Empty Netters Podcast - Mitch Marner Is Gone And The Toronto Leafs Look Terrible w/ Steve Dangle

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

Steve Dangle joins the pod to discuss what life is like in Toronto without Mitch Marner. The Prospect Don joins the pod to break down how it’s going with the rookie class in the NHL so far. The boys get into some big surprises and some big “oh uh”s in the NHL so far. We have MORE twin drama from a beer league hotline follow up and it’s insane! Plus, a new beer league hotline and new blind ranking have everyone laughing.  NEW EPISODES EVERY TUESDAY & THURSDAY! PRESENTED by BetMGM. Download the BETMGM app and use code “NETTERS” and enjoy up to $1500 in bonus bets if you lose your first wager! Upgrade your wardrobe and save on @trueclassic at https://trueclassic.com/NETTERS! #trueclassicpod Next time you’re craving something cold, frothy, and packed with unapologetic flavor — crack open a MUG Root Beer. Find MUG Root Beer at your local store or head to https://www.mugrootbeer.com/find-mug to find out how you can get your paws on some MUG and be sure to throw them a follow online, @MUGRootBeer. (0:00) - Intro (2:18) - Steve Dangle (22:26) - Hot Ice (1:10:18) - The Prospect Don (1:33:49) - Pucked (1:51:28) - Beer League Hotline (2:00:43) - Blind Ranking Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Empty Netters podcast. Can you believe what this has become? There was a full 48 hours where I felt like I was like literally Superman. Jumbo loves playing Fortnite, so he gets on the sticks. Did TR show you the sauna cycle or was that all you? No, no, I invented that. Almost a year now that I haven't taken a body check. That's kind of nice.

Finish tonight with some chicken fingers and a few guineasas is right into you guys. That's where this pod came to life. Ice is ready and we are back with another episode of the Empty Netter's. podcast brought to you by BetMGM. I am your host, Dan Powers. Producer Redmond is on the sticks yet again. And over here, I normally insult him, but today I'm going to console him. Because it's a man who is certainly upset that I have stolen his favorite diner.

It's mine now. Chris Powers. As always, I couldn't believe of all the shit talk, dude, of all the shit talk. I would have a shit talk to him. And then you go, you go, I'm at Mel's. And I'm like, get fucked. Well, check it out. I, do you know what it says on the back?

No. It says, so I'm wearing a Mel's Diner T-shirt, famous diner in Santa Monica. Crisp. Crisp. You could see the lines. Yeah. On the back it says, where the locals meet to eat. And I'm a local.

I'm a literal three-minute walk from Mels Diner. And I was like, I should be going to Melsmore. So I went, started talking to my server, Mark. Yeah. And we were just talking. And I was like, oh, I live up the road. And he was like, you're a local. You need a t-shirt.

And I went, no. Gave me a t-shirt. Damn, dude. I can't believe you left for the shirt. Gave me a t-shirt, dude. I need to go to Melodynir. Yeah, you do. You're a local, too.

We should all go. Hey, no, we should all go. No, no, no. We should all go. You should find. You know what you should do? You should find it. Why don't you go to Great White, you Venice local, bitch?

Wow. Go to a trendy spot. We got a lot to talk about today. Tons of news. Tons of hockey. We're through our first week of hockey. But before we, we get into some of the more typical stuff.

We're going to bring you Steve Dangle, Toronto Maple Leafs savant. Yep. Unbelievable chat. We got to talk about what's going on in Toronto with life without Mitch. Let's kick it to Steve right now. Okay. We are extremely pumped to welcome Steve Dangle to the MTV NPR's podcast to get into all things, Leafs without Mitch, Marner, Dan.

Steve, Canadian Thanksgiving. How we doing, buddy? We're doing good. I do enjoy it. I'm fatter than I was a couple days ago, but, you know, I was sort of telling you off, Mike, like, I'm warming up to the idea of American Thanksgiving with November and everything. Yeah. I'm proud of everything we do up here. I think we might have this one wrong. I think we might have this one wrong. Steve, we talked about it on the pod a few weeks ago, and the fact that it's technically Sunday and you guys kind of get like a weird holiday on Monday off, but you don't do all the celebrations.

I'm like, that's all backwards. Because today is technically Thanksgiving, but you celebrate yesterday. Is that right? Yeah, pretty much. Like, I don't know. Basically, any time between Friday and Monday, if you say happy Thanksgiving, you're right. Like, thanks. Well, that's like that.

I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Like any, if you have turkey with your family, that's Thanksgiving. No matter what day you celebrate it on. You know what I mean? It's a little confusing. I mean, it like weirdly kind of works.

I love it. Yeah. Uh, dude, I also love the, the cave you got going on in there. It's the first time I've really seen it. I don't, however, know who legally allowed you to have that cup replica, because I feel like that's just torturing you at all times, but I do love it. It is, it is torture. That, thank you for allowing me to brag about myself.

That's, that's what you get for, uh, being top fundraiser at, uh, the charity tournament that I do every year. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm the worst player in the tournament every year, but top fundraiser. you know, balance out a little bit, and I'm trying again this year.

That's awesome. Yeah, I love it, dude. Steve, we are extremely early in the NHL season, which means we're right for overreactions, of course. Opening game for the Leafs, I had a lot of eyes on that because we were talking first game without Marner plus the Habs, hype train, everybody's all of Montreal, and the score with a couple empty-netters, you go uncomfortably, but great game, you know, good, tight game, good win.

I thought the Leafs look great, come up against the wings, go up to nothing, and then kind of tables flipped. I was watching your video yesterday, die and laugh. And it's just like, what are we doing here? But talk us through, we're going to get into some line jumble stuff, but before we can get there, just talk us through your vibe, dude. How has it been starting the new season without Mitch? Yeah. And I want, I want to hear how you felt going in and then how you feel now after a couple of games. Okay. Ah, we're asking the right questions here. Yeah. So I couldn't help but notice that the video I did after the Leafs loss did way better than after their win. That is unfortunately how it works a lot of the time. I'm trying not to overreact

positively or negatively. The depth scoring is already noticeably better. The bottom six hasn't been much of a factor in recent years in that regard. If anyone in the bottom six hits double-digit goals. It's like noteworthy. Whereas this year, it seems like there's going to be a bunch of those. The thing that has my ears up early this season, replacing Marner was always going to be impossible. You're never going to replace him with an individual.

You're going to have to do it by committee. So Scott Lawton looks like dynamite in the preseason. Looks great. And he's allowing them to have this, really good four-line attack, defensively responsible, but a factor. He goes down with an injury because he blocks a shot in preseason because he's nails and can't help himself. And the Leafs weirdly let that screw up the whole deck of cards.

So all of a sudden, like what contending team takes their first line, what contending team loses their fourth line center and they say, oh, the solution to this is to take our first line right winger and make him third line center. Yeah. Because that's what they did. They took Max Domi, threw him down to third line. Matthias Mice Shelley goes up to the top line and he looks okay. He's probably in over his head.

Domi's fine at center probably shouldn't be one. And they lose their fourth line center. And now what you're getting with the third line of like domies with McMahon and Robertson. And now today, Easton Cowan's going to make his NHL debut on the first line. Yeah, yeah. So, so they're just the team they were last year without Mitch Marner. Yeah. Which I think is the complete wrong approach.

You committed to having this big, mean, heavy third line, a fourth line that's pesky, but still an offensive factor and you let one injury in the preseason ruin the whole scheme. I'm not loving that. Yeah. Because that was the biggest fear, right?

With losing Mitch, it was like, I hope we're just not the Leafs without Mitch Marner now. And then through, or at least in game two, that's exactly what it looks like. Yes. It's,

I'm sweating, fellas. Yeah. I'm not loving it. It is genuinely, like everything you just said is exactly what happened. Because there was a dream, There was a dream of, okay, let's reshuffle it around, let's do the committee thing.

And then they did it. And it was great. And then one thing happened and they're like, no, let's go right back to the old shape. And it's like, oh, fuck. If you go back even to last year, or not even, if you go back to last year with Barubi, he never really wanted to do the Marner-Nielander thing, or excuse me, the Matthews-Neilander thing. Like it didn't even, even in playoffs when it was kind of like, oh, that top line needs to spark and we weren't seeing it.

He was reluctant to go there. What's your take on that? Because as a, I love the Leafs. I'm a Bruins fan, but everybody's like, you must hate the Leafs. I'm like, I love the Leafs. Why would you hate the Leafs? Well, all the negative memories?

Like, what the... Steve, I say that all the time to Leaf Friends. They're like, you must hate us. And I'm like, not in the slightest. Like, it's unbelievable. So I was super excited for you guys last year. I thought, I talked to Red about this all the time. You took the Panthers to the toughest series ever.

You were great. team last year. I'm excited about this year. And as a guy who loves Matthews and Willie Nealander, I'm like, I want that. And I'm not as tapped in as you or Lisaans, but from an outsider, I'm like, dude, give me that. You saw the bees go to Brad, Berg, and pasta during their, you know, like, go, send it. The fucking Lightning's first line is insane. Like, they, teams are doing this, you know? And from my outside POV, you dump a lot of talent on that first line. That's a, every shift they're out there for the most part, that's a win for you guys. So is that what you want as a Leafs guy?

Or are you like, no, we got to spread the wealth? Where are you at on that? I like spreading the wealth, but like if you're down a goal, like, go for it. And Brube just seemed reluctant to do that. Like even last game against Detroit, they lose Stephen Lawrence, who is good. I like him. But like, bro, he's on fourth line left wing. and Neelander is now double shifting with that line instead of on the top line.

And again, they're letting these fourth line issues yard sale the whole thing. Like Tavares, his whole game was screwed up now because like he's not getting, he's not getting Willie for certain shifts. He's getting these guys who are, I mean, you're used to playing with Willie and you play with basically anyone else in the roster. It's going to be a step down. And he was having a dynamite game. Like he was throwing the body around like,

Max Patcheretti style. Like, maybe it rubbed off on him. I don't know. And, like, he was having the kind of game where I'm like, I've never really seen this out of John Tavares. They lose their fourth line left wing and he's basically taken out of it. If they've changed the DNA like they think they have or have strived to do, they should be able to put Willie up on that top line with Matthews and Nyes, who's just disgusting.

I know. I love him. He's so good. He's so good. Oh, my God. What I. Like, there's so many flaws in the dubous era, but like, what a parting gift. I know.

Thank you so much. Really, really good. You should be able to do that. And the other team can load up against that. But because you have more faith in your depth now, it should be something you can overcome. Again, it's really early. The thing I was most concerned with in the loss against Detroit is they lost to Detroit the lost to Detroit the exact same way they lost games last year. And I noticed it so glaringly in the

back half of that series against the Panthers. The Panthers are just forechecking animals. Yes. And the every second period against them felt long because you can't get off the ice. Yeah. Three or four minutes into the second game against Detroit, Morgan Riley can't get off the ice for two and a half minutes. He finally gets off, they escape. A few minutes later, it's Brandon Carlo, who can't get off the ice for over two minutes. Now there's your whole Riley Carlo pair that's on their back foot for the rest of the period. So this this Berube team that fancies itself as big and tough and likes to forecheck themselves. When other teams forechecked them back, they really have problems with it. And it's not great. It's the golden moment.

Triumph on the podium, golden hand. But with Corona Cero, Golden moments go beyond the Winter Olympics. They're enjoying sunsets, time outside, reconnecting with nature, and laughs shared with friends. For every golden moment at the Winter Olympic Games, enjoy your own with Corona Cerro, 0% alcohol and a source of vitamin D. Corona Ciro, the official non-alcoholic beer of Milano Cortina 2026. Yeah, that was, it's, there was so many clips that I was dying on your on your video and if everybody who's listening to this hasn't watched your video go watch it because it's amazing the uh the the freeze frames of like the guys it's like back door wide open but it's not like there's no one there there's four leaps there you know and it's like that

i know everyone watching this and watching you i'm sure is a well-versed hockey fan but that comes from being tight running around your head cut off in the d zone more than just like oh they're but they don't know what they're doing it's like no that's what getting hemmed in does to you and you saw it on display over and over against detroit yeah And the Red Wings, like, I still think they're a pretty flawed team. But like, if you, if you let them do that to you, like, Lucas Raymond's disgusting. He's so good. Patrick Kane still got absurd hands.

Like, they got a few of these kids who might work out. I haven't even mentioned Dylan Larkin yet. Like, how many easy outs are there in the NHL? Yeah. Oh, dude. You can count on one hand, maybe. Absolutely. So another thing I wanted to hit with you is the, uh,

And again, it's two games. Like everybody, everybody, you know. But Matthews, we had said, we were doing some early season predictions. And everybody was, I was like, incoming Matthews 70 Burger. He's going to win the rocket. He's going to get a heart vote. I'm telling you this is happening. And all my comments were like, oh, he's without his setup, man.

He's without his boy. And I was like, you'll see, dude. Because the points have to come somewhere. They know they just traded away 102 points. Like the guys on this team know, like you said, by committee, we're going to pick that difference up. And I was like, it's going to be Austin, dude. He's going to score a million goals.

