Puck Soup - Confessions of a Puck Bunny

Episode Date: January 19, 2017

Greg and Dave speak with a self-identifying "puck bunny" about how she entered that lifestyle, her relationships with players, how hockey guys differ from other athletes, how she handles dangerous situations and harassment, and how she feels about women hockey fans being taunted as "puck bunnies" due to her activities. It's a raw, honest discussion about an uncomfortable facet of fandom. That, plus the Islanders fire Jack Capuano; the status of all 31 NHL general managers; Ilya Bryzgalov and Patrik Laine comments on bears in schools; plus reader mail about Trump, the Vegas Raiders, Jonathan Cheechoo and bacon. Sponsored by Seat Geek!

Today's episode of Puck Soup is sponsored by Seekkeek, the smartest way to find hockey tickets this or any other season. Look, there ain't nothing like being inside the arena behind the glass, up in the cheap seats, swilling beer, feeling the spray of ice on your face. And the only app that I use to grab me some hockey tickets is Seekkeek. It's by far the easiest way I found to buy hockey tickets. What they do for you is give you the most bang for your buck. That's why every ticket on Seek is given a grade based on value. immediately see any underpriced seats and be able to find the best deals to fit your budget. It's fast and it saves you money.

And here's what's best of all. If you're a Puck Soup listener, you can get a $20 rebate back on your first Seekek purchase. What you do is you download the app, you go to the settings tab, click add a promo code, enter the promo code S-O-U-P, that spells soup, and Seek will send you $20 after you've made your first ticket purchase. Remember, every ticket you buy on Seekek is back by their 100% guarantee, so you can shop for tickets on Seekek with confidence, and you can get $20 back. Download the Seekek app,

go to the settings tab, click add a promo code. Promocode is S-O-U-P, that's spell soup. It's in the name of the podcast, people, and C-Keekeek will send you $20 back after you made your first ticket purchase. Download the app today and enjoy the show. Now entering nerdist.com. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary To what if you commute We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nansen

I'm Dave Lozo of Vice Sports, The Comeback, Up Rocks, and many other websites. I'm I'm I, Eerieu Breesgallov, four-blog goaltender for flyers, coyotes, ducks, minisotia, So many other teams, also protector of Chinese tigers, and also astronaut in the universe, vast and mighty the universe is. And you're in Puckoo. Dave, I come here today to tell you about bears, about the danger of bears.

I listened to congressional hearing the other day for new Secretary of Education, and she makes a great point. I saw that. So that's a real thing you're saying. She makes a great point. There is only one thing that threatens America's schools in this day and age, and I think is definitely bears. It is. Grizzly bears, black bears, bears who wear leather. Even those bears?

Other kinds of bears. All of the bears. And this is the reason why you must keep many, many artillery guns inside of schools to kill. to kill off the bears. Actually, I know somebody who could chime in on this. Patrick, do you want to come in? Well, you know, I'm very humble. I just want to go to school and get an education and do very well.

And my grandfather invented the hunting rifle, so I know that it is the best thing to kill bears. I'm happy over here, Patrick, because I have many questions. First of all, why do you stay in Winnipeg when there are no parks? I never wanted to go there as a member of coyotes because there was no parks, And I assume that without parks, there is no place for bears to be, so they would come into your schools with frequency. In Winnipeg, it's a very nice place to play. It's got a lot of space, a lot of ice, a lot of grass.

Actually, my Aunt Gloria invented Central Park in New York. She designed it for the mayor at the time, and, you know, I hope to bring the park to Winnipeg at some point. You're very brilliant player. I'm very happy that I do not have to play. against you. That said, I want to put it out there. I speak to you, Dallas. I speak to you, Rangers with the horrible Blanquist too old now. I speak to all of your teams that have goaltenders with a 9, at 896 save percentage or less. Wouldn't you like someone who give you at 897? Call Ilya. He needs job.

No, KHL! Want to play NHL. Need to make money, build spaceship, go see vast universe. I'm a forward. I play to score goals. I just want to help the team win by putting the puck in the net, make some plays, second assists, primary assists, secondary assists. Could I play goalie? Sure. You know, my great-grandfather was first goalie in hockey history, although he never played in NHL, but he invented the goalie pad.

The butterfly style was actually invented in a sauna in fifth. when a man dropped down to his knees from dehydration and that was actually my great grandfather. So I just want to see the team do good. You know, Patrick, the last thing I will say to you before going back home and working on ways to protect the mighty tiger from Chinese poachers is, I am happy to see you because nothing makes me happier than the relationship between Russia and Finland. Finland with all of its beautiful natural resources and its land and availability to maybe drill there for natural gas. I have to go see a man about an invasion. Goodbye.

My great grandfather was first man to fight war in Finland. He invaded the small town of Oslo. He actually founded it for the people of the Finland. you know he was a good soldier he just wanted to do good in both ends and uh you know help the team as much as he could and uh i want to thank you for coming by and uh you know i actually my my my my my great great great grandmother invented the bayonet her name was actually bayonet and uh she just wanted to help the soldiers win that's all she wants to do and uh she kills as many men as she possibly could but this case she just wanted to see Finland when they were so i got to go to uh you uh i'll see you around. Maybe you

get a cabinet position based on the bear thing. I do not know. And seen. Welcome to Puck Suit. You're so inspired by the congressional hearings this week in which someone who may be Secretary of Education said the reason you have guns in schools to protect

your children from grizzly bear attacks. She said it too. Where did she? That was her logic. She like cited a guy in Wyoming too. Like somebody was going to back her up. Like no, there's a guy in Wyoming who wants said this, so it must be...

No, there was like none bear attacks in schools. Never, never happened. Well, anyways. Speaking of big burly creatures being fired, Jack Appuano. He's got a wolfman haircut. He certainly does. It's a good segue. So we have long said on the show that he would not be long for this coaching world

and it turns out he wasn't. He was fired in true NHL fashion after a victory by his team. Maybe their most convincing victory of the season. didn't that happen to no Scott Gordon was on like

at 016 and 1 run or something I want to say it was like Drew Drew Drew or like somebody got fired after like a really good win or something like that it happens now and again but the cap is gone the cap is off Doug Waite is the interim coach and um

you know it's it's weird like when he was fired I couldn't help but wonder why because this is a lost season they're not rallying for a playoff spot. It would seem that the worst. You see, you're doing that thing, you're making that face,

but you have to understand that the standings that you're seeing are not the real standings. Everybody's not played any games compared to each other. It's all fucked up because the by-weeks. It's all because of the by-weeks. It's all fucked up.

Right now they've played four... Yeah, but that's the thing is they've played 42 games. They're eight games. They're eight points behind Ottawa. They're eight points behind Philly with four games in hand. They have games in hand

that everybody ahead of them except Ottawa. The bottom of the east, It's not great. They're a 500 team in points percentage. Their cold differential only minus eight. Which makes them the second worst team in the Eastern Conference. They're not rallying for a playoff spot. It's not going to happen.

Probably not. Do you really think this firing happened because they have designs on the playoffs? I feel like it's a double thing where they could possibly use the time to evaluate him. And if the season's not over and they make a run, great. If not, then they can go get. Gerard Galant and go get Claude Julian when the Bruins eventually do their stupid thing and fire him. How do you like Doug Wake in his dick slap in the mud right off the bat? I know.

He gets hired. He gets his gig. Like, Garth Snow is on his conference call yesterday and he's just like, yeah, you know, a lot of respect for Doug. Players love Doug. Want to see what we have in Doug. See if maybe Doug's going to be the next coach. And then like three seconds later, Elliot Freepin's like, the Islander's like, the Islander's contact of the Florida Panthers to talk to Gerard Galant five years ago. Can you imagine, like, you propose to your girlfriend and she's like, I do.

and then like, you know, your dad comes out and says, weren't you asking about some other girl yesterday that you were going to? I think you put off fuelers for her sister to see if she was interested. Oh, I'm walking on there. Hey, buddy, Mago Robbie finally returning your fan mail, buddy. She says she can go to prom with you. Yeah, but yeah, I was surprised by the timing of it, not surprised by the actual firing.

The thing about Capuano is this, and I guess I maybe didn't realize this was the vibe from Islanders fans until they all let me know that this was the vibe from my honors fans. The greatest sin he committed, apparently, was being someone who could not for the life of him develop young players.

Just couldn't. Or... But again, that's... Go ahead. You're right. Perhaps the guy in charge hasn't been drafting very well, is what I was going to say.

John Tavares, layup. You don't get John Tavares. You get Matt Dushain. Beyond that, what's he done? But he don't need a rider. Yeah, and then he... And then he... And he goes to Minnesota,

and he's like, fucking great. It's a 20-goal guy? Yeah, but he's... It was horrible with the owners. There's a number of guys, Josh Bailey, Strom, there's a number of guys who have not, you know, become the players they should be, in theory.

I think it's both. I don't think it's one or the other. But I think the other thing about his firing, too, is it does put the owner's square on Garth Snow and management to say that things have to change, beginning with the coach, but also with the personnel.

But as you mentioned on social media, leading up to this podcast. Ah, yes. You, we rarely break news here on Puck Soup. This isn't really breaking news. It's more... But we do traffic innuendo. Gossip-mongering is more what it is.

So, but I believe it. Pleased to be telling this wild rumor you heard about why the New York Islanders have not made a regime change yet, as it were, with a general manager's position in Garth Snow. Okay, so here's what I heard. I feel like, I feel like the guy in Ocean's 13. Someone I trust. Who told me, I should, like, you know what I mean?

Like, I believe the person who told me this because they would not tell me this if they didn't believe it themselves. I would like to buy your game show enough and put it in a Biloxi Casino. A very serious man told me very seriously that I should take this news seriously. So what I was told was when Charles Wong sold the Islanders, Gart Snow had three years left on his contract. And if you go on the internet and try to find what Gart Snow's current contract is, it's just not there.

Like everybody reports everyone's contract, whether it's multi-year quote-unquote or whatever it is or one-year deal. Like maybe there's no terms, but there's something. Nothing out there. So what I was told was when he sold the team, he had three years left on his deal and to ensure that Garth, a guy that Charles Wong loves. He loves Charles. Yeah. He loves Garth Snow. I was told that to make sure that new ownership didn't just come in and bag him right away was that Charles Wong gave.

Garth Snow, on top of the three years that already existed, a 10-year contract extension. As my headphones just cut out, I hope everything's still working. I don't know what you just pressed. No, I think it's fine. Okay. So a 10-year contract extension worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 million. And just to be at least somewhat responsible in the work we do here, I got Charles Wong's contact information, left messages two days in a row. Didn't hear back.

The reason why I believe it's true, there's a couple of reasons. Is the double-digit years. Charles Wong was there for both Rick D.P.HRos contract and Alexa Yashin's contract. And this is just what the organization does. And again, I can't over-emphasize how, if you, if there's, Charles Wong did an interview with Newsday before he left the team and talked about everything he loved about the Islanders. He loves Gart Snow. He thinks the world of Gart Snow.

