Empty Netters Podcast - 7. Are The Hughes Brothers Taking Over The NHL?!

Episode Date: December 1, 2022

Quarter Season Awards!- Who has the cooler winter classic jersey- Dan's Eichel punishment goes to a vote- Vegas should play in the dark- Jason Robertson IS the Stars- Connor Hellebuyck gets PEPPERED GET 15% OFF YOUR FIRST ONLINE ORDER AT SHIPHECHO.COM WITH PROMO CODE "NETTERS" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to another episode of the Empty Netters podcast. But before we get into all the NHL talk, we are very excited to talk about our new presenting sponsor for the podcast, ECHO Tequila Soda. Without question, my favorite canned cocktail in the game right now. Have you had it? I have, and I can't stop having it. It's that good, Dan. And that's saying something because I'm a tequila guy. So ECHO comes out with this new tequila soda.

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Happy to be back in the warm, happy to be back on the West Coast. And I love a little Cali Thanksgiving. Oh, my God. That's the best. I was about to say, how was your Thanksgiving? It was lovely, man. Tell me about it. What happened?

Paint me a picture. So I would say the highlight, well, we always play a little N64. Played a lot of N64, did a lot of cooking, a lot of eating, a lot of drinking. A lot of drinking. I would like to say I was there. Oh, you were there. I don't need this. It's more for the listeners.

It's more for producer Emily here. You just really paint the picture of Thanksgiving Day. You know what was a highlight this year for me, at least, was a lot of yard game activity. Yeah. That hasn't always happened. That's the best part about West Coast, you know, warm weather Thanksgiving, gets to play some yard games, throw that pigskin around in a T-shirt rather than a winter jacket. What was your highlight for food? Oh, man, great question.

So I wanted to ask you about your favorite sides, too. I did think the turkey came out quite well this year. Yeah. You can tell everyone what we did because we tried something new based on your tips. but I really enjoyed that sweet potato dish. Oh, me too. I thought that was just... Sweet potato ag gratin.

Yeah, oh my God. And I did that cream sauce that I poured over it, you know, before the bake. Your cream is so great. It's always been... People always want my cream. Your cream is just always... It's top-notch cream. Yep.

And it just, it elevates every experience. It's flavorful. Yeah, it's rich. Yeah. It's thick. It's thick, thick. That's good stuff. Yeah.

No, yeah, we spatchcocked the turkey this year. If you guys haven't heard of... spatch cocking with a turkey. It's when you cut the spine right out of that pig. Flip it over, smush it down flat so everything cooks really even. Chiropractor, that shit. Yeah. Emily, do you like that?

It's quite a visual. That was the most disgusting noise I've ever heard. Is it worse than when I was swallowing into the mic? It wasn't worse than when I was chewing. I'll say that. Yeah, that's true. It also wasn't worse. Emily starts in Onlyfans with her chewing ASMR and we take this company to the moon.

Agree. Can I do that? Would I make money? A hundred percent. Would you make money? Would you make money? Oh my God. There is a market for your chewing food, ASMR.

All right. I'll actually, I'll do that. And you guys can get a cut now that you came up with the idea. Look at that, 20%. We'll do the ad rates. We're going straight to Mars. Yes, please do my ad ad adage. But, yeah, the, you chiropracked that turkey.

Cooks nice and evenly. It gets nice and crispy to you. I like that. I did think it was funny that we committed to this and then lost our, our correct shears yeah our cooking shears yeah so we have like paper scissors like elementary school safety scissors

and I'm like going through the back it was actually the ridged of a 16 pound bird I was like this is not the way you're supposed to do this but we got that bone out it worked it worked well it was a fantastic Thanksgiving and now listen Thanksgiving's over and I don't know if you have you noticed my look I think you look great do you have you check this out oh you didn't wow he did the whole

whole thing. Christmas socks, Christmas sweater. That's Christmas spirit right there. And it's about time. I feel like the office has been giving us a hard time because we're a big right after Halloween. We've got some supporters. We've got some people who scratched their head at us a little bit.

But listen, after... You can't stop it now. What I don't get is they say we're disrespecting Thanksgiving by listening to Christmas music right after Halloween. Did I not just say I had a fantastic Thanksgiving? Did you hear how much respect I just poured all over my sweet potatoes? Your cream was all over. Thanksgiving. And my respect was going all over everything on Thanksgiving. It's unbelievable. It's like a fire

host. So I'm just saying you can respect Thanksgiving and still listen to Christmas music. Listen. But now there's no excuses. All bets are off. No stopping it now. All of you December 1st people, I respect you. I love you. But I'm going to still listen to Christmas music and I'm going to wear my Christmas sweaters already. It was an early Thanksgiving this year. You can't blame me for that. No, you cannot. What was it? 24th? Yeah, sounds right. Something like that. I don't know what day it is now. That's early. Here's a question for you. Hey me.

Since we're in Christmas season. At our age, what's your take on asking for hockey year as a Christmas present? I won't lie. It feels a little weird when you'd ask for it. But, I mean, you need, I feel like at our age, we need less gifts in life. I feel like I just get stuff for myself. I need a little more self-control with that. Yeah.

But I feel that every year someone's asking me, whether it's my parents, whether it's a significant other or you, thanks for your gifts, by the way. You're welcome. What do you want for Christmas, Dan? And now I have answers. New Elbeys. I would like some new Bauer Supremes. Not the low shelf ones. No, no, no, no.

But not the top shelf either. No, no, no, no. We can't be spending a thousand dollars. You do not need a thousand dollars skates. Oh, my God. Do you think that these slow. boots deserve top shelf skates? No, middle.

Oh, yeah. Goldie locks. Goldie locks across the board. Goldie locks skates, Goldie lost elbows. I don't even, I mean, the same bucket is fine. If anyone's asking for a bucket, they're lying to you. They have a bucket.

That's what I'm saying. Shin pads. I could use some shin pads probably. You know, really? My shin pads are, I'll just, I'll clear tape. Yeah. Yeah. Just clear tape the hell out.

Yeah. You know, that's fine. But it is, you can't have dusty mitts. Oh, good one. Yeah. You can't have a cracked bucket. My palms were all the way out in my glass. Yeah, and that's not acceptable.

Yeah, okay, I'm in. I don't feel bad about it. I want it. That's the thing. There's something about being a hockey family growing up in a cold weather climate and coming around the corner, you know, depending on how your house looks, down the stairs, around the corner, whatever, Christmas morning. You enter the room in the tree.

Presence under the tree. And literally, my mind's eye is like, there's a hockey stick in the bat. Like the new hockey sticks in the back. With a bow on it? Yeah. And I can't even picture Christmas without hockey gear under the tree. So I almost feel like I need to ask for at least one thing every year just to keep up my visual. I agree with that.

And listen, I don't care what age you are. New gear is great. Feels great, smells great, looks great. So. Works great. Works great too. I might suck, but it's not the sticks. Yeah.

But when I elbow the dude next to me in the beak, he'll feel it. Because I got a brand new Elby. and it doesn't matter that I suck, that pad's doing its job. Exactly. Your elbow is going to be fine, his nose maybe not. Yeah, broken. So, yeah, I have no problem with it. I support it.

Well, you look for my list then. Yeah, I'm going to say. Now I know what I'm getting you, buddy. Maybe some new Elbeys. Look for my list. All right, you want to get into some hot ice? Yeah, we have to. You know, we missed a week for the holiday.

So let's get into some hockey talk here. Let's talk about some hot ice. What's the first on your list? Oh, okay. I'd love to start. The first thing I want to talk to you about, is jerseys. Oh, okay.

Okay. I've got a few jersey things to talk about. Oh, nice. All right, well, let's do this one first. We saw the sharks reverse retroes live in color, in action. What did you think? First of all, was surprised how long it took for them to whip those puppies out. I actually couldn't believe...

I feel like the bees have played three reverse retro games, and the sharks are just playing their first. The bees have played a game where they were forced to take off their reverse retroes before the sharks even got to wear them once. And that's just criminal. I was confused, Dan, when I saw online that it was happening, and I was, we've just looked at them so much, I was like, you were like, is this the first time. I was like, what do you mean?

And everyone was like, this is literally the first game. All the posts were like, they're here and they're beautiful. And I was like, I know they've been. Yeah, they've been beautiful the whole time. They were, I think they were in our top three. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I think we went three to one was sharks, Canucks, Islanders.

I thought the caps were up there No, caps were two, you're right They were top five They were up there and they deserve to be up there Absolutely, they're unbelievable They were they were better than I I will admit even having just said I'd seen them a million times

They were better than I dreamed Oh, they were so crispy They were sexual and violent Oh my God They and Bebs tweeted about them I don't know if you saw that Dude if you is Justin Bieber Has a 10th favorite team now

No he said Leaps for Life He said that He did, he did. But I feel like he's been dragged so many times for team hopping that he was like, just saying, I still love the Leafs, but my God, these jerseys are fire. That's allowed, dude. It is absolutely. That was a perfect comment from Beeps.

If you have Bieber tweeting about something you've done, you did it. You're doing something right, I would say. Especially if he's, I was an IG comment, right? I think so. Yeah. If Bebs is weighing in on something that you're doing in a positive way, yeah. You are either starting a new, funky church.

