Puck Soup - Amalie Benjamin

Episode Date: May 18, 2018

Greg and Dave welcome Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com to the show to talk playoff hockey, Brad Marchand and not growing up as a pop culture idiot. Plus, we break down the conference finals, discuss how the NHL is going to handle legalized gambling, lesser Arnold Schwarzenegger films, the Golden Knights' preposterous intro, Greg gets into a fight with an NHL player and much, much more Sponsored by Seat Geek!

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots 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 hockey and nonsense. Hey everybody. It's Dave Lozo, a person who in the last 48 hours has not necessarily engaged in a potential fight online with the professional hockey player. And I'm Greg Wysinski, a VSPN, a professional who does not get into online fights with the people he covers.

And you're in Puck's suit. Why are you so fascinated by this? First of all, for those that don't know, Alex Petrovic, not to be confused with Drozden Petrovich, my favorite basketball player of all time and tragically died. Sorry. I misinterpreted a joke that I was making about his general manager into believing that it was a slag on him. Well, I was merely pointing out that Dale Tallon did not protect Jonathan Marshesoe in the expansion draft. And he has more goals in the postseason than Alex Petrovick has in his career. And Alex Petrovick for some reason thought this was a slag.

on him when in fact it was a slag on the Florida Panthers and Dale Tallon protecting two third-paring defensemen instead of the guy who scored 30 goals for them, who they decided to trade, send to the Golden Knights to ensure that they took Riley Smith and his contract on. And I guess what I'm trying to say is that in the pantheon of the worst decisions in the history of hockey, be at the Marcus Naslin trade, the Cam Neely trade, the Martin Eirat trade, what have you, this is going to go down as one. This is going to be in the pantheon of the worst decisions in the history of the National Hockey League, the Florida Panthers decision to have Jonathan Margesel go to the Vegas

Golden Knights. And I merely wanted to point that out. And Alex Petrovich took it personally. And he made fun of my career. You did. To which then I responded by saying that's the biggest joke since the Florida Panthers. is protected a third-paring defenseman and let Jonathan Marsha go to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Right. So like, like, okay. I do understand your point that Alex Petrovich, like you're doing a joke about Dale Talon there, but like Alex Petrovic is like the vessel for the joke. Okay, let's back it up even further. I would like to know how Alex Petrovic learned about the joke because it's the offseason. The Florida Panthers are on a playoff team.

he's got no reason to kind of check Twitter. You didn't CC him on the tweet, which is a thing people want people to do sometimes where they're like, oh, oh, oh, oh, why don't you CC him on the joke if you're such a tough guy? Like, no, that's not how things work. Like, if a dude on late night TV makes a joke about the president, they don't, they don't like forward him to video of the joke. Like, you don't need to do that. But it seems like he may have searched his name or somebody might have emailed him or texted him the joke. I would imagine someone narct on me, you know, to him about the joke. But no one on Twitter did.

So, like, I feel like one of his friends did, which, by the way, again, if you're someone's friend and you see a joke about somebody making fun of your friend, don't text your friend the joke. That's a dick thing to do. And, but, like, I do kind of feel like, you know, maybe, like, I know what you're doing. I know you. I know how jokes work. You weren't making fun of Alex Petrovich. He was the vessel for the joke. but I do kind of get why he was just like, what the fuck, bro?

I've been out of the playoffs for like two months, man. I've been hanging out at home. Why are you going to, why I get a shit on me? So I can kind of see it. No, it's a fair point. I mean, I don't want to shit on him, except to say that he's a third-paring defenseman who's protected by his team instead of a 30-gold score.

So, I mean, you know, listen, in every war, there are some casualties. In every war, there's collateral damage, I think, was the word I was looking for, the two words I was looking for. Part of the shitty run of post- sci-fi, well, not post-Syfi. It's sort of the latter-day Schwarzenegger Troika of films. And you know which ones I'm talking about, folks. I'm talking about the sixth day. Actually, it's not a Troika.

It's a quartet. You had end of days, the sixth day, which was the clone saga with Schwarzenegger. you had, and then you had collateral damage, and I feel like I'm missing one out of that Troika. Oh, Eraser. Yeah, so it's Eraser. Oh, Roacer and the Sixth Day were good. Or no, the eraser and the one with Robin Tunney is a good one. Which one was that one?

That's the one way we're, uh... That was probably collateral damage, right? No, it's, no, she's like, she's like the, like a demon vessel. She's Gabriel Burns, the devil. Oh, you're talking about the end of days. Yes, that's a good movie. Yeah. Eracer's okay.

collateral damage is a bad movie. That's a really bad movie. Of course, end of days is okay. It introduced him to the popular lexicon the idea that the end of the millennium was going to bring about the return of Satan because it wasn't 666. It was 999 the whole time. It was the greatest plot to place in the history of movies. I can't imagine how, like, it must be hard to explain the people that were born, like, post-2000 to explain how terrified people were of the year 2000.

like whether it was computers or like Jesus coming down and like murdering people, whatever it was. Like that was what it was like. Gabriel Byrne was the vessel for murdering people. It honestly goes like this. This is the ranking. He was a ghost the whole time. Rosebud was a sled. And it was actually 999 and not 666 the whole time.

Those are the three biggest twists in the history of movies. And Schwarzenegger was a part of one. And how about this? Alex Petrovick was number 96 when he played junior. No, I just made that up. I have no idea. I haven't thought about him ever. Let me tell you something right now.

I received a call from the Panthers today. Did you? To make, yeah, I did. To make sure that everything was cool. And everything is fine. Apparently Petrovic. He deleted it. He deleted his tweet.

And the Panthers were under the impression I had done the same. I'm like, why would I possibly do that? And everything's fine. This isn't the first of the last time I've run a foul of a player, current or retired. And I just hope that everybody, you know, involved can move past it. Because I don't care. This is great.

I love it personally because, like, as we talked about before, the Nick Baxter fuck this league thing, like, up until then, like, I was always the guy running a foul of the NHL and running a foul of ESPN Ombudsman who no longer worked there. And now it's like two weeks out of the last three. You're the person that runs a foul of NHL. people. It's fun for me to be on the other side of it for just, for this

brief moment. Yeah. But this one was like a warm blanket compared to the backshamong. Baxter Mung was like journalism. This is just me, you know, saying some ignorant shit on Twitter and then getting shit for it. Like that's... It wasn't ignorant what you said. That's a big, that's a big old porterhouse steak and

a giant pile of mashed potatoes. That is comfort food for your boy. First of all, this whole thing was not ignorant. Like, you You made the joke. First of all, we've been joking about Dale Talon and Jonathan Marcioso and Riley Smith for fucking months, almost a full year at this point. Even before we knew Vegas was good, we thought the whole Riley Smith, Jonathan Marcioso

thing was dumb. And Alex Petrovich just happens to be, like you said, collateral damage. Get your ass to Maas, or whatever he says in that movie. And it's fine that he got mad and he deleted it and it was, you know, whatever. It's just funny. It's just funny. Total recall was in the wheelhouse of Schwarzenegger's greatest run, which was Predator, Total Recall, T2, I think was in there. And then that run ended with Last Action Hero.

Also, well, first of all, well, we don't have a lot of, I don't want to do a four-hour show here at midnight, but first of all, A, don't you ever badmouth last action hero again. That's a solid movie that was meta before we knew what meta was. And B, I love how they're remaking the movie Predator. And like the guy, Shane Black, who does, he did the nice guys. He's a fucking, he did the last Boy Scout. He's a, I love the fucking Shane Black. But he's like, hey, hey, hey, it's not the, it's not, it's not, it's not predator. It's a different movie.

Okay. So is it the predator from the predator movies? Yes. And is he trying to kill like, I don't know, a handful of human beings? Yes. And is there like a couple of like, tough. good looking guys in there? Yes.

And is there like maybe like a few women and like a one comic relief guy? Yes. Okay. So how is it different? Well, that movie was called Predator. This movie is called The Predator. Oh. Genius.

Also, Predator took place in the jungle. Predator 2 took place in the future in a really hot city with Danny Glover and his sweat stains. Right, Los Angeles. This movie, this movie takes place in the suburbs, which I'll remind you, fans. fans of the series was also the setting for the fucking spectacularly terrible Alien versus Predator Requiem. Yeah? The whole gist of that was that it took place in the suburbs and that movie sucked balls. Dude, I feel like you and I like combined.

I feel like we have enough of like a name recognition where if we go to a studio and be like, okay, we want to remake a really famous movie. They're like, okay, that's a part. What do you want to remake? We want to remake jingle all the way. Done. Like, we can probably do it because that's all people do that was remake movies. It's so easy.

You need a high concept. You need a high concept to do it. So here's what you do. Ready? Okay. This is going to blow you away. Here's what you do. Ready?

Okay. You make the Schwarzenegger character a woman. Thank you. Oh, my God. It's like overboard, right? Instead of like overboard where like the guy is the dick and the girl is the person who's like lost her memory, you switch it. Oh my God, that's genius.

We got to do that, dude. And I'll tell you who it's going to be, ready? The woman that it's going to be is Kate McKinnon. Okay. And playing the Sinbad role, the harried male carrier that's also trying to get the Teabble Man for their son, is 80 Bryant from SNL. So it's Kate McKinan and 80 Bryant. It'll be making a jingle all the way. trying to get a terrible a terrible person,

a non-binary superhero action figure for their daughters. Yes, dude, that is, we have to delete this part of the podcast because people are going to steal this idea. This is, this is a layup. Buddy, don't worry about it. I just wrote it down and I meld it to myself. So that's a copyright right there, as you know. Boom. Genius script, Millionaires.

We'll have this written by Monday. The Panthers fans were not happy with me. Wow. A lot of them told me to fuck off, and a lot of them said as being unprofessional. And a lot of them said we're tired of hearing of this. But here's my bad news for Florida Panthers fans, besides looking at a map and seeing where your arena is located. The bad news is that these jokes will continue not just through the Vegas Golden Knights run and not just into next season. and when Marsha So scores another 30 goals,

they will continue through the Seattle expansion draft unless another team does something to one up the fucking stupidity of the Florida Panthers and giving up these two players, then we'll still talk about it. So you got a hope that like there's, you know, like Ray Shiro has a cinder block hit him in the head. And he's like, well,

I want someone to take Zajax, so I'll give them Taylor Hall too. And like, let me ask you this, though. Because, like, you're, you know, you're covering the Caps, you're covering the Caps lighting series. So, like, you're constantly online and working. What's it like to have an entire fan base, like, mad at you? And by an entire fan base, I mean, what's it like to have seven people mad at you online? Well, that's, that's very rude. You know, I did not, I did not want to upset the Panthers fan base.

Fred's a really good guy. Fred. Fred and Carol are nice people. They have four cats. They have season tickets that they pay $85 for. I don't want to make them mad. I went to Carol's house. She's like, this plastic rat was signed by Bill Lindsay.

Scott Melody called you. It was like, why are you guys being dix? ESPN should be nicer to us. This is not fair. Oh, man. Fred was like, this is my Pabble Burray jersey. I'm like, Pavell Bury was never on the Panthers. Are you out of your mind?

It's like a John Van Biesbroke jersey where like the eye in the ear like in the wrong place. It's just like, wait, this isn't a real Van Biesburg jersey. Everything. So I consider the issue to be dead and moot. I hope the Panthers fans can forgive me for making fun of their GM and then getting one of their players mad at me. It's all, it's over. It's water under the dam. It's over the bridge.

It's all good. I just, I just was, you know, really surprised that Alex, Petrovic got defensive. I didn't even know he was on Twitter until I didn't even, you know what's funny? I didn't see the tweet until like today like in one of those like in case you missed it. I was like, wait, what? What happened? What the hell?

