Puck Soup - Getting Rielly Mad

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

Sean and Ryan unfortunately talk about the Rielly/Grieg incident, then discuss the Penguins, Sabres, and more. Plus a game of 20 Kesstions. Sponsored by ExpressVPN (expressVPN.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAnneux from The Athletic. And what do you guys want to talk about this week? You think anything's going on that maybe someone on this podcast has very strong feelings about? Hmm. I'm assuming you're referring to the bean pot. Pretty good. Pretty good stuff.

What was the name of the guy who scored the winning goal? Gunner Wolf Fontaine. Dude. Yeah. That ain't real. Yeah. And great news. He's a Nashville Predators prospect.

Fantastic. How about this, though? Gunnarol Fontaine scores the overtime game winner last night, scored the overtime game winner in game one last week. Last year in the Beanpot final, scored both of Northeastern's goals en route to a shootout win.

Big game player. Sounds to me like what you're saying is that he is clutch. Mm-hmm. Destin to make the NHL, of course, everybody understands that. If you score a big goal, your future is the NHL. No, he's a very good college hockey player.

Very dangerous score, as the track record from the bean pot alone kind of implies. But yeah, really fun tournament. Both, well, I was going to say both games were good. Both Northeastern games were good, and one BU game was good. But the BC Harvard game yesterday went about as well as you would expect a BC Harvard game to go.

Five-0 shots were like 30. 39-19 or something like that, you know, can't win them all. They can't all be good. And in fact, in the bean pot, they're often not all good at all. So, but yeah, very fun championship game last night, so can't complain. Yeah, no, we got to talk about the Morgan Riley, Ridley-Greg thing. So, Sean, the floor is you. Well, I mean, I guess we have to start by just offering our thoughts and prayers to

Ridley Gregg as he continues to recover from the career-ending injury that he said, the assassination of Ridley Greig by the coward Morgan Riley, which caused him to plummet to the ice and be attended to by trail. I'm told he practiced yesterday, and he's completely fine. Yeah, the thing is no one's ever, like, been hit in the face with a hockey stick. and it like hurt in the moment and then you know yeah and i mean we know when hockey players when something hurts for a moment you you drop to the ice until the trainers come out it's and hey a plus by the senator strangers because that's the second time this year that they've had a guy

uh die on the ice from a cross check and uh not miss a shift so they've they've really figured out whatever the the secret is here i tell you what nobody wants to hear people want to hear me but they're just going to get mad at me i want to hear a year view on this I don't think you do. You set the bar. I want to hear this. Okay. Who gives a shit?

Okay. If this isn't on the national game in Canada, and look, we're going to get into a lot of these, like, well, if X didn't happen, then why? Because I saw you saying on Twitter the other day, like, well, if it wasn't retaliatory, it's like, yeah, I guess that's true. Well, no, no, no, that was in response to somebody who, was saying, they were basically saying,

well, if you take the retaliation out of it, well, no, that was it. They said, well, you know, it's, it's, I said it should be a three or four game suspension. They said, well, yeah, but then you got to factor in that it was retaliatory. And I said, if it wasn't retaliatory, then it's a two-minute penalty.

Like, the three or four games is completely for the retaliation, like after the play aspect. If that happened during the play, I mean, plays like that happen 10 times a game during the play. I might not go, I wouldn't go that far. I don't think guys get cross-checked in the face and it's only a two-minute penalty. Like that, not like that. Sure, they do.

Yeah, they do. Like, along the board, if the puck was there, and again, like, this isn't, obviously it wasn't. And that's why the fact that it was after the play in retaliation, everyone acknowledges that's what makes this a special case. Guys get a cross-check to the shoulder that rides up and gets them in the head or the face area. All the time, and it's two minutes. Maybe not ten times a game. But that's a two-minute penalty. It causes no injury.

Like, that's a two-minute penalty if it happens in the run of play, which it didn't. So that's the part. But that was the point I was making to the guy, that the action itself minus the retaliation. Like, you don't add something to the suspension. The suspension is because of retaliation. That's the only reason that we're talking about it at all. Yeah, that to me, anybody. saying that kind of thing.

It's like, yeah, man, if I hadn't been drunk, they wouldn't have arrested me, wouldn't have arrested me for driving. True. That's, that's not the same thing. But yeah. So to me, I think that, you know, if this happens in like a San Jose Anaheim game, everything exactly about it is exactly the same, except we're not talking about it on the fucking podcast.

Like, we're sitting here and you're going, oh, yeah, three or four games, no problem. and I'm going, oh, I'd even go longer than that. You know? And then the Department of Player Safety would come back and say it was one game, and we'd all go. And we'd complain about it. And then we'd have forgotten about it the next day. For sure. Yeah, that is kind of undeniable to me, is that this is, if it weren't a Maple Leafs game that were the Hockey Night in Canada main game,

there would be almost nothing to say about this. That's that's my main thing. The idea that like, again, I've seen, I've seen you saying like, well, look, I mean, you know, this is, this is a big deal because it's the Leafs. No, it was a big deal because I think it was on national TV. I think that if this was, you know, a Bruins Rangers game on TNT or ESPN, we're getting the same thing because. you're getting a lot of it. There's more eyes on it. I mean, I know that there's a lot of people out there that are rolling their eyes at that,

but you can't have it both ways. You can't complain constantly the way so many fans do that the Leafs get so much attention. And then when something happens and people go, yeah, this is the Leafs getting attention again, go, oh, no, that's not a thing. Like, pick a lane, man. Like, my mentions are filled with any time we talk anything with the Leafs, people complain, oh, it's just because of the Leafs, that you're making a big deal out of this.

But when it's offered up as a something that could be viewed as a potential defense, suddenly it's not a real thing. Well, get out of you. Okay. Let me say this about they're talking about the Leafs again. Say what you fucking want about them. They are a compelling team.

And, you know, if, again, if they were, if they were, you know, just some random team that's in a wild card spot. You know, the kings are kind of in the same spot in the standings as them. Obviously, the Leafs are having a better season overall, but maybe not as, hmm. Yeah, you know, I'm looking at the standings now.

The Leafs are two points up, but they've played an extra game on the Kings. So, but didn't we just spend a couple of weeks talking about, isn't it fucking weird what the Kings are doing, you know? And obviously, I would say, I would say the issue with that is most people are more casual about how they intake their hockey information than like me and you. It goes without saying. It's our job versus it's not most people's job. Yeah.

Right. And again, the leaves are a compelling team because of like the pressure that they've put on themselves with how they've performed in the playoffs. And, you know, they are compelling. But even if they weren't. have a massive fan base, which, by the way, is completely unearned. It's geography and history. That's all it is. But it is the reality.

Well, that's what I was going to say is like, you know, back when NHL on NBC or whatever had the package, it was just like, the national game this week is some combination of the Rangers, the Flyers, the Penguins, the Bruins, and the Capitals, maybe the Red Wings. might wicks Chicago in there every once in a while. And you would just be like, I don't, can I watch any other fucking team on the national game, please? Yeah. And so it definitely is that. Like, you know,

the number of times in the season, the Leafs are the seven o'clock hockey night in Canada game. I get all that, but also it's the biggest city in Canada. I get that as well. But like I say, to me, this is a fucking open and shut case.

Three to four games, looks like they're going to give them more than that. But earlier this year, they cracked down on David Perron for a retaliatory cross-check. And it's like, okay, that seems like the standard they're going with now. Which I'm all in favor of. And I am too. And I know that anything I say on Morgan Riley, people are going to go dig up whatever I said on David Perron, you know, all this other stuff. Look, it is. If that's the new standard, great.

And this is the standard going forward. And the cross-checks after the play is dead are six games. And not one game like they were when somebody did it to the Leafs three years ago, which everyone has seen that clip going around, the Alex Chesson. I would simply say David Perrake took two strides directly at someone to get at top speed and cross-checked them directly in the neck and face area. Whereas Morgan Riley skated towards a guy,

glided at him, hit him in the shoulder, and it bounced up into the face. And you're responsible for your stick. But as, you know, Ellie Freeman had a good piece today where he was like, look, the Department of Player Safety has always considered that a factor. When it comes to a stick, did you directly stick the guy or did this,

stick, you know, was it going somewhere else and it bounced up? Not that it lets you off the hook, but it does change the severity of it. So in theory, David Perrault should be the absolute ceiling on this play. But we got to talk about the elephant in the room. And again, people are going to be rolling their eyes. People will turn this off, yell at us, all this stuff. Don't yell at me. I'm with you guys. Toronto Maple Leafs are the most suspended team in the league under George Perros. The super soft, never go into the corners, never do anything to, wimpy maple leaves are the most suspended team and also the team that has had the least

number of suspensions against them. One game total ever from George Peros, and that was for a guy after a game was over, skating up to someone and cross-checking him in the face. fairly similar to what Morgan Riley is about to get six plus games for. I'm sorry if people think it makes me a homer to point out that that is messed up and that something is going on here. So, okay, so in your conception of this, is it what, the like 80 games George Paros played for the Habs or something?

