Offside with Hawes and Maguire
Offside: with Hawes and Maguire is not your typical hockey show. This weekly
45-60 minute show is a potent combination of humour and genuine hockey insights that pushes the envelope.
- Liam is renowned for his photographic memory, lively storytelling, vast hockey knowledge and sometimes over-the-top passion for the game of hockey.
- Chris is known for his unrehearsed humour, contagious laughter and uncanny ability to make even the most serious debates end in boisterous guffaws.
Between the two, there is an infectious enthusiasm and professional chemistry that is evident from the outset. It can only be described as lightning in a bottle.
Offside with Hawes and Maguire
A Century of Bruins and Canadian Classics
Hockey fans, ever wonder if a coaching change is the magic fix for a struggling team, or if it's time the players step up and take charge? Join us as we kick off this episode with some light-hearted banter, sharing personal stories that will have you laughing along with us. We dive into the ongoing saga of the Ottawa Senators since their 2007 heyday, questioning why the blame game often targets coaches while players escape scrutiny. Plus, we explore the San Jose Sharks' latest resurgence and how parting ways with star player Erik Karlsson has reshaped their game.
From goaltending woes to scoring depth issues, we tackle the tough questions facing NHL teams today. Is a blockbuster trade the shake-up some franchises desperately need? Our conversation sheds light on the financial pressures teams face and the burden on high-earning players to perform. We also reflect on the Boston Bruins' recent coaching change and the positive impact it's had, while reminiscing with a touch of regret over missing their 100th-anniversary celebration, a milestone event filled with iconic moments and legendary figures.
As we look back at the storied history of the Boston Bruins, we share anecdotes about legendary players and personal encounters that bring the rich fabric of hockey history to life. The Montreal Canadiens' early beginnings and their path to becoming the NHL's most successful franchise add a layer of nostalgia and insight. Wrapping up, we share our hopes for an optimistic future for the Canadiens, provide an update on the ever-competitive hockey pool standings, and recount some memorable moments from our personal hockey journeys. Tune in for a blend of humor, history, and hockey insights that will keep you coming back for more.
it's offside with haas and mcguire. Okay, here we go. It's offside with haas and mcguire, I'm haas, I'm mcguire, and, uh, today we're we're proudly brought to you by redneck brewing, the brewer of four different beers, by the way. Four You've got an amber, I do. You've got the amber. I'm drinking the pale ale to match my complexion, and you're not exactly a tanning kind of guy yourself. No, you've got the Irish tan. Yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 2:I don't tan, you know. Well I do, actually over the course of the summer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:While golfing.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I get a little bit.
Speaker 1:I look good in the summer when I get some tan.
Speaker 2:I get, I think we all look good with a little bit of color Absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's tough to get.
Speaker 2:I like when I'm a man of color, that's all I've got to say, with our built-in pigmentation. That's right. Is that the right word? Did I say that right?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah. You know what? You can't say that we're privileged when it comes to that. No, that's for sure. So listen. So I'm at the pub last night and he says, uh, hey, you're, uh, you're Liam's buddy. And I thought, oh, there's a, there's a shot coming Right. I thought there's okay, and he goes I watch your podcast. I said, oh well, I thank you very much. He goes, yeah, you're good. And I said, well, thank you very much. He goes. He was no, no. And then he proceeded to tell me that he loved me. Um, but it was really cool, but it was no, it was really nice, but initially I thought it was. This was going to be a rumble, right?
Speaker 1:okay, came over with that. Hey, probably six, two, six one, six, two and big. Like I mean you can tell he was strapping at one point he's. Now the strapping has sort of fallen apart, kind of like me At one point. You know I was built. Eh Fuck, I had a perfect V. It's now a U. I'm working on an O. I've gone from a consonant to a vowel. Listen, I want to be on Wheel of Fortune.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you play a lot of hockey man yeah, can I buy a vowel?
Speaker 1:man, actually I've got the the bruce boudreaux bill. There you go, you know, yeah, like, if you want to talk about guys who are in the, uh, like the realm of you know, chubby, fat guys but who could actually play hockey in there, damn right, he could you know, yeah, so hell of a minor leaguer and should have had a better uh nhl career what was his nhl career like? Did he spend any?
Speaker 2:time in the show. Yeah, he had a cup of coffee with the leafs and you know he was. He was an all-star, like a superstar in junior.
