Puck Soup - Big News Week

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

Sean and Ryan talk about Patrick Roy to the Islanders, the All-Stars, the breaking Hockey Canada news, and more. Sponsored by Gametime (download the Gametime app and use code PUCK for $20 off)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McHen-U from The Athletic. And we got some real bummer news at the top of the show today. This came out, I don't know, as I was getting my stuff together to start the record. I'll just quote from the Globe and Mail here. This is the only info we have right now as we record this. Five members of the 2018, I'm going to put in parentheses here, hockey Canada, World Junior Hockey Team have been told to surrender to London, Ontario Police to face charges of sexual assault, according to two sources.

The pending charges are connected to an alleged group sexual assault of a woman in a hotel room. The incident occurred following a Hockey Canada fundraising gala in June 2018, where the players were honored for their win in the World Junior Championships. The players who have not been charged yet have been given a set period of time to present themselves at London police headquarters, according to two sources with knowledge. of the investigation, who the globe is not naming because they are not authorized to speak on the case. That's all it says. That's new anyway. Yeah. So that's a big bummer.

I mean, it is, but we knew this was coming. And I think the flip side of it is it's been coming for a long time. Yes. And we have all been waiting to see some sort of movement on it. I know it's been frustrating for a lot of fans, but it certainly seems like now is the time. We don't know the names of the five players yet as we're recording this. I would imagine it's not out of the realm of possibility

that at least some of those names will be out by the time people hear this. We certainly can make some very educated guesses, especially given some other recent news around the league. But presumably this is what the NHL has been waiting for. I know there's also been some frustration aimed at the NHL that they haven't moved on their own. But clearly their preference was to let the legal process run its course. And it sounds like that is now happening.

Yep. Yeah, it's tough to know what to say, just given that we have such limited information here. And it's, look, I mean, it's an enormous story. And we're a hockey podcast, so people will want to hear our take, but I'm not sure what take I can offer other than the thing that these, you know, the assault that these players are accused of participating in. was horrible based on the details we know. And they obviously should face the full consequences of their actions.

And beyond that, I'm not really sure what to offer here. Yeah, there's just not a lot to say. And again, we should emphasize that, you know, as we're recording this, This is all that we know and there is, have not seen anything about what the league may or may not do as a result of this. You know, maybe some of this will even come out as we're recording. But, you know, it's, it's like, look, it's an enormous story, but also I don't think either one of us wants to treat this like it's a breaking trade or, you know, something like that. And there will be, there will be time for, you know, having, having, having. taking takes on things like how the NHL and teams and all of that react to it once we know that.

But as we've kind of said all along on this, it's okay to let the process run its, or let the process run its course. And that appears to be what is happening. Yep, it's good that it's finally out of that kind of like, when is this happening, state of limbo that it's been in for a year now. something like that. It's been a long time. It's been over a year. I mean, it was, and yeah, it's, and presumably soon we will know names, which will be good from an accountability, perspective, and also good for, you know, if they're, this, this thing has tired all the players who were involved in that team. So they will now, at least some people, who have maintained that they had nothing to do with it, will presumably have that verified as well.

So we'll have more information and we can move forward with the next stage of the process, which will be accountability for the people who are involved. Yep. Okay, let's move on to the stuff that is less of a bummer that happened this week. It's a very newsworthy week, I would say, in the National Hockey League. We'll start with the obvious one. Patrick Waugh is the coach of the New York Islanders. I mean, I don't know if it's the right or the wrong move, but it's as a fan.

It's an interesting one. It is. Yeah, I think I said it's like the, perfect four quadrant, like, checks all the boxes of what you expect Lou Lamarillo to do at any given time. Okay. Which is, came out of pretty much nowhere. Like, not that Lane Lambert getting fired was much of a surprise they've been chanting

for. I looked it up since like mid-November. The Islanders fans were chanting fire Lambert, which, again, not allowed to chant that. Puck soup listeners have been chanting much longer. Don't do not chant that. So, yeah, they came out of nowhere in that it was Patrick Waugh. It's like an audacious move. Like the coach who quit on his team a week before the season started like seven years ago or however long that was.

Like absolutely came out of nowhere and stunning who the guy was. It doesn't make a ton of sense if you look at Patrick Hua's track record. Like, not the best, like, turning a team around guy, you know? Like, again, just, look, excuse me, he saved the Colorado. Saved by why, yeah, I understand. I understand that there was. We're getting a sequel to that book. Yeah.

And the last one probably won't help that much. Yep. those are all hallmarks of a decision Lou Lamarillo makes, you know? I'll say this. I don't think I'm as pessimistic on Patrick was an NHL coach as you were. So I'm not pessimistic about it either, I will say. Obviously, the Colorado stuff, not so good. But you talk to people who like know from junior hockey and,

follow the QMJHL specifically very closely. They're like, there weren't many teams better coached in all of Canada than Quebec was the last few years with Patrick Wall behind the bench. Yeah. To the point where I think it was Scott Wheeler was saying that he had, not only was it the best coach junior team he'd ever see, he's obviously a prospect guy at the athletic. So it spends a lot of time watching junior said it was not just the best coach junior team he had seen. as far as structure, but almost it was like watching a pro team

play against junior. Right. Now, when I think of a coach who's really good of coaching young players and then I think of a landing spot for that coach, the New York Islanders is not necessarily

where my brain goes. Yeah, there's something like, yeah, they're tied for something like, sixth oldest team in the league. Yeah. And as we kind of uncovered with our few months ago when we were doing our red arrow, they have, they lead the league and guys signed to super long-term contracts.

And guys, you wouldn't, I guess, necessarily want signed to those contracts also. Not necessarily, yeah. But the reason I said it probably won't help much is. I just don't look at that roster and go, there's more juice to be squeezed out of this one. You know what I mean? That's mainly why I said, I don't think it'll help a lot.

Yeah. Yeah. The thing is that the Lane Lambert version of this team was terrible defensively. Yeah. And that didn't make sense. Like Justin Bourne had a great piece on Sportsnet, like a couple of days before the firing where he was looking at coach. which is on the hot seat.

And he made the point that, like, yeah, the Islanders are old. Old, old teams typically slow down offensively, but defensively, you expect them to still be solid, right? I mean, they still have the, they know, they should know how to play a defensive system. And the Islanders had been a good defensive team over the years. Obviously, they have a great goaltender, albeit one who's not having his best season. Yeah, he's, he's to be. been quite good and not all world,

and that is literally the difference between the Islanders looking like a playoff team and looking like shit. Yes. He has very pedestrian numbers, and then when you look a little bit deeper at numbers on, like, high danger chances and that, he actually has been quite good.

But the team in front of him has been awful. So if Walken come in and clean that up, that's where the room for improvement is. But I'm not sure that he turns his team into world beaters. but I do know like there had been a lot of talk about Patrick Waugh in Ottawa. Not necessarily from like, again, I'm not trying to pretend to be an insider here. I'm just saying it in the fan base.

He had been mentioned a lot as a guy that could potentially come in as the coach. And for a younger team like the senators, that would feel like a better fit. But obviously not an option anymore. Yep, that's true. Yeah, I guess my point with the Islanders is, like, we're talking about this team, like, they're fucking unbelievably bad. They're down there with Columbus or whatever. When they made the, when they made the change, I believe they were two points out of a playoff spot and there were like games in hand one way or the other. But they were like around the playoffs, right?

