Puck Soup - Hughesnited States of Akellerca

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Sean and Ryan talk about the US winning two golds, the NHL starting back up, and more.

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAnew from the other. Yep, yep, yep, yep. It happened. It all happened. The United States, the greatest hockey country in the world. This is indisputable. Undisputable?

Indisputable. Not the best grammar country in the world, I'll tell you that. Yeah, yeah. But it's tough for Canada right now. But let's start off with this, Sean. One of the things we heard, this is some of the greatest hockey ever played. You're not going to believe how good this hockey was. What would you grade the quality of the hockey in the two gold medal games?

Ooh. Like, I mean, it was good hockey and hockey played with high stakes. Like, yes, of course. of teams is always amazing. Yes. But also, I think if you were going to have two showcase games to try to sell the sport to people who don't normally watch it, you'd probably want some a little better than two one in both of the, both of the games.

Yeah. A little more offense, a little more, because it's also not like either game was, like there were certainly chances, but it wasn't like either game was end to end and the goalies were just amazing. Yeah. No, the mythical good one-nothing game that all of the wise hockey knowers are always telling us about, like, it was, it certainly was entertaining. But I think that was as much or more the circumstances than the actual play. Yeah, I think with the women in particular, women's hockey just tends to, you know, between the U.S. and Canada.

It just tends to be lower scoring anyway. You know, like watch a PWHL game. The odds are pretty good that it's going to be like two to one, one to nothing, maybe three to two. You know, you just don't see a ton of like huge. Holy shit, this was a six five game. And so I was pretty accustomed to that, right? But then the men's game, like, this is some of the best. ever, it was one team just like going, please stop hitting us until they got their chance to

like stand up and throw a punch of their own, really. Yeah. Because that was, the U.S. I thought was kind of all over Canada and, you know, we're not going to do a full recap of the games or anything. These happened weeks ago now. But like, I just thought the U.S. was all over Canada. Not all over, but like really kind of dictating it a little bit in the first period and then Canada was like, okay, we're done with that shit.

Fuck you. Yeah. Yeah. And even more of the first half of the first period almost. Yeah. Yeah. Which, I mean, that's hockey, right? It is indeed.

That's how it goes. You got to take advantage of the chances. And, you know, the take that you're seeing out there that I don't love is that, you know, this idea that while Canada just got goalied. Yeah. That's what we've been saying was going to happen for two years now. It didn't happen last year, almost did. And yeah, like it's not, like I get that to an extent. Yes, the goalie is part of the team.

But if you're playing Latvia and some guy no one's ever heard of makes 60 saves. Right. And you lose one nothing. I get that you can kind of go, you know what? A win's a win, but also that didn't reflect anything about the two teams. Totally. When Connor Hellbuck, the best goalie in the world for the last few years, the reigning MVP of the National Hot League, yeah.

OPE plays Jordan Bittington. Yeah, that's part of how this works. You know, that's not like if Canada had won two to one and like McDavid had scored the winner, you'd be like, oh, the United States got forwarded. Right. They only lost because Canada has better forwards. Like, yeah, that's part of building a team. Sure.

Yeah. And that really is like what Canada was like the better team for a big stretch of that. I know everyone's got their deserved to winometer jokes and everything. Well, you can't be Nathan McKinnon saying that after the game. You know what I mean? Like that's the, that's the, you tell me who the better team was out there. I don't think he was trying to, you know, I don't think Nathan McKinnon, of all people, the psycho that he is,

is sitting there going, oh, actually people should give us the gold medal because we played better. I think he was just making a pretty obvious observation about how... Yeah,

I made the same observation, but again, like, I didn't just miss a wide-open net with six minutes to go. Did you get a teddy bear out of the whole deal? Man,

I want one of those little stotes so bad. Well, dude, I'm guessing... There's 20, there's going to be 25 of a money 20 of them probably about to land after they were chucked so far. They could be anywhere.

Just get out there with a butterfly net and there's a good chance you're going to get one. But yeah, so like, let's say the first take I saw about Hella Buck after this game ended. He's a hall of favor now. Oh, now? Okay. I'm going to read you, Sean, a list of all the goalies in the history of the NHL. Yeah. who have three Veznes and an MVP award before Connor Hellebuck.

Dominic Hachick, end of list. The guy we widely regard as the best goalie of all time. Connor Hellebuck is the only other guy to accomplish what he accomplished. And by the way, they also both have Olympic gold medals. Yeah. That they kind of single-handedly won for their team. That's so interesting, isn't it? Yeah.

What games are these people fucking watching? He's the MVP of the league. How many people win the MVP and don't end up in the Hall of Fame? I feel like we, I feel like two years ago there was a debate about Connor Hallibuck. And I feel like since then we have, we've had the now he's in conversation roughly four times. Yeah, because he, two years ago, that was before he had two more Vezanas. Yeah. Right?

Like, he won two Vezinas in a row. And then last year he wins the fucking heart trophy as the league's most valuable player. And people are like, you know what? I watched this one game, my opinion. Now. He's earned it. Yeah. Grow up.

This is, this is, this is my question for you. Where does Connor Hellebuck rank all time in goaltending at this point? See, that's, that question's more fun. Yeah. In the modern era, like, let's go like... Yeah, I'm not counting, like, oh, freaking... It's hard to do the Jacques Planck-Plain Hall thing. Yeah, that's exactly right.

But... If you were born before, let's say, 1970, I don't really want to hear about you're the greatest goalie of all time. Yeah. But I would say, like, he is... Is he moving into the Hasick-Wabruder Holy Trinity conversation? I think he has to be. be now granted i'm a fucking huge homer about this right like that yeah that's why i'm asking you

because for me it's like is he moving past pro door you know what i mean like yeah and and and and i don't think he i don't think you can put him past any of those three guys no i i i think it's more like is he number four on a mount rushmore now rather than that because because those three guys really are kind of the like i said the the holy trinity yeah you've got the next step down, which is like your Belfour, Grafier, probably Lungwist, Luongo,

some people might say Lundquist belongs up there with Halebuck as well. Maybe that's a conversation. Maybe you should try winning three Vessonis in a heart, you know? Maybe, maybe, but he did win in the Olympic gold and he did win.

Oh yeah, obviously one of the greatest goal. So let me put it this way. I think during the pandemic, I don't remember how long ago this was now, but we did a bonus episode where we did like the Mount Rushmore's of every position, you know, and then like coaches and GMs and all that kind of thing. And I think we settled on Trediac as the fourth goalie on there because because we were like,

there's just so many goalies in the NHL who are a clear step below those top three guys. Yeah. And, and then like how do you, how do you, how. could you put, again, like Lungquist ahead of Glenn Hall or whatever. I don't fucking know. So that's, I feel like I don't, you know, I didn't go back and listen to this, but I feel like that's why we were like, I'm trediac, I feel like. That's fine.