Speaker 1:Yeah and uh and really really good in the minor thing about him in junior yep that he's got the record for the five goals in a playoff game in the memorial cup. Yeah, plus the game-winning goal. How did you know that? Look, I saw it on another podcast.
Speaker 2:That's pretty good. I was going wow, am I rubbing off on you? I saw it on Spitting Chicklets.
Speaker 1:To be honest, I was watching.
Speaker 2:They had him on recently. They had him on recently. Yeah, so I was watching that.
Speaker 1:And you know, just again I say I'm watching you guys. Yeah, so time to fucking tune in, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, if we can get someplace where we're trying to go in the new year. As you know, I've put some feelers- out there We've been feeling up people. Yes, Not John Tate though.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, that's it, but today we're going to talk about some stuff. Yeah, okay, we're going to talk about some things that are happening in the NHL, and I got to tell you I'm getting a little frustrated with the Ottawa Senators, really. So it came up last night at the pub. We were talking about where have the Senators gone wrong, like when did the wheels fall off the wagon? And some people said 2007. Others talk about different years.
Speaker 2:I think the wheels fall off the wagon Post 2007,. Obviously.
Speaker 1:But I think the wheels fall off annually.
Speaker 2:Well, they have since 2017, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:I don't even know what to say. Like you know, utah Utah was the worst team basically in the league last year out of Phoenix, right, okay, or one of the worst. Close, they were like third, yeah, san Jose.
Speaker 2:Okay, san Jose was the worst. Look, san Jose is a great example because they have come up off like a springboard right now. Now, celebrini's playing a huge role in that, but they're playing really good hockey, mind you. They got rid of the lump, you know in Carlson and that's shoring up the back end, by not having to give him 22, 23 minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but he was gone last year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean the process of for them to emerge and the way they've gone up. Ottawa has not. Now, mind you, ottawa hasn't gone down in the bottom where San Jose was, but the frustration. Anyway, I don't want to put words in your mouth. Go ahead. I mean, I know where you're going, but go ahead no.
Speaker 1:Okay, my question is I'm going to say some things later, but my question is you can't continue to blame coaches, you can't continue to like. At some point the players have to accept responsibility.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Quite certainly many of them have. I don't think necessarily. Travis Green was the greatest hire. I mean, his track record wasn't anything to suggest he was coming in here and was going to lead this team in the promised land. He didn't really do really much in Vancouver and he didn't really do really much in Vancouver and he didn't really do much in New Jersey, to be perfectly honest.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what True to himself not doing much here.
Speaker 2:No, not at this point.
Speaker 1:Now the other things tangible Chris Taking ass, taking names.
Speaker 2:Well, we all heard about the training camp that was supposed to be, you know, puke bag city and the whole nine yards, and I don't know what that necessarily means anymore, because I don't think that really happens much anymore in the NHL. You have mandated days off. There's no more two-a-days. That would never happen during the season anyway. But the bag skate used to be a common term. I just don't hear it anymore. And so you know I'm not sure that the Senators need that necessarily.
Speaker 2:I mean they threw a lot of money, a decent amount of money, at Linus Allmark, but he's not the guy that won the Vezina two years ago. He slipped dramatically. Last year in Boston, if you look at his numbers with Swayman, swayman went right by him. And year in Boston, if you look at his numbers with Swayman, swayman went right by him. And still, as it was, they were tooth and nail to get by Toronto in overtime in game seven. That series Toronto should have won easily but didn't, and Boston bowed out very quickly the next round. So that said the Sens, chris. I mean it's death by a thousand cuts man.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, it's death by a thousand cuts. You got no death scoring. The scoring on lines three and four is virtually non-existent. Now I see Gaudette skated back down as we're taping this December 4th, back on the fourth line at practice. Today We'll see where he plays tomorrow night. He's only been. We talked about him on the show last week. They've moved him down to the fourth line, probably because he's scoring, so they want to put him down there To put Batherson back up.
Speaker 1:And why, so that he can stop scoring? I don't know I don't know.
Speaker 2:I mean Stutzler's rebounded. He's been spectacular. Brady's played great. I know there's criticism sometimes when he fights.
Speaker 1:There's criticism sometimes when the give-a-f meter sometimes it doesn't look like it's on. I don't think it's ever off with him. You know, you're probably right. I mean, listen, he's. You know what he's a guy. He's a franchise player. There's no question.
