Dylan Cozens vs Shane Pinto, Is Mason McTavish Available? And Praising The Old Guys

Dylan Cozens vs Shane Pinto, Is Mason McTavish Available? And Praising The Old Guys

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Sens Nation podcast. It is Steve Warren along with the coach Greg Kennedy. We appreciate you being here today. Over my uh shoulder here right now, Greg, is what I like to call the Sens fan. Oh gosh. Uh it’s very hot up in my studio here today at the top floor of my home here in lovely downtown Manit. Greg, how are you today? Good, Stephen. Very good. back from my from my weekend in Montreal. Very exciting stuff. Team Lebanon makes it to the final. Lost to the darn Greeks. That’s a good team. That Greek team’s very very good. They they they handled us six4 or 74. I don’t even know what the score was. We lost the final. Was disappointing. Now, I want to talk about that one player. We hadn’t planned to talk about this, but that one player we were texting about that was ranked very highly, like in the top 100 in the NHL draft, but he’s very small, but as a 17-year-old kid, he had a 40 goal season in the queue this year. Yes. And he’s playing for you on team Lebanon. Like, you sort of sit there watching him, scratching your head like, how does this guy not get drafted? Like, somebody in the seventh round maybe grab him or something. His name is uh Phipe Veer. He’s 5 foot nine. As a 17 year old last season in the queue, he scored 40 goals uh and was ranked 93rd for the NHL draft and nobody took him. The main knocks against him, he’s 5’9. The second big knock against him is he’s he’s not so strong defensively, Steve. And he’s not exactly a physical guy either. Well, I’d like to think that the things that he does do, he can score goals, man. He could shoot the pucket, dangle, and he’s a pleasure to watch. Even at 17 playing against men this past weekend, he was something to see. I’d like to think though that you could teach that guy how to play defense. Like, let’s let’s take a take a hash take a take a run at this guy and take him in the fifth round or the sixth round or somewhere and uh at least you’ve got him in your system and and work with him and work on his defensive side. I was I was kind of surprised he wasn’t drafted. Yeah, it’s funny how that goes. the uh some guys just fall through the cracks and uh yeah, we’ll we’ll see how that goes and keep an eye on him. One of your players with team Lebanon, the uh the silver medalist. Did you get did you get medals? There were no medals. No medals. Oh, shoot. And they did. They sent the they gave out the trophy before we shook hands. So like the Greeks are all down their end hooting and hollering. They got the trophy. They’re starting to take their turn skating around the ice with it. We’re still just standing there on the blue line waiting to shake hands. So, a little bit of a glitch there in the organization, but uh a good a good tournament all around. Jamaica was there. They’re they’re they’re a pretty good team. And Puerto Rico, they’re they’re a good club, too. So, the four of us wrapped up this little two weekend tournament. And uh the Greeks beat us in the final. Good time had by all and and a good exposure. There was a you know, four or 500 fans in the in the building for each game. And up there, they’re more like soccer fans. They’re singing and and they were waving the flags and uh you know it was uh it was interesting to see how how Lebanese people and how Jamaican people view a hockey game. I wish we had more of that singing and and chanting in in NHL hockey. I was watching uh Liverpool singing their team anthem. You never walk alone. It’s just uh I don’t know. It’s just a different experience and uh that’s that’s just the European influence. They do it a lot over there at sporting events. But let’s move into things. Uh, thank you for our team Lebanon update. She got a sponsor for that. She got a sponsor for that. Um, start this. We’ll start this as summertime as you can see from the Sens fan in the background. And when summer rolls around, speculation begins. The free agent season has come to a close for the most part. There’ll be a few things trickling in here and there, but fans get to talking. The media gets to speculating. One of the names that popped up about a week ago, I don’t know who put it out there was that maybe Eric Carlson sends should take another run at him. I’ve already spent too much time talking about that. But another name that might be out there, another local tie as well. Karps, Mason McTavish, he was mentioned by Jeff Merrick. Um, I think in the terms of maybe an offer sheet scenario because he is an RFA, but uh it’s led to kind of dialogue out there that maybe the Ducks would be willing to part with this kid. What do you think about that notion that McTavish could be out there uh and whether the Sens would or should have an interest in him? Well, the rumblings I heard at first were that uh he may be unhappy. Uh, and the reason they gave for him being unhappy is that