Puck Soup - Long Weekend

Episode Date: November 9, 2022

Sean and Ryan talk about the Bruins signing then renouncing Mitchell Miller, coaches on the hot seat, who's buying the Senators, and more. Sponsored by Uncommon Goods (uncommongoods.com/puck), Athletic Greens (athleticgreens.com/puck) and Raycon (buyraycon.com/puck)

Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slap shots and goons. We've got sportly commentary to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's in tunes. It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. I'm Ryan Lambert from Elite Prospects. I'm Sean McIndoo from The Athletic. And we got to open talking about the thing everybody got mad about. I don't like to open with these kinds of things, but this is how it is.

If we don't open with it, then it's like it hangs over the whole show. Yeah. Oh, let's talk about Chris Neal getting his number retired. That's our lead story for the... Oh, is that not what you were referring to? Yeah, Sean texted or email before the show. It was like, do you have a thought on that? And I was like, people don't want to hear it.

That's for sure. Yeah. So we are doing minimum 15 minutes. on that later. That's right. But first. But first, yeah, the Bruins signed Mitchell Miller. And then they were like, oh, that was a bad idea.

We shouldn't have done that. Yeah. Release the news. Classic Friday news dump. Well, here's the thing. Let's start talking about that. They announced it at noon on a Friday. Oh, did they?

I was walking the dog. And I was like, well, that can't be like the Mitchell Miller, right? And then it was. But it's like, if you're doing a Friday news dump, Like 9 p.m. is like the perfect time. And Christ, that's when they released the, we're not going to actually let this guy play for us statement. Was 9 p.m. on a Sunday.

It's like, no, you got the times wrong. Flip those around. Then you're all set. So we should, I mean, I guess we should very briefly do the background, just in case anyone listening to this is like, Oh, finally, I get to talk about this. Who is the Mitchell Miller? You may remember him from, what was it, two years ago when he was a prospect, draft eligible in 2020, story surfaced that when he had been, well, beginning when he was 14, he had, I don't know if bullied is the right word, but he had behaved very awfully towards a classmate. A years-long campaign of bullshing is what it certainly seems to.

Yeah, there is some, at the very least, beginning when he was 14, he was behaving awfully towards a black classmate who was also developmentally disabled. And there were some very awful stories and had used racial slurs. I mean, just really terrible stuff. Above and beyond, you know, we all, I think, understand to some extent that kids that age can be awful to each other, but really gut-wrenching stuff. And he had, he was drafted by the coyotes.

I want to say in the fourth round. Yeah. And this was the year the coyotes had like no picks for a variety of reasons. And they still chose to use one on him. There was an outcry and the coyotes. ultimately renounced the pick and part of ways with him. He had been, he was supposed to go to the, he was on a college team, that North Dakota, that team basically.

Said why don't you not show up this fall, yeah. And that was kind of the last we had heard of him. And then for two years he apparently had been playing in. Well, he only, so he didn't play the season after everybody was like, oh, yes, thank you. He didn't play at all. And then last season he played for the Tri-City Storm in the U.S.HL where he was a defenseman of the year and player of the year, like in the U.S. Put up monster numbers as a defenseman.

39 goals as a defenseman. Because, you know, frankly, he was probably playing in a league below where he should have been playing just give him purely-is. Yeah, he should have been playing high-level college hockey for two years at that point. So the idea that he, I don't know, like, dominated that league, like, he should. should have dominated that leak. He was a 20-year-old who, again, should have been in college for two years before. Yeah. So, and then that brings us to last week. He's now, I mean, he's free agent. And the Boston Bruins decide that this is the guy, this is a guy we want to sign. And we want to bring into our system and bring him into the H. And they make that announcement. There is, a pretty much immediate outcry. Many, a lot of it from people saying, you know,

this guy should not be in the NHL period. This guy, what he did was so awful that, I mean, this is just unforgivable. It's forfeited his chance to play professional hockey. You know, playing in the NHL is a privilege, et cetera, et cetera. I totally understand that point of view. I really do. However, I guess, you know,

The thing the Bruins talked about is it's important to give people second chances in life. And I tend to agree with that. You know, I think we've said it before on the show. Like, I'm a guy. I don't like think prisons should exist, right? So the, like, I could, it would not be like, consistent for me to be like, but of course, this kid should never get a chance to play professional hockey. Yes. Right.

Like, if he had clearly demonstrated that he had, you know, really reflected on and felt remorse about what he did in a very serious way and, like, put in the work, like, again, like self-evidently put in the work, obviously put in the work to make amends. Like his agent put out a statement that used the term restorative justice. And that's something I really believe in. I think that, like, people should be allowed to make amends for if they wrong, somebody, you know, and not just, you know, go to jail for however long. And part of that, I think, and this is the other thing that I think really hit people the wrong way is that the victim's family is like, this kid sucks.

We don't like that. We don't like Mitchell Miller. He has only ever been nasty to us even when, like, he was. supposed to, you know, like he did the absolute bare minimum as far as we're concerned. And those people, like, victims families have no obligation to forgive someone that wronged them. However, you know, can we as like a society move beyond that? I think people really ought to, you know, think about what the answer to that question is, right? with all that having been said

it doesn't seem like Mitchell Miller did much work at all to do the restorative justice thing and it and it feels like he any work that he did do was focused on what do I need to do to get back into my hockey career including that I guess the detail that emerged was that he had

had little to no contact with the victim and his family until like a week before the Bruin signed him in which he sent an Instagram DM apology and that was his case of reaching out to them like I'm I'm with you very strongly on like yes to second chances yes to the fact that

the situation that began when he was 14 and there is some dispute over, you know, how much it continued and whether this, the, the Bruins very much tried to phrase it as if it was a one-time incident that does not seem to be the case, but as far as how long it lasted afterwards, it's all, you know, you know, there's a little bit of dispute over that. But, you know, he's 14 when it started. He's 20 years old now. That's a world of difference. There is, and I, you know, maybe part of this is me as, you know, what makes the story tough is as a parent of two kids who are around that age. You know, I think unavoidably your first thought goes to like, man, what if somebody did that to my kid? Yeah. And, you know, could you ever forgive somebody for that? And, and, you know, that's obviously a really hard question. But then you also think about, you know, not just your own kids, but like their friends and that peer group. Like I know so many kids around this age, like they're not finished products yet.

No. They're not even close. They're barely, you know, a lot of them are just barely functional. And I hate the idea that any of them could screw up so badly at this age that that's it. They're written off permanently. And again, I get why people feel that way. Yeah. That like, it's like, oh, this kid's a bad seed or whatever, right?

And I saw people going like, well, you know, I'm not that different than I was six years ago. And I was like, right, you're an adult. Yes. You know, like we talking to hockey about aging curves. Like kids are still on a pretty steep upward trajectory at age 14 or whatever. Yeah. And again, I'm not in any way. What he did was awful.

What Mitchell Miller did was horrible. And as we said, we, you know, like the idea that he should be working on the restorative justice angle on this, that's not so he can play hockey again. That's so like he can like get back to developing as a human being. Frankly, I don't give a shit if this kid ever plays hockey again. I totally get why everybody's like, well, well, fuck that. You know, like that, that should be off the table. I personally don't think it's off the table or it should be off the table.

If I really believe this kid was, and again, I shouldn't say kid, because that's a, that like kind of is like excusing it almost. I don't mean to do that. I just kind of refer to like 80% of hockey players as kids. So I apologize about that. But my point is, like the rest. restorative justice thing, that's not about being able to play hockey for me. That's about making the victim's family feel as, as good as they're going to feel about this, as opposed to what they clearly feel, which is like, Midgell Miller has done nothing to show us he's

sorry. And that's the key, right? Because, I mean, you, you've got to. center of the victim here and, you know, that's where, you know, our first thoughts should be. But it is, I mean, look, I know when I was that age, I did and said some things that I'd be deeply embarrassed by now. Nothing to this level. Of course, nothing to this level. But I certainly wouldn't want to be judged by who I was when I was, you know, a teenager when I was, you know, 14 or whatever. or even when I was 20, you know, for that matter.

But, you know, there is like, it has to be possible for people to move forward. It has to be possible for people to change and get better. We don't make any progress as a society if we don't allow for that. But we can also acknowledge that there is getting better and making amends, and then there is doing whatever I need to do to check the boxes so I can go back to living my life as if this didn't happen. Yes. Yep. And I think, you know, when this first was announced, you know, there were a lot of people immediately saying like, hey, that's, it's an immediate no for me.

You know, and I was kind of one of those going, like, well, I want to wait and see. I want to hear more to this story. And then the more to this story ended up being. I mean, the Don Sweeny Press conference was like a disaster. Well, it was, it was awful. and yet also very much, maybe, I don't know if you got this sense. Like, it felt to me like this wasn't Don Swinney's call. Like, Don Sweeney basically said multiple times in his media availability that this might

not be the right decision. He didn't seem very enthusiastic. But, like, it seems like there's so much, there's so much buck passing here. Because, like, Cam Neely's like, well, new information came out. And people are like, what new information? And it's like, well, basically, it seems. like the new information was we didn't talk to the Meyer, Meyer, Meyer, brother's family, right?

Like, that's, that to me, you know, he's not getting into specifics for, I think, pretty obvious reasons that we'll get to. But he, him saying, uh, like the new information, I can't believe we didn't talk to the victim's family. That to me reads the information is we didn't talk to the victim's family. Yeah. And that, I mean, it very much sounds like what happened was that the Bruins decided that they were interested in this kid as a prospect. They, and that from there, what they did was they asked Mitchell Miller for his side of the story.

