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What is going on?
Here's Chris with your host, Julian McKenzie.
Part of the day.
I promise we will get to hockey on this Monday edition of the CJ show.
It's asked CJ day.
I know I said we're going to have it last Thursday.
Tobbing wouldn't permit that.
We're going to get to questions today.
We will get to some news and notes around the hockey league.
Michael and Lauer, now the owner of the Ottawa Senators, some Calgary flame stuff.
But CJ, I would love to know, as I know you, just like myself, enjoy football Sunday.
Where were you when you heard about the biggest news of the day,
which was the confirmation of a relationship between Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift?
I laugh because it's funny how this story has taken the world by store, apparently.
Did you know they announced the Super Bowl halftime show,
for Forber, in the wee hours of the boarding?
You might have forgotten about that, completely swallowed away by Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift, dating.
Yeah, I was on my couch in my living room watching the game.
I actually have my homes in Kelsey on my one fantasy team.
So if I got a chance to watch the sheep's play,
that's a fun game for me, fantasy wise.
So I was extra pumped because I knew as soon as she was there,
that they were going to find a way to get him a TD in that game.
I mean, it's a pretty safe bet anyway, given the way that those two kind of roll.
But yeah, what a thing, man.
And then it was obviously all over my jeep feed.
I'm sure the X-files were lighting up with all that stuff too.
I wasn't really on Twitter much yesterday,
but yeah, it just made me think.
Like, what happens if she ever came to an NHL arena?
Like, what happens?
Because it was such a big story.
Like, we're not even going to throw out a potential name about player,
because it's not so much important who our partner might be.
But like, I mean, I guess it maybe would if it was a frontline,
someone might get a little more attention.
But imagine Taylor Swift had an NHL game like that.
That would go bananas.
I mean, it's not like she's never been to an NHL game.
And like, you can even go back in time.
There was an ad for tickets done by the national predators.
And Taylor Swift is in the ad.
Someone posted, actually, this is another reason why we're doing the segment.
A few people sent us Taylor Swift related questions for Ask CJ.
And I swear there is a gift where it's her and I think it's Jimmy Fallon.
And Fallon is wearing like an islanders jersey.
And they're like doing some weird little dance in the crowd or something.
But like, Taylor Swift to hockey.
I mean, maybe now if she shows up now with like Travis Kelsey,
maybe everyone loses their minds.
But like, I don't know.
Yeah, yeah, right.
Maybe it would still would.
But it's not as if like it would be this completely new thing
for Taylor Swift to show up to hockey.
I think she likes hockey.
I'm inclined to think so.
I mean, I have no idea.
But I will say this is this thing played out so publicly too, right?
Like I remember Travis Kelsey talking about trying to get the wristbands
where when he went to her concert in Arrowhead a few months ago.
And then all of a sudden there's little murmurs that maybe they're together.
And then you get the ultimate confirmation.
I saw one of the NFL insiders.
There's a show over which one said like I don't even like are we being pumped here?
Like no, even those for sure.
I guess if it's real, but you know, I saw them leaving the stadium
to get it last night on IG or whatever it was.
So and we live in we live in a strange time.
I mean, Taylor Swift's probably the biggest celebrity pop figure in the world right now.
I mean, based on that that tour and all the money.
And then you know, Kelsey's one of the best NFL players.
Obviously, the NFL's the King among North American sports.
This is this is a true power couple.
It's hilarious though to see these two worlds collide.
Like there are people.
I saw the screenshot on from Reddit this week.
We're in the Taylor Swift Reddit.
They are debating who the greatest tight end of all time is.
I don't know if it was supposed to ever not, but it's funny.
Like the worlds are converging.
Like I'm sure there are Kansas City fans and football fans
who are tapping into Taylor's discography.
And there are Taylor Swift fans who are thinking, oh,
Travis Kelsey and Patrick Behoves.
What's that duo like?
It's it's hilarious.
I think it's a lot of it.
And I saw people already saying like, what's their breakup song going to be like?
Because we know she's we know she's famous for documenting the trials and
travails of her love life.
Not that I'm predicting a breakup.
I don't mean look at this is this is way beyond my permeate.
We're probably like two minutes deeper.
Longer on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey than we should be.
But I get that.
But but anytime you get to sound like a human on these topics
that have nothing to do with your actual purview, that's when gold shows up.
So we have to do this.
We have to try.
We have to try.
Well, I mean, look at they both have crazy lives.
It's going to be it's going to be hard for that relationship to last.
Just given the demands of their professions and the travel and all that stuff.
So maybe maybe she'll be writing a story.
But like writing a song about watching a Chicago Bears get their ass kicked one day or something.
If we see the next album, a song titled Travis,
we don't need to figure out what that's all goes about.
For sure, but I will say this though.
Imagine if and I'm just like you, I'm not going to put a player there.
But if Taylor Swift was dating an NHL player, I'll even have this in a Canadian market.
What would I imagine what it would be like for PR teams, especially for Canadian teams,
having to deal with their player dating a mega superstar.
That is like well beyond their not just jurisdiction,
but like beyond their manpower at that point.
How would we handle that?
Like, would we let that be a big story?
Is overdrive going to talk about it in a Jeff O'Neal be like,
this is a distraction?
Because someone's going to do it.
Someone would do it.
Oh, I mean, I'm not saying it's Odog.
I don't know who would be and like we're deep in hypotheticals here,
but it would be a big story.
And I'm guessing for that PR department,
like they wouldn't know what to do.
All of a sudden, like people magazine is putting in like requests for interviews.
You know what I mean?
Like all of a sudden you're getting like a different portion of the media conglomerates coming at you
for access or for interviews.