Speaker 2:No doubt absolutely and you know what? Uh, and as we sit here, he's getting named the team USA oh, I'm sure yeah, no, it is, it's been, it's been, it's come out through the grapevine. He's getting named a team usa. I mean, hello, they, they, they. They're picking 25 players from the nhl, of which they've got a lot to pick, from brady to chuck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly but ottawa's death by a thousand cuts is going to be catering the event.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's gonna say boys, yeah, I meet morel. So guess what that means you are too we're going.
Speaker 1:They're going to Tim Hortons later on, hey here's other stuff too, though.
Speaker 2:Jake Sanderson's regressed, chris, yes, he's regressed. He's having a sophomore slump here right now, where he's playing on uh, you know, is is he thinks he's Shabbat? Well, I hope not, because but then here's that.
Speaker 1:This is the part. You know what? I've always said this and I and it's from growing up and liking players like Brad Park, even when he was with the Rangers yeah, okay, or obviously, sure Okay.
Speaker 2:Even when he was with Chicago.
Speaker 1:Even when you know what that was such a fleeting moment. Yeah, that's what it did happen, but I always believed that you build your team from your defense out. If you got a puck-moving defenseman like Orr, like Park, and they were solid, they could score, they could do everything, but they could move the puck. Like a Denny Pott fan. You can go through the list. Every team, yeah, every winning team, has that guy. Montreal Canadiens had fucking Robinson Savard the big three.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. And LaPointe.
Speaker 1:Okay, you know where LaPointe played On LaPointe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he played on LaPointe and his nickname is Pointeux.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is that right? Yeah, okay, see, I didn't know that. No, it's French. Okay, what's his name? Don't know? Oh, okay, exactly, okay. So I think that the Sens, any organization but the Sens in particular they've got to fix the defensive issue Like that is the defense and you know what you talk about. Al Marco, he's not playing great, he's actually making the first saves.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:He's making the saves. Like I was watching the games. He's making the saves.
Speaker 2:There's some games where he's absolutely shit the bed. But I mean, I'm not blaming him totally, but they haven't had consistent goaltending and they haven't had consistency through the lineup, despite the fact they've got the third-best power play and they're one of the top scoring teams in the league. Ottawa hasn't had problems scoring for a number of years now. They've had problems defending Right. So you know. You say what we want about the third and fourth line, but when you've got two or three guys up front, whether it be Pinto and Norris a couple of years ago, before Pinto's gambling suspension or Norris's shoulder injuries, what have you? Whether it be the consistency of Stutzla, notwithwithstanding last year, but he's bounced right back, brady's been Brady and they've had other players chip in, like Gaudette this year.
Speaker 1:What is it they need? Do they need to go on a war? They need to make a trade.
Speaker 2:They need to make a trade of a core piece. There's no question one of two or three guys has to go and who's?
Speaker 2:that? Who do you think? Probably Norris. Probably Norris is the one that seems most likely. If you've got three untouchables, it's Brady, stutzla and Sanderson. I think everybody else. But you've got contractual issues. They got no moves. Guys control it.
Speaker 2:Ironically, as we tape this tomorrow night they're honoring the pizza line, and Danny Heatley caused a tremendous kerfuffle here. Combined with Melnick, it was oil and meat and water. But you know, brian Murray had a deal made with Edmonton that Danny Heatley nixed because he had a no trade. So he was able to pick his poison as to where to go and it ended up being San Jose and what was then, even ahead of time, a lesser deal than what Brian Murray allegedly had on paper. So this is some of the problem that current Ottawa is going to have to deal with as well.
Speaker 2:But let's put it this way they've got I think it's a five game, four or five game homestand, which then ends because of the world juniors right, the world juniors are coming in. So Ottawa's got to go on extended road trip over Christmas and nobody goes on the road unless you're the Minnesota Wild or the Vancouver Canucks and does particularly well. Like you know, 500 is phenomenal and Ottawa's not there. So you've got to make some hay right here right now. Right plus you're playing some teams Detroit. You've had to make some hay right here right now. Right Plus you're playing some teams Detroit you've had some success against.
Speaker 2:You've got Nashville who are inexplicably, despite who they signed in the offseason, have been patsies for most of the season so far. They're on the little Eastern Sojourn. They're going to lose to Toronto tonight. Then they got Montreal, then they got Ottawa and that's Nashville. But I mean, you got, you got to blow up, you got to trade a core piece and and I'm suggesting Norris, I mean I don't know what other you know you want to try and make a deal involving Pinto or somebody else. You're asking for who? What do you want to do? Well, a, I want to break up the core Cause it's not getting it done. You just started this show saying that you're frustrated, you're fed up, you're everybody is every sense fan is. So move one of them out. For who? Get defensive help?
