Puck Soup - Alex Prewitt, Ottawa Drama

Episode Date: June 15, 2018

Greg and Dave welcome Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated to talk about the Washington Capitals' drunken celebration, goalies who poop, the NHL vs. concussions and his path in journalism. Plus, the boys break down all the drama with the Ottawa Senators, Mike Hoffman and Erik Karlsson; discuss the strange straw man of Alex Ovechkin criticism; predict the NHL Awards; and delve into the question of the week about a generic hockey jersey from a Snuggle commercial. Sponsored by Seat Geek!

Today's episode of Puck's super sponsored by Yellowstone. Academy Award winner Kevin Costner stars on his first ever television series, Yellowstone. Costner plays John Dutton, a ruthless Montana rancher, fighting to save his land and family in one of the most ambitious cinematic television series ever. Yellowstone premieres Wednesday, June 20th at 9 Eastern 8th Central on the new Paramount Network. The Use to be Spike. Now it's the Paramount Network.

You could watch Yellowstone and your Bar Rescue in one big old heap and spoonful of cable goodness. Yellowstone with Kevin Costner, Wednesday, June 20th, 9-8 Central on the Paramount Network. Also want to mention to you, lovely people. Next Thursday, as we do this podcast, June 21st, doors at six, show at seven. The Profit Bar in Dallas, Texas is the site. of our live show. What kind of live show will it be, you ask? Well, it is the 100th episode of Puck Soup, Dave Lozo. You know what that means? We're going to give everybody a free $100 bill who shows up and comes out and supports us.

We are so not going to do that. It is our NHL Awards episode after the real NHL Awards, which Lozo and I will give out our own awards. It is going to be a hoot nanny, a guest's games. Wait, wait, wait, wait, a hoot nanny might actually be a thing in Dallas. That's what I'm saying. It's not going to be an actual hoot-nanny, whatever that is. It's going to be a ho-down hoot-nanny. Oh, no. We're going to shoot guns into the air and see where the bullets fall. Want a line dance?

The profit bar is at 2548 Elm Street. Mm, nightmares. In Dallas. Again, with that joke. Two weeks in a row. It's going to be super fun. We are obviously going to play Shlem Code with a Dallas twist. And also, if you come to the show, it is going to be a key.

Q&A there exclusive to you. We're not going to put it to anywhere else. It's just going to be there for your edification for us. 12 bucks advance. 15 at the door, the profit bar. It's a ticketfly.com is where you get your tickets. You can probably get the tickets off the profit bar site, but you could also get them off the Puck Soup Twitter.

So we're going to see you there. Thursday, June 21st. Very excited about this. We've done a lot of shows on the Eastern Seaboard. This is our first show in Texas. Yeah. And it's going to be five or six days before the Hockey Hall of Fame announces its inductees. And maybe we might talk about Sergey Zuboff's chances while we're in the city of Dallas.

I'm going to get real sick of talking about that at that live show. I love it. Anyway, profit bar, our gig, Yellowstone, Kevin Costner, played Superman's dad. That's it. Montana ranchers. Don't fuck with him. Enjoy the show. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons.

We've got sportly commentary. To what if you commute, We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nonsense. Bork to... Hey, everybody. It's Dave Loza. I don't really work anywhere full-time,

but I do a lot of stuff at Vice Sports, so I like to mention them off the top. They're good people. And I'm Greg Wysinski of ESPN, and you're listening. I'm sorry, you're in Puck Soup. I'm using my announcer voice for

it is an official thing that we are doing here. Yes. We were talking about real news, Dave Lozo. Breaking news from Ottawa, Canada. Ottawa, Ontario. Ottawa, Ontario. Ottawa, Canada.

North America, Cometa. North America. According to the Ottawa citizens. Which one? Yes. God damn it. It is high. It is far.

It's gone. A bozo, named lozo, goes rozo, the flozo. One nothing puck soup. Melinda Carlson has filed an application for an order of protection against the long-time girlfriend and fiancé now of Senator's forward Mike Hoffman, alleging a campaign of harassment that plagued the Carlson's after the death of their son and through much of last NHL season. Monica Carrick, I believe would be the way we pronounce her last name.

See, I was saying Sarik the whole time, but I guess that makes more sense. Sarik is the Vulcan that Kirstie Alley played in Wrath of Khan. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Maybe that's, maybe that's, how is it spelled in Rath-A-K? I don't even know. S-A-R-E-K. Oh, is it?

And this is C-R-Y-K. I don't know. know how you get a how do you get a sound from CA I'm going to vacation in Salaforna yeah that's a good point wait now I got to sit here the whole time you're talking to trying to think of a as a as a as we said the story took place in Ottawa Sanada sava is a French word that means how are you maybe she's French oh point well though um can we talk about the photo choices by the way the Ottawa citizen everybody seen this story by now I know I've I've seen a lot of cleavage with this really heavy sad news story that I really don't know if that's it

No, no, no. I was talking about the fact that, so... That and the other one. Melinda and Eric Carlson are, I look like a picture-perfect couple. Erickson's sort of a tuxedo jacket with a tie, and Monica... I'm sorry, Melinda looks resplendent. Monica Carrick, meanwhile... So you wanted to say, Sirk. Is with Mike...

So Mike Hoffman looks a lot like Jim from the office and his little tuxedo. And then she, if... I'll show you the picture. Yeah. She looks like the conniving woman from a life... time original movie. Those photos I think were all, actually, I don't know how many photos of Mike Hoffen and his

girlfriend together there are, so maybe you're limited but... I'm not trying to, like, I'm not trying to make fun of women here. I'm just saying that the photo choices by the photo editor are telling part of the story. Right. Also, and the thing is the two, the two Carlson photos are like the one where they're

dressed really well and she's in a low-cut dress and the other one, you can tell, is from when he had the Achilles surgery because he has like the cane, not the cane, the brace, on one of his arms. So you can just tell exactly when the photos were. I guess again,

there's not a lot of photos of like the people together so you're kind of limited. According to Eric Carlson's wife, Melinda. My wife. Monica Carrick has uttered numerous statements

wishing my unborn child dead. This is in her sworn statement of the court. She uttered that she wished I was dead and that someone would take out my husband's legs to end his career. She has posted over 1,000,

1,000, Dave Lozo, negative and derogatory statements. about me as professional. Posted means on the internet. Like I guess it's like Facebook, right? Facebook, Instagram was where a lot of this stuff happened. Like, over a thousand is a lot.

Because like they all can't be burner accounts. Like that's a lot of, I mean, I guess they could be if you really dedicated to it. It's so crazy. Her username was Sandy Dandy 45. But that was only for one of the comments, though, right? That wasn't for like 800 of them. Yeah. And she allegedly, by the way.

And she wrote, I feel bad for the baby. He didn't have a chance with Melinda popping painkiller medication every day. And this was something that Carlson himself called out for the comment. And so Hoffman has said that there is, quote, this is his statement to the citizen after he kind of no commented it before. there is a 150% chance that my fiancé, Monica, and I are not involved in any of the accusations that have been pursued that are coming our way. Now, there's two ways to read this. First off is that he said my fiance, Monica, and I are not involved, which could just mean that, you know, together they're not involved.

Also, why not 200%? Why 150? Well, Greg, let me tell you the thing about a thing called the metrics. Their 150 is our 100. That's how it works. So I just want to point out, this is the craziest fucking story I've ever heard. I can't wrap my brain around the idea that there are, think of if you were at work. Okay.

And you were like, wow, someone wrote a really rude thing about my wife on Instagram. Right. You know what? I bet it's the wife of my coworker. Like, there has to be so much water under the bridge. between these two that immediately you know who it is and you know we talk about we talked to Alex Pruitt from Sports Illustrated later in the show and this came up the fact that four different wives of four different ex-senators all came out at the same time and said

either oh we knew this is going on or yep this totally makes sense that it was her some of it's Craig Anderson's wife right wasn't Craig Anderson's wife I thought I thought it was it was Andrew Hammond's wife Taurus's wife and then a couple of others but I thought one of them was Craig Anderson's way but like whatever the point is it's just like, yeah, it just, it seems like this was like a known thing for a long time. I'm guessing, like, if they're all anonymous, you know, made up burner handles, I'm guessing like it didn't start that way. So it's just like you see the first, say 85 of the thousand or from her, like under her name

and then she stops doing it and then it comes up again. Like, it's, it's not like a thing where like there's a bunch of people doing it. You know, where it can be like plausibly someone else. Like there's probably so many people making jokes and wishing ill on a baby. Or it's like it's a bunch of people that are all doing it under one handle. It's like Eklund back in the day where it's just the pseudonym for the number of people all being insiders at the same time. Or conversely, this is all Brian Kalangelo. It could possibly be that as well.

Oh my God. So this morning, I finished up an Ottawa Senator's thing at like 10 a.m. I wrote it, sent it in. And by like 1225, there was already two more new things that I had to go back and be like, I need to fix this. And there was a paragraph in my thing where I just referenced. the Brian Colangelo thing. Like, yeah, you know, a burner account, wife, medical information, got him fired.

And I had a line in there. I was like, well, at least there's no burner account situation with the Ottawa senators. And then, like, fucking Travis Yose is like, there might be a burner. It might be a burner account. Account situation on top of all the... Like, think about everything that's happened to Ottawa

since 2018 started. Here, let's... Melnick. Melnick. Okay, but Melnick is not... Melnick is a topic that has several subtopics. That's what I mean. Like, Melnick is...

Melnick being cheap. and a horrible owner. Melnik saying that it's the fan's fault for not supporting the team. Melnik and the arena. Threatening to move them right before the outdoor game. Melnick and relocation. Melnick out billboards.

Melnick not meeting with the town, the city about the downtown thing anymore. But Melnick also holding town halls with the fans to try to calm them down. Yeah. Like there's that. There's the fucking assistant GM allegedly rubbing the shoulders

of some teen shuttle driver at a hotel. A male teen shuttle driver who has subsequently taken out of a restraining order against the assistant GM who by the way his trial date is now after the NHL draft so there's a very good chance he'll be with the senators at the draft apparently which is like there's that like there's the baby clothes there's there's so many fucking things that have happened well tell them about people might not know about the baby clothes the baby clothes was there was like these ottawa senators like onesies i guess it was or maybe i don't know that onesies right that's a baby close thing

and they somehow i don't know how a onesie could be a choking hazard but apparently they had to recall them because they were a choking hazard now i'm not going to put that on like pier Dorian. Like, he's not approving that. But like, all of these things happened. And like, it just doesn't feel like... You forgot, you forgot the Daniel Alpherson thing. Oh, that's part of the Melnick alienated Alpherson. So, you know, the basically the, the, the signature player of your, of your franchise doesn't want anything to do with your franchise because of the owner. And like, Eric Carlson's going to be gone anyway. The Eric Carlson trade drama, the Mike Hoffman trade drama. The Kyle Turris trade that did happen.

Matthew Shane's nowhere close to probably signing an extension. Mark Stone's offer She'll Bobby Ryan's contract. There is just endless Craig Anderson's contract. Craig Anderson, retweet. Liking a thing about how the Ottawa senator's lineup is a disaster

and someone referencing the two goalies as shit and crap. And Craig Anderson liking the tree. And there's just no sign from the organization that they have any of this under control. You know? Like the Sixers took them a week. They're like, we got to let you go. And like here you have the AGM,

like no suspension, no nothing, the trade stuff with Carlson. Like, how are they ever going to remedy the whole Carlson Hoffman thing? Like, they have to trade both of them now. They have to. The thing, well, you know, no, they can, okay, here's the thing about Hoffman. Hoffman for sure. Hoffman's really interesting because, like, there was all that talk about them trading Mike Hoffman at the trade deadline.

