One More to Go

You will never look as good at eight in the morning as you will on Sunday. Yeah. Yes. Especially when you have our poor makeup team running all over the arena to touch you up. My goodness. Sunday morning, the beer goggles will benefit me. Welcome to 32 Thoughts, the podcast presented by the Toyota BZ. Go all electric in a winter-ready Toyota BZ at your local dealer today. Dom, Elliot, and Kyle back with you. We are through the semifinals here on the men's side of the Olympic hockey tournament in Milano-Cortina. The gold medal matchup is set one year to the day of the Four Nations face-off final. Canada beating the Americans in overtime off the stick of Connor McDavid. We learn that the rematch will come Sunday for Olympic gold. Say it, Elliot. Say it. My nipples are erect thinking about it. Yes, yes, yes, yes. It is stiff bosom season again. You know, it's funny. A couple of guys came up to me in the second intermission of the U.S. game when it was already, what, 5-0 at that point or whatever, 4-0 at that point. And they were like, they held out the Instagram page with my quote and saying, Elliot, how do you feel? And they put that in my face and I go, exactly. Like that. Yes. Actually, I saw we'll get into this a little bit later. I was at the women's gold medal game the night before and I was walking through the concourse before the game. And there was a group of Team USA fans that got my attention and shouted at me. Where's Fridge? Where's Fridge? And I said, probably out for a cigarette. And they got a kick out of that. Yeah. You know what? I didn't want to beat that one to death. And I didn't also the nipples erect one. I'm worried it's getting too much. but uh yes it had to at least be winked since the people asked for it give the people what they want kyle give the people what they want by the way dom how are you doing well i suppose losing in a blowout feels a little bit better than losing a close game that would have been heartbreaking but either way it's uh it's a little it's a little down right now we're not gonna lie well we'll rebound tomorrow but right now we're feeling it oh well you know what you were saying to me before the podcast started that people were ripping you because they felt that the Slovaks fluked into it. Let me just say this. Nobody flukes into an Olympic semifinal. So tell those people to do something very bad in Slovakia. Thank you, Ellie. Yeah. Well, we're going for bronze tomorrow. Go Slovaks. Yeah. And that's still, I mean, that's got to be, would be considered a great result for Slovakia, right? Like going in? Yeah. I know there, it would be the same result as they got four years ago, but different set of circumstances here. And it also presents staying power for the Slovak. So yeah, they've been a fun story, but man, the U.S., if your goal is to be peaking when you hit the medal round and particularly the gold medal game, they certainly seem to be on the right path towards that. But OK, Elliot, why don't we start? Oh, boy. Three days in a row for Canadian hockey fans and back home in Canada. It's three mornings, early afternoons from the quarterfinal, Canada-Czechia, the gold medal game on the women's side, Canada-USA. And then here on Friday, Canada-Finland for the men's team to get back into the gold medal game. Where do you want to start here? Because there's the offside challenge, there was the goaltender interference challenge that wasn't, and a two-goal deficit that left everybody here feeling, oh boy, how many more times, Elliot, can Team Canada do this to themselves? let's start with the last one first quickly they won't be able to do that against the u.s like one of the things that happened here is that czechia and finland they were prepared to allow canada to dictate the pace of play and the tempo czechia didn't forecheck a lot and finland was ready to sort of concede the exterior and pack in the, protect the house and deal with it that way. They weren't trying to force Canada down the ice, hem them in. They weren't pressuring them. The U.S. won't play like that. So that's the number one thing I think is going to be different about the gold medal game. You know, as you know, Kyle, I was extremely nervous against Czechia and I admitted on air on the TV broadcast of that game that when Palat scored, I thought Canada was going to lose. I never felt that way against Finland. To me, Kyle, the most shocking thing was Finland played in a quarterfinal game against Switzerland where they trailed 2-0. They were down 2-0 with five minutes to go. They scored twice, and then they won it in overtime. And if you read all the quotes from that game, it was the exact opposite of what happened in this one. Like all the Finns kept saying we were relentless. We kept pressuring them. We knew we were going to score. We just had to keep sticking with it, and we were going to find a way. And Giannone, the Swiss goaltender who had a great tournament, he said, we got up 2-0, and we didn't try to score a third one. We basically played to hold on, and that's why we lost. And it was as if they were mind-wiped and they completely forgot about the circumstances of that game. Like, they had a couple of really good chances after scoring their second goal that Binnington stopped. And, look, you can argue Canada's a better team. You can argue Canada's a deeper team. But I think that Finland team has a lot of talent and some real elite talent. and I just felt that they, you can't sit there against Canada and let them repeatedly come up the ice against you. And the thing is too, is that Finland did a good job of, anytime they tried to pass it into the slot, they knocked it away or they broke it up. Eventually they were just going to start hammering the puck and scoring, which is, you know, what they did. And, you know, I don't know. I mean, I was disappointed, you know, and it was interesting. Rantan got off the ice and he said, hey, when you're playing defense for 25 or 30 seconds, you've got no energy left to go up the ice and try to score. Like it was a pretty, I always am careful because sometimes when people are speaking in their second language, they don't mean for it to come out a certain way. I've always loved talking to Rantan. I think he's a pointed guy. And whether or not he was saying that as a criticism or just saying that as an observation, I think it's true. I think Finland played a way that they allowed Canada to come back and win that game. And, yeah, if I was a Finnish fan, it would have bothered me. And I know, you know, Teemu Solani was mad about the officiating. I mean, you know, and I'm never going to argue with Solani's passion. He wants Finland to win. But I think some of that is simply the way Finland allowed the game to be played. Same with Czechia. And Czechia can't complain about the officiating because of the miss too many men call. But when you let the other team dictate the pace, like Canada just had two games were combined. I think they outshot the other two teams like 80 to 50 or 80 to 40 or something like that. You're not going to win the penalty power play battle when you are letting the other team come up and down the ice against you. You're just not. And I think that's why Finland lost this game, Kyle. And I also believe the U.S. will look at this and they say, A, we dictate the pace. We don't have it dictated to us. They are not going to allow a Canada to come up and down the ice against them. It's just not going to happen. Well, especially when you consider the lineup and the options that Team USA has. They've got a lot more power to handle