Jeff and Elliotte break down Paul Maurice’s resignation and Dave Lowry being named interim head coach. They also discuss why a number of teams are shut down until Christmas and how much money Montreal lost by not allowing fans in the arena.
Jeff and Elliotte break down Paul Maurice’s resignation (00:01) and Dave Lowry being named interim head coach. They also discuss why a number of teams are shut down until Christmas (11:30) and how much money Montreal lost by not allowing fans in the arena (15:45).
Full transcript for the episode can be found here by Medha Monjaury
Outro Music: Frank Motley & The Bridge Crossings - Walkin’ The Dog
Listen to their full album “Canada’s Message To The Meters” here
This podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.
Audio Credits: 105.3 The FAN and Sportsnet.
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.
Jeff Marek [00:00:40] All right, Elliotte, emergency podcast, break glass. Welcome to 32 Thoughts the Podcast presented by the all new GMC AT4 Lineup. Wanna get to games postponed, wanna get to teams shut down, but first, some news that surprised all of us. On Friday morning, we had just released the regular Friday morning 32 Thoughts podcast when we got the email from the Winnipeg Jets that Paul Maurice had resigned as the head coach of that squad, Dave Lowry takes over in an interim capacity. Your thoughts when you first heard the news?
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:11] First of all, he knows how we joked on the podcast this morning: listen to it now because 15 minutes later, everything's gonna be different.
Jeff Marek [00:01:17] Yeah!
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:17] Poor Amil, he does all that work to edit the pod and kaboom! You know what happened? So I first saw it on Twitter with the statement that they released on Twitter.
Jeff Marek [00:01:26] Mhm.
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:27] And the first thing I do is I look for the checkmark, and the checkmark's there, but I still didn't believe it. I thought I would click on the, the post and I would see like @WinnipegJorts or something like that. Like, it was just one of those fake close tags--
Jeff Marek [00:01:42] True alerts!
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:43] --That people do to fool us all the time?
Jeff Marek [00:01:45] Yeah.
Elliotte Friedman [00:01:45] I had some people text me, did you have any idea this was coming? And no, like, I had no idea that this was coming. You know, I thought Maurice did an unbelievable job at his media conference. I take him at total face value. I think he was burned out, I don't think there's any question about that. The fact what he talked about, about coaching in the bubble and how it wasn't fun. I think a lot of coaches and players and executives and everybody involved will tell you that, if you've been employed or on a team or whatever or in the league the last two years since COVID started, it has taken an enormous toll on people just like anyone listening to this in life. It's taken an enormous toll, it's caused a lot of us to re-evaluate our existences, and I think Maurice finally got there. Now, the other thing I think here is if you watch Kevin Cheveldayoff's media conference, it is clear that the Jets were thinking, do we have to make changes here? And one of those would have to be potentially a coaching change. You know, the Jets are a loyal, loyal organisation, and I wouldn't be surprised if part of this was, Paul Maurice sees it coming because he's been around a long time, he's been fired before, he knows.
Jeff Marek [00:03:04] Sure.
Elliotte Friedman [00:03:04] He sees it coming, and he says, I'm going to do the Jets a favour because I am ready for this too, and they don't have to do it to me. I'm gonna to take it myself out of the equation for them.
Jeff Marek [00:03:19] Pause on that for one second. Do you think that is out of a sense of loyalty to the Winnipeg Jets, who, as you mentioned, are a very loyal organisation that pride themselves on having people there for a long time. Is that what loyalty buys you?
Elliotte Friedman [00:03:33] I think so. But number one, when Paul Maurice says he believes it was time, I 100% agree with that. I don't think that's a lie. I think he knew it was time for him, but that leads us to B, which is, he's smart enough to see what's going on around him. And he says, You know what? The Jets have been great to me and I'm gonna to take this out of their hands. I'm going to fall on the grenade. And I think the other thing he did that I thought was really good was, it would have been very easy for media and fans to come out of it and saying, Paul Maurice said...
