Super Bowl + Olympics & NOHA Incidents | The Game Sports Podcast

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:06] Speaker B: It's time for the Game Sports Podcast is your host David McCaig Jr. The game is powered by 91 Network and featured on Spaces. 91 Network for short. 91N is a YouTube channel where you can check out video editions of the game as well as other podcasts. Now for Spaces, it's featured through Village Media and Sioux Today. It started in Sault Ste. Marie. Now it's branched outside of Sault Ste. Marie, launched all sorts of spaces for you to enjoy and the game is under the Hockey and Sports section in the Sault Ste. Marie Spaces. But you can check out many other options. Music, art, agriculture, travel. There's just so much to list for you to check out. So head on over to Spaces. Check out the space that is right for you. Now the Game is also on all platforms. Okay, if you just go to Google, you go to Chat, GPT, go to Gemini, you go to Pilot and teams or you'll just look up the Game Sports Podcast. It will give you everything that you need to know. We're featured as well for audio editions on Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, Podbean. You just search us, you find us. And while you're there, don't hesitate to hit like, follow and subscribe. And of course you could have also been directing here through our social media channels, I.e. facebook, Instagram and TikTok at the game Sports Podcast. Now we have a loaded episode here tonight and to give you the agenda we're going to have in the Pocket. Start off after I do my intro and my little bonus intro topic before we get into in the Pocket. Of course as Justin Hike will be coming by. We got the super bowl preview show as in the Pocket another season. Season nine of in the Pocket is going to be coming to a close very shortly as a Super bowl is week. Second segment will be some Chuck A Puck action between myself and Jordan Trudeau. We did expect another guest or two in particular former co host was supposed to come on by. However, there's some plans that changed. There was some, let's just say, topics that are together as one that we wanted to bring up as quickly as we could but we couldn't plan it out. However, Jordan and I will get into that and the third segment will be our top shelf segment where Breen, Ben, me and Brendan McCarthy are going to be going to the Neutral Zone. We're going to be looking top shelf and we're going to be firing it upstairs as we get into updates around the National Hockey League. But Olympic preview, yes, Olympics is starting, friend of mine, friend of the show, Brad Jacobs is already on his way. I believe he's actually will be in Italy today as he gets set as from what I understand he's the first event that will be going in the game. So I could be wrong about that. But nonetheless the point of me bringing up that is Olympics around the corner. So Bren and I are going to talk on the hockey portion and if we have time, we'll dive into some other sports. But just so you guys can have your expectations set that we'll be diving into the hockey portion of it until Justin comes on. I wanted to talk about a topic that myself and Alex Par used to come onto and now I know Alex hasn't been around and you know, there's things that come up in different priorities and different changes with schedules and lives and whatnot. Alex is very much still a part of the show, but what I can formally say will be more on a casual basis and particularly maybe a bit more involvement in our special edition shows which are resuming. As you can check out a recent one with with Ryan Sproul, the WWE segment. You know, it's been, it's been a hot topic to talk about on the show actually since 2016 when we started the show. Don't forget we're in our 10th year, just past our 10th birthday and prior to that it was called Coffee with the Coach. If you know, you know. But over 10 years being the game and WWE was a big topic on the show when we were on live radio on ESPN 1400 and prior to that Eagle 95.1 and when we had the Podomatic platform, then went to Podbean. Now we're just on all these different platforms and how the show has grown is amazing. And to stay on point, Scott Nason and Butch Davis, Scott Neeson, the original co founder of Coffee with the Coach before he brought me in where we change it to the game and that's where Butch and E.J. and the family grew from there. But they talked about wrestling a lot. Did those guys okay. And I grew up in the Attitude era and a lot of people my age, I'm a 91 birthday, got to enjoy very great storytelling. And I'm not talking about Vince McMahon as a person. We're leaving that aside, whatever you can have your opinion about Vince McMahon, the media can have their opinion. I'm talking about the content that was on point and I'm talking about the wrestling side. The, the even the female division had some very intense matches. There was some great wrestlers but of course the male side was, was certainly what it was. The attitude era. There was so much talent, so much talent to choose from. It was unbelievable. The Rock, Stone Cold Undertaker, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels. The list just absolutely goes on. And you know there was a time that I saw John Cena come out for the first time. I saw Randy Orton come out for the first time. And I said, oh, these guys coming out, eh? John Cena, the Goat. Arguably the greatest of all time. And my. One of my favorite actors, favorite athletes, favorite overall to celebrity is the Rock. One of my dream people to have on the show. I would love to have the Rock come on. And the reason why I bring up Cena and and the Rock together in something is that. Well a year ago John Cena and the Rock had a little heel turn action and it broke the Internet. John Cena's heel turn was epic for that first few months. It was wild. It literally broke the Internet. Where the heck did the Rock go? You know it's like that happened after elimination chamber in Toronto. All you saw come out was Travis Scott to screw over Cody Rhodes. And I don't want to see any of Travis Scott. Okay, I was. Why I mentioned this is because there's been some story lines by Triple H that he has dropped the ball on. But he's been. He built up something that should have been great. There were some great things, some things that started off great that didn't end up great and then some awful things. And why I'm bringing this up and I'm not meaning to talk about something a year ago. I'm talking about the rumble this past weekend. Look, you can say who whatever you are wrestling. I'm gonna tell you right now it's cinema. It's fake, it's entertainment. We know that. Okay. We, we know that. You don't have to tell myself and Justin who's waiting to talk certainly about football. I don't want to dive into this that this topic too much. But I want to give my reaction about the Rumble. Okay. The female rumble and male Rumble predictable. You want to know something? I got text to prove it. I predicted both winners. Predicted both winners. Roman Reigns was the easiest the CM Punk lineup to Roman Reigns if you date back to when he when he was looking at Cody and him about saying he's going to come back for a title. When Roman Reigns comes back, he comes back to win. Was the one of the worst rumbles I've watched to be honest. There was some entertainment but the iguana guy Coming out, the other mask guy, this mask guy coming out, you know, you had Obafemi, who was a stud, okay? That guy is telling you right now, this guy's the future of wrestling. Okay? I got a good feeling about Obafemi. Okay? But then Bronze Braun Breaker story comes on out and gets stopped, and it's by another masked guy. And he's like. It's like he went for a snooze. If you saw me on video, I reenacted his sleeper after he got knocked out. And then he got put in the Rumble and Nova threw him out. And then Brock Lesnar, he gets thrown out while people are yeeting in the crowd like. Like, come on, man. Like, they're. They're the story. Like, I respect Triple H because I mentioned the Attitude era, but those. The Rumble this weekend was not good. I wasn't a fan of it. I watch a couple events in wrestling. I watched the Rumble. I watched Elimination Chamber last year because of where it was, and I was supposed to go, and I'm so mad I missed it because of what happened. Cena Steel Turn and wrestlemania. Those are the two, maybe three that I watched. A Rumble and wrestlemania. That's. That's what I watch. And I keep in touch with it, though, because I have in a sports podcast. And Triple H has had some fire. He's had some ice. But my reaction for the Rumble this weekend is that it wasn't good. I wasn't a fan of it. It was predictable. I'm okay with the winners. It was just predictable. And Triple H, you dropped the ball on a few things, that the Rumble was one thing, but you've had some great stories. But I'll never forgive you for the heel turn of Cena and how that whole retirement tour ended. Wasn't a fan of that. But my reaction to keep this short and sweet and yes, that's a short and sweet version. The Rumble. I'll give it a grade of a 4 out of 10. And that's being very nice. And that's me talking about the whole entire matches. That includes Gunther Styles, which is probably my favorite match out of all them. And when I talk about the Rumbles, it's great. That Roman one. I'm a Roman fan, but too predictable. So that's my grade about the Rumble. Yeah, you get to hear me talk about wrestling for the first seven minutes. I've had a. I've been waiting a long time to talk a little bit of wrestling. But Hike, let's say hi to you. Hike is ready. Justin. Heiko's ready to go. We're going to be talking in the pocket very momentarily, but hike did. How you doing, my friend? Good to see you. How's everything? [00:09:02] Speaker C: Good to be here, Good to be back. Yeah. No, it's what, two weeks off? Week off, 10 days off. But yeah, no, I caught, caught the Rumble on the weekend. Not my favorite. Definitely not my favorite iguana guy. I, I, I'm all right for the comedic stuff. That's all right. But there was, there's probably some other storylines you could have built up. I had the original versus regular El Grande Americano also kind of funny. I mean, they did like Lesnar getting tossed in the middle of nothing terrible. Should have had him and Obafemi kind of square up there and at least had like a face