Empty Netters Podcast - 61. Marriage Counseling

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

Somehow the Ducks are the hottest team in the league, and the Senators fans are turning on their own team. Johnny Hockey has been benched and Jack Hughes gave the state of New Jersey a heart attack. The boys discuss the Kings chances at the Cup and the Lightning being a sleeping giant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are back. We are back for another episode of the Empty Netters podcast. We've got the Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers game going on right now. We got the boys. I'm pumped. I'm pumped. Brian? I'm here. Brian, how's your weekend? So good. Really? Actually, nothing special now. Well, you know what? Sometimes that's nice. Yeah. But what did you think of first when you said so good and you thought about your weekend, you thought about one thing. What was the coolest thing that happened? Coolest thing that happened Where did I go? What did I even do this? Oh, Brandon's family's in town, yeah

Oh, wow Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I went to Catch in West Hollywood. Hell yeah. That was actually the best. You ever been to Catch Steak? I think that,

is the one with the Anchor, right? No, that's Catch. Okay, not having to steak. With the one with the anchor, they had steak and it was good. It might have been Catch Steak. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think Catch just,

I don't think Catch has steak. I think they probably does. Well, it was advertised as a seafood place, but they had steak, so I had the steak. Well, that's the thing. So there's catch, and then there's catch steak. So it's the same ownership. Yeah. Catch is like the big seafood, seafood place.

Catch steak, you can also get some nice steak. I got a, yeah, I got an 8 ounce filet, so it might have been. Of course you did, dude. That's so you, dude. That's so you, dude. Yeah. It is us. We're big steak guys. I just love meat. CP. Do you have a good weekend? I had a great weekend.

What'd you do? One of my best buds got married in Austin, Texas. and I went, is it down? I was about to say down. Gus must be. I don't know, actually. I bet it's down. Geographically, are you going very south from L.A. to Austin?

Yeah. I'd say it's a little bit down. It's tilted down for sure. Yeah. It's a slight lean. And it was warm. It was warm. Beautiful weather.

Unbelievable crew. Beautiful venue. Beautiful venue. Man, we ripped it up. Well, we ripped it up Saturday. Friday, we had some great welcome drinks, and then we got a pizza and went back to our spot. Let me tell you what, that was the saltiest pizza I've ever had to my entire life. It was so funny, man.

I feel like you usually go to a wedding and you're prepared for a really drunk night on the welcome drinks night. We got in Friday night. We went straight to welcome drinks. I immediately did a shot with the groom, and I was like, okay, here we go. Here we go. But then about an hour later and maybe one or two drinks later, everyone was like, all right, We're all heading to bed. We got a big day tomorrow. So I was like, oh, okay, great. I didn't even get drunk tonight. This is fantastic.

So CP and I and our buddy Nez go to the hotel, pop on some edge of tomorrow and order pizza because we haven't eaten all day long. And I go to bed. I tuck my little sweethead into bed. And I go, I'm not even drunk. I've had three drinks. I've eaten nothing today. So I had a few slices of pizza. I didn't even house the pizza. I just had a few slices. I was like, this is great. I'm going to wake up feeling fresh as a head of lettuce. I woke up at 6 a.m. with the worst heartburn and driest mouth I've ever had in my entire life. And then I sat there in bed in my hotel room and watched the entirety of the legend of Bagger Vance while I dealt with the crippling heartburn that I had from said pizza. It was maybe one of the worst night's sleep of my entire life.

Where was the pizza from? I don't want to sewer this place. Oh shit. Chris just did. It was good. I thought it was delicious pizza. Should I believe that? No, put it in.

It's Marco's Pizza in downtown Austin. and I thought it was delicious. It was good pizza. It tasted good in the moment. And here's the thing. I did house it. It did be good. And I also had a tough sleep.

I think it was part of a little bit of jet lag, a little bit, a lot of factors. But I, um, at one point I woke up because I was having a hard time sleeping to. And I just looked over because we're in a hotel room. And I look over to see if Dan's asleep. And he's just, he's so wide awake. He's just sitting on his phone scrolling. It's like 5.30. I wasn't even laying down.

I was like, dude, what are you doing? Tough bid. It's absolutely horrible. But hell of a weekend. hell of a time with the boys. Yeah. Wonderful wedding. I love Austin so much.

Yeah. I can't even get into it because I'll talk too long about it. But if you know me, you know I love it there. And God damn was that wedding fun. You split your pants. Oh, dude. I split my shirt, dude. What do you think about that?

That's fucking crazy. I would say me and my buddy Marty. We go to a lot of weddings together. So CP is usually there as well. Yeah. But I don't do what you guys do. I would say just about every. wedding, myself or Marty are good for splitting our pants.

Right down the crack. Really? Every time. What are the odds on that? Oh, between the two of us? You're giving money, dude. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They are automatic pants.

Yeah, one of the two of us is automatic, and every now and then they get both of us. Here's the deal, dude. We command the dance floor, and I'm not going to let something like a pair of suit pants prevent my range of motion. So I'm going for it. I'm doing splits. I'm doing jumps. I'm doing lifts.

and if the pants split, the pants split. You undo the tie and let it hang? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I also lose a button about every hour. Button every hour, get the tie on head. I had a bow time I had on Saturday. It's a given, yeah. But here's the deal.

I split my shirt on the bicept, not even on a seam. It just ripped open. Holy fuck, this guy. Dude, and I'll tell you what, Brian, it was a nice look. Like nothing made you feel cooler in your life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. People were like, did your dress shirt, Nice stretcher, by the way.

Just split open at the bicep, not even on a seam. And I was like, yeah, what can I say? Lifted someone up and then my Hulk muscles just pour through the fabric. Me on the other hand, just ripped my pants right in the ass. It was down the pocket. That's what happened. But just fucked. Yeah, you had a launching point at least.

I think so. I didn't just like bust donk out of them. You know? All right. Here's a question. Would you say you're a. clean person overall not I'm talking about you yourself your personal height oh

uh scale one to ten decimals included um 7.4 okay I actually I think that's pretty good especially in the scale of the world I might even be high well that's no we're gonna say the scale of you know our circle of people yeah

I'm probably like a yeah I'm an upper upper nine's dude you are yeah you're clean yeah I'm an organized person no no I'm not talking hygiene your personal hygiene yeah probably even more than I don't know

I take good care of my body you floss every night I don't so I guess maybe that drops me cool so you can't be higher than a five then so you're putting a lot of stock in flossing I asked and I don't necessarily think

this has to do with cleanliness. But I washed my hair today. And I don't wash my hair that often. Same. I think it's not good. I think you got to let the natural oils get in there, let that volume get up. I agree.

So that was my next question. How often would you say you guys wash your hair? Do you mean like with shampoo? With shampoo and conditioner. So with shampoo, I'd definitely hold off like every like three or so days. Because it like dries out my hair. I don't like it. Yeah, no.

It's trash. Yeah, I don't like it at all. Like, I'm wearing a hat today because I shampooed this morning. I shampooed this morning as well. And I had to bring in PEDs to get my hair to do what I wanted to do. Yeah. How often do you shampoo? I would say it used to be once every two weeks or so.

But I've widened that gap. I'm doing like once three and a half four now. Holy shit. Which might be too much. Like once every two weeks. Wow. I feel like I need it. It's like a reset almost.

Yeah. But I'll throw conditioner in there in between. Yeah, that makes sense. Got to get something cleaning. I've been using leave-in conditioner now. Like spray in the hand and like... What the fuck? Yeah.

You know, hair's a little damp. Oh, when it's damp. Oh, when it's damp, okay. Yeah. Damn, dude. All right, something to think about. Get some nice curls, yeah. All right, you want to get some hot talk?

