Transcript of The Hockey Show: Time To Panic In Edmonton? (feat. Adnan Virk)

Major changes are coming to the NHL as the league fast-tracks its new CBA to this upcoming season. What does it all mean? We'll break it down. This is The Hockey Show.

Welcome to The Hockey Show.

Before we get started, I want to talk about one of our favorite Panthers fans who, in reports that you're seeing, we lost today Today, Steve Illario was a charter and sales broker with a yacht company called Northrop & Johnson. He was also a Panthers season ticket holder. And if you are a Panthers fan, if you've attended any Panthers game, you will know who this guy is. If you're watching on DPN and see him, you notice a striking resemblance to Rick Flair. And it's proving at the Panthers games because every time they show him on camera, the crowd woos.

He had that great seat that was right next the Zambooney Tunnel. So the cameraman was always right there, but the crowd would get excited every time he was up there. There would be woos. And this is going back to a time when they didn't have as much to be excited about his Panthers at Panthers games. But Steve was always there, just getting fans excited. He was super friendly, always smiling. He always see fans coming out to him, taking pictures. Panthers lost a good one today.

I thought one of the great signs of how awesome of an organization the Florida Panthers had become is that Rick Flair was on the parade float, at least the first year. I don't know if he was the second year. I didn't see him. Yes, Steve. But he was on the parade float the first year. He was on the ice.

He was on the ice after the-We saw that.

It was so cool. He's just a regular guy, and he's a fan that became a popular thing, and they took care of their people. He'll be definitely missed around the arena. It was always one of the better parts of the game when they would show him and everybody would go, Woo.

Yeah, as I said, Dave and I met him on the ice after the Panthers one in June. He's a good guy. Really nice to everybody. Never got annoyed when people would yell, Woo, in his face. No, that's his thing.

He loved it. That was cool, man. Rest in power, Steve.

Rest in power, brother. You will be missed. All right, let's talk about the CBA and the changes that are being implemented this upcoming season. Not all the changes, because the '84 game season, that's going to happen next year. There will be a playoff salary cap for the first time in league history. This is in response to a handful of teams, including the defending champions, using long term injury reserve as salary cap.

Crutch. I mean, whatever you want to call it, they were working within the rules. Nobody was breaking any rules.

To the tune of four or five of the last few Stanley Cup champions have used that rule.

I think most playoff teams, whether they win the Stanley Cup or not. You get a guy hurt, it's the hockey season, it's the playoff. Shit happens. Yeah.

Also, there will be a ban on deferred compensation starting the day the Panthers raise their Stanley Cup banner. So no more days of, I guess, what, paying a salary of a million dollars and then deferring it down the line?

I know that a big part of the way that the Panthers have constructed a lot of their contracts is as bonus. Most of it comes in as bonus money, so the players get paid right on July first, right when the new league year starts. And then their annual salary, which comes during the season, is a much smaller number. So they're getting most of their money up front. I don't know if that's going to hamper the way that Bill Zito and his guys have constructed their contracts, but that's certainly going to be something to keep an eye on.

Yeah, it seems like this is all... You know how the Miami rules and the NCAA happened in the late '80s, early '90s? It seems like it's an anti-Panthers rule, Ethan.

I'm interested to see... I know that the LTIR is going into effect for the playoffs, but there are changes that are being made to LTIR in the regular season as well in terms of the percentage of the cap and how much salary you can actually put on LTIR. Yeah, it's like half. Yeah. I don't exactly understand what the whole deal is. I'm sure more information will come out about it, but I'm interested to see, obviously, the big news to start the year is that Matthew Kajuk is expected to be on LTIR until at least January. How is that going to affect the Evan Rodriguez situation? I'm already intrigued by what the Panthers are going to do with this. And then, look, I mean, Kuchuk was going to be back for the playoff. So unless another injury happened, the Panthers probably weren't going to be beneficiaries of LTIR again because they were going to have to put his salary back on the books at some point. But maybe somebody gets hurt. God forbid, but you never know. God forbid, somebody gets hurt, and they were able to do it again and go out and get somebody at the deadline.

The question is going to be, what does this do for the trade deadline? Is the trade deadline going to be a dud now?

Well, I mean, one big trade happened. Well, a couple of big trades happened at the deadline, actually. But yeah, it's been mostly, especially free agencies. I mean, it's been mostly duds.

I mean, the Panthers wouldn't have been able to get Brad Marshan without-That was That was one of the biggest ones. Without LTIR. The Seth Jones trade, I think, would have worked because of the salary that was retained and then them moving night. That worked. But Marsh Ann would have never worked.

That's another thing, by the way. Double salary retention will be a no-no this year. So you can't get another team to retain salary for a player.

