Puck Soup - Daryl "Razor" Reaugh

Episode Date: January 4, 2020

The boys welcome Dallas Stars broadcaster and all-around goofball Daryl Reaugh to the podcast. Then they break down the Winter Classic, including the pig races, the U.S. falling in world juniors, Kovalchuk to the Canadiens, Brent Seabrook's injuries and bold predictions for 2020. Also, we get into a spoilery "Rise of Skywalker" discussion. 

Hey everybody, it's Greg. A couple notes on today's show. Now, first off, I realize, you know, about a year ago, I came on the show and it was to announce that, you know, someone was leaving it in this fashion. So no worries there. Everybody's still on the show. Nobody's gone off to write television or anything. A couple things, though. First off, we do get into the rise of Skywalker on the show. I realized after doing the recording that we forgot to say that there should be a spoiler warning on the discussion. We definitely, talk about the end of the movie. We definitely talk about some of the big twist and turns in the movie. You know Lambert, Lambert ain't telling you that it's spoilers. So I will tell you that there are spoilers, so if you've not seen the film, and judging by the box office, many of you have, my Disney account thanks you for that.

Be forewarned that we definitely spoil the heck out of it. Second thing is during a discussion about the Winter Classic and the first part of the show, Sean's audio conked out. So our sweet Canadian boy is not to be found for a good 10 minute chunk of the show. Fret not, he is on the show, the rest of it, for all of it. It's just that if you don't hear him for a bit, it's not because he's bored by the conversation or off taking a whiz or, you know, building an ice castle or whatever the hell I do in Canada. It is because his mic conked out. But don't worry, that's only a small sliver of the show.

No ads this week. And that's it. Happy New Year, everybody. Another exciting ear. Pucks soup coming your way. And let's get to it, shall we? Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes.

It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Greg Wyshinski of the worldwide leader in funnily named college football. games, ESPN. I'm Ryan Lambert. I'm glad you mentioned your employer this week, Greg. Makes me feel fucking great. Sorry. Sean McAnew from The Athletic. For those who don't know, Ryan is in a bit of a California labor law kerfuffle with Yahoo at this point? Yeah, that is an okay way of putting it, sure. Yeah. Do you think that it will

increase registration for Democrats? knowing that this labor law prevented you from writing, like all of your enemies will now be pro-labor? I don't feel like I have a ton of enemies in the state of California. You know, like, I don't have any. I think kings and ducks fans know what's up and sharks fans have their own problems right now. This is true. So, you know, I did anticipate some blowback on this announcement yesterday. But, you know, I don't think any.

from California, really. Speaking of the sharks, by the way, what a big swinging dick, Pete DeBoer must have right now, right? Like, you thought I was the problem there, boys? I mean, granted, they beat Pittsburgh, but I mean, Pittsburgh's basically just like the walking dead right now as far as the injuries. I know. No shit.

Jesus. Fucking penguins, man. DeBoers are going to be feeling pretty good about life. I don't know. Go with Bob Booguner. Yeah. Well, he can hang out with me. We're both not doing anything right.

now. Yeah, you were both told not to work by well-coffed white men, I believe, is probably who it was in California. Yeah, no, let's pause on Pittsburgh for a second because Gensel got hurt. Sid's coming back, but everybody else that's hurt is hurt. Like, is this going to be one of those seasons where it's a giant fucking mess and then like somehow Gensel comes back on April 6th and all of a sudden the penguins are in the playoffs and they're at full strength. Is that the deal?

Yeah, that sure could be. I mean, they've been so fucking good this year. Like, all their underlying numbers are insanely good and they're winning a bunch of games with, you know, Tristan Jari and Brian Rust leading the way somehow. that's a that's a that's a candidate christian jari to you my friend and mvp candidate brian russ like he's been unbelievable in in the absence of malkin crosbie latang dumelin uh shultz like all these guys have missed 10 plus games and no big deal no big deal not not a huge deal um all right it turns out that all the NHL needed to finally break through in the United States to new audiences and create buzz for the sport were pig races.

Who saw that coming? I got to say, the puns on these pig names needed a little more time in the oven. Yes. Are you sure because I got, listen, there were some, like Bobby Bohr is in the middle for me. Like, it is the most obvious one, but also a very good one. Alex Oikvetchkin is great. And it's fine. But, like, like, I had to, I asked Tyler Sagan about his, and his is, like,

fucking Tyler Swiggen. And that's terrible. Yeah. That's like, that's like, as somebody who writes joke sometimes, like, that's the joke that you think of first when you first come up with the concept and write down. And then you go back and you're like, no, that clearly can't make the final cut. I have to do better. that. And they just left it in, which there's a part of me that respects it.

There was one, like, the Peca René one. The obvious... Porkerene. Great. Was it something? Maybe it wasn't Peca René, but there was... Porkerrene was his. Okay, then it was... That one makes sense. That's as good as you're going to do. Let me read some before it. Okay. Because there was one where I was like, that's not even, like, that barely makes sense as like... Go ahead.

Alex Oinkovechkin, Joe Pork, Porkevelski, Bobby Boar, Roehamyosey. Oh, that one stinks. Roehamiosi, that is torture. That one absolutely stinks. This one is amazing because Landis Cog actually retweeted my tweet of the picture with a smiley face because now he'll be known as Gabriel Landis Hogg. I mean, that's fucking awesome. Yeah, that works. Right.

Tyler Swinen. That's just terrible. Bad. Gordon Sow, a Gordie Sow, sorry. That's all right. Yeah, and the way they hyphenated it, like, I had to look like three times to make sure it wasn't a pun on Gordon solely, which is like... I also like the way that they put the pig part of the pun in all caps. Yeah, just in case.

Really nailed it, just in case anybody was confused by porca ring. Were they also offset by quote-by quotation marks? Oh, my God. Like, they really... No faith in the audience on that one. They're really the guy who like leans right in for the punchline. Jordan Piggington. Stinks.

This one I liked. Andrew Hoggleano. That's good. Yeah, that works. I like that one. The problem too, by the way, is they went back to pork and hog too often, you know? Yeah, no squeal. Yeah.

No, uh, chitlin. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Bacon. Then, then two. Here's a good example of what we're talking about. One of the worst, Ryan Joe Hampson, and one of the best, Ray Pork.

Again, Ryan Joe Hampson's like as good as you can do with Ryan Johansson. And you're trying to get guys who are in the game. I get all that. But this is, again, everyone. Is like, come on, man. You've got to get everyone together in the writers room and be like, what are we doing here? Are we just doing players who are in this game? or are we doing players around the NHL or are we doing like historical like pick one because

you know I like Gabriel Landis Hogg is is vaguely decent but like why are we putting like 65th most famous NHL player on this list in if he's not in the game like are like I don't so not not a not a fan of Andrew of Jordan Pittington for example yeah I feel like it's not good especially because you could have done coaches, pig terlaviolet. Like, these are easy. Yeah. Wait a second.

The one name that myself and Adam Vingen, the Predators Beat Rider for the Athletic, were really lobbying for, was an obvious one and still, you know, tangentially related to the game, which was Dan Ham Hughes. But you do his name as Ham Dan Hughes. Like, that's perfect.

That's maybe, like you said, a little too heady for the crowd that they're going for here. Yeah, that is also a bit of a reach, but not maybe quite so bad of one. My favorite thing that I heard at the Winter Classic was talking to the players on, in particular, the Dallas Stars, about how difficult it was to listen to Rick Bonas while the pig races were going on. and how they knew that if any of them were caught watching the Jumbotron and the pig races, they get yelled at. So it was a constant battle to keep from, you know, looking at the thing they really care about versus listening to their coach during an outdoor game. This is pretty good. Overall thoughts on the Cotton Bowl winner classic, boys. Good game. Look great on TV.

Good colors. Yeah. It was weird to see that the stars, gloves, and pants were different colors. I was upset by that as a person who... Well, the gloves were interesting because the more I saw them, the more it occurred to me that I think they were trying to make the gloves sort of like leather. Yeah, old time. Yeah. Like what a cow poke would use if he was like rope in a dogey, you know, kind of deal.

No, I got that. But the fact that, like, the pants were three shades off from it was like, this is driving me crazy as a person who... Jarring. Yeah. Who gets upset about these kinds of, like, minute details. That was... But, yeah, predators are in trouble, man. I got to think, right?