And he's got the empty netter, but he doesn't have a five-on-five point yet. He didn't have a five-on-five shot against the haves. Is it how do you, is there anything? I'm hearing you. Is there anything happening? Or like, how do we get him going, I guess? It's, oh, I want to see him with the puck more. Like, he's such, like, I really love the evolution in his defensive game.

Same. He took a lot of crap in the playoffs last year, and I was just like, man, I'm not, I'm just not watching the same game as you. Like, like, I know you want Matthews to score. You do. Like, obviously, he's Austin Matthews. But he does so many other things good. But, you know, not hating this player, but, like, boy, Micelli has the puck a lot. And, like, that's just not who I want to have the puck there.

So, Easton Cowan's going to play today. That'll go how it. goes. And then if it doesn't go great and Max Domi is up there and he's still struggling, all of a sudden you've had three different right wingers up there. And that's not going to make things quiet down with that narrative. So I mean, would it kill you to just rip the thing? They got a five, four or five game homestand right now. This is going to say a lot for whatever the rest of the season is like you got to come out of this like at least I mean with more wins than losses for God's sake yeah and with you're hoping at least two or three goals at

Austin and he's capable of five or six yeah so that I think would make everyone feel better oh he's like he's he's fine he can do it don't worry about it yeah and you're absolutely right it is two or three because it's just it's how happy people are to talk about it when it's not going well. That's why it's such an issue. It's like we, I feel like we even saw last year, there were times where we thought he wasn't playing up to standard, but he still has a solid year. That's the funniest thing about Austin Matthews stat lines all the time. This is a disaster. Yeah. It's so terrible. But it is funny with this situation with Mitch gone, the whole connection thing, and now it's like through two games, it's been bad. We can say it's been bad as far as

the offensive output. And it's like every game that that continues, it's just, more and more chatter. And it's like, you just need to eliminate the chatter as often as possible. I think that's right. It was domi in the preseason, Steve? I wasn't watching it. Yeah,

okay. It was domi in the preseason. Yeah, I, this Cowan thing, I haven't seen a player be a healthy scratch and then on the first line

since like the Polish prince Marius Tchaikoski. Like we're talking like Sundin era. Like I can't think of another time that's happening. happened. So, we'll see. The solution. The solution's been in the press box the whole time. Yeah. Just sitting there waiting, waiting for their turn. I guess. I guess. Sure. Let's see. Hey, you know, though, sometimes it's the,

the new guys have like the blind confidence because they just, they don't even understand, like the moment's so big that they don't even feel the pressure. They just come out and play. And you're like, okay, that worked out nicely. And he'll probably just give Matthews the puck, too. He's like, you take it, dude. Yes. Yeah, which is. so rarely the wrong move. Like, give it to one of Matthews or Nyes. You're probably right. It's good. It's good.

Yeah. Okay, the one of the thing I wanted to have who actually has been playing completely fine, this isn't a criticism, but with the Joe Wall being out and stole, because watching Stolars in a backup role from afar the last couple years, it's been fun being like, oh, man, he's great. Like, what a weapon as a backup. And I would even say as a tandem. Yeah, last year he wasn't a backup.

You can call the amount of games backup material, but that was a tandem last year. No question about it. So, but then with the Joe Wall stuff, or at least let me say this, from my POV, it felt like the Leafs wanted it to be Joe Wall, wanted him to be the guy if we were going to pick. And then playoffs happened and then it went Stoli and then he gets hurt, blah, blah, blah. But coming into the season, I was still kind of like, it's going to be Joe Wall's first crack at it. But then he got hurt. We never found out the answer.

and now it's solely for the foreseeable future. How do you feel about that? Can he take on that full workload? Because I was joking with these guys. I'm hammering his over wins because I think this is going to workload's going to be fuller. And I think you guys are really good. But any concerns there or you love him? I mean, I love him.

He sees an absolute wall when he's a net, like really hard to beat him. Yeah. The way the Red Wings beat him, I'm like, I don't know. Oh, those are goals against anybody. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. team in front of them didn't give him much help. With,

with Stolars, I guess what you worry about is he's never played 40 games. Yeah. And like last year, you never really saw him when he was playing a lot of games. You never really saw his play waiver. Like, like you never really saw it decrease.

Like, oh, he didn't have a very good game. He's playing too much. You never really thought that until his knee explodes. And then, well when's wool coming back because we need them so i have no idea what's going on with wool so you just have to operate as if he's not coming back yeah i sincerely hope he is but you got to operate like that and but like we're we're uh another knee tweak away from it being caden primo

who was wonderful in the hl unusable in the n hl and dennis hill to be who his stats were equally unusable in the NHL. It, it, you know, I like this team. I like a lot of the things they've done, but there are a few different forks in the road where it could get, it could get late real early in Toronto, where we got Primo in that and Easton Cowan on the first line. And no one's going to look at that.

Everything's going according to plan, right? No one is going to look at that. We had Mitch Marter last. year what the fuck happened right like no one's gonna look at that like they're nailing this right now yeah unless they win yes right exactly well listen i love stoli too so i think we're in good shape a hundred percent together i mean he's like it it's i think the biggest question with i don't even want to put this in the universe has just been health staying healthy and now he is like it's it's his job right now right and it's you want to see him get out to a good start so

if he can keep that up there's no issues and goal. It's just a matter of we got to figure out this line balance on offense. And you got to get Austin going. And then, you know, we're good. I think you're there. I think Tampa had a really slow. Florida being three and oh, they're going to, they're going to suffer. And I'm like, well, Boston being three and oh, is way funnier. Like just. It's also hilarious. I know. What a nightmare. What an endless. endless apocalyptic nightmare sure feed us to one of them in the first round

if we're lucky enough to make it there sounds great amazing you're going you get the wings again today this will air after this game so you're going to get called out in the comments but I want a prediction for the game you're about to attend on Thanksgiving oh man well I hope you all enjoyed that

four two Leaves win with Easton Cowan picking up his first not one, but two career points. Wow, come on. One of them on a Matthew's goal, I'm sure. Yes, one of them has to be. Backdoor. Finds Matthew's back door.

100%. Nasty. Nasty setup. I love it. Well, Steve, you're the best, dude. Thanks for popping on and joining us. We've got to do it again when you're not heading to a hot game here. But can't thank you enough for popping on.

Thank you. Let's go, Joe. Let's go J's. Hell yeah. And I'm sure everyone knows, Steve, but tell everyone where they can find you on online. and come watch your stuff. Steve Dangle, all one word on YouTube, on TikTok. Where else am I?

SDPN on YouTube. We got the Steve Dangle podcast three days a week, usually Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, but because I live in a silly country with Thanksgiving in October, we're going to be doing Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday this week. Perfect. Amazing. Awesome, dude.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Huge thank you to Steve. Love chatting with him. Love chatting Leafs with anybody, but especially Steve. Hope he has a blast at the game today. I hope that prediction is nails.

Steve's a beautiful. Steve's one of the best Maple Leaf fans on Earth. Oh, dude. He's very level-headed. Yep. He's very realistic, self-aware. Yeah. Very hopeful.

So I love that. Let's stick in Canada. Yep. Talk about some news. Another big signing that just dropped. Canadian fans are happy to hear it. Lane Hudson signs his extension. Eight years.

8.85 mil per season, less than Noah Dobson. Yep. That might be the surprise, in my opinion, phenomenal work by Hughes here. But also, I want to tread carefully. May I tread carefully? Yes, you may. I am a, I like Lane Hudson a lot. I think he's a great player.

I am a little bit surprised how willy-nilly people are being with going steal of the century, best contract I've ever seen. It's like, I don't know why people and Canadians fans specifically think that this kid is so, so much better than all of the other defensemen who are right there in his category.

That's what I don't get. No, I'm with you. I think it's great business. Yep. Because that's a fair deal, right? Like we kept saying it's between, And honestly, I did this last time. We kept saying it's between 8, 5 and 9-5 that everybody's coming in at, really.

And that is mostly true. And there's guys that have signed for 9, like Jackson LeColm, like Chikrin, like Luke Hughes, that I think you, perhaps fans have a good point of like, he should get 9 too. Like, that makes perfect sense to me. Yeah. 8.85. Let me pull up my calculus brain again. Isn't that much lower than not?

It's not like he signed for eight. It's not. I think people are seeing it as 85. And I'm like, it's 8.85. Like, it's right there. Say thank you. Would you do it. Be like this.

Thanks, Lane. That's awesome. You're right on par, slightly lower. Could you got more? Yes, you didn't break the bank. I really appreciate it. Great deal. How's your mother?

Boom. Let's keep cooking. That's it. Now, what I think delusional Habs fans are saying is Kale McCar is up like next year or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's going to sign for a shitload of money. He's going to sign for $20 million, too. Like, it's insane.

Haves fans have already made Lane Hudson, Kail McCar. Like, they already turned Lane into Kail McCar. There are genuinely, there are Montreal Canadian fans alive right now. Yeah, breathing oxygen, who think he's, Lane is better than Quinn. Already. Yeah, right. So the 8.85, the mad about 8.85, or not mad, the, the, uh, overjoyed. Yes.

About the 8.85 crowd is, his name is Lane McCar. And he's these little brother. Yeah. He's kale's little brother. And it's... Doesn't he'll have a little brother? Yeah, he's on the abs. Yeah, he's on the half.

Or I think he's an older brother. No, no, he's a younger brother. But he's on the apps, I believe. That's so gas. I... Taylor, yeah. I think... I think this is an objectively great deal.

It's a great deal. And here's the thing that's funny is you look, the best defenseman in the league had, you know, 20 some odd points more than, and the kid was a fucking rookie. He is 21, so I do want people to pump the brakes a little bit on that. He's not this like 18-year-old kid.

But you have kale with 92, Werenzky, 82, Quinn with 76 and 68, just so people are clear about. about that. And then laying at 66 points. Sixty-six points in 82 games. The fact that he played 82 games, it's always my favorite thing. Yeah. Steps into the NHL plays all 82 games. Unbelievable. But I look at guys like Jake Sanderson, you know, Adam Fox, Shea Theodore, Victor Headman, who's right above him, and Evan Bouchard, who just signed for 10 and a half. And, you know, Evan Bouchard, 67 points, 82 games. Like, they had the, more or less the exact same season,

Evan with twice as many goals, but like it's a matter of six to 14. Yeah. And I'm like, this is a, this is the right number. Yes. And I think what I get a little laughy about is he signs for, you know, just a little under Luke. And, you know, gun to my head, if I'm picking, if I'm starting a team and you offer me Luke Hughes or Lane Hudson, I think it's a harder decision than a lot of Habs fans. would say, but I'm probably taking Lane.

Yep. I love Lane's game. I love Luke's game. But the fact that they're like going crazy over it when it is, it's essentially the same number. It's 8, 85, dude. That's where I'm like, yeah, I'm with you. I'm like. Do some traction.

One time. People are throwing the word steel around too willing-nilly these days. It's a great deal. Anytime people are happy, they say steal and I'm like, but I do think that the largest thing for me is the um i'm i'm impressed with with hues because i don't know how he did Noah at nine and a half yeah yeah and then got lane at 8.8 point that's the biggest it's got to be the age thing yeah like it's you know that's that's that's the only thing that i can wrap my head around how big is noah dobson uh six six six i think you might be six one so i was like

six six six sorry well actually he's six That's way bigger than I thought. There is no fucking planet. No adoption is actually 6'4. That's the only thing. And obviously, Lane proved beyond a doubt, he can perform in the NHL last year. He won rookie year. He was fucking electric to watch.

But it is a bit of a... And now I'm going to get the Habs fans so fucking mad at me, dude. Here we go. Here we go. I have to delete this whole thing. But it is a thing. Like, he's listed. Lane's listed at 5'9.

And that is... It's just hard, dude. It's hard to be durable. the NHL for that forever as a 5-9 defenseman. Like, Tori Krug was one of my favorite guys to watch on Earth. For sure. For a stretch. And then he just like, he's got, I can't play anymore because I've been beaten to a

fucking pulp. And we've talked about it all the time. We talked about it with, you know, it's nice to have a superstar if you want to win at the Stanley Cup. Get all the regular season points you want, baby. Get all of them. Yeah. Set records.

Win awards. And then you get into playoffs. And when I look at the, last several Stanley Cup winners, it's hard for me to think of a team that their number one defenseman was not big and strong in front of the net. No Dodson 6-4. Luke Q's 6-2. I'm like, pay them. You pay for height. You can't teach height. You can't teach height. Defend. Red, you should get the, uh, Lane Hudson should get the fucking, uh, materialist surgery. And Lane Hudson should get fucking rods put in his shins. And then, dude, what would you

do? What would you do if Lane Hudson came to camp? That's six to two? Next year as six to. I was, and he just went, I guess, Rosebert. I'm 22. I would know that he got the material of surgery, and I would go, genius. Genius move. I think, dude, I think people in Montreal would go, he grew, he grew.

