Puck Soup - Fake Crowd Roars

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

The boys discuss the Stanley Cup Final between the Stars and Lightning, including the return of Steven Stamkos and the current MVP race; a wrapup of the NHL Awards voting controversies; Alex Pietrangelo's public pressure on St. Louis; Bob Boughner is hired in San Jose; the NHL's fake crowd noise vs. other sports; the top 500 albums of all-time; and the return of Hockey Threesomes, one of our favorite game shows. Sponsored by Brooklinen!  

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. But we also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Greg Wachinsky, V.SPN. Home of basketball and other sports. I'm Ryan Lambert from... watching basketball on ESPN between periods.

Sean McAnew from the Athletic, I'm pretty sure we only do hockey. And you're in Puck suit. There's a lot of things that I've come to do during the playoffs, and that's one of them, Lambert, is kind of, you know, we get to the intermission, I don't really care what Keith Jones has to say, and then I flip over to see what's happening in the Hoopie game. And I reiterate what I've said in many places. which is that I've now watched every sport that's come back during the pandemic after the break for COVID.

And I just think, I just think, and this is like a homer thing to say, but I just think that, it's a homer thing to say too, but I just think that hockey got it right. Like I look at the NHL and it looks and sounds like a playoff game in a way that other sports don't look the same. Like I guess the NFL is close. Baseball doesn't feel like baseball to me. It feels like even more boringer, which is incredible. and the NBA feels like it's being played in some kind of a fucking TV studio. I don't know.

I think hockey did it right. Okay. I don't... Am I wrong on that? No, I mean, again, like, the problem with hockey is that it... The piped in crowd noise is really bad. I, like, it is distracting how bad it is, I think. And, yeah, I mean, again, you know, it's my mistake for watching games not on mute,

then I have to hear Eddie Olcheck saying, like, some teams don't want size in this league. And it's like, okay, I can't, I can't fucking wrap my head around that argument today. But yeah, I think my, I think that's my main issue is like, you know, just because they're playing in a big arena like you, I don't think you're getting as anything different than you would get if they were playing in a high school rank, except maybe more angles. But there's more angles in basketball, too. So. Right. Right. But I just, I don't know. Like, I feel, I feel sometimes the basketball experience has taken me out of the excitement of the playoffs. And as much as it's artificial and hockey. And I agree with you. I don't know why they didn't do more angles. And I also don't know why they didn't be bolder with the, with the crowd noise. Because you could really replicate a game if you wanted to. But it means that you have to be a bit more editorial about it than I also don't. I also don't think you could, though. No, you don't think so? No, because. Because, like, you know, if you, yeah, if you played, like, booing on a call, then, like, the league's going to be all pissed off about that for some reason. And, and also, like, again, the big problem with the crowd noise is not just that it's, like, muted, but also that it's, like, a half second too late. And, you know, it's just a little uncanny at that point.

Right. What do you think, Sean? I mean, I haven't watched much of the NBA other than the Raptor stuff. I'm just not a basketball fan, so I wouldn't be able to compare it. Baseball, you're right. I didn't really realize this before this year, but baseball, I think, of all the sports, has far more crowd interaction, you know, and just the foul balls into the stands. It's constantly reminding you that there's nobody there.

I think football's been okay, but I will say watching two weeks of the NFL, I no longer take for granted the NHL fake crowd noise guys because while it certainly hasn't been perfect, the NFL has been bad in a couple of games. I spend my Sundays watching Red Zone, so I'm flipping between all the different games. And there are some that have been like legitimately bad. Like you're watching the game going like,

that sounds super fake and it's way too loud right now. So like let's fix this or something. And it was bad in week one and I thought it would be better last week and it kind of wasn't. So, like I've said, I feel like the NHL has done far better at pretty much all of this than I thought. Yeah. And, you know, whether it's how it compares to the other sports, I think a lot of that's just sort of the nature of the game. The other piece about the NHL playoffs, and I hate to say it, and, you know, maybe I lose my fan card for this. A lot of the crowd noise in the playoffs, when you think of like those great moments of crowds going crazy, it's like at the beginning of the game.

Everybody stands up. They do whatever they throw whatever their seafood of choice on the ice is. And then the game starts and it like settles down to a reasonably quiet crowd. And so maybe that's why we don't quite miss it as much as we might in other sports. Like, you know, the NFL. When it's noticeable in the NFL is what it's like third down and the visiting team has the ball. And you're expecting that like big swell of crowd noise and it just doesn't happen. But yeah, NHL's done well.

I make my living complaining about these guys. but I don't have a ton to complain about with how they presented the games. It is kind of like a moment-by-moment thing, right? Like in hockey, like in the NFL, there's every drive has that moment where the crowd will rise to its feet and get ready, either a defensive stop or, you know, a big third down play. The thing I miss about the NHL is when a team's trailing by like a goal in the third period. And there is that moment where the crowd will decide it's time to will their team for a rally or, like, support their team to close out the game.

They'll play like Bush's machine head. And the crowd will just, like, start going crazy and getting ready before a faceoff. I miss those sort of spontaneous moments because you can't really replicate that with the push of a button, you know. Yeah, I think my other thing with it, too, is, like, the artifice of, like, oh, actually, there's a, there's a lot of fans here and we love having the fans. And so, like, the idea that the NBA is not, is the only league that's not doing that where they're like, yeah, we're in, like, a TV studio. Yeah. I actually kind of like respect that more than, you know, everybody like, oh, we're going to have Gary Bettman get booed. Isn't that fun?

And it's like, no, I think that kind of sucks. Like, just it's funnier if he comes out and there's like no reaction at all, all the, like you just hear the players on the ice going like, oh, here it is boys. You know, like it's not. You're not fooling anybody, I guess is my point. So like, why bother pretending you are fooling somebody? Does that make sense? No, it does make sense. And I also want to say, because your point on that made me think of something else, which is that is the NBA, the league where the fans are kind of beside the point, where it's so player-centric that it could be a sport that's played on, you know, a blacktop in Brooklyn.

And, like, it wouldn't suffer from it just because of how intense everything. Like, I don't think I can remember a thing where, like, an NBA guy after the game is like, well, you know, we really needed the crowd on that one. You know, it's, I feel like the crowd is sort of like an accessory rather than being a driving force. Like, it can be in the NHL. Like, it usually is in the NFL. And like, it can be sometimes in baseball, too, especially in October. I feel like, I feel like the crowd isn't that much of a huge factor in the NBA. Yeah, that might, that might be part of it for sure.

I mean, like, there's definitely, you know, when big stuff happens, there's definitely all, you know, cuts to the crowd and that and that kind of thing. But yeah, for the most part, like, the only people that you really. really see on TV are the people sitting court side, and they're all rich assholes who are maybe half paying attention to the game, right? Like, there's not like, you know, Johnny from Queens is sitting next to the Nets bench and really, you know, giving it to a guy from the pistons or whatever. Or the other time you see him is obviously... It's some tech asshole.

Right, it's some tech asshole. But the other time you see them obviously is on free throws when inevitably somebody brings a giant cardboard cut out of a player's like mistress or some shit. Sure. Yeah. And they wave it during free throws. That's the only other time. I'll say this about the crowd, the crowd, fake crowd stuff.

Shows are starting to come back that have been filmed during the pandemic. In particular, two of them on Fox, the Masked Singer and the new Ken Jong show that I watched last night in which you try to guess who the best singer is during a lip sync performance. it's called can you see my voice or something along those lines sounds great it was better than expected to be quite candid with you

but there was a disclaimer at the end of the show at the very end of the credits because it fooled me Ruby and I were kind of convinced that they filmed this fucker before the shutdown but at the very end of the credits

there was this well the first tip off was in the credits there was like a listing for COVID manager so that's one tip off that maybe They filmed it during the pandemic.

But the other thing is that at the end of the credits, there was a disclaimer that said, you know, shots of the crowd were artificially created and pieced together from previous recordings by XYZ production company. And I swear to God, like, if you didn't tell me that, they did it so well, including like reaction shots of real people to the performances that are happening that are clearly like reaction shots from, you know, American Ninja Warrior or some shit. Right. It doesn't have a do with a fucking thing. Like, it very much fooled me. So I guess this is a good thing and also a really creepy kind of, you know, deep fake thing that's happening now in pop culture. Yeah, it's the thing of, you know, the people who are laughing on, I don't know. The Emmys or whatever.

Or not even the Emmys. Like, I was going to say, like, I almost said the Big Bang theory, but that's not on TV anymore. But, like, you know, those laughs were all recorded in the 30s and those people have been dead for decades. Sean knows what I'm talking about when I say that married with children had the greatest canned laughter in the history of mankind. That is a show with the most. And it may have been, I don't, I'm assuming it was canned, just because it was so over the top. Every sitcom is canned. But yeah, that fake audience, they were not just roaring with laughter, but they were so shocked and offended by every third joke that it was, yeah, it was excellent.

Yeah, I can't imagine a live audience would be able to hit the, uh, ooh. Mark every time Peggy walked into the room or some shit on that show. What a classic. Maybe my favorite Sam Kinnison performance outside of Back to School, the one episode where he played The Guardian Angel in there. What the fuck is that movie?