Because there's just such a clear division between the top three in the NHL and the rest. Now I don't think there's a clear top three, like top three. Yeah. Yeah. If you want to say Hello Buck's still a step below those. guys. I agree. But I think he's, I think at this point, at Bell for who, you know? Yeah. I think there's a definite strong argument to say, Hellebuck is now number four in the,

on the modern list. And it's a question of, is he closer to the top three than he is to the next year? Yeah. Yeah. That's, uh, and, uh, and, and, and still, still some runway left to gain even more ground. Including maybe in a World Cup in two years and another Olympics in four. Four, I feel like four might be tough. He's going to be like 36 at that point. But a World Cup for sure feels in the cards. But let me, let's do the bigger goaltending conversation here because I did see a lot of

takes as well about like this was always the difference between Canada and the U.S. was the goaltending. The U.S. has closed the gap with forward quality, with defenseman quality, but Canada hasn't closed the gap with goaltending at all, right? And if anything, you want to say, Hellebuck widens it. I think that's a totally reasonable thing to think. But, you know, I saw, the take I saw was that, like, you know, the U.S. with the national development program and all this kind of stuff, that's what got the U.S.

here. And maybe, and again, that's probably true for forwards and defensemen. But it, it certainly isn't true with the goalies. I think, I think it's, uh, I think it's, uh, I think it's, uh, I think it's Ottinger was the only guy who had any ND, NDTP time, NTDP time. Um, Helobuck played in the NAHL, Swainman played like one year in the USHL. and then they just kind of like still became elite goalies. Like I think it's a total aberration, I guess is my point to say that like the U.S. has done something with goaltending that Canada can't replicate.

Yeah. I mean, and there's lots of conversation up here about what is what is going on with the goaltending? Totally. Yeah. Understandably so. It used to be. And it takes a lot of different angles, right?

is it about how expensive it is? Is it about how the position is played? Is it about the fact that, you know, a lot of teams have two goalies and do they split time? Does one kid never even get to play? Why would you want to do that? The fact that it used to be Quebec that produced a lot of the great goaltenders in Canada, including Broder and Juan, and now that pipeline has completely dried up.

Yeah, it is a point of contention. it's not going anywhere. Because it's not like there's a next generation banging the door down. In fact, you look at a lot of the best young goalies in the league right now, and they're not Canadian either in a lot of cases. Yeah. So now, all that having been said, this whole country was just waiting for Jordan Biddington to do something so that we could all point and go, there you go.

That's why we lost. and that didn't really happen. No, I agree. Jordan Bennington was good in this tournament. He wasn't as good as Connor Hellebuk. No, but again, who could be? Right? Like, we're talking about, we're talking about a legitimate.

I feel like Bennington was like as good as Hellebuck in a short tournament, which is what you wanted. Yeah, of course. Nobody was looking at this going, hey, Jordan, we need you to outplay. We need you to be the best goalie in the tournament. You don't need that. Totally. Yeah. Be good enough.

Don't screw it up. He didn't screw it up. He didn't screw it up. There were, yes, you could go back. In any tournament, you can go back and find a couple of goals or he go, maybe. Yeah, Jeremy Swamond gave up the most egregious of those. Yes, and he will never be seen again in any of this stuff. But yeah, it's like this wasn't, like the goaltending was the story like we all thought,

just not in the way we all thought, because it wasn't. you know, Binnington stinks and Cooper refuses to, you know, put him in there. And I'm going to be honest, Logan Thompson was good in his one game, but he was fighting the puck a little bit in that game. Like I didn't come out of that game going, oh, he's got to be the guy.

I don't think, like, I'm sure there's, like, yeah, you replay that whole gold medal game with Logan Thompson instead of Jordan Binnington and maybe you get a different result, but I don't think anyone is, saying, you know, oh, that's what cost us. No, Jordan Biddington was just fine, which is why the Edmonton Oilers should be trading for him before the trade deadline. Absolutely. This guy knows how to win.

You know, it's funny because, like, I saw a ton of people. This is the other big take I saw from the U.S. winning. All you people who question Bill Guerrins, why is J.T. Miller there? You know, it's one of those things where it's like, well, no, what happened? What you're explaining to somebody? What happened was I put a blindfold on a toddler and had them walk across a busy intersection. They didn't get hit. So what are you mad about?

You know? Like there's a lot of question, there's a lot of question in Canada right now about did we bring a good enough defense, right? That's the real, there's no questioning the forward group. There's not really any questioning the goal tending. I, again, maybe you could say Canada. One of the three goalies Canada brought should have been different, but which one, you know, whatever. There's a lot of questioning about, you know, your Colton Pereco decisions and things like that, right? And if the U.S. had lost a one goal game that went to overtime, everybody would be going, yeah, I mean, like, J.T., they scored one goal in the gold medal game.

What was J.T. Miller doing there instead of Jason Robertson or whoever you want to say should have? been there, right? There's, yeah, that conversation absolutely would have happened if, if Team USA loses that game to one. I will say the fact that they brought, you know, it's not like it takes a genius to go, we need to bring some penalty killers. But their penalty killing was the story of the tournament, including that long five on three in the gold medal game.

Sean, can I ask a question about who your best penalty killer is? Yes, it is the goalie. Oh, wait a second. But also you go 18 for 18. Oh, no, for sure. That's pretty impossible. What I'm saying is the whole thing about like, and how dare you ever question the J.T. Miller inclusion on this team again. It's like, I don't know, man.

Come on. That's just my big take on it. is like we're just not you know if you if you win the Stanley Cup after you like you you know what do one of those like uh uh what's his name when when Nick Falino went to went to the went to the Maple Leafs like if they had won the Stanley Cup I'm sure the thing would have been like oh I bet you don't miss that first rap pick now and it's like I sure but like it doesn't make the whole process bulletproof that's all we're ever saying right like Yeah.

They brought James. Miller was... Miller was not good in the tournament, whatever you say. Now, Vincent Procheck, another guy who, you know, some people are kind of questioning, I think his stock went up. I think he was a guy that kind of shut up some critics of him being there. Miller, maybe not as much. Yeah. Speaking of stocks going up, you're here with this kid, Jack Hughes?

Is that the guy, is that the brother of the ghost meme guy? Yeah, I think it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. It's funny that he scored the winner and probably comes out of this with less cultural valence than the ghost meme guy. Yep. You know? Probably.

But, yeah, I thought he was fucking dynamite in this tournament. He was so good. And then, like, you know. all-time image him with the flag and he's got his teeth busted and all that kind of stuff. Like, this is what it takes to win, whatever you want to say. Absolutely. To me, he earned all of that. But again, the thing about like Quinn going like, oh, people question him, blah, blah, blah.

It's like, well, yeah, he hasn't been good in the NFL this year, man. I don't, you know, or he, since, whatever, like, he's been good, but he hasn't been this good. You know, like, he raised his game. I'm getting a little sick of this constant stream of players doing this whole. Oh, the fans doubted that the fans did this. Like, yeah, dude, the fans who pay millions of dollars to support this league. Like maybe let them have some opinions you don't agree with without indignantly marching in front of the market. And, you know, some of them, oh, it's the media.

It's not the media. You know exactly who you're talking about. Well, again, what I think the issue is. The fans doubt Jack Hughes. the fans doubted Austin Matthews, the fans this, this, this, okay, we're all idiots, what do you want here?

Well, what I think it boils down to is, again, if Hughes had been playing like this, all season, again, he's been perfectly good this year, but we think of him as like,

a star player kind of a player, which he showed in this tournament. Yes. And I don't think he's necessarily showed this season. He's, you know, very limited. And injuries have been a part of that. Well, injuries are the whole argument with him.

And again, Quinn said, like, how hard do you think it is coming back from two back-to-back surgeries, whatever it is? Yeah, I agree. That's a fair point. That's absolutely a... But that doesn't change the fact that he raised his game to a level we haven't seen in a year or two or three. when he had like that 100 point season in what was that 20 29 points 99. 99. 99, okay.