off. Not, you know, just like a little tease. Something more than what we got. When Roman went off on McAfee the end of last week, I kind of thought, well, he's probably winning. There were some, you know, hindsight's always 20 20, but he didn't seem super impressed with the storyline building that's been going on and having to lean back on him. So we'll see. Be interesting to see how the Zebros storyline plays out, though. I'm, I'm down with that. But yeah, we're, we're not here to talk wrestling super long today. Be nice to get into a little football chat here and we'll see how she goes. [00:10:14] Speaker B: Love that. I love your reaction with the Rumble. Thank you for that. Yeah, we ate up to some in the pocket time, but let's get into it in the pocket. [00:10:20] Speaker D: People. [00:10:20] Speaker B: Comment about the Rumble if you want. Sorry if that's not what you're expecting off the hop. But hey, we have fun today and this is an action packed show. We got a Super bowl preview, Justin. We got Olympic preview and we got some local drama. And that local drama talked to the referee and we've been talking on Facebook and there was some plans, but a little too short notice. That's the joys of us recording on Tuesday. But the game sports podcast is going to give you some, some, some stuff, which is, which is, which is awesome, of course, but we're not here to talk that now. This is in the Pocket. Partnered with Sports Center Bar and Grill, Ontario's best sports bar five years in a row. Best wings over two years. And I sit here because I made a note to myself that I wanted to touch on later. That's what I do. If you saw that on video, great content to share with you. But football is super bowl is set is how I should say it in the pocket. Season nine's coming around to a halt and it's been the Pro bowl, which nobody watches. Sorry if you do. My apologies. I'm not. We're not talking about no Pro bowl action here. We never have. Even Scott, even Butch. None of us have ever talked Pro bowl on the show. It's like it was a rule and I ain't starting it now. If you want some Pro bowl, some Pro bowl chat, go check out another channel on YouTube. I'll even direct you somewhere else because it ain't going to happen here. We are going to be talking super bowl preview and dare I say that this is a Super bowl that was not expected. If you would have told me that you had the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl, I would say what year are you with? That's what I would have said. What year are you with? Is Tom Brady the quarterback and is Russell Wilson the quarterback? And what are they going to do on the one yard line? I will always say that joke and they Darnold who was tossed out right by the Jets. I guess you could say Carolina too. I guess kind of could say tossed out by them. Not trusted in when it came to the the Vikings. And he's on Seattle going to a Super Bowl. Gotta love that Drake maybe looking like he's going to be a stud. Right. Even though he had an off game in the championship game. Whether youth inexperience. I feel like he's going to be totally fine when it comes to to Sunday. But Justin, I want to give you the floor on some some super bowl preview. We have a smaller roster than we do usually. This is when Jamie Antonello and Matt Primo and Dustin Grandin, who was my surprise individual supposed to come on today, usually come out of the shadows for some super bowl chappie. They just got you and I and EJ is on a has been away for the past year plus so you know he got you and I today. But I know you got a lot to talk about with the super bowl so I want to let you just let it all out, my friend. Give us some preview, some quarterback preview. Give us some coach preview, team preview. You lay it all on us, my friend. [00:13:03] Speaker C: Well, I mean it's not if we started the season. This definitely wasn't on my bingo card for the super bowl matchup. I mean I think that we had some high hopes for the Patriots and I don't really know that anyone knew what we were getting out of Seattle with the new head coach there. And I think the Ravens are real upset that they let him go from their defensive coordinator position based on how that panned out. And I think the Minnesota Vikings are probably real upset that they let Sam Darnold go based on them firing their general manager this week. So, you know, it's, it's interesting the lay of the land here and Mike, with Mike Vrabel, you kind of know you're getting a well coached football team. The pieces were there with the Patriots and the foundation, kind of like the mentality of being a New England Patriot. Guys seem to buy into that and Vrabel's definitely a guy that you can have preaching that as a head coach. Like everything just kind of lines up there, you know, from the whole team mentality to the coach pushing it on the players, the players buying in that whole operation has been honestly just like solid team effort this year as far as the Patriots go. But I do, I mean, not to let the cat out of the bag early here, but I do think that that's going to run out of gas. I think. Not to throw a little reference on our earlier talk to the Royal Rumb, but I think the Patriots are wandering into a, a hooded man giving them the old stomp unexpectedly because I think I just. Seattle's been too good all season and I just, I just, I don't know. Their defense is unbelievable and their offense just puts up points. Losing charbonnet hurts the 1, 2 punch at running back a little bit. But it's also the super bowl now guys like Cooper cup that maybe have been reserved. I don't want to say reserved, but not like this is the game where you're going to lay it all on the line. So guys are going to make some crazy plays. And I think the Seattle roster has more big play guys than the Patriots roster and Seattle's defenses. Seattle's played and definitively won games through the playoffs. And I don't, I'm not, I don't mean this to slight the Patriots, but they've, the Patriots have played a lot of matchups where you looked at the game and it was like, well, who's trying to lose more? Like there was just a lot of mistakes and these are all learning opportunities for young quarterback like Drake May and young players on the team. But I again, I think when you hit to the get to the super bowl, having consistently made those mistakes through the playoffs, I'm not sold that that's going to end And Seattle's. Their defense is just going to capitalize on that. And JSN out there on offense, I mean given he makes space. You don't give him space. He just makes space. That's what happens. And Sam Darnold has enough protection to get the ball to him. They run the ball well. Patriots have been pretty good at stopping the run. But again I think Seattle. There's a big difference here. Seattle's probably winning this by at least 14. [00:15:52] Speaker B: That's it. You know that I like. I like your point. I had a couple points that legion. The legion of boom I feel like is back from a. From a defensive end of the football watching them play against the 49ers. I was playing a men's league hockey game and I came up. I went upstairs to cash in on a bet when the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Colorado Avalanche in overtime. There's a teammate of mine who's a Colorado fan and I reminded him in the locker room of that. Justin knows. I owe Justin a bet actually for football last year. I haven't forgotten. We just haven't been able to. He just forgot I think I didn't forget the. And the hot wings mind you. So I went upstairs and to this place and I'm not. We promote SportsCenter on this but obviously where we played there was a different place I went to and I'll be honest with that. I know SportsCenter won't hit me over the head. I don't think they'll probably give me a little chirp via text. But the. I was watching that game and I was wondering who the hell is this team and not San Francisco, Seattle. Is it fair? I know how loud that this year they were good obviously but I didn't know they were that good. You know what I mean? Like I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't predict that. You just saw it in the playoffs and I remember looking at one of my teammates saying is this the team this year? San Fran's a good football team. Okay. That is a good football team. The Broncos. I don't. You know what? Bonix aside unfortunate or Bonix draw in a blank. Sorry, that's a whole other topic. Whole other point. Let me stick to this point. Their road. My whole point is their whole road is that they've convincingly. Convincingly. That's the word I'm looking for. You know, be good quarterbacks. They killed the Niners. They had convincing wins. Probably should have won by more in their last game, right I, I really feel that Seattle are. Is just too unstoppable. I know we're going to have a prediction, but when they played against the Rams, I was, I was going for the Rams. Sam Darnold. Right. And then you look at the 49ers game, it was a 41 to 6. If I remember that game was like 41 to 6. An absolute shellacking. And when I watched the New England Patriots, when I watched them play last week, I said, oh, weather aside. And you put them side by side, Seattle's a better football team. They're more scary to look at. They. They're for real. And what I want to touch on there, as I went on a little bit of a tangent, which I'm allowed to do, is watch them play against the 49ers. That's when I knew that. Oh boy. And people don't think the 49ers aren't good. That's a good football team. [00:18:19] Speaker D: Okay. [00:18:19] Speaker B: That is a good football team to beat them 40, but 41 to 6, I believe the score was like I said, that is, that is okay. You get, you get, you get beat up like that in a football game in the playoffs. You know, I would have maybe said maybe making it here wasn't what we deserved. Sure. But Seattle is for real, ladies and gentlemen. And I know we have our predictions to make at the end, but the Legion of Boom. And you look at the quarterback matchup. I'll go to that for a sec, Justin. Cause I know I mentioned quarterback. You have Drake May, who grew up in North Carolina, if I remember correctly. I was just trying to remember some stats here that I heard. And he attended the super bowl at Levi's Stadium 10 years ago. There's a little story about that that I remember. He attended the super bowl. He was 13 years old. And it was Carolina