Puck Soup - Caps win Cup, Jon Taffer

Episode Date: June 8, 2018

Greg and Dave celebrate the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals, which is still very weird to say, from Alex Ovechkin's triumph to what this means for the franchise to the way nearly all the Caps stopped celebrating to look at boobs. Plus, an incredible guest: Jon Taffer of Bar Rescue, talking about the Vegas Golden Knights, how to fix hockey and that pirate bar that hated him. Also, Ryan Miller vs. Chrissy Teigen, the Islanders clean house, P.K. Subban trade talk and your favorite moments of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Sponsored by Seat Geek.

Today's episode of Puck Soup is sponsored by us because we're talking about our live show at the profit bar in Dallas, Texas. The Thursday before the NHL draft, Thursday, June 21st, doors at six. Tickets are 12 bucks apiece. The profit bar is located on 2548 Elm Street. Ooh, a bit of a nightmare, Dave Lozo. I get it. I get it. It's going to be super fun.

We're going to have a lot of cool guests that are going to be in town for the NHL draft. Obviously, a chance for a lot of you that might be visiting for the draft to come and see a live show, considering that we don't go to every city and do these things. So Doors at six, show at seven, tickets, $12 at the profit bar in Dallas. It's going to be a lot of fun. You can get tickets. Just go to the Puck Soup Twitter to find tickets, but you can also get them through Ticketfly and through the profit bar's website, which is www. the DoorDalys.com.

So do check it out. And we'll see you in Dallas. It should be real fun. I have already been told by many people. Many people are saying, many people are saying that I will have to defend my not Sergey Zubov for the Hall of Fame pick in front of a live, angry group of Dallas Stars fans. So we have the plays for two hours.

You figure we're going to have a couple of games, a guest, maybe two guests, who knows, but a guest for sure. and I'm pretty sure we're going to have to cut all that short because there's going to be an hour and 50 minutes of people screaming at you about your Sergei Zubov take and I can't wait for it. Yeah, it's going to be a real Glendale City Council type feeling of people walking up to the microphone and they're dumb Dallas sweaters, their dumb Uri Lutton sweaters and being really mad at me about the Sergei Zubov thing. Also, I talked to Sean Leahy last night here in Vegas after the cup win and he said, I got a game. I'm thinking about for the live show. I'm like, oh, okay, what's the game? He goes, how about we blindfold people?

And we asked him, is it me or Trump? Like, okay, wait, hang on. So he's telling me, so he's saying that he can get Donald Trump to be a guest for the podcast? Is that what he's saying? I believe he's saying that he can get the president of the United States to show up on our live podcast for the specific reason of, they say our voices sound similar. We're going to blindfold them. Our voices sound similar.

sad. By the way, I was so planning on ordering a, I was in order a t-shirt off the Dallas Star's website, because you can get like a personalized one that says like Zubaw 56 on it, and I was going to just going to wear that. A, the only sizes available are medium, large, and then it skips XL and goes to double XL. And large shirts fit me most times, but like I can't tell unless I hold it up next to me. And like on the website, it only tells you the chest

size. I don't know my chest size. I can't match that up. And B, it's 40 bucks for a T-shirt, man. $40. Wow. 40. 40. I imagine it's sort of a supply and demand thing because it's so fucking

hot in Texas. Oh, dude. If you wanted to get a sweatshirt, it's probably 10 bucks. But the t-shirts are at a premium. Dude, I was looking at the weather for just things because I have like all these different like cities on my phone. I'm checking the weather for it. It wasn't Dallas.

It was Fort Worth. and every day was a high of 98. Like, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. That's where I'm going to die. I was really looking forward to our show being a thing where we're going to do, like, the NHL Awards. Yes. And I was going to wear a tux.

I was going to wear tux and be like the host. But I'm really reconsidering that after seeing the weather for Dallas. But whatever. We just get like a t-shirt and just like cut the sleeves off and then just sweat through the back. Oh, but dude, that costs like 40 bucks. So live show. Thursday, January 21st, I'm sorry, January, Jesus fucking Christ. Thursday, June 21st, $12 is the ticket price, $15, I think, at the door, so get your tickets early.

The profit bar in Dallas, it should be a lot of fun. Doors at six, show at seven, all ages, by the way. But, you know, keep in mind what this dumb show is. Yeah, don't bring kids. Just bring adults. We'll see you there and enjoy the show. and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, eats and tunes.

It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Hey everybody. It's your old pal Dave, celebrating the end of the 2017-18 season here on Puck Soup. And I'm Greg Wyshinski at ESPN. You may remember me from such digital streaming television programs as in the crease on ESPN and you're in Puck Soup and I am in Vegas for the last time until I'm in Vegas later this month because now now we do a thing where teams from Vegas play for the cup and then we come back here and go to the NHL Awards and see a bunch of pasty Canadians and their tuxitos trying to do tofully avoid fans as they go to VIP rooms with their hot girlfriends. Okay wait so today as we do this it's the

seventh, one of the awards, because the draft is the 22nd, the awards were right before the draft, right? Mm-hmm. So you're going to come home for like a week and then go back to Vegas. Like, honestly, like, this is like the beginning of a good divorce story for somebody. Like, well, I was in Vegas for like a month one year and the next thing I knew I was single and that's just how it worked out. Sorry. I'm still entirely fascinated by the fact that we didn't lose more people on the way here. Like, I really am.

Like, you've got people that have been covering the Vegas playoff journey through four rounds now. And apparently, no one's dropped off. We haven't had, like, Frank Saravelli missing a hand ending up in the Vegas desert. We haven't had, like, you know, Ken Campbell being locked in the box by a poker pit boss because he's lost $5,000 in one night. Come me out of this fucking box. You're saying, you're saying Emily hasn't, like, pawned off, like, her computer. and stuff because she's been in Vegas for two months? That hasn't happened.

Good for her. I think she would have, but she had some IT problems, to be honest. The computer wasn't really worth all that much, to be honest. It's been inspiring to see everybody's been on their best behavior. And the coolest thing about the last couple weeks being here, as you know, I'm a fan of Vegas. I like going to Vegas, was introducing people to other parts of Vegas than the Bellagio, Aria, cosmopolitan, Troika, and Planet Hollywood across the street, which I think is sort of the heart of where people have been staying.

So taking them off the strip to restaurants, taking them downtown to the, you know, the old strip where the canopies there and they have the zip lines and an a sort of collection of chuds walking around at all times. Did you see the guy? So like the Fremont area you're talking about, right? Like down that little. Yeah, Fremont, yeah. But a friend of mine sent me a video of, and I've been to the Fremont area a bunch of times

and seen all kinds of weird stuff. but there was a guy there who was letting people give him 10 bucks to kick him in the balls To kick him in the balls Yeah yeah I saw that It's 10 bucks to kick me in the balls They also have their own sort of naked cowboy

But except he's built And looks like Ron Jeremy So he's just there in a thong Playing the guitar A built Ron Jeremy Oh No he's built like Ron Jeremy Oh oh oh I thought he was like a jacked Ron Jeremy

I was like man That guy can do. No, no, no, no. No, Fremont's fucked up, and it's great because, you know, we've talked before about Vegas vacation on this show as being a movie. It's sort of like watching a wrestling match where there's some real high spots, but the match itself doesn't really come together. Because, like, when you think back to Mr. Papa Georgio and you think back to the Hoover Dam scenes, and you think back to when they go to the low-rent casino and play like, you know, shoots and ladders and shit. Yeah. It really, the low rent casino is, is so fucking perfect if you've been to Fremont because that's the exact vibe. It's the exact vibe. It's fucking fantastic. It's so damn good.

It's fantastic, but like, again, like, when I play Blackjack, you can do whatever you want, your cards, your money, but like, I was playing it like a $5, because I was getting killed on the, on the, on the strips. So me and my friend were like, let's go out, let's go get some, like, drugs and go down town. Like, definitely, let's go do that. And I was like, I was going to play $5. blackjack, not just hang out.

And it was the most frustrating experience of all time because people were like staying on 13, staying on 14. I'm getting bled like $5 a hand as I'm sitting there on staying on 17 and the dealer's not busting because this guy. But everyone should go downtown at least once when they're in Vegas.

It's different. Yeah, without question. It's fun. And then like you said, I had that moment the other night when, you know, I'm playing, we were at a, oh shit, like Hotel California or some such. the golden gate

It might have been the golden gate So we were over there by By Fremont And I'm playing craps And I'm on a fucking roll I am just murdering the table I get it Murdering the table

And what are Shut up And what are my margins Like if this was at like a place Where I'm spending like 15 bucks a roll You know I'm probably doing fucking extraordinarily well But I'm at a $5 dollar craft staple

So like I kill the game and then I walk away up like 30 bucks. The one time I won at craps was the exact same thing. I was playing at the Golden Gate. It was a $5 a $5 a craps table and I was like, this is easy. I'm hitting all my points and everything. And any other time I played at like a normal table, I get murdered. I lose $100 bucks on like four minutes.

It's insane. All right. So listen, I lost all my money, by the way. I took out like, I'm going to take out like $200 to bet and I lost it all at the golden nugget the other night playing blackjack. Like an asshole. Anyways, and also I lost it on Sprott's bets because I lost, I think I lost big on game two when I bet it here. But anyways, so the Caps won. Oh, by the way, you're in Puck suit.

The Caps won the cup. That was kind of a surprise. You said it. Hey, listen, let me say this about the Caps winning last night. I know that in sports there are iconic photos. when you see American athletes raising their fist and protest at the Olympics, when you see the United States of America celebrating a victory over the Soviets, when you see Bobby Orr flying through the air after scoring a winning goal in the playoffs,

when you see Muhammad Ali standing over an opponent with his mouthpiece kind of sticking out, looking like he's 80 feet tall. But I defy you, Dave Lozo, to find a more iconic photo. Then Alex Ovechkin, in the foreground, raising the cup and celebrating, and every single one of his teammates behind him looking at boobs pressed up against the glass. Absolutely, positively, their attention completely stolen away by boobs against the glass. These men have dreamed their entire lives, except Brooks Warpick, he's already done it, of winning the Stanley Cup. This is all they've worked for.

It's all they've dreamed about. They've all seen boobs before, I'm assuming. They all know what boobs look like. And yet somehow, some way, at the pinnacle moment of their careers, they were like, oh, oh, boobs. Look at that. Those are boobs. I just think, like, for all of the digital ink spilled on Alex Ovechkin and how it's different this time and how he's committed himself defensively and he's scoring in big moments and this is his thing and he's driving the bus and they'll never be. be another, like I wrote on the

SPN today, there'll never be another situation where you have to be like, but he'd ever won. For all of that said about Alex Ovechkin, there's not a single moment that bought it home for me more than Alex Ovechkin, the man who once gave out his phone number

on Russian television and said the first girl to call him would get a date, skating the cup singularly, away from his teammates who were all doing the awuga-awuga tongue rollout at a woman pressing her boobs against the glass.

If you ever needed to know how it was different for Alex O'Betchkin this time, know that there were boobs behind him and he skated through them. He just kept going. He didn't care. He kept going. He had what he wanted. And here's the best part too is I was watching that live

and I didn't see the boobs. What I saw was that all the dudes peel off behind Ovegett skin and turn around. And even though I had not seen the boobs yet, I knew instantly they were looking at boobs. I knew it. I just, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, do you remember when we were walking from, uh, the, the studio to your, to your apartment a couple weeks ago, and we saw the boobs?

Uh-huh. Yeah, it was the same thing. Like, me and Greg were just walking downtown and a woman who was wearing, like, a, like, a, like, a loose-fitting shirt worth, like, with, like, wide, uh, like, like, no sleeves. So you kind of, like, like, see inside her shirt. she had no bra on. Like she wasn't hiding anything. And like we're walking and talking.

We're just like, yeah, Dallas is going to be great. And like, we didn't nudge each other. We didn't like, you know, do anything crazy. We just instantly like tracked boobs in our peripheral vision, looked at them. And we're like, oh, look at that, boobs. That's just what we do. And keep in mind that this is a chemical reaction. Dave and I are nothing but respectful to women.

But, you know, much like a wolf couldn't ignore. Right. there was there. A porter house steak in his periphery. Yes. They're just kind of there. I was standing next to a sports net reporter who I will remain remain nameless when Ovi escaped in the cup and his teammates all of a sudden go to the glass.

