Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Greetings. Time for a Simmering Gabby podcast. Rob Simpson and Bruce Boudreaux. There. Hey, Gabby.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: How are you doing today, Rob?
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Oh, just spectacular. Wearing my Nantucket shirt where I was once a cab driver and a tour bus driver. Yes, darn. Toot.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: You got to start somewhere, right?
[00:00:35] Speaker A: That is correct. Many moons ago.
This is Vancouverhockeyinsider.com. Catch us on YouTube at Simmerpuck and also Spotify, Apple, all those other good things for the audio. Gabby, you're wearing your Hershey cubs sweatshirt. Tell us about the Hershey Cubs real quick here.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Well, that's our junior team here.
If it was Canadian terms, it would probably be between tier two junior B and combination of that kind of mean it's mainly for kids that finish high school hockey. When we first started this in Minnesota and have nowhere to go, they play their whole life, and then all of a sudden it's over because they're not Division One or Division Three players in the US. So it gives a place for kids to play from 17 to 21, and then an awful lot of them from there go to Division Three schools. So it's pretty cool.
We got people from all over the world that come mean. We got a player from Israel. As a matter of fact, we got Poland. We've got eight kids from Quebec this year. So it's all over.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: And your son typically coaches a team. But I understand tomorrow you're running practice. That's a neat little thrill.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: I got to stay in shape.
And it's just coincidental that they lost both games this weekend that I'm running practice tomorrow. But that's just maybe a byproduct of them being a little too cocky because they were like six one and one before that, and then they lost two games. So we'll see how it goes tomorrow.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: We got a heap of feedback from folks, which we'll get to in a second from our last one. But I'm going to start the timer right now. And we can't just do 20 somethings in terms of jersey numbers because we wouldn't necessarily run out. We could repeat. But that's kind of silly to always just do 20. So we're going to do number ten today. Pick me a number ten.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Well, there's an awful lot to pick from, and a lot with good reasons, too. I mean, number ten was George Armstrong, who used to be the captain of the Leafs and was my junior coach and probably the most influential person I've met in hockey. Number ten is also Gila Fleur, one of the greatest players in the world. And number ten was also John Anderson, my best friend when I was playing and coaching. So, I mean, all three were number tens. All three.
Great memories in all of them.
It was hard to pick just one.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: You're piling up the number ten. I also thought of Alex DelVecchio, who they called Fats, who played 23 complete seasons with the Detroit Red Wings. But I'm going with LaFleur.
There was something exotic about those old Canadian teams when I was growing up in Anglo USA and interviewed dozens of hall of Famers at home and everywhere else and current players. But when I first interviewed Gee, it was the first time and I was fully developed as a broadcaster for many years and I'm standing there at the Bell Center holding the microphone going, he was a god. He was just on another level. It was unbelievable. And then I got to hang out with him and chat during the 75th anniversary of the hall of Fame at the Gala, which was pretty cool. There's like a neat little picture with him, but unbelievable.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: The Flower number ten wasn't his original number that he wanted, you know that. Yeah, he was biggest fan of John Bellavo, but I think that number was retired. I'm pretty sure it was. So he had to pick another one. I don't know how he settled on Ten, but I do know that he was number four when he played junior hockey.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like, gordy, how he's number 17 and he changed to nine because he wanted a lower bunk on the train because the lower numbers got the lower berths. So there's always something. Bobby hall wasn't nine either. So there's a lot originally let's talk about some of these listeners, viewers, folks that have written in and such. The very last guy had a neat little question for us to get us cranking on the Vancouver Canucks. He said, I'd love to hear Bruce's opinion on Brock Besser's start. Of course, he had a four goal game to get things started. He's added two more, but he just kind of sometimes disappears. That's not what he said. He then said Bruce seemed to have a positive impact initially when he started in Vancouver. So thoughts on Besser and maybe even your mean?
[00:05:09] Speaker B: I'm I think it was a really good relationship. We talked a lot.
