Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Greetings. Rob Simpson, Bruce Boudreaux, simmer and Gabby.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Hey, Gabby, how are you doing today?
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Simmer I'm not too bad.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: That's good. That's good.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: It's Vancouverhockeyinsider.com, Simmer and Gabby all over your audio networks and also at Simmerpuck at YouTube, of course. And speaking of Vancouverhockeyinsider.com, your former team right now is red hot, and Quinn Hughes was just named the first star of the week. That part probably doesn't surprise you at all.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Doesn't at mean he's a great player?
He was a great player when I was there. I've said it on record many times, I think out of all the years that I've been in hockey, that he's the best passer or in the top three anyway passers I've ever seen. And he can go from the goal line to the red line on a dart. He can turn. He's very difficult to corner. And his evade ability, because of his ability to skate, his edges are so good that nothing surprises me with him. The only thing that sort of surprised me at all about Quinn is that he didn't score more often last year. Because I know we had talked many times in the summer and he was working on his shot and he wanted to shoot it more, and we talked about shooting it more and it was going to happen. And he did shoot it just wasn't going in. Now they're starting to go in, and there's no doubt in my mind that he should reach double digits and goals this year.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: And of course, Captain named Captain before the season started. I think he loves that. Not the most prolific guy with the media, but I think he puts up with it because I think he enjoys being in that position. So good for him. We'll talk more about his club here in a second, but as we always do, we'll start off with a little history lesson and a little fun from the background of hockey. And that would be our favorite number 18 today. And I wonder if we're going to have the same one.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Probably not. I got three of them, and I was involved with all three of them as far as teammates or just part of the organization. So let me hear yours first.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: All right, I'll go first this week, and it's going to be John Wensick.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Oh, nowhere near who I was thinking.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: I'll never forget. I think it was 78, I believe, when he confronted the entire Minnesota North Stars bench. He said, Come and get it, and none of them came to get it.
Big guy at the time, he had the big fro, I think they called him Moose. He was about six foot, 205 pounds.
He actually played three games for the St. Louis Blues originally wincit did, and he's living back in Missouri working on houses and stuff. I interviewed him for a book about, oh, God, must be 15 years ago now, but great guy to talk to. And obviously one of the scary guys on those 70s Bruins teams.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: I thought he was bigger than what you just said, but that with the hair. If anybody doesn't remember them but have seen the movie Slapshot, he looked like Ogie. Oglethorpe. And it's funny, I was on the NHL network the other day, and I referred to that after we were talking about Brad Marshan's hit on the defenseman for Toronto, and that when he went to the bench and no one sort know said anything. Everybody was looking for Nichols at the point at that time, except Reeves. And so it brought up the whole thing. Um, very scary. That whole team was scary if you played against them. I mean, they had toughness on every line. But I played with one guy in that era who was number 18, was maybe the funniest guy I've ever met, was Jim McKinney.
Dennis Savard was probably the best player ever at number 18. But the guy I would be choosing to talk to was the guy that gave me my first chance at coaching at the AHL level was Dave Taylor from the La Kings, a guy that I still think should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. When I look at what he's done and what other people have done that are there and would love to see him. But he gave me one of the nicest men I've ever met, and one of the best players played on one of the best lines in the history of the game in the Triple Crown line with Dion and Charlie Simmer.
But I don't think I'd be doing this podcast with you if it wasn't for Dave Taylor, who got me started, him and Bill O'Flaherty from the Kings in the right direction. Wow.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Very, very nice. Yes. Only had a chance to run into him, speak to him maybe a couple of times and was a super nice uh and those Kings teams, they never got over the hump back then. But you're right, him and Marcel Dion and Charlie Simmer were pretty much well.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: I can tell you if that line was in Toronto or Montreal at the time or mean they would have been a household name.