And so Patrick Waugh being the coach. and maybe helping a little bit might be enough to get them into the playoffs. If they start winning like 58% of their games instead of 55% or points rather, not games, if they start getting 58% of the points instead of 55, they're probably a playoff team. So like I, even if it does, like when I say it doesn't help much,

and maybe gets them into the playoffs, doesn't make them a good playoff team or anything. They feel like cannon fodder if they get in. Yeah, but if you make a coaching change that spells a difference between playoffs and not, it's pretty good. I'm just looking at who the wild card teams are that they'd be chasing down. Oh, oh, cool. Great. Who's that?

Oh, the Leafs, you mean? Yeah. Yep. But, like, that's my point, though, is there's not like, you know, again, if it's just he gets a little more juice out of Ilya Sorokin, okay, that's all they need, you know? They just need a goal who can make that extra one save a night. And you know what? I'd normally say like, you know, we make the joke here a lot,

but coaches just telling goalies like go make more saves. But if I need, if I've got a all-star level goaltender, I need to squeeze him a little bit more into Hall of Fame, caliber. Patrick was not the worst guy to deliver that. Although he might have the Wayne Gretzky thing where he's like, we'll just go stop the puck. I don't see what the fucking problem is. Yeah, he might accept that

he has been coaching for a decade. For sure. So I mean, it's I don't hate it. No, I don't either. I really don't. Again, like, my thing is to what end?

As you say, making the playoffs if you're this team and you're this old and everything is better than not making the playoffs. In theory. But in actual practice, it's like, I don't know, maybe you should just like see how many guys you can trade. Because, you know, the thing that I look at with this team is, yeah, they could tighten it up defensively and make it a little easier on their goalie. But like, every single offensive rate stat of theirs is like bottom 10 or 12 in the league. Every single one.

You can't name one where they don't look like one of the worst teams in the league, right? And so to me, I'm just like, given the age of the roster and everything and where this seems to be trending, I'm not like chasing that number eight spot. I just, not that Lou at his age is ever going to be like, we're going to, we're going to tear it down. But I, it's really putting a fresh coat of paint on a building that's falling down. You know what I mean? I... Like I said, I don't hate the higher. I really don't.

But I just, for this team in particular, I'm like, you know, someone's going to be the coach, I guess. But I don't know who is, you know, you bring back Scotty Bowman in his prime. I don't know that you're getting much more out of this team than they've already gotten. Yep, that is fair. Do you have any other thoughts on just like, you know, this higher versus the other coaches that are still out there? Who have also gotten fired this year? Well, I don't think any of them are former Montreal Canadians. So, yeah, that is.

Yeah, I mean, I do. I like Craig Barraubay as a coach. Yep. I really do. So, and yeah, I mean, there are good coaches out there. And you never know when a coach gets fired midseason. Obviously, they are still being paid for at least the remainder of that season. So you never know.

Some of these guys, you can say, like, why wouldn't you hire Jay Wood? Maybe Jay Woodcroft, which is on a beach somewhere. Maybe Dean Eveson, I don't know, he doesn't. Dean Evesant doesn't seem like a beach guy, but maybe he's, I don't know, chopping wood, some remote cabin somewhere, whatever these guys do for fun. But, yeah, there's some good coaches still out there who worked recently. But Patrick was a good, oh, I guess we should talk about the weird assistant coach story. Yeah, of absolute. Again, classic Lou Lamarillo shit to me.

Has anything happened on that? Tell the story first so that people... So it comes out that a guy... I cannot remember his name off the top of my head, and I didn't have it pulled up or anything, so my bad. But a coach from the QMJHL, it seemed like Wawa was going to hire him as an assistant, and it gets reported but not announced.

But then what does get announced is, what are you talking about? This guy's not the coach of the team. Benoit de Roizier is the... Yeah, that's right. Sure I butcher the pronunciation because... No, you nailed it. Look at my last name. You can believe me.

You're making fun of me, man. No, I'm not. Yeah. Was reported according to RDS, which is the Quebec version of a TSA or ESPN. So a legitimate source, they put out the idea that he was being hired and he's got the connection to Patrick Waugh and everything. So it made perfect sense, but we all know about Luz's cone of silence. he does not like he does not like stuff coming out.

Nope. So they put out a they put out a statement saying essentially saying nothing official. Yeah, we're going to talk to him soon, I think was basically what it said. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I don't know. Really funny. Very, very, very, I imagine he still winds up on the staff, you know, after a few years. days, but it certainly sounds like maybe, maybe even Patrick Watt called the guy up and said you're my guy, but had not talked to Lou Lamarillo about it. And you just, we know Lou is a, he is a hockey legend. He's also a very weird guy. So, yeah. He, um, like the thing you said about, I'm sure it'll happen. Now I'm not sure it will, because we've definitely had it reported,

like after the fact, oh yeah, you know, the, you know, the, ex-team had a trade locked in with Lou Lamarillo and then the word got out and Lou was like, never mind, we're not doing that trade then. Fuck you. And that that is apparently how he does business. It is understood if you are engaging in any sort of negotiation with Lou Lamarillo that if anything gets out, it's over. You could be on the verge of sending him Connor McDavid for Bo Horvett

and maybe that one he would let go through. But anything gets out. So, yeah, a little tip. If you're ever about to get paid by Lou Lamarillo, just keep it to yourself. Yeah, that's right. We have some more breaking news. Elliot Friedman just posted this.

Smith Entertainment Group, the owners of the Utah Jazz, they put out a press release. asking the NHL to, quote, initiate an expansion process to bring a team to Utah. They sent, I got the email. Oh, wow. They got a good mailing list because I usually don't get these directly into my inbox. This is strange. So I'll just read you the quote from the owner of the team, Ryan Smith, who I believe used to be the captain of the Edmonton Oilers.

Yeah, he wasn't the captain, but he was captain. Ryan Smith was never the captain. He was never the captain of the Oilers. Isn't that weird? That's one of those weird. That makes me sick to my stomach. Doesn't it? Yeah.

All right. This is the Mandela effect in action. Yep. Well, I mean, his name was Captain Canada. Like, I think he was the captain of every world championship team for Canada from 1982 until last year. Yeah. It was never the captain of the playoffs.

Sure. That's right. So here's the quote from Ryan Smith. SEG Smith Entertainment Group envisions a near future where the NHL will thrive in Utah, and we are 100% focused on making this happen as soon as possible. We are passionate about sports and entertainment in the state. Boy, have I got a TV show for you to watch? It's on Monday nights.

And are committed to providing premium sports and entertainment experiences, also on Friday nights, for the people of Utah and visitors from around the world. We are ready to welcome the NHL and are confident that the time and attention being spent by all parties will bring one of the most exciting and dynamic leagues in the world to our community on a permanent basis. I mean, my first thought is tough break for the Utah Jazz, that their owners are now 100% focused on making the NHL happen. Yeah, I think you might want to check the NBA standings to figure out why they're... Fair enough. In my head, yeah, the jazz are under 500. They're, I guess, technically, in a play-in spot right now, but under 500, I mean, the West sucks this year.

That's what it boils down to. But all that power in the east, the Boston Celtics, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Philadelphia 76ers, etc. It is unusual that a potential expansion site would do something like that. We certainly didn't see this with Seattle and Vegas. Right. So that leads to either this is something the NHL knew about and is okay with or it's not. And if it's not, and the idea here is, well, we're going to kind of tighten the screws and put some pressure on Gary Bettman and Friends, then I don't think it's going to work because they don't know. Further info, led by Ryan and Ashley Smith.

