Puck Soup - Don't Yell About the MVP

Episode Date: March 5, 2020

Greg is out recovering from getting his wisdom teeth out, so Sean and Ryan are running the show this week. They talk about the annual GM meeting, their thoughts on the rule changes and salary cap changes. They also talk about who's doing well and who's struggling, the wild card race, questionable choices from Ottawa and they play a round of Real or Fake. Brought to you by Mack Weldon and The Black Tux!

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Hello, everybody. I am not Greg Wichinsky. Greg is not joining us this week. He died.

Yeah, it's very sad. Actually, what Greg had his wisdom teeth out, he's fine, but he is recovering from that. We did try to convince him to do the show immediately after having his wisdom teeth out. And I felt like we were making progress towards getting him to do that. But no, he backed out, sadly. Yeah, he's afraid, I think. Yeah. So we, yeah, we tried to get Greg on the show when he was, like, loopy from dental drugs.

but not this time, maybe next time. So I am Sean McAnew. Maybe when he gets his remaining zero wisdom teeth out weekend. Yeah, that's true. Well, I mean, there's... Well, not to step on your intro. You go for it. There seem to be a lot of people who want to punch Greg.

We shinsky in the mouth at any given time. So I feel like this is not his final time in that chair. Not out of the question. So yeah, I'm Sean McIndoo from the athletic. What am I said? You're in Puck Soup? Is that what I'm supposed to say? Yeah.

Well, you're supposed to wait for me to say. say I'm Ryan Lambert from this podcast and then we can. We're not good at this. That's fine. You're in. Puck soup. That's right. And yeah, just the two of us this week. And so let's just dive right into it because we had, well, not really a super busy week.

We're kind of in that weird, I don't want to say dead zone, but quiet zone where it's after the trade deadline, not quite in the frantic home. stretch. So there's not a ton going on, but there's some and a lot of it came from the GM meetings. Yeah, I just, real quick, I just want to say the thing of like this week, all the teams that are, you know, not going to make the playoffs. Let's just put it that way are like, look, we have 16 games, we have 15, and I'm sitting there like, fuck, 15 more fucking Panthers games. I don't know how anybody can do this, but yeah this is a good time for for false hope votes of confidence uh all that stuff that fans really like to hear after 65 games of that's exactly right team struggle uh but yeah this is the annual uh gms meeting this is where uh every year all the gms get in a room right after the trade

deadline because you wouldn't want to do that right before when you know get everyone in a room that wouldn't make any sense uh right after they all get together for a few days somewhere warm and sunny and talk about potential changes and things they might do. And usually they don't actually do all that much and then they go golfing. And every reporter, every hockey reporter gets to go and cover it. It's a pretty sweet gig. But there was not a bad scam at all. Yeah.

There was some news this week out of the meetings. And maybe the first bit was news about something that the NHL decided it not to do. But it's something we talked about last week, which is the emergency backup rules. And I kind of made my case of why I thought they were right to at least consider changing them after the situation with the hurricanes. I think you and Greg kind of pushed back on that. And you got your way. They've decided to just leave everything as is keep the status quo. Yeah, you know, I think, you know, Colin Campbell calling the hurricanes and begging them to put in both of their injured goalies. aside, you know, I don't see where it's, I think that would be a bigger problem that you're putting guys who can't play back in, you know, a guy who has a concussion, that kind of thing.

But yeah, I just, you know, it's going to come up once every year and a half. And it might be a thing where a guy has to play 12 minutes or a guy has to play 40. But it's, I don't think that's enough to justify. like, you know, completely overhauling the world. Because we said last week, right? Like, it's, it would be about just another way for owners to be like trying to get leverage in CBA negotiations. Potentially, yeah. So I'm fine with, you know, occasionally a fucking plumber has to go in there and try to win a shootout or something.

It's fine. Yeah. And, and the NHL's argument, the GMs, uh, based on the reports is, is, is, Basically, they feel like, like you said, this is a very rare event. And they feel like the guys that they have now are good enough, that even somebody like David Ayers and, you know, we're all calling this guy the 42-year-old Zamboni driver. But this guy is also a practice goalie for the NHL, which is not the same as being an NHL goaltender, but it's also not the same as being some guy that they pulled off the streets. And I guess they kind of went around the table and figured that the guys that are available to that. are good enough that in a pinch they're not going to completely embarrass themselves,

which is fine. I mean, I made my case last week that I think eventually this is going to go really badly for somebody in some team. And I would have liked to have seen the NHL make some changes before something goes wrong for once. But they didn't. And I definitely get the impression that I was in the minority on that one. most of what I saw and read from fans and media seemed to be that people thought it was just fine that we keep the system that we have.

And that's what they're doing. So no change on that front. Yeah, no change on that front also is like the NHL's default setting. Well, usually. Yeah, exactly. So like that's fine. I would have been shocked if they had, you know, taken that like this. This would have been the decision that made them immediately say, we have to change everything.

Yeah. It just doesn't work that way in this league. Condolences to everybody who spent the last week telling me that this rule was going to change because something, something, maple leafs. And it was, you know, I guess, I guess not. I guess this league doesn't make all its rule changes based on whatever happens with the Leafs. But the interesting thing that we did find out, and you touched on it, was this weird Colin Campbell quote, where he says that he called Don Waddell, the Hurricanes GM, during the second intermission of that infamous Saturday night game,

and asked him if can't one of these two guys, that being the two goalies who are hurt, go back in the game, which is, it's not a big deal, but that's a weird quote on a couple of levels. First of all, the fact that Colin Campbell thought that maybe that hadn't occurred to Don Waddell,

that he'd be like, he'd be like, yeah, right. is fine. Yeah, maybe we should throw them back in. Like, no, but you had like, Colin, that's a good idea, bud. Yeah, man. Thanks. That's why you're still doing this. But, you know, the fact that an executive from the league office is calling a decision maker of a team in the middle of a game and making suggestions about what that team should do in the game is a little weird to me. And certainly the fact that, you know, what a lot of people kind of seized on was this idea that, like, James Reimer suffered some sort of lower body injury. I don't think we've ever heard exactly what it was.

Yeah, I don't know. But he hasn't played since. It was clearly serious. And Peter Moretzard got smoked. I mean, we saw him get absolutely crushed by Kyle Clifford in a collision well outside the net, like at high speed. So you have one lower body injury and one injury that certainly seemed to be concussion related would suggest that certainly at the time. So the fact that somebody from the league is calling up going like, throw that guy back in. It's fine, probably.

Yeah. That does seem a little strange. And as people have pointed out, like if I was the NHLPA, I might kind of slightly raise an eyebrow with the fact that these guys are apparently, I don't want to say pressuring. teams to put guys back in because it doesn't sound like that's what it was, but it was more of a, like, hey, is there any way that these guys can go back in? I don't know. If it's, if it was a, if they were in a borderline case and they thought maybe he could go back in and he does and he gets hurt again, that's, I don't know. I don't want to make this out like it's some huge scandal, but it was weird. It was a strange thing, uh, for calling Campbell to just drop. Yeah, it's just another in a long line of like he's seems like he really wants to. to be overly involved and then just like admit to it. Just say, oh, yeah, I did this thing that, like you said, would raise eyebrow. He didn't have to say this. Yeah.

Nobody was grilling him about it. It didn't get uncovered. This wasn't a scoop. This was him telling like a funny story to some reporters, presumably completely unaware that anyone would take any issue with it. So that was interesting. Yeah. Very strange.

The other thing from this that is related to rule changes is they're fixing the fucking offside reviews a little bit. A little bit. A little bit. That's amazing. As you said, this is normally the meeting where they talk about things. We all go, are they actually going to fix something? And then they come out and go, we're not going to fix it, but we did move the face off circle one millimeter to the left. See you later.

and then they go golf. They actually, well, they didn't fix, they didn't fix offside reviews, because the way to fix that is to get rid of them. But they tweaked an element, or at least they suggested. It doesn't happen yet. It has to go through like four more layers of fixes that will inevitably fail. Yeah, because if Sean Avery waves his arms, apparently we can change the rules overnight,

but anything like this, it takes years and years. That's right. It's the first step. And if people haven't heard, the element that we're talking about is the skate in the air, this idea that if you're going into the zone and you drag the leg behind, the skate has to be on the ice. If it's a millimeter off the ice, that doesn't count. And so now, in addition to all of these other stupid reviews that we have over whether the skate was over the line or not, it's also whether it was on the ice or not, which you can't tell on any of this stuff. And it's, it's, it's, it's, led to some weird cases. And it also makes every review like 45 minutes long because they're like trying to look at it like it's the fucking Zapruder film and zooming in back into the left and all this. And it's like, if it's that close, the rule is working as intended. A guy has really, really, really tried to keep a skate on the ice. It's fine.