And teams like the St. Louis Blues were really interested in dealing for him. And I wonder, listen, the team knew about this shit. Mm-hmm. They had the know, A, they had to know about. her being a whack-a-do apparently. They claimed to only have found out after the end of the season. Okay. But like, you know, Hoffman's been on the block and we were all like, that's kind of weird. And I put out a tweet and people when asking me about it, I had heard that there was some personal issue between Hoffman and the team that probably meant he was going to be traded this summer. I heard it from two different people. And so I didn't know it was this. I don't think anybody knew it was this. but there was definitely something there that said that he probably wasn't going to be there.

Carlson's going to go like this. You know how it's going to go because they can't simply just trade him. They're going to give an offer. It's going to be frugal as shit because it's from Melnick. They're going to say we made our best offer based on the economics of our situation. He's going to reject it. And then either he

stays because he loves Ottawa, which is very very, very low, low, high odds at this point, low probability. He couldn't stay before this. Like now he can't stay. Or he gets traded. And the trade's going to be real interesting because the trade's going to be one of two things.

It's either going to be a team that acquires Carlson with an eye towards giving him an extension, or you're going to have a whole different set of trade partners, like the Lightning, for example, who are going to be like, we want him for a year. Yeah, but he probably wouldn't want that. Why not? No player ever wants that. What was the last player did, like,

want just a one year to hold up? He wouldn't want to play with the Lightning? Not for a year. He was basically a de facto lightning player during the All-Star game. I mean, he'll play for the lightning, but not just for one year without an extension done. You think so? No player, you said it yourself.

No player ever wants to just do the one-year go-to-a-team thing. You know, it is interesting if he goes there because if they wanted to keep him, they have to get Kutcherov done after this season. Girardi's money comes off the books at the end of the season. And McDonough's money comes off the books at the end of the season. And you could, I mean, I don't think that, I think you trade Tyler Johnson if you

want to get Tavaris, but I think you keep them otherwise. but like they could potentially make it work. They'll be top-heavy as shit and it's going to be like, you know, Richards La Coveillet and San Luis all over again and Boyle. But, and Boyle got, you know,

chican to San Jose. But they could conceivably have Carlson, Headman and Stamco's on that roster if they wanted it, and Kuthorov. And then they could have those guys play 14 minutes and then John Cooper will play Dan Gerardi 27 minutes in the playoffs because he's gritty. And then they'll lose in seven to some team

that they should have been. and five. And they'll have Patrick Paquette in order to talk to the French media. But like Carl, like, when you, hold on, when you, let's dial it back. What was your reaction when you heard the story? Was it the craziest shit you've ever heard? I mean, I didn't think it was the crazy. It's crazy. It's not the craziest thing

I've ever heard. Like somebody somebody's saying crazy shit. Sure, that happens all the time. But one player's one player's fiancee wished another player's wife, death, and also the death of her child. I mean, Greg, In the world today, there's so much going on with wars and our president that, you know, I just don't, much like that guy who was on them. Much like David Corrin.

You know what? I just like to look big picture. David, David, David, Gordon's a pundit that was on MSNBC a lot, or is on MSNBC a lot. And he tweeted that he wanted to run up to every Capitals fan that was wearing their jersey the day after the parade and shake them and tell them that Trump had authorized concentration camps. Yeah. first of all, if you do that on the train. Yeah. Like, you're not the sane person.

Like, I mocked him for that, but I want to just add an addendum to my mocking. Bless you. Bless you. Which is that... An addendum to my mocking. Does this fucking idiot think that, like, 60% of Capitals fans don't work for the government? Like, if you're talking about a fan base that might be plugged in and understanding what's going on with the administration... There's a lot of dumb things to do it.

It's that fan base. It's incredibly dumb. but the thing that the thing that I thought about when I heard that story was like let's let's look at Katie Perry and Taylor Swift. Mm-hmm. Okay. There was there was some fighting there, right? Bad blood, if you will.

And now they're now they're friends again, I think. I believe I saw that in a Twitter moment or something. I think they might have reconciled the whole man stealing thing. But like when there's a fight between two people, usually it's over something, money, a guy, a job, something. I don't understand how a fight happens where someone is rooting against the birth of a baby or like mocking the death of a baby. Like, like,

I feel like we're missing a step in there somewhere because you don't just start there. It escalates to that. So, like, if Hoffman and her have been together forever and Carlson and Carlson have been together forever, like, what's the trigger point that started the whole thing? That's the thing I want to know. And you make a good point.

I think people, like, Of course, what do you do when you first see this thing go down is you try to figure out what the deal is with this person who's the instigator. So if you look through her and Hoffman's history, I think they've been together since he was a pup. They've been, yeah, for a long time. They've been together for a long time. Yeah, she got she got long time girlfriend and all the stories, not just girlfriend. Right. So like the, so when this first happened, people were like, oh, you just got to get rid of this girl.

It ain't that simple. Like you, you get the sense that they've been together for a long time. And maybe everybody knows that couple where it's like, one was a little crazy and the other one's always constantly apologizing for it and being like, you just don't understand who the real person is. Like, you could totally see that being this situation.

But like, what happened between her and Melinda and Eric where she wants him to, his career to be over? Yeah, his career to be over too. Yeah. Like, that's,

I don't know, like there's, I feel like we've only got like 30% of the story. Like James Duffy was on the radio today and he said something about how there's going to be more that comes out. Like, I feel like we need more details. Like, like, no matter what, obviously, no matter what happened, escalating it to ha, ha, ha, your baby's dead is fucking, you know,

there's no reason to bring it to that ever. But I want to know what happened where in her head she felt like that was an appropriate response. The good thing about the hockey community is that I'm sure every rumor that comes out about the situation will be handled responsibly and won't be hyperbolic. And everyone who regurgitates some bullshit about that stuff will, will obviously, obviously do so in a responsible way. Sure, they'll be in the know.

They will think, even like Duthy gone on the radio and being like, I know some crazy stuff. But I'm not going to tell you. Can we talk about Ottawa in the abstract, though? Like, through the years. Ottawa and the abstract. Through the years,

there might not be a team that has generated more that shit crazy rumors and innuendo on the down low than that franchise. I remember hearing shit about Heatley when

Heatley asked for a trade that was really bad and not true necessarily. I'm not going to repeat him here but like... So you're going to do the Duffy thing? I am because they're dude it was it I'll just

say that it was sex stuff but I don't think it's true and no one ever confirmed that it was true it was but it was a rumor that was bouncing around based on the shit that went down with that team after they they went to the cup final the hockey world was littered with stories

about how it was just like cocaine fest there and cocaine's a thing you hear about like every team yeah but this was a special kind of like story as far as like it being a real problem for them like this organization for some reason has generated more weird shit and controversy and not even like a list stuff like the way Alfredson went

yeah it's so fucking strange Doesn't Melancholic have to sell the team? Isn't that the only way out? Is there a more inconsequential team in the grand scheme of things that is more cons- But it is more consequential as far as gossip? Yeah, it does seem weird, doesn't it? Right?

Like, it doesn't add up. But yeah, like, there's no, like with the Sixers, they can just fire their GM, even if, like, his wife was the one who did it or not did it and he should just like the fall. Either way, like, that's their out. Like, there's no way to fix this. Like, you can't force Melnick to sell. No.

And people have been talking about the NHL stepping in and being the, the moral barometer here. I'm like, do you understand this is the NHO? I know. Like, they're not going to do that. Like, there needs to be, like, a crime. Well, then there's not a crime by now. They won't step in because the NHL can't be the moral barometer of anything.

There might not even be a barometer in that building, come to think of it. Wait, wait, are you telling me the league of principles? Yeah. The Declaration of Principles League doesn't have moral high ground, Greg? Well, I mean, the Declaration of Principles is separate because, as you know, they were endorsed by the Pope. The Pope, the Pope, the Pope, the Pope, love is going to sleep. La Bichada. God, I know I said it before, I'll say it again.

Sitting in that press conference and everything's going fine. It's like, we've got the women's leagues here. We got these leagues here. We're all going to work together and make hockey a great place. And then Pat LaFontaine getting up there. And I've got a letter from the Pope. And we're just like, what? You know, like, all morning he was super pumped about just shouting that out at the press conference too.

Like, he's just leaving his house. He's like, be cool, be cool, be cool, don't blow Gary Spock. Yeah. Right. Right. I got a Pope letter. He's like, all right, play the music. And then it's, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

Is that the Young Pope theme? It's the young pope theme. It's the long. The league, here's the thing about Melnick. Okay. The league kind of likes him because he's the reason there's still a team in Ottawa. Yeah, but I mean. That's the problem.

How much longer can the team be there, though, the way it's going? But if he sells. who's coming in to buy the team somebody bought the Carolina freaking hurricanes the Carolina Hurricanes have an arena deal

and are a product of being real shitty on the ice the senators have had some success in the last 10 years and still nobody goes because the arena is in the fucking Yukon

they got to get a downtown arena no one's able to make it work if Melnick's not there I don't know who owns the team but like Melnick's not even trying I didn't make the downtown arena work thing right now. He's holding out for the, yeah, he's holding out for like a new mayor who's going to be more, you know, owner friendly. And if that doesn't happen, then what?

That's the NHL's play, usually, is, you know, lean on the mayor to make a deal. That worked in Calgary. Yeah. I just, like, I just don't know any, because if you're, imagine if you're an Ottawa Senators fan. And, like, you already knew this year was going to be bad anyway because Carlson's in his last year. He's either gone in June or he's gone in, like, November, like, I do Shane thing. Mark Stone, like, people really think he's going to get. offer she like they're they're gonna lose they're gonna be bad for a very long time can you imagine i don't

know what to do how things have gone with the canadian teams and the strength of the canadian dollar and mac david's up there and matthews is up there and in like four years time calgary's in houston and ottawa was in kansas city it's it's like i i don't know i i can't figure out another way out and like even if you're a senator's fan like are you at this point would you really be that sad if if the team went somewhere else like like what do you invest in at this point Like, there's, there's not going to be any winning. Your best players are leaving. There's garbage in the front office.

There's garbage at the top. Like, do you really want to give Eugene Malick more money next season? Like, man, do, be like the Winnipeg Jets. Say goodbye for a few years. Hang out. And the next thing, you know, like a new team comes. Rehabilitate your energy. 15, yeah.

Well, listen, despite the fact that it's a circus, I'm sure everyone will want to come and see Matt Dushain's skate with nobody next year. And if you want to, there's only one place to do it. That'd be seat geek. Trash Dushane poop. Proud sponsor of the PuckSoup podcast. Buying tickets to sports and concerts can be complicated and confusing, but there is a better way to buy men's with Seekkeek.

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And thanks to C-Keekeek for sponsoring the show. Our guest this week is a guy who was super happy to be on this podcast. Was he? And then probably regretted it. every minute of it. Yeah, I think, I think, like, you didn't realize what he was getting into. He is Alex Pruitt Sports Illustrated, one of our

favorite writers, a really brilliant writer, like a guy that Lozano and I kind of wish we could probably write like. No, I'm good. I kind of wish I could write it. Anyway, Pruitt's great, and we talk a lot of cap stuff and concussion stuff and Russia stuff, and here we go. He's fantastic.

Enjoy him. Alex Pruitt is a writer for Sports Illustrated who just revealed to myself and Dave Lozo, he doesn't do it, candleboxes. Alex, your time here is now over. Well, it's been fun. Thanks for coming in.

This is wonderful. What's your favorite EDM band? What would be the first band? Pete Pablo. What? Pity Pablo? Pee de Pablo? But no, like, okay.

So like, all right, what was the first album you bought? One of the nows, for sure. Like now, this is now here's music volume. Now that's what I call music. Okay, there it is. Yeah. But not the first one. Like, like, definitely single digits.

