Puck Soup - It's Getting Good Again

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

Sean and Ryan talk about the East playoff race, the Coyotes arena plans, and more, before playing another edition of Best of Seven. Sponsored by Factor (factor.com/puck50) and Express VPN (expressvpn.com/puck)

I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I am Sean McAnnew from The Athletic. And I feel like we might have talked about this recently, but it's become even more of a big deal, I guess, in the last week and a half two weeks. Is the logjam at the bottom of the Eastern playoff picture? Yes. It's absolutely fucking crazy right now. It's fun. Which, to be clear, is good.

Yeah. It's fun. I mean, it's fun if you're not. a fan of those teams. You're probably pretty miserable if you're if you're like a Flyers fan right now. I mean, there's a lot of reasons to be miserable if you're a Flyers fan right now. But, you know, the scoreboard watching is probably the worst part because you just have no control over it, right? Like, we've all, I think everybody's been there where their team is like hoping for other results to fall their, to fall their way. And then sometimes

I do. Sometimes they don't. And it's not even remotely up to you. But, yeah, so the standings as they are right now, Islanders 85 points, penguins 84 points, Red Wings, 84 points in one fewer game than the penguins. And then Washington and Philly both have 83 points. This is the only thing I'm really watching in the NHL at this point. Like, yeah, okay, I'll, you know, I'll put on that Vegas Van Gogh. Vancouver game last night or whatever.

But I'm not getting up for that the way I'm getting up for just a random fucking Flyers game on a Tuesday, you know? Absolutely. Yeah. This is fun. Is it a little bit sad that some team's going to make the playoffs with like 88 points? Yes. Maybe.

But so what? Definitely. No, but when did we get in? of this thing where like making the playoffs was like supposed to be this like you know if you didn't have a hundred points it was this shameful thing like if we wanted to have a cutoff where only the good teams got in the playoffs we would just set a cutoff and be like yeah whoever gets 100 points this is my idea last week yeah exactly we don't do that we say top 16 so whatever that looks like you know the idea that magically a 32 team league is always going to have 16 worthy teams

and 16 crappy ones is that's not how it works. So I guess one thing to say there is like the wild and the St. Louis Blues have their like noses pressed up against the window going. Can we be in that conference please? We're way better than those fucking teams. Those guys suck. We're not that bad. Yeah.

Right? Like that's because that's the thing. You're saying one through 16. It's really one through eight and one through eight, right? It is. And that's why I think a lot of people at, this is maybe the most extreme example of it. I feel like maybe it's happened once or twice where a team has been shut out of the Western play or the Eastern as the case may be. It's, of course it's going to happen if you have.

But this is going to happen. I don't know that it's ever happened with two teams where like the blues are almost. Is it happening with the wild though? I guess they would be in the mix, but yeah. Well, again, the Wild would be tied with Washington and, in Philly right now. Mm-hmm. And the Blues would be ahead of all of these fucking teams. Right.

literally every single one of them, right? So it's not, there's a non-zero chance, I would say, that both St. Louis and Minnesota finish ahead of the two teams that we're talking about in the East right now. It sounds to me like what you're telling me is that St. Louis Blues play in a conference with more non-playoff teams than the Eastern Conference. So they should have banked more points against those guys. They would have been just fine. Yeah, you can't get.

get swept by the sharks. That's my opinion. Because here's the problem. If, if we, like, every blues fan right now is like, yeah, we should have. But then if you do a 1V16 system, which is what you would probably have to do, unless you did like an extra, I guess you could do a crossover wild card thing. But every, every Western team is going to complain about the travel then. Oh, we have to fly. So if we got to fly to Boston, we got to go and play. Are you crazy? That's, that's going to be so far in the first round. Okay. I mean. Yeah, maybe you should have won more again. Eric Gahachick had a piece about going back to 1V16, which, yeah, sure, go ahead. I don't care. Put these guys on a plane. Let them fly 14 hours and then get off the plane and directly go and play. I don't care. 14 hours. They're not flying a fucking Sydney, man.

Well, hey, that was just me trying to get to Nashville. So it's... He's not wrong. It's, uh, yeah. I'm the one person who didn't have any travel difficulties of the draft last year. We all hate you. I mean, but that's... That's, I mean, that's not.

Yeah, those are two totally separate clauses. I was, yeah, sorry. But yeah, it's good. I don't, would you, would you do once, one through 16? Would I do? Because it does strike me, I will say this. As someone who is, I'm now, I was one of the later holdouts on the 1v4 division system. And I think I've now tipped into, you know what, yeah, we should just go to 1V8.

But it always did strike me as strange that the 1V8, like the 3rd, like the 3rd, like the 3.4 division system. true believers who were just absolutely adamant. Can you not see how unfair this is and the numbers don't line up perfectly? So rarely ever took the next logical step, which is, well, then you've got to do one 16. If you're going to do, if you want it to be fair, like, it can't just be both conferences fair, but who knows across, because there's always going to be situations you look at. So, but it's the travel. And I guess also the TV.

They don't like the. cross time zone matchups. Right. No, I get all that and it's all kind of beside the point, right? So I guess,

let me start with this. How funny is it that this is even a possibility because it really looked like the Flyers had this thing that sewn up like three weeks ago. The number of things

that would have to go wrong for them and then write for all these other teams is actually like, pretty significant. And it all came together in such a way that they blew it badly. And like the Islanders, the team that, I read this article the other day about Patrick Waugh.

When he came in, you know, his bright idea was, why don't we play Mapar's Almore? And everyone's like, I can't believe he cracked us. Wow. You know?

And then he, I don't remember exactly when, But he moved away from that and the Islanders went in the toilet. And then, like, in the last three or four games or something like that, he moved back to, like, the lines he was using when they were winning earlier. And it's like, what did Patrick Wall learn? And it's like that he shouldn't have moved away from what worked. Is that, is that like the lesson here when something's working? Don't fuck with it for the sake of doing that?

I think that might be the lesson, yeah. Huh. Pretty interesting. But yeah, I wrote the Islanders team off. I think everybody did. They have a negative 23 goal difference. Yep. But, and this is the thesis of one of my most beautiful takes in recent months, Sean.

If you're enjoying this little run right here, all you're going to do is thank the good folks that brought you the loser point, my friend. 15 of them. All of the of the five teams that are in this. mix right now. All of them are in the top 10 in overtime games this year. Is that true? Wow. Mm-hmm. I looked it up the other day. And then the Capitals went to, or the Penguins, rather, went to overtime again last night. The New Jersey Devils have two more wins than the Islanders. Mm-hmm. That's right. And the Devils have lost more games than the Devils, and the Devils

are completely out of it. And the Islanders, exact same thing with the Sabres. exactly the same. The Ottawa Senators are one win behind the Islanders with the equal number of games play. This is the part

where I remind everyone that the reason we have the loser point is because it makes the playoff race is closer. Do you not, do people not yet feel insulted when the league says that?

Like at this point when the league says... But it's working this year. It's making five markets that otherwise would have nothing to root for at this point. But it's making what should be a absolute,

like the Islanders, Devils, Sabres and Senators have the same record, but one of those teams is going to, is way ahead of the other ones. And the other three are out of the playoff rates that is supposed to be made closer by the loser point. Like, they are calling you stupid when they say this. They are literally looking you right in the eye and being like, you are so dumb that we're going to say this to your dumb, ugly face. And hey, if you're a Senators fan, they're right, you know. That was Ryan, everyone, not me. Come to my house.

All six of you left. be me alone. But for real, though, like, this is every one of these games, first of all, who is it tonight? Isn't there a big man? Oh, it's Caps Red Wings tonight. Capsed Red Wings. The winner of this team probably, or this game probably makes the playoffs, and the loser probably doesn't. How early do you think this goes into shutdown if it's tied?

Like, six minutes in the first period? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, look, I watched that Sabres Red Wings game on Sunday. You watch that? I did not, no. Okay. Well, I think it was three goals in the first seven minutes or something like that, eight minutes for the Red Wings. Okay.

And it was just like, okay, we can't let them get across the blue line. We just can't allow it. And the Sabres did make a good push at the end, but, you know, they're down two goals the entire game. They're the Sabres. Yeah. It all kind of felt like a foregone conclusion. but yeah, that was a fun game. And I think it's all but like four nights left in the regular season.

At least one of these teams is playing. Not that there's a ton of nights left in the regular season, but... There's very few. Like, it is creeping up on me that I don't know what it is about hitting the four games to go, Mark. But that one night where you look at the standings and everyone's got 77 or 78 games played and you're just like, holy smokes. We got like a week left of this. Yep, it ends middle of next week. Yep.

Regular season. Sorry. Now I can't remember. Regular season podcast. It's true. I can't remember. Was it they, it was supposed to be on the 20th and they moved it to the 17th the playoffs start?