And they're like, yeah, but that goal that happened 58 seconds later, I mean, it can't count now. insane. Yeah. It's insane and it still is, I mean, they should get rid of this altogether. And part of me is kind of like, I don't know if I should be happy about this because the fact that they're making a small tweak suggests that the larger rule is there for the long term. And maybe I should be rooting for the worst case where something just completely blows up. But the accelerationist argument, sure. Yeah, exactly. But it is, you know, so. now it's going to be, it's basically like the football rule. You got to break the plane, right? Like,

is the ball over the goal line anywhere? And that's fine. And that makes sense because it's not, I understand that there, there is an argument and it's the only argument I've ever heard against just doing it this way, which is we don't want skate blades in the air. We've seen some scary situations. We don't want guys with their, you know, if your skate can be a millimeter off the ice, what's to stop being a foot off the ice or three feet off the ice? But when you're dragging a skate to go into a zone, there's no scenario where you would do that. Like, it never makes sense. Like, you're not going to try to bobby or into the zone.

Exactly. You're not going to, like, reverse shoot the duck to try to get into the zone. And now, you might, if you really want to, like, conceivably, it could be a situation where you were trying to get back out of the zone and, like, tag up to clear where maybe you just swing your skate. But apparently, they've put, that isn't covered in the, in the, in the, tweak. I guess somebody actually thought of that and said, okay, if you're tagging up out of the zone, you got to actually tag up. Like, you have to hit the line. Which, again, like, I'm fine with. It's like, wow, somebody actually, I'm always going on about unintended consequences and somebody apparently had that thought and was able to talk them into it. So for once, I'm kind of happy

with what the NHL GMs did. I mean, it's ridiculous that it took them three years to figure this out, But it's progress, right? Yeah, no, exactly. Like, the fact that they did anything with it instead of just agreeing. Because before it was, it really did seem like everybody was just, we're all agreed, this sucks. Unfortunately, even though we have the power to do something about it, we're not going to. Goodbye. Right.

Which is so frustrating because we all know that when we get the Bobby Hall goal, which we will at some point, that they're going to change the rule then. And it's like, why not just pretend that it's happened already and change it now? And I know Gary Betman is part of the problem here because he's been asked. And he says, oh, that ship has sailed. Imagine like a Wyshinsky-Betman impression as I'm doing this, right? No thanks. Pass. He says, that ship has sailed, even though it's been like five years.

We can't go back. Anyways, good for them. I think this is. Like I said, when they said that, I, honestly could not believe it. I honestly was like, there has to be some sort of horrible catch. And there isn't. It just seems like they go, oh, this sucks and we're fixing it.

Not a very NHL thing to do, but welcome nonetheless. The question will be, how quickly can they fix it? I don't, I didn't see anything. Maybe you did about whether this is something that can happen in time for the playoffs. That's usually how it works. I did not see one way or the other. I mean, I don't know why they couldn't just do it tomorrow. Tell the refs, hey, you know, treat it like the, treat it like breaking the plane in the NFL.

Whether they actually would do that, you know, hey, it's the NHL. You're as good as mine. I've also seen people say that this is going to make, this makes the linesmen's job even harder because now they can't, they're not even just looking at the line. They got to think the linesmen are going to do what they have been doing for the last five years, which is air on the side of letting the play go. Yep. That's like I can't remember more than once or twice in five years that I've seen an offside called on the ice that wasn't offside. It's always the other way because that's, you know, one of them you have review as a safety net, one of them you don't. So that, that's not an issue.

This, they're, they're going to be okay. Yeah. And, you know, ideally you just get rid of offside at some point. And then we never have to have this discussion again. But, you know, that's not going to happen anytime soon. although there was that mistweeted close call, what was it last year maybe? I can't remember who did it, but somebody was like, oh, they're going to talk about getting rid of offside.

And everybody was like, oh, my God. And then they were like, of course not. That actually was just a mistake. Two other things from the GM meetings. The salary cap sounds, according to what we were told, the salary cap is going to go up next year by more than maybe people thought, the number that had been going around was like 83 and a half, and now we're told it's 84 all the way up to maybe 88, which would obviously be huge for a lot of teams that are tight against the cap for next year.

But there also seems to be a lot of kind of cynicism about this and whether that's actually going to be the case. And I don't know where you're at on that. Well, I have a conspiracy theory about this. Nice. Because they were like, it's all contingent on what the players negotiate with or negotiate with us. And so that to me says this is an idea to get everybody all psyched up about, oh my God, the cap's going to be $88 million next year. Could be $100 million, you know, whatever. But you know what?

The players, they're so afraid of escrow that they only let us go up to 83.999. We couldn't even get to 84. Can you believe it, folks? And then, you know, everybody's like stupid players. And then, oh, wait, we're in the middle of labor negotiations. What a weird coincidence that is. Yep. Because the thing is, like, the cap is tied to revenues.

So if the cap goes up by a lot, that means one of two things. Either revenues went up by a lot. And people are looking at the league this year going, where are the revenues going up? Like, there's nothing that's really suggest. door games extra? I think that's probably it. Maybe, yeah, but not enough to put an extra. I mean, if, you know, if you're talking a $5 million increase times 30 teams, 50%, I mean, you're talking, yeah, 31, you're talking like $300 million in extra revenue. That doesn't seem to have come. There weren't any new TV deals or

that. So it means either the revenue went way up or the players are using their 5% escalator. And that's, that's the question is, did this $84 to $88 million number include an assumption that the players are using the full 5%, which they haven't done for the last few years. And they shouldn't because of how much it just raises escrow. Because the salary cap is, of course, set against, like, the midpoint of these revenues and not, like, you know, it's assuming that everybody spends, you know, roughly, you know, the average between the cap and the floor.

Right. But everybody in the league spends to the cap because you kind of have. to. And as a result of that, that's what makes all that money go into escrow in the first place, which players understandably hate because it takes away, you know, 10 or whatever percent of the salary they agreed to. But then you can go, well, they agreed to it under the auspices of if there is, you know, this huge overage in spending by teams. Right. Which is true. Which is true. I get why you would say that. that, but also, you know, when you go, oh, we signed this guy for $6 million, and then that guy's like,

oh, I guess it's actually closer to like 5.2. And that's before taxes. That sucks. Yeah. It would. And it's always this. And like, people need to understand, because I know it gets confusing. But like, if the players use the full 5% escalator to make the salary cap go way up, like, I know people look at that and go, why wouldn't they do that? That's more cap money. That's more money for them. But it's not. Like, that doesn't put it one extra. It's not. It doesn't put. It doesn't put. one extra dollar into the players' overall pool of money. What it does is it makes more money available to players who need new contracts, who are free agents or signing extensions, at the expense of kind of everyone else who pays that money back through escrow. So I get why the players wouldn't do it.

It just, it's the kind of thing where, like, I feel like as a fan, the cap going up is always good because it, A, it means the league's healthy and B, it's more fun in the offseason. If there's more money to spend. I hope this doesn't turn out to be another one of these bad faith things that the NHL and its owners do. Like you say, to make the players look bad, to make, everything's a bargaining tactic, everything's a negotiation. I hope this isn't that, and they're just revenues are coming in and higher than we thought,

but I know there's already been some player agents who are not buying that. Yeah, so it's interesting because there are a lot of, I would I'm saying notable teams who would really love that, that extra, what is it, 8, 81.5 right now, right? So that extra $6.5 million on the high end there? Ooh, seven and a half, sorry. Ooh, that would be really nice. And now they're going to go, oh, it's actually only three and a half. Or whatever the number ends up being.

And potentially not tell us that until. the end of June, which is what they did last year, which is... Right. Until 10 a.m. on July 1st. And that was the other thing, because there was also a report that the owners are proposing a new system that would allow them to get to the number much earlier than that, which sounds good. But then I saw something where it said, you know, they would base the number on the last three years rather than the current year. Well, does anybody think that if they base it on the last three years, like, that number is going to be lower?

Then what it would be this year. Like, you can just see them squeezing that in going to the players going, we got this great new system. It's based on three years. But, oh, by the way, that means the cap stays flat for a few years and all of this other stuff. Right. And then the other thing I saw was that they wanted to, and this is my fault for not clicking on the, like, tweet I saw, basically and finding out more.

Nobody does that. No, absolutely not. And why would you? First few words of the tweet and you're good. That's fine. But they want to do maybe multi-year projections. So, like, we would just know going into, you know, this offseason, what the cap's going to be in 2020, 23. Yep.

Which would be. That would be weird. Yeah. It would be a nice, I mean. Cost certainty, they would say. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. There's different ways you can do it.

Under the current system, it is tough to get to the number, but leaving it to June just seems strange to me. Insane. Yes. Speaking of things that are strange, the last headline, and I don't know your feelings on this, we have a new magical puck that apparently we're going to just start using in the playoffs because we're sure that it's going to work and everything's going to be fine. And so rather than wait until next year in the regular season, they're just going to use it for playoff games.

What could go wrong? My favorite part about that was that somebody down there asked Gary Bettman, like, why would you start it in the playoffs? Like, you know, don't you think there's a possibility that something could go wrong or, you know, whatever it is? And it ends up affecting an outcome or something like that. And Gary Bettman was basically like, how dare you question? Yes. This well-oiled machine.

