Simmer and Gabby 7

[00:00:14] Speaker A: Greetings. Welcome to a Simmer and Gabby. Rob Simpson along with Bruce Boudreaux. Good day, Gabby. [00:00:19] Speaker B: Good day, Simmer. [00:00:20] Speaker A: We are on the old Vancouverhockeyinsider.com. We're on the YouTube at Simmerpuck, or just Simmerpuck. And that's also my Twitter, X, Handle, and Spotify and all the other good places. Happy Thanksgiving week in the US. You're in hershey. [00:00:36] Speaker B: I'm in today, yeah. [00:00:40] Speaker A: Canadian Thanksgiving is early October. It's less formal, kind of strict. Like there's no, like, okay, you got to eat your meal, know, on the Sunday or the Monday or the Saturday. It's a little looser in Canada, right? [00:00:52] Speaker B: Yeah. I was listening to somebody, I can't remember what he said, but it is totally a different vibe. I mean, Thanksgiving is great. It's Thanksgiving, but in the States it's a big thing. It rivals to me right up there with the 4 July. And Christmas is a holiday. It's probably my favorite holiday of the year because I got hired on Thanksgiving for my first coaching job. So it was good. [00:01:21] Speaker A: Really? Plus it's a pretty good feast. [00:01:24] Speaker B: Yes. And if you look at me, you know, I like to eat. [00:01:29] Speaker A: And also while I look at you, I don't know if we can see it in the graphic, but you have the Hershey shirt on and the Cubs are on fire. [00:01:36] Speaker B: Yeah, our junior teams won ten in a row, so that's pretty cool. We find different ways to win every game, and that's what it's all about when you're playing well, you never feel you're out of it. And I think that's the way they feel right now. They feel they can come back. They feel that they believe they can win in any situation. And it's happened to a few of my teams in the past. And when you've got that feeling, it's a great feeling because you always think you're going to win. [00:02:07] Speaker A: And that's under Coach Brady boudreaux correct. [00:02:10] Speaker B: Brady Boudreaux, yes. [00:02:12] Speaker A: Brady Boudreaux. Say that five times fast. Speaking of teams that have taken advantage of winning in different situations, the Vancouver Canucks head into the Colorado Avalanche tonight, and I was checking out kind of the strength of schedule, and I know that's more of a football term, but they've lost to the Leafs, lost to the Rangers, lost to Tampa Bay. Their two most impressive wins were probably two nothing over Dallas at home, and then they beat the Florida Panthers on that East Coast trip. Otherwise it's been kind of a mediocre run. They're going to get tested here in the next two weeks. [00:02:46] Speaker B: Yeah, those are the only two teams I mean, I don't want to take anything away from anything that they've done, but those are the only two teams above 500 they've beaten, and Florida at the time was under 500. So I think it's important for them, for their psyche to come out. You know what? Last couple of years they've had a really good record against Colorado, so I anticipate them playing very well. But I think it's important for their psyche to come out and start beating these so called better teams in the mean. After Friday's game, they will have played Edmonton three times, san Jose three times. Eventually they're going to have to play La three times and they're going to have to play Vegas three mean. To go in there knowing you can win because you've got a real good team is something mental and those things people don't realize play such an important part in the game of hockey. [00:03:46] Speaker A: You mentioned the la. Kings there. We're going to talk about them a little bit more extensively here today and I'm going to start with them because today we're picking number twenty s and I am picking Lucky Luke Robatai, the hall of Famer, who is a longtime king. Then became a Ranger for two seasons, went back to being a king, went to the Red Wings for two seasons, went back to being a king. And he was an executive there. Lucky Luke, number 21. Fun little story for me along the way, the show I shot for Maple Leafs or hosted and co produced with Maple Leaf TV or Leafs TV back in the day for five years, we got so lucky on so many occasions, things just fell into our lap. And the one time we're at Joe Lewis Arena, I guess it was about three, he ends up breaking Bobby Hull's record for goals by a left winger. And what do you know, we walk into the dressing room and I already knew Bobby, and they're holding up the pucks and they're standing there posing and the whole thing happened on the night we just randomly happened to be at the Joe. So that was Lucky Luke and just a great guy to always talk to. [00:04:49] Speaker B: And you know what, he was a twelveTH round pick, okay? And I mean, think about that. He would have been a free agent in today's world because they only go seven rounds. And I'll tell you one thing about Luke. When I worked for the Kings, when I first started working for an NHL team, it was the Kings, and in 1999. And so I'd go to their training camps and there was never a nicer guy out of all the guys there that first year, he would be the guy that would say, do you need anything? Can you want an autograph stick? Do you want this? Do you want that? And every time I've seen him since, he's been very super nice to me. So you picked a pretty good one when you picked number 20. And I think it's a no brainer that he's probably the greatest number 20 that ever played the game. But I knew you were going to pick him, so I wanted to go in a different direction, but I wanted to stay a little bit with the La. Theme and so I picked probably the Andre Copitar of his era. And Bob Pulford, and he played for Toronto and La. He was