Puck Soup - Best Of 2019

Episode Date: December 26, 2019

To celebrate 2019, the boys go through all their best of for everything this past year.

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all race and creed. I'm Greg Wischinski, V.SPN. It is time for the best of 29. edition of Puck Soup.

Can you believe it, boys? Yeah, I can. Fucking December 28th. Like, yeah, I get it. That week flew by. I believe we're here already. Yeah, here we are. It's weird.

I'm wearing the same clothes as the last podcast. It is the end of the year edition, which means it's time to take a yearbook-style look. at the year in hockey and pop culture that was it is what we do on puck soup because if nothing else, we are a healthy cocktail of nostalgia and snark that goes down easy.

Probably with a paper straw. Thanks to Blasio. Let's start off with our favorite hockey thing of the year on the positive tip. What was your favorite hockey thing this year, Ryan? I kind of can't believe somebody finally did the lacrosse goal and then did it again. Twice. Yeah.

From Specialtoff. Yeah. Really cool. Like, you know, it's one of those things as a college hockey fan. I've known about, oh, I guess you can score a goal like that since 1998 when Mike Leg did it. But it was always very strange to me. Like, why doesn't anybody at least try it in the end? NHL. And I think there had been a few over the course of however many years it's been. I can't do that math.

21 years. I think it's been weird that it has only happened a few times, but it's really weird that it actually didn't work until, what, like a month ago? And then the guy was like, fuck it. I'm going to try it again. And it worked again. That's so cool to me. Like just start scoring goals in very weird way. Like, one of the guy. of those ones that I always think about is why don't guys like there has to be a rule and maybe Sean you know this but is there a rule that you can't flip the puck over the net from behind it and like bank it in off the goal he's back? Nope. So why don't guys do that all the time? It seems like something that's worth trying.

Yeah. It's a very good question. And it's kind of, this is sort of related to to my pick, which is just the, I do like the fact that we have, an enormous amount of young offensive skill in this league these days. Gary Bettman always says that. And it's one of the few things where he's not just blowing smoke. There really is more talent in this league than there ever has been before. I wish that they weren't playing in a league that is still locked in this defense, first,

second, third, and always thinking of a dead puck era that never really ended. But we are. And it's been 20 plus years of that. And at some point, you just got to say this is what hockey is now. And at least it's being played by players that even if you give them no room whatsoever and everybody plays every angle perfectly, they are still finding ways to do some pretty amazing things. This is true. Sean, that's a very good choice. I went with Play Gloria.

I can't believe the fucking Blues won the cup, man. There has been – I mean, I can believe it because the Capitals won the Cup. so like literally anybody can win the cup now but the blues winning in the manner I'm sorry I meant for the I should I should have said for the first time winning in the United States anybody can win yes

the worst to first thing was incredible the fact that this fucking snake bit Moribun franchise actually won a championship is incredible but the most incredible thing was the fact that a early 80s disco anthem

became their team song. And my favorite thing about it was the fact that even though Laura Brannigan has been dead for a long, long time, her manager took over her Twitter feed and was tweeting

maybe as if she was alive and was getting like... That was very strange. She was getting like interview requests from radio stations asking if Laura Brannigan could come on to talk about the blue and play Gloria. And eventually she'd have to backtrack and be like, oh, no, no, no, she's dead.

This is her manager. It was so fucking weird. But yeah, the blues winning is my favorite thing this year. Without question. Dumbest controversy, Ryan. Storm surge. This is something where I imagine you're going to have to have to. It's the storm surge.

Oh, the storm surge. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. Like, who gives a shit? Let them have fun. Fucking, who cares? And yet, we had to talk about it every time they did one for three months. Yes. Although, can we just point out that a big part of the reason we were talking about it is because the hurricanes steered so hard into the fact that like one or two people.

Us versus them. They didn't like it. They did very well for themselves on that. And yeah, and kudos to them because, yeah. Mine is also hurricanes-related, and we just talked about it. It's people who are mad about the Svetnikov goal. People who are either people who are mad because it's against some sort of code. or because it's embarrassing or, you know, if I was on the ice, nobody would do that. And like, that's dumb. But the one that really gets me is this whole like, won't somebody think of the goaltenders, the poor goaltenders? How are they supposed to stop it?