How competent the NHL is. How dare you, sir? And it's just like, no, I mean, you know, didn't the last time they put all this shit in pucks like, Pucks were just breaking in half in the middle of games and stuff like that, like on a regular basis. This is, when I say the magic puck, this is the puck that's got the new technology in it for tracking and all this cool stuff. But in order to get that in there, it has to be made differently. It's not just one solid hunk of rubber. It's basically multiple parts that are then put together and fused together.

And they're really sure it's not going to break because apparently they've shot it out of cannons or whatever else. We'll see. I mean, like, like somebody, I did, it might have been Frank Saravelli or somebody else is saying, like, if, it probably will work fine, or maybe in overtime in the playoffs, like someone's going to take a shot and half the puck's going to go off, is going to go bar down and in, and half the puck's going to go bar down and out. And it's, all hell is going to break loose. I don't know. They seem pretty confident. And, you know, this, this Batman guy, he's, he's, he's never steered us wrong before. The NHL has a really strong track record of implementing new things very well,

and the idea that anybody would question it is, frankly, insulting and absurd. Yeah, it's, they've earned the benefit of the doubt. They certainly have. Oh, Lord. Yeah, I mean, it'll be cool if they do the puck tracking thing live on TV and all that stuff. I didn't watch the All-Star stuff, or the games themselves this year, so I didn't, or live anyway, so I didn't see it in real time or any of that kind of stuff. But, you know, I'm assuming they didn't, they didn't screw anything up too bad.

And, you know. No, I mean, I still, I'm one of those rare people where I didn't like the Fox Tracks puck in the 90s. But I get it. In the 90s, it actually kind of was tough to see where the put, especially if you were a new fan and it's along the boards. You don't really know, you don't have that instinct built up yet. I don't know. In like the high-deaf world, do we really need highlighted pucks? I don't know.

That's not all this one does. It has the ability to measure a bunch of stuff. But yeah, I don't know. It's just kind of one of those things where it's like... What I'm really waiting for is, hold on. We have to stop the game. This puck, you know, one of the chips broke, and we have to swap it out for data tracking and all that shit.

Because now, you know, now you can bet on how fast the fast, the fastest slap shot is. And if that one doesn't get recorded, you know, then your, the Vegas lines get screwed up and blah, blah, blah, like, I bet that happens.

I bet there's a, let me put it this way. I'm sure that they have thought about, like, you know, what do we do if we figure out the puck isn't working? Like, how do we, do we just say,

you know, until the next stoppage or whatever, it's not a big deal? You're going to get the horn of doom because the puck isn't working. Yeah. And I just want to be, be like on the, like, you know, sitting on the, on the wire basically when that call comes in,

tell the ref, the puck is dead. Yeah, I never even thought of that. You're right. That could, that could definitely be part of it. The one thing they have said is because this was something people had mentioned a few years ago when they first, remember they were first going to do this and then it didn't work and they back. But there was talk of like, what do you do when the puck goes into the stands? Because that's no longer like a two-dollar.

puck. That's now got like a $80 puck. Yeah, it's got, you know, technology in it. And there was talk that at one point that they might go into the stands and be like, hey, we need that puck back, but here's a nice souvenir, whatever. Right. And now they're saying they're not going to do that. But it is going to be, I'm looking forward to the first controversy where like some cute little kid is like trying to get a puck from a player and like the player can't give them the puck, like some NHL official runs over and intercepts it. He's like, that's like $70. or the technology. You can't get that. Someone's going to get one of those pucks and, like, hack into the mainframe, like, reverse engineer it. And, you know, we'll just get even more Colin Campbell emails out of it. That's where they all are. I love it. All right, that covers the GM meetings, I think. Let's talk about the Philadelphia Flyers.

Yeah, no kidding. They're super good. I didn't, I kind of, and I wrote about this. on the weekend, it's like you, it's not like they snuck up on anyone, but, and it's also not like they had some crazy hot streak. Like, I, I, I think what I wrote is that it feels like the Flyers, they had like one down streak around the holidays. They've, they've been hot recently, but the rest of the year, they've just been like six, three and one in their last 10. All season long. Yeah, I agree. And it was like, oh, you know, it's the caps and the pens and the caps and the

pens and then like the wildcar race in the Metro. And, but meanwhile, here come the Flyers. And they now look like they might be. Are they the best team in the Metro right now? Well, so a couple of things about that. Yes, you're right. From December 11th to January 1st, I wrote about this yesterday, so I have this all in front of me. From December 11th to January 1st, or January 7th, rather, the Flyers went 5, 7 and 1. They only scored 41 goals.

They gave up 49. Not great. immediately after that, they started winning pretty consistently, and now they're 17, 5, and 1 in their last 23 games, including what is now a 1-2-3-4-6, 7-game win streak. Yeah. Which has coincided with the penguins end capital, especially the penguins just falling off the map. Yes. The Flyers went into Washington last night and pretty much. Beating pretty good.

Yeah, I mean, I was going to say they spanked the caps. That might, I mean, the game was close for a while. It was close for a while. And then it, yeah. They won five, two, regulation wins. They won by three goals that you'll, I think you take that, you know, every time, basically. But what's interesting about this is that much like any streak where a team wins a bunch of games in a row, the Flyers have like the highest shooting percentage in the league since the new year, basically. And it's at, I think, 12 and a half percent.

Like, it's a, it's high even. for a high shooting percentage. But with that having been said, their goaltending has been awful pretty much this whole time as well. And they have one of the worst, say, like, 890 something. I can't remember now. But so, like, they're kind of just playing really well overall to paper over the fact that the goaltending is so bad.

Like, their fifth or sixth in the league in expected goals. over the last whatever 25 games. So that's not a small sample. They've been playing really well. And even with shooting 12.5%, they maybe only have like four or five more goals than what the expected number is or something like. It's not as much as you would think. And they're just kind of making a lot of hay on the power play. I think they're like 25%, something like that.

And the other thing is when you see a team like have percentages go up like that, the first question you should always ask is, did anything actually change? or is this just the same old thing and now the bounces are going their way? And in the case of the flyers, something actually did change. They've shuffled their lines around. They put the big guns all on the same line. It's fucking work. It's working, man. Like, this is a really good team.

And now it's, so it's interesting because I, especially this time of year, I'm hooked on all of these different projection sites that where you go on. And every day it tells you like, okay, if this team wins their playoff chances go up by 8%. This team's odd, see here and there. And one of the ones that I go to is the Money Puck. Yes. The one where they've got everybody and they've got their chances to make the playoffs, winning each round, all the way down to winning the cup. Now, last year, Money Puck was pretty much the first site to really get on the Blues bandwagon. And when I say like the first, the first model is what I should say, because all these sites, they have a model, the numbers from the NHL go in.

And it spits out what it thinks. This isn't people sitting around giving their opinions. Correct. And they were in on the blues as a cup favorite, maybe the cup favorite, well before the end of the season when a lot of the rest of us were still thinking, okay, the blues are good. They're not that last place team, but they're in the mix. And that was about it.

Money puck right now has got the Philadelphia Flyers as the Stanley Cup favorites. Wow. And by, I mean, they've got them at 12.4%, which is not a huge number. It's like one in eight. The next is the Golden Knights at 11.6, which I think makes sense. Remember, this factors in the path you have to take through the playoffs, and the Golden Knights going through the Pacific. It looks like something that's pretty doable.

But then you get down, it's everyone else is under 10. That's Boston, Tampa, Colorado. So that surprised me a lot when I first saw it. But, you know, and it's the sort of thing that would probably, if I saw it from another model, make me kind of roll my eyes and dismiss the model. Sure. They nailed it last year. Well, so let me say this, though.

I don't know what goes into that model, but I do know that the thing you mentioned about the, The Flyers rise coincides with the penguins taking a big step back. But that was because they lost Brian Dumlin and John Marino kind of not like right at one after the other. But like they were both out at the same time for a while. And like their numbers were terrible after that because they don't have a particularly deep defense. And so, you know, if you lose a really good shutdown guy in Marino and a guy who kind of does everything for you in Dumas, and that's going to really put a hurt on you. Now those guys are both back,

and I wouldn't be surprised at all to kind of, you know, see the penguins get back to where they were. Maybe not at quite the same level, but they were playing really well right up until those injuries and kind of hit a wall the second they happened. So that's something to look at. But the other thing is, speaking of, capitals are bad. They're not good.

The capitals have been, been falling and not, you know, even this time of year, like, okay, you have a bad week,

you have maybe two bad weeks. I think we can kind of look at the bigger sample size. That's not what's going on in Washington. This has been two months now of this being a very average looking team. Yeah. I mean, again, since New Year's,

uh, they're a couple games above 500. Uh, And that includes an OT win and a shootout win. You know, like they're now doing the Flyers thing of they're going like six, four and one, six four and two, or six four and two every ten games. And that's fine, you know, but when you have two other really good teams and frankly, you know, the Rangers played really well for a while there before they dropped off, everybody knows what the hurricanes are capable of. this team that looked like a president's trophy favorite around Christmas, quite frankly, now they might not even finish third.