The Devils have never had 100 points season, which is a good season. Is that true? Yeah, never had 50 goals, never had 100 points, even going back to the before they were in New Jersey in the 70s. Wow. That's honestly shock. Anyway, point being, if he was, if he was playing in the, says you're third, 36 games that he's played this season. If he played those 36 games like he did in this tournament,

and obviously you can't, it's the five stars in the Tokyo Dome thing, right? Like, he elevated his game at the highest possible level, like, of competition. And you got, you got to hand it to him. Absolutely, totally agree. But. And also, I hope, like, if, okay. If you're doing the whole, like, yeah, but he was good all along.

Like, dude, don't step on a good story right now. This is a cool story. Guys, the number one overall pick, the next big thing, comes out of the gate, looks amazing, runs into injuries, runs into adversity. People start doubting him. And then at the very biggest moment, he scores the biggest goal of his life. That's a cool sports story. Never let the facts get in the way of a cool sports story.

But what I was going to say was, I would love to see him carry that into this final stretch of the season. I haven't looked at the standings in a minute. But, yeah, they're 11 points out. I don't know that even Jack Hughes. Are they 11 points out? Yeah, playing like a fucking demon. I don't know if that's making up 11 points. By the way, I'm having that moment a lot going back to the standing.

Do not, we have a standings quiz I decided later in the show today. Do not pull it up. All right. So, yeah. One other thing I wanted to quickly touch on here, it's very funny that they gave McDavid the MVP. Very funny. Yep. And everybody knows the deal there that for some reason they vote after the first period.

And they don't let you do the thing they do with the Kahn-Smith where it's like, if this, then that. Right. Which, I mean, first, who even does the voting? Is it a media thing? I believe I saw somebody saying that, like, they just put a QR code up in the building, like, in the press area. And if you wanted to vote, you got to. Oh, okay. They should have said me that, like, I would have done a great job with it. Seriously, I throw it up on Twitter and let's, let's have some fun. Is it, is it an I, IHF award? Because, like, they don't have, like. I have no idea. They don't have, like, the curler of the Olympics, right?

Like they just kind of, they don't go like, oh, yeah, the most valuable. It would be, it would be that Canadian guy who tried to fight the Swedish dude. That's going to be the highlight of the Olympics for my country. We're putting that guy on a city. Cues, that's cheating for no reason other than that we were cheating. Yeah, no, and again, honestly, if they had said, oh, the voting ends at the exact second Hella Buc makes the save on Taves. everybody's like, well, that's it then. We're done here.

Yeah. Like, I mean, and I get why after one period, I probably would have voted McDavid too. Yeah, the guy who was scoring three points a game. Broke the record for scoring the Olympics. And what am I going to do? Vote for Hellebuck and then hope that McDavid doesn't light him up in the second period. Yeah. But it's a dumb way to do the voting.

Yep. But also, do you remember who was the MVP of any previous? No, of course not. The MVP of the, only because I happen to see it, the MVP of the 2010 Olympics, I believe, the Golden Gold Olympics was Ryan Miller. So it actually worked in reverse that time. Yeah.

But, I don't know. It's, yeah, that's. I didn't know. Connor McDavid loves, Connor McDavid is here to lose championships and win MVP's. And he's all out of bubble gum. I don't, I don't know. That didn't work.

So they only started awarding it. in 2002, you mentioned Ryan Miller won it in 2010. Do you know who the other one, two, three, four, five winners? Well, okay, we'll take McDavid off the board. So do you know who the other four winners are? All of them, NHL players. 2002, I believe it was Sackick.

Correct. 2006, I would assume either Alfredson or Lundquist. Neither. Neither. A finish? Is that a salani year? It's not a salani year. It's a Finnish goaltender.

Oh, damn. Who was the finish? What? NHL player. You've heard of them. Kipersov. Nope. Intero Nidimaki.

Oh, geez. Okay. We're going to get that. Then Ryan Miller, as you say. Yeah. And then who in 2014? Did they give it to Kerry Price for giving up like one goal in six games? He was the goalie of the tournament, but no, it was another Finn.

Another Finn. Was this one, Salani? It was. Okay. And then 2018, another NHL player, for sure. But I would have no idea who. Any further. 2018 to 2022, didn't.

Yeah, this list actually doesn't have the 2022 MVP. I'll try to look that up really quickly. Wasn't this, it was Slavkovsky? No, this is, this is a guy who was no longer in the NHL, but still in the tournament. In 18, you mean? Yes. Yeah, I was saying Slavkovsky for for 22. Oh, um, I don't, I do not know.

What country? Well, he was an Olympic athlete representing Russia. Uh-huh. It was Slavkovsky in 22, by the way. Okay. Was it, was it Kovilchuk? It was indeed, Ilya Kovych. Nice, okay.

That's good. It's so funny. So if you go down goaltender of the tournament all time, Haschik, Hobby Boolean, Nidemaki, Ryan Miller, Carrie Price, and then 2018, Danny Oste Burkin from Denburkin from Germany. Why not? Hey, good for that guy. Hell yeah.

He can say he won the same award as Carrie Price, Dominic Hachick. Good for him. You think he ever, like, if he saw like Hasick and Price, like sitting at a bar, like a table, he'd just walk up and pull up a seat? Be like, hey, guys. I bet they would be like, that's actually really sick. They probably would.

Hey, we were all Olympic goalie of the year or of the tournament. They'd be like, that's actually tight, man. Good for you. Yeah. And if you ever do see them, just walk up and say you're that guy because they will have no idea. Yeah, you could be anybody. All right, let's talk about the whole, the White House, the Donald Trump, Cash Patel stuff. And I'll lead it off by.

saying this, I was trying to think of what I would compare this to, the Cash Patel thing in particular, because I don't know if people are going to like me saying this. I just kind of at this point go, yeah, these guys are all going to be psyched when Don Trump calls him on the phone, and they're going to be psyched to go to the White House. That's, I just take that as a given. I don't like it, but I'm just, that's just kind of where I'm at with it, right? I am too. And the thing is with,

apparently it was Bill Guerin who invited him in. Yes. If I've just won the biggest game in my life, like I'm spraying champagne and hooting and hootin and hollering, regardless of who's in there. Like I, he shouldn't have been in there. Yeah.

But I don't blame any players for that. Well, so what I was going to say was what I was trying to, how I was trying to contextualize. it in my own head with like what would I compare this to the answer I landed on was this if you were in high school if you were on your high school hockey team and you won the state or provincial champion I don't know how it works in Canada it's a big deal to win your state championship in Massachusetts and Minnesota and Michigan and all this kind of stuff um and your hockey coach was

really good friends with your high school's vice principal and they're like the vice principal's in the locker room and all these guys are like, yeah! It's like, what? Yeah. You like the vice principal? That's how I feel about it. It's just like, what? It's huge loser energy.

We see like Dylan Larkin, who had a great tournament and everything. Awesome tournament. Taking selfies. You're kind of like, ugh. But that part, and even the phone call with Trump, like, I mean, what he said about the women's team was stupid. Yeah, of course. Predictably stupid, right?