Yeah, you want to hot ice it? You want a Howie's hockey tape hot ice? I do. I sure you. do. It's been a wild week. We've got a lot to talk about per yush. And then after this week, guys, we got some, we got some action coming your way. We've got a lot of guests coming on in the next few weeks, but we wanted one more week of just chopping up the game. That's a cool stat. You see that? No. What am I looking at? Keith Kachuk, Maddie Kach, eight father-son duo with 500 plus points in

NHL history. Keith did it in 519 games. Maddie did it in 520 games. Wow. That's pretty cool. Keith's going to have one on him. Well, Walt's going to have one on him at the Thanksgiving table. You know what's cool is Big Walt's going to get that stat again with Brady? Yeah. Like that's, that's, that, what was it? What was it? Just the eighth? Eighth. So he's going to get the ninth, too. Yes. Like, that's fun. That is fun. That is fun. That is fun. How many points is Brady have right now? I bet it's something in the three, high three hundreds, I would say. Let's see. Maybe not high. Maybe mid-300s. That's actually, this is going to be fun. Mid-3s. That's what you have? Mid-high, three-hundreds. he only has

369 games played oh okay let me go let me go 369 games played I'm going to say he's about yeah I thought he had more games 369 games played I'm going to say Brady has 280 to 300 points

286 there you go great job puck nor well I had to get a little bit of information yeah a little help then I got in there yeah okay let's get into some howie hockey tape hot ice how he's giving you the best in all of your hockey essentials and then also taking it over the top

with some of the coolest apparel in the game. We're wearing it all the time. C.P.'s got a shirt on. Brian's got a hat on. I do have a hat on. You sure does. Right off the bat. Quack. Quack. I did want to talk about this first. The mighty ducks of the mighty. And I'm calling them the mighty ducks. They've been wearing the purple sweaters. They're looking unreal. They're playing better. They're the Kingslayers, dude Let's talk about the Ducks for a second We've been doing a Thrones reboot at the House Bri And I don't even know how it started

It was just one of a lazy day Got put on now here we are season three And the best show of all time The Kingslayers of Anaheim Knocked off the last two undefeated teams The Boston Bruins and Well that's not necessarily true We're going to say they gave

They gave Boston their first loss But not regulation loss Oh yeah fair fair Because we got to give credit to my Red Wings Red Wings took care of the first regulation loss for Bruins. Yep. But first loss technical was the B's. Yes, but not Vegas, because Vegas lost an O-T before Anaheim as well.

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. First loss for the B's, first regulation loss. But of the two losses you can get, one of the first for both. Oh, we got a goal. There we go. One of the first you can get was given by the Ducks to Vegas and to Boston. Insane. Absolutely insane.

we're going to get into them in a little bit spoiler alert but they're on a heater which is great to see they sure are the boys are going good well some of the boys Mason McTavish who I really feel like

was obviously an elite prospect but was totally overshadowed in his journey into the NHL during World Juniors and everything to the point that I was kind of like oh yeah they have McTavish that's sick and now he's got six goals, seven apples, 13 points, and 11 games.

Looks like a future star in the league. Yeah, and he's doing it in a commanding way too. He's scoring big, big goals. He scored the OT winner against Boston. Stromer is looking great. He's got a million assists. But Toronto, you brought this up last week, who is my guy, is looking great because he's snip show, dude, one of the best shots in the league.

Frank has an NHL show. Oh, my God, dude. It's crazy. And you know what? when he wound up in Anaheim, we kind of said and thought Anaheim is a big step down from New York, obviously. Yep. But we were like, that could be an opportunity, though.

And get on the P.P. That could be a place where he gets on the P.P. more. He gets on top two lines more. And all of a sudden he starts pumping in points. And that's exactly what he's doing. So. He's looking great. A lot of goals. Troy Terry, nasty.

I think he's got five and five, I think. Trevor Zegris. Yeah. Let's talk about Trev. One goal, one assist, two points, 11 games. And I'm going to put my hand up here. We released multiple clips where we've been like, everyone's saying it's too high of a contract. That's exactly what he does.

We were like, shut up, dude. Zegris is amazing. He's at 65 points or more in both of his NHL seasons. And I was like, you guys are nuts. When the slow start began, let's call it five to six games in, I was like, this is because he missed all of preseason because the ducks mishandled the situation. which they did. And I agreed with that take. We are now 11 games in.

Trev has one goal, one assist for two points in 11 games. I am out of excuses. Oh, okay. I think I have one more week. Listen, but I know me. Am I selling Zegra stock? I still think that contract is absurdly low for him. And I know, listen, dude, you don't play your first two seasons in the NHL and get plus

65 points. as a fluke. You know, it's like... Confirm. That's ridiculous. But I do think this slow start is bad for this season. Here's my one concern. And I know you're going to love this because you're big about this shit.

Stat CPs back. Well, I'm about to fact check myself because I think I just misspoke and I'm going to take a dash one on the day so far. Okay. What do you think you misspoke on? I think I said he's plus, he has 65 points. I think he was... He had 61. Yeah.

He had 61. So, yeah, dash one for me on the day, but 60 plus points in both seasons. Speaking of that. And credit to me for being the one to call it out. Yeah, right. But that's the dash one. The ducks are a plus five goal diff this year. Everyone on the team is zero even plus minus or better in the positives.

Everyone on the roster that's got games except for three players. Trevor. And one of them is a team worst dash two, Trevor Zeguress. And I'm only bringing that up because it's not like he is on the third line trying to, and he's got a slow start and we're kind of busting his ass here. It's, he's playing with, I think, Terry and Leo. What's the line there? Or McTavish and Leo?

I think he plays with McTavish and Leo Well Leo's been in and out of the lineup So I know that they've all been juggled around Look up their lines right now Yeah Yeah I mean dude This was this was his big thing last year Like everyone

A lot of the old hat hockey fans Who want to shit up to go to Zegris Because he's too flashy They say that his defense Needs so much work And all he is Is an offensive flashy And first of all

Everyone who says that You're fucking wrong Yeah Does his defensive side of the game need work? Yes especially as a center. But when you say all he does is score trick shot goals, how fucking stupid are you? Wrong.

Like it's just do the simple math, guys. Like we've seen him score what? Like, first of all, the one to Sonny wasn't even a trick shot that he scored. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's an assist. Trick pass. Yeah, sure. But it's not his goal.

Yep. And all we've seen is two Michigan's that he's done, which, by the way, is fucking sick. And it's a goal in the national. So shut the fuck up. he does need to work on his defensive side of the game and that was a big thing of last year. We said last year once during a stream, we were like,

when Zeres is on the ice, a goal is getting scored. Yeah. It's either for the ducks or the other team. That does need to change. Absolutely. If you want to be an elite player in this league, which I think he does and I think he can be,

that needs to change. Minus 2 isn't that bad. No, not at all. I'm the biggest plus minus guy in the world, as you said. So I'm not freaking out a little bit, but dude, you don't want to be on that side of it, right?

Because I just, I saw, like, Terry, I think, is like a plus five. And again, these are pretty... No, but that's... Any delpas, but it's like, your line mates are... It's a difference between to win and a lot, right? Like, you know, come on. So I would like to see that pickup.

You put it perfectly. I'm not selling any stock, but I do need a little something soon. 100%. You'll be in a little something soon. And you know what sucks, Dan is he feels it more than anybody, right? Like, you know, it's easy for us to say, and be like, dude, pick it up, Trev. And he's like, no shit, dude. Do you think I'm happy right now?

So, yeah, like, I, we can confirm no one is more. frustrated with this than Trevor. And this is one of those interesting situations where the ducks are playing really well. There's good vibes in Anaheim right now. There's even better vibes amongst the team, like the guys that we've listed. A thing that I love is you look at Trevor. And I want Trevor Zegris haters to listen to this right now. You look at Trevor on the ice, on the bench.

He's nothing but positivity. There's a bunch of clips from the game the other night, beating Vegas. Yeah. Where he is yucking it up with the boys. He's yapping positivity on the bench. He's talking out there on the ice. He's the first person to celebrate when they score a goal. And that right there is a great mentality when a player is struggling but the team is doing well.

Yeah. He is actively putting the team first in a visible sense on the ice, and that's massive. This is going to be a huge test for Trevor Zegris when he is playing poorly. For realistically, in my opinion, for the first time in his career. Yes. We need to see how he responds. and how he turns it around. There is nothing to say that he can't pick up next game and go, okay, I'm settling in,

I'm changing this shit around right now, and he could finish the season with 70 points, still. Yeah, oh my God. So we got time, baby. If you're selling stock on Trevor, I think you're making a huge mistake. For more than anything, I am very curious to see, and I go as far as to say, eager to see how he responds and how he is going to go, all right, I've got to change the shit around, and I've going to start playing my game.

the Paddy King, go watch highlights of yourself, bro. Seriously. Get the confidence back up. It's all good. And an interesting comment by you, Dan. First time in his career, he's been playing not that great on a team that's actually kind of okay, right? You know, normally it's been like, well, you know, he's getting his and the team sucks, not his fault.