Oh my God. Alex Petrovich and Greg Wichinsky had a Twitter fight. I can't because like it happened like I miss everything that happens between like like like we were talking about this before we started. Like a guy on Twitter, I want to say his name is metomic. It's like Matt and it ends with O.M.I. see, but he has like an extra tea in the middle, like animated our, our, our, our, our, our scallops and catfish and octopus thing. Yeah.

I didn't see it until like 16 hours after he did it because like, he did it like while I was asleep. And then I was like, wait, what's this? Why are people liking this tweet? I was like, oh my God, this is hilarious. And that's how I saw the Alex Petrovic thing, which is, it's good. The thing I was laid on today because I was running around doing the caps lightning stuff was the, quote, quote, air quotes harassment of the racist lawyer in New York.

Yeah, me too. Who was in the salad store and started yelling at the counter people for speaking Spanish to Spanish customers and then threatened to call immigration on them. And so you did the one thing you can't do in New York. I'm sure the one thing you can't do in L.A. is piss off TMZ. The one thing you can't do in New York is piss off the New York Post. And the New York Post is chasing this guy down the street. This dude's got the largest, like the largest golf umbrella in the history of golf trying to shield his face from the cameras as they're running around.

around and the New York Post reporter is like, how long you've been a racist? Were you a racist when you were a kid? And it's just like, oh, God, look what you've done now. You would at least hell on yourself. And the best is like he runs, like, he just like, he does the thing where like, you know, someone's chasing you and he like pretends like he's walking and then he sprints away. And then he gets like, he gets all the way down the street and turns around and gives the middle finger. It's like, dude.

Yeah. And there was another, there was another one where he was, he was like standing against the wall of a building and he calls the cops. And he's like, they won't let me leave. They're imprisoning me. And all the people around him, all the New York Post people are like, bro, with three feet away, you can walk away right now. No one's been prisoning you, bro. Oh, God, man.

I fucking, I don't know how, I don't know how we're ever going to come back from this. Like, seriously, like, we're going to, like, there's just no way these four years we're ever going to get back. We're just, we're totally fine. Yeah. So we're so, like, I don't even understand how, like, like, I used to work in Midtown at the NHL.

You go to lunch and you're buying a salad and you just say, I like romaine, and then you say I like chicken, and then I like these different things. Like, if someone in front of me online doesn't speak English and a guy behind the counter talks Spanish to that person, I can't, I don't even know what happens in your brain where you get so mad about that that you flip your shit and take out your phone and try to record it. Like, why does that make you mad? Like, I don't, I can't even get into that dude's head where he's just. like, get out of my country. Like, why? Like, it's probably helping because the lines are going faster that they're speaking. Even, I, I just.

Yeah. And honestly, like, just from a logistic standpoint, wouldn't it be much easier for him to leave New York than to have every Spanish-speaking person leave New York? Like, did he just move here from, like, the Midwest? And now, like, he's just, like, blown away by how people speak more than one language. Like, I don't fucking understand it at all. Oh, man. And God forbid that guy ever goes into a Home Depot.

Holy shit. He's Ian for a Groot Awakening. Or anywhere. Like, who cares? Like, who cares if someone's, like, not speaking? Like, so, like, when you and I live in the same area, pretty much, so you probably have the same thing where, like, sometimes you're watching TV and, like, goes to a commercial break, and there's a commercial that's totally in Spanish, right?

Like, it's just, like, for a lawyer or for, like, a car dealership, and it's in Spanish. And, like, I never get mad. And they were, like, I don't understand what this guy's saying? What if I have a, what if I have a neck injury or what if I want to buy a car? Like, what is this? Like, no, it's, it's just a commercial for, like, a doctor who speaks Spanish. Like, why is that, why does that make you mad? Has it occurred to you?

You might be watching Telemundo? First of all. Because I don't think it happens on my TV. You don't get commercials. Dude, I live in Hoboken and I get commercials that are totally in Spanish. And it's either for, like, a doctor or it's for, like, a lawyer type thing. And it's just 30 seconds of a guy talking Spanish. And it's just whatever.

Who cares? Like, it's not, like, why would I get mad about that? I don't understand. So the Vegas golden nights. No, hold on. Let's start with the Caps. So as you do the show, it's Thursday night. Technically, Friday morning, it's 123 in the morning.

I've just gotten back from Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final, where, listen, I still think the Capitals can very much win this series. It's a series in which the road team continues to play their best. You know, the Caps played outstanding in the first two games. games of this series and then the lightning made a bunch of adjustments and they won two games. But this game felt very old school caps. It's the first time I've been watching the Capitals in these playoffs. Even going back to that Blue Jacket series where all you got to do is start the right goalie and you're okay.

It's the first time that I started to hear that old familiar refrain, which is that they completely outplayed the lightning. I mean, just fucking rolled them, fucking, you know, almost a full period between shots on goal for this team, thanks to three straight power plays and everything else. They roll the lightning for the entire game. They leave with their heads up high because they played so well,

except for the fact they took the L, because six seconds after they kill off a power play against the most lethal power play in the playoffs, and they fucking let their... They exhaled. They exhaled for six seconds, and that's all the lightning

needed to score. The constant refrain for for the Capitals is, of course, how is it going to happen this time? Losing two games on home ice when you have a 2-0 lead, and then the definitive goal in game four is you finally do the thing that no one thinks you're capable of doing, which is stopping their power play, and then they score six seconds later. These are the types of things that you look back on when you're a Capitals fan and say, oh, yeah, that's how it happened this time.

Okay. You're completely right. The Capitol's dominated tonight. I don't like the Halak comparisons to Vasilevsky because I don't feel like that's accurate. Well, no. Vaselisky is a fucking Vesinov nominee. Like Garso Fulak was like in a platoon. Yeah, that, well, yeah, there's that part of it.

But like, like, like Vaselowski tonight was really weird because the two goals he let up weren't really great goals. But like the rest of the time, he was insane. He was out of his mind. Yeah. That save he made on Connolly where Connolly deflected the puck and Vasilleschi just kind of like hurls this entire arm like he's like like he's the kid from rookie of the year with the snap arm. Yes. Oh my gosh. Wow.

What a reference. And I totally get it. I can picture it in my mind. He just. Yeah. He was insanely good. And again, like the capitals played really well. But again, like three straight power plays in the first period and you don't get anything out of it.

Yeah. Including. And another one of the. second period where Tyler Johnson's running around without a fucking stick for a minute. And you can even get a, like, Oventrican couldn't get around a three foot tall man to get a shot on goal. Wow. Wow.

Is this podcast the heightest podcast now? Oh, sorry. Sorry, he's not tall enough for you, Greg, to play defense. Okay. The heights of hilarity. So in these, I would say out of these four games, I would say the caps were the better team by far and three of them. And they won two.

And I think that's kind of fair. because the lightning are the more talented team from top to bottom. So you can get outplayed in a game and still win because your power play is awesome. And they scored, I mean, they essentially scored three power play goals in game four, even though the third goal was a, you know, a few seconds after it. I just feel like that this is where the series should be at this point based on how everyone's played. Because going into it, we all thought Tampa was going to win the series. and the caps, the caps didn't really steal those games in Tampa.

They were the better team and they got wins that they deserved. But the problem is that when you're not as good or talented or deep as the other team, you can't necessarily play a bad game and win. Tampa can play a bad game and win. And that's what they did in game three. Or no, that's more we did in game four than game three. Yeah. So now it's a best of three.

And this is going to go seven. There's no way Tampa's winning four straight games. and I still go back to what I said last week on the podcast, where the way the caps can win the series is if Hopi could steal the series and he really hasn't stolen any of the games they won. So if you just get it to a game seven, you get it in Tampa. Even if, I still don't trust Tampa because I still don't trust the way John Cooper is deploying his forward lines where, you know, Chris Koonitz and Cedric Pocquet

are playing more minutes than Andre Pallat for some reason. Yeah, I don't get it. But the Callahan line played really well against the Ovechkin line, except for the insane pass that Ovechkin made, though. Yeah. I mean, it did a game two or it did a game, what game did it play? There was one game where it played well, but like it got outscored. Like, I don't know how it did tonight, but it just, it just seems like you're playing to a draw there because those guys can't score. I get what you're saying, but like, I think he acknowledged the fact that when you had the point line against them, the size disadvantage that they had.

were so palpable that they were getting rolled. So he decided to put Callahan out there. And say this about Callahan, who is the epitome of Chris Drury disease, by the way, in the sense that he's completely overpaid so anything good he does gets overshadowed by his salary. Chris Drury could at least score at some point in his career. I take that back. The diving in front of Puck's thing is a legit skill. And in the case of playing against Ovechkin, it helped.

It fucking helped tonight that he was. he does that crazy shit and dives in front of the hardest shot, you know, in the game. So, um, I don't know. Like I think, I think for me, the, the issue with Tampa, um, my point of concern for them right now is that a lot of the tendencies that they had in the first two games came back in game four. Yeah. Like, they were giving, for sure.

They were giving the capitals way too much runway through the neutral zone to get into the, into the zone with speed. Um, the, the, because that's off goal was, was, was a breakaway, obviously set up by an awesome pass. But, like, there were some things that it did in game four that didn't do in game three. And it gives you pause. And you're like, all right, well, maybe game three was the anomaly. And this is how it's going to have to be where they're just, you know, on the ropes for half the fucking game.

And then, you know, looking to be opportunistic at some point. Yeah. Like, it's just so weird how, like, how Tampa somehow has found a way to look really slow against the caps. Like, they can't, they can't get through the neutral zone against, like, to me, if Washington plays the way they did. in game six against Pittsburgh and the first of the series, more of the first game, I guess, where they're just playing low event hockey, and they're just like,

we're just going to counterattack and score on you. They can still win the series. I mean, they can still win the series anyway, but the problem for Tampa is they make, they make incredibly bad turnovers in the neutral zone. They're taking really bad penalties. They really do.

Yeah. And they're play on the wall, and their own zone is fucking atrocious, too. Like, I don't know, it's a team that doesn't seem to, like, they skip the day of, of lessons about how to clear the puck. Like they do, they're clearing attempts. It's like, it's like, here, I have the puck.

I'm on the half wall. What I'll do is all I'm going to hit it as hard as I can on the wall in front of me. So then it just kind of dribbles to the point. Like it's just, it's, they don't use the middle of the ice at all to get the puck out of their own zone. It's fucking bizarre. Like their goal is to try to get it just to the blue line. How about we just, we just chip it to the blue line and let John Carlson have a, okay, let's do that. That's a great idea.

Their goal seems to be like they're playing ski. where they're putting a spin on it and hitting off the side of the thing to see if they can get the 50. Like, it's just, it's fucking stupid. It's just like, use the middle of the ice, you idiots. But, I mean, I mean, at this point now, it's best of three, two, and Tampa, do you, do you think the Cops are going to win the series or no? I don't, I still, I still think Tapa's going to win this year.

I've never wavered on Tampa. Yeah, I picked Tampa to win this series, and I think they, I think they figured out a few things after the, after the, uh, after the, uh, the second game. And, you know, as much as they were sort of on the ropes are a good portion of game four. And, I mean, killing off three straight power plays has a deleterious effect into the second period, too, with the amount of energy those guys had to expend. I still think that they've, the fact that the capitals are one for ten on the power play in the last three games, tells you they kind of maybe figured out something about that power play a little bit.

And I don't think the caps can. I mean, I just think the talent level on that lightning power. Like you said today on fucking Twitter, it's porn. It's porn. Like the Stamcoast shot in game four, I turned to the person next me in the press box. I'm like, I think he just had an orgasm. Like, that was like, that was like a climactic shot from Stamcoast on that powerplay.

