E (2:43)

Very, very far.

B (2:44)

Exactly.

E (2:45)

Did not go play darts or anything this week.

B (2:47)

I don't know what you're talking about. How are you, man?

E (2:52)

I am great. I'm excited.

B (2:54)

More importantly, this is the big question. Where were you for Damian Clara's brief beautiful moment in the sun last night? Of course, the Italian goaltender, he made 46 saves and it was less than two periods against Sweden, wasn't it? But before leaving with the. Leaving with a cramp, hopefully that to me is what Olympic hockey is all about. And we got a little, little taste of it on. On night one. This is a guy who most of us didn't know existed. Yes, he's a leg prospect for the Anaheim Ducks. But for the vast, vast majority of the viewing audience, that's the first exposure we got to him. And it was beautiful. He was standing on his head and roaming around the crease and doing all kinds of crazy stuff to keep Italy in that game against Sweden. It was memorable and it was fun.

E (3:36)

It was awesome. So what the Olympics is all about. It was fantastic to see. And Italy's offense came through a little bit as well early on, and they get really spicy. I. That's my first time watching him, obviously, but I did know a little bit. You.

B (3:53)

Wait a second, wait a second. You weren't in on the Damian Clara scouting process before the 2023 draft? Come on, buddy. Get it together.

E (3:59)

No, not at all. I don't really pay too much attention to hockey outside the NHL. For my projections for this tournament, I enlisted some help from some European statisticians, and they gave me the 411 that Clara was a legit NHL prospect. He's sick. He's got some theatrics to him in the sense that he could seriously steal some periods.

B (4:22)

And you gotta, like. You gotta, like, you gotta put the leash on him, too. He's. He's a Roamer. I love. I love seeing that. I know he's six' six, so you don't get the full, like,'90s goaltender, you know, experience. He needs to be like five' 11 for that. But, man, it was. It was fun. This today, though, it is about the North American teams in the men's tournament. We found out a couple minutes ago that John Cooper is indeed starting Jordan Bennington, as expected, over Logan Thompson against Czechia. Tom, you've outlined why that choice shouldn't be all that difficult and why it should certainly be different. Word on the street, though, it seems like you may be softening the stance a little bit. That's kind of hard to believe. What's going on?

E (5:05)

So I wrote an article on Monday that some Blues fans did not enjoy, which is. Okay, I'm just. I'm just outlining the facts and the concerns because I think this is going to be the toughest game Canada has in the group stage. Czechia has their superstar talent up front. They have a goalie that can steal a game, no problem. And Bennington has not been the best this season. I think we all know that. So I looked at the chances, how everything Would change if Canada drops this game, which is a possibility. We saw Slovakia beat Finland. I am softening a little bit just because Slovakia did beat Finland. And that puts Finland in a direct path to finish third in their group and likely seventh, eighth or ninth. So if Canada runs the table, they do not get a maybe easier game. The quarterfinal, they might get Finland. And so if that's the case, there's no real concern anymore to finish first or second the group. And you can give Bennington the start and he's. He earned it after the four nations win. I'm not denying that for sure. Yeah.

C (6:16)

I.

E (6:16)

As soon as 10, 41 hits. I am a huge Jordan Bennington super fan. I hope he does well. I hope he makes me eat a whole platter of crow. I want it to happen. I want him to be the best goalie I've ever seen. I am rooting for that. I just. Before the tournament, you have to have your concerns, and that was obviously the big one.

B (6:38)

This is Canadian arrogance from you discounting the Slovakian team like that. You should be afraid of the Slovaks. Be afraid of your eyes. Lefkowski, come on. I am.

E (6:46)

He's unreal. Olympic setting. He's.

B (6:49)

I love this.

E (6:50)

The greatest of all time, I think. Isn't Olympic hockey the best?

B (6:53)

It's great. It's great.

E (6:54)

You know, first line forward, you know.

B (6:56)

Who was really on about Slafkovsky was. Was Drance. Drance was gassing him up so hard. And I love. I love seeing a Drance prediction come through because it happens so infrequently. So. Yeah, we love it. Okay, Russo is here. Mike Russo is here. Joining us now from Milan is. Is the. Is the man on the scene, Michael Russo. Buddy, you've been covering everything. We've seen you at women's games. We've seen you at U.S. practices. You're all over the place. How are we doing? How are. How are you holding up physically? How have the last 10 days or so gone for you?