All of a sudden, it's like the team's good, and you're not doing it. It kind of changes your mentality. Yeah. And that's also a first for him, right? Oh, snipe job. And a spearing of Bob. Fucking Captain Boone. Blue Jacket's think it's a damn fight, dude. Dan, the, I want to talk about the rookie defenseman on the ducks. I can't even say his name, the Russian kid. I think it's Pavel

Minchikov. Mintyakov. Mintyakov. It's like you put a mint in your coffee. Oh, okay. Pavel Mintyakov. Mintykoff. He's got eight points. He's got a goal in seven assists and 11 games. It looks great. Amazing. I love seeing a D man snapping it around like that. And also, there's nothing better than when you, I mean, first of all, there's nothing better when you get a surprise rookie. Look no further than Boston with Maddie P. But when you also have a draft pick like Leo Carlson, that you're

like, oh God, need him to be good. Yeah. And then he is good. And then also you've got Mintyukov. Because he was 10th overall 22, I think. Pavl, yeah. Yeah. So you're like, oh, he's good too. Oh, it's a sick feeling. So that is amazing. I'm really

excited to keep watching him play because he's been in the mixer. Would you say the ducks are flying? The ducks are flying. And they fly to It's unbelievable. They actually fly together quite off. It's unbelievable. I can't wait to see if this, do the ducks go wire to wire and make the playoffs? Probably not. I don't think. But then again, dude, these are those situations where like you've got Gibber in net. Yeah. And Gibber had requested a trade. But you would think Gibber requested a trade because they weren't playing well. Now all of a sudden they're playing well. Now all of a sudden they're in a playoff spot. And. is he like, I'm cool. Yeah. I'm fine here, actually. I live in Orange County. I feel great. Yeah.

And all of a sudden, Gibber stays. Zegers gets hot. Zegeris wakes up. Oh, oh. You got Mityakov on the blue line. The guy's going to have 80 points from the line up. Oh, oh. He's a proven Stanley Cup winning playoff performer. Ducks are in the final. All of a sudden, are the ducks going to the cup? Whoa, dude, the ducks are in the final.

Just saying. Wow, what a season. What a season for it. All right, speaking of rookies. Yeah. I wanted to ask you this. We're through 11 games of an 82. Bedard has five. Yeah.

We've seen a reasonable sample size here now. Yeah. How his game can translate. Five goals, two assists. I think we had made that call early in this year where I was like he's going to have double the goals than he has assists. Like whatever his game is going to be as a rookie. As a rookie, I think it's going to be goal heavy because A, that's his game.

name and B, he's out here ripping 20 shots a game. But he's got 7 and 11, right? No, no, he's got five goals, two apples, seven assists. Oh, seven in 11, yeah, sorry. The, what do you think? I'm not asking point total, because I don't give a shit about his assists at all this year. He can finish the year with two assists, I don't give a fuck. How many goals, do you want to reassess any goal predictions?

Are you like, no, what we were saying before was pretty accurate? No, I think we early had his over under on the season at 16. and a half, then we bumped it up to 79 and a half. Points, though. Yeah. Yeah. Now, I think in my mind, I saw that as a 30 to 35 goal season. And I'm going to stick with that.

I think his over under goals is 32.5. Okay. And I think that that's where he's going to live. The kid, he's fine in the back of the net, and we're seeing, you know, his first of his season was against Boston, the little wraparound. he's had a couple squeakers here and there but his goal over the weekend was that boom pop release

and like his shot works in the NHL so I think it's just going to get warmer and warmer I think that team's going to go through some some tough stretches here the Blackhawks are not good but he looks strong he's getting even stronger too he's getting bumped off the puck a little bit less

I think that 32 and a half goals is a good mark. I think he's going to get 30. I was lowest on him goal-wise. Yeah. I was like, he's like, he scored 25, probably. I'm now, you're right. I'm like, oh, he gets that off. He gets that shot off whenever he wants.

I could see 40. Really? Yeah, I could see 40. My only fear, though, is the fatigue. It's just a long season. You know, it's a long season. It's a long ride. If he gets hurt.

And that's, that, I'm only calling 40 if he plays 82, you know, and it's a long season. And it's his first time adjusting to the physicality of this grueling stretch. I think the reason I want him high is because I like how comfortable. He's getting more and more comfortable. You can see it happening right in front of your eyes. But he's also might be getting more tired. While I respond, can you look up the call to race for me right?

I just want to look up rookie points. Can you get those stats right now? I don't think I see him slowing down fatigue-wise. I think the kid, remember the preseason interview where he was out on the ice and someone asked him about it? and he goes, I love playing hockey. Yeah. I think he is a pig and shit. Yeah.

Truly, man. Yeah, I agree. He is like, you're telling me I get to play every other day for 82 games. Like, that's sick. Yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Like, I think he's so happy.

So I don't think about that. I think the Blackhawks might get some wear and tear here. Yeah. I think they might get a little beat down, run down here, and maybe it's harder for him to, for guys to find him getting open and things like that. So I'm happy with that. 35 is where I think he's going to live. Okay.

We did this last week, so I don't want to do too much, but it's, it has been a very fun rookie race far. Like we said, through roughly 11 games here in the league, here are our leaders. We got Bobby Brink, dude, in Philly. What the hell? Yeah. Bobby Brink, eight points tied for first with Logan Cooley and Mitt Yacoff, like we talked about. Loggs finally got his first tuck.

Huge. thanks to the ward hog shout out R.A. But Brink's got three and five. Logan's got one and seven. Mityakov has one and seven. Then right after that

with seven points is a lot. It's Connor Bredd, Marco Rossi, Maddie Pottra, Ridley Grieg, Luke Hughes, Luke Evangelista, and then our boy,

your son, Adam Fantilli with six right below that. There's some surprises in here. Oh, absolutely. You know, I think Mityukov, Brink,

Rossi. I think people were vibed on Rossi, but Maddie Patra for sure, Ridley Greek for sure. There are some really fun surprises in here. Yeah. And I think what's cool, especially, is I look at guys like Mityakov, and I look at, I look at Brink.

And it's cool to see some of these rookies doing well, and cools, actually. It's definitely cools. Those three. Let's stick with those top three. The three who are tied for eight. three rookies, two of which are a bit of a surprise being in that leading points race for the rookies, and all three teams doing much better than expected. Yes.

So that has been really fun. And they're a huge part of it, obviously. Yeah. I think the yotes, people can't believe how exciting the yotes are, definitely the ducks, and then Philly, for a little stretch there, was in first in the metro, and they are still playing well. Yeah. It is crazy to see, and it's, I mean that in the coolest way, these three rookies just really dominating and making their teams do better.

Sick. I'm pumped to watch it all year. That's how you take jumps to. And that's how franchises change too. Yes. Oh my God. It's obvious, right? It's a simple equation. You have the draft. You draft young players. You need them to perform well and your team can turn around. But I just think, I mean, fuck in A. Let's just stick with Anaheim as we close this conversation. There is nothing that works better in your favor than what a bunch of young guys start playing well. Yeah. And that's pretty sick. That's what the, you want to fill the barn, that's what the Jets should do. The Wemphi, should just draft a bunch of young studs and have them all be nasty.

Stop charging. Then everyone will go. Insane. All right, I want to talk about the Habs because. Have to, dude. We're talking about surprisingly good teams. And we got some messages this week about people being like, yo, talk about the Habs. And I said, you're 100% right.

Yeah. We should talk about the habs. Now, here's the thing. They're currently fifth in the Atlantic. Yeah. Five, four, and two with 12 points. Identical record with the Leafs. Yeah.

Which no one would have guessed. unfortunately, I'm super excited to talk about them right now. We should have talked about them last week, and we said we were going to. And then after the episode ended and we said that to each other, they kind of lost three straight and we've jinxed them indirectly. The messages that, because we didn't talk about them. Yeah, the messages, hey, you jinx them. You all, all you Habs fans, you jinx them.