what Canada's going to throw at them. So certainly it's going to be a different set of circumstances. And that's been a big thing with Mike Sullivan coach teams dating back to when he first came onto the scene with Pittsburgh and they won back-to-back Stanley Cups. How many times Penguins fans will know he would say, we want to dictate the terms. We want to dictate the terms. And that'll be the mindset. That's what Cooper said at the beginning of it too. Yeah. He said that we want to set the tone. We don't want to worry about matchups. We want people to adjust to us. We don't need to adjust to them. Yeah. Bruce Cassidy, I remember when the one playoff year in Boston, when they beat Columbus in six games, they won in Columbus in game six. And I remember his line after the game, He goes, oh, everyone talks about going into the building on the road. You want to weather the storm. He goes, well, we want to create the storm. I was like, oh, God, what a great line that is. That is a fantastic line. Yeah, yeah. By the way, Mark Stone, like the day before on the practice day between the quarterfinal and the semifinal, he talked about being comfortable in uncomfortable moments. I go, who are you, John Cooper? And he laughed and he goes, well, now you know I'm one of the guys who listens in the meetings. that's that's a great point by mark stone um and and further to that i mean nathan mckinnon said as much in the post game after the finland affair and it was that he admitted you know they were he didn't like how they handled moments against czechia like they they were rattled uh suzuki makes an incredible play and gives them new life he goes we were much more calm settled as a group even though down two against a Finland team that was packing the house in. They were getting in the way. They were defending really well. And then it just, to your point, it was too much defending, and it eventually cost them. I got to admit, Elliot, as soon as Shea Theodore's blast went in to tie the game at two, so my perch, I'm up at the top of the rink on one end of the ice, and it was at that end where the goal went in. And I got on the mic to our guys back in Toronto right away, and I said, get ready. I think a coach's challenge is going to come here for goalie interference. Were you thinking anything similar? Not initially. Initially, I didn't think so because I only saw Hala push him in there. But Bieksa was adamant that they should have challenged it. and then I went back and looked at it and he's right they should have challenged now the Finnish coach said after the game he thought it was a good goal and I'll also say that Cassie and Cheryl they thought that it would have been a goal anyway so they were aligned with the Finnish coach but Armia said it was goalie interference and Saro said it was goalie interference and And so it's interesting to me that, you know, the coach said good goal. Maybe he was like, again, this is something I think that gets caught up in language. So I want to be careful with what I say here. But I wondered if he was kind of trying to protect his decision or he just believed that. Because, you know, the one thing that he's wrestling with is we know this Canadian power play is killer. They've already scored once in this game. If he's wrong, then he's now allowed them to go on the power play tied 2-2. So I understand why he might have been leery of doing it. There was a strategy to not doing it. The other thing, as someone said to me, he's a IIHF coach. He understands the IIHF strategy, right, or how the rules work. So you would think that he would know goaltenders interference and the standard of it in an Olympic tournament. But I'll tell you this, Kyle. They have called goalie interference really tight all tournament, including in the one game Czechia-Switzerland in the round robin where Czechia had a goal disallowed where the contact wasn't even in the crease. and in double IHF standard, if a goalie's trying to make a save, even if he's outside of the crease, you know, they can take it off. So that to me, I would have challenged it. I'm with you. I would have challenged it. They've been really protective of the goaltenders. And I did have a couple of officials who texted me after we had the debate on the show, and he said they were surprised he didn't challenge it. And they just think he was afraid of Canada's power play. And there is an argument to be made for that. You know, the one at the end with the offside, to me, that was a pure panic, Hail Mary, last ditch, three-point bomb to try. Like, that was nowhere near close enough. Like, to me, if you're taking that goal off the board, there has to be absolute, conclusive, lock, solid evidence. and that with the way that with the pictures we were seeing, there was no way they could overturn that. It was a Hail Mary, which I understood. Right. But it was tight. Yeah. So for all those reasons, I did get it. So Canada escapes. McDavid, two more assists. McKinnon with the goal. And yet it's Macklin Celebrini not only leads the forwards among Canada and ice time in this game. All players He played a little bit more than Kale Makar In this game Let me ask you a question If Sid comes back On Sunday How do you take Celebrini off the first power play I don't know Like he dug He dug up two of the pucks To keep that winning power play Alive Sorry Sid Welcome back you're on PP2 Yeah. Well, does Reinhardt become the guy you bump? Well, he scored. I know. I know. Crosby scored this tournament too. Don't bring logic and facts into this conversation. No. Seriously, how do you take Celebrini off the number one power play? His wall play is so impressive. Like just the ability to make plays where there's no room. to know where he's sending it next. I can see why the best guys want to play with him. It's been impressive. Kyle, did you see Doughty talk about Celebrini in the postgame? Yes. I mean, he has a few times. Actually, after the semi, I may have missed it. Okay, so I'm just reading these quotes. I don't know who he was talking to, but they put these quotes out, which are so helpful. and he was asked about Celebrini replacing him as Canada's youngest hockey player at Olympic Games for the men. His answer was, and I could just totally see Doughty's face as he says this, I did not play as good as him. I am pretty positive about that. Yes. Doughty was pretty good. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And you know what's kind of cool? Like they were seatmates on the flight over here to Italy and Doughty said he just talked his ear off. He goes, I didn't even let him be quiet. He goes, I just kept asking him questions. And so it's neat that that was kind of how the trip started. 