Puck Soup - David Ehrlich

Episode Date: October 1, 2016

Greg and Dave welcome Indiewire film critic David Ehrlich to talk about the New York Rangers, hockey movies, his loathing of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, censorship and Lozo finally say "The Force Awakens." Plus, our eight requests for subsequent World Cups of Hockey, the NHL's centennial celebration, "World Cup of Hockey: The Musical," Johnny Gaudreau's contract, our favorite "The Price Is Right" games and why we hate umbrellas.

Now entering nerdist.com. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to whatever you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nancet. I'm Greg Wyshenski of Yahoo Sports Puck Daddy Blog. And I'm George Clooney for an espresso. We're here to mourn the loss of the Carnegie Deli.

You're in Puck Soup. Yeah, why does anybody care about that? Well, I... You can't get coal cuts anywhere else in this town? You can't get corned beef or some other place. It's trending on Twitter right now. The woman who ran the Carnegie Deli here in New York has decided to not have it anymore. She's selling it for like millions upon millions.

No, she's just closing it. Like, there's going to be a Carnegie Deli in Vegas where like all old things go to never die. But there's not going to be a... You're going to have... Yeah, like you said, you're going to... have to you get your pastrami from any of the other delis in New York that serve overloaded sandwiches. Yeah, that's, that's, that's real sad.

Oh, okay, I'm over it. I know you won't. I know you're still not over. The nipple. The end of the force of waco. The nipple extending excitement that is the World Cup of Hockey. As we taped this podcast, I just got back from Toronto. God bless.

I've never rooted for anything Canadian more than I did last night. for them to end that nonsense in two games against Team Europe. They had lost. What were we going to do today? We got to sit on the goddamn phone and do it that way? I was thinking about that. We probably would have. Because we have Dave. Or maybe we would have waited until the end of this historic tournament

to talk more about it and really get the capture the spirit of the thing. That upwards of 85,000 people have seen. Dave, Down Goes Brown, of course, captures the spirit of the thing perfectly when he says how completely incredibly ironic it is that it's a pair of Boston Bruins leading a miraculous rally in Toronto knocking off a blue team at home

technically the home team God it's so beautiful you know David are like a film critic extraordinaire from Indy Wires going to join us in a few but we should tie a bow around the World Cup of hockey before it gets too long here

I wrote about on a Puck Daddy I'll say it here it's the World Cup of Canada like honestly it is one team that gave a shit about winning this tournament and seven teams that gave a shit about beating Canada I debate whether or not they even cared I mean they played 24 minutes total on those two games where they beat Europe because they're just so good that they cannot care for 80% of the game to win

but they care in the sense they don't want to lose yeah right that make they don't want to lose it's their tournament to win and Europe cared and Europe well Europe kind of cared at some point because it was like we know that we can all get together and play together and try to win a thing so I'll give you Europe And I guess at the end of the day, the only two teams that really gave a shit made the final. Yeah.

But inherently it was, it was like watching the dream team in the Olympics. It was, we know this team is exponentially better than everybody else. So our job here, and Ralph Kruger literally said this at one point during the tournament, that head coach of Team Europe. He literally said, we're going to do our best to get in the way of Canada winning. And you did. Like you're a speed bump. Right, right. He's like, we're a little more than a speed bump.

We're more like one of those, like, wooden things they put out to sort of block traffic. that you could totally run over if you wanted to, but you have to get out of your car and move it to the sidewalk. That's kind of what they were. Canada actually had to stop the car for a minute, get out and move the barricade over, and then they drove through. And then they drove through, right, as expected. Exactly. So, I mean, was the tournament successful?

I guess it was, because, I mean, the whole thing existed to get Canada in the final. And so there they were. Boy, thank God, because Canada does not have enough hockey trophies. Good for them to get another one. It was successful in reaffirming the greatness of Sidney Crosby, because God bless it. You know, it's been three months since everybody talked about how amazing Sidney Crosby is and nobody appreciates it.

Boy, thank God he finally got himself another trophy. Yeah, right? And you know what? Based on what happened during the course of the World Cup, based on what Sidney Crosby did during the World Cup, and based on what Phil Kessel did during the World Cup, I feel like Phil Kessel once again had the MVP trophy stolen from him by Sidney Crosby. Because that tweet was better than anything that happened during the course of those two weeks.

Corey Perry, This is the most amazing, just to bring it back, like, so Corey Perry is probably like, what do you figure? Like, the 11th or 12th most important person on that team? After everybody else got, like, Jamie Ben and Tyler Sagan left the team. Right, after they all left the team? Yeah, that's fair. Corey Perry, this is what happened when they won the World Cup

and that venerable trophy. What an amazing moment to win the ashtray from a 1980s condo. Or, yeah. The doorstop that you would see in an apartment in 2000. 36 in the future. What an amazing moment to win a futuristic bassoon. The look on their faces where they were pretending to care about that as they carried around the ice was some of the saddest theater I've ever seen. Oh, it was just so sad. You can just tell. I've seen, I've seen dudes lift the cup, pass the cup around and see the looks in their eyes. And then I saw that last night.

It was like getting a gift from your kid. It was like four where you got to kind of pretend it's nice. Like, oh, you got me a glass dildo. Oh, Jimmy, thank you so much. I'm going to pass it around to everybody now. We're not going to return it. We're going to keep it. We love you. That's what that was. What an amazing trophy, though, to have something that looks like Colossus from the X-Men

vomited in an empty yard of beer. Wait, is that Corey Perry's quote? No. Corey Perry is just the second player in hockey history. Scott Niedermeyer being the first to win six separate major international trophies. Now, can you name them? Let's go. The Ryder Cup.

The French Open Seriously, okay, okay Six international hockey trophies, let's go Okay, obviously the Olympics Yes Obviously world juniors Uh huh World championships

Uh huh World Cup Uh huh Under 17 I'm sure I don't know I'm asking you Were they count

Are they counting the Stanley Cup as being one of these Oh wait now here it is Oh it's on internet Here he goes Yeah they are Stanley Cup Which apparently is an international trophy No it's not

Stanley Cup, World Cup, Olympic Gold, World Championship World Junior's Memorial Cup. Memorial Cup, of course, also international trophy, apparently. Well, I guess technically Eerie is in Pennsylvania, and that's part of the tournament. All right, listen, we don't come to bury the World Cup of hockey. Everybody else has done it for us. I'm going to do it, though, sometimes. We don't come to over-phrase it, although I will say this about the World Cup of hockey. A couple keepers. Ref cam, awesome. Keep the ref cam.

Fuck was ref cam great. It was great. They're going to keep that for like NBC games and stuff, right? Apparently, they finally figured out how to make the ref cam. It's still kind of heavy, so those guys don't want to wear it every game. But it doesn't, and no longer looks like, in the words of my other podcast, husband, Jeff Merrick, like they have a giant rooster on their heads. Why is everybody so concerned about how it looks?

That's the weirdest thing to me in sports with safety equipment or like camera. Remember like when in baseball they started to bring out the bigger helmet that got concussions? And like Jeff Frank Korr was like, I'm not wearing that shit. I don't want to look ridiculous. You look ridiculous. A regular helmet when you swing the bat. Like, you want to not have brain dance? Sorry, that's a...

No, it's... But it's true, though. Like, like, the catchers, too. Remember when they change the catcher masks away from the traditional ones with the metal in the front to like basically what amounts to being like a goalie's cage? Right, like a street hockey goalie mask. And everybody's like, oh, that doesn't look like a catcher's mask. I'm like, who gives a shit? If the ball's...

If the mask is absorbing the impact better and it's glancing off your face instead of crushing your skull and your brain in your head, why you... I don't want to look stupid. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it looks stupid. It says guy who wears a bibball game. Guy who wears fucking knee-high socks telling me what looks stupid and what doesn't.

You idiot. Protect your skull. So, Ref Cam, definitely a keeper. Love it. And that's about, well, obviously, we'll get it. We'll just get into the list. Let's just get in the list. Let's do our bit.

Dave and I decided that we want to do a list of the four things that we'd change kind of going forward when they do the World Cup of hockey again in 2020 before the next lockout. Now, before we get into this list. Basically, what we think is going to happen is that they're going to get rid of Team America, they're going to get rid of Team Europe, they're going to go back to a qualifying tournament

to put into other national teams into the World Cup. So despite Gary Betman saying, it's the greatest tournament of all time. I love the way these kids really tried. It's the best, the best depth of talent you're ever going to see. Well, then I guess me and every other World Cup is just going to be shit by comparison. But that's what they're going to do, because they're going to make more money holding qualifying tournaments around the world than they do, doing the tournament the way that they've done it this time. And plus, yeah, the U.S. is going to cry about not having Jack Eichael and Austin Matthews on the team next year. It blows my mind, man, that you watch this tournament and everybody, everybody loved Team North America, young, fast kids, Johnny Godro is out there

with no contract, just playing his ass off. They push Sweden, they beat Sweden, play a fun game with Russia. They're the team you want to watch in the tournament. And Gary Betman's on TV last night. On ASPN, oh, let me tell you, this is the most competitive tournament in the world. You know why? Because we don't have those countries. We have North America. We have Europe and these guys.

And they're going to get rid of that. They're going to get rid of it. Yeah. It's a quintessential NHL thing where they again, they accidentally do this. There's no way they thought anyone was going to gravitate towards North America and Europe like this. The same way, not the same exact way, but the All-Star game, the draft. And they got rid of that. I think everybody loves.

But I'll keep doing this. I'll agree on the Team Europe thing, though, because one of the problems with Team Europe is that although it was a great story and Ralph Kruger is a great coach and I hope that he gets back in the NHL now, like clearly one of the rock stars come out of this tournament. Problem is that when you get him in a game against Canada for the championship, there's no atmosphere whatsoever in the arena because there's nobody cheering for Team Europe. It's not like there were Russian fans there. There were fans from the U.S., Sweden. Like, they were all these fans at this tournament that created an atmosphere for a lot of. lot of these other games, but no one gave a shit. There's no Team Europe support group.

Ain't nobody from Norway who's like, Oh, Matt Zook, Vandah, God, and see him. I like to see the golf. I like to see the Hulk. Magic Hobbit visitors. He does a thing in the 63 instead of the 36. He's a good player. But like,

I, but the games were good. Like, honestly, those were the two best, they're interesting games Canada play. I thought they were going to torture Europe as much as I, as much as I, Dave Lozo, co-host of this podcast, told you. about how great Europe was before the tournament.

