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Hello

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everybody

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welcome

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to

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the

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Basu

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and

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Gai

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notebook

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this

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Monday.

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are live from Boston for the

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second half of the four of

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the nation's face-offs. So

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far it's a fun tournament. I

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think it's been fantastic

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and honestly like it's, you

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know, we have a tendency in

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hockey to just kind of

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poo-poo things. We're very poo-poo-poo-y

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people. It's hard to

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say, but you know, everyone's, oh,

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it's made up and this, you

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know, it's always like complaining. It

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happened the last World Cup.

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constant complaint. Oh, team Europe and

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all of team North America. It's all

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made up. Well, team North America turned

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into like this iconic creation that

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everyone adored and and this thing

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fine. It's not perfect. It's not

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best on best. It's not all the

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play. Not all the best players are

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here, but it's still the best players

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from these four countries playing against each

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other. It's fantastic. And so I

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just wish people would give things

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a chance every now and then.

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You know, it's like, who didn't

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love Canada USA on Saturday night?

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It's like, it's just, it was

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great, great theater at the Bell

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Center. Honestly, the best national

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anthem I've heard in that building ever.

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Yeah. I've never, I mean, we've heard

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it booed in that building, you know,

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so it's like, it was not booed.

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The other anthem was booed, of course,

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but not that one. But I mean,

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that's one of the great

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games that buildings ever

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hosted. Yeah, honestly. That's

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a fair point. So the

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Montreal Canadians will be back

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practicing tomorrow. So there's going

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to be a lot more

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to discuss on the Montreal

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Canadians front very soon. For

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the time being, we decided

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that for this episode, we

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would go heavily on the

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mailbag because it was an

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opportunity for our subscribers to

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send us a ton of

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questions. So we will get

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to that shortly, but since

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we're at the Four Nations

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tournament. It's interesting to wonder

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if guys like Suzuki or

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Coffee, had they been selected

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for that tournament, how do

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you think they would fare,

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you know, on their respective

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teams? Do you see, for

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example, a guy like Nick

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Suzuki doing better or having

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a more effective role than

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any of the guys, any

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of the forwards that are

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playing for Canada right now?

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I think Canada's issue at this

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tournament and we'll see how they

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approach it for the Olympics, but

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Saturday night, listen I know Sydney

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Crosby's injured, but there's three Golden

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Generation guys, said Drew Doughty, Brad

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Marchhan, all looked old. I mean,

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since playing with one arm and

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he had a tremendous game against.

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against, why don't we get Sweden,

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but those three guys look like

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it was it was tough keeping

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up and and all of them

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have mitigating, well except for Martian,

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Martian's mitigating circumstances that his season

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has been rough in general. Drew

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Doughty is just coming back from

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injury, Sid is injured, so but

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it's it's interesting that you know

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Brock Nelson is basically the only

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kind of older guy the US

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took. and So when I look

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at those three guys, and you

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know, everyone looked at Seth Jarvis,

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I think Seth Jarvis has been

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pretty good, frankly. I mean, I

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didn't think he's been, but he's

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not, he's not, he doesn't have

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much of a role. Like, if

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Nick Suzuki were to play on

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Team Canada, I'm not sure, you

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know, John Cooper is a big

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fan of his, he's always admired

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his game, he's always spoken highly

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of highly of it. I don't

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know how big of a role

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he would have had on this

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team, especially with the lack of

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penalties, especially with the lack of

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penalties, especially with the lack of

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penalties. Yeah, like I could see

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him being a penalty killer for

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this team, but there's the penalties

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have been non-factor, you know, special

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teams have not really been all

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that important. So I would have

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a tough, I would have a

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tough time seeing Nixozuki playing a

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significant role and for the same

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reason I would have, I don't

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think, even regardless of special teams,

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I don't think Cole Coughfield had

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a role to play on team

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USA, the way their wingers are

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playing in this tournament. Yeah, I

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think though the. The style of

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play of Suzuki is, seems to

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be fitting pretty well with the

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way Canada plays and you look

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at the number of guys who

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are really effective on both sides

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of the ice, who are really

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responsible defensively. It's been a real

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focus on that team in the

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way that they built it. When

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you look at Reinhart, Marner Point,

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you mentioned Jarvis, but Stone. Stone,

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obviously, Hegel, all of them. There's

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such a good team defensively and

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arguably it's probably a facet of

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the American team that was a

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little bit underestimated, but you see

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a guy like Austin Matthews might

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not have done a whole lot

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offensively, but defensively he really impressed

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against Canada. So I think that

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Suzuki would fit well there. There's

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an opening. There might be a

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couple of openings for... for the

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Olympics next year. for a couple

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of those guys. You mentioned Radmachshan.