19-year-old Celebrini against the guy that was once the 20-year-old defenseman for Canada en route to an Olympic gold. That's great. And yeah, and I'm betting that unlike Doughty, Celebrini will not be close to late for the gold medal game. He doesn't seem to be wired that way. No, no. But it was an honest mistake for Doughty back then. Not like he slept in or anything. Okay, we'll go with that. Yeah, yeah. Okay, the Crosby thing, Elliot. Oh, by the way, before we get to the Crosby thing, someone also said to me on that goaltender second goal, Saros should have stayed down. And I'm like, come on. Like, of course he's going to try to get up. He goes, I know, I know. Of course he's going to try to get up. He's not going to. There's no way Saros is going to do that. Don't start that precedent. Yeah. But he says if Saros stays down or is slower to get up, maybe it's a more obvious challenge and an overturn. Right. But I don't blame him. I'm like, I would do the exact same thing he did. You're down, you get up. And Saros played great. He really played a great game. Yeah. And I saw his line afterwards of, well, he fell on me and I couldn't get up. And it's like, well, obviously you could get up. But I was of the belief that that still impacted his ability to make the save. I don't think he was fully reset. I'm with you. I'm completely with you. Also, did you have a problem with the penalty call on McKinnon? No because here my question Did the stick get him Yes And they been calling that all Olympics So one thing if it came up four inches short of his face and he snapping his head back you're going, ah, that's bad karma. But it got him. You know, it's interesting because I don't like head snaps. And I said that to somebody. And I think it was BX, actually. And he goes, Elliot, if the stick comes at your face, you're going to snap your head back. Yeah. He said, how would you feel if someone swung a stick at your face? And I said, depends on who's swinging it. Well, there was one of the Olympic workers. If it's Berkeley, I'm okay because he's eight months old. I think I can handle that. You know, if it's BX, I'm a little more concerned. Those are very far ends of the spectrum. An eight-month-old and one of the toughest guys to play the game. Well, I should have then known that we were going to have this conversation because one of the Olympic volunteers that was on the shuttle back to our hotel here from the rink, he had a broken stick souvenir with him. I should have asked to borrow it for a hot minute and tried to give you a whack. And whack me in the face? Yeah. From Rube Hintz, apparently. Yes, it's a rupee hint stick that snapped about, I don't know, a foot and a half up from the blade. I don't know if that guy has a young kid or something. Saw it off clean. Fire a blade in there. Do they still sell blades nowadays? I'm sure you could find one. I'm sure you could find one. An old Easton ultralight blade. Sack a curve and away you go. Good as new. Talking about penalties, Kyle. It's interesting to me that two of the penalties that were called in this game, Canada, Finland, one was too many men, so you know they're on it. And the other was Sam Bennett's goalie interference. Cechia complained about McKinnon. I don't know if he butt-ended Dostal or what he did to him late in the third period of that game. It made me wonder if, I mean, it could be because His NHL referees have seen Bennett and they know what he does. But the fact that that penalty got called too, it also made me wonder if because the Czechs were mad about that non-call, that that was something else that they were focusing on. Okay, Crosby. Amazing as everybody's trying to figure out, is he going to play? They closed their morning skate. You couldn't even get in to shoot visuals. So clearly he went out to try to skate. But even Tom Wilson after the game going, they're on their way to the rink and asking people, well, is Sid playing? Like, what's the deal? They were left in the dark until right up until the last minute. So what all did you hear about the effort that was made to at least try to get the captain into the lineup here? I heard that all the stops were pulled out, all of them. Team Canada did everything in its power. Crosby did everything in his power. And the other thing, too, and someone did say this to me on Saturday, there are a lot of people who don't necessarily work for the federations, but work with players who are here in Milan to work on players. Like, so for example, like I think some teams who have a lot of NHLers here sent some people over saying, hey, if any of our guys on the different countries need something, they'll be here. I'm not going to say who it was, but Kevin and I ran into an individual at the Duomo a couple days ago on our one-off day who is someone that Kevin knows who treats NHL players. And it's on different teams in this tournament and different teams in the league, but he was brought here by his guys just in case they needed him. Now, I don't know exactly who Crosby may or may not have here, but it was hinted to me that it wasn't only Team Canada who did everything that he wanted. But also that he just had people around who could really help him. We weren't allowed to see him skate. you know it was funny like we were debating like do we climb the tent do we try to sneak in like under a wall and it's like no you're not going to do that anyway you probably couldn't anyway like that's the facility that you could try to sneak through we're joking about it like anyway so I don't know what he looked like skating all somebody would tell me was it was reasonably close like Some of the Canadian players were saying on their way to the rink, they didn't know if he was playing or not. And there were a couple who said they only found out like right before game time. I think the news broke about 320 local and the lineup had to be in by 340. So it was about that time, right? Like, I don't think the players knew. Well, I'm sure some did, but not all of them knew. So, you know, like I said, I heard it was reasonably close. And John Cooper's line is he's got more of a percentage chance of playing Sunday than he did today. You know, one of the things I did here was that they were looking at either trying to acquire a brace or create a custom brace for him or put together one that would allow him to play. You know, Kevin, I was talking to Kevin about that, and he says, you know, sometimes it's hard to get those made quickly. And I said for Sidney Crosby at the Olympics, especially at the last two games of the entire tournament, there's going to be somebody who's going to be very happy to make that brace for him. Because especially if it goes well, you are going to become the brace of the brace for all athletes. Like it's going to get around, right? So, you know, I mean, you know, we'll see. But like I said, I heard it was reasonably close that he played. So we'll see what that means for Sunday. I mean, I hope it happens. One, because, you know, hey, I'm pro Canada. Two, you know, I think it would make for a better game. And three, you know, Crosby deserves it. You know, for everything great he's done, and this is probably even reason number one, for everything great he's done for the game, he deserves to play. and that's the way I feel. And it was neat after the game so Canada still has to have somebody wear the C and Connor McDavid not surprisingly gets the nod with Crosby not able to go and McDavid's line afterwards about wearing it goes I hope I'm just keeping the seat warm that's all just keeping the seat warm for Crosby so optimism within that 87 gets into the gold medal game. But I really like that line from him afterwards, especially when you consider the lineage of Crosby's career that impacted McDavid and now what he's gone on to do. It was really nice. It was really nice. Yeah. I have to say, I give the Canadian team a lot of credit. They had a lot of excuses the last two games to be upset. after the way they steamrolled through the group stage, there were a lot of reasons they could have lost, both to Czechia and Finland, and they found ways to win. They showed big guts and big hearts, and oftentimes that's kind of why Canada tends to win. and I've been really impressed by the way they've pulled together. And so it sets up a rematch of Vancouver 2010, a rematch of Salt Lake 2002, Canada and the U.S. So if we're looking back to one year ago at Four Nations Elliott, okay, what's different about