They would have had another nickname like Montreal's, all their great lines, and Toronto's had their great lines. So it would have been pretty special. But he was good, and, I mean, you know what, we got drafted in the same year, and we both started off in the Central League. I think he did a little bit more with his time than I did, so it was good.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Speaking of lines in Vancouver, we'll get back to the Canucks here, and I want to just read something that a quote that I jotted down from Rick Talkett and forget analytics, because this right here is the game for me. I think somebody was a Russian reporter asking about Andre Kuzmenko and Talkett said, it's not about individual stats. It's a team game. If he scores, that's great for us. But it's also the other parts of the game. We're winning because of the team. I'm not a big individual guy. Obviously, he's got a score for us, but it's more the team game. And I think that's why our team is winning right now. We're buying into that.
And buy in is always a big word for me. And obviously, Gabby, you can address this firsthand. If you got the boys buying into what you're selling, you are halfway through the battle.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. You don't win unless well, I mean, if you're not very good, you're not going to be very good. But buying in is something that I don't think I've ever had a problem with it. So I have a hard time talking about it because I think everybody, when you're talking together and you communicate right, they buy in.
And I'm glad koozie's doing that. At the beginning of last year, we had to sit him out a couple of games because he would be great one night and not so great the other night. And I think he learned and taking nothing away. I agree with Rick 100%, but last year, he was on a one year contract. And sometimes when you come over from Russia and you're on a one year contract, the only way you're going to get multi year deals is if you do score. And that's his thing. And we want him to play a two way game right off the bat and a 200 foot game. But sometimes you're looking at your self preservation, and I think he found out he could score, and he found out that he could play in the last five minutes of the game and with an empty netter every now and again. So once he started doing that, the sky was the limit. And I'm really happy to see that he's doing both, and they're happy with his game. So that's good on him.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Canucks right now with the second most points in the Western Conference. They're eight two and one. They have 17 points. We talked about Hughes high end talent, obviously, Pedersen high end talent. We've talked about JT. Miller in the past. So maybe this should come as no surprise, especially with Philip Perona coming over last year and joining Hughes on the blue line on that top pair. So, I mean, we talk about the Kraken with John Forzland pretty much every week. That's a team that lacks a superstar. Vancouver right now might have three or.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Four of they I know for sure in the superstar category that they would have Quinn Hughes and alias Pederson and maybe Demco. And Demco. That, to me, well, he's the key. No matter how good your team is, I mean, if you don't have great goaltending, ask the team they play tonight.
That's struggling in goal. When your safe percentage is 868 50, you're not going to win a lot of games, but Demco is back to where Demco was asked to the side.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Tyler Sagan in front.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Demco breaks save, loose puck, and they.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: Couldn'T put it home. Now, Johnson.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: My first year there, he was outstanding. So we won the second year. We had problems in net, but that was like people have said, goaltending is 70% of the game. Unless you don't have it, then it's 100% of the game. But he's the star. Pederson is the star. Quinn Hughes, they're all superstars. I think in my mind, then, you have stars. You have JT. Miller is a star.
Heronic is an upcoming star. I don't know why Detroit would have got rid of him, but they did.
JT. Miller is a really good player, and with a guy that almost got 100 points, you'd have to call him a star. Brock Besser's got potential to be a star. Kuzmenko's got to be potential to be a star. They got a lot of guys on that team that can play, and it's good on them. And I'm really happy for all the players that are having all the success.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: By the way, Philip Peronic, I think change of scenery was a big thing for him. He's a mid 20s guy, very talented, right shot. Obviously, Canucks were looking for a right shot. Part of it sounded like chemistry attitude, but of course, chemistry attitude in Detroit can change with that change of scenery. And it sounds like maybe that's part of it was just he was, I don't want to say worn out his welcome. I think just the whole thing wasn't working anymore and it was time to move on. And here he is, flourishing with Quinn Hughes, which is probably not a difficult assignment.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: And you know what? It's sometimes nobody's fault. Sometimes it doesn't work for one team or the other. We've seen it in every sport that, I mean, some guy who might have been mediocre or average at best, it goes to another team and becomes a superstar.