Yeah, of course. He literally grew, you idiot. Been sleeping like a bat all summer. He's got better sleep. He slept like a bat. He put weights on his head. I'm not entirely sure I'm prepared to say that that's impossible. Who was that wide receiver who said he was growing his hands?

Remember that? Yeah, I think I do. Who was that? I don't know. Gosh, who was that? Let me see. He said he was like, I think he was a stealer. He was really good for like a season.

No, Michael Thomas. It was Michael Thomas on the same. Michael Thomas. Michael Thomas said that he was doing exercise and he was growing his hands. And he, I don't know. But he came into a season. He was like, my hands are two inches longer. And I was like, two inches?

Maybe that's why he's not playing anymore because he did some material. list on his fucking fingers. I think Lane Hudson should sleep like a bat all summer, and then he can demand a race. If you had to put length on your body, where would you do it? Your legs? Come on, I'm not talking about that. Oh, oh, hey, oh. Come on, I'm not talking about it. It's a little early. That's easy. It's way too early for that kind of time. If you had to, if you were like, I want to grow, I want to be, let's do a large number. Let's say I want to be four inches taller. Neck. Okay, so.

Kyle Connor. Chris is going full giraffe. Full Kyle Connor. Kyle Connor. Boom. If you, and I'm talking to genie. But you got to pick either.

It's got to be one body part. So you're saying, you can't spread it out. I suppose what I'm asking is it's either ankle to knee, knee to hip, or torso, or neck. And you can't. Or neck.

And you can't. We can't split it up. Can't split it up. It's going to be four inches. Four inches is. You look in. All right, let's say three, three inches. I think.

Where do you look the least insane? I think you got to go torso. I think you have to go torso because if you had such crazy, disproportionately long thighs to your shin, that would look insane. If you had long, like shins, that would also look crazy. I think you just got to be a long torso person. Because those people exist. You ever seen those videos where people like sit down? Yeah.

And they're way taller than the person next to them. And then they stand up and they're the same height because they're like, I just have a huge torso. Dude, our uncle is the opposite. He's probably, Al's probably six to two, six. Six, four for sure. He's like, he's all legs. So like at the dinner table, dude, he's like this.

He can barely, he can barely, you barely see him. But I'm like, dude, look at hell. He's sitting there. But he's actually really, he's massive. He's on stilts. All legs. I think you got to be a torso guy. You gotta go to torso.

I feel like torso is like the most normal. Like, if you, because obviously you guys are fucking giants compared to me, but like I feel like our torsosos maybe aren't as big of difference. Like it's probably because you guys have way more longer legs. I do have long legs. Yeah, you do actually. Yeah.

Great movie. Great movie. Great. What a plot. What a plot point. Holy shit. Incredible. Well, massive deal for Lane Hudson.

Massive deal for the HABS. Yep. You got to look at, we talked about with the Oilers, right? We talked about with all these teams with Minnesota. Yep. Holy hell, man. You look at their D. You got no Adops until 2033, 9 and a half.

Caden Gouli, 5.5 until 231. Now you got Lane Hudson until 2034, 8.85. Like, goddamn. Dude, window, window opening. Not open yet. Really good stuff. Not open yet. Brother, they're forwards.

Suzuki at 7.8.7. Cole at 7.85. Slav at 7.6. Yeah, we've got something good. Good shit going on in Montreal. Good shit going on in Montreal. We had a week, right? Week of hockey.

Yep. Some surprises, some shockers, some disappointments. Yep. We got to get into it. Let's just touch on it a little bit here. Some happy surprises. And again, dude, this could all implode immediately. Also, are you aware that we have a hockey game starting in 10 minutes?

Yeah. Yeah, I just got a notification. We have like so many 10 a... Why are people playing it? It's the Canadian Thanksgiving, dude. It's... We're literally playing at 10 a.m. because of Canadian thanks you. It's also, what is it called now?

Formerly Columbus Day. It's Columbus Day? In this country? Yeah. I don't know. It's Indigenous People's Day right now. And we're at work? We're working.

What's your policy on Columbus Day? We work. Really? Get me out of here I can't believe this I have one of the busiest days of my entire life today too I'm in wall to walls

meetings on Columbus Day on Indigenous People Day Can you fucking believe that This is some bullshit Dan First one I want to flag Nashville Predators Someone here

Someone in this room said the Preds were going to be great this year I don't know who that was Oh God Might have been you guys Wasn't me and I'm not even sure that they are great yet, but gritty win against the Blue Jackets,

OT loss, O.T. loss to the mammoth. They just look so much more competitive. Obviously, they started like, oh, and a billion last year. But they looked horrible. Just absolutely putrid last year. And this year, I'm encouraged. If you're a Predator's fan and you're listening to this and you've seen the fight over the first two games,

I think you go, we might make playoffs. No, they're not. Yes, they are. I just don't know that I'm ready to, I want to get worked up, okay? I want to get worked up by two games. It's fun.

Overreactions are fun. But I just don't know, Chris. I don't know that I'm in, I don't know that what I saw from them is something to be excited about. You think the blue jackets are good. You think the mammoth are good. the predators beat the blue jacket and took the man with the OT.

That is all correct. But again, I look... Do I have to go fucking math theorem on you again, dude? Do I have to pull out fucking transitive properties on you? Listen to me. I'm begging you. Deep into my math brain again and tell you that that means, by law, the predators are good? I'm begging you to not do that. Okay, because I would have.

I know. I know. And you would have done it well. But I think I'm just like... it's not the way they played those games didn't impress me. Does that make sense? If you are a dumb person.

That would make sense to someone dumb. What I need Like We got a Forsberg goal two days ago Yeah. Sure. But other than that, it's like factor is scoring like a gross gritty goal.

Eric Hall is scoring like I need... That's who we need to be scoring. No, I need Evangelista scoring goals. I need Stammer doing anything. It's been two games, Dan, and they look great. I just said I like overreacting. Stammer took two penalties in one game. That's what I love.

Good. No, it's good. He took an unsportsmanlike conduct and an interference. Yeah, it's kind of in the same play. Good. I'm not ready to get, I'm not ready to overreact about the Predators. Preders fans get fired up. Awesome start to the season.

Here's another great start. And this one is shocking to me. There's actually a couple of shocking ones in here. The Seattle Spunk. Can we talk? about that. Three one win against, I hope, a good duck team. A chaotic duck team so far.

Dude, a chaotic duck team. A three one win against a good duck team. And an OT win against Vegas. Hell yes, dude. Joey DeCord, 968.96. Save percentage and goals against average so far. Let's fucking go, Joey. I thought the crap.

And he still might be. Joey Decord is playing Vezna Hockey. Playing gross. That's insane. These, even if the Cracken do slip, which I think they will, but even if they do, these wins matter. Even now, even early, because it always comes down to a few games. O.T. win against Vegas, beating the Ducks, especially that Ducks one, because you're like, these are the teams you're fighting.

These are the teams you're fighting for spots down the stretch here. That, the Cracken being 2 and O, I think actually, I might golden buzzer. Cracking 2-0 golden buzzer might be my biggest surprise so far. I thought the cracking were going to be so fucking bad. And they might be.

But those are two good wins. Like legitimately, I'm like, oh yeah, here comes the 0-and-2 star and everything looks horrible and you can't stop the puck and you can't score. And they can. They can do both.

Pretty cool. Sick. Pretty cool. New coach bump. New coach bump. New coach bump. New coach bump. Whoa, new coach Spunk.

That's good. That's really good. Careful. I love it. I, I, you, we, we, we want to see the Spunk back in the, in the Yoffs. But I think, I mean, the goaltending is just like, you know, you're Maddie Baneers on the board. Nightinger score. I love to see that.

I loved, I think it was the first game, Dunner, immediate. You know how high I am on Vince Dunn. Seeing him healthy starting the season, getting on the sheet. You love that. But it's decor for me. I'm like, goddamn. God damn, this might be interesting. Yeah, because he could actually be, he could create a lot of wrinkles, a lot of waves.

I know. And a lot of different aspects of hockey. Yeah. Of international hockey. Just letting you guys know that the abs are already up one-nothing on the Sabres right now. And Nathan McKinn has his third goal of the season. God. He is a very good at hockey.

He's good. He's very good. It's crazy. Next surprise hits close to home. This could also be golden buzzer. The Boston Bruins are three and oh. Bang, bang. Fuck you, red.

Now, now, there's a few things that I want to say and be very clear and transparent here. The Boston Bruins beat the Blackhawks. Yep. They beat the Sabres. And they beat the Caps. The Caps. In Washington. Caps was a good little win.

Sabres. Blackhawks, I'm not entirely sure we're going to get worked up about. But the Bruins are 3 and O. Jeremy Swamen has a 966A percentage. Just looks phenomenal. Phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal. Elias Lindholm out to a hot start, two goals to assist four points in three games. That's huge, dude. Elias Lindholm had a very hot five-game sample last year to start the season. People forget that. I did forget that.

I remember tweeting, oh, shocker, Elias Lindholm is a perfect Bruin after the second game of the season because he had like four points. And I was like, look at that. Yeah. So off to a hot start again. Let's see if we can keep it hot. This, there's a lot of things with like Elias Lindholm getting going early is great. Fraser. Huge. Fraser Minton. Unbelievable. O.T. winner. Goal. Unbelievable. early already the guys that need to go are going I also think is very clear Zedorov is just he found it at the end of last year but he looks very very much like he's in the zone that people need to be like he's like he's playing fucking shut down D he's tough he's mean and I also don't think people realized what a leader he is like he is a captain on this team and it's I I think it's really cool I'm like damn like he's a

fucking leader. He's he's in the mixer talking to refs. He's clearly kind of getting boys on the team going, but it looks good. I'm just curious what they're doing. Like, I'm like, hey, Boston, are you, what are you trying to do here? Yeah. Are you going to get in playoffs and you're not even in the mechanic conversation or what are we, what's happening here? The, it's interesting that the, it's like what we just said about the Preds where I was like, oh, they just needed a year. It took a year for them to get in the system and figure it out. Yeah. And the fact that the Bruins, those two guys specifically are kind of doing it now,

it helps my predator's argument where I'm like, yeah, just give it a beat. They're a bit younger, obviously, than those guys. You had said that before. But I'm with you, though, that I am like, I don't want to make play. I'm like, oh, I don't think. This is where... It just doesn't feel that the V's could be good enough. This is where I, I think Laz and I get in this fight all the time.

I think there are teams and fan bases who should want to get in the playoffs no matter what happens. The Detroit Red Wings, which is ironic because they had the longest stretch of all time. But with that group, with what they're trying to do, if you're Red Wings fans, if you're a Red Wings fan, you want to get in playoffs no matter what happens. If you lose in the first round, don't care. Buffalo Sabres, you want to get in playoffs. Seattle Cracken, you want to get back in play. For me, it is hard to look at great players like David Posternak and Charlie McAvoy and be like, miss playoffs guys.

They're ultra competitors they want to be in playoffs. But from a Bruins fan perspective, I'm like, you want to miss playoffs. You should want to miss playoffs to get better draft picks and to use said draft picks because you're you're building something you are not a fan base that has been missing playoffs for a long time like you are okay to miss playoffs one more time yes and just keep getting better and you got to be ready to go next year this isn't like we're building something for the future like you're wasting pasta's prime 100% yeah but just I don't think this team can get good enough to be like just get in and we'll go on an epic run yeah like no I don't think you will

unless swayman is nuclear which he might be he might be nuclear so uh it's been great but I am I'm curious. Also, need Hampas to be fine. Yeah, yeah. I think he is. But that was a huge issue last year. Right? Like, Hampus went down.

Charlie went down. Like, you can't have that. We, the Capitals are through three games. You just reminded me because the Bs beat the Caps. The Capitals are through three games in their season. Lost to the Bruins, beat the Islanders, beat the Rangers. Ovechkin zero goals. None.

And so you were wrong. was wrong. Red, you have two games for him to score three. All right. Unless he no longer likes a chase. Maybe O.V.'s chased out. Maybe he's settled down. Maybe OV. settled down and likes... Interesting. How 897 feels.

You think he's not going to score all year? Yeah. What... Would you call it... What if Alex Evechkin finished this season with 100 assists and zero goals? Three goals? No, two. No, seriously. What if he, this is a totally realistic scenario I'm setting here.

What if Alex Evchkin had a hundred point season that was all assists? Do you think Caps fans would be like, sick? It's a great season. Undoubtedly, if you're getting that many points, the team is doing well. But, you know, what would you call that season? I think it would, I would call it the greatest season in NHL history. Zero goals, 100 assists. I think I would call it the most impressive season in the NFL history.

Yeah, yeah, impressive. Yeah, not greatest, the most impressive. For a 40-year-old greatest goal score in the history of hockey, to score zero goal. It's almost like someone getting a zero on the SATs. It's like you have to know. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Like you have to know the answers to get them wrong on certain parts. And dude, here's the thought. I'm about to say something fucking controversial. Can I give you guys

the beginning of Obie's career? Yeah. Wow, dude. This is fucked. I've just discovered something. Here's O. I can't wait for this to be not. Here's Ovi's first year.