And he goes, he goes, dude. Like what? He goes, yo, somebody put their jugs on the glass. Now you see, see like, now that's uncouth. I will, I, jugs, jugs on the glass. Can we, can we have a little bit more class discussing the boobs, please? Like, you know, yeah, please. That very well could be a season ticket holder that we're besmirching.

Yeah, it's funny. Everyone's like, oh, only in Vegas or like, oh, Caps fans, keeping it classy. First of all, we don't know if she's a Caps fan. She just might just been at the game and just wanted to show some people her boobs. Her right, her boobs, you can do what she wants. Oh, speaking of that, a hearty fuck off to anybody who is, criticizing Vegas fans for dumping their tickets for game five. Okay.

No, dude, it happens in it. No, my problem, listen, if you want to attack the decision to do so, that's fine. But don't judge the market. That's the thing that pissed me off. Like, there were a fuck ton of Blackhawks fans in Boston when they won. They were a fuck ton of Blackhawks fans in Philadelphia when they won. Like, it happens in every market. It's not unique to Vegas.

And if someone walked up and said, hey, you know, I don't know if you know this, guys, but in the last 31 times, the team has gone down 3-1 in the cup final. They haven't come back to win. I'm going to offer you $4,000 for your ticket so I can see my team win. I might be like, okay, that's just me, though. I don't remember that Blackhawks thing happening. Is that really a thing that happened or are you just saying that happened? I don't recall.

I was on the – I was in Philly. I was on the ice. In 2010? In 2010, Adam Burrish went to – the glass and sprayed the gigantic cadre of Blackhawks fans in the crowd with Champaign. I remember it very vividly. No, but there's always like fans. I remember when Pittsburgh lost or Pittsburgh beat Detroit in Detroit, there were Pittsburgh fans all

down around the glass. Like, there's always going to be fans. That's what I'm saying, though. You can't, you can't judge the market because, you know, fans, you know, bought up. And keep in mind that in 2008 and 9 and 10, this is pre-Seek geek time plug. So, like, you know, like, it's even harder to get those tickets. I don't know. But, like, to me, the difference was, was that for games one and two, it was very little

caps fans, very few caps fans, right? And now there were way more. That's the part. Like, remember when the Kings were beating the Rangers? I don't remember there being a ton of Kings fans at, like, MSG for games three and four. But, I don't know. I don't know. Whatever.

They obviously didn't get in good with the boss to get all those corporate seats because there are no actual Rangers fans, just. people who use their company's tickets. There it is. There it is. There's my boy. There he is. What was your enduring moment from this Capitol's Cup victory in game five besides the boobs?

Um, the boobs. Yeah, of all the tweets that I have to keep showing up my mentions for the next couple days, I'm glad it's that one as opposed to the LeBron J.R. Smith joke over and over again. This is way better. What was my favorite moment from game five? I don't know. I'll say mine. It's got to be the Smith Pelley goal.

Like the Smith Pelley goal was the key to the whole thing. If that doesn't happen, then we're still playing. But like, dude, what, I know that, like, people, sometimes Ryan Lambert are preconditioned to hate on guys on the fourth line who sometimes fight. dude had seven goals in the playoffs and seven goals in the entirety of the regular season. The Smith Pelly as John Drews narrative is one of the most fucking bizarre things. There's a lot of bizarre things about this Caps run. Like, I don't know, winning a game six in Pittsburgh with an Australian guy assisting on an Alex Chason goal is your first tally.

But the Devante Smith Pelly as playoff goal-scoring machine narrative is clearly one of the more bat-hit ones. No, but that's how teams win in Cups, though, because you have to have Devante Smith-Pelly and, like, Lars Eller and Alex Chesson score goals. Like, this is what we do this every year, where, oh, so-and-so is not a winner, blah, blah, blah, and all of a sudden, like, his teammates get super awesome. Like, the thing, like, from a couple weeks ago, when Mia Khalifa was trying to, like, own me on Twitter, because she read the headline that the thing I wrote, like, 12 months ago

or 18 months ago about Ovechkin, and how he was super unimportant compared to past teams last year, not this year, because of how good his teammates were finally. He was on a deep team, and then playoffs came, and again, his fucking teammates let him down. This year, Ovechkin again, was awesome. He won the cons mites. He was obviously awesome. But not only was he awesome,

Baxter finally had an awesome postseason. Tom Wilson had like 15 points. John Carlson had 20 points. DeMonte Smith Peli scored a ton of goals. Lars Eller had huge goals. That's how you win the cup. So, like, yeah, it's crazy that like DeVante Smith Peli had seven in the regular season and seven in the postseason. But, like,

he was always a decent player. He was always a guy who could score goals. Remember when he came to the devils in that trade and he had like six goals in his first 10 games? He's capable of doing that and you just need to happen and they finally had it happen. So, you know, I get it. Like he's not, he's getting crushed at five on five shot at temp wise. But, you know, if you're a skilled player, like not that DeMontez Smith Pelly is like a 35 goal

guy, but he's the kind of guy you can score goals around the net. So, you know. Yeah. And I guess to that end, you know, for all of the people that have been, you know, It's been fun to see the reactions of the Tritterworth on Ryan Reeves, the entire playoffs, and, you know, how perceptions have shifted and changed. And there's articles being written about the reconsideration of Ryan Reeves. Oh, God.

Yeah, that's the guy whose ass was in the fucking press box for the most critical game of the series, just to reset the narrative there. But I'll say the thing that I'm going to remember because I'm negative and cynical is I'm going to think about Lucas B's on the fourth goal for a long time. because, yeah. Oh, God, right? Dude,

I mean, like, the turnover was one thing, and then he goes to the front of the net and gets beat in front of the net, too, and it's just, I mean,

you know, it was probably going to be inevitable if the caps were going to win the series anyway. Like, it's, I'm aware that it didn't happen in, like, a game seven to linger forever, but, oh, man,

that was a bad five seconds in that guy's life that he's never going to forget. Like, I feel real bad for him. Yeah. It would definitely be the worst defense of play of the game where it not for the fact

the Christian juice was outmuscled by David Perron at one point. Oh yeah, going back to that play. So, goaltender interference is subjective. It totally is. Like, there's going to be times where you're going to look at stuff and you'll think one thing and I'll think another thing. But if you look at that play and you think like David Perron did something wrong

there, like he, oh, he sweep the leg of Braden Holby. No, he didn't. He got shoved into the crease, couldn't get out, and then he got knocked over into the goalie by Christian Jews who weighs 160 pounds. That's how that play happened. David Perron didn't go to increase. It's like the goal. The coach's challenge took roughly 3.5 seconds to figure out,

so I don't think there was a lot of controversy there. That had to be a record. Like, oh, here we go. Another goal tender. Oh, oh, it's over. Oh, oh, it's a goal. Okay, yeah, that's kind of what I thought to. All right, let's stay on the gold nights for a second.

Then we'll talk about Ovi and shit. So, Mark Andre Fleury actually was J.S. Jaguer. He had three. incredible fucking rounds in the playoffs and then implode

well you see Jagar at least posted a shutout in the in the final against the Devils in 03 like Flurry

holy shit Flurry was not good you could argue his best game was game five only because his positioning was good for two periods

and then all of a sudden he shot out the puck behind him for the cup winning goal like he did back in and it was the same deal that he did back in 08 against Detroit

if you remember like he did it was the same kind of play. Listen, you can't shit on the guy. The only reason the Golden Knights were in the finals is because of Flurry. And his importance to this franchise in this season can't be, you can't even encapsulate how important this fucking guy was of the franchise. But push comes to shove, my friend, not even close to being an active participant in the

final. But to me, like, he wasn't bad. he just wasn't, he wasn't great. Like, the goals he was letting up, like, there was never, like, the Tom Olson goal that he kind of kicked in when it was between his legs was bad. But, I mean, you look at the goals last night. I mean, Verana snaps a puck past him on, like, a breakaway.

Ovechkin, again, by the way, Ovechkins scored two goals like that, where there were, like, sharp angle shots that he kind of put off of Flurry. Like, it's not Flurry's fault because he has to go so far to get over, but, like, they go into the Flurry. Ovi probably should have had one in the first three. too. I still don't know how the fuck that didn't go in off the post. Off the post, yeah, I know. And so, and the two goals in the third period, I mean, Lucas Beez is basically hangs Flurry out

to dry. Like, these are all shots that, like, they're not impossible to stop, but when he gets beat by them, you're not like, oh, wow, that's like 2012 Flurry, but you're right. Like, the reason why the Golden Knights were where they were was because he was stopping everything that he was supposed to stop. Yeah. And like, almost everything else that wasn't impossible. and pretty much any difficult chance in this series, it got past it.

Like, Flurry, not Flurry, so, Gigerr, I'm looking at his series numbers from 03, so I don't know exactly what he was going into the final, but going into the Stanley Cup final in 2003, Jigar had a 39 save shutout, a 24 save shutout, a 35 save shutout, and he stopped 24 of 25 at a four-game sweep against Minnesota. And then he gave up two goals, three goals, two goals,

shutout, six goals, two goals. So the six goal game kind of skewed his numbers a little bit, but he was still serviceable in the final. He got into seven games while Flurry just vanished. He had to shut out the final, and then he backstopped him. I think it went seven, right? He backstopped him in the game six before game seven. Yeah, he was fine.

And, you know, I don't think he should have won the Con Smythel because I think his worst round was in the most important round. But, I mean, it's the same kind of thing. And, like, I don't, I have a problem, I have a problem defending Flory. because like, like, Holpe was so demonstrably better and, and, and, and, and did the things that the caps needed him to do to win the series and, and Flurry gave them nothing. But maybe I, maybe I'd have a different perspective if, if there had only been somebody here to be like, Flower, Yin's, Yinsne, the defense lets you down, right? Like, Yins know, it's not your fault, right? It's on Nate Schmidt, it's on Shea Theodore, it's on Lucas Spisa. Not your fault, Flower.

They were a one line team and had a hot goalie, and the one line wasn't great. Again, like, even like the Marshal line was fine. It wasn't bad. Hold on. Let me pause on Che Theodore. Has there been a single player in the playoffs that had a worst fucking game than Shea Theodore in game, what was it, game three or game four? Game three? Oh, the last, oh, that was game four?

Yeah, the game where he turned the puck over to Jay Beagle for no reason that set up the single goal. I know. Every, yeah. Yeah, it is, it was frightening to watch somebody who had the yips in that way. Like, it was fucking atrocious. And he's not a bad player. No, he's a good player. Perfectly fine.

But I think, before we get to the Marshalls-old line, on the blue line, it is so completely evident what this team lacked in the playoffs. And it was a John Carlson type, or an Eric Carlson type. They got him at the trade deadline. Like, this is a serviceable group of defensemen. They're not bad. I actually really like Colin Miller. even though he had his sort of struggles in the final. But you could just feel the whole in the lineup of not having the guy that could skate 26 and be your either shut down guy or a dependable guy you could put out there against the Obedchkin line each time.

Like that's, that to me was the, you know, for all the pompom waving teamwork, go, go, go team go, four lines, three pairings, kind of bullshit. Like at the end of the day, you need guys like that. And the caps had one in Carlson. And the Knights didn't have anybody on that level on their blue line. It was everything. They didn't have anything behind the first line. They were getting by on Ryan Reeves' game-winning goals for two straight games. They weren't.

Like, a guy who went, I don't know if he had a bad series possession-wise, but every time I watched Eric Hall on a shift, he always seemed like, it's a hard thing to kind of quantify, but when a team's going good, like they're making passes when they should pass. They should shoot when they should shoot, and they're doing all that stuff the right way. Like the goal, the Riley Smith goal was one of those plays where the play where Alex tuck like just hooks the puck over and it's an empty net. and they read like that like that that that's the kind of play you make when you're in the zone and by the way eddie olchick on tv was like what a great pass i guarantee you if alice tuck flubbed that pass or riley smith flubbed that pass he would have been like oh you got to shoot that puck from right there but that's that that's a whole other thing big big big surprise by the way Alex tuck decided to pass on that play i know what the fuck happened to him that that was that was like in the final it just seemed like like eric hall i had a chance on like a little kind of like quick little three on two

He kind of got around somebody and he had James Neal cutting and like he just didn't see him. And that happened like a bunch of times for the Vegas Golden Knights in the final where in the first three rounds like if there was a dude open cutting to the net, man, they saw him, they hit him, it was a goal. And in the final, like yeah, the cats were taking away stuff. But they also, when there were opportunities there, they just seemed like they not froze up, but they just weren't in that same sort of like sync they were in the first three rounds. But it's okay because Eric Halla served a more important function in the series, which we're not. was he was the reason so many my friends from Finland came to work the series from a media perspective. Really?