And then it's- And then essentially accepted that completely. Did not reach out to, did not reach out to the family. Doesn't seem like they Googled anything. Yeah, I mean, their original release on this, again, made it sound like this was a one-time thing that happened when he was 14 when the reporting out of Arizona at the time in 2020 when the coyotes picked him made it clear that this was, you know, again, whether it continued for years and years or whatever it was, it wasn't just one thing. This wasn't like one day something happened, something was said. Right. This was an ongoing situation.

And the ruins either did not know that, which would be inexcusable because it was all public information, or they did know it and they framed it in a misleading way, which shows that they, you know, they knew that they weren't doing the right thing. But what very much did turn this around was the victim's family speaking out specifically his mom and basically saying like, look, we haven't forgiven this kid. he hasn't done anything to be forgiven. He hasn't apologized other than through this DM that was sent a couple weeks ago. And, you know, we should say that that apology makes it seem like the ruins were like, well, you've got to like really apologize to Isaiah here. Or that his agent was like, hey, you need to do something so that when the Bruins say, did you apologize, you can say yes. Right. And apparently he said in the DM, like, this has nothing to do with Hawkins. by the way. And it's like, ooh, that's, that's a little telling on yourself, I think, but

sure. So, yeah, like, I do, I think, I think the more interesting aspect of this, honestly, is like what the Bruins process on this was, because we were told, oh, this started in August and they were thinking about it maybe like even a year ago when this, when, again, I wanted to say kid, when Mitchell Miller was lighting up the USHL. And, and, part of it definitely seems like they were like, well, somebody else will get them if we don't. And, yeah, I would imagine that would be the case. That's true, yeah. Now, but I guess my thing is, is there a team in the entire NHL as like up on their high horse about their own culture?

Oh, the culture, the Bruins culture. It's so good. Patrice Burge run, they run a really tight, you know, all this shit. Mm-hmm. And then, like, you know, they're all, like, I guess maybe the impulse is, well, if anybody's going to fix it, I can fix him. You know, like the classic, the classic foible that people make in their, in their dating lives, you usually hear that I can fix him, you know. And I guess if you're up on your, up on your high horse about that, high on your own supplies, they say. Uh-huh.

You can, you can really talk yourself into that in a hurry. And you can talk yourself out of having to actually do anything because you just by virtue of signing this kid, by him putting the logo on, by him walking into that dressing room, he will magically, this is, like you're absolutely right. The NHL teams, Bruins in particular, but certainly not alone, Montreal comes to mind. The same shit with Logan Mayu. it's they they talk so much about character that it like it doesn't mean anything anymore because for them character is just talking about character all the time and if you just keep saying it then that's it becomes self-fulfilling you don't actually have to do anything you just have to incessantly pat yourself on the back for your culture and your character and then that is what having character is Yeah, no.

And so, you know, I watched the Netflix movie or the new adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, which was pretty good. I liked it. But like at the very beginning, this is a movie about World War I. And at the very beginning of the movie, the main character is like about to go up a, like up a ladder to get out of the trench. And the guy right in front of him gets shot in the face and falls backwards. And then his sergeant's like, well, get up there. know, and why if you're the Bruins or anybody, really, do you want to be the first guy up that ladder?

You know what I mean? Like, this isn't going to go well for, it was not going to go well if it was the coyotes, like, resigning this kid. It wasn't, name a team. Name any team in the league. They were going to get that sniper fire right on them, you know? They clearly didn't think it was going to be sniper fire. They clearly thought it was going to be a couple of paper cuts in a bad weekend and then they'd

move on. Cam Neely was like, I thought the reaction would be this kid deserves a second chance. And it's like, why do you think that? Not completely unjustifiable. Like to think that we can wait this out. That's what Montreal is doing with Logomayu. And when was the last time you even heard a Habs fan say anything negative about that? Like, it kind of worked for Montreal.

So. But they went through a thing, I guess the Bruins were not willing to go through, which is like a week of that. And the Bruins pulled the shoot after two days because they were like, oh, it seems like everyone's really pissed at us. Well, and we should talk about the two other important and somewhat unprecedented things that happened after this news. And the first was Bruins players speaking out, specifically Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron sat down. I thought Nick Falino was even more like.

Nick Falino was even more. The reason I say Bergeron is because if Bergeron doesn't talk first, Folino doesn't say anything. Felino's new to the team. I don't think Nick Falino says anything. Well, put it this way. If Patrice Bergeron does a Connor McDavid and gets up there and says, hey, it is what it is. We're just trying to win here like McDavid did after Evander Kane was signed.

I don't, I think everyone, I don't think anyone stands up against Patrice Bergeron, let alone a relatively new player like Nick Falino. But to his, absolutely to his credit, Bergeron spoke up against it. And, you know, not, he didn't say like, hey, we don't want. this guy on the organization. This was a mistake. You know, but he was strong enough that it was very clear,

um, what message he was sending. Right. And then that's the, that's the hockey equivalent of being like absolutely fucking not is being like, well, me and the guys were not so sure. Like that's the most vociferous anybody has ever publicly disagreed.

And everybody got the message. Like he, you know, it was, there was no confusion. And then the other thing that happened was, was Gary Bettman spoke out and basically said, hey,

he's he's he's he's Mitchell Miller is not necessarily eligible to play in the NHL and people should which would make him not eligible to play in the AHL presumably then yeah typically if you're not if you're not if you're suspended by one league you are suspended in the AHL now that was very interesting because on the one hand credit to Gary Batman he you know he he did he he he he he did he he he basically spoke out against the signing. Now, the flip side of it is... Again, as forcefully as Gary, a Gary Betman ever could.

Yeah. Well, I mean, yes. And I mean, we have seen teams do things in the past where Gary Batman kind of says, hey, it's, you know, it's up to the team. And, you know, he became part of the story in a way that pushed back on the signing. Now, the flip side of it is the Bruins did run this by the league. Apparently, they did run it by... They had given Bill Daley a heads up, and the contract was approved.

So, you know, you, for the league to then come back and say, well, he might not be eligible. You know, and he hasn't been suspended. There's been no formal anything. So, you know, the other side of this is Gary Bettman was kind of talking out of his ass because he doesn't, there is nothing there that actually would, other than the fact that anyone by virtue of signing a, is not necessarily automatically eligible to play in the NHL, theoretically. I mean, you could,

you know, you could, you could say that of anyone. There is now, now that the Bruins have come out on Sunday night and said, they're essentially renouncing the signing, but it gets trickier because this is not the, when the coyotes did it, the coyotes hadn't signed him to anything.

They had drafted his rights, and so they then renounced his rights, which is, and that was the end of it. The Bruins have signed a contract with this guy. So what do we do now? You can't just unsign a contract. And now the Players Association is getting involved,

which is completely appropriate. As much as you don't have to like Mitchell Miller, you don't have to ever want to see him in the NHL or anywhere. The NHLPA, once somebody has signed a contract, and a team suddenly says, you know what, we changed our minds. The PA has to jump in and say, Ways that you cannot do that. We have guaranteed contracts.

They have to view it as a slippery slope. Yes. And I get that nobody wants the end result here to be that Mitchell Miller gets a bunch of money that he doesn't even have to earn because, you know, but you absolutely cannot, if you're the PA, let Gary Bettman or a team or whoever say, you know what, we've decided after the fact, this isn't something somebody did after they signed the contract, that's a whole different scenario. Sure.

You knew who you were signing and now you've changed your mind. You can't do that. You can't walk away from a contract because we can all imagine the many, many, many ways that NHL teams could abuse that against NHL players who have guaranteed contracts that they have for decades to have and to keep. So no issue with what the NHLPA is doing here. I'm very curious to see what happens with the Bruins. I'm very curious to see what happens with Betman.

Like if he is, you know, put on the spot where he has to justify his statements, there could be lawsuits. There could be. Yeah. It's going to be a mess. And it's a mess of they're making the Bruins. Yeah. I think the easiest way out for the Bruins here is to just buy out the contract immediately. Or, well, you know, at their earliest convenience.

Right. Which would be in the summer. Or whatever. Unless there is. Because. otherwise you open yourself up to, like you say, lawsuits and collective bargaining, wranglings and all this kind of stuff. And to your point, like, do you want to see this kid make tens of thousands of dollars

or hundreds of thousands of dollars for effectively not doing anything? Maybe you don't. I, you know, I kind of wouldn't want to. Don't think that sets the greatest precedent. but, you know, like the, there are, let's put it this way, there are mechanisms within the CBA, which would allow the Bruins to get out of here, relatively cheap because of his age, I believe he can, and his experience in pro hockey, which is to say none, he can be bought out for like one third of the value of the contract, which is a rounding error for most

NHL teams. But after, after the season. which would mean after the season. So, a full season of. Yes. He already got his signing bonus, whatever that was. And then he would continue to collect his like weekly paycheck or whatever.

Yeah. But the alternative is, you know, you got to, you got to like go through all these court proceedings and probably get your ass kicked. Like, as, as unprecedented as this is, it does seem like the Bruins don't have a lot of ground. to like actually terminate the contract. I'm not a lawyer, but, you know. I can't imagine how, I mean, you, the precedent has always been that there, yes, there is an allowance for terminating a contract based on new information or new behavior or something. We saw it with a Vanderkane, right?

When the sharks walked away, they didn't walk away because, hey, we, we now realize we don't like what he may or may not have done before we signed him. It was the new stuff, the vaccine card and all of that. that is one thing. And that gets into a tricky area too, because, again, that can be abused by, you know, the Mike Richards situation comes to mind as well. But this doesn't seem to be it. Like, I haven't seen anyone suggesting that from the moment he signed the contract that Mitchell Miller has done anything additionally wrong. So I don't see how the Bruins have anything to stand on.