It all started mean, he knew being from Minnesota and I had just previously coached in Minnesota, you find some similarities or people that you both know that you can talk about and it ended up as sort of a pretty good relationship. But I mean, listen, his start is fabulous and hats off to know when his first pro game was in Minnesota against me and he scored two goals, I thought, hey, this guy's going to be a player. And he had an awful lot going on in his life and sometimes it takes young men like Brock, who is really close to his family, that takes away from the actual game. And I remember going up to him and telling him, anytime you need time off, anytime we're going to Minnie or we're in Minnie and we're going to another town, if you need an extra day or two to stay here, by all means. Family like one of my biggest thing is family first. So, I mean, it was all about family. Now, in the start of last year, again, family was involved, but he also broke his hand and I think he wanted to play. And then at the same time, they wanted to be really cautious about it and they held him out, trainers held him out longer than he wanted to. Like in all good athletes, they want to play right away. And then things didn't start out overly too well for Brock. And then the next thing I hear, and like everybody else heard, that management had given his agent permission to seek a trade. So anytime that would happen to a player, I would think that would really affect his play and it affected Brock's play. I mean, tried to play him as much as I could to put him in the best light, but you could really tell that there was other things affecting his play this year. He comes with a clean slate, fresh mindset, no injuries, and it's no surprise, I mean, it's a surprise anytime anybody scores four goals, but it's not a surprise to me that you have a good start, like he said.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Yeah, and it's been a little bit of a roller coaster ride as you mentioned, and that's like him himself and then also being shopped. I mean, Jim Benning was trying to move him early on in that season where you replaced Travis Green and then his father Duke passed away at the end of the 2021 22 season. And as you brought up before last season, that was behind him. Then he had the three months with the family in the offseason. He was recovered. He's like, this is going to be my 1st 30 goal season. And as you mentioned, he breaks his hand. So maybe now he's en route to a 30 goal season. 29 is his career high. That was back when he was a rookie. So we'll see what happens. But 6.6 million is a lot of money for Brock Bester, don't we think, given some times he's here and he's there.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: It was a lot of money at the time, I think because his qualifying you had to give him 7.5 and I don't think after the year that had happened that they wanted to give him that.
Like a lot of times you negotiate that into multi year deal for less money and both of you make out. And I think that's what happened this time. I don't think they wanted to give I mean, I'm speaking not speaking for them, but long term at seven and a half million, but 6.6 seemed pretty doable for both sides.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: So Besser pops on the scene, 20, 16, 17, he shows up and plays nine games coming out of the University of North Dakota. I want to speak about one of his fellow forwards and of course current linemate, and that would be JT. Miller, the center.
First of all, in general, a guy that's kind of misunderstood, that's wildly passionate about the game, gets angry, can be what I've described as a little bit pissy at times, but the guy's a competitor and he wants to win. Your thoughts on JT Miller then and now?
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Well, those are the exact same thoughts that I mean, there was run ins. He's one of those guys you can argue with, but at the same time, then forget about it five minutes later, go out and do whatever he can. But JT. Always expects everybody to work as hard as he does. He gets a little more exasperated one way or the other sometimes when things don't go well for him. And I've seen a lot of players get exasperated when things don't go well for themselves. But I remember when they were asking me when the summer before he signed, would you take him on your team? And I said, 100%. I love the guy, had 99 points.
And sometimes he just needs times to calm down a little bit. For example, in the very last game of the year against Edmonton, he came in with 98 points. He got an assist in the first ten minutes, he had 99. And I just played him, played him and played him. And there was one time I didn't play him and he got all mad on the bench. And then he went and looked at the times and go, oh, jeez, I'm playing 25 minutes tonight. So I guess he is playing me and then he's fine with it. But I mean, he's a competitor that you can win with. If everybody's on that kind of page and everybody wanted to compete like JT. You'd have a pretty good team. And you know what? And what people don't realize, he's the organizer of things. If they have parties, they have them at his house, super bowl parties and everything else. And he's a team guy like that. I mean, it's just sometimes people misunderstand him for what is a great work ethic and a great try that they think he's just bitching and complaining and he's not. And I'll give you another example about mean. At our season, we didn't have a great start to penalty killing, and JT. Would be the first one to admit that he was all over the place and everything else. So one practice we decided to go with other people and it was a PK penalty killing special day. And he came up to us and he was mad. He said, Listen, he says, I'm part of this penalty killing. I want to be the solution. I don't want to be the problem. Put me out there and let me get it fixed. So that's the kind of guy he is. And we did. And I think he ended up leading the league in goals with him and Petey at five each. And I think Bo Horvat had four. So, I mean, he is a guy that I would have on my team all the time.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Would a typical argument otherwise be maybe about, like, power play, or would it be about ice time or just general stuff like that?
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Well, I don't think he ever complained about ice time, but, I mean, he wasn't one of those guys that were stoic and kept his emotions inside. You could really tell on his face if he was upset or on his face if he was.
