Puck Soup - Bill Pidto

Episode Date: October 20, 2016

Greg and Dave talk hockey with Bill Pidto of MSG Network and formerly of ESPN, ranging from whether sports coverage is too buttoned down to the changing speed of the NHL to whether hockey fans are just sore losers. That plus Greg saw Hamilton, Dave hates musical theater, Greg loves Westworld, Dave hates robots with feelings, the death of General Fanager as a salary cap source, what the hell the LA Kings can do to save their season, sandwich and toilet etiquette, the biggest sports city loser and the next general manager fired in the NHL.

Today's episode of Puck Soup is sponsored by Seat Geek. The only place that we go to look for tickets to games and concerts, the Seat Geek app on your phone gives you all the ticket options you'd want, plus grades them based on value. It's the most amazing thing. And Dave Lozo, I believe you use a Seek app. I have, and I got to tell you, it's the best one, because in April, my buddies were like, let's go see Guns and Roses at MetLife Stadium.

And I said, yes, let's do that. And I said, how much of the tickets? And they said, 150. And I said, no, thank you. that's a little too much to see a bloated Axel Rose do his thing. But of course, I had buyer's remorse. And in July, I basically spent a full day on Seatheek and other ticket places trying to find the best price. And Seatgeek had the best price, but I couldn't find one specific ticket so it didn't work out. But in December, there's going to be a college basketball tournament over to Prudential Center.

And guess what I used... Was it Seekekek? It was Ckeek. And I got to tell you, as someone who used Seekkeek who's already used Seat Geek, can't use the code. Tell them about the code. That's going help. Well, that's the most amazing part, right? So if you download the free Seek app on your phone, you enter the promo code Soup, S-O-U-P, you get $20 off, a rebate off your first Seat-Geek-E-P purchase. So again, to get your $20 rebate on tickets, first purchase, download the free Seek geek app, go to the Settings tab, and click add a promo, enter the promo code Soup, S-O-U-P, and Seek-E-E-E-C will send you 20 bucks after you've made your first ticket purchase. No bloated Axel Rose of the

college basketball game then, eh? I mean, I might be the bloated Axel Rose of the college basketball game, but I won't charge you 150 bucks to hear me sing, sweet child of mine. Seekek, ladies and gentlemen, the best ticket app you could find. Enjoy the show.

Now entering nerdist.com. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to order to a few commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tools. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense.

I'm Greg Wushinsky of Yahoo Sports Puck Daddy Log. And I'm Samuel L Jackson for the Capital One card. And you're in Puck Soup. Now, Dave, had a bit of a life-fanging experience last night. I did. No, I did. Oh, I thought it meant me. I don't care.

I lost my virginity. Oh, fantastic. Congratulations. Were you nervous? It was worth every penny. Was it someone who used to wear paint-covered overalls at school, and then she took off the overalls and let her hair down? You were like, wow, she's been pretty the whole time.

Yes, actually, it's exactly what happened. No, I saw Hamilton last night. Oh. I know, exactly. Now, this is the thing, right? I know that you're rolling your eyes out there, but here's the thing. For those who don't know the story of Hamilton, it's pretty amazing.

So this talented young man arrives in the Northeast, right? And he's looking to change history, literally change history. history, right? So he hooks on with this group and they're looking to change history too. And he finds some success like right away. Like he's convincing people's minds on how amazing he is and how talented he is. But then there's like regime change, right? And he finds out that the new regime isn't exactly wise to what he wants to do and especially his demands in life. Right. So the most, it's incredible. So at this point, Hamilton's like what's going to be next to my life. And then the most amazing thing happens. He's traded to Calgary. And then it changes the entire show right there. And I was like, this is pretty amazing. I had no idea that this is the story of Hamilton, that he became a member of the flames. Huh? Oh, sorry. Oh, Dougie. I get it. I get the bit. That's Hamilton, the play. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's a great thing to go see in 1545 when there was no TV or radio or entertainment devices.

Dave and I have a distinct disagreement on the present and future of musical theater. I've been trying to tell Lozo that Hamilton is a game changer. It moves the ball down field. It's a story of our country told through the poetry of hip-hop, to which Dave says... The poetry of hip-hop. To which Lozo says that the musical theater is something that should have been outdated in that 1640s because now we have television. I do not want anybody to tell me a story through song and dance in 2016. It's, it's, it's weird.

It's, it's borderline embarrassing for everybody involved, the people in the crowd, the people on stage. Like, I get it. Back in the day when you had to have like a guy play the lute for the king, that was a really great way to tell us. There is a king. There is a king in Hamilton, a king George. Oh, God. Yeah, it's exciting. Yeah, I just, I'm, you can probably get me to go see, um, Book of Mormon.

Because it's funny. It's funny. Yeah. This is funny too. Is it has jokes? Give me an example. Give me the funniest joke you heard in Hamilton. Well, I think the funniest thing in Hamilton, which by the way is the Conner-McDavid

of musicals, it meets the hype. The funniest thing in Hamilton, in my opinion, is the fact that they create these sort of outlandish characters based on the real people, right? So like Thomas Jefferson, the guy playing Thomas Jefferson, apparently in the earlier version of Hamilton with the real cast, by the way, We saw a number of understudies when we saw the show, which is kind of like when you go to see the devils in the late 90s, and it's Jeff Reese.

But it's still the devils. But also Martan Bordor was the greatest of all time, and no one knew who Lynn Manuel Miranda was until 18 months ago. I call on the Marty Brodor of musical theater. He's not that heavy of a guy. He's in shape. No. I guess that would make like Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Wa, I guess, in that comparison.

I don't know. Wait, is he in Hamilton? No, no. I'm just saying another big famous theater. guy. I would go see if Neil Patrick Harris is in Hamilton. I go see it. Stephen Sondheim is Patrick Waugh. Lin-Manuel Miranda is Marty Bredor

and Andrew Lloyd Weber is Dominic. Oh my God. What have we done to this podcast? Okay, so it's the outlandish character. So Thomas Jefferson is basically Prince. But in this incarnation, he's Morris Day from the time.

King George is this giant fop. And he's great. And he's, and the way they did the character is great because he's kind of commenting on like, oh, you would love him because he's like, oh,

congratulations on your independence. Enjoy ruling yourselves, dick weeds. Like, that's the whole character. Wait, why would I like that? Because it's very cynical.

And, and the rest of it is cast. It's great. It's a great. Give me the joke. Give me the funniest joke from Hamilton. Don't talk the question. Jokes per se.

What made you laugh? Well, they did make a reference to Thomas Jefferson always banging his slaves at Monument. a cello. That was really funny. That's hilarious. That's hilarious, Greg. Oh, oh, but you want to see Book of Mormon, which ridicules religions with reckless abandon. Well, I mean, to be fair, Joseph, Joseph made up a bullshit story and started a religion, so that's kind of funny, but no, that's hilarious that Thomas Jefferson having sex with slaves. Sure. Yeah, that's technically not sex also.

Oh, sure. It's taking ownership of the history. But, like, if you told me, like, hey, what was the funniest thing from Seinfeld last night? I'd be able to be like, oh, it was when Elaine pushed over Jerry and said, get out. Like, yours is just like, well, the, the Characters' tone of... That's only because I didn't want to... I don't want to see your thunder. That's also the funniest thing in Hamilton. It's that moment where James Madison

pushes Hamilton over and says, get out. They have like the whole masturbation contest to where it's like Thomas Jefferson holds out the longest. Oh, it's fantastic. And then Lafayette bursts in. He's like, hello, Alexander. Is it better or worse than Westworld? Because it's probably better.

Hamilton's probably the best... Can't be worse. I would say, yeah, it's going way over this as Ruby last night. I would say Book of More and probably entertain me more, but Hamilton's probably the best musical I've seen top to bottom. That could be some confirmation bias because I just saw it. Like, you know, when I brushed my teeth this morning, it was the single best tooth brushing I've ever had.

Like, do you remember it was the Oscars and they had like a four-minute Hamilton thing at the beginning of it or at some point during it? I remember sitting there just like, boy, if I had to sit through another hour and 56 minutes of this in person, I'd, I'd, you can drink though at Broadway shows. Yeah, I had a Manhattan at halftime. By the way At a half time Listen I know this is something

That everybody in our audience Is gonna relate to Especially the ladies I don't mean to To put a you know Try to separate the genders on this show We're all encompassing It's a big tent

We're all one big people I have never been happier To have a penis than I was last night Looking at the bathroom line For the women Really? At intermission It's first of all

The bathroom at every theater in New York Is downstairs in the basement Then the line went up the stairs Then the line went around the corner Then it went around another corner. Then it went around a third corner. And then it went up the stairs back to the seats inside the theater. See, like, that's a more amazing thing that anything that could happen in Hamilton to me.

But it's the same thing at arenas, too. Like, like, I look at the women's bathroom line at arenas. And I'm like, why have we not compensated for this? Like, why don't we have bigger, giant stadium seating toilet facilities for women at arenas? Because the line is always egregiously long. And no, you're kidding me? Giants games. Whenever it's like, you know, the high traffic time for peeing at a Giants game, the women's line.

I'm always just like, because, you know how bars women will go into the men's room and pee? Right. Like, excuse me. Like, at football games, it's always the dudes line that's super long. And I wish there was like a way where I could just go in the women's room and be like, don't mind me. You never seen the videos of women like games in Boston going to pee in the men's room because the women's bathroom line is too long? No, Greg. I don't watch videos of women peeing in bathrooms.

It wasn't actually a video for peeing. I've never noticed a long line for the women's room. I mean, because like, at a Broadway show, it's usually, you know, dates. It's an even amount of people. So we're all the dudes going at intermission. Like, are they just outside smoking? Hmm. Well, the men's room line, I'm sure, was pretty long, too.