So if you feel like you're bailing on your guy selling the team and you don't want to leave him in the lurch This is what you do you give him a bunch of guaranteed money Right escalating salary too Escalating slightly escalates over the course of the contract and this way if you say that people buying the team You buy you buy the team you're buying this contract and they Now allegedly reportedly there possibly did it There's other evidence to speak to this the other evidence includes The fact that in the conference call with the media yesterday

it was fairly apparent that Doug Waite was being vetted for a possible head coaching job by Garth Snow. Now, granted, they're not going to tip their hand necessarily in a conference call like that, but it did seem very obvious that Garth Snow was going to hire the next coach of this team. And that's seconded by the fact that the Islander's contacted the Panthers and talked to Gerard Gallant, which is something, you know, Garth Snow is obviously making that call, right? He seems very secure in his position. The other thing that kind of makes you, you know, think about this is just the idea that maybe he would be gone already. Right.

Or not for this contract. Right. Like, you don't come off of a second round playoff season. Fire your coach, 41 games in or whatever. It is 42 games in. And then be so comfortable in your own GM status. Right. That you can just do this mid-season, talk about next season already.

like he's he's not going he knows he's not going anywhere and that's that's it reminds me of like um oh what was this remember buffalo who is the gm in buffalo again i'm thinking of when lindy rough would never get a darcy regir yeah like it it just he has that weird sort of like teflon and i get a lot people think gart snout has done a really good job you know he's had no money to work with for a long time and everything and you know he's got it's it's not like he's it's it's not like he's it's the worst gm in hockey or anything but like it it it's i'll get to that in a second but the third The third piece of evidence that I find really compelling to this end is there's been a lot of talk about the New York Islanders hiring their own John Davidson, their own president of hockey operations that would serve above Garth Snow, right? There's not been a lot of talk about firing Garth Snow coming from the organization.

So it's almost like they're saying, hey, Garth Snow is here. here, hey, we've got this giant oak tree in our yard. We can't cut it down. Let's build around it. So we'll just build the sidewalk around it. There's been a lot of talk about adding a president that might have additional power above guard snow, but not guard snow

not be in there. So it may be a situation where they reduce his power as a hockey operations guy by bringing in Mike Gillis or whoever, but he ain't going anywhere because he's got a lifetime contract. know what it's like. It's like Kastanza at play now when he had the contract because he was faking

handicapped and they were just trying to force him to quit so he wouldn't get paid. So that's what they're going to do. Garth's, Garth's crawling through the vents. Hello, sweetie, it's Garth. Could you just tell Mr. Thomas Sula that I'm in my office for just 10 years? And it's just the number. Again, like anyone I've told this to, they have the same reaction. They're like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see that.

But, right. And it's one of those things, too, where, like, I, It's not like, it's not the worst thing ever. It's not, I mean, they're not doing anything illegal. They're not doing anything wrong. But it's just, okay. It's just very islanderish. It's very islanderish.

Well, it's this very old regime, islanderish. Right. Completely. Right. But to speak to Gart Snow, though, and his effectiveness as a GM, I wrote about this on Puck Daddy about, about Capuanas firing. There's a thing that happens in the NHL where if you're a general manager and there's the perception of.

Well, you're making the most of what you've got financially. It's hard to attract free agents because of the reputation of your team and the shitty arena that you're in. And the fact that you're even competitive is a miracle. It's called Don Maloney disease. And I think Garstow is infected with Dom Maloney. I think that he is an average general manager at best who lucked the fuck out by getting Boychuk and Letty. Oh, the timing. Yeah.

The timing, the conditions, the cap room he had, it all fit. I think that he made, maybe not on the level of Jim Nills Blunder in Dallas in believing in his own goal tending. Oh, he fucked that up. But he definitely fucked up his own goaltending. I mean, do respect to Thomas Grice, but come on. Going back to 06. Here's some of the players that Garts Now is drafted. Okay.

Seventh overall, Kyle Lekposo. Awesome. Nice pick. Oh, by the way. want him. Also. People were like, oh, but, but oh, he's like, oh, the snow is like, the fiscal reality is the salary cap and bleed-de-blis. I'm like, you didn't, you made no effort to sign him. And then, yeah, let's some walk. The other person from that draft, six-round pick, Andrew McDonald. Wow. Good job. 2007, nobody of note. 2008, Matt Martin. Hey,

come on, friend of the show, kind of. Travis Hamannick and Josh Bailey. Hamminick was great Hammanix. He's been hurt this year. Bailey. Bailie. Bailie is the Nigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a guy

who spent significant time in the American Hockey League one year. His next games is fucking 600th already. Is that possible? It's insane. But the best player he drafted that year. He's like a rich man's Beau Bennett. With the 156 pick,

you know who the Islanders took? Jared Spurgeon, who's doing a great job in Minnesota. Continuing on, John Tavares, obviously, could pick, first overall, no-brainer. and then it's, you know, Andres Lee in the sixth round.

He's fine. It's not a bad pick. Casey Sizicus. It's like all these grind dudes that they're overpaying, like Sizicus and then Matt Martin leaves, obviously. Following year, Brock Nelson, is that Capuano's fault or is that Snow's fault the way he's going? I don't know. Nino Nieder rider traded him for a fourth liner. 2011, it's Ryan Strom, Scott Mayfield.

Nothing happened in there. 2012 took Griffin Reinhart with the fourth pick. It just goes on and on. Like the last, like, we're getting to the point now where it's too soon, but like Joshua Sang doesn't seem to be working out too well. He seems to be a problem. It's just, it's almost like what you're saying is that he should be fired, were it not for the 10-year contract, he's not with an escalating salary.

But like, no, but the thing that was like, I feel like Charles Wong loves him enough that he wouldn't have fired him anyway if he was still running the team. That's a good point. That's the thing is where, like, now it's like you're just, you go back through and you're looking at all these guys. He's Ryan Pilon. GMs don't get fired a lot, though. GMs are a very secure position.

Yeah, like once you get in there, it's hard to like prize somebody out the door. Because you could always sell that line of bullshit that it's like a five-year plan. Like every time Brian Burke got hired, it was like, well, we've got a five-year plan. We're going to start off being real truculent. And then we're going to...

Five-year plan. What is it? Don't die? Come on. Name that movie, people. What movie is it? Big Daddy. Oh, Jesus, man.

When Christy Swanson's with the old guy. What is it? You know what we do? We pee on the wall. That's what boys do. Fucking Brock. He just every, like any, any pick that's worked out, like Brock Nelson, he's not terrible or anything, but like he's a first round pick.

Middling. And he plays, yeah. Like, it's just, these are the kind of guys. These are complementary players. Exactly. And then the big, the big players he tries to add are guys like Andrew Led who suck on toast. Who suck on toast. You want to hear some of the names that Garth passed on?

Sure. When he took Griffin Reinhart. Morgan Riley Hampas Linholm Jacob Truba Philip Forsberg Well you didn't take Tom Wilson So that's good

It's just I feel like Is his track record tape with Tarvine Right now Give me a sense of your belief About these general managers Okay Solid Shaky

Or out the door Solid shaky or out the door Bob Marie the Anaheim Ducks Out the door You think he's toast at soon They're a winning team though That's the issue

They're going to be a playoff team Yeah That ownership seems to like him too Out the door next year John Chaka See that's a real tough one Because they are terrible And like how long do you give

The experiment to work in Arizona I need to know because there is nothing that indicated going into the season that they were tanking for any reason. There's no reason to tank. There's the reason why it should be this bad. Right. The first overall pick next year, the kid in Nolan Patrick isn't supposed to be Austin Matthews. And there's another kid

in like Switzerland that's supposed to be just as good. So like if somebody were to tell me through a back channel, look, he just wants to get as many draft picks as he can at the deadline. He wasn't looking to do anything this year. He wants the first overall pick. He wants Nolan Patrick. That's the whole point of this year. Okay. It gets a pass. But when you're trading

up at the draft to get a defenseman you're playing right away at the age of 18 all your you know I mean Duclair and Domey have been not good you're trotting around Shane Done's corpse for a more year

Eclare really regress which really screwed him this year Right I don't know Strom didn't work out I feel like that that But the problem with the experiment is that if it doesn't work it's going to be on him it's going to be another indictment of analytics

but at the end of the day to me the experiment is more can that coexist with Dave Tippet Yeah like having Dave Tippet deciding things too You look at that roster How many good old soldiers are there on that roster for Dave Tippett? Like fucking Hansel, fucking Don, you know.

Right. Like I'm, this year has been, I won't call it catastrophically bad because it's the first year and they weren't going to begin anyway. This is what they should have done the last two fucking years as opposed to this year. But like if he has another weird opposite. Again, like the Gologoski contract is fucking terrible. It's a bad contract. But like you have to get to the floor. I understand that.

So next year, if there's signs of imp. There has to be signs of improvement. Maybe that's a plan. Be so bad year one that year two, it's like, whoa, we got 74 points. This is awesome. Right. So, what are you? It was a solid, shaky and out of the door.

Out of the door. He's shaky. I think at this point he's solid. Don Sweeney, Boston Bruins. Oh, he's solid. He's solid, too, yeah. There's no fucking way, Neely. Neely will fire five more coaches before he fires Don Sweney.

Yeah, never going to happen. Tim Murray Buffalo Sabres. Shaky. Tim Murray's been there. since 2014. That's not a very long time, but I, look look, we got fire and Terry now to the

owner of that team, right? Like, it's clear that he's got a bit of a trigger finger, right? I think he's solid. I'm going to say shaky on that one. I think he's, I think I love him. They're, at the time we do this, they're one of three teams

in the entire NHL, that's below NHL 500, but they're like 43 points and 44 games. I feel like there's I feel like there's a second half push in that team. I'm not, I'm not, Tim Murray isn't my favorite people in the world. My favorite,

my favorite thing about Tim Murray is, is being at the draft, and then they do something, like they always have, like great drafts and shit, right? Like, they always do something smart shit, right? And like,

the media will all be crowding around them, and they'll be like, so, Jim, what are you about that trade, but, your thoughts on the trade. And he's just like, he's just like,

yeah, the trade was pretty good, I suppose. I mean, I think about all of you, Simpletons here Not really understanding anything about the game or anything about what I do But yeah, I appreciate you ask him

He was so pissy after Jimmy Visi Yeah, he's great I love him He's my he's he's Dwight Trute He's Dwight Trute up and down and it's great Like what's he done bad there so far? Lanner No, Robin Lennar's at like 920 something this year isn't he?

I mean he fucking lost his shit the other night That's what I'm talking about. Not exactly. But like, remember what they gave up for him, though? First rounder. Yeah, they gave a lot for him. But I mean, he's 10, 12, he's 10 and 12 with a 920 this year. I mean, fuck.

How many games? 29. He's been decent. The problem is, I mean, they didn't have Ikel the first six weeks. Yeah. I'm solid. You're solid in my book, my friend. You're shaking my book, sir.

Brad True Living, Calgary Flames, solid. That seems surprisingly good. It's getting it going. Yeah. And plus his dad founded, uh, Boston pizza. Oh, see that guy? Yeah, his dad was on Shark Tank.

Do you see Kevin O'Leary for Shark Tank's going to run for Prime Minister of Canada, by the way? It's the Trump effect. Every country's celebrity is going to now run for their leadership position. It's great. I still can't believe that's happening. I can't wait for fucking,

hi, I'm Ricky to Vace, running for Prime Minister. I can't wait until Kevin O'Leary gets like life has to play. It is whatever they have up there. Do they have been an inauguration? That's the three doors down of Canada's Lifehouse. I'm still getting replies to that tweet that I sent to fucking three doors down from like a week ago. I got one in the bathroom when I was, before we came in here.