And I even said they could beat Sweden. I didn't pick him to beat Sweden. You were a fanboy, yeah. But, like, again, I didn't realize this either until we got to the final. They were just like, hey, you know, Canada got the most Stanley Cups on their roster. You know, who's number two?

Europe. There you go. The guy in Austria says, I have to go see Thomas Venick for the team Europe. The guy in Germany goes, I have to go see Christian Erhof. What does the Slovenian guy say? The Slovenian guy?

Yeah. He says, Wait, wait. I can't believe you took a penalty there at the end and ruined my bed. He's the only Slovenia I've ever met, so I just assume they all speak like him. He's the most American-sounding guy in the team probably, I feel like. Yeah.

He doesn't sound like he's from another country. Hey, dude. Hello. Hello. Have you seen my other dog named Gustil. He was like Katie Baker's dog, but not this cool. What up, Bakes? See him if you're listening, this is a test.

No, I'm not tired. this is just how I look all the time. Like, I'm a very sort of Slovenian, Benicio do Toto. Okay, so the whole thing with qualifying is going to be great for the dude who's, like, in Norway with the Zuckarillo, Jersey on. But, like, when the World Cup actually starts, and it's like Canada versus

Norway, and it's, the thing is, everyone's like, oh, the great thing about the way this setup is there's no 12-0-0-0-0-0. That's not the problem. The problem is when Norway plays Canada, they play a style that's conducive to the one-nothing-boring-ass game. That's what makes it bad. Europe is like, fuck it, man. We're going to fore-check the shit out of you.

And how do you? And how do you? And how deep do we go on the qualifying? I say we go so... I say we bring in the fake countries from the Avengers world. The Sycovia? Krakovia. We bring in what's me in to do her bad accent. Legit.

If you want to go the 16 top teams, right? It's the world. Right now, these are the 16 top teams according to the double IHO. Oh, can I guess some? Yeah. Like I want to guess like the bottom four. All right. Well, let me go.

Okay, I'll go to the bottom four. Canada, Russia, Finland, USA, Sweden, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Belarus. Hello. Germany. My wife. Norway. And who were the last one, two, three.

Who the last four? Oh, wait. Sorry. Norway, Latvia. And then who was 13, 14, 15, 16. Damn, I was going to say Latvia. Can I give you a hint? Kazakhstan? Yes, they're number 16.

Oh, forget my hint then. My hint was going to be three of the four teams were on Team Europe, but they were not. So you got that one. All right. So I guess I just gave the hint anyway. Wait. The other ones were, you say Germany already or no? Yeah, I said Germany.

Slovenia? Correct. Holland? No. The Netherlands? Denmark. And then you missed one that I wouldn't have gotten this one. Poland?

France. Oh, yeah, France. So it'd be the last, Denmark, France, Slovenia, Kazakhstan. Number 17. What do you mean? We don't get to see Thomas Vanik inside of the tournament. Boy, has there ever been a guy who's not going to ever score goals ever get so many chances like Thomas Vannick does? Every time it's like, you're up on a two-on-one and it's Yonik Hansen and Thomas Vannick.

And you're just like, ah. Really? I'm so... Vanik, all alone in front of the net. Oh, he tries a no-look backhand pass and it's picked off. Oh, tough. So here are the four things that we change for the World Cup the next time they decide to hold it. All right, here we go.

Number four for me is pretty easy. keep team North America. I don't really care what you do with Team Europe, to be honest with you. If you want to have a qualifying training, if you want to throw the seventh best team in the world, i.e. Switzerland, into the World Cup of hockey, but still do TNA, that's fine. All due respect to Matt Zuckerow, the Germans,

the French guy, a dude from Slovenia, like, all due respect to all of them, like, I don't actually really care whether or not you get to play it in the World Cup. I care that Switzerland doesn't. I think they belong. and I care about continuing the tradition of TNation

because as you're laughing, you think it's all about hats and jerseys, buddy, but you're just like saying TNA. But TNA lives on in our hearts. You're so desperate to get Europe out of your crosshairs because you were so wrong about them and you're afraid of them now. You don't want them to come back again in four years.

Well, I mean, there's an element of truth to that just because I think there's a chance that we won't end up playing Canada in the first game, which means the fewer teams that we have to overlook. We can't do this bit again. We did that bit last year. Upa Lupa land is trailing the U.S. 2 to 1 late in the third.

But the Umpalup has got a power play thanks to Ryan Kessler's fourth minor penalty. Coach Wonka is doing a really good job out there, keeping the team organized. The USA sucked against Transylvania. All right, what's your number four? There's a lot to bite on there. My number four.

Which order do I want to go in? I'll do this one first. I get to pick Team USA. I mean, let's face it. It's a completely easy job at this point. Whether there's TNA or not next time, I have the credentials to pick the winning team. Because here's the thing.

Here's what I'm going to do. Yeah. Instead of Dean Lombardi, 1996, we're going to grid them all and sandpaper him down to a nub. What we got is a nucleus of caring. I'm going to go with the nucleus of awesome. And that's going to be using the team Europe model from 2016, which is just take all the good fucking players.

You take all the best players available to you. Like Europe did that with the scraps of Europe. They didn't even have all the best players in Europe and they pushed Canada in two games. Imagine what I could do if I'm like, I got an idea. What is it, Dave? You know how we had Eric Johnson last time? We're not going to do that this time. Oh, Dave.

Dave, are you free to build this team? Like, how am I not on the radar for hockey? USA. Got an idea. What is it? What is it, Dave? We leave Jack Johnson home this time. Holy shit. Why didn't we think of that last time? I bring Falk. I bring Fowler. I bring Shatt and Kirk and I bring all the good forwards who can score goals and skate and do stuff. And then I bring a goalie and I'm like, who's your goalie going to be? It's not going to be John Quick. What? What? And then I'm like, look at his stats and they're like, whoa, no. And they look at his stats and they go, oh my God. I didn't realize how average this guy was. Has he always been this way? And then I'm like,

guess he has been. And then boom, I get us at least a silver medal. Right, yeah. I think it's a plausible plan. That's fair. Number three for me would be that I want every team in the tournament to have a hip-hop song as their goal song. I have to admit, we dem boys for Canada, although I heard it more than I wanted to, is a great song. And I also think that, let me clear my throat for the Buffalo Sabres is a great song.

I've come to realize that time has passed by rock and roll part two, not only because Gary Glitter is a... A lot of reasons. Pedophile. But like, and I think Seven Nation Army is overplayed. Like, I feel like the time is now for hockey, the hawk and rap connection, if you will. The hip-hawk connection, if you will, to have a bunch of rap songs. Just cool songs. Stop.

You had them. You had the audience and you lost them there at the end. You're like a stanza. You got to go out on a high note. It's like Cindy Lopper and Jay-Z got together in the hip-hawk connection, just like the rock-and-refer. wrestling connection back in the 1980s. I see your true colors shine and through.

I see your true. What was our goal song for USA? Our goal song? I've heard it twice. I've never heard it. I have a faint recollection of it. What is number three for you? This is less a change.

This is more of an attitude for Canada. I don't want to hear about how fucking hard it is for you to win with the team you have and the expectations you have. I'm tired to read a Mike Babcock quotes where he's just like, you know, We got a really good team here. It's the best team ever, but that's what makes it so hard.

No, no. That is not what makes it so hard. That's what makes it so goddamn easy and you should never ever lose every. Oh my, it just drives me. It's insane. It's just, like, oh my,

there's a whole lot of expectations. Exhibitions. It's hard for when you get the expectations. It's about coaching the Leafs. Like, I could show up without any pants. And they're like, hey, what's you doing? And I'm like, well, coaching the Leaf, not any good yet.

You know how annoying that must be if you're like, Europe, you know, you've got this like this scrap team that you've put together at. You've basically built like a transformer out of like garbage that you found in a junkyard. Oh, so like a junk to con. It's like it's like, what's the movie where Hugh Jackman has the fight in robots and he puts it out of garbage, real steel. Yeah.

He's basically like, Ralph Kruger's like Hugh Jackman in a lot of ways too, I think really, the song, the dance, the muscles. Is Anamanteam skeleton? Basically, he's sort of the same guy. And he's just like, look, you know, we got a really tough road ahead of us. We're going to do everything we can and we're not going to roll over. And Mike Babcock's like, it's so hard winning with all these guys. No one really understands how hard it is for us

When we have all these expectations And all of a country, Fuck you, shut up! Just go out there and win And when you win, be humble about it. Don't be like, oh, my God. You don't know how hard it is to go through life being this hot. Oh.

Like, imagine the thing I tweeted was It's like being dealt pocket aces every time, but it's really not because pocket aces will get out flop once in a while. It's like being dealt pocket aces and like a king and a queen And everybody else only has two cards and you're just like, it's so hard to win. Yeah, and also the dealer is your cousin. Like, yeah, right.

And like the rules are all made for you. Like, just win and shut up. And by the way, listen, I don't like the traffic and conspiracy series. I leave that to certain presidential nominees. But all Canadian referees and they get a power play with three minutes left. And also conveniently, at least the first time in recorded history where a player named Brent Burns hooks a guy from behind who has two strides on him and that guy is Marion Hose and he doesn't get a penalty shot. I know.

Yeah, what was that about? They were giving away penalty shots earlier. in the point. I know. They want to go home too. Just go, move on. Number two is more jerseys. Now, listen, it is without question, a huge, awesome debut for Adidas. Most of the jerseys

looked great. Even Team Europe's jerseys look great, despite their logo looking like it's from an Eastern European natural gas company. They all look great, but my only thing is that there's not enough of them. Like, I would like for Editas to make a jersey for every game. Just make them all. Like, pretend you're the Buffalo Sabres

and you just have 75 jerseys in the span of three years. Oh my God. Like, just a jersey for every game. And especially for, like, Team USA. My God, our jerseys are so bitch and cool, even when we suck. Like, just make a new American jersey for every game we play. And I would buy them all.

Our Sochi ones were bad with the weird stars that were like, they reflected light on the shoulders. Remember those? But can you imagine? If TNA played like four games and each game there was a new badass TNA jersey, I would buy them all. I'm so skeptical of that based on like the color rush jerseys in the NFL. Like, those are really, really corny and bad. Do people collect different... Yes, whatever you're going to say, yes.

Tonell clippings, they do, they collect everything. No, do people collect different covers of magazines when they do the variant covers. Like, when EWs, like, when you get Entertainment Weekly and it's like The Avengers, right? And you're like, you know, one of six and it's like vision. Like, does somebody like, well, shit, I got to go out and get, you know, Black Widow next? Oh, so you're saying by doing this, people are going to collect more stuff. Yeah, I would say people would want the full set of jerseys. I used to collect, remember Beckett, the sports card?

