Winnipeg Jets blown out by Edmonton Oilers, hosting 2026 Heritage Classic | WST Sunday Live

Winnipeg Jets blown out by Edmonton Oilers, hosting 2026 Heritage Classic | WST Sunday Live

I al around Good morning everyone. Welcome in to another edition of WSC Sunday Live. My name is Connor Abjack. In a moment, I’m going to be joined by Liz Hood and I hope you’re all having a good weekend so far. At least prior to 900 p.m. Central last night because by the time it was about 9:15 Central, the Jets were down 3 nothing and that game was over. Uh the Jets lose 6-2 to the Emington Oilers down 3 nothing before the first TV timeout. Uh we’re going to get to last night’s game. We’ll talk about what’s going on with this team right now. And look, they lost 6-2. The the vibes are are going to be pretty negative. Tough road trip. We’re bringing some positivity to the show today. Danielle Bane from TSN, new Winnipeg Jets reporter this season, is going to be joining us on today’s show for a little guest appearance. and she promised that she’s going to bring the positive vibes, the positive energy. So, you can look forward to that. It won’t be all negative. Danielle Bane joining us at around the bottom of the hour here on WSTM Live. Super excited to welcome her to the show. Good morning to everyone in chat. Like I said, hope you’re all having a good weekend prior to last night at 9:12 p.m. Central, give or take. Um, let’s see how Liz Hood’s weekend is going. Liz, how are you doing on this Sunday morning? Oh, I’m doing well. I’m doing well. You and I were kind of offline chatting a little bit over the course of last night’s game going uh all right. Guess uh guess tomorrow’s going to be a fun one. So, um I’m looking forward to kind of breaking this down with you. And look, maybe you can call me uh, I don’t know, sinister, evil, needs to be, you know, flagged by the government or something for being like kind of excited to talk about this with you because since we’ve been doing this, the team has been so good and I feel like we haven’t gotten a chance to kind of get into the weeds here and really pick apart what we think they’re kind of either doing wrong or need to improve on, get down to like the the tactical nitty-gritty of how many different things are kind of going wrong with this team right now. So maybe that’s just me being an optimist or maybe it’s me being clinically insane. I’m not sure. But either way, we have a jam-packed next uh hour in a bit. Yeah. And look, I was on Winnipeg Sports Talk with Hustler on Friday and we both talked about how this was a scheduled loss. You’re going on the second night of a backto-back. You’re playing the Edmonton Oilers who just put up nine goals. At the time, we thought it was going to be Thomas Militch. It ended up being Thomas Militch, but Eric Carry started the game and scheduled loss or not, being down 3 nothing before they scraped the ice for the first time was not in the cards. You know, like that, you can lose games, you can have scheduled losses. Scott Neil said after the game, he’s not putting it on the schedule. We’re sure as heck not going to do that. And look, we have comments from Scard Neil coming up. I’ll I’ll play his his thoughts on the game in just a moment. Um, but list like even if you went into that game with very low expectations, I think the Winnipeg Jets went even lower. I think it’s hard to uh talk about a game like that in the same way that you talk about other games cuz like you said, it was over before it even started, right? You know, like, okay, maybe that’s not even the right thing to say. It was over before they even scraped the ads the first time, right? like you can’t assess the full 60 minutes of this game in the same way that you can for maybe some others because it was just it was over. It was over and I think that you know it there was a lot of questions about the team kind of going into it. I I need to ask you I wasn’t like sitting on my laptop totally locked in on this game the way I am for a lot of them. So I didn’t really catch the whole vibe of this Eric Comry thing. Why did he start that game? Well, do we know Scardinell was not asked about it after the game, but okay, I think is there like a commentary about this or like know about why that’s the case to guess like scheduled loss and all. I don’t think they wanted to just throw Militch to the Wolves, if you will. They played him against Buffalo last night. I don’t understand. Or the night before like I just it’s so rare to play a goalie in a backtoback almost ever. And yeah, like I just it felt so unnecessary like and you could have started militants buffalo at home on on Friday. I don’t know. I’m very very confused by that. And if anyone in the chat has any, you know, thoughts or insight, I I thought I was going crazy. I looked and I was watching it and I was like, what what is the reason for this? I I I understand in theory the idea, like you said, of of not throwing Thomas Militch to the Conor McDavid wolves and all that sort of stuff, but like it was preventable. You knew the schedule. I don’t know. Yeah. Um, and look, Jay Miller saying only Heli gets back to backs. Like Connor Hellbut gets back to backs and he is the best goalie of this generation, you know, heart winner, threetime Vzna. I I don’t think that’s a good spot for leaguewide as being overworked, you know, having too many games played anyway. Like I just I don’t know, man. Yeah. So, there was that. Um, but yeah, the Winnipeg Jets lose six-2. Let me bring up the stats from last night’s game. I mean, there was a little bit of score effects at play uh in terms of the Jets and and their scoring chances and things like that. They did not have 222 scoring chances. They had 22. That was not the case. Maybe it was flipped. Maybe you saw the Oilers have 222 scoring chances. But anyways, the expected goals 3.5 to 1.7 for Edmonton. Shots on goal 28-21. And the power plays one for one for Edmonton, 0 for one for Winnipeg as they lose six-2. But like we said, Liz, um just a an incredibly tough start and that’s what’s got our Neil kind of leaned on. Uh let me just quickly get to his thoughts on the game and then we can continue with our thoughts on where this team’s at right now. You not putting a schedule on uh on this side. You know, the whole league’s going through this now because Olympics, everybody’s having their tough part of the the grind of the schedule for me. You know, we had talked about the first 10 minutes. Um you know, that we had to be smart about how we did things. We give up a, you know, we do a terrible line change on the first one. They get, you know, they get three goals in seven and a half minutes to start. We’re not, you know, both mentally and physically we weren’t ready to go. And at the end of the day, I’ll take responsibility for that. But, you know, we do a, you know, we do a terrible line change. They get an opportunity to get a rebound, put it in. Next time we give up a with both, uh, you know, both the outside, the circle, then we do a turnover, a neutral zone. All that happens in a very short period of time. That’s the mental side of things. That’s the stuff the details that especially like I mentioned the first 10 minutes you knew they were going to come and they were going to come hard and um we didn’t respond in the right way. So there’s Scott Neil postgame to the reporters in Edmonton there. Um and yeah not not a good start. Terrible line change some some poor efforts on the back check. You look at the Ryan Nent Hopkins goal. Alex Illo is there. That’s his guy. The rebound pops right to Ryan Nan Hopkins and IFollow is kind of half tying him up. Nent Hopkins scores. You look at the the Bousard goal that made it four nothing. The Oilers are on a power play, but they’re able to go from McDavid below the goal line to Dry Cidle at the dot back up to Bousard at the point and Comry slides out and and the whole team is is kind of um befuddled at what’s going on. But look, you you have McDavid to Dryidle to Bousard all making these seam passes. I don’t know how anyone’s supposed to stop that. Um and you know, just really nothing offensively either. You know, if the Jets were trading chances, um that would be one thing, but the shots on goal were 16 to3 to start this game when it was three nothing for Edmonton. So Jets came out flat. Um Edmonton took advantage. They’re feeling good about themselves right now. They just put up nine goals on the Seattle Kraken on Thursday. Um, and yeah, they they really really did not have a chance in that one list really from the start, from the get-go. Um, anything else you wanted to say quickly on last night’s game before we talk bigger picture? Yeah, I mean, I think it’s exactly that that, you know, you can look at, you know, the stats from the whole game or even if you just kind of hone in on maybe the third period, for example, where the Winnipeg Jets were able to create a little bit more in terms of the high danger chances category at five on five, like the game is already over. the game was already over and it just felt like for most of that game we were just kind of watching the guys, you know, kick the clock down and, you know, wait to to get out of there and get home because Yeah, it was just not third period. Well, yeah, exactly. And like you said, you know, that first period, the high danger chances were 8 to1 for Edmonton and and most of that was stockpiled at the front half of the period and it’s so it’s like it it totally changes the fabric of the remaining 50 minutes of gameplay. So, it it’s really difficult to kind of watch that game and and, you know, have much to take away because the Oilers were able to take their foot off the gas and that’s still how it looked, right? So, I I think that, you know, credit to Scott for not blaming the schedule cuz like you said, um, every team in the league is going through a similar thing in the month of December and and over the course of the season, everything like that. And teams win on them back to back all the time. The Winnipeg Jets won on them back toback in Nashville just last weekend. You know, I understand that and that one had travel in between it as well. Look, like I think it’s really important to get out of the excuses territory for this team because we understand the position they want to be in and that is playoff this, contending this, defending President’s Trophy that. So, if that’s the bar you want to set for yourself, I personally don’t put them into that category, but if that’s the identity that they’re trying to carve out and that’s who they think they are, then this isn’t good enough and a lot of what we’ve seen lately just isn’t. Yeah, exactly. Um, and look, we can kind of now move into a bigger topic, bigger picture discussion on this team right now. But one of the things that I think has become apparent to me is last year the Winnipeg Jets were a great pressure team on the forche. They would, you know, Morat and and other writers have referred to them as handoff shifts. Even Scott Neil has referred to them as handoff shifts. You know, Adam Lowry’s line comes out there. They throw a few hits, get the puck below the goal line. They spend 30 seconds below the goal line and then the Nikolai’s line comes out and that line stays in the offensive zone for 30 seconds. Then the Mark Shley line comes out and the Jets would just come in waves uh with this pressure for check, you know, stifling defense in the neutral zone and it would just be one shift after another where teams couldn’t breathe. They were suffocating in their own zone. And this year, uh, well, hold on. First of all, last year, even in the the tough times when there were some last year, what was the issue for the Winnipeg Jets? They were getting carved off the rush. I think of those games at Vancouver where the Jets got smoked and all four go uh goals came off the rush. You look at the game at Utah where Scardal called it embarrassing after the game. This year, that’s like every other night seemingly, but that one was like, whoa, he called it embarrassing. Why is that? Because they got carved off the rush. The Buffalo game this year, they got carved off the rush. last night as well. This team can’t have the pressure shifts in the offensive zone and hand it off to each other and they’re getting beat through the neutral zone and kind of like playing into their weaknesses because they can’t forche well and they’re not tracking back and when they do Alex I follow on Nan Hawkins they’re not tying up sticks in front. It’s just one thing after another when last year in sequence the Winnipeg Jets were a great team at handing those shifts off to one another, but right now when they’re handing shifts off to one another list, they’re handing them off gassed at the end of a long defensive zone shift because they couldn’t get any offensive zone pressure. Are you are you with me on that? Yeah. And I think that, you know, and maybe it’s biased because I was listening to a podcast before we jumped on this morning and I was thinking about this leaguewide concept in the frame of the Winnipeg Jets. And, you know, we always forget how much teams have on one another, how much they study up on one another, how much they learn about each other. And with the same coaching staff, with a lot of the same core, like you said, that