Puck Soup - Anthony Weiner

Episode Date: April 21, 2016

Greg and Dave welcome infamous former NY Congressman Anthony Weiner to discuss his Islanders fandom, beer league goaltending and the perils of candor. Plus, Stanley Cup Playoff analysis and we yell at some poor soul for daring to step on the PUCK SOUP floor logo.

Now entering nerdist.com. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you'll commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Greg Wichinsky of Yahoo Sports Fuck Daddy Blog. And I'm Dave Lozo of Vice Sports and The Comeback and Up Rocks. I work for a lot of sites.

And you're in Puck Soup. Dave, when last we saw each other, the playoffs were just starting, and now they're in full swing, and so many things have happened. Rubber bracelets were thrown on the ice during the remembrance of a dead owner. Yes. A gay slur was uttered in the penalty box by a Chicago Blackhawks player who then said he didn't realize that he used a gay slur until he went back and checked the videotape to, you know,

confirm that he used the gay slur. Short-term homophobia memory is actually a very common psychological disorder. Apologized profusely. We've had a couple of controversial off-side calls. We had Chris Latang slashing Victor Stalberg across the throat in the National Hockey League, showing us the Rube Goldberg device sequence of events that led to this optical illusion apparently happening. Misunderstanding, totally. And then we had a Philadelphia Flyers player shoved Dmiti Orloff in the back into the boards.

and only get one game for it because his team was close to being swept. So a lot of great... Oh, also there were some games played and teams won and lost. Also, Mia Khalifa just followed me on Twitter. Who is Mia Khalifa? She's an actress. Oh, Shakespearean? I mean, there is a lot of dialogue, just like there is in Shakespeare for sure.

Oh, okay. I don't want to get into too many details, but I feel like you should probably just Google her name, M-I-A K-H-M-A K-H Oh There it is You see it

An actress An actress I see I see I'm sorry She's talented She's a fan of the podcast Not yet

But she will be She soon will be I feel She's a fan of Pete Blackburn Of gift boy fame So I feel like if we can just use Pete's in True

True story Uh oh No tangentially related I met Jenna Jameson in college. You may not believe this story. And she's like, I could do this for money. I'm like, wait, come back.

We're supposed to go to prom. So, Taylor Stevens. Remember Taylor Stevens? I don't know. Is that a porn star? Taylor Stevens was the porn star who sat behind Pete DeBoer during the LA Kings, New Jersey Devil series. Oh, yeah.

It's all coming back now. Extraordinarily well-endowed blonde porn star. Yes. Extraordinary. Like, literally, like, throw her. out of the plane and use her as a flotation device. Yeah, she was great. But I followed her on Twitter,

I think, because we did a story on her and maybe interviewed her. But, like, I never unfollow anybody on Twitter. I just kind of mute them. And I don't know why I've never got... Well, I kind of know why I've never gotten around to it. But, like, occasionally, Taylor Stevens will just drop

something on Twitter that is, like, a full nude. Oh. So... And I'll be in, like, Starbucks going, don't be... Who's talking about the hockey's, blah! Same thing happened to me. Like, I was doing my usual nonsense where I was tweeting about friends, and somebody retweeted it, and like some

girl who I'd never seen before in my mentions ever, it didn't follow me, you shouldn't know me. She was just like, you know, we were having it back and forth about like the morality of Ross Geller, you know, is he a good person, is he a bad person? That thing I do pretty much every other day on Twitter, and I was like, oh, she's funny, I'll just follow, it was like 1230 at night,

it was like, Nick at night, friends, I was just like, all right, I'll follow her back, she's following me, great. And then like the next day, she was like, hey, here's me on the beach, like an Instagram link, and I clicked on it, and I realized she's like a suicide girl. Oh. She does the naked stuff for a living. I see. And I'm not complaining,

but it was just sort of like an accidental. Me, a Khalifa I followed totally for obvious reasons. We were having a good discussion about old television shows and then all of a sudden you were tattooed and naked. I saw a buttocks that I did not sign up for. Hi, Twitter. Can I get my money now? Yeah, so she's a fine follow. I have no problems at all there.

here you go. So the podcast is going really well. We're off to a good story. I mean, yeah, the bandwagon is ever increasing. Yes. So, like Taylor Stevens busts. So the hockey's going on. So the Andrew Shaw thing happened as we taped this last night.

The only thing that we know at this point as we tape it is that there has been the big old apology, which I'll read right now on the air. I'm sincerely sorry for the insensitive remarks I made last night while in the penalty box. Translation, the National Hockey League, is super busy. when I got home and saw the video, it was evident that what I did was wrong, no matter the circumstances. Now, again, no matter the circumstances,

would indicate that Andrew Shaw believes there is a time in place for dropping a gay slur. It was like, wait a second. Now, now hold on. Andrew, you should apologize. Now, hold on, in fairness, the referee was really mean to me. I mean, to be, I mean, and that's a thing, too, like, what was he angry about?

He trucked Jay Beaumister when the play was over. He totally deserved the penalty he got. Not that that matters one way or the other, but I don't know why he was. It was evident that what I did was wrong, blah, blah, blah, blah. I apologize to many people, including the gay and lesbian community. Oh, sidebar. Yeah, also. The people I've directly offended by my actions, you're in this apology, too, in case you're wondering.

He may have written it himself. I don't think there's a chance of that. The Chicago Blackhawks Organization, Black Hawk. fans and anyone else I may have offended. Just a blanket scattershot offense. You know what? It's just such a bad situation. There's like no, like he's, I was thinking

last night, so like last night I was out after the Ranger Penguins game. I saw it happened on a TV and a bar from like 30 feet away. And I turned to the person next to me. I was like, I think he just dropped the F bomb. I think he'd like, the F-A bomb, I guess. And nobody else saw it because we were all just like having beers talking or whatever. And I forgot about it.

about it. And then the next thing you know, the power play happens, and then the empty net goal gets scored, and then there's offside review, and then the linesman gets hit. And I've completely moved on. I'm just assuming I've read his lips wrong from a great distance. And then I check Twitter, and I see Mark Lazarus's feed. And I'm like, oh, my God, he really, really said it. And my thing was, like, what possibly, there's no, like, an apology had to come. Right. And I wondered if he had just apologized last night, if there was any way he could could have done that. To avoid it.

I mean, like, not to avoid it, but just, like, if he was just like, yeah, you know, I lost my head there and I was just, I should never say that. I don't know why I did. That's not who I am. And I apologize. As opposed to being like, I don't know, bro. I don't remember praying that there wasn't like good video of it. See, the thing about that, though, that I thought when I, when I saw that, he was

asked the question and said that, a lot of times we talk about how these guys are programmed a certain way, right, as athletes. And I think that's programming. That's, that's, when Dennis Wydemann attacked a linesman and was concussed, he didn't say he was concussed after the game because he's been told time and time again, yo, don't ever say anything about your injuries, don't ever admit concussions, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I think in Andrew Shaw's case, it's like, you know the minute that you admit wrongdoing, you're basically fucked.

You're basically going to be suspended at that point. But there is no way he could have got, this was going to be the end game no matter what. And I, but I don't know, like say if you're like a member of the black horse, Hawks PR staff. Yeah. You know, like, you would have, like, that's a, like, there's a minute to go in the game. You have to come up with the game plan on that real quick. And you have to be sure that he actually said it before you actually go out there and tell him to

apologize and be up front about it. Yeah. And that, boy, wasn't that just the worst thing to come out of this whole thing? The Andrew Shaw lip-reading truthers. They're like, they're like, you know, I know. Oh, now we're going to suspend guys based on lip-reading. What about the Kim Trails? we're going in front of him during it.

Like I saw every tweet it was like he wrote, like this is the kind of horrible human being I am. I read Chris Heinz. Oh yeah. Peace on it. Chris Heinz, Chicago Tribune, came out basically to his readership a couple of months ago in writing about

the NFL. And then last night wrote some really eloquent things about the Andrew Shaw stuff. And like, again, to go back to just, this is how my brain works. I can't help myself. I'm just stupid and terrible. So I read the whole thing and I'm like, wow, it's really thought out. It's a really good perspective. Like, I really

think he brought a lot of humanity to it. But, like, why is he saying apparently the whole time? He obviously said it. Everyone who tweeted and wrote about it kept saying, you know, if he actually said, he said it. Like, you know, like by doing that, you're almost, like, giving him the opportunity to, like,

pretend like he didn't say it. Like, he's, you can, you can, this isn't, like, reviewing a goal where, like, the puck's in the glove and we know it's in the net, but we got to say no goal because we didn't see it. We're, we can say he said it. Hockey, and anybody who follows the game understands this. Hockey's a very weird little corner of the universe. It's very thunder dome. It's very sort of anything can happen

within the confines of the rink. We see two men punch each other in the face and the cops don't rush onto the ice to break up a fight. We see people literally whack each other in the head with their sticks and this doesn't result in two guys in suits speaking to a judge. It's a very sort of alternate universe where violence and vileness and anything goesness exists for the enjoyment

of the paying public. And when it comes to language, it's a bumpy transition. I get that. There's a lot of people out there who saw the Shaw thing last night and they're like, yeah, but you know, what's said in the rink stays in the rink. And I'm like, yeah, but you know

what? If it had been the N-bomb, that doesn't stay in the rink. when Patrick O'Sullivan had child abuse thrown in his face by Alex Burroughs rather as a tactic to get under his skin O'Sullivan was abused as a child and his opponent used that as a tactic

to get him off it. Boy, he's going to lose the puck now because I bought up the father the fact his father beat him. There comes a shot of time for me because it is totally worth it. It's just insane. And that O'Sullivan thing to me was sort of a tipping point for me. Like I really do as a hockey fan want to pretend protect the sanctity of Thunderdome.