And maybe that word is used too much, but becomes a very good player. And I don't think Philip Ronick is any different. He's always had the offensive.
He's obviously the whole Vancouver team has picked up the defensive part of the game, and he's obviously doing a really good job.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: You brought up the goaltending in Edmonton. They play the Canucks tonight.
Canucks may be a surprise. I mean, eight two and one is a surprise, but we knew they'd be better based on all the reasons we brought up, especially with a healthy Demco. On the flip side, the Edmonton Oilers, holy smokes. Two seven and one. Maybe not a surprise when you look at them in their own end and have seen them in their own end over the course of time. And their goaltending, man, oh, man, not a pretty sight.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: No. But before we get to Edmonton, too, the other thing Canucks have done is their backup casey DeSmith is an NHL goalie too and has got NHL experience and not putting any of the blame on anybody because they're young goalies. But when Spencer Martin and Colin Delia gave it their best shot but I mean to have those established NHL goaltenders is a real big plus like in Edmonton, right? Mean I was listening to their game, I was driving home from somewhere yesterday and they were really lamenting. The you like it's, it's a struggle but it's the first thing you look at. You don't look at the defensive play a lot of the times you don't look at the guys back checking or tracking but you always can see the replay of guys scoring goals and it's a tough job. There's no doubt. That's one job in hockey I would never have wanted to have.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Yeah tough to watch McDavid have to go through those media availabilities every day.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: Talking about how yeah, that's tough. But I know it, I know all about it when you're mean we want to be up there when things are going good and this is what I always said but you got to be able to face the music when things aren't going good. So I mean he's a professional, he'll get through it. He'll do it, do a good job.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: I want to switch gears a little bit today to the Central Division and talk about a team close to your heart because you worked for them and also it's just a great it's the state of hockey as they refer to it and that would be Minnesota and of course the Minnesota Wild. First of all, just for some all. I don't know if you got as much publicity there as you did, obviously, in Vancouver and you got plenty in Washington with Ovi and of course, your Winter Classic appearances and Anaheim. But just talk about being a part. It's almost a Canadian culture, like Michigan, in a way. Minnesota is hockey, hockey, hockey.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: Oh yeah, they're almost Canadian because they're so polite. Everybody know everybody's, thank you and everything but they're quiet people and where they're situated you're not the most pressed media savvy. They got Mike Russo who's as good a reporter as you're ever going to find. But I mean for the most part Minnesota is a pretty quiet town but they know you on the streets. It's not like Anaheim where you could know lit a bomb down the middle of Main Street and they would have known you're a hockey player. But I mean they knew you everywhere you went, they talked to you.
All the sports bars have hockey games on at night. They still have an incredible and I say incredible high school tournament and high school hockey better than anywhere in the country where you can put 21,000 people in the St. Paul arena and they hold the record for attendance. And it's not an NHL game, it's St. Paul hockey or Minnesota high school hockey. But the thing that I loved about there, I mean, the weather is pretty cold, as you would imagine, but, I mean, you dress for it. If you're used to Canadian winters, you're used to minnesota is around every corner. There's so many little lakes there. Okay. Around every corner in the winter, there's hockey nets on the ice, and it's frozen ponds, and you can see the place where all the kids have shoveled the snow. There was one time there were kids playing. I just stopped after practice, went out there on the ice with them because they looked like they were having so much fun and just got to chat with them and play a little street hockey or ice ball hockey on the ice with them. It was great.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: That's awesome.
Their club, it's quite a grouping in the Central. It's super competitive. There's only five points separating everyone. Dallas on top at 15. Minnesota is next to last, quote unquote, next to last at 7th. But they have ten points tied with Nashville. They're only five points on a first.