Well, I don't know. Figure it out, guys. Like, you have, you've, you've had 30 years of perfect coaching to learn every angle and every, and your giant equipment and all of this stuff. I'm sorry that somebody found like one inch that you weren't automatically covering in the net at all times and figured out a way to put the puck there. But this idea that I'm supposed to feel bad for goaltenders because somebody has scored the, I hope we get to a point where there's five of these goals every single night. And if that means goaltenders have to actually stand up instead of being in the butterfly permanently at all time. So there's nowhere along the bottom of the net.

Okay. I'm fine with that. I have no sympathy at all for goalies on this issue. Yeah, I like that. My Storm Surge pick is in a few picks, but I'm going to go with reverse criticism of the Montreal offer sheet. I can't tell you how much it pissed me off that, like, for fucking years and years and years, we're all like, if only someone would tender an offer sheet,

if only someone would sign an offer sheet, And then we finally get one and we're like, except for that offer sheet. Well, it sucks. Fuck you. Who gives a shit? At least there was one. Like, they're not always going to be great. You're kind of, it's a fishing expedition.

If I can get one fishing expedition every summer for an RFA, I would be a very happy person. Like, I just want to see offer sheets. I don't like the idea of like one happens. And then we're all of us through like, well, fuck you for wasting our time. See, I disagree with this one. Because this is a fishing trip where you're. like, oh, fuck, I forgot the boat. Yeah, exactly.

You've got no pole. It's fly fishing. You're just out there holding up a basketball net saying, jump in, and the fish don't jump in, and then you go, wow, I tried. That was, uh, yeah, I, I hope it's a baby step towards real offer sheets, but as, as someone who has been making fun of that offer sheet for, for months, I have to push back a little bit because I feel, I feel kind of targeted here. So thanks for yelling, yelling at, uh,

me and Sean about this, but... Well, you know what? You know, much like if you criticize an NHL player, he'll never talk again. I think maybe if you criticize this offer sheet, you'll never see one again. So think about that. That's definitely normal. Worst decision of 2019. There's so many of them?

There are. I think the answer has to be. the major in the San Jose Vegas game. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's, that's, that's a hard, that's a hard, that's a hard one to get over on that one. Yeah. It's, it's, it completely changed the entire playoff.

So golden, golden, gold, gold, golds fans have not gotten over it. I could tell you that for real. No, they have not. I, mine is also sharks related. Uh, Doug Wilson going into this year with the same goal tending. Yeah. Which, you know what? It's a fucking good one.

It's hard. It's hard. It's hard to get gold tend. I get it. I know that GMs have hard jobs, but the fact that he has this team that on paper, everywhere else is ready to win a Stanley Cup and went in with the same goal tending. And it just has completely blown up to the point where I have no idea what they're going to do now because it's a mess there. And the thing that really bothers me about it is like when they hired Bougner, Wilson, on multiple occasions during the press conference, was referencing how many high danger scoring chances from the slot the sharks gave up.

And like, it's understandable that they're a poorest defensive team. That's well established. But you still need a guy to make a fucking save. And the refusal to criticize his goaltending at any juncture in the last two years, despite obvious lack of quality, is just mind-blowing. But, you know, it's a level of self-reflection you don't. often get from a GM, I suppose. Worst decision, me picking

the devils is a playoff team. What a fucking dumb choice that was. Stupor than shit. Really dumb. Talk about bad goaltending, a complete lack of understanding of how important that would be.

And being just sort of dazzled by the summer that they had and not realizing the fundamental problems on this roster. That was the worst decision that I made this year. was picking the Devils as a playoff team, for sure. Media moment of the year, Ryan Lambert. I hate to say it because I hate to have the fucking conversation again,

but the answer is the Don Cherry thing. Yep. The firing of Don Cherry. Just the whole thing of like the previous week. I don't want to fucking relitigate the whole thing. But yeah, all of it. Just anything to do with Don Cherry this year, it was, for better or worse, the most notable thing to happen in hockey media, for sure.