Yeah. Yeah, I used to collect, I remember like, I used to collect the magazine. Yeah, because like, they didn't do MBA at first. And I got the David Robinson one, which would have been the first one, which it was like $2.99 at the time. And now is worth easily $3.10. I'm going to cash that shit in. I don't think I ever collected variant covers. Like the early ones.

Like I think I have like a Michael Jordan one somewhere. I think I might have collected a few comic books that are varying covers. That might be it, though. Because like certain artists were like, you know, like there's due to Alex Ross that does these amazing, like, painting. covers would do variant covers Okay, so how would you guarantee these churches would all be good and they wouldn't look like the Miami Dolphins and the 3rd movie game? That's the easy

part, Dave. I would have different designers come in and design them differently. Oh, wow. Yeah. I would have like fashion designers come in. Like who? Like Vera Wang? Like Vera Wang or that kid with a Christian Seriano would do one? I only know Vera Wang.

I was pulling that one. I was so when you wouldn't go any deeper. I would have Andy from from Devil Wars Prada. come in and do one. Wasn't the mentalist in that movie? Isn't he a designer? Well, the mentalist was a journalist. He was a reporter.

Yeah, that she sleeps with, and then she really regrets it. I just think it's... The mentalist gets her a copy of the Harry Potter manuscript for Merrill Streep's daughter. What a terrible fucking movie. Shut up.

It's the best movie of all time, and I still pissed off we didn't do a commentary track for it, despite the fact it's the 15th anniversary of it. It's that old? It's 15th or 10th, I forget. I think it's a movie 10th, right? Yeah, we're not that old yet.

Yeah, Andrea Grenair is not 15. His career is not 15 years old. Just fucking feels like it. Holy Christ. It's number two for you. The top three teams. We have to make this foolproof. We can't just have the Team USA play, the Oompa Lumpa team.

You just say the top 30 teams? Top three in each group. Oh, okay. Even though that wouldn't have helped us this year. Because I was going to say, if you go top 30, that means Romania and Spain both make it. But like, here's, I want it to be top three, assuming we're bringing back TNA. I want to make, it's more for T&A. to get to the qualification

or to the elimination round as opposed to Team USA. Like, the idea that also, why was there not a bronze medal game this year? I don't understand that either. Like, all it... Why there wasn't a qualification, why there wasn't a quarterfinal and why there wasn't a bronze medal. I agree. Because, like, Team Europe doesn't even

get a participation ribbon for taking Canada to, like, challenging them for two games. They don't get anything. They don't get anything. They don't get, like, plates? They don't get, like, a smaller ashtray. Like a thing of Dunkin' Donuts or Tim Horton's on the way out? nothing for that. But like if you do the top three, yeah, like we've talked about this already, but I love,

it's just such a simple idea. You give the top two teams buys, you let two and three cross over and play each other, and then whatever, have the lowest team play the highest team and the two middle teams play and you're, it's more, like, wouldn't there be more people at a quarterfinal game? It's more money, too, like if you play that. Well, again, this was game to try to get Canada in the final and try to get them against the U.S. Totally.

And they just told them the rest of the United States. as a backup. They forgot the European hockey countries. So I imagine that the structure of this tournament will change only because this one was just bullshit and fake. And that they're going to try to do a real one next. Didn't it feel like nothing to? Like it just, it didn't feel like.

It felt like, you know what it felt like, dude? It felt like a high school musical production of the Olympics. That's what it felt like. They're like, we don't have enough costumes for these other countries. Well, let's just make up some other ones. And then, and then like, Josh, you can be that one. Amanda, you can be this one. Char, you're the tree.

Oh, bullshit, I'm always the tree. I can act. I have a fucking Norse trojan. The goal battle game. We're going to the gold battle game. Hello, I am Thomas Dattar. Welcome to the World Cup. I say we got trouble right here in game two.

That's trouble with a T that rhymes with E. That stands for Europe. Stance for Europe. Franz Nielsen I'm your friendly narrator for the World Cup Consider yourself

A sweet Consider yourself One of the Carlson's Uh-oh Here come the big bad Russians I am here to stop your gold medal With my Steak

Sidney No one talks about Sydney He wins all of the trophies No one gives him any love That's technically now the third episode in a row In which we've mentioned cats Because in the last one we played back the episode before that Where we talked about cats

And by the way there's not going to be a real cat In the new there's going to be grumpy cat in the news And spoiler Ruby Ruby Evanson wants to go to see cats again because grumpy cats in it. All right, number one on our list of the ways that we would fix the World Cup next time for me. Honestly, it's a September tournament played at a September pace.

Congratulations to Europe and Canada in game two of the final for setting a World Cup record with three hits in the game. That was for exciting. Hey, Dustin Bufflin fought a guy when the tournament was over technically for the U.S. He showed some fire. I was after the buzzer. I would play this tournament four-on-four. Now, I know what you're saying, Greg, everybody would get injured if you played a four-on-four. I'm like, probably.

But still, it'd be a lot more exciting than what we saw in this World Cup of hockey. Not your growing. A bunch of guys just kind of like going through the motions. Like I said, it's sort of like a watered-down, duller version of the Olympics. If you played it four-on-four, it'd be super fun. And what do we do as a sport whenever things get dumb and boring? We take players off the ice. We go outside and drink beer.

We take players off the ice. We took players off the ice in the All-Star game, and we allowed a goon to get voted in his captain. And look what happened. Everybody loved it. So to go four-on-four. in the next World Cup. See, my number one sort of agrees with your number one in a way, because, right, it did feel like preseason hockey for, no matter how good the players were. Like, those early games, yice seemed like it was sticky. It was like watching hockey played on

an air hockey table where no one put any quarters in. I might have used that line already on the show. I don't think you did. That's a brilliant thing to say. It was like they could not move the puck. Yeah. So I'm thinking. And you're like depressed because you're out of quarters and it's a tie game. Right. You're just, you start throwing the disc around the art. Arcade. You have to hit it hard. There's no air anymore. You have to hit it harder to get it down the other end. Boom. No, it doesn't go anywhere. Sorry.

So my thing is going to be. Here's what we're going to do. The NHL's not going to like this, but I'm a genius. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to move it to February, shut down the league for two and a half weeks, play it in Canada, play it in Montreal, play it in Toronto, play it wherever. But we're going to set it during the season because that's the best time to play because all the players are at their best, the ice is better.

And not for nothing. I'd rather watch the guys once they build up their skill. They're in the zone. They're ready to play. as opposed to now where they're just kind of like, I don't want to go to training camp, so I'd rather just hang out in Toronto for two weeks. Like, give them the mid-season break.

The bi-week now is stupid. We don't want the buy week anyway. By-week is stupid. So I'm just saying, even though the league doesn't want to do it, if you're shutting down the league for a league event, I think it's different. So move it to the middle of the season. You do it every four years.

Who cares? That's the best way to get the best hockey. Awesome. All right. That's our suggestions. Here's David Ehrlich from Indie Wire. We'll be back after this. David Ehrlich is from Indy Wire

and he joins us here on Puck Soup What are your hockey bona fides? Why are you even here? Why did we invite you on? I mean, are those the same thing? I don't know why you invite me here. The hockey bona fide, that part's easy. I have been, I was born into a family of New York Rangers

season ticket holders back when a family could actually afford those things and then split between three families and now, you know, just buy occasional tickets when you're feeling flush. but I have been a diehard Rangers fan since I've been anything I vividly I'm 31 now I'm one of my vivid memories

of being a kid are the 94 cup run actually the 92 playoffs and before that you know the double losses to the penguins I've just been an obsessive fan ever since and I tend to fixate on a few things in life I got movies I got the Rangers

and like a couple people That's like all I really need to get by So when you were a child, did the rangers teach you inherently that, you know, eventually someone will just give you all their good things and then you can succeed with them when they borrowed the oilers? So I grew up in Connecticut and Dave Maloney was my hockey coach. No way! Yeah, when I was playing travel hockey back before everyone showed up one summer

one fall and was just enormous all of a sudden. And I was like, yeah, I literally walked out of tryouts and just went to a movie theater. Like, this is my life now. But, yeah, no, and he would give me shit all the time. He would literally give me shit. He was not always the nicest, if I remember correctly. Dave Maloney, was it nice to you? I know.

He doesn't seem like the nicest. No, he's, he's a great. I was like 10. And Dave's the Hatchet Man or the Maloney's. What's the best hockey movie? The best hockey movie? I can tell you the worst hockey movie. Maybe the worst of all movies.

No, it's Mystery Alaska, which is like sacrilege. We want to thank Dave for coming in today. Here's a movie that presupposes that Russell Crow and his gang of Alaskan morons could tie the Rangers, or really any professional NHL team. But the Rangers back then were terrible. It doesn't matter. Even the senators back then, like, could have destroyed this team. I just love the idea that at some point during its production, you heard this rumor. It's like, Russell Crow is in a hockey movie.

It takes place in Alaska. It's about a bunch of plucky locals beating a national hockey league team. You're like, that sounds fucking fantastic. I can't wait to see it. And then you find out, so it was a quote, by the way, the team's the Rangers, just like, fuck that movie. It's the worst we ever made.

What fiction. The fiction part is that they lost. The fiction part is Mystery Alaska would have won that game 5'4. Uh-huh. And Mike Richter would have tore his ACL on my game. The best part of that movie for me is the goalie on Mystery Alaska.

Whenever he makes a glove save, he makes the most over-dramatic glove save every time. Like the glove starts at his skate and then he whips it up over his head to make the amazing gloves, and then they just put the puck back in play. There's no pressure. There's no net presence.

It made me, It made me think of a lot about, you know, Slapshot has their reputation of being a now and out comedy, but it's also this wonderful look at like blue collar life, you know, in that town. And I feel like Mr. Alaska wanted to be that, but also in sort of a 30-something more serial dramatic way than Slapshot was. And I found it to be a bad decision. I thought it was like Slapshot, but only it was good and fun to watch and not stupid and bad. I thought it was like Slapshot, except without. jokes.

Slapshot bugs me because everyone's response to whenever you say, I don't like slap shot. I don't think it was funny. They're like, oh, but that's exactly how hockey was then. And I'm like, who watches comedy for that? No one's really figured out how to do hockey on film, which is a crime because it's such an inherently cinematic sport. I mean, like, there are ways where a competent filmmaker could shoot the shit out of it and really make it sort of visceral and exciting on screen.