All my Finnish. Oh, yeah. You see, for those who don't know, the cup final is an interesting animal because you get reporters from all around the world that come to cover it. But usually, for most places, there's only like one or two guys that get all of the media attention. So, for example, like, you know, when the lightning would be in the final, you know, you would see Cedric Paquette become the single most popular. person in the locker room because he was bilingual.

So all the French reporters would get him for French language television. So in this final, Eric Huala, the scrums around this motherfucker would like 10 times the size of what they should be because the Finnish people were talking to him. You know, obviously like Baxterum and Christian Juice got the, you know, the Swedes, you know, the Swedish people, the Swedish love. And then on the bilingual side, it was Pierre, Edward Belmar, and David Perron, were the two guys that were like the scrums around David Perron for a guy who had squads. or to goal since March,

where, like, you'd think, you'd think Gretzky was there. Like, it was just, like, all the French language reporters trying to get this guy, uh, for, uh, RDS or whatever.

And so that's, that's how the finals work. And so Eric Hallo was the finish sensation for the final. He was the, he's the only Finn on either team. Is that true? There'd be someone else, right? He might have,

he might have been, yeah. Jesus. Not, Neri a Routu or a Yokinen to be found. Or a Koi, or, or,

were there, were there, like, Were there like 45 Danish reporters around Lars Eller every day, like talking Danish? Oh, yeah. Is Danish a language? All the Danes. Oh, my God. You wouldn't believe it.

There were crullers and bear claws, like all the Danishes that you could possibly imagine all around Lars Zeller at all times. By the way, my best bet for Game 5 on this bullshit gambling thing that I have to write for ESPN, which I thank them for letting me write, but I'm not very good at it. The gambling part, I mean, I said, guarantee you that Lars Zeller gets a point in Game 5. and lo and behold, if you had followed by advice, you would have won some money. Really? How much for that have paid a point? Come on, that's got to be like two to one, tops. Come on.

He was like plus 210 for a point. See, I bet at money lines. I don't know what that translates to. That's a hundred bucks. Yeah, I don't know. It sounds really, it sounds really impressive. I don't know. Oh, let me pull back the curtain on betting for a second.

So there was one bet I considered making last night, which was the consummate. And I considered making it because I know some of the voters. And so I had kind of a feeling and also an inkling that Ovechkin was going to win the Khan Smyth, right? And so I was contemplating, just putting some money in it and getting back a very small return because he was obviously the favorite. But here's where the problem is. I'm also a sports writer.

I also understand the novelty of the hot take of the swerve of the subverting expectations. And I thought to myself, you know, I'm pretty fucking sure O'Betchkin's going to win the cons smife. But if you're getting his net's off has four points tonight. Oh, for sure. Without question. If he would have scored that goal in the first period where like Flurry came over and made the glove save, you kind of like one touched it, like it was like a little chip at the side of the net. If that goes in and they win one nothing,

I could not trust it I could not trust that they weren't going to and Coosie was a good value too he was like plus 100 on the money line but I couldn't I didn't lay any money on the game last night one because I didn't want to jinx the fact that I might be able to go home if they won the cup and two

because I simply could not trust Pierre LeBron walking through the press box being like boys got to get because that's off the con smite five more points tonight boys Scottie Smith Pelley and have a big goal big goal for Smith Pelley Bonds. Yeah.

Got to get Smith. And Emily, Emily's like, and Emily's like, I'm not a boy. Play, this is a big, this is a big boy vote in Emily.

Big boy. Put your big boy fans on. Um, all right. So, one last thing on the Golden Knights, which is,

uh, a bit about the future. How much money did Eric Carlson cost himself in this, in the series or in these playoffs? Eric Carlson? I mean, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,

I'm sorry, William Carlson, rather. Oh, I don't know. Come on. There are these, what are you,

what did he wind up for? What was his line for the playoffs where he's going to lose money? There's no way. He was very pedestrian in the final. He was not very present in the final. Marchesaw was. Marcioso looked like a fucking, like,

for all of the dirt we've shoveled on Florida in the last like year, based on the Riley Smith and Marsh is a thing. Like, it's not simple that Marciusso puts up numbers and plays well on a line that was demonstrably the best line in hockey this year. I mean, maybe outside of that. I mean, you could make the argument

that Bergeron lines better, but one of those two was the best line in hockey. He looks like a star. Like, he was creating shit out of whole cloth in this series in a way that nobody else

in the roster was doing. Carlson had a goal and an assist in five games. I don't know if you can suddenly devalue a guy because he had two points in five games. That seems a little harsh.

I know what you're saying. Like, he wasn't as good as he was, but I don't think he cost himself like millions of dollars because of that. By the way, Marcia so. Do you?

Yeah. He had no goals and three assists in the series. He did nothing. And I, and. But he, but he, but he was present. Like,

he, like he, he did everything on, he did something on almost every shift. Eh, I don't know. Feels like, feels like your eye test is,

is, is, is deceiving you. I think maybe that whole line, maybe just wasn't that good in the, in the final. Not good enough anyway. I mean,

Riley Smith had a couple of goals. One was in the power play. One was in garbage time. So, I spoke with 200 hockey men and they told me that Marcia So had a great series Wait so you're telling me the non-Canadian

had a bad series but the good Canadian boy He's Canadian, right? He has to be Canadian. Where else would he be from? His name is Jonathan Marcia Soe. I don't know. Dude, I thought Matt Nisketon was born in Finland up until like six years ago.

You hear you hear you a name and you're just like, oh, I thought Lars Eller was Swedish until like five years ago. You just hear a name and you don't know where someone's from, maybe. It's a global game, Greg. The question of the week was, what was your favorite playoff moment? I don't know if this was, but I will definitely put it up there. There is nothing fucking funnier in the world than Matt Niskinan giving T.J. Oshy a metro card with doesn't have enough money on it to get out of the fucking subway

when they took the train to game four. As a guy who rode the metro forever, so if the. Those who don't know, it's not like the New York subway where you just put your car, you didn't go through and then you could ride anywhere. Like, the DC Metro has a thing where, like, depending on where you started and where you stopped, you have to pay a certain amount of money, you know? So it gave him a fair card that didn't have enough money on it. So fucking T.J. Oshy's there in a suit.

All the fans are, like, flocking around him. He's trying to work the buttons in the fucking machined and looking for singles to put in to get enough money on the card. And finally, the metro people are just like, all right, you're T. You can go through. It's okay. I just love that. Just pay us back.

later. It's fine. We know who you are. We know where you work. You can cover it. Yeah, we saw your contract. You know how long you're going to be here. You know, it's fine. By the way, so at the end of game two, a game where Marshall had no points and nine shots, though, after that game, the game in which Tom Wilson blindsided him and knocked him to the ice, and he didn't have a concussion, he had a total of eight shots in his last three games and just two points and was not, you said you saw him. I feel like he really wasn't that effective the last three games. So I wonder if the guy who didn't go to the concussion room may have had a concussion. It was just playing with him.

How about that? Now, when I say I saw him, I mean in the sense of like an avatar where I'm like, I see you, like I see your soul. I see your essence. That's kind of what I meant. Oh, well, then in that case, I guess he was pretty good. Do the Golden Knights make the playoffs next year? Absolutely not. Why not?

I think they can. No. I'm, it's great, Greg, here's a thing I like to call doubling down where one year I'm like, hey, Vegas isn't going to be good, they're going to miss the playoffs and I was wrong. So what I'm going to do is, is I'm going to go to the hot take ATM, pull out another take, and then double that on the original take. How about that? I like that because I feel like if you needed to have that sort of assist for the visually impaired, the voice at the hot take ATM would definitely be Stephen A. Smith. You know Mark Andre Fleury's not going 940 next year. If you want fast cash, hit the fast cash button.

By the way, I was going, I had your network on for four seconds this morning because I'm a 40-year-old man, but like inside my brain, I'm still like in high school. And so like I still, I still put on ESPN in the morning thinking Sports Center is going to be there and it never is. And I put it on and no shit. I don't know what he was screaming about, but he was screaming his head off for like seven seconds, probably something, you know, Cavs Warriors related. and I was just like, nope, let me go watch Futurama. I reruns. I can't do it. You can't do it, man.

I don't know how anybody does it. Look, I'm very pleased like my sport, but I got to be honest with you. It's been really hard to cover the Stanley Cup final. I was talking to somebody about this the other day, last night, about, like, where does this final rank for me? And, like, game five was phenomenal. Game one was maybe the best hockey game I've seen in 20 years as far as entertainment value, because it was so full of energy, but poorly played, but exciting. Like, it was just great.

I mean, it was like crack. It was so fucking good. So the bookends of this series. How do you know what crack's like? What are you doing in Vegas? You're telling me. No, listen, I've listened to enough rap in the 90s to know that crack seems pretty good from what I've heard. I've listened to a few podcasts to talk about crack.

I got a good feeling for what crack is like, actually. Thank you. Oh, wait. I'm sorry. No, I meant it's as good as cracked. Because their movie parodies were so much better than that. Now, listen, but here's the thing. Like, I think the series as a whole was kind of okay outside of those two games

because, like, the Wilson hit on Marsha's show was, like, drama. And that added into the game one craziness. But, like, I look over at the NBA, and you got a dude who doesn't know what the score is. That is pilloried by both teams. And during the final, you have a sitting general manager who has to resign because of his wife's burner accounts. And I'm like over here being like, hey, everybody, but what about the fact that William Carrier is back in the lineup? And they're like, we're fucking busy. Brian Colangelo's wife was just leaking sensitive medical information about his own players.

No, no, even worse. It's not even just that, oh, William Carrier is coming into the lineup. It's that the game before that when everyone knew David Perron was coming out of the lineup, The coach was like, I don't know. Let's wait and see until the puck drops and see what it's going. Like, they won't even talk about changing a second line winger out of the lineup. So fucking painful. Like, Peron was skating with the fifth line.

It was obvious he was coming out. And then, like, you know, because Gerard Gallant didn't want to have to talk about a guy he really likes coming out of the lineup because he's been fucking dog shit. Like, he's like, I don't know, is you not playing? Like, yeah, he's not playing. and he didn't skate with any of the lines. I don't know. Tough to see. And like, I went back, I went back to what I said in the lightning series against the cabs,

which is if there was a way to hire John Cooper as the Gerard Gallant interpreter for a few weeks, you know, where it's like, it's like, hey, is David Perron playing? I don't know. He might play. He might not. And then John Cooper steps up. He's like, you know, what he really means is that on Christmas morning as a child, sometimes you get certain gifts that are, you know, big and you get ones that are small.

You get ones that are wrapped in ones that are sort of in bags. And you're just like, oh, thank God John Cooper's here to make this thing more interesting. Let me ask you this. In basketball, I guess it's kind of the same way as hockey, but they're less secretive. In baseball, they post the starting lineups like three hours before the games. In football, you get the inactive list 90 minutes before the games. And now sports betting is going to become a super common thing by the time next hockey season starts. Do you think the H.O. will do something?

about this where like people not that like david peron is good you know be the reason you bet or not bet on a game but this whole thing where the lineups are a secret until five minutes before puck drop like doesn't the any job to like do something about that to stop that from being a thing if they want people to bet on the sport they do for sure but i mean i i still think it's going to be a really big hill to climb as far as like getting the specificity of injuries because of the concussion shit. I think that's really the issue is that, you know, the concussion thing is so secretive and it's so like proprietary and whatever that that's going to be the injury that I think

they play grab ass on. But they're going to have to be a lot more specific on stuff. I just, I actually interviewed a dude at William Hill this week about hockey gambling and like, the idea that hockey is going to exponentially jump in popularity because of in game, in game wagering is a real possibility. Oh, yeah. I think people are really sleeping on the fact that, because here's the thing, it's not simply just the Golden Knights were popular, and that's why people bet on them. It's all the people that came to Vegas that, and the William Hill guy said this to me, a lot of the people that bet on hockey when they came here or bet on hockey living here had never placed a wager on hockey before.

