been to start the year. But, but I don't think they're like freaking out going like, what do we do now? We got to fire coaches and, and, you know, like you're not turning around and you're not turning around the big ship here. Like I think that they're on a path and they're going to stick to it. And, you know, they believe in Marta and San Luis. I mean, he's the same guy was getting like the flowers it feels like for two years and all of a sudden, you know, I look at, I'm not, no one is above criticism or no one's above, you know, having questions asked about with their performance. I mean, this is, this is a high stakes business we're all in. And especially those that are, you know, paid to make the decisions and run a team like Marty is. But, you know, I just, I don't get any sense that, that's not a change they're looking to make. If anything, I think they're looking to maybe add a player and see if that might help stabilize things versus, you know, anything a little bit more dramatic going out the door. Okay. All right. Thanks for talking about the Canadians there. The Edmonton Oilers. Contacting customer service. For a lot of people, that's an easy way to ruin a good day. But at Zendes, we make the customer experience better, better for your grand, better for your florist, better for the guy in apartment 3a, better for you, better for everyone. Because we'll someday the customer is always right. We say the customer is always human. And as fellow humans, we want to do something better for all of us. Zendes, customer experience with AI, built for humans. Start your electric journey right here, right now. With a Volvo XC90 Recharge, our plug-in hybrid SUV with extended range. For more everyday electric journeys on a single charge, with a hybrid option for longer adventures. Contact your local retailer to book a test drive, or design your own vehicle at VolvoCars.com/US. The Volvo XC90 Recharge Plug-in Hybrid, the electric car with a backup plan. Conor McDavid, one point away from 1000. Gets a four point night earlier this week against the New York Islanders. He's one away. He gets a chance at getting to 1000 against the Nashville Predators on Thursday. It feels like a matter of when, not if, for Thursday for me. But hey, if it doesn't work out for him, he always has Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs to get 1000 points. All thoughts on the under-covered and under-appreciated Conor McDavid. Well, selfishly, I will put my hand up and say that all week I was hoping he would come to Toronto on Saturday night with a chance to get to 1000. Just because I'll be in the building, I think it'd be pretty cool in a hometown. The whole Hockey Night in Canada aspect. I mean, I'm a sucker for a good story, a good narrative, and I thought that would have been a tidy one. But after he got four points on Tuesday, there's just no way that's happening. I mean, I don't know if you're aware, but the Oilers history in particular against Nashville is one of these weird things where the Oilers have just feasted on the Predators for years. I think Leon Dreyseidel has something like two and a half points a game on average against the Predators in his career. It's like the Predators. It's like the Predators have been bad during Leon Dreyseidel's career, right? This has been a good team, but you do see it throughout the league. There are certain teams that have another team's number. That's Edmonton and Nashville. This game's at home. I just think with Conor McDavid needing one point. I mean, Conor McDavid starts most games with one point already in his back pocket. The question is, is he going to get two or three that night? I think we see this record fall on Thursday. Whether it happens Thursday or Saturday, he's going to be the fourth fastest in history. He's going to be the fourth youngest in history to get to a thousand points. I can tell you, this is where I'm starting to feel a little bit old too, because I very distinctly remember the start of this guy's career. And so just to think he's already at a thousand career NHL points or 999 as we're recording this right now. We don't want to jinx anything, but I think he's going to get that next point needed. I mean, that's pretty wild stuff. I mean, he already passed Phil Castle. Phil Castle had a tremendous NHL career. Conor McDavid already has more career points in NHL than Phil Castle. And you could probably go down the list and find a bunch of others that had really, really good careers that this guy's going to pass them way before his 30th birthday. So I think it's going to be a special moment. And I do anticipate it happens Thursday at home ice. But if somehow the predators lock it down, keep them off the score sheet. I think it sets up for pretty dramatic Saturday too in Toronto. I love the fact that Conor McDavid's career is the one that makes you feel old. I was telling someone the other day about how Gary Price and the fact that he's eligible for the Hall of Fame next year makes me feel old. I love that. I'm sure