each team? Yep. The emergence of Celebrini, no question for Canada. For the U.S., it's a healthy Quinn Hughes as one thing, but also, too, the emergence of Jack, who has struggled to find his way last year at that event. It's been a different case. The two Hughes brothers have been, their fingerprints have been all over the Americans' journey to the gold medal contest. Yes. I actually think that their two best players have been Hughes and Wawransky, and that's Quinn. Like they really control the game when they're out there. And that's one thing that Canada is going to have to neutralize is not letting Quinn Hughes dictate everything that happens when he's on the ice and not let Zach Wierenski dictate everything that happens when he's on the ice. I find that those are the two most important U.S. players. You're right. Jack, that's a great omen for them. Like Dylan Larkin, I've loved him at the last two tournaments. I think he's been spectacular and he continues to be really good here. Remember, the other thing too is Jack was really struggling going into that final in the Four Nations. And that's something else that's going to be 180 degrees different than a year ago. He's going to go in feeling really good about himself. You know, there was Tage Thompson. he left the game did not play the third period they called it precautionary and he Mike Sullivan said that he anticipates he'll be okay to play on Sunday I mean that would be huge because first of all he scored and secondly it was a heck of a shot like there was not a lot of room there and he scored and also like they set up their power play for him right as a right hand shot over there they don't have a lot of righties so not only what he does just as like a physical tough guy to take off the puck but if you lose that shot it really affects your power play by the way it was really nice thing that the capitals and the hershey bears did uh freeing up his dad brent to go to be here brent's an assistant coach with the bears and freeing him up to be here for the weekend. That was really well done. PJ Stock played with Brent Thompson and always said great things about him. So I'm happy that Brent Thompson gets to do that. But Thompson's injury situation is a big deal. You know, Kyle, the guy who I look at and say he's finally going to score, and I'm concerned for Canada that it's going to be a really big goal, Austin Matthews is due. He is having unbelievable chances. And the saves were getting even more and more ridiculous. Like, he had a great chance in overtime against Sweden that Markstrom stopped. He took a really good shot, too, before Quinn Hughes scored. But he had three or four dynamite chances. that he just couldn't cash in. So as a Canadian, I'm really nervous. Like, he's due. He's really due. And I'm just worried that when he finally breaks out, it's going to be big and it's going to be bad for Canada. Yeah, I mean, he's got three goals in the tournament. I know it was different in the preliminary round. But I'm talking about like the big, like the, like remember last year in the Four Nations final, he was robbed by Bennington. So, like, he's due in a big game. Yes, no question. And it seemed like he's another guy that's kind of been building his game towards a gold medal clash and just a matter of, all right, are the shots going to fall for you? I also wondered, too, in looking at this matchup, Elliot, so there was the game against Germany where the Kachuks decided, Leon, we're coming after you all night, Matthew in particular. Yes, I'm glad you brought this up. Right off the opening face-off against Tulfakiya, there was Matthew right up against Uri Slafkovsky, letting him know it was not going to be an easy night for him, their most important player. So who's the guy that the Kachuks target? Who does Mike Sullivan sent them out against shift after shift here in this gold medal game? Now, Canada will have the last change as the number one seed, but what do you see, what do you envision, unfolding as the Kachuks try to make their mark in more ways than one Sunday. Eichel loves to play against McDavid, right? Mm-hmm. Do you put the Kachuks and Eichel against McDavid's line? I mean, it would be great entertainment. Like, yes. The Craig Simpson line, he loves it when coaches go, our best against your best. See what happens. Please. Or does John Cooper go with that mayhem line where he puts Wilson with Bennett and he says, we'll do that. Right. Against the Kachuks. Man, oh man. I think they're going to see a lot of each other both ways. By the way, for all the heats the referees are getting, Getting Chernak and Matthew Kachuk out of the games They didn't do anything that cost them Their medals That was their medal games Because you could tell Chernak Chernak really He was ready to go And he wanted to go And when the referees got in there Kachuk threw a punch And I was like that's a bad idea Because this guy is not going to stop To kill you now yes not calling him a bridesmaid oh chernak is i i love the guy and he's he's the the nicest guy off off the ice who's the meanest guy on the ice and he he was out for blood there he was he was not going to stop but the thing is i look at it this way kyle If McDavid's back with Wilson, to me, John Cooper goes for that. Right. Every game this tournament, that's how it started, and it's not how it's finished. Yes. So you've got to anticipate the gold medal game being somewhat similar. And so maybe that's the matchup early on, and then if the switch is made, McKinnon's back up. the Mick and the two Macs. You know, it's interesting. If I was John Cooper, I would start Wilson with McDavid against the Kachucks. Like if the Kachuck, if, if Mike Sullivan puts the Kachucks out with Eichel to start the game, I would go McDavid, Wilson, Celebrini. Just see what happens. You're giving Tom Wilson a chance to start the game. It gets him into the game early. Yes. And that's what they did against Finland, right? It's like Tom Wilson's in the cage, a wild animal in the cage, and you're throwing him raw meat and opening up the door. Yes, right. And I think that was a huge key, I think, on Friday, is that he got involved early on, and then the switch was made. And that line felt important. And they just continued to roll. Like those guys, first off, like credit to, you know, I think we're all wondering, okay, how close or how far away from 100% is Brad Marchand? I thought that was by far his best game. He was fantastic. He really rose to the occasion. He really did. So if that's a sign for them going forward, they can, can he do that one more time here with the gold medal on the line? that's a really good good bit of news for Canada as well One other thing about Marchand Kyle is that so we had Gretzky on in the pregame and he was fantastic he had a lot of great answers to questions really enjoyed talking to him and he we asked him about in 91 in the Canada Cup it was a best 2 out of 3 final Canada versus the USA and in the first game Gretzky took a big nasty hit from Gary Suter and got knocked out. And so they had to play game two without him. And Canada did win two in a row and won the Canada Cup. But they had to play game two without him. And we asked him about that. And, you know, he said that they had a lot of great players, which Canada did here, and they found a way to win the semifinal. But one thing he talked about was who is the person you look to when things go badly. And you could see Marchand was trying to be that guy He was trying to be the guy going up and down the bench and leading and being positive But one of the