Empty Netters Podcast - The Dallas Stars Have Played This Perfectly w/ Tyler Toffoli

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

Toff is back and is his Toff Take is hotter than ever. You might never eat lunch the same way again. Miro Heiskanen has gone under the knife, but maybe the Stars can pull off an LTIR move at the deadline. No one is sticking up for Tage Thompson in Buffalo. And Patrick Kane still has the sickest hands in the league. See if you can solve Dan's very sneaky Connective Tissue that had Chris in a pretzel. 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! SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS: https://www.perplexity.ai/ 00:00 INTRO 01:50 NOT ICE 13:36 HOT ICE 30:15 UTAH HOCKEY 40:22 TOFF TAKES / INTERVIEW 1:09:17 POWERS RANKINGS POWERED BY PERPLEXITY AI 1:13:51 STARTING 6 1:17:27 CONNECTIVE TISSUE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of the Empty Netters podcast, Miro Hayskinan has had knee surgery and the Dallas stars are in trouble. The Sabres are as tough as soft-serve ice cream, and that's going to be a problem. Tyler Toffoley joins the pod. Again, we're talking all things, Super Bowl, and again, as always, Toth, hot takes. Ice is ready, and we are back with another episode of the Empty Netters podcast brought to you by BetMGM.

I am your host, Dan Powers, alongside Chris Powers, my co-host, who is with me. As always, before we do any. anything we need to talk about some absolute barbaric behavior. Dan, and what's even crazier? I don't know if you're not a YouTube watcher. You won't notice this, but... But that's a... You know what, Chris?

That's a great time to say, hey, subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you are listening to this right now on YouTube, some of you might not even be subscribed. Subscribe right now. If you're listening on Spotify, stop, hit pause. Go to YouTube. Subscribe. Apple.

I know a ton of you are listening on Apple. Tons of you are listening on Apple. Literally go to the YouTube. YouTube. Subscribe. And then continue consuming the pot on Apple. I'm not telling you to change your... It costs you nothing.

And you know what it does? It helps the show. Yeah. We get to make more stuff for you the more subscribers we get on YouTube specifically. That's great. So I walked in today to record and my microphone arm is working. I'm literally afraid to touch it because normally... Yeah, don't even think about touching.

This piece of the arm doesn't hold. The mic is too heavy. Yeah. So I'm, you all, imagine all of you will notice. Like, I'm usually holding the mic up in my hand despite having an arm. And I walked in today and I saw the arm at this angle and I was like, oh my God, it's going to be a great day. Everything in here is perfect today. And then, Dan, what happens?

You look down. You look right here. For those who are not watching, there is a piece of chewed gum. Look at this. Stuck to our beautiful. beautiful table. The table that you all know, we fought very hard to get. We fought tooth and nail for, dude. And then someone who is coming in here using it is sticking their gum to the table. I would love more than anything to absolutely sewer. One, William Angus,

Liam Cullough, Wilden Ellen, Rusty Featherstone. But they do not use this table. They don't sit here. So, it's one of our own, dude. We have a fox in the hen house. Gavin McKew. This is locks his seat. If this has locks, written all over it. That loop sits over there. This is Locke's seat. And also, loop is not a barbarian. Yeah. Gavin is a bit of a barbarian right now. Having the time of his life, go birds. Go birds. Dude, dude. My birds are in the bowl. He's sticking gum to our table. So Dr. Locks, we're going to send this clip to you. If that is yours, I'm going to drag you in here by the nape of your neck and make you eat it off the table. But for now, I think you've got to scrape it off because we can't do the show. I can't do the show. I'm too distracted.

It's awful. You might put your arm down in there. I'm too distracted. Oh my gosh. God, it's cemented to the table. We might have permanent damage here. The table might never recover from this. This is just horrendous. And I don't know. I think I had this dentist tool with me today. Awful.

Just disgusting. Piece of chewed gum. Get that out of here. Get that out of here. I've got to talk about something that I don't want to rub into your face, but here's the deal. We've got more Christmas gift talk. Great. Because something came.

around very recently. So I, for Christmas, glad you're willing to admit this. I got to admit it. For Christmas, I got you a new golf bag. Talk to some great, great people that I'm going to bring up in a second, but I talked to some great people and I got set up to get you a new golf bag. Now, we live in Los Angeles. We go home to Maine for Christmas to spend time with our parents. And what happens on Christmas Day, but our father gives you a new golf bag? Yes, he did. And I was like, shit, because I had already had the golf bag set up. Yeah. Now, we get back to L.A.

And I'm giving a free shout out here because these people are the best. Correct. If you were a golfer and you are unfamiliar with Ghost Golf, educate yourself immediately. Yep. Because Ghost Golf is making some of the best accessories and apparel in the game. Again, this is a free plug. Like, this is just genuinely me talking to you.

Their shit is unbelievable. Yep. they hooked up me up and sent me a bag. That was for you. Yeah, correct. It's supposed to be mine. It's called the Maverick Everyday bag. I'm going to post a video soon.

I posted it on the story. The bag is now mine because you got a bag from dad. Which is a sick bag. This bag is so nasty. It's unbelievable. All of the best pockets I could ever ask for. The top where you put your clubs in, it comes in seven or 14.

Mine came in 14, which I'm an OCD freak. So like there was a slot for every one of my clubs. And I couldn't be happier about it. Dude, they've got climate cool pockets in there for your drinks. They've got magnetized. Like no zipper, like beautiful magnetized pockets for the balls, for your glove, for your ball markers, things like that. So much space.

And then they also gave me just these sick little tags. They gave me a hat that says nice bogey on it. Or good bogey. One of the funniest hats I've ever seen. Again, going to post all this in a video, but, and wags, I'll give you the photo of the bag. Man, it's so cool when you get into something and then you start finding accessories and shit that's just like so nasty. Yep. Like it's never in my wildest dreams did I think, oh yeah, I need my golf bag to look sick and to be super convenient and amazing and easy.

But that's exactly what it is. But now I know that I need that to play good golf. It's a necessity now. Like I will never not have a ghost golf bag because it's super. so nasty. And it just looks so cool. Completely correct. Yeah. They got all the towel. Oh my God. It's the best. So get on board. Should have been mine. It's one of the most perfect transitions of my life. I want to talk about ghosts real quick before we get in Tocke talk. Great. Because we're talking about ghost golf. Now we're talking about ghost. Some of the boys here recently went ghost hunting.

Yeah, to see a medium little video. And they talked about the Super Bowl and they saw this media. And they saw this medium and they had this little like talk box where the spirits were talking to them and they were literally asking the spirits the medium was like the one of these spirits is a huge football we should ask him yeah and our guys were like oh yeah we should ask him i'm like you you don't want the uh football takes from the civil war vet who's who's floating around there haunting his nephew yeah so they start asking this spirit you know like what are we what's what's the game going to be like what are you seeing what are you seeing and and from a page Apparently from this talk box, it's just going like, red.

Chiefs, Chiefs, Chiefs. It's like literally just saying, Chiefs. So, I'm inclined to think that is bullshit. Yep. But it got me thinking, where are you at on ghosts? I'm big. Really? Because I know you're a big alien guy.

Oh, I'm a massive alien guy, and it's not quite as, it's not on par. And I also... You're a bigger alien guy than ghost guy. Yeah, because I know for a fact. It's a fact that there are aliens. Was that a Mona Lisa Vito? Yes. And I don't know for a fact that there are ghosts.

But... You're leaning toward ghosts. Yeah. So you are a ghost guy. Yeah, what's weird is... Would you go on a ghost hunt? Or would you think this is playing with fire? Oh, no, I'd go on one.

I thought you were going to say, would you think the ghost hunt is phony baloney, bogus? I've heard probably. It feels like one of those things to me where anyone who's claiming I know what I'm doing, I can take in a ghost hunt. We're going to find some spirits.

I'm like, this is clearly a gimmick. Yeah. See, if I could go on a real ghost hunt, I would go for sure. Yeah. I just don't know if I'd go on a ghost hunt as they currently exist

because I don't believe the ghost hunts that currently exist. Do you believe in like Ed and Lorraine Warren, the conjuring people? Were they they they they talk to ghosts what do they do? Yeah they were I'm pretty sure Lorraine Warren was a medium. Yeah and she's like there's ghosts in here dude and Ed Warren was a demonologist. Okay real term real term yeah yeah damn right it is dude I don't think I fuck with any of the hunting thing because it's just asking for trouble

Yeah so you do think it's playing with fire yeah why though they're not they're not you think they're all caspers out there you think they're all friendly ghosts Well, I think a lot of them are. I think a lot of them are misunderstood. Well, then why are we hearing all the stories about the bad ones? But now you're making me think, dude, that it is playing with fire because they were friendly, if left alone. This is the dilemma with ghosts that I don't really get. It's like why it feels like being a ghost is purgatory. You're caught in between worlds, right?

That's the whole thing. Yeah. You're not in the afterlife, and you're not alive. Yeah, yeah, right? It's like the Harry Potter ghost. Like nearly headless Nick says he made the choice. He's like, I was a coward, dude. I couldn't go to the Great Beyond.