it's somewhat else, but I love the fact that you bet should Conor McDavid as that watermark for you. Well, it's it's more like, you know, everyone time passes differently for everyone just in terms of our relationship with it or what we remember. You know, I just I remember I was still working at Sportsnet when McDavid was a rookie and Edmonton did a swing where they played in Montreal. It was on the it was on the Super Bowl weekend where they have two afternoon games for the Habs and Sportsnet sent me to Montreal and, you know, there was the first time I'd seen him live in the NHL and how exciting that was, how ridiculous like it felt, you know, it was like a big moment. And in my mind, that was really not that long ago. Like I that feels like a fresh memory in a sense. Like I'm not digging way back at some, you know, some time capsule here to unearth that. And so, you know, part of it is just how quickly he's amassed the points, right? I mean, it's it's it's unreal, but also time is passing pretty quickly here. And, you know, a thousand point milestone is that's a career topper for most guys. I mean, Conor is going to get there. He's still on the way up. Maybe he's not even on the way down yet. He's and he's going to get to a thousand points. It's crazy. He's not even 30 yet. But yeah, that's what I'm saying. They're like you his best individual season. This is saying something might still be in the future. Like it's possible. I'm not saying 100% that's the case because he's had some ridiculous years, especially the last couple. But, you know, he might still, he might still have another level or it might have a year where he's getting a bit more puck luck and whatever, whatever happens, he could still have a 150 point season or something. And I'm like, I, I just wouldn't rule it out, be given his talent level and and what we see from him. I mean, even, even this year was a bit of a slow start by his standards and obviously, you know, he missed time with that injury and then he comes back and it's just like four point night, three point night. I mean, he just makes it routine. The hard part is when you talk with these guys, like what more, there's nothing new we can add to the conversation about how good the guy is. But, you know, I do think it's a big moment for the league. I mean, sort of a special year, I mean, between, you know, you've got Crosby, 600 goals coming up. Obviously, the Ovechkin goal record is coming into to focus because he's had such a hot start to the year trying to chase down Wayne Gretzky for the all time goals record this year. You know, McDavid hitting a thousand. I mean, there's a lot of big round numbers out there for some of the game's marquee talents. One more Conor McDavid question before we get to stick taps. What's your favorite Conor McDavid highlight to this point in his career? I know it's difficult to choose one. It's probably the, there might be some reasons he buys here, but the goal against Dallas, when they flinched the trip to the Cup final was pretty special. And, you know, he also had a pretty sick assist in that game. And that was the only goals. Edmonton scored it. You know, if you remember, they didn't play particularly well. They didn't generate a lot of shots, but they found a way to close out the stars. You know, I think given the, given the stage and, you know, the, the playoffs he was having obviously ultimately won the consummate trophy while playing on a losing team as a skater. It doesn't happen very often. I mean, that's, that might be my favorite just because, you know, he's probably done things that are more ridiculous or skilled. And you're probably going to name one right after I finished talking. But I just think like in terms of the stage with a chance to go to the Cup final to produce that moment when his team really needed him. I mean, that's, that's the special stuff. I think my pick is definitely more skilled, but I mean, I'm actually, no, I mean, yours is just as skilled, I think, as, as this one. But Conor McDavid dangling around four members of the New York Rangers, and then him after he scores, like you see his face in almost in disbelief at what he's done. Like that's, that's my favorite Conor McDavid highlight of all time. And just seeing his face, he takes the mouth guard out of his mouth and he's his eyes widen up and he's like, like, holy crap, did you see that? And then he just starts celebrating. Like we've all dreamed of being on a highlight reel. We just, and the fact that Conor McDavid gets to do it in real life. Amazing. That's my favorite, but the Dallas stars one right up there for me too. There was an unreal one that I was in the building for in Toronto, where he went wide and kind of like made Morgan Riley look silly too. That's up there too. Pretty special goal. I don't know if you remember that one, but it just was like, I remember being in the building and you're almost like, what just happened? It was like, he bent time and space in the ice in a way you don't normally see, which is