And my theory is that a lot of hockey fans, especially in the U.S., that are trained to make wagering part of their fan experience, like, I just feel like for the casual better that isn't going to have something on their phone with which to bet, like, illegally, to have it readily available in front of you, you're going to fucking put money on games you go to. I really think that people are sleeping on the gigantic sea change that's going to happen for the NHL now that we're going to, wagering is legal. And now that you're going to get the specificity of, okay, we're going to overtime. Everybody go to your phones, bet a hundred bucks on game winning goal. Will there be a game winning goal? Is it going to a shootout? Who might get the game winning goal? I think there's like so much in-game shit that you can bet on in the moment that the tech is there and the

legality is there and it's going to change the fucking game. Yeah, I can see that. But like hockey's hockey is always going to be the, you know, fourth most bet thing or fifth most, whatever it is. It's not a game people bet on, but I just, like, I'm not saying, like, I need to know exactly how bad Jonathan Marshallsso's concussion is so I can know whether or not. Like, I think

you just want to know if someone's going to play or not. You don't need to know how bad the injury is, but you need to know. Like, seriously, like, football, I always go back to the last Boy Scout when Damon Waynes is, like, getting his ass kicked by Bruce Willis in his house, and, like, Damon

Wayne's like, you know why they have an injury port so the bettors can have an accurate spread? And that was like 1989. And now here in 2018, like, that's why the inactive list and the injury list exists so we can bet and do fantasy sports. And if hockey doesn't get on that same level for like pregame stuff, like you're right, like in game stuff, I can totally see myself like taking out my phone when a game goes to overtime and betting on who's going to win. Yeah, because there's not enough scoring events. Yeah, pregame where you're going to be compelled to do it. Yeah, that's the thing. I don't know if to ever change it because it's just, it's just, it's such nonsense.

sense because like okay let's say the year of Pittsburgh won it two years ago going into the playoffs we didn't know if it was going to be Matt Murray or Mark Andre Fleary or Jeff Zackoff so I can understand why the penguins would want to not let the Rangers know right away who their goalie was going to be in that first game fine but for stuff like this like if we all know David Perron's coming out of the lineup like why just just be like yeah you know he struggled

and we just want to go with our best possible lineup and right now we feel like it's this like just say that Why? Why the secretive thing for David Perron, man? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Let's let me ask you about the Capitals, a couple questions about the Capitals. Are you happy for the franchise? Eh, I guess. I don't know. I was on DC Radio this week and you're like, so how do you feel about the Capitals being the darlings of the NHL? I'm like, let me think about that for a second. I bet if you polled a thousand coffee fans. Right.

Like, I would bet 85% of them wished there was a way for Ovechkin to win the cup without the capitals winning. Exactly. And I do feel like that there might be maybe 90%, or maybe only like 80%, rather, because like I do believe that there were people that wanted the caps to win because they didn't want Vegas to win the cup in their first year. So there was probably some team support from that aspect. But overall, I'm pretty sure a lot of hockey fans were like, if there was a loophole, and I don't mean a Joffrey loophole, I mean, if there was a loophole where Alex Hovem and maybe Backstrom and, you know, maybe a couple other guys could win the cup without the franchise being able to raise that banner, they'd probably explore that loophole. I think it's cool. I think it's more uplifting than like Pittsburgh winning it again or Tampa winning it or. Blackhawks winning it, obviously.

But I don't know. Yeah, like, I'm way more, I'm way more happy for Ovechkin and Backstrom than I am for like Ted Leonis. Like, I can give a fuck about that guy. Come on. Let me talk about Leonis for a second. There's only two guys on the ice last night that I congratulated. Because, as you know, like, I was in D.C. for a long time.

I got to know some of these guys for a long time. And I feel generally good for my friends in D.C. that are Caps fans that have been kicked in the fucking balls for the last decade in the playoffs. I feel really good for them. I congratulated Brett, Brett Leinhard, aka Stretch, the emergency backup bully, who was the team videographer. He's the guy that I've known for years and has done, you know, started as like an intern that worked his way up and like was the emergency goalie for one game.

And like he's a really decent dude and I was very happy for him. Maybe that he's just there still. Like, you know, there's so much turnover in this business that he was still there from when I was like a cub reporter. So, like, happy for him. And I actually went up to Leonis, and I shook his hand. I'm like, congratulations, Dad. You know, like, because I've had a very contentious relationship with Leonys through the years.

There's no secret that, like, when I first started covering hockey, it was because Ted Leonsis decided to credential bloggers. And that is the reason why I ended up in the press box, JP from JAPR's Rink ended up there. A lot of report, a lot of people that started in the blogs got their first taste of what it was like to cover a team because the Capitol said, We're going to create our own press core because the Post and the Times don't give a shit about hockey. And that's what happened. Now, over the years, the number of, you know, credentials to Homer McFanboy, an actual blog, decreased because the caps got good. And all of a sudden the post is sending like five different reporters to every game. And Ted kind of took a heel turn on the blogs at some point.

But like, I respect the fact that I respect what Ted's done there. Like, am I a fan? Not necessarily. I hate dial-up. But I respect the fact that this dude had invested so much money in the team, invested so much money in the arena, invested so much money in creating the practice facility that changed the way that kids play hockey in Virginia and D.C. and Maryland had to have those extra sheets of ice. Like, I respect the stick-to-itiveness of this guy in the face of constant disappointment, not only for the capitals, but for also the Wizards. So I congratulated him, and he seemed to begrudgingly accept the fact that I did. Did you congratulate the PR guy that went on Twitter and called you a liar when you weren't?

Yeah. No, I missed him. I missed him on the ass. That's my point, man. That's why I'm kind of just like neutral about teams winning shit, because it's super cool that Ovechkin won and super cool that Backstrom won. I'm glad that Japer's rank now is no longer going to tweet things that like he thinks the players were reading during the game because I feel like I feel like his Twitter

I feel like I feel like him the Caps getting to the third round kind of broke JP a little bit because like he never used to tweet like this and I would check my timeline between periods and he's like come on boys one more period and it's like who's who's that who's that for who's who's reading that

it was very it was very confusing because his Twitter feed in the playoffs used to read like Joy Division lyrics and then all of a sudden it became this sort of like go get him tiger kind of thing He's like, stay bright, stay light. Don't, please stay in the fight.

Like, oh my God. I could not be fucking happier for Ovechkin. Like, you know, I think we talked about this before, like, like the idea that he would probably have to leave Washington to win the cup eventually. Yeah. And to win the cup and to win the Khan-Smith is just like dunking on life. Like, it's a guy who had to deal with all the slings. and arrows of like he doesn't care enough he doesn't step up where's his grit?

They should trade him is when I think I hit him with a shoe and trade him. Oh my God. Like to deal with all that bullshit and then in the year you win you finally win it's your fucking cup. Like there's no denying

the impact this guy had in every facet of every series. I don't know, man. Hold on, hold on, come on. Three points. three points on game winning goals against Pittsburgh goals of one and two on the road against Tampa first goal in game seven

in Tampa that basically gives them the win all the shit he's done in this series I know you're going to put his nets off over or Holti over and that's fine I get that I completely agree those two pulled the rope too but dude I'm just saying from a perception perspective you cannot look at what Ovechkin did and be like oh that guy's a passenger

like this is his cup I mean you won it against expansion team that doesn't count motherfucker whatever he beat a team that didn't exist two years ago like does that really count as a cup I don't know to me I can't now you have me really anticipating you know when Ovetkin retires 20 years from now because Russian machine never breaks and a 90 year old Steve Simmons at the Hall of Fame being like yeah but his lone ring was it against an expansion team let me tell you and also he goes to the same restaurant in Washington DC

and eats the same chicken parmesan every game Oh, boy. I'll tell you right now, there's two things I'm not going to miss from the postseason. One is everything. I'm just happy the season's over. I'm going to the Belmont this weekend. I'm really excited to go to the Belmont. Oh, nice.

I think about hockey, even though I don't really care about horse racing. Oh, now, did you decide to go after you found out that George Soros, co-justify? No. So, dude, I used to go to the Belmont every year pretty much after college, and then I stopped going in like 0, 2004, 05, whatever year it was. we talked about this, but in the Philadelphia horse choked, and I bet on the blog shot and I won, and I taunted the Philadelphia horse and screamed about how the horse was a choker from Philly and all that stuff.

That was the last time I went. And every year since then, my friends always like, you want to go? And I'm like, eh, you want to go? And so this year I committed to it before the derby, not really knowing how the, because, like, usually there's a, the Belmont's usually going on the same day as a hockey game.

And I was like, whatever it is going to go. I just wanted a day drink and gamble, so I'm going to get the day drink and gamble. Maybe, maybe I should go, I know, it occurred to me last night that, like, how weird it is that the cup finals over before the Belmont. We don't go too. We'll see you there. Ruby went the year of American Pharaoh

and that was just a shit show and I'm sure it'll be the same thing for Justify, but it would be a lot of fun. It's going to work out. But also, oh, you, yeah, go ahead. The other thing is, and I'm not saying I didn't do this at some point, but you hockey media people

have got to stop taking photos of towels on seats before games. Nobody cares. Nobody fucking cares, man. There's 20, Postseason games. I don't need to see 28 pictures of towels. I don't.

If I want to see photos of towels, I go on the bed bath and beyond website. Stop taking photos of towels. Thank you. By the way, a little bit of nuance here in Vegas. They don't call their towels rally towels or rally rags or anything.

They call them battle towels, which is very aggressive. I feel like, you know, if I get out of the shower and I still don't feel clean, like I need the battle towel to really scrub it off. Like a towel that's really like rough and coarse.

You got to like rub it over your body and get the, it's like, yeah, it's like if a towel fuck the lufa, that'd be a battle towel. But that's what they call here. By the way, Mama Lucia bought all the ESPN people, the Ovechkin meal that he has before each game. And I ate that chicken parm. By the way, nothing like opened it up a thing in chicken parramp and seeing that beautiful Lake Michigan-sized dollop of oil in the middle of it because now you know what kind of cheese you're working with here. I ate it. I got to tell you, man, like, I don't pretend to understand the metabolism of the professional athlete, nor do I understand the metabolism of a guy built like Ovechkin who skates all night.

I wanted to fucking die after I ate that chicken farm. Like, I just wanted to be like goodbye cruel world and just curl up in the corner and not do my job for the next week because I was so goddamn full. I don't know how he does it. I honestly don't know how he does it. Oh, speaking of things that we don't understand, I need to know down to the last, penny. How much it costs is to get Panic at the Disco

to play for four fucking minutes in the middle of the goddamn Bellagio fountains? Because you have to both pay the Panic at the Disco guys and you have to rent the time in the Belagio fountain from the Bellagio. That has to be six figures for four minutes of a... I mean,

I'm not anti-panic at the disco or anything. You could have put fucking Bruce Springsteen out there on that thing and I would have been like, what are we doing this for? How much did that cost? Do you know? Tell me you know your insight, inside stuff. Tell me what that cost. I would say it would probably be like maybe like 50, maybe 50 grand, but like I also think that they're, they're Vegas fans. They're from here. So like that's probably maybe to get a hometown discount. I just want to know is,

you know, how come that nobody's ever heard of playing a goddamn night? Because putting that band out, the Belasio fountain is beautiful, but it's beautiful at night. Like, that's why you go and see the fountain. Ocean's 11 did not shoot that fucking scene in the middle of the afternoon. So you have some guy in a gold lamay jacket sweating his balls off. And the effect is they could have shot that thing at fucking Hurricane Harbor in Jackson, New Jersey for all I care. Because there's no ambiance to it because it's the daytime. That could have been 50 grand because didn't someone say like Kid Rock's appearance fee was like 50 grand.

And Panic at the disco probably has more cashier than Kid Rock. And you got to get them on. You got to like pay the people to like take take. a cigarette boat and drive them out to the stage and shit, you probably even pay lifeguards and make sure nobody falls off the stage and drown. But in fairness, Kid Rock was paid in Bud Light and

cartons of Marlboros, so, like, it wasn't the same deal as Panicap of Disco. All right, we got anything else to say about this Capitol's victory. I feel really happy for the fans. I feel overjoyed for fucking Alex. Like, I just can't,

I never, I honestly never thought I'd see the day that this motherfucker raised the cup. I really didn't. Like, I just felt like maybe it was going to be the Dan Marino of hockey, like the guy, Carl Malone of hockey, like a guy who never would cross the threshold. And maybe that was sort of the hockey god's bargain, right? Like, it's like you're going to end up the best goal score of the history of hockey, but you'll never win.

