Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Everybody, welcome back to the good old hockey podcast. This is episode number 51. Me and Alan are laughing. There's a reason that me and Alan are laughing.
If you didn't look on our. If you don't follow our Instagram, this is your sign to go follow now because we got absolutely flamed.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: It was me, brother.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Yeah, but. Yeah, I guess it was you. It was both of us. It was both of us. But I'll roll a clip here soon. So you guys, if you don't know what we're talking about, you guys can hear it. But we put out a clip on Instagram for the last. Last episode. And again, if you didn't listen to that, you'll get some context. We were talking about the Four nations tournament last year or last week and Alan Hudson take on Canada. So I'm gonna roll it right now and we're going to read some of the comments that people laughed. After that, we'll talk a little bit about hockey.
But that's what this show is going to be mainly about, is the.
The assault that happened this week.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: This might be an awful take, right? I don't really care. I don't think Connor McDavid is going to be that much of a factor in this tournament. And I think Canada is going to be. I think they're going to be a competitive last place with Finland. Connor McDavid has not been phenomenal so far this season. He's Connor McDavid. He's been good. Right. Obviously, who's injured for a little bit too Susan to help him. That's the only thing they got. They got Nathan McKinnon, too. Sidney Crosby is definitely slowing down. He's not Sidney Crosby of four years ago. Right. They're going to be competing for last place. I don't think it's close. I think Sweden and the US Are going to have a. They're going to have a great matchup in the finals.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: That is my hot take of the century. I'm sure Canada is going to go on to win this tournament. Now. I just changed everything. I ruined it for the US I'm so sorry.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: I think USA being one is hands down pretty obvious. And if anything, you're coping. You're coping hard.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:02:07] Speaker B: So defend yourself. Defend yourself.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: All right, all right, all right. My Connor McDavid take. We're used to seeing Connor McDavid absolutely dummy. The league, right, Being being heads and head and feet above or head and shoulders above everybody else. Sorry, I can't speak right now.
He's up There in league scoring, he's like seventh place. I think he has.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: He's.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: I'm looking at it right now. He's got 41 or. Yeah, 41 points in 27 games. Right. Not bad. That's not bad at all. But for Connor McDavid standards, that's not great. You're talking about a guy who put up 150something points two years ago, or. Yeah, I think it was two years ago.
He's currently fourth in points per game.
When we filmed this last week, he was not fourth in points per game. I believe he was like seventh. Right. Pretty sure is. Behind Braden, Point Leon, Dry Seidel. Yeah, that was my take. I'm not saying Connor McDavid sucks. All right. People in the comments seem to think that I was saying that Connor McDavid sucks. Maybe it's because they didn't watch the full podcast. That's not what I was saying. But he has not been the Connor McDavid that dummied the league for. You know, it wasn't really that way last year. I think he ended up in third and scoring. The future of McKinnon were ahead of him.
But for the last, you know, seven or eight years, we're used. We're used to seeing him being head and shoulders above everybody else pretty much year in, year out. And he hasn't been that way for the last two years.
So that was my take on that.
We'll get into my goalie take in a minute for that clip. I feel like. Doesn't show me in the. In the greatest light. I don't really care.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: That's the whole point. Yeah. Like the. The way it's edited and like, obviously with clips, like, it's hard to get every point across in that minute that you have.
Was it framed in a way to get some people angry that live up north? Probably, maybe a little bit. Yeah. Spark some controversy. Get the. Get the conversation going. Because it is true that I do think I. Alan and I both agree that this Canada team is not as good as they think it is now. Yes. Sidney Crosby is not Cindy Crosby of four years ago. He's still Sydney Crosby. He's great.
But again, there's more to it. And, you know, social media is kind of just a way for us to get some clicks, get some, you know, laugh. And honestly, like, we're doing it to be funny. This podcast is not. We are not sports journalists by any means. We are trying to make you guys at home laugh. When you watch this show, we want you to laugh your Ass off and you know, call us idiots because we kind of are. And like, ultimately. So we're going to go through some of the comments. There was 268 of them.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Most of them.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Most of them were, we'll go back and forth. If you, if we overlap, we overlap. But this one was one of the ones that got me. K.J. weber said, Save this reel so I can come back after McJesus makes these men look like Timbits.
And immediately my American ass was like, there's no way. This guy just called us a Timbit. This guy called us a donut hole from Tim Hortons. There's no way. Canada is not real. I said that to him. Alan also said, I'll remember this comment when they finished last their best goalie putting up a.870 save percentage. He then informed me that Timbits are the form of mini mites in Canada. So makes sense, dude. But in the moment I was like, do you just call this a donut hole?