There's not enough bathroom facilities at any of these things. Football games, hockey games. Oh, for sure. There's never enough. Especially at Giants games. Like, there's 80,000 people there or whatever. And, like, if 70,000 people all go to the bathroom at the same time, that's... Public bathrooms are by and large,

disgusting. I don't like to fuck with them if I don't have to, which is why at the World Cup of hockey in Toronto, there was two different press boxes. There was one on the left side, that's the Cripside, where all, a lot of people sat. And then there was the auxiliary box, which was actually kind of over where the luxury boxes are, that were unsold because nobody paid to watch the World Cup of hockey. So that was the auxiliary box. I'm telling you this, because on one side are giant public bathrooms that all the people use. On the other side, on the other individual bathrooms

like it was like it was like peeing in a closet it was like peeing in the in the single toilet bathroom at like a coffee shop but it was like a bathroom wasn't a urinal no and it was exquisite it was like it was like a pissing on the queen's throne like Costanza's secret bathroom it played

it was a row of secret bathrooms and I'm like you know what I'm not trying to I'm not pee shy or anything or poo shy or anything I'm just saying that when you have the opportunity to use the high end private bathroom Who among us is not taking on that opportunity?

You drank a gallon of coffee just to go in there and destroy it because you knew you can. You're like Jared Leto and Fight Club. You just wanted to destroy something beautiful. Hey, listen, all I can tell you is that although I didn't know it before the World Cup of Hockey, war in peace is a fantastic book. Got through the whole thing. The MSG press bathroom is the best part of the MSG press box.

I'm not sure, a woman because... No, seriously. It's so... Because I think Katie Baker was covering something there when she was pregnant. And like, the way it works is if you've ever seen the media bridge, picture it from the point where it's like facing the ice and all the way to the right there's like a women's bathroom a huge regular women's bathroom but they cordoned it off for for the media but it's not really a women's room all of us dudes go there and peele over the seat and stuff and like if you're a woman I think you can use it but like they'll just like basically stop traffic outside for a few minutes while they're but like it's a super duper long walk this is and there's no real women's room we're among friends here just me and you there's no one else in the studio right now although Bill Pito from MSGN Network and formerly v.SPN will be joining us in a bit. We can tell secrets here.

Oh, no. When you pee on the seat, because I know you don't put the seat up, because you're not going to touch that thing to lift it. Well, I don't pee. Oh, I mean, I pee in the urinal. I don't ever go into the stall to the stall. You never have to. Well, let's say you had to go into the stall and you had to pee.

Oh, I would do with the foot, right toe. You would pick it out with the foot? Right toe underneath, so I'm not touching the seat. Do you ever tidy up? Define tidy up. Let's see you get a little on the rim of the bowl. Do you tidy up? Just leave it there.

Oh, if it's like on the bowl but not the seat? Right. It'll dry. It'll dry at some point. I will clean the seat though. Oh, for sure. But like if I pee, say if I like drip a little on the floor. Sometimes I leave the seat down because it's a challenge. It's kind of like you have to try to like bull's eye a wamp rat.

Yeah, I remember. I remember using that excuse to my mom and she did not. As funny as I thought it was when I was 14. It's a different situation when you're living with the opposite sex. Yeah. when you're living with somebody else, you become, I still don't get why women want the seat lowered after we use the bathroom.

You mean, well, that's courtesy. Well, I wouldn't expect women to leave it up. Well, it's real simple. It's a societal thing we've all just sort of agreed upon. Oh, we were talking about this vis-a-vis Anthony Wiener actually before the show. Like the first time that you get scammed by somebody, that's the last time you're going to get scammed by somebody on the internet. Like the first time that you walk into a bathroom at two in the morning and go to

sit down and your ass falls in the toilet water because some idiot didn't leave the seat down is the last time that will happen. Disagree. Disagree that the person who doesn't put the seat down is the idiot. I disagree with that logic completely. I completely agree. It's much better to leave a small miner's helmet at the front of the bathroom so they can see exactly what's happening in the dark bathroom. Well, let's flip it around. Let's say you went in the bathroom, two in the morning, lights out, and just hose down the top of the seat. Everything's down. The bolt, the lid, everything's down. Is that your fault? Is that your fault? Or is that? Is that? that someone else's fault. No, it's not

my fault because it's like the fire hose and UHF, just all over the place. Right, but like, it's not your fault. It's not, it's your fault the seat was down. You have eyes. It's dark, but it's not that dark. Like, come on. Yeah, but that's the problem is I'm lazy. Yeah, I'm that lazy. And then you go from there. All right, listen, hockey talk.

Biggest news of the week, obviously, is General Fanager ending. Yeah, I'm confused about that. Please ask me. I talked to George McVee yesterday. I'll give you all the information. I understand it's not mutually exclusive. Like if you run a website that tracks all the teams and stuff, you may have the ability to manage a team's cap. But like how does,

how do you like just go from like, like if you run an analytics like site, you have an analytics model, you get hired to do analytics. But like if you're just plugging in numbers that people report for salaries and having, like how does that make you equipped to do that? I know you can be.

It's a great question because I think there's been some confusion here because you're right. When the analytics guys get hired, their sites disappeared because they have a thing. They have a thing. They bought the thing, and they bought not only the way to steal the... Sorry, analytics guys. Scrape.

Scrape the numbers from NHL box scores and play-by-play sheets. But you're buying the analysis of those numbers as well. So you're buying the numbers, and you're buying the analysis of those numbers. Right. But in General Fantage's case, the numbers are readily available to all the teams and might actually be slightly more accurate than what he has because NHL Central Registry has every contract. So when you want to trade for a player, you call them up and be like, hey, it is... Joe Schmo have a no trade clause and they're like no he has a no move clause and then you start

laughing like why the fuck would that team give that guy that guy had no move clause oh my god um so he gets hired by the Las Vegas team because of the thing that we all loved about the site which was the ease of use it's not the numbers it's not the information it's the fact that it was so user friendly that they are buying the technology to then use it on their expansion draft and they're going to apply it to every other process within the team, including scouting, including, I mean, name it, name it, any player personnel function. This guy, this guy, Tom, who is going to provide them with the sophomore, the software or the software, or a sophomore, the software, I don't know, maybe you can procure them a sophomore. The software. An intern from UNLV.

Or the technology to simplify the process. George McPhee actually used the Steve Jobs line on me. The simplicity is sophistication line on me about why they hired him. So it's not for the numbers, it's for the tech. So he's not going to be like their cap guy? He's going to be their cap guy in the sense that he's going to help in the sense that he has an encyclopedic knowledge

of the CBA and the, like, they had him in the room for the mock draft. And he was like, they were like, you know, George was like, hey, what about this guy from the capitals? I'm assuming. And then. And then Fantage was like, actually, according to the expansion draft rules,

they need to protect three defensemen. And George's like, well, all right, how about this other guy in the capitals? But why doesn't George McPhee know that? He doesn't know how many people you can protect? Dude, basically George McPhee is like a guy buying a house with his newlywed right now where it's like, all right, I want to hunker down and figure out who's going to coach this team

and who the player is going to be. George, excuse me, we have five new samples from Adidas on the color scheme and potentially, name for this team if you could take a second out of your I was really looking forward to figuring out it was going to this one is golden black it's called the sand nights this one is

a tangerine and and ebony it's called the silver knights the tangerine and orange nights but like so basically so do you like this wallpaper this wallpaper there's going to be like an in-house version of general fanager with all the teams

or it's going to be like an in-house version where it's just Las Vegas's cap it's going to be both It's going to be using his tech that already has the expansion draft tool built for all the teams. And then they can use that with ease to kind of game plan what they want to do. They can get someone to build that in the next 10 months. But he built it. So they're buying it. But, but, okay.

So again, so they're buying basically the website. They're not because like, like, they're buying his code. Because like when it comes time to like sign guys, plan for the next three years, guess where the cap's going to be? Like, he's not going to be in the room for that. He's going to be in the room for some of it. Yeah. He's an, he,

they like his analytic background and they like the fact that he knows the CBA well. It's not, listen, he's not going to be a player personnel guy, but he's going to be in the room for a lot of it. Good for him, man. No, for sure. Yeah.

But like basically like someone, so the idea would be like in two years or whatever. Patrick Sharp, we want to give him two years and nine million, 4.5 cap it. What does that do to us in 2021? Yeah. Like,

didn't George McPhee know that? They're going to, I'm sure they already have it, but now they'll have it, with an easier interface. I want to read a story. Here's the thing. You're dealing with, think about, think about any front office.

Think about the NHL front office. I love all the metaphors you've got so far today. Think about the NHL front office. Picture a play. Think about how, think about the wide disparity of intelligence in the NHL front office. Oh, boy. You have lawyers. You have analytics guys.

You have ex-rangers coaches. You have guys who played in the 70s that have no real understanding of the game today that are doling out punishments. You've got a wide, a wide spectrum of different levels of, of, of, uh, intuitiveness. And so he's building soft software to allow them all to use the same thing. So easy even Colin Campbell can use it. They're all cut to the chase. I just, I just don't want general fan of your, like, I finally, like, I know.

I'm, I'm with you. I think we're all sad about it going by the wayside. And now apparently cap friendly too is gone. That's what Myrtle mentioned that they could be hired to. I mean, the good news is. is that whenever we lose one of these sites and new one pops up. So that's, that's the good news. But I don't know. Yeah. But it takes forever, though. You have to like work out the bugs and, you know, I got to bookmark it. I got to start typing in the full URL. It doesn't automatically populate. It's a lot of work for me over here. It's a lot. You're absolutely right. You have to learn what when you click on things, what they do? Learning. I mean, I knew that the anchor meant no move clause. Now what is the anchor going to be on the next one? Is it going to be a big, no smoking sign? He owns a yacht. That's what it. means on the new one.