Elliotte Friedman [00:05:08] He took that one out of the equation, too. He specifically came out and said, the players did not quit on me, the voice just wasn't there anymore. So he basically took this whole thing and dove on the grenade, and now everything is on what he did and said as opposed to anyone else. And I do think that's what loyalty buys you, 100%. And plus also, I just think he's that way, right? I don't think he's gonna blame anyone else.
Jeff Marek [00:05:37] I think everybody was impressed with the level of professionalism, the level of class and poise, and perhaps above all, the self-awareness as well like, this doesn't happen in the NHL. This doesn't really happen, period, and just for NHL purposes I can only think of a couple of different times where coaches have decided to call it quits while the season was on. You know, Patrick Roy walked away, but that was the off-season. Dale Hunter didn't go back--
Elliotte Friedman [00:06:04] That was right before the season.
Jeff Marek [00:06:05] Right before the season. Dale Hunter had his one experience with the Washington Capitals and walked away and went back to London, now, someone like Rocket Richard lasted a couple of games with the Quebec Nordiques and said, that's it for me, I can't do this. Larry Robinson with the New Jersey Devils, left, you know, citing, I believe it was mental fatigue, no one can certainly blame him for that.
Elliotte Friedman [00:06:25] Yeah.
Jeff Marek [00:06:25] But this just doesn't happen at all. And to the point about a team quitting on the coach. The one game that I go back to this season and, you know, interestingly enough, it involved the Winnipeg Jets, back on November the 5th. It was a Friday night. It was Winnipeg Jets and the Chicago Blackhawks. It was Jeremy Colliton's last game as coach of the Blackhawks and, you know, Kyle Connor is looking like, I just reference Rocket Richard, he was looking like Rocket Richard in that game like, you could tell like the Hawks had given up on their coach. And it was gonna be hard for Colliton to go back. We all know about the Bowman protection that he had previous, but that looked like a team that was very much done with their coach. I never got the sense Elliotte, did you, that Winnipeg was done with their coach, that the Jets players were like, ugh, enough of this?
Elliotte Friedman [00:07:15] No, I didn't see that. You know, I'll tell you this. The other team that's asking those questions right now is Vancouver. You look at the way that they've taken off under Boudreau, I think people are starting to wonder, you know, were those players at a point where they just completely tuned out Green? I didn't see that in the same level in Winnipeg. The other thing I wonder about it, though, the timing is, they know that Wheeler's gonna be out for a while, right?
Jeff Marek [00:07:40] Yes.
Elliotte Friedman [00:07:40] From what I heard, they were waiting for the swelling to go down to determine the exact amount of time that he'll be out. Wheeler and Maurice are tight, tight, tight. He is Maurice's conduit. And I wonder if he looked at it and said, you know, we've gotta save the season, my guy, whatever you want to say, conduit shield, whatever phrase you want to learn, he's not gonna be there. And someone pointed that out to me today, and I thought that really made a lot of sense. The other coach I remember doing that was Larry Bird. He coached the Indiana Pacers for three years, was very successful, but he always said in that third season, he's quitting after that year. And no matter how good they were, and he took them to an NBA final, he refused to change his mind. He said after three years, players need a new voice.
Jeff Marek [00:08:29] I wanna get to Dave Lowry here in a second, but one quick follow-up on Paul Maurice. I think we all understand that if he wants to coach again, I believe he'll take time away from the game now to, to decompress and to plan out his next steps in his career. If he wants a coach, he'll coach again. He's a really good coach. I've always wondered about Paul Maurice and management though, and at times I've heard, you know, a whisper or two about, you know, could Paul Maurice take a step above the coaching level?
Elliotte Friedman [00:08:56] Are you gonna say he's the next GM in Vancouver under Jim Rutherford?
Jeff Marek [00:08:59] Well--
Elliotte Friedman [00:08:59] I did have that conspiracy theory floated to me today.
Jeff Marek [00:09:03] Him and Rutherford have the association going back to junior hockey and into the Carolina Hurricanes and the Compuware organisation, but we'll park your conspiracy theory on the grassy knoll here Elliotte.