Loser. Canada loser. But yeah, what's yours? Next one.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: So I, I think my favorite. There are some great comments. There's. There's great chirps. I think my favorite one was we got to start putting tariffs on podcast gear. I thought that was great. Mainly because I didn't buy this microphone.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: And this laptop that I have is for work.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: So I didn't buy it yout know what, the tariff I like. There's such a trend now. Like anytime we put out a clip and just settle down in general.
Also, quick shout out. We won podcast of the year. Thanks to everyone that voted if you did. Appreciate you so much.
Gladly gonna wear that.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: Canadians.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: It wasn't any Canadians that voted. I guarantee you that. And honestly, at the end of the day, we're an American podcast.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: That's what we've been to the moon. You haven't.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: Yeah, that too.
That literally sums it up right there. We've been in the moon. You haven't.
And yeah, we're not a serious podcast. But yeah, that. That comment always gets me. But usually it's always like make podcasts equipment expensive. This guy who said that terrace was hilarious, which is.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: That made me laugh out loud when I read that. Thank you. What was the guy's name?
Mr. Luke Jodry 05. Thank you. That made that gave me a great laugh.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: It was hilarious. Also what's really funny, and this is a little political, not like bad political, but just in the sense of that Canada is currently getting tariffed heavily by the US with some stuff so the timing on it is impeccable.
But yeah, my next one is a gift that Aiden with two A's sent and it was gif of Timmy in a wheelchair who he was calling that.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: I. I have a feeling. I know.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: I don't know who it was.
Again, underneath that someone said law. Can't wait to repost this in February. Go ahead. Brad Evans, if you come back to us, glad we're living in your head rent free. All these guys, we're in their head rent free. All the ones that saved it. We're living there rent free. So you have another one.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: Speaking of rent free, I. We got a Michael Kennedy commented, who are these two dweebs living in their parents basements?
I'll have you know I own my house. You.
I don't live with my parents. They live in California.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Exactly. My parents live here, but I don't live with my parents. I rent out this room and pay money for it every week, every month.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: So on a weekly rent basis, week to week, baby.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Might be a little easier saving money wise. Like if you know you have to spend like. Oh God, that would suck. Never mind. Yeah, yeah, no, yeah. We do not live in our parents basement. I'm not even in the basement. I'm on the top floor. I'm actually in the master bedroom of my room.
Are you in the master?
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: You're in the master. I'm in the master of our own house. So yeah, you. We're not in our parents basement.
Mom, can you get my chicken?
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Where's my Timbits, mom?
Slayer Joe9025 said there's a reason you don't have s podcast. Assuming his fat Canadian fingers couldn't hit the A.
He meant to say there's a reason you don't have a podcast.
Listen here, buddy. I don't know if you can tell what this is between this guy right here and me and what we're on right now on YouTube or listening on Spotify or Apple podcasts.
But this is a podcast whether you like it or not. I've got a mic. He's got a mic.
And we're talking to each other. And you watched us, you gave us a view, you gave us a comment. And you know what that did that boosted our video more and got some people that actually enjoy USA Hockey to like it and followed us from it. So we do have a podcast. S pod. We do have s podcast. Thank you very much.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: We actually got a couple not maybe not support comments, but not complete hate comments which I was Honestly surprised when I, when that came out of my mouth and I was like, oh, that's gone on the Internet forever. If Team Canada wins this term, I'm screwed. But we got some comments of Green we had from Dr. Brock Landers. He said, decent take nothing about this roster screams were better than the other teams to me too. Thankfully, Russia isn't here.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Russia.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: That's what I'm really like. You look at the rosters, every team in this tournament's good.
It's a collection of, of. It's a best on best tournament, right? It's a collection of the best players from, from every country, at least from the countries that are participating.
None of these teams are bad. It's just Canada doesn't stand out normally. It's like you look at Canada's roster, you're like, yeah, this is gonna be. They're gonna win every game, five nothing and they're not going to let it a goal tournament. They're gonna have a very easy path to a gold medal. I just don't see that this year. And maybe I didn't portray that as well as I said, you know, they're going to be battling for last place with Finland.
I don't know if I really mean that. I kind of mean that, but I don't know. That's like, it's.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: I think, like, honestly what you were doing is you believe it could be true. And it's one of those things where if it happens in February, you bet your ass my fingers are going to be on fire in that comment section.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Oh, boy.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: If they finish last or even just if they lose to the U.S. if they lose to the U.S. like, there's still no coming back from that.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: I don't care if they finish last as long as they don't win gold. I'm gonna be talking some mad.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm excited for it.