Dumbie was like, I've definitely gone. So I just, to me, I'm like, dude, aren't all of them in a bad place? Doesn't feel like a good decision. To me, I'm calling bullshit. I'm calling bullshit on friendly ghosts. So none of them could be friendly? I don't think so.

What are you, maybe they're not all evil, but they're not happy. But I don't know, dude. Maybe they're like, I want to stay for a while. You eventually get to go if you want. Do you? I think so. When you finish your unfinished business.

So you're an unfinished business guy. Yeah. And think all ghosts have unfinished business. Yeah. You're a six cents guy. Yes. And then they go, and then they go, okay, now it's time. So yes, they're frustrated because they have unfinished business.

But sometimes that unfinished business is like seeing my grandkid grow up. So then they're not sad. They're like, this is great. I wish I was alive, but at least I get to see it. Now my grandkid has been married and has a life of their own. That is not unfinished business, too. That is. That's for some ghosts.

Absolutely not, dude. That is not unfinished business. That's just wanting to live longer. That's not unfinished business. Otherwise, everyone would just be a ghost. Okay, okay. Unfinished business needs to be like something serious. No, it's a dad was wanted to walk his daughter down the aisle.

Not unfinished business. Yes, it is because then he walks next to her. I'm not unfinished business. He walks next to her. No one can see him, but he walks next to her. Not even her? No, no. Maybe she feels something.

Maybe she's like, God, I could feel my dad with me today. And I'm like, he was right there. This is a dangerous game, Bucco. You're just saying everyone who dies who's like, oh, well, I wish I could have got to do this. They just hang around. Everyone's a ghost. But I think there's someone, I don't know who, but someone's making the call. Like if you go, I wanted to walk my daughter down the aisle.

They go, that's actually lovely. You can stay till then. There's a deputy of unfinished business relations in the ghost department. The new NCAA game come out. And they go. GTA6. GTA6 hasn't come out yet. I'd really love to see that gameplay.

Semelium Monday. And the commissioner of unfinished business goes like this. I grant you six more months. No, no, dude. See, that's the one where they're like, bye, dude. You think that the commissioner of unfinished business is going to say until GTA 6 comes out? That's been delayed far too long, sir. That could be 10 years.

That's what I'm saying. He goes, goodbye, dude. You don't get that. Oh, he's not giving it to him. Yeah, dude, denied. What a tough job. No, you make a lot of enemies, but luckily they don't. Like the ones you don't give it to, they're just gone.

What an absolutely brutal job, dude. To like see you again. Absolutely brutal job. Yeah, tough to sleep at night. Hate it. Tough to sleep at night. End of the story. Just don't follow ghost, dude.

Don't go chase and go. Hey, don't go chasing ghosts, dude. Don't go chasing. It's a terrible idea. It is big game week. We've got the Super Bowl this weekend. That means you need to get on bed MGM right now because they have got all the action that you need. Listen, most of the time, we're going to be talking about hockey picks,

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Bonus bets are non-grawable. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel, see betmGM.com for terms. U.S. promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Let's get into some hot ice. Yeah. Things going on in the league.

Miro Heiskenen. Knee surgery. Successful knee surgery, but is now listed as month to month. The Dallas Star Chris, currently on LTIR, Tyler Sagan, $9.8.8.5 million cap hit, Miro Hayskin, an $8.45 million cap hit, and Nils Lindquist, 1.25, all on LTIR. They are set to have around 13 mil in LTIR money. Let's quickly, before we talk about that LTIR situation, talk about this Mark Stone situation.

Mr. LTIR himself sends Miro to LTIR. Do you think any of the Vegas fans who are going, Hey, it's fine, nothing happened, we, ma, ma, ma, ma. Do you think now they're like this, ah, this looks worse? Or do you think they not care? No. Because they still stand by, they go, it's completely Rupa Hintz's fault. I believe that they think that Rupa had elective surgery just to prove a point.

No. I believe that they think that he could have just been playing and he went like this, cut it open. That was a bullshit move by stone. Yep. I'm fine. And there'll be no accountability if you don't cut open my leg. Put me under the knife to prove a point. And not only that, Dan.

But by cutting me open, I prove that he was at fault and free up $8 million to hoist Vegas by their own pittard, which he himself paved the way for. So when we beat them in the first round, with a guy who was putting us over the cap because of my LTIR, because you hit me and I faked this surgery. Good day, dude. You get nothing. This is brilliant. Mira Haskinen said, this aggression will not stand, man. Cut open my knee, he looks a fool, we get a new superstar, and we beat them in the playoffs. back. He's going to miraculously be back. Eliminate them in the first round. Again. Dude. Can you believe the 3D chess that Miro's playing right now? This is captain shit right here.

I think the trainer was literally like, you're fine. Play right now. This is team. Dude, team, team behavior. Miro said, they go like this, mirror, how does the knee feel? He goes, cut me open. They go, you're fine. And he goes like this, grabs a scalpel. It goes right into his knee. He goes, Don't you stick that knife in your leg, Ricky Bobby. And he went like this. Bang, dude. Cut it open, dude. Better stitch me up.

When he comes back better than ever, here's an idea. Could be the move. Getting surgery when you don't need surgery. Make it even stronger. Yeah. Mine's fine. Give me surgery. Don't want to ever tear it, so just make it stronger now.

Reinforce it while it's healthy. Preemptive. Yeah. He's going to come back a superhero. Dude. Dallas to the Cup, dude. Dallas to the Cup. Because of this one movie, we will all look back on this play.

This is unbelievable. Who are they going to get? Let's talk about that, dude. Now that Miro has made this sacrifice, he's gone under the knife willingly for the betterment of the team. Who do you like? They, I'm trying to think what has cost them. You know, like, it's kind of,

Otter hasn't been that guy from the Flame series, which is, like, outrageous, and I don't expect him to always do that. But, you know, you kind of got a taste of that. And we say the same thing about Hellebuck all the time. Yeah. You know, but Otter hasn't quite been so nails in the playoffs. Obviously, it's not making a change there.

But is it like they stopped scoring? Didn't their power play go over against the Oilers? And I know their penalty kill was kind of buzzing, but not kind of buzzing. It was extremely buzzing. Remember, like, they didn't score power play goal, that whole series. So I kind of feel like it's scoring. You know, like I think I'd be aiming that. Even though you just lost Miro, I don't think I'd be like, let's get another great defenseman.

I've got a great idea. Hit me. Noah Dobson. So you would go, now here's the problem. Yeah. The Islanders are buzzing. I know.

They don't want to get rid of him. Dude, are you kidding me? But hear me out. Noah Dobson, $4 million cap hit, RFA. It's going to cost. It's going to cost. Oh, yeah, yeah.

But Isles fans have been souring on him all year long. He's not having a great year. He's been hurt. He's been out. To me, dude, Noah Dobson, right-handed shot. Miro Hayskinan, left-handed shot.

Both guys who were 70 plus points a couple years ago, that to me is a Kale and Devon Taves combo. Miro definitely leans more of a defensive guy. Noah. Dude, he scores. He puts up points, though. Oh, yeah, he sure does. But I just said leans.

I know. Did I say lean? Did I say lean or did I say exclusively? I don't know if you're leaning, if you have a 73-point season. It's a new game, brother. That's not a lean. It's a new game. I just think you put them together.

That is a beautiful combo. Maybe let Noah be a little more reckless because you got Miro covering for him. I like it. Dude, you know what? Me too, actually. I'm going to walk that back because when I just,

I look at their lines and, especially if Sagan comes back, and it's just like there's, they have what they need. Yeah. You know, and it takes guys to step up, but it's just like they have what they need

across easily the top nine. Yeah. And if they were to use this long, term I are money and add an impact defenseman now this decor is like scary where there was a few question marks you know because like you bring in a

dump but you bring in a Cody TZ and like I'm not saying they're bad players but everyone's like it's good seventh demand yeah yeah you know in and out of the line and now I'm like well they're getting like minutes minutes right now and I'm like you get a no adoption in there Miro comes back there you're now top pairing you got Harley on the second pairing you're laughing you're laughing you're laughing you're absolutely laughing dude and here's another thing

maybe you add Kyle Palmeri into that deal. Again, this is all to say if the aisles are missing playoffs. And they're like, we've got to make some moves here. You had Kyle Palmeri in there. That becomes very interesting. 20 goal score. That becomes very interesting. Palmerry, Dobson get out of this Dallas team.

What are they giving up, though? They've got to give something up to get all this. Well, we talked about Stranges earlier in the season. You talk about a first round pick. This is a team. You don't need more first round picks. You got Stank. You could move Stank.

I wouldn't want to move stank for stuff like that. That's what I'm saying. Could move more. Could move more. Could move more. But dude, Dallas is one of the best drafting and developing teams in the NHL. They might be one. They might be one, Chris.

They might be one. So they've got a lot to work with. Just saying, Noah Dobson, playing alongside Miro. That could be real nice. That could look real good. Keep eyes on that, dude. After Joey Tiptryl retired, that number eight is wide open. You imagine if they win this year.

Number eight, dude. It would kill me. It would absolutely kill. Like, I'm literally, part of me, like, doesn't even want them to, and I love that team. I just think now, Dallas, they look good, they're buzzing, but you've got serious injuries and you've got serious LTIR money to play with. Go full Vegas, baby. You've got to make a move.

