00:00The one thing about, I'm certainly not surprised either that hockey plays, you know, plays secrets with their injuries.
00:06Yeah, the question is, should it be different?
00:08The question is, is it okay?
00:10Yes.
00:11And the one thing it does, while, you know, this is never a thing that fans are up in arms
00:16about.
00:16In fact, this is sometimes where they sort of turn against the media.
00:19If the media makes a point about transparency, you know, well, why should they have to tell you?
00:24Well, they're actually telling you through us, but why should they have to tell Paul?
00:28That happened last Friday, yeah.
00:30And people were all over Paul for asking a perfectly legitimate question that any Sabres fan who's really clued in
00:35was asking while they're watching him play.
00:38Right.
00:38So, it's no surprise, and it's not even an outrage because it's so typical.
00:45What it does, however, if Thompson indeed is injured, as we all think, it makes him look bad.
00:53Until they lose, and then they go, well, he had a broken wrist.
00:58And we all go, oh, well, that makes sense.
01:00That explains a lot.
01:01I wish I hadn't booed him for the last two weeks.
01:03Right.
01:04You know, like, that's the thing.
01:05And Thompson, it's the culture, and he wouldn't be surprised by it either, and he's probably on board with it.
01:12He doesn't want to answer Paul's question about an injury, because then what?
01:16You know, then he's a target, and then it's sort of against the green.
01:20Yeah, and he's, furthermore, he's the guy that copped to an injury in the playoffs, and nobody does that.
01:26You're just supposed to keep, you know, what are you supposed to say when you're asked that question?
01:31Like, we don't want you to lie, but you're, in hockey, you're supposed to lie.
01:35You're supposed to say, it's got to be better.
01:37I feel fine.
01:38Until you can have a news conference at the end of the year, and either you or the organization in
01:44some way lets us know, yeah, he's been wearing a splint for three weeks or something.
01:47Like, yeah, I don't know.
01:49But that's the, yeah, is that the way that it should be?
01:55I think almost unequivocally, no.
01:57It should not be like that, but it is.
02:00And it's one of these things that hockey sort of enjoys, I think, by being, if this isn't too clumsy,
02:08sort of in the shadows a little bit more than the NFL is.
02:12Like, the NFL, you know, all these sports are partnered up with gambling entities, so that right there is a
02:18reason you'd want to know if a guy is hurt or not.
02:22Am I betting on you to score goals in a game when you can't even lift the puck?
02:26Like, maybe I should know that, you know, before I keep doing it, or, you know, whatever.
02:32You do your own thing there.
02:33But part of the reason the NFL, I believe, has always felt like they need to be as transparent as
02:40they are, and they're not even fully, but still, there's an injury report, and it's official, and if you hide
02:46stuff, you get in trouble.
02:48Or you're supposed to, anyway.
02:50Like, teams have been docked draft picks for lying about injury reports and not reporting injuries.
02:55The NHL is just sort of like, yeah, yeah, we're just over here, and, like, yay, two million people watched
03:00our game, and they can kind of get away with it.
03:04I think even the NFL gets away with a lot, don't you?
03:07Yes.
03:08Like, 95%.
03:09There is still, like, there is, you know, I think we know when a guy is, it's a big deal
03:18if you find out a guy was nursing an injury, like afterward, like always happens in hockey, like we're talking
03:25about.
03:26That's a controversy in football.
03:28If you find out that, oh, this guy was missing practices, but you never listed him?
03:34And I think, you know, maybe hockey could use a dose of that.
03:37Hockey doesn't practice when you get to the playoffs.
03:39That's right.
03:40That's right.
03:40You know, they have here and there, but those aren't, it's not on the same kind of schedule as football.
03:48I don't know.
03:50It's just disappointing that he's dealing with whatever it is, and even maybe Tuck.
03:58I don't think it's as obvious with Tuck.
04:00Maybe it's like a knee or something that's sort of just kind of wrecking him.
04:05I don't know what's going on there.
04:06It's a tougher guess for me, but it's just tough when there's so much that we all, we care all
04:14about this so much and don't get to know if there's really a good reason why certain guys are not
04:22at their best.
04:22Right, because if these guys were, like, 100% healthy, I mean, everybody's, whatever.
04:29If there wasn't something directly wrong with a part of Thompson's body that explains these plays he's made or failed
04:38to make, then you'd be terrified of your future with him.
04:43I would be.
04:45And they're like, wait, what?
04:47These are the biggest games of your life.
04:49Well, he was in the Olympics.
04:50Whatever.
04:50He was in the biggest games of your NHL career, anyway, with your team, and this is your performance?
04:58Like, I would never stop shredding him, but I feel like I can't because my instinct is there's got to
05:05be something wrong, dude.
05:06You can't be that bad all of a sudden.
Comments