October 26, 2023 • 40 mins
THE DEBATE - Hockey Podcast – Episode 231 – NHL Attendance Concerns
Host- Brad Burud @BradBurud
Co-Host- Blake Friars @FriarsBlake
--- EPISODE 231 ---
NHL Attendance Concerns
AROUND THE NHL: Draft Ideas, Edmonton Issues, Andersson Suspension and Ovechkin Struggles
3 Questions
Live Questions | Listener Questions: What NHL team should be the most concerned about a slow start?
Website: THE DEBATE Hockey Podcast
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts
Watch: YouTUBE
Social Media – X - @TheDebate | FACEBOOK – THE DEBATE Hockey Podcast | INSTAGRAM - THE DEBATE Hockey Podcast
Music – Booz N Tuna
#NHL #HockeyX #TalkinHockey #HockeyPodcast #Hockey #DebateHockey #GoJetsGo *Produced by Inside Edge Hockey News Media Group
Host- Brad Burud @BradBurud
Co-Host- Blake Friars @FriarsBlake
--- EPISODE 231 ---
NHL Attendance Concerns
AROUND THE NHL: Draft Ideas, Edmonton Issues, Andersson Suspension and Ovechkin Struggles
3 Questions
Live Questions | Listener Questions: What NHL team should be the most concerned about a slow start?
Website: THE DEBATE Hockey Podcast
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts
Watch: YouTUBE
Social Media – X - @TheDebate | FACEBOOK – THE DEBATE Hockey Podcast | INSTAGRAM - THE DEBATE Hockey Podcast
Music – Booz N Tuna
#NHL #HockeyX #TalkinHockey #HockeyPodcast #Hockey #DebateHockey #GoJetsGo *Produced by Inside Edge Hockey News Media Group
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:21):
It is time for some NHL hockeytalk. I am the host of the
Joel brad Rude alongside Michael host eachand every week like friars and uh yeah,
we're in Boles in the middle ofa blizzard and that sound good.
And last night you got your wishon your poles and friends? Did you
watch it all? Just talk aboutthat it was going to be cool and
(00:43):
then not watch it? Why couldn'twatch it? It's only at ESPN Plus
and I don't have access to that, So a good strong point there.
I thought sports Net would have donea little bit with it. It took
some some feads, but what asurprise I didn't. I was I thought
they would have taken feeds right afterthe Canucks game was over, and they
(01:07):
didn't do anything. So I waslike, what's the point of accessing that
if you're only gonna put it onone country? That's not very smart.
Overall, I've seen bits and pieces. I've seen. I've seen some good,
but obviously it's something that it's atrial and error type thing. They
never done anything like that before,so it's difficult because it's not like football
(01:29):
where you have the yeah, wellyeah, they're in the twenty yard line.
Yeah, so it's like your spots. I thought ESPN did a decent
job of it. I really did. And I'm pretty critical of ESPN and
in their hockey coverage, So II thought it was decent. I did.
I thought it was all right.Yeah. As for having every team
playing a Tuesday night, I thinkit's idiotic, Uh, because now we
(01:52):
have one game on Wednesday? Likewhat is why? Why you have sixteen
games yesterday and you're gonna turn aroundon a Wednesday night. You're gonna have
Washington New Jersey's the only game.I know. That's what I'm not even
a Canadian team. Well, Ijust think it's ridiculous to have one game.
We we've credit, we we've Thatwould be like beating a dead horse.
(02:15):
If if we talked about the NHLscheduling, We've talked about that for
this is what the seventh year ofthis podcast. It's gotten worse every year
though, and I will say thatit has gotten worse and worse every single
year. So the other things thatare getting worse. Did you see the
call last night in the kracking RedWings game? Oh no, no,
(02:38):
wait, are you talking all JaydenSchwartz threw his stick. Oh, I
see, I see that. Isee intercepted the park intercepted the red wing
and Palt shot it should have beenpenalty shot and the krack and go down
and score and like count it.Yeah, I did see that, did
(02:59):
you? Who was it? OnCalgary? They got absolutely hammered from behind.
Adam Razisa hammered it from behind themost well as clear as a lot
of them we've seen this year.He did hit him in the shoulder,
but it was behind in the numbers. It wasn't it wasn't directly in the
numbers, but he kind of camein from the side. But Colman got
(03:23):
hit later in the game from behind, not as bad as that, and
they called it a penalty but nothingfor Reziska and now he's out. Yeah,
I don't get it. I don'tunderstand. I don't understand. I
don't understand. I don't know.One other thing I just saw this week
was actually late it was a whileago now, But when Calgary lost to
(03:46):
the Capitals in the shootout, likeit doesn't bother me because I think the
shootout sucks as a whole, butbecause nuts of going down that slow God,
every single time. I know thatgot a lot of presslo this time.
I mean there's a lot of peoplethat were saying, you know,
that shouldn't be allowed. And Ihate shootouts as a whole, so I
don't know, you can do whateveryou want. He's making ford movement.
(04:09):
He didn't, He's not. He'sstill moving his skates, you know what
I mean. So it's not likehe's doing like a spinnerama and stopping and
starting and he's You're just coasting inthere and you can go look up at
you any because that's off shootouts andhe does the exact same thing every single
time. It works. It works, Yeah, it does. It kind
of meant a mockery of the gamethough a little bit, but you know,
(04:32):
don't make a mockery of it alone, right, I guess? So
what the hex I mean you wantto fix that just makes you make three
on three overtime eight minutes and theyuse solve that problem itself. So I
know we talked a little bit aboutthis on text, and we'll talk about
this quick before we get into theshow here. But Rick Talkt calls out
the Canucks after a bad loss toPhilly, which I mean, you're gonna
(04:54):
have some of those. And Ithought the Connucks have been pretty damn good
that I mean, better than aexpected this year, right we said,
we talked about it last week.We gave them a ton of praise,
and I think they've been really good. And they lose to Philly. I
believe it was their first loss.I believe it was their first loss,
right yeap for one. They gotthey got out shot two to one,
and they were awful. And heblasts them in the media. He doesn't
(05:15):
do it in the locker room.He blasts them in the media. I
don't know if that's healthy. Iknow, if that's lost number one of
the year and your blasting them,you want to know what though, You
want to know what. Right afterthat, they played good in Tampa,
lost a one goal game. Theygot better in Florida, and they played
(05:36):
their best game last night at theend of a night game road trip in
Nashville. They got better every singlegame after that. He got called out,
so they obviously figured out. Theyobviously got the mattress loud and clear
that they better not be any passengers. Well, yes, but that is
a slippery slope because you can surewell so many times and he seems to
(05:57):
do it. Yeah, for sure. They he did it lots last year
and they they played, they respondedwell under him last year. I know,
but you you were part on theSutter. Can't be like that in
Calgary And this is exactly No,that's not not even close, not even
close, not even. All hesaid is they were soft. He just
(06:18):
said they they were garbage and theywere soft. They didn't win any battles,
but he was any everything that guysaid. They didn't say anything bad.
I agree. I'm I'm there foreignto to start the year, like
I'm not planning the parade, butit's like it's it's it's a nice it's
nice to see them close out gamesand kill off penleys earlier in the year,
(06:42):
like that's what killed him last year. I just want to see how
that plays out as the year goeson. Yeah, for sure, we'll
see. Today on the show,we're going to talk about attendants in the
NHL. All of a sudden thisyear, now, attendant seems to be
a public issue when we've been screamingabout attendance in a lot of markets for
decades aid, but all of asudden this year where they're pointing fingers at
teams for attendance. So we'll talkabout that. Then we'll go around the
(07:05):
league and we'll talk about the draftideas that are being pushed out. That's
one of my questions, So we'llscrap that. Well, Okay, Edmonton
issues, Anderson's suspension and ovechkin struggles, lots to talk about on this episode
of the Debate Hockey podcast. AllRight. A couple of things hit the
(07:35):
media this week that everybody's worried aboutWinnipeg all of a sudden, and what's
going to happen to Winnipeg. AndI've heard on a couple of podcasts them
saying, oh, Winnipeg will begone in five to teams, and I
think that's wrong. First of all, that's never gonna happen. I mean
it could. I'm not gonna sayit's never gonna happen, because there are
certain things that could happen with that, but I think it's highly doubtful.
(08:01):
And for for them to single Winnipegout made me really wonder what is going
on. We've had decades of ArizonaCoyotes. We got Arizona Coyotes playing in
a five thousand dollars rink. Rightnow, we're gonna talk. We're gonna
worry about the Jets five thousand seaterrink. Sorry, that's what I say
(08:26):
that, that's that meant sorry,and I mean we have There was very
few fans in New Jersey the othernight when I watched that game. I
don't know, I don't know thatthis is a huge problem, But I
think the problem isn't maybe the result. I think the problem is maybe the
(08:50):
root and everybody. I mean,the only teams that are under selling are
Montreal, believe it or not,La San Jose, Vancouver, ed mcc
one game that doesn't count. LikeI'm just putting out there what they're saying.