That is the correct answer. And from a Canadian perspective, it's not even close. That might be the story of the last several years. It was huge at the time. It's huge now. That's my answer as well. I went cherry adjacent. This is where I put the storm surge.

The media versus hurricanes storm surge kerfuffle cherry with a bunch of jokes that became the T-shirt. And let's not forget our friend Justin Bourne also taking that run at the storm surge. Right, because people were so into making this a story that they had to, like, some harmless half a tweet from Justin had to become like the second example of this until Brian Burke stepped in. Because people were so desperate to, and in, you know, including Carolina fans, so desperate to do this us against them act over something that most people didn't really seem to mind all that much. I think you're downplaying it a bit. He said that being a player with serious designs on a cup, sitting in a team meeting where a guy suggests we do a duck, duck goose celebration if we win the hockey match and being like, yes, we're on track.

Like, very much kind of saying that if you're doing this sort of shit, you're not a serious team, and then they went to the conference final. Like, I know what he said. No, but he was saying it from his perspective as a pro hockey player, that he wouldn't really love being part of the event. meeting where you're sitting around trying to plan out your next a goofy celebration. I thought that was a pretty fair comment.

Oh, I don't think so at all. He's saying that you can't have fun and be successful in the NHL. Like, legit. That's what he's saying. I think you can have fun. I mean, and this is part of what did bother me about the storm surge, is that not the fact that they were doing it, the fact that they're celebrating. It's after the game.

The other team's gone. Do whatever you want. But it became this thing where because if you didn't want to be Don Cherry or Brian Burke or the old school, you then head to the only other option was to pretend that this was the greatest thing you had ever seen. And that grown men playing duck, duck goose was absolutely hilarious and so fun. And you couldn't just sit there and go like, you know what, celebrate however you want, but you're playing duck, duck goose. That's actually kind of lame. There was no middle lane for that. Oh, no, you're either a progressive or a Neanderthal.

Exactly. And I would also say that, like, I would also say that that lost in the comments of someone like Boren on this one was like forgetting what market it was. Like the Storm Search existed because it's Carolina and you're trying to do whatever you can to gin up excitement into your team. And maybe you don't have to do deck duck do goose in Montreal, although maybe that would help. So that was me. I still think what Boren said was pretty dumb. Player you feel the best for Ryan Lambert. Nathan McKinnon finally has a fucking team around him

and boy they look good too. Damn. I like that choice. Thank you. He was wandering in the wilderness for quite a long time. He was. And that's a good choice right there. Sean?

I can say Jordan Bittington. I love a good kind of underdog story. The fact that this guy was like getting sent down to the ECHL a few years ago, stuck with it. And not only won the Stanley Cup, but then got his contract and it's been playing pretty well since. You know,

you always had the feeling that this maybe was going to be a Steve Penny type of situation. And it hasn't been. He seems like a legitimate guy and he's also from kind of my hometown area. So I'll go with him. And also like the right contract, that was the most impressive thing about this is that both sides were like, yeah, the best thing for this guy is to not give him, you know, Jonathan Quick money. Right.

But also not to straight away. make him prove it for an... Like, that felt like a contract that couldn't possibly go right for both sides, and then it did. So, yeah. Yeah, it did. Yeah, I was really impressed. Anthony Duclair. Fuck, man.

What an incredible story in Ottawa. A guy who seemed like... When he came up with the Rangers, was a real Great A prospect, and then looked like he was going to be confined to journeyman's status. It may still be. Who the hell knows? But the goal scoring year he's had in his RFA season is going to earn him a pretty penny and may either have him sticking around in Ottawa or have him be a major chip at the trade deadline to go to a contender and, you know, play in the playoffs.

