Empty Netters Podcast - 75. Devils Will Catch the Flyers with Greg Wyshynski

Episode Date: February 21, 2024

The Puck Daddy himself joins the pod while CP and DP were at Stadium Series. Greg talks about why the Devils are IN and why the Penguins are DEAD. Phil Kessel is ready to help a playoff team and this trade deadline it's all about the tendies. The boys talk top 10 defenseman and goalies in the league, who is going to win the Hart Trophy, epic memorabilia, and of course a little Star Wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ice is ready, boys and girls. CP is here and in Dan's chair. So he is doing the intro today. It's better. Hey, listen, it's another rainy day in L.A. It's super cloudy. We get a skylight. I has no lighting in my chair.

You've got to get my good side. I'm in Dan's chair. Dan is in London. Dan, how are you across the pond? I'm fantastic, but I got to tell you what. I'm upset that you did the intro so well. I just really was going to hang my hat. I was going to hang my British.

cap on the fact that no one could do the intro as well as I did. But you just crushed it, buddy. And I am taking a sip of my tea here over in London, cheering you for such a good job. Thank you so much, my friend. But I will let you take off, take the beginning of our jersey trip. Tell everyone, tell everyone what we were up to. It was unbelievable. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Listen, we just got back. We've been on the road. You guys have seen that. We had an amazing Lucas Raymond and John Scott episode last week. Lucas Raymond obviously was recorded in Detroit. We were in Toronto before that. And then, yeah, just in Jersey doing the stadium series. And you know that we've talked about before.

I like Jersey, dude. I like Hoboken. We stay in Hoboken. Every time we go to Jersey, I have a great time. If I ever want to get to that trash bag city, New York, I can take the path, easy as hell. but end of the day, always have a great time in Jersey, always have a great time in Hoboken, and I was definitely a little skeptical about how MetLife was going to do the stadium series. MetLife is the home of those just dumpster fire teams, jets and giants.

It's really an ugly stadium from the outside, from the outside. And we all know that inner beauty is what matters. And I got to say, on the inside, MetLife smashed it. It was so well done. I thought the sight lines and just the setup around the ice with the benches, with how fans can see the experience, way better than both of the last winter classics. And we had a great time at the last two winter classics at Fenway and at Tebow Park in Seattle. But like, I'm telling you, man, the football field is, I'm officially putting my stamp of approval on football field is a better situation to do winter.

are classic NHL games or hockey games in general than baseball fields. The trouble is the football field has, like you said, way better sightlines, bad seats at the baseball stadium. The baseball stadium just looks cooler to have a rink in it than the football. Like the football stadium just has the rink in the middle and you're like, cool, it's like a smaller football field and we can all see. The baseball stadium, just that picture of like, oh, there's a fucking rink in Fenway Park is a cooler visual.

I hear you. It's not worth it, but it's a cooler visual. I hear you, but I. I think it might be baseball park dependent. Like, yeah, a rink in Fenway looks sick, but I don't think a rink just in any baseball stadium necessarily looks better than any football stadium. Yeah, that might be right. It looked cool in T-Mobile, though.

I got to say, it looked cool in T-Mobile. It did look cool. I won't lie, it did look cool. I was in Boston, too, before Jersey at the Beanpot, caught up with our boy Will Smith, who they won the consolation game, so, you know, we're not going to dab them up too hard, but it was pretty good. And then an epic northeastern upset over BU in the final. So that was incredible.

And I didn't think I was going to get cooler games at Stadium Series than I got at the bean pot. But I think I did, dude. Those games were an absolute tilt. And you know what else, Dan? Credit to the fans out there. We talk, you know, we talk smoke to the Rangers fans all the time and whatever. But all four of those teams packed that tailgate for several hours before the game. They packed the barn.

God bless those people with their backs against the lights in the 300 section at 11 p.m. on Saturday night in 20 degree snowsuits, dude. Warriors, absolute warriors. Warriors, dude. And yeah, I'll say, you know, there's a couple things I want to touch on before we get into the games. But yeah, fans across the board of all four teams showed up and showed out. But I do want to give extra stick taps to the devil. Fables fans because you get the Little Brother label.

We talk about it with Greg later in this episode, but damn, did they pack that place on Saturday? And then shout out to the Rangers fans. I mean this with love. You are the most obnoxious people in the world. And at an outdoor game with tailgating and stuff, that's exactly what I want fans to be. Like Rangers chants everywhere, old school Rangers jerseys and, you know, letter jackets, everywhere. People drunk as fuck just going hard, 10 out of 10 stuff. Really impressive from the

Rangers and Devils fans. Before we get into the games itself, I got to say, dude, Blakey, you are, you finally took your first hit on these trips. Like we, you know, Blake, Blake, Blake joined the team at the top of the year and we've been going hard on all of these trips. It's like every other weekend we're flying somewhere else and Blake has been an absolute warrior this trip finally got him dude I think you have neurovirus this kid's just been puking his guts out for three days well yeah initially I thought it was I thought it was like just a 24-hour flu like whatever we'll get through it but so it was yeah Saturday we're at the game we're at the tailgate which is so cool to see tailgate and hockey together but I clearly you know California came out on me

I was not prepared You weren't dressed properly No And I just did I should have went inside earlier And yeah So it just froze my fucking ass off And then when I got back to the hotel

Because I didn't even stay for the game I was like I can't do this I'm gonna go watch this from the hotel room And order some food and call it in a night And so get back to the hotel room Order the food eat it 30 minutes later It's back in the toilet And then I'm like okay whatever

Let's hopefully this 24 hours let it pass. Sweating the whole, I'm still, I haven't stopped, like, either shivering or sweating still to, from Saturday night to now. And, like, like, also Saturday, like, it was like, oh, maybe this is just a hangover, blah, blah, blah. No, it was, it was, yeah, it's been fucking shitty. But, hey, we're here.

We're making it through it. But hey, Dan, is he the only one that puked this trip? No, dude, that's what I'm, I was going to say. I can't sit here and shit on Blakey because I'll tell you what, dude. I played like a junior varsity clown on Saturday morning. Friday, dude, yeah. We got in. We got in.

We immediately went to the Kings Devils game. What a hell of a time. And then met up with our buddy, Tyler Tofoli after the game, went to the bar, just old friends getting together, excited to be together for the first time in a little bit, just drinking way too much. and my pathetic little constitution just could not hang. Like, I woke up, dude, I woke up to my alarm at 7 a.m. on Friday morning. My eyes opened, followed shortly after by my consciousness, followed shortly after by

immediate vomit. Like, I woke up, realized how bad I felt, and walked straight to my hotel bathroom, and puked my guts out. And I was like, dude, I don't think I've thrown up from drinking in like seven years. years. So let me tell you what, if you, if you saw me on Friday or Saturday, for that matter, in Jersey and we're, we're pleased with my performance and our conversation, know that your boy was playing hurt the whole time. That's how much I care about all of you fans and about this job that we do. I'm out there playing with a busted gut the whole time. I woke up there just

before that. And, you know, like that Ed Helm scene in the hangover when he wakes up for the first time in the room. And it's like, the camera's like on. Yeah. It's like, walk you're out. That was me, like, stumbling into the bathroom. I was like, where am I? I did that thing where I was like, I don't know where I am. I don't know what time it is. Sometimes your alarm goes off in the morning and you forget. You're like, did I, do I have to do something? Like, why is this happening? Because I meant to turn it off. You know, it was just an absolute nightmare start. But we battled, dude. And we had a big agenda. You know? Meeting people like you said, oh, you know what, dude? This one kid, the chicklets boys did the meet and greet at Texas, Arizona on Friday, which was super fun. And Pink Whitney shots flown, whatever, million hockey fans out there. And it's always funny when those things happen because they come for the chicklets guys. And then they get like a netters cherry on their Sunday.

They're like, oh, hey, you guys are here too. I'm like, what's up, dude? But this one kid, Ed, I'm like, I can't find his DM, dude. He's going to get mad if he listens to this because he DMed us. I wanted to say his name. But he made these shirts that have Biz's face on them. Oh, my God.

With a clown nose on Biz's face. And he got Biz to sign it. Like, Biz, Biz signed one for him. And I was like, that is actually a sick piece of merchandise, dude. So I'm so sorry I forget your name. When I find your DM, I'll say who you are. But six swag. Thanks for the gift.

Great stuff there, dude. And as always, just huge shout out to the chickless boys. We just have so much fun with them. They're so welcoming and awesome. So that was a great time. But also I want to give a huge shout out to our boys from the late game. Yeah. Our buddy Jeff Zucker, self-financed and produced this really fun movie about Beer League hockey, kind of one-of-a-kind.

You don't really get a lot of movies about Beer League. Sure, we've got Shore Z, which is amazing. But this is the first one we can think of in feature film form. They did a cool little screening where they invited a bunch of people over. we went and saw it, got to see R.A. whipping out the acting chops. I stole the show. He did, dude. He was amazing. Thought R.A. was amazing. But the two Jeffs get a massive, massive, shout out from us for inviting us to the film, bringing us in to be a part of it. It was such a good time. And, you know, they're on Instagram. Go check them out the late game film. And they'll be doing some more

screenings here and there. So can't wait for that to keep buzzing around. But what a fun experience that. If you played Bearly Cockey, it is the most relatable content you have ever seen in your life. Every character, there's a guy, you can tell who you are on the team and who your boys are on the team. You know, all the rink people, yeah, it's, it's wonderful. High recommend. But as far as the games go, dude, really don't think that we could have asked for better entertainment. I mean, we saw the devils lose a frustrating one on Thursday to the Kings, came into this game. You know, it's a home game for the Devils against Philly for sure at MetLife.

So they came in and they're just buzzing from the jump dude. We got a goal in the first 30 seconds from the captain himself. Toph watch is back. Toph got on the board immediately. Hit my anytime goal score a bet. How are you? And they just put out this unbelievable drubbing of the flyers. It was amazing to see.

The fans were going fucking nuts. And then the next day, we get a goal in the first minute again. minute and a half, I think. Islanders start running away with it. Yeah, yeah, a minute and a half. Okay, okay. Islanders start running away with it. It looks like it's over.

And then the scrappy Rangers dude, just claw back and in humiliating fashion, beat the Islanders in overtime. But you, Chris, you had something to say about that goal. And I want to get it. I got two things to say. One, very briefly, Toth, we went to, like you said, we went to the game Thursday. We were at the game Saturday. So we were performing Toff Watch live and in person.

and not a big deal, but he had to tuck in both games. So if you're the devil's organization, we're hitting at like 90% when we're in the barn when Tauf plays. Like when we're there, and I'm talking visiting games when he's playing the Kings, when he's playing other teams, like I think we're legitimately 90%. It's like nine out of ten times when we're there. He scores. And here's the good news, dude.

His lovely wife, cat has a lot of superstitions, none of which I will air out here. but I'm just saying maybe one of them has to be watch the game with Chris and Dan because he scores every time we're there. So I'm just saying if you are cat or if you are the devil's brass and you're in a playoff chase down the stretch here, there's a pretty easy solve and it's bring me to every game and take that information and do with it what you will. Okay, but yeah, before we launch into No Buck and everything, just entertain me boys on the Panarin goal. I want to know what you each thought live, like in the moment where you like, that should

be a goal, that shouldn't have been a goal. And then I have some rule, I have the actual rule, which I looked up because I didn't know this rule. And I want to discuss it. So what did you think? Here's the deal. It's a goal. Based on the rule, it's a goal. And, you know, I, I, we got on Twitter yesterday. By the way, do I need to start calling that X? Because I'm not, I don't think I'm going to do it. Until you type in X.com, like right, you still type Twitter.com and it takes you there. Once that goes away, then you can stop saying Twitter. I like that call. That's a great way to ease into this calling it X.

Until that changes, I'm going to still call it Twitter. So we hopped on Twitter and we talked about, you know, like, Jesus, is that how the Rangers are going to get this game? And Rangers fans thought we were saying, like, that was a shit call. Not at all what I meant. It was the right call. I just meant what an insane game. The Rangers with, I think, two minutes or less. left in the third period, tie it up to send it to OT, then they win. I was just bummed out that

that's how the game ended because regardless of the call, it was a shit goal. Like, really horrendous turnover by the Islanders. Panarin comes in, makes a good move, and then Dobson makes the play of the game, sliding in behind the goaltender, blocking the shot. And then the puck goes off Dobbson, bounces off, I think the mask of Sorokin, and then goes in the net. After the that's been knocked off the pegs. It was like, all I meant was that goal sucked. That wasn't a pretty fun overtime goal. We had a chance of that going to a shootout, which would have been electric under the

bright lights in the outdoor game. So I hated the way it ended. I don't hate the call because it is the rule. Now, if you want to get into a conversation about maybe we need to revisit that rule, I'll hear you. But it is a good goal per the rule. The rule sucks. The goal sucked.

Blake? I think, yeah, I think it should count. Like it's unfortunate with the way like he like, you know, the net's not on the net or on the morings anymore and the puck goes in. How are we counting that? But it's like, how did the net come off? Yep, the Islanders player. So, yeah, like Dan said, it's a shitty way for it to end. But for it to end figuratively, but like emotionally, that was a pretty exciting comeback for the Rangers and then they win it really quickly in overtime.

And, you know, they were kind of the home team there. it's shitty the way it happened but I mean I agree with the rule um yeah okay I agree with the rule and I'm gonna say the rule and I agree with the rule but I disagree with the interpretation of the rule in this instance and I'll tell you why the rule is this for people that don't know if the puck has been shot already if it is off a shooter stick and then the neck comes off accidentally or intentionally and I used to think it was only intentional but it's also accidentally because in my my initial uh frustration with that call was like because dobson turns it over right that was him too yeah yeah dobson turns it over but then he also

blocks the shop incredible play so yeah dobson turns it over and if he had just pushed the net off and panarin shoots it over the red line i'm like it's an obvious goal dude you can't just push the net off but my initial frustration was he makes an incredible block which he does before hitting the post you know like he hits the block oh sorry hits the block then the post which is completely unintentional. So I was like, oh, I don't know that that should have counted. But then I'm reading the rule and it's like, well, if the shot is off his stick and the net is knocked off intentionally or unintentionally, it's still a goal. So I'm okay with that rule boys, honestly, even though my initial reaction was like, oh, it should have only been intentional's. Fine, that's the rule. That's the rule.

Here's my disagreement with the interpretation of this rule. It's not like, I know what you're going to say and I agree. I completely agree. It's not like Dobbson. I know. like Dobson blocked it and then it rolled up over his shoulder and just kept rolling into the now vacated net and went in. It blocked out and then hit something else and redirected. So for example, I don't know what Ranger was near there, but like let's say Panarin shoots it. Dobson blocks it. It shoots out. The net comes off and then it hits Crider in the shin pads and goes in the empty net. They are saying that would be a goal and it would be Crider's goal. And I'm like, that shot didn't happen before the net came off. That shot happened way after the net came off. So my argument

is the net came off, then it hit Sorokin's mast, and then redirected back into the net. Like, to me, the second it goes back out, like, it hits stops and it is now going out of the goal. If it ever comes back towards the goal, that has reset when the puck was released, in my opinion. And I know they're like, it never stopped, you know, like, the air and shot it, and it never stopped. But I'm just like, it can't fucking pinball 50 fucking times when the net's been off an hour ago. I, yeah, like, I was going to say, I actually think, and I'm pretty sure per what you said this is the rule. If that had gone off Dobson, then off Kreider, it would have been a no goal. And I agree, I agree with that. But I'm with you, dude, and that like,

I would go as far as to say, if a player is making a legitimate hockey play and that knocks the net off, that should negate the rule. Because Dobson didn't come in and just blow the net off. He also didn't slide in behind Sorokin and knock the net off, but the puck never hit him. Since he made a block of the shot before knocking the net off, I'm like, rule is negated. Like that was a hockey play that led to the net coming off. And I'm kind of like, dude, I'm not going to penalize a guy for blocking a shot and then his momentum knocks the net off.

Like, that's just a good play. Sorry. There's clearly you're not, you can't call him knocking the net off intentional if he blocked the shot first. Yeah. So that, even that makes me be like, I would, I would, I would. negate the rule because of that. But then I agree, dude, it's like, that shot happens and I get it. Again, it was the right call because the shot technically hit Dobson, hit Sorokin, went in the net.