You didn't see what I tweeted? It was like after they announced, they were like, hey, we're going to be doing the inauguration. Super duper, trooper, whatever. And so like I replied and the beauty of Twitter now is like the higher your influence, the higher your reply gets up in there. So my reply was, awesome. I love you guys. Please tell me you're going to play my favorite songs. How's it going to be?

And jump. How's it going to be in jumper? And, like, I waited. I didn't put a period before either. I sat there. I waited for it to brew. And then I got some reply. Actually, that's third eye blind.

Then I was like, no, third eye blind sings. And then I pick, like, some other random song. Oh, no, you did that again. Oh, it's just so much. It's so rewarding. You did. It's so fun. It's your, it's your, I voted for Hillary nine times thing.

I needed a new bit. It's great. Ron Francis, solid as a rock. Yeah. The top 100 players of all time. Maybe. Definitely. I don't know.

Chicago Blackhawks, Stan Bowman. Stan Bowman is as solid as... He could throw Bobby Hall down a flight of fucking stairs in front of the entire building and he's not going anywhere. Come on. I mean, that's actually God's work. Yeah, actually, yeah. Bad example. Stammeda.

Out the door. I mean, he won't be for whatever reason. But I would, I mean, that team is a disaster. I feel like he's done. I feel like at this point. He should be. Like, you can't be this bad. Provided doesn't have a 10-year contract.

Wait, Patrick Woff. I couldn't sign him on the way out, right? That's not how that works. I thought the smartest thing I heard this week was Elliot Freibin mentioning what nobody will mention, which is that Varlamov has been god-awful and that they need to... It's not enough to think about,

oh, what young sprightly defensemen will we get when we trade Landiscag? It's also, what are we going to do about our goaltending? Has he been that bad? I've watched like two Colorado games all year. He's been a little civy, but he's probably got Assad because Patrick Walsh not his coach anymore.

You know who's been bad that no one, people keep wanting to blame it on everybody else? I'll say it at the same time. One, two, three. Handinging. By the way, I was at that game last night. What a fucking gong show that game.

I have never seen a worst game live. He's talking about the, what, the seven, six? Seven, six. And 12 of the 13 goals were just horseshit defense. It was like the awful direct-to-video remake of the Pittsburgh Penguins Capitals game from early this week. And I'm so, like, I don't have an online gambling account, but on the way to the arena, I was like, oh, the fucking over on this game is. a lock. And 27 seconds in Derek Stefan scores and I was like, oh, I forgot to see my friend would bet this for me.

But dude, don't you think Lungwist's struggles are just indicative of how the Rangers aren't a good defensive team. He's been the safety net for years. Now he's struggling. And I thought the thing he said last night, the most interesting thing he said last night was when you're struggling. I use conditioner on my hair. Oh, sorry.

He said, this is actually a horseman. No. He said, he said when you're struggling, you want there. to be structure in front of you so you can kind of find your game again. And there was no structure in that game. And he kind of indicated there's no structure for the Rangers at this point. Yeah. And I thought that was a really, because when you think about like guys, like when Tuka Rask will go bad or when Pecker-Reynie will go bad, like they'll recover because the team in front of them is competent.

And the Rangers aren't competent defensively. And now his confidence is shot and he can't get it back. Before Dallas scored in that game, I want to say it was Adam Kraknell hit the crossbar on a wrist shot from like just a inside the blue that Lunkwist just whiffed on and hit the crossbar. And it's one thing when Alex Ovechkin does that to you, like Krakkno actually scored a nice goal later in that game. Everybody did. But it was one of those moments where you were like, oh, he doesn't look too good tonight. And then later on before they scored, it was like a half-ass two-on-one. Sagan had the puck on the right side. And he snapped off a shot to the blocker side. And Lundquist was trying to

like steer it into the corner. And he flubbed it back towards Sagan somehow. It was a weird sort of because he just whiffed on it. So he was off from the start in that game. And yeah, Like the goals were just like fucking weird turnovers behind the net. Like a guy standing at the top of his crease, nobody was covered. But like the Jamie Ben breakaway goal, he stops that nine times out of ten. When do they make their Cory Schneider trade? When do they get the next guy in there? What are they trade for like Vasleski?

And then like, Hunt Leinquist is like, what, what? Magnus Helberg has a 100% in the season. He's not going. He's the goalie of the future. Yarmou Kekeleinen, solid is a rock. Jim Nell, been there since 2013, sir. And that team is not good. Yeah, you don't go from conference regular season first place to where they are now to fired him.

He's also a guy who hasn't fired a coach yet. Yeah, he's solid. He's not going anywhere. Kenny Holland, Detroit Red Wings. I'm going to say solid because I feel like he will have the back of ownership. And they will recognize this is a down cycle. The problem is that three years from now when they should be cycling up, they're still not going to be good. Yeah, like if if this happens again next year, maybe.

But like the thing is, is like, he's, he's been there for so long. He's like, he's basically, he almost is little Caesar's pizza at this point. He is, exactly. He is a tasty, crazy crust. And they've got stuff. They got stuff where, like, you could theoretically think they can get better next year. But then again, Zetterberg is going to be a year older. They don't have like a core at this point.

If he loses his job, I think you should get a job as czar of overtime formats for the national hockey because we owe that motherfucker everything. No, we don't. Yes, we do. Fuck three on three is just as stupid as the shootout. You're out of your mind. We don't have enough time in this damn show to be this topic. Still a stupid gimmick. Peter Shearrelli, obviously solid.

Thank you, Connor. Tom Roe, Florida Panthers, who the hell knows what's going to go on there. I imagine that Thomas Drance, former blogger now, Director of Communications, will be the next GM there within two years. Basically on how things go. Or it's going to be like the guy who's lay for. was based on the movie shooter. Did you see Lambert busting his balls on Twitter?

Because he retweeted somebody. There was like a picture of... Yeah, it was like a guy out of Florida Panthers fan thing in like one of those like dinosaur costumes and like he called him a reptile or something. And so Lambert was like actually... It was like all birds aren't... I forgot what it was, but I felt bad at that point for poor Thomas.

Dean Lombardi. Been there since 2006. He's that guy. He's fine. He's fine. Chuck Fletcher fine, solid. It's hard to find like GM. at this point. Like, that's the thing about being a GM

is like, it's the greatest job ever. Yeah, because the other thing, too. Because everybody gets points in the standings. Like, you look like you're doing better than you are. It's so hard to get fired. And the other thing, too, is that if you're a GM, you're probably going to get another job. Like, it's the guys like our boy in Pittsburgh,

what's his face? Oh, Bader. Jason Bottle. Yeah, Jason Bottle, who never gets a shot to be a GM because, like, at the end of the day, they're going to recycle a guy like Ray Schiro. He's too young. He's in the young boys network.

Yeah. Or go and admire Jim Rutherfordford from his farm. Right. What? General who? General manage? Give me Doug Murray. He's been retired for like six years.

Hey. Two thirds. It's me. James Rutherford. I just, I want to make a deal with you for that portly fellow, Philip. I like the cut of his jib. I got three bags of Mrs. Butterworths and some black shuckles. Mrs. Butterworth's fucking syrup.

Oh, wait. Wait, wait, wait, what's the, what's the, what's the, what's the, what's the caramel again? It's like, the caramel. It's a but there's like a, oh, a Wurther's original. That's what I was thinking. Where are there's? Too bad, three bags of cereal. But, no, I meant that, right?

Because the joke is he's so senile that he forgot what it, what it was. Yeah, that's it. He's obviously solid. I mean, he's solid until he decides he wants to leave, which isn't going to be any time soon. is like Bill Garon and Jason Bottle curse his existence. Jason Bottle's going to be like 92 years old and walking around the office as an AGM. You think I can maybe just get in the room?

No. I'm 132 now and I'm still running the team. Advancements in science are keeping me alive. Jim Brotherford can't speak. He just moves his hand over to like a green light or a red light like a fucking Zoltar machine. Wait, do we trade a second for 42-year-old Jonathan Taves? Green light.

That can mean anything. We don't have to follow that. That's not by anything. Green light, green light, green light. No, I think his hand is just shaky. Let's not make that trade. The chair's switching. God.

Jim? It's me, Sydney. I need another winger. Can't play with these whippersnappers. Kind of like the winger on my wing when I was flying in the war. Over midway. Rock solid Yeah Never gonna leave either

He's been there since 2003 Like his he's a lifer He's like he's like Kenny Holland in a way Where like he had his one shitty year Came back right away And had He kind of stumbled into it But Doug Armstrong of the St. Louis Blues

Fine like none of these guys He's fine He's fine He's in there There's no Steve Eisenman fine Steve Eisenman by the way He's a GMO Tampa

Because Gary Betman told Jeff Finick to hire him I don't know if you knew that Is that true That's true Gary Bettman? Gary Betman said to Jeff, yes. Gary Betman told Jeff Vinick not, it wasn't, it wasn't like, okay, I don't want to misrepresent it. I got a nice guy for you.

Jeffrey, if I give you this franchise, you have to hire Stephen Eisenman. No, it was like some solid advice. It's like, hey, by the way, this guy knows what he's up. He knows what's up. You should hire him. I wouldn't Gary Bettman know. Why wouldn't Ken Holland be the guy that says? that. Lulomrillo, obviously

will be in Toronto until he wants to leave. Jim Benning, Vancouver Canucks. Shaky. Yeah, there's a shaky. By the way, how are they, like they're minus 18 gold differential. They're 21, 19, and 6. The West sucks the charity. That division sucks. George McPhee of the Vegas Golden Knights.

I think shaky as hell. I don't know if he's going to make the season. He hasn't had one good signing in his entire run so far. I love these reports by the way of like Vegas scouts showing up in places and everybody to be like, what is it and I'm like, it means there's a fucking expansion draft. Right.

They're going to see every team 25 times. They're going to make a trade at the deadline? No, that's not how it works. Yeah. Brian McClellan with Washington Capitals, rock solid. Shevel Day Off. Now, Kevin Shabble Day Off.

There's a guy. Is an interesting case because, honestly, you can make every case for that guy to be fired. But will he be? I think he's kind of, I think he's kind of had enough time at this point. I think he's, I mean, like, his, big thing was the Vanderkane Tyler Myers deal.

It hasn't really... I mean, it's... You got a VanderCain out of there. I think the problem I have with the Jets, and I can't figure out, well, besides goaltending, and I can't figure out if it's a shovel day off problem or if it's just indicative of the market is the core is the problem.

But do you blow up the core and not be able to get anybody else in there from a free agent or a contract extension standpoint? Yeah, like, what would you even call their core Shifley Well their core Beyond Shifely

It's Wheeler Bufflin Little And uh And uh And uh And what's his face Other defenseman

Toby Endstrom Yeah Enstrom Yeah like I think Enstrom and Little aren't really core guys At this point They're I think they trade them in a second If

I think they're right off of it But the rest of the guys I've been there That's been the core Right Yeah Yeah Oh in terms of like what it's

Yeah But I mean That's his core Like everyone there is his guy At this point Yeah So So can't find a goal we can make a save.

There you go. We've told you all about the general managers. Now it's time to bring on our guest. And perhaps a disclaimer who's necessary for our guest. Hoping to get a text here. It's almost magic time and I haven't heard anything yet. All right. Yeah.