S.U.G. has been in discussions with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman since early 2022 about its passion for having a team and why it believes Utah is the ideal market. NHL franchise decisions are decided exclusively by the NHL Board of Governors. Should the NHL act favorably and grant SEG a franchise, the team would either join the Utah Jazz and Delta Center on a temporary basis or begin play in the next several years upon completion of a new state-of-the-art hockey. arena. Delta Center has hosted five NHL games, blah, blah, blah. So the location for a new potential arena designated for hockey has yet to be determined. So it seems like, to me, this is them saying, we're building the rink. Just give us a team already. And there's a quote in here from the governor of Utah. So it feels like, you know, the skids are greased or whatever you want to say to make this to make this happen at the same time and obviously it was a a different time and a different situation but we all remember jim ball silly trying to push for

aggressively in the court of public opinion for an nchl team and how that was received and we could also for example yeah we could ask the folks in quebec city how the whole we have a rink we're going ahead and building the rink, so give us a team thing goes. The other piece of this that we need to mention is the fact that this came out five minutes after the Hockey Canada news. And I'm already seeing some people connecting the dots there. Frank Saravelle included, has already tweeted about that. I guess we should simply say, again, to reiterate this release came from the group.

not from the NHL. Correct. This is not the NHL putting news out there, at least directly. Now, if you feel like they were likely in the loop on this, perhaps, I guess all I'll say is if it was intentionally done timing-wise, then that's extremely gross. But I'm not as convinced that that is related as others seem to be. Yeah, you know, I guess, I guess we'll find out. But yeah, it's really, I don't want to say surprising because, again, as they say, they've been kind of around this for a while now.

But the thing that my mind immediately goes to is, well, they're not going to have just 33 teams. Nope. And there's also been a lot of, somebody is also working very hard to keep putting Atlanta out there. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So there does seem to be PR strategy or multiple strategies in play here. Which is interesting because, I mean, it's not like it's ever felt like public opinion is what drives NHL expansion. But maybe it's just about anchoring certain locations to the concept and seeing if that ultimately has an effect. I certainly

would say that outside of the markets that we'd be getting a team, I do not sense any demand whatsoever for more NHL expansion. I don't see anybody out there saying, you know what, let's add a few teams, make this league even bigger. But I'm also not someone who gets a cut of the eight or 900 million bucks or more

that I would probably get. has a price tag on this. And it doesn't count against hockey-related revenue. It does not. Just something to consider there. All right, let's get this out of the way quickly. There's some other news that happened this week. Tom Fitzgerald signed an extension that also made him the president of hockey operations for the New Jersey Devils.

Do you have any thoughts on that? I mean, I think he's done a good job. I think it's a good move. It's an indication that the disappointing season the devils are having now is not causing panic or any overreactions in New Jersey, which is a good sign. Yeah, he's done a good job. People who do good jobs typically deserve promotions. Yeah, I am curious about the time. timing of it just because, as you said, they are not having a particularly good season.

Certainly not one, you know, I think we all had them not only like as a playoff team, but as a very strong playoff team, like top three or four in the east maybe. I think I probably even had them higher than that if I went back and looked. So, you know, speaking of coaching changes, you got to kind of wonder if anything is in the offing in New Jersey there, because. You know, they're not chanting it anymore, but you certainly, you certainly kind of see the sentiment out there that there's something lacking with this team. And part of it is definitely health. So, you know, there's that.

But, yeah, I'm interested to see where this goes for them, but they're, as you say, they're a good team. They should remain a good team for several years to. come. You know, president of hockey ops kind of implies that at some point he'd move up and let someone else be the GM, but I don't know, you know. And that's how far down the line that is. Yeah. Still an option, but yes.

And then the other bit of news, like big news this week, I guess, big might be overstating it. They rounded out the All-Star roster. Vincent Trocheck and Kyle Connor have been added to the All-Star game itself. And the fan vote for, well, actually, let's just start there. Sean, you got in trouble the other day. I'm currently still in trouble. I'm still getting yelled at by Ranger fans because I tweeted, which is, that's on me.

Don't do that. Big mistake. I tweeted that a suggestion that Vincent Troche, was perhaps not the first choice among the remaining players who could have been picked for the All-Star team, which, of course, knowing how Twitter works, has been interpreted as me saying that he's a terrible player, that he should never be an All-Star, that I personally hate him, and that I'm better at hockey than he is. All of which is true, but I didn't say that.

So I just, I did find it amusing that, look, you, you name the All-Stars, you say, here's the team, everybody else goes and makes their plans for the break, of course. And then you have a couple of openings. I just, I ask you, how far down the list of phone calls do you think they got before they settled on, how about the guy on the Rangers who, scoring almost a point a game. Yeah, I mean, even among Rangers. You think he was first? No, of course not. 10th?

Yeah, I... 30th? I was... Right, no, you're right. And he said yes, and... Good for him. He'll have fun. Yep.

You'll get to hang out with, like, all these famous guys, you know? Yes, exactly. You get to meet Austin Matthews. What a dream, you know? Yeah, that'll be fun. But yeah, to me, it's one of those things where, like, is he even the other guy I would have taken from the Rangers? I'm going to say no. No.

And even, you know, Artemmy Panarin obviously had already publicly declined. Yes. I'd take Adam Fox before I would take Vince. Sure, but they needed a forward and not a defenseman. No, not really, because they only have like four defensemen. I mean, they're not. They're clearly not going by forwards and, you know, defendant. Who would you have taken?

Sabanajad or? I would have thought about because of Banajad if I'm looking for a forward. Chris Kreider, I would say more famous than. Chris Kreider. Yeah, that's the thing. More of an all-star than Vincent Trocheck in my brain. Matthew Kachuk would have been an option. Mark Stone.

Because Vegas doesn't have a something. Yeah, they don't have a representative at all, which is. Tim Stutzel? gets you know, some attention from Ottawa, which is not far away. Or the guy that I would have liked to have seen,

and this is just me being a homer, but Zach Hyman, the former league getting to be... Yeah, and he's having an unbelievable season. So I get that. Better season than Vince Trochev. But I also get saying, you know, hey, let's get a guy

from a big market who is having a worthy season. Again, as somebody who has never watched the Rangers and never watched hockey, I appreciate people have explained to me that he's good. But I will absolutely not buy the idea that there weren't a few phone calls made before they got down the list to him. Yep. And maybe for Kyle Conner as well.

I don't know. A little different situation, but. Yeah, it's... I'm happy for anyone who says yes to the All-Star game. Yeah, like, it's a fun experience. I don't know the, I don't know the answer to this. This just occurred to me. Do they have, like, swag bags like you get a few, if you go, if you, like, get nominated for an Oscar or whatever?

I would assume they do. I don't think you can get famous people to do anything without giving them free sunglasses. Yeah. That's crazy. Good for them. But yeah, the other bit of all-star news is the skills competition, the winners of the fan vote are Quinn Hughes, makes perfect sense. He's one of the best defensemen in the world, having the best season by a defenseman in the world. And this guy he knows J.T. Miller, who, you know.

God bless Canucks fans, man. They got into the voting thing this year. Yeah. Really, you know, I guess you can't be like, what are they doing out there with the fan vote, you know? But like J.T. Miller. So someone, look, the NHL allegedly altered some voting totals before. Why didn't they do it again? To get Vincent Trocheck in, you mean?

