Latest / The Armchair GM's Sports Network / Contenders beginning to emerge in the OHL + chat w/ Wolves media Ben Leeson - The OHL in 60 Podcast

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Contenders beginning to emerge in the OHL + chat w/ Wolves media Ben Leeson - The OHL in 60 Podcast · The Armchair GM's Sports Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the Armchair GM Sports Network.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: It's fall season and we're here for another episode of
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  Speaker 1: to listen to us on, we appreciate our loyal, audio
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  Speaker 1: listeners as well. Those listen on their commutes, Josh Brown
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  Speaker 1: being one of them, fan of the show. We appreciate
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: his support as always. Brandon Caputo and Colin Ward with
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  Speaker 1: you to discuss week five of the Ontario Hockey League season. Wow, Colin,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: we're already in almost two months into the season here.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: You know, we got our trick-or-treat stuff to look forward
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  Speaker 1: to next week's show. We're going to be doing that.
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  Speaker 1: Always a fun segment on that show. But as far
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  Speaker 1: as today, we got a jam-packed show for you. We
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  Speaker 1: got a ton of headlines to go over. Seaway shootout.
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  Speaker 1: Brampton finally getting in the win column. The Battle of
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  Speaker 1: the Border, U-17 roster, Ryan Brown being named captain of London,
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  Speaker 1: Cole Zeroski trade, Owen Sound, what's going on there? Colin's
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  Speaker 1: got some thoughts on the attack and their free fall
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  Speaker 1: here in autumn.
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  Speaker 2: I'm hiding in the closet behind me.
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  Speaker 1: It's a stormy October with the Guelph Storm winning nine
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  Speaker 1: in a row. We'll talk about them. We'll get to
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  Speaker 1: our players of the week, our personal stick taps of
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  Speaker 1: the week, teams and players we thought deserved a shout
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  Speaker 1: out as well. We'll hear from Sudbury Wolves beat reporter
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  Speaker 1: Ben Leeson. He's going to join us in segment two
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  Speaker 1: to discuss the Sudbury Wolves being first place in the
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  Speaker 1: Central Division. Friday night face-off and power rankings to close
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  Speaker 1: out the show, Colin. But yeah, we're back after the
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  Speaker 1: week hiatus for Thanksgiving. I hope you had a lot
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  Speaker 1: of food and got yourself full because you've got a
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  Speaker 1: lot more thoughts over the last few weeks here to
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  Speaker 1: talk about in the OHL.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it was a fun Thanksgiving. We have the
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  Speaker 2: Greater Delhi Area Fair going on. over Thanksgiving weekend. So
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  Speaker 2: Liza and I took part in that. Obviously like we
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  Speaker 2: do our yearly tradition. Um, that was fun. Had the
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  Speaker 2: turd docking. Um, so it was good. It was a, uh,
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  Speaker 2: it was a busy Thanksgiving weekend. I think honestly, Thanksgiving
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  Speaker 2: weekend is also the best time of year for the OHL.
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  Speaker 2: Cause you have OHL hockey every single day from the
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  Speaker 2: Thursday night before like the long weekend, all the way
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  Speaker 2: into last week, we had OHL hockey every single night.
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  Speaker 2: Like the foe, the flow subscription was getting its money's
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  Speaker 2: worth just off this past weekend alone. You know, the
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  Speaker 2: hockey games I consumed on flow was unbelievable.
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  Speaker 1: Did you consume more food or hockey games?
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  Speaker 2: Probably hockey, but I wish it was food. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I definitely took part in the stuffing shout out to
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  Speaker 2: Josh Brown for the reach out on that big stuffing
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  Speaker 2: guy as well. But I, I honestly, I thought that was,
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  Speaker 2: I thought it was the best weekend of the OHL.
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  Speaker 2: It was so cool. We had a bad trade take place. Um,
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  Speaker 2: and I think this is the best timing to return
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  Speaker 2: when the week that was in the OHL every single day,
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  Speaker 2: OHL fans got to consume the OHL. That's a great day.
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  Speaker 2: So we got to see the Cornwall experience looked like
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  Speaker 2: it went well. Um, so I'm excited. I'm excited for
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  Speaker 2: this week's show.
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  Speaker 1: You can also give us a follow on X at
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: OHL and 60 podcast or at the Owen 60 podcast
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  Speaker 1: on Instagram. Um, Let's let's start off here, Colin, because
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  Speaker 1: Ben Leeson is going to join us around 740. So
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  Speaker 1: we got a lot of headlines to go over and
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  Speaker 1: I want to give you time to air out your
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  Speaker 1: grievances with the Owen sound attack. So as we move,
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  Speaker 1: start off here with the Seaway shootout, as you mentioned
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  Speaker 1: off the top, we had the Brampton Steelheads playing two
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  Speaker 1: games in Cornwall for the return to of OHL hockey.
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  Speaker 1: They're facing the Ottawa 67s and the Kingston Frontenacs losing
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  Speaker 1: to Ottawa 67. on night one and then picking up
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  Speaker 1: their first victory of the season so who would have
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  Speaker 1: thought coming into the year that Brampton's first win of
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  Speaker 1: the season would be in Cornwall but here we are
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  Speaker 1: James Richmond's club gets on the board what did you
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  Speaker 1: think of the whole weekend as a whole Colin and
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  Speaker 1: what did you think of the attendance.
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  Speaker 2: That was great I'm just trying to get the attendance
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  Speaker 2: for the first game but I thought the attendance was
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  Speaker 2: good for what the circumstances were I'm I'm getting more
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  Speaker 2: concerned about attendance in a hole in hockey, not just
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  Speaker 2: the OHL. You see these NHL teams now not selling out.
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  Speaker 2: Like you haven't told others start they're having, and you
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  Speaker 2: see how empty the stands are there. Like I'm more
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  Speaker 2: concerned about that in general. I think teams and leagues
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  Speaker 2: are pricing fans out of being able to attend games regularly.
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  Speaker 2: So that's why I thought for the circumstances, Cornwall was great.
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  Speaker 2: The games were great. It was nice to see Brampton
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  Speaker 2: get a win with it. They desperately deserved Brandon. There's,
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  Speaker 2: There's no way that team was a winless team through
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  Speaker 2: their first nine games. I saw them in person this
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  Speaker 2: year already. They should have won that game. They lost 5-4.
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  Speaker 2: They lost a couple one-goal games this year. And we
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  Speaker 2: heard James Richman talk to OHL Communications, the great Josh Sweetland,
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  Speaker 2: post-game after their win against the Kings of Frontenac on Saturday.
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  Speaker 2: And he hit the nail on the head with the
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  Speaker 2: Branton Steelheads that this team– was so close, right, Brandon?
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  Speaker 2: We're talking these one-goal games, right down to the wire,
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  Speaker 2: heartbreak losses in overtime or the shootout. That's frustrating. For
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  Speaker 2: the group to keep going, keep going. Don't be surprised
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  Speaker 2: for the Brampton Steelheads, Cornwall Royals, to keep going here.
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  Speaker 2: I'm excited for the rivalry weekend. I get to see
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  Speaker 2: them twice in person this weekend as they face the
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  Speaker 2: Brantford Bulldogs. So I'm excited to see what they can
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  Speaker 2: bring to the table. Honestly, I think this Brampton team
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  Speaker 2: has that no-quit mentality, and they don't care, and they
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  Speaker 2: work harder, Brandon. No pun intended with their division mate
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  Speaker 2: in Barry, but they don't. They work their butts off,
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  Speaker 2: and I think it clearly shows that. Maybe the skill
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  Speaker 2: set and that elite level talent isn't there like other
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  Speaker 2: teams in the league that we see in similar situations,
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  Speaker 2: but I'll tell you this much. For the move they
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  Speaker 2: made in the Tanner Adams deal and the picks they have,
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  Speaker 2: if Brampton could get kate aurora because we saw the
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  Speaker 2: border uh border crossing tournament this weekend windsor like i
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  Speaker 2: think that this team is set up for such a
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  Speaker 2: good future if they could spend some of those picks
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  Speaker 2: like right now brandon we're looking at the brantham steelheads
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  Speaker 2: i know we're five weeks in but all of a
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  Speaker 2: sudden we're going to be 10 weeks in it's going
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: to be christmas time we're going to be talking realistic
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  Speaker 2: uh draft lottery simulator we'll be back in five weeks
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: time already but i just think for For a team
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  Speaker 2: like Brampton to have that opportunity, right, to go out
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  Speaker 2: and really build to a 17-year-old core like they can
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  Speaker 2: right now with those picks, that's huge. If you could
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  Speaker 2: go and get the two top five picks in the
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  Speaker 2: draft alongside of that, with the way this new landscape is, Brampton,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I see it personally with the Bramford Bulldogs.
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  Speaker 2: Aiden Kelly's their first line center. They picked them at 20.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they've got a bright future in Brampton. And again,
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  Speaker 1: maybe that's a little bit of good karma after them
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  Speaker 1: losing Martone and Ivan Kovic when this new format came in.
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  Speaker 1: And now it's taken them a few years to really
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  Speaker 1: get back up through the rebuild.
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  Speaker 2: Brandon, you saw the impact it had in Niagara. Niagara,
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  Speaker 2: for the life of them, could not get picks to commit.
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  Speaker 2: Could not get picks to commit. Sam Dickinson, that was
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: a dagger. Sam Dickinson was a dagger. But in the way,
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  Speaker 2: it was kind of a teaching model for that franchise
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: at the time, right? Like you're looking at a team
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  Speaker 2: that all of a sudden Ethan Zada, well, he's a
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  Speaker 2: pretty damn good OHL player as we see right now
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  Speaker 2: in Guelph. And we, and you saw Brandon in Niagara
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  Speaker 2: for those years and Ryan Robrick as well, what he
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  Speaker 2: could do, right? Like that kind of changed their development
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  Speaker 2: point in a way, right? I know they're not ice
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  Speaker 2: dogs right now, but it kind of changed their draft
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: luck for Brampton. I think it's huge. If I don't
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: want them to tank and I want them to have success.
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  Speaker 2: That's why I'm pulling for them. to get into that
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  Speaker 2: eighth spot, but you can't sit like, we both can't
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  Speaker 2: get excited sitting here thinking, man, if they had like
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  Speaker 2: the top, a top three pick and the fifth pick
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  Speaker 2: in this year's OHL draft, like this team, like you
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: have a chance to go and we see what Brantford's
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: doing through a month through five weeks. Right. Like with
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: the Aiden Kelly's with somebody young, like what Tanner Adams
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  Speaker 2: did in Sudbury as we'll talk to Ben about, when
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: he comes on about that impact he had early on
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: in the season, in the lineup, when he got in there,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: some of these young players, it's going to be a
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: younger league in the draft is still so, and so crucial.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: We talked about it last week with the, we talked
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  Speaker 2: about it last week. We talked about the last couple
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  Speaker 2: of weeks about the draft still meaning something. The draft
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  Speaker 2: still means something. And I think that that that's where
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  Speaker 2: it means something because it's a younger league. You're going
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: to have opportunity for younger players to come up and
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: be successful in Right away. You're not going to see
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: them on the fourth line playing three every five games now.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: You're going to see them playing regularly and playing on
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: the power play. getting offensive chances, especially in the first
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: half of the season before rosters get set and before
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: they're official after the deadline. You'll see teams get older
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: after the deadline as well on January 9th.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: So game one, 2,705 in attendance in Cornwall for the six,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: two win by the Ottawa 67s and game two was 2,661
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: fans in the five, two victory for Brampton. So, um,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: really good turnout for Cornwall and we'll see if they
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: continue to go back there on a yearly basis or maybe,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: you know, on more than just a two game basis.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: But Hey, we talked with Brian Crawford about now five
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: weeks ago, Brandon, which is wild. It's been five weeks ago.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: It feels like it was last week's show. Um, We
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: talked to him about this. The league wants an expansion city.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: They want it to work somewhere. Is Cornwall the place?