identity was likely a huge piece of what the Winnipeg Jets wanted to do this year. But if teams understand that, you know, if you keep them to the outside of the the ice, right, and keep them to the perimeter and and you’re able to kind of get little sticks and and you know, um those kind of chip plays to break up some of that cycle that’s going on. All these different things, you’re going to kind of eliminate that main threat that they create. And this team, in my opinion, doesn’t have the most diversified offense. You know, I think that a lot of their lines, whether they have different weapons on it or not, like you said, all those words that you so eloquently strung together, that’s kind of what a lot of their lines would would do. They don’t have a random second or fourth line or something that all of a sudden is doing this crazy east west passing off the rush and all this this wacky stuff. Like, they all do similarish things. they kind of just have a specific like whether it’s trigger man or person who who kind of brings a different thing to the line whether it’s like Lowry or Connor or something like that that changes the way they attempt to finish these chances that they generate but they kind of generate in a similar way. So I think that as soon as teams can kind of put a pin in that a little bit it’s kind of like a balloon and it seeps out so much and all of a sudden you know you’re down to just having the most bland vanilla offense ever because teams are able to kind of break it up a little bit. So, it’s it’s alarming to me how quickly things have changed with this team. And and I I wonder, you know, people like dependent on Connor Halbuck or Nikolai and all these different type of things. And look, I get it. I get it. Like Connor Halbuck was playing for a full 60 minutes every game that he’s playing, but we had these questions before Connor Halbuck’s injury even came out. And that over the course of Yeah. secondary scoring. Yeah. over the course of 82 games last year, you’d think that maybe teams would have done a bit of a better job of identifying it for the team as well, but I think that there’s just so many different things and this isn’t really in line with the question that you are asking. But I also just think that if you want to look at like an individual perspective as well, like everyone other than, you know, the the topline guys are, you know, I don’t really feel like talking about them right now and Josh Morrisy is really good, but all the guys that have like kind of quietly been huge drivers for this team haven’t been good. And I’m talking about Adam Lowry and I’m talking about Dylan Summer. I’m talking about Cole Profetti and all these different players who have really really big roles for this this team. And I think that them kind of regressing below what we’ve come to expect of them has had a bigger impact on this group than we might like to admit because we don’t want to throw those guys under the bus because everyone outside of the the top drivers has been poor to an extent, but those guys have a higher baseline in terms of what’s expected of them and how big their impact is on the team. So it’s it’s hugely impactful. You know, Tanner Pearson isn’t doing what you’re wanting him to do like doo. I think life kind of goes on, but you know, when Adam Lowry is not winning his five on five minutes pretty much every single game, like I’m sorry, but that really changes the way this this outlook kind of looks. 100%. And and looking at this lineup since the start of November, by the way, the Winnipeg Jets are tied for the worst record in the NHL. Tied with the Vancouver Conucks. Uh the Jets are 610 and one. So, you know, tied for the worst record in the NHL in over a month span. That’s that’s not good for business. Uh Captain Obby is speaking. But looking since the start of November, since that started, here’s how some of the scoring has shaken out for this Winnipeg Jets group. Connor has nine goals and 20 points. Shley has five goals, 13 assists, 18 points. Valardi has nine goals and 14 points. Morrisy has four goals and 14 points. Then let’s get to the rest of the roster. Since the start of November, Nino Nether has three goals and four assists. Not bad from him. I have followed two goals and three assists. Dylan Dlo is third uh in this next group of scoring with five assists. Cole Kepky has played seven games in this time list. The other the rest of the team has played over 18. He has two goals, two assists, four points. Cole Perfetti has played 14 games in this stretch. Two goals, two assists, four points. Need more from him. Tanner Pearson, two goals, three points. Jonathan Taves, one goal, two assists, three points. his 82game pace. By the way, Jonathan Taves, nine goals, 27 points is what he’s on pace for this season. Vladimikov, one goal, two assist or one goal, one assist. Morgan Baron, one assist. Gustav Nyquist, one assist. Those guys have played 11 and nine games respectively. So, like the top line is producing. They’ve played 18 games in this stretch or 17 games, excuse me. 6, 10, and one is their record. Conor, Sha, Vardy, Morsy, those guys are producing. Outside of that, it’s just just not much less and and they keep trying to shake up the bottom nine and and do that. And look, the Jets don’t have a second line. Whichever whoever you want to put on that second line, they just don’t have one right now. I have a question for you though, Lis. Taves has been moved to the wing or at least Scardal said, “Well, who’s the center?” Because Taves is taking offensive zone draws and Lowry taking defensive. I’ve seen Lowry below the goal line more than Taves. I don’t know if people disagree with that, but I would call him the center on that line personally. Do you think that’s an admission, if you will, that things aren’t going as well as the Jets had hoped with Jonathan Taves? Um, I don’t know if it’s necessarily that because you think about it, right? Like, you know, think of, you know, last year or something of Vladimir as a second line center. If they need to shake something up and all of a sudden he’s playing on the wing with, you know, someone else, like it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re wrong about something. I just think it means that you’re looking to unlock certain players or try different things out, try different combinations. And he’s less of a staple in the center position than Adam Larry. That’s kind of the only way that I interpret that specific move, but just in general, you know, you list the stat line there, and we’ve talked about this, whatever. I think that everyone is aware, you know, Mike McIntyre wrote about it earlier this week, like that this Jonathan TA’s experiment is not paying out the dividends that I think everyone was hoping it might. Um, and I guess, you know, moving his lines around and all that is is definitely perhaps an admission of that. But I think the the biggest thing more than anything is just that this entire group is not producing enough at that secondary scoring position. And and I understand that he has more of the bonuses tagged onto him. He has more of the storyline tagged onto him. There’s probably a little bit more like I don’t know if there’s like a a sunk cost fallacy here where everyone’s like refusing to like admit if things go wrong or whatever because they want it to work so bad, whatever. I want to be hard on Jonathan Taves, but I feel as though I can’t do it to the full degree that I want to because that would make it sound like he is the only one who is worthy of that criticism where I’m putting pretty much that entire middle six group of forwards other than maybe like you said maybe Nino need a writer just because he has like lower expectations I think than pretty much all of them. But I group Jonathan Taves right now as we speak on this beautiful Sunday morning in the same category as like an Adam Lowry and Cole Perfetti and whoever in terms of what the expectation is of what that player should be contributing to this team and what they’re not doing. Yeah, exactly. I I I’m with you on that a little bit. And look, if you told me, this is where I was kind of coming from in that question is if you told me, hey, the Jets signed Jonathan Taves and and you told us on what was our show, June 22nd list, you joined from the lake, I I went back and watched it recently to see how our takes aged pretty well, uh, if you want to go back and look, but if you told me on June 22nd as you were at the lake, that on December 7th he’d be on the wing and on pace for less than 30 points and less than 10 goals. I would have said, “Oh, are they load managing him? Did he get hurt?” You know, like what’s going on here? But yeah, he’s not alone in that middle six. They keep reshuffling the lines. They keep trying to get Cole Perfetti going, who has four points in 14 games, right? Um, two goals, one of which was on the power play. He has just one even strength goal so far this season. And it came against Nashville on the road, wide open in the slot. the one game where the Jets secondary scoring really got going in this stretch since the start of November, if you will. So, um, yes, Liss, go for it. What What do you got on this secondary scoring or this team in general? No. Well, then, no, because I have a question for you, um, about kind of exactly that that I think opens up a little bit of a bigger picture kind of can of worms cuz I I’ve been kind of watching the commentary online and trying to gauge where Jets fans are at in terms of their their sentiment about this team. And you know, even with our chat, who’s here today as always, you know, after win or loss, they they join us on Sundays and we love them for it. Everyone’s kind of split, right, in terms of like, you know, they’re still really close to a wild card spot by points percentage and it’s not over yet and all these different things. And also that, you know, there are things to like, there are things to dislike and other people are, you know, sell the team whatever kind of vibes and everyone’s entitled to feel how they want to feel. But, you know, one thing that I’ve been noticing lately, and we’ve talked a little bit about this kind of briefly, is, and I’m going to frame it into a question that’s going to be a little bit long-winded. So, the question starts now, and you’re going to answer it in about 8 minutes when I finish the question. Got it? And then Daniel Danielle will answer it because she’ll she’ll join us and she’ll be on at that point. Yeah. Danielle Bane joining us in a few minutes, which we’re very excited about. But I I look at this team and there’s a lot to if you want to use the word dislike or whatever in terms of things to to pick apart this that, whatever. But one thing that I personally don’t really see with this group is a Quinn Hughes the shift from the other night. You want to talk about a team that comes out or whatever and just looks so disengaged. This is a team that actually looks like they’re coming out and trying. And I think that that’s something that um I remember like my dad ran into one of the players a few years ago at like I don’t even know it was like the grocery store or something and he said hello to him and that and that was what he said. He thanked him for, you know, every single night giving the Jets a team or a chance to win a game, be in a game, whatever, because they look like they’re trying. And this is something that, in my opinion, can’t be said about the Blake Wheeler era. I think post Blake Wheeler era, pretty much every single game that we’ve watched from the Winnipeg Jets. They actually look like they want to be there. They actually there are shifts, there are moments, little things here and there because they’re human. I get it. But this is a very very different kind of fabric of a team in my opinion than some of the ones we’ve seen in the past and also some teams we see in other areas of the league where it’s like they look checked out. They look checked out of a game and we don’t really see that from the Jets. Now my question then is to you. What’s worse? Because right now it looks like they’re trying and it’s simply straight up not good enough. Whereas, if you had a team that was like, you know, coasting or checked out, whatever, it’s like, okay, if they were to just try a little bit, maybe they would be better and whatever. And it kind of comes down to like a would you prefer your team is like mentally unprepared or physically unprepared? Because I think mindset could be a little bit more difficult to to rally a group around and everything like that, but like the Winnipeg Jets look like they’re trying right now and it’s not enough. and their team is all in their 30s. So, it’s not like these guys have room to improve in terms of like their physical conditioning or whatever you want to call it. And I’m just wondering if you’re noticing the same thing as me. And if you are, what’s a better situation to to be in? Because as you know, you know, a Jets community, I feel like we’ve been in both now that we’re kind of in this era right now in the last 5 years. And I I don’t know which one scares me more. Yeah, this is something that I was saying to Remis um ear a few weeks ago when we were doing a postgame after one of the Jets first losses that of this stretch where I was saying look at Edmonton which the team got smoked last night by Edmonton but you tune in to Edmonton sports talk after their bad losses and they are just questioning the effort of all the players you know like where’s the fight where’s the compete and I was saying to Remis at the time at least you we’re not saying that about the Jets you know they’re losing games but like you said list they’re giving that effort all that um I haven’t seen a team that’s physically checked out or physically unprepared like I think they’re ready to go um last night back to back with travel if you want to use the schedule excuse as to why they look tired sure but in terms of you’re asking me what’s worse I’d go with physical and I don’t think that’s what’s happening with the Jets I don’t but I do think that’s worse when you see a clip of Quinn Hughes you know skating around just kind of beer league on a Tuesday night coast boosting through the neutral zone in a 3-1 game with 10 minutes left. That I think is worse than I don’t know what dude that’s mental. That’s mental. What I’m like physical means like you know they’re trying they’re trying but they just can’t keep up. Like they’re like it’s they physically worse. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Mental’s worse. I got that backwards then. Yeah. Okay. So then what happens? What do you do now then? Right. Like that’s that’s kind of the question is what do you what do you do now? If you’re like, “Okay, great. The effort’s there. they’re trying this that whatever, but like they’re they’re pulling everything out of their toolkit and they’re losing 6-2 to the Edmonton Oiler. Like, you know what I mean? Like I I it freaks me out in terms of like what the ceiling is, where you go from there, right? Like that’s I think what the the kind of question is in that regard. Well, also you go back to training camp and we talked about the team speed and secondary scoring, but all throughout training camp, this team set the Stanley Cup as the goal, right? They weren’t afraid to say it out loud. They weren’t afraid to let people know that the goal this season was to build off last year and win the Stanley Cup. Um, and they haven’t inspired much hope uh in the last month plus here that that’s where they’re going to be reaching this season. But it brings up this interesting questionless big picture and like really long term in terms of like all right Connor Hellbuk’s 32, Mark Shiffley’s 32, all of these all of these players are kind of getting into their 30s. Even Kyle Connor, who they just committed 96 million to, is getting there in terms of the wrong side of 30. This team is in a win now state. You heard the broadcast say it last night. Both of these teams are built very similarly. They’re built to win right now. And right now, the Winnipeg Jets are the worst team in the NHL since the start of November. So, it’s it’s kind of tough to like it it’s it’s an interesting spot to be in because they’re built right now. Adam Lowry’s 32, 33. Um, they just committed to him for another 5 years. So, this was supposed to be a year where they looked like last year. Not quite President’s Trophy. I don’t think anyone expected that, but I think it was a year where they were going to compete. They were still going to have that defensive structure, which is seemingly uh cracking by the game right now, Liss. Um, and we’ll get to Danielle in just a moment here, but just your final thoughts bigger picture before we get to Danielle and and what she thinks. You can’t ask me for bigger picture thoughts to be like just quickly because I have like an eight minute rant to go on and I won’t do it. But I think the big thing to me is what’s not working in my opinion is a little bit more of these external acquisitions. And that’s why I think that you know if you’re talking win now whatever cap efficiency all they need to be getting more of their their young guys into the lineup guys who know their system. this team is so reliant on chemistry and working together in that kind of cohesive unit, moving as five organisms kind of up the ice and it’s not working so far. And I think that the internal fix to that is is getting more of those younger players integrated into the lineup to try and kind of keep going with that. Identity is a word that we need to stop using because I’m getting sick of hearing myself say it. But I think that those are the sorts of fixes that that need to be used to bring a little bit more of that youth to the lineup. And I I I think that, you know, I understand that it wasn’t a guarantee that all of Pearson, Nyquist, Chen, whatever, weren’t going to hit, but it’s a question mark. And if you have too many question marks in your lineup, if too many of them don’t work out to the same degree, you’re in trouble. So I think that having more guys who are a little bit less of a question mark in terms of how your organization knows them as individuals and as part of the organization with whether it’s the man moose or what have you. I think that they need to lean a little bit more in that direction and try and get some of those guys in. So go moose go. Go moose go. Go moose go. Well, we’re going to talk about that when we get to our Chuds powersports power poll after Danielle. Uh we’re going to get to this question right here. Carolyn 871 asking next round of call-ups. Jagger doer. We did a little power poll on the five players we’d call up right now. Uh or or maybe the five players who have earned a call up the most at least up front for this Winnipeg Jets team. So, or the Manitoba Moose team, I should say. Go Musco as you said. Um and we’ll get to that in just a moment here. But of course, we promised some positive vibes on today’s show. And to do that, we have Danielle Bane from TSN joining us live on the show making her Winnipeg Sports debut. Danielle, how are you doing this morning, guys? It’s a lovely Sunday morning. I’m feeling amazing after that game last night. Nothing’s going to stop me in this beautiful city that I just moved to, so I can’t complain. Well, you did. Yes. Let’s start there. I mean, no one wants to hear about the hockey team right now. Let’s be honest. Everyone wants to hear about your move to Winnipeg. Um, maybe start with just letting people know, you know, what brought you to Winnipeg and you’ve moved here now and spent a few weeks here. What’s kind of your initial thoughts as we get into the winter when people will say, you know, this is the time it’s super cold, but before maybe before the weather was getting cold. Well, really quickly, you just brought something up in my mind. I walked into the rink the other day and I said to one of the security guards who are all so nice. I said, “This is my first Manitoba winter.” And he goes, “I’ll let you know when winter’s here.” Nice. So, he goes, “Don’t even think that the winter’s here yet. Just I’ll let you know.” So, that was that was a funny one, but no, Connor. Um, I got I was lucky enough to get this this new job, the TSN reporter in Winnipeg a couple months ago, and I did a little bit of back and forth in October and November, as you guys know. Stayed in a hotel just kind of getting my bearings around the city. And what I will say first and foremost is everyone’s been so unbelievably nice. all the media in Winnipeg, the organization, you know, everyone that I’ve even talked to, I’m a big yapper, as you guys know. So, when I go into Safeways, when I go into all these places, I’m just talking talking away to all these strangers. And honest to God, everyone’s been so nice, so welcoming. It’s made the transition so much easier. And then I did the Cross half of Canada road trip um in early November, just before Great Cup Week. So I drove from the GTA. I grew up in Missaga, just outside of Toronto. So I drove from there all the way to Sus Marie, did night one there. Then I drove to Thunder Bay on day two. And what’s funny is I actually had my first ever on air job in Thunder Bay, so it was very nostalgic going back there. Um, which was really fun. And then I drove to Winnipeg and it was Gay Cup week. So, it was just a big snowball of excitement and interesting events happening that week. So, stayed in an Airbnb for a little bit, tried to get my way around the city, was staying in Riverview for a while, as Liz told me. It was a great neighborhood. And finally, last week, I moved into my house permanently. So, I have a neighborhood. I have neighbors who are so sweet. Um, funny thing about Toronto, as you guys might expect, when you have neighbors, you don’t really like want to look them in the eye ever and you try you try to look at your peepphole to see like if they’ve left or if they’re there because no one talks to each other here. I’m talking over the fence in the backyard saying, “How are your dogs today?” So, definitely big change, but I’m loving it so far, guys. Connor and I both have had kind of similar and different experiences from you in regards to like kind of getting fully immersed in more like the arena landscape than anything because like yeah like you know we’ve known the city for our whole lives and stuff like that but the whole idea of like you know you’re so stressed going to like your first NHL game in the press box or whatever and you’re like is there a camera like why is everyone being so nice to me but that’s just who they are and it’s it’s makes it so much less scary and stuff. So, we’ve also gone through that in kind of similar years where we’re we’re the Grizzled Vets now. So, we’re uh you know, welcoming you to that. But, it’s so great to hear that you kind of had that experience because, like you said, makes everything a lot easier. Has there been anything that’s been like surprising about the city to you or something that you’ve really noticed that you didn’t think you were going to like? You know, I I don’t know where my my mind is going with this sort of thing because I feel like I just I just know the city and I I love the city, but like I use public transit in Winnipeg for the first time the other day or not the other day, a couple months ago to and I was like cuz I don’t use public transit cuz I’ve lived outside of the city my whole life and I was like wait this is actually great if you’re jumping on the blue line and you know I still discover things about the city all the time but have there been any things that you’ve kind of noticing like okay great like you know everything is really close in this area or like I really like this street or these buildings or anything that’s been kind of like a fun surprise eyes for you. I think it’s got to be the second I got here, people did tease that there were really good restaurants and that, you know, there’s so many things to enjoy when it comes to the food scene here. I love food. Like I love restaurants, love trying new places out. And Ken Weeb, shout out to Ken Weeb from the Winnipeg Free Press. He is always giving suggestions. I basically have a list this big um of places that I need to try, but I’ve already tried a couple spots and when I say like these are just top tier caliber restaurants that I’ve been to so far and it’s not even like the fanciest styles of restaurants or anything like that. Um but even just going to the Forks, like I I try to go there every once in a while, just try a new food stall each time that I go there. And it’s been incredible. like there in Toronto there’s obviously amazing restaurants and stuff like that but there’s so many that it’s a bit overwhelming as to where am I going to go like I might I might as well just stick to the regulars that I know like it’s kind of more like that whereas here I’m it’s just so nice to be in a new place that you can experience everything for the first time and I’m trying to do that on the food scene and it’s been so far so good. What What are some suggestions you guys would toss my way? Oh well Do you mind asking what’s what’s your what’s your favorite type of like cuisine or whatever? Or like do you have like like a specific background like are you like Italian or something or like what’s kind of like other preference or like your background? I would say my so my background I’m like the most Canadian person that could ever be born like my grandparents parents parents parents all born in Canada. So, um, I try to go with whatever cuisine I’m feeling, but top two I would say for me, Mexican and Italian, I would say. Okay, so I just moved to the South Osborne area, like we kind of talked about. And I’m going to have to find the name and maybe people in the chat can help. Multiple people have told me that the best tacos in Winnipeg are really, really close to me at um, so I will have to remember what the name is of that. I’m actually going to like look it up on my phone cuz I have it written down. And sorry, what was the second that you said? Cuz I heard Mexican and I was like, what are the tacos that are near me? But I love Italian as well. Honestly, I’m so open to anything. I’m like the most easily pleased person when it comes to food. Like we go to the press fields and I’m like, this is the best dinner ever. Danielle, we have we have this super secret place in Winnipeg. It’s called Boston Pizza. Don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it, but that that WST sponsor, go for it. You can never go wrong. But in terms of Italian, um the Cordon