Puck Soup - Deadline Fallout: New Philly

Episode Date: March 8, 2023

Sean and Ryan talk about the big moves leading up to the trade deadline, where certain teams stand, possible expansion and… the Oscars?   Sponsored by Athletic Greens (athleticgreens.com/puck) and Factor (factormeals.com/puck50)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McHenacru from The Athletic. And, well, trade deadline has come and gone. and as is tradition on this show,

we finished recording, and then three insanely big trades happened within six hours, I would say. Something like that, yeah. So look, we're not going to do the thing we did last week where we're breaking down, like, did you see this guy you've never heard of, got traded for a fifth round pick? What do you think?

You know, we're not starting the clock on any of that. So I have written down what I think are like five notable trade, the five most notable trades since the last time we recorded. And we're just going to go through them in the order that they happened. Number one, Jonathan Quick,

Kings trade him to Columbus and then he eventually ends up in Vegas. I guess we can all, we can lump that one all in together. What did you think of the Kings doing this? So, I mean, Jonathan Quick is the

interesting name obviously from a purely hockey perspective, the more important piece is what the kings get as far as addressing, you know, everybody that's saying for the kings for most of the season that they needed an upgrading goal and they needed an upgrade on the blue line. And a lot of us had felt like Jacob Chickard made the most sense for that as far as certainly the blue line, and that maybe you could figure out a way to get the goaltending in there as well.

It doesn't happen. Yeah, we'll talk about that in a minute. Different direction. Yeah. They get our old buddy, Fadislav Gav Gavikov, the defenseman who, you know, the perfectly solid defenseman who had sort of become, something more than that in the lead up to the deadline. They get him.

They get Junis Corpusallo as their new goaltender, or at least their new 1A. It's an upgrade. Undisputably, indisputably, it's an upgrade. Yeah. No question about that. That's what you want to see at this time of year. Now, you know, there's the, and the price,

it costs me a first round pick, but I think when you're getting two guys. totally defensible even rental situation it's it's more if there's a criticism from the king's perspective it's it's the opportunity cost as far as what did you not end up doing and then it's the fact that they had to move quick as well which was um he was not happy about apparently most of the veterans of the team are not happy about uh he clearly did not want to go to columbus at all and uh and doesn't. He ends up getting bounced back to Vegas and

I guess. Did he see the thing where Columbus had him on the books for two days or something like that? Maybe even one day. And the amount of money they had to pay him was like 14 grand or something like that for that couple

of days just on the books. And it's like, you know, when you contextualize like a $5 million contract like that, really depressing. Yeah. Yeah, that's,

I guess that is a way to think about it. And so then Columbus flips him to Vegas for basically almost nothing at all night. They get Michael Hutchinson and a seventh round pick. Yeah. Like, as close to nothing as you can get without it being future considerations, for sure. So, um,

I, you know, good, good job on Columbus, I guess, getting, you know, getting there first for a defenseman.

We weren't, well, you know, a lot of us had doubts about just, you know, doubts that he was at that level. Not that he's a bad player. He's, you know, he's, he's a good player. He's just, you know, was he in that tier of guys that you're going to get a first round pick as a rental? They did by throwing an extra player in. Makes sense for them.

Makes sense for the Kings. I don't love it for the Golden Knights, to be honest with you. that a team that needs a goaltender goes out and gets Jonathan Quick. I just, Jonathan Quick's going to be a fun Hall of Fame discussion someday, but right now he sure looks like he is cooked. And if he is. I think the someday is closer than we're saying.

I think, you know, in about three years we're going to be having this discussion. Roughly, yes. Inducted into the Hall of Fame. Yeah. So I,

I'm like 100. percent convinced he's going in. I can't I can't see a universe where this league or, you know, hockey men are not like, well, he won two Stanley Cops and he showed a won of Vezna. Well, I mean, considering

that at least some hockey men were willing to bet their season on him right now. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I suspect that you're right. But yeah, that's I guess as you say, the Gavrikov thing is like, you know, he's good, but he's not like,

he was not, let's put it this way, he was not put in a position to succeed on an extremely bad team. And this is like the first year anybody's really talked about him at the NHL level. You know, like if you go by the underlying numbers and war and all that kind of stuff, Like he's had like one season in the NHL out of like four or five, I think, that you would go, oh, he was like actually really good. And it was his first one when they were, you know, kind of limiting it as minutes and that sort of stuff.

I'm always curious because they used him as a shutdown role or as a shutdown guy on a bunch of bad teams, right? So the Kings are a better team than Columbus at any point in the last few years. and so, you know, can they put him in a position where it's like, he's not going to look absolutely awful, which he did a lot of nights in Columbus because he had like this thankless role. Yeah, I think that's a pretty safe bet. And obviously, like you said, Corpus Allo is a huge upgrade on Quick.

The thing that, like, I get it of, you know, players getting mad that X guy got traded and, you know, we're still trying to win here and this kind of stuff. Like, how can you trade Jonathan Quick? And it's like, you know, you worked with that guy, like he was your friend for the better part of a decade in a lot of cases more than that and others. But it's like, you think this guy's like helping you at this point? You know, like, can you not just look at the on-ice results and say, I mean, sucks to lose a friend, but like I'll, you know, I still have his phone number. He still has a house in L.A. I'm sure I can, you know, see him in a couple of months.

And I mean, if you're adding a goaltender, we're always told that teams can't have, you can't, you don't want to have three goalies. And I mean, the Kings already do in a sense that they've still got Cal Peterson sitting in the minors. You're not going to have, I mean, I don't know. It's, yeah, it's tough. It's tough to admit when a guy who's had a phenomenal career is done. but yeah and and it's the who knows a change of scenery you know change of it's got some motivation yeah i was going to talk about that in a minute wouldn't blow us away if he went to Vegas and and found it again but yeah but like the thing i was going to compare it to was remember when like uh the the horse

was clearly out of the barn for chicago and like duncan keith is like i i still want to win yeah what they're they're giving up on on brent seabrook or whatever it was like yeah man on. Yeah. I mean, you got to see this for what it is, brother. These guys are wired that way, but yeah, at some point, yeah, realism has to kick in, you would think.

Yeah. But, okay, let's talk about Quick on Vegas. The only thing I want to say here, really, is that, you know, look at what Vegas does to suppress shot quality. Mm-hmm. That's the only path forward for Jonathan Quick, I think. Like if you're, if you're like counting on this guy to be insanely good or, you know, he's like a stopgap measure, obviously, because Thompson is out for who knows how long. Yeah.

So he's just like fully a stopgap measure and I can't imagine they're going to give him a ton of run out here. But, you know, he's already played one game for Vegas. He didn't look particularly good. I think he gave up like three on 28 or 30 or something like that. Three to Montreal, all in the third period. Yeah. But he won. And again, that's just kind of the thing where you say like, well, that's what playing for Vegas is like.

You don't have to be that great. And it's Bruce Cassidy, right? He's been the goalie whisperer. That's what I'm saying. Maybe this is. Makes goalies look good, or his teams do. I mean, if you're Jonathan Quick and you're. you can't be in LA, this is probably the best landing spot or, you know, I mean, of all the

realistic options. For sure, yeah. You weren't getting traded to Boston or something. So this is a pretty good scenario. And if it doesn't work here, then it just wasn't going to work anywhere. Yep. And again, like you said, the storyline is interesting only because, you know, they could play Vegas in the, in the, even first round, depending on how things.

shake out, right? Yep. So that would be a fun storyline, maybe not for the guys on the Kings who were mad about this in the first place, but, you know, it's something to keep an eye on. Like I said, I don't expect him to be good. I think if you can get him up to 900, that's a win. And that's still, you know, he's not playing well. But, okay, let's move on here.

Philip Ronick. Ronick? Yeah, it is pronounced Ronik. and when I was listening to a podcast about it and they said Roneck, I got really confused for a minute. Yeah. It was like, oh, Vancouver traded for Ronek.

Just because it's the Kinnucks, right? And you're like, yeah, I could see them doing that. Jeremy Ronex's the guy to come in. He's a veteran center. Veteran, but still young enough that he fits their rebuild. That's right. And hey, he'd get along really well with J.T. Miller. You know what I'm talking about?

What did you think of this trade? because I couldn't fucking believe it. Yeah, it's such a weird one because the consensus seems to be that purely as far as the value goes, it's fine. You know, you get a 25-year-old defenseman in his prime, maybe with still a little bit of upside development-wise. Maybe, yeah.

That a first-round pick is a fair price for it. he's having a very good year. Yep, sure. So, you know, it's not like, oh my gosh, how could you possibly give that up? But it's why now? What is Vancouver doing? What is the plan? You trade Bo Horvatt for first round pick and people go, okay, you know, that was a pretty good deal.

And then you flip that pick for a guy who's not that far off an age from the guy you just traded away. Yep. Are we rebuilding? Are we starting over? Are we trying to win right now? And I think the answer is that they're still, they're trying to do the whole retool thing. Reload.

Yeah, no, there, Patrick Alvin came out after the deadline and said, like, our goal is to make the playoffs next year. That's not word for word, but that's what he said. He was like, we're competing next year. That's our, that's what we have in mind. And here's the thing about that. Until they made that trade like kind of late on deadline day, I can't remember which one it was. But they were over the salary cap for next season.

Yeah. The Canucks have more dollars committed to the cap next year than any other team. Which is wild. Because they're horrible. Yeah. They are horrendously bad. And like I guess, you know, you could talk yourself into where we're going to find a buyer for Tyler Myers.

They're not going to find a buyer for Ekman Larson. The guy has a no move clause, right? So, and that's on top of, they're over the cap. They also have to, like, resign Vitaly Krafsov. They have to resign Ethan Baer. I don't know if they have any other notable RFAs off the top of my head. But I just remember being like, this is going to be like an $88 million team on paper right now. This is insane.

I mean, you got to pay for quality, man. Well, even leaving, again, even leaving aside the idea that, like, this team's going to be competing next year, in theory. Like, again, their stated goal is we're going to try to be around the playoffs. Like, in actual practice, this being an $85 million roster, $88 million, whatever it ends up being once they get all these RFAs signed. Like, it straight up doesn't make sense. And, okay, this is the other thing that you have to say. Apparently, you know, there was action around Brock Besser and J.T. Miller. Now, who knows how serious all of it was.

But there was some decent report, reportage, I guess he would say. I almost said report. It's word. But that's not. There was some decent reportage around J.T. Miller to Pittsburgh. And it apparently didn't work because the Canucks were. We're like, well, we need a young center back and like you guys don't have one. And again, we'll like, we'll get to Pittsburgh in a while here.

But it's like, someone was going to take this contract off your hands and you said, well, hold on a second. Like, this is a contract you trade for future considerations. You're just trying to get out from under $8 million. And, and, you know, there was. Give us a 24 year old or else. Like, no, you're not in a position to be making these demands. It was Darren Dregor who reported that, yeah, that basically the Canucks turned down a deal because there were, it was based on picks, but not, you know, they wanted players. And then some other insiders kind of, I wouldn't say shut that down, but gave a different view.

I really feel like that report was coming from, that was Ron Haxstall sort of putting the word out there that, hey, I'm trying here. You know, I'm right in on this guy. Yeah. And again, leaving aside that that would. have been a horrible idea for the penguins as well. Yeah. Like, you're probably right because Hextall didn't do very much at all on Friday, but. Well, they wish he had done less, I think.