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: It's always easy clickbait.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. It's the easiest show topic we could have
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: each week. We could have a show, Brandon, on our
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: own about where we're going to expand in the Ontario
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Hockey League, and it would be no problem for us.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: We'd still be rambling another 50 minutes from now. Obviously,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: I don't shut up as it is, so it'd be
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: pretty easy. I haven't even mentioned the Broncos yet. Yeah.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: The faceless Twitter cretins will, uh, we would be all
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: over that, but, uh, we're going to move forward here
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: with them. Yeah. Well, we don't even know their names,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: so we'll move forward to battle. Well, we knew a
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: couple of them. So battle the border. We've got the
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Toronto junior Canadians, uh, securing it with a five, nothing
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: victory on Sunday. They take it over Detroit little Caesars. Uh,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: this tournament took place at, in Windsor, uh, being a
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: border town at the WFCU center, uh, Colin, what did
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: you think of the tournament as a whole and the
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: junior Canadians, obviously with Kate O'Rourke going to be the
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: first overall pick in next year's draft, most likely coming
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: away with the win, but what did you, positives and
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: negatives from what you saw?
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: I love to see the matchup between the Canada and US.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Perfect spot, obviously, with Windsor. It's cool to get in
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: the facility. For Windsor, it's great to host that tournament
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: because you get those kids in the facility. It's an
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: early start on the recruiting trip early in the year.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: On the negative side, Brandon, The scheduling is so hard
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: with the Spitfires playing that night on the Saturday night.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: It's so hard. Teams are bagged on the Saturday. Like,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: you're playing at 1 o'clock and then again at 3.30. Like,
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: it's a tough schedule. It's a grind. It's tough to
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: see the best in every game for scouts, but it's
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: great to see the best American teams in the best teams.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Ontario teams as well because I think last week we
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: saw a lot of teams miss out in the London
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: tournament because of the scheduling with this tournament right so
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: you never really got to see like you know the
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Toronto Titans pulled out in the London tournament last week
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: so you're missing a couple big teams there right in
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: London gearing up for this and it's so early in
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: the season right like we're talking five weeks into the
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: year and we're already three tournaments in once the silver
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: stick starts to come that once that comes Then we're
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: going to start to see that draft list heat up
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: a little bit more and teams get more invites at
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: their arenas and you start to see more of the
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: hosting in the cities. And that's so cool to see
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: some of these players at 15 years old, Brandon, as
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: we both saw around the league. It's cool to see
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: when these kids come in and tour a facility and
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: it's like wide-eyed. Then you see them a year later
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: once they're drafted and they're totally different people. I think
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: that's the coolest part about covering the league. I think
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: that's really neat to see that aspect of the OHL.
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  Speaker 1: So speaking of young players in the Ontario Hockey League,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: here are the OHL representatives for the upcoming U-17s in Oakville,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: which we will be covering for the network. So we'll
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: be doing lots of written articles, a lot of interviews
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: with players. They're in Oakville throughout the tournament. So stay
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: tuned to the channel for those as well. Team Canada white,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: as you can see there, all the names of the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: OHLers that are representing team Canada white and team Canada red.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: There are two team Canada's in the U 17 tournaments.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: If you're, if you are confused with that, but Colin,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: does anybody stick out to you from those names?
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: So I Declan McNally on Friday night in person, I
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: think he's going to be a stud for team white
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: team red. I'm very excited to see what a, Ben
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Leeson's boy who we're going to have on soon in
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: a cash Kawaja. I think his game, obviously the easy
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: one was Sudbury's Tanner Adams, but cash Kawaja is the
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: elite playmaker. And I'm very excited to see what he
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: can do. I think he really fell under the radar
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: at the Tanner Adams deal, but this duo is legit
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: in Sudbury for the future. And I'm excited to see
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: what cash can do.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Adrian Skrow, Kane Cloutier, a couple of really good players
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: on team white to, to not miss there. As you mentioned,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: cash Kawaja, uh, Drew Bate. There's a lot of talent.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Tanner Adams, as you mentioned. There's going to be a
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: lot of good OHLers here to showcase what they're capable
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: of here. And we know that the U-17 tournament throughout
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the years can be a launch pad for some of
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: these guys to go on into their draft year following
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: this year to be successful Ontario Hockey League players and
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: even get drafted into the National Hockey League. So really
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: good showcase tournament for these guys on a national level.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: And to put on the Team Canada uniform is always special.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: I just hate the timing of this tournament. You know
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: my thoughts on this from last year's OHL at 60.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: I just hate the timing because we're five weeks into
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: the year that everyone's gone. It's tough timing when these
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: young players, but hey, it's a younger league, right, in
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: the OHL. So that's another thing. CHL-wide, it's younger. So
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: we're going to see this and see how it goes.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: And going to a player that has put his time
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: in here with the London Knights, formerly the Sarnia Sting,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Ryan Brown named the next captain of the London Knights,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and that is obviously a prestigious, I guess, distinction to have,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: not like some other teams, but the London Knights, to
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: be the captain of that team is very special. He's
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: the 58th captain in London Knights franchise history. We mentioned
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: he came over from the Sarnia Sting in that trade
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: last season, and he's been fantastic for the Knights, Colin.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: I know you got more on him a little bit
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: later when we get to our players of the week
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and stick taps, but Really well earned for Ryan Brown,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: a guy that they got in a trade last season.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely. I mean, you look at their captains list
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  Speaker 2: and you see Evan Van Gorp and now Ryan Brown.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Look away, Sarnia Sting fans. I'm pulling for you, Stings.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Sting fans, I'm pulling for you to make the playoffs. Like,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: last year I was pulling for Kitchener. This year I'm
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: pulling for Sarnia, and they got to give me something, Brandon.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: But it's in here for him. Obviously, you see the start.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: The opposite, Cy Young right now, zero goals, eight assists,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: eight points in his first five games, plus five rating.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: He's a captain. It works his butt off. I think
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: it's an easy choice for London Knights. Obviously, Mike Stubbs
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: raved about him a couple weeks back when he was
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: back on the podcast here. So I think this is
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: a big pick for them. I think it was a
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: great get. London has that eye for talent. As Mike
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: told the story about Mark Hunter, he's everywhere in– Every
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: back road, he's there. Every nick and cranny, he's there.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: And that's what Mark Hunter does, and this is what
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: the trade turns out to be. The next captain of
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: the London Knights, Ryan Brown. Congratulations, my guy. That's really cool.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Fifth-round pick by the Dallas Stars last season. Definitely well-deserved.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what a few months for him getting picked in
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: the NHL draft. Now he's the captain of the London Knights.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: After he came over, he had 40 points in 33
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: games when he came from Sarnia. So just a complete renaissance. Yeah,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: a complete renaissance of a year for Ryan Brown and,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: you know, could have been a turning point in his career.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: So an 07 player and, you know, he's a guy
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that obviously that they figure as part of their, you know,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: core for this season, possibly next season. We'll have to
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: wait and see, but really well earned for Ryan Brown. Yeah,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned, Evan Van Gorp and Ryan Brown, both
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: part of the Sarnia Sting at one point. And again,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: we're pulling for the Sting, but we'll hear more from
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: them with London in the Friday Night Faceoff later when
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: we make our pick for that. So, Colin, I want to... Yeah,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I wanted to give some time here because we've got
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: a trade to go over, but also discussing what is
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: going on with the Owen Sound attack as of late.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Another team that we were sort of high on going
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: into the year. But Cole Zeroski now finds himself on
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: his third team over the last two seasons. A guy
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: that was a first round pick by Flint got moved
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to Owen Sound, led the preseason in points call. And
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: we were really excited for what Cole Zeroski could do
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: in Owen Sound this year alongside Pierce Bowie. but he
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: ends up getting moved to the Owen sound attack for
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: four draft picks, two seconds, two thirds, a guy that's
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: a Florida Panthers, a recent draftee. Again, when you look
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: at this trade for, let's start with Kingston because I
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: know you got thoughts on Owen sound, but a really
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: good pickup for, you know, Troy man's club in Kingston.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: That looks like they really needed another scoring winger.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Hey, I said they needed a goal scorer. And obviously
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: that's starting to see the Sniders of the world get hot.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Then they go make those or then they go make
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: this or Oski trade. like they did this past week.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: I think they're listening. Is this an effect? But this team,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: this team in Kingston, I mean, you get a top
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: six forward right away. He's hungry to play. He wants
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: to be there. That's huge. You give up four picks.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: It's a lot, but look for this pick to prove
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: dividends for the Kingston front X. This could be a move.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: We look back and like, we just talked about the
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Ryan Brown move, right? The London from Sarnia. This could
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: be a move for Kingston where it's like, Hey, it's
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: worth every pick. It's worth every pick we gave up.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: We saw the Edwards move last year going to Kitchener, right?
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Not as many picks, but it was worth it for
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: the Rangers at the time. So for the Frontenacs, you
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: see two goals right in the first two games for
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Zyrowski as a Frontenac. He's coming in. He's scoring. He's
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: a drafted player. Owen Sound parting ways like that way
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: too soon. is scary to me, which makes me think
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: the direction, the front or the Owen sound attack are
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: going and where they're looking on paper in the standings department,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: it's going to be a long year at the Bay shore.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: But I think for Zyrowski, every opportunity in Kingston, he's
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: going to be a top six player. Troy Mann does
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: a really good job of goal scorers. We saw it
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: with Paul Ludwinski a couple of years back, right? If
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: you have a good season, if you're, if you can
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: score goals, you're going to kind of let those guys
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: kind of run Rover a little bit in the system.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: The system's tough to play, but it's, it's fun. It's energetic.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: It's an energetic system. There's a lot of penetration involved.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: So for goal scorers, it can be fun as well.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: You got to work.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And it gets you naturally into the game. I
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: think that for this move, it's a great move for
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Kingston and, You have them play the wing up and
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: down the wing. Simple on the forecheck. Going to score
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: a lot of goals. Going to score a lot of
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: goal goals this summer or this winter in the Slush
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Puppy Center. So I'm excited to see what he can
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: do in Kingston.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: So on the other flip side of that trade, Colin,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: the unsound attack, we knew they were going to be
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: in tough sledding in a really tough Midwest division this season.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: I know new ownership, new coaching staff. They just hired
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: another new assistant coach and a few other off ice
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: coaches as well this week to try to figure some
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: stuff out. But right now the own sound attacks at
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: last place in the Western conference. And, you know, and for,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: you know, Pierce Bowie, is he going to be on
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: this team long-term as a guy that has NCAA commitment to,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: to his name, possibly next season, could he end up
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: getting moved as well after the Zeroski move? But, you know,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: it's just tough to see because we were, we were
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: thinking own sound was turning the corner after, you know, really,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: you know, tumultuous last season, Colin, but right now, last
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: place in the West, they're searching for answers.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely they are. This is very concerning. Probably one
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: of the most disappointing teams like they kind of were
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: last season to start. And you know, hey, the Barry
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Colts started 0-8 last year and they went to the
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: OHL finals. So there's a lot of time left in
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: the season, but you're digging an uphill battle when you're
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: playing like this so far. They have two players at
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: or over a point a game. Pierce Bowie, 13 points
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: in 11 games. And you have 11 points in 11
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: games for John Banks. After that, I mean, Harry Nancy,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: you're a drafted player, five points in nine games, right?