Like the puck never stopped from said shot. But I'm like, if the puck hits two things, even one thing. I mean, like, no, that doesn't make sense because if it, like, nicked him. But if the puck hits like two things and changes direction, I'm a little bit like, fuck that. Dude, it's like. That's why I didn't like it. Again, it's the rule. but yeah it's like fucking the happy Gilmore final putt like if as long as happy hits it the net can get knocked off and it can fucking go down the fucking whole

cell phone tower hit the car hit this guy and then as long as it goes in the empty net they're like he putted it he putted it eight hours ago like that is fucking dumb dude there's no net it's it's yeah it's like one of those things that there

there are absurd circumstances that could make this rule be like well no that was still like it's like someone shoots the puck from their own end and the net gets knocked off and it like hits the skates of five players and goes in there like that's a goal you know it's i think we need some qualifiers to this rule because for me my biggest thing was dobson made a great play on the puck and then the net came off and i'm kind of like i i would wipe that rule because dobson blocked the shot then the net came off just unfortunate that it hits last thought on this and we'll move on but i just have i just

we're coming up with funny hypotheticals here. I wonder if that net, if that puck was, it was just like slide, it was like rolling in, you know, on the ice, but if that had been like,

like, let's say it hit, uh, Dobbson, then hit Soroken and the mask and was still like, you know, chest high or whatever and zoomed what would have been like a post and in goal,

but now the net's gone, which also means that overhead cam is gone because that's in the net, I'm pretty sure. I wonder how they would look at that. Like they'd be like, you're just looking at a red line and you could see the, the empty sockets.

for like the goal holder poles or whatever. But I'm like, it would be weird. I don't know what camera angles they have to look at something that's like chest high, zooming over, there's no net anymore. And they're like, I think that would have been piping in. And I'm like, are you sure, dude? That's a fucking crazy call. Yeah.

So yeah, interesting. To me, you said it perfectly. The simplistic, taking it out of the subjective hand or making refs make those subjective calls, it goes away if you just say the net's off, it's no goal. Like the net went off. There's a whistle, period. Anyway, crazy finish. What a game.

Congrats, rags. Congrats everybody. What an experience. Hope everyone had a good time. Great experience, dude. And it goes into the last thing I want to say about the games before we move on into our No Bucky warmup is I really love the spectacle of this. There was something really, really special about this stadium series being four teams in a very close proximity playing in an arena. it almost felt like a round robin type tournament.

And it allowed four different fan bases to be in the same general area to tailgate. I mean, Blakey, you said it earlier. We need to figure out a way to normalize tailgating and hockey because, oh, my God, hockey fans are right there up with the caliber of football fans and that they will show out for a tailgate. And I think that this goes very similarly into our conversation that so many of you fans and so many of the listeners and followers shit on, which I couldn't believe. Dude, in-season tournaments, in-season cups, like things like, they're so fucking fun in-hockey. It's like when we said looking at the NBA, doing the in-season tournament, the NHL should do something like that.

People were like, fuck that, fuck the NBA. And it's that mindset that we talk about. It's like, dude, stop thinking that doing things that the NBA does makes you like the NBA. Like, they're allowed to have good ideas. And it's like we said, do you hate it? the bean pot? The bean pot is fucking awesome. You listen to guys like Smitty. You listen to guys like Cutter. You listen to guys like fucking Charlie McAvoy, Matt Griswick, Jake Ottinger. These guys look back at their time at those one of those four schools and they go, that was legitimately

almost as important as the national championship to us. They're so cool to do. So something like an in-season cup or if you did a cool regional tournament, dude, like look at colleges, man. Colleges have those like what the fuck is the college football one it's like the paul bunyan trophy or something it's not paul bunyan but like michigan state when they play they play for a trophy and the players care about this shit dude like how cool would it be if you did a in-season original six cup like the original six teams every year they play in like a little round robin for the original six cup and then like you could do the 67 expansion draft cup like there are just things that would bring fan bases together for more like outdoor games, more tournaments, things like this that would

just be so fun and get so many eyeballs and more fans invested, more rivalries brewing. We talk about the fucking Ridley-Greg goal, get that kind of sparking the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs rivalry again for the first time in years. It's like, dude, these things would just help the game. And I think the players would fucking love it. Because like we said, we're not adding games to the season. We're not making them play more. We're not making them do, you know, more things to put their body under more strenuous activity.

Like, these are just in-season stuff that adds value to, or adds an element of meaningfulness to some of these random games. If you just add some of these little cups, it would be a fucking blast. Also, more outdoor games are so fucking fun. Yeah. Laz tweeted that these, those four should play in a bean, the bean pot every year. Like, and like you said, they just count as regular season games. Genius idea.

Like he said it, and I was like, yep, 100%. That was awesome. Incredible. All right, let's do no bucket. Yeah, let's do no bucket warmups. The first one we wanted to start with quick hitters here. The legend himself, Yarmor, Yager, has his number retired in Pittsburgh. What did you think about the way they came on the ice stand?

Rumble, robo, I loved it, dude. I mean, first of all, dude, if you got a guy who still got the wheels under him, you got to bring them out for a no-bucky warm-up every single time. there are obviously guys who get their numbers retired who maybe can't wheel like that anymore or don't want to strap on the boots but dude if you are a guy in the league and you're still capable of doing a hot lap this was so fucking cool man and then all the boys putting on the jersey putting on the wigs who didn't put the wig on you love to see it there was one dude it looked like it was carty but i don't want to sewer jeff carter but it looked like it was him but there was definitely someone who didn't have the mullet wig on and i was so crazy move but again a legend i don't don't know if it was cartoon. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I thought it was awesome. It bumped me out to hear that Yogs was like a little worried. He was like, yeah, I feel like I thought people in Pittsburgh hated me and can confirm from all the Pittsburgh people we've talked about. They're like, what are you talking about? Dude, we fucking love you. You're a legend. So,

really awesome to see. It looked like he had a blast. He could get 10 this year, dude. Like they can't score, bro. Like the penguins have a plus whatever, and they're in last, and they can't score, dude. Like, I'm telling you, that, they should have fucking signed, they shouldn't have left, let him leave the building without a contract, dude. Like, sign the man, put him on the power play, fucking problem solved. That's the solve. Holy shit, man. You're right. Yogs needs to come out of NHL retirement and hop back on the penguins because he's the only answer to their scoring trout. Ridiculous, dude. And then he caps the, he caps the whole experience off with the fucking girlfriend comment. Did you see that, Blake? Oh, yeah. Dude, that's been, that's been the

the biggest fucking noise from the night. Oh my God, dude. How old is he? What a flex. I think he's, I think he's 50. He's like, he's like 53 or something.

Do you know how old she is? I think. I do. Oh God. If I hear a teen number, I'm going to be very upset. I'm hoping, give me like 22.

No, dude, she's older than that. I'm told she's 29. Okay. Oh, dude. It's great. It's love. It's real love.

Nothing. Yeah. all about let's all love dude she for anyone who didn't see it he said she's too young to remember him on the penguin so she he had to tell her the stories of him being sick she's show show old

show old DVD clips oh my god dude that's so funny yeah he's 52 years old okay yeah it's fine fine yeah completely fine I mean God he looks fucking amazing doesn't he he's still wheeling out there the body looks in great shape the hair he's got the hair the hair right now it's unbelievable

Dude, I think we need to wave. They did it for Bobby or Chris. The hall needs to waive the three-year waiting period for Yogs. I think because he's technically playing professional in check, they can't induct him. And it's like, dude, he's second all-time in points in the NHL or something like that. Like, get the fucking guy in the hall. That's dumb.

Well, talking points, Dan, talking Gino's. let's kick it over to Austin Matthews. Holy hell, man. This guy, I just don't know what to fucking say. It's, you know, we talked to Kipper about him. We've, you know, chirped the Leafs plenty of times. They're on a nice little wind streak here. Austin Matthews, back-to-back hat tricks.

He's got 49 fucking goals, and it's February 20th at time of recording. I mean, are you fucking shitting me, dude? Scoring 50 in a season is like, elite elite and this dude has 49 and it's not even march i don't understand what is going on we gave him shit or not really we but kipper gave him shit for this and i thought to be to i'm siding with kipper slightly here it's a legitimate conversation i think it's fascinating that austin matthews is the caliber of player that he is and playing with the caliber of players that he plays with and he has

49 goals and is in seventh in the league in scoring. That is insane. Like, how are you not in the top three in scoring? But don't give a shit completely removing the assist angle. Who fucking cares? This guy has 49 goals.

Are you shitting me? That is insane. Dan, I'll say Kipper got into my head about when he was like, Matthew's going to finish with 28 assists. I was like, that is ridiculous. And I think that's correct. I think that is correct.

And it's unacceptable. It's on it. And it is unacceptable. It doesn't mean he's not having an amazing season. That's what people need to understand. We're not shitting on this season. This is godlike hockey. But I just think it could be better.

That's all that's all. And I love Matthews. That's how good he is. I love Matthews. I think he's, we saw the scoring slow down last year. Connor was on a near 70 pace last year and slowed down. I think it'll tighten up as they're kind of in a playoff push.

But I think he's going to do it. I legitimately think he's going to score. 70 goals and I think that is a very special thing. It hasn't been done in God knows how long. Maybe you can find that Blake. But that should be celebrated. And to talk out of the other side of my mouth for a second here, I am can also Blake after, can you find out where the Leafs are in goals for in league ranking?

And while he looks that up, I'll try to guess that I imagine they're reasonably high. I don't think they're top three, but I'm guessing they're like a top. 10 team in goals for. If that's true, I am kind of like the Leafs can only score so many goals. So, last person to score

70 goals was 76 goals by Alexander McGilney on the Buffalo Sabres. Tebow same year, right? In 92, 93. Same year as Timu, yeah. Both, yeah, both had 76 goals. TAMU this time, well, with Winnipeg, and then

92, 93 as well. And then happened again in 91, 92, again in 19901. So it was a, it was happening. It was happening in the 80s and the 90s. But 30, 32 years, you know, since someone, since, and he hasn't done it yet, but 32 years since someone's done it, which is, that's why that's an incredible thing. Now, give me goals for where are they out there? Because my argument, Dan, and interrupt whenever, Blake, my argument, Dan is the league, hockey team can only score so many goals, right? What do you got? So they're fourth in the league in goals four? They're fourth in the league.

So how many goals can they possibly score? I was guessing that they were top five. Yeah. And my argument is like, it's not Matthew's fault. Like people are going, or we're kind of going, he's going to score 70 and he needs to have 60 assists too. And I'm like, oh, so they have to score more goals than any team has ever scored in his, there's only so many goals to go around.

It's not his fault. He fucking scores every single one of them, you know? So I am like, yeah, his assists are embarrassingly low, but also like, they, they score a lot and he just happens to fucking be the one shooting it in and that ain't on him. He's on pace right now for 75 goals and 37 assists. So he's, you know, picked it up on the assist. Imagine that's going to come down a little bit, but yeah, you're, you're spot on.

Yep. I mean, it's just, it is an anomaly. Like, I mean, listen, if he scores just fucking 75 goals and 37 assists, I'm not going to say shit. It was, it's like the 30 assists mark where I'm like, this is just weird. Because, yeah, they, they are fourth in the league in scoring, and you're right, they can only score so many goals. But it, it's just, it goes back to the. conversation of your number one center. He is a center. He's not a wing. He's a center.

And you just have to wonder, like, how much better could this team be if his assist were up? But I am now officially in the category of I don't fucking care. I don't care. If he's scoring 70, who gives a shit? Because they're top four in scoring. It's not like they're middle of the pack and scoring. And he's hog in the puck. He's not hog in the puck. They're winning a bunch of games right now, that's amazing. But that opens the door to the next conversation point that I have with the Leafs. Does any of this matter at this point with this Toronto Maple Leafs team? Because if I were a diehard fan, and Blakey, you can jump in on this because you are a fan, I don't give a fuck what these guys are doing in the regular season. Like, I look at Vegas last year,

and they've got Jack Eichel who missed 20 games or something like that, leading the team in points with Like, what was it, Chris? 67. And then they just go and win the cup because they get into playoffs and that's all that matters to them. They buckle down and they win the important games. Austin Matthews could score 100 fucking 50 goals in the regular season and I wouldn't give a shit if I were a fan and they lost in the first or second round again. So, well, this is all good fun. I'm just, like, if I'm a fan, I don't care.

And I'm not shitting on the Leafs or the fans. like I said earlier, it's the most miraculous thing I've seen in years of loving and watching hockey, watching Austin Matthews score at the clip that he's scoring at. But if I were a fan, I wouldn't let this cloak the reality of this team by any stretch of the means. I would be like, dude, good for you, man, get your cookies. You're going to get your cookies. You're that good of a player.

But if you fuck nuts, don't perform in the playoffs, I'm going to be as hard on you as I ever have. And that's what's interesting about this is like, it's all great, but I just don't think it fucking matters because I don't think him scoring this much would make me feel confident that he's going to keep it up in the playoffs. So that's what I'm just waiting for that first series that they get in. God knows who they're going to end up playing. But I just pray to God for him, for that team, and for those fans that through three games

of the playoffs, he has fucking six goals. So because otherwise, none of this matters. No, Dan, you're absolutely spot on. I mean, it kind of pisses me off. I've been hearing this take going around a lot of other news outlets and other media outlets over the past few weeks with all these hat tricks coming on and all the 70 goal talk. Everyone's saying like, oh, you know, the Leafs can't miss out on this 70 goal pace. Like they've got to go all in, all in this year.

It's like, guys, the game changes come mid-April. Like, he's not. He's not going to get the same looks, the same opportunity. He's going to be hounded. He's going to be, he's going to have at least one defender, likely two, when he's in the ozone on him like glue. Like, you saw the goal he scored last night in St. Louis. Yes, they're on the power play. But the way he just, like, can creep into the slot and get a one-timer, like,

that shit's not happening against a good playoff team. And for the back to the take of, oh, they need to go all in because he's at the 70 goal pace, that can't be your determining factor. Like, come on, guys. We've had superstars for five, six, seven years now. Like, what should our sign be to go all in that the team is playing as a team and that we have a good quality, you know, depth-wise team?

Like, and we, you know, never have. And maybe that's the delusional Leafs fan is always like, oh, well, Simon Benoit can be a top four D man or, you know, Elielabushkin last year could be our guy. It's like, guys, come on. Let's get our heads straight here. And let's get our heads out of the sand here. And I agree with you, Dan.

It's not enough for me to be like, oh, let's go all in. Nothing to add perfectly said. Yeah, like Blake, you said it perfectly. And that's, again, Lee's fans, I genuinely love you. All I mean is you can't be ignorant enough to be going, we've got to capitalize on the 70 goal pace. because, dude, every player will tell you the second game one of the playoffs starts, it's a different game.

So if he starts scoring at a 70 goal pace in the playoffs, then I'm like, yeah, you have to win. But yeah, my point is like the turmoil that this team and this franchise and the fans have been through, I wouldn't even be excited about it. It's like, cool. Yeah, it's awesome. And if they win the cup this year or even get to the cup, it'll be a sweet cherry on top to be like, and he scored 70 that year. That was sick.

But it's just like, you've got to perform these playoffs, dude, or otherwise this is all fucking points. Yep. All right, next topic is we're moving to Columbus. Yarmo Kekalinen. That's how you say that, right? Yarmo is relieved of his duties as GM.

I'm practicing that for three days. It is relieved of his duties as GM. One thing that we had discussed immediately was, and we always say on this program, I don't want anyone to lose their jobs, but it felt like, about time ish there it could have happened when the babcock stuff was going down that felt like such a misstep you know um and i also saw he was a really long tenure there yeah i think it was like

around 12 years can you can you can you go to the champs and if you type in like blue jackets playoff history the first site will be like champs or chumps i love that site and just rip me there like last 12 years you'll be able to scroll right through because they obviously had that upset i mean duchy came on and said they had that felt like a good team like when they beat Tampa in that first round and almost beat the B's that felt like if they got by Boston they would have made a run there but I'm hard pressed to think of any playoff success I don't otherwise I don't think the blue jackets have ever been beyond the second round in their team's history Chris so as you're looking like yeah I will I will take a massive dash one on this podcast if I'm wrong on that but I'm pretty sure the

blue jackets have never been to the conference yeah the only thing they've done is made it out of that playing around against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Oh, yeah. So I guess I'll just say this. 12 years, dude. Like, what a run, actually, for that job with essentially nothing to show for. I don't mean to be harsh, but I'm like, I can't believe we, in different markets, certainly, but in Boston, if you aren't, like, having great regular seasons or bringing in big free agents or making playoff pushes, how long do you last?