Do you know what Columbia? house is. I had Destiny's child. My parents made me get the restricted versions. Do you know what a CD is? C. Did you ever held a hard? Yeah, I have one at my bank, actually. I open one. Now that's what I call music was always interesting to me because

they get the name right that time. I don't even know what that is. You know what that is. There's an exclamation. It's now. Yeah, now this is the compilation thing where they would take all the hits that are on the radio and put them on one one album. Oh, maybe I do know what that is. You know? Because like, growing up, heard a lot of smash mouth. I think legit, maybe like 60% of the bands that I got into

I got into as a kid because I heard them on soundtrack albums. The soundtrack album died. The compilation album kind of replaced that as the place where you get all your music. Like I was the opposite. Like back then, I got it off the radio. And now, if I hear a song

and like a Toyota commercial at the end of an episode of a TV show or in a movie, I'm like, oh, I got to download that. I think TV might be the play. Like, I was watching Legion this week and like I heard at least three songs and I'm just like, wow, these are great needle drops that I would want to go and find. That's too many songs for a TV show.

It's not, though. What if it's a cool TV show like on HBO? Like, what was there? Oh, where was vinyl? The leftovers? Was vinyl on HBO? Vinyl. Remember that show that was on for a second where Bobby,

Oh, yes, yes. Carnival, whatever the fuck. Drugs, music. Yeah, he's like, I'm in the 70s. I'm discovering the stones. And HBO's like, you're also fucking canceled. Yeah, you're also not funny and interesting or good. Do you watch any people?

Peak TV, Alex Pruitt. Man, I've fallen off so hard during the season. I don't know about you, but during the year, I just, yeah. The playoffs destroy me. I never know what's going on for two months. I'm full of coffee and, like, all I do is watch hockey. The only two things I'm so disconnected, yeah. The only two things I kept up with were Westworld and Billions.

I still haven't watched the new season of Westworld. That's good. That's good. Yeah. A little bit slow than it gets good. Yeah. Really, I've talked to so many people that are like, they just bailed after the first episode of the second season. They were like, this is it.

That fast, huh? It's like all these diatribs by the blonde lady robot about, Oh, you mean, yeah. What it means to be human and alive and feel. And it's just like, it's one of those situations where as you're watching the show. When I came to the West, yeah,

Western Robot Show about it. Yeah. The Sex Robot, old West murder show. I don't know, but it's like when you watch Westworld, I feel like the whole thing, like the problem is is that every time I watch the show in the credits,

you always see the name JJ Abrams. So you're like, okay. Yeah, at some point. It's going to go wrong. At some point, it's going to be like, you know, the whole show's Jake Where's the hatch? Yeah, right, exactly.

It's going to be some bullshit that goes on And you're just like a little bit wary of that But it also has Jonathan Nolan's name on it And it means that at least Two of the two, if it goes three seasons At least two of them will be great And then the third one will suck Because Batman, you know

Is that Christopher Nolan's brother or something? Christopher Nolan's brother Jonathan Oh, look at that. Yeah, the Nolan voice. More nepotism in the world of entertainment. Is it not as good? Is he like less famous? He's the writer.

Chris is the visionary And Jonathan's like the treasure. He's like, hey, listen, I need to find out what to do with this top in my movie, in my movie Inceptions. Can you come up with her idea? What if in Dunkirk, everyone under the age of 24 looks exactly the same, and you can't keep track of any of the characters?

What if at the end of the Dark Night Rises? He turns to Commissioner Gordon, and he says something like, I don't know, like, ah, you lose a child and you gave me a good, do it. You know, can you start out for me, Jonathan? What if he, what if? I don't know. So Joseph Gordon-Levett just automatically knows

he's Batman because they're both orphans. Guys, can we not do this over Thanksgiving dinner? I'm just trying a nice family dinner here. John, if I'm going to have this idea to make Robert Williams is the villain, right? But I don't want it to be like sunlight.

I wanted to be like nighttime all the time. Can I get it that? No, flip that. It's always daytime and it takes place in Alaska. It's insomnia. It's the movie in South. Fuck. Alex.

Let's talk about the news. I did not fucking brush up up of my voices before I came here. Well, it's just a generic British guy. Alex, let's talk about the news that you broke this week. As you know, I ate the chicken parm when I was in D.C. It made me feel like shit. I ate it because of the novelty.

It's the same reason why women of a certain age come to New York and eat at Magnolia. It's because they want to eat the thing that Sarah Jessica Parker ate on sex in the city. Well, I wanted to eat the thing that Alex Ovechkin allegedly eats before every game, which is a giant headl of chowda in Boston. Yeah, exactly.

It's a giant greasy chicken parm with oil on it. Did you have the spaghetti too? Or did you punt on that? No, I did a classic fat guy move, which is to not weigh myself down with pasta, but instead to just spoon meat sauce into my mouth. Jesus. Wow. Like straight out of the cup?

Yeah, straight out of the cup. So the pasta just sat on your plate? You didn't eat the pasta part of it? Well, the problem is that the pasta was naked. You had to put the sauce on the pasta. Oh, my God, the horror. Well, so you just cut out the pasta. the middleman and just put the sauce right in your mouth.

I don't know about you guys, but like pasta that's been sitting there. Like, it's been delivered. It's been catered, but it's not in like a tray or anything. It's just in like a tin. Like, I don't need that shit. It's going to be straight up rubber. I don't need that. I just want to get the sauce in the meat. Now... Was the sauce still warm? Sure.

Okay. It was Mama Lucia, so it was like B minus. It's a primo. You broke the news that Alex Ovechkin doesn't actually eat the chicken par. Yeah. Now... I did. Were you shocked when you found out this time?

I had like three people in the organization. They were not, I don't think they were happy about the way the whole thing unfolded. Yeah, because everybody called Alex Fat for like a year. That and like, well, yeah, and you go to like sponsorships. Like they're not, Mamaloochia's is like not. They have Papa Johns and like whatever pizza bullies or whatever. Oh, so. So like they show up at Kettler one day.

Yeah. Given out free pizza and they have their own catering company there who's like selling stuff and they're like, what the fuck's happened? Like, why are you guys infringers? So I think there was a little tension there. So, wait. So how did they tell you? Did you just like one day wake up and say this is a lie?

Tell me the truth? And they were like, okay. Or, like, did they, like, were they just waiting for the right time to spring the news? I think I must have been digging around for, I mean, Alex Sveshian is, like, he's very Babe Ruthian. Digging around. I think in the way. Like, I'm picturing, like, all the president's men. Like, he's meeting with, like, like, people in the, in the basement of, I was like, hi, this is, this is deep throat.

No, way, this is. This is, this is. This is deep dish. Are you saying, deep dish? Deep dish, are you saying, you tell me the fucking truth, deep dish. Follow the sauce, Alex. Follow the sauce. Keep pulling at the spaghetti string.

The truth is under the air. Yeah, I just lady in the tramp, lady in the tramp that shit. It just eventually came out. No, I mean, I was like, I was doing reporting around to Bechkin, kind of picking out the idea that he does not train or eat like a normal athlete in the 21st century does. And I think I brought up the Mamalucci. And someone was like, yeah, you know, he actually like doesn't eat the chicken palm part of it, which, how much coverage you guys do at Mamaluchia is?

Well, Emily wrote the now false. story that Alex eats the chicken farm. Emily went to Mamaluchias and did like a video bit about how they make the chicken farm. I thought you both went and ate it. Isn't that what happened? No, they brought it to the arena. Like what Alex said is true.

Outside of the owner of Bark Andre Furry, I've never met a single more craven fucking person to glom on a Stanley Cup final than a Mamaloochia guy. Tony Robbins. Well, we'll get to that in a second. So Mamaloochia guy was there that day at practice where he all of a sudden, like all the Caps fans are coming out of practice

and they're all mulling around for like autographs or whatever. And then they all leave because there's a fucking guy at a pizza truck giving away free pizzas to these people. And so like, yeah, I could see why the team that's taking all this money, like pizza bullies must have been like, what the fuck, Ted? You know, Papa John was not pleased. Yeah, Papa John's is to, you know, you know, and so. Yeah, that guy.

And so this guy was craving. So he would invite all the people to the place. And then like when Emily was there, he's like, what if I just gave all you guys food? You and Greg and Levy and Melrose and stuff? we'll just give you all chicken parm. You can taste it yourselves. So, of course, I am, but now I feel really regretful. To be fair, what a weird thing it is to order it and then just not eat it.

And it just probably goes in the garbage. Oh, you make fucking, you know, the money he makes every year. So he orders the chicken parm, but doesn't eat the chicken parm part of it? He just eats the pasta part of it? Yeah, so my understanding is at one time, other players used to order, they wanted chicken farm. They would do chicken farm pregame. I think like Marks Johansson was involved or something. So he just still orders it because he's a superstitious guy.

Oh, so he just... What is the chicken farm? Because he's superstitious, but then doesn't eat it. Doesn't eat it. It just eats everything else around it. He eats the spaghetti with the cream sauce and the marinerosos, whatever the hell he has with it. Wow. So Alex Obetrian doesn't care about people that can't afford meals.

He's just willing to waste money. This is a guy, though, who used to have a Gatorade bottle of Coke on the bench with him and, like... Soda? Yeah, soda. Yeah. He's not... Just checking. He's not on the senator.

Just Lebron James, like that, just squirting. that powder right in the air. Yeah. And, you know, before you start spouting off about him being wasteful and not caring about people, this is a man. A man. A man. This is a man who bought a homeless man a coat.

Remember that story earlier this year? I do remember. Wow. He bought a homeless man a coat in Calgary. Oh, right. And then everybody found a reason to criticize him for, like, he hired a guy to be a homeless guy so you could buy him a coat because people to distract people from talking about Putin. Remember that whole thing?

what it was, Larry Brooks said, great, he bought him a coat, but that doesn't make up for all the coats he didn't buy before that, because that one coat doesn't cancel. Yeah, and Damien Cox said, act like you've been in the cold before. Yeah, yeah, that's not how you treat a coat. If you're a real winner of coats, God, I hate the sport. What have you, you, you've covered Obetchkin for a while. What do you think about the idea that this year was different for him? Do you think there was anything different for him this year? Outside of the fact that he's going to pop out a kid? Yeah, I think he gave a crap in the defense event, probably more. Do you think he... It's hard. Like, I wish... This is where I wish we had, like, tracking and stuff, right? Because you could see visibly, like, he... His top speed was higher in the defensive zone, for instance.

Or he took, you know, a more optimal route to the puck in certain situations. Or he wasn't, like, leaking out, you know? But it's all subjective, so we kind of have to go off our eye test. The one theory was that he was in better shape. Or he was just as heavy, but more tone. I was told that he was in the best conditioning... On ice conditioning shape he's been in. At least he reported in that shape.

I feel like we sort of not knowing about the pregnancy for most of the playoffs. I feel like there wasn't enough said about when he found out he was going to be a father, did he have a come-to-Jesus moment about the window closing on him because now he's old. I think you also start, when you're married, you probably go out less. You probably do. Yeah, you're probably not going to Russia house late at night as much. And also, I think that plays into his celebration because he knows in like a couple weeks. That's not happening.

That's it for him, man. So he's getting all the party and then you can now. He's seen what happened to Corey Perry's numbers. He's definitely changing a diaper in the cup, right? Oh, well. He has to. Well, I mean, if he put his balls in it, he might as well change a diaper in there, too. Come on, when you saw a picture.

The disrespect of the cup is something I will not stand for. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Let's talk more about that. I absolutely agree. Yes. I am so tired of people having fun in this sport.

It should be serious. Does not belong at the bottom of a pool. Does not belong at the bottom of the pool. Belongs held over your head in front of a sport. church or perhaps at a children's hospital. And by church you mean Air Canada Center. I mean, there's a couple of strip clubs in Vegas that I would consider a church. When we, we joked on this podcast about him having sex.