Oh, for sure. Again, we will get to the Penguins in a minute. We're still technically talking about the Roanick deal. It's just like, you can't believe how short-sighted this team is. Every time they do something, you're just like, wait, really? it's unbelievable to me that it keeps happening. I don't know what else to say. Yeah, it's just, I guess the only thing I would say is

there's a part of me that gets where the, what the dilemma is in Vancouver. Because you do have Elias Peterson, peterson, the, you know, who is an elite franchise, player level forward. And you've got Quinn Hughes, who is the best, already the best defenseman

in the history of the franchise. And they are both in their prime. And I get why there would be a hesitancy to say, we're going to do the three-year rebuild thing in the middle of that when we've got these two guys and hope that by the time we come out of it, they're still like 28, 29, still, you know, can still contribute to it.

I get why there would be a feeling of, no, we've, we've got, we've never had two players like this at the same time before we have to take advantage of it. But I don't know. I mean, like, I was saying to somebody like, you know, while they've got this core and then it was like, is two guys even a core? Like Thatcher Dempco, maybe you put in that group, you would have, you know, before this season. You wouldn't have coming into this season, but he's been bad and obviously injured a lot. and I don't know. You know, you just hope he can get back to full health and full capacity. And then, like, if you can get, if you're confident you can get him back to that level,

then, yeah, I guess you would say you have, like, one elite player at all three of the important positions, right? Like, and then you have a bunch of, and like, again, Brock Bassler, J.T. Miller, Connor Garland, like, these are good NHL players, but none of them are worth their contracts and, like, how good is good, you know? Um, it's again, it's just fucking baffling that they're like, oh yeah, we'll give five and a half million dollars to Kuzmenko. We'll give, uh, we'll take on the bovilliers contract. We'll, we'll, we'll hang on to this J.T. Miller deal, even though everybody knows it sucks. Like, are they that confident someone's going to give them something for like real for Tyler Myers? I don't know.

Are they that confident? He has a limited no trade clause. I don't know what the no trade is, but I know he has one. Like, I don't know if it's, uh, if it's like 10 teams or 12 or whatever, but I know that he can reject a bunch of trades in theory. I'm astonished. I just don't even know what to say about this team anymore other than like, I feel bad for their fucking fans.

Yeah. Or, like, God. Especially when you, you just lived through the Jim Benning era, which was marked by a constant. constant feeling of we're just trying to make the playoffs. Here's the thing. Is there anything like, you know, if you woke up, like you go into a coma in the depths of the Jim Benning era? And then you wake up now, or like, you know, three days before the deadline, someone gives you a brief rundown.

They neglect to mention Patrick Alvin is now the GM. Based on everything that's happened in the last few days, you look at their cap-friendly page. whatever. And then based on like the trade deadline, are you not like, well, surely Jim Benning's still the fucking GM here? Yep. Hasn't hasn't really changed. I mean, it's, uh, what a mess

of a season in Vancouver. Just start to finish. Uh, yeah. Brought it on themselves. I don't know what else is it. Like obviously injuries, I guess you would say, what can you do? And Demco's underperformance. But like, you look at the roster and you're like, Oh, no.

There were good moves here. Like, Krautsov is a good bet for them. I liked that acquisition. But then they were like, what if we built the Sandcastle and then like kicked it over? Yep. Amazing. Truly incredible. Let's now talk about the big trade from after we recorded last week.

This guy, Jacob Chikrin goes to the Ottawa Senators. And people were saying to me like, oh, you guys called it. And I didn't remember doing this, but apparently at the start of the show, we were talking about, uh, Chick or no, he wants to go to a playoff team. He wants to go to a playoff team. And then the Ottawa senators are like, you want to come here? And he's like, uh, I guess. He does seem pretty happy about the trade act. He does seem. I mean, God. Seems pretty pumped. Now, here's the thing.

Is he happy to be in Ottawa or is he happy to be out of Arizona? I think it might be a little bit of both. I think it's probably a 40-60 split on those two things. But hey, like, you know, he almost, like, his grandfather was there and, like, he almost cried talking about how much that means to him that, like, his family can be at a lot of his games or whatever. So, like, that's great. That's awesome.

I'm really, like, I'm happy for. Jacob Chikrin. I'm happy for the Ottawa senators. Like this is a guy that they've been obviously targeting for a while and like they got a really good player. But I guess we got to talk about how they got him

because this is insane that this is the this is the trade that landed him. After a year and a half this is I like I wrote my column this week. If I was a coyotes fan

I just can't imagine how furious I would be because... I'm folding up the tents. I'm like, what are my fucking... Again, we will talk about the coyotes from a different angle in a bit, but I'm just like... Like you say, after all this time, year and a half, and they're like, we're going to get first round pick. We're going to get multiple first round picks.

We're going to get a first round pick and a prospect, something like that. A first round pick, like, I think it's top five protected, but not anything beyond that. And if Ottawa somehow gets a top five pick, which they almost certainly won't at this point. They would need to win the lottery. Yeah. Right.

So what would they have? Like a one and a half percent chance if they miss the playoffs? But the fact that it's top five, it's become kind of a convention around the league that picks are top 10 protected. Yeah. So the fact that this one is top five kind of in that sense gives the game away that that's the coyotes. are looking at this saying, you know, there's a chance we could get in that sweet, like that five to ten sweet spot with these guys, which the way the senators have been playing lately doesn't even seem likely. And I get obviously, yeah, I mean, the, the senator's first round

pick has more value than the King's first round pick would. And certainly far more than the Bruins first round pick would. We all get that. The issue is that, you know, and because normally, look, the guy's been on the block for a year and a half. So you would normally say, hey, if this is the best offer, it's the best offer. I mean, every team in the league knows the guys out there. Every team in the league's probably had a conversation about them. If this is the best offer that you've got, then you take that. The frustrating part is it, from reports, it isn't the best offer.

It's just that at some point in the process, they decided that, oh, by the way, we are, we will not retain any salary. We will not take back contracts. It has, every dollar has to go out the door on this one. Nothing coming in. Truly unbelievable. Truly unbelievable. Because again, like, why do you spend a year and a half pretending like, oh, we're

going to get this incredible package where in this, like, knowing what we've known for a year and a half about the way this league's finances work because of, the, you know, the making up the ground loss to COVID, uh, that anybody was ever going to be able to fully accommodate a, a full on money out only trade from Arizona. Mm-hmm. We're not taking a cent back. We're not hanging, we're not hanging on to any salary. I don't, I get why they don't want to retain salary.

But the idea that you wouldn't even take like, for example, the Jonathan Quick contract back for the rest of this year, that's crazy to me. especially given all of the money they've taken back in other trades, up to it including the Patrick Kane trade where they broker that. And I understand. Again, I want to talk about that later. It's little tiny bits of money versus, you know, the cap hit and everything and they're focused on the dollars. But it really does feel like something changed here because if you really feel like we are going to trade Jacob Chikram, but we will not, it has to be. all the dollars go out the door.

Don't trade him at the deadline. This is the absolute worst time to trade somebody because nobody has cap space. You trade him during the offseason when lots of teams can, you know, and remember, he's not a rental, he's got two more years left on his deal. So, I mean, you could absolutely trade him this off season.

You could have traded him last off season. There would have been multiple destinations. You could have got far more in return. You know, the reason they traded him at this deadline, deadline is it feels like last year they started floating the idea of him being moved, ended up not moving them. They go through the summer they don't move him. And it was only kind of earlier this season that for the first time Jacob Cherkin

kind of publicly was like, all right, enough of this. Like move me, please. Like it's been a year at this point, get me somewhere. And so now they feel like, okay, now we have to move them by the deadline. but with this criteria that it seems to have at least taken some teams by surprise, it's just a mess. And like I, the only explanation I come up with is that something changed as far as, like,

Bill Armstrong had the rules of the game changed on him at some point, by ownership or whoever. I think that's pretty clear that that's what happened. Because there's no way that if this had been, if this had been the plan all along that you let it play out this way. There's no chance. 100%. Like you,

if it's always, it's got to be fully money out, you trade him at the draft. Or, you know, a couple of days before the draft or something. You do it in the summer. Everyone's got cap space.

Everyone's got, you know, optimism that, and he's a valuable asset. Like, like I get that. He's a great player. His contract is great value. So I mean,

but it's just, you know, it's, and it's, I look at, to pull an example, you look at Chicago, right, with Jake McCabe, who's, who's fine, but isn't Jacob Chikrin? Like, not even close. For sure. Yeah. Has essentially the same contract, two years left, four million. They eat half of that in retention, and they get a first round pick for him. Because by eating that salary, you raise the value of the player's, significantly and you get more assets back.

I mean, that's what you do when you're, you know, trying to maximize your return on somebody. I'm not saying the Kings had to, had to do a, you know, 50% retain or whatever, but be open for business, and they weren't. Yeah. And as a result, Ottawa was one of, if not the only teams that really could come in with

and meet that criteria. and Ottawa gets a fantastic bargain on this. Like, good job by them. Literally an unbelievable. When they said that was the return, I was like, well, that can't be right. Yeah, they waited them out. And they got a great trade out of it. That's a good piece of business for them.

Yeah, and I guess the thing is that I think that there's, so there's a conditional second round pick as well that if Ottawa makes the Eastern Conference final this year, the pick becomes a first rounder next year that is top 10 protected. Yay. And if Ottawa finishes in the top 10, it becomes an unprotected 2025 pick. And it's like, okay,

I know Ottawa was on a really hot run right now, but like MoneyPuck, as I read this to you, has them at a 19.6% chance to make the playoffs. Yeah. It's just, you know. Where they would then play Boston. The Boston Bruins.

And then play either, you know, Tampa or Toronto. So, you know, the trip to the conference finals is not impossible, but it's a long shot. So I, yeah. Their chance to make the conference final, according to MoneyPuck, is 4.6%. Okay. So 4.6% chance that you're going to bump that up. first rounders out of this. Yeah, I don't.

I don't know. Like, again, I do feel, I feel bad for coyotes fans and I feel bad for like Bill Armstrong a little bit because as you say, the rules, the rules of engagement were changed on, on, at some point in this process. And like, I remember because when it was first, like, when this trade first happened, I went back and looked like, okay, what were the rumors immediately when they said. you know, what the, what the ask would be. And one of the first teams that everybody apparently thought of was the, uh, the Florida Panthers. And basically what I had, what I read from last year, a year and a half ago, was that, um, the ask was Florida's first round pitch, but they, which they eventually traded unprotected.

Everybody knows about that. Ha, ha, ha. Um, and Spencer Knight. A guy that everybody thinks is like the next great American goalie. Obviously, he's had some unfortunate difficulties. We wish him well. But like, at the time, that was like, oh, my God, Florida wouldn't give that up. Like, that's too good of a, like, as much as Jacob Trick and Rocks and like the contract is great.

Like, that's just too much of an ask. But that was like the initial. And obviously, you know, you make the initial ask. And then if there's real action there, you kind of go back and forth and meet in the middle. But like, for that. to be the start and then this to be the end of it. Oh, man. What a gut punch.

Yeah. And I mean, they, they manage to, to get to work themselves into a corner where they had to move the guy. Because, you know, I get, you want to sit there and go, well, hey, there's financial realities and this and that. And okay, then don't trade him. Don't trade him. He's a really good player.

