Puck Soup - I'm On Break

Episode Date: February 1, 2024

Sean and Ryan talk about the latest Hockey Canada fallout, Arizona maybe moving(?), standings at the break, and more.   Disclaimer: Sexual assault is discussed between 00:30 to 11:20 Sponsored by Hatch (hatch.co/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McAnneux from The Athletic. And while we finally have our news on the hockey Canada players, five players have apparently officially been charged for a sexual assault. And if you don't want to hear us talk about that, you know, for whatever reason you can skip ahead. We'll put a timestamp or something when you can jump back in in the episode description. but yeah, obviously we've got to talk about this.

So what happened was, I think it was over the weekend or maybe on Monday, Alex Foreminton officially surrendered to the London police, issued a statement through his lawyer that he will vigorously defend the charges and all that kind of stuff. Then yesterday, Rick West had over at TSN reported that the other four players would be charged. That happened a few hours later. those players are Carter Hart, Dylan Dubay, Michael McLeod, and Cal Foot, and all their lawyers also issued a statement within a few hours of that initial report,

saying that they had indeed been charged, would fight the charges, profess their innocence, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, so no surprises here relative to where we were last week. the last time we recorded, we knew that charges were coming. We knew that several players from that team were taking leaves of absence, but we did not know anything officially. Now we do, and now the legal process begins in earnest and could go for quite a while.

Unfortunately, for anyone hoping for a quick and decisive resolution here. Yeah, the report again from Rick Westhead yesterday was that due to backlogs in the Ontario court system, this case might not be tried until 2026, which is a very long time from now. Yeah. Especially given that we're into year six since the alleged assault took place. So now, I guess, in theory, the eyes turned to where. towards the NHL, who have not formally or officially done anything with this situation yet other than claim to be investigating it. In theory, the door is now open for suspensions, for contract terminations, and what have you.

But again, I wouldn't necessarily assume that that's going to be imminent. partly because I mean look these players are not going to be playing in the NHL anytime soon regardless of

what their official status is so I know some people might look at the salaries involved and saying that you've got to make sure you're not paying out millions of dollars to these guys to sit at home but as far as

it's not like there is some imminent chance of them returning to the NHL that the league needs to leap into action here. So we had a piece on the athletic about what the NHL could choose to do here or what the individual

teams could choose and long story short, they've got a pretty wide range of possibilities. The language in the CBA is somewhat vague which opens the door to

Gary Bettman or the NHL taking action also potentially opens the door to the NHLPA pushing back on that because of a precedent and what have you. And that's a process that'll have to play out. Yeah. I guess because we can't really talk about like how the league's handling it and all this kind of stuff,

let's first talk about now that we know everything's officially official and all that kind of stuff, how we think the team is handling. handled it, I guess, because, you know, as these guys were taking their leaves of absence, they kind of put out, like, terse statements. Terst might not be the right word. Brief statements saying, you know, we'll have no further comment on the time, but that guy's not going to be with the team for a while.

Right. I guess the other thing we've got to talk about is how there was one team that kind of handled it a little differently than the other ones, everybody else. put out just there, you know, we'll have no further comment. But initially, the Calgary Flames put out there that Dylan Dube was taking a break for mental health reasons, which, you know, I guess technically you could say that might be true. But it made them look kind of ridiculous a few days later. And I did see some Flames fans express a little bit of, like they kind of saw the warning signs or something like that. and they kind of said, oh, this is not a good look considering Oliver Shillington recently came back from a lengthy actual mental health absence.

And, you know, to kind of put them on the same level, had a lot of Flames fans feeling that it's, you know, a smidge gross. But as you pointed out to me before we started recording, I didn't see this initially, the flames did kind of correct the record a little bit. Right. They did. They put out a statement just recently saying that they had not been aware of the nature of why he was requesting the time off, which makes sense. I know I have seen some pushback on that. I've seen some people saying, you know, that they're covering their tracks now.

But it just, it wouldn't make sense for them to choose had they known what was about to come out, to, to, choose to cover for a guy who's not most likely going to be in the organization ever again and cover for him for two days. It always made much more sense to me that they just weren't aware. A player said, I need some time off, and they trying to do the right thing, granted it, and got burned a little bit by this. Yeah. So, you know, other than that, it's kind of tough to say, because we haven't had any official

announcements yet on on next steps from the league or anything so it's just one of those wait and see things because we're not even going to get the the london police press conference until next monday so like five days from now right so like while it is very easy to say uh x y and z should happen um it's just there there's such a i don't Like legal process, obviously, for the court systems, but like there's kind of a legal process for the NHL too. And I would kind of expect the wheels of justice to move slowly on this one from the league as well as obviously, you know, the two-year court. They're going to be careful. This is a serious situation.

And I guess, again, just to caution, if and when we see any sort of pushback from the NHPA, keep in mind they're not doing that because. they necessarily defend or support these players. But when you look at the contract language, it is quite vague, intentionally so, on what could lead to a termination. Yes. You know, the P.A. has fought very hard for guaranteed contracts. They don't want a situation where they leave the door open for teams to just walk away and say, you know, this guy's bad guy, we're going to terminate a contract.

obviously this is many levels beyond that. I don't think anyone would have any issue with never seeing these five players in the NHL again. But there's a process. We kind of have to be patient and let it play out as frustrating as that's going to be because this is going to hang over the league for a long time, quite likely. Yeah, I mean, that is the thing that I think the league is going to be really kind of keeping front of mind in all this is that they look bad in this. Like, hockey in general looks bad because of this.

And, you know, this feels like it's the start of a much longer process that's going to take place over. Again, years. And the NHL may want, I mean, I'm sure there's an appetite in the NHL to say, terminate the contracts, all four of them, because Furmington didn't have an NHL contract. Terminate the contracts, indefinitely suspend them. And then at the very least, as this story is playing out, they're now former NHL players. They're not NHL players. Yeah. And then we see what, if anything, the PA does about that.

But it's, I don't know, we know the names now, or at least the names of the five that are being charged. Remember, the lawsuit originally was directed at eight players. So we still have that whole element hanging over it and who knew what. And will other players be called to testify? Will they be involved? This story isn't going away, certainly. Nope.

But it's going to. probably play out frustratingly slowly for everyone watching. Yep. With all that having been said, let's move on to some other hockey stuff. I don't know. Again, hard to transition out of this sort of thing. Yeah, I mean, we said it last week, right? We have to talk about it, and yet I don't know what insight we can bring to this.

other than to say it's awful, and it's an awful look for the NHL and the teams and everything. Can't ignore it, but also... Shouldn't ignore it, yeah, of course. Yeah, exactly. But anyway, there is other league news this week, which is, let's start with the All-Star stuff, I guess. Jack Hughes not going to be participating in the All-Star game,

it seems like. Yesper Bratt has been named as the new rep for the New Jersey Devils, and Matt Barzal will be taking his place in the skills competition. There was a rumor going around this week. I didn't see where it started, honestly, but that Jack Hughes, who hasn't played for the Devils in quite some time, was really pushing to be in the All-Star game. Okay.