I mean, you can still watch the game the other night when they were losing, and they show him on the bench all the time because they're looking for something, and he looked like he was genuinely angry. And he's not angry other than the fact that he wants to win. So, I mean, who doesn't want people that want to win? I think Canucks management understood that. And even though he was 29, they gave him a seven year deal.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Yeah, little transition here to his game. They won their first two against Edmonton. They were dialed in, and then they lost their next two before winning again. They're three and two on the season, but him against 97, McDavid, he was in his back pocket. He was elbowing him, he was chopping him, he was grabbing him. He was just in his back pocket. Thoughts on that matchup and how it unfolded and just the effectiveness of JT. Miller in a situation like that. And McDavid, we'll get into the abuse factor here in a second, his injury, but kind of how that I'll take.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: It a step a little bit further before that. I mean, when I was coaching, played the first time we played Colorado, and this is the year they won the cup, we said, okay. I said, JT. I want you every shift against McKinnon, he comes off, you come off, he goes on, you go on. And I mean, he was all for. I mean, we won the game. He shut them down. He was great. Now, those are things and that game went mean because I don't think Jared respected us much, quite frankly. And he didn't try to get him away from them. They just rolled the line. So it was easy to do the next game. We tried the same thing, and now we started moving them around. And then when they have the last change, it becomes a little more difficult. But he accepted that role, and he wanted that role, and that was great. And he did the same thing against Edmonton in the first thing. I could picture him going up to talk and going, give me McDavid all night. And I'm sure Pederson did the same thing, because they're both that kind of guy. They want to go against the best. And, I mean, he did it, and he did it to a T, and they won. And I bet she was the happiest one in the room.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: How did they drop off so much going into the next game in Philly? How does that happen? It just happens.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: It's hockey, man.
The only team that ever consistently wins all the time is know you're looking at if you recall, not this time last year, but about in January last year, detroit was beating everybody, and they had won seven in a row. Then the next thing you know, they lose nine out of ten.
It's what hockey is. The only inconsistencies that I have seen so far with the Canucks is after the first two games, they've allowed probably close to 120 shots against or 160 shots against in the last four games.
In each one of those games, there's been at least one period that's been dominant by the other team. And I think once they clean that up and can be a little more consistent, then they're already a good team. They'll be much better.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: I had two different players admit to me asking them on our national talk show on SiriusXM in the Morning a bit ago, which you're on still these days, on occasion.
How much does a player really give it his all? How much is somewhere in between and how much is dogging it, so to speak, or tired or whatever? And I had a couple of different guys just come out and say X players at the time, 20% balls to the wall, 60%, you're playing hockey, you're having a good time, you're in the middle, you're giving it good effort, and then 20%, you're just like, I am exhausted right now. I'm here to play some hockey, but I'm not completely dialed in. 20, 60, 20. Does that sound fair to you?
[00:16:44] Speaker B: You know what, I played 18 years, and I'm not buying into that.
There was so many games where I wasn't good, but I can't remember any games that I went in and said, I don't care what happens today.
As long as I just show up and don't look out of place, then I'm going to be okay. I went into every game with the same routine, the same idea of preparation, no matter if it was three and three or three and two and a half, or if your equipment was soaking wet or if you felt injured. So, I mean, the idea of going in it and saying, well, you know what? I just don't feel like playing. I don't care. That's never entered me. So I have a hard time believing that that enters anybody's mind. But I have not a better analogy, but Eddie Johnson famous goalie for the Bruins, and that when he was my coach in New Brunswick. He wanted to tell me the difference between an American League player and an NHL player, and he used it. That an NHL player, out of a ten game set, played eight games to the best of his ability and was at the top form. He had one game where he made no difference whatsoever, and one game where he wasn't good. Doesn't say he didn't care. He just said wasn't good. He says an American League player will play six games out of ten, the best of his ability. Two, he'll be just non factor, and two, he won't be any good. And he said when you can get up to the eight one and one, you'll be a regular guy in the NHL. Unfortunately, I must have only gotten to seven because I never made it full time.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Well, that kind of jives with the numbers, but I think to clarify a little bit and give these guys credit that said that that might have been physical. So in other words, it might not have been mental. Like, oh, I don't really I'm not really into this. It might have been like, physically I'm jacked for 20%. Physically, I'm 60%. Of the time I'm pretty good, and then 20%, I'm just so beat up.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: But for the most part, Rob, after the 40 game mark of the season, you're always playing with some aches and pains. Gordy Howe used to tell me, and I don't want to ancient myself, but his son played with me in Junior. So he was in his 40s when he would be watching us when we were playing Junior. And he'd come in and say, if I don't see ice bags on some of you guys at the end of the day, then he didn't think we were involved in the play. So, I mean, feeling sore and feeling with ice bags on, you knew you competed and you knew you contributed to the win, usually.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: All right, I want to circle back to McDavid and the Miller conversation, but just the physicality. We've now lost McDavid for a week or two. Upper body injury, they're calling it. Wayne Gretzky had Dave Semenko. Then he had Marty McSorley riding shotgun. We know the game has changed, so fights are kind of out of it. The whole concussion issue, even though 80% to 90% of concussions come from open ice hits, not from fights. Fights don't lead to too many concussions. I know back in the enforcer goon days they did, but not really anymore. It's all hits that lead to concussions.