He's under contract for two more years. Don't trade him until the summer. But they have. at a situation where probably if they don't trade them, the player is furious and, you know, maybe even walks out on you or who knows. But, man, it's, it's certainly a no-win situation for, for the coyotes like, as an organ, like,

as from the management group down to the team level, obviously ownership is making certain, again, I guess I shouldn't say obviously. We can imagine that ownership is making a certain call. That certainly seems like the most reasonable explanation, let's just say. And so like for the GM, the coach, the players, the fans, like, this sucks. And again, I want to get into the coyotes deeper a little later on. But, man, for this to be what happens with the Jacob Chickren trade is a joke.

Especially when, you know, you're a bad, you know, a bad, you know, a, bad team by design, and this is kind of your big card to play. Yep. And then this is what you played it for. But again, good deal by Ottawa. I mean, and they... Oh, unbelievable. Oh, my God.

Wow. Up until a couple of nights ago, they really looked like they were going to maybe be the team that made the push into the playoff spot. And then losing to Chicago was brutal and then... Felt like a nail in the coffin. Well, I would say nail on the coffin, but it was a tough... Well, maybe not the final nail, but one of the last three. And then last night, I don't, you know, pretty much all the games went the wrong way for them.

So it's, you know, that's the NHL, right? I mean, you can, you can go on a four-game win streak. You don't gain that much ground because of the loser point. And then you lose one game in regulation. And it's like you just all that. Did you see what the swing, like the swing for the Islanders, Sabres game was last night? No, I didn't. What was it?

I don't remember the exact numbers, but somebody posted this. And it was like if the Islanders win in regulation, they have like a 60% chance of making the playoffs or something like that. If they lost in regulation, it would have been like a 30% chance. If they won in overtime, it would have been like a 45% chance. And if they lost in overtime, it would have been like a 38% chance. Like that's a really wide range of outcomes for one game with like 25 games or not 25, but like 15, 18 games left. That's a really wide range. of outcomes and they won in regulation so they they have the inside track to to make it now obviously

but it's crazy that and that so much could hinge on one game in a league where we say none of the games individually matter all that much you know yep because of the loser point anyway it's that two other trades uh i don't i don't know that we need to talk about them too in-depth the bruin's because nick felino and uh taylor hall go on l t i are like fuck it we'll help ourselves to tyler Tutsi as well. Whatever. No problem. And now their left wings when everybody's healthy is like Taylor Hall, Tyler Burtuzzi, or I'm

sorry, Brad Marsh and Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzi, Nick Folino. Yeah. Italy, that's the weakest position and nobody else has any good left wingers. Oh, man. The Bruins are, I got to be honest, other than just laughing at the fact that of how good the Bruins are. And I tweeted like a couple days ago, like, I literally just looked at the standings one morning and realized that they were on a 10-game win-streek.

And I was just like, okay. It didn't feel remarkable to me at all. I was just like, sure, for sure. I didn't, I hadn't clocked it, but I was watching their game against the Rangers. And, you know, they were like, oh, the ruins of one, nine straight, including they played their last six games, or I think that Ranger game was their sixth game in nine days. Yep. Like, the schedule should be grinding these.

guys into fucking dust and they're just like no no I mean we're gonna have like a maybe a not great first period but uh you know we'll still end that period winning and then uh waltz to a to a four two win like that third period I don't know if you watch this game that third period started and the Bruins were like okay it was cute we let you hang around this long but uh this game is fucking over now goodbye yeah it was insane like the the extent to which they just flipped a switch and we're like against a good ranger team we're just like see you later unbelievable man they are so good and doesn't it feel so inevitable that they're going to get goalied

in the first round yeah by like and not even by a good goalie like it's going to be like craig anderson is going to go nine eight and they're going to lose in six games but uh what a what a phenomenal team yeah i got to say the the the the the the the the Bruins getting a great player, a good player, isn't even all that interesting to me. But can we talk a little bit about the Red Wings? Like, holy crap, they go into Ottawa for two games with playoff race implications. They get their doors kicked in both games. Again, huge playoff race implications.

And Steve Iserman just throws in the towel on the season. Like just, you know, we've already talked about Ronick. Like we, now we've, you know, Bertuzi's gone. They do re-signed Dylan Larkin, but Steve Eisenman just basically, like we always hear this time of year, like a GM will always get asked. Like how are you going to decide whether you're a buyer or seller or whatever? And he always says, I'm not going to decide. The players will decide for me. They'll tell me based on how they play.

And it's always a cliche and you roll your eyes. Hey, Steve Eisenman got told and he listened. The Red Wings were like, no, we're good, we're fine. Message received. Yeah, we don't, we're not, we don't need to be a playoff team. It's okay. And he was like, all right, I'm going to just dismantle this team. It's only like four points out of the playoffs, but.

The righty's on the wall here. And again, how much better would this league be, just from a buyers and sellers standpoint at the deadline, if more GMs were just like, oh, we're four points out? Fucking forget it. I don't think these guys have it. Smell you later. We're done for the season. We're offloading our number one left wing.

We're offloading our, whatever, third best defensemen. And we're getting picks back for it. We're not getting any real roster help for it. Yeah. Again, like the Steve Eisenman patient's approach is, I don't know. I'm not sure there's any other GM. This is like how I would GM, right? Like, I just be like, well, I would have let Larkin walk probably.

Yeah, you probably would have. But the important first step that you don't want to miss, right, is you've got to, like, go be a superstar for 20 years in that market and earn, like, an insane amount of rope. Yeah, and then build another cup team somewhere else. Yeah. And then, you know, then we can have a conversation about me being able to say Bertusie can take a fucking hike as far as I'm concerned. Yep. All right, let's talk about one last trade. Again, this isn't like a superstar player or anything,

but I did think it was interesting, given how they were operating at the deadline otherwise. The Wilde just, like, gave up on Jordan Greenway. They were like, I know, we'd rather have the, like, what did they get a fifth round pick for them or something like that? It wasn't even that good of a pick. And not a, like, not a cap dump move really where, because they had caps. Then they, right, yeah, that they then use that cap space for something else, correct, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, the joke, right, was, oh, yeah, the sabres out there acquiring a giant player who has not really clicked yet and hasn't found the offense. That could never work. I played college hockey in New England. Yeah, there's a lot of overlap here. Get them from a central division team, sure. I forgot. It was a second and a fifth. Not bad.

I mean, that's still, I like the. gamble from Buffalo. Like he was real, Greenway was really good last year. Really good. Obviously he like is having just the shittiest year you could possibly have at this point. Like he's been, again, actively bad. And this is a guy the wild gave three years to last summer, right? So like this is the wild fully cutting bait on this guy.

He has two goals this season. Yep. So like I get why. you're like, forget it. But I am fascinated just because you know, does it have more to do with the cap implications of having a guy where you're like,

ooh, maybe he is only like a 10, 15 goal guy. Max. Well, I mean, how many times do we look at things around the NHL and go, wow, that was a bad contract? But they're going to write it out. They're going to stick with it. No, I mean, if they honestly feel like the contract was a mistake or that their valuation of the player has changed,

move them while you can, you know, don't sit and watch the asset become worth nothing. Now, obviously, the flip side of that is if they're wrong and he becomes a player again, then they look awful. Then that's a problem, right, yeah. But yeah, no, this is a player that, like, I feel like Buffalo can play around with a little bit and see where, again, like you say, they turn Tage Thompson into like one of the elite goal scorers in the league. Yeah, eventually, but yes.

And yeah, like you say, it took a while, but like they figured it out. Don Granato is, I mean, he, and, you know, he kind of unlocked Jeff Skinner too, although was that, did he, did he do something there or did he just walk into the room and say, I'm not Ralph Kruger? And everybody was like, yeah, awesome. Hats thrown in the air. and yeah. That's right.

Now, since acquiring him with Jordan Greenway on the ice, the sabers have been outscored two to one. And that's not a ratio. That's like the number of goals.

It's a fail. So this guy stinks. But yeah, why don't we take a break and we'll come back and we'll talk about the coyotes and a couple other teams that were notable at the deadline

for, let's say, ignominious reasons. This week's episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. Folks, by now you've heard me do this enough times. You know my deal when it comes to supplements and all of this stuff. I'm opening the idea.

I want to be healthy. I want to find ways that I can keep my health a little bit better. And yet, I find myself wondering, what do you do? Where do you start? How many of these things do you need to be taken? Who do you trust? How do you make sure that you're actually getting something useful into your body? And that's where AG1 from Athletic Greens comes in.

Nice and simple. One scoop in water. You take it whenever you want during the day. I'm more of a morning guy before the morning coffee. But you can work it in whenever. Take it with a meal. Take it before or after you work out. Up to you.

But not a whole bunch of different things that you got to keep track of and mix and match. One scoop of water, in water, once a day. Designed with easy use in mind. so you can live healthier and better without having to do a whole lot. Because as soon as you make yourself do a whole lot, there's a good chance. You're not going to follow up with it. This is a healthy thing that you can do in under a minute. And it works because it's easy to fit into your lifestyle.

So if you're looking for an easier way to take supplements, Athletic Greens is giving you a free one-year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. You need to go to Athletic Greens.com. slash puck. That's athletic greens.com slash puck. Check it out. All right. We're back. Let's talk about the coyotes because as you mentioned, Sean, that they actually took a bunch of money on at the deadline here, including on the Patrick Cain trade. They also traded for Jake Voracek, who is, his career is over due to concussions, I believe.

and he's on the books for next year as well as this year at like 8.1 million against the cap I think it's something like that. 8.25. 2.5, Jesus Christ, okay, there you go then. Making him their highest paid player surpassing Shea Weber. Right. Number two on the list. And also...

Never going to play a single game for them. So, but like, so listen to this. Between Weber, Vorichek, Andrew Ladd, and Brian Little, all those guys are LTIR retired. They're all on the coyotes now. They also have retained salary on Nick Bugstad, who they traded at the, on deadline day. Patrick Kane, who they just jumped into that trade. And Oliver Reckman-Larsen, who they obviously traded a few years ago. And it's not that much money on OEL.

But the total A, this is real. total A-A-V on players who do not play for them, not counting like their actual players who are on LTIR or whatever right now, $30,963,810. Right. $31, almost $31 million. Versus I think it's $42 million on all the players who do play for them. Yeah.

So, I mean, it's a joke. It's a huge joke. And it's a joke that, you know, this is a joke that the league allows. So, I mean, I'm not even mad at the coyotes for gaming the system like this. No, for sure. Yeah. They're playing by the rules. But, I mean, we have a cap floor.

But this feels like one of those things that I think both like, you know, owners league-wide and obviously the NHLPA are going to be like, Now hold on a fucking second, man. Like, this is, this is ridiculous. I mean, it's, it looks ridiculous. The question is, like, which of those two groups is it hurting enough that they're going to complain? I would think the PA. Yeah.

But again, like, if they're taking, like, revenue sharing money from the league, because remember, there was, like, the whole thing about, like, oh, because of this, they're playing in the little arena, like they actually might get the revenue sharing faucet turned off. Yeah. On them. I don't think that's going to help. Remember when they, you know, we were all making our punchlines about them playing in the,

in Mullet Arena in front of 5,000 people, we were told, actually, they're going to make more money. They will make more money because it'll be such a great atmosphere, et cetera, et cetera. And then they're giving players way. I don't know. I guess if I'm, if you're the PA, you're looking at this going, okay, this is one of the 32 markets that is supposed to have to spend money on players that isn't doing it. But the flip side is, if they're a clearinghouse for bad contracts from all these other teams that frees up money in other markets for players, maybe it's fine.