No. It has nothing to do with George Peros. It has nothing to do with Brandon Shanahan used to have the job. I think that the Department of Player Safety is far more sensitive than they led on to public perception. I think they are terrified of being accused of a pro-Torano, pro-Big Market bias. And I think they are bending over so far backwards to show that they have no pro-Torano bias that they can now see the ground behind their feet. they are going they have gone completely overboard as far as anything borderline that happens

against the Leafs no suspension anything borderline that happens with the Leafs gets either a suspension or in a case like this where everybody agrees a suspension is warranted gets more games then it may be otherwise. They will always err on the side or they always seem to err on the side of an extra game the other way against, or I guess in the direction of what would not get them accused

of being biased towards Toronto. I think that's a human nature explanation. I'm not assigning malice. I'm not going conspiracies. I just think that they are very... Sure you are. No, it's it. There's no conspiracy there.

That's just human nature. It's human nature the same as, you know what? In all sports, home teams tend to get a few more calls. Because when it comes to a borderline, the ref tends to, you know, they would never tell you that they factor in the crowd. But in this case, the crowd that the Department of Player Safety seems really interested in is whatever that combination of, whether it's fans, whether it's media, whether it's the other GMs know that they can, you know, go to them,

I think they are sensitive to the criticism that they have been hearing over and over and over again for years. And hammering the biggest market team that gets the most attention whenever the opportunity arises is a great way for them to avoid some of that criticism. And if they can do it in a way that makes sure that nobody would ever say they have a bias, which God knows people love to say when it comes to the leaps, I think they have, maybe even unwittingly fallen into a trap where this is a thing or maybe not and it's just a crazy coincidence that the softest team in the league

takes not just the most suspensions but an extra, you know, to the point where the only time in the last five years that Gary Bedman has had to step in and reduce the suspension was a lead player. Like even Gary Batman had to be like George settle down. It's Jason Spence.

Is that true that it's the last five? Because I remember Tom Wilson was the one before that. Tom Wilson went from 20 games to 14, and that was like 2016, 15, something like that. Oh, that was that long ago. It was a long time. I am old as hell. Anyway, so here's the thing I would say is you're like,

oh, suspended, the most suspended team. When they get suspended, they get the most games, whatever. I guess my thing is like by the logic you're saying, Shouldn't like the Rangers be like number two on that list? And Jacob Truba could take out a bazooka and shoot someone at Center Ice. And they'd just be like, $5,000 fine. And I'll give you the answer for that. And I mean, you tell me you're down in the States, do half the hockey fans in the States

spend all their time complaining about pro Rangers bias and how everything is tilted for the Rangers and Rangers this and Rangers that? or are the Rangers a big market team, but kind of still another team? Because I can tell you up here, I think it's kind of between those two. Every time, every time there's a video review

that goes to Leif's way, we have to have a national conversation about how the league is, you know, because the war room is in Toronto, that that's why all the calls go their way. I will say the war room maybe should be in like Des Moines. You know what I mean?

Like, let's just not even enter into like that, perception of bias. But again, like, the reason it's a national conversation is like 82% of the hockey media in Canada is at every Leafs game. And just like, you know, it's pretty good as the fucking Leafs.

It's like, yeah, that's the only team you see. Shut the fuck up, you know? Yeah, I don't know what to tell you, man. Like, Toronto's a big city. Yeah, it's one of three big cities in the entire country. I understand all that. I guess, you know, yeah,

Sportsnet is not headquartered in Winnipe. peg. I don't know what to tell you. But anyways, I just, again, it's maybe the Leafs are just way dirtier than every other team, even though they're soft. Maybe every team comes in to play the leaves, sees how soft they are, and says, we don't ever have to do anything against them that suspension worthy, even

though every Leaf Fang can find you 10 clips of stuff that looks as bad as Morgan Riley that got a fat up, including, by the way, a few days ago when a Leafs player got his face busted open by a headshot and there was no penalty on the play and it was a fine from the league. I mean, it's maybe, maybe I, maybe it's just coincidence or maybe they really are just getting this stuff right. Was it retaliatory after the whistle? No, I don't know what clip you're talking about. I straight up don't know.

It's the Mason Marchman hit on Jake. Cade. Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess I do know. I mean, that was a nasty hit. And the department player safety agreed, but they made it a fine. Let me ask you this, right? Like, okay, again, we're saying, oh, the Leafs are soft. First of all, you know, you know who says that shit is like the people when I used to go to Bruins games and they would go, look at you fucking soft out there, hit somebody. You know what I mean? Like stupid people say that. Well, you know what?

Honestly, even as a Leaf fan, I don't think it's unfair to say that this team, this Leafs team is not a physical team, have not been for years. And yes, around the edges, they love to get guys like Ryan Reeves, Wayne Simmons. But those aren't the guys getting suspended. Kyle Clifford did in the playoff. But, I mean, it's Jason Spetsa, Austin Matthews, Morgan, like, these are Lady Bing candidates. Well, again, I think that's. from the league that seem to be a game or too higher than any other anyone else seems to get.

I think that's more of a Paros, let's Jacob Truba get away with murder kind of a thing to me. Maybe. Sure. But the other thing I want to say- Is that a conspiracy or is that just George Peros and his people have certain preferences and certain- I think it falls into the latter category. Right. Bias is not a conspiracy.

It can just be human bias. The other thing I want to say. though is to the to the to the uh the perception of softness I think that like Morgan Riley doing this fucking downy soft baby you go you go wipe a baby's ass with this fucking play in my opinion you know what I mean because it's like yeah you're mad about he did a slap shot into the net mm-hmm fucking cry about it you know what I mean like on it like because that that to me, I get so, like, I criticize players for whining about, like, the code and all this shit.

Well, don't give up the fucking empty net or big dog. I don't know. Like, to me. But there is a line. Like, there has to be. And I, I've said it when it comes to what Ridley Greg did. I didn't have a big problem with it. It was a minor.

It's, I think the way I wrote about it on Monday is he put a little dab of mustard on the hot dog. That's it. I did, I am, this is where I feel like I break for, certainly the majority of leave fans, but even maybe the majority of fans, period, in that I didn't see that as some great sin. Now, that having been said, you do that? Yeah, you're going to get frowned at for sure.

So this whole, like, oh, is an unsuspecting player. Oh, is it, he never, you know, Ridley Gray had, like, come on. Really great knew somebody was coming over. Now, you probably didn't expect to get cross-checked in the head or whatever, but this idea that this idea... Probably. Well, no, probably. I mean, or shoved in the shoulder or whatever it was. But I mean, the idea this was pure Turgeon all over again is just like there are people out there.

And look, I don't dispute there are some very, very dumbly fans out there. No questions. I encounter a whole lot of them. But listen, man, there are some people on the other side that have lost their minds over this. I mean, I got people in my comment section posting. 20 comments. I got a guy saying it's one of the three to five worst plays in modern hockey history. Wait a minute.

If you're saying Senators fans are going over the top about their reaction to literally anything? To be honest with you. I think it's fans of some other, you know, because it's always like, I don't have a dog in this fight. But, and then you look at their other comments and like they comment on every Leafs article about how much they don't like the Leafs. It's like, yeah, you're okay. Very unbiased. Sure.

I didn't have a big problem with what Ridley, Greg did. but I also had a, I also thought Morgan Riley going over, like if he goes over and just kind of shoves him into the boards and says like, knock it off, kid. No big deal. Now he didn't do that. He's responsible for it. And again, nobody's, you know, oh, are you saying it's okay? No, nobody's saying that. Everyone's saying he should get suspended.

But I did, like, did you read the Friedman piece that went up this morning? I read a, I had time to read a big chunk of it, but not the whole thing. It's interesting stuff. There's good, and the thing about Elliot, if you read his stuff, he is always very, he chooses his words very carefully. And, you know, I, and I don't want to do that, you know, that thing where somebody takes Elliot's words and repackages them as something much more extreme. But he certainly seems to suggest in the article that there is very widespread. feeling in the hockey world that an in-person hearing for this is crazy, that people were very, very surprised.

Yes. Again, I think, I think that boils down to, for the most part, the NHL just goes, two-game suspension. Right. Whatever it is. I didn't even look at the video. It's a two-game suspension. You say it's a suspendable hit?