I want to protect the sanctity of two guys can beat each other up and no one gets arrested. That you can say a bunch of really ignorant shit to your opponent and it doesn't leave the rank necessarily. But when it comes to this stuff, when it comes to the gay slur stuff, the racial stuff, misogynist stuff.

Chris Simon back in the day. It's Chris Simon and all of it. Like, it speaks to, well, first of all, it speaks to basic human decency, but it also speaks to the fact that at the end of the day, I want hockey to be huge. One of the reasons we're doing Puck Soup on Nerdist is to reach new people and convert them. Touch the Bible. Join the revolution.

Whoa, whoa, I'm here for the money. Oh, sorry about that. Wait, there's no money? We'll talk about later. So, like, when this stuff happens, you know, there's literally, I've had gay fans tell me all the time, like I don't feel like I'm, I could be a part of this because I don't feel like there's a safe space or an entry point for me to this game because I don't feel like they want me here. And the NHL's made some really big strides in the last few years. turning that narrative around and working with you can play and being more inclusive and having outreach and, you know, six years ago, bringing the Stanley Cup to the deprived rate in Chicago and shit like that.

And like when something like this happens and it just passed by and on top of that, you have old school hockey fans basically saying, call yourself down. Don't be so upset. PC police, social justice warriors. Yeah, come on. Every old school fan is a straight white dude. Yeah. Like, do you get the fact that, you know, are ever, ever shrinking, you know, part of the. pie when it comes to sports in the United

States, it could be even a bigger slice if you weren't so myopic and shitty to other people that want to enjoy it. Right, and like, based on Chris's story, I don't really know Andrew Shaw that well. He just, he seems like an idiot. I don't know him in real life. Chris seems to think he's a really good guy who just has this one

stupid thought in his head that he should be able to say that word. And, you know, if it's a situation where you just go up to him and go, look, you know, like, I said this a million times. Like, when I was younger, I'd say things like, you know, hey, you want to go, go get a beer. No, I'm going to stay in. Oh, come on, don't be gay.

Yeah. And then, like, one day someone's like, yeah, you know what you're saying when you say that? And you're like, oh, I'm a fucking idiot. I'm so sorry. And there's moments. Maybe that'll happen for Andrew Shaw because if Chris, who is a gay man, feels like this is not something that defines who Andrew Shaw has. Then maybe that's not who Andrew Shaw is. Maybe he just fucked up when he was super pissed off.

Not that that's a reason to do it. But hopefully it's a thing where he gets it right away. And that's the thing. Like growing up in Jersey, you in kindergarten are taught every single, thing you could possibly learn. And then you apply it during life. And then at some point you leave New Jersey and you go other places. Like, for example, Maryland, when I worked, I worked at a newspaper in Maryland and Virginia.

And one day, I'm in the newsroom and I say, oh, this is so retarded. And my friend, my friend Ken, who is like the sweetest guy comes over to me and kind of takes me to the side. He's like, look, you know, I understand. I get it. Everybody uses the word. My sister, she's retarded. And I'm like, that's retarded. And he's like, no, you don't understand.

No, no, no. You idiot, listen to me. And he explains it to me. And, you know, it's the first, it's at that moment in life when you can either continue down the path of middle fingers of the world, I'm going to live life. Whatever bro. Whatever bro. Just a word. Or you realize, okay, maybe there's some modulations to my vocabulary I could make for the benefit of others.

It's as simple as that. So, you know, if Wade Davis and you can play, talks to, you know, Andrew Shaw, and I feel like they get through. him, you know, great. I'm not saying this is the kind of thing. I mean, it is the kind of thing that's going to follow Andrew Shaw around forever, but, you know, maybe he's, again, maybe Chris knows him better than I do. And Chris doesn't seem to be ready to chop off Andrew Shaw's head. So if that's the case, then I'm not going to be that guy either.

Real quick on the playoffs, as we do the show, kings are down, blues are up big. Yeah, blues. Yeah, lightning up big. Yeah, lightning. Yeah, I apologize. All right, I'm sorry. Last episode, I chastise you for picking the blues, but they look really. really good. As we do this, they're in a position to eliminate the Blackhawks. Caps are going to

probably win real quick. Penguins are up, and the... Preds are up, barely. And then also, the... Who are we missing here? Oh, Dallas is up, and then the Florida's are down. But I think the Florida's will be all right. Only big surprise for me, obviously, based on my horrible treatment of you last episode, is the Blues. I didn't think they'd be this poise. They look pretty good. They've been kind of getting out shot. I mean, Brian Elliott's, and kind of the difference. I don't feel like that's over. The one that makes me, like, I feel pretty good about St. Louis.

I feel like, you know, I, the two series I feel the worst about are Nashville and Anaheim. I knew Nashville's speed was going to be an issue. And to be fair, I didn't get to see a game three last night because I was at the garden and then I was drinking beer afterwards. And by the time I put the game on, it was 3-0. But, and they took Gibson out because Gibson was very average those first two games. Because Bruce Booder only knows how to coach one way, which is to chastise your star players, change goalies.

Good for him. Those are the two gears. John Gibson. That game one, that goal that bounced off the skate, it seems like he doesn't know how to push across, which is kind of a big thing for a goalie. I'm not saying that I can go in net and go post-to-post, but you should probably be able to slide there. That series, and I feel like Florida should be up 3-0, and they're down 2-1, and they're

not a really experienced team as a group. Like obviously, Yarmri-Agris played more playoff games and probably everyone in the playoffs combined. Or on earth. I just feel like if they go down 3-1 tonight, by the time you listen to this, you will know whether or not that's happened. Quality next day taping. Yes.

Then I feel like they're screwed. But everything else, like I picked L.A. They're down to 1. I'm not worried there yet. And there's probably one. I think I'm winning five and losing three series based on my picks. All right. It's good.

Speaking of goalies, we have a guest on the podcast today. Kind of strange one, but kind of an awesome one. Kind of a good one. Kind of a good one. Former New York congressman, former New York mayoral candidate, Anthony Wiener, who is a huge Islanders fan. And as we talked about goalies, a beer league goaltender joins us for a real fun discussion about his life. His life?

Beer leagues? Beer leagues? What goes on in the locker room of beer leagues? An amazing discussion about what it's like to be Anthony Weiner, to have lived the life that Anthony Weiner has lived, and to have the protection of the hockey community, a safe space, if you will, an oasis, if you will, from the rest of life, even when somebody decides. It's a nark on you within your own league, which is pretty amazing. Anyway, Anthony Wheeler Islanders fan. Good conversation. Do you enjoy it.

And we'll be back to close this thing out after we talked to the former congressman. So enjoy. Joining us now in Puck Soup is an internet friend. Internet friend. Who's also, I would qualify as a celebrity puckhead. Former New York Congressman, former New York City mayoral candidate, beer league star, hockey blogger at one point. For business insider.

The price was right. He has more impressive credentials than we do, really, in a way. You got it. What are you talking about? You guys are phenoms. You have your 300 shut-in followers who every day read what you have to say and swear by it. Listen, you leave my mom and my family out of this. Hold on.

So let me ask you, so I'm new to the podcast world. Can you curse on a podcast? Yes. You have a rule. Fucking A-right. Okay. Now, and this is going to be, this is like filler material during the finals when they have that day off. You're going to play it then.

Like, when are you going to get to this? So this is going to be out within days, which is why we wanted to have you on this week, because I wanted to make sure that you came on the podcast before the Allender's elimination. And should we act like it's not 420 today? It's definitely 20. It's funny. I'm just saying, I mean, should we be in that moment or should we kind of pretend our heads of clear? I mean, if you have a way to get us in that moment right now.

And also, you're making me really regret not having this podcast be done in Denver. I mean, if we were in Denver right now, or Amsterdam, for that matter. Anthony Wiener, you are an Islander's fan, correct? Yes. How did you get to become an Islander's fan? My father gave, my father is much older than anybody in this room. He gave up his Ranger fandom, became an Islander's fan, and then became a Devils fan when I was born.

How did you become an Islander's fan? Well, you become a Devil's fans. Is that like, that's message-related? You know, when you show up on the scene, he loses all faith and starts making 6-66 on his license plates and stuff like that. Well, that's just so my thing. So I'm 51. So I was coming of age around hockey at the time the Islanders came into the league.

So the idea of having like the old time was like I've been a fan since whatever. And in Brooklyn particularly there's a lot of that ethos. You know, I was a Dodger fan forever. So the idea for me of being a fan of a team from day one was very attractive. And if you remember, of course, you guys know this. Like the Islanders were good in a hurry. and just also my iconoclastic personality having nothing but Ranger fans all the right

but like I grew up loving Eddie Jacquem and Jill's Wilma and those guys but when the Islanders came into the league I thought all right I'm going to be the long-suffering Islander fan and of course of that period like you suffered for like 20 minutes and then boom you know but I was going to say though like did it make it easier

like let's say you're in Montreal right and then there's another Montreal team and it's like do I give up this thing where I win the cup every six years to become a fan of this new team when you're a Ranger fan, you're already 30 years into the drought when the I'm going to show off. I suppose, but not when you're, how old was I?

10 years old. Not when you're 10 years old. Like, you don't appreciate that context. You do like the idea, like a brand new team, and I'm going to be the first. I'm going to know every one of their players right from the beginning. Like, you remember, like, you grow up and you're looking at player cards with dates that go back to when your dad was born. And then you have a chance like, wow, I'm actually going to be like the first fan.

Gary Hart's first fan, you know? I guess it has a certain amount of that appeal, and then of course they became good, and then you had the Islander Ranger rival where it began in the 70s about the same time. So it was a little bit of that and it was a huge Glenresh fan, you know, that kind of stuff.