Yep. or you're doing something pretty cool. He's a decent little player. I love that about him. Me too. Bebs can move. Yeah. He skates really well, which is, in my opinion, when someone, there's something that you

wouldn't really expect to be good at hockey, usually they've got a great shot and then they surprise you. Usually it's a great shot, or maybe they've got really nice hand, soft myths out there. It's rare that you're like, this guy moves. He can skate. Beeps can skate. He does Canada proud. Whenever we play with him, I'm very impressed.

A little bit of floating, a little bit of chilling at the far blue. I mean, I don't blame him. He's just trying to get a few tucks before putting out another smash. That kid has too many Instagram followers to back check. I can tell you that much. He has logged way too many hours in the Beat Lab to be back checking. When we hit... Can you imagine Beep stepping in front of a point clapper?

Oh my God. No. When we hit a million followers, I'll be letting everyone know I no longer back to. But until then, guys, I hit a millie. I no longer back. Until then, I come back hard. That's going to be hard for the people to accept when I play defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like this guys, I don't play D anymore. I'll still be a defenseman, but I won't play defense. Yeah. That's going to be really tough. But those jerseys were perfection. They were perfection. It's one of those ones where the reverse retro is whipped out and you're, you kind of go, oh, just wear those all the time.

And Dan, would you agree? that there are some. Are they winning the Jersey wars this year? Oh, yes, easily. I mean, the sharks have the best jerseys in the league, it's awesome. It's awesome. With the all teals and now these reverse retroes,

they are just dripping. And I think it's cool when a reverse retro looks even better live than the pictures. I feel like sometimes the picture, you're like, that's sick. And then it's out there and you're like, okay, whatever, you know, it's fine. This one I feel like was the reverse

where you're like, holy shit. The reverse of that was the sabers. Agree with the white. The white. It was the pants. Oh, God. But then they whipped out the black and white goatheads right in our face. Everything changed.

Oh, my God. Unbelievable. Okay, I've got another jersey topic. Go. Vegas Golden Knights Reverse Retros. Glow in the dark. And that's obvious, dude. It's just Vegas, their presentation in general overall is just top-notch.

They do Vegas so proud. It's so... I don't know if anyone... Listening has been to a Vegas game. But my goodness, T-Mobile bumps, they have a full-on show before every game, and it's perfect. And now they're coming out in reverse retroes that glow in the dark, watching that team come through the tunnel with the glowing jerseys. I was stunned to silence while also laughing my ass off, but it was good laughter. Oh, yeah.

It was that disbelief laughter. You know when someone comes up with an idea and you just want to kill yourself, but you didn't think of it? Because you're like this, that is just so, that's just such a good idea. How did that not exist? I'm a moron. It's just all over. It's, it's, uh, what's, um, the guys in knocked up. What's their website called?

Flesh of the stars. And then Paul Rudd tells them that Mr. Skin exists. You know, like Mr. Skin. Yeah. It's that moment. When you go... This is a disaster. Oh, no.

How? How did we let this happen? And it's just... I'm glad it was Vegas first. Like you said, they should be first. And we got to lean into that, dude. Like, I want, I want, you know, music festival, glow stick necklaces around everyone in the crowd, pregame, maybe for the playoffs, whatever. Yeah.

But I didn't realize that I needed every team to have a glow in the dark jersey until now. But they do. Okay, I say I disagree. No, you're wrong. I just think there aren't many teams in the league that can get away with this. Vegas can. But if the hurricanes do this. Dude, was that the first team in your head too?

No, but I was going to be like, before you said anything, I was going to like, name the lamest team right now. Just like on paper the lamest team. I was like, I don't want to bring that up, whatever. I don't want Carolina fans to come at me because I'm not saying that. But that was in my head like, okay, if Vegas is going to have, have glow in the dark jerseys? What's the team that's like definitely not going to have low charges? And you hit hurricanes and I was like, that was pretty good. It's true. And listen,

I think even Carolina fans will say their social media presence is obnoxious. Their social media, and that's a good thing because they're always making noise. So you're doing something right. You're getting people's attention. But the Carolina hurricane social team is so annoying in a good way. I just think if they had glow in the dark jerseys, they would be so obnoxious about it that people would be like this, no, I hate it. I am revolting against this. It's terrible.

Whereas Vegas, it's just so on brand. It's perfect. What I think they should add is this should be, when Vegas wears those jerseys, they should have one 30-second buzzer. where at any point in the game, they can smash the 30 second buzzer and all the lights go out in the stadium

and the nights in their glow jerseys just get to play because I imagine that's going to help them see the puck a little bit. Okay, well... And even if it doesn't help, it's just going to look cool. We look cool as hell. I want them all to have visors that are night vision. And then, now we're going, dude. Now you're on to something.

30 seconds, lights off. Jerseys are glowing for us. fans, all of their visors, night vision goggles. It's now you get to play, 30 seconds. Can you imagine power play down one end of the game? And they're like this, and you know it's coming. Yeah. But, but, but the other team gets a, gets a block buzzer.

So if you guess right, if you guess, it's like that game, you know, like, yeah. Yeah, you know, you get it. If the other team goes block. No, no dice. I'd like to see teams practicing, too. Like, I can see torts blindfolding the PK boys in practice being like, get ready. This is what it's going to be like. Listen to the game.

Hear the game. Hear the game. Follow the puck with your ears, guys. You fucking idiots. I just think, listen, when you do something innovative like this, you get to institute new rules. That's how it works. Yeah. I don't make the rules.

Do you remember when you were on my team yet, but in, like, mites or something? in a Christmas tournament, we got a, we had the puck and the rink's lights went out. Tommy Olson was on a breakaway. Yeah. And the rink went completely dark, but Tommy could still see something.

It wasn't pitch black, but it was like, the lights went out. And he had a breakaway and just sniped. And then the lights came back on. It was just in the net. And he was celebrating. And we were like, yo.

And the ref was like, goal. And I was like, cool. It fell. No, two fouls. Somebody gave it to him, dude. Sick day. I think you can't let that. happen. I think you have to say

as the ref. It's no goal. Oh my God, are you kidding me? It was the most egregious officiating I've ever seen in my life. I do like the idea of being a mites, pee-wee squirt. I don't know why I went out of order there, but you know, might squirts pee-bantam ref. And just

letting chaos happen. Because really who cares? Who cares at that age? Whatever. I mean, the players care. Obviously, the parents really care. But if you're a ref, you're not costing in anyone money or their careers, you're just having fun out there. We're having a good time.

I would institute chaos. I would institute the 30 second buzzer in that level. I would, do you have any idea how many penalty shots I would give if I were a youth hockey rep? I would be blowing my whistle like a goddamn train, just going penalty shots, penalty shot. Penalties a spot.

Penalty shot just always. I'd be theatrical about it too. I do a 360, bang, right at the center I stopped. It would be amazing. I love that take, and I think you would promote super high-scoring games, which is what the people want. Back then, you're a kid, you want to score goals. No one's trying to win a 2-1 defensive battle when I'm eight. I want to win 12-10 with eight penalty-shot goals.

You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. I got one more jersey topic for you. Go. Winter classic jerseys dropped. Bees, penguins. Embrace the bait. Who is the better sweater?

I'll tell you this, Dan. The, I like the lettering on the Bruins jersey a lot. And I like the stripes at the bottom. I thought that was pretty cool. The bear, which I. The Beth bear. Yeah, it's like there, it's been the shoulder patch from like the 70s through the early 90s. Early Ray Borkets.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is funny, you know. But with the reverse retro poo bear coming out this year, which is another example that looks cooler. when I really saw it. I saw it and I was like, that's pretty sick, but they look fly as fuck when they're out there. But with that happening this year, I feel like I have enough bear content.

I'm kind of sad they went bear middle. When I was like, we just got like the big Bruins jersey drop bear and you give me another bear. Yeah, the bees have two infamous bear logos. Poo bear and the meth bear. And they dropped them both in the same season. And I'm like, I do feel as though they found themselves

between a rock and a hard place because the Bruins have been graced with many Winter Classic games. Yes. So they had that one where it was almost that, you know, the 1920s Bruins logo where it's like the tan, right? It's the profile bear where he's just walking. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I believe they did one of those and then they have those fantastic ones where it's just the big yellow bee. That's really cool.

So I feel like they found themselves being like, what haven't we done? Yeah. You've gotten numerous Winter Classic jersey. of the past. You've got the new reverse retro this season. Now you have a winter classic. It's like what else could they have done? What about like, and I know there's always ties.

I have an answer to my own question. Oh, do you want to go first? No, I want you to finish your thing. I was going to say, you know how there's always ties to old? Like this is paying homage to that and this is, but you know, like I read the lettering is like, oh, it's like the 19-20, same lettering is the 19-20. I'm like, okay, whatever. And I don't think the Bruins have ever had a jersey like this.

I'm about to describe. But I wouldn't hate them just doing something. something new like like that boston a diagonal like the rags or something you know like do a boston like sash and i'm like sweet you've never done that and i've never seen that before and that's kind of fun yeah i'd rather that swing than then meth bear poo bear i think that's a great idea my thought is and this goes into who i think wins i think pittsburgh has the better jersey me too i think what they did was they went with a Pittsburgh Pirates P. Yes.

And I don't get why these teams don't coordinate. When you're doing a winner classic at Fenway Park, and the Penguins, correctly, in my opinion, made essentially Penguins Pirates jerseys. Yep. They've got the old-school, old-timey baseball stripes and coloring. It's that cream, tan color. It's not white, really.