Two games? See you later. And that's what we're saying. That sure does seem to happen for 31 teams. The Peron thing is to me the kind of the X factor. And you can say, well, this particular retaliatory crosscheck is very different from the other particular. And it's like, okay, is that worth a game, two games? I don't know what the answer is.

And obviously we're recording this on a Tuesday instead of our normal Wednesday, which, by the way, Tuesday is going to be the normal day going forward. So like, if we were recording this tomorrow, we probably know what the answer to all this is. And there's a lot more to talk about. Now we have to deal on hypothetical. Except that we won't because they're, I mean, they're going to give them almost certainly six games. And then the Leafs will appeal.

And then who knows? And the reason I say almost certainly is because they almost, they almost always know the number before they even do the hearing. And then maybe you can move it. I think Elliot found two cases ever where they've done an in-person hearing and had it come in less than six games. Yes, correct. And one of them was four and one of them was five, I believe. Yeah.

And again, I feel like either of those numbers is like appropriate. I'm not even mad about six. I cannot be mad about six. Yeah. And six in theory should be the absolute ceiling. I think there is a part of me that wouldn't even be shocked if they went seven because only, only because the Department of Player's Safety, like so much at the NHL,

and this is something that is not team-specific at all, but they seem to have a very strong, you can't tell me what to do vibe. Sure. When there's a big public push in one direction, they go, you know what, we're going to go the other way because you're not the boss of me.

I think there is a non-zero chance that it comes in actually lower than six only because I've heard and seen so many references to like how many people around the league think this is nuts. And I wonder if like at some point like those guys are in group chats too. And at some point, you know, like the how many GMs have reached out to George Barrison just been like, dude, come on. Like, you know.

They don't like big suspensions period. Like that is that is like undeniable is the GMs want they want their guys protected. But in the broad sense. Like if you showed a GM and like could somehow edit out like faces and logos and all that kind of stuff, if you showed a GM every single suspendable play, they would go should be 80 games. That's crazy. And then you again, we're somehow to like edit their player's face and like logo onto the guy getting fouled or whatever you want to say. They would go. Or the guy doing the fouling.

sorry, they would go, well, that should be one game max. Like, that's just how it is. We'll wrap it up with this. We've gone on about this too long. We'll wrap it up with this. Sean, remember earlier this year you were just like, I'm fucking sick at these leaves. Let's just get it over with, you know?

From an accelerationist point of view, you should want this to be like a 12-game suspension because this team without Morgan Riley is probably in the toilet. They're already not really in a playoff. off race, quite frankly. Like, you know, they are more, you know, sliding. Obviously, the games in hand, but with this team in particular, you're just like, I mean, the game's in hand.

Who knows? So to me, you should be like, you know, it would be great as if this team missed the playoffs. Sheldon Keeves gets fired a couple of these bums. Here's the counterpoint. Yeah. If he gets suspended six games and they lose all six games and they miss the playoffs, there's your built-in excuse.

Well, sure. There's your built-in, you know, we can't fire Sheldon Keefe because his best defenseman got unfairly suspended by the biased Department of Player Safety. We can't expect Bradra Living to make big changes to the roster. This was a playoff team before dastardly George Peros. I see, yeah, that's true. That's true.

So anyway, it's accelerated. But it does give them one less excuse for when they, you know, start like 7, 8, and 3. next year. Maybe. My final saying on this is, and I tweeted something to this effect, I feel the same way about these suspensions as I do about

superstar contracts. I think all the numbers should be bigger than they are. I just find it a little weird and annoying that the numbers are always big for my favorite team and nowhere else. They're two completely unrelated things, but I have the same feeling about it.

Like, you know, how can you complain about William Nealander getting so much money? Don't you want stars to get money? Yeah, I do. And if all the stars get money, great. That's how it should work. Same thing. You want to give Morgan Riley 6 and, you know, Jason Spets is 6 and everything. Cool.

Give everyone suspensions like that. I'm 100% on board. But when it seems to happen with one team and one team only, it's a pattern worth noting. Yeah. wear another. The problem is... It doesn't make you a home or to point it out. I mean, the problem is that you did say my favorite team.

And that's when you start working at Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, my friend. That's when your kids are Bartleason, Maggie. What do you want me to do? Sit here and pretend that I'm not a Leafs fan when everyone knows that. And, you know, I, you know, would you say this if it was a different team? Yeah. If you show me some other team is leading the league in suspensions and is also leading the league at the other end of the chart of few as suspensions.

And that team doesn't have any sort of rep, you know, they don't take a lot of penalties. It's not like they're out here getting a bunch of majors and it. Yes, I 100% guarantee you. I will say the same thing I'm saying for the Leafs, which is, that's weird. There's probably something going on here. I promise you. I'll leave you with this. If Ryan Reeves was out there, this shit wouldn't have happened.

You know? Yeah. we all agree with that. By the way, one final thing, it was very, very funny when, with five seconds, I have to leave to put Ryan Reeves on the ice because you don't know who the senators

are going to put out, and Brady Kachuk, stable to the bench, stands up and starts, let me out there. Well, let me out there, I'm going to get Ryan Reeves. I mean, we've talked about that with Brady Kachuk before.

Buddy, I don't know. He gets real tough when the senators are down three one. I know it's a Leaves game, and it's hard to tell, but the game is in Ottawa. you are the home team. You do have last change. Yeah.

But talk to your coach, man. He can send you out there right now. We can make this happen. Yeah. Unfortunately, they fired the coach that just doesn't really seem like he was paying much attention. Yeah, that's true. Unfortunately. Okay, well, you know what?

All that having been said, God, we did a half an hour on that. That makes me sick to my stomach. Well, why don't we take a break? We'll be right back. This week's episode, Puck Soup is brought to you by ExpressVPN. And folks, you probably know what a VPN is. It's a way to browse the internet and increase your privacy at the exact same time. A good analogy for it, I guess, is like if you're using the internet without a VPN,

it's like driving around without car insurance because you're just taking an unnecessary risk. So why would you do that? That's where ExpressVPN comes in. You're out there. You've got your little device, your laptop, your tablet, your phone, and you're connecting to all kinds of networks. coffee shops and hotels and airports and restaurants, on and on and on. And if you're on an unencrypted network, any hacker on the same network can gain access to your personal data. You know, financial information, passwords, etc.

And this is the thing. I say hackers. It doesn't really take a lot of technical knowledge to do it. Says here, just some cheap hardware, a smart 12-year-old can do it. And hackers can make up to $1,000 per person selling your business. personal info on the dark web. That's all bad. You would agree, I think. So that's where ExpressVPN comes in. They act as a kind of online insurance a little bit because it creates a secure, encrypted tunnel between your device and the internet, meaning hackers can't steal your data.

It's super secure to take a hacker with a supercomputer over a billion years to get past ExpressVPN's encryption. I don't know if that's like literally true, but even if it's like kind of true. It's a good layer of protection. It's super simple. You fire up the app. You click one button and you're protected. It works on all devices, phones, laptops, tablets, and more. So you can stay secure on the go.

I mentioned obviously earlier, like the coffee shops and that kind of thing. I work from home most of the time. So where I use ExpressVPN is like at college hockey games or NHL games or whatever, where you're connecting to a broad Wi-Fi network where a lot of people have the password. And just it's a little, not that I think any hockey writers are hacking me or anything like that,

although if they try it, they're in a lot of trouble. But it's just that extra layer of security, very helpful, you know, just gives you a little extra peace of mind. So here's what you're going to want to do. Secure your online data today by visiting expressvPN.com slash puck.

That's EX, P-R-E-S-V-P-N, You can get an extra three months for free. That's expressvPN.com slash puck. All right, we're back. And I want to talk now about a team I wrote about this weekend. So, you know, this makes me feel so smart. I can just cite stats at you kind of cite unseen or whatever. But I wrote about the Penguins this weekend because it seems like, and this is kind of a common theme.

across a few divisions or teams this week. It seems like the locals are just like, we're fully fucking done with these guys. They got nothing going on. And it's because they lost to Minnesota and Winnipeg and Back to Back Road games. Yep. But how they did it, like they just kind of didn't seem like

they were ever really in those games. Yeah. A couple of one goal games. games. Like, it wasn't, they didn't get blowing out, but. Yeah, and they outshot the, the opponent in both of those games, but like, you know, just from, I, I only watched part of the Winnipeg game. So I didn't, you know, I wasn't able to watch the, the Minnesota game.

But it just, it just, again, the locals are just kind of, you know, how people in Toronto have talked about the Leaser, it's like, they just don't feel like anything's happened. Like, this feels like a. lifeless good team and like good isn't good enough for these guys but i guess with the difference being that with with some of these other teams you kind of look at it and go well if this isn't the year well well maybe next year will be better whereas pittsburgh the age of that core like i can't imagine if this is what they are now how's it getting better that's that's what makes them interesting, right?