Brad Marsham bought a yacht, so he has an anchor next to his name on on on on on on on on on dark cap or whatever yeah like why are these all why do I love how they say it's all have like goofy names like like like cap geek general fanager general one of the better manager extra skater was the

stat one like it's it's always like it like in hoboken every every other business in Hoboken has a pun name like there's a place that sell stuff for dogs called Bayowulf oh wow that's pretty good though there's a there's a a florist John florist and that's what I think of whenever I see these new websites come up it's like the puns more important than the site have you ever been to cooperstown no I never went one of my favorite things

about Cooperstown is that obviously they get a lot of business in the summer and during baseball season right but then it's also cold the shit up there the rest of the time yeah one's there I went up in the winter once and it's amazing how many businesses are like you know Fred's auto body and baseball memorabilia shop it's like the most amazing thing it's like it's like it's like as soon as they hit like March they they they kick the sign and it flips over and it's like completely something different than what it is for the rest of the year it's the best yeah that's that like we should we should guess the next cap cap name like I'm gonna go uh seal ceiling nerd ceiling ceiling fan no uh oh god that's pretty good I'm the captain now oh so it's gonna have cap in it

dot com salary captain America Just the U.S. teams. Well, if we're basing on Captain America, it has to be an evil bad website that's actually out to destroy hockey and not actually... I'm Dave Lozo of Captain Morrigan. Captain Crunch. Captain Crunch! There it is! Salary Captain Crunch! It's like a really good Wheel of Fortune before and after puzzle.

There it is. So whoever starts that new website, must credit Greg Wischinski and Dave Lozzo. Salary Captain Crunch. beautiful cousin cousin salary cap Jesus

what all right Corsica they're all funny All right real brief before we get to Bill Pito Westworld is the worst show We'll pick up Westfield

after we talk to Westfield Westworld That's how bad it is You don't even know what the name of it is. So on last week's show, I had mentioned kind of whimsically that it would be great if one team had a catastrophic injury and then fell out of contention. And then other teams could then rise up and try to take their spot. You know, kind of like the carry price, Montreal thing last year, where Florida all of a sudden became a contender. Little did I realize that it would happen in the first game and it would happen to the team I picked to win the Pacific Division.

Yeah, you really ruined the King's season there, didn't you, buddy? I've had Kings fans being like, yeah, happy now, you dick. Seriously, I'm going to get my mentions on Twitter, and I didn't even say anything about the Kings. And, like, think about that division now. The ducks are obviously bad. The Kings are. They are not, they are in bad. I mean, like, what do you even do?

Like, you know he's coming back in maybe like four months, right? It'll be over by then. Jeff Zackoff can't stop. But what do you do? Like, do you make a trade for, like, Ben Bishop and try to salvage the season? Or do you kind of, like, just go down with a ship at this point? Oh, they won't be able to get anybody. Like they were talking about Andre Pavlik

And at first I was like Andre Pavlik And then I looked at their goalies And I'm like oh yeah Andre Pavlik would probably Hope he came to this point Jeff Zatkoff and what's left to Peter Boudai

Right like Jonathan Quick is an above average goalie But everyone thinks he's the best And the drop off from like Price And Holpey and all those guys to him is huge But the drop off from Quick to Zatkoff It's so big Like they're like you have You have submarine the Los Angeles Kings

With your words into this microphone seven days ago I'm so sorry You're not sorry I know I am. I picked them to win the Pacific Division. Now I look like it done. But it opens the door for another team. Just like I said.

The Oilers, like think about the ducks are bad, kings are bad. Sharks are going to win the division by like 40 points. After that. That's the thing. It's like wide open. If you take the ducks and kings out of the equation and they might be right now, then that opens the door for both Calgary and Edmonton to qualify. Oh, and of course Vancouver because now they can't be beaten either, apparently.

What a weird ass start day. This is the most bizarre start to the season ever. Like Willie Dejardin is going to be there all year. because of this because they're never going to get super-duper bad in a quick enough amount of time. As we taped this, they played the blues last night. They played a hell of game against the blues last night. You know what's funny is I didn't, because I was at the devil's game last night for Taylor Hall. That was the moment I thought you were going to talk about at the top of the show. Taylor, Taylor Hall. Oh, is that why you know sold my Hamilton joke? That's why.

That's why. Whenever someone starts talking about musical theater, I just, I just, I kind of tune out a a little bit. No, but um, on the train, because nothing worse than coming back from that goddamn building on a train. Yeah, I saw you're waiting on the platform for like a 20, 30 minutes. And it was one-nothing blues the whole time. And all the tweets were like, oh, the Canucks have one shot here, blah, blah, blah. And then I get off the train 20 minutes later in Hoboken. And it's like, the Canucks are undefeated despite not having led in regulation in any game this season. And it's just at some point, people are going to turn on us because everyone said Vancouver would finish 30th or 29th.

But they're still not good. But they're again. They're in that fucking division. Like, what do you think about this? Yes. Will there be a team left out? of the playoffs from the Central that has more points than a team in the Pacific that gets in?

Will there be a team in the Central has more... Oh, of course. Will the six best team... Without question. You think so? Without question. I think someone like the avalanche or the Wild will have more points than the third place...

Right. Like the Oilers or the Plains in the Pacific, for sure. Fucking this league. This league is so goofy. I love it. It's just so bad. All right. Here's a guy who's not bad. Good discussion with Bill Pito from MSG networks. It runs the gamut from the The leather jacket, Hypness of ESPN2

We've talked about Obermann's leather jacket On at least half the podcast that we've done To a really interesting discussion about When you want to listen to a post-game show As a sports fan It's good stuff with Bill Pito We enjoyed having them on

And when we come back Your listener mail And Dave's Westworld lament My honest And perfectly objective assessment Through three episodes No spoilers Maybe some spoilers

Bill Pito is a studio host for MSG Network for the Knicks and the New York Rangers And who is that? Steve Summers is Oh there you go There you go there you go On me

No His voice is probably based on Koselle A huge influence on me as a kid Not only because it was one of the few bastions Of hockey talk on WFAN as a kid Because you weren't getting it in the afternoon from one to six or what the hell of Mike and the Mad Dog we're on for. But also because it was, so on C-SPAN, on C-SPAN there's this thing where they have the Republican line and the Democrat line and then the other line.

And typically you'll get three or four calls in C-SPAN that are very sort of straightforward and normal. And you get one that's like, why does Hillary Clinton want to put aluminum foil in my teeth or she can track me through easy pass? So just, we're right in the middle of Broadway here in Manhattan. Are you auditioning? I mean, there's a theater right across the street. Isn't it beautiful with the Carol King play right across the street? My point is that Summers was also my introduction to that kind of caller on sports talk radio because in every other day part on sports talk radio in New York, not necessarily

in Philly because this is where most of those callers are populated. In other day parts on WFAN, they would screen the calls because there were so many of them. At 2 o'clock in the morning on WFAN, when Summers was on, you just take what you get. No question. And so the wing nuts would all call in. And it was, I always appreciated Summers for showing me that Saturday. Now, why were you up at 2 a.m.? That's the question.

Shouldn't you, back in that time frame, maybe I was a bit in bed or? I was high school at that time. Studying perhaps? Stoking up. Smoking the weed. Yeah. It was probably like watching television in my room. And I remember it was a thing where my father had.

his grandfather's transistor radio, like one that was like a black box with like a dial on the side. Right. And it would fit under my pillow. So I would fall asleep to Steve Summers, which honestly is Somnick. I think that might have been a term used by Bob Raceman or Don Imas at some point. This is the most amazing introduction for Bill Pito. He's been sitting here for four minutes now. And you've been talking about how you call the radio station. I'm getting him an agent to get him on one of these shows here and then they wrote it. The voice is the stories. It's a real Charlie Rose question, isn't it? And the question is, what does Ron Du Gay's hair like in real life?

Is it that so great, isn't it? He is ageless. You know how that line is that Father Time is undefeated? Ron is beating Father Time because he's just, I mean, he's like getting older and he doesn't, I mean. What's the secret? Tell us the secret. Is he like drinking like vampire? He eats a lot of cashews.

Really? Cashews is the secret? No. It's real hair. It's, you know, he's in great. shape. When he walks in wearing what he wears, do you sometimes wonder if your vision's going? I, I, you know how you kind of get desensitized? I think I, you know, the repeated exposure desensitizes you. I think that's, you don't even think twice. It's like Ron McClemy. He's kind of,

he kind of got more conservative here in the last couple years, I think. Yeah, that's true. Just to tie it in with my inane rant to start the interview, I do feel like the studio show for the Rangers is that kind of bastion for hockey talk here in New York. I feel like it's a place where a lot of people go to not only hear talk about the Rangers, but NHL talk in general. Like you do the between periods, sort of highlight package of all the things going around in hockey. Thank heavens for puck daddy, by the way. The weird and the wacky. For the content assistance. Do you, do you, when you guys are devising that, are you pitching it for Rangers fans? You pitching it for the general hockey fan in New York

that might be tuned in to say, watch their team against. the Rangers. Well, I would say that the between period segment that's called the MSG-150, that Jeff Ostele, who you met over the summer, is so creative that coming up with times out exactly to two and a half minutes every single time. And we're just trying to be, he's looking for the most entertaining things, not necessarily the most newsworthy things, but the most entertaining video. Hence the reliance on puck daddy. No, but you guys do a great job of finding interesting things. Now, he has a lot of different sources, but I would say the goal is to entertain. Whether you're a devil's fan and islanders fan, hockey fan, Ranger fan, whatever you may be,

when you watch the goal is at try to say, oh my, look at that video. Do you feel like that's not the mission statement for other hockey shows where it's just instead of entertaining, they want to just show you how smart they are without naming any names anyone. Well, you know, my take's always been to try to have fun with it, you know. Everybody has different ways to... Like I never see like Dave Maloney like post game just being like here's what I would have done when I played. Here's why this thing is

bad. It's more just like talking about the game stuff that happened and it's all fun and light and that's... You don't get that too often. What Loz is saying is that there's two different modes when it comes to hockey talk. There's the sermon on the mount kind of approach where the fans are at the bottom of said mount and you're

being sermonized and then there's hey we're all kind of at the same bar and we're chatting about hockey And I feel like MSG, the coverage is a bit more pitch to that than, say, and you could say it, the NBC. The NBC model is much more, we're not talking with you, we're talking at you. We try to entertain and also inform. The one, I don't know how you guys feel.