Oh, my God. I didn't realize this username, but the next one I have is from hockey. Bukaki.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: I think I've seen that page before.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Have you? He's eighth in scoring in the league and missed two games to injury. Laughing face. He's also a two way defensive center. I think you guys, I think this guy's mom, I think this guy's mom was standing up when he was born.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: I saw that. That was a good one.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Oh, is he talking. He's talking about Connor McDavid.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: I would assume he's talking about Connor McDavid.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Connor McDavid, the two way defensive center is what he said.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: I don't know if I could consider him that. He's the best player in the world. Don't get me wrong.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: I just. I don't think he's a two way defensive center. I think you're kind of ridiculous for stating that you're talking about a guy who put up 150some points two years ago. Like, yeah, defensive player. But he's phenomenal. He's the best player in the world. I think it's.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Does he play?
[00:12:39] Speaker A: I don't think it's close. He.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: Does he play? Penalty kill.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: Sorry, I don't watch enough Edmonton Oiler games to know if he's consistently on the penalty kill. Something.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: I don't think.
Yeah.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Something tells me absolutely not. I think dry settle would be more likely on the penalty kill.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know. Comment down below.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: But yeah, we'll read it. Okay.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: I'll read it and laugh about it.
Yeah. From big, underscore R, underscore E, underscore D, underscore. We have. I can't wait to hear from this tard. After you will be hearing from me. I will be talking some. Yeah, honestly, I don't care.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: Shame on him for using that word in a derogatory term. How old are you? Yeah, mine. 1 11. Nelson. Levi Nelson Levin. That's funny. I was gonna say. What a name. Levi Nelson. 35.
What do you mean he's not been good so far? This podcast should end at this point. Honestly, calling this a take is like calling Splenda Sugar. It might be a take, but you are a R3tard. Whatever that means.
Again with the word. Oh, but you are R3 tarred 3D.
Type that out on your laptop and you'll find out what that word is.
Great use, honestly, great use of that to get past Instagram's.
What's called their.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Their algorithm filter system.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, good way to get through that, but yeah. So we're ending this podcast.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah. See ya.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Yeah, see you guys.
Yeah. Okay, we're. We're gonna end it, so.
Okay, you thought we're back. Just kidding. But yeah, calling this take is like calling Splenda Sugar bar. That was a bar by you, dude, I'll give you that.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: I quite literally said this ties into the next comment I got from Ryan Drohan where he said, definitely a hot take, brother. I'm aware. That's why I said this might be a hot take. It was a hot take.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: You admitted it in there. You said this is. I know this may Be an awful take. And like you clearly stated it.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: And if they were agreeing like milk, like, that's fine. That's why I say things because they. They get the people going. You know, like that Will Ferrell line. All right. Gets the people going, get the Canadians going.
But yeah, there's a lot of other good comments in there too. I think that's all the ones that I had screenshotted here. Oh boy. Let's hear, buddy.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: This is an awful take. Clearly you don't know much about hockey. Not sure why you even are talking about it on a podcast. Okay, Josh Mason.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: Let'S hear your take. Josh.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Yeah. What do you think Canada's gonna do? Like, truly, like, I mean, this team is just not. Not good. And we'll get to the goalie thing that you have another one. You're the reason no one listens to you.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: By the way, I've only been on the podcast for like two months. What the man?
[00:15:53] Speaker B: Oh, this one's good. Can you give me your drug dealer's number, please? I want to know what you're on right now.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: Yeah, it's gonna be 2. 08.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: We're on life, buddy. We're high on life. Don't disrespect the best because Sharf. Kyle. Haha. Dash. Awful take. Thank you, sir. That's all the ones I saved. But yeah, honestly, anyone watching, go scroll through that comment section and either defend us or you can agree with them.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Give us more content, baby.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Oh, there was a really funny one.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: There was someone to talk about that.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: I forgot to screenshot it. Somebody commented. What a nose.
I thought that was awesome.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that one was. Yeah, that one was crazy.
So yeah, we gotta love the Internet.
And yeah, if anyone's listening and wants to defend us, please, we need your help. Soldiers. I can only type so much, but yeah, that's all we got. We're banning the pod. No, I'm kidding.
Yeah, it was a. It was a take and a half. But again, like we said, I think we both believe it to be true.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: But yeah, I completely believe it. Canada. So I was looking earlier, I was looking at the stats, right?
[00:17:11] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Now given the stats on NHL.com. yeah. It doesn't go into like the advanced statistics of gold saved above expected and all that. Nerd.