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I think this is the this

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is the tournament that will Show

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that there will be better options

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than him in the future and

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It will be a matter of

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saying well who's going to be

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the best candidate for that because

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yes Suzuki Shifley have been left

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off and so has Robert Thomas

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But very soon you'll have Selabrini

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and Bedal knocking at the door

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too. I think they'll be at

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the Olympics. I think those two

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guys will be at the Olympics.

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So it gets even harder in

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many ways because most of the

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team here will be in Milan.

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And then you have to work

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Selabrini and Bedard into it. It's

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going to be hard. It's going

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to be hard. I mean, Nick's

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got to. The thing with Nick

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is, you know, you know, we've

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always. Montreal the market has been

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obsessed with this notion of a

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point of game player. Nick is

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now a point of game player

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but a point of game player

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doesn't cut it anymore. I mean

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that's it like it's it's yes

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it's good it's very good even

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but it used to be if

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you were a point of game

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player you were a top 15

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score in the league. You're not

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even close to top 15 at

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a point of game anymore. So

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it's like it's it's the the

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the the the math has changed

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in that regard in that regard.

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Now I think if Nick Suzuki

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is a point of game player.

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or becomes like a 90 point

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player, you know, that's fantastic. Like

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with everything he does and is

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all around game, that makes him

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a very, very effective player, but

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it doesn't get him into the

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upper crust where he becomes a

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no-douter member of Team Canada. Like

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he's gonna have to go up

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a tier, basically, to become, you

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know, indispensable for Canada because... He's

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all around game makes him an

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attractive option. But I really, A,

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I don't think he did himself

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any favors by skipping the world

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championships last year and B, he's

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not. he's not a he doesn't

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he doesn't stand out you know

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in the sense like the Canada

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has a lot of two-way scoring

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options that produce at the same

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level or better than what Nick

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Suzuki does and so if he

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wants to be in Milan he

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really needs to use to on

8:31

another gear yeah Among all the

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players who have played at least

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35 games, so we'll include Alex

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of Echekin in that threshold because

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he played with something like 38

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39 something like that There's 30

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there's 39 players. Yeah, who are

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point per game guys So it's

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pretty it's yeah, it's it's it's

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great. But it's 35th in the

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league of scoring right now. Yeah,

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52 points is tied for 34th

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And Kirill Kaprizov has played only

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37 games. So it's like. Yeah.

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And as for, as for, as

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for, as for a coffee, it's,

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it's probably, it's not, it's a

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different type of difficulty, but you

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look at how, I mean, Baldy

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has not played a ton, he

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has not really popped out, he

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would be probably his main competition

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for a tournament like that. Not

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sure if the US have the

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same sort of young reinforcements coming

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up. the same way that Canada

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will be able to count on

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Bedale and celebrate any soon. But

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again, he will be for better

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or for worse, even though his

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overall game, I think has greatly

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improved. I'm not sure he's done

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enough to show to the US

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that he's going to be more

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than a specialist for them. Well,

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I mean, in terms of just

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goal scores. You know, the

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US did not bring Tage Thompson and

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did not bring out spring camp. So

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you have. He has competition for guys

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that did not make the team. And

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Brock, Matthew Nise is a young guy

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who could play himself into that conversation

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at some point. But yeah, I mean,

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the team they have here is looking

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pretty close to the, I mean, you

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know, I think Brock Nelson is kind

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of the Brad Marchand guy on their

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team in the sense of he. might

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not be in Milan and frankly has

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has stood out for the wrong reasons

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in this tournament and I think that

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might have been a mistake bringing him

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but you know this is yeah this

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is Josh Norris is another guy who

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could maybe play himself into the conversation

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Brock Besser's not here there's a lot

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of guys and so yeah I think

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well to me Paige Thompson is the

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big one and frankly probably should be

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here instead of Brock Nelson you know

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it's that's He's good enough to be

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on this team right now. But I

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think Cole in the same way, like

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he's going to have to become like

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really a top end score, like a

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50 goal score. Like, well, he might

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be close to 40 this year. And

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it's, you know, you mentioned the Brinkett.

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Well, heck, right now I take coffee

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a little over the Brinkett. I take

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coffee all over Besser. I don't take

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coffee all over Tage Thompson, but they're

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playing different. skill sets and different attributes

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obviously. But the thing is they have,

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they have Gansle, right? Yeah. Like, and

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Gansle kind of is just a better

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version of Caulfield, right? Like he just,

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he's their, he's their scorer guy. He's

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kind of their smallish, have a neck

11:34

for scoring guy. You can't have, like,

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I know it sounds silly, but you

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can't have too many of those types

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of guys where it's just. Your primary

11:43

job is to score and you don't

11:45

really do a whole lot. else. You

11:48

know, like it's, it's, it's, and

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not say that to say

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Edsel a one -dimensional

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player, but I mean,

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that's kind of,

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that's kind of his,

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his of, on this

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team on is that,

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is, you know, like

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you know, like, same for Kaikana. Same

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for Kyle Conner.