What I found interesting is it, I've worked obviously over the years with a number of analysts. It's very hard to analyze this game. Yeah. It's true. There's a lot going on. It's so hard. You know, the catch for it, you know, get pucked for the net. be tough between the dots.

Jam, a lot of jam. I think, and it's gotten so fast. You know, we work with Steve Aliquette, who's got an very interesting take on analytics and goalie play. Oh, yeah. He's really come up with, I think, a unique approach. But he has to watch these games after on tape to go back and, okay, what really happened. It's really hard, I think, when you're in this setting in real time

to really analyze what's causing things to happen. that's what I like, though. I like that Steve Valacette after a game is like he can tell you how a goal went in. Like he's not, he's not like guessing. But meanwhile, like on another network, if a play happens, it's because Jonathan Druend wants it more than Sidney Crosby. That just drives me insane. I can't, I just can't, I can't watch that intermission show anymore because of that. You're like, you can't measure the size of a guy's heart and Valacette's like, but you could actually measure the distance between the shot. But he's got a fascinating take on the goalie sightlines. And his point is, and his point is, is is that the goalie can see it, he's going to stop it. So if you're a defenseman, you know what, get out of his way. Stop. Stop. You know, don't try to block and block the puck, try to block the puck

and block the goalie's vision. Just, you know, let the goalie see the puck. And he's also, you guys know all about the Royal Road when the puck crosses in front of the goal mouth. And you notice with the Rangers, they're doing a lot of that this year. When it goes from one end to the other, in front of the goalie, the odds are it's going to be a goal. So Marks to all scored against the sharks. I think goalies make great analysts and shitty coaches. I think like like so you think about my favorite like JD when he was an analyst before he sold out

running a team Darren Pang is fantastic fantastic fantastic Pang's great I think they all uh Corey Hirsch only got a brief audition in Canada but he was really good at it too Kelly Rudy right? Kelly Rudy yes Glenn Glenn Healy not so much but Kelly Rudy definitely Glenn Healy was a goalie that's true chico checo resh well see chico no but chico's in that other chico's the opposite of valakette Malichette knows how every goal went in and Chico's like, oh, wow, that hit the post

and went in and went in. And then like a minute later, he's like, oh, no, it went right off of the sea. But he's a lovable. But he's a super, super nice. Here's a good Chico Rett story. My friend, his sister was sick. And he gave like a real, pretty shout-out to her

on the air. And it was like the greatest thing that ever had. I'm telling you he's one of the nicest guys. He's a wonderful guy. He was, he, he, there are certain guys that are, had protected status when it's obvious that maybe there's a few miles an hour off on their fastball. Ralph Kiner here in New York with the Mets had protected status, despite the fact that maybe he called them Daryl Starberry a few times.

It happens. And Chico definitely had protected status. Like when you're watching a Devils Broadcast, and Chico was there in the later years of his career there as an analyst, and you'll be watching it and you'd be saying, hey, what's going on? And you turn up the volume and then you hear, but then you get the hotter Primeo Saushish there, Doc, and you say to yourself,

wow, boy, it's a little spicy on the tongue, you're like, oh, well, all right, that's, it's Chico, it's okay. Oh, Henrique scores. But that made it unique and lovable, right? Yes, it did. It did. Without question, without question, it did. So take us back, because we have a wide range of people listen to this podcast, some that are new to hockey,

some that aren't, some that remember the days of ESPN. Tell us about the 90s. Tell us about the 90s. The 90s. I'm getting to be old, am I not? We all are. What was it like to take the reins of NHL tonight when the NHL was on ESPN? Panic inducing. Yeah? I had no background.

No way. None. Wow. Zero. You could have fooled us. Well, I fooled you well. We had a really good production stuff. Get the hell out of the studio.

Damn it. Sarah Kwok pulled this on it too. I don't know if you guys remember, but ESPN 2 started with this hip-hop sports night show. You know, Keith Oberman with a leather jacket back in 93. Because the logo looked like someone kind of hand drew it or some scratch graffiti versus the ESPN logo that was much more corporate. Right. So the thought was hockey's, you know, this is 93 now, young, hip, we're going to get the younger demographic. And as ESPN2 then evolved away from this hip-hop show that was costing a lot of money and no one knew what it really wanted to be, they started to go to the sports specific NHL tonight.

NBA tonight, RPM tonight. That's... RPM tonight. Remember RPM tonight? Oh, yeah. So that became the model for the network. And the first show like that was the show that we did that debuted right after the lockout in 95. That's so...

February in 95. We were supposed to start in the fall in 94. And because the lockout was started in February of 95. So was it a case of trying to keep some of that NHL... Sorry, that ESPN2 attitude within no specific sports shows? Right. So it's like... At the beginning, right.

Yeah, if you want, if you want, you know, NBA talk, but you want it with a little bit of edge, you come here, but if you want it to kind of straightforward, you stay on the mother's right? Now, in the NHL's case, we were the only place, right? That wasn't like at that point, and still, it was a very niche type of show, but, you know, we didn't wear ties. We had the, I look back, I still have some of these freaky sweaters I wore. It's like, oh, my goodness. Remember? Oh, you were a sweater guy, weren't it? You were underneath the blazer or whatever, you know, and, like calling goals fresh.

dope. What a dope pass by Gretzky. Well, I caught Darren Pupa Scupe. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. Andrew's not a blonde. He's a brunette. I mean, there's a lot of, uh, uh, did you ever, did you ever have to fight Chris Berman for trying to do, uh, no, no. But, you know, I love Barry Melrose. We had so much fun. We had the Zamboni, you know, was our, our set. And we had the goal light for a developing situation. The developing situation. When the goal light came, I mean, it was a lot of fun. I, I, I, I, I've come to, at that point, I really, you know, I really got into it. It was a, it was fun. The show moved. We tried to bury is, uh, is a incredibly fun guy to work with. I love his attitude. It doesn't take himself too seriously.

And it was, it was fun. Why isn't there more of that, hey kids, let's put on a show aesthetic in sports television? Like, I'll give you an example. It wasn't my favorite show, but I kind of liked the concept of the best damn sports show period on Fox where it was like, like, who is it, like Rick Mahorn. Or you think it's too formal with the coats and the ties and sitting on the desk. They'd have like Tom Arnold and that, remember that show? They would all be like easy chairs. Right.

Chris Rose was on there. Yeah, Chris Rose was the host. Right. And I said to myself, you know, I'm not exactly in love with the content here, but I like, I like the idea is good. I like the idea that we are taking away the desk and the set looks different. Like, remember Mother Night Football? Like it didn't work. That Dennis Miller or Tony Horanheiser.

Like, I like, I like the idea. but I just felt like they didn't have the right people to do it and now they've abandoned it and now it's just John Gruden talking about you know split wide banana like Bill Simmons show on HBO right now like it gets close to that it's him in a what looks like you know somebody's den

with a bunch of sports stuff there and he's sitting there with Malcolm Gladwell and he's spouting off about something smart I think you would have better than a studio show you would enjoy it more of people were sitting in like more comfortable chairs you think and less formally dressed if you will I think that NBC's NHL cover

And specifically when it comes to my lover and rival, Jeremy Ronek, would be exponentially better we're not trying to be a studio show. We're trying to be something different. We're trying to be a couple guys sitting around and talking hockey. Because honestly, like, I don't believe Mike Milbury as a pundit. I do believe Mike Milbury as an old pro that you run into in a pub and then he starts telling war stories. And you walk away immediately because he's annoying and bad. My point is that hockey's never been about the desk. The desk is there in Canada when they have a bunch of journalists around and they're doing hot stove.

Hockey's always been more to be about informal. You don't want to be too cool where it's like, hey, what's up? This is your buddy, Billy P. On the MSG post game. You know, like you want to be like casual and relaxed. Like college game day. I always go to that. College game day is just a bunch of nice people who like each other.

But do you think that that's relaxed? I mean, they're dressed formally. They're around a, maybe they have more able to. have more fun with it. I know exactly what you're saying, and yes, Milbury should wear a Bruins jersey. Just cut to the chase. Just get it out. Honestly, like,

the suit and the tie, like, I've never understood that too, where it's like, you're watching a baseball game. There's like an adult man in one dugout who's 60 years all wearing a uniform, and it's like, we're going to throw it down to Ken Rosenthal. He's wearing a bowtie and jacket. And then we're going to miss a home run while we're doing the interview on talent tape. Some canned interviewer. Yeah, yeah, Corey Klobors

look good through three inings. He's got his fastball working. But no, I think it comes down to just like the people. Like, like, your desk, you guys all wear suits and, like, Muloney's a super nice guy, Valacette gets it. Right. It's probably so hard to get that chemistry. Right, but it also might be your opinion of who you're watching, you know, as opposed to. I'm always right, though. I know you are.

I've learned that over the years. I've learned that over there. You guys, like, I mean, we would all agree that, like, Mike Milbury yelling at the TV about how Sidney Crosby is in Trihard. Nobody wants that. I don't. Well, NBC wants that, and that's the thing. That's what keeps you, keeps you from getting it. How was NHL Network when you worked there?

Was it good? NHL Network, the show I worked on from 5 to 7, I think it's kind of a tough, I really enjoyed it. It's a tough time frame, I think. Yeah. That specific day part? Yeah. Before, like, kind of doing preview, you. Right.