Speaker 2:Yeah, get help back there on the back end that can come in and whether it's an upgrade. Like, what is Zub Zub? People are talking like he's. He's not Superman, no, but he's Superman. The talk in here, especially from some of the Ottawa media, was oh my God, we got Zub. We got Zub. He's a shutdown D, he's unbelievable, he's this, he's that. Tyler Tanner, janot, ran over him like a steamroller and you know what I mean. He does that to a lot of guys, but I mean I just, I just don't think and with the Sanderson regression it's really, it's really highlighted their, their shortcoming, but right now it's it's death by a thousand cuts. They're fragile. Goaltending's been inconsistent. Power play and scoring is fine, but the depth scoring when need be, and you know you're collapsing in games and you're losing games that you, you, you, you should, you should not lose and they just need a collective shaking of the dust off the old blanket and it may have to come. I believe that's the expense of a trade.
Speaker 2:Kick in the ass, kick in the ass and you kick in the ass skate the shit out of them, do a bad, you know, get their attention somehow. I just don't know.
Speaker 1:You know we're not there, chris, we're not a practice we don't know to be fair. Uh, I'm not on the coaching staff no, neither am I so and, and you know, I think that if I was, though, um though you know, they probably wouldn't listen.
Speaker 2:Well, your hands would be tied unless you were the head coach. And if you're the head coach, yeah, you'd like to think? I think we all would. Those of us who were bench bosses for our children probably think that we know a thing or two about coaching in the NHL, which, of course, we don't have.
Speaker 1:a single solitary team. They're all kids.
Speaker 2:They're all kids at heart and there should be an element a million dollar you know, several million dollars a year.
Speaker 1:Kids yeah right, yeah, yeah. And so there's a higher level of expectation that, yeah, we as fans have. Yeah, that the organization needs to have and, at the end of the day, if they're not performing, they're not day. If they're not performing, they're not making money. If they're not making money, they're not going to get fucking paid.
Speaker 2:Well, the contracts are all guaranteed, so they're getting paid.
Speaker 1:Yes, but for how long? Because, guess what? You end up with a situation like Melnick, where when things started to slide, when things were great, things were great, but when things started to slide and the money started to go away and the ability to keep things going, that's when we saw the cracks in his money went away, though for different reasons no, but, but that was his outside money, but the operational money of the senators, like they were going, and then all of a sudden fucking cut all the back office, cut all the support staff, yeah, all those things.
Speaker 1:When that happened over time, it didn't happen overnight, it happened over time, over time, as things went yeah, and then it, and by by the time we got to like like the 20 teens, the, the, it was a shell well, yeah, when he screwed around with alfie that that's, that was a had a domino effect on the roster, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker 2:And then the threatening of the fan base all the time with moving and everything leading to the billboards. We all know the story here right now, with angel hour uh, steos, travis green. He brought a, he brought some quality guys in, but in terms of, do they move the needle on putting a franchise together that is going to go to the next level? Well, right now, chris, no, they don't. And and here it is again now, in yet another season, the eighth that they're heading towards potentially a missed playoff berth. I mean, they've, they've got a, they've got a go like right now you need to win tomorrow night. You need to beat Nashville on Saturday. You need to win four out of your next five. That's just to pick up a point or two. Like you're five back right now. You've got games in hand, but you've got to jump like six teams. Everybody else is doing the same thing. Look at last night. There were 10 games. I think four of them went into overtime. It was a shootout, four OTs or something Like these games. There's three-point games all the time, so it's tough, we all know this. So it's hey, I get the Sens fans' frustration Like this is the last year for Montreal on house money.
Speaker 2:They are expected to make a pretty significant move next season, like into conversations about in that 90 to 98 point range and be it'd be in a playoff where these other teams that are ahead of them right now are going to be your Detroit's and Buffalo's and Ottawa's, montreal's, expected to be there next year. And so what's going to happen? You know we'll, we'll see. You can tell you marty st louis will be on a short, uh plank and travis green hey, look at st louis with drew banister. Like we talked about last show, monty becomes available. I see you drew. Yeah, bring him in because they think it's an upgrade. On coaching, monty like gets, let go. Boston struggling, looks like they can't find their way out of a, out of a wet paper bag. Now they're five and two under Joe Sacco. Joe Sacco's been an assistant coach since God was a cowboy it seemed like it and and and it's you know, you know what.