It's pretty tight when you think of their club in general. I mean, they've got most of their guys under contract. They have a forward group.
Kaprasov is a star. There's no question about that.
What do you think about things in general?
[00:16:43] Speaker B: They have solid I mean, I think with Minnesota, they've always been known as a really good defensive team. They've always been known as a team that sort of lacked the stars, but they had a lot of good players. I mean, they had Marion Gabric, they have Zach Parisi, and now they have Kaprasov. I think the problem, and I hate to use that word, but last year after, say, January 1, they had probably the number one defensive team in the league, and I think the goalie was at a 930 save percentage. Okay? Now, the big difference is this year they're second or third worst, and their goaltending isn't as good, and they're missing their defense. I don't think people that don't watch them don't realize how big a player or how good a player Jared Spurgeon is.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: I think they miss Matt Dumb, because from the time I was there to the time I left, he was part of that core four defense of it was Dumba, Brodine, Spurgeon, Suter. And I mean, all of a sudden they're started to get a little bit younger on defense, and they got a rookie. Brock Favor makes some great plays, going to be a good player, but he's going to make rookie mistakes. Goligoski is in and out of the lineup.
They've got middleton was great with Spurgeon, but their defense isn't as good, so they play a great way. Bob woods does a great job with the D. Dean does a good job with the team, but sometimes they're a little weaker on D like they are this year. So they've got to score more. And Kapressov hasn't done the scoring to start the season that he normally would. So consequently, you lose a little bit more than you win. But I firmly believe this team will catch fire at some point. Again, the Spurgeon will come back and they'll get healthy, and the goaltending flurry.
And what's his name, the Russian guy?
[00:18:58] Speaker A: Well, they have the philip Gustafson.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: Yeah, Gustafson. He's not Russian. European. Sorry.
We'll get it right. And they'll be a real good team, and they'll challenge for the first, 2nd, or third. I think first and second is going to be Colorado, Dallas, but I think third through fifth is going to be a crapshoot right to the end.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, excellent analysis and timely as well, because it's looking like Spurgeon, who had the upper body injury in the preseason game, could be back. He skated for the full hour with the team Monday, which is the date we're recording this right now, on Monday.
He skated today and could be back in the lineup here almost immediately. So that is great news for them. And of course, you mentioned Matt Dumba. His name was on the trade block for so long, and he ends up now as an Arizona Coyote, but he's a veteran guy and a depth guy and a strong player. He didn't have the offensive numbers people thought he was originally going to have.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: The one year he played until December that I was there. And as a defenseman, I think he had ten goals by December and then blew out his shoulder or his upper body and missed the rest of the year. And I think that really took a toll on him. It took a long time to get back the next year, and I think that year, the next year only had one power play goal because he's got a great shot. He's really good at jumping into the play. He's got offensive instincts. So I keep waiting for him to burst out and get into double digits and goals again, but we'll see.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: How would you summarize your time there?
[00:20:53] Speaker B: I loved it. One thing I've loved, everywhere I've gone, the first year was great. We had 110 points, we had 100 points, plus the second year. The third year, we had an over 500 record. But I think Paul Fenton was trying to change the whole direction of the team and made three big trades at the trade deadline, and it hurt us a lot.
The fourth year, I knew that again, sometimes coaches have an idea that their days are numbered, and I knew it was on the last year of my deal, so I wasn't really expecting much. That was the only time that surprised me, though, because we were on an eight three and one run, and we had clawed back to within two points of a playoff spot, and we were about to play San Jose twice, columbus and Vancouver, as a matter of fact. And I thought, okay, this we're going to make the jump.
And then it surprised me by getting the news at that point in time was that Fenton, by the way, that was billy Garon.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: It switched to Billy Garron. Okay. You were four games above 500 at the time and then you mentioned yourself.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: Yeah, but the funny thing is it was four games above 500. But we started out five and two.