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Like Wesley Royston, you're waiting for that pick, that trade, right?
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: To prove dividends and see the positives and no one sound.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: You're looking at four points in 11 games to start.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: You're looking at goalies pulling themselves in games. Like it's not,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: that's not good culture building. And that's what I'm most
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: concerned about. It's an ownership change there. It's a young
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: coaching staff. We see the coaching staff kind of part ways.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Is there a disagreement in there? Something's obviously not eye
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: to eye, right, with management, with the coaching staff. So
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: we see a departure on the staff. Brandon, you saw
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: your fair share of coach departures. This is one where
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: you saw it before, Brandon. Correct me if I'm wrong,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: but like, man, oh, man. it's 11 games into the
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: season at the point where nine, eight games into the season,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: we're already seeing a coaching departure. Something doesn't add up there.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: And the writing's kind of on the wall for us
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: to kind of, not to speculate about it, but just
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: to give our opinion on it. And that's kind of
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: what I take away from that. And we see videos
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: of goaltenders just skating off the ice. I mean, it's
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: not good knowing sound, but they go get a big win.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: They go get a huge win in Saginaw. So I'm
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: not going to write the Owen Sound attack off. It
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: was a negative weekend, but that win against the Saginaw
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Spirit was huge for them.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Salvage the weekend.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, man, if they would have lost, I would have
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: written them off this week. I would have written them off.
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: 2-9.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Two and nine looks a lot worse than three and eight.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: And 11, three loss to Windsor. Who's currently second last
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: in the West.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And that, and like I said, I think the
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: best players for Owen sound definitely have to be better,
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: but trading calls are Oski. What does that tell you?
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: You're dressing room. You got to read the room, man.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: If you're Tyler and other, you got to read the
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: room here. Like I, I pull, I'm pulling for them,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: but like, you got to read the room in that occasion.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: One without a doubt. because that doesn't really give a
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: message to your team here. Hey, yeah, there's more opportunity,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: but we just lost our preseason goal scoring leader 11
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: or nine games into the season at the time. Like,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: what does that tell the room? Right. What does that
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: tell you? What does that tell you if you're in
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: the dressing room?
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Well, we're going for it, but we just traded our
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: preseason scoring leader nine games into the season. So I
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: know what direction we're going. If I'm Pierce Bowie, hello, London. Hello, Guelph. Hello, Saginaw. Like,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: you know, like I, maybe Sue, maybe Sudbury, Brantford, Ottawa, Kingston.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: I don't know. And you know, like if you're, if
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: you're Pierce Bowie, are you thinking elsewhere already? Like that,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: that sucks. And that's on, that's on their front office
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: without a doubt. That's on the front office of the
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: Owen sound attack. And you can, I wouldn't sound attack
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: fans get upset with me, but I'm just saying the
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: way I think it is about the attack. And I,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: the writing's on the wall. If I'm a player and
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: I see my scoring leader get traded in the pre
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: nine games in the preseason scoring leader, get moved. What
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: does that tell me? What direction we're going? And it
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: makes no sense. And it makes no sense for what
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: their off season was. They made a move. They made
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: a move a week, the week before the season started
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: for a backup goaltender and traded multiple picks for them.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: What does that tell you? You know, like, yeah, like, yeah.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: And then the leaners deal, I mean, You gave Branford
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: their top defenseman in Jack Kawaja. Like, you watch him skate, man. Like,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: he's one of the best skaters in the league, like,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: when he's going. But, like, with multiple picks. So, the
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: direction coming into the season, from my standpoint, I thought
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: the attack were going for it, Bran.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: I get it with new ownership coming in. They wanted
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: to do something, but was that the right move?
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: So, it's kind of one foot in one door, one
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: foot in the other. What sandbox are we in? I mean, hey,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: my golf shots aren't good when I have one foot
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: in the bunker and one on the grass. It usually
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: goes backwards. Is the team going backwards? The standings show it.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: So we'll see. We'll see. But it's very upsetting because
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: I look at the attendance there, you know, and what
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: do you tell your fans? What do you tell your
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: fan base? What do you tell your players? I love
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: the speech show from Keenan Reynolds postgame in Saginaw. I
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: thought that was really cool about adversity, going through adversity.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: That's a life lesson that everyone in the room is
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: going to go through. but I just hope the guys care.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: And I hope that their next games mean something. I
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: hope that that that's something that is keep an eye
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: on this weekend. It's rivalry weekend. Keep an eye on that.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: The Owen sound attack. Are they going to fall down?
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Cause I played a lot of nights on Saturday at
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: the Bay shore, Brandon, like is, are they like, what
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: does that tell you? They're Saturday at the Bay shore
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: and I'm looking at the rest of their schedule, Brandon, but, Oh, Thursday, Barry,
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: their next game.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: That's a big one.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: You got to win that game. Absolutely. So you play Thursday,
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: Friday or Thursday, Saturday, Thursday against the Barry Colts in Barry.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Shouldn't matter. It should not matter. And then you play
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: the London Knights at home. That's going to be a
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: tough one against London Knights. You can't get smoked. You
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: can't get smoked like Windsor and you definitely can't lose
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: to the Barry Colts. No offense to the Barry Colts.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: I thought they looked really good on Friday night. I did,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: but if the Owen sound attack on paper are the
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: better team, which I think they are, you have to
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: win that game. There's not a lot of must win
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: games in October, Brandon, but this is the type of
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: weekend for the Owen sound attack that can push them,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: push them down and say, okay, welcome to the Colin
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Ward draft lottery in December boys, because that's kind of
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: where they're going. And I'm worried about them, but you
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: got to find a way. You got to find a
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: way to win that game on Thursday night. You've got
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: to be desperate to win. And also, maybe riding Ryerson
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: leaners every single game to start the season wasn't a
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: great idea, eh, guys? That's my last point on no
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: unsound attack. You're going to wear him out. You're playing
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: him every game in October. Where's he going to be
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: in January, February, March? You know, I saw Ryerson in
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: person a long time now in the NHL when he
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: was with the Bulldogs and even with Brampton, Mississauga when
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: he first came up. Because of the Bulldogs and Steelheads
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: in the same conference, right? Like, you got to be careful.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: And they traded for another goalie. Like, are you going
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: to play them?
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: And you gave up more picks than when games played.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: What are we doing? They pulled them more than they
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: gave up picks. They pulled their goalies twice in a game. Like,
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: that was ugly. They're very lucky. They're very lucky. If
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: that happens in February, you have guys that quit. A
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: loss like that. We've saw that in person, Brandon. It's
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: a tough sell. That's why you've got to get this
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: train back on the tracks. You've got to have some
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: high-spirited practices. And here we go. Maybe get the Greg
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Cowan articles that read. Or maybe get the Twitter feeds
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: going in the room and get the boys a little loose.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Maybe get Greg in there to give him a pregame speech.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: That'd be awesome. He can come on here and give
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: us a speech. I'd love it.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Well, something's got to give on Thursday between the last
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: place Barry Colts and the last place Owen Sound attacks.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: So I'm actually intrigued to watch that matchup. so big
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: one yes going going from bottom to the top here
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: from owens sound to guelph colin can anybody stop the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: storm right now they've won nine in a row they
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: haven't lost a game since getting their full lineup back
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: and after you know week one where they had 13
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: players out of the lineup away at nhl camps like
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: they are just firing in all cylinders right now first
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: place in the western conference um we can see the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: player stats up on the board you know which first
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Owen Griffin, you're Sam O'Reilly. Yeah. Ryan Roberts got 14
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: and nine. Vlad Trevecky leading the back end with 14 points.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: They're top three, Brandon. It's all connections to us.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Ethan Zada, Tyler Hopkins, you know, Carter Stevens. I know
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: they lost a few players to injury, but you got
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: to be pretty pleased with what you're seeing from this
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: full Guelph Storm lineup after, you know, seeing a very
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: watered down lineup in week one.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, absolutely. It's nice not to see the air centennials. Um,
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: no offense to the air centennials, but we want to
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: see the best team that we want to see the
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: mem cup posts. Like I said, I said this back
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: second game of the season for the Guelph storm in Brantford.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: And I said this to Bulldog fans on the dog cast.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: It's unfortunate that we don't get to see the best
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: Guelph storm team. Cause it's once a year at TD
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: civic center, right in the East. It makes no sense.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: And it makes us want to go into another hour
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: long show and fix the divisions. But I think it's
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: a crime for fans, not the witness of a Memorial
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: cup host. But when I got to witness Saginaw, when
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: they were hosting the Mem Cup, that was a moment
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: that I remembered all season. I'll never forget that team,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: watching Zane Perak, Michael Misa, Josh Bloom, like watching those
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: guys go to work. It was pretty special to see, right? Like,
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: so to see this team, and I can't wait to
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: see them next month in person from the Sleeman Center
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: and see the upgrades. I know, Brandon, you were saying
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: they're pretty nice. The new lighting and stuff and the scoreboard,
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: everything they've done that in their Mem Cup year. But
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: this team is a wagon. I mean, they got a
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: lot of character down the middle. And I don't think
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: they're done adding down the middle by any means. And
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: you look at Owen Griffin's goal on Sunday against Sudbury.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: That was just a speed burst, man. And you're looking
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: at 17 points in nine games for Owen Griffin. And
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: you're looking at that speed burst down the wing. Just
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: cuts it to the net and finds a way. I mean,
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: I think the goalie was the only assist on the
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: play in Jovanovskiy. So I think that to see guys
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: like Griffin, to see Robrick, honestly, and Ethan Zada have
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: a chance to play on a competitive team, you know,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: like that's huge. That's huge.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Um, showcase them finally for their NHL teams.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Big time, big time. See what they are. Tyler Hopkins, right?