We should we should explain. Okay. Even before we... You should explain. Okay. So what we're having on based on, you've probably already read the episode summary, so you kind of already know. But we're going to have on...

a self-proclaimed I feel like she's okay with the term Puck Bunny I feel like it's a pejorative term in life but not for someone who self-identifies Right We'll find out when we talk to her for sure And what we're going to do is we're going to find out

What that life is like What it's like to be in that world And our plan We're coming out from a journalistic standpoint We're not coming out from a sensationalist Woodward and Bernstein over here Yeah just just a just a actually deep throats Probably not

what we want to talk about during this. But there's going to be some ground rules. The ground rules are no names. No names. Not going to name anybody. We're not looking to blow up anyone's spot. We're not looking to get a headline on the score tomorrow with Puck Soup, Colin. Brad Marchand has tiny penis.

It's none of that. I mean, if that happens, it happens. And honestly, like, you know, is that, I mean, I know they aggregate a lot, but would that be really breaking? I'm sure he's hung. But yeah, we want to just find out how. you get into it what it's like when you're in it you know all that sort of stuff not like not like tell us the players you've had sex with that's not what it's about it's about it's about the way i look at it too is it's like the people in that world make up probably like 0.1% of the population so very

few people know about it and very few people in that point one percent ever talk about it and she i can't tell you how many times during the course of us talking about it me and her i was like you don't have to do this you don't want to do it you don't have it's fine she's just like no it's going to be it's going to be fun and i think it's important to also say and i think this is something that will bring up is her behavior her chosen way of

of getting into the world of hockey as it is as it were does reflect a certain way on on women who follow the game and there's no question that there is a blowback and there is a you know there's a certain

reputation kind of hit that women take based on the way that people like her act and it sucks it's it sucks that it's it's characterized that way and that you know any woman who follows the sport is called a puck bunny and the assumption is you you want to you're there for the players right and that's unfair because while there is as we're to learn women who want to there are women who want to call themselves puck bunnies and have one of sex with the players right It's not all women.

And I just want to point out that, like, we understand that naming an episode, you know, confessions of a puckbony or a puck bunny confessional or whatever. Whatever we end up calling it. Yeah. Whatever we end up calling it is a dicey proposition. And we understand that, you know, there's a negative reflection on women to follow the game because of this. But like Dave said, like, one of the things that we pitch to nerdist in bringing the podcast. podcast there was it's not simply just going to be celebrities or people of some renown who follow the game. We also wanted to kind of get into parts of the game and the lives of people in those parts

of the game. I think we might have pitched it as like the Zamboni guy. We definitely pitch it out of Zamboni guy. Not necessarily this, but we did pitch it as Zamboni guy. There's a dude that we're going to have on eventually. He used to be the equipment manager for minor league teams and He's got a bunch of stories. Like, this is going to be part of it too. It just happens that this one, the first journey into the life of hockey happens to be a little salacious. So the point is that we understand completely that, you know, there's going to be. She doesn't represent every woman fan that exists in the world of hockey.

No one's, no one's saying that. And if you want to give a shit for putting a spotlight on this facet of fandom, then that's fine. We completely understand it. And I think that it's okay to not be cool with it. And if you're not cool with it, then we'll make sure in the synopsis to tell you where to skip ahead and get away from the conversation. That's the beauty of the stupid podcast. That's a good idea. It's like five hours long.

Right. And there literally would be another podcast and a half we'd listen to beyond this interview. But just let it be known that we understand and we'll address it that the term puck bunny is in the words of many people on Twitter problematic. And I get it. Totally get it. So maybe there's a word, maybe there's a word she prefers. Maybe there's another way to describe it. But again, again, this is a, this is more about curiosity than being like, tell me about all the guys you had sex with.

Like, I just, I'm more like, how do you get started? Like, you know what I mean? Like, I'm somebody who's trying to write like a screenplay and someone that you always say like, hey, you know, how do you get started? And someone always says, oh, it's easy. And you're like what? And they say, just get an agent. Why the fuck do I do that? And they run away.

I was going to say title page. I guess the age is also a good start too No but like I mean like I'm not saying this should be an educational situation for anybody out there But maybe it is like maybe somebody like I Are you trying to say it's gonna be like no peace for dummies No like I mean Look here's here's my philosophy I'm like Jerry Seinfeld on the episode of Seinfeld where he's like talking to Elaine He's like hey if I was a woman I'd be down at the dock waiting for the fleet to come in every weekend

Like do whatever you do whatever you want do whatever makes you happy That's about as edgy as Seinfeld probably got I mean I'd be down at it but seriously like it's just you I'm like you just don't show up to the rink one day and like wave your hands around and be like I want to have there's there's got to be there's a whole other world that I just I'm just I'm just I'm like I can't stand seeing the same stuff over and over again whether it's movies TV shows this is a completely new world I know jack shit about and I want to know about it that's all it is we're probably over apologizing but that's that's what we do we're we don't want this to be it we we want this show to be a good experience here everybody everyone everyone everyone

who yells at us is just going to yell at us based on the headline of the title of the podcast. No one's going to listen to this part of it anyway. No, no, why are you glorifying this? Why are you? Like, no, we're not. We're just learning about it. That's it. Here's our interview and we'll be back after the interview is done. Thanks. So how do we address you is the question. Would you like to have a cool pseudonym? Yeah, I want like a code name. A code name. Like a spy name like Matahari or more like Angelina Jolie and salt. That's good.

Yeah, we'll run with that one. Salt. No, we're here to talk to you about a life that we don't really know much about, which is the life. Only what we read about on the internet. Only what we read about on the internet. That's funny because, so, I mean, let's start off with the elephant in the room, which is the word puck bunny, the term puck bunny.

Are you comfortable with it? Are you a self-referential puck bunny, or is it a pejorative to you as well? I mean, I would never call myself that now. I guess I wouldn't call myself that when I was behaving in that way. But like in hindsight, sure. It does have like a negative connotation, but. What do you prefer? If there was a category that would describe?

I mean, I don't think there should necessarily be like a label, a girl who is attracted to males that happened to also share this interest. They play hockey and I like hockey. It's fair. So when you say it has a negative connotation, you mean it has a negative connotation to you or it has a negative connotation to other women? No, women in general, like any female hockey fans that are... Right, everyone's assumed to be...

Assumes they're in it for the guys, which is so silly. Right. And so let's kill the elephant in the room, which is, do you ever feel bad that your chosen approach to the game is a blowback to other women who get grouped into that? I wouldn't say that is my chosen approach. It's just that was kind of like the circle I was involved with. Right. So obviously things start to overlap.

If I'm a young, semi-attractive female and I'm around a hockey scene, that's just going to happen naturally. Did you ever get grief from other women about that or no? No. Honestly, any other women that asked me about it were probably just curious as to like how they could do the same thing. Really? Oh, yeah. So, like, how did you get into the circle? How did the, what was the entry point into the circle of the young, quote, semi-attractive girl and the hockey players? You know, I would say, first of all, I got into hockey as like a middle schooler.

Like anybody else. So, right, yeah, of course. And I was like, these guys are so good looking. And that totally got me hooked. And then... So your entry point was Attractiveness to the players Your entry point was it was part of like

What your family did or going to the arena Family forced me into it Okay That kind of got me to stay Okay, right And then I actually like fell in love with the game Right But I mean I'm a woman

Is like How can't help myself If I'm like You're going to be attracted to guys Are passionate about something you're passionate about Also So I'm trying to

to think of how I ended up falling into this other than I mean the first time I ever like encountered a player and continued anything that was just sheer luck at a bar oh you were just like out like on a regular night and you just run into a hockey player yeah and I was maybe like six to 10 drinks deep at that point um and I contended for like two years after that I'm pretty sure he feed me, but no, I think that I, that was, I did that myself. Then that just kind of open it up for me. What, um, so what, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, is it kind of let's see who I can be with or is it like these are this is a cool dude now want to get to know them

I mean I as compared to like the general male population yes I wouldn't say that they're like particularly I wouldn't say they're especially cool dudes by any means uh they're idiots just but like I I would I don't speak for everyone of course but I would never pursue spending time with someone just because they played hockey. If that's a, if they do, plus they look good and they might be semi-funny, kind of smart. Oh. Good enough to pass. Maybe a little conversation.

Like a ten in looks and like a six and a half. Well, I mean, a ten in looks in like the hockey world is like a seven elsewhere. Wow. So it's like comedy. Exactly. Dane Cook's a ten in comedy. Yes. In the real world.

Dan Cook's probably what? Like a four. So, okay, but getting back to it. So like, so like when you would pursue a player, what would be the reasons for it? Well, I don't even like the word pursue. Okay. When you would. When you were interested in a player, yeah.

Well, in this day and age, the trick is social media. That's like a two-thirds of the time that's going to get you in. if you get a follow. Slide into your DMs like. So like anytime you would see a player follow you on Twitter, you would figure there's a good chance like he's someone interested in you. Yeah, but I never initiated anything like that. Maybe I would like follow,

but then it's like I am a hockey fan, so maybe I'm just following you because I'm a hockey fan. And then like suddenly something shows up in your DMs and you're like. Yep. And that's not specific to hockey. That's specific to men. That's specific to men, But all athletes seem to use that as their preferred method.

Interesting. Now, do you think that's something, because one of the things I've always been sort of curious about in this life is how much those guys trade notes? Is that sort of the thing where it's like, as you come up through the ranks, you're like, here's the way to be with a woman and kind of keep it on the down low? You know, I think, especially in hockey, since these guys are like kind of think they're, hot shit from a young age. I think that that just is like comes to them naturally sort of.

That's something that they learn, I think, really young, especially now, the guys that are on Instagram and they're real young guys. Like that, they just know that they can do that. Yeah. Like there's times, like I follow Michael Doesado on Instagram and, you know, I can go to Instagram and see like what people like in terms. And I go through and it's like dog, dog, food, food, baby picture. And they get the Doesato and it's just like model, model, model, 12 photos he liked

of models. That's like, I know what you're doing. Yeah. I know exactly what you're doing. And he's okay to talk about because he is, he's been exposed as a dog. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't blame him.

Like maybe a dozen times. Yeah, exactly. It's totally fine. Like, so, so the first guy you meet at the bar, like, are you, are you like, would you say you're dating him for two years or just like? No, that was just like I wanted to hang out with him. Maybe like go to his house. Maybe we'll like hang out again sometime.

I was thinking like after party type situation. Right. So access point to other. to other opportunities? Other like party opportunities. Right, okay. Certainly not a relationship. Right.

Right. So basically you would just say, he'd be like, hey, you want to come to this party? We're going, I'm going to. And you'd go there and like, you'd just go there like you would any other party

to meet any other person you would meet. Well, this particular player had and continues to host parties at his house every summer very often. And it's like a known party house in the neighborhood. It's like a mixer essentially for like, um, Players and women. Yeah, sure.

Right, right. What? Yeah, they're sitting down and playing Jenga. Right, yeah, exactly. Mahjong. Right, play some dominoes and get to know somebody. Just having fun. Right, just adults enjoying themselves by the pool.