Is, look, you know, obviously they lost their last two games, but they are two, four, and one in their last seven. And one of those games was an overtime win against Montreal, right? So you're just like, fuck, man, that is bad. I say this a lot, especially in a league with like, with so many things. three-point games and stuff like that. Winning in regulation, even if you're not giving away, like, you know, giving away a point or two to like the Winnipeg jets in overtime. That doesn't matter if you're the penguins, right? In theory. But in actual practice, it's like you really do need to be winning games in overtime as a general rule. Or in regulation, I mean, as a general rule. And I don't

know, the penguins don't seem particularly good at doing that lately. You got to go back to the end of December to find multiple games the Penguins won in regulation in a row. Yikes. Yep. And yeah, in the month, from the start of the month of January, they're five, six, and three. I mean, it's not good, right? And so it does kind. So I guess my point is it does kind of feel like they're not, they don't have the juice to make the play.

this year. They have the talent to rip off five, six wins in a row. Mm-hmm. But it doesn't feel like they're going to fucking do it. Yep. And that's disastrous for this team, given the fact that they're doing this with Sidney Crosby in MVP mode. They're doing this with Eric Carlson, who they went and traded for. and by the way, owe him $10 million for three more years after this one. They're doing this with, obviously, Latang and Malkin, who they extended, keep the band together.

And they're doing it with Tristan Jari being pretty good. That is the credit. We've talked about this before. Yeah. Jari has been pretty good for most of this season, and this is where they are in the standings, right? Like, it's the Usi Sarros thing. But it's, I would say, you know, in all fairness to Trista Jari, not as repeatable feeling as Yossi

standing on his head for an entire season behind an okay team. So let me ask you this. What do you think the penguins should do? Not will do, should do. Yeah. I think that what they should do in the short term is, I think you trade Jake Gunzel. I think that's, and that's the other piece that's so interesting here is with a lot of these teams, the kind of, you know, what do you do, decision is sort of vague and fuzzy and conceptual, whereas here they've got a very concrete decision to make in the next couple weeks. Because you've got a good player, a guy who in theory right now could. be the best player that would be out on the on the trade market.

I would say that's definitely true now that Lindholm is out of the, and we'll talk about that whole thing in a bit too. So you can go and trade him or you re-sign him, which means throwing another five, six, seven, eight years and another guy on who's going to be on the wrong side of 30 for. Yeah, Jake Gensel will be 30 when next season starts. So early October birthday. And I, you know, it's interesting to me because I said like Rob Rossi wrote a piece where he said they should treat him. And I was surprised at the number of comments from Penguins fans that were disagreeing with that. Saying no, keep them.

Like, you know, don't. And, and part of it is, look, if you trade him, even if he is the number one name on, the trade board, even if you can get a bidding war going. Like, what are you going to get? You're going to get a prospect. You're going to get a number one pick that's going to be in the 20s, probably, in not a crazy, strong draft. So that's a guy that, you know, you're going to see that guy in three years. It doesn't help you next year.

It makes you worse next year, which kind of, when you look at this team where they are now, means you're missing the playoffs next year. But I would trade them. I would restock the card. That's the other piece of this. The prospect cupboard is not bare because it never. is for any team, but it's not good in Pittsburgh. They've stripped a lot of it.

Yeah, I trade them. I throw in the towel on the season. I make that what I would consider a tough decision because, man, it's got to be tempting to say, I mean, not only has it got to be tempting to say, hey, we win three in a row, we're in good shape here. I mean, if you're Kyle Dubas or whoever else, like, how do you look Sidney Crosby in the eye and go, we're quitting on this year?

But I would. Now, I have a feeling I know what you would do. I'm right. So what they should do is trade him and Lars Eller, who is signed for next year, but at a relatively minimal cap hit. And I think, you know, I mentioned this earlier if he has some, like, Like if Nick Dowd is getting first round pick talk, I'm like, and Lars Eller, of course, is the older Nickdown, right? Like, Nick Dowd's a good player.

The sticker shock on he's worth the first round pick is obviously there. But the issue is that Nick Dow has signed for next year at like $1.8 million or something like that. And that in this cap world, even, I don't know if you heard the cap's going up. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's good news. Yeah. Even in that scenario, like a good depth center like him for $1.8 million, that's worth quite a bit, I would say. And so, you know, you might not be able to get a first, but could you get something pretty good for Lars Eller, a guy that you shouldn't really have any long-term attachment to?

Yeah, I would say so. But this is the problem for the penguin. I'm looking at their cap-friendly page. The number of times I see the three letters, NMC or NTC, on their page, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13. They only let you put 20 guys on the ice in a game.

So the fact that 13 guys are in some way in control of where they get sent. that to me is bad. I don't know about your feelings on this, but... That does seem bad. Now, again, no trade doesn't mean can't trade. And, you know, I imagine that... I mean, if you go to Jake Gunsel and say,

we want to send you to a contender, go play 20 playoff games, score 10 big playoff goals before you hit the open market. Is he going to refuse? No, yeah, but again, like, he might have a preference of like, I don't want to go to Winnipeg, you know, that kind of thing. Absolutely. And he's got to, it's 12 teams for Gensel that he can say no to. So, and maybe he waves and maybe he doesn't, but, you know, it's, it's a little tricky.

It's a little tricky. And this is the real problem for the penguins is how do you, after. you went out and traded for Eric Carlson and you traded for Riley Smith and you re-signed of Gennie Malkin and you re-signed Chris LaTang say to Sidney Crosby who demanded that you do at least the latter two things and maybe had a hand in being like maybe we should go get Eric Carlson too you know I don't know but it's been reported that like Crosby spent months apparently or over the course of a few months I don't know however you want to phrase it but well in advance of Malkin and Latang becoming free agents, Crosby,

we were like, what are we doing? We've got to re-sign these guys. And then they did it. And was it the smartest move to give them a combined $12.2 million? I would say probably not at their age. Yeah. And again, I'm the last person who has any expertise in this, but if I had a core that had won three Stanley Cups,

I'd find it pretty tough to break that up. But in this case, I'd try to squeeze every drop out of the stone. But at this point, I think maybe there's no more drops. Now, that being said, these guys are still, I believe, favored it to make the playoffs in, like, maybe we're, we might be going more doom and gloom here than, is warranted. Now, make the playoffs.

That is the time. The critical Down to 60% in Dom's model. And it's 47.1 from Moneypuck. 60% to make the playoffs, 29% to win a round. But again, you know. That's not nothing.

That's not nothing. And obviously those numbers go down if you move a Jake Gensel. For sure they do. And that's kind of why I'm so fascinating. by them. They have guys they could move. I do think you can, this is certainly a case where maybe you take as much time as you can until the deadline. We're still three and a half weeks away. A lot can happen in those games. So, I mean, you know.

They're 500 in the last six weeks, man, or below 500. Mm-hmm. So that's, that's the tough thing, I would say. So yeah, I'm just, I look at it and I say to myself, this is a real tough thing because, again, you're like, oh, the risk right now is that Sidney Crosby misses the playoffs two straight years for the first time in his career. The Penguins missed the playoffs when he was a rookie. They missed the playoffs last year. Every other year of his career, he's been in the postseason. at least, you know, one round and often more than that.

And in trading Jake Gensel, you're essentially going, well, Sid, we'll go get them next year. When you're 37 and Evgeny Malkins 38, you know, that's a really tough sell. I don't know what the answer is. I will also say. Because that's the thing, right? I mean, is the answer that you just spend? The last, who knows how many years of Sidney Crosby's career and the way he's going this year, I mean, it could be another two, three, four, five years. Do you just spend that time spitting your wheels?

Do you think you could rebuild slash reload whatever you want to call it in time to get him back there? Do you double down? Well, I mean, or the other aspect. Go ahead. Go ahead. You say it because you'll get yelled at, not me. Crossby's a free agent in summer 2025. Just saying, just putting it out there.

You know, I don't know. He is. It feels undeniable that he is. It feels impossible to imagine. And yet, people have been kind of... You want to talk about a rebuild. You want to talk about, boy, you get a lot for Jake Gunsell. And, you know, we're not talking deadline here, but...

Move Sidney Crosby at the draft. Oh, boy. Imagine the balls that would take to trades. It would never have. But the balls it would take to trade Sidney Crosby is like incalculable. You would have to be, you could do that if you were like, you'd been to GM there for 10, 15 years. Like a Lou Lamarillo in New Jersey could have done something like that. But Kyle Dew was coming in one year, taking one.

taking one swing at it, oh, we missed the playoffs, I'm going to tear the whole thing down. I mean, that's, this is not even, you know, obviously this isn't even a GM decision.