C (7:28)

I haven't held up physically in about.

B (7:30)

30 years.

C (7:33)

But I'm doing well. Yeah. You know, I haven't hit the wall yet. I know I've covered Olympics before, and there does come a point where that happens. So far, it hasn't happened. But I think part of it is we have such a good team here and robust team with. With five of us hockey writers and an incredible editor in Naoko here that. That really keeps us all with our eyes on the ball. And so it's been awesome so far. And just walked out into the Corridor watched Jordan Bing Binnington, your guy, lead Canada onto the ice against Lucas de Stal. And so now I know, according to Dom's predictions, that they're in deep trouble.

B (8:12)

No kidding, man. Day two actually has already started. We haven't met. We haven't even mentioned this yet. Switzerland beat France 4 0. Mike, I'm looking for two things for you right off the bat. What's been the most memorable moment from the men's game so far we've seen three of them. And what's the most consequential? Because those are two separate things. Like, we can all gas up Damian Clara, the Italian goaltender, and talk about how fun he is, but I don't know how much. I don't know how important that's necessarily going to be moving forward. So what's most memorable and what do you think is the biggest deal overall?

C (8:44)

Well, so far, my favorite moment was watching Finland have maybe their worst international loss in 20 years of them watching a reporter tried to take a selfie with Sebastian Otto right after it, and then just seeing him sheepishly, like, pose for it.

B (8:59)

You can, you can name Laz. We all know it was Mark Lazarus who was trying to get a photo.

C (9:05)

I did, I did say to Laz after the Switzerland game, hey, I'm going downstairs to take a selfie with Nino. So. But, yeah, no, you know what I mean. That was definitely the best moment so far, the tournament. The first game, watching Slovakia upset Finland, you know, I called it a stunning upset on. On. On X and Slovak fans got all pissed, pissed with me. But of course, you know, I mean, obviously it's not like you're, you know, watching France beat the United States or Canada, but, but, you know, still, Finland, who I didn't think was very good in the four nations, they come here and right away they lose to a team that doesn't have a full body of. Of NHL players. Obviously, Slafkovsky was awesome. And they haven't had a player in that country like that since probably Gabric or Hosa and, you know, the. But. But I was really disappointed watching Finland. I mean, you know, like, just even that empty net goal there and watching one guy doesn't even have a stick in his hand and you're watching guys like Hints and Granlin and Rantman and. And these guys just try to not even put a body on him. It was embarrassing. And. And so I think that, that Slovakia winning so far has definitely been the story of the tournament. And that was game one, so it was pretty cool.

B (10:15)

This is after years of the pesky Finns narrative too. Right? Like, that's always been the tag that's followed them around in international hockey for the last however many years. And it did. I didn't. We did. We didn't see much of that yesterday.

C (10:25)

They don't know how to be favorite. They're supposed to be this gritty team and then you watch softer play as ever to defend that empty net. Not very cool.

B (10:34)

I love this. Mike Russo making enemies in Finland as we speak. We. We love it. We love it. Okay. I do want to ask a couple US men's questions because you were. You're. That's your primary. I don't know if I want to say that necessarily, but that's. That's one of your. That's one of your beats at this tournament. Clayton Keller was the extra forward at practice yesterday, which I thought was. Was interesting, as in he did not have a line. Is that something we can expect to see tonight and what's the logic at play there?

C (11:02)

Yeah, I think that probably the logic is going with the guys with the Four Nations. My think, my guess is that Clayton Keller is going to at some point get games they have back to back coming up. I think that Jack Hughes already is entering the tournament sort of on a short leash. He winds up, you know, the way that he played wing at the, at the Four Nations. They were really talking about putting him at center here in this tournament. And next thing you know, they want. They put him on the fourth line, left wing and not on the power play, at least according to line rushes the last three or four days. So it just feels like he could be in trouble. But I mean, then you have J.T. miller and Vincent Trocheck. So any of those guys can wind up out of the lineup, but it just feels like Jack is kind of entering the tournament, you know, in a bit of issue. Obviously he had the groin injury before they, before the tournament started, so maybe they're just going to try to slow play him as well and give other guys opportunities. I love their top three lines, but, you know, my guess is that Keller at some point is going to get games. Yeah.