52 goals, 54 assists as a 20 year old. That's fucking so dope. It's insane. Next year, 46 goals, 46 assists. Next year, 65 and 47, 56 and 54, 50 and 59. Then he turned, oh, oh, one more. As a 25-year-old, 32 goals, 53 assists. Then never again.

He turns 26 and like, never again does he pass? And he was just like, oh, I'm just going to score from now on. I'm just going to break Gretzky's record and I will never pass again. I think Ovi lost the thread somewhere. That's tough to say is the greatest goal score a whole time because he did. He did the thing that he said he's going to do. You know what it is? I'm like, dude.

You know what it is? It's like working out of corporate. He's in banking, dude. Yeah. He was what, he turned 27 and that happened? Yeah. He's 26 year old year. He got an office.

Yeah. He got, he got Obie's office. He got promoted. And they gave him an office. and he never left it. Like, legitimately now, for me, they get into the offensive zone and then he just sits there.

Dude, I think legitimately, because obviously he'd won two rockets already at a 65-bill season, but I legitimately think there was something to, like, he was like, I'm a great player to, like sit. Like, we're both great players. And then eventually he was like, actually, no, go ahead, sit.

You do that. I will just do this. Dude, remember those early OB videos? Like, he used to be flying around. the ice everywhere. Like he was, he would hit the fuck out of people. He was always buzzing around.

And now I just see him and he's like, I'm going to stand here. Yeah. And I'm going to score 50. And I'm like, yeah, all right. I think he's chased out, dude.

I don't think, how many goals does he score this year now? He'll break 30, I think. I think he'll score, I'll put his over under at 36 and a half. He had 44 and 65 games last year. Yeah. But 31 and 79 games a year before that,

and he looked like he was dead. It looks like he fell off a cliff and he would never, he would never play again. I think he scores I think he scores 37 goals this year 37 I'll say

31 23 insane it could happen with 60 assists it could happen but 60 assists he's chased out voice

he's chased out yes he is he's chased out let's talk about the penguins okay another great surprise penguins beat the rags beat the aisles got smoked by the rags but they're looking pretty good

and Gino five apples and three games also 100 assists zero goals 100 assists for Malkin zero goals 100 six I'm actually went hard on on Twitter

I was like fucking look at this guy who is this man and I suppose I was unaware of this because I'm not a Penguins fan dude you would think Penguins fans would have been like fucking rights motherfucker we're good

we're making plans they were all like dude he does this every fucking fall don't get it I was like Oh my God. It was every Penguins fan just came into my DMs. They were like this, dude, don't get excited. Every single October, November. I think someone was like this.

I see you haven't met October November of Guinea-Malkin. I was like, oh, shit, all right. So, I mean, I'm bumped about it. At Florida Panthers. Who is this guy? You know what? Did you see that that rumor is like that it's hitting the hockey internet waves? Yeah, good.

So many websites and accounts being like rumblings that Evgeny Malkin is a serious target for the Florida Panthers. And I'm like, that's literally just me. No, they've been trying to trade for him for years, literally for years. Fuck you, dude. They have, Greg Wisch told us this. This is an established fact. The Parenthoods have been begging for Malkin four years.

Just do it. That would be insane. They're another one, though, where I'm like, you guys are, what are you doing? Like, because if they are actually good and competitive, here's actually something I want to establish, because I'm always talking about trading Crosby, and I always get yelled that by Penguins fans. Nothing would make me happier on earth than the penguins to get good again and Sid stay. I want Sid to stay on Pittsburgh, his whole life, on a good penguins team. Correct.

That would bring me extreme joy. Yeah, I think people don't know that about us. Yeah. I'm like, I don't give a fuck what team it is. I just want him in playoffs. So if this penguin's start means we are actually going to make a run at playoffs, I'm like, yep, then 100% stay, make a run, and I would love to see you get into dance. If this is bullshit, though, and they're like,

oh, we're just actually going to be a six seat again, but we're going to be competitive and close to the bubble all year and then still not make it, then I'm now pissed, and then shame on you. That's how I feel. But exciting start. Exciting start for the guys and for Gino. This one's not a happy surprise.

It's just a fucking lull to me. We kind of said this was Steve. But the Panthers starting 3 and O, and it's hawks and flyers, but they did hammer the Sends who are good, who are very good. The Panthers being 3-0 is so funny to me because it's like, oh, the Panthers are so hurt. Can this team even make playoffs still? And we said yes.

I was like, this team's too good to miss playoffs. I'm just like, of course, dude. Of course the Panthers are three. It's so funny. And it's, you also love, it's like, Marcy's got a couple of goals. Lundell looks awesome. They're, you know, it's just, it's fantastic stuff. Yep.

They're just so good. They get production from everywhere. Yep. Goaltending's great. Nothing to see here. Moving on. Panthers one seed. Fucking Barkoff's going to be back at Chris.

Barcoff's going to play in the Olympics, dude. He's fine. They're like, oh, sorry. We found, we realized that there's a brand new ACL surgery that was just invented yesterday and you recover in a month. But it's actually only available in South Florida. And Barcoff got it. He's the best surgeon.

the world. Yeah, he's best surgeon in the world. Boom, he's fixed. He's playing the Finland Olympic gold. Panthers 50th, 50th cup in a row. I mean, it's, it's one of the, you're, you've labeled it as l-ol, and it is L-O-L funny, but it's also not surprising at all. At all. They're just so perfectly built. You want to talk about a couple spooks? Spooksvilles? Yep. What is going on in Tampa? Tampa? I went on on, um, uh, a puckpedia pod the other day. And they know, like, give me your picks. I think we, did you, where'd you have Tampa in the East or in the Atlantic? I think I had Tampa one. Maybe one.

Yeah, I think I did too. And I love, I was talking to some of the hockey boys this weekend. If you made me bet, I would say the Eastern representative in the Cup comes from the Atlantic. Because I just think Carolina, I love Carolina. They know I love Carolina, but they just, they haven't, they have the same goalies that they've had. So I'm like, I don't know if that's enough.

And I just don't think anyone else in the Met is good, no offense. So I would bet it comes to the Atlantic. And I was like, I don't know, I like Tampa's chances with a hurt Florida. I like Tampa Chance with a hurt Florida. And two games, whatever. But they get beat by the devils, who I like, but they get beat by the devils pretty handily. They were up three one against the Sands. That was actually a fun game to track because I was like, God, Tampa is so fucking good.

Dude, it was like, actually, Ottawa was fucking good. Well, Ottawa fan. It was a really funny exchange. I tweeted, I was like, Tampa's a wagon. And Ottawa fans were like, no, they're fucking not. They have a good power play, and we have a shit penalty kill.

And I was like, shut up, you fucking coping, pussy. And then they were so right. Yeah, then I was like, okay. They were so right. It was just like five on five. Tampa looked awful.

But through two games, Vassie, 855 save percentage, 4.6,7 goals against. And he looks bad. He looks bad. He didn't start. He had a,

average first half of the year last year. Yeah. And then came like a freight train. Yeah. At the end to the point that I was like, he was a finalist, right? He was. Yeah. To the point that I was even like he could, he could challenge Helly for this, which is laughable now considering they gave MVP to Helly, which is a fucking clown show.

But Vassie closed like a freight train at the end of the year. Yeah. And I was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated. But this is now an alarming trend to start the year where I'm like, buddy. Because, dude, he's, he is not. not old. Like,

how old do you think Vasi is? I kind of just gave it away. 30? Yeah, dude, he's 31. And he, like, just turned 31. In my mind,

Vassi's fucking 50. Or, like Bob's age, you know? Like, these guys have been in the league forever. Yeah. Wassie is completely in his prime still.

It should be fucking nasty. Yeah. And if he, I'll say this about Tampa, bad start, two good teams. I'm not worried at all about my pick, about them,

they're fucking fine. But if, massive if, if Vassie, is all of a sudden not good, then they are in a world of hurt. Oh, you're in Spooksville. Yeah, they are, in fact, they're fucked.

I'm going to add, you have one more, uh-oh, here, and I want to add one. I'm nervous if I'm a Vegas Golden Knights fan about Aiden Hill. Okay. Let me look this up. Aiden Hill right now, through two games. has a 3.24 goals against and an 8-5-4, say percentage. Yeah.

Those are vassie numbers, pal. Those are vastly. I mean, literally, it is exactly vassie, but slightly better. Yeah. And I don't know, man. Two wins. That's, I just, I feel like we kind of saw a little bit last year in the playoffs. I was like, oh, he wasn't looking like the Stanley Cup winning Hill that, you know, took the job.

Yeah, 8, 87 playoffs last year. Right? Yeah, after 932, 931 in his two playoffs. Yeah. Performances before that. 887. And then, yeah, I mean, he hovers around, or at least in Vegas, like the last couple years, he hovers around low nines, 909, 906, which you probably want more then, honestly,

but that you can live with that on that Vegas team, I think. So obviously, 8-5-4 is fucking, unacceptable soldier. Yes, and like that King's loss while an electric game, shout out, Kossom, we had a blast. That was not an okay loss. Something to keep an eye on. I'll give you that. Like, I think he, I know he can win you a cup. He did it.

But I, that is, it's worth being like, how are we doing? Yeah, because I think their D is good. Sokatana was not good though, right? They won that game maybe. Yeah, who did they beat? My point being is they just need, they cannot be in a situation where they're like, Oh, no, they beat out of the sharks, 4-3 and O.T. Yeah.

And it was the most ridiculous loss of all time. Like I go from the parking lot. Nadelkovich just like, I had an aneurism twice. So I don't know what's going on. Yeah, it's something to keep an eye on. Because if Hill slips too, then they all of a sudden become like, I guess kind of like, Cain's kind of abs, Aves territory. Actually, I really like Blackwood, but

Ave's the last couple years territory where you're like, fuck, we have such a cup team. And I just like need that boost. Yeah. Carter Heartwatch. Yeah. Ooh, that, what a spot. I mean, it was, it's like, he was, what a spot. I think they already kicked tires on that. And that was one of the teams people were talking about.

And they were like, no, we're not doing it. But now I'm like, I do it. If this kid, if you go, if you go 10 games into the season and Hill's like really sketchy, maybe. He's like, I'm not playing in Canada. I'm going to fucking Vegas. Keep my money, live in Vegas, win a cup. Dude, time to do $1 million, one year. Yeah.

Yeah. It's all it would cost. 100%. Do whatever you want in Vegas, pal. Do whatever you want. Just say. Yeah. Put it on red.

Just it. Okay. My other, uh-oh, boys, just a little bit. Is the hometown L.A. Kings. Yeah. Absolutely crunched by the abs. But the abs are disgusting. But it looks like, it looks like one of those games where you're like,

oh, this scene is way better than you. Yeah. Which I'm not even sure they are. I think they're better than the games, but not they shouldn't be way better but i was like oh jesus yeah then that Vegas game which you just said was amazing but they also blew a three they were up three one and then we blinked and they were down five three and i'm like boys like what the fuck and then they lost the jets after being up again on a sick juice goal to take the lead so those are tough teams if i told you

have to start the season with avs Vegas jets i'm like okay that who gives the fuck that's brutal um but you know a couple blown leads we look locally little sloppy, look a little, look a little leaky on the back end with a couple different goalies, you know. So just keep an eye on it. Keep an eye on it. Keep an eye on it. Dan. But it's, to me, it's, I think it's more than that. I think it's the defense is such an issue. Keep an eye on it. And we, we worried that, right? Yeah. It was just. If it was going to go anywhere, I was saying on that Puckpedia show, if you totally, totally, me the Kings were going to struggle in one of the three phases.

Because I actually think for a good team, they have question marks in all three in that, wow, are you going to get that from Kemper again, question mark? You know, some of your forwards are a year older plus. Yeah, which guys need to take a jump? Plus which Morsi am I getting? 30 or 13, right? So there's a question mark there. And then there's a question mark of some of the guys who got on the back end.

if one of the phases was going to derail the Kings, my vote is back in, because I bet, or on D, because I bet they get good Kemper again, and I actually do think they're going to get 30 Goldmore Z. Cope will be good. Like, I'm actually fine up there. It's just like, the D, I'm like, oh, no. For sure.

A little scary, little scary. I wanted to finish some hot ice with a little rocket watch. Okay. Just two that really fired me up. I'm going to actually reverse the order here. Shane Pinto, our boy. A lot of people being like, we need more from him. What do you think?

Like, how did you feel about his season last year as a pseudo-sense guy? He was, he was not like third line. Yeah, yeah. And he's a weapon dad. He figured it out a bit and ended up getting 20 goals. But it's like we're like, he's a 40 goal guy. You know, like that's what he can be. But yeah, by saying that, I was just like maybe they underutilized him.

Agree. So game one. a couple tucks. Game two. And I texted him and I go, people are saying 164 goals are in the cards. And he just got caught. He was like, ha ha.

And then game two, he scored two goals. And he then replies and goes, dude. I was like, yeah, bro. That's what I'm saying. So I don't know that he's going to score 164.

