Puck Soup - Controversy Creates Content

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

Sean and Ryan talk Leafs/Panthers, the Ducks/Coyotes drama, Ryan Getzlaf's retirement, awards voting, and the Frozen Four. Sponsored by Raycon (BuyRaycon.com/Puck for 15% off) and Trade Coffee (DrinkTrade.com/Puck for $30 off your first order)

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 Nancet. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And I just want to read the nice people who are listening to this. And I just want to read from an email I received last night.

Why are you doing this? Quote. Why? Also, I might need you to talk me out of the Leafs being a juggernaut. Yeah. That was when it was 5 to 1. And the Leafs were appeared to be on their way to earning 8 out of 8 points against the Panthers twice, Lightning and Bruins. And instead, they got 7 out of 8.

and it is disaster and etc etc but as someone who is not a fan of either team did you watch that game because it was unbelievable that was amazing I did not

so good former pork soup guest Dan from the band Joy Wave Joy Wave was in town last night and Dan was nice enough to put me on the guest list for their show I guess we'll allow it. And that was really nice of him, and it was a fun show.

And did I, you know, did I follow along between sets and laugh as the Leafs completely melted down? Sure, I did. Yeah. What am I going to tell you? I don't know, man. Like, I know, again, this is, it's the Leafs. So it's, the expectation is that we're all going to perform this big, you know, meltdown thing. They went into Florida.

Second night of a back-to-back, they played really well to jump out to a huge lead. They gave up a really bad goal from their third or fourth string goaltender, who then got hurt and their other guy had to come in cold. I mean, you want to win, but I don't look. Obviously. And I know it's, you know, it's the least because it's happened before, you know, everybody just dusts off and cuts and pace the same, the exact same tweets that got a lot of engagement last time, you're going to break them out again and all of this stuff and the same articles.

This one to me is not like some crisis level thing. No, like, you know, anything is a single game, but, you know, everybody pointed out the least really do tend to blow a lot of huge leads, like historically speaking. And because it's the Leafs, it's all. always going to be fucking funny. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yep. I guess that's the price you pay for every single one of your games is on national TV. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Have you heard about that? The media up here covers the Leafs a lot. It's crazy. No, and like, look, I get everything here.

It's completely impossible to understand, according to people who tweet constantly about the Maple Leafs, even though they will assure you that that is not their team. I'm not trying. Look, like, let me put it this way. You know how I spent most of that game? Well, not most of, but like, again, between sets when I was still looking at my phone, a guy was, like, very mad that I said Jonathan Hubertow isn't the best player on the Florida Panthers or whatever. I was fucking furious.

So, like, everybody's got brainworms. It's not just leaf fans. It's not just people who hate the Leafs. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean. But let's talk about the Panthers. Because I have said, sure,

it was, I think my very first power rankings of the week. I said up the year, the Panthers should be your second favorite team. And if you now, like, cheer for one of the bad teams that's already out, like,

the Panthers should be your favorite team. Because they are fun as hell. They've never won anything ever. So, like, you're not, I know it feels icky to people to, like, jump on the lightning bandwagon or something.

This is, It's the Panthers. They have no, I mean, I don't even know, other than maybe the one guy that you were dealing with, are there like really that many, like, does anyone hate Panthers fans? There's like seven of them. Probably Tampa fans do, you know? Yes, maybe. But this is the absolute ideal bandwagon team.

And they have Joe Thornton, I think. I don't even know if he's. They sure do, yeah. I did not see him at all last night. But yeah, they're super fun as hell. And the absolute best thing that could happen for the NHL would be for the Florida Panthers to win the Stanley Cup playing games like last night where they win 7 to 6. Every night and we don't have to listen to crusty people tell us like it boggles my mind. I tweeted about this that you could watch.

There are people who watched that game last night. And as it was going into overtime, all they could think to do was to, like, tweet about how, like, you can't win in the playoffs this. Like, dude, just you're allowed to enjoy things, man. You're allowed to enjoy one of the most fun games of the regular season without immediately lecturing everybody about how much this league sucks in the playoffs. because nobody's going to be able to win any game that isn't two to one. Now, to the point of you can't win in the playoffs or whatever, like, I just looked at this because I was like, they've been giving up a lot of goals lately.

Going back to January 6th, a fun date that we all enjoy, 898 goal attending for the Florida Panthers. They've lost eight of those games in regulation, eight out of 37. Yeah. That's fucking crazy. Yeah. Like, I don't know if that works in the playoffs because that, you know, eventually you stop playing.

We know that. Right. But can they, I guess the question is, do we think a team that scored 166 goals in their last 37 games can score their way out of problems, right? 898 goaltending, they've outscored their opponents by like 40, more than 40. goals. More than 50 goals. I will tell you, man. The Leafs were off 5-1 last night, and I was watching that game, and I was like, the

leaves need the next goal. Because this is not, like, like, and also at one point, like, maybe it was Ray Ferraro, since when it was 5-1, he was like, this isn't over. And usually when somebody says that in a game that's a blowout, it just, it reeks of like, please don't change the channel. That's right. But with the Panthers, you were like, and also because it was the Leafs, you're like, yeah, this is. And then when they made a five, two, you're like, okay, here we go.

Yeah, Ray knows, right? Like, he's like, I've seen, I've seen this happen before. Yeah. There's no big deal. But, yeah, you know, what am I going to say? Like, the Panthers are really good. They have a weakness that everybody thought was going to be a weakness coming into the season. And it's their only weakness.

Yep. So. And, like, it rocks. This is great. This is what you want. Yeah. And their strengths are very, very. Everything else, pretty much. And it's, you know, yeah, it's not like, yeah, they're okay everywhere else and have one weakness.

They are amazing. Top to bottom. You know, Claude Jureau got his goal last night. He was everywhere. I admit, I was surprised at how noticeable Claude Jureux was. Just because, you know, with the Flyers the last few years, you haven't seen as much. of him and I kind of thought he was maybe more worn down than he was and maybe he maybe he was and it's re-energized him going to Florida but he look fantastic

Jonathan uh Jonathan Herbado even though we can do the whole MVP whatever he's amazing to watch he's fun as hell to watch he's just but is he the best player on his team no Sasha Barcov is then maybe Aaron Ekblad yeah well you know Although it's getting closer, man. I mean, like, Barkov is great, but Yerberto is having a year for, like, just, he's having an L of a year, man. Yeah, you set the left-wing assist record with, like, 12 games to go or something. Yep.

So, yeah, he's having a great season, but you're not allowed to say that anybody, like, if you, if you say somebody is merely having a great season and is perhaps not the best player on his team, people get so, so, anyway, I didn't actually plan to talk this much about the Four of Panthers because we should have to, but we should. Yeah, sure. Because they're, I don't know. Like, I'm a Leafs fan.

Obviously, I hope that, you know, if the Leafs play them in the first round, I'm sure for the Leafs. But putting that aside, man, I hope the Panthers win the Stanley Cup this year. Yeah, they're, um, they're really, they're really fun. Yeah. And they've been fun all year. they have, they just score a million goals a game and, and as we saw last night. And they're never out of it. That's two four goal comebacks in the last, whatever it is, week and a half.

Now, this is a situation where do you want to be in a situation where you're, you need to come back from down two, three, four goals all the time? No, probably not. Probably don't want that because you do at some point, if you're them, have to play the Tampa Bay Lightning in the playoffs probably. You know? You do. And you know what? The Tampa Bay Lightning are going to get a multi-go lead on you a few times in that series because they're the lightning. So being able to look around and going, all right, well, we know what to do now is not a bad thing.

I just, again, like, people are mad at me online because I did my usual schick last night where I'm complaining about, you know, that have the NHL. how it works and how it's perceived. I just, I made this point a few weeks ago when it was the Leaves and Red Wings. I remember the Rams and the Chiefs playing a 54-52 game and football fans just went out of their minds over how much fun it was. And nobody sat there and went, well, yeah, but you can't win a Super Bowl like this. Nobody sat there and went like, you know, Pat Mahomes is great in the regular season, but in the playoffs, right? And, yeah, sure enough, both those teams have won championships since then, because, in every other sport, offense is half the game, and it's okay to be good at offense.