Or was it? The playoffs were supposed to start, I want to say, the 22nd. And they moved it up to the 20th. God. So they didn't change anything about the regular season, but there was going to be a three-day gap before the playoffs. and somebody somewhere was like, this is stupid.

Why are we letting people be excited about the playoffs and then expecting them to sit around for three days when baseball and all this other stuff is happening? So, yeah. My favorite was like somebody like tweeting, like, this is great news for Mark Stone whose recovery has miraculously. I know, right?

Exactly two days. Yep. Hey, hurdle came back last night. Yeah, you did. Pretty cool. Fun player. Like them a lot. You know?

But yeah, the, the, this race is awesome. Because you're, you're watching all these games going, well, there's no way the Islanders are going to win. Like, you're kind of assuming they're all going to lose. Yeah. The whole, the whole rest of the way. And then when they don't, you're like, oh, okay. Well, this is the beauty of it, right?

You're like, there's no way they're beating the hurricanes. And then you're like, oh, right, the hurricanes haven't had anything to play for in a month. Right. I guess maybe that would have something. And they're also like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll let the Islanders into the first round against us. That sounds actually pretty good. Yeah, that sounds fun.

Let's do that. Yeah. It's crazy. We lost eight nothing to the penguins. Huh. What's your ideal, like, how would you have it finish? You're booking this now. I'm booking it, huh?

I respect you because you are. Mr. Booker, man. That's right. I would move the Islanders to the last wild card because it looks like the Rangers are going to win the President's trophy. And I'll take a Rangers Islanders first round. Absolutely. That sounds awesome to me. That sounds phenomenal.

And then that necessarily locks out the Red Wings, of course. sadly. So. There is a right answer here, man. Come on. Carolina Pittsburgh. Yeah. Because of the crossover with the trade.

Yeah. The Jay Guns. Yeah. I like the idea of Washington making it. What it would probably wind up is. I like the idea of Washington making it because, again, like they traded Kuznetsov for next to nothing to them. That's a good point. Yeah.

So like there's, again, the booking, there's, there's arrows in all kinds of different directions on that one. But the one we can all agree, no one wants to see the flyers in the playoffs. Not really, no. Including it sounds like John Tortorello. We don't have them. All of the flyers. Yeah.

All these guys suck. I love it. Yeah. But let me ask you this. This is a different take on the same question, I guess. Which teams do you think are more likely to actually, like, again, you're booking it, but you're booking it for the plausible. upset.

Right. Which two teams? Like, who do you have facing the Rangers? I think it's the same two teams. I think the islanders are the most likely team to do anything because of the goal-tending. Because of the goalie.

Because they have arguably the best goalie in the world. And also Ilyosurocan. That was kind of a Patrick Wadjoke, but I realize it just said like I was. You're a big var-lomov guy. I'm a big guy. And I would say the penguins. The penguins, because if they get in, they're going to be riding that wave. And history has shown that momentum isn't a real, like late season momentum doesn't really matter. But when you've got a team that's just going to sneak over the line because they've been playing playoff hockey for a month,

I think some of that can carry over just the intensity level while another team is maybe having to ramp up a little bit. Well, the other thing is to the goaltending point, like Alex Nadelcovich over the last three weeks or whatever it is, like nine. 30. So, you know. Bad? Mm-hmm. If you're going to enter the, if you're going to enter the playoffs with a, with a hot goalie, you know, that portends better things for you than, well, I mean, Charlie Lindgren's been pretty hot lately, too. So. And again, I mean, hot goalie takes one game for a guy to not be hot anymore, but. That's exactly right.

Yeah, why not, man? Although, you know, the other thing, too, is if they make it as the final wild card, and they would probably draw the ruins and all, or no, I'm sorry, if they make it as the, like, Carolina, that's a team where it's like, oh, I could, I could see the offense going away a little bit there. Maybe, yeah. I could see it. Yeah, we should say there is still the chance that Boston could end up being the one. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing, right? It's like they're three points back to the Rangers, but so that's a, that's a tall hill to climb and the Rangers have. And again, you want to talk about the loser point. The Rangers have seven more wins this season than the Bruids do. But, yeah, they're both, they're both pretty hot right now. Things are going well for them. I don't know. Let me ask you this.

Speaking of teams that are only a handful of games back, do you think there's any chance at all that the lightning make up this gap on Toronto? Probably not, right? What is the gap now? Six points. And they have the same number of games left. Lightning would have the tiebreaker. I don't think so. I think the Leafs get the two points last night against, in theory,

hungry. Now, I think, do they play? I thought they had one game left. I think they do have one game left. I'll double check that really quickly. But, yeah, I mean, that's the thing, right? Last game of the season. Oh, hell yeah.

And look, well, Tampa's schedule the rest of the way. Ottawa, Washington, Buffalo, Toronto. So you've got three garbage teams that have nothing left to play for. You have Washington who could be in the middle of a playoff race, or, you know, in theory it could be... I mean, they'll still be in it, but a lot can change in the... Even the four days we're talking. And then the Leafs.

So now, who do the Leafs have? Not that it matters because the Leafs are really good at losing too. bad teams. They've got Jersey, Jersey, Detroit, Florida, Tampa. Yeah. It's not out of, it's not out of play. But it's six point, any situation. You can give me any two teams and say,

can this team make up six points in five games? It's unlikely, even when you're hosting them in the last night of the season. Yep. Yeah. I mean, like I said, what it really boils down to in the East, I think, everything feels pretty decided. except for the wild card and the three in the metro. And that really sucks for Detroit because Detroit only has one way to get in.

All these other teams have two paths, and Detroit has one. And, you know, they need Alex Lyon to keep going is basically what it boils down to. Because if they can't get Alex Lion going, I don't know what to say here, you know. Let me, I actually, I had some fun stats in my article about this the other day if I can find it really quickly here. But it was basically like the records these teams needed to get back into playoff contention is not nearly what you would expect teams like, oh, they got so hot at the end of the season. Okay. You know, so here it is. The lightning to lock up the top wild card spot and shut the door on Detroit, basically, or shut one of the doors on Detroit, has the second best record in the league 10, 2 and 1 over the last month.

The Flyers have the fourth worst record in the league, 4-8-3 and 3. The Red Wings have the seventh worst record, 5-8-2. the capitalists and the islanders are 500 in the last month, and that's all they needed to pass the flyers. Wow. And then the penguins have the, to claw back into it, the 14th best record. They are three games above 500 in the last month,

and they're basically even with the flyers now. How's that possible? Or no, they're a point ahead of the flyers. I take that back. It's going to be so agonizing to these teams. teams when whoever does sneak in wins two rounds. Yeah. Which will make it extra funny for the rest of us.

Right. Because right now the way they're all playing is we're kind of looking at it like, oh, they're, they're just like running up to a machine gun nest at fucking Normandy and hoping it goes okay for him. I don't know. This is, uh, this is a, I love it. I think this is this is what it's all about If you're not watching

Genuinely enjoying this Yeah if you're not watching Caps with Red Wings tonight Check your pulse Like I know Look Your favorite team is the Is the blue jackets

Or whatever What do you care? Oh the lightning tonight Great You know Pop on that 7 PM Caps Red Wings game The stakes are insane

Yep I don't know how you can't get up For this kind of thing Maybe maybe this is like A Strawman thing where it's like, yeah, everybody is excited for this game. And it's the ESPN game tonight, too. But to me, I just, this is all appointment viewing.

Like, I'm getting like a three-screen experience going so I can watch the flyers and Islanders too. Yeah, all right. Yeah. And I mean, look, you're going to watch savers stars. Okay, let me let me let you in on a little secret, 4-1 stars. You know, like, okay, we're done here. We don't need to talk about this.

Mm-hmm. I love it. Very excited. Hey, speaking of the Capitals, Alex Ovechkin, this guy's white-hot. Do you know about this? Guys, good again.

How about this, folks? Nine goals in his first 44 games this season. Since the beginning of February, he has 20. So what is he at for the season? 29. He's at, okay. So the 30 goals.

is going to be... What was your stat? Every year except the lockout? Except, no, the COVID-48 game season. Yes, right. Every year of his career, he has scored 30 plus. If he scores one more in the remaining four games or whatever for the capitals. And the way he's scoring these days, I mean...

I believe he will. Yeah. And here's the other thing. A couple of goals over the weekend, 850 and 8.51. Mm-hmm. And he's done, at the very least, he has done what you were hoping for, which is he's in range for next year. Yes, that's right. We can do, at least for the first half to see, we can do the whole countdown Ovec could watch next year, which if he had come in like 60 goals behind, which it looked like he was going to.