And you just don't get that. Although, I'll cheat to your question earlier about the best hockey movie and say, as a plug for the upcoming Affleck joint. Casey Affleck, Manchester by the sea. I'm just going to say the accountant is the idiot. No.

The story of like a salary cap country who murders people in this free time. But a hard two and a half hour grueling drama Manchester by the sea. Casey Affleck, it's about a kid

who at least in the periphery of the story is a hockey player. See, that's an interesting point because there are two different kinds of hockey movies. There are hockey movies and there are movies with hockey in it.

Right. So that's a movie hockey in it. The town? The town? Yeah, Ben Affleck's a former hockey star. And they go to a skating rink to talk about robbing people.

Chasing Amy is a movie with hockey in it. Thank you. Jersey in the house. And Inside Out, movie with hockey in it. The second episode of Friends, where Ross goes to the game, forget about Carol.

Sorry, good. Our first sidebar of the day is, so Matt LeBlanc is getting another sitcom. It's on CBS, right? It's on CBS. and and he's he's sort of now they

if you if you're in New York Kevin James is now eponymous on these these signs for his show where it's like Kevin can wait and it's like he's back and it's just his fat fat ass on a fucking sofa

Kevin is real yeah and then and then just make a bunch of shows Kevin is for real right and then it's right Kevinly creatures but I see Matt Leblanc and he's like

he's ripping open his shirt like Superman and the shirt like Superman straight underneath says number one dad. And I'm like, that's the last thing I want to see Matt LeBlancas as is a dad. Well, he can't play a 25-year-old expiring actor anymore. No, but he can play like a 40-something lethario or

he can play the 40-something aspiring actor that he is. Jokes, jokes. We all finally remember Joey. Yeah, and a movie with the monkey. But it is as someone whose life is like part hockey and part movies, it is always, I don't know if fun's the right

But it's always a thing when you spot the sort of commingling of the two. Like when you're watching train wreck, you see a Frame Lunguisch jersey in Bill Hader's office. Like that for me is the highlight of that film. We brought on a guy from Veepe who was his name, Billy Kimball. Billy Kimball, yeah. Who wrote the episode of Veep where Mike was trying to get a job with the Washington Capitals. That's it. It'd be a PR guy.

It was in the background of like four minutes of show, if that, two minutes of a job. And when I, when the Sopranos is on, like, my favorite show of all time pretty much. But also, like, AJ Soprano had a devil's trash can in his room. Like, not only is that suburban jersey, but there's hockey in the show. Devil's trash can that could describe so many things. Wow. Kind of walked into that one, didn't he? He was firing both in there.

But what was I was going to say? Like in 30 Rock, you know, with even Paul Giamatti as an Islanders fan. Like that. And it was like Paul Giamati as an Islander's fan with his ponytail and like working in the edit room down there. Like that always made me a hassle. boyfriend was an Islander's fan too. The dude was on Oz. What's his face?

Dennis. Yeah, Dennis. Like a huge hockey fan too. It's actually like a, there's like a comedy, hockey and comedy through pop culture definitely has a tie-in because obviously cheers was very hockey centric. Threaty Rock had the hockey thing. Maybe it's just because people don't, you know, or the ordinary Americans that they're pitching the stuff to don't necessarily take hockey seriously. No. The very idea of hockey is sort of comedic to them.

That was the really Campbell said. It was like everyone knows football. Everyone knows baseball. You can have more fun with hockey because most people don't know it. So you can kind of play with it. It's inherently funny. It has connotation. You mention hockey.

You think of the 1970s, aesthetic of Neanderthal's punching each other in the face, versus today where they're all suing the league because no one told them they shouldn't punch each other in the face. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. What about the mascot in sudden death that John Claude was in the street? I was there opening day. Remember that game vividly?

That game. I mean, I remember the game they play in the movie. I remember the movie vividly. Yeah. They crashed a helicopter on the ice of the igloo in that movie. That was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen in any film. And it also, you know, because it was the igloo. And every time, you know, as a Rangers fan, Madison Square Garden,

world's most famous arena, makes its way into a much wider variety of television and movies. And it totally takes me out of it when they fake it, which they almost always do. Godzilla. It's got a very distinct setting and roof in particular, which always shows up on screen. And it's always bullshit. That shitty William Neeson. Ed Harris movie where they're old guys. Run all night.

Yeah, trying to do karate. Wow. But Liam Neeson, he's, uh, as a Rangers fan, I'm, I love the fact that Liam Neeson is like the least likely Rangers fan. Oh, yeah, who's your favorite? Who's, who's the person that you're most proud of being in the tribe? Is it, is it Margot Robbie? We assume it's Margo Robbie.

Your listeners may not know this, uh, but once upon a time when Wolf of Wall Street was coming out, I, I was friends with, uh, publicist at Paramount, and I was like, I keep seeing Margo Robbie at the Rangers games. Like, what's the story there? And she was like, she's a real fan. I was like, can I do an interview with her that's just about the Rangers? And they were like, well, we'll ask her. We'll let her know. And five minutes later, like, she's in. So we... I know. What the fuck. Oh, by the way. Go on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we turned down the lights. And we sat behind the crease. And no, it was great.

And then about like, halfway through the interview, I was just like so embarrassed just by the concept of it that we just started talking about the movie because I was like, this is my job, I don't know. But she seems to be a legit Rangers fan. Who's your favorite Ranger? Is it Kelly, Kelly, can I kiss you? I mean, Kelly, Cassio, I mean, kiss?

She was a goalie in Australia. Oh, she's legit. She's a legit puckhead. Yeah. Makes me happy. Same with Chloe, what's your face? A hit girl from Chloe Grace. Loretts, yeah. And Margot Robbie told me that her favorite Ranger

was Lungwist, and I was like, you know, you could probably make that happen. if you're married with kids now. I mean, back then, you know, I think he was just married. Do you think Lundquist would ever ever allow himself to be traded? Because let's be honest, like, we're at a point now with Lungwist where it probably does the Rangers more,

does them better to trade him at some point, get a bunch of shit back. He still has a lot left in him. You can give him to Dallas, and Dallas is going to give you a bunch of stuff that you need because they need a goalie. Yeah. Are you, are you, one, do you think you'd ever agree to a trade?

Two, do you think it's in the best interest the Rangers to trade? I mean, thinking about a future where Lundquist is in a Ranger is like me trying to ponder a Trump presidency. It's just like it's so unfathomable and unpleasant that I can't really get there. I, you know, nobody in professional sports, as far as I can tell, wants to win a championship as much as Henrik Lundquist. It obsesses him. I love that about him. And I think at a certain point, if he realizes and the contracts line up and the offers there that he can't do that with the Rangers, he may be one of those guys who takes the season in Pittsburgh or whatever and wins a cup.

Would you be mad about that? Oh, yeah. I mean, I think the Rangers are way overdue for like a real dagger to the heart trade, like a real loss. We haven't had one in a while. Whoa, what about Derek Brassard, buddy? I mean, when you acquired Rick Nash, you kind of thought that way. Love Nash. Nash looks like he should be living in the woods. That's just like... I find him to be one of the most tributt that.

tragic creatures, right? Because obviously he's been affected by concussions. Like there's no... He said it himself that after one of his concussions that he suffered while he was with a ranger, it affected the way he played. Like, he was, like, hesitant to go to the corners and do the things he used to do. And that sucks, because he used to be a really great goal

score. But at the same time, like, he's just this... He's just this... He's nice. Which is weird enough being in New York. But also, like, he goes through these droughts. And he's still being pimped up as, like, a premier goal score, but like, yeah, but then he goes like 24 playoff games, though, to goal.

Yeah, well, that's, you know, that's being a Rangers fan. I mean, I know every team says that. Every fan says that about their team, but, like, you know, we won once in 54 years later, and it's going to be probably that long before we went again. I'm banking on maybe one more in my lifetime, and I think that that's part of the Evan Flo of how it goes. I wouldn't know how to handle being a fan of a team that won all the time. I think, like, without that drama, without those crushing disappointments, like, what do you do? What do you do the year after your team wins? I'll tell you what you do. I just came back from Canada as the World Cup of hockey.

You go watch a Blue Jays game instead because all the Canadian hockey fans didn't go to the World Cup. They just, they were like not into it. They were like, we're obviously demonstrably better than everybody else here. We've already seen them win more important tournaments. And we're just going to go watch some baseball instead. And then when they get out of the baseball game, they go watch the big television outside the arena and cheer on their team. Like, that's what they literally did. Greg has been murdering Canadian hockey teams.

It's just two weeks now. It's not so much murder. murdering them as as it's it's not that no it's it's like this it's the same thing as like I mean there's a real New York New Jersey vibe that goes on between Canada and the US right this air of superiority the Rangers fans inherently have over doubles fans completely aware of that despite the disparity in championships in the recent years I'll say that it's it's the notion of like Canada Canadian fans drop their pants and shit on American cities whenever they see an empty seat like oh how dare you how

dear God's gift to us humans you know came down the fucking mountain top with a bushel of pucks and said here's the greatest sport on ice and you don't fill seats for it and then they hold the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto and the place is less than two thirds filled

for like Finland, Sweden which is like a great rivalry and then and the first game against and the first game with a championship series where it's basically a coronation like it's basically like go see Canada win like as an American can you imagine if there was a sporting event where they're just like, just go watch the Americans just kick ass.

Like, we'd go to it. We'd go to watch the dream team basketball games and stuff. I mean, for me, it's too much about the narrative. Like, I need the framework of an NHL season to really, you know, care. Care, right. And this, I think just the schedule doesn't do it any favors right before the preseason. It's like the pre-preseason. I don't care what fictional trophy you put on the line.

I don't know if it really matters. But I do feel like Americans should feel that way about being given God's greatest gift of hockey. as an American who could not care less about football or baseball or basketball, like hockey is it for me. And I think, you know, I'm one of those people that when people are like, oh, I like one team here and I like another team there, I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? Like, you have a thing, and that is your thing.

And like that, and you can ride that out. And I need that for my involvement. And I do think that it is a shame that Americans don't fill these arenas on the regular. But, yeah, the World Cup. I mean, that was more of a, it felt to me like a promo stunt. But there's reasons for it. Like, it's easy for us to say that in the Northeast because we grew up with hockey. Like, you know, if you put a team in Dallas, you put a team in Columbus or wherever, like, I feel bad.