No, absolutely not. It's, this is the whole, I can't imagine it. But you got to at least put it out there. If we're listing all the options,

moving on from the core is an option. But. For sure it is. Yeah. but I just can't. No, I don't. Again, you don't re-sign Malkin and Latang

if the possibility of trading Cindy Crosby is even remotely on your radar, right? Like, it just, come on. All right, let's move on from the, from the, oh, no, one last thing. You think there's a point where they fire the coach just as a means of doing something? Every time I mention that Penguin fans tell me, No chance. They tell me he's got, you know, a bunch of years, bunch of money left that it's not an option.

I'd say, yes, it's possible. The amount of turnover we've seen from coaches in the last while is crazy. And let's remember the history in Pittsburgh, two Stanley Cups that they've won with a mid-season coaching change, although earlier than this. So I don't think the chances are zero, But I've been constantly told the chances are always lower than I seem to think they are. Yeah.

And also, I think there's, you know, there's a very good argument. Kyle Dupes is a smart guy. He can't be looking at this team going, I can't believe Mike Sullivan isn't getting more out of this group. You know what I mean? Like, that's just kind of my thing about it. Mike Sullivan, by the way, inducted into the Beanpot Hall of Fame last night. I saw him walking around TD Garden. Good for him.

Yep. And, yeah, so that's it on the Penguins, I guess. Another team that is in hell right now. And I saw the headline over the weekend. And I loved the headline. And now I don't have it in front of me. I should have pulled it up. But it was basically like the Sabres are bad and boring.

The worst kind of thing you can be, basically. And it's true. It's undeniable. Try watching a Sabers game this year. It's a miserable experience. So, I don't know, your thoughts on the Buffalo Sabres? Yeah, so I wrote about them this week in my weekly rankings where I kind of, every now and then I do this, where I just sort of say like, hey, here's where things are at, where are you at fans? Like Sabers fans, help me out here.

Because I look at this team, clearly this was not anywhere close to the plan, the results this year. This was much like Ottawa. This was supposed to be the year they were at least in the mix. And instead they're looking at another three months of meaningless hockey. The Don Granado situation to me is very interesting. Because I think I rewrote the line in my column about four times over the weekend, where I went from he's obviously getting fired to he's probably getting fired to he's maybe getting fired. And then I think I got back to probably.

But I'm seeing a lot of stuff saying that he's going to stay, but they're going to gut the whole staff around him and he'll bring in all new people. I don't know, man. It's a very unfair thing about sports, but it is a fact that there's a long history of coaches who get brought in and do a great job in the first stage of the rebuild,

and then they hand the torch off to some other coach who takes the team into the playoffs and into contention. Yeah, so. So is that what this is. I would say part of the issue for me is that there's a real strong perception

that he did a lot of good stuff last year, right? One of the things that I think it's kind of indisputable he did, if you look at the numbers, was tell them to shoot 11%. Yeah. Again, I think that's just kind of indisputable. That's what they did last year, and it got them to four.

42 wins, but crucially, not in the playoffs, were they? You know? And I don't know. I think their quality last year was overstated. I think it's easy to be a team that, like, you know, I talk about this a lot with the Columbus Blue Jackets of years past, where it's like, well, look at what they did after the All-Star break. It's like, right, when they played nothing but backup goalies for three months straight,

sounds good, you know. Dave Thompson shot 16% last year Alex Stuck shot 16.5% last year. Jeff Skinner shot 14.5% last year. I don't think Dylan Cousin shot almost 15%. Victor Oliveson shot 17%. I don't think it takes a genius to go maybe, just maybe, last year's Sabres overperformed.

I think that what happens when you say that is a lot of people say, well, look how young they are. You know? Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlene. A big part of the Sabres problem is they got two very good defensemen, first overall in the draft, and having two very good defensemen is a good situation, obviously. But you know what would have been really nice is like a number one center. Yeah. You know?

And we thought that one had kind of. falling out of the sky for them in Tage Thompson. Yeah. Turns out when he doesn't shoot 17% or whatever, and he's at almost 11 this year. So like, you know, but when he doesn't, when he doesn't shoot 15 plus percent, which he did the previous two years, you know, it's a little harder to say what's going on with him. Just a little bit. And, you know, I don't think he's been as bad.

this year, as the numbers perhaps suggest. And certainly he's not been productive. He's only got 15 goals this year, right? But he's on pace for 30 if he had played all their games, which he didn't, obviously. And maybe the injury is a factor. I don't know. But to me, I just look at this team and I go, I mean, what did you expect, man? They did the dumb guy thing, too, I think, you could say, of, like,

Like, you know what, let's try to go out there and get a couple of mediocre veterans, and maybe that'll get us over the line. And that does not work 90% of the time. It seems like it's working for Detroit. Yeah. Well, but here's the other thing with Buffalo is they were one of those teams in the summer. We all looked at and said they need a goalie. Now, their situation was trickier than New Jersey or some others because they had Devin Levy ready to go.

And who knows? Yeah. everything hinged on whether he was good. Absolutely. Well, everything hinged once they decided to stand pat. You know, like, yeah, you didn't want to do a Sergey Bobrovsky comes in when you already have Spencer Knight or you're about to draft him deal. But could they have done something more short term? And, you know, that's the thing I find interesting is like the Kevin Adams situation where he went from,

He gets hired and everybody rolls her eyes and goes, this is the Pagul is hiring a yes man. He's the only guy who'll work for them. He's not even a front office guy. He's coming over from ticket sale or whatever. And then you watch him work for the first year or two, and you go, oh, crap, this guy knows what he's doing. He's doing a pretty good job.

Handled the Jack Eichael situation, all of that. And now, though, I feel like the temperature's got to be getting turned up on him. Because he made the call. Like, that was the defining call of the offseason. We're not going to do anything with goaltending. And it has backfired. Not that the goaltening's been awful, but it hasn't been good. It certainly hasn't been good enough to make up for all the other issues.

Yeah, I think it's fair to say it's been below average. And I think if you told anybody at the beginning of the year, it didn't really work out as well as anybody hoped with Levi. everyone would go, well, then surely their goaltending is below average because Ucocke Lukanin, who's having a good season, honestly, and Eric Comrie are, you know, not guys that you're counting on long term. Let's put it that way. So, I don't know.

To me, I cannot be surprised that the Sabres are kind of in hell, you know. but part of it too is they play in one of the best divisions in hockey and it's the same problem the senators have where it's like or and even Detroit where it's like okay but like yeah okay maybe you can be around the playoffs maybe you can even make it maybe you can maybe you're just shooting to play competitive games in March and April but are you going to be better than three of Toronto, Tampa, Boston, or any one of the three of Toronto, Tampa, Boston, and Florida. It's that same old story.

I don't know. I don't know what else people expect it, honestly. It's the same thing with Buffalo. I mean, this is the question I've been asking for the Canadians for the last long time now. Yes, it's a rebuild. Yes, they've got young players. is yes, it's good. What's the ceiling?

Because there's a point where you exit a rebuild. And maybe Buffalo is not quite there yet because they're going to get another high pick this year. But there's a point where you exit a rebuild and you say, okay, we've now collected as many prime assets as we're going to get. What's the ceiling? And is that ceiling a championship contender

or is that ceiling we can get back in the playoffs? Because I look at Montreal and I see a team whose ceiling is $95. point, playoff bubble team, but not necessarily more than that. Buffalo, I think you can make the argument with deline, with power, with some of the other pieces that it's higher than that. But how high? And how do you get there?

Yeah. Impossible to argue otherwise to me. Yeah, I just, it's a bummer because that was such a fun team last year. And you want to see fun teams succeed. Yeah. I think. Fun team, great fans, again, putting on, well, I'm not keeping on my Leaf Homer hat. I love it when they go into Buffalo when there's like both teams are good and it's a rivalry and everything.

Dude. That's a. Hasn't happened 40 years, unfortunately. Hasn't happened in a while. But, man, it's a great. But, like, you got, if you're not rooting for Sabers fans, then I don't know who you're at this point. Like, nobody can hold a candle to these guys.

I mean, Jesus. But what happens if it doesn't work with this group? You're going to do another rebuild? Has a team ever gone through like three distinct rebuilds without even getting to the playoffs? I don't know, man. Probably not in this sport. Probably in other sports, the answer is, yeah, of course.

You know, like, you know, the Kansas City Royals or somebody like that, just like a team that was a perennial loser for as long as I can remember in them one year, was just like, ah, we won the World Series. Oh, that's weird. Are you sure about that? And they're like, oh, yeah, here's a trophy. It says Kansas City Royals right on there.