The other way this could go is that the Bruins and Miller could come to some sort of agreement. And again, I don't know where his head would be at or his representation as far as do they even think he has a future in hockey now that this has gone the way it went. Are they hoping that maybe someday he can still be in the NHL? And at that point, does it make sense to not go to the mattress on this one? Or is this a case where people got to sit him down and say, look, man, no one in the NHL is going near you again. Get what you can get out of this and go play and. Europe or go do whatever. I don't know. We'll see. But yeah, I mean, it's a mess. And it's really, the Bruins brought on themselves. And not that it matters, but just as context, I've talked to a

few people who have said, you know what, like this, Miller is, he's a prospect. He had a chance to play in the, in the NHL, absolutely. I mean, the Bruins are an organization that doesn't have a ton of prospects in the pipeline. One of the worst prospects pool is in the league. But this guy's not some can't miss. He's not some blue, like he's a guy. As far as prospects go, I mean, you would know better than this. I haven't heard anyone.

It's not like this is, you know, I mean, we always say it, right? Like, the stars get away with things that other players don't. And that's wrong, but it's always the way it's been. in sports. And, you know, this guy isn't, as prospects go, he's not, you know, not that if he was a blue chip superstar prospect that that would make this morally better, but you would at least understand it. Yeah.

And he's, he's not that is my, is how I see it. Yeah, he, like we said, he was a fourth round pick. And a lot of teams took them off, took him off their draft boards when all the bullying stuff came out during the vetting process of whatever. But before that, he was maybe like a second or third round pick, depending on where teams were on him as a player. You know, but like by no means a first round pick and probably not even a high second pick. And so that made it easier for all these teams to be like, well, then fuck it. You know, it becomes a tougher question if he's like a borderline first or second round pick for all these teams.

But that is again, like that's what I circle back to when I think about what the Bruins did, which is like, yeah, he just had a great season in the USHL. But like, you're going to do this reputational damage to your organization and piss off the fans, the media, advertising partners, your own players, you know, for a guy who has maybe a one in 10 chance of making it to the NHL and probably not even being like. like a difference maker for your NHL team. That to me is like, I don't get that. Like I get that the Bruins organization is thin. But like that to me, I was just like,

why would they do it? It doesn't make any sense to me that they would put themselves at that kind of risk, I guess. Yep. And so I guess the last thing I want to say about this is Cam Neely held his presser on Monday and basically said like,

Yeah, somebody fucked up somewhere. I got to, like, I'm going to take the week and determine what kind of disciplinary action there is. And for the thing that I thought immediately was whoever like talked Don Sweeney and because you said like, oh, Don Sweeney, it seemed like he maybe was on the fence about it or whatever. Ultimately, it's his fucking call. And if he had any honor at all, he would at least like take. a leave of absence or something like that while they figure out how this all went sideways or whatever. But I really think in a more honorable league or whatever, like people would be resigning over this shit. This is like total like organizational failure.

Like whoever, whoever fucked up and was like we should really make that. Like, I don't blame a scout for saying, oh, this kid feels like he could be an NHL prospect, because the scout's job is to go, yes or no, can this kid make it, right? I don't blame a director of scouting for, or development or whatever for being like, I think we can turn, because again, that's that guy's job. At some point, there has to be someone higher up on the totem pole than, um, I don't know. know, like a, then a guy who's basically, like, you know, not well known to anybody outside of, like, real hockey sickos, like, someone has to fall on their sword higher up the chain than that. And the fact that, that Cam Neely, like, might be forced to take disciplinary action, I mean,

okay, you know, that, it's a really tough sell for me that, that, that, you know, that, somebody might get away with this like scot-free or whatever yeah i mean it's no one's getting away with it from a reputation standpoint this is quite obviously gonna get a stick uh on a lot of people and we still don't know you know maybe people will lose their jobs who who knows um but uh yeah it's um it's a mess it's a total own goal by the brunes um and it's uh just you know, just another ugly story for hockey. Because at the end of the day,

like, it's, you know, when you, when you sit there and go, what was, what were the Bruins thinking, what they were thinking was,

it'll be okay. We can get away with this. They were thinking, you know, this is, I'm sure they sat down with the PR people and they knew that, you know,

some bad days were ahead. But they figured they would write it out. They figured their fans would, would accept it, would be, you know, They figured that Mitchell Miller plays well in the HL, makes the NHL someday that it would all be worth it. And they didn't, you know, they didn't talk to the family.

They didn't talk to the victim because they didn't think they needed to. They didn't, they figured they had heard enough from Miller and his, and his reps saying, here's all the things we've done, here's all the nice organizations that we've made a phone call to. And the Bruins thought that that would be enough and that they would write it out. And I don't, it's hard to say that, I mean, obviously in hindsight they were wrong. But I'm not sure that they were wrong to think that they would get away with this because lots of teams do, including, you know, I know, I know a lot of people who aren't Bruins fans or, you know, my team would never. Well, maybe not. A lot of teams would.

And I do, if it wasn't the Bruins, we would be having this conversation about some other team. And who knows? Maybe in a different market with a little less, that is a little less up its own behind about culture and doesn't have a produce Berger on on the roster and what have you. Maybe the outcome's different. I don't know. I guess as we were just talking, looks like three or four minutes ago here, maybe a little longer, like 15 minutes. I didn't see it until just now. Isaiah Meyer-Kruthers put out a statement through the Hockey Diversity Alliance.

The victim here, yeah. And, oof, it's bad. It's really bad. Now, I don't want to, you know, just read the whole thing to you. It's on the Hockey Diversity Alliance's Twitter. I would encourage everybody to read it. And, you know, form your own opinions. about what this all says about, about Mitchell Miller.

It's, again, it's, it's a tough. Even, even knowing that you're talking about a 14-year-old, I mean, this is, it's pretty awful stuff. And again, this is, the Bruins could have heard this if they picked up the phone. If they picked up the phone, that's it. And that's, that's why, again, like, I think someone should not be losing their job, I think someone should be resigning from their job for this because a lot of these details, like we kind of knew the sketches of them, at least the outlines, you know, but like seeing them

in, uh, in, in the words of the victim, I, I don't know how, how you as a, as a hockey professional who's, like you said, up their own ass about, uh, yeah. And again, like, their honor, Like how if you are honorable that you're not like, well, that's it for me. Have a good one, folks. Yeah. I mean, there's just, there's no, there's no way, especially given that, you know, there's no, it's not like here's the tough read, but then here's how the last few years of it. It's, it's, I didn't hear from this guy until a few weeks ago when he started, you know,

I started getting, according to Isaiah, like basically, you know, inundated with all these texts and DMs saying, I need to talk to you right now. Like very clear what's going on here. Yeah. The line that sticks out for me is I told him that's all cool, but where is the proof, though? He didn't give me any. Yeah. No.

Well, there you go. That's it. Look, at the end of the day, we all know people who when they were kids were idiots and got better. And we all know people when they were kids were idiots and they're still idiots to this day. Yep. And I'm pretty, I'm feeling pretty confident. And I've got a sense of which applies in this case. And again, I'd love for Mitchell Miller to actually put in the work and turn things around.

Yeah. It would be great. One last asshole in the world would be a fantastic ending to this story. But it's like, I'm not holding my breath. There has to be, as we both said, there has to be a path to improvement. There has to be a path to, you know, redemption is not the right word, but there has to be. a path to being better. But it's a path. You know, it's not, it's not an automatic and it's not a time thing. It's not how long has it been five years? Okay, the statute of limitations is over.

It's a path. You have to walk down the path. And it doesn't sound like there have been any steps at all taken here. Yeah, very, very few at the least. Why don't we take a break and we'll come back and we'll talk about actual like better stuff than that. Sounds good. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Raycon, and Raycon is asking you one simple question this holiday season. If you haven't bought your gifts yet, what are you waiting for? Because if you're waiting for like Black Friday, where are you going to go fight somebody for a $40 TV? You're going to have to deal with any freaking Cairns? You don't want to do that.

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We're back. And, you know, it really does feel like we're getting to someone's going to get fired. Like first coach out of the gate is getting fired soon. Yeah. Every team is bad now. It's wild. It's really crazy. So yeah, so let me just tee up the bit here.

In honor of Larry Brooks writing an article over the weekend titled Gerard Gallant already against the clock to find Rangers identity. We're going to play a game as he on the hot seat or still on his feet. And I have gone around the league and I was like, oh, here's a guy who maybe he could get fired. Here's a guy who maybe you could get fired. And to your point about everybody's bad, I got 11 coaches where I'm like I would totally buy it. Yeah. You know, to greater or lesser extents, obviously,

it's not, they're not all, but I guess that's the point of the game. So I'm going to go, we're going to go in alphabetical order by the last name of the coach. Okay. And I want you to tell me, is he on the hot seat or is he still on his feet? Losers last night,

I believe they've lost seven in a row now. Craig Baroobee of the St. Louis Blues. Yeah. As Jared Bedner breathes a sigh of relief that we've skipped him. I think with Bedner in particular, you can go, well, it seems like everyone on the avalanches hurt again. Yes. And he... So that does...

Not in any way, I would imagine, be on any kind of hot seat. He's also... They're still in a playoffs. bought. Yes. So they're fine, I think. So Craig Barube, yes, hot seat. I mean, it's been interesting there because like Doug Armstrong is basically,

has already done like a couple of media things. And, you know, at one point he was like, we just might not be that good. So. Which rocks. You definitely want your GM saying that like 11 games into the season. Yeah. And I mean, it's, man, the blues, it's, it's crazy. Like, remember we were, when we were going through the, like, here's all the undefeated teams.