Yep. I really hope they've got brown pants, too, like an old brown leather glove. I hope they've got brown pants. That would be awesome. But the jersey's great. Great Pittsburgh pirate looking P on the front. I don't know why the Bruins didn't do Red Sox jerseys.

Just the B-low, like matching the Red Sox B. Or even do the Red Sox font and just do Bruins right across the front. Yeah, that actually would have been kind of saying. I know the socks don't do this, but you could do the number on the front. That's different, something like that. But I just think it's so. cool how the penguins went baseball jerseys in a baseball stadium i think that the the bees should have could have done that as well and i do think the boston above the meth bear is a little

basebally uh yeah but it's not it's not fully red socks and i just think it should be red socks i love that take dude that'd be really cool um when i saw the penguins right away i was like that one's better. Yeah. Immediate. I knew immediately. Yeah. And I was like, oh, yeah, it's the baseball.

It's the baseball logo. That's pretty sick. And then, Dan, do you want to hear what happened to my brain? Oh, my gosh, please. I was like, oh, wait. And by the way, it is, like, it is the Pirates thing, as in the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. But right away, I was like, oh, dude, wasn't the NHL team also the Pittsburgh Pirates in the late

1920s? And I looked it up. And it is. And their jersey, it's a little different, but it looks a ton like that. So they're essentially doing that. It's kind of like a combo of that in the baseball jersey, whatever. But it's certainly an homage to their 1920s Pittsburgh Pirates NHL team. And do you know why the Pittsburgh Pirates' NHL team from the 20s popped into my head?

The natural. No. Good guess, though. Because they had a tending named Roy Shrimp Waters. Oh. Who is the shortest person in the Hall of Fame? And I was like, dude. You read that Wikipedia.

We're talking about Theo Fleury should be in the Hall of Fame. And we wondered who's the shortest guy ever. And it's the shrimp himself. Dude, I was like. The shrimp himself. And you definitely had that Pavlovian moment of being like, there's a Pittsburgh team. Dan, it was insane.

Because I remember reading it. And Roy, and I was like, oh, yeah, he was sick on the habs. at a bunch of shutouts. But I saw I was like, played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. And at the time, I was like, I forgot that was even

an NHL team back then. And then it left my brain. And then I saw these winter classic jerseys and I was like, oh yeah, they did the baseball thing. Wait, there was an NHL team

goalied by the shortest dude to ever make the league. The shrimp. Isn't that sick? That is sick. And yeah, listen, the penguins win. They win the jersey.

I do want to say, I like the meth bear. I think it's getting dragged a bit online, but I like the meth bear jersey. Me too. No, it's a good jersey. The Penguins win, and I'll say again, I just, you got to coordinate.

It might be, I'd have to go back and look this, but this might even be my favorite B's winner classic jersey. No. Which one do you like more? I think their most recent one is. I hated that lowercase B one with like all the, you know, it was like in the spoke wheel, but like it was a really big, exaggerated lowercase B. That one's not for me.

Oh. You know what I'm talking about? Yes. It's not lowercase. It's like a... Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah. That was the Marco Sturm 2-1 victory one.

They're yellow. Also at Fenway. Predominantly yellow. I agree. I don't love that one. Yeah. Their next one is elite, and then the Tahoe games one is elite. Yeah.

That jersey was sweet. I'll take a look. Yeah. So Pittsburgh wins. But note to teams in the Winter Classic. Coordinate. Do something together. You got any...

We both have a hot ice here. about the New Jersey Devils. Yes, yes. We got to get into this. Okay, go. So over this past Thanksgiving week, the New Jersey Devils' 13-game win streak was snapped. First of all, was achieved.

Stick taps to the Devils for a 13-game heater. Fantastic job. Pretty nasty. I mean, the Devils are a wagon. I was sad not to be able to talk about that in real time. Me too, yeah. And they lost to the Leafs, credit to the Leafs. However, three.

goals disallowed in this game and some controversy. So I want to get into the goals. Okay. The first goal, I'm going to talk about them in this order. Yeah. If that's okay with you. The first goal is the, the, um, or sorry, the first one I want to talk about is the third goal, which is the one where people got big mad and it's like the kick. Eric Halle, yeah. So that one, no goal. And Dan, it's not close. It's not even, close. There is some controversy, though. But here's the thing. He kicks it. He clearly kicks it. And he's intentionally kicking it up to his stick. It is a distinct kicking motion. And he kicks in. It hits one of the Leafs defensemen and it goes right in the net. It hits Robertson and goes in.

That is a clear kicking motion, no goal. Because in the rule book, if you kick the puck in a distinct kicking motion and it hits another player and goes in, it is still no goal unless it hits a stick. It did not hit a stick. It hit Robertson's foot, went in the net, no goal. So per the rule, that was correctly called, that was not a goal. However, Stephen A. Smith voice, fuck that rule. I disagree completely. Dude. Disagree completely because you can, there could be a situation, right, where a puck squirts into the slot and I, there's a wide open net and my stick is tied up, and I blatantly just blast it, kick it as hard as I can. And you, you know, you know, you, you, You're a defenseman standing in front of the net,

and it just kind of ricochets off your foot and goes in. Like, that's not a goal. You would be livid if your team lost the game because of that. Well, let me, let me take this too far like I always do. Yeah, I was going to say, go for some anarchy here, but. I think you should be able to kick goals in. I think it's fucking ridiculous. You can't just kick the puck in.

I can use my fucking skates anywhere, you know? Like, I can take puck. If someone was making a pass to me and I was trying to one touch it back to you because you were going to be on a breakway and the defenseman tied at my stick and I went like this, you're still on the breakway. People would go, great play, Chris.

The defenseman tied up your stick, almost a perfect play by the D guy, but you made it work because you just got the puck where it needed to go. And then if I'm in the slot and I'm open and you come in and tie my stick but I go like this and kick it in, great play Chris.

The D tied up your stick and you made it work. You kicked the puck into the net. I can use my fucking skates anywhere I want to kick the puck anywhere anywhere it needs to go. I just can't kick it into the net. Fuck that. I love the fire here, but this is crazy.

No, dude. I will say this, however, you should be able to head the puck in. Okay, dude. That's so much different. There would be so many opportunities where you could kick a puck in, and it would just be so disastrous to the game. I'm staying very grounded in reality here. I'm not going to get ridiculous because you're already ridiculous,

and I think it's a good balance right now. Dude, but I think that they've already got so lenient on when you're like, when you're doing that back post, like, stop thing, and it just goes after skating. And they're like, that's a goal because you didn't, kick it. I'm like, yes, he did. Everyone knew what he was doing. It's not kicking it. He's just angling it off his skate, intentionally

angling off his gate into the net. That's not true, dude. Sometimes you are, I mean, that's just a good direction when you're going crashing, crashing the net. You angle your body, and my feet have to be one way or the other, and if the puck doesn't quite get right to my stick and it just goes off my foot, but I'm just planted here in a good goal-scoring position, that's totally different. And the bigger thing is,

this doesn't happen that often. those ones that are off the foot in no kicking motion good goal that doesn't happen over 15 times a season so you're saying it's so lenient it's not that lenient I think that's a fair rule because sometimes it's just a good hockey play and it just happens to kind of go up your ski I hate when it happens against me but at the same time I'm like well whatever it's part of the game if you've got guys out here kicking everywhere first of all it's dangerous

if you could kick goals in players would be winding up like messy out here. See, that's what I'm able to say. I disagree. I think the same argument you just made, I don't think this would happen that often. The stick is always the better option. So like, if you're tied up.

Yes, in the few chances when I'm like, oh, shit, right there, I'm going to try to kick it. I'm going to do it. And in scrums, because you're kind of right. I hear you in front. Like, oh, it's a big pile of bodies. People are kicking pucks up to skates anyway, just like we saw with Hall.

It's not like he was like, oh, I shouldn't kick around here because it's bodies everywhere. It's like, whatever. Yeah, but that's part of the game. It's a good skill to be able to use your feet well. Whether you're blocking a shot, getting back to your stick, but that's the whole point. You have to get it back to your stick.

There would be times, how many times do we see plays where a puck gets thrown through the slot or there's a rebound comes off the board's weird, and it comes to your backhand and it's with a wide open net. And you see a player like, fuck. And as the fans, we're like, get it, put it in. But they have to change and adjust. Like, that's part of the game. That would then turn into just kicks everywhere.

Goal. No, this is the correct take. And even if you don't. want to give me this, which you should. I really do not like that it can't hit other things. It says any other player or the goalie. I agree with goalie. You can't just kick with the current rule.

You shouldn't be able to just kick it on net. And if it hits the goalie and goes in, you're like, he touched it. That's bullshit. But that puck is kicked like directly out into the slot and happens to hit something and bounce back the other direction and in. And I'm like, that's in, the leagues put that in their own net. Like that is an own goal. No, they did it.

That's the thing. You can't help it if someone kicks a puck at you in it in less than 0.5 seconds to flex off your foot. Yeah, but Hall is not, nobody can do that on purpose either. Like Hall is not like, oh, if I kick it up front here, it might hit off somebody and go in. That's not true. We see guys, I mean, I know this is with your stick and not skate, but we see guys all the time from behind the net, throw one off the back of a goalie intentionally in the net. You could do that with your feet now. This is crazy.