There's a segue. With the Prince of Wales trophy. Oh, yes. So when you saw him in the bed with the cup, did you think that maybe... Oh, an orgasm has had. A thousand, a thousand percent he did something to the cup. The Prince of Wales was like in the other room, like a little upset? Like, looking forlorn, just like around the corner.

You just pan out. He just placed it in the crack of the door and said, you watch. It's in the closet. It's just having a good time. Where's this pregnant wife sleeping, by the way? Like, doesn't she need the bed too? She's just room for three in that bed? It looks like there was at least.

Honey, move over. Stanley needs more room. He did tell Trots earlier that morning, oh, I guess I got to have my wife sleep with me. Wow. When the cup was coming in. Holy shit. I mean, joking, but yeah, you know.

No, not just. wakes up in the morning. Alex Ovechkin made his pregnant wife sleep on the couch because he was sleeping with the cup the night. And do you think he slept with the cup because that's what Sid did the first time he won the cup? Everybody sleeps with the cup. Do they? Cup gets around. It does.

Cups a little bit of a party animal. What did you think of their celebration, Alex, as far as the public nature of it? Not tremendous. Yeah. Not tremendous. I wish I had kind of followed them around. Were you surprised that it was that public? Or did you?

Because this team at times can seem a little, you know, I feel like maybe. they had this awakening during the playoffs of like seeing the crowds in D.C. and seeing how much pain they've inflicted on these poor people and having a certain connection with the city that this wasn't going to be

behind Velvet Ropes celebration but it was going to be city. Yeah, it makes sense in hindsight. I don't know what I thought in the moment. But man, like frigging, I don't know, snow angling and fountains and push-ups. Yeah, doing push-ups chugging with people. Don Tito's to take it the first bull, that's a bold move. To take the first

night to the probably one of the fratiest places in all of Clarendon, but a place that I think players frequent. And it just gets absolutely smashed there with a cup. And, you know, they're bringing it down the stairs and people are cheering and they're like spraying champagne off the roof. Yeah, I don't know. The comparison I heard from Ovecchka's agent was Messier in 94 after they win. And they throw a party so wild that they literally need to hire a bodyguard for the cup after

that. The scores. The scores. The scores. The scores party. Yeah. It was a little reminiscent of that. I'm not sure if they're going to quite get to, like, what was it?

Boston. It was Marchion talking about, like, some veteran player came up to them. And I was like, you guys need to leave now. Like, you guys need to go. Like, you guys have party too hard. It's been, like, two weeks in a row. Like a veteran Bruin player? Or maybe it was like an ex-player or something.

I think it wasn't like his player should be, yeah. My money's on Cam Neely. Oh, that makes sense. 1,000% it was Andy Brookley. Erie, you guys know. One of my favorite things we ever did on Punk Daddy was that graphic. graphic interpretation of what the Bruins drank the night

they won the cup. Remember that? Oh, the receipt? The receipt. It was based on the receipt and we did a graphic showing exactly how much they drank and there was that one guy who drank, there was one Corona. One Amsterdam light. It was like an Amstall Light I think it was and we were all trying to figure out who's the guy who had the Amstel Light and it wound up being like the girlfriend of one of the players of the people's there. It's so sad that I can remember that. I can't remember anyone's phone number anymore.

I can remember one beer on a receipt from seven years ago. That's not my receipt but I'm just like, hey, what's your number? To be fair, it's, it is Amstallite. I mean, from what you've been able to glean, speaking of the Bruins, have all the Capitol's tattoos been properly done and not misspelled? Oh, I was really nervous with Burkowski. I mean, he's a little bit of a headcase. I think anybody in the locker would tell you, Space Cadet is probably the right phrase for him.

And he had a bunch of numbers that were his, I think his mom, dad, and two sisters' birthdays, and I was a little nervous about that one. Yeah. Or that he got the wrong date on the Stanley Cup clinching tattoo. That was pretty wild right They just take a party bus to Adams Morgan and get tattoos Yeah

All the young guys like Bray and Hopi babysitting them Looking on like Clutch play Yeah Do you um Berikowski I just real I didn't know this until I was covering him

During him during the playoffs But he's infamous for injuring his teammates in practice Like when he hit some dude with the Yeah I didn't know this Who was the guy who got hit by a shot in practice And had to come off was the Smith-Pelly Yeah and then he scored a goal that game Apparently Barrackowski has the reputation

Of just fucking being a howitzer in practice to the point where guys get super pissed because he's constantly hitting them with pucks. Yeah, he shoots real high in practice. And like, Ovechkin can get away with it, I think. Yeah. But, I mean, this, yeah. Did you imagine the goddamn younger? The fucking controversy if, like, he injures of Devante Smith-Felly.

He was like the John Druse of 2018 with a shot in practice. I remember when Dominic Moore did it to Marty San Luis at a morning skate, like, he busted open his face. Like, he had like a crazy Iron Man Street going and he just took a backhander, like in one of those like two-on-0 rushes, you know, where there's no one back. and like Stanley went behind the net and more like roofed it missed it right in the eye towel blood everywhere his streak was over and and that was it so it's like you know it doesn't have to be like a pallitzer to end someone's season like no fucking fucking the sport is so weird it's like the lucky is fucking it's not it's not a lucky run but like everything kind of fell

at the place right I mean the way I've been talking yeah oh 100% yeah absolutely I think because like they had homeways the first two rounds yet it feels like they were like on the dogs and every single series where would you put them like at the end of the regular season, like 10th, maybe? I don't know. Eighth. As someone who said they would get to the third round, I guess I have to say fourth. We did call him as the cup champion. Sarah Kwok, your former guest, called him as a cup

champions at the start of the year. Damn. For us. She also put Dallas in the final. Or we put Dallas in the final, but, can't be all right. So, like, 50% not bad. I mean, but. The way I've seen it is this. Like, you can now look back and say that the construction of the team was great because they finally figured out the right formula wasn't to go get guys like Justin Williams and be like, you're Mr. Game

7, scoring a game 7. And he's like, whoops, couldn't score to game 7. What they did was they bought in a bunch of guys that were going to create competition from the HL team. They bought in a couple guys from outside of the organization that were super hungry to prove themselves, like Devonday Smith Pelly. And more importantly, they brought in a bunch of guys who had no fucking thing to do with any of these previous playoff losses. Yeah, it was funny hearing like whose Nets Off, like, give speeches. He was like, yeah, this is great. I know that there's some other guys here that have been here longer

and it's probably more for them but I wasn't there like it seemed like every guy wanted to be like that wasn't me though right but but to speak to both your points like for the first time ever

Ovechkin Baxter Haltby and Kuznetsoff all had the great playoff at the same time and and it's never like Ovechkin's been the constant Holpe's like better playoffs he might have been

but not not fucking shutouts and Six and seven. But he never, like, whenever he had his great post seasons that ended after two rounds, there was always like

that stretch of games where he was dog shit. He was very close to being Nabokov. Like a guy who would put up really good numbers and then have that one game or two where he shits the bed

and that costs you the series. Not even they really shits the bed, like game five against the Rangers that year. They were 80 seconds away. Shits the bed is more like flurry circa 2010. He shitted a little bit

against the penguins. Just enough. Just enough. Yeah. It's not just the bed. A little tiny. A little tiny. That three.

that three two loss with the one goal he shouldn't underwear stain not a log in the on the bed not a full log no in the bed a little you gotta change the underwear though so I think a little a little a little a little streak a little uh-oh should have gotten up there a little bit better kind of problem and it's white sheet this is the analysis you get here on puck so I think a big moment

for that what was it game three where he he botches the puck handle behind the net this is against Vegas against Vegas yeah I think that was a big moment that that they didn't crumble after that yeah it was 3-1 at that was 3-1 at that point right or is 2-0 and that became 2-1 and that tracks back to Pittsburgh. The minute they beat Pittsburgh, they realized everything

was on the table and that everything could be okay. That it's not going to be the same shit over and over again. Now they broke out of the fucking Matrix, we're talking about that before. Is it Matrix on cable? No, I just out of my head for some reason. Although I think Reloaded was on the air night, which is great because the Mervingean makes

that girl having an orgasm in the restaurant with his mind. Remember that scene? Oh, with the cake or whatever. She's eating the cake, yeah. The cum cake, I guess. so what we're talking about oh that's right the cup the matrix so yeah that that play was one in which they didn't crumble there was a number of different times where adversity hit and they didn't crumble fucking a game seven against the lightning that didn't crumble

I don't know if you felt this way in game three there were a couple moments I felt where the crowd started to get that like DC clenched asshole kind of and then someone would come in with a chant and they would drown it out yeah I'd never see that before usually that fester's and usually that like I mean Trots talked openly about that like yeah that trick that should trickles onto the bench. They know. Oh, God, yeah. But sometimes their play is what makes the crowd do that. 100%. Yeah, yeah.

There was, I don't know about you, but like there was not a moment in the final where I felt like they were going to lose because there just felt, you just, there was this sort of energy around the team, the energy back in DC that was sort of like, this is, this is it. Like, this is what we've been waiting for. There was a certain

inevitability to it, which is weird because it's not as if the other team could, wasn't the team of destiny. Like, they're fucking expansion. Is that amazing? Yeah. And, and like, Yet the capitals, at no point did they feel like that was not their cup. No, it felt like it felt like when the Red Sox came back to beat the Yankees down 3-0, and then they got to the World Series. It's one more round they had to win only, but then they just tore through the Cardinals.

And since then, the Red Sox have no longer been that shitty cursed team. They've been one of the best teams in baseball. The Golden Knights were Finland in 1890. They were like the inevitable next step that you had to get through in order to just, you know, which makes, I guess, the Penguins Russia, I suppose. Boy, did Washington make them look real ordinary. I know. They really did.

stretch. After that first game, it was just just, even that was, yeah, a little bit fluky. What do you think it's going to happen with Vegas? Like, you covered them throughout the year. Do you think that they're going to do some wacky shit like Carlson and stuff like that? That'd be so fun. Like, why, I mean, do? Yeah, why not? You have so much cap space. They do. They have just oodles of cast space.

They've got some prospects, too. Like, they don't want to give up glass for Carlson. I think that's a probably wise decision, but. So I think the long-term game plan for them has to be, like, you got to bump guys down. The roles that they were in right now are not the roles that they should be fulfilling if you're going to sustain this. That's a good point. I don't think.

Like, Puran is not a second line. Like, Hall is probably not your second line center, but Hall is probably a very serviceable bottom six center. See, when you said that, I thought about the idea that like your top line next year is like Tavares, JVR and then the Marshallsail line is your second line. But that then becomes a question of, this was a great team because they were all pulling on the rope

and they were all like, we're the fucking golden misfits. We're working together to prove the whole world wrong. And then your owner's like, gone. Here's money for John Tavares. Here's the money for Kovulchuk. Oh, by the way, John of Marcia's so you're now a second line center. He's like, ah, what?

No, I built this fucking town. He says, like, bugsy. It's like when the Cleveland Indian signed Jack Parkman and it completely ruined the thing that Ricky Vaugh and Roger Doran all that. Oh, I was wondering about that. Is that a majorly two reference? Jack Parkman.

That's a majorly two reference. He does the shimmy and the ladies love it. Lozo's batting stance right now. Is that who played him? Was that Keith, Dave? No. It was either Keith David or David Keith. It's David Keith. Because Keith David's from they live where he had the fight with Roddy Piper. He's the men at work guy with the french fries. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, right. But that was Major League 2. That was Major League 2, and Roger Doran owned the team and wanted to throw money now after this, you know, Cinderella team made the run. I think it's a very applicable metaphor 30 years later. You know, they really should have known something was afoot when it was Omar Epps instead of Wesley Snipes. Hey, Omar Epps did what he could. He was like Corey Schneider filling in for Mario Redar. He got that juice juice, Omar Epps.

