HR 1- Pierre McGuire Talking Hockey, Tomlin to the Giants

Mark talks to Pierre McGuire for his weekly hit on the show. We talk about the new narrative in the national media of Mike Tomlin going to the Giants.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Mark Madden Show, Lowlife, high Life. Oh
let's go now. I'm gonna call his eight three to
three four one two w xdx. Or you can follow
me on Twitter at Mark man X, McCartney at PPG
page Arena. Tonight a significant event. A Beatle is in Pittsburgh.

(00:22):
It's like Royalty. All we usually have is Tomlin, Black
Trump thirty five songs tonight, and you want to hear
all of them Like this Dealers offense could run a
game's worth of plays and I don't want to see
any of them. Uh, I'm psyched to go to McCartney
because I'm not a Beatles guy. I mean I'm still psyched.

(00:43):
I'm Zeppelin, Stones, et cetera. The Beatles weren't the best.
This notion that they're the best band ever, that's just absurd.
I mean, they were real good, but the Beatles weren't
the best. They were mostly first, but mad respect. McCartney's songwriting, production,
voice in multi instrumental ability is incredible. And he's from Liverpool,

(01:06):
but I think he's blue, not Red. I think he's Everton,
not Liverpool LEFC. I think all the Beatles are or
were blue, you know, the Beatles never said which team
they supported because they didn't want to, like, you know,
divide the city because I mean, if they're Everton, well,
Liverpool fans buy records too, and I'm sure they all did.

(01:27):
The Penguins are on their way to Sweden. No games
till Friday. That sucks. Nashville is five wins, twelve losses.
Not a good team. It's not a vacation. Two games
against the Preds and the Penguins need points. We've talked
exclusively just about about the Steelers today. My two main

(01:53):
topics at the beginning of the pregame show were, I
think I've overrated Aaron Rodgers's play, have I I'm not
now given him a C plus so far this season,
which would still make him the Steelers team MVP. I
talked about how Tomlin today said that for Warren to
get more touches, the Steelers need to convert more third

(02:14):
downs because Warren's not the third down back. Why can't
he be the third down back? Why can't he get
more touches? Anyway, But the Steelers are second last in
the league in possession time. But you know, maybe that's
because Warren doesn't get the fall enough. Maybe it's not
a matter if Warren doesn't get it because of lack

(02:36):
of possession time. Maybe lack of possession time is caused
by Warring not getting it enough. That game in La
that left to Mark Rogers looks shell shocked. Tomlin, like
I said, was pissy, and now Cincinnati seems like even
more of a trap game more than usual given the
Flacco factor. The Steelers cut Wan Thornhill. He was the

(02:59):
dips who talked in training camp about how the defense
could be historically good. Yeah, maybe not without you want it.
You loser and it's good. They cut them and it
changes nothing. James Harrison called the offense super trash. Unquote,
Cam Hayward said, the players on defense aren't all on

(03:20):
the same page. And my god, it's week eleven. How
in the freak can you not all be on the
same page? How it looked? What's been said the aftermath?
Like I said that loss of La left to Mark
sim things seem different now and certainly certainly not better
different four one two three three three WSDX What else

(03:45):
do they gotten? I'm like all over the place here.
I want to know, like you can get some calls
in if you'd like, have you out there accepted that
the Steelers aren't very good because they're not and there's
no quick fix, as in the quick fix to make
the playoff run, and maybe not even to have a

(04:06):
winning season. This team, I mean, would shock if they
went eight to nine. And let me tell you this
is bullface italic underline written and sharpie used the yellow
highlight pen. Two. The best thing that could happen would
be to go eight to nine and finally get the
bloom off that meaningless rose and see things clearly and

(04:30):
forget that effing streak because it's mostly bends anyway. Tiland
being mad with the media after the game Sunday night
was hilarious. A lot of stuff about this. Come on,
it's hilarious. Admit it. Admit it's hilarious. I think it's hilarious.
It's funny. Come on, you know everybody knows. As I

(04:53):
mentioned earlier, the Penguins are practicing shootouts now, which they
hadn't been to this point and back through Mike Sullivan's tenure.
They got to solve that shootout problem. You can't lose
every shootout. It's a weird problem with a lot of layers,
both Penguins goalies are bad at the shootout. Jari sucks.

