True Patriot Love - November 12, 2026


Russia at the World Juniors？ Canada Says NO

Carney’s $25B Wealth Fund Gets a New CEO—Will It Work？ ft. Anthony Furey From Scooby-Doo to America's Got Talent ft. Greg Morton

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

176.32

Word count

1,988

Sentence count

25

Harmful content

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

8

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Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00 all right on october 30th the court for arbitration for sport ordered russia to be
00:00:10 allowed back into international hockey four days later our prime minister mark carney said so if
00:00:16 you're asking specifically about the world juniors at edmonton and red deer the russians will not be
00:00:22 there to talk more about it thrilled to be joined as always by mike wickson how are you mike you
00:00:26 You know what, Jim? I am thrilled to be talking to a legend in sports reporting, especially about
00:00:31 hockey. And, you know, really, this is not just hockey. Canada's national hockey has been
00:00:37 legendary. And of course, Russia has been a legendary point of, I guess, it's been a hurdle 0.77
00:00:46 to have them many times in many sports, but certainly the rivalries between Canada and
00:00:52 russia are legendary well especially the world juniors so just for people who don't understand
00:00:56 in 2025 new year's eve canada played the usa over six million viewers in tsn as you know
00:01:03 with your background you're getting six plus million viewers for a canadian
00:01:07 sports or tv event that's a big big oh that's the biggest number essentially that's among the
00:01:13 biggest numbers you'll get for any sport in fact for mostly any programming on television now that
00:01:19 is one of the leaders so what tsn and bell media have done is they have turned the world juniors
00:01:24 into a canadian institution it kicks off boxing day holidays are over canada plays the tournament's
00:01:31 being held in red deer at edmonton with the championship game in edmonton and people are
00:01:36 off families are off for that break between christmas and new year the ratings are big it's
00:01:41 a chance to see a lot of these players you know 17 18 19 years of age some have been drafted some
00:01:48 have not been drafted and for a lot of canadians you're seeing these elite players from finland
00:01:53 sweden right slovakia these other countries are like oh my goodness and you realize why are they
00:01:59 ranked where they are in draft rankings why is mike wickson ranked five i've never heard of him
00:02:03 also you see oh i know why it really is kind of a thrilling game to watch absolutely these are uh
00:02:08 maybe not as skilled as professionals but the energy the skill that the new skills that you
00:02:15 see out there and just seeing bright faces you don't know blowing your mind that is I think the
00:02:21 thrill of this game I remember speaking to Shane Corson a former member of the Maple Leafs the
00:02:25 Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens and he was at the World Juniors in the 80s and this is when
00:02:30 Alexander McGillney was there right and he he basically got defected and they smuggled the
00:02:37 Buffalo Sabres smuggled him out of Russia to when he was in Europe to to get him to Buffalo to play
00:02:44 in the nhl they're the world juniors they're the best junior players can it has to offer they at
00:02:50 that time you know soviet union's still around they have no idea who this alexander mcgillney
00:02:55 is a kid from vladivostok he's time zones away from moscow and he was so good they would get
00:03:02 on the bench and coach what do we do they said just try your best he was like wow yeah because
00:03:08 he was basically just a machine they had like stick handling shooting skating they're like
00:03:13 You probably elevated the game entirely in that region
00:03:15 by just being the guy you had to play against.
00:03:18 So what would happen in the World Juniors is,
00:03:20 for Canadian hockey fans, media, for the North American players,
00:03:24 you would see Pavel Bure and young Alex Ovechkin
00:03:29 and Jenny Malkin and, you know, Fatisov.
00:03:35 And, I mean, some of these phenomenal Russian players,
00:03:39 especially, you know, I mentioned Sergey Fedorov and Pavel Bure
00:03:41 and these great russians and mcgillney that they had never they heard stories but then they saw
00:03:47 them on the ice and you're skating and competing with them you're like oh my god okay we have a
00:03:51 different game on our hands we have a different game in our hands and so it is disappointing
00:03:55 because of what vladimir putin's done in ukraine um russia has been banned from since february 2022
00:04:02 and rightly so i mean if you're mark carney and you are supporting to the tune of billions of
00:04:09 dollars supporting zielinski ukraine there is a massive ukrainian canadian population of western
00:04:15 canada that have been there over a century that's a really good point jim you you can't not say hey
00:04:21 no no thank you russia you're not coming uh yeah no that's not when you line it up that way it's
00:04:26 an obvious one and yeah but you know i think the emotion that's attached this isn't geopolitical
00:04:32 it's what you said before all of these legends from the past that we got a glimpse of through
00:04:37 these competitions because no matter what you say you know politically hockey kind of broke those
00:04:45 barriers and absolutely and it made people feel good about uh reaching across the the war lines
00:04:53 or reaching across the cold war fence and saying you know please come and be part of this and you're
00:05:00 welcome as a human being and as a superstar we will idolize you and that's you know i think
00:05:07 that's the bigger emotion here hey before we go any further please hit the subscribe button right
00:05:12 now if you want the raw debates the full uncut conversations you won't see here head straight
00:05:18 to tplmedia.ca subscribe and lock in your membership trust me you don't want to miss