B (12:00)

Okay, that makes sense. And again, they open against Latvia later today. Some of the faces in the lineup will be recognizable as guys who were in the stands during the U.S. women's 50 win against Canada on Tuesday. Sounds like there's some real appreciation, some real appreciation there on their parts. Mike, I saw one of your recent posts that Matthew Chuck compared Caroline Harvey to Bobby Orr, which is, you know, that sounds that that's lofty but also based on the way Caroline Harvey has played hockey for the last few years is, is not wholly incorrect. So yeah, there's, there's a lot of appreciation there on, on the men's side, isn't there?

C (12:38)

Absolutely. And, and I, I, it was really cool watching the entire US Team or most of the US Team arrive at the game the other day. I know that US Men's management has been at pretty much every single one of the women's games. And you know, Bill Garon joked yesterday that he called his wife and said that Abby Murphy is his now favorite player. But Caroline is just, she's something. I mean there's a reason why, you know, she is, is most people think is going to be the number one pick in the PWHL draft. She, she skates like no other. You know, they joke internally on the team that she's the fourth Hughes sibling because one, she's sort of a pet of Ellen Hughes. You know, Ellen is just such a huge fan of hers. Obviously. Ellen is the director of division, is developed, you know, development consultant is her actual title. I wrote a big feature on her the other day. The Hughes brothers mom and she's part of the U.S. women's team and she brings, you know, Caroline and a lot of the women to Ann Arbor every summer to, to skate with Jim and her and also sometimes the Hughes brothers and those, you know, huge amount of, of NHL players that skate in Ann Arbor there. The Hellebox and the debrincat and the, and the Dylan Larkins and players like that. So she, she is just, you know, she's a high event player that, that John Roblevsky basically says doesn't make the ton of mistakes that you expect from a high event player. And she is coming off back to back six point games and it's just, or excuse me, three points each and you know, six points in the last, in her last two games. And she's just been something that. It just feels like none of the teams so far in this tournament have been able to handle, including Canada.

B (14:15)

What are you watching for in Canada? Latvia. And you can answer this through the lens of the US Team or just as you know, a journal. Who's, who's watching this game? What, what, what about, what about this one interests you the most?

C (14:26)

Well, I think it's going to be complicated. I mean Tossedal is obviously a great, great goaltender. I think the Czechs have a lot of great players and that, that you know, kind of want to poke the bear here. Of Canada. You know, I, I can tell you Pierre lebron is convinced that there is going to be an upset today, whether it's to United States or Canada. And it's probably, if you're going to look at the two games, it probably would be Canada. The thing is, is that, you know, I'm just. What I am interested in is right now they have, I mean, it's the, the Lions are really one. It just shows you their depth. But they have Crosby, McKinnon and McDavid on three separate lines. And you just know that at some point there's going to be the quote, unquote, nuclear option where they, they team a lot of these players up and all of a sudden they start playing together. But right now, I mean, celebrity has gotten the, the luxury of playing with a guy like McDavid and then Tom Wilson on the right, and it's just, I mean, technically McKinnon's a third line player right now, and you just know that's not going to, that's. That just speaks to the depth that this team has. And so I'm really looking forward to this game here that starts in about, about 30 minutes.

B (15:25)

What do you think of Brandon Hagel with McKinnon? Because that's, that's one of the things that's, that's shuffled out over the last, over the last couple of days. I think it makes sense, you know, especially given the, given the, the way they put together that first line too, is you, you have the physical element in Wilson for, for McDavid, and then you have the kind element for Hagel for, for, for McKinnon.

C (15:46)

Yeah, that's exactly. And you know, John Cooper's affinity for Hagel and I think that's what.

B (15:51)

Yes, it's, it's well documented that John Cooper likes Brandon Hagel, for sure.