and Denver 10 years ago. And I. That would have been Peyton Manning, if my memory serves correctly, that would have been Peyton Manning's year that he won with the Broncos. People might think I got that right. But anyways, the. He, he, he went. He's somebody who's watched the game and now he gets to go back to Santa Clara as one of the top candidates for MVP this year. Okay. And that was something that was mentioned on the telecast and what I read online too, and I was memorizing what I read. But you know, the. So Sam Darnold was a third overall pick. May amaze like the night is. I believe he's the ninth, second year quarterback to make the Super Bowl Okay. And he aims to win it since Russell Wilson did in 2014. How. How convenient is that? And he would be the young, second youngest super quarterback. This one I wrote down since Dan Marino in 1985. Okay. All these stories this year. We talked about stories lacking a little bit this year. The super bowl has some neat stories of some past where Drake May was at the super bowl, watched it, now he's playing in it. And Darnold struggling with the jets, with Carolina, and he said he was the backup for the 49ers. I can't forget that. That just came back to my memory, too. Okay. Before he was put into Minnesota, in between Minnesota and all that and coming over. So I. When I look at this, I see two quarterbacks that didn't go through odds. I think Drake May is somebody who is inexperienced, young, but getting a fantastic opportunity and deserves to be here again. Sam Darnold, who's another young quarterback but has not gotten a fair shake, has gotten his. Has waited his time, he found his team and he is gelling in this system. Justin. So two quarterbacks, some unique stories, One that had a rough road to get where they were, another one who's new into the league and has had been given the keys to a very nice car right off the hop. And I think by saying that, I think Sam Darnold has the edge just in the quarterback matchup. Despite talent aside, I think Drake May is the. I would choose Drake May over Donald, to be honest with you. If I'm building a team, and I'm not talking long term, I'm just saying in general. But when you have somebody who's had that much work and needed to bounce back that much, there is not much stopping somebody from being able to get to that end goal. Okay. Because, you know, he could just smell it. You can know he just wants it. So from a quarterback matchup, I'll touch on. That I wanted to touch on is that it's a close matchup, but you got to give the edge to Sam Darnold. [00:21:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I. I'm with you on that one. He's got the experience. He's been patient and working at it. I mean, you don't. Quarterbacks get tossed in the garbage pretty quickly in the NFL. And he's managed to hang around, I think maybe the one year. And the Shanahan system down in San Fran opened his eyes to quarterback play a little more because the San Fran system seems pretty plug and play any quarterback. And if you. If you're good, you can. You can play in that system, I mean, Mac Jones looked awesome this year. Brock Purdy looked good, you know, so. You know what I mean? Like, that's. He may have learned a few things. And then again going to Minnesota, having the opportunity to play with absolute stud wide receivers in Minnesota, along with Kevin o', Connell, another known quarterback whisperer, so to say. I think Sam Darnold has just been able to add a lot of things to his jar, appropriate here toolbox. There you go. He's put a lot of things in his toolbox and moved along through the NFL and he's just. Seattle, it's. It's like lightning in a bottle there. Also crazy interesting stat that I'm stealing from the Internet that I read today. See the GM in Seattle. This is the only team, he's the only GM to take a team to the super bowl twice with a totally different roster. Not one single player is the same from their last super bowl win. [00:22:40] Speaker B: That is so cool that that's a great stat. [00:22:44] Speaker C: Like, and I believe it's coaching staff as well. So players and coaching staff, like complete team overhaul and made it back to the Super Bowl. So that's like, that's pretty cool. You don't. I mean, random stuff like that I find interesting. Maybe the world doesn't, but that's cool. That's a cool thing. And if you're like the GM and other GMs, it's like, man, that guy's pretty good. [00:23:04] Speaker B: He knows what he's doing. But they took some time to write. Like, way I'll say it, I've been able to see a couple Super Bowls. As a Steelers fan, one of my only, you know, I've seen a few of my only seen two of my sports teams win, and that's the Steelers and Raptors. Jays were two outs away. No, I'm not hurt at all. I'm not sad at all. The Leafs don't even. Let's not even go there at all at all. And teams to, you know, the Steelers, these teams that have had some good regular season success since and to kind of reformat a team. And you, you mentioned you look at New England, Tom Brady, Belichick, now you got a different era. Seattle, different area era. Easy for me to say era. And these were teams that were dominant just 10 years ago and. And they retooled, rebuilding. It's very much different in the National Football League than it is in any other sport. It's. You retool a team, there's critical pieces. Got your rushers, you got your corners. You got your safeties, but quarterback, you got to find that fit. And I feel like when you build out from a quarterback and you have a coach that can gel with a quarterback, that's the starting foundation. And you can ask the Cleveland Browns, how many quarterbacks have they went through in the past 20 years? 39. Like, if not more, it's impressive to see how someone can retool a team. It's actually fun. Like, if you play a video game in franchise mode, that's why you're doing it. Hitting the guys you don't want on the team that you cheer for, weighing the cup with the guys that you want. They get older. You win a couple cups or the Super Bowls or World Series is whatever you want to look at, and you trade the guys and you try it all over again. Like, this is real life. And he deserves credit for that. That is a. That is a great stat. If you don't appreciate that stat just from a fan and just a overall, like, wow, perspective. That's a lot of work. That's hard. And I feel like football is the hardest sport to rebuild in. And I know that might be a hot, hard, hot topic, but look at all the players. Defense, offense, management, season. Like, I honestly think football might be the hardest sports to rebuild or retool, in my honest opinion. I think Cleveland Browns fans will agree to that, to be honest with you. [00:25:12] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, the Browns have. The Browns have had a pretty rough. [00:25:15] Speaker B: Go over the years. I don't. [00:25:16] Speaker C: I'm not even. I can't add anything to that. I haven't experienced the pain. We know someone who has, so. Well, that's. That's his bit. The Browns are all his. I don't even want to touch it, but I think it would probably safe to segue into our picks here. I can confidently. [00:25:33] Speaker B: Kendrick was very good last year. Did. There's some political here. There's a little bit of political that I ain't going to get into. But we know if. Especially if you watch the Grammys the other night. Okay. There was. There was a lot there. So I wonder if there's going to be anything. I wonder. I don't want to get into that topic, but I feel like Bad Bunny be as passionate as he is. I think something's going to be done where he calls out something because that's how he is. So that's why I want to bring up who's performing. But I feel like we saw Kendrick do something last year. I think Bad Bunny's got something up his sleeve. And I'm just going to leave it at that. If you're picking up what I'm putting down, good for you because I'm not talking about it. But yes, Justin, super bowl favorites. You got Seattle and New England. They have something in common. Justin, what that is outside of quarterback triumph in different ways or teams being rebuilt. Records, records, season record, from what I recall, both being 14 and 3. If I, if I am correct, both 14 and 3 this year. There's another stat. We love sharing stats on the show and of course Seattle is by far. Well, that's kind of rude, but for sure favorites in this. So Justin, take it away for the picks and how we. And how you want to line it up before we wrap up in the pocket. [00:26:44] Speaker C: Well, well, I mean you, you've obviously run away with the. The pool win this year. So congratulate you on that. If I would have set my picks in the last week of the season, maybe things would have been different. But like again I said Hindsight's always 20 20. So congratulate you on the win this year ahead of the final picks. And I'd also like to mention that both of these teams really botched the jersey choices in the Super Bowl. Both teams have an absolutely killer throwback jersey with a nice helmet combo. Neither of them use it. We're going back to like the crummy last time they played. We don't run the ball jersey matchup. [00:27:22] Speaker B: So I was hoping for lime green. Like the lime green. Just fire feel like Oregon esque. And then New England could have like really went retro. Could have really went American. [00:27:34] Speaker C: They're all white. They're all whites. [00:27:36] Speaker B: I can't believe it. Unbelievable choice. That's definitely a loss. Good call. That's definitely up. Sorry, not loss. A negative, A down, a thumbs down. There we go. [00:27:44] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess as far as the game goes, I mean, obviously I let the cat out of the bag earlier. So Seattle, I got Seattle winning and my final score. Final score prediction of the season, 42, Seattle, New England 24. So a bit of a shellacking as probably only me would say shellack. [00:28:03] Speaker B: You know what? Nothing beats. And this is worth a clip because of EJ's reaction last. Last year. I forget who you predicted to win as I get things stuck to my shirt. 