Transcript of The Hockey Show: Finally Talking Heated Rivalry

There's nothing better than a goalie fight. Hell, yeah.

Yeah, let's go, Bobby.

This is The Hockey Show. David Droger, The Hockey News is over there. Rose and Ethan, they're in that other studio. And Percy.

And Percy.

Don't forget Percy. He's the most important guest on the show today.

Okay. This is The Hockey Show. You can check us out on YouTube. Our YouTube page is the Hockey Show DLS on TikTok, the Hockey Show 7, and on X Instagram and threads at Hockey Show DLS. We have been the only hockey podcast that hasn't talked about heated rivalry. We got to watch it first. Yeah, we got to watch it first.

I mean, speak for yourself.

Well, you've watched it. I'm halfway through the season. Roy is TBD.

Yeah. With Hudson Williams and Conner Story being the Olympic torchbearers up in Milan, figured it would be a good time to finally actually talk about this show. I haven't watched it yet, as we said, but Ethan and David have. Ethan has seen the entire run of the first season. I don't know where you are in the first season.

I'm on episode three. I'm halfway through.

All right, so you're halfway through.

Why don't you guys- It takes me forever to watch anything. Yeah.

I think you're still working on player of this over there?

I am. Dude, thanks for the reminder.

You got it. All right, so Convinced... Well, not convinced. I'm going to end up watching it anyway. But why don't you tell me about the show? Convince me of watching it here.

I mean, it's a gay hockey show. That is what it is. It's two hockey players, two of the best hockey players in the world that end up falling in love. And it's the trials and tribulations or obstacles that they have to maneuver trying to keep it a secret. I don't want to give too much away. But it's certainly something I've never seen before. In terms of breaking down barriers and giving you something that's maybe not going to make everybody comfortable, but certainly something that's prevalent in the world today. I've already heard about hockey players who are coming out of the closet because of this show, and it's empowering them to be more comfortable, and I think that's awesome. But yeah, it's different. It's really entertaining. The acting is spectacular, but it's certainly different.

The world has changed in the last four years, hasn't it?

I'm going to give you a reason. I know we talked about it with Adnan, but the guy who is Russian is not He's a Russian.

He's Texan.

Texan.

He's a freaking Texan.

A great, great actor, and he's very handsome. That's the main reason to watch it. Very handsome.

Yeah. Connor Story is the guy who plays Oya Rosenov, who is the lead Russian character. He's the superstar. Roy, you know what fan fiction is?

Yes. Apparently, that has happened for the Kraken. There was a story that came out of Seattle a couple of years ago about fan fiction that one of the players' wives wasn't that happy about it.

Yeah. So fan fiction is... You know what it is. This is basically a fan fiction of what if Sydney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin were gay? That's basically what the story is. It's a Canadian superstar and a Russian superstar. You shouldn't have mentioned Sydney Crosby. Pick at the same time, basically. Well, one was picked... Ovechkin and Crosby were- Well, in terms of they were drafted together.

They're both global superstars, Olympic captains. Basically, came up together, been the superstar forever.

Exactly. There's less of a struggle. They both win early in their careers versus how Crosby won early and then Ovechkin, one late. But it's basically like that. It's a really interesting story. I mean, the show itself, it's more of a romance story where their jobs are hockey than it is a hockey story or a hockey show. But it's really good. I mean, it's a great romance story. The writing is great. The character development is really good. The storyline, I think, is really great. I have my problems with it in terms of the story itself. It moves a little fast, and there are some things that I want them to build on a little that I hope they do in coming seasons and stuff. But yeah, it's awesome.

What do you think about the show, Percy?

Percy loved it. She watched it with me. She thought it was great. Percy, come here. Very nice.

The fact that it's Sydney Crosby makes it even better.

Okay. All right, fine.

I highly recommend it to everybody. The best thing it's done is it's opened hockey to an entire new world, and it's brought a lot of new fans into watching the NHL. I think that's the best thing is hockey is for everybody. I think the show has done a great job proving that.

One thing that we got to touch on, though, on that topic of how this show is opening the world up to other hockey players, which is what we're all about, Hockey is for Everyone, right? Yeah. But apparently, there's a podcast out there that's gotten very popular talking about this show, and the news just came out. What chaos? No. What Chaos? We love What Chaos. That's not the one. We love What Chaos. Yeah. No, there's another podcast. Oh, isn't that them? No. This one is about the Empty Netters podcast. This is what Chris Cody was talking to us about before the show. Oh. Apparently, these guys have been going a lot on their show about empty... He did Rivalry, which is awesome. Good for them. But I guess the outsports. Com got a hold of some text messages from one of the hosts of the show, Dan powers, really bashing the show behind the scenes in text messages, calling the show creators cowards. Cowards? Yeah. This is the trash they make because it panders. It's provocative. It checks inclusivity boxes.

He's saying that they are pandering the Are they gay people? Is that what you're saying?

I guess. It's definitely speaking out of two sides of your mouth.

Wow.

I don't know. We try to be genuine on this show. I feel like we don't say anything on these mics that we don't mean.

Yeah, I haven't watched the show yet.

Well, no. Honesty because it's where you should start with everything. When Chris brought that to my attention and I started reading about it, it's just like, do we have to try that hard to get attention, to get the viewers into? I don't know. Just because it's a A popular show. We haven't talked about it for a few weeks because we haven't watched it yet. We're late to board the train. That's the honest truth. But here we are talking about it. So this just irked me. I don't know.

It's a bad look, though. I mean, that's the type of thing that guest bookers would look at and, quite frankly, would want to avoid that show.

Yeah, because I agree with you. If you watch it and you're saying you like it and then say something else, it's like, then I'm not going to believe everything you're saying to me. You got to stick to your truth. So if you don't stick If you're afraid to speak your truth, who are you speaking?