And the blues were one of them. Now, they hadn't played a lot of games, but they were the last. One. They were the last one. Yeah, I think when we did that, you're right. They didn't want. But they were the last undefeated team in the league. They started off the season, 3.0 and 0.

Oh, 3.0. Yeah. And they're now 3.8 and 0. So, that's not good. So I was wrong. It was eight losses in a row. They've lost eight in a row. Thumbs up, baby.

And eight in regulation. Like, they are so bad that they actually have. Even the NHL standings page is like these guys have lost eight games in a row. That's brutal. You don't want to be in that situation for sure. Part of that is, again, I think we talked about it briefly last week. They can't get a fucking save from either of their goals. Yeah.

But also they've scored 23 goals in 11 games. Yeah. And very weirdly, if you say that, blues fans descend on you and say that, no, actually, it's not the goal tanning. And if you watch the games, et cetera, et cetera. Jordan Binnington's been good. It's the defense is so terrible that, you know, I guess they make it sound like it's just cross-ice tap and passes. And that's why he has an 850 save percentage or whatever it is. Hey, come on.

It's 886. I'm sorry. I apologize to Jordan Binnington. I wouldn't want him. I don't want him to get mad at me. He might bump into me and then skate away pretending like he wants to fight. And Jordan Binnington, can we just like, do this? Just get in a fight.

Can you please just get in a fight? one. Just getting one fight. I'm not, you know, trying to be, like, I'm not going Don Cherry here, but like you don't get to bump anyone else, like, on the way to intermission until you fight somebody. He has a pair of glasses tucked into the back of his hockey pants, and the second anybody throws their gloves off,

he'd be like, you wouldn't hit a guy in glasses, would you? Yeah, it's, oh. He stinks. But, hey, at least he's playing well to back up all the bravado, you know? But yeah, I think what's interesting about the blues is, well, remember last year and everybody was like, oh, well, you can't say they're not good. They're great, you know. What were they doing was they were getting a really high shooting percentage. Very high.

And really scoring a lot on the power play. I'm going to look this up real quick from last season. I don't remember them. Yeah, they were, they were a 47.7% XG team at five on five last year. which is bad. You don't want to be below like 48 and feel like you're going to put yourself in a position to succeed. They're not that much worse than that this year, but now the puck's not going in. It's that simple.

Yeah. They shot 12.4% last year, which I think was like among the – not just the highest in the league, but like among the highest in the cap arrow. That's probably true. That's something I can very easily look up. So, and again, like a lot of blues fans, oh, you're going to watch the games. They're doing this and that.

Second highest in the cap. Or no, you know what? I was wrong. First highest in the cap era. Oh, boy. Because the one team ahead of them is this year's Arizona Coyotes who are currently shooting 12.75%. I feel like that won't last.

So, yeah, the highest among any team and one of only two teams, to finish a year above 12% in all situations. The other being the 18-19 Lightning, a team I feel like was pretty fucking good in addition to. They were. Yeah. They scored six, that Lightning team scored 60% of the goals in all situations.

So it's sort of like this is, this is the, you know, the tyranny of the percentages, right? Like if you have a team that gets, uh, historically great shooting out of a team that,

you know, the blues are well coached, You know, they've got some talent, but I don't think anyone would look at that blues team and go, this is a stacked offensive powerhouse. Correct. So, but when you get historically high shooting percentage and decent goaltending, then you get a pretty good team. And when that shooting percentage comes back down and you now get the flip side, which is the goaltending goes in the toilet, now your team stinks and you lose eight in a row. And I don't think Craig Barubei is a problem, but no, you look at the blues and you look at Doug Armstrong. and you go, yeah, what happened the last time they switch coaches halfway through the season?

Refresh my memory. And it's like... What I guess is interesting to me is there was... Did you see this report last week that like some... And I don't remember who said it, so it might be like a totally not reliable source, but maybe it is on the other token. But that like guys are mad at Jordan Kairu for taking the big money. Guys in that room? Oh.

Guys in that room, yeah. Why would they be mad at him for... It was either him or Robert Thomas, but I feel like it was joined Tyroo. Okay. Yeah. It's just, it's rare that players that we hear about resent anyone for getting, you know, get paid. Yeah. But, yep.

I'm trying to, I'm trying to find it. I don't know. I feel like this is going to be one of those things that's impossible to track down. But that was like a real thing I saw. And I was like, who, boy. Things are going bad. And so that to me kind of implies for now the coach is safe. They might make some changes to the roster.

Yep. But yeah, Jordan Kairu, three goals and one assist in 11 games, a minus 17, the worst on the team. Oh, man. Ouch. I mean, like, plus minus is not a good stat, but. When you're the worst on the team at it, that's bad. The reason plus minus is a bad stat is because it is incredibly noisy. but incredibly noisy things still give you value in two situations.

If you've got a huge sample size or if it's like an extreme value and being minus 17, 10 games into the season or whatever. And the other guy we should mention Ryan O'Reilly last year of his contract. Yeah. Heading into free agency next year has two points. Ooh. Jordan Cairo, when they're on the ice at five on five, they have been out, when he's on the ice at five on five, they've been outscored 17 to four. I'm looking at these numbers.

This is, is that good? They have nobody, they have four guys on the team with more than five points. Yeah. So I think, I think what happens is for now, Barubei is safe. They got to make, they're going to make changes to the roster before they, uh, shickhand the coach. That's my, that's my prediction for now. So they have lost in these eight straight games, they have lost two of those games by two goals and the rest by three goals or more. So it's not even like they're getting blown out every night.

Oh, wow. I didn't realize it was as bad as. Yeah. So is he on the hot seat for you or still on his? I would say a very warm seat, but I think he's got like any of these guys like it could, another week can absolutely change. But I think right now, I think there are guys in maybe worse shape. Changes, I would say maybe as soon as this weekend. That's based on nothing but me guessing.

But like if they lose, when's their next game? It's got to be soon. So if they lose like on Thursday or whatever, I can't find the fucking schedule real quick. Oh, I got it. Yeah, they play tomorrow night. If they lose and they're in, oh, okay, so here it is. They play tomorrow night against San Jose. Now there's a team that stinks out.

loud. They're awful. Then they're at Vegas, at Colorado at Chicago. If they get to the end of that road trip with even one win, like if they beat Chicago, I don't think anybody's going to be like, well, we've figured it out. But if they beat even San Jose in Chicago, I think you would say Vegas and Colorado, those are schedule losses. But if they get two wins here, maybe things kind of even out. Then they come back and they've got to play at home to Washington right away. but then there's a gap and then Anaheim twice at home, which is very weird. That could be a time where you wanted to drop a new coach in get a couple wins. I think if you start, if you go one in three or oh and four on this road trip, that's it.

I mean, if you've lost 12 games in a row, like I can't. Yeah. Well, look, yeah. I mean, yeah, it's, it does feel like there's, yeah, doors are closing. I mean, the door to the play. playoffs is probably already closed. And Christ, you know what? If I'm Doug Armstrong, I'm like, let's get every, you know, pending unrestrictive

free agent off the team. Let's tank, baby. Now's the time. Well, I mean, Ryan O'Reilly, even if he's not producing at all, like, he's a guy that playoff teams would, will absolutely be falling all over themselves to get. So bonking themselves with a big mal. Anyway, okay, let's, let's move on here. Next up, Bruce Boudreau.

Now, they won last night. Yes. So it's all set. I think he's safe. But boy, can you imagine a coach getting shived this much by the teams like president of hockey ops and keeping his job? Jim, Jim Rutherford basically is not even hiding the fact that he, you know, talked about how they weren't good enough in training camp. They don't practice right. there.

Yeah. And this, again, this is on the, you know, Bruce Brudrow comes in last year. They have the winning streak. He's only got the one-year deal plus the option. Jim Rutherford apparently doesn't even know the options there. There's that weird thing in the off-season where Boudreau, they basically tell him, like, go look around. And then they, the two sides event. Like, he's beyond a lame duck coach even heading into the year.

And now Rutherford is just, I mean, it feels like. like a firing is imminent. I also had somebody tell me that they think Budro is safe because they think the Canucks have already thrown in the towel on the season and Rutherford has so little respect for Bruce Boudreau that he views him as the coach to get them to the Connor Bidard realm. Well, that and also like they don't want to be paying three coaches, which is understandable. I wouldn't want to be paying three coaches either, but like Jesus Christ. So I agree.

I think he's safe. I think honestly, like as much as you're saying, oh, the systems or whatever, like they don't play with structure. I think anybody with a brain is looking at that roster and going, what are we doing here? So that's kind of where I'm at. So I think he's still on his feet with this one. Now they could lose another four games in a row and nobody would be surprised, right? But yeah, anyway, Dallas Aiken's. I mean, I think this is another case where very clearly,

Pat for Beak has said this is a rebuilding year. Yeah. He didn't make a change in the summer. I was somewhat surprised at that. I think you write it out at this point and you just, I, I mean, the ducks are bad. They're giving up a ton of goals. Yeah.

And that whole, like, you know, is that his fault? We're now into year four of waiting for John Gibson to. But yeah, it's, I feel like he's probably reasonably safe. Just again, like the insane amount of talent at the top of next year's draft alters the equation for a lot of these guys. And I think in Anaheim's case, you know, this is not. a Vancouver or a St. Louis where there was an expectation of the playoffs going into the season. It would have been nice.

But I think as long as it doesn't get so bad that you see, you know, you see the Zegraises and McTavishes and guys like that starting to look like their development is being impacted by the team being so bad. I think you write it out and then the new GM hires his guy in the offseason. Yeah, that would make sense. yeah, I don't think firing him is going to make any difference. Like, what's the fucking point? Dean Eveson. Now, I believe the Wild have not scored a goal in the last two games, which is bad.