So after the game seven, we were nine games above 500. We were in the upper half of the league from the game eight on. And it was just one of those things that couldn't get any traction at the beginning. But once we got it and what's funny is how things can come close. The rangers just played Minnesota and Minnesota beat them in a shootout. My last game was against the Rangers in Minnesota where we lost in a shootout. And when I got let go the next day, they asked billy Garren would he have been let go if we had a one, and he said, probably not.
That's how close things shoot out.
Could have been nine and three and going into those four games, and I'm sure because I know they won two out of the next four, but I think the first game they lost was more because it was sort of a surprise to everybody in the team had to get pulled together again. But we would have had a good record. And it was the lockout year or not the lockout year, but the pandemic year, and I think we would have done pretty good for the rest of the year.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Billy garrett going to call him, give him some grief because that's kind of weird if you win the shootout, I mean, some coaches hate the shootout and here you are getting fired, basically because.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: He did tell me that he was thinking about it for a while.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: Right.
Is that a case of new GM wants his own guy thing?
[00:24:00] Speaker B: I'm sure it is. I mean, there's not too many coaches that last through three.
I mean, I'm sure it was happening at some point, but we kept winning and I think that's the problem.
Well, keep winning. I can't fire the guy. Yeah, but he lost that shootout last night.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: So I guess this is the time.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: Now's the time to get him gone.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: I don't remember what they ended up doing that year.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: They ended up making the playoffs, losing to either Vancouver, I think, in that preliminary round because I think with 21 teams or so or 22 teams made the sort of preliminary round, the next round would sort of been classified in my mind as the playoffs. But the teams that lose in that round want to call it that. They made the playoffs. Teams that win don't classify it as much. Yeah.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Officially the prelims and you're right, vancouver beat Minnesota was not considered the first round of the postseason.
We're going to hop here in a few minutes as our time goes. Ticky, tick. I just want to mention one other thing here that popped up. Unless, of course, I got rid of it by accident.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Here it is. And Minnesota fits right into this. I received a press release this morning from USA Hockey. I found this fascinating.
Says USA Hockey announced today that it has surpassed 100,000 players in its eight and underage category for the 13th time since 2010. Eleven. And the only year they didn't reach it was during the pandemic. So 100,000 kids under the age of eight in the United States playing hockey for the 13th time in 14 years. Minnesota is a big part of that, but pretty cool to see that it's still growing, it's still cranking.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: And that's wonderful. I mean, when you want to see hockey growth. As a matter of fact, as you look at the Americans that are coming into the game, and high end Americans, more kids are playing. And it just makes sense that if you know the States, that once they get their hold on something athletically, they go all out. And hockey is something that has really grown by leaps and bounds here. And to see 100,000 young kids under the age eight play, it makes you feel good. And it's a really good thing for the US.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: But potential bad news, given those big numbers, the talent opportunities only increase. Could be tough news for Canada at the 2042 Olympics. Gabby. So they'll have to be careful there.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: I don't think I'm ever worried about Canada's hockey. Acumen.
They are going to be great. What Minnesota is like, it's like every town in Canada.
We might only have 40,000 people living up there, but 37 million of them play hockey. So it's all good.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: All right, one last message before we go. Gabby's getting a colonoscopy this week. I had one last year and everybody should out. I remember when Brian Murray, his message when he had cancer, he passed away from prostate cancer. The longtime Ottawa executive, he said, hey, fellas, get your ass into the doctor. Get your prostate checked. Well, this is the other one. The colonoscopy. Men and women do it. Gabby's doing it. I did it. You got to do it. It sucks. You go through it for a couple.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: Of days, but know me, it's the 24 hours that you can't eat the day before is the killer. But, I mean, it's something that you have to do, and your health is too important. Get it done. Everybody. Get it done.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: And on that, we bid you adieu. Gabby, thank you very much. Great stuff. Enjoy the hockey action and we'll see you soon. Thank you.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: See you later. Have a good night.