If you're afraid to speak your truth about something instead of lying, then just stay off the top.

Hockey has had enough problems with homophobia in the league.

Oh, by the way, Gary Bettman.

Gary Bettman said he liked the show.

He said he binged it in It was a night.

Yeah, he said he liked the show and it was really good. Do we believe him? Do we believe him? I don't know how much I believe him. I think somebody probably told him what it was about and he was like, Okay, this is great. But no, I just think that we've had enough problems with this subject that we don't need people making us, what chaos, any of these hockey fans look bad by being ungenuine and being fake in a way. And so I just think if you're going to watch the show, watch it. If you don't like it, that's totally fine. There's nothing wrong with that. If you like it, that's great, too. And if you want to really listen to it and some great content about it, go check out our boys at What Chaos. They are doing an amazing job with the show. They had Rachel Reid, the writer of the show on. They had Brandon Tierney, the writer of the books on. Brandon Tierney, the writer of the Show. Love those guys. Love DJ, love Pete.

Support them, but support us, too. And Sean. That's not for the show. Sean, always. As a producer, you're not giving the producer-Yeah.

Sean is that show. I mean, he's the hard-to-sell that show. Is that a producer?

There it is.

You've seen your producer. No, but yeah, It's good. It's things that you have to be genuine about, and that's why I'm open about it. I have not watched it. I'm not going to watch it. But the acting, and I have watched some scenes. It's terrific.

When Olympics are coming up, and next week, and it was a pleasure to talk to this man, Jack O'Callahan was a defenseman on the 1980 gold medal team. We talked to him, and that interview will come out next week. And cannot wait for you guys to watch that. But this gives us a chance. Oh, by the way, he was on behalf of Netflix for their new documentary, Miracle: The Boys of '80.

It's really good. Yes. If you have watched the 1980 stuff, like I have, and you want to see some new content that you've never seen before, something really interesting, this documentary is for you.

So this gives us a chance for this fool and this idiot over here to talk about their favorite hockey movie, Miracle. Boys, go ahead.

I'm an idiot for liking Miracle, Roy. It's one of the greatest sports movies of all time.

You're an idiot for other things, but yes, go ahead.

What should we talk about, Dave? I mean, should we just recap the movie for those that haven't seen it? It is, in my opinion, one of the great sports movies ever.

That might be the last movie that I saw at least five times in the theater, just between the time frame and the way. But I was playing juniors back then, so I was living... That year, I was in New Jersey. My teammates and I, every day for a week, we went and watched Miracle. Wherever theater was playing, yet after practice, we found it, we watched it. It was the coolest thing because it was so realistic. The way that they made it, they put microphones in the states so you can hear the sound of the skate cutting into the ice. If you watch the interview with OC next week, you'll hear even more really cool details. But oh, my God. Is it maybe arguably the best hockey movie of all time? It's my favorite A sports movie, Bias, but- I admittedly have only, I think, watched two hockey movies.

I saw the Mighty Ducks a long time ago when I was a kid, but I need to rewatch them because I don't really remember them, but I loved them as a kid. Slapshot and Miracle. Slapshot is an amazing movie. That movie is freaking terrible.

You probably like Youngblood.

Youngblood?

What was the one- There's a new movie, Youngblood.

Yeah, I saw they're making a new Youngblood.

What was the one in Alaska?

Mystery Alaska, which is also a great hockey movie.

No, but I love... I'm an Olympics freak. I can't wait for the Olympics, not just for hockey, but just for everything. I mean, I had the pleasure of working the Paris Olympics, and it was just a dream of mine, absolute lifetime. I won an Emmy because of it. Thanks for Rose. Shout out. No, it was an amazing experience. And the Olympics are just, to me, the greatest sporting event in the world. So I can't wait. First of all, it's going to be amazing to have the NHL players back in the Olympics. But just to see, even though it's a movie, an inside look at what it's like to be an Olympian, what it takes to get there. It's such a great movie. If you haven't seen it, I was telling somebody about it the other day that you have to go and see this. You have to watch this movie if you haven't watched it before. It's so good. There's so many quotable lines when O. C. And McClanahan get it into it in the bar and he sweeps, This pantsy over here takes the ring off my finger. Then when they're in the locker room and her, Brooks, is yelling at him and he's, Who are we playing Rammer?

You're goddamn right, Sweden. In the Olympics, you're acting like this is some throw-a-rate game up in Rochester. It's the greatest movie. Anyway, you got me fired up, Roy. You wanted me to talk about Miracle.

You're welcome. I will say, though, the Olympics are the best. The best. The Winter Olympics, at least for us, maybe, There's nothing not entertaining. I'll sit there and I'll watch ski jumping.

Dude, the last Olympics, I was falling asleep to cross country and biathlon. I love that.

One of the most fun... Maybe shouldn't be telling the story, but whatever. Here I go. I think it was in 2010, I was home alone. For whatever reason, I had some chocolate mushrooms, and I watched the Olympics for eight hours by myself, and I had so much fun. That's incredible. Oh, my God. One of my favorites. That's fantastic. Whatever. But I remember watching the ski jumping. I remember watching speed skating. I remember there was a hockey game. I think it was Russia. Oh, my God. What's the country with the Red Cross logo on their flag? Switzerland. Switzerland. I think that was the game. Oh, my God. Just a lot of fun. I'm not in-Can't wait.

Can't wait to see team USA.

I don't know how to end that.

Moving on to the Panthers then. The Panthers have played four games since last week, Friday. They got beat down by the hurricanes, 9: 1. They beat the Capitals five to two. The Shox, they came in in the one home game that the Panthers had before they went back on the road. The Shox beat the Panthers for one, and the Panthers last night beat the Jets two to one in a shootout. Mati Kachuk, his second game, he got his debut on the season against the Sharks. Last night, he ended up with his first point of the season on Sam Bennett's... One of the Panthers' one goal, on Sam Bennett's goal. So let's talk about his performance so far this season in his two games. David.

