I know that some in our audience know the finer points of hockey. The Chris Johnston Show. We are your friends. The biggest stories bringing you inside the game. What did you hear? The Chris Johnston Show. What is going on? Here's Chris with your host, Julian McKenzie. Part of the game.

Siege, a report has come down the wire just about a couple of minutes before we started recording today. A radio show out in Arizona, The Burns & Gambo Show, putting out a report saying that Arizona Coyote's owner, Alex Moreno, is seeking out potential buyers for the Arizona Coyote. Remember, this is a team that is still looking to find some land to pitch their new arena. We all know about how Mullet Arena is. Have you heard about this report? What can you tell us about the Arizona Coyote situation as it stands right now?

Well, what I can tell you is that officially, the team still says that Alex Moreno is only focused on winning the land auction for the land where he wants to build a new arena. He wants to keep a team there. But I'm looking at the calendar, Julian, and it's April fourth. And we don't know where the coyote is going to play next season. I think I'm comfortable going that far. And it's the slowest game. I know you hate when I reference my beard or the gray, or my age, but I literally was- I don't hate that. Why do you think I hate that stuff? I think it's just I was I was a young man. I was there in the courtroom. Do you want to know a funny story?

I would love to know a funny story.

The first time I ever remember going viral on Twitter was when I was tweeting from the court at the bankruptcy hearings. Was that 2011?

Anyway, I was- I wouldn't remember the year specifically, but that sounds like the O. G. Twitter.

But I was new on Twitter. I remember I had a Blackberry that the Canadian press had issued me, and I used to get, literally, I'd get an email when any new follower followed me. I just would tweet. It wasn't like I was... But I was able to bring people into a courtroom they couldn't otherwise be in. And it was a story of high interest around the hockey world. I just remember my Blackberry going like, I'm not kidding. I had 100 followers and got to 10,000 in a couple of days. It was crazy. Anyway, this is CJ telling stories from the past. But that's where I remember. That's how long this has been going on for in various ways. That's a couple owners ago for the coyotes. They obviously ended up staying. They didn't end up moving to Hamilton at that time through bankruptcy court proceedings. Here we are in the year 2024. There's a couple of weeks left in the coyote season, and it finally feels, quite honestly, like this is getting to decision day. And so I can't refute the report, but I also can't substantiate it. I don't have any additional information. But it wouldn't surprise me if the owner of the team was out there looking for other options, because let's remember, he's in a land auction.

So anyone who's ever bid on a house, you might like the house, you might have toured it. You might think, Hey, I could see this is where I would hang out. This is where I'd watch games, and this would be perfect for the kids, and this is where the workout area, whatever. But you still got to win. You still got to buy the house, and other people see the same things you see. It's no guarantee at all that the coyotes win this land auction, and there's no guarantee, I think, that the NHL is willing to continue on forever more at Mullet Arena. I wish I could bring more info for our 100 percenters out there, but this is notable. There's a lot of stuff swirling about the coyotes. You got that sense. Even at the Jams meeting last month, we were in Florida. It just feels like something is up. But we can't go any further than that. I have no tangible information. I'm not saying they're leaving. But I think Bill Daly gave a quote that I remember quite well. We were in Palm Beach there in late March, and it was like, it's getting late.

They have to have a plan or no plan at all. I'm going to put my usual caveats in here. Arizona will be the number one destination for expansion if this team is moved. It's not unlike Minnesota was way back in the day. There was all kinds of problems. The original Minnesota North Star moved to Dallas. They got proper circumstances right. They built an arena where the Wild Dow play. St. Paul, it's been a great place for the NHL. I think that that could be the model if it gets that far. Obviously, Alex Morello doesn't He didn't want that to happen. He owns a team. But if this report is correct, he's out there looking for other buyers. And so, the coyotes, they're going to be a popular topic around these parts, I think, the next few months, Julian.

So I want to touch on one point you made about how this might not be long for Mullet Arena. If the Arizona coyotes are not going to be there, where are they going to go?

This is the hardest part. No one debates. The players love playing there in Arizona. They love living in Arizona. Barcelona. Great weather, great taxes, good lifestyle. Check, check, check, check. It's not an NHL arena, right? And I think it was cute for a little while, and it's cozy. And obviously, there are some positives. There can be energy in there. I get it. But from what I understand, the players got to walk through a tent. It's raining sometimes. It sounds weird, but it's just you make it to the National Hockey League. There's a certain level of... It's actually in the CBA. I don't know if you're aware of this, but what visiting teams even have to have available to them in the NHL in terms of workout equipment, what that looks like. It's spelled out. The point is, there's literally... I think there's a line about towels for visiting teams in the CBA. My point is, the standard of what's expected for the workplace is spelled out in the CBA. I'm not saying they're not meeting it in Arizona, but obviously, it's not National League. It's not the way If you're a member of the New York Rangers and you walk into Madison Square Garden, what you're getting or any number of teams that go above and beyond.

The funny part is it's not because the organization doesn't want it. That's actually where I think the story may be... One aspect that gets missed, Julian, is that the team itself wants to have a real rink. They went through a lengthy process in Tempe last year where they had a referendum, but they had plans to build an arena. They had a parcel of land, and I saw the plans for that. It was going to be spectacular if they could pull it off. But there was a local referendum, and it got voted down. They didn't get a chance to build there. And so I guess the question becomes, how long can the league wait for one of these plans to hit? Because I do believe in a strange way, as much as this might seem adversarial the way we're talking about it, Alex Moreno knows he can't play in Mallet Arena forever. The NHL knows that. Obviously, Marty Walsh, if you remember his comments back at the All-Star Game, he knows that. The players themselves are frustrated. I just think it could get to a circumstance here where it's just going to take too long to get what they want or there's too many roadblocks.

I mean, unfortunately, you don't build a arena overnight. And so it's the best way I can say it is that I don't think a decision is made. I do think there's a world they're back in Arizona next year. I really want to be clear about that. But the fact that it's not for sure, that's where the news is. That's where the buzz is right now is that we can't say with definitive confidence that the coyotes are going to play a game in Mallet Arena next October. And so until that gets settled one way or another, until someone comes out and says, Here's the plan, or they got this land auction, they're going to build the arena. We Any concrete information, there's no concrete information. And so in the absence of that, you get these reports. And look, it would only make sense if you're Alex Moreno, that you're at least seeing what you might get for the team. I have no reason to refute report. As I say, I can't add on or I don't have any new knowledge at this time.