Don't get hockey. You're going to jinx them. Let us talk. Let us talk. We'll get to it. So we're going to bring them back. What I've enjoyed so far is goal Caulfield. is the man. Remains the absolute beast that he left off. Always knew he would be. 4, 7 and 11.

Sean Moynihan 6, 4 and 10. Suzuki 3, 6, for 9 and 11. Jake Allen has been... I just want to quickly talk... Dude, Sean Monaghan is so good. Yeah. And what a beautiful situation where he just sits there

and all of the attention is on guys like Cole and Suzuki and then even Doc. Yeah, yeah. And he's just like this... I'm just going to be a point per game guy. I'm sick. Yeah.

But those are just three big hitters for that team. And you're letting guys like Galley do his job. But then, yeah, Jake Allen, get into Jake Allen. Just been really solid so far, dude. Five games, three one and one, nine two seven, save percentage, 272 goals against. I don't know that they maybe expected this level of goalie play. I don't know if he can continue that level of goalie play, but that's a hell.

That was a hell of a line through an early stretch here. Yeah, it'll get you through the dark day. when an unexpected tendee plays really, really well and allows your stars to perform out on the ice and steal some wins. Yeah. So huge for them. I've been super excited.

There's not a ton. It's weird. It's early enough that I kind of look at the team's stat breakdowns. And I was about to be like, well, you know, after Cole and Suzuki and Monaghan, you don't, there's not a ton of scoring. I think Dallas got seven maybe, or maybe, yeah, like seven points. I was about to be like, you don't have a ton of story. And I'm like, well, no one does really yet.

You know, so I think they'll need some consistent. They've got a tough stretch coming up. I wrote it down. Let's see. They got Tampa, Detroit, Boston, Vancouver coming up. So, you know, we should have talked about them when they were five, two, and one. They drop a few. And then next time I talk about them, they could be five and eight.

And I'm like, ah, shit. But they've been feisty. I said that was going to happen in the preseason predictions. and I want to say, dude, I was trying to come up with something before we even recorded. I think we both may be called that they would be eighth in the Atlantic. Yes.

But we were both like, because the Atlantic is stacked, they're going to be good. Marty's got them going, dude. They look as fun as I hoped they would look right now. They're a hard, hard out, even for the top teams in the Atlantic. Right now, I think they probably are eighth, still,

rather than probably going to finish eighth still, unless the senators just have a season from hell, which is possible. Not a, not of that chill of a start.

They better figure it out reasonably quickly. But I still have them eighth, but I feel like they will win the award for eighth seed of the four eight seeds. They will be the best of the four eighth seeds because they're kind of sick.

And I wanted to create some, like, I want to track this and create some trophy for them. But then I was like, well, you know, maybe you just don't want to be the best eight seed.

You want to just get Celebrini and stop being fucking stupid. but but I think it's a testament to how they're playing dude like this is a cool team I want to I want to create a trophy for the best eight seed and give away the fans something because it's going to be sick to your point they are it's like when Kirby was on the show and talked about it they don't want celebrating I mean yeah in theory everyone would want celebrate yeah you know what I mean though they don't want to win the lottery right because yes you might finish eighth in the Atlantic but this team is too good to do that and and I they think that they're like we're

not going to just fucking tank, dude. And in order to get better, dude, you have to play better. So you can't just sit down and lay down. And they're not going to. No, start showing these teams, start showing these teams in Atlantic. They're already doing this. Yeah. That I'm, your reckoning is coming soon. You know, in a couple years, next year even, we are going to be a problem. So become aware now. Yeah. And I'm loving it. Let's, uh, I don't think we were going to talk about this, but I think, I think it's good to talk about. What do you think about Brady Kachuk's comments about the fans? Yeah.

Because I have never been more. I talked about last week being bashful about saying that the Sends should change up their jerseys because I agree. And Bobby Ryan came to the defense of the jersey saying the blacks are as good as they get. And that is correct. Yep. And I said it last week, Sense fans, I love you. So this is from a place of love. You got to chill out.

I am so on Brady Kach's side with that. Brady basically, the team's in a rough stretch here. and he said that hearing the booze from the fans directed to the players is frustrating as hell. And he's absolutely right. I think sense fans can smell how good this team can be and will be, but you can't let that desire and the bright lights of the future let you get down on the players, dude. Like, the Atlantic is still the Atlantic. And I think you're a little surprised unless you're me that Detroit is as good as they are so far,

but it's a long season we're only a seventh of the way through or so you can't be booing the boys out there I mean they're what four and six like that ain't that bad it's not like they're the fucking sharks out here so chill out with the booze and it's one of those things remember last season when the devil's had the fire

Lindy chance going on and then next thing you know they're the best team in the division essentially you don't want that dude you don't want to look like that fan base that fucking booed your guys and then they pick it up and you're like yeah we were right there with you the whole time it's like no you weren't you were booing and your captain fucking called it out yeah i'm on brady side fans you are better i know you're better so

tighten up dude tight yeah so i'm i'm mostly with you here i thought i was about to be against you but here's here's what i have to say about it the first of all fans have a huge impact on how you play i made me seem stupid miss maybe it seems obvious some of you it does not seem obvious to everybody the atmosphere at a game gives you that extra jump. And it can go the other way, by the way. If the building's empty. If they're booing you, it sucks. And it goes just to jump in.

It goes beyond that, too. It's what's on Twitter. It's what's in the newspaper. It's what's online. Players, coaches, personnel, they see this shit. So it has an effect. Yes. So I wanted this to establish that it matters.

It's not just a nothing thing. You're not just booing in the crowd and they can't hear you. It matters. Secondly, I am very passionately in agreement with athletes. It's kind of been a thing in the last few years of, I think maybe Witt even says it, but it's like, just because you paid for a ticket doesn't give you the right to say anything or do anything in court. You can't be throwing stuff on the field, on the rink. You can't be talking about inappropriate shit to players. Dude, if you are a fan and you go to a hockey game or any game, but let's stick with hockey. You throw anything on the ice that's not a hat or an octopus or a bra. You are a scumbag. Correct. Correct.

Scum bag. So cut that shit out immediately. So you're throwing beers on the ice. You're a plug. Yeah. So it doesn't. What gives you the right? I'm not wearing hockey pants.

So, dude, if you buy a ticket, it does not give you the right to say whatever you want to these guys. Okay. However, however, I do believe that if you buy a ticket, I am allowed to boo poor play. That is your right as a fan, to boo. Yes. Okay? So sometimes when teams are like, players on teams are like, man, we really weren't getting a jump from the fans. They were kind of booing us.

And I'm like, well, did you suck? Because if you sucked, you can get booed. That is their right. now I do think Dan because I thought Well I thought I was going to argue with you You're right Because you're dude

You're just booing So that's why I thought I was going to argue with you What you said to kind of salvage it for me though Was they are a little Trigger happy with the booing right now If the senators were one and nine And just getting dusted every week I could see if they were visibly not trying

I could see the booze They haven't warned their play yet Isn't up to the expectations of the season but I don't feel as though has warranted a full stadium boo. But the bigger thing for me is, agree. The bigger thing, and I think the reason I have my take is what I said with how I'm saying, their eyes are getting a little too big here. Yeah.

If the Maple Leafs were 4 and 6, those fans, I'm like, boo them. Boo those men, because they have no business being 4 and 6. And Sends fans, you're going to be upset to hear this. I think the Sends team is better than 4 and 6 right now. but it's not like they it's not like I'm looking at that record and I'm going oh my god they're they're serious yeah don't forget I picked the sense to finish seventh yeah right for the same reasons and on a little bit more so as the canadian's I'm like the only reason they're seventh is because of how stacked this division they are a very good team but they're just a little behind some of

the others that's it and they might not finish seventh they might finish much higher than that that's another thing that I'm saying is like you guys are getting a little trigger like you said and the eyes are too big. You guys, you're getting real good and the future is bright, but you ain't one in the Atlantic this year. So calm down, calm down with booing as if you should be,

you know, seven and three. And by the way, big time response opportunity, because you're right, big time response opportunity here after your captain says what he says, in both fields. Hey, senators, team players, pick it up, pick it up.