It's been fine. One thing that's refreshed me is that I've seen him get knocked on his ass multiple times. He got nailed, I think, at the same time by Josh Morrissey and Adam Lowry during last night's game. He got lit up by Vincent Deharnais against the Sharts, and he just pops right back. Oh, here it is. This is the play here if you're watching on YouTube. K'chuck basically gets bamboozled by Morrissey and Lowry at the same time. Boom, boom. But he's popping right back up. He's doing his thing. He had the primary assist on Sam Bennett's goal in Winnipeg, and he looks like Matthew Kachuk. It's going to take him a little while before we probably start to see the pristine elite type stuff because he hasn't played hockey in seven months. It's going to take a little time to shake the rust off. But I've been pretty happy with what I've seen so far, Ethan.

Yeah, there's been plenty of I thought. I thought last night was a really solid performance from him. His line had some great shifts out there with Bennett and Verhege. He made a great play to set up Bennett for that goal.

Him and Bennett are just like this.

Yeah, exactly. But I was talking to my brother, and my brother was like, Well, he's basically had no impact. We scored two goals in the two games since he's been back. But look, first of all, Matthew Kuchuk was never going to solve every problem the Panthers have had, right? Because Alexander Barckhoff is still out, Dimitri Kulikow is still out, Jona Gajowicz. But then you add in Martian and Jones hit the injured list right before he comes back. They're still missing so much, guys. So, so much. And it's still so hard for this team to look like what they've been the last couple of years because they just don't have enough right now. Simply, the numbers, you look at their defense, they're missing half their defense right now from the Stanley Cup Championship team last year.

But to that point, how good defensively did they look last night in Winnipeg? That was maybe their best defensive full game of the season.

They had to win that game because you fall seven points behind. You lose to a team in the Jets that's been struggling. That was a big win last night. They haven't won in Winnipeg since 2022. It's a weird place to go. That was a big, big win for the Panthers last night.

All right, it's time for Puck luck. It's brought to you by DraftKings. Draftkings, the Crown is yours. David, let's finally win some money.

I really love how you just keep bringing attention to the fact that-I'm growing broke here.

I'm losing money. So let's make money.

What the hell, dude? I'm sorry. All right, well, coming to you live from under the bus, this is this week's aversion of Puck Lock. We're going to start with Mitch Marner's return to Toronto. Ethan has been building this up for me in my head, so I'm going with the Bedausky thought and taking Mitch Marner over two and a half shots on goal because- The Marner bump. Mitch Marner is going to be ripping pucks tonight. Also, the Mapleeefs just happen to allow the most shots in the NHL. We'll take Marner over two and a half shots in the same game, in the same breath that I mentioned, Toronto giving up the most shots on goal. Guess who's coming back tonight for the Mapleeefs? Anthony Stollars is making his return. I'm going to take his oversaves and 25 and a half saves because I think he's going to play well, and I think he's going to face a lot of shots. Third up on our parlay is Brandon Hagle of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Over two and a half shots. They are playing Chicago. Hagle has hit his shot total over in five straight and six of his last eight road games, and Chicago allows the seventh most shots in the league.

The odds on this parlay are plus 5: 51, so some pretty sweet sauce. Please go make Roy some money. I'm good, actually. I'll sacrifice my five bucks. Give Roy some money, please.

All right, it's time for the Hockey Stat of the Week. The Hockey Stat of the Week.

Hey, guys. How's it going?

Bye, Ethan. Everybody good? Hi.

Quinn Hughes, good player. Sure. Minnesota Wild. Good team. This stat comes from @bigheadhockey on Twitter. The most career three assist games from a defenseman in Minnesota Wild franchise history. The leader is Ryan Suter with five. Jared Spurgeon has three. Quinn Hughes has four. Quinn Hughes has played 22 games with the Minnesota Wild. He already has four three assist games. Guys, they are buzzing. They went again last night in overtime. Kareel Kaprizov had the OT winner, two goals and an assist. I don't see Quinn Hughes going anywhere. I think he is going to stay right where he is in Minnesota because that team has been awesome. Since they got him, he has been a magical fit with Matt Boldy and Kareil Kaprizov. I see them adding, I see them keeping Hughes long term, and I see them being a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

He's over a point per game with the-He has been incredible.

Yeah. Amazing.

It is time for Rosa in un minuto. Rosie, what you got?

Yes.

Okay, kids.. What a king. Sí, back to back contra Anaheim. Primero, perdieron 3-2, un shootout, y Zanec haciendo lo que quiso en McAfee, cerrando la puerta. Al día siguiente, dijeron, No puedo volver a pasar, vuelve a pasar. Derrotados una en overtime. Otra vez contra los dogs. Gracias por nada. Por suerte, llegó un poquito de dignidad. Victoria, cuatro, tres contra los rangers, con fiala apareciendo y Foutsberg entrando de emergencia para salvar el día. Así, una semana de victorias, dos derrotas, dos golpes del vecino molesto. Y una sola pregunta, ¿por qué siempre los docs? Porque LA hay estrellas, pero esta semana los docs llevaron el Oscar. Esto fue un minuto de hockey con Rose. Tu resumen se va a dar de Pog Nice.

All right. That was Rosa in un minuto. And now it is time for Rose in a minute. Rosie, what you got? Okay, let's do it now. Again, boys.