I mean, we saw the little bit.
It's funny.
It didn't involve a relationship,
but Matthew Kuchuk became sort of a big enough player
in last year's playoffs that I saw him getting some sort of attention
from the maybe non-traditional hockey media.
So it happens a little bit,
but I would hope that whoever that was, whatever that was,
especially, I mean, look, they clearly want to be public, right?
I mean, she didn't have to be at the game.
You know, like I feel like they are comfortable with this being kind of what it is.
So if it was the same circumstances with a hockey player
and that person wasn't looking for privacy,
then why not?
I mean, they approach it differently, right?
Like Morgan Riley is in sort of a Canadian power couple with Tessa Virtue
and it's funny actually on the opening day,
Leafs training camp, he was asked the question
about sort of what he's learned about competition from his partner.
And he's like, you know, I don't talk about this much, basically.
And he said, needless to say, I've learned a lot.
But, you know, the way they've chosen that is they're largely
keeping their business between them.
And I think that's fine too, because they have big social media channels
if they wanted to blast it out there.
I feel like Taylor and Travis wanted blasted.
So it was with a hockey player who wanted that attention.
I mean, I don't think we'd be ready for what it would be so strange
because we just don't get those kind of stories too often in hockey.
I think we'd almost celebrate that player
because they want to make themselves public.
They would want to put themselves out there.
Like, the only other player I could really think of in my time
who ever wanted to do anything like that was PK Sue Ben.
And now that he's retired, he could just do whatever he wants.
But if we had an NHL player today who would willingly, you know,
I mean, look, I'm sure there were a lot of NHL players
who would want to date Taylor Swift.
But they would willingly want to engage with the PR machine behind it
where you have to be public in a certain way.
Like we as NHL people would be looking at that player
and being like, well, if he wants to be public with this,
like, imagine how we might feel about other stuff.
And maybe it's not the same thing.
But like the idea of an NHL player wanting to be front and center in public,
it is something that we would consider strange
because NHL players do not have that in their DNA for the most part.
You're absolutely right.
And that's where the distraction conversation
inevitably would follow in some portion of that team's media, I would think.
Just because it is unusual.
I mean, way back when, this is a freaking history lesson.
We did like a little song for this.
But when Wayne Gretzky got together with Janet Jones,
now Janet Cretzky, I mean, she was a pretty semi-high profile actress
and they had almost like a royal wedding style wedding.
Like it was like broadcast live on television
and I remember crazy dress with like a 30-foot train on it.
Like it was, it was a pretty, it was a significant event.
When those two got together and we're quite public.
So I mean, I guess every couple of generations
that happens, you're right, P.K. Suban.
I'm trying to remember the name of his ex, but she was the skier.
Lucy Vaughn.
Lindsay Vaughn, you know, they were pretty public about the relationship.
So it does happen from time to time.
Mike Connery and Hillary Duff.
I want to part of time.
Yeah, it's not, it's not as though it's completely uncharted territory.
I guess what it is though is right now we're talking about
probably the biggest individual celebrity on earth
crossing into the sports realm.
Insider J. Money asks, describe the Taylor Swift Travis Kelsi rumors in NHL terms.
I mean, you don't have to be like, I guess it would be equivalent to like dating someone
on the Tampa Bay Lightning.
I'm thinking of a team, a team that's one or been to multiple championships in recent years.
So the lightning might be the closest thing to the chiefs right now.
And then obviously Kelsi is one of their biggest stars.
So pick one of the three or four biggest stars in Tampa that,
I don't know if any of those people are single, uh, and end up with with her.
Maybe it's something like that.
So I appreciate you trying.
So yeah, it's like, you know, Nikita Kutorov or something that's up.
Braden Point shows up with with Taylor Swift.
That's probably the closest we can get.
That is pretty good.
Uh, someone even asked like Taylor needs to buy an NHL team, uh, but which one, uh,
you've been asked also with the comments, uh, which your favorite song and
era from Taylor Swift?
Like people went in on the Taylor Swift part of the Ask C.J.
prompt last night.
I, I love a lot.
I think all too well might be my favorite song.
Hmm, my favorite Taylor song.
But I, I like a lot of them.
Honestly, I, I, I, I've put this out there before.
I'm, I'm a, I'm a Swiftie.
Yes, you have put that out there in almost every degree.
Not to the degree.
I'm going to spend two grand on tickets when she's in Toronto next year.
But I do, uh, I do appreciate it.
There's a fair bit of Taylor on my Spotify.
I'm like, most played songs.
Do you have a favorite Taylor Swift era?
No, I don't like Taylor.
I think, I think the era is basically just,
it's basically like asking what your favorite album is.
Like if you have a favorite, yeah.
But I think, I feel like to have a favorite era,
it's probably more the people that grew up with her.
Like I was already, I was already an adult when, when she came around.
So like, I feel like I don't have the same attachment in that way.
But for some people, it's probably like, well, I love Taylor when I was in high school,
or you know, when I was in college going through this.
Like I feel like, I feel like I have to be younger to have a certain attachment to the era.
Okay. All right. One more thing before we get to DB.
So if Taylor Swift, if you were essentially too old for Taylor Swift to appreciate that era,
or at that time, who was like the pop star growing up for you that you
like completely enamored with?
I don't, I was never really into pop stars.
I would say like as a kid, okay.
I, I was definitely going to look a lot of bands.
Like I loved radio head for a big period of time.
Saw them in concert and they were sort of popular in my high school slash university days.
But I was never.
Boy bands were a big thing kind of in that era, right?
Like factory boys were huge when I was in high school.
But I just wasn't in spice girls.