It was like a fucking dunk, you know? And like, I know you're at the game, so you're not watching TV like I am, but like, like I thought. Talk it Eddie. No, not even that. It's not like, seriously. Like at some point we have to go to bed and you have to fly somewhere tomorrow. Like, we're not going to do 45. minutes on Pierre McGuire and his fucking weird tendencies to constantly reference Eddie personally

after everything he says. But like, Doc and Eddie, Dan Gerardi, what a warrior. Dan Gerradi, the key to this game, Doc and Eddie. All right, fine, we'll do it. So Dan Gerardy gets absolutely toasted by Chandler Stevenson in the neutral zone for a breakaway. And it's, I'm not even saying it's entirely Dan Gerardy's fault of the breakaway happened. But like, Chandler Stevenson pulls away from Dan Gerardy from the red line in, gets off like a little chip breakaway.

a little chip shot, but he's Chandler Stevenson, so it's not really the best attempt, and Vasselowski makes the save, and they show the replay. And Gerardi, of course, is he gets completely blown away in the neutral zone. He can't get back in time because he's Dan Gerardy, super slow, and he does nothing to affect the shot.

And for some reason, Pierre McGuire wants to praise Dan Gerardy's hustle and back check and how he affected the shot when he did nothing, and he goes, right, right, Eddie? And, like, again, you weren't there. You can't appreciate the pause, but he's like, right, Eddie? And it's just one beat, two beats, three beats. And then Eddie goes, yeah, the gap in the neutral zone was pretty bad. And that was a really quality scoring chance.

And it's like, yes, of course it is. Because Dan Girardy couldn't get back on the play. I'm not saying, like, he was the reason why Chandler Stevenson was open, but it was Dan Jurority didn't do shit on the play. Wait, what were we talking about before this? Seriously, I wasn't even looking at the fucking Drag Pierre. You made me Drag Pierre. I didn't want to drag Pierre.

I'm sorry. It's my fault. Oh, Nick Baxterm. So Nick Baxterm, I thought, played decently tonight. I didn't think he looked bad or anything. He was taking face off. He got a lot better as the game went on. Yeah, he was rusty.

But like, overall. He was making some bad plays. Yeah, like he didn't seem like he was debilitated at all. And yet after the first period, when it was 2-1 Tampa, you cut it back to the NBC studio. And it's like, yeah, Nick Baxter just doesn't look good out there. And I'm like, well, based on what? Like, he won face-offs?

He was playing fine. That's another thing with that old refrain, man. Like, they finally get Baxter and back and they lose the game. Like, again, it's just like these little things that happen to this team in the playoffs. You're just like, ugh. Like, one of their team, one of the team gets their second best player back, right? And it's like, oh, wait, what? You fucking lost and he did nothing?

Okay, wait, wait. So you're covering the series. I need to ask this. Yeah, please. Why in the world, if you're either the, the, the caps fans are Baxter, why would you look to have somebody sign a broom at 2-0 in the series? Why?

Why? Tell me why. Yeah, for those who don't know, a couple of Caps fans took a broom to practice and had Nick Baxter sign the broom when the caps were up to nothing. Oh, my God. Nick Baxter, of course, signing the broom. Why?

One problem there. Why would he do it? Why wouldn't he be like, I appreciate your fandom? I appreciate your support and enthusiasm, but I feel. like this would not be a good thing for me to do. Like, why would he not stop them? I like the fact, though, that they, what they did, those fans to try to remedy the problem

is they burned the broom before game four. Too late. Yeah. The hockey gods looked out upon you and say, oh, no, no, my friends, the damage is done. It's so frustrating, man, because, like, of all, see, like, we talked about this before the caps actually beat the penguins, which I predicted and you did not. but before that happened I believe we were in unison

in our belief that Caps fans were like the most relatable fans in the world because they were honest about who they are they're like wait don't don't predict us to win the series where the Caps we're going to fuck this up but then they won the series and the second they won the series they completely fucking changed and they brought a broom to practice when they were up to O

they're signed my broom what did you sign your broom what are you kidding me is you're up to O right well in fairness the broom was there because they couldn't reach the second round champions banner that they hung and they said they were going to like leap and see if they could hit it with the broom and they just decided that they would instead have the broom get signed by an injured player uh god and of all the players to do it like the one player who like constantly not constantly but like he gets criticized for like not performing in the playoffs Hey, hey, why don't you sign our broom?

Oh, sure, whatever. I'm happy to do that. I love the fans. And if they lose four straight after that, like Nick Baxter has to get traded. He has to get traded. I'm sorry. Real quick, last thing on the cab series, you know, Tom Wilson, I like you. You're a good quote.

But if you're honestly going to sit there and talk about like guys that should be suspended, and the two first words out of your mouth aren't Michael Kemp, or cross-checked to head? I mean, for fuck, see, that is the, you know, if you were looking for exhibit A through Z of, there are different standards in the first round versus standards in the conference or Stanley Cup final. Oh, yeah.

It is Michael Ketney cross-checking someone in the head in the same fucking manner that Josh Morrissey did and then getting a stern fine for it instead of getting a one-game suspension. Dude, I think the, I think the time, Tom Wilson thing was another example of a thing like I didn't see the night it happened and the next day I saw it. It's like it was like a pleasant surprise in the morning.

Like you wake up and Tom Wilson's like, he puts on his glasses, he puts a smoking pipe in and he puts a little jacket on. He's like, gentlemen, I want to speak to you about manners and being courteous to your fellow hockey player. Like, wait, is this a bit? Oh, hello, friends. I didn't see you there. I'm Thomas Wilson for another edition of Thomas Wilson on manners.

And it's like, it's like he has a point. Like, like, Anton Stromen left his feet, hit him from behind and put his head into the boards. But like, I just, you know, I just can't. I just, it's like, like, like, imagine like Jeffrey Dahmer, like, like, like, showing up in, like, prison and being like, you know what, eating people. That's wrong. You should not eat people. As you know, I don't want to stare the part to cause a ruckus. But I must say that when it comes to matters, where I, Thomas Wilson, the man, the man,

who hit Anton Strullman in the numbers, I believe that I would be the one to be suspended. I believe this. This double standard will destroy the NHL. How dare this exist? How dare you frame me as the aggressor in these situations? In a different era, we would be rolling under the Queensbury rules, but now we can't even do that.

Where have matters gone? If only there was the instigated penalty where things like this could not happen anymore. Okay, whatever. Whatever, Tom. Whatever you say, buddy. We should probably get to our guest, but first, I have to ask you, if you wanted to get to the game, how would you do it? Well, you know what? That's an interesting question because, I mean, I could take the bus.

I could take the train. A jitney. I mean, I mean, I've never used a petticab before because, you know, if I use a petticab, perhaps Rudolph Giuliani would dofously open his door right into me and then kill me. So I couldn't do that. But if I were to buy tickets online, I think there's only one way to do it. And I think you know what that way is. Well, let me ask you. I'll get to that in a second.

You've made me think of a question. I'm trying to lead you into it. On our Patreon bonus episode this week, we had to do, as Supulte, we had to do two different. we had to do two different topics because the two topics were basically tied for for readers choice and one of them was the newlywed game and that we played against each other for to great effect and the one of the questions that maybe that we didn't ask but now I want to ask it is based on this transportation tangent we're on if we were to have a motorcycle with a side car who would be in the who would be in the side car would be in the side car oh you like between if it was just you and i and the motorcycle on the side car if you if there's only one seat on the motorcycle when there's a side car who's in the side car well where where are we going like are we are what is that wait was that factor into anything well because like maybe i know how to get there better than you if you know how to get there better than me i'd be like if you were like hey we're we're we're going to drive down to dc and go to this place i know i'd be like okay that's on you but if i was like if you were

like hey we're driving out to we're going to the belmont the belmont stakes i'd be like oh get in i know how to get there so maybe it depends on what you're saying it's whoever is driving the motorcycle knows how to get there. Well, yeah, because if I'm in the side car, like say I'm in the side car and I know how to get there and you don't, I'm in the side car. Like, we can't talk. It's going to be loud and windy. I can't be like, turn right on.

Like, we can't do that. So I think it depends on the destination. Well, I really appreciate you avoiding the classic comedy trope of putting the fat guy in the sidecar. You're not fat. Come on. I have my answer. I'm walking on air. By the way, if you want to get to the game, just literally.

way to do it. And that's with our friends at Seekek. Seekek is the smartest, easiest way to get tickets to every type of live event, whether you're searching for a last minute deal, planning a night out or you need to find the perfect gift. Seekkeek helps you find the best seats at the best prices and it's all fully guaranteed. There's nothing quite like seeing your favorite team, your favorite musician, your favorite band, or whatever in person. And Seekek will get you closer to the action for a great value. We've got the Seek app in our phones and it is by far the easiest way we found a shop for tickets. You can be anywhere

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But you don't need that app. So get the app and put the soup in the promo code and get $20 off your first Seekek purchase. I don't know if tickets to our Dallas show will be. on Sea Geek necessarily, but I will tell you, without telling you the venue, that the show will be Thursday. This is the information we can give you is that it will be a Thursday night show in Dallas. Thursday, the third day. That's a friend's reference right there. That's what that is.

Oh, okay. I thought it was a prequel to the sixth day, the Arnold Schwarzenegger cloning epic. That's the one with the bad guy from Ghost, right? I forget the guy's name, but he's like the bad guy in that Schwarzenegger clone movie. Oh, no. You and, by the way, going back to the movie Infinity War, when Gamora didn't realize that she was about to die, I definitely had the Whoopi Goldberg ghost moment where I was like,

you endanger girl. Right. But she did not realize it. Spoilers. You endangered girl. Emily Benjamin is our good friend. Emily. And she is a writer for NHL.com.

She used to be at the Boston Globe. And I spoke with her before Capp's practice about a great many things, including the fact, Lozo, that she grew up not watching television. She, quote, read books. Nerd. And as you're here at the end of the interview. So this is, by the way, I think outside of me and Ruby, the first husband-wife team we've ever had on the podcast.

Oh, right, because we had Dan. Yeah. Her husband, Dan, is the dude who wrote that book on Draft Kings and stuff. He might remember as the guy who looked like Jason Biggs. So when we took him through the Yahoo office, everybody's like, that's the kid who fucked a pie. And we're like, no, he just wrote a book about draft kings. So they're married and such. And so on his birthday, we talked about this later in the interview with her, on his birthday, he gets to pick one movie that she's forced to watch.

So it's like, it's like, it's part of her pop culture education that she's not seeing a lot of movies and TV and stuff. So he picks one movie. They both have to watch it. So like he picked Rath of Khan and she had to watch that. Oh, that's right. He picked like aliens. Okay. But the one that he picked that she told me about after we had done, we got there with the interview.

This, this is an abusive power in my eyes, but he picked Transformers the movie, not the Michael Bay joint, the animated one. where you got the touch came from. You know what? If you had told me it was like either the Mark Wahlberg or Shia LeBuff movie, I would have recommended she get divorced immediately. But that's actually a really good call, the animated. The animated version of that, that's totally acceptable. Could you imagine being in a loving relationship with a partner?

No. And this person is being forced to watch a movie against their will. No, that's actually, that's good. And hold on. And the movie you pick is a cartoon about robots turning into cars, and it's based on a giant robot planet that eats other planets voiced by Orson Wells, was it? I believe. Yeah. Is that true?

Was it Orson Wells? Was he Optimus Prime? Hang. No, no, no. He was Unicron, the big planet, I think. Hang on here. I'm going to find us out real quick. No, but, like, I think that's fair.