Like, I mean, you know he's not going to be able to do a two-minute conversation without saying something stupid. Yeah. I don't know what we, you know, he says something that kind of takes the general form of a joke and people sort of laugh and move on. I, you know, it sucked, but also, like, it's a bad look for all the players, but what do we expect somebody to do in that moment? that might have been nice if afterwards somebody had been a little louder sticking up for the women. But I'm just, I'm really interested. Because as we're recording this on Tuesday morning, we've got, so the team has been invited to the state of the union, which is tonight. And then some sort of White House event, which is tomorrow.

Yes. And I'm really interested to see which, if any, players don't go. Not because I'm expecting anyone to make a big political statement. Right? Like, no one's going to do the reverse Tim Thomas. I would be shocked if that happened. But, like, especially the guys on Canadian teams, there's a non-zero chance that, again,

this idiot is going to say something stupid about 51st state or, whatever, and you're going to get, you're going to be caught on camera, like, laughing and clapping or whatever. And it's... And you're Austin Matthews. Yeah. That's going to be a big deal. And, and the thing, like, with Matthews, for example, I, I posted this on social.

Like, there is a super easy win here. Okay? What Austin Matthews should do is say, I'm, I appreciate the invite. I won't be attentive. I've got to get back to my NHL team where five points out of a playoff spot we got big big games coming this week

that's now my entire focus that's it. You don't say anything political you don't get up on that soapbox at all. I get that nobody's nobody thinks that that's going to happen but

that's how you you do that nobody has a nobody has a problem with it. Yeah I agree yeah right like the And if he, like, the Leafs are one of the teams that play on Wednesday. Yes. If Austin Matthews misses that game so that he can be hanging out at the White House,

that's a bad look. They're playing the lightning, that. Right. That's not going to be a good look. And I know, like, I can already feel like the, like, morons cranking up the machine of, like, here we go. Canadian fans are just, they're just mad because they lost, and they're going to turn on Matthews and Hellibuck and Brady and all these guys.

No, but also don't be stupid in the next couple of days. And don't put yourself in a position where someone else with a long track record of being stupid decides to be stupid and now it's your problem. Yeah. Well, okay. So one thing I want to do is circle back to the whole like the women thing. They could have just, the whole team could have just done what the women did. which is exactly what you're saying Austin Matthews should do but probably won't right where they were like yeah we actually like a bunch of us are in college we're going to go

back to school we just missed two weeks a bunch of us are professional hockey players we got to go get ready to return to the season that is meaningful to us and it's you know part of what we play for blah blah they they did it and you know like I don't see a lot of all they're freaking woke yeah and maybe it's out there I just haven't seen it. Well, I'm sure. I mean, it's out there's some people who can't process the world without screaming that.

Right. And like, again, I'm not expecting any of these guys, the, the team USA guys to be like Ruth Konda forever. You know what I mean? Like, it's just not ever going to happen. I think it's, I think it's so naive if you think that it is. But again, it's the. you know, like everybody's playing this clip of like Jack Hughes saying one of the first people I thought of was Megan Keller when I scored that goal.

You know, like, and everybody's like that is so awesome. They had, they clearly had such a good relationship with the women's team, blah, blah, blah. And then on the on video, they're like, yeah, well, obviously we all, we're all laughing at this joke that they're that they're lesser than that. And I agree with what you're saying about like, it has the shape of a joke. So you're just riding high on the emotions and all that. You're just going to kind of laugh about it. But I think I can't remember who the quote I saw was from last night when they showed up at the bar in Miami.

But someone was like, yeah, people are just going to find negative stuff to say. It's like, you let the guys say negative stuff about the team you're saying. Jack Hughes had some comments. I think it was political. And it's like, yeah, that's, when you talk to politicians, people do tend to view it through political lens, man. The other thing, and again, to go back to the Cash Patel thing, it's like, would you have been yucking it up with fucking James Comey or whoever? Like, if this, if this had happened whenever the last, well, what was that? 2014 was the last time they were at the Olympics, right?

The DNA show? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if he was the FBI director back then. But first of all, you're not going to want to stand next to James Comey. That guy's like eight feet tall. He's going to make you look like a little kid. That's a good point.

But that's what it kind of boils down to for me. Like I, again, I'm not expecting them to say, now hold on there, Mr. President. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's not going to happen. What I would have liked was a little, a little more from Jack Hughes about like, yeah, you know, we're in the the moment, blah, blah, blah, instead of like, why is everybody mad at us? You know why?

You don't have to agree that they should be mad at you. Yeah. But you can go, oh, I get why you're mad. And that's why, like, again, if I'm, you know, I'm thinking of the, the four guys on Canadian teams. I know some people have said, like, oh, maybe the guys who play for Minnesota, too, but then, you know, obviously with Garron, that's not, I don't know. Like, the thing is already teeter.

Yeah. And yes, it's very possible you go, you sit in the audience tonight at some point he goes, hey, the team's here, everyone cheers. Everybody claps and that's the end of it. And then you go to a thing tomorrow and you just, you know, him and the bombs drop on Iran at midnight or whatever. You know what I mean? Like, you just, it feels like it's a hot button time to be. Special handshake or whatever they do. And that's it.

And, you know, but even then, like, again, if you're missing games to do that. that's yeah that's you know that's you know like maybe we maybe we wouldn't be saying this about Obama or Joe Brandon right maybe maybe we wouldn't be saying about this like the Tim Thomas thing is such a good analog to this where he was like fuck Obama and like it kind of in my recollection it kind of ruined his reputation in Boston or it's like just go with your fucking team. Shut the fuck up. That is what I remember the reaction being.

Sure. And I get, like, that is part of it, right? That, you know, especially for Austin Matthews, where you go, like, he's the captain of the team. He should go. Go there. Be with your team. This is your last chance for all of you to be together.

You've just accomplished something historic. Just go. Then let him go and let him have that moment without. And again, like, maybe it works out fine. or maybe you're on the front page in the newspaper in a couple days. All I'm saying is you are rolling those dice and you know what that looks like. There's no surprises. There's no, oh, who could have seen this problem coming?

Putting yourself in that situation. When there is a very, very easy way out, which is I am now laser focused on this coming in a nature. You don't think there are... As opposed to I'm going to a party and I can't play in this big game for the team paying me $13 million. Right. And like, again, just to circle back to the women thing. Like, you don't think there are women on that team who love Don Trump? Yeah.

They would love to go to this fucking time. Just want to go to the way, you know, it probably pretty cool. But he fucking stuck a thumb in their eye for no reason. Like, that's the thing to me is like, he could have just not said it. but he's like, I got to be like, ah, these freaking wokes are after me again. Like, I don't know, man, you're the president. It's a quote-unquote joke from somebody

who never has made a joke in their life. So it was joke shaped. Little Marco Rubio, all that kind of stuff. No, but those are insults. I see what you're saying. Sure, sure, sure. The guy has never actually said, you know, set up punchline and then had a laugh.

He just, his only joking is cruel, and that's what he was doing here. So I get why they told him to very politely. Yeah, like, and again, I think, I think even after that, there would still be women on the women's team who would want to, who would want to go meet them. But as a team, you go, fuck off then. How about that, you know, which that, and again,

that I do kind of feel like there's the, you know, like who's going to be the one, the one. Ruth Konda guy who's like, I'm not going to the way. You can all go. I'm not going on principle or whatever. Like, I'm sure there are guys on that team that don't like Donald Trump. But they're just going because everybody else is going. Now, to your point, again, why don't you just say we can't go because of work?