I mean, this is the whole 50% of the pie thing kind of is one of those things that makes it so a lot of this stuff that feels like it should matter kind of doesn't. because at the end of the day, it's the same dollars no matter what. Yeah. But it looks ridiculous. It's completely... Yeah. I mean, it makes a farce out of the idea of a floor

and the idea of having any sort of expectations for what a team will go out and do. The piece of this that I fully admit, I do not understand. And I would love it if somebody out there would write an explainer. help me figure this out is how this possibly works from an insurance point of view, where you've got 30 million in dead money. Because everyone sits there and goes, yeah, but with Vorecheck, they're not actually paying them because of insurance, insurance covers everything. Like how much salary in this league is insurance covering? And what must the rates be like?

Yeah. Like if I was crashing my car, you know, 20% of the time I drive. it and then just being like, yeah, insurance covers it. It's fine. Like, I feel like my, at some point that insurance company would catch on. And doesn't it feel like at some point some insurance company is going to be like, hey, we couldn't help but notice that like an enormous number of these contracts that we insure end up sitting on the books for years. Well, the thing is, I don't think it's an enormous number. I think we, I think we, Well, every time somebody gets hurt for the long term, we're always told, yeah, it's insurance.

Insurance covers it. Everybody other than Nathan Horton that one time. Right. Seems covered by insurance. So what the hell are, what are the rates? I don't know exactly how it works, but I think that, like, I think I've, someone has told me in the past, let's say. And I just don't remember the particulars. It's a situation where insurance covers maybe a good chunk of the money, but it's not the full, it's not like 100% of the money gets covered.

You know, much like you probably don't understand this as a Canadian, but much like here in the U.S., like I have health insurance, but like if I get hit by a car, you know, walking my dog later today. like they you know insurance will cover a pretty good chunk of it but they won't cover everything and like i might be on the hook for 10th i don't remember even what my health insurance deductible is which is probably a problem but like they're they just go oh like the first 10 grand you you uh owe to the hospital like that's on you brother we'll pick it up after that and i i believe it is a similar you know people who who work in the n hl and listen to the show can feel free to reach out and tell me what exactly I'm getting wrong. But I'm pretty sure that it does not cover 100% of that money.

But it must cover a high amount, right? Because if it wasn't, you know, a very significant amount, then the coyotes aren't adding Jacob Voracek, right? I mean, this is clearly just money laundering. Like, you tell me this insurance company that is on the hook for Shea Weber, you know, millions of dollars on Shea Weber isn't like calling up constantly. constantly like, hey, let's get him in front of some doctors. If this guy can physically play, it doesn't have to play well, but if he can physically play...

The NHL is apparently very, like, hawkish about that. And we should say, you said it's money laundering. It's not like money laundering in the classical, like, committing a financial crime money laundering. Just to, you know, for legal reasons, I think you have to say it's not... For legal reasons, let's say I did not mean that. It's not, it's not like an office space where they're like Googling what money laundering. is or whatever. I don't think they Google it in that movie.

That movie came out like 1997, so I think they like look it up in a dictionary or something. They asked Jeeves. Yeah. But yeah, no, like, I believe, again, I think the league is very hawkish about this where they're like, oh no, like, we got to make sure that Shay Weber like really can't play. But are they?

They have literally never declared that a player has to go. I mean, they wouldn't force him to play, but to take him off the LTIR, has that ever happened? Well, the other thing is, it's not LTIR money for, like, it would be if he was on the Canadians or, you know, the Bruins or something like that. If he was on the books for them, it would be, uh, the Canadians a few years ago when they were not like actively trying to rebuild. But like a capped out team, he'd be on the LTIR. He's not technically on the LTIR right now. Like, like he is in the. Like, they're not getting the financial benefit. They need him to not be on the LTIR so that he can get, they can get to the cap floor. Right.

So, like, that's, that's where I think it's an NHLPA thing that they would be upset about. But, yeah, it's, it's complicated. Like, it's complicated from like a, from like a helicopter, like wide out view of it. But like, from a, from a, from a, you know, know, like me just sitting here talking about it. It's not complicated. It's a fucking joke. And I know like Arizona people are going to be mad about, and like when we, look, you,

me and you both heard from people in Arizona when we said like the arena situation is fucking, you know, they're just like setting up the temporary locker room in the practice rink or whatever. That's a joke. And we said that and we were right to say it. But we heard from people saying it. But I guess my point is. this. When I said it was a joke the other day, multiple coyotes fans were like, yes, correct.

It's a joke. I'm really embarrassed that I like this team right now. Yeah. And when you lose those people who have been like the ardent defenders of like, we can make this work and all we need is X, Y, and Z to have, like, we just need to build a $2 billion arena development and eight years from now. The coyote fans are the most loyal damn fans in the league. Like, you know, I sit there and go, oh, you know, I'm a loyal Leafs fan because they, you know, they don't win. Some coyote's fan is like, dude, let me tell you what it's like in our world. And you're right.

If they're, if they're starting to. Yeah. Like at this point, this team is doing everything but having Clayton Keller come over and kick your dog if you're a season ticket holder. Yeah. You know, like, it's, it's really grim. But like when I was in Arizona for those games, I was talking to coyotes fans and they were like, I'm really excited for this arena. Now, they might be like millionaires or whatever that can afford the like $300 tickets or whatever. But it is, it's really, you know, I can't believe this is being allowed to happen.

But here's the other thing I found out about the coyotes. I don't know if you know about this. In the next four drafts, how many draft picks do you think the coyotes have right now? Oh, I saw you, like, it's some insane amount. In the next, did you say three drafts? Four. Four drafts. So seven rounds, they'd start with 28.

Do they have 40? They have 47. Which, you know, any other team, you'd be like, yay, you know, the future is bright. You know, Chicago's trying to do the same thing. But, again, like, it's the coyotes are, what are they going to do? with these picks. Draft players, develop players, have players come in and then trade them

as soon as they need to make any money. I do wonder, like, okay, let's say the arena deal gets approved, which apparently the coyotes think will, like the voters will show up and say, let's build the arena. That's what apparently is, there's confidence among management and ownership

that that's what's going to happen. So let's say that happens. Two years from now, three years from now, that arena is done. I don't know what the timeline would be. But let's say three years from now. So they're coming out of four straight drafts where they're picking like 12 plus times, right? On average. Because I'm pretty confident that they will be making even more trades to add picks to their future amount is why I say like that.

you know, if it ends up, oh, we look back five years from now. And, oh, wow, and those four drafts in a row, they picked like 56 times or whatever. That wouldn't surprise me at all the way things are going. And so I wonder if, like, as they're coming out, like the arena's done, they're coming out of this four years where they're picking 50 plus times. What does that look like? Because if you have this new arena and you have like this guaranteed, like, can you get the fans to come back and like feel like you have, um, this huge, like, financial guarantee that allows you as an ownership group to then actually spend money on actual guys who are going to actually play for you? I don't know, I don't know what the answer to that is. Yeah.

I, I, I guess the big picture. your answer with the coyotes is they get through the mullet era, they get their new arena. It's a big successful project. And by the time these picks are ready, they're in a full building in a thriving market. And we all look back and go, yay, it worked. And, you know, like, I guess if that's how it goes, and they're like an actual good team at the end of that, in addition to having all these picks or whatever. Like they've actually put together a team where you're like,

wow, they have a lot of good prospect. Like Logan Cooley is their clear number one center and all this kind of stuff. Like if you can get all that going and like this isn't, then I would have to say you got to hand it to them. This is the most successful like gut the team rebuild in the history of professional sports. like they're going bro we didn't even have an arena for three fucking years that's how bad we

wanted to rebuild and i would just go then you know what i wish you all the best you did it that's great it'll be it'll be fun to see how it turns out man i don't well it'll be interesting to see how that's an interesting right um fun will hold off on let's talk about another team uh that uh is in a rebuild and people are steamed up. They're pissed off about it. They're really worked up. It's the Philadelphia Flyers. Yeah.

I mean, do you have any, like, big picture thoughts here other than, like, they're screwed? Yeah. I mean, I think Chuck Fletcher won't be the GM. No shit. Oh, my God. And you know what? Like, he has certainly not done a great job, but also, you know, we just finished kind of talking about Bill Armstrong.

And what did the owner? Chuck Fletcher had to sit there next to the Comcast guy and listen to the Comcast guy. Go, no, we don't need a rebuild. We're pretty good. Yeah. You know, a year or two ago. And this is the result of it. But yeah, the fact that, I mean, hey, the coyotes stink, but at least they've got a plan.

You know, nobody's asking what the plan is in Arizona. We all get it. Yeah. Can you say it better than that, folks? What is Philadelphia? doing it like what it to not be able to move anybody to be that bad and not move anyone at the deadline even including james van rheimsdyke who is a free agent at the end of the year so i mean it's not even a you wait till the offseason thing uh somebody screwed up somewhere like i and i get that

they're saying you know maybe there just wasn't any interest in him uh apparently there was something going on with detroit uh right at the the deadline and that fell through. But, I mean, it's your job to kind of find a market for these guys or even create one. And just a mess in film. Yeah, I... I know Flyers fans are pissed about the JBR thing. And that's like, I get why, obviously.

But I don't know. Like, if you only trade him for a fifth round pick or something like that, like say that's the best offer you got, like, do you not get killed for, only getting a fifth round pick for this guy. You know, like, I think there was never going to be a market for this guy for like a first or second round pick. It just wasn't going to happen, right? And if that's the case, you're in a no-win situation. And whose fault is that?

I think, I think you can say that's Chuck Fletcher's fault insofar as the team's fucking awful. And JVR has been bad this year. And the guy you brought into coach. was like never going to be able to put JVR in a position to score a lot of goals or whatever, right? Like, that's just not the way John Tortorella teams work. And obviously, JVR is getting up there and all this kind of stuff. Like, it was just kind of a no-win situation for him. But I don't have any fucking sympathy for the guy because if you take a job with the flyers,

and I'm sure I wrote this at the tie, I don't remember when I wrote it, but like, I probably would have still been at Yahoo. at this point. But I'm sure that I wrote at the time. Well, this guy's like one of the most mediocre general managers I can think of. He builds teams that are average or worse. I've never seen this guy build an actual good team. Right?

And like, if he's not going to be allowed to even approach a tear it down rebuild, not even tear it down. Any kind of a rebuild, really. until obviously like it became apparent to everybody what was going on like this year. Like what's this guy supposed to do? I don't feel bad for him. He took this job knowing that he was going to be like, my job is to barely get us into the playoffs.

Yeah. And like manage the decline of the Clodgeroo years. And well, that was the job. He nailed that part of it. Yeah. And I mean like it's, it's, It's easy for us to sit there and go, well, you know, what about moving Kevin Hayes? What about ProVrob?