area, um it’s pretty close to like kind of like River Heights, South Osborne, all that. Um there’s a ton of really good Italian restaurants over there. So like, um Colosio and Bisimo, and those restaurants are really, really good over there. So I would recommend those. I’ve had some really good pasta. Nicolenos on Pemina I really, really like. I’ve been there quite a few times. Okay. Um and so those are a couple ones that jumped to my head for Italian. But um everyone say, “Yeah, BM Market. Is that what it is? Like I I’m trying to remember. Um BMC Tacos. Yeah, people are It’s the right thing that people are talking about. I I still haven’t been, but uh there’s a taco place near me that actually Colin Peterson of the Manitoba Moose was one of the people to suggest that. And I was like, weirdly enough, Colin, you are not the first one to bring this up. That is so funny. Well, Danielle, um well, first people in chat, drop your food recommendations or restaurant recommendations for Danielle in the chat down below. uh help out a new Winnipeger find some of these great restaurants that everyone’s always talking about. Um let’s get to your job with TSN. How are you enjoying the first couple of months so far? You showed up in training camp the day of or the day before the Kyle Connor extension, so got a bit of news there. Um how’s the season going for you so far with the the new role with TSM? Well, I like to joke. It was the first day that I showed up was the Kyle Connor signing and I said, “Oh, you guys are so nice for releasing this on my first day. nice easy storyline. Yeah, great news to follow. Um, but no, it’s been honestly incredible. I was super lucky that Darren Drager came out with me the first week and he is, you know, just such a genuine awesome person to learn from. He’s been so helpful with my transition as well. And it was so fun to kind of learn the ropes of how the organization does things and how things go in Winnipeg with him. So, that was amazing. Um, but what’s really nice is that every company does things differently, but the foundation of what I’m doing I’ve been doing for uh a couple years now. So, it didn’t feel like I was getting thrown into the fire in terms of the actual work that I was doing. I think more of the transition and kind of adapting is just following a new team, right? Like I’ve always followed the Canadian teams and kept up with them, but I haven’t ever been, you know, daytoday following the Winnipeg Jets. So, it has been really cool to kind of come in as a fresh face and see this season and kind of look at a perspective as someone that’s coming in now. Um, but I I do get really interested listening to you guys and other people who have been following this team for quite some time to kind of see the differences and you guys have mentioned it in the show already today just you know the expectations of this group and things like that. So, so far the job I cannot say enough good things. I’ve loved my time here so far. The organization’s been great to work with. TSN honestly has been a dream for me to work at for so many years. So to finally be able to work for a company like that has just been I still sometimes think is this real? But um no, it’s been so far so good and just I love this game and I love storytelling and I love just talking to people as human beings. So, I feel like when you combine those three things, like following a team daytoday, yes, there’s going to be challenges, but it really just feels like something that I’ve always wanted and have been meant to do. So, I’m I’m so pumped to be here. That makes us so happy and, you know, we’re glad that you get to be here with our team. But, I think something that I kind of always wonder when someone comes kind of into a role like this is as I’m very inexperienced in kind of my, if you want to call it, career in terms of having just followed the Winnipeg Jets pretty exclusively for a really long time. And there’s really no other NHL team that I’ve ever tried to follow in the same capacity as I do the Jets. And you know, I work for a local junior hockey team and kind of getting to know them this year. I was kind of stressed by I don’t know if even overwhelmed is the right word, but it’s like I don’t know the lore is the joke of it’s like okay like and what are some like tips and tricks and things that you’ve done to sort of get acclimatized to the the situation of the team and like you said you know passively following them for as many years as you would have because you know just interest in hockey but all of a sudden the shift of how you’re going to frame things is going to change. You know, right now, even when I’m talking to people about, you know, the Columbus Blue Jackets, I always, how do I make this about the Winnipeg Jets, right? And kind of changing it to that being your baseline now being, how is this about the Winnipeg Jets when that hasn’t been your frame of reference before? How is like what are some kind of things that you’ve done to kind of ensure that you’re picking up on all that sort of stuff to serve the market that you’re in? Okay, that’s a great question, Liz, and that’s probably the number one thing that I would say is a bit overwhelming. And I am not the most patient person in the world. So the second I got here, I’m like, “Oh, I need to know everything. Like, I need to I need how do I how do I pick up on all these things?” And you know what I tell myself is there’s only so much you can know from online. And you guys will know that best because being around a team, you pick up on things that aren’t out there. You know, you pick up on individual friendships that you see the players have in the locker room, right? There’s little things that you just can’t know unless you’re around a team. And I think I just would constantly remind myself of that when I started this role is like, okay, give yourself grace to know that there’s certain things that you would never have known and you would never have been able to find, but guess what? You’re learning from your colleagues who again, the media in Winnipeg have been so helpful and they’ve been so receptive in terms of questions. So, even the other day, Connor, like I was asking you just to confirm, you know, what is the routine of the starting goalie? Like, right things like that. There’s just small things that I am not afraid to ask people in Winnipeg. And I just say, you know, no dumb Yes, maybe there’s some dumb questions out there, but for me, it’s like I have no shame in asking people around me those little things that you feel like you should know. when you truly tell yourself that there’s no way you could have known that before getting this role. Like I did the biggest deep dive I could possibly do online of every single player on the Winnipeg Jets. You know, tried to get as much lure as possible. But you really just do have to give yourself grace. And then one thing that I really look at at with my experience is I look back to my first year covering the Toronto Marlies. I went into it and especially at the AHL level, you guys will understand too, there’s not as much information out there on these players and you know, you kind of got to work with what you’ve got. If I look at who I was in that first year covering the Marlies versus that third year covering them, like you know, so much more about, you know, how players are, you know, when when is a good time to ask these types of questions to them. You know, are they in a good mood? Are they, you know, rattled about this game? Do they like answering questions about themselves or would they rather talk about their teammates? Things like that. And I think that I’ve done a good job of mixing the observing to start this role with also trying to put myself out there and try to get to know players and things like that as well. So I think tips would mainly be don’t be afraid ever to ask people who have been there for quite a long time to kind of get some insight from them. And then also like put yourself out there. I try to have, you know, an off- camerara conversation with at least one player per week to just introduce myself and get to know them and, you know, let them know that I’m I’m here and I’m here to stay. So, um, those are a couple things that I’ve been doing. We’re here with Danielle Bane from TSN. Um, you mentioned, you know, you’ve done a little bit of the observing. We’ve maybe delayed it long enough. What did you observe from last from last night’s six-2 loss and really this stretch uh since the start of November where this team’s really sliding, Danielle? Well, another fun tidbit from last night, my partner Duncan, who is he he has become a hockey fan in the last couple years since we’ve gotten together. So, he we finished dinner, the game is on, I go to the couch and I’m ready to roll. I’m ready to lock in for this Oilers Jets game. He goes to just put the dishes in the dishwasher, maybe clean one pan, something like that. He comes into the room and he’s like, “It’s three nothing.” So, that was kind of the vibe over in this household where it it was a tough start. And it’s it’s kind of, you know, I forget who said it. I want to say maybe it was Scott O’Reill last night who said that’s a massive step backwards. And I feel like in the last couple weeks especially, it’s always been one step forward, two steps back because in my opinion, as an observer and as a fan even of the game, when you’re watching a team and they’re going through struggles, when they do have that one solid effort or that one good game, you’re like, “Okay, this is going to be the start of a turnaround.” If they follow it up with a tough performance, it’s definitely two steps back because it’s not just one step back, it’s two because you’re just thinking, how could this possibly happen after, you know, all the discussion that they’ve had about the good efforts, about the good starts. And listen, you mentioned earlier that it’s not like they’re coming out and they’re not trying, right? Like they they are a team that really has that in them and they come out and they want to put that effort forward every every single game. It’s just been really tough for them to chase gains. And this from what I’ve heard and what I’ve researched and what you guys have told me, like this was a team in previous years that even if they were down, like they were never out of the fight. If you look at literally that first game of the season against Dallas when they were down so bad, they still brought it within one goal, lost 5-4, I believe. And it was it was kind of like, okay, you know what? people aren’t aren’t rattled about that loss because they really did what they do and that’s put themselves back in the fight. I think what’s tough for fans right now is like they go down three nothing to the Oilers early that that should be a situation where they’re not out of the fight completely right whereas last night it did feel that way. No, for sure. And I think that, you know, one thing that we spoke about kind of every week last year on this show as the season progressed, we’re like, they haven’t really put together back-to-back stinkers yet this year. Every time the Jets had a flop performance, the next game was strong. And the same can’t be said for for this year, specifically this month, which I think is, you know, very unfamiliar to the Winnipeg Jets of late and some of these core players who were on that team last year and everything. So, it probably is kind of difficult to to sort of stomach. But this coming week, they have an interesting schedule. You know, they they’re playing against Dallas on Tuesday, who is, in my opinion, a top three team in the National Hockey League, and they’re not number three. And then, you know, you have the original six matchup coming later in the week and all this sort of stuff. A couple more games to really get in before Christmas. What do you think needs to kind of happen with this group leading up to that week they get off over Christmas in order to make them feel like going into this sort of new year that they’re in a position that they want to be in? That feels a little bit more ideal than where they’re at right now because obviously where they’re at right now is not what this group is looking for. Yeah. And I think you know multiple players have said that you know you can’t make excuses and this isn’t an excuse. This is more just kind of what I’m seeing and an explanation of what’s going on right now is that yes, the schedule is really tough and certain teams leaguewide are feeling the effects of the schedule much more than others and that’s just the plain way it is. Like we know that this is an older group. The recovery time for athletes of older ages, you know, isn’t as quick. Is that just truly what’s happening here where they aren’t able physically, mentally, whatever it is to kind of come out and handle the schedule that the way they want? I don’t know. We’ll have to continue seeing as this schedule goes crazy, especially in January, for example. But I think what needs to happen heading into the holiday break for them to feel, you know what, we’re heading into the new year and we’ve started to kind of move forward in a way we want is I need to see multiple wins in a row. It’s as simple as that. Like you need two win, you need to string games together here. Even