For sure. It would have felt pretty weak to do that. Yep, right now he is 43 behind, tie in Grette. ski and 44 behind passing him. That, I mean, look, again, if he keeps up the goal scoring pace since the start of February, you know, that's a different story, obviously. Then he might pass him in fucking January, you know. But I can't believe we're at the point where we're at the point where,

where like we're back to feeling like this is going to happen. Mm-hmm. Apparently, there's been a lot of stuff about his sticks during the season. He's been a CCM guy for a long time. And then, like, starting this year, like, they stopped making a stick or something like that, which I don't know why you would do that to Alex Ovechka. if you're CCM. They stop.

You know what, guys, we should stop making the stick for the only player who's famous enough that people know he uses a CCM stick. Yeah, there's a whole article on Russian Machine Never Break from earlier this season about, like, how he experimented with a bunch of different sticks during the free season. And the idea, I think, that some people have advanced

is that he's finally, like, found one that feels like his old, stick and that's why he's scoring a lot. I don't know if I buy that. You know, people who watch the Capitals more closely than I do probably are like, oh yeah, they talked about this during the game 68 second intermission or whatever. Okay, sure. I don't know. Sure.

You know. But yeah, I mean, oh, okay, here it is. The experimentation with a Bower Stick comes over a year after CCM halted promotion of which can do the, oh, do the, okay. So maybe that is The Ukraine thing And then Like some

Then he changed his stick around that time I don't I don't know This article is long I can't read it all right now But Yeah To me

This is Again if he If he's found the magic stick again You know Ball games over for Old 99 But have you considered whether we should count WHA goals?

Because if we do that, you know, I guess I'm, I guess, Gretzky played the WHA for a year and a half, so that adds 700 goals to his total. I guess you saying that makes me remember, oh, right, this guy's Canadian. You know what I mean? Look, I mean, yeah, sure. Probably count Canada Cup goals as well. Mm-hmm, yep, yeah, absolutely. And maybe OHL goals, too, just to.

to make sure. Just, yeah, you know, good idea. I'm with you. Or was he in the OHA? I don't remember. Wayne Gretzky. Was that OHA or O HL when he played? Played for like Peterborough and the Sioux, I think.

But I don't remember if it was. It was neither. It was the OMJHL. Yeah. Okay. So that's what the OHL used to be called, I guess. All right. And I feel like it was the OHA at some point as well,

but I'm not a. This is going to shock you. I don't know much about the history. Well, I just don't know much about the history of major juniors due to not caring. We piece that one together. That's right. All right. Why don't we take a quick break here and then we'll come back and we'll talk about,

I guess, all the coyote stuff because there's a lot to talk about all of a sudden again. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Factor. And folks, I talk about this sometimes. end of the college hockey season. Very busy time for me. I wouldn't go so far as to say stressful, I guess. But just there's a lot going on. I got a lot to do, a lot to take care of.

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And you can get an extra three months for free. ExpressVPN.com slash puck. All right, we're back, and this is Coyote's Corner, I guess. A lot of news in the last week about the coyotes. I guess the most notable being that they announced the auction of the land that they're trying to buy will take place on June 27th. When is the NHL draft this year?

Honestly, it's right around the same time. That's why I ask. Will this be on like day two of the draft? I feel like the draft is actually a little, it might be right before the draft. No, it is. So this is the 27th. The draft is the 28th and 29th.

So there you have it. But there was a bunch of big articles that were basically like explainers of what's going on with all this. And yeah, the minimum bid is $68.5 million. That is the starting point for this. And right now it's not known whether the coyotes. The coyotes are the only known bidder publicly. But there is nothing that says you have to declare that you're going to be bidding. you could show up at this auction and it's literally, I believe this is from the, this is like the Craig Morgan article about it where he's like, it's like a livestock option where you show up and like we were saying last week, you raise a paddle to bid.

Okay. Like it like in uncut gems. Apparently you got to make a deposit with the state because it's a state run auction. So like the state knows who the people bidding are, but the. the public does not. No one involved knows. Okay. It is basically how it works.

This is from the Craig Morgan article. According to Public Records Research conducted recently, since 2017, there have been 117 Arizona land auction. And of those, only 22% have involved multiple bids. Now, I don't know how many of those are in like the middle of the desert versus how many of those are in the Greater Phoenix area. So what happens if we, if we bid, like if there's no bidder, can I just show up and say, like, as the coyotes and say, I bid five cents? No, the minimum is $68.5 million. That's the start, like, opening bid. All right.

Yes. So when that was all revealed, the coyotes are like, and here's our big plan for the, for the whole thing. and basically it's a it's a three billion dollar project that would involve not just the arena but like a concert venue and commercial space and residential space one of those kind of fucking places right um like an arena district it was like a full little mini city yeah i was going to say city blocks but it was a lot more than that it felt like yeah it looks like it's about three city blocks maybe yeah um but Yeah, I mean, the article is really interesting because it involves a big interview with Xavier Gutierrez, who's the president and CEO of the coyotes. And he's saying, like, look, we're not taking a cent of public money for this. We're going to buy public land, but this is all private money. This is all Alex Morello's money.

Mm-hmm. And the interesting thing about it is that this is just like land only. There is no infrastructure. The coyotes would have to build all the plumbing, all the electric infrastructure, all the roads, all the on ramps and off ramps, all that kind of stuff. There is nothing on this land. It is empty land. And so apparently there are no like environmental issues. issues like, you know, environmental impact studies.

This would be bad for the local wildlife or whatever. Nothing like that out there. Yeah, basically. There's no signs of life anywhere near. Yeah, that's right. And so the interesting thing is they originally, because they knew there was no infrastructure, obviously. And so originally they were like, oh, I bet installing all this infrastructure would cost $150 million. That's what they were.

were budgeting for. And then an estimate from like civil engineers came back that was like, it's actually 230. And so they were like, okay, we'll be buying less land at this property. Which is, you know, not great. It was originally supposed to be 200 acres. Now it's like 110 or something like that, I think I saw at the top of this article. 95 acres, 110 gross acres.

I don't know what the difference is. but that's what it says in the article. So that's kind of where it's at right now with the coyotes. They have all these plans. They're saying, aren't these beautiful plans? Sean agrees. I think it looks pretty good too. They always look.

Look, I'm a big fan of artist renderings of arenas that don't exist. I love. It's like my Adel version of Where's Waldo? You get to like, because you're always like, okay, where is a roller skater? Where's a windsurfer? Where's a family carrying shopping bags and all of that wonderful stuff? Right. The very funny image that people kind of seized on with this is that if you click on it,

it shows what looks like the coyotes and some undetermined other NHL team getting ready for the face-off of a Stanley Cup playoff game. Oh. I mean, look, if we're wishcasting, you know what I mean? Sure. The other funny thing about this land is that it is specifically zoned for an indoor hockey rink. Because they were going to build like a youth hockey rink on this site at some point in the 90s and then they didn't do it. But now the land, they're just like, yeah, you can build a hockey rink here.

Like, you don't even have to ask. It's all built in there. So that's fun. But yeah, there's just a lot of like really interesting ins and outs on the, on the Craig Morgan article of like all the zoning stuff. And like they can actually build a higher than they would have been able to at the Tempe site that got voted down. Blah, blah, blah. Off you go. But to go back to.

the idea of there's no infrastructure here. There was an op-ed published yesterday by the mayor of Scottsdale, which is like basically Scottsdale abuts this property. Like it's right on the edge of the Phoenix Scottsdale border. And this guy thinks this idea sucks. It's basically... Yeah.

I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'll read the opening statement, and you can tell me, folks, how you think this guy feels about this idea. Last week, the Arizona Coyote's developer team rolled out the same fantasy renderings used in the Tempe Mega Arena and mixed-use site proposal, which was resoundingly defeated at the ballot box.

Strong opener. Yep. The proposed Phoenix version, bordering Scottsdale, was presented without mention of market demand for a new entertainment, venue disguised as a hockey arena, oof, or congested highway access or questionable arena zoning entitlement. And the glitzy proposal was portrayed as a last gasp to keep hockey in Arizona.

It's true. It was certainly presented that way, and that's true. And then there's this part, and then we'll open the floor to discussion. The prospect of a rookie developer attempting to buy Arizona State Trust land with absolutely no infrastructure on the Phoenix side of the 101 slash Scottsdale Road intersection at the doorstep of Scottsdale is not feasible or welcome. This guy's coming out throwing haymakers. This guy does it.

Like this is not a like, dude is not sitting there going like I have some reservations. Dude is like, take your fucking team and get out of here. Going like, yeah, that's, that's exactly what he's doing. Because basically, it. It goes on to talk about again, the infrastructure is the big issue here. This guy was apparently a city councilman in Scottsdale. And so he goes, I have seen inside dealings when the coyotes suddenly left Scottsdale in 2002. And recently as they vacated their former home ice in Glendale in 2022.