Yeah, you have to prong about it. If you give up a lot of, you know, if you give up a lot on the defensive side, you're not happy with how your defense played. But it's not a given that, like, you know, nobody was like in the playoffs in the NFL, you have to win seven to six. That would have been ridiculous. But in the NHL, we're so conditioned to it that not only do we all just immediately our minds go there, but people are adamant. Like, people are angry that, like, there was an exciting, fun, entertaining game, uh, and, and that anyone might have enjoyed it without being reminded.

That's interesting only because I don't think anybody reacted that way about that Flames Oilers game a couple of weeks ago or whatever it was, a week and a half ago. Um, and I think it's because, well, I think it's because nobody thinks those are legitimately, like, actually great teams. You know what I mean? Yeah. Whereas people are like, oh yeah, the Leafs and the Panthers could legitimately win a Stanley Cup. Like, it's not, maybe the flames are on a pretty similar level, although they haven't been great lately.

But like, nobody's looking at the Oilers and like, you know what, if they could just tighten it up, like they, no, nobody, nobody thinks that. So I wonder how much that has to. Well, but, I mean, even the Oilers last night, right? like the Leaves and Panthers finish their barn burner, the Oilers go out and play a really boring game against the sharks. And I have seen people saying like, yeah, but that's how you got to play. That's, you know, that win was. Yeah.

Did you see the Mike Smith play in overtime, by the way? I sure didn't. No. It was fantastic. It's three on three. Sharks get the puck first. They come in. They get a decent scoring chance.

He makes a glove save. And instead of freezing it, he skates five feet out of his net and does like a, he makes a pass up the ice to Connor McDavid, but that doesn't do it justice because he basically just drops the puck, smacks it with his stick, and does like, it's almost like a curling shot. The perfect weight down to the other blue line that Connor

David picks up, goes in for a breakaway and scores. It's a, I don't, 90% of goalie assists are flukes and luck, but that one was like an ape. plus play and it was like what you would do in a video game where you never actually want to freeze the fuck it's great he's like a third defenseman back there well like you know don't know if anyone's insofar as he's also not good at playing goal but the the number one thing that was on my list that diversion aside the number one thing that was on my list is Tyson Nash the nastiest man in hockey today we got to get that we talked about yeah I guess

that's the other good thing about the Leaves and Panthers is nobody had to get beaten up for being too good. Yeah, maybe that was, maybe that's why the Leaves keep blowing leads. Maybe when it got to 5-1, they're like, well, you're not allowed to score anymore because. Yeah, I don't want Radco Gudis to beat up Mitch Marner. Yeah, he'd hate to see that. So, yeah, obviously we're talking about the coyotes ducks thing from Friday night where the ducks, score very easily a bunch of times. And then now look, like, at first Tyson Nash says the thing about you don't want guys skilling it up and all this kind of stuff.

Then, you know, I'm shocked that a guy like Tyson Nash couldn't talk his way out of this one, you know? Yeah. But then he goes, what I should have said was you don't want them poking the goalie. And it's like, well, that's two different things, brother. Well, and he's right. That is what he should have said. And again, like I've, I got people mad at me on Twitter, believe it or not, because I tweeted, what I said was that Tyson Nash's biggest problem with what he said during the, you know, during the fight, the skilling it up and all of the other stuff, was that he actually told us what was going on and he forgot to pretend that it was about a goalie getting poked or whatever. So yes, he's right.

That is what he should have said. He should have said, oh, don't poke the goalie and not said the quiet part out loud. But he's, you know, Tyson Nash played in the NHL for a long time. He knew exactly what was happening. He knew exactly what Jay Beagle was looking for. He knew exactly what Jay Beagle was doing. And where he screwed up was he said that. And the reason I wanted to point that out is because I had seen people say,

actually, Jay Beagle didn't do anything wrong. The only reason people are mad is because Tyson Nash talked it up the way he did. And if he had not done that, nobody would have even have noticed the play. And I don't think that's the case. I think Jay Beagle knew what he was doing. I think he did what he set out to do. And I think the problem for both the coyotes and Beagle and Tyson Nash is that he, Tyson Nash forgot that he wasn't supposed to explain to us what,

was going on in front of our eyes. Yeah. Using his NHL experience, he forgot that he was supposed to do some PR and pretend that this wasn't what it looked like. The thing that really made me laugh about the follow-up interview was he says, you know, Joel Quenville wouldn't let me out on the ice in the last five minutes because he knew I'd be smirking and smiling and I would start. And is like, you think that's why you didn't let you on the ice last five minutes a game?

The follow-up interview was very, It was insane. It was like, when I saw that, you know, it was, I think Craig Morgan sat down with them. I was like, okay, well, here comes, you know, we've had a couple of days of PR coaching. And, you know, this will now be, nope, it was not that. This was clearly a guy who spent two days getting pummeled by a bunch of nerds on their couches and had kind of, kind of had enough.

And, yeah, he, I think to say that he. doubled down would be fair. Yeah, and look, we've all seen a situation I'll say this in his defense, kind of, is,

you poke a goal, I don't care what the score is, you poke a goalie like that, it's going to draw a crowd, right? And if you're on the receiving, and if that happens in a game that's like 5-0 or whatever the score was,

the crowd's going to be a little nastier, right? And if it's a game where it's 5-0 and he pokes the goalie and your entire season has been like a joke from day one, basically, yeah, you're going to be really pissed off, you know? And I get that, like, it certainly doesn't excuse it. Obviously, the linesman should have stepped in and Beagle should have had should have recognized that he was punching a guy who was almost pretty much out on his feet. Yeah, especially a guy like Jay Beagle who was on the receiving end of one of the most infamous COs in recent NHL history,

which was a big deal at the time. You would think that he wouldn't want to be turning around doing it to someone else. I'll say I didn't have a big problem with the crosscheck. Like I didn't, you know, yeah, your goalie got a little poke. You give a guy a little shove. I will, maybe you don't cross-check a guy on the head. Maybe. The numbers are right there, you know?

Yeah, there is that. And, you know, Troy Terry comes in and gives him a shot. I mean, people are making it out like, oh, Troy Terry messed around and found out. Like, you come in at a guy, you got to be, like, he came in and gave a guy a shove. And Jay Beagle was like, he was in that mode that hockey players get in sometimes where it's, like the first guy who touches me, my gloves are going off, and I'm going to start throwing punches on them. And, I mean, I don't know if Troy Terry recognized that or not,

but yeah, I mean, this was clearly a case of, you know, it's not even really message sending in the sense. He blew his top. And, you know, probably wanted to show some frustration and, you know, let the fans or the coaches or whoever it is might employ him next year know that he wasn't happy about how everything's going. But it's, you know, it wasn't, it's not cool and it was worth calling him out. And, yeah, the fact that it came in a game where they were getting embarrassed is just, it's garbage.

And, you know, and it sucks that we end up talking about that instead of an amazing goal by Trevor Zegers, which by the way, which by the way, happened 10 minutes into the game. I don't know how we've somehow like... It happened the second he scored that goal, right? I heard so many... I had so many people tell me, like, well, don't do the Michigan when you're up 5-0 or, you know, don't do it when the games are. Like, what are we supposed to do?

I get, you know, I also had people say, well, it's a last place team and they got a bunch of injuries. Okay, so what's the respectful thing to do with the Arizona Coyotes right now? Like, do we just not play? Like, do we just pass the puck around the neutral zone and not even try to score against these guys 10 minutes into the game? Is that less embarrassing? Yeah, no, you run the clock. Yeah.

You just, anytime there's a stoppage, that clock's running. Yeah, like that would make these guys feel. But, like, I'm sorry that they're not putting a remotely NHL product on the ice anymore, if they have at any point. I don't know, man. I don't. I've made this point before, but good Lord, the NHL and hockey fans love to tell us what warriors these guys are. That just a level of toughness that any other sport could not ever match. No other athlete out there is as tough as a hockey player.