Of like the major categories. I think most people would agree that save percentage is the most important one wins. Kind of a team stat. Gold goals against. I mean I would say kind of a team stat as well. If you're getting 40 something shots on a night, obviously you're going to let in a lot of goals. But among save percentage out of the 12 goalies in this tournament, Canada has goalies ranked 9th, 10th and 11th and save percentage, they have their best goalie statistically this year has been Sam Montebeau and he's rocking a.900 save percentage and I think it's like a 3, 3.0 something goals against average.
The only other goalie that's been comparably bad has been Jeremy Swayman, which yes, he's American, I get it.
But I believe Ottinger as well. Well, Connor Hellbach's like leading all goalie stats pretty much besides Anthony Solars and say percentage, he's second and say percentage. But Jake Ottinger is basically ranked top five in every other major statistic at least out of goalies who played above 11 games.
So I'm gonna stick by that. I think Canada's goaltending sucks and I think it's gonna cost him this tournament along with. I don't think McDavo is gonna have a great tournament.
We've seen him play in, in international play before. He's been great. But not make David great isn't really.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Like someone said in the comments too like this joke of a tournament and like it truly. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. But like it is not.
It's like an all star game but you wearing your countries and you know country like the pride where you're from, like I think it will still bring out competitiveness and I think we could see McDavid light it up. We very well could. He's McDavid, but I could be dead wrong.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: He could put up like I don't know how many games they're gonna play. He could put up like 20 points and however many games they're gonna play. It's kind of McDavid, right?
[00:19:27] Speaker B: It is. At the end of the day he's.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Also playing against the best players in the world. You see, you see the clips of him like you see all those, all his highlights, right? Obviously he's nasty. He's got some nasty highlights against good teams, right? A lot of his highlights are against like the Blue Jackets. There's that one where like one handed toe dragged a guy that I've been watching hockey for a very long time for all those comments who said don't and he's like toe dragging some guy I could never, never even come close to naming back in like 2016.
He scored that like one on four goal against the Rangers a few Years back. That was, like, the one year that the Rangers missed the playoffs in, you know, the last 15 years. Like, it's not like he's doing this against superstar rosters. Yes, he's gross, and he's gonna put up points. I.
I've kind of accepted that. That take is pretty bad and probably gonna age like milk, but I'm gonna stand on it. I think McDavid's gonna be very mid in this tournament. I don't think he's gonna. He's not gonna be walking back past, you know, Charlie McEvoy and guys like that, all to score on Connor Hellabuck. Like, I just don't see it happening. Sorry.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yeah, no, honestly, it's gonna be.
It's gonna be a good tournament. We're gonna see how it goes, but we're gonna move on from all the hate because we're going to focus on the positives.
One positive out of this last couple weeks is Connor Bedard. He. I will give it to him. He stepped it up since we called him out. He listened to us, he heard us, and he was like, you know what? Sean and Alan are right. I need to step up. I need to start proving who I am. And, you know, we've said before, like, he's on. He can only do so much with that roster that he has and his line mates. I'm sure you guys have seen the clip of him. I don't know if it was in. It was not an overtime, but it was like, crunch time, third period, and he walked through, like, three, four guys.
Yeah. He passes this to Tyler Bertuzzi. And Bertuzzi just rifles it wide. He rims it on purpose, goes the other way. Islanders take it down, score, game over.
So it's like that for Bedard, where it's like, he's gonna. He's gonna struggle on that team. But in his last five games, he now has seven points, two goals, five assists, an overtime winner on that. And I think it's good for him. But at the same time, like, my dad made this point, and it's a good point.
Your rookie year, guys like Macklin, Celebrini, and Mitchkov, who we'll talk about next week, they like you. There's not much. You don't know how to stop those guys because they lit up college celebrating, lit up, like, did what he did in Russia, like celebrity. You don't have any. You don't have any scouting on him. Bedard, same thing last year. You didn't have any scouting. You don't know how to stop the guy.
And now with the year in, you know, he's played the full season last year, now sophomore year. Those video coaches know what to tell their guys, how to stop this guy. Yeah. So, you know, I think that has a bit of a factor to play in his performance. And I think that's honestly why the sophomore slump happens, is because these guys now know how to stop you.
They see something that works and they're going to stick on it.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: And, yeah, here's something for the Canadians. This is going to be a good thing for the Canadians. All right.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:54] Speaker A: I think this year is actually kind of showing a different side to Bedard's game that, you know, when he came into the league, he was seen as generational talent. Right. Guy who's going to be the next, you know, Sydney Crosby, Connor McDavid type. Right. Or he's the face of the NHL for years to come. And he came in and his biggest attribute is obviously his shot. Right. He's got that insane shot.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: His release, toe drag, release, wrist shots is insane, crazy accurate.
He's had trouble scoring this year. I don't think it's, like, controversial to say that his shooting percentage has gone up since we last talked about. I think it was at like 5%. It's not 9%.