Like, I feel like, yeah, there's going to be empty seats. Like, you have different levels of market. In Dallas, they'll come when they win. In Columbus, they haven't won yet. Like, I feel like there's always potential for it, but I also feel like here, it's like, like, the flyers could blow for 20 years. They have. They've blown for 40 years. No. And they still show up all the time.

Well, I don't know because the Rangers, back in the day, when they had that drought, you can get tickets pretty much whenever you wanted. But were they already sold seats, though? When was the last time there was a game at MSG where they weren't claiming 18,200 seats sold? Oh, no, like, during that late 90s, early-a-off stretch, like, they weren't doing the whole 18-Holique contract years? Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. There were definite, like, seats that you can go out. That number they announced. I mean, for a long time, they were announcing that number fraudulently.

Well, you could still have a nice thing to do it. The NHL announces that number fraudulently every night because they count tickets distributed versus tickets sold. So the devils can say they have, you know, 14,000 on a Tuesday night against Buffalo, and it's like just me. But you see the Rangers on Friends, right? And you're like, that is an institution. They are part of the fabric of the city when sitcoms that shoot on one crappy-looking block of studio sets. in L.A. Like, when they're thinking about New York, like, this is something that passes muster. I don't know how I could.

And I'm, I admire fans of new franchises, the people that are going to go to Columbus Blue Jackets game, be like, yeah, like, we're all hit now. But, like, I would not be able to be a fan of a team that I didn't know for certain was going to be there the next year. Yeah. Like that has to be. Yeah, totally. Oh, very much so.

I felt so. You know, and that's another thing. It's like the Canadians look down at, at, like, it. Glendale and they're like, oh, well, why don't you go to the games? I'm like, why would you possibly go to the games? Why would you possibly have any financial or emotional investment in a team that might not be there next week? The beauty of team sports and fandom is being a part of something that's bigger than you. And when it is that sort of disposable and feels much smaller than the investment that you're making into it, then like that, I think just chips away the

fundamental element of what it is that you're investing in when you're investing in. So what you're saying is that things that drag on for way too long, that should eventually stop we get tired of. So speaking of that, it's a comic book movie. Oh, yeah. Reboots. When's it going to end, Dave? When's this phenomenon going to stop? When am I going to die?

Now, for the, let's set up his credentials here. David is a very well-respected film reviewer, and he's well known as someone who is in the vocal minority that detracts from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Oh, yeah.

You're one of those people out there who's like clocking the rotten tomato score of Captain America, World Police, and are getting your death threats ready to go. Like, just, and Dr. Strange is coming out soon. You can just write that shit now and throw away. I am actually, I am going into all these movies, hoping for the best. I still, I loved The Avengers even. I thought the last 30 minutes of that movie were the beautiful action,

choreography, Josh Whedon, knew what he was doing it, all those characters serving each other. but yeah I think that it's fair to say that I'm in a position where I am going to festivals, I'm reviewing high-brow stuff, low-brow stuff, and the middle-brow stuff, and the

it's not my job to blindly prop up the superhero movies just because that's what's making money. It seems like the Avengers worked because it was the culmination of three other specific films that were all kind of feeding into it. And those were all

pretty good movies. I mean, Thor was what it was, but as a fish out of water the thing, it was all right. Captain America, the first Avenger, was great, I felt, and in a rocketeer kind of way. And Iron Man was great. I kind of like Iron Man 3 better because it was more subversive. But all those movies kind of fed into this thing,

and then Joss Whedon stuck the landing. But ever since then, it's become this just unwieldy collection of trying to force shit into movies to set up other things that aren't even in the next movie in that series. Yeah. And that's where I think they went off the rails.

I seldom find offensive in any way. It's more the conversation around them, which is all consuming. And I recognize to a certain degree that the excitement generated over superhero movies keeps me in business because you can post content about that or whatnot. And then you can fit in your reviews of the movies that maybe you find interesting. But I do think that the constant hype parade of like, here's a character, like here's a rumor, whatever, on and on and on, even into the closing credits of these. movies and then it starts over again can be unhealthy. But I also need to preface this by saying

that I, when the Avengers formally endorsed Hillary Clinton earlier this month, wait a shit, it's here. When did that happen? You didn't miss that? Oh, there was a, no, they weren't in costume, dummy. It was like Ruffalo and Downey. And Downey, by the way, who was a righty throughout his entire life. First of all, dummy. He said the Avengers endorsed Hillary Clinton. And I felt like the, and I felt like the first thought you had was like Chris Hemsworth with the fucking hammer. Because that's any less ridiculous?

It was all people getting together to endorse Hillary? I pledged that until November 8th, I would only say I would be endorsing the Avengers in return. But hold on. What's more ridiculous? The Avengers and the Marvel Cinematic Universe endorsing Hillary or what just came out this week,

basically everybody who's ever been on Star Trek that isn't British or Canadian endorsing Hillary Clinton. And is the implication that by silence, Zach Snyder is endorsing Trump. I don't know. I don't know. People are saying. That's what I'm saying.

Also, the West Wing cast is going to Ohio. Oh, yeah. Like, fuck off with this mother fucking election already. Jesus Christ. Hey, the cast of Seinfeld is going to go out and endorse Jessica Stap? I completely agree with you because it is, the West Wing thing is bullshit because Toby got fired, and yet

he's still part of the crew. I don't know how that possibly happened. I think you speak for all of us when we say fuck off with this election shit, but like, let's fuck off the right way. the, yeah, but the Avengers, like, I'm more excited about the unwieldy, wild the Marvel chapters that they're making now,

your Dr. Stranges, your weird shit. You know, Professor Pizarre, whatever the next movie is, I don't know. But the more field they have to go from the core properties, the more chance there is for, I don't know, some personality. But you, essentially, but isn't the problem that it's an

assembly line? Like, say what you will about the Zach Snyder films, but at least there's a there's a viewpoint. Well, my... Listen, it's not a viewpoint you want to see. Like,

like, when I walked out of Batman my first thought was... I wish I were dead. My first thought was, I didn't really like this movie, but I'm happy it exists because it is a version

of these characters that I've now seen, and now we don't have to ever see him again. But I'm happy that we saw it. If only you were so lucky, because you will have to see it again, but... No, no,

but they're not going to be the same characters in Justice League because they're going to completely change what they are, fundamentally. They're going to make Batman funny. Yeah, but it's like, you know,

you wouldn't be able to, I don't know why this was my first point in comparison, because why would I feel like I should be comparing Zach Snyder to Steve Jobs? But like, you couldn't go to Steve Jobs when he was alive and be like, design like a different kind of iPhone. Like, design one that's like as fuzzy. I don't know. Like, he's still Zach Snyder. He's still in charge of that ship. And it is going to be what it is. But I, to your point, between Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad, my line of thinking was because they haven't figured out what works yet, the ceiling is high. than it is for Marvel.

Right. Because like their experiments could yield more interesting results. Why aren't people tired? But they haven't and they won't. Why aren't people tired of comic book movies already? It's been like a 15-year run of like four movies a year of the same shit where the good guy wins at the end. Like there's... Why do people like football?

Like I don't, there are so many things that are inexplicable in this world. Why do people in the 50s and 60s like Westerns? Well, lessons are great. That's the proxies. The proxies is, you know, there was an entire genre where everybody was in a Western and they just kept on making Westerns. Fucking Robert Redford was in a Western

and Buclini's Switters in 25. I don't know if that analogy totally holds water because Westerns while a ubiquitous genre at that time

were not so inextricably linked together as this one corporate like entity. They were the cinematic representation of Americana

right and stories that kids grew up, cowboys and Indians that whole shit. It's just like these are the quintessential stories

of our Americana as you know 30s and 40 something people We grew up with Batman and Superman, and these are now, our myths being put on film. I remember when the third, Batman came out, it was, it was Batman, then it was Batman Return. You mean Batman Forever? And Batman? I remember seeing Batman forever and being like, I don't need to see another comic book movie ever again.

That title is a threat. It's directly in there. I mean, like, and they've been making good on it for however many years since. Now, like, Iron Man, like, there's been three Iron Man movies. Like, how many movies have their been in the last 10 years that have had fucking, Iron Man in him. I'm tired of all. Iron Man is the living symbol of my exhaustion with his people. Like put Robert Downey Jr. out to pasture. Like he's just the same schick every time. And all of his sort of Randian rants about, you know, the protection. We trust this and we need this and this. And all these like civil conversations that are having about responsibility together are so remedial and tired. And it's just like do literally anything else. Can just shoot him in the head.

I like the part where he gave up being Iron Man and Iron Man three. And then all of a sudden was Iron Man again. and no one really gave a shit about it. Yeah, he's like, I'm done. I'm done. I'm going to drive down the mountain in my sports car now, then all of a sudden next movie, hey, it's me, Iron Man again. What would you rather see, Iron Man 4 or Carol 2?

So Carol, as Dave knows, a favorite film of mine, but no, I would see, there is going to be an Iron Man for, I'm pretty sure, but I think that... But I think that they do, you know, the argument is always that they have so many different lines in comic books

where it's like, you know, you can have your one your one amazing Iron Man or like Amazing Spider-Man or regular Spider-Man and I don't think that right I don't think that translates very well to film necessarily as we've seen with the Amazing Spider-Man like Insta reboot with that and I do think that if Tony Stark does decide to or you know Robert Downey Jr. or Marvel decides to end his run there they this is never going to happen but they could do worse than murdering him I think that would that would be like oh we actually are putting stakes in Thor like Thor like

Thor just drops the hammer on his skull and it's splattered I am ready to audition. It'd be a villain to put him over, just like in wrestling. Now, listen, I'm going to take two, pick two bones with you. Then we're going to talk about the Force Awakens because Lozo finally saw it. My first bone is... Like, James got to go at some point. I can go on to the Force Awakens for a good 45 minutes to an hour.

How dare you give D-Minuteus to Independence Day 2? Oh, my God. Independence Day is... I mean, like, that Independence Day is a beautiful film. Like, that is a movie. It works on every level. And you hold that up as like, this is way. And blockbusters were good.

Right. We actually made them with some... It was a very silly movie, but like it was done with some heart, some energy, some vision. There was real pace to it and patience. It's like an hour before the aliens really come. Wholesale ripped off Star Wars. Well, it's derivative as shit, of course. I mean, it's Roland Emmerich we're talking about.

To be fair, they did add a gay stereotype and a Jewish stereotype. David! David! That's my David! That's my David over there. And then, of course... I got to go see my therapist. Harvey Firesteed. Aliens, call my lawyer. Don't call my lawyer.

It's a beautiful... I mean, it has these... Would some of those stereotypes survive now? Probably not for better, more than worse. But, like... Pause on that for a second. Because we had a discussion about Blazing Saddles when we were at the World Cup.