Like, I really thought that might have been it. And so to see him finally get it, I mean, fuck, does he retire? Like, what's the point now? I guess the point is to try to break Gretzky's record now, but like, now you got the cup. Yeah, like it's got to be like a huge weight off of his shoulders. Because like if it works like the way beating the penguins did, like that was a huge weight off their shoulders and they just were able to play hockey like after that. Here's my one last thing is, again, we talked about this last week.

The only reason I kind of miss covering games is because I don't have to watch TV and watch the game on my TV. But they went from like NBC to NBCSN to continue like the post game coverage. And maybe it was like 20 minutes after that. and they had paraded the couple around the ice. We saw the boobs. There was all that stuff. Like, you know, T.J. Yoshi crying because it was dad and all that stuff.

Thanks, uh, thanks, Seth McFarlane. We saw your boobs. Boobes. Wait, why is that, why is that Seth McFarland?

Is that like a... Don't you remember his song at the Oscars that got him in trouble? When he did the song called I saw your boobs about all the, all the actresses that got naked in movies. I definitely didn't watch the Oscars the year he hosted, but that sounds familiar. That was definitely a deep cut. Yeah.

The T. Oshy thinking of his dad was just, I couldn't, I can't even process how impactful it is. He couldn't keep it together. Like, I was, I was there with a camera talking to him and, and Oshy just, like, he just kept on, like, looking up and smiling and wiping tears away with the towel around his neck and just, like, what a, man, what a moment for that kid. Yeah, and there was, there was all this stuff, and they were, they kind of, like, pull back and, like, it's at the point now where, like, I don't even think there was media on the ice

anymore. It was more like, Ovechkin was just, like, hugging, like, he was hugging everybody, obviously. and they have like a long shot of him like talking to like whoever friends family whatever and Keith Jones and his fucking stupid ass haircut fucking comes on the goddamn he's not on the screen like he's narrating basically and he goes you know P.K. Suban during one of the intermission said that he thinks Alex Lovetchkin's the best Russian-born hockey player of all time

you know what I gotta see him win one more cut before I can say that Oh no! Fuck you! You, fuck, are you kidding me? He's already the best Russian-born player of all time. He can win zero more. Why? What is this preoccupation we have?

We're having individuals win team championships to confirm their individual greatness. It makes no sense. Stop it. He's won his cup. He can do whatever he wants for the rest of his career. He's the best one-born player. Eat me. It's a really good point.

What he needs to do is go back in time and get in his prime Steve Eisenman. play with him so he can win multiple cups like Fedorov did. Right. Right. He needs to go back in time when there was no salary cap. He plays on a team where the illichists spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year so they can have Roebatei on the fourth line. That's what I actually needs to do.

God, these people. Hey, we did like a third line winger for this season. Is there anybody available? How about Brett Hall? Oh yeah, that's a really good idea. We should get Brett Hall. Can we afford him? Sure. We can

spend $200 million and no one will blink an eye. Oh, okay. And also, by the way, Vegas Golden Knights went 0 and 4 after Imagine Dragons played on the ice before game two. And they had not lost four games. An excellent point. They had not lost four games in the history of the franchise up until now.

And I think the Imagine Dragons curse is real and should be talked about at all times. One last thing that we should probably discuss is Barry Trots. So we asked Brian McClellan last night, is Barry going to be back? And McClellan said, if Barry wants to be back, he'll be back. And so I went to trots and I'm like,

hey, so your GM kind of put the puck in your end of the rink there, bud. He said, if you want to be back, you're going to be back. So are you going to be back? And he's like, well, I want to take a few days to think about it. And then he wanted to do this whole, like, soliloquy, about the players being like his kids and Ovechkin being like his son and all this shit.

So you kind of got the sense that he wants. come back but like if you were barry trots like wouldn't you want to just go out on top like go someplace else like i i i feel like if you if you come back to washington you're coming back for comfort you're coming back for probably what should be a pretty significant chunk of change and you're coming back to eventually be fired because i don't think they're going to do this again well i mean no matter where he goes it's because he's going to get fired like if he goes to the island or brooklyn which isn't really an island they all whatever but he goes to brooklyn he's going to get fired in three years.

Like, to me, I was talking about this with Down Goes Brown where if I'm Barry Trots and I win the cup and I just won the cup and this is my last year and my deal,

I am, like you're not untouchable in Washington, you're right, you can absolutely get fired in like two or three years when Ovechkin and Baxter and maybe fall off the table. But like he is a,

he's like Joe Gibbs now where like Joe Gibbs can just show up at like events and it's like, oh my God, that's Joe Gibbs. That's the guy who coached the football team. Like he can do that forever. So to me, I would rather

That's an amazing point. Right, I would just rather get the five year, four year deal for a bunch of money stay there and just live off of this and be a hero and legend in D.C. forever as opposed to immediately bailing and going to a situation that's not as good. That's me. Yeah, I do

wonder if now the capitals have the cachet that the Redskins had after they won the Super Bowl. Like, can Chandler Stevenson open up a car dealership and just throw his name on it now? Like every ex-redskin in the DC area. Hey, welcome to Chandler-Stevenson Nissan, where you can get the best Nissan's ever.

So you say you have an investment potential for us. Yes, I want to make a place called Christian Juice. It is cold press juice, but with morals. Hey, it's me, Devante Smith Pelly. You know me as DSP, so come on down to DSP SUV and get a great SUV today. Why not, man? Cash in. Cash in, I say.

So you say you have an investment opportunity for us? By the way, congratulations on the Stanley Cup. Yeah, so I want to call it Tom Wilson punches you in the face. And it's like therapy, but also you get punched in the face or whatever. And also you pay me and pee. Hey, are you looking for a new contractor to build some things in your home? Well, come down to Tom Wilson's boring. We'll board you up real good.

We'll board you from behind. We'll board you from the side. We'll board you from behind and the side. Come on down today and get a free estimate for how much I will board you. First of all, just congratulations on the win, Matt. You said you needed some seed money for a project. Yeah. A lot of people know Braden Holpey, the goalie, but they don't know Braden Holpey the songwriter.

And, you know, I see myself as sort of a Jack Johnson meets Jack Johnson, you know, the hockey player meets the acoustic surf guitarist. So, yeah, I figure Philip Grubauer. Oh, by the way, I still think that Philip Grubauer should have gotten the cup before Holpey last night. Like, what a great fucking troll that would have been, right? Gruvowers skate it for, like, two strides, and then Holpe gets the cup after that. Like, Gruberbergrubauer, like, drops it on the ice,

and then hopefully has to come over and pick it out. Yes! I'll take it from here, Phil. Yeah, why do the Golden Knights get to be the ones that do play acting? You know, you should be able to do play acting too. And then somebody shoots a catapult and burns up the logo on the ice. Hell, even Phoenix Copley or Copley, how do you say his last name, got the skater around with the cup.

Like, I don't know, if he gets a skater around with the cup, why can't I skate around with the cup? That's unfair. By the way, I'm totally in the bag for Nathan Walker getting his name on the cup. He assists on one of the most important goals of the postseason. Yeah. And he's Australian. And also, he gets a day with the Cup, right? I think does Nathan Walker?

Because, man, the Stanley Cup in Australia? I got to find out this money in the travel budget for that shit, because I'd like to be there for that. He definitely gets a day with the Cup because he, I mean, like team employees get days with the Cup. But does he get his name on the Cup? I forget the rules. I think it's one playoff game, right? I think, yeah, I think it's like one game in the final,

but you can request that guys get their name in the cup. But bottom line is that that motherfucker's going to put the cup inside of a kangaroo pouch. And it's going to be the greatest thing ever. And we're all going to lose our shit. And then the young, the young, the young pope will show up. But here's the thing. That's not a cup. That's a cup.

If Barry Trots does come back next year, it'll be very exciting. If the, if you, and obviously it'll be very exciting because the capitals will be able to raise several banners. Eastern Conference champions, Stanley Cup champion, and we beat Pittsburgh. If you want to be there for all that stuff, I guarantee you there's only one. way to get it because there's going to be 100,000 Capitals fans that all want to get those tickets. And that is with Seat Geek. Buying tickets to sports

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It's by far the easiest way we've found a shot for tickets. He could be anywhere just with a few taps. You can instantly find seats. We thank all of the Puck Soup listeners throughout the playoffs that have sent us pictures of you guys using Seatkeek to buy playoff tickets. Obviously, you're digging it and hopefully some of you take an advantage of offers that you'll hear about in a second. Seatkeek was designed to make your ticket buying experience easier than ever. It saved you time and money by searching multiple tickets sites to compare prices and find amazing deals. You get the most bang for your buck as CKK creates every ticket based on value to help you immediately identify the best seats that fit your budget.

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And we thank Seek for being a little bit of a little. loyal sponsor of the PuckSoup podcast whilst others that help prevent snoring have fallen by the wayside. Yeah, even though people seem to like the snoring thing, right? That was like a, they enjoyed that. I don't know. I don't know how it works. Now, we have a guest on today's show, and it's one that it breaks my, it really broke my fucking heart that Lozo couldn't be here for it because I know that he is a personal hero.

He is John Taffer. Yeah. John Taffer of Bar Rescue. he and I, where else, spoke at the Jack Daniels bar inside of T-Mobile Arena before the game. And we talked about all of the things. The Knights, Vegas, sports wagering, and a good amount of bar rescue talk, including asking the question that Dave Losea wanted to ask about his history with the pirate bar in Silver Spring, Maryland. The pirate bar.

John Taffer is a guest that we've long wanted to have on this show and we're super happy to have had him on and here he is the man himself, Bar Rescue Zone, John Taffer John Taffer Great American Vegas Golden Knights fan Big time How did you become?

First off, when did you become a fan? You're a day one fan? I am a day one fan I think as soon as they became available One of the first. I was a Blackhawks fan when I lived in Chicago So he's taking it to the Hawks. Yeah.

So you'd have been through what the Stanley Cup playoffs can be. Right. And, you know, once you're in, you're never not in again. So we're talking like Jeremy Roanick-era Hawks. Absolutely, Ronick, sure, Tony Lamont, Achelios, oh, yeah. Eddie Belfour. Yeah.

Those are great team. Characters. The characters, great team. Bobby Probert. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's back when we had fighting in hockey. That's right.

Those are real fights like that. John, did you think hockey was going to work in Vegas? You know, I was so excited about it. I never really thought that it wouldn't. Yeah. You know, so we all use ourselves as a reference. I was so excited looking forward to. Everybody I knew was excited about it.

I never expected Vegas to become a hockey town, though. Yeah. And every sign, when you drive through our neighborhoods, this flag, signs everywhere. Kids, you go to school, the teachers are wearing t-shirts. You go to the hospital and the nurses are wearing t-shirts. It's really special. I've told people that I never really had a...

I've come to Vegas for a long time. I never really had a sense of community about the city, obviously until the tragedy. But even before that, when they sold the 12,000, 13,000 season tickets, and it's real people buying them. It's not the corporations, yeah. That was inspiring. It was. We all bought it, of course, long before the tragedy. But the tragedy was very powerful.

These guys came to this town a few weeks before, went to hospitals and to see people in jerseys. nobody ever saw before. Yeah. For games, nobody had ever seen. Yeah. And, you know, they connected with the city before the city connected with them. And I think that's one of the special things

about this year. Yeah. The notion of it, you know, it's funny, the notion of it being a long-suffering fan base that's now watching this team play is things that people laugh at it, right? But the more people I've talked to, they're like, no, you don't understand.

We've been waiting for a pro team to come to this town for decades, but they never bought one because of the gambling thing. That's exactly right. So, you know, for us, we've been waiting for something like this, so long and to think we get an NFL in a year but but yes I agree with you we've been waiting as

long as anyone else. Long suffering. All right, let me ask you about the arena here. Now, Vegas is known for a certain amount of showmanship and kitsch. We got knights and flaming arrows and catapults and all kinds of stuff. Do you think they hit the right tone or are you surprised that it didn't even go more overboard into the, lean into the Vegas a little bit more when you come to the games here? I think that they made it Vegas as it should be.

The crowds are cheering. It's an energy tool, and it's really working. I mean, the team entrance is outstanding. The night we all thought it might have been nerdy the first time or two. We did it, but before we knew it, we loved it, you know, the drum butts might have been nerdy the first time or two, but we fell in love with it. And it's all created a personality that we all love now. And, you know, we didn't love Chance when he first appeared either.