If you missed the playoffs for three years in a row in Boston, the GM is on the hottest of hot seats. And this guy's been here for 12 years. That kind of blew my mind. I just didn't realize he's had that job for so long. Yeah, it's interesting, man. You know, credit to Yarmou. I think he's made some great moves.

He's made some great trades and some great signings. I think he's a good GM. But to me, yeah, this team has just had a lack of success. They've had some pretty solid players. the past. So you would think maybe that they could have, should have gone a little bit further than they have. The second Babcock was hired, tons of us, ourselves including this show included, we were like, that's a fucking crazy hire. I just looked at the young players on that team. You look at the signing of Johnny Hockey. You got Patrick Line A, and it was like, is Babcock

the coach that you want here? They obviously make that move for ProVee on the back end. felt like this year could be an interesting turning of the page for the team. The Babcock shit happens. He gets gassed. To us, it just felt like you obviously gasped Yarmot then. It felt like, a, dude, this was a disaster, terrible decision. You got to wipe the slate clean and just start new with all of these young guys. So, again, we never want anyone to lose their job.

But this was necessary. It feels like an about-time situation for me. I'm super curious what they do now. Like you've got really great draft picks. You've got really good young players in guys like Fantilli and guys like Brindley. I hope that we get an exciting GM to come in here. I think you could keep Vincent as the coach here, but I just don't know what the Blue Jackets identity is.

You look at Johnny Hockey, who we can say from personal accounts, and just from the sheer numbers, he is an unbelievable player. He still got at least, in my opinion, four years left of quality prime hockey. Line A, obviously, we're sending him all the best wishes in the world to get better, to feel better, to get back in the game. But those are two great hockey players. But you look at the situation with everything that's gone down and now, like, they're young, I don't want to say core, but their young future.

And like you really wonder, are those two guys part of this? the future? Are they still invested? If I were Johnny Cadro, there's a part of me that would feel so let down by this franchise with what's happened in the past couple of the years. And I know that some fans would throw a pie in my face for saying that because they'd be like, we feel let down by Johnny's play. But I defend him every day of the week being like, dude, what a bad situation he's been in since joining that team. How do you expect him to repeat his over a 100-point pace that he's had in the past? So I'm just curious what the next step is, because, you know, you know, Because I think it needs to be a really positive next step with who they hire and what moves they make.

Otherwise, we're looking at, you know, four more years of mediocrity. I think what's next for the Blue Jackets is going to be incredibly important. Yeah, it's a scary, like for me, if you're the sharks, let's say, depending on how the draft shakes out, you're like, where build, we're okay. Like, we're down now, but like I can see the path forward. the blue jackets are in a little bit of a scary spot and they're a bad record too so you know the draft could shake out well for them but it's like I need a great and I need to hit on another pick fantili's a stud I need to hit on another pick a high pick here I'd love a free agent a meaningful free agent and then I'd love to see those players affect Johnny hockey and Line A in a positive way like help

them produce more because right now if they to your point in if they don't turn this around soon I'm like oh you're in a get Line A and Johnny hockey out of here to like like rebuild again mode and that sucks yeah totally totally before we move into hot ice there's two other teams who're on the struggle bus that you wanted to yeah i don't even have much analysis here just two things i wanted to say the yotes um who is it edmonton came back or no colorado they did they blew a big lead edmonton yeah yeah and they blew a big lead i think they were up against colorado too actually but they they have lost 10 straight um what sucks is they were really fun to start the year.

And they can be fun again. But early in the year, I was like, whoa, I don't think they're going to make playoffs. But man, this is, they're doing much better than I thought they were going to. And now it feels like they're going to finish near the bottom again. And that's disappointing. And it just, the losing compounds their home situation. You know, like, when they were winning and it's like, the college barns kind of fun and like, someone's going to take them.

They're awesome. But when you suck, it becomes a joke. You know, they're like, and they're playing in a college rink and they know one no city wants you know it's just like losing sucks losing hurts everything but it really hurts that situation too so i feel bad for them on that front and i really hope they turn it around because i love a lot of the young players on that team completely agree completely agree and then and then chicago has lost 21 straight on the road dude i don't know how that wasn't talked this the first i'm hearing of this like i saw it

on nchl.com because you know like you sneak away here or there so whatever but like at home but dude, 21 straight road games? Like, that is, have they won on the road this year? How many games are they played? That is fucking insane. Truly, Chris. It's flying under the radar, and I'm actually curious. I wonder, if you move Bedard, I think this might be the worst NHL team ever put together.

Check. Like, we talked. Keep on it. We talked about how crazy it is that, when Baderd got hurt, the league couldn't even try to justify putting in a Chicago Blackhawks player in the All-Star game. They were like, we can't. We simply can't, we can't do that. And what makes me curious, dude, we've heard stories about Elias Pedersen possibly getting dealt to the Blackhawks. It's a pipe dream.

I'm just talking about stuff that we've seen on Twitter that's been said in the NHL whirlwind. talking about players who might look at that as a destination because they want to play with Bidar, this and that, this and that. Dude, free agency, like, players hitting UFA so rare these days. And I look at the way they've constructed that team and how they, like, barely were able to hit the cat floor this year. And there's a point that's like, who, like, who is going to sign with that team? Like, this needs to be a full fucking LeBron James' big three in Miami situation where, like, a lot of guys are going to need to start talking together to be like, hey, we should all go to Chicago before I believe that anyone's going to want to go.

Like, Bardard, regardless, it's like, holy fuck, man, that team is crazy when you look at it. Nick Falino is without question the best player on that team. Seth Jones. It's like, Seth, Bedard, and Nick Falino. And I'm like, dude, this is insane. Like, what is going on on that squad? What's the record? 4.24 and 1 on the road this season.

So they came out of the gates hot. Got a point, too, though. Cut that one point, you know, it's not that bad. Yeah, that's crazy, bro. I, um, they, they, we said it before, but they did, they did like a fantasy thing, like a video game thing where they were like, just get, we're going to get Badaard, and then we'll just slowly build the team around him. I'm not getting stuck with any bad contracts or whatever.

We're going to suck. And I was like, damn, okay. Like we said, dude, it's going to, it's going to start with fucking Macklin. They're going to get the first pick. They're going to take Celebrini. And then we're off to the races. All right. Let's get into hot ice.

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If you use the promo code Netters 50, that's N-E-T-T-E-R-S-5-0, and go to FactorMeals.com slash Netters-50, you get 50% off. Are you kidding me? Take advantage of this right now. We've been talking a lot about these teams, especially with the stadium series happening, but the Metropolitan dude, there's a lot going on right now. We've talked about the Met plenty of times, but I think that this one is super fascinating and we've got a great Greg uh Jesus Christ we've got a great

Greg Wosinski interview coming up that we can't wait to dive into can't wait for you to hear so want to uh save some of it for that but just want to hit quickly few of the teams in the met in the situation going on Rangers they are looking for their eighth straight win tonight Tuesday against Dallas at home big game they're kind of figuring it out but big big big big game but something I want to talk about I'm not taking anything away from the Rex because right they were super hot to start the year then they went through some troubles

and the fan base was like fuck we are frauds like everyone shits on us maybe we are frauds but now they're buzzing again but dude some of those wins recently good win against Tampa but Tampa is struggling or great win against Colorado let's start with that great win against Tampa Tampa Tampa's kind of struggling

win against Chicago that by the way they blew a three goal league yeah win against California Calgary, win against Montreal, seven to four, and then obviously they come back and beat the Islanders six, five. So you could argue some of these wins against brutal teams that are struggling. But the bigger thing for me, dude, is like the, you know, letting Chicago score three on you, giving up four to Montreal, giving up five to the Islanders. My only thing is like, dude, I don't know what their plan in net is because there are tons of people right now are like, you ride quick, dude. You get into the playoffs.

You start quick. and I'm like, that is fucking mental. But, like, Schisturkin has been not great this year. And I just don't know, like, as high as you are as a Rangers fan right now, are you going to win playoff games giving up this many goals every game? Like, I just don't see that as a way through, but they're winning. And, you know, they got the scrap back. So there's part of me that's like, fuck, yeah, dude,

they're going to keep coast in here and take the MET. And maybe they have figured it out, but it does just feel like they are. like this bizarre team that I'm like I you're winning games I guess but like none of them are in dominant fashion but it's still confusing to me the goalie is the concern for me that can they win playoff games yes can they win play off series yes but with this level of goalie play you cannot win the cup it'll bite you too many too many rounds too many games it's going to bite you now could can they go in and go I hope chesty gets hot as shit in the playoffs absolutely absolutely and you're not like trading for a goalie with that tandem you have like they're fine but

they need to snap out of it if they're going to win. So yeah, for me, they're giving up way too many goals. The other interesting thing, and maybe people have seen this, but the draft is at the sphere in Vegas this year. James Dolan, who owns the team, owns the sphere. And apparently is telling the Rangers that they can't trade their first pick this year because he wants his team to be drafting in the first round at his sphere. And if people who don't know, James Dolan is...

tapped, dude, and he is ruining the Knicks. He's a criminal. He wants to do a band. He plays guitar in his own band, and they're awful. And he's, like, he's ruining everything he owns, and it's a disaster. And normally, I would say, my point of Dan is I don't know that the Rangers need, need, need, need an asset that would cost them a first round pick to make a push. Like, they might kind of be like, we like our team, we just need Chessie to play better. but it is crazy handcuffed from the owner to be like,

we want to make a move at the deadline. It's like, you can't. So like that is fucked. It's insane, dude. Like, you're never going to get all this, but the Rangers need a center. They need a wing, especially with Wheeler going down now.

And they need defense. And they need Shosturkin to figure it the fuck out. They're not going to get all that, but they need some of it. And this team is good enough to justify making a push for the cup. And the fact that that fucking criminal asshole Dolan is just handcuffing the team with this move.

Like, if they actually, don't deal a first round pick because of this, it's unbelievable. Like, people got on me about my take about MSG. It's because Dolan is a fucking criminal and steals taxpayer dollars to keep those places dumps. And he's just a fucking, he's a villain, dude. He's a movie villain. And if you don't let this team trade a first round pick because of the draft of the sphere

and you fucking cripple them and ruin their chances at making a run for a cup, like we need a full on Van Helsing torches and pitchforks in March. to his gated mansion because that is fucking insane. Like we need a hostile takeover to force him to sell the team if he actively ruins their chances of winning a fucking standard. Especially if people make big moves. If the deadline does get spicer than we think, and there's like a lot of people changing hands in the east

and he just, they do nothing. It's like, that's wild, bro. Okay, what about the Flyers, Dan? Wild. Flyers, we, you know, my big thing with the Flyers was tough loss to the Devils in the stadium series. thought the devil's beat the shit out of them. The game got really chippy.

I feel like the Flyers were relying on like chippy play and it just did not go their way at all. They lost five, I think it was five straight in January. Then they won their first four in February and now they've lost two in a row. We talked about the blow that was losing Carter Hart. Is that going to make them crumble? But then they won those four games and it was like, ooh, I don't know, maybe. But now they've lost two here. So keep eyes on the Flyers because they're currently sitting.

in that third place spot in the Met, and I just don't know how long they can keep it up. So that's an interesting one. They've impressed me all year. I just think... Actually, here's what I think. The Flyers are going to hover at exactly the rate that they're at. Even with the Carter Heart loss, they're scrappy enough to just keep coming along like this, little up, little down, little down.

And it's on... It's going to be on the teams we're about to talk about to see if they can elevate. Because they are better than the Flyers, but I don't know because they've been shit all year. So the flyers are going to be here. There's the bar for you. And hey, hey, Jersey, hey pit, et cetera. Can you elevate above that? And if you can't, then flyers hold on.

And good for them, by the way. But I don't think they're going to be like, we're surging at the stretch down the stretch here too. But I don't think they're going to implode either. I just think they don't, you know, they're all right. Absolutely. Totally agree. And, yeah, we talk a lot about the penguins with Wish.

So I don't want to go too deep in it. But the penguins are one and four in their last five. lost on Yager night in a like a brutal just only goal score. Surprise, surprise, surprise. Sidney Crosby. At this point, dude, I just, he is, Chris. I just don't know, man. Like they are nine points back from the wild card with three games in hand on Detroit.

Based on how they're playing, those three games aren't going to lead to six points. And even if they did, they're still three points back. I think they're done. Like I'm officially ready to put a fork in the Penguins playoff chances this year. Dude, you know. And again, not going to get into it. We can leave the wish part for it. But dude, I just think Dubus was brought in.

And his goal was you need to build for the future, but you also need to try to win now. He tried to win now with getting Carlson. It has not worked. You have to ask these tough questions of, are you sellers at the deadline? What are you doing with Gensel? And if you don't begin right now figuring out what the answer to those questions are, you're a fool. That's my only point with the penguins. all I'll say is the and you know everybody knows I love the penguins out because of because of Sid and the I've long said like they're right there they're right there it's fine it's fine they the problem is they are right there like you said there are a few nine points back but with games in hand they're gonna be that close at the deadline that they're not going to fire sale so they're not going to trade away all these assets they're going to try to make a push maybe they even bring in some depth or whatever but I'm officially like they're not going to make it and it breaks my fucking heart for Sid because what are you?

year he's having but the they just dude they couldn't manned last year end of last year they had to beat the fucking hawks one time and they lost dude and you don't deserve it and this year a post all-star break i was like now or never boys and they're just one and four you know and i'm like okay they i don't know what's missing and whose voices aren't being heard or why they can't step their game up but they can't and i hope i'm fucking wrong i hope sid makes it and he gets you know whatever they treat him right and he gets to do a little push here but they they are out according to me Yeah. The other team that I think is out is the Islanders do. They've lost their last three, including a truly monumental collapse to the Rangers in that outdoor game. That was just fucking pathetic. And, you know, we see their coach fired and Patty Waugh gets brought in. I don't know that I see Waugh and his like general mental disposition being the perfect solution for this stretch of games coming up here. But, you know, They're sitting behind.

I think they're two points back from the devils who are three or four points back from Detroit in the wildcard spot right now. I looked at that Devils win in the stadium series and then that Islanders loss as the, if I'm betting on one of those two teams to make it into the playoffs here, maybe bump Philly out, bump Detroit out or something like that. And I'm picking the Devils over the Islanders. I can't believe it because I just think that they have such great. players. They have a great defense and Sorokin's amazing. He's also not having the best year, but I just don't see it, dude. I do not see them making the push that they made last year to

sneak in. It doesn't look like it's going to happen to me. And it's interesting, and it's going to be interesting to see. But yeah, the devil's like I just mentioned, therefore points back, Jack is back, Kishers back, Dawes is playing well. And I just, I do think with all of the rumblings that we've been hearing, a goalie trade is going to happen because it really looks like, dude, you've got Dougie Hamilton coming back, you've got Seagenthaler coming back, there's a chance that a guy like Tanev or a guy like Hanofin is joining this team. If you get a goalie, you look at the bones of that Devils team. I'm not saying they can win a cup this year, but they're definitely a playoff team. And with these guys healthy, yeah, fucking seriously, but like with these guys

healthy. If you put a solid goalie who's having a great year right now in that net, how do you bet against this team making the playoffs? So that's just how it looks to me. Yeah, Islanders, it's funny, Dan, Sorokin isn't having a great year and it's kind of

and the season isn't on his fault because the roster is what the roster is, but they really need him to be here, for them to be a playoff team. And Sorokin's not having the best year to his standards, which is kind of cost them. And Otter isn't having the best year in Dallas right now, but it's not costing them yet.

Like, they're still, I think they might even be in first right now, just because with the games in hand shakedown. But, but you know what I mean? Like the star's roster balance gives otter the luxury of like, hey, don't worry, just get it together for playoffs. And the Islanders roster construction does not give Sorokan that luxury. And I think it will cost them too. The Devils, Dan, the one interesting thing I'll say about that,

because there's some really cool Greg shit, so I'm going to leave it there. But the one interesting thing about the Devils is if they get third, like if they get all if they get it together so hard that they beat the flyers the Atlantic still might send five because I was thinking the devils might cost the wings that was my pick I think they're gonna you know like the devils might cost the wings their spot if the flyers hold serve because like the devils will get into four

and like oh the wings get bumped out because it's going to be Toronto and Tampa I'm pretty sure but if the devils go all the way to three maybe the flyers dip enough that the wings stay you know so that'll be kind of an interesting dynamic to see to be watching the Atlantic too I think it's going to be Tampa, Tampa and Detroit. Maybe Toronto and Detroit, based on how Tampa, Toronto. And Devils out or Devils three? Devils three.