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: Like Tyler Hopkins, he had to go through that last season.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: Vladimir Drevetsky, you know, Brantford last year being that fifth,
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: sixth defenseman right on that load of Bulldogs team. But
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: you don't think he learned anything playing with the country
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: made Adam Mirochek. playing with Ben Danford, playing with Zach Sandu,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Edison Engel, that decor, right? Like he learned a lot
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: playing with them. Owen Protts.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Now he's running the power play.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Man, and the personality, no kidding it. And he was
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: on the second unit last year in Brantford. Like, and
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: he's not afraid to shoot the puck. He's going to
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: score a lot of goals. He's going to have a
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Sam Dickinson type year for the Guelph Storm. If they're
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: going to win the Memorial Cup, most importantly, if they're
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: going to win the OHL championship, he's going to have
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: a Sam Dickinson type year for the Guelph Storm. No
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: doubt about it. And the Islanders got an absolute steal
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: in the NHL draft. And congratulations, by the way, Vladi,
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: on your entry-level contract a couple weeks back with the Islanders.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: That's pretty cool to see as well. So you're going
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: to get that entry-level ELC boost as well, as we
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: see around the league when guys sign. It's hard to
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: see that production go up a little bit. It's not
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: a coincidence.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he impressed the heck out of the Islanders
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: at training camp, and he came to Guelph and just
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: continued on that momentum, so... Great to see they're over
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: a point of game right now. He could be defenseman
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: of the year when it's all said and done in
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: the Ontario Hockey League. But quickly on this goaltending here, Colin,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: for Guelph, because we talk about Ben Hurebich and obviously
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: how big of a deal that was getting him from
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: the Barry Colts. He's 4-0 with a 9.08 save percentage
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: and a 2.50 goals against, which is nothing to look against.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Those are good numbers. But Zach Jovanovsky's 5-0 with a 9.52
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: save percentage and a 1.20 goals against average. Talk about
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: a two-headed monster for these guys. Neither of them have
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: lost yet. Colin Ellsworth was in the net in week
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: one for both of their losses. So with Hrebic and Jovanoski,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: this might be the best tandem in all the Ontario
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Hockey League right now.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Hey, I said this right away, and I said this
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: back when the trade happened, Brandon, when you were texting
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: about it, when the Hrebic move happened. You can't trade Jovanoski.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: If you want to host the Memorial Cup and you
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: want to win and you want to be a legit host,
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: you've got to have both your goaltenders. You've got to
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: have them both. And you see it every season where
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: both goaltenders are going to play. We saw it with
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: London when they were good, when it was Medvedev-Elliott, you know,
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: and Elliott obviously with the success he had that season,
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: how incredible that single season was. We're not going to
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: see that too often, but coming off the playoff that
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: Ben Arabic had, like, you know, like in Zach Jovanovsky
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: getting drafted, having success last year, having a successful year
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: in his draft year, you kind of got to, you
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: got to keep that together. You hope nothing happens, but
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: you need it. If you make a move on Jovanoski
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: and you just go Horebic and Ellsworth, well, if Horebic
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: gets hurt, you're looking for a goalie. So they have
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: a lot of depth at every position. And when you're
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: hosting Memorial Cup, you have to have the depth at
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: every position. You got to build from the back out.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: I love this two-headed monster, and I think it's the
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: best duo in the Ontario Hockey League by far. And
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: any given night, you look at who's in net, it
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: doesn't matter who's in net because you know there's a
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: chance that that goaltender is going to steal a game.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: It does not matter who plays net on any given
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: night for the Guelph storm. And that's the, that's the
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: best compliment you can give to a goaltending tandem when
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: it doesn't matter who's playing net, it's going to be
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: hard to score on them anyway.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: And they've got all those picks from the Declan McNally
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: trade to, to Barry as well. So George Burnett can really,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: you know, add the, you know, fix whatever holes he
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: thinks he has on his roster pretty easily here as
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: they continue to, to buy and build here going into
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: December and January. But, We got about four minutes before
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Ben's going to join us, Colin. So let's quickly go
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: over the players of the week. We'll start off with
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: player of the week. Comes from the London Knights, Marcus Nordmark.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: NHL prospect here. Three goals, two or three games played.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Excuse me. Two goals, four assists. One shootout goal as well.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: You know, just one of those great import players that
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Mark Hunter was able to get for the London Knights.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: He's player of the week and a reason why London
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: is where they are right now.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: 100%. Great player. Great talent. I think this, like obviously
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: for London, it gives them a depth factor that you
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: didn't see coming, but you saw coming with these imports
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: with the move. So I think for them and the
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Nordmark move, you're just starting to see them get comfortable
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: here in North America. And that shootout goal is pretty
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: nasty as well.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Marcus Nordmark is a Anaheim Ducks first rounder in 2026,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: 28th overall. So he's a guy to look forward to. There,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: let's move on to defenseman of the of the week
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: or excuse me, goaltender of the week is from the
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Brantford Bulldogs. Vilmer, Salem, Forsberg, the Viking, two games played,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: one goal against 971 save percentage of shutout, 67 saves. Colin,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: you could talk about Vilmer a lot. And if you
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: want the full thoughts on that, go listen to the
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: dog cast. But he's been a fantastic ad for the
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Brantford Bulldogs. And what a find by Spencer Hyman.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: Vilmer Gustaf Viking sailing Forsberg. Best name. Best name. We
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: talked about it. It's on the dog cast a couple
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: of weeks back. OHL fans go back and listen to
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: the dog cast on the Bulldogs audio network. Dog cast.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: You'll see, you'll hear from Vilmer on it. Quite the story.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: Cause it's not a common name, even in Sweden, Brandon,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: but he just thought it was cool. So that's why
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: he had to do it. So to see that, that
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: was pretty neat for Vilmer. to see him get a
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: goaltender of the weekend. The name's pretty cool. And also,
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: he's a big fan of IKEA meatballs.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: There you go. I mean, Swedish meatballs. There's not a
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: lot better.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: They're a big deal in Sweden, even, IKEA.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: And then we'll stay with London for Rookie of the Week.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Cooper McCaslin, three games played a goal and three assists,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: plus eight in three games for this young player here
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: and a guy that the Knights are very high on,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: another guy that Mark Hunter and Dale were able to
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: get to commit here. Just continues to be a reason
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: why London has gone off to a great start with
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: guys like this being able to rise up to the
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: OHL level.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah. I mean, this is a kid that's going
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: to be a star, right? Like, you know, this player
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: is going to be in for rookie of the year
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: right away. And you look at the rookie of the
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: year is the easy ones. It's to look at the
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: rookies on London. If you're going to play and come
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: up and make and have an opportunity, younger league, you know,
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: there's going to be more opportunity. McCaslin is going to
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: be a great player for them.
• 38:29
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  Speaker 3: You're listening to the OHL in 60 podcast right here
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  Speaker 3: on the Armchair GM Sports Network.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: So with that said, we're going to welcome on our
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: guest on today's show, beat reporter for the Sudbury Wolves
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: for the Sudbury Star. Ben, really appreciate you taking the
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: time tonight. Obviously a great start for the Wolves up
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: there in Sudbury. What's the weather like up there? It's
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: not too cold yet, is it?
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: We've had a couple of cold days lately, but today
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: was beautiful. I think it was about 18 degrees and
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: sunny all day, not too much wind. So can't complain
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: too much about that in late October here.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: And you're perfect with our Friday night face-off pick, which
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: we'll get before you leave today. But Uh, you you're
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: at the perfect five and O right now. You've got
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: the hot hand with the prediction so far.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: Seem to be, uh, getting a bit of luck so far, but, uh,
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: just trying to make a, trying to make a, uh,
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: an informed choice. And so far the teams haven't let
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: me down.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: So Ben, before Colin gets to his first question, where
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: can people find what you're doing with the Sudbury wolves?
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: And how many years have you been covering the wolves
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: up in Sudbury?
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: Well, I actually did a little bit of, uh, coverage, uh,
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: back way back when, when I was in, in, uh,
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: when they had a journalism program at Cambrian college up here,
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: I did a little bit of work for the paper
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: then covering some sports on a freelance basis and then
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: a little bit on placement as well, but really got
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: back into town in 2010. And a few months later, um,
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: after working on the desk a little bit, got, uh, got,
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: got into writing with the wolves full time, writing about
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: the wolves full time. So it's been kind of go, uh,
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: going nonstop ever since. But, uh, Folks want to see
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: the content. It's over at the Sudbury star.com. And they can,
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: can always find me on social media too. I'm pretty
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: easy to track down that way.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: Ben, thanks for joining us again on the OHL and
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: 60 podcasts. We had you back on.
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: Back in the Quinton musty deal. The first, when he
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: was the first overall pick. So nice to have you
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: back on the show. JC Lemieux last year's deadline. We'll
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: touch on that. JC Lemieux comes in. a lot of,
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: not pressure, but probably a lot of energy to build
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: off with what happened at the draft. How big has
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: he been for the Wolves? And I mean, the season
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: he's had already, we're looking at 14 points in eight games, Ben.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: What have you saw in his game? How much has
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: he matured?
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: First of all, one of the things with JC, and
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you've had any dealings with him,
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: but if you talk to him at all, he's just
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: an absolute pleasure to be around as a person. He's
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: smiling all the time, very enthusiastic. uh any of the
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: community stuff or the stuff the team does like on
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: the marketing side he's always in there he'll be wearing
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: his gear sitting at a barber's chair or pretend to
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: take tickets or whatever it is he's always one of
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: the guys that's in there involved with that stuff so
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: he's a lot of fun and and i think that's
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: one of the reasons uh you know other than his
• 43:20
  Speaker 4: uh other than his it's his leadership abilities that he
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: um that he's wearing an a for the team this
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: year but uh Yeah, his numbers have been great to
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: start the season. I mean, you come over in a
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: trade like he did back in January with the Windsor Spitfires.
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: And of course, you've got a lot of, there's some
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: big holes to fill when you ship out a couple
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: of veterans. And he came in and was a pretty
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: reliable point producer right away and certainly a big part
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: of the power play. And that's where we've really seen
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: him excel so far this year is on those special
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: teams opportunities that he's had.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: That skill set he has for sure. And, you know,
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: last year I kept saying it, Covering the Bulldogs, I
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: kept saying that first-round series was not a sweep. The
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: Wolves deserved to win one, maybe two games in that series.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: You could argue three. With how good they played in
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: all four of those games, the attention to detail they
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: played with, how important was that playoff series for the
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: Wolves this year? Because from a Sudbury standpoint, it's got
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: to be pretty impressive. I mean, they looked really good
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: in that four-game series.
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I remember my former editor, Bruce Heidman at the start,
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: he sent me a text right after that series was
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: over and said, that's the closest four games we have
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: ever seen. And I remember repeating that to Scott Barney
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: when I talked to him. And, you know, I think
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: there's a certain moral victory for the Wolves there and
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: a lot of confidence that was built up. I mean,
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: they had some guys, especially at even strength, that did
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: really well against a pretty strong Brantford team. And I
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: think maybe you know, open their eyes a little bit
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: to not only how good you had to be to
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: beat a team like that, but also, you know, we
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: keep at it and we build on things. We can
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: play with teams like this, right? And I'm sure that,
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: and I think that was the case for a guy
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: like Lemieux, like it was the case for a guy
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: like Rowan Henderson, you know, some of the other players
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: who maybe took their games to a little bit of
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: a different level and have continued with that so far
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: this regular season. Absolutely.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Talk to us about Paulo Frasca. a little bit, Ben, because,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: you know, he's a guy that was an 11th round
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: pick by the Windsor Spitfires. He's come over. He's been
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: very good for the Sudbury Wolves this season. I believe
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: he's first in the Ontario Hockey League in save percentage.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: You know, what can you tell us about his journey
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: being able to get here and obviously putting up some
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: great numbers so far this season with Sudbury?