And you know, it's not like, and so I didn't, I didn't hate those bands,
but I wasn't obsessed with them if you know what I mean.
I just kind of, they just kind of existed somewhere out here for me.
So I was, I was in a more moody kind of music.
I went through definitely an emo phase.
There's a band called dashboard confessional.
I really liked them for a period of time.
Way back when.
But the good news is I could still listen to radio head.
And, and I, I don't regularly like the tragically hip as a kid, obviously.
And still, you know, good summer tunes.
Still from the hip.
If you're ever somewhere on a dock and still still fits, right?
Hits, right?
Love a band called The National Still Going.
Saw them in concert recently, a couple weeks ago in Toronto.
But I don't know, I know, I don't, I never love the biggest pop star
or in the world.
I don't think let me, let me tell you what, let me, let me change it then.
What about celebrity crush?
That's close enough.
It doesn't have to be like a singer.
It could be just like, you know, celebrity crush.
You might as well be.
It might have been posh spice, actually.
That's interesting.
You say that considering what you said about boy and girl bands.
Well, it's one thing to be obsessed with the music,
and another thing to be attracted to someone
or to have the crush aspect.
I mean, posh spice.
I mean, I don't even, why am I even answering this?
This is just nothing.
There's nothing that can come from this.
You like the spice girls.
I like this.
I was, I was legit going to ask you,
which like spice girl were you like crushing on the most?
Then you answered that for me, posh spice.
Which spice girl would have been your choice?
I mean, oh man.
I like, I mean, I wasn't like a big like spice girls person
growing up, but like my sisters might have been into them,
and maybe I sporty spice was cool.
I was thought sporty spice was cool.
Yeah.
Shout out.
If you were, if you were of a certain era, like age in that era,
though, you would have had to answer that question.
Absolutely.
Because that was, that was like actually a thing
that was discussed.
And I've been like, I don't know, at least.
Because they were, I think quite intentionally,
you know, maybe the way they were marketed,
is they're all sort of individual and different, right?
And so it was sort of, it was almost like, what?
Yeah.
Anyway, this is, this is preposterous.
Like, this is the end of the podcast.
I love this.
We will get to other HL topics after you could bet that we take.
Can we get to any so far?
Not really.
Oh, man.
Okay.
I'm glad we did that.
Um, let's get to DB.
And we'll get to some actual serious hockey doc.
Let's do this.
Welcome to you.
Combete that.
David Bastel is here with us.
Remember to hit up sports interaction.
dot com slash SDPN for all of your gaming needs.
DB, we're going to take a look at the central
and the metropolitan division.
Who do you think's going to come out of the central this year?
Well, heavy favorites.
Of course, the Colorado avalanche.
They're also Stanley Cup favorites.
As you guys know, uh, it's almost like, uh, uh,
I make goods on next of a last season.
Is what a lot of odds makers are looking at currently.
Sports interaction at 226 for Colorado.
Uh, three for the Dallas stars in Minnesota in there
with a respectable six 6.2 somewhere in that range.
Those are the three.
Playoff teams, I guess they're deeming them, uh,
Chris, I, I don't know.
Is this, is this a year that the avalanche are healthy?
And they kind of, you know, uh, show teams what they probably
should have done last year.
I think it is, you know, for me, though, they're still down
that class from where they were when they won their cup two years ago.
Yeah, um, you know, that's just a salary cap.
It's not mismanagement, right?
Like that, they, they lost good players.
I know they've made some more moves.
To try to, to fill in around the superstars that, that, you know,
helped them win that, that cup championship.
But I, I don't see them at here above everyone.
And so, you know, I, I don't like going with the favorites in this category.
So I, I think I'm more inclined to actually lean toward the Dallas here.
If I, if I was putting my, my thoughts somewhere,
it doesn't mean that the Colorado might not win another title,
ultimately, but I also, as, as you know, from the, the, the themes,
I question how much teams really care about winning the division at times,
especially those that have had a lot of bigger success.
They, they know what the big picture has in store for them.
So DB, what about the Metro?
You know what? Very similar to the central.
It's all about the Carolina Hurricanes.
Same sort of odds.
A 2.8 New Jersey's in there at about three to one.
New York Rangers four to one.
Looks like a three horse race for the most part.
Chris, but, uh, you know what?
A lot of, a lot of people pointing at the Hurricanes saying,
you know what, put up or shot up kind of thing.
I, I get that for sure.
I mean, this is, this is such a toss up right.
Went down to pretty much the last day of the season for this division last year.
This is a big New Jersey Devils podcast,
because we were in early on their, on their rise.
So I want to be true to them, but, but, yeah,
I wonder about the Rangers with the new coach bump.
You know, Peter Lava, you let, to me,
as someone who's had a lot of success,
especially early in his 10 years with his teams.
You know, maybe this is the year that they, uh,
jump up and score someone, uh, a division title.
You know, between this podcast and the Steve Dangle podcast,
there's a lot of New Jersey fans.
A lot of New Jersey love.
I know. I know. I know.
I get it everywhere anytime I come on with you guys.
I got to, I got to get myself a huge Jersey.
I might have to do the same.
Uh, don't forget to check out sportsinteraction.com,
slash SDPN for all the best odds.
Before game in game and the best props,
sportsinteraction.com slash SDPN.
Thank you, DB.
Thanks guys.
As promised, CJ hockey topics.
Let's start with the Ottawa Senators and, uh,
Michael and Lauer, uh, officially being, uh,
named the Senators owner, uh,
that came late last week.
We're still in the early days of the and Lauer era.
I keep using the word era.
Your thoughts on Michael and Lauer,
your thoughts on how we, uh,
spoke to the media late last week and, uh,
the direction that he wants to take the Senators.