the second line center for the Leafs. Could score he'd score 20 goals, but he was between him and Davy Keon. They always played against the other team's best lines. And, I mean, he also went on to have a fabulous career, and he coached me in the games that I went up in Chicago, and he was there for 30 years. So, I mean, between those two, I think you couldn't get two better guys. Yeah. [00:06:20] Speaker A: Outstanding. Bob Pullford and of. Yeah, as you mentioned, longtime coach. He was pretty grumpy. Pretty tough guy, too. [00:06:27] Speaker B: Oh, he was grumpy all. And Bob Murray definitely took his personality on. Like, Bob Murray played for him for a lot of years, and when Pulley gave Murray the job, murph just took his personality on and was grumpy as well. [00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Now, you mentioned Anze Kopitar, and you also mentioned the Canucks hadn't played the Kings yet. Kings are in third place in the Pacific Division. It's like the Slovenian fountain of youth. The guy's 36 years old, he's their second leading score, and he's never mentioned in hall of Fame combat. Well, maybe he is, but you don't hear him a lot. This guy could be a first ballot by the time he gets there. 1300 plus games already, 400 plus goals, 1100 plus points, two Selkies, two Lady Bings, two Stanley Cups. You coached against him for five or six seasons. [00:07:22] Speaker B: It's a no brainer. I mean, obviously, I coached against him longer, but I coached in Anaheim, and when we played them directly and they had a great team, but he was the straw that stirred the drink. He was one of those guys. He's big. He's, like, 230 pounds, and he would take all the face offs, play all the defensive responsibilities, and still get 70 to 90 points a year. And you just hated playing against him because he played the game the right way, which is who knows what the right way is? But, I mean, he played hard, and he was always responsible, and I hated seeing him come on the ice because I knew how good he was. But the respect is out the window when it comes to Andre Kopitar. [00:08:13] Speaker A: And it's a team I have not watched, really enough at all this season, and I recommend most people to check them out, because I will definitely be checking them out. [00:08:22] Speaker B: Well, one thing simmer. I mean, the last two years, they finally got some centerman to go along with him, so he doesn't have to do everything. Tod can save him for offensive situations. And when you need know, he goes out with the no on the left side and you need a face off or stuff. So, I mean, it's a really great situation for the Kings to have him. Yep. [00:08:45] Speaker A: Pierre Luc Dubois, of course, one of the guys that you're referencing there who hasn't exactly lit it up yet, from what I understand. But obviously you just pointed out it gives him a lot of options and gives him some depth and strength up the middle. In general, though, the Pacific's pretty weak. No, I mean when you consider San Jose, Anaheim, La. Is good. Vancouver's, surprising. Again, we've talked about their schedule. Vegas is the defending champs, but when you get down into that lower half, it's like, holy. [00:09:11] Speaker B: Well, I just mean, I think they've got La and they've got Vegas as the two standard Bears in that division. Now Vancouver is trying to get up there and staying up there. We'll see if they have the staying power to do that. But I mean, even Calgary is coming on a little bit. Seattle's playing mean. I think it's going to still be a little bit of a track. I mean, they've got teams that are very beatable in the Pacific. I think Edmonton's got to get better. I mean, their lineup dictates that they're going to be better. San Jose will not get any mean, and who knows how they'll be after Christmas when the second half of the season and those dog days of February and March come in, how they're going to play if they start getting running into injuries. But I think the Pacific Division's, two teams that are really good, vegas and La, could be the best two teams. [00:10:07] Speaker A: Right. You mentioned San Jose. They're taking on the Seattle Kraken tonight. Kraken, fourth opportunity since starting the season, owen, two. They've not been to 500 yet. They blew a chance Monday night against Calgary, lost in overtime. They got the Sharks at home tonight. Talk about a must win game against a team that's only won three times and a team, Seattle, that's struggled on home ice consistently. They need to take care of business now. I bring them up also because Matty Beniers is coming out of a slump. He's showed some signs lately. He's played very well. His defensive game has helped pick up his offensive game. And that's what I'm going to ask you about, Gabby, as a coach and a player, because you were very offensive minded as a player, lit up the American Hockey League in particular. How did you get out of a slump as a player, and do you ever say anything to a player as a coach in terms of coming out of a slump? [00:11:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I mean, I would talk to the players a lot about this because it was probably the one thing I really knew about. I would talk to guys and I'd say, okay, how many shots on goal have you had in the last two games? Okay? And you look back and they'd probably come up with a number two or three. And I said, Listen, we got to get that up to ten. When you find you've got ten shots in two games or five in a game, you're going to find that you usually have a goal. I don't know how it happens, but you shoot the pocket, it eventually goes in, it might be from center, might be the goal. Everybody says it's lucky, but you find out you're going to score, and the