Mm-hmm. Well, yeah, you know, they... So here's the thing with Nashville. every time they take a few steps forward, they take a leap back. They've been treading water for all the majority of the season. And it all tracks back to one of the weirdest fucking stats of this season, which is the Nashville Predators with Peca René and U.C. Soros having the second worst save percentage as a team in the league.

Like, that's fucking nuts to me. That's not like Martin Jones and Arundel. That's Jimmy Howard and what is it, Jonathan Bernier. It's fucking Peca René and U.C. Soros. Well, and they can't stop the puck. Well, Pecker-Rene is older than me,

and that's never a good sign in an NHL player, that every time you keep bringing him back, there's a chance that he's just done. You know, he's 37, 38 years old. But they had the backup plan, right? Like, they actually, literally. For once, a team didn't just have its like 35-year-old goaltender and be like,

he'll probably just be good forever. We don't need a backup plan. Like, they have a guy ready to go. Right. Succession plans and trades. They traded Beauoravat for Corish Knight. Oh, wait, shit. That was another team's backup.

Sorry. Sorry, Gary. But, yeah, like, it should have worked. Soros has just been really bad this year. I'm trying to pull up the expected goals numbers now, but I feel like Nashville hasn't been either great or bad defensively. And they just can't get a save. You look at Ellis and Yossi, for example, who, you know, play the majority of the time for them.

And, like, their numbers are good. And, you know, maybe there's a steep drop off after that. But usually when you see a team unable to keep the puck out of its own net at the rate that the predator's goaltending does, you'd expect their 5-15 numbers to be a bit shittier. The real question about Nashville is, like, one, you know, does there need to be some sort of move that shakes up the roster in typical David Poil fashion? Or two, does he actually fire a coach in season? Which is something he doesn't do. He just said yesterday that he's not thinking about it.

Right. So there's option two off the board, which is fucking crazy to me. Like, I mean, look around. Yeah. You know, a coaching change in season can sometimes work as a division mate just showed you. I don't know. It's a weird team. I remember thinking about this team all of, what, two years ago?

and seeing the ages on the roster and the contracts they'd given out and being like, holy shit, this team's going to fucking contend for the next five years. And maybe not? Nope, doesn't look like it. Like, they have a decent, not great, but it's like pretty close to being in the top 10, I think, offense. And their defense, like, despite the fact that they've gotten bad goaltending, like the number of goals they've given up isn't horrible.

It's not good, but it's not horrible. and, you know, they have a positive goal difference, but it just seems like one of those things where every time they're about to maybe win a game, they give up two shitty goals and they lose instead. And that's why they're one, two points. Yeah. They're tied, and granted they have games in hand,

but they're tied with Chicago right now. That's how bad they are. Record-wise. But they, like I say, they have a plus three goal difference. They do. They've got a few games in hand. Like, they're not as bad as, in as bad shape as the standings make it look. Like, they're basically one win away from being in points percentage.

But still, like that. But they should be way better than that is the point. Yes, absolutely. Like they should be, you know, they should be easily the top wildcard team, if not third in that division. I had a Winnipeg. Yeah. Yeah.

the Corey Perry walk of shame Top five winner classic moment of all time Oh yeah It's up there It's like Sid scores into snow globe Shootout in the big house And then Corey Perry gets a game misconduct In the first period of Nesta

For those who don't understand It's not just the runway that he had to walk on From the rink To the big open door after that he had to walk another, I would conservatively say to the locker room was another 10-minute walk up a hill to the locker room. That's why you saw Ben Bishop and Pecker-Rene take little carts back to the locker room after the periods were done, because it's not just the walk of shame from the ring to the big door. It is that an even longer walk of shame uphill to the Dallas locker room. and it could not happen to a nicer guy.

Well, I know a lot of people got mad when I think it was Milberry or Keith Jones maybe was like, look, you know, I don't think he was Milberry. Yeah, sure. Like, I think one thing he said in that little, you know, he didn't mean to her. I wouldn't give Corey Perry the benefit of the doubt on these kinds of things. But the thing he said about him being just slow to the play and that's what he felt like he was trying to do there. Like, yeah, that's why that's why that. hit happened is because Corey Perry has lost two steps in the last three or four years. And, you know, he's 34 or 35. So, um, did you buy Rick Bonas's statement that Corey Perry has never tried to

intentionally hurt another player? No. Come on. Well, like, so it's one of those things, right, where it's like every time you check somebody, you're doing it with the knowledge that, you know, their head could bounce off the ice, like also happened in that game, you know? And like, you don't, like you hit to hurt as, like, that's how hitting works. Like, you don't do it like to say, you know, I'm just trying to separate him from the puck. Yes, to separate the man from the puck, sir. That's why you do it. That's hockey.

Yeah. And that's why when you talk about big physical teams, uh, they wear down the opponents as the game goes on, that kind of thing. It's, it's, it wears them down by separating them from the puck and that's it. But yeah, I mean, how many. has certainly, you know. If they give him three games, he misses his return to Anaheim, by the way. I think that was, as you know. I have great news for you.

They are not going to give him. He's going to give him two games. They give everybody two games. Yeah. A couple more winter classic things. Pierre McGuire eating the corn dog. No thanks. I mean, to put it in Conrad Thompson terms, that's a rib, right?

Like, somewhat at NBC. Yeah, 100%. they were doing. And Pierre doesn't know it's a rib, right? Like, he's not... That's a theory. That's a theory. I don't know that he does.

Do you think he's in on a joke? You think he knows it's in the... He knows that's going to be gift? That's a coin flip for me. That... Hmm. I don't know. He knows going down on a corn dog the size of Zadano Chara's stick.

Either one is not going to be viral on the internet within seconds. Yeah. Hmm. Did you miss Jeremy Roneck in his antics, Ryan? You know, Greg, I really... No, of course not. I'm fucking can't stand Jeremy Ronick. I was trying...

I didn't miss him, but I was trying to figure out what they would have had him do as the new... Oh, he would have been dressed up as a cowboy and... Yeah, once they realized that he can't analyze a game, like they made him stunt boy. They made him like, your morning zoo stunt boy. And, uh, and, you know, he just... He was dressed like a leprechaun last year.

So he would have been dressed like a cowboy. I, 100% he rides the bucking bronco that they had on the field. They would have probably put, like, shit on his face so the pigs would kiss him. Like, that'd be kind of a thing that would probably happen, right? I don't mean actual shit. I mean, like, bacon grease or something. Oh, no, they wouldn't use bacon grease. Forcing pigs to do cannibalism.

Well, I mean, famously, cows are not so good when they consume their own, their own. buy products or whatever. Makes them angry from what I understand. It makes them angry. And then also, like, you eventually hear, you know, that's the source of whatever is killing people at the local burger joint. So you don't want that. Bucking Bronco, for sure.

Would they have him rope a calf? They would have them try. Hmm. But I don't think it would be too successful. Would he have been in the Ferris wheel gondola with Patrick Sharp and Catherine Tappan? Probably not. It's a tight squeeze at that point, you know? Holy shit.

That story. We have a few more on the runway that it could be like this, whether there are stadium series games or winter classics. And I hope they're winter classics. I mean, like, a winter classic in Tampa. for example, to me, would bring out this kind of enthusiasm and also pirates. I think Battle of Florida is a real fun thing. And if we're really thinking about like different and cool and outside the box, like, that's, that's exactly what we're thinking about.

Well, let me ask this. What were the ratings for the Winter Classic? I did not see. So they were delayed until today as we do the show on Friday. I can do a quick check to see if they've come out. But the ratings always seem like they're besides the point now. Like, it's much more about the money they're making hand over fist on site. But yeah, I mean, the ratings are going to be what they are.

And I think they know that. Well, I'm just wondering if it's like, if the ratings are stable, for it, no matter who plays in it from, you know, over the course of three years, then, yeah, you can do Tampa versus Florida. That's fine. But if, you know, they take a big dip because Chicago and the Rangers and the Bruins didn't play in this one, well, then I bet the NHL is a little more reticent to give the people what they want and make it like an all Florida match up. And, and like, you know, you still have. Vegas in some way, shape, or form. That'll probably be in one of these at some point. Maybe you do Vegas and Arizona somewhere, you know. There's a few more that are sort of on the table and interesting. I will say that, like, going to Minnesota is both a little depressing but also kind of cool.