Yeah. Now, there's an all-star, you know. There's a guy. Again, you just look at the list of guys who are competing in the skills competition and you're like, whoa, the best players of all time are. all here. Crazy. Oh, hey, J.T. What are you doing here? So, I mean, we, having said that, we agree that he's winning, right? Yes, of course he is. A million damn bucks going straight in his pocket. Oh, by the way, speaking of that, remember we were talking last week about, how's that going to be taxed or whatever? Like a guy who does taxes stuff for a living

reached out to me, and I'll just quickly read what he said. He'd send me a big wall of text. But I'm not positive on the Canadian treatment, but the usual treatment is the money is taxed where it is earned. For example, if you live in Pennsylvania but play in a way game in New York, there's a process called apportionment by which one game's worth of your salary is apportioned to New York and you are taxed on that. So in this case, I would expect the $1 million to be taxed in Toronto as it was earned in Toronto. And if the event, and he says if the event was, yeah, exactly, because he says if the event was held in Florida, the award would not be subject to state income tax as it was earned in Florida. Maybe the winner doesn't win a million dollars. Maybe they win the opportunity to complete a skill testing question for a million dollars.

And that will happen to be done on their next road trip to Florida. Yeah. It's one of those things where my understanding of Canadian tax law is such that I'm like, they're going to be walking out of there with like 85. $5. Yeah. Somehow, you know. And my understanding of Canadian tax law is that it's purely optional.

And you just, you know, you do it whenever you get around to it. Um, I should say, you know, I'm not, I'm not crying too hard about like, you know, they say to Quinn Hughes. Yeah, you only win 500 grand off this or whatever the number is, you know, that's fine. I, for all I carry it, you know, give, give them a, give him a, give him a. The rest of it will be handed directly to Doug Ford's friends. That's a little political joke for 6% of our audience. I think we're safe to say swish on that one. You nailed it.

There it is. So why don't we take a break? We'll be back to talk about some other stuff. This week's episode is brought to you by our friends at Game Time. I want to say thank you to everybody who reached out after the last time I did an ad read for Game Time. and I discovered the existence of the Price is Right touring show. I was initially confused and delighted by that discovery, and since then a lot of you have reached out

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The Pittsburgh Penguin scored an own goal with the goal he pulled on a delayed penalty. Yes. It was very funny. It was extremely funny. Even as own goals, the own goals on their own are always fights. It's like somebody falling down the stairs. As long as it doesn't happen to you, it's funny. But this one was particularly funny.

I don't know that I've ever seen one because, you know, you go to enough college hockey games. You watch like the, you know, the level those players are at is such that they're going to make more mistakes than they do in the NHL, right? So I've seen, I don't know, three or four probably in my life where, you know, they go to pass it back to the point the defenseman, whiffs on it goes all the way back into the empty net. I don't think I've ever seen one from one's own defensive zone. Yeah, you don't see that as often. You're right. It's usually like the pass back to the point and all.

Or, you know, a shot goes wide and nobody gets it and it, you know, rebounds all the way down to the other end of the ice. Those are the two that I've seen, for sure. Yep. There had been a few like this. I remember the, it was a Rhino Bern who had one, I think, from his way. Now there's a name. Boy, oh boy.

Wow. That's a bull. I got to take a nap after here with that one. Holy shit, man. But this is a good way, especially since it was like the pass. Like you see the guy miss the pass sometimes. I've even seen them where somebody will throw it back in the direction of the referee, I think, thinking that that's a teammate.

But the fact that Malkin actually was able to play it, and tip it into his own net. Right. Like, because it was going wide. Like, La Tang didn't, and Monk and tipped it.

I mean, that's, that's hands, man. That's just, that is, you're going to have that guy at your net front,

you know. Yep. Yeah, and also funny, Penguins fans won't like to hear this, but also funny that it's a team that really fucking needs the points at this juncture of the season.

Yeah. You know, other teams, Let's just put it this way. Other teams are making coaching changes, you know what I mean? And getting results for it. Exactly it. So, yeah.

Hey, speaking of teams that made coaching changes, the Edmonton Oilers, they made some news this week signing Corey Perry. Yeah. After that whole thing seems to have maybe, maybe not resolved itself. Who knows? Again, it's, it feels like there's a lot. lot of this these days in the NHL where something happens and we go

well we don't know the details now but we will at some point and then we just never find out Shane Pinto is back and we don't know we still do not know what it was that he did Cory Perry that that information has never come out now I

I would think the Oilers would have a pretty good sense of what happened there are obviously the NHLs like anything else there's people who know things and whisper about things but yeah I mean not a surprise the the Oilers this is the same team that they brought in a van der kane under not similar circumstances but the same sort of ballpark in in that it was a player that a lot of teams probably would just immediately rule out based on the circumstances at the time and the Oilers didn't.

And so he goes to a playoff team and gets to go chase a cup. And nobody really knows how we're supposed to feel about it because we don't know any of the details other than that he did something bad. And he went to treatment as a result of it. So I don't know, man. It's, it's, I don't even know if I'm supposed to shake my hands. head at the oilers. We just don't have the information for it. The thing that kind of struck me

about this, and you're right, like, we don't have the information, but the thing that I kind of was like, why would the oilers do this in particular, is like, why would you want to add a guy who wasn't good before he got in a lot of trouble, so much trouble that his team terminated his contract, to a team that's won now, 14 fucking games in a row.

You know what I mean? Like, it's so counter to the hockey man mindset of like you wouldn't want to do anything to disrupt the room. Except that kind of thing the, the only thing hockey men like more than not disrupting the room is bringing in guys who are proven winners. Sure. And that's the reputation that this guy. Yeah. This guy. And he was decent for Chicago.

I mean, he had been on a bad team. Now, granted, a bad team means playing higher up the lineup than he would anywhere else. Right. He'd been all right. And it's not like the Oilers don't need wangers. I get that. And secondary scoring. And this is now that they've put together this massive win streak and any questions about them missing the playoffs are, for the most part, put to bed.

This is about what you do in the playoffs. And, yeah, I mean, Corey Perry is. Corey Perry on a league minimum deal is pretty much the 200 hockey men platonic ideal of the guy you want on your third or fourth line heading into the playoffs so whether he gets in the lineup right away

I think they're targeting this weekend they play Chicago on Thursday I want to say and I think they've already said that it won't it won't be there that he debuts and that makes sense. You know, you got to get back into shape, back into, well, he's presumably in shape, but back into the system and all of that.

So why have a circus against Chicago, especially when things are going so well? And they're going really well. 14 wins in a row is, it's no joke. I didn't have that written down, but like it's insane how many wins in a row that is. Is there, like, they're going to be closing in on the NHL record, right? Like they're, I think it's 17, 18. I saw today, I believe it's 17.

Now, that could have been, that was the NHL putting it out, and they have a habit of dropping in little tiny small print asterix that say since 1996 or whatever, but I believe 17 is the record. I think it's the, I think it's the 93 Penguins. the Blue Jackets got to 15 or 16 a few years ago. If you remember that very weird win streak. Yeah, the Islanders had a really long win streak at some point, or maybe even more than one, in the last several years.