This is the right take. No, it's not. It's absolute anarchy. And I... This will be a rule soon. No, it will not. I think this rule is perfect. Amongst many bad rules, I think this rule is perfect

because of exactly what I said. It's so absurd to expect a player to be able to have that reaction time. If you boot a puck at me and it hits my leg and goes in, that's not a goal. That just... Sure is. Is it in the net? Answer me this question, Dad.

Is it in the net? It increases horrible and sloppy hockey. And that's... Ooh, I like that, that's your best argument. It's gross. That's your best argument. It's not soccer. It's not soccer, dude.

Uh, you're still wrong, but I like that take. We're the skillful sport. Move on to the next goal. Okay, the next goal I want to talk about is the first goal. I think this is the Bastion interference with his skate. Yes. And it's like Murray is trying to push his left leg. Not really, but like their skates touch.

Murray's in a butterfly. Yeah. And he's arguably sliding to the left. Bastion's skate hits Murray's skate. And the goal does go directly over that leg. And this one, in my opinion, good call. Okay, interesting, because this one... It's subjective, but this was a good...

Because I don't think Marner pushes him. I heard a lot of that, but really he's like spinning around Marner. Like, Marna's pushing him out. He spins around him, which is how he ends up there. And then it is on the onus of the offensive player to move. And in my opinion, he moves immediately. Like, he gets there and he's like, oh, okay, see you later. And Murray, it's a...

Because, like, in the... There's a still shot where... Yeah, the slow-moog... It looks exactly like... You're like, you're completely blocking his leg. But in the live overhead, he's in and out, and then Murray, like, you know, split-second but Murray moves and I'm like, slow-mo, that was going in.

Slow-mo does make all of these ridiculous. It's like there's going to be an infraction on every single play if you put everything in slow-mo. But to me, he's in the crease. Yep. Yeah, that hurt. On his own movement, Marner doesn't push him at all. His skate goes right up against Murray's skate and the puck goes in directly.

That's why I think it was the, I don't necessarily want to say good call. It was the right call because the goal goes in direct. directly there. Yep. Right over that foot. And it's like, the question is, was Murray going to be able to extend that leg out and make the save?

I don't know. However, I know that he physically could not because Bastion's game was there. Yeah, I've heard a lot of 50-50 on this one, but I'm with you, actually. I'm okay with this call. The next call. Certified bad.

I take issue with. Yes. Dude, this one was, this is the incidental contact rule. Murray went behind his net to play the puck. He was in the trapezoid. out of the crease, obviously. Thomas Tatar is coming around the net,

sneaks in inside of him, between him and the net. Clear cell job by Murray. Yep. I mean, they bump, but again, that is allowed. That's incidental content. The goalie is out of their crease. Puck is nowhere near them.

Tatar sneaks by him, hits Murray. Murray goes flailing around, flopping, shot from the point comes in and goes in. No goal. Golly interference. Bad call, dude, because... This happened just in the Rangers game. Shesta, Ziba.

Yep. Smoke the Yotes goalie. Barring Tatar coming to a full stop, because he's coming around the boards like that to pinch that side, to force Murray up the other side. Murray does, and then he cuts in, he can't go boardside because theoretically he's like, that's how I'd run over you. Let me cut in here to get around you. Murray spins back to the net justifiably because he's like, I've got to get to the goal.

Yep. But they bumped. Got news for you, bud. You're out your crease. Stay home. Yeah. Stay at home if you don't want a little rough and tumble. because that's probably the route that Tatar would have gone anyway, right?

You're trying to stay as close to the cage as possible. You want to get in front of the net, get a tip on that shot from the point. Tatar does nothing wrong in that play. Bad call. That one was brutal. Tough, tough loss of the devils. And it's also, you never know. You can't project how a game would have played out differently if one of those goals counted.

So kind of mixed me with the like, oh, they would have won. Who knows? But yeah, that's tough. But it's brutal. Three disallowed goals in the game. Extremely tough break for the fans. And then we've got. With 11 minutes left in the third period, just trash raining from the skies all over the ice.

And not the best look. The Leafs team had to leave the ice and go down the tunnel because full beers were getting tossed on the bench. Mitchie Marner had all his statements saying how dangerous it is. And these are those times where I'd love to be like, oh, you baby Mitch, but he's 100% correct. Listen, you've got just professional athletes on the ice and people are throwing full beer cans onto the bench. That's insane. it's not he's 100% right it's not funny it was stupid but in the same way that you were like of course Vegas had glow in the dark jerseys jersey gonna jersey i was like as of course jersey

jersey going to jersey and let me tell you what i love it i love it i love it it's awful don't do it don't do it again don't do it again hey that was very wrong boys very wrong indeed very wrong indeed don't do it again you shouldn't do that again new jersey fans however i love it they're fired up they're fired up they got a good boys are on a heater dude. They're a top team in the net. If they hadn't won 13 straight, they wouldn't have been throwing trash.

Correct. They were just fired up. So I love it. I got one more devil's thing for you. All right. They, Jack, your boy Jack, your boy Jack, not my boy Jack. My boy Jack.

Your boy Jack had his first hadie against the caps the other night. A couple crazy goals in there, one from behind the net. But his second one was what that snipe job he does from the goal line. Yes. Isn't that insane?

I've never seen anyone score more goals from the goal line. It's the goal line shelf job for Jack Hughes is the Michigan to Tris I was just about to say that. It's his Michigan and no one's talking about it. It's a signature goal. Like people got to be, you can see goalies now. Zegers goes behind the net and goalies start like jumping up. They're so ready for.

Don't you do that to me. And I'm like when Jack gets the fuck in the corner, everyone's on there like, you know, they get the stick down thing. And I'm like, dude. Stand up. How many times do you have to do this before he pops when past your earlobe? It's, uh, Ovi's got his office. Yeah.

Zegaris has got behind the net and Jacks got his goal line. It's crazy. Amazing. Kids shelves. It's unreal. Okay. Let's get into the quack attack.

I got one more hot ice thing I want to ask you about. This is too much hot ice. We said we talked about it and it's funny. It's going to melt. All right. Hit me. Speaking of melting, Dan, the Predators had two games canceled this weekend because they're rink flooded.

Bridgestone. That cannot happen. It can't. We got the almost Friday sporting club right next door. We've got rowdy fans in that bar. Matt Deshain is. is literally an investor of that bar. He's an investor of etcho tequila soda.

This guy's got people hopped up on etcho tequila soda at the almost Friday sporting club. Dutchie's going to perform pop three goals a night as usual. And then kayak in and out of the rink. And all of a sudden, he's kayaking inside there. I cannot have our boy Dutchie kayaking to morning skate. Cannot happen. Guys, if Matt Dushan is out here ready to entertain for the people,

you can't have a flooded rink. No. That is just unacceptable. And listen, if that's going to keep up, Dutchie, we got a spot for you on Wednesday. You might have to play D, but... I mean, Matt, it's a decent skate. It's a decent skate. You're not getting the skates in at Bridgetstone right now because the rink is full.

You know what sucks too, Dan? There was a northeastern, western Michigan college game supposed to happen there this weekend, and that got pushed. They had to go play at the Ford Ice Center, which is like the practice facility, which looks like Toyota, basically. And I was just like, that sucks if you're a college team getting ready to play at Bridgetown. And you're like, anyway, a water main... in one of the coolest cities in America.

Kidding me. Just terrible. But, I mean, listen, we're Preds fans here. We're Dutchie fans here. Oh, yeah. So I've got nothing bad to say about the Preds or Bridgetown. It's a fantastic arena. But you can't be flooding.

It's a wonderful restaurant. You cannot be flooding. No. It's unbelievable. Okay. Quack attack me. Now we're going to quack attack. We're going to get into the quack attack.

Three hottest teams of this past week. Chris, start us off with number. Actually, I'd like to start off with them. You can. And before you do, and I just want to say a quick, shout out to the Devil's Bruins Blues because I feel as though we had discussed they would have been our quack attack last week

the Devils never really got rewarded for that 13-game win straight they would have the number one spot so can we just have a quick quack quack for the devils? Quick quack quack quack quack quack quack quack really good stuff. Okay. All right our number three,

Eden Hall Varsity, hottest team of the week? JV, JV. JV. Yeah, right. Varsity sucks. Varsity stinks. They're horrible.

Let me try that again. Okay, our number three, hottest team of the week, the Eden Hall, JV, Ducks goes to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Wow, Dan, finally. These guys are doing great. They're on a three-on-one stretch here.

They had an OT loss to the very good New York Islanders, ripped off three wins in a row, and did the devil streak, as we talked about it earlier. They beat the Wild, beat up on Pitt. They're second in the Atlantic right now.

They've got three games in hand, but that's whatever. That's not their fault. They are playing some great hockey, and I also want to give some golf claps to Mitch Marner, on fire. He's playing really. Really, really good hockey player.

But the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking like the Toronto Maple Leafs of last season, and it's great to see. They're playing really, really good hockey, good little stretch here. Third hottest team of the week. Like you said, hey Woody, you okay, buddy? We got a dog. We got a special guest in studio today. Woody's getting a big stretch.

Yeah, good job, buddy. Yes, Woody. He might just lie down on the floor. It's pretty comfy. Yeah, it's a little cooler. Wow. The Leafstand do have a lot of games in hand, but right now I've got to think their If the Bruins stay, the Bruins, I feel like the Leafs are gunning for that.