They probably will finish like third in their division. But they may not have home ice. And yeah, I mean, this is one, like I said, the Flyers didn't really sneak up on it. I feel like this kind of did only because for at the same time that this slump was going on, Alexander Ovechkin was so hot that like everything you used to do. saw about the capitals was just holy crap ovechkin scored twice more tonight and then they lost in a four three loss yeah like and then you're and it was sort of like suddenly you look at standings and you're like oh wow getting back to to the models because the the other model i really like

is the one that we have on the athletic which is is dom's model uh and it does not have the flyers that high it's got one two three four five different teams at 10 percent or more he's got he likes the lightning at 20% and then he's got Bruins, Blues, avs, and Golden Knights all over 10%. And then there's kind of,

there's Pittsburgh and then there's like a tier that includes the Flyers, Dallas, the Leafs. And he actually has a piece out today where he explains why his model is different than MoneyPuck and MoneyPuck is basically

based on the team and his model is based on the individual players which is why a team like the Penguins that's head injuries might reflect a little bit better because his model knows that guys are coming back and this and that. But two things about that.

Number one, I mean, he's still got the flyers pretty high up there. Right. And he also has them, he has them well behind the penguins, but he's got him ahead of the caps. The caps are down to 3% on his model, which is lower than the Leafs. It's tied with the hurricanes. It's 1% above the Oilers. Like, that's not where any of us thought the caps were going to, even a few weeks ago. I still had them in my top five of cup contenders, and you keep waiting for him to snap out of it.

And there's time, but not as much as... I don't love that roster, man. I really don't. I think, you know, everybody on that team is like 30 or older. With, you know, obviously there are plenty of exceptions because you can't have a team of all guys that old. But, you know, I'm never surprised when, like, older teams tend to just kind of hit a wall around. game 50 or 60. That's just kind of how it works a lot of the time.

And so, you know, they have a lot of talent, obviously, and talents going to propel them. But, and I'll say that about, I'll say this about the Flyers, too. Do you really trust that goaltending all the way? You know? And that's the problem. Like I said, the Flyers, they're winning despite some of the worst goaltending in the league these days. And like, you know, I think we all.

I'll like where Carter Hart's going to end up in his career, but he's been an average goalie this year. And Brian Elliott sucks. So, you know, I think that's probably the big knock on the flyers. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so tell me this thing, because I've been having this thought kicking around my head. Like, you say, do you trust the goaltending? Over an 82 game season, obviously, goaltending matters a lot.

Should I, there's a part of me that is telling me to just ignore goaltending going into the playoffs. because you know what, somebody's going to get hot. Somebody gets hot, right? Well, I mean, it's just... Carter Hart could be the guy who gets hot. He definitely could be, but, like, you know, we're talking about percentage chances, right? What percentage chance do you think Carter Hart has 20 insanely good games in a row?

It's certainly possible. I mean, it's even technically possible for a Brian Elliott type, right? Yeah. I mean, this time last year, we would have been saying, like, Jordan Bennington, really? Is that the guy? You're going to hit a wall. Yeah. Well, and again, like the Flyers are playing great defensively,

so they could definitely do it, but they've been doing it for two months plus at this point. And they have 890 goal tending. So. And, yeah, and you're right. Like, we can't sit there and say, well, the shooting percentage is going to come down and not also acknowledge that there's the chance

of the goaltending gets better. Yes. I hate to do this. for two reasons. One, because I get my hopes up and two, because I think you're one of those guys who doesn't like the whole if the playoffs started today thing. I hate it. Yes, you're right. But we're, we seem like we could be headed towards a Flyers Penguins first round. Yeah, that would be so cool. How fun would that be? How, how, yeah. Give me that. Give me that. Give me that. Give me the caps and the hurricanes and a rematch. And that's a good, that's a good start to your, to your playoff bracket. I really like the way, again, the way things are shaping up. I really like a lot of the first round matchups, like on both sides of the bracket. I think Tampa, Toronto is a fun twist on an old favorite.

You know, there's a chance that Boston gets either like the Islanders or Carolina, like you said, or even like Columbus or the Rangers, I think those would be good series. Yeah, Boston, almost every matchup is pretty good. Yeah. Colorado, Dallas looks like that's what it's going to be in the West or in the Central, although, you know, St. Louis could do that. But if St. Louis does it, that's a rematch of last year's second round, which was really good when seven games. Any combination of those three teams is really good. And right now I'm also feeling like, you know, we might get a Battle of Alberta first round. And those teams fucking hate each other.

I feel like I don't even want to talk about that. It's like it's it's like a no hitter in the ninth inning. Like I don't even want to acknowledge how amazing that would be, especially for like, if you have no rooting interest, that would be amazing to watch. If you do, it's going to be like, I mean, I went through this with the leaves and senators. Like you end up, even when your team wins, you're just miserable for two weeks and you hate everybody and everything. Right. But oh, that would be so great. to. I mean, they're fun teams and everything, too.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't want to get too, because I've been down this road before. I get all excited. And then, like, the last weekend, some weird stuff happens. Absolutely. And, especially this year with, like, you know, there's, what, Toronto, well, I guess Toronto is pretty much safe at this point because Florida is not making that comeback. Well, yeah, you're right about that, true. But, you know, things could change. Right. Things could change so much. much in the wildcard race between Columbus, the Islanders, Carolina, and maybe the Rangers,

although again, they've dropped off a little bit, but they're only, quote unquote, only four points out of it. And they've been playing well, and they have goaltending, and Artemi Panarin is having himself quite the season and that kind of thing. Like, who knows? Is he on your MVP ballot right now? Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, I'm not like most hockey – well, I'm not like most hockey writers in that I am not voting on this award and never will.

More than a few ways. But I'm not like most hockey writers in that I don't care if a team makes the playoffs. Right now, my ballot, I think, is probably Hellebuck, Panarin. And then, you know, if you want to pick dry-sidal, if you want – Speaking of the flyers, I think there's a really good case to be made for Sean Couturier. as the three, you know, and then you can say like a Marshand or a Pasturac, you can say. I mean, McKinnon's got to be in there, too. Nathan McKinnon, like, I think there's a pretty clear one, which is Hellabuck, because that team would be.

We've been beating that drum for a while, because that team would be a mess. Horrible. And they are currently tied for, well, it's a three-way tie in the, for the wild card in the West. one two and three, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Arizona, I'll have 74 points. But the fact that they are even close is entirely because Connor Hellebuck is having

a Vesna worthy season. And if they finish within, I'm going to say one win, like there's no reason he shouldn't win other than he's a goalie and goalies don't win the award. Yeah, he's having the John Gibson season from last year except over a full season. And I mean,

we don't want to say that yet. There's still 14 games left. But there's also, you know, the fact of, like, John Gibson didn't, like, he was incredible, but he didn't get the ducks close to the playoffs last year. Right. And Winnipeg is going to be there. It seems like right up until the end, because Arizona and Minnesota just aren't that good. And I'm, like, I'm mostly with you.

I don't disqualify people for not being on a team that makes the playoffs. I consider that. in close calls, but I'm, yeah, I'm not against voting for someone whose team doesn't make the planet. I think I'm still leaning Drusital right now, which makes me feel a little bit weird because nobody on the planet thinks he's the best player on his team. Right. But that's not what the award is. It's not the best player award. It's not the, if we had a draft today, who would go number one award. It's the current season. And the fact that McDavid missed a few weeks with injuries has kind of opened the door.

So I, well, let me, let me give you my anti-Dry. I think he's having a great- Talk me out of this. I'll talk you out of it. So let me, let me scroll down because I have all the stats in my newsletter from yesterday. Okay, here it is. Drysidal has pretty much an even 50-50 split in his production between five on five

and all other situations, which includes like the power play and empty nets and stuff like that. Like almost exactly right down the middle. I think it's 54 points in both and like he has an extra goal at five on five and an extra assist, whatever it is, you know. But when he's on the ice at five on five, here are the, this is an MVP guy, right? Here are the Oilers differences in various stat categories. Shot attempts, minus 86.

Unblocked attempts, minus 59. Shots on goal, minus 44. expected goals minus 2.9. Actual goals plus six. And this is for a guy who plays 56% of his time with Connor McDavid. They played 855 minutes together in all situations. And because he's been on the line with Kyler Yamamoto and Ryan Nugent Hopkins for the past month, the entire Edmonton media is like, you know, you can't.

you can't say he's just a product of playing with McDavid, you know? And it's like, no, I mean, he's obviously not, but he's playing like two-thirds of his, all of his minutes with Connor McDavid. So that helps, you know? And, yeah, like I said, he is unbelievable offensively. And this is also my John Carlson shouldn't win the Norris case because he's got very similar stats. But if we're talking about like, whatever, 500 minutes. at five on five.