It's a Wonderful Life parody. I was about to say, What a Wonderful World, but that's definitely a Louis Armstrong song. What a wonderful world it was on Wednesday night as he did this podcast as the Lightning

took a 2-1 lead over Dallas. It was the return, albeit brief, boys, of one Stephen Stamcox. Hadn't heard about this. What happened? Well, he came back,

he played for like two minutes, scored a goal, won the Khan Smyth, which I thought was an accomplishment, looked very much like Cap in Avengers Infinity War when they find him. You don't have to

compare everything to Marvel movies. Did you know that? Like, you're allowed to compare it to other things? I have other cultural touchstones. I just wanted to say that because this is the only years, I think, since 2008, maybe or 2009, when we won't have an MCU film. So I want to make sure that we all keep it in circulation.

Scorsese finally wins. Ryan, what did you think about the resurrection of Stephen Stamco? I'll be it briefly. It was fun as hell. It was awesome. Um, you know, like, he, he, he went out for that first shift and I think he just kind of had a hit and maybe shuffled the puck around the attacking zone for a second or two. Um, and I was like, yeah, that seems about right. And then I, I didn't, on his goal, I didn't really clock that it was him, uh, until like, he shot the puck and I was like, oh, that was Stephen Stamcoe shot.

That was, you know, like he, he got around, I don't know who the defender was, but he got around the defender so easily and quickly. that I would not, my brain would not allow me to comprehend that this is a guy who missed nine months of hockey or whatever it's been. So yeah, he looked pretty good for the four minutes he played. For the four minutes he played. Yeah. And then we don't really know what happened after that, but, and we won't know until the series is over. It was great, it was a great story, you know, especially given that, you know, the fact that he left with the injury,

but stayed on the bench and the fact that he was talking to the media afterwards and it didn't seem to be any concern because when he you know when he did leave initially I kind of had that momentary like okay is this going to be like a paul korea moment where we all love that he came back and scored the goal but then years later we're looking back going that shouldn't have happened he shouldn't have been out there you know because he did something you know he reagravated some injury or you know turned turned a big problem into a career altering problem It doesn't sound like that happened. So, you know, fingers crossed, that's the case. In which case, it was a great story. You saw, like, the reaction shot from the Tampa bench was fantastic. Just, you know, you could see how much it meant to those guys to see him do that. And, you know, if this series goes the way it seems to be headed and Tampa does win the cup, then, you know, I'm sure the fact that he got in and contributed in some way is going to be just a huge kind of burden off of his shoulders that, you know,

even if he only played three minutes in the whole playoff run, he did something. He wasn't just watching from the sideline. Yeah, it's going to be a full 15 minutes on the Stanley Cup DVD. That's for sure. Yeah. I mean, it was so fucking cool when they bought him out for the Prince of Wales. Like, I didn't expect that, you know, for him to be a part of that. And I always wondered if, you know, in the back of my mind, if it would be, like, awkward for him to take part in that shit

without having been an active participant in one of these games. I mean, he is the captain. In theory, he gets the cup first. But like you said now, he can say he took part in it and stuff. So that's good for Stamco. Listen, there's always going to be some rooting interests on both sides in these situations. Like, I'd love to see Rick Bonas win the cup after the fucking journey he's put this team on. That'd be incredible.

And, like, the journey he's been on as, like, an assistant coach for the last three decades. Like, that'd be incredible. Stephen Stamco's is a very easy guy to root for. Like the shit that he's been through injury-wise, the fact that so many of his peers in the sort of upper echelon of goal scoring and MVP contention have all have cups. And just the shitty luck he's had, I mean, some of it is his own making. I mean, he's done some disappearing acts in some pretty big spots.

One assist in the Stanley Cup final, he was scoreless in the last three games against Washington in the conference final a couple years ago. But he also was injured for the Pittsburgh series. So, like, I don't know. He's at a run of really shit luck and bad deals and bad hands dealt to him. And he's like one of those guys on Tampa that you legit would be like, this is cool that he won. Hadbin's the same way. Like, I feel like Hadbin is just like a fucking next level player, best defenseman in the world.

I just kind of want to see him win a cup. I, you know, I know it's not going to, it's not validation. Like he will be there's on a track probably for the Hall of Fame at this point. Oh, yeah. But just like, what a fucking cool player. there, like to do the shit that that guy does in a night-and-night-out basis. Yeah, he's really good. He's, you know, it's funny.

I was thinking about it last night. Obviously, when he scored that goal, I was like, oh, that almost certainly, you know, ties up the Kahn-Smythe forum. But then I looked at it, and I was saying this earlier, but Nikita Kuturov is having the kind of playoff where if Hedman even had two fewer goals, we would just be already giving him the Kahn-Smite. He's got 30 points in 22 games. It's like his five-on-five expected goals percentage is like almost 70, I want to say.

It's like, how is he playing this well? And isn't the consensus pick for the Kahn Smyth? Like, that's crazy. There's also a thought that he's hurt, too. Yes. I mean, those thoughts kind of coming out. The series alone is those thoughts. Those thoughts kind of come and go, depending on how well the Lightning played.

Because if you remember in game one, they were like super tired. Uh-oh. Do they have any legs left? And then they fucking control play for the next, you know, five of the next six periods. But, Sean, MVP time. Like, who's your guy right now for the Lightning? I think it's Headman. But, yeah, I mean, Kudraff could make the case.

Braden Point, if he had another big game or gets another overtime goal, it kind of moves right back into the discussion. So, I mean, that's just. We can't discount him on the basis of his being Canadian. Of course. So that is a huge differentiating factor. Yeah. Now, that's not fair because there's a lot of Canadian voters' rewards

and Hedbens been a finalist for the Norris in four straight season. So he is also a darling of Canada. Yeah. The Russian guy, not so much, but Hedbans pretty. The other thing that I wrote about this week is defensemen and goalies can actually win the Kahn Smythe as playoff MVP, even though they can't win regular season MVP apparently for reasons. Nobody's quite clear on. So, yeah, I don't know.

It'll be interesting. I don't know how when you look at the stats, you factor in the playing round, or if you just cut that out, or if you just look at the overall playoff numbers that they're giving you and count that as the playoffs. But ultimately, I don't think that really matters. I think headman's the favorite right now, but we've got at least two games left.

and maybe more than that. And that's a sign of a good team. If you get to this point and there's like one guy that's clearly like, oh yeah, this guy is definitely going to win, then that potentially can be a sign of problems because if that guy gets cold or goes hurt, then you're in trouble. And the lightning have got like, you know, three or four guys

because, I mean, Vaselowski throws a couple of shutouts in the last two games and suddenly he's right in the mix. Yeah. And that kid is how the devils won the 2003 cup is by having the Ducks one guy get cold in the final. Yeah, and Tampa's going to do that with Anton Houdobin as well. So at least that's how it looks. I don't know.

By the way, you just reminded me a point I wanted to make earlier, Sean, which is that about the round robin and the qualification round. In watching the NFL this season, I have never valued preseason games more in my entire life. Like, fuck, man. Like some of the plays that have not been made in the first two weeks of the NFL season that probably would have been made if they had had a practice game or two is Legion and the NHL was smart to kind of ease into it in a way.

Yep. All right. So let's talk about Dallas. We got criticized last week because I think for those that don't know, so we recorded the show in different parts last week because of the timing of the series. And maybe because of that, we didn't give Dallas its like sort of its own segment type deal. Some people noticed that.

So that might have been what happened there. But on the Dow side of the equation, like, game one was great outside of the third period. And then it seems like maybe the third period is what the rest of the series is going to end up looking like. Like, undisciplined play in Tampa exerting their will. Yeah. I mean, even the second period last night where, you know, in theory, you're not supposed to to have one team be dominant over the other because of the long change and all that kind of stuff. Tampa had like a 98% expected goals in the second period of a game they were already leading.

Like that's, you can't let that happen. That was when I was like, because, you know, third period of game one, you go, well, look, I mean, yeah, they gave up a million shots. They barely touched the puck, but all those shots were from the outside. and Houdobin, like, wasn't really bothered too much, despite the fact that he made 58 saves or whatever the number was. Yeah, you can't say that anymore. They look bad, and also they are letting the lightning go wherever they want on the ice now. So it's a real fucking problem.

And straight up just giving them the puck sometimes, which is not a very good decision to do if you're Miro Heiskenon. the thing about Tampa that's interesting is that like if you watch if you track Dallas's journey through these playoffs like incredible offensive series against Calgary yeah they beat a dog shit team that everyone thought was bad right an incredible offensive series against Colorado which was you know beaten to a bloody pulp by that point I thought like the work they did against Vegas was really impressive and it also was not coincidentally who'd open hoodobins better series. So they win sort of a scratching claw offensive series against Vegas, which themselves don't really know what to do now that they face a good defensive team. Tampa's a real interesting animal in the sense that when they are going well, yeah, they can pop like five goals on the board against you. But what they really do is play D. Ten of the last 12 games in these playoffs, they've allowed two goals or fewer.

That's pretty fucking good in the bubble. And you're starting to kind of see that type of hockey in this series where like when they control play and kind of get their shit together in their own zone, it's real tough to score against them too. They're fucking real good, Sean. No, I mean, obviously that's not exactly breaking any ground with the analysis when we say that. but at some point, like, you can just sort of ditch the narratives and, you know, all this stuff, oh, you know, the will to win and the, no, they're just really good. They got a lot of really good players, and they're really good players that are healthy enough to do so are playing the way that they can play.

And, you know, sometimes the Stanley Cup final just comes down to not even necessarily who's hot and who's not, but just who is, who can find that groove where they're playing the way they can and who has that little wobble that you get in hockey. sometimes where you're just like, we just weren't quite there tonight. We had a couple guys who were squeezing it just a bit. And that's, you can get past that in the regular season, all sorts of ways. But when you're playing a really good team with everything on the line, sometimes it makes a difference.