I did not realize the wild were only in one of these games. It's kind of crazy when you think about it. Yeah. like since we've been doing this since 2008 and how many teams have been in it multiple times so I think it's okay that we're going to Minnesota and

we'll get a real cold one and everybody will be talking about how bad the ice is because it's cracking and blah blah blah I think the real question is how bold are they going to be with the opponent because you could you could throw a Winnipeg in that game and the atmosphere would be fucking great

but they probably won't no I I would not be surprised if it's just Chicago or the Red Wings or something. I hope it's not Chicago. St. Louis, I think, would be fine. And the Avalanche would be the other one that you look at. Yeah. Either of those would be okay.

You're right. Winnipeg would be an inspired choice and it would give you the best crowd because there would be, you know, a ton of Winnipeg fans would travel for that. I just, that's a hard sell to NBC on January 1st. Like, it was tough enough to get a Toronto or, you know, a Montreal in there. Right. Winnipeg. It's not going to fly. That's a tough. The jets won't fly.

This is true. Winnipeg, Minnesota is a great stadium series game. But now the fact that they're doing a classic there means presumably we don't get that for a while. You know what it would be? It would be a good matchup in Winnipeg. But maybe not so much in Minnesota. Could be. Yeah, do it as a heritage classic.

Yeah, you can call it a heritage classic because then, you know, this isn't one of our beloved Canadian teams. And it's like, well, I mean, Minnesota, it's as close as you're going to get. But then you're going to make Canadians think that they can actually have more than one token outdoor game a year and they're going to get, but which would never happen. All right. It's a good winner classic. I guess you should touch on one other thing. about Canada before we go to our guest. I was unaware of this, but apparently there is a World Junior Championship tournament happening.

Had it heard. Yeah. Yeah, I was, I figured we were going to talk about that. I googled Team USA semi-final preview, but I haven't found any results yet, so maybe you guys can fill me in. I prefer to thinking of us losing to Finland in the quarterfinals as us spreading the joy of hockey around the world.

giving them a moment of glory that frankly we took away from them in 1980, which, if you remember, was the greatest moment in the history of American hockey and allowed those plucky youngsters who play completely cleanly and never dive to beat us. And that's that's the American way. The American way is bringing joy to others around the world, whether it's through our own intentional. intentional self-defeat. The climate for this kind of talk is really shifted. Whether it's a well-time-time-strikes-time-mings-tracks. Timing matters, Greg. Maybe not so good.

Yeah, I got to be honest, I watched a quarter of a period of World Juniors this year. I just didn't sit down and watch any of it. I watched, I think, part of the first period of the U.S. Canada game. And that was about it. Why is that? Did you just know that the team wasn't good? No, I just, I, well, first of all, I don't get the NHL network because I don't have cable anymore. So that really limits your viewing options.

And so, like, I literally watched it on an illegal stream on the subway. And then the rest of their games were all at times where I was like, oh, I can't watch that right now. I don't have the ability to watch it. So. Um, circumstance. As, as I've said many times before, the world junior tournament is the perfect tournament for Americans. Uh, we care about it when we win.

When we lose, no one gives a shit about it. We don't have national symposiums on what to do about the goaltending. And in this case, it was just frustrating because I, I, I wanted another crack at Canada after what happened in the first game. And so that's the, uh, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, What happened in the first game? We spread joy to the Canadians by allowing them to beat us. Okay.

Thanks. That's what I thought. So that's the bummer of it. It apparently wasn't a very good team. They were very cohesive to reliance on the power play and their goaltending. Yeah. A lot of weird decisions as always. And now, but the great, here's the great part about American junior hockey.

Ryan. I'll speak to you specifically. Okay. I feel like we've reached a point that the Canadians have been at in previous years where we can rightfully say, look, all our good players are in the NHL. Yeah. What am I supposed to do? If only our good players in the NHL were on this World Junior team, we would have won.

That's a great place to be. It was never like that. That's true. Yeah. It's fun, right? Yes, losing is fun. I do admire just as a Canadian, it's always nice to see other nations catch. up and it's nice to see you guys also catch up in the sense of going into an international tournament

losing a single elimination game like by a score like one to nothing because some random goaltender gets hot and then many of you reacting as if it's some sort of existential crisis for the program as opposed to just like literally every men's hockey game played in the last 30 years has been 60-40 at best for one side or another because of how this sport has evolved. And just some, yeah, sometimes you're just on the wrong side of the boring one, not the game. You know what, Greg, I think the real takeaway here is the U.S., they brought a lunch pail team and they didn't get the opportunity to, you know, to practice together as much as they would have liked. Yeah. And, you know, they, it was just kind of a low-skill team.

There shouldn't have been big expectations on them. and all the good players were in... They're only children. And, you know, if the I-I-H-F rule, like, referees, called the rules like they do in, I don't know, the CHL or NCAA, maybe you think, you know, like the class, oh, yeah, we know. I really, like, you know,

it's not a real thing that you should get super worked up about. It really isn't. They're just boys. That's right. But the U18 Women's World Cup champions, those are women. That's right. Those are not girls. Those are women.

And they beat fucking Canada in overtime and dog piled on the ice. I saw it all happen via the Slovakian security camera that was filming that tournament. The best security cam footage since the Senator's Uber ride. in my opinion. Wasn't that, what was it? It's the Rick Flair, Terry Funk, like five and a half star match from like some random building in 1978. Remember this?

There's like the one angle of it from the CCTV in the building, and that's the only video that we have. Yeah. Super not great. No commentators or anything. But like 10,000 of us were streaming it at the same time to see the Americans win that tournament. So once again, boys, the U.S. women athletes win a championship that the men simply are ill-equipped to win. Happens all the time in every sport. All right.

Darrell Ray is known as Razor. If you don't know who this is, he's the color commentator, long-time color commentator for the Dallas Stars. And also was on NBC for a spell where he was great. great and funny and different, which means they had to get him out of there as soon as possible. That's right. But anyway, we talk about that. We have a really good discussion about Jamie Ben and what the fuck happened there, statistically. It's good stuff.

And we did the interview on the very concourse tunnel that would soon have Corey Perry's Walk of Shame. So there you go. Here's Razor. Daryl. First off, I should ask you if you ever, because Tyler Sagan mentioned that when he he was traded from Boston. He wasn't sure he'd ever get to be in one of these. Oh, I'm sure.

In Dallas. Did you ever think you get to call one of these in Dallas? No, never. Even though... Look, when I got here, there was an outdoor rink. Like, people, most people aren't going to remember this. Okay. But right in the West End, there was an outdoor rink.

Downtown, it was right next to the old spaghetti factory that people would skate on. It had, like, pipes on top of sand. And then they would make actual ice down there. And it would melt and then it would freeze again a little bit because it does get cold enough. That was the only real outdoor rink I could remember. Other than there were rinks in malls. And then it was like you have to build more of these indoor arenas and ice surfaces. If you're going to grow the game at the grassroots level here.

And that was, duh. You know, you understand it could be 80 tomorrow and that. So the idea of having an outdoor game and have it here. Yeah, the cotton ball. Like once the stadiums, series started being a thing. Then you had your eye on Jerry World, right? You're thinking, okay, how many people could they put 130,000 people in Jerry World for a hockey game? Maybe. And then this came about and you're like, oh my God. Yeah, and it's like they kept on having to sell more

tickets because more people wanted to go. So the more you hear about it, you're more like, shit, they could have put it in Jerry World maybe. Oh, there's no question they could have done it. But I don't know whether the league would have ever taken that leap right out the door because they were, They can say whatever they want. They were very nervous about whether people were going to actually buy tickets and consume. And our president was dead on. If you know this market, like Dallas, Texas loves events. Right.

And this is an event. They don't really care whether it's a hockey game or a this or that. They like winners and they like events. If it's something to be at, then everybody wants to be at it. And that's what this is. Does it hurt the hype when the game is held in the, the same week as the... There's another one that's involved in this thing being here.

What's going on? Greg wishes. Hey, how you doing, bud? You? You okay? Yeah, watch yourself. There's the guy. He didn't say this interview was horseshit, so I'm pretty happy about that. Everybody listening gets that joke. Is it bad to do the game the same week when the Cowboys are imploding? Does it take away the hype at all?

Look at you. The hype? No, I don't... No. I mean, it's odd. The timing is... Right. is, you know, but what are you going to do? You're always going to live in the shadow of that, right? You never get away from it.