And this guy's getting outshot by 86, outshot on goal by 44. And is only plus six despite having 54 points at five on five. That's not good. That's a real, real, real, real knock against him. That's a good argument, man. All right, Oiler fans, you got to, like, get, I, I hedge your guy right near the top of my ballot. I might have just nudged him down.

So if all the fans want to counter that, but that's, that was a pretty good case. Thank you. Yeah, like I said, I think it's very, it would be very difficult to leave him out of any, like he should be on every single person's ballot this year, for sure. And, you know, but again, the other argument I would make is, you know, people are saying, well, he's on pace to break Nikita Kutrov's cap error record, which broke Joe Thornton's cap error record of scoring. And it's like, that's true.

But now we, I guess, have to re-contextualize what high scoring is. Because if they break that record two years in a row, maybe it's not so impressive of doing it. You know what I mean? It's like when for the longest time, the four-minute mile was like this unbreakable barrier. And then one guy did it. And then a year later, two guys did it. And then a year later, another five guys did it. And it's like, oh, I guess it's just like easier to score in the NHL.

these days, especially if you play with Kar-McDavid for more than half of your minutes. So just something to think about. But like I said, I would have him certainly in my top five, if not my top three. But I am increasingly persuaded that there are other better candidates out there, at least for the top two. Good call. Thank you. You sent me back to the drawing board. I've got to think about this some more.

The answer is Connor Hellebuck. our Hala Buc is the answer. The Jets are fucking awful. And their defense is just a bunch of guys. You're like, who's that or he's still in the league? Well, if we were allowed to vote for goalies or defensemen for the Hart Trophy, I would consider it. Yeah, he should be the guy. Anyway, like I said, you can't leave most of those guys off your ballot.

And that means they're probably, you know, they're probably going to go to the big award show in Vegas this year. And if you're going to an award show, you need a tux. You get it from the black tucks, right? Nice. Well done. The black tucks, thank you. You're good at this. You're right. The black tux believes every groom or NHL awards recipient deserves a better experience when it comes to finding formal wear like a suit or a tuxedo for their big day. Did you know the black tux? was actually, black tux was actually started by two guys who had one of the worst tuxedo fittings you could imagine? It turns out they're not alone. this frustration. Just listen to these

one-star reviews from a competitor tux that shall not be named. It's Voldemort tuxes, apparently. Quote, Go elsewhere. This place is pretty terrible unless you're dressing like your grandpa for Halloween. Another quote. We felt

weird buying a suit from somebody so unhappy. We were afraid his bad vibes might follow us to our wedding day, so we left. Another quote, you would just be better off shopping for suits at good will. So listen, the thing that you've got to like about the Black Tux is that they have an easy online ordering process that brings your suit or tuxedo right to your door. You pick a style

at the Black Tux.com. You request a free home try on so that you can just like, you know, get a feel for it before you actually commit to renting it. And if that's, and if going online, you don't want to do that because like you got to get it feeling good, they, the, Black Tux has showrooms all over the country where you can find your fit and plan your look. From there, they ship you your order two weeks before your wedding so you can check everything one last time, or I should say, award show. And whether you're buying or just looking to rent, you won't find a formal wear experience or a normal wear experience or designs like the ones you'll find at the Black Tucks. So if you want your wedding or awards event to be remembered for the right reasons, order your suit or tuxedo at the blacktucks.com and you'll get a 10% off code with, if you use the code puck.

That's the blacktucks.com. Offer code puck for 10% off your purchase. The black tux is formalware for the moment. So, all right, we're done with the ad read for now. I forgot to mention earlier another team in the metro that is getting a lot of headlines lately for the opposite reasons

as the Flyers is the New York Islanders they're in a bit of a funk these days they, you know, what did they have like that? What was it? 17 game point streak? Yep. Earlier this year or something like that. A team that you and I both love to write and talk about.

Yeah. Well, look, they forced our hands by being bad. It's not our fault. They, you know, they had that 17-game point streak. I saw earlier, I think yesterday or the day before maybe,

where it was like, oh, you know, there were exactly 500 since that point streak ended. And it's like, well, it's a good thing that point streak is, you know, one-fifth of the season.

Yeah. That really helps. Well, I remember when that was going on and I was hearing from a lot of the Islander fan saying like now will you admit that the islanders are are the best team and all this stuff and one of the things I said that I say for a lot of teams in that situation is I'm not sure that they really are this good but they're putting points in the bank like your points in the bank and points that's what you do and you know even if they're not this good those points are still there for them and it's man it's good that they

bank some points because they are look like a team that's going to need. every point they can get to get into the playoffs and they're yeah they're in a fight yeah the um it's a it's a really tight race uh and yeah they're 19 19 and six uh in 44 games that's a that's a long that's a long tail um and yeah minus 15 in goals uh they've been outshot by almost 80 so they're just generally not playing that well. And, you know, the percentages have come back to Earth a little bit. And here we are, you know. And they just had a game where they gave the Montreal Canadians a three-goal lead and still lost, which is virtually impossible.

How does that happen? That's right. Right where you wanted them. Yeah. Yeah. They're here in Ottawa tonight, which is kind of one of those get-right games where you've got to get two points. against the team that's got nothing. I mean, they're already looking at the finish line.

So, because then the next one after that is, is Carolina. And that is a potentially huge game on the weekend. The only two, they're two, six, and two in their last 10. And those wins are against San Jose and Detroit. Right. So, like, you know. You shouldn't get four points for beating. You should, yeah, you should get, let's say three.

But, um, so, yeah, it is. certainly well within their powers to beat the Ottawa Senators. But then again, you know, they're not getting the saves. They're not, they've been outscored almost two to one in the last 10 games, 30 to 17. It's a real problem. And, you know, I think it's one that is talent related. They went out and they got some help, obviously, from, you know, they had kind of a busy deadline period.

And, you know, I don't know if adding John Gabriel, Pitjo and, and Andy Green is necessarily going to move the needle for him a ton. I've been told by Islander fans that it will because I was down on that deal. And I say that as someone here in Ottawa. Which one? The Peugeot. Okay. Pajot deal.

Both of them, both the trade and the extension. And I say that as someone who watched him a lot up here in Ottawa. And he's a good player. But, boy, I didn't, I didn't love that. He's not what he, yeah, he's not what they put him in a position to be. No. All year. So, you know.

For four loss, four straight losses since the dead loss. line. Yeah, that's... Not ideal. It's not. And it's, you know, it's the goals allowed that's kind of surprising you. Because even earlier in the streak, they had, you know, they lost a game one to nothing. They had a two one, a three one. Now, you know, they're given up four, three, four, six. That's not the Barry Trots, Islanders. That's not the Barry Trots team period, which maybe is, is what gives you some, some hope if you're an Islander fan.

You just go like, like we said earlier with the capitals, right? Like good teams have a bad week or even a bad two weeks. And this is a little bit longer than that. And like you pointed out, it's been, they've been mediocre for a long time, but they haven't been bad for a lot of it.

And they've been, I mean, they still, two of their losses last week were in overtime. So you flip those around. It's, it's different. But it's,

yeah, I mean, that's maybe. Not that much different. No, not really, right? It's, yeah.

So. And, and the other thing, to say is, you know, I think the real problems you can, you can kind of point to, well, it's right when Adam Pelick went out with his injury. Well, he's done for the year. He tore his Achilles. He's done. Yep. So, like, you're not getting that guy back. And, you know, Casey Sezicus has been out since, what, early February. And not that I think Casey Sezegis is a guy that really helps you. And I think he's going to be back relatively soon. But, you know,

like, they have had injuries, but they're not like, Pelick might be the only one that's really like catastrophic, you know, and just in terms of, oh, they're going to not be able to recover from losing him. He's a pretty good player. And yeah, so I just kind of look at it and I go, well, you know, I don't know, because of the strength of that division, I don't know that they really have a window to get back into it, even if they straighten things out because they've just been 500 for, what, three months now? Yeah. It's, it's tough. Yeah. And I mean, if they, if they do make the playoffs, they're going to probably still feel

okay. They're probably going to feel okay because they're going to look at last year and go, hey, you know, not too many people picked us in the first round. We swept a really good team. We've, you know, goal-taining and defense is not, that's not what wins in the playoffs only, but it's a big piece of it. And it's, they've typically had that. So, yeah.

It's, but it is, yeah, the trend is in the wrong direction. It's worrying, certainly. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's not catching fire at the right time. Like, we hear so much about, you know, peaking not too early and that kind of thing. Yeah. It seems like they peaked in fucking November, right? And it's, it's a weird, like that, that wild card race is sort of.

It's tight. It's tight, but it's also, like any one of those teams could have grabbed it because Columbus has not been good lately. Carolina has been okay. I think most of us, you look at, you know, if, if you're looking at, looking at Columbus Islanders, Carolina Rangers, I think most of us would point to Carolina as the team we like best there, but they haven't been good lately, partly because they haven't had go out and get a goaltender at the deadline. They decided to just roll. And they've just been up and down all year too. I don't think there's ever been like a really

long stretch where we're like, damn, the hurricanes look insanely good, which there was for not just the islanders. You could say that for Washington, Pittsburgh, now Philadelphia, the Rangers up until very recently were on an insane hot streak. And I don't feel like Carolina's had that kind of like, oh, they've ripped off like seven wins. And maybe I'm wrong. But in my mind, they're not really standing out that way. Yeah. It's interesting because their deadline, which I liked a lot, but part of the reason I liked it is they were doing things not just for this year.