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: Paul is a fun story too. And another fun guy
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: to be around, like a really Really nice kid. Anyone
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: will tell you that he's a real glue guy in
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: the room. If they could put a letter on him,
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: they probably would too. It's one of the reasons that
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: he's got an overage spot with the team, other than
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: the fact that he's a pretty darn good goalie. But yeah,
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: this guy that came out of St. Andrews College, played
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: there actually with Finn Kearns, who's also with the Wolves now,
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: and then ended up going out to the BCHL. Had
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: a fantastic start there. Certainly turned some heads. And the
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: Wolves were one of those teams that wasn't getting... consistent
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: goaltending at that time they made a couple changes of
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: course they acquired his rights had to wait a little
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: while because he got injured i think in his last
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: game he was uh i think it was the very
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: day that the trade went through he got hurt playing
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: for victoria on the bchl but he came back from
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: that so right around the same time they brought uh
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: bjorn bronis in and of course they're they're both there
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: now but paulo's obviously put the work in in the
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: off season um he he's come in and really really
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: taken the bull by the horns in the crease this
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: year um, he's, he's not big and that's maybe something
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: that's worked against him. He's, he's about five, 10, uh,
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: but he's a competitor. He's athletic. He's very quick in
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: the crease and he just, he battles out there. He
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: doesn't give up on much. And, uh, well, we've seen,
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: we've seen how that's served him pretty well through, through
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: seven games so far.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: What a great story. He's nine 42 say percentage of
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: one 71, one 72 goals against average. Uh, just, uh,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: a great story for a guy, as you mentioned, that's, uh,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: you know, bounced around junior hockey, but being able to
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: finish off his, his overage season, uh, here in the
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Ontario hockey league and potentially on a team that has
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: a lot of aspirations come playoff time. It, uh, it
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: seems like it's a, one of the, one of the
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: better stories in the Ontario hockey league, you know, not
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: just for, you know, just the player, but also the
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: young man being able to persevere through it.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: So it's, it's been nice to see that really, really
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: great to, to see it fall into place where a
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: team had that need. And, you know, he was a
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: guy that was, uh, obviously excited to, to, to take
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: that opportunity and, and run with it. And of course
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: he ended up being their guy in the playoffs in
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: that series you mentioned against Brantford too, which obviously is
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: not an easy task with some of those shooters he
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: had coming at him. But, uh, like I say, again, um,
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: guy who's really, really made his mark in the room.
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: I think that's probably the case with, uh, with all
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: the goalies they've had in this year. Of course, um,
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: Owen Leonard has, uh, since gone down to the OJHL
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: and is having some good success there. So it looks
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: like they're going to go with the Frasca Bronis tandem
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: for now. And, uh, And Bronis was actually very good
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: on the weekend as well, too. So, uh, certainly a
• 48:12
  Speaker 4: reason to be optimistic about the, the goaltending for the
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: Wolves so far.
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: Ben, Scott Barney. I mean, with the job he's done
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: behind the bench coming in to Sudbury and what he's
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: done to this franchise, I mean, in a short time,
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: you could say, I mean, what he's done, he's been great.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: What's been your impressions working with someone like Scott and
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: what's he like on the day to day? I've never
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: been able to meet him yet, but, uh, what's he
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: been like on the day to day? And, uh, What's
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: your thoughts on him?
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: Scott's been well, first of all, he's been kind of
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: a reporter's dream as a coach. And that's not to
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: disrespect anybody that came before him, because there's been a
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: lot of guys who have come through here who have,
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: you know, who we've had pretty good relationships with.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: But he's just he's really great about making himself available.
• 48:56
  Speaker 4: He just he sees it as part of the job.
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: He gives you insightful answers and, you know, and things
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: like that. So that that goes a long way. Um, and,
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: and I think he has a sort of a similar
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: relationship in some ways with his players. I mean, he,
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: he's definitely a guy that's very high on accountability, but, um,
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: he's also very much a player's coach. I think the
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: kids respect him, but they listen to him. And, uh,
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: they feel that he knows what he's talking about. They
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: seem to have done a pretty good job with the
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: culture there of, you know, keeping kids accountable and also
• 49:31
  Speaker 4: making sure kids understand what their jobs are. I know
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: he's very high on making sure a guy has a role,
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: understands what that role is, and if if he's willing
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: to play that role to the best of his ability, that's,
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: that's a great way to make a Scott Barney hockey team.
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: He wants you, he wants players to have an identity.
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: He keeps talking about identity and, and knowing what their
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: roles are. And if you kind of even, you could
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: even kind of see that with a couple of the
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: picks in, in training camp this year, guys who made
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: the team versus guys that didn't, that maybe just hadn't
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: really carved out that niche for themselves yet. Right.
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: A hundred percent, a hundred percent. You gotta love that
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: as a coach. I mean, you're a coach in the
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: Ontario hockey league. accountability is the number one thing because
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: you're honestly, you're growing young men. It's a big time
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: in people's lives and their kids, right? 16, you come
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: in at 16 years old, you're moving away from home
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: to be a head coach of a franchise or a
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: general manager. It's a big ask. It's more than just
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: managing a roster in junior hockey. You're dealing with kids.
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: Oh, a hundred percent. And it's really easy for that
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: to get at hand too, right? I mean, sometimes, sometimes
• 50:33
  Speaker 4: there might be situations in the past where, kids get
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: away with a little bit, or maybe they're not held
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: accountable to the same extent another player is, and that
• 50:43
  Speaker 4: starts to create a bit of division in your room.
• 50:46
  Speaker 4: It can be a real mess, and sometimes it can
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: take a while to fix that culture, right? So it's
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: probably something they have to pay attention to day to
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: day to really make sure that they're on top of
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: that stuff.
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: Then you think about the schooling aspect of things too.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: It's so much more that the fans don't see on
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: a day to day. Like it's, there's so much that
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: goes into running an OHL team. Not just as a
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: head coach, but like it takes a village to build,
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: to make a team like it with all the schooling
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: and stuff like people got to remember you may have
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: a game on a, on a Thursday night, but Friday
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: you got school. Like it's a, it's, it's wild what
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: goes into it. Maybe some of the fans don't know.
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's, it's true. And you know, I know maybe
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: sometimes people that, that don't maybe follow it too closely don't,
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: you know, have the idea that, that schools really like
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: for these guys, but they end up with some pretty
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: challenging courses. You know, a lot of the time they're,
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: you know, university stream courses, you know, before the NCAA
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: rule changes.
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: But you know, before the NCAA rule changes, it was
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: the case too, because these guys need to be able
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: to get into, into Canadian universities. But of course now,
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: if they want to be academically eligible to go to
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: a division one program south of the border, they're going
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: to have to have the marks to do that too.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: So it's, it's something that another thing that, that, that
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: players and all and, and coaches and all the other
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: staff that of course, are more specialized in that, have
• 52:05
  Speaker 4: to keep an eye on, right, if these kids have
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: those kinds of aspirations.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: 100%. And it's interesting. I'm going to get to the
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: trade in a second and the where were you moment
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: in the OHL. But it's interesting because, like, I'm finding now,
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: and I don't know for you, but you have two
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: elite young rookies that are in Sudbury, obviously with Cash
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: and Tanner Adams. Those two guys, and I'm noticing this
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: in– some of the younger guys on Brantford as well
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: with the Aiden Kelly's these 16 year olds coming in,
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: it's already, you can see the academics that they have,
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: the way they speak, the way they can get handle interviews.
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: You already see kind of that academic first mentality at 16,
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: that perhaps like, I don't know for you, but I
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: never saw that four years ago in the league. And
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: now you're seeing these young players come in, have interviews.
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: And it's like, wow, you don't even need media training.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: It's like, wow. And you see all the, you see
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: all that already. Are you seeing that as well with
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: some of the young guys in Sudbury?
• 53:07
  Speaker 4: I think I do. You know, you see kids that
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: come in, they're very, you know, they're very well-spoken. They're,
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: they're sharp. It's almost like, you know, a smart, a
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: smart kid makes a smart hockey player. Right. And, and,
• 53:17
  Speaker 4: but I think, I think there's maybe a little more
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: emphasis on that behind the scenes and, and things like that,
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: but you're right. They do come across maybe a, a
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: little more polished, uh, than maybe, you know, some of
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: them did in the past.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: But, uh, it, um, you know, it may, maybe it
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: goes hand in hand though, that, that a mind that
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: takes to, uh, the processing the game at the speed
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: it's played now, uh, with the skill you need to
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: play at such a high level, maybe, you know, takes
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: a lot of the same kind of brain that.
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: Uh, you need for school.
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: Right. Um, cause, cause I, cause there's, there's such an
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: emphasis on both now.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: But, uh, Yeah, it's been a pleasure to get to
• 53:56
  Speaker 4: know some of those kids for sure. And, you know,
• 53:59
  Speaker 4: you get some interviews that are a little more interesting
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: that way too. You know, maybe guys who talk a
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: little more about some different things don't necessarily fall back
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: on all the old cliches.
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Tanner Adams, the trade. I was critical on it
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: at the time. I'm kind of mild out now. Obviously,
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: a little overwhelmed at first. Where were you when this
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: trade went down, Ben? what went through your mind when
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: you saw this trade? What was your first thoughts too?
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: I mean, well, I gotta, I gotta admit.
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they did.
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: And yeah, I mean the, the 15 picks they gave up.
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: And then of course there's the two compensation on top
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: of that. It's, it's a lot, no matter how you
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: slice it for sure. Um, I think I was probably
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: sitting in front of this same laptop and, and I
• 54:43
  Speaker 4: think so. One of the, uh, you know, one of those, um,
• 54:47
  Speaker 4: insider-type accounts tweeting something about it. I think they might
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: have mentioned the 17 picks or something like that. And,
• 54:52
  Speaker 4: you know, as you know, sometimes those are right on
• 54:55
  Speaker 4: the money, and sometimes those you've got to take with
• 54:57
  Speaker 4: a bit of a grain of salt. I think we
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: just saw a rumored trade for a goalie this past
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: week that didn't happen. So at first I had to
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: admit I didn't really believe it. I was asking around
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: a bit about it. A couple of people I talked
• 55:09
  Speaker 4: to said, that sounds crazy. That can't be that much, right? Absolutely.