So it's. It's way up from where we were at before. He's taken more shots, but I think what's really elevated, at least from what I've seen of him, is his playmaking looks phenomenal.
I've always been kind of a believer that being the only guy on your team can kind of help you in certain situations because you're getting all the ice time imaginable. Like, let me just look real quick.
Last season as a rookie, he was averaging 20 minutes a game, right? Which is. That's nuts. It's a lot, frankly. I think Will Smith is averaging like 13 minutes a game. Backlit celebrating isn't even averaging that much time, actually. I think it might be. I need to relook at those stats. But, yeah, I think it kind of elevates. I think it can kind of elevate you to where, you know, you're getting all the power. You're getting power play one. He's probably on power play two, too. He's probably pulling the Ovechkin, where he just stays out the entire two minutes. He's the extra attacker in every situation, whether it's end of the game, goalie pulled or whether it's delayed penalty. Right. Like, he's the guy who's getting on the ice to go try and score a goal. So I think that that can kind of help elevate your stats. But this year you're in the same position. Right. But he's. It seems like he's elevating his teammates and I think that, that the Blackhawks, even though they're just as bad of a team in the standings, like the roster looks better on players, got a little bit more around him. Obviously he's got Taylor Hall, Tyler produce.
I don't know why I said that so weird, but it's just kind of from at least from what I've seen, I have actually watched a couple Blackhawks games this year. Like he's finding guys in spots you wouldn't expect a, you know, pure goal scorer. Like he came and touted as in situations where you wouldn't expect them to find him, if that makes sense.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:28] Speaker A: Like he's. He might not be as shoot first as he was last season. Where I remember there were some clips where I'm like, why would you shoot it from there? I know you have a fantastic shot and it's kind of like that.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Austin Matthews thing where. Yeah. You can rip a shot from, you know, outside at the top of the circle and it might go in.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: But like realistically speaking, he probably shouldn't shoot. And it seems like in. In this season from what I've seen, he's taking a more intelligent approach and looking to find guys that are open.
There is also the conversation about his face off percentage where it's God awful this year. He hasn't.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Barely wins a draw. He's. He's rocking under 30%.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Yeah. We've talked about it though. I don't think he's a center.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: No.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: Not a face off. Like he's also young. He's.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: Undersized. So it's like, you know, he probably gets out manhandled. I mean he's a strong kid, but yeah, you know, he's smaller guy. I at least like right now, I think the center position is really tough to play and to come in. There's a certain rookie that's amazing at center, but he, I, I think the center position is just, it's tough.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Celebrini has. I saw this stat. I forget if it was on espn. It was an ESPN asked that, but he has the highest, he has the highest face off win percentage out of like any first overall pick in the last 30 years or something like that. Some crazy like that.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: At least in the rookie season he's got like, he's rocking like a 48 face off percentage, which is higher than like McDavid was in like the low 40s. Crosby was at like 47 or something like that.
[00:27:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: And he's better than all those guys, which I find very interesting. Nathan McKinnon was on that list too.
Not saying that's gonna mean anything for the long term. Canadians don't get on me yet. But he is Canadian. That guy's nasty. I hope Macklin. So I wish Macklin celebrating made the team this year. I'd be all for him. I'd be like, listen, Canada's gonna win max. Gonna put up two points a game. He's gonna be Connor McDavid. No.
But yeah, I find that interesting. I think he's a natural center. Whereas Connor Bedard might be more of a. He might be a natural center. I just don't know if he's a center at the NHL level. I think he's more of a. He'll be your top point scorer, he'll be your best goal scorer, but he's more of a winger, power play type guy. Yeah. Which is not a knock on him at all. That's not saying he's like a bad player or anything. Kyle Connor is like the same thing. He came in the league playing wing. But yeah, it's. I don't know. He's an interesting case. I think he's going to turn out just fine. I think this lack of goal scoring early in his career is it realistically. It wasn't fantastic goal scoring like, oh, he scored what, 22 goals in 60 some games. It's not bad especially for a rookie. But I think it's going to help develop a more rounded game for him in the future where he doesn't have to be the guy shooting the puck. The only guy. I feel like I'm kind of rambling here. There. There are two guys in the NHL that I could think of that like, everybody knows they're gonna shoot when they have the puck. Puck. And they still somehow find a way to score a lot of goals. And that's Alex Vechkin and Austin Matthews.
I don't know if Bedard is necessarily a goal scorer like those two players. Yeah. But it's gonna help him fill out into more of like a well rounded, just all around offensive machine.