They weren't going out and just getting rentals. They were getting kind of remaking their team for this year and beyond. And so I can understand why if that's your philosophy, you'd be like, you know, what are we, we're going to sacrifice assets that we could use to make a long-term deal to patch up goaltending that, you know, it may only be two weeks that, that, that, that we're missing our guys. Do we actually go out and make that deal? Oh, you know what?

Two weeks could end up being the two weeks that cost them a playoff spot. The playoffs, yeah. And I don't know, like, man, you went a decade almost without making the playoffs. then you make it and you go on a run. I really feel like they don't, it's a big step back for them if they miss after, after that. So, man, I don't know. They're in good shape, but they got to catch one of the Islanders or the Blue Jackets. And they're, I don't know, they're points behind, but they've got a ton of games in hand

because apparently we're just never going to get the schedule to even out until the final weekend of the season. So they've got like four games in hand on the Blue Jackets in, in, in, in March. I don't know. We got a month left in the season to make this. And their schedule, by the way, is insane. Like, you probably saw Greg tweeted out. Like, they're playing back to backs, travel every single weekend, all the time. And this is the thing, right? The entire rest of March. Yeah. Like every time, you know, any, and I fall into this trap. And we should, we should be talking points percentage and stuff like that in the standings instead of just points because, you know,

I know that's how we're used to doing it. But I've done that before. I'd be like, oh, this team's one point out of the playoffs. And they're, it's something. somebody will be like, yeah, but they've got two games in hand on the team they're chasing. So they're not really behind. And I get that. And yeah, it's nice to have four games in hand on teams you're chasing. But the thing is, when you've got a month, you're going to make those games up. That comes at a cost.

Like, it's, it is, I don't think it's, they're going to have a lot of fun over the next, the next month. Because it's like back to back. Injury risk increases. Yeah. And, you know, what you do, they are a team with when they're healthy, they've got two goalie. So it's not a situation like some teams. where it's one clear guy that you're going to count on. But they're, yeah, they're in rough shape.

Columbus is kind of coming back to Earth. There was a hole there it looked like for the Rangers to make a push, but they've fallen off. They've turned back into the Rangers, yeah. And even, you know, it's a race to the bottom in the wild card. It seems like it's just everybody's just kind of like, we're going to really drag our asses across the finish line here. And that would be the end of it.

And you know who maybe looks good in this is, you know, not to always bring it back to these guys, but this works well for the Leafs because even a week ago, you looked at that and you went, well, it's the Leafs and the Panthers for one spot, and that's it. And whoever misses is not going to. Now it's the Leafs. Now, yeah, the Panthers could pass the Leafs. And maybe they fall back and get a wild card. And yeah, then we get the Leafs crossing over to the Metro and we get Pittsburgh, Toronto,

which I'm sure wouldn't get very much media attention. That wouldn't. Oh, no, no, no. No. I do think there is a team kind of on the other coast there that is in the same spot, and that's the Vancouver Canucks though. You want to talk about a team that's sliding. Four straight. Regulation losses.

They've lost four straight in regulation. They're four, eight, and two in their last 14. and one of those was an overtime win against the Canadian's a team that is not good. You know, you say that and then you say, well, one of their other wins was they beat Boston nine to three. Yeah, which this league, right? I mean, but yeah, they've lost in regulation of the ducks. They've lost in regulation to the senators. They lost in regulation to the Leafs coming off of that disaster.

They lost to the blue jackets who have not beaten many teams. And then last night, losing to the coyotes, which is, I mean, the coyotes are kind of the Western Conference hurricanes to me as a team that, like, they really, I don't think can afford to miss again. Vancouver, coming into the year, you would have said, you know, hey, man, if they're in the playoff race playing meaningful hockey right to the end and they don't make it, that's still kind of a success. But the way they looked a month ago, it's not anymore, right?

Like this is this is starting to look ugly. They have the injuries. They brought in the reinforcements. They've they've mortgaged, you know, they've traded away picks in that to build up. And I think that was potentially the right thing to do. Like I said at the time, like you look at, when are you going to have a season where the Pacific is this winnable? Take your swing. Right.

But I think you're right about that. I will say, though, that, you know, they started out looking insanely good. you know, because remember at the beginning of the year by like expected goals percentage and stuff like that, they were blowing teams out not only on the scoreboard, but like, you know, a ton of chances. They weren't giving up much in their own end, that kind of thing. And a couple of people were like, well, they just played like Arizona and Ottawa 15 times in a row. Like they haven't played anybody. And yeah, there were second in goals four percentage in October. And part of that was, you know, Jacob Markstrom got out to a really hot start, and so did Thatcher Demko.

And they won a ton of games against soft opponents, which you don't make the schedule. You just got to beat the teams you play, and they did, right? But then they had a really bad November, good January and December and January, rather, bad February. And it's gotten even worse in March. And the problem is that, you know, all that quality they showed at the beginning of the year against bad opponents did not carry over once they started playing actual good teams. By month, here's their expected goals ranks. 7th in October, 21st in November, 31st in December, 20th in January, 30th in February. They're just not good.

That's what it boils down to. And that's it because I know. Markstrom was bailing him out. Yeah, there would be Canucks fans who'll say, well, our goalie got hurt. And, you know, when your goalie gets hurt in the NHL, that's, you know, that, that takes a lot of teams out. But, yeah, it's not, it's, this isn't like a well-oiled machine other than the fact that a goalie got hurt. There's bigger, bigger stuff in play here. And, you know, we don't know.

Right. At this point. Markstrom was covering for a lot of issues. Yeah. Having an unbelievable year. Yeah. And we don't fully necessarily know yet. when he's going to be back after the minor procedure that he that he had.

Right. So. And so, yeah, I mean, expect the losing to continue, I guess. They're playing the Canucks on Friday. They're hosting a bunch of playing the Avalanche on Friday. Right. I said the Canucks. Yeah, I knew what I mean.

They might get a point in that game if they had that matchup. That's true. I'd give them a pretty good shot. but basically everybody they're playing the entire rest of the way with very few exceptions is either a playoff team or a team in direct competition with them for a playoff spot Colorado the Islanders the coyotes Colorado again Winnipeg Tampa Anaheim L.A., Vegas, San Jose, Calgary, Anaheim, Dallas, Arizona, Vegas. Oh, and I missed a Columbus game in there, too.

But you get the point. That's a tough out the rest of the way. I don't really have a ton of faith that between the Besser injury and the Markstrom injury, that they're going to be able to dig their way out of this, I think. If they don't make it, how do you look at this as a, if you're a Canucks fan or do you take a step back and go, we were almost there, we had bad luck with injuries, it was still a success? or are you feeling like this? I feel like you definitely feel like you kind of piss something away there

just because of where they were. But at the beginning of the year, I just pulled up my predictions. I said they'd have 90 points. I thought they'd be one point out of a playoff spot, basically. And, you know, they're on pace to be in that area, and that, to me, is, like, just about right, you know? if they barely make it, if they barely miss, that's all within the bounds of what's reasonable.

And, you know, I think, like I said, you know, you can attribute most of their success this year to Markstrom having a career year when he's a 30-year-old who's playing for a contract. And that's not a knock against him. And like, certainly a goalie is part of your team and that sort of thing. But I do think this injury. is going to be what makes Jacob Markstrom like a six and a half million dollar goaltender this summer. Yeah, which...

Because they, you know, when he's in the net, they're unbelievable, and when he's not, they can't win. And he's going to be the reason they miss the playoff, or his absence they're going to say is the reason they miss the playoffs. And, you know, if the cap goes up by whatever amount of money, the Canucks are just going to go spend that on... You know, pick an aging defenseman. They're going to go get them and they're going to say, well, our problems are fixed. And it's like, well, I mean, Troy Stetcher is still probably like your third best defenseman. So that seems like it's a problem. Yeah.

No second round pick this year. No first round pick this year. If they make the playoffs, if they don't, it flips to next year, which isn't necessarily all that much better. Yeah, it's, they kind of, they took their swing. And I'm always complaining about timid GMs who just want to play it safe. So I can't rip on Jim Benning too much. But yeah, so far, it's not working great. Speaking of not working, the Senators CEO is not the Senator's CEO anymore.

That's right. This is a weird story. And you know what? Wait, a weird story coming out of the Ottawa Senators' front office? Hold on. It's like seeing an old friend. Like, the senators have gone like the whole year without any stupid controversies. Scandals, yeah.

You know, like after those, those nightmare, it's been pretty awful. And but then it got quiet. And now, I don't know. Like, I don't know if this is awful, but if people haven't heard, the senators hired a new CEO like two months ago. Two months ago, yeah. Guy by the name of Jim Little. And this was to bring some stability. because there's been a lot of churn at the top of that org chart.