It's fun, like, I'm the cool friend because now I can go back to all my friends to be like, guess what I got us invited to? And then everybody wants to go. So it's a great time. So you're like the cool person in the group that can arrange and get everyone into the cool party. Yeah, honest. Can you tell? This is exactly when, like, I show it with pizzas at a lot.

party. It's the same principle. It's the same. Same principle. I don't have any friends. I don't know. I don't know how that works. So now that you're, once you're in that circle, because of the stigma or whatever you want to call it, do all your friends know? Do some family members not know? Does anyone, is there other, do you hide it from anybody? Is there, is there a sorority of, is there like a secret code?

For lack of a better term, puck bunnies. I wouldn't call it a sorority, but at least in, my particular city, like they're, you know who is doing the same thing as you. Huh. But you're in competition, sort of. Wow. So you kind of like run in your own packs. But that's not, I mean, personally, I wasn't going out and advertising that.

Right. Everybody knew that I was a hockey fan. Everybody in my life knew that. So if I casually, like, name dropped something, it wasn't that surprising. But I certainly wasn't. bragging about it all over town. And when you, using social media as the example here, so it's not just like, because, okay, when this starts, you're in a hockey town.

Yeah, there's obviously a team there and everything. Yeah. So it's not just the team that's there. It's the players that are coming through as well. Yeah. So how does that work? Like, how do you say, hey, when you come through, like, let's hang out? It's, you would be just like so amazed at how easy it is. Sometimes you, I've had friends add guys on Facebook even, like their personal Facebooks maybe a day before their team is scheduled to be in town.

And the guy just knows exactly what they're trying to do. So in a way, like when you add that guy, that's like you're advertising yourself for that. Like here I am. Look at my current city. Right. If he messages you back or whatever, then it's like he'll tell you where to meet or something like that. Yeah. God. It's so easy. Yeah. And in my town, there was one specific bar that teams, like, knew to go to. I don't know if that's the same.

Was it TGI Fridays? It was TGI Fridays. I knew it. I knew it because of that deal. Right. You get all the apps for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I knew they were doing something right.

Hockey players sending over, like, half-price wings to a table. That's a good signal. Giant frozen drinks with, like, syrup and shit in them. But, like, your family doesn't, like, know what I mean? Like, I feel like if you told your mom and dad what you were doing, would they care? Do they not care? I mean, I generally wouldn't tell my family about my sexual encounters with anyone. Yeah.

Yeah. But like, like, if I've hung out with someone. Sure. Well, I mean, you tell your parents when you're dating somebody. If you're going out with somebody and like that's a good question. That's what I mean. How many, how many, like, have or I should not be presumptuous, have there been relationships that have come out of this? Not anything like formal.

official. That's just a whole other world. Yeah. First of all, that's like a different kind of guy. Right. Right. And they're not, and they're probably would be not looking for that. Generally not. Yeah. That's probably something that just happens right. Right. I mean, I feel like the general

path, especially for hockey fans or hockey players, is to spend the first couple of years in the league screaming around and then they end up with some girl from their hometown anyway. Well, let's, I mean, that's the thing though. So like a lot these guys have the girls from their hometown in tow when they come in the league. Yeah. So decent percentage of guys you're with were with somebody or did you try to avoid that?

I always avoided that as well as I could if I knew. Right. I mean, they're probably withholding shit from that. But I would probably say in comparison to most other girls, I think I'm in the minority there. Yeah. What's your feeling on that? I personally, I don't think it's the girls, in this case, the puck bunny. I don't think it's her responsibility, but personally, that's not something I would want on my conscience. But like you said, a lot of these guys are duplicitous pricks, though. Oh, yeah.

Completely not being forthcoming with that. Yeah. Yeah. I can think of a time we had an away team in town. It's a very interesting night. but there was one specific player. And I knew I, he was just from the hockey, like watching hockey. I knew I didn't like this guy.

But he was hitting on my best friend just like hard. And I kept whispering her ear like, he's married. He's married. And she was like, no, he says he's not. And then I was three sheets to the wind at this point. So I look at him and I'm like, you're married. So like, don't lie to me and don't lie to her. Go up a spot.

And she was like, you guys, I'll settle it. I'll just Google it. So she Googles it. and pulls up his Wikipedia page that says very clearly he's married with like three children. I ruined the whole thing anyway. So no one had any fun that night. But he still, after we separated, still texted her later and was like, your friends like really screwed that up for me. But if you're interested.

So when you talk about competition, like how how does that manifest itself? Is there like sabotage? Is there any sort of like, you know, rumors spread about each other? Like how does the competition work? I haven't experienced that, but I can just think of times in bars when maybe you're a girl that's hanging. Say there's a table at a bar, bottle service of players. Of course. And popping bottles.

And you're the girl that's at that table. But there's other girls that they've previously hooked up with that are within the vicinity. That's when it gets like a little awkward and who is she and how do you know her and why didn't you invite me? I always forget how rich these guys are. I know. I don't really get the bottle service menu. I'm like, really, guys? Because I could just like walk to the corner and get this for like $25.

Well, especially in our town, it's dive bar after dive bar that we have one bar that has three tables in it in the whole town. And like. And that's like the known spot. Yeah, that's where you go. What are you looking to get out of it? Like, are you looking to like, well, I'm not even going to assume. What are you looking to get out of it?

I guess it's kind of like a fun story, sort of. And since I watched the game or used to watch the game much more often, I thought it would be kind of fun to like, I'm following this team, and I sort of have this person involved in my personal life. So it's an entry point into a deeper level, a deeper appreciation of the game for you. Sort of, but that like hits a point where it totally backfires. How so?

Yeah. Anytime, if there is any sort of feelings involved, if you have any sort of feelings involved with a player that's on your team of choice, and then you go through this, like, strange thing where you want that player to just, like, drop into the doldrums of the NHL and, like, their career to totally implode. But you want your team to do well. Just seeing, like, somebody get dropped on waivers, you're like, fucking good. Yeah.

I'm searching the H.L transactions for good news. Fuck that guy. He's never going to come back again. Good. I guess it. But at the same time, I mean, when things don't go terribly, does that then give you an extra appreciation for somebody that you may not necessarily have had appreciation for? I mean, yeah, you watch them. You follow them more closely.

Yeah. And so with that, you were just following the game more closely because you have personal ties kind of dispersed throughout the league. I think the outside looking in perspective of this would be that you are not. Not necessarily you, but women that are into this lifestyle will sometimes be in it for the perks, you know, free chicken fingers at the arena. Well, I mean, like, gifts. You can blame them. And that kind of thing.

Is there an aspect of that too? Or is that sort of just for the NBA? I mean, yeah, first of all, I don't, I have never heard any sort of story come out of like any NHL player that involves gifts. But every other league. Really? Nothing? I know. Like a Jeter gift bag?

No, the NHL generally allows gifts. Oh, gifts. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, Jesus Christ. Misunderstood. Good one. Thank you. Like, I can think of a, you know, we just, we like trade these stories league to league, girls that are, girls that have had experiences in different leagues.

Interleague stories. Yeah. And I have one friend who had an encounter with a particular. wide receiver, very successful in the AFC West. And he, apparently this guy gives like $500 Nordstrom gift cards to every girl that comes through his house, just as like a token of appreciation. In like a like a bowl in the front?

I think it was kind of like, yeah, like there were multiple like ready to go. What was the thing with Arod? Didn't he had or was it Jeter? It was Jeter. It was Jeter. That had the gift bags. Yeah. Yeah.

that his steady claims weren't real. Those were real, though, right? You probably know if that's true. I don't know. I really hope so. God, I hope that. So what do hockey players? I mean, they give Tim Horton's gift cards, I assume?

I would have, like, I really think that hockey players are probably the worst of all athletes. If a girl, a young girl came to me looking to get involved in this world, I would say, go, probably go NFL. Do you think that's a, do you think that's just a function of lifestyle? I mean, like, like, these guys are, you know, the cliche is a, you know, the cliche is a, they're the humblest athletes, but it's true. They're all small town Canadian guys, and that's not in their makeup to be like, yo girl, here's a, whatever, a parting gift.

Yeah, absolutely. Just a different lifestyle. So like, is there ever times where you would ever get flown somewhere? Like, hey, come, you know, I'm going to be in this city for this many days? I never did that. No. It's been offered to me, but like I have a career, so. Yeah.

But it's a thing that happens apparently. Oh, 100%. Wow. So like then is it just like, you're going to sit coach. Don't ask for more than one drink. I'm not paying for it. Right. Southwest.

Are you kidding? Are you kidding? I imagine that, you know, the people you know probably have riders. It's like, I will come and fly to see you if I receive two beverages. You have to buy me the snack pack with the cheese. I'm checking three bags. Checking three bags. I want priority access.

I'm going to use your. your fucking code to get to that extra, that second line behind first class. Yeah. I should have dived into that world. I don't know. I didn't even explore it. I have no idea. You never worked out where it was like a weekend.

You can get away. Nothing? I was never trying to like get out of town. Also, I'm kind of more of an off-season girl. Oh, what's the difference between off-season and in-season girls? Is there? Well, I think if you're hooking up the players during the season, if they're guys that are on the road coming to your town. You're literally

trying to just sleep with them and send them on their way. I'm kind of more of like a friend girl. So you're less about hooking up and like conquest. It's more just you like hanging out with certain people like hanging out with who happened to be hockey players. Yeah.

Who happened to sometimes be attractive. Sometimes. I got to imagine that there are some pitfalls involved. I got to imagine there are probably some dudes that can't take a hint. I imagine there's probably some unwanted advancements. Yeah.

How much of that are we dealing with? You know, I think especially, like with hockey players, it's kind of a special thing because they are treated well as young guys. I mean, they know they're going to be successful hockey players when they're teenagers. They're kind of like put on a pedestal a little bit and they're used to girls always wanting to say yes. Yeah. So if you happen to say no, like you must be like playing around, they don't take that very well. Yeah. Like who, why would you say no to them?

Have you had to deal with that? Oh, yes. So how do you protect yourself? I mean, I would say guy athletes, I've had worse experiences with athletes and I have with just any like regular guy. Yeah. Because they just don't get it. They're not used to the rejection. So yeah, I've had some scary moments for sure.

Sure. But then it's kind of like, well, why did I even put myself in a situation? Why am I hanging out with these guys in the first place? Like, I knew that they were trouble. How do you get out of a scary moment, though? I'm trying. I had one real scary moment where I literally had to, like, I had to, like, throw the guy off of me. Fortunately, he's not very good, and his career is over.

I had to throw the guy off of me. He was, like, inebriated and then run out. a back exit of the house where my friend fortunately had waited for me because she had just left. It was it was like not good. I had one time where I wanted to get out of house so badly. Just stuff that I was not interested in being involved in and had to this was before Uber. So I like called my best guy friend like I was like sitting on the floor of a bathroom and was like this is the address of this place. Like I need you to send a cap here right now.

Wow. Yeah. Just like not, not good. Yeah. What about the social media aspect of it? Like, if I opened up your Twitter DMs, does it just look like the wall of dildos at the stack shop? No, definitely not. It's a lot of, it's a lot of just, hey, and like, hey, do I know you?