Yep. Let's talk about a team that is not buzzing. Although four wins in a row? I was going to say, I kind of are, yeah. Buffalo Sabres locker is on the hot seat. They've won four in a row. They are still in last place in the Atlantic last? Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, but four in a row. On Sunday night, Tage Thompson gets fucking absolutely T-boned going through a four-way intersection, gets his head knocked off his body. Zero response from the Buffalo Sabres on the ice. It was wild. Now, we're not going to sit here and talk about it.

I think it was Stefan Nason who caught him. Yep. No suspension. And I don't think it needed. It was a weird play. Tage was reaching in. I think Nason played the puck, too. And then he was just kind of like,

but it was an ugly play. Tage's bucket comes flying off, full yard sale. No one does a thing. Alex Tuck says team meeting Monday. They got to address this. And Lindy Ruff said, quote, there were some hard conversations in that locker room. Do you think that means it's hard to hear

because he can't hear anything? Because he's so old. Do you think he was like there was some hard to hear conversations in the locker room because I'm reaching that age where my hearing aid isn't up high enough that I can't hear what the kids are saying. No, I literally can't hear anything. I'm afraid, I'm just afraid that's maybe what he meant. It's possible. Dude, something we should ask him about. Yeah. These are the things that people don't get asked about. I agree. And he might be really

appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. I'm hard of hearing. What is possibly said in that conversation? So I have. Like, does Alex Tucker go? And like, Rass is the captain of the team. Like, are they like, every one of you that was on the ice is a fucking pussy. Okay, so can you tell me, I don't know if you saw this either, because I've seen all the clips, and I know there was no response immediately. Was there no fight the rest, the whole rest of that game? I actually, I didn't tell you that. I don't think there was.

But I don't know for sure because I wasn't watching that game live, and I've seen all the clips where there's no response. The stage goes down in such a way that I actually think, it is hard to fight in that moment. I think it's weird if you are literally duking with someone and Tage is like bucketless sprawled starfished on the ice. I don't think that's what anyone's asking me either, but I'm just saying I feel like that. Well, then why are you bringing in that?

Because that was a lot of response on Twitter that I saw. All you need in that moment is someone going right to... This is why I brought it up because you said everyone on the ice right there's a coward. And I'm like, well, actually don't agree with that because I don't want anyone there in that exact moment to fight him. Dude, you are, look, you're a fucking idiot. Dude, you just said. When did I say the word fight?

You said, you need to grab. Everyone there on the ice is a coward. Which I stand by, dude. It's why everyone in that, like, this should have been talked about in Tuesday's episode, and we're talking about it now because something happened that I'll get to in a second. But dude, in what world does that happen to Tage Thompson, your best player? And you don't, immediately someone grabbed Nason. Immediately.

Yeah. Like, it's not like Nason was. standing over Tage's body. That's my point. Like, you need to grab Nason and face wash him. Like, there needs to be a full ice scrum in that situation. There needs to be a scrum. And maybe if I, like, my reaction initially was the same. I was like, you have to fight, somebody has to hit him right now. What are you talking about? Because of the way Tage went down. Like, I kind of walked it back when I watched it a few times. I was like, oh yeah, I don't know that I would be wanting to watch someone fight Nason while Tage is literally like face down on the ice.

I think it's like, yo. This is a crazy take by you, because again, no one was standing over him. Like, this happens all the time. People go down. Like, it literally just happened with Miro. I know it's not his head, but like, if your star player gets popped like that, you immediately have to respond. Yes.

Yeah. And then also, you're being a little dramatic. It's not like Tage was full Paul Correa on the ice. Like he was holding his head and kind of scrunching around, but he wasn't, he wasn't. It's not like Rigamortus had set in. What's that called? Posturing. Yeah.

Is that it is? I think so. He wasn't full Frankenstein. Yeah. You got to walk this back, dude. I fucking touch the arm, dude. It's dead. Is it drooping?

Yeah. You blew it. You got to walk this back. This is a bad take. There's literally only one response. Well, to not do it at all is insane. And I will definitely agree with that take. Like the second the puck drops, like literally, I think if I'm going to keep my take,

which I'm not even sure I'm going to, but even if I'm going to keep mine, it's literally on the next face off. There's a full line, bro. You know, and the fact that there wasn't even that, I'm like, crazy. So, yes, those are the conversations where you go, what are we doing? But I do laugh a little bit when Tuckie's like, or I guess he didn't say he was leading the charge in the conversation. But, you know, in the way you describe it, you're like, you're all cowards.

I'd be like, so are you, dude. I'm a coward too. And again, I'm not saying that's what Tuck said. I'm sure he was like, we all need to be there. I'm certain that's what he said. but it leads to the next point they come out last night Tuesday night game

first game since the incident immediate opening face off Gilbert fights Olivier and Columbus and I'm like what is this dude and I'm so glad I saw a few I saw a few like writers on Twitter being like why what is it happening

that felt like the weirdest and props to Olivier for fighting but I would be like no bro you guys are fucking clowns against the devils and now you want to fight me because you were bitches in the moment and now we're now you're dropping the goal as if that's going to make the fan base goal like this god hell yeah what a response we're so tough just felt like the weirdest decision to me i could not believe i'm checking

fuck okay i was checking they don't play the um devils again yeah but i was going to say remember last year it's one of those weird things too it wasn't even a cheap shot it's not like i don't need you to respond to like and again if they play the devils and they're like this fight nascent i'd like, no, dude, that is not... Oh, interesting, yeah. Like, it's one of those things on written hockey roll where it's like, you got to do it. The Mark Stone one, I am. Like, if the next time Dallas plays Vegas, I would fucking run Mark Stone all day. Dude, interesting.

Agree for sure, but interesting. Can we talk about this real quick? I thought, um, what did you think about Nason's the play? What did you think about the play? I said, I thought it was a weird play. Like, he touched the puck first. 100%. It was like a... It's like, Nason was going for the puck. He got to the puck first. and Tage is reaching in. Now, did he absolutely move? Yes. But that's one of those things

where I think Nason is like, you see six foot six Tage Thompson coming in like a freight train. I would probably clinch up a little bit too. I think it was more than anything, a physical response so you don't get leveled by massive Tage Thompson. And he just happens to catch him in the dome.

Like, it's a shit play. Shit play. I'm a little harder on it than you are, I think, hearing you there because it's like he... Oh, he chicken wings. And he could 100, percent get out of the way because tage is is nearly horizontal at that point you know and i'm like but again dude it's fast it's so fast and tage is a monster and let's say nason goes like this like oh

i don't want to hit you and now opens up his body and tage does hit him like there's a chance he gets folded yeah so i'm like i am big on protect yourself at all cost dude it's like sorry and and you're clearly good with if they had just dropped it with nason in the moment absolutely that's what they should that should have happened it's one of of the situations where Nason is like, fuck me. Yeah, right. If you're Nason and you bitch, if someone drops the gloves on you and you bitch about that, you're a fucking clown too.

Agree, because, again, I'm harder on it than you. Because I was like, that did not need to happen at all. And you let it happen. So now you will fight. Exactly. Weird move. I don't even know what to say about it because like we said, Buffalo has won four straight.

I mean, I still think Buffalo, you, we, you know, we're seeing stuff about cousins right now, possibly going to Montreal. Detroit has been named amongst, other teams. I think Edmonton was in the mix there. So Buffalo, you're selling. Yeah.

And this, Forest rate wins. That's great. Tage is buzzing. Love that. We love Tage. But this team is not fixed. Like,

you were not making playoffs. And whatever the hell is going on in the locker and where you're having these conversations, like there's just so much going on where I'm like, Buffalo, get your shit together. Because these can't be, dude, it's like two years ago,

man, they misplaced by a point. And then we are in the city. Everyone's so, fired up. We're talking to the boys and they're like, we're bringing playoffs to this town. Everybody wants it so bad. Disappointing year last year, but not horrific, bad, but not horrific. Yeah. And then coming into this year, this wasn't even a surprise. You know, I picked them seventh. You and Tom are picked them eight. Like everybody was like, they're terrible. Yeah. And they are.

And I'm kind of like, how did we get here, dude? It's, you know, this isn't the Ottawa blip of last year. This is like you guys stink all of a sudden. Yeah. And there are good players on the team. So, do you feel at all bad? I mean, like, you and I talked about. when they hired Lindy, we were like, this is a terrible move. And it's no disrespect to Lindy. He's one of the greatest coaches in NHL history as far as I'm concerned. But it felt like the, this can't possibly be what you're doing. And they were like, it felt like such a PR move.