C (15:55)

Yeah, exactly. And, and doesn't like when the Florida Panthers go after him. So, you know, it'll be interesting. But I mean, you know, I think the, the hope here, not that McKinnon needs room created for him, but I think that's the hope is that you have got like Hagel going to the net and creating havoc and going the dirty areas where McKinnon's going can just use his speed and pull his way up the ice when he wants. So it'll be interesting. I mean, you know, that's the luxury of a tournament like this. That wasn't the luxury in, in, in Montreal and Boston back a year ago. Is that, you know, in a, in a, in a tournament that is so Short like there, you really didn't have time to experiment. You know, Kyle Conner for the United States winds up scratched in the championship game when he started on the first line. And here's a good example where they have these prelim games to really, you know, tinker with some things, see what works not, you know, have the luxury that if, you know, you lose, it's not the end of the world and you just try to figure it out. And so, you know, I think the hope from all of us is that at some point we see the United States and Canada play against each other in the medal round. Obviously that's in a. Because they're not in the same group. We're not guaranteed that we are going to see them. But I think that obviously that's the hope for a lot of us that are here covering it, that we're going to get that sort of, you know, encore that we saw last February.

B (17:10)

Absolutely. Well, the road to that starts in 25 minutes. Yeah. Thanks for, thanks for being here, brother, and enjoy the games. Keep up the good work. It's always, it's always fun to watch. And also, everybody, don't. Don't forget to check out Russo's Twitter page because it is the like, my God, it is. I got a great.

C (17:29)

Yeah, I got a fun story tomorrow. When Keith could Chuck billeted Quinn Hughes and Brady.

B (17:35)

Of course. Of course you do.

C (17:37)

Yeah. Let's put it this way. I'll just give you a little tease. Keith Tkachuk taught Quinn how to drive at age 15 before he had a driver's license. So they could go to dinner and you know who would drive.

B (17:48)

Imagine a 15 year old Quinn Hughes behind the wheel of a. Of a motor vehicle. Good God, help us. Help us.

C (17:55)

And it's common because on the record in the story, it was 100%. The master plan was so he could have a couple.

B (18:03)

Wonderful, wonderful.

E (18:05)

So anyway, yeah.

B (18:08)

Last thing before you go. How is Brian Boitano as a bartender? Rate him. Rate him 1 to 10.

C (18:13)

He's good. I had one of his drinks and man, let's put it this way. You should not have the hat trick at 10am okay. If you want to. If you want to work in cover practice about two hours later. So that's wonderful. I made that day. Yeah, he's a good bartender. That was a fun story as well. And the title sponsor of the Winter House is Starbucks, so I had to go there.

B (18:34)

All right, all right, that's enough. No more. No, no more product placement from Russo.

C (18:39)

Yeah, exactly. Jeff, our producer needs to work on me getting a Starbucks endorsement.

B (18:44)

Yeah, yeah, he's working the phones right now for sure. Thanks brother.

C (18:50)

Take care.

F (18:53)

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B (21:26)

All right we're joined now by a women's hockey writer, Cassie Campbell's friend from the long.

D (21:35)

Ask Cassie about that.

B (21:36)

I don't know. It's come across as if she likes you from what I've seen until. Haley Salvian from Milan. Hello. How are, how are you?

A (21:45)

Hey.

B (21:46)

Good.

D (21:47)

A little tired, but it's fine. It's the Olympics. Everything's great. Everything.

B (21:54)

Well, do you want to get a. You want to get a complaint on record about your experience watching hockey for, you know, three weeks in Milan? I'm gonna make them mad at you. What's been, what's been the biggest issue?

D (22:06)

No, I have. I'm not complaining. I'm just a little sleepy. We're pulling double duty, but that's okay. It's been. Been cool to be here. You know, it's actually funny. The thing about being at the Olympics is it doesn't really feel like you're at the Olympics because I'm just like, I'm just covering a women's hockey tournament. Like this just feels like women's worlds but with higher stakes. Meanwhile, there's, you know, skiers announcing that they cheated on their girlfriend in Lavino and penis. Like it's crazy.

B (22:40)

There's.

D (22:42)

There's all these crazy stories going on and I'm just kind of at the rink being like, wow, wow, what's happening here?

B (22:49)

Except it's, it's. Except it's Milan and not Utica or London, Ontario or.

D (22:55)

Yeah, I haven't been chased by a German shepherd in the streets yet.

B (23:00)

Yes, that, that, that has yet to happen. See though.

D (23:03)

Yeah, there's been no carbon monoxide alarm or anything else that's made me fear for my life yet. So I've got no complaints. I'm just a little.

B (23:14)

Memories.

D (23:15)

You know what? I will. You know what, Sean? I'm sorry. I will put a complaint on the record.