But God help you if you hurt somebody's feelings in this league. It's game over if somebody's FIFEs get hurt because you were too good and they lost a game. Yeah, it's amazing to me that like, you know, the orthodoxy of the sport is like that. Because, you know, you sent me that Brent Sobel quote that I hadn't seen where he's like, oh, there's no respect in the league anymore. It's like, man, shut the fuck up. You know, like, like honestly, all this shit. There was never any respect. There was never once any respect, really.

And also, if people didn't see it, it, it. his quote was along the lines of the two things. He said there's no respect and that Zeggris was playing for the name on the back, not the logo on the front. And I will say this. If anybody can tell us about the importance of putting the team and what's good for the team ahead of individuals, it would be a member of the 2010 Blackhawks.

They certainly, that was a team that certainly knew how to put the logo ahead of the names. So I guess Brent Sopo's got that going for him. The other thing that he said was he made some comment about, oh, you know, we're turning into the other three leagues, like the NFL NBA. Oh, yeah. You love to hear that kind of thing because that's one thing that isn't is a dog whistle. Yeah. And nobody's saying. And also, like, wouldn't that be terrible for the NHL?

Oh, yeah, the three leagues that are popular, way more popular. that are, you know, have way higher ratings, way more cultural relevance, and where the star players make way, way, way more money than they do in the NHL. Wouldn't it be terrible if the NHL started to resemble those leagues in any way? What a stupid quote. Yep. All right, let's do the other controversy now. I'll move this up.

They're all mad at freaking Tim Stutzel. All the Canadians are so pissed off and furious about little Timmy Stutzler. He did diving, the worst thing you can possibly do. And not just diving, score a nice goal. Staying down on the ice, which I didn't see, by the way, because I'm not why. Me neither. The Leafs and Panthers are playing a 7-6 game. I'm not watching Hab Senators.

Sorry. You have to be a freak to have watched that game over literally anything else. Correct. Oh my God, can you even imagine? But yeah, no, he stayed down and he's diving. And again, like, you know, Brennan Gallagher's like, how dare you, you're the Montreal Canadiens, dog. I don't. Yeah.

Like a proud history, let's say, of diving and staying down and stuff like that with your franchise. And I like Brennan Gallagher a lot. Yeah, I do. I don't. When I think of players. that never are down on the ice. He's not super high on my list. But I will say this.

And again, I don't watch a ton of the senators. I don't know if he's right about Tim Stutzel staying down on the ice a lot and basically milking situations to get calls. I don't know. It wouldn't shock me. Lots of guys in the NHL do that. Hell, in the NHL, a lot of times that's the only way star players can get calls. So, you know, maybe he's doing it.

I will say this. If you're going to get mad at a guy for that and you're going to go after him in your postgame comments, that was a really good way to do it. Like, he got his ass pretty good about how like, you know, when I was 10 years old, my coach had a rule that if you stayed down on the ice, you had to miss three ships. That is a, that's a good dig. And if you're going to, you know, if two last place teams are going to get into a little battle, you know what, A plus to Brennan Gallagher, he at least, the season's not going well, but he's still bringing his A game to the postgame podium. Yeah, look, like, I don't, obviously I'm not like offended by diving. Like I think, you know, like you say, in a league where we're always talking about Austin, Manning. Matthews and Connor McDavid, like, these guys can't draw penalties to save their lives.

Why wouldn't one of the best players on his own team if he feels a little bit of a hook in the gut or whatever, you know, like, why wouldn't you go, oh, they actually shot me. I fell down. Yeah. And I'm not like you. I hate that stuff. It's still really funny. I'm just saying I get it.

I'm just saying I get it on their end. Yeah. Yeah. It's also like, you know, not, yeah, I mean, this is, this is the NHL, right? It happens. So, I don't know. Well, yeah. I'm going to look it up to see if I can find the play here.

And I will tell you, when you go into YouTube and you type Tim Stutzel, it auto fills laying on ice. So maybe, maybe this is more of a thing. But, yeah, it looks. I'm trying to find the Brady Kachuk quote because he had a good one as well about it. But he basically said like it actually was really cool and I liked it. He's a top player so it'll be stupid for a team to not go after him. But then he handles it perfectly. Of course they got that little trip in there at the end of the second.

He's such a big part of our team and he doesn't back away from anything. That's the quote. But he's like he handled it perfectly. That's very funny. Yeah. I'm watching the play. It did seem like he did kind of sell it, I would say. But again, like, wouldn't you expect that if you're, if you're.

I wouldn't. I would like guys to not, you know, I'm not saying don't go down, but, you know, to lay on the ice until the trainer comes out and then hop back on for the power play. I don't like it when that happens, but it's not a, this isn't like something Tim Sto, is brought into the league. And we understand why it. We certainly understand why it happens. So, yeah, I mean, this is, this is, I guess, a thing.

So, yeah, we have to be pissed. And again, go back and don't just read the Brennan Gallagher quote. Watch the clip. Because even, like, his, I don't know how to describe it. Like, his expressions as he is delivering the quote are just, fantastic. It's like this guy is this he's

got a career as a pro wrestling heel if the hockey thing doesn't work out. I feel like it's worked out pretty good so far. Yeah. Roll Brendan Gallagher. Yeah. Well yeah. If he's more interested in the

name on the back than the logo in front Brian. That's right. Yeah. One last piece of Anaheim Ducks-related news, and then we'll take a break, is, did you see this guy, Ryan Getslap, is retiring at the end of the year? Yeah. Now, this is a guy he obviously hasn't played a ton this year.

And I don't think anybody's surprised by this. But with what that having been said, you never like to see a guy who was like one of the better players of his era, let's say. like kind of not going out on its own terms, I guess. Yeah. He's, I mean, he kind of is because he's been decent this year when he's playing, like in terms of his playmaking, at least.

He doesn't score anymore. But, I mean, he's not, I think if he had wanted to keep going, he could have found a contract next year. I don't know that it would have been in Anaheim, given where they're at rebuilding-wise, but, you know, he could have kept going. But, you know, I mean, he hasn't been certainly at any kind of all-star level for for a while now.

But especially after last year when he was like legitimately not very productive, he's, he's been better this year. And yeah, I mean, it's, it, at least he's going out also, you know, he's made the announcement now. So the fans in Anaheim will kind of get their job. Apparently his last game is going to be the last game. was going to be the last home game. And, you know, they'll get a chance to say their goodbyes and all of that stuff.

And then he'll, I'm sure, walk into whatever front office job he wants, whether it's a real hockey ops job or something more ceremonial. And good for him. He was cool as hell. He was fun to watch. He was like a great kind of, I don't know if I'd say underrated, but, you know, he's one of those guys where was he ever. the Sydney Crosby tier, no.

But that doesn't mean he wasn't a great player. One step below it. Yeah. And, you know, great player for a very long time, had the one monster season where he was almost won the Hart Trophy. Other than that, just a really product. And a key part of a team that won a cup and won a lot even after the cup, even though they didn't get back there.

Yeah. And he was fun to watch. And, you know, I think you would agree. First ballot hall of famer? No, I don't think so. I mean, you know, obviously he is the leading scorer in Ducks history, and he had over a thousand points. And as you say, he had a couple really dominant seasons,

and he won. I think he's in the quadruple gold club, not just the triple gold. played a lot for Team Canada, which is a good sign of how you're viewed. I was kidding about him being an obvious first ballot Hall of Famer because I just wanted to get Ryan mad. Yeah, no, I'm well, like, because here's the thing is I'm inured to that kind of thing because people legitimately believe that, which means he's going to get in. Maybe not on the first ballot. I think he will make an interesting case. I don't know that he necessarily does get in, barely suck.

over a thousand points. I made the point yesterday, but this guy, this is a guy who has fewer goals all time than Radham Verbada. Yep. So, like, and obviously goals isn't everything, and again, he was a playmaker, but the international career

and all that kind of stuff. But it's like, yeah, I mean, this, to me is a classic haul of very good case. Like, it doesn't, goal, having a, having a a shitload of goals isn't everything, right?