It was really, really pleasant surprise this year to see that happen for Declare. And it's a feel good story. Player you feel worst for Ryan Lambert. Joe Thornton. This is probably it, you know? And he's going to have to fucking. like Sean said earlier, the goaltending thing, pretty avoidable. Again, I've said it a million times, but like, if you were like, look, it's one bad year out of many, or not many, but several pretty good seasons from Martin Jones.

He's expensive. You know, we, we're going to roll the dice and bring him back. That's fair. But Arrendel has never been good. Literally has never been good. And they were like, never. Fuck it. Let's give this one a world, too, because why not? And it's like, but like Eric Carlson, Brent Burns, Joe Thornton, now Patrick Marlowe. Like, these guys are all old for NHLers. And this is probably your last kick at the can with this group. And you're just like, yeah, well, we'll just see if we can get Arindell to not suck shit. And it's like, well, this, you know, this is what. This is what. What was always going to happen with Arindell?

I feel really, I know I was very happy when the Blues won, but I was always super bummed because it did seem like that was going to be Joe's last chance, right? Yep. That role that they had in the playoffs last year. So, yeah, without question, it's a bummer. He came back and everybody was wondering if you would. Unless what? Unless what is it possible?

We see a Joe Thornton trade at the deadline. Send him to a contest. to Boston. Give him the Ray Bork, yeah, send him to Boston. That'd be good. I don't know. There's zero fucking chance that Joe Thornton's going anywhere. Yeah, I agree. You think? That's a man who, even at the height of his powers, wasn't going to leave San Jose when they were looking to maybe move him. Yeah, for a full season. To go for six weeks, go chase a cup. Help the team, be a good team player. Let him get one of those draft picks back. I don't know. I don't know if I say zero.

and Spetsa who says no. We can make that happen. We can absolutely do that. The player I feel worst for is Corey Schneider, who showed like three seconds of competence last season to the point where the

devils were like, hey, Corey Schneider and McKenzie Blackwood, we could do that. That'll be fine. And then it turns out for the fourth straight year, you ain't got it. and whether it's injuries or whatever the fuck, the fall from grace for Corey Schneider from being early in the day,

I was, you know, I did all the all decade stuff recently. Early in the decade, man, like if you had told me that, yeah, if you told me this guy would be in the H.L.

By like, 2009, I'd be like, you're out of your fucking mind. Like, this is the next generation of great American gold henders. And, and it just never,

it, for whatever reason, it just all fell apart from him in the last four years. And I feel really bad. He's a good dude. I love talking to Corey Schneider, man. That's a guy that you could sit down and not only talk about goaltending, but all the whole talk about the league and shit,

like really insightful guy. And just to see his career, like, fall apart like that and then get like Wade Reddened, basically is just depressing. Yep. So I feel real bad for Corey Snyder. All right. Hold on. I didn't get to do my player.

I feel the worst for it. Oh, I'm sorry. This one's a little preemptive because this may absolutely turn out absolutely fine for everybody. But I got to say right now, if I'm Kevin LeBonk right now, after I signed for $1 million, like a million, ridiculous contract for a million bucks, because, hey, we're going for a cup here.

I'm putting the team ahead of me. We need all that cap space. And then you look around and it's a disaster. People are getting fired. The coach that you thought you're going to be playing for is already gone. The GM, who knows, could be, The GM who's kind of made the handshake deal with you could even be on shaky ground. It's a disaster that the whole situation looks different.

And I'm sitting there going, wow, maybe I should have just actually tried to get paid what I was worth instead of trying to be the nice guy and giving this team extra cap space to lock in on long-term deals that don't make this situation look very positive right now. I hope it works out for him. I really, I hope this all falls back into place. but this is why we're always saying why don't more players do this, this is why. Last hockey topic,

the thing you'll have the hardest time explaining to a hockey fan in 10 years that happened in 2019. What is that, Ryan? That they still let you fight in this league. It's fucking insane. It's probably,

the way the fighting has trended, I mean, it's entirely possible that in 10 years. We're not going to be. Yeah. Yeah. That might not be any. Good.