I thought that was very funny. Hey. He's like, yeah, I mean, I can't make it back for a devil's game. But, you know, hanging out with my brother in Toronto, absolutely. I'll see you there. So this is apparently, unless something has changed, my understanding is he is going to be in Toronto. And he's going to take part in the, like he was a captain at the draft. He's still going to do that.

He just won't. Won't play. Won't play. Which, hey, you know what, good for him, right? We always kind of see this when players are injured. and you go, well, maybe they should still go and promote the game and be the facing. I mean, yeah, absolutely.

If I'm the Devils, I'm happy to see my franchise player kind of be front and center at a big event. So good for him for going. I'm sure the idea of just heading down to some beach somewhere probably jumped out at him. But yeah, good for him that he's still going to be involved and preserve that, you know, the two brothers co-captaining the team. It's pretty cool.

Yeah, that is cool. The other bit of news, I didn't see this at the time. Maybe you did. I saw this week that the goalies who win their skills competition stuff, they get $100,000. Yeah, I think that was new. And that had been a question, right? Because there was all this talk about the 12 guys who were competing for the million,

and you're sort of like, yeah, but who, what goalies are involved? And will those goalies try? And what's going to stop, you know, I don't know if there's, goalies with T-bates in the competition, but, you know, are the goalies even going to care, or are we going to get that kind of the, remember how the goalies, remember they used to put them out there for like the penalty shootout thing,

and they would just barely move. So they're putting a little, a little bit of a carrot for them too. That's cool. I don't know if, I'm assuming all eight aren't going to participate. I wouldn't think so. Four? Can you get away with two? I don't know. But, yeah. throw a little cash there away. Why not?

It's just so funny. We're giving away a million damn dollars and also one-tenth of that to... The goal is. Right. Yeah. And I think we all agree that's too much. The most disrespected people in the league. These tall freaks who have ruined hockey, they should have to pay to be involved. Yeah, I just thought that was so funny that they were like, Yeah, we went between the couch cushions.

We pulled out $100,000. That's right. Yep. I got to say this. Those goalies better be asked to do exactly one-tenth of the work as these other guys. Or else they have a right to complain. Let's put it that way. Well, I mean, goalies do one-tenth of the work of everybody else during the games.

So I don't know if that's true. Put on your, pull your sumo suit onto your six-foot-seven body, kneel down, Kneel down in front of the net, leave half an inch over each shoulder for everyone to shoot at, and just stay there like you do all game long. Yeah. Look, there are definitely some goalies that are doing more than 10% of the work. Look at like Arizona, you know? Connor, you're going to tell me Connor Ingram's only doing 10% of the heavy lifting out there? Come on now, man.

Yeah, that is true. He should get $100,000. You know what, man? Absolutely. Can get more than 10%. Yep, that's right. The rest of you, freaks. By the way, I didn't have this on the outline or anything.

But you see all the, like, you know, there's like actual UC Soros trade rumors out there? I think there's speculation. You think that's wishful thinking? Yeah. I think some of it is. But I also think some of it is people are looking at the predators and saying that given where they're,

And given the somewhat unique situation this year where there seem to be so many teams that are one elite goalie away from being... I mean, you trade Saros to the Oilers. It's over. You trade him to the Leafs, Devils, or Hurricanes, and they become the Eastern favorite. Sure. So you look at it and you go, this is the chances of having this sort of ticket. to potentially put onto the market. This could be franchise redefining.

Sure. You should at least investigate it. But then you remember it's the NHL and nobody wants to do anything. Right. Including what I would think is the Nashville Predators. Yeah. You know. The one thing is keep in mind it's Barry Trots, right?

It's a GM who has never been a GM before, who's been in hockey his whole life. who just kind of stepped into this job. And he did, in the off season, did some, some weird stuff, right? Do Shane and Ryan your head. So, you know, maybe. But he's, he has been pretty clear that he's not interested in moving Saros publicly, which is kind of what you would have to say.

Yeah. I do think it's, we always get into this every year, right? There's always a few guys that kind of get thrown around his wishful thinking. And already you're seeing it, every article about this includes the caveat that, well, you know, it's probably too complicated. you probably have to wait to the song. And then you go, right, right, it was Eric Carlson last year. We're going to go, yeah, but in the summer, you're not going to get as much for him.

And then, of course, they didn't. So I don't know. If this was the NBA, they'd be working hard on a deal. And it would involve four teams and 17 players. And it would get done in a week. But it's the NHW. It's too complicated. Remember, he's got this year and another left on his deal.

Right. So you trade for him. You get two years of cheap, plus goaltending. Well, in theory, yeah. In theory, I mean,

you never know with goaltending, but you get two two playoff runs instead of one. You're going to pay a lot more for that now that you would in the summer,

but. Yep. For sure. Okay, the thing I did have on the outline here, for whatever reason, we're starting to see

Arizona arena stuff coming up again. I think Elliot Friedman had a report on it yesterday. On, I think Jeff Merrick's radio.

show where basically it was like, yeah, the, the NHL really, like, wanted something figured out by now and nothing's been figured out whatsoever. Mm-hmm. Which, you know, kind of standard fare for the coyotes, if we're being honest. And, yeah, it's one of those things where that news came out. And then I was like, oh, yeah, there was talk about Utah getting an NHL team just a week ago. that Utah announcement, remember that happened last week, minutes after the World Junior stuff, and a lot of people thought, oh, well, this is the league trying to push a negative story away. It worked the other way.

We all kind of forgot about Utah immediately. But they're there. Eric Duhatchik actually had a good column that I think just dropped this morning on the athletic where he's saying, look, just move the coyotes to Salt Lake. Don't do expansion. Don't go to 33 teams, which means then you've got to get to 34, probably 36, and all of this stuff. Just move them to Utah. It certainly sounds like that is a possibility, whether it's a realistic possibility or whether this is the league trying to push a little more leverage here with a plausible threat.