Hey, kids. This is one minute of hockey with Rose, and this week we're heading to Los Angeles, where the Kings live through their worst nightmare, the dogs. Yes, back to back against Anahame. First, they lost three to one, with Senec doing whatever he wanted and McAfish slamming the door shut. The next day, they said, There's no way this is happening again. And it happened again. A two-one overtime loss once again to the dogs. Thanks for nothing. Luckily, a little dignity showed up. A 4-3 win over the Rangers with Fala finally showing up on perfect stepping to save the day. So it's a week of one win, two losses, two punches from the annoying neighbors. And one big question, why is it always the dogs? Because in LA, there are stars. But this week, the Ducks won the Oscars. This was one made of hockey with Rose, your weekly recap of fuck, passion, and a little bit of chaos. And Ethan has a helmet for me for next week, right?

All right, let's see what the helmet is for next week.

By the way, I watched those Ducks and Kings games. They were great. Beckett Seneca is an amazing player. Next week's team? Let's see.

Bruins or Lightning.

The Philadelphia Flyers.

Okay.

Wow. Surprise team this year, Rosie. They've been a lot of fun to watch.

All right, so Rose will talk about the Philadelphia Flyers next week for her minute in both Spanish and English. It is time for the Wins and Fails of the Week. I think on behalf of everybody, I can say that the win was the fight between Alex Nabelkowitch and Sergei Brobowski.

This was the best thing that's ever happened. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. I love it. This is the best thing ever.

It's so uncharacteristic of Sergei Brobowski. Not only getting a fight, but he was the antagonist. He skated 200 feet for this fight.

Dude, I'm telling you, so we had our live stream that night for the national championship, and so I was here early watching the game, and I'm just looking around, talking to people. All of a sudden, I looked down at my screen, and Bob is fighting, and I could not believe. And I started screaming He's screaming, Bob is fighting. Bob is fighting. And then the stream was already on. I run in here and I tell Chris Cody, Look at the screen. Bobrowski's fighting. Roy, you were in there, right?

And I told you- Yeah, I was looking. I was wondering why Serge Bobrowski was on the other end of the ice next to the other goal in the Dukovitch. And I'm like, oh.

And I think we broke into the stream, right? Chris was like, Bob Rowski is fighting right now. It was, oh, my God. Can we show the video again so we can break it down a little bit?

I think my favorite moment of the fight, and it'll show in this video, or no, it was from the beginning. My favorite moment from the fight is as Bob is skating toward Nadelkowitch, right as he crosses the blue line, there's an angle that shows Bob's face, and he looks at Nadelkowitch and nods as if to say, Oh, yeah, this is happening. And then proceeds to rip the other goalie's helmet off. Bob knew what he was doing. Yeah.

Sarko Pervosky is what? 6'1? He's 6'2, 6'3?

He's a tall dude.

Yeah, he's my height and my build and soaking wet. I mean, he looks He's pretty tiny.

6'2, 180.

6'2, 180. So I am bigger than him. Okay.

It might have been the most uncharacteristic act in the history of hockey, at least in my history of watching hockey. Bob is in the locker room, the quietest guy, doesn't say a peep. We know how he is with the media. We know he's a very serious guy. But to see him on leash like that, I know he's having a tough year. Hopefully, it can be a spark for Bob because the Panthers could really, really use it right now.

You know what that is? And you're going to have to believe this. That is a wake the fuck up moment for the flow of Panthers.

A hundred %. I thought they were going to come back and win that game, and that could have been the turning point in the season. Unfortunately, they didn't, but they got the win last night, so we'll see if that creates some juice.

Nobody's talking about the loss. All we're talking about is the fight.

Nobody's talking about the fight because of the national championship. But yeah, that's neither here nor there.

Well, if I asked you to name 25 goalies, any 25 goalies that you think would get into a fight, Bob would not be on that list. No.

Yeah.

I'll probably go with some AHL goalies before I went with Bob.

Yeah, no, exactly. You'd be naming retired guys. Grant Fior.

Yes. As small as Grant Fior is, he's like 5 foot 4.

He's a scrappy dude.

Yeah, but that man is scrappy. You had to be for that. That small? Yeah. And for that era as well. Fail of the Week. Go ahead, Dave.

My fail of the Week comes all the way from the KHL. We're heading to Vladivostok, where admiral captain Libor Sulak scored an own goal that it's really hard to describe. He literally turns his wrist over and shoots the fuck into his own net while facing the opposite direction. It's like something out of... It's like Angel In the outfield type stuff. What happened? What took over his body that he did this? Because I don't know what he was trying to do. I don't know if he's trying to just keep the fuck after he made the mental decision to pass it. I don't know. He's their captain, so I can't think that this was on purpose or anything.

It's not a bank pass on the board.

I don't know, man. But as many times as I've watched it, I don't know what the hell I'm seeing. That's just weird. Yeah, that's not good. As a goalie, like, Dude, get out of my five hole.

All right. My fellow of the week is this tripping call on Lane Hudson. Near the end of the second period of the Wild Canadians game, Marcus Felino fell five feet away from Lane Hudson. Now, in fact, I guess the rest of the call tripping on anything at this point, right? I But Felino tripped on the blue line. Can we get replaying- That's what tripped him.

Can we get replaying? Because that cannot be. There's four sets of eyes on the ice wearing stripes. Nobody realized that he just fell on his own damn states?

Yeah, that's bad.

They Can we talk to each other about high sticking? They can talk to each other about delay a game. Can we talk to each other about tripping over the blue line?

Yeah, that's the worst penalty of the season. Holy shit. Bar none. Ethan.

My fail of the week comes from Roy Rose's team for next week, the Philadelphia Flyers. Guys, take a look at this screenshot here. We can't show the video, but take a look at this screenshot. There's 1. 28 remaining in the game. It's 4-3 Flyers. The mammoth have an empty net. The skater, I don't know exactly skater this is for the Flyers, has the puck wide open. There's nobody in front of him. The net is gaping.