players told me you know who was really good in the quarterfinal to Czechia when they were down late was Cooper. They said that Cooper was relentlessly positive on the bench. Keep going, keep going. It's coming, it's coming. We're right there. And they scored. And so obviously Suzuki with that big goal. And that stuck out to me because Crosby is definitely the guy a lot of them look to. And I think it says a lot about Cooper's feel that he was being that guy and being that guy. gotta say Elliot I regardless you know if Crosby's in the lineup if he's not as I've said dating back to last year I will not bet against a Crosby-led Canadian side I don't know I'm not a betting guy I haven't looked at what the lines are I mean this has got to be as close to a pick'em as oh as you could ask for the U.S. has been so good they they play a system they're committed to the system. Everybody goes up and down the ice. Everybody checks. Everybody plays defense. They have been as committed to the style that they want to play as any team has been in this tournament, more so. The one thing is there are a few former NHL players who were talking. The one reason all of them, and this is my thing too, the reason that they were all so hesitant definitively picked the U.S. is because Canada always seems to find a way. And in these big games, 0-2, 2010, Canada has always found a way. And this U.S. team, I think they are really good, really good. I think they're even better than the Four Nations team was last year. Again, they've got a breakthrough. And, you know, the Canada this tournament is like Freddy Krueger. You think they're dead and they come back to life. They're going to have to drive the stake through them. They've had the opportunities to do it. Four nations last year. They've never been able to do it. They just can't put enough garlic on Dracula. That's what they've got to do. A couple other things I wanted to mention here. I thought it was interesting that John Cooper in the postgame talked about giving Finland two freebies, a face-off and a shorthanded goal. Said we can't do that. Canada and face-offs in this tournament, it's been a real problem. As a matter of fact, on the one that led to the Rantanen goal, they had a left shot on the right side. Denny Gauthier, who's working the tournament for Radio Canada, he's the guy who noticed it. He's like, left-hand shot, right-hand side, trouble. So that's one thing. I noticed that Cooper pointed that out, get rid of the freebies, and he's right. I also think that right now the teams protect the middle of the ice in their D zone so well, if you overpass, teams have to stop overpassing. If you're in close, you've got to shoot it or shoot to rebounds. I just think all these teams are too good unless it's the power play or a six on five you're having a hard time getting passes through those are a couple of things I really noticed I think this U.S. team is great I think this is going to be an excellent game but like I said I think for the U.S. to win they have to find a way to slay the dragon Brady Kachuk said it's the biggest game of their lives. Dylan Larkin called it a date with destiny. We heard all from the Canadian side about this is what they came here to do, a chance to play for a gold medal. It wasn't a guarantee going in that Canada would face the U.S. at any point in this tournament to say nothing of playing in the final one. But man, it is the matchup that we all secretly kind of were hoping for. And what a treat that was on Sunday for all the marbles. Yeah. Olympic gold medal. Kyle, this is why we do this job. Yeah. This is why we do this job to get these games. So Slovakia, Finland for the bronze. I know that Lavi was upset that Vladimir Orsag pulled him, but I understood why. They're going to need him for that game. Slakowski said in the mix zone after they beat Germany he said I just want a medal so I think the Slovaks as disappointed and blown out as they got they will be better you know Finland I think that they were really disappointed really disappointed but historically you know they've been in this position a few times before they always play if they end up in a bronze medal position they always play like that is meaningful to them. So I do think we're going to see two. Sometimes, like, remember Canada in 98, they're like bronze. They just folded and finished fourth. I don't think either of these two teams is going to mail in the bronze medal game. Not at all. No. That goes Saturday night here, Milan time, just after 8.30 p.m. And yeah, to your point about Finland, I think four of the last five Olympics with NHL participation, they have gotten a medal. Obviously, the silver in 2006, in Torino, and three other bronze. So they do have a habit of making those games matter. And you know Slovakia will be motivated too. Okay, you want to talk about the women's final? Yeah, because you worked the women's final. I went to Hockey Canada's Ice Palazzo there, and I watched it there. There were a number of people there. Yeah, how was that? It looked fantastic. It was awesome. It was awesome. It was a good night. It was a lot of fun. And we had a great time. And we had a great time. Unfortunately, I didn't like the result, but you worked. So fill us in. Like, what did you think? Yeah. So, yeah, I came just to kind of help where I could with some interviews. I did one in the intermission and then post-game in the mix zone. Claire Hanna was obviously at the panel with Cassie Campbell-Pascal and Haley Salvian. So she had to stay there. Otherwise, she's been doing all the interviews around the women's tournament over the course of the last two weeks here. so to be honest like I I sat up by the panel position which is a great vantage point of the ice um and I just let like I'm going all right let the emotions take over here and let's just feel what we're seeing here in front of me and it was it was incredible Elliot it really was uh the crowd of course was tremendous um it it it was like eight-year-old me wouldn't believe like I'm working on the same crew as Cassie Campbell, Pascal and Cheryl Pounder. Like I vividly remember their gold medal game in Salt Lake. Yeah. Oh yeah. Attached to that. So like just to be sharing the same broadcast with two of them along with the rest of the crew was like, wow, this is, how did we get here? And it was, you know, I've never seen a Canada-U.S. clash on the women's side where there was such little legit optimism of Canada winning that game. Like, you know, the U.S. have had some really powerful teams over the years, there's no doubt. But this was a different territory. so for all the talk going in about they picked a team that's too old they're too slow the postponed first game the pull and injury like we talked about the men's team having reasons to to be upset here through this medal round they had every reason to say this is just not our tournament and and they refused to let it be that way so it was you know kristin o'neill what a what a display on the shorthanded goal. But I have to say, Elliot, I remember a few times over the years, you know, after the CWHL folded and all the uncertainty on where women's hockey was going on the professional side and some of those press conferences sitting there with Poulin, with Rebecca Johnson at the time, with a Kendall Coyne and with Hillary Knight. and them willing to stick it out to sacrifice what were prime years of their careers to find a solution for the health of the women's game going forward. It's always stuck with me. And to go from there and to know it was Hillary Knight's final Olympics, final