Ebers. Remember juice? Omar Epps? Huckechikor. Yeah? Yeah. Very highly stolen VHS when I worked at Blockbuster. See, I like the more in the program. He was the kid in the program that always fumbled, so they made him carry the ball around campus. You weren't born yet. It was like, it was like 88.

Wait, what was the number one most stolen movie of Blockbuster? Oh, that's easy. Anything with Master P in it. There was a whole... No, no, no, no. I was like, that's... That's right. We couldn't keep American pie on the shelves. No, no. No, no, when I worked at Blockbuster, I worked, I worked in Burwin Heights, uh, green belt.

Uh-huh. Um, yeah. Yeah, right, when I went to Maryland. And, uh, and, and, and we, we had to put, we had to put all the Kung Fu movies and anything with Master P behind the counter because it would get stolen the minute we put it out on the floor. I still think you're going to say it when you say Master P. I know. It's still an epic fake out. Yeah.

And, uh, and, but like, and, and it would be amazing because like, Blockbuster at the time definitely catered towards the communities they were in, right? So like, some of people come in and be like, hey, do you have a copy of Deep Impact, you know, the comic movie? And then we'll be like, well, we have like two copies of it. And then somebody would come in and be like, do you have a copy of the Players Club with Bill Bellamy? And we're like, we have 300 copies of it on the back wall. It's very easy. It's under P, but not T. And so it was very interesting to work there.

It's a really interesting place to work. How much candy would you steal? I didn't steal any candy, but I think I've talked about before. Like people, to get out of their late fees, people would bring back. quote unquote damaged tapes and we all knew it was horse shit because you could always tell it's like oh yeah I know I owe 200 bucks on this copy of whatever the fuck but like it's totally damaged and we tried to watch it like for two weeks we couldn't get it to work uh so there'd be a a box in the back of these damaged tapes so we would just steal them because they were going to be trash anyway right so we

my my you know there'd be a Saturday back at the dorm where I would be like oh let's taste let's test this one. That's what inevitably they would all work. I think that's how our double feature of jingle all the way and the Brendan Fraser Tarzan happened one Saturday at my dorm. That and drugs, right? I'm assuming they started to be there. There was a lot of booze. That was the night my roommate threw up in the elevator at one of the dorms, which was a really bad scene. And it was a, it was a very memorable, I'm sorry if anybody's eating. It's a very memorable vomit because it was a thing where we had been drinking all night. We were in the elevator. We were heading down, probably a dining hall or some shit. And

somebody said something funny in the elevator. And my roommate at the time, Kevin, just goes, ha ha, and just projectiles on the, on the, on the, on the, Greg actually threw up a little.

Yeah, it was just right on the box. No, I was laughing too hard to throw up. It was the best. To tie it back, I, um, I ended up having to get a vetchkin when they went to the Nats game when he threw out the first pitch. Um, so I got him like, they were, they had like a little private suite. Um, so we ended up talking in some like, I don't know, windowless break room, but I just kind of hung out there and, you know, said hi to people as I came in and

out. I don't think people were going to the bathroom to piss all that frequently, but they were going very frequently. I did see one staffer come up with a little bit of puke on a shoe. Well, you have to. You can't go that hard for that long with that. That's what I said, yeah. Reboot the system a couple of times. Reboot, as it were. Ah, boot. By the way, by the way, speaking of pooping, tell the Jimmy Howard, tell the Jimmy Howard poop story. Oh. Oh, the Jimmy Howard. poop story. Those all lumped together in that 1-1-0 poop story

story, right? But it was Jimmy Howard was the one that started the whole, you're like trek down the trail of poop of players that had to... The brown... Can you tell him? Can you refresh me? Was it Chris Osgood? Was it Jimmy Howard? There was a lot of people in that.

I started that story. Honestly, I'm actually ironic, I started that story with Holpe and spaghetti. Now he doesn't eat meat sauce on the road. Yeah, he doesn't trust the hotel. Yeah. Maybe it wasn't a story, maybe it was just like a quote from him and you posted it. I'm sure it was in that

story. This was a story about poop. This was like a couple years ago. This was a story about what happens when goalies have to poop during the game with the argument being that no player in sports has to wear more equipment and be on the field of play for a longer percentage other than

like soccer players basically. What was your favorite? Because you're infamous for approaching stories from a really unique and interesting perspective. No, I mean what was your favorite? That one was really good. Pruid idea that became a great story. That one probably.

Yeah. That's probably, yeah. That one's going on my tombstone. Like, how does it start? Like, does your editor go, hey, when do hockey player shit? And you're just like, good question. Or you're just one day where you're just like... No, it started because, um, inevitably, like, goalie leaves a game right for fix some skate issue.

And then Twitter, Twitter's goes to he's pooping. He's pooping. He's pooping. He asks him poop. Um, so I just started asking around. And hey, can I, yeah, yeah. Just don't ask you some of them that really weird. So I had developed this long pitch where I would do what I just told you guys about.

You know, there's no position that it wears more equipment and no position that has to be on the field for longer. And naturally, no position is harder to take a shit than a goalie. Which, I don't know, produce some. I think that's the one that probably people will remember. Was there any goalie who was like, like, dude, I just won my 400th career game. You're asking me about taking a shit. Was there anyone who was like, can you just maybe not? I usually, I got a really good response with that, I think.

Because I think it's something that they've at least at one point in their careers, have worried about. Bullies love when you talk about the struggle of their position. Like how unfair it is they get bumped or how much it they have to be being like, yeah, you know, everybody else could go off the ice to take a shit. We can't. Like they would love to talk about that.

I really tapped into something deep, deep seed. Totally. But like nobody can just go take a dump. You still have a, you're going to have a shift in like 90 seconds. You got to like basically time your shift so it's like the last shift and then like there's two more shifts than a TV time out. Then you can go take a dump.

It's impossible to do. Or why do you think so many matching minors happen in the last few minutes of the first, like, second period. Hey, buddy, dude. Come on, you know it. I think about that every time to guys, because they don't have to go to the box. They just go to the back. I always think about that.

I always think about that. I always have to be like, hit me with your stick. Why? I got to take a shit. Should there be a toilet in the penalty box? Oh, my God. Wow. Should there be like one of those like recliner, like Homer Simpson recliner. Yeah.

So that you have to be thinking about like if there was a toilet in the penalty box, that means there need to be like, you know, he goes in the penalty box. he's like, hey buddy hit the button. The box attendant hits the button. He's like curtains go. Yeah, it's like the limo or something. Oh, no, no, we're watching this. Do you kidding me?

No, no, no. It's the curtains go up. Then that little triangle piece from Fortnite goes on top of the felony box to be the roof. It's like the concussion bubble. Right. And then you can go in there and peace and quiet. Although then you'll have guys faking it

to not have the fans give him shit. Right. So we did open, if you got to poop. I mean, I'm not saying we got to see like junk and shit. Boy, you're really taking the, you're in prison. to its nth degree. They show pooping all the time in movies.

You don't got to see, you know, stuff. It's just like someone's pooping. It'll be a bidet so you don't have to wipe. Like to see in the nice guys when Ryan Gosling's pooping and the other guy comes out. Yeah, Russell Crowe knocks down the door to talk to him. You don't see Ryan Gosling's dick and balls. I'm just saying, it's for the comedy of it. You got to see someone just like, like looking at the clock because they only have 14 seconds to finish pooping.

So who would be the funniest player to see in there. That would be awesome. Um, funniest player to poop in the penalty box. Yeah. Let's see here. I mean, obviously, Lou Cheech, like a bigger guy would be, would be epic. I was going to say charra. I was going to say charra. That would be really good.

Would Johnny Gujarobie be at risk to fall? His legs are just like, I can't reach the floor. Yeah. It's like seeing a chihuahua, you know, hold up and squat on the sidewalk. It would be like shaky leg kind of thing, probably. Um, Pruitt, how did you get into writing while we have some time left to talk about? I was on the toilet one day. Why did you get to write?

There was one summer I was like, I think I was like 15 or 16, where I was just sitting around doing nothing. You got her to writing three years ago? But I'm bummed. Ah, there it is. Yes. And my mom told me to get off my ass and go do something. And she suggested going, like walking into the local false church news press,

which is like this weekly kind of tabloid style in my hometown and asking just if I could do anything. So I think the first thing I wrote for them was like some agate about like community events. And then I did like a restaurant review of a Thai restaurant. And then I just started covering like high school sports. Right. I said what you did in that Northern Virginia area. But it was, I was just covering like my classmates, which was kind of weird. So I was like, I just think there was one game where I painted my face and my chest for a soccer match for like one of our girls soccer games.

And then went and interviewed the coach afterwards. And she was like, what the hell are you doing? I was like, sorry. I was like cheering for y'all. But what did you think of that strike in the second half there? Now, that is what's missing at press conferences after games. Right. Because they always panted.

Like, at the NBA final, they always panted with that. Just like some guy wearing a LeBron mask or something. They're like, hey, man, no cheering in the press box. You'd be like, I wasn't cheering. I have a question. It's a big foam finger. A question for LeBron. Throws the powder in the air.

How did you make it to the post? I was all set after college to go intern at the Dallas Morning News covering high schools. Wow. Like football? Yeah, yeah. It was a fall internship to do Friday. What would you grow up? Northern Virginia.

I grew up there. Honestly, it was like a shot. I had nothing planned. I didn't have any jobs lined up. I had an internship lined up. And I really didn't want to go do it. I had a girlfriend who lived back on the East Coast at that time. And I was just not honestly trying to move that far and just kind of set up by myself.

And luckily, a Maryland beat opened up at the post. And I was still interning at the globe at that time up in Boston, so on to college. Honestly, right timing. And you knew Wilder up there? No, I did not. I moved into a house in D.C. on Craigslist, and she was one of the four memories. That's right. You knew her there. Okay. Yeah, I remember her mentioning that. I think it when we... I don't remember that at all. Wow. Good memory.

Yeah, I noticed on the Craigslist ad, one was like, you know, a sports writer in her 20s. I was like, okay, that's... I'd probably know this person. Lo and a behold of someone I know. Someone who circles I ran in, yeah. And now we're colleagues. S.I. Charlotte Wilder's in. Now you're at both at S.I. Yeah, no. Who are the other people in house like Michael Farber and, like, who else was the living in the Craigslist house.

Like Farber and like Rick Riley. Richard Geich. Do you feel? I'll have a little roundtable tonight, roommates. Oh, man. It must be so tough. Because every time you're trying to TV, it's fucking Paw Patrol. Bubble Guppies.

The first time I moved in, though, a lot of, like, local sports, D.C. sports I was like Andrew Sharp, Bill Barnwell. A couple of people I had read but never met were all at my house. And I was trying to build my IKEA. upstairs. How did you, I mean, the legacy of Caps writers

at the post is a really interesting legacy. It's like you and Tarek, El Bishir is now major like, everybody takes pictures with him, TV celebrity and D.C. Covering the Caps, Rachel Nichols. Yeah, right.

Jason Lockenforah, who's like NFL and said. Mike Wobon. Mike Wobon's a really good capture reporter writer, no? Yeah, no, Isabelle's like,

yeah, she can do whatever she wants. She could be the Moscow correspondent. Yeah, she's going to be like, and she did. Yeah, she was there for a little bit. She's awesome. Oh,

she's going to go with the, cup to back to Russia. You know it. When I bet she takes it there and doesn't bring it back. Yeah. 100%. Well, that's that's going to be. I mean, she's creating dissent. So she knows Russian. And man, if I Oh, she knows Russian. Yeah. I think that's such an advantage. Like, if I can learn, if I can learn Russian. Because I don't know about you. I think that's the hardest culture to crack as far as interviews. It's like to understand. It's just so

if I could go back and learn anything, it'd be Russian. Because like, I feel like those guys are billions percent more candid in their native tongue. Yeah. Also, I'd be a woman because they're also billions percent more candid when talking Russian with a woman, I've noticed. Like those are Bechka, where those are Vechkin interviews he used to do on TV in Russia, where, like, the Russian network, because they're smart, would put the foxiest, like, Russian woman they could possibly find. I was just using foxy.