Yeah. Where a PR move wasn't needed. Right. And I just, it's not one of those things where I'm patting ourselves on the back. Like we said that this would be bad and they would miss playoffs, not because of Lindy, but it wasn't going to fix anything. the picks, the projections anyway. Yeah. And, and, you know, that's, that is currently what's happening. So it's, it's bizarre. Um, they've got to figure it out. Yeah. Team that feels like it's figuring it out. We're going to give a little bit of stick taps, a little bit of shine to the

Utah hockey club. Let's do that, dude. We want to talk about the team name, but before we even get into that, let's talk about the state of the Utah hockey club. Okay. Dylan Gunther finally comes back to the lineup, our boy, love Gunner, two goals, including the OT winner. Huge, huge return. Now, they were buzzing. Injuries have absolutely killed. Derailed the whole season. Surgachev went down for a while. He's finally back. Dersie is on the IR. They had Bertuzzo going in there as a nice little rotational D-man. He's on IR. So Logan Cooley currently on IR. So, you know, teams got 14 million capspace, about 15 mil in Capspace right now. Obviously, those huge, very, very important players are on IR. They're 4-4 and 2 in their last 10.

where are you at on the state of the Utah Hockey Club? They, they for me, are in such a tricky one because I look at the blues, I look at the ducks even. And yeah, sure, the Cracken. Like, I look at those four teams, 53, 53, 5250-50 in points,

various games in hand, obviously. And they're not that far behind Calgary and Vancouver, which are 59. Yeah. Right? Like, that's a few games, you know? Yeah. but the and the blues

someone would probably fact check this and it's not exactly right but feel like they've been better since Monty like Monty's got there and they're like they're obviously still a middling team but they've I think been slightly better yeah the ducks if you're the ducks you're like whatever this is actually kind of fun we're doing pretty good we're probably going to make a playoffs but we're doing pretty good

I'm happy to believe and happy to chase this down if you're the blues I think the ducks need to figure out a lot of shit out me too starting with the coach but sure but you know like they're not in last yeah fair um cracking a little frustrated blues a little frustrated Utah is the such unique one for me from this group because you just moved and I'm like if I am them if I was a fucking dialed in GM and I was Utah right now yeah 53 games in I'm selling because I'm like we don't have it we and it wasn't really our fault we actually built a pretty good team injuries buried us even if we could sneak in, we are losing and I'd rather go no one, don't rush anybody back, everybody

get healthy, I'm going to sell a few chips and make us even fucking stronger for next year where we won't even be competing for a wild card, we are going to be a third in the central type team. Yeah. And I go sick, dude. Because you just moved, it is slightly complicated to me that you

might want to be canon fodder in the first round just for the fans to be like, look what I brought you, to this town and even through injuries we battled into the wild card. Yeah. And we commit to going for it. And we commit to going for it. This is an organization that commits to going for it. I don't think this team is making the playoffs.

And I really don't think that that should be their goal. It should be the player's goal always. But I think if your management, you were like, I couldn't agree with you more. I would not make any big sell moves, though. Like there are small pieces. I look at a guy like her foot. And I'm like, he's a UFA at the end of this year, 3.5 mil, could actually. absolutely be an ad for someone. Maybe you get like a second third round pick for that. That could be

solid. But some of your, I mean like obviously Keller, Schmaltz, even Krause, I'm not sure I would part with. Machelli, don't do a damn thing. So yeah, I would maybe sell some small pieces. But I think where I'm at on Utah's, I was so high on Utah the beginning of the year. Love the moves they made. I said they were going to make playoffs. And obviously the Dersie and Surgich have injury, absolutely blew all that. The issue that I currently have with Utah, and they need to write the ship here, and we're going to get to the next topic to do so.

Utah came in, the Smith Group, buys the team, buys the Yotes, they move to Utah, they're immediately playing in Delta Center, and I'm like, this is amazing. Like, the guys went from a college rink, and now they're playing in a pro arena, regardless of what it is. It's a pro arena that seats, you know, tens of thousands of people.

And I was like, all right, we're golden here. That said, part of this whole pitch was, we're going to get a sick name. Part of this whole pitch was, we're building our own state-of-the-art facility, a specific hockey rink. Immediately, they're like,

we're going with Utah Hockey Club all year. And I was like, why? Weird decision. But whatever, it's been kind of funny. Then immediately they're like, we're actually just going to play in Delta Center moving for you. So we've got to like do some renovations to Delta Center to make it hockey specific.

and I'm like, well, what the fuck? I feel like you promised us a hockey rink. And then they're like, we're going with Yeti. Yeti trademark denied. Syke. Yeah. Yeti trademark denied because of a cup. Well, the coolers, I guess they were first.

It's like a cooler cup company. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, your team name's denied because of that. Coolers, a cooler cup. So now it gets us into, we have mammoth, we have outlaws, and we have Utah Hockey Club as the three finals. We've got AI creations of the logos going on using the current color scheme, which I love the current color scheme. Yep, same.

Dude, they need to pick a team name. I think we both think it's Mammoth. Like, go with Mammoth. But there's people in Colorado freaking out because they're fucking LACS, their pro-Lax team is called Mammoth. And I'm like, dude, I'm sorry, that's not. Dude, also, there's like, there's the New York Jets and the Winnipeg Jets. Exactly. Who cares?

That's cool. Absolutely not an issue. I think that they have, I thought it was interesting when the Smith group was like, we're putting it to the fans. Vote, what do you think? The way the Krakken did this,

and we just said, the Krakken are worse than Utah right now. So I'm not saying it's the picture of a great organization, but they were like, we're going to come up with a great color scheme that fits the city, the other teams in the city, and we're going to come up with a very great specific name

regionally that works great. They unveiled it. It was Krakin. The jerseys are fucking awesome. Utah being like, it's up to the fans. And now it feels like all of the responses is like, these are fucking box lacrosse team names. It looks like something that would be made on NHL 2012.

And I kind of agree. And like, we tweeted out one of the mammoth logos. I was like, this looks good. It's got the mountain on the top. Oh, yeah, that was gas. But like someone was like, that's an elephant. It's not a mammoth. And I'm like, all right, dude.

Like, everyone's so pissed. Part of me is like, you should have just kept it to yourselves and unveiled a name at something. Yeah. Because it's like, the reason I think we haven't talked about Utah in a while is because, like, it was, we were so, we were on the mountain top. Dude, I was. I was ready to go. We were on the mountain top. And it's just, I feel, not, I don't want to say things have gone wrong, but I just think that the momentum has way slowed down.

Yep. And that is a huge bummer. The, I'm thrilled, though, because I wanted mammoth. That was, I was, I wanted mammoth over Yetty. Yeah, because I, because of the abs. shoulder patch and everything. I was like, I want Mammoth. So this is great. The fact that hockey club is in the top three is an insult. It's an insult, dude. And means it might stay. And I'm calling out DIRS, because DIRs on the pod. He loves it. He was like, I like, I like, I like,

I like, I like, you hockey club. And I was like, stop it, dude. Like, we are, this is not the fucking MLS. It's not European football. Like, we are not doing hockey club. Yep. You can't be the one team in the NHL called hockey club. Ridiculous. So ridiculous. So I hate that that's, like, I know, now I'm like, they're going to just do that. Because like, we already have the jerseys and blah, blah, blah. Outlaws remains ridiculous to me, but I guess could be, yeah, but could look cool, but I'm like, whatever. It's so easily Mammoth, end this charade and do it.

But I'm going to say, you need to hire a professional designer to come up with an awesome load. Hire that dude. Who's that guy on IG? Who changed his logo. What is his fucking name? Pete Summers or something. Is that it?

I think so. He's an absolute weapon. He does need to be hired. Like, is it summer like the season? I think so. I think it is. Is that him? Yeah.

Actually, well, Pete Summers is a thing. Like an artist, so I think so. But there is... Well, I'll figure out that guy's name. That dude is goaded and they should just let him do it. Yeah. But you need a, you need like a sick, sick design. And that is a no-brainer.

Like I can't live with one of these AI created. You get one shot. You got one shot, dude. You got to knock it out of the fucking park. That's all I'm saying. All right. Before we move on to our boy Tyler Tuffoli joining the show, I just want to give a quick few stick taps.

Great. Stick taps to flour. Ties Luongo. Stick taps. Most games played by a goalie in NHL history, 1,44. Going to break that soon. Amazing.

Stick taps to Ovi. Gets an empty netter with 0.1 seconds left. Gas move, dude. Now 17 tucks away. People were so pissed at him about, not so pissed, but I saw so many tweets and shit about that. Everyone's like, oh my God. And I was like, what, dude?

It's hard to score this league. And that went in the net with time on the clock. It's a goal. They all count. And then quick stick taps. Patrick Kane scores a putrid backhand barred bar down shootout winner tuck for the most shootout goals in NHL history. Dude, that was gross.

Disgusting. Disgusting. And it would have been. even if that had just gone top netting, top bunk. Yeah. But it just rifled off the bar. It was so nasty, man. Unbelievable.

He just walks away. I'm like, dude. You didn't have to leave that to the poor guy. By the way, I found it. Alan Peters design. I knew there was a Pete in there. Alan Peters. Alan Peters designs.

If you look him up, dude, he could do that. Legend. That would be so sick. All right. Let's bring on Toff. Tuff, welcome back, dude. What's up, boys? How are it?

How was lunch? Oh, quick Sandy. We got a spot here. Okay. What's your spot? Is this like your go-to Sandy spot, or is this when you're trying a new place? So I met him. Well, I met the owner at the start of the year, and I guess the sharks guys have been going forever.

And they cater all the football teams when they come into town. It's called LaVilla, and it's a close spot on my place. And the sandwich, I don't know what's on it. It's the Chris combo. I don't know what's on it. but it is top-notch. Wait, it's called the Chris combo? Wait, what's the place called?