Yeah. It's interesting.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: It is. So we'll see. We'll keep following him. He's a hot name that you know all over the hockey world.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: And I think he'll turn out to be a great player. Not knock him at all, but yeah. All right, we're gonna move on to some exciting news out of the ncaa.
We haven't talked a lot of college hockey this year. We did a little bit last year, me and Galley, but I paid attention a lot because of Will Smith and Macklin Celebrini last year. Yeah. But the NCAA announced recently, a couple months ago, that they are allowing players from the CHL to play in the ncaa. Before that, it was not allowed because the. I think players get paid in the chl, right. They get like, sort of. They have like a small stipends.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I think that they have gear. Contracts.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: In the CHL specifically. And if you've got like tier two juniors and whatnot, it's different. It changes between team. But chl, they get stipends. They don't have to pay for housing. They'll have to pay for food.
Gear is all covered like that. They probably make some money on the side too, but.
[00:30:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So the NCAA for the longest time was always against payers. Players getting paid, athletes getting paid. And now, obviously, the whole landscape of the NCAA has changed with college football. Travis Hunter, the media luxitor.
Deion Sanders, Ashton Jennifer Heisman. He's a people's Heisman.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: Anyways, quick side note, Ashton Genti got robbed. He did.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Robbery is a big thing in New York City. And it happened.
[00:30:45] Speaker A: That's. That was. I watched that. I knew it was gonna happen. And I was like. I watched the whole ceremony. I'm like, they're gonna. Travis on. He's gonna get. They had the Shador. Sanders and. And Dion were sitting out there on stage with Travis Hunter, like, right before they presented the trophy. I'm like, it's gonna happen.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah. Not a football podcast. But yeah, I. It was depressing. It was. I had a bad Friday night and Saturday that was not inconducive to me. I think if Ashton won, I probably would have broken down and cried, to be honest. But anyways, we're not. This is not a therapy podcast either. So what we're talking about.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: The.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: Okay, so players in the CHL were getting paid money in the ncaa.
NCAA didn't like that, wouldn't allow him to play college hockey. Now they have removed that with, you know, the structure of nil and college football or in college sports in general.
Michael Misa, which actually, I'll back up a bit with him. He had. There have been talks that he was going to go to bu and I don't I don't think anything's been finalized yet, but they were talks that he was going to go to bu, and there's a lot of prospects right now that are considering taking that NCAA route after their, you know, young age and the CHL.
Michael Mies has been offered $1.4 million, reportedly in nil, to join Boston College. If I didn't say that already, which is just, like, for hockey.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: That's insane.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: I think it's awesome.
Boston College is, you know, a pretty big hockey school.
But it's interesting. Like, I. I'm curious what you think, Alan, just in terms of what the future looks like for that developmental progress of, like, playing in the CHL and then going the NCAA route because players like Macklin, Celebrini, Kale, McCarr, they all avoided the CHL so that they very well could have, but they avoided the CHL so that they could go play college hockey. What do you think the future looks like now for these two leagues?
[00:32:58] Speaker A: So I have a quick side note before that. So When I was 17, I went to a camp in the Whls Prince George Cougars. I went to their main training camp, and there was no shot in hell I was ever gonna make that team or. Or be anywhere close. Like, I'm just gonna be completely honest. I was. I don't think I was the worst goalie there, but I wasn't. I was by far down the list. Right. Yeah, it was a great experience, super fun.
But I was thinking about maybe trying to play D3 college hockey somewhere. NCAA, D3 college hockey. It was basically that or acha.
And one of the thing that. One of the things that I was warned about before actually going up there by one of the coaches that I grew up playing with for the Junior Sharks, Mike Janda, let me know that effectively, if I were to play a game that's seen as playing semi pro hockey just due to all the. All the stipends and whatnot.
Even if, I mean, in that situation, it would have been a preseason game, wouldn't have made the roster. Right.
But that's still seen as ineligibility for ncaa, or at least it was at the time, back in those. The 2017-18 season, which I find crazy. I've always found that crazy. Because youth hockey, there's, first of all, not a lot of real guidance unless you have a really good program that you play for.
There's not a lot of, like, real good, quality guidance about, like, the inner workings of this. Right. So unless you have, like, an agent or again, a top notch quality program that's gonna warn you about these things. You could seriously screw yourself over. I think this is nothing but a good thing for, for hockey in General. Canadian and U.S. hockey.
You see guys that like during their draft year, typically they're. Or the draft minus one year when they're 16, 17, 18. Right. Well, it'd be a late 16 year old or an early 18 year old. Right. But you'll see these guys light up in, in whl. Right. Or the ohl chl, just in general.