Speaker 1:And a new coach though. New coach, bump, new coach, yeah, and that is. That is nice, it's a honeymoon, you know?
Speaker 2:assistant coach forever, and when those guys just stay in that position for as long as they do now. You got thrust into it because they had to do something Right, because they were floundering badly, they've gone on a nice little run here.
Speaker 1:You know that expression. Some men are born to greatness, others have it thrust upon them. So there you go. That's enough of that conversation. But we'll go back. We'll go to Boston right now because 100 years of the Bruins, I didn't know it was happening. I would have actually said we should go down, we should have crashed it.
Speaker 2:Well, if Wendy watches this she's going to be ripping. Because we actually talked about going down to this game with other friends of mine from Quebec City Gary Craig, who's a huge Bruin fan, a Bruin fanatic and we said, well, let's pick a game, we'll try and go down. You know, when my mom was living in Quebec City, I was down every month. Gary was in my rotation and his wife, andrea, were in my rotation to go see every month that I went down and Wendy and I had plans to go down Quebec at one particular time and we went down and introduced uh, wendy and I had plans to go down Quebec at one particular time and we went down, introduced to Gary and Andrew. We said, hey, we should go to Boston. And I looked at that game and I didn't know.
Speaker 1:I didn't, I didn't know. I never saw anything on you to know this.
Speaker 2:I know, I know I'm supposed to know and I didn't know in the summer. It was only really like the last month or so when we had long blown it out that we weren't going to do it. And then, because I was going to go through the Bruin alumni to get my tickets, well, guess what, I never would have got them. No, they would have told me straight up, yeah, and would have said, oh, liam, I mean they would have told me back in July or August yeah, we're doing the 100th anniversary and we are an absolute sellout. Like you'd have to probably buy tickets or whatever.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, we could have bought tickets, but I mean, I suppose I'm just trying to make you feel guilty. They had a real shindig with that whole thing, yeah, and it was really impressive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really impressive. They did a great job.
Speaker 1:You must have been, you must have loved it. Well, I never got to see it. I got to see it after to be honest with you I didn't get to see the whole thing because I was actually busy. I had other engagements.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm a very busy man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I only saw the clips and the highlights of the whole thing. So you get the best of it and you get the sense, but it's not the same, like you're not moved to tears, which I think I might have been if I had watched the whole thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know, but you may have, as a hardcore Bruin fan, I think, any hardcore Bruin fan.
Speaker 1:Well, I had some intestinal discomfort, so that could have caused tears too.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what, From that opening drone sequence that went right by Bobby Orr and the statue and then into the rink and it stopped like everybody went by. You know it's like you got Willie O'Ree, you know you got everybody. You got Espo in there, Busek, you got all the guys are standing by something and the drone goes by and it was so poignant really. They did such a good job that was off the reel leading up to it.
Speaker 2:I didn't see, because I saw that but I did not see Wayne Cashman. Yeah, he was there. Oh, was he. Yeah, cash was there and I was so thrilled to see him because you know, we heard a few years ago that, yeah, the cancer was really bad and I thought he came out and I thought he looked really good.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I didn't see that part, yeah so I didn't see that part.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Cash was there we didn't see our buddy Ken Hodge. No, I didn't.
Speaker 1:Well you know what? No, I think I did. I think I did see that.
Speaker 2:Okay, I didn't see him on the ice. I don't recall him being on the ice.
Speaker 1:He may have been there. Yeah, I no, he was in the hallway, but I thought I saw him.
Speaker 2:I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I don't think so Because in the hallway he would have got called on the ice and they didn't. I don't believe they called. They called a lot of guys on the ice, but it wasn't like when they closed Maple Leaf Gardens and rolled out 105 guys and a third of them were hammered, and you know Well, listen, they had to be, they were fucking Leafs. Well, exactly, but you had no Keyon and you had no Paul Henderson Not that Paul was the greatest Leaf of all time, but I mean neither one of them coming back closing Maple Leaf Gardens and you rolled out every Tom, dick and Harry and it didn't. It just wasn't a great ceremony. I don't think Boston phenomenal Phenomenal what they did.
Speaker 1:My buddy, graham Townsend, was there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, do you know Graham? Yeah, do you know Graham? Yeah, do you? Oh, yeah, okay, I don't think you've ever shared this with me.