That's interesting. You see that plays into the whole Seth Jones thing. And a lot of deals that have been made over the last few years, a lot of teams are retaining salary. They want to build up their stables of young prospects futures. So it's going to be fun to see how teams adjust in real-time to this. I think we're going to be certainly watching from an interesting perspective following the Panthers.

And the other change is not this year, but next year, the big change is that the season is going to start in September now. The cup, they're hoping to be handed out in mid-June instead of late June, the way it's been this past season. It was the 17th of June, and then the season before, it was the 24th of June.

That was a issue.

That was crazy. Then the Panthers were back in training camp three months later, basically.

That was a crazy week when they won the first one, it was like they wanted on the 24th. They had five days to celebrate. The draft was that week.

The parade was on the 30th. Lomberg was gone the next day.

The parade was on Sunday. Then the next day was like, nuts. I'm definitely sure that they want to change these rules, whether it's Panthers related or not.

And two more regular season games as well, an 84-game regular season.

Less preseason. I get why there were some people that wanted to hold on to that because the young guys that aren't in the NHL get a chance to be in an NHL uniform in an NHL arena for a lot of the parts, but you got to do what's best for the big guys.

It seems like they'd rather have more training camp time than preseason time, the way in the NFL, teams more want these joint practices rather than an actual preseason game. It seems like that's the trend for I'm part of the NHL as well.

Sports like football and hockey, where you either have to be going 100 miles per hour or there's no real point to doing it. Playing games that don't matter, like preseason games, it's just silly. I'm all for cutting it back, letting them train more on their own, and more regular season games where they actually count.

A couple of things also that will be implemented this year. The dress code has been relaxed, so Evanda Khan can show up in a tracksuit in Vancouver.

Bathrobes in South Florida was a big thing last year. Yeah.

Well, that was in the arena. As far as arriving to the arena-They wore their Swedish sauna suits.

Yeah, but it's Home and Road rules different. That was for home games.

Yeah, that was for home games. Yeah, I think it was across the board now.

It'll be fun to see if a couple of guys come up with something It's a good way to get guys to show their personalities. Sarah Sivian must be interested.

I'm sure she's loving this. Also, players can endorse wine and spirits, so you know what that means? This would probably make Rose very happy that Alexander Balkoff can hold up a nice cold shot glass filled with Jägemeister. Damn, that's cold. Yes. So take a picture of that. She'll love that. Nice segue. All right. So, Connor McDavid, in an interview with TSN's Ryan Rishog, said, We're trying to find a scenario that works for everybody in terms of my family, my family's security. A deal that makes sense for the team to continue to have success. My belief in this season and the players this year has never been higher. So how?

So he's not quite saying what Angel rees said. He's not quite throwing his team and the organization under the bus.

No, he's trying to... I don't even know about that.

He's hedging his bets for sure. But this is Connor McDavid. This is like the alpha of the NHL. He's on of the mountain, nobody's disputing that he's the best hockey player in the world. So whatever he wants to do, teams are going to be lining up to give him what he wants. So it's basically going to come down, does he want to stay in Edmonton?

I think he wants to stay in Edmonton, and he has said his intention is to win in Edmonton. Some of the quotes... I don't know. I can't get a read on this situation based off of his quotes. What I expect to happen is he's going to take a three or four year deal short term and say, Here's your window, win now I'm gone. If you win, I'll stay forever. If you don't, I'm going to go to Florida.

All right, we'll get more into the CBA talk next week with Greg Ryshinsky of ESPN, and we will talk more about Connor McDavid, a band named Verc, who's going to come up next. But first, before we get to that, it's time for Wins and Fails of the Week presented by Jagen Meister. Serve cold or don't serve it at all. Jagen Meister, damn, that's cold. For more, visit jagenmeister. Com. Drink responsibly. David, what's your win of the Week?

My win of the Week, I'm throwing out my not my charitable arm, but my friendly arm, my hospitable arm. A couple of Canadian teams put out some interesting images this week, one of them of an ICE Center ICE logo, the other one of a new third jersey. We have the Montreal Canadians putting out a new Center ICE logo. Very flashy, very look at me, look at me. I like it. It's fine, whatever.

It looks like the inside of the...

I was going to say that's the inside of the cup, isn't it?

It looks like the inside of the Stanley Cup on a record. Then the senators came out with their third jersey. Again, nothing necessarily wrong with it. It's fine. It's nice. It's cool. Whatever. I'm not going to be buying the jersey. I'm not going to be wearing the centerized logo. They don't blow me away. But what does blow me away is that they're taking swings. They're not afraid to put it out there and say, This is what I like. You can like it if you want. These are teams, they both made the playoffs last year. They both had first-round exits, but good for them. They're taking swings. I like what they're doing. More teams need to just not be afraid to do whatever the hell they want and see what gets out there. Artistically, I like it.