The team is struggling at Arizona State University's Mullet Arena at less than 90% capacity. man. But what he says is there's a lot of undeveloped desert that to build this arena they would have to build a cross as part of the infrastructure cost. And I think that's why they're saying

maybe 230 million. But basically what he's saying is if you, if these guys think they're hooking up to Scottsdale's water infrastructure, they're out of their fucking minds. It's basically what he says. We don't have enough water

and we're not giving a big chunk of our water to and this is not his direct quote, but to a hockey arena that nobody wants for a team that nobody seems to want to support. Maybe that's going too far. He definitely has suggested that he questions whether there is demand for this arena. Well, again, that's why he's saying there's 90%.

Yeah, like he calls it like basically a shopping mall disguised as a hockey arena. So I'll quote the two. times he mentions water in his little op-ed. The Bear Arizona State Trustland at the edge of Phoenix has no frontage roads and water and sewer lie miles away to the west. As a condition of the sale, 100-acre property must develop entirely the 64th Street off-ramp for access, and then blah, blah, blah. There is zero infrastructure west of Scottsdale Road. I demanded that infrastructure be for the proposed site, including water and sewer, be pulled. from Phoenix assets along 56th Street to the west,

Scottsdale water assets are absolutely not available. That's the pertinent part about the water. Absolutely not available. Don't even fucking think about it is basically what he's saying, which is, again, maybe the coyotes knew all this and built it into that extra $80 million in costs. That's not clear based on the various interviews with Xavier Gutierrez that I've read. Yes.

So it could be. Oh, and this is the other thing. Let's say they win this auction on June 27th. The idea would be, I think, that, okay, here it is. What we are tracking is to be in the ground, shovels in the ground. by the second quarter of next year of 2025. Then they would be able to open the arena probably, we could drop the puck in fall of 2027.

So that's the timeline here. If they win the auction, tracking to be second quarter of 2025. So we're talking toward the end of next season, they will finally be able to start building things. I don't know, man. Yeah. It's not ideal.

It's real like... I was feeling better about this based on some of the reporting and then, you know, comments that were coming out until I saw the mayor go... No pun intended. Scorched Earth on this desert with no water. Yeah. Because that does feel important. It feels... When you're putting together a hockey rink, it feels to me...

Mm-hmm. Like, you're... going to want to have access to water pretty easily. Now, again, they might be like, yeah, we already knew that dog. I don't give a shit what this guy says. We already know that. We have plans to draw from Phoenix, blah, blah, blah. But what if they don't?

What if they were kind of counting on the Scottsdale thing to be at least a cooperative partner, maybe not like full-throated support? but be like, yeah, okay, sure. Not getting the full-throated support right now. Nope. Very partially throated, I would say. Sure. Extraordinarily.

Yeah. It's, it doesn't feel great, honestly. I mean, it all comes down to the auction, right? Yeah, of course. And I guess the other question is, does the auction definitely happen that day if it's delayed? If there's, like, is there any other runway for anything to go wrong? here? Or is this the

absolute last chance? Like, they are going to win the auction that day or that's it. Because, I mean, it's not like the, I don't think you can't move a team in late June. No, you probably can. Unless

you absolutely have that scenario in your back pocket ready to go. Right. And I don't think we know whether the league is willing to do that. Because the only, the only The only thing worse than a team in – that's rumored to be relocating is a lame duck team playing its last season somewhere when it's definitely relocating. We've seen that with the Oakland A's the last few years, and it's not pretty.

By the way, do you know what the Oakland A's new arena? I think you must because I think we talked about it on the Collins show last week now that I say this. Sacramento, was it? Yeah, they're going to play in like a AAA stadium in Sacramento. And I saw that somebody Somebody said that they're going to play in Sacramento, but they're not going to be called the Sacramento athletics. Yeah.

They're going to just be called. And somebody pointed out that the only reason that they think they did that is so that we wouldn't get the, when they played the Baltimore Orioles, we wouldn't get the ball sack scoreboard. Sure. I mean, look what they took from us, man. Look.

It's tough. Look what they did to us. It's, you know, life's just not fair. I'm always saying this. The other two things I guess we have to mention regarding the coyotes here is Kevin Weeks reported yesterday, and I'll just quote his tweet directly. I'm told that members of the Tillman-Fertitta led Houston group and Vernon Krauss-led Atlanta group are meeting with the NHL in New York City. Oh. Okay, so that's too.

Interesting timing on the... Yeah. Any of that, but sure. Some even more interesting timing. The guy that owns the Utah Jazz and wants to bring a hockey team to Salt Lake City, this guy named Ryan Smith, it's not the guy from the oil or so. It's a different guy. He basically put out like, hey, why don't you fill in this Google form with what we might name our hockey team if we ever get one, wink, wink.

Yeah. What do you guys think? And first of all, I saw some simply freaking epic ones. Oh, yeah. Oh, boy, I was freaking dying. Imagine if that one won? Oh, that'd be. Boy.

I did see that they should, like, that they should choose another, like, very lively style of music to go with the jazz as being, like, completely incongruous. The ska? Is that been pitched? I got to pick it up, you know? But, yeah, like, just the fact that he's like. just the fact that he's like, hey, look, let's say we get a team at some point in the indeterminate future.

What should we name? I don't know if the guy who owns the team is doing that, again, without the go-ahead of the NHL. Or would own the team, I should say. I think it's fair to say. I had one of those fun Twitter moments and aren't there so many these days

where the back-to-back tweets was like that. I think it was Frank Sarvelli retweeting. that and being like, hmm, this is interesting that they would do this. And then literally the next tweet was Mike Mito, who's a history guy, tweeting that like on this day in 1996 was when the Phoenix coyotes announced their new name. It was like, oh, okay, the old coyote's name and the, apparently they're going back to Phoenix coyotes.

Is that also true if this arena? They have teased that, yeah. Like I think the Twitter account, which again, you want to talk about freaking epic. It's bad enough that hockey reference, it's bad enough that hockey reference thinks whenever you change names

that it's two different teams. But we don't need Shane Don't showing up on my list of guys who played for three different teams. Yeah, a few years. But yeah, I think the simply freaking epic Twitter account for the coyotes

tweeted something about like, Phoenix Coyotes has a nice ring to it eyeball emoji. And it's like, I mean, it makes sense. If they're moving back to Phoenix, why not be called the Phoenix Coyotes? They've only been calling themselves Arizona because they weren't in Phoenix anymore. Arizona has, like, I get that, you know, sometimes it's marketing-wise. You want to capture the whole state, the whole area.

But Arizona has always felt a little bit like we don't want to tell you where we're actually from because. Well, it's interesting because the Cardinals, even when they, well, I guess they used to play in Tempe, Where's their new rinks not in Phoenix, or rink. Their new arena is not in Phoenix either. I do not know where they're, yeah. Although it's, but I know it's not in Phoenix. They posted Super Bowl, so they're.

But, yeah, the Cardinals and the Diamondbacks are both, are both Arizona and not. Oh, one's in Glend, the Cardinals Stadium is in Glendale. Let's see where the Diamondbacks play now. I just don't know this stuff. and that's in press No, it is in Phoenix. Hmm. Maybe they didn't used to be in Phoenix

and they didn't want to rebrand? I don't know. No, it says their arena or their stadium opened in 98. Okay, I don't know anything about this shit. Do whatever you want. Yeah. Do whatever you want with that. But it's interesting that three of the teams are currently,

I'd never put it together before, but three of the teams are Arizona and only the only the sons are Phoenix. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But soon we'll be back to, two phoenixes, it seems like. Fied I.

From the damn ashes, these guys. I don't get it. Oh, okay. No. Oh, yep. Okay. Yep. No, I don't.

Sorry. Okay. I do. Well, look, where do I? I can't be too upset with you. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I think that, I think that's it for a, for, for Coyote's update. I'm probably, I've probably missed four pieces.

of news since... Have not refreshed the Twitter feed. Yeah. We'll just double check what Craig Morgan has to say. Let's just check on Craig. What's he up to? No, it doesn't seem like... Unless you want a Travis Dermott update, I guess.

Not really. Yeah. Okay. Well, there you go. So, yeah, that's where the coyotes are at. It doesn't feel like... I'm super I was way more optimistic

before they said three ownership groups are like making news this week and the mayor of the neighboring town is like fuck this team. So what happens now if they win the auction but like I guess it's the mayor

of the neighboring he's saying it's Phoenix's problem. Yeah. If they win the auction that's it. I think they're staying in Arizona. Like I don't know

and if they don't win the auction they're just completely Like, like, you know, they're taking the ice out and like just putting it on the back of a truck and moving it to Salt Lake City. It's not, it's not that, it's not that complicated, I guess. Sure. Yeah, I was way more optimistic about this reading all the stuff the guy who works for the coyotes had to say. But then all the other people said stuff and I was like, uh-oh. Yeah.