There's no enforcement, and I'm not saying that's the case here with McDavid, but the guy gets abused, the crack, and have a couple guys out of the lineup in Seattle right now from hits from behind or open ice hits to the head. There's no repercussions. We're throwing it into the league's lap. Okay, how many games are you going to suspend this guy? Two, three, and well, the other guy's out six weeks. There is no shotgun. There is none of that. So where does it it's still a violent game. I mean, as Derek Sanderson, the legendary Turk, played with Bobby Or in Boston, said, hockey is a violent game played by violent people. If you don't like it, watch tennis. Well, it might not be that as violent anymore, but it still is.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Gabby yeah, it's a violent game. I mean, the hits are hard, the players are bigger, they go faster, and they're stronger. So when they do hit and there's more impact than there know a lot of years ago. But you know what? I don't think you need an enforcer to play.
It's a tough call because I think it's a badge of courage for hockey players to be tough. And if you're one of the best players in the world, you're going to be shadowed. So what are we supposed to do? Let Connor McDavid skate all over the ice and not be touched? You do, you lose. You've got to be into his face, you got to be tight. You got to get two men on him every time he touches the puck with him, and to you have to be on them. I've had more success against Colorado than I had against Edmonton, but I mean, every time we would have somebody playing above them, every time that they were on the mean, you can't let one pass beat three of you if you're giving it to McDavid. So you have to sort of not even focus as much on offense, but to make sure that if he doesn't score when he's on the ice, you got a better chance of winning. So, I mean, you got to check him as close as you can. And maybe that's sometimes giving them little jabs in the arms and being tight on them and stuff, but you do it within the rules, but you do it tight, and you're playing to win, too.
As much as I love watching him as a fan in full flight, when I was behind the bench, my hair would actually wave when he would fly by me, he's going so fast, so you have to do something to stop that.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: If your hair is waving, he's going.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Fast, he's going fast. There was two of them that waved. I remember the two little ones went around my eyebrow.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Well, you just mentioned being a fan. If he's out of the lineup, fans don't get to watch him. So it's like, do you cross the line into when the injuries start and what causes the injuries? And I guess, how do you prevent the injuries?
[00:23:02] Speaker B: It's sports injuries happen in football. Guys are getting hurt every day in baseball. I've never seen so many injuries in baseball where guys going on the IR, let alone hockey. This is what we signed up to do. And I'm telling you, if you put a waiver in front of anybody that signed up to play professional hockey, I don't care what level that you might get hurt and we're not responsible, every player would still sign that waiver because they want to play and they want to compete, and that's how they grew up competing.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
A couple of quick corrections from, I think last week I mentioned Scott Meademire. It was just a misspeak. I was going through all of his credentials and threw out that he'd won a Memorial Cup and then said the year and representing Canada, he actually did both. On top of a world championship Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold medal. He won a Kamloops Memorial Cup and a world Juniors. So both of those were handled then. Also, we talked about the four Cups in the 50s for the Montreal Canadiens. They did win five in a row from 1956 to 1960. Just a few minutes left here, Gab, and I want to talk about those Canucks neighbors, the Seattle Kraken. They're missing andre Burkowski. This guy seems to get injured on a consistent basis this time. It's probably a collarbone, but it's four to six weeks. They're dinged up again, and they already reduced their scoring capabilities on the fourth line. It was a goals by committee situation. They don't have an alias Pedersen. They don't have an is not this is something Ron Francis at some point, this all everybody buys in. Team concept is one thing, but you need to score goals.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: Yeah. They don't even have a Ryan Donato right now.
But I think if you look at last year's team now, listen, they worked so hard and they could skate so well, and they were in your face all the time, but their shooting percentage was so much above normal that it couldn't be sustainable. And right now, even though they've scored a seven goal game, they're not scoring a lot.