My win of the week is the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. The name's have been released. Scott Gomez is going in. 181 goals, 575 assists, and 756 points in his 16-year career. Zack Freguse, 434 goals, 455 assists, 889 points in his 19-year career. Joe Pavelski, 476 goals, 592 assists, 1,068 points in his 18-year career. Tara Monci was on the United States women's hockey team. They won the first ever gold medal in 1998. That was the big year. Yeah, not now. That was a... Boy, that team was... They were stacked. They were stacked, boy. She also won a silver medal in 2002. And photographer Bruce Bennett, who photographed over 6,000 NHL games in 50 years. Those are the names going in the US Hockey Hall of Fame.

Fun, Scott Gomez. I was looking up all the guys on Hockey Reference, I got to Scott Gomez. He played, what do you say, 1,079 games in the right? Yeah. 46 of those were for the Florida Panthers, and yet his Hockey Reference picture is him in a Panthers' jersey.

Of course it is. Ethan, you'll win.

Zack Parise, by the way, still being paid by the Minnesota Wild? Is this the last year of that buy-out? Good question. I think it is. Him and Ryan Suter. The Bobby Banier deal. Anyway, my win of the week. Guys, the Seattle Kraken, probably the most boring team in the NHL, for being honest. Cool uniforms, though, and they just did something... It's a big swing. I'm not sure how cool it will actually look if we can put it on the screen here, they made a glow in the dark uniform. It's an all-black uniform, and the logo-I like it. Lights up in glow in the dark. I mean, look, when they're actually playing the game, the effect is not going to work, but pregame intros, when they skate on it on the ice, it's going to look really cool. I think we have another picture as well. The uniform itself is really nice. Their branding is awesome. Their logo is great. Their uniforms are awesome. I like their colors. I like blue and like see foamy greenish color. These are really cool, though. You want to talk about big swings, David. I have never seen a glow in the dark jersey before.

That's really, really- The stars came close.

With the highlighters. A cool possible option that they can do for their goal tender in Seattle. They have glow in the dark goalie paint. So you put some of that on your mask to match the jersey.

That would look pretty good. It'll be interesting to see if he does something cool for that game. Yeah, I think those jerseys are great. Big swing, and I'm all for teams taking big swings as well. Let's go.

All right, David, what's your fail?

Oh, man. My fail of the week is, Riley Smith went to a comedy show recently. I think it was in Las Vegas, but it was for a comedian, Will Burkert. Do we have the audio, Ethan? All right, let's play that and let's just see what happened with Riley Smith getting heckled at the comedy show.

What's your name, sir? Riley. Are you working during the week? I'm not, sir. Are you a teacher? I'm not. You're not. Silly me. What job do you have?

Hockey.

Who do you play hockey for? How high are we?

Are we- Very high.

Everybody in that comedy club is looking at this guy like, Dude, you don't know this is Ryan Smith?

I'm not going to drop the punk. How the fuck?

I'm honored that you're here, bro.

I just got nervous all of a sudden.

I'm a wide-time fan. I'm in.

Dude, you're really slow playing it. How's work? It's all right.

It's a little chilly when I get to work.

Do you get recognized a lie. Yeah, it's okay. He's so mad he got recognized. Look how pissed off he was.

He's sitting in the front row. How are your teeth? He just pulled out half of his teeth.

How the front? The front one's still intact. You keep popping them out.

Such a hockey player move, though, to take out your teeth at a random time. I feel like I've seen a lot of hockey players, retired, current. They're happy to take out their teeth and show them to you.

Rule of thumb, never sitting in the front row doing a comedy show. Right?

I learned that at a Jim Brewer Comedy Show. I was 23 years old. I got a pina colada for some reason, and boy, did he let me know about it.

Yeah.

Oh, what?

You got a pina colada, so you had the fancy glass.

Say that again.

Say it the way you said it. Pina colada? Okay. Isn't that how you say it? All right.

I love this one. I thought you said piny colada. No, piny.

Why would he say piny colada?

Drinking male genitalia. What are we talking about here?

All right. My fail of the week. I'm going to disagree with David's win. My fail of the Week is this. Not only is the center ice design in Montreal ugly, the senator's jerseys are bad, too. I feel like this is an addition for addition's sake. It just does not look good. The jerseys are ugly. Also, what are the hurricanes doing? What are they doing? This is a change for the sake of change. This is worse because it's the road uniform.

This is going to be worn 41 games. They just blacked out the It's regular season. The Hurricane logo, is that what happened?