And so far, we're three games into what could be a seven game series, but so far, Tampa, other than the first half of the first game, hasn't really shown any sign that they're going to, they're going to let the stars off the hook that way. Yeah, I think it's worth also just bringing up how easily Tampa has rolled through these playoffs. You know, like they, they, what was it, five games in the first round, five in the second round, something like that? Five games by traditional math. Yeah, right. But like, they're not losing games very often, is my point.

Like, they're going, oh, yeah, five games here, five games there, six games. and, you know, the six was, everybody had the series, like, said, that's a wrap after game three. Like, it got the six games, but nobody was really, like, convinced that the Islanders were going to really do anything to bother them. And, yeah, I mean, you know, they're the best team on paper coming in. I don't know that anybody in the history of the NHL playoffs has dressed a better fourth line than what Tampa started with last night. You know, like, those guys are all really fucking good and would be at worst third liners on a lot of teams in this league. So, you know, at some point you just say, you know what, like the reason Tampa is doing this is because they just have so much more talent than everybody else. And if you give talent enough kicks at the can, eventually they're just going to roll through you.

And the other thing that Tampa's got going for, and this sounds like a ridiculous thing to say. when they've got a former 60 goal guy out with injury, but they've otherwise been very healthy, at least as far as having guys be able to play. You know, I'm sure everyone's banged up, but, you know, their injured list for a lot of this has been Stephen Stamco's, and that's it. You know, they had, yeah, point was hurt for a little bit,

but he got back in quick. We don't know who's dealing with what, but that's a big part of this too, because, yeah, you, you, we've seen teams put together that great depth of having four lines, and then three guys get hurt, and suddenly you're like, you don't have four lines anymore, right? Yeah, is a black hole.

So that's, again, I don't want to say they've had good luck with injuries, because, again, they're arguably best player or one of their three best players is not playing, but the volume of injuries hasn't been there. Well, and that's the other thing is it's crazy that you can say, it's not just depth with them, like the level of high-end talent, the fact that you're talking about, again, a former 60 goal scorer who, you know, if he was healthy throughout his career, would easily have at least 550, probably 600 goals right now. And you're like, oh, he might be like their third best forward.

And it's like, what the fuck? How's that possible, man? Like, that's how good they are, though. To speak about the efficiency of their series, it's all kind of part of the redemption tour narrative that they've got going. Like Kutrov is a good example that, too, where he gets fucking suspended against Columbus in that series and just doesn't play well. this is a team that when they've gotten into situations where they've played a game six or a game seven or played a game six and lost and then they would usually lose in a game seven they've kind of stayed out of those situations in the playoffs which I think has benefited them.

I picked them before the bubble because I thought that the lack of crowd in some I picked them for a lot of reasons but one of the reasons was I thought the lack of crowd would allow them to just play and be good and not get you know start squeezing the state. Yeah, I think that's overthinking it, man. I don't think. I don't think. I know you don't. No, I don't think for a lot of people. I did make the same point. And I mean, it's not high on the list.

I mean, nobody's saying that. But I just, I remember, I said it might help them early on. Like, if they get into the game one and they're out there, you know, playing wherever they're going to play, and suddenly that goal he stands on his head and now you're down to nothing to be in a building in front of your own fans where suddenly like, you're suddenly like, you know, we know that playoff thing where the building gets a little too quiet and every, you can just feel the sense of, I thought that would help them. I mean, obviously now it's, it's, I mean, they're, they're rolling so much. They're rolling, but like if, if, if,

if that game six against the Islanders was at Nassau, like maybe it's a different math for that series. I, I'm like, like, Sean said, it's not maybe in my top 10 for why the lightning could win the cup, but it was definitely a factor. And, uh, and I think that. the efficiency of these series kind of speaks to them avoiding the situations in the past that have put them out of the playoffs by kind of like floundering late in these series. Well, that's, I think, I think some of that is just like, you know, I don't think, I don't think it has to do with, oh, I'm really worried about the crowd in Columbus or whatever. Like, I think, I think it has to do with, you know, like they, to all the earlier points about,

oh, you know, they've built a team that's more competitive. if you play a bunch of different kinds of hockey and that kind of thing. I think that matters, sure. 500 times more than, like, and, but yeah, to your point, like, when team, when they get a team on the mat, they're just like, oh, we're just going to, like, punch the, punch them in the face until the ref steps in and says you can't do that anymore. Right.

And, and that's what they're doing. Like, they're closing out series like it's no big fucking deal. But also they're doing, like, it's not like, oh, you know, they got to a game seven and they were dominant in game seven. No, they're like, oh, we're going to end this in five games or six, and that's the end of that. They're just going to lock in that sharpshooter and keep it on, and he doesn't even have to say, I quit.

He'll just pass out from loss of blood. That's right. That's right. Very good. You know, yeah, so that's our Dallas segment where we talked about the lightning. I also wanted to mention two things about the stars. Like obviously, you mentioned before Ryan Kudobin, uh,

Hudobin, sorry, we're not going home. Uh, awesome, awesome performance. Not necessarily his fault that this series has gone the way it's gone in the last two games. Could definitely still rebound and, you know, steal a game, what have you. Uh, but he's not getting, get, he carried them in that Vegas series, but he's not getting help now.

Uh, and then the, the help that he could maybe use is, is the top line to fucking find its game again. Holy shit. Radulov taken a billion penalties. Sagan has one assist since game five against Colorado? What the fuck? Yeah, I think at this point, we can all just

admit those guys are horseshit. Like, that's it. There's no two ways about it. In the end, he was right. He was right. Well, what happened to the Benisance? Didn't Jamie Ben have a whole thing like last series where it looked like he was going to win the

Yeah, the whole thing was, like, it was less than a week, and he's... Yeah, he had four good games or whatever. Yeah, Beast Mode Redemption Story. This is, like, the Art Ross, Jamie Ben is back, and then three games in, no points. The Segan thing is just like, I can't even wrap my fucking brain around it, to be... To have his linemates perform the way they have since the Colorado series, or like since game five of the Colorado series. isn't to only have one fucking apple that entire time. And I think, yeah, no, it was that even strength.

It wasn't on the power play. Just inexplicable. Like, you can't even make the classic Jonathan Tabe's argument of like, well, he's concentrating on his defense. Like, no, he's not. He's on a fucking scoring line. Yeah, also he's Tyler Sagan, so it's not like everybody's like, oh, yeah, he's a real strong defensive center or two-way center or whatever.

He's not. He's good. Again, we, you want to give leeway and caveats. and what have you for how the bubble is affected different people, and maybe there's some shit that we don't know what's going on or whatever the fuck. But like, man. Got to play the games, man.

Like, that's, I, like, horrible run. Yeah, the stuff about, oh, some of the guys are really sad in the bubble and blah, blah, blah, of course. Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. But, like, it's not like the other teams don't have guys who are sad. Like, the lightning, I bet, have people who are like, oh, I kind of miss my kids.

And they're absolutely fucking wailing on the Dallas Stars right now. So, because they want to see their kids. Yeah. They want to finish this thing quickly. Yeah. Well, right. The stars keep saying, we're not going home. Tampa's like, oh, we are, and we're going to do it by destroying you.

Last thing I want to say about Dallas is I've been super impressed with Klingberg. I mean, I know that Hayskinan's gotten a lot of love. Klingberg's real good, too. They're set up on that back line for a little bit. Well, yeah, I mean, they have the third best defenseman in the league in Essel and Dell. so. All right. Yeah.

That's, yeah, they're good. Here's my other thing. What? What do you do back-to-back games Friday, Saturday? What do you do with Hadobin? You didn't.

You play them twice. Yeah. Absolutely. And especially now that you pulled them in a game. Yeah. And I think that that helps. But like, I guess maybe the question isn't, what do you do? because we saw it the last time they faced this,

and they tried to put Bishop in, and it didn't work. And we don't know where Ben Bishop said. Maybe, you know, I don't know. But Elliot Friedman mentioned it on Hockey Night in Canada last night, where he was like, is there any chance you go, you look to Ben Bishop for either of those games, especially like, what if Hudomans doesn't look great in a Friday game? And then you've got to go back to him in an elimination game.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're down three to one and you're looking for something to spark. I mean, Ben Bishop against his former team. team coming back. Like, I'm assuming he's, he's healthy enough to play, but not so healthy that they, they feel like he's 100%. Like, obviously, there's a, there has to be an overlap there of where you'd even consider it, but.

I'm not convinced he's healthy enough to play. I mean, like. And if he's not, it's a moot point, because you're not, you're not putting this kid whose name I don't even know. Jake Ottinger? Yeah, come on. How dare you? Why?

Because he's an NCAA guy. You don't know his name. He's a first round pick. There's, there's no good college players. It's not, uh, you know, he don't. need to worry about that. I mean, honestly, like, if you threw in, Adjur, it's probably not the worst thing in the world.

I mean, he's not garbage. He's, he's fine. He's playing in back of a team that's going to be playing really stout defense. I think if it comes down to that, you just, at that point, you have to say, who do you om got us this far, we're just going down with the ship. Like, if this is how it's, if this is how it's going to be, maybe it did, I don't know. But if, if Ben, like, what, I guess the question is, what happens if we see a repeat of the scenario where Ben Bishop knocks on Rick Bonas's door and says, I can go if you need me.