And he is, where is he here? He is 51st all time in assists. Yeah. If it's the thing you're the best at, it's probably not... Yeah. Being 51st at it is probably not going to be enough. He didn't catch Vincent Dampus in either assists or didn't even come close in goals.

don't speak ill of Vinnie Danfus. I'm not really good player for a really long time. But does that mean we have to put him in the Hall of Fame now, too? Because we, you know, and again, like, Danfuss wasn't exactly playing on all the team candidates, you know, and obviously they didn't go to the Olympics back then, blah, blah, blah. But you see my point, though, is like, I do think that his...

There's nothing wrong with making a shitload of money and being considered one of the like five best players at your position in the world in any given time for a good chunk of your career. But like, come on, man. I will say this. Adjusted points, he is just behind

Jill Bear Perot, Mike Gartner, Frank Mahavillage, as well as Patrick Eliasch, who's an interesting case. And just ahead of guys like Joe Newndike, Danny Savar, Andre Richard and like that. Which, you know, that's, and the other thing is he,

for whatever reason, playing for one team primarily or only in your career seems to help. I don't know if that's, if that'll be the case with him. I think he's going to be an interesting one. I think he'll be one of those guys we'll be talking about each year as like a possibility.

But, yeah, to me, he's in that, like, Patrick Eliash, Daniel Alpherson realm where it's like, there is an argument. Yeah, for sure. But the case is probably not as strong as that player's fans would like to imagine. Yeah, and, like, you know, guys who have all the trophies and medals and stuff like that that he does, those guys go into the Hall of Fame. I can't imagine there's a single guy in the quadruple gold club who's not. in the Hall of Fame. I don't, I mean, is Corey Perry going to go in? Corey Perry at least has the MVP.

It's really hard to find MVP winners who, who don't make the Hall of Fame. Is there a single one? Yes, a few, but very few. Okay, yeah. And there were, for a while, there was only one, and now, like, Jose Tado or didn't get in and stuff like that. But very few, very few, sure.

But, yeah. And, like, again, you know, I'm looking at his awards finishes and stuff like that. Second for Hart, one year, six for Hart the next year. And other than that, I don't think he had any, like, top, or many top 10, one top 10th place, Selkie. But those are all his top 10 finishes and awards voting. And, like, you described it. He was a top five guy for a long time.

Yeah. And that ain't a bad thing to be. And the thing I don't want this to turn into, I hate Ryan Getslaff or whatever. I thought Ryan Getslaff rocked. But the thing I always remember is there was some quote from like an NHL award show thing where it's like, hey, what is the thing Ryan Getslaff tells all his linemates? And some, I can't remember which linemate it was, but he was like,

oh, when I first got here, he said, just go to the front of the net. and I'll make you a millionaire. That rocks. That's so cool. And speaking of award show, he was also the driving force behind the silver sketch with Bobby Ryan. So that if honestly, if it's a borderline case, that should maybe tip the scales a little bit because that is, that remains quite possibly the only funny piece of scripted comedy the NHL has ever produced in the history of the league. I'm still shocked they. allowed that to happen because it was making fun of a player.

Yeah. And making fun of America. Yeah. And Bobby Ryan, by the way, was fantastic in that as well. Yep, be sure. And the fact that they then did a follow-up the next year, which you're like, all right, classic booking, right? Now you're going to do the follow-up where Team USA is going to get. Nope.

Nope. Canada came out ahead again. They basically did the same schick. But, yeah. One last thing, by the way, on Getslaff here.

This guy has been in the league so long that the first team he played for was the mighty ducks of Anaheim, not the Anaheim ducks. That's right. That's wild to me. Coming out of that lockout, wow.

Another guy from the 2003 draft. The 2003 draft is the greatest draft in history at producing borderline Hall of Fame cases. That is, if you're like me, because I love arguing about the Hall of Fame, the 2003 is like Chef's Kisk because it just gave us everybody that you want to argue about.

And like virtually no absolute sure things. I love it. Yeah. Let's try to think. Who's still kicking from the 03 draft? Flurry. Sure, Fleury. I was going to say Bergeron and Souter both immediately occur to you.

Zach Porese Jeff Carter famously the same Shea Weber kind of If you Not really But I don't think

Anyone thinks he's coming back Brent Burns Still going Yeah Yeah Brent Burns was in that draft Huh boy I don't think of him

As being that old Joe Pavelski Of course Mm-hmm I can't think Of the top of my head I guess But

point is As you say That is a A whole bunch of guys where it's like, yeah, he is a pretty good Hall of Fame case, I guess. Yeah, but not a great, like, I mean, of everyone in there, I think Bergeron is probably sure thing territory, and I think Flurry is too. I know some people.

He shouldn't be, but he'll. Yeah, he's going to have 600 wins or whatever, like he's, or 500 wins. He's going in. Beyond that, it's like, if you ever want to just. One and a half. Yeah. Yep. But you just go down the list.

Like, you want to argue Eric Stahl. Ryan Suter, Brent Burns, Corey Perry we talked about, Getslap, Shea Weber even, some people would say there's an argument to be ahead there. It's the perfect draft

for giving you guys to just randomly argue over. And also there were some pretty good players. I suppose we should be. Oh, yeah, I mean, you know, what is it? More, maybe close to 20 of them played at least a thousand games. Oh, yeah. That's why.

That's why. That's why. That's why. Was he really? Yeah. Wow. Oh, yeah. I just pulled it up here.

Guys like Big Buff. Ryan Hessler, who's really good. Thomas Vanick, who was really good for quite a while. Matt M. Jessamine was in that draft. Well, that's something better. Oh, speaking of him, though, Lee Stempenyak was in that draft.

They were teammates at Dartmouth. That's why it's speaking up. But, yeah. It's such a great draft because there were a ton of great players in it, but it's like if you just wrote down the name of the 100 best players in that draft, put it in a bag, shook it up, and then just randomly started pulling them out there. Like there is no rhyme or reason to. It's why it's one of the great, and people do this all the time, where it's like redrafting the 2003 draft is all sorts of fun because like Nathan Horton is not going third. No, I absolutely not. Is not going forth, you know, it's...

I think, buddy, you got to go, you got to go Bergeron one, and then two. Let's just do the top five. Bergeron, I think, is a pretty clear number one. After that, there's a lot of options available. Right away, yeah. I would say Joe Pavelski, probably. Yeah, I might go Eric Stahl over him, but, uh, I think both are perfectly plausible choices there.

Gets left's in the conversation. Weber, I think is... I put Weber ahead of Burns, but he's, you know, he's definitely... Although it's... This always surprises me, but the fact that, like, Weber is behind suitor in scoring from that draft is always... Just because Weber's the guy that you think of as the offensive... He's probably quarterback, and he's the goal scorer. But he's not...

And Louis Erickson was in that draft, too. Jeez, there's a lot of... Yeah, but I'm going to say, I Berseron, Stahl, Weber, Flore, Pavelski, or Getslap, I think is my top five. Man, I think Joe Pavelsky's so fucking good, though. Like, again, like, just the fact that there's a plausible case that Joe Pavelski was, like, a seventh round pick. He went 200 and fifth overall, it says right here. there's a plausible case that he is the second best player of that draft. That's fucking crazy.

Yep. But yeah. All right, we're going to take a break. We'll be right back. All right, guys, it's April. Chances are your New Year's resolutions have completely faded and collapsed. And that's fine. It doesn't mean you can't still find a way to shake things up,

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but I didn't note here, or I didn't really log it mentally just now, the Keith Yandel thing is also a big controversy. Yeah. Keith Yandel, 989 games played. The Flyers said, we are healthy scratching you. And thus ends his iron streak.

Iron Man streak, I should. say. Um, and, uh, you know, at first I was like, you gotta be fucking kidding me, right? Like, who gives a shit for the flyers? Whether, whether, whether this guy's good or bad, like, let him get to a thousand games. That's a nice round number, you know? And then after that, you want to help you scratch him, especially knowing that like, Phil Kessel's breathing down his neck, blah, blah, blah. After, after you get him to a thousand, all bets are off. Um, especially because, like, people were like, oh, they want to get the kids in. They just signed Ronnie Adderd out of

out of Western Michigan. He's a really good young defenseman, and that's a guy I like. But they were doing the thing of like, oh, well, they scratch him for Ronnie Adderd. What do you want? And it's like, well, no, Ronnie Adder plays the opposite side of Keith Yandel.