all these veteran guys that the Ducks have been signing in the last few weeks really only doing it to to get to the floor. They in San Jose have have been having a tough time getting to the floor. Um, I just I can’t see him being unhappy. He’s a young player on a growing team, developing team. Why wouldn’t he want to be there to to see that through to where it goes? Now, if he is unhappy and he does want out, then yeah, I hey, I’d love to see him play here in Ottawa. He’d be a much better addition than the one season of Alex Debrink or the the one season of uh anybody else they brought in here who couldn’t couldn’t hang on to them in the end. I just think that uh he could definitely help this team. I don’t know what the price would be though. That would be the scary part, I guess. I don’t know what it would cost you to get them. Chicken would probably be the other name you were thinking of there. Um, but yeah, I I think any team would be interested in Mason McTavish. Uh, such a big body presence with skill and uh, yeah, I just I don’t know why he wouldn’t be interested. But having said that, I always look I always like to look at the other side of the coin. What in the world? I don’t care if he’s unhappy or not, but like I I mean that’s that’s a guy that would that Anaheim would immediately turn around and start looking for again. If Jason McTavish retired from hockey today, they would immediately go, “Man, we need a McTavish type. Everybody needs a McTavish type. A big body presence who can score for you.” Um, he took a real big step forward like cracked the 50point plateau I think this past season. And there’s more to come. I think we can agree. remember that he remember the save though I mean of all the offense we talk about this the save at the World Juniors like that was amazing that’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen and then they come back to end up winning that there’s no way there’s no way that puck even even if the hand eye coordination that Mason McTavish possesses he gets 10 more opportunities to pull that puck off the goal line again to save the day for Canada he’s probably not doing it in any of those 10 tries bang on and then the the and the goal was scored like what, like 5 seconds later, then they go right back down the other end and score. Like the timing of it, out of the air on the goal line, uh just it it’ll it’ll be playing on top 10 list for a long time to come. Great play. Do we want to spend any time talking about Carlson? He’s not coming here. Like, come on. He’s not coming here. No, he’s not. No. And it’s a bad idea. Yeah. You know, this this is a team right now that has is basically trying to stop doing Carlsonesque type things. That’s what Travis Green has been charged with to come in here and uh and remove the Carlson tendencies. Um not specifically, you know, learned from Carlson, but you know, that’s the I think the MO for this team right now because I think in a lot of DJ Smith’s tenure here, it was a fun runand gun type team. They loved being together. They loved laughs. They loved uh scoring goals. And now Travis Green is just trying to balance that out. He’s not trying to shut down the offense, but he’s just trying to balance things out. And man, I can’t think of anything that would sabotage that more than inserting Eric Carlson, particularly when you’ve got many Eric Carlson in Thomas Shabbat on this team. Yeah, I think it you know what, Steve, if if he has a good year, like if he doesn’t get dealt before the season starts and he’s having a good year, it might be something to think about at the trade deadline, right? depending on Ottawa’s situation in the standings, depending on their on their situation come playoff time, what kind of health they’re they’re in, uh I I I think it might be something worth looking at at the trade deadline for like a a short-term rental and then try to move him again if it doesn’t work out because he’s still got is it two or three years left. So you you you acquire him, you’re paying him a lot of money for a long time. Now, of course, San Jose is paying some of that salary, and I would assume Pittsburgh would pay some of the salary as well to move now. But if you’re going to acquire him, you’re you’re there’s a lot of risk, a lot more risk than there is guarantee that he’s going to be the player he was even three years ago, let alone five or 10 years ago. Yeah. No, you don’t even think about it unless Pittsburgh retaining a ton of dough there, you know. But even even if he’s rolling in at five, six million a year, it’s still just not right. not right and it’s time to turn the page. Um, so that’s that’s what I have to say about that. The Ford it’s a big deal event is on right now at Jim K. Ford lease a 2025 Escape Active all-wheel drive from 198 bi-weekly at 1.99% APR for 36 months with 2755 down. That’s like $99 weekly plus a $750 bonus for eligible Ford owners. Like we said, it’s a big deal and it’s on now but not for long. Visit Jim K. Ford today for details or online at