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:14] I just want to say you're not the only person who's floated this by me today.
Jeff Marek [00:09:17] I'm not saying Vancouver, I just--in general, could you see him in that space? Because I could.
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:22] I think he can do whatever he wants to do. Though the one thing is though, if you're burned out, GM's not a good job if you're...
Jeff Marek [00:09:30] GM of a Canadian team, is that a good thing to do if you're feeling burned out?
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:33] That's a big job. I'll tell you what I am worried about, though.
Jeff Marek [00:09:36] What's that?
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:37] If he comes to Sportsnet?
Jeff Marek [00:09:39] Mhm?
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:40] Whose seat's he taking? Yours or mine?
Jeff Marek [00:09:44] Oh, yours easy. No, yours easy. No, clearly he's taking yours quicker than you can say Jack the Bear. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he's taking--he's taking yours quick. You better, hey, look, there's some pink paper on the fax machine, Elliotte Friedman on that, I don't know what that's about, what's a fax machine for that matter?
Elliotte Friedman [00:09:59] My card's not working. What happened here?
Jeff Marek [00:10:01] Dave Lowry takes over. Kevin Cheveldayoff saying he's taken over for the remainder of the season. Not the first, because the question was out there. Not the first father-and-son, coach- player dynamic.
Elliotte Friedman [00:10:12] The Dineens?
Jeff Marek [00:10:13] The Imlachs as well for two games in the 60s.
Elliotte Friedman [00:10:16] Oh, I forgot about that, that's right!
Jeff Marek [00:10:16] There was the Patricks, that happened three different times with the Rangers so, this isn't new in the NHL, but it is new in this era of the National Hockey League. So Dave Lowry takes over. Your thoughts on Dave Lowry as the new head coach of the Winnipeg Jets?
Elliotte Friedman [00:10:33] Look, Dave Lowry's a good coach. It's a unique dynamic, that's for sure. I assume people will handle it like adults. I'm sure that when the Jets hired Dave Lowry cause Adam was already there and when they considered this move, there was a conversation about what all of this was gonna mean. And my expectation is, at this level, is that everyone's going to handle it professionally. You know, there's too much at stake here. This is a big Winnipeg season. They went out and they got Nate Schmidt, they went out and they got Brendan Dillon. They have to save the media members who said that Winnipeg was the best team in Canada too so there's, there's a lot at stake here. I just think there's too much at stake to be worried about anything that isn't winning games, really.
Jeff Marek [00:11:17] Mhm.
Elliotte Friedman [00:11:17] People have said for a long time, Jeff, that Dave Lowry was gonna be a head coach in this league. I don't think this is the way anybody expected it was going to be? But now is the time.
Jeff Marek [00:11:27] Elliotte nothing is like the way we expected it to be. But here we are. And further to that, a quick couple of words before we wrap up this edition of the quickie pod, for some of the shutdowns. Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, the Montreal-Boston game on Saturday is postponed as well. Calgary misses games against the Blue Jackets, the Ducks and the Kraken, Colorado will miss four: Tampa, Detroit, Buffalo, Boston, Florida will miss three: Minnesota, Chicago and Nashville and as we record this podcast at 3:17 Eastern on Friday afternoon and again to Elliotte's point, 15 minutes from now... As of right now, there are no plans for the league to pause at all.
Elliotte Friedman [00:12:09] Look, we're seeing the NFL, they're moving their schedules around, everybody's battling this. The wild thing for me is what the NFL is doing, and we talked about this this morning. They don't have the runway that hockey and basketball do, their schedule is getting close to the playoffs. In the first podcast we did today, we talked about how now they're saying, if you're vaccinated and asymptomatic, you could return depending on your test results in one day. And earlier today, Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, did a radio interview where he said...
Elliotte Friedman [00:13:43] We're getting closer to the point where if you're vaccinated, we're only gonna test you if you're symptomatic.
Jeff Marek [00:13:49] Hmm.