How is this first stat that I saw that is completely meaningless, but it's fun, that Sam Gagne was on that Blue Jackets team? So he's now the only player in NHL history to be part of two 14-game win streaks in his career? The funny thing was that I saw that now that he has two, I believe the way the stat I saw was phrased was at least two 14 game win streaks. And it's like, you don't have to say at least. Yeah.

There's only been one guy who's done it twice. So you don't have to, there's not a guy where it's like, well, technically he had nine or whatever. Like that's not. Now I will say this is a fake win streak, of course, because one of the wins. quote unquote, was in the shootout. Yeah. I don't know if you know this.

So college hockey instituted the shootout four or five years ago, like nationwide, maybe even more recently than that. And if you go to a shootout in college hockey, they just call that a tie. Okay. And give you the extra point. They do the three to one point system, though, so it's a little different. But I like that. I like the way they handle that.

They're like, no, you tied. Yep. That's the way to do it. And even two of the other games were overtime, which is. That's fine. I'll count that as a win. Hey, David. I'll count that as a win, but the record, do you know the record for an undefeated streak?

I don't, no. What would you guess the number is? 25. 35, believe it. Jesus. And here's, here's the, the, the, what team is that? It was not the island. Oilers or Habs.

It was in 1980 and it was the Philadelphia Flyers. Wow. Early in the season, they went on a 35 now, you know, underfay, it was like they were like 25, 0 and 10 or something like that. But yeah, they did not lose a game for three months or whatever it is, which... That's wild. Hey, oilers are almost halfway there. That's right.

By the way, in this streak, I got some, I got some stats. stats for you. They've outscored opponents 54 to 23, which is a lot. The stats say 55, but one of them was a shootout goal, so they didn't actually score that. Fake goal. And shots on goal, they are plus 94 in 14 games. So they're just like throttling teams. And to be that big of a plus when you're winning all these games.

That's what I mean, yeah. That's what I mean, yeah. That you get out shot when you win. And I guess the other one is the, so it's 14 wins in a row. The last 12, they have given up two oles or less. So again, we, I saw, we break the metaphor out, sorry, we break the metaphor out, but once or twice a year on this show. But a real, the velociraptors figuring out of how to work the doorknob, a situation breaking out

where if the Edmonton Oilers know how to work the doorknob, the situation breaking out, where if the Edmonton Oilers know how to play defense, we might all be screwed. Yep. They're shooting 11.7% over the street, which is high. Well below with the Canucks. Yeah, that's exactly right. Like, it's not so high that you're like, okay, well, this is all smoking mirrors. Or again, they're almost plus 100 in shots on goal in, you know, it's, again, they're

running teams out of the building. How many wins in a row do they need before Chris Knoblock starts getting real coach of the year run? I think we're already talking about it. Like we've already engraved the tea on the trophy and we're waiting to see if it's Ocket or Ororella. But yeah. Yeah, I wonder. I think I think voters are probably smart enough to be like the oilers were merely underperforming. You know, because I saw somebody put.

posting like the before and after the higher stats. And they were like, well, look at their like expected goal difference was actually relative, like it was positive, but it was, you know, 0.7 or whatever before the coaching change. And now it's like 1.4. I'm not remembering the numbers off the top of my head, but it was in the, in the neighborhood on those fronts. And it's like, so he actually has helped a lot.

And it's like, well, I mean, Conn Rick Davids did spend the first month of the season. isn't hurt. Like either missing games or clearly playing hurt in a way that he is not now. So to me, I kind of chalk at least a little bit of that. They were actually not playing that great beforehand up to, well, Carmick David, whatever was wrong with him was really hampering his ability to score two points a game or whatever it is. So there's that.

But the stat I saw. is that in this streak, I think Stuart Skinner's like 933, and overall the goal attending is 940 in this run. So that is the thing that I would expect to not stay that high. Yeah. Yeah. Good job by the new coach telling the goalie to make some saves. Yeah.

Where would you rank the others right now as far as Cup favorites? Like, who are they behind? Maybe nobody. Okay. I was thinking about this the other day. Just like there are, every team at the top of the league has question marks in a way that maybe you wouldn't have said even like last year like where you would have said, well, what's the, what's to worry about with the Bruins? For example, you know, they had scoring depth. They had an awesome defense.

They had the best goaltending tandem in the league. I don't know that there's. Even the Canucks, it's like, okay, what do they look like with a 100 PDO? They're good, but they're not as good as they have appeared. Right. The Rangers, I think the question marks about them are highly publicized at this point. The Bruins we talked about it last week where it's like they're actually weirdly bad at five on five in terms of like, you know, expected goals and that kind of thing. I

Vegas can they stay healthy And do we really trust that that defense and goal tending To do it again And with the oilers it's like Yeah they're just gonna they're just gonna keep doing this man Dom has them as his number one team Yeah I think that's very reasonable I always say Dom's model

Has them as the number one team And it's Yeah it's a little bit tough to argue too too much. Yep. They're a wagon. I don't know who's better than them. Like, you know, they're playing, they're playing tomorrow.

All conditions are perfect or whatever for both teams. Who's beating them in one game? I don't know. I really don't. Yeah. And obviously there are teams where, you know, because somebody's going to be like, oh, so you're saying the Avales. could never beat the Oilers?

No. No, I'm just saying they wouldn't be, they wouldn't necessarily be the favorite. Seven game series, who were they favored against? And who are they underdogs to? I didn't mention them, but the abs of course looked like one of the best teams in the league. But then you look at their goaltending,

and you're like, right, that is a huge problem, actually. Flip side of that is they play the Jets and it's Connor Hellebuk versus Stuart Skinner. Yep. Who knows? But it's pretty remarkable for a team that even a month ago, You're like, oh man, they're in the toilet, yeah.

I'm going to go ahead and say they're looking pretty safe right now. Undeniable. Follow me for more hockey analysis and insight. Yeah, no. It's really, it's really impressive what they've done in a way that I don't know if I've ever, again, I never really believed they were as bad as the start. And boy, I remember, you know, I do the power feelings every month. And like, they post that shit on Instagram and it's the only comment section I ever see.

Okay. Because we don't have a comment section. And all these people being like, you have the Oilers 19th? You have the Oilers 16th? What are you talking about? And now this happens. I don't, I don't, I, do those people owe me an apology? I would say they do.

They do. A personal one, too. Not, not in the comment section. No, and all, and even beyond that. You need to call Ryan up, and I will give his phone number now. Now, hold on. And as I always say about the power feelings, if you question them, these are my feelings. You're not allowed to question my feelings.

Feelings can't be wrong. That's right. And if you do question them, you owe me 50 U.S. dollars. I don't want any of this Canada bullshit. U.S. I want money without any royalty on it, okay? 50 bucks. Send it my way if you questioned it.

It's just something you've got to keep in mind. It's mandatory. You have agreed to this by listening. By reading the article, you have tacitly agreed. Yes, everyone understands that. I should get like a lawyer to write me that, actually, and I can just copy and pay. Nobody's going to read the thing in italics at the top of the article anyway. You mentioned Shane Pinto.

He's back. He's played two games for the Ottawa senators so far this year. Goll and insist. Plus four. Four. The senators are winning again. All the senators need back because they need the gambling controversy guy. They get him in the lineup, off they go.

Big controversy. And it's all working out for it now. What was the controversy? No one knows. Impossible to say. We'll never know. We never will. But look, what else can you say?