No, there's a couple of other changes, too. I think they changed the font on it. They also changed the sleeves, the bottom.

They actually look Ottawa-like, don't they? The sleeves like that?

Yeah. They did add black. There's no white in the logo on the logo on the jersey, so there's that, too. Ethan, you also agree with me, right?

Yeah, my fail of the week is also for the Canes, not necessarily because of these uniforms. I think they're okay. I don't love them so much. My problem with the Canes is their best uniform is the uniform they never wear.

The one with the- The red jersey is the best jersey.

Yes, the red jersey is the best jersey in this set. So their original home jersey. Yes, their OG home jersey is the best jersey in this set. The white one is okay. I hate the red and black logo. They need to have the white in there. And don't even get me started on these stupid home jerseys with the smoky shoulders and the black. I hate those uniforms so much. Their red jersey was good. It was one of the better sweaters in the league, and they went away from it, and I don't know why.

All right. Adnan Virk is coming up next. Adnan is on Prime Monday Night Hockey. He also has a book. It's called Cinefoul. So please go ahead and I'll take that book up if you read. So that'd be nice. If they don't. Yeah. You can do that. Just help out a friend and buy the book. And Anne's next.

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And Anberg wrote a book. I mean, congratulations. Cinefile interviews, essays, and tales from the red carpet. Pick it up where you buy your books. He's also the host of Prime Monday Night Hockeys in the studio doing things in Canada for Amazon, so doing good work. And we are almost there. Hockey season is beginning.

It's September. September. They're coming back this month.

Awesome, man. I cannot wait.

I like these fast summers. Maybe keep one in the Stanley Cup, Florida. It works for me.

Back into action. Let's take a look at the national television schedule in the United States. I don't know if this affects you, considering that you work on a Canadian-based network. But for us, it It annoys me seeing what's here. Now, the Washington Capitals, they have 18 nationally televised games. That's obviously for Alexander Ovejkinds, what could be his final season. The Bruins, Avalanche, and Red Rings have 17 nationally televised games in the States. The stars, all as Wild Rangers and Penguins have 16. As you notice, the Rangers and Penguins are there, again, with a high amount of games, even though they missed the playoffs. Obviously, that's a market-based situation. The Black Hawks, Panthers, Lightning, Golden Nights, have 15, and the Panthers have 15. Again, that's the most I've ever seen. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah. The Kings, and by the way, not a lot of ESPN plus exclusives. It might be three. There's only three. There's only three. So there are a lot of linear television for the Panthers this season. The Kings, Flyers, Blues, and Mapleies have 14, and that goes all the way down the line. What do you make of that?

So first off, I'm the oldest I love this 47-year-old a lot because when you say linear television, I get excited. David, I'm the one guy who still has direct TV. I've had direct TV. I moved from Canada to go to ESPN in 2010. For 15 years, I've had direct TV. Every year, the price goes in a little bit more because they know everybody else is cutting cable. It's a little faux game. I call them and go, This is outrageous. How much this price is? Sir, we're taking 30% off for the next six months. I'm like, Okay, fine. I'll stay with you. When I hear linear television, I go, Great. That means it's on, as Roy would say, ESPN, ABC, TNT, NHL I work where I work. I'm like, Yeah, I can flip all these things. First off, I like hearing linear TV. I'm the one guy that still does that. It's hard to spread the wealth, and I get that. Certainly, the capitalist thing I get, like you said, so if Echkin, it could be his final year, I get it. Penguin is still a major market, even though I'm with you, we get Crosby fatigue, et cetera.

It always becomes a challenge between... Sean McDonald was listening to what's to God. It was great. They're talking about the worst things that people say to Sean being one of the voices, obviously, of hockey and ESPN. Sean is so funny and so acerbic. He's like, Well, probably the worst thing is that everyone tells me that I'm a New York-hating douche. That seems to be a common refrain. But he goes, Why would I hate the New York Rangers? The New York Rangers rate. If the New York Rangers do well, that's good for me. That's good for business.

But the Islanders don't, apparently. Correct.

But the Islanders do not rate the Rangers do. I think the challenge becomes, for every executive, you go, Okay, if you walk into any room in America and go, All right, hockey fan program, what do you want? I want Rangers, Bruins, Peng, Black Hawks, Flyers, the major markets, Red Wings. Having said that, as we all know, those teams haven't been successful recently. So do you still want the bigger markets, even if they're not play-up teams? Like, Red Wings, how many more years the eyes are playing can we have? I think the answer is still, yes, I still want those teams because they're going to rate more than, with all respect, even a Vegas Golden Nights, Panthers, great teams, but different markets. I understand your frustration. It's annoying, but it's not surprising. In Canada, what do you think they want? It's all mea-liefs games, Habs games. After that, they go, Okay, I guess we'll take the centers. I guess we'll take the flames.