Elliotte Friedman [00:13:49] You know, we've talked about this. All it took was one league, particularly the NFL, to do it, and we were gonna get other leagues looking at it. I have spent a lot of time today talking to as many people privately as I can. It's like life. There's two camps. There's the Nick Cousins camp, shut this down, and he's got a lot of support.
Jeff Marek [00:14:12] Yup.
Elliotte Friedman [00:14:12] And then there's the other side of, we're all vaccinated, a lot of these cases are asymptomatic, it's time to let us go through it. And there are players who feel that way. The other thing I did hear was, that there are a lot of players, and I totally understand this, who like the players getting tested because they wanna protect their families. Who would argue with that? Tavares talked about that, and now he's in protocol. So I totally understand that, and the other thing too, Jeff, I'm hearing, is that, does anybody see the Canadian government okaying a plan where positive asymptomatic players are going to be allowed across the border?
Jeff Marek [00:14:55] No, not a chance.
Elliotte Friedman [00:14:56] And what does the NFL not have?
Jeff Marek [00:14:58] Canadian teams.
Elliotte Friedman [00:14:59] Teams in Canada. The NBA's got one. The NFL has zero. I will say this like, I had one player say to me today, this is all Canada's fault, that it's so strict. And I said, you know, well, that's where 35% of the revenue comes from, too. You know, he kind of laughed at that. But I just think it's a unique challenge that the NHL has that the other leagues don't. From what I'm hearing today, I just don't see the NHL getting to that point.
Jeff Marek [00:15:25] Final point and we'll wrap up this pod, on the last podcast, the one from five minutes ago Elliotte, we talked about the Flyers and the Montreal Canadiens.
Elliotte Friedman [00:15:33] We'll reconvene at 8:30 tonight.
Jeff Marek [00:15:35] I'm in Barrie for a kid's hockey game, when I come back another podcast which will drop around midnight.
Elliotte Friedman [00:15:40] If you aren't sick of us yet, you're about to be.
Jeff Marek [00:15:42] I'm sick of myself, I've been talking so much lately. I'd like to leave the room when I'm around.
Elliotte Friedman [00:15:47] I get it. I feel the same way.
Jeff Marek [00:15:48] We talked about Montreal and Philadelphia and how that game went on and how there were some misgivings around the league or some questions and perhaps some anger, why are we leaving money on the table, the Boston-Montreal postponement for Saturday's game? That's a financial consideration, perhaps more than anything else?
Elliotte Friedman [00:16:04] Yes, I think it is if you take a look at it. So I was told that Montreal averages around $2.3 million gross for a game. You know, there were people angry that that game was played last night without fans because it's $2.3 million you're never getting back. But the Flyers were there. I mean, what are you going to do it? Request came or the order came late in the afternoon. If you look at the release today, it said the Canadiens will resume their schedule in New York next week, at least that's what's planned, they're on the road, they're the Islanders and at the Rangers, so it doesn't affect them. But I have no doubt that they said, look, we lost one $2.3 million gate and what that means for HRR and the cap eventually going up, we're not losing another. Now the other thing that is good news is for Boston. If you look at what Washington did, they stayed in the states until Friday morning, flew to Winnipeg gameday, so they could take their tests in the states, and there's less of a risk of someone flying to Winnipeg, testing positive, and then getting stuck in Canada. Boston had Montreal and Ottawa. Now, if they want to, and I don't know what they're going to do, I'm just saying, spitballing this, even though it's a five o'clock game on Sunday against the Senators, they could always stay home now until Sunday morning, take the test, make sure everyone's clear, then go, because what players don't want, like Edmonton going to Seattle with another positive test. Toronto with two positive tests supposed to go to Seattle on Sunday night. I'm sure that these teams going over the border aren't crazy about it.
Jeff Marek [00:17:35] Absolutely. Okay, thanks for listening to this quickie pod. As more stories come to light, you can expect to be annoyed by yours truly and Elliotte Friedman here on 32 Thoughts the Podcast.