You have to watch one 90-minute animated, like, robot, like car, like truck movie. That's fair. You got the touch. Think about how many episodes of Sex and the City or Girls have you watch for somebody else. Come on. I think that's a pretty good deal. One day, you've got to watch a Transformers movie. That's good.

You claim to know me and pretend that I'm somehow tortured by watching Sex and the City or Girls. Come on. Come on. There's no. like sex first of all sex in the city and girls are both

two shows I don't like but like sex in the city when I watched that one I was like okay I can see how this is funny like girls I still don't understand how anybody has ever watched

that show and enjoyed it I don't sex in the city I can totally see girls is just fucking yeah sex in the city was I watched sex in the city

just for the Kim control parts you know he's not he's not even a butcher but he gave me a meat delivery right Kim control had a lot of sex. That was her bit. That was her joke.

But like everyone on the show, but like I can totally understand how that's like everyone on Sex and the City. I can see how people could identify with the characters. On Girls, I don't get it. I still do not understand how that ever worked. But whatever. Sex and the City was entertaining, but Girls was a hate watch. It's very easy to understand this.

Wait, wait. Sex and the City was a hate watch or Girls was a hate watch? No, no, no. Sex and the City was great, but girls was a hate watch. Right. Okay. I get it. That's fair.

That's totally fair. There you go. We've solved the mystery. All right. Here's Emily. Hi, Emily. I watched your video on YouTube when you were at the Boston Globe, and you told the story about how you became a sports writer. About when you were a baby, your dad, tell the story. So my mom was pregnant. I was obviously not yet here. You were in her tummy.

I was, yes, exactly. That is exactly where I was. Just chilling, swimming, hanging out. Mine in my own business. Slipping. As babies do. And it was, you know, I was ready to meet the world. I was ready to join everyone.

And the Red Sox game was on, as happens in a Boston household. You were, what month is this? I was a week late. Okay. So we are. 41 weeks into this pregnancy, which now having had a kid myself, I can understand, is a place where you are ready to have your kid. But I'm asking because it's a Red Sox season, what month?

Oh, it's June. It's June. Okay, so this is not October. No, this is not October. This is not even September. Right. This is June. You know, at this point, who cares, really?

So I'm ready to meet the world. My mom says to my dad, hey, let's go have this baby. I'm the first board. Let's do this. And my dad says, you know what? Could you just hold on a little bit? Yistramski's going to come up. And my mom apparently looked at him and said,

are you nuts? Do you want to divorce? And then on the way to the hospital, I believe my father had a conversation about the Red Sox with the toll booth operator. Oh, why wouldn't it? Which sadly you can't do anymore because now it's all automated.

no more toll booth operators. So this story will never happen again. Your story might as well have a beeper in it. It's so archaic. Basically. Now, the only defense of your father I would have is that if Yaz was due up in the next three batters, guaranteeing him a chance to see him hit, that would make way. If he was like fourth and then like they have to get a walk or a hit or something in order

for him to bat, I mean, that's not, I mean, that's just no defense. Then you can sort of understand. But, you know, if he was due up, and, you know, what is the third guy up, really? I mean, it's like eight minutes. You'd figure your mother could hang out for eight minutes. Just hold on, honey. Just, they're actually still married.

Toll booth operator was a job. Growing up in New Jersey, it was a job that I was always marveling at. And they still have them in New Jersey. It's not completely automated. There are still, you know, cash lanes that the people who believe the government is using Easy Pass to track them.

They use those lanes. And I always found it to be an interesting existence because, A, you're a prisoner, and your entire job is making change. And the things you must see come through your toll booth area must be just. And also your problem, what do you think the mortality rate is? Not to be morbid here, but I guess I will be. I mean, you know, if jobs have asbestos, that's one thing. If your entire job was to sit there and suck exhaust fumes for eight hours at a time on the Jersey Turnpike. Yeah, that can't be good.

for your lungs. It can't be good for your really anything. And also very sedentary. You know, you're not going out and giving your 250 steps an hour. Yeah. Were you to have toll booth operators, modern toll booth operators, I guarantee you that there would be like a soul cycle type deal

in the booth. So you're sitting on the thing and then occasionally you can keep your legs going. Like a hockey player after a game. You've got to keep those thighs foam. You've got to keep the blood flowing. Or just a treadmill. You're just walking the entire time. Here's eight hours of walking. It piss me off. Listen, when I'm at the gym and I want to play Fortnite,

then I go on the cycle because that way my legs are going, but my arms are free to play Fortnite. If you're on a treadmill, I mean, I guess you could do the same thing, but I feel like you're not as sedentary. Sitting on a cycle is perfect because your legs are going, but your ass is down. If you're walking, your ass is up. There's more concentration involved.

I imagine it would be much harder to make change while walking. He had a treadmill. That's true, too. That would be a high difficulty. And that is after all the gig. The gig is to make change. I also miss the joy of the exact change throwing that my dad used to do. Oh, that was the best.

He would have that down to a science. He would slow that car down to like, he would try to see how fast he could go and still get it in. And most times he'd get it in, and the times he didn't, he didn't care. He would just pull it through. But it would be like try to bring it down to 20 and then coast by and then just like, sink it up and and then it goes down the little swirly.

As a kid, I loved watching it. And the rare, the rare times that you got to as a kid toss, toss the change in, and inevitably,

you'd throw quarters everywhere and they'd be like on the floor, and you didn't know if you were supposed to stop, and then it's really a moral quandry. I remember when I first started driving, that was still a situation.

It was like a, I didn't have easy pass, obviously when I first started driving. My parents didn't want me to go on anywhere. It's a miracle. The car wasn't tethered to their house. but I remember those times when you'd go to the toll booth

and you were looking and all of a sudden you look in the little change area and there ain't no quarter and you're just like, oh, fuck. So now you're piecing together a collection of dimes and nickels which exist. And you're wondering if you could just throw a dollar

in there? You're wondering if you could just take a handful of shit and just throw it in there and let God sort it out and then just keep going. Because why? What are you going to do with this change anyway? Now you just zoom on through. So you, so wait, so are you more, would you say you're more of a baseball fan and the hockey fan? Like, what's your sport?

Not anymore. When I was growing up, I was a baseball person. Okay. No question. I was a baseball person, though I would inexplicably, I wasn't allowed to watch TV on weekdays growing up. So I would inexplicably. Wait, what? Yes. Why? To make you better, to make you smart? Tell me, tell me that's why you're smart. Tell me my parents screwed up. So I would read and do my homework, which I was such a ridiculous, kid that like I would have done that anyway.

So yeah, so this wasn't a question. They weren't taking this away from you. This was the choice you had to be it anyway. I mean, I probably would have watched a little TV. I sort of finished out on all of the culture of my childhood. You know, Seinfeld, friends, all this stuff. Right. But at the same time, I, you know what, actually, I probably, if I were watching more TV as a child,

I probably would have watched more Red Sox games. Like, if I'm being totally honest, I wouldn't have really watched. friends, I don't think. But, so I would inexplicably listen to hockey games on the radio. Uh-huh. So I, like, basically never watched a hockey game as a kid, but I would, like, listen to them on the radio while doing my homework randomly. So let me ask you this, because the people that listen to this on podcast understand that we often speak in terms of pop culture. I mean, it's a language, and I think it's a language in society, too. And Ruby, my wife, ran into problems because she didn't watch The Simpsons as a kid. She wasn't allowed to.

Yeah. And so she always felt on the outside. when people would make references to the monorail or Homer or whatever. And so did you feel like you were on the, let me rephrase this. A, did you feel like you're on the sidelines for a lot of pop culture references and the way that people use it as currency? And B, were you happy about this? Were you happy that you were actually learned? And when someone was like saying, oh, this is like blah, blah, blah.

You're like, oh, yeah, this is like this book I read versus, well, this is this episode of The Simpsons for Marge tried bowling. Did you feel like you're more well-rounded because of it? I think I felt a little left out for sure, but at the same time, like, I was just a really big nerd. So I didn't entirely care because, you know, there's always, like, biology homework to talk about. Oh, sure. That's really interesting. Dissecting a frog and all of the other biological things that you did.

Right, what? That's really interesting. What is? Math? Oh, they said bath. And baths are interesting in the sense that they take much longer in the shower and they're inefficient, but they're also a lot funner. But math is not interesting. No, I see where you're coming from on that, and no, map is not.

Don't you find it amazing that there are so many people that are good at math, and they're all sort of at the forefront of the analytics movement? And they resent all of us, who, for the most part, you accepted probably suck at math, but we all have these jobs that require it. Like, how many hockey writers do you know that are actually good at math? None hockey writers, right? Also none baseball writers, and none football writers, and apparently not good at grammar either. I think this is the crux of the analytics debate. It's a bunch of math nerds that are looking at us,

and they're like, these people are idiots, but they work with numbers all day. We should be the one working with numbers all day. Though at the same time, I still... I am not at the forefront of the analytics debate. I'm not at, you know, the end of the line either, but I still I struggle with this

Much like I struggle with math Yes Analytics right because you don't know how to apply them Or you don't think that they have value This will be my Best example of this I was at the Sloan Analytist Conference This year

We were both there I believe right yeah And I was sitting in the hockey panel Right early in the morning And the moderator Alison Lucan asked the panelists to describe the success of the Vegas Golden Knights using analytics. They went down the row, all four of them. Someone said, it's about guys feeling unwanted. Someone said, it's about them all playing together.

Two others said other things. Not a single one of the four used analytics. At an analytics conference, as analytics professionals, to describe the success in the Vegas Golden Knights. Because they defy science. That's possible. I think it's one of these things where people that are baffled. No one knows.

I know why. I know, look, on this podcast, I thought they were going to contend for a playoff spot, but then I said that they wouldn't because my Simeon monkey brain can't process the idea of an expansion team being anything more than last place. So I think there's that part of it, but I

also think it's part of it where you look at that team. And by all definitions, the metrics. And our good friend, Ryan Lambert, is at the forefront of this. They should have regressed by now. They should not be this good. There's no reason why they should be this good. And so,

you know what it's like? It's like a miracle. It's like a Catholicism miracle. And then there's no scientific explanation why this person survived the car crash except for the fact that there are none or whatever. So like

I feel like there are things that science can't explain. And I think the Golden Knights are a Catholicism miracle. I feel like that means we're going to have to put up George McPhee for sainthood. Yeah, completely. St. George. There's probably like 10 or 12 St. George's

already. St. George the 15th. Right. Right, exactly. I'm not entirely well versed with how that works, but I think that follows. Absolutely. You perform a miracle, you get to be a saint. And literally is on a crusade, like a knight. Like a paladin

We have gone very new direction here Do you understand how many more fans the NHL can reopen If they can convince people that the Golden Knights are a Christian miracle The Pope could come The Pope did come Does you remember the declaration of principles When Pat LaFontaine got up in front of the congregation and said And the best news about this dedication to making sure that hockey is for everyone

is I got a letter from the Pope. But he could, like, drop the first puck or something. You know, like he could... Wow. You know, think about that. Stanley Cup final, the Pope is on the ice. Let me ask you a different question. Because we're in D.C., we're both covering the Caps and Lightning.

As we do this podcast, it's after game three. We don't know what's going to happen. The great thing about doing this podcast now is that we don't know what's going to happen yet. The Caps could easily win in five. The Lightning could rally to win. We don't know. But here's the thing. The Capitals win this series.

percentage chance Trump shows up for a home game. Now, before you answer, let me impart some information on you. Yes. Barack Obama, in eight years, being president of the United States of America, never attended a capitals game. Did he attend Georgetown basketball games? Totally. Did he attend a wizard's game?