What about, you know, even to connect me? Hey, I mean, if the market's not there, it's not there. I don't think too many people are lining up to pay Kevin Hayes $7 million for the next three years. But also, if you only make the easy moves. If you're only making the easy moves, then anyone can do the job. Yeah. And this is the thing you always say, right, of like GMs going like, oh, I wish I could do something, but

I can't do anything. So I guess I'll just not do anything. And I'll take that $3 million that I'm owed right now. Exactly. You know, like I think, again, I think this guy's a bad GM, right? Like his goal or, you know, his track record in the NHL as the GM of the Wilde and the flyers at this point, you're like, oh, all those teams that he built stink, you know? or managed, I guess, is a better way to put it.

But at least with the wild, like, he did some good drafting. I'm not seeing a ton of that in Philadelphia. And, I mean, you almost hate to say it, but you do wonder if the fact that he's had such a long career as GM is at least a little bit related to his last name. All right. Cliff Fletcher, his dad was legendary. This guy's dad was an NHLGM,

and that's how he got into being an NHLGM? Imagine. I feel like nobody ever talks about this. Yeah. I figure it's such a rare story. I figured he was just on the Portland Winterhawks with the guy who was the previous GM in 1978 or whatever. Yeah. But it's his dad?

That's great. It's almost like having your dad be a famous and successful GM doesn't guarantee anything. And a shudder goes through every Islander's fan just now. By the way, just speaking of the flyer. Or is a, did you see Tony DiAngelo spear Cory Perry in the nuts? Yeah. And did you see everybody on the lightning jump on top of them? Like, there was a big car chase in L.A. the other day.

Okay. And like this guy was like leaning out the window shooting at the cops. You know? Mm-hmm. Like real GTA. As one does. Yeah. Real GTA level shit.

Okay, that's going to get your five stars right there. It's usually just a guy like driving crazy in a police chase. This guy was shooting at the cops, like including through his own windshield. Right? So like this guy meant it. And then like he crashes the car. He tries to escape on foot. And, you know, it's, it's just the helicopter shot.

But like, out of nowhere, 90 cops appear and just like start kicking this guy in the ribs as hard as they can. Yeah. Right? And it's like, look, obviously I don't condone police violence. But if you shoot at cops, there will be 90 cops there to kick you in the ribs the second they catch you. Uh-huh. Right. And that's the same thing. Like, it doesn't, it doesn't matter if it's Cory Perry and nobody likes Corey Perry outside of Tampa, right?

Yep. If you're Tony DiAngelo and you spear a guy in the nuts, four guys are going to jump on top of you and you can't be surprised that that happens. Four guys are pretty much waiting for a chance to punch Tony DiAngelo at any given moment. Yes. But I do feel like Tony DeAngelo spearing Cory Perry in the nuts is like the new, the worst person, you know, just made a great point for hockey fans. Like that's, you're like, well, I'm generally not pro Tony DeAngelo, but this is, I mean, if he wants to rehab his image. That's right. You just, what if he did that?

What if he just spent the rest of the year, like, just going up to the worst guys in the NHL and spearing them in the nuts constantly? Just cascading suspensions, but. Yeah, well, well, then it turns out it was because one of those guys said, like, he would get a COVID shot. Yeah. Yeah. He just saw red. That's it. That was the problem.

Yeah. Hey. But yeah, so I don't know. That was a funny clip last night. Let's stay in the Keystone State here. Although I believe in Pennsylvania is a commonwealth. So to call it the Keystone State is not right. But the Pittsburgh Penguins.

What the fuck are they doing? Anybody have any idea? I have an idea. They have a very veteran champion. They made a decision last year, very late in the process, to bring that core back as far as Malcolm and Latang, and try to chase one more cup while the window was open. They have not been very good for much of this year. And their GM knows he's getting fired in the offseason. And so their coach, who's probably not getting fired, publicly puts pressure on the G.

you have to go out and get a big name player with Chickren being mentioned. Hextel doesn't want to do that. Doesn't, you know, and I think validly looks at his team and says, I can't be giving up a bunch of first-round picks. And then everybody screams at him so much that he figures he has to do something. And so he goes and gets a player who's not all that good and has a bad contract. And Michael Granlin for a second-round pick, was it? Yeah.

And knowing that, you know what, if Grandlin comes in and he fits great and, you know, the trade works out amazing, then that's cool. And if it doesn't, then who cares? I'm not going to be the GM anyways at the draft. So let some more worry about it. This was one that I did look up what I wrote just because, like, I was like, isn't this feel like the inevitable thing where they keep saying to this guy who, isn't a particularly good GM. Again, a guy just doesn't have a strong track record at the NHL level of, like, making teams good, right? Like, what did you think was going to happen with this?

Like, eventually it would get to a point where, like, the team stinks and everybody's blaming him. And he's like, I was supposed to be the guy who, like, was around when the, when the ball dropped here. Like I, you're bringing me and Brian Birkin to be the brain geniuses behind this team. And I'm not going to be allowed to rebuild it. Well, then, you know, when the, when the bottom drops out, I'm going to get fucking fired and everybody's going to be mad at me. But like, as you said, Sidney Crosby was like, you're resigning Malkin and Latang. And they were like, okay, I guess we have to do that. That's, that's what's Sidney Crosby.

And by the way, he was like, Hextel. wasn't going to sign those guys. I mean, I remember at the draft, there was like, you know, all this talk about, you know, wasn't going to happen. And everybody was yelling at them. Everybody was like, how can you not bring them?

So he brought them back. And it got them on good value deals. And like, I guess the thing that I got wrong when I wrote that take like three years ago or whatever, however long it's been, was that I was like, and obviously those guys will be in decline, right?

And they're actually still pretty good. They're obviously not what they were five, six years ago, but they're good players. And the problem is that they have no depth on this team, right? Like everybody, and this is exactly what happened when the penguin spent those few years in the wilderness between like 2011 and 2015, where they're like, oh, maybe it's fucking over for these guys, like was literally what people were thinking, you know, a decade ago. Maybe that's it.

They only had those couple of kicks at the can. And the problem is the same problem that led to that problem a decade ago, which is that they were like, oh, we have like a bunch of guys who were like pretty good complimentary players. We have to pay them like they're really good complimentary players. And then like the depth gets hollowed out. They can't draft because they're always trading their first round pick. And then suddenly it's like, oh, shit, the penguin stink.

And I guess I should say, they're in a playoff. spot right now. They are far more likely than not to make it if I'm not mistaken. But, you know, I think we all know what the deal is with these guys too, you know? Yeah. So, again, like, I don't know, you hire Ron Hextall. Like, what the fuck did you think was going to happen? Is my initial reaction. Yeah. He was decent in L.A., though, wasn't he? Like as a, you know, as far as kind of starting to rebuild down the track. Well, so that is the other thing I want to say, though, right, is when he was with the flyers,

the teams were bad. And it didn't help that he hired his son's college hockey coach to be the coach of his team. Right. Like that, you want to say that's the biggest mistake he made. I'm not going to disagree with you, Philly wise. But you want to look at like all the guys on the flyers that over the last like four or five, years, people have been like, oh, that's a good young player on the flyers. Ron Hextall drafted those guys.

So the idea that, you know, like Connectney and I believe he drafted Carter Hart, I believe he drafted Provorov, uh, Joel Farabee, like, these are all guys Ron Hextall drafted and did a good job with, like, you know, getting them to the NHL, like they're, they're decent enough players at a minimum, right? He didn't draft any superstars, but he wasn't drafting in a spot where you're going to get a lot of superstars. So I don't really hold that against him. But he wasn't ever going to be allowed to do that in Pittsburgh because, again, you've got to

trade your first round pick to get, uh, to get help for Crosby and Malkin and Lattain. It's that simple. So like the one thing he's like kind of good at that you would say, he was never allowed to do that because of, you know, just how, how it works. Yeah. It's tough. I, yeah. I guess let me, let me give him.

you this bit of trivia. You know how many times the penguins have drafted in the top 50? In the last... Like, going back to 2015, in the top 50. Not even in the first round. Boy. 2015, that's seven years. I'll say three times. Yikes. 2015, they draft Daniel Sprung 46th overall. He's the first pick they get in the draft.

then 55, 51, 53, 21 they draft Sam Poulin in 2019, 52, 58, and then 21 again they draft Owen Pickering. Man, I mean, when you got Sidney Crosby, you go. That's why they're... You keep pushing all the chips in, I get it, but... I totally get it, I totally get it, but that's why this was doomed to fail. It's that simple. Okay, let's move on to one last team that I think people were kind of surprised by what they did over the last week or so.

It's the Calgary Flames. One thing they did was like pretty definitively stake their claim that they were like not going to really be all that competitive for a playoffs spot. And this is the extent to which. that's true. They have a worse points percentage than the Nashville Predators, a team that's like, we got to rip it down to the fuck,

like maybe not to the studs, but like we got to do a pretty, we got to take the sledgehammer to a bunch of the walls in here. Like this is not, this is a problem. And the Calgary Flames extremely not in a position to do that,

I feel like. It was an interesting like deadline of nothing for them, although they made the one trade with the two brothers, which is cool. But, yeah, they didn't really choose either door.

They didn't buy, but they didn't do the, they didn't take the Nashville path either. So. I feel like they couldn't really sell, honestly. They're not well positioned. Like they, they just have a lot of contracts that you're, that are going to be difficult to move, that they wouldn't want to move,

or that other teams just wouldn't want to take that. Unlike Nashville, they have at least had some recent indication that they could be a very good team last year. Well, so that's what's funny. I wrote about this the other day because, again, like, they just kind of very definitively were like, we don't have it this year in the last week and a half or whatever. But they're a lot like Vancouver in that they have a shitload of, their projected cap hit for next year with 18 players signed is $82.2 million.

Right? Like, so they could make a trade or two this summer, but like, they're going to be cat-strapped. They got a, I don't know that they have too many RFAs, but they do have to add a couple of players, and they don't have very much money to do it at all. But on paper, this is a solid team. They're like, underlying numbers are actually pretty good. But this is the team I compared them to, and let me know if you think this is a reasonable comparison. Remember when like the hurricanes maybe like six, seven, eight years ago, like some of the best underlying numbers in the league, but they'd miss the playoffs all the time? And it was because they didn't have a good goalie and they didn't have any real finishing talent.

Is that not the Calgary Flames? Like their goalie's been awful this year, obviously. And obviously, I think he came in second in Besna voting last year. So like, but the goalie's been horrible this year. year and they just don't in losing chuck and goodrow they just don't have guys who can put the puck in the net like manjiapane like you know scored 30 something last year I think he wasn't going to do that again because he shot like 20 percent and now he's not shooting 20 percent and he's he's well he only has 13 goals this year boy oh boy um huberto like maybe not a fit for the sutter system

it looks like. Lindholm doesn't have two MVP caliber players next to him. Suddenly he's not looking like he's particularly good. He's at 18 goals. He scored 42 last year, right? And so, like, I think this is a team that is so stuck between a rock and a hard place where, like, at least the penguins, like, should make the playoffs this year unless it, like, really goes sideways.

Calgary would have to go on an insane run to make the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, the good news for Calgary is they're the, well, I guess other than Nashville, they're the only team left in the race. So they kind of control their own destiny in a sense that if they did go on a run, they're not trying to pass five other teams. But that's kind of where the good news ends because they got a ways to go. Yeah, again, they have a worse point percentage than the predators who are like, it's so bad for us that we have to fucking blow up the team.