Well, it's pretty exciting times in Ottawa.
I mean, it's, it's hard not to see the,
the enthusiasm that that pops
by having an owner like Michael, um,
I mean, someone, you know,
known in NHL circles very well respected.
I think that that's partly how he emerged from a pretty
crowded bidding, um, race to,
to get the Senators, if you recall,
all the, the celebrities that were in the mix
once upon a time for this team,
but, but, you know,
they end up with, uh,
a Canadian owner, someone who,
who had a chunk of the Montreal Canadians for more than
the last decade and who's,
you know, knows how to do business.
I think with Gary Batman,
and at the level of the NHL's border governors,
and, and, you know,
given how things ended with Eugene Melnick,
uh, who you never questioned is,
his love of the Senators, his desire to want to
bring a Stanley Cup to Ottawa.
I mean, I think that the fact remains over time,
they, they were on a shoestring budget,
that, that there were cash flow challenges
with that organization they,
they had to make do with less at times,
in terms of just having a smaller front-off at
Scouting Staff and, and the rest.
And, and you get the sense with this new
group in place, headed by Michael Ann Lauer,
that they're going to make significant
investment in the team.
And, and, you know, it starts, I think,
you know, one thing that Ann Lauer mentioned is,
he wants to build out the front office a little bit,
you know, I think it's going to take some time
for that to happen.
You know, it seems as though there's a role
in some way, shape, or form for Daniel Alfredson,
but another thing that's not, you know,
being unveiled here in the first couple days
of, of his tenure running the team.
Uh, and then ultimately, I think the biggest
question with this organization is,
can they get into arena somewhere downtown,
somewhere where I think that it's,
it's more attractive for people to,
to go to games on a Tuesday night,
rather than battling that, that traffic
out to Cannade and Back.
Um, and, you know, that, that also
is going to take some time.
But if you're, if you're the centers right now,
like this must feel great,
because there was some bleak days for that organization.
But here they are with, with a lot of
intriguing young players,
most of them sign long-term on the roster
and an owner who I think is going to,
to up, up the level of,
and the standard of where they've been
considerably.
Well, I guess the only thing you're worried about
if you're the Ottawa senators,
I mean, beyond the arena and all that is
the whole Shane Pinto situation.
Uh, we don't have any more updates on that, do we?
No, because it's, it hasn't changed much, right?
Like the dynamic with this one,
there's always different elements to negotiation.
I don't get the feeling there's any
bad blood here or anything.
It's not as though one side saying,
we're only paying you this much.
The other side saying, no, it has to be this much.
I mean, it's, the standstill is really
brought on by the challenges the senators have.
I mean, that alone tells you something, right?
The senators are going to be a team
right at the salary cap ceiling this year.
And I don't know when that was last the case.
I know they've been there at some points
during Eugene Melnick's time as the owner,
but it's been a number of seasons
since they were, you know, spending,
you know, to the max of what they can.
And I think that that also underlines,
you know, the value of the well-heeled ownership group,
you know, one with maybe a little bit more cash flow.
And, you know, I think that they recognize too
that you need to build into a winning team
to ultimately get the franchises
overall finances back in a stronger place.
And so, you know, the Pinto one
seems to be more waiting game.
Still don't believe Ottawa is going to be looking
to trade him, but they might have to make another
move or two in order to free up the cap space
to basically get him signed
and be cap compliant by the start of the season.
So, you know, they still got a couple weeks
to do that before a regular season game has been played,
but, you know, this is a little different.
I mean, quite often when you get, you know,
we're, what, almost getting towards a weekend to cap.
And if there's an unsigned RFA, it wasn't around.
Usually it's because there's a big difference
in what, you know, the player thinks he should be playing
and what the team's willing to pay.
I think, I think that there's a general understanding
where the, basically, where the next contract is,
but the center's got to create room to sign it.
One other sentence question I have is more general.
But with Michael and Lauer in place,
I, and you had already mentioned
that they expect to build out that front office,
but I can't help but think of Pierre Dorian
and his future with the organization.
I'm sure performance for this season will play into it,
but I can't help but think of Pierre's future
with the organization with new ownership in tow.
Yeah, when you get a new boss, no matter what level you're at,
it's a natural question, right?
If they're changing the GM, we'd be talking about the coach
because you'd say, oh, you know, this coach wasn't hired.
I mean, look at Sheldon Keith and Toronto
after Brad Trilving took over.
There was, you know, quite a period there
where it was uncertain, you know, whether Keith would be back.
I think much like, oh, the fact that Keith did earn an extension
and he's got some stability in Toronto,
I do think there's a possibility for that to happen
for Pierre Dorian and Ottawa.
He's going to have to be open to change
because there will be change with the new owner there.
You know, the fact that that owner is expressed
an interest in bringing in and expanding the front office.
So, you know, it's going to have to be with someone else there.
And I think, you know, what Michael and Lauer
sees, you know, now that he's behind the curtain from Pierre Dorian.
I mean, this is like another job interview all over again.
I mean, this would be a great year for the senators
to break through and make the playoffs.
I would think if you're in Dorian shoes,
just because, you know, he has been the GM that's, you know,
oversaw the trades of Mark Stone and Eric Carlson
among other decisions.
You know, he's been the GM that's been in charge
as they restock their prospect pool.
But, you know, there are now at the point,
I think that they're expecting results there,
even though they had an interesting training cap.
I don't know if you took note of this, Julian,
but no one, including Pierre Dorian,
wanted to make any proclamations.
Like, there is no, this team is going to be a playoff team.