Speaker 1:He's the first Jamaican-born player in the world, Joe yeah. He played for the Sens. He fucking hated the Sens. Eh Did he? He hated playing for the Sens organization. I mean, he played in PEI and he got called up a couple times. But yeah, he's a good guy and when he was awesome, I saw he posted a picture of him, uh, on the luxury bus. Yeah, yeah, that they were taking them in in with.
Speaker 2:Well, they did. I mean they had gary galley doing the game, you know, and he had some of his best years in. I mean his best points years were in philadelphia but he had great years in boston, went to the final with them in 1990, scored an ot goal against montreal, in the forum, no less. So he had some great memories playing for Boston. I know him and Bork have stayed close. I thought they just did a bang-up job and they had Ken Dryden come out representing the Habs and Dryden and Brad Marchand walking Johnny Busick back, you know Johnny's showing his age for sure and walking with a cane and quite hunched over.
Speaker 1:He's got to be bringing late 80s.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, yeah, absolutely. I mean he broke in with Detroit in 56, I believe, and he was traded to Boston in 57., one up for Terry Sawchuck. Can you imagine that Busick and Sawchuck traded for each other, one for one A?
Speaker 1:good trade on both sides.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a win-win trade.
Speaker 2:It really is, because you know, in Boston's case they were trying to stay relevant after, basically, the Kraut line had come and gone, right, and they ended up producing the Uke line out of all that. And you know they went to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals in 57 and 58 with a good nucleus there. It's just it dissipated pretty quickly. It was built largely on toughness and veterans and then, when it dissipated, they slunk down to the bottom until the order and then the Espo trade. But I mean in uh, in those days Johnny Busick and uh, bronco Horvath and Vic Stajic were the uh were the big scorers. So yeah, johnny went and did great things.
Speaker 1:I wasn't watching it back in the 1950s.
Speaker 2:I remember it vividly You're not that much older than me.
Speaker 1:Like you were in the womb, you were watching it.
Speaker 2:I remember the 2000-year-old mouse there, Max Max, the 2000-year-old mouse, Max the 2000-year-old mouse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, okay, moving on Great ceremony and Boston stomped Montreal, so that's never a bad thing for a Bruin fan. They scored three goals in two minutes. The game was over. Caden, primo, god love you. You're the worst goalie in hockey in the world right now and that is going to be really, really difficult. He is so fragile and so out of touch with it's like the puck is his enemy. He just can't wait to get out of the way of it and unfortunately he's got this net, him. You know, I was supposed to stop it. He's having a really tough time and he was. He was terrible and the team didn't play well.
Speaker 2:But um, but that said, big win for boston and, uh, big ceremony for boston. They're five and two under sacco. We'll see it. We'll see how it goes. They're, they're, they're gonna get past here in the standings and get bumped down into the wildcard spot, more than likely because they've played more games than anybody. But who cares? Just keep winning and you'll stay above the horde Right the pack that are chasing behind you, so Monty gets fired.
Speaker 2:Does he?
Speaker 1:still get the remainder of his contract.
Speaker 2:No because he signed right away, so the money goes right away. Transfers to St Louis? Oh, really, yeah, so they're on the hook to pay it.
Speaker 1:You only would have got it, had he. He should have just gone back to consult with St Louis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, he's pretty happy to get behind a bench.
Speaker 1:And they've had a bump with him. Oh yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Okay, All right, we're talking about other things now. Everybody with Ottawa it seems, Chris.
Speaker 1:Well, we're all slumping. We slumped last night in Beer League.
Speaker 2:No way, you guys were, I heard, heading to legendary status. We were, we were undefeated. I read it on Twitter yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was out there. And then, unfortunately, I fucking hate losing. I'm a fun, happy, go-lucky guy, except when we lose. And then I go into the dressing room and I'm like, and then I'm looking at guys and I'm like you fucking missed that check. You know what I mean. I don't say it out loud because I, you know, I'm not exactly, you know, flawless right, but it's funny how when you lose you just get so like you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Uh, and then we had a couple beers and then we're fine yeah, that's generally what worked for me too, and all the years I played men's league hockey I didn't take it too too serious. Um, I took ball hockey losses a whole lot more serious because I put those teams together yeah, so that was a manager and I was a playing coach, gm chief cook and bottle washer. So I put those teams together.
Speaker 2:I was Reggie, I was Reggie and, and that vein in 1992, I had the toughest team in Canada. There's zero doubt about that, absolutely zero.