The Jets are trying to hold that door open for everyone. Man, they are trying to hold that door open for everyone. Yeah, it seems like the West could be, the West race could be just done. Yeah, 100%. And even in the East, like, I don't want to get into like standings recap, but like, the Panthers would have to go on a similar run to catch the penguins. And the same is true of Buffalo in Ottawa. Right.

Like, again, Buffalo losing that Islanders game last night, like basically killed their, their realistic chance to make the playoffs. Now, they would have to go on a remarkable fucking run. And the fact that the Calgary Flames were in the same boat, like, their points percentage is point zero, zero six better than Ottawa and Buffalo. Two teams that it's like, oh, yeah, they don't really have a chance to make it anymore. So it's bad for them. I don't know what the solution is, right? Like, do you just, do you fire the coach even though he has like two years left after this one? Because you want to talk about what could also be the problem here.

The vibes in Calgary feel like they are completely fucked. Like, again, you have a, you have an agent who complains about everything, complaining about how the coach is and, and guys don't like playing for him and that kind of stuff. Yeah, I don't think you have to worry. I don't know, man. I don't even know if it's about firing Sutter. He might just... Kick him upstairs. He just might go back to the ranch.

I mean, that's... Goes back to the ranch, yeah. Frame it that way. But, yeah, it's... Calgary's such a weird team, man, because in the all-Canadian division, they miss the playoffs. And everyone's like, oh, they're bad.

And then the next year, they're like, no, we're actually the best team in the West during the regular season. And now this year, back to it. And obviously, there have been big roster changes along the way. but, yeah, it was,

teams that do nothing at the deadline are interesting to me. You know, Calgary, Florida, to some extent, there's another one. Florida at least couldn't do anything. The Flames could have done something one way or the other. Like, they could have, maybe not found a buyer for, like, Milan Luch, each. But, like, again, as you say,

the Flames neither bought nor sold, despite making trades. Like, at least the Panthers didn't really do. do anything at all. You know, the flames just made like a change of scenery trade for a different Richie brother. That rocked. That ruled so much.

It's so weird. Oh, and I guess they traded for Troy Stetcher, who's on an expiring deal. But again, that's just them going. Who's a guy who used to be on the Canucks we can get our hands on? It's a really weird team. I don't, I don't really know what you do with them if you're, if you're, and this is the other thing. to say. Bradshaw Living out of

contract at the end of the season. Okay, I didn't know that. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. So, to your point earlier, like, if you're getting fired, like, why do you not either empty the tank or start a rebuild? Yeah. And he was just like, oh, whatever.

I got my dad's pizza. Because, screw to that. But, yeah. I guess, but like, I don't know. I was going to say it worked for David Poyle, right? He was like, I'm going to get fired if I don't fucking quit

and sell off pieces. And get replaced by a guy with literally zero front office. He's my friend from work. I guess Yeah. We'll see how that works out. Yeah, your old buddy, David Boyle. Yeah, I just do not know

what you do if you're the flames. Because you have so much committed for next year. And like guys who are good, this isn't like the Canucks where it's like, oh, they have three guys who are good. And and maybe four or five others who are like on, who are decent but on regrettable contracts. Like,

Codry is good. Huberto is good. The answer might be exactly what they did, which is you say, you know, it's not clicking this year, but we're going to, you know,

we're going to keep the group together on the off chance they can make a push, but if not we were group in the off season. That's maybe not the worst plan. Yeah, you hope, but like here's the thing that I do if I'm, if I'm the flames and I'm like trying to get marks from back healthy. I stopped playing him.

You know, this is a guy who just gets fatigued easily, and he's on pace to play 50 plus games again. I'm like, oh, it's Dan Vladar is our starting goalie for the rest of the season. And you say to him, like, look, Jacob, we, obviously are our start. Like, if you're worried about that aspect of it, you go, obviously you're our starter, but it's no secret you haven't had a good year. And we think it's better to give him more starts to save you for next season so you can come back 100% ready to go.

Because that's the other thing. Ladar is locked in for two more years after this one. He signed an extension. $2.2 million. That's what this is, it says here is his extension. Woof. That's rough, man. 8.2 million bucks for two goalies who are,

well, next year I guess it'll be 8.2 million. For two goalies who are coming off like 880, 890 seasons. How do you? Yikes, man. I don't know. Nope. Why don't we take a break? We'll come back and talk about some other stuff.

And, yeah, this week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Factor. And, folks, it's springtime now. You've got to power up for springtime, it says here, but Factor. It's America's number one ready to eat meal kit because here's what they do, folks. You're not going to believe this. They give you nutritious, chef-repaired meals that are delivered straight to your door. And that frees up a lot of time and energy to tackle every. Everything else on your to-do list is the weather gets nicer and, you know, you're out and about more and all that kind of stuff.

Some of the stuff that the factor has, they have calorie smart meals that are that check in around 550 calories or less, right? They have keto meals. They have vegan veggie meals. They have protein plus meals. And all of those are prepared by chefs and approved by dietitians. So you know that each meal has all the ingredients you need to feel satisfied throughout your day. And the thing about Factor is I said earlier, they're ready to eat meal kits. This isn't like some of the other meal boxes where you've got to like make the dinner yourself.

These are all ready to go. They're on little trays. You just pop them in the oven or the microwave and in as little as two minutes you're ready to eat. We've gotten Factor sent to us before here at the house. And it was a big hit. I got to tell you, like, you know, you, you know, you. You don't maybe know what to expect when you're getting stuff that it's like, oh, just pop in the microwave.

It's ready to go. This is really high quality food. Like I said, big hit around here. We've really enjoyed having factors shipped here. So you're always like, well, how many options am I going to really have, right? Like, how many ready to eat different options are there? The answer is 34 per week. That's a lot.

So, like, you know, I have a lot of particulars about what I do in. don't like for food, but there was always plenty of options that appealed to me. And I was like, oh, I wish I could get this, but I only have four meals come to me or whatever it is. So yeah, 34, again, all prepared by chefs, all approved by dietitians. And in addition to all that, there's breakfast options like egg bite, smoothies, and more, and snack options with up to, with, it's not up to, 45 plus add-ons that you can get in addition to your meals.

So here's what you're going to want to do. You go to factormeals.com slash puck 50 and use the code puck 50 to get 50% off your first box. That's code puck 50 at factormeals.com slash puck 50 to get 50% off your first box. All right. A couple other things we got to talk about here. I guess we should mention that the wild didn't wear pride jerseys on Pride night, even though they had a Pride night. And this is just, again, like we said it when the Rangers did it, this is just how it's going to work from now on. Yeah, and unlike some other teams like Ottawa, this wasn't a case where they had never planned on wearing them.

They apparently was the plan. They had a page on the website to auction them off and then kind of day of announced. They called it an organizational decision. Right. So unfortunately, this is now feeling like the new normal after the Broveroff situation. Because nobody, no team wants to be in a situation. And this is just my guess. I don't obviously know what the decision-making process was.

But no team wants to be in a position where a single guy goes, I'm not going to wear that fucking jersey, fuck you. And if Proverov didn't have to do it, I don't have to do it. So instead, they go, okay, nobody's wearing them then. Right. And, I mean, the Rangers were the first team to do that. And I remember saying at the time, like, well, you know, we'll see if, they're clearly trying to protect somebody.

We'll see if it works. It did work. We still don't know who objected. 100%. So I think clearly other T, and you know, it's... This is how it is. And it sucks, but this is how it is now, folks.

Like... Yeah, it's... The article that Greg tweeted out from Unowatch, which is a website that just does uniforms as... I didn't see this article. It's, you know, basically saying like this, This is kind of where we're headed now. Not for everyone.

You know, some teams are still doing it. And other teams are, they're still having the Pride Knights and they're still expressing their support in different ways. But, you know, and that is for some fans, that feels like enough or, you know, that they'd still appreciate that level of support. And for others, it's not where it could be. But obviously, when you have teams switching the plan up at the very last minute, does it, you know, the implication is not great. It looks bad. Yeah.

Looks real bad. But again, this is just how it's going to be from now on. The number of teams that have done Pride Nights in the past and worn jerseys on the ice, uh, versus the number that it will shrink to over the next few months. Like, I don't know how many teams still have Pride Nights on the books for this year. But like, I would, I would expect, again, this is kind of the same thing. thing. And I'd even frankly

wouldn't be surprised if they just go like, this is like hockey is for everyone night. And then like it's just like this generalized thing of like, do you feel marginalized? We think you're cool as long as you pay us money to go to these games. Yeah, exactly. It sucks, but.

It's frustrating, but it's yeah, this is where we are. Yeah. The other thing that, the one last hockey thing I wanted to talk about here is, I broke this news to Sean

or yesterday. He said he hadn't seen this stuff. But there are now rumors that NHL teams are coming to Houston and Atlanta at some point in the indeterminate future. John Butchardross

tweeted it out about Atlanta and then he like kind of in a reply was like oh keep an eye on Houston too and then yesterday Kevin Weeks just tweeted out a picture of the Houston skyline with like eyeball emojis and was like at NHL Network, at draft kings, whatever. So here's the thing.

I think this is not expansion for both of them anyway. I think it would be I think it would be tough to do two more expansion teams like that. especially, A, there are apparently, as far as I can tell, like in what I was able to search for online yesterday, there are no arena plans in place. They want to build an arena in the Atlanta suburbs, like in Alpharetta, I believe, like they want to build a rink there. Or not a rink, but like just an arena that they could then put a rink in, basically. If they got the team. But I don't think anything is known about Houston other than like the building where the Rockets play used to have an AHL team, the Houston Aeros. But they renovated it a few years ago and the arrows didn't play there anymore.

So they ripped out all the hockey infrastructure. So I don't, I don't know, man. I don't know what's happening with this. It would really surprise me if, like I said, if both of these are expansion teams. I think it would be one relocation, probably Arizona if the arena vote fails. And one expansion team.

Well, the thing that's interesting is, you know, obviously, Vegas has been a huge success. Seattle, maybe still too early to tell, but going well. Yeah. They get an enormous amount of money out of this. So you could certainly imagine there's owners calling up Gary Batman going, hey, man, how come we're not doing this often?

Yeah. Let's get more. I think Elliot said yesterday that both of those teams, AHL teams are really financially successful as well, Henderson and Coachella Valley. Okay. Is that Seattle's AHL team, Coachella Valley? I feel like that's right. The interesting thing to me is sort of if you're the NHL,

I think the two reasons you don't want this out there is number one, these markets, especially Houston, are your threat markets, right? You always have to have a market that you can threaten teams like Calgary that aren't building their race. You know what? That's a good point. It might not be Arizona. Like even if the coyotes get a new rink, you can go, we'll pack up the flames. We'll take them back to fucking Atlanta.

How's that sound? Yeah, exactly. But that's what would make it so interesting with Atlanta, because I know everyone rolls her eyes. Like, they've already failed twice. Twice. That's a tough one. For sure.

But the other thing is if you're, you know, if I'm Gary Bettman and I want a strong arm, let's say Calgary, you know, you give me a new arena or we're going to take your team away, I'm sitting there going, yeah, but, I mean, Atlanta, you took their team away twice and you keep giving it back. So, yeah, we'll take a five-year break from having the flames. You know, you gave Minnesota their team back. I mean, I don't know.