I don't know why. And, like, he'd sit down. And, like, I'd interview Ovi, it's like, oh, you know, hopefully we do better this year. And then he's sound with this woman on Russia. He was just like, vodka, you know, but so big. Give out phone number for babes and babes and babes and shit. Yeah, the phone number thing. Yeah, just vodka and babes and babes.

Dude, at the rally, what a, I said it like, it was a Bowie-esque turn of phrase. He's just like, he's just like, Oh yeah, you're really transfixed by the whole babe thing. I was, I was transfixed by, you know, what was the line he gave, is he the, we, we, we, we're not going to, oh, we're not going to suck, we're not going to be suck.

We're not going to be fucking suck. And then he goes, he goes, he goes, boys and girls and babes, let's go. Wow. It's like, ziggie stardust level turn of phrase. like that better than Kuznetsoffs, we're going to fuck this shit. We're going to fuck this shit. And then, like... That guy curses more than we do on the podcast. He curses a lot.

And then the beautiful thing was like, Holpey gets up there and it's exactly what you'd wanted to be. It's just some like... I didn't see... Probably Stoner who gets up there. I was going to say, yeah, like, he's just like, hey kids. He's just like, hey, man, I don't get wrong. I don't remember a lot of things to say, like, you know,

Cusies or whatever. It's called me and pancakes. Let's, let's talk about the White House thing real quick. Because, like, it's pretty clear to me that the two guys you identify in that team probably don't want to go or Holtby and Smith Pelly, assuming Smith Pelley is going to be back. Do you get a sent? I mean, in covering the team, I've heard that

Trots is a Trump guy. I've heard... I do believe he voted for him. Yeah, the Russians obviously don't give a shit they want to go. McClellan is not. Everybody loves milkshake's not at all. Interesting. So I think I heard Orpick's not a Trump guy. Devante, obviously, is not a Trump guy.

And Holpe doesn't seem like he's too keen on them going. But I think... Holby's the most... Him and his wife are very vocal in the LGBTQ community. Right. Yeah. They march to pride every year. So it was stand to reason.

I don't know for sure. Do you think they're going to get any blowback for going? I mean, it doesn't seem like they... It doesn't feel the same way as the penguins. And I think it's because when the penguins decided to go, it was right in the midst of the anthem shit. Like, it was within the same week, I think, of Trump... Sports are being used as political companies. Yeah, it was in the same week of Trump basically tweeting about, you know, those sons of bitches who don't kneel or whatever the fuck it was.

Yeah. Which I don't think it should matter when it happens. you know, I still think they should probably should get criticized for it. I don't know if they will, though, especially within the city. Everyone says, no one cares what they do. Yeah. I don't think for the rest of the time. But, man, how fascinating is that, though, that, like, just the Russian-U.S.

relations, the way they are in that city right now and the way they are in this country. And then the most prominent Russian athlete. Yeah, no matter where you fall, you have to admit that it's, like, kind of crazy. A guy who literally during the season started a social movement, quote-unquote social movement, to promote the president, quote unquote, re-election. Yeah. Quote unquote re-election.

Do you feel like he's gotten, like Slava Malamud, obviously, who did, who did make me laugh this week when he said that he was surprised to hear that Ovechkin was going to have a child because the Stanley Cup wasn't showing? He's a guy who's been very vocal about Ovechkin getting a pass for the Putin stuff.

Do you think he's gotten a pass for the Putin stuff? Where I'm sitting, it's like, it's hard to go after the guy when the guy is not going to be an active participant. in the debate. And he's not. He's not. He's not. Yeah, I don't, in a way, he's not been active, but like by putting that on social media, by wearing a, you know, safe children from fascism shirt a couple years ago, you are inserting yourself into discussion. I don't really buy his explanation of, you know, I'm not a, I'm not a political guy. You know, I'm not trying to engage in

politics. I'm just trying to support, well, okay, you're trying to support a politician. Like, you're putting that out there. So, yeah, I mean, but the other thing is, you know, yeah, you're right, to a certain extent that he's not, he's not going to engage with us in it. So then what is our responsibility as journalists to continue pressing that issue, continue bringing it up? You know, for instance, we wrote our Stanley Cup cover story. That was something I weighed. You know, how much do I bring that up? Do I just kind of mention it as an aside?

It's an issue that should be treated with gravity, but there's also a lot more pertinent stuff as far as the Stanley Cup goes as far as hockey goes. Yeah. That thing didn't really weigh at all on them winning. No. Now in the aftermath, I think it might weigh heavily. I mean, he's... The first time he takes a picture with Putin and the cup. Yeah. Yeah. Or the first time he takes a picture with Trump in the cup.

Yeah. So that's, that to me makes it feel different than the Crosby, Sullivan, you know, Pittsburgh, that whole visit. Yeah. Is because there's a very clear link there. And he's been very careful. He's played the card of being like, I'm just an athlete. And, you know, if you press them on... Crimea or something. He's just going to play that card and be like, I'm support. I'm supporting my president

because I'm Russia. I don't pay attention to it. And so it's really hard to like, like I said, it's really hard to kind of press them on things when he's going to play, when he's going to be daft about it. Yeah. And again, there's a situation where I wish I knew way more about Russian culture and Russian politics and, you know, just Russian people in general because a lot of it's me projecting. And I'm sure it's a really tough position. Like he's got to be the second most famous person in Russia, right? Behind Putin, I would probably. probably wager, definitely top five. Yeah.

And so to not only be playing in the U.S., but be playing in the nation's capital, and then to be, I assume, pressured, you know, to publicly support this guy, like what kind of position does it put that, put him in? I think he likes him, though. Like, I know people have been in the past of being like, well, what do you expect a Russian to say?

I'm like, well, I think he kind of digs the fact the president's a hockey guy and, like, treats Ovechkin with the import that he does. Yeah, I'm not sure, but, you know, you know, it's going to be the bad, that happens. Here's my prediction. Smith Pelley's not going to the White House. You already said it, right? He's an RFA.

He is an RFA. What's going to happen is the Capitals are not going to resign them to avoid. I'm serious. I could see it happening, man. You think they don't resign them to avoid the... They'll make up some cap reason. They'll trade him for some other RFA. That's... And they just won't... Dude,

You're telling me you can't see them doing that? Just to avoid that issue going to the White House... They're not going to the White House. They're not going to trade... Opie. specious about that is that he is legit a playoff hero

yeah but he's also a guy had seven goals in the regular they could they could sell it as a hockey move I could so see them they could I really hope he stays because I think he could be really important to that city to an underdeveloped hockey community yeah the end of the great yeah Clinton wrote a great story about it

about why he's important yeah but I mean massive showing I think is one of his autographs signs the other day like he I think he's very important that city and speaking up on that side on those issues too. So I hope he stays, but I hear what you're saying. It wouldn't surprise me in the hockey ball, right? Like that story, you saw the Nick Boynton thing, right,

yesterday? Yeah. He talked about how he went to the team and said he had head issues and then they were like all right. They traded him. Yeah. Yeah. The Boynton thing was interesting because it was one of the, it was really, really good and it was one of the more, this is in the Players' Tribune if you haven't read it. It was one of the more balanced ones

I've read because he got into the fact that it was sort of hockey culture that kept him fighting. And then he also said, but also like I was getting drugs from my trainers whenever I needed it. And then my team traded him. So it was one of the few ones that kind of took, I always feel like personal responsibility is absent in a lot of these recollections of careers and concussions and things like that. And I felt like he took enough of it where the other stuff felt balanced and it wasn't just sort of like, woe is me, which is I think how some of these things can read. Because I still feel like there is a contract that these guys entered into knowing that there was going to be

some health issues with the path they chose to remain in professional sports. That said, the league could definitely take better care of them once they leave or later on in their careers and they need the help. Or lie to them about their situations. Well, or, yeah, or trade them when they speak up and go to rehab, which is what happened to him. Or not follow proper protocol. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, ignore the protocol like the devil's did that one preseason. Yeah. Where do you think this, as we have gone into the very serious territory at the end of the interview. Let's go back to poop. Where do you think the concussion lawsuit's going to end up? Like, do you think that the NHL's in trouble or do you think that there isn't enough smoking guns there where they're going

to be in trouble? I don't, my question is, are they going to settle? Right? Because that's how the NFL got out of it. Was they settled and they created, you know, some fund that they haven't followed through on or whatever. But they, they essentially got out of it by saying, you know, we admit culpability, we'll give you a modest amount, we'll set up these things, whatever. Gary Batman's not really a guy who settles. No. He's a guy, he's a lawyer who likes to win and who has done a heck of a lot of winning when he gets in a courtroom like this. I think when you dig your heels in on CTE like that, you're indicating that you're not looking.

And that's every statement he says is just dripping with lawyers and like he's just allowing himself, yeah, some sort of plausible deniability. You know, it's not 100% proven. Okay, well, like very little of science is 100% proven. And that's not what, you know, the whole point is we get to a, you know, a degree of, um, beyond a degree of reasonable doubt. And I think we're getting close to that. I don't know if we're there yet. Um, but isn't it reasonable to like at least start taking measures to, you know,

protect your players to give them health care after? And, um, that's what I would like to see with just some sort of admittance that, like, yeah, we, we are employing these people to do some pretty barbaric shit at times. And, um, it can result in some pretty horrific, um, you know, long lasting injuries. So like, let's, let's work together on this, you know, let's, let's, you know, let's set up a fund and help them. But whether we're headed to that direction, I don't know.

I'm really curious to see what happens if they were actually going to court on this. I mean, it seems like we're kind of barreling towards that. I think what's the judge still lost to rule in the class action suit at this point. And I mean, I'm hoping it does because that means more discovery. So more calling Campbell emails.

Oh boy. Westhead's doing work, isn't he? Yeah, we've talked about it in the show, man. The fucking idea that like if this sport was worth a damn in the mainstream the idea that that one guy wrote to another guy I've been like, you know what, we need our referees to stop calling some of the major poundlies because the media

notices them more. It's insane. For God's sakes. I feel like there's been like 11 smoking guns. They've been out smoking guns. It's not smoking guns. Like, like 10 smoking knives to a big gun. Like, you know what I mean? Like there's enough smoke on these weapons. So it's like when the Nazi made the knife hot and raiders and threatened Karen Allen with it, basically like that.

It's like you doused a knife and gasoline. You light it and there's smoke coming off the knife. And you're like, well, that's not a smoking gun. Like, what if I pile these all together? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a smoking knife pile. That's a smoking knife pile.

That's just as bad. I still don't think that it's the same deal as the NFL. But I think the NHL has been negligent in a lot of things. And maybe that all, like you said, maybe the totality of their negligence, in fact, it ends up to them being liable. But I think at the end of the day, like my support for the lawsuit is my support of creating more awareness for taking care of these guys after it's done. Yeah. Because it's not as if the league doesn't have the money to do it. Right.

They bring out their money all the time. Yeah. So it's like, I feel like if the lawsuit exists for that end, great. I just have a problem with a guy who literally played one game in the NHL, putting his name to a civil suit and being like, yeah, I was lied to. I mean, you've got concussions. Oh, yeah. Yeah, when you're, when your concussions occurred in junior in the H.L and you're like,

the NHL is liable for this for me. I'm like, is it, though? What do you think Gary Betman's poop is like? Well, let's close on something a little lighter. Alex, you're a poop expert. How often you think he poops at the NHL offices? I'm going to say never. Do you think he has a, he probably has his own bathroom.