Chico eats. So basically you're like the opposite of Greg's father where you got it on the ground floor, stuck with it forever through good times and bad while he just hopped around from team to team. My dad was like the aliens and Independence Day going from team to team sucking the glory out them and then going to the next one. Actually, or he was playing the angle, like, I can't get into the

garden and I can't, I don't want to slip out to the Coliseum, what the hell, you know, anyone can go see a fire. I prefer to think of it, I prefer to think of it, especially as far as Rangers fandom goes. Like, I was born in 77. I imagine my father's like, you know, this dynasty for the Islanders isn't going to last forever, and I certainly don't want to subject my child to the Rangers. That's child abuse. So I assume he just allowed me to be a devil's fan. But it's funny, like, but team affiliations are like politics and that it gets passed on generationally without a lot of questioning going on about why it happens.

So I don't know if he might not have been it might not have been that much of a calculation. I mean they were a Mickey Mouse organization. You come along. There you go. It kind of works together. Right. I think I think the rationalization there from father to son would be there are literally 25 fans of this team right now and you'd be 26. Totally. In a way you're kind of having like the Benjamin

Button fan experience where right off the bat dynasty and now for the past 25 years you've just been a miserable. Well you know this is a good introduction to like you're, why are you a TV movie, it seems like you're at your most happy when you're doing obscure movie references. What are you? Obscure? Benjamin

Button is an Oscar-dominated movie. True. Empire Records. First of all, remember, you have 19 listeners, and these guys are in, like, these are looking up like Cam Loops statistics from last night. So they might not know that reference, but you, your best material is not your hockey material.

That's true. That's true. Talking to Dave. We also talk about Puck Soup as being a show in which hockey is the clothes line in which we hang all of the other stuff we want to talk about. No, Greg, your best material is hot. Oh, the old divide and conquer, I see. I'm saying. That's why if you can only follow two people

in movie hockey, Twitter, you should follow you two guys. I think that's the best advertising he started off, like he came back on. I made no idea which you're having to come. That's the thing about political insult. You never know whether they're going to come from. I wanted to ask you one more question about the Islanders, Dynasty. You're a Mets fan too, and I remember being a Mets fan in 86

and it was great because you couldn't find a Yankee fan. Like, Yankee fans were a dormant species in 1986. the entire city was met fans. There was one guy clutching a Don Maddenley-Tops card and shivering in the corner. That was the only Yankee fan you could find. When the Islanders were in the dynasty,

did the number of Ranger fans decrease, or they just get quieter? No, no, the Ranger fans were still around. The league was still, the relative, I mean, I hadn't grown as much, but the Ranger fans were still around. This was still a Ranger town. But it was, it's a whole different thing then.

I mean, not to sound old, but, like, games weren't really on TV all that much. You know, by the way, You know who the Islander announcer was when I was following was John Sterling. Oh, why. And he had that, he had a call you can, you know. He had a call. Islander goal.

Islander goal. He used to do it four times, like, whatever it was. But it actually hit the post. And it was, yeah, that's right. That's right. Oh, no, no, no. It's his pad. It's frozen.

It's a high one for Gary L Island. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Chico Resch is playing one more year. Oh, my God. So it was more like that You were not really I don't know

It wasn't at PS39 You weren't really beefing about Haccio that much It was really a distant fourth year Thanks for thanks for putting our minds With John Sterling Islanders Yeah totally hey you know Who's the bossy Shut up

I feel like as an Islander fan You don't really bitch on Twitter About winning and losing You're not like Fire Capuano And oh this fucking Yeah where are you on Jack Cap Cap as a coach by the way I don't know.

So here's my general view of sports. He's like, I don't give a shit how someone gets paid or whatever. I just want a good team on the ice. I want to be able to watch him and enjoy them. I don't care. Like, you know, like, I'm not gaming out trades. And to be honest with you, someone's lousy, it's like,

I don't really care that much. I mean, he's fine. He's fine. Here's my theory on him. I think he's the guy that you fire before you get the coach that you have to take, he takes you to the promised land. See, I'm a little bit, you know, the Allender front office and the front office are kind of,

the same to me in that they were horrible until you looked up and noticed actually they're not so horrible anymore like you know, Gart Snow had his period you know, it fucking makes my hair hurt to watch Rick Di Pietro commenting on anything. He just reminds me he's probably still on the Allender Perel. He's still probably still going to

go to Shackles for him. No, what I'm saying. He's probably still getting like from that horrible 15 year deal they did with him. Lifetime contact. So, but recently they've done a pretty good job piecing the team together. I mean, Cap wanted to do some weird things that seemed crazy at the time. Like he was rotating three goalies all year and like why would you possibly be doing that unless you know something about a lock that we don't know.

Sure enough, he'd learn that a lock at a tissue paper groin. Gartesneau loves goalies whose groins don't work for more than six months at a time. By the way, is tissue paper groin allowed on this? Am I allowed to say that? You could definitely say that. Can you go to the archive see if anyone's ever said tissue paper growing up your podcast before? Oh man, that was actually the name. That's actually the name of my punk band in high school.

I also don't believe that coaching is all that important in the area. In hockey? Yeah. But you're a goalie, right? Yeah. So that's what are you're being here. So what are we so far from any decisions getting made? That's the beauty of being goalie.

The great philosophy in hockey is that a coach is only as good as his goalie, which has got to be the greatest ego stroke of all time for a goaltender. Well, the league has changed some. I mean, it wasn't always that way. I mean, you go watch the 70s and 80s, and it's like a completely different game. Goaltender sucked. Right. Yeah.

Like guys would get beat, like, unscreened slap shots from inside the blue line. I mean, like you, even like, you know, like, And it's funny, some of the iconic goals, like just the other night, who was, like this, like, who beat Jerry Cheever's to, who was the first, I think the second Islander Cup, you know, so it beat him with a point shot, basically, you know. I saw it during the, they showed up the clip during the eye on the front game. Yeah, I can't know who it was.

It's just like, just got, I mean, I could have stopped that puffs on it from six sides. But goaltending, we're in the golden age of goaltending. I mean, technique-wise, equipment-wise, skill-wise, size-wise. I mean, we're reaching a point where, like, the average goalie is going to be six-four soon. And you once compared Henrik Longquist to a pufferfish the way he plays his goal, how he was able to make himself big in the net when he needs to. Well, he's just, no, here's his thing. He's a fascinating goal as a goalie to watch because, see, there's no one like him in the NHL,

and you'd think there would be guys who stay very deep, blocking goalies, just very good on, like, just constantly in the right place because he plays so deep to give himself the extra few seconds. but I was just kind of like it was in the context when he and Quick were going head to head as like the last of kind of the blocker goal is in the quick, the dynamic who were just watching Quick play.

Yeah, Quick is, quick as, quick as amazing. Quick is the best postseason goalie, I think, maybe one of the best in the last 25 years. What he's able to do athletic, athletically. That's what I'm thinking. No, no, no. Here's the thing. He's like a high quality Chris Oz's good.

He's like flashy and athletic and able to do things to stop. the puck that are Hasekian? You know who he is? He's Mike Richter. He's a small goalie that's never in the right position, so every save he makes looks like the most unbelievable gloves sliding saves. There's a little, yeah, Thomas.

Yeah, it's a little Tim Thomas. Oh, Tim Thomas too. But here's the thing. What I admire about him is the physicality of his game is insane. Like he is that kind of getting, I mean, I just know just because I can't even stand in the positions that he finds himself in just the entire game, the way he's loaded the ice, constantly side to side.

By the way, that actually, actual, that thing, like the slide, did not even exist until like five. It's like basically, I mean, a revolutionized hockey. I don't know why it took them so long. I think it's largely a function of the equipment, like just the landing part of the equipment is so much better. Well, it's also a very specialized position. The goalie coaches, I think, have changed the game, too, where they've broken down and figured out technique. Mitch Corrin and Washington is the guy. No, no, there are. I mean, and it's true. And also, you can't understate this. I mean, you can't overstate the size thing good goalies are so fucking big right i mean

you know growing up if you had a six-foot goalie it was it was strange now now now everybody all of these guys look so tall on their knees because that's basically how it's about like last year in st louis i'm pretty sure jake allen kept that job over brian elli because he's like four inches taller he's taller yeah and brian elliott's a eight percentage the last five years is like nine 40 but he's like a little dude he kind of doesn't look like a goalie so it's But it also answers the number one question that we all get from non-hockey fans, like why they don't have the 400-pound guy. It's like that old Sennel sketch from Jack Nicholson goes into the locker and he's like,

why don't you get a goalie with a really big stick? That was a really good jack-N. They did it once on like MythBusters or that ESPN show where they, the sports physics or whatever it's called. Like they actually did the sumo wrestler and the goal thing once and you could see. Like it's a shooting gallery. There's holes all over the place because he's so big. Well, in fairness, you know, I play in a beer league team that every so often my, between periods, my team will suggest,

just put your gear in the bag, and just put the bag in the crease, your chances of hitting are about the same. All right. Let me ask you about goaltending. What is the malfunction in your makeup as a human that would want to make you play a goal? Well, it's usually, for it starts out that I couldn't skate as well as everyone else. It was too small. Oh. You had my ass kicked out there. You know, people think. Oh, the old why Greg Wischinsky became a little league pitcher. Yeah, I mean, it's like people draw the wrong conclusions. you guys know better but like you know you get hurt out there you know skating around with those guys and they're allowed to run into your goal you're basically you're but um and then there's a little

bit of the DNA of just like you want to be the last line you know like it's like you want their responsibility and then there was the third thing with me and that is um i had the gear yeah right so right so i'm in i have to play the whole day i'm in there so in other words you're a goalie like how i closed i had the closing shift of burger king because i had a car You're the goalie because you had this thing that allowed you to eat in that position. We all have, like, when you're 12 years old, you know, your social survival niche, you know. Like, I'm the guy, hey, I got one of those new Beta Max players. You know, I'm going to be popular.