If I don't go to work, my boss is going to yell at me. Mm-hmm. It could be that simple, but they just don't care enough about it that way. It seems like. I did see this though. Isn't it a thing where technically the NHL teams have to give them permission to go to this? Because they might miss like league mandated practice time and game time. I would assume so.

I think I saw that. And to that point, the NHL teams have the opportunity to do the funniest thing of the world. They won't do it, but it would be so fucking funny. And we're like, no. Again, I wonder if like, like, Austin Matthews is like, going to the Leafs, like, you know, would really help me out. Maybe. Again, I don't want to ascribe any, like, help me out. I don't want to go to this to any of these guys because it's a great way to get yourself disappointed if you don't want them to go.

And again, just to be really clear, I'm not saying any of this from like even a moral point of view. take that out of it. This is just PR. This is just what is going to happen when in three days, Austin Matthews or Brady Kachuk or Jake Sanderson or Connor Hallibuck is sitting there going, oh, why is everyone mad at me? How could I have seen this coming? How could I have imagined?

Yeah, it's a pretty clear. And again, a lot of these guys play in blue states, you know? Like, I don't know. I don't know how it goes over in Massachusetts, for example. But maybe they don't have to care about it. that anymore because they want a fucking gold medal. Let me close with the, the, they just won the metal thing with, with this. I never want to hear the words Mike Ruzioni again in my entire fucking life.

Yeah. We did it. We're past it. We, we can hang, we can hang that up in the closet like a fucking suit that doesn't fit us anymore. The United States is the best hockey country in the world. It didn't take a fucking miracle. In fact, you know, like, they did.

it because they have the best player on Earth. Guess what? Guess what? If one of these guys wins the Stanley Cup, we're coming for you too, Ken Morrow. You're next. You've done. Yeah.

No, that is a good place to end it. Because I've said it for years and years. Well, it's February 19th or whatever fucking day they won the gold medal. Or, uh, no, wouldn't it have been the 22nd because that's, or the, yeah, the 22nd. The 22nd was the miracle on ice

and they won the goal a couple days later. But so every February 22nd, since I've been like in the hockey media or whatever you want to say, it's the 52nd anniversary of the miracle on ice. Can you believe? And it's like we got to do it for every year now.

Like it's fucking Arbor Day? Get a grip. Now we never have to do it again. But you don't have to do it again. But you don't have to, you guys don't have to, like, change your anniversary reminders. You don't have to, like, get your tattoo changed your February 22nd tattoo. That's, that's exactly right. With the eagle holding the hockey stick.

You, you just have a tattoo artist come in and, like, kind of mess around with just Mike Ruzioni's face. Yeah. And you put Jackie was on there instead. Update the 1980s font to something a little more modern and, you know. Well, you can keep. at throwback. They kind of wore throwback jerseys for the gold medal game, you know? There you go.

But yeah, just never again with this fucking 1980 shit. Never. Don't want to hear it. We got 2026 now. All right. Let's quickly do the injury report coming out of the Olympics. We know Kevin Fiala is done for the year. That's a problem for the Kings.

We know Miko Ranton has already been placed on IR retroactive to, I think, the 20th or something like that. Yep. But I saw last night that they're like, he might only miss one or two games, but we don't know. Yeah. He's got to come back and we'll test him. Regular IR is what, like 10 days?

That would be pretty. Yeah. And then they have the option to upgrade him to LTIR if it's a longer thing, I believe. So, but some of the other injuries we don't know about that seem like they're going to have an effect on some stuff. Sidney Crosby didn't play in the gold battle game. kind of not getting mentioned a lot, but he didn't play in the gold medal game.

Slipped under the radar. That is, yeah, we have not heard anything, am I right? Yeah. And I mean, that is potentially disastrous. That is not good. Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah. Depending on how long of a...

Who may have, like, they have some, a little bit of padding, if I remember correctly. I'm not allowed to look at the stand. You're not allowed to look at the standings. I think they, so, but yeah, I mean, if he couldn't play, what did you think of the whole narrative of, like, Sidney Crosby showed what a team player he is by not playing? Um, yeah, I mean, he could have easily been the 13th forward and just sat on the bench

and fucking smoke cigarettes and just hung out. But I think, let's put it this way. If they win without him, it doesn't even matter who was the 13th forward in that game. He only played like two shifts. Who was it? Oh, was it Ryanhart? No, Reinhardt. No, yeah, they barely used Ryanhart.

You're right about that. They used him basically on the power play only. It was Ryanhart. So, like, if he's like, I'm good. You know, I'd love to. I can't let Sam Reinhart get out there and be a power play specialist and all that kind of stuff. And then they win. I'm not even saying Ryan Hart has to score a goal or anything like that.

We are now into maybe we rename the Mark Messier, Beautiful Captain We Love Award to the Cindy Crosby Award. Yes. It's just that that is a thing that it's one of the first things mentioned on his Hall of Fame plaque. This guy, you know, he couldn't go. He bravely stepped up and said, take me out of there. And the fact that they didn't win, it just makes people go, I wish Sidney Crosby had been out there. Maybe things would have been different.

The Howard Sidney Crosby refused to play in the gold medal game. That's exactly right. No, it's, I think he was, I think he was right to do it in terms of if you can't go, like, you don't want to be a mascot. You don't want to just be sitting there. Yeah, you don't want to do the Victor Edman thing, which that was. That was a warm-up issue, so it wasn't quite quite. But, yeah, you don't want to just sit there. Everybody gets to, like, rub Sydney Crosby's head before they go out for the start of the ship.

Do you remember when the Bruins had that big comeback against the Maple Leaf, sorry to bring it up, but, like, the lore around Sean Thornton just kept going, we need two goals in seven minutes, boys, we can do this. And they were like, that actually really helped us. It's like, boy, how dumb are you guys? Well, but hockey players are pretty dumb. That may have Because Sean Thornton went on to become like He's like the CFO of like Teams now so he might have been the only one

Who's familiar with the concept of math so Yeah What's he up to? Didn't he quit the Panthers? No he I feel like he may have left the Panthers to go to like an NBA team Like the NBA started raiding the Panthers He might be on like the Atlantic Hawks or something now I don't

Wow I have to look that up But there was something Yeah he hasn't been with the Panthers since 2022. What's he up to these days? Oh, has he not? I thought he was, I thought he was, I thought he was according to, this is according to the

elite prospect stat page. But like I'm talking like as an executive. Yeah, yeah, no, that's what I'm saying. Wow. Okay. Tricking me into Googling, Sean Thorne. This is going to scrub my algorithm. You were right.

You were dead accurate. He is on the, uh, the Atlanta Hawks as the senior vice president and chief partnership officer. Wow. Huh. I wonder if he's still there. There's no elite prospects for the NBA, so I don't know. It should be. You guys should get on that.

Let's see here. He is, uh... Yeah, this is as of 2025. He is in that role. So there you go. Good for him. I'm looking, I'm literally looking up Sean Thornton's LinkedIn page here. which is a very weird moment.

You must have some connections. He is, no, he was chief revenue officer of the Panthers from August until September of, sorry, August 22 to September 2025. Oh, that's just not reflected on the elite prospect page. Maybe because they consider that like not a hockey facing staff position. Thomas Drance is a mutual connection. Yeah, I guess Dran's work for the. Transfer for the Panthers for years.