I don't know that he's even going to score 40. But 40 would be sick. 40 would be fucking. I mean, 40 would be a dream. But if he scores, If he scores 30, you're like, fucking rights. This is the jump, right? Like, this is the jump that I actually thought was coming last year,

where I'm like, okay, yeah, you're back, let's go. This is, dude, it's funny. Goal scoring. Your boy, Jake Gensel, goal against the Bs, up won nothing. Was it Gensel? Yeah. NHL.com, says Sorrelli. Is it a contract year for Pinto?

Did he sign the little bridge? Jesus. Two years ago. Dan, you're the contract guy. Yes, he did. Yeah, maybe that's it. Maybe that's what it is Sorrelli. Sorry.

Maybe that's where the goals are going to go. Gensler got the first assist. Must have been a tip. Maybe that's where the goals are coming from. But these things matter so much in gold chases because you go, if when you do a dry spell and you're like, fuck, like you bought your, basically you bought yourself a dry spell by going four and two games. Like that's what I'm saying.

I want to add one, uh-oh, if I may. Tage Chompson just got his first of the season tied up one-one. The Buffalo Sabres are O and two. They're tied one-one with the other. right now. The way Sabers fans reacted to their losses online, they were just like, dude, and I'm pretty sure someone just went down with an injury. Was it Norris? Yeah, yeah, Norris. Norris just got an injury. Significant amount of time. Yeah. They were like, it was like he tore old. They said it was similar to when he tore his obliac. It's not the same injury, but he's like,

I remember when the Sends did that trade. And I was like, I think I texted Dan. I was like, oh, what a sideways move. And then I think this is the long. long-term thought process from the sense. Yeah. It's like every year, something happens to Josh. Yeah. Which sucks.

It sucks. It sucks. He's a fucking nail gun. Dude, something has to change this year. Like, it's not going to, dude.

No, no, no, no, no. Like there, no, it is. It is. This is what I'm saying. Like, this,

with what happened a few years ago where it was like, they were kind of flirting with it, and then they got worse, they got worse, and now here we are. We need like a hostile take-o They already tried that once

Yeah Yeah like the peculas need to give this team up Because like it's actually fucking insulting And we are at the point where I think We are going to see if we get 20 games into the season And Buffalo's you know fucking 8 and 12 And they just stink

They're gonna trade like they're gonna trade guys like tuck They're gonna trade and I don't think they'd ever trade Tage or or Dalline But like they're going to to trade important players because it's what they do. And those players then go on and win Stanley Cups. And this fan base is going to fucking kill themselves. And we can't have that.

No, we can't. They're such sick jerseys. It's also, they're a cool team. The Buffalo Sabres are a cool team. Oh, dude. And we've said a zillion times, how in the world do you have the Buffalo Bills and you have the vibes that the Buffalo Bills have?

And you don't have that with the Sabers. How have you dropped that ball? so significantly. And it breaks my heart. I need to see some. The vibe is there? No, it's not. Even in the darkest of times,

well, I go to Buffalo, dude, like, those people love the Sabres. But you know that the vibe is not the same at all. Well, yeah, they're not having as much fun. And I think that the bills, even before they were good, they were still having fun. They were smashing tables.

You got to smash some tables, Savers' Chalgating. Maybe they start tailgating. Tailgate Sabers games. Like, I know it sounds crazy. It's the same owner. Ship. Tailgate Sabers games.

What are we doing? Dude, and they also, look at what they've done to Penn State Hockey. Like, they just don't care about the Sabres. It's crazy. I think if we were to

bring bubble hockey games to the tailgate, and then Sabers fans would jump off the roof of cars through bubble hockey tables. I think you're more... Take the bubble off.

First of all, take the bubble off. Those costs are way too high. Okay, good point. Second of all. They're heavy. They're heavy. And third of all, we're talking now, like, shards of that bubble, glass, plastic, getting in the way.

Dave's tons of long stick. Players. Up your ass. Heads going right up your butt hole. Okay. These are excellent points. Dangerous. Buy a fold-up table.

Yeah. Paint a rink on it. Paint a rink on it. Or jump off car through table. Save Sabers season. Absolutely. Bring vibes up, save Sabers season. Yeah.

Yeah. You're so, right? There's no reason the vibes should not be there for the Sabers. The same way for the bills. Because the fans do love the fucking Sabres too. Yeah, I know. Absolutely. Bring it.

I think I was, I don't know if I was telling you guys that it was on Saturday. Or whatever. When I was a Sabers game a couple years ago, I was just dead quiet in there. Yeah. Warm up and nothing is happening. Yeah. It's brutal. I was like, what's happening?

What's going on? We got to pump. We got to pump the energy up. Yeah, we got to pump the energy up. Yeah, we got to put the numbers. I can't see it anymore. Let's switch it back to more Rocket Talk, sorry, and there's one other guy that you needed to bring up.

Dude, Dorothea, is going to score a million goals. He, dude, last year in 82 games, 35 goals, 17 assists. I think a lot of people weren't aware of that because he missed. They were not. He missed, he got hurt in the playoffs, and, like, that was a massive wrinkle. 35 goals in 82 games. He's played three games with Eichland Marner. He has five goals, including a Hattie.

Instant Hattie. He scored a goal at every game. game. The, I've said a lot about the lightning's first line, which I think is disgusting and probably the best first line in hockey. And I still think resume wise, those three guys, because Pavel isn't, hasn't done it long enough yet for me to just crown him as like an all-time, all-star. But watching, I didn't see any Vegas preseason, like literally not a single second of hockey. Yeah. I was excited for Marner and I go, but I was like, I'm going to see it when the season starts. Watching them,

shout out Cosm again they they are going to be a problem like a legitimate problem absolutely and this dude is the perfect compliment we were just talking with Steve

about like who do we get on this line we just you know you need the chemistry you need the line needs to go together like some Legos and bro this guy is like I'll just

he knows where to go and he can finish and if you're playing he's a goal score if you're playing with Matthews let's say even, maybe that's not the perfect fit because Matthew's like, well, I know where to go and I know how to finish. So you're doing what I'm doing and I'm

better at it than you. But this guy's playing with Eichel and Marner. And dude, he just appears. My eyes are glued to Eichl and Marner, like a tennis match going back and forth, and then this dude materializes backdoor and hammers one into the net over and over and over. He could literally, and I'm dead ass, I'm always exaggerated on the show. He could literally win the rocket. Yeah.

Like it wouldn't be that's insane to me if he was like, I'm It would kind of be insane because, I mean, can you imagine we should fucking hammer that? Is that, is that, yeah, I wonder what those odds are right now because we should fucking hammer it. It would be insane because that would be on no one's radar. But when you think about it, this guy who is a goal score playing with Jack Eichael and Mitch Marner, you are kind of like. Two of the top playmakers. Right, you're like, oh, wait, that does make it. On a team that's going to score a lot, on a line that's going to have the puck the whole time.

Fucking Jack, dude. Just, Jack is the fuck all game. It's insane. Interesting. Best Lion hockey. That might be a bet MGM bet that we find and fucking smash as the network. God, dude. We got to figure that out.

Does a goal have any goals? Yes. How many? One. Okay. Pretty good. Okay, Dan. Pretty good.

Okay. In the meantime, we're staying on some immediate overreactions, way too early reactions. We're going to bring on the prospect, Don. absolute beauty. If you're not following them on Twitter, you should. But the guy is dialed when it comes to young players, draft classes, prospects. We're going to talk about rookies in the league right now. Let's bring on Don.

All right, we are joined by the prospect, Don, a man who knows more about young players in the league, draft classes, prospects in general, than anyone on planet Earth. And we want to bring you on and talk about the rookie class this NHL season, who you're loving, who you've got stock in. First of all, how the hell are you? I'm good. That introduction was amazing. I know you said on Earth, but, you know, there's some content creators in other planets that have been doing better than I have. But other than that, like, Mars, they've been really popping off. But, dude, this has been an incredible start to the season for rookies.

You're seeing guys play 25 minutes a night that are just, like, relied on heavily, like Matthew Schaefer or Sam Renzel. So, you know, for a guy like me, this is the perfect time of the year. Yeah, it must be, I mean, like when you're as dialed in as you are, start of the season is like Christmas times 10 for you. Who was going to pop out? I'm so glad you brought up Schaefer already. Yes, that's where I wanted to start too. Remember all summer and after he got drafted,

people were talking about how young he was and they said, oh, we might see a Leo Carlson type treatment here where they maybe manages minutes, manages games. Then this kid comes in in preseason. I've never seen someone look so NHL ready. And then, yeah, he's popping on the ice and he's like, He's their number one demon. He's just eating minutes.

A step farther. They were saying it wasn't even managed. They were like, he's not going to make it. Like they were like, he's the youngest kid in the draft. We were 100% not taking him this year. It's not even a conversation. And then it instantly became he's playing 20 minutes a game.

He has two points out of. He's unbelievable. Yeah. And he's already breaking records. I think he is the record for youngest player ever to record a point because he's so much younger than anybody else in that draft class. I think he was like seven or eight months, or maybe even nine months younger than Porter Martone, who went sixth overall.

So Matthew Schaefer's an incredible kid. When I got to talk to him multiple times last year, he just made me realize how immature I was and how mature he was. I think that he's definitely a top three player on that team, in my opinion. I know that's a huge hot take, but just look at what he's doing. I mean, he has the respect as well as he's earned those minutes. I think he recorded 26 minutes last game. He had that incredible goal where he just like dove in,

has, you know, the shoulder is healthy. You can tell that he is like, if there's an opportunity for him to do anything to help the team win, he's going to do that. One of the guys that I just really like, he loves Skittles. I think that's really funny. I was talking to his dad in the elevator at the NHL draft because he was just talking to James Hagan's. So I thought he was James Hagen's dad. And I was just talking like Higgins and Schaefer up because I thought they were going to get drafted to the Islanders. And then I got stuck at an elevator with him, like he was holding a Matthew Schaefer,

jersey. I was like, oh, that's Matthew Schaefer's dad. Because, like, I didn't know who it was. And now he's very, very famous in all the interviews, because he's talking about his son and everything. But he's at a great kid. I think that he's got star power where the Islanders really needed. You know, so he's going to be in the NHL

for a very long time. Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's also funny, you know, you mentioned the kid turned 18 in early September. Yeah. Like, it's crazy. And to be eating 27 minutes in an NHL game when you've just recently turned 18 years old is so funny. Insane. We saw last year, and last year you had a no knock on

anybody because we're going to get to Dem it off in a second, but last year you had a Macklin Celebrini and a Mitchcoff where it was kind of like these are potentially like generational guys coming through. The rookie of the year race is a two horse race between them. And then Lane Hudson comes out of nowhere, not comes out of nowhere, but in terms of point production, I think, was like, holy shit. And, you know, leads the way and wins rookie of the year. Do you think Schaefer is capable of that? Can we see, because it kind of unfortunately becomes a point race a little bit. You know, like I don't think Lane Hudson would have won rookie a year

if he had been 20 points behind those guys. So do you think Schaefer has that? Can he hang points-wise and be in a rookie of the year conversation at the end of this season? Yeah, I do. I think it's also going to be time on ice and kind of how the team performs with the Calder. If it's like neck and neck with Demadov, Zey and Perraq and Schaefer, or maybe even like a guy like Sam Renzel,

I do think that the age is going to be a decisive factor for the voting as well and what he had to overcome during the year last year. Broken Collarbone was one of the best players on the ice at International Canada for the one game in four minutes of that one game that he played. But then he only played 17 games last year and had 20 points. That's unheard of her first overall pick. And what he's doing is absolutely insane in my opinion. He comped himself to guys like Miro Hiscan as well as, you know, Kel McCar.

And we're kind of seeing a guy that has so much raw potential and at that age. So I do think that Matthew Schaefer is going to be in the Calder race all year. I think that he can win it. Like a guy like Demidov obviously is the favorite of my book. But the thing is, if he doesn't perform as well as, you know, a lot expect, people are going to give the edge to a guy like Schaefer who just came in and had to dominate. And I think it's a little interesting about the generational prospects, like, quote, unquote, that have come into the league. Because it's Bedard Celebrini. I think they overshadowed guys like Michael Misa and Matthew Schaefer last year.