(05:16):
Shilloffs is beyond sucks. He is historically sucks eight shootout
attempts against him this season seven goals an additional goal
on a penalty shot during regulation play. And I think
of those eight goals, five have gone through his five hole.

(05:38):
Like I said, Muse didn't practice the shootout till now,
Sullivan never practice the shootout. In addition to the goalie problems,
the Penguins don't have great shooters on the shootout. And
this is this is a this is a big Well,
I'm very intelligent, you know that, super genius, but this
is this is big thinking on my part, even for me.

(06:00):
Because the peng was never practiced a shootout. Mues doesn't
know who the best shooters are. How would he know,
and so he goes with hunches. But more likely he
goes with just the best players sid Gino, Latang, Rusty whatever,

(06:20):
even though sid Geno Latang aren't great at it. If
Rusty's the best they got ins by default, I would
do everything I could to fix this. Practicing shootouts is
a step in the right direction. I would sub out
the goalie for the shootout, except they won't and they
both suck. But like, even as bad as Jari is,

(06:40):
I would put him in for the shootout in place
of shilloffs. Or I'd get a goalie who's better at
the shootout than either of these, or keep more soft
if it's him, and I get a shootout specialist among
the shooters, like Eric Christensen or Yushi Jokin and were
in the Bosma era, because I say again, it doesn't

(07:03):
matter who the fourth line wingers are if they do
one thing well, like the shootout. The Penguins are a
borderline playoff team and they need these shootout points. It's
a problem, and up until just now practicing the shootout,
they haven't even addressed it. And another thing considering how

(07:25):
like I know they're in pretty good shape now, but
the Eastern Conference it might suck. But the Penguins ain't
great and those standings are packed from top to bottom.
It is going to be a slog to get into playoffs,
so every point is valuable. And in that vein, Gino
shouldn't play overtime. He's too slow for three on three.
He stays on the rink too long, he makes bad decisions.

(07:47):
The Penguins treat three on three like the stars should
automatically play and not the best three on three players,
although I don't know how mused would know that, because
I don't think they practice three on three. You know,
it's great three on three Eric Carlson that he's really
good at. He's having a great season period so far.

(08:08):
It's almost made me forget how awfully was the last
two seasons. Almost one five nine X one.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
O five nine d X says your shot at tis
drink cash.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Money like that is sheet River blue cho a row.
I'm rich, rich, rich, listen all day for your chance
at some extra cash. On one oh five nine the
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Speaker 2 (08:43):
Jamming up on the Parkway East outbound from the Boulevard
of the Allies to the Squirrel Hill Tunnel inbounds heavy
Edgewood Swiss fail to the squirrel Hill Tunnel than jams
County Jail to the Fort Pitt Bridge fifty one south bound.
Seeing a jam from Midwood Avenue into eighty eight Brendan
Joseph total traffic.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
Have an easy holiday only at staples, save on custom
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Speaker 1 (09:05):
Help with me, and this is just your moment of clarity.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
I don't think, Oh, I know some X at one
five nine.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
As Tom and I talked about earlier, the latest media
buzz nationally is that Mike tom wants to go to
the New York Giants because they fired their head coach.
Here's Rich Eisen talking about that on the NFL network.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
I think he's a Hall of Fame head coach.

Speaker 4 (09:35):
I think he is remarkable at plugging into the athlete.
I think he is remarkable at taking the passion for
football and instilling it in a team.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
And I think that if this falls apart, I.

Speaker 4 (09:50):
Wouldn't be surprised if the Steelers finally say let's figure
something out and then Tomlin shows up somewhere else.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
The Giants would be a bad spot.

Speaker 5 (10:00):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
I think Tomlin is one going to be a coach
in this league for as long as he wants to be.
But I totally understand that Steeler fans are like, we're
we're done. We're done with seeing something that has flashes
of excellence in the regular season, only to wigne prior
to the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
First off, Tomlin is a Hall of Fame coach if
you ignore the last two thirds of his resume, which
they will. If you look at Tomlin's entire body of work,
the notion that he's a Hall of Fame coach is laughable.
But he's going to get in. And yeah, like Eisen said,
the Steelers really look plugged in at LA, didn't they?