You know, but, and you guys, right? I mean, obviously, you guys had no problem socially growing up, so you evolved into hockey players for secure internet. Absolutely. I mean, if people did find me in my room playing Dungeons and Dragons, they could stay. Right. I would let them roll the dice occasion. The fact that I beat Super Mario Brothers in record time in 1988, I feel like kind of made me the man I am today.

So last line of defense, everybody depends on you. Is that also the politics thing for you too? A little bit. Yeah? A little bit that it's like, you know, all right, you're in charge you're a part of the problem, you're part of the solution, or whatever the expression is.

Right. A little bit of that, I think. You know, I just like, you know, it's like you're an integral part of the thing and whatever. But it was more just a survival thing, you know, find a way to stick with a team. but it has its setbacks. I mean, it's...

Oh, yeah. You know, it's bad nights. One of the things that fascinated me about you was when people found out that you played beer league, it became like a New York tabloid story. And you had somebody at the Daily News who actually called you terrible at hockey because he gave up four goals in a night,

in a beer league game. Like, to have that part of your life all of a sudden critiqued. Well, here's the good thing about it. And it's something that stayed in my recreational diet. it throughout my political career. Like I found, like, I would find a night that I can make the 1130 games and whatever it is. But it also is, it's, you know, it's a little bit of the, you know, the beer league, locker room culture.

It was very protective. Like, you know, there was once one guy actually wrote for like New Yorker or something that wrote this thing during one of my, during my mayoral campaign or during my scandal or something, like this takedown of me as a goalie. I didn't read it, but the headline was Wiener on Ice. Yeah, like Bad Five or something like that. And that guy That guy got his ass kick

Oh really? Everyone was like You violated like Broke the code Rule of like Just everyone's here Just having a beer And just relaxing

Did he do it because of the scandal Like I'm gonna take this is now my opening Like there's a little bit Like this is my moment Like finally I can cash in on the fact That I play in a league And we're in goal I didn't even

But here's the kicker to the story I never saw it Yeah Everyone else on my team So I only found out literally Like a couple years later When someone just in passing Mentioned we're playing the team

That has that jackass honor Something like that And then not only were guys kind of protective of me, but they even even tell, like, they were, like, so bound about it. They didn't mention it to me. It didn't make a big deal about it. It's a little bit, like, we're not, like, these are guys

who are not, like, we're not hockey is in our lives, but it always was kind of an oasis from all the other shit going on. Because, to be honest with it is for the guys, too. Like, they're the stockbrokers, or they've got the six kids at home and they still figure out away at midnight to come on play hockey.

And that's why I've, I've, like, kept doing it. That night, when you found out about it did you go out and make like a 57 save performance just dominate that guy's team i was like i was like a little weepy i was very emotionally you know my team rallied around me the way they did is a good it's a good point though because i was i was i was wondering about that about you because i mean obviously we all know on the ice as we found out again this week after shaw like anything goes sometimes language-wise right so it it it occurred to me that everything you've gone through would be grounds for chirping would be grounds for trash talk but it sounds like it's not like every so

Like, every so often it does, but I've actually become a much different player. I mean, I'm 51 now. I'm not as chippy as players. I used to be. You know, I don't bring it on my, I realize I get enough problems with just my own little. Were you Billy Smith for a while? No, but I was just too, I was too much. I mean, like I would do this thing, this smithian thing, just to get myself into the game

and kind of like I would be a little chippy, someone got in front. But more often than not, it's like very, every once in a while someone will say something or they'll, you know, post on Twitter and I had two goals against, you know, wean or whatever. But that doesn't really happen. I will say this, apropos of the show thing, is that, is that, like, even in beer league hockey, you don't call someone a fagg.

Right. It doesn't, like, even, like, the cultures has changed, like stuff that you might have heard said. And, you know, like, even then, it's like, you're just in the locker room. Right. It's not, even locker room talk is not locker room talk like it was. I mean, everyone's moved kind of to a different place.

And I found it really weird that when the Shaw thing happened, that one of the first reactions for people was like, oh, God, it's the death of trash talk. Like, what happens on the ice stays in the ice? I'm like, but there are always things you can't say no matter what the situation, because it will leave the surface. Well, but there's something else like trash talking

and calling someone the N-word or calling someone a fag or something. There's a line there. Like, you know, at first I, it's not really trash. It's not the same. One is just being, you know, being racist or homophobic. Trash talking, by the way, hockey trash talking is the best trash talking. It's the best. Like, you know,

when Drew Doughty says, you know, you're bad at hockey, you know, whatever that, you know, it's great. I mean, it's like trash talking is trash talking, but it is entirely different thing to call someone a name. Like, it's not really trash talking, really, you know. Yeah. And, you know, sometimes the line gets blurred. Like, I remember there was that series that was Flyers and, God, I want to say it was the Penguins, I'm not sure, but the Flyers were all going through divorces and that became

coin of the realm for the other team to chirped them. Oh, yeah, I remember hearing stories about Claude Lemieux, something about his wife or he was with something else's wife. Claude Lemieux, look at the Claude Lemieux's, uh, wife, wife situation's amazing. I don't know if, did I tell this story on the podcast or not? So I heard the story about Claude the muse. So he's going through this huge divorce and needs to get a new contract from the Devils, right? And he's, you know, it's very public that he's going through this big divorce.

And the players on the other team are all chirping him. They're like, they're like, you know, how's your wife, Claude? How's your wife, eh? Has your wife? And finally, somebody on the devil's bench goes, she's fine, she's rich. You could actually see like Jacques Lamar of devils, like old-ass Jacques Lamarred. Just like losing any shit on the bench.

That's trash talk. By the way, and the great failing in my view of, you know, that HBO series 24-7 was that these series that have wired players always leave out the best stuff, the stuff you want. Now, I always wondered if it was some kind of a deal with the Players Association.

It's the league. It's the league. It's a final. There was an incident with Sidney Crosby in the first year they did it with Washington and Pittsburgh in which he dropped one of those words you can't say, like one of those George Carlin words, and they edited it out of the show. And I got it from somebody

who had seen the episode and they said, yeah, they basically paused at it and said, we can't show Sid saying that. Well, but wait a minute, but the whole thing is edited. That, to me, is a completely different thing from basically the chatter they is the least interesting chatter. A lot of guys, too, people

were telling me, like, they'll mic up a guy, and then all of a sudden a warm-ups, the mic'll break, and then suddenly there's nobody mic up for the whole game. Like, guys will take the mic and throw it against the wall and walk around. So it's more about an investment in protecting their access in the future for any rule that they have. Guys are really, they're

really big on the whole, you know, like Vegas thing, what happens on the ice, days on the ice, so they'll be like, yeah, I'll do it, and then they'll just say, fine. My dream was always the uncensored NHL broadcast on HBO of an actual game. You mic up the penalty box so you get all the cross chatter, the guys are in the box. You have, at the time I had this idea, it was Dennis Leary.

Had Dennis Leary as one of the commentators on the game. I've been like the Dennis Miller rolled on him and one of football. Yeah, 92, 93 around this time. Yeah, where the rough came out. And then have him drop F-bombs in the show. And then I think that is the greatest idea ever and it would make hockey super popular until you get the Andrew Shaw moment. The 20 guys would be kicked out of the league by the year.

No, but there's a space in there. First of all, here we are. this time where the leagues are all looking for more experiential ways for people to deal with the thing. This is the most obvious one. Like, what is it the first baseman is saying to that runner at first base when they're holding up to goes? I'd be interested. Can it be that bad that they can't give us a little insight on that? And yet instead, they'll give us, you know, Mookie Wilson, third base coach is clapping and say, go get him, go get. And I'm like, well, I don't need threats. Like, I'm so surprised that no one sees the value proposition of letting fans really get an

inside. They're afraid. They're afraid. I suppose. Can I just pause for a second and know, The guy that was in politics is complaining about the message being you controlled. No, but in fairness, how many live mic moments have politicians had because they're omnipidate mics and omnipresent, iPhones and everything else? So, yeah, and by the way, and we also value that as an art form, like the behind-the-scenes political thing as an art form that everyone kind of values. But I just always, I'm always let down by those open mic kind of shows. When you were doing politics, though, like, how handled were you? Because it didn't seem like much.

I mean, it seemed like you could speak candidly on a lot of stuff. Well, first of all, there's, when you reach a certain league, when you're running for mayor, it's a different thing than you can go years of city councilman and a congressman. No one cares. You don't need to be protected because who cares? Right. And then there's another thing that's going on now that, like, the way you plant your flag in today's modern political world is saying outrageous things. Yeah. Like, it's the opposite.

It's like, I bet you, like the other day there was his local congressman who said that he would drink Sinai if Ted Cruz became their nominee. You know that he's sitting with his staff like practicing different lines. I would have heart attack. No, not strong enough. Not strong enough. I would drink Drano. No. You can come back for Drano.

Trano's too weird. It's too weird. You know what Hemlock is? Hemlock. Is anyone else? No, no, no. Something else. No, let's test Hemlock.

That might work. Yeah. Let's focus group this. Yeah. So there's a little bit. But I'll tell you, and then there is this weird thing that happens. you know, we saw it with John McCain when he went as a long-shot candidate

the first time he ran, the free talk or whatever it said, the straight talk express. There was this, reporters loved it, and he thought it was great, and he would literally have reporters on the bus with him, say what everyone, it was great. We all loved it. And then he becomes the nominee years later,

and suddenly all that stuff's getting him in trouble. And suddenly he's like, no, I'm not to do that anymore, just as a matter of political imperative, you just try to be more saying. That's true because, like, in sports, everyone's like, man, I wish these players would just speak candidly

and speak honestly, and the second they do, it's like, whoa, whoa, bro, don't say that sort of thing. No, I had a circumstance in 2005 the first time I ran for mayor. I was literally like 2% of the polls, whatever it is, and I sat down with a New York Post reporter, and he did this story basically like, this is the candidate you want to have a beer with. We literally had a beer. I didn't have a... Shit, they said the same thing about W.