Because you saw what they, they don't appreciate the product, you're putting out there right now, so pick it up. Also, fans, you heard what your captain said, have their back. Show up next couple games, going nuts, and have their back. It's on both of you. So you reserve the right to boo. It's a little early for that. Everybody be better. This is Senator's Marriage Counseling. We have homework for both of you. And if you don't both show up to the plate and take care of your work, we're going to have further problems. We have a chance to turn things around here. Strengthen the relationship.

Be better. Okay. Oh, fuck, I didn't even want to talk about this one, but I got to. Oh, God. Our little golden boy, Jack Hughes. Oh, my gosh. This is the scariest thing I've ever seen. Jack Hughes is hurt.

He's weak to weak with an upper body injury. We saw it live. And Dan, well, first of all, everyone on the broadcast is like, oh, I think the defenseman. I forget what the defense of which defenseman was right there in his pocket, but it was like, his defenseman got his skate or even the goal. It was like the goalie paddle. and I'm like, he just slipped. Jack literally tripped on me. And it wasn't even like, he was trying to do something incredibly acrobatic.

So it wasn't like... And he's knifing through three defenders. Yeah, he's a fucking man. But he just, he slipped, he tripped, he, whatever you want to call it, but he just went careening into the boards. Any of you that have ever played hockey knows that you can find yourself in a couple precarious situations when you are skating as fast as you can or nearly as fast as you can because that ice is be slippery, dog.

Dude, in beer league last week, yes, I am comparing myself to Jack Hughes right now and referencing a beer league game. I was cutting to the net and really good guy on the other team, like him a lot, total accident, went to stick lift me

and just whiffed and hit me straight in the dick. Yeah. Just a, oh, I remember this. Cup check like you read about and it's just that natural reaction

getting hit in the plums. My knees buckled and I was just firing to the net so I was going full speed and I went careening into the boards and I was like, I think I just tore my ACL

because I got whacked in the peeper. Dude, when I got on the ice spry, Dan was like doubled over and we're kind of all just like milling around and some guy and the other team looks at me and goes, what happened? And it's like me, our boy Rob was on our team and like three other guys.

We're all off to ourself. And the guy goes, what happened? And I go, I think he took a stick to the dick. And then the guy nods and I go like this. I haven't even told you this yet. I go, pretty small target. Got fucking killer last from the other team, dude. It's a good joke.

It's a clean joke. Pretty small target. It's a clean joke. Guy you with that one. Could not believe. I would do that to you. I didn't even know. I didn't even know it was over the fine.

I would do that to you, dude. I can't believe how to do that to you to the other team for no reason. You're a couple laughs. If I'm being honest, I made the same joke. After I got up, the guy skated up to me and he goes, dude, I'm so sorry. I don't do that type of shit. And I go, it's okay, man. I can't believe you hit it.

Yeah, dude. That's nice. So, just like Dan did, just like Dan did, Jack Hughes went careening into the boards and live, dude, I was sitting with you live and I said he just broke his fucking collarbone. Yeah. It looked scary. It was a, again, he was flying, he went down. And it's, you have one of those, he's fine.

And then, oh, fuck, he's not fine. Because it's not like the boarding situation, where he goes down and it's as he's falling, his head hits or something, which always look terrifying. Yeah, the fact that he got to the side, I was like, good. He's nothing bad to happen. He hit the ice and started sliding by the goal line. Yeah. But once you saw how fast he was going, and the way he hit and the way he kind of turtled

and seemed to be favoring that shoulder area. Yeah, collarbone was my I was like, oh my God, if we just lost Jack Hughes to a broken collarbone. That's like months, you know. But thank goodness. He is only week to week. This sparks a couple of things in my mind.

One, it's like one of those things where you see one of your best players get fired up and they start scrapping. And while I love the energy, I'm like, if you break your fucking hand, I will literally kill you. And obviously, that's not what this is, but there are sometimes those

plays with Jacko where he gets going so fast and I want to be like, hey, yeah, be careful. You're too valuable. Don't be crazy. Don't put yourself in a bad situation. The other, this might be a few years out, but what do you think about this? We implement something in the game of hockey where along the bottoms of the boards, we can press a button and bumpers like in bowling erupt out of the bottoms of the boards. So if there's ever a situation where a player is sliding into the ice, someone's sitting

there, much like the goal horn just goes like this. Well, it's the guy behind the net. I couldn't love this one. The ball horn. Yeah. It goes like this bumper. Yeah. And then they go, the light.

Yeah. It's a horn, too. It's got to be the same system. I want him to have the light horn bumper. Like, his guy's getting... We need an octet. Yeah. But the guy with the goal light, he's also got a bumper button.

Yep. And something like that happens. Jack loses his feet and he goes, boom! Just to be sure. I couldn't love this more. I would even install one around Jack himself. They should design a heavy fanatics. Design a new jersey that just airbags pop out like jackets.

Jack just as... As soon as Jack hits a certain speed. Yeah. In his jersey, it's like one of those. life rafts that goes around your neck on an airplane. Yeah. You just go like this. Yeah.

Pull here, Jack. No, it's can't be on Jack. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Someone else. It's going to be speed related. So I hope, I mean, I don't want to speculate at all. I'm guessing, allow me to speculate.

I'm guessing it's like a shoulder type of issue. I think he's going to miss three to four games. We're going to be totally fine. I'm also really excited to see there have been a couple of guys who've been quiet. Nico Hescher, been a little bit quiet to start the year. I think you look at your, captain, a guy who had an amazing season last year. He's been a little quiet.

Jack's out. I think he goes, all right, I got us. Don't worry. I got eyes on Toff. Yeah, of course. Toff is, you know, he's at a point per game because he's the fucking guy. But I think he's going to step it up. Brat, who's just been unreal.

I mean, they've got it all. They're going to be fine. It's so good to see that the, so far this season, the league's best player goes down with an injury and it doesn't look like it's that bad. But that was a catch-your-breath moment for every devil's fan and every hockey fan around the league. So as it happened, or as a, or as I was thinking about it and wanting to talk to you about it, I was like, okay, Jack has 20 points in 10 games, most points in the league.

And if this had been a bad one, let's say this was a broken collarbone and it's like eight weeks, I was going to say to you, Christ, dude, there goes the 100 point season that I knew we were going to get. And it feels like, don't want to jinx him, but it feels like the way he's playing, the only thing stopping him from 100 point season is an injury. Yes, missing significant time. So then I was like, how many games do you think Jack needs to play this year to make sure he gets 100 points? 65.

Okay. So as long as Jack suits up for 65 games, 100 points season is locked in. Yeah. Okay, let me just think he's going to miss these three to four and then no others. Whoa. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to say he needs.

Wow, dude. To me, I think this is a shoulder injury. I think it's an AC joint thing. And they're giving him week to week, and I think he's going to miss three to four about a week or so. And they're going to do some rehab, do some stim on that to just make sure it's not even slightly compromised. Correct. Because that's the type of thing that nags, and they're going to go, we're going to just take care of this, miss a week. Three to four games.

You're right back in it. 65. I actually like that pick. I'm going to stay with you on that 65. That's a big season, though. It's not even going to be close to that. If he plays 70-something games, 76 games. And he gets what, 120?

5, 125. Okay, Jack breaks the 100-point market his game 65 this year. Sick. No doubt. All right, get well soon, buddy. We love you. We sure do.

Oh, I did want to say this too. This was just really cool. And Luke has been passed by the boys you just mentioned in the rookie thing. But it was sick. There was a tweet out the other day that was like, Jack has the most points in the league. Quinn has the most points for a defenseman. league, which he still does, and Luke has the most points of rookies.

I was like, Jesus correct. The Hughes brothers are absolutely putting their dick in the NHL. It's their league, it's unbelievable. The NHL, it's the National Hughes League. National Hughes League. It's truly. That's sick. It's the National Hughes League.

They are the faces of the league. Quinn's going to get a hundred. Dude, we all freaked out because Carlson got 100 points. First time as a defenseman in forever. Quinn's going to do it this year. Right on his heels. Yeah. All right, guys.