But, I mean, at this point, I don't know how many times you can, like, is there anyone in Arizona who's like, oh, man, that 30 years, years almost of this team struggling. But now the NHL seems serious. We better give them what they want. Right. And who there is still going, come on, we got to get another crack at this. It's just crazy. The other thing was there was, and I can't remember if this was before, after we recorded,

but there was an interview with Marty Walsh where he was saying, the NHLPA had saying, like, this is starting to get ridiculous. Like, it feels like this is something that comes up all the time. you talk about the coyotes and how much they've struggled is when are the players going to put their foot down on this? Because this is costing the league revenue, which means it's costing the players. Every dollar the league wastes is 50 cents of that comes out of the player's pockets. So when is the PA going to say enough is enough? And it sounds like he didn't, he stopped short of that certainly, but it was a more forceful comment on the situation

than I've ever heard coming out of the PA. So this, I don't know. I mean, how many times have we said in the last 20 plus years that, boy, things might be coming to a head in Arizona. But again, it sort of does feel like that. Because you're right, they were supposed to, something was supposed to happen. Like, do you, are you like me?

Do you ever get, like, just this feeling that you must have missed something with the coyotes? Like, you're like, oh, they must, they've got shovels in the ground for an arena, right? Like, did I just miss? And then you go, nope. Well, I guess what you're probably forgetting is they made an announcement that they were intending to think about purchasing some potential land maybe if the taxpayers vote for it. Yeah.

13 years from now. Weren't they going to figure out a way that the taxpayers couldn't vote for it? Yeah, no. Because they were like this. The taxpayers voted and they said no. So now what we're going to do is if we're going to take the ball out of their hands. We just do this, then they don't get to vote. Pretty brilliant, eh?

Yep. I just looked it up, by the way, the rink in rank is overstating it. The arena where the Utah Jazz play, which has hosted hockey games, seats 14,000 for the NH for hockey. Well, that's three mullets. Yeah, I mean, that's not nothing, but at the same time it is you know it's one of those things where it's like

that cannot be probably the permanent solution probably and obviously the the jazz owner Ryan Smith had had said like we'd be open to building an arena in that statement so you know as a temporary location I think it's called a Delta Center I believe

as a temporary location that Delta Center would work as a permanent location I would think 14,000 would make it not counting mullet of course the smallest arena in the league like even Winnipeg is bigger than that

if I'm not mistaken I think yeah just barely yeah it's like 15 and a change if I'm right and yeah I just don't think that would be enough for the NHL honestly not for the long term but it's certainly

Yeah, I think it's a temporary measure. For sure. And then, you know, the Ryan Smith or whoever gets to go to various levels of government and say, we got a chance to get the NHO right now. But gosh, you know, if you guys would only kick in a bunch of free land and tax breaks and all of the other nonsense that we know happens here. And with Gary Bettman shaking the cup right behind them. Yep.

It sounds like there's, I guess the one thing that is, is, new in the last week is when that statement got put out by the Utah group, some of us were kind of like, did the NHL know this was coming? Are they going to be happy with this? Is this an attempt to like kind of put some screws to Gary Bettman? And it doesn't sound like that. Sounds like the NHL knew. The NHL was on board.

Probably didn't love the specific timing, but we're absolutely okay with this messaging. So there is lots of momentum. This is going to happen, folks. It's inevitable, I would say. That was tough for me to get out there. But the other thing I want to say about this, this arena opened in, it says on the Wikipedia page, 1991. That'll be, that it's crazy to me that arenas that opened in the 90s are like old now. Ancient, not even old at this point.

Turn them down. Yeah, I mean, obviously, it's like TD Garden, right? TD Garden opened in the mid-90s, but they've done so much to the inside of it to make it, you know, more modern feeling. The one that always kills me is the skydoll, because that opened in 89 as it was like a UFO landed on this. Yes, it was the most modern, insane. And then like, you know, I blinked and the people are like, tear it down, man. It's such an eye. Look at it.

It's decrepit. It's like having a Commodore 64 in your living room. Like, come on, man. And I'm just like, oh, oh, well. Pong's pretty fun, though, you know. It was fun. I don't know if I've ever played like Pong on a console. Certainly played like, you know.

The next support, like me and Ryan. Oh, perfect. Play Pong and describe it to you. Okay, now the little squares bounce up back the other direction toward that big rectangle. Let's go. But yeah, one other thing here, this team has or this arena has hosted hockey teams before, or been home to hockey teams. The Salt Lakes Golden Eagles and the Utah Grizzlies of the defunct IHL. Remember the IHL shown?

I do remember the IHL. Cool league, in my opinion. Very cool league. Who's, okay, let me throw this out there. When you think IHL, what player jumps to mind? I don't. I have a specific one, and it's very weird. Radic Bonk.

Was he in the I-H-L? He was in the I-HL, the year before he got drafted, I think he was in, I want to say Vegas. And everybody's just looking at it going, like, look at this guy. He's check, he's got a mullet. He's an exeager, clearly. And maybe not quite, but. Good player, though. Radic Bonk, really good player for a long time.

It was all right. Was Did they hold the Olympics in this? That's a hell of a question. I wonder if they did. Let me scroll here. It doesn't seem as though they did. Where did they host the Olympics?

Like the 2002. Yeah. I understand. Peaks Ice Arena. What the heck is that? I never heard of that in my life. I'm just kind of co-hosted hockey. Huh.

8,400 seats, Peaks Ice Arena, though. Okay. That's not going to cut it. Nope. Yeah, that's, man, imagine, that's crazy to me that they had the gold medal game with, like, Sydney, or not Sidney Crosby, like, Mario Lemieux, Jerome again, all these guys, like. Yeah. And it's just like, yeah, I saw them in like an HL arena. That's wild.

They had the Peaks Ice Arena and the E-Center were the two ranks they co-hosted, and one was like $8,000. 10 spot. East Center is 10-5, it says here. It's two mullets. It's two mullets. Hey, that's probably how many they had in 2002 with the arena. You know what I mean? Yep.

Just a couple of guys who were hanging on a little longer than was fashionable. That's right. Well, I think Ryan Smith may have been on that team. Bring it all home. And now he owns the Utah Jazz. Isn't that crazy? It's crazy the same guy. Wow.

I'll say this. They get a team, Ryan Smith has to make the call to Ryan Smith and be like, we need you in the front office, brother. Yeah. Then it can be, you know, a real like, I'm seeing double for Ryan Smiths, you know. Exactly. They can get up to all kinds of hijinks together. Oh, be fun. All right.

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All right, we're back. And while we were recording the first segment, I got an email. My old buddy Mike McMahon, his newsletter, College Hockey Insider, it's called. And he is, I would say, the college hockey insider. Maybe a lot of you are going, and I don't give a shit about college hockey. Well, this is interesting, though,

because it is possible that this spring, the college hockey coaches, would vote, just broadly speaking, just would hold a vote on whether to allow CHL players to have NCAA eligibility, which they have never had before. And I'll just quote here, CHL players are currently ineligible to play college hockey.

