Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Canada, Hockey & Healthcare Enforcement with David Pivnick 5-10-25
Sat, 10 May 2025
In this episode, David Pivnick, partner at McGuireWoods LLP, joins Scott Becker for a fast-paced discussion covering U.S.-Canada relations, NHL and NBA playoff insights, and the DOJ’s continued focus on healthcare enforcement.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and guests in this episode?
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Private Equity and Business Podcast. I am thrilled today to be joined by David Pivnik. David's a partner and helps to head up litigation at McGuire Woods. He does a ton of white-collar litigation, particularly in the healthcare sector. But we talk about a broad range of subjects.
David's one of the brightest people I've ever had a chance to work with and visit with, so I love getting to get a chance to visit with him. He's also a specialist on all things Canada, as he holds dual citizenship between Canada and the United States. David – Talk to us about the sort of Canada-U.S. relationship currently. I think the Canadian prime minister was just here. What's going on there?
What are you watching? What's top of mind for you currently? I know you're dealing with some very high-ticket litigation matters currently, but what are you thinking about? What's going on with the U.S.-Canadian relationship?
Chapter 2: What is the current state of the U.S.-Canada relationship?
Yeah, I mean, look, the U.S.-Canadian relationship is at an interesting point in time, I think, You know, as a general statement, I would say I think the majority of Canadians have been displeased with the sort of 51st state rhetoric. I suspect, like many things, President Trump is saying that a little bit tongue in cheek to get a rise, including, you know, with the references to Governor Trudeau.
But I think it's an interesting dynamic because, frankly, the tariff discussions and the sort of what I view as probably relatively lighthearted,
Chapter 3: How did U.S. politics influence the recent Canadian election?
jibes by President Trump ended up actually making a difference in the Canadian election, where I think the Liberal Party had been widely disdained for a long time, and everybody in Canada, and I use everybody loosely, but a substantial proportion of Canadians were ready to move on from Justin Trudeau, and the Liberals were in rough shape, and I think the country kind of galvanized and rallied together with Canadian pride
to push back on the notion that it was just a territory of the United States. And I think it actually really helped Mark Cardy coming in and taking over the liberal leadership and then, frankly, winning the election and becoming prime minister. And I think, you know, the repercussions of that remain to be seen. I didn't find the meeting at the White House to be all that noteworthy.
I know people have been getting their snippets on the comments about you know, how important a trade partner is, but I certainly don't think President Trump is undercutting the importance of Canada as a trade partner so much as trying to make sure that no trade partners are taking advantage.
I think there's room to disagree on how that's being handled, but I don't think it's intended to be creating friction with Canada. I think that, like other things, has been an indirect consequence, and I think the main thing is it did have an impact on the Canadian election.
Your point is so well taken. It's what President Trump thought of as sort of humorous and funny led to the galvanizing behind Carney as the new prime minister when people thought Pierre, I forget his last name, was going to win. He was...
to win, and then this got going, and all of a sudden, they had a backlash against being anywhere too close to the United States, and having the Conservative Party win in Canada, and you had the Liberal Party win in Canada, and that's what you ended up with, and it's fascinating, isn't it? Right, they seem to have a relatively sedate meeting.
Carney made some headlines by saying, we're never going to be the 51st state, and obviously, all of us, I think, know that that's not reality, Canada becoming the 51st state, where a Billion reasons, most of which the Canadians, that's not what they want. But fascinating, fascinating discussion. Well, let me take you to another subject that as a Canadian, you are brilliant on, brilliant.
Talk to us about the NHL playoffs scenario. There's been some remarkable game sevens, and I know there's a lot of romance to be lost in this, but this is one of the subjects that all Canadians know well, which is hockey. Talk to us about both the NHL draft, the Blackhawks, our beloved Blackhawks.
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Chapter 4: What are the latest NHL playoff highlights and predictions?
We're the second worst team in the league, came in third in the draft lottery, and then also the NHL playoffs because I just watch snippets of it when my Blackhawks aren't involved. But there's been some insane game sevens where teams have had these crazy comebacks. What should we think about this? What are you watching? What's top of mind for you?
Well, I mean, the first thing is you and everybody else should be watching more than just snippets.
playoff hockey is just the best I'm very excited to talk about that but it's really great and you're absolutely right this year there's been a ton of great comebacks a ton of overtimes just really really fun playoffs to watch and it's been great watching it with my kids particularly my sons who keep lamenting how much they want to go see a Blackhawks playoff game and how fun it will be and hopefully that will not be too far away into the future but the playoffs have been great I think
I believe we'll see how this plays out, but I believe the Leafs' annual collapse starts in about, give or take, let me just look at the clock, but in about five hours, 48 minutes, I believe they will start walking their way out of the playoffs and the Panthers are going to crush them tonight and carry on. I think Florida has a good chance to win it.
I am personally hoping that Connor McDavid gets his first Stanley Cup out in Edmonton. I think he's a phenomenal player and a lot of fun to watch. And while the Oilers' defense is mediocre and their goaltending is not even that good, I'm not sure that their offense and power play isn't good enough to potentially get it done this year.
And I think the Dallas Stars, if they get healthy with Heiskanen and Robertson coming back, they could be a real contender as well. But I think it's been a very high-paced, lots of scoring in the playoffs this year, a little bit more open than is typical and a lot of fun to watch. I thought the draft lottery, you know, first of all, I thought the actual process was kind of confusing.