And this is such a one-off spectacle that I think it's okay. I would hope so anyway. I think, what you're going to get here from a coverage standpoint and all that is what you were going to get. Anyway. It didn't matter whether they were Super Bowl bound or whatever. So it's fine. Where are they right now, Dallel, like the stars?

Like, there have been times when they've been, Obviously, top of the world, when they were winning cups. Then there were times when there'd be empty seats. Like, well, where are we now with this team? When we went through bankruptcy and it was empty, I mean, you look, do you watch games, I'm sure on TV and it was just a sea of gray seats? And those gray seats were tough to see. They're like sad gray, rain cloud seats.

Exactly. Very depressing. Believe me, it was depressing to see that much gray in there. But, you know, ever since they, you know, that man just came back and Tom Gullardi bought the team. We had the change in uniform, pop of victory green as a color. And the appetite of our fans to want to be a part of whatever it is that they're a part of night in and night out down at American Airlines Center is it's infectious. And, you know, so from a business perspective, I think they've just rocked for a decade or close to a decade. Yeah.

the on ice it just feels like as soon as they take a couple steps forward they take a couple steps back so it's been a bit of a treadmill you know they haven't made the playoffs two years in a row right and yet it feels like at times like maybe they've won a couple of cups during the decade off the ice you know what I mean like yeah the sense that you have is that this is this has gone really really well the on ice shit hasn't adversely affected the business side I mean it hasn't helped right times right but it's not been deleterious to it But I think the fact that the product has been really good. I mean, the league-wide product has been really good. And that they've been a fairly upper echelon home team, even when they couldn't win a road game to save their lives there for a few years. That's helped. Because, I mean, you have fans that, for the most part, if they leave your building 41 nights a year feeling pretty good about themselves,

and that was a good experience. And I think the in-or-ean-experience is part of it here. It just has to be. Yeah. You know, when you're, you can't just, you can't just unfurl banners all the time, then you better make it a good time in there, win or lose. Yeah. And they've done that.

Everybody thought Vegas invented trying hard to impress fans. No, no, no, no. They might have taken it to a different level. Oh, they did. But like you guys, Nashville. Yes. Like, there are teams in non-traditional markets that have been putting the pedal down to try to impress their home fans for a long time.

And I just understood that the idea, well, if you win, they're going to come. And all you got to do is win. Well, it's really hard to win in this league. Win consistently. So let's just enjoy the sort of journey, which is a very hip thing to say now, your journey. So enjoy the journey and see what goes on. And really, when you look back on the last decade, because it's easy to do because we're at the end of one, and you see the ups and downs and roller coaster and good and bad.

I mean, it's fascinating. Yeah. I mean, this has been a fairly interesting franchise for most of the day. Oh, it's been real interesting this year. You know what I mean? Like, for every great thing that happens on the ice or bad thing that happens on the ice, there's an equal thing that seems to have come across our path off the ice, too. It's true.

Two questions from an outsider's perspective. The first is about that very thing. Coaching change happens and they don't seem to miss a beat. What's your diagnosis of that? Yeah, it is kind of a weird thing. Well, it's a weird firing overall, right? Right. That just doesn't. I mean, there's no real precedent on show up one morning.

And for that reason, your coach is no longer your coach when your team's going well. That's great. And a wild card that. Yeah. And so, and I think part of the equation was that Jim Montgomery was very inclusive with his coaching staff. So that everyone sort of had the same philosophy. So the bench was deep. And you have a guy like Bones who was, I don't want to take anything. away from Monty, but he was doing a lot of coaching. Even in his rookie year, his head coach, like, Rick Bonas was doing a ton of coaching. So although it's a different voice that has the bullhorn, a lot of the things are just exactly

the same. And I think today's player and certainly this group here are pretty good at just sort of shrugging their shoulders and going, yeah, well, that happened. Is that a generational thing? I think it is. I think you're right. I think it is. I think if you did this, something like this 15, 20,000.

years ago, it would be chaotic. Yeah. And now, for the most part, I think they're able to just go about their own business because they really do go about their own business a lot. Because it's a business. Yes. And in some weird way, it might actually end up being a positive where the internal community sort of galvanizes, you know, that it's okay.

You guys, you guys do this. You guys hold each other accountable, which is the healthiest thing you can have in our sport rather than always well here's the new head coach and now he has his thing and here's another head coach and he has his thing and they're always kind of trying to play with the strings on the marionettes a little bit yeah and not saying the bones isn't going to do that but for the most part he's so old school and he's seen so much and done so much that i think he's going to have unexhaustive trust of the guys in the room outsider question two what what do you put your finger on when it comes to Jamie Ben and production?

What, just the fact that... Lack thereof? Yeah. Compared to what he used to do? Yeah. I mean, obviously it's been a question that's popped up infrequently, you know, for most of the last half of the decade, really. You know, he won the Art Ross in 2015, dealt with bad hips.

Right. You come back. He won the Art Ross with like 80-something points, right? Yeah, but nobody had more. Right, but it's like when the King's speech won the Oscar, it was like a down year. Is that your analogy to it? I don't know. I always look at it this way.

Because you don't get style points on your victories. When the game you're in. Right. Is it going to be just an absolute shit show and we're going to play that way? Or is it going to be this way and it's a skill competition? You get the trophy. You get the trophy. Yeah, right.

And to his credit, if you ask him the best things that happened in the decade, he doesn't even bring that up. Because to him, it was, you know, he obviously went for it on the final day and he got it and all that, right? And he ends up winning the Art Ross. But it was in a year where they didn't make the playoffs. Right. And I remember when Jamie Ben first took the captaincy and I asked him, what kind of captain do you want to be? And he said, I want to be a captain of a team that's a playoff team year after year. And I know that's what bugs them most is that they haven't been.

Right. The production part of things, the game's changed. The game changed in mid-stride. on a lot of players. Right. And he's done his level best to try to morph into a player that can have some kind of success in this game. You know, skating efforts in the summer and instructors and improve this and improve that. But you know damn well, you watch these games.

There's eight of every ten games has almost no emotion in it. Right. Like, it's skill and speed and it's all that. We had a game the other night that was like a freak show. in Arizona because everyone was mad at everyone and he was the best player on the ice in it

right so he needs to play that certain style and that doesn't exist anymore the game that game doesn't happen right enough for him to truly be what he is and I commend him for you know he's had to deal with

a litany of coaching changes some stuff off the ice not the team itself not having the success that you're going to take a four by four in the head here, having the success, any kind of consistent success. And you're the captain of the team. So, you know, I think there's been a roller coaster that he's had to deal with, too,

and it frustrates him and media and coaches and everybody else. Let's talk about you. You and I have been internet friends for a long time. We have. I've always really admired your schick, and I loved it when you did national games. And I kind of wish that that had worked out. where you were like the color guy, the funny-ass John Madness-esque color guy. There's no appetite for that, though.

But don't you think that there is? I think there should be. Yeah. You know, but you know this. There's a fine line between being funny or witty and being a clown. Yeah. Right? And I never want to fully drift into being a clown.

Well, here's the thing. You'd be witty and be a color commentator. But if you're a clown, then you have to go, you know, ride a horse before the game. or whatever the hell they're going to have like Roanick doing if he's ever going to be on the thing again. Like, you know, it's just, I thought that you had the witty schick. I didn't think you were a clown. Did you think you were a clown? No, I don't.

I tried not to be. Right. But I, you know, some people that make the big decisions like certain things. Yeah. You know, if it's a full head of hair and chiseled jaws or something like that, I don't know. But, uh, I got one of those.

We had fun. We had fun. You know, you almost need, I think we're at a point in our broadcast world for this game where, because we've been doing the same thing forever and ever. Yeah. There's not a lot of inroads. And don't talk to me about camera any because I'm just talking about how the game gets presented verbally. Right.

And I can see some changes coming to where maybe there's an alternate channel. You want play-by-play? Here's play-by-play. If you want two guys sitting around and spitballing about what's going on in the game, you could see it already. I mean, the NBA does it, like where they've got, you know, the room with the ex-players chatting about the final and the actual play-by-play. I've longed for that. But I'll say this, in my defense, what's happened.

And I'm not complaining about the game because people love the way the game is now. But when they first brought in hurry up face-offs and what have you. I mean, we had 55 seconds on every whistle. Right. You could tell stories and be funny and show stuff and all that. then all of a sudden you didn't have that. I remember talking to John Davidson about it, and he's like, you're going to have to reinvent yourself.