And having seen it recently and how, like, a millennial audience would react to it. Is there any revisionism and feel criticism to look back at a film like that and say, okay, it was funny for its time, but it's kind of fucked up now? Of course.

I mean, I don't know if, like, that is the example that I don't know if there is value in me sitting down and being like, you know, we have clearly come a long way in culture and we now have to all agree that Blazing Saddles is offensive and we shouldn't be watching it and like fuck Mel Brooks for making it 40 years ago. I don't know if, I think revisionism is healthy and as long as you have a certain respect for the viewpoints that have been made in the past, but challenging these things can be good. One of the reasons I like writing about movies rather than TV is that there's more of an opportunity to look back at this like one crystallized moment in time,

this one film rather than the series that spanned years and isolate it. But no, I think talking about Blazing Saddles as it compares to it now, imagining what that movie would be like now is interesting. But saying that like it was racist then because we're looking at it with 2020 hindsight is maybe not so helpful. But we have a culture where people are trying to delete things from the culture because they feel like it's now become offensive. That's a hard thing for film to do to survive. Because sensibilities about humor, you know, reactions to race, like all this shit.

But you also would be sort of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I mean, you'd be saying that ignoring the fact that we got to where we are now, in part because of movies like Blazing Saddles. That's right. And I think laughing at our bigotry and our prejudices in culture and all these things is the most helpful way to move past them. Blazing Saddles is different than, say, Drew McGarry, really. something one week because he showed a clip from the hangover which is like what a six year old movie

where they all pull up outside and it's what's his name from the office is sitting there with his like horrible wife or whatever yeah paging doctor f word right i want to say because in context it's a pointless thing because like in movies if you want to have characters drop those words and say those things they're supposed to be the characters you hate the characters you like not the three cool bros or outside like that scene will never happen to movie right and it

Nor should it. Because, like, the Todd Phillips movies of the world, like, that shit is totally oblivious. And, like, they're totally encouraging that thinking in those people. And you could tell immediately on opening night of that movie that, like, that stuff wasn't landed. And that's what, this week also had the criticism of Tim Burton for the lack of diversity in his films. And while you can argue that there are definitely some roles that could be much more diverse in his films, like there's no reason why he can't have a black Charlie Bucket in. Tim Burton, who has been making the same movie for 30 years. has no right to be talking about diversity. But that's the thing, though, is that, like, in most of his films, the cast, like, and having an all-white cast is intentional because he's making fun.

Like, the Beetlejuice is about an upper-crust family, you know, and they're a bunch of douchebags. The Edward Cisherhands is about an all-white suburb, and there are a bunch of juicebags. Like, there's a lot of his work where it's obvious that the racial makeup of the cast is because he's making a commentary on those people. Sure, but his record wasn't on trial here. I mean, he was being, he invited criticism that didn't necessarily exist to a palpable degree in the first place about this new film, which is about a kid on an island where there's like kids who open their mouth and beads come out. And like, these are beads? Beads, bees. Okay.

And Tim Burton loves him. He's like, look at this special kid. He's better than you. And it's like, that's his gift. It's like X-Men Harry Potter. Everything's so weird. What if Tim Burton made X-Men weird? Let's watch that movie.

That was he walked in. And he just said, what if Tim Burton made X-Bend weird? And then they just drop money on the table. But there is why he is going out of his way to point out that there is absolutely no reason why Ms. Peregrine's Wonder Emporium, whatever the fuck this movie is called. There are no people of any other races is bizarre to me. It's all white people. I should say one of the cast members is invisible. So we don't know what the race is.

but yeah no it's Samuel Jackson is a black man as you may know and he is the villain You barely know he's in it based on the commercials though Which is weird because like if I see a movie where Samuel Jackson's playing a bad guy I'm like oh I might want to go see that Oh yeah you're all over 187

Oh but wait Eva Green might turn into a frog and And flap around and impart wisdom on weird kids Yeah no bees in the mouth thing sounds like it's pretty good Now listen Bees in the mouth kid actually grows up and then he commits a murder And then he gets put on the green mile Oh, fuck. I thought you were going to say,

bees in the mouth kid commits a murder, then he's executed and he becomes Candyman. Yeah, that's... The bees and bees end up saving people, but then Tom Hanks kills him anyway.

And then, right, but then he's seen as being really important because all the bees are dying and he's got all the bees in his mouth. He could repopulate the bee population. What was his mouse's name in that movie? That he steps on. Oh, yeah.

I saw the movie so many times. I was like 14. It was squishy. It was not. Listen, all right. We're keeping you way too long. We should talk about the Force Awakens because Lozo finally saw it.

What's your 30-second review of the Force Awakens, Dave Loso? It was good. I didn't think it was particularly memorable. Everyone who said it was like a remake of the New Hope, or of A New Hope. Like, it's not note for note that movie, but it's like every other note, which annoyed me because I've already seen that movie.

Like, I feel like if you're 22 and you hadn't really grown up with those movies, Force Awakens is really fun and really great, and you're like, wow, this is like, but it was like watching or listening to, what's that, you know, the guy, Sam Smith, who stole the Tom Petty. Yeah, to stay with me guy. Right. Won't she stay? So you're saying this is to stay with me to Star Wars as I won't back down?

Where, like, if you never knew about the Tom Petty version, you'd be like, I like this, this is great. But since you've already heard the Tom Petty version, you've already seen Luke, like changing Luke to a woman, giving him a British accent, you know, changing up a couple of characters, bringing back the nostalgia, adding the tiny woman from UCIS Los Angeles. This is what you're going to get. And she was a real Mary Sue, let me tell you. Oh, geez. The scene, yeah, I knew there was some sort of. of criticism of her that I had to remember, but I didn't go look it up. But like, the part at the end, when the fucking ground splits between Kylo and fucking Ray,

I fucking groan so fucking loud that the neighbors called the cops on me because I thought I might have been murdered. But that said, did you fanboy out when she got lightsaber before that? Because that's like, to be the best part of the movie. There's, like, that. And the part that annoyed me was when, like, the first, the original movies, it takes like 90 fucking years to become a lightsaber person. and like, Finn all of a sudden is just like an expert

and then like she picks it up and she's dominating him and I'm guessing the explanation is that she read his mind and learned how to be a Jedi. Last thing I'll say though, because you're going to go in a sec on this. The most unbelievable thing I found in that entire movie is that throughout their entire relationship that's the first time Hans ever used the fucking crossbow? Like he's just like, hey, I kind of like the hang of this.

I'm like, are you telling me in all of the things that you've gotten yourselves into? You've never had to pick up Chewy's gun? And also when he touches Kyleo's face, he fucking should have said I love you and then died. I will go to my grave. You can do a fan edit. I will edit.

You're a voice in there. I love you. It's just my dumb voice. I love you. But the trend that you pick up in here about it, it's sort of being an almost, you know, note for no remake is going to continue in that I can all but guarantee you that the next one is going to be far and away, the strongest, certainly the darkest of these next three movies, you know, 7, 8, and 9.

She's going to lose a hand. She may not lose a hand. Maybe a foot this time. Maybe a finger. depends on what they're willing to do. And that's Finn not dead, by the way. Didn't he, like, split him in two up the back with the lightsaber? Sorry, got on.

No, and then they're going to have the guy the Jurassic World come in for the ninth one, which is going to be all full of Ewarks. And it's going to be pure return of the Jedi. And everyone who's hanging on eight being like the dark night of Star Wars is going to be left with the Dark Nair Rises. And they're already, like, of the plot threads that I've heard, it's like, all our heroes are going to be split up in different places. I'm like, where have I heard that before?

But I tell you, I, despite the scuttlebut about the troubled production of this Star Wars story movie, Rogue One, I as one of the few hardcore defenders of Gareth Edwards Godzilla movie, think, even though he was sort of booted off this movie towards the end, think that this could be sort of what we were talking about with DC and Marvel, like maybe the potentially more interesting uncharted territory of the Star Wars movie. Garrett was a Godzilla movie was so goddamn frustrating to watch because... You're not one of those. Like, Godzilla wasn't in enough people, are you?

No, no, it wasn't that Godzilla wasn't enough people because... Because, I mean, you do get the payoff at the end where you have the big showdown. That said, there were those moments in the movie where they have a fight, and, like, they show the beginning of the fight. Like, they're at the airport, and it's like, Godzilla fighting a monster. And then all of a sudden, it's just, like, they just cut away. Yeah, but it's the human point of you. I mean, it's like... I don't know a super point of you, but it's like...

Eliminating the human PV. over the course of the story, but I thought that it was also beautifully staged and such a sense of grandeur to it. It was. And you really, like, that is something that the Star Wars movies can use. And I think it's something that makes the first 30 minutes of the Force Awakens stand out because they really dip into the sense of watching a myth unfold. And to go back to the Marvel discussion, I mean, they're swinging for the fences with who they're hiring to do these films, too. I mean, they're getting, I mean, listen, JJ is good at a very specific thing and he did it in this movie. stuff that's already known.

Well, taking a known property and throwing a little twist at it and going faster, faster, louder, and it works. He's great. He's the guy you want to hire when you want to deliver something that will rely. I mean, Star Trek in the dark,

does notwithstanding, but like the original Star Trek movie that he made original in finger quotes. Like, he's the guy you hire when you want someone to shepherd your mega, mega franchise with respect to the fans, and you can sleep at night knowing that your money is well-placed

and you're going to make many billions in the future. He's a genius. I mean, the part where he was like, hey, how about instead of Kirk in O'Hura, it's Spock in O'Houra, and someone's like, you're a fucking, you're an artist. You're a genius. How did you think of that? Well, I can't really get into my process. You mean the part where a farm boy wants to grow up and become a hero, and then there's a someone's planet gets destroyed by a machine? Another death star.

Why were people mad about Ray again in that movie? Well, I'll leave you guys with this. It was because a screenwriter and director named Max Landis, son of John Landis, posted. a video, and I'm supposed to be, maybe next month, flying out to L.A. to spend a couple days with Max Landis talking about all this stuff. So look for that on Indywire.com in the future. That reminds me, yeah. I actually had there written down. You gave America Ultra a bad review, and I respect you for that because I don't like that movie either. Yeah, I think that one of the reasons Max Landis was interested in talking to me potentially

is because... To find out why you didn't like... No, no, no. But I think that's like... My Max Landis is also my David Schwimmer. Oh, fine by me. I think to his crows. credit, he doesn't mind engaging with people who didn't necessarily like his stuff. So that'll be fun. All right. Finally, prediction for the Rangers.