It's Garnet Hathaway.

They won this game, right? Garnet Hathaway wins this game right here, correct?

No, Garnet Hathaway is who lost the puck. He would have won the game if he were to- No, that's what I'm saying.

That's what I'm saying.

To shoot the puck into the empty net.

If you're looking here, this is what happened, right? The Flyers won this game. Wrong. Incorrect. Nick Schmaltz comes out, makes a great stick check, takes the puck away. Nick Schmaltz, by the way, leads the league in stick checks, takes the puck the other way. The Mammoth eventually go in, score, tie the game, send it to overtime, and then win in overtime. That might be the worst loss of the-Well, now we have time.

Wow. So my win of the week, my fail is a win, but it's a fail because in this picture, I look I'm 13, and I look like I'm drunk. But I am supposed to be dressed up as a Penguin. Instead of dressing up as a Penguin, yeah, I just put a Penguin on my-Your friend is dressed up as a Penguin. Yeah, everybody is. But me, I didn't do anything. I just put a Penguin on my pocket.

You look seriously stoned in that position. Yeah, and I look stoned.

That's great, really.

High on Penguin.

Eleven years old.

That mezcal.

That's ridiculous. All right, before we go to break, I want to mention something that has never happened before. The United States Under-18 women's team completed the perfect gold. They won every game. They never trailed. They never tied after zero-zero. It's the first time in US Under-18 history that from both the men and the women that has ever happened. So congratulations to you, Eric.

Get these ladies to World Juniors. Go beat Canada.

So For those of you watching on DraftKings Network, check out the YouTube channel because we have Adnan Virk from Prime Monday Night Hockey and NHL Network. He's going to talk about the NHL with us. So that's coming up next.

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It's time for a monthly check-in with Adnan Virk. You can find him as a studio host on Prime Monday Night Hockey and on any show on the network. For Prime Monday Night Hockey, where were you on Monday and where are you going next week?

First up, great to see you, Roy, David, and Ethan, of course. The last time we saw each other was actually in the flesh in Florida. David, what was the wings place we hung out at? South Florida.

Billy's Tavern. Billy's Tavern.

I mean, best wings in South Florida.

I I did have leftover Billy's in my fridge right now, actually.

Those wings were awesome, man. I have mocked everybody now that I know. Roy, I was just in Toronto back home, got to see my parents, hang out with them all day on Sunday. Then I watched Wild Leaps. The wild were all over them. Quintu used as such a marvel to watch. They win that game 6 to 3. Austin Matthews scores a garbage goal. Frustration there for the Leaps. They had this great 10-game point streak. They slowed down a little bit. Still, they're on the outside looking at a playoff spot, much like your Panthers. You guys know it's hard because it's so congested right now. You get a couple of wins together, but you have to wait for the other teams to falter a little bit. I'm next headed to, and I don't think you guys are facing this cold. 240 million Americans are about to face frigid cold. Probably nobody there in Miami.

I might get out- No, I'm not getting in the '50s here. I mean, come on.

Yeah, really? Because it is going to be a little cold for you guys. We're going to be 6 to 12 inches of snow on Sunday. Rather than a late flight, I got to go early flight. Much to my chagrin, I got to fly to Denver, which is four and a half hours. C-32 D. Could be a tough one. Then we're off to Dedminton. Off to Dedminton, Alberta, to check out the oilers He's taking on the ducks. We have the Zoom issue again. There's a cover issue.

You got a direct flight to Edmonton, Adnan?

I wish, Dave. Apparently, there's a direct flight, Newark, New Jersey to Calgary. I don't know why they didn't book me on that. But they said Denver is not expecting snow. I'm going to fly to Denver first, go see some Broncos fans for the AFC Championship game and then hop on a plane to Edmonton. This is what it's going to be.

Brad Williams will be pretty excited, I bet, even with Jared Stittam.

I guess that's a- Jared Stittem. Better than Winnipeg. I'd say that. It was under 20.

It's going to be colder. The Panthers were in Winnipeg last night, and it was like the high was in the upper teens, the low was in the lower teens, and the insanity that we can't compute down here in Florida. But they're actually going to Minnesota today. It's going to be colder there, which is what's happening?

It's a great point. People would always ask me, how cold was it growing up in Toronto in Eastern Ontario. I'm like, Listen, there's colder places in America. To your point, Minnesota is colder. If you go to Billings, Montana, that's colder than many places in Canada. But to Broglie's point, Winnipeg and Edmonton, those are the toughest places to stomach whenever I'm going for hockey. It's just cold the entire time. It was just frigid.

We brought up heated rivalry earlier in the show. Have you watched it? Can you give us a review of the show?

I haven't seen it. I didn't know what it was until Jason Demers referenced it a couple of times. So what is this? Eventually, I'm like, Oh, it's this gay hockey show. I'm like, Okay, two weeks their own. And then they're like, No, it's hugely popular. I have a friend of mine because I'm represented by CAA, and he said, At the Golden Globes, they've got all these massive stars. I'm like, No, I'm aware. Oscar nominations came out yesterday. And they said, George Clooney and Leonard DiCaprio, all these massive stars. He goes, Everybody was excited to talk to who? The two stars of heated rivalry. They're like, Wait, we're going to go talk to those gay hockey players. Those guys are unbelievable. It's become a massive sensation because I would have thought, Roy, it's one of those things, where okay, maybe it's popular in hockey circles, but it's gone way beyond that. Now, there's people who are not hockey fans who are saying they're becoming hockey fans because of heated rivalry. I haven't seen the show. I should probably check it out at some point. I've got the basic tangential edge to it. Our producer, Talon, on our podcast and script has told me that it was a little more in your face than he was expecting.