time wearing her country sweater in a big moment like that and to score the goal that tied it late in the third period, you thought, of course, of course she was going to have some say here. So you were heartbroken for the Canadian woman with how that game ended. And I have to say, Ali, they're all so wonderfully professional, even in a moment like that. I did feel kind of sheepish doing those interviews. I know you've got a job to do. Yeah, I've been there. Trying to ask questions. But I also understood for me, like I'm going the first time they're seeing me on the other side of that mix zone fencing. And it's in a moment like that, I'm going, holy smokes. Like, anyway, it's just a it's it's. Why am I going to talk to this guy? Right, right. Like now this guy shows up. I don't know who this guy is. And now he's interviewing me after we just lost the gold in overtime. I thought it was a brilliant Claire Hanna strategy. She shows up in the good times and you show up in the bad ones. Brilliant strategy by Claire. I should have known. But anyway, and then in the aftermath of all that, Elliot, I'll just say one final thing. Someone made the point that, you know, as tough of a loss as it is for Canada, they said, you know, this may be the fact the U.S. won. It may be a better thing for the PWHL going forward. I mean, of course, there's there's untapped potential everywhere you look because that league is still so relatively new. But they just made the point that particularly in the U.S., there's still so much room for growth. And so the ripple effect of a moment like that with Megan Keller, a brilliant move in overtime and how many young girls or just hockey fans in general are inspired by that and where that all take things in terms of the interest in the growth of that league. there's a lot of opportunity to that to be a real seminal moment. And so hopefully when we look back, however many years later, you can say, yeah, what a great thing that that happened and look at all the positives that came from it. You know, a few things. First of all, well said. And I like to hear, you know, I did some women's hockey sideline reporting. I actually called one game. Bruce Rainey at the 2006 Olympics, he got sick during a game and CBC wanted to broadcast it. It was Finland in the U.S. So I did a couple periods. But similar, I did sideline the job you did a couple of times in a pinch at the Olympics. You know, watching that game, when the TV timeout came with like three minutes left, I was like oh that's bad that's not good for Canada because it was too late it allowed them there's a team week timeout it's obviously under the 6 minute mark and you know if it gets I think in North America if it gets to under 2 minutes you can't take it because they think it's just too much of an advantage and too much of a timeout for someone that might need it. So this is usually as close as we ever get to a six-minute break getting taken late in the game. And I remember seeing it, and I was like, oh, that's really going to hurt Canada. It's going to give the U.S. 90 seconds to give all their best players a breather. Like a timeout's what, 30 seconds? It's nothing. 90 seconds, it's a real breather. It slows down the game. like I thought that was hugely advantageous for the U.S. to get it there and I was like oh I don't like that you know look the U.S. dominated them they dominated them in the game in the Olympics but it was like 2002 when the Canadians lost eight times in a row you just have to be ready to play the one game at the one time right and the Canadian women did that you know they top to bottom they were not a better team. And even in that game, they had to play a lot of defense. And unfortunately, it's just the way it was. That was the only way they were going to win that game. And their coaching staff knew it and the players knew it. And to their credit, they committed to it and they almost pulled it off. You know, the other thing too is they gave up the heartbreaking goal at the end of regulation, but they had their chances in overtime. It's not like they folded and came out. And that's probably the toughest thing, the two on O that they really didn't get a good chance on. There'll be people who think about that for a long time. I mean, unfortunately, that's life in the big city. Like I always tell my son, whether you do well or you do bad, you can't cheat the guy in the mirror. Did you give the best effort you could? Did you go all out? And they did, and they lost. It's tough. The U S women deserved it. They, they like, this was the time where the Canadian women really, really pushed them harder than they had at any point recently. And you know what? They took it and they won. They deserve it. No excuses. Um, it was tough. It's always tough to watch the losing team after a game like that. They just looked awful. Um, you know, Hillary Knight, um, I was, I was happy for her too. Um, I think I've told this story before. but I first met, like, I don't know her that well, but I first met her at the outdoor game where they named a Canadian Olympic team. I think it's the first one that she ever played for. And I was sitting at the back of the media room and she was in the media room and I was writing on something on my laptop and she leaned over my shoulder and she goes, interesting stuff. Like she just looked at my laptop and she didn't, I don't even think she read it. I think she just wanted to do it to like, I remember I, I, I mentioned someone to that. I mentioned that to someone and they kind of laughed on the U.S. They go, Oh, she's Hillary's confident. Like they love that she did that too. And so, you know, I've, I've chatted with her briefly over the years and obviously she got engaged while she was here and she's coming to the end of her career. So I, I, I was, I was, I was really happy for her personally. You know, I felt bad for the Canadians, but, you know, they were definitely the underdogs and they absolutely played the best game they could have. You know, I've heard a lot of the debate, Kyle, and I'm no expert on women's hockey. You know, it's the thing, though, that, you know, people said they should have gone younger, they should have gone younger, and maybe they should have. I just don't know. But I think the thing that concerned me the most as just a viewer is that when Poulin was out, they really struggled. And I don't know what her plans are, but like, you know, hey, the man, Crosby gets hurt, they find a way. They felt they had to play Poulin in that game against Germany because they just felt they had to because of how much they struggled without her. And I think that's the thing that I look at is for the Canadian players, if this is it for her, how do you build your post-Poulin identity? Because right now they don't have it. So how are you going to build it? That to me is even bigger than the question of age on the team. When she was out, there weren't obvious players that you looked at and said, oh, they got this. So that's what you have to build. You know, I did want to say something else. I didn't realize this, but I know somebody who knows the U.S. coach really well. And, you know, he's been through some battles. So, and this person wrote to me and said, like, I was, I was really happy for him because he's been through some things professionally. And he said he was really happy for him. And so this is a person who I really trust and really like. So, you know, like, so for him, it was even more than, you know, the U.S. beating Canada. He just wanted to see John have some success there. Man for so