Okay. Well, we will add to what we've already discussed with the Arizona Coyotes when it comes time, because this is definitely going to be a situation we will revisit as more information.

Frustration is growing there, man, though.

Oh, I bet. I bet there is.

I don't want to say too much here, but I really think the players that have had to play there this season, it's been a strain. And that can't continue on forever. If you're an NHL, it's owners can think in decades. Players got to think in years, right? Ideally, if you're a successful owner of a team, you own a team for a long, long time. I think of Ed Snyder in Philadelphia. He owned that team his entire adult life until he died. Rest in peace, Ed Snyder. But owners can think long term. Players get six, seven-year career. Some of them, of course, get shorter than that. I think if you're there and you're like, first of all, there's all these rumors, and then it's just a hard way to make your living. I actually think they had a really long losing streak that I think can be tied to some of what went on. Obviously, they weren't a team that any of us were picking to win the Stanley Cup, but it's been a very difficult season for the coyotes, and I do think there has to be some firm plan, not just, let's wait and see, wait and see.

There has to be some firm planning here, or we're talking about this team playing somewhere else.

Okay. And with that, it's time for leafs corner. You ready for an exciting addition of the- Oh, soon. Yeah, I know. Usually, I mean, we don't really have a set place for leaf's corner. It's just when it comes time for us to talk about the leaves, the corners there. I wanted to bring up Austin Matthews. He scored goal number 63 against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, seven away from the big 70 number. How realistic is it for Austin Matthews to that plateau, you think?

I remember when I was first asked about this, it was when he was at 25 or 30. People started saying, Oh, he's on pace for 72 or whatever it was. And I was like, Well, that's all well and great. Sometimes players get off to hard starts or slow starts and then things usually normalize. So I thought 70 was a preposterous talk, quite honestly, probably until the last few weeks. And what I see in Austin Matthews is someone who understands, let's call it as great a goal scorer as he is. He may never get any chance like this again. I think he is hunting the buck. I think it's very doable, quite honestly, for the players on the team. They've started to talk about I've been around the dressing room a bit the last week or so here. If the other players are talking about wanting to feed them the fuck, I think it can be something to rally a team around. And so I wouldn't rule it out for Matthews. I mean, certainly scoring seven goals in seven games for him is nothing I'm not saying it's easy. It's certainly not automatic, but you're not asking him now to get 12 in the last seven games.

That would be where I'd be like, okay, it's possible, but he's got to explode. I think with where the team is at and where he's at. It's very possible. They have two back to backs left in the season, though. One thing that I don't know how they're going to navigate, does he play all the games? Is this something that matters enough to have him play the games? I I don't think there's a real debate to be had there. I don't think it's being had yet. I should be very clear on that, Julian, that my understanding is everyone's just going to let this breathe. Let him play the next few games, see where he's at. If he keeps getting one or two a game and he's in that mix, then maybe there's a decision to be made right at the end of the season. But I think he can do it, and I think he wants to do it. That's the key. We all sit in our living rooms and do these podcasts, and we're doing the numbers. I think different milestones matter less to the player, maybe, than they might to the fan. 70 goals is...

Dude, look, he's at 63, right? So even if he gets to 67, that's a significant number. But 70, there's just something big and round about that number, and it's really only been touched by the absolute greats. And then someone like Bernie Nichols, who's a very good player, too, in his day, but in the '80s when scoring was... But It's preposterous that it's even possible with the last two weeks of the season here. I'm fascinated both by the chase, like how he performs in the games, and he's generating a ton of shots. I was at the He gave me a game against Tampa on Wednesday. He only got the one goal, the only goal that he scored on the night. But he had a shooter's mind that night. The beauty of being able to watch him from the press box is he had a stick up ready to shoot at every moment. I think that's how it should be, quite honestly. I think back in the day, probably when players got to those numbers, that was what happened. And it's a long season. I've had two or three random people not connected where I didn't initiate the conversation in the last few weeks, say to me, Why is the season not shorter?

I mean, we had a whole discussion about that the other day.

I know, but it keeps coming up. Seriously, I keep hearing it. And I promise you, it's not a case. I'm not writing a story about it. I'm not going around going like, hey, is the season too long? It feels like, I don't know what's going on. It's like the vive mind of the hockey world. Everyone feels like the season's too long. But something like this is something to focus on, especially if you're in this market, as the season gets to the stage. I think he can do it, and I think he's going to chase it hard. Who knows? I'm not sure how it's all going to bounce and end. It'll be fascinating when it comes time. If he's at 68 and they end the season on back-to-back games, Does he get both games?

Could you imagine the storyline if dude was at like 68? So to review the schedule here, they have the Canadians, the Penguins, the Devils twice, then the Red Wings, then the Florida trip at the end where they're in Florida, then in Tampa Bay on the 16th and the 17th. Could you imagine a scenario? Austin Matthews, 68 goals, skips one of the two games of the back to back just because the team wants them to be ready for the playoffs and to just keep them away from being injured. Could you imagine the storyline?

I can imagine it because they've done it the last few years. That's a thing. We have the same coach. Obviously, it's a new GM in Bradford Living. But if you look at the last couple of years, two years ago when Matthews hit 60, he hit 60 and they sat him the next night. It was the last game of the season. I guess what I don't know, if he didn't hit 60 in the second last game of the season, would they have played in the last game? I'm guessing they would have, but that's a hard thing. I remember, Mitch Marner sat out last year. He was at 97 points, and he sat out. And look, I think it's a real debate because I'm here for all sides of it. I was at a game on Monday night. Carter Verhege got injured for Florida. It doesn't sound like it's a serious, serious injury, but he's probably out to the playoffs. So that's the downside. The Panthers really aren't... I mean, it's not been going in their direction lately, but you lose key players, injuries that could cause future issues in games that don't truly matter in a big way.