And then they kind of fizzle out after the next couple years, whether they continue to dominate at the junior level and then they make that jump to the AHL or the NHL if they, you know, if they're aged out or if they're not aged out, whatever it may be, and they kind of fizzle out a little bit.
I think this is going to be a really good kind of stepping stone.
The biggest argument against it I've seen is it's that, that it's going to take away from American hockey players. Right.
United people born in the United States. Right.
I don't see it that way.
Yeah, it might affect like guys who play, you know, like NCDC Junior Hockey or just somewhere like the Tier 3 or the. Yeah. Tier 3 NA3HL. There we go. Or like that.
[00:36:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:13] Speaker A: Those leagues like, but they're not really advancing players to Division 1 college hockey anyways. A lot of guys, Americans and Canadians who are going to play in college hockey go play in the bchl.
[00:36:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:26] Speaker A: Like Penticton. The US Advances or the USHL or the, the null. Right. Like you see guys who get advanced from, from these American leagues or the Canadian leagues that are lower.
Kale Makar is a great example of that. There's no reason why he got drafted out of the BCHL other than NCAA didn't want their players going and playing, you know, tier one juniors. And in Canada, Kale McCarthy lit up the, the WHL or the OHL before going on to play NCAA hockey and it makes no effect. So it's. People are saying that it's going to be a problem. I think are just overlooking the fact that the good American young players, the good young American players will just go play in Canada too.
[00:37:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:14] Speaker A: Like you're not seeing. Yes. You might see a cutback of like the mid tier talent guys who are playing in, in. I said mid tier. These guys are all elite hockey players. Right. If you play college hockey, you're gross. But like the, the guys who go and they they have a full, you know, four or five years, whatever the eligibility is now for NCAA hockey. They have a full four years of, of college hockey and then they go play in like the ECHL or something like that.
You might see a cutback of Americans doing that because you're gonna have more Canadian players in the American system. It's just how it's going to work.
That being said, I don't think it really takes anything away because the, the best Americans, the guys that are going to go and become superstars or regular NHLers, they're just going to go play in Canada until they're 18 and then move over to the States to play college hockey. Like, yeah, that's not going to change. So, yeah, I think it's overall good.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: I do too. I think it's a good thing. I think we're going to see the expansion of more Division 1 hockey programs because they're going to need it. Like these players that come over, I think it's overall for the game of hockey, it's great. I think these players that stick around in the whl, chl, all that stuff after they've been drafted, I don't think that the competition in the WHL or just in the CHL in general is good enough for development. I think having these players be able to play four years and be 23, 24, like, I don't think it's going to hurt the AHL at all. But I think that this is going to be another feeder system and we're going to see more players kind of make that jump. Yeah, maybe some players come into the league for the first time when they're 23, 24, which isn't very common now. But like, I mean, Even like the NFL, like the NFL, they draft players and the NHL draft prospects, you draft a kid at 18 and hope to God he can develop NFL roster. They're drafting these 21, 22 year olds. Some of them came, came rising 24 or 5 year olds.
They're drafting players that they can use right away.
I don't think the draft age is ever. I don't think it should change.
But I think as. And if NCAA hockey grows, I think we could see one of those things where it's, you know, maybe a year removed a year. I don't even think you need to go to a year in college though, because it would, it just, yeah, that would make sense for hockey, but I think it's going to be a great developmental process for these players and we're going to have more College hockey teams, which is awesome.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: This might be another interesting take that some Canadians will get mad about because they're going to be like, oh, our best prospects are ready to go at 18. They're ready to go be NHL players at 18. Shut up. No, I've never understood why the NHL Draft so young. You look at every other, at least American, North American pro sports league called baseball, basketball, you see it sometimes where guys are one and done.
Or you used to see before the one and done rule. I used to see guys.
They're really good.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah, but they're. They're still like 19, 20, 21. Like they're older.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Yeah. They draft older players too. Yeah.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: College football is interesting because guys get drafted and they're older than me.
Yeah. Which I get. Because, you know, you go spend a season as a red shirt and then you get injured for a year in the first couple games and you get another red shirt season. And then by the time it's all said that you get five years of eligibility, by the time it's all said and done, you're 25. Right?
[00:40:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: But like, that makes more sense in my opinion, because you, when you're drafting a player, you already know what you're gonna get, right?
[00:41:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: If a team drafts Ashton Genty, which I hope to God it's not the Cowboys, I have a feeling it will be the Cowboys. Looking at the makeup of what teams are going to be, at least right now, going to be drafting, where they're going to be drafting, it's going to be Cowboys and I'll fall to 12th, which I find crazy. I mean, but not a football podcast. But like, you're drafting a player, you know what's going to happen, you know, you know Ashton Genti is going to be your starting running back for, you know, four or five seasons, right?