The crux of the issue stems from the CHL allowing NHL players to assign junior age, or NHL teams to assign junior age players to the CHL after signing an NHL entry-level contract. Because the CHL has players in the league under NHL contracts, the NCAA has been steadfast for years that it makes the CHL a professional league. Therefore, all players in it are disqualified from NCAA hockey. There have been some exceptions to that in. in recent years, a little more wiggle room where, like, guys can play one or two CHL games and play in the NHL, or preseason games, I should say.

But, you know, it's still mostly a no-go. There were talks last spring, it says here that there was like an informal poll about it, and the bigger programs, like the, you know, royalty and, you know, royalty and college hockey, your BCs and Michigan. I'm just naming things. Teams, I think, would have said no, but said no, like the big name programs. And then the smaller

programs that rely on older players to fill out their rosters are like, yeah, that would actually be great for us. But the important thing here is if a vote is held this spring, which would happen after the NCAA season, and the coaches

approve, it would basically be rubber stamped by the NCAA if the coaches say they want this thing to happen. It happens is typically how it works. And so basically the idea is that it would allow the NCAA to treat the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL, just like it does the USHL, BCHL, NAHL, that kind of thing. Pretty interesting. That would be now, would that mean do you think players,

like NHL prospects transferring from junior to college, or is this going to be more about players who've already played out their junior years now going to college in their early 20s? I think it would be both. I think it would be both. So, for example, like if you're Macklin-Cellibrini, right, he played in the USHL because he wanted to play college hockey. and, you know, he accelerated his high school coursework so that he could be NCAA eligible at 17. He could have done the same thing in the CHL if they allowed him to jump to the NCAA, which, you know, is a, I would say, you know, if you're a top, top prospect like Celebrity. is it would behoove him to play older players as early as possible, right?

Because that just helps you get ready to play professional hockey. But, you know, you can also see the argument that, well, you know, he could have just been enticed to stay in the, in the WHL. I don't know who owns his rights, but, yeah. And then, like you said, the older players, guys who are. are, you know, have played all of their junior hockey. Like, there are a bunch of 20-year-old freshmen. There's a guy playing college hockey right now who, because of eligibility stuff that

happened around COVID, he's going to be 27 in May. And he's playing college hockey right now. So guys could play two, three, four years in the CHL and then go, you know what? I don't, I don't love my prospects. Let me go play college hockey. that could absolutely happen under this, under this. And, you know, I think that would be good for not just like, you know, the teams that in big conferences that tend to rely on older players. I think it could also really help, you know, your Atlantic hockey's and your CCHAs where, you know, they tend to rely on older players that, you know, they're getting them because they can offer guys.

time and opportunities that bigger schools can't or won't, you know. So, yeah, this will be, this will be really, really fascinating if this comes to fruition. I could really see this going either way. I would tend to guess that it won't go through, but there are fewer big-name schools than there are, you know, the teams that would probably benefit more directly from this. So if it happens, it'll be very interesting how the politics of it all shake out. For sure. Yeah.

All right. Let's talk about more NHL stuff. That was just a fun email I got. Now, Sean, did you see and have you watched any NHL hockey in the last couple of days? No, not since Sunday. When I was writing my weekend column, I looked ahead at the schedule. And I was like, oh, no, because it was very bad. But I will tell you, this is, I have been, I'm not a sports gambler.

People I think know that. I'm not a fan of daily sports wagering. But I've recently been getting back a little bit into playing poker. And the site that I play on gives you $1 free bet per day on sports as like a little crossover. And so I always take like some long shot. And yesterday I looked at the schedule with two games and I was like, I'm going to bet that both of these games are a shutout. And they were. I won. I was the only one to win based on that terrible night of hockey. What, um, one nothing game and a two nothing game? What were, what were the odds on two

shutouts? It, uh, it came out to about 40 something to one, which probably should have been even higher than that, but, yeah. Not bad. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a $1 bet, so it doesn't really, but I'm just, because I've been betting a dollar a day on various things and losing constantly. And this is my only wins. So it has done nothing but reinforce my idea that betting on sports is a bad thing.

If it's, look, if it's a dollar a day, you might as well just go with the most insane parlay you possibly can. Yeah. But the thing is, the thing that's been getting me is I've been doing that. I've been going like, let's go a five-leg parlay that pays out 100 to 1. And obviously I don't win those. But I go like over five on the parlay too. Like I'm just, I'm just bad at this.

And yeah, don't bet on sports unless they pay to advertise on this show, in which case you should. Yeah, we're not going to have that happen. Okay. That's fine. Sounds good. But yeah, for people who have. haven't been keeping up. This is the slate of games from Saturday night when there were 28 teams played on Saturday.

And in the previous week, there were a bunch of nights where it's like, you know, minimum like four, five, six games. This is this is the schedule from Sunday to tonight, which is the last night before all-star break. Blues Kings. Big playoff implications in that one. I get why that would be attractive to people. And then the attractive games come to a screeching halt. Yeah. Because that game was in the afternoon, too.

It was. Get it out of the way before football takes over. Yep. Cracking Blue Jackets. That was going head to head against an NFL playoff game that something like 60 million people watched. Yeah. What do you think the ratings were for Seattle Columbus? For Seattle Columbus.

Yeah. No kidding, man. Then the next day, Preds sends. Actually a pretty good game, but on paper, you're just like, I don't want to watch that. Don't make me watch that. Last night, blues, blue jackets, and sharks cracking. Yeah. Tonight.

Go ahead and do tonight's. Red Wing's senators, Preds kings, not a terrible one, and sharks ducks. If you watch that game, the police should come to your house, kicking. your door in, drag you away. You have a problem watching hockey. See, here's what I don't understand. This is, okay, so it's obviously the All-Star games coming up. There's the four-day break for that.

And then they build the buy weeks around that. We're back to the buy weeks. And typically what they do, they don't want the entire league to shut down for 10 days, which is about, I think everyone gets like, what, eight days for the buy? Yeah, something like that. They don't want the entire league to shut down. down. So they do some teams get the buy before and some teams get it after and it kind of overlaps.

And I get that. That makes sense. But they gave like 90% of the league the buy week leading up to. And then they kept like four teams around and they're like, you know what? Columbus, Ottawa, Seattle, San Jose. Let's have. Hey, Seattle was a playoff team last year, man. They sure were.