(10:40):
He said, sarcastically, And yeah, the Steelers were just dripping
with passion at LA, he said, just as sarcastically. Tomlin
would go to the New York Giants and they would
suck and it look like a dope one hundred percent
what he'd go there and make Jackson Dart into a

(11:01):
big timer. Hit him, p Jackson Dart. He's not a quarterback.
He coach. He inherited a great one, and since then
he's mangled it. When Tomlin took the job from Bill Kyer,
he inherited a great team and a perfect franchise at
the time, the NFL's model franchise. But the worse that

(11:23):
team gets and that franchise gets too, the more we
see what a mediocre coach Mike Tomlin is and how
full of crap. Mike Tomlin is utterly a billion percent
full of crap. So yeah, coach t go to New York.
I'd love to see it, and then everybody would see

(11:47):
what I'm talking about. He'd be a bum there, say
me saying Mike Tomlin, because no big time team is
going to bring him in, Like the Lions are gonna
fire Dan Campbell to hire Mike Tomlin. So wherever he goes,
he's gonna have to dig out, just like he can't
dig out here. Why would anybody think he could dig

(12:10):
out someplace else? Like I said, Sam, he's saying, let's
go to our good friend. He is the Hebrew hammer
hammer yuk shamash yuk chamanash.

Speaker 6 (12:21):
Hey, if I was Tomlin, I would wait to see
who wins the Super Bowl and maybe they'll their coach
will retire that he can coach them, and then that's
that'd be a good.

Speaker 7 (12:32):
Job for him.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Well that's what I mean, Like no team can offer
Tomlin the situation coming in that the Steelers offered him
when Kawer retired, that was a rather unique situation just
two years removed with the Super Bowl from a super
Bowl with a Hall of Fame coach a Hall of
Fame quarterback, like he'll never get that again. And that's
the only reason he made as good as he did

(12:54):
in Pittsburgh. And the further we get away from that,
the further we get away from his record being Hall
of Fame caliber.

Speaker 6 (13:03):
Yeah, and even from a practical standpoint, I mean, he's
in his mid fifties. I mean, his roots, he's been
here for twenty years. I mean, the money in New
York doesn't go as far as it doesn't Pittsburgh. He's
staying here, and that's that.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
I think he'll I think he'll stay here as long
as he wants to coach, and he'll be able to
do that as long as he wants to hear in Pittsburgh.
You're right, Hammer, And I also think that if he
quits coaching, he'd be nuts not to go to TV
because his reputation in from Pittsburgh, what he did here
would never diminish in that profession.

Speaker 6 (13:40):
I think if he goes to New York, though, he
could be like the King of New York, much like
Wesley Snipes in the movie New York City.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah, there's like no comparison there. That's your cue, that's
your queue. I need me some new Jack cops to
take that. A new Jack gangster. Alex, you're on what
up mine?

Speaker 3 (14:06):
What up Mine?

Speaker 7 (14:08):
I couldn't agree with the hammer more, but just to
piggyback off that, I want to stop hearing from the
people that are saying, well, if he leaves, he's gonna
go get another job. Okay, cool, that's what everyone said
when Mike Sullivan left the Penguins and he went and
got another.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Job, and Derek Shelton left the Pirates and he had
another job inside of six months.

Speaker 7 (14:30):
Yeah, I mean, let him go if if you're really
not afraid, just let him go. Who cares? He's stale
and he won a Super Bowl with Bill Cower's leftovers,
and nobody could convince me otherwise.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
As as I always say, and thank you for the call, Alex,
he won with cowards players. But the bigger thing is
he won with Cower's culture and leaders, and the culture
he established since is crap. It's kaka and the leaders
ain't step fourth because no need to lead when the
coach really doesn't lead, and he really doesn't, he really

(15:03):
doesn't up. Next, we'll talk hockey with Pierre McGuire here
on one, O five to nine.

Speaker 4 (15:08):
It's all would have shown way better than NDR Weekend
Mornings at six on the X.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
If you can't get enough, if you're Pittsburgh Steelers, then
check out the latest podcast from Steelers Nation Radio, a
part of the Steelers Audio Network, hundreds of hours of
exclusive going When you got a young Trophy White owes
money to I can't even quote the big o'bowski right, Goodbye.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
The X at one.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
The Penguins are in Sweden for a couple games against Nashville,
joining me out of tak hockey. He's the best guy
there is to do it. He's done everything in the
great game. He is Pierre McGuire, Pierre, I gotta talk shootout.
Jari and Shilloffs are bad at the shootout and shilloffs especially,
so how do the Penguin solve that? Because they need
those shootout points they do.