52 to 14, the Lions. I believe it was like 52, 14. And I remember EJ's EJ's reaction going. It was genuine. If you want a good laugh about a reaction on TikTok or our social medias, I'M not just plugging our social media. Go check out that. Scroll down. I don't know which one it is. I'm not looking right now because it's not good for content. But it's worth checking out our channel to see that prediction where EJ and I. EJ's reaction was the best. Are you literally insane? And he touch up. It was great. But you know what? I ain't doing it for this score because I think Justin's on to something. I'm going to one up you on one. Justin, I'm going to give you something that I'm being honest about. Sorry, New England fans. Seattle is winning this football game 38 to 6. 38 to 6. I'm going to be bold and go 38 to 6 and you can think of it the way you want. Drake may not getting a touchdown and he's only getting field goals or they get a touchdown they miss on the extra point. You could think about whatever way you want. I'm not going to give you that prediction. But I'm going to go 38 to 6. Seattle Seahawks with an absolute shellac and. And boring. I'm using that word too. Boring. Overall Super Bowl, I think it's not going to be as exciting as some people hope. And I hope I'm wrong. I hope I am wrong. I hope it's a closer game. I hope I sound like an idiot when people read this back. I hope people are commenting below saying this guy, these guys, this guy, whatever, isn't it? That's fine. But if you can sit there and tell me you can chirp my score. Justin's maybe a little bit more realistic than mine, but I just got something about the Seattle defense and the way Seattle's on a run. Something's telling me is going to be a blowout and it's going to be not a close football game and I'm going to. I had this ludicrous score in my head and don't count on my bet. Go with Justin's. But Seattle is 100%. I'm almost 99.9% sure that they're walking away with the super bowl this year. I'd be very surprised if the 001 was right on that. Just saying. They are 20 favorites on Yahoo and on FanDuel. I didn't look at the over under or the. Or the. The odds there, but I didn't check that out. Also, they're not a sponsor so I didn't want to credit them with that. They just take my money. So Justin and I both got the Seattle Seahawks being Super bowl champions here in 2026. That is going to be unbelievable. Unbelievable. Hike. So, honestly, there could be other news we get into, but we wanted to spend the majority of the show diving into the. The. The super bowl and the preview, and we went into quarterback, we went into the team, some storylines, some stats, and overall, what we're looking for in this game. Justin, one thing each. What are we going to see in this game? That even though we just gave our scores, that is really going to be a memorable moment in this game. What is something that you're gonna really looking forward to see or what do you. What is something that you think is gonna happen in this game that may be something we're talking about next year? [00:31:13] Speaker C: Well, I mean, I think we're due for, like, at least one good pick. Six. You know, like the memorable super bowl moment where you see at the start of the next season, montage where the guy's running down the sideline, pointing to the sky, or there's gonna be one of those. But honestly, as a petty, petty Colts fan with the news that we've had in the last couple weeks, I'm. I'm open to seeing more Patriots fans crying openly still. There's been a lot of that the last little bit. We didn't, you know, our coach and our owner didn't get into the hall of Fame on the first ballot because we cheated on. Everyone should respect us still because we cheated. We won a bunch of stuff, and our quarterback was really good, but the brains behind the operation were still Houston Astros nonsense. So I'm looking forward to just dealing with the Patriots fans through the off season, through this game, through the off season, with my really terrible opinion on what they have going on. [00:32:08] Speaker B: Love that hot take. Mine will be. The one thing that I'm looking for is Bad Bunnies. Bad Bunnies performance. Curious. A little bit. A little bit curious. But what I'm thinking of seeing is I think we are going to see over three interceptions in this game, and it's not from Seattle. It's going to be from May throwing it to Seattle. That's something I'm going to take away in this game. I think we're going to talk about Drake May being a good quarterback. He's great. We're not going to say that he's not big in the. In the big game. It's not that case. It's just Seattle, such a good team. I feel like they're going to pressure him so much, and they're going to make him throw the ball and we're going to see a lot of interceptions in this football game. So one thing I'm going to think that I'm going to remember in this game is not just the score bad Bunny's performance, but Drake may throwing some interceptions to Seattle's defense. Really bringing out the inexperience in Drake. Maybe say it there it is there. That's, that's what I'll say. Those are three things. Those are things that I feel that we're going to be talking about next week and for a few future discussions when we talk about past Super Bowls. So Justin, my friend, I want you to enjoy the rest of your night. I want to say thank you for switching up your time to join us. First, we knew this would be the longest segment because of course super bowl is massive. There's a lot more things to get into this week. Boy, Jordan, I got something to dive into in a little bit here. So we're going to be excited about that. So I want to say thank you Hike. For coming on by and we will be in touch this weekend, my friend. [00:33:33] Speaker C: Yeah, good. Good being here. Good talking football again. We'll, we'll catch everybody on the flip side of football, you know, periodically through the year. But we'll be back in action in the fall again next year. But yeah, we'll touch base with you post Olympics trade deadline. I'll get into some nitty gritty with with you guys there and you guys have a good show tonight. [00:33:54] Speaker B: Love it. Hike. Love it. Talk soon, brother. Talk soon now. Okay, Trude's, we have our topic. I know there's one that we got to take time so to talk about and this is going to be a little different. So I'm gonna remind people before I do that actually before I do that. Jordan Trudes, my friend, the legend. The good looking legend. How you doing, my friend? [00:34:13] Speaker A: Well, I'm doing pretty good. I just realized that I can use my headphones in like on my Mac. [00:34:21] Speaker B: And it sounds good for you. You're good? [00:34:24] Speaker A: It sounds okay? [00:34:24] Speaker D: Sounds okay. [00:34:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:25] Speaker B: Good, good. That's good. I know I gotta get you maybe one of these headsets. These are, these are legendary. [00:34:30] Speaker A: Okay. [00:34:31] Speaker B: These are, these are actually a lot of money. I remember when we bought them. But you know what? This, it's for the mixer that's been sitting in my desk. It has an indent in it over here, but this is chocapuck. Okay. And the puck is over there. I'm not going to get it right now. Okay. Because I'm wearing jogging pants, people. I don't I just wearing a nicer top, bad pants. So I'm not going to get up and show you on video when I'm wearing my Under Armour joggers. But I'm going to tell you right now, the Chukapuck dives into major junior. Do greyhounds slash local? We said. I say slash local. It's for things we don't dive into it as much. We more focus around the hounds and for ohl. So here's what I'm going to promise you. We have Brandon McCarthy coming on around 750. Okay. So what we're going to do is we're going to give a couple minutes here to the Ontario Hockey League and Hounds combined. I'm going to give Trude's the floor for about 90 to 120 seconds to give us a quick little rundown recap and what's to come. Then we're going to talk about a topic that happened locally and I'm happy that it's a little bit of a 8 to 10 minute point because maybe there's going to be more next week where this person's going to be coming on the show next week to talk to Jordan and I about. About what has happened. Now, Trudes, I'm going to give you the floor. I'm actually going to be silent when it comes to the hounds because I think we got to save my breath for other topic. For this other topic. The people are still wondering what the heck I'm talking about. Give you the floor about the OHL Major Junior and the Hounds just for about 120 seconds. See what you can do in that timeframe. [00:36:00] Speaker A: 120. That's all I got a. No, I'm just kidding. No, it's. It was a tough weekend for the greyhounds. Obviously they only recorded two out of a possible six point. So disappointing to say the least. But when you take into account their record over the past 10 games, I think they were kind of due to fall into a little bit of a lapse. You know, you play such good hockey and you are not lucky, but you're on the winning side of. Of eight straight bound, your luck's bound to run the other way. You know, I think that probably the most disappointing performance was. Was Thursday in Niagara. They gave up a lot more than they have been over the past couple weeks. So it was a bit of a setback in their. In their system. But again like it was, it's kind of. You're bound to swing back the other way, but not getting a point or two points out of that game, I think was, was huge. They still sit seven points back of Flint and eight points back of Windsor, who they play both of those teams this upcoming week. So this is the most massive week of the season when you take into account their position in the standings and the moving into February, closer to the playoffs. It's the biggest week of the season yet. As for some OHL news, the Flint Firebirds. So Kevin, he has been named the Kojiko OHL Player of the Week. Flint has been, they've had a really, really stellar season. They have a very good goaltender in Mason Vacari. And he, he, he has taken them and he has helped them get to the top of the Western Conference or near the top of the Western Conference. They're just putting together one of the best seasons in the Flint Firebirds recent history. They have so many dangerous weapons and that we're going to see, we're going to see on Friday night when they come to the Sioux. Like we're talking about, like Kevin, he, he was, he was acquired from Niagara. We're talking about. Nathan Aspinall was drafted to the NHL. He's a 5th rounder to New York. Jimmy