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The canes have already brought in Halak on a PTO. They got Kachetkov, too. And Rantov, obviously. We'll see who comes up to weather the storm. I would say that we in the past have been critical of Freddie, not in terms of he's a bagelieu, just like, oh, they could probably upgrade there. It's tough to rely on him the whole way through. And you had said, you know, maybe this.

This is his home and like now he's just good enough. I think we said that at the beginning of last year. And then I am prepared to say that he proved us wrong. I think so too. Obviously they ran into a buzzsaw and lost in five games. But how many of those games went to OT were a one goal game? Like Freddie played well. Yes.

He hasn't played since November 2nd. But this year he was four and one with a 287 goals against. So he's been very strong for them. The, they're saying, every article I've read, this is all pretty new, is that he'll make a full recovery. What I don't know what they mean genuinely is, like, as a human.

To play. Yeah. Or like he's going to be, he's making full recovery and he'll be back in a month. Obviously, that is the priority. His health is all that matters. And I hope everything is fine and this is not an issue at all.

If it is an issue, I do think that throws into question, or throws into more stark relief the question we had about the Cains, which was their goal day. It's their entire season. Yeah. Yeah. And you don't even want to get into that speculation because I don't want to put it in the universe because we're rooting for Freddie to make a full recovery as a person and a player, like you said. Anytime there's something like this with, you know, blood stuff, heart stuff, head stuff where it's not soft tissue.

It's not joint stuff. There's no pattern of rehab. It's terrifying. and yeah you look at this and you just pray to God that it's it's a freak accident the one that they can fix up and he's fine um but yeah you know to briefly touch on it it's this is one of those things where you know it's like you know when taves had that heart thing yeah it's just it's such a disaster and obviously obviously obviously obviously the priority is the person but when you look past that as the team and the organization you're like fuck me dude are

starting goal tender you know what do you do now and they were just kind of coming a lot they've won four their past five like we were dogging them about starting like they were just coming back alive and it's like you did not anticipate this by yeah yeah no so that that that that one is a you know we'll keep an eye on it for the canes but more importantly well wishes to to freddie because you know you need to get him back in the net but also just back feeling healthy yep that's a crazy one well mr transition let's talk more about some goalies coming back Cooper is saying that Vassi might be back around Thanksgiving. Yeah. Tampa's 5-3 and 3.

40 goals 4. I think it's 36 against. They've been figuring out their tandem situation with Vassie out. I... We knew that Vassi would be back eventually. Yeah, totally. I would not rush this at all. Okay. So if I'm them, I look at the way you're playing,

your good players are playing well, you are 5, 3 and 3 in a stacked Atlantic. You're doing just for. And they don't give a shit about, I mean, I know they lost last year, but they don't give a shit about the regular season. And also they don't give a shit about seating. Like, just get in the playoffs.

Absolutely correct. If you're 5, 3 and 3 with what you're rolling with, right now, I'm looking at Vassie and I'm going, until you are a hundred percent certain, we are not bringing you back. And you do run the, you've got a little game to play there because we know Vazzy's a sick man. He has sick thoughts.

Disgusting human. So he is obviously going to be the type of guy who's like, get me the fuck back in there, but you just need to talk to your training staff and be like, until he's 100% do not bring him back. So would it be sick to see one of, if not arguably, the best goalie in the NHL, return to action by Thanksgiving? Of course, it'd be

amazing. Hope it happens. But either way, if you're Tampa right now, I think you look at this situation. It was like Boston last year. Boston started the season without marshy, without Gris, without McAvoy, and you said just weather the storm, and then they were insane. You look at Tampa, you go, fuck, Vazzy's out. Let's see how we do. You're five, three and three, you feel just fine. And that team specifically, you feel just fine. My fear, I just said they don't care about seeding a regular season, they don't. My fear if you're Tampa, once the Vassi news broke, was you're going to go, you're going to get in such a big hole till New Year's that you have to go, oh, tie game. Oh, damn. Damn. This is a big win for either team. Yes. This Columbus, Florida game,

Florida was up three nothing, now three unanswered goals by Columbus. They're back in and on the power play here, too. Okay, anyway, if you're Tampa, you don't care about regular season or seating, The fear was if you've gotten such a big hole till New Year's because your goalie was out, you had to treat the rest of the season in this crazy playoff grind to get back into the hunt that you exhaust yourself before playoffs even started, and that's what ends up costing you in the end. Now, early, early, but you're sitting, like you said, 5'3 and 3. Jonas Johansson has been playing the majority of their games. He has played, like, he was a third round pick, 61st, 602nd overall.

I can't remember from Buffalo. Bounced around all over the place. has played a handful of games in the league per season since 2014. Was on the abs last year? Yeah, yeah. Three games here, 10 games there, whatever. Nothing, dude, does not play.

And the lightning, missing the best goalie in the league are like, hey, dude, here you go. And I'm like, that is not an appropriate job for him. How does he respond? Nine games, he's five and one, a nine one six, say, percentage. Like, he has been, I don't think you are going to get, the delta between goalie play that you're going to get when Vassie's back, isn't that big that you need to rush him at all.

You're like this, dude, this guy is buzzing right now. Yeah. Two shutouts, two eight seven goals against. He's leading the league in shots, faced, and saves. Literally, no one has more saves than him. Dude, it's funny, because I was going to say, how much of that do you think is playing with guys like Hedman and Svichav in front of you? Yeah.

But it hasn't been that. It's been like, he's getting peppered with shots, and he's still just standing on his head. He's played the most games, because teams are splitting more, and he's played nine games. But the fact that they can take this kid who's never played, and they're like this, hey you're going to play every game give me a 9-1-7 say percentage and he's like this no problem yeah he started nine of the 11 yeah like that's it's ridiculous dude so that that that is been if you want to count your blessings as the lightning when you got that devastating vastly news

look no further dude that is a ridiculous turn of events and they can have take a sweet time yeah assuming this whole absolutely crazy uh let's bounce to something relevant given the fact that we're watching the jackets right now what in the world is going on with johnny hockey dude so let me read you this quote that I pulled just just to give some clarity before you get into yeah yeah's here Johnny hockey is currently one goal four assists for five games in 11 games or in or excuse me for five points in 11 games and he got benched in the third period of their last game yeah so PV new first time coach looks at Johnny hockey their big ticket guy oh yeah And benches him for the final 16 minutes and seven seconds of the game after having no shots on goal in 11 minutes of ice time in that game.

None. He's playing tonight, obviously. His year in Calgary, he went nuclear, obviously. 82 games, 40 goals, 75 assists, 17 points. And he's been amazing since he came into the game. Yes. His first year in Columbus, 80 games, 21 goals, 53 assists, 74 points. How do you rate that season before I say anything else?

Dude, it's a very good year. It's a drop-off, but I do laugh at the amount of people who are like, yeah, Johnny Hockey signed to Columbus and that absolutely sucked. Yep. And he was just shy of point per game on a very underperforming team. So, yeah, it's a great year. It's a low year, quote-unquote, for him. Yeah. But it's not like he completely shit the bed.

And he only scored 21, and that's on him. But if he had scored just the goals, I'm talking, a little bit closer to his rate, 28. Like, I'd like 30, but we'll call it 30 for round numbers. 30, 53, 83, and no one gives a shit, right? So the goals dropped a little bit, but I didn't think it was that bad of a season. No. This start has been bad. Yes.

I have a couple questions for you. Do you, I guess my first question is, do you bench a Johnny hockey? Absolutely not. Okay. Absolutely not. It's one of those insane things where we talked earlier. about Zieg starting out slow. Patrick Kane watches his own highlights

and gets back on the horse. Johnny Hockey, all he needs is like one. All he needs is one good game and then he'll get cooking again. I think I chalk some of it up to the Bab stuff, the beginning of the season stuff. I think PV is a great coach and has definitely changed the vibe around here. And I think this team is kind of hovering where they should be.

It's like they're right in the middle, right? They're going to be around 500. but Johnny you can't perform this way and no one knows that more than him. Yep. So I have no negative words towards him. I have no kicking the pants. It's just to me a figure out what's going on. It's also one of those things, dude.

It's the Roy Kent speech of like, we don't know what anyone is going, he's dealing with at any given time. So let's just say, let's say everything with. Johnny is fine in his life. He's just in a little bit of a rough patch, rough pumpkins. Yeah, rough pumpkins. I'm like, he's fine, dude. Like, just, if you need to in-game, sit him down. Oh, fine.

