First, Fletcher wanted to know just what the GM was sampling for this particular happy hour. Turns out Francis, as per every Easter season, gives up drinking alcohol during Lent, forgoing his favored glass of Italian red wine. This particular Friday was a tall glass of water with a vitamin C add-in. No confirmation on Fletcher's choice but he did mention a few options at hand.
The answer to what Francis and his staff are doing to build a hockey team while working remotely covered reassuring comments that he and assistant GM Ricky Olczyk and the pro scouts meet by Zoom frequently and all can access video to continue work of building a database on potential available players for the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft while Director of Hockey Strategy & Research Director Alexandra Mandrycky and growing data analytics develop ways to interpret that database among other tasks. Francis himself also virtually attends any number of ongoing and vital executive meetings with the organization and its ownership.
Francis made a point early in the livestream to address what's on many fans' mind, discussing progress on the team name.
"We're still going through the process with the League and working on the trademarking aspect," Francis said. "Trust me when I say our people have been working hard on this. As soon as we've completed it, we'll look at how our community is doing and when the right time to announce it is."
The Seattle GM acknowledged fans' anticipation: "We know there are a lot of people who are super excited about the name, and we hear you. We're excited about it as well. We know at the same time, there are a lot of people in our community experiencing challenge. We certainly want to be respectful, sensitive and think about when the right time is to share our name. We're hoping it's sooner rather than later."
Francis' report on remote work included one surprise: The NHL Seattle hockey leader took a short break during his busy schedule to tempt a squirrel that had somehow found its scratching way above his home's screened porch. Using peanut butter-and-Cheerios (who can resist that?), Francis set a live trap. The next morning, he discovered the squirrel took the bait. Francis used a golf club to bring the cage to his car's trunk, drove to a local nature reserve and set the PB-and-cereal lover free. Hey, this is a full-service recap, nothing but the most complete reporting.
The playing career of Francis spans 23 seasons, three captainships, two Stanley Cups won as a player and hundreds of fun stories. A few nuggets from Friday's livecast: Francis' first roommate when he was called up as an 18-year-old? Hall of Fame center Dave Keon, then 41, finishing his 18-season career with the Hartford Whalers after 15 glorious seasons and four Cup-winning years with Toronto. Back then, rookies got on the bus after the veterans and deferred to the experienced players at every turn. Rookies earned respect by playing "the right way."
Keon didn't say a word to Francis on road trips for maybe a month. Then one night before lights went out in their hotel room, Keon asked, "How old are you kid?" Francis answered. Keon said, "I have three kids older than you," promptly turning away and going to sleep.
"The next morning when we woke up he treated me like we were best friends and took care of me the rest of season," Francis said. "We still keep in touch."
There are lots more stories like that from the Hockey Happy Hour. You can check it out