He's like, Oh, I thought it'd be a self-loathing. No, it's like long sex scenes with these two guys. I'm like, Okay, here we go. There's not a lot of hockey, so I'm not exactly expecting slap shot. But it has certainly become a cultural talking point. It's not to the point where I'm asking NHL players about it. Maybe I should. I'm going to pull aside Leon Dreisel. Hey, what are they going to hit in the rivalry so far? But it's definitely become a conversational talking point. No doubt about it.

You know what? I haven't watched it, and I'm not going to watch it, but there's an actor that he is supposed to be Russian, and he's not Russian.

I can't believe this guy's not Russian. He's from Texas. This is what you told me in the kitchen.

He's from Texas. He learned Russian in eight weeks or something like that. It might even be eight days that he learned Russian before they started filming me.

That's impossible. I talked to Rodrigo Abel.

I have no idea how he did it.

We talked to Rodrigo Abel on our podcast, the Philadelphia Flyers. He's obviously a fourth-line, we're going to force you now with a serious injury. But he's a really smart guy. He speaks excellent English. And Demerz, they were both impressed. We grew up in Latvia. How can you speak such good English? He said, Well, Latvia, they teach us English, Grade 3 on. And he can also speak Russian. And Demerz is like, Wait, you can speak Russian? And he's like, Yeah. And Jason has played overseas. He goes, That is a very, very difficult language. So I'm going to go to call BS that he learned Russian in eight days. That's an impossibility. They say if you can You can speak Spanish, right? You can speak Italian pretty quickly, French, et cetera. Russian is widely considered to be, along with Mandarin, one of the toughest languages in the world. I'm going to go ahead and call BS. He did not learn Russian in eight days.

Yeah, I'll put my hand up on that one, Coach. Ball out on me. It was about a month and a half, it says.

Okay, that I could say.

But that's still a crazy amount of time to learn Russian to speak it in a show to the point where... A month and a half. Six weeks. To the point where some people have said he did a really good job. I personally thought that the accent was one of the parts of the show that wasn't great, but it's pretty impressive what he was able to do.

If you're Russian, you think the accent is bad.

I've been around- If you're not Russian, you're like, Okay, this is Russian.

And I was like, Oh, they're a Russian actor.

I thought it was pretty good. I've been around a lot of Russians over the years, and I've watched it. I'm not thinking, Wow, that sounds fake. When you told me that he was an American actor, that boom, in my mind. I think the acting in the show, forget about whatever you might think about what's happening in the show. The acting in this show has been spectacular.

I've seen scenes just for that because other things I'm like, I cannot watch it. But that's That's why I watched this actor. He started giving me this accent, and I'm like, Wow, he's so handsome. I'm like, Hey, yeah, the Russian guy is so handsome. Then they're like, He's from Texas.

I'm like, No, he's Russian. The American actor playing the Russian hockey player with a Canadian name, by the way, Connor's Story with an I-E at the end.

Yeah, I was just going to say that the show… Adnan mentioned that the show has had crossover. It's been more people that didn't know Hockey that are becoming fans of Hockey because of the show rather than Hockey fans becoming fans of the show. It's opened Hockey to a whole new world, and I think it's really awesome.

I've had people approach me over the last week or so, that my other job, talking about heated rivalry that we've never spoken about sports before. These are news people. These are game show people. And they're like, Oh, my God, have you seen this show? And is it really realistic? And are these the real teams? And it's like, okay. Obviously, it's working.

Well, as you guys know, Hockey is for everyone despite the NHL's best efforts. Hudson Williams and- Despite Yvonne Proberoff's opinion.

Go ahead.

Bring back pride tape, and then you can celebrate heated rivalry, okay?

Yeah, and the stalls. Hudson Williams and Conner Story are the stars of the show, and they have been named the official torchbearers of the Olympic Torch Relay. And this is a segue into the Olympics because I'm a professional broadcaster. What are your thoughts heading into the Olympic Games? Who do you have favorite to win? And who do you think is a dark horse going into the Games?

Of course, I've Canada winning it because I'm obviously a proud Canadian. But I do think US is right there. I think it's going to be a rematch of the Four Nations and both these teams going toe to toe. It's been such a fascinating conversation because one thing I've appreciated about Americans living in this country for 15 years, you guys are as patriotic and as jingoistic as it gets. For years, I would tell people there's a casual American hockey fan. You think T. J. O. O. Is the equivalent of Connor McDavid because what he did on a national stage. I remember Mike Golen, I don't watch Hockey. But the Olympics, I'm in. I can't wait for this bump of the USA hockey that we're going to see. Of course, the diehards like us are watching it all the time and how these guys are going to perform. A couple of fascinating subplots. Always in that is interesting to me. For Canada, you feel like that's not a strength. Bittington has not been very good this season. The Blues are a bad team, but he was fabulous in the Four Nations. Does he get game one start?

If he falters easily, then do they go to the next goal? He got the World Juniors, right? Give everyone a start. Or right out of the gate, as Devon Dubik told me, he thinks he'll be Logan Thompson. He's like, It's his net to lose. He'll get the start unless he falters. That's interesting. Usa goal by the way, not as strong as you might think. On paper, you go, Yeah, Halebuck, Swayman, Oettinger. But these guys, if you look at the numbers, I was looking since December 12th. I mean, Halebuck obviously has been hurt. Hasn't been the same guy. So that's interesting. However, in the thought, that'd be a huge advantage for USA. May not necessarily be the case. I still love USA's back-in. I love Canada's forwards. So you can make a case for each strength, each weakness. I will say, Roy, potential dark horse, at least at the World Juniors, Czechia has had Canada's number. They've beaten us three straight years at the World Juniors. Maybe Czechia could be strong. Ethan's raising his hand to make it strong. I don't know.