And then you can say, Well, what do these milestones matter? Obviously, if a team like the least went on to win a Cup, I don't think anyone would remember what the final goal or point total was of anybody. They probably just talked about the team that won the Cup. But this 70 It's different. It's like I think of McDavid's 100 assists. He's just so much closer. I don't see a lot of built-in tension there. I think he's just going to get it matter, of course. If the oilers want to sit him at one or more of the last few games, it's not that big a deal. But it's a tough call. Obviously, the playoffs are what matters, but you also make these guys play the whole regular season. Austin Matthews missed one game this season so far with an illness. He's been healthy all year. For a player like that, because he has had injuries through his career. Maybe one of the reasons his goal totals weren't a little higher at times. He had a pandemic, wiped out one Sure 50 goal season in 2019, '20. Some injuries impacted the rest. I think that was a big big point with him scoring 40 last year.

But he just may never get all these circumstances at play again. I don't know how they're going to navigate it. As I say, my understanding is no one's talking about it yet. I don't think there's no negotiations here. This isn't controversial at this point. I think it's just more like, Hey, let's play the next three or four games, see where we're at. But it will be an interesting call. Let's get ahead of the story before it's a story. If they get to the last week of the regular season and he's at 68, going into a Tuesday, Wednesday games against Florida and Tampa back to back. How they handle that will be fascinating because probably at that point, the playoff position will be settled one way or another. Maybe not, but probably. It's like, Do you send him out there trying to do something personal when... I don't know. It's a tough call, but I think you rely on what the player tells you, too. That'll be probably the... That's got to be part of it. You got the sports science crew, you got the coach's opinion, the GM's opinion. But I think when you're talking about a franchise player with a chance to do something that...

It might not happen for 30 years. It's been 30 years since we've seen a 70 goal score.

That would be insane for, at least in my lifetime. I don't know if I've ever seen that.

No. And if you were alive, you weren't watching Mario Lemu do it or whatever. You might have been physically alive, but you weren't aware of it. Exactly. I think you let the players go for it. I do think I think that there's a little bit too much overemphasis on load management at times. If you're not going to do it through the season, if you've had them already play 10 back to backs or whatever the team's played, are you really telling me you can't do one more? And let's keep in mind, the least season ends on a Wednesday. The earliest they open the playoff is a Saturday. At this point, it looks like they're going to play Florida. They're going to be in the state of Florida, so it's not even really travel involved. There's a couple of days of rest there. I Seeing the way he celebrated 62 is in my mind. Because Austin Matthews, if you watch his career, the guy does not really celebrate goals. He expects to score. It's his vibe, but he celebrated 60 like crazy. I just feel like it weirdly could be a galvanizing thing as you go into these games where you're like, Well, what really matters here?

I don't know. I'm a hockey historian a little bit. I think it matters. I want to see McDavid chase 100 assists. I want to I want to see this stuff. You might be like, yeah, it's only numbers and it gets lost to time.

But no, it's not just numbers. That's history. It's fun. And that leads it to another question I want to ask you, and I think you're on the track of what I'm thinking of here. As media people, when we're in the press box and we're watching games, there's an air of professionalism that we're supposed to carry ourselves where we're in those spaces. But when we're watching history, I'm very curious how... I'm not saying you're going to be in a press box, like wave your arms, like, Oh, my God, it happened. But I think you're allowed to be like, Oh, this is cool. We're allowed to look at this stuff and say, This is cool. I'd love to know how you're tracking all of this and how excited you are about seeing these guys get close to these numbers.

Yeah. For me, it's funny. It's not the obvious way. I wouldn't go to a game cheering for him or even another player, whatever it is, to hit that milestone. It's not that... But I can think of numerous things. When you even just ask this question off the top of my head, where I've been in a press box and something has happened and I'm like, whoa. It's almost like something you don't expect. I'm like, that's part of this. Because the hilarious thing, I'm saying it could be 68. It could be 66 going in the last game, and he might score four. I'm not saying it's likely, but I can tell you for certain, back in 2016, I went to a game in Ottawa. It was Austin Matthews' first game. I'd already spilled tons of ink on him. He's a first-round pick of the Mapleies. I'd written lots of stories. The last thing on Earth I thought I was going to be watching or writing about that night was him scoring four goals in his NHL debut, and he did it by the second remission. And so it's not just him. There's tons of stuff. Sidney Crosby scoring the golden goal.

There's lots of moments. I remember that one LA New York Rangers Cup final, 2014, the first overtime period of the deciding game, and that was insane. I actually remember there were so many crazy chances both ways. And obviously, it not only mattered because the Kings had a chance to win the Cup. But if the Rangers won that and the Kings had to fly all the way across the continent at that point in time, I'm not sure LA wins another Cup. La was on fumes at that point. And I just remember that overtime was full of moments where I'm in the press box. And again, there's no rooting interest. I'm just like, Whoa. Sports are fun, man. Hockey's fun. This has been a fun season. I mean, as much as... I've talked a few times now, and we've talked about it, Julian, about it being too long or whatever. We're recording this at six o'clock, so you're probably not hearing this until Friday morning, I'm guessing, but on Thursday night, so this isn't our usual time. There's a game in an hour here. It's Pittsburgh and Washington. It's like the classic rivalry of the last 15 years, not the way we're used to it, where only one of those teams is making the playoffs, mathematically.

And I'm excited for that game. And I'll be excited if there's a chance for... If I happen to be in the building, I'm actually going to the Oilers' last game of the regular season against Arizona. Who knows? I don't know where Connor McDavid will be at that point. The guy gets four points a night just for fun. I brush my teeth, he gets four points. But maybe there'll be some history on the line that night. You're doing it wrong if you're in the press box and you can't still love the game, if you can't still get into a moment, into a record, into something significant, something that matters, something that people are going to remember. Remember Remember where it all started? What sports do you remember? I was a kid. I remember Joe Carter hitting that home run to win the World Series for the Blue Jays. I could go through a list of things that people my age would relate to. But I still remember that in an older age now. That was a long time ago. The point is when you're a sports writer or personality, someone who's got to talk with the game, write about it, be on TV or YouTube or whatever the hell we're doing now for this industry, you have to...