And Rick Rick doesn't answer the door He's just like Oh, Rick's not here Yeah Turns up all the lights and lies down on the floor Yeah Exactly

Escaves out of the bathroom window No, I think it's I think it's a good conversation to be had I also wonder If Friday night's the series Like if Dallas Certainly feels that way, yeah Do they just peace out on Saturday and say

All right boys to give it all Pop the bubble to come back 24 hours later. Well, then I hope they win on Friday. I'd like to see the series go a little bit longer than like five games. You just don't want to like have the hockey season in and then you don't have anything to do for. Oh, yeah. Whenever they start the season again.

All right. Well, okay, granted, once we get past the next few weeks of like the draft and free agency, then you credit, we don't really know when things are going to start. That's right. But I get the sense that like if the stars win on Friday night. I'm sorry if the lightning went on Friday night, they're just going to put a pillow over Dallas's face. Speaking of pillows,

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with every single trophy he's ever won since Mites behind him. I always appreciate that from players on their Zoom calls. But we get Roman Yossi winning the Norris, the first Swiss player in NHL history to win a major award. We get Connor Hollibuck winning the Vezina, as he should. We get Kail McCar defeating Quinn Hughes for the Calder and Leon Drysidal, overcoming Nathan McKinnon. and Rettemi Panarin and others. Oh, and also Connor McDavid to win the Hart Trophy. Which one of these was the one that irked you the most, Ryan?

Oh, I think you can guess. You know, I get that like most voters just kind of said, okay, who had the most points this year? That's how we usually do it. But, you know, I think we're supposed to be smarter than that at this point. And a lot of guys just aren't and don't take their vote. seriously at all and don't put any critical thought into it. And that's how you get like two writers leaving Nathan McKinnon off their ballot altogether. Woof. That is rough. It's insane.

That is rough. Sean, were you happy with the heart? I was happy enough. I mean, I had Drusitle third on my ballot, but it was, I think most of us felt like there was a top three among the forwards of Panarin McKinnon and Dracidal, and you could shuffle them around. And I mean, it's not a bad pick. It wasn't my personal pick at the end of it. And I get the arguments about his defensive flaws in his game and how that counters the value that his offense brings. But, you know, overall, it doesn't – there weren't any results. I think it speaks to the fact that the overall results were reasonably good this year

that, you know, it's the annual tradition. Like, it's, it's so much fun to get angry about stuff that it's like, yeah, let's, we got to end up digging deeper to, you know, in a year where we're like, I can't believe this guy voted this person fourth. That's better than I can't believe they got the best player's position wrong. Right. Yeah. So I didn't, I didn't think there was anything outrageous at the top level results. Well, first of all, I had them, I had the Deutsche dangler. I looked on Wikipedia

at his nicknames, by the way. The Deutsche Land Dangler was third of my ballot as well ahead of McKinnett. And I had Connor Hellebuck second behind Panarin, who was the top guy in my ballot. Yeah, I couldn't believe how little

love Hellebuck got, honestly, just because of how fucking bad the Jets were. The Jets were, not only were the Jets terrible, but then they lost like four out of their six defensemen in the summer. I mean, he's clearly the only reason and they had a sniff of the playoffs. I just felt like that was one of the more obvious,

fully part choices. I wanted to get him higher than fourth on my ballot. I didn't. But I did not even consider putting him lower than that. Like it was locked in. The fifth spot to me was like kind of the wild card where I thought we'd see some weird stuff. Yeah, there's like four guys you could have put in there.

Yeah, I really thought Hellberg was finishing. Passed act. Finish and fourth. And I was surprised that it was, loaded up as much on the forwards, even given that this is, like I said earlier, kind of a de facto forward award. I was surprised Hellebuk didn't finish fourth. But again, we're talking like he finished six instead of fourth. I don't know. It's... You mentioned there was nothing that really got you angry. I, of course, have a hair trigger anger mechanism when it

comes to the awards. There was something that made me a little bit angry. Oh, did somebody put a player who didn't make the playoffs? Is that what happened? No, no, no, that wasn't it this time. I mean, again, like, the benefit of, but this was the easiest vote I ever had because, like, you know, 24 teams made the postseason in my mind. So, like, I didn't have to apply my usual bullshit to the vote. No, it was the six people that had dry-sidal first and McDavid's second. Yeah, insane.

Like, there's absolutely no way that you could justify that. I look back at it. I don't know about, and I didn't have McDavid on my ballot, but. The idea that it is impossible to have, like, what's the objection? Is it that the, to have two players and if you've got two players who have, who are the most valuable. If you have the two most valuable players in the league, you shouldn't finish fucking 12th in the league. Right. But no, I understand what you're saying.

But like, listen, I don't have a problem with the idea. Like, if Gritzky and LeBue had been on the same team in 1989, I, yeah, they would have been better than 12. Yeah. I'm just saying, like, I don't buy into the idea that there can only be one valuable player on a team, if that's what the objection is. I think you could, but there shouldn't be the first and second most valuable players in the league on the same team. Like, if you want to put McDavid Fifth and say, hey, thanks for the effort, that's fine by me. But like, to use your nostalgic point, I wrote about this in the column this week, there was never a moment where an oiler finished second to Wayne Gretzky. There was never a moment where Yager or Francis finished second to Mario.

There was never even a moment where, like, Stamp Coast finished second to Crucirov or Malkin to Crosby or Crosby to Malkin. Like, it just doesn't happen. I will say, though, that's in part because we don't see the ballots from 1984 or whatever. So you can't, like, I'm sure everybody in the Edmonton media was like, oh, my top five is Gretzky, Messier, coffee, fuel, like, just. And low. Or Esotikinen or whoever it is. like, I'm sure everybody in, in, back in Edmonton back then was just like, yeah, it's five fucking oilers.

Where are we talking about? Yeah, I mean, I just looked at it. Messier had third place votes one of the years that Gretzky won unanimously. So, you know, I take your point, you know, yeah, Messia never, there was never an oiler that was second to Gretzky, but McDavid didn't finish second to recital this year. Like, there was six guys who voted that way. There's six guys that did it, which I think it's still insane. But like, like, I think you could.

make the argument that teammates can be valuable. But they play the same fucking position. Yeah. Like, I mean, if you had a situation where, like, you know, a forward gets your heart vote and then, like, Pronger gets your heart vote, maybe I can understand that shit. Right. Like, it was Kutcheroff and Hedman. I could get

understand that shit. Right. Yeah. But in this case, they play the same fucking position. Let me. When the Armour-Yager both had first place votes in 96. So, like, this isn't some unprecedented thing. Here's, again, the reason I think it's outrecent. is that it's not like, you know, they ran, like if when the lightning set their, like,

points record or whatever, if it had been headman and Kutrov or Kutrov and Hedman won two, I'd go, yeah, of course. Vasilevsky, you know, obviously goalies don't get that consideration, but he would, he would be another one where I would say, oh, that makes sense. They won the league by 800 points this year. The Edmonton Oilers in the worst division in hockey finished second. So, like, that's my objection to it is like, how, you know, again, not to put in, like, oh, well, they didn't make the playoffs. How valuable those guys have been. But they didn't make the fucking playoffs at the end of the day. And look, I don't want to, I don't want to single out anybody's ballot, because honestly, it's only like a two-hour podcast.

We'd be here all week. But, like, Luke Fox at Drysiddle and McDavid won two did not have Panarin. had Austin Matthews and Jack had Austin Matthews and Jack Eichael. Like, if you have Jack Eichael on your ballot and you don't have Panarin, like, if you don't have Panarin, the only thing I could think of is like, you didn't think the Rangers through a playoff team. But then you have Jack Eichael on your ballot. Right.

What the fuck? How do you not have Artemite Pinnara on your ballot? That's insane. That's absolutely insane. Well, again, one, one writer had just admitted, oh, I totally forgot to vote for Nathan McKinnon for MVP. Like, I thought he had one of the five best. seasons and I just forgot he existed.

And it's like, yeah, like, you have to, like, use your brain. Yeah, like, just, you know, like, again, people, people got all upset about, like, oh, you're, you're throwing your vote away because Dom Lucision didn't have, uh, dry sideline's top five, which I think is, uh, I probably would have had him fourth or fifth. I, I wouldn't have had him any higher than that. Um, yeah. And I think that's an arguable point. But if you're going, oh, I, um,

I just forgot the second or third best player in the league exists. Yeah, you should not get to vote anymore. Period. That's unforgivable. But when it comes to people like Dom or even like the Luke Fox ballot, there's almost 200 people voting on this sort of thing. If you want all 200 ballots to be the same five guys, there's room for a few people who have different approaches or whatever it is.

I don't know if Luke's written about it, if he's explained why he voted that way. Yeah, Jonathan Willis is the guy who left McKinnon off intentionally, and he was like, you know, I had him like fifth or sixth. And it's like, I mean, you're wrong, but I get it. Like, I get that. I think it's a stupid vote, but like that. And Willis is a really smart guy.

He's a smart guy, exactly. Because he's an Edmonton guy, that opens him up to the criticism that, oh, you're, you're trying to, burying McKinnon to be over-dress title. Yeah, you want to get your guy across the finish line. Which I don't believe he would do, but that's unfortunately what you kind of. And look, that's part of this. When you vote, I defy any writer to say that at no point in putting their ballot together, do they start to envision what kind of reaction they might get one way or another?