LaVilla in San Jose. Jesus Christ, dude, you got to fucking, Sammy named after you at LaVilla. This is bullshit. Check this out, dude. It's called the Chris Combo. Oh, it doesn't even have, this place is origin, dude, like it just says names.

Yeah. Oh, wow, it doesn't say what's on it. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, it's like old-school Italian in there. It's got everything. It's got the ravioli, the meatballs, a couple canolese, you know. They got liver worse, Dan.

They got liver worse. That's how you know. You know. Toph, it's given me Bay City's vibes, just like an Italian market. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. That's huge. What's it like being in a household with a professional podcaster now? Yeah, so I'm moving on up.

You know, Kat's got the upgrade. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to test it out here and see if the fellas are going to like it. Dude, I couldn't believe it. Like I was genuinely almost fell over my chair. It's an amazing term. I'm used to you sitting in front of the Christmas tree with AirPods. Holding an iPad.

That my phone wasn't charged and one of the AirPods was broken. So we've upgraded boys. Oh, this is great. This is great. Dude, well, dude, it's a fucking crazy time of the year. We got to jump in right away. Granny and Cece traded to the stars. What was that like for the boys?

Yeah. You know what? I think it's one of those things where everyone kind of assumed that Granny was going to get moved. Yeah. Obviously he's going to get another payday. And he was great, you know, past a couple years here and all that. But it just kind of seemed like they're going to get, you know, too much like a deal that

they couldn't turn down. And obviously cease going into two, you know, kind of sucks in the sense of two guys that, you know, played pretty much the most minutes at, you know, the center position and the the position. So two big holes to fill and, you know, guys got to step up, but at the same time it sucked and always, you know,

the meeting after the next day, I think we had the day off. So the day after that, it always sucks. It's weird, you know, not seeing their stall in the locker room, but I think everyone kind of understood

and understands that that's kind of where we're at, you know. Dude, what is it like, like, what is Granite's attitude? Because like you just said, it's like,

you know, it's, it's part of the game. It's, and it's no disrespect. Like, you guys are, We've talked about it before.

You guys are such an interesting team where you're lower in the standings, but you're so exciting to watch every night. And so many guys on the team yourself included are having great years. So it's like, is Granny walking around being like, I'm probably going to get traded tomorrow? Like, what is his vibe the weeks leading up to it? Yeah. I don't think he ever really said anything like that. I think he kind of understood, too.

He was like, I mean, I don't know if they had any, you know, contract talks or extension talks or whatever. But I think he understood. He came to work every single day, and he's extremely professional. And obviously, I've known him from playing against each other for, you know, since we came in the same time, actually, into the league. So just from planning against him, I knew him, but getting to know him as a person, he's, you know, he's incredible. He's hilarious.

You know, he's quiet, but, you know, he also has, you know, the stories to tell. And just a good guy to be around. So obviously, it sucks seeing him go for what he brought to our team, too. I know a lot of the younger guys really looked up to him. For sure. You'd always drag a guy on the ice to practice and do some stuff before practice. So he's definitely going to be missed. Yeah, for sure.

Dude, because you've been in a position like that before where you're like, I'm having a great year on a team that isn't performing. I'm probably getting moved. So is it like, does it feel good to be a guy this time who's like, I'm not moving? And that's pretty sick. Yeah. I mean, it always sucked knowing or hearing your name in the, you know, the trade bait, you know, on the trade board, trade board or whatever you want to call it.

And now, you know, obviously being, you know, safe or feeling safe, you know, obviously you never know what's going to happen. But yeah, knowing that my name isn't out there right now and the deadlines, you know, a month away or whatever it is, it's definitely, you know, better feeling than before. Yeah. Yeah. Then every tweet, you're like, God damn it. Like, to be clear, like, I remember talking to you last year at this time, and it was just every day, I was like, fucking Jesus Christ, what's going on? So this is lovely, dude. We're, we're chilling. Not only that. I'll add this too. And this is actually a really funny insight for people

listening to this. Like you just said, that you're maybe not privy. Granny's probably not privy to all the talks going on, right? Like, who knows what he's hearing before? You just kind of find out as a player. And we are like on the media side. So, Ty, last year is literally texting. And that's like, what are you guys hearing? Where am I going? Like, I don't know. It's one of those things where it's like, it's like every other day. It's like, you know, this team.

And then you're like, yeah, you hear another team and you're like, oh, I think, you know, this one's close. But you never know what's going to happen until something actually happens sort of thing. Yeah. It's absolutely mental. It must be hard to focus, dude. I know you just said granny's professional. You're a professional. You got it's part of the business.

But it must be hard actually from a human level to just be like, just play, just play, focus on the game. Yeah. Well, obviously, Granny's been moved a couple times, so he understands it a little more. But for me, I think the hardest for me was when I was on the king still. And I was, you know, basically, you know, trade bait for two seasons for the most part. And when I was first on, you know, the list or whatever, I wasn't having a very good season. So, you know, I didn't get moved. They didn't want to move me for whatever, you know, a deal was.

And then I was having a really good season in the next year. And I was like, oh, you know, and then I was going to become a UFA. but I was like, you know, maybe they are going to want to keep me. And then, you know, a deal came and, you know, finally the deal, you know, happened. And for me personally, it sucked. But at the end of the day, it was honestly the best thing for my career. Because after that, it seemed like I kind of took off and, you know, haven't really looked back, you know. It did also finally get Dustin Brown to pay for a meal for you, which was also, you know, like that was.

Exactly. Which is massive. That was massive. You never forget that moment. That might have never, never forget that. I'm going to hit him up when we go to Buffalo and see if he wants to do something. I'll go over and I'm sure there'll be a nice home-cooked meal from his wife, which will be. Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. With all the trades going on, dude, like obviously there were some huge blockbusters that just happened with Ranting and Natchez flopping in Colorado and Carolina. Are you guys paying attention to that shit? Like obviously you pay attention to everything going on the league. But like when that happens, as we've been talking about, you guys are. used to the trade carousel, but when a blockbuster like that happens, are you all like, oh, like, does the team, does the team group go crazy or not really? Yeah, like it was one of those things where, I mean, I don't know if you guys can confirm it,

but I haven't seen a trade like that happened during the season. Dude, 100%. I think Joe Thornton. I think it's like truly, it's almost been 30 years since the last trade of that magnitude happened midseason. Yeah, so, I mean, I was very shocked. I won't lie. I think I text it or called Cunning right away.

I was like, you see this trade? Like what? I didn't know that, you know, these guys were, I mean, obviously you knew with Neckish, like he was maybe going to get traded. He was almost trade in the summer sign, whatever deal he signed. But, you know, with Ranton, it's one of those things where the guy had 100 points last year. It was, you know, third best player when you want to Stanley Cup, you know, or second or whatever you want to call it. And then, you're like this guy, they're going to give him whatever he's asking for, in my opinion. but obviously they felt whatever and the move happened.

You know, there's nothing really else to say. Yeah, but it's just like I wanted to hear your perspective because it's, yeah, like we said, that trade was fucking insane. And then a week later, J.T. Miller gets straight. Another 100 point guy gets dealt who has term on his contract. And you're like, what the fuck is going on? At least that when you kind of knew, you're like there something's happening in Vancouver there. So a little bit, but still, end of the day, huge production guy moving.

100%. Dude, so tough. A guy who's going to help the Rangers. Yeah. Oh, my God. And it immediately, immediately had an impact. As a player, and we'll get into no move shit, because I do want your take on that, like I told you about. But as a player, can you objectively sit back and look at shit like that and be like,

this is exciting? It's good for the league? Or are you like, this is chaos? I mean, I look at it kind of both ways. don't want to say that just because it's no no it's a good because it's fair because it brings so much more attention you know I feel like everybody was kind of talking about and and you know then obviously like the basketball trade happened too so like that's yeah crazy as well but um I feel like that's the stuff that you know keeps people excited

and not saying that it should happen every year and I don't think it will but you know anything could happen and I think and then that goes to the chaos part of it is like you never really know like you could wake up one day and then all of a sudden you know you're in a completely different city or your flights booked to a completely different city so yeah that's definitely the crazy part of of this job i think it's cool too for um other guys on other playoff teams right like if you're you know if you're the oilers and you wake up and abs have natius now you're like what the hell just happened you know like it's kind of let's be crazy for the guys in the mix too absolutely like you look at the central and what we're just talking about with granny and cease like that

that makes Dallas much better. Yeah, if you're in the central, you're looking at that and you're like, fuck me. Like that's, we didn't want that to happen. Or like the Mets teams are like,

Carolina got raining. Yeah. Yeah. So true. I wonder if it's like one of those things for like other GMs too. They're like, oh my God. Like,

you know, they went for it. Like this is supposed to be our year. Like we got to make a move right now too. And I don't know how that works. I don't, you know, I've never really talked to,

you know, a GM or anybody in that sense. So I would assume that some team, think it's their year, but then, you know, they got to, you know, not panic, but they got to make a move now, too. Toff, that's an unbelievable call. Dude, I was just saying, think about Washington. I was, dude, I was right about to say that.