Okay, okay, all right,right, okay, Boston, Philly,
Calgary, Winnipeg, and then thearrest of them are claiming sellouts or
(09:15):
over max capacity. Right, Sothat leads me to believe that why why
is this such a big to dothis year? For Okay, for me,
you can't judge attendance based off threehome games, like that's like,
(09:37):
let's talk to like like it wouldbe a better conversation if we talked about
attendance like twenty home games into theyear and see where they're at, because
like the average, the average,it's like the fact that Winnipeg got this
much traction, It's like, okay, it's this one of the smallest buildings
in the league got fifteen thousands,so they had what twelve thousand there,
(09:58):
Like it's not like they're there's seventhousand people that it was half empty.
Like the fact that people don't realize, like in Canada the cost of living,
the cost for a family of fourto go to Winnipeg Jets game is
probably five hundred dollars by the timeyou get food and popcorn and hot dogs,
and you want to hear the post. I mean, like it's it's
(10:18):
insane, like the total. Idid it today because I was looking at
the schedule. I was thinking aboutgoing to a game. Math well,
image, it's five hundred bucks.So I have a family of five,
but I only figured it for afamily of four because that's usually what they
base it off, right. Oh, I went to NHL dot com.
I went to the Winnipeg Jets pageto buy tickets from them, not like
(10:39):
a stub Hub burning that from them, so, which you'd think is the
cheapest method of doing it, right, The cheapest is game time. Four
tickets in the lower bowl eight andsixteen dollars. You figure you're going to
two hundred each. You can figureyou're two hundred and four dollars each.
(11:00):
That's not counting the taxes and ship. So that's going to be more than
that. Yeah, fifty six bucksfor four hot dogs and four drinks.
If that that's just to go tothe game's eight hundred and ninety two dollars
for And that's not including like,oh, you might get a jersey or
a T shirt or a park ormerch nothing. It's it's it's a thousand
(11:24):
bucks. It's a it's literally onethousand dollars to go to a game.
And I looked and the Jets aremidway down the string on the average cost.
Toronto's the highest, Seattle is thesecond highest, Vegas is the third
highest. Yeah, it gets NHL. The NHL has they are, they're
(11:46):
outpricing their fans at at what they'redoing. The average ticket price in the
NHL is one hundred and eighty onedollars. How much do you honestly believe
it should cost to go to anInn and Jug game? How much for
one seat? Just a seat?Now, I know you can sit up
in the nosebleeds, but I'm talkinga seat where I can actually see the
(12:07):
game. Honestly, dude, Ilike sitting in the nose was at a
hockey game. You can see thewhole ice, and you can see the
play developing. And personally, like, if I was going to the saddle
Dome tomorrow, I would sit Rowone in the second deck I rather than
the saddle Dome is a different theyhave. The lower is really small,
(12:28):
So yeah, for sure, butI would rather sit in the second deck
in the salad because there's obstruction viewing. And yeah, I don't know,
but seventy five bucks eighty bucks,that's exact number. I said, seventy
five bucks. Seventy five bucks,eighty bucks, and then that that should
get you a good a good seat, and you can get your hot dog
(12:50):
or your peanuts or your co cokeor your beer whatever. And it's made
max one hundred and fifty bucks togo to a game all in hot all
in one hundred and fifty bucks,that's probably the most I would spend.
You can't afford to take your kidsdoing an NHL game, Oh no,
you can't. And you know thisLeague worries about growing the game all the
time. That's all they're talking about. We got to grow the game.
We got who would you grow thegame with? Probably kids, right,
(13:11):
that'd probably be the most important personto grow the game with, right.
Kids can't afford to go to games. Nope, parents can't afford to take
them. Parents can't afford to goto more than one or two games a
year. Yeah, that's like alike kids not like when I was growing
up, Like I was fortunate togo to a lot of NHL games growing
up because like my dad's company atseason tickets or whatnot. And but like
(13:35):
when I went to a game,it was like a Christmas present, Like
hey, like this is your Christmasgift, Like we're gonna go to Vancouver.
We're gonna go two games. Growingup, Like that's you're not getting
any other gifts, You're going togo to Vancouver, Like that's what was.
So ticket prices have went up aton since then. Yeah, oh
I know, it's insane. Soit's like me is in the US and
Canada. I don't blame fans fornot going because it's cost you an army
(14:00):
in the leg. And that's onthe NHL and the NHL teams for not
being creative with their marketing and theirsales. And I tell you what,
they keep talking about this cap goingup and up and up. The NBA
is having a real struggle right nowon their next television deal. They're not
getting what they expected. And Idon't think the NHL is going to get
what they expect on their next televisiondeal. And this cap is not going
(14:22):
to go up as quick and asmuch as they think it is. When
you're charging eight hundred bucks nine erbucks for a family of four to go
to an hockey game. It's justI'm sorry. With the way the economy
is in Canada and in the USright now, it's going to be a
struggle. And I know they theyhave high hopes, but I think they
(14:43):
better start preparing for some tough times. And and you're right, get creative
on how you're going to get families, like like do like I'm not saying
like do two for one tickets,but maybe like buy three tickets you get
like fifty percent off the fourth,or you get twenty five percent off the
(15:03):
fourth, like just ways like thatto get creative and like or like buy
one, get one half off,like just little shit like that, Like
I don't know how to I'm justkind of throwing ideas at the wall here,
but you know, maybe maybe notpay the players so much. Yeah
right, it's a gate driven league, and if the gates aren't clicking,
(15:28):
that means the salary should be goingdown. But I don't think we'll see
that anytime soon, or if wedo, it'll be uh, it'll be
able to pay. But I'm reallyshocked this year that all of a sudden,
Winnipeg goes up as the Now we'redoing a sit down with the chair
and oh, like, what doyou what's to talk about in an expense
or a relocation? It's like whatI I I'm very puzzled. We're gonna
(15:52):
move Winnipeg Atlanta. Winnipeg's not goingCome on, man, Winnipeg's not going
anywhere. Not a chance. MathI was just clickbait. It always to
be honest. I know That's whatI thought at first too. But I
saw it on multiple sites and I'mlike, what am I not seeing here?
What am I not getting here?They're four thousand short one night,
(16:14):
Like, yeah, I know,it's a slightly concerned. It wasn't it
like a Tuesday night. It wasthe LA game. I believe it was
a Tuesday night, but still,I mean it is a little concerning when
your second game of the year,you're not yeah, sure, but at
Tuesday night, man, at seveno'clock, like people are working and people
are like, come on, man. It's not like if it was a
Saturday night. I'd be like,okay, like what's going on a little
(16:37):
bit, but like school night,man, like what it's going on here?
I think it boils down to,though, we got to get to
the root of the problem, andit is overpriced. It's the cost of
tickets. Math's the biggest issue.Man. It's too much for families and
single people to go. Lots totalk about. Let's go around the league,
(17:03):
all right, let's not get thereare a lot of news in what
good news either as Connor McDavid goesdown with an injury, ISNA looks like
one to two weeks. Uh,I gotta get your take on this.
First says one to two weeks.And I heard rumbles today on Edmonton radio
(17:23):
that well, they're hoping to havehim back by the Heritage on Sunday,
and I'm thinking why on God's greenEarth. There is no you can't rush
to play against the Calgary Flames inan outdoor game. In an outdoor game,
why in God's green Earth would yourush him back and jeopardize him?
(17:45):
Because I'm sorry, Edmonton, I'mnot so sure where you're going with him
without him. I know where you'regoing, and they are going absolutely nowhere
without him. They got a littlethey got a little dose of life with
them mcdaivid last night and that wasan embarrassing, embarrassing effort. This team,
(18:06):
dude, have you seen their statsin a third period? Yes,
they've got no score ten to one. And I believe you projected them to
win the Stanley Cup. I hadthem losing in the Stanley Cup. So
you're not much better. But likeI'm not. That's why, dude,
I told you last week I mightbe out on this team. This team
is, This team is. Theyare soft. They quit, they don't
(18:32):
hustle, they don't play defense.There, they don't get saves. If
ninety seven and twenty nine don't score, nobody scores, and it's it's a
disaster. Right now, they areone four and one, they have a
minus ten and goal differential. Iknow it's early, and I know this
(18:52):
team has the talent to recover,and I agree with that, but the
defensive breakdowns and the goaltending makes meshake my head. And then I heard
this, did you hear on Saturdayand night? Evander Kain not not doing
well at all? This Ye're playingHorns And he goes on and with Scott
(19:18):
Oaks that didn't play much in thefirst period, so I thought I might
as well get out there and fightand take seven or eight minutes in the
box and he basically calls out Woodcraftfor not playing him. Well, the
dude's minus six on the season,do you yeah, that's uh, that's
just that's just not the right timeand place to say that. Hey,
(19:41):
a, you cause a distraction withinyour team because he's called your coach on
live television and be your team.Just your team has lost five to six.