Speaker 8 (15:54):
It's such a good point. When the new rules came
into the National Hockey League back in two thousand and five,
two thousand and six that season, before the season started,
Scottie Bowman and I sat down it is building down
in Florida and CS the key and we try to
come up with a way to build a team. And
it's interesting you had asked me this question because two

(16:15):
weeks ago, when I was in Europe presenting to the WTF,
I talked about this very situation and we came up
with a thing called the seven player profile. And the
seven player profiles this it's two dominant centers, it's one
power forward, it's one specialist board that could be a
faceoff guy, Benley, killer, power play guy, physical guy, your choice.

(16:36):
And then on defense, you needed an elite puck moving
defenseman and then an elite shutdown defension that could play
between twenty two and twenty six minutes every night. And finally,
you needed to have an elite goalie. And the reason
why you needed to have an elite goalie and our
seven player profile mark was because of what you just
asked me. The amount of parody that was going to

(16:57):
be introduced to the league because of the salary cap
was number one. Number two, the rules were changed to
have the shootout, and number three, there was going to
be more overtimes because of the parody, and because of that,
you were gonna have more odd man rushes in overtime.
So you need to have any league goalie because of
what's going on in the league, especially with the shootout

(17:18):
situation and the parody.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
But being a good shootout goalie and just a good
goalie can be two different things, Pierre, And with that
in mine, I ask, would you sub about chilloffs for
the shootout? It never gets done, but he's so bad,
would you use the other goaltender?

Speaker 8 (17:33):
It's just that, you know, I've seen teams actually do that,
believe it or not, and I don't know if it works.
I think it takes a goalie out of rhythm. The
guy that obviously was playing might be a dent to
his psyche. And then the third part of it is
the other guy's coming in cold. And I know people
at home run and say these guys to relead athletes,
it's not gonna happen. The potential for injury with the

(17:53):
cold goalie going in at that time of the game
is pretty substantial. So I'm not saying you shouldn't do it,
but I'd say I wouldn't be a proponent of doing that.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
What's your presson to Morrishoff in his NHL debut on Sunday.

Speaker 8 (18:07):
I thought he was really solid. You know, he had
a little bit of divine intervention with a puck off
the post early on through a maze of players. But
I thought he looked active, he looked aggressive, he looked athletic,
he looked flexible, he read the plays well. Maybe a
little nervous early with his rebound control, but I thought
Buying Largeie was really good. The guy that took that
game over on Sunday, by the way, no doubt in

(18:28):
my mind. I watched it. I worked the game the
pregame show with Paul staiego all night. Just tell you
right now, that was Kevin Piallow's game. Kevin Fiaali for
La just took that game over. And I don't care
who was in goal, Both tucks were going in.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Did the Penguins deserve better than one point out of
the weekend games against New Jersey? In La, I felt
like they definitely played New Jersey and at New Jersey.

Speaker 8 (18:50):
Yeah, no, I thought they should have beat Jersey as well.
That's just one of those things that's gonna happen. Jersey's
really smoking hot on home ice. They hadn't really haven't
lost game in regulation. I think they're seven zero to
one or seven to zero and two, if I remember correctly,
at the.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
Top of my head.

Speaker 8 (19:06):
So they're undefeated in regulation on home, I said, know that.
And I really thought Pittsburgh was a better team versus
La on Sunday, I really did. I thought they were
a better team, and I thought Pittsburgh deserved at least
two points in that game.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Why haven't the Penguin scored lately, at least in those
last two games anyway, Pierre, because that had been their
big strength. They were conceding goals but scoring more. It
kind of went in the opposite direction in those two games.

Speaker 8 (19:30):
It starts to catch up with you. You don't have
Ricard Raquel, you don't have Justin Brazo. I know it's
not a goal scoring player, but you don't have Nola Chari.
And Nola Chari creates a lot through his enthusiasm and
his board play, so you can create offensive zone time.
And I thought when they had Lazade Dura and the charity,
it was a really good identity line for the Pittsburgh Penguin.