Right, and it's like... And I remember this closest thing that I had to kind of a consultant type, who was also a close friend. He says, listen, if this is what you want to be, the politician that reporters want to have beers with, keep this up. If you want to become the mayor, there's a whole different way to do this, and that's not sitting down and having beers and just talking off the cuff and saying whatever the hell you lose it on your mind, because here are three things in the story that if you were the frontrunner would undo you,

that kind of a thing. So there are different currents, and voters, by the way, are conflicted, as Dave said, you know, they want you to be yourself until you say anything that disagrees with them, and then they're not voting for you. And not to turn this into fucking meet the press here or anything, but, like, New York primary was, as we tape, was yesterday. I think you're a Hillary supporter, yes? Not of that.

My wife is the vice chair of her campaign. Oh, well, that would make sense. Yeah, I mean, I guess you have to, right. Yeah, you know, it's true. So, I don't know how much you can speak about this, but it seems like when we talk about candor, one of the things that she's working against is the fact that people think that she's too practiced.

Yeah. I mean, how do you get out of that? Without a seeming force. Yeah, well, that's the problem. I mean, people want, they want planned, calculated authenticity. You know, like, yeah. I mean, she, that's actually the slogan for the show. Exactly. I mean, part of the challenge that she faces, in my view, is that she's been doing this so long and is so experienced and so kind of cautious constitutionally for what she's been through that anytime something resembling is kind of like real spontaneity comes out, it's going to come through that filter of her experience anyway.

And also, you know, as we just finished discussing, I'm not sure that this value that we put on spontaneity is an authentic one by the American people. I think they want to hear who's going to be a good president. They're trying to figure out who's going to leave their country. They want to see NTV for four years. Who they trust having their finger on the button, that kind of stuff. And, you know, being someone who talks off the cuff, who says exactly what he thinks and whatever it is, might not be in this moment in American civic life what people want.

That's the worst Trump impression I've ever heard. That wasn't even good. That wasn't even close. But then again, like you found out in life, I mean, there's also this weird thing culturally where you never know when the switch is going to be flipped and they decide it's time for you to be destroyed. And South Park did that was... Well, I'm not a good example of that.

No one contributed to my shit more than I did. But all of that being said, but it's true. But part of what, you know, being in public life is you're in this weird place where people say they want the authentic you, but then they have a very clear mind of what they want a president to be like and sound like and act like. And I have a theory about the presidency nowadays that since there's such a tumult of information out there,

what the American people want is kind of a steady deal guy in the middle who's just going to, like, not mess things up too much. They don't have huge ambitions that they're going to change the world, but they want to make sure that their kids are going to be safe and that kind of thing. And that's why Obama, I think, is derived. And I think that's ultimately why Hillary Republicans are doing. But why Trump, though, because there can't be that many racist, homophobic. No, that's about this many.

This is about 10%, which is what he's getting. He's getting 10% of the country. Remember something? He's getting a subset of a self-selecting subset. He's getting 30% of a Republican Party, which is 30% of which you have about 25% of the party that act is and does anything. So it's a real small subset. The number of actual live human beings that are showing up at a rally like he has is relatively small. Now, it might be enough, though, to get you the nomination in a weird dynamic that they had.

But there are that many people. And, by the way, you've got every country has assholes. It's not like something that's unique to us. They just don't get this close to the finish line. I don't know. You know, you Le Pen and France. Everyone thought she was going to be the thing. And she wound up not getting that many votes at the end of the day.

There is a fringe in a lot of countries, and I think that this is, and it's, by the way, the Venn diagram of the fringe Trump supporter and the Frin Coliseum holiday fan. I was just thinking. Like the subset of the subset of the subset is like that being a devil's fan in New York, right? It's basically an upstairs at the Coliseum fan. This Barclays Senate, I've got enough asbestos for me in these lungs. Do you like Barclays? Because, again, like the thing about Barclays that I wrote about earlier this year, there are some atrocious season. there are some seats that shouldn't exist there.

No, but no one's in them. Well, they are in playoffs. Here's the thing that, here's the thing that troubles me most apart, is that when I heard about the size of it, and how small it is. I'm like, oh my God, that's great. Like, it's basically what they play in Winnipeg.

It's like a tiny little place. I'm like, this could be great. And you go there, it does not feel like a small place. It feels big. It feels big. It feels really big. And it's so much so that upstairs, it's cold for reasons that have

more to do with how they didn't plan. Now, I don't know you guys must know. this is one of the reasons I want to meet you. Why wasn't it designed with hockey in mind? What was the... I just don't think they ever pictured there being on the other hockey team over there. I know, but putting that aside, even if you just want to have a KHL game or a Frozen 4 game, like, why would you design a space if you were just as a businessman?

You would have nothing about sports. That's actually really me anyway, so yeah. How do I design something that has the most adaptive uses? I don't think they ever asked the question about what happens if the concrete slacks. this year. Because MSG is, because I think if MSG already exists, they probably feel like, all right, what can be our niche? We can be concerts and we can be

the Nets basketball, yeah. And maybe some college basketball. Unless the answer to this question is there's so much additional planning and cost that goes into making it hockey ready. I don't believe there is. Like to make, to change the geography of the buildings at the scoreboards over the center out of the ice. It does not seem to me, not that it matters, or getting back to your

question, as a fan, it doesn't matter like, I know we like arguing about stuff like this. It doesn't matter that much to me that I have to look over one side. But a bigger problem for me is the first third of the season. They didn't have any replays. Right. That was a much bigger problem for me. Oh, is that true? They had no replace. Do you miss the Coliseum?

I didn't get to go there as much. I grew up, you know, getting there from Brooklyn was the House of Pain. Getting there from anywhere. Like I took mass transit for the playoffs last year and just because now I live in Manhattan, it's the worst. It's the worst. Talk about not planning things. I mean, that was like

really. But great place to see. The crowd is always great. It's a real, like, not like I see a lot of games at the garden. It's a lot of guys in suits who have no idea what they're doing. It's the worst it's a bad environment, and the costume was never like that. You had like, you basically had just, look to your left, look

you're right, you saw Trump supporters and that was cool, you know, like whatever. But it's, but I don't mind it. I think it's over, I think the Barclays is overrated in a couple levels. The food set up stinks, like, I mean, you guys are fancy. Well, it's a hallway situation in the upper dick is bizarre, because it's at

one point it gets so narrow that you feel like you're in a motel six. Right. And the whole point of this was to make those amenity-type things better than it was of the Coliseum, which were terrible to the Coliseum. But it's not that much better. The bathroom lines are just as bad. How tight it is up there. It's the worst John Taffer butt funnel in the history of Barr rescue butt funnel. They do groin tissue. My tissue, whatever was. And they also do some like strange design. things. Rather than put food on both sides, they've lined, like, just, so

from that perspective as a fan, like stuff I care about, whether I can get a, you know, a beer or something, it's not that great. But all of that, being said, they haven't done a great job promoting the team in my view. Like, right now, if you go on Google and look up

ranger tickets, if I were the Islanders, I'd buy the first dad that comes up. Yeah, you're not going to get in there, but you can clearly come to Barclays. The way you can get there for mass transit so easily, they don't do anything to have for It's right across. It's great. It's great access.

When you go to games, can you just go as a regular guy? People want to come up to you and say hi, talk to you, take your picture. Do they echo you? A little bit. I mean, less so than it, then, you know, I mean, it's a little bit. They're hockey fans. I mean, but it's not. I mean, New York is different than a lot of places.

You can't shake a dead cat without hating someone who's a D-level celebrity somewhere. Come on a street. Straightens tie in this room right now. Thank you very much, Mr. Reiner. You can stand in front of the Yahoo bill. building here in C Caucus and you'll see someone famous go by it. You're not D-level. You're C-plus. C, C, I'm C.

But with each passing day, I'm at the point now I'm doing fucking hockey podcast. All right, well, with that, I had actually one more question for you, and it was about your, well, two questions, actually. First off, how many years until the honors win a cup? We're going to do it

this year? We're going to see the next five years. I mean, I don't know about you guys. I mean, we're in a parody place with the NHL. I haven't seen it. Yeah, everybody's got a shot. In my time, and it's a fan, I haven't seen it. And I don't know if I like it that much. Like, it's not, I like, I like the league dynamics where there are powerhouses that, you know, it's, it's like really mean something.

If you win a game, you know. I don't have a fan's natural affinity for dynasty. Yeah, well, not so much dynasty year to year, but at least, you know, when you take the, maybe the capitals out of it. Yeah. You know, there wasn't a team this year that you were surprised when another team would beat them. Right. That's good. So I kind of have more, I kind of like leagues that are more like leagues that are more like.

that than they are now, which is, it's weird. It was a weird year because as much parody there was, there weren't real playoff races per se. It wasn't like, I guess last year, the year before, we're like by the end of the season, despite everyone's in it. I don't know. I don't, the difference between, I mean, they got to figure out some, they got to figure out once and fro who to put around Tavares to make that work. I mean, they have, I think Nielsen's one of the most underrated players in the league. I mean, he's just really great. I mean, they have, they have big holes, and now one of them may be goaltending. I mean, I don't, something's going to, on with a lot. And they have to trade Hamanick, because he's going to be he wants to go

to the season. What are you going to get for him? That's true. So there's some question marks. So I think you're a goalie and a coach away. I mean, honestly. I don't know. You tell me, you're the expert. I mean, what, fuck him coach, what is he going to do? And he's going to put a lot of a lot. First of all, Capuano does every single line through the course of a game, every combination of purgitation. It really, it really is kind of mix up the jigsopped up pieces and see what comes down the box. Like, I look at the I own there's just no way the Islanders should have the same amount of points as the Rangers. The Islanders have way more talent. They don't have

a goalie like Henrik-Lonquist, but there's just no way that they should want to plan. I think that's right. Well, the Rangers were weird team this year. They had that really fast start that were never that good, even during their fast start. They were never that good a team. So they put some points up on the board. They probably didn't like. They probably

were not for that. I don't know the math, but they were a bubble team, if not for that run at the beginning of the season. And finally, if you had become mayor of New York, could you have passed a law that would mandate every bar to have hockey on when there's hockey on? Yeah, can you do that?