And then on the back, for this year, it's McKenna. And then the next year, it's Land of DuPont. So there's like five generational, quote-unquote guys that are coming into the league. And I think it overshadowed Matthew Schaefer. But as soon as they get into the league, you can't undershadow the guy anymore. So, or, you know, so it's like he just pops off and then gets it. as much fans as he possibly can, and the hype surrounds him is just absolutely

incredible. So the noise around Schaefer, especially being in New York, is going to be really, really big for Calder. I love that take, too, especially the, because you're right, it was, how many times did we see like, underwhelming draft this year? You know, coming into this track, it was like, oh, this draft is not that exciting compared to the year before, and then

next year with McKenna, and I'm like, Schaefer's nasty, actually. He is, and what I'm curious about, we're already talking about it with is minutes. I mean, you can look at lines and all you want, but at the end of the day, when you look at minutes, you see actually who's playing. And we keep bringing up that 27 minutes. I mean, that's a fucking haul of a game. The kids are left shot. And on that team, you've got Romanov who's a left shot. You've got Pelik, who's a left shot, two of the best defensemen

on that team. But then already you have Schaefer playing this much, playing more than them in certain games. And it's, for me, this is one of the first times you could make the argument with Macklin and obviously that Sharks team is so interesting because they're so young and there there's just so many different opportunities. But I feel like we haven't seen a first overall pick get onto a team and be immediately given the keys to an incredibly important role, you know, since like McDavid, since Crosby. Those were guys that stepped in and everyone knew how good they were and they were like, we don't care how young you are. You are like, you're playing immediately.

You're a first-line center. You're taking care of shit. And you're kind of seeing this so far with Schaefer. Like he's stepped into this team as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed 18-year-old, and they're like, you're playing damn near 30 minutes. I think, like, when's the last time we remember seeing that, really? On a team that's also, like, kind of competitive. Like, they want to be a playoff team, right?

We weren't seeing that with the Shark Last year. We weren't seeing that with the Blackhawks two years ago. They were like, go ahead and beat. They were young teams. They're like, but don't. Celebrini, run around and do whatever the fuck you want. You know, like, we're not making playoffs here. This is a team that's trying to be competitive, and they're going, you are maybe our most

important defense. Yeah. It's pretty wild. Yeah, and I think the door opened up after the Doa Dobson trade because you just traded your best defenseman. And now you're getting a guy coming into the league that doesn't really have a lot of experience, especially last year. And you're like, hey, you have an opportunity to take the number one defensive role.

Go ahead and try to take it. And the thing about Matthew Schaefer is he has always talked about how there's no pressure. It's a game. He sees the game very, like a veteran. So it's not like he's just that much younger mentally. It's just his age, you know, next to his name on the elite prospects of the statutes. So this guy is so mature and he already understands how to be a superstar, especially in an organization. Because Erie, they traded their players in the fan base like they were absolutely at HL Hall of Famers.

Like, when you go into a restaurant, they're going to be mobbing you. Like, he understood that. So I think Schaefer comes at it with a different, like, respect and I guess a perspective than a lot of other prospects have. And when you get a guy like Matthew Schaefer, it's so much harder on defense to even be kind of in that elite conversation already, especially as a rookie. It usually takes two, three years. It's kind of like a goalie. It's kind of like a quarterback in the NFL. You really don't know how a player is going to be defensively.

And he's just excelled in every single box. I mean, playing that much many minutes and then excelling and having that much energy, I mean, you saw his celebration when he scored. That man just loves playing hockey and he loves scored. So, you know, the Islander's got a good one there. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet wins. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup

that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. A healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. Let's talk about someone else who's on fire.

It's a little young buck up in Anaheim, down in Anaheim, I guess. Beckett Sennike, leading all rookies three points, got an assist in his first game, or was it the goal in his first game? Goal on his first game. Nice little tap. Incredible. And then now another goal and the assist.

I think that, I mean, he had his epic draft reaction moment. The viral clip. Yep. But there were other names that were getting hyped a lot coming into this season, right? Some guys you mentioned already will get to. But what do you see from him that's just translating so immediately? When Beckett Seneca went third overall, I kind of knew it was going to be a good pick because Pover-Beak just seems like he can evaluate talent.

anywhere. He did the same thing with Roger McQueen. It's like very tall forward that has incredible skill. This guy's basically like a 510 forward and a 6-4-6-5 body that just happens to be very skilled. Beckett Seneca, I talked to him during the offseason, and we talked about the viral clip that he had, and he just started cracking up because he understands how far he's come from that, but he really didn't know he was going to get drafted third. I think that the draft floor, there was kind of a lot of talk that he was going third at least two hours beforehand, but it was kind of a shocker, but this guy is so much talent. What he was doing in the OHL was just absolutely incredible.

I know that a lot of Ducks fans were, it was kind of like a more insider type of draft pick where you're like, what just happened? There were so many guys on the board, but it's not a Kirby Doc situation. This guy was performing incredibly well with his team, and he just has so much upside. and he grew, I think, like six inches in a summer. And so he had to figure out how to use his body. This is a guy that has so much upside and so much talent that he can be a superstar in the NHL, and I would not be surprised.

I know that people go to Ivan Demadov, Kaden Lindstrom, like Zeev Boyam, like even Zane Perak in that draft and be like, we could have had those guys. But back at Seneca's top of the leaderboards and rookie stats for a reason, I know it's early in the gate, but this guy's going to score like 20, 30 goals this year, in my opinion. he stays up. There's a lot of talent on the ducks, and they can just flip-flop who his linemates are going to be. It's not like Badaard where he's played with plumbers. This guy's playing with legit guys.

Yeah, so true. And also, I like what you said about how he grew. My favorite thing about his first two goals is if you look at those plays, he's scoring in the gritty areas, right? He's in the box around the net. He's getting bumped. He's staying on his feet. He's staying in the right position, tracking pucks.

That's a rare rookie goal. We see a lot of these rookies who come in and score a lot of goals. They're usually flying down the wing using their hands, making a move, sniping top corner, hitting a one-time. He's scoring, you know, lunch pail goals. And to get your first two NHL goals like that where he is using his size, figuring out how to use his size, I think that that's really exciting for them because that Ducks team does have a lot of good young talent who are going to score

those other types of goals, like I mentioned. So that's pretty special for the Ducks. Who are guys, you know, you keep mentioning a bunch of them. You like to see it. You mentioned Z. Boyam, who also got his first NHL goal over the week, which is awesome. If you're picking, you know, three to five rookies that maybe not so much that you're calling out for called or watch, but guys that you were like, these dudes are going to be legit players this year and get their fan bases pumped up. Who do you have eyes on?

Well, the easy ones are just the guys we mentioned, like Matthew Schaefer, Seneca, Ivan Demadov, but I wanted to talk about like Ryan Leonard, Sam Renzell, like those two guys, and even Jimmy Snuggieroot, he's so fun to watch on the Blues. I mean, just in Minnesota, what he was doing with the Golden Gophers, absolutely incredible. I think that Ryan Leonard is going to be the future of the capitals. You know, it's going to be in a top six role, but he is somebody that is really exciting. You know, he was interviewing Zeve William, who's also another one with a slim gym at the rookie show. okay. So the guy is like a lot of confidence. He kind of goes by his beats at his own drum.

I mean, this guy is somebody that I think could be a star in the league. He just, if he figures it all out, he has so much potential. I really like Sam Renzel too. The guy plays 25 minutes a night. I'm one of the worst teams and he's only a minus one in three games with the Blackhawks. You saw his little toe drag top shelf's goal for his first of the year. And I just, this guy is so much confidence drafted out of high school in 2022 i mean um this guy is just so much star potential in there the offense is there too and his defense is incredible some guy that i want to see play well is artem left shenov because i think that there's so much potential but it's more of an experience like i called it like it's an experience to watch a play but it's our experience as black hawks fans

but if he hits it's going to be top four really great player but he just needs to get comfortable Brady Martin's a guy that I really, really like and want to see because he plays more of that Tom Wilson, Zach Heiman role where he can score a lot, but he's going to use his body and physicality. He was a combine darling. Every time he would talk, it would be about the farm, tractor fishing, how he has chores that he has to do so he doesn't want to go to the draft. There was just so much. But Devondov, he is just so fun to watch. His skating, I think, was touted as a weakness from some scouts in his draft class. but it was actually just a strength in my opinion,

but it was just a little interesting to like watch him skate. But he explodes on the ice. So I think that was a little bit of a scouting mistake there. Are you surprised? And again, it's fucking three games. But are you surprised that we haven't seen more out of Demetoff yet, considering what he did in the two games or whatever it was that he showed up last year?

Yeah, like three games, one assist. But, you know, I actually thought he was going to dominate the Block Hawks. was a really good opportunity for him to, I think the Blackhawks had nine or ten penalty kills. It was almost the record at 16 for the Blackhawks, but they were in the box the entire game. So I thought with the more time and space he was going to be able to get, he was going to be able to use that, you know, use his incredible skill and just showcase that against the team that didn't draft him. But I don't believe that there's any worry about Demadov. I think that his B game is something that you need to look at a little bit. it like how what is he doing away from the puck because he's only going to have the puck on a stick for

a minute and 30 seconds or two minutes during games because that's kind of usually how it goes if you count if you use a stopwatch and see how long a guy has the has the puck on a stick but demidov is one of those guys that i think he showed more prowess in his uh back checking and he's trying to work on that overall game like kind of like mitchcoff did with john torrella he it was really work on your b game and you're going to be a superstar we know your offense is there you're an offensive genius guru, work on your B game, and it's all going to come together. So I think Ivan Demadov is learning how to be a winning player, but the stats I'm not really worried about this year. I think he's going to put up 60 points plus and just get a lot of

highlights for those haves fans. Yeah, one guy I'm super high on, I've said a million times on the Islanders is Max Shabanov. I think I just love his highlight tape, dude. And I think it's like, sometimes you come over as a rookie and you're just so playing so free and can really do something. and I think obviously they're not as competitive as maybe they want to be, but I love that he's got a goal already. Do you see a spark that I'm seeing there? Or what do you think he can do as a rookie? Yeah, he's fun to watch.

You know, the smaller guys that are under 510, you never really know how they're going to translate. But he is 24, 25. So it's coming in like Artemi Panarin a little bit. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, he has a ton of skill. I love watching these kind of guys. It's like kind of reminds me of like,

like it kind of reminds me of like an L.J. Mooney-esque. I know L.J. Mooney's like 5-7, but it's just that kind of explosion you have and the excitement when you're on the ice. You never, you cannot close your eyes. Because if you do, you're going to miss something incredible that he does. So, yeah, I can't believe a 2000 birthday is already 25. It makes me feel old a little bit.

That's so crazy. Yeah. Yeah, he will have a high, I promise you at the end of the year when they're doing the top 10 goals of the year, year. I don't know if he's going to score 40, which I did announce. But if he doesn't, but I will say one of the goals he scores will be in the NHL package top 10 goals of the year. Yeah. It's special. Dude, I love watching him. I love it. All right. Before we let you go, I want to get your, for our people who are all over the betting spaces with bed MGM and all things like that, if you are right now, as the prospect, Don, if you are telling people your top three picks for Calder. Who is it? Well, I was talking to Scott Wheeler, actually, and he said he can't bet.

But if he was a betting man, he'd put his money on Zane Perrek and I think like plus 1,200 for Calder. Because this guy can score, yeah, this guy can score a ton. And he's going to be able to put up a lot of points on a team. And if Calgary makes the playoffs, that's going to be put into the evaluation. As well as I really do think that a guy like Sam Renzell with his time on ice and the kind of usage he's going to get as the top, you know, defenseman on the Blackhawks with all that power play time he's going to get. He's going to be able to put up like 40, 45 points in my opinion. I think a guy like, even like Alexander Nachushchev. He could win the Calder, a lot older than

a lot of these other guys. And he played incredibly well in the KHL. He was one of the best players in the entire KHL. And he's already a plus three. So if you're looking at plus minus, but the guy's on ice all the time. In the KHL, in the NHL, it's kind of been a little bit like under 18 minutes a night, and I think that they need to push that up a bit. But if he does, if he's getting, you know, 20, 22 minutes a night, I think that he could win Calder. Dude, those, I actually really, those are three value picks.

Like, you know what I mean? I agree. I agree. Niccution is such a good call because, you know, Slavin's day to day right now, too, so he's getting even more minutes out there. and he was also, what a good example of someone who kind of just like came out of nowhere, on an already stacked team. He just kind of showed up out of nowhere and is fantastic.

So I love that pick. Dude, I love all of that, giving us a nice lecture on the best young players in the game right now. Hey, the guy, the insiders in Mars better watch out. Yeah, he's freaking out. Better watch out right now because we're taking over the universe. Yeah. Dude, you're the best for popping on. We got to make this more of a regular thing during the season.

But before we let you go, tell everyone where they can find. you what to expect from you coming up this season. Yeah, thank you guys for having me on. It's been a dream. You guys did an incredible job with the King's Schedule Released, so great job on that. That was awesome. You can find me at the Prospect Dawn on YouTube X and TikTok, as well as I just purchased a draft prospect hockey, which is a scouting service, so you guys can find my stuff over there,

and we're going to be covering all of the major junior leagues NCAA, draft eligible players and Calder eligibility guys. So definitely check that out. But thank you guys again for having me. You guys are popping off and I love your content. Absolutely, brother. Right back at you, man. Yeah, we'll do this again soon.

Yeah. Huge shout out to the prospect, Don, giving us a master class and rookies in the game. Let's take a quick ad break and then jump back in it. Babes, by now, you know that we are teamed up with Bet MGM, the best sports book in the game. And they are hooking you up with everything you could possibly want in the sports world when you're trying to make your bets.