Okay, and Flyers fall away up. How many points of the Flyers have compared to Detroit? I think. Blake's got it. Detroit has 64 points and the Flyers of 65 points. Flyers have played 56 games. Red Wings have played 55. game. Yeah, see, so that, like, that, they're right there, too.

Like, the flyers could drop, could drop out of that. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, that's interesting. That's what I'm saying. I think, and, and this is all with the caveat that the devils get a goalie. So, um, okay. Dude, the one thing that I, I, before we move on, the one thing I want to say quickly, if I were fucking Stevie Y, dude, I would come in and hijack that marksome's trade like that. Yeah. Yeah. I love that play, dude. Because they're, there, those, those redwin, dude, my five.

can Detroit Red Wings? They are playing so fucking well right now. And don't get me wrong, I love Lion, but I just think they could use a very solid goaltender as well. And just saying, that would be so Stevie Y if he came, saw the dragon feet going on in the

New Jersey Calgary deal and he just came in and hijacked that. That would be fucking awesome. Okay. Let's get, let's move on. We got to hit it. Yeah, last thing I want to talk about is the Panthers, Florida Panthers. Blake, can you give me the Panthers and Bruins goals for or goals against? The Bruins had a sick win last night, actually.

Swamen played unbelievable, 40-something saves. 50 fucking shoot-out saves. It was ridiculous. Needed it really badly. The Bs had fallen into second, I think for the first time all season, last night. Before last night, they won,

so they're now a point above the Panthers, but they have a game, they've played an extra game, goals for, goals against. So Boston Bruins, goals for, 189, goals against, 150 for a goal difference. of plus 39.

Florida Panthers, goals for 185, goals against 135, for a goal differential of plus 50. So here's what scares me, and that's why I brought it up. The goals four are right there. And to me, the Bruins, I'm like, they can't really score,

but they got the D, they got the goal tending. And Florida has less goals, I think, right? Four less, was it? Or four more? They have four less. For less. Goals four. And it's like their D is delivering.

They're a plus fucking 50, dude. And let's say they win their next game. in first, but either way, it's a dog fight now for that one seed. And with the prize, all the matches, the Atlantic kind of stuck. But it's a dog fight for that one seed. You'd rather play the wildcard team theoretically. Don't tell that to the Bruins last year. But I'm terrified about the rut that the Bruins are in and what the Panthers are

been able to do. The Panthers look inevitable in the East, according to me. And I just want to hit you with this stat pack. Our boy, Nikki, at Hockey Collective, posted this. It's a tweet, but he posted this. Matthew Kachuk, since December, this was on Sunday, I think. Matthew Kachuk since December 29th. 21 games, 15 goals, 25 assists, 21 of them primary.

The Panthers have scored 53 goals in his 384 minutes on the ice, 8.3 goals per hour. Are you kidding me, dude? And who at New Year's said Matthew Kach is about to go fucking nuclear, you imbeciles? Who? who said that? We went Nostradamus on that, particularly you, but we both were like, yeah, dude, he's obviously picking it up. You said he'll get 35.

I said 30, but it looks like 35. What's he at, dude? How many goals is Matthew have right now? But yeah, Dan, like, tell me the Panthers aren't the best. We don't even have to linger on this, but just like they are unstoppable and tell me they're not the best team of the east. I think it is so, if you are a. Rangers fan or a Canes fan or a Bruins fan.

I think those are the only three teams that could possibly argue it. If you think that you're as good as the Panthers, any fan bases of those three teams, you're fucking delusional, dude. Like the Panthers are, they're just so fucking strong, top to bottom. Golly Bob came, just woke up last year in the first round of the playoffs

and has never gone back to sleep. And they're just so good. They're just so much better than everyone else in the East. I think you're right. It is inevitable. They're going straight back to the cup. I think we're going straight back to, to quote Merle's. We're going right back to Fort Lauderdale

and we're going right back to Vegas in this cup. It's unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah, so currently Matthew Kachuk has 20 goals, 44 assists for 64 points in 55 games. And so since January 1st, he's led the league in scoring. And he's got, so 50, he's got 27 games left, right? And in 21 games, he scored 15 goals.

so I now need him to score, just stay on that pace and he's got 35. He's going to score 40. He's going to score 40 goals this year. He's going to score 40 goals this year. God damn. Particularly you, but we were the only people on top of this. Like it was just a matter of time. It was a numbers thing, dude, math guys.

He's just a 4.4% shooting percentage. Four or whatever it was. I cracked that code, dude. I was all over that. Guy his caliber. Yes, you do. You were all over that. It's unbelievable.

All right, let's kick it to this wish interview. Just fucking coolest guy in the world. We're going to do a ton more with him. He's going to come back on the show. No question about it, but enjoy this interview. He's so fucking smart. He's so fucking cool. Hope you enjoy it.

We are joined today by a University of Maryland alum. I am. Creator of Puck Daddy for Yahoo Sports. I did. This is my favorite. The first blogger ever to be named to the Hopping News 100 people of power and influence list. Okay. Which went straight to his head.

Multiple time author. TV star, podcast star, radio star, current senior NHL reporter for ESPN lifelong Devils fan, and Star Wars enthusiast. I am. Greg Wishinsky, welcome to the internetist podcast. It's great to be here. I'm a huge fan of the podcast, so this is a very exciting thing for me. And the 100 people of power influence thing is so funny for three reasons. One, the highest I ever got was 93. Okay. And like I was ranked ahead of like agents and GMs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just like,

GM is a good one. It sounds just stupid. You call that GM and you're like this, hey, if you really get to the power level that I'm like, give me some tips. What's going on with the team? Can you tell me what trade you're going to do? Because I am more powerful and influential than you.

Legally, you have to tell them, actually. Please consult the list. The second thing I love is that the first year, like you said, I was number 100, which to me was like when Entertainment Weekly would put out its 100 most powerful people in Hollywood. Yeah. And then number 100 would be like carrot top.

Yeah, just because they wanted to have some goofy-ass things that get people talking. Right. You're the Mr. Irrelevant of that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Thank you, I guess. So that's how it felt for me. And then the other thing was that, like,

I haven't made that list in a really long time. And I can never figure out if it's because I either got less powerful and influential or I just made fun of their writers too much. Right. And I'm going to guess it's probably a little bit of column A, column B, but. It's definitely a balance of both. It was a good run. There's no question about it.

There's only so many times you can mock Adam Proto for having said that Alex Alex Ovetchen should have left for Russia back in two. back in 2012, I think. Yeah, right. So, I don't know. This just took us far, though. I want to say two things. One, congrats on the birth of your child.

Oh, thank you. It's amazing stuff. Yeah, it's great. She's great. Her name's Iris Winter. She was born in January. And I feel, you know, it's like one of those things where you feel like things are going well and like you're getting enough rest and shit.

And then, like, I showed up to the stadium series. And I saw a buddy of mine. And he's just like, hey, I see you. got those dark circles like I do with a newborn. I'm just like, and I looked in the mirror. I'm like, I look like fucking Benizio del Toro after a bender. Like, I just got these like discs under my eyes now.

You don't even realize. It's like when you see yourself every day, you don't realize it's slipping, and then a friend sees you in. I'm like, my God, are you all right? You got two different shoes on. Yeah, yeah. It's like you think you're looking good,

and then you look in the mirror, and it looks like Michone should be trying to kill you with a katana blade on the walking dead. That's incredible. Okay, and then the next is. But wait, I have a question about that. I saw you tweeted, you know, welcome Iris to the world. By the way, strong name.

Iris? Yeah. Iris Winter for strong name. We workshopped a lot, man. How do you, do you guys do that? I know that they do like a swipe thing. Like you guys get apps and you can like swipe on names. And if you swipe on the same name, yeah, how'd you bet?

We did that actually as a sort of a test. But what we did was we picked a different, we had a list of like 20 names. Okay. And so we picked a different name each week and like just referred to her as that name while she was. was like in my wife's tummy and like to see if it felt right yeah to see if it felt right so like like matilda week didn't feel right so we're like she's not a matilda um matilda week was horrible stub my toe right right so like we got it down to a few names and then like when we met her after she was born that that was the name but um but it was a lot of stress yeah like for a real long time

like before we left the hospital she was going to be margo okay and then like it's a cool name but then we've come to realize that because of like the Barbie movie and shit, like Margo was, remember how every kid, every daughter was named Madison for a good like two-year stretch? Yep. That's now Margo. Yeah.

I think we went, we swerved a little bit. It's like there's a bunch of arias after Game of Thrones. You don't want to be the Barbie movie parents. No, you don't want to be the Barbie movie parents. That's not it. That's not the answer for you guys.

I like that. My question was going to be, though, I saw you tweeted, introducing her to hockey and trashy TV. And I was like, what trashy TV are we talking here? Oh, man.

We watch so much shit. any of the Netflix like dating shows like we're currently love is blind as I got a new season but the one that I think is probably

the biggest like rabbit hole for us is that we're a 90 day fiancee family so we watch 90 day we watch all the spin-offs like we've been on that show since like the second season

OG fans do yeah and we try to describe it to people and it really does sound like like you're insane it's like yeah it's a show you know these guys they go to Thailand

they try to find a wife they're like 60 but rich and it's really funny and you're just like, no, that sounds terrible. That sounds like trafficking. Wish I find myself, when I'm pitching those shows, like Love Island, for example, which I adore. But when you're hard pitching those shows to friends

is when you really start hearing yourself and you're like, listen, I have no problem that I enjoy this show, but I need to chill out a little bit on me trying to get other people on board because it just comes off way too insane. It comes off as way too insane. But it's become a cottage and just, Street. Like, there was a point in which every sports writer stopped talking about Bruce Springsteen and started talking about The Bachelor.

I don't know when it happened, but it had happened. And it's a world we're living in. Yeah, it became an acceptable thing to like, let your freak flag fly and be like, yeah, I watch Love is Blind. I binge it. I knew, I knew there was a big shift when HBO, or Max, or whatever we're calling it, made F-boy Island. HBO was like The pillar of like Sunday night Homebox office premier Once they dipped into the mud I was like oh there's no going back Like Max is now doing this shit

We're dead It's unbelievable Like you made the wire Yeah Yeah You made the wire and the Sopranos And now you're making F Boy Island It's unbelievable

I was going to say Are you prepared to talk about Star Wars This entire time Yeah We could easily Do you watch the animated stuff I, you know, I, I, I did not watch, I don't watch the bad batch. Oh, okay, yeah.

But I watched, uh, I, I, I went back and watched a lot of the Clone Wars stuff. Yeah, Clown Wars is sick. Rebels, I was kind of off and on, but I, I was one of those shows that I sort of followed the recaps of. Um, so I was when all that shit was, was, was in, uh, Soca, like, I, I knew it. I knew what I was watching. But yeah, man, like, it's, yeah, I'm just a huge star Wars. Because I think my big question. are you watched Obi-Wan. Yeah. I'm currently watching.

Yeah. And loving. Did you like it? I did only because like, here's the thing. One of the toughest things about art is sometimes you have to get past the thing that you want to see when you realize they didn't make it. So my Obi-Wan show would be like,

give me him on Tatooine. He's just a dirty old fuck and he's miserable and he's it's all just about, it's like, quiet. like watching a samurai movie. It's like there's not a lot of dialogue. You just see him go through his day to day. He's occasionally, you know, helping out the jahuas or some shit. Everyone calls him Ben. Right. And so like they didn't make that show. And that's fine. Like I had to get past that. Once I did, then it became pretty cool. And again, like... That took me two episodes. Right.

I was not prepared for the hijinks of Ben Kenobi and a little Leah. And I did not enjoy it at first. And I was like, you know what? Embrace it. Get past it. And I did. And I'm now enjoying it very much. Sure. Because you were like... that they finally hit on a formula, which is a kind of character and a child. Yes. And they go on adventures. Yes.

And now we, that's how we'll do this story now. Here's what's going on. Yeah. And then, no, but I mean, like,

see it in, see it in, see it and, see, that one thing that you're just like, this is fucking dope. And, like,

seeing Hayden Christensen back was just dope. Oh, my God. His reaction at ComicCon. Did you see that? Yeah. Like, he's crying. And I'm actually having an NHL story. A Hayden Christian,

an NHL story. So, I think it was at the 2010 Olympics. Okay. The NHL put on this, like, gigantic party. Yeah. And it was like one of those things where you go to it and, like, there's a red carpet and fucking John Ham's there and all this other shit. And there was like, there was like women walking around, uh, topless, but they were painted.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Nice work. Does that count? Nice work. Yeah. Seeing, seeing a naked painted chick next to Lanny McDonald was a real juxtaposition. But anyways.

So Hayden Christensen shows up with Rachel Bilsing. because you're dating at that point. Yeah. Like, this is kind of cool. So they walk in and they go up to, like, the balcony where, like, the VIPs are. And, like, he's got his back to this railing. It's a bunch of hockey fans and hockey people. And we're all sous at that point.

Yeah. And this one hockey guy goes, hey, Hayden. And, like, Hayden, Christensen kind of looks over his shoulder at this guy on the floor because he's on the second deck. And this guy goes, You ruined them. The prequels. Oh, Jesus Christ.

And I'm like, oh, God. My first thought was, A, he's there with Rachel Billson. Feel terrible about that. B, this is this guy's existence. Yeah. Like, no matter where he goes, he's getting it. So to see him get, like, the redemption arc in, like, Star Wars media, it makes me so happy. He felt it.

You could tell. Oh, yeah. It made me emotion, man. It was unbelievable. That's awesome. And then, okay, my last Star Wars question before we get more into hockey stuff. Have you watched Zach Snyder's Rebel Moon? No, I didn't, because I heard how fucking terrible it was.

I'm so glad you haven't, so I can be the one to tell you, don't you dare ever watch that piece of trash movie. It's the most insulting thing I've ever watched. I mean, it's part one, though. Are you going to watch part two to see how the rebels save the moon or whatever? I wouldn't put my worst enemy through it. I can hate watch stuff, but that was just, it's insulting. Don't watch it.

It's unbelievable. Are you a Zach Snyder fan? I will ride for Zach Snyder hard on a few things. Did you watch the seven-hour cut of Justice League? I sure did. Yeah, every minute. I sure did. And honestly, I didn't have that much of a problem with it.

It was better, actually. He was better. There was some good stuff in there. But for some of his movies that I really enjoyed, and then he makes something like Rebel Moon or something like, what the fuck was that bank robbery zombie movie? Oh, dude. The one in Vegas.

Yeah. Yeah. Bank of the Dead or whatever the fuck it was. Tragedy. It was like though I watch those and I'm just, I don't, I don't know who's letting him do what he's doing or. I think it's pretty clear that like once you let Zach Snyder create his own, something off of his own IP, it sucks. Yeah. If you give him a Dawn of the Dead remake, if you give him watchman, if you give him, you know, man of steel or justice league, it's not terrible. Yep. No. And I'm actually a ride or die with Man of Steel. Like, I think that's actually a really, really good flick.

I was talking about this. Two weeks ago, I think that movie is so slopped on. It's very good. It really is. And, like, it's one of those movies that definitely has gotten better once you see, like, what's come after it. Yes. Yeah. Well said. But, like, I saw it at an Alamo draft house. Six. So I'm like, that's awesome. I'm on my, like, second IPA and, like, his dad, his dad dies in the tornado.

I'm just like, God damn, I'm crying. Like, openly weeping. Do you. Superman? Then the first flight moment, would that score for Hans Zimmer? That's one of the best scenes in comic movie history. Well, let's get granular about it because here's a thing. You have to create a Superman that is going to be good enough where it's not going to be overshadowed by Christopher Reeve.

And I feel like they created one that was different enough that it wasn't. And the other thing you've got to do is you've got to create a score that is going to be able to live up against a John William Superman score from the 1970s. And that fucking Hans Zimmer drum-centric thing, I still listen to that. Same. Oh, it's on. I still listen to that. It's on my Spotify rap every single year. No joke. That flight is the name of that song. And the other one is when it's called terraforming.

It's when the God and them come. So good. Fucking, all right, boys. Let's go. Manist steel. We listen to these scores when we go skiing. Justice from Manusale. When flight comes on and I'm skiing, it's fucking dangerous.