Lombardi who's a 4th rounder to the Kings. So they definitely have such a solid group of forwards and a solid, solid goaltender. And get your tickets this weekend folks, because you're going to see Flint on Friday and then the Windsor Spitfires come to town on Sunday. The two teams ahead of the Greyhounds in the West Division. So they're going to be like playoff games for sure. And I mean the Brantford game, the Greyhounds being in, being out. Quinn McKenzie, Brady Martin, Jakob Winklehoffer, Chase Reed went down in the third period to injury. He didn't return. And for them to get a point out of that game against the third best team in Canada, I think was, was a huge, a huge momentum bringer for this next upcoming week here. So I think it'll be interesting to see where we are next week when you and I are discussing how they did over the past weekend. But as of right now, we're just waiting to see where the Greyhounds fall against these big Western Conference opponents. [00:39:23] Speaker B: We talked about it last week about being a measuring stick kind of week and it's okay that he went above 120. I knew he wouldn't hit that number, but there's a lot to get into, a lot on the floor. But for the Hounds, the road trip serves are critical but coming back at home they got to try to make up those points and very big games that have games coming up for that are imperative to kind of placement for the year but also see where they stand as a team. But injury has injuries have been an issue, but as good teams always find ways to win. Firm believer of that. And with Carter, George in between the pipes, even Miller, you have good goaltending, you have the ability to bounce back. So it'll be interesting to see what the Hounds do this week and you can see truths and likely obviously myself in the in the arena. So don't hesitate to come on over to say hi to us if you see us now. Try to blitz this topic, ladies and gentlemen. I Trudes gets inherited to get this topic with me. Okay. And this is a Suse Marie topic that branched out to the world. That's the world. And Naj there is somebody named Andrew. [00:40:26] Speaker D: That's all I'll say. [00:40:27] Speaker B: I won't say his last name just because I have gotten permission about talking to him and everything. I just don't like to say people's last names without, you know, consent and just overall saying that Had a had a post on Facebook and the NHA had a statement. So I'm going to summarize this for you very simply. The NHA put out a statement because there was incidences that occurred this past weekend in Sault Ste. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Marie. [00:40:49] Speaker B: One apparent made a throat slash gesture towards an on ice official. Parents yelling inappropriate and abusive comments directed at opposing players. A hockey dad appearing on a video instructing players to intentionally injure another player. That's from the noaj. Check out the NOJ statement. SU today had a very nice post about it. You can have a link directly right to it and you can read it. It takes two minutes to read. It's very summarized and let's just say NOHA is not tolerating this behavior and there's quite the investigation ongoing. Now going to Andrew, Andrew mentioned very very short and sweet. I'm going to put this in a in a post on social media there was the gesture towards him that he is the on ice official that had the gesture towards him from a parent. And overall this past weekend demonstrated that what's going on in the game of hockey is absolutely unbelievable at these ranks and youth hockey. I grew up in a very tough era of hockey, very different where mental health, caring about feelings, winning didn't matter. Okay in terms of the player, it mattered through coaches. And there was a lot of issues that I saw as A player. I saw parents chirping, fighting stands, refs getting booed. And finally, these issues are being taken very seriously. And it's not just today they're being taken seriously. It has been for the past decade, which is long overdue. But never in my life have I ever really seen, have I physically seen anything to a drastic point where there's intent to injure. I've had somebody ask me on another podcast, has a coach ever told you to go hurt or hurt somebody when you play? No. And I'll tell you two reasons why. I never had those type of coaches, thankfully. And also, I wasn't that type of player. I wasn't the type of guy that was gonna go out and hit a guy. But what I'm sharing with you is what what was shared. And I'm going to share a quote from his post. It's people like you that are causing young people to give up reffing. Imagine if I was a teenage referee and you did that to them. What if they actually took your gesture, went home and did the unthinkable? How big would you feel then? Luckily, I've been through my share of in life to realize you're not worth my time or effort. We as refs do our best to call the game. And guess what? We're human. We make judgment calls based on the training that we have. If you think I did such a bad job, guess what? There's an officiating clinic every September. Feel free to sign up. On second thought, don't. I would never be able to work with someone who even has that kind of mentality towards a kid's hockey game. That is just one brief and there the other sentence is more appealing to dive into. But to give everyone a short synopsis, I mentioned the incidences that have occurred. I mentioned to talk the referee that had the throat slash signed against him through the glass here in Sault Ste. Marie in that tournament. This is unbelievable, people. It isn't an act of anyone being sensitive. This isn't an act of anything appropriate in any degree. You should be ashamed of yourself. Gone are the joy days of hockey. This makes me worried to ever put my son in hockey. And I'll speak as somebody who, you know, given my occupation, you know, I like to always make sure I have a good representation when I'm out. He handled this situation very well. And if someone though ever told a kid to hurt my son when I played. You don't threaten family. You don't do that. In general, this is absolutely absurd truths that I am reading this nonsense and I cannot believe what I am hearing. Parents should be ashamed of themselves. Coaches should be ashamed of themselves. This is kids hockey. This is a kids tournament. Absolute bullshit is what this is. And as I go to tru to kind of dive into this point a little bit, I know we got Brandon waiting to get into Top talk, top shelf, and well, we're going to have this topic be a little bit shorter. Myself and Andrew have been in discussion and we're hoping to have him on next week. So on the game sports podcast, you'll join myself and Jordan to talk about this issue and his take, especially from a referee standpoint. But I have so much to say that I can only say so little and repeat so little because I want to make sure I say the right thing and I want to save a lot of the emotion even for next week when hopefully everything goes to plan with him being on the show. Maybe we'll even do a live call in where people, if they want to call in. I've been thinking about it, peeps. So definitely keep an eye on some posts that we're going to do because I love that this got the attention that it did because this stuff needs to stop. You go to the rink, play your game, make it fun and enjoyable because guess what? Your kid's probably not going to. The NHL people just telling you truths. [00:45:29] Speaker A: Yeah, it was, it was very difficult to read. I saw the post on Facebook and then I, I saw the Suit Today article. What's good is that there's being. Is that there's light being shown on it and that it's being addressed to the media. Because if it wasn't and this behavior was just allowed to continue without any sort of repercussion or attention, like it's going to get to the point where somebody actually is going to get hurt. And I believe that, like seeing and reading comments of, you know, within the article and within Facebook, I believe there actually was a physical altercation at one of the games this weekend. I wasn't there personally. I just, I just read that, which I completely believe. I mean, I've witnessed it. I been involved in it off the ice. I just, you know, this type of thing is becoming more and more common. And if you're a parent and your child is in hockey and you are, you know, doing some of these things, why don't we just step back and ask ourselves, okay, why, like, what is the point? What is the point of making a throat slashing gesture at a referee? What is the point of Getting into a verbal, physical altercation with another parent because of a disagreement of something that happened on the ice. Let's say these kids are 7 years old that are playing. The memories that they are making in a weekend like that, they don't remember whether they won or lost. I played in tons of hockey tournaments over when I was a kid. I could tell you the ones that I won because I remember them and maybe some of like the ones that I lost in a final or lost in a semi final, like you know Dave, like in overtime, double overtime, like I remember those ones. But like at the end of the day in general, I still talk to a lot of friends that I made while I played hockey. And I remember hockey growing up as a very fond memory. It was some of the best times in my life. I got, I got co. Well coach, I got life lessons, I got to learn the game. I get to be friends. I got to look up to positive role models. That's what I remember about the game of hockey. So your 7 year old or your 8 year old, that is the memory that they are, that is what you are giving them. Not to win a U8 championship, not to, you know, berate other people or other teams or. No, they're there to play hockey. They're there to have fun. Especially in a recreational tournament like this one is like you said Dave, the amount of kids that are going to the next level or that are going to make it to pro, probably a handful. I mean at the end of the day it has to. There has to be a line drawn and there has to be meetings have consequences. Had one, one thing I will mention, I did catch a game this actually. Well, I caught a few games this weekend in one of the games that I did see. And again this is a house league game. It's. It's not rep, it's not triple A. This is kind of the main point that I wanted to make. I watched, I