It kind of, you lose the gravity of your threat a little bit if you're constantly going back to markets. I don't know, man. It would be so tough to go back to Atlanta because as soon as anything isn't going well. Even if you make the argument, hey, it's a big TV market. The team stunk last time. We never really got to see what they would do. And, you know, expansion's different now.

as soon as they got off to a slow start, everybody would be like, here we go again, and it just becomes self-fulfilling thing. Yeah, and the other thing to say about Atlanta is they have kind of an Arizona situation where they're like the fan base, and by that they mean like white people, I think, doesn't live where the arena was like in Atlanta last time. And Alpharetta is like the suburbs and that's where the white people who, they're, they're, saying like those would be the people we're targeting. Like, that's what they're saying. The difference would be this time. If we get an arena built in the suburbs, like they did with the Braves Field, you know, where they built the arena in the suburbs rather than in Atlanta itself.

Like, I think that's what they would say would be the difference this time. And, you know, it probably would. I don't know. And the other thing, I guess you would have to say is that, like, the way the, the, the expansion draft and the players you protect is so much more beneficial to expansion teams now, the odds that you get like four years of the team absolutely sucking shit are way lower, right? Although, you know, especially if they brought in two teams at the same time, we'd get an actual expansion draft with two teams in the process,

which is way more fun for fans, but does, I think, kind of add to the volatility of the situation. I don't know. Sure. It'd be tough. It would be fascinating to see an expansion team in Atlanta because you've got to figure they would go in and say, we got to be good right away. We can't do the Seattle, you know, slow build Ron Francis thing.

We got to, like, we got to get in there. It could be interesting, but I don't, I don't know, man. I just, it's been 12 years since the thrashers left. That's not a long time in the franchise movement scheme of things. So I'd be surprised. Let's put it that way. Yeah. Now, what do you say to the idea?

Because, you know, we're going to start getting these articles now of like, well, Quebec City, though. They've got a big rink. I mean, it's a better. 40,000 people live there. Better market as, hey, come on, man. Better market as far as. I mean, that is literally the argument, right? Like, the argument is.

argument is, well, A, you don't want to be as vulnerable to the Canadian dollar in the exchange rate and stuff like that. But B, and I feel like this is important, it's a really small metro area in terms of a... It's a very small metro area, and yet, like, as far as hockey fans and people willing to spend money on hockey, are they more in Quebec City or in Atlanta? Right. It does become a bit of a guessing game, but there's only 844,000 people in the Quebec City metro area. Yep. That's like Winnipeg. About the, yeah,

Ottawa sized. And, you know, we've seen the, the struggles. It's almost exactly. It has 10,000 more people than Winnipeg. And Winnipeg,

you know, sometimes has trouble selling out a, a 15,000-seat arena. Yeah. Whereas, let me Google, Atlanta metro area size. 6.144 million.

Yeah. That's a lot more. But I mean, so like, There's 15 million people in Mexico City. None of them are hockey fans. That's the... Sure.

Well, I mean, but like, you know, that's like a five-hour flight from L.A., right? Like, if you put them in the Pacific Division, it's like a 14-hour flight from Vancouver or something like that, I'm sure. So, and it's probably not 14, but it's probably like eight. You know, like, it would be the equivalent of like Tampa flying to Vancouver, basically, every year. Yeah. Or, you know, multiple times a year. whereas obviously Atlanta, you pop them in the metro or whatever, and you go, oh, look at this. This is working out great, you know.

The other piece of it is that we would normally say is, you know, Quebec City, who cares with the population is as far as the U.S. TV deals, their Quebec's population is zero. Zero, correct, yeah. And again, like the Canadian deal is the next one up. It's not the American deal. So, I mean, if I'm SportsNed or whoever's going to be bidding on that contract, there's a part of me going, hell yeah, get another Canadian team. Well, here, but the other thing about that is this.

Those people are watching SportsNet anyway. Yep. You know? That's true. Like, they're a captured audience. Like, you know, they don't publish, uh, here's the bathroom usage during the fucking Super Bowl. And like, it's 99% of people. in the entire country of the United States

flush their toilets at the exact same time because there was a commercial break during the Super Bowl. But during like a, you know, the Stanley Cup playoffs are like obviously in Olympics. Everyone in Canada is like glued to the TV watching this one sport. So, you know, I think it's a little bit of a captured audience.

Like, I guess my point is this. I think the Atlanta thing is a fucking horrible idea. for all the reasons that anybody would say, right? Like, they've tried it twice and it hasn't worked. They don't even have an arena yet. So, like, this feels like they're putting the cart way before the fucking horse, you know? Whereas with Quebec City, I'm just like, I guess the only difference is they only tried it once in Quebec City. And it didn't fucking work.

Yeah, but it, yeah. I'd rather, honestly. Maybe it didn't work in a completely different economic market. Yeah, but I don't know. Both as far as, I mean, the Nordiques failed in a not only was there no cap, but, you know, the dollar was completely out of whack, which could. Well, sure, but like again. But again, like, you know, if we're going to say, oh, it failed in Atlanta twice. Yeah, it failed in Atlanta before I, a 40-year-old man was born.

Yep. No, that's, that's true. that's true maybe one of those just doesn't count yeah fair right so so look again I'm not defending the thrashers thing I think that shit was like never going to be particularly tenable if they didn't get buy in like right away obviously like the the predators like that's a good hockey market now and nobody would have said that before Columbus I think maybe you'd say a little ifier on um like there are right but with Atlanta I I think that's a,

I think it's a bad idea. But then again, you know, it, like I said, it becomes the coyotes thing where it's like, but if they put an arena where the fans live, maybe that's different.

Who knows? But I, I think Houston is maybe worth a shot. Houston more so. Definitely has felt like the next, next market up for a little while now. Yeah. But so.

That, all. And then, folks, that's all for hockey talk. But there is a subject that my good friend, Sean McIndoo, wanted to talk about here on the episode. I didn't have this written down in the outline, and he said, we got to add

it. This is from Sean McIndo. Oscar talk. You know me? Mr. Pop Culture. They're going to start calling you Mr. Oscars. Yes. I want Ryan to tell me all the winners because he's seen every one of these movies. I don't, that is not true.

There are a few, I've seen all the best picture nominees. I'll say that. And I've seen, I'd say the vast majority of the acting categories I've seen. But yeah. Now, Sean, you said you've seen two or three of the best picture nominees. So I'm looking down the list. I have seen everything everywhere all at once. I've seen tar and I've seen Top Gun.

Those are my three. And I have triangle of sadness on like my watch list. That's probably up next. I might watch Banshees of Inchering. You should watch Manchies of Inishiren. And it's not going to, I don't think it's going to win a lot, very much at all, quite frankly. But I, I, it's unbelievable.

It's so good. All right. And then I'm just looking kind of at the other like the acting nominees. I don't think. I think that's pretty much what I got. Okay. So I would have said going in that tar is the unquestioned favorite to win. It just seems like the kind of movie that, A, it's insanely good, but be the kind of movie that Oscars tends to reward.

Yeah. There aren't any movies about making movies other than Fableman's, but they have. have, they might go out of their comfort zone and award a movie about a different creative endeavor. Right. Really stretch their legs a bit here. Now, I would argue Top Gun Maverick is about making movies. Fair. But, um, but what, what's interesting is that Tar hasn't done very well, like in what, what they call the precursor awards.

The awards that, like the SAG and, and the directors guild and, uh, the back. BAFTAs and all these kind of things. They're usually a decent enough indication of what the people who end up voting on the Oscars think of these movies. Movie that won the BAFTA's baffling fucking decision, all quiet on the Western front. It's not that good. Okay. It's on Netflix. You can just watch it.

I shouldn't say it's not that good. It's a good movie. It is not as good. I think it is last out of the Oscar movies. and there were two Oscar movies in here that I like, or Best Picture nominees that I, that I like actively were it's like, really? That's the movie.

Avatar you didn't like. Now hold on a second. But then the other movie that's really cleaning up at all these awards is everything everywhere all at once. Yep. And I think that's more of a, it's going to win all the acting categories, which again, I wouldn't have guessed two months ago.

But it's just absolutely cleaning up. And it's surprising because that movie came out like a year ago. Well, that's it, right? They don't usually give those movies that like... It had a lot of Oscar buzz at the time they came out. But usually those movies can't sustain that for a full year. But this one certainly did. So I think I'm still going to go with Tar as my favorite to win best picture.

but everything everywhere all at once feels like it could jump into that position. And I got to tell you, folks, I like that movie. I saw it twice in theaters. The way people talk about this movie, it's too much. It's too much. Yeah. I enjoyed that movie a lot. It was a very good movie.

It's really good. I didn't love it in the same way that I've, it didn't get to the same level for me as some other ones. But it was quite enjoyable. And more of a... I would say more of a crowd pleaser than... And more accessible than TAR, probably. Which is a weird thing to say about like a... You know, something that's such a bizarre premise.

Well, they put a multiverse in it. Everybody knows what multiverse is now. So, like, the Marvel... The Marvel Cinematic Universe did so much to, like, lay down some runway for everything everywhere all it wants to really take off. Yeah. That, like, I really think that's what happened there.

But, yeah, so actor, let's see here. I have not seen After Sun yet, unfortunately. And I haven't seen Living, which, like, even people who have seen it are like, I mean, like, it's a good performance, but, like, what are we doing here? So you saw the whale, though? Like, how is that? I did see the whale. It sucks. Really?

All right. Yes. Really good performance from Brendan Fraser and Hong Chow to, not the Hong Chow, performance I would have nominated this year. Although I don't, I don't know that she even got nominated for best supporting actress. But like there are two characters in that movie that just feel like you ever watch three billboards in Ebbing outside Ebene. No.

Okay. Well, that, a movie I hated, but it won best picture. And I hated it because the characters in that movie were so broad and just saying like mean shit for the same. sake of like saying mean shit because like oh look how mean this character is you know and that's two characters like just so

broad two of the like five characters in this whole movie it's not good Brennan Frazier's very good in it I get why he got nominated for best actor but like he doesn't deserve to win I honestly think the winner is going to be

Austin Butler unless they give it to Bill Nye is like a kind of career achievement award which they do sometimes. Awesome but there's the Elvis. He's Elvis. And like, it's because he still talks like Elvis.

Like he's going to go up there and he's going to go, oh, I'll think of, like he literally cannot, you know, he says he can't stop doing the accent. I wonder how much of that is, as they say in the business on KFate.

Yes. Like, being the Joker fucked me up so bad, like now I'm actually crazy. Like is a common thing. I wonder if him, Like he's just doing that in hopes that, look, two people have won an Oscar for being the Joker at this point, right? So a guy being like, being Elvis turned me into Elvis.

Yeah. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if they like that. That's what we all need. The Joker's over. We need to all have our Elvis origin stories now. That's right. And he did a great job in that movie. I shouldn't say he didn't because he did.

He's really good in it. We love actors pretending to be famous musicians, don't we? Yeah, and he went big in this movie because it was directed by Boslerman. That worked. Okay. My pick would be Colin Farrell for Banshees to finish here. And again, I haven't seen Afterson. I hear it's fantastic.

So I don't want to, like, denigrate Paul Messkall at all. I just haven't seen the movie. Didn't come to my theater. And I don't like to watch a movie for the first time at home if I can. avoid it. But Banshees of Innesh Erin, what a fucking movie. Oh my God. Everybody in it's so good.