(19:51):
So you lose three regulars out of your lineup, which
kind of hurts you a little bit in terms of offense,
and then you're starting to move players around, so kindle
moves up to play with Crosby and Rust rather than
playing down on the line where he's playing with Novak
and corovesmen, so that all those little things matter, and
that's one of the things where I think they've lost
a little bit of their offensive mojo.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
Eric Carlson's playing really well, isn't he. For one thing,
He's a wizard in overtime three on three, and I
think he's had more good games this year as a
Penguin than in the last two seasons here combined.

Speaker 8 (20:25):
I'm gonna support your point with facts, real facts through numbers,
because I did a little bit of a research project
on Eric. So if you look at the last three years.
Three years ago he played eighty two games, he was
minus twenty four. His first year in Pittsburgh, two years ago,
he played all eighty two games, he was plus four.
Last year he played all eighty two games. He was

(20:47):
minus twenty six. This year in a career, that's a
total of minus seventeen going into the game Sunday, this year,
Eric Carlson is plus six. He's made a massive difference
in his offensive game. That speaks to the plus minus
that he's made a massive difference in his defensive game.
That speaks to his defensive awareness that leads to better

(21:09):
plus minus. And the biggest thing I've seen is a
happy guy. The happy guy in the ice. It's unbelievable
to watch him. He's just a completely different player.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Well, he made that comment that the coaching change, that
Dan Muse and his staff don't ask players to do
things they can't do. I didn't think that was a
reference to him. I thought it might have been a
reference to a guy like Ryan Graves who was asked
to activate and pinch more than maybe you should have.

Speaker 8 (21:34):
Yeah, there was a lot of innuendo in those comments,
there's no question. I don't know if that was at
the previous staff or if it was for other people.
I don't know, But one thing I do know, I'm
watching the players on the Pittsburgh Penguins get better. And
I'll give you an example. You'd be hard pressed go
around the league to find two players that are more

(21:55):
improved this year than Watherspoon and Ryan Shay. Yep, you'd
be hard pressed. And that's coaching. So Todd Nelson and
Mike Stuthers, who are both NHL defensemen and both understand
the position. I think they've done an amazing job working
with all the defense, but in particular, I just think
Waterspoon and Shaye have become really, really valuable members of

(22:17):
this team that have improved significantly to the point where
most people are like, Waterspoon spent that much time in
the American Hockey He was like seven straight years in
the American Hockey League, which Bridgeport the Islanders farm team,
and then even after that in Providence with Boston's farm team.
So I really commend this coaching staff and Patran. They've
done a fantastic job.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
We're talking to Pierre Maguire here on the Mark Madden Show.
He's brought to us by Always Safe Flagging and Traffic Control. Pierre.
The Penguins played Nashville twice in Sweden at the weekend.
Nashville has really struggled since getting some big names like
Stamcos a few off seasons back. What's gone wrong there?

Speaker 8 (22:57):
Oh my gosh, that's such a failed chemistry experiment. You know,
I'm a big believer in goal differential. I think it
says a lot about your team. And so what I
was looking at this morning when I was taking the
train from.

Speaker 5 (23:08):
Toronto to Montreal was the goal differential of all the
teams in the league, and if you look at the West,
Nashville's minus eighteen, Saint Louis is minus nineteen, and Calgary
is minus nineteen.

Speaker 8 (23:18):
Those are the three worst goal differentials in the National
Hockey League. They're also the three worst teams in the
National Hockey League right now, so that speaks to a lot.
I think it's a failed science experiment. They've lost some
character players. The Colton decisions has moved on. He's gone
to Vegas. Roman Yosi's been in out of the lineup.
He's their best player. They can't afford to miss him.

(23:40):
And the biggest thing is Marshstoll and Stamcost those two
guys you were alluding to that were big free agent signings.
They had not done well there. They just had not
done well. So for whatever reason, whether it's coaching, whether
it's players not fitting in, whether it's bad roles, it's
unbelievable to watch because I was expecting them to have
a bit of a bounce back this year and they
have not.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Pierre, are the New York Rangers in as much trouble
as it looks? Oh and seven at home been shut
out five times, at home and boy that crops kind
of surly on a good day.

Speaker 9 (24:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (24:13):
No, the Rangers got their first home win yesterday, And
you're absolutely right, right one and seven, you're right, yeah,
well yeah, no, no, but they did. You're right too.
Are they as bad as they look?