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It is a blast. Every time I start thinking about mug group beer, I start thinking about times that we had an inner dog in us barking, screaming to get out. Connor McDavid, contract saga, everyone on earth wondering when he's going to sign. Dan goes, actually, I think it's October 6th. And he puts it on the internet for everyone to see. And what do you know? Just like I thought, he got a paws on a mug and he had that dog deep inside him, letting loose, living life unfiltered, snipe the McDavid signing like a G, like a dog, like only a mug dog can do. Okay, so the next time that you want to be on top of something like that, the next time you want something cold, something frothy, something with unapologetic flavor, I want you to get your paws on a mug

root beer. This one, no sugar, zero caffeine, my absolute favorite. Find them at any local store near you or, or you go to mugrootbeard.com. slash find dash mug. That's F-I-N-D-M-U-G. And then you can start sniping predictions left and right, just like the inner dog inside you. Welcome back to the M-G-N-N-N-R-Rs podcast. Or should I say, don't.

Welcome back to the Puck's podcast. Bang. Do you like this? Red's never got to experience it. Well, maybe he has a listener, but he's never got to experience it in the channel. We are back with a Puck's podcast because it's been a minute

since we updated you because we were doing division predictions and all this stuff. And we got to talk about the other day where Max, the groom at the wedding we were at, got us a signed copy. And we gave Max a signed copy. Well, yeah, he got, he will. Are we almost done?

No. Fuck. And I actually thought I was going to do a bigger dent, but so much happened that I was like, okay, I just, we got to stop because I can't, I can't be telling you too much to it. I can't be taking up too much in the air rights. Hey, I can promise you.

Yeah, you can. You have my permission. You have my permission to just. Can't rush it, Dan. You have my permission. If I ever learned anything about hot, steamy sex from this book, it's that you can't rush it. You take your time. God almighty.

You take your time. All right. Okay, so first in, just before we get to the highlights, I just want to give you the rundown of the plot. Yeah. Of what has happened. Great. Because that's super important in this, smut book. In this book.

And this is actually, you were going to love this. Oh, yeah? So they, like, have banged a bunch, and then she slept over and whatever. The very next chapter is the Blackhawks going to road trip. so she doesn't get to see him. But he's texting all time, he's calling all time, he's sending flowers, he sends an outrageous gift. It's literally like, I think I made this joke,

but it's like that scene in Wolf of Wall Street when she's like in a towel and there's flowers everywhere. And she's like, this is insane. Like he's doing that. It's actually rattling. But she is constantly Googling his name to see like, oh, he's banging another puck bunny on the road. and a picture surfaces of him with his arm around a blonde girl

and she's kissing him on the cheek and she's like I knew it this motherfucker yeah and then it's like more pick there's like a bunch of pictures and it's like in a magazine and she's like yeah like I'm a fucking loser uh so she's like I'm never speaking to him again I'm going to kill myself she tries to go for a run to take the to take this to take the steam off

and she actually runs to McDonald's and get some milkshed was she actually suey or were you paraphrasing. Oh no, she wasn't going to kill herself. You got to, dude, if you're giving us, yeah, you're right, because that's possible. Relax. Yeah. No, she was just really bummed out. Then he calls, he leaves her a million voicemail. She's not answering. He calls her best friend to be like, yo, that's my sister. Yeah. Obviously.

You know, like, so typical. That's my sister. You have reacted. She's like, oh my God. I'm sorry. He's like, yeah, dude. So she's like, I got to call him. And she's like, hey, sorry. I freaked out. And he's like, no worries. they have phone sex. Come on, come on. Incredible phone sex. Then he goes, I'm going to fly you out to Toronto, take you to the game against the Leafs, and then I have a couple days off.

We're going to go to my cabin and stay there. So she goes, let me see if I can get the day off. Can't. Sorry, Ken, but tells him she can't because she's going to surprise him. Sure. Because she's going, like she convinces her mom to get the ticket, and she's going with her best friend, Charlene or Charlotte or something. And she goes to the game.

In the game, he gets. gets in a massive fight with the center on the lease. Because he used to be on the Leafs and he got traded to the Hawks. Okay. And he's now the captain of the Hawks. He gets in a massive fight and gets tossed because it's like instigator and like he was out of control. So he's in the locker room. She.

No. Just goes, I need to go talk to him and just walks into the locker. From the stance. From the stance. No pat. She's not like with a press patent. No. Literally she has a ticket.

Walks into the locker room. fucks him. Helena hunting. Dan, I was like, this is the first time. Known NHL game goer, clearly.

This is the first time I've really been like, yo, what are we talking about? Walks in the locker room, and he's like, what the fuck? We switched to an Alex chapter

and he's like, he thinks he's hallucinating because he's like, I thought you couldn't come, and she's like, oh, I wanted to surprise you. And then they fuck in the locker room and at the game,

it was like the third period he got tossed as the game ends, and the whole team walks in. And they see it. Oh, yeah, dude. She's just straddling to him in his stall. Bro. And he's like, he's got her.

Well, we'll get there. So that's what happens in the book. Holy Jesus. On this part. Here's some highlights. Can I just real quick, give me that book. Yeah. It's going to rip it in that.

I want people to be able to see what's going on here. All of the dog ears that Chris has put in this. This is the one and only time in the history of literature that a smut hockey book has been dog-eared this many times. I want you know. For the purpose. Because it used to be harder for me to find the highlights. So now I dog ear him so I can just get through it quickly for you. Okay.

So you're welcome, both of you. All right. Here are some highlights from this section of Pucked. And some of these are just hockey stuff that I just thought was so funny. Okay. So this is like the very beginning. She's had her date and with Alex. She slept over.

And she's like, she hasn't gotten any message about Alex, but my mother is a different story. She attempts to glean as much information as she can about the date turned sleepover. She even asks if the rumors are true. I refuse to answer because those aren't details I'll share with my mother. However, my inability to sit without wincing for the first couple days afterwards is fairly telling. And I'm like, dude, do you think you would do that to your mom? Like just, you can't be living with your mom, can't be living with your mom, and wincing after sex with Monster Cox.

Can not be doing it. Also, here's classic Helena, dude. She sees that he's got a picture with another blonde. Yeah. She goes, reality punches me in the boob. That is not a real sentence in this book. It's not. It's not.

We say kick to the dick, though. You know what I mean? I feel like guys are like, that was a kick to the dick. I just say it. I think that we say that reality punched her right in the boob. But what, that's meant to be a moment of actual emotion of like,

it's fucking brutal. Yeah. She says, reality just punches me in the boo. And I've heard for chicks, girls listening, who I know there are girls listening to this episode and like this book, I think boob punches hurt

I think getting hit the boob shots hurt I've been told boob hurts really hurts really bad okay she calls him and she's like sorry I freaked out and he's like all good and then she just starts what did she call it she starts jilling off jilling off yeah and it's kind of out of nowhere like Alex the female version of jacking yeah

as you could have guessed Alex on the phone is even like what are you doing so he goes are you touching yourself maybe I slipped my fingers into the little pocket in the front boys underwear are so convenient she was wearing his boxers yes or not no violent. I am going to be honest, I thought when you read that, I thought the little

pocket in the front was a euphemism for her vagina. And I was like, that's fucking crazy. I was with you there. So he goes yes or no violet. She says yes. And he goes, fuck. Are you petting my pussy? Oh. And then this page was electric,

dude. So he goes, they're having phone sex and he goes, are you wet like you were like you were for me? And she goes, she goes, not nearly as wet as I get for you. That's the quote.

Not nearly as well as I get for you, quote. It's nice. That's nice. Now here's her monologue. This is total bullshit. I'm one of those naturally luby people. All right. This has been fun, guys.

I read. It's like we, essentially every few weeks on the podcast, Chris just reads us porn. How did you find this? Bad porn. I've got you find this book. Dude, I googled the most erotic sex, most erotic hockey.

For fun? On earth. Yeah. He responds to that. I can't wait to have my mouth on you again. I'm going to eat you like I'm on death row and you're my last damn meal. Good line. Good line.

Come on, Alex. Really good line. Come on Alex. Then she, they, she's about to get off. He gets off on the phone and she goes, the phone falls from my ear as the, orgasm hits. It's like dropping a mentos into a bottle of soda. I'm convinced that Helena hunting is a virgin. I was just going to say has she ever actually dead ass done these things? It's like a bag of saying. Helena hunting is a virgin and is just like the horniest person ever who

has actually never had sex and doesn't know what goes on. Okay. Oh, all right. So now and then it's like they're going to go to Toronto. They're going to the games and they get to the game. Here comes some funny hockey ones. I don't even know what this means. I had to read this three times. I was like, Chicago's up by the end of the first. Alex's getting mad. And her stepbrother is named Buck. He's also on the Blackhawks. It says on the same team as this guy. It says Buck is playing like he owns the rink. He deflects four goals in this in the second period. And I'm like what what? And that's, I'm not master tipper. He deflects four goals in the second period allowing Chicago to stay ahead. I'm like, what do you mean?

I think she's just standing in front of the net like this. No, no, I literally mean he blocks. I think she means block shots. He blocks for that goal, that would have been for sure goals. Yeah, yeah. Again, Virgin has never watched a hockey game. He deflects four goals in the second period allowing Chicago to stay ahead. I was like,

what the fuck had a four burger in the second, or he saved four automatic goals. Okay, I probably don't even need to read this, but this was like I couldn't believe this. He gets, Alex gets tossed, Violet. I need to pee. I'll be right back. I make my way through the stands toward the locker room. Aware I may not get past security.

I must have a horseshoe stuck where the sun don't shine because security is too busy chatting up a couple of puck bunnies to notice as I slip inside the locker room. And I'm like, what do you think is happening? Do you think there are puck bunnies constantly trying to get into the Blackhawks locker room distracting security so you actually can get this. Also, in her mind, the door to the locker room is just next to the concession stand. And then she gets to.

in, obviously, Alex's uniform is strewn across the floor, along with his padding and most of his gear. And I'm like, his padding. Jesus Christ. All he has on is a jock strap, highlighting his package, which appears larger than usual. And I'm like, doesn't know what a cup is. Dude, and he just gets tossed

and just, like, is walking around in his jaw. Pissed off. Dude, she's in the locker room. Okay, then we switch to Alex PLV, Game of Bones. Yeah. Game of Bones. He can't believe she's here. And they pretty immediately, like, just started. making out.

Like there's no, like, what are you doing? Like, it's just like, hey, what's up? And she takes her, he takes her shirt off. She's wearing a bra that he got her at Victoria's. Remember the gift card, damn? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, yep, yep. So he goes, he takes her shirt off, he sees a bra, and he loves it. He loves her bra, and he admires the way she looks in the bra.

And then he goes, I need to get inside her now. The cup is becoming a problem. If I don't get it off soon, I'll end up with a sprained dick. Oh, my God. I get it, dude. I get it. Then he goes, she needs to get it off.

So she goes down. She describes it as having a bunch of straps, almost if it's like the old school garter belts. Yeah. That's also not your cup. So I'm like, I don't know what she's talking about. Because he's like,

my cup is connected with straps. And it says, Violet freeze the straps. Snaps. I was a Girl Scout, she says, as though her skills in cup removal require an explanation.

She tilts her head to the right as she freeze me to avoid getting hit in the face with my twitching, swinging super hard direction. dodging cocks we're dodging cocks out here she ignores the smell of my sweaty

fucking I was gonna get to that dude so this says she goes she goes uh this is this is classic Alex is sometimes his internal monologue is so dumb here you go if she puts her mouth on me I'll come I can't let that happen sex in the locker room is my number one fantasy well maybe not my number one that's boob sex

boob sex my you know what one of my favorite parts about this has been there are times where it feels like she's being timid with the language she uses and apparently boob is as far as she'll go when it comes to the female chest that's boob sex actually let me finish that he goes that's boob sex anywhere this is a close second dude boob sex number one fantasy you're telling me Alex waters has never had boob sex I believe this is his first time fucking in the away locker room of the Toronto Maple really I don't believe it's his first boob sex. Okay, so then they start going.

He hits her with a... It says she's grabbing his hair, and he goes, I bite the skin above her breast. She lets out the sexiest, sweetest cry. And then Alex says a quote here, and I thought it was going to be something lovely as I was reading. And it just says, I'm going to fuck you

till you can't walk. It's like, God, what a jump. Okay. Then this is a dagger, Dan. The... They hear the voices. He's like, I didn't notice the period ending. The voices come in.

And then a player, what the fuck waters? It's a teammate? No, not yet. And then it says he turns around. He's trying to hide her. Like they're naked, but he's like just covering her. Because they don't know who it is yet. I just think it's like some random.

Uh-oh, Violet whispers burying her face in my neck. I think we're pucked. Nope. And I was like, we did it. We got. Does that end the chapter? No, almost. I think we're pumped.

And then the other teammate goes to waters. You're unbelievable, man. You get kicked out of the game and the first thing you do is find a bunny to screw? And I'm like, is this like a thing? Is this like players are getting tossed and then go like, God, I bet he's going to go get a bunny and bang her in the locker. A bunny to screw is also just a special, special comment. Dude, this was actually funny.