And I think it's because their shooting percentage, they couldn't just keep going. What they did last year, I mean, you'd like them to do because they work just as hard and you'd think that they could do it, but it's amazing the way hockey guards are. They don't let you do that same thing all the time. And when guys come out of the blue and score 40 for the first time, you look shooting percentage was 20%, where the normal is about eight. And it's pretty hard to do that in back to back years on any of these guys. So I think they're going to score more than they've been scoring, and they're probably, even after five games, squeezing the sticks a little bit, too. I mean, I don't think they're going to go at the pace where they were in the top five scoring teams in the league last year.
As far as Berkovsky, he wasn't there for half the year last year either. So, I mean, it's not like they're really even though he's a really capable player, they've played without him before, and who's vince Dunn is having a really good start, but, I mean, he's a really good player. I think they need Mccanda to score some more goals, and he's got two, I think, and Everly and those guys have got to continue scoring. But, I mean, their shooting percentages were so high last year, it seems very difficult that they would continue to do it at that rate.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Brandon Tanneb is out of the lineup for a while with a head.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: He's he's a real mean when he was in Winnipeg, or mean, he's a third 4th line guy, but at the same time, he works so hard, he's a pest. He's in your mean. He's a missed player on that team.
[00:27:20] Speaker A: They've scored less than two goals in every game except the explosion against Carolina, who, by the way, is giving up five goals a game thus far, which is uncharacteristic of the canes, but they'll fix that. So Seattle took advantage of that, but otherwise has not scored. By the way, McCann got fed in a fight with Vince Trocheck the other night in the third period. There's just a lot of little things here as it relates to Seattle. Kraken you brought up the shooting percentage on one other occasion, so a lot of things kind of working against them and their power play is no good.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: Not a good combination. No.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Their PK has been excellent, goaltending has been excellent. Man, you have those two things working.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: Usually you're very good.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: Yeah. You're hoping to take advantage of it. Well, they have not been taking advantage of it, so that's good news for the other teams in the Pacific Division. One last thought before we go. I don't know if you noticed it. You brought this team up from last year. They had a spurt, but the Detroit Red Wings have come out of the blocks like gangbusters. I believe they're five and one.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: There's one five in a row, actually.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: Stevie. Why?
Has he found enough personnel or where are we?
[00:28:32] Speaker B: We're giving him an awful lot of credit. I think Derek Lalon deserves a little bit more of the credit myself. And, I mean, let's see if they last. They got some good mean. I don't care. Debrink it. Nobody assumed that he was going to have eight goals after six games. I mean, we knew he was a good player and everything.
Mean. David Peron is getting up there in age, but I always liked mean, especially when I had him on my mean. They've got a little more balance with, you know, they're getting good play from everybody, and everybody's bought in right now. But Detroit's, the same team last year that was on a seven game winning streak, they were destined looking like they were going to put a march right into the playoffs. And I think they lost a big game in Ottawa, and then they lost seven or eight in a row. So, I mean, I don't know if they can sustain what they're doing because they're scoring, defending, but they can really skate. And as long as they don't go into get too many injuries where they can't compete at that level again, I think they're going to be there for a long time. Whether they make the playoffs or not, I don't know, but I think they'll be around till April and stay in the race and. Good for them. I think the NHL needs a team like Detroit, an original Six team, to be good. And they're one of the teams that everybody they have a lot of travelers whenever they go on the road, so it's good to know they have a lot of fans in Michigan.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Wing nuts, they call them. They show up everywhere. Alex Derminkett, by the way, from Farmington Hills, right outside Of Detroit. I think he's very comfortable wearing the winged wheel. I think he's happy in his new environment. There's no question about that. So good for him, because I remember seeing him coincidentally or ironically at the Traverse City Rookie Tournament. I think you might have been there that year as well, when he won the MVP of that tournament. Just could score from anywhere and could shoot from any angle and through anything, and was very dynamic. So maybe he's grown up and found his place.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: I'm sure I said that. Your eye is too small. He'll never make it.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: Outstanding, Gabby. I appreciate it. Vancouverhockeyinsider.com people can also check out Seattlehockeyinsider.com. You can catch us on all the spotify's and the apples and the Amazons and of course, on YouTube at Simmerpuck. We love your comments. We had some great ones last week. Tons of thumbs up from dozens of people. And we look forward to chatting again. Gabby, good luck at Hershey Cubs practice tomorrow.
[00:31:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll see if my body can still handle it. I'm hoping it can, but know those kids, they don't look like the NHL players do. You got to look all over so they don't run you from behind.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: He's Bruce Boudreaux. I'm Rob Simpson. It's Gabby and Simmer. We'll see you next time. Cheers.