Show some respect. So yeah, that's, I don't know, I guess we just never speak of this again. And then next week when most of the teams are back playing, we'll all just sit around going, yeah, but where are the blue jackets? Right. Remember earlier this year, oh, wow, the senators really haven't played a lot of games. This is why. So they could run these guys out, just torture them for a weekend. Senators are going to have seven games in hand going into the final weekend.

I don't know how it's going to work, but I keep waiting for them to catch you up and it never happens. Yeah. Yeah, this is, I said earlier, if you watch that Sharks Ducks game, I'm mostly speaking about people on the East Coast because that's 10.30 start. So you're staying up to like 1.30 in the morning to watch Sharks, Ducks. No thank you. Like, what is the percent, like, how many people who don't have either family in the game or it's their job?

like, we'll just purely for fun stay up till 10.30 to watch that game. Like, is the number of zero? Is it possible? No, it's not zero. I'll probably do it. I'm not a little idea. Do we need?

We need to have a little intervention here for. Wouldn't be the worst idea. Go to bed, Ryan. Get a good night's sleep. That, boy, you want to talk about something that's been a problem for me lately. Yeah, I think I, maybe I know why. Actually, this could be the cure.

at the clock and go, oh, it's two o'clock? Uh-oh. What happened? It's going to be two minutes into the first period and you're going to be out like a light. It's just a little nightcap and PJs and tuck in that little cowboy. And that's, you're going to get, I hope, because. Look, I'd love to be asleep at 10.30 at night. It's just not going to happen. No. I mean, you got to look at your phone for two hours. I mean, when I'll always. So you're going to be able to do that during the day. When am I going to play connections from the New York Times, if not, at 1130 at night? You know what you do? Yeah. You need a half is what you need. It's true.

There are advertisers. See, that's how I tied back into the ad that they've already heard. No, I knew that. Okay. Yeah. But, hey, while I'm on the NHL's website looking at the schedule, I did want to talk about the, the, standings as they stand, I guess, at the All-Star game. A lot of weird stuff, I would say.

I don't know about you, but I was looking at the standings the other day, and I was just like, hold on a minute. The Bruins are in the President's trophy lead tied with the Canucks. People are going to say, this is me being a Boston Homer. I don't watch any Bruins games, really, because I don't have the channel that they're on. So I was just like, I guess they are 31. nine and nine. That's true. Starting to not quite run away with the east, but they're what, five points up on the Panthers.

With the same number of games played, that feels pretty as close to a runaway as you can kind of get. Ever since the Rangers sort of have slowed down, it's, yeah. Rangers four, five, and one in their last time. I mean, Bruins with whole mice through the playoffs, they're going to be unstoppable. I just between the big step back they took and they've had some some injuries this year and that kind of thing. I didn't think they had this in them. Although, I guess we did say, you know, at the beginning of the season, okay, let's say they lose 40 points off what they had last year.

They're still a playoff team, right? We did say that, but I certainly didn't see this coming. And in hindsight, you sort of look at it. go, oh, right, they have, like, maybe two of the ten best goalies in the league. So maybe we should see that. And two Norris caliber defensemen and an MVP caliber forward. Yeah. So I'm just going to say it.

I mean, this is pretty clearly. I think we can all agree now. Patrice Bergerald was overrated. He was a passenger. And now that he's not dragging that team down, they can really, they can really show what they're made of. Yeah, I'm just, you know, for all the talk about the Rangers and the Canucks and all these other teams, Colorado and other team having a great season, it's just like, oh, the Bruins have a better record that all of those teams except the Canucks. That's very strange to me.

I guess technically the Canucks have a better record because they have more overtime or wins. If you're somebody who buys into that theory or the narrative that you can't win in this league until you've had heartbreaking defeat, which teaches you how to win. Bruins looking pretty good this year. Well, the Bruins also have kind of... They've also kind of done the... We lost in heartbreaking fashion in the Stanley Cup final, what, three times now, two? Well, they did.

It's a while ago now, obviously. So, yeah, you would think they would have learned by now, but maybe not. Maybe now. Maybe they're like, they lost that game seven of the Panthers, and they all slapped their foreheads V8 style and went like, oh, okay. Don't play our goalie into the ground until he can barely move. All right, okay. I guess the other thing about this team is their top two setters are still Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zaka.

For now. For now. Right. Yeah, I mean, they don't have a ton of wiggle room cap-wise, and I don't know who they would get rid of to make something happen, but, yeah, obviously that should be their big target. I don't know who that got. Who's the big...

Are they going to go get Elias Lindholm? Lindholm's kind of the big one right now, the centers at least. I wouldn't want to be signing up for that if I were the Bruins, but okay, sure. Why not? You know? Mm-hmm.

But, you know, you said the ruins are running away with the Eastern Conference lead. I kind of think we're done talking about who's going to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. Okay. Wow. Let me go and look at that then, because, oof. It's... That's tough news for Penguins fans, because they are... Right now, Penguins fans are screaming at you because they're six points out, but they have three games.

in hand. So Ryan. They have to win all three games in hand to tie the Detroit Red Wings. So you're, okay, so right now the standings are two wild card teams are the Leafs and the Red Wings. The Red Wings have 57 points in 49 games. So they're the target. Right. The Islanders are five points back with the same number of games. Penguin's six points back with three games in hand. Devils six points back with two games in hand. And the Capitals are there too, the Sabers there, but I think it's the penguins and devils that people would point to as chasing down Detroit. The wild card isn't where these teams are vulnerable, or the opposite. The wild card is not what's vulnerable.

The problem is the Philadelphia Flyers who have been kind of pretty bad lately, and now they don't have a goalie or, you know, the guy who's supposed to be their starter. Yep. Where they have 56 points from 50 games. So the penguins are five points back with four games in hand on that. Yeah. Yep. The Islanders are four points back with one game in hand on that, sorry.

And the devils are five points back with three games in hand. So. Okay, so let me ask this then. So you're saying it's set in the east, who are your teams? Because I don't know who the eight teams are in this. the East. Is it the credit or is it, are you taking the flyers out? I think, I think the flyers are playing, are play, play well enough, generally speaking,

that you can be confident they'll be around it. I think, you know, if you want to say they're the first team out and like Pittsburgh jumps in, okay. But I don't, we know how games and hand work in this league, man, you know? The, the odds are, this is just how it works. the penguins are going to get like 55, 60% of the points available to them the rest of the way. And the flyers are going to get, let's say, 52 to 56% of the points available to them, you know? And if you're breaking it down like that, maybe, again, you can say the penguins are going to make that step.

But haven't we been waiting for the penguins to take that step for quite a while now, you know, and they just haven't done it? I see people all the time point to point to the penguins like goal differences. Oh, well, like, you know, they're not as bad as the record says because they have the goal difference. They're plus 12 right now. Remember, didn't they hang 10 on the sharks that time? That's right, yeah. That's a pretty good chunk of their total goal difference for the season, is that one game.