Absolutely. Did he ever attend a hockey game? No. Keeping that in mind, and the fact that the Trump presidency so far has been trying to digitally erase Barack Obama from the annals of history. Do you think that there's a chance that Trump shows up for a Stanley Club final game in Washington? I think

this is an impossible question. Let me put a percentage on it. What are your odds? Percentage. We transition from Vegas. You tell me the odds of what we're doing here. I'm going to give you like a 62% chance. 62% chance.

A 62% chance. I will go with his current approval rating at 41. Okay. I'll say a 41% chance he shows up. There's a very good chance that he sees a lot of attention in cameras. I think it increases exponentially if Vegas makes it.

Oh, if Vegas makes it, it's like a 97% chance. Literally no chance that guy knows where Winnipeg is. Zero. Wait, unless he's got a property there. I can't speak to that. But I was thinking about that the other day. I was thinking, I was asking my friend Jen, NHL History Girl,

if there has been a sitting president who attended a Stanley Cup final game and she said no, but Reagan showed up for an L.A. King's final game against the what was the penguins that year, I think it was, right? Yeah, right? I think early 90s.

So Reagan showed up for that, but he obviously wasn't on at the helm at that point. So we've never had a sitting president do this. So all of these things, doing something this is a new crusade for you. Doing something Obama's not done and being the first sitting president to attend a Stanley Cup final game, knowing that Trump has also attended Rangers games, is an indication to me that 41 might be low. 62. I said 62. I stand by 62.

So what series have you covered this postseason? A lot of Boston Bruins. And do you like them as a team right now? They seem like they're in a good place as a franchise. I think they absolutely are, and I think it's pretty surprising that they are. I don't think any of us really anticipated it going this quickly. And I think there were a lot of questions about Don Sweeney

and the direction he was taking the friends. Yeah, he seemed like a real good trade, bad trade kind of guy. Like he would make one thing and it'd be great. And then he'd do something else where you're like, what the fuck was that? One draft day, it happened one after the other after the other. Between the Duggy Hamilton trade, the Milan Leachich trade, and the Adam McQuain signing. It was a real up and down day. Do you believe Brad Marchand that he's contrite and knows that he can't go around looking people who wants to be a captain one day?

It's funny. I have covered breadmert him now for a lot of years. You knew him back when he was just a fourth liner licking people. Now he's a topliner. I don't go back to that far, actually. But this was the most contrived I've ever heard him. This, I think, and who knows if that means it changes his behavior, but I think this hit him in a way that none of the other questionable things that he's done has hit him. I mean, he stood there on Bruins' breakup day and talked for 10 minutes about how this is going to affect his ability to be a leader and affect this team.

And, you know, he had a kid a kid last year last summer. So I think that's something that maybe plays into it. I did actually at one point ask him if he would let his daughter do the things that he does on the ice. And he said, you know, you sort of got to let him be who they are. And if she wants to be a bully, that's on her. But, you know, I think... If I... Would you let your daughter go around licking people?

I didn't ask... It actually was... I asked him these questions before the... Before pre-lick. P-L. I know it was post-first lick, pre-second lick. So in between licks. So not first licks and not last licks, but in the middle of the licks.

Somewhere around there, yeah. Of course, yes. Yeah, I kind of believe them, too. I think he... Look, I think a lot of the things that he says are sort of horseshit about changing his ways, especially when he talks about, like, yeah, I can sacrifice 20 points. Come on, no, you can't. But I do think that it's interesting that he brought up that leadership stuff.

And I kind of believed him there. Like, you know, when he looks at, I mean, it's pretty easy. You look over at Patrice Berseran and Zadano Chara and you mention David Bacchus too. And you say, how many of these people have licked someone? And the answer is none of them have. And so if you want to be like them, perhaps the pathway there is to not go around licking people. And he's wanted to be a leader on that team for a long time. I mean, he has briefly worn an A occasionally.

For a liquor? Yes, something like that. You know, in times where David Creachie or someone has been injured. But I think that matters to him. And that was where he sounded most serious and most sort of co-esely. committed to being a person that some of these young kids, the Brian Donato's and those guys can really emulate, which at this moment may not be the right thing for them or the franchise. That's a good point. So other than the Bruins, what's your favorite team to cover?

You know what's funny? I mean, I actually really like covering the lightning, and I've been down here, and it's not just because of the name of the arena, though that doesn't hurt. So you're Amelie. Yes. And is that also Amelie, or is that Amelé? I actually would like you to pronounce it amele. Amele? For the rest of the playoffs.

It's almost like a melee. When the movie came out, Amelay, did life get real weird for you? Did you go to Starbucks and all of a sudden they're just like saying it with a French flourish? Well, actually, it's really funny. So that movie came out and then I went through sorority rush, which I would not recommend to anyone. But you're struggling, during sorority rush, you're struggling to find questions to ask to random people. Which sorority, by the way? Am I?

Was I a part of? Yeah. Kappa Alpha Theta. Okay. That means nothing to me, but it probably means something to some of our listeners. Maybe. And the only one I would have a reaction to is if you were a Delta, Delta, Delta, but you weren't, so we can move on. But many of my friends were, actually.

If you were a Tridelt. I was not a Tridelt, but I had friends who were Tridelt. Right, so you're doing the interviews. So you're doing the interviews. And people are struggling to come up with conversational topics, and that was the one topic. That every single person Is that a fucking movie? Have you seen the movie?

And I'm like, what? Yes. Can we move on? That's rough. So that was ill-timed for me. Do they get your name right at Starbucks? I don't even try.

I just give them Emily. You just say Emily. I just say Emily. Though my absolute favorite was I was in Detroit at the Renaissance Center, Detroit, which we all stayed in and loved. and I went to the Starbucks and I said Emily and usually people can spell Emily.

It's a pretty standard name. And I think they spelled it E-M-I-L-I-E. E-M-I-E. And then asked me if that was right. And I was like, I don't even know. It's not, but that's not my name. But it's like close to your name. It actually got closer to my name in the brutal misspelling of Emily.

Do you believe the conspiracy theory that Starbucks does this to get viral photos? I've heard people say that they're not incompetent. They just screw up so many names to get you to take a picture of the coffee cup. It's hard to weigh the like people can't spell and or don't listen. They might all be ex-hockey writers now they think about it. That's a possibility. Between the math and the misspellings. I think you have an important theory here.

All right. Two more questions because we need to get to availability. It's very important. If I'm a young woman, which I'm not. Clearly not. How would I get into hockey writing? What's your path? What's your three-second pitch to a young writer when they're like, I love your work so much on any show. I used to read you in the Boston Globe. What do I have to do to break into this misogynistic hellscape of an industry? What do you say to them? Well, as someone who never intended to cover hockey, that was never my path, ever. I was always going to be a baseball writer, or at least that was the plan, which I did for five years. But I think it's just work, work as much as anyone will let you work.

Preferably paid, but, you know, work wherever and whenever someone will allow you. When you say that, do you mean in order to connect with people or to just have a body of work and get your reps in? Both. I think it's really important to get your reps in. I mean, that, to me, there's no, no substitute for experience and for knowing how to do this job. And I went to Northwestern, but I didn't get a journalism degree because I was like, I'm just going to do this and then read literature on the side as like, you know, my quote unquote major. So, I mean, that, that to me was, you know, anyone who would let me write, freelance, internships, any of that. And then, yeah, I mean, also get to know people and get in touch with people. But I would say the time that I got into sports writing in like 2003, 2004, it's a very different landscape now. In the sense that there's more opportunity? It's both more and less.

I mean, I've gotten to. It's more if you work for the athletic. I mean, I got into journalism in a time where there were lots of newspapers. And, you know, you were sending out your clips via. you know, manila envelope to newspaper HR departments and getting, you know, letters back that said, no, thank you. But thanks for trying. You seem like you've got a real bright future ahead of you, but just not here. Not here. Yeah, I think that there's a lot of opportunity now. And I feel like at the very least, the gatekeepers are more reticent to hiring different people than me.

You know, I think that's been the big C change is that, I mean, even here, even covering this series. and other series, there's clearly been a sort of a shift in some ways of people that you see in the press box, and I think it's been great. Now, the trouble is that when it gets down to, like, the big events, it's still people that look like me. Yeah, that's what sucks.

But I think, you know, since I came in, newspapers are, you're right, much more willing to hire, whether it's younger people, whether it's a more diverse group of people. I mean, I came onto the Red Sox beat at 23. Yeah. And it was me and white dudes as far as the eye can see.

It's not necessary. I mean, it's not great, but it's not as bad as it was then. Yeah. And a bunch of white dudes who probably remember the Babe Ruth trade, which is an older set. But Ryan isn't that old. All right. Last thing. How old's your kid?

Ten months. So I'm going to assume that you have used some pop culture to help this child cope in life, a Peppa Pig, a PBS show of some sort, anything? Or what are you doing to help this kid through life? I will tell you that he has never watched any TV show. This is incredible. But he has watched occasionally hockey. So you're trying to shape him into your own image. And also Tottenham Hot Spurs, English Premier League games. There you go. So if either of those things are the right pop culture references, which they probably are not, he's fine.

The only thing that you need to do is not show him Cayu, the bald Canadian child who talks like this. That sounds terrifying. Yeah. I think in that case, you're doing a good job. But have that it. Because you're great. And if you can make a kid like you, then you're doing a great job as a parent. This was really touching.

Well, there you go. Don't make your kid like me who can't go an hour without making a... Speaking of the Bain Boys or drinking lots of beer. It's like a goofus and gallon. It's like, there, I just made another reference. How did the kid be like me? How'd the kid be like you? Well, that's why, you know, my husband is sort of the pop culture person in the part.

So I'm going to have to rely on him. Don't let Dan fuck this up. Make this child the cyborg you want it to be. We actually have, I will say we have a, we have a tradition since I missed out on all the pop culture of my youth on my husband's birthday. He gets to pick a movie. Holy shit. Of his choice. And I have to watch it.

Right. What was last birthday? What was last birthday? Or any birthday that you can recall. We did What was the Star Trek movie that we watched? Clearly I am really... Was it one of the Chris Fine ones?

No, no. Was it Rathicon? Yes, it was right. And I think there in a nutshell is my pop culture ability. God damn, that's a smart move on your boys' part. Yes, and I don't have a similar... No, I get a cake every birthday, and that includes when I'm in the Stanley Cup final,

so he has sent cakes to hotel rooms. Oh, you guys are so damn cute. All right. Where can people read your genius? NHL.com. And that's on the pages that load well, not the stats pages. It's not, as we just described, my stuff is definitely not on the stats pages. Thank you so much for joining us. Our thanks to Emily Benjamin of NHL.com for joining us here on Puck's Toop.

She's amazing. I hope you were all very inspired by her because she's very inspiring. and also she lets her husband pick a movie every birthday, and then she watches that movie, and sometimes it's Transformers the movie with Unicron. Thank you, Emily. Enjoy your arena when you go back to your arena for game five. That's right, the Almilay Arena.