Hey, where do I know you from? You're like, you don't know me. I know what's going on here. There's like no game whatsoever. It's just literally like. Good Canadian boys. trying to maybe make some sort of like social interaction so they can just like get straight to it right like I'm at this hotel I mean it's just like being at a bar then to get through the small talk and

well there isn't really any small talk though that's like it's just kind of like hey hey hey here's my number what do what do you do and then like what are you up to tonight like just nothing good not engaging at all which is the which it smells of athlete entitlement yes yes exactly so now that you're you're a civilian again. Do you still get the, do you still get the DMs every once in a while? So, um, my Instagram is just looks a lot different than it did in say the year 2013. Um, still pet pictures and shit. Like, maybe I'm not out like in the club popping bottles and like a very tiny dress with my tits out. I'm probably like on vacation with my boyfriend. So I'm not bringing in a ton of interest at this point. No. Huh.

Because I feel like, I feel like that when you're getting, like, do you have to like, is there like, do you have to like just, is it the same thing as like in real life when you're just like, no, I'm not doing like, does, do you have to like say no four times in a row before people get the message? Um, no, they, I don't think they like rejection. Like, they, they don't take rejection well. So it's generally like if you say it a couple times, they're never talking to you again. Right. Is there is there a certain, I mean, do you have. Are other players kind of looking out for you once you get to know them a little bit as far as like, hey, stay away from this guy? No, I don't think so.

I think I... It's a clear separation between you guys and them. Yeah. Okay. I think I was maybe, I got that confused sometimes. Oh, where you put your trust in them and you got lost, right? That's interesting. But they definitely stick together.

That's a brotherhood. Yeah. Before you were talking about the story at the house where there was stuff going on, is there like a, Is there like a drug scene? Is there like, Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Like, is it just everything you could possibly imagine? Yeah. I mean, and I don't even know how like representative that is of the whole league. It's just. It's completely representative. We've often said that if your favorite team came out of nowhere and had like a hundred points after having like a 60 point season.

And then the next season, they went back to 60 points. It's not because they all of a sudden got shitty. It's because they really celebrated how good they were and continued to. Yeah, they have fun. Yes, they do. But, I mean, it's, it's, the thing about it that I've always found interesting, because honestly, I know, spoiler alert, a little bit more about the drug scene than I do about the sex scene. Is there are guys that can maintain and there are guys that can't handle their shit?

And it's usually, it is an educational process for the younger players on how to handle your shit. Absolutely. Is the same thing with relationships? No, I think they're all idiots. That's just never changing. You're trying to say the veteran guys don't treat you better than the younger guys? Absolutely not, no. They treat you worse?

Or about the same? About the same, but at least you expect it from them. Is there veteran women on the other side of it that take you under their wing and say, watch out for this guy? That would be too much. No, not in my experience. And I have never been that for anyone. I'm certainly not going to mentor anyone.

So how many close friends would you say you have in your group that you would go to the party. Oh, that's not a group you want to make too big. I'd say like three, traveling packs of three. Just trust each other inherently and there's no worries about any sort of backstabbing or roofies, roofying. I'm sure that's probably a thing you're worried about too with these things constantly, like, turn your back for one second on a drink and all of a sudden. Yeah, you'd be like just don't know. Yeah.

This world sounds scarier than I thought it was going to be. Well, it doesn't sound, it sounds like, it sounds like, it sounds like, it sounds, Let me put it this way. It sounds like the real world, but on steroids. It sounds like the same pitfalls and the same protect yourself and the same don't put yourself in really bad situations. But it's like the stakes are different. Sure. Yeah.

So what's the best part of the whole thing? What's the, when you look back on like fond memories, like what are what are some of the things that you? Copious amounts of sex. Like good parties, I guess. That's basically the high point, which you could get elsewhere. When you say good parties, though, is it goes to go beyond the offseason house parties? It is also like, was this also a skeleton key to get into places you couldn't normally go, like clubs and stuff like that? Did you get behind?

Like, are you implying that I would have trouble getting in? No, I'm saying that there is a velvet rope for normal people, and then there's another velvet rope over here for the athletes. You know, the girl, I think the girls that are getting involved with the athletes, they know how to weasel their way into. You're getting past the rope. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. These are all just house parties, like, because they're like, Vegas or?

Yeah, sure. Yeah, what's the one in Canada? BAMF? You're not going up there for anything. BAMF, what's that one in Vancouver or bike? Oh, yeah, the one where Shane O'Brien used to hang out all the time. The Roxy? The Roxy, yeah.

Been there. Yeah? Yeah. I took a field trip. How did that happen? That was past my prime. I just wanted to see. I mean, Shane O'Brien seemed to.

think it was a great place. I had to experience it for myself. You were like Yarmar Yager at the end, just hanging around just to one more run. At what point is the statistic decline for Puckermanes if you were not in your prime? Ooh. You know, I don't know. I voluntarily retired, I think, maybe at my high point. Oh, like Ken Dryden. Went on your own terms. On my own terms, yeah. Fantastic. Went out on a good note, I would say.

Wait, what was the good note? Is that, is that a specific? thing or is that just in-jured? I feel like there was something behind the good note. The good note is like if you, if I ended it myself. It wasn't like something didn't work out the way I wanted and then like whatever. I'm not doing this anymore. It ended on my terms and I'm gonna step away from this. I was picturing like Angela Bassett walking away from the car at the fire in the background. I thought like that was the good note like you were just like but that's what it felt like yeah. Yeah. So like by the end of it you were just done with it. Yeah. It's just never going to end well. I mean, sure. Some of these things do turn into relationships. Yeah. But, statistically, it's like probably not going to work out. Yeah. So maybe try the real world. Did you ever have to battle that delusion though? Like when you were with these guys? I didn't, but I know that that's a lot of girls do for sure.

Yeah. It's because it's a fucking fairy tale. Well, yeah. Yeah. How fun would that be? Right. If you're a hockey fan, especially, like, you just get to like go to games all the time. Right.

Watch your significant other participating. Like that's great. Did you ever, did you ever get to go into like the wives and girlfriends? No. No. That's a different crew. That's a different crew and it's like,

and they're probably, probably your mortal enemy, right? I mean, not, maybe not, I don't care, but they certainly. Yeah, they care. Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah. You ever have a run-in? I don't think so. No. I mean, I've had run-ins, but like maybe they don't know who I am, but like, I know.

Like, I know what their boyfriend was doing at the bar last weekend. I have to admit, they have a pretty pimp area. I remember going to Verizon Center and seeing them, wives and girlfriends area. It's like, it is the best hotel suite I've ever seen. Yeah, not a bad life. It's a bad life, right? But like I said, or like you said, I mean, that's where you get in trouble. Yeah.

You get enchanted by that. Yeah, for sure. And you're like, I'd like to be a part of those. Yeah, some girls don't really care what they have to put up with to be able to participate in that. Yeah. To be honest, it sounds, I mean, honestly, if there was like a, if Becky Hammond in the 90s was, is it was in, me and I could go to WMBA hotels and do the same thing. I'm not seriously like it sounds like a really fun way to enhance fandom have a great time. I would have gone with Lita from the WWF but that's

fine too. I love Becky Hammond. Yeah, she's hot. She's a WMBA basketball player. Yeah. I know. Yeah, I guess I'm with you. Come on. Oh, don't judge me. Yeah. He's tall though. Right. So it makes total sense. Well, that's very interesting. So, um, all right, let's let's get back. to the first thing we talked about, which is, do you ever regret that women get painted with this broad brush because of the choices that you and your friends made? I just don't think that that should have any, it's just two separate things. I just happen to be a woman that wants to be involved with that sort of guy. I mean, it's just, I thought it was so silly when I was a kid that anybody would get mad about guys commenting on Anna Kornicova. Right.

Because it's like, yeah, that's great. She's a great tennis player and she's a babe. There's nothing wrong with that. I never noticed that. I only noticed her. I thought I could. I don't know what you guys. Take a little look back there.

That's a really fascinating point because I feel like we're at a point in hockey fandom where there's a real struggle to achieve. that for women fans, the ability to say this guy's hot without the immediate snap reaction from men being like, you want to fuck up. Yeah. And I know that, you know, there are going to be people that listen to our podcast and hear you on this podcast and they're going to say it's your fault. But that's the reason that they get that. Sure.

Yeah. So what do you say to that? I kind of just like don't really care. That's the answer. It's your life. You can do what you want with it. Yeah. You're not the one painting the brush.

Everyone does their own thing. It's idiot men. Yeah, it doesn't affect me. I mean, I still get to go through life, like, having these experiences, and I get to follow a sport that I love. And, like, there's maybe some guys that I know, and I've had different experiences than guys, guy fans might have. Yeah. But, like, I don't really give a shit if you don't like it. Are guys, are guys the worst?

Are we the worst? Are we representative of the worst of hockey? Not all guy fans. Not all guys. Not all guys. Yeah, hashtag. Yeah, hashtag. Like, not all guys.

There's just a, and that's not just hockey fans. There's a sect of guys just in general that, like, just don't understand that women are capable of doing things other than the expected. I don't know if you've ever seen, like, things on tweets about girls that comment about liking football. And then the guy is like, well, what's the coach's son's social security number? Yeah. Like, that's just part of being a female sports fan. And that's, and it's particular to hockey, too, because as. hockey fans, especially here in the U.S.,

and we're all Americans. You're American, yeah? Yes. We all have this thing when we meet each other where we're constantly trying to poke and prod and see how much the other person knows. How far down the rabbit hole can we go with somebody as a fan?

Because you don't want to be in that weird situation where it's like they don't know a certain player or whatever. So you have that. And then on top of that, for a lot of these guys, they put on that extra litmus test of, well, she's a girl so she doesn't know the sport. So now you've got to prove two levels of hockey smarts every time we talk to a guy.

Yeah, exactly. And it's fucking stupid. I actually had an experience like that today at work. One of the guys, I don't advertise that I'm a hockey fan just because I don't want to engage in these conversations at this point in my life. Which is a totally different problem. Yeah, I've done it enough times. I don't need to prove myself. I can have this interest.

It's my own thing. I don't need to sit and talk about it with you. Like, you don't know any more than I do anyway. It feels like she's talking to us in a way. Well, hey, listen, she's probably right. It's only fair that, like, you've treated her as the proxy for the entire experience. So we'll be the proxy for all male idiot fans. Let you guys have it.

Yeah, please. So this guy knows my favorite team and made a comment about our goaltender. And I said something about maybe our old goaltender that's been traded away. And he was like, oh, but you know who I'm talking about, right? Like, our number one goalie. I was like, yeah, yeah, I do. I've heard of him. And like 10 minutes later, he's like,

you want to go get a drink? Because that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, at this, at this point, that's just, it's an everyday thing. So, I got one, I got one, I mean, you've got a, I mean, you've got a fucking notepad here. You've basically, we basically, junior, junior, junior, junior, junior, junior blackhawks reporter over here. Oh, TBT. Wait, what? What? Throwback Thursday?

Yeah. Oh, TBT. Joey, Joey, what's his name? Joey, Junior Blackhawks reporter. Yeah, but he's not cute anymore. No, he's grown up. And if you saw the last video, they actually recruited his younger brother or whatever to like now. Classic TV media movie.

Get the younger person that come in. Exactly. Now it's like. Well, because he's at that age, it's not like cute anymore. Yeah, it's not cute anymore. It's like, oh, who's your, who's the biggest turkey on the team? And then his little brother's like, you got it, dude. And it's like, oh, he's so cute.