Yeah, I agree with you completely, Adnan. I think they have some underrated NHL talent, and they won the World Championships two years ago, if I'm not mistaken. So that is absolutely a team I think can compete.

That was Ethan calling his dog.

Oh, well, also Percy's down here. But I was He was just pointing to Adnan and saying that. That's a really good point.

I assumed this one. Either he was raising the roof like, Yeah, breach. Keep going, or he was trying to signal somebody for a technical issue.

I'm with you, Adnan. I think they're my dark horse as well. That was going to be my answer.

Guys, we are totally ignoring the Host Nation as the dark horse. Team Italy. I mean, what are we doing here? I'm just looking at the roster and I'm afraid to start saying some of these names. I mean, Giovanni Morini, Alexander Pitan.

Are there any initial players on that team? Nick Sacrino? Doing the World Baseball Classic where a bunch of Jews play for.

This looks like a lot of Italian names. This looks like the Sopranos men's league team. This is spectacular. I'm definitely going to be rooting for team Italy.

I wish there was a Sopranos men's league team. Imagine Veto out there on defense. Oh my God.

Are he coming up the wing? Oh my God. I'm going to rewatch right now. We can talk about that later, isn't it?

That's a fun idea, though. We can make our Sopranos starting six. That's actually maybe we should...

I bet you Christopher is a feisty forward, man. He's in the corner.

We're on to something here, Adnan, because you're the movie guy, you're the show guy. Every visit, we take a different show or movie, and we create our starting six.

I love it. I'm putting Johnny Sacks in that.

Oh, that's a good one.

Johnny Sacks is immoveable, very stubborn.

All right, so I have no segue here because I'm not a professional. I just want to talk to you about the Panthers and Matthew K'Chuck. Because Matthew Kchuck is back, Adnan and the rest of the league is very scared. Based on the first two games, the Panthers have played with Kchuck in the lineup against the Sharts and the Jets last night. They're going after him. They're testing his injury. He's getting knocked around and he's popping up. He's just fine. But now that Kchuck is back in the lineup, Brad Marshan should be back in the next several days at some point. The Panthers are getting healthy, Adnan. How scary is that for the rest of the Eastern Conference?

Yeah, I mean, this is now it's go time, certainly for the Fuller Panthers. We had Bill Zeto on our podcast. I've never met Bill before. Just as we're about to speak, he stares intently the camera then goes, You look a lot like Chris Chelias. I said, I love it. I get that everywhere. I said, I was in Toronto, and I said, Several fans go, Cheli, Cheli. I go, Hey, how are you doing? Can I get a picture of Cheli? No problem. And of course, I play along. Oh, yeah. I just play along every time. Yeah, Cheli, nice to see you. Good to see you. I'm 47. I think Cheli is like 62, at least three inches taller, one of the few Stanley Cups in North Australia. But yeah, I have no scars on my face, but much more clear.

Sign some hockey cards.

Yeah, that's what I should do. Get to the next level. But I asked Zito about it. He said, Listen, of course, K'Chuck is passive for our team. You know what I mean? He's so important. He does so many things both in the room and outside the room. And he said, Marci is right there as well. He said, Marci, When I traded for him, of course, I would have made a move for him. Like, the guy's just a great player. But I can't emphasize enough how important these guys are in the room because I know it's a cliché. You guys think it's not that important, but it is. It's not just what you're doing on the ice. It's what the way these guys are leaders and they can ride the team around. Right now, we're on the outside looking in. As I look, the Panthers, what? 55 points, three points out. But again, I look at the number of teams you're going to catch, two or three teams. Who's the team to falter? Boston will slow down a little bit. They've went seven in the last day. The Sabers have been on an unbelievable run. They're going to slow down a little bit.

So you go, Okay, Panthers, at least a wild card. You look at the Atlantic right now. That's where it gets tricky, David. I go, Okay, who are you going to dislodge? You're not catching Tampa Bay, maybe Detroit or Montreal. But it does become a situation where after the break, there's going to be what? 25, 26 games left? That's it. You're playing every other day, and there's going to be a sprint to the finish. So is it scary for the rest of the league? Yeah. But the Panthers know they got to take care of business and go on a heater just to get in.

Adnan, the big story tonight in the NHL is going to be Mitch Marner's return to Toronto. I think we all know what is going to happen. He's going to get the shit boot out of him. Do you expect it to be like LeBron returning to Cleveland levels, or what are you expecting to see tonight in this?

I think it's going to be pretty nasty. I don't think it's quite LeBron to Cleveland, but this is a guy who was a GTA guy, grew up in the Crater of Toronto area, dream was to play for the Leaps, gets there, plays great, had great moments in the regular season, but of course, never capitalized in the play-outs and became the poster boy and the whipping boy for all their foibles and all their concerns. Now, ultimately, he's sixth all time in the Leaps in points, which is pretty impressive. Think of that franchise. We can make all the jokes we want. They haven't went since '67, but from the likes of Darryl Sittler to Rick Vibe, there have been great players in that team. To be sixth all time in points, Mitchell certainly got done the regular season. But the play-outs, he didn't. And then he took Vegas' money, $96 million over eight years. This wasn't a situation where Toronto We can't forge you or don't want you. They wanted him back. He just took the bigger offer. So I hope at least when they show the video tribute, he'll get a nice ovation. I would expect that every single time he touches the buck, though, it will be venom.

Vegas played the Leaps last week in Vegas, and Vegas won that game. Marner had a couple of assists, but I'm sure he's going to hear it early and often. And good for the Leaps. I mean, obviously, their fan base is upset that he's left. They were a better team when he was there. The Leaps liked the Panthers.

It's their fault, though. It's their fault.

He ran him out of town. Let's be very clear about this.