[00:41:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:41:34] Speaker A: Whereas in the NHL, you're gonna draft a guy. Look at like, yes, Barry Cottonie. Emmy is the most recent one that I can think of that's like old enough to where you can tell what they're going to be for the most part, but still young enough to where it's like a recent memory.
That guy was drafted third overall by the Canadians.
That guy's not a third overall pick.
[00:41:55] Speaker B: No, you.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: If you're drafting third overall, you want to be able to pick a guy who sure fire going to be one of your best players for years to come. Yeah, right.
[00:42:02] Speaker B: Well, that's, that's the whole thing with the draft. Like, you're eliminating the bust, the bust potential I think it's a good thing. Yeah, I do too.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: Guys get drafted who are going to go on to be fantastic players, and.
[00:42:16] Speaker B: There'S players like the Bedards and the Celebrities and the Mitchkovs, like that don't need that extra development year in college, but for a majority, there's seven rounds in the NHL.
[00:42:29] Speaker A: You can commit to the NFL Draft at like 19.
[00:42:33] Speaker B: Yeah, declare.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, declare. Pardon me? It's like, it's not like it has to be, oh, you have to wait until you're, you know, 21, 22 to get drafted. You just have it to where they can get drafted later. And it's not seen as like a bad thing to get drafted later.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: If you just make it so that you have to declare for a draft.
You know, you can see you could have seen a Mitch Cobb go play, you know, three years in Russia before even getting drafted and then come over immediately be an NHL superstar.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that conversation of like the age is a whole nother episode of itself.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: Yeah. We could have a 45 podcast.
[00:43:09] Speaker B: Yeah, we could. Yeah, exactly.
But I mean, at the end of the day, I'm super excited to see the, the future of college hockey. I think it's a very slept on sport. It's really only in the east coast. I mean, we have some teams out west like Colorado and asu, but like outside of those two states, like there's really not, not anything. And I think that's going to change with this expansion. And it's not going to be overnight, but it'll be in the next 10 years. We're going to look back and be like, the Frozen 4 is going to be like an amazing tournament, which I'm excited for too.
And I don't think it really takes away from the CHL that whole much. I think it just again just, it grows the game, it gonna expand, let more players play at a high level.
You know, the NA3 is now going to be able to take players like me when I was 18, like stuff like that where you could have players go off and just keep playing hockey.
[00:44:05] Speaker A: That's all they want hockey play longer.
[00:44:08] Speaker B: Yeah. These kids that go to the CHL in the past are done with their hockey career and it's like, okay, I don't have an education, like now what? You know, and now the chl, another.
[00:44:23] Speaker A: Fun tidbit about that. So they, they will cover a year of your college for every year that you played. So if you play from 16 to 20 in the CHL, it's only for Canadian college. But you can go play. I believe it's called U sports. Yeah. You go play U sports for four years or whatever. I mean if you play for two years, you go play youth sports for two years. Play hockey in college in Canada.
I think it might also.
I don't think it will help grow you sports hockey. Right now there's zero comparison. Like yeah, you sports Canada versus NCAA college hockey. Like you sports Canada is a bunch of the guys who didn't make it in.
[00:45:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:03] Speaker A: Out of the WHL who played four years. Whereas NCAA hockey is, is kind of the pinnacle of. Of, you know, you. Not a youth level league, but like a younger person league. It's the pinnacle outside of like pro. Right.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: At least my opinion. I'm sure there's going to be some Canadians who get angry about that in the comments about me saying that.
[00:45:24] Speaker B: No more.
[00:45:25] Speaker A: I don't think so much better. No. They're 14 you.
[00:45:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
No, I don't think there's any Canadians listening to this podcast after everything we've said. I think we scared them all away. That's fine. We love you Americans that are listening and if you are Canadian listening and still listen to us, we still love you too.
But yeah, that was episode 51. Go follow our Instagram because you know, you could go see those comments, everything. There's going to be more in the future if you listen to this point. We love you. Thank you. Thanks for letting us win best hockey or best best Podcast of the Year. The Settle Down Awards.
And also you can go buy merch. We have merch, by the way, if you didn't know that link down below. Yeah. Will Smith, celebrity. Pretty cool shirt.
Go check it out. Use code GOHP15 all caps. You'll get 15 off. Little secret there, Alan. I will see you tomorrow at our Billy game. Hopefully it's not a repeat of last year last week. Yeah, can't have that.
[00:46:26] Speaker A: Tough game.
[00:46:27] Speaker B: Tough game. But everyone, thank you for listening and we'll see you guys next week.
[00:46:32] Speaker A: Peace.
