The last time we-

You know why Strome is good for TV is 'cause he's been through the gauntlet of media in Edmonton over the years with Rishaug and Spector and all those guys, so he's...

Who? Which one?

Yeah.

But, but this year, Bouchard's not on there, Quinn Hughes is not on there, Jake Sanderson, Charlie McAvoy, uh, Mor- uh, what's the guy in Detroit? Uh, Seider.

I, I think-

No, MacKinnon's been awesome.

He's been...

The thing about him is, um, you know, like, he's obviously, he's fast and he's super skilled, but he's a big dude.

Like, people forget that.

When, when he was 19 years old, he played his first, first full NHL season.

They pl- they, they lost I, I believe in the first round of the playoffs, then he came over to the world championships and he met us there.

Yep.

[laughs] Yeah.

So I don't really count that.

So, like, two times in my career, and they were spaced out.

And after each time missing it, there was a ton of pain.

There was a lot of pain, and there was a lot of pissed off energy going into the summer.

And that fuels you.

So you hope that it doesn't happen.

"Boys, why are we wasting our energy on those guys? Go, let's go get someone else," and then he takes out Mike Modano.

Wow.

In studio.

How much of a game changer is it?

Well, I think just like when he comes in tonight, he's been in the minors for the last eight games.

He was 7-0-1.

And I think what Montreal is doing, what Marty St. Louis is doing, is they're just riding the hot hand.

It's the time of the year where they need wins.

They need to move up the standings.

They need to cement a playoff spot.

But until then, I don't think it matters.

Are they doing this the right way?

Well, they're doing it the way they have to.

It's like working out.

It takes so long to build up your body and your strength.

And then in a week, you can just break it all right down.

You can tear it down in a second.

So it took them a while to build up this core and become a playoff team and, you know, get the goaltending and get the young guys and Quinn Hughes and Demko and JT Miller.

Speaking of a guy that you would know well enough, how do you like Corey Perry to Tampa

Do you feel like they held the red line and the blue line really well early?

Yeah, they did.

Um, like, like, Gudas jumped up and intercepted a couple passes, and they did all the technical stuff that you, you try to do against the high-flying teams, like, you know, tight gap, hold the blue line, congest the neutral zone.

But I don't know, like, like, Canada scored that first, the Celebrini goal, it felt like it was gonna be another romp.

But I don't know, Canada just didn't, didn't quite execute the way they did the first three games.

Like, the way we saw them move the puck and fly through the neutral zone, and I don't know if there was, like, some more nerves from the Canadians.

It seemed like...

So how impressed were you by him and his ability to all of a sudden hop in, and he's right in that one of the three centerman role?

How was that for you playing college? I want to get back to the Olympics, but was that something for you that was, I know it was there before you got there, but just your choice to go to college?

Well, I don't know.

Like I always wanted to go to college.

We went to, I can't remember the exact details, but when I was younger, probably 12, 13, 14, around that time, we used to go to a lot of tournaments in Detroit and Buffalo.

So I never, I've never been on a flight prior to my freshman year at Bowling Green.

19 years old was the first time I ever flew on an airplane because I grew up in Southern Ontario.

Yeah.

But, I mean, they seem to be a lot more comfortable as a coaching staff as much as their main guys play minutes than the Canadian staff that seemed, as you said, it seemed to be McCarr, Taze, Harley, and then we got to find another guy to get out there and fill some minutes as the state seems to be a little bit more comfortable with their depth.

Was that summer stuff for you?

Yeah, so it's funny, I, I ran into him.

I hadn't seen him in a while, and, um, I ran into him in the bathroom before the first Canada game, the coed bathroom.

And he's, like, at the hand dryer, and I see him, and I run in, and I jump up in the air, and I body check him from behind.

And he kind of, like, hits his head against the dryer, and he turns around, [chuckles] he's like: "What the...?" And I'm like: "Hey, buddy, I haven't seen you in a while." And, like, I'm kind of like...

And then, it just, it was just a weird way to s- to reconnect with him.

So-...

He, he's gotta do more than this." You know what I'm saying?

You know, you guys were saying maybe does he end up on the wing? I just wanted you to talk a little bit more about

why you feel that.

So we were talking at the skate and we both kind of agreed that we kind of see Crosby on the wing for a few reasons.

First, it's just a little bit easier on him.

You don't have to defend down low.

You don't have to waste all that energy.

And you don't have to play catch up when you're leaving the defensive zone or the offensive zone.

That's the only

You're all

seeing this live and in person today.

Yeah, but watching in the green room with Bones, he doesn't stop talking the whole time.

Oh, look, one, two, two.

Talk about your flex forecheck.

It's like overkill with Bones.

Oh, one, two, two.

Did you ever fight someone on the bench?

Is there, you look around, is there any other series now? I mean, there's, it's still hard to believe, you know, like the team like Tampa and Colorado are out, but is there anybody kind of jumping out at you in the West that's,

I honestly think with the final eight right now, you can look at anybody and you can see them being in the finals.

I think this Vegas-Edmonton series is going to be just a couple heavyweights.

I think if the series, like if the Oilers didn't win the way they did, I think you would look at it and say Vegas is just going to romp them.

But now I think the way that series ended and the way the Oilers finally got contributions from all four lines and everybody was kind of slotted in.

I thought there was too much like line shifting early in the series where you have McDavid and Dreisel on the same line, mostly with Perry.

But then it was like maybe Frederick would go with Nuge and Hyman and then maybe Henrik would go with like Frederick and...

And I think you're kind of at the end of your coaching with this group.

How much have you grown or how much have you learned and, and when it comes to mental health and obviously the athletes?

Well, I've learned a lot.

We've come a long way and, uh, it all started with relaunching mindcheck.ca, and that kind of evolved into Foundry BC, and now we have the Canadian Men's Health Foundation that I'm trying to support as much as possible and, uh, you know, like, uh, it's all about just health and mental health and mental health in men brings stability to families, to communities.

It's such an important thing.

We're, we're taught from such a young age, at least my generation is, you're a little bit younger than me, but my generation from a young age was taught as men to be strong and to internalize things and to, like, push through them, and that's not necessarily the case.

If you have, like, a knee injury or an ankle injury, you're not just gonna stay strong and push through it.

You're gonna go see a doctor.

Yeah.

How was, first, this is probably the most important question, how was the recital? Which is why you couldn't fly in

earlier yesterday.

Was it a recital? Yeah, no, it wasn't a recital.

She's 15, so it was a dance show, a high school dance show.

She made this high school dance team called Orcasis, and it's...

It's like four seniors, four juniors, four sophomore.

So for you guys, that's grade 9, 10, 11, and 12.

And you think you'd like to play for the Dallas Stars the way they're going right now too? And they're going to get healthier come playoff time? So trying to figure out what this is all about is probably the biggest piece to the puzzle right now.