Become the president of a team. Well, yeah, he really reinvented himself. But, you know, because you have to be much more succinct. Yeah. Well, now, on top of that, you have a game where they don't want any whistles. Like, they just keep coming up, concocting ideas of how do we get more continuous flow? Well, continuous flow is wonderful if you're calling the game or you're watching the game. But if you're going to analyze the game, like the reason that football goes on for three and a half hours and everyone loves it is there's a ton of, you don't miss a thing in football.

They show you everything again. Right. And they talk. And they've had to adjust a little bit with what they've done with no hoddle offenses and that too. So it's difficult. You know, you have to do things differently now. And I think you're going to have probably a major shift. I hope there's a major shift going forward because I think it needs it.

Yeah. I think what you've done locally is awesome, though. Like you're such an icon here. It's been fun. I'm flattered that, you know, I've been here for a long, long time, which is not the norm, you know. And again, you try not to overstay your welcome and think to yourself, well, he's still doing stuff that he did 15 years ago. So you have to evolve a little bit. At the same time, you have to teach, and you've seen some stuff.

And he just want him to win, you know. It's much easier to do this job when your team's winning a lot. It was really hard when they weren't. You earn your pay when that happens when you're covering. Especially when you're like a cynic. Oh, my. How the hell does you keep that in check? I don't know.

I remember there was a dude named Chris Moore who used to do play-by-player for the devils, and Lou got rid of him because he was such an honest sort of like, roll your eyes back what's wrong with this team, honesty, that he had to get rid of him when the team wasn't doing well. And it's hard. Like I always had infinite. respect for Sam and J.D. in New York. Yeah.

Because during those years, like, the Rangers suck. They were no good. I might have actually chanted that at times. I'm sure you did. I'm sure you did. But at the same time, you tune into a game. They'd lost seven games in a row. And you'd tune in, and they were happy, and they presented it, and here's a chance to be better tonight.

But then you'd hear those little tingees of just desperation in there and hope just dripping out of them. They're going to lose another one here tonight. You never felt like, though, that the team was below them, that were better than that. And that's what I've always tried to do here. All right, so finally, can you think they can win here? Yeah. Yeah. With this group?

Or are you need another piece? No, I think they don't have enough playmaking. They don't score enough. I do like the fact that they've turned themselves back into a team that can keep the puck out of their net. Yeah. You know, this is interested in their own net as they are the other one. First in the league and say it percentage right now. Yeah.

And, I mean, it's not just one year. They've been doing this ever since Hitch came back. It turned over, and then it's continued on. It's just a philosophy that it helps you get through injuries. It helps you when you're in a tight series. I mean, they almost knocked off the Stanley Cup champs. They had no right doing it. Bishop was remarkable in game seven.

But if they could add a couple of pieces offensively and just build a better offensive model maybe in the second half, they can beat anybody. Awesome. You know, do me one favor before we go, though. What? I'm so sick of hearing people talk about the lacrosse move. All right.

Say your piece. Like, we're better than that. Why do we have to use the other sports? It's not at lacrosse. You want to change the name of it. We're better. You're not going to give me some ex-go-only bullshit or you hate the move. No, no, I've got no problem with the move.

Okay. Called the Michigan goal. Yeah, well, why are we naming it after a school? What do you want to call it? call it the the ladle lift uh puck slap just call it the what do we call it the svetikov what the kid who did it twice yeah but he wasn't the first to do it he doesn't he doesn't deserve it okay so you have to come out with a name for that goal i'll give you i'll give you some names okay go ahead uh the the the ladle wrapped dandy the ladle wrapped dandy come on that that's better i mean it it's memorable the sticky puck

Soup ladle. Well, sticky puck could get a little outlandish, but okay. The muck puck lift tickler. Now, I'm pretty... That'll get a broadcaster in trouble here. Yeah, I definitely think I saw that in a magazine once. The sticky blade puck rammer. I mean, that's your winner.

Do we stay on that one? All right, that's what I'm going with from now on. I mean, the guy we need on our side to make that happen is bootie. So I'll let him know. Please post this or something. And put this in the lexicon, it will be in good shit. But every time I hear it now, and it's happened a few times, so you hear it more? Yeah.

And I'm like, the lacrosse move. No, you don't want to. We're using lacrosse? Right. So if a guy kicks, it's the soccer move? Yeah. And it's the football move? Sure.

No, we're more creative than that. It's a very pleased like my sport thing to use another sport to describe our shit. You nailed it. You nailed it, which? Where can people find you on the internet? On the interweb? Yeah. On Twitter.

Yeah. Razor 5 hole. Yes. At Razor 5 hole with the number 5. Right. And I'm also on Instagram with pretty pictures of myself and my family. All right. Not very often, though.

But enough. And you can Photoshop a lot of stuff. There's a lot of filters on that. Razor, you're my favorite. Thank you for doing this. Thanks to Darrell Razor Ray for his time. Oh, and thanks to Jim Lights, CEO of the Dallas Stars for popping in

and give me a chance to make that horse shit joke. That was good. Big news breaking during the podcast taping today as Ilya Kovulchuk, for the league minimum, becomes a member of the Montreal Canadiance. Now, I thought wherever he would go it would be a team that was a dumpster fire of special teams play, i.e. the power play. They're like not bad. They're like top. 10, I think, on the power play. They're right around there.

And, you know, they, here's the thing. I don't think Ilya Kovulchuk himself really moves the needle. They're four or five spots out of a playoff spot right now with five or six points, something like that. And they're, you know, they have some pretty obvious problems, none of which I think Ilya Kovulchuk necessarily addresses. But if he can help out a little bit, you know, great. And if he can't because he's.

he's 36 years older, 37, or whatever it is. And cooked, yeah. And just absolutely finished, you know. Well, you know, it's the league minimum and it's a two-way deal. So they can send them to the AHL and never worry about it again. So I think it's a solid, low-risk move that probably doesn't have a huge upside. So first of all, congratulations to Mark Bergervan for finally signing a free agent with a big name. And it's, yeah, you guys are both right.

It's low, it's low risk, somewhat high reward, because I guess it is possible that this guy could miraculously find a time machine and be an elite player again. But it's unlikely. It's more likely he's, his ceiling at this point is like a guy who won't embarrass himself in the top nine. But for league minimum, that's good value. And for a team that's kind of borderline in the playoff hunt and falling out of it, Yeah, roll the dice.

That makes sense. For a team that has Jonathan Drew Ann, Brennan Gallagher, Paul Byron, Joel Armiah, all on IR. Yeah, it's a pretty good move. I am looking forward to Ilya Kobelchuk defensive Black Hole playing for Claude Julian. That's going to be kind of fun. It's going to be something.

It's going to be something. Ryan, I think that your take is the correct one, which is that, I mean, at this point in his career, you are looking for minimal five on five minutes and then like power play time. Yeah, he's like I don't think in an ideal situation he plays any more than like 14 minutes a night and six of that is on the power play. Right. There you go. Ilya Colvichuk, a member of the Montreal Canadiens.

And like I say, if they need to pull the shoot on it after five games, perfectly understandable. I think that's probably the most likely outcome. So, yeah. And they also made the Marco Scandela trade. They traded away the increasingly valuable fourth round pick of the San Jose Sharks to Buffalo. Buffalo sends Scandella to Montreal. And then Buffalo turned around and sent that very pick to Calgary, rather, for the multi-talented Michael Frolek. Yeah, Michael Froelik, good player. I don't know why Buffalo feels like they need to go out and get a player like that because he does not put the puck in the net for all the other good things he does do. And he's on an expiring contract. And he's over 30. You know, I don't know what problem

they think they're addressing there, but, you know, he's a good player. I think the problem they're addressing is criticism that they're not surrounding Jack Eichael with enough forward talent. And this kind of gives them something to point at and go, there, we brought in a forward. We bought it a human Swiss Army knife so you can stop complaining. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a good little shakeup. It's a, you know, fine, whatever. I mean, Buffalo's got bigger problems, but it's good. It'll get the job done for now.

And Scandella was somebody they were looking to unload anyway. So there you have. Yeah, that's another, I don't know why Montreal makes that trade, but okay, sure. Warm body on defense. Yeah. Expiring contract. There is that. But, I mean, I don't think Mike Riley was exactly locked up long term.