Not that that hopefully influences, but it absolutely, there are times where you're looking at a ballot going, oh, I'm going to get killed for this by such and such a fan base, or I'm going to get called a homer for that. Or I'm going to, you know, and then. And that's why you just bite the bullet and put David. Pasternak is the most valuable player in the league this year. No, but that's, you see, but Sean, you're describing why transparency is great. Because, like, they other, because it might prevent them from making a bad choice. Like, like, the public scrutiny part of it is like, I'm reviewing my choices to make sure that they are not ones that will get called out for being fucking dumb.

And that's why it's great that there is transparency. Yeah, if you don't, I say it all the time. If you don't want your bad takes to get criticized, don't let your takes be bad. Right. Or, you know, defend, or have the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the self-evaluation to defend them. Yeah. You know, and create logic.

To know, you have to defend it. That's the thing. It's not, it's not the dumb votes that I'm worried about. I'm worried about the guy who just, you know, to pick. And if somebody in Toronto legitimately thinks Austin Matthews was the fifth most valuable player in the league, which is not an outrageous take. It's not outrageous, right. But if they're sitting there going, if I put him fifth, everyone's just going to call it a

home or vote and, you know, did they say, yeah, I mean, that's where revealing the ballots maybe becomes a problem. But, look, I've been in favor of revealing the ballots since before we were doing it. I sat in those meetings probably next to you, Greg, like making that argument and hearing people argue against it. And I'm glad we do it. But it is, you know, there's, look, this is part of it, right? Like, I can't get mad that these ballots come out and fans, like, seek people out and get mad at them because fans being too invested. You invested in this is this is why we do it.

Within reason, of course. There's always people. Oh, yeah. Sure. I just, like, at the end of the day, listen, my takes are bullshit sometimes, too. Everybody can take issue with my heart votes every season. That's fine. I just, if you have a weird-ass ballot, that's okay, like, to each their own.

Like, Dom has his own, you know, dogma that he follows on his votes. That's cool, whatever. Just you've got to be able to defend it at the end of the day. And so I'm waiting for somebody to defend that Drew Doughty fifth best defenseman in the league take this year. Like that's fucking ridiculous. It's fucking ridiculous. But exactly. So like maybe you want to defend it.

Maybe you don't. But at least at the end of the day, like make sure you can defend all your votes. And hopefully it's a good defense and it's not one of these, you know, click baity. Look at me. I get to be the news cycle for a day that some people do. I mean, I saw people accusing Domba that, which is nonsense. Like he's on a subscription site. You know, we're not trying to get hate clicks on.

a site that you have to pay. That's not how business works. If anything, that's the opposite of how it works. It is the exact opposite. It's really, but, yeah, it's, I will say the, I will say the level of bad votes is, I think, getting better. It's dropping for sure. Absolutely.

And I'll say this about the process, too. Like, for those that don't know, it's an email that goes out and there are different, like, slots where you physically type in the name of a player and then you send the email back. And maybe that's not the most efficient way to do this. Like maybe if there was like pull-down menus like you have when you vote for the All-Star team, for example, it would make it better than, you know, having to kind of like write it out longhand and fucking go back and check to make sure you didn't like forget the Selke or some shit.

That said, I painstakingly go over my ballot. Yeah. Make sure that everything's in place. You can't, you shouldn't, you shouldn't have to babysit a bunch of people whose job is to just watch hockey. That's all they do. And, uh, you go, oh, by the way, you had, uh, Andre Vasselowski as a center. He's a goal. Well, like, yeah.

And, and that's like what John Worrow of the AP puts Adam Fox as a forward on his all rookie team. Again, like, that's a guy who I think. Take the extra minute to make sure you didn't put a fucking defenseman as a forward on your rookie team. Absolutely. Except I'll just. I'll say, because I'm like you, Greg. Like, I spend a ton of time figuring out what my ballot is and then way too much time, like, proofreading it because I don't want to be the guy who, like, is in that paragraph of, like,

Sean forgot to put this. So I spend way to, and I, like, have, like, middle of the night, like, oh, crap, did I put this guy on the wrong, you know, position or whatever. I will just say, to state the obvious, like, we get a couple of days to do this. in a regular year, a couple days is enough because you're a pro. Who knows what was going on for people in 2020? I don't want to call someone out and then find out. They were like, oh, yeah, like my parents were sick, so sorry, I didn't have as much time as. Well, the other thing is John Warro gave Leon Drysidle a fifth place Selky vote.

So I think maybe that's just a not paying attention thing, because like that was the only conversation about Leon Drysidlitz's defense is bad. I do like this peek into Sean's life that we're getting where, like, he wakes up in a cold sweat at 2 a.m. And his wife's like, what's wrong? And he's like, I'm thinking about the silky. Yeah, that's. That's good times. That's pretty accurate.

But it's closer to 4 a.m. But, yeah. Well, I was going by my time. 4 a.m. your time. Good point. A Bobby Bouguner is hired by the San Jose Sharks formerly and brings along. Well, I mean, all that's a time. He says he had in Florida, why wouldn't you?

This is just like a weird, I don't know. Like, you know what? Honestly, like, we just finished talking about people not paying attention or whatever. Like, when I saw that news come across, I was like, oh, that's a weird hire. And I was like halfway through the article before I realized he had been the interim coach for half the season. And I was like, oh, yeah. Because he had been like an assistant before he got the Florida job. And then they were like, well, everybody here likes them.

So we'll just bring them back. Yeah, he, he, like, Doug Wilson, I was at the press conference when they fired Dabor and they hired Boogner. And Doug Wilson kind of made it out to be like Boogner was added to the staff of sort of your like head coach and waiting kind of groomed to take over guy, which I never really, I mean, he's got respect. Like there are people that remember him from his head coaching days and I think it was like junior. Yeah, the OA L. Lchell, I think. When he's assistant coach in Columbus or have you, like there, he's definitely got some people that. feel he's got that quality of you fuck up your first time, you come back and become a great coach. And we've seen that happen with DeBore.

We've seen that happen with Glant and other people. So I don't hate it. And I think he's got a pretty good staff around him. I just don't quite know what the path forward is for San Jose, based on their farm system and based on their current roster and everything else. Yeah, my thing, I think, you know, there are maybe seven, six, seven, eight coaches in the NHL who are like make a positive difference for their team, like, noticeably, right? And then there's maybe four or five who make a negative difference noticeably. And then everybody else is kind of in the middle, like, you know, just kind of, yeah, plus or minus a couple of goals.

I like this. I like this because I want to ask you about a guy. Does Tortoella make a positive or negative difference? I think at this point he makes a positive difference. Absolutely. Okay. Okay. I wouldn't have said that five years ago, but I think he's really kind of changed his approach. And, you know, again, like, doesn't necessarily make for interesting hockey, but the point of being a hockey coach is to win games and not, like, does Mike Sullivan make a positive or negative impact on his team, or is he besides the point? I think he's on the lower end of making that positive difference, but he does. Like, I said it last week, Lavellette might be the last guy through the door on that.

for me. Right. But I think Bob Boogner is in that bottom four or five where it's like, oh, he's like not, you know, what he did in Florida was like demonstrably worse. Like he came in, they got worse, he left, they got better. What changed, you know, like a little bit of personnel, but for the most part, he stopped being their coach, and that's why they got a little bit better. Yeah.

The thing with me is if he hadn't been the interim coach for half a year, and he was just a candidate this season next to the Gerard Galance and Bruce Burroughs and maybe even the Mike Babcock's, is he a guy that is at the top of too many lists? I'm not completely sure that he is. Yeah, I mean, it all happened a million years ago, so I can't really remember. Didn't they get worse when he came aboard? Like they were like, oh, we're so fucking bad. We've got to fire the coach.

Yeah. And like they got, they lost more games even before they started selling off pieces than they did when, uh, when DeBoer was like ruining their season in their view, you know? They need to, they need to figure out who's going to make a save for them next year. And then once they figure that out, then maybe then they've got a little bit of something they can work with. Sure. Because Lord knows there's goalies available and Lord knows with with Arundel. leaving that you're going to need a goalie anyway. So, um,

interesting to see what they do there. I don't know. Like, they're, they're a team that could easily just all of a sudden snap to and go on a little bit of a run if there's any kind of supporting cast behind the top end guys. I just, you know,

the young guys that they had last year, weren't ready. And, uh, and, uh, and the top end guys are all a year older now. I mean,

more than a year old. Christ. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, hurdle got hurt and, and,

uh, the Cotor got hurt and Carlson got hurt again. And it just, Well, with Carlson especially, you're just like, oh, is this just like how it is now? You know? Right. Yeah. One thing I didn't put on the rundown, but we should talk about is Alex Petrangelo with the Blues, taking this, I wrote about it this week in the column, this very public negotiating tactic where he's doing interviews with people from St. Louis media, Jeremy Rutherford in particular with the athletic, to get his story out there about how things are going.

you know, how they're at a stalemate and they broke off talks and he doesn't want to go, but this, that, the other thing. And it does seem, the details on this contract negotiation coming out so publicly is kind of startling. Like, we all kind of know now what, how much they're given them and that the hang up is that he's asking for signing bonus money that Doug Armstrong never gives anybody and a no move clause, which Doug Armstrong never gives anybody. So to have all this out there, I think is a calculated move to create a wave of public sentiment to, hey, sign our cap. And I think it's actually kind of working, to be honest. Dude, as a Leafs fan, going through the Mitch Marner thing last year, PR is a very underrated part of negotiating a new deal. And I think Petrangelo is doing a good job or his camp or whoever it is. And that's smart, you know. I mean, obviously it's not always appropriate to go public with things, but sometimes, yeah, I mean, of course. Well, when you want $9 million in an economic downturn where you can't get fans in the building and the salary cap is flat, like you kind of have to make your case publicly. And, you know, look, I'm not saying he's wrong for trying to get the money, secure the bag, whatever you want to say.