Speaking of arenas, the T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas was rocking and rolling for game three of the Western Conference final. I feel like we'll get to the on ice stuff in a second but I feel like the world is starting to get a little backlashy about the night's pregame

celebration presentations and I don't like it I don't like it one bit I think they're fucking phenomenal and I'm not going to hear another word about someone not liking it here's how I here's the way I see the whole Vegas pregame thing

with the guy on the ice and the whole medieval Times thing is for 41 games for six months no one really paid attention to it and now that there are a final four team people are starting to see it and now people are going to be

oh no one paid attention to me before I made the playoffs here's here's the thing I will draw on the movie Moneyball with Brad Pitt when he goes for his interview with the Red Sox at the end and he's just like what am I doing out here blah blah blah and the I forget

I forget who he was interviewing with the Red Sox He's like, hey, the first person through the wall always gets bloody. And that's what Vegas is. They're the first team through the wall that's doing new and different and weird stuff. And on top of that, you cannot be a fucking Winnipeg Jets fan. You cannot be even a Washington Capitals fan and do dorky shit like yell out true north during the fucking anthem and then pretend like a fucking night on the ice is corny and dumb. Or yell out red when the part of the.

the red song comes on if you're a caps fan. Shut the fuck up. At least what they're doing is different. And this is the part that matters the most. After all the night, jet fucking splitting and a half thing happens, you know what they do? Before they take the ice, you know what song starts playing? The song from

John Wick too, when John Wick goes to the fucking Italian fucking initiation thing and they play the cool fucking music, they use that song to come on the ice. So fuck everybody else. Vegas's pregame shit is cool. And I won't hear any. I won't hear these sort of objections to it. Okay.

So to take you through it, to take you through it, okay, so I'm looking at it now on my phone. I'm hearing a bunch of shit in my ear from NBC. This was kind of an advertisement or something. All right. So there's a commercial for it. I'm going to take you through it. We're going to review the pregame ceremony now. And to be fair, to be honest, it is corny and dorky, but whatever.

Who cares? It's completely different than what anybody else does, and it's their thing. So good for them, I say. Sorry, I have to deal with two different advertisements on this video from the NHL. All right, so I'll keep saying. They're the fucking devil. Okay, here we go. So, okay, so there isn't, okay, so the whole thing starts.

Oh my God, more commercials. God damn, fucking NHL.com is the fucking worst. Okay, so here's the thing about doing your own thing that's dorky and stupid. How about the Puck Soup podcast? Is there anything dorkier and dumber than a podcast where we reference Arnold Schwarzenegger movies from 2001 that nobody saw? Hey, you know what? That's our thing. Nobody else has our thing.

So if you see other people doing our thing, you can be like, hey, that was a Puck Soup thing to reference scallops being thrown on the ice. You can't reference scallops. The same way you can't do. although now that I say this out loud, weren't the Ottawa senators doing this kind of thing with the knight and the sword and the thing? Wait, hold on. Maybe Vegas sucks. Let me rethink this. Hold on. Wait, maybe I talk myself out of this. So you had a guy coming out and he's got like a lantern or something. So, okay, so the whole arena goes dark and then everybody's cheering and it's very exciting.

And then, like, they start this show where they talk up for a little bit and the lights are out and whatever. And there's a bunch of shit on the ice. I'm trying to get to the awesome part. Okay. So the awesome Tron drummers come out and they drum. Remember the ones Jeremy Roanick was playing with? Sure. That got exponentially cooler after he left.

And so now that we get into medieval times, the realm of the kings. This guy looks like Jared Leto comes out. He's got a lantern. and he's like searching around for people and then there's a woman it's Katniss and Katniss has a bow and arrow and she's going to shoot the bow and arrow

and it's not actually an arrow it's just a light up like I don't know like mop at the end of an arrow and she's going to shoot it Hey hey a mop will hurt if it hits you in their right spot Don't don't judge her And they've burned all of the flags

of the teams that they've thwarted or whatever with different arrows. And then eventually we get to the whole thing where the knight is fighting the other guy who has a jet's flag and he flies the roof. Yeah. And the knight like thwarts him. And then we get to the money shot,

which was the greatest thing ever, which was when the night, so there's the jet on the ice and the jet is flying at the night and the knight with his sword, which I assume is fucking Hattori Hanzo steel if he could cut a jet. slices the jet in half, and then there's explosions behind the night because he blew up the jet.

Right. And people don't like this? Here's what I'll. So when that was going on, we were actually recording the bonus stuff for the Patreon. And when I saw that happen, there was a part of my brain that was like, I bet you some people get mad about this for like 9-11 reasons, right? Because a plane is flying into something and then it blows up. I really genuinely thought that was going to be a thing on Twitter. People were like, how could Vegas be so insensitive about a plane?

Because remember when the jet? Someone scored a touchdown against the jets a couple years ago and did like a flying plane thing. And then everyone got mad at that guy. I think it was a Bill's game. But I forget what receiver it was. And people got mad about that. So I'm really glad that it didn't happen. I remember after 9-11, there was a columnist for, I want to say, like the Denver Post or somebody that said the Jets

have to change their name, the New York Jets, because of 9-11. I totally believe that. I completely believe, but, like, I'm glad. Like, people just saw this thing as a corny thing with a plane and, like, a sword and a knight, and they were like, this is hilarious. Like, if you don't like it because it's dorky, whatever, that's fine. But I'm glad nobody, like, took it any deeper than that. It was just a goofy-ass Winnipeg Jets.

And to be fair, people will say that it's unrealistic that a guy with a knight who's a sword or a guy with a sword who's a knight is like, oh, yeah. right like a knight could really take down a plane well it's a Canadian plane it's probably made out of like fucking you know plastic he could take that plane down easy to be out of tin bits yeah come on it's fucking it's probably made out of the poop that the lady and the

Tim Hortons threw it's a fucking guy that's an easy plane to take down come on man talking about how quickly the internet moves I was I hadn't heard or seen anything about the woman who shot in the in the Tim Hortons and someone tweeted out me, they're like, hey, I hope your daughter doesn't grow up to shit inside of a Tim Hortons. I'm like, what the fuck is that supposed to?

I'm like, oh, it's a reference to this thing that's flying around the internet right now. Without context, you're like, hmm, that's an interesting reference about my, my offspring. Why would they, why would they say that to me? I still say that that there is something in that video or with that scene. It's, it's, like, fake is the wrong word, but I feel like it's a bit, like I, I still, I just, yeah, like there's, like, I am somebody who is not shy about stuff. Like, if you want me to pee at, like, midfield of the Super Bowl, I can do it. But, but shitting on command like that, there's no way a person can do that.

Something is off. Something is not right there. I'm sorry. I'm sure there was probably a Howard Stern whack packer at some point to get a shit on command like that. Oh, let's see. Crackhead Bob, no way. Mac, coming up, Bill the shitter is going to come in here and shit on command. Go have sex with your mother

I miss Hank Hank was the vest Go have sex with your mother So yeah I love the Knights thing I hope they The thing about it is that like I still feel like they've held back

I feel like it could even be more grandiose than it is Like I don't think there's been a single intro For the playoffs that involved carrot top And I feel like that's Maybe they're saving that arrow in their quiver for the finals Who knows who's to say But it's there Like the night

Like before game four Like the night It'll cut the the crappy Canadian plane in half again It'll blow up And people will be like ooh Yeah And then like Caratoth comes out It's like hey what's going on with planes

What's going on with planes? Hey look hey look planes What's going on? I don't know I don't know what Caratot does anymore I haven't seen a Caratop Game one in Vegas It should be

They should have David Copperfield come out And be as bored as he is at his shows Power of Magic is And of course, you know, magic is a powerful magic. My thought you used to tell me all about magic. Speaking of David Copperfield in Vegas and shows, I don't think we, I think this happened between last week and this week. I am seriously not a fan of Carrie Underwood 45 minutes or 45 seconds after the Predators

get knocked out going on Twitter and being like, hey, sucks the Preds lost, but I'm a Vegas fan. If anybody wants me to sing in Vegas, I'd be happy to sing. You know what, Carrie Underwood? No, no. that's bad wife of a hockey player response like bad wife bad wife hits her with a newspaper bad sports wife you should not be begging for a job in Vegas I'm sorry that's bad I will ask I will ask this question uh-huh now as you know Hillary Duff was an Islanders fan when her ex-husband

Mike Comory played for the Islanders right I doubt I doubt today that Hillary Duff as much like, I don't think she's scouring Bob McKenzie interviews to find out what's going to happen to John Tavares. I venture to say she doesn't give a shit about the Islanders anymore. No, that's fine. That's fine. But now that Mike Fisher is no longer a predator,

like, is Carrie Underwood a free agent? Would she still care about Nashville now that her hubby's not on the team anymore? No, I agree. Like, now that Mike Fisher, I assume, is officially done and retired, she can venture out and do whatever she wants.

like, at least like wait till the body is cold before you're like selling yourself to sing the anthem at Vegas games. Like that's just, I just, I don't know. It was, it was, it was as they, as the kids say, Greg, it was too soon. Do the kids say that? The kids don't say that. No one says that. It was still too soon, though. I just felt it was like too, it was just too opportunistic.

Like, hey, well, everyone's still looking at my husband's dead body on the ice who, by the way, didn't play in the elimination game because he was hurt. I can sing the anthem in Vegas, and I'm undefeated. Vegas hasn't lost the home game this entire postseason, have they? No. And they can do it with carrot top instead of Carrie Underwood. So do you think the Golden Knights are going to win the series against the Winnipeg Jets? Buddy, I still don't. So, okay, so I thought the predators would kind of like storm through Vegas,

and obviously they lost because Pecoranay is a garbage goaltender who should be traded immediately. But I thought, but I thought, I thought, I thought Winnipeg was good enough to win the series for sure, even if, you know, Vegas made a little push or whatever. But if Mark Andre Fleury seriously sold his soul to Satan, I can't guarantee Winnipeg's moving on to the Stanley Cup final because that sequencing game three, where Flurry makes the crazy save on Shifley and then makes another ridiculous save on Shifley tells me that we might have a John Sebastian Chigar situation on our hands.

Oh, yeah, good reference. You might be right on that one. It's scary. Mark Audrey, Florey strikes me as the kind of guy who doesn't realize he is selling his soul to the devil. Like, you know, like he gets the contract and it's like, sign this in blood. And Flurry's like, okay, what's it for? And he doesn't like read through it or anything. I just want you to donate some time to the kids.

Yeah, sure. are the kids. And he's just like, the kids of Satan. What? Uh, the kids of Moncton, a town in Canada. Yeah, sure, sure. Oh, who are we, who are we kidding? The devil, the devil is, is, is, is, is, uh, is, is, uh, is, uh, he takes on many forms. It would very much be, uh, you know, uh, uh, it'd be pretty great if you could like, uh, you know, uh, sign, sign your soul away or, uh, you know, uh, uh, oh, Sydney, it's so good to see you again. Uh, you know, it's good to you too. hoping maybe you could, you know, sign right here in blood or whatever. And I agree. The Jaguerre thing is as a great comparison.

And I also think the fact of the matter is that no one for three rounds has been able to fucking stop the marshala's so line. Thanks, Dale Tallinn. So, like, they're primed to win the series. But I go back to the fact that the, you know, the Jets, the Jets exerted their will a bit in game three. And they exerted their will in the entirety of the previous round. And I would not be shocked if, uh, no. By the time many of you listen to the. It's a 2-2 series.

Yeah, like if they, like if, if I could bet, even though I can't bet yet, because the, uh, the casino down in, uh, in Mammoth Park is not open yet. So I can't bet. But if I could, I would bet a lot of money on the Winnipeg Jets winning game four because although I don't know, man. Like, like, like, like, I don't know. Like, I've kind of been on the fence about the whole Vegas flu thing. Like, I feel like it's a thing sometimes, but maybe not every time.

But it does seem weird to me that, like, Vegas seriously, so they went two and no against the Kings. They went three and O'O against San Jose or two and O. Three and O. And they went three and O'No against San Jose, right? I thought San Jose won one of those games in Vegas. I'm like wrong, though. But, like, it's just weird how, like, they're so dominant in Vegas. Nicolite Eulers has, like, a mystery injury suddenly in the morning that, like, I feel like not enough people that are paying attention to that, like, this really super good goal score.

who's not been great in the postseason, but suddenly they get to Vegas, and it's like, yeah, we can't use him anymore. Like, why? He's hurt. Really? He's hurt? What's it?