The same prediction that I have pretty much for every Ranger season, which is that they will squeak into the playoffs, hopefully with enough games remaining not to give me a heart attack, and then try to make it interesting for a round and a half or two. But they're a playoff team. They should be by all rights. And finally, finally, did you take any joy in John Tortorella flaming out? as he did in the World Cup of Hocking? You so did.

No, I don't know. I just like, I think a lot less of John Totorella after the whole Colin Kaepernick thing. Oh, yeah. But I, he was kind of like Sean Avery in a way. It's like you wanted him on your team and you'd like to laugh at him when he was coaching, you know, on the other bench.

But, you know, I saw enough those 24-7s and him and the kid and doubt, like, the relationship that he had. And he seemed like a good guy at heart. I wish him, though. ill will. And hey, Chris Drury's back now, is there like whatever of whatever. So we asked the people who didn't survive Tortorella are back. David Ehrlich, where can people find your stuff? You can find me on Twitter at David Ehrlich, and you can find all my writing at Indywire.com. That's it. That's all you got. Anything else in the can? Movie coming, script. Writing something on your own. Indie Wires taking up

plenty of my time at the moment. All right. Thank you so much, Dave. Oh, thank you. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. Thanks to David Ehrlich for joining us here on the show. the prerequisite movie talk and music talk that y'all love. And anyways, we're over here in the yield voiceover studio, Dave Lozo. It's great to be back, and now I'm going to sit here and talking to the microphone while Greg fumbles with some things to make sure the volume's down, and now it's down. And I want to say you're welcome, by the way, for putting the Sam Smith song in your head for the rest of the day.

That's true. And also for us putting cats musical stuff back in your head as well. So let's just chat about some stuff real quick. Johnny Goodrow, as we do this podcast, still unsigned. Which means he'll sign the second we wrap it up. And email us in and go about our day. Kevin Cohen wants to know as we sort of do a mishmash of reader mail and other stuff. What the hell is Burke thinking not giving Johnny exactly what he wants, flames fans, freaking out?

Well, you should be freaked out because here's the thing about Johnny Goodrow. Ready? This is the secret about Johnny Goodro. Should we tell it? I'm going to tell it right now. He's probably not going to be a full of it. flame for his entire career. He's probably going to go back east where he, you know, grew up, probably play for the flyers at some point, I'm sure. Right, because as you may have noticed,

there's this American kid in Winnipeg, in Manitoba who doesn't want to be there anymore. Yeah. And he's really good and he's using his leverage to get out of there. No, but I think he knows, look, he knows he's a special player. He'd like to be the highest paid player in the team. They don't want to be the highest player in the team. They essentially have some leverage because, you know, he's, I think, ineligible, right, for an offer sheet. put him by together? He's just coming off of his EOS. They got all the leverage, so I think it's going to be fine.

I think they'll figure out a number that works for both of them with Johnny. You know, I'm sure one of the reasons he's coming hard at him is because he knows they don't, they have all the leverage. He can't do anything. When someone has leverage on you, you have to come hard. Yeah, you have to come hard when you have leverage. Especially if it's that Timothy Hutton kind of leverage. He provides. Was that that that show?

Leverage. Was that Eric McCormick? No, leverage has that guy, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. the lady who does the sneaking in and out, the British lady who does the, I forget what their roles were, the white guy with the country hair do. Like, the thing that sucks, like, the CBA is so bad for the players. Like, I don't even know what Don Fear did, to be perfectly honest, because the system is so rigged against the players in a way, because all their peak years are before they can get

to UFA. Like, when you're 25, 26, you're not old at that point, but, like, you're kind of, you're kind of sort of on like the beginning of the back half of your career where you're not as productive and therefore not as valuable. So it's like they fuck you while you're valuable by, oh, you have no rights for arbitration. You have no rights to get an offer sheet, blah, blah, blah. And then like once you're too old, it's like, well, you're too old, I can't give you them, I can't pay you that. So it's just, I hope more guys like Linholm and Truba to an extent and Godreau and all these got Kutroff too, especially. Like the Kutroff's in a situation where he's not going to get paid because they paid

Ryan Callaghan. But I think these guys. If you're a player, just hold your team, hold your team over a barrel and show them to 50 states. Why do I quote that movie? It's not even a good movie. No, but like, like, Kucheroff is, I feel bad for Kutcheroff because like this is the guy who deserves the money. Playoffs, everything. Yeah, because the way that, and the way the team is structured is sneaky because it's like, it's like, hey, you know, we already paid out all the somebody other people. Right.

But also we're really, really good. And, hey, on top of that, dude, did you see what Stephen Stamco did? Don't you want to give us a solid like that boy got? He could have gone to Toronto. Canadian Tire was going to name him as CEO, and he stayed here. But it was nice of him during the World Cup to completely whiff on a one-timer and fall down to give the Leafs fans an idea of what he would have looked like if he had gone there. It was insane. Yeah, so there's that.

There's your free agent update. One other thing I wanted to mention was the centennial celebration that was announced during the World Cup of hockey. I feel like we're always celebrating some stupid anniversary with them. Yeah, no, this is, well, I was reminiscing with somebody about the 75th anniversary. where they had those awesome patches on the jerseys, remember that? It was almost like that looked like that Caducs skate. It was like, like, 75. It was like, it was flying across your chest.

Sorry, Greg. I'm too young to remember that. Yeah, I had it on my Ronky-Roggy-Roggy jersey. Sorry, me and my millennial friends don't remember that far back into the past. That's right. Fam. Lit A-F. Lit.

So, first of all, really great to see Wayne Gretzky back in the Good Graces of the National Hockey League. I can't even imagine how many bags of money and or kisses on his posterior that had to happen to get him back after the bitterness that occurred between him and the NHL when the coyote stuff went down. So there's that. And then the other thing, too, is, so they're doing a list of the hundred greatest players of all time. Oh, that is going to be the worst fucking day on Twitter every day. Oh, my God. Wait.

He's 97. He's clearly somewhere between 92 and 90. Now, listen to me. This is important. I want to clear this up for all the people out there. Fancy stats say differently. I want to clear this up for all people out there who may not know. They're not going to rank them.

They're not going to rank them. They're going to list them alphabetically. No. And then it's going to be on people like me and you. Yes, to rank them. So it'll still be a horrible day on Twitter. Or in other words, a day on Twitter. So the NHL is just like they're abandoning their responsibility and their own idea,

leaving it on people like me? That's right. They're saying that it is up to us to rank. Sounds like when I worked at the NHL. And so, now listen, now there's still going to be dude who's number 101, and that's on the NHL, and there's still going to be the pick that they make that is like, like, Connor McDavid's going to make the list. Oh, he's not. No, he's not.

There's going to be some young player that makes the list. Connor McDavid would have made team Canada this year. In theory, he would be, he would be like when I was number 100 on the People of Power and Influence list. Like the one that you put number 100 that's like the movie pick. The backdoor brag. The backdoor, slip it in. there, no one's looking move. Yes, the back doors slip it in there when no one's looking

move. Yeah, don't do that. Rockers grad, ladies and gentlemen. Permission in zones required. So, so it'll be on us to rank it. I mean, listen, I'm excited for any lists are fun. Lists are fun to look at. They're fun to get into. Not for six straight months. But it's good, no, they're going

to release the players in two batches. They're going to release the guys that are dead, basically, and then the players that came in after 67. But the problem, the problem My only problem with the list is this. Goleys. Like, it is virtually impossible to compare the best goalie of all time with the best skater of all time.

Oh, you can do it. The only way you could possibly do it is say, okay, this goalie stats are this amount better than the guy that's second, and Gretzky stats are this amount better than the guy who's second. Like, that's the way we could do it, maybe. But, like, I guarantee you it'll probably be, like, the Hockey Hall of Fame where there's just not a lot of goalies there. Probably out of the 100, how many do you think will be goalies? I would say 10? 20.

Yeah, that many? I don't think it would be that many. 15 or 20? Well, you figure you need to do... The dead guy badge. You need at least 50... 50... Well, hold on.

You need to have at least 60 forwards, probably, right? Like 20 winger, 20 left wing, 20 right wing. Well, then, you're going to have more centers than anything else. Yeah. I'm thinking like 50 forwards, 30 D... 20 goal. 20s? That still feels like a lot.

Maybe 60, 30, 10. And five rovers. And Patrick, I'll be there as a coaching player. Are you excited to celebrate 100 years of NHL hockey, which, by the way, is 98 seasons. Let's just point out of it as well. It's not actually 100 seasons. It's 98 seasons. Sneaky fucking NHL.

Sneaky fucking Russians. I am, don't really care. I'm not, you know, it's just going to be another season. Like, five years from now, you won't remember that it was an anniversary season. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, I don't know. Don't care. It's time for listener mail on the show as Dave Lowe's exhibits.

A new and unforeseen amounts of apathy towards subjects we talk about in the show. Just don't care. Like somebody said, like, they should have brought Gretzky out for the 99th anniversary. That would have been fun. Yeah. That would have been great. I think it's like, I don't know. I just, you know how the NHL always goes to that Gretzky camp thing every fucking summer?

Yeah. Like, it just feels like. a different version of that. Like, I just, you know. And I wonder, the thing I wondered, even though it's immaterial because you're not going to rank them, like, if they had to make a deal with Wayne to get him in on this,

do you think that the deal was you have to name Gordy number one? And I'll do it. That's the other part of it, too, that's going to annoy me, is like these hockey players like that are just like, oh, you know, I don't want to, are you the best of all time, Wayne? Oh, it's for other people.

Oh, here's what pisses me off. Uh-oh, here comes. This is the thing that's sticking in my craw. When they ask Wayne Gretzky something, and he sort of brings this up and he says, you know, for me this, I'm so grateful because everything I have is because of the NHL. Bullshit.

That's bullshit. That's bullshit, and it's backwards. Why is it? Oh, the, what? The NHL needs Wayne Gretzs. The NHL has everything because of Wayne Gretzky. It's fucking exactly. Like, the players are so much more important than the actual fucking shield.

in the fucking league itself. Like, yeah, if the, if the, if the, if every NHL player before the next lockout started planning now for a new league where somebody else ran it, you wouldn't, you, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, world, like, the, it would be, if the, it would be, I, I know what he's saying, but it just, it, it, it's, like, it's, like, it's, it's, like, it's, like, it's, it's, like, the NFL matters so much more than the players do. Like, I know what he means when he says it, but it bugs me. It bugs me, especially when, like, like, like, like,

if Andrew Shaw says it, it's like, yeah, you fucking need the H-HL. But, like, when Wayne Gretzky says it, because, like, it trickles down, then, like, Crosby feels that way, and it's like, he undervalues himself. Like, guys like that are so much more important than the actual league itself. That's true. I get what you're saying, and I think that his value to the league can't be understated, and that's why he's back for the 100th anniversary. Because he probably got a bunch of money.