Okay. Well, look at this. I got lots of people I know. Who could be surprised? Everybody in hockey knows everybody else. Anyway. Josh Morrissey, we don't really know what's up with him. Not that it really matters in terms of a war or playoff races or anything like that.

Yeah, you wouldn't think. Unless Hallibuck comes back and he's like, I'm actually going to take that Olympic spirit to the final 30 games. of our season, in which case, look the fuck out. You know, you want to talk about 11 points out of it. There's one guy in the league that I would believe could make up an 11 point gap in 30 games. And it's the reigning MVP, the guy who's just now becoming a Hall of Famer, Connor Hallibuck. Yeah, he's probably, do you get like a boost when you officially become a Hall of Famer? Is that?

Maybe. Probably should. I would say so. And then finally, we don't know the status of Nathan McKinnon. So here's the thing. Speaking of playing injured and all that, everybody I saw is like, well, obviously he was playing injured. Okay. I mean, if you say so, he missed that open net, which is something I feel like a healthy Nathan

McKinnon doesn't do 99.999 times out of 100. Well, I mean, there was like shots of him kind of limping around. And there was also a shot of him throwing up on the bench. I don't know if you saw that. I didn't see that either. Which he was kind of green for a lot of this. Yeah, he looked a little pallid for sure. Like even in the handshake line or the stote reception line, I guess you would say.

But yeah, it's really strange that like all these guys. And again, I think there was a wide assumption that this would have. happen, but it is just kind of a strange assumption to be like, well, obviously all these guys are already hurt. Like, you know, the, the idea was Nathan McKinnon was kind of playing hurt even before the Olympics, because that's how much playing in the Olympics meant to him. I get that. But then that like all these NHL teams would just be like, okay, now we can put you on LTIR. You know what I mean? Yep.

That's, that's the most striking aspect of it to me. Like, I wonder, I have no idea how much time Nathan McKinnon is going to miss. Sydney Crosby is going to miss all this. Obviously, probably got hurt at the Olympics, but. Yeah. Yep, there will be a few guys. And, like, I'm curious to see even a guy like William Nealander was hurt before the Olympics. Yeah.

Went over, played. He, like, missed a few practices and stuff. Like, does he come back and, oh, actually, I'm going to need a couple of days? The other one that a lot of people are talking about. about is the Florida Panthers, right? Like, if there's a pretty big, they sent so many guys to the Olympics. And there's just this kind of pretty big assumption that they're going to be like, yeah, we're tanked this year.

Fuck it. We're shutting everybody down. Yep. Which is crazy to me that people are just like, oh, yeah, the reigning two-time champions, they're just going to, like, put everybody on LTIR, maybe make a couple of trades just to fuck around. Like, why not? But I did see somebody say last night that like all of this, all of the partying in Miami because all the planes got diverted due to the big snowstorm in the northeast was just like one big Matthew Cichuk recruiting party.

Oh, yeah. And I was like, yeah, that actually checks out. The Hughes brothers will be in Miami by this time next year, you know, all that kind of stuff. All three of them. Why not? Anyway While we take a break We'll be right back

We'll talk about the women's side of things And some other NHL business All right, we're back So I don't know if this got mentioned The US women also won a gold medal They in fact are a better team at hockey Like within women's sports They're better than the men's US team

That also won gold Yes They fucking dominated this tournament. So what did it, they allowed two goals in seven games. Was that what it was? I, yeah, it was one goal heading into the, the gold medal game. So.

Holy fuck, man. That, and, and I'll tell you, like, we, when we were talking about the men, it was like, well, you know, Canada out played them. And, hey, sometimes that's just how it goes. That's not the story in, in the, in the, in the women's tournament. Not even a little bit. The, the story of the women's tournament is the team that stomped everyone almost. Yeah. That's right.

God. I mean, you know, upset wouldn't even do it justice in the final. But yeah, the best team won that tournament. No question. Yep. Absolutely. And again, they're just like, I mean, they showed it. Like they have, they probably still don't have the best player in the world.

That's still probably Marie-Filippe Poulin. But they have the best goalie. They have the best defense. Defender, you're not supposed to say. defenseman, I don't think. But maybe I'm wrong about that. They don't have the best forward, but they have some pretty fucking good forwards, you know? And the crazy thing about it.

And, you know, I don't know enough about like the depth players on every women's national team to really get into, oh, they should have brought so and so instead for Canada. But Canada brought kind of an old team. And the U.S. brought, they certainly have older players Hillary Knight. this is probably her last Olympics, all that kind of stuff. But a lot of 24 and unders on the U.S. team. Mm-hmm. You know?

That's the scary thing from a Canadian perspective is... That's right. Like, again, on the men's side, it's like, all right, good game. You guys won this time. We'll see in two years for the World Cup. We'll see in four years for the Olympics. We'll be bringing Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini and Kail McCarr, and let's see how that goes.

Man, we didn't talk about Celebrini. Oh, you want to talk about, you want to talk about a guy who raised his stock. Holy fuck, man. Anyway. But on the women's side, it's like, it almost felt like this was maybe your last shot at this team for a little while. Now, so much can change in a year, let alone four years for the next Olympics. But, you know, given what happened in the rivalry series, given what happened in the round robin game, like, this is now, you know, It's been this fascinating two-team race for so long that, and we've always been saying, like,

it'd be great to get another team in there, it'd be great to get more to let the pack catch up. Now it's like, we never even really thought about what if one team starts to pull away on the second team. Yeah. That might be happening. Mm-hmm. No, for sure. And, you know, I posted about that, like on whatever day, the, the gold medal game was like a lot of the best players on this U.S.

team are, I just pulled it up on elite prospects. How many, how many of their players do you think are 25 or under? Oh boy. Half? 13 out of the, whatever it was,

like 24, 24 players they got to bring. Yeah. It's, and there, you know, there are a couple who are 26. Like,

like Aaron Frankel is 26. So it's not like she's old. She will be in at least one more Olympics and maybe more than that. But like, you know, if they, let's put it this way. If everybody plays till Hillary Knight's age, she's 36. If everybody from this team plays in the Olympics till 36, there are only two players who won't be coming back in four years. Wow.

Yeah, that's, uh, that's a problem. for the rest of the world. Yeah. Now, if you look up, if you look up like the women's Olympic or NCAA scoring, there are a lot of Canadians in the mix there, which is like, you know, a lot of, I'm pulling it up now, so just give me a second. But like a lot of the highest scoring play. Okay.

So the top three are all American. That feels like a problem. but then two of the top five are Canadian another one is like 12th blah blah blah and then there are some good Canadian goalies as well

but like even if you're even if you're saying like yeah okay like Lacey Eden's gonna be on this team she's she's 23 she maybe could have been on the Olympic team this year even if you're saying She's currently the leading score, sorry. But even if you're saying like, okay, well, Canada has some good young people coming.

It's like, well, like Caroline Harvey's still in college, right? And she already was the best player at the Olympics. So that is. Yep. Like Joy, how old is Joy done? Like 21? And by the end of the tournament, they were like, I guess we've got to put. on the first line for the gold medal game.

That's crazy. So it's a real interesting crossroads for Canada. Like what I would be doing if I was Canada, I would be less concerned about like the men's side of things. And I'd be going like, how the fuck did they blow past us this bad on the women's side? I don't know where they go from here. Yeah.