Like, we're the number two team in that spot. They're hot. Yeah. They're hot. Okay. The number two team, the District 5, Mighty Ducks, number two team in the Quack Attack is Seattle Crackin. Welcome, Quackin. Welcome, Quack.

Three in O week beat the Sharks in a beer league game, eight five, which is pretty. Hey, me, that is entertaining. That's entertaining. It's entertaining. I'll take. Penalty shot. Penalty shot. That's just anarchy.

You get a penalty shot. I'll take 13 goals in the game all day. Beat Vegas, very rare. That is very rare. That's a huge win. Beat the ducks, not very rare. Who hasn't beat the ducks? Not rare at all.

Yep, that's too bad. And then going back to last week, Dan, they added two OT wins against the rags and the king, so they're actually on a 5-0 tilt right now, and sitting number two in the quack attack. Well done, Crackin. And then the number one team, hottest team of the week,

the Junior Goodwill Games, the New York Islanders. Let's go. Oh boy. Things are heating up over there on Long Island. Let me tell you what. Islanders are four and O. They have beat the leaves in O.T.

Like we talked about. They shut out the Oilers. Beat the Blue Jacks, who are truly terrible. And they pummeled Philly, who is also pretty, pretty terrible. But don't look now. Islanders are second in the Met behind the certified wagon, New Jersey Devils. Dude, same with the Crack. Like, the Crackin is second behind Vegas.

with a couple, if you add up their games in hand, they are squarely up Vegas's ass too. So it's like, it's pretty sick, exciting to see. It's great stuff. The Islanders are a solid, solid team, and it's just rounding out. We've got really good teams in the NHL right now. Yeah.

A lot of parody. It's exciting stuff. All right. Speaking of good teams in the NHL, we're a quarter of the ways through the season. Holy shit. I hate that. Me too.

It sucks. It's just like, how are we here? How is, I'm so happy that it's Christmas season. But at the same time, How is the year done? This is that big wake-up call where the It's Early has to cut it out. Yeah. You know, in both directions.

Teams that are good. It's no longer early. Teams that are bad. I've had enough of the It's Early talk because it ain't. Yeah, we are 20-plus games into the season. We're a quarter of the way through. So we're going to do a quick little check-in. We're going to do this at the halfway mark.

We're going to do it at the three-quarter mark as well. We're doing some check-ins on awards. We hand out trophies? We're handing out early trophies. Quarter of the way through the season. We're going to do some shortlists here for the heart. MVP of the league, Norris, best defenseman, Vesna, best keeper, and then the Jack Adams, best coach.

Yep. We're not doing Calder because Maddie Baneers is just, he's the rookie of the year. Congrats, Maddie. Little rattling, though. Not a lot of rookies lighten up the world like they were last year. You know, I wrote down Dan Mason McTavish is actually, he's got like, not a lot.

It's like four and seven for 11 and 22, but he's like the fifth leading score on the ducks. He's playing good hockey team. Yeah, and I'm like, that ain't bad. Yeah. And there's a couple defensive rookie defensemen out there playing well too, but Maddie's got like, he's almost a point per game

and the Cracken are nice. Yeah. All right, so we got short lists. We got three players, each, three coaches. Yeah, not a draft. We might have some overlap.

In fact, we probably will one or two on each list, but we'll just, we'll have a quick discussion about it. Is it your turn to go first? And do you want to go Jack Adams, Vesda Norris Hart? Oh, sure.

Norris, Vesna, Jack Adams. What's, oh man, good question. I think Jack maybe we'll ramp up. Let's ramp up. Let's start with the coaches. Okay, why don't you start us, Dan?

All right, I'm going to start. Start. My first coach of three on my short list, Lindy Ruff. Okay. So he's a quick qualifying question. I made a lot of choices based on if it was being handed out right now, not like who I think's going to win still or whatever. This is a quarter of the way through the season. This is my short list for coaches. So this one was a tough one because even though I do think the devils are going to come back to the mean a little bit here, no knock. I'm pumped and I think you guys are good. I'm just saying I don't know if they're going to keep up this pace,

but it's impossible to not put Lindy Ruff on this short list. I mean, I think what Lindy Ruff has done, they start out O&2, right? They're getting Fire Lindy chance echoing from the stands. And he was up against a horrible situation. Lindy Ruff is 62 years old. People are talking about this is probably his last kick of the can as a head coach in the NHL. They get Andrew Burnett as the assistant coach this year, who, if people forget, was the interim head coach down in Florida last year after Quenville had to step down,

and then led the Panthers to a president's trophy. And then after their exit from the playoffs, after getting sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, swept, he was hoping for that head coach job, didn't get it. Brutal. Then he takes an assistant coaching job under Lindy Ruff, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of a, I kind of expect Lindy Rupp to get fired here, and then I'm going to get the head coaching job in New Jersey.

But Lindy has completely turned this team around. They're first in the Met, like we talked about, ripped off 13 straight wins. He's got this whole new system. He's got these young guys playing to their potential, like we talked about in the season preview, for the first time. Yes. All of these guys are playing up to their potential.

Great ads in the offseason with a bunch of really good players. The Devils look fantastic, and Lindy deserves tons of credit, including the first. I will say the fans feel that too, given the sorry Lindy chance that started echoing after the 13 game wins. And I would say this objectively, the Devils, that is, has been the biggest surprise of the year, right? Like, everybody would have to be like in both directions.

100%. Everyone has to be like, the devil's being in first place is the biggest surprise. Lindy's on the list. My number two on the short list, Derek Lalant. Oh, cool. Yeah. Very on brand for me, going with the wings. But 11, 5, and 4, they're currently sitting in a playoff spot.

What I love about this Red Wings team is they're so balanced. Their four lines are unbelievable. They're playing aggressive, fast-paced hockey. We haven't really seen this before. We had the biggest line in NHL history with Sunquist, Soder Blom, and Vasmussen. And, I mean, like, that's your third line. And they're just crunching bodies. They're playing such intense, high-press, aggressive hockey, and it's working well.

you look at the wings last year they were I mean straight up bad and now here they are quartered way through the season sitting in a playoff spot looking very good no team likes playing the wings Lalonde has done a brilliant job really accelerating that

you know rebuild like whatever you want to call it but really accelerating the trajectory of the Izer plan like they I think in October early October they were like this is the type of hockey we want to play but we got to do it consistently and they're doing it consistently so start to the top good stuff my third finalist, Dave Haxstall.

Fuck yeah. Seattle Cracken, they're 13, 5, and 3 sitting in second in the Pacific. Sitting up Vegas' ass. Yeah. Haxstall, he is one of very few NHL head coaches who went straight from college to the NHL, coached for 11 years at North Dakota. In eight of those 11 years, he was an NCAA coach of the year finalist. Guy knows what he's doing, had a bit of a cup of coffee in Philly. He's been around the league a little bit, and he gets named as the first head coach of the Cracken. Their first year, they go 27, 49, and six. They were awful. And fucking stink. They were awful. It's insane, dude. And people, including me, were laughing

my head off about how poorly they did it compared to Vegas. Like Vegas immediately nasty. Seattle, immediately the worst team I've ever teamed tanking for Shane. It's unbelievable. What's, what's cool, too, is Haxdoll's got this team pumped up. Players are doing interviews all the time talking about how much they love the coaching staff. They're doing this five-player system now where everyone's involved generating tons of shots from the point, which is a risky dude. Yeah. That leads to block shots, leads to breakways, leads to odd man rushes.

But they've got this system where everyone's cycling, back checking, it's working out, and now, boom, another playoff team out of nowhere. Quarter of the way in the season, Haxstow's got the Seattle Cracken in a playoff spot after being a more or less a laughing stock class. Yeah, correct. So unbelievable turnaround from him. Easy. Yep.

Okay. Lindy rough in my list. sure. Then I'm going Peter DeBoer, dude. And check this out, Dan. He took over Vegas, right? Like Vegas goes to the Cup, goes to conference finals. He takes over for Vegas, goes to the conference finals again, then loses to Montreal.

I think in the conference finals again, or whatever that weird COVID bracket was. Then misses the playoffs. Bam, you're fucking fired. And he's like, okay. Like, this is outrageous. Yeah. Goes to Dallas. And Dallas, they made the Yoss last year, went seven against Calgary, but only because Otter

was unconscious. Like they were getting peppered to death in that series. So they made the playoffs, you know, barely, barely deserved it. And then, uh, then, um, Dallas fires Rick, who's now on the Jets and actually could have been named in this segment because they're doing great too. Yeah. But DeBore comes in and ho-hum stars in first place. Yep. Look at that. Look at that. Surprise. Surprise. Listen, they have a few games in hand, obviously. Some teams could catch them. But the fact that this guy goes, has tons and tons of success for Vegas, had one, one off season, immediately axed. Yeah. No leeway there. And then comes over and a Dallas team that looks like it could make some legitimate waves. I'm sure some more names are

going to come up later for Vesna and like certainly a Vesna candidate in Otter, possibly a heart candidate we'll talk about. But my point is they could make waves this year and it's great leadership. Pretty wild how many divisions have a first place team with a first year coach? Insane. Wild. And then my next one I wanted to name dude is is the number one quack attack coach, Lane Lambert on the islanders. Dude, what a crazy journey he's had. Wild stuff. Crazy career, right?