That's great. But like I think it's one of those things of like, you know, when you go to someone, you know, 20 years ago, if you put them in a time machine and you're like, did you know that like nobody used to wear helmets in this league? Or did you know goalies didn't wear face masks for a really long time? It's like, why though? That's stupid. And it's the same principle. That's, yeah. My pick is not, I'm not saying this is the worst thing in the league, but as far as how the question was worded, things you have the hardest time explaining to a hockey fan in 10 years.

No big surprise for me. Offside review. The fact that we're doing this. Because at some point in the next 10 years, offside review will screw up a Stanley Cup final or some important moment and they will get rid of it. and then people will go, how come you didn't do that beforehand? And the reason it's going to be so hard to explain is we've literally went through this

with the skate and the crease rule. We've lived it. And I remember years after that, people going, why did we have that stupid rule? Everybody hated it. Why didn't we just get rid of it before it screwed up the Stanley Cup final? And now we're literally doing the exact same thing.

And at some point in a few years, it's going to blow up. They'll get rid of it immediately that off season. And in 10 years, people will be like, how did you not see that coming the sense? second time the exact same thing played out. And we'll just go, eh, Gary Bettman said the ship had sailed, so what could you do? I'm going to go with that the NHL had to wait for there to be a giant, month-long controversy about coaches kicking and choking players to enact a policy to punish and

prevent coaches from kicking and choking players. Like, the idea that there isn't already sort of mandatory diversity and whatever the fuck training for coaches and GMs is insane. The fact that there wasn't a policy already in place to deal with this shit is insane. I think in 10 years people are going to look back on this and

A, they're going to be like, it was ever cool to punch and kick your players and we'll be like, yeah, it's kind of fucked up. And then they're going to be like, and the NHL didn't really know what to do about it. They had to kind of like create a four point plan to deal with it. Yeah, that's exactly right. They had to wait until somebody, you know, like,

kicked out of the league or whatever to enact a plan. I think it's going to read is just fucking palpably insane. But that's how most of the reactionary things the NHL does reads. You know, like Rule 48 still reads like that for me. Like we needed a rule to be like, oh, you shouldn't be able to fucking blindside guys in the head is nuts. But it's the way of the world. So that'd be the thing. anything else hockey-wise in 2019 worth mentioning here?

Probably. I don't know. No, probably not. Everything else was dumb. We covered it. We all agree. Yeah. They didn't reopen the CPA.

That was a surprise. Oh, I guess. It's true. Yeah. That was a good thing. Shocking. But, you know, three years from now, we'll see it. Yeah, I know.

It's amazing because now it's like, they did, neither side reopened. And now all you hear from like the NHL side is boy, the players don't seem to have an appetite to negotiate without a deadline. Like no shit. Yeah. That's incredible. Really? That's, I mean, that's how it works is that people don't belly up to the table and talk labor negotiations until there's a deadline. That's never happened before.

All right. Pop culture. The thing you can't believe was a thing in 2019. Greg, did you see the movie Serenity? Yeah, I did. The twist in the movie Serenity is... Spoil it, man. Who gives a shit?

I definitely am going to. So, for those who don't know about the movie Serenity, I got to look up the cast because I can't remember everybody who is in it. But it stars Academy Award winner, Matthew McConaughey. It stars Academy Award winner. Anne Hathaway. It stars Academy Award nominee Diane Lane is in it. Mm-hmm.

Fuck, there's somebody else. There's like a major, like another like at least Academy Award nominee, if not winner. And it's about this guy who is obsessed with catching this giant tuna, I want to say, like a really big tuna. And halfway... Jim from the office or Bill Parsons. Okay. Which chinna. And about halfway, not even like late in the movie.