The guy they really put in for him was Nick Seeler, who is 28 and stinks. And so apparently it was a situation where he had fought Nick Deloree in the previous game or earlier that week or something. And they were like, well, we can't possibly take the fighting man out of the lineup for. Oh, really? Oh, wow. Yeah. That's like the 201 hockey men vetoing the 200 hockey men.

Because that's, I was surprised. I was surprised in a couple of, you know, obviously you mentioned, you could have left a man. could have got to a thousand. I think certainly there was a case that just based on where he's at in his career, he shouldn't have been in the lineup for a while now. Yeah, he's been awful this year, just like unbelievably bad. The other thing that helped him get as far as he did, of course, is that the flyers are also awful and unbelievably bad.

Yeah. So it didn't really matter. It didn't matter. It doesn't matter now. So why not let him at least get to the milestone? And if you're going to take him out. why do it on a Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada against the Leafs? Like, it almost felt like they kind of want it to get, to have it be a story, but I don't know why you would.

Like, it just, well, I think it would be a story regardless. Now, like you say, Hockey Night in Canada, the 7 p.m. game against Toronto, April Leafs, like, that's going to bring a lot of eyes to it. And, and, and, and, and, but that having been said, if you're trying to make a decision, like, this is when Ronnie Adderd showed up, you know. And so, if you're trying to make a decision who, who goes, who stays in, who draws out, whatever. Yeah. Um, you got to make that call. and if you're not going to take the fighting guy out

because the guy got his ass kicked by Nick Deloria then then yeah like but with all that having been said I think it was Mike Mike Rupp is doing like video like

here's what I think about this situation and what he said this was this was going around on like Saturday and Sunday or Sunday and and Monday, I mean, was he was basically like, well, it's a bullshit streak anyway. The Panthers were going to healthy scratch him at the start of last season or whatever. And the players were like, no, you have to keep him in. Yeah.

Or else. And so I really, that argument really resonated with me. Yeah. Because he also said the same thing about Phil Kessel, where like he played one shift and then flew home for the birth of his child. Yeah. Yeah, and apparently that part of the reason that Phil Kessel wasn't traded at the deadline is that some teams were like, yeah, we bring this guy in for depth, but then we're not going to, you know, we don't want to bring this guy in and then we want to scratch him some night and it turns into a whole big thing. So these streaks are a little, a little bit dicey, but the key point here is that Phil Kessel is going to be the NHL's all-time Iron Man. at some point next year, which is fantastic.

Well, the thing I wanted to say about, like, I don't know if the streak from whoever the previous guy, I don't know, I'm not. Doug Jarvis. Okay, sure. I don't know if his streak was bullshit. I don't know if they were going to help he scratch him at some point. And then they were like, yeah, but you know,

like, I don't know. I wasn't fucking watching hockey then, you know? Yep. So that also means very little to me in terms of, So, like I say, I kind of see it from both sides. And I don't know. Like, it's not a great look for the flyers. And, like, again, why would you invite the negative PR that is destined to come with it?

But even if he gets to a thousand games and you scratch them for career game, 1001, people are going to be like, well, what the fuck? So there's no winning at that point. Unless you let it go to the end of the year and then he just retires. Yeah, sure. And it is a tough message to say when you're a rebuilding team and it's the flyers so they want to have their, I'm sure, Philadelphia culture and everything like that to say, like, yeah, everything here is earned, everything's earned. But this old guy gets to play even when he stinks because he's got a personal milestone that we're pretty. protecting over winning games. I get that, but it just struck me as odd.

Yeah, not the playing Keith Yandel is the difference between the Flyers having won and lost all these games this year, right? Like, they have much bigger fucking problems, obviously. It would be funny if they scratched them in one, 15 games in a row. That would be very, very funny. It really would be. Turns out that has not happened. No, no, just missed. but yeah, like, I don't know.

And I totally get why, if you're a young guy on that team, if you're Cam York or whoever, you're like, I got to fucking put up with this shit. You know, like, put me in the lineup. Yep. What the fuck? Totally, totally get that. But, yeah.

Anyway, the other big controversy this week is, as Austin Matthews pulls away from the league, and I'm sorry to bring up the Maple Leafs and people, getting mad about them, Sean. But as Austin Matthews pulls away from the league in goal scoring. Can't believe the guy who leads the league in goals is getting media attention. He, no, it's not the media attention. I don't know if you know this.

He's scored into the empty net a couple of times this year. Yeah. Yeah. Which is the worst thing you can possibly do. That's right. Yeah. Doesn't count, really. I mean.

Yeah. Like, look, I think even if, let's say, you know what, no empty net goal ever has counted. I feel like Austin Matthews is still pretty close to the top of the league in goal scoring. I feel like he probably is, yeah. Yeah, that shit's so funny to me of like people are just like, because they did it with Ovechkin when he started closing in on Yager, they were like, well, look at all these

empty net goals. It's like, don't, do yourself a favor. Do not look up how many empty net goals Wayne Gretzky has. Yeah, you don't want to see that. It's more than anyone in the history of hockey. Well, look, I mean, you know. Including his most famous 50th goal into a empty net. That's right.

The one thing that is going to be deeply funny with this Austin Matthews stuff is I saw somebody point this out. When at least one, if not several Edmonton media guys, leave Austin Matthews off their heart ballot entirely. because they're mad that, I don't know, that TSN talked about him more than Leon Dressidal because they're the sort of people who sit and watch SportsCenter with their stopwatches to see how much attention the Leafs get. That is going to be very, very funny. Especially if it does cost him the hard trophy, which would be. Yeah, Ozzie Matthews has four empty neck goals this year.

You know, Alex Ovechkin has twice as many as that. Yeah. Connor McDavid has six. Connor McDavid has six. You're not allowed to say that, I guess. No. No, not at all. It's so funny.

The Leafs need to stop putting their best defensive center on the ice when the other team is pulled their goal. Yeah, that's right. But yeah, like, you know, because when I brought up the thing about Wayne Gretzky, I brought it up on Twitter and someone was like, yeah, well, if you take away all his empty netters and leave everybody else's, he's still. the leading goal score in hockey. And it's like, yeah, obviously, of course. But like, if you take away his and Alex Ovechkin's empty netter, Ovechkin is actually closer to Gretsky's record. Mm-hmm. Because he scores fewer shorthand, or empty-net goals than Wayne Gretzky.

And, like, you know, they're both around like one in every six goals. No, one in every 16 goals, sorry. They score. But, like, Gretzky's, like, 6.8% of all his goals. and Ovechkins is like 6.2. So it's just a fun thing. You know what I'm starting to think is that you and I should maybe just get off of Twitter. Because half of our show is just, here's another tweet that bothered me.

And yeah, I might, maybe I should stop doing the thing that does, provides me with absolutely nothing other than being annoyed. Well, I'll mow that one. Well, on the one hand, you're probably right. On the other hand, absolutely not. No. So. What would this show be? It would just be us.

That's right. Enjoying hockey and being happy about it. Okay. Here's an argument I saw on a different website. This was on a website called Theathletic.com. Oh, okay. I was going to see, like, what other are you on? And Parlor or something.

Pierre LeBron talked to the aforementioned Wayne Gretzky about, should they change the rules of the MVP ballot because, or the Heart Trophy, rather, because it's, it's just too hard to say who's valuable and who isn't. Okay.

I hadn't seen that. That came out this morning. What did Wayne have to say? Wayne said, no. There's a difference between being, there's already an award for being the most outstanding player.

It's called the Ted Lindsay Award. Mm-hmm. And then most valuable, that's a different award. Yeah. Now, what that article didn't get into is what's the fucking difference between being the most valuable and the most outstanding. And it is not defined anywhere. Like, it's not like the NHL says the Hart Trophy is for most valuable player.