The season's over for the senators. Well, hold on now. If they go on a bit of a run against backup goalies, and get within eight points of the playoffs. That's going to really set them up for next year, I think. Well, here's what you got to understand. We're talking about meaningful hockey. We weren't supposed to compete this year.

Anybody who said we did was a liar. Yeah, that's... We just wanted to be playing meaningful hockey in October, I guess. And, I mean, six more wins in a row and they'll be there. What do you think of Jacob Chikrin? Showing up in trade rumors and then telling Ian Mendez that he, It bothers him that he's showing up in trade rumors. This is like, this is like saying to Jacques Cousteau being like,

bother you that you're ending up in submarines a lot, man? I mean, Jacob Chikrin. I don't know why that was my example. Yeah, yeah, really. Very strange. Yeah. Well, I don't know why. At first I thought of that submarine that exploded a few months ago.

Yeah. imploded, I guess, is a better way to put it. It is, yeah. But then I was like, I don't know that guy's name, and it seems kind of, you know, tap dancing on a grave there, so I didn't want to do that. Jacques Cousteau, there's a guy everyone likes. He's a little submarine man.

You know? Yep. It's, uh, yeah, I guess we should say, Jacob Chikrin didn't force his way out of Arizona because they were losing. They put him in the trade market for a while. And then eventually he said, okay, get me out of here. I don't think it's unreasonable when a guy who's like 26 and has never played the playoffs

gets traded to a supposed contender for the playoffs, at least in the near term, and that team stinks out loud for a few years that they might speculate. There had been a rumor, the context years, there had been a rumor going around Ottawa that Chikrin was not happy here and would not be signing an extension. He's not eligible for an extension until this summer, but that he had, that the rumor was that he would not be inclined to do that and would then become a free agent a year later.

And he seems to be saying that's not the case, but we don't know because he can't sign until the summer anyway, so deal with it then. Yeah, that's, they're just an interesting team in the, in the playoff situation right now. or the playoff situation in the in the in the uh trade market right now uh just because like you know they're they're talking about well they have a bunch of guys that they should trade but they're also like doing that thing where it's like you like you were saying from from the

leaps last week where it's like i kind of don't like this team very much but uh anybody that you bring up to me to trade we're like well we couldn't trade that guy but like for the for the senators, there's like a list of like 14 guys they wouldn't get rid of, you know? Like, oh, we couldn't mess with that core. And it's like, your core sucks, man. I don't, I don't. Well, I mean, their core is the core at this point. I mean, there's not, they have prospects like every team has prospects, but this is pretty

much a finished product as far as the key contributors. But that's what I'm saying. So, yeah, it's not good enough. I'm agreeing with you. The idea that the idea that the idea that. that like, look, something's going to change. And I've said this before. They have so much garbage at the bottom of their lineup, just like, you know, guys who

weren't on like super expensive deals or anything, but just like guys where it's like, that guy's making a million dollars too much. That guy's making a million and a half too much, you know, where it's like, if they just get rid of those and replace those guys with like absolutely great, undeniably good, uh, they don't even have to be superstars. But great value for those positions in the lineup, great, no problem, you know? But it's the Ottawa Senators, baby. They're not going to do that.

They're going to be like, no, we have to give Artem Zube $7.5 million, and you're like, hold on. Well, wait a second. But you know what the main problem with this team has been is a lack of stability. Yeah. Stabilize, baby. Hey, speaking of leaf players, I don't like. Mm-hmm.

Ryan Reeves miraculously healed, baby. Activated from the IR shortly after going to the media to say that he wasn't actually injured. Right. This is cool. This is fun. This is what the Toronto Maple Leafs need

is a fourth line controversy. You know what I really need is that Ryan Reeves contract. Three years for that. Now, I'm trying to remember. They, I feel like they hired a GM who had such a sterling reputation that like when he was out of a job, the Maple Leafs were like we couldn't possibly let this guy be out of a job for more than like two weeks. What would what would happen if we were to just let this go by the wayside? Got to snap him up? Yeah.

This is a terrible contract that everybody immediately when it was signed knew it was a terrible contract. of course the guy that signed it. And yeah, we're trusting this guy to get the maple leaves over the hump. Except to say that, while it was a bad contract, it's also a contract that can be mostly buried in the H. Which certainly feels like this could be the next step here. Oh, yeah, obviously. You know, if he's not going to play, so, okay, you send him, you wave them, nobody picks him up. I think first of all, you explore the trade market.

And then you find out that there is none. You wave him. Sure. Nobody picks him up and you send him down to the miners. And he makes his money. And if a spot opens up or if there's a need for his particular set of skills, you bring him back up. But if people don't know, the Leafs HL team is in Toronto. So it's not like you're sending the guy off to, you know, live in the middle of nowhere.

And you move on. I think is, and you eat the million bucks a year probably. I guess the other thing we should say on this is he was on the IR. He told the media that he wasn't actually injured. But he was on the IR, not the LTIR. Right. I've seen a few people say, like, well, did he just narc on the Leafs for abusing him? And there was no cap relief happening because of this.

He wasn't, that's LTIR. This was a different thing. Yep. Um, you have any thoughts on, uh, last night they named the three newest members of the baseball Hall of Fame. You have any thoughts on these guys? My, my only thoughts is, I sure like the way baseball does this a lot more in the way hockey does. Yep. If, if people don't know, you go on a ballot, it's, it's the media who votes on it.

But that's, that's not the part that I like. It's that, um, the results are released. you know the percentage people get. So not only do we have three new members. We've got, you know, there was one guy, 75% is the cutoff. There was somebody who got to like, I think, 72%. So people are, all right, you know,

is this guy getting close? Are they moving further away? Whose case is going up? Whose case is going down versus hockey where we just get, here's your four guys. And you're going, all right. You know, if you're a Alexander McGilney fan, you say, is he getting closer further away?

Did you guys even discuss him? We're not going to tell you. Yep. To me, the thing that the thing that I guess I think about with the baseball thing is like, it's not only like they give you the percentages, like they publish every individual. Well, I don't think they have to, but like most people do publish every individual ballot. And usually by like taking a picture. Yeah.

Yeah. And I like that it's by taking a picture of like. like a filled out ballot like that, you know, some guy wrote on with like crayon basically. Yeah, yeah. I love that. And a lot of people will take a picture of their ballot before they send it in. So there's even sites that are like tracking them as they come in and saying,

it's almost like election coverage. They're like, you know, this guy is trending, but he's still, he's, he's stronger than anticipated in the young writers who look at analytics market, but we'll have to see how he does with the old fogies. It's just so much better. And again, not because it's media, I think you can make an absolutely good case that a room full of hockey lifers who've been around the NHL for decades will make better decisions than a bunch of dudes like me. You put Bradtree living on that committee?

Oh, boy. Exactly. Nothing would be called. But just the transparency is so much better. I'm not even talking for the legitimacy of the Hall of Fame. I'm just saying as a fan. It is so much more. It's fun to track it.

Yes, absolutely. And debate it and everything. And it's much better. I'll say this. So the three guys that got in, Adrian Beltrae, Todd Helton, Joe Maurer. What I really, like those were three guys that when I was a big fantasy baseball had in like the late 90s early 2000s. Those were just guys where it's like, oh, they're maybe not Maurer. But Beltrae and Helton were definitely guys where it's like,

oh, they're a little undervalued, like, almost every year. And so Adrian Beltray is like an RL high school and college fantasy baseball superstar. It's like you can get him in the fifth round and he rocks. There was no better feeling than doing a fantasy baseball draft in the late 90s and coming away with like two or three Colorado Rockies. Yeah, absolutely. Hitters.