But I still think I'm like, I don't really do that. Okay, because that's what I was asking. Okay, well, that's totally acceptable, dude. Like, because you don't know, dude. Like, if you're a coach on that bench and you're watching this and you've got people analyzing his play and he's fucking sucking dick, then I'm like, yeah, sit him down. but you don't like bench I don't health bomb him

Yes, of course not Sorry, yeah, that's not what I meant No, yeah Oh, then you, sorry Change my answer if you're asking Can you sit a guy down for a period? Fuck yeah, you can't dude Because I don't know

That any idea how many times I would sit your bitch ass down In Beer League if I could Oh my God, dude we'd be winless Brian We'd literally have lost every game I don't know And every player's different by the way Some players like the hard coaching

Some players kind of need to be coddled And that's okay by the way if that's not getting in the way of the team dynamic or all that shit. But my point is, Johnny Hockey, to me, has been a good enough player in this league. Let me give you a ridiculous example just to prove my point, and I know this is ridiculous. But like, let's say Sid was having a bad two periods. You wouldn't be like this. Sid, you're sitting the rest of the third.

Because you just pull him aside and go, hey, buddy, you've had 11 minutes of ice time and you haven't shot once. Fucking wake up, and he'll go like this. Okay. And it just to me feels like Johnny's not Sid, obviously, but it feels like, Johnny's not Sid, obviously, but it feels like he's had enough success in this league that would be pretty easy to pull him aside either at the intermission or even after his first shift of the third. Grab him by the fucking cuff and go like this, yo dude, show me something. Yeah, but maybe they did that. Okay, fair point.

Maybe they said it. That's my point. And I'm glad that you said, obviously, he's not Sid. My thing is, like, Johnny's a vet, dude. Johnny's a vet. He's, I think he's a very cool-headed, collected guy, and he is not above getting sat down. I don't think he's the type of guy that's going to go into the locker. fucking throw a shit and be able to be maybe about it.

And frankly, I don't think anyone is above that. If you're playing like ass and it's costing your team, if you're getting scored on when you're out on the ice, you should be able to be sat the fuck down and that includes Crosby. Now, I don't think that ever would happen with Crosby. I think he is one of probably four or five guys in the league that I'm like, you just probably

don't do that to him. But like, Johnny I think is like, dude, if you're just having a brutal day out there, whatever. Okay, and also, Dan, and I don't think you were either. I wasn't watching that game. Because what you just described, sure. If you're out there, you're a dash four,

you're just making a million mistakes. I'm like, yo, sit down, dude. I don't know what's going on. Or if you're just laying an egg, dude, like if something's wrong and you're just like not moving around on the ice. That's where I kind of disagree. If it's just an egg, I'm like, I don't sit him down.

No, no, no, I mean, in your output, if you're busting your ass, but you are laying an egg, whatever. But if you're like laying an egg, and by that, I mean, if you're... He hadn't shot. It sounds like he was. He hadn't even shot the puck yet.

If you haven't shot the puck, if you're gliding around out there, you're not picking up your man on the back check, you're not busting your ass in the neutral zone, then I am like, yes, sit him the fuck down. Ovi might be one of your four. I'm not going to make you name them or whatever,

but, like, you know what I mean? He went two games without a shot, and no one was like this. Ovi, sit down for a period. Because they're like this, it's okay. Yes, because again, he might have just been busting.

It's effort, dude. Effort for me. And I would never accuse Johnny of not having effort out there. But again, maybe something was up. Maybe his head was in a minute. And he was kind of, he was just spacing out.

Anyone, any Blue Jacksman that was watching that game, hit us up, please. I'd love to know. Because I just, I don't know that, and I'm not critiquing Johnny at all, because you're right, he is a vet. I'm not saying, like, this bothers him anyway. He said he's going to move forward. Vincent said they're going to move forward. All good. But I just was kind of shocked to see that.

Obviously, this starts been killer, but I feel like you've got to be in his corner here and be like, yo, dude, you're our guy. I believe in you. It could break at any moment. Like you said, one shitty one goes in. But again, again, and I'm just playing the other side. I think this is possibly being in his corner. Yeah. If you are Johnny Hockey, if you sign the ticket you do, if you are a hundred point guy

in your prime, and you have a, by your standards. Bad two periods? No, lower season last year. And then you start this season very poorly, which he has. Yes. One goal and four assists through 11 games is very bad for Johnny Hockey. And I think if you have going to this game when you're having a bad year coming off of a not your best year, and then you are having a bad,

game, there is nothing wrong with getting sat down for a period. Because that, as far as PV is concerned, and the way he's been coaching him, might be like, I've been too soft on this guy. Maybe he can give him a kick in the balls here. So who knows? Either way, I love Johnny's response, and I'm excited to see what happened. I wanted him to get three tonight so bad. Yeah. But here's the question, dude, if you finish this year, flash forward, and Johnny has like 65 points, what do you do if you're Columbus. Oh, man. I don't know. What's his contract? He signed how long? Eight, probably. Yeah. You are worried. Unfortunately, you do nothing because you believe in the investment and you think he'll be okay, which I still would. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure I still would. Are you sure you do nothing? No, but I just think I would, how old is he? Was he 29? No. I think he's 30.

Johnny Godreau is 30 years old He's making 9.75 mil Until 20 I mean 2028, 29 Yeah, it's not a horrible number honestly Consuming the cap's gonna still go up a little bit Guys are getting paid way more It's not a horrible number

And I believe I think I would choose to believe This is his second year into an eight year deal Yeah I think I would choose to believe That I'm like he's 30 Like he can be good again Because I think if you tried to move him You'd be selling low Which is ridiculous

And it's an overreact But maybe, though, like, you know, if you at the deadline, they would never do this. But if you at the deadline move him, you're getting a lot for it. Yeah. But, again, I don't think that you can move it. Because he's got a, he's got plenty of no move clauses in there. And then there's also the fact of the matter that it's a damn near $10 million cap hit. Like what contending team can take six more years of $10 million.

So. Let's see how he responds, dude. Got sat down. But he's got to respond and I think he will. He always has. Yep. I have just a couple really quick hitters left, if you want them. One, we talked about Adam Johnson last week and the tragedy that was,

but this I just thought was so awesome. He played for the Nottingham Panthers. That's who he's playing for. And Dan will know, but we're soccer guys. And I, for a story for another pod, I've always loved Nottingham Forest. And they got up to the prim a couple years ago and it's been so fun watching them play. And they, in the 47th minute, put up a huge. banner of his because he wore 47 and they're in Nottingham and the Panthers are in Nottingham.

And stop the game too. Yeah. And I just couldn't have loved Nottingham Forrest more in that moment for doing that for Adam and his family. So that was sick. Yeah. We talked about this last week. But obviously in the face of tragedy, it's been lovely to see the outpouring of affection

and support. And you've loved to see the HL and other minor leagues stepping up their mandates for neck guards. It was great to see guys like T.J. O'Shee wearing his War Road branded neck guard. Yeah, yeah, a lot of guys out there. And it's just good. It's good to start the dialogue of players being more open to wearing neck guards at all times. So, yeah, and that was just a sick moment from Nottingham.

Love to see that. Also, Big Z. Another marathon. Another marathon under his belt. Is it the least surprising thing in the world to see Big Z just becoming a marathon guy? Dude, no. And what worries me, though, is. is, so he did Boston in 338, great, unbelievable time.

That's insane. I need people to know how insane it is. And then he did New York in 319. Yeah. New York easier than Boston. Yep. The, what worries me about Z is he's got that big frame and I know he's still a workout freak, but he just fact of the matter is he's not working out as hard as he was when he was playing.

I'm just sure of it. I'm sure he's working out hard, but he just, he's not on the grind. And now he's distance running. And he's, I just feel like he's going to wither, away, dude. He doesn't, he has putting enough calories into that frame. He looked the way he was out there on the road. I was like, oh, my God, Z. There's a couple of photos. He looks yoked still. Like his arms are jacked and he looks lean as hell. Uh, I am worried about Z because that's a lot of man. He had to pounded. I'm worried about his knees and his hips. Uh, my true big worry about

Z is this. There was that article a little while ago about Ichiro Suzuki. And that man just lives and breathes baseball. And someone asked what he would do when he retires and he was like,

probably die. I'll just die. I look at Z and I'm like, dude, this man knows nothing but training. Yeah. And I want him to know he can chill. He can get fat.