It looked like a weird Pokemon. I don't know the hell it was. It needed a way. But, you know, it's okay. Chance belongs now. You know, he's part of the family. So it's all come together really well. And I think the pieces individually are surprising.

Yeah. But they come together to create a bigger mass. It's good to, I mean, I feel like it could have gone the other way. We could have had Elvis's. We could have had a lot more showgirls. You could have had a lot of the gambling stuff. But it seems like they struck the right court here. They did.

Also, because of the tragedy here, you know, the fans couldn't feel guilty having a good time. Yeah. So there's always been a nice balance of respecting what happened. and then playing hockey. It was important in that balance. How did they keep it going after this year? I mean, obviously there's certain amount of, you know, cashier you have to get the success they've had

and cultivate in this fan base. So how do you keep the flame lit? How do you keep them going after this year? Well, you know, this is now something that could be the beginning of a great organization. And they're setting the ground that will be the tradition that follows. I think if it's presented to this team correctly,

they understand what an honor it is. Yeah. To lay the groundwork that becomes tradition. from New York. So when you look at the original Yankees that laid the tradition that became that team, these guys have an opportunity to make a mark in hockey and create a legend from this point forward. Let's talk about, you mentioned a branding. You're a man who knows branding. What did you think of Golden Knights? You got a billion opportunities in this town to name them anything. I agree. I hated it when I first heard it. But you know, you know,

the Knights worked really well. Yeah. And that worked. And then, of course, the logo, I think, pillar. Negative space on the V. That's always a key on the logo. I love it. Yes, but it works. Yeah. You know, and, you know, now they're the knights, you know, and I think it works.

When you were... It's like chance, you know, it was a little awkward at the beginning. Same thing. When you weren't crazy about it, were you thinking more like an animal, were you thinking more like a gambling reference? What did you want? When you conceived of a team in Las Vegas, what was the name you conceived of? Well, it depends on if I was thinking seriously or comical.

The comical one was the Las Vegas escorts. And then we had more serious ones from there. But obviously, for me, my stupid one was always the craps. I love the idea of a guy getting drafted by an NHL team being like, I'm very proud to be a crap today. That'd be my choice. What did you do today? We took the crap.

Right, exactly. And imagine the headline possibilities. Crap swing up. Yeah. So, okay, let's talk a little of our rescue in hockey. if you had a chance to apply your expertise to the National Hockey League, a league that we all agree lags a little bit behind the other big three, what would you do?

What would be your thoughts on making the NHL more successful? You know, I was on the advisory board of NFL Enterprises, and I invented Sunday Ticket. You invented Sunday Ticket? I did. Wow. And if you look at, you know, or if I look back at the experience that I had with the NFL,

I would say that the NHL needs to be more aggressive and it's branding. Yeah. It needs to be more aggressive in opening up the game to different demos. Because once you're in, as I said, you're not out.

Yeah. It's, you know, once you get booked by hockey. Because, I mean, the makeup of the sport itself kind of becomes an obstacle to that, you know? Well, I think to some degree, but you know, it's interesting.

You look at a lot of sports like golf and some others I won't mention, you know, they're not attracting millennials like they could and should. Right. But, you know, I think when we look at hockey, we have a chance with millennials that I think some other sports might not.

Right. So when we look at hockey, forward, that's the positioning. You know, we position this game strictly with that segment and get them excited about it, and I think that's where our growth is. I've been saying for years, we need to serve more avocado toast at games. That'll get them in. That'll get them in. All right. Now let's really talk, let's talk real, really talk bar rescue. One of the questions I had for you, we talked about branding. When you change the name of the bar, that you, or is that a consortium of people coming up with a new name? Always me. Always you.

I control my show very much. I'm that way. Yeah. You know, I feel like my name is on it, my reputation is on it. I've always felt that production is the enemy of reality, because production wants everything to be planned and reality can't be planned. Right. So, you know, I'm the steward of that reality on my show.

So I take it all very seriously. Do you ever feel bad that you're, like, some dude's name has been on the bar for 30 years and you're like, I'm going to change it into the something something alehouse instead? Do you ever feel bad about that? You know, I don't because I always get my hug. So, you know, I make decisions that are hard. And sometimes, you know, it's like a baseball game. We might win the game, but there's a lot of rough endings along the way.

Right. You know, we won a magic game, but have a terrible period. So, you know, Bar Rescue has some terrible periods. But in the end, I get my hug. All right. Let's talk about one of the terrible periods, because my co-host, Dave Lozo, will assault me if I don't ask you about what your most difficult rescue was and was at the pirate bar.

It was, yeah, probably the most difficult. Because when you looked into their eyes, you saw it. I didn't see them comprehending what you said. They were in another world. Well, I mean, it was one eye because of the patches. One-eyed, Mike, you're referring to. What was interesting about them was they were pirates 24 hours a day. They only had pirate clothes.

I looked in their cars because I didn't believe it myself, and everything was pirate. They lived 24 hours a day as pirate. You might remember at the end of the episode, I put him in civilian clothes. Yes. And they couldn't not talk pirate. We all thought you were kind of fucking with them. No. I, maybe.

I mean, they could not talk. non-pirant. It was the most bizarre bar resue I've ever had. Now, I've had meaner owners that I had a fight with, but never a more bizarre situation ever. Yeah, exactly. Is there a common

theme you found in what people do to mess up their business or mess up their bar? It seems to me watching the show. It's like letting your friends drink for free, or you're drinking for free a lot. I mean, what would be the common thread as far as the things that don't work?

You know, first of all, you can't party in your own bar. Yeah. Make money in your own bar. Then you can party wherever you want. That's the deal. Right. So if you want to party, not in your own bar. Yeah.

So, you know, that's the first thing. You know, the other issue is you can't get into business because of the social aspect. It's a hard business. You've got to love the business. Yeah. And if you're going to get into the social aspect, do a bar in your basement, man. It's a lot cheaper. You know, and get your friends over and be done with it.

It's a tough business. Yeah. Let me ask you about trends. What do you think of the speakeasy trends? You mentioned you're from New York. I'm from Manhattan. Yep. Every three blocks has got a hidden door in a place now.

They upcharge the cocktails at $28. Do you think that's something that's sustainable? I'm not sure how sustainable is. Remember the cigar bars? Oh, yeah. Came and went? Yeah. Remember the martini bars?

Yeah. Came and went? Mm-hmm. So trends have an end. Yeah. That's what's interesting. You know, these steakhouses will be there forever. Oh, yeah.

You know, the neighborhood bars will be there forever. The seat. But, you know, trendy bars always have an end. And I believe that's a trend. that, you know, some will stick, but most long. When you mentioned millennials before, is that the challenge right now? Because a lot of them like staying home and not spending money and drinking craft beer in front of a large television instead of going to a bar.

And in a state like this, they smoke cannabis, which doesn't get them off the couch either. Unless you smoke enough of it. Then you've got to get the toggle bell. You've got to get something neat. That's right. But, you know, when we take a look at millennials, they're a real challenge. Yeah. You know, legacy brands and things don't matter much to them.

They strive for relevancy. They want to go to a place that's relevant, that makes them relevant. They want to buy relevant stuff, do relevant things. They want to be cool. So you have to work really hard at being relevant to them. Then they don't watch TV in a traditional sense. They look at their phones 260 times a day. So the way you market at them is very, very different.

You don't have to be good. You just have to be cool, to be honest with you. Yeah. That's a tough thing, though, being cool. For some of us. Who makes it? Who makes it cool? Do the customers make it cool or can a bar be cool?

Well, you can create cool. You can. You know, it's a stage. Now, you've got to put the right people on it. But, you know, you can cede a bar by inviting certain people and having it start with the right customers initially. Yeah. But, you know, Walt Disney built magic.

Yeah. You know, and I think we all can do that. I appreciate you saying that as I'm an ESPN guy. That's true. What, you mentioned cannabis. Let me ask you about cannabis. Let me ask you about. legalized sports betting. First on cannabis. How does that change the game for bars?

Well, I think it does. You know, when we look at places like Las Vegas where it will start to be included in lounges and in places like that, you know, it definitely has its place now in the hospitality world. It has to find it. Yeah. You know, the other issue about it is, you know, it's, it's a impact of keeping people home. Yeah. And there's no question it has an impact in that regard. So it's a changing element of society. change behavior over years. And sports bars, I liked watching the sports bars on Bar Rescue because they never seem to get it, right? But it, to me, like, legalized sports wagering all of a sudden changes the game in a lot of ways to them. How do you think that's going to affect the way that people

make these bars now? Well, I think it's a lot more fun. You know, I think if we all bet on the game, and then went out and watched the game together, that would be a lot of fun. So I think it makes a reason to go watch the games together, just like the sports book in Las Vegas. Lagosie's sports book is a temple. great place. So imagine being able to do that in New York, right? You know, being able to infuse it. It's almost a cool O-TB, you know.

No, those two words can't be in the same vicinity. No, I bear you, but it has the potential of being. I know, that's why I said. You can't have a cool bar where there's a degenerate slapping his thigh with a program, imagining he can make the horse run faster. On a sticky floor. On a sticky floor, right? A couple more of you.

Tell me what your opinion is on. Vegas is an interesting place. So I've made an effort to go off. the strip. I went to the Black Sheep for dinner. I've been to Lotus of Siam the other night. Like, the casinos are one thing, off the strip's another thing. What do you feel when you see people come here and they don't leave the strip? Do you feel bad for them or do you think you don't need to? I don't think you don't need to. You know, you go to Miami Beach. You don't have to go to Miami. No, you don't. You know, you go to Manhattan. You don't have to go to Queens.

Yeah. So, you know, people come to Vegas. They typically stay in that three-block area and they have a blast. Yeah. And 42 million people a year keep coming back. They got to be doing something right. You got it. How close were you ever to losing your fucking mind on somebody on Bar Rescue? That was just stubborn. Two times. Two times.

One time when Brian Duffy was called Fat Boy. That's right. By Army in Denver, Colorado. And another time when a cook, his name escapes me, Denomen, pushed me. He pushed you? And then I pushed him back. Yeah, we had a bit of interesting. I remember that vaguely.

Has it been hard? Because people are really dumb. I'm really well-intended. And what it is is if you take time and compress it, anybody becomes a maniac. I'd make you do something in four hours, it would take you four days. So that's, you know, the environment that I'm in. People quickly learn that I'm well-intended, even though I'm aggressive. It's a fine line between aggressive and ass.

Very, very fine. I cross it frequently. Absolutely. What's your favorite bar food? You had to have one dish. If I have one dish, I would take something, a, that you don't use a knife and fork. Yeah. It wouldn't be bar food. Yeah.

Something that you don't tilt your head with, like a taco or a slice of pizza, right? So not a tilter. Not a tilter. Not a knife and fork. Nothing dripping down your face because you got to be cool when you eat it. So this sounds like nachos or wings, maybe? Well, wings are going to get messy on your hands and stuff. Depends upon whom I'm with.

But I would do something in a basket. Like a fries. Or something that you can pop in your mouth and eat. Yeah. And still maintain a social appearance. Okay. Finally, the comet's going to hit the earth. There's one bar open.

You run inside. And you order what cocktail before the comet hits the earth? Ooh, a godfather. What's in the godfather? A godfather is about an ounce and a half of scotch. Yeah? And about a half ounce of amaretto floated on top. Oh, yeah?

How did that become your beverage of choice? It always has been for some reason. It's stuck with me for a lot of years. I drank Crown Royal for a while. and others, but the Godfather is stuck. Okay. Finally, if you want to make a little boy happy, can you please say,

puck soup, shut it down? Puck soup, shut it down. John Taffer, you are the best. It's a pleasure to meet you, my friend, and you're the best. All right, we're back. Thanks to John Taffer from Bar Rescue for joining us here on the podcast.

I will say, Lozo, that he, He did do, remember when comedians would do really well and Johnny Carson would welcome them to the couch as sort of the moment of recognition of their greatness? Well, John Taffer said to me, after our interview, that I could be, much like Big Cat from Barstool was, one of his spies for a sports bar episode of Bar Rescue. that's that's so what i i so want to do that i like for any of sports bar whatever bar it is like i want to go in there and be the guy that like orders the potato skins and just be like oh these are so gross even though like i probably like them but i know i have to say they're gross for the purposes of the show like oh yeah the cheese is like like like legitimately like i know

people have probably met paul mccartney that were beetles fans and been like this is like a religious experience that's what it was like for me to meet john taffer that is the man himself. Shut it down, fuck soup. I'm not jealous. I'm not jealous at all. I'm happy for the show because we got him even though it was just you and not me. That's fine.