It was the first time they'd gone to the live drawing, and I think a lot of people were confused. I really wanted the Hawks to have a top two pick, mainly because I think Michael Misa is a center that really would have fit well. I am skeptical that he will fall to pick three, but I'm hopeful that he does.
And if not, I think the Hawks are going to end up going with either Porter Martone, who's a big power forward from Ontario, or or Anton Frondell, a Swedish center. I think both of them fit different needs on the roster and would be very good additions. And I'll be happy if Misa falls or if we get one of those two.
There are some rumblings of a couple other names that the Hawks are rumored to like and would be sort of off-the-board picks, and I'm hoping they avoid those. We've got lots of assets that they want to trade back up into the first round and pick someone else who would be a reach at three. But ultimately, a pick three – we should be getting a good player.
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Chapter 5: What is the outlook for the Chicago Blackhawks in the upcoming NHL draft?
it is decidedly undecided. So Anders Sorensen was the interim coach, and I respect what he's done, which is basically come out and say whether or not he's the head coach, he likes the organization and wants to be involved and is willing to stay on under someone else in the future, which I think is great. I think he'd be well-suited, frankly, as an assistant coach.
I don't necessarily think he's the right guy for the head gig. I think the prime target is that every Blackhawks fan that's sort of paying attention to this wanted was David Carl, who's the coach at the University of Denver. He's probably the most sought-after head coach candidate in the world and has built an incredibly successful program and development pipeline in Denver.
Unfortunately, and I get his decision-making, but he ultimately interviewed for the Hawks job, the Anaheim Ducks job, and a couple others, and made the cut that he was going to stay in college, and he signed an extension. in Denver and with the University of Denver and said he wants to keep, you know, his family where they are and not move around and have stability.
So I wish him nothing but the best with that. But I think, I think the Hawks had a lot of eggs in that particular basket and were very focused on him from a development standpoint. And now I think they're sort of back to the drawing board and looking at some other options. So I don't really know where it's going to go. It seems to be a slow process.
And again, I suspect in part that's because they have David Carl and maybe Mike Sullivan, the former Penguins coach as sort of prime targets who ended up either not moving or going elsewhere. And now they're sort of recalibrated.
Got it. Okay. So we've heard enough about Canada because nobody cares that much. And we heard enough about hockey is nobody cares that much. Take us through, you know, either something on the, you know, take us through maybe what's going on in the NBA playoffs. I think many of us were so thrilled to see the Lakers get knocked out and The Timberwolves look tough.
Anthony Edwards, who is prolific in many ways, just seems like a star. What's going on with the NBA playoffs? You watch it, of course, and I do understand it better than I do. What's happening there?
Yeah, that was great because you finished that by saying I'm watching them closer than you do right after you were talking up the Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards, who got routed last night. And Edwards was absolutely dreadful, missed every shot he took in the first half, and had no jump shots made in the whole game until about two minutes ago.
Look, the first thing is I really dislike the Indiana Pacers other than Pascal Siakam. who I will always love as a former Raptor. But I think the Pacers look damn good. I mean, they beat the Bucs, and it wasn't just due to injuries. They absolutely earned that series win. They're beating the Cavaliers and heading back to Indiana up 2-0.
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Chapter 6: What are the Blackhawks' free agency and coaching plans?
the West, and it will end up being the Celtics or the Pacers out of the East. But the Pacers and Timberwolves are looking much more threatening than I think people anticipated coming in. And again, a lot of young stars playing good high-level basketball.
I think the NBA, you know, the ratings are not where they want them to be, but I think there's a lot of young and exciting talent in the league for people to watch if they want to pay attention to it.
Are the ratings not where they should be because people aren't interested, because there's not big market teams in? Is it because there's all these cable issues where you can't even get some of the games? What's driving the ratings and the decline in ratings? There's been all this talk about, is the NBA on the downswing? Is it not? What's your sense of that?
Yes. I mean, I think it's all of that. I think the TV deals are a headache. I think when you have a series like Milwaukee versus Indiana that was blacked out heavily in the Indiana State market and in Wisconsin – you're not doing yourselves any favors. Having a lot of games on NBA TV, which I have, but lots of people don't, isn't great.
But I also think it's a big problem where a lot of the teams that are really strong right now are not in the heaviest market, although the Knicks and Celtics are playing each other, and that's an entertaining series that I think will have decent ratings, but a lot of the games are not. I think they've got major problems with how they schedule the games. There are so many games being played with
Eastern or Midwest-based teams that have the late-night start, which I think makes things really difficult. I took my kids to an 8.30 start central time game last week in Milwaukee, and it's just a tough time to take kids to games, let alone to have them watching on TV at home. So I don't think that's helped. And then the last thing is the stars.
I think people still like and are interested in Seth Curry, but LeBron's already been eliminated, and Giannis has been eliminated. Doncic has been eliminated. So a lot of the bigger stars are not currently playing.
And some of the superstars that are still playing, you know, Shegel, just Alexander or Nikola Jokic are terrific players, but don't necessarily draw the same number of eyeballs as LeBron did or Kobe once did or Michael Jordan certainly used to.
No, 100%. And LeBron is certainly a second-tier talent compared to Michael Jordan. We agree 100%. Anything else that you're watching closely from the sports or business world currently? I know you're incredibly busy with litigation. We haven't talked about that, nor probably will we today. We've talked about Canada, the NBA, the NHL. Anything else that's top of mind for you currently?
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