He got a bunch of money backed up in a truck. Good for him. All right, time for listener mail. It's the part of the show in which we read the tweets and the emails and all that stuff that we usually get from you guys between shows. St. RT wants to know. What is your favorite? Rice is Right game.

Oh, my God. Now, I... I mean, I get excited when Plinko comes on, but I'm not a Plinko fan. We got to... I think we should rule out Plinko. I think Plinko's an obvious. Plinko is its own kind of animal. Oh, wow.

I know, right? It's pretty good. I like... It's funny. I mean, essentially that my favorite thing on the show is spinning the big wheel. But if I had to go with a pricing game... Like something after you get off... Contestants row. Yeah.

I would might go with, I like, I like the one, I like the one where you roll the dice. Oh, yeah. Higher or lower. I like that one. It involves a little bit of skill. And I also like the one just because of the drama of it, when they have to go to the big punchboard and punch out. They get, they get the, you have to do, you have to have some element of having to know the price of something in order to do it. Yeah.

And that's why, you know, essentially Plinko is fun because you still have to have the price and aspect of it. But the one where you punch the hole in the thing, and then he takes out the thing and tells you what you got is also fun too. It's a dollar value on paper. Yeah, dollar value, right, yeah. You know what I really like that doesn't really involve any skill at all is the one where it's like you can win a car or whatever? Oh, the golf clubs? With the piggy bank? Yeah. Or like the piggy bank. I fucking love the drama of when there's only like one number left in each thing and the next number is either going to be a fucking car or $6. I love that so much. Because, like, there's no, like, it's like, it's like, when you go to casino and you play a blackjack, like, their strategy, it's like, should I stay on this? Should I double down? All you're doing is just looking to the audience, and the audience is, like, holding up fingers, and you're just like, how does this guy know? And you're like, three.

And it's like, three. And then you win $4.13. I love that game. It's so dumb. I like that game. And I like the one, too, where you have to, like, come within $1,000 of the price of the car. And you keep pulling out cards out of a deck. And, like, if you get an eight, that's $8.

$800. If you get an ace, it could be whatever you want it to be. That one's fun, too. But I really like the one where it's just, you just, seven, two, four. And it's like there's no skill at all on his drama. And I like it. Julian wants to know, could we keep Team North America in the World Cup if they could choose any player or not on Team Canada or Team USA?

Well, essentially, if they ever bought it back and they're not, I mean, it's going to just be a big person's World Cup, an adult World Cup now. Big boy hockey. It obviously would be under the auspices of like even. if McDavid and Eichel and Austin Matthews all had eligibility, they wouldn't be able to play on the, like they would be able to play for their national teams.

So, but again, like, yeah, I heard the idea floated during the World Cup of, well, you know, this is a very special team and a very specific team because you'll never get this incredible collection of players together again. And I'm like, yeah, I'm sure we said the same fucking thing back in 2005. Right.

There are like 13-year-old kids walking around right now who are going to own the world before years. We're going to be Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews. Who, by the way, I don't know if you saw, broke a plane of glass. Not only did I fucking see it. I saw it. Here's the thing.

When you're on Twitter and you follow beatwriters, they tweet every fucking thing they see your practice, and it's fine. It's part of their job. But they actually showed it during the ESPN World Cup Second Game intermission thing. They were like, we got a lot of highlights to show you, but first.

And it was like this in arena, or in the practice facility thing. And it's like Matthews, like, along the goal line, whipped in one-timers. And all of a sudden, you just hear like a crash. And then, like,

Matthews looks around like, uh-oh. And it's like, dude, I've seen glass broken places. Like, what if, like, who's the worst player on the, on the Leafs right now? What if he had done it? Yeah. Or like, or the go-to that everybody will say, tan or glass. Ah, 10. Oh.

I know. Yeah. That's, that's, that's a pain. I just get, I was disappointed because I saw that, I saw that video and then there was not one instance of Stone Cold Steve Austin coming out, which I thought was just sad with the glass breaks. Forget it. You know who the coach was with last time the head?

happened? Who's that? Davis Payne? No. Yes. No. Yes. Finally, from Mitch, this is, unless you've got one cooking.

Yeah, I'm looking through. Mitch has got an interesting one. From a reporter's point of view, what is the difference between seeing a game live and seeing it at home? Oh. Now, seeing it live allows you to see more of the ice. It allows you to see plays develop better. It allows you to get a sense of the ice.

It allows you to get a sense of the atmosphere in a game. And obviously, seeing it live also allows you to then go downstairs and talk to the players and find out what happened. Seeing it at home allows you to actually hear what you hope are smart people telling you what happened and also allows you to see a lot more replays. Now, that's my biggest failing as a reporter when I'm at the rink is even if you have the TV on near you, it's the sound's not on. and you're paying attention to all these other things that sometimes when a play happens, if you're at home watching it, you'll know X, Y, Z about that play,

and I will be, like, tweeting, you know, McGillacuddy really should have, well, you shouldn't have whiff on that. And they're like, McGillacuddy didn't whiff on it, you dickhead. Don't, again, never tweet. Right, but that's what that's thing. I feel, I feel like watching it at home,

and I've written game stories at the rink and in front of my own television, I feel like at home, you sometimes do get a better grasp of what happened versus being there in the moment. For sure, that's the best part, is you get to see everything. Like on TV, like Patrick Stewart, on extras, I see everything. Get this, I go to the rank, and I see it all.

But no, that is the best part because, like, on TV, you know, you're basically, you basically see the three forwards on each team in the neutral zone. That's it. And, like, seeing the whole ice when the puck's in the neutral zone is just so much more, like, it's not like you need to see that to, like, appreciate the game or anything. but I just, I hate not knowing where, like, a defenseman was at a time when there's, like, a breakdown and a two-on-one. Like, on TV, you can feel it sometimes, but it's way easier to kind of, you know, see the two-on-one getting ready to happen because of something that's happening maybe off-camera. But, I mean, yeah, like, it's not, it's not, actually the best part.

Here's the best part. The best part is when you're at the game, you can be one of 45 people to tweet that someone went down the tunnel to get looked at. And then a minute later, you can tweet that that person came back to the bench. Because everybody needs to have that immediately. Idiot knowledge as to... That's something I think reporters should do is if a guy goes to the locker room and he's hobbling, he's got a skate thing,

give him enough time to miss a shift, and then you can tweet, so-and-so missed a shift. If a guy's not gone long enough to miss a shift, you don't need to tell everybody every time a guy walks down the tunnel, man. Sorry, I fucking Gretzky got me mad. I don't feel you.

All right, well... I guess that's it, huh? We're going to end a show. We're ending it here in our old studio because we got kicked out of our... when we were using. We violated guidelines. We violated guidelines.

I didn't book anything because I didn't know if we would do a show today because of the World Cup. And then someone got mad at us, but that's all right. It's okay. Thanks to David Ehrlich. Thanks, Dave. A guy who exists so people get mad at him. And he left his umbrella here, by the way. Yeah.

By the way, Dave and I continue to bond as co-hosts of Puck Soup. Neither of us like umbrellas. It needs to be an absolute monsoon for me to want to bring an umbrella outside. It really does. I don't want to carry it. I don't want to think about it where I'm putting it down when I get to a place. That's how I feel about jackets, too. Absolute monsoon or I know I'm going to have to be outside for a prolonged period of time.

Like the track or something and it's raining. Like the racetrack? Like the horses are running. You got a little win-place show ticket. Yeah. Or I imagine it's like if you're at a golf tournament and there's like it's, they golf in the drizzle. A little bit. All right.

So if it's drizzling in a golf tournament, I think I'd probably bring an umbrella there. But in life, like here. in the city, like if I walked home after this podcast, I would just put my hood up. Right. I don't have a need for an umbrella, because I don't like it. Like, if it was a downpour, but, like, otherwise, I just I also don't like the idea of one of my hands being

dedicated to something that I don't really want. And when it's cold out too, when your hands out there, you don't want to gloves, you're just holding your hand. It's just, and you know, it does change, like, like, when you're with somebody, like, you know, like Ruby and I will go out dinner and it's raining and we'll have to bring an umbrella because she... That's different, yeah. And I just give it to her. And then she'll eventually be, like, Do you want to come underneath it?

And I'm just like, well, not really, but I mean, if you're going to invite me, I'm going to say no, be kind of a dick move. It's an intimate moment you're walking down the street. And it's also just like, it's the same principle of why I buy cheap sunglasses. You're inevitably going to leave it someplace. Fucking David Erlich left his here today, Exhibit A. Like, that's the point of it. Is that like, what's the point? What's the point of anything, Greg?

What's the point of the, what's the point of having things that you're just going to lose? Why be wet when you're going to be dry at some point again, the matter what? That's what I say. Man, this is inspirational poster. There should be a cat hanging off a branch with that written underneath it. All right, thanks, David Erlich. Thanks to Dave Lozo. Thanks to me.

Thanks to Team Canada for winning two games and allowing us to this podcast. Thanks to Katie Levine for putting this together. And thanks for nervous for once again doing this great podcast. I am Greg Wichinsky. You can read me on Yahoo Sports Puck Daddy blog. You can read me at Wichinsky on Twitter. My book, Take Your Eye Off the Puck is available on Amazon.com and wherever books are sold. And here's Dave Lozo.

Oh, and also check out my new podcast. that's going to be out soon. Me and Jolie Care. Ask a clean person, the podcast. And you're probably saying yourself, Dave, you're not clean at all. I'm not. I'm a slob, and that's why I'm there. I'm like the Kevin James of that podcast where, like, Jolie is my clean wife.

And then I come in and I'm like, I got spaghetti all over my face in my shirt. What do I do? And she has all the solutions. And so we recorded a couple of those this week. I'm not sure when they'll be out. They may not even be out by the time we do another puck soup. but you know me at the end of the show. I never really promote anything.

I'm like Greg was promoting his book for like eight fucking months. You haven't bought it by now. I mean, Jesus Christ. No, buy his book. Check out the podcast when it's out. I'll tweet some links to it or whatever. And thanks for listening. And you know what?

Be lit and stay loyal. Bye.