B (23:19)

You would.

D (23:21)

No, listen, this is. You're in Italy, right? You think there's going to be like, people don't eat dinner until 8pm Everything's open late, nothing. Everything closes at like 11 o'.

B (23:31)

Clock. It's interesting.

D (23:32)

So in the games because of broadcast start at 9, 10 local. So like if you don't eat before, you're screwed. I had a. There was a gluten free sandwich at Santa Julia yesterday. Thank God.

B (23:45)

Congratulations.

D (23:46)

It had provolone and artichokes on it. Very weird. So I haven't really been having this like cool Italian dining experience. So that's my only complaint is the food's actually kind of Strange.

B (24:01)

Interesting. Okay. Yeah. Anyways, Canada has a complaint. Canada has an issue. Marie Philippe Polin is out. She appeared to injure, we'll call it a lower body injury. She that was in. In the preliminary round, misses the game against the United states. Canada loses 5, 0 and it looked like a 5, 0 loss. That was. That was pretty, pretty uneven, pretty ugly. They were outshot 22 to 10 by the second intermission, which is by that point it was pretty, pretty well decided. What's the latest on Poland's injury? Let's just start there. What do you. What do you got? Because this is something you've been all over since. Since the start, so.

D (24:45)

Well, the latest is that she's obviously not playing against Finland to end out their preliminary round game. This was a game that was supposed to be played as their Olympic debut, but because of that norovirus outbreak, which feels like weeks ago, now they're playing it on February 12th on the Thursday day before the quarterfinals are set to start. Canada plays on the 14th at least, so they do get a day off. So no Poulin to round out their final two preliminary round games. And it sounds like so officially she is day to day with a lower body injury. I think by now we've all seen the video and it was very difficult to watch. Poulin takes the big hit by Christina Caltonkova. Her right leg kind of bent funny under her. She's on the ground, she's grimacing, she doesn't put any weight on that right leg. And then she hobbles to the locker room after trying to take a spin on the power play and immediately coming off. So it didn't look great. But head coach Troy Ryan said it, the injury is not as bad as it looked because, like, that's the thing. Like, it looked bad. Like, arena, like, gasped. Because Poulin is the ultimate competitor. She is tough. And to watch her look like she was in so much pain, take a spin and like, she took the face off, made a pass on the power play and waved to the bench like, I'm coming off. And the fact that, like, you don't see that often from her. So you, you knew it was bad. It looked bad, but sounds like it's not as bad as we think. And Team Canada is very optimistic. Like, we'll see what happens. She's going to be assessed daily. But Canada is optimistic that we will see pool and again at this tournament. The question, Sean, is just like, when that happens, and to me, the fact that she's not playing against the US Or Finland like that in a vacuum isn't all that worrisome because there's no point, like, don't risk it. If she didn't, if she woke up any less than 100%, she shouldn't be playing. You make it to the quarterfinals no matter what. I honestly wouldn't even play her in the quarterfinals on the 14th. They're probably going to play Germany. And unless Sandra Abstrider plays on her head and has one of the best goalie performances we've seen since Florence Schelling in 2014, I just don't think there's any need to risk playing poolin until the semifinals. And even then she should probably only play like 10:12 minutes, right?

B (27:06)

Not even as the 13th forward. Like, like you're just, let's just, let's just not, let's not introduce that variable to the mix at all, right?

D (27:13)

Bring her, bring her in to gear her up for the gold medal game. That's where we know she makes the big impact. Like that's as bad as the loss was on Tuesday for Team Canada. Like, there's the huge asterisk which is, well, Poulin wasn't playing because we know and well, it's also the prelims. So to me the only reason to not freak out is like Canada wasn't playing with its best Olympic player. I mean, the best Olympic player of all time. I think we all know over the years, if you can get there, it's a game of inches and it just takes like one big goal from, you know, the biggest gamer on the planet. So to me, I do everything I can to save Poulin so she can be ready for the moment when she shines the most.

B (27:59)

It kind of hints at maybe some bigger picture, longer term problems for, for Team Canada. We can maybe save those. Let's, let's look at the, at the smaller, shorter window here.

D (28:08)

Why? What happened?

B (28:11)

I, I personally greatly enjoyed the preliminary game between the United States Canada.