jimk.com. Jimk. Here in Canada, we don’t just make lights. We craft possibility, connection, and celebration. Built right here by people who care about what they’re creating. At Celebrite, we’re made of all the colors of the RGB rainbow. Each person bringing their own brilliance. Because when we come together, we make something brighter. Celebrate.ca. Proudly made in Canada. Uh Dylan Cousins in the news. Not really. Not really in the news. You put him in the news. I put him in the news. Yeah. A little speculation piece in the hockey news. HN.comawa. And I wondered about Dylan Cousins and whether or not the Senators will be able to count on him over an 82game grind. There’s one thing to come in here for 20 games. He had 16 points in 2021 games, something like that at the end of the regular season. I think he had two points. Big goal, mind you. Uh, two points in six games in the playoffs. But over a long 82 game hull, and this is something I often do, you know, anytime a team is willing to get rid of a player 24 years old, like 210 lbs, big body, skill, uh a team like the Buffalo Sabres that hasn’t been to the playoffs in 13 years, they they decide to to trade him to Ottawa, which is, I think, a sensible deal for the Sens. It really is. But this isn’t about him outperforming Josh Norris. It’s can he be your second line center on a true Stanley Cup contender and put the points up required? That’s more the question mark for me and I’m not sure I know the answer. Do you? No, I we don’t know, right? Because you’ve seen you’ve seen both sides of Dylan Cousins. You saw him have the 30 goal season in Buffalo, but then you also saw him playing on the fourth line. like this is a guy who the main knocks against him in Buffalo were were mainly to do with with uh intangibles like drive and desire and and emotion and and intensity and defensive awareness was part of it. So, I I don’t know that he’s a guy if he’s going to be that. If we’re going to get the the Buffalo Saber version of him, then he’s not going to be your second line center because he’s not going to earn those minutes based on his lack of a two foot a 200t game playing at both ends of the ice. But if you’re going to get the guy that came here and played his first couple of weeks here uh in Ottawa, then then that guy for sure could be your second line center and have no problem. It’s a real nice situation though when you’ve got Shane Pinto sitting there. Hey, we got any issues? Boom. Pinch your second line guy tonight and drop Cousins down. At least they have that to fall back on, which is which is a nice little benefit to the to the uh to the Senators as far as their depth goes that they’ve got Pinto who can move up the lineup. Yeah, for sure. And I wonder what Pinto’s head space is, right? He he didn’t get any power play time at all. Not first, not second unit, no power play time. and they relied on him to be a true third line center. Penalty killing, playing good two-way play, but no power play time and he must be gone. I wonder what’s up. Dylan Cousins, on the other hand, who’s when he arrived in Ottawa, I think he was scoring at about a pace of one point for every two games. So, somewhere around a 40point pace in Buffalo. And that’s not really excelling past uh where Pinto was. and and Cousins get here and he’s immediately anointed on the second line center and he gets power play time and so his point total 16 points in 21 games pretty decent but if I’m Pinto I’m kind of going well I’m kind of a homegrown guy here I wonder he decided to move on from Josh Norris and you’re not giving me a shot exactly so I think you’ll probably hear and Pinto talked about this in the right after the season that yeah like any score he’d love to get some power play time here um I do think he will hear Dylan Cousins will be hearing footsteps from Shane Pinto, who by the way is eligible for an extension right now. If Pinto does for, you know, maybe he’s better or maybe Cousins really, you know, goes back to his kind of Buffalo inconsistencies and Pinto moves up. That is an interesting scenario when you got five more years of Dylan Cousins at 7.1 and now you’ve got Pinto who’s surpassed him this season and he’s at 375 and he’ll be looking for a raise this time next summer or maybe even before. It could get interesting with that dynamic. Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of contract he gets. Like if the senators are are are going to sign Pinto, well, they can right now, right? He’s he’s eligible right now. So, what kind of money they give him will probably give you a little bit of an indication of where they see him fitting in the lineup, right? If he’s going to get the upwards of if he gets five over five, then that’s pretty close to Cousins. And maybe it’s they see it as 2A and 2B, you know, with Timmy Stutla being one. Uh that’s a that’s a nice problem to have. But I don’t know that you want to have it if it’s cousins gets dropped. Like which one would be the worst problem? Uh which one could be the worst problem child if he’s unhappy? I don’t think it’s Pinto. He he doesn’t seem from what I’ve seen with him. He has too much character. There’s too much of a maturity to his game and his his personality that I can’t see him being the type that’s going to pout. He’s just going to play hard every night. I don’t know. I I I can’t say that about Cousins. I I I don’t know him well enough or have seen him enough or read or talked or whatever enough to have any kind of an opinion on how he would react if he gets shuffled down the lineup. Interesting. I I I mean I I agree with you. I think Pinto would, you know, be the good soldier as he always is. Great in the in the locker room. Just a real quality character in there. But I got to think that if Cousins maintains that that role of second line center, I think Pinto is out of here first chance he gets as a UFA. Wouldn’t you think? Probably. Yeah. Yeah, I would agree with you on that one, too. I mean, he did have second power play time, right? Like he he was a bumper guy. Think how many times he scored or had good chances with that one T as the bumper getting passes from Giru off the right wall. So, he did have second power play time prior to Cousins arriving and especially the year before, like not not this past season, but especially the year before. So, if he gets a little bit of a sniff of of second power play unit, you know, he’s going to kill penalties. You know, he’s reliable on faceoffs. We saw in the playoffs that he’s probably capable of playing with a playing up the lineup against better opposition, better lines. So I I can I can see him yeah kind of expecting more or wanting more or demanding more when the time comes for contract. Here are his power play minutes over the last three seasons. So in 2022 23 he had 168 minutes on the power play. It was cut to 98 minutes a couple of seasons ago and this past season down to 78 minutes. So yeah, not not not non-existent, but not nearly where Shane Pinto probably expected he would be at this stage in his career as an Ottawa senator. So it’s something to keep an eye on and an interesting storyline. And uh I think that I I remain optimistic about Cousins a because it’s a good trade. I I I prefer him over Josh Norris. whether he elevates to the stats he needs to on a on a team that fancies itself as a cup contender um as their second line center that remains to be seen. But I do think he’ll be better in Ottawa than he was in Buffalo just because I’m sure that in Buffalo there everybody, you know, he’s got to be filled with this sense of dread with the losing one year after another and not making the playoffs. They’re in the midst of an NHL record, not active all time for missing the playoffs. I think it’s 13 consecutive seasons, maybe 14, I’m not sure, but one of those two. And that’s not a fun place to be. So maybe the change of address and a return to a team that has a chance to contend uh will make all the difference for Dylan Cousins. But moving on, moving on. Couple other things. Um, the old guys. As far as podcasters, certainly sends podcasters go, we’re old guys. And we’re going to talk in praise of the old guys. Uh, this week I put together the Mount Rushmore of old guys for the Ottawa Senators and and what we expect from them. They do have some old guys here now. Clou, 37 years of age. David Perau, 37 years of age. Newcomer Lararszeller, 36, and Nick Jensen, 35. When you look at that quartet of old guys, Greg, what level of impact do you believe they’ll have for the coming season? Well, I think each has a different level of impact. I think uh Giru, depending on on where he plays in the lineup, definitely has an impact on the offensive production of this team. I think Jensen definitely has an impact on the on the defensive play of this team. like Jensen probably has the biggest impact as far as playing with Thomas Shabbat and being the insulation for Thomas Shabbat. David Pon at at his age uh his pace. But the other thing is Pon’s got a bounce back in him, right? Like he didn’t get to play as many games as he wanted to last year with the injury and with the personal problems. Maybe a full season of David Prawn is going to be okay. Lars Eller is going to be just fine. Perfect fourthline center. It’s a real easy role and I think having an experienced older guy there really helps that that unit too because he’ll understand what’s what he’s asked to do and uh he’ll be able to help others around him in that fourth line role. So I think all four of them will be key contributors but in different ways and obviously uh all four of them will be key contributors in leadership without a question but I think all four of them are going to contribute on the ice as well as this year goes on. Yeah, I think so. And and I think that we can expect maybe more than we’ve seen. Like anytime a guy’s in a contract year, these guys are all under, you know, short-term contract situations that, you know, if they want to play, I mean, they’re at the age now where they could drop out at any second just because