I should specify. Yeah. but I also, I, I, I got to give very, very, uh, strong respect to Joe Mauer because I believe, um, if I'm, if I'm not mistaken, played for, played the entire, played the entire career for the twins. And also is from St. Paul. Yeah. That fucking rules, man. Yep. That's so cool.

I just, you know, for a guy like that to be a first ballot hall of fame when he was a catcher who then became a first baseman, ultimate respect to, to, like, can you just imagine like a guy from, I don't know, name a Toronto suburb, right? Yep. Like, plays his entire career. Yeah, there you go. plays his entire career for the for the Blue Jays is you know perennial all-star six-time all-star three gold gloves five silver sluggers all that kind of stuff one an MVP and then like never stops playing for the Blue Jays and makes the haul like that would be they would shut down the city of Toronto for a week to celebrate that and and the other cool as well they should with him is

He was picked first overall in the draft. Yep. But back then, Minnesota had the first overall pick. They were a small market team. Yes. And the number one prospect was a guy named Mark Pryor. He had a nice career for himself too. He did have a very nice career cut short by injury.

But back then, you would have to pay a big bonus to that guy. And they didn't have the money for it. So they picked Joe Mauer, the local kid, and got criticized for cheaping out and letting the big bigger market Chicago Cubs get prior. And it all worked out. It's a cool story. Yeah, you wouldn't, you wouldn't, you know, if you had the option to redo it, you wouldn't change a thing.

Yeah. And Todd Hilton also very cool. Other than the fact that he absolutely mashed with the Rockies, the thing that I think most people remember about him is that he was a quarterback in college. Mm-hmm. and at one point started over Peyton Manning for his college team. When I think Peyton Manning was just in as a freshman, maybe even have been redshirt,

but at some point he could claim that he did start over Peyton Manning, which is very cool. Guys, a good athlete, I'm going to go ahead and say. Yeah, but I saw Peyton Manning last night tweeted him, like it was an honor to be your backup or something like that, really fun. There you go. Yeah. But I'm just, I'm on Joe Mowers' Wikipedia page.

And first of all, he played for a high school in college, or a high school in Minnesota, rather, called Creighton Durham Hall. Okay. Creighton spelled exactly like you would think. Uh-huh. They might pronounce it Cretton or something like that, but, uh, which, that's just a funny name. But he was the only player, maybe at the time, but certainly ever. or maybe ever, I don't know. To be the USA Today high school player of the year in two sports.

In football, he was in 2000 and in baseball 2001. That's crazy. Imagine being good at things. It's got to be so fun. That's why guys like me aren't good at anything because guys like this are hogging multiple things. That's exactly right. Everyone's supposed to be good. If the Joe Mowers of the world and the Joe Mowers and the Todd Heltons of the world would just get out of the way, I could have been the USA Today High School Player of the Year.

Come on, Maur. He's like my age too, so, you know, it could have happened. I remember when I was in high school, there was a, I can't remember. It was a guy who went on to be a major league pitcher. Had like a whatever, what do they play, seven innings in high school, had a 12. 21 strikeout game. And a kid from my high school who went on to be a Division 1 baseball player was like, I can't even fucking wrap my head around that, man.

Like, you know, all four years division, like a varsity baseball player was just like, that's the craziest thing I ever heard in my entire life, which rocks. I think that's so cool. I, we've mentioned this, but it is so fun to occasionally have the experience of just, like, being exposed to someone who's super good at sports. Yeah. Like the example I always give is like the beer league where it's like, hey, is it okay if my buddy joins us? He plays AA in Switzerland. You know, he played one year of junior for the Kingston Frotnack's 15 year.

And the guy just comes in absolutely. He cooks everybody. Yeah. God help you if he played. the NHL. You know, you're like, oh yeah, you had 400 penalty minutes. He's probably a pilot. No.

No, absolutely. Like, how was your game tonight? Well, my team didn't touch the puck the entire 60 minutes. So, guy just went BoJackson, Tecmo on us. It was, it's just so cool. The, the, the, the, there's an example that I, that I, like, remember that I can't remember which guy. It was a guy who was, like, like, like, the, the, there, there's an example that I, like, like on the Buffalo Sabres, and I want to say it was a Russian player.

During a summer, his, like, girlfriend was playing a tennis tournament in Alabama or something like that. She was a tennis pro. Some Southern state, and this guy was, like, just, you know, swung by the local rank and was like, hey, can I, can I get in on this game? And they were like, sure. And he's like, by the way, I play for the Sabres. And then scored like 16 goals or something like that. It's what it's all about, man.

But we're basically at the end of the show, but just to pat out the runtime a little bit, we are going to play a quick round of 20 questions, which is where I read Sean, or I have Sean ask me yes or no questions about a guy who has played at least a thousand games in the NHL. All right. And I'm just going to pull up the player now. there have been 380 There have been 382 players to play at least 100 games or a thousand, 100 would be a very low number.

A thousand games in the NHL and I am just going to give you one. Let me scroll here, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll. This is a guy you have heard of. No question about it. So that's always helpful. Yep. It's not some guy that did it in like 1978 or whatever,

although you probably heard of him too. You can ask me yes or no questions about this player starting now. Okay. Canadian. Yep. Forward. Yep. That's two.

Center? I would say at one point in his career he was a center, but now he is not. Okay. So yes-ish. Did he play in the 90s? Uh, no. Did he play in the 80s? No, and that's five.

Okay. Um, so we got a guy who's entire crew, well, I was going to say his entire career is in the 2000s, but I guess I can't. Okay, Hall of Fame. No. Did he ever win, did he ever win a heart trophy and or be a first team all-star? No to both of those. Hmm. So we got a Canadian forward, not in the Hall of Fame, but it's somebody I've heard of.

Okay. Did he hit 400 goals? Did he hit 400 goals? No. Did he play for more than two teams? Yes. Did he play for more than three teams? No.

And that's 10, by the way. Yeah, so he's played for three teams. Not in the Hall of Fame. Now, the fact that he's not in the Hall of Fame, he's not necessarily eligible for the Hall of Fame. Okay. All right, I've got to start looking for some teams. Did he ever play for the Leafs?

No. Did he ever play for the Detroit Red Wings? Nope. Did he ever play for the New York Rangers? Nope. Well, Christ. All right. You're on 13, or that was 13.

That was 13, yeah. Okay, so, all right, did he play in the 2000s? Just make sure I'm not, yeah, okay. So Canadian 4 played in the 2000s. No hard trophies or all-star picks, first team. Did not get the 400 goals played for exactly three teams. did he ever win any NHL award?

No. And that was your 15th question. Boy, this is a struggle. You're in the wilderness. And I definitely have heard of him. No question about it. Is he eligible for the Hall of Fame? No.

Is he active? Mm-hmm. Who's an active player? He's played for exactly three teams. and I've heard of him, but he's not that good. We said no to 400 goals, right? I did say that, yeah. Huh.

Is he currently on a Western conference team? No. You have one real question left, and then you have to guess. Right. Okay. Ah, boy. Is he currently on an Atlantic Division team? Yes.

So, guys, currently on Atlantic Vision team, he has played for three teams. He's a Canadian forward. He has played a thousand games. And he's good, but he's not all that good. As I now, we now get fascinating podcast material as I silently scan. That's right. In my head to try to figure out.