It's like the kid on Modern Family, the son, the Modern Family, who's now like, he went from like adorable little kid who said funny things to like dumb 14. year old. Yeah, yikes. Not a good luck. I know, right? All this vitriol towards modern family. Why? Because you don't agree with their social values? Oh, Jesus Christ. Why is everybody turning against me? What, um,

I guess what would be your advice or count, I know you didn't say it's not like fucking show girls where there's somebody showing you the ropes or whatever. I'm only saying that because that was on last time on showtime and I can't stop watching that fucking movement's on. Showtime.

It's not, it's been on show time. I forgot how long the first part of that movie is where she's at that shitty, at the Cheetah, the shitty strip club. I don't remember anything from that movie. Yeah, we don't even know what you're talking about. Oh, sorry. Anyways. This is just a you thing. What would be your counselor advice to women who are thinking about, you know, kind of point their lives in this direction? My counselor advice would be do whatever you want to do as in anything you're going to do, any part of your life, do whatever you want to do. don't worry about what people are thinking,

but also keep your expectations realistic and know that it's not going to work out generally. And as a question 25B, it's more of a comment. I just remembered someone I was going to say earlier. When I was working, I wrote for Deadspin for a while. I wrote hockey for Deadspin.

And I came across like what I thought was a puck bunny board. Yeah. It was called like Talk Sports or something. You know that board? I, so I was never part of that and that was when I was, I was a little young for that. Right. But I know girls that were involved. Yeah, this was back in like 2007, I want to say.

And I was always fascinated by it because it seemed like that there were legit people there. And then there also seemed like there were people that were just sort of like throwing shit at the wall and not being truthful about things. Oh, yeah. And it was right. Lozo, for those, if you ever seen it, like, it's literally like people being like, being like, I heard such and such and so and so broke up. Like, no, I saw them out the other night. Like, no, he's totally a player now and he's totally available. And it's like very much that.

Like, for every player in the league. Every player in the league had a page. Had a board, yeah. It had a whole, like, forum. And it'd be ridiculous because you'd be, you'd be, you'd look it up and it would be like, you know. I actually think it might still exist. Yeah. No, it does in the form of like, because whenever you type in a hockey player's name to find a stats or his hockey reference page, the first thing is like girlfriend.

Yeah. Every single time. And it takes you to that. And you go to it and be like, you go to like the box. Bobby Whole League page and there'd be like one comment being like wow his eyebrows are kind of fucked up But every player had a page it was really strange that was like pre- Twitter right that was that was that was pre-twitur pre-that was definitely like my space era I think that was also pre-face era I think that was also pre-face When you can like go on there and see like a player's like top 10 songs on his myspace page and decide whether or not you're like some of them were really good though like I'm trying to think of some highlights Joffrey loopholes On what myspace no on a talk sports page that was a good one

I've heard, I've heard Jeffrey Luple stories I've, I've heard on my own. For days. I don't know if we know the same stories. We probably do. We all have one. Doesn't, doesn't evolve, doesn't evolve a barbershop? Well, I guess not. Quit a reaction.

I can't confirm or deny. Yeah, that board was, I just wanted to bring up that board because that was my, my first introduction to this life was that. And it was a shitty introduction because most of it was bullshit. Yeah. But it was interesting to see it exists. It was interesting to see the cross talk and how invested people were in the private lives. You know, people are still super invested, though.

Like, they're like tumblers dedicated to like NHL wives and girlfriends. Weggs. Yeah. But that's more, but that's interesting because are you saying that because I always assume that that was more of horny dudes creeping on players' wives. But you're saying it's also. Oh, that's girls. That's girls kind of gossiping about. Guys care. That's 100%.

On our end of the table here, the wag phenomenon was at a time when if your website was doing shitty, make sure it... Fucking W.E.E.I. just did it. W.E.I. in Boston just did an entire gallery of ranking all the Patriots,

wives, and girlfriends just because they wanted... Well, that's rude. It's completely rude, but that's what I thought you were talking about because that's the other part of it is that there are blogs and places that'll do, like, photo galleries of the players, wives and girlfriends. But you're saying tumblers that women run to kind of like keep tablet it. Yeah.

With lists of, they maintain lists of each team and who's in relationships and married, not who, if they can identify who the person is, links to their social media. Really? What a world. Are there puck bunny analytics? Maybe that's something I should get into. Well, if you do, as you know, everybody's getting hired now that's in analytics. Yeah. Career change.

That's fascinating. Right, before we let you go, what's your, what's your best story? What's your best memory? What's the best thing that ever happened during that time period in your life? I know you said you were trying to think of good stuff on the way in, so what's your... I have one, good one. It's hard without giving details. But let's say this was my favorite team, and maybe I caused a bit of a conflict between two players on the team.

which then spilled out of the bar into like an actual physical altercation in the street in front of the bar which was like just a great feeling for me because like what an ego boost. It's like a fucking duel for your honor. It was fantastic. I loved it. How did it start? Is there a way to tell it without?

Well, I was there because I was invited by one player but then he was like ignoring me so I was continuing to drink and like have fun with the other one. And then eventually he saw what was happening. Yeah, got a little jealous. Last last question. It made me think about this now. Because I've always, I've heard stories of this, but you might know better than I.

How many times do we see a player transaction that may or may not have been influenced by something you just described? By a personality conflict in the locker room that is based in the world of women? I don't know. I think that these guys get over that sort of thing, like, pretty quickly. Yeah, yeah. Like, girls are not the priority. Yeah, nothing's a priority. I think they brush it off quick.

Yeah. And are, like, willing to move on. They're so fucking sports-centric. Yeah. Like, they don't give a shit about anything else but hockey. There's always going to be girls, so. Right. Let's not, like, invest too much in that.

So it was, it was like a two-minute blow up, and then they were just like, cool, bro, let's hug it out. And then that was it. No, one of them, one of, they went off separate. even though they were younger guys living in a hotel. They were going to the same place, but... I love the idea of there being an adjoining room. They'd be knocking that door that separates the rooms. He's like, dude, let's just chalk it out, man.

I brought her. What the fuck, man? Dude, let's order the mac and cheese. Kitchens open until two. We'll sit down. We'll get a pay-per-view. We'll work it out. We actually all ended up running into each other again later, and it had resolved itself. Oh, look at that.

Yeah. you go. And now those guys, I think one of them has a kid, married. I guess last question, the tie a bow around it is you missed the life. Or do you feel like you've, you put in your time. I put in my time. I had some fun. I do not miss it in the least. Life's much more rewarding outside of that. See, my big takeaway from this is when I hear the term puck bunny or even like here it referenced, I just picture like a dozen girls in a hotel bar trying to pick up guys while on the road. But I feel like with this, I've learned that, like, you can be a fan, just like anybody else who's a fan. And it's just sort of like another way of being a fan, even though

that sounds, even though people are going to hear that and think that's crazy, like, I can kind of see it from that perspective. I never really thought of it like that. It's much more likely that a girl is going to like hockey and be attracted to the guys than it is for her to like hockey and just be able to turn that off. Like, that's crazy. You can't ask, you can't ask girls to do that. Like they're not looking for the life. Yeah. They're more just hockey fans that are attracted to.

You're always going to be attracted to someone that's passionate about something. I just love the fact that these guys have absolutely no regard for how to treat women when when it's done. No gifts. Oh God. You have no idea. That is the epitome of the of the blockheaded Canadian boy who just has gotten it throughout his life and doesn't even concern how to, you know.

thank the Lord that it comes as well not even like free tickets not even like here's two tickets to the game nothing nothing signed jersey but you know I I never asked

yeah but they should just offer it right yeah fuck I offer it I'm not and I'm terrible for God's sakes at least you know kick a little something you know right

get you some 300 level seats for 40 bucks fucking second date some shit free hot dog and beverage yeah is a aforementioned Tim Wharton's gift card. Do you feel like there's anything we didn't cover anything we've left out that people should know? I don't think so. Were we dicks? Were we respectful? Oh yeah that yeah I was expecting much worse well you know we're socially awkward like well like once we turn the microphones

off you can tell us all the real super name all the details and everything like that yeah huh yeah I mean we're going to leave the the penis ranking for the subscribers this isn't for the free podcast yeah we'll do it race debate yeah well Salt, thank you for your time. Thank you, Saul. We appreciate the education, and hopefully there's been some education of the listeners as well. I hope so. That's all we can ask for.

Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming. Our thanks to Salt. Thanks, Salt. For joining us here on the podcast. As you can tell, that was an extraordinarily interesting experience in which two people with absolutely no game. None whatsoever. Talk to someone with a lot of game.

A lot of game. Confidence, a plan. And again, like, I hope that people, listened to it. I think at the end of the day, like we said in our groveling intro to the interview, we understand that everybody gets painted with a big broad brush and that the things that she does, unfortunately, get, you know, other people taunted and ridiculed by horrible men on the internet. Like, I agree with her premise of, like, it's not her fault. She's living her life, doing what she wants to do. Live in La Vida Loca.

Like my, my takeaway is the thing I, like, of all the stuff that I didn't know going in was like the danger in it that I never really ever thought about. It's, you know? There's one level of entitlement for men. Yeah. That is. Right. Then eclipsed by the entitlement of male athletes.

Right. Yes. And like, I never really processed how that can go so badly. Yeah. All right. Well, hopefully we all learn a little something about. about that life and hopefully it wasn't too salacious and and she actually left saying that she thought it was going to be much worse which is you know the minute she saw me and you should have been like

oh it's going to be fine she's like these guys are going to ask about with video games i play these guys would be like if you like bags of sand but uh so anyways god all right we've gone way too long in the show so let's just get right to uh some listener mail uh Jen, our good friend, NHL History Girl, wants to know. Oh, yes. If forced you, would you rather stand in front of an Al McGinnis slap shot, Al McGinnis, one of the top 100 players of all time, or a Randy Johnson fastball? I thought about this when I saw it earlier.

The answer is very easy, very, very obvious. It's the Randy Johnson fastball. You would rather stand in front of that. Because I've been hit with a baseball, not obviously 102 miles an hour, and I've been hit with a puck. Fucking puck hurts way worse. Puck hurts way worse. If they're, like, if they're, like, if you're, like, if they're, like, if they're, If it's Randy Johnson at 102 and Al McKinnis at 95,

Randy Johnson at 102 every time. Plus, we know that baseballs are filled with cork, cushioned cork in order to make them fly out of the stadium. It was the steroids, folks. It was cork inside the ball. There's give to it. Like, yeah, that's, that's... I mean, like, if you had to, like, maybe, like,

give me a different body part. Like, if I'm taking the ball of the puck in the stomach, it's the ball. Right. Every time. Right. Or what about ball, puck, bullet? Wait.

Or is it Randy Johnson and Al McKinness now? Or is it Randy Johnson and his prime and Al McKinness now? Or is it them both in their prime? Both in their prime now? Randy Johnson then, yeah. I would still take Randy Johnson. Yeah, Al McKinness could probably still get it up there in the 80s. And a puck has, yeah, it would bust you open.

Yes, sir. Do you have one? No, no, no. I was actually, I was just not doing it. Taco Bell Omikasi wants to know. Same question as last time. Which player will refuse to go to the White House if they win the Stanley Cup.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I guess it would depend on the team. Like, all right, let's go through the teams I could possibly win it. Pittsburgh. Nobody from that team. In fact, Malkin would go twice.