second thing you do is you work hard on your defensive game and you make sure you get no goals against, and all of a sudden you quit thinking about the goals and that's when they usually occur. [00:11:52] Speaker A: Right? Well, I think that's kind of what's happened for Beniers. He started to really concentrate on the D, and he is a conscientious 200 foot player. I mean, he was a Calder Trophy winner for multiple reasons last season. Do you remember a slump in particular that really drove you bats when you were playing? [00:12:10] Speaker B: You know what? Without sounding too Brad Gioso, I didn't have too many slumps that was playing. I mean, I remember one time early, and I'll never forget, I think there was two or three games, which was a lot for me. And I told Mike Walton, who was sitting beside me in Moncton, this is about 1978, and I said, Mike, I said, I've lost it. I can't play anymore. I'm no good. And all he did was have a big belly laugh because, I mean, when you're used to doing something and all of a sudden it doesn't come, you're panicking. And he gave me the same advice that I just gave there, and he patted me on the back and he says, don't worry about a thing, kid. You're not going to go scoreless forever. And I think I got a couple of points the next game and that was it. I remember in Junior Beagle in the first three games without a point and thinking I was going to get sent down to midget, and I scored a simple goal, an empty net goal in my fourth game, and that triggered just went crazy to tying the scoring champ for the scoring championship that year. Nice. [00:13:16] Speaker A: Where does healthy scratches tie into this? Do they generally work or not? A lot of times it's generally because you're playing a crappy 200 foot game as opposed to not scoring, because that's not a way to solve a scoring slump necessarily. But Patrick Line sits for a game. Columbus Blue Jackets, he's supposed to come back and he said, it's embarrassing this, that, and the other mean, well, I. [00:13:40] Speaker B: Hope it's embarrassing to like they should never have to sit out patrick Line mean. They felt it was their thing to do. Now take nothing away. Columbus has done that to a lot of their players this year or sent them down to the minors or what have you. But you asked me if it works, and I'm saying for short term it'll work. It gives your head a shake. And guys usually come to play, the good ones come to play the next night, but I don't think it's a long term thing, and I don't think it's something you can do to your star players more than once. I'm a big believer. I had to sit out Timusalani one night, and that killed Mean. I've sat out Jason Palmenville and sat out some pretty good players, and I hated doing it. But the next game I give them double the ice time that they've know. Like, I think that's the best way to get out of a slump is when you've got a real good player and whether it's Johnny Goodreau, whether it's Patrick Lione or Mean, and they haven't been playing too well, but, I mean, at some point you got to give them more ice time, make them play their way out of it. Because let's face it, without those guys, you don't have anybody scoring. So you need them. So punishing them by not playing, I think, is counterproductive myself. [00:15:12] Speaker A: Right. Trying to recall when you're in Vancouver, it wasn't a long stint, obviously, but maybe a couple of the fringe guys, but I don't think you benched any of the big shots did know. [00:15:23] Speaker B: But here's the thing, and I would bench somebody if they weren't going well for a shift. And if you're smart enough, like if I bench JT for a shift or didn't let him play for or I mean, I didn't have to do it more than them. I would look at them and they would know that their game is not up to what I expect from them. And I mean, if you're a competitive guy, and both of those guys are, they would take that and they would run with Mean. I did sit out Kevin Fiala two games when he was with me in Minnesota. And I'm trying to think I sat out Kuzmenko in Vancouver and just to make him understand that and as good a scorer as he was and is, then you've got to play both ends of the ice in the NHL and obviously it caught on and he had a fabulous season. But at the beginning we didn't know if he was going to be great or not so great and we had to get that consistency back and get him out of the KHL mode type thing. And, I mean, it's obviously worked and he had a great year rewarded with a two year deal. And he's not scoring like he would like to right now, but I'm sure it'll come pretty soon. [00:16:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I think he's been sat there this season. And then, of course, he takes a puck off the chin and returns two games later, which was pretty amazing, I think more famous healthy scratches, if I recall, was Steve Casper was coaching Boston, and I think he benched was it Kevin Stevens? [00:17:06] Speaker B: Was the other guy Kevin Stevens? The two of them. And that was a game in Toronto by the it was you could see and I've talked to people that were on that team know, you could talk to Kevin Stevens during that game, but Cam Neely, if you had gone near him, he was a bear. You were staying as far away from him as I mean, I think Steve was trying to set a message, but it obviously didn't resonate. I mean, he was let go. I've sat Alex Oveshkin for one shift and I was fired a week later. But I mean, it was one shift, he was minus four. We had pulled the goalie and we were down four three to Anaheim. Never forget it. And he asked me where I was playing, where he was playing, and I said, on the bench, you're not very good tonight. And he got really mad. He said something in