Like, he, that's fully his right. He played for a discount all these years, blah, blah, blah. That's all true. And this is his last chance to get a big contract. That's probably also true. But, like, I just, I wonder how realistic it is to say, oh, I deserve to be a nine and a quarter million dollar defensemen, given the economics of what's going on in the league right now. Well, I mean, the counter argument would be that there are already nine and ten and $11 million defensemen out there. Yep.

No, for sure. I get it. And the other piece of it is, you know, for it's easier, I think they're doing well in the PR battle, but it's easier. to do well in a PR battle when you actually are right on some things. And if part of this is that they're not offering any bonus money, because the Blues have just decided they don't do bonus money, well, bonus money is part of a contract in the NHL. And so for Alex Petro-Alander, it'll say, like, yeah, I want any other team would give me bonus money. I want bonus money. Or, you know, I want a no move. And if it's team policy, well, maybe it shouldn't be. Like, that's a pretty

reasonable case to make, especially when you are, you know, the captain who led them to the Stanley Cup, one of the, you know, probably five best defensemen they've ever had in the history of the family, like all this stuff. Oh, yeah. It's still one of the five best defensemen in the league arguably right now. Yeah, probably. I mean, the window to win for the Blues is still very much within the next couple of years, right? Like, let's be honest.

And sure, every analysis of Petranchle's game that you see has that fucking curve. bending all the way down by the time this contract would be over. But in the short term, which is the reason you sign these deals, like, they're exponentially better with him on their blue line than without them. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, it helps to have one of the five best defensemen in the league. Yes, I think that's a fair argument. That's a demonstrable fact.

Yeah. And it's funny, you know, when you talk about the contract stuff, you know, the example you'll give about teams kind of bending over and changing their policies for a guy. would be the Golden Knights and Mark Stone. Like George McPhee had never, his administration, let's call it, had never given out a no move clause. Stone got one.

They did not give out any signing bonus money. Stone's gotten, you know, seven million next season and then five million, seven million, five million, five million, five million, of signing bonus money. So they had a guy that they really wanted to keep and they had to bend over a little bit to keep them.

And did the fucking world end? No, I don't think it did. So, like, bend your rules a little bit, depending on the player. But I think I will- I will say this, though. If you're talking about signing bonuses, there's a big difference between Alex Petra Anelpsiol's saying, you know, if I'm going to sign it, it's going to be a front load of contract.

You know, if I get $15 million in cash in the first year, I want $14 million of that as a signing bonus, and I could get that from the Leafs or I could get that from whatever other team. There's a big difference between that version. versus I want signing bonus heavy in years six, seven, and eight, because that makes it impossible to get bought out. That is a situation where that, I mean, that's not a financial question only for the team, the way that doing it at the front of the contract is that becomes like strategically roster building. Do we want to be committed to a guy who's going to be 33 or 34 and we may need the freedom to move on from him? That's a very different thing.

Right. They're being smart by conflating those two things. and just saying it's signing bonus. Yeah, he's looking for a contract that pays him until he's 37 or 38 years old, right? Like at the end of the day. And, you know, I think there's an argument for, yeah, he's, you know, if he's a top five defenseman in the league at 30, you know, he's still going to be a pretty useful player for you at 35, 36, maybe not worth the full freight.

But like, you know, on a reasonable contract or a lower contract. I guess. What the blue, what's, the blues offer is like seven and a half, seven and three quarters, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah,

I think that's what was reported. I think that's fairly easy to swallow if you're like, well, look, you know, we got X years of surplus value. But if he's like, I need to be a nine and a half million dollar defense or nine

and a quarter million dollar defenseman when I'm 38 years old, it's like, oh, that's fucking crazy. Yeah. And the blues are perfectly within their rights at that point to say, if we're going to do that or anything close to that, your buyout protection is that you hold up your end of the deal and play well enough that we wouldn't think of buying you out. And if you don't do that, then we need to have an escape hatch on this contract. And that's just how it's going to be.

Yeah, I think if I'm the blues, I say, hey, go see what's out there, honestly. because, yeah, if some team in this flat cap universe for, you know, not just next year, the year after as well, pretty much, it goes up, what, $1 million, I think? But if you're worrying about figuring it out with a 32-year-old guy who's still making $9.5 million, and, you know, we've seen it a million times where a guy's like, oh, wow, he's really good. And then the wheels just fucking come off because he has one knee injury. You know, at 32 years old, and it's like, well, he's cooked forever now. And it's like, well, if he had six years left on that deal, that's a problem. So, well, I also think they dig in their heels because the one thing this public negotiation tells you is how desperate he is to stay. Yeah.

Like, they built their own house, like in the suburbs of St. Louis. They've got four kids now. Like, he's been there his entire NHL life. Like, he clearly just doesn't want to fucking deal. Like, I've always said on the podcast, you don't want to ever move your stuff if you're the NHL guy. So, you know, that's a good place to be if you're Doug Armstrong. Like, you know, that's the same. I mean, and we've known this since they made the Justin Falk deal and signed them.

Like, we've, we've known that they think that Petrangelo is just going to take whatever the fuck they give him because he doesn't want to leave St. Louis. And they're kind of preying on that idea. And in a way that this, in a way this public negotiation has kind of confirmed that, I think, in the eyes of Blues Management. Yeah. Well, the other thing to say is maybe they shouldn't have given Justin Falk that contract. Of course they shouldn't. Like, no shit. Well, obviously no shit.

But, like, there's a few guys on that team where it's like, ooh, that contract, it like might be the reason they can't resign Petrangelo. There's like four or five guys like that. And I guess it's one lower now that they traded Jake Allen for basically nothing. But, you know, that's a thing Doug Armstrong has to reckon with as well. Like, maybe I wouldn't be in this fucking fix if I didn't feel like giving Justin Falks $6.5 million. Yeah. Sean, you had a question for Ryan, you said on this podcast. I do.

I do. And it's an important one. And it's actually, it's not even my question. I'm the messenger here. I've been asked to pass this along. It's from Christ. Have you accepted it? No, it's a question from my kids.

Okay. And they want to know, Ryan, did you at any point successfully win a crown in Fall Guys? I've never done it, no. Good. Okay. Good. Because neither of we, and that makes me feel better because I, I have, we are still playing a bunch of that game, and I hate it. And I was worried that you were going to explain that you had, like,

gotten so bored of winning them that. Yeah, no, I, um, I kind of hit a wall with, um, the games are a little too repetitive and the, um, you know, the, it's like intentionally frustrating and, and, and after a while, while, but I have seen some people who are like, I'm going to Twitch stream me playing Fall Guys until I win a crown. And it could be an hour. It could be six hours.

It could be 12. I don't know. I've never done it and I want to do it and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, I just don't. Particularly good, like, near miss situations or? The last time I played, I was the second to last guy in the one where, um, it's the two swinging things and the floor is dropping out. You got to jump.

Yeah. And you got to jump. And a guy jumped, the guy like intentionally jumped in, the last other guy intentionally jumped into me to make me bounce into the top one. And you're like, I'm at it. And I literally like, I didn't get up in time to avoid the, um, the bottom one. And it just swept me off the side. And I was so fucking mad, dude. I was so mad.

So, yeah, I, you know, I've been, I've been real, I've been like in the top two or three, maybe four or five times, but I've never closed the deal on it. It sucks. Whoa. Wow. I don't play it, but I did start playing a new game on Switch. It's called World of Tanks. Are you aware of this game? Yeah.

Yeah. I had never played it before. And I'm like, I, there was a, there was a. tank game that I played on PC in college that I fucking loved and it had to do a lot with like the angle of your projectiles and stuff like that. And this one's not

that. I mean this one's just like shooting your fucking guns and people. So I enjoy a good tank game. If anyone has a recommendation for a game that's a little bit more involved and has a little bit more kind of math and like your game planning out where your artillery is

headed, I'm all for it. I've yet to find a game that really has that that I'm satisfied with. Yeah, there's been a lot of good video games come out in the last three or four months. So I'm just constantly going back and forth between like Fall Guys and Crusader Kings 3 and Tony Hawk remaster, which is excellent. And don't forget, Breath of the Wild prequel, fighting game coming out soon. I think maybe next couple months from now, maybe. Oh, really?

A fighting game? Yeah. No thanks. Warriors, the Hyrule Warriors game. Oh, I didn't realize that was a fighting game. I don't like the mainline Zelda games or the non-mainline Zelda games. It's not a mainline. But it's Breath of the Wild storyline, so I have time for that.

It's kind of like how we got to that point when that game starts. So I'm right with that. Real quick on music, Rolling Stone redid their top 500 albums of all time. And this was the top 10. The Miseducation of Lauren Hill, Bob Dylan's blood on the tracks Prince's Purple Rain

Fleetwood Mac's Rumors Nirvana's never mind Nirvana, are you from Atobico? What's going on? No, I say Nirvana because of the In Bloom video I always have. Remember when the Ed Sullivan proxy comes out at the beginning of the video? He's like, ladies

gentlemen, Nirvana. I don't. I've always kind of just said it that way. Abby Road, Stevie Wonder's songs in the Key of Life, Jonny Mitchell's Blue, the Beach Boys, Pet Sounds, and then Marvin Gaze what's going on as your number one album of all time, which is a hitting all quadrants kind of choice and a pretty smart move there by Rolling Stone. It's fine.