Yeah. I'm like, here we go. Dude, it's so true. jump, yeah. I sometimes listen to scores when I'm, like, driving. Yeah. And my favorite sci-fi score of all time, so Star Trek 2, the Rathacom. Oh my God, dude. And like, I'll pop that on

in the car and I'll look at, I'm like, I'm going 90. Yeah, this is bad. I'll tell you what. And I think an officer would let you off of that. Sorry, sir, I was listening to the part where they go to the Maltaura Nebula. He's like, oh, that's allowed. Go, go, go, go.

My most recent funny driving score moment. A rare rainy day in L.A. I was driving home from a dinner at night raining and the new Batman score came on. Oh yeah. And it was like the

Ridler theme. And it's just like that opening of the movie like it's raining in Gotham City and I was driving and I was like doing the vengeance. Monologue in my head. D-dun, tune, tune. Literally. So you just drive yourself like, Alfred. Like holy shit

did you. Yeah, he calls me. I'm like, what are you doing a voice dude? What's happening? I'm like turning down dark alleys looking for criminals. It was unbelievable. All right, we're going to get off the rails here. If we don't over-correct in a second. We're here in Jersey for stadiums series. Had the Devils Flyers last night,

huge win for the Devils, wanted to talk to you about where you think they are right now because they're in critical mode here. Needing wins. That was a huge two points yesterday. And you recently wrote, you think they have a chance with the heartbeat of the fans being so palpable with Jack back in the lineup Nico's buzzing again you think there's a chance of them getting that third spot in the met

not only make in playoffs but maybe yeah make the playoffs so I think they're going to catch the flyers too like I think the flyers the bubble will eventually pop but every time I say that they win four in a row I thought it was going to pop obviously with the goaltending situation yeah Carter Hart and it just hasn't you're right like they just won four straight and I was but It may not necessarily be a thing where they're bubble pops. I mean, I think it's just the thing where the devil's, the devils are one of those teams, the Oilers are one of them too, where like if you look and like two weeks later, they're like, they've won seven of eight, you're just like, oh, that checks.

Yep. Like, they're that kind of team. And so, like, if you look when Jack came back after the All-Star break, they've actually played really well even in their losses. Like, that game against the Kings, they squandered that the other day. Yeah, a great good goaltending performance in that game. They just squandered it. So you could tell their feeling.

more confident. They're playing better defensively, which is the real key, because I think it's been what's kind of subverted them all season, is the inability for them to do what they did last year, which is to rush up and down the ice, but also, like, get back and take care of your own in the zone. And then, like, when Jack comes back, it kind of resets everything in the lineup a little bit. They feel more confident. They know that he's going to be good for, like, a point of game. Yep. It's just sort of, like, a psychological thing, but also an execution thing. And, like, the thing I keep coming back to is like, and it's one of the more underreported stories of the year, like they're missing Dougie Hamilton.

Yes. And they're missing their top defenseman. Could he come back before the end of the season? Well, they haven't exactly used the salary space yet. And in talking to the team, like one of the thoughts is, do you really want to use that space? Because whoever you bring in, whether it's fucking Hannafin or TANF or whoever, they're not going to be as good as Dougie Hamilton. Right. Yeah. So if there's a chance you can even get him back for like the last two years,

weeks of the season, you want to do that. The other thing about Hamilton that really came up during the stadium series, and this was kind of like a little under the radar, Lindy Ruff getting a little candid about Luke Hughes and the power play. Only downside of the double stadium series game was the power play was dog shit. Horrible. And he was talking about after the game, he said, we might be the only team in the league that has a rookie run on our power play.

Yeah. And he didn't go as far as to like throw Luke under the bus. And that's why it's bad. But he was kind of like saying, you know, we need to get the puck through. He doesn't always get the puck through. And like, you think to yourself, okay, gee, I wonder who could get the puck through on the power play. Oh, right, Dougie Hamilton, you get the fucking puck through the power play. So my point is that if they do get in and he can come back and play, there's no guarantee he can.

And they do find some semblance of goaltending, whether it's through trade or through Nico Dawes becoming this year's Akira Shmed. Like, pretty good team. Very good team. You know, and listen, you just mentioned Hanifin earlier. this Markstrom-Hannifan trade is just on the tip of everyone's tongue for the last three weeks. Let's say that does happen. And then let's say the Devils pull a LTIR thing with Dougie, like they did with Kutchev in Tampa. And then all of a sudden you get into the playoffs and you're looking at a decor of Dougie coming back and you have Dougie Hamilton, Noah Hanofin, Luke Hughes, Nemek, Siegenthau, coming back.

And you're all of a sudden like, wait, you guys have the second best decor other than Vegas in the playoffs. Like, that's a very real possibility. Markstrom's such a tough nut for me, though. I hear you. Analytically, he's been insane this year. He's been so good. Yeah. He's such an up and down roller coaster year by year guy.

Like, if I was going to be, if I was the devils and I had these assets and I'm like, I'm going to go get a goalie. Like, I would try. I'm more of a UC Saros guy than I am a Markstrom guy. Completely. Personally. Listen, it's what's available. He might not be.

Yeah, he might be. pulling the same shit as they pull with Pecorane, where they're like, we want you to mentor the kid. Yeah. And then you can't get them. And it's obviously trade partners is a big thing, too. If I'm the Devils and I'm in the market and I'm prepared to move multiple or one or two first-round picks as well as prospects for a goalie.

Yeah. I'm going to Boston first. Then I'm going to Nashville. For who? For Olmark. Yeah. You watched the playoffs last year? Yeah.

Unfortunately, I did. It was hurt. Unfortunately, I did. I know he was hurt, but still, though. At the very least, Marstrom's got a bit more of a resume in the playoffs. That's true. That is absolutely true.

And you could even, if you want to play that card, that's true too, yeah. You could go two years ago to Omar's performance, too. He has two years in a row of not great. Yeah, no, no, exactly. Would you say where the devils find themselves today? And I think this whole table agrees they're going to make the playoffs. But where they find themselves today,

do you go assign a percentage of blame on health and on goaltending? I would say health. I would say health 65% goaltending, 25% defense the rest. Yeah. Because they really,

again, like they just lost the thread defensively. You watched that team last year. You're like, they fucking solved the riddle. Yes. Like they knew how to play up and down offensively.

They used their speed. That Rangers series was a microcosm of the entire season of like skating teams out of the building but also being extraordinarily responsible in front of their goaltender. Yeah. they knew that were average of best.

And then they just lost the thread this year for some reason. Yeah, because some of those Rangers... Probably because they read their own fucking press clippings. That's who I was wondering. Yeah, because some of those Rangers games, I remember watching, a lot of Rangers fans in our office, so we were on the Devils, but it was like... So the Rangers would go, like, periods with two shots.

Like, the Devils were just so swarming. There was an Islander's game last year where I think the Islander said, like, one shot in the entire first period. I... I said multiple times last year during that series, I think the Devils could have won that series in four or five games. Yeah. Like that...

Well, yeah, because they lost their minds early because they were, like, like a bunch of babies and they didn't know what was going on. Exactly. It's very bright. Oh, my God, the playoffs. So many Rangers fans were like, we got job in that series. And I'm like, you're lucky that series went as long as it did, frankly. Like, the devil's beat the piss out of them.

Do you feel like they have, we'll talk trades in a second, but just read the devils. Do you feel like, if you're, if you are a devil's fan, but for Devils fans, is it like, we need to make a goalie move? Or are you like, you know what? I'm okay riding Dawes and hoping he gets, he becomes Akira. So there's just two answers to that. first of all, our perception of their goaltending is different than their perception of their goaltending. They really believe that, like, Akir Shmede or Nico Das could pop off and become, like,

the goalie they need. Yep. And they're very high on both those kids to the point where when I've come to them in the past and say, like, hey, what about remember, bro? Yeah. They're like, well, we like these guys. Answers in the building. I'm like, why?

And then you see Nico Dawes play the way he's playing. and you're just like, if I squint hard enough. Yep, there it is. But the other thing about the Devils, too, is that, like, you have to take the long view with them. Like, there's so much pressure to, like, try to go out and get Markstrom now or whoever, and you're, like, like, he's here's 25,

Jack and Luke are so young. Yeah. This is a marathon. Yeah. And the runway is real long for this team. So, like, there might be a goal you're not even thinking of that could pry lute. somewhere. Absolutely. And it does

feel, I mean, there's an argument to be made that even if they do make a big move like that, this doesn't need to be the year. There's no pressure of win now right now for the team. It may not even be the year. They haven't played well. Exactly. So it's interesting when you think about a lot of these possible moves that could be made at the end of the day, it's like

there isn't that pressure that's like, if you don't make the move now, you guys, your window's closed. Like, their window is barely just cracking open. You know? So it's, there's an element of patience, too, that I kind of think is like, don't make a move. You know, if you made a move for a Markstrom and it meant losing a Daz or a Shmead, I'm kind of like, damn, like, I don't know, because, you know, they're so young.

They haven't really come into their own yet. There's a chance that those guys are weapons in that, and they just need a second of time to adjust. They've also been able to make a lot of these deals without having to give up, like, the bluest of the blue chip guys that they have. I mean, Sharon Govich has become really good with Calgary, but by no means was he, an untouchable. Yeah. They got Tim O' Meyer for like fucking Billy Button Lint.

Yeah. Well, that one's interesting. Are you at all worried about the long term of that? Yes. Okay. Am I worried about the guy who was popping 40 in the Bay Area coming to Jersey, getting his sad on and now he's a 15-gold guy?

Like, yeah, I'm a little worried about that. Okay. Well, I asked, because we were talking to Pasha last night and he was like, I'm not worried long term. And I was like,

you're not. Like, this is not going well right now. So that one's interesting. explicable. I mean, yeah. It blows my mind. Yeah. I thought that was a slam dunk. So did they. Yep. Yeah. What do you, like from your eye test, what do you think it is? Because it doesn't seem like anything's clicking with it. Well, I have a very unique take on this because I lived in Campbell, California in the Bay Area for two years. My wife works for Apple. Yep. So she had to go out there to start her career. We were out there during COVID, which was a good place to be because like you could go to hiking and the relationship. It's really one of the most gorgeous places in the world, and really one of the greatest places in the world to live if you have money, which is why all those sharks guys never waved their, no trade. They just want to stay there.

So imagine your team of Meyer. And again, I'm a native of New Jersey. I love this state. If I ever had a tattoo, it'd probably be the state of New Jersey, a little bean on my body somewhere. But you're leaving the fucking Bay Area to come here. Bit of a culture shock. And it's culture shock and you're going from east to west.

And I feel like maybe he got a little boo-boo-bo-faced about the change in life. Yeah. And that's okay. Yeah. You know? So we're going to give him a season. We're going to give him this season to... You'd think he'd be happier, though, to be competing again.

You would think that. You would think that. Let's stay in the Met. I want to talk about Jake Gensel. Okay. The first question, are they dead now? Like, is any playoff push crushed? Because he's hurt?

out a month. Yeah. I mean, maybe, maybe not. Yeah. I mean, like, again,

the penguins are such a weird team because every time you want to say, it's done, they go and win a game. You're like, uh, maybe it's not. They still have a few in hand,

which I know. They have a few in hand. And the wild card in the metro is not like insurmountable. Correct. Yeah. But we also talked about last year. It's like, never bet against Sid.

Like, as long as Sid is alive, I'm never going to be like, they're out. Yeah. I don't think they're going to make playoffs, but I also won't, I won't kill them because Sidney Crosby lives.

Yeah, exactly. But like the interesting thing about Gensel is just, and maybe they get a chance to trade and maybe they don't, it's just like, like Kyle Dubus came in and the task is win now, but also think about the next thing. Yeah. And to me, when I've looked at this trade deadline, and it's really funny how like as soon as Lynn Holm and Monaghan go,

it's like all the insiders like just lost. on Gensel. It's like, now we're that's the Gensel business. Gensils for the clicks. It's so real. You can see it. But I don't blame it. I don't blame it either. Everybody's got to eat. But like, Dubas, this is going to be the first real

test of like where he is in his plan for this franchise. Agree strongly. Because I'm fascinated by it. If you hang on to him, then you're clearly still win now. You're clearly thinking that you've got to keep him around for the core in some way, shape, or form. But if you trade

it's like, all right, so this is the first step to the next thing. Yes, right after, right on the heels of bringing back everybody. You know, you're like, hey, Malc, Tangor, come on, come back. We're all going to keep doing this. Just kidding. It didn't work. Gensel's gone. We're done.

And you're like, oh, no. But again, that's what's separated from, like, Hextall. It was Hextall came in with, like, Brian Burke, and they're just like, win now. And they're like, okay, that's our task. Yeah. But, like, the Fenway group was always just like, hey, Kyle, you know, you're here for the short term, but you're also here for the long term. Yep.

And I think that's a very interesting balancing act and B, going to be fascinating to see what that means for some of these guys. And if I'm dubus, like, you know, if Gensel goes, like, that's part of a longer conversation about guys that have term. Brian Rust, you know, other players that you could, like, ship out maybe get a little younger around the core that's there and make another go of it. But, I mean, I don't know. It's tough. It's super tough. Yeah. I don't need to open this door again, but, you know, we got into a big thing on the pod and on Twitter,

not talking about saying that we think it was going to happen, but we were saying if the penguins, you know, if they're having discussions and they can't bring back Gensel, maybe a trade is on the board. And we were saying, I wonder if there's ever a world where Sid could leave. Like, pull a, obviously he has his three cups, but pull a Ray Bork, you know, pull a, uh, I laugh because, like, I think we all know that if he goes where he could go. Yes, there's one team. And he'd be literally pulling a Ray Bork. You'd be literally.

That's why I say it. I know. It's great. And obviously, tons of Penguins fans were like, you know, fuck you. No way. He would never do that. He's too classy, blah, blah, blah. But one thing that I found funny was the comments of people being like,

Sid wouldn't have begged those guys to come back if he was just going to leave. And my response to that was, well, first of all, I'm not saying that Sid is just going to up and be like, fuck you trade me. I think it would be a longer conversation with the team, with management. But my bigger point was when Sid said, Gino, Tanger, come back, they bring in Carlson, I don't think they thought they were going to be in this position. No. That's the biggest thing that Penguins fans aren't acknowledging is like, that trade happened. and everyone was like, uh-oh, look out Metro. And we, along with a lot of other people,

we're like, I don't think this makes you as much better as you think. Right. And here we are, we're almost 60 games into the season, and they aren't great. They're in seven. But he thought his best chance, I talked to him at the players tour about this. Like, he thought his best chance to win was to bring those guys back.

Yeah. And then to import someone like Carlson. Yeah. Because, I mean, to Sid's credit, he wants to win in Pittsburgh. Yes. And to Sid's credit, I think he wants to finish his career in Pittsburgh.

Yep. That being said, he's also, as you guys know, like the single most competitive person outside of Nathan McKinnan. Thank you, my biggest thing, and again, we can move off from this because we've talked about it enough, but my biggest thing is if Sid playing at a 90-point pace still at this age

is staring down the barrel of the penguins being like, we're probably going to miss the playoffs for the next three years. It's not that outlandish to see him being like, it would benefit you the team to move me and get a lot for me and me to let me see if I can try to win somewhere. Wow, the reverse Matt Sundeen. I appreciate it. I like that. I just think it's as much as it hurts, if the penguins go, we're not making playoffs. I just think that there is a world where that could happen. Do you think they'll sell this deadline? It really depends on how many points out they are. Yeah. It really depends.

they, if they go on a bad fall with Gensel out. Like, I love, I just, I'm going back to, I love the idea of Sid being like, you know, hey, I did all I can't. I'm going to, I'm going to lead him now. And like, let's hang looking at cat friendly is like, wait, what the fuck? Yeah. What about me? Yeah. What do I do?

I'm still here. We were, we were joke, obviously, this would never. We were joking if, like, that ever happened. And then the penguins were just like this, all right, yeah, we're trading Gino. We're training Tanger. We're trading Carlson. We're trading, like, they just fire sale, get a zillion picks for them. I mean, it's not a bad, dude, like, it's not a bad idea.

There's definitely teams that would take Gino on. There's obviously teams that would take Letang on. Yep. And Carlson. Like, like, he's got a bit of an albatross. He's got a bit of a ticket. But like, you can see Latang finishing his career in Montreal. Yeah, definitely.