It's crazy how that works. Yeah. I wanted to do a quick check-in on something you brought up last week about Connor McDavid. He is now one assist away from 100 points, or 100 assists rather, which would be the first time since who? It is. Like Lemieux or Gretzky? Gretzky, Lemieux, and Bobby are the only three to ever do it. And I had a piece last week that I think came out of conversations I was having with you and then Gentile on the Traders' Pot.

podcast where it was like, we're not making a big, big enough deal about this. We're all like flipping out about Austin Matthews getting to 70 goals, which would also be a phenomenal achievement. He got 65 last night. Got 65. So he is tied. Tying the cap era record. Yes.

With Alex Ovechkin. And like his second season, wasn't it Alex Ovechman's like second season in the league? He scored 65. That's fucking crazy, man. Was this something like that? Oh, wow. That would be. It was his second.

third. It was really early in his career. Okay. Fifty-five his first year, something like that. But here's the thing. Everybody's talking about this Carmar McDavid. And again, I get it. You're Canadian. But what about Nikita Kuturov? He needs seven assists in his next five

games. And he can also hit 100. And the rate he's been putting up assists at, seven in five is like very feasible. Again, unless they sit him or something. I will say I'm rooting against him only because it screws up the whole premise of my posed from last week.

Yeah. We've two guys doing it in the same year. But I would like him to get to 97 or 98 just to show how difficult it is. And then Sean Cooper, John, we're buddies, man. We've, you know, we've hung out. Sit this guy down. Rest him up when he gets to the 98 mark. Even if it's in the first period of a game,

you get the big cane and yank them back to the bench and you send him home. Don't send him home. send him to the dressing room. Sean's going to attack him backstage like he's on Smackdown. I will. I might do that. Mm-hmm. The cameras just cut to the back and there's Nikita Kutrov.

There's right point yelling for help. Yeah. Somebody. Did anybody see him? There's a dented steel chair next to him. Yep. It's impossible to say who did it. Which is a souvenir, Maple Leafs chair.

Signed by Doug Gilmore. Yeah, so I just wanted to shout that out because I noticed that over the weekend and I said to myself, that's pretty fucking cool. Pretty cool. Oh, one other thing that I wanted to talk about is all the guys leaving college to sign with NHL teams. There's been a lot of them lately. Oh, here's an Arizona thing. I think it was, I can't remember where the rumor originated, but there was a rumor that the coyote. who hadn't signed a contract with any player in like months

were basically being told like you can't sign anybody. You're not allowed to for next year. And then they signed Sam Lipkin out of Kniepiac. So there goes that. Once again, everyone's wrong about coyotes. Yeah, and that is, look, who's going to think of the coyotes here? You know what I mean? Somebody.

Somebody has to. But yeah, that Sam Lipkin contract, and he's a good player. It was the first contract they signed since they extended RFA Jan Yenik for one year at $775,000 if he was up. It was a two-way contract. Okay. And that was on September 20th. So that's a long time to go without signing a single extension. Anybody at all, yeah.

I mean, not a lot of teams are signing players during the season, so I think that's a bit of a... But like anywhere in an organization, like you... That's what I mean, yeah. Yeah. But they signed Sam Lipkin. Sam Lipkin, I believe, is reported to the H.L team, not the NHL team. But, you know, they cut him a signing bonus and all that, I'm sure. But yeah, the...

That was a fun rumor as well. that the coyotes were not allowed to sign players. Again, not what you want when you're trying to be like, but our new arena. And yet. There's nothing worse than a fun rumor getting dispelled by facts. You're telling me, man. That sucks.

Are there any notable RFAs or guys signing out of college, I should say, that you, that have come across your radar? I want to know about the Leaf guy. The Leaf guy. is Jacob Quillan. Yes. Right? Okay.

So Jacob Quillan, he was often on the line of Colin Graff, who signed with the San Jose Sharks. And it's probably the best UFA available in the college free agent class this year. And Jake Quillan, a really good player. I don't have a ton of expectation that he's going to be in the Maple Leafs line up anytime soon. but, you know, if you play, he, so he played a Quinnipiac again with Colin Grapp. And to play a Quinnipiac, you have to be a really good 200-foot guy. And he is. You know?

And, you know, roughly a point of game player last year, a little under that, and then this year, a little over it. And, you know, I'll say this. I think he took a huge step last year, and that's a big reason why Quinipiac won the national title. but also what happened last year was Colin Graff transferred to Quinnipiac. And it's hard for me, he didn't have much of his impact his freshman season, I guess is my point on Quillan. And neither did Colin Graff, for that matter. But it's hard for me to untangle both these guys taking a huge step at the same time. You know what I mean?

So I don't know if it's a chicken or the egg kind of a thing. but I did see that a lot of people were surprised that Colin Graf signed with San Jose. Okay. Because he is an East Coast guy. He's from somewhere in Massachusetts. I forget where off the top of my head. But he, everybody thought he was going to go to an East Coast NHL team for that reason. A lot of guys seem to be doing that now.

I'm from this part of the country. I'll stick around. parents fly to see me, whatever, you know, it's easier that way. But I don't think it's telling tales out of school to be like, the reason he signed what the sharks is, they were like, do you want to play in the NHL this year and probably next year? Make a whole shitload of money instead of riding the bus in the HL. And he was like, yeah, that actually sounds great, thank you. It does sound good.

Might give it a shot. Yeah. Colligraph seems to me like a third line scorer guy, very skilled. Can be on your second power play unit, that kind of thing. And crucially, I think this is this is what's interesting about him is I don't even think he's 22 until the start of next season, which is very rare for like a guy who has three years in college. Yeah, these guys are always so exciting and then you find out they're like 28 years old. Right. This guy's this guy won't be 22 until the start of next season.

So like, you know, he's another guy that more fits what you'd call like the San Jose timeline of what they want their rebuild, the whole lot. Like, by the time they're competitive again, he's 24, 25 instead of, as you say, the usual guy who signs out of college who, or usual free agent who signs out of college who is at that age already, 23, 24, 25. For the record, I believe Lipkin is 20 or, uh, yeah, Sam Lipkin's also like 21, um, but, uh, Quillen is like 22. if I'm remembering, right? So I'm trying to think if there are any other notable ones. Carolina, there was a bit of a rumor that they wouldn't be able to sign any of their college guys because they don't have an HL team, which usually helps. Nice to have that. You know.

But they signed two of them. They signed Scott Morrow, who is their, like, good, really good defenseman prospect. He signed out of UMass. And they just, I think on Sunday, signed Bradley Nadeau, who is a really, really good freshman for Maine this past season. It really hurts Maine to lose him. And he won't be 19 until May, it looks like. So that's all pretty interesting. They also signed a Russian kid who I don't know anything about.

Is there anyone left that we should be genuinely excited about? It's like more than just this guy could be on the... That's an undrafted free agent. I'd probably say no. It's just not a great class of undrafted free agents this year, I'd say. Like, there are good players, but like guys that are going to make any kind of immediate impact for you in the NHL or... I wouldn't even say that for most teams, Colin Graff is that guy. I think he can become that guy.

Like I said, like a third round. second or a third line second power play unit kind of a guy. I think he can be that. But, you know, if he, if he signs with the Islanders or something, is he that in a playoff race, I wouldn't say so. Okay. Yeah, I'm trying to think if there's anybody else. Ryan UFCO signed out of, also out of UMass, a really good defenseman who I think

can, can. real like can be pretty strong at the agell level and and not too far from the NHL he's I'll put it this way his coach at UMass called him the best player I've ever coached who's not Kail McCarr so pretty pretty high praise that's not bad Ryan Uffko who's pretty sick

I'm trying to think if there's anybody else I guess there isn't that I'm like oh yeah keep an eye on this guy you know. So yeah, I guess that's your college-free agent roundup. Obviously, with the Frozen 4 this week, you'll see a lot of teams scrambling to sign guys on Thursday night and Friday morning and get them in the lineup for the last game or two. Not that I expect BC to lose on Thursday, but your cutter go-go-teeas and things like that. But yeah, that's it.

We'll talk more about the Frozen Four in a bit. But first, I want to play a game with the playoffs right around the corner. I want to play a game that it's so evocative of the playoffs, folks, isn't it? It's a game that we play here on Puck Soup from time to time called Best of Seven. I think we should do that again, but you should say it in the Chick-sawboys. You know, I got to tell you, I've only seen one's... two saw movies maybe? I've only seen one.

I still know the voice, man. I really, I want you to do the impression and then I won't react to it at all. I straight up, don't remember the voice. I wish I could help you, but I,

I think the last time I saw a saw a movie, when, when Saw 10 came out, saw X over the summer, I was like, I'm going to sit down and do a rewatch. I'm going to watch all the saws. I'm going to catch up.