It is what it is. That's the opposite here in the States, though.

I was just going to say, David.

Looking at this, five of the six Canadian teams have zero nationally televised games in the US. Then Toronto has 14. I wouldn't mind seeing the Rangers beat up on Montreal or some of these older-I want to see Montreal. Original six rivalries.

I want to see Montreal. Montreal is a young, exciting team. Lane Hudson, they made the playoffs last year. I want to see more Quinn Hughes. Quinn Hughes is an American superstar. There are no Vancouver Canucks games on national television in the United States.

And the senators and Jets are playoff teams. I probably can understand.

The Jets won the President's trophy last year, and the senators have another American superstar, and Katie Kachuk, a guy I want to watch as an American hockey fan. Yeah.

So They're still got to work out the kinks of this list, basically.

I mean, is it because of Amazon Prime why we're not seeing that many Canadian teams nationally, except for the Maple East, obviously, in the United States?

I don't think so, Roy, because with Amazon Prime, our schedule Well, it's just Monday games. To Ethan's point, what's the busiest night? It's always Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Saturday is Hockey Night in Canada. Okay, Monday is Prime. But Wednesday, you could definitely get a Habs game with whatever American team they're playing. And to Ethan's point, because he's a genuine passion, a hockey fan, I've always said that to the Canadian audiences. I go, Hey, don't mistake the fact that just because you're Canadian, you just want Canadian teams. As you guys know, I'm a flyer. It doesn't matter where I'm from. If you like your team, I want storylines. I want compelling games. I would take Capital's Penguins. Even now, Ovejian Crosby versus Maybe a Battle of Alberta. I mean, that's still always special because it's Calgary, Edmonton. But you guys know what I'm saying. We want the best match with the best players. You look for that rather than geography. To me, anybody who's waiting for geography, I'm like, I don't think you're a real fan of it, but that's how they think.

Explain to me why on network television for ABC, why are there no games for the defending Stanley Cup champion? It doesn't make any sense to me. I think the Penguins have six.

They didn't make the playoffs. Hang on a second. There's no Panthers games on ABC? I didn't see any.

Zero.

That's stunning. Because But if you win the Cup, Roy, at the very least, you get the first game. Always thought, Hey, Panthers defending Stanley Cup champions. They're going to raise the banner that special and the rematch. No matter what, it's like, Okay, well, we knew on Amazon Prime, around the schedule, best game of the year was December eighth, ninth, whatever it was when it was Panthers, Edmonton, and Edmonton. So I'm with you. If I maybe see wherever the host broadcaster, Defending Champion, you get at least two. You get rematch of final and first game.

Yeah, the Panthers have to raise their banner at 5: 00 PM on a Tuesday. That's my favorite thing because the Penguins and Rangers have to play at 8: 00 PM on opening night because we just have to see the tanking penguins in Sydney Crosby.

The NIT Bowl. That's sweet.

I'm with you guys. I am pro panther bias, enmity towards- That's why you're so welcome on the show, Adnan. But don't you think it makes sense to Whatever the team is, who's the most, I want to say, unpopular team, smallest market, let's say.

At the Columbus Blue Jack, you still get two games.

You should get the first game when you raise the cup, the cannons are out, and you get a rematch of when you beat whomever.

Utah has 11 games on national television. Seattle has six.

That's crazy. It's a mammoth story.

This goes back to eat this. It's an exciting to me. But Utah, if you told me top five most uninspiring team to watch, they might be on there.

Well, there's no superstars in Utah.

That's the thing.

There's the sexy value. It's just not there yet.

They're like a dark horse this year, but they don't have any superstar power that I want to watch more than I want to watch Quin Hughes or Lane Hudson or somebody else from one of the- Ready to Chuck? Yeah, Ready to Chuck. Yeah.

Adnan- Also a very uninspiring team. I joke with our buddy, John Forreston, who's the voice of Amazon Prime, and He's an awesome job. I got a buddy. You got to tell Matty Bernier to pick it up. If I throw in the Seattle crack, what am I excited to watch here?

Anyways, go ahead. Adnan, I wanted to ask you, we're talking about Canadian teams and Canadian superstars. The hot story around the league right now is the lack of a Connor David extension so far this offseason. He is eligible to sign extension now. Hasn't happened yet. There's been more and more quotes coming out seemingly every day. Based off what you've seen, what you've heard, if you are an oilers fan, how big would your level of concern be right now?