Okay, well, good for you guys. Yeah, it's tough for the Sabres. I think they're like the Penguins where it's like, I don't know what they're going to do. I'm fascinated by it. I'd still damn sure you'd rather be the Sabres and the Penguins. Yeah, at least they got, they got road ahead of them. You know.

And we should point out, like, well, I mean, you maybe tell me you're the prospect guy. Like, do we still see Levy as a top goaltending prospect or has this year, like, I mean, you know, the fact that he didn't do it this year at 21 or whatever, does that concern us? Well, first of all, I, again, I should push back. I don't think of myself as a prospect. I think of myself as a college hockey, don't work. but I don't think of myself as a prospect guy because I just like, there's such a certain connotation with that

that I don't feel applies to me, if that makes sense. What's the connotation? The connotation is that like I've seen every QMJHL game this year and I can go, oh, the guy on the guy on their second pair. Folks, he's being modest. He's seen,

he's seen all of them. Everyone. Yeah, it's only like 80% in person. He does, he gets some, he gets that's shipped to him. Yeah, But, like, you know, I have people go like, hey, this guy, my team drafted, he's on the second line for, like, Notre Dame.

What do you think of him? It's like, I've seen Notre Dame play like three times this year on TV. I've never seen them in person. I don't fucking know. You're like, your guess isn't from looking at like, you know, oh, he's got nine goals and 14 assists this year. Your evaluation of him isn't going to be much stronger than, or much less strong than mine. Let's put it that way. And certainly, like, I couldn't tell you fucking anything about, like, the, I don't know what the O HL standings look like.

I don't know who their leading scores are. This is stuff I start looking at in the lead up to the draft. You know what I mean? So it's got, that's all got nothing to do with me. But with Devin Levi, let me say this. I think if you're willing to give up on a 21-year-old goalie, that's crazy. I think that his performance in college behind a not very good team over two seasons.

He's the only goalie to ever be the national goalie of the year, two years in a row, or two years period. And this is an award that's only like 15 years old, like maybe not even Connor Hellebuck won the first one. So however old you think he is, you know? And so like the issue with Levi was always, he's what you would call Yossi Saros sized. He's not a big goalie.

And so does that portend bad things for him in terms of becoming the guy in Buffalo? I don't know. As a general rule, goalies aren't short. He's not short. He's like 5-11, you know. But as a general rule, goalies are big now. And he's not big. He's hockey player-sized, right?

And so those guys just don't make it as much as they used to. And does that apply to Devin Levi? I think there's a very distinct possibility that that's the case. But that was always the case. So I'm not giving up on him yet by any stretch of the imagination. Again, I think it would be kind of foolish to do that because he's 21 years old. Almost no one goes straight from college to NHL starter. And that was kind of what they asked him to do.

and he couldn't do it. And I don't think that's like an unforgivable sin. You know what I mean? So, yeah, you know, it could go either way, I guess, is my big, my big, bold take on Deff and Levi. Fair. But yeah, anyway, speaking of goaltenders, we do have yet another Calgary trade update. Speaking of Oh, by the way, just before we do that,

did you see the big breaking Morgan Riley news? The in-person hearing is no longer an in-person hearing. They have scrapped the in-person hearing because of the snowstorm in New York. Okay. All right.

I was going to say it. Wouldn't that have been great? Yeah. Oh, by the way, so we were supposed to get socked with the snowstorm too. On Sunday, I think the forecast was seven to 13 inches. and I'm looking at the bean pot going like,

am I going to have to like fucking leave early to not get snowed in on the mass pike, whatever? And then when I was leaving, it was like, we're revising that down to two inches. And I was like, oh, I guess I'm not. And then during the game, I got another update that it was going to be a dusting. And I was like, well, I'll just stay in Boston that.

I don't care. I'm not afraid, you know. And now I'm looking at, out my window, we got about three inches. So who knows? And it's still snowing. But yeah, very funny. Anyway, yeah, the Calgary Flames, the report, again, over the weekend from Elliot was that they had some pretty serious discussions with New Jersey about Jacob Markstrom. And that's interesting. That is very interesting. And his report was that the discussions obviously did. did not lead to a deal, and that sounds like they've backed off of them now. Yeah.

But that's a very, very interesting name in play, and it's one that makes some amount of sense. I would argue for, you know, certainly for New Jersey, but yeah, I don't think that at least considering a move with Jacob Markstrom, like you can see where the flames are thinking there. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think it's, you know, maybe not, like something where it's like you've got to trade Jacob Markstrom this year. Like it is with, in my opinion, Noah Hanfen, Chris Tan, of all, basically any pending UFA. Because Markstrom has multiple years left and he's playing once again like a Vesna caliber goaltender. But, and I think we've said this before, what are the odds you're ever going to see Vesna Calibur goaltending from Jacob Markstrom again.

You know, this could be it. And if it's not it, okay. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's not like he's come out of nowhere to have a flu season. This is a guy. No, no, no. But given his age and what the Calgary Flames look like, you know, that, that to me is a different, um, discussion. That's all.

Yeah. Okay. So yeah, to me, I'm just like, uh, I'm fascinated that they seem to be entertaining the idea, you know, because they don't, I would say they don't often do a full teardown. And if you're trading Markstrom and Tanev and Hanofin or some combination of those three players, that to me signals, we're kind of going tear down mode on this one. Yeah. Or at least that you're considering it.

And I always say, like, GM should be open to, you know, pick up the phone. New Jersey calls and says, Markstrom's the guy we want. Listen. I literally don't think anyone should be untouchable. If someone calls Edmonton and says like, here's our offer for Connor McDavid. They shouldn't slam the phone down. They'd be like, you better knock my fucking socks off with this.

Don't waste my time. But, you know, if someone's like, we'll give you our next 50 first round picks, I don't know, you know. I think at some point there's a scale tipping that makes it worth your one. while to at least consider that kind of thing. Yeah. So apparently with, according to Elliott, the issue was not just the return package, but salary retention. Which Calgary never wants to do, basically.

Which to me, I mean, salary retention and the return package are inextricably tied together. Of course. The more salary you're going to ask. I will say that if Calgary is trying to treat it as some sort of team policy not to do salary retention, then that's a big mistake. because salary retention is something that is available to teams and yeah, you should absolutely be paid for it.

If I'm going to retain salary on a guy with years left on his contract, I expect that to be reflected significantly in the compensation I get back. But to say you're not going to do it at all, I don't know. Apparently they've done it exactly once, which was Dave Ridditch a few years ago, where it was a rental and it was cheap. So, I mean, be open to it. But yeah, it sounds like Craig Conroy is considering things. And that's what he should be doing.

Yep, totally. That's all. You know, we've just talked a lot about the flames and their plans the last few weeks. I just wanted to make sure we mentioned that. Another thing I want to make sure we mention, I actually, I love this. Alex Ovechkin has goals in five straight games. He's back, baby.

Let's fucking go, man. This is what it's all about. This is, you know, do I think, I think the goal he had on Saturday night, which pushed him to four straight. If I'm not much mistaken, I believe that pushed him within 60. So now he's at 59, I'm pretty sure. I love it. Yeah. It still feels very difficult to pull off,

but he also feels like a guy where, apparently, he can just have a week where he's like, oh, I scored five goals this week, no problem. What are we talking about? And he hadn't looked like that guy all year. I would argue he still doesn't look like that guy, but okay. But like we said, you could be rooting for him to break the record or rooting for him not to break the record,

but what nobody wanted was, five years of Alica and general scoring 15 goals a year and just crawling as a shell of himself towards for no reason other than to get to a record. So we've

was kind of looking like it was going in that direction. For a week at least we get to think otherwise. Yeah. I just wanted to shout that out because I think it is cool. The other thing about the caps

this week, I don't know if people saw this. It feels like it went kind of underreported just because of a whole fucking Morgan Riley thing. But it looks like this arena deal that everyone was very mad about. You don't have to worry about it. It's dead. And the reason why, apparently, is this was a deal made with lawmakers who did not get reelected. And so the new lawmakers came in and were like, we're not fucking doing this. Are you kidding me? Get a life, man. So, yeah, that's, looks like they're staying in Washington, D.C. for the foreseeable future, which is good, I think.

Yeah, I mean, I don't really have a strong feeling one way or another on where exactly they're located, but I know there was some pushback on on the idea of the move. And also, it just felt like, you know, hey, thanks for the support over the decades. we're now going to go cash in in some rich neighborhood that's that's right yeah not you know kind of vaguely adjacent but not really the same so i mean if the my understanding of this is that somewhere a billionaire is sad so i'm we can we can all give that one a big thumbs up yeah um no yeah i think i think the plan you know it would be kind of comparable to you know the senator continuing to stay in their current location, you know, where it's like, yeah, I mean, it's Ottawa-ish.