And then the challenge also is also a lot of the programming now is when the games are on, which is even more of a challenge. So I love working with EJ. I know a lot of the guys there from ESPN, some of the guys are over. over there now. I really, I really enjoyed it. What do you think about the, the rise of these league or, you know, association-sponsored networks that now drive so much content? I mean, for God's sake, NFL network between their pundits and their writers seems to generate as many scoops and hot takes as the networks that have the rights to the games. I just think the big

picture of our industry is that I think it's finally got at the point where maybe there's just too much. Yeah, too much content. Too much content. Too many podcasts. Look at the NFL ratings now. I know the podcast Things like this Geez, what a waste No, there's so much on If you click on at night The sports specific

You have the regionals You have ESPN, you have Fox Sports And I don't know How much you guys are following The NFL rating situation But what's interesting is One of the guys was saying You know, during Sunday

If there's a bad game They can switch you out of it Yeah, I read this too The ringer story Right But in prime time they're stuck Right I also think too it's partly

Most football games are bad And they always have been because it's basically There's five good quarterbacks in the whole league But like you don't notice that Because when you watch your favorite team It's like the devils in the 90s We're super boring but they won They were your favorite team you like it

But now at football When you put on the Thursday night game Or the Sunday night game And you realize like God Brock Osweiler makes how much money to do what It turns you off from watching the future Does the money bother you? Not the money.

He can make whatever Except maybe he's not any good for the money So far Like I just want to see like a high Like when it's Brady and Manning, you always watch. But there's no more Manning. That's the thing. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

There's still one more, sir. Danny Manning. Listen, I think we're... It's fascinating, though, because, you know, to your point about the sports specific, the network specific, at what point have we gone too far? And the NFL was always the one thing that was untouchable. And now all of a sudden it's like, oh, my goodness. Now, the numbers are off and still a lot greater than anything else. Right.

And the deals are locked in for another 10 years, so it's not going to have an economic impact. I think part of the issue with the NFL is that we are in, and every league goes through this, where you're in a gap between one generation of greatness and then you need the next generation of greatness. Like a lot of the compelling players in the NFL are now super old or out of the league, like Peyton, for example. And sometimes you need a player to kind of draw your attention to a certain team. The NHL is actually in a more advantageous position right now where,

You have an entire generation of old players that are basically gone outside of Yager and maybe a Ginla, right? And then you have the Sittanovi generation, which is still thriving. And now you've got this incredible fucking title wave of young talent behind them. Did you just drop the F word? You could do that on the podcast. Oh, yeah, you can swear all you want. I don't even holding back the whole time. Just let it fly.

I know, right? Bill Dice Pito over here. Dickory Dickery, duck. But you've got like, you've got McDavid and Matthews and Gus and Gus. and all these guys that are behind them. And I feel like now you've got something where, I mean, I think we've used this before on the show, where in professional wrestling where you use the older guys to get the new guys over,

like you're going to have an entire generation of younger players that are going to get one over on Sid or on Ovechkin on those guys and be established. I think the NHL is in a much better position than a lot of leagues are as far as what talents in the pipeline. You know what's fascinating is Steve Aliquette is not, that far removed. He had me four or five years from playing. So he still got some, you know, the older crowd he still has contact with. He was a good buddy who was Scott Gomez is,

was, and Rafi Torres was trying to make, I think, Carolina. And Steve's buddies with Rafi Torres didn't make it. He said, Steve, you know what? These young guys are too fast. They're too skilled. They're coming into this game at this young age with too much ability. And I can't do it. Yeah, it's going to be really tough when your job is to try to concuss a guy on every shift and you can't catch them it becomes a real

wildly coyote roadrunners kind of situation for Rapidois like Marion hosts the right speed for Raffi Torres Right But the evolution of the game

is such Is there going to be in a couple years such things as a stay-home defenseman? You can't do it You got to be able to move Did you watch the Sharks Rangers game?

I did Brendan Dillon would have been the best defense been in 1997 He is so he can't Like Chris Crider He almost killed Chris Crider Because he's too slow to stay

Like the guy like Brendan Dylan Dylan stands out so much now in the NHL. Like in the Stanley Cup final. Him and who is he partnering with Polack? They're relics. You have to be able to move.

Yeah. Yeah. Can I move the mark? You got to be able to move the puck. And the Rangers, considering their back end, it's three games, right? They play two and one.

Should be. They got 15-0-0 shot edge on St. Louis the other night and didn't score. Like St. Louis just shut it down. Right. But like the game against the sharks, like they're, and the game against the Islanders, too.

The sharks and Islanders are two fast teams. And the Rangers made them look slow with that forward group they have. It's amazing. To use your point, though, on stay-at-home defensemen, there's always going to be a need for size on a penalty kill because of the battles in front. You need someone who can clear out space and goalies are going to demand. Like if you're Carrie Price, Carrie Price is one of the main reasons why Shay Weber is on the team because he's like, I need someone that can do this stuff in front of me. But I think what you're going to see is the guys like Victor Headman become the single most valuable commodity in hockey, a guy who can skate but also has size.

to be able to move the puck. And you can move the puck. But even like last night, I was at the doubles game, they were just letting Ryan Kessler stand in front of the net. Like they just, you know, when the puck gets down there, they'll deal with them. But they don't have anybody to deal with them. Right. But I mean, you know, they, Ducks were still over.

You know, I was, Dave, I was thinking about the, guys, I was thinking about the range. They, they made, they have five changes up front. Okay. Bushnevich, Visi, Zabanajad, Grabner. Piri, Grabner. Juris, too, if you want to throw them in there. They really remodeled.

They don't have Brassard, Stalberg, Eric Stahl, Dominic Moore, Tanner Glass. Now, is that change in personnel enough to explain this seemingly exponential increase in pace? I think so. I think so, but I think it also is indicative of the larger trend that we see in the NHL right now, which is out with the old, literally old, and then with the cheaper and new. I mean, say what you will about Dominic Moore, but, like, you know, he's still going to make maybe a little, a shade more than you would pay a rookie.

And there's an entire, I wrote about this on Puck Daddy. Like, there's an entire middle class of player now, the role players that are, if you're over the age of 30, you're basically looking to play in Russia. Like Gregory Campbell can't make a team. Right, exactly.

Because one, he doesn't, like that fourth line, that fourth line spot, they don't put them on there anymore. He doesn't have the wheels of the younger guys, and he's going to want more money than the younger guys. And the bottom line is that there are so many teams that have committed so much money to the high end of their cap, that every single dollar counts down down the line.

So one of the unappreciated things that the penguins were able to do last year was filling the lineup with Connor Sherry and Brian Rust and some younger guys because they had so much money committed to Sidney Malkin and Castle. They can all skate. And not only were they cheap, but they skated like crazy and they played a system that accentuated it.

So what the Rangers did, I think, is part of the larger trend, And it's a smart thing to do because you have other teams that are still clinging to the old model. And I think those are the teams that are starting to kind of find their way down the same. So if someone is fast and cheaper, big edge. Think about the Rangers that Brandon Peary on their fourth line and the power play. Like how many teams have, like, I think the Islanders put Cal Clutterbuck on the power play. But like Brandon Peary is on there for his speed and his shot.

He's not there to stand in front of the net and take a pounding. Like how many teams have fourth line guys with that much skill? I think this definition of the fourth line is starting to go away. where it's going to be four lines and not a fourth line. Much to my chagrin. I love me, a good fourth line. Crash line. You put a guy who can fight on the fourth line, man.

I don't, you know. Eight, my favorite eight minutes of a game is that fourth line. Because Elaine Vino, in his best case, he's rolling four lines pretty much equally. You have to. Because as the game gets faster, fatigue grows. So you need to give people more. I know, right? It's wild.

I'm just like talking to fucking Einstein here. Like, you have to. You have to. Yield deGrasse Tyson, is that you? Wow. Let me tell you why hockey's terrible, Dave. It's physics. Hold on.

Oh, Bill Pino's got a call. Who is it? By the way, that's amazing because neither of us get cell service in this video. You know what's annoying about that? And I apologize. I for sure put it on silent. No, it's fine.

But go back to the 2012 Devils that went to the Cup final. All season long, they had Cam Jansen and Eric Bolton on their fourth line. And then the last game of year... Well, that fourth line did the Rangers in the... in the conference final. Right, because they switched it up. They had Ryan Carter on there, right? They had Ryan Carter and Stephen Gianta and Steve and Bernier.

All of a sudden they had four lines like to play hockey, and it changed everything for that. Steve take a five-minute major inter-definitive Stanley Cup game Bernier. Yeah, I know him well. No, that devil's team was an anomaly, though. I mean, even before the season, you were talking about like Brador and like, oh, is he cooked and whatever? Then all of a sudden he puts together a consmite quality postseason if they hadn't won the cup. He was okay. What I'm interested in, though, is when you play so fast,

about what happens when you get back. It's almost like the basketball team that's going to score 130 but give up 122. And if you look at the scores, there have been a lot of scores so far. They've been 6, 3, 7, 4. It's very interesting. Let's pause on that.

You've been in this media thing for a bit, and you've gotten the pulse, I think, of American fans pretty well. Do you believe in the theory that the National Hockey League could break through, reach new audiences, tap-untapped fans if there was more offense? Do you think it has a soccer problem? I think this is, I've been, you know, as we talked at the beginning here, I've been involved in this now since 1995, right? Whether the network or wherever I was.

Greatest year in hockey history, by the way. 95. And that's not that long ago. We're not old here. Trying to get the sport on another level, right? Yeah. And it's got to be not so much to me the offense of the scoring of the goals. It has to be identification with the players.

Yeah. And I don't know some of these guys, you know, it's the same old time-honored problems. They don't speak the language. You can't see their face. It's hard to identify with them. There's such an influx of European players. To me, that's what it is. The scoring will help, but it has to somehow be an identification with the players that you're watching.

So Bill Pitos has closed the borders, folks. Don't you, dear. Fill that wall. It will make the Prime Minister of Slovakia. Don't you dare. So do you think that... And I don't have any... How do you do it?

Well, that's my question. Like, P.K., we talked to this in the last podcast. P.K. Suban's idea is that we don't let the players be themselves. Like, we don't allow their personalities to come out. Do you think it's like that? Or do you think it's just a matter of people don't know who the players are? I just think, like, if Paval Bushnevich of the Rangers, becomes a rock star-type player, he doesn't know the language really that well.