I'm sorry, Evander Kaine. Ifyou worked hard every game, you'd
be one of the best players.People are saying that Canucks broke the Oilers.
Is that true? They broke themtwo beatings at the start of the
(20:04):
year and they've never recovered. Waitwhat happened? I I don't know,
But when you get you know youneed Amander Caine rolling for you. He's
a key cog on this team andwhen he's calling out the coach. And
I don't know. I heard iton a couple other podcasts this week that
they think that Woodcraft is on thechopping block. Oh, I mean if
(20:25):
they start like one and ten,Yeah, like he for sure. But
I'm watching this game and I don'tknow that he's the problem. I mean,
Woodcroft can't make those guys work hard, can Like It's like it's almost
like they try and spurts and thenthey just like they don't try, they
don't backtrack, They give up onplay so easy. They try so much
(20:47):
second opportunities in front of Campbell andSkinner and it's like like you got nerves
out there, just leaving his guywide open back door. It's like,
I don't know, man, It'slike they try hard, you know,
but if it does gold their awayright away they quit. They just fold
like a tent. Oh pack itup or we're done. Like It's what
I've noticed about the Oilers. AndI noticed this in the second game against
(21:11):
Vancouver when they came out flying andthey scored and and Vancouver where the storm
they got when they shit got hardfor them, they quit, they did
they just they stopped battling for posin the corners and they It's just like,
really, that's your identity right now. And then I've noticed that every
game I've watched, they just theyjust pack her up. They had a
(21:33):
five, they had a four tothree lead against Minnesota in the third period
and they end up bloting seven tofour. How did you see some of
those players too? Did you seeZukarel kick that dehartment that was That's why
they play, That's why they playthe sewer and then before the game kicking
that You gotta practice practice, ran, I sure what it is, Yeah,
(22:00):
but yeah, it's a it's notgood. It is not good at
all. Uh, speaking of otherthings not good, Rasmus Anderson gets Patrick
Leoney at the buzzer of the CalgaryColumbus game the other night. I didn't
just stupid hit. I don't evenknow how else to describe it. I
mean, gets four game suspension.He tried to appeal it so you can
(22:25):
play in the outdoor game. Wellthat never happened. That's like if that's
that's like if my daughter asked mywife if she can go to the mall
and then comes back and asks you, so yes, like, yeah,
I think that's gonna happen. ButI just I'm a huge fan of Rasmus
Anderson, and I don't think he'sa dirty player. I just think he
(22:47):
never done anything ever. I justthink he got caught up in the moment
saw lining with his head down.It it just was a It was.
It was dirty. There's no there'sno ways to justify it. It was
at the end of the game,they're down four to one, leaves his
feet, elbow right to the head. Yeah, there's there's a lot of
(23:08):
shit I didn't like about it,a lot of shit, And it being
at the end of the game justmakes it even worse, because why do
you even need to hit a guylike that. I thought it was uncharacteristic,
and I thought based off that,I thought it would be two games,
based off other plays I've seen inthe league in the last three weeks.
I told you, I texted youright after that, I say he's
getting five and I was close enoughfour that. But you know what,
(23:33):
when you didn't reply, when youdidn't reply to me, I was like,
I wonder what this fucker is goingto say in the podcast, is
this guy going to justify and saythis wasn't dirty because he didn't reply to
me. I'm like, hmm,no, I don't bait into your stupid
stuff. Well, but I'm justsaying, but I don't think it's five
because you got to base it offof other things that have happened, right,
yeah, all kinds of No.No, just hear me out here.
(23:56):
Am I upset with four? No? I think it's justified. I
do. But that being said,if you really truly base this off of
his history and other hits in whatthey've gotten in suspensions, should have been
two games. Yeah, no,that's a that's a fair argument. But
maybe this is the NHL finally settinga standard. Maybe that's the hope and
(24:18):
goal. That said, any hitlike this, it's four games. And
if it is like that, goodon the NHL, because we've been begging
and bagging and bagging the players safetyto set a standard and set boundaries and
be more consistent. And if thisis the if this is it, if
this is if this hits, that'sthe president that it's gonna be four games,
(24:40):
and that's I'm fine with it.Let me ask you this question and
I want an honest answer. Ialways give you an I want to McDavid
hits lining in the exact same method. How many think I think he gets
four games? It's dirty, okay, But how come it never works that
way? Because well, David ConorMcDavid got suspended two games for one time,
(25:04):
and we thought of it maybe twoor three and he got fined five
thousand dollars for he got suspended.Yeah, there's been multiple occasions. Yeah,
and then you also got to lookat this too, the one that
are you talking about, the onewhere he ran behind the guy in LA
I don't remember the details on it. I remember us talking about it.
(25:26):
How about Okay, So so letme ask you this, and I'm not
this is not trying to justify theAnderson hit at all. Like I just
said, I don't disagree with fourgames. Should it have been too based
off previous ones? Yes, ButAdam Rziska gets run from behind last night.
There's not even a two minute penaltyon it and he's out now Yeah,
(25:48):
okay, so what's the difference.And now I know it's not at
the buzzer at the end of thegame. Well, that plays. It's
because it's in the head, Soit's okay to run a guy from behind
into the boards where people break theirX. Yeah, I know, I'm
not. There's no justifying it,dude, there's no I'm not. You're
not. You're not gonna get ananswer out of me from that, because
I think they're both I think they'reboth suspendable hits. That's I know.
(26:11):
But that's where I understand. Idon't understand why Why are hits into the
boards where we've seen more spinal injuriesthan hits at Center Ice. Why are
there hits at Center Ice to thehead being suspended but the hits from behind
into the boards are barely a twominute call most mates. Yeah, no,
(26:32):
I got it's a little ass backwardsin the fact that we've got more
spinal injuries into the boards. Boy, that seems to me like that would
be a spot to keep it.But also, you got to remember they
were just in a lengthy, lengthylawsuit with concussions, so anything to the
head, anything to the head isgoing to be suspendable now, sure,
so we have to wait for aspinal injury. Well, I'm just saying
(26:56):
I know, I'm just saying thoughtoo, But you get where I'm where
I'm coming from. No, Ithink that's a bullshit excuse anything to the
head is you're even seeing it,you're even seeing it a minor hockey.
They're going to the extent where you'regetting a two and a two minute and
at ten minumus conning you hit somebodyin the head, You're you're gone for
twelve minutes that they're just trying toget rid of it like that. Let
(27:18):
me ask you this question, wouldyou rather get hit in the head and
have a concussion or be paralyzed paralyzed? I'm just say, of course,
yes, dude, I'd rather havea concussion. About shit happens. It's
a fast sport, and fucking shithappens, you know what I mean.
Like hockey's a physical, fast spoort. You got to make You got to
(27:40):
make decisions on a blink of aneye, I know what I mean.
So you have to make a decisionto hit somebody in the head, or
you have to make a decision hitsomebody from buying. I get it,
but I see both sides for sure. I just I don't understand it.
I don't understand why one's being prioritizedover the other Alexandrovchkin five games, one
(28:02):
goal, and that goal came lastnight. What one of the things that
caught my eye is in the fourgames before last night he had nineteen shots.
He had fourteen last night. Yeah, but okay, but first two
games, first two games he hadzero, which is no. He had
(28:26):
four in Pittsburgh, then he hadzero against Calgary, zero against Ottawa,
and then five Montreal. That's veryodd for him. And I watched him
in the Calgary game and he lookedmarginally slower than I've noticed him ever before.
Yeah, well, he's he's stillgonna he's still going to run into
his streaks like he's he's a streakyscorer. He's a streaky scorer when he
(28:48):
when he gets going, he scoresgoals and bunches and he's done that his
whole career. And he's going toget his goals in the power play by
just blowing pucks past goaltenders. That'swhat he does. So it's nice to
see him shooting the pock more.Yeah, I wouldn't worry too too much
about him. He's still he's stillgonna break Gretzky's record. I don't think
(29:10):
that's a big deal. I don'tknow he's gonna thirty seven. Yeah,
he'll be fine. He'll break inthree years. Uh, we'll see about
that. Hey, just remember Icalled this like four years ago. They
break the record. It was thesame year you called that the Devils were
(29:32):
gonna win the Stanley Cup. IfI no, I picked him to make
the playoffs. I was just Iwas three years off. That's that's what
happens. I don't know. Ithink Alexandervechkin is a great hockey player,
but he's on a Washington Capitol's team. Now that they basically band aided together
and sim made a bunch of horrendoussignings, this team can't score. The
(29:55):
team can't score. It's gonna makeit a little bit harder for all.