You've got obviously Eugene Melnick is the owner. You've got Pierre Dorian as the GM, but that guy who's going to be a little bit higher and doing the whole, not just hockey ops, but the whole organization. And when Jim Little was brought in, it was kind of sold as this. He was going to be the face of the franchise because there's an understanding, I think, that Ottawa fans have got no time, no patience for Eugene Melnich. for Eugene Melnick, they don't want to hear it.

He has burned through whatever credibility he had. Maybe over a long enough time, he can build some of that back up, but not right now. So they wanted somebody to come in and be more of that public face in a market where you kind of need that. Like, this isn't a market where tickets just sell themselves, obviously. You've got to be out there talking to the business community, talking to stakeholders and season ticket holders. And this guy came in, and we found out this week he's gone within. two months. And the strange thing is, you know, other than the fact that in theory your CEO shouldn't last two months on the job. But we found out about it because the senators put out

this statement saying that he had been removed from the job for, I don't, what was the exact phrase that they used? It was the conduct. You know, I don't have it in front of me, but it was Conduct like unbecoming or not inconsistent. That's right. Yes. Inconsistent with the organization, which makes you go, uh-oh. That does not sound good. So this was their exact quote that he was let go for, quote, conduct inconsistent with the core values of the Ottawa senators and the National Hockey League.

So yeah, given everything we've seen in the last few, I mean, not just Bill Peters and you think of Jim Montgomery. you think of like Randy Lee in Ottawa a few years ago, like lots of things that as soon as you see that, you go, oh, like he, he must have done something really not good. And then his... And he did, which is, it turns out he said the F word to a billionaire. Well, yeah, this is, this is his version of the story is that he basically got in in at least one, maybe more than one argument with Eugene Melnick. Shocking, I know. And that he dropped a few F-bobs or used some impolite language. Yeah, he said he swore, I think. Yeah, the disagreement included me using some very strong language with him over the phone, including swearing, which he did not appreciate, and for which I later apologize. So his version of the story is basically I told my boss to F off, which, yeah, you know what, that will get you fired in a lot of places. even in a hockey world where I'm sure all of these guys have heard a lot worse.

Yeah, I mean, there's a certain line that you're not going to be able to cross with the guy who signs your paychecks. And if he crossed it, then Eugene Melnick has a right to say, you know, I don't want this guy around. This isn't my guy anymore. But if this is how it went down and if little story is accurate or largely accurate, Putting out that statement and wording it in a way where the senators knew exactly where everyone's assumptions were going to go, that's pretty shady. That's not cool if to put out a statement that makes everybody think that there's some scandalous behavior. I don't know. Yeah.

It's, I mean, look, like we said, it's been a while. It's like, it's like, you know, coming home again. seeing the senators embroiled in an avoidable scandal. But, hey, that's just kind of how it goes. And I think somebody said when it, I saw it get retweeted yesterday, so I don't remember who it was, and I apologize. But somebody said, like, I can't wait to find out who the senator's new CEO to be fired two months from now is when they first sent that's hire. Because they slipped that into the statement, like, oh, yeah, we've already started our search for a new CEO. You're CEO and we hope to have somebody in a few.

And you're just sitting there going like, who's it going to be? Who's taking that job? Because part of the reason that little came in. And this was a guy who he wasn't, he wasn't involved in the NHL previously, but he had done a bunch of stuff. Like he was, he was a well-known business leader and had worked in, I think he had worked with like golf or something. So he had experience in the sports world. But like, remember, previously they were going to bring in a team president. They were going to bring in like a big hockey name and he was going to sort of be the face of it.

Like they're Brendan Shanahan or their. And Daniel Alfredson told everybody, don't do that. Yeah. You're going to want to avoid that. Yeah. And it didn't have. And the league apparently was, I think there were some reports. The league was involved in trying to help them make this happen.

And it didn't. And they didn't get anyone. And then they sort of just said, you know what? We're not doing that anymore. And quietly or relatively quietly abandoned that search. and then they moved on to bringing in a CEO, and now he's gone. And you're kind of sitting there going, like,

who wants to work for this organization that is going to be able to move the needle on what they need to do? Because they'll find somebody. There's no, you put out a job posting for a CEO. Like, people are going to show up. Nobody's, nobody's out there. You know, it's not going to be, it's not going to be an empty inbox of people who want to be, to be the CEO of a prominent organization. Right.

But who's it going to be that is really going to... It's a tough sell. It's a really tough sell to say, hey, you want to work for Eugene Melnick? Yeah. I don't think I do. You're going to get somebody, but you're not going to get like that top drawer candidate. And speaking of top drawers, Ryan, I don't know what's in your top drawer. Okay.

That is unbelievable. But in my room, my top drawer, that's the socks and underwear drawer. And I got to be honest with you, like up until a couple years ago, I was like cheap underwear guy. I was that like the go to Walmart and get the cheap 12 pack of identical. Because why not? Who's going to see it? And it was up and it was only a few years ago. somebody hooked me up with like a nice pair of men's underwear and it was a game changer.

Total game changer. So I was very excited that we got a new sponsor this week, which is Mack Weldon. And Mac Weldon is a men's clothing and basically they've got your basics covered. I think it would be the best way to put it. Your basics and beyond smartly designed easy. convenient shopping for socks and underwear and all of those essentials that are typically such a pain in the rear end to buy. And the frustration for a lot of people, a lot of guys when it comes to buying this stuff is real. And for McWeldon, their eureka moment happened, they say in a department store aisle.

It was full of brands, all the stuff that you typically would know that dominate your top drawer. And just this mind-numbing assortment of underwear and socks. and they realize consistent fit quality, it's just this game of chance, and they decided to take matters into their own hands, and they started from scratch, they engineer their own fabric,

they make sure the design process is meticulous, so you can count on the fit being the same each time, and they built around that a world-class customer experience, and the differences in the details. They're obsessed over every stitch and seam, and that's how they reach their definition of perfect. So bottom line is Mac Welding, is almost certainly better than whatever it is you're wearing right now.

It's premium men's essentials, and it's a brand that believes in smart design and premium fabrics. And they hooked us up with some samples, some freebies and invited us to check out the website and take a look at what the experience was like. I don't know how yours went, but mine was excellent. and I spent... It was good. I'm wearing the sweatpants right now. You got yours already.

I'm jealous because years have already arrived. Their shipping center is very close to my house, it turns out. I'm still waiting. Very coincidentally. They do ship to Canada, so I'm hoping that my stuff will arrive soon because, yeah, I was probably maybe even a little too excited to go in and browse through their selection. of men's underwear, high quality stuff, and drop a few of those in my shopping cart, because it's good stuff.

They believe in smart design, premium fabrics, simple shopping. And it was simple. It's like the website's really well designed and you get through everything nice and quick. And, yeah, Mac Weldon says they will be the most comfortable underwear, socks, shirts, undershirts, hoodies, sweatpants, and more that you will ever wear. And it sounds like you're backing that up a little bit so far. Loving these sweatpants. Loving them.

Excellent. Well, I'm, mine have not arrived yet, but I'm going to be pretty much standing at the door waiting for these to get there. And if you would like to get in on this, if you would like to order some Mac Weldon product of your own, you can get 20% off your first order. All you have to do is visit macwellden.com and enter the promo code puck. That's Macwellden.com. M-A-C-W-E-L-L-D-O-N dot com. promo code puck, which I'm assuming you know how to spell on your own. Check it out.

And, you know, if you're still getting the Walmart 12 packs, get yourself some good underwear. It's a game changer. Get your act together. Yeah. Gross. We've got, I think, one more thing we wanted to cover, and I'm not completely sure what it is. You put it on the agenda.

I did. Real or fake. So, real or fake. What are we doing? This is the classic Puck Soup segment where I read some movie description. and Sean has to determine whether they are real movies that I'm describing that are coming out later this year. Oh boy. Or I have made them up.

Sean famously, a host of a hockey and pop culture podcast, does not pay attention to pop culture very much at all. And so we have to sometimes keep them on his toes, I guess you would say. Can I just point out, I saw a movie this week? Which one? I saw the movie Parasite. this week. I saw the best picture. It's great, huh? It was fantastic. It was phenomenal. I love it. I've described in the past that I have this problem where because I don't see a lot of movies and I don't almost never see them in the theaters, by the time I pick a movie, there's all these reviews and I can pick the ones that have won all the awards and that. Then I go in, my expectations are so high that even if it's a good movie, I come out going, I don't know. I went in with sky high expectations and it was better than I even imagine. Because I had no idea what it was going to be. I had been told, like, don't read anything, just go in and just end.

It was, it was phenomenal. If you haven't seen it yet, jump on that. I think it's probably the best movie of at least the last five years. Like, the day I saw it, I was like, this was that good. And to your point about not knowing what it's about, I actually had read what I thought was a spoiler or something, but I think it was somebody who was talking about what they think it's about. because I went in with a completely different expectation for what the movie was going to, like what the story of the movie was going to be.