Like, Washington is buzzing, and they're like, Jesus fucking Christ. Carolina adds, Randen Rangers ad, J-T-Mil-A. Because maybe the caps go, we're good. We don't need to make any big news. We're doing great. And then that happens right behind you on your heels. And you're like, oh, fuck, maybe we do have to do something. Yeah, that's fucking crazy.

I mean, I could be wrong, but I don't think that Washington thought that they were going be in this position that they're in at the start of the year. But we went into Washington and they were one of the harder teams to play against that we played against all season. So I think they're doing a really good job playing as a team, in my opinion. And what they have going is incredible.

Yeah. It's one of those tough things where it's like, do you just hold? Yeah, right. Our team is what it is. It's fucking wild. But on this topic, tough,

where I mentioned to you, like we talked to Yan's last year and I asked how important he think no move clauses are and he was like oh dude they're the most important thing in the world are you obviously as we were just mentioning you've been dealt a few times and you are now in an amazing situation where you do have some some confidence and some peace knowing that you don't you're not necessarily going to be moved how important do you think the no moves are yeah no I'm I'm biased that's uh that's key um because like I said you never know what's going to happen like you know i signed a montreal and um thought i was going to you know you signed when you sign somewhere

you think that you're going to be there the whole time and i signed in montreal we we had you know a really good team a mix of you know really good older players and and younger players and you know like nick and and guys that were ready to take the next step and then you know obviously whatever like the covid bubble year whatever you want to call it we made it to the final then the next year we were the worst team in the league. And then I ended up getting moved. And then, you know, it's almost like once you get moved once, it's like you're, and then I got, when I got moved, I did well.

So it's like, oh, he can fit in getting moved at the deadline. And then it's like, oh, you know, we can make it work. We can make it work. So it's, it's definitely one of those things where if you can get that no move, it's, it's, it's, you know, you feel safe. Yeah. No, it's it does. It's, it's that weird blend of, you know, no, obviously.

obviously having relationships with guys like you, other guys around the league where you are like, no, fuck yeah. Like give them that no move. They've earned it. And then I get as a fan being like, no, man, like let the chaos happen. Like I want blockbuster trades. But it is like it's so crucial for, you know, having any sort of comfortability in life. Like it would be terrible if wherever you were, you were like I could literally be dealt at any moment.

That's awful. Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day now, it's like GMs are still finding ways to move guys with the no move. I know, dude. You know what I mean? So it's like at the end of there's going to be a way. So if, but at the same time, in my opinion, if if Jersey came up to me and was like, you know, we don't want you basically, then I wouldn't want to be here. Like I don't want to be. So, but I mean, that's my just my opinion. You know, it's different for someone else. You know, we don't, you know, we could basically get up and leave. We've done it. You know,

so that's that's a different. different, you know, kind of aspects in, and everybody, you know, has a different opinion on those things. 100%. No, that's actually a great call, too, because I want the no move should stay and it's great. But in my mind, you're like, well, I wish there was a perfect fantasy world where there wasn't a literal legal clause, but GMs could kind of be like, if it's a veteran guy, he's like, hey, come here, sign here. I'm not going to move you.

Yeah. But then I was like, they actually trade dudes even when they have a legally binding document. They're not going to trade them. So I highly doubt a handshake would ever work. So fucking true. I mean, I've heard the horror stories of that happening with high-end guys. They're like, yeah, no, sign this deal.

And you're here. You're on this team forever. And I'm pretty sure I know a couple guys that never even played a game after signing that deal. Yeah. I mean, that is cutthroat. Yeah, dude. That is absolutely brutal. Yeah.

Dude, to some happier stuff, how was the dad's trip? Oh, it was great. I mean, honestly, it's the same every single time. It's my dad comes in, comes to the game. You know, well, we went to the first game that was at home. I think we played Pittsburgh. We won, which was, you know, great. Dads were pumped.

We're the day off the next day. So we all went and had, had, you know, some food, some beers after the game. And then we flew to Seattle and had, like, a big dinner with all the dads the dads are pumped you know getting huge steaks eating like half of it because they're getting like 20 ounces you know what i mean yeah yeah it's outrageous and it's like a set many too so it's not like they can even pick it was like uh i think it was like a like a rib eye sea bass my dad's never even heard a sea bass um and then like you know something else and then everything else is like shared and um so he had a great time uh it's always it's always it's always

awesome. It's not, it's not easy for him to come all the way out to, um, California. Because obviously he's in, he's in Toronto. So yeah. And anytime he can come out, it's, it's always great. And then he helps around the house and, um, fix some of the stuff up that. Yeah, you're like, we should do. We should do a couple of dads trips here. Actually. Yeah. Toph, you're like, you're like, dad, yeah, how are you with internet? Yeah. I should figure that out. But like, he loves cars too. And I, looking at getting a Jeep, he's like, let's go to the dealership. So we go to the dealership normally I just like look he's like let's take this one for a drive take it for a drive he's like let's go on the highway take it on the highway he's like floor it I'm like okay like he's like

literally telling me I'm like flooring it we get back he's like oh that that was pretty nice let's let's take this one for a drive we ended up taking two for a spin I'm there for like an hour and a half and figuring that I was going to be there like 20 minutes you know and yeah and he's not even driving dude no he wasn't even drive dude yeah he just wasn't the experience, dude. He was in the back seat because the guy at the dealership was beside me. And he was the whole time, he was like, oh, this one's nice. I like this one.

You know, this engine is perfect for you. He's sitting in a seat. He will literally never experience in his own car. Dude. Tye's like fucking. When he, when he comes out, he like doesn't let me drive. So he was coming to all the practices and stuff.

He was driving me to the rink, taking me home. Like I had like a chauffeur for six days. Amazing. Unbelievable, dude. Yeah. Of all the dad's trips you've been on, has anything ever gotten out? Like, what's the funniest dad's trip moment you've experienced? I think we had one in Florida.

It was Tampa, and then from Tampa we went to Fort Lauderdale. And we had a night and all the dads, I mean, the dads stay out later than us. And the dads were supposed to go like, I don't know, deep sea fishing or something like that. And there was like, you know, 12, instead of coming in the morning, skate. I think 12 of them, you know, wanted to go to the fishing. And all I heard was four of them made it. The two of the four were puking because they were, they said that they were seasick, but they were just hung over. Some of the, some of the dads missed the, the morning, the morning skate or the, the practice or whatever it was. And that was, that was a pretty good one. Dude,

elbow room will get you. Yeah, sure. It'll get you every time. That's where we were. Let's see. That's where we're going. How'd you guess? Oh, my God. Dude, I love the idea of all the dad's trips and the dad's come home to the moms and they're just crippled for the next three days. And they're like, did you have fun?

Well, no, the moms go, how was it? And they go, fine. Yeah, yeah. Everything's great. Yeah. Good. Good to see the boys. I mean, yeah, my dad, my dad hardly even drinks.

And the father's trip, you think he's like a professional, like, he's like the beer Olympics. Like, it's crazy. He's like, he's like, we go for lunch. He's like, should we have a beer? I'm like, no. Like, no, we're good. Yeah. But, you're like, I have a game at 4 p.m.

So that's his third bloody mary. Dude, who is any of the dads on this squad, just an absolute beauty in your mind? Like anyone with the dads on this crew really crack you out? Honestly, we had, we didn't really have like anything like crazy. We went for beers after the game. the Pittsburgh game and everything was pretty tame. I mean, some of the dads were,

you know, telling stories and getting going. But goodies dad was pretty funny. Which ones? Who were the talkative ones? Goodies, old man for sure. Thrun's dad was kind of chatty.

And, but it was always funny. It was like at the start, you know, everyone's like kind of quiet and like, we're all sitting with our dads. And then, you know,

I went up to go to the bathroom and then I come back and my dad's not sitting there. I'm like, where is this guy? And I had no clue. And there was only us and the dads. And I had no clue where it was. He was in the mix talking to Marr and Marr's cousin who was in town instead of his old man. It was like, they're having like an in-depth combo.

I'm like, I couldn't even interrupt because they're like they were talking so much. I was like, you guys are nuts. Mar's just stealing Rob. Dude, yeah, so good. Oh, he loved it. Dude, that's fucking great. Well, dude, one more thing we wanted to touch on last. night, obviously Graff gets his first NHL goal, huge.

Mack is on the board, Smitty's on a heater. You've got this unique experience of playing with a bunch of rookies right now and being the veteran leader, seeing these guys buzzing. What is your take on, this is kind of a chance for you to plug Mac? Because right now it feels like that rookie of your race is between him and Lane. And Lane, defenseman, leading the rookies and points. But what is it about Mack's full game already as an 18th? year old that impresses you yeah i mean i think he just he just works so hard so like you know

whenever he like makes a mistake he can just make it up you know he can make up for his mistake with how good of a skater he is in my opinion but like he never really puts himself in and like a bad spot in my opinion obviously there are like little things that you know he just doesn't get or he's not getting like a read on but for the most part he's like i mean he's our best player you know It's like there's nothing else to really say about it. So I think I think his confidence is extremely high and Smitty's too. I mean, you know both of them. It's like even when, you know, they aren't scoring or whatever, like they still come to the rink and, you know, they're in the best mood.