they’re ready to do that. But if they want to continue playing, this is a contract year and so you’re playing for your next contract. Um, so they’ll want to have a great season. And I do think that they all have their own motivations beyond that. You know, in the case of Jeru, he kind of got lowballed a little bit. Um, I know he offered the hometown discount and he’s happy to stay at home and but at the same time, I’m sure he would have appreciated maybe more than $2 million plus performance bonuses. I I don’t know that he I haven’t talked to him, but I I don’t know that I would be, if I’m to put myself in his shoes, the happiest guy in the world that just descends at all the cards. Um, and they have a salary cap to adhere to. But we all know that Jiru I mean I think I heard Dar Darren Dreger saying that he had talked to some people that said56 million dollars uh a season would have been available to him on the open market. So I think bottom line though I think he you know he he’s playing for another contract. Uh he wants to win a Stanley Cup. He’s never done that. And uh I think he wants to go, hey, I I still got tons left in the tank here. Because when you’re, you know, lot there’s a lot of dialogue leading in those negotiations as to whether Jeru was losing a step or deserved this or that. I think he’s going to have a big summer in the gym. I think he’s going to come back and be all the more inspired as far as Perau and Eller go. They’re in a basically in a new market. Perau has been here, but he wasn’t at his best through injury and the family issues and so his stats were not great. So, I think he wants to show Ottawa that he’s worth the money. Same with Lars Eller as a newcomer here. So, but Nick Jensen is the one I really wanted to talk about and hopefully he’ll be he’ll be healthy because he mentioned the impact that he had on Thomas Shabbat. Jen, I don’t know if you buy the plus minus thing or not, but Jensen and and and Shabbat were one two on this team in plus minus. And this is a team that only had guys I think they only had like f seven guys that were in the plus category this season and and these guys were like you know 18 and 17 plus 18 and plus 17. Jensen like the impact that he had on Shabbat was tremendous because through his entire career Shabbat has never been a plus player and this year he’s a plus 17. Are you kidding me? Um, Jensen is valuable to the team unto himself, but he’s also made Thomas Shabbat a considerably better NHL player. Yeah. And and and but not only does he make Shabbat a better player, he stabilizes the whole six-man unit, if you have to start the year without Jensen, the you know, there’s questions there as to, okay, who’s who’s going to play with Shabbat or who’s going to play in the bottom pair? And either way, it’s it’s somebody if if Jensen’s not healthy, somebody’s playing on that second pair with Shabbat who maybe doesn’t belong there or maybe isn’t ready to be there. I I think it puts all the more pressure on this team if Jensen’s not good to go. And then conversely, that shows how valuable he is out of the four old folks, the geriatric crew here. I think he’s he’s the most important one because he stabilizes the six-man unit that plays defense for this the six guys who play defense for this team. All right, let’s move on to something else. Um Igor Soalov in the news, a former senator. Uh that’s that’s hilarious. I I mean I know that people say it, oh yeah, the guy hasn’t been a senator. He wasn’t even really a senator when he was here. He only had like a cup of coffee with the with the big league club. Um, I think he still has the might still have the record for games played by uh Belleville Senators players, but uh yeah, he got traded uh for Yan Yanique uh last summer and he finally ends up in the KHL, goes back home to play in Russia and signs on with uh CKSA, I believe it is. Let me let me double check that. You got it. Is that it? Okay. Don’t even ask me on the team that he got dealt to, but he he signs with them and then all of a sudden two days later he gets traded right away. Like, have you ever seen that before at the NHL level anymore? That’s a different kind of sign and trade, right? Yeah. Never saw that before. That’s very strange. It, you know, you always see these teams that’s where they sign a free agent, they they give a guy like a 5-year contract, and then he doesn’t even last the season and gets traded away. It makes you think back to everything the guy says in the summer when he signs. You know, this is a good place for me and my family and I want to be here. A good young group. We’re going to develop and give it a chance to win and this is the place I want to be. And then they trade the guy at the trade deadline when he’s still got four years left. But this one’s way out of left field. Sign a free agent deal and get traded two days later. It it makes you wonder, was there was there something going on? Was it was the other team didn’t have the the couldn’t sign him if they didn’t get rid of somebody, so