Well, I don't know. Look, hey, I'm not a hockey expert, but I feel like if you get shut out by the Kings and the Cracken back to back, or I guess it's the other way around, right? The Crackin and the Kings. That's bad. You don't want to get outscored 5-0 over any kind of long stretch of hockey. They're sitting at a 458 points percentage, which is a lot better than that most of these teams we're talking about, but also leaves them tied with Arizona behind Chicago. And like they're five, six and one.

They're below NHL 500. Yeah. And everybody thought this team was going to be really good, including me, you know. But I get what's the thing we said going into the season with them is this could all go sideways if the goaltending stinks. And there's a really good chance it does because it's. Philip Gustafson and a guy who's my age, right? And boy, both of them freaking stink. Interesting.

Who's all that coming? I don't think they're like playing especially well. Like I don't want to, I don't want to say it's all on the goaltending, but like, you know, if they're getting league average goaltending, they're not, they're maybe six, five, and one and we're not having this conversation. You know what I'm saying? I feel like he is reasonably safe at this point. but again, like a lot,

like reasonably safe can be one one more bad week from not safe. Totally, totally. And, uh, we'll talk about Caprizov, uh, the, the match penalty in a minute, but like he's, once again, the only guy that's really scored,

like him and Matt Boldy, I guess are the only two guys that are really scoring. Um, and they're, again, getting badly outscored when those guys are on the ice. So there's your problem, right? Like,

when the Caprizov line can't outscore the opponent, well, there's your problem. We've fixed it, or we've addressed it at least, you know. So I don't know. I feel like there's plenty of room to grow for these guys and whatever's wrong, but is the goal tend to getting back on track?

I don't know. So, yeah, he's safe for now, for sure. Hey, we got to ask the question here, since Larry Brooks brought it up, Gerard Galant. Now, they won last night. Can't say the Rangers didn't pick up a big dub over the Islanders. Yeah. I still, I mean, I can't see them making a coaching change.

But at the same time, Brooks is very plugged in with the Rangers. Like he's... Oh, wait, no, they lost to the Islanders last night. They were up four or three one maybe or something like that. Okay. I don't remember. I don't know why I thought they won that game. They lost that game.

They're six, five, and three. So they're fake 500. They're over 500, but they've lost more than they've won. They have two regulation wins in their last 10 games. Is that good? It's not great. Oh, all right. Three wins in nine at home.

They've played most of their schedule at home in a relatively famous arena. Do you want to hear something funny? Both of their regulation wins in those last 10 games were on the road. They beat Dallas and Arizona. Hmm. Boy. And then they beat the Flyers 1-0 in overtime. So it's going great for them.

Yeah. It's interesting. I don't. Clearly underachieving. And this was this was a team that, you know, we talked about a few teams like playoff expectations. This was a team that thought it was, I mean, it wasn't playoffs. It was advancing on last year's playoff run. And who, what hockey geniuses on a certain podcast said, there's a, there's a chance these guys kind of regress a little bit.

I think that was stick to sports, did that. Okay, that, well, I think those guys hate talking about sports. Oh, okay. But yeah, no, it's, uh, it's one of those things where they got world-class goaltending last year and had one of the best power plays in modern NHL memory. And, uh, you know, they were like a decent playoff team that then played three. six string goalies in a row in the playoffs. You know?

And like everything broke their way last year. And not everything is breaking their way this year. And so here we are, you know. What's really interesting to me is they're playing way better than they did last year. Like the problem last year was they were getting outchanced almost every night, but they just had the talent level at the top of their lineup to convert everything. And also like Chris Kreider's, never going to score 50-something goals in the NHL again, right?

Like, we all agree on that. Like, he's a 35-goal guy. That's great to be. But, like, he scored 50-something last year. This year, there's sixth and expected goals percentage in all situations. And then let's look at their team shooting percentage. It's third last in the league. Yeah.

Like when you're... And their save percentage is, like, 890. Yeah. Which, I mean, that is not going to... Continue. Like I... No, for sure it isn't. And that alone will help fix the Rangers.

But how much rope do you give Gerard Gallant on this one? They have two regulation wins in their last 10 games. They haven't won at home since October 17th. I will tell you this. If I'm in, if I'm a fan of another team, I'm in their division, my team's competing. I hope they panic and make a coaching change. Well, so here's their next several games here. Detroit, Nashville, Arizona, Seattle, San Jose, L.A., Anaheim.

You feel like that's a pretty good stretch for you to maybe get your shit back on track? Maybe a little bit. Could be. A little bit of a get right there. So I don't think he's on the hot seat yet, but, you know, you drop two more of these games, three more of these games. Those are bad teams. If you're losing to bad teams, uh-oh. Mm-hmm.

So, all right. Next up, hey, speaking of bad teams, the National Predators, John Hines, these guys are horrible. Yep. I can see a change coming here. I haven't been a big Hines guy for a while. He never in my life. He got a team to the playoffs last year I didn't think would get there. But they are not good.

Did he or did Yossi Soros? Well, put it this way. Yossi Soros isn't good this year. Man, he got shot last. Another goalie in the 8-9. he got Sheldon, yeah. So, yeah, I wouldn't be. Again, like we're always talking about David Poyle,

not necessarily going to be the most patient GM in the world. So, yeah, it's crazy. Matthew Shane's on pace to score like 40-something goals again this year. It's just something to think about. So, yeah, I think we're all in agreement on that one. I had to put him on the list just because, You know, it's the Toronto Maple Leaf. Sheldon Keefe, I think he's safe.

He is back to being safe now. I do think when it looked like things were really going off the rails, like there was a, like Kyle Dubas is in the last year of his deal. At some point, he's going to have to start playing cards, but the Leafs just. There's three and two in the last five. Yeah. And they just had, I mean, they just beat Boston and Carolina. and got a point against Vegas with their third string goal.

And those are three of the best teams in the league. They were saying it would have been the first time in NHL history that a team had beaten three 750 teams in a row. Obviously, that's not a situation that comes up very often, but it would have been the first time ever this deep into the season that it had happened. And they came within one point of doing it. So we're back to, I don't know, DefCon 3 in Toronto is probably the minimum. but for now, yeah, Sheldon Keefe, I will go back to what I said, which is if they don't win in the playoffs, he's gone, but the regular season would have to go very, very bad for him to be in trouble.

There was a stretch where that was certainly looking like a possibility. It was in play. And like we talked about, the fact that Barry Trots was like, hmm, you know, I really like cities with tall towers. Boy, that's, you know. You know, blue's always been a favorite color of mine. Yeah. Kyle Dubas rubbing his hands together menacingly.

But yeah, no, I mean, like I said, the fact that they're 3-0 and 2 in the last five, like one of those is that Anaheim loss, which was like inexcusable. And but, oh, a lot of them were inexcusable. And they've also got both their starting goalies hurt, which is not good for the team, but for a coach is sort of like, I mean, you can't can't a coach for losing with, third four string. The other thing here, though, is the Bruins and the Vegas Golden Knights. I thought the Leafs controlled both of those games, like pretty convincingly for me.

Yeah. So I was like, oh, I feel like they've kind of figured it out here. The old ending is going to make it interesting, but I think they're, they've righted the ship a little. And they're playing boring and they're not really fun to watch right now and that's what works in the NHL. So he's got it working. And, you know, some of it. percentages of balanced out. Like, hey, surprise, surprise.

Awesome Matthews isn't going to shoot 3% all year. Mitch Marner isn't going to be, you know, never have the puck go in when he's on the ice. So, yeah, I think the Leafs are back to safe for now. Yeah, fair enough. Brad Larson and Columbus. I think, again, this is probably one where you just write off the season and you keep your guy and you make the move in the offseason, hopefully with the, you know. And maybe not even make the move. I mean, I do think Brad Larson's a good coach.

And it's been, I mean, just an enormous letdown for Columbus fans, obviously, after the high of getting Johnny Godreau. And now they're, I mean, they're dead last in the entire league, I believe, by points percentage. They were, I mean, they were really bad last year. I think it's safe to say they are worse this year, which shouldn't be the case just based on they have Johnny Goddrow. Mm-hmm. especially because, like, the way in which they're worse is, well, first of all, the goal tendons even worse. But like, the thing that I don't think anybody would happen is that that offense looks

like it's got nothing. Yep. You know, the power play in particular. The power play is so bad. What are we fucking doing here? Like, how is it a good role Patrick Nelight of power play? Oh, wait. So you think those guys should be better than two for 33?

Is that what you're saying? It feels like you should be scoring on the power play at least a rate that matches your 5 on 5 scoring. Yeah. How about this too? That 33 is like an insanely low number of penalties to have drawn through 12 games. So they're also not drawing penalties at 5 on 5, which is tough to do when you never have the puck and they never have the puck. But like you would think, like Johnny Goddrow alone is going to draw you like, you know, a half penalty per game or something like that. It doesn't seem like that's the case.

It's fucking crazy. These guys are awful. Now, will it help when they get a top three pick at the end of the year? Sure will. Sure. Yeah, they get Adam Fantilli. Hey, we'll take another Michigan kid. Why not?

But yeah, it's really interesting. I think, like you say, I think there's no point in making any kind of a big change here, except maybe sell off a couple of your unrestricted free agents later in the season. Otherwise, who cares? Here's a really interesting one for me. Peter Laveolette. The Capitals are a 500 team. They, I think, don't look good.