Ovechkin, as much fun as he has saying things at times, I think it's hard. to identify with him because of the language issue. And also because he's trying to kill a woolly mammoth. Right. I don't know right now. If Austin Matthews... Oh, he's going to be dull as dishwater for like... And here's the other thing, I would say.

Hockey interviews, they're all nice guys and they don't really say much. That's, I think, a significant problem. I've long... I've been saying that, like... But they're trying to do that, though. No, I know. But it's like part of the culture. Yeah. Once you drain the sport of the inherent violence in the sport,

and get rid of that level of controversy, it would help if they ever said anything interesting. It would help if they could be hype men for their own feuds and whatever, because you're not getting it on the ice anymore. But now you don't have it on the ice and you don't have it in the interviews. So I think that's a big deal too. Vanilla. What about football, though?

You can't see their faces. They don't really say anything interesting. They can't celebrate after, and that sport's still out of bad year has like a 17.2 rating on average for their games. Like, how does, how do you, like, that's what I mean. Like, anytime I hear, like, a hockey argument, I can always apply it to somewhere else. Like, I feel like hockey is just people don't identify with the game because a lot of people don't grow up playing it the way they do football and basketball. But the NFL is 16 games and akin to a religion in the country.

That's, it's a different animal. It's a different animal completely. You pray to Gary Betman. I've seen the shrine on your desk. That's, you think it's an altar, but it's actually something completely different. It's been a decade's long. issue. Three lockouts. Here's the other thing. You guys are,

you're a huge Devils fan. Greg, you are I don't really care about it. Elapsed Devils fan. I don't care about anyone. I just like the watch good honor. He's like a, to put it in Catholic parliance. He's an Ashes and Paul. I'm a Devils fan. All right, if you weren't involved with Puck Daddy and you're a Devils fan, would you watch Chicago play Detroit Wednesday night

nationally? Most fans wouldn't, though. That's the issue. Because if you're a Patriot fan, you're going to watch Green Bay play Chicago. That's true. I don't know what the, and baseball's kind of become that, too. It's a truth about hockey fans and the proof of it's in the pudding every time we have a playoff where the ratings, unless there's an absolutely undeniable compelling reason to watch the Stanley Cup final like Boston and Vancouver, the ratings fall. And they don't even necessarily get to where you'd expect them to be based on what the regular seat season ratings were. And it's because hockey fans don't seek out hockey.

Now, there's a couple of reasons why they don't. One is because the finals are in June and everybody won't go to beach so watch hockey on television. Too much hockey. But two, it's that tribalism like you talked about. It's the fact that as a Devils fan, I am not predisposed to watch a lightning Black Hawk final for whatever reason. It's just tribalism. I don't know. I've tried to, like you, I've been trying to figure it out for decades and I can't figure it out.

The same issues. We were talking about, you know, when I came into this for the first time in 95, no one likes their teams more than the hockey fan. Right. That, you know, no one likes the Rangers. There's nothing in sports like the hockey fan that likes his or her team, but yet it doesn't transcend. Well, that's just it. We love our teams too much. Right.

And when our teams go, like, here's another thing. Like, we know from our game coverage that a Ranger fan, they won't watch a postgame after a loss. Oh, for, like, I would. And I always think I want to see what. Is that right? Yeah. We get good ratings, much better ratings after a win than a loss. That's so interesting.

Which is counterintuitive to. I believe that totally. Because the fans so upset off the TV. So if the Rangers aren't in the playoffs, why is the Ranger fan going to watch? That's so weird because as like a Jets fan, I know, pity me. You see that Gino's going to start this week? Yeah, I love it. You know, by the way, I'll just tell those of this.

You know the New York Jets are going to go four in the division, and then including a win over the Patriots in the second and last week of the season. So it'll be one win away from making the playoffs. Gino will get hurt. Fits will come back and he'll throw seven interceptions again against Buffalo in last week of the season. That'd be the most Jets way to finish this malarkey. And that way they'll finish, they'll finish like 10 and 6, right? So they'll have a shitty draft pick and miss the playoffs despite teasing.

Like they're not now we're really digressing, but the kid they got from Penn State like is a can't play. He's terrible. Like how they, he's never, like he can't play, right? What's his name, Hackenberg? I was throwing Cinderlocks up my television because. they didn't take Paxton Lynch, the kid the Broncos took, and took this guy instead, and he can't throw the ball. But as a Jets fan, I know that when, and this happens quite often, when we lose, I love to turn on the radio and hear my fellow Jets fans talk about their pain and share their pain. Maybe it's like going to AA, I don't know.

Like when the Giants lose, I don't watch it. I can't watch like sports. I want to stumble upon like Eli Manning's three-picked. But don't you want to hear what they have to say? I come to it from being one of the deliverers of the content. But not really. Knowing a lot of Rangers fans, I think it's a thing where they don't, they don't care what you guys have to say after the loss.

No, I'm talking about the reaction of the players and the coach. Oh, no, yeah, for sure. But they don't listen. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear it. I think it's the same thing. I think knowing a lot of Rangers fans, they don't want to hear what you guys have to say about the team because their reaction is, well, we just suck. Right. Right.

There's no, there's no. Do you think, and you guys are really tied into the social media aspect, obviously, do you think the hockey fan disgust is higher than, you? those of other fans when their teams aren't doing well? What do you mean? I mean, like when the Rangers are not doing well, Rangers Twitter is toxic. Oh, yes, yeah. Oh, all sports are like that.

But I'm saying do you think hockey Twitter is more that way than other? Ooh. Hockey Twitter. Because of the passion. Toxic the beginning with it. Because of the fan, I mean. Jets fans, I should say, are. I would say the NFL is up there for sure.

But I say hockey is right there too. Maybe that has to do it. But you see even the comments on the lineup and this stuff. It's just, it's, you know, why are they doing this? Why is so on so. But you bring up an interesting point, though, about Twitter. Like, I feel like in some, I mean, social media has changed the game in a lot of ways for sports fans. But I wonder if Twitter has supplanted the postgame show or the postgame radio show as the place that you go.

But that's fan talking to fans. But that's what you need sometimes. Right. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Because, like, I follow pretty much all the Chicago Blackhawks. writers like Lazz and Cook and Tracy

Myers and what's the fandom like during a bad Blackhawks game? Is it just just over the top? Literally they lost who they play started the year. They lost to the predators and they lost to somebody else right? Yeah. But they lost to the predators and like these guys who cover the team would like manually retweet the quotes from the fans

and they're just like we gotta fire Joel Quenville. Right. Right. We got to trade cane while he still has value and like after the Giants lose I'm more just like Eli sucks. Right. Right. Right. As opposed to like let's let's fire everybody So I don't know. I think it's because there's only one game every week. And in hockey, it's like sometimes there's four games during a week. So if you lose three out of four, you go crazy on Twitter. And yeah, that's not a bad point. Hockey Twitter is terrible sometimes. Well, it certainly is. Now, Bill Pito, we've got one more question for you, but who is your favorite guy in hockey? And all the time that you've covered the National Hockey League. Is there one guy? Doesn't have to be an interview. Doesn't have to be anything. Maybe somebody you enjoyed watching. Who is your favorite guy in hockey, I feel like the last leg?

20 years. I just love Barry Milrose. I think it's a good guy to pick. I love him. I just, what I love about him is that, as I've mentioned, he doesn't take the subject matter or himself too seriously. No. Now, you may say, well, he's not maybe, he says things that are at times, cliche and whatever. He did say he was going to get his wallet stolen in York that one time, and then he had to go and apologize. He was really excited about Franz Nielsen there on the world to come to a point where I was like, did he not know who Franz Nielsen was there in the world? He's not all too excited. He is just, I just, I work with him.

And now that when I don't work with him, I, I, when I watch him, I always get a kick out of him. I get a kick out of him too because it's like, I want to believe that he's in some sort of a closet in ESPN. And then when they need the hockey thing, they just like open the closet. Barry's in there smoking a cigar. He's like, you need me boys? And they're like, yeah, sure, come on out. Grab one of those suits. But he is, you talk about the couch or sitting on a casual chair, the kind of effect that you guys are

talking about that's what to me he he's all about. What do you think about this whole thing in hockey media too? That might be a turnoff for fans is the penguins are struggling. Blame Crosby. The Leafs are struggling. It's Kessel's fault. Whenever a team struggling, it's always the best player. Well, again, I think like when you say, okay, why is this team struggling?

It's hard to not default to that when it's so hard to figure it out. Exactly. Because I feel like it's easier to say it's Crosby than to be like, well, the bottom six is not performing well in their own zone. It's just, I don't know, I don't know if that turns off fans, too, when they're constantly hearing about how their best player is the suckiest suck to ever suck in the world. I don't know. That's true. I always wonder about that.

But it's a good, it's an easy default if you're a member of the media as opposed to, again, it's very hard to break down why these things. Like blaming Lundquist for the Rangers not winning a cup while Lundquist is there is like the most insid. We got to trade Lundquist. Like, buddy, you would not. But, you know, the analytics help because it will show that last year, the whatever the, whatever the, measurement is dangerous shots faced. Lunkwist faced the most. Right.

Which shows there was some problems in front of them. But the second you say, like the metric says, like the guy on TV, watching on the TV is like, what do you guys think of analytics? Love them. You do? I do. I like them a lot. I think they're a handy way to tell a full story of what you've already seen.

I don't know quite if they're that predictive yet across the board. They're pretty predictive. No, not necessarily. Because you still have teams that have a. very high rate of possession that can not necessarily fall through on it. The Kings two years ago were weird. They were the most dominant possession team maybe ever, and they missed the playoffs completely. To go back to the thing you said before, earlier in the conversation about analyzing hockey,

the one thing I always come back to about analytics, I know that I've been, you know, termed Neanderthilic for saying this, but it's true. Neanderthilic. We're still talking about a sport. A big word for a Neanderthal. Where they're playing it on Ginzu knives on ice, and there's a rubber thing that bounces all over the Right. Puck luck. Bounce the puck. Off a skate. Right. Deflect it in. Right. As much as we want to be slavish to analytics, and I don't want to dismiss them because of this.