This is Helena in her bag. Okay. Coach walks in. Yeah. What the hell is going on? here. The coach comes in, surveying the scene with a critical, confused eye. Who hired an escort? You know the policy on that. I'm like, okay, so now there's been like several escorts in the locker room. Oh my God. I grip the towel tight and hide behind my hand, utterly mortified. And I think this is a,

this is a violent chapter. Yeah, I grabbed the towel, hide. Watch it, coach. That's my sister. Buck's tone while controlled holds warning and a lot of pent-up anger. I'm thinking that's mostly due to walking in on the locker room sex. Oh, and the fact that I'm now being pegged as a puck bunny of the lowest form. Coach, your sister's an escort? Oh my God. It's like, okay, okay? That's pretty good.

That's pretty good. Jesus Christ. And then it ends with, they have to, and this is actually a nice cliffhanger for you guys, it ends with there's press all outside the locker room. Yeah. And she's just like, dude, how the hell am I going to get out of here without the entire world finding out that I've become Alex's puff bunny? Tough times.

Tough times. For Violet. Tough times for Violet. Her mom's at this game, dude. Her mom's at the game. Yeah, yeah, sure. This book's getting worse and worse.

No, Dan, it's actually getting better. It's, uh, you know, it's getting, any predictions? You still think, Dan still thinks we're getting stepbrother sex. Uh, yeah.

I'm sure that eventually, because why is it a stepbrother? If not. Yep. You know, Buck will get in there. Buck will puck. I promise you that. Dude, her going,

we're puck. You know when a movie says the title Yeah, yeah Dude, there's a family guy fucking skit Just about that It's like, hey, he said it Yeah Where I think we're putt

Truly remarkable I was like we're pucked Violet Well thank you Chris You're so welcome You're so welcome I can't wait for the next iteration Let's take an ad break

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I just wanted to say a quick shout out to Dustin. Are we playing games? Or we're doing some fun stuff. I like fun stuff. I think those are games. I like fun stuff. I want to give a quick shout out to Dustin gets. He's in Santa Barbara. He's a huge Ducks fan. I'm a huge fan of the pod. He loved the Crieder episode and he just had a baby. So Dustin, thanks for listening. Congrats on the baby. Congrats on the baby. And go Ducks, baby. I fucking love that. Go! We got a new duckling. Yeah, we do. That's huge.

Okay, so now we're going to a beer league hotline, and we have another twin drama follow-up. I can't believe that this is the gift that keeps on a gift. It's insane, dude. So if you'll remember, we did the episode, and then Doug's wife message us. Yes. And that's what we read on the pod last week. We have received a message from Larry. It's unbelievable.

I'm going to read it right now. I'd like to believe that these guys in their B-League circles are being called Doug and Larry. Me too. That's actually an all-time nickname for those boys. I said you gotta get this whole squad on the pod. Honestly. Like what's going on here? It's like Dr. Phil session.

Once I have read this message, that actually might be the only next solution. Legitimate. I was actually slightly worried to read this, to be honest with you. Okay. This is from Larry. I want to be clear, too, to Larry. You told us to read this. Yeah, that's why I'm like, ah, fuck.

Okay. From Larry. Hey guys, love the pod, just figured I'd reach out as the other half of the twin draft drama. I would like to give Doug credit for getting jerseys since he did that before him and his wife were together. Huge. Because we, I was kind of- Big man of Larry. Dude, agree. I was kind of chirping Doug being like, okay, you didn't get the sponsorships.

Your wife did that. Doug did that. Larry, big man for bringing that to our attention. Very cool. Up until the last year, we were allowed to reserve one team rep. So he would be the GM, I'd be his reserved player, and our younger brother, who is better than us, we took early. So he was never having to draft Larry.

Dude, I want to say again, Larry is a self-aware king. Yeah. Like he's being like, dude, first of all, Doug got those jerseys. That wasn't a marital plus, and also our younger brother's better than us. And we take him early, and I was automatically on the team, which is what we were wondering at the beginning. I was like, how do you not have the guy? So it's like all those years they were playing together.

It wasn't like Doug was like, I drafted you. every time. It's like, I'm your, well, I guess he did because he named him the reserve player, but like, of course. Okay. So we took him early. Doug didn't have the best year last year by his own admission. And he told me to try taking him later. Now, they did kind of, like, they kept in the first message, Doug was like in my assumed draft spot. So I'm not going to give him credit for that. Like, yeah, Doug admitted that, like, but Doug's message said Larry tried to get cheeky. And I'm like, Well, you told it. It sounds like you told it.

I disagree. It sounds like they went. We have settled on a spot where you can get drafted. Yep. So by taking him later, I didn't realize he was going to go where he did. Larry, self-aware. As aside, as an aside, I was planning on being a free agent this year as our team has struggled the last few years and kind of wanted a change of pace. I really didn't want to run the team.

And since Doug was only 45 minutes away for work, I asked him a couple times even up into that afternoon if he could, but he wasn't able to. I assume he means could draft. Sure. And yes, away for work. Doug's wife said he was out earning extra money. He was only 45 minutes away. It sounds like Larry was like, dude, please tell me you can make it. Yeah.

Couldn't make it. So this was kind of forced into it, into something he wasn't expecting. I think we both have solid teams. We still hang out and grab beers. I know his wife doesn't really care for me, so I think she's trying to make it sound more dramatic than it is. Our first game was a tight one-one tie. Amazing.

Amazing that it was a time. I need this crew to come together in a way. Because I give Larry a lot of forgiveness now. I agree. I really do. There was a time where I was like, Larry, you're a dummy. After Doug's wife's message, I thought Larry fucked up. And now I'm kind of like, I don't know, dude.

Sounds like Larry didn't do much wrong. There was a plan put in place, and then there were kickups in the plan, but it was just kind of like, oh, shit. He's a self-aware king. everyone's fine, they're having beers, and we got Mrs. Doug out here sewering people. She's pissed at Larry. I don't think it sounds so much like the boys need to sit down. I think it sounds like we need the twins

and Doug's wife to sit down and work out their issues. And just, and then... You're telling me you don't like your husband's identical twin? Come on. That's a problem. We got to get, we got to maybe get a trade too. And listen, there must be, I bet Larry, or sorry, I bet Doug's new GM,

wherever team he's playing on is listening to this at this point. And I'm like, dude, can we get a trade going here? I think a trade would probably solve everything. I think it probably would, but here's the question. What if the boys on the team don't want that trade? You mean Doug's new team because they like him so much? Or vice versa. The boys would love Doug back.

He's been running their team for seven years. We don't know that. I assume that. Yep. But we've assumed a lot. We've assumed a lot. We've been wrong. We've been wrong.

So I don't even know if we want to open that Pandora's books. Dude, tight 1-1 tie in Beer League is electric, by the way. That is a crazy game. Yeah, that's a crazy game. The goalies feel incredible after that. They don't do shootouts? Like, what do we do it? Wild stuff.

So we will wait. Keep it coming. Yeah, guys, keep the drama coming all season long. Do we have a new beer league? We sure do. We sure do. All right. Red, take us there.

I get one to two minor penalties per game. I'm not proud of it. Some are soft calls and some are deserved, but that's irrelevant. What matters is I've become very close with the penalties. She's a good amount of time together chatting every week to the point that she knows my Chipotle order. And she's been known to toss me a secondary assist now and again. If I ask her out, is that a conflict of interest? If you ask her out, is that a conflict of interest?

If you don't ask her out, you're a moron. You're a fool. You're a fool. Life almost never. Life almost never puts something like this in your lap. This is a rom-com. This is perfect, dude. There's so much to unpack here. One, one to two penalties game in Beer League.

Buddy, you got to calm down. What are you doing? What are you? And also, don't hit us with that that's irrelevant. Some are soft calls. Some are soft calls. Sounds like you got a reputation. Maybe he's getting in the box on purpose.

That's what I wanted to ask. Dude, he hasn't had one yet. He sees her in the booth and he goes, I guess, trip. And she goes, fancy seeing you here. And he goes, well, we had to continue our conversation from last week. Dude, why are you talking about what you get at Chipotle with her? I think because he's just being like, I bet it went like this. He probably doesn't have game.

I bet he went like this. God, late game, huh? And she goes, yeah, you know, I've been here. I've been here since eight. And he goes, I know, late game's always tough because I never know if I should eat before or eat when I get home, but I won't eat so late. Most places are closed. And she goes, what did you do?

And he goes, I decided to eat before. She goes, what did you get? And she goes, that's a good. That's good. I love to pull in a barrito or burrito bowl guy? Do you get tacos? Yeah. And he goes, no, no, I go bowl.

And then she goes, what's in the bowl? Which beans? Yeah. And then he laid it all that. That's exactly how it happened. Riveting. Exactly what happened. Riveting.

I mean, that's romance right there. Do you think there's any chance that it's in his head? She's just being nice. Of course. She can't go anywhere. She can't move. Of course. She's stuck there.

That's what I'm saying, dude. She's stuck there. Is there any chance that he's like, we have a spark? And she's like, no, we don't. I'm being paid to sit here. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to verse. I'm not trying to burst this bubble.

There's absolutely a chance that she's merely being polite. But there's also a chance that love is real. Shoot your shot, baby. We've got to find out. And here's the thing. If it goes poorly, if it blows up in your face, if you guys, oh, I'm married or I'm not interested. Now,

just stop taking penalty. Encourges you to clean up your game a little bit. This is a win-win, dude. This only leads to your life improvement. Yep, this is a win-win. Either you become a better player for your team because you're getting less penalties or you find the love you have a girlfriend, or you're getting married.

Or you're getting pucked. Yeah, or you're getting pucked. Or you're getting pucked. Or you're getting pucked. And I will say I did forget this tidbit. She's tossing him secondaries. Yeah, she clearly likes them. She's tossing him secondaries already.

Yeah. So there is something that she ain't getting paid to do that. She's getting paid sit there. She's not getting paid tossing secondaries. I ask her out tomorrow. Absolutely. I don't wait another minute. No, no, you know what you do?

This is what you do. Next game. Wow. Okay, here we go. First shift of the first period, go in, take a blatant. Don't hurt anyone. Yep. Go out there, take a blatant penalty.

Yep. Walk into the box and go, sorry, didn't really want to wait. Had to get in here and see if I could take you out next weekend. Wow. You take an immediate intentional penalty so you can ask her out. She goes. Oh, my God. Yeah.

God, I was trying to think of some really cheeky way to, like, have your number on you. So you can, like, give it to her when you're in the box. But I think you just ask. You just ask her out. I think you go. Like a gentleman. Couldn't waste, yeah. Don't ask for the number.

Ask her out. First shift. I actually like the first shift. You come in blatantly trip. Someone for no reason. You come in and go, sorry. Sorry for the blatant trip. Couldn't wait another minute.

Yeah. Don't Chipotle on Saturday? Oh my God. And she goes, hell yeah. Incredible. All right, let's finish up with a Bauer hockey blind ranking. Come up to you by our friends at Bauer. We are doing teams undefeated in regulation so far.

Through the first week of hockey, teams in a team. have not been beat in 60 minutes. This is probably going to be outdated by the time this comes out. Maybe. Definitely. Maybe. We'll see. Cracking.

God. And Dan, I want to do it as, like, your belief in them. Yeah. Like, do you think... Yeah. The Cracken are actually good? Are you like, no, this is bullshit? Four.

Thought you're going to say five. Thought you were going to say five. I didn't. But you could convince you. convince me. And I hope I'm wrong, dude. I hope I'm wrong. But I might go five here.

Okay. Five out the gate. Not going to be hard to convince me. Rare. Let's go five. All right, five. Preds. Fuck, that should have been five.

Two. You're out of your fucking mind. Four. Bitch. No, we got to go three. Preds are real. Preds are real. No.

Preds are real. God, I can't believe I gave five away when it was perfectly sitting there. Three. Predators. Three. Think about who's, like you're acting like all these bad teams are undefeated. There's a lot of good teams that are undefeated. Four.

Four. Four. Hurricanes. One? One, baby. We're not going to, not get everyone, dude. Two. Two.

Ah, fine. Two. Avves. One. And I've had about that. Bruins. It's pretty good. That's pretty good.

That's a fantastic. Predator should have been three. Predator should have been three. You are fucking dumb, dude. Predator should have been three. Will you stop? That's pretty good. That's pretty good.

Embrace a perfect list. That's pretty good. The predator should have been three. Embrace a perfect list because we just hit it. Okay. Want to just end it? Yeah, let's just kick it here until he comes on. No, I'm just saying like to say.

That's the end of the end of it. Oh, sure. That is it for us today at the Empty Ners podcast. We've got great stuff coming this week. Make sure to check out. Out. Netters College Puck Drop, our new college coverage show coming at you. We got a ton of merch that you can enjoy. Scoop up that.

We drop some new stuff. It's fantastic. We will see you guys later this week on Thursday for a regular episode. Find us on all the channels. Until we see you. Skate Hard.