they had to do it this way? There must have been something else, some underlying league rules or conditions or something that forced this team to do it the way they did. It just seems strange. Yeah. In the summertime, two days later, that’s that’s really unusual. Certainly, we’ve seen it here in Ottawa during the rebuild with Pierre Dorion bringing in guys that uh at the time they’re acquired, you’re going, “Oh, intriguing.” Yeah. Uh, the Derek Steppons of the world, the Braden Coburns, uh, Cedric Pquettes. Um, we just go, this is a pile of these names, but at least they had to go on the ice and prove that they they were not the answer. It wasn’t two days, it wasn’t in the summertime, two days later. Feel badly for the kid. We’ve had him on the show before and and uh just a just a great kid and and you you saw his story, you know, coming up with Drake Bathson and Kate Breton and uh just endearing himself to his Billet family and to Bath himself and uh you being over overlooked in the draft and just it was a good story and is such a likable character and you hope that he’d make it but uh just didn’t have the just didn’t have the foot speed at the end of the day and that’s the game now is just Even 10 years ago, the game was about speed, but even now it’s like those who are not fast need not apply, right? Exactly. Bang on. So, um, couple other things off the page. Oh, I mean, non-senator, I should say. Okay. Um, the decentralized draft. Oh, god. Uh, I kind of went off on it on a recent episode at how bad the presentation of the decentralized draft was and I was absolutely certain that thing is never happening again. And as it turns out that thing is happening again. Um, surely they’ll make a bunch of tweaks at least, but what’s your reaction to hear that the NHL is going to that well again? My first reaction was here goes the NHL again. not like turning a deaf ear to their fans. I can’t imagine there were all that many fans out there who were tweeting or or Instagramming or whatever you do these days to send out glorious review messages. I don’t think there would have been all that many for Gary to have seen. So, it just seems strange to me. Well, actually, it doesn’t. It just it yet another example of the NHL with a deaf ear to what the fans want, what the fans like, and what the fans love. And it just this is terrible. Like like that show was brutal from start to finish and it really was everything I expected it to be and actually in some cases worse than I thought it was going to be. I cannot believe they’re doing it. It just GMs in this league apparently are the ones who are behind this decision. They prefer it this way. Okay, fine. But it better be better. For God’s sakes, you can’t help but make this show better. Like there are things that need to be dropped from it immediately. And if they’re going to do it again, they they better get it at least closer to right the next time around. Yeah, I think I’ll I’ll I’ll reserve judgment if they just It’s not It’s not that the the decentralization is problematic for me. It’s just the way that they did it. like the I I do not want to see any of the NHL executives on a big screen and the kids being dragged over to have this really awkward, brutal conversation that I I I it was like, did did they not focus group or test this out? Like what will that look like? It was almost like they just assumed this would be like, oh, we’re taking people inside and this will just be really really interesting and it just wasn’t. So just drop that that NHL virtual reality house. drop that all together. Um, just drag the kid over to a experienced broadcaster who can ask three or four good questions and then we move along. Go back to the panel, have a bunch of people on the panel that people have heard of to break down what they think that player will be for that team. just stop overthinking it so much and a and adding all these these little twists that just don’t work and and and a lot less Gary Bman too. I don’t mind Gary Bman making the announcement, but just all this, you know, the video of him posing and dragging the player back to see the team and just so much the celebrity. Yeah. Kicking out the celebrity and in some cases that was appalling, but I’ll we we talked about that in a recent episode. Just less scary. I would say by percentage, how much less Gary do you want? I want I’m I’m looking at 80% less Gary. Wow. 80. Well, I the question then becomes, okay, who’s gonna make the announcement, right? Like Gary has to come out. Who somebody has to come out and make the announcement and and if we want to We don’t want guests. No, exactly. We don’t want guests. We don’t want these so-called celebrities like we we we want somebody else. So, is it one person who’s a host? Like, maybe it’s a No, you can’t can’t have a TSN guy. It’s And you can’t have it be Ron because he’ll go off in a tangent in the middle of announcing the selection. I don’t know who it is. Like, it’s like God, Kevin BX would be great. I or David Amber would be great. You