In other news this week, the National Hockey League fined John Totorella $20,000 and then said, we're also going to find you $25,000 if you say shit again for a rant that he had this week after a too many men on the ice penalty in overtime against the Chicago Blackhawks resulted in what he felt was 1.1 second. being not put back on the clock. The Blue Jacket scored a goal at the end of overtime that did not count, but would have counted had there been 1.1 seconds still on the clock. And if everything else had played out exactly. Sure. Which is definitely how all that kind of thing works. That's quantum mechanics, right?

If one thing changes, everything else stays exactly the same. Oh, yeah. String theory. Butterfly flaps its wings. And it has no effect anywhere else in the world. world. Yeah, nope, that's definitely all true. But the biggest thing that would have happened is if the game did end in overtime, there wouldn't have been a shootout. If there wasn't a shootout, then Jonathan Taves doesn't

make this move that results in Jonas Corpusallo getting hurt. Again, maybe. Yeah, he's out for weeks, guy who played 32 games through the Blue Jackets so far this season. And he'd gotten really hot. He had a really poor start to the beginning of the year. And then in his last 10 games before getting hurt, he was just lights out. like 940 something Really good Torz went off Torth's went off

Toronto doesn't step in The refs don't do their freaking job And now we lose a game And we lose our goalie So the chain of events If it's done right Is that we don't lose our goalie We win the hockey game

So all this goddamn technology Right The technology and getting things right The stubbornness tonight by the officials And by the league and Toronto However it's supposed to God damn work

screws us and then he said it's ridiculous I'm not taking any goddamn questions he did he did hold himself back from saying the F word and he said freaking instead that's why I keep telling people the therapy worked man he's not the same Cotorella he's a pro so Colin Campbell said it in an email this week that Torella's comments were unprofessional unacceptable and find him 20k and then said we're going to find you a conditional 25K in case you say anything like this again this season.

That's a condition that goes on until December. I cannot recall this ever being done by the NHL, the conditional fine thing. This is a first, right? I think this is a new one. I can't recall any. I mean, the fines to coaches in front office are so weird and off the grid as far as how everything else is handled.

I can't say for sure, but this felt new to me. It really felt like one of those things of, you know, if it's what, it's the breakfast club, right, where he's like, okay, five days detention. Keep him coming. Three days detention. Okay, I get it. You know, like it really felt like that situation. And, you know, I saw a lot of people complaining on Twitter about, oh, it's only $5,000

for a fine if you elbow someone in the chin. But it's 20,000 if you say the league sucks or whatever. And it's like, well, I guess the player's union's a little stronger than that coach's union, isn't it? If I was Tororella, I walk right up to NHL headquarters. I drop $25,000 in a bag there. And I do it like a parent who overstuffs the swear jar, knowing that they're going to curse at some point on the same. family vacation and just get it over with. Just say, fuck you to the league.

Yeah, and then he gets to save whatever he wants for the rest of the year. Yeah. We have more breaking news. The Sabres announced Victor Olison is out five to six weeks with a lower body injury. Hmm. Now they're going to go trade for another forward. I hear I'll hear Elya Kovalchuk is available. Congratulations to Nick Suzuki for his Calder nomination upcoming.

Yeah. Yeah, so anyways, the Tortoralla thing, he's completely justified in his anger. I thought that was bullshit that the time wasn't put back on the clock. But I know, I know, Sean, that you are someone who worries about the slippery slope of these things. Yes. Well, I mean, here's the thing. Like, he's justified in his anger because his team lost a game that they maybe shouldn't have lost and your starting goalie gets hurt. Yeah.

I mean, go ahead and be angry. I didn't. I still think he deserved the fine, because, you know, even if you're angry and even if you're right, being a big performative jerk about things is still not something that should be encouraged. And so he knew he was going to get fined when he went up and pulled that whole act. So, yeah, you find him. You don't let a guy off the hook just because he had a reason to be unhappy,

but he did have a reason. Like I get why Blue Jacket fans and players and coaches and everyone would be pretty furious with how this went down. But I will also point out that once, second ticking off a clock after a whistle happens. Like this is pretty... Almost every stoppage in play. Yeah.

Like it's, this is not, there's no automatic, like as soon as the whistle blows, the clock has to stop. Like, there's, there's always going to be a little room for air.

I get that in this case, it was a little weird because the clock seemed like it did stop and then start it again. And then, like, yeah, I see where they're coming from. I just really hope this doesn't turn.

Like, when I hear him ranting about, we've got all this technology and why don't we get it right? And I can just pick it. or somebody somewhere going, hey, yeah, why don't we do that? Why don't we review? Why don't we just do a quick review after every whistle in the final minute? And it's just, and then it turns it in the NBA, right?

For the last minute, everyone's just standing around. And every time you get a night, you know, you pin the other team with an icing and the defense is tired and you've got a chance to get your offense out there with no line change. But oops, we got to stand around and figure out if it's 20.2 seconds or 20 on the nose. I like sometimes bad things happen and and and bad outcomes happen and you go man that that that sucks for the team it happened to and then that's just the end of it like we you don't need a new rule you don't need a new process you don't need to change anything you just go that was a really bad series of events sorry guys that that that's that's how the lee works and we just kind of have to go with it versus trying to make a change that's that potentially is just going to create even more problems right. It really is the thing of, you know, yeah, you lost the 1.1 seconds or whatever it was, but you lost the 1.1 seconds on, you know, the offside at 1522 of the first period. And you lost two seconds, actually, on the icing at 816 of the third period.

And at that point, it's like, yeah, we're probably, you're right, we are probably losing a full minute to these dumb little stoppages off the game. clock. But the only reason we notice it here is because it ticked off that extra second in overtime and it's showing you down to the tenths of a second and that kind of thing. And like there's no easy fix for it unless everything is controlled centrally. And you don't want that either because then people will just complain about that. So there's no good solution to it. And it was in Columbus, right? It's not like they got screwed by some sneaky hometown official. L.A. L.A. Columbumbums. Right. Yeah. Yeah. From Dean Lombardie's bag of tricks. Um, yeah. Isn't it so interesting that Columbus keeps getting

screwed by the Columbumbumbums. Yeah, I know. Because they're like almost named the Colalumbum's blue jackets. Yep. So that's just something for them to think about. Maybe they want to change their, uh, the Ohio blue jackets. What do we think, folks? I've never heard a unit of time called it in Ohio. So just something to think about. Certain teams, certain teams just seem like they keep running into the same problems. Like, for example, the Chicago Blackhawks keep having veterans with long-term contracts

go on long-term injured reserve. It's crazy. Strange. Brent Seabrook, the latest one. Now, see, I hadn't, no, I'm just kidding. Yeah, it's, you know, it's one of those things where people, uh, kind of roll their eyes at it because it felt like this was coming for about 15 months now. We're just all waiting for him to get healthy scratch two games in a row.

And then they go, actually, he's just going on LTIR for the rest of the season, parentheses, maybe his career. And people are like, well, we all knew that was going to happen, so this is bullshit. And it isn't that simple, unfortunately. It's a situation where Brent Severek has legitimate. legitimate injuries, and it is now extremely convenient for both him as a person who's getting healthy scratched to get the surgeries that he's needed for maybe two years. Meanwhile, the team gets the benefit of, oh, we don't have to play him anymore, and also

we get his huge cap hit off the books for the rest of the season. So it's a mutually beneficial situation, but it's not like they made up the injury. Yeah. I get the skepticism. He wants to come back. But the dude is having three surgeries. Like, I don't think he's that committed to the bit that he's going to go under the knife three times over the course of a few months just to sell a fake injury. I mean, this is the reality of how this system works, right?

I mean, if you're, there is, there is not like two separate and distinct circles for healthy enough to play hockey and injured. like there is a big overlap. There are lots of guys, especially when you're in your 30, especially when you played a thousand plus games, where you're injured. Like all the time. You hurt when you wake up. You've got a knee.

You've got a back. There's something that's bothering you. But you could play. And depending on how much your team needs you, you probably do play, but you're hurt. And if you reach a point where your team no longer needs you or you're no longer helping the team, then suddenly you can find yourself on the,

long-term injured reserve, not because you're faking, not because it's some made-up injury, but it is something you could potentially have played through if it was a game seven of a playoff series, but you're still hurt. And the league allows this overlap. They don't really have a way around this. So it's the reality. And there have been some questionable ones in the past. I'm sure there will be in the future. But I don't think Brent Seabrook is one of them. This guy's beat up. Right. And to Greg's point, too, about, you know, they just did it with Marion Hosa a couple years ago. That's another situation where you understand the skepticism because he's really expensive on their cap and they need that wiggle room.