Like, straight up look bad most nights. Now, I'm going to quickly read to you a list of injured players for the Washington Capitals. Nick Baxter, Connor Brown, John Carlson, Carl Hagelin, Dimitri Orlov, T.J. Oshie, Tom Wilson. That's a fair number of their good players. Yeah. A little bit tough to win them. bunch, but Lavella is another guy that, I believe, was in the last year of a deal. I was, I'm just going to look that up now because that, that just occurred to me as well.

So, you know, I think he was already on potentially shaky ground. And yeah, I mean, you don't. Last year of a deal. Mm-hmm. And he makes 4.9 million buckaroos. Yep. So, it's, I think it's in play. I mean, they're not a tire fire, and they're certainly, you know, they're not falling out of the race.

The injuries is what. Record wise, right? Like, sure, there are 500 teams. The one thing that's unusual about this team is, yeah, it's, the thing that's weird about this team is, you know, so often when we do this coaches on the hot seat thing, all we're really doing is just telling you which teams are not getting good goaltending. Darcy Camper's been pretty good. Yeah, 9-19. You can't argue with that. So this is one team where it's like, you know, it actually is, the goaltending isn't the issue. So, yeah, I could see it.

I mean, they are, they're sixth in the metro right now, but they're looking up at, you know, well, I mean, Philadelphia feels fake. The Islanders, I don't know if they do. And the Devils, at this point, you know, we got to take them as for real. So, yeah, maybe you do at some point, say, like, you don't want to be missing the playoffs with with Alexander Ovechkin in his late 30s. Still playing well. Still looking good. But this is one of those things where it's like,

hey, there's time for the rebuild after. But again, like if Backstrom's going to miss the whole season, which he might, I don't know. It's a tough one. I think obviously, I don't think Lavial lets the coach next year. But I don't know. I'd have to look and see, like, do they, who do they have in the organization or is an assistant?

and they could maybe step in interim basis. I don't know off the top of my head. That's, I don't really pay attention to that kind of thing, I guess. You could bring Barry Trots back, right? Oh, I bet there are no hard feelings there for sure. I mean, hey, the guy, I won you a Stanley Cup.

Can't argue with that. Yep. No, I'm just going to look here. Capitals in original six. It says they're not. They're not an original six. Oh, okay. Tough look there.

So yeah, I think I think he's safe just on the injury thing and they're at least treading water, but I think they look fucking awful. And part of that obviously is going to be the injury thing. But they're a tough team to watch right now. I don't know what to, I don't know what to tell you. Okay. Hey, we're going to talk about this team a little bit more in a minute. But for right now, let's talk about DJ Smith in Ottawa. Yeah.

This is supposed to be the year. The Ottawa senators powered up. You know, they look like the fucking senators. was over. They are dead last in the east other than Columbus. So I guess not dead last. But they are the... That's interesting.

Yeah. They're dead last except for the team. You know, that's also true of the Bruins, except for all the teams below them, the Bruins are dead fucking last in the end. Dead last in the Atlantic. Let's put it that way. In the Atlantic Division, everybody is 500 except for the senators who are chugging along. And what did we say all year?

Or all summer. Doesn't feel like there's going to be a lot of elbow room. to win an Atlantic playoff spot and then you're fighting for a wild card spot with at least one other Atlantic team

and whoever's in the whoever's coming out of the And again like it wasn't this isn't like a playoffs or bust year but it was like competitive Don't embarrass us this year

play meaningful hockey all throughout the second half and the thing with senators they lost the first two games then they won four in a row including they beat Boston at home in their home opener. They're sitting at 4 and 2, everything looks good,

and since then they've lost six straight games all in regulation. So again, like the Blues. They're not even banking any points when they lose. And they're giving up a ton of goals, too. That's the other game. They're giving up a lot of goals. But the other...

26 goals against in the last six games. That's a little more than four per. The flip side of this is, if you look at those six games in a row, they've lost, if you take out the empty net goals, every game has been a one goal game. Uh, their underlying numbers are quite good. They quite good. Like in the 10 to 15 range, you know, playoff worthy.

Um, they're, uh, they're just, they're not getting great goal tanning. The blue line we knew was going to be an issue. Um, they're exciting. They're fun to watch. They're high scoring at both ends. Like this is, if you're flipping the channels and you're looking for a game to watch, it's, this is a pretty good one. I, I was just going to say, though, like the, the defense is the problem.

Nobody ever had a problem with, oh, they're not going to, nobody thought they weren't, they aren't going to score a lot of goals this year. Everybody thought that. The problem was that you looked at the defense and you looked at the goal tending and you said, oh, they're also going to give up a lot. You know? Yeah. And it's, you know, you look at the guys scoring. They're getting the production out of everyone, except for Alex to bring it. I guess that's the story is that he's only got two goals and I think one was an empty netter.

But he's shooting like 3%. That's not going to, that's not going to continue. Yeah. Special teams are really the problem. for the senators is kind of where I'm at with it, where I'm just going to look at their percentages real quick here. They're fine on the power play, nine for 43, but that's a little below the league average,

and their PK is below 80%, which is, if you're even going to try to think about being in the playoff race, you can't be there. So to your point about the underlying numbers, that's true at five on five. All situations, below 50% 20th in the league. It's not going to get it done.

Full stop. And that's the defense. That's all on the defense as far as I'm concerned. It is. They're giving up 3.72 goals per 60. That's fucking wild to me. Yeah. Which is, and some of that is on the coaching staff.

I mean, it's, DJ Smith is not the guy who decided. When you talk about special teams, that's a coaching thing. Yeah. So Pierre Dorian came out and gave a vote of confidence a few days ago. which doesn't necessarily mean anything. But he did give us the legendary quote that Pierre Dorian is a loyal guy. He's speaking about himself in third person.

I think the summer may have gone to his head a little bit. But he gave a vote of confidence. And also with, you know, we'll talk about this later, but with the shifting ownership, with the fact that there's, you know, an ownership change of process, you wouldn't necessarily, like there's nobody at this point who's going to call Pierre Dorian into his office

and say, get a new coach. or else you go, right? So there is a room for patience here, except that I just can't imagine this fan base, like, are you going to be out of it again in November? Like, we said this over and over again. I hate to tell you. Yeah. We looked at this team and we said, you can't start this way again because they did

last year too. Remember last year, Pierodorian said the rebuild was over. And they got off to a lousy start and it's happening again. And, you know, there is, you know, I said there's no owner to tell here during to make a move but what if like you know what if the board calls them in and goes hey man just so you know every time we lose like the

asking price drops by this much because we look you know like a like if we could be a playoff team boy that would that would change how much we can get for this team I don't know I don't know how that works I think DJ Smith unfortunately has to be on the hot seat even though I do think

he's not getting the like some of this is just not getting the results that the team deserves I would say that they should maybe have a couple extra wins, but I think they're still like, maybe not the worst team in the Atlantic, but they're not even, they don't even look close to a playoff team. And the other thing. Ahead of them in the standing. See, that's the other thing is when you look at the east, and this is what's got to be extra frustrating for Ottawa fans, every other other bad team is overachieving other than Columbus. Right? Like, you look at all the teams that misplanned. Montreal is 500. Nobody thought that. Buffalo's, I mean, they've cooled off, but they've been a great story. Detroit's looking good.

Detroit is currently second in the east by total point. Detroit's good. Philadelphia is good. The islanders are back in it. And the devils are the story of the year so far. It's like, you know, it's like the Sipsons, right? With like every bad team had something crazy happened to them. And the senators are Daryl Strawberry. Like, yeah, I know, we're still here. Like, we still stink. it's really frustrating in Ottawa right here and I don't get the feeling that the fan base is like demanding a coaching change or anything like they get that this team is better that the record shows but at some point the record's got to catch up yeah

again like it feels like the door's already closed the run they would have to go on to even get back into the conversation at this point there's seven games back of fifth place in the east in the Atlantic Florida, right? Seven points back, yeah.

Seven points back. You can't, that's not a gap you can make up. You win four in a row to get back to 500 and then you see where you're at, but you're probably at that point you look up and you go, we only gain two points because that's what I'm saying. Like, we talked about it last week. If you're out of it by three points at the start of the month, odds are good that you are cooked.

and they're out of it by seven points halfway, almost halfway through the month. So it's like, it's again, why not just fucking tank at this point? Yeah, I mean, it might get to that point, but that's a hard sell in Ottawa, man. I don't think it is this year. I think it's not a hard sell this year

because it's like, look, we thought we had something. We don't. Now, are you suckers for buying tickets? Yes, absolutely. stupid shouldn't have done that but we're going to get conor bedard we're going to get met fe mitchcock we're going to get adam fantilli does that sound okay to you uh everybody in ottawa was like yes that works for me thank you yeah but and then i mean the other piece of this is that maybe we should we should be talking about more though is there's going to be new ownership

potentially by the end of this season that new ownership is going to have to figure out if they want to keep Pierre Dorian. Do you think Pierre Dorian wants to go to them and say, hey, remember the last two summers, I said the rebuild was over and then I delivered a bottom five team? I'm telling you now the rebuild is over. Or do you think they go? Thank you very much, Pierre. There's the door.

And does that affect his decision making? Because, as I always say, a GM's first priority is to himself in this league, not to the team. Right. Yep. Man. Anyway, I think DJ Smith gets a little more rope, but maybe not that much. They lose three more games. All bets are off.

That's my thing. One last coach here. And this is one that at the beginning of the year, you would have said, this guy's fucking bulletproof. There's no way he gets fired. You said this two weeks into the season, you would have said it. Yeah. Mike Sullivan. Mm-hmm.