know, there are some guys there that I think could do it other than Gary, but if you’re going to have Gary doing the announcing, it’s going to be pretty tough to have 80% less Gary if he’s if he’s the only guy who’s who’s there to say Ottawa select so and so. The Ford it’s a big deal event is on right now at Jim K. Ford lease a 2025 Escape Active all-wheel drive from 198 bi-weekly at 1.99% APR for 36 months with 2755 down. That’s like $99 weekly, plus a $750 bonus for eligible Ford owners. Like we said, it’s a big deal and it’s on now, but not for long. Visit Jimk Ford today for details or online at jimk.com at jimk. Here in Canada, we don’t just make lights. We craft possibility, connection, and celebration built right here by people who care about what they’re creating. At Celebrite, we’re made of all the colors of the RGB rainbow. Each person bringing their own brilliance. Because when we come together, we make something brighter. Celebrate.ca. Proudly made in Canada. Uh, two more things. The Ottawa Charge in the news. the ladies team, the PWHL finalists this year, um, which unfortunately took their team and I don’t I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a a pro hockey team at any level disassemble their finalist team the way the Ottawa Charge did. It sort of it it had the same kind of vibe, though this is executives like of the way the Sens handled making their only Stanley Cup final. They fired John Muckler after making the only Stanley Cup final in their history. In this case, a lot of players because of the expansion draft were out, but a lot of lot of them signed elsewhere. And so, it’s a big big old changed team. And they’re also in the news though for another reason in that uh OEG and the city of Ottawa have made some pretty dramatic changes to their plans for the arena that is to built at the redesign at Landown. And that you’ve got I don’t know if you got the numbers in front of you, but that could make a real big difference to the bottom line for the Ottawa Charge if this arena change goes through. Greg, yeah, they’re talking about a a capacity of of 5,500. The Charge drew less than 5,500 only nine times in however many home games they played. Like, it’s scary to think how much money that team will lose if they can only fit 5,000 fans in in a game. Uh, and what happens when you’re losing money at the gate? Well, you start charging more, tickets cost more, uh, concessions cost more. Like, everything goes up a as well as salaries are probably going up in this league, too. So, it’s going to end up costing the ticket payer, the the ticket purchaser is going to start paying for OEG in the city of Ottawa deciding that we don’t need that many seats in this building. That’s the biggest that’s the bottom line, right? The bottom line is going to be cash. Uh we read we were talking about an article on the hockey news where he was talking uh Ian Kennedy talking about 2.3 million in lost revenue just based on averages based on their average attendance so far and $50 average person going to spend for a a ticket and a meal and everything else there treats and concessions and souvenirs whatever that person’s going to buy. It’s about 50 bucks. You take away that many people, it’s 2.3 million lost revenue by because of a smaller capacity. Yeah. Be interesting to see if uh maybe the PWHL if this goes through and the and the charge continue growing. Although based on the roster and the changes, I’m wondering what their attendance will be for the coming season. Time will tell. But uh if the growth continues though and the attendance and the league continue to do well uh there is going to be potentially well I think it’s all but done now basically they still have to dot some eyes and cross some tees but when we get a downtown NHL arena maybe the PWHL is knocking on their door at some stage if OG really drops the ball on this. uh OEG uh in their comment to the hockey news back in January and a story that Ian Kennedy put out there. Um it was a lot of blah blah blah, but the last line was we’re not um when we while we can confirm the charger involved and informing the process as the project moves along. We are not positioned to comment on whether the proposed capacity at the arena would adversely affect their attendance levels. And uh that seems like a passing of the buck or as Ian put it um chosen ignorance. But yeah, that’s that’s not good for business. This just in uh the 67s, it’s not really an issue uh for junior hockey because they’re they’re averaging 3,800. But sometimes when the 67s get good, they’ll want to be well above that as well. So that could shoot themselves in the foot cuz this just in. know owns the 67s. Yeah. Just it seems strange that like that was the one of the other things I thought of too, Steve, was when when the 67s are good, they could easily put 5,000 people in that rink, too. So, it just seems to me that it’s shortsighted on everyone’s part. It’s shortsighted to and to think that OAG says that they’re not in a position to comment