if it’s just two wins in a row followed by a loss, another two wins, like they just need to start piling up those points. And I think they are absolutely so lucky to have someone like Eric Comry in this position. Not even just skill-wise. This is the type of guy that no matter what the outcome is of the game, he’s turning around the next day. He’s going to be that positive energy. He’s going to be that positive voice in the room. He’s going to come in and he’s going to make players around him release tension. And imagine you’re a player and you come in the next day following a terrible loss and your goalie is still just down in the dumps. you know, you you kind of want to tiptoe around them. You don’t really want to talk to them. I think they are super lucky to have someone with that type of energy like Eric Comry does. So, he already puts things at ease for them and gives them the opportunity to come in to a fresh game with a fresh mindset. I think they just got to get those wins together and I don’t know if it’s going to be possible, especially against these tough opponents, especially with this condensed schedule. But, I don’t know. And you said you mentioned list bringing up some some of the younger guys who know the system well. It’s tough because every decision is making right now about kind of who’s playing and what the lines look like is a risk. And I think that’s that’s exactly why, you know, the discussion of the top line being broken up or not has been so prominent is Arneal everything he’s doing right now, especially because they’ve been struggling is going to be a risk. So, he’s kind of, you know, talking with the coaching staff. Is this risk worth the reward? You know, is this risk going to send us even further down and further behind where we want to be? So, I don’t know. It’s really tough. I don’t see a clear, you know, roster decision when it comes to how they can kind of turn this stuff around. Um, so we will have to see if they’re able to kind of get at least two wins in a row, couple wins here and there. Absolutely. Yeah. And the one risk that the Jets aren’t running is whether or not Kyle Connor and Mark Shiffley are going to be piling up the offense every single night. Um, moving away from the Jets, Josh Morris is a lock for team Canada. At least that’s what what we’ve been saying. Connor Halbuck’s obviously a lock for team USA if he’s healthy. What do you think Mark Schiffley and Kyle Connor have done so far this season for their Olympic chances for Canada, for Shley and the US? for Kyle Connor. They’ve just kept this team going. Like honestly, I did the tally today because I’ve been really curious about this one stat and the top line of those three guys have 50% of the team’s goals right now. And that they’ve been hovering around that for a little bit right now. Connor, Shifley, and Valardi have I believe it’s 42 goals and the rest of the team also has 42 goals. So they are literally quite literally keeping this team afloat and I can I can see why Scottal doesn’t want to break them up. They are the only reason that this team has been able to get those wins when they have. Yes, there’s been a few games here and there like the fourth liners the other night who kind of brought things home for them. But overall they have been the reason that this team has even the amount of wins they do now. So when you’re able to carry that load and also Shley and Connor have individually said to us in scrums and in moments where we’re asking about it, they love being relied on. They truly love being those guys that the pressure is on to deliver. And I think that that’s actually a really key component to playing for your country is the pressure to deliver for an entire country comes into play. And if you can handle that pressure on a nightto-ight basis in the NHL, then you can you can most likely handle that in a team environment when you’re playing for your country. So, not only are they putting together the points, but the way that they defend as well. Mark Shreley has come a long way in that kind of regard. Kyle Connor has always been a great defender, but they’re playing both ends of the puck, both ends of the ice. They they should be the type of player that is is jackof all trades type of thing in those Olympic situations. So, I do believe they’ve done enough. Like, they’ve carried the load. They’ve shown that they like to be relied on, and I think those are key key things when it comes to those types of teams. Absolutely. Well, Danielle, this was an absolute blast. Thank you so much for bringing the positive vibes here on a Sunday morning. We’ll have to have you back on soon and hopefully we’ll do it after a 6-2 win uh later on in the month of December or something. I love it, guys. Thank you so much for being so welcoming to me, coming to Winnipeg. You guys have been the best and I love your content. So, keep plugging away and just I’d love to come back on soon. Well, likewise. We love your content over at TSN. So, keep killing it. Um hopefully Winnipeg keeps up the good image that you’ve gotten over the first couple of of weeks and months here and uh you try out some new restaurant places and and the chat was very helpful in that sense. Thanks so much for taking the time, Danielle. All right, have a good day, guys. You as well. There she is. Danielle Bane from TSN. Um great conversation. super super thankful that she was able to come on this morning and like I said provide the positive vibes list because she talked about how you know goalies can maybe be down in the dumps. We are down in the dumps this morning after that 62 loss. Oh my gosh. Yeah. No, it’s good. And we we adore Danielle and we’re so glad to have uh you know someone here in that role. I think that, you know, you and I, we knew that John was retiring last year. So, you know, we were really hoping, I know, with the way that the sports media landscape has has shifted in the last few years, especially postco, like I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t sure if they were even going to to hire someone. Sarah’s been stepping up and doing so much for TSN. Dan and Kevin are fantastic, and maybe they could have added more to their workload and spread them too thin or something like that. So, I’m so glad that we do have someone in this role, and that it’s someone as wonderful as Danielle. So, we’re so glad she she joined us today for her rookie lap on WST Sunday Live. Absolutely. And also, you know, TSN, the the rights or the exclusive rights to Jets regional games were expiring. So, that was another reason why you maybe thought, you know, oh, maybe they won’t get a a a person for this role, but obviously they’ve extended those rights. I think it’s 5 years starting after this one. Um, and then obviously Danielle is here and absolutely crushing it. So, thank you to Danielle Bane for joining us here on Sunday morning. Let’s get to our first segment of the day list. This one is this one is on the topic of, you know, Danielle said it’s a risk to call players up. I agree. Everything Scarding is doing in the bottom nine right now is a risk. Um and and we’ll see if he ends up breaking up the top line if there are big changes like that on the docket for Tuesday um in terms of splitting up Connor and Shley. But to help us do a power pull of the five players that we would call up, we’re leaning on our friends over at Chuds Powersports. They sponsor all of our power poles here at WST. And they’ve been serving Manitobans for over 80 years out in Gimy at the corner of Highway 8 and 231. And look, winter is here. There was a few weeks there where maybe it was pushing late to November. Went to a Gray Cup game and it was warm in Winnipeg. That felt weird. But look, winter is fully fully here. And the folks over at Chuds Powersports are fired up. They want you to get into one of these snowmobiles. The ice houses, ice fishing season underway as well. Boats, UTVs, ATVs, street bikes, dirt bikes in the summer, uh golf carts, Argos, and Sasquatches. They have it all over at Chuds Powersports. So, for all your powersports needs, lean on Chuds and the Derminator out in Gimley at the corner of Highway 8 and 231. And if you can’t make it out to Gimy, you can always check them out online, chudpowersports.com. And they also have a a clearance site, true northparts.ca, where they have a ton of items on clearance. So check that out as well. But for all of your powersports needs, lean on our friends at Chuds. Shout out to them for sponsoring this podcast and these power poles uh list. Let’s get to it. Top five players, the secondary scoring hasn’t been there for the Winnipeg Jets. The bottom nine not working out. Who are some of the players we’d call up from the Manitoba Moose? Here it is. Number five, Nikita Chirikov. Played eight games with the Jets this year. didn’t have any points, has gone down, has one goal and one assist so far for the Moose, but still a player that can maybe fill in in the bottom six. Number four, Samuel Fogimo, who is a a AHL sniper, if you will, list can be a guy that can come in and maybe score some goals from distance for this team um if they’re not going to get to the middle of the ice or continue to not get to the middle of the ice. Number three, the Gusbust. David Gustoson sets that standard on the fourth line. And I know Kenny and Renie have discussed this um seemingly the last number of shows. Why isn’t David Gustin up with this team right now? Especially when they’re having issues in the bottom six. Um he’s a guy that we have at number three. Walker Der kind of has the sauce list. Um he we went and watched a Moose game and he was all over the ice. He’s got speed as well. He’s got a bit of a finishing touch. So Walker Dur comes in at number two and then this one number one is the longterm. He’s coming up. He’s going in the middle six and hoping that he never goes back down. It’s Brad Lambert number one on the Chudz Powers Sports Power Poll. These are the five players we think that the Jets should call up if they are to make a call up list. What do you think of this list? I think that when we were putting this together, we were kind of assessing a couple different criteria for, you know, where we should put guys, who should make it on the list, all that good stuff. And so just thinking about the type of player that they are, the type of offense that they would bring because offense is the the main thing that’s being, you know, required by that middle six, bottom six, bottom nine, whatever you want to call it, scoring bench lately. But then we also factored in the uh the waiverss consideration as well. Uh this man group has obviously they did lose yesterday, but they’ve been rolling as of late. And you know, you don’t want to screw them up too badly. And I understand that at the end of the day, Manitoba Moose, the coaching staff there, their job is to win the Jets Stanley Cup. It’s not to win the matter of Musa Calder Cup. That’s kind of a secondary bit, right? And and they acknowledge that. They understand that. But all that’s to say, if it would totally screw up this team to take away Walker Derer for him to just go have three points in the next 70 game for the Winnipeg Jets, is it worth it? Personally, I don’t think so because anyone else could come in and fill that role as well. So, couple different considerations when we were putting together this list, but at the end of the day, I like some of the offensive game I’ve seen from some of these players on the Moose. David Gustoson, I think, has looked so mature and so fun with the Moose. I I’ve always liked that player, and I think that he’s a guy who has had some decent offensive looks with the the Jets. Nothing crazy obviously, and we always thought there was a little bit more there, and perhaps it’s just not because it’s been long enough at this point. But, uh, he’s great, so I want to flag him. Yeah, Samuel Sam Samuel Fogimo has been a little bit of a a surprise for me where I feel like the the Jared Anderson Dolan and Mason Shaws and even Walker Doers of the World, they have a little bit more of that like, you know, fringe fourthline, pretty high-end AHL guy, versatile enough toolkit, all this sort of stuff. Samuel Fogimo has like an identity as a player. Like he rips the puck, man. like he is an abs like he’s kind of like a almost like a Kobe Barlo player in the way that he kind of tackles these pucks downhill and and just like absolutely wires them from the top of the circle from a little bit lower than you’re expecting anything like that. Like he is a shooter. So, uh he’s I wanted to to include him on this list and stuff, but yeah, look, I think at the end of the day when we were putting this together, I was like, man, this situation is pretty bleak. I don’t think any of these players are going to come in and completely shift the way the Winnipeg Jets bottom nine scoring is looking right now by any means. I know some people in the chat I mentioned like Jagger and guys like that. I don’t know if the the young and young guys like Jagger and Barlo would do anything for this Jets group right now. I don’t think this would be the right environment to bring them up in. I don’t think they would uh you know Kobe Barlo is a guy that’s known for his his goal scoring everything. He has two goals in 23 games this year. It’s not like he’s got a hot stick right now that the Jets could capitalize on either. So, uh, this is our list and I think it goes to show that the solutions while I did talk about how I think the Jets need to kind of in the long term work on incorporating more of their young players into the lineup. I’m not saying that needs to start tomorrow because this is what it would look like and I don’t know how uh how exciting this list is to anybody but me, but um yeah, I think that uh it’s um it it’s a good conversation to at least have, right? Yeah. And just as an aside, we’re talking about forwards here. You talked about how the Jets need to incorporate or need to start incorporating some more youth into their lineup and you said that won’t be starting tomorrow. What I’m predicting will be starting tomorrow is Elias Salammonson’s second run with the Manitoba Moose this season because I Hayden Flurry had been skating. Scardell said he’d been cleared and if history has told us anything, it’s that this guy’s going right back down uh to the Manitoba Moose. And that’s once the team gets healthy, they’re scared to lose people on waiverss. So that’s just as an aside, but looking back to this list, Walker Dur leads the Manitoba Moose with 14 points in 23 games. He’s got eight goals. Also the goal scoring leader, so that’s why he’s there. Samuel Fogimo, 13 points, seven goals in 23 games. David Gustiffson, 13 points in 22 games. Those are the three scoring leaders for the Manitoba Moose. Um, and and some players that can really come in and help. And then Brad Lambert, obviously. Are they actually the top three scoring leaders? Oh, that’s so funny. I literally That’s hilarious. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Walker just seems to be able to will offense every now and then. Like he’ll just like get on a horse and and have a couple of like pressure shifts and stuff that make me go, “Okay, yeah.” Absolutely. Every notifications on your phone, you’re not watching. Walk or do her. Go for the mento moose. Walk or do her. Go for the manto moose. All right. Exactly. Exactly. So there’s our Chud’s powersports power poll. Shout out to Chuds for sponsoring our power polls here on WSC Sunday live. Um, and those are the five players that we would call up if the Jets are looking to make a move list. Let’s move on to our next segment. We’re going to run through them here. This one is trending up, trending down. This is the segment where we pick one Winnipeg Jet who has trended up or down over the past week of play. Um, there are going to be a lot of options for one of the two this week. And I think I know which one there will be lots of options for. Uh, if you’re here with us live on YouTube, drop your pick for Trending Up Down in the chat down below. And while you’re down there, hit the like button. lets YouTube know we’re putting out some great content here at WST and we would really appreciate it. So, drop your pick down below for trending up, trending down. Uh, list, who do you got? Let’s start with trending down. Easier pick. I wrote in my notes. I wrote in my notes four players for trending up and then the rest of the team for trending down. So, whoever you take here. Um, I think I have a lot of options. Dang. Yeah. Oh, right. Trending up. Oh my gosh. Literally right about to jump into Oh, we’re doing down first. Doing down first. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That’s why you said that cuz I was like in my head, we always do up first, but today feels like a day to do down first. Uh, you know what? I’m going to go with a guy who had a little bit of a rough showing yesterday. I’m looking at our past choices for this game and and he’s only gotten it once this year, and I love the guy, so I’m not going to uh or so, I’ll pick him without feeling too too bad about it. Dylan Demell is going to get my trending down pick for this week. I vented about him for a very long time on the postgame show after the Buffalo game where I talked about how I think he’s a really really important domino to not let fall for this Winnipeg Jets team cuz when he doesn’t perform well it puts Josh Mory at risk which puts the top line at risk which right now with how the Jets is playing puts the entire team at risk and you know last night he was only on the ice for seven shot attempts for the one pike jets he had a 28% Cory percentage which is just like astoundingly bad and stuff and you know he controlled gold ready for this percentage of the XG battle 17% of the expected goals were in the Winnipeg Jets favor when Dylan was in the ice last night. So not a glowing performance from him. So he’s going to get my trending down for this week. He’s a guy who I think and again talk about young blood maybe trying to move some pairings around to try and get more optimal situations for everyone to play in. He’s a guy who I think the Jets long term need to assess how much longer he can play top pairing minutes for this team and but right now the solution is looking even more bleak than what he’s doing. So I think that it’s you know he’s fine to stay there for the time being but that’s a a long-term flag for me that I don’t know how they’re going to address it when it inevitably comes up. So he gets my turning down pay for this week. I think he’s incredibly important to this team, but not a super great performance last night. Yeah, I’m with you on that. Like I said, I wrote the rest of the team in trending down and he wasn’t one of the players in trending up. So, could have gone with him. Uh there are a lot of guys that I could go with here, but I’m going to go with Cole Perfetti. Um he has list trivia question for you. Who has more five on five goals this season? Cole Keepy or Cole Perfeetti? Oh my god. Well, it’s not a trivia question because you already talked about it earlier in the show. which Cole has more five. Until if we were having this conversation three days ago, I would say it’s Cole Perfetti because Cole Petty has one and Cole Keepy has zero. But now now Cole Keep red hot. He’s on a heater. Maybe we’ll mention him in trending up. Who knows? Uh but no, Cole Perfetti has to be better. Uh he’s a part of that middle six that again I I feel like I could take anyone in that middle six, but he’s the guy that he’s in a contract year list. I think this is kind of a a story line that’s maybe flying under the radar a little bit is his production has come out slow here. He’s needed to be uh you know get back up to speed coming off of that high ankle sprain in the preseason. Um and look, he like I said, one five on five goal in 14 games just isn’t going to cut it. He has the one power play goal as well. Two goals so far this season for Cole Perfetti in 14 games. Uh they need more production from him and you were leaning on him for more earlier in the season or not earlier in the season when he came back from injury. you were leaning on him to get that offense going a little bit, get Jonathan Taves going as well. Uh, and it just hasn’t materialized for this Winnipeg Jets team. So, I’m going to take Cole Perfeetti, a player that we often take for trending up on this program, but 1515 goal in the last 14 games um or in all of his 14 games so far this season. I’m going to take him for trending down. Uh, who are you going to take for trending up, Liss? For trending up, um, I’m gonna go with Mark Shley, actually. I think it’s hilarious. uh two games. If I had a nickel for every single time Mark Shley scored a goal in the last two days that was called back from being offside, I would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it is weird that it happened twice. Um, I think that he’s a player who has continued to kind of establish his own bar. And I really liked what Danielle brought up on the show earlier today about how these players are showing that they can, you know, carry a team if they need to. And and when the team isn’t playing well around them or when the team can’t score, it doesn’t impact their ability to fall into that momentum and stuff. So, I think that um you know, the fact that he’s been as consistent, that line has been as consistent as they have been over this stretch, I think is really really important and deserves a little bit of flowers. And we know that that line does in fact live and die by Mark Shley. He is the most important player on that line. And you will never hear me say otherwise. So, uh he’s going to get my trending up pick for this week just because I’ve been impressed with the consistency we’ve seen from this group. Not perfection, but consistency that we’ve seen when they have rarely, rarely, rarely taken a night off in this stretch, and that’s the only reason the Winnipeg Jets are losing games 6-2 instead of 6 nothing. Yes, good call. And another reason why they’re losing 62 instead of 61, is that Cole Keepky had a nasty wraparound goal last night, Liz. So, I’m gonna take Cole Keepy for trending up. This is a guy that look got hurt um trying to make an an inside out move against San Jose. scored on that same move uh to get his first of the season in the game against Buffalo and is a player that I’ve always liked going back to training camp. We’ve mentioned him that, you know, he had a little bit of juice. He’s got speed, he can kill penalties, he’s physical, and if he’s going to score, um that’s a quality fourthline player. Uh he had 11 goals last year for the Boston Bruins. Um don’t know if he gets there this year in terms of getting, you know, into the double digits, but at least two games, Connor. I don’t know, man. On pace. He’s on pace for what is it 55 more goals uh this season. But look, he has been strong on that fourth line since coming back into the lineup. I like the speed he brings. I like the physicality. I like the penalty killing ability. And if he scores goals, that’s a massive win because you take any goal that doesn’t come from the top line right now. And Cole Keep has provided two of them in the last two games. So I took Cole Perfetti for trending down, Cole Kepky for trending up. Kind of a battle of the coals there. Um, and that’s going to do it for us for trending up down. Thank you everyone for dropping your picks in the chat below. Really appreciate it. List, let’s get to our final segment on today’s show, the part of the show where we open it up to the chat room. The chat has been buzzing today. Shout out to everyone who’s here with us live on YouTube. Um, after that loss, staying up late for the Winnipeg. Maybe you got to bed early. Actually, you could have gone to bed at 9:15 and and not missed much. But shout out to everyone for waking up with us early and checking out WC Sunday Live. We greatly appreciate it. And this is the part of the show where we open it up to you, the chat room, for one burning question. This is the part of the show where you fire off your questions on the Winnipeg Jets in the chat down below, and we will try and rapid fire through as many as we can before we wrap today’s show. I also have a bit of a rant on the Olympic ice coming up. I I need to talk about that because it’s just so ridiculous. Um, but anyways, drop your questions for one burning question down below. Um, Liz, I don’t know if I have a one burning question for you. I just uh Yeah, I have a burning question for you then. Great. And it’s uh actually Darth Ser’s question here. Um, should burning question. Should they burn it all down? Where are you at? We’ll we’ll have to assess this in a little bit of a future show because we don’t have time to get to it today. I had written this down as something to kind of talk about where it’s like look like I I think that there’s always the what should they do, what will they do, what do they want. Are you team and maybe we’ll go to the origin of this segment where don’t even give that much of an explanation just whatever where they need to fix everything right now to turn this back into a contender. Are you team cut your losses this year and reassess next year the same way like New Jersey Devils did for example last year with Jack Hughes’s injury when you acknowledge that you know you can just pin it all on Conor Halibuck if you want and be like we’re going to try again next year or are you team they’re so cooked there’s nobody on the pending UFA market coming up they should just sell everybody and restart what of those three camps where do you fall it’s a great question it is I would say ask like this is such a copout but I’d say ask me again at the Christmas break because look, they don’t if they’re if they’re burning it all down and trading all their efas, they don’t need to do that right now. They can do that at the deadline. They can, you know, go on a PR campaign for all of these veterans that they have on one-year deals, up their value, and then sell them off for picks at the deadline. Um, I’m not quite there yet. I will say though, this stretch coming up here is very, very important. And I’m not sure, you know, I I think someone in chat was also asking, you know, like Tuesday, what what are the what are the changes going to be? Like I what do you what do you think even changes in the short term list? Not even looking to January, just like Tuesday night. You think it’s just still just Connor Shyley, Shen is in for Salammon’s in try your best for some reason. Like I don’t know. Something like that maybe. I