many years so many years Knight and Poulain have been the faces on the marquee not only for Canada but just women hockey period So it not sure if we all ready for whatever comes next by way of who's at the forefront of it all. So all the best to Hilary Knight, to your point, Elliot. Great personality, great for the game, and just a hell of a player. Not many get to say they went out on top on a stage like the Olympics, and she earned the right to do that. Can I close up with one thing? Please do. Okay, so I got an Instagram DM. I'm not going to say the name of the person, but I'm going to read the message. Because I know what it's like to be that guy one day. The internet, I'm that guy on the internet for a day. I've been there. I know what it's like. And when I got this message, it struck a chord. Mr. Friedman, can you please shout out Claire Thompson on the pod? I want her to get some love, and she definitely deserves it. She was on the ice when Megan Keller scored the overtime winner for Team USA, and I've seen the picture of her down on the ice everywhere online, as well as some hateful messages directed towards her on social media. What people need to know is that Claire is a five-star human and a five-star hockey player. She plays for Vancouver in the PWHL and is also in medical school at NYU studying to be a doctor. She previously played college hockey for Princeton and was a big part of the 2022 Canada women's team that won gold in Beijing, where she set the Olympic ice hockey record for points by a defenseman. Wanted to shut her out on the pod. As incredibly tough as last night probably was for her and the rest of her team, she is someone that I think people should be looking up to, not down on. So I wanted to read that. And Claire just wanted to say, as someone who has been that guy on the Internet once or twice before and probably will be again, the world moves on. It seems like the end of the Earth. The world moves on. Pretty soon, nobody's going to remember. beautiful thanks for getting that in elliot all right with that time now for the final thought presented by the toyota bz go all electric in a winter ready toyota bz at your local dealer today elliot who do you want to shout out who have you had the pleasure of meeting or interacting with the last few days yeah i got a few thanks kyle um robbie whiten was it uh the hockey can ice palazzo he was in charge of the music great music choices robbie excellent aaron logan he does silver sticks for the nhl ran into him yes paul la police the football coach he was there because i forgot flag football is at the 2020 Olympics in LA. So he's kind of getting a tour of how the Olympics work. Oh yeah. Really? And I, the winter Olympics. Okay. Yes. Cause I, you just get an idea of how like processes work. It's actually very smart. And, you know, I dealt with Paul when I used to do the CFL. Great guy. He came up and said hi to me. Um, uh, it was great to see him. I hadn't seen him in a, in a long time. So it was great to see Paul. Podcast listeners. Simon from Switzerland Two of my High school friends Andrew Rothblatt with his son Darren Brandon Grumont with his son Dylan Bieksa walked up While I was talking to him I said I went to high school With these guys Kyle like Why did I say that like just Why did I say that the things He started asking talk about Forced error oh my god He started asking questions oh my god Was Elliot really good With women oh my god That's almost exactly the reverse. Thanks, Kevin. Yeah, it's the routine ground ball to you at second base, and you just airmail the throw into the third row over the dugout. Third row, I almost put it in the second deck. Just terrible. Sandy and Amber, a really nice couple from Lucknow, Ontario. Sandy is a helicopter pilot, and Amber is a nurse. They work in Abu Dhabi. Nice people. Melody from Montreal, big Habs fan. uh karen and her friend sharon uh karen is an oilers fan but there's a family problem her son works at the saddle dome and has begun to love the flames uh but uh really nice people saw mike keenan there uh igor larianov there um there's uh solomon from canada but he now works for the olympic broadcaster uh katie and zoe from the uk mate and michael from poland uh i was told about a guy named dave from perth who's a big podcast fan i don't think he's at the olympics but he's from perth australia i wanted to shout him out oh yeah stefan matthias and leonard from germany matthias and leonard said stefan is the biggest elliott friedman fan in germany so gotta shout him out for sure. Andrew and Matt from Burlington and Newmarket, who now live and work in London in the UK. Chiara from Italy. There was a guy sitting next to our set in an Arizona Coyotes jersey, Rocco from Arizona. So I saw him there. I also met tonight briefly. He took a picture of me with about 10 Canadians, and then he introduced himself, Stoyan Batchvarov, who is the executive director of the Bulgarian Ice Hockey Federation. He gave me a Bulgarian pin, yes, and he said he played for a long time. And I looked up his stats on elite prospects. Stoyan, you had some great numbers for Bulgaria at the World Championships. He had one tournament. He had 13 points in five games. He's pretty much a point-of-game player. Another one, he had 10 points in five games. he's pretty much a point-of-game player at the world championships in some Olympic qualifying tournaments. Long career, Stoyan. It was great to meet you. And finally, I wanted to shout out. So when I was at Western, there was a guy who played football there. His name was Mike Williams. And Mike later, when I worked at the score and we did Canadian University football, he was the offensive coordinator at York University. And we did this game. York, it was the first time they ever won, I think, a university playoff game. If it wasn't their first ever, it was their first in like 30 years. And he was the offensive coordinator. Great guy. And his son, Jordan, was there. And it was like Mike, I didn't recognize him at first, but, you know, he said hello. And then he says, you know, Mike Williams, we went to West. I said, oh, my God, Mike, I'm sorry I didn't recognize you right away. But I remembered him playing football. I remembered him as the offense co-coordinator and us doing the game. It was great to see him, like really good guy. So those are all the people I wanted to shout out. That's a good list. Okay, I just got one I wanted to add to that. Okay. So you remember you and I were on the bus back to the hotel the other day, and you asked me a question. he said how far away is bologna from here i looked up i said i was just over a two-hour drive anyway i'm at the game friday night and got to meet livio from bologna he was wearing a beautiful like old school eagle era washington capitals alex ovechkin jersey they went from his first few years in the league. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And anyway, he's a big fan of the pod, listens all the time, he says. He goes, he didn't get into hockey until after watching the Sochi Olympics. That was his first memory of watching the sport and becoming a fan, but he has been ever since and listens to this show often. So thank you for listening, Livio. It was great to meet him. So the woman I met from Italy tonight, Chiara, she said that she's the biggest 32 Thoughts podcast fan in Italy. So Livio and Chiara, I'm going to go with Chiara because I met her. I'm sure you're going to go with Livio because you met him. All right. Well, we will proclaim you the king and queen of the Italian 32 Thoughts podcast fan club. Wow. Nice. Nice, nice, nice. The Italian division. The Italian division. Wow. That's great. Still blows me away. All the run-ins here. Me too. It's been really good. Okay. That was the final thought presented by the Toyota BZ. We'll take a break and wrap up another Olympic abbreviated edition of 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Okay, welcome back. Before we go, Dom, you have told us you have a question. So what is it? Am I going to regret letting you speak again? No. This is like... Regret me speaking? Never. like Elliot telling Kevin that he's chatting with his high school buddies no this is a little abbreviated thought line I am curious because heading into the Olympics the biggest story was Santa Julia the arena and it being finished so now that we see the finish line in sight what were your expectations heading into the tournament and what was your reality so my hope was that the fan experience, the athlete experience would be serviceable. We knew it wasn't going to be perfect. Just be serviceable. I think anyone watching on TV, you would never have known. The field of play looks good. I think the ice conditions have gotten better as the tournament's gone on. They've made do with the setup with the dressing rooms over on the other side by the practice rink. But I gotta tell you, everything back of house, like it is, it's comical at some, some areas. Like just the unfinished paint jobs on the walls. You got wires sticking out of places, uh, door frames that were never mounted. You've got, I think there's one room we walked through during this back way that we kind of couldn't come through from, uh, where the CBC office is. There's a parking garage right across from the rink. So like our little temporary, it's called the cabin where a lot of our technical supplies are and and some of our crew is stationed out there and you can do a walk kind of through the parking garage over into the rink and one of the rooms we walk through on that walk there's like wrapped up uh like kitchen equipment i don't know if that was supposed to be that room a cooking area for like media dining i i'm not sure if that was at one point a plan and then that's the best like you walk through that room and there's like dishwasher yeah like a big big commercial stove you're like oh and like it looks you know a big ventilation system like were they planning to have like a pizza oven here i don't know um it's yeah like and it's kind of ironic that you know for for us as we were getting going there that the biggest question and issue you come all the way to italy and you had concerns about having food because that was between games understandably you know they closed down the concession so they can kind of reset themselves So we're obviously working during the game. We don't really have time to go line up and get a hot dog or something. So after the game's done, when you want to go get a bite, there's not a ton of options. So like that was a work in progress early on when I first got there. It got sorted. So, you know, just little things like that where you just, all right, you make do and you find out, you know, an alternate arrangement. But I would say like there's from when I first got there, it was like, OK, this is an issue. This is an issue. This is an issue. This is an issue. And give them credit. They work to rectify those as the days went on to try to find solutions, even if they're only temporary, to try to make the most of a situation that was very obviously working up to the final days and into the tournament to finish what they could. I see it similarly. Bottom line is one of the things I heard about Team Canada, Dom, is that they talked about with their leadership group and then to everybody, no excuses here. Whatever issues we may have with the rink or traffic or our living conditions or anything like that, we are not letting that affect us. and I have to say like if you as Kyle talked about underneath and around the arena okay you see some things but when you're in the bowl you would never know that there were any issues yeah like have you noticed a lot of ice problems not really no like it and that's the thing that they were really concerned about really concerned about like I just felt when we got here the players would make it work and and they have and the bowl is actually it's pretty cheery like it's like some arenas you walk into and they're dull and they have a dull atmosphere this is not like that it's it's held up really well yeah and i'll just say too quickly dom the uh so the practice rink it lets they have a little mix zone set up by the ice surface there so it's tight like especially for you know i have a team canada team usa practice team sweden like there's a lot of the swedish media there um you know i'll get a bunch of media in there there's not a lot of room and the practice strength there's no there's no netting around the glass on either end uh so there there was more than a few times where guys are working on one-timers at the end of practice and shot clanks off the crossbar of the net or it just wraps around the glass perfectly and it comes right into where we are and you need to have a head on a swivel. Thankfully, to my understanding, at least from when I was there, nobody got hit or there was any issue, but there's nothing protecting you. You're just standing there. And sometimes, because players will come off and you're doing interviews and there's still guys working on their shots and stuff going on. So you kind of have to have one eye on your interview and the other one elsewhere. Yeah, it's a unique setup, but it's all worked. Good question, Dom. We don't regret that at all, letting you do that. Thanks for asking, Dom. Okay, Fridge. How dare they? How dare they? A gold medal game at 8 a.m. Eastern time. Come on. Oh, no, I know. Do people not understand time zones? Do they not understand time zones? Do they not understand how an Olympics works with the closing ceremonies? Like I said, if you worry about waking up, don't go to bed. So did you see, Kyle, that the province of Ontario announced that they're going to open the bars or allow alcohol served at 6 a.m.? Yes, it was like they couldn't get that out fast enough. So one of my buddies texted me. He said, Elliot, this is another thing you have to look forward to. I said, oh, yeah? What's that? He says, there are people who are going to have five beers by puck drop. You know what that means? I said, no. What does that mean? He said, to most people, you will never look as good at eight in the morning as you will on Sunday. Yeah. Yes. Especially when you have our poor makeup team. running all over the arena to touch you up. My goodness. Sunday morning, the beer goggles will benefit me. There was a great advertisement when I lived in Calgary the first time around going to school. There was a bar back then called Roadhouse. Yep. And on their ads, on their billboards, it said, beauty is in the eye of the beer holder. That's very good. And also, I do want to say... I did love my face on the Ben Affleck meme. Oh, yeah. Because this is the only time in my life I will ever be compared to Ben Affleck. Thank you, Danielle Michaud. And even if it's not the Ben Affleck moment I think a lot of us would want to have, it's still Ben Affleck. Well done. And you've overcome all odds. Those were long odds. I would say longer than Italy winning the Olympic gold in men's hockey. Really long odds. Yes. 8 a.m. Eastern, 5 a.m. Pacific, Canada, USA. Gold medal on Sunday. We will talk to you after the medals are handed out here in Milan. A laag smartwatch.