Sorry. But it's multifaceted at this point. It's not as easy to just say what we're all doing. We're all doing a little bit everything. But you get to be a chance to be there and you still can't enjoy it. Again, you're not cheering for it. You're not wearing a jersey. You're not with your buddies. You're not having a beer or eating a hot dog or whatever. Although I eat pizza in the press box at Scotia Banquerina.

Yeah, you guys are lucky for that. Pizza, pizza. I'll say this, the best pizza pizza I have ever had is at Scotia Banquerina. There you go. It's the best pizza pizza I've ever had.

But I'm just saying, if you can't get into all that stuff, then you should get out of the business immediately because then you're just punching the clock. Then you're doing any other job. I'm fired up for the end of the season. That's why I get fired up for the playoffs, too, because that's history. I love the stuff that matters. I think the longer I'm in the biz, bud, the harder sometimes it's like game 44 of long season, like in January or whatever. Sometimes that becomes a little harder to get up for. But I'm dialed in right now, so I'm excited to see what happens. Again, not just with Matthews, with McDavid, with these last couple of teams getting in the playoffs. And then obviously, who's going to raise the mug this year? That's the history.

Oh, yeah. One other thing I want to mention, too, while we were trying to think of 70 goal scores, I believe the last time that happened, both Timo Solani and Alexander McGillany reached the 70 goal threshold in 1992, 1993. So if Austin Matthews does this, he will be the first 70 goal score I have seen while living on this Earth.

Wow. Yep.

I've I've never seen a 70 goal score as long as I've been alive.

That's crazy. Do you know what's funny? When you think back, there haven't been that many 50 goal scores, really. We started to see them with increasing regularity here the last few years. And obviously, Pastry got to 60, McDavid got to 64, Matthews got to 60, and two years ago. But even hitting 50 goals was a big deal going back to the last seven or eight years. Seventy is insane. I don't even know what it means. I'm not here arguing for He's got to win the hard toll for anything like that. But I'm just saying, 70 would be flat out insane if he got there.

We forget, too. Connor McDavid hit 64 last year. If you're Austin Matthews, and I I would love to live in a world where there's a genuine rivalry between Austin Matthews and Connor McDavid.

I think they're buddies.

I think they're buddies, and it's cool to be buddies, but it would be so cool if both of those guys, and I'm not saying they have to hate each other, but both of those guys look at each other doing one thing, and they actively go out of their way to try to one up the other. This would be Austin saying, You hit 64, I hit 70. It would be cool if that was genuine bragging rates.

That might be part of it now that he's this close. It's not just I think it's McDavid at 64, but it's also Ovechkin at 65. That is the modern number. We're not counting what happened in '92, '93 because it really was a different NHL. I mean, you weren't even walking among us, Julian. I can't I can imagine. The world was not nearly as good a place as it is today because you weren't around. But I'm just saying, he's at 63. You know he wants to get to 66. I think that's the first number for him. That's the bare minimum of how he to come out of these seven games. But I don't know. I get a feeling they're all pushing for... It's hilarious. At least, teammates are all bringing up 70 on their own. They were even before he got to 63. He got to 60. I think it might have been Samson after the game last Saturday in Buffalo. He said, Hope I can get to 70. He was already upping the ante, right? They're like, I guess they've all watched the guy enough. I mean, he can score a goal game for large periods of time.

But don't you want this? If you're If you're a team that is already on a course to make the play- This isn't just any team, though. I understand that we're talking about the Toronto Maple leaves, and we understand the expectations are different. I mean more just in the vacuum, where you have seven games left in the season. You're trying to get your guys as sharp as they can and give them some character dangle ahead of the play-off. This is good, right? You want the guys to be motivated. They want to do this. You'd rather that over them dragging their feet the last seven or eight games. I don't know.

Well, and again, I haven't talked to Austin. I'm not speaking for him here. There's no code here. But I also think, how much does it really mean to him? I think that has to be the fundamental part of the conversation. Maybe he doesn't really care. Again, we all get fired up. We're doing the math.

I think he cares.

I think he cares. As I said, the celebration for 60 was legit. Then watching him play these last couple of games since, he literally is ready to shoot at any moment, which, again, it's not a bad strategy. He's scoring at a pace better than Ovechkin's first eight seasons in the league. I could argue it's a winning strategy for Toronto if Mathees is scoring lots of goals. And this team, I think, is second or third in the league in win since January first. They're first in goals. A lot of things have been going right, even with their loss to Tampa this week. So I'm with you. I think you just go for it. From an organization, you live with the negative, the potential consequence of an injury. Keep in mind, a player playing any game, some stupid game on a Tuesday in September, split squad in training camp that isn't even televised, players can be injured and suffer significant injuries. There's a risk in the sport. It's inherent for every player, whoever puts on their gear and goes out on the ice at this level. I think you just live with the risk. But again, look, man, there are millions of dollars at stake for the organization.

Stuff you and I are not even thinking about We don't have to factor in. We can think about history books and good stories and the like. But look, at the end of the day, it's going to be an interesting decision. I'm telling you, because seven goals in seven games, he could score. I get in four, maybe. But I think it's likely going to go down to the wire, and we'll see how the leaves handle it. As I say, it's not decided just yet. I think it's an open conversation is the best way to phrase that.

Okay. To cap off, Leifs Corner. The Leifs signed Jacob Quillin, a NCAA free agent, to a two-year entry-level contract within AAV of 875K beginning next season. One of the many college free agents signing in the last few days. What do you know about this Jacob Quillin character?

Well, Quittipiac won the national title last year in a overtime win over University University of Minnesota. Quillin scored the overtime winning goal against Matthew Nies at the time, playing for University of Minnesota. So there are some leaf ties there. I think he was pretty well sought after. What made him come to Toronto, of all things, I think Brenan Shanahan and Brad Treleving were both quite involved in the recruitment here. And I think that that just gave him a level of comfort or made him feel as though the leaves were the right team for him. And it It's interesting for Quinnipiac. They've seen a couple of players now leave. Colin Graff, his linemate, was probably the biggest NCAA free agent of this class, if you can call it that. I know in the past, there's criticism of hyping these free agents up too much. I mean, a lot of these players become real players. It's on a certain timeline. Trevor Moore was one to leave signed years ago, ends up going to LA, and now pretty effective player for the Kings. You can go down the in terms of other guys. Graff, interesting, he ends up in San Jose.