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: But when you hear a little bit more about how
• 55:17
  Speaker 4: it played out, they wanted him badly. They had a
• 55:21
  Speaker 4: mandate as an organization to get him because they knew
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: how badly he wanted to play here. And I think
• 55:26
  Speaker 4: just as strong on the other side was Brampton's... They
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: were digging in their heels. They didn't want to give
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: him up if they didn't have to. And I think
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: as an organization, they eventually must have sat down and said, look,
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: this is what we've got on the table. We're going
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: to take this. We're going to make this trade because
• 55:43
  Speaker 4: that's going to be huge for us too, right? But
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: seeing the player in action since, I mean, there's a
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: lot of promise there. He's been injured for the last
• 55:53
  Speaker 4: couple of weeks, but it sounds like he's back this week.
• 55:55
  Speaker 4: So definitely looking forward to seeing that and seeing what
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: he can do as a junior.
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: And Cash Quaggia. I mean, I see his brother on
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: a daily jet and the skating ability with Cash as well.
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: The infectious personality they have. real treat to chat with
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: i mean the personality lights up a room um whenever
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: they're in it with cash i loved him in the
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: draft his draft year was big um he kept getting
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: better and better what's his development been like here five
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: weeks already into the ohl season.
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: Well he's he's lived up to promise i would say
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: i mean uh it's not every player even a top
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: five pick that that puts up the kind of numbers
• 56:34
  Speaker 4: he has and with some of the responsibility he has
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: too he's He's played in their top six for the
• 56:38
  Speaker 4: most part. He's had a lot of time in the
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: power play, even on the point at times. And he
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: has involved killing penalties, which I love to see for
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: a young guy as well. But you're right, very much
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: that kind of personality. He has a smile on his
• 56:52
  Speaker 4: face a lot. Very friendly, easy kid to talk to
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: and to get talking. So that's been nice. I had
• 57:01
  Speaker 4: the pleasure of meeting the rest of his family briefly,
• 57:03
  Speaker 4: including his brother when they were up here for the
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: press conference to announce his signing. But it's been a
• 57:10
  Speaker 4: neat sort of a juxtaposition, too, to have two 16-year-old
• 57:14
  Speaker 4: players who are so high level but so different. And
• 57:17
  Speaker 4: they played on the same line somewhat, too. Whereas Tanner
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: is one of those guys that very much seems to
• 57:24
  Speaker 4: know what kind of player he is. He's a big
• 57:26
  Speaker 4: body player. He plays a pretty simple game. He's got
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: his skill, don't get me wrong. He can finish, he
• 57:32
  Speaker 4: can make a nice pass, but he gets the puck in,
• 57:35
  Speaker 4: he goes after it hard, he lays the body, he
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: goes to the net. He does all that kind of
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: power forward stuff. Whereas Cash is sort of more zipping
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: around the ice, but no one where to go. Very
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: smart about it, he's efficient, but he can make those
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: no-look passes. He can fool defenders, set guys up. Sometimes
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: it'll be a subtle thing. I think of um rowan
• 57:58
  Speaker 4: henderson's uh shorthanded goal the other day uh with which
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: cash set up and you never would have had an
• 58:04
  Speaker 4: inkling as either of those defenders that rowan was floating
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: in behind now he knew enough to drop but cash
• 58:10
  Speaker 4: didn't so much as look give him a side eye
• 58:12
  Speaker 4: he waited till the very last second till he saw
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: there was enough separation made the pass over um to
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: a man was wide open for a shot so he's
• 58:19
  Speaker 4: got a lot of those little habits that are just
• 58:21
  Speaker 4: very hard to teach and uh And, and the work
• 58:24
  Speaker 4: ethic to go with it, I think is going to
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: take them a long way.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: So Ben, when we look at it, I mean, they're
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: second place in the Eastern conference right now, first place
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: in the central division, Colin and I both thought going
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: into the season that it was their division to lose
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: in the central with a lot of teams, you know,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: maybe in a, in a rebuilding part of their cycle
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: right now, you know, that 32.7% power play, you know,
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: obviously it was a tough weekend for them against London
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: losing that game and lost another game as well. But,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: They were the last team standing with the losses and regulation. So,
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: you know, what is just the outlook here? And after
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: that big Tanner Adams trade that you guys had just
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: talked about, what more do you think that Rob Papineau
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: can potentially add to this team when he doesn't really have,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe the fullest of draft cupboards left to use, dude?
• 59:10
  Speaker 4: Disposal yes it's certainly not as full as it was
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: um and i put that question to him you know
• 59:16
  Speaker 4: do you still feel like if you need to need
• 59:17
  Speaker 4: to add to this team that you can and he
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: says that he he says that he's confident he can
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: make that happen so we'll see how that plays out
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: if it's indeed the case um I think they're going
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: to try to be pretty patient with the young group
• 59:30
  Speaker 4: that they've got because they've got a few guys that
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: have come into the team who are pretty new to
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: the league, first or second year players, maybe had a
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: cup of coffee last year, some of them, but have
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: shown some nice promise here to start. And I think
• 59:41
  Speaker 4: they're going to try to get them on the ice
• 59:42
  Speaker 4: as much as they can and see how that goes.
• 59:45
  Speaker 4: But I do think everyone here is pretty high on
• 59:50
  Speaker 4: what they can do potentially. We saw on the weekend
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: that maybe they're not world beaters yet. And they, they
• 59:56
  Speaker 4: do have some things to work on. I know it's
• 59:58
  Speaker 4: always hard to go down to a place like London where,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 4: you know, they haven't won since 2010 or a place
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 4: like Guelph when they're as good as they are and
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 4: things like that. But certainly some things to take away
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 4: from that and having Adams back in the lineup, having
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 4: Blake Clayton, their captain back in the lineup this week,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 4: that should certainly help. I'm looking forward to this back
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: to back with North Bay for rivalry week, because North
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 4: Bay is, is a little further down the standings right now,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 4: but they can't be taken lightly. As usual, they've got
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 4: a big, heavy physical team. They're well coached. They always
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 4: get up for playing the Wolves. And let's face it,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 4: over the years, they've had the edge in that rivalry
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: a little bit too, a lot of seasons. So that'll
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 4: tell us a little more maybe about where both teams
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 4: are at right now. 100%.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: It felt like Ben... especially that Guelph game, it felt
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: like Sudbury for most of that game was in a
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: good spot. Looking around and watching the video on the game,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: I was able to rewatch it today, and I'm looking
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: at it, and I'm thinking, the first two periods, if
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: you're in the Wolves' room, like, you're feeling pretty good. Like,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: Griffin goal, obviously, to tie it. I mean, that's just
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: a beautiful end-to-end individual effort. I mean, you got to
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: tip your cap on that one. But it felt like
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: most of that game was a positive for the Wolves,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: What's your takeaways from the weekend? Obviously London, the game
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: that happened as well. What was kind of your takeaway
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: from the Wolves and the measuring stick type weekend that
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: was for the Sudbury Wolves?
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, those games were kind of a, they sort of
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 4: flipped it in a way because I remember the second period,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 4: of course, in that London game, London was kind of
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 4: all over them and didn't really have a whole lot
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: of goals to show for it. You figured, you thought
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 4: they were still in the game and then they came
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 4: out in the third and played London very well, had some,
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 4: Some really strong shifts. Weren't rewarded on the scoreboard, I
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 4: don't think, more than once, just with Adam Nemitz's goal there.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 4: But came out on the losing end 4-1. And then,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: like you said, the first two periods in Guelph I
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 4: thought were quite good. Guelph did get a bit of
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 4: momentum there by the end of the second. But I
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 4: thought when the Wolves came out for the third, the
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 4: way they were playing, that they were in pretty good shape.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 4: Kind of unraveled a little bit later on, as we saw.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 4: And maybe that just speaks to the fact that on
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 4: both those teams, when you're playing against teams like that,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 4: you have to have that full 60 minutes, as they say, right?
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 4: You can't really have any shifts off or you're going
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 4: to end up on the losing side. And I'm not
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 4: so sure that the Wolves, as good as they've been,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 4: have been at their best for 60 minutes of a
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 4: full game yet. And it might seem funny when you
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 4: look at 6-0 and it's Barry or 7-2 and some
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 4: of those. But there's definitely been teams that have played
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 4: them well in shifts. They've had... they, I can think
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 4: of the Peterborough game. I can think of the Windsor game,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 4: even though that was a six, two win that Windsor
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 4: was coming on pretty strong in that third period. So
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 4: there there's going to be some need to be some
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 4: work to be done on for consistency there for sure.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: And it brings up my next question, Ben, it's, it's
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: always something cause we're five weeks into the season and
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: you're starting to see teams with their systems in place
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: and you're starting to see tighter structure and you're starting
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: to see things, but It's a classic. It's junior hockey.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: We haven't really saw teams play a full 60 minutes.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: It's at that point in the year where maybe you don't.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: Last year, there was a lot of teams where we
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: just never saw a full 60 minutes out of some teams,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: where we never saw those games where it was like
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: a full 60 minutes where you had control of the game.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: When in your mind do you think that systems, when
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: you see a team at their full potential, is it
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: not until December 1st?
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 4: December, I know that I remember one of the old
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 4: things used to be you don't start seeing the real
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 4: OHL until November, but maybe it is December now, really,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: before some of those teams really start to get locked
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 4: into playing how they want to play on a regular basis. And,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 4: you know, that's why it's a little hard maybe to
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 4: make some of those early judgments now about a team
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 4: like the Wolves, because a lot can happen. I do
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 4: think with the staff they've got, and I'm pretty... high
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 4: on their ability to develop kids that, uh, they, they
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: are going to keep, uh, keep improving as the year
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 4: goes on. And, and some of those young guys will
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 4: be contributors more and more. So we'll, uh, we'll have
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 4: to see sort of which, which groups that have had
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 4: the slow start. I'm into North Bay as a potential one, uh, that,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 4: that sort of come on a bit here now. And,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 4: you know, as we get to that, uh, that early
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 4: to mid December sort of, uh, a window where, where
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 4: some of those, some of the research see some of
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 4: that separation.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: I look at Peterborough, right. Then they went two in
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: a row. Like everyone you see online, Peterborough, Peterborough, Peterborough.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: Then they went two in a row this weekend. Now,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: if you're Peterborough, the Jay Ross is back out. It's
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: at Peter, Tom, you're back early in the year.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, I mean, they're, they got, I think they're
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 4: one of the oldest teams in the league. They got
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 4: a whole bunch of 19 year olds.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 4: And there's a lot of experience there, which, you know,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 4: as you know, is, is a pretty important component of
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 4: success in, uh, in the OHL. So if they can
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 4: pull that together, I mean, that, uh, that could be
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 4: a pretty good squad. They might have some holes to fill,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: but there's, there's, there's some nice players on that team.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: For sure. Ben Dario has been very much out front.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: We saw him on social media, a lot on the
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: wolves accounts and how excited he is for this team,
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: the new arena and everything that's coming in Sudbury, you know,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: hopefully they keep the wolf and bring it over to
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: the new arena. I guess this is a two-parter. What's
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: your favorite wolf memory. And, and I guess what is
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: the vibe up there or just the, the general excitement
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: about what's coming in Sudbury in the next couple of seasons?