And they had another blowout win, too, if I'm not much mistake. So, yeah, they beat, so 10-2 over the sharks, 7-0 over the Islanders. Now, that doesn't mean, like, well, those wins don't count. But I'm just saying, if it wasn't, if those two wins weren't such dramatic blowouts, they're a negative goal difference team right now. And as my buddy, Jesse Granger pointed out to me yesterday, they're doing this with very strong goal-tending. through the first 50 games of season.

Tristan Jari, Alex Nadelcovic. They've been great. Coming in about 9.15, which in today's NHL is quite, quite good. Do we think that that's going to keep up over the second half would be the question? I can see a scenario where the process, as they say, improves. Yes. And even if the goaltending takes a step back. You know, that kind of makes up for it.

But, you know, the devils, they're a good team. Are they good enough to, here's the thing. Are the devil's a good team? Are the devils a good team or do they have the same record as the Capitals? Mm-hmm. That is the question, because the answer is they do have the same points percentage as the Capitals. Yeah, 543. That's not good enough.

I'll just say, I'm looking at Dom's projections still have. have the penguins as a 75% chance to make the playoffs. Wow. And then it's Detroit, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and the Islanders all ranging from 30 to 38. So basically he's got Tampa's at 86, so not quite a lock. The other six Eastern teams he has at 97 plus, so pretty much locks. So more or less seven spots accounted for. Pittsburgh is the big favorite, and then everyone else.

mixed in for what's left of that. Yeah, I mean, that's surprising to me. And it has been for a little while now. I think Moneypuck has the penguins also. 58 and a half, I just looked at it. 58 and a half, okay. Yeah. Five sure-think spots for Dom.

I said six, but it's five. So there's a couple of spots open, but Tampa probably has one. Pittsburgh probably has one, and then the rest are up for grabs. So the Flyers and Red Wings dropping out. Again, so yeah, I guess long story short, I would say not settled. I think we're still.

Yeah, I guess now that we talk about it, I guess you're right. It feels more settled than it probably is. I guess I'll say that. And then you look in the West and it's six teams locked in. One spot has been open for a while, but now maybe two, because the kings of completely falling apart. Mm-hmm. So the two wild cards open there.

Right now, as of today, Kings, Blues, Predators all tied, cracking right behind them and the coyotes in the flame. Man, I thought the flames were going to make that push, and then they sort of flound. You want to talk about a team that's got a bad record despite great goaltending? And what are they going to do at the deadline? Are they going to get better? Are they going to get significantly worse?

You know, I was listening to 32 thoughts. the other day. And they were like, you know, one thing I would bet I would bet the flames do over the all-star break is really like try to get Noah Hannafin to really think about what he wants his future to be. Give it up, man. What are you talking? You're going to extend Noah Hannafin?

How many guys from this stinky team do you have to have locked in for six years or whatever? It's crazy to me that they would do that. it would not surprise me at all. I'm not disagree. No, this is the NHL. This is the NHL. 100%. But it's just like, how many of these guys do you want to lock in?

Where despite great goaltending from Markstrom, at least, the other goalie is not so much, you're just like, well, look, if Blake Coleman's leading us in scoring, we're right there. We're just one guy away. And, like, they're a dead even 500 team now, it says in the standings. 22, 22, and 5. Do you know how bad you have to be to be a 500 team in the NHL? To be on point, on pace for 82 points, I don't know, I don't know why on earth you would be like, yeah, we got to lock this down. We got to keep this group together. Get everybody out of there.

It's insane. It's insane to me. they would do that. You would think. When you're looking up in the standings at the Arizona Coyotes and a recent expansion team, and you're like, yeah, but I mean, if we just keep this together, what are you talking about? I just, that makes no sense to me. Anyway, let's talk about that wild card situation because the Kings, as you say, just seem to be sliding straight into the toilet here.

They are two, five, and three in their last 10 games. And the way they're being talked about, you would have said, surely they're 010 and O. Like they feel dead in the water. Mm-hmm. And you got to wonder if they use the All-Star Break to really, really look at making a coaching change. Because from everything we understand, Rod Blake is a Todd McClellan guy in fight, and vice first. right?

Like, those two guys are just, like, joined at the hip. They don't want to make this change. Mm-hmm. But when you have players, like, calling each other out in the media and stuff, I don't know what the answer is. Yeah. And as I pointed out, I think McClellan, I wrote this on the weekend. I don't have it in front of me, but I think McClellan is the fifth longest serving coach in the NHL. That sounds right.

The other four guys have all won at least seven playoff rounds with their teams. and he has never won a playoff round with the Kings. Now, he came in in a rebuild. Absolutely. But it's not like he's got a great track record of success with this team to protect him. If his GM decides he wants to do the easy thing. Now, the Kings have already been, are already on their buy. So they could have done it already if they were going to.

But certainly... Yeah, I don't know if you do. do it before the All-Star break. It's a weird, weird position to put your players in, I would think. Yeah, maybe. They come back and it's just like, you know, one day you come in and you find out your teacher is going to be out for the rest of the year or whatever, you know. Yeah, it's a very strange one because I've, I mean, I thought the Kings, I bought it.

It's taken until this year and I finally bought in and they're like, these guys are legit. That's what happened to me with the Islanders a couple of years ago. I was like, okay, I finally buy it. Two straight Eastern Conference finals. Yeah. And they're like, no, we're actually, we're terrible. You wouldn't believe how bad we are, bad. My bad.

So, yeah, they are tied with the St. Louis Blues in total points, but actually have an edge and points percentage, although the blues, rather the opposite, are surging right now. They're, they seem like they figured something. something out looks you know they're doing i guess what you would call the st louis blues thing of oh you thought we were finished we're actually just getting started right on our way to a stanley cup yep which by the way i mean if you're the kings you've already been passed by like the oilers make a coaching change and blow past you now here's the blues who have made a change catching you i mean that almost adds to to that situation But yeah, I mean, I don't, I'm not buying the blues right now, but I'm, I'm watching this with interest.

That's exactly right. I'm interested. The blues are doing wacky things. So I'm, I'm into it. I mean, I would say that's true of anybody doing wacky things. Yeah. I don't know. Like, I hate when people are like, the league's better when Chicago or the Rangers are good.

And it's like, I don't know, I feel like it's the same to me. Somebody's good, you know. Fair enough, yeah. But the, you know, the blues, again, you got to give them credit. They have the track record of, oh, it doesn't matter how bad we are in, like, December and January. We're really going to have it figured out, you know, February, March, April, et cetera. But also tied with them, again, in total points, not points percentage, is the Nashville Predators? are the Nashville Predators?