D (28:16)

It was the Abby Murphy show.

B (28:18)

Yeah, let's talk about Murphy for, for a quick second while we're here. She was impactful in a lot of different ways. We saw more crazy setup work from her. Wild, wild ice vision. Why another wild assist. But she was also, you know, drawing penalties and bumping goalies and doing, doing the Abby Murphy stuff that she's, she's become accustomed for. You know, there's a topic of conversation on the, on the Canadian broadcast. Certainly Cassie was upset about it. For one, the, the, the, the Abby Murphy professionalism discourse has, has hit in a very big way. So what have you seen from her? Are you surprised by it at all? And I, maybe, maybe you can just kind of segue into the stuff you said on, on television a day or two ago because I think it was, it was perceptive and, and, and correct about, about. About the Abby Murphy experience.

D (29:15)

She is the ultimate unicorn. No, I was not surprised. I've been watching Abby Murphy do stuff like this for years now. And what, what it almost felt too on the nose. And Cassie's right. Like, Abby Murphy is the, like, she loves a cell job. She loves it. She is great at it too, because she knows it pisses everyone off. Like, it was almost, it was, it was so on the nose for cast to say, like, this bothers everyone. Like, Team Canada's mad about it. Troy Ryan's talking to the refs about. It's like, right, like that's the point. Like, what's the score Doing it. She knows that you hate it. Like, she is the master of the game within the game because, like, yeah, the score is 5 nothing. But again, like, games between the US and Canada get so tight. Like, the, the margins between these two teams realistically aren't that big. But Abby Murphy is so good at doing the little things to be like, here's where I'm going to add value. I'm going to piss you off so much that you are focused on cross checking me in the corner instead of getting the puck and exiting the zone. I'm going to annoy you so much that you're taking illegal hits on me and putting our power play back on the ice. She got under their skin. She got in their head. She got Canada off their game. She drew four penalties and they were all like, contact penalties, illegal hits, interference, cross checking, illegal hit. Like, that is what she does. She does it on purpose. She wants to get in people's heads. She's so good at it. And then like the other side is. She does the backhand. No, look past Hannibal, right? And she sets up Hannibal twice. Actually, I think in that game, like, she had three assists and drew four penalties and pissed everyone off. Put Anne Renee Debian in a, in a leg hold. Like, had her legs wrapped around Debien's pads. Like, those are the things. This is top of mind because I've been working on a rivalry series story and those are the kind of things that like Tessa Bonhomme was just telling me about this, like, that stuff. That's what like the Lamorus were great at. And I know we want to make all these, like, comparisons to Brad Marchand or Matthew Tkachuk. But, like, Abby Murphy really is cut from the same cloth as the twins because the twins can do the forearm shiver and they can do the drive by the bench and they can get into a line brawl in 2013, twice leading up to the Olympics. But then they can also pull off the, you know, kind of deeks that put the best goalie on the. On the planet on their ass. So Abby Murphy is, you know, an expert at doing all the dirty stuff, but also having some of the most beautiful highlights we've ever seen. And she just completely dominated them. And even Troy Ryan after the game said, like, if you can't, like, he basically said, my advice to the players usually is like, don't get involved if you can't match her. And so to me, it's like, Kristen o', Neill, like, or Sarah Philly. A. Like, don't get into the mix if you're not going to. Then also go back and score. Like, if you're not going to get in the mix on the score sheet and the penalty box, just don't get involved. Turn your cheek, walk away. So, yeah, the diving's annoying, but, like.

B (32:28)

Maybe skill levels, the skill levels, ultimately what kills.

D (32:31)

But also stop complaining about Abby Murphy and play the hockey game and score a goal. Like, you gave them five power plays because she pissed you off. Like, I'm sorry. I agree with Cassie. It's brutal, it's tough to watch. But, like, maybe stop focusing on Abby Murphy and do something on the ice.

B (32:50)

Well, simply, how do you expect candidates to compete in a hockey game when they don't have their best player? That's just an unreasonable expectation.

C (32:59)

I think.