Speaker 1:Okay, so listen, we've got to wrap this thing up. Yeah, we're going to talk about so one of the things we are going to talk about is, uh, things that happened in the past. Today is November.
Speaker 2:The what Well, it's December actually, but I mean that's such a close month. In November they are close.
Speaker 1:They're both the same.
Speaker 2:Some may say it's like the next month.
Speaker 1:I know you know what. Okay, so it's yeah, they fall.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. Okay, he misses nothing.
Speaker 1:No, so it's December, december, the what? What is today, the 4th? It's obviously not a day that will live in infamy. Well, it will for some.
Speaker 2:So tell me what happened on December.
Speaker 1:We're going to do this. Oh, by the way, this is brought to you by Shoeless Joe's with where do they have?
Speaker 2:it Two locations. Two locations, one in.
Speaker 1:Orleans, one in Kempville.
Speaker 2:Shoeless Joe's is sponsoring this day and ironically it's a Montreal Canadian. And then I'm going to kind of kidnap the date in a second Chris.
Speaker 1:You're going to kidnap the date I'm kidnapping.
Speaker 2:The date in a second I'll tell you why, but I want to give a shout out to Patrick Laney, scoring last night for the Montreal Canadiens. As we taped this, this was the much heralded pickup of the Habs in the offseason who got hurt in an exhibition game against Toronto by Cedric Perre however you say his last name. He's been playing for the Marlies ever since. Probably never see the light of day in the show, but regardless of whether you thought it was dirty or clean, line A made his much vaunted return to the Habs and, in true Hollywood fashion, scored, and he scored a beauty, wasn't even jacked off on painkillers either.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't think so. I mean he generally won't let you out of that rehab until you're you know he was six months in and I'm pretty sure from how he sounds anyway, he'd like to think he can stay clean and sober.
Speaker 1:He wouldn't be the first guy to relapse, sadly and go back, but absolutely, but I but he, he's running out of uh of strikes here, yeah you know so, but but bad injuries is not a good thing, right like that's, that's the killer, because we got lucky because he didn't.
Speaker 2:There was no tear, you know, he ended up just with a bad bruise and he was expected back by Christmas. He was ahead and and we saw him skating. And then, of all people to smoke him in practice, justin Barron, who hasn't thrown a hit in in league play yet, which is why he's out of the lineup. I mean, chris, there's just some guys I look at, just go. I know Sidney Crosby said all the nice things about him when Montreal picked him up in Colorado in the Lekkonen deal, you know, and he's a decent skater. He meets an okay first pass. You can see he's got some offensive qualities, but I swear to God, I don't think he could break a pane of glass or a piece of balsa wood physically Like. You have to have some moxie back there If you're starting to build a team that's eventually going to challenge for a playoff spot and beyond. I mean you got to make the playoffs, then you got to win three rounds just to get to the final.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know I mean. It's just you don't know. You know what. You don't know what people do when they rise to that occasion. You know so many times you see people that you just go oh my God, they're going to flake under pressure. And then all of a sudden, you know what, once that pressure is put on, not only that lump of coal turned into a diamond, but it becomes the hope diamond.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of hope involved with Justin Barron. I tell you he's going to have to find another gear. Having said that, he's out of the lineup, it doesn't matter. Line A played scored December 4thth. Today's date yes, uh, brought to you by shoeless joes, is 1909, is the origin of the montreal canadians who's that?
Speaker 2:so the montreal canadians franchise such as it is was formed on this date in 1909, by j Ambrose O'Brien yes, john Ambrose O'Brien who at the time was a resident of Renfrew Okay, because he owned a number of the mines throughout the Ottawa Valley and all the way up to as far as Cobalt and Haleybury and those towns.
Speaker 1:So he had a bit of cash.
Speaker 2:He had a bit of cash and the family had some cash.
Speaker 1:Imagine an Irishman with money.
Speaker 2:I know because usually an Irishman and his money are soon partying not partying, but I mean he's a founder of so many things, because he was the founder, really, of the national hockey association right, which was a forerunner of the nhl, and he played a role in in how the nhl began as well. Because he was part of the consortium that kicked out eddie livingston from toronto, which forced the league to come up with a new name because of the copyrights and everything. And they sat in the room in the Windsor Hotel in December of 1917, or November of 1917, and said what do we call ourselves? Frank Collar said how about the National Hockey League? And that's how the NHL came along, and O'Brien was a part of that, but he started the Montreal Canadiens.