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (24:24):
They are, they are. And I know I said this
on your show, and I'll say it again. The Rangers
had to have a very active shopping season last offseason,
had to and they chose to overrate some of their
players internally, and really the only shopping they did is
they went on and got Gabrikov from LA I don't
think it addressed the loss of Crider. I don't think
it addressed the loss of Truba. I don't think it

(24:44):
a long term addressed loss of the trade for KeAndre Miller.
They got a minor league prospect back in Scottie Morrow.
I don't think it addressed a lot of things. They're
offseason shopping and I think that's one of the reasons
why they are in the position that they are in.
And also an Aaron's getting older and Banajads getting older.
There's mileage on those guys. Trocheck's been hurt. That's a
bit of a problem for them. JT. Miller is a motivated,

(25:08):
super intense guy, but he's not surrounded with a lot
right now, and they're younger players have not gotten better there,
they have not.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
At what point does Chris Drury the GM come under
fire and maybe even Mike Sullivan who's obviously only in
the first year of a long term deal there.

Speaker 8 (25:22):
Yeah, I don't think there'll be any coaching movement there.
I think the biggest issue is what's gone on from
the front office there, and they've got to answer. And
the reason why I say the front office, it's not
just Chris. Something was going on there last year. Mark.
You started hearing rumors about all these different players, and
I think the guys in the Rangers dress room started
to take that stuff personal, I really do. And I

(25:43):
don't know if it was the old coaching staff, it
was leaking stuff. I don't know if we were, you know,
the underlings to Drury, whether it was Drury himself, but
that room was leaking like a sib last year. I
think you would agree because I know how much you
fall in the league, and it's just there was a
lot of stuff going on there. Mark that wasn't right
and I think it's carried over into this year as well.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not meaning to denigrate Sally. I
think it's going to just take time with that group,
like like we both agree, but I think it makes
him look even worse just at a glance, because the
Penguins are doing better without him there.

Speaker 8 (26:13):
Well, so there's another thing that you know, you look
at it, three straight years without playoffs in might last
three years. That's tough. That's number one. And then I
look at Eric Carlson. Do you know that Eric Carlson
hasn't played a playoff games in six seasons? Oh, and
it's true. Like I looked it up. I went, I
did a big study on Eric the other day. And
part of why he did that is I was marveling

(26:35):
how happy he looked and how well he was playing.
So you try to identify trends with players like that,
how he gets a huge swing. Well, he looks a
lot happier now. So I don't know if he was
alienated by the previous coaching staff. I don't know if
they were asking them to do stuff he wasn't comfortable doing.
I don't know if he had problems in the dressing
room with other players. I have no idea, but I
tell you one thing, He's a much better player this

(26:56):
year than he wasn't previous years, especially with pitch Burn Pierre.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
I haven't been able to say this for a long time,
but the San Jose Sharks are now destination viewing for
me late at night because of Macvin Telabrini. Is he
gonna make Team Canada for the Olympics.

Speaker 8 (27:12):
I gotta think he will. I think they're gonna look
at what they did wrong in two thousand and six
when they put their team together to go to Turino,
Italy talking about Team Canada and they got absolutely throttled.
They were an embarrassment to the Team Canada brand. And
one of the reasons why is they had a kid
that should have made the team and they didn't take him.
His name was Sidney Crosby at that point, and most

(27:33):
people were just finding out the magic that was Sidney Crosby,
and then they found out really how good he was
in twenty ten, obviously, when they won the Olympics and
he got the golden goal. So I don't think they're
gonna make that same mistake again. I'll be absolutely shocked
if Maclin Celebrin is not on that team.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
In that vein. Let's put a local twist on it
for Team USA. Is Logan Cooley gonna make it?

Speaker 8 (27:55):
I sure hope he is. You know, I don't know
how much people in Pittsburgh are watching the Mammoth, and
I know they've had a really tough road trip here.
They've been struggling there, five and five in their last
ten I know that. And it's been a really tough
trip for them, going into odd with going into Toronto,
going to Montreal and losing. They won one game on
their trip, but Logan Cooley has been really good. Clayton

(28:17):
Keller and Logan Cooley are probably fighting that out for
a spot on that team. They're both American born and
they both playing the same team. But yeah, I hope
he does because he is. He is tremendous to watch.
I really enjoy watching Logan Cooley playing.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Here's where I think the US team's going to screw
up Pierre And you tell me if I'm up base
or not. And I'm a big fan and friend of
both Garon Anne Sullivan, but I think they're going to
go the old guy route. And I think if Patrick
Kine makes it over Logan Cooley, that'll be symptomatic of
them not picking the right team.