I can't, no more questions. Like, that's weird to me. So I just, it's, like, I, part, like, this is the first time and a long time, too, in the postseason where I'm actually rooting for, like, a team. Like, I really want Vegas to continue to win because it's hilarious. It would be so hilarious if they won 16 postseason games.

I would love it so much. you know I leave my room after playing Call of Duty and I go over to a place and then all of a sudden I do mountains of cocaine off the ass of a hooker and then I go back to my room and play a little bit more Call of Duty and I get very steepy over the game tomorrow

You know actually my great grandfather opened first casino in Finland and he met my great grandmother there and they played Pai Gau and it was new in Finland and it turned out that they were both excellent pie gal players and they they they fell in love at the casino so i go to the casino with nikolai and nikolai i was like should we play pi gao and i was like sure and he just

did not want to leave because he wanted to fall in love too and now he stayed up all night and now we could not play game three but uh i just want to win just be good for the team at the at the risk of of acknowledging the podcast of my ex-partner who with his new love eliot oh oh oh That guy. Did you see the thing from Merrick that said that there's a draft pick, a recent draft pick, who may never make the NHL because of his video game addiction? So I just want to say that I don't know which draft pick it was, but like I read the, I just saw the tweet with the screenshots.

I didn't see like the actual link to the story. But like I read the screenshots. And it was just, it was so funny because like, so it starts off. And it's like, I just want to say that there's a, there's a draft pick out there. He was a first round pick on a prominent team. And, um, his screen. career is basically over because he played too many video games. He has an addiction to video games. And like the next screenshot's like, I'm not going to say who he is, but he scored a lot

of points in junior. He's right-handed. He's white. But I'm not going to say who he is. And by the fourth, the fourth thing, it's like his initials are KL. He plays for an original. I still don't know who it is. But like, Barrett was giving away a lot of clues as it moved forward, but I still don't know who the guy is. I texted with Jeff to see if I could get it out of him. And he's like, no, man, I swore I wasn't going to say anything about it. But he's like, buddy, I'm going to like, you know, reach out and look into it and see, you know, what's happened there. And I texted back, I'm like, when you say what's happened there to mean that the young prospect has turned his life around and is no longer on the road to ruin or that he finally got that top score on Donkey Kong. See, like, I was picturing, I was picturing like my version of it where like he's playing Fortnite and he's just, he just can't figure out how to kill.

anybody because he's like me and sucks at fortnight you just try god you're so bad it i got i i hope that somebody in the next sepola uh wins the gregg and dave play fortnight together because i need to i need to find out what the fuck it is you're doing on that game that you're so bad at it because it's not that hard oh dude it's not that it's hard but like okay so so correct me if i'm wrong but like so the thing where like the name like the basic point of the game is like a hundred people like land on that island and they go and find guns and kill each other. But aren't there some people who, like, before they jump out of the plane, are ahead of

other people in terms of, like, their strength or whatever? No, the outfits that they're wearing, because I thought the same thing. Like, some people look really cool while we look very generic. Right. That's just, that's just aesthetics. It's that the outfits that they have do not enhance their game at all. It's just that you think that they're better because they are better. So, like, if you've been playing the game to the point where you're going to spend money to get,

like a cool ass outfit. Chances are you're probably a pretty good fucking player compared to me and you. We're just like on the toilet playing it. That makes sense. And don't lie. And don't lie. You've definitely played it on a toilet. Probably.

Yeah. I'll tell this story real quick. I went to you've getting his nets off during one of the availability because someone had told me that he was one of the Fortnite guys, like he likes to play. And I go up to him. Like, see, have you played a lot of Fortnite? in the playoffs and he's like, I don't play for it. And I'm like, oh, I'm sorry.

I thought I got this, I thought someone told me that you did. He's like, I don't like to play games that involve guns. Oh, oh. Yeah, I know. I'm like, well, do you a gamer? He's like, yeah, of course. Like, what do you play? He's like, need for speed.

Okay. Come on. He's fucking over you, right? So what, no. So one of the fastest players in the National Hockey League likes to play need for speed. Need. But not a Fortnite guy. Wait, is it Need for Speed the movie with the guy from Breaking Bad that nobody went to go see?

Yeah, with Aaron Paul. It was based on a video game. Oh, that was based on a video game? I think so. I didn't realize that was a video game first. Unless he's trying to tell me, he's just a very big Aaron Paul fan and just watches that movie on a loop. By the way, speaking of Need for Speed, the guy who's in that movie from Mr. Robot or Rami Malick, he's in that new, that new Freddie Mercury movie. Freddie Mercury, yeah.

I don't know if that's going to be good or bad or not, but it looks really fucking bad. It looks like a really bad movie, and I'm sad about it because I thought it was going to be good. Well, the amazing thing about that movie, and I don't know if you realize this, but the big twist is that Brian May is actually in his head the entire time. He doesn't really exist. Christian Slater just shows up and is like, hey, hey, hey, what if you like fat bottom girls? He's like, hey, so they're doing a cinematic version. of Flash Gordon. Maybe you should score it.

I don't know, man. Like, Freddie Mercury seems like you had a pretty interesting life away from music. And, like, 85 of the 90 seconds of the trailer are just, like, it's just the music. Like, that makes me really upset. Oh, also, did you see the Keanu Reeves Winona Ryder, romantic comedy that's coming out? That looks even, fucking, that looks even worse. It's very odd. I remember seeing somebody on Twitter who had a real,

problem with. They're like, this, they're like, this Bohemian Rhapsody movie is, it's fucking atrocious, and it's like an affront to queen. I'm like, oh, they must really, he must really hate how bad it looks. And he's like, the drummer never harmonized on Bohemian Rhapsody. He's like, come on, man.

That's not the problem. The problem is that there's no story. It looks really bad, man. It looks like a not a good movie, but whatever. Who cares? It's not a superhero movie, so it'll be a nice little change of pace. Mm-hmm.

Oh, I heard what the end credit sequences for Deadpool 2 are. I'm not going to obviously say them because I'm not the spoiler guy. Yeah, I saw. I saw it too. I saw the thing. They're fan fucking-tastic. Yeah, it looks pretty. Well, no, like the actually the thing that they didn't do for the end credits actually looks like a really good idea.

But they never did it. I don't know if you saw that. No, I'll have to go find that. This has been vague talk about a movie that was just released. Well, no, I can tell you what it is because they didn't do it. No, don't, don't, don't tell it. Don't say anything about Deadpool. too. People probably already have said that you spoiled the Gamora thing earlier in the episode, but we're not going to fucking talk about Deadpool.

That was four weeks ago that movie came out. No, the end credits for Deadpool, like the post-credit scene is like the scene I'm thinking of, they didn't do it. So it's not like if I tell you about it, you're not going to, it's going to get spoiled. They couldn't do it. But it's a really good idea. They just couldn't do it. That's all it was. Was it like a huge acmen thing? No. Yeah. So like you see like, you know how in the commercials like Deadpool's interviewing people to join the X-4? worst thing. Uh-huh. Yeah. The premise they had for the post-credit scene was, like, one of the people that comes in for the interview is Chris Evans, but it's Chris Evans as the human torch. Oh, oh, wait, I did see something about that.

Yeah. Yeah. That's hilarious. Yeah. He comes in and he's like, I'm the human torch, and they're just like, yeah, I'm sorry, we can't use you because he's Chris Evans, he's Captain America and all that sort of stuff. That was the post-credit scene.

That would have been real. I mean, it's still a really good idea. So I'm glad I know about it. But it's not actually in the movie. All right. So the Knights and the Jets. That's whatever. But let's talk about the big news since the last podcast you did, which is that gambling is

legal now. Ah, dude. I know. Finally, I can throw away money on a sport that's impossible to bet on. That's great. So I didn't read your advice column this week about hockey and gambling. What was the gist for those who didn't read it? The gist is basically that like hockey and baseball are different than basketball and football,

where like basketball and football give you point spreads. And that's how most people like to bet is just like, you know, Golden State Warriors minus four and a half against the rockets or, you know, the Patriots minus 10 against the jets. Like, that's people, that's what they want. But in hockey, it's like baseball where it's like there's a money line and there's like a forced spread where it's minus one and a half. But like it shouldn't be one and a half. So there's a money line on top of that spread and it's confusing. And it's just like whatever happens with like state to state stuff, I don't think hockey is going to get more. money bet on it because now it's more legal in all the states. It's just, it's just, it's just a

hard sport to bet on because it's, like, you have to basically, the thing, I remember somebody telling me this about baseball where they were like, I made a ton of money betting on the so-and-so, and I was like, how'd you do it? They were like, well, I bet on them every single game, and they were better than forecasted, so I won money. Like, that's how you have to win, because otherwise you're just flipping a coin most nights on hockey because there's so much parody, and that's why it sucks. Right. I feel, you know, my general feeling on the whole thing is that, like, I feel like hockey fans will bet on hockey if they had a means to bet on hockey. I don't think hockey fans are really making time to set up offshore accounts to fucking wager on hockey.

But if it's right in front of them and the opportunity, and they have the opportunity to lay money on the Rangers as they walk into MSGA, they'll totally do it. Yes. I find, I think there's two really interesting things here with regard to the NHL. the first obviously is injury disclosure like what do we get you know i don't think it's ever going to be a situation where they're going to be candid about upper body lower body and getting specific about it that just won't do it um but i do think that if you want people to bet on your sport you have to be more vigilant on is this guy going to play tonight you know you can't have the berry trots day-to-day game time decision and perpetuity for nick back when you know he's not going to play

You can't play grab ass like that. What the hell is that in that phone? Sorry, I had your website up and it was on a baseball box score and apparently it started playing an auto-play video. I'm so sorry. That's just my fault. Well, thank you for paying my salary. And then the other thing is, what is the relationship going to be between the NHL and teams and the bookmakers? Because, like, will the devil's partner with Mometh Park and say,

hey, bet on us here, you know, will the NHL lean into it and partner with, you know, they're already an investor in draft kings. Like, you know, will we have a situation where these teams and these league and this league are akin to what we have in the Premier League, which is, you know, a very close relationship between the teams and the, and the sports books? And, you know, to the point where athletes are, you know, the faces for the sports books. So, like, I'm really interested to see how much they lean into it because I feel like on the one hand, the NHL is the stodgy fucking, don't name the Vegas team after gambling.

Oh, my God. League. But it's also, you know, the league that fucking changed their playoff format to create a bracket. So I'm not quite sure where they are on gambling. And I wonder how hard they're going to lean into the relationships with sports books with regard to knowing that it could be. an avenue for casual fans to get into hockey. Well, my idea that I had in the column was, so if you go to an NHL game,

you can buy a raffle ticket and get into a 50-50 or in Vegas, a 51-49, and like half the money goes to like a charity or whatever. So if the NHL is smart, and obviously they can't just force this because it's state by state now because of the changing of the law, but they need to, I would, the way I would do it is I would set up, like, machines in the arenas where you can just go and bet before

the game or bet during the game although I don't really know if you can really bet like a half-time line. Like in basketball or football you can bet a half-time line. Like if a team is down 20 you can bet a half-time line if the game is over for the regular line, you can go and bet the halftime line. Hockey doesn't really have period lines, I don't think, but maybe they do.

But even if they don't, you can create them. And if hockey says, hey, we'll put betting automated with like things in the arena. and the vague will be bigger if you bet there as opposed to like a sports book. But hey, that extra dollar will go to the troops or to the kids or to the whoever. I think they could do it and they can make it work. But obviously it's a state-by-state thing now.