I'm just saying that they can't be the all and all, but I know by saying that it sounds like I'm one of these guys were like, we've got to watch the game and not crunch the numbers. But I'm not trying to say that. I'm just trying to say that it's inherently an unpredictable sport because it's played on ice, on knives. So maybe that just takes away any need for media assessment. Daddy. Blah. Just how to have the computers write the damn game stories like they already are.

Right. Exactly. Bill Pito, you're a gentleman and a scholar and we thank you for joining us in Buck Suit. Great to see you guys.

Thanks to Bill Pito MSG Network. Thanks, Bill. Cover in the Knicks and the Ranges and formerly of ESPN2 and NHL Network as well. You may not have seen

them on an NHL Network, as Bill said, because his show was on from 5 to 7 in the afternoon and well, you may have had a car you were in at that point. Life will find a way, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaking of which, so Jurassic Park and Old West, West World. And The Matrix. And The Matrix. For those who haven't seen it on HBO, based on the Michael Crichton film, a lot of people think it was a book. It wasn't a book. It was a movie. Which I didn't know until last night, by the way. Andrew Gross of the Bergen Record filled me in on this.

Yeah, it is a movie. So it's based on that movie. Basically a futuristic theme park in which you can go for $40,000 a day and live amongst the old west, we live amongst the old west, but they're all robots. But here's the thing about robots sometimes. If you make them too smart

or if you give them the wrong code, they can start to question their own existence. And that's where we are in Westworld. Some of these robots are, because here's the thing. They do the same thing every day for each guest. Like this one played by Evan Rachel Wood comes home and finds her father murdered by bandits

like every day. Like she's literally done this like five times three episodes. Yeah, and so what they're starting to realize is that, you know, it's, it's kind of like when you had a VHS tape back in the day and you would record over the same show over and over again. And then for whatever reason, like during the show, you'd see, and then like a one frame from the old show five shows ago that you thought you had taped over, all of a sudden pops up and you're like, what the hell happened here? And that's kind of what's happening now is like they're having memories of their previous incarnations and previous activities as robots in the park. I find it to be, it's created. It's by JJ Abrams. So there's obviously a mystery box aspect to it. It is written by Jonathan Nolan, who did, he wrote Inception and obviously is Christopher Nolan's brother. He wrote Inception?

That was going to be my go-to point as to part of why I don't like Westmore. As far as I know he wrote Inception because he wrote on almost every Christopher Nolan film. I feel confirmed now in my eyes. And it's great. I love it a lot and Dave will tell you why he doesn't. Why do I care about whether

or not a robot lives or dies or remembers the thing from a past programming level that it was at. Like my iPhone 7, if my iPhone 7 remembers being an iPhone 6 and seeing something bad that happened to it, like it got dropped as an iPhone 6 and has a flashback to that. Why do I care? Why do I care if Thandie Newton remembers that her robot family died

in a previous, you know, version of herself? Well, here, this is a, nobody can die. But this is the important philosophical debate, which is that once you, it's the entire debate about artificial intelligence. You are someone who believes that a robot is a robot. You look at that cute little boy in AI

And you're like well you can throw him in the trash compactor Punt him into the ocean he's a goddamn robot But I look at that little boy and say well there's a spark of life there We've given him the spark of life look him he loves his mother He's staring at the blue angel at the end of the film Except it's not the end of the film There's another 15 minutes of bullshit that they tacked on even though the ending was perfect Where he just is under the water for the rest of his life staring at that goddamn statue

Right But like their battle you didn't watch Battlestar Galatica I'm guessing right Oh god no of course so in that one the same thing You had the sylon robots that looked looked like us, same deal as Westworld, and you are invested in those characters because you believe that there is something inherent that is existing in them almost, I mean, you call it a soul, I don't know what you want to call it, but there's something more than circuitry there now.

Tron. So you saw Tron when you were a young lad, right? I've seen both Tron and Tron Legacy. Perfect. You've got a couple of humans that somehow get into the, into the video game. Everybody else there is a computer program. Did you care about Olivia Wilde and Tron Legacy? Of course you did.

Did I? I did. I mean, come on now. Wait, wait, the definition of care in this context is different. For her well-being, for her happiness. So you're telling me that I have to get invested into whether or not Dolores, whatever's. I don't know what the end game is.

Like, what am I looking forward to? The end game is that they all revolt and kill everybody in the park, including the people that made them. I mean, that's the end game, probably, right? But, like, why do I care if a bunch of rich assholes who pay $40 grand a day to fuck robots die? Like, the McPoyle. You want them to die. They're cannon fodder. That's the point.

Like everybody, there's only like one sympathetic character on that show who's a human. The McPoyle. What? The McPoyle guy? Yeah. From It's Always Sunny.

Right. And we don't know what his deal is yet. Now, there's some fantastic fan theories as to what he could be. But like, the point is that everybody who uses the park is an asshole is going there to use it

as a robot brothel. And then there are some other guys are like, actually, I can find a different path in life here. You need to take a step back and get over your, and get over your, your robot racism and then realize what they're not people robots aren't people

did you care about c3PO and r2d2 i mean define care they're robots they're well-being they can't when r2 got shot when they were trying to open the bunker in jedi and all he went and all his things came out like a swiss army knife did you care that he got shot i thought i thought it sucked for like whoever had to put him back together i felt bad for that guy because that guy is a human and had to do some work on c3 p o because c3 p o's a poorly designed robot and idiot. Did you, did you feel bad that C3PO couldn't, was living a lie and couldn't live his life as an out gay man in any of the films? And R2 is the only one that knew is C2. Like, like Ed Harris, like, I never thought of that concept. Actually, I was that R2? Oh, never mind. He didn't say anything. He's, shut up. He kicks the can.

It's not time yet. But like Ed Harris is like a weird agent Smith kind of a thing happening and I just, it's very boring so far. I'm not really, I feel like at this point, they've, like, I understand when you start a new show, you kind of have to lay out the world. You have to explain the rules and all that sort of stuff. I get it. But like, we're three hours and like, three hours and a few minutes in. And I've seen the same loop with Dolores and drops the can.

Like last week's episode, the third one, there's like so much time given to, um, the, the, the, the robots going up into the mountains. to track down other robots and they're like, you go home, you'll be safe. And I'm like, no one here can die. Like, what is the big,

what is everybody afraid of here? Because that lady with a shotgun was a human. But you can't die in there if you're a human. I think part of it's that, well, no, McPoyle got shot. You can get shot,

but you can't get killed. You can get hurt. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it's like, you can be scared though. Aren't you ever scared in a haunted house

when you put your hand in the, in the bowl and you're like eyeballs and they wind up being peeled grapes? I'm not seven, so no. I don't get scared. by that actually. She's six actually and my daughter was all scared of the grapes.

But here's the thing about Westworld is like again this goes back to like the leftovers and stuff like that where like the premise is awesome like if you told me the premise what's the premise of the show it's a virtual reality world and it's in the old west and you can bang sex robots. Yeah. I'm in. Show me that show and there's just nothing really happening

and like the leftovers the same thing where all right what if the rapture really happened. I'm like, ooh, that's a great idea. And again, there's a whole bunch of things, too. It's like TV now, especially on HBO, everything's, oh, they're setting this up. Oh, Greg, they're setting it up for a later episode. I want to enjoy every episode. I don't want to have to wait for the episode nine payoff on every show. And on top of that, I feel like Game of Thrones, much like the old spice guy on the horse, has ruined shit. Because the old spice guy on the horse was a genius idea. Genius idea. And every fucking brand.

has tried to do like a similar version of that that's stupid and sucks. And now Game of Thrones. Who's that guy that Captain Obvious was another old Spice guy. Yeah. Captain Obvious, like, oh, fuck you, Captain Obvious.

You're not the guy on the horse. The guy in the horse was awesome. Yeah, if he was really Captain Obvious, he'd know that. He would be like, this is a stupid premise for a commercial and I shouldn't be on your TV. Game of Thrones is this huge sweeping show with like 50 characters you got to know.

I love Game of Thrones. And there's times when they'll bring somebody back in like season six and I'm like, who the fuck is this guy again? And I Google it. Oh, he's the cousin from the third. thing in season two. Now every show, like the leftovers and Westworld,

wants you to care about like 60 people and it's hard to do. But wasn't the wire like that too in some ways, though? Like had a big sprawling cast. No, I agree with you on Game of Thrones. And I think that they do that more than most shows as far as bringing back old characters. But I think, I mean, I think it all comes back

to Lost as far as being like... See, I missed Lost all together. See, but Lost was the show that held everything back. And then, you know, the whole selling point of the show is the mystery of it. And then finally we got towards the end of the run and they're like, hey, lost guys, hey, Damien Lindolf,

do you mind maybe making a season that explains things? And then he spills coffee and it's just like, what, blah, blah, blah. Hold on. Wait a second. What? Explain? Sure, there's purgatory. But you said they're not in purgatory, but maybe they are. But watching like eight episodes

to get to the one good one is kind of the Game of Thrones pattern too. But like in the first eight episodes, like there's just, I don't know. This past season was kind of a little bit too. It was a little sign of like more set up than actual action. But also too, I feel like this is kind of a characteristic of like Twitter where obviously Westworld requires you to pay attention. It requires you to requires thought. And that's fine. I'm okay with that. But like anything that's smart television, I feel like people are afraid to be like this isn't very good because they don't want to be perceived as stupid. Like inception. That was going to be my point with inception. Inception is a bad fucking movie. It's a. It's a. It's a. stupid movie. It's stupid, stupid, stupid, bad. But if you say that, it's like, oh, you just probably couldn't follow it. No, I understand. I understand the level of subconscious changing. Yeah, I get it. And like, that was, oh, God, these fucking movies that don't end. Oh, it's spinning on the table. You made me sit through a two-hour fucking thing where Ellen Page and fucking Leonhard de Caprio