Like halfway, maybe like 60% of the way through the movie. They reveal that they are all characters in an AI-based video game designed by Matthew McConaughey's son. Because Matthew McConaughey is like an Iraq war veteran who was killed in Afghanistan, maybe or something like that, like definitely in that area and who is creating this game to spend time with his father and get away from an abusive

relationship with his stepfather. Yeah. Who is played by Jason Clark and Anne Hathaway is his mother. And then like the video game becomes self-aware. And then I think at the

end of the movie it like, through news reports it is revealed that the boy who made the video game has murdered Jason Clark in revenge. It truly is one of the most psycho fucking movie starring

two Academy Award winners. I don't know. Like, you know, great actors have made bad movies before, certainly. I don't know how anybody read this script and was like, makes perfect fucking sense to me. Yeah. Like some kind of like spin on

inception or some shit, like a big twist-a-roo happening. Sean, the pop culture thing you can't believe in the thing. I'm still not completely sure that whole last few minutes wasn't just you guys pranking me with an obviously made up extended version of real or fake. We're not playing that game this episode. The thing I didn't understand is I did not understand literally one of the TikToks my daughter tried to show me this year. Don't know what's happening.

Don't get it. Don't even understand how it works. So, yeah. I've got nothing for you. I did, I got into TikTok with my daughter a few months ago. And I was, the thing that shocked me about it,

like one of the first ones, all she does is basically like, see other people's TikToks and then recreate them is kind of the thing that she does. Like, the TikTok that she wanted to do was a song from the Heather's musical. And one, completely forgot there was a musical of Heathers. And two,

where do kids fucking, pick up on, oh yeah, we should do this bit from the Heather's musical. Very confused by it. No idea. But I enjoyed it. It seems like a better version of Vine. The thing I can't believe was a thing in pop culture this year was the masked singer. I can't believe how successful the Masked Singer was. I can't believe how much I enjoyed it.

For those they don't know, I don't know how you don't know, it's a show where B-List or C-List celebrities perform songs in giant costumes so you don't know who they are. And then an illustrious panel that includes Robin Thick, Ken Jong, Jenny McCarthy, and Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls, attempts to guess who the singers are. And my favorite thing about the show is the fact that the judges, in some cases, are given the answers, because, like, why would they guess this person unless, like, the producer said, why don't you try to guess this person? And in some cases are so fucking dumb

that they say the names of people that would never appear on the show. So, like, for example, it's like, someone will be like, oh, I don't know who the Jaguar is, but I think it could be, you know, the third person from this girl group from the 90s that no one can remember her name, who it obviously is. And then some other judge would be like, I don't know, could be Michelle Obama. Greg, let me tell you about a little something we like to call Kay Fane. So that is the Masked Singer. It truly was a wonderful...

Oh, the other thing about the Masked Singer I should mention is that my mother-in-law watches it and believed that everybody, at least every character at one point in the second season she thought could be Justin Bieber. but doesn't know that his name is Justin Bieber and would text my wife to say, I think this one's Justin Beaver, like the animal, which was endlessly amusing to me. Ryan, favorite pop culture moment.

Fucking Adam Sandler is about to win an Oscar. I'd like to thank the Academy. Adoohoo. You. Yeah. You can't beat that. I guess you don't have very much to draw from here because I don't consume pop culture.

But I'm going to say, this will be a weird pick maybe, but I never got super into the Marvel movies, but I went and saw the last one, the last Avengers. And I didn't go in with a lot of expectations other than I know that this is like the blow off of like a 23 movie series. Like give me like a really cool final battle scene.

Like when you, I know you're bringing everyone back. I know you're doing like make that moment really pop. And I felt like they actually nailed it. I really kind of, I enjoyed it in the moment in the theater. And I wish I had seen the movie earlier than I did because the theater I was in was like half empty. And to see that in a packed theater with people reacting to it, uh, I think would have been, would have been super cool. Like I, they just, uh, it's over the top and dumb and ridiculous, but also, like, it's a 23 movie comic book series. Of course, you should be all of those things. And they steered into it, and I thought it worked.

Yeah. It was entertaining. It was very good. My favorite pop culture moment of the year is the chunky sketch from, I think you should leave. Sure. I know we all have our favorites. That's by far my favorite.