You know, like they're like bringing the energy every single day. So I think now that they're both putting up points and they're both playing really well, it's only, you know, you don't even know how good they're going to be in my opinion. So that's the best part of watching them play and especially watching Macplay. Dude, it does feel like the two of them being together on the team is so good for the both of them. There are so many moments where you see them yucking it up on the bench. And I'm just like, I feel like these two are in college still. It's fucking hilarious. And they're talking about living together next year.

I'm scared. I'm scared for them. Jesus Christ. That might be like that. Grusie might have to step in. It's going to be a frat house. At the very least, we need to film a reality. TV show there.

Yeah. Like I might, I might have to go and like, I might, I might have to go and like sleep over once a week just to make sure the house doesn't burn down. I agree. I was, I was going to say it almost like they might have to do it and Jumbo has to go with them just to be like, that would be like, oh, he would love that for sure. Yeah. Agree.

Like, we brought that up. Jumbo would be the one to be like, yes, I'm in. Yeah. But you live with me last year, so now I got to live with you. Yeah. If you return the favor. Exactly. Just that this is how it works.

Oh, my God. All right, Toph, as always, you now have the floor for your Toph take. Have you thought about it? I have. I thought about it. I'm going to go, I don't know how, you know, hot of a take it is because it's one of those things where, in my opinion, used to be elite. And now it's fallen dramatically off. I'm going to say with Chipotle is way overrated.

Oh, holy shit, dude. This is a take. I think it's pretty hot. I think it's the hottest. Oh no, your L.A. take was wild last time because they got crushed in the place. But, dude, this, I feel so bad for anyone who rode that bet. Me, dude.

I was like, this is money. I was like, this is awesome. But bro, so Chipotle had like, I don't want to say a scandal, but recently the CEO made some comment. He's like, yeah, you're right. we've been short-changing you on all the ingredients or how much you get. Yeah, yeah. The prices are going up.

So they tried to bounce back, but I don't know if they did. But in my opinion, it's not even like about like the serving portion. Like before it was too much. Like I couldn't even eat it all before. Now it's like I just feel like, I mean, maybe it's just, you know, the locations that I'm going to. And even when I was back in Jersey, you know, still, you know, you go for lunch and you knew, you knew what you're getting every single time.

Now it's like, you know, you know, It's kind of hit or miss. It's, you know, sometimes it's super salty. Sometimes, like, the steaks, like, way overcooked. You know, I'm getting picky, but, you know, that's just what. No, dude. What it is. This is what it is.

People need to be held accountable. Because I agree with this. I think there was a time. I mean, to a hot take on a hot take, I was a big believer that Kodobo is better than Chipotle. That's neither here nor there. Because they had Kato first. But I'm with you that Chipotle, like, Chipper was.

an establishment of consistency. That was their whole business model. I knew exactly what you said. I knew what I was getting at Chipper. And this is a hot take because chipper is wrapped up in the NHL world right now. And we're here to tell them, like you've got to step your shit up

because I agree like I won't go to Chipotle anymore. And now I'm in a great, we'll know because I'm going to, you know, as you used to be Thai, like we're in L.A. I have better options for a burrito bowl that's just as quick here. Same price.

Same price. So I'm not going anymore. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. Truly. What's your bowl? I don't know if you get a bowl, but what's the Chipotle order if you do go? No, I go chicken, brown rice, black beans, mild salsa, and I go lettuce, cheese, guac.

Gwok's extra. Did you know that? Oh, I found out. Dude, every time, I love that. I know they have to, but like literally every time, I'm like, and guac. That's a solid order. And I'm like, I know, dude. Everyone on earth knows that guac is extra.

I like this take, actually. Dude, this is what I'm saying. Like, I like the take because it's people need to be held accountable. Yep. And chipper is not. What are they got to do? Is there anything they could do for you to make it right other than just be better? I think it's just be better.

I mean, they have the name. You know, whenever I think about, you know, going for lunch, it's like, Chipotle is always in the mix. But then now it's like, especially back, you know, now that I'm back in California, it's like, like you guys are saying, And there's so many different options. But Chipotle is always in the mix for a lunch spot. And now for me, I'm like, oh, do I, like, I'd rather go like Jersey Mikes or, you know,

I rather get into sandwich. Because you can't trust it. Then Chipotle, you know. Yeah. Dude, once you lose trust. That was a great. Once you lose trust, it's hard to get back. It's true, dude.

And that was a great call, too. Like, I'll go to J. Mike's over Chipper any day. Jaymikes is awesome. It's so goaded. For sure. What's your J. Mike's sub?

I got the turkey. I don't know what number it is, just like the turkey provolone and Mike's way. Dude, first of all, it's a great order. Second of all, and I might have just not paid enough attention. Wait, what did you say?

I get the spread too, the, like the spicy, chili spread or whatever you want to call it. Awesome. Game changer, actually. I like that. I don't, I feel like I'm not paying enough attention, but the numbers feel random to me there. Like I get order a sub and they're like,

that's a 68. I'm like, are there 68 subs? I'm listening to you. Yeah, I agree with that. There are some that are up there. I'm like, what the fuck? It's like the Chipotle chicken cheese steak is like number 43. And you're like, there's no way there are this many subs.

What? That's a good one, though. Yeah, it's a very good one. But that's like I need to sit down on the couch for a little bit after. I'm not light on my feet after that. That's not lunch, dude. That's dinner. That's dinner.

Yeah. All right, Taff. Fucking great stuff, as always, dude. Let's quickly plug Katz podcast. Oh, yeah. Oh, am I saying this? Yeah, you do. It's your wife, dude.

Like, I'm not... Yeah, well, she's working on it all the time. It's never off sides with Kattafoli and Julie Petrie. And I think they have four episodes out now, maybe five. Yeah. Just had Suzuki's wife on? Yep, amazing. She's wife, Caitlin, yeah, no.

And they're doing a good job. I mean, I got the inset scoop with some of the people that they're planning on having on. I think it's going to, I think it's going to be good. Dude, for sure. I mean, like they've already, I mean, Look at the setup, dude. Cat's a natural, dude. Kat's a natural.

We knew this was going to work. Yep. It's unbelievable. All right. Well, dude, great shit. We'll make sure everyone listens to Never Offside with Kat. It's unbelievable stuff. And unbelievable stuff with you as well, dude.

We'll catch you next time. I love it. All right. Now we are going to do a brand new segment brought to you by Perplexity AI. Dan, imagine. watching the Super Bowl this Sunday and winning a million dollars. Sounds absolutely perfect. That'd be sick.

And here's the deal. Perplexity is giving away a million dollars just for asking questions during the big game. It is my go-to search engine because it uses intelligent AI and it scans the internet for the best results and fastest answers. It doesn't give me a bunch of links that are all sponsored and it's just a bunch of nonsense. It gives me exactly what I want to see so, so quick. It is the no-brainer search engine for you right now. All you have to do is download the app. enter and start asking questions during the game.

And you score more entries if you, I think it's if you ask five or if you refer friends. So you just fire away. And then they're going to announce the winner after the game. Yeah. And remember, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. So go to perplexity. com, download the app and get in the game. Wayne Gretzky said that, so I think you should probably get on board.

That's pretty cool. He's the best player of all time. So you might as well be the best search engine user of all time. So with that in mind, Perplexity is going to bring us this week's powers rankings. So we are going to do our powers rankings and then we're going to compare it to perplexity to see if they know what they're talking about. If this AI robot stuff knows what it's doing, Dan.

Oh yeah, we searched on perplexity what are the top five teams in the NHL right now? We're going to look at the list after. Here's our powers ranking top five. As usual, we've got to agree. You have been ramming the jets down my throat for a good reason. And I think they're one again.

They're eight and two in their last 10 on a seven game win streak. And they're shit-kicking teams. They have to be one. They have to be one. They simply have to be one. I like Washington. Seven, one, and two.

Great convincing Panthers win. Yep. Two. Yep. Last night. To me, it's very, like, they're won two. I know. I wanted to give it to Dallas because they had won five straight.

Yeah. And they just lost. Who was that lost? But they're six and four. You know, like they had won a lot, but they were on a tough skid. Like, they were doing well. Now they lost a game. They do look good.

I don't hate Dallas as you're. three here. But I don't even know. They lost to the ducks. Here's my question for you. You shut me down with Columbus. Are you going to hear me on Detroit? No. Detroit, seven, two and one. Seven game winters' game win. Winning games and shootouts. You're not going to give me a Detroit look? Maybe at five, but no. Like the answer is no, but just revisit me at five. Okay. What about Ottawa? Still no. Okay. What about Florida? Florida had me thinking, had me thinking all kinds of things until they lost to the caps. Yeah. But that's the caps. Like we have caps as the lock, too. I'm not going to, I'm not going to shame them for a loss against the caps. Six and four in their

last 10, they beat the doors off Chicago. Like they look good again. And then smack the Islanders too. Yeah, yeah. They look like Florida again. So maybe it's like, so what's three? Like Florida, Dallas, that's what that's in the range for three. Yeah. And I would put Dallas above Florida still. Vegas is so out of here. Yeah. They are, again, they are in their January, February. We are assholes. Holes era. Edmonton is in here, though. Leon Connor show. So that would mean no rings.

Florida, Dallas, Edmonton of the last three. Yeah, so I'm okay with, because Detroit is just clinging to a place spot right now. Yeah. And like you said, these are the best teams in the league, not the hottest, the best teams. So give me, Dallas lost the ducks.