I mean, like, you're you'repaying tg Oshi's six and a half million
bucks. You's got zero points inthe season. Tom Wilson, they gave
him a seven year deal this latein his career. Yeah, good luck
with that one. Starting goalies.I saw a real cool fact and it
(30:15):
said since twenty twenty, which isjust what three three seasons ago, the
amount of starting goalies per team.What team do you think has went through
the most starting goalies this year.Oh, since are you listening to me?
Twenty the most starting goalies are themost goalies is total molst goalies to
(30:41):
start a game? Blake? Howmuch more clear do I need to make
this question? Vancouver will be upthere? No, Vancouver is not even
halfway there. Really, Vancouver's hadseven starting goalies. Detroit, No,
Detroit has had nine. New Jersey. New Jersey's had the second most thirteen.
(31:04):
Okay, uh sajo? No,Ottawa had the most with fourteen fourteen.
Yeah, the fuel the fewest isTampa Bay. No. No,
there's three of them tied, andone of them is kind of cheated,
(31:25):
but we'll give it to them.Uh. Vegas Islanders, will you just
let me finish my sentence? Sorry? New York Islanders. The Winnipeg Jets
and the Seattle Crack and all ofhad four. Oh and the Edmonton Oilers.
That's scary. Yeah, that's howmany? Is it? On couver?
Had you said they had nine?Vancouver said seven? Seven? Thought
(31:51):
I thought that was an interesting Igot one. At least I got one?
Gas right there? You go?Alrighty, time for three questions.
It's time we're three question it wasmy turn last week. This week it
is Blake's turn to fire three questionsat me. Question number one, Yeah,
so what's your thoughts on this newdraft? Like I kind of read
(32:14):
into it a little bit, butI'm not I'm kind of not understanding,
like what the what the deal ishere? So basically, they want to
go to an NFL style draft foreeverything's remote. It is the stupidest thing
I've ever seen. They want tohave it like where the teams don't travel
there. They have a ballroom wheresome of the players, the first round
picks gather and after that nobody elseis there. Oh, you're going to
(32:36):
take a kid's dream from walking onthe stage and shaking the commissioner's hand and
getting his picture taken up. That'sdumb. Well, thirty of the thirty
two teams voted to decentralize it today, and I think it is one of
the worst mistakes this league has evermade. I don't like that. I
don't like that at all. Andyou know what, they say that the
biggest takes away the fun because likedraft day, trades on the floor and
(32:58):
stuff like that like happen are likeI don't know, man, that just
doesn't make sense to me. Theircomplaint was that there's not enough time between
the draft and free agency. SoI have a solution to that. Start
the season one week earlier, getthe season over one week earlier. And
we said that last year. Soso my dad. My dad texted me
today, he goes, Hey,when's the last Canucks game of there?
(33:20):
Because we're planning on going a trip. I said, both or something.
I said, I don't know,like April seventh. I looked April.
Their last game is April eighteenth.Why are we playing till April eighteen?
Why is the regular season till Aprileighteenth? That's almost the third week of
April. Because we got to taketwo weeks off now for these players,
and we got to do all thisand that, and it's it's crazy.
(33:40):
And I had an idea. AndI was listening to thirty two Thoughts of
other day and they were talking aboutthis, and it's either that of the
America Show, I can't remember whichone, but they were talking about,
why can't you make this even abigger event, have the Award show,
have the draft all at one location, and then have an NHL fan fest
players? Did they not just dothat. No, are you sure they
(34:06):
didn't have them both in Vegas?They did, just have them in Nashville,
the draft and the awards they did, oh right, right, right
right, fan fest and everything likethat. Well they used to have those.
Stupid They used to have the awardsin Vegas and then they'd have the
Draft in Montreal and everybody'd have toget up next day and fly up.
It is stupid. You have themin the same place. Yeah, and
then you have a fan fest andyou make an event out of it where
(34:29):
fans could come and players could comeand it's the final thing for the league.
And then if you want to reallymake it good, schedule free agency
the next day and have them alltogether right there and make it it made
for TV event. Yeah, you'reyou're a traditionalist though, so I don't
know if you would like going awayfrom July first. Wow, So make
(34:52):
the award show on the twenty ninthand the draft on the thirtieth and the
free agency on the first. Whatthe hell's the difference? Yeah, I
take this away from the kids isthat's that's the biggest thing for me,
the fans and fans. I watchedthe draft. I like the draft.
I watched the first round. That'sit. I don't watch it, all
(35:12):
of it and it's fun. Andnow they're going to wreck that and it's
it's it's terrible for these kids.It's a it's a horrible selfish decision by
the National Hockey League and it's gonnabite them in the ass. Uh.
Is there anything you would do withthe Oilers right now? Like do you
think they need like a firing ora or a trade or like a somebody
gets put on waivers for like awake up call or something. No,
(35:36):
you can't. You just got tocalm the ship. How do you do
that? Though? Win? Nothing'sgoing right right now? Dude. It's
tough. Yeah, But making kneejerk reactions to a team, yeah,
but sometimes that sparks the team.How about an injury to Conor McDavid.
Is that not a spark? Itdidn't look like a spark against Minnesota.
(36:00):
You would have thought that would bea spark. You would have thought that
about Hey, fuck, the bestplayer in the world's out. I got
to pick my game up. Sportsscored four goals? Should win, right,
real? Honestly, you should shouldwin with four? Yeah? What
goalie tannem In your opinion is thebest in the league right now, This
one's easy for me. I supposeyou're gonna say Vancouver, No Islanders,
(36:24):
Varlamov and uh Soroken. For me, that's probably the best for me.
Who's the backup of Circon now?I don't know, I know, let
me, let me, let melook. I believe, uh shit,
(36:45):
I was just looking at this.Um it is Jonathan Quick. It's not
a bat. Not a bat.So I looked up the top five.
They have Varlow, Mavin and Sorokinat one. They have Hellabuck and breus
(37:06):
Watt two, all Mark and Swaymanat three, UC Sarros and Kevin lancoln
And at four, Which is sayingVasileski and Johansson at five, crazy Jake
Rogers, Scott Wedge. That's nota bad one. Got to Sin and
Flurry that's not a bad one.I don't mind that one at all.
Ranta and Anderson at nine, andthe top ten is Hill and Logan Thompson.
(37:31):
Uh. The jury is still outthere, but so far, so
good. I guess they're proving everybodywrong, right I would take I would
take Demko and it Smith over threeof those fantoms. Well, I know,
obviously you would, but that's noteven being biased, that's just the
facts. Now, well, that'ssix games in, so we'll see.
What is it. It's sixty sixgames. M Yeah, that was my
(37:52):
three question. You got, listenerquestion, Listener question Addison marcour Denver,
Colorado. What NHL team should bethe most concerned with their slow start?
Okay, we're not gonna pick onthe Oilers again, but that that's an
easy answer right now. It is, but I don't think it's the right
(38:15):
answer. I know my right answer. I would go with I'm just looking
at the records here. Pittsburgh gottwo and four, Buffalo at three and
four. Maybe Buffalo would be aconcern. Washington, Washington, I don't.
(38:40):
I didn't expect Washington to be goodthough. That's the thing, when
you didn't think they were gonna begood. Yeah, it's either for me,
it's Edmonton, Buffalo or Pittsburgh.To me, it's it's Buffalo or
Calgary. Calgary. What's their record? Two and four, two four and
one. They're awful. They wenton a road trip and lost. I
(39:04):
won one game and lost all ofthe other ones. Not one of the
teams they played was in the playoffslast year. Yeah, that's concerning for
sure. Ugly road trip, Ugly, ugly, ugly road trip. Yeah.
Yeah, Uh we are back nextMonday night. From let's how you
really feel. I'm concerned about I'mconcerned about Calgary And you know what,
(39:25):
I'd be concerned if I was aBuffalo fan too, because Levi, I
don't know, he's not the answerthere. And uh, it's hurt right
now. They just don't look insync at all. And TJ. Thompson
has one goal I scored last night, so he's got two. But yeah,
he's had a little bit of aslow start too. I don't know.