Yeah, plutonium level. I mean, this is insane. I think it's a fascinating topic right now, 1. 21 gigawatt style. Because I understand all sides. So McDavid says, I don't want some of the money. I want all the money. Let's suppose he's saying that his team market, whatever you want to say. I get it. Dude, you're the best player in the world. Probably met for so many years. Back to Stanley Cup appearance is okay. Whatever that extension could be, if it's a high AAV, two years, 36, if it's something lofty, it's obviously triple figures. But everyone knows, well, if you swal that much of the cap, if so much is going towards you in dry cell, et cetera, it's your ability to win a winner. So what's most important to you? Getting the most money or being a winner? And the answer is both. I want the most money, and I want to win a Stanley Cup. And I deserve the most money because I'm the best player, and you figure out how you're going to make the rest of the piece as fit. I I generally think-Right. If I make David, I'm like, Yeah, I want yes and yes.

We're going to win, and I want all the money.

Rook of salt, man. I just want it all. I want it now.

All right. So dry side is making what? 14 million?

The highest AAV in the league.

So basically, Conor McDavid is going to have to make 14 million and one dollar. That's what you said. 14.

001.

I just got a random number to someone the other day. I go, two for 36. They go, I go, yeah. Because 18 million to me seems like he's like, all right, I'm significantly better than dry cell. I'm not just 14. 1. I'm not 15. I'm getting That's the statement.

That's a hell of a statement. But where are you building your team? If you have what? 32 million.

Something I saw yesterday is that Zack Hyman, I didn't realize, it's going to be 34 this year. Nuj is going to be 33, and Matias Ekholm is going to be 36. There's concerns if you're Edmonton about how long your window is right now. Yeah.

1,000 %. But the bottom line is this, Ethan, imagine he leaves. Like Edmonton, as we've all discussed, it's not exactly the jewel of the north. Not a whole lot going on.

There's no Calgary.

Calgary is good town, man. Bams an hour and a half. No Calgary in Amazon Prime while we're venting towards TV partners. But Edmonton, I'm like, Bro, if you leave with David after you lost Gretz and you didn't win this Stanley Cup, at least Gretz left him with four cups. At least Messi had five Stanley Cups. You left with the supposed dynasty McDavid left when you could have afforded him, but you pissed him off because you wouldn't give him all the money and you couldn't build a winner. That's what McDavid knows that he's got his play. Now, Edmondson's response to it would be, Look it, we can't win if we don't have some financial flexibility. This was pre-salary cap era in the '80s. This was a long time ago. You can't win cups without players taking a little bit less. Can we take a bit of a haircut? Do you truly care about winning more than anything else? Then you don't need the 14-1. We can give you 12-5 or 13. We'll back-end it. There's What else we can do. You're going to get money. You just can't get the most money. And by the way, you can't do anything right now anyway.

It's like everyone's signed. The free agent class was to be good next year, the year after that. So two-year high AAV. As Ethan said, it's a smaller window now. Let's win a cup and I'm going to figure this out.

I was going to say it seems like short term deal is what's going to happen for McDavid here, and he's going to say, You've got this many years, and if you don't get it done in this many years, I'm going somewhere else in ring chasing, right?

It's got to be short enough term. He doesn't want to take a six year deal because no one's going to sign McDavid at 34 because he's not going to get the 10 year deal. So you're right. I think it's two or three year deal, which is a hell of a thing. You're putting a gun to management and said, You got two years to figure this out. I'm gone.

All right, let's assume none of that happens. Okay, where's he going?

Florida. Bill Zito is going to make it work. That's the one place you can take less money, and it's all good. It's not because of the frigging tax thing, because there's five other teams that he can go to and deal with the tax thing. It's because Florida, it's just not a selfish place. They have made it abundantly clear that they only want to win Stanley Cups. That's it. Take less money. The highest AAV on that team is, I think, 10. 5, Matthew Kchuck.

That is crazy. My first options were Florida, Tampa, Vegas, warm weather teams. Lies. All the stuff that people are saying, whether it's right or wrong, I don't see him going to- Dallas. Yeah, Dallas. I don't see him go to the Bruins. I don't think he wants to go to the Ranch.

No. I don't think he's going to go anywhere that's like a media cauldron. I think if he's making the move, he's going to go to a comfortable spot.

Correct. That's how he ends up in Toronto, Dave. As we say, he's not going to go to a media cauldron, and then he's going to go to Toronto or Montreal.

No chance. All right, Adnan, I've got something for you that's from Roy in My Childhood. I'm getting off hockey for a second here. This is a commercial that played when we were younger, when you were younger. This song has been burned in my head forever, but I watched it the other day, and I found a very interesting hockey nugget. If we can play it for him, and let's see if he can pick it up.