think uh practice will be telling on Monday, but um I wouldn’t be shocked at this point considering the fact that we saw for the first time. Yes, it was only for a part of that game and they scored afterwards. But um the Connor Shley I follow I I wouldn’t be like super shocked by uh and then whatever the residual impacts are of that. But um yeah, man. I don’t know. Like I think we’ve talked about this for, you know, a really really long time where it’s like they there won’t be anything drastic and there isn’t a whole ton of of little little moves that they can make like they’ve shuffled so much of that bottom line already that like it’s just going to be more I think iterations of that and hoping something there sticks. Yeah. Yeah, I I’m with you on that. Um yeah, Nicole Jay here is saying, “Anyone watch Adam Lowry on After Hours? He was great. As expected, Pure Class.” Absolutely. Um shout out Adam Lowry after after a you know, devastating 6-2 loss on the second night of a back-to-back. Pure class as always. Uh that’s why he’s the captain of this team. Um wouldn’t want it any other way with Adam Lowry. And then waiters, when will Nyquis play again? This is I’ll say Tuesday. Think they swap him in. Great question. Yeah, I think they swap him in for someone else. I don’t know. But then I have a question that is well someone else’s question. It’s from uh will Nyquis see January as a jet? Where where do you where where are you at with him? Where do you think he’s at with you at with Nyquist? I mean, he’s This is the riveting stuff that you can’t No, I know. But do can you do anything with him? Like, do you like the Winnipeg Jets have never put a player who makes over a million dollars on waivers, have they? Like, this isn’t like the do. So, like what what do they do with him? I don’t think waivers is an option. Where are you at with Gustaf Nyquist? Where are where am I at? As he’s sat in the press box the last couple games. Um I think he’s going to come in on Tuesday. Like again just purely guessing. The Jets aren’t practicing today. They’re going to practice Monday. We’ll get line rushes. We’ll see all that on Monday ahead of their game Tuesday against Dallas. But if I’m guessing right now, he’s he he’s in the lineup Tuesday and we’ll see if this next run changes my opinion on him. But it was a miss. Like he he hasn’t scored a goal. He’s not producing offense. They tried to go with, you know, like in the preseason they ran Nyquist, Taves, and Perfetti together. And clearly the thought with that line was like, okay, it’s three really smart players that can make up for the lack of speed with their smarts and their puck moving ability and all of those things. And that just hasn’t been the case. So, um, yeah, I don’t know. Um, we’ll we’ll see what ends up happening with Gust. Where are you at with Gustav Nyquist? Don’t ask me that. I don’t know. I don’t know. That’s why I asked it. Only one person has to answer that question. Exactly. Exactly. Um, Matt, should they switch Milich and Deentis if they won’t trust Militch to start? I think last night, no. Yeah, first of all, I I’d say no. And I don’t know. Last night, I think they just wanted to save Milich from a beatdown, but he got in anyways. And Scardal wasn’t thinking his team would be that bad in the first 10 minutes. But, um, I I do think they like Militch will probably start Thursday against Boston, maybe. I don’t know. Um, yeah, at this point I’m really not sure. I’ve been wrong on all my Mill starts so far. I thought he was going to get Nashville and not um Carolina and I thought he was going to get Edmonton after that he didn’t start against Buffalo. So, whatever. But um I think that it’s one of those things that it’s like it it makes sense in theory as a question. Oh, should they bring in a different guy if they don’t trust him to start? But you’re talking about two known variables here. I guarantee you they would trust Domentus less than Militch. So, it’s kind of a moot point to me. Yeah, I’m with you on that. Um there’s a few people and I can’t get to all of them, but I’ll use this one. Which is the bigger factor. to roster construction or roster management. There’s a few people asking about Kevin Chevel dayoff list. Has he been front of mind for you over this stretch since the start of November? Looking back on July 1, looking back on last year’s trade deadline, where have you been at with Kevin Shovel day off and the the construction of this roster? Yeah. No, I think I’m very much on roster construction over roster management. Um to be honest with you, I think that um you know the players of the Winnipeg Jets have retained I think they kind of had to after they pulled the trigger two years ago on signing Hella Buck and Sheley, they had to sign Kyle Connor and they you know all these different things. They had to sign Neil Pianc and and Gabe Valardi and all these different guys. I was okay with kind of all those settings. All of the extra pieces are the ones that haven’t been good and I put that more on the player acquisition than I do on the player usage. I think that um you know the guys that they’ve retained, Neil Pian, Bardi, Dylan Samber, they’ve all been good um this year in my opinion. Um but I think that um this team needed more in the Eer’s absence. And then I guess maybe if you want to talk about roster construction from the lens of like giving young guys a shot and all that sort of stuff, I put that more on the coaching staff than I do on like the Kevin Shovel day off. Okay. And Larry Simmons and Co or whatever. But I stand by this whole Pearson, Nyquis, Taves, like it’s not going well. And that’s on management more than it’s on coaching. And I don’t think that the, you know, usage of those players would change the fact that they’re not the solution that this team needs. Yeah. Um, yeah. Like we talked in training camp about how maybe Nyquis was a solid by low candidate because we looked at some of the numbers and maybe he wasn’t as bad as the num the raw like point totals would have indicated last season. That wasn’t the case. That was maybe a bit of a miss from from us, yours truly. Well, the bit was he can’t shoot less than 3%. And it’s like somehow he has, but he can if he shoots 0%. Exactly. So, um yeah, like the the additions haven’t worked out. The the ones, you know, last year’s trade deadline looms large for me, too. Especially when, you know, they they plug Luke Shen back into the lineup and I I don’t know, like it’s it’s just not working. Um, my buddy Mike Bartner puts put out a video the other day. Um, and he um he basically said that Kevin Shival Day Off’s last nine months have been a disaster. That was the tagline of the video. And he starts it by addressing the fact that in terms of a 15-year GM, we talk about this all the time. There has never been a trade where we’ve been like, “Oh my gosh, Kevin Sheloff just got fleeced on this deal.” Like Kevin has had a remarkably good run for what my understanding is of his expectation is make make me a good hockey team in Winnipeg and he’s done that in my opinion quite well since the chips started to fall a little bit more where he had control a couple years after the relocation. He’s been good, but I liked Mike’s kind of assessment of the last nine months. And like you said, it starts with the trade deadline, then the offseason. Like not not his best work as GM of the Winnipeg Jets. And I think that he would probably be in agreement with you on that. I haven’t uh dove into the extent of his conversation with Mike McIntyre from um earlier this week, and I’m looking forward to still doing that. Um but yeah, I don’t think that um the team going into this season. I had a lot of questions about uh my my belief in how far they could go with this group on paper. Yeah, I’m with you on that. And that gets to Matt Heyman’s question. Is it possible to fix the issues without trades? The Jets are in a really weird spot right now where Connor Hellbuk’s not back for another two to four weeks, let’s say. Um they have a very tough schedule coming up here, at least in this home stand. And here it is. Uh they play Dallas, Boston, Washington, Ottawa, and then hit the road to take on St. Louis. Um so it’s a it’s an interesting part of their season list where they don’t have their their best player, their highest impact player in Connor Halabuck in net. Their issues don’t seem to be solvable from within and do you make a trade to help the team out right now before Connor Hellba comes back? like where where are the Jets at management in in terms of that. It it’s a very interesting and intriguing question. I’m not really sure if the Jets even know uh what what the answer to that is because it’s such a a tough spot in the next couple of weeks here. Um do you kind of give up more assets to help this team right now or do you think oh by the time we get to February we might be out of a playoff spot so we should keep our assets and look to sell at the deadline for a retool sort of thing. So very interesting spot to be in uh for this Winnipeg Jets team. Yeah, go for it. Yeah. And where where I fall in that is, and that kind of answers my initial burning question to you. So maybe that puts a pin in this kind of segment for for the day, which is that that is the team that I fall on, is I I don’t do anything to make this team better this year to be honest with you. I And maybe that sounds pessimistic to call the year a write-off or whatever, but here’s the thing. Of course, you could make trades to make this team better. I think the gap from here to Stanley Cup, which is what is the most important kind of thing to address, is so wide right now that it cannot be solved with someone who comes in and plays for the team for 50 games or multiple players that are, you know, you’re able to do that. So, I think with how bleak this UFA market looks, with how bleak this group looks right now and everything, I sell the team this year and I I reassess next year. And I don’t believe in retools in the long term, but this year I think you can get away with it. But I think if this was we having this exact same conversation in 2020 in December 2026 instead of 2025, I think the extra year that all these players get on them as they get older as a core. Um really makes would make me want to go, okay, yeah, you got to you’re locked in on this core. You got to go for it. You got to do it sort of thing. But I think that this year, like I think the gap is so far and the age curve is still favorable enough that they can burn a year if they have to. And I think that that’s where they’re at because I don’t think there’s any trade you can make right now that pushes this team out of the Central Division. That’s another thing. The Central Division is nuts and it was last year, but the Jets were at the top of it. Colorado’s lost two games. It was nuts last year, but not that as nuts as this year. And I said this I said this. You can find me on the record saying this so many times last year. It’s like last year was an off year for the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars. And both of those teams I was expecting to get better and I was like this is a year that the Jets can go all in because I think that they are in a brutal division and Utah’s going to be coming up and Chicago’s going to be coming up. So that’s going to be rough in five years. But for the next three or four years, Dallas and Colorado are going to be brutal. But they were off last year and I was like, “Okay, like let’s uh let’s see what they can And here we are uh in December of the following year and and Dallas and Colorado are are the beasts of the of the West once again. Yeah. Here we are with the worst for more, bro. Yeah. With the worst record in the NHL since November 1st. Um and look, yeah, if if you were expecting us to just say, “Oh, it’s all going to be fine. I think he came to the wrong place.” I’ll I’ll say that in terms of of us on WC Sunday Live. Um but yeah, that’s going to do it for us on the Winnipeg Jets. Listen, I have a bit of a rant to close today’s show. Have you seen the absolute joke that is what’s going on with the Olympic ice right now? So, I have and I have a comment to make on it from a podcast I was listening to about it later. So, you go my my comment is that this is a this is a a media fear-mongered situation. And so, you and I are going to have different opinions on this situation. We’ve known about this for three or four months now. I found receipts. I went to go find them after people were talking about it. We knew that this ice was going to be short in September. So, now the insiders are like, I’m on the phones trying to figure out what’s going on with this ice. But we’ve known the ice was going to be three or four inch or three or four feet shorter uh since September. Doug Armstrong talked about it in September. So, okay. Well, do you know when Milan was rewarded the 2026 Winter Olympics and when they knew they were going to have to build a ring? Was it like 2018 or something like that? 24th, 2019. Milan Cortana won the bid for the Olympics for 2026. Okay, I am on team. It’s stupid. Go on your red because it is stupid. But I don’t like this whole like we discovered this week because now been I’ve been doing some some digging and that is that is objectively untrue. I’m not arguing