And then, you know, a HL coach in 07, Predators assistant. Shout out Preds in like 11. I think he was a Capps assistant when they won the cup. I'm pretty sure. Then he comes over with Trots, assistant coach here. And you're like, okay, yeah, like this is their life, which is a good life. You know, like your assistant coach, you pulled this out. And then Trots gets fired.

Boom, lanes in. And he's like, okay, gets off to a slow start. They had a bad year last year, missed the playoffs. Shocking, too. Yep. Them being bad last year was nuts. So he comes out with slow start and you're like, dude, this is not. Yeah, because they went to the conference finals like two years in a row as well.

And they were a weapon of a team. They were very, very good. Bad year, big time coach fired, lane in, never had a job in his life. And then they start slow and I'm like, oh, dude, this is horrible. And now the boys are absolutely buzzing, dude. Like, they're right behind the devils. And if they win, like, let's say the devils do come back to the mean a little bit. If the Islanders win the Metro over the light, if they hold off Carolina, who looks very good,

but then, you know, Pitt and the rags are just kind of like doing their thing, whatever. If the Islanders win the Metro this year, I demand they give the Jack Adams to Lay Lambert. Um, why? Because he's a first year coach who came in and took the team who missed the playoffs and beat all these season teams. Yeah, but, I mean, listen, I think this is a fantastic pick, but I don't like the, he came in and took over a team that missed the playoffs argument because them missing the playoffs was unacceptable soldier. They are a very good team with very good young talent and it was an anomaly that they missed the playoffs. It's not like the yotes.

It's not like he all of a sudden he jumped on the yotes. Like hacks, hax doll, I'm like, you had an awful team. You guys missed the playoffs and now you are doing very, very well. Fair. He's a finalist if he wins the match, especially if the devil somehow keep this. up and like you've got great teams in the mat like the range is fucking unbelievable so yes he's on but it's not a guaranteed win is what i'm saying and i'll hear you a little bit in that it was hard to not name cassidy and montgomery here very hard because they are probably the two best teams

uh uh i guess the devils but like two of three best teams in the league but i just felt like both teams were pretty good like the same argument you just threw back in my face for the islanders i would agree with you with Vegas like i'm not going to sit here and be like Vegas missed the playoffs last year, they stink. Because I'm like, well, they didn't stink. And now Cassidy's got them going for sure. But sometimes good teams just need to change in the, change of scenery. New voice in the locker room, whatever.

100%. And you've certainly seen that with the Bs right now. Yeah, no, that's true. So, yeah, those are two honorable mentions. Rip into your Vezna. Okay, Vesna. And to be clear, I will say again, this is right now.

So Otter is not on my three, but for all you listeners, don't cash, don't throw away those tickets because they're going to cash. I still think he's going to win the thing. but I just think right now he's not a top three goalie stat-wise right now. So the first one I'm going to do not a shocker at all, Linus Allmark. I don't know what else there is to say. He leads the league and goals against.

He leads the league and wins. He's 13 and 1% of the league and wins. He's 13 and 1 on the year. It's ridiculous. I will say this. There is no way the Bruins knew this was going to happen when they signed him. I thought that deal was dumb when it happened. and I look dumb now.

So he's on my list too. So can I jump in here? Yeah, please. I don't think there's no way they thought that. Because they gave him a ticket. Yeah, yeah, it was significant. They gave him five years, five million dollars. So, you know, five and change, I think.

That's not normal backup goalie money. They thought and still think that they have a golden ticket with Jeremy Swayman, who got injured this year. Olmark got the first start and he's been on fire. Again, he's on my short list for Gisna quarter of the way through the season. So I think Olmark is the guy right now. But Swamen is very good.

Yes. And they probably still see him as the future. But I just don't think you give that much money to a goalie that you're like, he is strictly a backup. And he was very good on a bad Buffalo team. He had good, quietly good numbers on that team. So they signed a good goalie. And I think they just got a great contract.

Because when you're looking to replace a goaltender, right? you don't look at one of the bottom five teams in the league and go, that goalie's our guy. He's going to get $8 to $10 million a year. So, O'Mark fell into Boston's lap in a good situation in terms of contract. I agree, who would have thought he's this good? And who would have thought he has certifiably the number one spot in Boston? Yes, and the only thing I'll say about the Bruins thought process was, Don't forget, though, Tuka wasn't gone, gone then.

Like, they brought him back, or they signed O'Mark knowing we have Tuka for at least a little bit more, and then Swayman, I'm like, this is crazy. That's where I think, if we're talking to levels of certainty in the Bruins organization's minds, it's that Tucka was dead. Yeah, and they paid for a big-time insurance policy. Like, they were like, just in case Tuka's dead and Swayman isn't ready yet, and it's paying off. At the earliest, Tuka was coming back in January, which he did. So you needed a goalie. you couldn't go sway in a rookie and some, you know, Joey chestnut off the studio. Yeah, he's probably sick, though.

So you had to get a good catcher. You had to go get a good goalie, which they did. And even if Tuka didn't die four games in, like he did, he wasn't playing past that year. Yeah, probably correct. You know what I mean? So it's like they got Olmark being like he is going to be incredibly important for us. And as much of an idiot fool that I am thinking that deal was done, I'm nowhere near the idiot fool that Buffalo is because, dude.

Oh, my God. We mentioned this, I think last episode, they must be, they must be beside themselves. Because when he was a free agent, everyone was like, I mean, Buffalo is going to shell out and get Allmark back. Yep. And then Boston swept in in the cover of darkness and snagged him. And if there is one problem with the Buffalo Sabres right now, it is goaltending. So they must be miserable. Disaster.

Yeah. Disaster. Okay. Number two. Go to Colorado. Take a trip with me to Denver, Dan. Really? Alexander Georgiev.

Listen, dude. What I think is amazing about this kid is, AG spent, yeah, what do you think, Woody? AG spent years sitting behind DaGad, Hank Lungquist in New York. And then there's one year where Hank's kind of on his way out, and he gets, you know, half the games and AG gets half the games. but then so does, you know, who gets 10 games is some rookie Igor.

Yeah, some punk kid Igor. And then Chesty becomes the guy and AG's back to the bench, dude, putting a towel around his neck and working the D door, you know? That's not exactly the life that he dreamed of when he thought he'd be an NHL superstar. So he's dealing with all that, first of all.

And then he gets traded to the abs for a decent haul of picks, by the way, so it's not nothing. You know, you got a little bit to live up to here. And most importantly, you're going to the defending Stanley Cup champs. They just brought in Kemper one, a cup with him. Their Stanley Cup winning goalie leaves. You come in as a career backup, and you're like, okay, I swear I'm good.

I've just been sitting behind two dope boys, and it's not my fault. I got to say really quick, really ballsy move by the abs. Dude. And this is no disrespect to Kemper. He's a good goaltender, and he's playing fairly well in Washington. Getting rid of the goalie that just helped you win a Stanley Cup and then it paying off this. Like, they had a plan. and they knew exactly what they were going to do.

They did it, and holy moly, is it working out. Because, dude, Frankie, by the way, who stepped up huge in the playoffs, has been bad. Like, he's like two and four. And AG's like 10 in one or something. Yeah. Literally, dude, he's a fifth in the league in goals against second and save percentage. He's 10 and 2. Yeah.

So that guy's the real deal. Sure is. And he's a one of the top goal. He's in the league right now. If he keeps it up, he's in the running as finalist. Last one, Connor Hellbuck Jets. I'm on the Jets big this year. I love the Jets, actually.

he is this one's a fringy pick actually because he's one guy that I think has a real shot of winning it actually more so than like how was he doing right now his stats right now seventh and goals against fourth and save percentage two shotouts so far jets are doing great there in second but this is what I wanted to read you dude

Hellebuck this is a stat from last year because he's won of Vesna he's you know Yeah he's fantastic 10th Hellebuck has faced the most shots on goal in the league in each of the past four seasons including 30 shots in the game 10 times the season and is allowed two goals or fewer in five of them. He's faced 40 shots in a game four times. And in those games, he's 3.0 and 1 with 11 goals against on 174 shots.

0.937% percentage. He's already faced the second most, this is me, back to me now. He's already faced the second most shots in the league again this year. So when I think, we play it, dude. When you have that kind of confidence in the dude between the pipes, it allows you the freedom to do damn near anything you want on the ice. Do you remember that Barnaby story? I think he did when he did chicklets.

He told that Dominic Hasch story where he was like, in between periods, they'd be down one. And Hashick would be like, boys, pinch everything. Give up a million two on ones. I don't care. I'll stop them all. And then he just would. He was like, we didn't always win, but we just had the freedom and the fearlessness to just like go hard. Go forward so hard because you're like, Dominators got it.

And I think when you go, you're the Jets and you go, we give up eight billion shots every year And the hell of it goes, I fucking stop them all. I was going to say, you got to wonder if you're the defense of the Jets or you're like, man, we got really tightly shit up here. Or are they like, hell he's got it. I'm not worried about it. Pinch, baby. It's got to be that.

That has to be a conversation in the lot. That is such a sick stat, dude. I fucking lost my mind. They're like, yeah, every year he faces the most shots in the league. All right. I'm going to mind. I had Olmark as well, so we don't need to touch on that. Speaking about teams with confidence with attendee in the pipes, Ilya

Serocha. Oh, fuck. And I've got news to you. There's chatter out there that. Elia is the better Russian tendi. No. There sure is. No, no, no, no.