on on lost revenue from attendance. What What do you mean you run sports franchises? You should understand exactly what it means. And that I just think it’s short-sighted for the 67s. Any growth there or the better the team, the more attendance they will have and capping it at at 50 5500 is too low and it’s going to affect the team that’s already drawing more than that. So I just it’s crazy and I don’t know what the solution is. Like nobody seems to be listening to the charge. Uh maybe they need some the league to get behind it. Maybe the PWHL as a league needs to step up and have a chat with OEG and and the city of Ottawa and say like, “Come on, boys. This is unacceptable.” Interesting story to keep an eye on. And lastly, want to talk about former NHL enforcer Nick Tarnaski. Since we last got together, uh, a video on social media went out there of Nick Tarnaski, the former NHL enforcer, out for a day of golf behind what appeared to be, based on the video, a couple of uh, guys who’d been into the cups pretty pretty good to the point where they were swaggering when they walked and not in a confident way. And one of the gentlemen in the group as Tarnaski and his foresome started giving them hack for being super slow and super drunk. Um, one of the guys in the forom ahead of him, the slow one, decided he would challenge Tarnaski. Started looking very much like a pro wrestler and screaming and saying, “Let’s go. Let’s go.” And nobody took it seriously. But Tarnaski is such a big big guy. And he was warning him, “You’re not scaring anybody. Don’t don’t don’t try anything. And this guy, this drunk guy takes a run at Tarnaski and it resulted in some of the most amusing video that I’ve seen in some time. Some people were offended by it because it was quite some were violent, but uh saying it’s violent, but Tarnaski putting this guy in his place with bang bang bang was uh was pretty classic, I think. And then the toss. The toss was pretty The toss which which people have turned somebody turned it into a into a painting which was really cool. He tosses the guy to Did the guy actually end up in the water or just darn close to it. Oh, he was Yeah. Just like absolute stupidity. Like it’s Do you want to see a stupid drunk? There’s the definition of a stupid drunk. He didn’t obviously probably didn’t know who he was dealing with, but just the sheer size of the man tells you that maybe you should just shut up, right? Like just Yeah, shut up. Let them play through and and everybody has a good time. But no, he kept pushing it, pushing it, pushing it. And and credit to Tasky who was like, “Okay, settle down. Settle down.” Set and then he finally he had enough. The guy touched him and that was enough. And it was just pop pop. It was and the bang, right? He did the he did the playbyplay of his own punching. It was classic. Yeah, absolutely. And there’s been all kinds of cool funny social media out there. People playing back Tarnaski’s old NHL fights, but you know, dubbing in, sinking in the audio of him yelling bang, bang, bang. So good. Um, you mentioned the pond thing. He did get thrown in the pond right out of the gate before the punches started. But the throw that you’re alluding to kind of this judo throw like he got such tremendous distance on it and I was very entertained by it and I would respectfully like to submit that as a potential Olympic sport at least a demonstration sport. The drunk guy throw like he got tremendous distance on that guy and Tarnaski might be our first Olympian in that area. I mean, let’s be honest, there’s some really, really dumb Olympic sports. Don’t have to mention any of them. We know what they are. Yeah. Uh, so why not just throw in the drunk guy throw at the next games? Yeah. The drunk toss. The drunk toss. Perfect. I am a visionary. I am a visionary. This is a Sens fan and we’re wrapping it up, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, don’t forget that our website is as always sensnationhockey.com and check that out. Uh, and also check out the hockey news Ottawa thn.com. Lots of articles up there even though we’re in the heat of summer. Uh, we’ll take our leave. Greg, enjoy the next few days and we’ll talk to you later in the week. Good evening, sir.

In this episode, a quick update on Gregg’s weekend in Montreal, coaching Lebanon’s national team. We get into some speculation about Mason McTavish’s future, and whether Dylan Cozens can get it done as the Sens’ second-line center. We discuss the role of Sens’ oldest four players, who will all be north of 35, developments in the PWHL, and a viral moment involving Nick Tarnasky. We also touch on the NHL’s decentralized draft and its implications for the league.

00:00 Introduction and Team Lebanon Update
02:59 NHL Free Agency Speculation
05:48 Mason McTavish’s Potential Impact
09:08 Dylan Cozens, Shane Pinto and the 2nd line center job
12:11 The Role of Veteran Players
14:48 Ottawa Charge and PWHL Developments
17:43 BANG! Nick Tarnasky’s Viral Moment
20:45 Decentralized NHL Draft Discussion