There was some feeling he wanted to be on the East Coast. He had 26 teams initially that expressed some degree of interest. He cut it down to six. And ultimately, he chose the Sharks, I think, for reasons that might be apparent. He's going to be able to play NHL games before the end of the season. That burns off the first year of that entry-level deal. And he's on an organization that needs youth. And I know they've made some draft pics. They got Will Smith last year in the draft and others. But the Sharks are for the future, and I think there's going to be an opportunity for him to play there. And so every player has to, I think, map this out. But when it comes to Quillon in Toronto, he's joined the Marlies now. He flew up this week. And I think the least... We've seen them trade away all their draft pics the last number of years. If you watch the last few trade deadlines, the least don't have a lot of pics left. So these are the players they need to add to fill in around the margins. I think we're talking about a ceiling, likely, of a bottom six player at the NHL level.

It was important enough to them. I think it says something that the True Living and Shanaher were involved in the recruitment there and ultimately got that done. So Quinnipiac has lost some trusted veterans here, but I love the NCAA free agent period. It's a pretty unique thing. And as I say, sometimes these are Draft picks themselves are lottery tickets. I think signing an actual player at 21 or 22 years old is a little bit more than that. It doesn't mean it's a guarantee, of course, but these players have had a lot of success at the NCAA level, and they're going to be playing pro games here by the end of the week. Okay.

We were talking about goal scores earlier, and you happened to have written a pretty great story about one Alexander Ovechkin. Alexander Ovechkin's Last Stand: How A Dubai Trip and a New Stick Revived a Record Pursuit in the Caps Season. You can read that at The Athletic. Can you take us through that story? What was the inspiration behind it? And just give us some finer points from it.

Well, there's a reason I don't write headlines. I wouldn't even know how to write that headline, but they did a nice job selling that.

I mean, I think it was- You don't write headlines? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait so much. Really? Yes. It's so hard to come up with headlines. Oh, my God.

I don't even know how to... Sorry.

You know my tech- Sorry. We'll get to the story in a second.

But you know my level of... I'm basically a Luddite, but I barely know how to file the story at The Athletic. I wouldn't know how to put a headline on it.

Do you not use the CMS? Do you not use what we use to upload the article? I know you write on docs, and then you not copy paste it into... How do you do your job?

I think the best answer is Jake Leonard. He's my editor. He's an awesome guy, Jake. So everything I don't know... I was going to say everything I don't No, Jake knows. I write stories, and then somehow they become on the athletic, and that's all him.

Okay, talk to us more about this story. Talk to us more about the story. I don't know if you want to go into more detail. Is that bad? I'm sorry, I asked that quick. No, I don't think that's bad. It's just like... I don't know.

I don't know why I should say that. I will say this. I'm pretty veteran in the industry. I've never written a headline anywhere.

Really? No. I've just been so used to trying to come up with my own, and then at least someone tries to switch it around.

I thought that it sounds weird. So this is the old newspaper mindset, but it's the writer has an idea for his or her story and files it, and then the editors can see the whole picture and they can figure out a better way to sell the story. I think the idea, actually, in all seriousness, was just to make different ways of viewing and selling the copy.

Yeah, for sure. Maybe this is just different school, but I've been an editor before and it's been ingrained in me to come up with headlines. I'm just wondering, is Jake hate me? No, Jake probably... No, no one hates you.

No one hates you. Can I send him flowers or something?

I mean, you can if you want.

Case of beer, you should be like, Dude, you wrote my headlines all year.

I'm just saying that for me because I know how hard it is to come up with headlines. I say hate you as in... I don't hate anybody.

No, I know.

I say that in jest. I got to be like, Oh, that's annoying. I got to come up with a headline. If I'm taking your article and It's like first thing in the morning, and I'm still trying to get my brain to wake up and I'm like, Oh, crap, I got to read through this story and make sure I get a good headline out of it.

Yeah, you have to read through it. You have to understand it. You have to correct mistakes. You may have to move some parts around if you don't think the structure is good, and then you have to figure out how to package it.

Yeah, exactly. That's what you should be doing anyway. It's just that's an extra step. If the headline is there and you just have to tweak it, that's a whole different thing compared to coming up with an entirely unique headline on your own.

Well, I'll say this.

Anyway, we're belaboring the point.

I got hired on October 16th by the athletic. The season had already started. There was no training. They're just like, Okay, now you work here, do things. So maybe there'll be an opportunity this offseason. You know, I did things. I went out on reported news and I wrote stories, and I did some features, and presented ideas. But maybe along the way, there's some... I barely know how to file expenses. It's... Sorry, but I'm just saying there might be a few things that I need to brush up on this summer, and maybe headline writing is one of them.

Okay. All right. Well, now you know some of the... I don't know.

Everyone's worked somewhere, man. It's hard. Everyone works places.

I've worked everywhere. There's so many- I've worked a lot of places.

We appreciate you. There's so many different ways things are done.

It's hard. It's true. It's really hard. It really is hard. Again, I'm saying this in jest.

I went to the dentist this week. They're like, Where do we build this? I'm like, Oh, God, I got to figure that out again.

Well, you know what? I feel better as a younger adult learning how to adult. Yeah. Even if you get older and you have these gray whiskers in your beard, there's still a lot you don't know.

One day I'm going to dye these. Maybe season four of the pod, I come back with jet black dyeed whiskers.

Make sure you use just for men or Would you use that? I don't know if you ever used that stuff before.

No. Do you know what's funny? When I worked at Sports Night, so this is going back a few years, there was some discussion. There was some level discussion not initiated by me about me maybe dying the beard and stuff. I was like, I don't I don't want to be responsible for this. Well, but think about it. My job there, seriously, and I'll say this, this is all truth. My job there was to come up with news, to come up with information. I had to work hard to do that. It was not my job to figure out how to make the Just For Men go through my beard properly. And since- Sorry, this should be so funny. So my view is like, okay, I'm not the one initiating maybe dying my beard. Sorry.

You go ahead.

If you guys want me to do this, you have to, I don't know, send some to my house or I'll go some. I'm not doing it. Said the hired good. So it died. It died. There was a brief discussion about dyeing the beard, and it never happened. I've literally never put hair dye in my hair.