(39:46):
This team can't afford to get offto the start. You just you
can't afford it. Well, notin that division. Definitely not in that
division. Why it's the best divisionin the league. Uh. Yeah,
we're back next Monday night morningto hockeytalk. Well, Edmonton, get on
track. Which team will be worsethan the heritage class of US? Two
bad hockey teams. We're off inthe Battle of Alberta. Outside next Sunday
(40:08):
night, there's will be a Jampafpeaguehockey. Lots of good games to watch
Next week, we are going totalk about surprise teams and surprise players so
far this season, the good andthe bad surprises. Enjoy this week's hockey
action. We're back next Monday night, same time. Great hockey talk.
Hockey talk every week on the DebateHockey Podcast. Hockey Fans, that was
(40:30):
another great episode of the Debate HockeyPodcast with Brad Burrout and Blake Friars.
Keep it locked on Debate Hockey dotcom for podcast updates, subscribe on all
the major podcast players, and nevermiss an episode. Controversial NHL Hockey Talk
every week, presented by Inside EdgeHockey Media Group,
It is time for some NHL hockeytalk. I am the host of the
Joel brad Rude alongside Michael host eachand every week like friars and uh yeah,
we're in Boles in the middle ofa blizzard and that sound good.
And last night you got your wishon your poles and friends? Did you
watch it all? Just talk aboutthat it was going to be cool and
(00:43):
then not watch it? Why couldn'twatch it? It's only at ESPN Plus
and I don't have access to that, So a good strong point there.
I thought sports Net would have donea little bit with it. It took
some some feads, but what asurprise I didn't. I was I thought
they would have taken feeds right afterthe Canucks game was over, and they
(01:07):
didn't do anything. So I waslike, what's the point of accessing that
if you're only gonna put it onone country? That's not very smart.
Overall, I've seen bits and pieces. I've seen. I've seen some good,
but obviously it's something that it's atrial and error type thing. They
never done anything like that before,so it's difficult because it's not like football
(01:29):
where you have the yeah, wellyeah, they're in the twenty yard line.
Yeah, so it's like your spots. I thought ESPN did a decent
job of it. I really did. And I'm pretty critical of ESPN and
in their hockey coverage, So II thought it was decent. I did.
I thought it was all right.Yeah. As for having every team
playing a Tuesday night, I thinkit's idiotic, Uh, because now we
(01:52):
have one game on Wednesday? Likewhat is why? Why you have sixteen
games yesterday and you're gonna turn aroundon a Wednesday night. You're gonna have
Washington New Jersey's the only game.I know. That's what I'm not even
a Canadian team. Well, Ijust think it's ridiculous to have one game.
We we've credit, we we've Thatwould be like beating a dead horse.
(02:15):
If if we talked about the NHLscheduling, We've talked about that for
this is what the seventh year ofthis podcast. It's gotten worse every year
though, and I will say thatit has gotten worse and worse every single
year. So the other things thatare getting worse. Did you see the
call last night in the kracking RedWings game? Oh no, no,
(02:38):
wait, are you talking all JaydenSchwartz threw his stick. Oh, I
see, I see that. Isee intercepted the park intercepted the red wing
and Palt shot it should have beenpenalty shot and the krack and go down
and score and like count it.Yeah, I did see that, did
(02:59):
you? Who was it? OnCalgary? They got absolutely hammered from behind.
Adam Razisa hammered it from behind themost well as clear as a lot
of them we've seen this year.He did hit him in the shoulder,
but it was behind in the numbers. It wasn't it wasn't directly in the
numbers, but he kind of camein from the side. But Colman got
(03:23):
hit later in the game from behind, not as bad as that, and
they called it a penalty but nothingfor Reziska and now he's out. Yeah,
I don't get it. I don'tunderstand. I don't understand. I
don't understand. I don't know.One other thing I just saw this week
was actually late it was a whileago now, But when Calgary lost to
(03:46):
the Capitals in the shootout, likeit doesn't bother me because I think the
shootout sucks as a whole, butbecause nuts of going down that slow God,
every single time. I know thatgot a lot of presslo this time.
I mean there's a lot of peoplethat were saying, you know,
that shouldn't be allowed. And Ihate shootouts as a whole, so I
don't know, you can do whateveryou want. He's making ford movement.
(04:09):
He didn't, He's not. He'sstill moving his skates, you know what
I mean. So it's not likehe's doing like a spinnerama and stopping and
starting and he's You're just coasting inthere and you can go look up at
you any because that's off shootouts andhe does the exact same thing every single
time. It works. It works, Yeah, it does. It kind
of meant a mockery of the gamethough a little bit, but you know,
(04:32):
don't make a mockery of it alone, right, I guess? So
what the hex I mean you wantto fix that just makes you make three
on three overtime eight minutes and theyuse solve that problem itself. So I
know we talked a little bit aboutthis on text, and we'll talk about
this quick before we get into theshow here. But Rick Talkt calls out
the Canucks after a bad loss toPhilly, which I mean, you're gonna
(04:54):
have some of those. And Ithought the Connucks have been pretty damn good
that I mean, better than aexpected this year, right we said,
we talked about it last week.We gave them a ton of praise,
and I think they've been really good. And they lose to Philly. I
believe it was their first loss.I believe it was their first loss,
right yeap for one. They gotthey got out shot two to one,
and they were awful. And heblasts them in the media. He doesn't
(05:15):
do it in the locker room.He blasts them in the media. I
don't know if that's healthy. Iknow, if that's lost number one of
the year and your blasting them,you want to know what though, You
want to know what. Right afterthat, they played good in Tampa,
lost a one goal game. Theygot better in Florida, and they played
(05:36):
their best game last night at theend of a night game road trip in
Nashville. They got better every singlegame after that. He got called out,
so they obviously figured out. Theyobviously got the mattress loud and clear
that they better not be any passengers. Well, yes, but that is
a slippery slope because you can surewell so many times and he seems to
(05:57):
do it. Yeah, for sure. They he did it lots last year
and they they played, they respondedwell under him last year. I know,
but you you were part on theSutter. Can't be like that in
Calgary And this is exactly No,that's not not even close, not even
close, not even. All hesaid is they were soft. He just
(06:18):
said they they were garbage and theywere soft. They didn't win any battles,
but he was any everything that guysaid. They didn't say anything bad.
I agree. I'm I'm there foreignto to start the year, like
I'm not planning the parade, butit's like it's it's it's a nice it's
nice to see them close out gamesand kill off penleys earlier in the year,
(06:42):
like that's what killed him last year. I just want to see how
that plays out as the year goeson. Yeah, for sure, we'll
see. Today on the show,we're going to talk about attendants in the
NHL. All of a sudden thisyear, now, attendant seems to be
a public issue when we've been screamingabout attendance in a lot of markets for
decades aid, but all of asudden this year where they're pointing fingers at
teams for attendance. So we'll talkabout that. Then we'll go around the
(07:05):
league and we'll talk about the draftideas that are being pushed out. That's
one of my questions, So we'llscrap that. Well, Okay, Edmonton
issues, Anderson's suspension and ovechkin struggles, lots to talk about on this episode
of the Debate Hockey podcast. AllRight. A couple of things hit the
(07:35):
media this week that everybody's worried aboutWinnipeg all of a sudden, and what's
going to happen to Winnipeg. AndI've heard on a couple of podcasts them
saying, oh, Winnipeg will begone in five to teams, and I
think that's wrong. First of all, that's never gonna happen. I mean
it could. I'm not gonna sayit's never gonna happen, because there are
certain things that could happen with that, but I think it's highly doubtful.
(08:01):
And for for them to single Winnipegout made me really wonder what is going
on. We've had decades of ArizonaCoyotes. We got Arizona Coyotes playing in
a five thousand dollars rink. Rightnow, we're gonna talk. We're gonna
worry about the Jets five thousand seaterrink. Sorry, that's what I say
(08:26):
that, that's that meant sorry,and I mean we have There was very
few fans in New Jersey the othernight when I watched that game. I
don't know, I don't know thatthis is a huge problem, But I
think the problem isn't maybe the result. I think the problem is maybe the
(08:50):
root and everybody. I mean,the only teams that are under selling are
Montreal, believe it or not,La San Jose, Vancouver, ed mcc
one game that doesn't count. LikeI'm just putting out there what they're saying.
Okay, okay, all right,right, okay, Boston, Philly,
Calgary, Winnipeg, and then thearrest of them are claiming sellouts or
(09:15):
over max capacity. Right, Sothat leads me to believe that why why
is this such a big to dothis year? For Okay, for me,
you can't judge attendance based off threehome games, like that's like,
(09:37):
let's talk to like like it wouldbe a better conversation if we talked about
attendance like twenty home games into theyear and see where they're at, because
like the average, the average,it's like the fact that Winnipeg got this
much traction, It's like, okay, it's this one of the smallest buildings
in the league got fifteen thousands,so they had what twelve thousand there,
(09:58):
Like it's not like they're there's seventhousand people that it was half empty.