Yeah, I think so. He's not just going, like, picking up an in style and like going to a stall. Walking in, hey Bill. Oh, what's you doing here, man? This is terrible. 150% to use a Mike Hoffman number. Boy, have you guys gotten into that? We did.

You did. Okay, good. You're free. You have anything to say about it? No, that is wild. What stood out to me was, I think Pete Blackburn tweeted out, the number of women who were married to either current or former senators players, who were all like, yep, not, yep, totally.

Absolutely. Probably should have come out sooner. Never seen that before, but a telltel sign. Yeah. To answer your question, Gary Betman 150% uses his bathroom time and his private bathroom off his office, which I assume is the case, as is alone time. so you know when Colin Campbell comes bursting in his office Gary we need to stop calling so many major penalties

the media's noticing then Batman's just like in his he's got his head he has those headphones that have like the the you know like this on this microphone it's like a it's like a piece of metal and then this poofiness you know like old school walkman headphones and he's listening to Steve Miller band on the can and no one's bothering him

just like bob in his head splash bobbing his head splash some people call me this Space Cowboy. Splash. Oh, my goodness. Alex Pruitt, where can people read your genius? Don't read it. It's fine.

S.I.com. Yeah, S.I.com. Commemorative capitals issue. Yeah, available at all Barnes and Nobles. Barnes and Noble. Your story on the series is in all of the Sports Illustrated's, but it's different covers. Yeah, we did three covers. One's on just, I think, my understanding is like there are five regions, two went to the

Warriors, one went to justify, and two went to the caps. Two went to the Caps. So East Coast. So Washington and Pittsburgh. Beat the horse, though. That's good. Yeah. Beat that horse. Yeah. And then you're on Twitter at Alex underscore Pruitt.

Well, Alex, I'm glad we could continue our hero's journey from comedy to tragedy on this interview. From concussions to poop. From poop to cups. Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Alex. Thank you guys. Our thanks to Alex Pruitt. Alex Pruitt.

Alex Pruitt. Good poop stories. Good, a bunch of stories. Yeah, he didn't really know what the fuck you're talking about with that poop story. I can't believe, like, he doesn't immediately know the Jimmy Howard. Because, like, I associated him the most with the poop story. He's a guy who is a really good writer, so when he writes something that's completely out of his head afterwards, probably. As opposed to you and I, who's dressed over the things that we write for weeks and weeks and weeks afterwards.

No, I completely forget the shit I write. One of the hardest things when I was writing a puck daddy was like, I wrote so much, people would come up me like, hey, man, great article on blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I don't remember writing. That's me at the podcast. Like, if somebody points out something I've written in, like, the last year, most times I'm, like, right there, but, like, literally, four hours after we come out of here. I have literally, what do we talk to Pruitt about again? My single, Pruitt writes great stuff.

My single least favorite piece of hockey writing may be in recent memory with Mark Spector's column, defending the virtue of Alex Ovechkin against nobody. Two people. Yeah. Yeah. And that was the thing, too, the reason I hated it is that, and Spector and I have had issues. issues before about this. He's very protectionist

of his peers. And if you're going to write a story that defends Ovechkin's behavior against this monsoon of criticism that he, you believe he's receiving, don't you have to show your work? Don't you have to cite the people that are criticizing him? Oh, we didn't do

that. No. That was my problem with the column. Like, he does this whole, get off of Obe's back. But, like, who's criticizing him? Every single fan I've seen is, like, this is fucking great. He's earned it. It's outpouring of joy. It's it's catharsis, embodiment of catharsis. And like, no one's had a problem with anything Ovechkin's done. We want to see more of it, frankly. The three people that gave him shit were ESPN's own Keith Oberman. It's an expansion team. I was a good Oveman, man.

I just pulled that out real quick. How dare you, sir? Sir, Keith Oberman says it was an expansion team. I lost it. Larry Brooks, who wrote a whole story about how Ovechkin's Cup doesn't erase his previous playoff failures, which is, I'm sorry, how rude with me. Hall of fame writer Larry Brooks, who says that Ovechkin's cup win doesn't erase his previous. The writer that we as an organization, the Professional Operators Association, put up on a pedestal and said, this is the best of us. Yes. Please give him the Elmer Ferguson Award, for he is the best of us.

And I have no problem with that, because now I know that with all the bullshit that I've written, all I have to do is just stick it out. That's, oh, dude, that's how you get into the Hall of Fame anyway. Like, you just write in this business for a really long time. I have written so much fucking garbage, just like Larry Brooks, that if I can maintain employment into, to be his age, whatever it is, that I know that I will be in the Hall of Fame one day. If Larry Brooks can get there, that means that I have a clear path. He compared him to A-Rod, who actually was bad in many, many post seasons before 09 when he won it with the Yankees.

Like he was, he wasn't, he wasn't Ovechkin where he was hitting monstrous home runs and game sevens of playoff series and the rest of the team wasn't doing anything. Arod was the reason the team was losing. Ovechkin, you can, you can say a lot about Ovechkin, but you show me the series he lost. I went back through when I wrote something about him where, like, you can have like a good, like, say you play two rounds and you have 14 games, you might have 12 points, but like you might have three and six in that one series you lose. But like, that was pretty much the extent of it. Yeah. Maybe he'd have like a so-so series, but it's everyone has those. The criticisms that you can give him, we talked to this for, but again, like game seven's maybe not his bag.

Yeah, not recently though. And the thing about him was that like I feel like in this postseason run, he had more impact in maybe some key moments than he had previously. But that's not for a lack of trying. That's simply just like the things you do happen to in hindsight be really important. You know, scoring the first goal on a game seven. against Tampa, for example. Like that kind of moment. I go back to the whole Joe Thornton's bad playoff numbers thing where you're a playmaker

and if you make a play and the person on the other end the play doesn't make the play, you don't get the points you usually get in the regular season. So you look at Nick Baxter who's, you know, on the power play with Ovechkin all the time, on the same line with them for a lot of years. If Baxter's playing poorly, then you're going to play poorly. It's all connected. Baxter. Baxter had some bad postseason. Right.

And this postseason, Nick Baxter was fucking saucer in pucks to T.J. O'Shee, fucking feathering Pucks though, butchkin. With like three bones in his hand that are healthy. Three fucking bones. There's like a stick four inches away. He's just hitting a 2.5 inch window. Oh,

she's ripping it top corner because you've used to tee a guy up. Maybe he misses the net and your sweet little saucer pass gets forgotten. Like this year everything came together. That's how this is how cups have been one forever. You need everybody. You need seven Devante Smith Pelly goals. You need overtime winners from Lars Eller where it bounces off his dick and balls or or whatever and it just goes in.

Like you need that magic. And then Damien Cox. said that Raphael Nadal didn't celebrate like O'Betchkin did because he's a true champion and I and there's He won 11! I was going to say like there's absolutely nothing, nothing

more... Of course he's bored of it. Pathetic than an act like you've been there accusation to the Washington Capitals in Alex Ovechkin who by the way, for the record had never been to the fucking conference final, let alone the Stanley Cup final.

Alex Ovechon had never seen. He had never experienced the fourth round of a playoff series. He had never experienced the third round. Oh yeah, the third round. Like, if he, like,

when he had sex with the Prince of Wales trophy, and Cox was like, act like you've been there. He's never been there. Like, it's okay to act like you've never been there if you've never been there. Yes. It's also okay.

You know, the, the Spector column was dumb because he didn't cite his work. He didn't mention there's like three people in humanity that have a problem with this right now. I, I am so. happy and impressed with the hockey community

because we all recognize this. It's like when everybody recognizes it was like how everybody looked at the This is America video at the same time. We were like, wow, this is really good. This is art. Everybody looked at the Yovetskin thing and said, wow, this is really good.

This is art. You know, nobody had a problem with him drinking. Nobody had a problem with the snow angels in the fountain. Nobody had a problem with him parading the cup through. Normally when the cup is making public appearances, it's because somebody scheduled it. It's like, you know, we set it up to come to this

Bar, Alex Ovechkin was parading the cup through the streets of Georgetown impromptu. Like, like, it was a flash mob. And it was the greatest thing ever because it was like the moment where you realized that this community and this team have been going through this shit together for the last 10, 12 years. And they realized that the city realized it. And there was nothing. I hope it does start a thing where, like, if the predators win the cup, like, they're taking the cup down Broadway. I guess it's Broadway right I think in Nashville Yeah and like and like you know it's a Saturday night

And they've got the cup and they're just raising above their heads And it's like everybody trying to touch Christ You know that's what I want to see from teams now going forward Is this connection with their community that says we're in this together The thing you missed though about the this is America metaphor is You didn't see what Larry Brooks wrote about that Oh no I didn't he said that it was great But it didn't cancel out Donald Glover's final season of community

So you know we can't look we can't forget about that That Yahoo season that nobody watched He just said yeah great This is America is a groundbreaking triumphant piece of art but I mean really do we need that fitzies in a community so it's a really good point yeah and then when he wins the grammies for that song damien cox is going to be like boy act like you've won a gram oh he has he has won a Grammy yeah damien cox said that you know con yeah just dropped a new album and he didn't have to take his shirt off on top of a a truck to dance

act like you've been there before act like you've been man like i just yeah don't get me wrong i'm i'm i hate stuff too i'm i don't want to read world cup and olympic tweets for the next three weeks off. But was there anything about the Caps celebration that irked you? No. Like, I thought it was just, like, beautiful. The whole thing was beautiful.

Maybe I'm too close to it because, like, you know, when I see this city celebrating, I know, like, a lot of my friends are really happy that I've known for years, that have been long-suffering Capitals fans. And I just feel happy for that community and outside of maybe, like, the owner, happy for that team.

Right, the owner. Actually, I talked about that. I went up and congratulated, Ted. So maybe we're all right now. I don't know. You give him, like, the bro hug, like, tap on the back with the list. No, I shook his head. I'm just like, I'm just like, congratulations, man.

Like, it was a great moment for, for you in the organization. And he, and he said, but you Twitter, no, he didn't say it. But, uh, but like, yeah, I don't know. I just, the Spectre thing, just, like, you can, as a hot takeist myself, you know, if you're going to build a straw man, at least tell if the straw came from, you know, and to not cite, something had to inspire that. Right. And it was definitely his peers.

And he doesn't want to. throw anybody under the bus because everybody in the PHWA for the most part is protectionist of the bad... The people that said this shit are the ones that deserve calling out. Larry Brooks deserves calling out when he does dumb shit. And it's not all dumb shit.

I know I give him shit on this show a lot because he's mean to me. But he can be good sometimes. Damien Cox probably hasn't been good in about 25 years. Yeah, I don't really know anything good that Damien Cox. Damien Cox went on a bad take bender on Twitter the way Obetchkin went on a beer bender.

Oh my God. was the other thing he wrote it was about uh he tweeted how he just got out you came out of the bruce brinkstein broadway thing and then his next suite was about hey is anyone else gonna get the cup because it was always ovarican's cup then it was the then they then they then they then a dal thing and then there was something else there was something else oh oh it was the thing about the the senators thing were on on the radio he was like uh yes he'd bemoaned the existence of cyberbullying he he was like no no and saying that if you if someone's cyberbullying you should really get over it or something like that yeah like whatever

it was, he was dismissive of what happened. Or, like, it's not a big deal. Like, just, it's, it's clear. Here's my, my, my, my, my, my brothers and sisters in, in sports writing. It's okay to call out the real shit. Just call out the shit. You, Spector called out the shit. He just didn't call it out.

He wrote about it. He just didn't call it out. Which I think is just completely disingenuous. Completely disingenuous. If it's, if it, if it's, if it's deplorable enough, are we still allowed to use that word? If it's deplorable enough that you're going to write about it, then tell everybody what inspired it, because it's clearly your peers that inspired it. Yeah, like, it's not, it's not, people are just committed to that narrative, man. That's it.