Maybe we'll have Katie edit that down a little bit. No, no. This is what, when people look at this and they're like, oh, cool. is podcast is two and a half hours today. They must have really on a lot of this stuff. No, sir. All right.

Let's see. Ottawa, I think, is too young. Claudeau-Jureau hasn't played on three teams. Don't... Sabres are young. The habs don't have anyone good. Red Wings, it's maybe. I mean, you said...

The way that you said, I had definitely heard of him. Mm-hmm. Has to at least make me consider the Maple Leafs. But do they have... Didn't I say he hadn't been on the Maple Leafs? In fact, yeah, you said he didn't play for the Leafs or the Red Wings. Yeah, I know that.

Okay, very good. Yeah, I know exactly what teams this guy played for. It's not one of those. Yeah, all right. So Boston? Definitely be a Boston. People are fucking screaming at that. Are they really?

Am I getting yelled at right? I think so. I think so. Oh, no. All right. And when I tell you what the answer is, you will 100% go, oh, fuck, you're right. I should have got that. Damn it.

All right. Well, in that case, I got to really bear down Boston. I mean, no, James Ann Reemstike's American, and he would not have been an obvious one. And he also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Okay, you know what? You're not being super helpful here. I'm helping you eliminate guys. Bad about myself.

A thousand games, man, you've got to be old to get to a thousand games. This player is old. This player is old. It's not, I'm going to say it's not much of them. Especially because he got there a few years ago, actually, at this point. Really? Mm-hmm. Who's like some super.

old dude. This is literally unbelievable to me. Really? That this is still going on. Yeah, absolutely. This is, um, boy,

I'm feeling, I mean, I feel deep shame at this point. You should, again, when I tell you what the answer is, you will be booting yourself in the ass really hard. I'm talking like

a playlay kick level, upset with yourself. He plays for an Atlantic Division team right now. Yeah, I know that. That's what I said. He's old. Yeah. I think he may have played a thousand games.

Dude. All this checks out. This is this is bad. This is really bad. This is, you're usually really good at the games. Yeah. This is an all-time hilariously bad performance by you. Again, when I tell you what the answer is, you're going to go, holy shit,

I am stupid. There's no other, there's no other way. I can't say it. He's like a super good player then? Absolutely. I'll go, I'll go so far as to say this. When he, he's an active player, I think we've established. When he retires, there will be a very serious Hall of Fame discussion about him. I personally wouldn't put him in, but I think that there will be a big push for it. And he hasn't played for Toronto, Detroit. Yeah, I know. I'm talking to myself, Ryan. Oh, okay, my mistake.

This is so funny, man. This is... Again, you will 100% understand why I'm saying this. In mere minutes, hopefully sooner than later. Yeah. Because it means you will have guessed something. I'm completely I'm cycling through the rosters of those six teams

desperately looking for a forward who would All right And he's active active Yeah Like he's not like sitting on an injured reserve list somewhere I apologize to everybody I've wasted everyone's time

I feel very badly about it. People are checking to see if their device stopped working. Did my headphones run out of batteries? Would you like to concede? No, absolutely not. Okay. But also maybe. Yeah.

I think we're getting to the time where I'm going to say I need an answer. Give me a hint. Okay, first of all, I concede to feet, obviously. But rather than just give me the answer, give me one more hint that you think would steer me in the right direction. Because this is clearly... You are forgetting the third team he played for. There's two franchises that he is very obviously connected to, and a third team that he very briefly played. It is Clodgeroo.

It is Clodgeroo because he played for the Panthers. Yep. All right. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Yes, I am kicking myself. This is terrible.

It is somebody that I... When you said it's not Claude Juru, I wish you could have seen my face. because I, you know. And you know what? It makes perfect sense. Of course he was dealt at the deadline before he went home. I don't know why I blanked on that. I apologize.

It was only 18 games. That's why. To everybody. No deep cup run for that. You know, it's not like it was some like some subtle thing. He was a big guy. You know what? That is awful.

No, that wasn't a fake season now that I say that. No. All I will say is I'm glad it was somebody that I thought of. and incorrectly discarded rather than I was deeply worried that it was someone I was not thinking of. Yeah, sure. But still, humiliating.

The reason I said people were screaming at their, I don't usually say that, but you did say what the answer was and go, no, that's not it. That's right. That's mainly it. So you know what? We're done.

Why don't you hit him with the plug? We're so good. If I'm in the athletic This week I have my post that I do every five years Where I try to figure out which teams are the Most and least likely to win a Stanley Cup in the next five years Wow With a percentage chance on it

Today Wednesday We have released the first half Which is teams 32 through 17 and tomorrow, if I finish it on time, we will have the top 16. So feel free to read that and then shoot me a note to look at me exactly. I have it exactly right. Five years ago, I actually did a post a few weeks back where I looked at my five years ago picks. And the number one team I had five years ago was Tampa Bay.

And they won twice. It worked out for you pretty well. I had them with 40% odds, and they won 40% of the Stanley Cups. So I had it exactly right. Don't think about the math too much. But I also had, like, it teams like Buffalo, I was way too high on. I get suckered in by rebuilding teams. And if you're wondering, like, is he going to make that mistake again?

Yep, 100%. Absolutely, I am. But, yeah, check that out. And then let me know why your team specifically is too low. For sure. It's weird. 32 fan bases all are convinced that I'm way too low on their team. We should all be above 50%.

Everybody. That's how the numbers. That's how the math works, man. Here's the thing. Either win it or you don't. So 50-50 chance. That's right. You know?

And then for me, EP Rinkside, I'm very excited. This weekend is a game. I'm going to two college hockey game, Sean. Shocker, I know. Between the number one and number two teams in the country, head to head, and it's Boston College and Boston University. These schools are three miles apart. It's going to be a bat-shit atmosphere. You know, it's going to, Royal Rumbles this weekend, it's going to feel like the Royal Rumble when, you know, they're counting down and you're not sure who the last guy coming out is.

but for two full hockey games, basically. Okay. You know, multiple first round picks involved on both teams. This is going to be so sick. This is like, you know, once every decade style matchup in terms of regular season importance. Really, really cool. So I will have coverage of that and then all the other, you know, normal NHL stuff. you know, throughout the next week plus,

and obviously we're getting to the point where you can start looking forward to, you know, prospect reviews and that kind of thing. Look, there is a bunch of teams that are going to be in the draft lottery, you know? We know that already. You can start learning about all the good prospects out there, beyond just Macklin Celebrini, who plays for BU.

And then you can edit up. over to patreon.com slash puck soup. Get all our bonus episodes. We got all kinds of stuff coming out in the next few days. And we'll make all that happen. You just head over there and give us just a small amount of money. And you can listen to thousands of hours, probably, of old bonus episodes. So good stuff over there.

And then one last thing I want to plug is I did the Puckdoku puzzle today. I wrote it all up and I'm comfortable saying here with the same. secret theme is, the answer could be all goalies who played in hockey east. So, you know, BC, BU, Providence, Maine, Lowell, Northeastern, etc. Wow. Other, other ones. So that's, uh, that's just a little hint for, for listeners who stuck around to the end of the show. But, uh, people are saying, really fun one today. Well, I do what I can, you know. So, uh, yeah, that's, uh, that's, it. Thanks for listening, everybody, and we'll talk to you next week. See you later. Bye-bye.