00:00We saw something yesterday with one of the greatest players in the history of the NHL,
00:05Alexander Ovechkin, with his 34th hat trick.
00:07I believe, if I'm not mistaken, I think that passes Brett Hull for fourth all time.
00:12I mean, he's 40 years old, George, and this guy's still doing it.
00:17I mean, your takeaways on Alexander Ovechkin and his career.
00:23Even before he set the record, he was the greatest goal scorer of all time.
00:27Now, you and I were just talking. You mentioned during your years in high school,
00:30the Islanders won the Stanley Cup every year. That's in the 80s.
00:34So you and I have been around for a while. I went to those games, by the way.
00:37I had that parade going right down my street, about three houses from where I lived.
00:42So fantastic then. My point is, if you're an older hockey fan, which you and I are,
00:47the goalies wore nothing back then. They literally wore nothing.
00:51Nowadays, you can't see the net. They're so big. The equipment's so large.
00:55So for a goal scorer to score this amount of goals nowadays, even before he passed Gretzky,
01:00he was the greatest goal scorer ever. I said goal scorer. I did not say greatest player ever.
01:05All right. So relax, people. All right. There are quite, not quite a few, but a few players I put
01:09above him
01:10as far as overall players. But he's still a really good player. He's got 30 goals this season, Dan.
01:15Everyone's down on him. He doesn't have 40, 50. He still leads the team in scoring.
01:19And it's not a very good team. All right. So all the power to AO. I'm an Islander fan.
01:25Outside of Islanders, he is my favorite player in the NHL. Just like his joy for the game,
01:31especially at his age, the goal. I mean, it's fun to watch here. And he set the record
01:35on Long Island last year. So, yeah, I'm an OV fan here. I hope he stays, Dan.
01:40Have a funny feeling he's gone the way after this year.
01:42All right. Okay. So you, you mentioned the historical place, you know, I Gretzky, obviously
01:47Bobby or who's my favorite player in the history of the NHL. I happen to know Bobby a little bit,
01:53Mario Lemieux. You know, do you put him in that category? Do you put them above it? Do you put
01:58them outside of it? I mean, I don't think we're ever going to see this again, George, a guy when
02:03the
02:03Norris trophy, a guy when the art Ross trophy, a guy when the con Smythe trophy and a guy with
02:09the heart.
02:09And he did that three times. He did that twice. And that's Bobby Orr. So again, it's hard for me
02:16to put Alexander Ovechkin there. But as you said, the game's different today. Where do you put
02:20Alexander Ovechkin when it comes to those Pantheon of players in the NHL? I think he's on Mount Rushmore.
02:27All right. I don't think you have a choice. I think he has to be a top four player here.
02:30And we
02:30even talked, we mentioned Brodeur earlier. Brodeur and Patrick O'Rour, they have to be in this
02:34conversation as well. All right. And someone has to be left out. You mentioned Orr, Lemieux, Gretzky,
02:39Brodeur, Roar. I think Mount Rushmore only has four, right? One's being left out here. So
02:43that's a little tough here. And I'm not including players who are still playing today or whose
02:48career is going to go on here. I think Ovechkin's career is about over. Crosby has to be mentioned
02:51here. Mick David's going to be mentioned before it's all over. So it's going to get tougher and
02:56tougher here. But he's the greatest goal scorer ever. That's on Mount Rushmore, right? Greatest
03:01home run hitter, Mount Rushmore baseball. Greatest goal scorer has to be on the Mount Rushmore
03:05of hockey. Like I said, Gretzky and Lemieux, I didn't see much of Bobby. You're a little
03:09not quite up there. So I can't really talk about him. Gretzky and Lemieux, I would have
03:14above him. I think he's anywhere from three on down.
03:19Maybe we'll change the Mount Rushmore like Trump's trying to change it. And then I had
03:23a fifth one there. I'll just keep it there and we'll keep it in the room. How about this
03:26one here? Of all the teams that have struggled since the Olympic break, you think that's been
03:32a Tampa Bay Lightning? They had six guys that went to Milan. You know, they kind of came
03:37back. They were on a heater going into Milan. Coming out of it, they've kind of given it
03:41up a little bit to Buffalo here. Have they been in John Cooper's team? I've been maybe
03:45the most affected since that Olympic break? Maybe. I mean, listen, Dallas had some injuries
03:51that they lost. They're like ranting and just came back yesterday. That affected them a little
03:54bit. You said a little point there. They were on one hell of a heater going in. Maybe it's
03:59the lower averages here. All right. It just had to calm. You know, you probably didn't want the
04:03break to come when it did. Although Buffalo probably didn't want to come when it did either.
04:06And they're pretty much playing just as well here. Buffalo's just aren't. They're on another
04:09world right now. All right. Do I think they have a better team in Tampa? Probably not. But I think
04:13Tampa just sort of once it came down to the means here, we do need to know what's going on
04:17with
04:17Victor Hedman. He left the team for personal reasons here. Not a huge deal as long as he's back in
04:22a week, 10 days, tomorrow, whatever it might be. We don't know. If that lead goes longer,
04:26they're not going to be able to survive without one of the best defensemen in the NHL. Bottom
04:30line is, I think Tampa will be just fine. Kucherov, by the way, is your MVP. All right.
04:34Of the NHL. I don't know how anybody's even arguing this. All right. But he's obviously the MVP there
04:40of the NHL there. They'll be fine there. Tampa is still in my mind. I don't care if they finish
04:44first in the division or not. They have a team to beat in the Eastern Conference.
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