And people are committed to protecting their friends. So, yeah, Obe is great. It's fantastic. He's party now. I really do hope he shows up to camp way in like 320, though, and just can't move. He's like tired because of the kid and shit. I don't even know when the kid's there. I have not slept in three months.

partly drinking partly baby part of me Vladimir Vladimir Ovejke there was a part of me that was wondering exactly what the cap's motivation next year was going to be but there was a whole lot of repeat talk at that thing I know you think it's just lip service but I'm like I was like I was like fuck

if we just make the playoffs next year Obe is like Sidney I have two more I need to catch Gretzky I catch Gretzky in goals we win the cup again who cares I already have a cup fuck you Sydney but great it's going to be a 95-year-old Steve Simmons at the Hall of Fame.

Steve Simmons hasn't done anything yet. But he beat an expansion team. I feel bad for Vegas now because they're not going to get back there for a while. Even like established teams that go to the cup final and are good, have a hard time getting back, I, you Nashville. Yeah. And now Vegas has to do it with, oh boy. All right.

Sure we get to the question of the week real quick on the awards because our next show will be post awards. That's a trophy. Holly Buck Pecker René and Vasilefsky René is going to win René is going to win and it's going to be really funny It's going to be so sad

Yeah He should just actually like sit there and allow UC Soros to claim it for him Because like he will his job next year The Frank J. Selke Trophy The J stands for defense

Patrice Burrion, Sean Kutri and Anjay Kopitr I think it's going to be Keturier Just because he had a bunch of points And goals this year That's just how the voters go I think it's going to be Copatar because

he had his best offensive season, which means he'll win the defensive trophy. I mean, Burjohn should win it, but I think I think Cotrye is going to win it. Norris Trophy, Drew Dowdy, Victor Headman, P.K. Suban. Oh, that's a tough one. I feel like Dowdy was, was, I mean... I think Edmund's going to get it. Yeah, I think Edmund will get it, too. It's his year. It was his year and his team was really good, and he stayed healthy. Yeah.

I'm happy P.K. got a nomination, though. Mr. Lindsay Vaugh. Oh, excuse me. The Lady Bing trophy. Who cares? for guys who drive their trucks into Tim Hortons. And the words of Richard Rufus and let it ride, who cares? Who cares? Alexander Barkoff, William Carlson, Ryan O'Reilly.

William Carlson will win because he had the most goals. Who was the other two? Barkoff and Ryan, Ryan, noted gentleman Ryan O'Reilly. I hope crossing gets it. The Bill Masters and Trophy for having the best lifetime movie plot. Brian Boyle, Roberta Loango, Jordan Stahl. Brian Boyle. You think it's...

I'm kidding. Oh, shit. Sorry. Well, Stahl had a lot of shit going on with his life. Yeah, Jordan Stahl has... That's the thing. That's why that award sucks.

Like, you're comparing, like, sadness and tragedies. Yeah, like, who had the more tragic stuff that happened and then played better after it? Like, Jesus Christ. All right, right now, make the bet. Eric Carlson get a nomination for the Master of next year

based on the cyberbullying thing? I need to see... Ask me again in a week. I still need to see more stuff about that. Calder Trophy, Matt Barzell, Brock Besser, Clayton Keller. That's going to be my personal. The Mark Messier, NHL Leadership Award.

The Mess, as it's known. Derek Engeland, Wayne Simmons, and Blake Wheeler. Wait. Wait. What? I thought this was for captains. Technically, Derek England's not the captain, isn't he? But he's not a captain, and neither is Wayne Simmons. Wayne Simmons isn't the captain of the Flyers. I don't understand what this award is anymore.

Yeah, like, it's always three captains, right? I always thought it was like the best captain award. Anyway, it should go to Blake Wheeler. I think it's to go to Derek England. Okay. Jack Adams Award. Jared Bedner, Bruce Cassidy, and your winner, Gerard Galant.

The Ted Lindsay Award for Best Player is Taylor Hall, McKinnon, and McDavid. McDavid? You think it's McDavid? I think it's McDavid. I'll go McInnan. Hart Trophy. Taylor Hall, Anjik Copa Tart, Nathan McKinnon.

Taylor Hall. It's probably Taylor Hall. Yeah. recency bias. The King Clancy Trow... I'll give the shit. Sorry. I'll stop.

Oh, no. Give me the King Clancy. Okay, King Clancy is the Sadeens, P.K. Suban, and Jason Zooker. So the Siddons. General Manager of the Year, Shevel Day Off, George McPhee, Steve Viserman. Yeah. George McPhee. All right.

That's all you need to know about the awards. By the way, speaking of Let it Ride, you didn't win any money at the Belmont. I didn't. And, oh, and we'll talk about this in the show. We got there around maybe the fifth or six race. Oh, really? And then we just were making bets and trying to find places to watch races. You just took like a $20 general emission thing and just...

And we figured it'd be easier to find you after the Belmont, so that's why we texted you. So like, I want all my money for the day pretty much on the 10th race before the Belmont. And then after the Belmont, no... Actually, I thought I won on the Belmont. I thought I hit a show bet and I'm standing in line waiting to cash out before we go to the train. That's a show bet. And I'm like, I did a win play show. And I look up at the board and I'm like,

whatever the order to the finish was, I'm like, wait, and I look at my tickets, and I wave my friend over. I'm like, who came in third? And it was like, whatever. And I look at my tickets. I'm like, oh, no, we can go. So I basically wasted 10 minutes online for whatever reason. We won like 45 bucks, I think, on an exacta earlier in the day,

but it was the only hit I had. I would have had the trifecta in the, in the Belmont, but true to form as a Jets fan. No, gronk? Cronk. Cronk fucked me. Cronk. Nobody, no, I did, I boxed gronk and the nine horse to do the six nine.

The $10, the money I want on the exact a bet, It was murderous because I boxed three horses. And guess what the top three horses were? It was all the fucking horses I boxed in the exact instead of the trifecta. All right. So the question of the week this week, in what was basically a two-topic show, I think, the senators and the capitals? Yeah, it's the offseason. There's, well, next week at the live show is when we're going to unload on you.

I was working out at the gym. You were home. I assume watching the price is right. For what? Oh, no. I meant to tell you that. No, that was during, it was the Seinfeld. the bed episode.

That was where I saw that. Okay, so you're watching Seinfeld. I was watching the prices right at the gym. We both saw the same commercial, which is a guy coming home, his jersey stinks,

he's been playing hockey, he needs to have some of that snuggle fabric softener to make his jersey smell good. Yes. And he's also got a weird hockey stick bag thing happening. It's like a man purse.

Yeah, like I've definitely seen the stick bag for people that play ice or roller or whatever walking around. But I've never seen the underbag, like, purse thing. I don't know what the hell's going on. It also appears as though he's a goalie. Because it looks like a goalie stick he's got on his... Anyways.

We were fascinated by this ad because he is wearing one of the single most generic... Like, if you went to the wardrobe department and said, I need a hockey jersey, this is what they would give you. It's a circle with two hockey sticks crossed and a puck above the sticks. So you could see it on the puck soup, Twitter, feed and we wanted to know from you what what the name of the team has been placed for Jeff Balinski's got a good one the ex-husbands Ted Bigsby writes in the Genericsburg hockey men because there's two sticks James McBee said the tummy sticks

Ron that's good Ryan Taylor writes in the small town sports teams Patrick Schumar it's it's an old equipment back team, the club to hockey genreique. Philip Armstrong, the hockey, Mick,

hockey, town hockeyists. Andrew Williams writes in the mighty dads. Joe Brady,

the clip arts. DDD, DDP rites in because if you look at the logo, I kind of get this. X men

first pass. Joe Brady says the clip arts. Twig heavy. Kevin. Caps have Stanley writes in

the bleached holes. Wow. That's a hell of a thing. The bleached holes. Well, I guess it's because he's going to wash. Alex Lewis just wanted to write in the Boston Nomaz because the guy in the commercial does resemble Nomar Garcia-Pera a little bit. Noma.

And so on and so forth. Yeah, they're very, I just like how it's basically the old Anaheim Ducks jersey, but like without the Ducks logo. I like this one, the stock images. Yeah. Oh, and somebody, Chino writes in a tie to the snuggle bear, the giggle sticks. Wait, does the snuggle bear giggle or is that, he's thinking about the fucking Pillsbury, no boy. I don't think the snuggle bear makes any noise or sounds.

No, the snuggle bear talks. Does it? Yeah, the snuggle bear looks at something as like, nothing is going to get out these wrinkles. Oh, that's Teddy Ruxpin. Oh, that's right. Isn't Teddy Ruxpin the bear that talks? the slunkle bear definitely talks. I see this commercial all the time

and I can't remember anything from it from that daytime TV selection of commercials you see all the time. Like the woman who holds up the brave face you ever see that ad? Yeah. But like she's not putting it in front of her face which I still don't get it's

Okay. That's every Seinfeld commercial break. Listen, we love you guys. Profit bar Thursday. That's profit like in religion. Like as in the prophet Isaiah. You're seeing the future. Right.

Not in like, we'll profit from this. Prophetic. Prophetic. won't. June 21st in Dallas profit bar. Doors at six, show at seven. All ages. We should mention that.

$12 advanced tickets, 15 at the door. It's going to be a really fun time. The live shows if you've not been to one, and if you're in Dallas, you probably have been to one. Really fun time. We have a lot of goofy fun. The games we play live are super fun, and the Q&A afterwards can take on a life of its own. Since Frank Sarrevelli won't be there, it won't just

be like, Frank, first time, long time. Really miss you on the flyers beat. I know just fucking people ripping the new person on the beat for like 15 minutes. Yeah. Anybody have any questions for Frank? It was the strangest thing because like when we did our Philly show, like just like how every other question at a Kevin Smith live show is like, Kevin Longtime fan, got a script for you to read. Every other question at the Franks ever.

I really think, Frank. You know, Donovan was a great quarterback and you were a great beat writer. And everyone just claps. And Frank is like, oh, the new guy's good too. I'm just, you know, it's not bad. Thanks, I guess. Yeah. All right.

But we're going to have a cool Dallas guest, cool Dallas games. So do check it out. Prof. Bar, June 21st, we'll see you there. And, hey, we'll both be at the draft. So if you want to say hi to us at the draft, okay, if you want to say hi to me at the draft, you can do that too. Yeah, I'm not getting a credential from the NHL. Are you kidding? Oh, wait, are you just coming in and out for that thing?

I'm just coming in and out. Dude, draft tickets cost like five bucks. You can get him real cheap? You think I'm going to give money that's going to go to Eugene Melnick's pocket? If somebody has an extra ticket for the draft? Give it to DeLozo. I might, well, if I go, I'm not going to be, like, in a media capacity. You're going to paint your face, like, the reporter in the Alex Pruitt story.

Hey, question for Rasmus Dallin from the Rasmus Rascals.com. You're going to be there in, like, the Fred Flintstone Buffalo hat from those. I saw a bunch of people wearing those hats once, Buffalo Sabres fans at the draft. They all had those, like, you know, the big hat with the horns on it that, like, Fred Flintstone used to wear the Water Buffalo Club. Yeah, there was a bunch of guys. with those hats on at the draft, I think it was in Minnesota. And I was like, that's fucking amazing.

So, yeah, paint your face like a Buffalo fan and be like, you know, Raspish. Hmm. I'll do like a blue man group thing with the blue head and everything. That works. All right. Thanks to Pruitt. Thanks to you guys for listening.

And we'll talk to you next week. Well, we'll mention your names of the live show. Bye. See you. Yeah. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you'll commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes.

It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nancet. Borg Too.