It is the sketch that made me laugh the hardest. and it's the sketch that myself and my family reference maybe on a daily basis, even though it's been months after the show hit Netflix, especially the, I made up this game. I know where all little things are, which is the line that we use maybe every day in different situations. So the chunky sketch, if you've not seen, I think you should leave after listening to this podcast this year,

I don't know what the fuck you're doing. We've put over that show a lot. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but we have a like a category for most fun watching a TV show or movie. And mine is, I think you should be. Spoiler alert. For the exact same reasons you just mentioned. Like that is become, and I've watched some of that with my kids. And like in my house, nobody can get upset about something and be like, what?

Without somebody somewhere else in the house immediately doing the like, what voice? Which just like puts it in to whatever drama is happening. Like, it's, it's fantastic. Like that entire show. And did you guys see this that they just, like, this week unearthed that the old guy from the car focus group sketch was actually in, he was in the laser spine sketch. But they cut it. And then they found that they resurfaced the clip. So that was just like a.

Yeah. We were at a store in the mall the other day and they had like a whoopey cushion. And I was like, oh, going to make me think a mighty. sick? Is that the joke here? Just very loudly in the fucking Newberry comic. I read a really good interview with Tim Robinson on The Ringer that Brian Rafferty did. And they said that part of the reason that show worked so well was the joke crafting in the editing room. And that the Whoopi Cushion sketch originally was like three or four times longer than it already was. And that sketch was pretty long on the show to begin with.

And it just made me think that like The way that they put that show together On top of the material being hilarious Was so fucking genius It was just It was just like perfectly timed And perfectly consumable An A plus show

And like of When it comes to movies and music and all this stuff I don't really have strong opinions But comedy is my thing So like I'm a tough judge A plus Every good thing you've heard about that show Is was probably underselling it

If somehow you haven't watched it yet it's a masterpiece. I still think that the Stephen Youne sketch with the not washing your hands is overrated. Wrong. Incorrect. Very stupid thing to say. It's like, it's the one I didn't like that everybody else like. You're saying that as a man who often has mud pie on his hand.

By the way, I'll just jump ahead. Hold on. I was going to say the other pop culture thing we should definitely mention is Donald Trump saying you have to flush a toilet 10 or 15 times to get your Jesus Christ to get your mug pies to go down. Yep. Yep. He does. Maybe they replaced his toilet with a joke toilet

that only has a whole big enough for parts. Then. Yeah. Oh, he's just not part of the turbo team. Don't run. He's not part of the turbo team. That's exactly right. Don't run. I will literally do this all. I know I said I, like, I've got stuck. I'll do four hours.

run the podcast while we just watch the show and laugh from a series that was only like two hours long the entire thing. I will figure it out. Since I referenced, I think you should leave in my favorite pop culture moment, for my favorite most fun watching a TV show or movie, it was binging succession. Good fucking show. We went back and watched the first season. So my wife and I, are huge fans of billions. And I think we always felt that there was a real Stone's Beatles split here, where if you were a fan of billions, you couldn't watch Succession because Succession was sort of derivative of that style of show. But then we went back and watched the first season and we loved it.

We binged it. And then we binged the second season and caught up with it. And truly is one of the most satisfying, nasty, venomous, wonderfully acted. soap operas. It's a soap opera that has come down the pike in a very long time. Succession's fucking great. And that's probably the most fun, like, just consuming that show to the point where we're like, should we watch it again? Okay, so we skipped ahead. Favorite pop culture failure, Ryan Lambert. The last season of Game of Thrones and everybody realizing what the true heads knew for a couple of seasons, this show sucks. These people do not have any. idea of what's happening. They don't understand it like on a fundamental basis. And it's the same thing I've said about Watchman where it's like, oh, they just like don't understand the source

material at all. I get it now. Because the second they got away from just being able to adapt a book, they were like, oh, we have no fucking clue what's going on. We just don't know what to do with any of these characters. Nothing is going to make a lot of sense. And yeah, I think that like everybody making that show into a punching bag, rightly so, was a lot of fun for me personally as a person who only watched the show out of obligation for the last like three seasons because I love those books so much. Yeah, I didn't really have any great ideas here mostly because if I, I mean, I look at so little of this stuff that if something is a big failure, it probably never even gets near me. But I do have a soft spot for any like epic movie disaster. So I'm kind of enjoying the cat stuff.

that's going on right now. I'm not going to see the movie, but it's kind of fun to watch just everybody gangpile on something that seemed so ill-conceived and awful. And, yeah, it's amusing. The answer for me is Dark Phoenix. Oh, boy, was that a bad fucking movie. Yeah, but it wasn't my favorite.