think this is where it begins. It stems from this. I watched one team play one player with five defensemen. So there's a rotation, Dave, as you would know, they played one player every second shift. So if you're, if you know hockey and you've grown up in hockey and you can figure out what that means, it means that there was no fair rotation from that coach. It was just the same player, albeit the best player going directly off the ice right on next shift. So taking one break and going on next shift. So the other four defensemen each had to sit an extra time in order for that Rotation to go throughout the whole game. This is a house league hockey tournament. We're supposed to be developing players, we're supposed to be making them better. And to do something like that at that level, just to me that's unacceptable. And I think that is an example of an event or something that happens that's controversial, that gets people fed up and it gets people frustrated and they tend to lash out, which is what we are seeing. So there are a lot of issues. Does that excuse the behavior? No. But as a logical person, you look for reasons as to why this is happening. That could be one. And that's just an issue that I saw that I witnessed personally. That's just a part of the whole big picture problem. Right. So I'm excited to talk to this person next week. Hopefully we can shed some light and yeah, as a person who's interested in getting back into coaching hockey, I don't know if this. I don't know if this wants to. To take me away from it or makes me want to do it even more just because of what I'm reading, what I'm seeing to try and break some normalcy back to the sport that I love. Not so many people love. [00:50:24] Speaker B: True, true. It's well said in that point you mentioned about coaching. I've been asked to go back multiple times and I don't because of time. And you bring up a point of this makes you want to do it more. I never thought of it that way. My first impression was this is pulling me away from ever wanting to do it and even my kid playing it. But true point saying that that's a very good point about how it should draw you more. [00:50:45] Speaker A: We. We need the positive leadership back. Right. So. [00:50:49] Speaker B: So what I'll say. Cause I know we for sake of time and we really summarize this like my first kind of rant went in different ways because trying to make sure that I got what I wanted out Summarize what was said. Say what was said. The incidents was said because there's a lot and to kind of touch on Trudes and I are reacting to an incident that occurred in Sault Ste. Marie at a tournament for under 11 hockey tournament between a referee U8 there was a tournament year in the Sioux and there was all these inappropriate unfortunate series of events that occurred and one thing that I like to make sure that I remind before we. We let you go truths and we continue on is like I mentioned we are planning to have you know things can happen but there's. We've had conversation about locking them in next week for our next recording next week on Tuesday. Andrew. But I want to make sure that I state that everything here is just absolutely disgusting to look at. You need to respect everyone around you and referees and coaches volunteer their time to support and give back to the community and be a part of your children's lives in a memorable way. And I think league's going to start kicking out players, sorry, parents, players, whomever, in regards that show these inappropriate actions and make it very serious actions right from the start. Okay? They really need to do that. And, and this is where you can take the elevated step to ensure that you address this seriously. And the NHA is going to be definitely being watched on this. And I know that they're taking it very seriously because of multiple contacts in there. The key word is that it is just a game. At the end of the day, you touched on a truth. It is the kids memories. I remember being in the hallways and hotel rooms, in the hospitality rooms, playing mini sticks, winning tournaments, mini sticks, being around my parents, being hospitality, maybe having a couple, you know, and having a good time and just being around friends. And you played against your friends, you knew these friends. If you played rap, you knew them. And at the end of the day, if you want your kids to go to the big leagues, if you want them to go to those next steps, or if you just want them to make a memory, whatever it is, this is your kid. You got to let your child make those decisions on what they want. But they're going to be influenced by what you do and what your actions are, especially as an adult. And any throat gestures over to a referee, anything that is violent in the hall, in the, in the hallway or into the, into the front, front lobby or during a game in the stands. At the end of the day, the respect that needs to happen is that you need to start getting back to respecting others and respecting those in the game and being held accountable for your actions. Respect referees, respect the coaches and coaches. Don't send out players to hurt other players. Compete, have fun and make it memorable for these kids. Because what I saw and heard talked about from this past weekend is so brutal to see. It makes me sad for the game of hockey, especially from being inside the community of Sault Ste. Marie. Very, very sad to see. But we're a small community. Everybody come through. And I love your point, Truz. I'm going to end it at that. Let's get the leadership back in there from a coaching end that needs to be there. Referees, you keep Doing you. Thank you for devoting your time and those people that want to be at the rink to create havoc and not create positive memories, stay away from the ranks. I don't want you there. And if I see you there, there'll be nothing more proud for me to make sure you get out of that rank and help Noha or help get rid of these, let's call it, plagues that go into the rink because it's about the fun and memories. It's also about the joys of the game and the experiences that you make and hopefully you go on to the next level. But if you don't, you create memories for a lifetime for your child and others involved. These are memories for referees, too. Okay, true. [00:54:41] Speaker A: It's. [00:54:42] Speaker B: Brennan's been waiting 10 minutes, I feel. I'm sorry. This, like I said, this segment here, I knew this. This episode we're gonna be had about an hour 20. All the stuff we got going on and this was a very. In a very, very big topic. When I made that comment about talking about on the podcast, I had messages saying people wanted to come on and be guests, people and friends. Thank you for that. Look, I wasn't just going to get people to come on without a plan. We'll have something for you next week. Sorry, I accidentally hit a button there. We'll have something for you next week to get a little bit more information on, especially from the ref perspective. Trudes, I want to say thank you for your opinion. Thank you for your time, my friend. And we'll be talking next week, dude. [00:55:18] Speaker A: See you guys. [00:55:19] Speaker B: All right, now that was Chuck a puck back, my friend. The guy who always patiently waits, takes his time and makes sure. So Brett and I thank you for waiting. Very passionate topic did we have there. Myself and Jordan Trudeau, very popular topic. Susaim Reed, let me tell you, I'm very excited to hopefully everything goes as planned next week. To talk about that a little bit further. And I had to take a quick breath here. Top shelf. Great way to end the show. We're gonna end it on a positive note because we got the Olympics around the corner. As we're recording, there's still a hockey game to be played tonight for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers. So we'll have a quick NHL update around the horn, but we're gonna be diving into the Olympics a little bit and it's gonna be more of a quicker top shelf segment today. But, Brendan, I want to. Where I want to start it is around the National Hockey League. [00:56:14] Speaker A: Okay. [00:56:15] Speaker B: There's there's instances that you kind of. You look at something and go, wow. I talk about the outdoor game last week. I talked about how there's been a missed opportunity for an outdoor game at the Rogers Center. I talked about Montreal, Toronto, Rogers Center. That'd be epic. There was an outdoor. There was a stadium. There was a game between Tampa and Boston and Vasilevsky and Swayman throwing bombs. I'm all for it, man. Like, I. I am. I'm loving the action. I know that fighting is a very hot topic when it comes to hockey. I have people that are advocates in the other direction, but I'm not playing advocacy for anything on either side. I'm just saying that was one heck of entertainment. So where I want to start my NHL around, around as an update is goalie fights this year. We got a couple under the belt already this year. And I think Vasilevsky, I think. I don't think Jeremy Swayman knew that Vascular Vasilevsky was a southpaw. And I also want to say thank. Hi, friend, how are you? So those are two things. Hi, how are you? Vasilevsky's a southpaw. [00:57:14] Speaker D: Yeah. I mean, two goalie fights in 2026 already. Right. And before that, I think it was 2020 in the battle of Alberta. I think we alluded to that a couple POD podcasts ago, but a couple episodes ago, rather, it was Mike Smith and somebody else, maybe Markstrom. Anyway, it involved. It involved Mike Smith. Talbot. Talbot. Thank you. And now in 2026, we had one in January, Bobrovski and Nadelkovic. [00:57:42] Speaker C: That was a bout. [00:57:43] Speaker D: And then that stadium series, man, that had everything. I mean, Boston was up 5:1, and the Bolts roll back and win in a shootout. Pasternock hit the post. And then, I guess leading up to that goalie fight, I think there was a point shot. And then Hagel, admittedly, kind of was given Swayman a little, you know, post whistle jab in the, we'll say lower body region. And Swayman just lost his mind. Like, he. He was incensed. So that kickstarted everything. But then it was almost just like a ding, ding, ding fight club. Swayman and Vasilevsky toe to toe. And Vasilevsky is a big boy, man. He covers a lot of that net. And Swayman, good for him. [00:58:22] Speaker A: They. [00:58:23] Speaker D: They both went at it. People