I mean, I heard Brady could chuck kind of dance around the subject
that when their camp opened, I saw Dorian himself
who in the past had said things like the rebuild is over.
You know, he's been good about giving you that one media clip,
that kind of tends to hang around for months at a time.
But they were a little quieter in terms of what they were saying publicly
about what the season, what the expectations are for the season.
But I think it's clear, you know,
that there's hope that they're really going to be in the playoff mix
and ultimately make the playoffs.
Tough ask in the division, we know that.
But, you know, someone's got to do it,
and they've got to do it eventually.
And so when it comes to Pierre Dorian,
I think that, you know, what Mike Lamar,
I mean, he's been around the team.
So he's obviously got a feel for Dorian.
But, you know, now they're working together essentially every day.
You know, how that goes in and ultimately what strides the team takes.
And, you know, even how, for example,
Dorian manages a Pinto situation.
I mean, all these things, I think we'll go into that calculation
about whether he stays on as a GM long-term or not.
And, you know, every day is a trial right now for Pierre Dorian.
And, I mean, that's kind of the reality of this business.
Not very many people are super stable in their jobs.
I mean, it's just a fact of the matter that performance
is required to not be looking for work.
Okay, let's go from Ottawa to Calgary.
I know I'm in the city, so I'll provide a lot of context here,
but I'm still curious about your thoughts.
I'll start with the captaincy thing,
because it seemed entering the weekend last week
that Rassos Anderson, maybe some other targets,
they would look to be the guys that the front of the captaincy debate.
Michael Backlin, of course, would be there too.
It's just at the contract.
That is what is a big thing holding everything up.
And now all of a sudden,
we hear more and more reports of, you know,
the discussion being had about him stayed.
Even his agent confirmed to me on Friday morning
that that discussion is being had.
And now he seems like the fate.
Jonathan Hubert, who went out of his way
to say that Michael Backlin should be captain,
it really should be him, in all honesty.
But I don't think this could happen without a new contract.
But it's, there's this growing sense,
at least just talking to some of my colleagues,
that some kind of contract is going to be coming up
within the next few days.
I would love to know your thoughts on what's going on in Calgary
with how they might be handling this captaincy thing.
Well, I mean, it's really a Michael Backlin,
more than a captaincy thing.
I mean, this is why I do know from talking to front office people
over the years, like sometimes I really hate
when the whole captaincy debate gets going in the media,
because obviously it's a very important symbolic gesture
from an organization, but sometimes it can complicate stuff.
For lack of a better way of putting it, right?
And really, I found the whole Backlin situation interesting
that he was very clear at the end of last season
that he didn't really want to engage
in contract extension talks over the summer,
just because you've got someone who has a legitimate chance
to spend his entire career in one city.
And that's awfully rare in the NHL.
And that basically never happens.
You can understand if you're in Backlin's skates, though.
I mean, he wants to win a Stanley Cup.
And he probably had a lot of questions
at the end of last season about the direction of the organization.
He wouldn't be alone for that, and reason to doubt it.
And so this is a, it's got to be, this decision
must be weighing on him, I would think.
Just because, you know, you contrast the fact
that you've been in one place so long, you would be,
I mean, I'm with you.
I think on July 2nd had the flames just signed
Michael Backlin to, you know, a couple of your extension.
There wouldn't be much debate about the captaincy thing.
Maybe they would have given them and see on the same day,
who knows how they might have handled that.
But, you know, now you get into training cap
and you've got these other players on expiring deals.
And, you know, there's, there's a lot of different sort
of factions of a way, ways that could go.
I mean, I don't think, truthfully, the captaincy
is as important as figuring out what they're doing
with these players, right?
I mean, I think, I think one falls in line with the other.
But it's all kind of mixed together in this stew now.
And so, you know, maybe the fact
that those conversations are happening
as put, put on hold, the need to stitch a C on someone's sweater
for the time being, you know, be interesting to see where it goes, though.
The fact that Michael Backlin's open to those discussions,
though, I think certainly changes the way
that the flames front office and the coaching staff
would be looking at that decision.
I feel as if because of Backlin's contract situation,
the discussion of the C and the contract,
there's two Cs in the situation.
They're linked.
There's no way you could separate the two now.
Because if Michael Backlin gets the C,
it means he's going to stay for some time.
We were talking about in the last episode,
you want a captain with some continuity.
And while I understand that Backlin has more
less than a de facto captain already in that locker room,
I don't know how you feel about having a guy
wearing the C and then you're still worried about his future.
I was talking about with a colleague yesterday.
It's probably going to, it could be a situation
where Michael Backlin, they announced the contract.
He holds up the jersey, turns it around as a C on the front.
Like, you know, he's going to be that guy
for the next few years.
But now with everything kind of going on in terms of those discussions,
could you imagine if before the start of the season,
the flames say it's Rasmus Anderson, who is the captain?
What's the first thing we're going to think of?
Oh, then how are those contract talks going with Michael Backlin?
We're not going to think of them in a positive light.
I think the situation has presented itself.
Go ahead.
I just said, maybe it's best to just go with no captain
till everything's resolved.
But then at that point, you're going back on what you were saying
throughout the off season.
When Craig Conrad was hired, one of the first things he said
was that there was going to be a captain.
You can't have all of that talk in the off season
and say, we're going to have a captain.
It's a priority for us.
And then you realize the situation's too difficult.
And then you say, you can't have a captain.
I mean, maybe you could.
But like, that would be a very, I don't know, maybe,
I don't know if a mess would be the right word.
But like, I don't know if that's the right way to go about things.
They're having your meetings about this.
They're having discussions about this.
You're inadvertently backed into a corner now
by your own words, right?