Like the fact that people don't realize, like in Canada the cost of living,
the cost for a family of fourto go to Winnipeg Jets game is
probably five hundred dollars by the timeyou get food and popcorn and hot dogs,
and you want to hear the post. I mean, like it's it's
(10:18):
insane, like the total. Idid it today because I was looking at
the schedule. I was thinking aboutgoing to a game. Math well,
image, it's five hundred bucks.So I have a family of five,
but I only figured it for afamily of four because that's usually what they
base it off, right. Oh, I went to NHL dot com.
I went to the Winnipeg Jets pageto buy tickets from them, not like
(10:39):
a stub Hub burning that from them, so, which you'd think is the
cheapest method of doing it, right, The cheapest is game time. Four
tickets in the lower bowl eight andsixteen dollars. You figure you're going to
two hundred each. You can figureyou're two hundred and four dollars each.
(11:00):
That's not counting the taxes and ship. So that's going to be more than
that. Yeah, fifty six bucksfor four hot dogs and four drinks.
If that that's just to go tothe game's eight hundred and ninety two dollars
for And that's not including like,oh, you might get a jersey or
a T shirt or a park ormerch nothing. It's it's it's a thousand
(11:24):
bucks. It's a it's literally onethousand dollars to go to a game.
And I looked and the Jets aremidway down the string on the average cost.
Toronto's the highest, Seattle is thesecond highest, Vegas is the third
highest. Yeah, it gets NHL. The NHL has they are, they're
(11:46):
outpricing their fans at at what they'redoing. The average ticket price in the
NHL is one hundred and eighty onedollars. How much do you honestly believe
it should cost to go to anInn and Jug game? How much for
one seat? Just a seat?Now, I know you can sit up
in the nosebleeds, but I'm talkinga seat where I can actually see the
(12:07):
game. Honestly, dude, Ilike sitting in the nose was at a
hockey game. You can see thewhole ice, and you can see the
play developing. And personally, like, if I was going to the saddle
Dome tomorrow, I would sit Rowone in the second deck I rather than
the saddle Dome is a different theyhave. The lower is really small,
(12:28):
So yeah, for sure, butI would rather sit in the second deck
in the salad because there's obstruction viewing. And yeah, I don't know,
but seventy five bucks eighty bucks,that's exact number. I said, seventy
five bucks. Seventy five bucks,eighty bucks, and then that that should
get you a good a good seat, and you can get your hot dog
(12:50):
or your peanuts or your co cokeor your beer whatever. And it's made
max one hundred and fifty bucks togo to a game all in hot all
in one hundred and fifty bucks,that's probably the most I would spend.
You can't afford to take your kidsdoing an NHL game, Oh no,
you can't. And you know thisLeague worries about growing the game all the
time. That's all they're talking about. We got to grow the game.
We got who would you grow thegame with? Probably kids, right,
(13:11):
that'd probably be the most important personto grow the game with, right.
Kids can't afford to go to games. Nope, parents can't afford to take
them. Parents can't afford to goto more than one or two games a
year. Yeah, that's like alike kids not like when I was growing
up, Like I was fortunate togo to a lot of NHL games growing
up because like my dad's company atseason tickets or whatnot. And but like
(13:35):
when I went to a game,it was like a Christmas present, Like
hey, like this is your Christmasgift, Like we're gonna go to Vancouver.
We're gonna go two games. Growingup, Like that's you're not getting
any other gifts, You're going togo to Vancouver, Like that's what was.
So ticket prices have went up aton since then. Yeah, oh
I know, it's insane. Soit's like me is in the US and
Canada. I don't blame fans fornot going because it's cost you an army
(14:00):
in the leg. And that's onthe NHL and the NHL teams for not
being creative with their marketing and theirsales. And I tell you what,
they keep talking about this cap goingup and up and up. The NBA
is having a real struggle right nowon their next television deal. They're not
getting what they expected. And Idon't think the NHL is going to get
what they expect on their next televisiondeal. And this cap is not going
(14:22):
to go up as quick and asmuch as they think it is. When
you're charging eight hundred bucks nine erbucks for a family of four to go
to an hockey game. It's justI'm sorry. With the way the economy
is in Canada and in the USright now, it's going to be a
struggle. And I know they theyhave high hopes, but I think they
(14:43):
better start preparing for some tough times. And and you're right, get creative
on how you're going to get families, like like do like I'm not saying
like do two for one tickets,but maybe like buy three tickets you get
like fifty percent off the fourth,or you get twenty five percent off the
(15:03):
fourth, like just ways like thatto get creative and like or like buy
one, get one half off,like just little shit like that, Like
I don't know how to I'm justkind of throwing ideas at the wall here,
but you know, maybe maybe notpay the players so much. Yeah
right, it's a gate driven league, and if the gates aren't clicking,
(15:28):
that means the salary should be goingdown. But I don't think we'll see
that anytime soon, or if wedo, it'll be uh, it'll be
able to pay. But I'm reallyshocked this year that all of a sudden,
Winnipeg goes up as the Now we'redoing a sit down with the chair
and oh, like, what doyou what's to talk about in an expense
or a relocation? It's like whatI I I'm very puzzled. We're gonna
(15:52):
move Winnipeg Atlanta. Winnipeg's not goingCome on, man, Winnipeg's not going
anywhere. Not a chance. MathI was just clickbait. It always to
be honest. I know That's whatI thought at first too. But I
saw it on multiple sites and I'mlike, what am I not seeing here?
What am I not getting here?They're four thousand short one night,
(16:14):
Like, yeah, I know,it's a slightly concerned. It wasn't it
like a Tuesday night. It wasthe LA game. I believe it was
a Tuesday night, but still,I mean it is a little concerning when
your second game of the year,you're not yeah, sure, but at
Tuesday night, man, at seveno'clock, like people are working and people
are like, come on, man. It's not like if it was a
Saturday night. I'd be like,okay, like what's going on a little
(16:37):
bit, but like school night,man, like what it's going on here?
I think it boils down to,though, we got to get to
the root of the problem, andit is overpriced. It's the cost of
tickets. Math's the biggest issue.Man. It's too much for families and
single people to go. Lots totalk about. Let's go around the league,
(17:03):
all right, let's not get thereare a lot of news in what
good news either as Connor McDavid goesdown with an injury, ISNA looks like
one to two weeks. Uh,I gotta get your take on this.
First says one to two weeks.And I heard rumbles today on Edmonton radio
(17:23):
that well, they're hoping to havehim back by the Heritage on Sunday,
and I'm thinking why on God's greenEarth. There is no you can't rush
to play against the Calgary Flames inan outdoor game. In an outdoor game,
why in God's green Earth would yourush him back and jeopardize him?
(17:45):
Because I'm sorry, Edmonton, I'mnot so sure where you're going with him
without him. I know where you'regoing, and they are going absolutely nowhere
without him. They got a littlethey got a little dose of life with
them mcdaivid last night and that wasan embarrassing, embarrassing effort. This team,
(18:06):
dude, have you seen their statsin a third period? Yes,
they've got no score ten to one. And I believe you projected them to
win the Stanley Cup. I hadthem losing in the Stanley Cup. So
you're not much better. But likeI'm not. That's why, dude,
I told you last week I mightbe out on this team. This team
is, This team is. Theyare soft. They quit, they don't
(18:32):
hustle, they don't play defense.There, they don't get saves. If
ninety seven and twenty nine don't score, nobody scores, and it's it's a
disaster. Right now, they areone four and one, they have a
minus ten and goal differential. Iknow it's early, and I know this
(18:52):
team has the talent to recover,and I agree with that, but the
defensive breakdowns and the goaltending makes meshake my head. And then I heard
this, did you hear on Saturdayand night? Evander Kain not not doing
well at all? This Ye're playingHorns And he goes on and with Scott
(19:18):
Oaks that didn't play much in thefirst period, so I thought I might
as well get out there and fightand take seven or eight minutes in the
box and he basically calls out Woodcraftfor not playing him. Well, the
dude's minus six on the season,do you yeah, that's uh, that's
just that's just not the right timeand place to say that. Hey,
(19:41):
a, you cause a distraction withinyour team because he's called your coach on
live television and be your team.Just your team has lost five to six.
I'm sorry, Evander Kaine. Ifyou worked hard every game, you'd
be one of the best players.People are saying that Canucks broke the Oilers.