And I've got even more news for you. The number say it. He is better than Chesty right now. Sorokin has a 2.19 goals against average, 933 save percentage. He's 10 and 5 in the year with two shutouts, and he has been massive for the Islanders turnaround here. Correct.

He is just standing on his head, getting monster wins, and he is making crazy saves. They've had a few OT wins where he is outside his body, playing unbelievable hockey. So keep eyes on Sorokin. If the islanders keep surging like this, there is one big, big reason, and it's him. It's their head coach.

Oh, oh, oh. There's two. There's two. All right, and then my third, I'm going to give shoutouts to biz. Biz nasty here called this early in the year. Logan Thompson in Vegas is unbelievable. Yeah.

He, against all odds, really, completely came in and took this starting job, and he has been savage. He has a 2.48 goals against. 9-2, say, percentage. He has Vegas first in the Pacific, and then two shutouts as well. So this guy is just been nails.

Yeah. Been nails for them. He's already double-digit wins. He's just shutting teams down, getting gritty, gritty wins out here, and turning heads for sure. Dude, I'm hard-pressed to think of a team that, and maybe the abs are kind of tracking his way,

but I'm hard for to think of a team that has had this much success in a reasonably condensed timeline like Vegas has with that many goalies. Like usually if a team goes on like a seven-year run of like, yeah, we're constantly in the Western Conference finals, it's because it's like, well, because you have Luongo. Yeah. And you're like there all the time.

But Vegas is like, dude, we're just fucking shuffling the deck, deal with new tenders whenever we feel like it. And we win no matter what. We find a new guy and we're golden. It doesn't matter. It's unbelievable. You ready to move to Norris? Hell yeah.

All right, I'm going to jump in, get some love for my D-Men here. I'm going my number one pick last here. Oh, okay. But on my short list, obvious one, EK-65. Eric Carlson is out of his mind this year. He's got 24 games played, 11 goals, 21 assists, 32 points. Third in the league. Third in the league.

And he's high up there in goals, too. Like, he's top 10 or something like that in goals this year, too. with 11. He's a dash two on the year, which is tough, but also the sharks are struggling. I would say only a dash two with like the sharks are horrible. Well, I'll get into that, actually. He logs fucking 20 something minutes a game. Don't interrupt me ever again. He's on my list too. I'm allowed to talk. That's actually fair. He eats 2515 a game right now. So he is logging serious minutes. My big thing for him, he's got three game winning goals this year. Sick. As a defenseman, that's just ridiculous.

So Eric Carlson, I mean, you could make an argument that Carlson should be a heart finalist right now. Agree. So he's unreal. And dude,

he's got that swagger back. What he gets it? He's got that swagger back, dude, because he's dangling people between the legs at the blue line, last man towe doesn't give a fuck.

And no, people, you don't do that and lose the Norris. No, you certainly do not. My number two, Quinn Hughes. Hey.

given some love to Quinn he has 21 games played or excuse me 18 games played he missed a few 18 games played zero tucks but 21 assists and he is really carrying the load Is that real step?

Yes zero goals 21 assists he's carrying the load big time on the blue line playing 2437 time on ice per game he's been crucial in this Canucks turnaround let's not forget we were talking about the Canucks early in the season

they were winless far too long. They're not that terrible now. And this is what you were just saying with Carlson only, you know, minus two. Quinn Hughes is a plus four. Wow. He's a plus four somehow on this bad Vancouver Canucks team. And he is a one shining spot.

Woodrow. No, he's quiet now. He's a shining, shining light here in this team that's struggling, but also starting to turn it around. Yep. So massive love to. Quinn Hughes. My final Norris finalist and my number one, some hometown cooking here, Hampus Lindholm. Oh, wow. Hampas Lindholm of the Boston Bruins has 21 games played, four goals, 14 assists for 18 points. He's playing 24 minutes and 17 seconds of ice time every game.

He is a plus 20 on the season. Damn, dude. He is the most locked. down guy in the league right now, in my opinion. Hample's Lindholm is on the ice. You are not getting, you are not scoring a goal. And if you're the Bruins, you're probably scoring when he's on there. Yeah. He's contributing offensively. He is shutting teams down.

He's completely blanketing teams' best players. He's on the ice against the best goal scores in the league, night in and night out, completely shutting them down. He has become a certified number one defenseman before our very eyes. probably in the conversation for best signing of Don Sweeney's terrible career and is up there in the conversation for one of the best contracts in the league. I was right about to say, Dan, I just said that there's no way the Olmark thing has gone according to the Bruins plan.

This is going exactly according to their plan. He is everything as advertised and more. And came, took a leap with McAvoy out. They were like, we're not only bringing you in for last year, but we need you because Charlie's dead and we need. need you to bridge that gap. He went full Malkin. He was like, oh, no problem.

He went full Malkin. Whenever Crosby goes down, Malkin elevates his game. Bruin started the season without McAvoy, and Lentholm took the challenge so, so hard, and is just playing outside of his mind. Yep. The fantastic pick, he's nails, and I love it. I also had the Time Traveler's wife himself, Eric Carlson. God, he's the fucking man.

I hope he wins it. That would be so fire. He's on pace right now. I mean, he's playing out of his mind. And then I got a few more unique ones here, but I do think they're having great quarter seasons. Number one, Dougie Hamilton. And you know what, Dan?

Got us, got to say. I'm actually devastated that Dougie isn't a Bruin, not because we drafted him night over and got nothing for him, but just because his name is Dougie Hamilton. Yeah. How the fuck do you not play for the Boston Bruins when that's your name? Seriously. That's ridiculous.

It's wild how many teams he's been on. With how good he is and how young. he is. He's been in four separate teams in the league. It's insane. I thought his career, not his career, but like him being a relevant player was over for a stretch there. Yeah, yeah. There was a mini window where I was like, he sucks and is a bust and this isn't done. And now he is a, he's a top 10 defenseman in the league, no brain. Completely turned it around. And dude, remember he was part of that disaster trade we had talked about earlier. Do you remember this? Yes, I do. Dougie. You don't need to revisit. Yeah. It's outrageous.

Boston Y, Dougie's good. Okay. Dougie is he's, he was on a bad team last year. He gets, he basically, he gets signed by the devils to a bad team. Okay? And then he's like, he was a minus 19 and the devil sucked. And now this year, boom, he's six, 10 and 16 through 21 games or whatever. He's a plus 10. He's got the devil's in first place, anchoring the pair, the number one pair, anchoring the first power play, half his points on the power play. He's an absolute weapon again. Yeah. Great player. Yep. Super in the running. And then also, very rogue, but I'm going Josh Morrissey on the Jets. Not rogue at all. That signed a fat ticket before this season and is living up to every single bit of it. And dude, a former

like 13th overall, I want to say, has never had more than 37 points in a season. And he's pretty durable. He plays a lot. He's got 23 already this year. Like he has really stepped up. He's logging a ton of minutes, four goals, 19 assists, playing on the top pair, 23 minutes per game. You know, he has elevated his game. He signs that ticket and you're praying, praying. He starts reaching up to his potential. And then he gives you this on a second place Jets team. Not much more you could ask for and a super bright future. Yeah, love it. Give me your hearts.

Okay, hearts. Well, obviously, I want it to say I gole. But yeah, let's get McDavid out of that. Obviously, you're going to talk about McDavid. We both have Connor, 21 games played 16 goals, 20 assists, 36 points. He's out of his mind. He's playing out of his mind. He's on my short list.

The reason I don't say Connor's a no-brainer, time and time again here, dude, the Oilers are a wild card team right now. I think they're 10 and 11. Dude, that's what to say. They're 11 and 10. Connor's an even plus minus on the season. Dude, you guys got to start sharing the wealth.

You've got to start figuring this out because you cannot be a wildcar team. You're 500, dude. When you have Connor and Drysidal on the same team, you just can't be 500. So if you want to talk about most valuable player, if you're not getting this team over the hump, you're not the most valuable player.

So Connor's not a no-brainer for me. What he's doing is a no-brainer. Yeah. The eye test, it's him. Like we talked about before, you want aliens to understand hockey. Look at this kid. Otherwise, whatever.

Okay, the other two I'm going with, number one, Nate Dogg. And I put this up. I love this pick. I almost did it. There was a cool Instagram that went out. If you guys liked hockey, you probably got it pushed onto your feed.

I forget the exact stats, Dan, but it was like, you know, six goals, 22 apples, whatever he's got. He's like fourth in the league, seventh in the league and points, something like that. But it added some other stuff. It was like he's drawn this many penalties, taken this many penalties. And it was something like he's blocking shots.

He's winning faceoffs. He's drawing more penalties than he, like 10 more penalties than he takes. He's just a full package player there. You know, Kale's super flashy. Rant is a sick boy this year. Ranting? Yeah, Gabe's. I thought you just said Ranta.

I was like, oh, I said rant is. Oh, yeah. Gabe's the captain, obviously, but it just feels like Nate Dogg is the guy that he's the heart of that team. Oh my gosh. He stirs that drink. He's a steam engine, dude.

And he just does everything for them. He's never had 100 points. He's on pace to shatter it. And he's going to. I just think this, he's got his cup and he wants more. But for a guy that's been in the conversation of literal best player in the league

in the last few years, he needs this feather in his cap. And he's had a great start. Second one I'm going with is David Posternock. And we had talked earlier about, who do you believe in contract year, contract year, pasta, contract year, Bad Vlad, and you took pasta across the board.