Because you've, I mean, this is why it's probably best
to say as little as possible, as much as we
hate to hear that from our side of the job.
But the more you say that, and sometimes,
all this gets kind of thrown out on the front line
for everyone to kind of have an idea of where the dynamics are
more than if everything was held behind the scenes.
I'll say this.
You know, it would be pretty bad.
I mean, look, Craig Conroy, first time GM.
Great dude.
You said that you did not want to repeat
with the Lyslinome situation with Johnny Gidro
and you have all these pending UFA's to start the year
and you have no captain.
What does that say for Craig Conroy?
If he's saying all that stuff
and none of that comes to fruition.
Like, that doesn't look good.
Something has to be done with that.
Right.
And I actually noticed that Lindholm confirmed what we said
on this pod over the summer that there was not much talk
all summer long about you when he said it, brother.
I thought about you the whole time.
Not that we need a confirmation.
We didn't need a confirmation.
But no, I think there are some people who were very quick
to think that, okay, Lyslinome is leaving.
Well, you were on that train that said, oh, no.
Like, let's, he's in the middle of all this.
I think you deserve your flowers on that
because I think you reported that as accurately as you could.
And that's not straight to anyone else.
I think you deserve your flowers for that.
Well, and he's still, I think he still wants to stay.
It's just, are they going to pay him when he's worth?
I mean, going circles, going circles, going circles.
And then now, you know, if you're the team
and you start getting this close to the season,
whether, whether you're looking at Lindholm,
whether you're looking at Mealander and Toronto,
perhaps the Winnipeg guys fall in the same position
with Shaipeli and Helibuck.
You're like, well, let's see how, let's see how these guys play now
because crazy as it sounds, even if we're talking about
tenured NHLers with lots of accomplishments already,
how you perform in that platform season
does typically, to some degree,
influence what the next contract looks like.
The only other big story out of Calgary
in the last few days really, it was really interesting
to see Nikita Zidorov speak to the media
about his comments on a YouTube show
with the Russian journalist about the invasion of Ukraine.
There's not many players are speaking out against it
or trying to talk about it publicly.
We don't have to spend long on this.
But I just thought it was interesting
that Zidorov did this and he went out of his way
to say, hey, you know what, I've been educating myself
on this and it turned into a discussion topic
for a couple of minutes with us in the media.
A ready sport tag from the hockey news
spoke with him exclusively before this all unfolded
and got some thoughts from him.
But I'm just curious from your vantage point
just the fact that a player would use his platform
to talk about this.
Right, and I remember in the early days of the invasion
of Ukraine that he stood, you know,
he put an Instagram post up, you know,
one of the few is basically supporting the Ukrainians.
And you know, Nikita Zidorov, I saw him
that I don't know if he was Randy's interview with him
or somewhere else, but it had mentioned,
he knows he can't go back to Russia now,
like that that, you know, when he says these things
and, you know, really,
you know, there's some ramifications for his personal life there
where obviously the place where he's from
where he's got family and friends still living
and, you know, now he basically lives in Florida
in the off season, where there is obviously
a pretty big Russian community.
But, you know, it's, it's courage to stand up to,
in this case, really, what I think would be
if you're from Russia, if you're an athlete,
a hockey player in particular, lead hockey player from Russia,
there's a certain pressure to, you know,
be on the other side of this.
And so I think it takes real courage
to stand in the face of your country,
your country men, probably some of your colleagues
in the NHL, you know, have bad thoughts about you,
but he's willing to put himself out there
for what he believes is right.
I mean, hard for me to sit and look at that
and say that it's anything other than admirable.
Yeah, not just as colleagues in the NHL too,
but he also admitted that there are family members
of his who are on the other side
of this discussion as well.
It's very tough, but also very brave of what,
for what for Dekita to do what he did.
And I came away from that scrum with him.
It's weird to say amazed, but I was surprised
that it got to that point,
but I commended for his bravery for speaking
out on something that means so much to him.
And yeah, that's, I'm glad we were able
to spend a moment on that.
One other thing before we get to ask CJ though,
did you pay attention at all to the global series,
the games in Australia between Los Angeles and Arizona,
the Logan Cooley goal, although scored
in one of those two games was really sick,
but the fact that there were NHL games played
in Australia might have been past your bedtime admittedly,
but it's still, it's seen as if the fans were having fun.
Would love to know your thoughts on that too.
Well, I mean, Australia, one of the great sporting nations
in the world, you know, the Cooley goals,
what I saw replayed about a thousand times.
And for good reason, it was a sick goal.
It was pretty cool actually that both teams also took
a lot of the regular.
I mean, those were two very NHL heavy lineups
that they played those two exhibition games for.
You know, obviously the teams are trying to use that
as a team building experience to be going that far.
I think it was 17 time zones or something like that.
So there's, or 17 hour flight, maybe 15 time zones.
You know, either way, it's going to significantly impact
the course those players and the staff flying all the way back
and now getting ready for the NHL season.
But, you know, interesting experiment.
I know it's been in the works for a number of years
and that there's been an interested group down there
that wanted the NHL to go there.
I believe it's going to be not an annual event,
but something to lead, you know,
it does maybe every couple of years.
You know, plan to take more teams down.
And I mean, look, the world's smaller and smaller
and smaller with each passing year.
So it sounds a little,
it sounds a little nutty in a way, right?
Like, I'm not aware of a huge amount of Australian fans.
I know that, of course, there is a league there.
I know we've actually got a couple of listeners
of this pod from Australia.
But, you know, it would seem to me
that the NHL has a ways to go and you're up still,
you know, to build its brand there.
And I'd look, I know all these mobile series games
are basically every season.
They're taking four teams to stock home in November.