They just gave him a three-year extension. I think that might be the only thing that's keeping him going right now. He's a great coach. He really is. He certainly is. Oh, they stink out loud right now. Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

It's, uh, well, I mean, so the question is, do they really know? They, they, they, by, you know, if we're going to say this for, of the senators, we also have to say it for the penguins. By expected goals, they are eighth in the league in all situations. Okay. That's where you want to be. You can't be much better than, I mean, obviously, you can be seven, sixth, fifth. But you know what I mean?

If you're top eight in the league, you're borderline elite at that point for me. This is a team they cannot kill a penalty. And that's a coaching issue, right? This is a team that, you know, they're, they're, they're, boring, but they're not getting, they're not getting a ton of goals from, like, deeper down the lineup. They're getting the goals from exactly where you would think they would get the goals from. And now, like, granted, you know, Sidney Crosby, ageless wonder, whatever you want to say.

But, you know, like, you're, Brian Rust has to have more than four goals in 12 games at this point. Or I guess Jason Zucker needs more than two. is a better way to put it. Jeff Carter needs more than two. And that's where your problem is. But also, you know, they're getting deeply mediocre goal tending.

And that's hurting them as well. They scored 42 goals in 12 games. That's a good number. That's where you want to beat. They've allowed 40. Not so good. Not so good. So, yeah,

I think it's really interesting. They're badly out shooting their opponents and stuff like that on the balance. So they maybe don't, deserve to be like two games below 500, but they, I would say there's been a few like really ugly games lately that, that loss in Seattle, the one against Buffalo,

I watched all of that game. They were brutal. So I think Mike Sullivan is safe only because of that contract and, you know, the previous reputation he built. But if you're, if you're basing it on expectation, this has to be the most disappointing team in the league.

Has to be. Them or St. Louis, yeah. Oh, St. Louis is a good. Yeah, I get what you're saying. I would say I maybe as much as I never saw St. Louis dead last in the league. But again, like said, oh, the penguins are below 500 at any point in the season. Oh, so they started out 0 in 1 sounds like, you know what I mean? Like that would have been my only guess.

That was the thing. Like we talked, we started this whole thing with the blues starting three and oh, the penguins were what, five and one? Yeah, they were rolling. And they were not lost, let's see here. They're 06 and 1 in their last seven. They've been out scored 33 to 16. Hoof.

Yeah. Yep. And five of those 16 goals were in the overtime loss to Boston. So like a third of, almost a third of their goal total. was in one game that they lost. It's fucking brutal, man. Not, I do. Nope.

So I think he's safe, but also, you know, where are you, what are you going to say? They're not playing well. He's got to turn it around. So, yeah, I am going to say, let's take another break. I'm out of coaches that are on the hot seat. For now, yeah. So congratulations to the three coaches that we didn't just talk about.

That's right. All right, take another break. We'll be right back. This week's episode of Puck Soup is brought to you by Uncommon Goods. And folks, we talked about them last week. And with the holiday gift-giving season right around the corner, where you want to do, you're going to want to avoid boring, basic planned gifts. Everybody gives those.

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All right. You know, last segment we do like the general news roundup, so let's get to it. We talked about it a little bit obliquely, I guess, already. Deadpool is buying the freaking senators. Brady Kachuk will be looking, straight into the camera and going, yeah, I think I'm playing a freaking hockey game here. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool.

I mean, you know, when was the Ottawa senators got talked about on the Tonight Show and like not in the opening monologue. So that's, that's good. So. And he made Gary Bettman say sugar mama. So. Yeah. Now, here's the thing is I think, uh, this is all a little, uh, please like my sport for me. This is, sure.

this is a little, this is all a little bit much, uh, the way like your, your buddy and Mendez was like, the NFL should just give this guy the team. You know, like, it was like, oh my God, everybody, hey, like I know, a pretty girl looked at you. Can you dial it back like a little bit, like a little bit? But you know the answer to that. No, we can't. No, we can't.

We can't. So here's the, here's the thing that I think is that, that is making me really be like, do people not get what this is? Like, you didn't watch the show about his soccer team, right? No. So him and the guy from It's Always Sunny by a soccer team, and everybody in this little Welsh town that's like very economically depressed is like, it's the freaking Deadpool guys.

We're all going to buy the Deadpool costumes. We're going to have 80 copies of Deadpool at the local video store. This is the greatest thing that ever happened was. And the team was like better because they put money into it or what. whatever. But like that was him as the, um, what's the word? Like the, like the, one of the two owners, I guess, right? Whereas this situation would be Deadpool is like the minority, minority, minority owner. Maybe he gets a bunch of people together. But like, I think there's like a non-zero chance that like Deadpool is the friendly, uh, linking in a

Deadpool. Winking at the camera, public face of an ownership group that involves like a climate criminal, a guy whose family has owned four diamond mines in South Africa for the last like 150 years and Elon Musk Jr. You know what I mean? Like just, you know, the most rapacious, awful people, rich people that you can imagine in the world. But then he's like, folks, I'm the guy. from the phone commercials, okay? And I'm actually thinking

it's pretty epic that we own the team now. You know, and like that's the thing is like the energy that people are putting into this. I'm just like fucking dial it back. Because the senators are so boring and have had the worst owner for the last decade, it's, yeah, I mean, the fact that the

pretty girl looked at them is pretty exciting for them. them. Do you imagine being like the real estate guy who has to put in the bid against Ryan Reynolds now in, in Ottawa? Like, yeah, that's got to suck. That's got to be not fun. Mendez doesn't write that article without this is a done deal that Ryan Reynolds and whatever other hedge fund freaks he aligns with to, to make this together where like he's going to get, he's going to get $5 out of every $135 ticket, but you're not going to see the, the guy who, you know, owns a natural gas company behind him.

No, he'll be the face of the franchise. Right. And so, but I guess my point is, what's the thing I always say about what the ideal sports owner is? That you never see him. You don't know anything.

The guy who shuts the fuck up and signs the checks. Right. You don't, if Deadpool's buying your fucking team, you're getting Deadpool as the guy. But, or are you getting the, ideal owner who shuts up and signs a check and also celebrity spokesman Ryan Reynolds to

run cover for those guys so that you never have to see the actual money guys. But like, I think I think run cover goes two ways, right? Like run cover is usually a negative thing. It's a pejorative, right? And I just, I sit here and I go, it's not. going to be significantly different. You just like that the guy from fucking Deadpool is going to be your friend now. Yes.

Yeah, I would say that's essentially what's happening. I think you've got the right read on it. I think that's a tough look. It could not be me, as they say. Well, speaking of the senators, can we just real quick, Chris Neal? Thoughts? Yeah. My thought is, I've said before, teams can retire whatever number they want for whatever reason they want.

And this one is really stretching the limits of that theory is what I would say. Yeah. I mean, the guy, he played 15 years all for the senators, and he did a really tough job. Not just being the enforcers, like kind of the de facto enforcer. circuit and he was a decent player. He had double-digit goal years. Chris Neal was, you know, he was never like a heavyweight. He wasn't Bob Probert, but he was the guy who had to fight tight home eight times a year because nobody else on those old Jacques Martin teams would ever do it. So, I mean, this, I get it. I'm with you. If the fans, if the fans are down, then I'm,

good with it. I mean, I think it's, it's going to be a little weird that there's going to be numbers hanging in the rafters in Ottawa and like Chris Phillips and Chris Neal are two of them. But, you know what? I get why they love they'd like this guy up here. Sure, of course. But like, you know what? You know what this reminds me of?

When Sean Thornton left the Bruins and that guy wrote the article that was like, Bobby Orr. Yes. Ray Bork, Phil Esposito, Cam Neely. And now Sean Thornton, like, whoa, brother. You're going to want to dial it back like 50,000 percent. This is an insane thing. Is there any other enforcer who has a number retired?

I'm trying to think of what the equivalent would be. Like, not probate. What, Dill Hunter, did he ever? I don't think he did. The Leaf certainly didn't do Tiger Williams or Tideomi. Like, I don't think Chris Nilean did. Now, here's what I would say, though. If I'm Chris Kreider, if I'm, I don't know, another guy named Chris, I'm like, how do I get traded to the senators?

That's right. They'll retire any guy. Yeah, yeah. Everybody loves Chris. Right up to the rafters. Did you see the video? Yeah. Did you see the video of how he found out?

I saw that there was a video. It was pretty cool. They had him come in and basically, like, as if he was recording, like, promotional stuff for, for the, say, it's like, their 30 season or whatever. And, like, he's reading off the teleprompter. And then they had him, like, read his own announcement, which he didn't know. And then, like, his family had secretly been there. And they came out. So it was, it was nicely done.

Apparently, it took him, like, 400 takes. So, like, they were all. So you like when guys get tricked. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. They tricked him. They, they, they made him look like a damn fool.

And his family helped. It was humiliating. They don't like him. Yeah, he just stormed out in tears. How could you do this to me? It was a cool video. Check it out if he ends. Yeah, I bet it sounds good.

Those are always fun. But yeah, that's my take. Look, I already got out of Senators fans mad at me for the thing I just said about the second build guy in red notice buying 8% of their team, right? So people are definitely not going to be happy about me saying that now. But again, like, as long as the money keeps flowing and this is the thing. One thing you don't want to happen, and this is the good, I don't want to keep dwelling on the fucking two guys, a girl and a pizza place guy buying the sentence. Like, when hockey, when soccer people came to them on the show, on the Welcome to Rexum show, and we're like, we need to sign this guy. he would go,

how much is that going to cost me? And they would go, it's going to cost you this much. And he'd just be like, all right. Like, like, I don't know that there was ever a time

that we saw, certainly that we saw on camera. And granted, this is a show executive produced by him. So he's going to be in a position to make himself look good. But I don't think they ever came to him and said, I need you to write a check.