Is it Ottawa? No, not really. You know, it's Washington-ish. Is my understanding, I don't know the geography down there, but, you know, you would have had to take a 40-minute train ride, it sounds like. I don't think fans should have to do that, my opinion. Nope. So, yep, that is that news.

and I don't know I guess we can barring any more pressing Morgan Riley weather updates I guess we can Apparently he's wearing a charcoal gray suit

and his zoom background is slightly blurred Oh he did the blur Brendan Shanahan He's embarrassed where he's broadcasting from Brendan Shanahan has accidentally

turned on a filter that makes him look like a cat and he can't turn it off. So George Peros is laughing at him. I think that's very embarrassed. You know, look, for as high stakes as this feels, you're going to have fun out there, you know? Yeah, exactly. Anyway, I saw. They're all using a filter that makes them look like Columbus Blue Jackets and Peros has apologized for even wasting their time.

I'm glad you mentioned the Blue Jets. $500 fine. I'm glad you mentioned the Blue Jackets. I'm glad you mentioned the Blue Jackets. Blue Jacket, Sean. I forgot about this. I didn't put this on the outline. I read the funniest article in the world this weekend.

Oh, boy. Okay. Did you see me passing this around on the Discord? I don't think I did. Okay. I got to scroll up a little bit to find it. But basically, Frank Zarevali reported last week that, like, the league-wide view of this Columbus Blue Jackets, like, leadership group.

is dim. And apparently it was such a scathing indictment in this report that it prompted John Davidson to go on the radio and be like, here's what you do got to understand about us, the beautiful Columbus Blue Jackets. Right. And it was, it was rough, apparently. You know, and so a guy who has covered the Blue Jackets. for a very long time in Columbus, wrote an article being like,

here's what people outside Columbus just don't understand about the freaking blue jackets, okay? And let me see if I can pull up... Well, anyway, I can't really get... There's one of those things like, looks like you're using an ad blocker and all that kind of stuff, which I am, of course.

You're like, yes, I absolutely am. Yeah, because if I didn't, there'd be 14 auto play videos blaring in my ear right now. But I will just quote for you the pertinent part of the article that was, I was, I was having a good laugh to myself on a Sunday morning.

They're talking about it's not as bad as it looks. It's just not as bad as it looks, okay? And this is the article. They also had an early, early winless streaks of four games, 02 and 2, and 9 games, 07 and 2.

that were separated by one win. And this is where I will step in and say, so it sounds like they lost 13 to 14. Yeah. Plummeting the jackets from playoff contention early with a one, nine and four record between October 24th and November 19th. My opinion, you don't want to go 14 games with one win.

Okay. During that stretch, the jackets lost four games they led in the third period and three others in the third. I think that might be a typo. outside of those skids, their record is 16, 15, and 6 for a 514 points percentage.

That's not lighting the league on fire, but it's a signal that Columbus and its young roster led by a first time NHL head coach is figuring some things out. Do you think that's what that means? A 514 wins percentage.

Where do you think that gets them in the standings? If you take a team's two worst stretches out of their record and they're still just 514, like I'm just looking at it now. You know, the San Jose, Sharks, if you take out the two losing streaks they had of 10 games and

12 games, they are, sorry, 11 games. They are 14, 14, 10, and 4. That's a good record. That's a hell of a lot better 514, as long as you take out the two massive losing streaks that they had. 514 in the Eastern Conference, right?

This year gets you to 7th place in the wild card race. By the way, I can't tell you how great, I have been looking this up, and I can't tell you how grateful I am. It turns out that this article you're referencing is from the Columbus dispatch, and it's not, it's not my buddy, Portsline. No, I would have, I mean, I still would have brought it up and made fun of it, but I would

have said it is in the athletic, and then Sean would have been the sound of a spinning chair while Sean went about some other business. But yeah, it was very funny because other parts of the article were like, how they're developing David Yerechuk is normal, actually. And it's like, well, hold on. He's complaining about it. It doesn't seem like that could be true. It was a good article. I encourage people to seek it out.

Because it's the Columbus Blue Jackets, man. Like you said, if you take out the 14 games we lost in a row, basically. we're actually pretty fucking good and then you look up. And then you look up, it's like, no, if you played at that pace all year, you would be like fucking 14th at ease or something. Big salute to the Columbus Blue Jackets. They're getting it done out there. Wow.

And finally, one thing I want to talk about. So I'm on NHL.com yesterday. And they're saying, hey, come up. Has the page finished loading for you? today. They noticed I was using an ad blocker. Oh, okay. They're like, hey, you know who's coming up on a thousand games? As long as you promised to fix it next time. That's right. Continue without supporting. My most clicked on link in the entire internet. They were like, hey, Alex Petrangelo is coming up on a thousand games. And that like pinged something in my head where I was like, hey, isn't Brad Marshand coming up on a thousand games as well? And he is. They're both at 990. as of last night. I don't know. I didn't pay one bit of attention.

Vegas played last night. So Petrangelo's there. And they lost. Yes. Petrangelo's there. Marshan's working on it. They played last night. They lost. And they asked Petrangelo after the game. Like, what will you remember from tonight? Because they did the ceremony. They did everything. And he says, all I will remember is that we lost. I mean, it's to the wild. That is pretty memorable this year. Yes. You know. All I remember is it. And then he continued, to the wild.

a garbage organization run by garbage people. And yes, I'm referring directly to Mark Andre Fleury, and then he said it out. So I was like, that's interesting. It seems like there have been, including Mark Andre Fleury, multiple guys who reached a thousand games this year, and I looked it up, I believe him and Marishand, and the Bruins play tonight if I'm not much mistaken. and so Marshand is hitting a thousand tonight against the lightning at 7 p.m. I won't be able to watch it.

It's on Nesson. And I was like, that feels like a lot of guys are hitting a thousand games. So far this year, if you include Marshand and Petrangelo. We're up to nine guys that have hit a thousand games so far this season. It's too many. It's, well, here's the thing. Game is too easy these days. Here's the thing.

there are another, I believe, six or five who are on pace to break it this season, if you can believe that. Used to mean something. Back in the days and there were 20, 20 games in a season. And 20 teams, yeah. Yeah. But it's interesting that 15 guys will be reaching that milestone this year. It's interesting to me. Maybe it's not interesting to other people,

but it's certainly interesting to me, a guy who likes to play a little trivia game called 20 Kestions in honor of when Phil Kessel played his thousandth game. And now we're up to, by the time this season ends, there will be, I believe, 388 players, barring injury and that kind of thing, who have played a thousand games in the NHL. And I don't know.

I say we just play a couple of quick rounds of 20 questions where we ask yes or no questions about guys who have played a thousand games in their careers. That's right. And I believe we're not, we're doing a bit of a twist here in that you're going to play rather than being just the quiz master. Yeah, I wanted to get in on the fun. I wanted to get in on the fun. and let's let's let's let's let me pull up a random number generator

we'll play this a classic way where Sean has to go first all right okay let me scroll up here if you pick Claudeauroo let me just see if that guy has been taken he has not okay that's great news for me a guy who doesn't have to click random number generator once again and

you may now ask me a yes or no question about this player who played at least a thousand games in the NHL. Okay. Is he Canadian? He is? Did he play in the 1990s? He did not. Did he play in the 2010s? He did not.

Did he play in the 70s? He did. Do you play in the 80s? He did. Okay. Hmm, all right. Did he, was he ever a heart trophy finalist? Finalist, let me really narrow it down here.

It doesn't look like it. Was he a forward? He was. And that was your seventh question by you. That was number seven. Okay. Is, hmm. Was he a winger?

Yes. Did he score 400 goals? No. So he stunk. How do you not score 400 goals in a thousand games in the 70s and 80s? It's a really good question. Yeah. All right.

Was he ever a... Did he ever play in an All-Star game? That should be in that. I'm going to have to scroll down for a second to answer that. Yes, he did. And that's 10 by the game. the way, that was your 10th question. Yes. Did he win a Stanley Cup?

Did he win a Stanley Cup? He did. Yeah. All right. Boy, I got to start hitting some teams now. Did he, okay, well, did he play for the Leafs? No. Do you play for Montreal Canadiens? He did.

Did he play for more than two teams? No. Did he play for more than one team? No. So he's only a Montreal Canadian who did not score 400 goals played a thousand. It was not a heart,

but did make it all-a-start. Did they have to invent a award for defensive forwards for him? They sure did, yeah. Okay. Is it Bob Ganey? It is. You got it on 16.