Speaker 1:My question is how long did it take them to fucking come up with that? Because that was. It doesn't seem like it's too big a stretch.
Speaker 2:I think minutes. It sounds like they literally got up from the meeting with Livingston when he said he would fight them tooth and nail in court if they tried to kick him out. And they walked across the hallway and Frank Calder, who became the president who the Calder Trophy is named after, sat there and said I recommend we dissolve. It's the only way to get rid of them. We can do it right now. We have the proxy, we have our votes. We can do it, including J Ambrose O'Brien, obviously. And they dissolved the NHA. And they said now what? And they said well, how about the National Hockey League? And you're right, it doesn't seem like it's a huge stretch, but I mean it'd be something to be Max the 2,000-year-old mouse and be in that room.
Speaker 1:I'd be interested to find out whether or not I mean I think, today a good lawyer could probably, you know fight that?
Speaker 2:Well, this is 1917. Yeah, there were no good lawyers. Sure there were. But I mean, listen, there's volumes that's been written about this, yeah, and there's a lot. Even the former prime minister, stephen Harper, took a pretty big rip at what happened in those days between sort of like early 1900s right up to 1920 or so, largely from Toronto point of view, but it's, it's got some stuff in there. Anyway, point is there's, there's, there's lots on there If you ever want to immerse yourself, which most people, I'm sure, wouldn't. However, that date certainly for me personally, but I think league-wide they are the winningest team. They've got 24 cups. They won their first in 1916 and they came in the NHL. They played 12 games that first season. They won two and lost 10. Right In 1909, 1910, first year of the National Hockey Association.
Speaker 1:So basically they were only a 20% winning team. Yeah, they were 200.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Kind of like they are now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, okay, they're not much better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're not much better. You know what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, much better. They've gotten no better after this. They've improved by 21 points the last three years and we'll see where things slot out. That was an excellent hockey game last night. It was just a really, really super game. Patrick Watt said the same thing Coaching the Islanders. Islanders won the previous meeting this year, also went to a shootout, actually Deep into a shootout. They won 4-3 last night. Habs prevailed in overtime, but it was an excellent hockey game and we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2:I mean Montreal again. As I said 20 minutes ago, they're on house money, but they're not expected to be as bad as they've been, so we'll see where it ends up. There's lots of racetrack to go and now you've got Line A back in the lineup and it just positions everybody a little bit better. Chris so you know the power play looks a little different with him there and caulfield at the same time, and they've been going to lane hudson as the first option instead of matheson and lane hudson. Right now is is on par to tie or break club records and nhl records as a rookie, rookie defenseman, so there. So there's lots of exciting pieces and things going on in Montreal, because they're not where Ottawa is. Ottawa is supposed to be here and Montreal here, and that's kind of where it is, but it's just not showing that in the standings by the end of the year. I think it will. I'm telling you right now. I'm calling Ottawa to go on a run right now. Yeah, I really think they will.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm calling on them all right, and hey, listen, my last thing for uh December 4th I know what this is yeah, do you? Yeah, I do okay. Well, you know, I had to say something. How could I come?
Speaker 1:on here absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, can you imagine if my dad was alive, and this is all, this technology, cell phones and everything else was before, there were phones and cars had come in, but he, he, you know, he, he, he'd be blown away by it because he'd be in his 90s, like my mom is. So but yeah, he passed away, uh, 29 years ago tonight. We're not too far from the exact time and the order. I mean, yes, me of all people would probably remember the exact time anyway. However, the fact it's the exact moment that I shook Paul Henderson's hand for the first time, on Monday night, december 4th 1995, at 9 31 pm on national tv, I think, makes it a significant event for this day, and thanks to Shoeless Joe's for sponsoring so I could mention that all right.
Speaker 1:Right Sounds good To my dad. Sláinte.
Speaker 2:Sláinte.
Speaker 1:And now we got to bring up our hockey pool, brought to you by Hosey and Brown, the Hosey and Brown, offside the Haas and McGuire hockey pool, in first place. Still the Goon Squad Hanging in there. Eh, you know what? I'll tell you. It's been great. I have actually dropped to 13th.
Speaker 2:Damn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm not going. It doesn't look like I'm going to win, but there's a lot of time left. What I'm hoping for is a significant amount of injuries on Adel's team and see if we can do that All right. Finally, this has been Offside with Haas McGuire. I'm Haas, I'm McGuire.
Speaker 2:G'day.