00:05:23 what happens behind the paywall all right back to the show mike this is a one of my favorite
00:05:28 wayne gresky stories it's uh late late 80s it's still the iron curtain the soviet union are in
00:05:36 ontario to play team canada and they're getting ready for their three-game series
00:05:41 what was then cops coliseum and hamilton and wayne invites a bunch of the russian players to his
00:05:47 home in branford and walter and his mom are barbecuing they have corner of the cob and all
00:05:52 that and the kgb the kgb are hovering around watching them so walter distracts them and
00:06:00 wayne brings them down i think i think it was wayne distracted the walter brought the russians down
00:06:05 to the rec room of their house in branford where they had the trophies to show them trophies and
00:06:09 give them a beer wow because just sneak a beer have a beer come on look at these trophies and
00:06:14 then before the kgb got wise you know they snuck back up and then you know that's what it was like
00:06:20 you people forget you know the mid late 80s before the iron curtain fell the kgb were hovering around
00:06:26 those players all over the time they would be in canada now that might also be confusing to
00:06:31 canadians although we understand that we have pretty serious uh implications right now in doing
00:06:37 anything with russia yes based on the uh the war in ukraine yes at the same time we had these issues
00:06:44 at that not the same issues we had serious global political absolutely uh issues with russia at that
00:06:50 time yeah and here we were trying our hardest to still be that canadian look we're playing hockey
00:06:58 here we're not do you want to stay do you want to look at these trophies let's play hockey so i
00:07:03 think that's confusing to any canadians that are like whoa what's going on here i i but to me this
00:07:08 is an easy win for mark carney and an easy win for the organizers they're still going to sell
00:07:13 out all the games yeah it's going to be huge as we've seen in the olympics um in the four nations
00:07:18 canada and the usa have developed a real intense hockey rivalry so you will potentially see a 0.64
00:07:24 canada usa showdown they're in different groups and so the organizers aren't stupid you can see
00:07:31 it building towards a canada usa gold medal showdown showdown if everything happens which
00:07:36 would be great a huge ratings everyone's into it yeah um yeah it does but at the same time i
00:07:43 understand why the organizers are doing it why all these countries finland sweden norway denmark
00:07:49 czechia lafia said we're not going to play there if they're there so all the countries like we don't 0.55
00:07:53 want any part of russia but part of me hopes that when they can stop this stupid war and get back 0.74
00:07:59 to these teenagers playing hockey against each other it it makes it better uh i think i understand 0.86
00:08:04 it uh you know the current scenario is what it is jim it is and and that's it uh but like you say
00:08:12 it sounds like we've got a great uh a great showdown there's going to be a a selection of
00:08:18 great teams from around the world phenomenal the best of the world and we will see russia on another
00:08:22 day hopefully yeah and it all kicks off on boxing day the championship game is january 5th um it is
00:08:30 you know we i guess because of the world we live in mike we understand that some of these young
00:08:35 players are playing on their club team in finland or slovakia because you have the internet or so
00:08:40 and so mike wickson's playing junior in brandon manitoba but you don't really know then you see
00:08:44 them on tsn of the world stage and they do such a phenomenal job uh gord miller for my money is
00:08:50 as one of the best hockey play-by-play announcers the country's ever produced.
00:08:53 To know the world of hockey is remarkable.
00:08:57 And their knowledge of the whole crew, all the producers, all the reporters,
00:09:03 and the way they present it, and they treat all the countries
00:09:06 and all the players as important as anyone else.
00:09:08 It's a big deal for the families, who are a lot of them coming over
00:09:11 for Europe to watch their sons play.
00:09:15 It's a big deal.
00:09:16 Well, that's the future of pro hockey right there.
00:09:18 Absolutely it is.
00:09:19 You want to take a look in the crystal ball in the next five years of hockey?
00:09:23 There it is.
00:09:24 And, Mike, let me tell you something.
00:09:25 I've talked to scouts.
00:09:26 I've talked to GMs.
00:09:27 There were players that were on the fence.
00:09:30 Then they saw them at the World Juniors on the big stage with all the pressure
00:09:34 and 18,000 in the arena and 6 million watching,
00:09:39 and they took their game to another level.
00:09:41 They're like, that's the guy we're going to draft.
00:09:43 Very cool.
00:09:44 That could make or break you.
00:09:45 So I understand why Russia's not there. 1.00
00:09:47 it would be great when the stupid war ends 1.00
00:09:49 and they could be welcomed back 0.99
00:09:51 to the Olympics and international sports
00:09:53 because if you think about the history
00:09:55 of competition
00:09:57 with the Olympic Games, with international hockey
00:09:59 and other international sports
00:10:01 not having a country the size
00:10:03 of Russia with the quality of athletes
00:10:05 they produce, it's a loss for
00:10:07 international competition
00:10:08 but I get this
00:10:11 this is one you can't go
00:10:13 well don't worry about the war, let them play hockey
00:10:15 no no this doesn't work
00:10:16 it doesn't work that way they can't be there they're doing the right thing um it's going to
00:10:21 be great hockey it's going to be a great tournament um you know go canada go kicks off boxing day
00:10:26 and you know you know no offense to finland sweden and all the other countries there
00:10:30 it's really shaping up that unless something uh weird happens that it could be a canada usa 0.99
00:10:35 gold medal showdown okay i'm going to translate that's jim lang for we're there to kick your ass 0.99
00:10:46 Thank you. 1.00