And he was like, can't do it, brother. Yep. You know? Not going to happen. people aren't buying as much gin these days. That's right. So that's, that works probably, right?

Like if he's just, if he's just going to be the guy who, like you say, runs cover for people who sign the checks and don't get involved in hockey decisions, he wasn't like, now granted, that's soccer is a sport. He admitted he knew nothing about. So, you know, if they come to him and go, oh, we need another defenseman or whatever, he's going to go, well, you're the fucking soccer guy here. Sounds good to me. Here's 150 grand or whatever. I don't know if, like, if that, if that works, if he's the minority owner, is that going to be a problem? Probably not. I would guess probably not.

Like, you don't buy, people don't buy NHL teams, or any sports teams, really, these days just to be like turning out their pockets anytime you need to make a signing. But it's just something I'm thinking about with, you know, what was the first? problem with Eugene Melnick is he was cheap and he got involved in hockey decisions all the time. Yep. Bad combo. Again. And so, and very publicly doing so. So if you want, if you want Deadpool to be public, go nuts, but he better be like a good owner in addition to being public.

Because you don't, you don't want the, uh, the sports world turning against the guy from free guy. They're, they're trying to make a free guy too. Yeah. Gotta have that. And I've been bagging on Ryan Reynolds a lot. I think he seems like a real likable guy. So I got nothing against him except I don't like his movies. Where are you going to do?

All right. Evander Kane, scary incident last night. Very scary. If you haven't seen it, got his basically bat runes skated over his exposed wrist. Hey, if you haven't seen it, don't seek it out. It's gross and scary. Yeah. And it was a very scary situation for a while because Van der Kink gets up immediately with some understandable panic and urgency gets to the bench.

And for a little while, you're just like, oh, crap, did we just see the worst case scenario? But he's going to be okay. He posted social media saying that, you know, might miss a few games, but seems like he's going to be fine. Seems like it was the worst was avoided. but it, man, it does remind you, like, I don't want to be grim, but it's going to happen in the NHL someday. Like, it's, we've seen guys get it, you know, in the neck with skate, like, skate blades. Wow, it's, uh, it's, something, something really bad is going to happen.

And I don't fully know how to avoid it. Obviously, there's a certain equipment that can be worn. But, man, I, I just hope we, hope we stay lucky as long as we can. And we almost didn't last night. but he's going to be okay. Yeah, yep. I've never actually been at like a game where that kind of thing happened, but it's happened a few times in like, you know,

local-ish college hockey. And when I was a kid, a guy who played for my local AHS team, like lost an eye when a skate blade came up and caught him during a road game, which like, God, It's fucking gross to think about But Yeah

So like I like you say I'm kind of amazed we haven't had One like a Obviously Clint Milarchuk is like The the er example of Of how bad this can go Yep

Without a fatality But like I really am amazed That like I don't think I've ever heard of one in hockey Which is crazy Yeah, Richard Zedneck, obviously, was another one. Yeah, that's right. Fuck. I was watching that game live.

I remember. And I've even heard stories where guys were cut during games where, you know, like publicly, what the fans heard was, you know, he suffered a cut and, you know, it was a deep cut. And he had to leave the game where the situation was actually much dicier than that. Or believed to be that, you know, there was a much higher level of concern. So, yeah, I don't know, man. Let's get those skate guard, you know, I know people don't like to wear extra equipment, but I mean, there's only so much you can do.

I mean, again, it was a free play last night. And you know what, kudos to medical staff and everything. These guys, you know, a lot of times feels like they have an easy job for 99% of it. and they have the most important job in the world for, you know, once or twice a year and they're good at it. Yep. Okay. Carol Caprizov, match penalty for hitting Drew Dowdy in the face with a stick, which turns out you're not allowed to do that. Apparently not, yeah.

And it's one of those where they reviewed it on the ice and stuck with the call. And yeah, I think so. I mean, Doughty was right in his back pocket and was giving him a lot of stick work, you know, kind of garden variety. stick work and he turned around and cross-checked him in the mouth. So I think he probably gets a suspension. The fact that he got a match penalty maybe helps him avoid a suspension because that's what I was thinking, yeah. If he only got a major or a misconduct thrown out of the game kind of thing.

It wasn't premeditated. It wasn't severely dangerous. You know, so, but at the same time, I could see you get a good. He's healthy enough to wave by-bye to the guys He was nice of him. He wanted to just let him know that he's thinking of him. So yeah, I think probably nothing further comes of it.

I would be kind of surprised. And I think I saw Rousseau earlier today tweet like I expect him to play in their, I think they play tonight. So. Yeah, so there you go. Hey, another piece of Bruins news here. It looks like Charlie McAvoy's back. He's skated with Hamas Lindholm during practice today.

Boy, guy who does not need the help right now. Hampus Lindholm, that guy is playing unbelievable hockey. And then he led the center-rise stretch, and everybody hugged him afterwards. This is what Bruins media guys are saying right now. Sounds to me like he retired. Yeah, he's done. Yeah, well, big news. But yeah, oh, boy.

Rough week gets worse for Boston. This 10-and-2 team, boy, you know what they need is a Norris caliber defenseman coming back. Jesus Christ. Matthew Kachuk, we should talk on the weird. We were just mentioning suspensions. Can we talk? What did you think of that? He seems, sure seems to turn his stick sideways and jam it into Jonathan Quicks mask.

I, so, yeah, I, that's a guy who I don't think gets, is going to deserve a lot of benefit of the doubt, let's say. Did you see in the same game the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the goaltender interference call on him earlier in that game where he was like clearly outside the crease. So it's one of those where if it's accidental, then it's okay. But he bumps quick and they're like, no, that's, you did that on purpose. A guy doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. It's exactly to your point. Like he clearly the league is done pretending that this guy being in the middle of stuff

all the time is some weird accident. Yeah, it's the suspension's an interesting one because I can totally see how if the argument is, well, sure, I meant to, like, bump him in the face a little bit, but I didn't try, like, the number of times you would have to try to get that through his eye hole at that angle. Right. Like, that was a one in a thousand chance that that it worked out like that. And Christ, it was, it's maybe even more than that because it didn't, like,

actually hurt the guy's eye. Yeah. But it does feel like it, it was a weird one, right? Because it, like, is it not a case that you have to say either, he didn't mean to do it, in which case, obviously, it shouldn't be a suspension, or he did mean to turn his stick sideways and jam at a goaltender's eye, in which case, how is that only two games? Right. That's the thing. Is it, I thought, well, two games is like what they just give everybody now.

Yeah, that's the only suspicion. They've just settled on, unless you, like, pull out a gun and shoot somebody on the ice, that's four. But two is Two is like the bug standard Uri Slavkovsky is having a hearing later today You know what my guess on the number is going to be? What? Two.

Hmm. Good beat. It might be one because obviously he has no prior history And obviously Matthew Kachuk does have a bit of a history Of being a shithead on the ice. But Yeah. Yeah, don't jam goalies in the eye

with your stick. But if you do, to just go through life with. If you do, you'll be alright a couple of games. And then one last thing, this coming weekend

is the Hall of Fame Inductions. I don't really have a take on this that I didn't say six months ago or whatever. So, Alfredson, the Sadeen's Luongo. All guys I like. Yeah.

Every single one of them. I mean, Alfredson's kind of a 50-50 call, but that means that, to say that on the show today. Yes, you're right. We've done enough.

It's fine. I can't be, I cannot be, again, the first man out of the trench on that one. Yep. Okay. So thank you, thank you for taking that bullet. Understandable. Turn and run away from the machine gun nest on this one. Daniel Alpherson, Unequivocal Hall of Fame.

You heard it here first. Very much so. Yeah. There you go. Yeah, so there you go. I think that's it. I don't know that there's any other news coming out. I'll check Twitter one more time, but, uh, no.

Yeah. We're going to, I mean, you know, all this stuff we talked about. Three coaches are getting fired at 1.30. 100%. And it'll be three guys we didn't mention to somehow. Yeah, it'll be. Jared Bedner was fired after all. John Cooper launched into the bay.

That's it. Anyway, Sean, hit him with the plugs. Find me on the athletic bunch of stuff. I'm doing some Hall of Fame stuff this week, including revisiting six of the toughest cases among active players with some cool charts and graphs and stuff for a change. So instead of just my random opinion, you get to see

some numbers that I have carefully selected to match my one. Trying to really make them look good. And yeah, for me, EPRinkside, of course, use the code I love EP, all one word, get three months tacked on to the end of an

annual subscription. Can't beat that deal. That's unbelievable. And then, of course, the Puck Soup Patreon, Patreon.com slash Puck Soup. And that's where you can hear me and Sean watch a like 95-year-old hockey, 85-year-old hockey movie. Yes. Hey, you want to talk about dangerous stuff with skates in that game? This is a movie called The Game That Kills. It's so good.

It's so good. The movie is awesome. It rocks. And it's just me and Sean. reacting live to the events of a 55 minute hockey movie. I think maybe the first hockey movie ever, like by a big studio. I was trying to find an earlier one and I couldn't find one.

So yeah, we were very excited to talk about that one and we just kind of watched along and commented as it went and people seemed to like it. We had a good time watching the movies. So, hell, even if you don't sign up, see if you can find yourself an online copy of The Game That Kills. It's a fun little movie, and it's 56 minutes long with credits. So, can't beat that.

So, yeah, Patreon.com slash Puck Soup for that, and otherwise, we'll talk to you next week. Thanks, everybody. See you later. Bye-bye. Sticks and hits and goals and saves and slapshots and goons. We've got spoiled a commentary

to what if you commute. We also cover movies, TV shows, it's and tools, It's your weekly bowl of hockey and nonsense. Bork, Sue.