love it when you see that, because even before 2020, that battle of Alberta fight, you hadn't seen one in years. I think people thought you never really see it anymore. Based on where the game is right now. Right like it's a lot of skill and you don't get really the rock em sock em hockey match anymore so. Right. Yeah. And I think it's, I think it's awesome. But yeah, a Rogers center stadium series, that would be unreal. Did you just call him Barry Bettman? If so. If so, that's perfect. [00:58:54] Speaker B: That's where our mind's at. That's how frazz perfect. That's how frazzled he has me. Gary Bettman. [00:58:59] Speaker D: No, it's Barry now. Barry. Barry from now on. [00:59:02] Speaker B: Next update. Besides that and the stadium series stuff, which you know, Barry Trots is out when it comes. Barry Trust. I think a Barry Trust legendary coach. Legendary in Nashville. Obviously it's Nashville. You know, he's made some contract signings that didn't work out to the ability that he thought it would with this team. And this team I thought would be in a different spot last year they got some heat, you know, they got some momentum. There's been improvement. But Barry Trots is no longer the GM for the Nashville Predators. And Ukapeka Ukonen is replacing is out for team Finland has been replaced by corporate Salo. Jonas Copper Salo of the Boston Bruins. I will be replacing a Capeko Okonen with the Buffalo Sabers. The hot Sabers, may I add Leon and Alex. Leon and UKA looking great. This Buffalo Sabers looking like an absolute wagon. And Jack Hughes still dealing with injury troubles. Doesn't seem like I believe it's beneficial, but I'll just say it lightly that he will not be playing for USA in Italy. So some news go around the horn, Sorelli. We'll get to that in our Olympic preview in just a minute. So I'm going to hold that for Canada. But just a little bit of injury news and as I mentioned, I think tonight being one of the last nights of the regular season is imperative for a lot of teams to really see what their layout of the land is going to be for the future of the season. If you look at teams like the Buffalo Sabres, the Boston Bruins, there's teams that are on that wild card outside looking in and people are like, well, Toronto, if they win tonight, they're only five points buying the Boston Bruins. Listen, Lee fans, okay, before we get into the Olympic chow with Brennan, I think we got to start thinking something, something. Okay, I'm going to grab some. If we're on video, I'm going to think of some. This is a box, okay? It's a box, okay. In this box you got items. Got items. Right. You Open the box, you throw the items on the ground. Okay? You know what that means. Now you got an empty box. Okay. In that box, maybe you go, okay, I want to keep this. Then you go, I want to keep this. And yes, that's an LCBO card. You keep some items. But it's time to say, okay, this has got to go. Oh, this is nice. This has got to go. Then this has got to go. So, Brennan, I want you to give me a list. I'm putting you on the spot of five teams that should be Sellers at the deadline. I already gave away one that I think should be, but give me five teams that you think should be Sellers. And to throw a loop in that, one of those teams has to be a team that believes they can still make the playoffs. [01:01:35] Speaker D: Great question. So I think the Leafs fall under that. I do think they think in their minds, like, we can still do this. But it ultimately come down to Trey Limit, because he's got a busy winter break to consider a lot of things. I think that he comes back and he just decides we're Sellers, then it's pretty hard to stay motivated that way. I mean, as a player, you're always going to show up and play the game and try hard. But if. If the GM is basically like, yeah, we're. We're Sellers, it's basically like, I don't have faith that we're going to make it. So the Leafs, to answer your question, as Sellers and a team that probably thinks they can still make it, a couple other Canadian teams. I mean, the Flames, the Jets sends are at that point too, Right? It's crazy. Yeah. [01:02:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:19] Speaker D: And then, man, I still think Florida gets in a take. I still think Florida gets in somehow, some way. Like, they're going to get Barkov back. Kachuk's going to be healthy soon. So it's. Yeah, the Canadian team is mainly like, there's. There's probably going to be. At this rate, it could just be the Oilers, but at this rate, there's going to be two Oilers and Habs make it, right? I think the Habs will make it. I think they've been solid and consistent all year, but I still think maybe Florida gets in some somehow. [01:02:47] Speaker B: So who do you have as that 15 that you think would be a seller at the deadline? 15. [01:02:52] Speaker D: What did I say? [01:02:53] Speaker B: 4. [01:02:53] Speaker D: So basically all the Canadian teams that are out right now, and my fifth. I mean, geez, like, I'm not looking at the standings right now, but that's the point. [01:03:01] Speaker B: On the spot. Yes. [01:03:02] Speaker D: Columbus. [01:03:02] Speaker B: Very good. Pick. Very good pick. I like that to give you mine very quickly and simply I'm going to say Toronto is in that. Sorry, that breaks my heart. And this is going to come as a surprise. Very much a surprise I feel like to a lot of people is that I'm going to go with the Seattle Kraken as another team who sits third in their division right now, the Florida Panthers. I'm also going to go with for number four, the Washington Capitals and of course New York Rangers. Those are teams that I'm looking at and the team that I consider that thinks they can get in, I'm going to say that that's the Florida Panthers. That's not even the team that I think is going to be the one that thinks they can make it. I think Toronto, there's going to be some decisions that have to be made in Toronto is depending on what happens tonight against Edmonton as another measuring stick game against a team in the playoffs will determine tree living's plans in the break because the they had some challenging wins against teams that were at the bottom. Vancouver and Calgary and Edmonton, a team that is second in their division and arguably the Leafs are three points behind Edmonton technically in points. A good measuring stick game for a team that's been back to back cup finals and you've had some very poor measuring stick games against Minnesota and other teams that I can think of right now. This game is vital for Toronto and this is I'm not going to get into tonight because by the time people listen to this the game's going to be over but Toronto's going to start thinking about a retool, not a rebuild. Brandon, you had something to add to that. [01:04:27] Speaker D: I was thinking on the drive home today I think Leaf fans would actually be cool with a retool. People keep going back to Boston last year and what they did, you know and I guess they're in a, I mean not slightly they're in a different spot because they've won before but just, just in terms of, of that passionate fan base that is like yeah, yeah, we, we know you can't, you know you can't expect to make it every year. [01:04:51] Speaker A: Right. [01:04:52] Speaker D: Like the at this point Leaf fans have been lucky and it's been a lock almost February every year in the Matthews Nylander era. It's like yep, who we play in the playoffs and it's almost just like you're, you're expecting it. [01:05:02] Speaker B: Right. [01:05:02] Speaker D: But the, the competition has gotten way better. [01:05:05] Speaker A: Right. [01:05:06] Speaker D: And I think if your Leaf fan is like let, let's Just, let's just, let's just be honest here, right? Like they don't want to be fed a lie of like, hey, hold on a second. Like we win tonight, we're five points out. It's like the worst spot to be is in no man's land. So that's basically outside the top five worst teams in the league. And a couple points out of a wild card spot, right? Because then you lose that top five protected pick to Boston right in the. [01:05:31] Speaker B: Carlo deal you get if, if you don't have. If you're picking six in the draft, Boston gets that pick. If you're fifth and under, you are getting that goes back to Toronto and the pick moves to another year to the Boston Bruins. And let's not forget the Leafs don't have a first this year, next year. So what's the plan here, tree living? What's the plan? [01:05:50] Speaker D: I think you just do a quick little retool. Fans are like, okay, let's accept it and then stock up a little bit because they are depleted with just like they don't have any. Anything right now in terms of picks or prospects. Fraser Minton's lighting it up with the Bruins right now. I think you pack up that. I'll call it a Cube U Haul. You pack up that Cube U Haul and you move on from the season because it'd be a typical Leaf thing to. Holy crap, wait a minute. We've strung a couple wins together. Comes down to game 81, 82 fall flat. So better to accept it and be honest with the fans. And I think if you're Brad Trey living, it's in the best interest of the team and keeping Leaf Nation honest to just retool sell. Let's get ready to rock next year. Maybe I sound like a defeatist mentality, but what do you think? [01:06:50] Speaker B: John Sebastian Auback and the Maple Leafs lost by one the year after that now, different draft system, different outlook. I think yeah, the second time was the lottery. Before that wasn't. I'll say to you right now that you're going to make a run for the playoffs. If you miss out by one point, typical Leaf way you're giving that pick to Boston, you've likely not made any moves. If you made that run and you're setting yourself back, you have to have the face and the harsh reality to know when it's time to open the wallets and it's not. I don't like Chris Pronger's take about bearing it down to the bones. There could be a Proper Boston approach but let me give you something and I really can't believe I'm saying this tree living is not the guy to do it I I this isn't a GM's fault or a coach's fault this is a roster problem. Lee fans understand this but tree living despite having a good cooking this off season he tried it's time that somebody young that has an Iserman type fingerprint I'm looking at Jumbo Joe Thornton would love to see Joe Thornton come be the GM in Toronto if