that. Yeah, like this information is like new and and anyways, but it’s been look, let me let me go on this rant for someone who didn’t have best on best hockey growing up because they didn’t play from 2016 till now for the Olympics and all those years thinking this is so ridiculous. The Four Nations was awesome. They finally got to it, but like why on earth are we not going to the Olympics, right? I kind of get it now. Like Milan was rewarded the Winter Olympics in 2019. They’ve had 5 years, 6 years to build a hockey rink. It might not even be ready on time. A and if it is ready on time, it’s going to be 3 feet too short. That is just ridiculous. And like the NHL is saying all the right things. You know, the the safety of our players is at the forefront and they’re not going to pull out of the event and all those things. They’re going to go. I have no doubt in my mind on that. But how do you get the Olympics six years in advance and still have issues getting the rink done on time and then when it might not even be done on time? It’s too short. And the NHL also argued that they want NHL refs to go and go to this event. So NHL refs are going to the Olympics, but we’re going to make them call double IHF rules. So we’re going to make NHL refs ref the NHL season. Then they’re going to go to the Olympics on an ice surface that might not be ready, is 3 feet too short, and the refs are going to call an entirely different set of rules. What on earth are we doing here? Like, what? Like, why? We might as well play with a basketball on the ice list. Why don’t we Why don’t we play ice football with hockey players at this rate? Like, what on earth is going on? I I I think this is like I I agree with you that it’s a bit like fear-mongering and like maybe I’m falling for the bait here, but I think that this is just absolutely ridiculous and like not criticized enough. How do you build a hockey ring 3 ft too short? I think the fear-mongering comes from people pretending that this is like a oh my gosh, like this is a revelation from this week because that’s when it started making headlines. But like that’s the part that’s annoying me. But um no, I’m completely in agreement with you. And here’s the thing is is that I acknowledge that I have so many different biases that lead to my take on this. And you know, one of them is like my my day job, I work with a lot of sports and and tournaments and organizations, whatever. And I understand that sometimes like if you’re when you have limited constraints and capacity and resources and all this sort of stuff. Sometimes you’re like, “Ah, shoot. like guess we’re going to have like shortened warm-up times for this specific game because we need to condense the schedule and all this sort of stuff. And that’s minor league sports. The NHL is considered to be so little bro in major sports leagues already. Like like you said, I I’m totally in agreement with you that it just it takes away from the legitimacy of this event, but it’s like yeah, like it almost feels like they’re pulling things out of a hat. And like even if they’re not, even if there’s way more thought that’s going into this than than maybe I’m privy to, which probably is the case, you are still subject to the public perception of your sport and your event. And what people are seeing is that it looks whack. And so it’s like you need to do some damage control on the reputation of your of your involvement in this event if you’re the NHL or if you’re the Olympics, you know, you need to manage that as well. And yeah, like can you imagine if if you know I don’t know what the situation is coming up with the uh 2028 LA Olympics with this whole new addition of flag football and NFL players and all this sort of stuff, but if there’s anything where it’s like, oh yeah, like we think it’s in the agreement that, you know, these athletes need to have, you know, 24 hours between flag matches, but like we’re going to do 22 just because it works for the schedule. The PA is going to rip them apart. They’re going to say absolutely no chance. Grand said, all this sort of stuff, right? And so the fact that this is all kind of like happening and there’s all these little random things intersecting where it’s like yeah even like something as simple as the officials like you said where it’s like who are actually the subject matter experts on this because you’re asking people to ref a game that they don’t ref and like that’s not getting the best in the like it’s weird. It’s really weird and it just adds to this weird fuel and and little bro feeling that I have about hockey sometimes and insecurity I have about hockey where it’s like this is not a serious sport. This is not a serious event. What is going on? Well, usually we’re criticizing the NHL for stuff like this, but like again, I don’t know. And and Kenny’s water saying, “Every Olympics, new facilities are completed with maybe one month to spare with enough time to have one trial event run before the Olympics. Happens every time. Not new.” Well, I I I didn’t know that, but I don’t care because I think that’s ridiculous. There’s always It’s like I feel like every year before the Olympics, it’s like, “Oh, the like speed skating dome is not going to be ready. Oh, the track is not going to be ready.” Like it does happen all the time, but the fact are you supposed to put up with incompetence because it happens all the time because they because they wait. I guess so. I guess so. I guess I’m just supposed to be okay with them, you know, building a rink too short. And and some people in the chat are saying like, “Oh, it’s it’s it’s not too short. It’s just not NHL size.” Emily Kaplan, ESPN. The agreement between the NHL, NHL Players Association, and International Ice Hockey Federation clearly states that the ice mil must be built to NHL standards. You want to know why? because they’re sending NHL players and they’re sending NHL refs, so they want to play on an NHL-sized rink and it might not even be ready. And Elliot Freeman said last night, there’s concerns about the quality of the ice, too, because they’re going to be playing a lot of hockey games in a short amount of time. I’m sorry. Like I I just I don’t get it. I I don’t get And and to Kenny water Kenny’s water bottles comment, right? It’s like the whole idea of like you’re totally right that this does happen kind of all the time, but it’s it’s the fact that there is this added thing of it’s like okay, like we’re finally getting the NHL players and there’s this whole agreement like you said with between these two parties and it just feels like like you’re like who’s policing this then? Because like technically if this is the agreement, the NHL should be like no, you can’t have my guys. I know that they don’t want the backlash they’re going to get from that and all this sort of stuff, but then what’s the point of even having an agreement then if you can just violate whatever you want? Like, you know what I mean? Like, it’s just like what? Yeah. I don’t know. That that just pissed me off this week because it’s just, you know, the fact that they wait this long, I think that’s ridiculous. I didn’t know that all Olympic events are they wait until a month before, but like ice hockey and like hockey events I feel are, you know, you need to have that done. you need to have that done to the proper dimensions that you agreed to because they’re sending NHL players, they’re sending NHL refs and they’re calling an entirely different rule book for some reason, the double IHF rules. So, look, like I I and again, part of this is the insiders saying that there’s no plan B, there’s no backup plan, they’re going to Milan, the rink has to be done, yada yada. Um, I just think it’s ridiculous that we’re this far out and we just don’t know. It just reeks of incompetence to me. Less, there’s an agreement. Yeah, I think it’s valid to to have this sort of thing. And like we’re just saying this because we are such fans of the sport and the product and we want to see the best product that we possibly can. And it just feels like it’s not being like I don’t know taken seriously is the right word. I like just some bro with my podcast mic, but you know. Oh my god. That’s a good one from Chuck R. Winnipeg. Should have never hired George Castanza as lead architect. Good. That is that is good. But look, um, some people in the chat disagree. I get it. Whatever. You think the IHF is perfect and they can build hockey rings too short with no time to spare and do no wrong, fine. But I think that this is like it’s not going to change much. You know, I don’t think that team Canada is not going to take Mlin Celery or Conor Bard because the ice rink is three feet too short or anything like that. I don’t think it’s really going to change anything, but I just think it’s it’s dumb and and and hockey fans shouldn’t put up with it in a sense, you know. Um and and like you say, Les, it does feel very low, bro. What zone is going to be the neutral zone? So, okay, the neutral zone, they’re going to make 3 ft shorter. They’re going to keep the offensive zones the same size. Uh that’s per Elliot Freedman said that last night on Saturday headline. Okay, random uh random question for you. I guess we’re just kind of derailing everything. Um, are there any um, rinks? There are rings in Winnipeg. I don’t know what the the rule is or whatever like that, but like I played ring growing up, but there are certain rings in Winnipeg whose blue lines are significantly whose neutral zones are much much shorter. And where the extra space is added is between the blue line and the ringette line. And those rinks, especially when you’re playing ringette, hockey, I’m sure, is very similar, but with ringette because of the fact that you’re not allowed to pass over both blue lines. Oh my goodness. Sergeant Park rink I know is like that. There are a couple I’m trying to think. I think Eric Koi might be like that, too. a few rinks in Winnipeg that have uh the wackiest neutral zones. And I don’t know if it’s because the rink is shorter or not, but the neutral zone is definitely shorter. And it is crazy. Yeah, there are some rinks like Richmond stands out. That’s in my area like Richmond. I think so. I think so. Yeah, there are some like Century and St. Norbert are fine, but there’s another one where like the the roof is super low and the neutral zone is like 4 feet and it’s like there’s no room. And you know, this is completely an aside, but our beer league team can usually skate better than the other teams. Um cuz we play in in a division that that is, you know, gives us the opportunity to do that. So when the neutral zone is shorter, that plays against us. It’s not enough room out there. But Glenwood, this is what I’m talking about. Thank you, Doug. Look. Oh, Glenwood. Tight neutral zone. Oh, Bertrren. Yeah, Bertrren is what I was thinking of. It’s not Eric. I think I think of a Bertrren rink. That’s a Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But we we could sit here and talk all day about hockey about local ranks. Yeah. You know, screw it. Play at Glenwood. Bring the Olympics to Winnipeg. Play at Glenwood. Why not? Why not? Who cares anymore? Make it 5t shorter. Arguing with like your parents or whatever when you’re like, “Oh, like can I stay out when you’re in high school? Can I stay up from till 11:00 p.m. instead of 10:00 p.m. tonight? It’s like, might as well just move out. Whatever. It’s like, oh, no. Might as well just play Glenwood CC. How about that? How about that? Conor McDavid. Said Eric Koy doesn’t exist anymore. How old am I? No, Eric exists. What happened to Eric Koy? Eric Koy exists. Yeah, it does. In Charleswood. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It might be called something different, but the rink still exists. At least as far as I know. Um Okay. But anyways, um I I wanted to end the show with that rant. Um and now I’m going to go on with my Sunday miserable about the Winnipeg Jets and have a great day. The 49ers are are on by, so they can’t hurt me today, at least in terms of the NFL. Um but hey, we really appreciate all of you joining us here on WST Sunday live. Thank you for keeping the chat live. Um it it got a little more live with the Olympic chat at the end there, but throughout the show, really appreciate everyone’s support. Thank you so much to Danielle Bane from TSN for hopping on earlier today and talking things Jets. Really, really appreciate that. And uh we’ll be back next Sunday breaking down the Winnipeg Jets. They have a game Saturday night against Washington. So two postgame shows this week and then Sunday live with Liss and I next Sunday 9:00 a.m. right here on the Winnipeg Sports Talk YouTube channel. Thank you everyone for watching from Lis Hood. I’m Connor Rabchack. Enjoy your Sunday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and we’ll talk to you next Sunday on the next edition of WST Sunday Live. Take care.

Connor Hrabchak and Lyss Houde host another edition of WST Sunday Live! They discuss the Winnipeg Jets’ 6-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, the upcoming homestand, the 2026 Heritage Classic, and much more!

Later in the program, they are joined by Danielle Bain from TSN!

Follow Connor Hrabchak on Twitter: https://x.com/ConnorHrabchak1
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