You know what, Ganey always throws me off. I always think that Ganey played for other team. I always picture him playing for the stars. which he managed and coached. Yes. But never played for it. And I think it's, I think I got,

I think between it's the coaching and me getting him mixed up with Guy Carbono. Sure. Montreal Canadian who shouldn't be in the hall family. You just, you just were like, he must have Reg Dunlop

that Star's team at one point, right? Yeah, you would think. Get on in there. All right. Player coach. Yeah. Do you want to do one more? No, why don't we,

you go to me this time. Yeah. Yeah, you're stepping up here. You're going to show us how it's done. All right. So I have randomly, well, kind of randomly picked a player because... I asked Sean, like, don't make me guess a 50s guy. I'm not going to know who the fuck it is.

You know, like, you get to cut me a little bit of slack. I'm dumb, you know? So I have called up this guy's hockey reference page. I have no idea if we have used him before or not, but it won't matter. No, it really will not. You can fire away with your... 20 questions. Canadian.

Yes. Okay. Active player? Yes. Okay. Primarily known for Eastern or Western Conference question mark? Primarily known. Yeah.

I would say no. No. I'm not saying that particularly authoritatively, which you can read into as you wish. Played for more than one team, then it sounds like? Yes. Forward? Yes. That's five questions.

A forward, mostly Western Conference, Canadian. I'm going to, hmm, it's the mostly thing that's throwing me off. Okay. Did he ever win a major award? No. Okay. That's interesting. Was he, or Western Conference mostly, Pacific Division? Yes. Okay.

Oh, sorry. Are you asking Pacific Division as far as what team he's associated with? Or the team he's on, okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. Is he currently in the Eastern Conference? He's currently in the Eastern Conference.

Okay. Let me think about this. Played a thousand games. Active player. Currently in the East. Mostly known for being in the West. I would say his most famous. His best known run came with a Western...

Yeah, that was kind of the question earlier, for sure. Okay, let me think about this. And mostly known for the Pacific, you said. Yes. He's currently in the... Western Conference team I was referring to. Yeah, right, right, right. Not so.

So easy. No, it isn't. It really isn't. Is this a guy that you think I would say he's bad now? Yes. Okay. That actually does narrow it down. Is this a player who has won a Stanley Cup?

Yes. Okay. I believe that was number 10. Okay. Is this player, we know he's in the Eastern Conference now. is he in the Metropolitan Division? Yes. I'm going to make a guess here that it's Jeff Carter.

You got it. Wow. Nailed it. Nicely done. Yep. So he played for four teams, three of which were in the East, including his current team and his team that drafted. Friars, Blue Jackets, the Kings, and the Pengers.

But I do think the Kings would be his most. Undoubtedly. I think you could argue Philadelphia. I think you can make a reasonable argument for that. But I don't think I steered you wrong. He won two. Two cups in L.A. I think.

And those were the best years of his career. You want to do one more? Sure. Just for fun. Why not? Why? Freaking not. Okay, let me, where'd that random number generator go?

50. Okay. All right. I shouldn't have said that. Okay. This is a guy who I'm not sure I've ever heard of him. Awesome. But, you know, that's a free clue for you.

Yeah, I'll take it. Anytime you're ready, fire away. Okay, Canadian. Yep. Forward? Yes. Winger. Yes.

Did he play in the 80s? No. Did he play in the 60s? Yes. Crap. Did he play in the 70s? Yep. Oh, boy.

Did he, is he in the 60s? the Hall of Fame? No. Did he play for more than two teams? Yep. Did he play for more than three teams? Yep. Oh, no.

Okay. I already lost kind of how many questions. That is nine, according to you. That's nine. Okay, great. The list that I am making here. Okay. All right.

Well, did he play for the Leafs? Yes. Okay. Did he play for the Canadians? No. Did he? Was he really helped me? Okay.

Play in the 60s and the 70s? Did he score 400 goals? Did he score 400 goals? He did not. Was, did he ever play in an All-Star game? I'm going to scroll down here, as you know, he did. Did. Okay.

The 60s and 70s not into the 80s. So, did he play for one of the 67 expansion teams? Yes. And I think this next question will be your 15th. Yes, it is. Oh, boy, yeah, I'm struggling here. Hmm. Did he play for...

Did he play for any of the teams... Did he play for any teams that no longer exist as far as, like, in where they were? So, for example, I would count the Colorado Rockies as no longer existing until they became the Devils. Got it. It doesn't look like he did. All these teams remain in place. Hmm. Okay.

Boy, this is a tough one. Did he ever have a season of more than 200 penalty minutes? More than 200 penalty minutes. Let me click on this. No. So it was a coward. Mm-hmm. That's right.

Okay. One of these soft leaps you're always talking. Yeah, exactly. Man, boy, this is, uh, did he get to, okay, did he, was he ever a finalist for a major? award, not counting the lady being. No. That's not a major award.

No. Next question will be your 18th. So we've established it. He's a Canadian winger who's not very good. Who played before I was born. Did play for the Leafs. That's always the concern. You're just going to be like, oh.

Yeah. And if it was the eight, if he played in the 80s, I probably would have grabbed him by him. Yeah, that's probably true. But he didn't. Okay. I do have a couple of guys. in mind.

He played, I think, we said he did play in an All-Star game. He did indeed, yeah. Okay. Does he have a son who played in the NHL? It does not look like that's the case. The fact that you even, I was thinking J.P. Perise. No. The fact that you even had to think about it means I've screwed up and wasted my question.

Boy. Did he play more than four? three full seasons with the Leafs. Yeah. Okay. This is your last... This is my last one. I got to throw a winger out there.

Didn't play in the 80s. It can't be Target Williams. It can't be... Is it Bob Pulford? No. No, he's an awful. I think I've got something to say to you. It's a guy named Ron Stewart.

Ah. I know who Ron Stewart is. But... Yeah, he was in the... faces? I would have, but I would not have got that. So you know what? That's a tough one. We should acquit while we were ahead. That is absolutely a tough one. I'm now going to pull a guy from the 40s out and I'm going to make you... Tinker Kennedy, is it? Did he play in the 40s? Dog, darn it, you got him. Ah, okay. Well, anyway, uh, yeah, why don't you hit him with the plugs? Let's get out of here.

You can find me at the athletic. That's where all my written work is as well as, uh, you may have seen the news. It is now efficient. a brand new podcast debuting tomorrow on Wednesday. And on Wednesdays going forward, featuring myself and a new up-and-coming talent we've discovered by the name of Sean Gentilly. Where did they get the idea to do a podcast, Sean McIndoo and Sean Gentilly? Who came up? Who cracked the code on that one and deserves a finder's feet?

I'm looking forward to working with him finally. Yeah. And it should be fun. We're also going to have Frank Carrado join us fairly often as well, former Maple Leaf as well as other teams that are less important than the Maple Leafs. And yeah, looking forward to it. I don't know what it's going to be like or how it's going to work because neither one of us has done any prep work whatsoever.

But we'll probably exchange a few texts tomorrow morning and then off we go. Wow, there you go. And for me, keep an eye out on EP Rink's side today because I have a story I worked extremely hard on where I talk to a bunch of college hockey coaches and people who work in, I guess, what you'd call, like, athletics administration and that kind of thing about this whole CHL NCAA thing,

which according to a number of coaches I talked to and then some reports that came out last night is not going to be happening anytime soon. So all that stuff about you can count on it. Here we go. It's not going to happen. But I have thousands of words. It's a very long article.

Breaking down. Or as I call it, an intro. Mm-hmm. Breaking down like the why this came up and why it seems like, it's dead now and what as many basically, I published basically every opinion I got and just to like try to give as full a picture as, as you could possibly get.

I, my boss who read it yesterday was like, yeah, I don't think anybody could have been more in depth on this issue than you. Very nice. Than you are here. So, you know,

there is a, there is an element of I've been working on. this for weeks and he just tweeted it out. That is for sure. But like, again, I really get into the like the why and how and what it all means and will it happen in the future. Basically, if you have a question about any of this, I think I answered it. And if you don't have a question about it, read it anyway, just so my boss thinks I'm a smart little boy. And other than that, yeah, like I said, I was at the bean pot last night.

I have an article on the guys who were like the best players for their respective teams. Some of them drafted and some of them not. And some of them eligible to be drafted this spring, let's say. You know who I'm talking about. So yeah, just I'm working hard this week and also hardly working. So. And then Patreon.com slash Puck Soup, all our bonus episodes and all that kind of stuff, you know what we do over there at this point. So yeah, check it all out. Thank you for listening to this show. And we'll talk to you next week again on Tuesdays from now on.

That's right. And, well, you know, at least for the foreseeable future. Do athletic podcasts go away in the summer? I feel like they do, right? I think so, yeah. Yeah. So we might switch back to Wednesdays, but we might be used to Tuesdays by then. I guess, you know, keep an eye out. That's right. Yeah, anyway, thanks so much folks. Have a good one. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.