I was happy to see Nevermind in there. It seems like maybe a little bit high for that album. I would say so, yeah. In comparison to some of the other stuff. Like I wouldn't necessarily put it above Exile on Main Street. Which I don't even think it's the best Rolling Stones album, so, you know. Yeah, or any Stone. Like, the Stone's best album is probably better than Nevermind, but it's fun.

Yeah, I mean, you know, a lot of it, it's like, I get why people like that Lauren Hill album. It's really not my preferred genre. And I totally get it, but it's just, I wouldn't have it that high. I think these lists tend to underrate punk and heavy metal. specifically. Very much so. You know, I think the highest heavy metal album is,

it might be the black album, but it might be Master of Puppets. But either way, it's in like the mid-100s. I think the black album was higher than Master of Pothic. I mean, I have a whole different series of Metallica takes these days. But anyway, you know,

I think, yeah, they have done a lot of good work to get just like people, get out of the voting process people who are just like, oh, I love like four Captain Beefheart records that I put in my top 200 or whatever. The highest placing rap album outside the top 10 was

public enemies. It takes a nation of millions to hold us back. Yeah. Oh, the other thing I wanted to say, speaking of hip-hop, is big burn on Jay-Z having the blueprint under Illmatic I think they were both in the top 20 but Illmatic was four or five spots higher and that's very funny to me

like I know that pisses Jay Z off so that's cool Also 17 was my beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye Which I think Fully deserved Fully deserved Yeah from our artistic standpoint

It's probably his best album Oh absolutely Not the one I listened to the most I think But Yeah you're a big you're a big graduation guy, is that right? I enjoy late registration. No, late registration is, I think, is his clear number two.

It has the single best Kanye song on it, so. What's the single best Kanye song? Gone featuring Cameron. Ooh, who are the other two guys? Consequence and, like, I'm not going to pull the third one. But, yeah, it's gone is the best Kanye song. It's very good. Sean, do you like music?

I do. Yeah, I own like three albums, so I'm pretty into it. No, it's, I do. I'm not at the level of depth that probably either of you are, nor should anyone take my opinion seriously, because my taste is often pretty bad. But I looked at the list. Definitely a better list than, I don't know if it was the last one,

they made one. The 2012 version. Yeah, and the 2003 even, I remember. I see that. That was even worse, yeah. Yeah, which was just. Continually getting slightly better. Just like all guys that, you know, nothing but like folk and rock and whatever. And they've, it was better. I didn't see, you know, I have not scroll through the entire 500 album list. I don't think it's possible to do that on a phone without your phone crashing every three seconds because whatever they do on. their website. I would love it if somebody would just put the 500 albums in a list of text and put that link somewhere. Sean, I'll hook you up in a minute. I have just that. Verses where they were ranked in 2012. So, oh, okay. Shout out to Canada, by the way, Arcade Fire's funeral was number 500, I believe. There's a lot of Canadian in the... Very high. Very high for that record.

A lot of, a lot of Kay, including Alanis in the title, like she was like 60th or something. Oh, Jagged Little Pillars. is incredible. Yeah, that's what makes me happy about this list. Like, Jagged Little Pill's incredible. Like, I know that it's not, like, rumors is no stranger to being on these lists. But to have rumors is one of the top of the albums of all time. It is fucking fantastic.

It is, it is like Jagged Little Pill in the sense that thing. Every song is it in a swing. Is it the best Fleetwood Mac album? I would say maybe not. It is. Here's the funny thing about Jagged Little Pill is that I think it's well known at this point that before she was like this shocking new artist in 96. Alanis up in Canada was like a teeny bop Britney Spears type singer.

And she was from Ottawa. So she's like a local celebrity. I was up in Ottawa in like 95 and like word spread that Alanis was putting out a new album, but it was like a serious album. And she was going to sing like real song. And people were just like, oh, this is going to be such a train wreck. And I was literally like doing a. an internship at the Ottawa Sun when their music critic got the album. And I remember him like taking

it away and then coming back and being like, I think this is good. We got something here. And we're like, no way. He was like, no, like, he's like, I think it's really good. Like this is, and we're like, come on. Like, there's no way like, you know, is there like an always too hot sequel or something like that? And he was like, no, I think this is. And nobody was prepared for it to be like a worldwide smash but I just remember that like of everybody just waiting to like tear this thing apart and then it was like oh shit she actually delivered and more I'm trying to think of like the American proxy of this it would be like if the music critic came back and said guys new Jessica Simpson yeah it's it's good yeah and not just like she's not just doing like more mature pop

but like she's just going like full on almost switch genres sort of thing and yeah yeah Like a reaction video of every Canadian watching the You Want to Know video for the first time would be just classic. That song's so fucking good. My favorite thing about the list, of course, is Wu Tang's Enter the Wu Tang 36 Chambers being ranked above the White Album. Yeah, and I would say... Put that in my veins. Are the Wu-Tang Clan the Black Beatles? Well, who's to say?

Yeah, it's... Man. I think it's getting better all the time. I love it. It is. It is. All right. Speaking of getting better all the time, we've reached the good part of the show.

It is now time for this week's game show. And I'm bringing back a favorite. We're playing hockey threesomes. It is the game in which I give the boys three topics, names, teams, what have you. And they have to find the college. common link between these three things. Hockey threesomes. A classic bar trivia game, Lambert.

Hockey threesomes. All right. Who goes first? I pretty sure the last time we played this Ryan one, so. Okay. Ryan, uh, kick or receive? Uh, I'll kick. All right.

Sean gets the first question here. Hockey threesomes. Here we go. The Dallas Stars. Carolina Hurricanes Metaerg Magneticorsk Oh

That was stars Carolina Hurricanes Medallurg Madelurg Madagina Gorgas And of course remember He could just say Well they're all hockey hockey teams That would not be right

There is a more specific connection Who are three people That have never been in my kitchen That never gets old Every time you put this So good All right So I'm assuming this is this is gonna be

like somebody played for all three of these teams. Maybe. I'm having a hard enough time thinking to someone who played for Dallas and Carolina. So, um... Let alone Medallurg Magnetic.

Yeah, I have no idea on that one. So, uh, that's a college team, right? I'm assuming. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's right. Mom, I got into Medalerg. Um, um,

All right. I'm... Is it an Anton Hudobin thing? He's like the only Dallas-Carolina crossover I can think of that would... Has he played for all three of those teams? That is correct. Anton Hudobin. That's right.

Did you know that one right? I did, yeah. Okay. Carolina. Do we have stealing in this? Magneedegores. I don't know. Is there stealing?

I would have got... I mean, you got it either way, so it doesn't really matter. But yeah, let's say there is stealing. Let's say there is. I'm open to stealing. Yeah, why not? Let's really spice it up. Sure.

All right, here we go, Ryan. Okay. Hit the ice, face off, Bush League hockey. Hit the ice, face off, Barbara Bush League hockey. I'm going to say those are all like lesser-known hockey video games or something.

That is correct. Yeah. Hit the ice was Super Nintendo Genesis, face off a Commodore 64 game and then Bush League hockey for the Xbox. Hockey video games was correct. We are off to a flying start. Sean, alcoholism. Oh, God.

Bacterial meningitis. All around dedication to hockey. These are... Alcoholism, bacterial. Benadigitis. I know, I know, like, what it is, but I'm trying to think of how to, how you're going to want me to, to phrases. I shouldn't say I know what it is.

I know what the, I mean, just say what it is. It's obviously Masterton related. So it's, yeah, that's correct. Yeah. Is that already, is that already? The reasons players won the Masterson trophy. Yeah. Reasons players won?

Because I was trying to think, was it reasons players one? Or was it like the three nominees? Three guys this year, yeah. I was trying to split the difference on that. too. It's reasons players won the Masterton. Okay. I mean, all around dedication to hockey, you could apply to all

of them, I suppose. I think that's the definition of the award. That was a stated reason for somebody having won the award, rather than it being some hardship. Other reasons include just being an old guy who's friends with a bunch of the media.

And in one case, losing an eye almost was one of the reasons. Okay, so at 2-1, Sean, we're off to a flying start here. You guys are on your game today. Ryan, Tom Fitzgerald, Jason Arnott, Shea Weber. Hmm. Tom Fitzgerald, Jason Arnott, or Arnott, I'd go Arnott.

I always like that better. Really, Sechara-Sakara kind of situation for me. And then, of course, Shea Weber, beat of the third. Hmm. Tommy Fitzgerald Jason Arnaut When he would be in a slump They'd call him Jason's score not

Which I always thought was a good burn Yeah I have no idea Oh Are you on a hazard a guess No Because if Sean's trying to steal I don't want to point him in the right direction

Put him on the scent Sean do you have a steal I don't know if I have a steel Because I'm not sure this is specific enough I believe all three of those guys were Nashville Predators at some point is it more specific than that Now Ryan if I say that it is

Will he have a chance to get it right Or is his initial answer wrong? I feel like that was my guess I feel like that was my Okay well we'll just say you got it wrong Okay it's National Predators captains Oh okay Oh sure yeah Tommy Fitzgerald was the first captain

I thought I was there for like a week I'm surprised that he was No All right Here we go How many of these I do? I don't know. We've done four so far.