Off in the distance, the game's dragging on. There's strikes on the batter, some runners are on. But suddenly everyone's looking at me. My mind has been wondering, what could it be.

And then do you remember this, Marshall? ♪ They point to the sky and I look up above ♪ And a baseball falls into my club ♪ I played right field.

It's important to know ♪ Goldberg.

What's Goldberg doing there? The coldest reaction. ♪ That's why I played right field.

Where I wear the dandelions.

It's a random one.

Sponsored by League Base, Pizza Hut welcomes all the kids who make it great.

Oh my God.

Wow.

I love that stuff, man. Nice and hokey and sentimental and nostalgic.

That commercial was on so much back in the day, and now there's a Mighty Duck. I think that's so cool.

The fact that Goldberg is in there is pretty remarkable.

I guess he made the rounds as a child actor.

All right, Adnan, what movie have watched recently that you can actually critique?

Roy, I love this. Highest to lowest, Spike Lee joint, back with Denzel. I work in Seacock in New Jersey. Mobile Network, Angel Network is there. I don't often go to the theater there because I don't live there. But Highest to lowest, as you know, Roy is now streaming available. Ever, Apple TV Plus, came out a month ago, was only in select theaters. I'm not sure, with all respect to... I'm sure it's playing in a few theaters in Miami, but it wasn't playing a ton of places. I don't think it was playing in Sunrise, so to speak. Anyway, around where I live, which is a fairly popular area, not a lot of theaters, but it's playing in Seacock. All right, no problem. Open night, 8: 00, I'm there, sold out. I'm pissed. I'm happy, but I'm pissed. It took me a little time. And unlike so many people today who go, Well, in four weeks of streaming, I go, No, next available opportunity, I'm going to see this movie. So thrilled to see it in theaters. I'm glad everybody who did see it in theaters, if you had the capability It was good. It wasn't elite.

I've seen the original Curaçao film, Whichipon's Base, and I rewatch it. It's called High and Low. It's an all-time classic, great, great film. But there's some joy in seeing Denzel and Spike being reunited. It still has the visual panache that Spike has, his great love and reverence New York City. There's a wonderful set piece in the Curaçao film. I'll give you a real short synopsis. Denzel plays a music record executive who believes his son is kidnapped. That is faced with the moral dilemma when the kidnapper realizes he actually kidnapped the wrong son. The son is his close friend, Jeffrey Wright's son. Jeffrey Wright, of course, great actor. Him and Denzel together are awesome. What do you do? You still pay the ransom money because it's $17. 5 million and you have this executive who right now is hemmerging money, or do you go, Hey, sorry, not my problem. It's not my kid. So that's the moral dilemma. In the Curaçao film, there's this great scene on the train where they got to dump the money Spike adapts into today's world. It has a great, great scene. What are they doing? They're going to Yankee Stadium.

Denzel's got the Yankees hat on. Nicolas Turturo is screaming at the camera, Boston sucks. Boston sucks. They got this great scene in the four-train. They got to give the money off. Asap Rocky shows up. There's a great scene with Denzel and him. Bottom line, it's a good movie, entertaining, enjoyable. I hope people see it on Apple TV+, but I really hope to see it in the theaters. Great to see Denzel and Spike back together again. And, Roy, I kick it to you. People have been saying, The best Spike Lee joint with Denzel, I think it's obviously Malcolm X, but lots of quotes for He Got Game, More Better Blues. Obviously, Inside Man is a good What do you say? He Got Game.

Do the right thing. Do the right thing. Second behind Malcolm X.

Did you see he recently revealed his name's not Denzel, it's Denzel? It's Denzel.

Yeah, we knew that. He's been saying that for years now. Denzel? Denzel. That's what his mom says.

Patrick Sertain. Patrick Sertain.

Exactly. What are we doing? For the Roy's right, for those who don't know it, because Ethan's right, everyone knows it, dad seems all to be Denzel or Denzel. Mom would say Denzel to them both, so to differentiate, became Denzel for Denzel Washington. But it is Denzel. Shorty.

Adnan, I watched Back to the Future for the first time recently. I had never seen it before. Oh, my God.

What an event. Okay, please.

I watched it.

I'll lose my head.

I flew to Chicago, and it was on the flight, and I'm like, Now's the chance. Now's my chance.

Now's my time.

When else am I going to do it? And I watched it.

You made it 3: 20 to Chicago.

It was great.

I loved it.

Of course, it's great. I've told you this before. In my room right now, this office, my movie office, I have 10 movie posters. I'm looking at Taxi Drive, which you already alienated me on, and right over here is Back to the Future. So one for two. Ethan comes through. I I love Back to Future. Quentin Tarantino. Forget about me. How about an authority like Quentin Tarantino? He has called Back to Future a perfect-Yes.