Wait, nobody from that team would go? No, nobody that team would not go. I would not go. Yeah, they would all go. Like, I don't know. I can't think of an NHL player right now that's woke enough where they wouldn't go to the White House. Because Andrew Ferrence doesn't count.

And Edmonton's not one in the cup even then. The Capitals. Who would not go on the Capitals? Matt Niskinan, maybe? No. I think they all go. I think every single NHL player goes. Everyone on the Blackhawks probably go.

No one's going to be a Timmy Thomas. But it has to be the inverse Timmy Thomas. Like who's the inverse Timmy Thomas on a really good team? The only guy that wouldn't have gone was Avery. Why? You don't think he would have gone? I don't think Avery would. I think Avery would have been like...

I think Trump appeals to someone like Sean Avery. Oh, I disagree, man. I think Pence doesn't. I think Avery wouldn't go based on like the marriage thing. Say we a little bit Avery, but like he wore his politics on his sleeve and he would also be a guy that would love the fucking attention. Right. I haven't gone. That's, boy, like that's our, that's our beacon of light in this current situation is Sean fucking Avery.

Sean Avery, baby. He was videoing homeless people on Snapchat. Yeah. That's, that's our guy. Michael I wants to know How does the NHL feel about the potential Raiders move to Vegas Or how pissed are they that this could happen? I think that from what I gather

They don't really know what it means for them But I know that they would be much more upset about an NBA team Coming to town I mean they knew this was coming This was in the pipeline I was out in Vegas this past summer And in an attempt to write off the trip Which I didn't actually do

Attention IRS, this isn't going to happen when I file my taxes but like I asked dealers, cab drivers, anyone I could. Like, what do you think about the Vegas hockey team? And their answer was always, I just want to get the Raiders here. That was their first answer. And like, it's not, I don't think it's a comment. It's right. You said, it's the NBA versus the NHL.

It's not, you know, the Vegas team playing eight Sundays a year. Yeah, I think. I think it's good for them in a way. I think it's good for them, too. Listen, I'm, you and I are of different minds on Vegas. I think it's going to be a huge success. You are a bit more wary about it on the ice and off the ice. I mean actually less off the ice

But more Like you think you think they're a potential Playoff bubble team Yeah Because everybody's a playoff bubble team Outside of Arizona They're gonna They're gonna

I think that's what they're gonna be next year Is either Colorado or Arizona I really do Danny Rue Masatazu Dan Straight Edge wants to know My 5 year old daughter wants to know

What's your favorite color Or do you not see colors My friend I like all the colors The same I have a blue shirt. I've got a pink shirt. Mine's white.

I love white. White is the best color. My might say it's the superior color. No. My favorite color is if I, I just had this discussion with my daughter actually about crayons. My favorite crayon color is the metallic copper. Crayola crayon. Metallic copper.

Yeah, because when you, it's a great cool looking color, like an earth tone. And then when you use it has sparkles in it. I think blue. I'm boring as hell when it comes to favorite colors. Mike the unkindled wants to know who's the next recipient of the Danny Heatley player whose game goes over a Cliff Award. Yeah, I saw that too.

So who is the guy that is a flavor of the month? Flavor of the last couple months. Flavor of the last couple years. I don't know if there's anybody, I mean, the Chichu Heatley type is a real specific type that completely lost the thread. and I don't know if there's a guy necessarily

of that ilk. Like I'm looking at the goal scoring leaders now in the NHL and they're kind of the people that you'd expect to be be these goal scoring leaders. Cam, I mean, does Cam Ackinson count? Probably not. He's only gone up for one year. I'll give you one.

Good. Jamie Ben. See, that's the guy I was thinking. Because he's had some surgeries. Yeah. He's kind of a big guy. I can see that breaking down over the course of some time.

I feel like as long as Sagan's there, he's going to be all right, though. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, like, it's tough. It's tough to guess which guy's body's going to break down or like which guy isn't working out the best possible way or taking care of himself the best possible way. I don't know. Jamie Ben saw him last night. He looks like he's in pretty good shape.

I just, I feel like once the groin, like Travis Ajax. Remember when Travis Ajax was pre-A-A-Jalys and then he had the Achilles and he came back and he was. And now he's pretty good again. So how about how about this? How about Tyler Tofoli? What's he even doing this year? Well, I was what I'm talking about, 31 goals last year, eight in 32 games this year. So that's like a 20-ish pace at best.

That's not falling off the cliff. Yeah, like, like, Danny Heatley, like, fucking died. And Tofoli's only 24. Danny Heatley was like the fat guy in thinner. Only it was like his skill that eroded away over the course of an hour and a half and then disappeared. And no matter what Chichu did in his career, he inspired the Jonathan Chichu song, which is the, come on. What's the Chichie song? All right.

for a second. I'm going to guess what it is. You are my Chi-chu, my only Chee-choo. This is so embarrassing. I tee you up for 50 goals. No one played D and you had Thor in. Now my Chee-choo has gone away. All right, so this is, this is the song. This is the song that launched a thousand blogs. I am doing this song because the people in San Jose are assholes. And they don't understand a good player when they have him right under their noses.

I, of course, am talking about the greatest player to ever play the game of ice hockey. And that player, Jonathan Chichu. Chee-choo. And now he is playing in the greatest city in the history of the world. Hoboken. And that city is Ottawa, Canada. That's the capital. What is this?

This is a big fat guy who... capital of asshole town It is my hope And my dream There's a song coming Fine people of Ottawa Trust me Play this song

Every time Jonathan Chichu scores Yeah Or gets an assist Or gets a penalty Or gets in a fight He sounds like somebody Or comes off the bench Or comes off the bench

Because he does a lot of that stuff A lot Because he's really good And also He's doing a bit right This guy's completely serious Here comes Remember the song

The even more better Jonathan Chichu song Train train Chitue train the sins are gonna win this game Cheechu Uh huh Cheechu Oh my god Gonna win this game

Chichu No Yes Wait Train train train Alright you get it Let's go chichu Yeah

Chichu Yeah I can't I can't anymore But that's the Jonathan Chichu song I can't believe You never heard that before

He sounds like He sounds like somebody He sounds like a Oh no You know he sounds like He sounds like Napoleon dynamite A little bit He's his grandma

One of the videos he did Was when when When Chichu was signed By the Peoria Rivermen He referred to Peoria as Awesome Town And then there's an entire segment

where he puts a sash and a top hat on and he goes, I am the mayor of Awesometown, aka Peoria, Illinois. You know what this is like? This is like when Jimmy Kimmel made fun of all the people that didn't know the difference between the ACA and Obamacare.

I don't know if we should be making fun of this guy. I'm not sure if he's like all there. I don't know. I didn't see the video. I only saw the back of your laptop. I'm worried. Two more questions. Actually, one more question.

This one's a comment. I like wings, but disagree with Wyshinsky's weird bone finish and also, God damn it, Dave Lozo, a hot dog is not a sandwich. First of all, you're wrong on bones and second of all, you're wrong on hot dogs. That's from Alex. Finally, Andrew Dojack wants to know

bacon or sausage, and if sausage, link or those weird round things, talk and breakfast, of course. Bacon. Bacon is the answer. But although, and this is something that came up in a previous puck soup, is the answer really

chorizo and eggs? Oh, I go Treiso one, Taylorham, two, bacon three. I know sausage, like I would rather have the patty, like on like a Dunkin' Donuts breakfast sandwich than like a link. I don't like the link. It's too weird to cut. I'm going to go. I'm going to go.

I'm going to go bacon first with a caveat that I used to be much more into bacon before bacon became a thing. Before it became a thing where you go to a farm to table restaurant and like one of the the appetizers is like bacon dipped in syrup with fucking sugar on it. Like, that's a little bit much. Yeah, but it's pretty good. All right, listen. I like that, though.

We have something to announce, but I'm a little bit worried about announcing it because I honestly don't know the specifics of it. So, I mean, how it's going to work. Announcing it lights the fire, though. Yeah, I know. Oh. That was like a reflex. The fire arises, my friend. We can't do this.

We can't do this for 15 minutes. We can't do this for 15 minutes. The Shadow's, you barely adapt to them. The League of Shadow. Jonathan Taves in the top 100? Impossible. Oh, my God.

Three doors down. What a lovely, lovely box. Before we get into a weird Bain, Trump inauguration, riff. We have a project that me, we'll announce this part. It's a project that me and Dave Lozo and

down goes brown, are all participating in. So your Puck Soup buddies and your Biscuits podcast buddies are all participating in this project. And I will say, I will say

conservatively either Monday or Tuesday will be the announcement via social media that the project has launched. We're aiming for Monday, but we've all got stuff to do. We are also at the whim of other

forces as to when this project will be released. Are we? Well, there's an approval process. That's part of the issue of getting it done early. What do you mean? They have to sign off on it before they start putting it out there. Who does?

The distribution company. Oh. Oh. All right, listen. Listen, that's what we're trying to tell you is that Monday or Tuesday, shit's going to hit, come hit big. I want to be a part of it. You're going to want this. You're going to want this in your brainbone.

Yeah. All right. That's all we'll tell you. We'll tell you more next week. That's all we wrote. Thank you to Salt for coming in and sharing all of her puck bunny, I guess, stories. It's a pejorative to everybody involved, but yet we're still going to use it probably in the title of the podcast. Oh yeah, that was something else. I don't think she considered it a pejorative. Did she? Maybe. I don't know. But anyways, thanks to Salt for coming in and talking to us. And thanks to you for listening, open hearts and open minds.

Can't wait to see you all. Make sure if you see someone being really mean to Dave and I that you tell them, listen to the podcast. It's not as bad as you possibly think it is. Don't just screenshot the headline and then tweet it and go... If you see your friend,

really? Screenshot the podcast headline and then type just UGH. Yeah. Just be like, hey, listen to it. It really wasn't as bad as you possibly thought it was. I mean, it may be bad. But not for those reasons. I don't think anyway.

All right. So anyways, I'm... Greg Wichinsky of Yahoo Sports Puck Daddy blog. You can read me there. You can read me at Wichinsky on Twitter. You can listen to my other podcast Merrick v. Wichenski with Jeff Merrick Sportsnet. And my book,

Take Your Eye off the puck. How to Watch Hockey by knowing where to look is still available, wherever books are sold. Thank you also to Patrick Linae and Ilya Bridge Ghaloff. Yeah, thanks, guys. That was like hours ago at this point. And here's Dave Lowe's Oda to take you home. All right. I forgot about this part. It never fails that you forget about this part.

Sometimes I think of stuff. All right, PSA, if you live in New York, don't go to the Starbucks in the Manhattan Mall. It sucks. They fuck up your order every goddamn time. There's a Starbucks right outside on 30 second. Go to that one instead. That's really all I got today.

They fuck you at the Starbucks. I swear to God, I have gone there and ordered the same thing every time. The last time I ordered it, I ordered a venty drink. They must have poured like a half of it in there. The other time they just got the wrong. It's always wrong. The Starbucks is right. It's 100 feet away.

Go to that one instead. It's good. It's great. It's wonderful. Also, a... Stay loyal to Starbucks. Quick shout out to the security guard who let us back in the studio after we walked our guest out because our shit was locked in here. Yeah, and quick shout out to the security guy that actually locked our shit in here. Even though we fucking knew we were in here. All right, everybody. We'll see you next week. Big news next week. Bye.

See ya.