Yeah, I guess you'd say are. They're also right there. They obviously, they've played more games than L.A. and the Blues. But this game tonight, this King's Fred's game, will be very important for both of them. Because if the Predators win, obviously they move kind of comfortably into that playoff spot because that's two points the Kings can't. can't get now in addition to, like, they burn a game in hand and get the benefit. I don't know. I think that's...

The old four-point game. Yep. I think that's most watch tonight. I disagree. But it's certainly the best of the this week's games. Yeah. Oh, man. What a...

I don't know, man. I don't know what's happening. I mean, other than you look at the Kings and you're like, yeah, Cam Talbot was comeback player of the year for two plus months. months and now he is not. So that's a big part of it. They've also had some injuries and there's there's the, I don't know if you've seen this,

but it feels like the Pierre-Luc de Bois chatter has ramped up. Really hasn't worked out for that. This guy being the, yeah, everything he touches turns to misery sort of guy. So, yeah, I don't know, man. Kings are. a very interesting team to watch in the second half. Yep, for sure. I mean, probably.

Not watching. Well, I'm an Eastern guy, right? I don't, I don't know. I've never watched a Western hockey team in my life. Please, man. We should also mention Seattle. They've been kind of up and down a little bit lately, but they're at 52 points in 50 games. They're, in theory, two points out of it in actual practice.

It's more like four or five. Better than I thought they're. be, that's for sure. Yep. Doesn't mean they're good. Maybe a little too quick to write them off, but. A little, I think, is exactly right. That's as far as we'll go.

Yeah, and then Arizona and Calgary, like we mentioned, and boy, Minnesota, sub 500 at the All-Star break. I don't think a lot of people saw that one coming. No. No, and they sort of, we talked about getting the coaching bounce, and they kind of had it. And then it went away. They extremely didn't, yeah. So I'm just looking at the playoff odds for the West, six locks. Dom still got the Kings at 86%.

That could be sort of an artifact of the model, just really liking the Kings. But. Yeah. And then Predators, 38%, flames and Cracken in the 20s, wild. And then the blue is all the way down at 10%. That's a little bit of a surprise. but. Again, just for reference,

Moneypuck has the Kings at almost 86%. So the models still like the Kings a lot. Yep. We'll see. And then, yeah, Preds are next at 43.7, then Seattle 41, 1, St. Louis 171. But again, I think that's,

that number for the Blues is kind of an artifact of didn't like the old coach. Maybe. I guess we'll see. Yeah, then the other thing kind of caught my eye this week is, you know, your points leaders. I think we've talked more than enough about Nathan McKinnon and Nikita Kuturov this year. But how about Austin Matthews, 40 goals at the All-Star break? I couldn't look this up very easily. I don't know if you could. When's the last time someone had 40 goals at the break?

And don't say last year or something. No, I could not look that up. I use the hockey reference stathead tool, but it doesn't have the All-Star break as a factor. But I did look up, the Leafs have played 47 games. So I looked up guys who had 40 goals or more in their team's first 47 games. And do you want to take a guess that's when the last time it happened? Last time it happened, I'm going to guess it was like,

Could it have been the year Stamco's had 60? No, not even that. Not Ovechkin's never done it. It's the mid-90s penguins. Yager did it in 97 and 96. Mario did it in 96. Two guys did it in 92-93, which is interesting because it's McGilney and not Salani. You would assume the other 70 guy, but it was Pavil Burray had 43 goals through his team's first 47

games that year. That's a pretty good player, huh? Brett Hall, three years in a row. Lafontein, Lemieux, the weird Bernie Nichols year. Eiserman, Lemieux, you get to Gretzky. Yeah. Curry did it once, bossy, Charlie Simmer, Esposito, Bobby Hall, Maurice Richard, and then you're into the 20s.

So, not a long list of guys. And virtually all of them slam dunked first ballot Hall of Famers, except for Bernie Nichols, Charlie Simmer, and, of course, Alexander McGilney who does not not a hall of fame possibly can't put that guy in the hall of fame

no no but how about Sam Reinhard only three goals behind Austin Matthews crazy that's got to be out there with like the all time

unexpected like I mean this is a guy who was not on the board on any Rocket Richard voting I'm sure or betting this year

now even available. I don't even imagine when he would have been added. Guys having a... This is an all-time or contract year, man. Yep. Good for him. Can't wait. Can't wait until he signs for $3 million a year less than everyone is expecting because he just likes being in Florida. I don't know if you know this. They don't pay taxes down there. No, that's never come up. They don't mention that. Yeah.

Yeah, and again, I mentioned it earlier, but like David Pasternak, third in the league in points. A mile behind Kucharov and McKinnon, obviously. That's a two-man race. But again, would you have said, oh, yeah, Pasternak, there's a guy. He'll have more points than Connor McDavid at the break. J.T. Miller will have as many points as Connor McDavid at the break. J.T. Miller is, man, that was one that I feel like it was pretty close to universally everyone being wrong on that. guy with that contract. I remember I was saying, like, maybe I'm just projecting, but I was like,

yeah, that's a terrible contract. He's going to be, they should have traded him before the contract kicked in and the no move clause and all of that. Well, I mean, you know, he's been a beast. He's been awesome. Now, should they have traded that contract? I'd still say, yeah. But, you know, hey, you can't knock the guy. Why don't we wrap up today's show with the athletic, put out their annual players poll and I have not seen it. So Sean is just going to read to me.

Just going to quiz them. I got to tell you, I got some pretty good guesses here. Yeah. Nothing here is really shocking, I should say. But let's start with best player in the league. It's not going to shock you who it is, but give me the name and what you think the percentage was. Connor McDavid

75%. 69.06%. That was close. Who do you think is next? There's only two other guys that got higher than 2%. No, Kilmacar. Macar and Crosby are tied for fourth. McKinnon second.

Yeah. And somewhat surprisingly, Coutcher of third. And I say somewhat surprisingly just because, you know, he's a winger. But best goalie in the league. 45% picked this guy. That's right. Carry Price.

Yeah. See, so you saying carry price makes me think it's someone I don't think it's going to be. So I'm going to say it's not any of Hellebuck or the New York goalies. Hellebuck second, Sorokin tied for third, Shasturkin fifth. But yes, as per the Kerry Price rule, they are. Players are always a few years behind on the goaltending, let's just say. A few years behind. Then it has to be Vasilevsky.