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 4: I do think that is the plan to bring the
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 4: Wolf over to the new building when they get it built.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 4: So I think you can look forward to seeing that.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 4: There's probably a few different Wolf memories. I mean, the
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 4: first one I have might be when, and that was
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: probably a different Wolf even back when I was a
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 4: kid first going to games. This is probably, you know,
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 4: you're talking in the 90s when I first had the
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 4: experience of seeing the Wolf on the wire come out
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 4: So that was that was something because, you know, I
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 4: didn't even know then how how unique it really, really is.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: But there's there's definitely some some neat ones. Actually, there
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 4: was a couple of years ago, the wolf didn't stop
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 4: and it came all the way over to the press
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 4: box and kind of got jammed in there, sort of
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 4: right against against the roof of the gondola. And it
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 4: was sort of just, you know, teetering. But because it
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 4: got sort of jammed, I could have reached up and
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: touched it. I might have. I don't know. but it's
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 4: been working fine since. So hopefully, hopefully they're able to
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 4: score a few when they get into that new building and,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 4: and even before and, and have it coming out a
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 4: little more often. But no, there's, there's definitely some excitement
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 4: about that now that people see the construction going on
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 4: and you know, the idea that that could work very
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 4: well be a venue for, for an OHL draft and, and,
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 4: and maybe a Memorial cup in years to come. So,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 4: it's a fun time to think about where things might
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 4: go for the Wolves as an organization too, not just
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 4: a team on the ice. 100%.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's cool to see. It's really neat to
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: see that in Sudbury, in the community. Dario's impact. CML
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: all over. He's on every road game. He's involved. You
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: see him on social media. The impact that he's had
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: in the community, Ben, how big has he been to
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: the community of Sudbury?
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 4: Well, Dario's a, he's a big Sudbury guy. And yeah,
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 4: as you, as you've seen, he's a kind of a
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 4: larger than life figure and personality and, and a big
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 4: booster for the team. And, and it was neat to
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 4: kind of talk to him for a recent story I
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 4: did about that too, because I didn't, I didn't realize
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 4: sort of the, you know, just sort of the thought
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 4: process behind the scenes that led to him being a
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 4: little more involved. I mean, we've seen him at the
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 4: rink ever since he bought the team. He, you know,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 4: he's been a familiar face, but to be a little
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 4: more involved in the hockey side and not just, you know, not,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 4: not pretending he's the GM, you know, not, not that
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 4: kind of thing, but just making himself a little more
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 4: on top of what the team was doing. He spoke
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 4: about the disappointment they had in 2024 and the team
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 4: going out in the second round against North Bay and, um,
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 4: and just how, you know, how low he felt after
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 4: that and how he sort of resolved to just be,
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 4: have a closer relationship with the guys running the team,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 4: you know, and, and, and, and have, and, you know, just,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 4: just be part of that and sort of really keep
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 4: track of what was going on and make sure they
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 4: had everything all the time they needed to do what
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 4: they thought to do. So no one ever could say,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 4: I didn't get what I needed from Dario or from
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 4: ownership or from upper management to make this happen.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 4: So, uh, that's sort of has been his philosophy ever since. And,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 4: you know, you see it a little bit more when
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 4: you go down to the team offices and draft day,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 4: he's very much, uh, involved and invested in, in what's
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 4: going on there. So it's, uh, neat, but it's definitely
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 4: become something that was a lot more of an investment
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 4: for him early on. The original hope was that the
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 4: new arena was going to be built on the property
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 4: he was developing and this was sort of a means
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 4: to an end for that. But it's become a lot
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 4: more of a passion project for him since and something
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 4: he really wants to do for the community. So it's
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 4: been a neat evolution for him, I think.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: 100%. It's cool to see some of these owners around
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: the league that are so hands on and growing the
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: community in a whole, not just the team. Cause some
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: teams are so isolated in the city where you don't
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 2: see the community events. It's cool to see owners that
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 2: are for the Sudbury wolves. That's pretty cool to see
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: for the OHL. That's everything for the fan base. I mean,
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: I think that every fan wants to know that's their
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: big thing, right? My last one for you, Ben, appreciate
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: you joining us again on the show. My last one
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 2: for you. And that we're starting to get answers on this, Ben,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 2: the agreement with the NCAA, the new landscape of the CHL.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: What's your opinion now as we're a year and a half,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: almost two years into this new landscape, what's kind of
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: your thoughts on this and where the OHL CHL is
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: at in the hole?
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 4: Well, it's, it's, it's been an interesting thing to see
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 4: unfold because I think at, I think at first people
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 4: just didn't know really what the impact was going to be,
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 4: whether all we were going to see suddenly all the
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 4: high end players like a mass exodus to the NCAA
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 4: or that it was just going to be all the
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 4: older guys and, It turns out it's been a little
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 4: bit of a mix, right? We've seen some of the
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 4: guys that are younger and high-end go and have success,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 4: and some haven't been as successful. I think some teams
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 4: in the NCAA and some players and families, hopefully, are
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 4: learning that maybe jumping really early is not the greatest
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 4: idea in terms of your development. Of course, on the
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 4: other side of that, you've got scholarships and you've got
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 4: nil money and you've got everything that goes along with
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 4: that that makes it pretty hard to say no sometimes.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 4: We've seen the league getting a little younger, I think.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 4: Maybe the overage crew isn't quite as deep as it
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 4: used to be. Still an awfully fun league to watch
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 4: and I think maybe a league where you kind of
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 4: feel a little more... you feel like you want to
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 4: get out and see these players maybe because you don't know,
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 4: they might be here for two years, three years at
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 4: tops and then they're gone. Right. Whereas before you could
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 4: count on seeing them for four, you know, maybe even five.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 4: But they just have so many options now. Right. And
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 4: there's going to be, there's going to be schools all
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 4: over them. And it's, and of course on the other
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 4: side of that, you have players that couldn't have considered
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 4: the league before and would have had to go to
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 4: the BCHL or the USHL or something like that, who
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 4: can now come and play in, in the OHL or
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 4: the WHL or, or, or the queue. So it's, it's
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 4: been pretty cool to see some of that high level
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 4: talent make its way to the league as well. And,
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 4: and see some of those guys watch them develop that
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 4: we wouldn't have had that opportunity to otherwise. So there's,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 4: there's probably going to be more, more, more stuff that
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 4: comes to this that we haven't even really seen yet. And,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 4: but I do feel like there's a little bit of
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 4: an evening out where we're, we're going to see more
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 4: of the young guys, you know, stick around a bit and,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 4: you know, and develop here and, and, and benefit from that. And,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: and I hope that, I hope that's the case, you know,
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 4: for the sake of them and for the sake of
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 4: the fans too.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: 100%. I think with this new AHL rule too, with
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: the having a first round pick or having a pick
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: play like that in the AHL, I think also helps
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: COHL in a way in the CHL. Cause you have
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 2: those players that extra year, Hey, maybe one year I can,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: come back and i can go to the ahl right
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 2: and it allows you to go pro and i mean
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: it the landscapes it's so interesting to see the dynamic
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: of where we're.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 4: At yeah and that's what these guys want right i
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 4: mean at the end of the day um uh for
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 4: a lot of them you know they could go and
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: have a great year or two in the ncaa but
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 4: they want to be nhl hockey players right so if
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 4: they see a path to that and you know the
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 4: chl is part of that then uh then then that's
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 4: that's better for everybody isn't it absolutely.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: So Ben, before we let you go here, we got
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: to get your pick for it. Friday night face off
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: this week. You're five and oh, right now. And the
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: Friday night forecasters, we're all looking up at you right now.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: You've been perfect so far. Rivalry week, the Sarnia Stinger
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: traveling to London. It's going to be in tough for
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: the sting. Anyway, you're picking Sarnia. You sticking with London.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 4: It's gotta be, it's, it, it's tough to pick against
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 4: Sarnia this year because of how I know they were
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 4: coming off a couple of losses, but how much better
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 4: they've been. But, uh, I've talked about how tough it
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 4: is to play in London against London. And I think
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 4: they're still going to have their number there. I'm going
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 4: to have to go with the London Knights. Yep.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: New captain, Ryan Brown, formerly of the Sarnia sting there,
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: you know, he's got a big game against that team,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: but Colin and I have been championing the Sarnia sting.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: We want them to really have a good season. We've been,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: we want the, the hive to be back. And again,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: they had a good start to the year. Hasn't been
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: great as of late, but again, this is going to
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: be a fun one, but I think we're all going
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: to be picking London, right?
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: Colin. Well, I got a question for you guys on
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: this forecast list. There's someone in London, Ryan Payette, who's
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 2: been picking the other teams. Who's he picking here? Who's
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 2: he picking here?
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 4: That's a good question.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: The underdog would be Sarnia. Is he going to pick Sarnia?
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, he might as well go to that end
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: of the rink postgame for the interviews then. But it'll
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: be interesting to see who he picks. We saw the
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: Brampton pick. You guys had the clean sweep. What's going
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 2: to happen here? I think that's the interesting dynamic of
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 2: the Friday forecasters.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess he just had Brampton on the wrong
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 4: day for the Seaway Series. But yeah, I guess he's
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 4: trying hard to root for the underdog, so we'll have
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 4: to see if he does it this time. I hope
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 4: he does go for Sarnia, though.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 2: I hope so, too. Hey, if he gets a win,
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 2: it would be quite the story. It would be awesome
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 2: to see.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: His spot in the London press box might be gone
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: at that point. But I mean, if he wants to
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: continue his, his anti or his reverse perfect season, I
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: think he's going to have to pick Sarnia. I just
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: don't think he's going to. So I'm interested to see
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: if anybody picks Sarnia. I mean, again, like I want
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: to see this thing do well. I just, I don't
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: see it on Friday in London, the candlelight places. You
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: mentioned Ben over 9,000, such a tough place to play.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: Ryan Brown, newly named captain playing against this former team.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: I just don't see how London loses this game.
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And I believe they're London's there on Wednesday too. Right.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 4: So if in Sarnia, so, if this thing are able
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 4: to win that one, that's all the more motivation for
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 4: the Knights going back home, isn't it?
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: Well, maybe Craig Gowan will pick it. Unreal Twitter account.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: It's a blast to see. I love the Chicken Caesar
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: wraps and the AI Sun-Times picture. Those are unbelievable. Brian
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 2: Smiley and myself have a blast with that on Friday nights.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 4: That's amazing.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: We love it.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 4: I have the pleasure of working with Greg on the
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 4: OHL newsletter this season, too, and putting some stuff together
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 4: with him. So it's been fun to chat back and
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 4: forth with him and hear some of those quips from
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 4: Greg as well. It's unbelievable.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 2: He's a great, great writer. They're lucky to have him there.
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 2: He's been a blast to follow.
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: Ben Leeson from the Sudbury Star covering the Sudbury Wolves.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: You can check him out there and all the great
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: stuff he does covering the Wolves every single day. Ben,
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: we really appreciate the time today. Great getting your Friday
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: Night Face-Off pick early as well. Continued success with that.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: We're all looking up at you right now, but look
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: forward to continuing to see if Sudbury makes some moves
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: here and where they're going to be later in the year.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: Maybe we have you back on, but really appreciate you
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: being here in October.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 4: Well, thanks so much, guys. It was really great to
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 4: be on.