I mean, that is. And look, they had the lead for most of the game. The game went to overtime. So, you know, maybe you pump the brakes a little bit, but it is, it is a, like the next generation has got to get here and get here quick or else. Well, that's more what I'm saying. Like, Canada brought back all the, all the old heads, you know, like, I'm now I'm pulling up the Canadian roster just to see, like, what their age situation looked like versus, uh, versus the U.S.'s. But to me, I'm just like, again, the U.S. could bring back everybody,

but Hillary Knight and Kendall coin Schofield. And, like, that's the entire roster plus two young players. They could totally do that, right? Yeah, there's a lot of, a lot of women on this team are like 30, 31, 32, where it's like, next Olympics might be their last. you know, Natalie Spooner is 35. That, where does the time go? But like, yeah, you just, a lot of the, a lot of the Canada's best players, I don't

think you would say are on the younger side. You're Sarah Filier and, and, uh, uh, Sophie Jacques. Like they're, they're on the kind of on the higher end of the US age is they're 25. You know what I'm saying? Like, you can say that's just a roster construction thing, but I, I, I think there are there are questions to be asked about like who's actually who's actually set up to have the kind of dominant run Canada is just coming off, you know? Absolutely.

So anyway. Ain't got anything else to say about the women's side of things? It ended, it feels like it ended so fucking long ago that there's not a ton to say, but. Yeah. No, I mean, it just. dominant performance, man. Yeah, they're so fucking good, man.

And I hope it gives the PWHL a real boost. Yep. You know, like, I think. I think it, I think it will, obviously. But, like, how big of a boost is really the question. I don't, I don't want to see a fucking empty seat in any of those buildings the rest of the year, except for the Canadian teams. I don't care what goes on up there.

Yeah, that's, that's fine. None of my business. Vancouver Golden Eyes, I don't have to care about that. But if there's a single empty seat for the Boston Fleet all that year, you guys are going to be hearing about it for me. I'm pissed. It sounds to me like you're saying you will personally buy up all the seats.

Just to me and then... Frankly, you know what? I'm going to see if I can look at some Boston Fleet tickets here. Maybe I should put my fucking money where my... There it is. You know what I'm saying, brother? Oh, shit. They're playing.

They're playing Montreal at TD Garden on April 11th. Wow, the only morally good PWHL team, the Boston Fleet, playing their arch rivals of Montreal, Vitoa. April 11th. Oh, is that? I think that's when the Frozen Four is. I don't think I could go to that. Oh, there it is.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly when the Frozen Four is. Anyway, I'll try To get to a fucking game here Why not, you know? Hey, Sean, here's some NHL news. The trade freeze has been lifted. Oh, wow, that's crazy. The GMs must have been so busy

Over the last few weeks. How many trades flooded in as soon as that happened? Well, we have, there was a trade just this morning. You shit talk these guys. Okay. The beautiful trade of Julian Gotea. Remember him? Used to play for the Maple Leafs.

Remember this guy? Is that the same goat here? All right. I'm pretty sure. Is it the goat? Maybe I'm wrong. I think it's the goat, right? I don't know.

Fuck. Hold on. I got to look this up. Frederick Gauthier. Oh, no. Okay. So Julian Gautier was on the Rangers and the Islanders. That's what it was.

I knew this guy was an NHL player. Now, granted, he has not played in the NHL. more than one game in the last two seasons. So he had one game with the Islanders. He's an AHL guy. But he's going to the St. Louis Blues for, oh, Matt Luff. He was a, frankly, a good A.H, a very good A.HL player. But to your point, John, really funny.

You had all this time. And I saw people going, it's not believed that the Canucks or the Maple Leafs or the Jets or whoever have a trade in the hopper, but they might have one soon. And now two days later, it's like. Like, no, we had one AHL trade that I think they could have done regardless of the fucking trade freeze because neither of those guys were on NHL rosters. What a world we live in. Finally, well, before the standings quiz, I guess. One last bit of news here is that the NBA, there was a big article last week.

The NBA is exploring anti-tanking rules that will be in place by next season. and these are some of the rules that they are kicking around. I want your reaction to these, Sean. First round draft picks can only be top four protected or top 14 plus. So, like, you can't protect like four to 14, basically, is what that means. Right. And this is kind of a uniquely NBA thing that we don't really have in the NHL, but My understanding is there are teams where it's like, oh, I get my first round pick, but it has to be in the top five.

Otherwise, so we're going to tank like crazy to make sure we keep our first round pick. The other thing is that I didn't realize is in the NBA, there are protected picks where if the pick ends up being protected, you just don't get anything. It's not like the NHL where it pretty much. I guess you could do this in the NHIEL, but it automatically just rolls to the next year. Like, imagine a scenario right now where, you know, that Leafs pick that the Bruins own that is top five protected. Imagine if the scenario was, well, if you finish six through whatever,

the Bruins get your first round pick. But if you finish in the top five, you get the pick and you don't owe the Bruins anything anymore. Right. That would be some incentive to tank. Totally. Pretty hard. Yeah.

And that's, uh, so that's, That's one option. I don't feel like that one helps the NHL that much, but yeah. I do. I mean, you have seen more pick protection in the last few years. But I think it's interesting to be like, we don't have to give it to you if we're picking like 18th. That's a really funny way to do it. But yeah, like you say, it wouldn't really, wouldn't really like lock in so much.

Lottery odds freeze at the trade deadline or a later date, like a week after. trade deadline, whatever it is. Which, again, is similar to the, the objection you hear with the goal plan, which is, does that not just get you tanking earlier? Like, has the NBA had their trade deadline yet? Yeah, it just happened. They have. They have, okay, because I know there have been like, okay, so, I mean, it would be frozen by now. Yeah, maybe, because it's, it obviously gets more and more ridiculous down the, down the stretch, but, and we should say if people don't,

follow the NBA. Like there have been teams like imagine if the Rangers were like winning a game three to one and then benched their top line and their top defense for the entire third period and lost. Like I mean it's it's getting ridiculous how transparent it is.

As opposed to the NHL which does not have this problem according to Gary Bedman. Right. Not even a thing. Of course not. All right. No longer. allowing teams to pick in the top four in consecutive years and or after consecutive bottom three finishes. Yep.

That one makes sense to me. That one I think would check a lot of the boxes these people are looking for. This is sort of my old thing with the NHL where people always say, well, but we got to, you got to help the bad teams. And in a league with so much parity and loser points and hard caps and all that stuff, if you're finishing in the bottom three year after year, you're, that's either tanking or it's incompetence.

Yeah. And we should not reward either one. Any team can have a bad year, maybe, but. Yeah, look at the Jets and the Rangers the last couple of years. They go from winning the president's trophy to being horrible. So. It's over and over and over again. Yeah.

So basically it's the argument of the Jets versus the Canucks, right? Like, you don't want to be the Canucks, where you're like, you're just pretty bad, or the Sabres, I guess is an even better example, where you're just pretty bad year after year after year and then maybe you can squeeze in like one reason to be optimistic. But I think this one makes a ton of sense. But I also feel like, you know, what I didn't say earlier is I think the NBA could implement multiple or even all of these.

And that would like, taken in total that these. These would all become a kind of rigorous anti-tanking thing. Another option, teams can't pick in the top four the year after making the conference finals. So that would actually hurt like the Rangers and the jets. And, you know, basically what, again, this doesn't happen in the NHL. But like, what this is looking to prevent is like, okay, we made it to the conference finals, but it was kind of a fluke. and we actually suck and we're trading everybody.