You don't need it. You don't need it. I think the way that it is, is fine. It's okay. You don't need hair dye.

It's weird though. I mentioned the dentist. My dental hygienist is like, Have you ever thought about shaving your face clean again? I was like, No. No? Well, because it'd be weird to look at yourself.

Yeah.

I'm several years in on the beard. It's a good look. You should keep your face clean again. I was like, No. No. Well, because it'd be weird to look at yourself.

Yeah. I'm several years in on the beard. It's a good look. You should keep the beard. I wouldn't do anything to it.

Yeah. Alex Ovechkin- So you're Ovechkin, sorry. He scored eight goals in his first 43 games, and a few people in the hockey world noticed. He scored then 17 in a 23-game stretch after that fact. I was assigned the idea of what happened there and tried to dig into it as best I can. I mean, not the most introspective individual in the league, I would say. It's hard to get to the heart of the matter. But the man went to Dubai on his buy week, which is... I don't think a lot of players went to Dubai.

Yeah, you don't hear a lot of guys say that they go to Dubai.

Sorry. I'm not throwing shade at Dubai. It's just that it's eight time zones from Washington, and it's a long flight. It was a nine-day break, but you probably lost two days of flying, more or less, going out there and coming back.

Do you still at least get a week to hang out?

Right. He rode camels with his kids in the desert. He was chilling with Wayne Rooney at one point, former soccer star from Europe.

Yes, former Man United Superstar, DC United player. I think he managed DC United.

Yeah, I think it was a good reset, honestly. In all seriousness, the best I can tell is he went through a stretch. He's never gone through his entire career. This break comes. He scored a goal, actually, the last game before the break in Dallas. It's a six on five goal. It's like a soft shot by his standards from the point that goes through a bunch of bodies and gets a goal. So some good vibes returned, goes to Dubai, Chills with his family, gets some sunshine, does all that stuff, comes back, and he scores in the first five goals, first five games, rather, after the break. I think it lift a weight off his shoulders. There's a lot in that this could be. It's just a reminder that you could score the second most goals in NHL history, but confidence still matters. There's an idea of maybe the momentum of your season, things that are going on. Spencer Carbury mentioned that he hit six crossbars in the first stretch of the year. He's had a couple of goals called back, I know, by offside reviews or goal tender interference reviews. Some of those things don't go your way.

He went through five sticks, too, though. It does show that he was wrestling with something. Briefly, briefly, briefly, there was a window there where you're like, Is he going to break the goal scoring record? I don't think anyone's asked that question anymore. I mean, it's not a slam dunk. He goes into the game tonight against Pittsburgh, which will already be played by the time you hear this, but just bear with us. 46 goals from Gretzky. You know, you figure he gets a couple more this season. Can he get 20 to 30 next year? He's got one more year beyond that. It feels like Something in the 25, 26 season that we'll be focused on.

No, I think at this point, if he's able to wake up and get it down to 40, I think they try to make it work next year.

That would be something.

That would be something. It absolutely would.

Keep in mind, he's 38. Was it 42 and 50 goals the last two years? He scored 92 goals in the last two seasons, and he's going to get 30 plus this year, most likely. It's hard to have that longevity. The impetus for the story was... It was a strange time that If you look across his whole career, any 43-game stretch, the fewest goals he ever had was 12. You might say eight doesn't sound that different, but that's pretty different. That's a sizable amount difference. He'd never struggled like that before. When you get to his age and he's lost because Natzoff, obviously, Backstrom stepped away earlier this season. I think there was fair reason to wonder if this goal chase was off. Not only is the goal chase back on, but the Capitals might make the playoffs, which is partially their division. Between them, the Penguins, the Devils had a tough year, the Flyers. Nobody's really grabbed that third spot in the Metro. It's been a soft year in that division. But if Ovej can get us back to the playoffs, in a year where they lost the two cornerstone guys I mentioned, they traded Anthony Menth at the deadline, they traded Joel Edmondson.

They're having their cake and eating it, too, if that's what So I'm pumped when we finish recording this pod to go watch their game tonight because I think that capital is Penguin's game. It's going to feel like old times. It's going to remind me of a day when I didn't have the gray in the beard, Julian.

When you just were clean-shaven CJ.

Clean-shaven, didn't know shit from shit.

Look at you now. You know more shit.

Yeah, I still know. Now I just know I don't know anything. No.

Come on. At the very least, just learn how to file a story. Just do that.

Well, I know how to file a story. My story is- I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

My stories exist.

Your stories clearly exist. I'm just kidding. We should stay in the Metro, though. Because there was a wild brawl on Wednesday night where Matt Rempey, of course, at the center of it, you see him fighting with Curtis McDermott.

How are we just getting to this now?

I know. There were so many things we were- I took us on 17 tangents, and I just was like, I'm not going to let Julian bring this up. You're just like, I'm not going to talk about fighting. We're not going to talk about that at all. Yeah, no. Matt Rempe and the Curse McDermott fight. Of course, there were eight other players ejected from that brawl between the Rangers and the Devil's two seconds into that game. What did you think of the brawl? What do you think of these stage fights?

I think if this was happening even once a month, it would be too much. I mean, When did this last happen? That's my view of it. This is two teams in the same marketplace that have had some pretty significant history this year with hits and suspensions and non-fights. You'll remember, Rempey was not allowed to fight in the last game. Peter Lavalette did not allow him to fight in the last game against New Jersey. This was building in this case. It happened. Eight guys were thrown out of the game immediately. To me, I don't think we have to reinvent the wheel. I don't think this requires a hot take. It was pretty damn entertaining. I don't think this is not a pandemic of fights off the face off. It was genuine true emotion. In general, I don't love a stage fight, but it's hard not to say that That was good for business.

Okay.

You might not agree.

I don't know where I stand on it. I don't know if I disagree. I just don't know how I feel about fighting because there's the one side where I look at it and I get the arguments about how archaic it is and the fact that these fights are staged. It's just like, we don't need this. We have a game with all these great players that are super skilled and super amazing, and we should be hyping that up.

Were you not excited?