And then I didn't do that because they're weirdly hard to find on streaming. also there's nine of them. Yeah. And I don't know if that, if those nine include spiral from the book of Saw, the Chris Rock, like tangential movie. I don't even know what that is.

Chris Rock is in the Saw universe. I don't feel like this is a series where you have to like see every movie to pick up the subtle themes and differences. Well, so here's the thing. Even I know that there actually is a lot going on because Jigsaw dies at, I I want to say between four and five, he's a cancer patient famously. And, um, and, um, and like he has a protege who picks up the slack for the other ones. And then Spiral might be a prequel that brings him back and then saw X.

If I'm getting any of this wrong, you're not allowed to get mad at me. I said I saw the one movie in theaters. You know a lot for a guy who's only seen one movie. I like lore. I'm a, I think you like the saw movies is what's happening here. Yeah, I wish I liked the Saw movies I like the first one just fine I just didn't keep up with the franchise at all

What was I going to say? I sidetracked us from the Yeah Well the other thing The Saw franchise does have a beautiful connection to hockey Do you know what it is? Oh, isn't the guy who directs it or produced it like a hockey guy?

The guy who produced it is Oren Coolis Who used to own the Tampa Bay Lightning Orrin. I'm sorry, buddy I should have known that. Of course I should have. Nice guy. Anytime I tweet about a movie he produced, he's like, hey, you want some behind-the-scenes

info on that movie? And I'm like, you bet I do. Sure do. What's the movie John Q with Denzel Washington? He told me some fun stories about that. He's up until right now, now he's furious that we don't know our saw lore. Well, here's the thing. Again, I do know some of the lore.

I'm actually pretty up on it. For a guy who's seen one of the movies. I love how you're like, you're adamant that you've only seen one movie, and yet you're very, very offended if I suggest. Well, no, if you had said for a guy who's only seen one of the movies, yeah, sure, you got me fucking dead to rights. Okay. But you're going to tell me I don't know some of the lore. I know some of the lore. I take it back and I apologize. Got to open that book, the book of saw.

But yeah, we're going to play best of seven And I don't know what the voice you wanted me to do is I honestly don't Okay And this game, it's very simple There are seven total categories Each one has a certain number of correct answers Which I will reveal when we get to each category And all of Sean, we're trying to stump one another

I will say to Sean you know, guys who won Stanley Cups with both of the back-to-back lightning teams. So you would say Stephen Stamcoast, Nikita Kutrov, Victor Headman, Andre Vasselowski. That's four, you're done. You're just going to get four right before you get four wrong. That's how the game works. Sounds doable. Yep.

So you have four for me and I have three for you? Is that how we're... Correct, yes. So, and I believe the last time we play this, I won. So I have home ice advantage here. Okay. So I'm serving you the first two categories. So I want you to name of the 10 guys who fit this description

hockey Hall of Famers with a thousand plus games, but 150 career goals or fewer. Okay. A thousand games hockey hall of famers, 150 points are fewer. Goals, not points. 150 goals or fewer. Okay. Does this include goaltenders?

Yeah. All right. Roberto Luongo? Yep, sure. Okay, now the game's over, because I was hoping he wouldn't think that. I'm actually not sure which other goalies have. Patrick Waugh? Yep.

Okay. I'm going to, Martanbro-Dur. Yes, that's correct. Now you need one more guy. I need just one. defensive, Kevin Lowe. Kevin Lowe is correct. The other guys, Harry Howell, Bill Gadsby,

Marcel Pronovost, Leo Boivin, Doug Harvey, and I wrote down Tim Hortno, I think it's Tim Horton. Yeah. There might be a Tim Hortno in the Hall of Fame, but I typed out Hortno, so. There is Tim Horton, yeah.

That's, okay, so I got the only four that I would get because I would not have, managed yet. Did Guy Carbino not get to a thousand games? Guess not. All right. You know what? If he's on there and I didn't have him written down, then I apologize.

But it doesn't matter. Convincing game one win. You know, they say you're in trouble. He said he had 260 goals. Oh, wow. Okay. They say you're not in trouble. You don't pass that mark.

Until you lose a game at home. So Ryan's already in trouble. Yep, that's right. The next one, there are eight players who fit this category. Players whose only point-of-game season was in the 2005-06 fake season. Okay. How many are there that fit this? There are eight.

Eight. Okay. Jonathan Chichu. That is one. That is one. And that's the, that I think, is the gimmie. That's the layup. Yes, that's the tapping.

Did Eric Stahl have any other? he must have because he's not on my list. Because he's not on your list. Hmm. Let me check here. Eric Stahl had... He had 100 points. I feel like he must have.

Had an 82 points and 82 games in 0708. So there you go. And he had a 70 and 70 season a few years after that. And a 53 and 48 in the 2012-13 lockout. So he did it more than a few times. That, uh, my apologies to Eric Stahl. Wolock Monster's great Eric Stahl. Is, is he really, though?

Mm-hmm. Okay. Oh, boy. So, you have a, this is a tough group from here on out. Obviously, we're, uh, bigger ones. Um, yeah, you gave me false hope with the, uh, with that first one. Again, I was hoping you wouldn't think of goalies. Yeah.

Well, I mean, you're, you're a damn fool. There were only three goalies with a thousand plus games in the home. Yeah, and Fleury would be the other one, right? And he clearly is not got there. Okay, what about Jason Spetsa? Nope, he had a couple. That was a guy that was my immediately. Yeah.

Two years, yeah. That was my immediate thought was that like him or like Danny Heatley or whoever. But no, they all did it more than once. Was that, was that the year, I think. I feel like Henrik Zetterberg had only one actual point of game here. I think he had two. Okay. Because he's not on this list.

So I'm down three to one, right? Yeah. Big trouble. Mark Savard? Mark Savard had way more than, he had at least three because he played with Kovilchuk for a few years there. Okay. And just to, just for clarification,

Zetterberg, 92, 85, and an 80 and 80 season. Wow. And then a couple of 48s and 45 and 46 games, too. So he did it several times. And then who's the other guy you said? Oh, Savard had. Let's see here. 97, 96, 88, 78, and 74.

etc. I'm excited now because I feel like this is going to be a list of utter bums. It's actually not. No guy on this list, I think you would say, was a bum, but also like just guys you probably wouldn't think of. Ladislav Nagy, Simone Gagne, Brian Gianni. All right. And if we're talking point of game, like if we're raising the bar up there. Totally.

Oh, bum in terms of wouldn't get to a point of game consistently? Yeah, sure. I mean, that's the category, right? Fair. Nagy, Simone Gagne, Brian Gianta, Corey Stillman, this is the one bum, I'd say. Martin Rusinski did it somehow. Andy McDonald and Scott Gomez.

Martin Rusci? Like the guy from the Gretzky trade? Hung around until 2006? Yeah, played from 92 to 08. And his only point of game season, he had 55 points in 52 games in 0506 playing for the Rangers. Well, yeah, that was not going to, that one was never going to go well for me. Nope, nope, you weren't pulling that one for sure.

All right. So we are tied 1-1 heading back to wherever my home arena is. It's better not be in fucking Scottsdale, I'll tell you. No, it better not be. All right, well, I'll tell you what, then we're going to go since I said, since I'm going to be a homer. Let's go full homer. Toronto Maple Leafs,

who scored at least 200 goals with the Leafs. So we don't care about the rest of their careers. Okay. Got it. I will jump right out and say Austin Matthews. Yes. Hmm. Doug Gilmore?

Not Doug Gilmore. Really? No. I mean, Gimor was an assist guy, and he wasn't. So he had 131 goals, as I may believe. Okay. So that's not like, he was a total bummer or anything. Oh, Matt Sundeen, obviously.

Matt Sundy, yes, is the franchise leader. So you're two up one down. I'll go with another older guy, and I will go with Lanny McDonald. I know he was a good pull. Good long time? 219 goals. So he was close, but you only need one more. Okay.

Oh, for my close friend, Sean McIndoo, down goes Ron himself. I'll say Wendell Clark. It is Wendell Clark, yeah. That's 260 goals. So Ryan gets the point and wrestles home ice advantage back. Other names, there's 15 guys altogether, but some of them are old-timers that I would have never thought you would get.

But some other recognizable names on the list, Daryl Sittler. Sure. Dave Keon, Rick Vive, who had the 50 goal seasons. Yep. Frank Mahavillich, Teter Kennedy. William Nealander is the only other one from the current team. William Nealander is over 200 career goals already.

I love it. Mitch Marner is just shy. John Tavaris is just shy. Phil Kessel did not get there either. I guess that's a little surprising to me. Kessel, I maybe would have thought to, I would have thought, yeah. And didn't get there, though. So, okay, good job by you.