I've seen a lot of fucking bad movies this year, but I didn't think that was the spirit of the question. It was, I hated that fucking movie. It was so bad. I hated it so much. And I, I, you know, it happened obviously at the end of the, the Fox Run with the X-Men. Disney has it now, much like everything else. And it was just so poorly conceived and poorly acted.

And you could tell that all the people that have been doing this series for multiple movies just did not give a fucking shit anymore. it was just an empty vessel. I never thought there could be a single thing from that series that could make X3 better. And lo and behold, it's Dark Phoenix because that movie is just dog shit. Finally, favorite podcasts that were not on, Ryan? The flagrant ones, the comedy basketball podcast with the guys from Hollywood Handbook and Carl Tart. I don't, I'm not the world's biggest NBA fan. A lot of, or not a lot, but a decent amount of this stuff they talk about is maybe a little beyond my knowledge about like, oh, you know, what school did this guy go to?

Is this guy a power forward or a small forward or whatever, you know, whatever it is. Like, but it is so fucking funny that like I cannot recommend it highly enough. And you do have to have at least a passing understanding of the NBA to really, I think, get it. I can't imagine listening to that show and not knowing very much or anything about basketball. But it is really, really good. I don't listen to podcasts. So that's my, I don't have any. So, sorry.

There it is. I would go, one that I really liked that was sort of new. This year was a podcast called Spectacular Failures, which is an NPR produced. Is that right? Oh, freaking swish, baby. An NPR produced podcast that deals with like Toys R Us going bust, Trump's casinos in Atlantic City going bankrupt, like shit like that, the end of Schlitz beer, really enjoyed it. and was much, much, uh, self-contained little episodes that I really liked.

And then I would have to say that the podcast that I kind of discovered this year that's been around forever, but I only got into it this year, was the rewatchables, the ringer podcast, um, that has a very sturdy format, some episodes better than others. Um, but overall really, it's a, it's a great road trip and podcast, I think. Part 15 of the discussion on, uh, the Shawshanker He gives a shit. Get lost. I mean, it's not for everybody.

And occasionally, you could be, you know, it's a bit much to be listening and have to hear, like, you know, the Godfather 2 is the rounders of Godfather movies. Like, you don't need to hear that shit. Like, but, but it's, it's got a nice, it's got a nice format. I respect the format of the show. So I dig it. All right. That's 2019. Anything else to say about this?

dumb year. No, I'm good. I'm all set. Happy New Year. Let's all try to do better next year. 2020. Where's my flying car? Huh?

Give me one prediction for 2020 for hockey. Um, hmm. Mm-hmm. Connor McDavid finally wins the MVP, even though the Oilers do not make the playoffs. Okay. I predicted that.

I like it. Sean. All of us will be right. I predict that one of you will be right. There it is. Damn. We did it. All right.

That's plug soup for this year. Thanks for listening to everybody. We'll talk to you. See you next year, as they say in Dad Jokeland. And yeah, thanks for listening. Again, we appreciate your support. We should probably say that. Appreciate all the people who listen to the show.

Appreciate all the people that's have the, they're on the Patreon. Listen to all the bonus content. And maybe in 2020 or 2020, there'll be a Puck Soup Live show somewhere. Wouldn't that be fun? Somewhere very close to Sean's house, I imagine. Do you have a backyard? I do, yeah. Can we do it there?

Would your family get pissed off if like 300? The neighbors. The neighbors. The neighbors. The fans showed up to your house. I mean, they'd get upset in a Canadian way, so I think you guys can handle it. Right. B-O-U-R-S.

All right. That's it. We love you guys. We'll talk to you next year. Bye. Later. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute.

We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hockey and Nonsense. Part two.