mess with people's dreams and you don't even give me the payoff at the end of like what's real and what's not. Fuck off. If you're supposed to, it's what it leads you with questions. No, no, no, no, no, no. I can't do that when I write a story. I can't write a story about a guy and at the end go, you decide if Joe Pavelsky scored or not. The world is split up into two types of people. People like me who like to be challenged and think about things. And people like you who only like law

and order, who only like, and get pissed off when the law and order episodes are of the continuing storyline basis, like on SVU when they be like and it's the Gemini killer is back. And Lose is like, oh, come on. You're not going to do the same thing where you open the show with the one thing and then they try to find

the witness and it's not the right witness and they try to find the suspect and it's not the right suspect and it's brother and they talked to his brother in the room and they're like hey where were you on the night of and he's like i don't know okay it was me the whole time credits do you want to talk about the night of now too the night of a bad fucking show that was let's let's move on to some listener mail in the time that we have here remaining as i see they're turning on the studio lights here for us to good they're gonna throw us out of here in approximately six to seven minutes let's do some listener mail wait hold on I had a good one here and then my phone kind of uh turned off and now i lost it was a good one here

i'll give you i'll give you a first one a appetizer from erran because lozo's got the the horn on this one. Aaron Mulderist on Twitter wants to know when you have a sandwich it's not a is this a sandwich or not question because I respect it. Is Harambe a sandwich? When you have a sandwich do you cut it down the middle or diagonally? This is between

two slices of bread. Right like a little like a nice little like you know whole wheat My mother used to cut it down horizontally I cut it point to point. What do you mean point to point? Like diagonally like really you're diagonal like two triangles yeah Because that always throws me off.

Why? Because like, I don't know why you would... Because like, whenever you would cut something in half, like if you were to cut like a piece of cake or something at half at somebody, you wouldn't cut it like corner to corner. You would just cut it right down in the middle. But a slice of cake is triangular. What kind of cake are you eating?

What are you having a giant pancake? What are you six with a Fettie Crocker set at home? God, I wish like Uncle Buck when he makes the big pancake. No, you cut it like in a triangle because then instead of your first bite being in the middle where if you're eating a sandwich like I am, there's like mayonnaise on it and now you got mayonnaise smile you're eating the point you're eating the point of the sandwich first and it's a lot more cleaner

I don't know I'm kind of against that here's a good question from Mark Carvalho Iggy fan 2001 oh gee there you go I think it's Popper Jerome definitely Jerome this is a good question if the Indians win the world series

who becomes the new North American loser city who becomes that new It can't be Chicago because of the Blackhawks because I feel like they still love the afterglow of the Bulls. Like, there's still, you know, well, maybe. Right, they've got three championships in five years in a major sport, so they can't be it. They can't be it. Like, I rule out Buffalo because there's not enough teams.

Yeah. They have the bills in the series. It has to have at least three teams. I think the answer is D.C. It's not a city. Oh, no, that's a great answer. For sure, between the Red, the Redskins, I'm sorry, the Washington football team, the Nationals and the Capitals.

Yeah, I would, I would agree with that. I don't think, I don't know if there's another contender that's on that level. because I guess you would have to like Toronto Well when's last time The Argonauts won the CF They could have won it last week For all I know

That's a good answer Like I mean When's the last time When's our last championship? Dallas has been Well it was last time Yeah Dallas Dallas was the cup in 2000

When's the last time The Cowboys won the Super Bowl 90s? Yeah Oh the Mavericks Beat the Cavs a couple years ago Oh that's true They did didn't it

Yeah's the thing It's really hard to be as bad As DC's been in sport Cleveland's not even The Luzer City anymore Because the Cavs one. No, that's what he means. He's saying, like, now that, like, assuming the Indians, because, like, Cleveland, I really hope, I really hope Cleveland, remember how, remember what Boston was

like before Boston started winning championships? Now, now it's the most insufferable city in the world. I don't want Cleveland to become that. The answer is D.C. or New York because the Yankees cheated. What's next? No, well, here's another one. This is, this is, this is my... Oh, and the Giants cheated, too. Oh, fuck you. Wait, which Giants? The New York Giants. Fuck you. It was, it was an incomplete pass. I lost the person who asked it, but they wanted to know if would ever heard as Marissa Brotherton Brotherton

her name is Mrs. Bro 17 I like her I like everything about her name and Twitter will you tape a live show from Vegas next year

when the season starts yes yes we will tape a live show from the first preseason game in Vegas when might say we'll tape a we might move the podcast to Vegas

for the perpetuity of their time there I'm super excited like I'm very interested to see one what the fan experience is in Vegas if my

theory is true that people will fly out there for a weekend to catch, you know, the Bruins playing the Vegas nights, and then they hang out in Vegas for the weekend. And also, and I know you're with me on this, what is it going to look like for our brethren in the world the professional hockey writing to have Vegas be a stop in the Western Conference's case multiple times during the regular season? It's going to be bad, Greg. I'm not going to lie to you. We're going to lose some good men. For all of you young enterprising writers out there, there may be some openings on beats in the Western Conference at some point next season. And like, oh my God.

Because I don't know, I don't know if the Tribune company really has bail money per se. Hey, can you wire me like two grants? Are you in prison? No, I'm actually down at the blackjack table, but I have a plan. I have a system. And I'm telling you, why weren't you? Why weren't you on the road? They're over now in Dallas.

I need about $1,000. Why? She says I need a lot. Okay. He says that I need to pay her, at least. thousand dollars. Her guy is telling me that I can't go anywhere. And also, could you actually wire me some new pants, please? I can't tell you what happened, but it's not good.

All right, and the last one, I guess, because a lot of these are, fire Ken Holland wants to know when they should fire Ken Holland, but... Ken Holland won't be fired in season, but he will be fired at some point. At some point soon. Here we go. This is a good one. What is the most overrated? And this is from two girls, one puck. Hold on. Before you ask that, I have a question for you. Next GM to be fired.

GM. Oh, boy, that's so hard. I think I have an answer. Do you? Kekalina. He just got extended a minute ago. I just, I can't see it. Like, that's the team where everybody should be fired. The construction of that team is terrible. It's just, it's not a, I mean, it's a bad hockey team. Let's say Gart Snow.

Oh, that's a good one, though. Yeah. I feel like Gart Snow and Jack Capuano's lifespan has been way longer than it it should be. I think Jack Capuano's life spans has been way longer, but that said, it's not like he hasn't made the playoffs. Like Garth, like, I mean, well, Garth has got, Garth goes back to the DPA-H-Rot contract. Is Capuano a better coach than I think? No.

Do I have some sort of bias against him because he looks like a, a Jemoke that my dad went to college with at Brooklyn Tech? A Jumoke. Where are we? Is he a Gibroni, too? A Jumoke. Hold on. I don't even know what that means.

It's probably like the single most racist term that I've just pulled out of my brain after hearing it on some like 1980s sitcom? Oh no, let's see. According to Urban Dictionary, Jumok is a clumsy loser who is incapable of doing normal human tasks. Oh, my God. There you go.

Number two, or a Haitian. I'm like, oh, shit. Number two, overheard in most Donald Trump rallies whenever he's on stage. Oh, God. Actually, you know what? One time I worked in a newspaper and I wrote a headline that wasn't racist,

but my editor? Was it like a Jeremy Lynn Shink in the Armor? kind of thing. It was like that, but it was, it was so, I'll ever forget, it was a college basketball roundup. I worked at the journal news up in Westchester, and it was like a top 25 AP, whatever, and not Brandon Knight, Brevin Knight, the dude on Pitt had a really good game. So I was like, Night shines as Pitt wins 20 by 24. And I get the page proof, two people look at it. I hand it to my slide editor, and all of a sudden I hear, Dave! And I'm like, what, what happens? She's like, look at this page. Tell me what's wrong. She was one of those people. So I'm like looking at the page. I'm reading the

captions. I'm making sure the headlines all spelled right. And I'm looking at it. And she's like, you know, shine is a racist term. And I'm like, whoa. Yeah. It is. But like, I didn't know that at the time. I was, I was doing like a dumb night. You never know. Night shines. And like, she like, she like threw it out to the room. And she's like, you know that's a racist term. And like my, like, the big, copy editor was like, mm, kind of. You probably shouldn't have that there. So that's a lesson learned. Sometimes you can be accidentally racist and not really want. All right. We got one last question. We got one last question. We got one last question. We're being thrown out of the studio by

Kyle Liggin of formerly An Angelly Network Hi Kyle We had Bill Pito in today by the way

Yeah You can chime in too if you want What do you think is the most overrated restaurant and food chain Overrated

Overrated food chain It's obvious In and Out Uh No I would disagree With that I think in and out

meets the hype Disagree I would go I would go the other I would go the other way I'd go I'd go shake shack I would go shake shack because like when you're here in Manhattan and then you see that line of people outside of shake shack and you're like listen just because you heard about it

on some food network show and they've got pretty glitter lights on the front of the building doesn't mean you need to wait that long for a burger like other burgers in the city you could probably get that'll be just as good as your shake shack burger like Hamilton is the shake shack of Broadway Hamilton is the The Fuddruckers of Broadway

Changing the game for all involved Serving you come in for a hamburger and they're like What about ostrich? And you're like God damn I never even thought about how much I wanted Ostrich until this point All right I guess we should go All right, Kyle's pacing Thanks to Bill Pito for coming on

Thanks to Katie for putting the show together Thanks to all of you for listening Thanks to Seat Geek, download the app use the code soup s oup to get $20 off your first purchase and Dave will briefly tell you about a fantasy football thing as we close the shop oh god do we have time all right so okay lineups lock five minutes before yeah there's no time for this we gotta get out of here all right I'll tell it next week it'll still apply this fancy football thing next week yeah it's a it's a heartbreaking story so um see see see a see a people Dave be lit and loyal and all that stuff

I guess.