Thank you. For this next one. Real quick. I just saw that Moneypuck tweeted this earlier this morning. Someone retweeted it into my feed. The biggest game of the year tonight in terms of swing in, like, percentage of making the playoffs. Okay. Is the Caps Red Wings game?

40% one way or the other for the wings, depending on whether they win or lose, and 33% for the caps one game. Yep. That's crazy. This is fun, man. You get far enough down and it's into the season and you get some real good ones. Anyway. As far as those numbers go by.

All right. Ryan, give me the, I want you to name the, let's see, nine teams that currently have a drought of at least five years since they've won a playoff series. One a playoff series. So does this include teams that haven't made the playoffs in a while? Yes. Anyone who hasn't won in five years, and that obviously does not include this year. So you would have to go back to, they could have won in 2018, but they have not won in 1920, et cetera. Are you counting play-in rounds as playoff rounds?

That's a great question. Thank you, my friend. I don't know. Okay. Great. You know what? Yeah, let me, I'm kind of digging around here trying to see. That's very funny.

I don't know, man. Just roll with it. Yeah, no, that's fine. You know what? Yes, we are counting that as a postseason because I can see a team here that is only, I see several teams actually. That only did that. So, yes, that is important information to have because it looks like there would be a couple more teams on the list. And you

And what year What year going back to? I don't think of it So they could have won as recently as 2018 Okay But they have not won 2019 and onward I will go

Let's start with a couple loser franchises The Sabres and the Senators Correct on both Sabers have the longest drought They go back to 2007 Senators not since the conference final run Okay I will say to give you just sort of a little bonus hint here,

the senators are the only team on the list that has not made the playoffs at all during their drought. Huh. Not saying having made the playoffs in the last five years, but have, like, for example, the Sabres twice did make the playoffs in 2010, 2011, but lost. Right. Okay. Chicago?

Chicago, no. Chicago There's no way That's true You know what I screwed it up Okay 2020

2020 yeah No they won in 2020 Oh because they won the They won the play in round That they won the play in round And the play in round counts That's right

Right right I forgot about that Yep Okay They had the upset over the oilers Right wasn't it Yeah it was Um

Okay Okay Let me think here I almost said Montreal They famously won a couple of rounds in that fake playoff. Yes, they sure did. Sure did. Detroit, probably.

Detroit is another correct answer. Yeah, they have a 10-season drought, second longest. Huh. I wouldn't have guessed that. They made the playoffs three times, but lost each time. So 3 to 1, you are one away from taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the series. Whoa. Let me think here.

Did I say Arizona? You did not. Is that a correct answer? I don't know. Is it an official guess? Yeah. It is not correct. They also went around in the play.

Oh, I have it. I do, like you mentioning that about Chicago made me remember that they beat the Oilers. I have no recollection whatsoever of Arizona doing that. So what is it, three to two right now? Three to two. Okay. What did Calgary when that one fake fucking playoff round they won?

I'll say the Flames. Note the Flames won around just two years ago. Did they really? Again, no recollection. They beat Dallas in seven games before they lost to Edmonton in that fun round two series. So 3-3. This is it.

This is where in overtime game four, this is really Ryan's chance to just take a stranglehold, heading back home. Real turning point energy. Okay. I'll just go through teams that I know made like deep runs, and that'll knock off a bunch. Sure. Boston, Florida, Vegas, Colorado, Tampa. That knocks five off. The Rangers made a deep run.

The Islanders made a couple of deep runs. Toronto, obviously, not a deep run, but they won a round last year somewhat infamously. The Capitals won. The Devils won. Like I said, Montreal won. There can't be too many Eastern Conference teams I'm not getting right now. I think I just didn't say the Flyers and the Penguins at this point. So, okay, Flyers and Penguins, I'll keep those in mind.

Dallas, Colorado, I'm pretty sure about Winnipeg. Nashville, I'm not so sure about St. Louis, obviously. Minnesota, I'm pretty sure, got out of the first round at least once. You know what? I'll go with the Flyers. I'm not going to... Incorrect. The Flyers also won in 2020.

One of those fake series. And I will say this. There is, you did name a couple of teams that would have been correct answers. Oh, really? On your list that were not. But I will give you the other. So you got Buffalo, Detroit, and Ottawa. The other ones, the Kings have a nine seasons.

Really? They've made the playoffs four times in that. Somewhat amazingly, the Minnesota Wild have lost seven times in the first round. They've never, wow. The Anaheim Ducks Have only made the playoffs once I should have gotten the ducks Yeah

The Nashville Predators have not won in five years I would have thought Soros did it for them Fuck The Pittsburgh Penguins The team that you were hovering over Would have been a correct Correct answer They've lost four

Times And the other one that you mentioned That would have been correct The Washington Capitals Have not won since their Stanley Cup Oh Which brings them to five years. Okay.

Well, there you go. We're tied to two. Two to two. All right. Tickets for game six, now on sale. Now that I look at this, I feel like this is probably too easy, but there are 20 guys who fit into this category. Multiple time Lady Bing winners. Ooh, boy.

No, that's. Okay, Gretzky. Yep. Yari Curry? I'm not seeing him on here. Okay. No Yari Curry. That's right.

No Yerich. It's 20 guys. I had to comb through a lot of names. Paveldatsook? Pavel Datsuk is correct. Two to one. Hmm. Oh, there was a guy who won it so many times.

Dave Kion? Dave Kion is correct. Yep, that's right. Okay. Three to one. My back's against. the wall here, folks. I'm facing elimination.

Well, you're not facing a, no, we're tied to. No, I'm on the, I'm on the brink of being. I'm trying to close out. He's right now, Ryan's calling a timeout at the bench and he's trying to.

I'm down, I'm down 3-1 late in game, in game five. All right. So not, uh, how about Paul Korea? Um, not seeing him. Okay. Uh,

how about, there's like a guy who won it, like, a bunch of times and he was like, oh, no. Oh, wait, no, Paul Correa is correct. I'm sorry. Oh, he is? Nice.

Yep. Okay. So there you go. Oh, good. Yep. The answers. Are there any like obvious ones that I? Yeah, I'd say so.

I'll just read the whole list. Frank Boucher, don't know who that is. Red Kelly guy I've heard of Bobby Bauer, Mike Bossy, Alex Delvecchio, Ron Francis. This is one I thought you were going to get, Martens, San Luis. Mm, yep Johnny Busek, Marcel Dion, Paul Correa, Dave Keon, Anse Copatar,

Stan McKita, Joe Mullen, Frank Nybor, Jean Rattel, Clint Smith, and Sid Smith, the Smith brothers. So was Belvo on the list? Because he was the guy

I was going to say next. No, he was not. Famously a guy who, like, I think may have won at once, but also had like lots of 100 minute seasons that people don't expect. All right,

I'm now up three. to two, we're back home. I've got the momentum. I want you to give me... This actually is a tough one, I will admit it. Okay. Of the... There are nine games this year

in which one team scored nine or more goals. I want you to give me either the team that scored the nine goals or the team that gave up, but you've got to tell me which you're guessing. I will open both doors for you. Okay. But you can't just give me a team. You've got to say gave up or you get it.

Yeah. The sharks gave up 10 goals more than once. So that's more than once you get one point for that. Oh, this is bullshit. Fuck you. A team that I said named the teams. I didn't say name the games. You did.

That's true. Okay. The Pittsburgh Penguin scored 10 for sure. Who was that other team? Who was that other sharks? That other sharks game against. I was the same as you. I remembered the penguins doing it,

but I had trouble on the other one. I'm going to say the Oilers scored nine at some point. They have not somewhat surprisingly. Well, I don't like that, though. In my opinion, we should say that they did. Oh, I think I know who the other team that's scored. all those goals, is the Canucks, like first or, like very early in the season, the Canucks let up the shots.

The Canucks did it two days before the Penguins did. Oh, my God. I forgot. Oh, that's brutal, man. Yeah. So three to one. You need one more team on either side of the ledger. Who's a team that sucks?

Who's a team that's bad? Did Columbus give up nine goals? Columbus, incorrect. Okay. So you're three to two now. All right, who's a team that's good? Did Florida score nine goals? Florida did score nine goals.

Thank Christ. So you won. And do you remember who they scored it against? I do not. It gets Tampa Bay of all. Oh, that's right. I remember that, yeah, of course. So of Florida beat Tampa in 9-2, they had the two San Jose games.

What was the other one you got right? Oh, and you named the bank. The Vancouver one, yeah, you got both sides of those ones. The other ones, Minnesota, Vancouver had that crazy 10-7 game. Oh, yeah, okay, sure. The Leafs beat Anaheim 9-2. The Leifes lost to Buffalo 9-3. Buffalo lost to Columbus 9-4.