And not only that, but the whole, like, premise of the movie flips like three times over the course of two and a half hours. It's incredible. I think I was like, I won't, we can maybe talk about it offline. Sure. I think I had the same experience as you where I thought it something was, it was going to go in a certain direction. and I was wrong. But it was, yeah, it was, it's almost like you're right, like watching two or three different movies stitched together,

and each one of those movies is amazing. Yeah, just really, really good. Please tell me this is one of your fake movies so that I can feel like I'm going to get one. Parasite, directed by Bong Joon Ho. Yeah, no, okay, so we'll start with an easy one. This is a movie called Freakry. guy. A bank teller played by Ryan Reynolds figures out that he is actually an NPC in a violent

video game that is about to be shut down in real life by an evil executive played by Oscar winner Taiko Waititi. And only Ryan Reynolds can stop him. Is this a real or a fake movie? I hope that's real, because that sounds like a great premise. I like that. If that's not, you've got to get on that screenplay. I'm going to say real. You're right. It's a real movie. It was filmed in Boston shut down a bunch of streets, very annoying. It looks... Disrupt your otherwise smooth moving traffic that you guys have there. That's right.

It looks truly fucking next level insane. This is indeed a real movie, but I think if you watch the trailer, you would go, oh, this is for a fake movie. This is like an S&L fake trailer. Because it truly is just a very strange premise. and then the way it actually, like, plays out is bonkers. So I don't know. I'll certainly see it, but I don't know what to expect from it at all. I'm going to go look for that trailer.

And let me put it this way. In reading the Wikipedia page for it this morning to find out a little bit more about it, it revealed that multiple, like, YouTube personalities play themselves in it. And I was like, ooh, that could really go either way. That's a sign of quality right there. Yep, that's right. Okay. Number two.

Back to the Future 4. Tom Holland plays Stevie McFly, the son of Marty McFly, who must return to the past one more time and save his father from more trouble in the original setting of 1985. Oh, God. That sounds so terrible, and yet it's, here's my thought. I'm going to think out loud here. Okay. My thought process, the name of the movie you said was... Back to the Future, Part 4.

Okay. See, I feel like I could absolutely see them doing a new Back to the Future, but I feel like the trend these days is you don't do it as a sequel. You do like a reboot. And I feel like this would just be called like just Back to the Future. I'm going to say that's fake. You're correct. It is rumored that they might make a reboot or a remake.

or like I said, one of those things where he's, you know, Stevie McFly. But for now they are not. Yes. For now they are not doing it. Somebody made a like a deep fake video. Okay. With Tom Holland and fucking Robert Downey Jr. As Marty and Doc Brown.

Okay. And it looked pretty convincing. I didn't watch the video. I'm not going to watch that shit. But yeah, so that's only rumored at this point. And Tom Holland has confirmed that those discussions have happened. But as of right now, they're not making it. And certainly it's not coming out this summer. Good.

Artemis Fowell, based on the classic children's book, this film directed by Oscar winner Kenneth Branagh, is the story of a young criminal genius who has to hunt down and find a secret fairy society to find his law father. I briefly got really excited because when you said the title, I was like, I've heard of that. And then you're like, yeah, based on a famous book, I was like, okay, that's maybe why. Yeah, I'm going to, that sounds familiar.

I'm going to say yes, that's true. Yeah, that is real. It also stars Judy Dench and Josh Gad, which means it is a must not see. Josh Gad is involved. I'm out. I'm not interested at all. Okay. Yeah. All right. Kenneth Brana. He's doing it. And apparently, you are three for three. So you've already won. Okay. Okay. I'm kicking Greg's ass on this. This is great.

Yeah. He's getting destroyed. All right. This next one is Jungle Cruise. True. That one's, that's real. That's the, is it the rock? It is the rock. Yeah. We saw the trailer for that. And that's a big deal in my family because we've been to Disney a few times and we love Jungle Cruise. It's like our favorite ride to just go and if it's not because of the ride, but because, yeah, you get these like out of work stand-up comedians telling you the worst possible dad jokes the whole way. And yeah, that's my kids. To them, that's the only form of humor that they've ever been exposed to. Sure. Yeah.

Yeah. We saw the trailer for that at, because I took the kids. Speaking of reboots of stuff from years ago, we watched the Jumanji reboot with The Rock. Actually, pretty funny. The kids love it. Yeah. The first Jumanji, I don't know if you were talking about the first or the second one, because a new one just came out like a couple months ago. Yeah, that's the one we saw and they had the Jungle Cruise trailer on. That one was, that one was.

Oh, I didn't see the Jungle Cruise trailer on mine when I saw it. That one was fine. But the first one was really good. Welcome to the Jungle was, you know, kind of the same shit. But, yeah, just the Rock is, I figured the Rock in a Disney ride adaptation might throw you off. But if you saw the trailer, then, you know, what can I do? If I didn't know that was real, I would 100% think you were just doing like a cheap knockoff of Pirates of the Caribbean. Because that's all, like, I remember when that came out, it was like, we're going to do a two-hour movie about like a fine ride.

And they also did, they also did the hump. Haunted Mansion. Oh, did they? And there was another one. 2003, Eddie Murphy. Yeah. So these, I guess what we're saying is these are very hit and miss, but I and in. Well, Christ, there have been what six Pirates movies, seven?

Yeah. Like, it's, the trailer is, did not even look that good, but no, we will probably end up seeing it because we like the ride. And we, and the rock is, he's, well, so here's the rest of the cast. Everyone in my family on very different levels. Sure. Here's the rest of the cast for this movie, though. Emily Blunt, who's great. Jesse Plymonds, who's great, and Paul Giamatti is in this movie? What? Can't wait. Yeah? It's going, it's going to be stupid and fun, probably. I'm watching the trailer. I'm going, I don't know. And then they did the backside of water joke in the trailer, which if you've ever done the ride, is like the one stupid joke that I think is mandatory. I'm not even going to pretend. I'm not going to end up sitting in a theater. I don't see parasite until three months after it came out, but this I'll probably be their opening night.

Yes. All right. Last one. This movie is called The Lake House. Kiano Reeves and Sandra Bullock live in the same house, but it's two years apart, and they figure out that they can communicate with each other by leaving letters in the house's mailbox. Over time, they begin to fall in love, but can she act in time to save him from an untimely death two years in the past? Ooh. That's, yeah, you know what? I'm going to say the same thing I said for the first one. That sounds real. And if it's not, that's a good premise. That's, I'm going to say real.

Well, you're right. The Lakehouse is a movie that came out in like 2009. So, okay. 2006, sorry, it came on 2006. So did you just time shift me on a question about time shifting? That was the joke. Wow.

That's excellent. Okay. And it worked seamlessly because, I, you had to guess, but you got it right, you went five for five this time. I did not know I was time shifted.

And yeah, it's, it's, pretty good. Kino in the time travel movies, high success rate. That's good. That's true.

Wow. So I swept that one? Is that it? Is that that? Yeah, we're done. That's it. Eat that,

Greg. He'll, I mean, you would have to get, again, like we did on the, these days, but that's,

yeah, you have to have to have it through. straw, Sean. You get this joke. But yeah, so that's it. That's all we have for the episode, this whole week. That's it for the whole show. Goodbye.

That's it? Yep. Do you want to plug your newsletter? Oh, sure, yeah. Good point. Yeah, sign up for the Puck Suit Patreon and the newsletter that I write that is attached to it. It comes out every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. And, you know, it's about not just hockey, but,

you know, movies and music and TV and all that sort of thing. So, yeah, check it out. It's right on patreon.com slash puck soup. Yep. And you can find me on The Athletic. Subscribe if you do not already. And you can read my stuff, which includes this week. It is a good, my favorite kind of post,

which is when I get to steal an idea from somebody else. And I saw somebody with a tweet where they were asking what the Mount Rushmore of Canadian international hockey moments is. And it's a good question because you've got Crosby's golden goal. You got Paul Henderson. You got Merrill Lemieux. Those are the three obvious ones. Mark Andre, putting the puck into his own net in the 203.

No, Ryan. Of good moments, positive moments. When I think it was Mark Schifley cried because they lost World Juniors. That's where I wound up. That was the one. So, yeah, we had got to have some fun with some of the candidates for, for that fourth one because three are easy and then the fourth one is where the big debate kicks in. So, yeah, read that and then continue to come up with good ideas and then send them

to me so that I don't have to do the work of thinking of them. Yeah, we had somebody in the Patreon mailbag this week be like, ask a question and say, I know this could just be something Sean steals for a post. So I didn't ask it. You can just go in there and look at it and see if you want to write it. I'm going to control F for the word steel and just harvest most. That's right. harvest my next month's worth of content. Perfect. All right. Well, that's it for the episode this week, folks. Thanks for listening. Thanks to all the various sponsors who gave us free underwear this week. And I think that'll about do it. Have a good one, folks. Thanks. Goodbye.

See you. Also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tools. It's your weekly bowl of Hagi and Nansen. Part 2.