My favorite director.

David, right? Zemeckis did an amazing job with it. It's obviously a great script by Bob Gale and Michael Zee Fox, my favorite actor. It's so funny, the comic timing. What I always tell people is Back to the future has the great mix of the science fiction fantasy, a DeLorean 88 miles an hour, but it's got love. It's got heart. What's cool with them being able to go back? Imagine whenever your relationship was with your dad, imagine you go back to your father right now and be in high school with your dad and try to teach them to fall in love with a girl. All those scenes together, they're so perfect and so beautifully done. I get a little choked up the scene where George McFly is talking about... Because Marty is trying to understand his psychology, right? He's like, Why don't you just try it? He's like, Why? I really couldn't take that rejection. Then Marty goes, Yeah, I know what you mean. He almost says, Dad. I mean, look, those scenes are so beautifully done. It's obviously got great humor as well.

Cinefile interviews, essays, and tales from the red carpet. Please pick that up where you read and buy books. That'd be nice. Eric from Prime, Monday Night Hockey. Thank you for joining us, Adnan.

Listen, I know this segment's over, but we have to keep going. David had a friendly critique, and this is- I know.

I was going to save it for the next time because we didn't have time for it today. Okay, I'll just for that. I'll just do it right now.

Okay.

You're missing one thing from your book, in my opinion. There's no hockey hook. There was no chat with Russell Crow about mystery Alaska. There was no Rob Lowe discussion about Youngblood. That's the one thing that I felt was missing. It's a friendly critique, but for the sequel, there needs to be a hockey I was about to say, just like Back to the Future, I have Back to the Future 2.

This is excellent advice for why I can convince Mango Publish to get a sequel out there. Excellent, excellent point. Somebody asked, by the way, great hockey movies. We've discussed it before on the pod. Again, I pumped up The Rocket and Goon, which I know, David, we've talked about before. Great Canadian underrated movies. Yes.

Well, we need to see The Rocket. Roy and I do. Yes. We still have not found a way to watch it yet here down in the toe, the big toe of Florida.

Dave's white whale now is Hank Azaria, so he can talk Raising Alaska. Is that what it's called?

Raising Alaska? No, I'm I'm combining Raising Arizona, right?

Rosie's asking if you've seen the summer I've turned pretty.

No, I've heard of it. Rosie, did you like it? I haven't seen it yet.

She's listening. She's not... Oh, there she is.

Her WiFi sucks. She's at an airport. I've been making these kids watch me. It's excellent. That's great, Rose. Thank you.

That O'Hare WiFi not really doing so good. No.

Can somebody send me Rosie's number so I can text her and find out what she actually said after?

Yes. Yeah, I got you.

All right. Thanks so much, guys. I appreciate the support in the book. And by the way, Booktour, come to Miami. I will see you guys in exactly three months in South Florida.

I can't wait for you to come down here. I can't get drinks, actually.

Maybe by then. It's three months away.

Yeah, hopefully. We'll see you in Atenan.

Thanks, boys. Appreciate you always.

Thanks to Atenan Virk for joining us. Go get his book, please. So Rosie's not here. Rosie, I believe this This is the what? This is the second week of her- Week two.

She's in Chicago, right?

Yeah, she landed in Chicago. She's in Chicago or Iowa State.

Going to Ames, Ames, Iowa for Iowa State and Iowa.

Yeah. Please, Lucy, take care of our girl because as you remember last year, she got pepper sprayed. So let's not have that happen to her again.

She did return to Columbus, no pepper spray in Columbus.

Well, they didn't get on the field this time. Yeah. True.

They stayed away. No pepper spray. Hey, it's Rose. Rose.

Rose, how are you doing, Rosie? Rosie is frozen.

She just popped in from it. That's great. Can we put up the... Oh, wait, no, she's not frozen. She's not frozen.

She looks frozen to me.

She's frozen. Yeah, just put up the frozen. She put the frozen ice out. She's moving.

She's moving.

Is that the shocker? What are you doing?

No, what hat is that? The Alaska Rainbow Bears?

Oh, no.

This is perfect. This is great television.

This is great audio as well. That's awesome. Just don't say anything, Rosie. All right.

We love you, Rosie.

Enjoy Alaska.

I don't have a microphone. All right, for Ethan and Jason and Gino, that's David Dworke. My name is Roy Bellamy. This was the Hockey Show. We will see you guys next week. Thank you for listening and watching. We're almost there. Hockey season is about to get started soon. We're training camp and the free season cannot wait. So see you guys next week. Go, Gators. God damn it.