The Leafs, the Senators, the Red Wings
and the Wilder going there
and going to play its series before games.
But I still think the league can be doing more
to grow kind of its European division
before, you know, worrying about other parts of the world.
But I mean, look, I do think it just makes sense.
I mean, NFLs in London pretty much every week
during the season, it feels like
I still believe in our lifetime.
We'll see something that amounts to an NHL European division.
I realize that's not close today.
It's not, you know, it's not something
that's happening next week.
But I think that it kind of makes sense
that things would expand in that way over time.
Although there's significant challenges,
namely the number of arenas, the size of the arenas
and the amount of money fans are accustomed to paying for names.
Not to mention the travel issues.
But yeah, good for the NHL.
It's interesting.
I just, I don't know what the legacy of something like that is.
Right? I mean, you do it once.
I mean, maybe you make a few fans.
But how do you keep those fans?
How do you keep them on the line?
I mean, I think that that's the challenge.
It feels like a times the league goes and plays a couple games
and then leaves for a year and then comes back.
I think it's hard to keep that going.
But I think that the next step,
I'd love to see the league have like a European office.
Like more of a, almost like a regular presence there.
Not even about expansion.
I just think there's so many countries in Europe
where hockey's either the first or second,
or maybe third, most popular sport.
But like places that come to the sport naturally.
And obviously, lots of players over the years
and to this day come from those countries.
I just feel like there's an opportunity
to be doing more in Europe before we're worried about,
you know, parts of Asia or perhaps Australia.
If we were to go to that point,
I would love to know what city makes sense
in terms of setting up an office.
Or even, you know, in terms of an expansion team.
Like, do you go for London?
But maybe why not this Scandinavian country?
Like maybe you set up something in Stockholm as an example.
I would love to know what would be the most ideal place
to kind of set up shop if you're the NHL.
Well, I mean, the double IHF,
you know, the world governing body is out of Europe.
So maybe there might be, I mean, to be honest,
I'm speaking off the top of my head.
But there might be some value.
But it's a good idea.
There might be some value in being close to them.
I think London, it's always a great place to start.
I mean, might be the world city,
the closest thing we have to a world city.
And obviously very easy to fly there direct from either in New York, Toronto.
Where you're going.
And then a great jumping off point for Europe.
You know, that's those are the two that jump to mind.
That there might be a strategic value to being close to the IHF.
Or, you know, I just think you can't go wrong being in London.
I actually lived in London,
truly, and when I was younger.
And I remember one of the parks I would often go to on the weekend.
They actually had a baseball set up getting put up in that park.
And it was done by Major League Baseball.
And basically for like kids of expats or whatever to live there,
you could play.
I mean, they don't really have, at least they didn't at this time.
When I lived there, a lot of true baseball diamonds.
But they basically set up a baseball diamond in a big park.
And, you know, and obviously the NFL,
I mean, I, I think we'll see a team in London, the NFL first, frankly.
Because in a sport where you're only playing one game a week,
I think it's actually kind of doable.
Travel-wise, obviously, it's not easy.
But the fact that, what do they play in eight or nine games
there this year, I think, they sell them out.
I think London, London's probably where I'd be inclined to put it.
But I haven't, this is just us two guys talking that, you know,
starting with Taylor Swift ending up on where the NHL's European
division should end up.
I mean, look, that's the beauty of this show.
If it was just set to the topics that I think we should talk about
or you should talk about, it wouldn't be that interesting all the time.
It's nice whenever a random idea pops to your head and you go off that.
I think that was a really, the fact that you mentioned
just having a presence in another part of the world,
I think that makes a lot of sense.
Well, and look, there's great news, finally,
because our pot is very clear on where we stand on the best I'm best,
and that they've got to get a coin back going.
You know, based on everything I've heard, that that's,
I mean, it's well down the tracks now to getting, you know,
everything's on on pace to see the Olympic participation in 2026 in Italy.
It sounds like they're going to, you know,
they're going to have another tournament in 2025.
Before that, I don't know if it'll be called the World Cup.
There's a lot of issues.
First of all, just timing is, it becomes an issue to pull it off on shorter and shorter notice
because it isn't locked in just yet, but I think there's been some discussion
about having it be like a two team event or a four team event,
or maybe just a smaller version, anyway, of what we saw in 2016,
not as many entrants.
I think that the Russian participation issue is,
I mean, it's sort of obvious, at this point in time,
you're not having a tournament with Russia in it.
But, you know, there's obviously a lot of high profile Russian players.
Anyway, it does sound like we're going to see international hockey getting back on the docket,
so I think one flows from another, right?
I mean, it's all about trying to build your brand,
and to find opportunities, frankly, to make money in other parts of the world,
because, you know, the league does do a good job in North America.
I mean, there's 32 teams based right across the continent,
and, you know, the league is growing and growing and growing,
but, you know, there's limitations to that growth in those markets.
I think you do have to look elsewhere to try to find ways to do it,
but, you know, much easier said than done,
just given the cost of staging games on the other side of the globe.
All right. Let's do a quick ask, CJ, before we get out of your siege.
I will start with a question from Congo Red on Discord.
What is your favorite hockey broadcaster catchphrase or sign off?
I mean, I'm a Bob Cole guy, you know, I still hear Bob Cole in my head.
Like, like, that's how hockey, that was the soundtrack of hockey when I grew up,
and really, into my 20s before Bob, even my 30s before Bob was officially done.
So, oh, baby, that great Bob Cole.
I still think of the 2002 gold medal game men's hockey,
when Joe Sackick loved the way that Bob made a call.
So, I have to go, there's so many great broadcasters out there,
some of them are my friends nowadays or certainly colleagues,
but it'll always be Bob Cole for me.