Because I walk past places in Chelsea, and I look inside and it's like two baseball games and a basketball game, and like the Rangers are on that night, and it makes me mental. Well, so last night, I actually went up not staying for reasons that, I was here at Yahoo. Oh, here, Yahoo, okay. I was here at Yahoo.

And in the green room, these coffee pod machine, Wi-Fi, these great couches. You know, it was on TV? What? Fucking Yahoo. I got you know, their games going on left and right. This is the night the Rangers play, the night the blues

were playing, you know, the night Nashville was it. And I got Yahoo on the screen. Okay? So why don't you get... In fairness, we spent a lot of money for community. So if that's what was on, we're probably still just showing it here and there. I don't know. It was it was just kind of

Yahoo stuff. Studio Where... You can grab the hockey. And so maybe you get your own house in order before you start. You know what I'm saying? Let's get this operation in shape. So Anthony Wiener, you're a gentleman and a scholar. Where can people find you on the Twitters? Yeah, what do you want to promote? What do you want to promote? That's my problem. I've got nothing to sell. I'm at Anthony Wiener. It's in New York here on Friday and Monday. So this would be. I don't know what the dates are. We'll throw this up on Thursday. I'm filling in on the radio in the morning on 7-77 ABC from 10th to noon.

That's a blow torch right there. That is. a lot of coverage that station. It's about 120,000 of Clear Channel. It's Mrs. Crapalucci on Avenue P is the only one listening. And like Marty and the bread truck, Hey, I got a trade for you. You know, my favorite show, my favorite New York radio show of all time

was when Giuliani would have his radio show on and it would be an, the mayor's hour, or whatever it was, and they'd call in, and you'd hear just like, uh, the pothole that I told you is about two weeks ago. They didn't feel it yet, so wondering what the story is. is there, mayor, I'll hang up and listen.

It's still there. I actually, I mean, radio is an interesting. I mean, it's, you know, again, I sound old in this interview, but like the guys that started out, like the Stearns and the Imuses and everything else, you know, like radio is now getting back, at least in New York, to being more localized, like the period of, like, having these syndicated conservative guys yelling all day has lost some of its appeal. And just like the Internet has gotten more silo that people want kind of more local stuff, you know.

So I'm going to do some radio, but I don't, none of anything else. I'll add Anthony Weiner, and by the way, my draw is doing surprisingly well. What draw? In your bracket? Yeah, my bracket. Are my brackets for shit? My bracket. If every team that's winning wins, I will have swept the first round.

I did not do that. You should really be hosting this podcast in hindsight. You're not for nothing. You want to just take over for the rest of the way? I mean, now without that I've said, who do you guys have going all the way? I have Washington versus Anaheim. Yeah, we both had Anaheim going far. Who did you have in your final?

I have Washington beating L.A. in the final. So LA still a lot. Of the teams that were struggling, LA is going to be fine. So you look at you're bragging about your line about your racket. Come in here. No, but those are the West Coast delays? So what, are they 2 to 1 L.A.A.S. Yeah, as we take this, they're 2 to 1,

I think they're fine. They're fine. Don't worry about it. I'm worried about Anaheim. I don't think they're... I may have overvalued Anaheim. I feel is pretty good. I think a lot of people over over the Flyers. I thought that was going to be a long series. I thought a lot of people say that. I got spooked out of picking a shorter series. I mean, I'd want to

pick a capital. I'm going to people picking them and say. Listen, if Mason can let that goal in, surely there's a place for me in the NHHA. Absolutely. Right? I can do that. You can be that guy whenever the goalie gets hurt and they call up the guy off the street. You can be the guy out of the street that dresses for the back of them.

So you remember that that Florida game last year that they scrolled through like six goalies? Literally. Did they call you? I was close enough because I'm doing the math. There's like 5,000 people in the building. I'm on Twitter watching this go on. My gear is in the car. I'm like, okay, I get a flight, but probably the third period.

Okay, tune inside from my internet. It'll be down to zero goals at that. And by the way, if all the buildings in the entire NHL, like South Florida, like the average age is like 70. Right? So I figured I had a shot. So you're like, let's see, Speaker of the House, majority whip, minority whip.

Me. Well, listen, we are, we're way over time, but I was only in Congress for the fantasy sports opportunities. I got a chance. I got a chance I played. I was one of the ESPN's plays of the day once. playing in the congressional baseball game, I made this catch, and I was no, you can Google it. Anthony Weiner, ESPN plays of the game, plays of the day. I played hockey at the Verizon Center,

and a Madison Square Garden, and the Coliseum. And now you're doing this podcast in a closet at yaw. Totally. I mean, how far, I mean, to say I've fallen far, is an understatement. Thank you very much for having me, though. Thank you for being here, Anthony Weiner, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you to Anthony Weiner for stopping by our closet. Very nice, very nice man. Very nice man. Indeed. I really enjoyed his work. Hey guys, I have those papers you needed?

What the fuck are you doing? Dude, what are you doing? What's wrong? You're standing on our logo on the floor. Hey, if you don't want people to stand on it, why is in the middle of the floor? Because it's a matter of respect, Chris. It unites the podcast. It's literally right inside the door.

No, but we put it on the floor so we can look at it before each showing, realize that we're all part of a team. We're part of a team. Well, why not just the wall? Why don't you know the rules that you're not told about? I don't understand this. It's pretty dark in here, guys. you know what i mean you know it's just it's just it's just it's the reason we don't want fucking people

in the room if we don't respect the logo you don't respect the show you don't respect the show you don't respect dave get out get the fuck out of here god damn it these fucking people they just they don't get what we do they don't get the respect that we have for our own logo that's why we put it on the floor we put the logo on the floor and we tried to rope it off just you know nobody no one's supposed to stand on it i don't even know why the ropes aren't here we usually some PR guys to watch out for it. And everybody's like, oh, put the logo on the ceiling. Well, you know what?

I don't ever look up when we're in the locker room. I look down. I look down. Right, to put the skates on. The same way I look down at the media who tries to cover us. That's why it's there. That's why it's there. So they can be reminded about how they're not us.

We literally just put it down. Two episodes in, we got enough scratch to put our logo on the floor of the studio. And some halfway comes in and disrespects it. Some pigeon. Some cockroach. Some. Some dude just thinks he thinks... This completely reminds me of what I saw on Sunday.

Like, I was covering the Panthers and the Islanders, right? And then somebody, I don't know who, some idiot decides that they're going to put their shoes on the half-mile-wide Islander's logo in their locker room. Right. And this is what I heard... Some ignorant son of a bitch. Some ignorant son of a bitch. And this is how it played out.

This is what I heard. This is while I was trying... I was trying to interview Thomas Hickey. and then somebody decide to disrespect the four-time Stanley Cup champions some decades ago, New York Islanders. What a... There you go, exactly. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, get the fuck off. I completely get where Cal Clutterbucks coming from because, you know, much like the idiot who just came in here, you know, no one told him the rules about this logo.

But he should just know. He should just know. He should just know. Right. They should know that if you have a logo on the floor of your locker room and it is the size of Delaware, that you should find ways to tiptoe around that logo as best you can. Right. It's obvious.

It's like, it's like an instinctual thing in your DNA where it's like, you know, don't touch the hot fire. You know what the problem? You don't walk on the loiter. You know what the problem? You know what Chris is. Never played the game. Oh, right, right. No, stupid, but also never played the game.

Never podcasted the game before. He doesn't get the rules. He doesn't understand. Did you hear a clutter buck today when they asked him about it again? Oh, no, I didn't. He said, you know what? You know what? He's like, I don't understand why you just can't respect it.

It would be like me coming to your house. walking inside, not taking my shoes off, and jumping up and down on your coffee table. Because that's the same thing, is walking on carpeting is the same thing as jumping up and down on someone's coffee table. He's right. He's completely got it right. Both things would piss me off equally because both things are not wildly different examples. They're completely the same. I always keep my shoes on in the house. It's what makes you feel comfortable. But as a guest, though, if you come over to someone's place and they want your shoes off, you take your shoes off. If you want to jump on the coffee table, whatever the fuck that means.

The more I think about it, though, you know, if maybe put the logo on the floor is the best idea. What do you mean? It would make more sense if you took the logo off the floor and then put it higher because then no one would step on it. Like no media would step on it. No cancer stricken children there to get an autograph. Justin Bieber would never step on it when he visits the Blockhocks locker room as he did that one time

but you're talking crazy where else would you possibly put it I'd like higher like um like I mean like I know I'm on a coffee table you mean maybe on a coffee table but maybe even higher than that I know I sort of bemoan the idea just moments ago but like what if you put it on the ceiling what if you

showed such reference and respect for your logo that you didn't put it where dog shit-covered shoes will trounce it on a daily basis, but you put it closer to God or whatever deity you respect. All right off the bat, two problems. One, you're completely excluding Lionel Richie from coming into the room and dancing on the ceiling. That's a little disrespectful to Lionel and the artist that he is.

And two, what if you get incepted and you wind up in the locker room in the dream and the room is spinning around. That's so crazy. And then you're going to... And all of a sudden, you're going to... Wow. You're fighting Joseph and Gordon-Levon on the logo on the ceiling. Right.