And also, you know, the difference here is that they said Seabrook's going to try again for training camp 2020. And with Marion Hose, they were like, oh, he's never playing again. And coincidentally, his salary dropped to like a million dollars. Yeah. And that's not the case with Sebrick. His salary is dropping, but it's not dropping that extent. I think it's dropping to like $4 million instead of $6 or something like that. Well, it goes from $7.5 this season to five next season.

Then it goes back up to six. And then it goes to five. So it's a very odd contract. The Hosa won, again, the skepticism came in because of the oddness of the ailment. Right. But also because of the contract was literally structured. for him to not play hockey that year. Correct.

And, yeah. And so, like, you can say, well, isn't that convenient and still go, that's a legitimate situation that he's dealing with. Like, especially because, you know, unlike Seabrook, Hosa and Zetterberg, who's the other guy that got all this criticism, they were really good. And they're, well, not really good. But they were good players in their last year. Zetterberg was around, like, 60 points.

Hosa played or played almost every game, I want to say, and, you know, he put up some pretty decent numbers and he was still good defensively like he would expect him to be. And, you know, like, so that, that makes it a little harder for people to believe, like, oh, he couldn't really be that injured if he, you know, if he was still that good. Whereas I don't think anybody with Hosa or with Seabrook is like, well, he couldn't be that injured. I mean, he was pretty useful. No, he wasn't. He was bad and everybody knew it for years. So that, That, I think, is the ultimate difference here. Indeed.

A couple things real quick. A lot of people have been asking about Star Wars. We've all seen it. I think it may end up being a bonus thing at some point. So that's why we haven't really talked about it on the show. I will say that in my ranking of all the films, it would not be in my top one, two, three, four, five, six. My top six.

Well, no, shit. The top six. Yeah, I don't think it's in the top six of the mainline Star Wars sagas, let alone the Star Wars stories. I'm including Rogue One and Solo in that. No, that's what I'm saying. I put, like, even if we were leaving out Rogue One and Solo, I would not have it anywhere near. my top six. I thought it was quite bad. Fuck it. Fuck it. Okay.

All right. Let's go. Oh, am I just... I'm going to give you my order. Okay. Okay. Two's the worst. Then three. Okay. That's fake. I'm not a revenge of the Sith guy. Phantom Menace.

Solo. Star Wars Episode 9, The Rise of the Skywalker. Rogue one, which I am notoriously lower on than many people because I feel like it is 40 minutes of movie. Then Force Awakens, then Last Jedi, then Jedi,

then Empire, then a New Hope. That's my ranking. I can't do it off the top of my head from the bottom, so I will go top down. Empire, New Hope, Jedi, probably

three, then two. Jesus Christ. No, not two. No, not two. Three, then Rogue One. So Revenge of the Sith, the last prequel over both Force Awakens and Last Jedi? Well, I, so I think I might have said this on this podcast or maybe a different one. You did a rewatch.

I did a rewatch. Oh, boy, I could not get through Last Jedi. Couldn't get through it. And the Force Awakens is just like, oh, remember that first Star Wars movie you saw? That was pretty good, right? I just, I've really cooled on them after being pretty enthusiastic about them when they first came out. It felt novel and new, and now it feels like not great, honestly. So, yeah, I would say three, then two, then the two new ones, then one, then solo, then nine.

Wow. I think this is the worst Star Wars movie of all. Yes, yes, I do think that. Wow. Yeah, it sucked. The entire theater, when certain characters had tragic things happened to them, the whole theater I was in was laughing, opening night. So, it's a real rough one. Well, it sucks that no one in the theater knew that at least two of the tragic things that happened to characters are quickly retconned within five minutes.

Yeah. So you don't have to worry about it. You know, further evidence that this movie sucks shit. Very bad. Very, very bad. This is where Sean's going to tell us it's number two on his list. What is Star Wars? Is that some sort of movie or what are we?

My favorite Star Wars is the Rath of Khan. Everybody's been furious. I, like, I saw it with the kids, which is the first Star Wars movie that, like, we all saw in a theater. And we walked out. It was fine. Like, we were happy with it. I don't, I grew up as a Star Wars movie. Wars fan, but I'm not attached to it in any way that, like, small details will, you know, put me on

tilt, like some people. I thought it was fine. I thought it was the worst of the three new ones. I kind of go back and forth. By far. Yeah. I almost feel like this one, seeing this one just kind of openly give the finger to the second one of the new ones to, I guess, Last Jedi, kind of made me liked Last Jedi a little bit more. But I thought Last Jedi and Force Awakens were both pretty good. Force Awakens being incredibly derivative, but also after 35 years, maybe that's what you're looking for. The original trilogy is still my top three.

Probably always will be. That's a little eight-year-old me talking. And the prequels were bad, although, Having rewatched them relatively recently with my kids, I got to say one and two were really bad. And three, I thought, was actually okay. Three is fine. Three is a perfectly good movie. Three builds up, at least delivers on the big fight at the end that you know is coming, that they built for three.

Like, it actually delivers, which is part of my issue with Rise of Skywalker is they found themselves like two movies into this trilogy and they didn't have a villain because the one. villain is obviously going to be a big redemption story. So you wind up having to bring back a villain, this, who you just bring back in one line in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the crawl with no explanation. So bad. Which, which, which, not only is that like kind of uncreative and bad, but it's also like he's this old guy. So you don't get, you don't finish the Star Wars saga with one epic, lightsaber battle for all time between the good guy, the bad, because there isn't a bad guy by that point, and the bad guy who is there is this old dude hanging on a stick. And it ends up just being two people kind of holding their hands up across from each other. Like, that was a letdown for me. I thought. But yeah, but it also, I wanted some sort of big final, like, give me some big main event that you've built to. And it just, it was, it just really reinforced how much this trilogy clearly wasn't planned in any meaningful way. They decided to do it, and they just started making movies with no clear path to exactly where they were getting to, and they just kind of ran out a runway to do something cool.

Right. Well, like, the problem is, okay, they go, apparently Disney was very iffy on the idea of both a female lead and a black man lead. And so they kind of did what they could to, let's say, minimize the impact on that, right? and people were still mad about it. And so Ryan Johnson makes a movie where he's like, oh, you don't like a woman and a black guy, you know, being the focal point. We're going to make the second movie about how a woman is preventing the Han Solo character from being a reckless moron. And you're going to get even matter at that.

And that's me being like all Ryan Johnson movies, well, you know, his, two most recent ones are just like him playing out Twitter drama with 200 million dollars budgets or whatever because that's what Knives Out is as well. And like, you know, I think there's an interesting story to tell about like the war profiteering that goes on on both sides of the anti-fascist war that takes place throughout all these Star Wars movies. and Ryan Johnson was like, that's the story I want to tell. And it's like, well, you can't really tell that story without saying this other story doesn't matter at all. And, you know, for better or worse, they made a $200 million movie about that story.

And then JJ comes in and goes, yeah, that's right. That all sucks and ignore it. And it's like, well, this is not a trilogy then. This is like a movie that's an answer to a movie that's an answer to a movie. Yep. And if they're all competing with one another, like that's what made them successively less successful. Yeah. It would have been nice if they got in a room at the beginning and figured this out rather than making movies at each other back and forth for several years.

I think I just— Yeah, say what you want about George Lucas, but he made cohesive stories. The prequels knew where they were going because they were prequels. That's right. This one did—you know, I guess that's— kind of as a standalone movie, I have a feeling maybe I'll look back at the Skywalker as being decent, but as the, as the exclamation point on this, like I remember being a kid, you know, and hearing that, you know, yeah, this is Star Wars is actually only episodes four, five, and six.