That gets to the other side of this. There's something about fighting that even if you don't like it, you can't help it watch. You can't help it feel some jolt and wildness. There's something about the act of doing it that's still invigorating, in a sense. So genuinely, I don't know how to feel about it. I'm not trying to be contrarian. I'm not trying to go against it. I genuinely don't know how to feel about that in our sport. And there are players in the league, like a Ryan Reeves or a Max Domi, who will argue about how we still need fighting in the sport, just like there are people on the other side who will say, We don't. I don't know where to go. I really don't.

I guess it shows the player's care, though. At the base level, it shows that those guys started that game There was beef. It wasn't media created. It was real. Rempey had thrown in the previous two games, two very questionable hits, one of which you got a four-game suspension for. They They wanted him to answer for that with a fight in the previous game in which his bench clearly told him not to do. And the players showed up caring. That's where it is at for me. I'm with you. We all know about the effects of CTE, and I'm really not dismissing that.

No, absolutely not. I'm not trying to brush by that. But I don't know.

You also get one life to live. This is seriously a fine There's probably half the people listening to this podcast are like, CJ, you're a freaking idiot. But you get one life to live. It's not going to be perfect. You're not going to eat your greens every day. You're not going to only have water and whatever. You got to live. That game, those guys were living.

People would say the opposite, too. They would say, You have one life to live. You have one brain. You shouldn't be taking this much trauma and contact to the head.

It was exciting. Sure.

It was awesome. I think that's okay to say.

I'm not here to sit here and say, I don't need to see a fight in every game. I don't need to see the fake shit. But that was awesome. Those two teams, they cared. No one made them do it. I don't know. And look it, again, eight players ejected right off the start of the game. So it didn't lead... I know there was one more fight in the game after that, but it wasn't the '70s all over again where The same group of players went out and fought and fought and fought. I do think, and also, seriously, dude, we're talking about things we might not never see again. I don't know. When are we going to see a five-on-five fight off the top of the game? It could, seriously, it might never happen again. It could be that rare. It's pretty rare already. My reaction was, I saw that and I was like, Let's go.

I'll say this. When chaos happens in the NHL, we all want to see it. It's out of the ordinary. And I root for chaos sometimes. Do you know what it is? It's conflicting for me.

Hockey isn't just a game we watch, it's a game we feel. When you see that happen, again, I'm not saying... Look at me. I'm not a fighter. I would stand no chance in any fight. If anyone wants to go at me, you're going to win.

I don't know. I think you're underestimating yourself.

But But my point is this, is I didn't grow up a fighter. I'm not pretending to be a fighter. But I'm a passionate person, and I just see the passion in the sport, and I see some passion in that. Again, because it doesn't happen every night. It's not just like everyone No one's going through the motions. I don't even know how the hell that happened. But those guys cared anyway. No. I don't want to spend time shouting anything down. But I do think, I'll tell you, I was pretty fascinated. I was at the Leaps game But as I heard about this, I was like, I need to know more about this. And I watched every video. I'm hoping John Boy comes out with the coaches yelling at each other. I want the whole thing. I want the whole thing. That's true. I'm still willing to digest more content on that, John Boy, if you want to get on that.

So is that the future of fighting in this sport? We keep thinking that it's going to die, but it seems as if because of how rare when it happens, people get excited about it. Is it still just going to hang around? I'm generally curious about it because I thought it was going to die.

I think it will die eventually.

But it will with the way that we've banned it in different junior league. But the way guys like Matt Rempey are literally building their names off of fighting, suggests that at the very least At least there's a section of people who want it to still see it thrive. At the very least, it will attract eyeballs to that. You go on the athletic and you see the engagement on those stories whenever he fights. It's crazy over there.

Don't Google this. How many NHL games you think Matt Rampi has played? Don't Google this? Yeah. I'm just testing you because I think I'm going to make a point. What are you guessing?

Ten.

You're a bit late. He's 18. But I still think it's amazing, though, how much... We've talked about him on our podcast. How many times the guy has played 18 games. He got 69 career penalty minutes. Nice. But I'm just saying it's wild how much we've discussed him other than Carter Bedard. You're right. I'm just saying we probably talked about Carter Bedard more than Rempe before he got to 18 games, but almost nobody.

No, but to your point, you bring up a really good point, though, because we've talked about Carter Bedard a lot. We've talked about Matt Rempe a lot. Have we mentioned Brock Faber? No, we haven't mentioned Brock Faber.

We haven't. That was a design pause, by the way. It was not that I meant.

Yeah, absolutely. That's it. That led to my point. I'm speaking to your point, but the fighting, it's It's a talking point. It's no shade to Brock Faber, who will probably come in second to Conor Bedard in the Rookey chase, but he's really good. But for whatever reason, he hasn't captured our attention the same way that Matt Rempey has or Conor Bedard.

I mean, it's entertainment at the end of the day. Pure and simple. And look, I'm not telling everyone to go out and be entertained by a fight. Seriously, I've said this before. I'm split on this, but if I'm just going to be honest, I've always tried to be so honest on this podcast, I don't dress anything up. When I found out about that fight last night, I could not find enough clips of it. I could not read enough about it. I am still interested in it. Anyway, I'm a barbarian.

I wouldn't classify you as that because I think inherently, we all, as hockey fans, still have that, where if we see that, we're going to get attracted to it. We're going to see it. I mean, again, I'm split. I don't know where I really should stand on this, but I'm just not... I mean, maybe it's a little difficult for us as journalists, as media people, but we're not going to ignore it.

Well, let's just make the... Hockey is still fun, man. It is. It's a great game.

It's just we have to ask the questions if fighting is part of that fun. But maybe that's for a fight.

Well, seriously, I'm being legit about this. If we came back and did a show in two weeks time, and we've seen three more of those fights off the opening face-up, I'd probably have a totally different take. It's the fact that's so unusual, that it's so unique, that I don't think it will repeat it, that I don't think it's an epidemic, I don't think it's a problem, I think it's emblematic of one specific situation. I think it's a lot of people that really care about their teams and the moment and the sport and what's going on. That's why I liked it. That's all. Again, I don't need to see it every night. I don't I think hockey needs it to sell the sport. But when it happens, you're like, Let's go.

Police shit.

Let's go.

Yeah. Okay. I like your take on it.

I'm alienating the 100%ers here, though.