So right away, I mean, you're ruling out an entire, you know, situation. Like, people are asleep eight hours a day. So that's one-third of the day where you could possibly step on the logo. So in... And every time Lionel Ritchie comes in the room. So, okay, if... Come on, right. The two strikes against this idea is if Lionel Ritchie comes into your locker room

and dances on the ceiling or there's some level of anti-gravity, then in that case, you would also... What if there is an exorcism? What if you had to get a demon out of someone's body and they rose up and touch the ceiling? Douncing Reagan with Holy Water going, the power of Christ compels you. Please don't touch the logo. The power of Christ compels you. I think you haven't thought this through. I think it would be make, but that's, see, that's one column.

And that's, there's like one tooth. I'm writing it. There's three things now written down in that column. And over on this other column, up, I just unfurled a scroll as long as Santa's list. Two things. Left foot, right foot. I got three, you got two. I win.

I think that maybe if we put the Puck Soup logo on the ceiling, then no one would step on it, it would be closer to Jesus. And we can look at it every time we do a show and just be like, we could jump up and try to touch it. I don't have a lot of hops, but we could try to touch it. Like a Notre Dame thing.

Yeah, you podcast like a champion today. But I think the ultimate thing, though, is like if Chris ever does need to deliver valuable documents to us during our podcast, completely ignoring the on-air light, by the way. Yeah, again. I mean, Jesus, what's wrong with that? If he was here right now, you know what I would say to him?

What would you say to him? Hey, I would call him. I'd see what he already laughed. People know he's in the room now. He's in the corner, right? Way to ruin the bit, Chris. I'd say good job at trivia a couple months ago. Yeah, Chris Wilson's really good at trivia.

So, yeah. The moral of this parable is, of course, put your fucking logo on the roof. Just don't yell at reporters if they step on it. Don't have your PR people guard it. The entire notion of the logo is saying, Shankar Sant and we put it on the floor where there's shoes and dirt and nonsense.

Oh, and also, by the way, the logo is so sacred that you skate over it on the ice a thousand times a game. Also, Cal Quaterbuck of the New York Islanders, if you really want to protect the sanctity of your logo, if you really want to make sure that everybody

knows that this crest, this crest is as important as a religious iconography in my life, perhaps you should go to your marketing department and get them to stop selling New York Islanders fucking car mats. Wow. I was thinking about the end of that Tom Hanks movie where the French girl is the daughter or the great-great-granddaughter of Jesus.

Oh, a splash. Yeah, splash. She's half-mermade. It takes place in France. And at the very end of the movie, a fucking spoiler alert, by the way, they figure out where the tomb of Mary Magdalene is. And Tom Hanks goes and basically says. stands over above it

like whatever how many hundred feet up above ground and kneels before it so I'm thinking as a show of respect after game four every media person who hears this on Thursday should go back in time

to Wednesday and kneel around the logo and pay it the respect it deserves see I also remember a film like that a little ditty called Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade oh we almost got through this without a Harrison Ford reference. They went to a library and where was it Chris? Venice

I believe it was. Yeah because they had the boat chain. Yeah, they went to a library in Venice and they saw on the floor that whatever Dr. Henry Jones had written in his diary was an indication that the floor was hollow and that's what the catacombs were and they just took one of those

metal posts that keeps people in line and they took it and smashed it on the floor and the librarian's like, what? And then remember the librarian has a little stamp? And every time you're he's like wow my stamp's making a crazy loud noise and that was the level of humor in Last Crusade

that really was a stupid scene wasn't it like this guy he was so stupid that he thought he was super strong he didn't realize a sound was coming from 100 feet away it thought it was coming from the book he was standing and this guest guy was old enough where they built the library around him and all of a sudden in all of the stamps

he's ever made on all the books in that library it makes that noise and it draws no suspicion so that's what we should do is we should get Harrison Ford to go to the king's locker room out in L.A. and just start just cracking the King's logo on the floor with one of those little rope posts. And they're like, hey, are you a hockey writer? And he's like, part

time. Kings mocks this font. Get off of my logo. We named the dog, Drew Dowdy. Every episode of Puck Soup, we like to hear your feedback. We ask for your questions.

What do we got? And we try to answer them as best we can. I didn't retweet your question thing today. I didn't see it. Josh Alexander writes in, you have to be sponge-bathed by the playoff beards of one of the teams and the playoffs. Who you got is his question. Wait, sorry, I was just reading something that was really funny that I can't talk about on the air. Oh, dear.

I'll tell you about it. Okay. Sorry, what was the gentleman or the gentleman's question? Josh wants to know if you were to be sponged bade by the playoff beards of any NHL playoffs team. Oh, right. Which beards would they be? I don't know. I don't really want to be sponged.

bathed by anyone's beard. Who's the youngest team in the playoffs? Is it Nashville? I want to take the team... Well, I mean, then you get the Shea Weber beard, though. That's like a brillo pad. Oh, yeah. That's not a lufus, sir.

Like, San Jose's... That's like steel wool. San Jose is the grossest. Yeah. Pittsburgh seemed... I was in that room last night. They seemed, because, like, Sydney Crosby really can't grow a beard. No, it's patchy.

Matt Murray's was kind of grisly. Mm-hmm. I would probably... Listen, there's only one answer here. And I'm sorry. that it's not beard-centric, but the answer, of course, is the Dallas Stars. If I'm going to get sponge bathed by faces, let them faces be Tyler Sagan and Patrick's Sharp. High-five.

I'm waiting. Wait, high-five. Wait. What about, what about? Five. Wait, no, no, no, no. You'd be comfortable with what you're comfortable with. I don't want to, you know.

Yeah, you're right. High-five. Oh, he's not high-fiving me now. Oh, hey, high-five. Sorry, I was reading another question. Go ahead. How can the NHL Department of Player's Safety blatantly miss things like the Latang slash on Stahlberg?

Now, we didn't talk about this in the early part of the show. The NHL had a very nuanced explanation as to why it looked like Chris Latang tried to decapitate Victor Stalbert. I'm doing air quotes around him. And it involved him being all flippity floppy on his skates after being hit by Dominic Moore, and then his arm hit a stanchion and his stick went forward and hit a guy in the throat.

Like when George Costanza was faking his elbow thing on Seifeld, then it was like a twitch. That's what he had, sure, sure, sure, sure. Exactly. So there was an extraordinarily interesting number of circumstances that all led to him slashing a guy in the throat. What was the third one again? I know you just said it.

It was the elbow and the stanchion. The off balance? Right, off balance. And then also there was a strong gust of wind in the garden at that point, too, that blew his stick into the guy's throat. That was the third thing. Somebody yelled during the moment of silence for Ed Snyder and the hot garbage that came out of his mouth pushed his stick into, I don't know how that I just, I don't, I don't get how that's,

how many games would you have given him because he didn't get any? I would have given him, well, I would have given him one. I would have given Belmar, like, five. And I do, I do kind of feel like there is at least that element where you can say maybe it was an accident, but I don't think it was. He picked up, like, let's say he stumbled, it was like when Duncan Keith did his thing. Like, he got knocked down and it was kind of like, well, I was swinging my eyes. arms, no, you may have been off balance for like a split second, but then you took the opportunity

to try and Ned Stark a guy, so I would have given him. Yeah, use that reference, too. It's like one of the four Game of Thrones references, I know. It's the modern beheading go-to for all references now. What was the pre-Ned Stark beheading? I remember when Chris Simon hit Ryan Hollowig, I used sort of the pinata motif. Maria Antoinette? Yeah, right? Was that Maria Antoinette beheaded? Yeah, Chris?

Tough few centuries for beheadings there. I mean, like, she owned it. She owned beheadings for, like, a long time. We had a real beheading drought. Yeah. Yeah. And then, like, Sean Bean was like, I've died and everything. Yeah.

How do I die here? Because there was going to be a, be, uh, oh, wait, no, there was a hang. It was going to be a hanging in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves before Robin showed up and shot his arrow through all the ropes. No, Christian Slater was going to get his head cut off on that, wasn't he? Yeah. He was like, he had his head through the daily. Oh, wait, he had his head in the guillotine?

And then everybody else was going to get hung. I think so. Do you remember there was a scene? in Robin Hood Prince of Theat. First of all, whatever it is, I remember. Greatest, greatest British accent of all time, Kevin Costor, that movie. Who are you good, sir?

Robin Alaxley. And then also, there was actually a scene in that movie where Christian Slater, as Will Scarlet, as, like, Robin Hood catapults himself over something, says, fuck me, he cleared it. As they said in those days.

Yes, they said in back in ye olden days. I guess this was post Bill and Ted's arrival in Sherwood Forest. There's a great thing you should go search when you get done with this, which we're almost done with, we promise, where it was right after Alan Rickman died, and I just, somebody tweeted this guy in England who does a really

good Alan Rickman impression, and it was on this panel show, it was hosted by the fat guy from V for Vendetta, who's Stephen Frye. Oh, Stephen Frye. Yeah. Emmett Thompson. He just insulted, like, half the British comedy community. Fat guy from V from Vendetta. I was trying to describe him.

If Ryan Lorry, forget, like, being the bomb-evant of comedy. I just forgot his name for a second. And then I remember he was the naked guy and the sequel to the Sherlock Holmes thing. But anyway, like, that's right.

Go on search Alan Rickman Impression. It's his panel show where they talk about how Robin Hood was played by Kevin Koster. And it's just a great line. They're just like, wait, wait, did he play that American in that movie? And one guy's like,

oh, I think he played American the second he got off of the plane. And then the guy doesn't really go down Rickman impression. He goes, why is Spoon, cousin? Because it would hurt more. Only it's like a really good Alan Rickman impression.

and it's not mine. Nick DeVasta says, well, I was absolutely loving Puck Soup until he started throwing daggers at the Sabres, they will never win the Cup? Well, no, they're a Buffalo team. Why is it such a mystery? There's clearly some sort of a...