Is that true? They broke themtwo beatings at the start of the
(20:04):
year and they've never recovered. Waitwhat happened? I I don't know,
But when you get you know youneed Amander Caine rolling for you. He's
a key cog on this team andwhen he's calling out the coach. And
I don't know. I heard iton a couple other podcasts this week that
they think that Woodcraft is on thechopping block. Oh, I mean if
(20:25):
they start like one and ten,Yeah, like he for sure. But
I'm watching this game and I don'tknow that he's the problem. I mean,
Woodcroft can't make those guys work hard, can Like It's like it's almost
like they try and spurts and thenthey just like they don't try, they
don't backtrack, They give up onplay so easy. They try so much
(20:47):
second opportunities in front of Campbell andSkinner and it's like like you got nerves
out there, just leaving his guywide open back door. It's like,
I don't know, man, It'slike they try hard, you know,
but if it does gold their awayright away they quit. They just fold
like a tent. Oh pack itup or we're done. Like It's what
I've noticed about the Oilers. AndI noticed this in the second game against
(21:11):
Vancouver when they came out flying andthey scored and and Vancouver where the storm
they got when they shit got hardfor them, they quit, they did
they just they stopped battling for posin the corners and they It's just like,
really, that's your identity right now. And then I've noticed that every
game I've watched, they just theyjust pack her up. They had a
(21:33):
five, they had a four tothree lead against Minnesota in the third period
and they end up bloting seven tofour. How did you see some of
those players too? Did you seeZukarel kick that dehartment that was That's why
they play, That's why they playthe sewer and then before the game kicking
that You gotta practice practice, ran, I sure what it is, Yeah,
(22:00):
but yeah, it's a it's notgood. It is not good at
all. Uh, speaking of otherthings not good, Rasmus Anderson gets Patrick
Leoney at the buzzer of the CalgaryColumbus game the other night. I didn't
just stupid hit. I don't evenknow how else to describe it. I
mean, gets four game suspension.He tried to appeal it so you can
(22:25):
play in the outdoor game. Wellthat never happened. That's like if that's
that's like if my daughter asked mywife if she can go to the mall
and then comes back and asks you, so yes, like, yeah,
I think that's gonna happen. ButI just I'm a huge fan of Rasmus
Anderson, and I don't think he'sa dirty player. I just think he
(22:47):
never done anything ever. I justthink he got caught up in the moment
saw lining with his head down.It it just was a It was.
It was dirty. There's no there'sno ways to justify it. It was
at the end of the game,they're down four to one, leaves his
feet, elbow right to the head. Yeah, there's there's a lot of
(23:08):
shit I didn't like about it,a lot of shit, And it being
at the end of the game justmakes it even worse, because why do
you even need to hit a guylike that. I thought it was uncharacteristic,
and I thought based off that,I thought it would be two games,
based off other plays I've seen inthe league in the last three weeks.
I told you, I texted youright after that, I say he's
getting five and I was close enoughfour that. But you know what,
(23:33):
when you didn't reply, when youdidn't reply to me, I was like,
I wonder what this fucker is goingto say in the podcast, is
this guy going to justify and saythis wasn't dirty because he didn't reply to
me. I'm like, hmm,no, I don't bait into your stupid
stuff. Well, but I'm justsaying, but I don't think it's five
because you got to base it offof other things that have happened, right,
yeah, all kinds of No.No, just hear me out here.
(23:56):
Am I upset with four? No? I think it's justified. I
do. But that being said,if you really truly base this off of
his history and other hits in whatthey've gotten in suspensions, should have been
two games. Yeah, no,that's a that's a fair argument. But
maybe this is the NHL finally settinga standard. Maybe that's the hope and
(24:18):
goal. That said, any hitlike this, it's four games. And
if it is like that, goodon the NHL, because we've been begging
and bagging and bagging the players safetyto set a standard and set boundaries and
be more consistent. And if thisis the if this is it, if
this is if this hits, that'sthe president that it's gonna be four games,
(24:40):
and that's I'm fine with it.Let me ask you this question and
I want an honest answer. Ialways give you an I want to McDavid
hits lining in the exact same method. How many think I think he gets
four games? It's dirty, okay, But how come it never works that
way? Because well, David ConorMcDavid got suspended two games for one time,
(25:04):
and we thought of it maybe twoor three and he got fined five
thousand dollars for he got suspended.Yeah, there's been multiple occasions. Yeah,
and then you also got to lookat this too, the one that
are you talking about, the onewhere he ran behind the guy in LA
I don't remember the details on it. I remember us talking about it.
(25:26):
How about Okay, So so letme ask you this, and I'm not
this is not trying to justify theAnderson hit at all. Like I just
said, I don't disagree with fourgames. Should it have been too based
off previous ones? Yes, ButAdam Rziska gets run from behind last night.
There's not even a two minute penaltyon it and he's out now Yeah,
(25:48):
okay, so what's the difference.And now I know it's not at
the buzzer at the end of thegame. Well, that plays. It's
because it's in the head, Soit's okay to run a guy from behind
into the boards where people break theirX. Yeah, I know, I'm
not. There's no justifying it,dude, there's no I'm not. You're
not. You're not gonna get ananswer out of me from that, because
I think they're both I think they'reboth suspendable hits. That's I know.
(26:11):
But that's where I understand. Idon't understand why Why are hits into the
boards where we've seen more spinal injuriesthan hits at Center Ice. Why are
there hits at Center Ice to thehead being suspended but the hits from behind
into the boards are barely a twominute call most mates. Yeah, no,
(26:32):
I got it's a little ass backwardsin the fact that we've got more
spinal injuries into the boards. Boy, that seems to me like that would
be a spot to keep it.But also, you got to remember they
were just in a lengthy, lengthylawsuit with concussions, so anything to the
head, anything to the head isgoing to be suspendable now, sure,
so we have to wait for aspinal injury. Well, I'm just saying
(26:56):
I know, I'm just saying thoughtoo, But you get where I'm where
I'm coming from. No, Ithink that's a bullshit excuse anything to the
head is you're even seeing it,you're even seeing it a minor hockey.
They're going to the extent where you'regetting a two and a two minute and
at ten minumus conning you hit somebodyin the head, You're you're gone for
twelve minutes that they're just trying toget rid of it like that. Let
(27:18):
me ask you this question, wouldyou rather get hit in the head and
have a concussion or be paralyzed paralyzed? I'm just say, of course,
yes, dude, I'd rather havea concussion. About shit happens. It's
a fast sport, and fucking shithappens, you know what I mean.
Like hockey's a physical, fast spoort. You got to make You got to
(27:40):
make decisions on a blink of aneye, I know what I mean.
So you have to make a decisionto hit somebody in the head, or
you have to make a decision hitsomebody from buying. I get it,
but I see both sides for sure. I just I don't understand it.
I don't understand why one's being prioritizedover the other Alexandrovchkin five games, one
(28:02):
goal, and that goal came lastnight. What one of the things that
caught my eye is in the fourgames before last night he had nineteen shots.
He had fourteen last night. Yeah, but okay, but first two
games, first two games he hadzero, which is no. He had
(28:26):
four in Pittsburgh, then he hadzero against Calgary, zero against Ottawa,
and then five Montreal. That's veryodd for him. And I watched him
in the Calgary game and he lookedmarginally slower than I've noticed him ever before.
Yeah, well, he's he's stillgonna he's still going to run into
his streaks like he's he's a streakyscorer. He's a streaky scorer when he
(28:48):
when he gets going, he scoresgoals and bunches and he's done that his
whole career. And he's going toget his goals in the power play by
just blowing pucks past goaltenders. That'swhat he does. So it's nice to
see him shooting the pock more.Yeah, I wouldn't worry too too much
about him. He's still he's stillgonna break Gretzky's record. I don't think
(29:10):
that's a big deal. I don'tknow he's gonna thirty seven. Yeah,
he'll be fine. He'll break inthree years. Uh, we'll see about
that. Hey, just remember Icalled this like four years ago. They
break the record. It was thesame year you called that the Devils were
(29:32):
gonna win the Stanley Cup. IfI no, I picked him to make
the playoffs. I was just Iwas three years off. That's that's what
happens. I don't know. Ithink Alexandervechkin is a great hockey player,
but he's on a Washington Capitol's team. Now that they basically band aided together
and sim made a bunch of horrendoussignings, this team can't score. The
(29:55):
team can't score. It's gonna makeit a little bit harder for all.
I mean, like, you're you'repaying tg Oshi's six and a half million
bucks. You's got zero points inthe season. Tom Wilson, they gave
him a seven year deal this latein his career. Yeah, good luck
with that one. Starting goalies.I saw a real cool fact and it
(30:15):
said since twenty twenty, which isjust what three three seasons ago, the
amount of starting goalies per team.What team do you think has went through
the most starting goalies this year.Oh, since are you listening to me?