Florida has always had it kind of a hard on for Gino to come down and play there and be with Bob. That'd be scary. So, like, I mean, you could. Yeah. You absolutely could. Sign Gensel. Build around Gensel. Like, you know, get a bunch of prospects.

You could give Gensel his ticket. Are you boys like, are you boys, where are you on Gensel? Because I'm like, I'm like he's 60% Coonitz. Yes, okay. That's my fear. Yeah. Like his, first of all, I want to give him his flowers because you talk about the Posternat contract, you talk about the Nealender contract, and I look at Gensel, and

frankly, from a points perspective, you could argue Gensel's been better than Nealander for the last three, four years. Gensel's been a point per game guy for four straight years. and just the eye test, I think he is a great player. Sure. But the eye test also comes with him playing with arguably the greatest player of our generation. The eye test also goes to, you know, natural stat trick where you can do the with or without thing. It's like, time with Crosby, a billion minutes.

Yes, exactly. Time without Crosby. I'm honestly not sure he exists without Crosby. I legit think. But that's a tough thing. Like, obviously, I make the Cunitz joke. We all know Cunits without Crosby is like, okay. But Gensel, if nothing else, has shown that he can play with high on talent.

So if you take him and put him with Pedersen. Fair point. In Vancouver, it's like he might just do the same thing. Yes. I mean, it's not, I don't want to say he's a product of Crosby, but you're always going to have that in the back of your mind. Like, those numbers come from somewhere. And to your point, if you're the penguins and you're looking at resigning him,

and regardless of the trading those guys, they'll retire at some point. You do have to ask, like, is he the guy you can build around, or do we need to make sure we have a center that he is going to be able to drive. Can he drive a line? Exactly. And to me, that's the point of demarcation

between him and Pasternak. Yeah. Like we're seeing what Pasternak can do as far as like whoever the fuck you put at center. Yep. And then King Gensel do the same thing. Yes, absolutely. It's very, very interesting.

My, before I move on to something else, I do want to say we're talking about you think the devil's going to make the playoffs. What is it about the Islanders that you think is going to have them get jumped? I don't, I don't think. So when you hire a new coach, you need to give that guy a little bit of runway. You need to have a chance for him to put a stamp on the team. You see what's happening in like St. Louis and places like that, where once you get past that, like, first month, then they start to kind of, like,

round into form. I think they made the change too late. Yeah. Yeah. And the other part of it, too, is, like, I all due respect to Mr. Lamarillo. But I've always figured that this is a construction versus coaching. problem on Long Island. Like that group, it's got some talent. It's got some players that I really like. It's got great goaltending. But like, ever since the COVID seasons, it's been the law of the

commission returns that group. And he loves them, but I don't love him as much as Lou does. And maybe Patrick Wazza, the guy to like whip him in the shape or that roster is inherently flawed. And you, you know, you come back next year with maybe a different look, same coach, and you're better. Yeah. I just don't trust them to be a playoff team. I'm with you completely. But the same reason. Me too. I've said forever that I'm like,

there's just that crew doesn't do it for me. And they haven't done it on the icy way. And he's in love with him. Yep. He really is. He's always had a problem with killing his darlings. Like he loves, he's a guy like Jim Rutherford.

He'd like reacquire his players. Yeah, yeah. Loves his guys. When he was hired, he was like, Waw was always the guy. And it's like, you hear that and you're kind of like, why?

Like, nothing against, law, but it's like... Well, that's an easy one. It's a devil's fan. Yeah. Like, you know how, like, people, there's always people that, like, are obsessed with the royal family. Yeah.

And just, like, why? Why are you someone to the royal family? I'm just like, I don't know. Like, and they're, like, listening to the fucking Megan Markle podcast and shit. Like, they're just obsessed. Like, Lou is obsessed with the Canadians. Yeah. Always.

Yeah. And there it is. Hiring Jacques Lamar. Hiring Larry Robinson. Like, acquiring, you know, Stefan Rischet and Claude Lemieux. And, like, he's always been obsessed with the Havs. Yeah. And this is just part of it.

part of the other Pokemon for the collection. Yeah, and he's like finally getting Wob back. He's like,

I did it. I finally reclaimed him. Yeah, outside of exhuming you know, Maurice Richard, like this is the best way to do it.

So we were talking about Crosby, talking about the Penguins, multiple Stanley Cup winner. I want to talk about another one,

Phil Kessel. Yeah. Do you see this becoming a NHL contract with him in Vancouver? Do you see him getting back in the league here?

I do for for a few reasons. One is that, you know, obviously Jim Rutherford's got a real affinity for him. And, you know, as long as he shows he's in some sort of game shape in the A, I think he'll eventually get to the NHL. Two, I think people really slept on the fact that, like, Rick Tockett was once the Phil Kessel whisperer. Yeah. And if anybody's going to get anything out of this guy, it's going to be Tockett. And three, he doesn't need to play.

Part of the thing that makes Phil Kessel's special. is that he's one of the greatest locker room guys imaginable. And he was that in Vegas when he wasn't playing. We all see him a certain way, but the boys see him in a different way. And honestly, if you're Vancouver, I mentioned this the other day, if you have J.T. Miller, who is like Tommy Lee Jones

with a migraine as far as like... He'll snap it at any moment. His comportment. Yeah. You need to counterbalance that with a schlub. A lovable show. Yeah. Yes.

And so everything in balance, I think having him in the locker room ultimately helps them, especially as the tension starts building and the expectations get more. Like, it's all been gravy for them so far. But eventually you get to the playoffs and now it gets real. It's an adverse. Okay. So completely agree with all of that. I think another thing that's slept on is I don't think people really realize how few of

these guys on this Vancouver team have had legitimate playoff. Yeah. J.T. is really one of the big dogs who's been through it. Yeah. And having a guy like Phil who has multiple cups was just with Vegas and is like, listen, I can tell you guys what it's going to take to go four rounds here. That's totally a thing. And then I look at Vancouver this year a lot like the Devils last year,

where it was like the Devils were on cruise control last year. They were just buzzing from start to finish. Obviously, you had that great series with New York, but then you get to the second round, a little more adversity, and you're in uncharted waters and you're like, I don't know what to do here. and Vancouver's going to run into that same thing. So many of these guys have never been in the playoffs.

They don't know what a deep run looks like. So bringing in a guy that is a great relationship with talk, who knows what it takes to win, and is just such a good personality to have a round. I think it only does wonder for them. I think you're right. And I think, like, the way it's tracking, I mean, they could end up playing L.A. in the first round.

I was what to say, nightmare matchups in the middle of the round. I mean, like, you've never been there, and you're playing Copatard, Audi, you know, to know, like, all these old hands. And you're just like, you need to have a little bit of sage advice in that room. Yeah. It's funny to think about, like, Phil Kessel being our rings in the room guy. Yeah, yeah.

Like, Phil, tell us the secrets to winning the Stanley Cup. He's like, shah, you know, I, I don't. Drink a bunch of Coca-Cola. Just fucking hang out, dude. Like, that's honestly what it's going to think. But that's the type of stuff. I remember Eichel telling him, he does such a funny castle impression. Oh, my God.

Oh, he does a great. He does a great. It's so good. They're stretching before games. five last year in the finals and he's like boys I'm not flying back to Florida like we gotta do it tonight shit like shit like that

it's so underrated yeah it's so underrated to have a few those guys in there and like and he's he's great for it and not to mention he can he's the type of player like you said he doesn't need to play that much yeah Russell could win you one playoff game yeah because he scores two goals in eight minutes you know you're like fuck yeah you said it best I pause on that yeah I don't know how much he has left

okay that's a that's a that was my next thought I think that's it like you said it best, he's, he's not going to be the guy if he signs. Yeah. And he's not in the lineup. He's not going to have a problem with that. No. And he is that guy. If you get into a deep playoff run here and you get a couple knocks here and there in the lineup and he has to suit up for four or five games, that's great. Eight minutes stick him on the half wall. Absolutely. I mean, that's, that's what he is at this point, but that might be enough. Yeah, absolutely. It's like, I think it's, I like it. You know, it's just like, it's a guy that's going to be a good voice in the locker room and if emergency situation happens and you need to throw him in for a few

games, that's great. I'm happy to throw Phil Kessel into a lineup for four games. Yeah, no big deal. I was surprised, and I guess this maybe made sense. I shouldn't have been surprised, but talks initial comments about it because everyone was asking him, like, you know, what do you think? And he was kind of like, well, we'll see what he's got. I haven't seen him skate yet. And I was like, oh, damn. Like, I kind of thought he was going to be like, we're excited to have him around. That is one of those funny things, right? It's like, you said when we started this topic of what playing shape he's in, like, we're not talking about Elya Kovalchuk

here. Like this Phil's 36. You know? And Phil was never in the best shape. Right.

He'd be the first to tell you that. And had the game streak and everything like he's, look, he's, he's in the sunset

of his career. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. But I mean, like, I think it's fair to say like, if he's,

if he's good enough to go, he'll make the NFL roster, but like, they're not looking for him to play top six wins. Oh yeah, oh yeah, for sure.

I was dying. The one video they released, it's like him coming down round two at practice, like nice little pass or whatever. And then they got a back check and he's like, gassed coming back. So I was like, this is the video? You post it.

Yeah, exactly. You know, but again, that was the best one. That's the take you used. But again, like, all, the cards are on the table for everybody. Like, everybody knows what he is at this point. That makes it better. Yeah, absolutely. We talked Marks from a little bit already.

And I want to say the Lindholm deals, the Monaghan deals, count this batch. But last year's deadline felt super fun. Yeah. but so much action. How are you feeling about this year's deadline? Do you think we'll see a ton of movement, or is it going to be more depth moves and less splashy big plays?

I mean, we're going to see some stuff. Obviously, like the UFA's everybody's talked about will get moved. I think we'll probably see, you know, Henrique be the next center that moves. And that'll be interesting. You know, one of the possibilities, I don't like it, but it's the Rangers.

Oh, yeah. I mean, like, veteran guy, versatility. I think Rangers in Boston are too, ones for him. Yeah. Henrique on the Rangers is just like, oh, I don't know, man. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. That's just, that's itch, dude. Yeah. That's a little ick. Yeah.

But like the goalie market's the real fascinating one because you do have teams that need to add to their group. And the one that's going to really be, the one that's going to make this either a banger of a deadline or a dud of a deadline is Flurry. Yeah. Like if the

wild think they're out, if Flory goes to Garin is just like, I want to go move and, you know, it's Colorado picking him up or, or, you know, somebody with their eyes and the cup picking him up, then it could get real fun. Yeah. Like, that's a real fun move. Him joining, like, a tandem somewhere. Yeah. But overall, like, just the names aren't there.

Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Right. Yeah. I mean, like, I was talking to Sean Walker in the locker room the other day from the flyers and just like, you know, hey, you know, how are you handling all the buzz about the trade deadline? He's just like, yeah, it's kind of weird. Yeah. Right.

name out there and then I'm like thinking to myself this is fucking Sean Walker this is the bell of the ball of the deadline right now like no disrespect to Sean Walker but like this is not like the game changer it's it's true man it's interesting too we we talked about that with uh with a USA it's like that doesn't really happen that much anymore guys don't hit UFC as often so it's it's very very interesting when you think about what are the names that could be moved I remember at the beginning of the year we were talking all about Shifley and Hellebuck yeah and now look at these two their stuff was there the jets are unbelievable and they're signed long term and here you go. Like they're going for a cup now. So it's

like, Jesus. Again, it depends on who's in and who's out and it depends on injuries. That's why the Rangers is so fascinating right now because they've always needed another center. And now with Wheeler being out, they clearly need a wing. Yeah. So they're going to, they're going to do some, they're going to do something. Yeah, they have to. And it's going to be a lot of fun when they do. Yeah. And I do think there's a bit of a reactionary move when teams start that arms race, right? Like, you know, the Canucks get Lindholm, the Jets get Monaghan, and now other teams in the West are like, well, fuck, we got to hang it. But that's also a product of, like, not getting your guy.

Like, the Jets were way down the line on getting Linholm. Oh, really? And they didn't get him. Yeah. And so Monaghan was a very good plan B, but plan B nonetheless. So a lot of this stuff is very much like if one guy moves that you want, now you've got to go to your plan B and now someone else is going for that plan B too. And that's what really gets Domino's falling around this time of year.

Yeah, yeah. That's cool. Which is crazy. I really love the article you do when you talk about awards. You do that cool little awards thing with some of the other writers. And you had one recently that I loved. I just mentioned Hellebuck. But want to hear your take on what it would take for Hellebuck to steal MVP this year.

Oh, shit. You know, he's got a lane. Yeah. Because I think he gets the lion's share of the credit for what the Jets are doing defensively, which honestly isn't fair to bonus and isn't fair to like, how good their D has been, like, as a team. But, like, when they're this good defensively, and they're, like, last check they were leading the league

in goals against, like, he's going to get that credit. Yep. And, you know, if the Jets are surprised, they're great defensively, he's the best goal in the league, there's a lane for him to be a finalist and maybe even take the thing. And what's interesting about the MVP race right now is, like, McKinnon at the last check on the awards watch

was leading. Yeah. Now Matthews can't stop scoring hat-tricks. Right? So now he's going to be in the conversation. Kutrov is still an absolute unit. And then Kutrov's like outpacing his heart trophy. It's crazy. Yeah.

So like you're going to have a few forwards kind of safing votes off of each other. So there's a lane for him to be there. Problem being is that like it's always hard for like a guy from Winnipeg to win an award. Yeah. Yeah. And so that might work against him. But there's a possibility that he could get that kind of road. And is Kri Price?

Is he the last one to do it from gold? Price was the last one to do it. And the guy before the guy, the guy, only guy, before him was Jose Theodore and then the rest of it was Hashek. Which was a The Jose Theodore MVP year was insane. Insane. Because it was like half a year of work.

That was the craziest award I've ever seen in my entire one. It's crazy. Yeah. And because Kerry Price, but he led everything. Right? Like he led every category. So is that would, would hellie have to have the top number in everything? Is that the only way? He would. But the other problem is that like Carrie Price also had the Canadian exceptionalism thing.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, like, Hella Buck, Hellobuck's great, but, like, he doesn't, he's not, he's not on a pedestal like Carrie Price was. And so when Carrie Price did that, then it's like, oh, you did that. And you bought gold medals to us, and you are a golden to God. And we water you. All hail the hats. Exactly. And they got the haps thing too, right.

They were really, really good. And the Jets are great. And then the other one, we've talked a lot about this. What do you think the chances are of Faber stealing Calder from Bedard? Man. Which pisses me off I want your take But it pisses me off

Because I'm like Faber's the Rookie of the Year In my opinion You think so? I do And it's I don't

I don't either I think he's See The hell of the year See we're running The risk of having Another Morgan Riley To be here

With this The Battle Line's drawn Yeah Yeah This new boys of your day I'm like Holy shit World War III broke out

But You know like Faber was already Closing the gap Before Bredard got hurt And it was people recognizing the ice time, the role he played. That's my biggest thing. Right. Like he's, he's, he's been great. Yeah, like he's

stepped up monumentally with Brodine and with Spurgeon out. Like playing every situation. Yeah. That being said, like, Bardard's come back a little bit early. Yeah. He hasn't missed a beat. Yep. Yeah. And I think ultimately, favor is going to have to overcome the sort of like manifest destiny of Baudard being rookie of the year and the fact that Bedard's going to have the numbers. Like, he's going to end up leading all rookies and points and goals. And so it doesn't become the situation we had a few years ago where Panarin beats

McDavid because McDavid so much time. And McDavid has the points for game argument, but Panarin has the other stats. Like, Bardard's going to be leading in all the major categories. Once that happens, it's going to be hard for not to win. And it's, it's, it's just so, like, if you think that the N. NHL isn't going to be like this. It would be great for us if Connor Badawin's working of the year. Like, give me a break. They already missed him

at All-Star. I just think it's almost an impossible mountain. He would literally have to score more points, right? Like, that's the only way. I don't think that that's true. He's a defenseman. That's a totally different thing. But when defensemen win, it's because they're offense. Yes, but I'm saying, I don't

think he needs to have more points necessarily. If he's close to him, though, even with the games missed by Bidard, I think it becomes a conversation. Yep. It'll be a conversation. I mean, like, the last awards watch we did, like, before Bernard came back, it was a dead heat. It was 50-50. I mean, and we poll over like two dozen voters.