Vasilevsky, 45%. So, yeah. Most underrated player in the league, I'll tell you, the winner here was other with 22%. So there's no consensus here. But take a while guess who is the number one most underrated player in the league. Oh, geez, could it possibly be Sasha Barkov? For the ninth year in a row. He is or whatever it is.

Yes, he's up there. You want to throw it any other names? Again, this is everyone. Barkov's at 12.5. Everyone else is in single digits. I would have no idea who they're going to say. Sam Ryanhart's there. Oh, sure.

Yeah, he's got all those goals. Yeah, Miko Ratonin is actually a really good answer. Joel Ericksonek is like a classic underrated guy. Yeah, that's like if you ask me who's underrated, I'd say Joel Ericksonek. Yeah. Most overrated player in the league. Again, other is the leading answer, but do you want to take a crack at who the players think is overrated? Got to be Trevor Zegris, right?

He is, yeah, 12.8%. He's just the new P.K. Suban. Yeah. Although he doesn't have Suban's track record. That's for fucking sure. The next guy is a defenseman. Most overrated player in the league. I don't think is overrated anymore.

Maybe most overpaid. But they've got Darnell Nurse. which is weird. Matthew Kachuk tied with Jason Robertson next. That one surprised me. But Kachuk... That is two guys that surprised me, yeah. Kachuk, I can see because he just got so blown up in the playoffs.

Absolutely. That I could see you saying, like, anything short of Hart Trophy is overrated for him. But Jason Robertson, I was surprised. And then Jonathan Hubert O, who I don't know was overrated by anyone anymore. Brad Trillivings like, hey, wait a minute. And Alexander Ovechkin shows up as well. And I believe the only guy to get multiple answers for both overrated and underrated is Ryan Nugent Hopkins. Yeah, I think that's probably a product of he had 100 points last year.

Yeah. And Zach Hyman this year is like, yeah, see how easy it is? And then two guys that I maybe would have thought would have gotten more votes, Pierre Luke de Blas and Patrick Lining who is now of course on who is now of course out and we wish him the best

but we do yeah who's the player in the league whose face you most want to punch there was a runaway winner here is it Brad Marchand no he was he was second among players but this is a

this is a guy that based on this season I think is moving to the top of the list Marchand second Kachuk third Michael Bunting Connor Garland I'm a little surprised

Hmm Based on this year People keep getting suspended For trying to kill this guy Oh Nick Cousins Yeah okay Mm-hmm Best ref

Wes McCauley who cares Worst ref Justin St. Pierre Which is interesting only because he's not even officiating this year he's injured. Best jerseys in the league. This is going to shock you.

The top six, all the original six teams. Yeah. We love that, don't we? The only thing I guess I would say to that is they're the teams that don't mess with it. You know what I mean? I guess Toronto is the one that does it the most, but they mostly keep it simple. Yeah. But like nobody

There are very Did you see this Tampa jersey where it's just like a skull and crossbones basically? Or skull and swords maybe? Pirate kind of deal, yeah. Yeah, and like I understand Tampa was a, they have a pirate museum down by the arena in Tampa Bay. So like, you know that. And honestly,

if it didn't have that, the lightning logo like on this on like tattooed on the skull, I think that would be a pretty sick logo. Yeah. Well, I remember Tampa Bay's also got the Buccaneers as their NFL teams. Oh, that's true. Yeah. I know that a little bit, I think.

But my only design critique on that is I would have gone like crossed swords, but one of the sword is a lightning bolt, like the lightning bolt from their logo instead of. And that would have fixed everything. That would have made it like a top 10 jersey in the league for me, maybe. But yeah, of course. They're always just going to say the. original six. I did see, I didn't see the article, but I did see on

our discord people were saying were making fun of the athletic because when they were talking about I mean, you're going to say that this they got quotes from everybody apparently on like, oh, this is why Connor McDavid's the best player in the league. This is why this guy's the most

overrated player in the league, whatever. They didn't let the players say why they thought the worst refs in the league. where the race is in the league. And the explanation was, quote, the athletic supports referees and didn't want to give players this space to take individual pot shots.

Dork mode. That sucks. The athletic would like to remind us that a teacher didn't give us homework. Shut up. Yeah. I didn't have anything to do with that, so I'm just going to.

And then the other two, Moving on. Favorite road city, shockingly, Vegas, then New York. Huh, you don't say. Least favorite, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Buffalo. Yeah, that all sounds right. Yep. Sounds like they nailed it.

Well, there you go. That's the player poll. I did pretty good on that, I think. You did well, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, why don't you hit them with the plugs? We'll get the hell out of here. Find me on the athletic.

I'm heading down to Toronto tomorrow for the All-Star break, so I will be covering all of that stuff. Watch as I struggle to make that all feel interesting. I think because of the skills, the games will be whatever. Although, you know what, they're doing the picking the teams of the game. I'm excited for this All-Star game. I don't know. I can't pretend.

I can't pretend like I'm not. This is going to be fun, or the most fun it's been in quite a while, we'll put it that way. Skills competition will be fun. Guys will be trying. I'm open so. There you go.

Yeah. Anything else to plug? You got any articles that came out recently that are? Not really. Okay, great. I'll plug EP Rinkside then. We just put out our latest draft rankings So you can see if you're a San Jose or Chicago fan

Those those I don't know We didn't talk about this when we talked about the standings But nobody else is even close to those To how bad those two teams are in the league So Those feel like the teams that'll be Going for Macklin Celebrini And maybe Cole Iserman

By the way, can I just point out only because somebody pointed it out to be Kerry Price did get one vote in the poll for best goaltender. That's extra That's got to be a bit, right? Do me a big favor.

Find out who the guy is that said that. Like ask whoever you got to ask. I got to know that's the funniest player in the NHL. Yep. That guy rocks. He's got it all figured out. That rules. Yeah, EP ringside.

we had a draft guide coming out. I just had a big story. I went to both BC BU games this weekend. It's the first time ever that two Eastern college hockey teams have been number one and number two in the country. When they played each other, BC swept cutter goatee, went psycho mode this weekend. It was really, really awesome. It was so fun. Two one goal games, as you might imagine.

And then BC tacked on a couple empty netters in one of them. Yeah, really sick. I wrote a big thing about that and how the teams reacted coming out of it and that sort of thing. So check that out too and go to patreon.com slash puck soup. We just did bonus episode where we played

kind of like a bird game. Is it a board game? I guess it kind is. Tabletop game, I don't know. Baldardash, but with like real and fake facts about various NHL players of current and years past. Good chance to remember some guys and also think about some guys who we definitely already think about a lot.

So yeah, that's it. And thanks so much for listening. And we'll be back next week. Have a good one. Bye bye. Bye bye.