D (33:00)

I mean, I was talking to Dom about this. He has his model. The percentages only drop by 3% because on paper, like, this is still a super team. These are still the 19 next best skaters in this country. And I don't want to hear anything about the young players left behind. Like, These are the 19 best players to try to win a gold medal. It's on. Like, it's unacceptable. So the first time they've ever been, like, I'm sounding like a homer. This is the first time that Canada's ever been shut out in the Olympic competition. It's not just because Poulin wasn't on the ice because you had four shots in the first period, like, what were you doing? They got completely out skated. And I don't want to say outclassed because that's over the top, but Team usa, that's like, how you judgment that you don't need to make down. Yeah, they weren't outclassed, but they were outskated. They were outskilled. They had four shots on goal in the first period. Like, the only. I'm rambling now. It's fine. The only player who stepped up to me in Poulin's absence was her wife, Laura. Stacy and I usually, like, I do a good job at separating the two, but, like, Laura is the only one who put her money where her mouth was because she's the one that came out and made the statement of, like, Mary, Philippe, Poulin, like, she lifts us up all the time. She puts us on her shoulders. It's time for us to return the favor. And she's the only one who did it. So if you're like, I was just not what you expected to see when you're going into a big rivalry game and everyone's talking about how we got to get the job done for her without her, it was just like. It was just a blah effort.

B (34:40)

It'll be interesting to see what comes out of it. The preliminary rounds finishing up here. We don't know what. What the knockout round matchups are going to be, but they'll be interesting. And again, biggest through line here is Marie Philippelin, out until further notice. Haley will be in Milan tracking all that. Thanks for joining. Go get some decent food. I guess you're not at the rink right now so you can actually have a decent meal. So maybe go try to make that happen.

D (35:08)

I'll try. We'll see. I'm gonna eat some gluten and see how it goes. I think today's the day. I'm gonna send on a croissant.

B (35:16)

I have an idea of how that'll go. Have a nice day. Thanks for everything. Bye. Goodbye.

A (35:26)

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D (35:55)

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B (36:52)

Thank you Hayley. Um, we do have some of a pool in Update here. It's 10:31. It's nine minutes before puck drop in Canada Czech Ya. But Marie flu plan skated this morning with medical staff and their coaches. Troy Ryan told the CBC's Claire Hannah that she felt well and and this is a direct quote, an extra couple days will do her justice. So things are looking up. I know Haley said as much but it's always good to see those things tracked in the right direction because nobody wants to see Marie fully planned seriously injure herself during an Olympic game. Also Canada currently up 4 nothing on Finland in that prelim game. So everything's going according to plan there. Okay, eight minutes of puck drop now. Dom Canada Czech yeah, 10:40 Eastern. I wanted to ask you about the check top line. That's Tomas Hurdle between Martin Etches and David Posternak. That's those are three high end NHL players. I think they're going to lean on them pretty heavily. What are your thoughts on on, on what that's going to look like for check it here.

E (37:57)

That is my expectation as well. When I was doing my projections I had to sort of guess how each team would use each player because we obviously we don't know. So for Canada, USA you expect balance. Sweden the same. I thought Finland would lean on their top six more and they did not do that with Brandon getting the eighth most minute. So you never really know but it feels like check, check. He has loaded up that top line. They have like three star players, one genuine superstar. You have to expect that. I'll go first line, second line, first line, third line, first line, fourth line or something along those lines. Right. And that will be the big test for Canada is whether they can stifle that top line for sure.

B (38:44)

One to ten. How personally afraid of Lucas Dostahl are you? Eight. Eight.

E (38:50)

Pretty terrifying goalie. I, I was 14 years old in 2006 and I don't even think I watched the game against Switzerland. I think I was at like an east side Mario's like eating dinner with my family thinking it's Switzerland, it's fine. And then there's a small TV in the corner getting updates that kind of just can't score. And they have so many more weapons right now. But I think the goalies that they are going to face in Group A between Dosto and Leonardo Ginoni are. Could be really tough.

B (39:25)

Jononi is the Swiss goaltender by the way. Yeah, Italian. Italian last name. But a Swiss national. Yeah, he's. He's had some major international success for them recently. Do stalled.930 save percentage in his last nine before the, before the break too. So he was playing. He was. Did you know that? Did you know?

E (39:46)

Oh boy.