obviously why he caught the defense in the way he did and, you know, finish it off. I mean, but I mean, we should be asking our colleagues that watch every game, because I feel like he just does something almost every night that you could be waxing poetic about. The Morgan Riley deep, just to add to that, the thing that makes it amazing is how Conor enters the zone and how he's literally looking like at the other side of the rink. And you can, he's looking off as if he's trying to wait for a teammate to make that pass. And then in a split second, boom, he's just cutting to the outside. I'm literally watching the replay, as we're talking about this, cuts to the outside, bounces around him. No wonder Morgan Riley had no idea what was going on, because obviously his head where he's looking, you're thinking, okay, he's looking to make a play. It turns out he was making looking to make a play, just an individual one. It's, that's amazing that we're talking about how amazing that goal is. That could be top three that I mean, not just not the fact that it's top three, that could just be third behind the two that we mentioned, like that would be number one on so many other highlight reels. But the fact that that goal is could be third is absurd for this person's career. Yeah. And then the thing to me is like, I feel like if you watch a lot enough hockey, and I'm, I can definitely say I'm at this point, I'm sure you are too, like you almost like you're, even if you don't process everything in the moment, because sometimes a game does happen fast. Sometimes you're way up high in a press box, but you can kind of see like when something feels off, like because there's like, it's like a different, it's like a different pattern. It's only like pattern recognition. There's the pattern of that goal. Like I've never seen anything like it. Like the way he does the deep, the way he fools the defense, like that's where you're like, okay, like we were really, we're literally watching a guy who does stuff you haven't seen before. And, you know, as many amazing skilled players are there are in the league right now, that's not the case for all of them. Like I might even talk about the other guys that win, you know, the top awards, and they're going to be in the hall of fame one day in the whole bit. But like, he really, like, it's like he has a different level of vision and obviously his speed is a separator. And I just seems like a super computer out there. And he's these against the other best players in the world, but occasionally he makes even them look silly. And that's, that's what's kind of crazy about it all. The Yeti store has so many great gifts. We had to hire a cattle auctioneer to make the most of these next 30 seconds. All right, folks, let's get started with the Yeti French Press and George Calvin. 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A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella.edu. Keep it locked here for the Monday episode when we talk about how Conor McDay that got his 1000th point, whether it happens to be against Nashville, Oregon, Toronto on Saturday. Siege, do you have a stick tap before we wrap up? Yeah, I was thinking I'm going to go Dylan Strong today. And, you know, Dylan is really kind of having his moment here at the start of this season. You know, he assisted on all 10 of Alex Ovechkin's 10 goals and 14 games to open the year. You know, a guy a long ago, third overall pick in Arizona, you know, went to Chicago. Took a long time, I think, to establish himself in the league. But, you know, over the last couple of years in Washington, he's really become, you know, the sort of player, I think, that he was expected to be. And it's kind of cool just the way it's all come together, that he's now, you know, the center playing with Ovechkin and, you know, setting up all these, these moments. And in fact, you know, even talk this week a little bit about hoping to be in that picture, you know, the picture that will be, you know, taken at some point when Ovechkin likely surpasses Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record. So just wanted to shout out Dylan, you know, because he kind of traveled a long road in a sense, but he's in a really good spot right now. And obviously he's playing unreal. He's, you know, right near the top of the league and assists to this point in the season. And, you know, the capitals have been one of the feel-good stories of the year so far. Stories like Dylan Schrum further illustrate to me that the NHL needs some kind of official comeback player of the year award. I mean, I mean, I don't, I mean, it could be, it could be a masterton thing for him, but like a pure comeback player of Leo year award, where you're going off of a player sort of turning their career around, or at least having some new resurgence. Like, he might be the top pick for that honor unless I'm blanking on someone very obvious. But that is a really cool story to see him go from a perceived bust to writing shotgun with the greatest goal