he ever wanted to leave San Jose he's involved in that team. That is what this team needs that fingerprint of somebody that yeah Sarah Joe hasn't won but someone who is going to stay loyal to someone like Auston, Matthews and Willie sure you're stuck with those guys but build around them the right way by a retool approach change the mentality and why I mentioned JSO bath because of that one point that they missed the playoffs cost this team a higher draft pick. You get the hopes up of the fans. It's unbelievable that this very leafy thing to do that they probably are going to go for it and they're going to make the mistake of missing it and there goes their first round pick to the Boston Bruins again who will probably draft somebody they'll be a top six forward and be lifting the cup in 10 years. Say how it is Brennan. I know we're getting a little bit of time. We have Olympic preview to do before we wrap up so let's do you you I made you wait 10 minutes. We're already a little bit not over. We're still on time believe it or not because I predicted an hour and a half for the show so we still technically have about 10 more minutes left on the show here tonight. So I want to dive into the Olympics. I don't know if you had any final thoughts to add to that. Certainly do that when I go back over to you if you want to add anything but the Olympics. So we find out today that Sam Bennett is going to be making the trip. Thought he was injured. He's not just a little bit hurt. It seems like he's going to be playing. He was the replacement. Connor Bedard wasn't which I still don't agree with but still a lot of time left. There's still another game, there's still another night to pass and I know there's people on the weight but there is some Olympic hockey coming around my friend. We got Canada, we got the States, we got Sweden, we got Finland, you got some stacked hockey teams. So I mentioned the four nations, but you got Germany. You're going to see nations there. You're still not going to see Russia, which is. This is the Right, right, right. Which is the. And would love to see how Canada would play against a very good Russian team. Not going to lie to you on that point, but we're still seeing a very star studded Olympics. Friend of mine, Brad Jacobs is going for his chance to win another gold medal in curling. Love the Olympics and curling is one of the first sports that you'll be able to enjoy. So we're going to stick to hockey here though. Just everybody knows it's given time. I know there's a lot of suit ties to this show where they're going to be expecting some curling discussion. I'm going to let you know that when Brad's back from the Olympics, he will be coming on the show to talk about his reaction. Let's hope that he has a gold medal around his neck even though he has a tough goal against the Scottish team. Very good team. Those Scots are telling you right now, okay, Scotland's got something. They know how to curl, those guys. But hockey, we're going to see some very exhilarating hockey and we're going to see some blowout games, Brennan, we're going to see some games where you're like, oh boy, boy. But those are the type of games. I also would like to err on the side of caution. There might be a couple spoilers, might be some Cinderella stories. So Brennan, if you had a final point to mention about what I mentioned with the Leafs there, but your Olympic kind of what's what are you excited for this Olympics? It's going to be. We're finally have them, we have professional athletes playing in them. It's going to be a hell of a time. [01:10:51] Speaker D: I'm just excited to see McDavid finally get his Olympic chance. It's. It's his time to shine. I know Crosby is captain Canada, but man, like he is coming off that four nations final and this is just a little bit bigger, actually a lot bigger. Four nations was an appetizer and now you got the entree with the Olympics. And no doubt he was probably watching the golden goal in his new market home and now he's a major, major piece to that already super talented Canada team with Crosby and McKinnon and Doughty. Doughty and Crosby are the only guys who are on the Sochi and Vancouver teams that remain. [01:11:30] Speaker B: So I just can't wait. Puck drops. [01:11:32] Speaker D: February 12th. They're taking on Switzerland's the second game. Is it Czechia the first game? Maybe or Finland, but either way it's. [01:11:39] Speaker B: Going to be awesome. So what I big thing that I wanted to mention is you got a team like Italy who's on home soil, you got France who's got some young players, you got. Except Bellmir has got a lot of games. You got Lafayette. You got to watch out for Lafayette. They're. They're sneaky good. They're always good international play. Elvis Vers, England's and Svilofs and between the pipes, Denmark obviously got Ehlers, Freddie Andersen. Slovakia is a big watch for me and I'm going to mention I was really reading a lot of ESPN today and to some Olympic preview through CBC and one thing that I highlighted for myself was Slovakia because of their young studs that they have played such as Nemes and Self Koski. I'm a big Simon Nemet fan of the New Jersey Devils. I feel like that kid is an absolute stud. Germany, you know, you get Leon Draisaitl. That's all I gotta say about Germany. Switzerland you got. There's a lot of Devils on that team. The Devils love the fists. Hey, you got he sure. Meyer and Siegenthaler are the three Swiss there and you also have Roman Yossi who is going to be a stud. So when it comes to Switzerland and Slovakia, those are teams that I'm keeping an eye on. Switzerland is going to be one heck of a game to watch. Czechia, okay. This isn't the. This isn't the Czechia team from the world juniors. Okay. But they still have a big piece and Lucas Dostle again goaltending could be on the front there. Then you got the teams from the four nations. You got four Finland, you got Sweden, you got United States and Canada. We know these four teams and there's a certain people that are at home for the United States are my biggest highlights. That's Caulfield and Jason Robertson. [01:13:14] Speaker A: Okay. [01:13:14] Speaker B: And from a Sweden end, Willie Nylander, he's been playing really hot. He's going to be bringing that to the Olympics. And Finland, it's unfortunate they're going to be doing their Olympics without Alexander Barkov. So there's a highlight there. They do have depth where they have ajo. Hence they have some pieces there that are going to be very impressive. Soros is definitely the big piece that can steal them some hockey games in Canada. This is the best team in the Olympics, I'm telling you, for hockey I'm sorry, United States, there's no bias to this. They're coming off a four nations victory. They're coming off just an exhilarating that seemed like more than just a hockey victory. And I know the United States are going to have a lot to prove, but this is a team that had some retake. Green, Canada. Anthony Sorelli's out, Sam Bennett's in. This is a team that still should be considered the favorite and the superior in this tournament. When you have a team of McKinnon, Crosby, McDavid, Cale, Makar, that is unbelievable no matter what. Even though the US Matching a lot of that talent, especially in that their goaltending is definitely the advantage for the United States. But I think Canada needs to continue that momentum. And McKinnon and Makar, these are guys that are at the peak of arguably McKinnon's the best player in the NHL right now. He is telling McDavid that, hey, I'm here with you, okay? This is also my leak and he is a very. This is a team that is going to hold each other accountable. They're going to play hard for their country. Guys are in the Olympics for the first time. It's going to be very good to see. Now, Brennan, what I would like to do is I want to do predictions who we think is going to get a gold, who we think is going to get a silver and who we think is going to get a bronze before we wrap up the show. So for myself, I'm going to say flat out again, we don't do bias on the show. It's going to sound like it, but gold I'm giving to Canada, silver giving to the United States and for bronze I am going to give that to Sweden. Those are the 1, 2 and 3 picks underdog of the tournament. I'm really, really torn between Switzerland and Denmark, but just Denmark doesn't have the full pieces. I'm going to say Switzerland is going to be putting up a bigger fight than people think. They're not going to advance, but they're going to put up up a bigger fight. And they got some great pieces there in Switzerland. Brendan, how about you? [01:15:26] Speaker D: All I care about is, and the rest of the nations do too, is who gets gold, Canada, everything else. Don't care. Canada gold. Done. Lock it. [01:15:36] Speaker B: Love it. Love that, love that approach. Short and sweet, to the point, which is sometimes what I have a hard time doing. So Brandon, my friend, this has been a top shelf segments. Obviously we've had some extended talk here on the Game sports podcast. Today. So I want to say thank you for taking the time, but any final thoughts before we officially wrap up the show this evening? [01:15:55] Speaker D: No, sir. [01:15:55] Speaker B: No, sir. Let's go, Canada. Let's go Olympics. Let's. [01:15:59] Speaker D: Let's go. [01:16:00] Speaker B: Let's enjoy some great Olympic action. [01:16:02] Speaker A: Okay. [01:16:02] Speaker B: Very excited about that. All right. This has been the Game Sports Podcast. I want to say thank you to Brendan wants to thank you to Truz, and I also want to say thank you to Justin Heiko and to you, the listener, for taking the time to join the Game Sports podcast this evening on our extended version of the Game Next time you have us on for next week. We are going to have a very unique show per se next week, but we'll have some updates with the Olympics. But nonetheless, if you love the show, you like our segments, you want to interact, comment below, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, at the Game Sports Podcast, you can also check us out Spotify, Apple, wherever you find it on audio. You just search the Game sports podcast as well as video editions being on 91 network and check us out on spaces. So until next week, I want to remind you to keep your stick on the ice, swing your bats, catch touchdowns, drain your threes and shoot your shots. Booyah.