So you had Columbus, but you had the wrong side of it. Boston beat Montreal 9-4 and Dallas beat Nashville 9-2. So there you go. We're on to game 7. Was that Dallas 9-2 game, the one that was like, you are not allowed to hear Beautiful Day now? That was the YouTube game. Yep. Hell yeah. Big shout-out. All right. Sean, I say what I think. Classic Maple Leafs.

Classic Maple Leafs. Had the chance to win it on Home Ice. Blew it. That's right. Now I'm screwed. And I think I got a stumper for you. I think you're in a lot of trouble here. Steve Thomas. All right, go. From 2014 to present. So the last 10 trophies, that have been awarded. Okay. Calder Trophy,

runners up. Oh, God. This is, I will say, for the most part, name brand players, like guys who are stars in the league to one extent or another. Okay, so I'm going back

to 2015, I guess. 14. Like the winners up from 2014 to present. I can do this. I can do this. Okay. So Connor McDavid was one.

because he lost to Panarin. Oh, you know what? Then you're right. It is 15. It's the last 10, whatever that is. Okay. You're right. So he's not on the list.

No, he's not on the list. That's my bad. I apologize. Um, who was second to Matthews? I don't remember. Let me go back more. I'll pull up my list of Calder. Was it Quinn Hughes?

Quinn Hughes is one, yes. McCar. Yeah. He did. Yep, that's right. Who the hell even won last year? Vanier's won last year, but I don't. Was it Patrick Liny, the...

Linae did win in, let's see here. Like, didn't win, was the second. It was the Matthews year, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. All right. Two and O. Two and O.

Okay, so was last year Owen Power? Last year was not Owen Power. Okay. By the same token was, I know Rasmus Dahlian didn't win the Calder. Was he? No, he did not. He was not runner up. What year would that have been?

That was, he was drafted 2018, so it would have been. 1819, yeah, that's the Pedersen year. Yeah. Hmm. I almost said who finished ahead of him. I would have liked it. That would have been very stupid by me. That would have been great.

Okay, I don't remember the year. So I may have missed our cutoff here, but I know. If you did, I won't count it. I know here in Ottawa, Mark Stone was a runner up. Mark Stone is correct. Yep. Okay. He was the runner up behind Panarin, it looks like.

Oh, okay. So the Panarin year was, oh, yeah, did McDavid finish? Oh, no. Deeper down? The Panarin year. But yeah, McDavid did finish third that year. The Panarin year is not correct. So McDavid should count as an incorrect answer, then I should.

No. Because I did put him if he was in the 10-year window and in the wrong answer. Yeah, you're right. So what am I at now? Don't tell him what we've lost count. That's all we need. I'm a little confused, but I think it's three to three. Oh my gosh, okay.

If we are counting, yeah, either way. Three to three. Yeah, yeah, because I got the two. Let's call it. Both the Sabres defensemen I had wrong. So this is it. We're an overtime of game seven. Who was a really good rookie who didn't win rookie of the year?

Who was the, the prescient? of year was the, okay, the runner up in the capriza of year, was it Trevor Zegras? That's not the right year, but Trevor Zegris is a correct answer. You win. Banked it off a skate, baby. That's right. I'll take it. Long review, but it, uh, it worked out for you. The runner up the capris of year was Robertson. And I remember that being like a hot debate at the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is the, these are the answers in reverse order. Stuart Skinner last year. Trevor Z.

Chris, Jason Robertson, Quinn Hughes, Jordan Binnington, Brock Besser, Patrick Linae, Shane Gostis-Bair, Markstone, Andre Pallot. So, like, those are like legit players that you are very familiar with. You know what I mean? So who is second ahead of McDavid? Second ahead of McDavid. Give me one second, and I will find that for you. That was the Panarin year, and the answer was Gostis Bear. Okay.

You know, if David wanted to win it, he probably shouldn't have missed all those games. Half this fucking season he missed, you know? I mean, if you don't show up for work, you kids, you're not going to get rewarded. It's true. If people don't know, Ryan, the way he does this stuff is he figures out what questions Jordan Bittington will be a correct answer to him. That's right. Look, I got to shout out my guys, you know. Yeah, I'm a big bin head.

Classic Lambert guy. Yeah. So there you go. There's your answer. That was fun. Yeah. I love best of seven. That's a really fun game for me.

You only best of seven that I will get to enjoy for the next little while. That's right. Why don't you hit him with the plugs? Let's get the hell out of here. Come find me at the athletic in which my most recent post, we brought back Rules Court. Myself, Ian Mendez, and Sean Gentilly are voting on your, I'll just say it, frankly, weird rule changes. So you can check that out. be shifting into playoff mode and basically doing a whole bunch of playoff stuff for

the next little while, including next Monday is the last weekend rankings of the year. Maybe ever, who knows? Check it out. See if we resolve all the plot holes that were introduced over the course of the season. We won't. No, impossible to do it. So, yeah, for me, obviously, I'm in Frozen 4 mode, baby. I'm leaving tomorrow for beautiful St. Paul, Minnesota, where the opening game will be Boston University versus Denver, the number two and three teams in the country.

I think it, I'm trying to remember correctly. I think it's ESPN2 and ESPN Plus in the U.S. and TSN. Plus in Canada. You can watch these games. And I want to say that's like a four, a five o'clock start, I want to say. If you haven't seen Macklin Celebrini play yet this season, you're really. going to want to. And, you know, for you Canadian fans, Canadian's fans, I guess I should say, Lane Hudson is playing for BU as well. And then Denver has a couple Flyers prospects. And Zeev Bouillon, who's probably the best draft eligible defenseman available. I think he'll probably

be like a top five or eight pick this year. So really, really cool match up there. And then in the second game, it's Boston College with Cutter Goteer. Gautier. Gabe Perrault, Ryan Leonard, Will Smith, Jacob Fowler, you know, like the number one team in the country, pretty much all year, versus the number 10 Michigan Wolverines who have Rutger Magrorty for all you Jets fans out there. Seamus Casey's a really good defenseman for them. I'm not, Frank Mazar for all you Chicago fans out there. These should be two really, really good game. and if we're going to return to

I'm booking it, B-C-B-U final, number one and two teams in the country, separated by just three miles as the crow flies. It doesn't get any fucking better than that. But if Denver beats BU, Denver playing for its second national championship

in three years, and Michigan, I think, is playing for their first title since 1998, I want to say, so a really long time for them. But they've been to the Frozen Four a bunch of times. Obviously, BC goes from Sub-500 last year to making the Frozen Four this year. Really, really cool shit. Probably, in all likelihood, you will see the Hobie Baker winner playing this weekend.

It's going to be, I think, either Celebrini or Cut or Gotee. I don't think the Mike Richter Award winner for the best goalie will be playing this weekend, although Jacob Fowler, BC's goalie, who's a Montreal pick, I want to say, is playing this weekend, obviously. And I think he's in the final three for the Richter. I don't think he's going to win it, though. I think Kyle McClellan from Wisconsin is going to win that award. So, yeah, I will be, I have a lot of coverage of that coming out. I just finished writing a huge preview this morning, breakdowns of every team's lines, you know, basically going line by line.

line and saying like this is how much this team has scored when these guys are on the ice and that kind of thing. Let me give you a, let me give you a stat that I pulled Sean. When BC's freshman first round pick line, Perrault, Leonard and Smith, when those guys are on the ice together, in all situations, they have outscored opponents 65 to 12 in 39 games. Feels good. That seems pretty good. Yeah, it's pretty good. You want another stat? Cutter. OTA. He was on BC's second penalty kill unit this year. You know what, uh, you know what the goal difference it was when he, when the Eagles were short-handed and he was on the next? What was that? On the P-K.

Plus two. How about this? Not a single in 57 minutes of power or P-K time. Not a single goal scored against them. They scored two shorties. Wow. Fucking crazy how good BC is, man. Wow. Okay. That's, now that's a power kill you tell me brother but yeah these are the kind of in-depth stats that you will literally only find

with my write-up so if you really want to nerd out on this stuff I'm your man I do have in-depth breakdowns of the Hobie and Richter races I did not do one for the Tim Taylor award because Macklin Celebrini is winning that one in a walk as the national rookie of the year

and then I would will have live coverage, or not live, but you know what I mean. I'll have postgame coverage of every game all weekend and another like national championship preview when I know who those two teams are, that kind of thing. So the list goes on and on. I got a lot, a lot in the hopper this weekend. So I hope you'll check it out over at EPRinkside. Sign up using the code.

I love EP. All one word. You'll get 15 months for the price of 12. But you got to sign up for that annual. subscription. And then Patreon.com slash puck soup and you get all our bonus episodes and all that kind of thing.

So big salute to the Frozen Four, big salute to my friend Sean for beating me in Best of Seven and big salute to you, the listener, for checking it all out and we'll talk to you next week. See you. Bye-bye.