score we've ever seen. Not named Wayne Gretzky. Yeah. And then he's, as I say, like, he's been full value for it all. I mean, it's, it's, you know, it's a good story. And so I want to end the week, stick tapping or end our week on the pod anyway, stick tapping a positive story. No cross checks from me. I will give a cross check to myself, because on Monday, when we went in on everyone who got inducted into the hockey all of fame, and we spent a great amount of time, and I love that we did, on Scott Burnside, getting into the hockey all of fame. I completely forgot to mention P. F. Good. The long time play by play men from Montreal Canadiens games who worked throughout the S who went in with the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award. We did acknowledge him for stick taps a couple months ago when it was first announced he was going to get it. But I didn't get it. I, I, I'm going to be honest with you, it slipped my mind to mention him earlier this week. So I'm going to take the time just to say congratulations to him on a spectacular career. I made it. I mentioned it the last time I brought him up, and I'll mention it again for people in English, Canada, who don't realize how good he is. People in Montreal, like me, who grew up Anglophone, they'll go out of their way to watch games in French just to listen to this guy call games throughout the week. And that's no shade to, to guys like Brian Mujrik and, and Phoenix again, who do great jobs covering games for their networks. But P. F. Good is considered the gold standard for calling games in Quebec, as far as I'm concerned, I think a lot of people agree with that too. So congratulations to P. F. Good on winning the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award. And sorry about not talking about him on Monday. I just wanted to make sure he got his, his flowers this week. Well, that's on me too. And, and I'll say, you know, after we recorded Monday's show, I went to the Hall of Fame luncheon, where the, the media members were honored. Pierre gave a fantastic speech. You know, you could really feel the emotion from him about what the honour meant. He had his daughter there, and his partner, and some family members, and the same, same to Scott Burnside. I mean, really, it, it's, it's kind of cool that the hall does, you know, single out, you know, a broadcaster, and I guess what used to be a print reporter. I don't know that any of us are print reporters anymore, but sort of a someone on someone who's digitally, I guess, writing stories these days. Anyway, it was a, it was a cool luncheon and, you know, full, full marks to Pierre for, for getting in there. You know, I don't speak French. So I, unfortunately, I don't really have the appreciation for his calls that, that, that someone like you would, but certainly have known him and said hi to him over the years and just seems like a real classy gentleman. Just watch like a random Canadians game highlight, go back to like when they were down like five nothing against the New York Rangers and listen to him call that game or something. Like, even if you don't understand the language, just immerse yourself in the atmosphere of how good that just sounds, even if you don't understand it. And, and to your point, if, if even if you aren't like fluent in French for so many people who grew up in, grew up in Quebec, who didn't really understand French, like that was an entry point for a lot of people, anglophone or otherwise who might not understand the language in particular where it comes to French hockey terms. Like Pierre would, I think his impact goes well beyond just putting a headset on and putting a mic on. There are a lot of people who enjoyed the calls that he did. And again, good on him for being honored, good on the hockey, all the fame for honoring him and also good on P F hood for being honored as well. So I'm glad we were able to get that shout out in. And with that, we are now 10 episodes away from 300 big money CJ, very exciting times. And also, of course, you know, great job on today's episode and putting up with all my silliness and negativity before the end today, we got through it. Yeah, you turn, you turn back. I'm glad I was, I was worried about your mid show, but you really, you really saved it and you warned my heart by the end there, pal. I could tell too, as like the atmosphere changed, like, Oh, okay, like CJ, CJ is turning too. Yeah, I don't worry about that. It happens. Get your questions in now. Subscribe to the podcast. We'll be back on Monday. Thanks so much for listening to the Chris Johnston show. The Chris Johnston show. Follow Chris on Twitter at reporter Chris and follow Julian at J. K. A. Mackenzie. The Chris Johnston show.
On This episode of The Chris Johnston show Julian McKenzie and Chris Johnston go over a variety of topics including:
00:00 - Leafs corner
5:20 - Pittsburgh fire sale?
13:15 - What's missing in Montreal?
18:15 - McDavid close to 1000
27:50 Stick Taps
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