I mean, it's not like it's an anomaly. But, I mean, the two months before that, Bredard was unanimous. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, fair. So, like, clearly there are people that are just like, I don't know if he doesn't come back. Maybe it's favor. But, like, he came back and he's still Badares. Yeah.

So to your point, like, he just looks great already again. That's the other thing from me. And you know him, because he's got that competitive edge, too. I think he's going to look at these, you know, they're obviously not making playoffs, and he's going to look at these last 20 games and be like, just fucking light it on fire these last 20 games. And when he does that, it's over when he shots a game. He does not have to play a moment of defense for the next few months. And no one will care.

Go out there and play juniors. And that's what he's going to do. He's going to do with his little bubble on and he's going to be unbelievable. So we're fucked. Incredible. The Faber crowd, we're fucked. Faber nation rides up He needs you

Where are we? Another article series You guys have been doing Is the top ten Right? You do the poll top ten goals Oh yeah Yeah so let me explain that one

Because some people get confused So we poll 10 Ten current players And ten Hockey Operations people So coaches, GMs People in front offices And then combine those things

Because usually it's like There's like Player polls And you get like A sense of them and then like LeBron will email the 32 guys and the GMs all do their like thing. I'm like, well, what if you took the jelly and the peanut butter? Yeah.

And you put it together and made a delicious sandwich called the positional rankings. You cut the crust off and had a day. So mine is kind of like the players and the execs, how do they feel about it? And it ends up being kind of an interesting list. So we did the goalies and the defensemen first. The wingers and the centers are next. and it's kind of an interesting glimpse at like how both sides of the coin see it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to ask you a question about both because those two are out. So the goalie one, I'm going to read the top 10, but hasn't read it.

In order. Top 10. Bit of a shit show, but please go ahead. Kelly, Vassie, Demko, Shestey, Sorokin, Otter, Soros, sway, Bob, Olmark.

That's the top 10. Right. So some notable misses right away, Markstrom, which you would mention in the article. Hill, I thought was interesting, just considering his numbers this year, Jerry's an incredible defending champs.

Shocking. The Hill is not mentioned. And weigh in on all of that, please. But the main thing I wanted to bring up is one goalie who didn't receive a single top 10 vote, Stewart Skinner. And I'm like, oh, damn, dude. Because we have had that conversation on this very program many times. And like we did the voting in January.

Yeah. So it was during the oilers revival. They're on a heater. Yeah. And he's playing ungodly during that heater. He's playing really, really well. and obviously Markstrom's playing really well too. I think with the goalie one,

and again, like, we only had one active goalie amongst the players voting. It just shows the gap between what the goaltending community thinks, what the numbers say, and what the perception is of people in the game. Because like any goalie,

I talked to a few goalie analysts, and they're just like, how the fuck is Markstrom not on this list? And you look at his fancy stats, and you're like, you're like, how the fuck is Markham on this list? Totally. And then you talk to 20 guys that are in league, and Markstrom isn't on the list. So there's a perception difference, I think, what you see on that list.

I think in Hill's case, it's definitely games played. Sure, yep. And then in Skinner's case, I mean, I just feel like maybe it's the roller coaster ride of Stuart Skinner that makes you not want to put them on. And maybe it's also maybe a little bit of the work history, too. I mean, look at the guys that make the list. I mean, like, Odinger's not been great this year. I don't think he's a top ten goalie this year.

Saros hasn't been a top ten goalie, but if you look at his last two months from last season, you're like, okay, that guy could just get on a rock. Yeah. And I wish, I think a really great contrast to what you're saying about Markstrom is Chesty this year. Yeah. I mean, like, he makes the list easy. And you look at those numbers and I'd be like, this guy stinks this year.

How is, but is like, outplayed by a 50-year-old. Yeah. And, but like, to your point, or what we're saying about Markstrom is like, the players. do you talk about him? And he's like, no, he's, like, this guy could turn it on at any moment and go nuclear like he did three years ago. Yeah. So, I mean, that's, but it says a lot about Skinner to me where I'm like, because we've had that, we've asked that question so many times is he, is that a problem in Edmonton,

can you win with him? You want to talk about Olmarks playoff performance. I mean, that's the one thing with the Oilers. I look at how good the Oilers are, and I'm like, they still have Skinner and that. People in the league aren't, so. It's not like, it's not like one thing where we're saying that, but people in the league are like, oh, no, he's top 10. You're doing this poll, and no one's, no one's mentioning his name. That's why you'd feel a lot better if they ended up getting somebody to tandem with them. Yeah, that's better than what they have. No, the goalie list was really interesting, but I mean, it does kind of speak to when you think about the Vesna each year and how that award sometimes just like, who has the most wins.

Yeah. You know, it kind of like brings it home that the way that we evaluate goalies, the way the goalies evaluate themselves is different than the way that a lot of people do. But the results were, it wasn't as if there wasn't a lot of. a lot of guys that didn't belong there. Yeah, no. And ultimately, it led to, I think, the top two guys being the top two guys who I think were Helibuck and Vassie. And Demko.

Oh, I think Demko was three. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, but the top of list is great. It's just a 10 great goalies. Yeah. I want to get into the defense list. Oh, please. Because I'm a big defense guy.

Yep. Okay. So the top 10 on this list was Kale, Quinn, Miro, Adam Fox, McAvoy, Hedman, Yosey, Slavin, Morrissey, and Drew Doughty, which pumped me up. Yep. Because I actually went. You like that?

Yep. I went on a rant earlier this year about how underrated and slept on his season is. Because he's playing phenomenally, and he's eating minutes, and he's just carrying so much of that defense, especially through these tough times. But almost more than the goalies for me, obviously there's less goalies. But there was a lot of notable names not on this list. Carlson, Tanger, Dahlene, Dobson. but two that I really wanted to bring up is Patrangelo and Che Theodore.

Yeah, both of them didn't make it. Yes. Which I thought was weird. And they both received votes, but not enough. So I don't know what that's about. Petro is a weird one because, like, we had more players in the West than the East in our pool this year.

Voting, you mean? Voting, yeah. But more execs in the East. More execs from the East and the West. Yeah, that was cool. And it was just weird to see. see him not make the cut because you just assume he will, especially them coming off the cup. Yeah. Now, is that like Vegas hate? Yeah, fair. Okay. Maybe. So what I think is going on,

and you've been big on this, last year, heading into the playoffs with some injuries and stuff, I felt like people were kind of sleeping on Vegas. Yeah. And I think people are sleeping on Vegas again. And their D is just so crucial to their success that I'm like, dude. So I'm looking at my phone because I wanted to see, we have the centers coming out soon. Yeah. And I wanted to see where Eichel ended up. And he did make the top 10. No fucking spoiled.

He's ninth. Okay. Okay. Now, it could be right. Yeah. When you see the guys that are in front of them, it feels right. Yeah. But like, there's certainly vagus backlash. Like, there's a lot, not a lot of teams that like them. Oh, yeah. Now, the

Doughty thing was interesting because this is why I love doing these lists is because, like, You know, I have my own perception of good and bad in this league. But the reason that I love doing this job is because I ask guys that are playing or that are smarter than me, like, what's actually happening on the ice. So when you see some of the boys put Dowdy up on their list and you're like, oh, okay. So we all think at times he's cooked. Yeah. And we all think at times he's running on reputation.

But the boys think he's good. Yes. And you're like, all right, that makes sense. Yep. He's still got it. Yeah. You know, the guys who know, no, and then, you know, that makes you feel better about doing these lists. Yeah, absolutely.

I think. Because if it was writers doing it? Yep. Muffucker might not make the top 20. Yeah. Oh, 100%. You're so right. I feel like people are so quick to call people washed.

Yeah. And it is the perspective you get when you, I mean, it's gone now. But I'd say up until two years ago, Sasha Barcove was just another one of these guys that without the players, always being like he is the most underrated guy alive. Bergeron went through that too. People were like, yeah, he's all right. And then you get the player polls come out and you talk to anyone and they'll be like,

that guy is fucking unbelievable. You need to put respect on his name. And it makes all of us be like, oh shit, maybe take a closer look. And then you see... So as a defense guy, how did you feel about Morrissey making the list? Because that was even more surprising for me than Dowdy was.

I really love his game. Yeah. I was big on him last year. and was huge. I was beating that drum to anyone who would listen of saying, like, watch this guy's game. I was very, very critical on his defensive side of the game.

That's something that I wanted to look at this year. I think it has improved, and I think that shows in their results. But to see the players putting him in top 10 was surprising to me. Can I ask you a question about that? Do you think... I like it, but I was like, oh, shit.

You would mention this with the Calder thing a second ago, but do you think a lot of people's polling for the D is based on their offense. Like, how much are they thinking about their D game? Or are they like, God, that guy produces points? I got to put him on the list. I mean, Carlson didn't make it. Dahlene didn't make it.

That's the guy who, that was real, because we did it last year, and Dahlene made the cut. And he's only gotten better since that. Yeah, yeah. And to me, that's more like maybe like Buffalo's dog shit. It's stank, yeah. And maybe he's off the radar a little bit for that for people. But like, that was the one.

that surprised me because I feel like his upward trajectory as far as being like an elite defenseman was was tracking yeah yeah and then he he kind of like regressed off the list a big one for me was seeing I feel I think um Miro and Dahlene had I think identical points last at that yeah and we did our little top 100 and I was like I think Mero's better than Dahlene yeah and the NHL's top 100 came out Dahlene was above Mero and I was like I think Miro is a way better I think so too and to see that was very valid validating for me because I was like Miro is lights out so I always get shit from Dallas people because I took a real hard stand against Sergei Zuboff being in the Hall of Fame they're just like

Dallas never gets any respect like respect on Dallas and then when I see the way that that Miro's treated I'm like you know that kind of makes sense because he's so fucking good and and again like that's why I love doing these top tens because because the players and the execs put respect on him he's like third I think he was ahead of Fox yeah and and and and you know again if if it's like other people outside the market doing it, he probably isn't the third best defenseman in the league. I like the headman love too because I think there are some clowns who think he's cooked.

And I'm like, you got it. Same thing. They're like, yeah, he's so nasty. Well, he's become one of these defensemen who in the first few months of the season every year, his analytics are garbage. Yeah. And you're just like, oh, he's, what's going on here? And then, like, he eventually turns his season around.

But the other thing about, about headman that's fascinating is like, one, he's carrying so much fron. for that team and has been since McDonough left. Yeah. And then two, like, I mean, people forget. He had the perfect, like, sidekick in Jan Ruda for, like, the longest time. And then he's gone. And then he's just, you know, playing with some randos and different partners here and there.

And, you know, there was a time, too. I think who's the guy? Was that Matt Carl, I think, was down there too? Yeah. Yeah. Him and Matt Carl had sick chemistry. Yeah. He has his guys, and they eventually leave.

and he has to kind of like rethink things. He always does, but it takes a little bit of time to kind of like recalibrate. We were, this poll will be, that one will be interesting to me because we were laughing that it feels like the last few years, teams with a solid decor can make the good runs.

And to have Vegas not have a defenseman in the top 10, if they all get healthy and then Vegas goes back to back, we'll all laugh and be like, how the fuck do those guys not make it? My template for a cup winner is you need two good centers. Yep. Helps if one's a star. Yeah.

You need two defensemen that play upwards of two-thirds of the game. And you need a goalie that's not going to lose you a series. Yeah. And Vegas had the template. Most teams have the template. I think the only team that won recently that didn't was maybe the Capitals. Because they didn't have that second guy necessarily behind Carlson on the blue. Oh, on D.

Yeah. But they had like Backstrom Coozy, Holtby. Yeah. Like they had everything else, but they didn't have that like second defense. Vegas still has it. Yeah, totally. Like, they didn't, nothing changed, you know. That's what worries me about the Oilers.

Yeah. Like, they might have the guy that won't lose him a series in Skinner. Let's be generous. They've got two centers, obviously. Yep. Do they have a second D? Do they have one D? Like, Bouchard, I think Bouchard's amazing.

Yeah. Like, I don't think Bouchard is, he's not Petro. Bouchard is not going to shut down your top line, certainly. He might, but it's not a certainty. Like, I don't even. That's the thing about that team. Yeah. And I don't know how you get it.

I mean, like, they're not, they're, they're hard to find. Oh, yeah. That's the problem. That's why I give, I give Tampa so much credit and having made that McDonald trade when they did is because, like, they loaded up. Same thing with, with Vegas and Petro. It's like, they, they had Shea. Yeah. They're like, we need to get this other guy.

And then, and then off to the fucking races, both those franchises go. Yeah. On that topic, I think one of the most underrated moves of this year was Vancouver getting Zedoreoff. Yeah, totally. It was on, in the dark of night, no one was paying attention. And that happened. And I was like, oh my God, that was their big move. Yeah.

And it was, it's already paying off. It's unbelievable. Can you imagine if Jim Rutherford wins a third cup with a third different franchise? Are you fucking kidding me? I know. It's insane. I know. It's insane.

And they could. Yeah. Yeah. They absolutely could. If they don't freak out. Yeah, which I feel like they might. It's very much a test of nerves. Which one, I think you did this during All Stars, I think.

But you had asked, yeah, must have been all stars. You asked a bunch of the boys, um, their favorite memorabilia. So, Otter. That was fun, yeah. A signed Lungwist stick. Retrano wants a Crosby stick. Did you see Swayman's answer? He asked him, what's your favorite piece of memorabilia you could ever get?

And Sway goes, Stanley Cup would be nice. Yeah, I saw that. Unbelievable. That kid's mentality is the best in the league. He's great. He's the best. He's the best. He's the best.

He's the best. I loved reading all those answers. Everybody, I encourage them to go check it out. But we wanted to turn the question back on you. What is the coolest memorabilia you have or would love to have? The coolest memorabilia that I have So It's a random one But it's fucking funny, I think

So Do you remember when there was a minor league team in Iowa? Yes And they weren't the Iowa Wild They were the Iowa chops Oh Yeah, I have not thought of the chops in a long time So named because their mascot was a pig

They were named for pork chops I believe their ice girls were called like the cutlets or something I got an Iowa chop's jersey That's incredible And it's so random And I don't know how I came across it But like it's one of my favorite things that I own Because it's so random

Yeah Piece of memorabilia That I wish I could have It's easy The Patrick Kane puck From when he scored the cup winner The one that like documentaries have been made about like Where's a linesman

Steve Miller where that puck went That would be incredible To finally find it Who has it? Does Canter have it? Someone's got it There was an article written

On ESPN by a guy named Wayne Dreys A long time ago You could find it If you search for it He did a whole story About like There's a theory that the lines

And threw it away in the trash There's a theory that he kept it And sold Like there's all these theories About what happened That puck But it is one of the pieces Of hockey memorabilia

that it's like just disappeared. Like no one is really sure what happened to it. Interesting. Yeah, we got to do some research on that. That's really cool. I like that a lot. That's great. Do you have one?

What do you want? What would I want? I think my Bruins fandom, because I really like that. That's a great answer. I like the, maybe like a random one. I would love the water bottle

that Nathan Horton used to dump the Boston water. Sick answer. That bottle would be fun. Because it would be, it's very unassuming. People would be like, what's just a random Gatorade bottle. Yep. But me knowing what it is.

Maybe put a little tape around it like a puck. Yep. Have Horty right on it, what it is. I would love to have that. That's very cool. I think just off the top of my head, I had said to Dan, and you actually came up with a couple good counters immediately,

so I'm wrong. But one of my favorite goals of all time is the Paul Korea off the floor on the board, slap shot. Sure. And I'm like, give me that puck, dude. Like that would be like, what is this? I'm like, this is the Korean.

goal. Yeah. Just an all-time NHL moment. My favorite thing about that is that Korea has no memory of that goal.

Thank you, Scott Stevens. Yeah, yeah, seriously. I would also take like part of the, I always love the thing about like how on the cup they like had to X out some of the names,

like when Pocklington put his like dad's name on the cup or something. If I have, if I could have one of the rings on the cup where they had to like edit out with all the names,

that would be fun. That would be really fun. That's really cool. I wonder where those are. All fame. Yeah, got to be. Yeah, truly. Definitely.

Wish we've taken up enough of your time. Oh, please. This has been an absolute blast. Before we let you go, is there anything you want to shout out, anything you want to plug? And please do. Tell them about all the pods and everything. So I got a pod with Arda Ocowel on ESPN that we do twice a week called The Drop. It's also a digital show on YouTube, which algorithms, whatever.