Russian, but we went out, we scored the goal, and then I put him back in overtime and we scored again. He got an assist. He didn't score the goal, but I mean, he got an assist. We won the game. But all the talk was about Alex Oveskin. I mean, you sat, you had the nerve, you had this, that, and the other thing. So it was about a week later when I got fired. And the funny thing was I got hired the same day because we played Anaheim and I think Bob Murray said, oh, this guy's a real tough ass, we're going to hire him after that. So, I mean, they hired me the same day. [00:18:37] Speaker A: Right. By the way, there was some movement already this year. You got your resume on standby for there could be some other I'm ready. [00:18:46] Speaker B: To go if anybody wants me, but I don't know if that ship is sailed or not. I'd love to get a chance to get back at uh, and I follow the game as closely as I've ever done know, stay with it, but you never know what's going to happen. [00:19:01] Speaker A: Yep. All right, last thing for this week, the holiday week in the US. At least you're just back in your hometown of Toronto. [00:19:10] Speaker B: Yep. [00:19:10] Speaker A: We haven't really talked about them on here, so just break it down real quick. What the hell's going on with Maple Leafs? [00:19:16] Speaker B: They're playing just good enough to win right now and I think, boy, they certainly are relying on William Neelander and Austin Matthews and Mitch Marner and Tavares to do all of their scoring. And I don't know if that's a recipe, if that continues all year. For them to have the success that a team from Toronto wants, I think they have to find some balance. They've already, I think, realized that Ryan Reeves hasn't worked out very well, even though at some point, I think they'll play him and he'll be some value to them during the course of this year at some point. Klingberg is another one that's sort of struggled a little bit. Right. I mean, we know his pedigree, he's a good I mean, we're hoping that bounces back or they're hoping it bounces. I mean, the thing with Toronto is their core. Four are great core. It's very similar if you look at who's doing all the scoring in Vancouver and very similar mean. Their power play is mean. In Van, you have Pedersen and Miller and probably more than I'm forgetting right now in Toronto, you got those four. And so, I mean, it's a very similar team. I'm really looking forward to watching those two teams play. But I think if you want to win the whole thing, if that's your goal, and I know it is in Toronto all the time, that you got to get better balance. You got to get third line going and your fourth line going where you're not playing somebody 24, 25 minutes a night up front. So that's what I think. [00:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I was just going to point that out. Come playoff time, if they can match up and shut down your three or four guys and you're not getting any help, you're done, right? [00:21:14] Speaker B: Yeah, we're a long ways from playoff time, so, I mean, I hate reading everything where this team is done and that team is done. There's over 60 games left. I mean, goodness gracious, if you can get on a little bit of run, you're right back. All of these teams that are out of it. But I hate the idea that so much media has given up on the team right away, and even though they're not that teams aren't that good, I would not be throwing in the towel when you got 60 games left to play right. [00:21:45] Speaker A: Just at the quarter mark. Gabby, great stuff. A little tidier this week. We'll get out of here because you are in the US. Actually, I am sitting right now in the hockey cabin in the US. As well as we speak. And tomorrow is a big holiday. So pig out, enjoy yourself. Watch a little football. Those incredible Detroit lions. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Too. Don't laugh. They're having a year that they haven't had in a long time. [00:22:14] Speaker A: Hey, I get to mock because I grew up there, and 1957, I think, was the last championship, which was before my time, by the way, stumbled across a Barry I love barry Sanders. Stopped watching the team when he retired, for the most part, and the NFL for a lot of a good chunk of it. Incredible Barry Sanders documentary that I can't remember. Maybe Amazon. I don't have any of that crap. It's on my Budy's TV. And it was really good. It brings tears to your eyes watching this guy run the football. [00:22:49] Speaker B: If any of your listeners ever want to see a dynamic football player, there was nobody I think he only played eight seasons, but I mean, there was nobody more dynamic in the history of the NFL than Barry Sanders. Absolutely. Maybe say Gail, sayers Jim Brown was a different kind of back, but for dynamic that could get out of any kind of problem you put him into. Barry Sanders was the guy. And so many people were disappointed when he had so much more football left in him than he retired when he did. [00:23:22] Speaker A: Yeah, the documentary talks about his mindset, and he didn't want to pass Walter Payton. [00:23:28] Speaker B: It was that simple. [00:23:29] Speaker A: And the team typical Lions front office, they got rid of a bunch of guys, lost his offensive lineman. He was just done. He knew it was hopeless. I think it was nine years. And he said, Forget anyway, which is too bad, because you're right, he was unfreaking believable. Have a great holiday, Gabby. Appreciate it. Always a pleasure, and we'll see you on the following weekend. [00:23:56] Speaker B: All righty? And all you American viewers and Canadians that celebrate Thanksgiving, have a great weekend. It's a big weekend for everybody and hope you enjoy the turkey.