It's so funny because now you hear people say, Well, maybe we should have made a better effort to keep Marner. When a guy has chemistry with Austin Matthews, and he's directly responsible for him scoring 260 goal seasons, he's an important player. Maybe he's not going to be a selky finalist this year, but he's been known for his defensive excellence, going both ways, and obviously a high score. He's not going to be the car score he was a year ago, by the way, when he had 100 points, but still a really good player, good fit in Vegas. He's got a better chance of winning the Cup in Vegas this year than he did in Toronto ever. It'll be a raqueous return.

We'll see how it goes. That's an angry Maple leaves fan, but he's also spitting facts. Okay, let's be clear.

All right, real quick before we get to Rose's big Oscar question that she has for Adnan, let's talk midseason award predictions right now. So we got the Jack Adams. We're talking about Joel Quinville potentially winning that thing. But yeah, the Ducks.

Ducks have fallen off. Exactly. By the way, Ducks is what I'll be watching, Roy. I have not seen the Ducks much, at least in person. So Ducks always. I look forward to watching Monday on Prime and talking to Q. I'm with you. He would have been a good option. I think it's going to be John Cooper. John Cooper has never won the Jack Adams. He's clearly one of the best coaches in hockey. The Lightning are outstanding. To me, they're the best team in the Eastern Conference. I'm hanging with Mr. Cooper. That's my pick for the Jack Adams.

John Cooper is the Bill Zeto of the Jack Adams Award. Bill Zeto has still not won the GM of the year. He's the GM of the decade, but he's not the GM of the year. Sorry, I got sidetracked. Go on.

Norris Trophy. What you got there? Because it looks like the usual guy.

Kal Mccar until he retires. It's Kal Mccar every year, Roy. I mean, Quinn Hughes is awesome to watch. I like Zack Wrensky a ton. It's Kal Mccar. Hudson is great. It's Kal Mccar every time.

Calder Trophy. What you got?

Calder's issue. I think I'll go Demadoff. I think he's leading right now on rookie points. But I got to tell you, the guy I'm really looking forward to watching is Becket Seneca. That guy's unbelievable for the Ducks. He's a good player to watch. Ethan's backing me up.

Love him. Love that Ducks team.

Vesina, it won't be Conahalabuk this year. It won't be three in a row.

It's Team Canada, really.

I'm going to go Ilyas It's a little more wide open right now. Good choice, actually. Yeah, Sorokin's had a great year for the Islanders. Patrick Waal, obviously, one of the greatest goalies of all time as his head coach. He started off slow, but Sorokin's been on a run, and the Islanders are a surprise team. They're second right now in the Metro. I'm going to go Sorokin right now because I think the Avalanche goalie's canceled the sums out. You could make a case for Vasilevski. His numbers aren't spectacular, but the lightning are really good. I'll go Saroquen.

And the hard trophy is the usual guys with McKinnon, McDavid, and Kutra, but Mclin Celabrini making a little bit of noise.

Yeah, Celabrini is responsible for 50% of his team's points, which is the highest percentage of any player with regards to their team's points. I'd love to tell you, if the Sharks make the playoffs, Cellebrini will win the heart, but I think it's Connor McDavid to lose. Him and McKinnon, by the way, both toe to toe. I think it'll be a great race. And Kutrup, I'm glad you mentioned, Roy, the Rodney Dangerfield. No respect. The guy's unbelievable every year, and he'll be destined to be third, if not fourth this season. So I'd love to say if Mac can get the Sharks in, he'll get it, but I think it's McDavid.

Okay. To close this off, first of all, I'm going to go root for Italy. Look at that man. He's in the roster, so that's why I'm going to go Italy.

Team Italy. Let's go, Rose.

Take me for sure.

What's his name? It ends in a Vowel. That's not fair.

Yeah, it ends in a Vowel.

Michel Frasdobrelet. Something like that. Okay, it doesn't matter.

I think it does, but okay.

Okay, Michel Frasdobrelet. Something like that.

Okay, go ahead.

So, Adnan, is it the first time an actor, a an actor has been nominated.

Wagner Mauer for the secret agent.

Oh, yeah. Don't judge me. I love him. He's very handsome. Even when he plays Pablo Escobar, I actually have a picture there. People are like, How do you like him as Pablo Escobar?

But he's great.

Do you think he can win it?

I think he's got a chance. I'll be honest. He won the Golden Globe, so that's always a good son. Now, they split the globes, right? It's best comedy or musical actor, and it's best actor drama. Timotei Chalmey, to me, is the favorite, and I think he should win. Timoteh. Yeah, I think Timoteh is great. He's 30 years old, huge Nicks guy. Some people find him obnoxious, and I've been in that camp, but I think he's a hell of an actor. He was really great as Bob Dylan a year ago, and Marty Supreme is one of my favorite movies of the year. Josh Safty did an unbelievable job, and so did Chalmet. I think Chalmet will win. I think DiCaprio has got a good chance because people want to see him win a second Oscar. The guy who'd actually vote for Rose for How to vote is Ethan Hawk. He's one of my favorite actors. It's his first best actor nomination for Blue Moon. Wagner has got a chance, especially with the foreign voters, but I do think it's going to be Timmy.

I really want to see Marty Supreme.

I haven't seen that It's great, David. You'd love it. It's really exhilarating. Highly entertaining. You love it.

All right. Adnan Burke of Prime, Monday Night Hockey and NHL Network. Thank you for joining us, Adnan. Thank you again to Adnan Burke for joining us today to talk about the League. Next week, we are going to Tampa, and we are going to cover the Stadium Series. That is going to be a lot of fun. Should be. Yeah. Look out on our social media for that. That should be a lot of fun for us. So for Gino and Jason, for Ethan and Rose, that's David Dworak.

And Percy. And Percy. She's under the desk, sleeping.

And the dog. My name is Roy Bellamy. We will see you next week from.