Now, is it that or is it more the idea that, hey, if you were that good recently, you don't need a top pick kind of deal? This one feels very strange to me because you almost never see NHL teams drop that much in one year. Right. No, for sure. But it, again, I think it's a thing of like either you can fluke your. way to the conference final or you know like in the again in the NBA that this is a thing because like guy like half a starting well I guess two out two out of your starting five guys will just be like

I got I'm I decided I want to go play for the Lakers or whatever sure you know so yeah that that's just kind of where I think this is coming from then this is this is the lottery odds changes. Lottery odds are allocated based on two-year records. I think that just, you know, isn't that what they did with the Crosby draft? They, with the Crosby draft, because there was no season, they did like a weighted lottery based on your recent success and or drafting. Yeah.

I thought it was like they just kind of like looked at your, like you said, but like it was eligible. Anybody could have won that lottery. Yeah, but it was based on your like previous three years and not yeah. So I think this one kind of makes sense, but only works if you're also being like, but you can't pick in the top four two years in a row or whatever, you know. Lottery extended to include all play in teams. This obviously wouldn't apply to the NHL yet.

But that would just mean like there were more teams in the hopper that could conceive win the lottery. And then the one that I think rocks flat in odds for all lottery teams. So if you combine them, now you have 16 teams and they all have the exact same like one in six chance to win the

or you know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. I did the math wrong. But like flat and odds for all lottery teams, I think that just in conjunction with there are 16

lottery teams, that kind of effectively ends tanking because it doesn't really matter if you're picking first or your dead last, eighth last, sixth last, you're all kind of in the same group. But the way that tanking would then change is

you would just be like, okay, I'm going to trade with a bunch of teams I think are also not going to be very good. And you could have a team that finishes 16th, you know, in the NHL, like 95 points just misses the playoffs. And then they win the first overall pick. And then we all cry about how that's not fair. And now that team is going to be. Yeah, why do the Toronto Maple Leafs get to pick Gavin McKenna or whatever?

You know, when the poor Canucks are, you know, they desperately need the help. And now they're going to pick 13th or whatever. Yeah. Because you do, like, that has to be a piece of it, right? Like, you can't just say we're going to give flat odds for the first overall pick, and then everyone will just pick in order. Because then, okay, now I'm tanking for a guaranteed top two pick. That's still very much worth going after.

So it is a tougher, tougher call sometimes. For sure. So, yeah, I thought that was interesting. I wonder if the NHL would follow suit if that kind of like proves to work. The NHL will deny they have a problem for years and years and then eventually just caught the first time somebody shows them a solution to it. They're like, I actually had that problem the whole time. You got it. Finally, a quick standings quiz.

Sean, it's this simple. Can you name all 16 teams currently in a playoffs spot? Oh, no. Oh, no. Okay. Tampa, Detroit and Montreal in the Atlantic. That's correct. I'll come back. I don't know if that's all of them, but I'll come back.

That's it. Carolina, Pittsburgh, surprisingly. Okay, I'll come back to, I'll come back to the rest. I owe you three teams in the east. The West, it's obviously Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota. Correct. Put a pin in that. Vegas, Edmonton, Anaheim is back in. They are.

I am pretty sure Seattle is hanging in there. Correct. They are actually technically ahead. of the ducks right now, for reasons I don't fully understand because the ducks have 30 wins. It must be regulation wins. Yeah, okay, that's what it is.

The ducks have 30 wins overall. The Cracken have 27, and yet the ducks are behind the Cracken because regulation wins is 2118 Seattle right now. There you go. So I will say... So you owe me one in the west. I owe you one in the west.

And the one is going to be either L.A. or Nashville. I'll say it's the Predators. Incorrect. It is the Utah Mammoth. Damn it. Yes, the Mammoth. They're hot, I believe. They got very hot.

They're seven and three in their last ten. So back to the east. Three teams in the east, please. Three teams in the east. And I know Columbus is ninth. They're the hottest team in the league, but they're like right back. So I think Boston is one. I think the Islanders are won.

Yes. And is the last one Washington? No. Think of another hot team. It's not the Flyers. Oh, Sabers. I'm sorry. That's correct.

I apologize to the say the Stanley Cup winning. I think anybody in the world would be forgiven right to the final. Would be forgiven for forgetting that the Sabres are in a playoff spot, although it is obviously notable. So yeah, that that's it. Now, you mentioned the penguins have a little bit of padding. How much padding do the penguins have above the wild card? I'm going to say six points. Five points.

Okay. You're close. All right. Which is less than I thought. But, and there's seven, one and two in their last ten, it says here. That's crazy. As long as everyone's healthy, they should. Anyway, that's it for the main show this week.

Sean, why don't you hit them with the plugs? Find me at the athletic. That's where you'll find my writing, the newsletter, and our fun podcast with Frankie and SG, which I don't know what we'll talk about this week. Probably everything you deserve me talk about here. Which is getting it here first because it's your favorite podcast. That's right.

And then for me, you head over to elite prospects. I'm still doing college stuff, including I just wrote about, now did you hear about the big night that Gavin McKenna had, I heard he had seven assists. Yeah, eight points total. The most in an NCAA game since 1987. And with that, I got to tell you, I think he's back in the Hobie Baker race. Okay.

Because... And is he back to first overall, do you think? I think he kind of has to be. It's not just the eight points, although that obviously helps. but like he's he's been scoring three, four, five points a game, playing 26, 27 minutes a night for, you know, since the end of World Juniors, basically. By the way, we didn't talk about this on the Olympic side too much,

but speaking to tanking, speaking to first overall, the fact that like every star player was a first overall pick in that tournament, McDavid, Sellebrini, you know, Austin Matthews, Jackie Hughes, Jack Hughes scores the winner, Slavkovsky. Like, that tournament was a billboard

for tank like hell and get the first award. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. Unless you can get a goalie who never played high-level junior hockey in like the fifth round or whatever, Winnipeg got Hella Buck in.

Yeah. This kid played, he played like double into the NAHL into what is frankly a mid-tier college hockey program. And then it was like, but of course future Hall of Famer. No problem for me. But crucially, this

got, that big game got McKenna up to second in the country in points per game. And like, it put him right on pace with what Celebrini did in his one year in college hockey and Adam Fantilli did in his

one year in college hockey, they both won the Hobie Baker. He's like right around. He doesn't have as many goals as those guys did, but he's, he just made the, the last month of the season here incredibly fucking interesting. Nice. Which is all you're looking for, right? And so I wrote about that in, in greater detail on Monday. And then you head over to patreon.com slash puck soup, all kinds of bonus episodes,

including a mailbag we're about to do right after this. and, and this is, I think, fun, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I think, the, I think, I think what's leading right now is, um, remember some fail sons, guys who, their dads were in the NHL and then they, oh, that's right up my alley. Yeah. That's exactly right. You guys are going to have to talk.

Yeah. It's an 11, it's an 11 vote lead as we record this. And, uh, going to come right down to the wire. So, but yeah, anyway, that's it. Uh, check all that out, Patreon.com slash Puck Soup. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Thank you for your continued subscriptions if you're joining us over there. And, uh, that's it.

Have a good one. Bye bye. Bye-bye.