B (39:48)

Did it start with a seven low eight. Okay. The other, the other North American Games today at 3:10 Eastern. That's the United States against Latvia. Russo talked about Jack Hughes. I think that's an interesting wrinkle here, maybe dealing with the lower body things still. He's a fourth line winger at practice which is wild. I don't think that's, that's 0 for 2 on, on, on position and spot in the lineup that I think people would have guessed for him going into this. That's certainly something to watch. The third defensive pair, it's. It's Jade, Jake Sanderson and Zach Orensky that's. Seeing those guys listed as a, as a third pair is pretty, pretty fascinating. Do you think that's an issue? Is that, is that a pro or a con for the United States? Because I think you can kind of view it both ways.

E (40:37)

Yeah, it is, it is somehow both because you get through a stack top four, you get the soft sheltered matchup and it's a top three defenseman and one of the best two way defense in the world in Sanderson. It is a luxury that USA has that they can even bring out that pair as a third option. To me that's probably their second best pair maybe in their top pair. With how good both of those guys are, it's I, it makes me think they're going to rotate more. But it'll be interesting to see whether they get in the mix because obviously you want Hughes out there as much as possible. Slavin and Faber are a great shutdown pair. I think we saw that during four nations as well. So I, it's a, it's a very nice problem to have too many defensemen. We did our top Canada and USA teams going back to 1998 and as great as the 2010 and 2014 teams were, you look at that defense core, you see names like Jack Johnson, Ryan Whitney. It's.

B (41:36)

Oh, it's the Olympics are back, baby. Jack Johnson's taking strays. Yeah. Knew it was going to happen.

E (41:42)

And to think that the third pair is now Zach, Korinsky, Anderson. They've come up a long way and I think that's one of the reasons they enter this tournament as a co favorite.

B (41:50)

Yeah, you could argue that Warrenski's presence on the roster and what he brings to it is one of the US biggest edges over Canada is he's. This is a prime time ultra high end offensive defenseman. And you know, with all due respect to Josh Morrissey, who's great, I don't, I don't know that Canada has any kind of comp for, for that behind behind Makar. So the, so the fact that Barentsky is the number two behind Hughes and there's no real analog and canal in Canada is, is something catalog Canada. There's also another game. Denmark's playing Germany at 3 Eastern. Quick, quick over under. How much is more at cider going to play in that game?

E (42:31)

29 and a half minutes. I, I put him down for 30. I think he's gonna play half of every game but we'll, we'll see if that actually happens. Heiskin played 27ish for Finland. They have a few more NHL defensemen. I. The German team has some great defensive players. I think the Dell, the German league has a very strong defensive reputation and there's a lot of players who can hold their own in that way. Having cider at the top of that is going to be massive. But they got some guys who can shut players down so we'll see how much they lead on cider. I think it'll be a lot.

B (43:07)

One last over under. How. How long will it take you to get to the largest screen you can find in public here?

E (43:16)

I'm gonna sprint sprint to the local bar.

B (43:20)

Let's see it. Enjoy the games, buddy. And that's it for us. That's it for this live edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Thank you, Dom. Thank you, Russo. Thank you. Ha. Thank you, producer Jeff. Thanks. You find folks at home watching and listening. The next show's later. Today we're going live again on YouTube after Team USA Latvia I will not be present for this. It will be Dom. Once again, Jesse Granger and our special guest slightly more, slightly more accomplished in the world of international hockey, a fellow by the name of David Backus, Team USA legend. 15 year old vet. He 15 year NHL vet. He's going to join the show. He's going to share his thoughts on the first US Men's game at the Olympics. So stick around for that. Enjoy it. Enjoy that game, enjoy all the other games and we'll see you again real, real soon.

A (44:14)

We all have moments where we could have done better. Like cutting your own hair. Yikes. Or forgetting sunscreen so now you look like a tomato. Ouch. Could have done better. Same goes for where you invest. Level up and invest smarter with Schwab. Get market insights, education and human help when you need it. Learn more@schwab.com if you're not using Ironclad for contracts, you could be leaving millions on the table without knowing it. Every contract holds renewal dates, pricing terms, and obligations you can't afford to miss. But good luck finding them when it matters. Ironclad's AI instantly surfaces what matters so you can act before opportunities slip away. That's why they're trusted by OpenAI, L' Oreal and Salesforce. Find the savings hiding in your contracts@ironcladapp.com podcast that's ironcladapp.com podcast shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things, so why waste time sending important documents the old fashioned way?

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