And here's what value means. So you get into this whole whole argument about, you know, who actually is valuable. Can Connor McDavid be the most valuable player when Leo? Andres Seidel might, you know, the guy who is arguably the second best player in the world is on his team. Can Nathan McKinnon ever be a hard trophy winner if the avalanche are already super stacked? Or do we always need to give the MVP to whichever, the best player on whichever crappy team made the playoffs by one point? Which is how Taylor Hall got it. In this article, he's like, is it really fair?

to McDavid and Drysidal that they're going to probably steal votes from one another because they can't both be the most valuable player and it's like well it's fucking the Car MacDavit's the most valuable player like we don't have to think too hard about this I know I know DryCytle has 50 goals or whatever but come on man

but yeah I mean again it's just people being like you know doing my job is just too hard it's just too hard I got to think about what value means to me. I mean, I would say my job is too hard, first of all, so I'm with peer. No, it is. Yeah, I sit around and watch hockey a lot of nights.

It retreats. But not even like all nights. No, sometimes you go to concerts. Yeah. Or professional wrestling shows, which I'm going to later tonight, in fact. But yeah, I mean, you know, I feel like we get this, every two or three years where it's like, I don't want to have to say Austin Matthews isn't more valuable than Carr and McDavid.

It is, it is tough because if, you know, there's different ways to look at it. And if we were really going with the true most valuable player in any given year, I think most years we would give it to the best goalie. It's the Vesna winning goalie. And this year, like, okay, we'll talk about it in a minute, but like the best goalie, is Igor Shusirkin. He's dropped off lately, and that is actually pretty interesting to me,

and we'll talk about it. But, like, this year, yeah, like, you have to go, no, you know who's actually most valuable is the guy who didn't single-handedly bail out, like the, you know, 17th best XG team in the league every single night. You know,

the thing I always say, and we get this. in college hockey as well because the Hobie Baker, the last time a goalie won the Hobie Baker award was when Ryan Miller, who's now like 45 years old, was in college. He won it because he played almost, he played like 90% of Michigan State's minutes,

and he had a 950 save percentage when the national average was like 900. Just like went psycho mode all season. He was unbelievable. And that then set the bar for, okay, when can a goalie win it? Well, if he didn't play 90% of his team's minutes and go 950, we can't consider him, which is insane. Yep.

Because it's like, you know, it's like going, well, look, a guy, Wayne Gretzky in 1984 or whatever, he had like 200 points. So if you don't score 200 points as a forward, you can't be the MVP. Yeah. It's like, well, that's not going to happen. So, so it is a little bit of that as well, where it's just like, yeah, we don't give the goalie the MVP award. That's a different award. It's like pitcher's not getting the MVP because of the Cy Young. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's, that's it. That's a terrible argument, but you do see it sometimes. And, yeah. I mean, that's just the way it is, though. Pitchers don't win the MVP award. Shohayotani did, but he does both. Yeah.

Yep. He does, he also does hitting. And if he didn't do just hitting, then Vladimir Guerrero Jr. But there is, you know, at least in baseball, you can say, hey, these, even the best starting pitcher in the league plays 35 times. And, you know, 130 games, they sit on the bench versus, you know, goalie. But they're still the most valuable player. Yeah, they can be. They can be.

The Cy Young winning pitcher is almost always the most valuable player in baseball. Her, his respectively. Which you look at. But yeah, they're very often, certainly in the running. And same with goalies. And I don't know. Did you see the one on, I know we're going to probably get to Roman Yosi, but did you see? We'll do Yosey now.

Pierce piece on Roman Yossi versus Kail McCar for the Norris. And he, it was the coaches, right? Like he reached out to every coach. coach and it was close, but EOC took it, I believe. Yeah, and, and like, this is one of those things where, again, if we're talking about Jonathan Huberdo, right, it's like, you got to understand. Like, didn't we used to say points aren't everything? And now that, like, we have all these advanced stats and, like, war and all this kind of

stuff, we're back to going, but look how many points this guy has. Are you crazy? You know? And like I actually have probably more so than, um, than a lot of like stats guys, quote unquote. Um, I actually have more time for the points arguments than a lot of people. Like when, um, when Kuturov broke the cap era scoring record. I was like, look, the last guy to break the, or set the cap era scoring record, uh, he was the MVP.

and it's not like he's so fucking bad defensively that you're like, well, I can't possibly get like he doesn't have a negative defensive impact. He's just like fine, you know, defensively. And the best player in the world offensively that season. So you're going to go, well, like, or I personally was like, well, I think you got to give it to him.

And so with Roman Yosey about to be the first defenseman or may, you know, could be the first defenseman to break 100 points in a season. And who knows how long? Yeah. I think Brian Leach in the early 90s is the last one. Yeah. And it's like, okay, well, if they haven't done it in like 30 years, I think that probably should get more consideration than... Yeah.

To do it in this era is crazy. Yeah. No, it's insane. And it's not like, I mean, this is Roman Yose. It's not like this is a... Uh, trying to, like, John Carlson. was a guy you could have argued was not an especially good, you know, an especially good defensive player. Eric Carlson, the first year he won the Norris, was kind of a fourth forward

type guy. And, you know, even then there's value. Like, get the puck out of your zone. We all understand that. If you're in the offensive zone, the other team can't score. But, like, Roman Yosey plays both ends of the ice. He's, but, yeah, like, you look at the number of guys who have hit 100 points as a defenseman. And it's basically, I'll give you the whole list. It's Bobby O'R and Paul Coffey a bunch of times. It's Al McKinnis, Brian Leach, and Denny Potvin once each. All those guys are pretty good.

Yeah. And then, you know, the rest of the Litt. Ray Bork never even got there. Ray Bork topped out at 96. Phil Housley had that one crazy 97-point season. But then it's, you know, your dad. And then even then, I mean, I mean, Gary Suter is the only other guy to even get to 90.

And these guys are doing it almost exclusively in the 70s, 80s and early 90s when scoring, again, was a goal, a goal and a half higher a game than it is today. Like, yeah, I mean, you absolutely have to give Roman Yossi some serious consideration. And the point that I made in a thing that we did at the athletic was to circle it back to what is value in MVP. is there a case that maybe Kail McCar still wins the Norris, but Roman Yose should be on your heart ballot, whereas Kel McCar is, his value is not as high because he's not as important to that Colorado team. I don't know.

Yeah, so, but then, you know, if you want to go in the other direction, say what you want about points. Kel McCar might score 30 goals this year. Yep. And I think we've talked in the past about Mike Green got screwed the year he didn't win, and he scored 31 goals in 68 games. Which is a fucking a crazy number, right?

Here's a list of defensemen who have scored 30 goals in a season. Paul Coffey, Bobby Orr, Doug Wilson, Kevin Hatcher. Okay, well, fair enough. Mike Green, Danny Pop Van, Phil Housley, Ray Bork, that's it. Yeah. So, again, like, you're going, okay, it's happened. 17 times in the history of hockey once in the cap era

and like you say, everything else in the 70s and 80s. And it's like, yeah, I mean, you know, are we going to say having 100 points like is better than having 30 goals and being on the best team, being the number one defenseman on the best team in the league and like driving a huge percentage of their offense and blah, blah, blah.

Like, that makes it really difficult to parse for me. It is. And can I just say, like, can we just acknowledge how much more fun it is to talk about the NHL when the best players are putting up numbers like this, like, you know, that we're not arguing over like two defensemen. Like, well, this guy had 64 points and this guy had 62. So, like, it's, I know I kind of, I bang my head on the wall a lot over. how every year we're in such a rush to declare that the scoring problems are fixed. And, you know, because scoring went up. 0.03 goals a game.

And it's the highest season ever, as long as you ignore three quarters of the league's history and blah, blah, blah. But I really feel like this year, part of the reason that I think there's a perception that scoring is up more than it is, is because when scoring goes up, it disproportionately goes up again among the best players. No surprise. So you've got guys like Huberto getting 100 points and you've got guys, you know, Johnny Grudeau is going to get there. And, you know, and I know it's simplistic and it's, you know, maybe if I was a smarter fan, you know, they're arbitrary cutoffs and I wouldn't care. The difference between 94 and 100 isn't all that big.