And you were right, sir. Not that Bad Blad is having a bad year, but pasta has, he's second in the league in points, he took this contract nonsense. I was like, whatever, leave me alone. I'm not going to get distracted. Drop down to the second line to break up the perfection line and play with that living saint, David Krati,

who is like my son. I love him like a son, even though he's older than me. And pasta doesn't blink, dude. Pumping in points. He's a power play. I'm not sure there's anyone in the league besides Ovi who was a bigger powerplay weapon. Tage Thompson. Tage Thompson is actually a good pick. But you know what I'm saying?

Like you put Pasta over there in that office too, and I'm like, this is a goal, dude. It's a real problem. So I love that he came into this season in this last ride and didn't let anything bother him and is putting up numbers that even he hasn't put up with. He's on a 54 goal pace. Balance too, right?

He's got, what is it? 14 goals, 18 assists or something like that? I'll tell you, yeah, yeah. 14 goals, let's see, 32 points. So yeah, exactly. I mean, like, that's a beautiful player. That's beautiful style. He's everything the Bruins,

have ever asked him to be, and he's having an MVP caliber quarter year. So my two other than McDavid, David, Jason Robertson. Oh, fuck, yeah. Jason Robertson very quietly is changing the game in Dallas. He's got 22 games played, 18 goals, 17 assists, 35 points. He has Dallas in first place, and here's my biggest thing, dude, he is the Dallas stars. He, with guys like Jamie Ben and Tyler Sagan on your team, Otter, you've got big stars

in that team. Jason Robertson is that team. He is the complete heartbeat. He is the pulse of that team. He is a plus 12 on the season. He's got 23 even strength points. So he is just a balanced guy. He's getting it done for you on the ice everywhere.

He's got three game winning goals. And here's the bigger thing for me. He only has 17 minutes, 37 seconds time on ice each game. He doesn't play that much. You look at McDavid. McDavid's well over 20 minutes a game. J. Robb's playing 17 and a half. And producing like a wild man.

He's producing just under what McDavid is. producing. Like, he has an absurd amount of- least leading goals. He is out of his mind. And then maybe a surprise for you, Jack Hughes is my next one. Okay. For the same reason, as far as team goes as Jay Rob, Jack Hughes is the New Jersey Devils. He is

firing. He's got, in 22 games, he got 11 goals, 14 assists, 25 points. He's a plus 10, 18, even strength points. He's doing it all over the ice, and he's buzzing. And he's a quote machine. He's a quote machine. His heat,

line. I don't know what to, oh yeah. We're on an eight game heater or whatever he says, nine game heater. I don't know. I think we're doing okay. And he's just talking about chugging gatoes in between periods. Like he is vibing. Dude, everyone loves. He's feeling himself so hard and it's making the devil's move. Everyone loved the gato line, which was sick.

But I actually liked his answer first when they were like, what do you do in between periods? He goes, there's chill. Just chill? He's just chill. That's what I'm saying. He is unflappable. He is unflappable. Jack Hughes is unflappable, and it's great to see. All right. So those are our quarter season awards, finalists, if you will.

Those are the shortlist for guys who are shaking it up right now. Let's close out the episode as we always do. C.P. hit me with some Eichel Watch. Okay, Dan, let's get into some Jack Eichel Watch. He's got 11 goals 50. Wait, wait, wait. Do you want to do that? Oh, yeah. Let's do it. Ikel Watch. He's got 11 goals and 15 assists for 26 points in 23 games, Dan.

And you're lucky, buddy, because he's actually gone scoreless in his last two. with two rare Vegas losses, so it could and should be worse, it will be worse. And the bigger news, I've got your punishment. Thank God. Or at least I've got, I'm going to put an option up on the Instagram, people can vote, because I've got two ideas. Okay, so if he goes over 90, all right, however many points he finishes with, we're going to take that number. All right, let's call it 95 for argument's sake. 95 points this year.

Your options fans are either. Dan has to get a Vegas custom jersey that he hates so much that says something like, I love Ikel on the back. Extra large. So he's like, I want it to drape, I want him to wear tiny shorts so he can put that jersey on. It feels like he's just wearing that jersey.

And for however many points... Looks like I'm wearing a dress. Yeah. However many points Jack finishes with, Dan has to rollerblade around Hermosa, specifically the bar of the North End, which is a huge king's bar out here, with a huge sign up that says

Jack Eichle's number one fan for that many minutes. So if Jack Eichle has 95 points, Dan has to spend 95 minutes rollerblading in an extra large Jack Eichle jersey with a huge sign that says he's his fan. Or option two, Dan believes that he could eat more shrimp cocktail than anyone on earth, true or false day. True. That is my endless eat food. Yes. So option number two, we watch a Vegas playoff game because they're obviously making the playoffs.

And Dan has exactly the amount of shrimp cocktail on his plate as Jack Eichel finishes with points. So if it's 95, you have a 95 shrimp cocktail in front of you. And during the playoff game, you have to try to finish them during the Vegas game. But you can only eat when Jack is on the ice. So every time Jack comes on, you have to start firing shrimp coxas. I'll never be able to do that. You'll do it. He gets 18, 19 minutes a game, Dan.

You have 19 minutes. So wait, do I, okay. Do I get to pick between those two? No, I'm going to put it on Instagram and everyone's going to vote. You can, I'll take your thoughts into consideration, but I'm putting the vote up. People I'm begging you do the Jersey one. Well, for everyone, then that should be pretty obvious, which way we should go there. Yeah, I don't want to do that.

95 shrimp cocktail. Well, Jack is, he's doing well. All right. Speaking of another guy, he's doing well. Where in the world is Austin Matthews? And I am very happy to report for Toronto Maple Leafs fans. I'm impressed. Austin is pulling it back together.

He's doing very well. He's got 23 games played, 10 goals, 14 assists, 24 points. He's over a point per game. He's up to a plus 5. That's important to me. He is doing really well. Leaves are in second in the Atlantic. They've got a couple of games in hand, whatever, whatever.

But he's doing well. Austin is in Canada. I don't think he's quite in Toronto. He's still looking. Okay. He's in Hamilton. He's hanging out in Hamilton. He's going to check out.

the Dundern Castle, going for walks in Bayfront Park, maybe see one of the beautiful waterfalls. Maybe he's going to go to the Brothers Grim Bistro. Oh, that sounds delicious. It's amazing. It's a lovely afternoon, Austin. So Austin's hanging out in Hamilton right now. He's in Canada. Don't worry, Toronto fans.

He's doing well. I have to tip my cap. Austin is playing good hockey as well as the Toronto Maple Leafs. So good for them. And Dan, I want to ask you one thing quickly, semi-new segment here that you were able to post something for us last week about your Buffalo savers and their playoff trail that they're on here. They're 9 and 12 for 18 points. They're eighth in the wild card standings.

And they've stopped their skid. Very much so. They just lost the devils, but they have the lightning, the wings, and the abs in their next three. How do you feel? If you're Buffalo, you're happy with one win of those three. Okay. But they're going to get two. You know what's interesting, Dan, is their sub, sub-500 team and have a plus three goal

differential. I'm telling you, they're just figuring out some kinks. Yeah. They're losing tight ones. They're winning. They are, yeah. They're one good goalie from a playoff team. Okay.

So they're bumping along right now. They're less sick than they once were. Yeah, they're not as sick. Yeah. But I have had to pump the brakes on them looking like a wagon. But they're going to have to be true. They're not really looking like a wagon anymore, but they're not broken down. They're going to have to tread carefully when they try to cross this river.

All right. Give me a couple games to watch this week, CP. Okay, let's go Thursday night for the people listening today. Vegas at Pitt. Eichel, Crosby, cool game, fun game. fun game, two good teams. We're probably going to get a little bed MGM action going on that game too. So follow along with us and see if you want to get rich.

Nice. I'd like that. Yeah, me too. What's your other one? Okay, I'm going to go, I'm actually going to give you two more. One is on Saturday. It's hawks, rags, and I just like seeing Kane and the Breadman play together again. And keep an eye on it, by the way.

You've had some interesting picks. Keep an eye on it. You had the Badaardwatch game two weeks ago. And this is the best buds game. Yeah. This is the best buds game. And then finally Monday. So get through the weekend and Monday, Vegas at Boston Cassidy Return.

Yeah, that's cool. Just a cool. I wish you to see what kind of video tribute he gets or doesn't get. Yeah, that's interesting. He's got to get one. I think he will. He's got to get one. I'm going two Saturday games here.

Vegas, Detroit. Okay. That's just going to be elite talent all over the ice. Love it. Love to see that. And then Saturday as well, I got Toronto, Tampa Bay. those two teams, you know, being in the same division now, there's a rivalry there. Yeah.

That's the, you know, Tampa knocked Toronto out of the playoffs last year. There's just unbelievable players on the ice. I think that's going to be an electric game to watch. That Boston-Tampa, Toronto, or, yeah, Boston-Tampa Toronto triangle. There's some bad blood. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Toronto, unfortunately, is kind of the butt of that joke in both directions. But that's a good round-robin.

Yeah, so tune into those games this week. And that's it for us today, this week at the Antion Natives podcast. Merry Christmas, everybody. Merry Christmas, guys. This is the Christmas season. Get in the spirit, baby. But we will see you next time. And until then, keep those sticks on the ice.