All right. Let's take it around the league a little bit. Let's talk about Ryan Miller and Christy Teigen got into it. Chrissy Teigen, rather, got into it. So Chrissy Teigen said, she tweeted two things while watching hockey. She said, I feel like I feel like I can absolutely. be a hockey goalie. I ran some numbers, and if you lay on your side and lift your top leg and up and down the entire game, you stop 99.9 of attempted goals. The rest is up to defense.

Ryan Miller of the Anaheim Ducks, a man who, oh, I don't know if you guys have noticed, takes his craft a bit seriously, said, I feel like I can absolutely be a supermodel. I ran some numbers, and if you lay on your side in an exotic location, you look hot. The rest of the is up to the photographer. And there was also a second tweet, too, right? He basically did the same joke. No, that was the two. The two that I just read are the two.

No, no, no. The first one, oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, like, Chrissy Teigen made two jokes, and then he made the two jokes on top of her jokes. And then Miller said it was a joke, and thank you to everyone who let me know so passionately that I can ever be a supermodel and so on and so forth.

So, like, he, listen, I feel like much, I, I, I, I can recognize and understand the moment in which somebody does not realize that sarcasm does not translate on Twitter. I've been there before. And I don't feel like this was, like, misogynistic. I feel like he was, somebody chirped his profession. He's chirping someone else's profession is how I saw it. Here, so let me tell you this. So this morning, I was texting with a friend. and I just like offhandedly referenced it

like the Chrissy Teigen and Ryan Miller thing and his response was who's Chrissy Teigen and he didn't mean that Wow really? And like he didn't mean it in like a sarcastic way or like who is she? Like he just... Who's high pitch? He genuinely just doesn't know who Chrissy Teigen is

and it hit me that he is someone who unlike me isn't online all the time so like he had to Google Chrissy Teigen and he was like, oh, right, I know who she is. But he had no reference point for the joke war or anything like that. And I just thought to myself, man, how much happier would I be to not know about the Chrissy Teagan, Ryan Miller, joke fight on Twitter? Joke fight, yeah.

It's insane. And on top of that, like, yeah, people were like, oh, Ryan Miller's sexist. Like, come on, man. Like, take it from me. A guy who makes jokes on Twitter where I do a joke probably once a year, I mean, once a year for 25 years, I guess he gets to get. say about how Canada hasn't won a Stanley Cup in 25 years, 22 years, 23 years, whatever it was. And when you make that joke, there will always be some Canadian person who replies to you with something along the lines of, oh yeah, well, at least we don't have school shootings in our country where children are murdered.

Like, they escalate the joke to a point that they're not supposed to do. It's a sports joke, and you're coming back with like, oh, Trump is going to kill everybody in your country. And Ryan Miller made the exact same level response joke at Chrissy Tegan. And Chrissy Tegan was not offended. Chrissy Tegan got the joke instantly. You can debate whether or not Ryan Miller was mad or not. But whatever he was, in his words, he mirrored the joke back at her. How is that?

There is absolutely no fucking issue with the notion that he was mad. Of course he was mad. Anybody's going to be mad when somebody's mocking their craft. I mean, like how pitty to jerk. But how pissy to journalists get where people are like, all you do is go to the game on a free ticket? We're like, that's true, but we also have to eat free popcorn. Like, there's all kinds of reasons why we get bent out of shape, too. It's the same principle.

But, like, I feel like saying that joke is sexist is, like, insulting to, like, Chrissy Tegan. Like, you're, like, defending, like, Chrissy Tegan, of all people, does not need to be defended on Twitter. She's good. No. She knows, dude, I live in fear of getting dunked on by two people on Twitter. Chrissy Teigen and Dictionary.com. If either one of those two entities dunks on me, I have to leave forever. Anyone else, I'll adjust, but I live in because Chrissy Tegan follows me.

And, like, one day I'm going to tweet something offhandedly about, like, Sports Illustrated or something, and I'm going to get quote tweeted and I'm going to die on Twitter, and I cannot wait for that to happen. But, like, it was, it was, I don't understand how it was sexist. Like, I just, like, I, he treated the joke equally. He didn't go over the top. He didn't, I, I don't know, man. I don't know how people get out of bed every day and have those kind of thoughts about that specific joke situation.

I think for me it would be Ashley Feinberg. I would really not want to get dunked on because I think she's hilarious. And I don't want to see her talents. I wouldn't want to see her train her guns on me. And then like I feel like if I ever got dunked on by one of the obnoxious feeds that I follow, like thoughts of dog or cute pet pictures or some shit. And then it's like if I wrote something that all of a sudden. made them like rise up and attack me like I was like Trump saying some shit about immigrants. Like it was, that's where I would be really sad.

Like all of a sudden thoughts of dog is like, I do not like the hockey man saying that about this. I'm just like, well, shit. Like if Carl Pilkington quotes, dunks on me. Yeah, that'll probably hurt too. Like, wait, Carl Pilkington broke character to dunk on me? What the hell, man? That's fine. You just come back.

You just come back and be like, oh, you have a laugh. He's having to laugh. I think he's having a laugh. Just do your bit and move on. Just do your bit. Yeah, so it was one of those deals where, like, you know, when you head down and cover the final, you don't really, like, notice this shit sometimes when it happens. But, like, when I caught up with him, I'm just like, this is, this seemed like a lot of fucking vitriol.

And the reason there was a lot of vitrioles, because the fucking ducks decided to just chime in and, like, and, like, signal boost. Signal boost is, like, tete-a-t between Ryan Miller and Chrissy T. Tegan and it's just like, come on. And that's when the trollish hockey assholes come in is like the minute that that gets signal boost by the team. Now they feel like they have to take up arms and defend their goalie against the lady. Even like Chrissy Tegan on Twitter was like, I have people come to my mentions every day and like yell at me about shit and I've never had anything quite like the strain that

I got with like, she said sports people in general, but like it was probably mostly hockey people. So I feel bad for her in that regard. But like yeah, that's not Ryan Miller's fault. Like why? Like the ducks, the ducks have the worst fucking Twitter account hockey. It's not even close. Like, they didn't need to do that.

Like, oh, Ryan Miller's on our team. Let me do something for the... Fucking, just let it go. Just let it go. Like, why are you, why are you pouring gasoline on that situation? Don't you know? I don't know. I just...

Yeah. It was such a nothing, like, harmless, back and forth joke thing that never should have gotten to where it did. And now I'm all worked up and angry. All right. All right, let's talk about something that'll calm me down. The firing of Garth Snow. So Puck Soup, as you know, was the first podcast in history to report that Garth Snow had a lifetime contract.

There's some Islanders podcast that claims that you got it from them. Have you seen that, by the way? No. What Islander podcast? There was an Islander's podcast that claimed that they reported it before you reported it. And the inference, I believe, was that you took the information from this Islander's podcast when you reported it on a Puck Suit. Yeah, I don't even know. First of all, if you think I'm sitting around listening to Islander podcast in my free time,

I guess what I'll say to that is, is that I'm not. What's the name of the podcast? I don't remember, but it's good. Get on you making fucking Brian Compton cry on this beautiful day. You bastard. He's a friend, for God's sakes. So we were the first to report that Garstow had a late-time contract. One assumes that he's now bought out of that contract in some way, shape, or form.

or not. I mean, I guess he's still there and weight is still there. They're just kind of there. Like, so they're doing a Milton net office space thing to both of them as Lug installs a new GM and coach. Like, if I had a contract to 2023, you would not get me. I'd be like Costanza, a plane out. Like, you're not getting rid of me. Like, I'm just going to, I'm just going to tunnel through the walls and go to my office every day.

So Luz the new GM, which is great news for anybody if this was still 2003. And so he's going to hire a coach. So who do you think the next coach of the Islanders? going to be. Guarantee he was going to throw a ton of money at Barry Trots. I wouldn't go there if I was Barry Trots. Like, who's left? Like, who's, who's, well, you could, it's like, there's like three guys that, the four guys

that are kind of intriguing to me. The Marley guy. The Marley, Sheldon Keith, who is obviously ready to be a coach and is never going to be a coach in Toronto. Because I got, you know, the late-time contract, got the eight-year plan, you know, provided a little alienate Austin Matthews any more than I already have. Don't like his grit. Don't like his jam.

So you got that, you got either Todd Reardon or Barry Trots out of Washington, because obviously Reardon now is going to be hot shit because he's now got a cup ring and shit. So that's one guy. And also he's a defensive coach, and the Islanders are absolute dog shit defensively. And then I think you look at a guy like John Madden, who, boom, who was obviously a devil's player under Lamarillo and was an assistant coach in Florida. Now he's been a head coach within the HL for two seasons. I think he's got more, the head coaching experience he has versus what Scott Stevens lacks

makes him the most likely ex-devil coach there. And then, of course, you have to wonder whether or not there's going to be sort of the veteran choice. I mean, Lou has never shied away from hiring a guy that's got some miles on his tires. I mean, Claude Julian and so on. And so, like, you have Michelle Tarion, who was in the mix for the devil's job back in 2010, and you got Dave Tippett, who is out there as well. So, like, I feel like there's a really wide net to be cast,

but I'd have to imagine that Sheld and Keith would be top of the list, although I also wonder, like, would the Leafs really allow a reunion of Keith and, and Lou with the Islanders and maybe even Mark Hunter at some point, too? Like, how shitty is that going to look if he turns that shit around and then the Leaf starts struggling? Like, how do you business with me that shit, doesn't it? I think, I mean, I don't know. you don't really care.

If you cared, you would have hired Mark Hunter. You would hire Sheldon Keith. Like, I don't know. If they go somewhere else, I'm sure. By the way, speaking of the Marley's, that thing with the bus driver driving all the way to, like I saw the Marley's play by play guy, quote tweet it and say something like,

you know, the bus drivers, you feel like they're part of the team. And I'm sure they do is they drive the bus everywhere. But I just want the bus driver who drove all the way to fucking Texas to have been compensated handsomely for doing that driving. I hope they just didn't say like, oh, he loves the team, he wants to do it. Great. But he better have been paid like some serious hazard overtime pay to do it.

That's my only concern. Because hockey people, someone who worked at the NHL, trust me, people take advantage of you loving hockey to get you to do stuff. So if that was what happened, I'm mad. If not, then if you got paid, it's cool. But I like the Dave Tippett idea because if there's one thing the Islanders need, it's to not allow four goals a game for 82 games. They need to play like a boring defensive style and kind of build out from there. Like the last time the coyotes were good was with Dave Tippett. So if he can make the coyotes good, I mean, John Tavares leaves, it's a whole other ball of wax.

But I think I like Tippett the most. All right. Issue number four, P.K. Suban. So P.K. Suban is dating Lindsay Vaughn, which is obviously great for hockey. P.K. Suban is on the T.S.N. Trade board, which is weird for hockey. What do you make of that? I don't believe it. I tend not to believe it either, and I still wonder, like, is he a good enough player to overcome the salary cap hit and the fact that he would be leaving Nashville because of reasons?

Because, like, there'd be no fucking reason for Nashville to get off of P.K. Suven, unless there was an internal reason to. You know what I mean? So, like, why take that on, you know, if that's the case? I mean, I don't Like, like, I get that like the names that wind up on that list Based on like, because everyone at TSN has inside information. So like I'm guessing he's not on that list by accident, but he was a 20th guy on the list of 20. So part of me, it's like, it's like, say for instance if you do a book of the top 100 players of all time

And you want to have number 100 be a nice little interesting thing to kind of get you into the book, you might pick the Siddins even if you. You didn't believe that maybe in your heart. Even if you know that they're not nearly as good combined as Ditt Clapper, you still might put him on the list. I'm just saying. I mean, I don't know. First of all, he is worth the salary cap hit for sure. But I don't know.

I don't necessarily understand why they would treat him. You've watched the Stanley Cup final from afar. I've been here for it. You've gotten to watch it on NBC. Let's do some quick letter grade. for the coverage. Give me a grade on PKSuvan as a Game 5 analyst.