They're actually going to make nine of these and just like trying to get my head around what, like, what episode nine would be like, like, oh my God, that build up to that. and it ended up being one character, one good guy, and an old man kind of holding their hands up at each other and grimacing. And going, by the way, my evil plan hinges on you doing exactly what I want you to do, but I'm telling you that so that you don't do it. How's that sound? And then you do it anyways, but in a slightly different way, which apparently doesn't count. By the way, was I the only one when, and... And obviously we're into spoilery territory, but at the very end, where Ray starts hearing the voices of all the past Jedi's,

was I the only one who thought they were going to marvel it and actually bring them back and have them all show up? No, they already marveled it by having every ship in the galaxy rally to Landau Caleracian's cause while they wouldn't do it for Princess fucking Leah. At the exact same time, and then just hover on the outskirts of the battle so they could be dramatically revealed. And meanwhile, like the people inside are like, hey, you guys could have come and before that other dude got shot down. Yeah, that was, remember that scene, that scene where Land Ocurisian goes on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, the, uh, on the, uh, on the, uh, on the, uh, on the, uh, on the, uh, on the, uh, I can't decide if, like, literally bringing back, like, Yoda and Anakin and young Luke and, and having them all fight the emperor would have been the worst thing I'd ever seen or whether it would have actually been a way better ending than what we've got. Like, I'm still kind of... No, they should have bought back the images of the Jedi. Like, that would have been really cool.

Even if it's just in sort of a Harry Potter's parents kind of way where they're just like, wispy images. Like, it would have been awesome to see that. But they would have had to have somebody to fight who wasn't just an old man who gets slightly less old. It would have been fine. I'll say this, though, man. Like, somebody said this the other day and I can't get it on my head. Imagine if instead of Lando at the helm of the fall,

in that scene. And I don't know how you handle this logistically with the end of the film. But imagine if it was like, this is Ben Solo on the Millennium Falcon. And, you know, I've rallied the fucking galaxy to come help you in this fight. Like, how fucking cool would it have been if at the moment Kylo turns, he takes the helm of the ship again? And, like, is the guy who leads that part of the resistance to that fight? Yeah, the genocide guy. We want him to be the hero.

The guy who blew up an entire fucking galaxy. system. No, he blew up an entire system in the first movie of this. So, like, you can't, you can't fucking redeem. Yeah, exactly. You can't redeem it like that, like that. Like, it's always seemed a little bit bullshit to me that people are like, well, Anakin Skywalker turned out to be pretty good. Why? Because he fucking took his helmet off at the end and was like, ooh, sorry about that, everybody. It's because he sacrificed himself to save his child, but that sacrifice is now completely undermined because the fucking emperor is alive. Yes. That was what the sacrifice was. Yep. There was nothing more satisfying in that entire film than the end, right before the end, when you see Kylo smile for the first time.

It's fucking great. That was satisfying? Okay. Well, now that we're talking about it, Greg, that was when everybody laughed. When he did the, like, became one with the force, everybody in the theater was like, ha, ha, ha, ha. And it's like, that I don't think was supposed to be funny. Well, I mean, you're seeing the movie in Massachusetts.

They have no taste. The film was not great. Average at best. Very illogical. The pacing was exhausting in the first half of the film. And look at it, I'll say this about the Force Awakens and Last Jedi. I think Force Awakens is improved by this movie, because if you go back and watch that film now, you can actually see what happens when things are more meticulously planned, when characters are better sketched out. It's a very joyful experience to watch the Force Awakens in contrast with this film.

And while I'm a Last Jedi fan and a really big one, I will admit I've come around to the idea that, Ryan Johnson was very much intrigued by the concept of Luke and Ray, very intrigued by the concept of Ray and Kylo, very intrigued by the concept of both sides have their problems in this war, and really didn't give a shit about 60% of what had been established by the Force Awakens. Right. Like, the character development of both Poe and Finn was really set aside for what Ryan Johnson really cared about and what he really cared about was

extraordinarily well executed. And I feel bad that the story that Luke got was subverted in the last movie. And I feel bad that, you know, you had two writers that seemed to believe that the entirety of the trilogy was about two families

rather than being about, you know, the rebellion against fascism. And I think at the end, that was a critical misreading because, you know, it's not about the fucking Skywalker's and Palpatines. Especially because there's only one Palpatine in the entirety of this fucking series. Stupid movie. It was a critically bad mistake to bring back, to make her a Palpatine was a critically bad mistake. So, anyways. Bold predictions for 2020.

We each we're going to do three. And I'll do mine first. Bold prediction number one. The Calgary Flames trade Johnny Goodrow. The same Johnny Goodrow, who becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2022 and signed Taylor Hall. That would be bold. That would be something. Bold prediction number two.

The Nashville Predators Fire, Peter LaVuette. Not that bold. Bold, though. And it becomes the first head coach of the Seattle franchise. Okay, that's bold. The first one is not so bold, but yeah. Bold prediction number three. We find out that one fast food chain's impossible burger is actually made of people.

Soiling Green style. I think the timeline is right for it. I think we're ready for the recycling of human flesh into consumable food. I guess the bold prediction would be that no one cares and they still eat it anyway. But yes, we will find out that at least one burger chains and possible burger is made of people. And those are my predictions for 2020. All right. Mine is, let's see.

I don't think the Red Wings are going to finish as the worst team in the history, or the modern cap era history of the NHL. I think that's still the 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche, but the Red Wings only do it by, they finish with the same number of points but have one extra win. And that's how they do. They get the tiebreaker. Nice. They get the tiebreaker, yep. And my other one is Montreal wins the draft lottery. Hmm.

Coincidentally. That's a good one. I like that. That would actually be funny because Montreal, if Ottawa has two like top four odds picks, which it looks like they might and Montreal jump them, both, the reaction here would be hilarious.

So. Yes, it would. All right, bold predictions. Oh, I didn't do my third one. Oh, sorry. And that is that, this is the year where everybody realizes, oh, maybe we don't like Star Wars the way Disney does it anymore.

Maybe we're out on Disney Star Wars and like, you know, as much as, as good as say the Mandalorian was. And I thought it was a pretty good series. Any further Disney Star Wars offerings are met with revulsion starting now. I don't think that's going to happen, but that's why it's a bold, It's slightly more plausible than the people eating, but your mileage may vary. I especially think so because they're going to scale it back to television for a few years, and I think people dig the television product. My predictions are nowhere near as bold, but that's all right.

I'm going to say I kind of doubled up with one of Greg's. I think cannibalism. No, not that one. I think I'm going to say Peter Labelius. that gets fired and not just gets fired this year. I'm going to say within the next couple of weeks, even though David Poil has said he's not going to do it. I think at some point you say that right up until you do have to do it.

And I think that point is here. And I'm going to go one further and say Nashville makes the playoffs and even wins around with their new coach. I'm not going to predict full St. Louis Blues Renaissance, but I think they rebound nicely. I'm going to predict, and this is crazy. But I'm going to say that, and I saw somebody tweet something like this, so I'm kind of piggybacking on that. I'm going to say at least one major shark's name winds up on the long-term injured reserve with a mysterious injury. And I'm going to pick Vlasic.

I look at their cap situation. I just don't see any other way out of it. So I'm going to say, bad news, Mark Edward Vlasic, you're going to mysteriously develop a chronic injury of some sort over the next little while. Bonitis. And my last bold prediction, which wouldn't have felt bold at any point this time last year, but since we've all kind of had this little gang up on them for the last little while, I'm going to say the Tampa Bay Lightning win the Stanley Cup this year. And it turns out that just being the best team actually is the main thing that goes into winning a Stanley Cup

and all the other stuff about. And of course, we don't say that. We paint a whole narrative about how they learned how to win. and the struggles of the first half was what forged their identity. But it just turns out that they're really good, and the rest of it didn't matter as much, and they win the Stanley Cup. Sean, can I reveal a secret to you?

Is one of the bold predictions that I scrapped, and this is then necessitated by your prediction, Leafs still don't get out of the first round. Well, yeah. Yeah, I don't know if that's bold, but yeah, thank you. I was feeling pretty good about that. things at the end of the podcast. Thanks for giving me one last. Upper cut. That's what's going to happen in 2020, folks. Happy New Year to everybody. Yeah, that's the show for this week.

Thanks to Razor for joining us. Thanks to everybody for supporting the Patreon. Mailbag edition coming up there. And we will talk to you next week. Oh, Predator Stars was the least watch Winter Classic yet, by the way. Great. Good job. Well, then it's Chicago, and they'll tell Minnesota, you know, we'll play in Minnesota, but it's Chicago, Boston. There you go. We said you're the host.

We didn't say you were playing. All right. Thanks, everybody. Talked you soon. Bye. All right. Later. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons.

We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV show. It's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Bork soup.