Yeah, yeah. It's tough not to crack. Yeah, yeah. I need more, you know, I've decided that the thing about YouTube that we haven't really mastered is the photo that they put on the front of the video. Thumbails, big. The thumbnail. I need to channel my inner Mr. Beast

and find some really... Hey, talk to Blakey. Blakey, I need to figure out how to make my face go, and I'm like angry or surprised at something or I'm like giving away, I don't know, teeth to children or whatever the fuck Mr. Beast does. And then I'll get traffic. So I got that.

I still do a bunch of stuff on the Puck Soup Patreon, even though, as people know, I can't do Puck Soup anymore because of ESPN. But I do a ton of stuff with those boys on the Patreon and do some writing there as well. And then all my stuff's on ESPN.com every single day, it seems like. Yeah, it is. Some of the best stuff on there. What's next? Center's wings.

Those are the next two pieces. Center's wings, the next two pieces. And then like all trade deadlines stuff. Yeah, the trade's going to heat up like crazy. It'll be a busy time. But like, it's a good gig, man. And, like, you know, I enjoy that the times I can pop on and do TV. Yeah.

Enjoy doing the hockey betting stuff that I can do here and there. So it's a fun place to work. Oh, yeah. And with some really cool people and get the opportunity to come and have the little rights holder thing on your media pass. And you come to the stadium series and pretty sick. It's such a cool thing. When I was at Yahoo, I used to get yelled at for walking around into places I don't belong. But now I can do it.

It's amazing. Yeah, now you just walk through hallways and people are like, right this way. Hey, last thing, where does this, I saw you had wrote the 2014 Dodger Stadium is the best stadium series so far. Where does this rank after one day? Oh, it's up there. I mean, the crowd was huge. Huge last night. So not to go too long here, but like, I'm happy that we dove into like the Jersey lore for that game.

Like I saw on TV they were like, this place doesn't allow you to pump your own gas and all this other shit. And it's cool, like Jersey got shout out. But the thing I wish was a little bit more explored was how important this was to Devils fans of a certain age to come back to a place where, like, Brendan Byrne Arena still stands. Like, if you go to the American Dream Mall, the fake Mall of America that now exists in New Jersey with the ski jump and all this shit, like, the arena where the Devils played is still there in pristine condition.

That's cool. And, like, you can see it. And so for a lot of Devils fans, like me who grew up in the 90s and stuff and came to this arena and sat in the chief seats. And I was there in 95 when they won the cup as a fan. Like I was there in game four. It was like one of the most incredible experiences of my life. So awesome.

It's like kid, kid, marriage cup. Yeah. But like, in no particular order. In no particular order, right? But like, I wish we could have gotten a little bit more into what it meant for all the fans to come back. Yeah. And tailgate for the first time. because you can't do that at Prudential Center.

And to like, you know, part of Devil's fandom was the overflow parking for Brendan Burnerina was a giant stadium. So, you know, me and my dad, because he's cheap, would go and park a giant stadium. And then you'd have to walk across this incredibly rickety bridge with these, like, wooden planks on the floor that always felt like they were going to fall through. And you'd, like, fall into traffic and die. Yeah, yeah. And, like, all of this is, like, inherent to the experience of so many people that were at that game. last night that I wish like the actual lore of

devil's fandom like let me put it this way they showed a clip of Messier scoring in 94 during the run-up to this game but not like the devil's winning three Stanley cups and that's kind of like a little weird for me when it was a celebration of not only New Jersey but this franchise

and so I kind of felt as a devil's fan we could have gotten a little bit more granular with the love of this team versus just like Sopranos, Tommy Chicken Cutlets kind of shit that we saw yesterday. Which is there. I think one of the coolest things about this gig for us

has been when we get to travel and go to these different cities, see these different games, you really feel like you can kind of embrace and experience the different fan bases. Yeah. Personally, I think Devils fans rock. Yeah, me too. I think that the whole little brother bullshit with Rangers fans is so stupid.

And I love that. Well, I think. I think it gets under Devils fans' skin in a good way that comes out in good fandom. And I think Devils fans are knowledgeable. I think they love their team. And I couldn't appreciate two things more in fans. So it was cool yesterday, seeing the tailgate and everyone buzzet. It was awesome.

It was awesome. We have to, like, come to terms with our little brother syndrome. And, you know, like, I know a lot of Devils fans are just like, I don't even think about the Rangers, and then you go to a game and, like, they're doing Rangers sucks chance when they're playing Ottawa on a Tuesday night. You're just like, okay. It's like, you can admit it. It's fine. It's part of the fandom.

Yeah. Part of the fandom is knowing that you're always in their shadow. Yeah. And part of the fandom is, like, thinking about how important that Henrique Goal was in 2012. And the reason it was important is because of that moment of being the Rangers, even though they lost in the final. And, like, I don't know, it's just funny to think about all the time energy spent and celebrating. the Garden State and all this stuff. And then like I saw Chico Resch in the press box.

I'm just like, this man means more to the people in this building than any Sopranos reference does. Yeah. It just was, it was cool for Devils fans to get this moment. You asked about the stadium series, I guess to put it to put a cherry on top. Like the reason I love these outdoor games is like they've become kind of like the All-Star game. Yeah. In the sense of like, okay, maybe the world isn't watching them on television. as much as they used to.

But for wherever the the traveling circus goes, it becomes this moment for all hockey fans to kind of like coales and join fellow travelers and feel like you're part of a larger community. And when the stadium series comes to your town, it's a chance for you to kind of like

be with all your people. And so like it was probably upwards of like 55 or 60,000 Devils fans together. And to your point, like they're on a lot of us yeah right but I think the line was always like

we're the best fans I just wish there was more of us you know what I mean and so like to get everybody together and see a bunch of jerseys and you know see a guy wearing a fucking Dave Maley jersey

from 88 next to a guy wearing a Jesper Brat jersey it's just like really cool it was awesome and it makes you feel like you're part of something larger and you don't always feel that way when you're out of devil's game especially when you're at a Devils Rangers game and it's like 60% Ranger fans.

And so, I don't know, like it was, it was really cool to kind of see the franchise and the fan base get celebrated and shouted out by the players and stuff too. Yes. You know, as a kid who used to come to these games with my dad and, you know, grew up in the cheap seats. All right, two stories real quick. My two formative moments is a Devils fan. The first time I ever realized how cruel fans could be to opposing players was at a devil's flyers game.

They're playing the Flyers. It was a preseason game. Oh, God, even better. I'm sitting in the upper deck, and I'm watching the Devils in a preseason game against the Flyers. This guy in a devil's jersey stands up next to me. I'm like a child. And when you're in the upper deck, these players can't hear you. Yeah.

This guy stands up next to me. He goes, hey, talk it. You suck. and your mother never loved you. Preseasoned from the 300s, dude. I'm like, holy shit. This is what hockey is? Now, the opposite of that,

to give Rangers fans flowers for a second, the most badass thing I ever saw as the Devils fan from an opposing fan, a med of Devils Rangers game in 95. So Devils have lost to the Rangers in the conference final in 94. Rangers went on to win the cup. a Rangers fan bought a Rangers Stanley Cup banner,

like one of those mini-danner, to the Meadowlands, and then somehow snuck a helium balloon into the game. Oh, and tied the banner to the balloon and floated a fucking Rangers Stanley Cup banner to the rafters of the Meadowlands. As all the Rangers fans around us are cheering.

That was one of the most bad-ass things. That is all that. I've never heard that. I'm an opposing fan. How did he get that balloon in that? I assume it's like under the jacket I'm just a big man. You must have been like, you know, one of those deals.

You can't judge. He put that a helium balloon. He tied a Reinder Stanley Cup banner to it and floated it to the rafters. Yeah, that's badass. I'm devastated. That was 95 and there's probably no video of that. I know.

Like that happens. Yeah. Someone's got that on the phone. Yeah. It was awesome. It was awesome. So, yeah. Devil's fandom is a formative thing for me.

So I was really happy to see like the place gets celebrated. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. Unbelievable. Absolutely. All right.

Well, everyone, follow Greg on everything. And I feel like there's a lot left that we can talk about. So we might have to have you. Let's see this again. Yeah. I love you guys. I love the show. It is cathartic for me to be able to curse on a hockey podcast again.

It's great. Always appreciate that. Mickey Mouse is a funny way of not allowing F-bomb's on the drop. So, yeah, anytime. Awesome. It's been an absolute blast. Let's talk again. We're going to get you back on.

For sure. All right, boys. Thanks so much. Thank you. Awesome. Taking a quick break to hit you guys with some info about the best canned cocktail on the planet right now. June shine. They got options.

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Are you joking? It's perfect when you're watching Pock. When you're hanging with the team, when you're hanging with the boys at home, you're having a pregame. You're having a party. It's getting, it's rainy in L.A. right now. But when it gets warm, I'm going to be sitting in my back. are drinking these things. And not to mention, they're produced sustainally. So you're saving the

planet while getting your buzz on. So the next time you need to crack a can open to quench that thirst, look no further than these June shine can cocktails. Fantastic time hanging with Wish. That was a cool vibe we had in the hotel lobby there. It was a little bit of buzz of noise in the background. It was cool, chill. But Wish is just the man. I really just think he's so smart. He's got such a such a dial that's cranked all the way up on what's going on in the league. He's so rational and reasonable. We need more people like that. Blas hanging out with him.

Let's get into armchair GM. Blakey, hit me with our theme this week. So our theme this week is going to be college hockey players, but in order for the picked count, when you say the player's name, you must guess or know the correct college that he played at. Okay, I love it. And then give us, how are we doing? How did we go last week?

Rough week last week. God damn. You know, a couple of... Did Qaeda even play? He played one game. He did, okay. I was like, fuck, I might have picked a fucking goose egg goalie. Yeah.

But, so, yeah, rough week. Dan had 25 points. Chris had 23 points. So, you know, Chris, you still in the lead by two points. 122 to 120. Yep. And so I also... I'm clawing here.

Yeah. You know, it's neck and neck. It's pretty cool to see it like this. Highest performer last week is Matt Dushain with 11 points, four goals, three assists. Wow, great pick, Dan. Jesus. But yeah, so, you know, we'll see how this progresses. But one thing I wanted to pick up was if you win the previous round, you get to pick first the next round. So, Dan, you get to pick first.

Interesting. Okay. Wow, that's really awesome. I'm going to go defense first, and I'm going to take Quinn Hughes of Michigan. My guy. I love him. Lockpick for me, Quinter. Okay, great pick, and you're kind of forcing my hand in terms of roster building because I can't afford you to get. something else here. So I will go Kail, UMass. Respect. Yeah. That's a good pick. Okay, my next pick.

I think the dominant shootout performance is just leading into a good stretch of games for him here. I'm going my fucking best friend, University of Maine star Jeremy Swayman. Isn't that for me? Oh, dude. Okay. So actually, now I'm going to wait on going now because I can.

Okay. You know what else, Dan? Then fine. I see you and let me raise you another friend, another dominant shootout performance. Rounding up my D. I will go Charlie McAvoy, Boston University. Yeah, that's good. That's really, really good. But don't D panic now, Dan. You get to wait. You know, like I know who you're going to take.

and just wait. Yeah, yeah. I don't think you do know who I'm going to take. You'd be a fool. Do you want to tell me? Yeah, I bet you turn to take Foxy. All right, with my next pick, they're struggling a little bit,

but I still love the boy. I love his game. I'm going Clayton Keller, Boston University. Great pick, Dan. Okay, I'm going center. with my next pick. Give me Dylan Larkin, Michigan.

That one hurt Dan. That one hurt Dan a little bit. I'm like so disgusted with myself that I just, I had a full squad of friends and I just could have taken Larks and I'm a fucking absolute asshole.

I don't really know how I bounce back from that. I got to fill the right wing spot so I'm going to do that with Brock Besser of the University of North Dakota. Good one, dude. Good one. There's a great center. You just took a right wing? Yeah.

Okay, my next pick, I'll dive into left wing here. My fucking boy, Kyle Connor, Michigan. I want a whole Michigan forward line. That would be sick. Can you believe that these fuckers haven't won a national championship, dude?

It's just devastating. It is. Okay. My last forward, I'm going to go center. Kells is a left wing on daily face off. I honestly, I don't feel that confident about this pick because not just because of the team. Oh, I was going to be clear that the team, the team is absolutely

pissing me off. But I love him. He's an unbelievable player. I think he's going to have a big week here. I'm going, Tage Thompson. Of Yukon. Incredible.

Look at this. Someone find me a right wing, dude. Okay, from my right wing, I'm also going friend of the program. And I also question it because of the team, Dan. A little Alex Tuck Boston College action to round up my forwards. I like that a lot.

I like that a lot. Okay, my obvious one, he's the Harvard man, the Rangers are buzzing, Adam Fox to shore up my defensive backline. I really like that combo. I got Foxy Ann Quinn. Give me a fucking break, dude. Kind of stacked D from college, eh?

Oh, dude, I think they're the best. I mean, the fact that you've got Kale, Fox, Quinn, Ann McAvoy, all college guys. unbelievable. And then for goalie to round out my team, I'll just take, if you don't mind, the best goalie in the league, Connor Hellabuck, UMass, Loll.

Yeah. Free money there. Yeah, that's a good pick. It's not as good as Swamen, but it's a good pick. Okay. All right, now time for saucy predictions, and it's a really great day, folks. It's a lovely day, because for the first time,

time since saucy predictions began, your boy got one. I said that the kings in their next four, they had the sabers, they had the Bruins, they had the devils, and they had the penguins would be three and one. They started off with a seven-oh shit kicking from the sabers. Like, I made that prediction and then immediately we saw that result and I was like, oh my fucking God, I'm dead. And then they scrapped out a win against the devils. They miraculously took the Bruins to overtime and won and then clawed back in the last minute. Two, let me hit my three-team parley, by the way, against the penguins. And they fucking did it, baby.

But the bad news for you is that you have to eat hot sauce because I got it. And the bad news for me is when I thought I was free and clear, this motherfucker hits his as well. Dan text me and goes, dude, no chicken for me this week. And I go, unfortunately, my friend, I told you that the average. had lost four straight and they were going to score 13 goals in their next three games after scoring six in four games. They beat the caps, six three. They lost to the bolts six three, but that's nine and two.

And then after going down to the Yotes early, they came back to win four three, hitting 13 goals on the fucking nose. So we both hit our predictions, but we both still have to eat. So, Dan, I have a piece. We have our last dab sauce on mine. But Dan, just so you know, this is a piece of medium main Chicago. hot chicken already that I put the sauce on. Oh, you're a sick fuck, dude.

This is not going to be good. You are a sick fuck. Well, I am in London, and I wanted to be very on brand. So I'm doing a piece of fish and chips with some nice habanero hot sauce on it that I'm told. Oh, Habanero's bad. He's going to knock my dip off. Yeah. Okay, ready?

So, here we go. Yeah. Ah. You eat that whole thing? Uh-huh. Fuck. I'm going to throw up. I just.

I inhaled it. Sometimes it's like a shot that I don't want to do. I just leave it in my mouth because I don't want to get on my throat. Okay, do you want me to go? Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. If you guys want to overrule me on this and make me change it, that's fine.

But I'm going to go back to the well on what I think was my first saucy prediction. And I'm saying that Jacob Markstrom is being traded. By next week. When's the deadline? March 8th. Okay, and it's the 20th? Yeah. Okay, fine, I allow that.

Yeah, I allow that. Okay, I'm telling you what's happening. Mine is, McDavid has 21 goals on the year. He hasn't scored in six games, which is crazy. He has three more games this week, so by next record, he will have 25 goals. Is that allowed? hasn't scored in six games. He's going to have four tucks in the next three.

Part of me is like McDavid scoring four goals in three games is fucking bullshit. But he's not tucking like he was last year. I'll go to five if you want. I'm going to Blake on this one. I'd like five, but I can't tell if that's too greedy. I mean, Chris does a really good job of, you know, kind of reading the streaks like you did this past week with the, you know, the abs. The abs had a rough stretch of games. You knew they're going to come, you know, likely going to come storming and hot.

No, I think it's a smart better's play. So four is okay? I think so. Four goals in three games. He's got a high score four in one game. You're going to be pimping. I just like, I can't wait for me to eat two of these fucking wings next week. Fuck you.

Okay. Okay. Those are our sausage predictions. That is it for us this week at the empty netters podcast. Hope you enjoyed the WISH interview. Hope you enjoyed everything. We had a fucking blast. We will see you next week.

And until then, as always, Skate Hard.