I don't watch the intermissions, man. Come on. All right, fuck it. Dude, what's the great? The intermissions are terrible during their regular season, then they add two minutes to them during the playoffs.

I watch baseball for 20 minutes and then come back. That's what I do. What's your letter grade for Mike Mulberry? F. What's your letter grade for Keith Jones?

Jeremy Roanick. I would say D-minus. There was that time he did that funny thing that one time. No. I would say, okay, Pierre McGuire. Doc Embrick.

D-minus. All right, that's more like it. Eddie Olcheck, A-plus. D-minus. He's T-Mefline. He had cancer. He had to give him an A-plus. Well, you didn't get Pierre-Maguire an A-plus.

Oh, yeah, he had cancer, too, didn't he? Wow. I forget what I said. Selected cancer memory. No, you know what? I'm going to give Eddie Al-Chek an F because I don't want to hear about fucking horse racing during Stanley Cup playoff games every fucking

for six weeks. I love it. It's the best ever. It is the greatest thing ever. It is like, and it's like a Tom Wilson goes through the zone bullying people around like a thoroughbred. Speaking of thoroughbreds, Eddie. I know.

The freakness. It's like the Sikhieguegue segue is only they're way worse and nobody cares. People use seat geek. Hockey fans, because like, first of all Eddie Olick, if he, like let's say last night, he knew that. was the last game of the season possibly.

So he's like, here's my picks for the Belmont tomorrow or Saturday. Okay, great. But they play coy. Oh, you got to tune in on Saturday. It's like these games are like a vehicle for advertising for the Triple Crown Races, and that drives me insane. And it also drives me insane that Doc cannot focus on the game. It almost happened last night where he was just meandering on about like the schedule

coming out in two weeks and blah, blah, blah, blah. And like Derek England missed a point blank shot in the middle of this rambling about the fucking schedules. F, F for Doc, I take it back. F. Pirates. Next. When we were kids and we watched sports, maybe this happened that I just don't remember it,

but I've noticed this happens a lot now in like hockey and everything where it's like game seven, it's overtime, it's a deciding game or something. And there's always the announcer who goes, who's going to be the hero? Who will be the one that steps up? Just fucking announce the game. Like, I get it. Someone's going to be a hero. I don't need to have the fucking preamble.

Oh, who's, who's the movie? That tracks back to my biggest gripe with our beautiful boy, Liam McHugh when he does the intermission ship. Because I fucking hate, and I know it's not him. I know it's like a producer being like, this is the way to go. Mike, you know, the predators are down 5'1 going into the third period. What do I think the message is in the locker room? I don't know. Probably score more.

Probably score four more goals and don't prevent them from score. Prevent them from score another goal. score more, four more for yourself. I fucking hate that. If you're the coach, what are he saying in the locker room? Yeah, right. There's no way that's Liam McHugh's idea to do that every single time. No, that's definitely a producer that's saying it.

All right, real quick, before we get to the question of the week, Anthony Bordain's dead. I woke up to this news this morning and it supremely bummed me out that he took his own life. This dude, if you've not read Kitchen Confidential, it really is one of my favorite books of all time. a down and dirty look at the inside workings of the restaurant industry. It taught me so much about about about it and the pros is fucking brilliant right down to the to the to the shit about like when not to buy fish at a restaurant because of the the purchasing cycle and then you know talk about like a like a like a like a like a jub de vivre man like that dude travel in the world has shown me more shit on his shows and I will ever see in my lifetime as far as culture as far as as as getting into culture as as far as as under understanding humanity. Whenever Ruby and I travel someplace, we are probably watching an episode

of No Reservations beforehand, like San Sebastian, for example, to learn what we should or shouldn't do and to know it about it. And I had the honor of interviewing him for the newspaper about a dozen years ago. And like, we bonded over the fact that I was one of the few people to recognize that each one of his episodes and No Reservations was based on a different film genre, whether it was just for that season or just overall. And, like, this is a dude that put every fucking tread of himself in his work. And it was great work. And it's a huge loss.

I was really, really bummed about that this morning. Hey, it seemed like he lived a pretty good life. But you're telling me that, like, your culture of going to Vegas and eating at the Taco Ball canteen, that doesn't match up to what Anthony Bordane was doing, really? But that's the thing. The thing about Bordane is, like, like, he would go to Vegas. and it wouldn't simply just be like eat at the Joel Robichon restaurant

like he'd go find the place on the strip that was serving you know interesting food or was had an interesting backstory and it's and it was always different than like the other travel shows were like fucking fat Andrew Zimmer and comes walking in and being like where's the place you can get cow anus or whatever like who gives a shit like Bordane was much more about like the experience and the culture and really living

the life when you're when you're on site someplace and it was beautiful. And like his, I think his other one was called Medium Raw was the other book and the, and then Catching Confidential. Both great books, really fascinating,

dude, huge loss for culture and for food culture. And I'm happy that there are probably like a billion episodes of his shows, you know, chronicling every city in America that we can still have in circulation. I was a big fan of ordained.

I'm really kind of bummed about this. I really like his quote about serving well done steak. Everyone should read that before they ever order a well done steak ever again. Yeah, precisely. All right, question of the week, as we circle back to the hockey's, what was your favorite moment of the 2018 playoffs? Because inexplicably they're over, like real quick. They got over real quick.

The Capitals, we didn't talk about that. The Capitals all of a sudden became the team that couldn't win in the playoffs, the team that was the fucking assassin of elimination games, like, taking out teams left and right when they had the opportunity. I was really surprised. That game last night was actually a surprise. I really thought we were going six.

By the way, weren't these like the worst playoffs overall in a really long time just in terms of like close games and game sevens and overtime? No game sevens, no close games. Yeah, it was very very lacking. Ryan Joyce says his favorite moment of the

playoffs was the boobs. Trey says Oshy post-game interview talking about his dad. Mike Drott writes in, Gensel scoring four goals against the flyers, revolting in projectiles, finding their way out of the ice in Philly. Oh, God, that was a long time ago. By the way, fuck Jake Gensel, because every time I want to write about Alex Ovechkin

and talk about how he's the best active goal scorer, I got to qualify it by saying Jake Gensel is averaging more goals per game because he's only played two seasons on Crosby's wings. So he's averaging, like, 0.75 goals per game, while Ovechkin's at, like, 0.5. It's fucking annoying. Yeah.

I'm tired to eat Gensel on his padded stats. Pitt the Elder says a goaltender interference review that took less than 45 minutes. When that first guy said boobs, was he talking about the breasts or referees? Boom! Oh! Sorry. Sam, the horn guy from D.C. said, I've got two. The look on Ovechkin's face when the caps finally won a series against the penguins,

an Ovechkin handing the cup to Baxter. That was a really lovely moment him handing the cup to Backstrom like that. And the bellow that he let out when he first got the cup from Betman was like just expelling demons from his body. Like it was fucking phenomenal. You know what was potentially sad

was when fucking Baxter missed the empty net? And like Ovechkin was just, he caught himself. He wasn't like openly sad. But the thought of like Baxter missing the open net, Vegas tying the game, winning game five, than winning the cup. Like, that would have been, that would have been too much for anyone to bear.

So I'm glad, I'm glad it worked out for that case. There was, there was a moment when the Capitals took the lead on that Ovechkin goal. It was Ovechkin from Baxter and Carlson. I'm just like, oh my God, put that at the fucking time capsule if that ends up being the game winning. Oshie talking about his dad after winning. This is from Crying Hayward. This was the first playoffs he was with my dad and it really hit home. condolences there.

Phil Park, Mark Andre Fleury. He was outstanding in the first three rounds. I thought he would carry the gold in. the promised land. Let's see here. Lindsay says, Connolly securing good juju with the puck girl gesture.

Remember that? Oh, yeah, yeah. Back in the day. Bat phone writes in when Corey Perry went scoreless while the ducks were being swept because laughing my ass off, fuck the ducks.

Dean Machetto has a similar one. It says, Rick Nash scoring two goals in game one against Tampa and all the punning saying see Nash is good before we went without a goal the rest of the series. yeah exactly um jordan writes in the combination of ovi and florese reactions after each big caps goal

uh vagus not winning because suffering is the human condition all must endure in order to a true true enlightenment agreed they're going to be hungry next year um that metropolis records written the time dave lozo didn't like something and let out at a resigned sigh and said something like yeah that's bad and wish giggled with glee oh that one time um oh was that It's supposed to be like, because we do that all the time. Is that the joke? Okay, I get it. Mort L. Combat.

That's great. Jets 3-0 comeback in game 3 against the Predators' best hockey moment I've ever witnessed. Boy, it has been a long fucking ride. But yeah, remember when the Predators lost? That was crazy. Rogue Run writes in, briefly feeling of cheering for, the brief feeling of cheering for a team that has figured it out, Columbus winning back-to-back games at Washington before losing 4 straight. falling back to earth like a rock.

Yeah, there was that one moment. And, and finally, Digger says boobs again. So a lot of people say boobs. Her boobs were the ones, like, she took them out of her dress, and they were sort of, like, high. They were, like, high and smushed. They were high and smushed. And they were also on the glass, yeah. I was getting a lot of boob criticism and dimensions over the last 24 hours.

Like, I don't know. Like, they're hard to judge because they're smushed. But I think those were, I think those were pretty good boobs, though. I'm just going to, I'm going to. I think, I think. I think overall, though, that boob moment does fall in line second behind the girl who put her boobs up against the penalty box in Vancouver during the playoffs. Remember that? No, I do not.

Oh, everybody, get on your Google machines and look up that. Oh, by the way, Joanna writes in Scallops is the best part of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's very hard to disagree with that as well. Wait, wait, wait, boobes up against the penalty box in Vancouver. Are you talking about the green men? Hi-o! Yes. All right.

So that's Puck Soup. for this week. Thanks everybody for putting up with different audio qualities because we're obviously doing it remotely. I'll be catching a flight in short order to get back to my sweet boy Dave Lozo in the New York metropolitan area and also Ruby and my dog. Thanks to everybody who said hi while I've been on the road for the last two months and said they dig what we do and dig the show and all that jive. Profit bar, Dallas, if you want to come and say hi and see the show live, 12 bucks. Very, very fun time. We're going to have a blast. I know that. And thanks to the caps and Golden Knights, you know, two through four were dumb, but five was fucking great, and one was one of

the best hockey experiences I've ever had in the arena, just the most fun you can possibly imagine and all that jive. And yeah, anything else to add? So, wait, one was good, two through four were bad and five was good. Isn't that the Fast and the Furious library? Is that how that goes? Yeah. Yeah, game two was a real Tokyo drift in my eyes. Well, three was Tokyo Drift. Two was, it wasn't two the one where they lost Ben Diesel? Two, no, two was too fast, too furious than Tokyo Drift, you're right. I guess game five being as good as what it was was the point in the series where Ben Diesel goes,

I guess was Secret Agents now, and then jumps the car from two buildings in Qatar or whatever. We need the rock to join the family. All right. Sure. By the way, if I see that skyscraper commercial one more time where he fucking jumps off, off the crane and into the building. Like Captain America, Captain America could not make that jump. What are we doing with the rock?

Oh, and by and by the way, I can't, I can't believe how much I want to see that fucking Bumblebee movie. It looks like the Iron Giant. It was a really good trailer. I was fucking stunned by it. Oh, I didn't see it. It's good. And also, Michael Bay is not directing it.

It's directed by like a special effects guy. So you could actually see the Transformers transform in a logical way instead of just like, looking like somebody through a bunch of silverware at a fucking metal wall, which is usually how it looks in the goddamn movies. So, yeah, Bumblebee. Is Shia LeBuff in it? No. No.

I'm sure there probably is some scene where, like, somebody runs through the screen screaming, Optimus! And that'll be your Shia LaBuff moment. But no, it's Haley Steinfeld and Bumblebee. And get ready for this, my friend. The sort of villain in the piece, John Sina as a military guy. There's no way that movie's good.

There's no... It's a Transformers movie with John Sina Come on. Come on. All right. Listen to old takes exposed. Make sure you cut this audio when it wins the Oscar. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening to Buck Soup.

We love you guys. Mailbag will be on the Patreon. And we'll see you guys next week. Oh, thanks to John Taffer as well for joining us. Shut it down. Let's shut this episode down. And we'll talk to you next week. Bye.

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what a few. commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, eats and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and nonsense. Part two.