Man, there's a lot of play-by-play people in the sport I admire.
Chris Cuthbert, I'm a really big fan of him.
Here, you can say, did you see that?
Whenever something crazy happens, I love that.
But Gary Thorne, for me, needs to be mentioned in this discussion,
thinking of the times when he called the Colorado Avalanche,
winning the Stanley Cup, and Raymond Bork lifting the cup,
the 04 Stanley Cup playoffs as well, the 03 playoffs,
when he was calling the Ducks.
It was, oh God, why am I playing like a Ducks jersey?
The Ducks jersey, yeah.
Yes, yes, yes.
Sometimes I go on YouTube, but I look back at some of those clips,
and how he calls some of those games.
Like Steve Thomas scored it over time goal in that series.
For me, I go back to, like, that's just a perfect call for me.
And maybe it's not easy to pick out one specific catchphrase from him,
but I have to shout out Gary Thorne.
But Bob Cole deserves his flyers as well.
Oh, baby!
Like, he's got it.
After I mentioned Bob Cole at all of this,
maybe one day we could do a Mount Rushmore,
play-by-play commentators.
Let's do a question from Meeks.
You can go back 10, 15 years and give younger you an insight about current day hockey.
What do you tell them?
The best is yet to come.
I mean, that's vague.
No way!
I view the game as way better now than it was 10 or 15 years ago.
And the individual skill is being, I think,
accentuated more.
We're seeing Conor McDavid put up 80-style kind of seasons in terms of the numbers.
More and more players hitting 15, 60 goals and going well over 100 points.
Seeing players come into the league like Conor Bedard,
like the way he shoots the puck.
You've just never seen anything like it.
Really, the closest thing you saw was awesome Matthews.
And I feel like Conor Bedard's like the next stage of awesome Matthews almost.
The speed of McDavid.
I just think the fact that the game is going...
I guess if I was going to tell myself what was going to happen,
it would be way less reliance on physical intimidation.
Still an element of that.
Even still a place for that.
We see it in the playoffs especially.
But in way more of a skill component to the sport.
And yeah, I think it makes sense.
I think it's only going to keep going that direction too.
I think you're going to see almost bigger and bigger players enter the league,
but have the skill of what you might think a smaller player can do.
I think it's only natural that that's how things evolve.
And yeah, so the best is yet to come, CJ.
From I build teams on Twitter,
will the Sabers tweak the roster before the opener?
I don't know that they'll do much more than what they have.
Obviously, they have some roster decisions as all teams do,
but this isn't really a time of year where we see a lot of trades.
I mean, the one exception might be an Ottawa where they could have created some room.
But I think the Sabers are kind of set for now.
Enter in the year and we'll see where they go.
We'll see if maybe at some point Patrick came.
Might be interested in coming to play for some pound team.
But you know, Kane's still targeting a November December return.
So I don't see anything imminent for Buffalo other than getting a roster
down to 22-23 players by opening night and seeing where they're at.
Mark Shag on Twitter, what makes your food take so much better?
Wow, because I'm not ridiculous like Julian.
I understand that you can combine good foods and they're still good,
like poutine and hot dogs.
I know a good chop of bar when I see one.
All right, a question for you, CJ.
Julian's picky. That's all I'm going to say.
Julian, he's pretty picky with his food.
I think that that's what stands out.
I have a question.
You know what? I got two questions for you.
How often do you cook CJ?
Intermittently.
Okay, when do you cook?
What type of season do you use?
I don't know if I cook with any seasoning.
I mean, pepper.
But what is, I'll move on to the next question.
I'll move on to the next question.
What is this?
I didn't show what you think you just proved.
All I'm saying is, Julian is picky.
Julian is picky.
Go ahead.
Julian is a picky, picky, picky eater.
That's where his bad food takes come from.
I just want, I just want the record to be shown
that a man just said I have bad food takes.
But he doesn't put edices on his food.
This is okay.
Anyway, the last thing, the last thing is not a question.
But this was just posted on Discord.
It literally says, this is from five second pose.
Not a question, but a few years ago,
Chris did an event in Stratford to raise money for a friend
who was fighting cancer.
She is getting married in two weeks.
I think this was put a week ago,
so it might be a little less time,
but they just wanted to say thank you.
Wow, that's cool.
That's cool.
I had a great night that night in Stratford.
Nice city.
It's a nice time.
It's a nice town.
Yeah, we just drove up and
John Fitzgerald and I, Kevin Kennedy,
who's organized a lot of the puck talk events in Toronto
back in the day was one who arranged it.
And basically went on stage and did a version of puck talks.
Obviously being Stratford being just outside Toronto.
There's a lot of leaf talk heading into that season
because it was literally about two years ago now
or a couple years ago now.
It was in the fall.
And it was all to raise money for a woman battling cancer.
So that's great to know.
I actually kept in touch with some of the people I met that night.
I met an older woman who was full of piss and vinegar,
Helen, and I would still hear from her
from time to time and her granddaughters.
So anyway, it was a good time.
I'm happy to hear that.
And this episode was a great time, CJ.
We'll be back on Thursday with a brand new episode.
We'll have stick taps as well.
And other fun stuff to talk about
on the next edition of the CJ show.
Hope you enjoyed this Taylor Swift edition
with other fun stuff too for our Monday.
Hopefully it starts off the week on a great note.
For CJ, I'm Julian, so long.
The Christchurch in show.
Howard by sports interaction.
Inside the game.
Twice a week.
Follow Chris on Twitter.
At reporter Chris.
And follow Julian McKenzie.
At JK McKenzie.
The Christchurch in show.