But that's how they have to do it. Like, yeah, like they can totally do a thing where the devils have like, you know, fucking Taylor Hall down at Monmouth Park and being like, hey, if you can't get your boating license, you can get your gambling license and then bet on. on the devils, but otherwise. And it will 100% be Candanico and not an active player. Boy, I hope so.

Because like, oh, better than the devils. Oh, look at these horses. I seriously can't wait to go to Mammoth Park and gamble, man. It's going to be fucking great. By the way, we don't know we obviously can't do it the first time it's open in a memorial that we're fucking going

and we're fucking betting on something. We're going to go, listen, I've talked to you off air, I think, about like trying to do a day at Mammoth Park. Yeah. It costs, it costs way too much money to, like, rent the picnic area or whatever, and I'm so lazy to not have people pay me back for it.

But we'll announce to maybe to the Patreon people, like, when we're going to be at Monmouth Park and you can just hang out with us because Steve Weido wants to come and bet the ponies. Oh, sure. So I think we'll just do a day at the races, but we'll just do it like janky and not, and not rent a picnic area. Just show up and, you know, you can drink beer with us or whatever. Is it picnic? Yeah, and bet on baseball, like Pete Rose.

Is it really expensive? I didn't realize the picnic area was like a thing down there. It's like you've got to pay for the picnic area and then you have to pay for the food or some shit. I don't know, man. I'll tell you one thing. After we got through with the negotiations on our venue for Dallas, it might not be as daunting as I thought it was before. Yeah, no shit. Fucking, fucking Dallas.

Christ. Sorry, it's going to be a great show. It's going to be good. Okay, so I'm excited. To speak to your point, like my dream is for the technology to get to the, point where you're on your mobile device at the game, you're on the shitty Wi-Fi, and the game goes to overtime. And in the time between the end of regulation and overtime, you have time to wager on overtime.

Like, how fucking cool would that be? Yeah, like, that's going to be the, like, I think that's going to be the best part of this. It's like, so, like, you were, you, you, you, you, you came to the bar for Rex Manning Day this year where we were hanging out and watching all the games on the first Friday the NCAA tournament. Like, my friend Harris, we, we were betting through his phone because he has an offshore account because he's the biggest degenerate I know. while I'm too scared to set it up on my own,

I'm like, hey, put $20 bucks on Villanova, blah, blah, blah. But now if Monmouth and it's legal here, Monmouth will probably set up like an online thing where you can just deposit money and bet on your phone. And yes, that's going to be awesome when you're in the arena. And it's like, hey, puck drop in five minutes, Nick Backstrom's not going to play. I'm betting on Tampa.

You can do it on your phone. To me, to me, there's no downside to it. Like the idea, like, I know people are going to be like, oh, now games are going to be fixed. Now, like, the mafia man is going to, come in and make sure that the so-and-so's lose to the so-and-so's. Like, like, hey, hey, it's me.

It's me, fat Tony from the Simpsons. I'm going to make sure that the devils lose to the ranges. Like, that's not how it's going to work, man, because money's been bet on hockey forever and sports forever. Like, that's, that's not going to be a thing. And that's, and in talking to the league, like, that's really their only concern is the integrity of it. Like, they're

real, that's the only thing they give a shit about is that, like, A, that if people are betting on it, that they feel like they're betting on something on the up and up and, B, that the games aren't all of a sudden influenced by it. And again, I find it to be, you know, kind of outlandish, the idea that games, listen, if games are going to be influenced with regard to wagering, it ain't going to be because it's happening now. It's always happened. Like, it's, you know, it's, I don't buy for a fucking second that if it was going to be influenced that all of a sudden it's like fat Tony's going to be like, wait, it's like a hockey, betting.

Oh, we got to get this holtby on the payroll. You know, like, give me a fucking break. Like, if it was going to happen, it's going to happen, it will have happened already. Here's my one big hope is that the NHL gets paranoid about it. And like, in the playoffs, refereeing is so bad that you could not tell the difference between a rigged game and a regularly refereeed game. So maybe the NHL is like, hey, guys, you have to call penalties now. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What if it's like a two-two game with a minute to go?

Yeah, yeah, you have to call a penalty. Wow, that's crazy stuff. Because otherwise, like... It's going to be pretty remarkable when every five minutes, it feels like Tim Peel is either trying to throw the game or protect the game for the HL. Like even tonight, like in the Caps Lightning game, like it was 2-1 Tampa and then suddenly the Caps were getting this like flow of power plays. And I'm not saying they didn't deserve them, but it seemed kind of weird how like suddenly

once it was 2-1 and the Tampa scored two power play goals, suddenly the Caps, like suddenly like Tom Wilson getting tangled with the guy and falling down was Tampa's fault. Yeah, all right. That's fine now, but like maybe it'll be different once, you know, you can gamble on a game, like at the Chipotle next door to the fucking Verizon Center or whatever the hell it's called now. MCI. Yeah, I, you know, I used to finish it off from me, like, I can't, I can't conceive how this is going to be. Like, when you go to Amsterdam, you know, there's weed, but there's not weed everywhere.

Like you don't go to the women's shoe store and someone passes you a joint. Like it's, it's... Oh, really? That's sad. I'm trying to figure out exactly where you bet. I mean, obviously you bet at Monmouth. Obviously, you're going to bet in what's left of Atlantic City. Obviously, you're going to bet at probably, you know, other places in Jersey.

But, like, what are the other places going to be? Like, are you going to be able to go to, you know, some shitty bar that's probably called the dugout and probably has a Yankee flag on the wall? The dugout. And that's actually what it's going to be for sure. And go and bet on the game at that shitty bar. Like, is it going to be as readily available as like Kino? By the way, whoever plays the fucking Kino at the bars that have Keno. I know.

But is it going to be like that where like you just go when there's a video screen at the bar and you punch up the shit you want and just bet? I mean, like how is it going to be? I'm dying or no. I'm guessing, like you said, it'll be like at bars called a dugout. There'll probably be like an off-track betting thing, like for just regular sports betting. There'll probably be places like that. And then they'll be like- Oh, great.

Like casinos that already exist. Like, dude, I can so remember being in Atlantic City in like 2004 and, you know, like hanging out at a blackjack table with your friends and like the dealer's there. And you're just like, hey, when's there going to be sports betting? And the dealer is like, oh, it's going to be set up in like two years. We're going to have sports betting. And you're like, that's going to be awesome. And then it never happens. But now that there's sports betting.

And then everything closed. Right. Everything is closed since then. But like the Borgata, I guarantee you the Borgata has a sports book by the time the NFL season starts next year, for sure. That's a great. The greatest thing ever is that Mammoth Park literally has had a sports book ready to go for like two years. They actually, it was actually called the William Hill Cafe. Like it was, it was all right there.

Like it was just like, you know, ready to roll. And, and they're going to have sports betting by Memorial Day. It's the best. It's the best. I can't wait. And I. And the last thing. I'll say about it is that I'm now

a little bit conflicted because all of a sudden Chris Christie did something good. And I don't know how to handle that quite yet. Wait, all of a sudden why? Chris Christie did something good. Seriously. He's going to run for president in like two years on a Democratic ticket and win.

Oh, God, I hate this country. Canada, take me in. On the one hand, he helped sphere head legalized sports wagering in New Jersey. On the other hand, there was a whole thing where he didn't let people use the beaches, but then he went to the beach and his big old man moves were flopping around and a helicopter caught him on the beach and everybody got really mad. There was that.

There was that. On the other hand. There was that. There was him being Donald Trump's lackey. There was him destroying the teachers' unions. But hey, you know what? I can put 20 bucks on the devils in October now. Thanks.

Thanks, Chris. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. He shut down a bridge to get after or get back with his political enemies. Yeah, there was that too. And instructed people to shut down the bridge. But on the other hand, I can get 75 to 1 on the Buffalo Sabres to win the cup next year.

Oh, God, he's going to get a fucking statue. Oh, Jesus Christ. How big is that statue? It's just going to be the Marty Roder statue with no pads. That's all it's going to be. A Chris Christie statue would take up the entirety of Scotch Plains. Like Scotch Plains would just not exist anymore. It would just be a Chris Christie statue.

Oh, God. The people in Scotch Plains would live inside the Chris Christie statue like it's a Trojan horse or like an arc. Oh, God. We're 17. All right. So there's no question of the week this week because we did the show very late. And by that, I mean, like, we forgot to send it out as well. Totally forgot.

So I would encourage you all to go to the Patreon, listen to the mailbag segment, and also listen to the support lay, where it's a combination of the aforementioned newlywed game. And if we had the Infinity Gauntlet and wanted to snap half the teams in the NHL out of existence, which teams would they be and why? So it's a really good episode. And loopy as fuck, just like this one. And we think you'll dig it. So if you subscribe to the Patreon, thank you.

You're great. If you haven't done it yet, there's some really awesome content on there. And you'll also get first dibs at the show tickets for Dallas. All right. That's Puck Soup for this week. That's it. Our thanks to Seat Geek. Our thanks to the, I'll tell you where I stayed.

I stayed at the residences at the museum. All of the hotels in Washington were either sold out or way above. of the price that is sort of capped by our travel department. And I called up the travel department. I'm like, is there really any, is there any place you can get me? And they're like, what are the residences at the museum? I'm like, that sounds fucking made up. And, and, and I'm staying in a, in a condo above the museum in D.C.,

the museum of, of journalism, which, by the way, I've still never visited, despite now living above it for a week. And the first thing that it occurred to me when I, when I, when I, when I, when I, when I, when I booked this place was, what if it's in the museum? What if it's an exhibit where it's like observe a hockey writer on the road? Oh, like when Brian Wheeler went to the zoo on Futurama. Yeah, right. Exactly.

Exactly. So it's not that. It's a fine place. It's a little black mirrory, to be honest with you. It's a little bit too automated and stuff. But it had a washer dryer in it. So that was a great perk if you've been on the road for as long as I've been on the road. these dumb playoffs.

Wow. There you go. Yeah, so I highly recommend the residences at the museum. It's creepy but awesome, and also it's above a museum that you probably won't go to. There you go. So put that on the poster. All right. You can find my stuff at Wysinski on Twitter, especially if you're a third-parring defenseman.

You'll probably appreciate my tweets. And you can find my writing on ESPN.com, where I, believe I have, you know, writing about game four and then also a feature story on Vasilleski coming out and some other stuff too that you'll probably dig. Where can people find your genius? You can find me on Twitter at AP3392. That's my Twitter handle. I am a defenseman for the Florida Panthers.

And there's a picture of me on Wall Street standing next to that Big Bull's ass with my two of my friends. You can find a lot of. retweets apparently and a picture of me on Twitter with I believe an older relative I can't tell who it is I'm looking at this really really good and that's pretty

oh I'm also doing I'm doing I'm doing Drew McGarry's mailbag this week so I'm sorry if you like that but it's going to be a lesser version of that and so cool and it's a good gig yeah I basically I told it like Barry email me in like April he's like you want to do this and I was like okay but I can't lead off I don't want to follow Drew

like any other time, I'll do it any other time during May. So like I'm like the closing act, I guess, unless there's another week in May. Oh, wow. I don't even know. No, there's one more week after this, I guess. So yeah, so there you go. I'll do some Tom Brady jokes on Deadspin in like four or five days. Go check it out.

Nice. All right, everybody, thanks for listening to the show. And we will talk to you next week. Oh, thanks to Emily Benjamin, too, for coming on. Thanks, Emily. All right. See you guys. Bye.

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