Actually, don't get that. I'm not into that. But he can like relax. Yeah. He could chill. He could chill out. You don't need to have that long and intense of an NHL career and then go straight into the Boston Marathon and New York Marathon.

You didn't need to do that. Has he tried golf? Or Vids or VGs or VGs? Like he should bid. I like him getting out. I like golf. Stay outside. Play some pickleball, my man.

You'd be unbelievable in the kitchen. Imagine Z right outside the kitchen. He would literally, his wingspan would get from side to side of that court. Dude, don't, no, we should, nobody tell him about this. Nobody tell him about this. He could be a professional pickleball or so fast. He could be a professional pickleball. are tomorrow. And I don't know that I want that for him, so I hope he doesn't hear this.

I hope he tries golf. I hope he tries longest drive competitions. Get a huge golf driver in his hands. I think he could hit one 500 yards. Yeah. Put a stiff shaft in that guy's hand. Yeah. He's going to pipe a ball four hundredie. Wow, dude. This is not a lot of options. Save the knees, buddy. Save the knees, Z. You don't need to do it. All right. Let's get into the three hottest teams. Amazing. I'm going to start again. Okay. Because I'm really excited about the three-spot. to do it. Our third hottest team of the week is our very own Los Angeles Kings.

The team is officially scorching. They're three for their last three, beating the Leafs 4-1, sends 3-2, and blanking the Flyers 5-0. After a few tough starts, a little bit of a shaky goalie play situation going on, Cam Talbot, dude, has emerged and kind of stolen the starting spot from Piscoply here. is played phenomenally and has been really the centerpiece of the Kings going on this run here. But the boys are buzzing.

The big dogs are playing unbelievable. Drew Dowdy is playing unbelievable. Yeah. He's playing some of the best hockey. He's playing like 30 minutes. Yeah. He's eating ice and he is playing some of the best hockey he's played in years, putting people on notice. Copee is hot.

Yeah. Campi, I believe, is leading the team in points. Dude, he is. Go ahead. And then here's one that I really want to shout out. the guy that I talked a lot about in our Pacific breakdown, the guy that I said was going to take a big, big step this year. Quentin Byfield is having a phenomenal start to this season

and is silencing a lot of the people who were starting to whisper bust around his name. He is playing on this top line, he's playing on the wing, settling into this new role. He is still such a big vision guy and past first guy and it's just clicking amazingly with that top line. Got to love it. The Kempi, I think, maybe does have, do you know how many tux he has? Four? Or is it six?

I think it's... I swear it's four. My point was going to be... He and Fiala haven't even been scoring goals that much. I think they're won two in points on the team. They're spreading the wealth big time. But that's what I'm saying, dude. They're getting it from all over, so they look really scary, especially when those guys start getting theirs.

And let's talk about our guy. Oh, hold on. Okay. The second hottest team. the Vancouver Canucks also 3 and O they beat the Preds 5-2 they beat the brakes

off the Sharks 10-1 which started the Sharks just nightmare a couple nights in a row there and they beat the Stars 2-0 and a very good win the Canucks are 8, 2, and 1 in their first 11

and there is a legitimate chance, Dan, a legitimate chance that they are not only getting hot but also that they are no longer only good on paper. There's a chance. There is a legitimate chance. Yeah.

there certainly is. Okay, and then the number one team of the week, like we talked about quack, quack, quack, Mr. Ducksworth. The mighty ducks. The Kingslayers, as we called them, beat the Blue Jackets, 3 to 2,

the Bruins 4 to 3, the Flyers 7 to 4, the 1, the 1st 4 to 3, and the Knights 4 to 2, 6 straight wins. They're 7 and a 4, currently sitting comfortably in fourth place in the Pacific. Can you believe it? Absolutely not.

Who saw this one coming? Only, only, Troy Terry, I think. I bet he knew. Yeah, I could see that. He too. I could see Troy being like, yeah, we were going to do it the whole time. Yep. All right, hit me with some Toff Watch, Dan. Well, I wanted to talk about you. I think you thought I meant our guy when I said, let's talk about our guy, and you thought I meant Toff. Oh, no, I meant, I meant some guy's going to come up in the FPG segment. Okay, fine. I can wait for that. Toth Watch, my boy,

in 11 games, he has seven goals and four assists for 11 points. He's sitting at exactly point per game, so we are cruising. We're getting exactly what we need from him. He's pointless in his last two, which means he's going to wake up. Like I said, Jack is out. So look for Toff to pick up some of that slack. It's going to have to work a little bit harder.

Yeah, and we know he loves hard work. Yeah, he does. He does. Love hard. Toff watch, we are very comfortable. Very comfortable. Okay, good. And now for the FPGs, the Friends of the Pod goals. This week, we got a goal from Dutchie,

who's actually hurt now too, so get well soon, Dutchie. We got a goal from Dante Fabro. Let's fucking go. We got two from Tage, two from Tuck, and another one from a member of the Kings who literally could not be hotter. He can't stop, dude. He cannot stop. He cannot stop.

Trevor Moore has 11 points. He is third, tied for second, really, in points on the Kings, having a scorching hot start to his career. He's all over the ice, and like we talked about, he's that type of player. He can play all over the lineup. He has been. He is such a killer for this King's team. he is as hot as he's ever been

and we could not be happy. And dude, he's starting to feel it too by the way. I text it every day. Stay fucking hot dude. He's like this. I can't cool down if I wanted to. Well, that's the funny part because at the beginning you're like this. We're like, hey, Morsi, stay hot buddy.

Good game. And he goes like this. Yeah, I'll try guys. Thanks, man. I'll try. And then by now we're like this. Hey, Morsy, stay fucking hot buddy. And he's like, the boys are fucking buzzing.

Let's go. Like now he knows. Now he knows he's rocking it. But the kings are unbelievable. I do just want to say a little shout out to Jordan Spence found himself in this lineup. That was a big element of the Jersey trade. When Jersey moved, L.A. knew they were deep at D

and Spenny has jumped into this lineup. He's got three points already on the season. He looks really, really solid back there and pumps me up to see. So just a huge shout out to Spenny. Unbelievable dude. And I think we're seeing the early stages of a breakout season for the kid. Love that. Amazing. That brings our total of FPGs to 32 goals on the year. 225 is the target.

Don't forget it. 225 is the target. Okay, let's get into some games to watch. I think we've got the same first one. Wednesday night, when this comes out. Yep. Wednesday night, first game of the week that we got to keep our eyes peeled for is the team we were just talking about, Kings versus the Vegas Golden Knights.

Two of the hottest teams in the league. It's going to be their game on TNT. 7 p.m. Pacific time. So East Coasters, you've got to stay up a little bit late, but that is going to be one that you cannot. Considering the oilers suck. This is the Pacific, the Titans of the Pacific going head to head. So Kings at nights, it's going to be a good one.

Saturday, I got Hurricanes at Tampa. Really love both those teams. Think they're both going to be in it at the end of the year. Middling starts, good starts for both. So pumped to see that one shake out. Okay, my last one is Thursday. Habs at Wings. I just think these are two teams that have been way better

than we thought. I actually tweeted the other night, I said a game that you might not have had circled on your list of games to watch was going to be this Yotes-Ducks game. Yeah. But they're two of the most exciting teams going. It's going to be a fucking blast, and it was. Unbelievable overtime winner.

So I'm saying this game right here is going to be a lot of young studs on the ice, fast pace in a great barn, original six matchup. Habs. Habs at Red Wings, great tilt. Thursday night, that one is going to be. 4 p.m. Pacific time. So 7 p.m. Normal start for you east coasters. Beautiful stuff. Beautiful stuff. All right. That's it for us this week at the MTN-Ares podcast. Like we said, we've got some fun, fun guests coming for you soon. We got a little bit of travel, going to do some fun stuff.

Hockey season is brewing. We couldn't be happier. So, as we always say, fucking skate hard.