Okay. Here we go. So it's Sean now, right? Yeah. Okay. Bobby Clark, Doug McLean, George McPhee.

Bobby Clark, Doug McLean, George McPhee. Now, only one of these people tried to fight me in a bar. I can say that. So far. So far.

Always have something to root for, Greg. Yeah. I was on in Vegas on the radio station yesterday, and Darren Millard told that story about how Doug McLean tried to fight me after trade deadline one year. That's fun. Yeah. All right. Clearly, these were all, okay, they were all GMs, but it can't be that.

That would be too. That would be too. Too broad. Too general, too broad, yeah. Okay, I don't fully, I don't remember when Bobby Clark went to the Panthers, but were they all GMs of expansion teams? That's correct. Okay. That is correct.

Bobby Clark was the first GM of the Panthers, Doug McLean, of course, the founding general manager of the CBJ, and George McAfee, of course, the first general manager in the history of the Vegas Golden Knights since replaced. Yeah, he didn't do a very good job. No. You know, the bar was set high. All right, Ryan. So, Sean leads 3-1. Let's get this thing going. Martan Bredor, Roman Turek, Brian Hayward. Marty Bredor, Roman Turek, Brian Hayward. Now, only one of these players has left a coffee cup in his rental car. I know that.

Is it the Stanley Cup? No, you didn't leave that. I hate that commercial so much. Hmm. Is it the Calder Cup? Goalies who led the league in wins. Oh, you're so close. All three of these guys won the Jennings Trophy.

Okay. I didn't get my chance to steal, and I'd like to say that I think all three of those guys won the Jennings Trophy. Won the Jennings Trophy? Well, it's fine. Roman Turk won the Jennings trophy? Yeah, he was the goalie the year the Blues won the President's trophy. Okay. He was also part of a tantalterns, but, yeah, that's...

He was also part of a tandem that won one year, too, I think. Oh, oh, right. Would he have been the one in the, when Calgary went to the, went to the cup final? Because Mika Kipersoff had like a 9-11? 40 save percentage or whatever. He also won on his own, too, though. All right, let's play this whole thing out. Sean's got the win in the bag.

Well, I don't because he could steal. Oh, okay. Couldn't he? Well, sorry, I ruined the Jennings' trophy for you. Yeah. I was not going to get that one. Oh, good. All right, Sean, here we go.

So, Ryan, you are still in it mathematically. Hooray. Dave Hanson, Mark Messier, Leslie Nielsen Dave Hansen Mark Messier and Leslie Nielsen NHL

NHL award show presenters That is incorrect Ryan do you have a chance to steal here I'll say the names again Dave Hansen Yeah Mark Messier

Leslie Nielsen I'm not going to pull it I like I feel like my brain is very close, but I'm just not going to get there. Okay. Do you want a hazard a guess? They all... Dave Hansen, Mark Messier. Yeah, they all were in hockey fights in movies.

God damn, you're close. Dave Hansen, Mark Messier, and Leslie Nielsen were all in the cast of Slapshot 3, the Junior League. Sure they were. Damn, I didn't know Leslie Nielsen was still working at that point. Good for him. All right, let's close it out. Sean. Aces, Thunder, Ice Dice. I think this is actually Ryan's, so.

Ryan, Aces, Thunder, ice dice. These are all names that Vegas considered but ultimately rejected for obvious reasons. Ah, close. Pre-Goldnights Vegas hockey teams is the answer. The Aces were a Pacific Southwest League team. The Thunder, of course, an IHL team. The ice dice played from 95 to 96 in the North American League. Wow.

The ice dice. Fucking ice dice. All right. Last thing, we had a tiebreaker. I'll just give it to you anyway. It is hockey threesomes, so we'll do this number. And I will not call it closest to the T because people get angry when I say that. It's closest to the hole, obviously.

How many players have had their number three retired in the NHL? We're looking for the closest number. You can go over. I'll start with you, Ryan. Six. Sean? I'll go seven. take the over.

It's a badder day for Down Goes Brown. The answer is eight. Eight players have had their number three retired. Including New Jersey Zone, Candanica. It's a good number. There you go. We would talk about what number you'd wear if you were in the NHL. Wasn't that a question recently?

Did this recently, yes. We did, yeah? Mine would be 11. Wow. I was 70. Yeah, that's right. I was 71 because I was playing on the other wing with Wendell and I couldn't take his number. That would have been rude.

I'd go, I'd go 31, one over Marty. Probably a goalie. So there you go. My little league number was 47. You don't strike me as a goalie type. That's interesting. When I would play street hockey and floor hockey, when I was just talking about this the other day with Ruby, about how I was a latchkey kid growing up. And one of the programs that they had in middle school was floor hockey.

So it was me and a bunch of absolute degenerates, which was great because everybody played dirty. But I love playing goal. I know that you're saying, Greg, why would you play goal? You're not limber. That's true. But I also love depriving people of joy, which is the primary function of a goaltender. So I always had a thing for playing goal in informal situations. Could I do it on an actual hockey level?

Probably not. I don't think I'm quick enough or limber enough to do it. And after seeing MythBusters take down the sumo wrestler as goaltender idea, I don't even think I'm big enough to do it. So there you go. All right. I think that's a long enough show. Anything you want to add to the program this week?

No, I'm good. Okay. I think we covered it. Well, everybody enjoy games four and five. We'll see where this whole thing goes. Next week, folks, it is a runaway winner in the Supolet voting on the Puck'sup Patreon. I think even that's underselling it, honestly. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it is a route. It is the draft. What are we calling it? The ultra-specific draft. The ultra-specific draft will be your bonus episode for September. We're doing it next week. We'll get it in under the wire. And like I said to you guys, but having started doing some initial research for this, nightmare.

Absolute nightmare. This is going to be. What a fucking try hard. Absolutely. I already have enough players. You're not doing research. You're just going to like off the top of your head try to come up with the. Oh, yeah, I'm going to wing it.

Yeah. Alternating vowels and consonants. All right, let me just think for a second. Enjoy 45 minutes of dead air. I'm going to wing it because I know there's nothing Ryan wants more than for me to ask specific questions about each player and his eligibility for each rule. It's pretty fucking straightforward. I can't imagine why you would need clarification. Now, did we decide that we're dumping the salary cap rule?

We have to because to be able to get down to, oh, I, I only have $900,000 to spend on, like, you know, the last three players, like an average of 900 grand. And also, one of them has to name, rhyme with the name of another player I've drafted. And one of them has to be a former Atlanta thrasher. Like, it's literally impossible. So we figured out quickly that we are not going to be able to squeeze them under the salary cap. Right. No salary cap.

We've actually also named Bob Good now, the, uh, commissioner of this new league because there will be no salary cap in his honor. Oh, the other, I don't know if people who are listening to this and don't subscribe to the Patreon, no. The idea is that there are, we came up with 23 categories with the help of our listeners where at least one player on every, for, on every team has to fit at least one of the categories. And so some of the categories are guys who were traded in the last calendar year, guys who have exactly four vowels in their last name, guys who won the Mark Messier award, guys who have played more than two stints, or two plus stints, rather, with their current

teams, and so on. Like, there are 23 of those extremely specific categories. So we're going to draft those, like, early next week. Going to be ridiculous. If you're not on the Patreon and you've been on the fence, like, this would not be a bad week to get in on because it might be the last one. Like this could, this could be the end of the show. Yeah.

And the joke was that I, I, we did the draft, like coming up with the name or just the categories themselves as its own bonus episode, um, with like vetoes and stuff like that. Uh, and then, uh, the listeners, I, we gave them the choice of do you want to hear it this month or do you want to like put it in the back pocket? And I think by like a 10 to one margin, people were like, do it this month. This is good. So yeah, it's going to be something else.

Yep. Boy, howdy, it's going to be. Do check out the Patreon, obviously, for Ryan's newsletter for all the bonus episodes for the mailbag we're about to do. And check out my other podcast, ESPN and I, we're having Ryan Kessler on this week to talk about his admissions of some health issues he had from what he says is abuse of pain medications while I was playing. And you can check out my column.

It's on the Alex Peter Angelo, Petrangelo, fuck. You'll get there one of these days. And then also a little bit more on a topic we didn't talk about, actually, the NHL bubble confidential story that Emily and I did, as well as winners and losers of the week. What do you got going on, Ryan?

No, you already plugged it. sign up for the Patreon, sign up for my newsletter specifically this weekend. Me and Sean Gentile are going to record an episode of Stick to Sports. All right. Love it. I didn't realize that Sean's doppelgonger, or maybe his not doppelgonger, but maybe Sean after taking the Super Soldier serum is Pat Maroon. Sean pointed it out to me the other day.

Pat Maroon looking good, man. Indeed. He's living his best life, as they say. indeed uh sean uh check me out on the athletic uh had a bunch of stuff this week including one where i went back and watched uh each of the last 25 cup handoffs to find out exactly who gets it when and why and and all sorts of stuff like that uh in way too much detail like not like even as i was writing this i'm like i've made a mistake uh but but people seem to like it and on friday whatever day that is i've got a new quiz coming people seem to

like those. Oh, hell yeah. We'll check it out. Always a good time. Yeah, and if you, if, uh, DM me and I'll give you all the answers and you can look smart. Ooh. All right. That's the show. Thanks everybody for supporting Puck Soup.

Uh, tell a friend and we will talk to you next week. Bye. See you. Bye-bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got spoiled a commentary to what if you'll commute. We also cover movies, TV shows. and tools. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense.

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