I won't say gypsy curse, because that's pejorative, but probably a gypsy curse on that town. Wait, you don't think they're ever going to win the Cup? No, the bills are never going to win a Super Bowl. The Bills will win a Super Bowl when they move to Toronto. The Sabers are never going to win a cup. It's just how it is.

I think they got a shot in the next five. someone asked me today, Jack Eichol, Connor McDavid, they said, who made out better? And I said, well, Connor McDavid's a better player right now and probably will be a better player going forward. But you could probably say Eichel is set up to win quicker than McDavid. Like the fact that I think it was Travis Yosep was tweeting it,

somebody was, I'll say it was Travis. It was a good tweet, so I'll assume it was his. But the Sabres went from, like, minus 130 and goal differential to, like, minus 110 this year. They made up like 110 goals in differential this year. Like that's how bad they were last year. So at that current pace, I don't know if they're going to be a playoff team next year, but in the east, I mean, Minnesota made the playoffs as what, an 8.9 point team in the West?

Maybe that happens next year. I am not as anti-Buffalo as you. I am totally pessimistic about Buffalo. It's not that I dislike the people or dislike their flying cuisine, although Anchor Bar are very overrated. Wow. Oh, my God. I just don't think the Sabers are going to win a cup. Did you really have, like, a girlfriend in high school from Buffalo who, like, broke your heart?

This is, like, really heavy buffalo anger. Full disclosure, I dated a Buffalo in high school. Oh, my God. She was really planes. What, what's wrong? And also saucy sometimes. Are you just winging this right now? I'm winging this right now.

Oh, my God. That's right. Buffalo Stanley Cup. I'm like, baby, I don't have any... I don't have any condoms. And my buffalo girlfriend said, buy some. Oh, my God. What's wrong?

Oh, my God, I want to die. What's wrong? I want to die. But I'm just trying to tell you this to hear. Anyways. Oh, come on. Wake up, Dave. Wake up.

Wake up. This isn't real. Wake up. You're not here. You're in bed. It's 11 o'clock. You're still sleeping bed. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Hey, so what's the next question? Finally, Betsy writes in, what's your ultimate expansion fantasy? Don't hold back. Well, it would begin with a foot massage. I know that. Oh, you mean where would teams go?

Wait, an expansion fantasy? I don't have anything really that graphic about the Vegas team, but all right, so I go out to Vegas. I guess. I'm covering the team, right? My ultimate expansion fantasy. I eat 15 meals a day and get to about 300 pounds, but it doesn't matter because everybody still loves me. I go to Quebec, right? And I meet this beautiful French-Canadian girl, and we just hit

it off, and it's just the most amazing two hours of watching friends that you can ever have with a woman. That's all I want. That's so beautiful. Yeah. We watched the episode where Joey speaks French, and we watch the episode where Joey speaks French and we laugh because she's, you know, she's got a good sense of humor about it. You know, we get married, we have three kids. My ultimate expansion fantasy is a rink in the backyard of my childhood home and a team there. So my dad can go to every game and my mom can complain about the noise.

I'm just trying to think of all different ways I can use the word expansion and a fantasy. Oh, oh, my ultimate expansion fantasy is, you know, all of a sudden the Halo game that I, I beat gets super great again because I bought that pack. Oh my God. What? Is there anything? Okay? I was just, no, no, no.

I was just thinking of it. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. No, my ultimate, that's not true. My ultimate expansion fantasy is doubling the size of the breakfast nook. You want to know what mine is? What's that? The Louisiana Purchase. Only, totally nude.

The nude Louisiana Purchase. That's one of my favorite scenes ever in a movie is with Albert Brooks, defending your life when he meets the guy who invented strip clubs in L.A. Not invented him, but he was the guy that made them all say all nude. All nude. Like all nude Louisiana purchase. Yeah. But to answer your question, Betsy, obviously it would be

Vegas and Seattle if Seattle ever got their shit together. Yeah. I'd rather be in Seattle than Quebec. Come at me. Come at me, bro. No, I mean, it makes sense strategically too. Like, Vancouver needs a friend. Does it something you a friend? Vancouver's that kid that dances with the dance instructor

at the dance class? But no, you know, who Vancouver is? Vancouver's that kid that you grew up with. Doesn't really have a lot of friends. Doesn't really live in the section where you live. All my friends lived in the I section in Aberdeen. I lived over way over in Madawan. We didn't really

geographically see each other. I had different friends. I like that, Rinkinin. So, like, the Vancouver Canucks are that kid. Doesn't live near the other kids. But then all of a sudden, like, he's like, hey, I just got Ninja Guy Dan for NES.

like, do you want to come over and play? And you're like, well, I got nothing else to do. My friends aren't playing wiffball today. It's raining. So you go to his house, and it's a fucking palace. Like, it's the most beautiful house you've ever seen. You couldn't believe a house like this exists in your town. And you go there, and you're like, this is really wonderful.

I'm having a great time. Why don't we invite some other people to come over and play? And he's like, I don't have any other friends. That's Vancouver. You know what? If you just take away the nice house in video games, that's basically me. It's just really hit, you really hit home there. Jesus Christ, what if I don't in my life?

Now I'm sitting in a closet, stepping on logos and talking about Stephen Fry's naked body. It's the sanctity of a logo that really... What I would give to have Cal Clutterbuck come in here for an interview and just stand on the logo for 10 minutes. That would just be, that would be the best joke ever because no one could see it, but I could see it just standing here, and that would be the best 10 minutes of my life.

How great would it be to just, like, have a logo with you, and then just put it down as a force field. Like, if I go on the subway and it's rush hour, and I don't want people to be in my bubble, can I put a logo on the floor? Just lay in front of you. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. What you doing?

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. That's a thing, too. Why is it never a player just goes, excuse me, just, you know, we have a logo on the floor. I know it's weird, but we don't like people stepping on it. Would you mind just, no, it's always like, whoa, bro!

What are you doing in the fucking logo, bro? Get the fuck. It's never just like, pardon me. Because it's a journalistic bear trap. Like, they put it down so you get your leg caught in it. And then they're like, dude, you should solely see that bear trap. Why'd you put your leg in it? The two places I'll always point to about this logo bullshit are Boston, where they actually

have PR staff members standing around the logo telling you not to step on it. And then Chicago, where they had it roped off with basically police tape. It was funny. Last night in a visiting room, I was standing with Jesse Specter, former hockey writer, current baseball writer, part-time hockey writer. And the Penguins just have, like, what is essentially like an area. a rug with the logo on it. And I'm not sure what the penguin's rule is in the visiting room. So we just kind of stood there and watched it. Like, every other person who walked by stepped on it.

And then every other person would just step over it. And I was going to ask the penguins, like what the rule is, but I just didn't care. I just step over it. Like I just, and like people were asking me about respect and this, that, and you don't you have any respect for the locker room. I do. And I also know what disrespect looks like. Because when I was covering high school basketball. I covered a school called Hayfield Secondary School in Virginia. I was allergic to that school. Yes, sir. Paul

encounters, sir. And so, I covered them all the way to the state championship game. They lost. My job is to go into the locker room and talk to a bunch of really disappointed kids. And I walked into the locker room. They're all sitting on their benches around. And I walk

through, and I kick over their runner-up trophy. for the state championship game, and the little basketball man came off the top of it. I broke the trophy with my feet. That's his respect. Did they bury you in the hayfield? I didn't stay around to see the resolution of that.

I merely went in the hallway and spoke with their coach instead. Hey, coach, where does this trophy mean to you? Well, it meant something to me before your big clawed feet got to it. If you didn't know, he's like, well, my wife died two years ago, She said, whatever you do, protect that trophy, because that trophy represents what we had. You know what really means a lot to me? Seeing that little basketball man on top. Shows you what kind of journey it's been for these kids.

Most of these kids underprivileged. When my father died making that trophy for me, he said, he said, Chuck, whatever you do, don't let some stupid reporter knock this over and then pretend like he didn't break it. Well, I'd have to say, Greg, it probably means a lot to me, considering I put my father's ashes in it moments after the game ended. Why? Why do you ask, Greg? All right. Well, that's this week's edition of Puck Soup. Thanks to former New York Congressman Anthony Wiener for joining us and talking about

talking about politics. Do we even thank Chris? I mean, really... Thanks to Chris Wilson. We really fucked up the show there. Sorry about your logo. Our trivia partner. Our improv comedian. Who we sort of took away from his work for 25 minutes. Chris has literally been in here for the last 25 minutes. Just kind of hanging out. And look at it. Look where his foot is. It's hovering above the logo as we speak. Because he's

learned nothing about respect. Nobody. Nobody knows how hard it is for us. Thanks to everybody for listening. Again, if you like the podcast, let us know, Puck's 2 Podcasts at Twitter or on Twitter. I'm at Wichinsky. He's at Dave Lozo. Read Puck Daddy, bomb a book, take your eye off the puck available on Amazon.

And thanks to everybody who downloaded, subscribed, reviewed, what have you the first two episodes of this podcast. You made us the number one podcast amongst sports podcasts and put us in, how high do we get, like, top 40 of all podcasts? I kind of stopped checking that one.

I checked when we were, like, at 67, and I was like, oh, we're getting close to the magic number, and then we went down to, like, 72, and then I stopped looking. Yeah. I have no idea where we are in the overall. All right. Well, thanks everybody for supporting the podcast, and we'll back next week. I will tell you right now next week,

we will have a discussion about a very hot-button issue that we simply didn't have time to get to this week, which is the, the, incredibly stupid myopic, get rid of it after this season. Offside Coach's Challenge. It's the best rule ever. All right. With that, Dave Lozo will take you home. Do you remember our mantra, by the way, we'd have settled on last week? Oh, yeah, everybody. Make sure you stay woke, be lit, and stay loyal. Bye.