Twenty the most starting goalies are themost goalies is total molst goalies to
(30:41):
start a game? Blake? Howmuch more clear do I need to make
this question? Vancouver will be upthere? No, Vancouver is not even
halfway there. Really, Vancouver's hadseven starting goalies. Detroit, No,
Detroit has had nine. New Jersey. New Jersey's had the second most thirteen.
(31:04):
Okay, uh sajo? No,Ottawa had the most with fourteen fourteen.
Yeah, the fuel the fewest isTampa Bay. No. No,
there's three of them tied, andone of them is kind of cheated,
(31:25):
but we'll give it to them.Uh. Vegas Islanders, will you just
let me finish my sentence? Sorry? New York Islanders. The Winnipeg Jets
and the Seattle Crack and all ofhad four. Oh and the Edmonton Oilers.
That's scary. Yeah, that's howmany? Is it? On couver?
Had you said they had nine?Vancouver said seven? Seven? Thought
(31:51):
I thought that was an interesting Igot one. At least I got one?
Gas right there? You go?Alrighty, time for three questions.
It's time we're three question it wasmy turn last week. This week it
is Blake's turn to fire three questionsat me. Question number one, Yeah,
so what's your thoughts on this newdraft? Like I kind of read
(32:14):
into it a little bit, butI'm not I'm kind of not understanding,
like what the what the deal ishere? So basically, they want to
go to an NFL style draft foreeverything's remote. It is the stupidest thing
I've ever seen. They want tohave it like where the teams don't travel
there. They have a ballroom wheresome of the players, the first round
picks gather and after that nobody elseis there. Oh, you're going to
(32:36):
take a kid's dream from walking onthe stage and shaking the commissioner's hand and
getting his picture taken up. That'sdumb. Well, thirty of the thirty
two teams voted to decentralize it today, and I think it is one of
the worst mistakes this league has evermade. I don't like that. I
don't like that at all. Andyou know what, they say that the
biggest takes away the fun because likedraft day, trades on the floor and
(32:58):
stuff like that like happen are likeI don't know, man, that just
doesn't make sense to me. Theircomplaint was that there's not enough time between
the draft and free agency. SoI have a solution to that. Start
the season one week earlier, getthe season over one week earlier. And
we said that last year. Soso my dad. My dad texted me
today, he goes, Hey,when's the last Canucks game of there?
(33:20):
Because we're planning on going a trip. I said, both or something.
I said, I don't know,like April seventh. I looked April.
Their last game is April eighteenth.Why are we playing till April eighteen?
Why is the regular season till Aprileighteenth? That's almost the third week of
April. Because we got to taketwo weeks off now for these players,
and we got to do all thisand that, and it's it's crazy.
(33:40):
And I had an idea. AndI was listening to thirty two Thoughts of
other day and they were talking aboutthis, and it's either that of the
America Show, I can't remember whichone, but they were talking about,
why can't you make this even abigger event, have the Award show,
have the draft all at one location, and then have an NHL fan fest
players? Did they not just dothat. No, are you sure they
(34:06):
didn't have them both in Vegas?They did, just have them in Nashville,
the draft and the awards they did, oh right, right, right
right, fan fest and everything likethat. Well they used to have those.
Stupid They used to have the awardsin Vegas and then they'd have the
Draft in Montreal and everybody'd have toget up next day and fly up.
It is stupid. You have themin the same place. Yeah, and
then you have a fan fest andyou make an event out of it where
(34:29):
fans could come and players could comeand it's the final thing for the league.
And then if you want to reallymake it good, schedule free agency
the next day and have them alltogether right there and make it it made
for TV event. Yeah, you'reyou're a traditionalist though, so I don't
know if you would like going awayfrom July first. Wow, So make
(34:52):
the award show on the twenty ninthand the draft on the thirtieth and the
free agency on the first. Whatthe hell's the difference? Yeah, I
take this away from the kids isthat's that's the biggest thing for me,
the fans and fans. I watchedthe draft. I like the draft.
I watched the first round. That'sit. I don't watch it, all
(35:12):
of it and it's fun. Andnow they're going to wreck that and it's
it's it's terrible for these kids.It's a it's a horrible selfish decision by
the National Hockey League and it's gonnabite them in the ass. Uh.
Is there anything you would do withthe Oilers right now? Like do you
think they need like a firing ora or a trade or like a somebody
gets put on waivers for like awake up call or something. No,
(35:36):
you can't. You just got tocalm the ship. How do you do
that? Though? Win? Nothing'sgoing right right now? Dude. It's
tough. Yeah, But making kneejerk reactions to a team, yeah,
but sometimes that sparks the team.How about an injury to Conor McDavid.
Is that not a spark? Itdidn't look like a spark against Minnesota.
(36:00):
You would have thought that would bea spark. You would have thought that
about Hey, fuck, the bestplayer in the world's out. I got
to pick my game up. Sportsscored four goals? Should win, right,
real? Honestly, you should shouldwin with four? Yeah? What
goalie tannem In your opinion is thebest in the league right now, This
one's easy for me. I supposeyou're gonna say Vancouver, No Islanders,
(36:24):
Varlamov and uh Soroken. For me, that's probably the best for me.
Who's the backup of Circon now?I don't know, I know, let
me, let me, let melook. I believe, uh shit,
(36:45):
I was just looking at this.Um it is Jonathan Quick. It's not
a bat. Not a bat.So I looked up the top five.
They have Varlow, Mavin and Sorokinat one. They have Hellabuck and breus
(37:06):
Watt two, all Mark and Swaymanat three, UC Sarros and Kevin lancoln
And at four, Which is sayingVasileski and Johansson at five, crazy Jake
Rogers, Scott Wedge. That's nota bad one. Got to Sin and
Flurry that's not a bad one.I don't mind that one at all.
Ranta and Anderson at nine, andthe top ten is Hill and Logan Thompson.
(37:31):
Uh. The jury is still outthere, but so far, so
good. I guess they're proving everybodywrong, right I would take I would
take Demko and it Smith over threeof those fantoms. Well, I know,
obviously you would, but that's noteven being biased, that's just the
facts. Now, well, that'ssix games in, so we'll see.
What is it. It's sixty sixgames. M Yeah, that was my
(37:52):
three question. You got, listenerquestion, Listener question Addison marcour Denver,
Colorado. What NHL team should bethe most concerned with their slow start?
Okay, we're not gonna pick onthe Oilers again, but that that's an
easy answer right now. It is, but I don't think it's the right
(38:15):
answer. I know my right answer. I would go with I'm just looking
at the records here. Pittsburgh gottwo and four, Buffalo at three and
four. Maybe Buffalo would be aconcern. Washington, Washington, I don't.
(38:40):
I didn't expect Washington to be goodthough. That's the thing, when
you didn't think they were gonna begood. Yeah, it's either for me,
it's Edmonton, Buffalo or Pittsburgh.To me, it's it's Buffalo or
Calgary. Calgary. What's their record? Two and four, two four and
one. They're awful. They wenton a road trip and lost. I
(39:04):
won one game and lost all ofthe other ones. Not one of the
teams they played was in the playoffslast year. Yeah, that's concerning for
sure. Ugly road trip, Ugly, ugly, ugly road trip. Yeah.
Yeah, Uh we are back nextMonday night. From let's how you
really feel. I'm concerned about I'mconcerned about Calgary And you know what,
(39:25):
I'd be concerned if I was aBuffalo fan too, because Levi, I
don't know, he's not the answerthere. And uh, it's hurt right
now. They just don't look insync at all. And TJ. Thompson
has one goal I scored last night, so he's got two. But yeah,
he's had a little bit of aslow start too. I don't know.
(39:46):
This team can't afford to get offto the start. You just you
can't afford it. Well, notin that division. Definitely not in that
division. Why it's the best divisionin the league. Uh. Yeah,
we're back next Monday night morningto hockeytalk. Well, Edmonton, get on
track. Which team will be worsethan the heritage class of US? Two
bad hockey teams. We're off inthe Battle of Alberta. Outside next Sunday
(40:08):
night, there's will be a Jampafpeaguehockey. Lots of good games to watch
Next week, we are going totalk about surprise teams and surprise players so
far this season, the good andthe bad surprises. Enjoy this week's hockey
action. We're back next Monday night, same time. Great hockey talk.
Hockey talk every week on the DebateHockey Podcast. Hockey Fans, that was
(40:30):
another great episode of the Debate HockeyPodcast with Brad Burrout and Blake Friars.
Keep it locked on Debate Hockey dotcom for podcast updates, subscribe on all
the major podcast players, and nevermiss an episode. Controversial NHL Hockey Talk
every week, presented by Inside EdgeHockey Media Group,
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