But it's just this league is more fun when guys are getting 50 goals and 100 points and defensemen are getting 30 goals or 100 points. just is... And here's John Tortorella bursting through your kitchen wall going... No, it actually sucks. Yeah. And Tyson Nash is right behind him. Just ready to cross-check me right in the mouth. Just beating the shit out of you yet.

Yeah. One last thing on this is... So, we just talked a lot about goals and points for these guys and stuff. What makes it really complicated is that Kail McCarr has much better underlying numbers than Roman Yossi. And obviously, he's on... the team with more star players and that sort of stuff. But, you know, like, these five-on-five numbers, there's a huge difference between being a 57 and a half percent, like, expected goals guy and a

52 and a half percent expected goals guy. Like, the difference in value there is, like, difficult to overstate. And the other thing is, Roman Yose, like, yeah, he's having a great season and he's a really good player and all that kind of stuff, but his on ice PDO is like 104 almost. Whereas, and it's not that, and it's not that Cal McCars isn't also very high, but it's not that high. And so you're, I think it's a coin flip. Like either one of these guys wins, I'm not going to be mad, obviously. And I just feel like, Victor Hedman's going to be third off a lot of hours.

They'll try to figure out a way to give to Hedman again. Aaron Eckblad would have been there if he had stayed up. 100% again to get back to my Panthers fandom. But yeah, with Yossi, I mean, it's when you talk about the Hart Trophy, if like I said, if you're in the Taylor Hall camp of whose team that wasn't supposed to make the playoffs did make it, that's the predators. You know, you look at them and go, take, you know, take Mikhail McCar out of the avalanche lineup. And they're still in the playoffs.

And I hate, by the way, that that's apparently just all we care is who made the playoffs and who didn't. But that's how a lot of people do it. And the avalanche are still in the playoffs and the predators are not. So maybe you put Yosi on your heart ballot and you put Kail McCar number one on your Norris. And that's the way that you sort of thread the needle on that one. Well, what you're forgetting, though, is Roman Yosey isn't a forward. And so he can't really be considered for that. I forgot. I'm sorry.

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Igor Shusirkin, like 886 or something like that in his last 10 games? Yep. They're starting to give more starts to Georgiev, who is awful for a good chunk of the year. Pretty interesting. I mean, they're in no danger of, of, you. like falling out of the division playoffs really like the capitals would have to go on an insane run to even make it a consideration they only have 11 games the the rangers only have 11 games left so um but i wonder how much home ice would matter um in a series against the penguins you know

uh probably not a ton yeah well a little bit but not zero if only because if only because the rangers are a, and have been all year, goal tending plus power play equals success as opposed to we're good at five on five, right? Which is always, always a tricky way to go into the playoffs. Yeah.

And, yeah, and the Rangers a very good home team. The Penguins are a very good road team, so that probably cancels out. Although, I don't know if you know this, the Rangers do play at the most famous arena in the world. That has

actually not, I don't feel like that's never ever come up. I wonder how Sidney Crosby would feel about that. But yeah, it's, I feel like with the goaltending, it's less of a, oh, we're starting to lose faith in the guy and maybe a bit more like, hey, this guy's never played more than 30-something games in the NHL and now we're riding him pretty hard. So let's, yeah, and like understandable why they're riding him so hard, right? Yeah, because he's been amazing.

Yeah, he's best goal. in the league this year. Yep. But I do, I do really wonder, like, you know, maybe, maybe it doesn't mean anything. But also maybe it means he's like kind of that Cam Talbot mode, uh, from when the Oilers made the playoffs in like 2015 or whatever it was where it's like, oh, no, we, we gave him like 78 starts. So, uh, turns out he, the wheels are just falling off. I, I hope not.

I, I think he's so good. and really fun to watch and all that kind of stuff. But, like, it's just something I was like, hey, has he been bad lately? And then I looked it up and it's like, no, he's been like really badly. And it feels like every goalie in the league has gone through this stretch, like an extended stretch like this for some point of maybe not Vasilevsky. But the other thing with the Rangers, it's not even so much just. home ice against the penguins, they were within range to catch the hurricanes. And if you could do that, like, I feel like in the East, the only matchup you really want is the capitals, if you can get them.

Sure. And that would be unlikely, because even if they caught Carolina, it's unlikely. You're not going to have to catch Florida. And then there's a crossover. There are two points, but they're like a win behind Carolina, but they have an extra game played. Yeah. So that would be tough. But yeah, I guess it's probably more important that if Sterkin is playing at the level he was at the first half in the playoffs, they're fucking forget about it.

They've got a shot against anybody. Well, yeah, they might. And if he's not, then in theory, they should get rolled. It's almost like that guy is more valuable than. than many other players, but I don't know. But what we have to think about is how this affects Karam McDavid. That's true. Yeah. But like it's so funny to me that Shusurkin is like still 935 on the season or whatever it is.

And it's like, and for, you know, more than more than like 20% of it starts at this point, he's been in 883 goal. You know what I mean? Like how fucking good was he to start the year? Oh my God. Wow, this guy is unbelievable. And look, I hope, I hope, like, he becomes the new Vasselowski in terms of like, oh, no, everybody just kind of agrees. Like, this is the best goalie alive. Like, I would love to see somebody else get that distinction, honestly.

But, you know, hey, yeah, 942 in his first 37 games. It's pretty good, I guess. Yeah, not bad. It's pretty good. I mean, I could do better. You just don't want to. That's right. All that travel.

I'm not. I can't be bothered. All right. One last thing here this week. The Frozen Four starts on Thursday. Now, Sean, do you know any of the teams in the Frozen Four? No, I don't. Michigan and Denver are playing each other in the first, or, you know, the semifinals.

Two of the, I think three. Well, let's put it this way. the four teams in the Frozen Four this year are one, two, three, four in goals per game this season. Oh, okay. We can't win in the playoffs that way. No, no, no, no, no. And I don't remember in what order they are doing the goal scoring or whatever. Like, I want to say Denver is the number one team in goals per game, but like, you know, again, the number four team in goals per game is.

also here, so it's not like a huge deal. All super fun teams. It's Denver, Michigan in the early game, I want to say. And then Minnesota, Minnesota State, you know, in-state rivalry. That's fun for the second game. And yeah, this should be a great Frozen 4. It's on ESPN. You should all be checking it out if you're, what's the word I'm looking for?

Even if you're just like a my team's prospects guy, there's like 70 drafted players on the four teams. So it's really cool. But along those lines, we're going to play a little game called, has Sean heard of this guy? Oh, no. So is this a game where I just say no a lot? I feel like it will be. Okay, yep, good. But, you know, we'll start you with an easy one.

You heard of Owen Powers? I have, yes. on power. I believe he was a Canadian Olympian. He sure was, number one overall pick of Buffalo Sabres. He is the number one defenseman for the Michigan Wolverines this year. Yeah. Have you heard of Maddie Baneers?

I have. Yeah, I was going to say Michigan has, the one thing I know about Michigan is they had like all the draft picks last year. They had four of this past year's drafts top five picks. Yeah. It's a pretty good, pretty good set. Yeah. They have two, I believe, two other first round picks as well.

Pretty wild. So you've heard, so you're two for two. Have you heard of Bobby Brink? Yeah, I have. Is he still, okay, the guy I'm thinking of was like the flyers picked him, and it feels like a long time ago, and he was like going to be their sort of like, the Cole Coffield type guy. Is that the guy?

Yeah, you're right. Okay. Yeah. Bobby Brink, 2018. second round pick of the flyers. He's on Denver. And he is, he led the nation in scoring this year. And he's a Hobie Baker finalist. Okay. So this must be his last last year? And then does he, has he, has he signed in, in, with flyers or is he one of these guys? You can't sign until, uh, your season's over. Okay. But is he, because isn't it, if you get to the end of four years without, yeah, in theory, he

could tell the flyers to not sign him. And I haven't heard one way or the other whether that's his plan. It would be very funny if he said no and then cited their treatment of Keith Yandel. That's right. Yeah. I would be surprised. You know, they're pretty, for obvious reasons, intent on getting all their picks in as soon as possible, obviously. But the thing that teams have this year that they don't usually have is they have a bunch of games left in their seasons.