No, I think fighting is a genuine debate where people can have civil discussion about it, and people will continue to have civil discussion about it.

I guess there's a lot of nuance to this stuff is what I'm getting at. There absolutely is. We all feel this. We're like, I know I shouldn't want it like this, but I do. I shouldn't I want to have that ice cream, but man, that vanilla is so tasty.

Damn, I might have ice cream after this.

Oh, yeah. Do you have ice cream at your house?

I have a bucket of Breyers vanilla. I have those like Haagen Doss strawberry ice cream, chocolate-covered bars.

You and I are animals. We talk about work, and then whenever we go to anything else, it's like you and I talk about food. It's like hockey or food are the only two acceptable topics.

When I finish this, after I have ice cream, I'm going to fry some chicken tenders I seasoned and breaded last night.

Oh, wow.

For dinner.

Chicken tenders and ice cream. You are living your best life.

That's not my exact dinner. I'm going to have other stuff with it. I'm not going to just... I'm not a savage just eating chicken tenders and ice cream.

And just watching stage fights and just sitting back.

You know what? Let me not do this for people. Anyway. All right. Stick taps. Do you have a stick tap this week?

You first.

Okay, then I have a cross-check.

Whoa. Yeah, I have a cross-check. This is a feisterier show than we planned.

Yeah, I think so. It's not a really serious cross-check, but I'm an older person now, and I have grown out of April Fool's. I think April Fool's Day is a stupid holiday, and Especially in our business where we're trying to ward people off from misinformation, all the more reason for it to not be a thing. What I hate, especially, is that our algorithms are so bad on the social media platforms that we I have where we see stuff that was dropped a day or two in the past, which means this week I've had to see a bunch of April Fool's Day content days after the fact. I don't like it. I think it's stupid. And I think all of us as a society, just like how we all want to band together and not make daylight savings time a thing, I think we should start putting that towards April Fool's Day. It's a stupid, stupid concept, and I don't think we need to be doing that anymore. Yes, I understand there was a Simpson's meme I retweeted or I liked or whatever. That was funny at the time, but we don't need April Fool's jokes anymore, and that is my cross track.

So to anyone who thinks it's a genuine holiday to be celebrated, I don't know, man. Grow up. Grow up. Okay? Grow up.

It's funny. I've got no opinions on that, plus or negative, but I appreciate your passion. Okay. I'm going to just cross-check the Toronto Blue Jays.

Yeah, that's an easy sell.

It's an easy sell, but I'm feeling it, man. I'm going to the home opener on Monday, but I'm going to be hate watching. I'm so conflicted. We talk about being conflicted about the fighting stuff. I'm conflicted on the Blue Jays. In theory, I want them to win, but they've been no hit and one hit already. It's amazing. Imagine they didn't have enough hits last year, and then you went through the offseason and you didn't go get a hitter. What?

Justin Turner is the best thing you could think of?

I like him because he's got old guy energy.

Okay, fine. He's 39 years old and he's still providing a bat for the lineup. But really? Anyway. Really? I still think they should have gotten Blake Snell, too. Really? You're going to throw in all that money for Shoheya O'Tani, and then you get gun-shy for the rest of the offseason, you don't throw that money elsewhere?

What's going on? You're throwing both cross-checks. I love it.

I don't know about that. This is just on top of your cross-check.

I'm going to say, though, if they win 10-1 in the opener and hit a bunch of dingers, I'm going to be cheering and eating hot dogs and be excited. Okay.

Can we get a photo of that in the group chat when you're in it? Yeah.

Producer nick got to see the Roger Center upgrades, too. I I think that's where the money went this offseason. It's like, fancier chairs and- Closer view from the foul line.

Did you see the video of him acting as if he was throwing a pitch off the money?

I would have hit that thing in the upper deck.

That's what people are doing. People are taking the video.

My name is CJ, and I hit Dinger.

And I hit Dinger. Did you see the video of the original kid who said that? And he's a high school senior now. He's like, trimmed down, and he still hits Dinger. Yes.

Epic. That's what I'm referencing.

Yo, my name's Big Al, and I hit Dinger. What a cool ass kid, man. He was a cool ass kid.

I'd love to hit a Dinger. Me too. That might actually be if... You know that question? Could you catch a shutdown or score a goal? I think hitting a home run in baseball might be the one athletic achievement I'm not capable of doing, but if I could choose to do one, might be it.

You don't play slow pitch or anything with No. You don't do that? Would you do that? No. Why not?

I don't know. I want to go to a cottage or chill in Europe. I don't like it.

I mean, you could just take a week off and do that and then go back into the city.

But I'm talking in the major league. I would love to hit a Dinger.

You just hit one-off the green monster.

And then you get that surge of emotion and then you get the slow trotter on the bases. That's pretty cool.

That is a pretty good feeling. It's wuffy to just do it in a game, but bottom of the ninth game-winning Moon Rocket out of the building.

How about bottom of the seventh after the arms were jobbing you in a must-win game, and then you might flip a bat and that would have people debate for weeks about whether you should flip a bat. I want to hit a dinger and flip a bat.

Dude, we could do an entire new episode about the Jose Batista bat flip. That is still one of the greatest sport moments to have ever happened ever.

And I was there.

I'm jealous of you. I was in a university class as it was happening. Tough bounce.

But now you're out of university. Look at the bright side. You're never going to be stuck in a university class for another sports moment again. You can just go to these games and get paid and write about it and talk about it. It's a beautiful thing.

Or just go to games and just hang out and just be like, Yeah, man, this is so cool. I love it. And that's why it's important for us to... That's why I'm glad we still have that joie de vivre when it comes to sports. We're not jaded from it. No. Anyway, Monday, we'll be back. Get your questions in on Twitter, on Discord. Subscribe to the podcast. And if you love sports, keep that love alive.

Sports are fun.

You never know where it will take you. Sports are supposed to be fun.

That's what the STP talk. Cee Jay.

Yes. The SDP taught me. For CJ. Yes, the SDP taught us well. For CJ, I'm Julian. Peace, guys.

The Chris Johnston Show. Inside the Game, twice a week. Follow Chris on Twitter @reporterchris. And follow Julian McKenzie at JK McKenzie..