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: Ben, before you go, is there a favorite Halloween candy
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: of yours?
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 4: Favorite Halloween candy. When I was a kid, I couldn't
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 4: get enough of those little caramel cube things. I don't
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 4: know about now. I guess just the, just the chocolate bars,
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 4: you know? So some of the little, those little chocolate bars,
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 4: those are, those are what you try to grab.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: I find. Absolutely.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: We have enough of those, but thanks again, Ben. And
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: we'll talk again soon.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 4: Take care guys.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: All right. Bye-bye. There was Ben Leeson from the Sudbury
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: Star calling great stuff there from him. And obviously, you know, great,
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: great stuff covering the Sudbury Wolves every single day. There
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: is great articles about what's going on with the team
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: really has a has the beat there about what's going
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: on with the Wolves. And, you know, he gave us
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of great insight there. But it's just great
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: to talk to other media members around the league from
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: some markets that we obviously don't get a chance to
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: go up to. We like to get the pulse of
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: what's going on around the league. And obviously Sudbury is
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: off to a good start here.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely. I think it's been great. It was a
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 2: great conversation to talk to Ben. It always is great
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 2: to talk with Ben. He does a great job in
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 2: Sudbury covering the Wolves. It's always fun. Like I said,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: that playoff series last year, getting to see Ben's work,
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 2: getting to see the Wolves. I mean, you can see
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: the writing on the wall coming into this season for
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 2: the Wolves. So it's exciting times for them and to
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: see them get a new arena, to see them get
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: the ownership approach, to have a stable stability there and
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: the coaching staff with accountability. I mean, they're in a
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 2: great spot. They're in a great spot, Sudbury. So it's
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 2: nice to see for the league.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: So we'll get to our stick test before we get
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: out of here. And those are bought to you by
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: Butt Ends Hockey Stick Grip, specifically for the top of
• 1:18:21
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• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: out at buttendswithaz.com or use our referral code buttends.com slash
• 1:18:27
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• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: part of our community engineered for greatness and performance. Buttends,
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: the number one grip in hockey. Colin, who's your stick
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: tap going to this week?
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 2: Captain, Ryan Brown. Without a doubt, I think the captain
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: of the London Knights, what he's went through, his development,
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: I'm very excited to see what Ryan Brown and what
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: he can do as a leader. This is huge for
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: his development as a drafted player in the National Hockey League.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, obviously we talked about Ryan Brown a lot, so
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: we don't really have to go much more into him,
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: but expect him to continue to do great things for
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: the London Knights. My first, I have two stick taps
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: this week, Colin. My first one is going to a
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: former London Knight player, and that would be Brady Wasslin
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: from the Saginaw Spirit. He's been phenomenal. He had a
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: goal and four assists, plus five, 11 shots this week.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: He's just been an electric player, 21 points in 11 games.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: Him and Dima Jilkin are taking the league by storm
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: right now as the best duo points-wise in the Ontario
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: Hockey League. Brady Wasslin, he's a motivated year after being
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: passed up in the NHL draft, could go back in
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: next year. Obviously, if he has a continues to have
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: a fantastic season here on pace for over 100 point season.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: And Brady's just a great kid off the ice, very spiritual,
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: very much about family and things like that. He runs
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: a great Instagram account for him and his brother as well.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: The Wasp Bros, which is a fun follow as well.
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: But just great to see for Brady because obviously he's
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: bounced around here from Niagara to London and a guy
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: that came in the league highly touted fourth overall pick.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: So I think he's off to a great start and
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: continues to have a great week here.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're comfortable, right? It's nice for him to get
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 2: comfortable in the spot and enjoy where he's at, right?
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 2: When you're happy where you are, it's great for your game.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: So 100% Brady Watson. I mean, the start he's had,
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 2: like you said, 21 points in 11 games. Brandon, that's
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 2: a heck of a start.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: And a guy that doesn't get talked about a lot here, Colin,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: but I'm going to give a stick tap to Rafe
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: Smith in Niagara. I mean, I saw this guy on Friday,
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: Thursday night against the Sioux Greyhounds. You look at his
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: career high in points last season, nine points. He's had
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: 13 and 11, two goals, two assists, nine shots this week. Again,
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: as a guy that's more as a bottom six player, Colin,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: but he's been one of Niagara's better offensive players this
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: season and is a heartbeat. He fights. He does a
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: lot of things, you know, as very much a heart
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: and soul player for Niagara. So I think he's deserved
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: a shout out because I don't think anybody saw Ray
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: Smith having 13 points through 11 games coming into the
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: year and he's obviously motivated to to show the haters
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: uh otherwise the.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 2: Ice dog's going to be successful you need him galley
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 2: and offs you need them to be good and if
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 2: and if they're good the ice dogs will be good
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 2: um and like you said they bring an identity to
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 2: the lineup and with uh to see smith like that
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 2: have the success early and it's the beauty of the
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 2: development part of the league right as ben just mentioned
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 2: it's about patience is sometimes bolting early and going to
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 2: other places, bigger and brighter lights and going elsewhere. Isn't
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 2: always the best thing. Patience is at a virtue. And
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 2: I think for Smith, I mean, you're seeing that right.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 2: Patience and the development. Now you get your opportunity to
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 2: be a guy and you take advantage of it. It's
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 2: the beauty of the league. He's on, he's on track
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 2: to get a pro deal.
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And they won in North Bay against his former
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: team on Sunday. So, you know, he was motivated in
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: that game as well. And yeah, who knows what's next
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: for Ray Smith, but, A great season, you know, nonetheless,
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: here in the Ontario Hockey League. I was going to
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: say Guelph, but that's, you know, not really earth shattering
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: to anybody. And Ottawa is on a 6-0-1 stretch right now.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's also it's nice to see Joey Banas
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 2: and Niagara having success as well. I got to know
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 2: him in Brantford well, and I mean, he's been great
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 2: for them since going over there. It's a great opportunity
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 2: move for him.
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: Yep, so those were our stick taps of the week.
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: Colin gave it to Ryan Brown, and I gave it
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: to Brady Wasslin and Wraith Smith. So quickly on the
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: power rankings here, Colin, I know next week you want
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: to go over kind of a personal ranking, not just
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: talk about the OHL rankings here. But again, we'll start
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: from bottom up. Owen Sound, North Bay, Niagara, Erie, Sarnia, Kitchener, Peterborough, Saginaw, Sioux, Kingston,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: and then going into the top six, Sudbury actually drops
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: four positions to sixth, London, up one to fifth Brantford
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: up one to four Ottawa up one to three Flint
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: up one to two team. We really haven't talked about
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: in Guelph storm remain at number one this week.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 2: That's fair. I think it's a fair ranking for everything
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 2: that's happened. I think it's a fair ranking for sure.
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 2: I also brand, I want to give an extra stick
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 2: tap to the Brampton steelheads, their first win of the
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: year for them overcoming adversity and everything that they've went
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: through this season, losing these heartbreaking games. to see the character,
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 2: to see the identity they have in that dressing room. Um,
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 2: it shows how close that room is and how good
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: of a group they have in that, uh, Brampton dressing room.
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: So for them to get a win like that, that's
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 2: huge for them, um, to not shy away.
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: So we got trick or treat to look forward to
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: next week. We got Colin's top five power rankings are
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: back next week and a lot to look forward to
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: as we continue on here on a weekly basis here
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: in the OHL and 60 kind of a call and
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: we'll give you final thoughts.
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 2: Going to Christmas. We're now we're going now until Christmas, Brandon.
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 2: So here we go. Next, next week off is Christmas. Um,
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 2: that's it. That's wild. And we set it on week one,
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: five weeks ago. Next thing you know, it'll be Christmas.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 2: I think I said this last episode too, Brandon, where
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 2: I think I was like, Christmas is a blink of
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 2: the eye. Like all of a sudden it's that Christmas
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 2: break that it's playoffs. So it's exciting. It was a
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 2: great week. It was nice at the OHL at hockey
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 2: every single day over Thanksgiving. Um, It was a great week.
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 2: It was a great week in the OHL, and I'm
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 2: excited to see what this week brings. It's like we're
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 2: on the edge of our seats all weekend, watching teams,
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 2: getting content for the show. And then now we go
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 2: on the show, Brandon, and it's like, hey, we're just
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 2: sitting in the back of our recliners on the Lazy
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 2: Boys there and having a couple waters and shooting the
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 2: breeze about the league. And I mean, I think it's
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 2: a blast. It's been great.
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: Yep, and we got some great written pieces as well
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: on our website, armchairgmsports.com. Joel Vanderland, Christina Felice, and Elliot
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: Hooten doing great stuff on the written side. We got
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: some great stuff coming there.
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 2: And I have a shout-out, too. I have a shout-out
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 2: to the network. How about them Buffalo Sabres in Toronto?
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 2: Fallen leaves.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: On the ground. Yeah.
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 2: Just like that. Just like that. The captainless Detroit Red Wings.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: Or what, just a point back of the Leafs? The
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 2: Stanley Cup champions our year? I guess, oh wait, it's
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 2: not Dallas Cowboy, maybe Duke basketball. I guess it's on
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 2: to Duke basketball now for the Leaf fans because it's
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 2: not the Cowboys because they're done. So maybe it's on
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 2: to Duke. I don't know. Maybe it's on to them.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 2: Good luck. All the best.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: Go watch the Steelheads.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 2: Go watch the Steelheads or the Generals or the Colts
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 2: if you're in Oshawa or why would you want to
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 2: watch the Leafs? If you're in Toronto, watch the OHL. Yeah.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: The other side of the network had fun with that,
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: with the Sabres defeating the Leafs. So thanks for getting
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: that one in Colin. Let's ride for another Broncos victory
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: next week, but just got to throw for more.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 2: Than a hundred yards and we got them. We got them.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 2: It's wild. It's wild. The Broncos are four and two
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 2: and they haven't even hit their potential. And this is
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 2: the exact same carbon copy of last year. So I'm
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 2: not panicking yet. I mean, We saw what Nick's did
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 2: in the playoffs against Buffalo. I mean, Bill's fans know.
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 2: So they, you know, like, I think it's going to
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 2: be easy. I think I honestly, I'm not panicking yet,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 2: but we got to throw for more than a hundred
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 2: yards and got to stop messing with teams. You got
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 2: to play from the jump and you got to play
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 2: a full, full, full game. And hopefully the Buckeyes get
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 2: a quarterback.
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: That's going to wrap it up for today's episode of
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: the OHL in 60 podcast. Again, thank you to everybody
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: tuned in live here on the video version on YouTube.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: Make sure to hit like it, subscribe, smash that bell.
• 1:26:27
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• 1:26:28
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• 1:26:30
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• 1:26:33
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• 1:26:39
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• 1:26:43
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• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: So for Colin Ward, my name is Brandon Caputo. That's
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: going to be it for another episode of the Ocean
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: on 60 podcast right here on the Armchair GM Sports Network.
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: We'll be back next week for our trick-or-treat pre-Halloween episode,
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: and we will chat again in seven days. You're listening
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: to the Armchair GM Sports Network.