Usually, like for example, when Johnny Goddrow played his first NHL game, he won the Hobie Baker, flew to Calgary and played the next day. And I believe it was the Flames' last game of the season. And in doing so, he burned the first. first year of his entry-level contract. Yep, which is often for the players, although not always, but they usually.

But the point is, it gets him to UFA that much faster. It gets him to big money that much faster. And teams have more flexibility now to be like, we'll get you into two or three games. We don't have to rush you to get you into the lineup.

You can take your time and, and, you know, hang out with your friends one last time or whatever. And then we can get you to two or three games burn the first year, you're ELC, you play in the NHL,

blah, blah, blah. So I wouldn't be surprised that that's across the board. All the teams that still have guys playing will have that option, including Seattle or Buffalo, with the two previous guys we mentioned. Let me ask you this.

Have you heard of Eric Portillo? No. Okay. He is the goalie for Michigan, Buffalo Sabres pick. One of the best goalies in the country this year. He was, he's in an interesting spot where, like, some of these other guys, it's a question of, will he go back to school or not? Right.

Like Luke Hughes from Michigan, he just scored like 16 or 17 goals as a freshman defenseman. That is a rare feat, obviously. And there's considerable talk of, does he want? want to go pro or does he want to stay in school and get the extra year in and that kind of thing. And Portillo is an interesting case because this was his first year as a starter at Michigan. And so does he go back and say, well, look, I want a second year as a starter. Or does he go, well, Buffalo needs a goalie. I can start playing.

You could step in right away, yeah. Pretty quick. It's an interesting question. I don't know the answer to it, especially because the other really good goalie on the Buffalo farm system there is Devin Levi from Northeastern, who you've probably heard of. No him, yeah. Former Anthers prospect went over. And then he got traded in the Reinhardt deal. And he has already said he is going back to college. And so that maybe even opens the window more for Eric Portillo to.

to hop right in there basically, you know, and establish an AHL job at a bare minimum while Levi is still playing in college. But it'll be really interesting. Okay. Next one. Have you heard of Dryden McKay? No, but that's a hell of a hockey name.

He is literally named after Ken Dryden. Wow. Okay. And as you might surmise from that, he is a goalie. He plays for Minnesota State. He is the best player on Minnesota State who, boy, he has had an unbelievable career. He is the NCAA record holder for career wins.

He is the NCAA record holder for career shutouts. And this season, he also set the NCAA record for wins in a single season. He's undrafted, but, and he's been a Mike Richter, finalist, I think, three years in a row as the best goalie in college hockey. And yeah, he's unbelievable. He's so good. Your team might sign him. Not the Leafs necessarily, but like your team being the listener's preferred team might just sign him.

Which we've already established as the floor of Panthers. That's right, yeah. But yeah, he's a really good goal. He's only six feet tall, though. that's one of those things where you wonder. He's going to need to work on that. You got to coach him up on. Yeah, that's right.

Got to get him on like a stretching divide. Like a torture rack, basically. Yeah. What about Ben Myers? Have you heard about Ben Myers? No. Okay, Ben Myers plays for Minnesota. He is also an unrestricted free agent.

Undrafted, I mean. I guess he's both. He's an undrafted free agent. every team in the league is going to try to sign him. You would know him, Sean, from being on Matthew Nise's line. Okay. He is also a Hobie Baker finalist. He played for the U.S. at the Olympics, which is why I thought you might know him.

He's very, very good. He's very, very good. And he probably would have had an even better season if he had, again, not gone to the Olympics and miss five or six games. But not so good that he's artificially inflating Matthew Nyes, please, because... No, he's not, no, no. Prospect, man, don't... I think Nyes is the best player on Minnesota.

But, like, he's also not along for the ride. You know what I mean? But, you know, I was at the NCAA Regional with Minnesota. And, you know, half the GMs in the league were. there and everybody's like, oh, they're here to see Ben Myers, basically. I think a lot of them were there, like, Chuck Fletcher was there to see Ronnie Adderd and Ben Myers, you know, but hey, yeah, and Myers is really good. He's a million first assist in goals this year, almost no secondary assists.

He's a fun player. He's definitely a guy that, again, like your team is going to be in. interested in signing him. One last one here. Carter Savoy, have you heard of this man? I have not. Okay. I figured you might have because every, he plays for Denver.

God bless your optimism. Well, I figured you might have because every Oilers fan decided early last season in his first year of college hockey. This kid is like the goal scorer of the future for the Edmonton Oilers. Okay. And like, he's a good goal scorer. I'm not saying he isn't, you know. But, yeah, like, he's just gotten, oh, here's a, he scored a goal again.

This is the greatest thing that's ever happened. This guy, he's really good. I don't know that he's, you know, it's prospect brain shit. You know what I mean? Of like, oh, we drafted him and he had a pretty good season. He must be the best player on the planet. No, he isn't, but he's really good as well. And yeah, a very exciting player, Denver's biggest goal-scoring threat, I think anybody would say.

So, yeah. Now, just pardon my abject stupidity, but... Sure. What is the format of the final four? Is it just three single elimination games? Okay. Yep. So there's a game at like 5 or 530 on Thursday.

There's a game at 8 or 8.30. I can't remember off the top of my head. And then the national championship game is Saturday night. Very good stuff. And like I say, normally with the Frozen Four, there's at least one team where you're like, we don't have to pretend these guys have a legitimate show. Like, we just look, we know that these guys are going to get their heads kicked in in the first game. We don't have to pretend.

This year, I wouldn't be surprised of any of these teams win. I think there's going to be a lot of goals to go around. I think all of these teams. Like the way the opening matchups, the first two games kind of shake out is they both have like strengths and weaknesses that would make the other team look fun and good as opposed to, oh, this is a shutdown team and the other team's a good shutdown team as well. So it's going to be a two one game. No, I think there's good. I think these games are going to be like four to three, that kind of thing. I would heavily, I wouldn't normally, I mean, I would normally say this, but I wouldn't normally say,

These should all be really good games and you should watch, but these should all be really good games and you should watch. Sounds good. Yeah. So that's it. We're done. That's the end of Puck Soup this week. And I'm going to go first with plugs because, as you might imagine,

I did a lot of writing about the Frozen Four this week. I wrote a lengthy preview doing the head-to-head matchups, and I will do the exact same thing. for the championship game on Saturday. I will have another preview ready to go. I wrote about the Hobie Baker Award. It's a very weird year for the three finalists. I wrote about the Mike Richter Award.

It's not a very weird year for the three finalists. I think they picked three of the four best goalies, and the one who's kind of the outlier, is the guy I mentioned earlier, Dryden McKay, who has basically set half the career ends up. CAA record. So I get why he's included in all this. So, yeah, go to Eprinkside.com, sign up for an annual subscription using the code.

I love EP. And you can check out all of that shit. And then, of course, my normal NHL writing. Find me at the athletic where you can still, I believe, get in for a dollar a month for the first six months. Wow. I've got a piece today where I look at. five of my favorite

dumb and probably unbreakable NHL records. And check me out tomorrow with Ian Mendes on the Athletic Hockey Show podcast. The other thing I guess we should plug is the Puck Suit Patreon where I

and Adam Vingen from the athletic also have started a professional wrestling podcast called Superplex. That's a great name, by the way. A plus, however, that came to be. That came to be based on we tried to think of any wrestling-related pun we could come up with and then found out there's already a extraordinarily successful wrestling podcast named that. Yep.

For about, I would say, at least 10 different terms. But nobody had thought to affix SOU. UP to the front of Superplex. There you go. Yeah. So check that out. And then obviously we will have your mailbag recorded in mere minutes here. And then we're going to do our quarterly call-in show next week.

So if you want to get signed up for that, check it all out on the Puck Soup Patreon. And that's it. We're done. Thank you for listening. See you later Bye bye Sticks and hits and goals

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