I love it. Best actress. I didn't see Andrew Reisborough and two Leslie. And I didn't see Anadalarmus and blonde. I didn't see either of those two movies. Kate Blanchett will be winning this award. I would be floored. Again, as much as I think Michelle Yo was great,

and she's won a bunch of precursor rewards. Like, TAR is a Best Picture nominee. She's in every scene of it. Like, there's not, there's barely a second when she's not on fucking camera. So, and she's phenomenal.

To the point where, look, she's so good in this movie that, like, it has become a joke of, Lydia Tarr is a real person. Yeah. And, like,

when you, when you Googled TAR, like, to, to like look up showtimes or the Wikipedia page or whatever. One of the auto-complete is like, TAR, is Lydia Tarr a real person? And this was like the week it came out. So this is how real Kate Blanchett plays.

She's very, very good. Oh, my God. I enjoyed the movie. I'm still a little bit unsure, but like just how much I enjoyed it. But yes, she's quite good, obviously. I was on the damn floor watching that movie. I just, they knocked me out of my seat. I can crawl back into it.

I will get you to explain to me what exactly was going on in the second half. We'll do that off air. That's a big discussion. Yeah. And I like that, by the way. I like that it's not, I'm not completely sure what was happening. But yeah. Yeah, best director, I think we're going back to Todd Field for Tar here.

They already gave Spielberg like a big award recently. So I don't think he's getting another one. So you don't think he's getting the. Best director for directing a movie about becoming a director? Here's the thing. He did an unbelievable job with that movie. Like that is one of my favorite movies a year. I love it.

I love the Fablemans. And there's a choice he makes at the end of that movie as a director that, again, I like gasped when I saw it on screen. And again, I don't want to ruin it for people. I don't think it's like streaming anywhere yet. So that's unfortunate. But like I don't think. Daniels is, or the Daniels, I don't know,

the two guys who directed everything everywhere all at once. And like, Ruben Ostland, well, like, hey, that's nice for you. Triangle of Sadness is a fun movie. It's nice you got, you're an Oscar nominated director now. But, like, he doesn't have a chance to win. And Martin McDonough, you know, he, he just did a movie, like, his last movie, three billboards, one best picture.

He's not winning this one. And again, as much as I love banjies, it's one of my favorite movies of the year. but Todd Fields to lose, I think. What else? Supporting actors, I didn't see Causeway. I think that's just like on Apple. So I don't know about Brian Tyree Henry, but he's a great actor, really good in everything. I think I've ever seen him in.

Brendan Gleason, Great and Banshees probably deserves like a career achievement award for being just like a gruff guy who's really good. I love that guy. He's unbelievable. Um, Kihei Kwan from, from everything everywhere all at once has to be the favorite to win this thing. He's won every precursor reward.

And he was fantastic, but also this is one of those things where it's like, he's not in a supporting role in that movie. Yeah, it is. He's absolutely. It's a little bit of category fraud, as they call it. But like, I also, I also do see where they do.

it where they're like, this is just a movie about her. You know, and like, there are big chunks of that movie he's not in. So I get, I get it. And I think he should win. But like, again, he is so phenomenal in that movie. Even leaving aside the meta thing of like, this is his first acting role and a million years and all that kind of stuff. But Judd Hirsch and the Fablman's, like, when I saw it, like, so he comes in like,

halfway through the movie and he has a very frank discussion with young Stephen Spielberg. And then he very definitively leaves the movie again, right? Okay. And he just comes in and he's a fucking fireball, like a, like a wrecking ball for the 15 minutes he's in this movie. He got like literally people clapped when they were like, oh, and we say goodbye to Judd Hirsch's character. now people in my theater opening day were like unbelievable wow and like you know

you don't get that very often obviously but then my favorite my personal favorite I would be hooting and hollering if he won everybody's favorite little Irish gremlin Barry Keegan he just shows up and he's like oh I'm fucking Irish and I'm a little

gremlin boy and I'm just going it's the gremlin The Gremlin from Ireland. Yeah. Any movie he's in. I'm just ready to fucking lose my mind every time I see him. He's great. He's a great actor.

And this is, I would say, the movie that is making the best use of him as a little Gremlin. So all the respect in the world to Barry King. I don't think he has a fucking chance. Best supporting actress, Angela Bassett for Black Panther, Wakanda Forever. She's pretty good in it. Okay. Whatever.

I don't care. You know, like, I don't, I think I would, I think, I wouldn't be surprised at all if she wins. Again, kind of a career achievement award. She does a really good job in a movie that's not very good. I got nothing bad to say about Angel Abasset ever. One of the greats, you know. Carrie Condon, Banshees of Inish Shearine. Again, just a wonderful fucking performance.

She's so good in it. I love her. Awesome. both Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Sue for everything everywhere all at once. They're both great in it. I think Jamie Lee Curtis, again, is just kind of like, oh, we love Jamie Lee Curtis, don't we, folks? Yep.

And it was a fun little role, definitely. Very little. Yeah, yeah, yep. And then Hong Chow for the Walsh. whale. My pick here would be Stephanie Sue as the nasty daughter who's actually maybe not so nasty

for those who have seen the movie. And folks, if you haven't seen everything everywhere all at once yet, I feel like I'm safe to explain the entire plot of this movie beat for beat. That movie's been out for more than a year. It's on you if you haven't fucking seen it yet. I don't know what to tell you otherwise. Easy to find it streaming.

definitely worth seeing. Yeah, it's a really good movie. But again, is it as good as people act like it is? Let's slow down a little bit. And Hong Chow and the Whale, you know, again, she's good in it, but like she should have been nominated for the menu. She's much better in the menu. And I love Hong Chow.

I got nothing bad to say about it. But I hope it's Carrie Condon just because, like, I don't think this movie's going to win any other awards, and I think it should. I think it should be recognized in some way. I love that movie, again, I was just like fully on board for. This is a thing where like I, you know, I don't talk about this much, but like I have a lot of Irish heritage.

Like my parents weren't like, oh, you're Irish or whatever. But like, you know, we got a lot of Irish people. And I just watching Banchies of Inishiren was just having like an epigenetic, like reaction to it going like, which that was me. I wish I was wearing these cute little sweaters during the Irish Civil War. You know? Like, oh, you just walk to the pub and you're miserable all the time. That sounds fucking awesome to me. Yeah. You're living the dream. Yeah. Oh, your friends hate you too? Awesome. That is, again, that really, it really unlocked something for me, like on a genetic level where I was like, this is where I was meant to be. I was meant to be one of the banshees of Inish Earon, you know?

And then, yeah, I don't, I don't want to get into like the screen. play Oscars or whatever. But yeah. I guess the only other thing I want to say here is I wish Top Gun Maverick, like I hope they win a lot of awards just for making a movie that big and stupid. That's insanely good also, you know? Because again, I think that would lay a lot of runway for when they finally end the Mission Impossible series for them to just be like, the last one, that's our best picture winner.

Thank you for doing these movies. much like they did with Return of the King. Yep. You know? Where it's like, was Return of the King the best movie of that year? Well, probably not. But like, didn't we love the Lord of the Rings series? And I'm like, yeah, we did.

It's awesome. And so, like, I hope Top Gun Maverick getting all these nominations means that Tom Cruz's real passion project of almost dying on camera for the Mission Impossibles will one day get rewarded. Yeah. He'll win a posthumous Oscar. Exactly. Yeah, it's 100%

And they're like, and his Oscar clip is the scene where his body exploded. Like a fucking harrier jet landed on him. Yeah. Applaud. Yeah. That's exactly right. An empty chair with like a shoe on it is just, yeah.

But, uh, yeah. You know, sentimentally, I'm wishing, I'm wishing that, uh, the avatar can sweep the fucking Oscar. you know. We are loving. Paya Khan, best supporting actor. And I'm just like, yeah, Paya Khan, he's a big whale, folks.

Well, he's not a whale. He's Tulkoon. But, uh, yeah, I look, this is a year. I thought last year was kind of a shitty Oscars year where I, where I, like, I was like, yeah, I mean, I guess these are good movies. There are like six movies this year that I'm like, see this film, day one. Like, wow. First chance you get, you got to see it. It's unbelievable. So, yeah, I'm really excited for Sunday. I just hope they don't. Here's what I guess I would close with here, Sean. All the things I want to happen, I think that's what should happen.

Oh, interesting. Okay. Now, all the things that I don't want to happen, I'd be pretty upset if they happen. Wow. This is why he's a sports call in this, folks. That's right, folks. Sean, we're done with the Oscars. Why don't you hit him with the plugs?

You find me on The Athletic. As always, that's where all my written content goes, as well as my podcast with Ian Mendez on Thursdays and The Athletic Hockey Show. Go read my post today. I have some thoughts on trading in the NHL, and it's different from my usual thoughts. And I'm not sure if these are,

I'm not sure if I'm right or wrong or somewhere in the middle, but I'll leave it at that. Go check out the piece and let me know what you think. I read the piece, by the way, Sean. I think you're a fool and a villain. All right, fair. Good. That's, you know, that's the sort of feedback I'm looking for.

But yeah, yeah, go and then I'll have something else on Friday that'll be more fun. Yeah, there you go. And then for me, E.P.Rinkside.com. You type in the code, I love E.P. When you sign up for an annual subscription, they'll give you 15 months for the price 12. That's what a steal. And this is important because we just put out our

college hockey free agents guide that all your teams are going to be clamoring to sign these guys in the next couple of weeks here is the college hockey playoffs started on Thursday, last Thursday and they, look, we're going to go down from 61

teams to one in the course of like the next. I would hope it would be one. Four and a half weeks, you know. teams are already eliminated from the playoffs teams are already signing with uh or players are already signing with nchl teams so we have a big college hockey free agent guide really in depth uh i had very little i had something to do with it but very you know like smarter scouts than me are are looking and projecting how these guys are going to turn out and stuff uh i just mostly collected

quotes from various players and coaches and stuff um but yeah So check that out. And then obviously the playoffs and other leagues, including the NHL are right around the corner. So more prospect stuff coming your way soon. Check all of that out, including like World U-18s and stuff like that. And then go to patreon.com slash puck soup for all our bonus episodes. Yesterday, me and Sean recorded an episode that ended up winning the last poll for our listener choice episode. but it won after we had already recorded the episode.

So we were like, it's only fair. We go back and do that one as well. We're nothing, if not men of the people. That was super fun, by the way. Yeah, it was a very fun one. I don't want to give it away or anything, but it was a fun draft. So yeah, we'll talk to you next week, I guess.

I don't have anything else to say. Enjoy the Oscars, I guess. If that's your thing. And if it's not, well. Do we have a show next week? Because I'm not here next week. Are we doing a show? That's right.

We don't have a show next week. I forgot about that. I'm very mixed up. We talked about this the other day on the bonus episode two. I'm very mixed up about what day it is at any given time. But yeah, we don't have a show next week. That's right. Sean is doing vacation stuff, I believe.

Yes. I'm going to Quebec City to scout out locations for the coyotes. Now, Sean, can I make a quick recommendation and then we'll call it? Yeah. The NHL rink they already have there. Oh, cool. I know the coyotes aren't used to playing in one of those. Yeah.

It might be a little cavernous for their taste. Just something to think about. Yeah. All right. Have a good one. Thanks for listening, everybody. See you later. Bye-bye.

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tools. It's your weekly bowl of Hockey and Nonsense. Um... ...auntu