Speaker 8 (28:48):
Well, we're on the same page there. You know. I
saw what happened in two thousand and six with can
I was there, I witnessed it. I saw what happened
in twenty fourteen with Team USA going over to SOCI
and that was a really tough one for everybody because
if you remember, David Coyle got hit in the eye.
He was supposed to be the general manager of the team.
That's right, he got hit in the eye with a puck,
and so Ray Schirol and the last minute noted was

(29:11):
put in as a GM, and so they didn't want
to rock the boat too much, and they basically went
with the older guys that have been part of the
twenty ten Olympics, and so it was a bit of
a problem and they were not good over and Soachy
and Danny Bowsma was a coach and I think he
had a problem with the line up there. So USA
has seen this movie before, much like Canada did in
two thousand and six, and if they repeat that then

(29:33):
I feel badly for the people that are fans or
the team. They should not be doing that.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
It was. It was symptomatic though, even at the Four
Nations Pier like when Kyle Connor didn't get a jersey
for the last game, I mean, come on.

Speaker 8 (29:46):
Oh, I was well, I think I broke it on
your show, retweeted it. I'm like, what could they have
been watching? How could you not have Kyle Connor in
the gold medal game in an NHL environment where he's
one of the best pure scoring right now? Shocks in
the league, like, what are you doing?

Speaker 1 (30:05):
Pierre? Finally you're on the Hockey Hall of Fame committee.
Let me, I'm going a request, why can't you just
put in Yoger? I know he's still playing in check
that technicality, you've got to be retired for how many years?
But he's fifty three, he's number two all time and
points in the NHL, and he's not coming back over
here to play. Why not just put him in? Is
that discussed?

Speaker 8 (30:28):
Certain things I'm allowed to say publicly and certain things
I'm not, So I prefer not to go down that
road except to say this. I'm very comfortable telling you
and your listeners this. I was part of drafting that player,
as part of coaching that player, I was fortunate enough
to be part of two Stanley Cup winning teams with
that player. I couldn't be a bigger fan of the person.

(30:50):
I couldn't be a bigger fan of the player. I hope, somehow,
some way, there can be a way. If that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
To you, No, it makes a lot of sense. And actually,
one thing I got to touch on before we wrap
it up. Oh, he got nine hundred goals? Is anybody
going to do that ever again? And if Mario had
been healthy, what do you have got a thousand?

Speaker 8 (31:10):
I think Mario would have gone well over nine hundred
if he had been healthy and had the same amount
of years as though Vechkin number one, number two. People
forget this. Most of Avechkin's goals, in fact, all of
them came with the red line out that leads to
the stretch pass and break aways in odd man rest
situations that Mario was never able to get because the
red line was still in play for the two line pass.

(31:31):
So the answer about Mario is yet well over nine hundred,
I believe, and probably close to one thousand. And in
terms of anybody catching ov now, I don't think so.
I don't see it to last as long as he
had has lasted, and to have the center iceman that
he had over time, whether it was Baskin or feder Off,

(31:52):
even at the beginning or even if you look at it,
kuz netsof like he's had three unbelievable centerment in his
and that helps a scoring winger like him. That power
playing in Washington for probably twelve years that he was
there was top three in the league. Dwayne Fortsye was
a guy that was coaching it, and he's a powerplay maven.

(32:13):
So yeah, I don't see anybody going over nine hundred.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
I dealt, Pierre, you are the man. Enjoy the hockey.
We'll do it again next week.

Speaker 8 (32:22):
I love doing this with you, my brother. Thanks so much,
Mark Calculator.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Great stuff, Pierre. Pierre brought to us by Always Say
freck A Flagging and traffic Control Making traffic safe again
called four one two three oh one twenty three hundred
or visit online at awsafe dot net for a quote.
Today we got bugsy malone at the top of the
hour one oh five ninety.

Speaker 9 (32:42):
X Friday afternoon. The Penn's face off against the Predators.
Game time is two. Our coverage starts at one listen
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Speaker 6 (32:55):
One O five nine b.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
X yo, it's Mark Madden. When was the last time
you looked at your fireplace and thought it