Yeah, maybe, maybe I want to go Dallas over Florida, but they lost to the ducks and Florida lost to the caps. Yeah. So I'm kind of like, maybe Florida. Florida. Give me Florida, Jet's Caps, Florida. Dallas.

Dallas, Edmonton. Edmonton. Done. Agreed. All right. Let's see what perplexity has. All right. The perplexity top five,

they have the caps at one and the Jets at two. So we're just flip-flop. Yep. Then they got Edmonton, which we had at five. Then they got Carolina. Carolina is the one team we've cucked.

Yes, and it is. But then after that they have Dallas who we had at what? Four? Three? We had Dallas at three. No, Dallas at four. Edmonton at five. And we had the Panthers in there.

We've got, listen, Carolina has lost two in a row. We've got four of the five. Yeah. Like, we are, that's pretty good, dude. Like, this is the best AI in the game and we got four to five. That's not bad at all. And Carolina, Carolina could be in there

any day of the week. They look nasty. That's a pass. We just passed the perplexity grade. That feels good. I feel pretty great about that. That's probably one of our best powers ranking. Come on.

That's one of our best powers perplexity ranking. I love it. The powers perplexity ranking, we did pretty good. Huge. Love it. All right, let's move on to our starting six. Starting six this year, starting it off. The man has been on it, I think, three weeks in a row now. I know. David Posternak, he's on an 11 game heater with 10 goals, 14 assists. He's in the heart conversation. Whoa, dude. He's in the heart conversation. I don't think that's right.

Man, you cannot be having 24 points in 11 games, and you're single-handedly keeping the Boston Bruins a lot. Well, I was going to say, he's doing that thing, you know, where a guy's just like, I'm the only reason you're here. Yeah, yeah, he's doing that thing. And I won't take. that from him, but that's not going to win you a heart in this country. In this country. Jack Hughes is going to be our center this week. Six game heater, five goals, three assists, two tucks last night in a very big win against the Penguins shootout win. He did miss a breakaway in OT and then with his shootout attempt, but they got the win. It's all that matters. 61 points in 54 games. He might miss 100 points again. And Pasha is going to lose his bet with

whip. Yeah, wow. Which is real tough. You hate to do that. I'm pretty sure this is the last year of the bet. Really? Yeah, yeah. And it looks like Jack's just going to come up a little bit show. He could do it. Yeah, yeah. He's got, you know, a little under 30 games left. I bet he's probably point per game there. Like, I think he's going to finish with like 94 points. Yeah, he's got to get the Gato going right now. Really tough. Right now. Step on it. Other wing, we got Kent Johnson. The Blue Jackets, looking real good. He is on an eight game heater. Four goals, five

assists. He scored a gross spanorama backhand top cheese tuck last night. And and mean mugged the camera. It was absolutely unbelievable. Yep. Defense were going, Jake Sanderson, the Sandman had three goals, seven assists for 10 points

in six straight games, and the senators are securely in a playoffs. They are a playoff team. And that makes sense to me. It's unbelievable. Because they're good. Other D, Josh Morrissey. Two goals, four assists in his last seven games.

Jets look nasty. Like we said, they are just piping teams. It's unbelievable. And Josh is carrying the list. on the blue line. Dude, this next one is something,

we're witnessing something special. Something very special. We've been talking about this. We almost brought this up last week, and we didn't, I'm so glad we didn't, because now we get the joy of bringing it up like this now. Goalie, we are going Ilya Sorokin. In his last 10, he is 9-in-1 with two shutouts,

a 9-4-2 save percentage and a 1-66 goals against average. Can you believe those numbers? And you know what's funny? It's wah, dude. It's, I, I, are. I already had him. Yeah. And then last night was just another dominant performance and just made all these numbers even better.

It's crazy. Phenomenal stuff. And that's what that team needs, obviously. So. Unbelievable. That is our starting six. Let's close out this episode with a nice little game. I love games.

Dude, speaking of games, uh, I played the almost Friday card game again. Oh, yeah. It's so good. It's great. Oh, wait. Yeah. Did you do that on your, um, surprise Valentine's Day? I did have an emergency Valentine's Day.

Chris is going to be on the road for Valentine's Day. so he and Sandra did an emergency Valentine's Day on a Tuesday. On a Tuesday. And you played the Almost Friday card game? Yeah, because we did the horse race. I love the horse race. Yeah, that is fun. Because there's a ton of mini game.

You know what, dude? I actually like this. Like playing fun games like the Almost Friday card game on Valentine's Day is better than just doing nonstop romantic stuff. Hey, I got you chocolate. Yeah. I'm like, dude, you want to play fucking horse race? Yeah.

And booze. So the Almost Friday card game is making Valentine's Day better. Cooler for dudes and chicks. And chicks. You had a good time. This is pretty sweet. So, you know, next time you want, next time you have your emergency Valentine's Day, horse race on almost Friday card game. I absolutely love it.

Let's get into our game. We're doing, what are we calling this one? Connective tissue? Is it the two players? Yeah. Yeah, connective tissue. We're doing connective tissue for those who are unfamiliar. This game is where I will give Christopher the bio of two players whose names connect.

If we were doing this as a movie, I could do something like, Independence Day after tomorrow. Yep. And the log line of the movie would be aliens come and attack the Earth as a Arctic freeze happens across the planet. Independence Day after tomorrow. Great.

So we're going to be doing two NHL players. Are you ready, sir? I am ready. I've got hints ready if you need them. Yep. Yours always harder than mine. Here's your player. What?

Yours are harder than mine. I try to give you very clear who the player. No, they're great. They're more creative than mine. Oh, okay. After being just the second player drafted in team history, this player was traded by the Vegas Golden Knights before ever playing a game to a team

where he would eventually become the youngest captain in team history, only to shock the world by giving up his early career as a model and actor to play defense for this original six team. Oh, dude, that is incredible. So once again, after being just the second player drafted in team history, this player was traded by the Vegas Golden Knights before ever playing a game to a team where he would eventually become the youngest captain in team history, only to shock the world by giving up his early career as a model and actor to play defense for this original 16.

Is that second one true? Yeah. And also, this one's really fun. This connection is really, it's cheeky. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yours are always like, oh, Logan, Couture. And I'm like, okay. It's fantastic.

Okay. So Vegas had a guy they drafted. Yeah. He never played for them. He was only the second player drafted in team history. Yeah, so he was drafted in like 2017, 2018. That's the exact year. You got it right.

In 2017, yeah. It's drafts in 2017, never plays for Vegas and goes to a different team where he becomes the second youngest captain in team history. Currently a captain. He's currently on that team still. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's the captain. He's the youngest captain in team history.

Okay. I wonder. And you should. How quickly. did he become a captain. Not that quickly. Okay. So, but he's the second youngest still. Like, he didn't, you know, he was, couldn't have been that young. What do you mean? He was drafted in 2017. He's a young boy. But he didn't become captain right away. I mean, it was, when I say not that, it's not like he showed up and was captain. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, it's a team with a lot

history, a lot of history. And he's the second youngest. Yeah. No, no, he is, he is the youngest. Oh, he's the youngest. Oh, second pick. Second pick by they. Yeah. So, he's a team. Vegas. Yeah. Youngest captain in team history on a team with a lot of history. Okay, so to me, that says an original 16th team, and I'm trying to go through the captains of the original six teams right now. You got Brad Marchand, and Vegas didn't draft him.

And then you had Jacob Truba. They didn't do anything. They don't have a captain right now, so it's not the Rangers. It's not him. And then you have Chicago, who is Fliggy. Yep. And then you have Toronto, which is Matthews. They didn't draft him.

Then you have Detroit, which is Larkin. They didn't draft him. So you know who it is. So then they, oh, Montreal. Nick Suzuki. Okay, this is going to be fun. So the second clue is this person gave up their modeling career.

Early career as a model and actor to play defense for this original 16th. Nick Suzuki. Oh, I know it. Come on. Nick. Suzuki Andre Miller. Yeah, dude.

The classic Nick Suzuki-Kandre Miller. Dude, that is good. That's a good one, isn't it? And I didn't know that he gave up a Zoolander for him. Dude, a little, a Minnesota boy. He was a model and actor for Target commercials. Nick Suzuki-I-Mondry-Mil. He was also a forward who then transitioned to defense.

And now he's Nick Suzuki-Andre Miller. That is incredible. They drafted Suzuki? Yeah. First round. Damn, dude. Immediately traded him. For what?

I don't remember. Tell me right now, that's a fucking monster deal. You look it up. We'll look it up off air. That is it for us today at the Empty Netters podcast. Unbelievable episode. Thank you for Toff joining. Guys, we got the Super Bowl this weekend.

We're going to be making some bets. We're going to be doing a lot of crazy, crazy stuff. We are also headed to Four Nations next week. We'll get one more episode in next week at the top of the week here as we get ready for Four Nations. But let's all prepare for the Super Bowl. Let's all do the right thing and absolutely hammer the Chiefs money line. Hammer it. Yeah, it's your duty.

It is your duty. Have a great weekend. Stay safe. Have some fun. And until we see you next time. Skate hard.